Quirks Tag

Tagged by Sarah...

Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about myself and tag 6 people.

1. I make up annoying nicknames for just about everyone. A few examples: Mom= Madre or Mamma Maria Tortilla. Zach= Zork, Zach Marie, or Zachy Poo. Patrice= P-p-p-Patty (remember from Carmen SanDiego!?), Holly= Holl-Hay etc...

2. Bad-mouthing- if someone hurts my feelings I just feel like I need to tell people and get their sympathy. Unfortunately, that equals bad mouthing people. Unfortunately unfortunately, I tend to get my feelings hurt fairly easily.

3. If I start reading a book, I cannot do anything else until I finish that book. This proved to be very annoying this summer when I started the Twilight series in the middle of remodeling our house.

4. I leave things undone just to see if Zach will do them if I don't. Example, I don't put the new toilet paper roll on just to see if Zach will do it. Guess if the toilet paper is ever actually on the holder at my house...

5. I manage to do the laundry at my house but seldom manage to fold it. Maybe I am just waiting to see if Zach will fold it...

6. I hate talking on the phone and avoid it at all costs. I will literally have 20+ text message or e-mail conversations with people but I won't just call them.

I tag: Sir Tahns-alot, Kensington, Mamma Maria Tortilla, P-p-p-Patty, and Sun-yotta.

Most Embarrasing Moments: Part IV

Back in the day...
Zach and I were living in 50 year old, 500 square foot, cinder block walled apartments: welcome to Aggie Village. In an effort to lead a healthier life, I had decided to begin riding a bike to school. It had been several years since I had attempted this, and I soon realized that the phrase "it's just like riding a bike" (implying that it is skill you never forget once you know how) was a LIE. But after an embarrassing day of riding the whole way to school with my whole front wheel and handle bars backwards (nope, this isn't the embarrassing moment) I had pretty much brushed up on my bike-riding skills enough to get to school unnoticed.
It was a cool, crisp fall morning, though not cold enough for frost. I made my way through Aggie Village parking lot on my bike easily, especially considering the 50+ pound backpack I was sporting. As I was nearing the edge of the parking lot where it met the street, I could see a Aggie shuttle making it's way toward the apartment complex, filled to the brim with college students, all staring out the window. I had to cross the parking lot entrance to get out of it's way. But as I turned, I could feel the heavy backpack pulling me off balance. Luckily I caught my fall with my foot. However, since the backpack was so heavy, I was still too off balance to avoid a fall all together. At this point, the shuttle had been stopped, waiting for me to get out of the entry way for probably a full minute as I was trying to gain control. It was in slow motion; I slowly slanted sideways further and further until I was finally lying on the gravel with the bike on top of me. A quick fall would have been so much better: I would have scraped myself up quickly and got out of the way, maybe someone from the shuttle would have asked if I was OK. But this slow, off balanced descent to the ground was... just weird. Lying there on the ground, not knowing exactly how I got there, all I could think to do was look up at the bus full of Aggie students. I could see their faces, including the driver; all bore the look of utter confusion as if they were all wondering, "What in the world is she doing?" No one was even laughing! I finally tried to get up but found that, like a beetle on it's back, I couldn't even sit up with the heavy backpack. I probably looked so odd, straining to sit up, my hands and legs waving around in the air, nothing happening. I finally wriggled out of the straps and dragged the backpack to the side of the road. I then went back for the bike. Total time making an idiot out of myself in front of an Aggie Shuttle waiting on me: 5 minutes. It felt like: 2 hours.
In case you want a little more insight into the time I rode my bike to school with the handles and wheel backwards, just imagine me riding to school, wondering why my knees were hitting the the handlbars, wondering why the breaks and the gears wouldn't work, convincing myself that some crazed vandal had come readjusted my bike just to be cruel. Then imagine me being really loud about it because I was having so much trouble riding the bike and I knew people were staring so I tried to verbally explain "man, what is wrong with this thing?", and then a nevous, "heh heh."

My Strange Phobia

All my life I have suffered from a very strange fear. I have a fear of certain textures. After a short internet search, I have discovered that this strange and rare fear is known as "cluster phobia." Some of my first memories of my fear of textures date back to when I was very very young, probably 5 years old. I would close my eyes at night and see textures, and it was nightmarish. I would be so scared I would run to my parents room and cry at the door. I couldn't stop picturing the textures and I would basically bawl myself to sleep many times. As I got older, those nightmares of textures have lessened but I still see them. They seem to be associated with bad memories and negative thoughts: I think something negative as I am drifting off to sleep and when I close my eyes, a scary texture flashes and wakes me up. Weird, huh. That's why I am blogging at 12:30 a.m. instead of sleeping. Luckily only 1 or 2 people read this blog so most of you don't have to know how truly strange I am :)
I am usually reminded of my fear of textures by things I see around me. Some people on cluster phobia internet forums can't stand looking at holes (like beehives for example), ducks flying together, fish scales. It seems as though this phobia is also genetic, and I am pretty sure my mom and sister hate certain textures too.
Anyhoo, below are some textures that make my stomach churn. Enjoy...

Noses with very deep blackheads


Certain TV static
Leaves with embedded insect eggs. I remember my mom and sisters and I freaking out over some embedded leaves one of us had received in flowers from somebody. We were all screaming and flipping out until my dad finally threw them outside.


Peeling roofs... I see this everywhere. It literally makes me nauseated and I panic just a little bit.


Strawberries with deep seeds. Very scary, not to mention they look like blackheads on a nose. (I usually just try to eat them without looking at them).

Most Embarrasing Moments: Part III

Just a short. This is probably not one of my most embarrassing moments, because this type of thing happens to me on almost a daily basis. It was my last day of work in Las Vegas, and I had been pondering the fact that since I had worked their for only a year, no one would really care that I was leaving. I was retrieving some medications when two of my co-workers approached me with a box of cookies in their hands. I was overjoyed that they would actually care enough to bring me these tasty morsel's to bid me farewell. When they reached me, they said, "Today's your last day! You have fun back in Utah, okay?" I said, "I sure will," and while grabbing the box of cookies I said, "Thanks for the cookies." But for some reason they wouldn't let go of those cookies. There was a small struggle and finally they said, "um, these aren't for you." I turned red (I think I am red more than white), released the cookies and turned back around while they walked away. I'm sure they laughed until they couldn't breathe as soon as they got out of earshot. Ha, jokes on them, I don't even like cookies!

Sarah Palin

I usually avoid political issues when blogging because I know politics are so controversial, especially right now. And I know that when I read blogs about political views it makes me uncomfortable because I know that feelings on one side or the other are so strong that it can break apart friendships. But I couldn't resist posting this picture and the story behind it. I think y'all know where I stand anyway:>)

September 9, 2008

((( BEGIN PHONE TRANSCRIPT WITH RUSH LIMBAUGH )))

RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh , hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?

CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?

RUSH: How about that?

CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania .

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington , Pennsylvania , was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: "We Love Kids with Down Syndrome." So when they pulled in their bus, the sign did catch their eye (McCain and Palin and the rest of their family) it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that --

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?

CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them --

RUSH: Oh, cool!

CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.

RUSH: Very, very, very cool.

CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, "Wow, that's awesome," because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that's really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, "Hey, can you come with us?" I was like, "Do we have a choice?"

RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn't have worried. It's not the Clinton administration.

CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, "May I hold your daughter?" and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.

RUSH: This is amazing.

CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.

RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.

CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.

RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?

CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.

RUSH: That's right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we'll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.

CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.

RUSH: Oh, no, no. It's nothing, it's nothing. You're doing the Lord's work.

CALLER: Well, we're very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they're angels.

RUSH: That's the thing. There's always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here's the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.

RUSH: All right.

CALLER: That's what she is.

RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I'm going to put you on hold.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.

((( END TRANSCRIPT )))

fun lil' game

This game is really easy, just google-images your answer and post the first picture that comes up!

First Pet's Name: Buttermilk

Current Pet's Name: Katherine Dander (actually pulled up our cat! p.s. I don't recommend google-image searching "kat")

Nick-Name: Mayme

Spouse's Name: Zach

Favorite Animal: Cat

Lucky Number: 333
Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite TV Show: The Office, and American Idol, Lost

Where would you like to live? Logan


Where would you like to travel? New Zealand, New York
Worst Habit? Popping Zits


Birth Month

What do you collect? Pounds of fat, worthless vacuums

Favorite hobby: watching TV, blogging, shopping

Most Embarrassing Moments: Part II

In high school again! What do you know? One morning I woke up inspired to sport a great new hairstyle. I tried something new and it looked fantastic! I left feeling great and confident with my hip looks. I quickly got compliments from a few people on my styles. Then I got to a class with a teacher who liked to tease and incidentally liked to make girls cry. I don't remember exactly how it happened, all I know is it involved this teacher asking, while laughing, why in the world I got up this morning and decided to don 5 pony tails. That's right, 5 pony tails. Then I remember looking around and seeing everyone in the class was laughing... to my left, to my right, they were all in on it. I could feel my face burning and reddening which happens often and always at the worst times. It hit me like a ton of bricks! I WAS wearing 5 pony tails! Really, what was I thinking? I had flashbacks of the "compliments" I received that morning and realized they were being sarcastic and probably laughed their way all the way to their friends where they made fun of me. So I sat their and bawled the rest of class and took those pony tails out one by one until the bell rang. Just FYI this was the same class as the last embarrassing moment post. Apparently it was a very emotional class for me.

)`:

I loved both the Davids, but after Tuesday's performance, I thought Archuletta would win! Oh well... the only thing that bothered me about last night's show was Simon's flipping. Suddenly he says "he watched it back" last night and decided Cook had done better? Something smells there. Because we all know Archuletta has a better voice even if Cook is more marketable.

I'm Calling it

DAVID ARCHULETTA!!!!!

Just a Mother

It seems like everyone is talking about motherhood on their blogs these days, and with people having babies and raising kids and all it's quite appropriate! So here are my two bits on motherhood. P.S. I actually wrote this months ago, but for whatever reason decided not to publish until now...

Some time ago (at the height of my blog-stalking phase) I came across a blog authored by someone I have met a time or two but whom I did not know well. This person expressed apprehension about starting a blog because an ‘elitest’ friend of hers had made it known that she felt “family” blogs were an abomination, and that she was horrified at the thought of “countless people wasting countless hours” reading these less than scholarly blogs. The author of this blog then resolved to celebrate her “mediocrity” despite her friend’s disapproval. It has been several months since I read this entry but I have not been able to remove these sentiments from my thoughts. I just keep thinking, “since when have LDS women been tricked into thinking that motherhood is mediocre?” We all know we live in a society where only fame, fortune, and “ivy-league” education are fast becoming all that is considered socially acceptable, but I thought that we as sisters stood apart from the world because we know how vitally important our jobs really are. Every time I hear someone say “I’m just a mom” (and I confess, I hear it from my own mouth at times) my stomach turns! A couple of weeks ago Glenn Beck had a caller on the radio who referred to herself as “just a mom.” I enjoyed what he had to say to her:

“GLENN: I hate, hate, hate when women say, "I'm just a mother." I hate it. And here's why. I believe that we are facing the most perilous times quite possibly in human history and I really, truly believe that -- what's the name of that show on Fox, that new show, the Terminator, what's her name?
DAN: Sarah Connor Chronicles?
GLENN: Sarah Connor. I really, truly believe that mothers of this country need to start viewing themselves as Sarah Connor and start preparing your children and teaching your children right and wrong, black and white, good and evil, how to be strong, how to survive in all ways because we've so screwed this country up that our children are going to be left with just a mess on their hands and we need -- I don't even know what Sarah Connor's son was called, Billy Connor, and we need more Billy Connors, and Sarah Connors are the ones that are going to do it and those are the mothers of today."

Yay! He gets it! Now let’s get on board with him! There is NOTHING mediocre about being a mother to a child. As a woman, I know that my job as a mother is more important than any CEO or self-made millionaire or otherwise successful high-ranking job outside of the home. So I am going to celebrate at being the best, having the best and most important job ever known to mankind… I am a mother!

Most Embarrassing Moments: Part One

I was reminded of this moment by a combination of watching the skits on Napoleon Dynamite, and by running into a song by "The Safety Kids" on the internet yesterday. Oh, and by watching that part on Carrie where she is so horrified that she locks all the doors in the school with her eyes and starts a fire.
No crap there I was... running for some kind of student body government office. My genius campaign strategy?: team up with people more popular than myself. Brilliant! I basically forced this poor girl to do a skit together with me. I should have realized she had no interest in it at all when I showed up at her house to plan the skit and she was on her way out the door to some kind of sports game(plus she was the only one running for her position so really didn't even need to do a skit). But I was persistent! I followed her to the game, all the while trying to pry ideas out of her while she cheered on her team and barely glanced my way for the duration of the game. I finally sifted through some tapes of hers at her house and found an old "Safety Kids" album, and from their decided on a song called "Designer genes." I still can't figure out how this song helps kids be safe but anyway. My campaign strategy to use people more popular than myself was still in full force. We planned to meet at the school the next day to put the finishing touches on. I showed up at like 5am, I think she showed up 5 minutes before school started. That's OK, just in time for her to asked the coolest guys to be in our skit. The plan was for them to dance around (or something like that, the details here get fuzzy) and at the very end turn around and signs on their behinds would say "Vote for Amy and Brittany." Lame in it's own right, but at the rehearsal the principal thought this would be too risqué (thanks to an unsavory "tampon comment" from a student in a skit the year before) and banned us from putting the signs on their bottoms. Even more lame. But again, my campaign strategy did not involve having a good skit by any means.
So the time came for the guys to do their thing. They stood up on stage holding their "vote for Amy and Brittany signs" while the song played in the background. They had these looks on their faces, like "what is going on," and "this is so lame," and you know, hanging their mouths open and shaking their heads and of course the occasional eye roll. Then it ended. No one clapped, the audience was stunned, this part was nothing like Napoleon Dynamite because they didn't all stand up and cheer their loudest. They were looking around at each other and I heard some one shout "What the h%#@?" I yelled "Vote for me!" to a sea of confused faces and the sound of crickets and the occasional cough. Sigh. I wanted to run home and never come back. In my next class, a kid asked, "What the h%#@ was that?" I burst into tears. Needless to say, I did not obtain office that year.

What Amy Means

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Energy Quest

On my days off I think a lot. And I always want to blabber about everything I think but neither of my other blogs seem the appropriate forum. I really don't have anything interesting to say either, I just think all of the time and very random thoughts too and I usually don't want to forget them. My random thought today is about energy. I have decided to embark on an energy quest. I feel completely devoid of energy all of the time. I actually feel so tired on a daily basis that it is very hard to pick myself up off the couch to do anything! I'm not even watching TV most of the time. Just sitting there in silence talking myself in to getting up and doing the dang dishes. I've tried various things over the years to overcome this: caffeinated sodas which I have discovered I hate; caffeine pills which I discovered only work sometimes and make me shaky and have very high anxiety; and the latest thing I've tried is rockstar energy drinks. Which work sometimes but sometimes they don't and lately have left me feeling nauseated. And very rarely I try drinking enough water, eating enough fiber and getting exercise-- this one I have never tried consistently enough to find out if it yields results. I am thoroughly tired of feeling this way however and I am ready to make changes. I look at other moms, running to and fro all of the time, dressed and ready with their makeup on before the kids are awake, houses at least somewhat clean... I'm not even asking for all that. I just want to feel like I don't have to scrape myself off the couch every time something needs to get done. I'm very interested in anyone's ideas on how to have more energy. Any recommended reading etc... I'm sure it has something to do with my sugar addiction or something like that. P.S. I apologize to other Amy's for the blog address... but hey, it was available. How could I resist?