Down time after CHA is a good thing

It's been a such a good couple of days! It's been nice to be back and to have some down time after the show. I'm getting my fill of Claire and loving every minute of it! This afternoon Katie, Claire and I headed over to DI to find some frames for a little project for Katie's house. While there, we found this sweet pair of little cowboy boots that were too cute to pass up! Katie also found the coolest little school desk that was a total steal at $12!!! I can't wait til Claire's big enough to use it!
My friend that I made in the hallway as we were waiting for Paris Hilton to arrive at CHA emailed me his pics of Paris this morning! Two reasons why I love these pictures:
1 • See that guy in the left picture? He was my CHA crush. (See Situation # Dos.) I'm keeping my fingers he doesn't see this post.
2 • I love that my hallway friend followed through and emailed the pictures! I was kind of nervous he'd forget, but it just goes to show that there are nice people out there! This makes me happy.
(Photos courtesy of Bruce Korr)

In political news, Blago is out! What kind of a crazy person defends himself during his own impeachment trial? I'm so not politically savvy, but know enough that you don't pull a crazy move like that and expect it to go over very well. I would put a pic of Blago up, but he's kind of creepy lookin, and we just don't need any of that around here.

Fact: Taxi Drivers in Anaheim are kinda weird.

We caught a taxi for our dinner appointment last night and had quite a fact-filled drive! He was kind of a weird old man who apparently has 1500 acres in Tahoe and will be retiring this year. (Where'd the money come from for that??!) He gave us the inside scoop on the best and worst conventions:

• Best Looking People: Natural Products Convention (all very health conscience people)
• Ugliest Dressers: Nurses Convention (they're all in scrubs)
• Most Uptight: Helicopter Convention (they're there to spend millions)
• Snootiest People: Doctors Convention (they don't make small talk)
• Most Alcohol Consumed/Funnest People: NAM (National Association of Music) (they let loose and can have a fun time)

He wasn't too familiar with CHA attendees, so he couldn't really fit us into a category. We told him that we were from Utah and he immediately told us that he'd never go back there again. Apparently he used to live in Salt Lake and was fired from his job because he wasn't LDS...whatev. I have a hard time believing that.

We're at LAX waiting for our flight. Be home at midnight tonight. Can't believe the show is already over! I'm ready for my own bed.

Leave it to Lindsay...

(Above: Some of our ribbon on display at the show. I love the colors and I love the cute little flower charm that they come with!)

Most Embarrassing and Awkward Moment at CHA (MEAMCHA) award goes to...me! I don't know how I manage to get into these awkward situations. I think awkward should be my middle name.

Situation # Uno: Josh, Ashlee and I were in the hallway waiting for Paris to arrive. One of our manufacturers walked by, so we started talking with them (we'll call them "Graic" and "Yann") about the madness surrounding Paris' appearance. "Yann" told us that she had a gift from one of their friends back in Canada that she needed to give to Paris, but was too embarrassed to carry it around, so she kept it in her bag until she could actually give it to Paris. Hesitantly, "Yann" let us see what the gift was: a bra bag and panty pack from The Brag Company! Curious about what the inside of these gifts looked like, I unzipped the panty pack and to my surprise found a pair of panties! Thinking that was kind of awkward, I said something stupid like, "Oh...they must include a panty to get you started!" "Yann" quickly grabbed the bag from my hands and was so embarrassed because apparently they were her panties! Because the product was manufactured across the border and to avoid any problems at customs, "Yann" had to act as though the bra bag and panty pack were her personal travel products. Imagine if Paris had gotten these "gifts" with a pair of panties in them!

Situation # Dos: At the last three shows I've been to, I always see this guy who is a retailer that looks like Tom Cruise and Clark Kent/Superman and find him to be kind of attractive, but never would do anything about it...he's kind of just my CHA "crush" if you will. Josh spotted him coming towards our booth this afternoon and decided he was going to become friends with him. Josh started talking with him and told him how I've (as he points me out) seen him at the last few shows and have my own nickname for him! Josh also found out that he's married, but doesn't wear his ring... peculiar, right? I think I turned bright red, "nervous neck" took over and I now I have to find a new CHA crush. Unfamiliar with "nervous neck?" Ask me later.

Situation # Tres: Not hugely embarrassing, but still a little. This morning at the show, the fire alarm went off, so everyone had to evacuate the building. We were only outside for about a minute or two and then we were allowed back in the building, so we assumed that maybe the alarm had just been accidentally tripped and not necessarily set off by smoke. We never found out what happened and I had kind of forgotten about the whole situation. Later in the afternoon, there were some ladies that I had made conversation with, and they asked if I had heard what caused the alarm to go off. Not knowing what set it off, I said, "I'm sure glad that it wasn't anything serious and that the sprinklers didn't turn on. That would've put a damper on the show!" The ladies thought I was so funny that I threw that pun in and I kinda felt embarrassed that they had actually caught my little "punny." But can you imagine if the sprinklers would've gone off?? Our booth would be a total loss because it's practically all paper and foam core!

Enough with the stories for now.

I was able to go over and see Chandice and Cam for a little while tonight! It's always fun to catch up with the Wingers! And to Cam, I love when you send me your jokes via text message...keep 'em coming! :)

That's Hottt.

It's really true. Paris Hilton was at CHA today debuting her new craft line! I know, I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true! Being true to her style, she showed up almost an hour after her scheduled appearance. We were out in the main hallway waiting to see if we could see her as she was walking into the show. People were everywhere and there was security all over the place! We almost gave up on her, but then the next thing we knew, she was walking by! We became 'friends' with the few people that were around us as she was walking in, and so after she was gone, we all compared the pictures that we got of her on our cameras (what would we do without digital cameras?!?!?) and one man said he'd email me his picture that turned out really well...we'll see if he sends it! This was the best picture that I was able to get...it all happened so fast! Don't believe me she has a craft line? Here's her little promo-deal-io:
That's hot.

(the whole crew at CHA!)

Oh...and ps: be sure and check out our Pebbles blog: pebblesinc.blogspot.com. We love comments!! :)

gathering life's memories moments

Booth setup day at CHA! 12 hours later and we finally left the convention center...what a day! Brenda was convinced that we'd be done with setup by 2 at the very latest, but sure enough we were there til about 7:30. I thought that things were going well, until I started putting up the vinyl that has our Pebbles 'bi-line,' which is supposed to read, "gathering life's moments" but I must've ordered, "gathering life's memories." Oops. Moments, memories...same thing, right?

I am so excited about our booth and this product release! More pictures to come.

And ps...I'm not crying! I was laughing because we just recently changed our bi-line and I could not remember it to save my life. I thought that for sure I had it right on everything, but apparently I had missed one!

Umm...come again??

I was unable to watch the inauguration of our new president, but I was able to listen to it on the radio as I picked Katie and Claire up from the airport. While Obama was not my choice for president, I will say a little prayer for him tonight to have the courage and wisdom to lead the country in the right direction. I will also say a prayer for the outgoing president--a prayer of thanks for all he's done to keep this country safe for the last several years. It was quite a sight to see the 'sea of humanity' that showed up to show their support for our new president.

The little blunder during the swearing in oath and that UGE bow-thing on Aretha's hat were not high points during the inauguration, but what about that benediction? That was just kind of weird. Especially the last part:

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. ... Amen! Amen! Amen!" In case you missed it, click HERE.

Umm...come again?? Katie and I were just laughing and wondering if he was really saying those things, especially during the inauguration!

As I've thought about the day's events, the one line that I keep repeating in my mind is (surprisingly) from the benediction. As Lowrey was praying for unity he said, "we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity,...to turn to each other and not on each other." Loved that. After all, "He's got the whole world in His hands." (Also from the benediction.)

So Busy!

Work is so super busy right now! Running errands, building a booth, getting a catalog put together, press checks, sending emails, taking photos...the list continues! We're getting ready to go down to CHA next week in Anaheim and have soo much to do before we go! Somehow it always comes together, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will somehow get done. A lot of hard work has gone into this by everyone and I think it's going to pay off.

I think that I am most excited about the new product releases for this show...pictures to follow soon! Everything (so far) is turning out just perfect, so we'll see what the response is at the show! :)

Really?

I found this rather amusing. While zipping a file this morning at work, the little progress window popped which tells you how long it'll take to process the task. I didn't think much of it, until I saw that it was going to take about 2,023,406,814 hours to finish zipping the file! It's a good thing that the 2+ billion hours is almost up...I'd be waiting for a loooong time.

Oh...and 2+ billion hours = about 231,000 years.

Jack vs. James

Jack Bauer vs. James Bond. Who is superior? I got a text from mom the other night that read "OK...so we have a little discussion going on...it is not about Batman or Superman...it is about James Bond or Jack Bauer...James or Jack...Jack or James...that is the question!" I'm sure the "discussion" she was talking about was probably a lively one between Mom and Dad with Sarah putting her 2¢ in every once in a while (Mom siding with Jack and Dad holding strong to his buddy, James)! I wish I could've been there for the discussion, and since I wasn't, here's my 2¢:
(Click on the chart to enlarge.) Sorry, Dad, but Jack totally wins this one. This was just a quick little list that I put together, and I could have continued, but I held back. I didn't even bring up the girl situation with James...he's all over the place on that one! If James and Jack had to duke it out, Jack would win, hands down!

**I just found an excellent article that is worth taking a few minutes to read. Click HERE.

On My Wish List:

One of THESE sweet snowball makers! You can make a snowball-a-second with one of these things...amazing, huh??!! We have sooo much snow right now and it seems that there's no end in sight! It also would have been nice to have one about 30 minutes ago when I might have started a little snowball fight...which turned into a big snowball fight. Oops! The snow is so perfect for snowballs right now...how could I resist??

I'm loving the snow and try to spend as much time outside in it as possible. I was over at Katie and Joe's place tonight for a little while and had the desire to go out and shovel their driveway...I thought it'd take maybe 5 or 10 minutes, but I think I was out there for at least a half hour trying to clear as much snow as possible! I'm thinking that I could make some good money clearing people's driveways in the mornings, but based on Katie and Joe's driveway, Joe will probably suggest that I stay away from that! :)

Maybe...

Maybe next time you stop by, I'll have posted something new. Until then, Happy 2009!