Sunshine in December

So this time instead of complaining about how my ward takes all the people who excel in their callings and sends them to the youth programs, I am going to give a rave of how talented and wonderful our now former Relief Society Teacher Krista Evans is.
I guess you could say I never met a Krista I didn't like. Krista and I have been in the same ward for about five years now. We have never been the closest of friends but every interaction I have had with her has been uplifting and enjoyful. She is a beautiful petite mother of four. She has the flawless skin of a 20 year old but the wisdom of someone in their sixties. She is gracious, smart, and humble. Every time we have run into each other at playgroup or the pool we have talked and laughed until time has flown by and it is sadly time to go. She is one of those few people that you know you could count on in a time of need to help and it would actually make her happy to do so. About a year ago we met for a playgroup and she was not in the best of moods, in fact she was a bit cranky for her, but instead of that making me uncomfortable, it made me like her more. She is one of those ladies that are not saints, but that you know you need to be more like them. For the past year I have been attending Relief Society and she has been my favorite teacher. She teaches the Teaching for Our Times lesson and I can't put into words how much her lessons have reached me. For the first time in months I had a reason to look forward to church. I was so shocked when they released her on Sunday and to be honest I was tempted to protest her appointment to the Young Womens because I didn't want her to go. I need her lessons. So thank you Krista for your Spirit and I am a better person for knowing you.

Talk Talk Talk

My kids are slow coming out of the gate when it comes to talking. I worried quite a bit about Max's speech up until a few months ago. But I was reassured that he was just a normal boy. Surely Mae being a girl and a younger sibling would speak more. NOPE. Up until today she only babbled mama and mostly dada. No other words. Today as I was scooping her up to change her diaper I hugged her kissed her and lovingly called her stinky. Well what a beautiful word for my baby girl to pick as her first. STINKY! Yup, she says mama, dada, and STINKY. I am so proud.

Max talks a lot now. He is either making up for lost time, or has become one of those kids with an internal word limit that they must hit daily or their little heads explode. He is still difficult to understand, I am excited to get him into school and have him looked at by a speech specialist. Recently he has taken to referring to his kids. I am not sure what he means by this but he is usually upset about them, or on their behalf. I caught Max half babbling, half yelling at my dad yesterday over the phone, about his kids.

Merry Christmas

Have had a good holiday so far. We had the Sister Missionaries over for dinner last night and decorated Christmas Cookies for Santa. Max woke this morning and was so patiently waiting in his room for us to come get him.
He loved his stocking and toys. Mae loved her toys, except the Build a Bear Outfit that my parents got her. Mae is obsessed with her Build a Bear Bunny and I suggested that they buy her an outfit for bunny. Well when we put it on she flipped out! Started tugging on the clothes for us to take them off. I am sure she will love it in a bit, but right now they are no good.
But she has lots of other toys to make her happy.

Baby vs. Snowman Donut

Things That Must Go XIII

Just in time for the Holidays!

1. Sirens in Music: Jeff has kept on me to post this one for awhile. He hates songs that have sirens cause he always ends up looking around for the emergency vehicles.

2. The Singles Branch Program Guy: This guy always comes into the library during my shift and prints off his ward's programs. This always coincides with some teacher in my ward needing like 5 copies for a lesson and having to wait til he is done, or having to make him stop and getting a dirty look from the guy about it. He needs to come in before the wards meet or Saturday night. He is a jerk.

3. Jeff's Christmas Lights: If it wasn't for my constraint our house would rival the Griswalds. Jeff is THAT guy. For the past two years I have allowed him to put lights up on the inside of our windows, mostly cause you can see our house from a very busy street in the winter. This would be fine, except for two things. 1. The strands are too long for the windows and so always look messy, and 2. Baby Mae is constantly finding and playing with the plugs. We will be lucky if she isn't electrocuted by the 26th.

4. Bank of America: Shortly after we bought this house the mortgage was sold to Bank of America. Fine, but now we have received notice that we will be charge and additional six dollars a month to pay the mortgage online from a non-Bank of America bank account! That just seems illegal and totally wrong!

Hmmmm as a side note, I often observe a Thing That Must Go and then store it until I have a bunch and the inclination to blog. So these get stored up until used. This morning I had about a dozen good one's to do an extra long edition of TTMG but as soon as I began almost all of them have slipped my mind. I am not sure why, maybe the Spirit, maybe it is too early, maybe I am already suffering from pregnant brain. Regardless, I have a feeling that they will come to me as soon as I leave the computer, so expect another edition shortly.

Each Year

2006
2010


2010

We don't have a lot of traditions but we do have one. Each year we take Max and Mae to Chick-fil-a to have their pictures taken with Santa Cow. Today we took the kids and they were both excited to see Santa Cow. Jeff was excited to eat his chicken biscuit.

Me? Polite?

Now if I asked my readers to describe me in one or two words I can guarantee that polite would not be found anywhere. Now I am not saying that I am always rude; I can be nice and am probably more polite then I am rude, but I say what I think and that comes across as rude sometimes. Anyway, I joined a playgroup last spring that I was introduced to by my friend Dandi. The ladies are great, and it is refreshing to be with non=Mormons once a week. Max is the oldest kid in the group, but he gets along well with everyone. I think it will be a good group for Mae over the next few months. Well so last Thursday one lady hosted it at her house and it wasn't until I was in the car on my way that she mentioned that she and the kids have colds. Okay, colds.....hmmm....what to do? Well it is just a cold so I continue on. You can't keep your kids from everything. I show up at the door and yeah it was WAAAY more then a cold. She sounded like death. Now every ounce of my body wanted to turn around and save myself and my kids, but I didn't want to be rude. So we ventured in. Now I love her boys they are so adorable and sweet, but they were DRIPPING with snot and for some reason all over me. Like they hadn't been hugged their whole lives they were clinging to me. ARRRRGGGG! I just wanted to throw them off of me, but I didn't want to be rude. We stayed and played. When the polite amount of time had passed we left. And big surprise, I got sick. So so sick! I was so dripping sick this week. I even had fever and chills yesterday. If this is the price I pay for being polite maybe I need to rethink this new policy and go back to my true self.

Interrupted

When you have two kids you take whatever romantic time you can get. It is not always planned as it should be but you do the best you can. This afternoon Jeff was home for lunch, Mae was napping, and we stuck Max in front of a video game. Yadda yadda yadda the phone rang. Yeah I should have taken it off the hook or turned it off, but again this wasn't planned. Ring Ring Ring. It was my Relief Society President. Grrr talk about a buzz kill. If I let it ring for too long Max would get the phone and come looking for us. So I hit talk then hung up. A few minuets later...ring ring ring. Seriously!!!! If I get hung up on then I'll wait for that person to call me back and explain. This chick was not gonna give up! I answer and told her, "YES! I AM GOING TO BRING THE DESSERT I SIGNED UP FOR TO THE WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY! " She didn't like my tone.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yes, Fine!"
Now here is the kicker, I can tell from her voice that she was way pissed off at me. So again I have another situation where I have offended someone in my ward when all I want to do is keep a lower profile. Grrr... if she asks me anything about it on Saturday I am gonna give her the full story and then things should be interesting.

Not all is wrong in the world

A lovely lady in my ward brought me dinner last night. It was so wonderful and unexpected. I mean I complain all the time about everything but I never expect anything to come of it. Hmmm maybe she thought with a good meal I would be less cranky. Good Plan. I love kindness.

You can't handle the truth, or atleast a differing opinion.

Oh snap! I was just de-friended on facebook! I am not terribly sad since we disagreed on many subjects, but I will always miss people with a wicked sense of humor. My main surprise is how the Internet seems to insulate people into a bubble of their own ideas. She posted a "medical" article on how the H1N1 vaccine was causing miscarriages. I was game, I went to the site and read the article. I then followed their links to their actual "data" and it was totally unsubstantiated. There was no direct link in any of the cases just suspicion and guess work. There was certainly not enough to deserve the slant the website had given the article. Well this former facebook acquaintance I guess didn't want to hear that the government was not out to get us. Okay. Live in your self sustaining bubble, preach to your choir. If you don't agree with me on facebook that is cool. I appreciate a good well researched debate. I can't think of a blog comment that I have not posted because I disagreed with the thought. In fact I encourage people to disagree with The Things That Must Go, if they really want them to stay. But hey, if you feel better in your bubble then have at it.

And Baby Makes Three!

Yup, we are offically stupid, I mean pregnant. Number three is on its way and will see us all around July 7th. Now I know that many of you were told; "we are only having one," or, "two is it. " Well, I have offically given up on saying how many children we will have. (But I would be shocked if it were more then four.) This baby was actually planned. I always feel just a bit guilty about the ease with which I get pregnant. We knew we wanted another and I decided that it would be nice if the kid could start school the year after Mae, (who like Max misses the August 1st cutoff date in Arkansas.) Today we had an ultrasound to make sure the baby was in the correct position, a precaution after my ectopic pregnancy. It was fun to see the baby's heartbeat and it even kicked its' little foot. I have been SO SO SICK! I haven't been this sick with the other two pregnancies. I am quite miserable most of the time. Most nights I am in bed by eight just cause I am so sick I dont want to be awake anymore. Poor Jeff hasn't had a good meal, or evening company in awhile. As always he has been a champion through out the whole thing. We will be happy with either a boy or a girl and I can think of good reasons to have either. It is nice not to care one way or another, but not to fear we will find out. I just don't get the people who don't find out. We have bounced some names around but nothing set in stone. Unless people complain or whine about our choices then it will be either Mohammad or LaKeshia.