Ok, so I'm going to have a go at blogging. We will see how it goes. First question of the day: how do you spell the title of my blog? Is it "stouthearted" or "stout-hearted" or "stout hearted" or none of the above? I found it as one word in the dictionary, but I'm not sure that I trust it. If I were to write the word on paper, I would probably do so a little sloppily so that I could refute with any school teacher whether the cross on the second "t" of stout was really the cross of a "t" or a hyphen--whichever I thought the teacher thought was correct. I used to be a school teacher, so trust me, I know most of those sorts of tricks. (Me: Is that a 1 or a 7? Student: Which do you want it to be?)
Why are we on this blog stouthearted? Well, first of all, because it's punny. Second of all, because being stouthearted connotes bravery, valor, and courage, and we all know how much more of these traits we could all use in this world. For the description of this blog, I thought of including a cool scripture about how righteous being stout of heart is, but I soon found out how wrong I was! So yeah, apparently being stouthearted can also connote stubbornness and pride. Alan and I always talk about how we HATE those words in the English language that seem to have two opposing definitions--just check them out yourself: cleave, sanction, stouthearted, to name a few.
But I have digressed. I first really thought about what it meant to be stouthearted somewhere during my high school years after I had become good friends with my future sister-in-law Amanda. I saw a T-shirt at her house that someone was wearing that said "Stout Hearted," apparently the favor of a recent family reunion in Hurricane, Utah. Little did I know then that I would be joining the Stouthearted clan. And then, of course, there is the famous Nelson Eddy song "Stout-hearted Men" (um, yeah, I'm just throwing a hyphen in there for the heck of it). Does that song make stoutheartedness sound like a bad thing? Nah.
So, after this lovely English lesson, welcome to the life of the Stouthearted Stouts. I hope to write some of the goings-on in our lives that make me and my family Stouthearted. I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride.
7 comments:
YEAH! Jenny! I was hoping you would join the blog world!!! Isn't it fun to be able to babble on about whatever you want and people love you for it? (not that you babble on, but I do) YEAH!
Welcome, Jenny! Haha. I love English questions. Stout-hearted will be hyphenated if it comes before the noun it modifies (There's Sam, the stout-hearted Hobbit), but it will not be hyphenated if it comes after it (Sam was stout hearted). Don't you love it?
Or maybe one word... hmm. Sigh.
Great job! You guys are my favorite stouthearts and I mean that in the good way. Way to go!
So glad to have you be neighbors online now! Jared is looking so big and cute. It will be good to see you soon at Dad's birthday.
Jenny, very clever introduction to your blog. In the wikipedia definition of stout-hearted you linked to, the "positive" word in the definition that stuck in my mind when thinking of you and Alan is "plucky." I've always enjoyed the way that word sounds. I could say it over and over: "Plucky, plucky, plucky. Ernie has a plucky ducky." You guys have pluck galore. I'm sure I'll enjoy reading about it more.
Jenny, I'm so glad you've joined in with the other Curtises in the new blog fad. It's my only way to socialize and keep in touch with other people! I almost feel like a voyeur at times, peeking in on your private lives and all, but hey, you can peek in on mine any time :)
BTW, email me at beladara@gmail.com and I'll send you an invite to my blog.
Amy Hintze, married to your old "boyfriend"
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