We love you Grandma

My heart is saddened to learn that my grandmother from Canada has passed away. Seeing as I grew up in California I didn’t get to see my grandparents very often but when we did they were extremely memorable trips.
My first memory of a trip to Canada was when I was probably 7 years old. It was a complete disaster getting there. Our family would pack up in our yellow van, putting the ice chest between the two front seats, which would serve as an additional seat for one of the 11 kids. We would pile in for the brutal drive. I don’t know how my mother did it; my dad was smart and would fly up later so that he didn’t have to make the road trip. Seatbelts weren’t a high priority back then so we would constantly move all around the van. Mike and I would be in the back and he would punch the seat and then I would pretend to start crying. I would have to do it loud enough for mom to hear so that she would then start yelling at Mike. How completely stupid were we? We were trying to get mom mad at us which was almost suicidal. But what else were we to do on those long boring trips. We didn’t have iPods, cell phones, dvd players in the vehicle…the only thing we had was countless merciless hours of The Carpenters on 8-track.
On our way to Canada our van caught on fire, broke down in the middle of Montana, and Gary and Jim went hitchhiking (Thanks to the family who went out of their way to help us out), but we finally made it…and then the real fun began. I rode a horse for the first time. I vaguely remember having a night terror episode, screaming at the top of my lungs as Grandma came running in trying to figure out what was going on…and then the whole family had “rear” terror as the milk from Grandma and Grandpa’s cows wasn’t quite the same as we were used to drinking. It messed up our digestive systems and 11 kids were sick and all had diarrhea. I don't remember our van breaking down on the way back home but imagine all that time with 11 sick kids. I’m not sure which was worse, the trip there or the trip back home. I know I crapped my pants at least once and I am sure I wasn’t the only one. The smell stuck around in that vehicle for another two months.
Other trips to Canada were much better. When I was a teenager I remember sleeping in a camper just outside Grandma’s house. We were able to ride their ATV’s but the most memorable was taking the canoe and going fishing in one of the nearby lakes. My brother’s and I would spend hours out there casting the lines and catching the fish. I caught the biggest one, a 14 inch Pike. We brought it back and I helped (actually watched) as Grandma cleaned it and then we cooked it up. I don’t like fish so I naturally thought it was disgusting but I will always remember Grandma talking me through each step of the whole process.
The last time I saw grandma was when Lexi was born. We headed up there when she was a week old (Lexi...not my Grandma).
I truly wish I could be there as the family honors her life. I love being around them and all my dad’s brothers and sisters. My grandparents have quite the posterity with nine children of their own. We hope we will always make you proud. I love you Grandma and will be excited to see you again some day.
.................Edit to Post.................
Well...I am packed and ready to go to the funeral. I am hitching a ride with some cousins. It will be a long drive to Canada but it should be fun with all the ice and snow covered roads. I hear Montana is nice this time of year.

WF Video Contest

FYI...I won a $350 gift certificate for this video.
Emily spent it all on food storage.

Blast From the Past

Keep an eye out for some guy named Mike Pierce (towards the end). I ran into him on the streets of SLC.

Go BYU

Our BYU flag will be waving tomorrow. Hopefully my alma mater can beat the Utes.

Almost Famous Again

Here is another item our marketing team produced. (And I am not the bald guy-but it is my voice)

Thank You Veterans

One of the things I love about the company I work for is how patriotic they are.
Today during the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month our company gathered in our lobby to honor those Veterans who have and are currently serving our country. We have quite a few people who have served in the military and many who still serve. I am so grateful to all those who have served, for their sacrifices and the sacrifices of their families. I honor and salute you.

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Halloween is over which means it is my dad's birthday. Coming from a family with 13 people in it (11 kids), it was always difficult to remember each other's birthdays, but we could always remember my dad's because it was the day after Halloween.
We would spend all Halloween night running from house to house filling our pillow cases with candy. The key was to pick busy streets for halloweeners because that means that the people were already at the door passing out candy. You could run up, grab the candy and immediately take off for the next house. Slow streets meant that you would have to wait for the person to get off of their rear and walk to the door. Nothing was worse than having to wait 34 seconds to get your treat and be heading off to the next house. If you could do it under less than 14 seconds, chances were, you could fill that pillow case up and possibly move on to pillow case number two. It was nice having a couple brothers close to my age who shared my anxious energy to get as much candy as possible; and thanks to the residents on Mayberry and Carnegie Avenues who didn't notice our tendency to double dip.
After completing our Halloween haul we would always try to sneek inside the house and dump two-thirds of our candy in our room so our mom wouldn't notice how much we really had. We would then show our mom one-third of what we actually got and then she would take it away and offer us one piece of candy a day. How totally ridiculous was that. One fun size snickers or a roll of smarties a day. We were certainly deprived children...of course we did consume the other two-thirds of the hidden candy (500-600 pieces) within 22.5 hours after Halloween.
But before we would put our Halloween candy away we would all honor our dad's birthday and give him a present. We would each alllow him to choose ONE piece of candy. At the end of Halloween night, there would literally be thousands of pieces of candy in our house, and dad would only end up with eleven. Now that, is truly pathetic...or maybe it is cute and endearing.
Happy Birthday Dad, your Laffy Taffy is in the mail!!!

Halloween and Politics

Just some political commentary...only a week to go.

I fought the law...

...and I won.

The other night the family was heading home and the fuzz pulled me over. As I was heading down the street the car in front of me was going quite fast and I was actually going the speed limit. The light turned red in front of us so we both had to stop and a car pulled up right behind me. As soon as I crossed the intersection the bacon turned his lights on.
"You gotta be kidding me," I exclamined.
The car in front of me also pulled over. The cop came up and I said "There was no way I was speeding was I?"
"Yep, I gotcha," said the five-O.
"Sir, I know that the car in front of me was going really fast which is why he probably pulled over," I said.
I could see the doubt in the barney's eyes. He took my papers and headed back to his car and the car in front of me took off, knowing that they just got lucky.
The po-po came back up and knocked on my window.
" I have good news and bad news," said the onion. "You wont receive a citation but your license is expired."
It had been expired for more than two months and I had no idea.
One-time let me go and Emily said it isn't fair that I got so lucky. But it wasn't luck because I wasn't speeding and the expired license was an honest oversight. So I guess police are all-right and I apoligize for using all the slang terms for you in this post.
(And I had to look up these different terms, because I had no idea what they were.)

My Radio Voice-Over

Here is my radio voice over for one of our stores, Dick's Market - Some Grocery Stores north of Salt Lake.
I know it is nothing like my cousin who does voice-over work for Ford...but hey, it's not every day that you get to say dick on the radio.