A Day of Firsts

So last Saturday (yes almost a week ago) we took Taylor for her very first swim in something other than the bathtub. The plan was actually to take her while my fam was in town, but it just never happened and then by the time we had a chance, she started to come down with a cold. Anyway, it was so much fun!

When I was about two months, my mom started me in the water. My mom is definitely not a swimmer, but since we had a pool in our backyard, she was deathly afraid that if I fell in, she wouldn't be able to save me. Since her near death experience gave her no motivation to learn how to swim, she decided that both Ashley and I would learn at a very early age. Since the water has been such an important and truly wonderful part of my life, I wanted to make sure to get Taylor in early as well. I have taught swim lessons and swim teams, but when it actually came time for me to dunk my own child under the water it was a very scary thought. I finally toughened up and did it. It was so fun to watch Taylor in the water. She wasn't smiling, but she wasn't crying either... she was completely content. It really was beautiful and I am so glad that we videotaped it. Of course I have no idea how to put it on the blog, but I did get up the courage to dunk her (I promise I have proof) and she did awesome!



Later that day we took a trip to Target and daddy decided to take on the Baby Bjorn and since Taylor wasn't sleeping or about to fall asleep (like she is on our daily walks with Quique) we decided to turn her facing forward. Dustin had a blast with the whole thing and Taylor was taking things off the shelves left and right. I know one of these days I am going to come home with something that she swiped. I've got to keep my eye on her.

The last first of the day, was a first for me. I am not quite sure what my problem is, but ever since my days of swimming/water polo/synchro/whatever have ended, I have pretty much lost all motivation to work out. I was doing a little bit before I got married and then since then I have just gone downhill. Which is very odd since Dustin is in great shape and constantly trying to "motivate" me. You would think that I would want to be healthy, but I guess I am just lazy. I used the "burned out" excuse for a few years, but I don't think I can use that any more.

Anyway, Dustin has been trying so hard to find the right mode of exercise to entice me to work out and so far, we haven't had any luck. I was planning on doing a beginner's triathlon in October with some of my girlfriends, but when Taylor came a month before that, my life kind of turned upside down (in the best way possible of course). Any way, I had bought shoes to clip in and out of Dustin's road bike and still had not used them. Since Dustin set up his road bike on the trainer downstairs, he persuaded me into giving it a whirl. Let's just be thankful that I wasn't clipping in and out on the pavement or while moving since I probably would have fallen flat on my face, but actually found it to be a lot of fun. Of course I only lasted 10 minutes seeing as how my legs were burning in the first 2. And although I still have yet to get back on the bike. I do have a willingness to try it again. Maybe I've turned over a new leaf???

Dreams

So last week, our company did a management retreat for our management team. It was a great way to get together to discuss strategy, generate a discussion of where we can improve, and discuss our 10-year, 5-year, and 1-year plan for the business.

First, we distributed a couple of really good books, which I'd recommend to anybody who leads (in their career or in any organization). The first is "Creating Magic", by Lee Cockrell - it's about his management experience at Disney and the key to providing a magical experience, for customers and employees, and produce great results. The second book is "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter Senge, which is a much more in-depth book about management. Great books.

We were able to go up to Midway (away from the gross inversion here in the valley) to go through some training, have some brainstorming sessions, do some presentations, and even take in a little skiing. But it was a healthy exercise becaue it's so easy to 'stay busy' and get caught up in the daily grind. Sometimes you have to force yourself to step away and make sure you're going where you wanted to go. And this isn't just good to do for work, but in our personal lives.

One exercise that I loved was for us to write down some of our personal 'dreams' that we have - things we want to do some time in our life. The main dream of the president of our company is to try and help as many employees fulfill their dreams. Last year, he sent one of our artists to a painting school in Tuscany, Italy. He also helped one employee go back to Brazil to visit his wife's family. And he bought a Fender guitar for one of the employees. But the purpose wasn't to put down a dream so that we could do it right away, but to learn a little bit more about each of us and also to think big, especially amidst this tough economy (2009 will likely be a very tough year, but that can be an excuse, or a reason to take advantage of a very unique economic environment).

So, during this exercise, somebody brought up this cool blog called "Where the Hell is Matt" about this guy who travels all over the world and videotapes himself doing a funny dance everywhere he goes. It's hilarious - but in a funny way, it's also pretty inspiring. You see this guy visiting some of the most diverse places in the world and getting everybody around him to join in on the fun:


So, one of my dreams is to dance like Matt. Well, not really. But it is to travel to as many countries as I can. I travel quite a bit for work, already (I'm likely going to Spain next week), but I want to travel and enjoy it. See the sights, eat the food, take it in with Jamie.
One country that I'm dying to visit is Israel.
I'd also love to write (and have published) a book somebody.

These are just some dreams you probably didn't know I had. Feel free to share some of your unique dreams in a comment.

Henry Poole is Here

I feel like I'm always so out of the loop whether it's movies, fashion, music, whatever, so I'm not sure if anyone is familiar this movie or if once again, I'm out of the loop on this one. A few months ago, Dustin watched half of this movie (Henry Poole is Here) on the plane during a business trip so we have been anxiously waiting for it to come out on video. This weekend we finally rented it and it did not disappoint! I remembered seeing a preview (once the movie got going) but always thought the movie looked odd from the previews. Although the beginning may appear that way, it is a beautiful movie about faith and hope. There is some great dialogue, especially one about believers (of faith) vs. non-believers as well as some incredible symbolism. It is a touching movie, but you will still find yourself laughing. I'd love to talk more about it, but don't want to give too much away because it really is very well done with great actors and character development. I highly recommend it!

The movie brought about some great conversation between Dustin and I after the movie that really just made me realize how thankful I am for my faith and my testimony. Let me preface this one thought with the fact that Dustin and I have very strong testimonies of our faith and a deep faith in God, but he brought up the question... what if when we die, we find out that what we believe wasn't true? We both agreed that we wouldn't want to live a different way. We could look back and be grateful to live a happy and fulfilling life with the standards we always strive to have, and a strong faith in God and the atonement and always a hope for a better tomorrow. I know that personally, I could not have gotten through the last few years without my belief system. And every time I look at Taylor, I'm reminded of the miracle that was given to us. There are just a few too many "coincidences" in that story to be anything but a miracle from God.

4 Months!

Last week Taylor Anne turned 4 months. I can't believe how fast it has flown by, yet there are times when I feel I have known her so much longer than 4 months. I remember those first few weeks and so many people telling me to enjoy every second because time will fly by. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure what there was to enjoy. Was I missing something? Knowing I had wanted Taylor Anne for so long and then not really enjoying those first few weeks made me feel all sorts of guilt. Maybe I am not a newborn mommy, maybe I just had to much change in my life in those first two months or maybe it was something else, but I do know that this last month has been my very favorite and I completely understand now what those people were trying to tell me. We left Taylor Anne for three days with my mom while we went to the Sugar Bowl and when I got home it seemed like she had gotten so much bigger and she had even picked up a new trick. I was only gone three days, actually 66 hours to be exact and I felt like I had already missed out.

Well Taylor went in for her 4 month check up and she is now 14 lbs and 23 inches long. She is now in the 60th percentile for weight which makes Dustin and I laugh hysterically since she was in the 4th percentile at her 2 week appointment. Ashley (my sister) calls her little "mish" because her legs look like she could be the Michelin baby. So here are just a few wonderful things about Taylor Anne:

• She is definitely a grunter, almost to the point of annoying. She is not really mad or upset when she does it, I think it's just her way of communicating, but she is constantly sounding like she's trying to push something out...
• She is sleeping through the night... hooray! Maybe that's why this has been my favorite month. Right before she turned 3 months, we moved her into the crib and she started sleeping through the night. There have only been 2 nights that she hasn't. This is my very favorite accomplishment! Way to go Tay Tay!
  
• She is smiling a ton. She is so happy when she wakes up in the morning (complete opposite of her mama). She has even had a couple of belly laughs. When my mom was here and we were sitting on the couch, I was rubbing her belly and she was laughing away.
  
• She is already a manipulator. She has been doing a bit of fake crying the last week or so. If I try to get stern with her she just starts smiling at me which in turn makes me melt and then I completely forget what I was even stern about.
• She is done with the binky, but her hands are always in her mouth.
• While I was in N'Awlins, she started blowing bubbles or sticking out her tongue and blowing, not quite sure what you call that.
  
• She loves music. My mom got a CD called the Lullabies of Jesus. It honestly puts her right to sleep which is very helpful since she totally fights falling asleep.
• She loves football and basketball. My mom and I were at lunch and she was getting fussy so I went to grab the diaper bag out of the car and my mom walked her over to a water feature to help soothe her. She calmed right down and my mom thought the mini waterfall was working. When she looked at Taylor Anne, her eyes were glued to the football game on TV. Every daddy's dream.
  
• She started Rice Cereal this week. I was so excited when our pediatrician told us to start her on it. I was at the grocery store and there was a woman and her daughter admiring Taylor. She was asking me all sort of the usual questions, and then I proceeded to tell her she was starting rice cereal that night. I sounded like a totally geeky mom! Here is Taylor's first attempt at it below (I didn't want to bore anyone with the video footage, so I just posted some pics, but mom and dad, I'll send you the video):

• 

Sweet as Sugar!!

Jamie and I just got back last night from a short, but unforgettable trip to the Big Easy to see our Utah Utes play in the All-State Sugar Bowl. It was our first trip together, away from Taylor, and thankfully we had Grandma Ann (Jamie's mom) in town, wanting to get some alone time with her only grand-daughter. We feel lucky that she was able to stay with Taylor.
And usually when such is the case, parents look forward to getting some sleep. But there's no sleeping in N'awlins. Now, first let me just say that getting another undefeated 'regular season' for the Utes was special enough. As a Utah fan, I'm used to not asking for much more than a win over the Y and an occasional conference championship and a bowl win to remember. But Urban Meyer spoiled us. You see, he came in and in just two years, made the Utah program believe that they could compete on a national level. We went to the Fiesta Bowl in 2005 (the 2004 season), but then Urban left, and many Utah fans, including myself, couldn't help but think that the extra 'mojo' left with him.

But I would have NEVER guessed that Utah could possibly be talked about across the country as a team who should be considered national champions, but dreams do come true :)(here's just one of many articles: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28477417/).

The trip was so much fun. My dad and my brother traveled down with us as well. My brother was the captain of the team last year, and so he hooked us up with player tickets (12th row) and we were able to meet with most of the players before and after the game.

New Orleans is a city that was created for bowl games. And it sounds like I think I'm some sort of expert on bowl games, but the truth is, I've now been to six straight bowl games - including two BCS games. And while the Fiesta Bowl was fun (mostly because there were so many Utah fans), the Phoenix area is just so big and spread out and it made it impersonal. I really liked the more personal settings of the other bowls better. But in the Big Easy, you get the best of both worlds. You know you're there for a major event, but also, everybody is concentrated in the French Quarter and everybody there is either wearing Utah or Alabama apparel. So you see so many people you know (we ran into cousins, Jamie ran into high school friends she hadn't seen since HS, we ran into neighbors, etc.). And you can't help but love the French Quarter - the french architecture, the jazz clubs, the food, the food, and the food! Jamie and I planned out on hitting a few restaurants to take in the full experience there - you've got to hit the Acme Oyster company for fresh seafood (their oysters are incredible, as is their gumbo), you've got to hit Petunia's for breakfast (their pain perdue french toast is amazing - as is their cajun sausage breakfast), and we hit Nola - one of Emeril (BAM!) Lagasse's restaurants, featuring more home-style Nola cooking. It was awesome!

It was a blast just to walk around in the French Quarter, listening to jazz or taking in a beignet, or going on a carriage tour. Or seeing celebrities - we walked right next to Jamal Anderson, and Chris Kemoautu, and even John Stamos (Uncle Jesse's taste in women has gone down since him and Rebecca split, I can tell you that much). The Alabama fans were really pretty nice. But I was so intrigued by the fact that it seemed that every male Alabama fan (at least between the ages of 16 and 35) had the same look - feathered hair with the bangs brushed over (even when wearing their hats, they wear them up to show the bangs), dress shirts tucked in, and boat shoes. They also usually sport a Northface jacket or fleece vest as well. But after sunset, and from what I understand, on game-day, you usually see them with blazers on. If nobody was wearing Utah or Alabama gear, you could easily tell which guys were going to yell out 'Roll Tide', just from their look. It was really interesting. I guess that look is pretty known. Here's a funny article about the 'Bama bangs' (http://www.sportsline.com/spin/story/9721273). I really envy Alabama's rich football tradition (they've been to the Sugar Bowl now 13 times, have been to 55 bowl games, and have 12 national championships) and their fans passion (you see them wearing Alabama slacks, Bear Bryant groundstooth scarves and hats, and everything in between) - and they yell out 'Roll Tide' every five minutes, usually every time they see an opposing fan. But I must say that 75% of the Bama fans we met were really classy - and very gracious in defeat (the other 25% were arrogant and/or ignorant - comments about religion, etc. - and every fan base, including Utah, has those types).

But as fun the Big Easy was, the game was that much more memorable. I knew Utah was good and that teams out west are underrated. But I never would have guessed that Utah would have spanked them the way they did. Alabama gave up just 27 points in 13 games in the first quarter - combined. Utah put up 21 points in the first quarter against them. Their fans were absolutely blown away. Alabama couldn't do anything - just 200 yards of offense - less than Utah State had put up against the Utes. And the crowd was into it. One Alabama lady, at the end of the game, said that she had been going to bowl games for 19 years, and Utah's fans were the most spirited she had ever seen. After the game, the police blocked off the streets from the SuperDome to the French Quarter - that's a path you would normally never walk at night. But with 10,000 fans hooting and hollering, it felt like we walked the 1.5 mile walk without our feet touching the ground.

A screen-shot of Jamie and I from footage from the game on Fox.

It was a trip we won't soon forget - and I have a feeling that Utah's success will go a long way to bringing credibility to this program, respect to the MWC, and if we're lucky, maybe even bring down the BCS. Hey, we can hope, can't we?