Flipper the Dolphin Car

While going through my room de-junking, I found this delightful gem:

It prompted me to write a list of Flipper the Dolphin Car memories

(You'll see how this relates in a minute...)

• Getting her! Having a car I could drive anywhere I wanted. The freedom that came with it. Owning my first car!
• First real road trip with Camree, Taylor, McKenzie and Nichole (my old roommate) from St.George to Disney Land!!

o   As we were driving, caressing Camree’s hand because I thought it was Bobbie’s

o   As we were leaving Disney Land when it closed, somewhere around 11:00-12:00am. We were completely exhausted from our day, and I went to unlock Flipper via the clicker, and she wouldn’t open… so I used the key and the alarm went bananas. We couldn’t get it to go off. If you used the clicker to lock her, you had to use it to unlock her or the alarm would sound and she wouldn’t start. We tried everything. Finally, we were able to find something that could unscrew the clicker, reset the battery, and we were finally able to leave. Took about 30-45 minutes of just sitting there with the alarm sounding trying to get it to go off. No one came to help, and the kids actually fell asleep in the back waiting.

o   Bobbie was probably 5 went we went. Maybe 6. We made it her “job” to remember where we had parked. We’d quiz her and tell her if she forgot, we wouldn’t be able to find Flipper and we couldn’t get home… the first day I think we parked in Mickey Mouse. So we drilled her about it. The next day, we parked in Donald and drilled her about it as well. The second day, we did our favorite rides again. We went on Indiana Jones, and as we were walking out, everyone was commenting how it seemed different this time than it had the day before (thinking maybe there was different tracks/the settings vary, etc). Bobbie chimes in, “of course it’s different! Today we parked in Donald!” HAHAHAA…

• When I got Flipper and Mom cam home and told the guys what she looked like, how she had a fin on the end, Ramz and Bobbie said, “like Flipper the dolphin?” Which is where she got her name. Camree wrote me an email with all these pictures of “dolphin cars” she found on the internet. Funniest email I think I've ever received.  I printed it out, and have a copy in my journal for that year.
• To commemorate Flipper the Dolphin Car,  Ramz and Bobbie wanted to buy me a dolphin for the car. They forgot to get one in Saudi, so they decided to get one in the airport before I picked them up… but they couldn’t find a dolphin, only a whale. It was some weird material, that was stuffed with little white balls inside (aka – not a stuffed animal). I put the “dolphin” in my car. That summer I was working in St.George at GodFathers pizza. It gets hot in St.George in the summers, especially in a car sitting in the sun... One day I came out of work to find that the sun had caused the “dolphin” to explode!! It exploded down the back and sprayed its contents – little white balls – ALL OVER my car. I cleaned it as best as I could, but some were lodged in the passenger side airbag crevice (on the dashboard) and I could never get them out. I found those balls in my car for years, right up intil I sold it. Since I am a packrat and can't throw out sentimental things, I kept it for years (to be exact, about 7 years... I did throw it out after taking these pictures) and, since it had a giant rip down the back I sewed it up.

• Arabic “Saudi Arabia” with the palm tree on the back window
• Devesh kissing me for the first time, as we were parked above the “D” in St. George.
• Getting all hott and heavy with Devesh in the backseat in the parking garage of the SLC airport across from the entrance, where people were walking back and forth.
• Angie and I deciding in the middle of a Rexburg snowstorm we had to have Cold Stone… the passenger side door wouldn’t open (I made Angie drive) and the windshield wipers were not working, either. It took half an hour to unbury the poor car, and then I had to climb in the back, and over the seat to sit, and then couldn’t get out… we had to stop every hundred yards or so and clear the windshield off…
• Locking myself out at the Idaho State Fair when we were staying at Daren’s house and the AAA guy didn’t come until seriously 1am ish and everyone was up so late and it was so embarrassing.
• Sliding off the road on my way back to Rexburg in the snow… so scary! And all the brush that was all over the underneath…
• Thinking flipper had been stolen when I couldn't find her in the parking lot of my apartment complex after Christmas... one of my roommates had moved her due to snow removal in the parking lot.
• When I locked my keys in the gas tank in California on my road trip with Tatiana.
• When Flipper decided to break down completely that one horrid winter, and it cost over $1000 to fix and I was unemployed and Dad had to pay and I was without a car… wretched.
• How the windows always stopped rolling up and down and I’d have to replace them and it cost a lot of money and was so frustrating! (The driver’s window went out once, the passenger side window twice, and both the back windows once each). 
• When I got locked out dancing at studio 600 with Irma... left my keys on the drivers seat in downtown SLC next to a Mexican taco stand that gathered young hooligans... I went to the car and found the car there, they keys there... thankfully! A window was broken, naturally, so I managed to pull it down and climb through. Thank goodness!
• How there was almost always tape on one of the windows, keeping it up until I could replace it... how one of the windows permanently has tape marks around it. Driving and the tape coming off on the freeway and other places, and the window going down and having to stop a thousand times to pull it back up and tape it once again...
• How the windshield wipers never worked… and the drivers’ side wiper would smack the mirror, and make a horrid thumping sound every time… and sometimes (often…) it would actually get jammed behind the mirror and just stick there making awful noises.
• How Flipper would just not start sometimes… you’d have to sit there and wait and wait until it finally turned. And the first time it did it – when Mom tried to start it… so we towed it behind the truck. And my mom tied the rope to the “insert correct car part here” fluid line. I’m sitting  behind the wheel, and suddenly the rope goes flying out from under the car, and I see that the knot is still tied, which means whatever it was tied to on my car was broken… that was an expensive fix.
• How the blinkers only worked sometimes. That killed me. Merging was so precarious and I looked like such a bad driver.
• How only half of the lights on the display worked, and the mileage lights too
• How the A/C worked maybe 10% of the time… and the button wouldn’t stay on so you’d have to press it a thousand times while driving and it would never turn on…
• How it ran out of oil every other day. The gas went suspiciously fast too.

Perkins 203

QUOTE WALL!!

First semester

 I don't remember a lot of these. The ones I do are

You toasted the banana bread - My Grandma used to send us boxes with cookies or bread in it. One time one of us must have toasted the banana bread...

Notes to Brittney (Craft-Henderson), Alison and Nichole - I used to write them notes and leave them around. I wrote a poem once and put it above each of their beds, on the ceiling. And I even wrote a poem about flushing the toiled on the back of the toilet seat...

He has an enormous gullbladder - I meant to say some guy had an enormous Adams apple, but instead said gullbladder (couldn't even get that word right, gallbladder). 

Size chart under the quote "Pelvic Bone" and the yellow cloth- I needed new underwear. So I bought some. My regular size. When I got home, I realized something was amiss... they were HUGE. And by huge I mean, we fit 2 of us in these underwear, one in each leg hole (where are those pictures now?). I'd gotten my regular size, only in the obese section. Woops. We had way too much fun with those underwear.

I was the FHE mom and organized a flour war for FHE, in which we needed armbands or something to separate out the teams. So we cut up the yellow and white underwear and had enough material to make armbands for the whole FHE group. We never told anyone outside our apartment what the armbands were made from. We got quite the kick out of it.

How is your horrible face? - I got a monster staff infection. On my face. It was horrible. One of my roommates, instead of asking how my staff infection was, innocently said, "how is your horrible face?".

Sister Stout and Sister Johnson = Nursery Leaders -  Nichole and I got called to talk to the bishop after church, to get callings. You aren't supposed to tell people your calling until you are set apart, so on the walk home we decided we'd tell Brittney and Alison when they asked that we were asked to go to the family ward and be nursery leaders. They bought the whole story, and we kept it going all week. It was hysterical when we were called to stand up in church to be sustained and our callings were not nursery leaders. 

-An american Flag?

-Your both my dream girls!

- I'll be wearing all black!

That is an entire post for another day... hahaha.

Second Semester

Love Comes Softly - Brittney H/C's favorite movie. She introduced it to us and we all loved it. I swear we used to watch that movie once a week. For an entire year.

Your cousin Cody got his mission call to ARGENTINA! YEAH! - I don't remember this at all, but it's in my handwriting. Best Alison and I could figure (Britt I'm sure you'd remember better - I think this was for you?) Brittney's mom called the house phone to tell her Cody got his mission call (Britt didn't have a cell phone our first year) and Britt wasn't home so I took the message and it ended up on the quote wall.

The tree goes down. Kaboom! - We were watching Lion King, or singing the songs. And Brittney got to the line, "The trio's down to two" from Simba and Timon's song, and we all sang "the trio's down to two" and Brittney belts out, "the tree goes down. Kaboom!" HAHAHA.

Is my trial over? (complete with illustrations) - I saw a spider! A gross icky one and it was awful. Then we started to discuss spiders. I showed them pictures of the giant camel spiders. Then I was super jumpy. Then I accidentally dropped my computer and screamed. Then my food boiled over really bad, I think? Then  I dropped the ice tray I think? Something happened with a Sharpie I remember that, but not what exactly happened.  At one point I must have yelled, "is my trial over!?"

We got pickled! - So back before any of us had cars. Nichole and I were walking one night to the cheap theater. It was cold and late and COLD. A car of people went by yelling and making all kinds of ruckus. Next thing I know, I've been hit in the behind with a pickle. As they drove by the guys in the car (I didn't see them so I can't prove that, but my guess is they were a car full of guys. Girls just wouldn't decide on a Friday night to go throw pickles at people in the freezing cold) threw pickles at us and I got nailed right in the booty.

Wow, seems like forever ago this stuff happened. I'm glad Alison kept the quote wall and found it!!!! And it's fun we've all kept in close touch even 7 years later. Friends for life!! :)

Love,

Brittney

Goodnight Alaska

When I was like 7 or so, Dad took me to Cars, the local grocery store by our house in Alaska (they had an ice cream place inside, and for special treats mom and dad would take us to Cars to get ice cream. We always got bubblegum. We’d spit the bubblegum into napkins and save it for later) and they have those boxes in the middle of the store where they put random discount items on occasion.

One day, in that bin, I found this huge night shirt. I must have completely fallen in love because dad bought it for me, and I wore that thing almost every single night of my life until I was in college (don’t worry, I washed it). The only reason I stopped wearing it is because it got so torn. The armpits were gaping holes, the neck band was all torn and gaped and the rest of the shirt had holes everywhere. It didn't bother me for a while, but it got to the point where it was rather ridiculous to continue sleeping in it. It broke my heart when I couldn't wear it anymore.

I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away, so I packed it into a box of shirts I don’t wear anymore.

When I was de-junking the cave, I found it. It’s amazing that something as small as a shirt could have such a good memory with it. That I remember so specifically when I got it, where, that it was in the discount bin, etc.

I’m like that with things though, and people I guess too. I get attached to things/people, and I don’t want new things. I want my same car to work fine forever and never get a new one. I want my same phone, my same clothes… I really don’t like change that way. Whats weird is I love going to new places and moving. I just want all the old stuff to move with me. J

Love,

Brittney

Crack Kills

I remember dad having this poster in the basement of the duplex and in Alaska in the study. I remember thinking it was so funny, and also knowing that mom didn't like it.

It wasn't until I was older that I really thought about It, how funny it was that my dad hung it up, thought it was funny. It made me realize how young my parents were. They were in their early 30’s, which seems young to me now. I always thought of my parents as so old when I was little, its funny to be closer to their age now and realize that just because you are in your early 30’s or late 20’s or have kids – doesn't mean you are mature.

It’s just funny to me to think of my dad as young like that, and hanging up crude posters my mom hated.

Love,

Brittney

Pop-tarts and Gummy Bears

Camree and I did a colon cleanse 2 summers ago (summer of 2011).

Camree has chronic… weirdness… in her stomach region. I told this to a colleague and she and some other colleagues swore by this hydrotherapy colon cleanse. Caused miracles in their lives.

So, we did it.

For 5 weeks we didn’t eat a thing. 3 times a day we drank this juice from fresh veggies (can’t remember all the ingredients, but some were – cilantro, dandelion leaves, ginger, kale, beets, lemon). We’d juice the veggies and drink the mixture three times a day. Most the time I’d rather go hungry than drink it. At first it wasn’t so bad, but by the 4^th week I couldn’t handle it. Honestly, it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Doesn’t sound like it should be that hard, but it was really difficult. I didn’t cheat once and neither did Camree.

We did have some lows though…

At my lowest, I was babysitting for a friend. I fed her kids dinner, which I couldn't have, and I was so hungry and exhausted I wanted to cry and go to sleep. Instead, I took a Pop-tart out of her cupboard and chewed it and spit it out. One bite at a time.

At her lowest, Camree stuffed gummy bears up her nose so she could smell them and wouldn’t taste the veggie drink.

Love,

Brittney

Valentines Day and President's Day Weekend

I bought the Valentines hearts candy and those cute cards you passed out as kids (the superhero ones!) and I passed them out at work on Wednesday. I haven’t passed those out since I was in elementary school. I don’t know why I stopped – it was fun! Everyone was surprised and delighted to get a Valentine at work. I think I’ll start doing it every year.

On Thursday, I made the best meal in the history of the world, in my opinion, for Trevor. His favorite food is Mexican, so I made Café Rio style pork, fresh guacamole and salsa, Mexican rice and refried beans, in addition to all the toppings for burritos. It turned out really well (I worried about it enough it surely should have! And I had to work all day, so I had to make the salsa the day before, get the groceries before, etc). I lit candles and had music playing. It was your typical sappy romantic candlelit dinner, but we’ve never done anything romantic before so it was fun!! We do tons of fun stuff, but never have really done anything romantic so it was nice, and pretty appropriate on Valentine’s Day, I’d say.

I made him a picture frame – took SO MUCH TIME AND WORK. I can’t even say how long, it would be embarrassing actually. I couldn’t get it right. The idea was to mod podge a picture onto wood, as well as onto the actual wood frame itself (which I had to buy wood at home depot and have cut… like 5 times and then Trev’s brother actually ended up finally doing the last cut). It was so hard! But I’m pleased with how it turned out. Definitely not perfect, but it looks good! And is very sentimental. I also got him a cute book and card. He brought me flowers, which are happy and beautiful and perfect!

After dinner we went and saw Warm Bodies. Trev has been wanting to see it, and we hadn’t had a chance yet. It was good. Nothing like a zombie romantic comedy to close out V-day.

Friday my Mom wanted us to come to dinner with her and Taylor and Grandma and Grandpa. Taylor and mom were leaving the next morning to drive to CA for Seth’s blessing and are flying back to Saudi soon (Taylor got mono so he’s going home for the semester) so she wanted to see us before they left.

Taylor wanted to go to Rodizio Grill, which is kind of halfway between Orem and SLC so I agreed, knowing this would be the best surprise of Trevor’s life.

I texted Trev, asking him to guess where we were going – his favorite place. He was guessing all wrong. I kept giving hints, “your favorite place” “A total man place” and after I said “MEAT” his guess was pizza. Pizza!?? So I told him. His response was, “Guess I’ll need to find a different place for my surprise tomorrow” (I surprised him on Thursday, so he was surprising me on Sat for v-day). I felt so bad!! His surprise was to take me to Tucanos for dinner the next day. What are the odds!? He was purposely not guessing Rodizi/Tucanos hoping that wasn't where we were going.

Then to complete the full disaster, on my way home from work I saw an accident on the Southbound side of the freeway, and all the lanes were closed but one. The freeway wasn’t moving. So we ended up having Grandma and Grandpa drive to SLC, with the hope that by the time they drove here and we ate dinner, the freeway would be clear again. There was no way we could have made it to Rodizio in less than 2 hours, the way the freeway was. And that might be a generous estimation.

We ended up at Macaroni Grill at Fashion Place Mall. I love Macaroni Grill – it was just tragic that after ruining Trev’s surprise we didn’t even make it to Rodizio.

Saturday morning we went to Trevor’s basketball game which was very eventful.  He picked me up for our surprise date at 7. He ended up deciding to go to Tucanos anyways. He was going to make a reservation but his mom told him he’d be fine without it – not so much!!! It was a 2 hour wait. So we went to Rumbi’s as it’s right next to Tucanos. It’s one of my favorite places and Trev’s never been so it was awesome.

After dinner was his big surprise, which he was so excited about. We ended up back at his house, where he had candles lit all around his room, and had selected a romantic movie (The Vow) to watch. He bought me the cutest popup card that said on the front, “You and I are living Proof that romance doesn’t just happen in movies” and on the inside it says, “It happens during the COMMERCIALS too!!” HAHAHA. Which is totally true… we may make the most out of commercials.

He bought me the cutest earrings in the whole world. Seriously. They are so me it’s crazy he picked them out all on his own. They are flower studs in the most beautiful colors – they came with 3 sets, blue, yellow and pink. And these pretty blue circle earrings.

And he got me a Build-A-Bear giraffe. It is so cute! And the perfect shape and size to cuddle with. I can’t sleep unless I’m cuddling with something.

The movie was cute and I’m so grateful he put so much time and thought into his v-day surprise. That means the most to me.

Sunday we went to Church, and Trev came over later and we made dinner with the leftovers from Thursday – loaded nachos! Nachos are one of Trev’s very favorite things in the whole world. It was delicious!! The only problem is we loaded them all together and then cooked them – and the chips were soggy. So it was more like a nacho casserole but still so good.

Then we went to his house and watched The Walking Dead, because that is what the Schauerhamers do on Sunday.  

Monday was a holiday, so we got work off! SO NICE!!! Trev came over at 1 and we ate the rest of the nacho casserole, and then headed off to do some shopping. We ended up at the new Draper outlets. We didn’t get much but it was a beautiful day and so much fun. We ran into the Bona’s, which was an extra special surprise.

I had forgotten my scarf at Rumbis, so we went back to grab it and while we were there decided to see if we could get into Tucanos. We only had to wait 20 minutes, and we finally fulfilled Trevor’s v-day dream!! The food was awesome.

After we went back to my place and watched the last 2 episodes of Season 2 of Modern Family.

It was an awesome weekend and Valentines Days!!!

Love,

 Brittney

Temple Square Thursday

I love working downtown one day a week. Most beautiful walk to work! I love the temple!!! Just makes my day that much better, starting out with this view!

Love Letter

Found this on my car this morning!!!

Cutest note ever! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!
(I love how he even thought to put it in a plastic bag, considering the amount of moisture we've been getting)

The lyrics are from our two songs.

The first is from Cruise by Florida Georgia Line.

The second is from Turn My World Around by Gloriana.

The part I love best is he went through the songs and picked the lines that meant the most to him. They aren't in order as the song goes.

The last lyric in the note Trevor writes, "One dream, so right, two hearts are one..."

The next word in the song is "tonight" Trev wrote "FOREVER".

Become Less Fat

Some of the guys at work get together a couple of days a week and play Ultimate Frisbee. I’d never played before last summer, but they invited me so I started playing. I LOVE IT! I’m not amazing, but I really enjoy it.

Since we all work together, they sent out a series appointment for the days they are playing. The title of the Frisbee invite is “Become Less Fat”. The group consists of a bunch of computer nerds (excluding myself) so they thought the title was fitting and amusing.

Today I was in a Missionary Work Portfolio Devotional. We were using my laptop to project to the whole portfolio, comprised of almost 50 men and 2 women (myself included). I’ve projected many, many times of the course of my employment with the Church. I’ve learned some things.

1 – Exit out of all chats. Completely quit the program.

I’ve received some embarrassing and interruptive chats while presenting. Won’t make that mistake again.

Also not applicable to this particular situation, but also a lesson learned – don’t IM someone something that could be embarrassing if you aren’t sure where they are – because they could be in fact, presenting themselves. Such an instance could have occurred when I IM’d Kip the following (Note - going to Hooters is on my bucket list, and Kip knows this, and we had discussed going. Hooters is mentioned in all kinds of movies and quotes, and I just want to know what they are talking about, and if the hot wings are really that good):

Brittney: Wanna go to Hooters Sat?

Kip: Really? You looking for a new job? :)

Brittney: I totally could get a job there. But no, I’m not job searching

Everyone in the meeting saw my IM, Kip’s cheeky response, and my embarrassing (and implying) retort. I got made fun of for that for a while.

2 – Exit out of all browsers.

It is somewhat embarrassing and doesn’t look good when people go to pull up IE and they can see the blog you looked at during lunch, or the swimming suit you want to order for summer.

3 – Make sure your desktop picture isn’t an embarrassing one.

4 – Exit out of anything that isn’t necessary to have open.

Today, I learned a new essential item to add to the list:

5 – Exit out of your email

Why? Well, in case an appointment pops up on your screen that says, “Become Less Fat”.

HOW.EMBARRASSING!

As soon as it popped up, everyone read it and busted up laughing. Seriously, everyone laughed for forever. And no one knew the context of the invite, so it just looked like I had an invite on my calendar for me that said, “become less fat”. Yes, world, I need to become less fat! Glad I could inform you of my resolution!

UGHHH!

Love,

Brittney

Finger Painting