Now and Then

On Wednesday night we had a fun reunion! We all graduated together five years ago this spring from Utah State. All of the rest of these girls went to grad school and I was the nut who went to Minnesota! These girls got me through school. We spent literally every day in the library, studying, working, laughing, chatting and creating some of the weirdest inside jokes known to man! I don't think it was until after I moved that I realized how much I depended on them! Now, we're married and there are nine and half kids between us all! ...I think!


back row: Jen (pregnant with little boy Hansen, Caleb was already asleep in the car) and Megan
front row: Mason, Alisha, Rylie, Me, Megan, Kim, Allie, Emma and Bentley (please forgive me if I have slaughtered your children's names and spellings! It doesn't mean I love you any less!)


three years ago at Megan's wedding: Jenny, Jen, Megan, Alisha and I

No cats for us!

When I was in high school, my best friend Tiff and I swore to each other that if we never got married, we'd get a house and a bunch of cats and be weird cat ladies. This was problematic on several levels including the fact that we both hate cats, but luckily it will never come true! She went on a mission and found someone wonderful, and I went to grad school and found someone wonderful and we got married within two months of each other. Now she lives in NM and I'm in Minnesota so we figured it would be YEARS before we saw each other!

So the stars were definitely aligned in that we were both in Utah the same week!!!! I was so excited! It has been three years since we've seen each other and I miss this woman so much! The phone is just not the same. Plus, we were pregnant near the same time-her little one is five months old and M is 14 months old.

So we got to visit at lunch with my family and later in the afternoon at her parents' house. We even ran into each other running errands. In a perfect world, that is how it would be-seeing her out in town. But until we're both stinkin' rich, we have to live with these rare chances to catch up, give each other big hugs and be so thankful that it feels the same when we're together-she's still my favorite!

Delta to the rescue!

So, after a completely horrible day yesterday of pain, dizziness and vomiting, we decided that a road trip was not the best idea. We're flying!! It will give me a whole extra day to rest and slowly pack and will make it easier on my kidneys! We're bummed because it means we're missing Denver and Lincoln, but we'll make it there someday! We're determined!

I'm so relieved that we're going this way, that I don't have to worry about going to the bathroom the whole drive or sitting up on my kidneys for hours, and I just feel better about the whole thing. So....stay tuned for more adventures!

My Autobiography

Someday I'm going to write a really boring book. And it will be all about the weird and mundane medical maladies that are my life! On the whole it will be a quiet life story with a few twists and turns with weird medical mysteries and an extra heavy dose of common things too to spice it up!

The latest?

My friend calls me an overachiever. I can't just get a kidney stone. I have to get a kidney stone that's big enough that it's stuck, well, inside, and they have to go in and get it for me. And it can't happen when life is boring, it has to happen four days before we're supposed to leave on a road trip!!!!!! I have had pain for several months off and on since Christmas. The latest diagnosis was an abdominal infection...only to find out last Friday that it's really a big kidney stone that is stuck and we have to get it out. He was going to let me go on my vacation but I had to get it out right after that. And if I had any pain, I was to go to a hospital immediately so my kidneys didn't get damaged. Fast forward to Sunday night, quiet night at the inlaws, cute movie, and near the end? Increasing pain in my left side!!! I was more upset than anything that it might be ruining my much-anticipated vacation, but by midnight, this was serious pain and we were in the ER, awaiting a new CT scan.

So...I'll spare the details and say that I had a minor procedure yesterday and am home resting today, hoping that I feel good enought to travel on Thursday! We are going if it kills me! That will be an exciting end to my book! (Sorry to be so pessimistic)

The Mormon Mecca

In less than a week, we leave for Utah!!!!! I'm so stinkin' excited! I haven't been to Utah in almost three years, since my friend Megan's wedding! It used to be so common and frequent that we went to Utah, but now that I've been in Minnesota for a few years, and especially since Mom and Dad and the boys are in Arkansas, I just don't get out there as much. I moved away almost five years ago. That's a scary fact for two reasons: one, it means I've been out of college for five years, and two, fact number one makes me old!!!

The reason for this grand occasion? Grandpa Tobler turned 80 in January! And so we all get to tromp out to Utah to celebrate and have a reunion in March (everyone thinks that's weird-you're having a family reunion in March???) and celebrate our Toblerness! Like I said, just a little excited!

I get to meet up with friends that I haven't seen since I moved five years ago! I get to show off a sweet husband and a super-cute daughter! What more fun than that! :) We're going to have dinner with my old room mates: Jenny, Christa and Melissa! I haven't seen Melissa since she went on her mission and now she's married, I haven't seen Christa since I moved which means I haven't seen either of her two kids. Too long! We're also having dinner with my college COMD friends: Jen, Alisha and Megan and hopefully a few more! I haven't seen any of their kids either so it will be two evenings of noisy chatting with crazy toddlers running everywhere and I can't wait!!!

For the reunion, we're having a party for Grandpa, a talent show (still have to figure that one out), we're singing in Grandma and Grandpa's ward, going to the temple together and having a family dinner and fireside. I'm excited. This is our spring trip to see my family so I can't wait to see them, but I'm also excited to see all my cousins and everyone who I don't get to see that often!

And we're stocking up on underwear!!!!!!! :)

Grandma Jan sent me some cute pictures from her baby sitting adentures with M this week!

We have upload!

So I haven't been able to upload pictures for days now!!! It's been making me crazy! Apparently Blogger rebelled against Mac users or something like that and I couldn't post my pictures. But it worked! Hooray! Thank you Blogger!!!!!

Dah!

Dah, dah, dah! Megan loves dogs! I'm trying to be okay with it. :) She loves Capone who lives at Grandma and Grandpa Holman's house and she gets excited whenever she sees another dog! We had lunch at my friend, Ali's house, and she went nuts following around her beagle, saying "dah, dah, dah!" If you ask her what dogs say, she sometimes responds, "moo", but mostly it's "wuh!" So cute! The other evening at dinner, she started calling out "dah, dah, dah" and I had no idea what was going on because that is now the word for dog, of course! (Don't worry, Dad is Dada) Sure enough though, I look out the window and the neighbor's dog is out! She could barely concentrate on dinner after that!

My "Beautiful" Baby!

I was telling my SIL this morning that baby M is not in her most photogenic phase recently. She has major bed head in the morning, especially if we had pigtails the day before or a messy dinner! And she is so into the funny faces that she's already got silly fake smiles! A few of my favorites:

We call this her Wolverine hair!


not sure if these are a reflection on the quality of her food or what...




and of course, the squinty eyed fake smile!

Mommy Gifts

I'm thankful for mini-mom revelations. The little impressions that tell you to turn around and see that your little one has found the pair of scissors left on the floor...that tell you to keep your hand on their arm in the tub and seconds later, she tries to go swimming....that tell you to check on the baby even though she's supposed to be crying herself to sleep to find her pacifier is stuck backwards in her mouth! (all true stories) I find it ironic that some of my worst mommy moments are saved by grace by the Spirit helping me make up the difference to keep baby M safe, healthy and happy! And I'm so grateful for those moments!!! Nothing scary happened today, I just sat in amazement as baby M played in the tub tonight, amazed yet again that we created her, that she's so happy, and that she has the cutest round cheeks, brown eyes and round belly on the planet!!!!!

Spilt Milk!

When I introduced whole milk to baby M, I thought she'd go nuts over it! She was refusing formula at the time but was a voracious nurser! But I wasn't pumping anymore so she wouldn't drink at the babysitter's! Milk has been an uphill battle though. Not interested at first. She's getting so much better now that we've stopped nursing. Our new dilemma is that she ignores her cup at breakfast and lunch and then chugs at dinner and in the late afternoon. So now she's waking up with soaked diapers in the morning and leaking every other night! Oh well, if that's all I have to complain about, I'd better stop while I'm ahead!

My Hopeful Dream

Saturday night I had a dream. I went to bed still mulling over my plans for singing time at church and not surprisingly, the EP ward primary was in my dreams. It was beautiful! I was introducing "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus" for the first time and even the little guys in Junior primary were singing along! And then, during the chorus "Love one another as Jesus loves you. Try to show kindness in all that you do..." they all stood up and started signing to the song! They took the sign language they knew for "Love One Another" and changed it to fit the chorus and it was great! I was so impressed at how smart they were. They were so reverent and attentive and I woke up so excited for primary, but also chuckling...now back to reality.

So, all the kids had snow days on Thursday and Friday. Basically their energy levels were somewhere in the range of the Halloween sugar high energy levels times oh, 10!!! They were all bouncing off the ceiling!! They were noisy and no matter what I did, I couldn't get them to slow down! I was trying to be fun and they'd sing the verse to the song, and then erupt in talking and yelling. But hey, I didn't go home crying! Although, when I told my DH about it, he (having just left primary this last fall) told me all the ways the last chorister kept their crazy antics from even happening...so helpful! :) Someday I'll get this right! Luckily, in the meantime, I've been blessed to love these kids like crazy!

Another first...

Today was the first beautiful day in a while! Grandma J was visiting and we thought M should see what snow was like. We got her snow suit on and had a little fun. At least we did...M didn't quite know what to make of it!

The snow is taller than her!







We sat her down in it and she just kind of looked around like, now what? I made her a big snow ball and showed it to her. She wasn't impressed. :) She tried to crawl around a bit but she is one big pink marshmallow in that thing!

I've never even seen this movie!!!!!

I took a personality "test" to see which classic movie matched me. hmmmm.....

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

not sure what to think about this one....

My Love of Books

I had a precious moment this morning. I was cleaning the bathroom. Yes, I do clean, and no, that wasn't the precious part! I was wiping down the sink and I could hear little chattering noises. M had just crawled away and it was quiet chattering so of course I was initially worried. Anything quiet is not good! It usually means messes and mayhem! So I went to her doorway and there she was. Sitting in front of her bookshelf. With one of her books open, chatting to herself, reading to herself. She turned the pages and kept reading. I wasn't quick enough with the camera because she heard me in the doorway but I have found her like that before, reading to herself and I think I must be doing SOMEthing right that she's already turning into a bibliophile!

My Mom used to say I devoured books. I used to think that was funny that it meant I ate books! I remember the teacher that started this love. Her name was Miss Johnson and she was my third grade teacher. I read before that, but she sparked a love for reading that has never gone out! When the school year started, I was scared of her. She was kind of stern looking and had never married and when I was that young I still thought that meant something was wrong with you. But during her reading time, she would come alive. I remember wanting to read everything after that year! And I did! The baby-sitter's club, Little House on the Prairie, Where the Red Fern Grows, Beyond the PawPaw Trees, No Flying in the House, Nancy Drew, The Boxcar Children, and many many more. I still love to read. During college, I would read Harry Potter and the DaVinci Code while I was on breaks from school. I was so excited to be out of college and able to read "fun" books in the evening rather than studying all the time.

I love that M is loving reading too...at least right now! :)