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Personal

Friday thoughts

a businessman was at the pier of the small Tuvaluan island when a boat with a fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were fish. The businessman complimented the Tuvaluan on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman replied only a little while.

The businessman then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish? The Tuvaluan said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The businessman then asked, but what do you do with the rest of you time? The Tuvaluan fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a nap with my wife, Puna, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitars with my friends; I have a full and busy life.”

The businessman scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. You could sell directly to the processor and eventually open your own cannery. You would need to leave this small fishing island-nation and move to Australia, then LA and eventually New York City where you would run your expanding enterprise.”

The Tuvaluan fisherman asked, “But how long will this all take? To which the businessman replied, “15 to 20 years.” “But what then, sir? The businessman laughed and said, “Thats the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and make millions, flying around on your own corporate jet!” “Millions, sir? Then what?” The businessman said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing island where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a nap with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your friends.”

The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “Isn’t that what I’m doing right now?”

-Author Unknown

And Firefox 4 is coming out on March 22nd. 🙂

Categories
Family Fun

McBracket

I don’t really like basketball, but I love clicking things. And Cotton made a March Madness tourni bracket called McBracket, so I had to go in and click away. Want to join in the fun for whatever reason you’d like? Get your Yahoo, Google, or Facebook ID ready and click away. Lets hope Joy’s Alma mater makes it all the way!
Join in the fun

Can’t click the link above?
Go to Yahoo.com
Group ID#: 30241
Password: charlotte</blockquote

Categories
Charlotte Chase Family Fun

My “Slaves” Hard at Work

These two like to clean the windows. So, why not let them both clean at once?

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Although they use WAY too much Windex and leave the windows all streaky, I love it when they do chores willingly like this. Chase takes his job seriously and tries to do a very thorough job. So cute. I know I must savor such things while they last!

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Categories
Charlotte

Charlottization

This may just look like an ordinary dresser, armoir, or whatever you want to call it… But it’s actually a dresser that’s been Charlottized! Our little girl may have some sort of OCD (hopefully not). Besides her hatred of any sort of tag on her clothing, she also thoroughly enjoys opening all these dresser doors & drawers (then walking away). She also unscrews every type of knob we have in the house that can be unscrewed, and just leaves it sitting nearby. So when someone goes to open a drawer, they are surprised to find that there’s no knob to pull. Very sneaky & silly girl!

Categories
Family Fun

Grandma’s Visit

Grandma T. recently came to visit! Below are some photos that I actually remembered to take! 🙂

Right after Charlotte was born, my mom took Chase to run a few errands, and to this day, he considers those exact errands a tradition. (Side note: Whenever Grandpa T. comes, Chase believes that they have to get a “hamburger & root beer at BYU.” Because they did that once & it was fun = tradition.) So now he thinks that every time Grandma comes, they/we must go to the library, Funfinity (toy store), and the grocery store, preferably in that order. This time we did all those in one trip, and we also went out to ice cream at the SOS Drug Store! Watch out, that could become part of the “when Grandma’s visiting” tradition!

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It’s such a cute little soda fountain that makes you feel like you’re back in the 50s or earlier. And it’s super inexpensive; that’s always a plus!

Note that Charlotte looks like a poor little orphan girl in the above photo. She’d had a MAJOR tantrum/meltdown previous to this, because Grandma got her dressed in a non-Disney princess shirt, and made her wear PANTS! I quickly stuck a bow in her hair & considered her to look somewhat presentable, but she immediately yanked the bow out. SO, oh well. (She’s been an angel again for the last few days, though!)

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At the toy store, Charlotte got a box of princess accessories including several pairs of clackety high heels. She is now obsessed with them (along with a Barbie book she got at the library)! Chase got a science experiment kit at Funfinity, and we’ve done a few of them together. He absolutely loves doing experiments (figure most boys do)!

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(These are some “wiggly crystals” that Pace & Chase just made tonight from the kit.)

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We enjoyed a family day last Saturday when my cousin Leann’s daughter was baptized, her husband Jake went to the temple for the first time, and their family was sealed in the temple for time & all eternity. Amazing! BEAUTIFUL sealing; their 3 girls were radiant in their sweet little white dresses. (We also had our roof redone that day, and Pace & Casey put together our new shed that Pace bought in SLC!) That evening Mom put the kids to bed so we could go get In ‘N’ Out Burger & Krispy Kremes with Jess & Casey. Not the most nutritious meal, I know!

Mom & I had a blast shopping with Jess and chatting/hanging out in the evenings with everyone else, etc. I also enjoyed having someone around to help me cook, take care of the kids, & help pick up the slack (I would go to unload the dishwasher and it was already done), etc. Love you, Mom!

Categories
Tech

Internet Explorer

Microsoft has created one of my favorite new websites: www.theie6countdown.com. The site is dedicated to the eradication of Internet Explorer 6. What’s funny is that Microsoft created internet explorer 6 and now they’ve built the website counting down to it’s death. If you remember, McBlog used to promote switching browsers if you visited on anything besides Firefox. With Chrome coming in and being a very capable competitor, we took down that campaign. Although I’m happy to report that our latest stats show 0 McBlog readers using internet explorer 6!! Good job readers! Now remember if you have to use Internet Explorer for some reason, upgrade to the latest version. Internet Explorer 9 is slated for March 14th. If you don’t care, I would grab Chrome or Firefox still.

Categories
Chase

Miniature Hockey Player

A few weeks ago, we had Chase go to a free kids’ hockey clinic at the ice arena. Pace took some cute pictures of this boy, who had a blast.

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Just look at that miniature hockey player!

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Chase likes playing hockey a lot more than just taking ice skating lessons. He still has to take 3 more basic levels of ice skating to be able to start playing hockey (3 down, 3 to go). But each level only takes 6 weeks, so he can be playing hockey within a few months if he wants to!

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We’re not forcing him along, mind you. He’s on a break right now because he was tired of having the same teacher and the same one girl in his ice skating class. But as soon as he’s ready, he’ll be back on the bandwagon!

Categories
Family Fun

what’s up!

About a month ago, we tried moving Charlotte into a big girl bed. She was already sleeping poorly in her crib, so we wondered if she would sleep any better in the big bed. She didn’t, so she’s back in her crib and lately wakes up about once per night. Not too bad! Note the cute bedtime charts Pace has made for each of them. Chase has had his for a long time, but Pace just made one for Charlotte, too. We love following them every evening for their bedtime routine.

Charlotte thinks she’s a princess. She recently got into my mascara, and put it on her eyelashes (and around her eyes). I thought it was kinda funny (photo below)! And I was glad she didn’t smear it all over the bathroom or anything.

This girl also thinks she should wear summery dresses every day. Maybe she believes it will entice the warmer weather to come our way. I’ve been having to force her into warmer clothes and endure the craziest tantrums whenever we go somewhere! I haven’t even been bothering to do her hair because it’s already so hard to get clothes on her. Our little angel has become a bit of a challenge now that she’s a legit 2-year-old!

The other day I almost didn’t go to the grocery store because I dreaded getting her pants & shoes on (yes, I do give her choices, but she just says, “None!). I called my mom in desperation, & she said in situations like that, you just have to put your foot down, or the kid will be in control of the parent. So I persisted, I had to wrestle her to put her pants back on multiple times, she screamed her head off, and then she was just fine when we were at the store. So there you have it.

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These are just a couple of girls that I love. I’m pretty emotional about Katie (middle) having to move away soon.

                   

We bought one-year Trafalga/Seven Peaks etc. passes for $40 each. GG has yet to use hers because she’s been gone for such a long time! I recently took Chase & Charlotte to the Lehi Trafalga & met up with Becky and her girls. This type of place is HEAVEN for Chase. Becky & I loved chatting (as always), and our kids loved the rides!

Unfortunately, poor little Charlotte is 2 inches under the height requirement for the rides. She was sad to not go on the pirate ship ride with Brother. Maybe next time she’ll have grown 2 inches!!?!

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Categories
Deals

Our latest and greatest at work

Hey McBlog readers, act fast, starting today for a limited time you could experience the magic of VitalSmarts. We are launching a new product later this year and we need help testing the content and feel. Please read on if you are interested in helping. Comment or email me ASAP if you want to come.

“Hello everyone! We have 10 or so open slots for our full-day CA training alpha next Thursday, March 10. The training will go from around 8am-5pm and will be held at Scenic View Academy (our neighbors to the north).

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Caption Contest

Quiz time

What do these four prime specimens of masculinity have in common?