Dear Anonymous

Thank you so much for the very kind gift. I thank you and my blog thanks you. Supposedly it will be finished around the beginning of May. Hopefully we will both love the results and if you tell me who you are, I'll buy you an ice cream cone.

The Rest Of The Story

I have to admit, I may have teared up when I read Bear's surprise post. He needs to warn me when he writes sweet things on non-holidays. Anyway, it got me thinking about what I was doing the night of the infamous Creed Concert. I had been working for the Olympics at the Medals Plaza. It was 31 straight days of 14 hour shifts, outside and during a very cold winter. The Creed concert was close to the final days of the Olympics and my body was getting pretty run down by this point. The day before, I went to Crossroads Mall on my lunch break and had Chinese food. Big Mistake. Big. I spent the entire night throwing up.
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I was very weak the next day, but went to work anyway. It had been stressed to us many times that while working for the Olympics we were not allowed to miss a single day. I made it through most of the day, but by the time the concert started I was really not feeling well. My boss noticed and said I could go home. Once the concerts started, I didn't have anything to do anyway and if any of the camera crew forgot to sign out, I could catch them the next day. I said okay and started to walk to my car. This is when I fainted.
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I woke up in the Olympic Emergency Tent with an IV pumping fluids into my arm. I was more than a little delirious. I could hear Creed blasting from the stage and kept holding my arms the way a ballerina would in first position every time the band sang children keep on dancing. The doctors asked if I had anyone they could call to come pick me up. I did, but he was here at the concert, somewhere in the massive crowd. A fact I found very hysterical and for some odd reason, the doctors didn't.

Pure Gold

My favorite band of all time is Creed. It just so happens Creed was passing through SLC during the Winter Olympics of 2002. My wife Lil (girlfriend at that time) happened to be working for the Olympic communitee at that time. She managed, somehow, to get me tickets to the sold out show. I must say, it was one of the most vibrant, coolest times in my life. Seeing LIVE a band that I had listened to over and over again. I was holding back in anticiapation, hoping they would play my favorite songs and. . . . they did. When they played "Hide" I could barely inhale. Amazing! So, tonight is my usual late Saturday night time listening to great music and hearing a "Creed" tune brought this beautiful memory back to me. I guess it got my thinking about the good things. I just wanted to let Scott and Stacia know were excited for and love them. Congrats to Andy and Marianne for getting a movie released by a major studio. To Jessica, purely because we think you are the coolest and sweetest person we have ever met. To my mother/father in law cause growing up I thought I'd always thought I'd hate my future in laws (to many movies) then come to find out how fun and full a family can be. To my Mom for being everything I hope and aspire to be. To Candice and The Jensens for posting on our blog. I know I don't know you, but your posts brighten up mine and my wifes day. Cheers to everyone else remembering the small, little things that last forever. The biggest thanks, to my wife. . for the Creed concert. Which may seem small and forgettable. But is one of my fondest and dear memories. I love you.

Temple Trip

One advantage of living in Utah is much shorter travel times when taking a trip to visit the temple. Draper is now home to the 129th operating temple in the world and they are having an open house till March 14th. I've been trying to round up a group of friends to go check it out, but schedules were not coordinating and I was afraid my husband and I would run out of time. Therefore, last night at midnight, I made reservations at www.lds.org for him and I to see the Draper Temple this afternoon. It was delightful.

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We both thought it was beautiful. The best part was having Bear be able to learn a little more about why I go to the temple and the amazing purpose they serve here on earth. He's a boy and of course thought the baptismal font on the backs of 12 oxen was cool and I loved giving him a big hug in front of the eternity mirrors in the sealing room.

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If you are in the area, the tour guides have set this up flawlessly and it would be worth the trip. They even put mats down between the buses and the sidewalk, so you don't have to get your shoes wet and muddy. I love that kind of attention to detail. If only I were so inspired.

Happy St. Valentine's Day

At work on Friday the 13th, my coworkers and I were discussing how we would rather get flowers on any other day of the year over Valentine's Day, because then it is more of a surprise. My lovely husband must have been in tune with the universe that day. He surprised me with flowers and yummy chocolate after I woke from a late afternoon nap. His reason for the early giving, "I just thought it would be more fun for you if it was a surprise!"

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The only downside to flowers on other days of the year... Not being photo ready.

Looking slightly more festive today.

In Case You Were Wondering...

The other song with bittersweet in the title is "Bittersweet" by Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Brownie points to my dad and Annette for correctly guessing "Bittersweet Symphony" and half a brownie point to my sister Jessica for getting the Bodyguard song stuck in my head. Bittersweet memories... that's all I'm taking with meee...eee...eee. I hope I can return the favor. Ohhh... and my Valentine did get his cookie.

Which he shared.

With both of us.

Saturday Morning

I prayed for children and the Lord called me to Primary. Bear asked me to be more specific next time, as he doesn't want a Boy Scout troop in need of a leader showing up at our door.

We had our quarterly Primary activity this morning. The theme was families. We learned that everyone is unique and every person is an important part of their family. All the kids each colored one part of a picture and created a completely unique individual.

Then we cut out pictures from magazines to decorate a picture frame. The frame is the perfect size for the Proclamation of the Family each kid was given.

Then finally we decorated Valentine's Day cookies, which really had nothing to do with families, but no one complained!

This is what happens when you let Sunbeams do their own decorating!

I kept my cookies much more basic. By the way, please notice my USU shirt... #25 in the nation! I of course brought them home to share with my Valentine, but he's taking a nap and his cookie is calling my name, so we'll see...

It's an Epidemic

Since not all my loved ones are on Facebook, I thought I'd spread the 25 things disease to my blog. Beware cross contamination.

The First 25 Things that Came to Mind by Lillith

1. I agree with Leonardo Davinci that even the smallest feline is a masterpiece and I could watch my cat all day. He’s magical.
2. I have a theory that women are a lot like cats and therefore you should never trust a man that HATES cats, because he probably won’t like you either. I tested this theory only once and definitely was proven right.
3. I think the world is a magical place, filled with miracles, beauty and constant reminders of God’s love for me.
4. I make wishes on the following: the first star I see at night (which is usually Venus, because it’s the brightest), birthday candles, dandelion wisps, white butterflies, shooting stars, and when the clock says 11:11, 12:34 or 3:33.
5. I had such vivid dreams of flying as a child, that they seem more like memories. In these dreams I could only fly if I jumped off the back of our orange couch. I’m almost positive that I could fly now, if I only had that couch.
6. My favorite word is Family. I love what it means. I love mine. I like how it sounds and I think it is very pretty when written in cursive.
7. My first love was gymnastics and I still cry at every Olympics.
8. I name everything and wanted to get a job naming make-up and nail polish colors.
9.I have never met another person with my first name. I know they exist and I’m on the lookout.
10. I laugh at my own jokes, before I get to the punch line. I inherited this from my dad.
11. I cry anytime I tell a story, even if it’s not sad. I get this from my mom.
12. My favorite parts to play are action roles and I’d be completely content to never win an Oscar, but have the female version of Bruce Willis’s career.
13. When I was in second grade, I loved reading historical romance novels and I got accused of cheating on a history assignment, because I used the words serf, lords and peasant. Apparently second graders aren’t supposed to know such words. Good thing I didn’t use any of the other words I learned in the romance novels.
14. I skipped eighth grade.
15. I am about as Pro-Life as you can get and for this reason (and many others) I almost always vote republican.
16. I am a cat and a dog person, but if I had to choose only one it would be Cats hands down.
17. I fell in love with my husband, because he took the time to care for a pregnant stray cat, find homes for her babies, get her spayed and then find her a loving home. I think he’s the only single guy in his twenties (at the time) that would have done this and I’m happy he’s all mine.
18. My favorite paintings are of ballerina dancers.
19. I have the funniest and most intelligent family on earth and I am unfortunately the least funny and intelligent of the bunch. But hey, it’s very stiff competition.
20. I loved being in college. It was the most concentrated amount of fun I have ever had. I wish I could get 10 more degrees, but I doubt it would be the same.
21. I think too much. I have trouble being in the moment. Even when I was skydiving, there was a minute I forgot to just experience it and instead was thinking about how I should write about it in my blog.
22. I miss living by my family and my girlfriends.
23. I am not modest by nature and probably would have ended up a burlesque dancer if my parents hadn’t taught me right.
24. When I was a kid I would "train" for field day during recess. Needless to say, I have won my fair share of blue ribbons.
25. I’ve done nothing to deserve my Savior’s love, but I thank God for it everyday.

Bittersweet

Two of my favorite songs have the word bittersweet in the title. I'll give you brownie points if you can guess what they are. I bring up this fun fact, because it is the only word that can describe my feelings toward my Dead Noon experience.

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Bitter, because of the hatchet job the studio did on our fun little movie. I will never understand how they spent thirty times the amount of money on an additional twenty minutes of footage, then we spent making the entire movie. I will never understand how with that money, they made our movie look and feel more low budget, made the story make less sense and drained out almost every drop of humor and quirkiness. Bitter, because I hate, hate, hate the music they replaced our lovely score with and the cover art they used. The music was amateurish and droning. The cover art was lazy and I'm not even sure the artist (I use the word lightly) watched the movie, as there are things on the cover that are not in the film... hence DEAD NOON does not take place at night, nor involve full moons. They took out my favorite scenes, but left lines in that refer to said scenes and therefore no longer make any sense.... the list could go on.

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Sweet, because I've never had more fun making a film. We were involved in so many aspects and I truly feel this is our movie, not just some film I'm in. Sweet, because I truly think our version was great and entertaining and had cult-classic potential. I have so much fun watching it. Sweet, because this movie has gone farther then I ever thought possible. I don't know anyone who has sold their project to a studio, especially with such a grassroots budget. But mostly... sweet, because I love everyone involved in this project. It doesn't get better than creating with friends and I'm excited to see where it goes.

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It's odd to experience such conflicting emotions over the same project. That being said, we had a fun celebration party tonight commemorating Dead Noon's release. We ate dinner, signed each other's copies, joked about the cover art and watched the special features, including my beloved deleted scenes. It was a great capstone to an interesting chunk of our lives we will now refer to as Done Noon.

It's About Time

Ladies and Gentlemen... the moment you have all been waiting for has finally arrived. Dead Noon has come out at Wal-Mart/Best Buy/Blockbuster for you to Rent/Buy/Get copies for all of your friends. Are you required to buy it if you are my friend? Yes! Does it matter that it is R rated? No! Do I care if you are strapped for cash? Not really. This is Hollywood people. It's what's really important.
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All joking aside, our movie is FINALLY being released on DVD today. It has been a project years in the making. Everyone involved worked on this movie for free and despite freezing our you- know-whats off in the middle of a Wyoming winter, we had a blast doing it. We made this movie for $4,000 and miraculously sold it to Lionsgate. If any of you know film, you understand that a $4,000 budget is so low it's pretty much unheard of, but Dead Noon had enough magic to catch Lionsgate's attention and for that we are proud, happy and grateful. The studio made some changes we didn't agree with, but we are looking only at the positive, which is Dead Noon has gone further than any of us thought possible when we headed out to Wyoming with a partially finished 45 page script in hand.
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Here is the Lionsgate Trailer of Dead Noon for your viewing pleasure.



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