26 x 26

At the end of 2024, I set a goal to complete 25 obscure tasks before 2025. These were things I'd been procrastinating or that were easy to ignore. It ended up feeling amazing to get some of those things done, so I decided to do the same thing again this year. The only problem is that we are heading into 2026, so now I feel like I need to up my game to 26. But then am I stuck increasing my productivity each year? When I'm in my 60's, will I still be blogging, and will I be overwhelming myself with 43 x 43 and so on and so forth? Stick around for the next couple of decades and find out!

But while things are still manageable, here are the 26 obscure tasks I completed before 2026:

1. Scheduled a mammogram (my boobs still hurt from my last one. My initial screening wasn't bad, but I had to go back for additional imaging, and it was torture! My question is... was it the type of imaging I received the second time that hurt me? Or was it the person doing the second imaging that hurt me? I will be asking these questions at my appointment). 

2. Compiled all of Nicky's mission emails into a document (with today's technological advances, I am wondering if I did this the easy way, or if there's a more modern route I should be taking. I copied and pasted his emails into a Google doc. Is this something Alexa or Chat Oogie Boogie should be doing for me? I don't even know how to keep up anymore). 

3. Cleaned out all the food. I went through our pantry, storage room, fridge, and freezer and got rid of lots of stuff.

4. Canceled all of my Amazon subscribe & save orders. Sometimes I opt for a subscription so I can get a bonus promo. I subscribed to a lot of items during my Christmas shopping adventures, and I needed to go in and cancel them all before they shipped again.

5. Got new cpap supplies. I don’t replace anything as often as I’m supposed to. 

6. Called the pediatrician about Daisy’s back. She has complained about back problems for years but has no known cause so we are going to try some physical therapy. 

7. Took Eva and Zoe in for haircuts. One of Nicky’s best friends is going to hair school, so we took advantage of her student bookings.

8. Rubbed Vaseline all over my kitchen table to see if it would take out some burn marks (it did not, but at least I tried).

9. Called a medical company to have them fix my name on a bill (I am not Brittany A. Coolidge nor do I know how that became my billing name). 

10. Canceled my kids’ Gabb watches. Sorry, Gabb. Your service actually really sucks.

11. Organized my vanity drawers.

12. Sorted through all of my jewelry. 

13. Sorted through our puzzles and got rid of a bunch.

14. Installed a banana hook under the kitchen cabinet. I’ve had a fruit bowl with a banana hook on my counter for years, and now I have a hook under the cabinet that folds up when not in use. I’m not sure how I feel about banana hooks. I know people who swear by them and claim their bananas stay good longer. I haven’t noticed a difference, but I have a hook anyway! 

15. Went through Nicky’s phone and fixed a bunch of settings so the girls can use it. We’ve kept his phone active while he’s been gone because he has so many accounts tied to his phone number that we are monitoring while he’s gone. We’ve had to get text verification codes several times. So we figure if we’re keeping it active, we might as well make it useful. 

16. Cleaned out my notes app. I try to keep my notes app up to date, but sometimes I find really old shopping lists and the like. 

17. Did a whitening treatment on my garments. Nothing like bringing your undies back to life in a giant pot while your kid repeatedly ask what’s for dinner.

18. Cleaned my shoes. I have two pairs of “main” shoes right now - one Hoka and one Nike. They both needed a good scrub. I spilled pumpkin roll batter on the Hokas over a month ago. 

19. Went through all my clothes and shoes. Boxed some up and donated others. 

20. Canceled Audible. And used up all my credits. I sign up for Audible when they have good promos, and this time I let my membership keep going for way too long simply out of laziness.

21. Organized my pills. It sounds bad, but I take 9 pills a day. Most are vitamins and supplements, which, to be honest, I don’t know if I even buy into. I’ve never taken a vitamin or supplement that I feel did anything beneficial. However, I’ve been dealing with neuropathy for the past year and my feet had been finally starting to feel better. Then I didn’t take my pills for over a week and my feet started hurting really bad again. So now I’m wondering if something I’m taking was helping with my neuropathy. The problem is, I take so many pills that I have no idea which one(s) - if any at all - are helping my neuropathy so I have to keep taking all of them. 

(My neurologist recommended B vitamins and folate, so it could be those). 

22. Set up my budgeting notebook for 2026. 

23. Put away the Christmas decorations. 

24. Cleaned behind and under the oven. 

25. Went through all of my food apps and made sure my birthday is on my profile so I can enjoy all my free birthday perks. Also started making a list of my free birthday perks and their expiration dates. 

26. Took each of my kids on a 1:1 date. Except for Nicky (for obvious reasons).

 

It Happened in 2025

January

I turned 41 

Nicky was ordained an Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

We went on a trip to Orlando and on a cruise

February

Daisy got her driver's permit

Nicky's pottery was displayed in the Springville Museum of Art

Scotty went on his annual Brocation to Disneyland

March

Nicky received his mission call to San Juan, Puerto Rico

Five years passed since COVID

April

Nicky injured his leg while waiting in line for Disneyland and ended up in a boot 

We got family pictures taken

May

Nicky went skydiving

We celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary 

Nicky graduated from high school

June

Zoe broke her arm (textbook trampoline accident)

Nicky received his endowment in the Jordan River Temple

Nicky was set apart as an ordinance worker in the Taylorsville Temple

Nicky went on a week-long temple trip to visit all of the operating temples in Utah

Zoe and Eva did a summer theatre camp and performed in Matilda Jr. 

Amber passed away unexpectedly

We went on a family trip to Strawberry Reservoir for our last outing with Nicky pre-mission

Nicky began his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (beginning with ten days of at-home missionary training)

Daisy, Zoe, and I went to stake girls camp (and came home for a day for Amber's memorial service)

July

We celebrated Independence Day with a missionary in our home

A dog bit Eva on the face, and she had to get stitches

We took Nicky to the airport and saw him off to Mexico where he spent five weeks in the MTC

We got our house paid off

August

The girls started school (Daisy 10th grade, Zoe 7th grade, and Eva 5th grade)

Nicky left Mexico for Puerto Rico

Amber’s temple work was done

September

Daisy turned 16 and got her drivers license

We had a lake day for Daisy’s birthday

We went on our first trip without Nicky (Yellowstone)

October

I went to Cedar City to watch Daisy compete in the Shakespeare competition

We went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for one last visit prior to it being demolished

We went to Saint George for fall break

Daisy and I went to the Benson Boone concert 

We ate at New Dragon Diner one last time before it sold to new owners

Scotty went to Asia for work

The new open sleeve, hygiene, and slip garments were released in the U.S. (this is notable because Scotty worked on these for years)

November

Zoe turned 13

Daisy performed in the Wizard of Oz at the high school

December 

We had our first Christmas without Nicky 

Nicky turned 19 in Puerto Rico

One Nine

Tuesday marks six months of Nicky being on a mission. I can’t believe we’re already this far into it. His mission is a quarter complete. My friend Christie (whose son recently returned home from his mission) always said it was going by so fast, and I didn’t believe her. Yet, here I am - time’s flying. 

Today is Nicky’s nineteenth birthday. Since his birthday and his six month mark are so close together, it’s the perfect time to do a little mission update. Here are some little tidbits from the mission:

Nicky has been serving in the same area for four transfers (his whole mission). 

He has calluses and blisters from swinging a machete. He said, “You wouldn’t believe how much we swing machetes here!” He said people ride around on scooters with machetes and little abuelitas walk their dogs and carry machetes (I have the feeling he will want a machete when he comes home).

He has acclimated to the Puerto Rican climate. Right now the highs are 95 and lows are 75-80. He now considers 70 degrees “chilly.” 

He is 13” taller than his current companion.

He carries a hacky sack with him everywhere he goes (he got in trouble for playing hacky sack at the MTC).

He eats lots and lots of rice and beans. He’s being a good sport about it, but I think he’s actually sick of them. 

On Christmas Day he sneakily listened to secular Christmas music. 

He is allowed to watch The Chosen on p-days.

So far all of his companions have been zone leaders, so he has had some perks from that such as having a car and getting to travel outside of his area.

He has a goal to not buy any soap on his mission. I sent him soap for Christmas, and I don’t think he was happy about it because I messed up his goal. I think he wanted to figure out a creative way to not buy soap (such as digging his companion’s shampoo bottles out of the garbage can, filling them with water, and using the suds to wash himself).

He has already worn out a pair of shoes (replacements were sent by Grandma for Christmas).

He has a washer but no dryer, so they have a room in their apartment where then hang dry all of their clothes.

Since he arrived on Puerto Rican soil, he has wanted to catch an iguana. He finally caught his first one on Christmas Day. 

He has also caught lizards, frogs, and a big creepy crab (with the assistance of a local child who whacked it with his shoe all nonchalant like he does it everyday). 

It’s been a really cool experience to have a child serve a mission. Likewise, it’s been a really cool experience to raise him these last 19 years. Now we are transitioning to parenting an adult, and that’s a whole new adventure. I hope we do okay at it. Eek!

Eve and Day

Christmas is officially checked off my (figurative) to do list. We did it, folks. We made it another year. 

The next one will be here before we know it. Let us brace ourselves!

In the meantime, here is how Eve and Day went…

Eve

The past few years we’ve gone to see the lights downtown on Christmas Eve morning. I realize that this seems like torture to most of the population, but we give our kids the option to stay home and sleep in and every one of them has always chosen to come with us. We leave home around 6:30 a.m. The lights are on until 8:00. We get to see the lights and the sunrise, and there are no crowds. 

After we went to see the lights, we went to breakfast. We invited Scotty’s dad and step-mom, and they met us there.

 

We spent the middle of the day getting our house picked up and finishing our Christmas prep. 

We always spend Christmas Eve night with Scotty’s dad’s side of the family. We have dinner, Santa comes, and then we have a talent show. 

This year’s talents included doing a Mad Lib, “show me something to lift and I will lift it,” some random dancing and singing, storytelling, and a human pyramid.

On our way home, Zoe asked us to track Santa to see where he was. He could have been anywhere in the world, but he was 35 seconds from Puerto Rico. That means Santa left our Christmas Eve party and headed to Nicky!

Day

I didn’t sleep much Christmas Eve (or any of the 23 days leading up to it), so I was wide awake around 3:00 a.m. I eventually got out of bed and read my scriptures and started making breakfast.

The girls all woke up around 6:30. My mom came over to watch them open presents and then we had breakfast (biscuits and gravy, sausage, hash browns, and eggs). 

After my mom left, we cleaned up a bit and relaxed while the girls messed with their Christmas spoils. Scotty’s mom and step-dad stopped by to see what the kids got for Christmas.  At noon we went to my mom’s house for lunch.

In the afternoon, Scotty’s dad and step-mom came over to see what the kids got for Christmas. Then the neighbor kids came over to play, and we took everyone up to Scotty’s mom’s house for cheesecake.

Nicky called us in the morning for a few minutes and watched the girls open a few presents. He had to be quick because he had a district meeting. In the afternoon, he called us again and told us that he got the best Christmas present ever! He caught his first iguana!

(He’s been trying for five months!)

In the evening, he called once more and told us that he’d spent most of Christmas Day stuck at the church on an exchange while his companion handled some kind of emergency (we get the story later). He went to Wendy’s for dinner. It sounded like a really sad Christmas. But he said it’s okay because of the iguana.

Now we are all in Christmas recovery mode. We’re exhausted. We’re slowly cleaning everything up. And we’re sick of Christmas food. 

But the chaos doesn’t end here. Oh, no! Because we have birthdays and New Year coming right up! Starting with tomorrow when a certain son of mine turns 19. 

Festivities

Here’s a quick rundown of some of our Christmas festivities (excluding ones I’ve already mentioned in previous posts):

Gingerbread Houses for YW

Zoe and Daisy decorated gingerbread houses for a youth activity. 

Cam’s Christmas Program

Our friend, Cameron, participates in a Christmas program every year with a special needs institute of religion. We’ve never been able to go because our kids always have a performance the same night. This year we were finally able to make it!

Decorating cookies and celebrating my mom’s birthday

I’ll let my adorable and messy niece be the face of this event.

That same day we also had our primary program (Eva is our only kid left in primary) and a mission farewell.

An impromptu night out with my friends

I spontaneously bought tickets to a Christmas concert (day of) and roped CarFace and Christie into joining me for dinner and the show. 

That day I had been listening to Christmas music at work, and it made me want to experience something uplifting, and everything just fell into place to make it happen. We had a really nice night. 

Gift swaps 

We got a bunch of gifts delivered. KoriAnn and I busted up laughing when we gave each other similar gifts:

LaLa and I went to lunch so I could give her her gift, and she used it as an opportunity to warm herself by the rotisserie chicken:

We installed a handrail for my in-laws off their back porch while they were out of town. We’ve been meaning to do this for a while, so I’m glad we finally followed through. 

Local lights 

We went to see lights at a few houses we visit every year. 

Other activities:

-Put tinsel in my girls’ hair (plus one friend)

-Went to the Trees of Diversity exhibit at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center

-Went to a murder mystery dinner for my work party and to The Roof for Scotty’s

-Made strawberry jam

-Slept under the Christmas tree

-Had everyone clean their rooms to be “Christmas ready”

I’ve worked hard to try and keep everyone busy and entertained for the past few days. And that brings us to one of the longest days of the year… Christmas Eve! 

Let’s do this!

Reasons I Deserve a Gift Basket

Scotty and I often joke that we deserve a gift basket for every little inconvenience in life. If we get a cold, “someone should get us a gift basket.” If an appliance breaks or we get an unexpected bill in the mail or we find a rock chip in the windshield… “someone should get us a gift basket.” Yet, we are continually baffled by the amount of gift baskets we don’t receive!

Maybe the problem is no one knows what to put in the gift basket- at least for me. So here is a list of 20 things you can put in a gift basket at any point in time, and I will be simply tickled: 

1. Colgate wisps and /or flossers

2. Crock Pots (just think! You could use a Crock Pot as the basket!)

3. Fine point Sharpies

4. Good dish towels 

5. Gum (just not fruity)

6. Soduku books

7. Polly Pockets or Little People sets (I’m starting an imaginary collection because they have the FUNNEST sets on the market right now)

8. Crunchy Biscoff cookie butter (you could also add a few honeycrisp apples - I’m just sayin)

9. Scrub Daddies

10. Betty Crocker brownie mix

11. Dots pretzels (honey mustard only)

12. Body scrub (and a loofah or scrub brush)

13. Lip gloss or foaming hand soap from Bath and Body Works

14. Dove chocolates (milk chocolate only)

15. Tootsie Roll Mini Bites

16. Kitchen shears or scissors (you can never have enough)

17. Scotch tape (again, you can never have enough)

18. Gift cards 

19. Cash (just throwing it out there)

20. Post-Its or magnetic notepads

Now that you have some ideas, here are a few reasons I’ve earned gift baskets today:

- My feet hurt

- I’ve been awake since 2:00 a.m.

- I dropped a container of cherry tomatoes on my kitchen floor

- My right eyelid has been twitching

Porch drops are now being accepted. Thank you and goodnight.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something important (and ten other random facts)

Fact #1: Zoe has been taking a (kind of) home ec class this semester, and she has become very interested in cooking and baking. I’m not hating it. She made some great cookies a couple of weeks ago. She has made crepes twice without any help, and today she made seven-layer dip.

Fact #2: We got a new banister on our porch, which was much needed as our old one (original to the house) was rusted out and likely to kill an elderly person or delivery driver this season. 

We sent a photo of the new banister to Nicky, and he said “That’s not my house. I’m not coming home to that.” So I guess he’s officially moved out. 

Fact #3: I still sit on the floor to wrap presents. I don’t know how much longer I will live this way, so I just wanted to put that out there. In three years, I might look back on this post and realize this was my final year. 

Fact #4: About once a year, I accidentally bump the bidet while I’m cleaning the toilet and get a brutal awakening. Thursday, December 28 was that day. 

Fact #5: The other day, while out in public, I looked down and saw a hygiene crotch sticker stuck to my pant leg. I have no idea where it came from, and I hadn’t been to any stores that would have them.

Ew.

Fact #6: We’ve had some big wind gusts this past week- one resulting in a snapped power pole right outside our house.

They had to turn off our power for about 7-8 hours while they replaced the pole. Merry Christmas to us!

Fact #7: As I’m writing this, I have two grocery orders underway. One for Sam’s club and one for Walmart. I need to finalize them so they can be delivered tomorrow, but I want them to be my very last orders/purchases until after Christmas, so I keep thinking, “Is this everything? What am I forgetting?” 

Fact #8: I’m not sure if I’m allowed in Eva’s room.

Fact #9: I have now made the grocery order commitments. Walmart lets you make changes up until a certain point, so if I think of anything I’ve forgotten, I can still add it tonight. But Sam’s club doesn’t let you add anything to your order after it’s submitted, so what’s done is done. 

(Why can’t Sam’s Club make order changes? I find this baffling since Walmart and Sam’s are the same company. Do better, Sam’s Club). 

Fact #10: I don’t know if I dare say this, but I think we’re pretty much done with Christmas prep. I have four gifts to wrap, and other than that, there are just a couple of small tasks that I can do but don’t have to do.  

What am I forgetting?