Speed Round

I'm pleased to say that I posted everyday this month except for two. That's a pretty successful month-long writing challenge, if I do say so. Normally, I leave the remaining prompts untouched and move on with life, but this year, I'm going to speed-blog the remaining prompts.

Prompt #1: Go

I've mentioned that this school year involves a lot of driving. I'm really looking forward to having another driver in the house. I was originally going to put Nicky in private driver's ed, but then I decided we could wait the extra two months for him to take it in school and save some money. I regret that decision. Not just because of the extra two months, but also because it's such a waste of education time. I don't expect (or want) every class to be highly academic - some classes just need to be for enjoyment or for exploring interests - but Nicky's driver's ed class is a joke. We're six weeks into school, and he hasn't even gotten in a car.  

Prompt #12: Emotion

I'm having a lot of anger issues lately. I'm mad at everyone and everything, and it's not good. Hopefully I'm not showing it much, but I don't really know. I should probably ask the people around me (bless their poor souls). I've been keeping a mood log since going off my antidepressants, and things aren't looking good for me without meds, I guess, but I want to wait a little longer to rule out discontinuation symptoms as the explanation for my mood. I'd like to be off meds for 6-8 weeks before I decide what to do next. 

Prompt #18: Letter

When I write by hand (which isn't often anymore, and shamefully, my hand is "out of shape" when it comes to writing), there are some letters that aren't consistent in my handwriting. Sometimes I do a sharp 'Y' and sometimes I do a soft 'Y,' and when I switch back and forth from sharp to soft 'Y' in the same piece of writing, say, a thank you card, I get self-conscious and worry that some handwriting analyst is going to accuse me of being a serial killer. 

Prompt #26: Characteristic

Here are some characteristics I admire in other people:

• Being a good listener
• Remembering things about others
• Making people feel at ease
• Naturally loving people 
• Being able to adapt quickly (go with the flow) and not get flustered
• Knowing the right thing to say
• Being brave enough to try new things

Prompt #27: Recipe

I had big dreams of actually cooking and sharing a family recipe for this post, and it just didn't work out. The recipe I hoped to share, I made for dinner the week before we left for Florida, and it didn't turn out. You know how you can cook the same thing successfully a hundred times, but the one time you cook it for someone else, something goes wrong? That's what happened. And I needed pictures! So I'll save it for another time. 

Prompt #30: Color

Scotty and Nicky have some sort of built-in radar in their bodies that helps them locate lost golf balls. Any time they step foot on a golf course, you can guarantee they'll leave with twenty golf balls or more. Because of this, we spent many years with golf balls stashed in all sorts of places in our home, garage, and vehicles. I finally got a little fed up with having golf balls everywhere (especially when they would roll around in the cars while I was driving), so I made a designated golf ball tote, and if I find golf balls out of the tote, they go in the garbage. 

(Now I need to make a rule that the lid has to fit on the tote, or I get to throw balls away because the bin currently overfloweth).

As annoying as the golf ball thing has been over the years, it's nice that my boys never have to buy golf balls. They sort them all the time and find their favorites. And I do enjoy the variety of colors!

Nicky recently came home with a purple golf ball, and I was captivated!

Prompt #31: Highlight

One of the highlights of our recent trip to Florida was being visited daily at our Vrbo by two sandhill cranes. 

In Utah, our larger birds (like pelicans) stay far away, so it was a really trippy experience to have giant birds walking right past our windows (they were about four feet tall). And the sounds they make? Definitely not something you wanna wake up to. But they were so fun to see, and we were excited every time they came!

There was one day we came back from Disney World and the cranes were on the neighbor's lawn, and one of them was picking up something with its beak and throwing it in the air over and over. It was playing, and it was hysterical! And then they made their freaky noises, and I was like, "Get inside kids! They might be murderous!"

Prompt #34: Accessory 

In my current phase of life, I've pretty much ditched all fashion accessories. I use a purse for practical reasons, and I wear earrings maybe twice a month and a necklace maybe once a month. I haven't worn a wedding ring since the first year of marriage because my fingers got bigger, and I never got it sized. My most-used accessory is probably the almighty scrunchie. I'm so glad scrunchies have made their way back into society because they are so much easier to get in and out of my hair than elastic hair ties, and I feel like they do less damage. 

------------

With that, I will bid adieu to September. 

September Reads

September Writing Challenge - Prompt # 10:

Nerd Alert

All month I’ve thought about what I can write for “nerd alert.” My nerdiest traits are probably my love of strategy board games and my love of reading. I haven’t had much time to play board games this month (much to my dismay) save for my daily rounds of Wingspan on my phone. So here’s my “nerd alert” post in the form of books I read in September. 

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Source: e-book

Summary: Benny and Byron learn about their mother's true history after her recent passing. 

Content: mature themes and a few swears. I *might* let my grandma read it. 

Review: ****

Final statement: I feel like I read a lot of books about unraveling multigenerational family drama. This one is right in there.

Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman

Source: audiobook

Summary: Emma suffers and injury that may end her career as a ballerina. Returning to her childhood home, she finds out she has inherited a house from her grandmother, Beattie. As she prepares the house to sale, she learns about her grandmother's past. 

Content: I don't remember very well because I actually finished this book at the end of August, but I think it was pretty clean. 

Review: ****

Final summary: this reminded me a lot of a Kate Morton novel, and it even had the same audiobook narrator that Morton's books do.

Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb

Source: audiobook

Summary: Kate finds a dead body washed up on the shores of Lake Superior and recognizes the woman from her dreams. Kate has to unravel he mystery of the dead woman's identity and death.

Content: Pretty clean, if I remember correctly. 

Review: 3.5 stars

Final statement: last month I read The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by the same author, and I liked it well enough to try reading another one of her books. Very quickly, I discovered that she's a bit of a "one trick pony." The two books had a lot of similarities. I do not like the audiobook narrator for these books, so if I read any more, I won't be listening, I'll be legit reading. There is one more book I want to try, The End of Temperance Dare. 

Elvis and Me by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley

Source: audiobook

Summary: a memoir of Priscilla's courtship, marriage, and divorce with Elvis Presley.

Content: what you'd expect from the sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle. 

Review: ****

Final statement: you can read more of my thoughts on this book here. It was an enjoyable companion to keep me entertained while cleaning my house. Priscilla is the reader for the audiobook. 

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

Source: audiobook

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Jo writes an anonymous column for the local newspaper that stirs up the local society. 

Content: quite clean

Review: ****

Final statement: I have nothing more to day other than I enjoyed it!

----------------------------------------

Books I read this month but didn't like enough to review:

Vacation Debriefing

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #19:

He Said/She said

At this point, you might be thinking, "Okay, Britt, enough about your vacation already!" 

I get it! I do!

But for my own memories and record keeping, I still have stuff to say! Call me selfish, but I love going back and reading my vacation posts throughout the years. So for that reason, I have a couple more vacation posts up my sleeve. Feel free to skim or skip.

After our trip to Florida, we had a debriefing session as a family to share some of our favorite (and non-favorite parts of our vacation. Here's what everyone said:

Eva

Favorite ride: tea cups

Worst ride: Tower of Terror

Favorite food: chicken bites and fries from Checkers

Favorite character(s) we saw: Chip and Dale

Something she'll always remember: "going with my family"

Zoe

Favorite ride: Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway

Worst ride(s): Tower of Terror and Aerosmith rollercoaster

Favorite food(s): Jack Jack Cookie Num Nums and soft pretzels

Favorite character we saw: Homer Simpson

Something she'll always remember: "spending time with my family"

Daisy

Favorite ride(s): VelociCoaster, Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hulk

Worst ride: Fast & the Furious

Favorite food: chicken tenders at Island of Adventure

Favorite character we saw: Homer Simpson

Something she'll always remember: "seeing Hogwarts and Springfield"

Nicky:

Favorite ride(s): Expedition Everest - "I loved Animal Kingdom!"

Worst ride: Fast & the Furious, Spaceship Earth

Favorite food: Cici's cheese sticks

Favorite character(s) we saw: Homer Simpson, Transformers

Something he'll always remember: experiencing a lot of new things for the first time and growing the most epic mustache (he worked really hard)

Britt

Favorite ride(s): Guardians, Flight of Passage, Hagrid's, and VelociCoaster

Worst ride: Fast & the Furious

Favorite food: frozen butter beer and the trio platter from Columbia Harbour House in Magic Kingdom (chicken tenders, popcorn shrimp, battered fish, and hushpuppies)

Favorite character: Goofy when he met us at the entrance of Tower of Terror

Something I'll always remember: watching my kids enjoy the experience and crying during rides because they were so amazing. Also, how close we cut it to a hurricane (two days)!

Scotty

Favorite ride(s): Tower of Terror, Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure, VelociCoaster, The Forbidden Journey (Hogwarts)

Worst ride: Fast & the Furious

Favorite food: pretty much everything

Favorite character: the velociraptor and the Halloween Horror Nights characters

Something he'll always remember: "all the rides with the kids and their smiles, sitting by the pool at night while the kids swam and watched TV, eating at Cici's three times (side note, I am ten pounds heavier than when we left), watching Nicky jump when he got scared at Halloween Horror Nights, and last of all, I think it was absolutely the perfect vacation."

Our Visit to Universal Orlando

September Writing Challenge - Prompt # 9:

Adjectives

We just got back from an epic family vacation to Florida. While we were there, we spent six days in Disney World and two days in Universal Orlando. There are two different parks there: Universal Studios and Island of Adventure, and we spent a day at each.

Here are some adjectives to describe our time in Universal Orlando.

Nostalgic:  

Springfield, USA - home of the Simpsons.

I grew up watching The Simpsons every Sunday night, so walking through Springfield was like reliving my childhood. I have asked my own kids to not watch The Simpsons except for Disney shorts and a few select episodes that Scotty and I have picked out. It kills me to not let them watch it because I really love The Simpsons. 

Painful:

My feet

After eight days straight in theme parks, you can imagine how much my feet hurt. I logged over 75 miles on my Apple Watch across those days. I took two pairs of walking shoes and alternated between them, and I found that one pair was better than the other. The “good” pair got soaked in a rainstorm on our last day of Disney World, so I had to wear the “bad” pair both days in Universal. 

Adorable: 

Seuss Landing

The Dr. Seuss themed portion of Island of Adventure is so stinkin’ cute! Zoe and Eva had a blast there. 

Magical: 

Harry Potter wands 

Ollivander’s in Diagon Alley

Casting spells

We splurged and got the girls interactive wands in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We bought them in Diagon Alley the first day, and they carried them everywhere in back holsters I sewed.

This was day 8 when I’d long stopped making them brush their hair

Happy: 

Nicky reliving one of his favorite childhood vacation memories 

The evil looks on their faces as they shot us

When Nicky was much younger, we went to Universal Studios Hollywood, and they had a Curious George play area where you could shoot foam balls. Nicky loved it so much. A couple of years later, we took him again, and the Curious George area had been removed! He was devastated, and he has talked about it ever since! 

To his utter delight, Universal Orlando still has a Curious George play area. It was hilarious to watch Nicky lead the pack as he marched to Curious George. He reverted from a fifteen-year-old to a three-year-old in mere seconds. I’m so glad my son still has the ability to find joy in childhood. He isn’t immature, but he also isn’t “too cool” for everything.

Ridiculous: 

trying to get food in Springfield during a Saturday lunch rush

This photo was taken at 8 am - 

Quite a while before the lunch crowd

I think we waited in line for about an hour, and then watching the employees prep our food was painful. I wanted to jump over the counter and take over. It was like watching my kids “help” in the kitchen. It was all I could do to stand back and let them do their job. 

Amazing: 

Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure and the VelociCoaster. 

We waited nearly two and a half hours for Hagrid when it was “only” supposed to be 90 minutes (the ride shut down three times while we were in line). It was the ultimate test of my sanity, but you know what? It was worth it. It was such a good ride! We went back later and waited 55 minutes to ride it a second time (a pleasant surprise because it was supposed to be 90). Fun fact: according to Wikipedia, Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure is currently the most expensive rollercoaster ever built at $300 million. The previous record was Expedition Everest in Disney’s Animal Kingdom at $100 million. 

Fortunately VelociCoaster wasn’t quite as long a wait. We waited about 30-45 minutes to ride it each time. This was the only ride we went on that Eva was too small for (which she was very happy about), so we used the Child Swap system to trade off. 

How many John Hammond stuffies has Universal sold?

Eva hated this so much, but it ended up producing a fantastic photo

I just love this so much!

Overused: 

simulator technology

One thing I’ve never liked about Universal is that they rely too heavily on simulators. Disney is starting to use a lot more simulators, too. I feel like simulators should be minimal.

Claustrophobic: 

the Harry Potter shops

The shops were so small and crowded. I’m not sure why they weren’t designed to handle crowds a little better. I shouldn’t have to make full body contact with 120 strangers just to check the price tag of a Hedwig keychain. 

Weird: 

trying to appreciate the snow at Hogsmeade when it’s 91 degrees and muggy as heck

Thank Heaven for a bit of cloud cover.

Dumb: 

the Fast & the Furious ride.

I don’t even have the energy to come up with a more sophisticated adjective to describe it. That ride? Was dumb. And it was dumb in such a way that I feel like I got dumber while riding it. I didn’t know a ride could be like that.

Terrifying: 

Halloween Horror Nights

Scotty and Nicky stayed for Halloween Horror Nights. I graciously opted out and took the girls back to the hotel where we ordered poolside pizza and gelato. 

Scotty loves this kind of stuff. Nicky has never been to a haunted house, so it was all new to him. 

Delicious: 

frozen butter beer

It’s basically an unspoken rule that you have to try butter beer in Wizarding World, and everyone always says that the frozen kind is the best. I don’t like butterscotch very much, so I didn’t expect to like the butter beer, but I wasn’t gonna miss out on the chance to find out.  The rumors are true - it’s so yummy! I regret not having another before we left.

Surreal: 

the Hogwarts castle

The castle is so much bigger than I imagined. It’s just… so… cool. If you’re not familiar with the layout of Universal, they have a Harry Potter section in each park. In Universal Studios, they have Diagon Alley, and in Island of Adventure, they have Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. 

On our last night there, the sun set right behind Hogwarts, and it was like God was saying He loves it, too!

Broke: 

us after this trip. 

The “Don’t Wanna” List

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #32:

Don’t Wanna

Here are some things I don’t wanna do lately:

I don’t wanna shower. I really don’t like budgeting any of my time in a day for showering. I know that makes me sound like a gross person. I’m not saying I don’t shower; I’m saying I don’t want to shower. There’s a difference! Showering is a complete disruption to my day. I can get so much stuff done if I don’t get wet! 

I don’t wanna do Come Follow Me. This schedule of study from the Church has never sat well with me, and over the past few years, I’ve come to resent the phrase “Come Follow Me.”  I’m not in a good place spiritually right now - I’ll admit. I don’t wanna listen to General Conference. I don’t wanna do my Church calling. I haven’t been to church since August - I was sick with bronchitis for two Sundays and out of town for two Sundays, and then we’ll have Conference, so I’ll have missed five weeks in row. I honestly never miss Church, so this is highly unusual, but it sure gets comfortable quickly. 

I don’t wanna prep my meds. I take five pills everyday - three supplements and two medications. I can never keep track from day to day whether I’ve taken my pills, so I have to use one of the days of the week containers. Every time I take the last pills and have to reload my container, I cry a little inside. This is a task I find incredibly burdensome.

I don’t wanna be awake right now. It’s 11:11 pm as I’m writing this, and I’m beyond tired, but I can’t stop coughing. I have been coughing for almost four weeks. I had a couple of days where it improved, and I thought I was on the mend, but then I started having random, lengthy coughing fits again. I’ve tried a few cough medications, but nothing helps. I don’t wanna cough anymore. 

I don’t wanna spend any money. After going to Florida for ten days, I don’t wanna spend another dime. I knew it was going to be expensive, but yowza. 

I don’t wanna have COVID. Scotty had COVID a few weeks ago, and none of the rest of us got it, which means five of us are susceptible to it after our Florida vacation. I’m not a germaphobe, but logically, one can assume that we were exposed to it hundreds of times between the theme parks and the flights. Plus, our traveling companions already have their post-vacation COVID, so ours has to be coming, right? 

What Brings Us Together Today

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #13:

Marriage

Many of you were here with me when I went back to school and finished my degree in marriage and family relations. It’s been five years since I graduated. What have I done with myself? Well, nothing. But that’s not the point. I’m just happy I made through school with four kids! I maintain that it was God’s will for me, and if there’s more to do - such as pursuing further education or moving into some kind of career, He will push me in that direction. But for now, He’s just like, “Parent these children.”

Sometimes people ask me if my degree has helped me be a better wife or mother. In all honesty, it probably has, but I can attest that having a marriage and family degree doesn't a perfect wife or mother make. I often joke that all it did was teach me everything I'm doing wrong. And there's a whole lot of truth to that!

Another thing people often wonder is what options are available with a degree in marriage and family. Unfortunately, it’s an area that usually benefits more from a Master’s than a Bachelor’s, so for most careers in the field, I would need to have my Master’s degree as well as additional licensing. But some of the careers people commonly pursue in the field are social work, child life specialist, life coach, marriage and family therapy, family life education, and family advocacy. 

I confess, I’m always a little excited when we go to the ER with our children, and I get to see the child life specialists in action. There’s a part of me that wants to do that when I grow up, but then I realize they’re all in their early 20’s, and when I’m finally grown up, I’ll be at least 60, and I don’t think they’ll want me at that point. 

Another thing I would love to do is teach marriage preparation courses. I actually paid my fees to become certified to teach a Christian-based marriage prep course right after I graduated, and then I never followed through. I often wonder if I'm still eligible, or if too much time has passed. (Note to self: find out). It's not something I would ever do to make money; it's something that I would do because I firmly believe in marriage preparation. I just happened to take a marriage prep class, myself, in junior college on a whim, and I firmly believe that class has helped my marriage be successful to this day. One thing the classes provided for me was the ability to assess whether I was actually ready for marriage and how compatible Scotty and I were. My marriage can't speak for the population at large, but research can! And research suggests that couples who participate in some form of premarital education report more effective communication, better conflict management skills, and better relationship quality overall than those who don't. 

I plan to encourage all of my children to take marriage preparation classes of some kind (unless they are defiant young adults, in which case I will pay their most influential friends to talk them into taking marriage preparation classes while I, myself, discourage them. Wink, wink).

I am fortunate to have a very good marriage. We have our disagreements and our problems, for sure. And we have some patterns that, if left unchecked, could become unhealthy, but overall, Scotty and I work very well together. We don’t just love each other, we also like each other, and we are truly friends. I have to attribute a lot of our success to Scotty, though, because he’s super chill, and he isn’t selfish. He’s pretty easy to be married to. I, on the other hand… can be a little more complicated. 

(Friedrich Nietzsche)

My heart breaks for the difficult circumstances that come with many marriages. While I can’t sympathize with a lot of the harder things from my own marriage, I can sympathize from a child’s perspective. I spent over 20 years of my life with a step-dad who made our family life extremely hard. That’s part of what has made me so interested in studying marriage and family. I wanted some education that could make the circumstances in my family of creation different than those from my family of origin. If I could give the world a gift, I would give everyone a good marriage. 

I also want to buy the world a Coke, but I’m gonna focus on one dream at a time. 

How We Ended Up at Disney World

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #15:

Backstory

Last October, my friend Carlie texted me and asked if Scotty and I wanted to go on a whirlwind trip Disney World. First I was like, “Oh, we can’t do that!” but then I looked at the calendar and started daydreaming a little bit and realized we actually could do that. We had buddy passes to fly, and we had a little bit of money. Babysitters were available, and everything just fell into place! So within nine days, we were on our way to Florida. We decided to justify it as our 15th wedding anniversary trip… after 18 years of marriage.

We had always wondered if Disney World would be a good destination for a family vacation, or if we should just stick to Disneyland. We figured the trip without kids would be a great chance to make an assessment. We enjoyed Disney World, but we both agreed that we didn’t need to take our kids there. Disneyland is closer and more accessible. 

But then time passed, and we reminisced about Disney World, and it turned out, we really did want to take our kids there. But it wasn’t a priority. It was just a “maybe someday,” back burner idea.

At the beginning of this year we started looking at options for a vacation, and we considered Disneyland (I’ll have you know that it’s been three years since our last Disneyland trip) (that doesn’t count) (neither does that). As we explored possibilities, we decided to also look into a trip to Disney World… just to see. At the time, flights to Florida were relatively cheap, and we had enough sky miles to fly our whole family for free (since we had two kids get braces last year, Scotty and I each signed up for a credit card with mega bonus sky miles, so woohoo for orthodontia). When we looked at options for lodging, we were shocked to find that we could get a Vrbo with a private pool for about half the price of anything we could book in California. Everything just fell nicely into place and we found ourselves booking a trip to Orlando. If we’d waited even two days longer, it never would have happened because the cost of flights almost doubled by the next week! We just happened to stumble upon the perfect booking window.

We fell into our normal Disney trip pattern where we start small - perhaps we’ll go three days - and end up snowballing - oh, fine. Let’s do six! 

So, six days in a row at Disney World. No days off.

We did that.

Day 1 - Magic Kingdom

In front of Cinderella’s castle

(You’ll quickly notice a trend with Eva)

This is the only day I tried doing my hair

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom

With Expedition Everest in the background

(One of my new favorite rides)

Expedition Everest

(Nicky and Daisy are on it here)

Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

We had afternoon rainstorms almost everyday

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

In front of the Beast’s castle

(Eva right on cue)

Day 5 - EPCOT

Nemo

Day 6 - Hollywood Studios

(Cameo by Amber)

The last day at Disney World and the biggest storm yet!

And ya know… we all took turns being the unpleasant person in our party, but overall, we handled it pretty darn well. I got a little unstable on Day 5, but I recovered. On Day 6, we called it quits earlier in the day (4:30-ish) so we could get some rest because we also needed to go Universal Studios for two days.

Yes, we are crazy. We don’t know how else to be.