Valentine's Day Countdown

Valentine's Day marks the anniversary of when Scotty's and my super duper romantic relationship began... way back in the olden days of 1999 (read more about that here). We've now been a "thing" for 22 years. 

Obligatory photo of us being in love circa 2019. Do we even have any current photos of us? Not really. Is my hair even that color anymore? No.

How are we celebrating? By hanging out at his mom's house. 

But leading up to this day of love, we wooed one another by going out to eat a couple of times without kids (Thai food on Thursday and Philly cheese steak sandwiches, fries, and chicken wings on Saturday - yes, I eat like a dude) and playing four very competitive games of Wingspan (three of which I won) and two rounds of Ticket to Ride: Europe (both of which I won). Scotty claims he let me win for Valentine's Day. That is not romance! That is a cop out! Winning fair and square - that is true love.

Love it or hate it - this holiday is significant in the Brittish household. Maybe not in the flowers and chocolates sort of way, but in the "Hey look! We're still together after all these years, so let's celebrate by ordering an immersion blender on Amazon so you can make milk shakes, and I can puree canned tomatoes to hide from the kids in soups" sort of way. 

(The blender arrived yesterday morning). 

In honor of Valentine's Day, here's a countdown from 14 (let's pretend that I didn't just use this format the other day).

14 Things we love to do together:

14. Play board games

13. Go to movies

12. Surprise our kids

11. Go out to eat

10. Prepare awesome food

9. Plan vacations

8. Splurge at Sam's Club or Costco

7. Do puzzles

6. Go on road trips

5. Lay on the couch (but we fight over the good spot)

4. Google actors we recognize and try to figure out what other show we know them from

3. Complain about stuff

2. Go camping

1. Watch movies with the sound bar turned up really loud

13 Big purchases we've made:

13. Two vans

12. Three cars

11. One truck

10. The play set in the backyard

11. A couch

10. A digital piano

9. The laptop I'm currently typing on that's on its last leg

8. Sod

7. A bulky, old school, big screen TV that a neighbor kid hit with a bat and cracked

6. Two dishwashers

5. Two dryers

4. A fridge

3. Annual passes to Disneyland for 2020 (that we just got prorated refunds for)

2. Carpet

1. A wedding ring that I haven't worn for 12 years

12 Traditions we have:

12. Familyversary dinner for our wedding anniversary (the anniversary of when we became a family)

11. April Fools Cafe

10. Buying postcards for kids when we travel and writing memories from the vacations on the back

9. Having German pancakes for breakfast on (most) Sundays (funny that I should write this today when we didn't have enough eggs)

8. Eating at Jack in the Box on vacation

7. Birthday dinners

6. Going camping for Father's Day

5. Everyone picking out a Christmas ornament

4. Going to Grandma's on (most) Sundays

3. Celebrating summer with BLTS and corn on the cob

2. Playing Clue for Scotty's birthday

1. Getting stamps and cancelations in the National Parks Passports

11 Places we've traveled together:

11. South Carolina

10. Disneyland

9. San Francisco

8. Lake Tahoe

7. East Carribbean

6. West Carribbean

5. Mexican Riviera

4. Colorado

3. Yellowstone

2. Saint George

1. Las Vegas

10 Facts about our dating life:

10. We were "together" for nine months before we kissed

9. Scotty had braces when we started kissing

8. Scotty was in 12th grade, and I was in 9th when our relationship began

7. We went to the same high school, but not at the same time

6. Scotty left on his two-year mission for the Church two days before I started my junior year of high school

5. He came back two days after I started college

4. I "waited but dated"

3. We used to hang out on the side of my house after our church youth activities and hug. Yep. Hug. Scandalous, right?

2. Our church leaders started escorting me home, and I was furious

1. Scotty used to drive past my house every night on his way home from work, and I would wait in the window to wave. My house wasn't on his way home.

9 Things I love about Scotty:

9. He's really funny

8. He's a hard worker

7. He is pretty even-tempered

6. He respects his parents

5. He's fun to be around

4. He puts up with my big ideas

3. He doesn't have expectations for me to fulfill "women's" roles

2. He's a wonderful dad

1. He treats me so darn well

8 Concerts we've been to together:

8. NSync

7. Carrie Underwood

6. Brad Paisley

5. Rascal Flatts

4. Maroon 5

3. Toby Keith

2. Jon Schmidt

1. Beach Boys

7 Things we've accomplished together:

10. Survived two years of separation while Scotty served a mission

9. Played Ma & Pa on a stake trek

8. Had four kids

7. Earned our degrees

6. Bought a home

5. Served as Cub Masters

4. Finished a basement

3. Completed a lot of building projects and renovations

2. Ran a Spartan Beast (hard to believe)

1. Came in as "Second Place Couple" in the West Fest 10k

6 Things we love to eat together:

6. Thai food (especially fresh spring rolls & peanut sauce, Massaman curry, and mangoes and sticky rice)

5. Sushi

4. Burgers

3. Breakfast sandwiches made at home with slightly runny eggs

2. Sandwiches from Jimmy Johns with seasoned fries from Wingstop dipped in ranch

1. Sundaes and cheese fries from Leatherby's

5 Things he does in the relationship:

5. Makes German pancakes

4. Changes lightbulbs

3. Files the taxes

2. Flies kites with the kids

1. Takes care of the vehicle stuff (unless he's in another country and the battery in the van dies, and I have to have my neighbor give me a jump so I can drive to Auto Zone to get a new one)

4 Things I do in the relationship:

4. Pay the bills

3. Manage the family calendar

2. Most of the laundry

1. Paint things

3 Things we disagree on:

3. Whether hash browns should be eaten with ketchup

2. Having the window rolled down

1. Gyros being delicious

2 Goals we have:

2. Pay off our house

1. Have a Lego room when our kids move out

1 Thing about us I would change if I could:

1. I'd give us names that could combine to make an awesome couple name. Cuz Brotty and Scritt aren't great options. 

Back to School Book 2: The Outsiders

After reading The Scarlet Letter, I wanted to choose something a little easier for my next book. I decided to go with The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

First edition cover from 1967

(I've never actually seen this one)

My first encounter with anything "Outsiders" was in 7th grade. The girl I sat in front of in math class kept a copy of The Outsiders on her desk, and as we started talking and getting to know each other, she told me she liked to carry the book around with her because the boys on the cover were hot. Lynsie remains one of my best friends to this day (though she no longer carries a copy of The Outsiders around with her... that I know of...)

I don't remember which edition Lynsie had (I'll have to ask her), but this one looks the most like something a 12-year-old girl in 1996 would carry around

That same school year, we ended up reading The Outsiders for English class. 

Plot-wise, if you were to ask me a month ago what The Outsiders is about, I would have said, "There are some kids with weird names, and they get in fights." I didn't remember the nature of the fights or anything else about the story, so reading it again was like reading it for the first time. 

First off, I have to say that there's no question as to why this book is so well-loved and iconic. I definitely didn't appreciate it as a teen, but as an adult, I can better pick up on the depth of the characters and the themes in the writing. 

Secondly, I'm in awe at the fact that S.E. Hinton started writing The Outsiders when she was fifteen years old.

FIFTEEN.

I mean... c'mon! I'm double her age +7, and I can hardly craft a photo caption that's worthy of note. The girl had a gift! (Her name is Susan, if you're wondering). 

Anyway, what is there to say about The Outsiders? To put it simply, I really liked it. I found Ponyboy to be quite endearing. His relationship with both Sodapop (his brother) and Johnny (his friend) is very sweet, though I think he'd prefer me to say "tuff." He radiates goodness without perfection, and I always appreciate that in a character. There is still complexity in him, as there is with all of the characters in The Outsiders. 

After finishing the book, I had to also watch the movie! We watched the movie after reading the book in English class, and clearly it didn't help solidify the story in my memory. The only thing I remembered about the movie was Emilio Estevez in a Mickey Mouse shirt. 

It was fun to watch the movie and see all of the young actors - Patrick Swayze as Ponyboy's older brother, Darry. Rob Lowe as the notably good looking Sodapop. Ralph Macchio as Johnny (pre-Karate Kid). And even Tom Cruise as the incredibly annoying, insignificant character, Steve.

(Side fact: Ralph Macchio was 22 when he filmed The Outsiders and The Karate Kid. He plays a 16-year-old in The Outsiders, but he doesn't look a day older than 12!)

Now that I've read the book and watched the movie, I have to say, The Outsiders is probably the truest movie based on a book that I've ever seen. S.E. Hinton owns the rights to the movie and says there will never be a remake, and I'm glad for that!

Now that I'm two books into this goal of reading 10 books from my school days, I'm feeling pretty pumped and excited about what I'm going to read next (I haven't picked yet). I have a list of possibilities on my phone that just keeps getting longer. There is much reading to do!

A Tale of Two Bathrooms

One challenging thing about having Scotty work from home for the last year is that he works in our bedroom, so I'm always sneaking around in the background of his virtual meetings trying to retrieve clothes and shoes or put away laundry. Scotty also works in very close proximity to the bathroom, so anytime I take a shower or flush the toilet, I have to be mindful of the presence of his co-workers, lest some Church employee in Brazil hear my restroom sounds. 

Blow drying my hair needs to be planned around Scotty's conference calls... which he has ALL DAY LONG. Today I took my blow dryer to the downstairs bathroom so I wouldn't disturb Scotty. I don't like going to the downstairs bathroom because A) my supplies aren’t down there, and B) that bathroom stinks and always has (I think it's in the floor under the toilet, and someday we need to rip everything out and renovate. Until then... pew). 

Even though I don't like using the downstairs bathroom, I’m grateful we have it. 

When I was growing up and dividing time between my mom's house and my dad's house, each of them only had one bathroom. My mom lived in a really small house - small enough that our fridge blocked some of the cupboards, and we had to turn sideways to squeeze between the fridge and the oven to get to the hallway. The single bathroom had to accommodate five people. 

At my dad's house, we had anywhere between 8-11 people living at a time and sharing one bathroom. Whenever we took road trips, we would spend the last half hour of the trip negotiating who got to use the bathroom in which order when we got home. I developed a habit of going outside to pee behind the garage when I was little, and one time, my step-sister and I thought it would be a genius idea to start using the toilet in the camping trailer. Our parents weren't very happy when they unexpectedly found the septic tank hosting our weeks' worth of urine. We had other non-conventional ways of relieving ourselves that I can't exactly write about on the internet. Suffice it to say, in a house of seven kids with one bathroom, desperation results in creativity. 

Eventually my dad installed an extra toilet in the laundry room. It wasn't ever a "bathroom," though. It was just an unfinished basement (used as a bedroom) with a toilet, washer, and dryer in it. No sink. No bathtub. No walls. No door. Eventually my dad built a wall on one side, and I think we might have hung a sheet on the other, but pretty much anytime you used the downstairs toilet, you ran the risk of anyone in the family walking in on you. And heaven help you if you ever had to do a number two. My dad was always lecturing us about the size of poops that the basement toilet could handle. It was never worth the risk. 

When I was 12, my dad moved to a house with three bathrooms... just in time for everyone to start moving out. My mom moved to a house with two bathrooms when I was 15. A few years later, Scotty and I got married and moved into a one-bathroom house for a while. Then we lived with his mom for three months, who also had one bathroom.

Now we've lived happily for 17 years (our house-iversary was February 1st) in our humble, two-bathroom home, and even though one of those bathrooms smells like an outhouse, we know we are experiencing the greatest of luxuries... multiple restrooms! With walls! And doors!

My Little Groundhog

We've been having a heck of a time with Zoe lately. This girl... she is such a joy, but off and on, we have some real struggles. This past weekend was a rough one for ZoZo. 

Luckily, she brings us as much delight as she does drama. 

Lately Zoe has been obsessed with her calendar. She won it at BINGO during General Conference, and she waited so patiently for 2021 so she could start using it. I hung it on her wall (with a straight pin) and she has been marking off the days since the new year. 

Zoe wants to know about every holiday ("Mom! What's Ash Wednesday?") so when she saw Groundhog Day on the calendar, she started asking a lot of questions. I was surprised she didn't know what it was already, as I'm sure they've talked about it at school, but maybe she'd forgotten. COVID brain and whatnot.

Scotty told her about Punxsutawney Phil the night before Groundhog Day, and Zoe was so excited she could hardly sleep. On Groundhog Day, she woke up early with the brilliant idea that she needed to dress up like a groundhog for school (back in December, she did the same thing when she wanted to be a Christmas tree). I tried to explain to her that Groundhog Day isn't a "dress-up" holiday, but she was so full of big ideas, there was no talking her out of it. 

I ended up printing her a Groundhog Day hat to color, and then I hot glued a nose and some teeth onto a disposable mask (what every mom wants to do at 7:30 in the morning).

Thank heaven it was to her satisfaction, because she never would have relented if I hadn't made her dream come true. She insisted that I make her an extra mask in case the first one broke, so I obliged and sent her off to school with buck teeth and a spare. 

This is one case where masks came in very handy... they allowed an easy solution to my daughter's need to be a groundhog for a day. And that is a small glimpse of life with Zoe.

And Then it Snowed Dirt

Last week we had a filthy snowstorm. Yep. Filthy. It left a really yucky layer of gunk on everyone's vehicles, and since I was grocery shopping when the snow fell, my van looks like I took a joy ride on a dirt road Brad Paisley style. 

On Saturday, Scotty and I drove past the car wash where I have a monthly pass, and the line was insane. I've never seen anything like it. It was actually three lines because there are three kiosks. I couldn't even see the end of the lines because they wrapped clear around the gas station. The lines were also crazy on Sunday when we drove by. 

We left for school early this morning (Monday) and tried to go to the car wash. The lines were already long at 8:10 a.m. so we didn't stay. We counted 26 cars in line, but that was only a fraction of what was there on Saturday. Saturday had to have been well over 100 cars. Out of curiosity, I drove by again after I dropped the girls off.  The line had doubled!

I find the whole thing to be very funny. With all the weird crowd behaviors over the past year, and variety of things we've had to wait in lines for, I can't really be surprised that this week we're fighting for car washes. 

Currently {February 2021 Edition}

Reading: The Law of Moses by Amy Harmon (which is a novel, not a book about the Old Testament - lest you be confused).

Buying: Only what we need. I've been keeping the budget pretty tight lately in an effort to get some money saved up. I feel like I've been living this restricted lifestyle for so long, and yet, it's just been a month. Any day now, I'm going to climb out a bedroom window and take the bus to Costco to spend $1,000. I could use the door and drive myself, but there's something about a window and a bus that satisfies my internal need for rebellion. 

Things I'm not buying but find tempting:

This awesome Valentine's Day shirt for Nicky to wear to his aunt's Valentine's Day party next weekend

This truth speaking shirt

Craving: egg rolls. I've been on a Chinese food kick lately. Can't stop. Won't stop.

Listening to: a few Y Religion podcasts.  They're a little bit boring, to be honest, and I rarely get through the whole thing (I usually skip segment 3), but I listen to them sometimes because I like the research. 

Trying: to stay caught up on the reading for Come Follow Me. It's been really nice studying the Doctrine and Covenants because I don't get overwhelmed by the amount of reading each week. Sometimes I even read through it two or three times! 

Wanting: a new wreath for my living room because this ol' thing stabs people in the head when they sit under it. 

Annoyed by: people who park on the street to pick their kids up from school and leave a big gap between their car and the car behind them, but not a big enough gap for someone to park there. 

Playing: Lots and lots of Wingspan. Between the board game and the Nintendo Switch, I probably played thirty times while we were quarantined. I won't tell you how many times I lost. 

Feeling: weird. I'm trying to figure out how to get back to "normal" after having my kids home for so long. They had 17 days of winter break, then went to school for five days, then had another week off school, then two weeks of quarantine. Now that they're finally back at school, I'm trying to figure out what my life is supposed to be like. 

Struggling with: relationships. I have joked that 2021 is a year for damaged relationships because I've had some really awkward and/or weird things happen with other people thus far.

Procrastinating: changing my blog banner from Christmas. 

It works through winter, right?

Wearing: My favorite pants and a black hoodie. 

Eating: honey sesame chicken from Citrus Pear. I tried a new thing and signed up for a freezer meal prep class, and then I wasn't able to go because we were quarantined. But luckily, my friend was able to bring all of the stuff to me so I could assemble my meals at home. Filling my freezer with food was the only thing I did during quarantine that made me feel productive and somewhat normal. 

Looking forward to: getting my hair cut tomorrow. I need a cut so bad! I had to cancel my prior appointment for quarantine.

Worried about: Daisy going to junior high. This week we had to decide whether to send her to junior high for 6th grade or keep her in elementary school (it's complicated), and any thought of sending her to junior high makes me physically ill. She wants to stay in elementary, so phew! I can put off that nightmare for another year. 

Nicky will be going to high school next year, which is absolutely crazy to me! But I'm not nearly as worried about him as I am about Daisy. 

We were thrown for a loop during our quarantine because we had to sign our kids up for next year's classes, and we weren't ready! Our kids weren't at school when they handed out the paperwork, so all of a sudden it was like, "Oh! And by the way, you were supposed to sign your kids up for school, like, yesterday."

The good news is, we were able to get Nicky registered to take his PE class right now so he will have more room in his schedule next year. 

Grateful for: the tiny screwdrivers Cousin Cyndi gave me. I had to fix my laptop again this week, and they came in handy!

Back to School Book 1: The Scarlet Letter

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions for 2021 since COVID has made me really weird about planning for the future, but I did spend some time thinking about what goals I could set... if I were to set any goals. Now that it's February, I'm ready to commit to a few goals for 2021 (Chinese New Year works better for me anyway, since January 1st is my birthday, and who wants to start resolutions on their birthday?) 

For a while I've wanted to re-read (or read for the first time) some of the books from my school days. This includes books that were required as well as books that were optional (such as those that were on a list of approved reading for certain assignments). I thought about setting a goal to read one school book per month, but then I decided I might need a little leeway, so here is my first goal for 2021: 

Read ten "school" books. 

Before I could commit to this goal, I needed to dabble in it a bit to see if I was really up for it. I made a list of books and chose my first one: The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 

The Scarlet Letter was required reading in my 11th grade honors English class. I don't remember the curriculum very well for that year, but I think we also read The Crucible, so it must've been very "colonial America heavy."

I recall that I struggled to understand the writing in The Scarlet Letter. I fell behind in the reading and didn't really finish the book. I remember feeling interested in the story (or at least what I gleaned from it via class discussions) and thinking, "I should read this when I'm a grown-up." Since I'm a grown-up, my time has come. 

I remembered the premise - Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear a red 'A' on her chest for the rest of her life because she has committed adultery. I also remembered who her lover is, but that's about it. 

I started reading the book last week and was disappointed to find that I can't comprehend the writing any better now than I could when I was 16. All I really got out of it was that it took 30 sentences to explain "Hester stood on a scaffold for three hours," and it repeatedly used the words "ponderous" and "perchance." I was half-way through the book and frankly, had no clue what was going on. I gave up for a few days and figured it was okay to not pursue this reading goal after all, but then it kept eating away at me that I hadn't finished it. I came back to it decided to start reading the spark notes alongside the book (so ya know... double the reading...) and I was shocked to discover all the great plot points that had gone right over my head (and here come the **spoilers**). For example, I completely missed the fact that Chillingworth was Hester's husband, and I kept wondering when it would reveal that Dimmesdale was the father of Hester's baby, when it already had.

I proceeded with the book by reading the spark notes for each chapter before reading the chapter so I could figure out what was going on. I'm embarrassed that I had to do it that way, but it is what it is. At least I was able to really delve into the story, and the spark notes included a lot of details about the themes and symbolism of the book that I wouldn't have concluded on my own. It made the experience better. I love me some good symbolism, but I kind of have to have it spelled out for me (for this reason, I really struggle with poetry - someone has to explain it all to me, and it makes me feel so dumb). 

In the end, I'm glad I stuck it out! What a tale! WHAT! A! TALE! I loved the exploration of how society views sin and the dichotomy between science and faith as portrayed through Chillingworth (a doctor) and Dimmesdale (a priest). I gained a much better understanding of the character of Dimmesdale. In high school, I thought of him as an antagonist since he refused to reveal his part in Hester's "crime." As a teenager, I couldn't comprehend his turmoil and suffering as he tried to reconcile his position in the community with his actions and how he "lacked energy to grasp the better fortune that seemed within his reach" (page 122).

And Hester? I can't really figure her out. She was somewhat set apart from the society, but at the same time, she was an integral part of it. She wore the 'A' boldly, and yet, still instinctively covered it with her hand. 

"She felt or fancied, then, that the scarlet letter had endowed her with a new sense. She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts" (page 52).

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

While I'm on the topic of reading, I read the eBook of The Scarlet Letter on the Kindle app for iOS. Our county library lends eBooks through Kindle, and you don’t have to have an actual Kindle (not everyone knows this, so I’m just putting it out there). Let me show you a feature of the Kindle app that I love (in case you're not aware). 

You may recall that I have a fondness for looking up word definitions. The Kindle app makes it so easy to look up words while you read (which I did a lot in The Scarlet Letter because classic literature is full of words that make me go "Huh??)

While reading in the Kindle app, you can hold your finger on a word (the same way you would if you were going to start highlighting a passage), and a little dictionary box will come up like so:

You can touch "Google search" and it will search the word, but an even better option is to download the free dictionary (as prompted in the box), and then, any time you want to know the definition of the word, you just touch the word and BAM!

DEFINITIONS!

Now I'm going to go around saying my hair is getting hoary! Thank you for that, Nathaniel Hawthorne.