My Free PlayStation 3

I have started to conduct an experiment.

I always see those ads on the net as I search google for new links to yesterland.com (or wherever, but I had to point out yesterland.com somehow) that say that you can get a free laptop and then all it ends up being is a trick to get you into a Netflix subscription.

Well, my buddy Eric Anderson from BYU, now living the glamourous life of a filmmaker in L.A. (he actually just finished his internship at Village Roadshow), told me the other day how he is one person away from getting a free PlayStation 3. Now, you have to understand that I really, really want a PS3. Not only for the gaming experience, but for the Blu-Ray playing capability. Eric tells me that he has used these guys (the PS3 offer-ers) before to get a free iPod and his friend got a Wii and XBOX360 with it. It actually works he tells me.

So I had him explain to me how it is working for him. He needs 8 people to sign up to complete various offers, some of which include Blockbuster Online, Netflix, FreeCreditReport.com, and a few others.

"Well, how many do you need, Eric?" I said to him.

"Just one."

I signed up for Blockbuster and thus started my quest for 8 people to sign up for a free PlayStation 3. Nancy and I want to watch Season 4 of LOST before Season 5 starts on Jan.21.09 so we thought it was a good idea. I do Netflix, but haven't had the enthusiasm to reactivate my account lately. It was a good deal too. 3 movies at a time, 5 in store trade ins for $10 for the first month. You only need to sign up for one month to make your deal eligible for the PS3 offer so I was sold.

Well, I have about nine signed up so far with seven that have told me they have completed an offer. So theoretically it is working.

I wonder if it is the Christmas season or something, but they haven't updated my profile yet. Eric says all his other people's offers processed faster than mine.

Below you can see my progress. I will keep you all informed if it works or not. In the meantime, if you need a "free-credit-report" or some movies for a month, please sign up. The Free Credit report doesn't cost anything if you cancel within 9 days of getting the report.

this has been on my mind since October

I've been meaning to do this post since October. I know. The suspense. I was planning on Halloween, then switched to Thanksgiving. Now that harvest season is over and we have other plants in our house, let's blog about my pumpkins.

As my roommates know (and still frequently tease), I love pumpkins. At the first fall sighting, I stop and buy two; one pumpkin is for the table decor and one for outside. They are horribly overpriced in September ($.30/lb), but the fall squash only comes around once a year and I must enjoy it as long as possible. I particularly enjoy the plump, short and round versions, but above all, the stem must have some kind of personality. 

Now, when I was in college, my roommates found it a little strange that I was so obsessed (as you may be right now). They decided to name my pumpkin(s) and tease me about them (did I already mention that?) Polly was the first (she was murdered early and turned to pumpkin pie) and I believe Paul was the second. 

Then I got married. Bryce was kind enough to allow me to indulge further into my pumpkin obsession and I bought all sorts of small pumpkins and squash for my fall decor. I turned one year's favorite pumpkin into a floral arrangement at school (take note: pumpkins rot VERY quickly when filled with floral-food-water.)

Okay. Now on to the next strange background story:

I have terrible luck. Ask my sisters, brother and Dani: it's terrible. Once in the seventh grade I won a month's supply of Twix bars from Channel One. That's about as far as the luck-meter flies for me.  

Bryce, on the other hand, has great luck. He's working on winning a Sony Bravia and Playstation 3 package right now, but no bites yet.

Among his luckiest accomplishments is his ability to find twin eggs. I don't know how or why, but he has found THREE twin eggs since we've been married. T-H-R-E-E. Trust me here, HE DOESN'T DO THE BULK OF THE EGG CRACKING. I DO. And every time it has happened, I get REALLY upset. So upset that I'm not even going to post the details. And don't ask me how many I've found because then I get more upset. 

Now, the merging of these two strange stories:

I went to Smith's to buy milk one October afternoon. I was so excited to see the pumpkins even though our house was filled with all sorts of varieties. Then I saw one of those cool, round, stem-owning pumpkins and I just had to take a look. As I picked it up, it was ATTACHED TO ANOTHER PUMPKIN. It was a TWIN pumpkin. Lets just say that was one of my luckiest moments. 

Another lucky moment: when the guy in line said, "Wow, I wish I had found that first."

Another lucky moment: when my husband said, "Wow, what a lucky day."

And so here I post a picture of my prized pumpkin. His name was Michael Scott, in honor of Season 2's Halloween episode.  I just took the picture the other day, so it is sad that the stem ended up splitting.  

But that is about as twin egg as I'm ever gonna get. So thanks, Mike, for greeting our fall festivities and giving me a little more luck in life.

(a real) Christmas (tree) is here again

Our Christmas Tree made it home! We went to the very lovely Home Depot and picked out our tree on Saturday.  Here are some pictures.  I think the guy (who was very nice) thought I was crazy for taking pictures during the process, but when I'm buying a $30 plant that only lasts one month, I need to capture every moment of it.

On the way home (a slow process), Derek discovered that one of the strings was tied tight enough to make a note. It was hilarious. 

And this is a shot from our balcony. I love how the tree is almost as big as the car. Now I need to post a picture of it decorated. Only one guess on the color scheme!

D- Street

Florida? Really? Really.

Yes. It's true.

We finally are going to make it to visit Mike & Heidi in Florida.

Dani (Dunaway) Rowan told us about this site called AirFareWatchDog.com. They have unbelievably awesome fares. I set up my RSS Feed reader in my MAC OS X Mail program to download them whenever a new one is released. Lately they have been sending me some great fares ($100 RT to Detriot, $180 RT to Rhode Island, etc.) and then we got one for $160 RT to Tampa from SLC. So we talked to Mike and Heidi and made our trip. WE'RE GOING TO FLORIDA!!! In the middle of February! Goodbye to the snow, HELLO to the beach!

We have a lot we want to do and we will be there for 8 days total. An old boss of mine at Disney Studios got us some tickets to Disney World too... and so we want some advice about that and Florida in general. Of course Mike and Heidi will plan days because we want to see where they live, go to the beach, eat where they like to, and all that. But we have never been before (I do not count my 4 hour layover in Miami coming home from Rio de Janeiro as a real visit, though it was amazing to be back in the USA again.) We need some advice on what to do or see, especially at Disney World. Any ideas?

The best Halloween picture

The best Halloween picture
Originally uploaded by bryce.randle

Derek was pretty excited to be out and about.

At first he flipped out. He did not understand that the person he just got candy from was about to close the door, forcing him to go on to the next house. He was like "Wait, they just had a whole bowl of that stuff! Why are we leaving?"

After about 3 houses he was down with it. Jennifer was Jesse and Derek was Woody. As you can see, he is sporting some tootsie pops. They accessories allowed us to keep him in his costume.

Booya.

Derek and Dad Hang Out

This was taken about 2 months ago. I was trying to show Clay that we were excited for him to come home.

Open Wide

Okay Shark. This one is for you.

We made this video a few days ago and now that we are going blogging crazy, we decided to post it.

Open wide everyone.

How Many 5 Year Olds Can I Beat Up?

25

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Online Dating

You missed Mormon Mythellaneous? No worries.

Here is a short video on how to watch Mormon Mythellaneous on KSL.com.

The Hula/Pluto

Our favorite thing that Derek does (for the day) is his Pluto impression. He also really likes Little Einsteins so we find him copying them a lot. Here is a taste of both.

Excuses, Excuses

It's an easy way to blog, posting a video without much of a description. It's pretty much like neglecting your journal for months and then pasting in a concert's ticket stub and writing "I did this. Remember?"

While I feel like I do have a legitimate excuse for not paying much attention to blogging, I don't think that is a valid excuse for neglecting to write what has been going on for my own reflection.

This will probably be random, so you'll have to look past that.

My Latest Disney Experience (the studio, not the park)

About 4 weeks ago I was sitting at my desk, working hard on a project, when my cell phone rang. It was a 424 area code. I didn't recognize the number. I answered. It was a technology staffing company. They found my resume, from July 2007, on Monster.com. I have the mention that just about anyone that calls me because they found my resume on Monster.com "has a great opportunity for me in the insurance sales department." I nearly blew the guy off. Well, I am glad I didn't.

He was calling trying to get me to apply for a Digital Media Engineer position they were staffing at ABC/Disney. I gave him a resume and a cover letter and after a few days he basically told me that I was not in the running for the position. Nancy was relieved. After having moved twice in the past 4 months, we weren't exactly looking forward to possibly having to do it again, even though we were happy for a great opportunity with good pay and full benefits.

K. Now hold on a second. Some people wonder why I don't just get a full time job with benefits in Utah? The answer is that I haven't had a great offer and I really like working for myself here. Now, if and when we go to California at some point in our lives is a different story all together, but the reason would be to work on something more substantial or just to go back to Disney.

Back to the story.

Well, this recruiter led me to believe I wasn't going to get an interview, but about a week later his boss called me and asked if I could be in Burbank in 4 days. We drove down on Sunday, stopped in Vegas to eat an In n Out Burger with my parents, who were there on BYU business at a blogging conference. We kept going and got to our hotel in Anaheim.

We decided that it would be just as much for me to fly down and back in one day as it would for us all go for a few days and enjoy our Disneyland Annual Passes before they expire this month (10/10/08). We had a fun time. We will expound more on that throughout the next few posts. It was my first time pin trading and I enjoyed it. We had some great food and we even won a special treat to stay in the park after closing hours.

I had my interview. I was one of four to be interviewed. It was a good interview. I think I did a really good job. I found out this past week though that I did not get the job (after more than a week of waiting to hear back). It's really okay though. While I was there, I kind of decided that I would take the job if I got it, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. I would use it as a means to an end so I could meet more people on the lot. The other bummer about it was that the job was at the Burbank Tower and not on the actual lot. Other offers and opportunities will come up though and the staffing company liked me a lot. So that's good news.

After my interview I went to the lot to visit some people from my internship. It was at 5 so not many were around. I got to meet up with Lance Stubblefield, who I had only talked to on the phone or via e-mail. He is a BYU film alumni who works on LOST and has been giving me some great advice. I questioned him about the workflow of the show and what his job entailed. Very cool. Very interesting. I think I am going to keep bugging Lance for future jobs. He was very nice and generous to let me come bother him for an hour.

Well, we are back home now. Working hard. I just finished a 6 month project for Hockey Player Magazine, 50 Ways to Score More Goals. Cammon shot it. We had a fun time on this one. We got Luc Robitaille to be in it and Brian Engblom reviewed it for us. He was really impressed. Check out the link here: http://store.hockeyplayer.biz/50watoscmogo.html

I am now finishing the old video, 101 Hockey Tips. We are transforming it to 50 Hockey Tips and 50 More Hockey Tips for a pitch to Wal Mart for distribution via HaleStorm's distribution company. So that's exciting.

I start freelancing/part-timing it for the LDS Church Motion Picture Studio in a week. I am excited to be back on their systems, an Avid editing system. Avid is used only by a few of my clients and is also the one that is typically used on feature films. I recently purchased it the upgrade for my computer, but most of my clients want me working on Final Cut Pro so they can archive their own projects on their system. No problem though. I like Final Cut Pro too.

So that's what is going on... lately.

Spoon on the Nose

Derek and I were doing this for a while. He thinks it is pretty funny.

Yet another obsession.

Bryce and I were watching Leno on Monday and this commercial came on.  With the TiVo considered a part of the family, it is rare for us to actually be watching commercials.  But this is a good one. 

Anyway, please watch and avoid making fun on me because of my (perhaps) equal obsession with the color red.  Ha. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6xU9l8Vw9o

We could probably ignore the red permed hair. 

Anyway, here is a picture of the living room (in our old apartment).  Do you agree?  

Let it be known that I did pay extra for a red Dyson.  A yellow one would clash, doncha think?

my musical void

So there really are a lot of things to talk about, but today I will just talk about my now fulfilled musical void.

Bryce, Derek & I traveled to California this week (it's a long drive.  I realize drives to other places are longer, but this one was pretty long) and listened to over 20 hours of music.  Once again, I realized how much The Killers have filled a void in my life that I didn't know about until our introduction several years ago.  

Those of you who know me understand my passion for U2, Collective Soul, the Goo Goo Dolls & U2 (did I say that already?)  I somehow made it though several years of my life thinking that these bands (sprinkled with others, of course) were enough to keep me going.  But now I know that there was a place for another true love.  

I must thank my fellow family members (Brady, Mike, Heidi) for the eye-opening.  And for All the Things that (They've) Done.  

The Killer's new album, Day & Age, is scheduled for a November release.  Their new single, Human, is on the radio and streaming at thekillersmusic.com

Ah, may the good music always continue. 

I Love the Office

Where's Grandpa?

I was working on the documentary called Mormon Mythallaneous this morning when Derek decided to sit in the director's chair. My dad is one of the featured interviews in this piece so Derek always likes to watch when Grandpa is on. 

I decided to play a little game with it today and use F11 on my iMac (the exposé feature) to make Grandpa disappear. I got him saying "Grandpa" which is mostly just "Pa." That's pretty exciting, right?

too many things

So our new condo has those vaulted ceiling shelves in the living room and master bedroom.  You know, the place where people put all of their cool things?  Well, this is the first time that we have lived in a place that has such a thing.  So despite the fact that we filled up a 25-foot truck when we moved, I feel like I must be on the hunt for anything to fill up this space.  

As I was a searchin', I found this cool thing on Pottery Barn.  Seriously, I think it is totally cool. 

It's on sale for $59.99, a bargain since it was $129.  Would this be the perfect addition to my covered-space-craving-shelf?  Oh yes.  My little hunting eye will have to keep checking back.

The bummer, you ask?  I was googling around to see what other kind of similar contraptions I could find and I came across someone's opinion about "what lame thing will Pottery Barn think of next" in regards to my new feathered friend.  Please, just tell me that my taste isn't crazy because I like birds in wire form.

And to Jessica, who is terrified by feathered friends, I will put it away when you come to visit.  When is that, anyway?

Derek's Little Girlfriend

Our good friends Mike and Claire had their baby girl today.  They named her Abby Claire (cute, huh?)  We're so excited!

Mike (everyone calls him Michael now) and I grew up together in Michigan.  We have been very good friends since then.  We both served missions in Brazil and we both had our internships in Los Angeles in 2006.  We are very happy to say that they aren't sick of us yet since we still love hanging out with them.  You can imagine how happy we are for them that they have a new addition to the family.  Congrats guys!  We love ya!



Here is a picture of Mike and Abby hanging out. Mike likes to play a hiding game with his wedding ring with Derek. Nancy was joking around that in this picture she is already eyeing his ring down so that she can start playing too.

(Nancy's note:) We hope that Claire continues to feel well and they get some well-deserved sleep tonight.  Congrats, again.  Michael Phelps should share a gold medal with Abby for one-day-old-cuteness. 

Here are some pics from the past:


We went to Disneyland together when our internships ended. Mine with Disney, Mike's with Boeing.  Claire's bro, Adam, and sis-in-law, Lindsay, came along.



This was when I gave Mike and Claire the studio tour at Disney in Summer 2006.



This is us in Brazil with Mike's parents.  This was taken near the São Conrado neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro.

Everyone please remember, this was taken shortly after my Amoeba. Okay, so marriage and "the real world" have allowed to me gain a few pounds.  

Bryce's Look Alikes

Derek Celebrity Look Alikes

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Geneology

Ewok Love

I found this on youtube.com today. I have to say it surprised me. Especially the "guest pastor."

Derek's Zoo Sounds

Finally. I had to re export it and then upload it as a different file on YouTube.com.

Spring Ad

Here is an ad I did a few months back. I just uploaded it for a reel of mine so I thought I would post it here.

our new pad and the 4-1-1

We have a new address and I (Nancy) got a new phone number.  In an effort to get the word out, I thought to do an info post.  Email/post a comment if you want/need it.  Thanks!  

Here is a picture of the condos we are moving to plus the floor plan.  The condos are right behind the BMW dealership off the freeway in Pleasant Grove.  The real shame is that I will have to drive by my dream 530i on a regular basis.  A royal shame. 

The Good News

So we found a place to live. 

It's a condo in PG. It has a clubhouse, a pool, a basketball court, a fitness room, and it's really nice. I felt a little "hoity toity" (is that how you spell that?) moving into a nice place, but the price is close to or equal to nearly every decent 3 bedroom in town.  

We told our current landlords that we would be out August 1. The only problem with that is I used most of my moving favors about 8 weeks ago. 

Sigh.

On the move, again

That's right. We are moving again. 

We have lived here for about 6 weeks and yesterday our landlord's daughter (our landlord is on a mission in the Philippines) showed up with a rental termination notice. So we are out. We did sign a month to month contract because it worked out better for everyone involved. 

We are looking at some places right now and have even turned in an application to live in a condo in PG. It's just sad that we just moved and have to move again. Poor Derek. He just got used to being here. He even walks over to his Grandma's in his PJs in the morning to say hi. 

We will keep you posted.

for our friend, Adam.

Our friend Adam informed us that he is thirsty for some Randle Re-Run.  Get out your empty mugs because this one is going to be good.  

Adam gave a shout out to Bryce's new blog yesterday and now I must comment on his spouse:

So, Adam, I have to tell you, your wife can cook.  Have you people seen her blog?  Totally inspiring.  I was in Williams Sonoma today (more on that in a minute) and could only think of her and the awe-inspiring treats she not only makes, but she takes pictures and posts instructions.  You must tell Becky that she deserves another freedom day medal.  

So it was because of Becky I went to Williams Sonoma and because of Claire's mom Jalayne (it is so unfortunate she doesn't have a blog) I bought a tapered rolling pin (pictured), a pastry cloth and a rolling pin cover.  We were over one Sunday afternoon at the Bangerter home and had a piece of Jalayne's rhubarb pie.  W-O-W.  It was delicious.  But it was beyond the concept of rhubarb and sugar; it was the crust.  It was unlike anything I had ever seen, let alone eaten.  I had to know the secrets (there had to be multiple to taste THAT good.)

Now my family can cook.  Seriously.  We have one mean apple pie that obviously has one mean pie crust.  This is not a damper on our Thanksgiving baking, it is just a way to improve what is already amazing.

Jalayne's secret, she says?  It's not in the recipe (even though I made her give it to me), but in the method.  You mix the crust in a bowl with a wooden spoon, then move it straight to a small airtight container.  Then use your pastry cloth that has been in the freezer, roll out only the dough needed (keeping the rest in the airtight container), and use a tapered rolling pin.  It is all in an effort to not emit heat that melts the fat in the dough.  Then when it is in the oven, the fat particles expand in between the flour, making for a thick, flaky crust.  

Anyway, I bought the tools yesterday and plan on making the best homemade chicken pot pie on this side of the Mississippi.  If it turns out ANYTHING like that rhubarb pie, I'll take pictures and post instructions.  But if not, I'll just have to write another post about how Becky and her amazing abilities.  

Lilly on the news

I have been meaning to put this up for nearly two months. 

What happened to those Randles? (The pics)

Take me out to the game, Dad. It was his first pro sports game. 

Lovin' the hat... I think. 

I can't believe we actually won something.

Fun time at the game. Too bad we missed them pull of the win. We were all very tired though.

Just us with the two. Very fun. 

Disney Visa card members only!

This was a fun one to take. I have one in this car with my brothers when I was 13 or so. Had to get this picture. 

Being amazed with Casey Jr. 

In line for Peter Pan. I love this shot of us. 

Nap time. Too bad he missed the private meet and greet. 

Derek could stay here for hours. He loves the petting zoo. He got this shirt on the lot -- Walt Disney Studios. 

He did this a few times at DLR. It was hilarious. This is looking at Buzz. 

Derek is napping as we waited for the Pixar Play Parade to start. 

This is a cute picture of them. Derek is pointing and saying "Hey Dude!"

Our happy family. 

A fun part about being a dad at Disneyland. Look how much he enjoys it all. 

Nancy enjoys our Raspberry Lemonade. 

What happened to those Randles?

We are always leaving things early.

Even when we probably showed up late.

Well, that's the way we feel lately. Ever since we started our move to this new place back on May 21st, we have not felt the same. We have felt rushed, unorganized, and a bit stressed. 

As you can see, I wrote a blog about the first day of our trip, but I never returned to the trip journal. Somehow we got to St. George and then I wrote about diving boards. How completely random. 

We started to move out of our old place on 800 E on May 21. We had some problems with dates and details with our landlords. I won't really get into that, but it was a bit stressful and it was an awkward experience. All in all, we got moved in a day later than we were planning.  Oh well.

It was fine. It would have been even better though if we weren't up moving in until 1 am. We got up at 4:15 am and got ready to leave on our trip. My dad took us to the airport (Thanks, Dad!) and we were off. 

Now I must explain that the reason we decided to go on this trip at this time that we got to go to this wedding in Phoenix. Nancy's good friend and old roommate, Jessica, was going to be married in Mesa on the 31st of May. We decided that I should stop by the studio, say hi, catch up, and then head over to Disneyland for a day so that our vacation wasn't just in Phoenix. It ended up being $20 extra per person to fly from SLC to LA to PHX to SLC rather than round trip SLC to PHX. So we squashed two trips into one. 

So, back to the flight. Derek, suffering from being in a new location during the night, did not too hot on the airplane. We got into Burbank at about 8:30 am. After a bit of a crazy deal getting the rental car (it took an hour, but ended up being okay because Derek got a nap while I waited), we hit Portos. 

Portos is a Cuban Bakery on Hollywood Way and Magnolia in Burbank that I was introduced to by my boss at Disney. It is really, really good.  This time I had a croissant with bacon, egg, and cheese and Nancy got a ham and cheese lunch croissant -- not to forget the dellicious strawberry croissant.  It's a good thing it is located in another state! Then we left and went to Disney Studios. 

At Disney I met with a few people and caught up. It was a good time. We surprised a few people and Derek caught everyone's eye. It was nice to see everyone and good to be on the lot since I really like being there. Nancy liked the studio store. They always have good things to buy that you can't get other places. 

We got in the car after our visit there and started our drive to the Disneyland Resort (DLR). Then we started to get really tired.

 Derek fell asleep before we even left Burbank. Nancy fell asleep around the merging of the I-5 and the I-10. I wanted to sleep, of course, but managed to stayed awake. 

We got into the parking garage and I was still jealous of those naps. So we pulled over and I slept for a half hour until some calls woke me up. Side information: Zion National Park called to confirm our potential job for them. I am re-editing the already existing footage from the film shot 12 years ago into a new film. I am doing this with Kurt Hale at Stone Five Studios. I am really excited about it. 

Anyway, we woke up and went to the park. We decided to do Playhouse! Disney: Live on Stage. It was SO awesome. It was recently redone and now features Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, and My Friends Tigger & Pooh. Derek likes all of those shows except the latter, which he hadn't ever watched. But the show ended up being worth the entire trip itself. Derek was dancing, clapping, laughing, and by the end of the show he had about four different mothers watching him instead of their own children! It was like some wild fantasy of his had finally come true. 

Then we left California Adventure and hit Disneyland. We always have to get the Lemonade Slushies. The most convenient spots for this item is in New Orleans Square near the dock for Pirate's Lair at Tom Sawyer's Island and on the walk between It's a Small World and the Storyland Canal Boats. I prefer the lemonade with a shot of cherry or raspberry. Anyway.

We went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Tarzan's Treehouse, and the Jungle Cruise. Derek liked Tarzan's the most. He will now pound his chest and mimc Tarzan (thanks to Aunt Jennifer!) He was cautious on Pirates. He liked going down the chutes the most. We were put on the opposite side (as opposed to the "normal side") of the boat on the Jungle Cruise. I never noticed how many animals were on the right side compared to the left. 

We left Disneyland and went to an Angels game. We decided to spice up our trip a little bit and make it a bit more unique. The Angels game was a very fun choice. We got tickets for super cheap ($15 each) from a guy that is in the Ducks group I am an admin for on facebook. They were front row, 4th level, over the Angels dugout. We took a few pictures with our camera on sports mode. I got a few of a guy making a catch. Derek liked the game, but not because of the sport. He discovered that if he threw something over the ledge, it would disappear. Luckily, he never really threw it all the way over the ledge, just the fence. He lasted 6 innings. I thought that was pretty good for a boy who was up since 5:15 MST! 

So after all of this, Derek was obviously tired. He was so good though. We were proud. Oh, we had In 'n' Out for Dinner. I forgot to mention that. 

We went to the hotel and checked in. We stayed at the Hilton Anaheim for $52 a night. I had a $10/night coupon so it was a total bargain. Bonus! We got a remodeled room and put Derek down on the bed until the crib came -- but then I turned around and he was asleep. He never sleeps in a place that isn't his crib. That was good. We all fell asleep, the crib delivery guy woke me up, I put Derek down and we had a good night sleep.

On Wednesday we got up early enough to get to the park just about when it opened. We decided to go on Peter Pan first because no matter what time of day you go, it is always busy. There was some unusual congestion at the castle, but we decided to take our time and go anyway. It was a good thing we did because won some "Year of a Million Dream" Mouse Ears. You can't buy them and they only give out a two hundred a day from what I understand. Now they are on display in my office.  Totally cool. 

Derek had a good time on Peter Pan. He was very good the whole day. (We have a good bunch of pictures on Flickr.com/photos/brycerandle ). We saw the Pixar Play Parade, did most of our favorite rides, and ate a good corn dog! 

Side note: we haven't done a lot of the big rides since before Nancy was expecting. A lot of our friends think we are so weird for going to Disneyland and not doing the "fun rides." It is such a better experience with Derek though. He makes the trip so much more fun for us. 

We decided to leave Disneyland at night, a little worn out, but still "ready for more," so that we could go swimming. It wasn't until we got to the hotel that we realized that our swimsuits were back at home. Such a bummer. That was something we were looking forward to. We ended up all going to bed by 9. 

On Thursday we hit Disneyland again, just for a ride or two and to get our souvenirs with our Disney Dollars. We got some Baja Fresh and left for Phoenix. This time we did so with a happy meal on the flight. Things went quite, well, happier. Derek was great. We got to Jessica's place, met up with Angela and Jaelynn, and were off to another adventure. 

That's it for now. It's time for church. I don't think I have ever written this much in one sitting before. That includes any college course. 

PS- I am fed up with trying to get my pictures to layout correctly so I am posting a picture narration to this post shortly afterward. 

Diving Boards

IMG_4172.JPG
Originally uploaded by bryce.randle

Sterling, my younger brother, is the best diving board jumper I know. He does a few sweet moves that blow my mind. This was taken last year during our week stay at the Bear Lake timeshare.

Yesterday we went to Riverside Country Club to swim. We can go there on Mondays for free because Natalie, Nancy's sister, is a lifeguard there. Mondays are family free days or something. I look forward to going every Monday this summer.

The best diving board in the world was Grandma Betty's diving board. It had this amazing spring to it. It was perfect. The noise it made will forever remain in my head. No diving board will ever match up to it. It wasn't slippery, it gave the perfect bounce. It didn't ever surprise your balance or your feet. No knee trembled at the sight of that diving board. (Although my chin might have. I think I jumped too close to the edge more than once. I don't think I ever whacked it, but I did in Grandma Barlow's pool jumping off the edge into the jacuzzi or something. My mother will have to comment on that).

Anyway, if you ever swim with Sterling, ask him to do his cool spin move off the diving board. It will blow your mind.

This says it all...

This says it all...
Originally uploaded by bryce.randle

This is the only group of pictures we ended up taking on our trip to Zion and St. George. 

I had to go down to view the IMAX film at Zion because I am going to do a re-edit of it with Kurt at Halestorm. 

Derek was entertaining himself while we got ready to go. At least he likes to brush his teeth.

PJ TIME!

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Originally uploaded by bryce.randle

We were in Phoenix and boy was it hot. On Thursday we had a fun day going to Disneyland, flying to Phoenix, went to In n Out Burger, and seeing Jessica's new house.
Derek fell asleep in the car on the way home from somewhere so we decided to put him in his pajamas. Now, we were so afraid to wake him and being so careful to not do so. However, he woke up and rolled around until he got comfortable again.
This picture shows exactly what position he decided to be in. It was funny for us. I was obviously joking about waking him and then put him right back to bed.
More stories to come... if we ever recover from moving...

J-J-JJJJ-ennifer

Let me interrupt what seems to be a chronological sequence of trip events for some fun Jennifer sayings.  She and her innocent humor are staying with us for a few days.  I almost died choking on my dinner tonight because I was laughing so hard.  Here is that story and a few more.

A Chipper

A short backstory: the Randle family has gone through 3 hamsters in the 7 years I have known them, the first was Clay's and they named him Chipper.  We're now on to Chipper the hamster #3.

Jennifer asked how many hamsters she has in heaven.  We explained one, but Clay, her older brother, "had a hamster named Chipper too" that she could probably claim.  She looked at me, a little distraught, and said, "My Chipper is number one."  

Two rights or three lefts?

Jennifer wanted to know which park we were going to -- right or left?  Bryce answered, "Left," and Jennifer responded, "Okay. Which one is left?"

She asked me, with her hands making Ls with her pointer and thumb, "Which one is the right L?"

Mopping up your distress

Another backstory: we moved last week.  Or two weeks ago. Or something. My house is a disaster planet. We're doing long days to try and get our lives back together.

Jennifer: "When are you going to mop the floors?"

Me: "I don't know. I think it's pretty low on my list of things to do.  Why?"

Jennifer: "Because they're pretty dirty."

We are watching her for another day, plus for another week soon, so I will have to keep a pen and paper handy.

Wow, I just had to rewrite the word "handy" about six times to not get a typo.  I have six minutes to be in bed before bedtime. Gotta split.

Part 1A: Trip to L.A. & Phoenix

We are at our hotel now, The Anaheim Hilton. Sounds rough. Oddly enough, we stayed here via Priceline.com a few months ago. We were not impressed. So when we pricelined this hotel again, we asked for the recently remodeled room. I will post pictures soon of the room. It is great. There is a 32 inch or so flat screen LG LCD screen, a king size bed, a nice desk, and our hotel is on the northeast corner. That means we have a view of the park and of Angel Stadium.

Anyway, the whole point of me staying up to write this was to tell a few things that people said to us about Derek today. 

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"He's cute. Did you make it?" 

This was said to Nancy in the bathroom of Angel Stadium as she was changing his poopy diaper. (Earlier, I posted that the question was "Did you make him?" I was so tired last night that I messed up the story). 

"He's so cute. Is he auditioning?"

I heard this in the elevator of the Disney Studio. No, we weren't auditioning. However, Derek was ready to bark at any squirrel on the campus. 

Pictures and more stories to come, plus updates on our new home. 

Where's Rocket?

Where's Rocket?
Originally uploaded by bryce.randle

Derek loves "Little Einsteins". We caught him looking for his bath toy "Rocket" the other day. Well, Nancy was doing her hair so he wasn't trying to be that sneaky.

This is the sweet life

This is the sweet life
Originally uploaded by bryce.randle

I know, I know. I am a bad parent for putting my kid in front of the TV for some time in the morning. He gets some crackers, milk, his blanket, and then he wants to watch a Little Einsteins episode. Today he watched his Disneyland Fun Sing Along Songs DVD. I was on the phone with Rimage about the duplicator (getting a new drive for free- again) and I came out and he was comfortably watching this DVD- upside down. He knew I thought it was funny so he stayed until Nancy got out of bed to see him.

Nancy's new haircut

Nancy's new haircut
Originally uploaded by bryce.randle

Nancy wanted a new haircut so she got it done and then was having a hard time doing it the next day. So she went to another place and got it done again. She came home with this haircut. I think it looks great. She has her 5 Year High School reunion this weekend. She is one of the reunion planners so we decided that it needed to look good.
What do you think?

Derek watching Jennifer play Build a Bear

Derek watching Jennifer play Build a Bear
Originally uploaded by bryce.randle

Jennifer loves to play Toontown and get on Build a Bear's website. She doesn't understand that Derek doesn't really care. Well, he doesn't most of the time. Today, Mother's Day, after we talked to Clay, he seemed partially interested. He stood still for a few seconds and then decided to slam the keyboard.

We had a good mother's day. I hope everyone else did. I got Nancy a Canon Rebel xTi, just like my mom's and Cammon's. I am not sure if Ginna has the same one or not too. I found a good deal from Amazon.com.

Please subscribe to my Flickr pictures. I love getting comments on them and I do try to post some fun pictures as often as I can.

Derek and a Hockey Stick

Derek knows how to walk. That doesn't mean that he does it. He can stand up straight. He can walk with one of his hands being secured by either mine or Nancy's. Yesterday, Derek found a new piece of security to hold on to- a hockey stick. Is this a prophecy of some sort? 

Excuse my voice of an excited Dad talking to his son on this video. It was very exciting. Derek has only ever taken steps from a couch to the table. It was more of a shimmy of two steps than walking. Enjoy the video.

Just for the Record

Well friends, tonight my father-in-law, Quint, teased me, once again, about that dang car accident. He didn't even know about the mention in the post I wrote last night.  I swear to you, he will never let me live it down.  

Do I care? No. It may have taken a while, but the intimidation that Quint has tried to bestow upon me for the past seven years no longer effects me.  The only problem? I have yet to figure out what lame joke, bad mistake and/or terrible accident to always tease him about.  

Let the hunt begin.

But just for the record, even my insurance agency doesn't care about that accident anymore.  (Have I ever mentioned them? Geico? I love Geico.) 

One more reason I'm sticking with Geico

When Bryce and I got in our car accident two years ago, we depended on our Geico Auto Insurance.  Their rate was the best when we got married, and they continued to beat out any other quote by at least $100.  We even just got a $20 monthly discount.  Thanks, Bryce, for having a birthday.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I'm not that opinionated.  Or sarcastic.  But I promise I will never switch insurance because of the awesome service we received.  Seriously.  It was above and beyond what I ever expected.  

Anyway, beyond the awesome insurance, I LOVE their current advertising campaign.  I could do without the cave men from the past, for sure, but their current celebrity campaign is of Target genius.  Here is the one we saw tonight while watching Leno.  It's killer awesome.

And please, for the record, please don't confuse the car accident I referenced here with the time I totaled my boyfriend's dad's car.  Oh, and yes, he did turn out to be my father-in-law.  Somehow he still hasn't forgiven me for that.  If you don't know that story, once again, you probably don't know me very well.  

This time it was a different inexperienced teenage girl who totaled our car.  But please note it wasn't icy. Or hilly. 

Dang it, Quint.  I'm even defending myself on my own blog!  

A few random things tonight...

I've had a few random things on my mind. I have wanted to blog about all of these different things, but I am not sold on each of the ideas. Apparently I have been tagged on Joellen's blog, but I never got a notice from her. I saw it on her blog eventually. I guess I will have to do that tonight too.

1. I hate Ryan on "The Office." I have always thought he was a prick. Tonight he really drove me crazy. I will leave it at that for those of you who haven't watched it yet.

2. I have wanted to blog about one of my favorite groups on facebook. It's called "Awkward Engagement Pictures Rock my Socks" or something to that effect. Here are a few of the reasons why I like it:

Exhibit A) Please notice the pictures loaded on this post. These pictures are merely promoting the group itself and not used with permission of the couple, even though the group claims so.

Exhibit B) I love to read people's comments on the photos. 

Exhibit C) There will always be more photos added to the site because there will always be people uncomfortable with themselves.

I have also wanted to write about More Tips on Going to Disneyland, but I am not sure how much my other tips people will really take to heart. The other advice I would offer is about why we fly down.

I still like Desmond the most from LOST. 

Magleby's Fresh is my new favorite restaurant in Utah Valley. 

I got the best birthday cards for Clay and Sterling. I want to write about them, but it would ruin the surprise. Sterling will have to blog about it in 7 weeks. 

We move in 3 and a half weeks. (That was for you, Shark!)

My RSS feed feature of my Mac Mail wouldn't download any new feeds for about 6 weeks. One night I opened my mail and I had about 115 new blog posts to read. 

I just started editing "50 Ways to Score More Goals." I just finished logging it yesterday. I have started to sync the multiclips today. I am about half way done there. I would like to devote more time to it, but I don't get paid for it until it is all done. I am trying to squeeze it in throughout render times and burning sessions. 

That's all for now folks. I hope to see Ironman soon. I am glad it got good reviews. 

Let me know which topic you want to hear more about. 

22min cut of Mormon Myths

new cut. Ignore the music. It is a bit longer.

Mormon Mythellaneous

Extremely rough. No b roll. Let me know what you think of the subject matter. I should have a nicer version in a few days.
First title is a bit long because it is actually a placeholder for the host. So there ya go!

Disneyland Our Way: The First of Many Ideas.

If you know us at all, you know that we go to Disneyland quite a bit. Quite a bit meaning since we were married three years ago, we have gone at least 7 times. That does not include the roughly weekly visits while I had my internship at Walt Disney Pictures in the summer of 2006. Some must think we are crazy. Some ask us how we can afford it. Some want to go with us. Well, here are a few tips on how we can go on a trip to Disneyland for a reasonable price.

- Buy a Deluxe annual pass. Sadly for a family of 4+ this probably doesn't sound like very much fun to pay for. At $250 a piece, they get expensive. However, If you buy a three day pass for everyone in your party (I think it is roughly $140 each or $110 each for a 2 day pass) and go once a year, the year pass is a better option. Plan a trip once a year like you normally do. Let's say you go on October 1, 2008 and buy your pass. Plan your next annual trip to be inside the year window. Your second trips cost will dramatically go down because by that time the illusion of your tickets being "free" will have set in. The passes also get you discounts on food, a mere 10%, but that adds up across a two or three day stay.

- Use Priceline.com . I cannot stress this enough. Hotels around the Anaheim Resort area can tend to seem really expensive. Location is everything. People can pay $120 a night at the Best Western across the street. The hotels smell of smoke, parking is terrible, and so on. While they have never really been within a comfortable walking distance (with one exception), we have been very pleased with all of them.

Here are a few examples:

- Holiday Inn, $40/night. Two and a half stars.
- The Hilton Suites, $52/night. Three stars.
- The Hilton (twice), $52/night. Three stars.
-Candlewood Suites, $35/night. Two and a half stars.
- Grand Hyatt (our first time using priceline), $70/night.
- Quality Inn, $40/night. Two stars.

There are taxes and what not associated with the price so it really ends up being $5-$7 more a night, but that's a steal compared to paying face value.

A Disney Rewards Visa Card. So the 1% rewards rate doesn't look so great. I end up putting a lot of businesses expenses on the card and every couple months they have a promotion for 3% rewards in certain categories. Usually our rewards we get pays for the food we eat at the park. In the past couple trips we got some bonus rewards on accident from a customer service call so we were able to do character breakfasts.

That's all I feel like posting at the moment. Let me know other questions you have about the way we do things. I hope this gave some good insight and hopefully you can save a little bit next time you go.

It's apparent you're a parent when. . .

So, Nancy here. Do you remember those Family Circus cartoons called "It's apparent you're a parent when. . . "? I remember reading them as an eight-year-old-child-or-so and pretending I knew what they meant. I'm not so much a comic reader these days, but my college roommates make up for it (yes Dani, Angela, I'm talking about you two.) They always kept me up on the funny ones and do I dare admit? the soap opera ones. Hilarious.

Anyway, sorry about that tangent. This post is in honor of those childhood days when you never knew certain things about being a parent. And this post is certainly not about how I know everything... heavens, no. This is about some of the things that I have learned since the day Derek was born. Some of these things are the obvious, I understand, but I feel that their new addition into my life is at least worth a blog post.

1. You buy so many tissues. In travel, upright, and bulk, we have tissues. At least enough for today. This may have to do with my obsession to make sure that Derek always has a clean nose, but I had NO IDEA how many tissues I would purchase in one winter with one child. It's insane. The boxes are all over the house (sometimes more than one in a room) and the travel packs are all over the car, my purse, and Bryce's computer bag. Tissues are everywhere -- snot is not.

2. Your house can transform from a pretty clean state to an utter disaster in about 2.4 minutes. I have a routine to clean up Derek's toys while he takes a nap in the morning and one in the afternoon. But somehow after those 2.4 minutes since he woke up have passed, I step on some sort of sharp object. Never fails.

3. No WONDER my mother hates doing laundry. Hello!? I swear that our washer and dryer are always going. Oh, and Oxy Clean is sent from heaven. I thought folding my own laundry as an elven-year-old was bad. No way. Folding laundry blows.

4. Thank heavens for Teddy Grahams and Goldfish. These two buddies have been a very recent addition to my shopping list, but they always seem to make Derek happy. The brilliant idea for crackers to have smiley faces is one I wish was on my track record. Gotta love cheese and graham baked into one small bite.

5. Light blue minky blankets are better than me. It doesn't matter what the competition, Derek's blue blanket is much more loved than his mother. The picture here is of Derek in the bathtub this morning upset because he couldn't bring his blanket with him. Sometimes it's hard to be one. You should have seen him when I had the brilliant idea to let him help me put it in the laundry. He sat in for 20 minutes whining to the washer for taking away his best friend. It was awesome.

"Mornin' Dad"

Tonight I am going to write about my dad. Sterling and I were having a chat and a few of my dad's signature phrases came to mind. So lets go through a couple of things.
Dad's Best Phrases or One-Liners

1. "Well, there is some truth to that."
This is something that usually comes up when I tell Dad something that either annoys or upsets me. I can tell he doesn't completely agree with me or want to come full on to my side of whatever disagreement I have, but he is trying to be help me out. It's one my favorite dad sayings.

2. "Love ya, bud." (pat pat pat, rub rub rub, pat pat pat)
My brothers and I like to mimic this back patting to each other as a joke, but what it really means is "remember how dad does this..." I don't know if he got this from his dad or what, but we have a good time with it. You know you have done well when Dad gives you this message.

3. "Welcome to the real world"
This is really the only one that sometimes drives us bonkers. Dad is trying to help, but this one always seems to add a slight sting. Ouch! But I think this is part of his responsibility as a parental figure.

My dad is quite the superhero. The other night someone from High School was asking about how dad can do music and BYU at the same time. I laughed. Lately Mom has decided to restrict Dad's latest business idea, but it isn't like he should be bored until then.

Dad is not only a BYU Communications professor who gets a lot of work published, but he is also a business owner. Dad is one of the owners of DrumsonDemand.com. He spends a bit of time doing that. He also is in a band called Joshua Creek. We joke around that Joshua Creek's target market is women age "24-54." A colleague of Dad's, Dale Cressman, added to that "who have breastfed." I find that hilarious because it is true. Dad is also into bees. Growing up he worked in that "field" (no pun intended) for some time and in the past two years he has continued that dream occupation. He also stills owns Hockey Player Magazine, which I run now, but he still involves himself with random phone calls.

I try to be more like my dad. He has a very interesting background and I like to learn more about his childhood. I love it when he starts to explain his songs, stories, and give light to experiences he has had. He may be involved with so many things, but he is still my dad. He is a good grandpa to Derek and a great dad to both of us.

"Love ya, dad."