Friday Night

I reverted back to 4th grade this evening...I'm real cool I know. My Friday night consisted of these things:AND

I highly recommend this book!!!
Well I'm off to clean my room and start on this little gem...yeah I know you're all envious of my life!

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

It's Official

They're in! Now we just wait for the call!! Love you all!

Black America

This is a cultural snapshot of Black and African Americans living in poverty. As I was researching them I put some pictures and statistics that I found into a video:

Here is a list of links to the articles and sites found in this video:

A More Nuanced Look at Poverty Numbers

Racial Disparity in School Suspensions

HIV Stats

U.S. Blacks, if a Nation, Would Rank High on AIDS

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8507.asp

The Song is Hope for the Hopeless by A Fine Frenzy

As I continued my research I found a video that directly talked about the stereotypes of Black Americans and how they are viewed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXzKLtgKJj0

You can see from both the statistics and facts presented as well as the video on stereotypes that African America's are definitely viewed a certain way in America. They are seen differently than the cultural capital in America, there are many more that live in poverty and struggle to break the mold created for them. As I was reading and researching it really surprised me how much higher the poverty rates were for African Americans in contrast to other races. After reading all of this I felt as if Blacks and African Americans have a hard time knowing how to overcome their poverty and it has becomegenerational poverty that gets harder and harder to control. They begin to acquire negative orientation in which they believe they cannot change their situation, it is by fate that they have ended up this way and there is nothing they can do.

If the children see themselves as less than or not as good as others they could have a hard time achieving biculturalism within their life. Biculturalism is the ultimate goal for every student, even if they don't have to learn a new language, being able to function well in the classroom as well as at home is essential for the student's success in school. If the other students in the class feel that African American students are not as good or smart or anything else as they are it could really effect their potential to learn. This institutionalized racism could potentially have long lasting effects that limit their potential and abilities. If we as teachers view children in this way we limit the ability of all students of that race and culture.

As educators we can help children to break out of this mold that they have for themselves, we can help them see that it is possible to change. It starts with eliminating the deficit theory and doing our best to implement socio-cultural learning in our classrooms. It is important to build your teacher efficacy in order to truly be able to help these children. We do have the ability to change their lives and make them better but we first have to believe in ourselves and know that the ability really does lie within each one of us.

When I think about rain

Today has been very overcast. But as I walked into the HBLL for a long night of uninterrupted studying(yeah right, I'm blogging right now) the sun was peeking its way thought the clouds as it set.

Three things I'd rather be doing: sleeping (heaven knows I need it), hot tubing, or possibly watching this.

I wore a scarf today. Which makes me think of this which makes me laugh.
I also wore a sweater with flowers on it which makes me think of this lovely lady whom I've ranted and raved about enough on this blog.
I also also wore my glasses today. My eyes were feeling a little..."wiggle-y" yesterday so I decided glasses was a good call.
I just bought a bag of chocolate covered cinnamon bears from the bookstore (you really can't buy them anywhere else, they just aren't as good) and a water bottle which is the perfect study pal for me this eve.
I just finished reading this book. I cried through the whole thing, seriously THE WHOLE THING...balled...like a baby. p.s. its a 5th or 6th grade reading level book. I'm pathetic.
I just bought my mom a present and I'm so very excited to send it to her (don't worry mom it was 5 dollars)

Lastly, I had my dentist appt today for my mission, I have two interviews left (one of which is on Sunday) and then I'm done...Finally.

G'Bye!

I have no title!

Hello blogging world. This is an important post! Today was a big day, it was a day I've been looking forward to for some time now. First of all Stephanie Nielson came to BYU and spoke, she is so incredible I have been looking forward to this for weeks!! So, it started at 7pm and I'm playing on a kickball team (yeah...i know, its awesome!) and we had a game at 6:15 normally I would just skip it BUT if I didn't then we would have to forfeit and we wouldn't go to the tournament and ultimately win a shirt (simple pleasures I know!) So I had to go to the game, and ended up being late to NieNie...but NEVER FEAR I heard all of her talk. YES! She is so amazing, she spoke on inner beauty and the fact that we are all beautiful and have talents that we need to embrace.

So before all of this greatness I had to go to the doctor for a physical for...(brace yourself)...MY MISSION PAPERS! So I'm guessing a lot of you reading this already know that I'm going on a mission BUT I've gone viral! lol! Anyway I'm almost done and am hopefully putting them in next week! Yay! So there you go blog stalkers! Enjoy!

Introducing...

So I've been wanting to introduce some pretty people that I think are great that play an important part in my life. The next couple posts are going to be things I'm doing mixed with some bios! So I literally just got home from running...SIX miles. I'm training for a half marathon in November and it was a little bit torturous toward the end but it was good. I'm not doing this by myself because I need a little motivation and someone to push me, ENTER: Sarah Pugmire
Let me tell you a little about her, she is in the masters of accounting program in the Marriott school...basically she's a genius! She is a GREAT friend, she always helps me with anything I need to my mom she is still considered "the-girl-who-helped-me-with-Ashlie's-bridal-shower" (Ashlie's shower was in February). Also she is hilarious...freals...HIL-ARIOUS! She is from San Diego, meaning she is obviously a chill person ;) and wears a lot of GAP.

So the two of us together are running the Snow Canyon Half Marathon on November 6th in St. George, we are on week two of training and its going pretty good. When my mom was here for education week she bought me these shoes. My old ones had been hurting my feet pretty bad so I was pretty excited about them. However I think they are causing me some SERIOUS problems. almost every night I go to be lookin like this:Needless to say something is not right, but just so everyone can take a deep breath I've been smart and not pushing it too hard and I even took a day off the other day. And when I went today it felt much better. The point is however that these shoes are not helping me, if anything they're hurting me...literally. But the other point is that I ran 6 miles this morning and that is a big deal for me!

My mouth feels a little foamy!

Last night we had a relief society activity and I was standing in the kitchen when all the sudden there was a BAT FLYING AT MY FACE. It was coming for me because no one even saw it until I screamed, dove to the ground (literally), and starting crawling away from it. I jumped up and yelled "where's the bat" and frightened ran screaming out of the house. At this point people tried to tell me it wasn't a bat...it was and there were many witnesses who agreed with me. So it was really traumatic and I've been replaying it a few times in my head today and got scared all over again. Just imagine this 3 feet from your face:

The story does not stop there but it gets a little funnier from here on out. I'm telling this story to my co-workers and reenacting it for them and its just hilarious. Now this is where I debated whether or not I should post this part but I think its funny and it will help me get to the bottom of this. So after I finish that story I tell them about how on my last blog post that someone name Linda commented that they missed me and wished I was home with them. While I loved that someone missed me I don't actually know who Linda is so i was a little confused. Anyways my coworkers informed me that Linda was the bat and the bat was just trying to give me a hug last night until I freaked out. So Linda, just so you know you are now known as Linda the bat in my office and you have brought such great joy into our hearts this day. But freals (for reals) Linda, I'd love to miss you too. Who are you?

Change...or lack thereof!

This post is dedicated to my mother. This is a look at what my desk looks like. Lets count 1, 2...5 water bottles all containing perfectly good water. I was picking up my room today because it hasn't really been messy since I moved but last night was a little crazy sleep, which is for another time. As I was cleaning I was thinking about how much I have grown up because I have made my bed everyday for quite a while and I have been really proud of myself. And then I picked up a few water bottles that were empty and threw them in the trash and then I looked over at my desk and saw this and just chuckled to myself about how nothing has really changed! Growing up I always had SO MANY cups of half drunken in my room along with all of the house. It drove my mother CRAZY! So here you go mom, it's all the same!

Frindle

I'm taking a children's literature class this fall which requires me to read 50 minutes of children's books every day (school day). At first I found this task daunting and pretty much impossible, not because it was so much but it was on top of assigned reading and all of my other classes. BUT it hasn't been as bad as I thought some of the books I've read haven't been my favorite but one of the ones that we had to read was Frindle, I'm assuming many of you have read this but I never had. I was way into this book, filled with so many wonderful life lessons. I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone and everyone! It was ADORABLE (I may have cried a little :)) and it only took me about an hour to read.

I'm crazy!!!

I have this weird feeling about the radio when I'm listening to it and a song that I semi-like comes on I feel that if I change the channel to see if there is a song that I like better on a different station the radio is somehow going to know and it's going to get offended and go to a commercial after that song. I realize how neurotic this is but I really feel that way, I normally just stay on one station if I'm alone in the car because I don't want to station to get offended, its crazy! Hope you enjoy that little fact about me!

You never know a good thing till its gone

This weekend consisted of cleaning, packing, unpacking, and more cleaning. Actually I have pretty much been doing all of that for a week and it is extremely exhausting but all I have left is unpacking my kitchen stuff. BTW...I moved!

Moving is not an enjoyable experience, you have to pack everything up, haul it somewhere else, and then unpack and find places for thing. All the while usually cursing yourself for having so much CRAP. Yet as I was unpacking I was happy, it was fun to put everything away and think of all the times in the next couple weeks when I would open the wrong drawer not knowing where anything is. Then over the months this place that is so new and unfamiliar becomes home, becomes the norm, I'm excited for all of my new experiences and the lessons I will learn here. As I look back on this last year I was sad to leave my old place, I learned so much in that apartment and experienced so many good and bad times.

So as I sit here very contemplative trying to put on massive amounts of lotion to heal my cracked hands from being in cleaning products for 4 straight days I look forward to the unknown and embrace it with open arms.

And looking forward to...

3:50 pm when I get to pick my mama up from the airport! I love education week (not really but I do love that my mom comes!!!)

Oh three-day weekend...how I love you!

I just love three day weekends. They are completely exhausting because there are so many activities and I sleep...VERY LITTLE. But I just don't want to miss out on anything. In case you are wondering why it is a three day weekend there is a little treasure I like to call Pioneer Day, it is a state holiday and we get a day off work! YES! On a side note, I distinguish days on activities because normally you only do one activity per day so when I do more than one activity it feels like a different day. This as been happening to me a lot...so many activities in one day therefore I can barely remember what I did on Thursday but I would like to walk you through my weekend because it was just BLESSED through and through!

Thursday:

• Dinner with Bri. Even though she is married we still get to see each other quite a bit! It makes me so happy!!!
• Katie Clevland's (friend from last apartment!) bridal shower. It was so good to see old friends! :)
  
  
• Outdoor movie at the capitol. Forever Strong. To refresh your memory, I watch this movie once before at an outdoor movie night and it is just a fantastic movie. I'm not really a movie critic though!

Friday:

• Took Rachel (my roommate) to the airport. It was really sad, she is going to be gone for 2+ weeks and I'm going to miss her very much!
• World's Largest Water Balloon Fight...oh my blessed event! It was INCREDIBLE! I have been looking forward to this for quite some time now and it was all that I dreamed it would be and more. We did in fact break the record...just barely though! There was a pretty big group from my ward there but we didn't all get a picture together. Best part of the fight...water balloons were flying everywhere and hitting you everywhere and one hit me in the mouth and popped in there! Haha. I had to pull the remnants of the balloon out of my mouth! This activity also came with a free lunch...what more could you ask for?? Here are some pics and a video for your viewing pleasure!
  
  Before picture: Bryanne, Devan, Me, James, Elyse
  
  Heidi was there too! Love this girl!
  
  We each got a bag of 30 balloons
  
  After pic! Orange and Blue totally came out victorious!
  
• After that a small group of us went for a dip in the pool and then got snow cones and ate them in a park. Actually I'm not a huge fan of snow cones so I didn't get one but I did enjoy the ride!
• That night I spent that Becca's house in Alpine Becca is a friend from the ward, there was a small group of us that went and it was a blast. We made a DELICIOUS dinner and then some more swimming and then smoothies and a horrible movie that I slept through (while that is saying next to nothing because I sleep through really great movies...this movie was seriously terrible) An Education...don't see it!
• Best part of the day: I wore my bathing suit for probably 8 hours and didn't shower! BAHAHA!

Saturday (Pioneer Day, June 24th, Thank you Pioneers):

• I woke up fairly early and took Elyse to the airport. She was in the ward during the fall/winter but is now living and home in AZ preparing for grad school in the fall. She was just visiting for the weekend but got to enjoy the water balloon fight as well as some Alpine activities.
• Now here is where the festivities really begin:
• Farmer's Market in SLC...this was fun...really hot but they had some BOMB salsa...I would have bought some if I had cash OR had somewhere cool to store it all day. But give my circumstances I wasn't able to.
• Native American Festival: When I heard those words I just knew I needed to go...how does one pass up an opportunity like that? It was such a let down and was more like a tiny street fair however there was something inside a tent that sounded more fun but you had to pay money. On the upside it was at the same park as a bird zoo. It was cool we watched one show and walked around a bit.
• Fictionist concert. Local band played a concert up at one of the ski resorts, it was fun. Before we went into the concert there was a stream down below where we park and we decided to go down and check it out. Not a good idea two of us decided to just run down the hill and that was a horrible idea at the bottom of the hill, before the stream was a lovely little swap that was hidden until you were IN IT! Needless to say my favorite shoes and legs were covered in mud and washing off in the stream was ICY COLD!
• After the concert we enjoyed some fireworks after the Salt Lake Real game!

All in all it was a FABULOUS weekend! However I am really tired...this morning I wasn't sure if my snooze was on or not, didn't care and went back to sleep. Luckily it was on and I was on time to work but man, I need a nap! This weekend equals about two weeks in activity time!

Hello Blogging World

I haven't posted in a while, I'm sorry...I know you are all on the edge of you seats wondering what I have been up to. This summer has just been so PERFECT I don't have time to blog...I'll try to be better though because I actually have things to blog about which is shocking!

So I went home for about a month from about mid May to mid June. It was so fun, and so great to spend an extended period of time with the fam!

That hasn't happened for about 2 years!!! But I'm back in P-town now. It's so great, summers here are SOO fun! I'm really enjoying myself. Also I'm really glad I'm not taking classes...1. because I have no classes to take in the fall and 2. because I would ABSOLUTELY not be motivated. Here have been some highlights of the last month:

1. I contracted an eye disease while I was in CA....thanks! So I can not wear my contacts for 3 months...I hate glasses. It has been really ridiculous. (that isn't fun I just wanted to share)
2. 4th of July is done BIG in Provo. They have "Freedom Days" which is this little street fair thing with booths that sell an array of RANDOMNESS and they have performances and fun things to check out. My roommate performed so I went and watched her and went another day to just check things out. It was way fun. The 4th was a Sunday so the city celebrated on the 3rd and the 5th...obviously! :) On the 3rd there were fireworks from the stadium of fire which I missed...long story, not that important but it was still fun. On the 5th there was a parade...WOW...never seen such a parade. It was literally 2.5 hours long...um....WHAT?!?! It was the craziest thing I've ever seen but so fun, I actually felt patriotic on the 4th this year. I did however receive a picture from my mom and realized that the legend still lives on...
3. So random activities in Provo are probably my favorite thing...last week there was a shaving cream slip-n-slide...if any of you know me you know that is right up my alley! There were SO many people there and I'm surprised I didn't get more than a few scrapes and bruises. It was AWESOME!

Just to give you an idea of what it looked like! With all the peeps!

Action Shot! Bryanne is in the green shorts...we're going to be roommates next year (fun fact of the day). Also please take note of my foot about to kick that girl in the face. That day...we all got a little closer!

And here is the group that I came with...actually Brandon came with us too but idk where he was...These are some ward friends! It was so fun. After we went and washed ourselves off in the pool. Hopefully they have good filters!

So this week's random activities are an outdoor movie on the capitol lawn, world's largest water balloon fight, and pioneer day celebrations. For those of you not familiar with pioneer day...be jealous, we get a day off work! YES!! Three day weekend BABY!!! Until next time!

World Cup

I have on and off watched the world cup but since I started work this week my co-workers have gotten me more into...not that they have really done anything just watched it and so I joined in and I kind of love it. The other night though my roommate's sister showed me this video and I love it, I think it is cute. It made me smile! Enjoy!

A little sketch!

So I know I haven't posted in a while but I'm home and I haven't been to the dentist in two years so I went today and they had to refill a hole in one of my fillings and they didn't numb me they just used this sand thing so my mouth and throat were pretty dry for a while after but when I got home I decided to go for a run and as I was running all I could think about was how it was a bad idea because my mouth was SO dry and I needed some water so I ran by these sketchy gardeners a couple times and the second time one of them held out an ICE COLD bottle of water for me. And I mean I ice cold, frosted bottle and sweat dripping off of it because of the heat outside (can you see it, remember my sandpaper mouth?!)

So I took it, maybe not the smartest idea but it was bottle it couldn't be that bad. So I run a few feet and decide to crack that baby open and get some of that into my mouth/throat. I tun the lid and no little cracks of plastic breaking open. Uh oh! a refilled, used bottle of water from some randoms I don't even know. I thought for about 2 seconds about whether I should drink it or not...

And then I partook! It was so delicious and I'm here to tell the story so...therefore THANK YOU kind men!!!!