Girl yo hair es NAPPY - aka the FRO

So Daniel thinks I should write all the funny things little kids say to me about my hair, here it goes!

We met up with one of my bestest friends Chelsea (we did not take a pic -grrr I need to be better about it - but here is a flashback of our days in Hawaii)

Anyways so her baby Kierra is soooo cute! She was sitting on mommy's lap giggling and then I try to take her so Chelsea can get a plate to eat and she has big eyes, tears start to form, then she starts crying.....so Daniel reaches for her and she is happy and giggling again. I wanted to hold her so I try to play with her again and she crys. She goes to another person and turns around to stare at me. Mind you this isn't the first baby to stare at me - I tend to get that alot. Daniel is like : Britt I think she is scared of your hair. So we test that theory by tying my hair back and yep she comes to me no problem, no tears, and giggling. NO WAY...so this is way funny but I thought possibly a fluke, maybe she was just hungry or something. Later on in the night after playing with giggly Kierra I take my hair down and go back to playing with her and she starts CRYING again - ok so I guess it wasn't a fluke. Bushy hair = scared baby.
Daniel's question: So will our kids be scared of people with straight hair?
HAHAHAHAHA
I love Chelsea and I love Kierra, but you have to admit this is a funny story :D

I tried to find a picture where I wasn't purposely making my hair huge and just having it the way it normally is - so this is one that I found, and currently I am telling my interpretation of the petroglyphs - too bad you weren't there to hear it - pretty epic...

Evidence Story Number 2 (no not that number 2....)

We were walking around Costco and these two little Haitian (I think, but they were black none the less - I'm not racist but this fact will come into play) started pointing at me and giggling saying SHE HAS CRAZY HAIR SHE HAS CRRRRAAAAAZZZYYY HAIR etc. They totally were playing off of each other and rolling in laughter. Their white mom was like I'm soo embarassed - sorry. But I was just laughing and Daniel was making my hair even bigger (if that is possible).
Anyways the point of saying they were black - come on they have nappier hair than me!!! Their hair was up in lotsa braids with berets but their mom said when they take their braids out they call their hair crazy hair so that is what they were referring to. So I guess my hair is unkempt and outta control - as everyone already knows.

I tried to tame it - ended up in a chemical burn to the root and lots of emotional damage so sorry the hair is staying - it fits my personality - and it is FINALLY growing back after 1 1/2 years, so no more trying to "tame" it chemically

Daniel's veggie version of us - I may be a broccoli head, but at least we are around the same height (hahaha yeah right I can dream right?)

Yes I have a fro, yes it is natural, no I am not black - in fact I got my crazy hair from my really white dad (thanks dad) and no it does not taste like spaghetti even though it looks like yes, but what the heck if you don't believe feel free to try and taste it.

9 Christmas Trees = Adrenaline and an almost burned down house.

Pictures to come

Short story: We burned Christmas trees in our backyard, started our backyard on fire, and almost had to call the fire department. And to have Daniel use a fire extinguisher and Brittany almost call 9-1-1, it made for a pretty big fire!

Long story: With Brittany elaborations

So it began all boring like and I almost didn’t even partake in the events of tonight, but we might not be here to tell the tale, so good thing I did participate (so I could hand off the fire extinguisher resulting in our livelihood not burning to ashes…) I was going to observe from the inside so as to not get smoky, but smoky, and smoke inhalation, I did get.

Why do we have 9 trees in our backyard, well Archie and Daniel went around collecting them when people were trying to get rid of them after Christmas. No, they did not go door to door asking for their used Christmas trees, but rather, picked them up off the side of the curb. Doing a service right? Haha.

Daniel convinced me it was OK to burn in our backyard, because it is within the “burn-the-compost-leaves-extra-stuff-floating-in-you-yard” month, is it really? I do not know. So none the less, we journeyed to the backyard to pile the trees and watch them burn. We did not have newspaper, so we just had to throw matches on them and hope they caught. When I say we, I really mean Daniel and Archie. SO  the trees didn’t catch on fire as quickly as we had hoped, so maybe this show would be a dud, but alas, we were in for a real treat.

Our backyard is full of weeds, dry weeds, which the trees were set on, I asked Daniel if that was ok, and I was pretty skeptical, but being the obedient wife, I just let the manly men do their thing. So of course the ground catches on fire (all while 20 foot flames are scorching to the night sky – yep the tree pile finally caught on fire!) , so I am starting to freak out, Daniel is saying it is fine don’t worry. So the circle of fire grows bigger and bigger and I am really starting to thing pretty soon I will hear fire sirens and see the fire engines roll up and so I tell Daniel I am going inside to get a bowl of water ( I hate not being productive – and just not being able to do anything – and also does he need the fire extinguisher?) Archie and Daniel are stomping out the small flames and a gust of wind comes and carries the fire to loose weeds and whammmmmm HUGE fire fence licking flames going towards the fence, the house, the trees, and only getting bigger, and you CANNNOT stomp these suckers out, no SIREE! So I am inside the house and in a slight panic and my brain not fully functioning and thinking ok where is a shovel, dirt can stop fire, ok we don’t have a shovel, ok flour or baking soda, which is it? WHICH IS IT? ONE IS FLAMMABLE ONE IS TO STOP FLAMES OH CRAP CAN’T THINK SO CAN’T GET THAT…. Then my phone rings.

It is Daniel – calmly saying – will you bring the fire extinguisher out?

Now I’m thinking, ok, Daniel, ASKING for the fire extinguisher? THIS IS GOTTA BE BAD! Should I start to think about calling 9-1-1 so they can get here in time? What the HECK do we tell them! I am sooo SCARED of authority! Oh no, SO I hapharzardly fill my measly mixing bowl with water (yea what tiny flame could I fight with that – I don’t know but I HAD to do something!) So I run out there with the bowl and the fire extinguisher (which I believe I was prompted to buy a year ago, for the very situitation, for without it, I would be without a lot!) and the fire extinguisher EXTINGUISHED the big flames before it reached the BIG patch of DRY LOOSE weeds by the trees. We took a look outside later – and the burn marks are RIGHT next to the patch a weeds that would have spelt disaster for SURE! Oh my goodness! So my heart is racing and I am freaking out and Daniel is stomping out small flames, extinguishing big flames, and Archie laughs at my bowl and says don’t you have a big 5 gallon bucket in the shed, duh! So we get that out and dowse everything, which I would say more water MORE MORE MORE, I don’t want this beastly fire starting up again!

So we managed to NOT burn our house, or our neighbors fence (but came close) or people or have the fire department come. But we came CLOSE, TOOO CLOSE, next time, not in our yard with dry grass.

So I called my mom – I have to speak to someone other than the boys that helped do the damage, and tell this outrageous story of how we outsmarted death. She is at the airport. And laughing at me. And saying yes I should go out tomorrow and buy a new extinguisher since Daniel is my husband, but he would never let me die so no worries, but next time, maybe burn the trees one by one. I tell her – it really did look cool all at once, just super scary. Yep, super scary. And then I call Betsy – she laughs at me too – and says they need to take a field trip to see our burned back yard… hopefully the landlord doesn’t go in back when he comes in a few days to deliver our new fridge. Oh boy – life is sure exciting at the Johansen household.

Moral of the story – keep a fire extinguisher at your house – or wherever you plan on burning a ton of Christmas trees. 

a good laugh

so a quick conversation before bedtime last night (although daniel says its my favorite and least appropriate time to tell long stories).....
Daniel: Brittany you are crazy
Brittany: I am NOT, ok I am, but I am the MOST sane wife you have.
Daniel: Uhhh, no you are not.
Brittany: Yes I am unless you have two wives, then I am the craziest and the most sane wife you have, now where is my water bottle?
Daniel: In the bath tub
Brittany at this point is doubled over laughing almost peeing her pants......

hope you got a good chuckle out of this too :)

Cafe Johansen

In continuation of the last post - we decided to show our thanks - to our family! We decided to treat them to an 8 course meal! The idea kind of came from our visit to LA when my friend Chelsea's in laws took us out to eat at this fancy restaurant and we had an 8 course meal and it is just something people don't get to do that often, it was fun savoring the food, being served, and taking a couple hours to just sit and talk while eating. It was soo fun! Last Saturday I woke up with this idea - I couldn't get it out of my head, and wanted to do the event right away,  but we needed some time to prepare, so we ended up having our special night on Sunday. I tried to keep everything to secrecy, the whole fam bam was wondering what the heck Brittany was up to this time. I forbade them from looking at my groceries in the fridge and I handed out cutie invites with some french words to throw them off even more. Daniel was AWESOME to go along with his crazy wife's ideas - sometimes I am a little one track minded and when I think of something, I have to have it now! I guess. Daniel and I hosted a night of wonderful cuisine coupled with an amazing atmosphere and the rest of the details I will explain :)
So the evening was a semi-formal attire and we led the family to the transformed downstairs cafe with christmas lights, candles, music, flames dancing in the fireplace, and dim lamps. The menu was pre-set. We would come down with each course on the plates and serve each person, then after refilling their waters would check when they were done and come back down and clear their plates, then after about 10 minutes come back and serve the next course and so on... The delectable menu was as follows:

Succulent Strawberry Bisque
*We came down with just the fancily cut strawberries (one on each plate) topped with mint leaves and plates decorated in syrup, so it looked deceiving, but then we came back down and served the bisque around the strawberries - and yep we confused them - some already started to eat the strawberries and thought, this is it??!! haha. We got this idea from our Carnival Cruise and the recipe is theirs too - I totally recommend it - delicious!


Covetous Cranberry Salad
*Yep, I am naming my courses - the trick with this one was that the cranberries were infused with blueberry juice, tricky, eh? This was just a spinach salad, shredded swiss, mushrooms, tomatoes, almonds, cranberries (infused with blueberry juice), and my favorite poppy seed dressing (Brianna's brand)

Lime Sorbet
*Palate Cleanser - you need anything citrusy or gingery

Rosemary Thyme Sourdough Bread (Courtesy of Days) and Carraba's famous Olive Oil Dip
*I got the dip recipe online - and famous for a reason, this was most people's favorite course, sooooo good. Let the dip sit overnight to let the flavors mix!

Ginger Sorbet
*Palate Cleanser - the bread was a strong flavor, so we needed a strong palate cleanser. I got this recipe online and it was surprisingly good. It is a flavor you don't get the opportunity to taste much, but everyone loved it! In fact we still have some in our freezer I just remembered at this moment that I shall have on the morrow (I feel the urge to be proper all of a sudden). It was just minced ginger, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice - uber tasty!

Pic: Us being snooty and proper (look how awesome Daniel and I are serving, you can't really see, but we are holding multiple plates of the main dish)

Steaks, Sauteed Mushrooms, and Potatoes
*Disclaimer: I have never been able to cook beef very well, but this turned out to be tender and moist enough, I should have seared it longer and then broiled it less. But lessons learned. I sauteed the mushrooms with the extra dip (there wasn't any extra bread - if there was, I'm sure the dip would be gone as well) and Daniel did an impeccable job on the potatoes as usual. Another disclaimer - I am using the word I, but insert we - Daniel did the same if not more work than I did - we slaved away upstairs while they dined peacefully downstairs....

Raspberry Sorbet
*Palate Cleanser - hahaha we just bought rainbow sherbet, called it sorbet, and served single flavors at a time to make it look fancier. I have small glass cups that we put in the freezer to make them look frosty as we served them - it worked! (but I really did make the ginger sorbet from scratch)

Warming Chocolate Melting Cake a la Mode
*Also a favorite, also a recipe from Carnvial cruise (as made up by my momma) as simple as mixing cake mix, putting it in a glass container (my little cups worked perfect again - if not mugs work) and microwaving for 20-30 seconds depending on the depth. Serve hot and don't cook it all the way so it is still melting and pudding esque - serve with vanilla ice cream! Best and easiest dessert!


It was a lot of work, but so much fun! It was our shout out thank you to having us over for dinner every Sunday for the past year and a half - our turn to make a meal. My mother in law said she loved it but that she loved it even more since she didn't have to cook any of it. Afterwards they came upstairs and it looked like a tornado had torn through, dishes everywhere - that is what you get for serving 5 people an 8 course meal and taking away their plates every course. Actually 5 courses with 3 palate cleansers, but they say I can call it an 8 course meal. You should try it, definitely worth it. And I am willing to do it for friends if you want, just pitch in a little for the grocery bill ;)

This is us playing on the frozen Utah lake - story short - Cumi (the dog) fell in and was rescued by Nate, and we had fun throwing rocks across the ice listening to the crazy sounds it made until it plopped into the open water (I cannot even begin to describe the sounds - echos and water droplets and boingy and indescribable but totally cool)!

Salamat

What does salamat mean? Thank you, but regardless of what language you speak, I believe the sentiment can be felt even if the word isn't understood. So I realized I have so much to be thankful for - this realization came as we needed to get our car fixed. Our warranty on our brakes was up, we put 17K miles on a 12K mile warranty, but it had not quite been a year. My mechanic graciously made a super fair deal with me - We pay for the part and he will cut the labor costs. Saved us a bundle! Annnnd he went around back to grab something, so I took a gander at the receipt - I saw all sorts of crossed out totals and his chicken scratchings on how much to charge us - we paid less than all the estimates he had made - and I found out why after snooping some more - he charged us what HE pays for parts (customer prices for parts are normally increased by about 50%) so we paid half of what we should have for parts and he did it all for free. I was sooo thankful, I tried to tip him, but he declined and said he was just grateful for our business. I have never met a more honest mechanic, I am grateful for his honest personality and I recommend him to anyone - Ray's Campus American Car Care Center right next to BYU.

I am grateful for the silly things in life that make me smile:
-The cool frozen water droplets on the walkways
-Heater and defroster in my car
-Daniel making fun of my silly inventions (ps. I was going to become a millionaire with this idea I just had - alas I googled it and you would never guess who makes a prototype of my idea - of course CHINA)

-Taco Soup (can you tell what we had for dinner?)
-The pretty snowflakes falling outside my work window (and so we can ski at Alta for free :)
-Dreaming (I am currently dreaming of my future - whatever that may be - as long as I'm with Daniel I can conquer anything!)
-Friends and Family
-The Gospel
-CHOCOLATE
-slipper boots
and I could go on forever ...

So what are you thankful for at this moment? Never cease to be thankful! Have a good laugh at yourself and enjoy the journey. Thanks for reading and thanks for being you! Aloha!

Ps. I am thankful for the Fall and the pretty colors

I am thankful for the Daniel in this picture

and I am thankful for Natalie for taking this picture!

Endorphins - gotta love 'em!

Don’t you love discovering things around you that have been there all along? Well, I got my wake-up-you-don’t-know-your-area-as-well-as-you-thought-you-did call – enter Orem Rec Center. For those of you unprivileged enough to be out of the boundaries of Orem, let me tell you, I found love in the form of a building. A building with an indoor track, basketball courts, cardio equiptment, weight room, racquetball courts, shooting range, Olympic size pool, sauna, hot tub, and endless classes. The day before I had made this epic find – Daniel and I sat down and wrote bucket list items, 2011 goals, and things we want to do in Utah. Here are a few bucket list things:

Travel - EVERYWHERE
Invent something
Own a business
Have foreign exchange students
Scuba certified
Humanitarian work
Learn a foreign language

2011 goals

Finish BOM by June and D&C by the end of the year
Sign up for institute
Healthy eating
Exercise 3 times a week (at least)
Train for 30k (close to St. Geezy
Journal (this blog should help J)

So needless to say I found my morning mecca – the Orem Rec Center – here to service all your exercise needs! I am so lucky to be married to someone who makes me want to become a better person, to improve all aspects of life and grow closer as a couple and closer to our Savior! Daniel trains with me and pushes me to step it up a notch – whether it is in speed and endurance – or church and home life – Daniel, I love you more!

So I just started this blog – to share life’s experiences – and if so inspired – to help share the source of my happiness, my knowledge of my Savior and His plan for me. Eesh – this blog is a result of you telling me to make one, so here it is and let me know how I am doing. Hope I don’t bore you guys too much – I am kinda a flamboyant writer – I write what comes to mind and fill it with details. Enjoy!