Something wrong with this picture

Anyone who is not a parent yet or not sure if they want babies should skip this post.

I came home from work today to experience the nastiest diaper change of my life. There I was, holding my cute baby on my lap next to while Wes and I scoured the Curry in a Hurry menu on his laptop, when out of no where, Holden (who mind you had already had his messy diaper for the day) sharted. If you don't know the definition of the term shart, don't look it up. It's pretty graphic.

Anyway, it was so loud that it startled me and I panicked, thinking I should probably change him asap.......something about the way it sounded like big rocks falling into a lake......Oh boy. I put him on the changing table and runny, messy, breast-fed poop had managed to get all the way down his pants into his socks! It was sticky like honey and of similar hue. Gross! I made Wes come and watch because I couldn't endure the experience alone. He came in and we worked together in undressing him in such a way where we would get as little of the offending excrement on us. I thought we were so successful, holding out his soiled onesie with our thumb and forefingers.....until.......I........looked......down. My cute gray velour sweat pants had runny, sticky poop all the way down the left leg. Sick sick sick. I started screaming and Wes started laughing hysterically while begging me not to get it on the floor (because of course at this point it had been running down my leg for a while without my notice and was nearing the ground). Wow it was so gross I am really looking forward to the day he can take care of his business without me.

When does potty training start?

Working in St. George

Things I love about St. George:
* That it's not part of the Arctic freeze.
* The contrast of red sandstone slopes against the glacier peaks
* Driving behind old people in their Town Cars and seeing that they're keeping alive the tradition of crocheting holders for their Kleenex boxes.
* That there are so many golf courses every single person in St. George could golf at the same time and still there would be no waiting.


Things I hate about St. George
* The drive. I got clocked at doing 100 and got a pretty pricey ticket.
* That the old people in Town Cars drive so slowly that I can see their Kleenex boxes in their rear window.
* Not seeing this beautiful face:

2 Cents doesn't go as far as it used, but here's mine anyway

I sympathize with many of the points raised when it comes to the Wal-Mart issue. (Can we call it "Wal-MartGate?) I can see how easy and seemingly just it is to take the position she does on some of those issues. It can be easy to recognize and treat the symptom while the illness goes ignored. In this case, however, even the illness turns out to only be a bruise on the arse from falling off a horse. America is changing and adapting to best serve its citizens, and Wal-Mart epitomizes everything good and noble in our pursuit to ride off into the sunset without falling off that horse.

OK, maybe that last sentence was a stretch. I don't even shop at Wal-Mart. And I know what you're thinking - no, it's not because Amber won't let me. I just choose not to. And it's a great choice to have. But some people would rather you not have that choice. You see, I don't see how it's any better to oppress Wal-Mart and force people into paying higher prices at the Ma & Pop stores. In fact, it's just as "evil." But I'm getting ahead of myself, because this kind of argument usually doesn't appeal to the emotional thinkers that, for all its bigness and success and image, hate Wal-Mart. You can't pit emotion against emotion, because either no one ever wins or both sides end up surrendering. So I'll take us into the happy land of Facts and Numbers - won't you come with me?

Almost 2 years ago, a shiny new Wal-Mart opened up just outside Chicago. When this Wal-Mart opened, over 25,000 people applied for only 325 job openings.
Wal-Mart, the most prodigious job-creator in the history of the entirety of mankind, has almost as many employees (1.3 million) as the U.S. military has uniformed personnel.
That one goes down hard, doesn't it, Mr. or Ms. Naysayer. How about this one.
By lowering consumer prices, Wal-Mart costs about 50 retail jobs among competitors for every 100 jobs Wal-Mart creates.
Wow! 25,000 people can't be wrong.
A McKinsey company study concluded that Wal-Mart accounted for 13 percent of the nation's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s, which probably made Wal-Mart about as important as the Federal Reserve in holding down inflation.
It's amazing to see a private entity doing as much to fight inflation as the Fed.
Wal-Mart and its effects save shoppers more than $200 billion a year, dwarfing such government programs as food stamps ($28.6 billion) and the earned-income tax credit ($34.6 billion).
Wait, is that another private organization doing more to help the middle- and lower-class than welfare or the EITC (which I actually don't have a huge problem with in practice).


But here's one of my favorite ones, and it's one that address the job quality and job benefits issue of Wal-Mart employment opportunities.
People who by groceries at Wal-Mart save a minimum of 17%. That's enough to attract 1/5 of the nations grocery-buying consumers. But other grocery store unions don't like that, and instead of actually competing with Wal-Mart (which would speak to the integrity capitalism and help consumers) they go crying to the Democrats, demanding laws to force Wal-Mart into paying wages and benefits. Now remember, these are wages and benefits that are already good enough to attract 25,000 people for only 325 jobs. These jobs are more than suitable for job-seekers at large, and are even envied and sought after. But most importantly (and this may sound weird at first, but it is an important fact) health-care and certain wage minimums are not rights that any of us have. I don't have a right to affordable health care. There is no provision in the Constitution or Bill of Rights that says anyone has the right to health care. It's the government's role to "secure these rights," meaning our inalienable rights, and so certain benefits under certain circumstances must be available, and we must get paid for our labor - but for the government to dictate how much is immoral. Let the market do that, and if it's a problem with the people, then there's no way a Wal-Mart could possibly survive.

I hope you don't mind if I turn into a loud-mouthed, snarky, insufferable conservative for a moment longer, but this is a matter of Liberals lording over the people, taking choice and accountability out of their hands. Liberals see the choices Americans are making with their dollar, and yes, their ballots, and they declare Americans are in dire need of more and more supervision (of course, supervision by Liberals). If it's not Wal-Mart, it's McDonald's or Coca-Cola. Why, just last week I had Ronald McDonald accost me and literally shove two quarter-pounders down my throat. That's why America is obese - rampant force-feeding clowns!
Of course, that's absurd - but how else could Democrats claim to have the right to dictate how many trans-fats are in our food, or how many Burger Kings are allowed into our cities, or how hot or cool we can keep our houses, or which physicians we can see and for which ailments?
And so now, they have us all convinced that Wal-Mart is an evil, corporate predator and that they must be stopped from forcefully corralling us into their stores and physically compelling us to partake of their lower prices. The problem with that is, we aren't being forced to do anything. Wal-Mart has every right - and even a moral responsibility - to do exactly what those Ma & Pop stores are trying to do. And if those Ma & Pop stores throw in the towel and refuse to compete, or adapt, or even try, then shame on them. I choose not to shop at Wal-Mart because I value individualized customer service and more intimate retail experiences. That's all any Ma & Pop store needs to do to get my business, and I know I'm not alone.

So if you hate Wal-Mart, don't call them evil for offering lower consumer prices to those who need it. Don't call them tyrants for stimulating the job market in a way no other entity can. Don't call them predators for putting $200 Billion back into consumers' pockets. Hate them for being a big, faceless box. For being ugly and unpleasant. And do what my wife faithfully does and don't shop there. And especially don't get on anyone else's case for shopping there.

Here are a couple of articles I got my info from. You might even notice some crafty "re-working" of actual creative content. My high school teachers taught me well. And these articles even cover some ground that I didn't.

Please, please, please pay particular attention to the sentiment expressed in the final paragraph of the first linked article (the one on townhall.com). It reveals what I believe to be a fundamental flaw in the Liberal way of thinking. Yes, it's a much-too-broad and perhaps unfair illustration of the flawed conceit of Liberalism, but it's revealing nonetheless.
In case it's not yet obvious to anyone else - yes, I am often a total jerk when it comes to talking politics. I'm the most tactful person I know when it comes to any other aspect of life (just ask my wife), but I turn into Mr. Hyde's cycnical black-sheep brother when it comes to stuff like this. I apologize if anyone ever gets offended (it's not my intent at all), but I don't apologize for what I say.

Go Green or Go Home

What's the deal with everybody rolling their eyes when you talk about being "green?" Or when you say the word "organic." Maybe a large portion of people right now are going green because it's fashionable, but who cares! If they're sheep - at least they're environmentally-conscious sheep. Sadly, my husband is one of those eye-rolling offenders. He thinks my determination to shop at Whole Foods - because I respect their focus on environmental interdependence, their goal to buy and sell local goods and their wide array of natural products - is just a phase and one that he hopes will end quickly given the spike in our grocery bills. Yes it's more expensive, but I'd like to point out that choices shouldn't always be driven by price. There's something to be said about the difference between price and cost. The cost of shopping at Wal-Mart (and yes I'm sure I'll offend about 60% of my friends by saying this) is so much greater to our communities. I shouldn't even go on my rampage against that corporate predator because blogs get boring when they drone on forever. But let me just say this. I believe that everybody should be selective about where to do business. I don't respect Wal-Mart, therefore I don't do business with them, regardless of how much cheaper their produce, bread, milk, etc. probably is. When a company refuses to promote single women because "men with families need it more," or slashes benefits so that the majority of their workers are on part time and can't get health care so that I have to pay that difference in my taxes, or because that company doesn't bother buying its products from manufactures or plants that practice fair-trade, etc. I think we should all stand against it. And yes I'm that person at the grocery store that is now shopping with recycleable totes.

There are so many companies out there trying to focus on complying with environmentally-friendly practices and I applaud them. CNN just came out with a list of the Top 10 companies who have gone above and beyond what the law requires of them to be environmentally responsible.

The impetus for all of this is that I went to this conference on paper and how to print responsibly and it totally freaked me out. This speaker, Derek Smith from England was incredible and laid out all the damage our world is going through because of how much energy we use; which now that we've been surpassed by China who doesn't seem to give a crap that they're now the leading energy offender in the world, we're particularly screwed. Needless to say, I'm in the process of replacing all our light bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs, never turn on the lights unless I absolutely need to and make it so cold in our house that I wear a sweater all day long. Not that I'm perfect, I drive a beefy Explorer and haven't thrown out all my cleaning supplies to replace them with biodegradeable or natural cleaning products. I'm taking one thing at a time. Yesterday I ordered "green" plastic garbage bags that will disintegrate and compost in a year. Wes is just having a field day over this blog entry I just know he's going to try to peg me as a hippy and apologize to all our friends about me. But I'm proud of my endeavors, as simple as they are. He'll come around - I'll have him converted in no time.

Find in Bulgaria

Wes' grandparents told us about this incredible find in Bulgaria. This 87 year old man turned in these gold plates he had found when he was younger to the Bulgarian National Museum of History. They were 24 carat gold, bound by three rings and had writings and drawings on them....remind you of something? Apparently they date back to 600 BC.

Lyrical Snobbery

Hi my name's Holden. I am a complete music snob - thanks entirely to my dad Wes. I can really appreciate a fine Italian opera every now and then and show-tunes are fun to sing along with, but what really makes me happy is Radiohead. Their new album, have you heard it? In Rainbows? It's beautiful. I also like Coldplay, Belle and Sebastian and Wilco, but my mom doesn't listen to much Wilco. I have to get my fix when my dad comes home. He's a big fan of Sufan Stevens which I really think I'd like to hear more of - but I don't think my mom likes it. She always turns it off when she comes home. My mom really wants to listen to country music - but really, are you kidding me? Country music is for washed up truck drivers and diner workers. I can't be expected to listen to that. Every time it comes on - even if it's just one song out of lots of others that I like - I do this great thing called crying until she turns it off. Ha. It works every time.

Superbowl Sunday

I think it's amazing that I can sit in front of the TV and watch nearly the entire Superbowl and not remember actually "seeing" any of it. I only remember the food and hanging out with some of my favorite people (Leggats and Hartles).

But honestly, my eyes just glaze over when sports are on. I don't get sports like football at all. All I see is a bunch of tidy uniforms moving what looks like two inches and then stopping, then moving again two inches and stopping. Occasionally there are a few "plays" that look like these guys are actually doing something useful, but that's rare.

However what Wes sees when he watches football is entirely different. He sees something more complicated than chess, more interesting than me (it's like I don't exist when there is football to look at), and more exciting than five different kinds of appetizers (again, almost the only I remember from Superbowl . . . .) I don't know that I'll ever "get" sports. I might just have to learn to tolerate them.
This is Wes after the Patriots lost. He was crushed. And provided perfect Blogging fodder. What a little baby. We all laughed of course and told Lily to give him a bottle because he needed a "bah bah" to make him feel better.

Showers of Babies

YAY here are some pics of the shower we did for Trisha. She had an awesome number of presents. and we had a pretty good turnout.
Becca and I threw it together and we had sushi and cookies and cake and dip and chips and salads...the food was good if i do say so myself.

You can't tell, but Holden is somewhere in the picture below...under the famed "Hooter Hider" trying to have dinner. These girls in my ward are the BEST! We totally did "baby voodoo" after everyone else left. I won't go into details because it sounds hokey but it TOTALLY works. You just have to be cool like us and believe it...
And how did Wes handle all the estrogen in the house you ask?? Very well, he was the perfect baby sitter to some of the little kids who came with their moms.

And there was so much commotion and fun that Holden decided to skip his nap.

Isn't This Fun

I hear babies in my head all the time. Even when I'm feeding Holden so I know he's not crying, I hear baby noises coming from somewhere else in the house. I have concluded that I either have supernatural hearing and can detect other babies on our street (oh wait there are none) or I'm auditorially insane.

This is Holden's new favorite item - his tummy time mat. He gets to hold himself up high and have lots of colors to look at. He's a very pensive baby. He just sits and studies things so intently that you'd think he's conducting algorithms in his head. Of course he might just be thinking about his next poop. Or about nothing at all. We really have no way of knowing.
Holden and I have been hanging out all day listening to the soundtrack of "enchanted"- best CD ever. We dance to it together and I sing and he chirps. It's the best.

Super Secret Spy Stuff

I'm sorry, I just had to post this.

So Jonathan and I are driving home from the gym Saturday morning (in related news, there will be a wake this weekend for the passing of my biceps - 1981-2008) and we're behind a large, black SUV kind of vehicle (could have been an Explorer). I notice in the bottom right corner this symbol of the Freemasons.

This image popped into my mind. I always knew the outfit reminded me of something.

Friends are Fabulous

My fantastic friend Sarah Jo gave me this wrap for Holden and I love it. First of all, it's red. Hello, my favorite color. Second of all, Holden likes it - which is important since he's the one in it. And Third, I look like a hot mama wearing it around town.

This is us at the Gateway where we had one of our first dates with Holden. We tried to keep him in the house quite a bit at first, but he's finally at an age (and weight - what a chunk) where we can take him out a little bit more.


And these (below) are some of my fabulous friends that I lived with in a house across the street from the Capitol Building in Salt Lake after college. I can't believe we have kids now.



We all got together after the holidays. It was mayhem with all the kids but fun. It's Leah, Rachel, Meghan, me and Mindy. Meghan was an honorary roommate.

Just an interesting side-note, all of our children look like their fathers...what is up with that? Holden is a little version of Wes to be sure. In fact, I call him Wessie on accident all the time. I've heard some crazy theories about that - like how with your first born your body genetically "selects" features from the male so that the male (ie husband) is more inclined to stick around, because there is no doubt he's the father. I'm not sure how much I buy into that. Any thoughts?

You make my bathtime lots of fun

Holden absolutely loves water. He loves hearing it, he loves playing in it...he's just a natural water baby. When the water is running in the sink or the bathtub, he gets very quiet and still, his ears perked in anticipation of something fun.
Every few days we take baths together and he stretches back in the tub and moves his head around in it, kicks his legs and arches his neck back so that his ears can dip under water. It's so cute. And weird, I didn't know anybody liked their ears under water. I can't stand it. Anyway, he's the cutest thing ever.

"5 Years, my brain hurts a lot"

It's a David Bowie lyric, I swear. But it's applicable to this date in time. Five years ago today was my big car accident. Today's a birthday of sorts for me. It's been five years since I almost died, since I died financially (!), and since I annhilated my sister Kiera's car.
I've told several of you I show you some pictures for some time now. I thought today would be an appropriate time. Now you all can see where my complex comes from regarding picture taking and the right side of my face. (I'm serious - take a look at my reflection in a mirror some time and you'll see how drastically different the two sides of my face are.)

Here on the left is what remained of the car I was driving. It was a Geo Prizm, and it rocked - so I bought another one (which I still drive today). It was basically a head-on collision with a Suburban and yes, I was wearing my seat belt. That, and the air bag, are what saved me.
It just begs the Radiohead lyric "In a fast German car/ I'm amazed that I survived/ an airbag saved my life."



Here are a couple hospital pics. I love the detail of the top picture - you can see my pre-op ear just hanging off my head, but you can't see all the crazy trauma until the bottom picture, where my face is spilling off the side of the neck brace. My right hand also got pretty torn up, which had me worried for a couple weeks. But it's fully functional now, although I can never bowl beyond 5 frams without starting to feel the aches and pains.

These pictures are post-operation. As you can see in the bottome picture, they cut open my scalp so as to fold my face down and reconstruct my face. It made for an awesome haircut for months to come. They also made a sizeable incision under my right eye in order to access and rebuild my orbital.
My eye was swollen shut for a few weeks and I spent a lot of time in that position, right in front of the TV. I don't remember much from those days in bed doing nothing but watching "Real World" reruns. Probably because there was nothing to remember.
In these pictures I'm sporting a "Delta Center Post-Game Clean-Up Crew" smock, which still hangs in my closet. I believe there are only one or two of you reading this that will remember its origins (a post-monster truck rally cleaning gig at the Delta Center to benefit the cheerleading squad. There was only one thing that could get me to clean up after a bunch of rednecks at 1 AM - cheerleaders.).

This whole accident ordeal was an experience I'll always be grateful for. It's got to be one of the single most seminal events of my life and I think about it every day. But most of all I have to thank the doctors for giving me the Brad Pitt cheekbone I'd always wanted. It's the reason I was able to swindle the hottest gal I've ever seen into marrying me.

If ever, oh ever, a Wiz there was....

I can't believe it's been so long since we've posted anything. My excuse is that I don't have any pictures of Holden on my computer and all I want to talk about is him. Wes' only excuse is that he's having too much fun with the new Wii he got for Christmas, which is taking place of all his previous hobbies. Christmas was a lot of fun this year. I got all the clothes I could have wished for to help welcome me back into the world of non-pregnancy. And Wes got a Wii, guitar hero and a new stereo for his car. And Holden got nothing. Well, nothing from us. He got a brand new quilt from his Grandma Lois that is the theme of his room - Wizard of Oz. And he got a new picture of Wizard of Oz from his uncle Stefan. And he got a bunch of presents from his Grammy Pammy. His room looks so great with all the Wizard of Oz stuff. I'll take a picture and show you, I promise. Soon. As soon as Wes finished building the shelves in there.

But for now here's the only picture I have. It's Holden's favorite position. I sit at the table and work on my laptop and he hangs out like this on my lap. He's such a good boy. Now if only we could get him to sleep longer than 3 hours at a time at night! When will that happen?

One Month And Counting...

One of these days I will be a more-than-just-competent photographer and will take exquisite photos of my child - but for now I have other people who do that for me :) Our friends Brandon and Anna and their son Grant came over this weekend to see Holden. Anna takes the most amazing pictures of Grant, and it's rubbing off on Wes - he took this photo of "my little wessie" (AKA Holden).

Holden and Grant were instant friends. Grant was so adorable to Holden - he gave him kisses and hugs all night. I'm sure Holden wanted to reciprocate - but all he did all night was grunt and squeak. We still have high hopes for him.

It's been so much fun having visitors to add some spice to our day. We still can't go out much since Holden is so little - the doctors want him to stay at home - so it's great to have the world come to us. But I have loved being able to hang out with Holden throughout this rather short maternity leave. I get to bake and cook and watch Holden eat and poop and sleep. And make awesome faces like this:

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

Oh I love my son so much. But not so blindly that I can't make fun of him. He looks like this when he wakes up. He's got these awesome Pterodactyl arms that are surprisingly strong and he grunts like crazy when you try to move them. Here he is in his adorable Christmas outfit his great-grandma Elsie (AKA Grams) got for him. I feel terrible - she's tried to some see him twice and we have been fast asleep both times.
It's hard adjusting to his time schedule. It's also hard not leaving the house. The doc said he should be home-bound (no church, no malls, no public places) for 8 weeks. So we veg at home and I pretend that I have hobbies. Really we just listen to classical music, bake, watch the Food Network Channel (thank goodness for Season's Eatings), and - thanks to Wes for introducing us - watch my new friends on Battlestar Galactica. It's my new favorite show. But to be honest, most of the day is filled up with changing diapers, dressing and redressing Holden, feeding him, and keeping his fingers out of his eyes. We've given up on keeping them out of his mouth.
This is one of the few pictures where Holden has got his eyes open. He has beautiful eyes. He has beautiful everythings. And I would like to announce, a little too proudly, that I have lost 35 pounds. That's all the weight I gained so I am pretty happy about it. I think nursing is like the best (easiest) diet ever. I don't ever want to stop.

The First Weak

Well, we're approaching Holden's One Week birthday tomorrow morning! I've been pretty weak all week - It doesn't seem like it's been a week - more like 16oish hours or so. Seriously, I lose track of what day it is and what date it is - I only know what hour of the day (or night) I'm currently living in. I guess that's how they "grow up so fast." Due to popular demand, here are some more pictures. However, I'll be posting the majority of the pictures on Flickr, but I'll post more details of that later.

Here's Holden and Amber as we're about to leave the hospital into the lone and dreary world.

Becca & Lilly and Amber & Holden. The Leggats came over to see us the first night we were home - they even brought us dinner (breakfast for dinner, no less)!

Chillin' like a villain. Here's Holden snoozing in one of his many too-big outfits. Still waiting for that week 3 growth spurt.

Yawning baby pictures are the best.

Here's my mom showing me my new favorite "Holden hold." He actually loves it, and it was handy for burping (we're always going to encourage loud, healthy burping in our home).

We'll post a couple videos this weekend. I just haven't gotten around to posting them on YouTube yet.

In the blue corner, weighing 7 lbs 15 oz...

FINALLY, Holden Hawkins Warren is here! On Friday, November 23rd at 10:33 AM, all 20 1/2 inches of Holden decided it was time to get his groove on.
While his actual birth was as lovely as could be expected (thanks, I'm sure Amber would agree, to the epidural), the events leading up to our final hospital visit were less agreeable. Wednesday night at about 3am we checked in because Amber was having intense, regular contractions that were making it impossible to sleep or eat. Unfortunately, she was only dilated to just over 1 cm, and stayed that way for the next hour, so they had to send us home. But Amber did get a shot of morphine, which allowed her to sleep for the next several hours (until about 12:30 in the afternoon) and let her enjoy Thanksgiving.
We went to Amber's parents for our holiday meal (which was exquisite) and stayed into the evening playing games. It was during then that Amber's contractions started coming again every 15 minutes or so. We decided to go home and try to get Amber to bed, but the contractions kept coming. They were more intense and painful this time. While I was researching how to ease the pains of contractions, Amber was working on calming her breathing. We began timing the contractions for an hour, and by 2am Amber was throwing up because of the pain, so we went back to the hospital.
We were determined to not leave this time, at least not without Holden outside of Amber's body. Good news came when we found out Amber was dilated to almost 6 cm! The nurse came back and asked Amber if she'd like to finally get this baby out. It was great news indeed - I couldn't stand seeing Amber in any more pain. They quickly got an epidural into her back, which numbed her from the stomach down. She was finally able to get a few hours rest, and so was I, while some antibiotics dripped from an IV in preparation for the birth.
At 9:30 she was dilated to a 9, so we began the preliminary pushes. Our nurses were most delightful and since Amber was numbed we were able to accompany the sporadic pushes with conversation. The doctor came in about half-way through, just as we were able to start seeing Holden's little head. A short while later, Holden was crying and then resting calmly in Amber's arms.
On his way out, the doctor heard a little snap - it appears Holden slightly broke his collar bone while passing Amber's pelvic bone. It hasn't seemed to bother him in the slightest. He's only cried twice - once during his first seconds of independent life, and again during his first bath (I think I would have cried, too).
He's been an unbelievable dream! Always pleasant, instantly taking to breast feeding, lets us change and dress him with little resistance, and shows a lot of awareness and affection towards other people. And unlike many newborns, he was as beautiful as could be. Believe me, I was ready for an ugly newborn - but Holden is as cute and divine as they come.
Amber is doing so great. She's happy and comfortable, loves breast feeding Holden, looks so beautiful (you'll see below), and is a perfect mother and wife.

OK, so what you really want are pictures. Here are several I took during the past couple days. I'll post a little video soon.

These (above) are of Holden and Grandma (my mom). It's her first grandchild.

Katie (my sister) with Holden. My other sister, Kiera, with her SARS mask. Kiera was just getting over a little cold, so she selflessly volunteered to sport the mask. I thought this was an amusing photo, to show Kiera on the outside looking in. But Kiera will soon become a Holden-favorite - she'll be watching him on Mondays and Fridays while Amber's at work.

M.C. Holden (Hammer, don't hurt 'em).

Those Darn Taggers!

I've been tagged by nearly every blogger and email friend I have. And they are all different - so I picked aspects of each that I liked. I know you're all waiting anxiously for me to post mine!

The list
(x) Laughed so hard you peed yourself (HAH Does sneezing count?)
(x) Been on a hay ride (i'm from Pioneer stock of course I have!)
(x) Been horse-back riding
(x) Rode on a motorbike (of course I got suckered into in college - um every Sunday. What was I thinking?)
(x) Gone on a blind date (so awful every time)
(x) Skipped school (like every day my senior year)
( ) Watched someone die
(x) Been to Canada (absolutely - Wes won't let me live down the fact that I dated a Canadienne...)
(x) Been to Florida
(x) Been to Mexico
( ) Been Lost: not physically
(x) Been on the opposite side of the country
(x) Gone to Washington DC
(x) Swam in the ocean (and nearly died in Ghana - never again!)
(x) Felt like dying (have you ever had food poisoning? you totally feel like dying.)
( ) Cried yourself to sleep (I usually stop before I head to bed...)
(x) Recently colored with crayons (gotta love primary)
( ) Paid for a meal with only coins
( ) Made prank phone calls (what else is there to do in junior high?)

Random Stuff
1. Any nicknames? Ambi, Ambergler, Ambergini, Honey-doll (Wes), Ambular, Ambs
2. Mother's name? Lois
3. Favorite drink? Chocolate Milk - hands down
4. Tattoos? Nope
5. Love your job? Most of the time
6. Birthday? Sept 6
7. Favorite vacation spot? anywhere by a beach
8. Ever been to Africa? Yes
9. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? Yes please
10. Ever been on TV or in a movie? Yes - I played an 80's girl with bad hair in a short scene in "Church Ball"
11. Ever steal any traffic signs? Ha no. But I stole a reindeer once...
12. Ever been in a car accident? Yes. Then followed by months of chiropractic stuff - which I have no idea whether or not it helped.
13. Favorite season? Summer
14. Favorite movie? Pride and Prejudice (5 disc version)
15. Favorite smells? Smells are altogether too strong right now since I'm pregnant - so the smell of nothing is my favorite.

Five things I was doing 5 years ago:
1. Living in Texas
2. Wondering if I had already meet the GLOML (great love of my life) or if he was yet to come (we were yet to meet)
3. Running a flooring showroom
4. Eating a lot of Italian food
5. Missing my parents who were on a mission

6 Facts I know about me:
1. I'm an efficiency producing machine (yes i produce efficiency) and work hard.
2. I love to read
3. I am emotional
4. I need to learn patience
5. I am incredibly loyal and intense

Mr. Puniverse 2007

So for the past month or so I've been working with Fuel Marketing (Gold's Gym's marketing/ad agency that Amber used to work for) in planning the Gold's Gym 2007 Mr. Puniverse Competition. It was tough and fun (how's that for passive ambiguity?!).
Thursday night was the actual event. We were able to round up Big Budah (from Fox13), Artie Fufkin (X96), Miss Utah '07 (Heather Anderson), and Mr. Universe. It was standing room only as the venerable Mike B and the lovely Keri Holland hosted the competition.
Here are a couple pics.