BYU and HP

I love BYU. All day today I have been thinking about how sad I will be when I have to leave and I don't get to come back for a good two years! It is such a wonderful place and I'm going to miss it! Anyway, BYU is great for many reasons but on this special day the bell tower's chime is the Harry Potter theme! How sweet is that? Way sweet! Also I'm going to the midnight premiere this eve...can't wait!

Boys and Girls

(boy or girl...this looks FUN!)

On Friday in my office there was a girl there talking to one of my co-workers and she was taking about some of the conversations that she has with her husband in which at the end she just has to say well..."boys and girls are different"

On Saturday my ward did a service project in which we raked leaves. I just kept thinking about how different boys and girls really are and it made me laugh a little. First of all I honestly can't remember a time I have ever raked leaves so this was a first. I knew it was impossible to get every leaf but I was going to do my best. So there were four of us working on one area (two boys, two girls). Here are the differences:

1. Us girls were working together and the boys were working together. This was the first difference I noticed. We kindly took turns one would hold the bag while the other put the leaves in and then we would switch. The boys simply figured out who was best and what and stuck to it.
2. Since we were delicately putting them in the bag as to not get them all over us our area was pretty "leaf-free" where as the boys area seemed to have leaves everywhere still that we had to go back and re-rack them.
3. I was completely content working the way I was but I think the boys were not liking our speed so they suggested that both boys rake the leaves and both girls hold the bags. The also decided that it would probably be a good idea to make this a competition. Who can bag the leaves the fastest? Needless to say this just created a bigger mess because leaves were flying everywhere because we were being careless in our placement!
4. The relates to the previous one but as we were putting all the bags in the car to take them to the drop off this was also a competition to see who could fit the most bags in their car. I think that boys can't do an activity without making it into some sort of competition.

Anyway, that's all. None of this was a problem and I didn't bother me. I just thought it was kind of hilarious!

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

I ran my first half marathon on Saturday, November 6th and it was great. Sarah and I ran it together and we did pretty good. Well actually it was pretty hard let me take you through some of the highlights!!!

-miles 1-4: on the street went by pretty fast, it was all down hill so we were CRUSIN'
-miles 4-9ish: were in snow canyon and it was pretty beautiful, st. george is beautiful (educational lesson: the rocks are red in st. george due to the abundance of iron oxide in the rock/dirt)
-miles 10-13: this was TORTUROUS seriously...I thought I was going to die...up until this point it was ALL down hill and then all the sudden it was uphill and hot and I was....struggles! But I ran the whole way and made it.
-mile 13-13.1: at this point I wanted to KILL whoever decided upon the trail because they decided it would be a good idea to have us run a lap around a track...FOR REAL?!?!

here are some of my favorite moments:
**mile 1: there was a WAY stinky man but I was way proud of him, he rocked it and was crusin the whole time!
**mile 7: they had GU for us and I had heard this stuff is NASTY but Sarah and I decided that we wanted to experience everything along the journey so we were going to eat it. So we get to the GU and we both take one I rip off the top and took a HUGE gulp of it fully expecting for it to make me puke. If any of you know me at all you know that I am an extremely picky eater. So shocking to me I LOVED this stuff. I thought it was delicious, I started "eating" it slow and savoring it. Seriously it tasted like cookie dough. Sarah on the other hand was behind me gagging because she thought it was so gross. lol.
**mile 9: we were still feeling pretty good hear and we ran by this guy who was BLASTING Ke$ha (tick tock) and I could hear it CLEARLY and started dancing and singing along with him...it was great! This picture was also right around the same time...we were still feeling good!
**mile 13.1: this picture accurately depicts how I felt, it cracks me up though. Check out the agony on my face!

Grateful...

I was walking home from work yesterday thinking about the things that I have been grateful in the past week or so (obviously not everything...and in no particular order):
-early morning inspirational phone calls
-hulu
-the guy BLASTING tick tock on my 1/2 marathon last weekend so loud that I could hear, sing along with, and dance to!
-the amount of aquaphor I get to apply to my lips because its frigid
-good friends who come visit me when I need them the most
-tuesday temple trips with Rachel
-my mission call
-prayer
-chocolate covered cinnamon bears
-professors that took extra time to help me on a paper
-weekly hot tub tuesday and spontaneous hot tub thursday with Bryanne
-the fact that my roommate has all of the Harry Potter movies and I'm re-watching all of them before the new one comes out!! (it's taking me a lot longer then it should because I can't seem to stay awake through a whole one!)

I could go on and on but I'm going to stop there. I just want everyone to know that I am grateful and there are so many people in my life that I am grateful for so...

The Moment

So I opened my mission call last Thursday as you all probably already know. It was such a weird experience. I don't know what I was expecting but the whole night just felt kind of surreal. I made this decision and know it is right BUT it doesn't feel real. I thought it would feel more real at this moment...not the case.

If you were there or watched the videos it was a CLASSIC Brittany moment, I had some serious struggles.

Immediately after I opened it people kept asking me "HOW DO YOU FEEL?!?!!" I don't know what they were expecting and I don't know what I should have been feeling but I don't think I HAD any feelings. I was feeling-less if you will. My response was continually "I don't know....excited...I think!" I was so happy but it was all a little bit much to take in. As the night went on and people left and I had some time to process I got REALLY excited, nervous, scared, happy, and about a million other emotions. For those of you who don't know the verdict is...

Brazil Londrina