Bavaria

Hallo! I hope you all are recovering from your fun last week. It is Thursday now and I can see no reason why any of us should not be blogging, except maybe Darla.

It is yet another cold, wet, rainy day here. It's a joke. Saturday and Sunday were our only sunny days- though not incredibly hot- in over two and a half weeks. We have had two pool worthy days since school got out. This spring was incredibly hot and dry but that's been it. At least most days it clears up enough for the kids to play outside for awhile. I should be happy that it is cool with my extra 30 lbs. of insulation and if it was hot I would probably be complaining in that direction, but...it is going to make winter very long if our whole summer is wet and overcast.

Darla, I don't know if I said that or not. I'm always spouting off little nuggets of wisdom, it's hard to keep track. If I didn't, I'm in complete agreement. Watching the video and seeing how exhausted and breathless you were made me say a little prayer that my epidural works. I'm a little nervous about that. One natural child birth (on accident) is enough for me. How are you feeling? How's our baby?

Chelsea, your summer sounds like alot of fun. I'm excited to have ALL of our kids at an age where we can hang out at the golf course or Lagoon. In the grand scheme of things that is not that far away. Really, three years from now we will be close. Where do the boys go the other days of the week? Are you both working full time? I can't remember at the moment.

Well we leave for France on Monday for two weeks. We are very excited. I really pray that everything goes smoothly. I want this last little bit of time all together as a family to be a happy memory for all of us over the next year and years to come actually. I will download pictures, I promise. I went to H&M yesterday to pick up a couple of pairs of leggings for under some maternity dresses that are too short and to look at capris for Ellyn and hit a great sale. I only got my two pair of leggings but each of the girls got a couple of pairs of very cute capris for about 5 bucks a piece. Those will be good for layering days.

Jane helped her friend unpack her room last night and she asked me when we got home (Mike and I had a date, we renewed our temple recommends and then tried out a Thai restaurant which was amazing) if she could have her own room in our next house. I had to laugh. I told her that we were now officially a big family. That at a certain age Sawyer would need his own room in a house full of girls and Ellyn would probably have to end up with her own room and that Jane would probably be sharing until she went away to school- where she'll share again! She was in total dismay. I explained to her that I always shared a room, Meagan, Geof., Adam, etc... but that didn't seem to make anything better. Kind of funny, kind of sad for Jane our former only child. How boring would that life have been? Mike and I were talking about that last night on our way home, how we could have never imagined having this family and how we can't imagine anything different- after Sawyer.

Okay, since you all swear I don't bore you here is another nice mundane blog. Just so you know I am wearing a white nightgown that is made from yards and yards of silky material that mom would know the name of and I am about to eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast, with a peach. I'm pretty excited about that. I've decided to fully embrace and profess my love for sugar cereals. They have to be better for me than waffles and pancakes and they are whole grain with vitamins and minerals and I love them. I do love Grape Nuts too though, I might have them for breakfast now that I think about it. Plus the commissary keeps putting Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Lucky Charms on sale for $1.89 and who can turn that down? Of course the amount we are spending on milk is scandalous.

Adam and Mindi, anything on the house? How about mom and dad's? Meags and Cor, did everything work out for yours? Jess, I feel like we haven't heard from you forever and ever. I know you wrote a great update blog not too far back but I miss you. Mon and Cameron, I'm guessing you are home safe at this point. I hope you had a great trip. Ellyn, I won't even mention your length of time away from the blog. I hope you are alive. Okay, off to wake up the youngest member of our tribe. She only woke up for about 15 minutes last night, it was fabulous! I love you all.