Hypocrite

So I imagine that everyone has been a hypocrite at one time or another. Or at least I start this post off by saying that to make me feel better. I recently had an experience where I was a TOTAL HYPOCRITE, and within a very short period of time. This past New Year's Eve our little family was invited to friends house for a celebration. The food, company, and atmosphere was incredibly fun. We all had a great time. The first game of the evening was a white elephant exchange.

Now I have always had a difficult time with these because they never seem to turn out right. Doesn't it seem like you can never get everyone on the same page? Some people bring nice stuff and some silly stuff. Some times people just bring crap that is neither funny or fun. So these are always a bit of a stress for me. Just the week before Jeff's work had an exchange and there was a $30 base which helped. Jeff wanted to go fun, so he bought $30 worth of bathroom cleaning supplies. Silly but at the end of the day you wouldn't feel jipped, everyone should clean their bathroom more often. He picked up a Blue Ray copy of Inception. He said only one loser brought a dud gift.

So here I am at the party discussing my reservations about white elephants and how I hate the people who can't have fun and really fight over a gift or get their feelings hurt. HA! So Jeff and I brought some cheap gifts that had been sitting around in the closet for awhile. Someone brought a complementary airplane travel kit. Another gift was homemade jam, and someone else brought a leftover youth conference tshirt and wristband, (genius!) Then it happened. A lovely friend of mine brought a brand new bottle of COCO MADEMOISELLE by Chanel! SERIOUSLY! First of all this is a super expensive perfume, so props to her for not selling it on craigslist. Secondly, this is my favorite perfume. NO LIE! Not that I owned any cause it was too expensive. I only seem to have it in me to own one really nice perfume at a time. (This causes me a small amount of stress and confusion because I only wear perfume on two occasions, for church and for "romantic times," as you can imagine I do not like that these two occasions smell the same. Bad association.)

So long story short, I was not on my best behavior. It did not get ugly at all, but that was because everyone in the room could have cared less, and I suspect they all knew that I was the type of girl to make things ugly. You know like the type of girl I was just talking about at the beginning of the post. Yup, I am a hypocrite, but at least I smell really good.

A Hazy Shade of Winter

Besides being one of my favorite songs, whether by S&G or the Bangles, this title also perfectly describes the weather today. We are again stuck at home due to poorly plowed roads. (Which I guess is okay cause Max still has a bad cough. ) A few months ago at the associate store I came across a baby pool and some ball pitt balls for half price and decided to buy them. Instead of opening them right away, or even saving them for Christmas, I decided to save them for a snow day. Job well done Emily! Mae loves to hand us the balls one at a time. She would empty the whole pool one ball at a time if we let her. It's a little OCD. Max just likes to dive in. I have already had to stop him from jump in from the fireplace.

Snow Day

No going out today. So we are watching Baby Mcdonald and Jeff is frying up some bacon. Should be a good day.

My Max

So at times I may complain about him, but I adore my Max. He is the sweetest kid you will ever meet. Yesterday we got his hair cut at the beauty school and he patiently sat through the whole 30+min appointment even thought it was obvious he wasn't having a good time. Sometimes I just stare at him thinking about how amazing he is. I love watching him do the simplest things like putting his shoes on. He is currently curled up right next to me on the couch with his puppy, blanket, and jedi knight doggy cause he isn't feeling well. It breaks my heart when he gets sick cause it is just so pathetic.

Who wouldn't want to go to Vegas tomorrow?

The one guy who is going there, my dad. I just spoke to him and there is not a man alive who is less enthused about his upcoming work trip. I tried to point out the better weather, to which he reminded me that it freezes in Vegas in the winter. I asked about the hotel, suggested activities and shopping but no go. The guy is not happy. Why are these opportunities wasted on those who don't want them? When I suggested that he use the time to shop for my parents upcoming anniversary, (I let him know the location of Tiffany's, Cartier, and the Department 56 store,) but he let me know that the 34th wedding anniversary is the Big Screen T.V. anniversary. He said he read it in Hallmark or something. Hmmmm must be a newer list.

What anniversary are you celebrating this year? (We are going for eight years this summer.) What is the appropriate gift for that anniversary. (Eight would be bronze or pottery.)

Wouldn't you like to be in Vegas tomorrow?

Have you ever had to go someplace you were dreading for work? (and no, your everyday work place does not count.)

Bad Hair Day

Poor Mae. She has some seriously nasty cowl licks in her hair. Both are super strong, right on the front hair line, and lie on either side of where she would have bangs, (but not far enough to the sides to have bangs.) Sure there are worse things to be born with. She is healthy and strong, but as a woman I feel her hair pain. She will always suffer hair stress.

Fairy

Good Associate Store purchase. But don't let the outfit fool you. She is more Maleficent then Flora, Fauna and Merriweather.

Time to Get Extreme!

So last August I started a new exercise routine. I spend a bit of money and ordered the Chalean Extreme Workout set from Beach Body, (The guys who brought you P90X.) I loved it! It was hard at first, but not so hard that I stopped. It is basically a weightlifting program that focuses on doing fewer reps with more weight. There are weight days, cardio, abs, and flexibility. It was a 90 day program. Now as for the results. Did I lose any weight? Sadly no, but that is more my fault then the programs, (my friend Lara has done it and did lose weight and inches.) There are three reasons I didn't lose weight; 1. I cheated a bunch on the cardio and really that is the most important part to the weight loss. 2. I wasn't great about watching what I ate. 3. If you all remember around September I went CRAZY when I stopped breastfeeding and had to take birth control to straighten my hormones out. This caused me to gain 10 lbs! (Which in all my years of taking birth control has never happened before!) So why am I singing Chaleans' praises? I totally had muscles afterwards! I didn't even need to flex for you to see them! It felt so good! The first month I could bearly eek out one or two girl push ups, by the end I could do 12, (and one or two regular ones!) I felt good! I even bought me some 10 and 15 lb weights. I am so excited for next fall when I totally plan on strictly following the plan again, feeling good, and losing weight. Max is also a fan of mommies exercises. We bought him so 2lb weights so he could go along.

Fruits of My Labor

So for all my harassing on facebook the following are the pictures we won. I like them. Most of my kibitz are about my weight. It was a very stressful shoot, because it was freezing and we forgot a bag with Mae's coat and accessories. I suggest to anyone getting pictures with small children to have another adult along. There was too much going on taking care of the kids so I couldn't keep my hair from being blown in ugly directions. You need that extra set of eyes to tell you your leg is off in a funky direction. My only real annoyance was that the photographer usually brings a lot of cool props/chairs for her other shoots and it really makes the photos great, but for our shoot she brought this huge old quilt that she turned upside down. One big white out of place blanket. It totally didn't fade into the background and marred a lot of the otherwise good shots. I guess you can't count on the same level of quality and attention when you get something for free. But I am happy with the shots, and would recommend Erika Kirby to anyone looking for family pictures. Here are some of the results.

Sweetheart

Mae has new molars. That should pretty much explain my week. I have been so annoyed by her that I told Jeff to take the picture of her off of the laptop background. I just didn't want to see her. So Jeff replaced it with the following picture. This is one of my favorite of our wedding pictures. I was thinking a few nights ago about how this summer it will be 10 years since we met. We worked together at the BYU Bookstore for a few years before we started dating. I have known him since I was 19. And while I am starting to suspect he made some sort of deal with the devil in order to produce such a demon daughter, I love my best friend and am so proud to be his wife.

Max's Future Therapy Session part I

Doctor: "So Mr. Larkin now this meeting is just part of the procedure for anyone going to Mars with NASA, but of course you being a doctor know that. So no worries."

Max: "No problem go right ahead."

Dr: "Do you mind if I call you Max?"

Max: "I would prefer to be called by my middle name Steven. I feel it is more dignified. I am told my dad had a dog named Max growing up. But then again my younger brother's name is Spike, so I guess I didn't get off too bad."

Dr.: "No I would say not. You seemed to tense talking about your family. How is your relationship with your mother?"

Max/Steven: "Not good, I just feel like I can't trust her."

Dr: "Have you always felt that way?"

Max/Steven: "Well I would have to say it all started when I was four. I was assured again and again that I was not going to get any shots at the doctor's office. My sister would get shots, but I would just be getting a physical. All the way to the office and even in the waiting room she promised not shots. HA! What a great liar she was! I was held down on a table and got two very painful shots. I can still remember the screaming. Sometimes I wake up at night remembering the betrayal. Sure she cried too and bought me stuff and let me do what I wanted for the rest of the day, but I can't be bought. The betrayal is still there. Never again did I feel I could trust her."

Dr.: "I don't blame you sir. That sounds pretty rough. I am impressed you were able to achieve all your medical accomplishments with such a mother."

Max/Steven: "O, you haven't heard the worst of it..."

I am sure this will be a continuing blog series.

Resolute

So I am not a big goal person. I have all the eternal ones, but the yearly or monthly ones not so much. Not sure why I dislike setting goals, I blame young womens. Somehow my leaders always made goal night more painful then having teeth pulled. It made setting goals seem stupid and boring to me. This is a shame because I think that if my attitude changed, I would be a really good goal person. When I was in college I made a fun new year resolution of trying one new soda flavor a month. Fun goal and totally kept it. I do have a sort of goal of weighing 130 pounds by the time I am 30, but considering that I am going to be 29 in May and have a baby in July I think this one might need some adjustment. Maybe by the time I am 31. I want to learn to play the piano by the time I die. I think I would really like to learn this hobby.

Anyway so for this year I do have a goal. Over the past few years I have been really irritated by the question, "How are you doing?" Yes, I know that sounds weird and stupid, it felt a bit stupid to write. But here is the deal, most people don't mean it. They don't want to know the truth unless it is good and short. While I was pregnant and miserable with Max I lost the ability to answer this question with the, "Good," answer that everyone wants to hear. Instead I answered with the truth. Well not only did I notice that most people didn't want to hear it, but I didn't really want everyone to know all my business all the time. I tried to give a glib Good to people I didn't want to talk to, but it was hard and sounded false.

Another reason for this resolution is that I have actually always been a believer in positive thinking. I have never really believed it for myself but I have been in big believer in the placebo effect in medicine. Anyway, I want to see if saying that I am good to everyone will actually make me believe it. I don't suspect that it will make a HUGE change in my demeanor, but I suspect that it may give me a bit of a positive boost at times.

So for the rest of the year I am good. My blog will still reflect my real feelings because I do want to remain free to vent, it is very therapeutic for me. But if you come into the library or see me at Wal-mart I will be good. Whether I am or not.