The Olympians

We live in Lacey but our address is Olympia and "The Olympians" sounds way more cool than "the Laceys."  Plus, my daughter that is obsessed with Percy Jackson will love the name.  It is way too easy to justify not taking the time to write on the blog now that life is so crazy, but I have felt tremendous guilt.  So...here's the lowdown.

Last week we made the 14-hour drive down to Mike's graduation, it was a great trip, brief, but great.  We had so much fun and it was very satisfying being able to watch Mike graduate after all the hours and hours and hours and hours of work he has done.  Our friends, the Carlisle's, came down for the graduation and our delicious lunch on Fisherman's Wharf.  They gave Mike a framed flag.  It was the flag they flew from 9/11 until Mike got home from Afghanistan, a very touching tribute to Mike and his service.  It still makes me tear up when I look at it. Besides graduation we were able to spend a little more time walking our favorite running route with the kids, going out for bread bowls and Ghiradelli chocolates, dinner with our good friends, the Burton's, a girl's night out for me, and a weekend that included a few glimpses of Jane as she made her way from one social event to another. Then we loaded up Mike's apt and took off at 10:30 Saturday night.

Now we have Mike home and it is heavenly.  We all love having daddy around.  Sawyer is his daddy's little shadow or his battle buddy.  Ellyn takes his hand and drags him around with her or curls up in his lap for snuggles.  Jane and Sadie tolerate his constant teasing.   I have a running buddy and someone that makes staying up late more appealing than just climbing into bed exhausted every night and falling asleep.  I'm pretending that he is not leaving again.

Family news-

Jane has a huge group of friends and is always doing something with friends or begging to do something with friends.  It's a cute group and I have no complaints.  She has a hard schedule this fall and at first I was freaking out with the amount of homework she had, but she is getting it done faster and isn't as overwhelmed as she was the first few weeks.

Sadie is queen of the neighborhood.  She plays with all our little neighbor kids until dark.  We have four LDS families on our street and three of them are old enough to play with Sadie and Sawyer, they all just run and bike around from one house to the next.  Sadie is the very oldest so most of the time she is the MC of all activities.  I'm not a huge lover of little cookie-cutter neighborhoods but it really is fun after having the kids so isolated from friends in Carmel.  Besides playing, Sadie is doing piano and doing well in school.  She and Ellyn go to the same school and my cute Sadie is so excited when she sees her sister in the halls and loves playing with her the few recesses a week that Ellyn is integrated into the general school population.

Ellyn is doing great.  I panicked the first day of school.  I walked into her classroom and it was a regular classroom.  No play area, no craft table, no bright happy colors everywhere.  I really just wanted to yell at them  "DID YOU NOT EVEN PAY ANY ATTENTION TO ANYTHING THAT I SENT YOU MONTHS AGO?"  The answer to that is- No, they hadn't.  BUT... they assured me that Ellyn would be fine and basically told Mama Bear to go home.  At the end of the day they asked if we could meet as soon as possible.  We did, they've been able to get to know Ellyn, and they have made some adjustments and what is awesome is that Ellyn seems to be thriving.  She is saying lots of new words, starting to make little one word answers, and is really happy.  She has great new after school tutors and a new respite person from our ward.  It is always an excellent feeling to have our girl feeling good.

Sawyer is a such a happy, cute, little guy. I can't believe our baby will be four in a week! Sawyer is his mom's daytime buddy, he is sweet and loving to each of his sisters, and loves playing with all of his new friends.  "Soy Bean" does preschool four days a week with our preschool co-op.  We have all sorts of fun, each momma takes one day and all the kids love it.  Sawyer now has "red days" and "purple days." He picked the colors.  It's a sign on the fridge, two sided.  Red is a no video game day and purple is a yes video game day.  This little system has saved my sanity.  No more nagging all day long, three days yes, four days no.  Of course with daddy home there have been many more yes days.  

I am just being the mom.  I wake up at 5 with Jane and hit the sack after I get everyone to bed and spend some time talking with Mike on Face time (not now of course).  I don't know when we'll fit in talking when he is three hours earlier than I am.  I am finally on a regular work out schedule and slowly integrating running back into my routine.  I have X-rays on my feet tomorrow and then they are going to make me some lovely orthotics.  I'm hoping I'll get to finally heal up.  I chopped my hair off last month- short.  I figured it would just hang down my back wet all winter long.  It is much easier and I only miss it when I'm around Meagan and I get a teensy bit jealous.

That is the OLYMPIAN update.  Sorry it is sooo long.  Love you all.