Well for this week I’ll make it short and sweet (I hope). Not much out of the ordinary happened this week. Michael started basketball on Wednesday and while his team doesn’t look to be the most talented bunch of kids, I think he will have fun. He also finished soccer this week. I must say I’m so glad it’s over for now. I am also very thankful that he was on this particular team this season. He actually loves playing soccer again. That hasn’t been the case for some time. It was a good team with good people. He has lots of new friends on the team now and I am ever so thankful that the Lord guided us in that decision this last summer. It has been a blessing for all of us.
Mike has had some good times over in Germany doing some traveling for a conference for work and got to be a victim of a bombing for a training drill that was held this weekend. He’s also been very busy with normal work stuff and always volunteering to do extra just to give him a little more to fill his time. It has been great to be able to visit with him on the webcam most days. We sure do miss him but I think we’re being helped through a lot of the grief due to prayers. Thanx all for your love and prayers.
The rest of us are all doing fine. The kids are terribly excited about upcoming Halloween parties and trick-or-treating. I’m not looking forward to big bags of temptation being all over the house for the next long time but I guess tis the season. I am so excited for Thanksgiving and our planed trip to Utah. I pray the weather will allow that. We also enjoyed a great primary program in sacrament meeting today. The kids all did a great job on their individual parts and my four primary kids along with Hans got to sing a verse on their own. It was really sweet and they got lots of compliments. There is always lots to be thankful for. Love to all, Until next week.

from Mike again

So another week gone and that means that we are about one quarter of the way through this Deployment for Mike! So far things have gone fairly well despite the ocean we are appart. The Lord has been good to us.

On Monday things were pretty normal for everyone. Mike took an exploratory adventure into the little town of Boblingen Germany to look for a German toystore that we had frequented while in Germany. Alas, they did not have the item we were looking for but it was a fun adventure all of the same. Myna and the pebbles spent a fairly normal Monday on the homefront and we enjoyed a nice Skype session to boot.

On Tuesday things were a little busier as usual. Mylinda got a babysitter so that she could leave the kids and go to Brittany's band concert. Michael's soccer practice was canceled due to weather so the whole hand off of children was much easier. The couple who babysat was great and took care of the logistics of 6 of the kids while Mylinda enjoyed the Brittany Pops Orchestra performance. Brittany is playing 4th chair in her clarinet section and loved showing her talent off.

On Wednesday things were a little more calm and preparations were made for the Thursday school day for the younger homeschoolers and a couple of days off from school for Brittany. Thursday was filled with shopping and fun phone calls from Mike to talk to the home bodies. The homeschoolers enjoyed a fun filled day of art projects, relays in PE, science projects and other school subjects with their peers. This was all followed by the grand finale on Friday when all of the kids were home, did some school, played with friends most of the afternoon and then watched "High School Musical 2" for family movie night to cap things off. Myna was up a little late with some neighborhood events she and her friend Faith across the street were dealing with but for the most part it was a tolerably good day.

Then Saturday was a great success of cleaning and scheming in the kitchen. The kitchen cupboards were thoroughly cleaned and re-organized. Then Mylinda went to work planning their destruction and replacement for a future date yet to be named. Mike had a great time shopping for Christmas gifts for Mylinda and checking in to working as a tour guide with the USO to get in some free travel opportunities.

Now it is Sunday. Mike met the local Seminary teacher today and was quickly recruited to teach for a week in November for her. I will be teaching from 0700-0740 (nice late hours for seminary) during the week of 17 November. I will probably get another week of teaching in during December. It is nice to be teaching seminary even while not in Colorado. Mylinda and the kids will have just returned from a fun evening at the Sperry Redd's home when you get this to cap off another great week.

We love you all and join with you in counting our blessings that the Lord has granted us all. We count all of you among those blessings and pray the Lord to bless you according to your faith.

Happy Birthday to Catherine

Aunnika and her lincon log creation
Sportin' his lovley hat hair
Allison made Catherine's barbie a new dress for Catherine's birthday
More Catherine Birthday

Trampoline static hair


Brittany's band concert

Report via Mike

Well, I don't know if anyone is reading this blog anymore but I will keep posting as a journal entry anyway. This week Mike got to write up our summary and I don't have any pictures so here's Mikes letter.

We Stone's thought you might like the European view of life for us this past week so I (Mike) am writing to you all from Stuttgart Germany - home of the Daimler-Benz (better known as Mercedes) company and more importantly Ritter Sport Chocolate company. For you auto enthusiasts there are also Porsche factories here.

Anyway, thanks to DSN phone connections and Skype I am able to keep up with the rolling CO Stone's exploits on a daily basis. This week was no different than most for us. School was in full force all week long with full schedules each day. Some of the high points of the week though. On Monday, all of the family went to Country Buffet for dinner using some coupons the kids had from a summer reading program - no dishes for anyone! The first real challenge was surviving Tuesday. That is the day for Soccer, Scouts, Activity Days, and Young Women for the older kids. Things went whirlwind fast but fairly smooth for everyone as Mylinda handily moved the schedule along. Wednesday was a little lighter schedule revolving mostly around piano lessons for everyone. Myna did get the kids together and head to Ammon and Allison's for a look at some cabinetry to keep things lively though. Thursday was dance class for the big girls and Michael had a carpool ride to soccer. Also, in keeping with the financial crisis of the rest of the world, the Stone's once again did a financial reality check (budget work) to find the Stone family industrial average down several hundred points - not at an all time low though. Okay, just trying to make doing the budget into a fun headline for you all. Then on Friday ,there she sits, my amazing wife, casually taking control of 7 children, 3 different dance schedules, home schooling, a birthday party, two little fellas that need their mom's attention, directions for our Alli to tend to the garden and oh by the way casually mentions that she canned 7 quarts of beans in all of that spare time she has, mowed the lawn too. I did not even mention that all of this happened while she was dealing with a terrible headache - as if the craziness were not enough.

While Myna and the kids were keeping up with that crazy schedule, I had spent the day with the USO touring the Mercedes museum - 8 stories of history dating back to 1887 or so when this Daimler guy souped up his horse carriage and Benz built a over sized tricycle and motorized it down to the speedster versions of today. Do you know that they have cars for sale in their show room that cost 500,000 Euro! Works out to 3,000+ Euro per month in payments. Then on Saturday the CO Stones did cleaning, pulled out the garden, went to soccer games, got ready for Sunday and talked to me when I returned from a USO trip to Prague in the Czech Republic. I went on a bus that left at 0100 on Sat morning and got us home again at 0130 on Sunday morning. Prague is a beautiful old city with things that date back to the 1300s still in use today and beautiful views of the city from the castle courtyard. Pictures will be coming soon.

And here we are now on Sunday. I had a fun time at church where I found some folks that know Sperry here and others who had mutual friends with me from Florida or went to my Student Ward in Logan before my mission. It is truly a small world in the church and military circles. After speaking with Myna and the kids it seems that church went okay today and all is well for them there.

I am richly blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family and to be in a safe place while I serve our country. I plead with all of you to pray for our country though and then act on those prayers. There are evil forces afoot that will ruin all that we hold dear if we do not get actively involved. Satan is working hard to gradually poison our society and us with things like gay marriage and other acts that rationalize away truths we hold dear. Please be sure to cast you educated votes in the elections this year and let's do our part to be answers to prayers to preserve the truths that keep our families safe from the forces of evil.

I heard a story today from George A. Smith. A traveler observed a city the was full of riches and lavish things and said to his guide that this city must be very righteous as he could only see one small devil there. The guide said on the contrary, this was the most wicked of places and was so bad that it only took one small devil to keep it evil. Then the traveler observed an old man laboring under a hard burden to climb up a hill. This man was surrounded by 7 huge, mean devils. The traveler observed that here must be a very wicked man to which the guide respond that this was the only righteous man in the city. The large devils were enlisted to move him from his path of righteous and for all of their size could not. Let's not be a part of the city that his being led with a flaxen cord on paths that lead far from home.

We sure do love you all and count ourselves richly blessed to be part of such a wonderful family. May the Lord bless each of us with the strength to exercise our faith as we turn to him to make our burdens light that we may be able to bear them. Love the CO and Stuttgart Stone Family.

Things are mellowing (or maybe it's just me)

We finally had our last track meet for the little ones and it was great. Everyone of them did better than last week and Michael and Allison beat their previous times by a full 2 and 3 minutes respectively! It was fun and I am glad we don't have that anymore.


Skip to Thursday, the next interesting day of the week. Catherine turned 6! She got to go to "school" and take cupcakes with her. Thanx to Ammon and Allison who were here Wed. evening and helped make the cupcakes and do some decorating. It was way too busy of a day but we still managed to have a quick little celebration opening presents and eating her beautiful barbie cake and ice cream.

Friday, after all the dance classes etc. the kids finished off Catherine's birthday celebration by watching a new Barbie movie she got.

Saturday morning we had Michael's soccer pictures, Brittany's dance, Michael's soccer game, get packed up and ready to go and we were off to Sara's for conference. We enjoyed watching the afternoon session with Sara, Ammon, and Allison and then that evening, Allison, her sister, Lauren, Sara and I went to dinner and a movie. Oh it was so nice to get out for a while.

Sunday we again watched conference had a nice lunch, watched more conference and then returned home. Did I mention we slept over at Sara's? The kids thought that was TOPS! Well Daniel was a monster all morning and then started throwing up during the first session and continued throughout the rest of the day. (I'm so sorry Sara!) We got home and had a quick dinner and now I'm coaching the kids into bed so I guess I better go be a little more involved.
We are surviving without Mike here but that's it. Not flourishing, just surviving. I don't think I can say as much for the house. My goal is that it still be standing when he returns and perhaps even be inhabitable. 1/8 of the time is gone though so Yipee for that.

Good night friends.

1 week down!

Well Mike’s been gone for a week and mostly it wasn’t too bad. Monday we had a regular day of school with Brittany off on the bus at 7:00 am and the rest of us here for home school. We had another track race and I left the little boys home with Brittany and took the other four. While Brittany complains that the little boys were tough, I had a nice time with the other kids. I must say I’m quite impressed with how well they did. When we got home we had a FHE lesson and treat and then that was it for Monday. About a month ago, we had an orthodontist appt. And the Ortho told Brittany that she really needed to get this one tooth out that was a trouble maker. He suggested that we go to the dentist and just get it pulled since Brittany seemed to feel that she couldn’t do it. I asked him if there was a reason she couldn’t do it or if it was just her fear and he said he thought that if she worked at it she’d be fine. Well I’m not paying a dentist to do a job she can do just fine for herself if she’d just toughen up. So the point of all this, on the previous Monday, I’d told her she had to have her tooth out by the next Monday or I’d make her a dentist appointment and she’d pay for it.

So the point of all this, on the previous Monday, I’d told her she had to have her tooth out by the next Monday or I’d make her a dentist appointment and she’d pay for it. So on Monday night, during FHE I casually reminded her that this was the day she had to have her tooth out. Late that night, while I was up working on the computer, Brittany came walking up and showed me her tooth in the palm of her hand. I told her I was pleased and then she said that this was her very last baby tooth and now it was out. Strange the things that will elicit emotions. I began to reminisce about when she was so little she didn’t even have teeth and then remembering when she did start getting teeth and how incredibly sick she would get, fevers of 105, vomiting, difficulty eating, etc. She was not a good tooth cutter! Now my little girl has no baby left in her. She is no longer any part baby. Oh how time does pass by. A friend commented on how we are always so good to remember the firsts of our children’s lives and yet we don’t seem to pay much attention to the lasts. Well this particular last is duly noted here.

Ok, moving on. Tuesday again Brittany was off to school and then we had home school. I then took Michael to soccer practice and left all the other kids here. I arranged a ride from soccer to scouts for Michael because I got to go to back to school night for the home school kids. It was very informative and fun to meet their teachers and learn some specifics about the program. I’m still loving this program and so thankful for it right now. While I was gone, Brittany got a ride to young women’s and Allison was left to babysit until I got back. The big girls did a good job of getting dinner on and the little ones fed and then Allison got some of them bathed and then they settled down for a show. I’m very thankful for my big girls and their ability to really help out here at home.
Wednesday we had school, track practice, piano lessons, no time to think or breath, and that’s it.
Thursday is the kids home school academy day, their favorite day of the week. After dropping the kids off, I went with my friend Faith to Sams club so that I could get in earlier, she has a business membership, and did a bunch of my weekly grocery shopping with just my two little boys. I must say, shopping with just too is really quite fun. I had a fine time. After lunch and naps and little people entertainment, we went and picked up Brittany and then the rest of the kids from school. We stopped at super Target of the way home and did some more grocery shopping and then got home threw Brittany, Allison, and the groceries out of the van and zoomed off to soccer. We were still a little late but oh well. Brittany and Allison fixed dinner and ate and then left to dance. After soccer, the rest of us went and did a tiny bit more grocery shopping at King Soopers and then finally came home to eat the yummy dinner the girls had left for us. A few minutes after we sat down, the big girls called requesting a ride home since it was getting dark out. I ran and got them while the other kids ate and them we did a lickety split clean up and were off to bed. Better late than never.
Friday was hard to get school going. We all just wanted to take the day off but, we did it anyway. Friday afternoon Sara and her kids came over and she and I did some scrapbooking and a lot of visiting. The kids had a great time playing. I forgot all about Catherine’s dance class and Allison was almost late to hers. She ran down to hers and then Sara and I took Catherine and Aunnika to Aunnika’s class. We then went and got pizza and came back home for the kids to enjoy a movie and all of us to eat pizza. We got a little more scrapbooking and a lot more visiting in. Finally at 10:00 I put the kids to bed and Sara and her gang headed back home for some rest.
Every day at noon Mike has been calling us for a SKYPE visit. Daniel was just staring at the computer and wouldn’t talk to Dad for the first several days. On Thursday he finally figured out that it wasn’t just a picture of Dad and that he could actually talk to him and interact. Well, that was both a good and a bad thing. He now won’t let me sit at the computer to do anything without begging for Daddy “in daiw”. He also now realized that Daddy is really not here. He’s somewhere else in the computer. He has been so clingy since then. That made Friday a little tough trying to do scrapbooking. But I should just be thankful that Daniel finally wants his Mama to hold him.
So here we are at Saturday. We had a neighborhood picnic planned that afternoon so after sleeping in really late, we got started on the stuff we were going to take. I had to make another run to the grocery store (I wasn’t thinking picnic when I went 3 TIMES on Thursday!) we then went over to the picnic. It was a lot of fun. We have lots of really terrific neighbors. I love this neighborhood. All morning I’d been trying to get a hold of someone to give Michael a ride to and from his soccer game so that I could go to the RS dinner and then broadcast. After the picnic I finally got hold of someone just as they were leaving and without going into the details, got Michael to soccer after embarrassing myself thoroughly. I then went to the RS thing. The big girls babysat. When I got home I was not pleased with the way things had gone here and after getting all the kids off to bed, had an emotional explosion. I called my mom a cried to her for quite a while and then was feeling much better. By then it was so late that it was OK to call Mike on the computer so I did and visited with him for just a few minutes and then finally went to bed. I slept better last night than I have all week.
Today was pretty ok. Church went fairly well (except that I woke up with very puffy eyes from crying so much last night and got quite a few sympathetic looks which I just hate) and thankfully none of the kids needed help with talks or anything. We got home and fed the little people and visited with Mike for about 2 hours then some of us took naps while others did quiet activities. We then had dinner and I spent the rest of the night visited with sisters-in-law and my Daddy. I am so thankful for those calls as they made the day go by rather quickly and I was so dreading how lonely I’d feel today.
I find it interesting that with past TDY’s we’ve been just fine. I don’t like Mike being gone but we deal with it and are all ok. This time, I think because the end is so far away, we can’t just hunker down for a short time a then get on with life. This is going to be life for a while and we are going to have to make some actual changes in our plans and expectations. I guess that’s why this week end was harder than other times he’s been gone. That’s just my silly inexperienced philosophy, but it sounded good to me. Well I’d dare say that is way more than enough for one week so good night all.

This is all upside down so go down to Sept 21 and work your way back up. Friday night we had a cookout with our friends and then Mike and I took off and spent a few hours just hangin out together. It was really nice.
Saturday morning we took Mike to the airport and stayed there with him untill he boarded the plane. We had a very teary good bye and made quite a scene leaving the airport. Hans was really mad at me bacause I wouldn't let him go with Dad and natuarally it was all my fault. He really doesn't understand what's going on he just know's Dad was going on an airplane and we weren't. He also knows Dad will be gone for a long time and he's not pleased. Well the rest of the day we spent lounging and relaxing all in our own form of being sad at Mike's departure. We then went to Michaels soccer game that didn't start untill 4:45. I don't like those late games but it was good for this particular day. He played great. He was goalie for the second half and made a lot of really great saves. It was a fun game.
Today, we survived church and it really wasn't too bad. We got to visit with Mike on video/computer. It was fun even if we couldn't get both sound and picture at the same time (we're working on that) He is now in Germany and while not thrilled to be there and quite bugged that this particular job is even a deployed position, at least were finally under way and that much closer to the end.
Well good night everyone. I'll try to make this all a little more sensible next week.