Fight Entropy

I must compose at least two or three blog posts in my head each day. I spend a lot of time mentally adding things to Things That Must Go. Yet, my laziness usually keeps me from posting. I have a goal this week of posting something every day. This will be a small way for me to fight my laziness, mental discipline if you will. This week will be reserved for my thoughts and musings, and will not be about the kids unless something spectacular happens. I think I will also add a give-a-way at the end of the week so watch out for that also.

Random thoughts for the day....

1. Despite my new calling as ward Librarian, I have absolutely NO power to order or do anything other then make copies and hand out chalk. This was made VERY clear to me on the first day, so I am making a conscience effort not to care. So that being said, it was not my fault that there was no toner today.

2. I have always been rather snarky about Fast and Testimony meeting. I appreciate a really good testimony, but those seem to be few and far between. I often feel that it is more like Open Mic Night. The worst is after youth conference or the camps when all the weepy girls get up cause they were coached to. Yuck! I do like it when someone gets up there and says something crazy. Like a lady a few years ago who talked about the Negros in Northwest Arkansas. I mean who doesn't love a bit of entertainment? Anyhoo, I was wrongly skeptical today when a reactivated lady in our ward got up, I was genuinely moved by the loveliness of her testimony and will now try to rethink my preconceived ideas of people and their testimonies.

3. Having won all the hair products this weekend, I decided to blow dry my hair. This is something I do so infrequently that I actually had to search for the dryer. It looked fine, but I guess it looked fantastic to everyone else, cause everyone was complementing me on my new haircut. All everyone said to me today was about my hair, which leads me to the following possible conclusions...
a. my hair looked better then I thought.
b. my hair looks so awful most of the time, that people feel the need to encourage me with praise when it does look good.
c. most people have nothing else to say to me and this is the best they can come up with. (I know this sounds snarky, but I have been known to do it to others.)
d. I am a very forgettable person, and people aren't sure how my hair looked last time they saw me.
e. my hair looked better then the fat rolls beneath it.
Honestly I think it is mostly c. I come to this conclusion because I am in the library and I have noticed that many people feel they need to add chit chat to their chalk orders. Don't get me wrong, I like the chat, but if you have nothing to say to me that is cool too.

As a special treat for you all I am enclosing a recent picture, as I have noticed that I don't have many on here of me. Max took this last week. It is small, cause I look fat and the smallness helps with that.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

It has been quite the week of luck and prizes. Last week I attended the grand opening of an Ulta store, (it is like a big Sephora, but with less expensive brands and more drugstore stuff,) at the Promenade. The lady in line in front of me got a $50 gift card, I got a $5 card and the lady behind me got another $50 gift card. Oh well. I bought some stuff and filled out random stuff. Then proceeded to forget all about it. Well I got a phone call on Friday saying that I won a gift basket in the drawing! Whoot! So I head down not sure what to expect. When I inform the ladies at the register that I am here for my prize I do notice this HUGE basket behind the counter fill with awesome stuff like a CHI straightener and full size perfumes. I was hoping that was mine, nope, the ladies went back and brought mine out. It was full of lots of nice stuff; all their own brand of hair products. The thing is, I don't really use a lot of product. So hey, free stuff, but I just hope this wasn't my life's best win.

Also a winner this week was Jeff's co-worker. Apparently this guy and his family eat a Chick-Fil-A a lot. So much so that they we in a special exclusive club and won a free dinner for family and friends! And we are their friends! So here we are at Chick-Fil-A yesterday, the tables were set up for us and menus laid out. Our orders were taken at the table, and weirdly enough Max was not seated next to either Jeff or me. Well not to worry for Max. Not known to us at the time, Max just pointed to what he wanted when the waitress came to him. You can always count on Max to take care of his own food. I love free food. We had so much food. Yum Yum Yum!

Sunday Morning

Baby Alert!

I see that Mae's Birthday post got hijacked by a grandparent's visit post, so I think I need to share a bit about my favorite girl. Mae went to the doctor and is in the 50% for weight and height. She is a bit of a chunk, but it is all of the fun to squish kind. Mae is one and already has her own distinct personality. She wants to do things her own way. She wants to feed herself and dress herself and she gets frustrated when we have to help her.

She wants to know what is going on and follows me everywhere I go. When Jeff or I go into the other room we often send out baby alerts to let the other know we are being followed. When she hears these alerts she speeds up cause she knows she is about to be caught. She loves to take the books off our bookshelves and loves to play with toys. She can spend an hour or so just playing in Max's room.

Grandpa Tobler amused her with making a clicking noise and she was determined to figure out how he did it. She would stick her hand in your mouth trying to solve the mystery. This led to me almost choking when I yawned and she shoved her arm in my mouth. She has now mastered the sound and loves to make it.

Mae isn't perfect she makes a really ugly squawk when she is mad. She is the world's lightest sleeper. She sleeps not in her pretty nursery, but in the spare room downstairs and wakes up if you try to go downstairs at all. She still loves Max. Last night she and Max were in the bath and Max decided to spout water in her face. She laughed so hard I was afraid she was gonna fall over into the water and drown. We all love Mae and look forward to what the next year brings us.

Baby vs. Chocolate Cup Cake

Her feet still smell like chocolate.

You've Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

Mae is now One! Happy belated post baby girl. This lucky girl can't complain though, she got lots of good presents and a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Tobler. It was really special to have my parents drive 15 hours out to visit us. My father hadn't seen the kids since they came out last year for Mae's blessing. There was lots of hugging and attention to go around for the kids, Max seems to be having a bit of attention withdrawl now that they are gone. We didn't do much, but the visit was rewarding anyway, or maybe because of that. I always seems to strike out when it comes to taking anyone who visits somewhere good. This time we tried the "World Famous AQ Chicken House," Meh, but it was cute to see Mae dance and groove to her birthday serenade at the resturant. We got her a strawberry cupcake to celebrate, but waited until the next day to let her dig in, as pictured above. We attended Max's soccer practice which sounded a lot more fun then it actually was, but he did look cute as he always does. As with all parent visits I scored some great stuff. The folks actually stuffed a full size freezer and a twin mattress into their Toyota Landcruiser! I also got a lovely picture and all the family Christmas Ornaments. Mae also recieved some wonderful gifts in the mail. Special thanks to Michele for the cross stitch and toys. Mae loves her pink septer and headband! And a very special thanks to Carol for the SHEEP HAT! Mae looks adorable in it. Picture to come soon. Speaking of picture....I was going to get a family portrait done of the four of us, since I figured the 2:1 ratio of adult to kid would help, but no one wanted this to happen and by no one I mean Jeff. I bascially post this fact to absolve myself from my mother-in-laws missing birthday gift. Sorry Carol. Will send a belated gift soon. To top off the visit we managed to pass on a cold to my parents thus continuing their tradition of getting sick every time they visit grandchildren. Sorry. It was a good visit and I hope it will not be too long before we see them again.

Joy to the Fishes

We started swim classes today. Mae and I had our class first. We had such a good time. She is not as adventurous as Max was at that age, but she does well. She has no interest in what the other babies are doing she wants to do her own thing. She does not want to blow bubbles and does not want to reach out her arms. Oh well. She is so stinking cute in her swimwear. Max had his first class without mommy. He seemed so big. I only watched from outside the room, but he seemed to listen well and have fun. There were only three other kids in the class so he got lots of good one on one time. Hooray. He was a bit timid at first but I think he will be leading the class next week. It was a really fun way to start the week.