random thoughts

I saw the Lake House today. I loved it. Yes, it was kind of predictable- I totally figured it out (and was having a hard time because the people around me had not and kept asking me- they were not following the time changes at all) but I enjoyed it otherwise. As a side note, Shauna- (who also saw it, although not at the same time as I did) did not enjoy it and thought it was too predictable and wished she hadn't spent the money- but there you go- differences in opinions and all that jazz.

Yes, Samuel-I will need a hint on number 23. I will call you sometime when I have it in front of me for your aid- Thanks.

For the fourth- nothing planned right now. It is suppose to be down in the 60's temperature wise on Tuesday- which I am looking forward to so I will enjoy that for sure. There is a possibility that I am going river rafting tomorrow. We'll see. If I do, I'll update you all on that later. It it something I have never done before. It should be fun.

Love you all. Great to hear from you (even if I haven't actually heard you with my ears but read you with me eyes. Anyway...)
LaDale

Summertime II

Well, our swamp cooler motor bit the big one this morning. It's waarm enough that I turn it on as soon as we go upstairs in the morning. Last night it was making weird noises, but when I turned it on this morning it seemed okay. But then it started making the weird noises again--a sort of a THUMP-thump-thump-THUMP-thump-thump--like a demented Santa Claus was trying to get in through the chimney, and then it suddenly became ominously quiet. I went and stood under it and, sure enough, there was no air moving. Bummer. That was at about eleven o'clock this morning, just after we got back from the park.

So we stayed upstairs long enough to eat lunch and watch Simon the Blue Lamb (that poor lamb! And don't even get me started on the passive gender roles of the girl lambs as portrayed in that movie!!!! Good thing I'm not a feminist, or I'd...Anyway...), and then we took early naps. Now we are hiding in our basement--more than marginally cooler, but still not what you'd call comfortable. But thank goodness for basements!!!!!!!

We don't have any fun plans for the holiday--the Ross Family Reunion is next weekend, Wednesday-Sunday--so we are just going to have a quiet Fourth here at home, and then leave Wednesday sometime for Page. It should be quite a lot of fun--I'll post pictures. What are your plans? And Samuel/Caren, what did your neighborhood goons say about the canopy in your backyard? And is the car really totalled?

Re reflections

LaDale,
Are you still having trouble with level 23? Your note on the game interested me to the point where I wanted to check it out. So now I'm determined to complete all the levels. There have been, I think 2 or 3, some levels where I did use the hint given in the game. One of which was level 23. Let me know if you want any additional hints for that puzzle.

SKT

book share

I just finished a great book, if anyone is interested. It is a young adult fantasy written by Michael Tunnell. I attended one of his lectures at the writing workshop I went to and also spent some time talking with him during one of the round tables. (I was the only one at his table but loved what he had to say.) I've now read two of his and although I didn't enjoy the other one as much- this one I loved. It is called Wishing Moon and answers the question of what happened to Aladdin's lamp after he married the princess.
Love you all.
LaDale

new web site (at least for me)

So one of the Baker kids showed me this web site. One of the games is called reflections. When Nathan first talked about it, he talked about these mirrors and lasers and I figured I didn't not want to watch. But then he got started and I got sucked in. We did the first 18 together and I am pleased to say, I figured out the next four all by myself (and since you probably know about my 'wonderful' spacial ability- that means something). Anyway, both of us are stuck on number 23!!!

I thought about Samuel and how much he would probably enjoy it, but (as I have proved) anyone could probably do it better than I could. If you have any hints- I would love to hear them (on number 23). Anyway, enjoy!

Okay- so I could not get the site to post here, so here is the address: www.ldsgames.org

Cosmically Katy

Okay, Katy was born on 06/26/06. She was born at 0620. She weighed, at birth, 6lb 2oz.

(Cue Twilight Zone music).

Pretty cool.

hello darling

Welcome to the world, little Katy!! We are glad you are the newest part of our family!!!

vacation

Well, we are home from our kid-free week. I had a great time. We got there on Saturday, did nothing much on Saturday or Sunday, Monday we took a tour of the island, Tuesday we spent on the beach, Wednesday we went shopping, Thursday we went snorkling, Friday we went picture taking and Saturday we came home. Just so everyone knows, don't fly into Charlotte, NC with an overnight layover. It was horrible! I understand why we had to get our luggage and take it through customs. We were supposed to be able to recheck it just on the other side. Then they told us that we couldn't recheck our luggage because we had an overnight layover. They won't keep luggage overnight. Not only that but the terminal closes down overnight as well. We had to spend the night in baggage claim, with all of our luggage. They really believe in air conditioning in those airports, too. It had to have been 65 degrees! We had to go outside and thaw every so often. Oh well, we are home now and very gratefull to be here to! The kids are glad to see us, and the punishment has already begun. Lillian is thrilled everytime I come into here line of sight, and screams at the top of her lungs if I then move away without picking her up. Erica follows me around, "Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama!" The others are doing fine, they just are anxious to have some one on one time with me! I promise to write more latter, but right now Heather wants me to hide her shells all over the house for her to find. Love ya all!
Jenafer

re:qotw

I finally think I have a theme for a labor-delivery room. I want to see one of a beautiful green mountain forest, complete with bird sounds and maybe even wind noises (just a breeze really.) I think that would have been very soothing for me. Although now that I think about it, I'm not sure anything would have really made any difference.

emotions

You know your emotions are close to the surface when you cry at a commercial.

Who could not cry at the new liberty mutual commercial?

The Black Plague!

I was reading a book about the middle ages and I got the chapter on the black plague. I burst out laughing and now have to share my favorite sentence: "A sick person either recovered or died." Well, nothing like stating the obvious.

Re: stuff

Summer might just become one of my favorite seasons (after autumn and winter, of course). Yesterday, we had a magnificent thunder storm. I opened my balcony door (which sounds more magnificent than it really is) and watched it come in. It smelled, sounded and looked wonderful. (Sorry, no tasting or feeling- I remained under the balcony.)

Delivery room theme- Frankly, I have no idea. I have actually never been in a delivery room (I don't think seeing them on t.v. counts.) So, let's see- hmm- how about.. or maybe.... Actually, I can't think of anything right now and I've been sitting here for about 45 minutes. So, I'll have to write again later if I think of anything spectacular.

Summertime...

You know you have a long summer ahead of you when you find yourself longing for autumn...two days after summer begins!

And it really isn't a scorcher, yet. I think we're getting up to the mid-90s, now. I even have a swamp cooler and a lovely basement that doesn't get too hot. I don't know if I'm feeling it more because of the pregnancy, or if I'm just in a mood, but...argh! It's summer and I don't want it!

Okay. Whine over. You who live in Las Vegas and Arizona can mock me now.

On an unrelated note, Ezra just came up to me and said, "My foot is broken, my foot is broken." What? Turns out he just wanted a kiss for a bumped (bonked) foot. But broken?

I'm back!

Sorry I've been so MIA lately. I've been sleeping a lot because of the bum tooth and pregnancy, and working on my thesis...but that's really not a good excuse. But I hereto promise to do better.

And I'll start with the QOTW! My favorite camp song? I really like BVDs, Jaws, Ah-woonie-coonie-cha-ah-woonie, Noah, A Trio of Rodents...okay, I just LOVE camp songs. A lot!

As for the themed labor and delivery room...definitely a restuarant. The doctors and nurses could wear chefs' hats, and after the baby is born and cuddled and loved and then taken off to the nursery to be cleaned up and all that, they could bring me crispy honey shrimp and speciality drinks. That's what I think is a great idea. Maybe I need to have June in one of the Orem hospitals, like Telima. It's closer to P.F. Chang's, and so even the hospital won't give me crispy honey shrimp, Bradley can get me some takeout...think it will work?

Golly, Caren and Samuel! I'm glad that I don't belong to a HOA. We probably could have put up our shed. And do you get to fly a flag whenever you want? I hope they let you leave up the canopy, though...it's just too hot, otherwise! And where would the kids play? And your poor car! Good thing you have two now, huh? Hopefully it's repairable.

I love you all! Bye for now!

new qotw

i'm taking the idea from a movie "Rugrats" that i've only seen once. I've only seen it once because it was too ugggh! to see again. Anyway one part of it was that they had themed rooms for women to choose from to give birth in a hospital. I thought that was interesting.

So the new qotw is if you could give a theme to a hospital room for women to give birth in what would the theme be?

I would probably go with state fair/amusement park theme. And you know instead of having pie eating contests the doctors would get a pie in their face if the epidural wasn't recieved fast enough. Stuff like that. Probably not the best idea but it sure would be entertaining.

HOA violations and CRASH

So, about a week ago Caren and I received a notice that we violated our deed contract and we needed to fit it in 10 days from the notice or be charged a $20/day fine until it was taken care of. The fine: we added a white canopy in our backyard to provide shade for our boys during the day. We soon discovered that anything above our fence line, except plants, need to be approved before they can be put up. So we submitted the application and await the approval, or not. We were told the committee met on Tuesday, 20 June. I hope they allow us to keep this nice shade.

As for the heading of CRASH, I was rear ended yesterday morning. Just as I was turning out of my subdivision, I decided to wait a little at the stop sign for a coming truck to pass. The jeep behind me either did not see the coming truck or thought that I was turning anyway because 'wack' I was hit. See the picture above to judge the damage. I am fine and so was the person driving the jeep. She also had her 3 year old in her car. The jeep did have scratches and a broken cover for her front right blinker, but that is all I could see. Mine, well, see for yourself. We are in the stages of talking to insurance companies and finding out if our car is salvageable.

camping songs

Favorite camping songs- practically impossible.

I love Drinking Cider but I also love just about any round like America, America or Rose, Rose, Rose Red, things like that.

Sorry I took so long answer this. Crazy days and weeks but I am home now, wonderful!!! I spent today washing and washing and washing everything. I also went shopping for food (first time in weeks) and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. It had felt good. Anyway!!! Here I am with summer days ahead. Of course, that means working- revision, revision, revision. Also, I sent out another resume today with my fingers crossed. We'll see.

Hope you sickies are feeling better. It hot me last Thursday that my cold was gone! Yea!!! It is amazing how good one feels after one has felt bad. Opposition in all things I guess.

Love you all!
LaDale

RE: QOTW and doctors visits

My favorite camp song? I've been thinking about this, and I'm like mom...I just don't know! There are so many good ones! But I think that one of my favorites is the Anne Marie and John Pierre one. It's just so cute! And I like Jaws as well, because it's so fun. But there are so many good ones that I'm sure there are others that I just can't think of that I like too! Anyway, those are just a couple, I suppose.

Caren and Samuel, I'm so sorry that your family isn't feeling well! I hope that you all feel better really soon! We haven't had any illnesses in my small family lately, and I'm hoping that we don't. In all likelihood, it would be me who came down with it and I just have too much to do still before this baby makes her appearance. I don't have time to get sick!

the doctors visits

it came to a point in our family where i decided that all four of us , samuel adam kip and i needed to get seen by the doctor. I'm so glad we did. between pink eyes, head colds, tonsilitis kidney and ear infections. We came home with 9 prescriptions! {my poor adam had both the ear infection and the tonsilitis}. No wonder his already picky eating habits, were beyond picky.

Samuel and i both had the pink eyes and the doctor reassured me when i asked that she was giving me plenty of eye drops for when the boys undoubtedly come down with it in 1 or 2 days that way we don't have to come back.

i hear this is going down the family i wish everyone luck

Re:QOTW

My personal favorite would have to be "Jaws" The kids also love that one!

Re:qotw

My favorite camp song is too hard for me to decide. I have so many to choose from. I really like so many of them. I think it depends on my mood. I am having a very hard time even thinking of any of them. I think I like "Cannible King" or "What do you do in a Little Canoe". I also think that I like "Big Blue Frog" and so many others that I can't even come close to naming. Those are the funny ones but there are also the quiet ones.

Re: QOTW

My favorite camp song would have to be "Swimming, swimming, in my swimming pool..." There are hand motions with almost each word. Each time the song is sung we neglect to say one word at a time and only do the action. Also, the song goes faster and faster with each time around. I like this song because it pretends to keep me cool during the hot summer camp. - SKT

Michael D. Tobler

It seems a little strange to post something to the blog that we are all so involved in, but I thought that for history's sake it would be best.

Las Vegas Review Journal, June 1, 2006

Michael Dale Tobler, 55, of Las Vegas, died May 29, 2006. He was a partner at Layton, Layton and Tobler, C.P.A. He is survived by his wife, LaDonna; mother, Anette of Las Vegas; daughters, LaDale of Colorado, Jenafer Roy of Arizona, Keryn Ross and Telima of Utah; and sons, David and Samuel of Arizona. Visitation from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, June 1, at Bunkers Mortuary, 925 Las Vegas Blvd. North. Funeral at 10 a.m. Friday, June 2, at LDS chapel on West Cheyenne and Mustang.

Eulogy

Michael Dale Tobler was born on September 4, 1950 in Saint George, Ut. He was the second of six children and the oldest son of Dale and Anette Tobler. As soon as they were able to travel, mom and baby joined Dale in California that he might attend school. When Michael was three, they moved again, this time to Las Vegas where he lived the remainder of his life. As a child he was always in motion. He loved to run and bike and to be busy. His love for the church started early in his life and he never wavered in his dedication or testimony. He loved to help his mother and was very earnest in accomplishing all things asked of him.

In the spring of 1968, he graduated from Western High School. In 1970 he received his mission call to the Sao Paulo, Brazil mission where he served until 1972. He was released from the mission field on his birthday in 1972 and immediately started collage at UNLV. Within a week of the start of school he met a beautiful young girl at the Institute. They dated for three months and then he asked LaDonna to marry him. They were married on September 14, 1973. Michael graduated from UNLV with a bachelors in Personnel management in 1974, one week before the birth of his first daughter, LaDale on June 7. Over the next several years he combined being a father with being a student as he and LaDonna added Jenafer in October of 75, Keryn in Jan of 77, and David in October of 78, all before graduating with his second bachelors in accounting, also from UNLV, in December of 78. Another two years passed as he honed his career before he bought his father’s accounting practice and became a sole proprietor. In May of 81 Michael and LaDonna once again expanded their family with the birth of their second son, Samuel, and completed it with the birth of their last daughter, Telima, on April 11, 1984. Four days before the end of tax season. In the early 90s, Michael merged his practice to create Layton, Layton and Tobler CPA, where he loved working for many wonderful years.

He loved his children very much. We never had any doubts of his love for us. He always had time to listen to us and our problems. When I was two or three, LaDale and I were playing in the backyard. LaDale had just gotten a brand new tricycle for her birthday and she was riding it around and around our back porch. I had inherited the old broken tricycle and was sitting on it pretending to be riding around the porch just like my big sister. Daddy saw us out there and went out and bought another tricycle. When Mom saw him with the new trike, he told her that he just couldn’t stand to see me out there anymore. He always wanted the best for us and worked to give us everything that he felt we needed and, within reason, that we wanted in life.

What he wanted to give us the most was a testimony of the gospel. Just before he passed, he shared how his greatest labor was to help us gain our own testimonies of the church. One of the ways in which he did this was through his excellent examples of service. He held many callings in the church throughout his life. One of his favorite callings was that of ward clerk. “You always know what is happening, with none of the responsibilities,” he always said. He was given many opportunities to serve in that calling and many others. Most recently he was honored to serve in the stake Presidency with other good men. Michael was very active in the scouting program, getting his Eagle as a young man and recently receiving the Silver Beaver award in February of 2005.

Michael had a well defined work ethic he imparted to us as his children. His favorite time of day was 4:00 am, and he loved to pull us out of bed in the summer to do various chores at that time of the day. Daddy loved the outdoors. He loved nature, camping, hiking and basically anything that got him out of the house. He even loved gardening, even though he didn’t have much talent in that area. Our gardens growing up were sad, pitiful little things that looked neglected, despite the attention lavished upon them. There was one time when Daddy planted corn and to the shock of us all the stuff grew and grew and grew and grew. Daddy was thrilled when it produced ears. He plucked them and eagerly boiled himself some corn on the cob. He sat down and took a huge bite of this corn that had grown for him…only to discover that he had unknowingly planted feed corn instead of sweet corn. The next year, he planted sweet corn, only to have the ground squirrels steal all the seed before it even sprouted.

As we grew up, our most frequent family vacation was camping. We often spent time at Mt. Charleston, camping out for the weekend and even whole weeks in the summer. Daddy loved being outside with his family and, despite his scouting experience, Mom swears she was the one to teach him how to camp properly.

Daddy’s favorite time of the year was always Christmas. He would sing Christmas carols year round until finally we had a new rule at our house. Christmas carols are allowed to be played and sung from the day after Thanksgiving until a week after Christmas, oh yeah, and a week in July. Anyone caught at any other time of the year got squirted with water. The day after Thanksgiving was almost the bigger holiday at our house. Blasting Christmas music awakened us and a giddy father surrounded by all the boxes of Christmas decorations we’re to put up that day.

During this time of year, Daddy was able to showcase one of his other great loves, singing. As soon as LaDale and I were old enough to sing, we were knocking on front doors in our neighborhood and singing three songs for others standing in warm houses while we froze outside. We fought over who got to ring the doorbells, which songs we would sing while the people got to the front door and generally had a great time and many wonderful memories. This last year, the whole family gathered and Daddy was able to spend his last Christmas surrounded by his six children and his 12 grandchildren. We all had a wonderful time, even when the fire alarm was accidentally pulled and the fire department showed up to join us.

We are so grateful for the time we were able to spend with Daddy in this life. We know that we will see him again and that he is doing even greater work on the other side of the veil.

new qotw

it's been a while. I've been caught up in my soap operas and eating bon bons of course.

Since it's summer time and i'm pretty sure all of us attended a camp of some sort in our lives.
What is your favorite camp song? Whether it be from girls, scout or the drug prevention camp{i really don't know the exact name for it but i know it is responsible for introducing tyler and telima}.

i have 2 favorites actually. If all the raindrops.... and the watermelon song.

Thanks

Thanks for all your birthday well wishes. My favorite part of the day was that there was nothing planned for the entire day. It was so good to be home, in my bed, with my mountains outside the window. A couple of people stopped by yesterday and wished me a happy birthday. I now have more live flowers in my house than I ever have had before and I did not take anything home from the funeral.
I was going to write more, but frankly, I feel horrible. I have new respect for mom and her cold a couple of weeks ago. The stomach flu was horrible, but it was kind of a twenty four hours thing- this is taking too long (as all colds tend to). I just hope it won't hang on until next week.

Happy Birthday in A minor

Sorry, you will have to provide your own rendition of the classical song in (A minor of course).

Happy, happy birthday from all of us to you.
We wish you did live closer, so we could party too.

Yeah! Happy birthday. Hay you find peace and love in abundance on this special day (and any others that might be significant but we just don't know it).

Happy Birthday!!

LaDale, I've been thinking about you all day today, just at the wrong times when I couldn't call you! But I wanted to say Happy Birthday and I hope it was a good one. I love you so much and appreciate more than you could know all that you do for me and all of us. I love you!!

Happy happy birthday!

I don't just want to say happy birthday to the best big sister in the world, (But of course I do say happy birthday). I just want to say how wonderfull I think LaDale is. She is so kind and special. We all love her very much. Heather is allready in bed or she would be begging me to let her call her most favorit aunt in the whole wide world! I LOVE YOU, LADALE!!!

Many Happy Returns!

Happy birthday LaDale! Thanks for all you have done for Mema and Daddy, and all you continue to do. Love, Keryn, Bradley, Ezra, and Mercy

Happy Birthday LaDale!

kip and adam wanted to say happy birthday aunt day-o!
we love you!

Going Home

So, Caren and I came home on Tuesday. We were blessed with our two boys sleeping for a long time in the afternoon. When they woke up for their afternoon nap we were just outside Pheonix. Not wanting to stop we turned on the movie they were last watching, Harry Potter and the Camber of Secrets. It didn't take long but the dueling scene came up. Adam, trying to eat goldfish crackers, could help but cast spells right along with the caracters in the movie. Caren and I would here Draco curse Harry and just as the flash of light came out of the wand Adam would shout "AHHH." He would do the same thing after each and every spell in the movie. We had to remind Adam that he needed to keep his voice down because Kip kept complaining to us that Adam was cursing him. ;-) We did make it safely home and we love you all. Hope all is well for you.

The fun will begin

Now that we are all in Las Vegas I thought I would say "hi" to everyone when they once again check this fun "little" blog. I love you all and I and thankful that I am a part of your life. Thanks. - SKT