Little Flies

My husband gave me some pink tulips for Valentines Day. They were so pretty and they reminded me of spring, but the one bad thing about them was that they came in a pot. I don't mind watering them, but the problem is that eventually they die and it takes a few days for me to throw them away, so we get hundreds of tiny little flies everywhere.

For the past few days, I've been kiling several flies a day. Yesterday I killed one on my husband's head and I thought it was really funny, but he didn't. This morning I found one in my husband's hair gel because he didn't screw the lid back on. And on Sunday I made homemade bread and one fly kept trying to get in to the dough. It was gross, but kind of amusing. A fly swatter would have come in handy.

A fly swatter is a useful and very inexpensive promotional giveaway item. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who has ever kept plants a little longer than is necessary or who ever gets annoying flies in the house during the summer.

Stainless Steel Soap Bar

I like unique promotional products. Since I load new products on to American Promotions website every day, I love looking for products that stand out. One product that I think is really cool is the Stainless Steel Soap Bar.

I love making food with onions and garlic, but I don't like how the smell sometimes stays on my hands for hours. The purpose of the stainless steel soap bar is to reduce strong smells from your hands caused by things like onions, garlic, fish or even oranges. All you do is wash your hands with regular soap, using the stainless steel soap bar and it eliminates (or at least reduces) gross smells. Very cool.

Personally, I would never cook or touch fish because I'm pretty sure I would rather eat dirt. I had this roommate once who cooked some fish and the apartment stunk for almost a week. Nasty.

My First Thoughts On "American Idol"

So, a while ago at work, we had a company order these glow-in-the-dark frisbees with "I Love Mormons" printed on it. I have no idea who they gave them to or what they were used for, but I thought it was pretty funny and kinda cool.

I totally agree with this company; I love Mormons too! I'm a big fan of both of the Mormons on "American Idol" and I even think they would be my favorites if they weren't LDS. I love the blonde girl (whose name I can't remember at the moment) and I also really like the girl whose dad died. I think her name is Asia or something.

My favorite boys are, of course, the cute little boy from Murray (how sad is it that I'm old enough to think a 16-year old is a little boy?) and the Aussie (because that's my dog's name) and the kid with dreadlocks even though I don't think the dreads work for him at all.

I haven't been too impressed with this season so far, but I'm sure it will get better. I was, however, greatly impressed with Paula Abdul's new video. And I loved when Simon told the kid who got kicked off that he should get a good job because he could never have a singing career. You gotta love the honesty.

Mountain Biking

My husband is painting my bike this week. He paints cars for his job, so we thought we would take advantage of the easy access to a good and very inexpensive paint job. My bike is a very manly army green right now and since I am neither a man nor manly, I decided I wanted something more feminine without being too girly. We chose a deep metallic purple; it's going to look very cool.

In all the mountain biking I have done since getting engaged to my husband, I have found that one thing every serious mountain biker needs is a good hydration pack. My husband has been biking a lot longer than I have, so we spend hours on trails and in the mountains and I couldn't survive without one.

Unfortunately, my hydration pack couldn't help me last weekend when I had my first real bike crash. Besides the huge goose egg and bruise covering my left thigh and not being able to move my shoulder, it was a pretty cool crash. I'm looking forward to many more.

Rubber Ducks and Stuffed Animals

I feel like I have a basic, but pretty good idea of what promotional products are available. I have decided that pens and t-shirts are always a good idea, but if I were to receive a giveaway item from some company, I would love it to be something unique and memorable.

Some of my favorite promotional products are rubber ducks and stuffed animals. What better way is there to stand out from your competition than to imprint your logo on a rubber duck? American Promotions offers dozens of different rubber ducks with different themes. A few of my favorites are the Rubber Duck Frankenstein, Rubber Duck Santa Claus, Rubber Duck Basketball and Rubber Duck Doctor. I would definitely remember a company who gave me one of these toys.

What adult or child would not smile if they saw your company logo imprinted on a stuffed animal? Some of my favorite promotional stuffed animals are the Bull Stuffed Animal, Moose Stretcher Stuffed Animal and the Fluffy Teddy Bear. These promotional products would not be forgotten.

How To Break Up With Someone On Valentine's Day

There's a commercial on TV that I think is so funny. It's a commercial for some cell phone or telephone company and it has a guy dressed up like a bunny doing singing telegrams. He goes to this girl's house and he sings a song that says,

"Happy Valentines Day. Your boyfriend has something to say:
You're not on his network and it's costing him a fortune,
So he wants to break up today.
He wants to break up today."

I woke up today singing that song, in honor of Valentines Day, I guess.

If you're going to break up with someone on Valentines Day, you should at least give them some cool Valentines Day related promotional products like the Single Red Foiled Rose or the Softbeadz Heart Pillow. You could imprint something funny on the pillow like, "Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: You." (I actually stole that line from The Simpsons).

Valentine's Day Balloons

One year when I was really young, my dad bought my mom some balloons similar to the I Love You Balloon and the Happy Valentine's Day Balloon for Valentines Day. He left them in the living room and told me to watch them very carefully until my mom got home.

I thought it would be fun to tie the balloons to my wrist and take them outside to jump on the trampoline. So without asking my dad's permission, I tied them to my wrist the best I could and went outside. By the time I got to the trampoline, the balloons were about 10 feet in the air and despite my best efforts to reach them, the balloons were gone.

As I watched the balloons climb higher and higher in the sky, I stood on the trampoline and cried. I don't remember if I got in trouble or not; I just remember being heartbroken because I had lost my mom's present.

Maybe I should get my mom some balloons for Valentines Day.

The Coolest Places I've Been

Sometimes I feel sorry for myself because it seems like everyone goes on all these cool vacations and the coolest place my husband and I are going to go in the next five years is St. George. Although I think it would be awesome to go to China or Africa or Italy, I really appreciate the good old USA and if I could choose anywhere in the world, I would go to Hawaii or Alaska. But as I was thinking about all the places I would visit if I had unlimited funds, I started thinking about all the interesting places I've already been. I'm actually a very simple person and I enjoy simple things. I think of all the places I've visited, the two that I loved the most were the Notre Dame football stadium in South Bend, Indiana and the Statue of Liberty in New York City (actually, the Statue of Liberty is technically in New Jersey, but I was in New York when I saw it).

Growing up with five brothers, I watched a lot of sports and sports movies. The two favorites of my brothers' were "Hoosiers" and "Rudy." I never really got in to "Hoosiers," but I loved "Rudy." When I spent a semester in Nauvoo through BYU, I was so excited when I found out we were going to make a stop at the University of Notre Dame. Unfortunately, it wasn't football season at the time, so I wasn't able to go to a game, but I did see a football player practicing. Notre Dame was easily one of the coolest places I've been. They had this awesome cathedral and the famous Touchdown Jesus and even a statue in the middle of campus that they call First Down Moses. But my favorite part was, of course, the football stadium where Rudy Ruettiger made that winning touchdown (which actually didn't happen in real life; in reality, he played for about 10 seconds and didn't do anything that affected the game, but he's still an inspiration).

I've only been to New York City once, but I loved it and someday I'll go back. There are tons of cool things to see in New York City like Central Park, huge toy stores, the place where the Twin Towers used to be and Fifth Avenue where you can buy any clothes in the world. I even bought a fake Prada bag on the street, which I convinced the guy to let me pay $15 for, and a hot dog at a stand, which I didn't eat because I hate hot dogs, but you see people do that on TV all the time and I thought it would be cool, which it totally was. But my favorite thing of all was the Statue of Liberty, which, at the risk of sounding cheesy, is one of those things where you almost cry when you see it because it is so incredibly cool. Movies and pictures don't do it justice; it's something you have to see in person.

I'm Dreaming Of A Short Winter

I'm one of those weird people who genuinely likes winter and cold weather, but even for me there comes a time when I desperately want it to go away. I sleep with flannel sheets, an electric blanket plus three additional heavy blankets and a down comforter and I am ready to fold up a couple of those blankets and put them away.

My husband and I were talking about how all there is to do in the cold months after Christmas is watch TV (maybe that's one reason I love winter so much), but when spring and summer finally come we can go mountain biking, hiking, to the driving range and for walks and runs outside.

I'm ready to trade in my fleece blanket for my Camelbak and my barbeque.

Ah, Memories

Last night, as EJ and I were going to bed, we were talking about funny things that had happened to us. I was thinking about this group of kids that came to my elementary school from Copperton, some random city somewhere. They were really weird and all the boys had mullets.

One boy, named Cody, looked like a mouse and he had this really long mullet almost to the end of his back. He would always say really disgusting things to me that are far too gross to write on this blog. I'm not sure if he was trying to flirt with me or offend me or what.

But the funny thing that happened was with another Copperton boy with a mullet, named Shad. I walked past him on the playground after school one day and I didn't say anything to him, I don't think I even looked at him, and he punched me really hard in the stomach. It completely knocked the wind out of me and I fell on the ground. We both had to go to the principal's office and I don't remember what his punishment was, but when the principal asked him why he did it, he refused to answer. I'm convinced that he did it for one of the following three reasons: 1) He was jealous that my hair was so much prettier than his, 2) I wouldn't give in to his best friend, Cody's, advances, or 3) He was just practicing for a long life of physically abusing women.

Whatever the reason, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Shad and Cody are enjoying the inside of a jail cell for the next 15-20 years.

Anyway, it was a very traumatic day for me, so my mom let me pick out a cute Stuffed Teddy Bear at the store.

Wedding Ideas

I was mostly satisfied with all the decisions I made about my wedding reception when I got married almost a year and a half ago. I felt like my husband's and my personality were represented well (especially with Fuddrucker's catering the luncheon; I'm much more of a hamburger person than a fancy food person), but since I've been working with promotional products, I have heard of some really unique ideas for weddings and if I was getting married again, (which I never will because of the following reasons: A) planning a wedding is not as much fun as you think it's going to be, and B) I love my husband) I would definitely try to be more creative.

One of our customers wanted to get some Football Stress Toys imprinted with their name and the date of their wedding and have people throw the stress toys, instead of rice, at them as they were leaving. I thought this was such a cute idea and it would be a cool thing for the guests to keep.

Another customer wanted to get the Tennis Ball Golf Ball imprinted with the names of the bride and groom and the date of their wedding. He would have these on the table as you walk in to the reception for people to write their names on. That is so much cooler than signing your name in a book!

It's too late to use some of these ideas for my own wedding, but, even though he's very single at the moment, I'm already planning some ideas for my little brother's reception.