Bavaria

This was an incredibly long, boring e-mail that I sent to Mike yesterday. It didn't look like he was going to get a chance to call. Sorry, I would edit but I don't have time. I love you all.


It's been a busy day here at the Stinchfield house. This morning I asked Jane to reset my alarm for an hour later than it was set for before she left for school. That would be 7:30. That would give me 15 minutes to doze on the couch before I had to wake up Sadie. Sawyer was nursing and I was exhausted. He is all mucusy and was awake alot, Ellyn woke up, you know the drill. So all of the sudden in the middle of a dream I think "Hmmm...I shouldn't be dreaming, I've slept too long. Sure enough. Jane had changed the time but not turned on the alarm so it was 7 minutes before Sadie was supposed to catch the bus. I tried to get her ready as quickly as possible but I also didn't want to stress her out so we missed it by about 5 minutes. This however meant that I had to wake up all the kids, get them in warm clothes, of course Sawyer needed to nurse, the car was covered in snow, etc...So half an hour later we got Sadie to school. Note to self, 15 minutes extra sleep is not worth that, most of the time. Since I had the kids in the car I drove over to self-help and picked up a bucket of "environmentally friendly salt substitute" and found out that I could check out a snow shovel for the whole time we live here. Perfect. The housemeister shovels walks and driveways anyway but I thought it would be good to have on hand. I was impressed though, the path to our house from the road was shoveled by the time Jane left for school. I also picked up several light bulbs at self help since I had a whole new batch go out this weekend. Why all at once??? So annoying.

So after that I came home, fed Ellyn breakfast, spent time with her while Sawyer slept, attempted to trim her bangs. That's a treat. I think they are mostly even. We also did a thorough teeth brushing. She is doing so well with that lately. Then it was off to pre-school. She was acting like she felt so much better today and I asked her if she wanted to go and she nodded.

While she was in pre-school Sawyer and I went to the furniture store and talked them into trading out his car seat. The latch that locks it into place had serious issues. Half the time I couldn't get the stupid thing out of the car and that is the whole reason I bought a new car seat, so I could take him in and out of the house all bundled. The new one works like a dream.

We came home and with baby in front pack I vacuumed up all the plastic pine needles all over the floor, took down all the empty decorations boxes, and started a load of laundry- my sheets that need to be washed about every three days due to spit-upage. So then we picked up Ellyn from school. When we got home Ellyn was furious when I tried to get her out of the car. She did not want to get out. Once I got her out she was trying to climb back in while I was getting Sawyer. I really am glad she loves the car. She loves listening to the music and looking out the windows. We finally got her inside and Sadie arrived. We all worked on making hot chocolate together, including marshmellows. You have to have it on a day like today. By the time that was done and cleaned up- it really is amazing how much of a mess our kids can make with hot chocolate- powder, drips, mustaches...Jane was home and we loaded into the car to go pay the phone bill and drive out to Graf to look for a humidifier. About half way down that first road you take before you turn left at the T I decided to turn around. Snow/rain was coming down in sheets out that direction and while I don't mind driving in a bit of snow, I am not a fan of freezing rain. So we came home, Shyah came over and the girls worked on homework (including Sadie) while Sawyer slept, Ellyn watched Mulan, and I went downstairs and worked out on the treadmill. I am FINALLY starting to get to the point where I can run for some period of time, I'm not going to tell you how long. It's too embarrassing. I love having that thing though. A total life saver.

So after that I came upstairs, made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, Jane and Sadie cleaned up dinner (Jane is amazing at that-most of the time-now, mom rubbed off on her) while I nursed Sawyer and then we sat down at the table and cut out snow flakes to put in this window by the dining room table. Ellyn and I finished early and went to shower while Jane and Sadie continued. Of course both girls were frustrated because their snowflakes didn't look like the one I made. I should have made it more simple, not that it is fabulous or anything but Jane's kept ending up square and looking like African masks as she called them, or she would cut all the way through and have four little snow flakes. Sadie actually showed us a really cool way they made them at her school. She is so cute.

Now we have done scriptures and prayers and the girls are off to bed even though I can still hear them upstairs. Ellie is asleep. As I told you, time will tell, but Dr. Lukezic did think that mono was a possibility. I'm not willing to do bloodwork on something that is viral and can't be treated anyway. Way too traumatic. At least if it is she is doing pretty well and is no longer contagious.

That's all folks!