It has been a while!

Blogger! It has been so long since I last posted! In my defense, I have been working like 45 hours a week. More to come soon :)

Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

Yesterday was an adventure, to say the least! There were 150 tornadoes that touched down in the state of Alabama. The number of confirmed deaths is 178 and still rising. Thankful that my family was kept safe, while so many others weren't as lucky! Here is footage storm damage!

http://www.twitvid.com/Q5YJ0

 http://www.cbs42.com/content/localnews/story/Damage-in-Tuscaloosa-in-the-wake-of-tornado/e8QGLUlQSEmCMOFigtSZdA.cspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA7TKSHJ_wM&feature=share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U1asLiDYB0&feature=share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7T7GYl0xvg

Movie Marathon & Paper

So this weekend for me basically consisted of three things.
First: 27 Dresses (aka JAMES MARSDEN)

Second: Charlie St. Cloud (aka ZAC EFRON)

Third: Twilight (aka ROBERT PATTINSON)

and Fouth: The Princess Bride (*young* Cary Elwes)

I believe it is known without being said that this was my weekend to be a total romantic sap, and it be totally okay. :) hmmm, and oh, did I need it!!!

But its all in good fun, because I evened it out by doing this paper, that basically cosumed my life. Finally done, and off to another week of school :)

What I realized today...

You can’t go back to the past. You can’t undo the things you’ve done, choices you’ve made, or choices you let pass you by. To us, the past is seemingly useless now that we are in the present. Unless you use it properly. And the way to use the past is to choose a moment, and go back to it. Paint everything in your mind’s eye exactly as it was. And no matter how dark things have gotten since then, no matter how far you’ve come from that place, you will know that-at least then-you had a moment in which you were truly happy. And if you find a way to stay, to live, in that very moment, you will live on forever.

4 Car Rides and Six PLane Rides Later.....

Back from out West!!!! I had an abolsute blast!!
When we got to Utah the first thing we did was go to Temple Square and meet Aunt Marg, and her lovely daughter Cambria, and Cambria's youngest son, Jacob. They were absolutely adorable!! We ate lunch with them at the Lion House Pantry on the first level of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and caught up on 17 years worth of experiances!
After the Lion House Dad, Brandon, and I went to find our hotel to take a much needed nap! (We had been awake since 3am to catch our flight out from Atlanta!!)
We went to Church in one of the wards on the 3rd floor of the JSMB. The chapel was gorgeous, and they had the sweetest testimony meeting. We had fun taking pictures after that! :)

After Church/Pictures we drove to Hooper, Utah to eat a late lunch with Aunt Marg and Uncle Rick. They are some of the sweetest people I have ever met! I loved them to death!! And then the boys. Oh, the boys. Aunt Marg has two sons, Ryan and Dan. And they are two of the most hilarious people I have ever met! They sang and played guitar, namely "Smitten by the Stache", "The Mullet Song", and "Four True Love Stories from the Life of Ryan Jones", a few of there classics they wrote themselves. So so funny.

A Post!

I have not updated in way too long! In my previous post I mentioned our first lacrosse game. I wasn't able to play, because I injured my knee. The girls played verses Spain Park High School very well, but ended up losing 8-7 in quadrouple over time. After that we traveled to Johns Creek High School in Alpharetta Georgia to play against a very established team. LAX is a school sponsored sport there, while back home at Oak Mountain is only Club. So, we took an embarassing beating from them, as did varsity. But the bus-ride over and back was a wonderful bonding time for the entire team. Everyone had a lot of fun, despite the loss!

Last night I went and saw a movie with Claire called Beastly. It was a play off of Beauty and the Beast. I absolutely love romantic movies, and I have realized that I am a complete romantic sap. Its a good thing for me that guys that read poetry, and build you greenhouses, ballroom dance, write you letters, and kill themselves trying to impress you don't exist (at least not that I have seen), because I would forever be wrapped around his finger!

It was a great movie, absolutely amazing. I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. It was the type of movie that makes me want to fall madly in love and be that cute couple! (:

                                                                         ♥

Thursday Dad, Brandon, and I leave for Atlanta, Utah, and Idaho! So excited!

First Game (:

Our first LAX game of the season is tonight!! Post more later!

Haven't Blogged in a while!!

Well, I haven't posted anything in a while..but yes I am still alive and hanging on to somewhat of a sense to sanity. Yesterday Dad booked tickets on a flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City for Him, Brandon and I over spring break. We are driving to Atlanta on March the 10th, so that we will be sure to catch our flight on time out of Atlanta at 6:45AM. We are just going for me to check out the BYU campuses, and I am REALLY EXCITED.

BYU- Idaho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I GOT ACCEPTED TO BYU-I TODAYYYY!!!

Monday to Monday

This week has felt like an entire week of Mondays. I am so very glad that tomorrow is Friday, and pray that I Won’t have a week as bad as this one was for a long time! There is much to be done today…so I will definitely blog more tomorrow! We have a huge English project video that we are doing, and it should be epic. ♥

Love this...

So I was feeling bad today, and then I found this quote. It makes me smile, everytime :)

"God loves us. He's watching us, he wants us to succeed, and we'll know someday that he has not left one thing undone for the eternal welfare of each of us. If we only knew it, there are heavenly hosts pulling for us -- friends in heaven that we can't rememer now, who yearn for our victory." -Ezra Taft Benson

Buoyancy @ Schlotzskys

Tonight I braved the winter storm to go do a Buoyancy Worksheet for physics class that is due tomorrow with Justin and Cory. Sara was supposed to come, but her mom didnt want her out in the ice. Let me just say, the only thing you get when you add Brittany, Cory, and Justin  plus sandwiches and pizza plus a really hard worsheet= epically finished worksheet AND really bad Indian accents....dont know what I would do without them!

The Best Days of My Life? I hope not!

If the High School years are in fact, the best years of your life, kill me now! On days like today I like to tell tmyself its going to get better, not worse!
LAX: Well, we havent had practice the last three practices because of rain, freezingness, and then finally field conditions. (Nice way of saything that the field where we practice is underwater. And our first game is the weekend of the 26th! Hope we are ready!
School: GET ME THE HECK OUT OF HERE!! I am sooo far beyond high school and we still have three more months. Senioritis much? Kaycie and I are counting down the mondays....15 more until graduation :)
Random: Today I learned the story of Zion's Camp in seminary. Doug Watson does an amazing job teaching. I have a new favorite scripture, as of today. It reads :

Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. (D&C 58:3)


George Albert Smith also accompanied the Prophet Joseph on the march. When the camp was stricken with cholera, Jesse Smith, George's cousin became ill. He shortly thereafter passed away. George Albert Smith said that he had found a great deal of comfort in this scripture. Through his extreme trail, wondering why he was not taken in Jesse's place, he realized that he didn't see "the design of" his God. The Lord was preserving His prophet. -♥

LOVE (:

A few hours later...

I LIVE! My hands may have to me amputated, but I am alive. The car looks amazing, and I doubt a professional could have done any better. So payment is paid, and Brittany is free. :)
Cal is going to be the death of me, I hate that math class. But I'll get through it, I always go. Like I blogged earlier, I finally got my apps into BYU(s). Unfortunately no word back yet! I guess Heavenly Father has more time to play games with my head! ;) We'll see where I end up. I talked to Aunt Jan (my long lost Aunt who lives in Rexburg. Her husband Dale works with campus security!) the other day, and she was an absolute sweetheart. She sounded amazing, and I can't wait to meet her. She said if I wanted she could put in the good word for me into a student secretary position. I still haven't decieded if I want to work during school or not. I don't think I will my freshman year, at least. Finally, its my turn to decide. -♥

Baby its cold outsideeeeeeeee

So, it was a whoping 30 degrees outside. And what you ask, was I doing? I was outside washing the wheels, vacuuming, cleaning windows of my dads car. Why? Because I am an idiot, and I didn't pay my parents a car payment. Dad told me if I did it we would be even on the payment and I could drive the car next week. So I was sorta forced to do it. At least now I can drive next week, and I can do something tonight!! yaaaay!
I was stuck at home last night, and I HAVE to get out and do something before I go insane.
I got my first letter from Bryan today! He is so excited and happy to be in the MTC! He leaves on February 16th for the Peru MTC!!!
LAX is amazing, I am so glad Carol made me sign up. Coach Klementz is awesome and he genuinely loves coaching and really wants to help all the girls. The teams are looking really good this year, and our first game is in Alpharetta GA on the 26th! (:

Jim n' Nicks with my Lily -♥

Last night Lily and I went to Jim n' Nicks. (Duh, title of the post.) It was much much needed. Lily is one of those people who you can talk to about anything. And fortunately for us, we have had some of the same things happen in our lives recently.(Yes, with boys, what else?)  So it's nice to have someone to talk to who understands.We sat at our table talking about boys, breakups, and school....basically just throwing everything out there. Annnnnd she also introduced me to Jim n' Nicks cheese biscuits....and now I am an addict.
After dinner we drove up the road to Party City to see Kaycie, but it ended up being closed. We went shopping at TJ Maxx while we waited for Kayc to get let out. (Her evil manager Angela was closing, so she got kept in the store like an extra 20 minutes perfecting her W2 paperwork.)  WE ♥ THE CLEARANCE RACK! Nothing makes me and Lil happier than finding an endless rack of cute $3 shirts and $10 jackets. We both spent like, $20! And got some really cute stuff out of it. TJM closed at 9:30, so we bought our clothes and went out to the car to wait on Kayc. She finally got let out, and we just stood in the parking lot and talked for a couple minutes. We hugged her and told her we loved her and then we all decided to go home. I'm grateful that I have such sweet friends, and I don't know what I would do without them! -♥

Finally Friday.

FINALLY ITS FRIDAY! This weekend is much much much needed. My BYU applications are due on the first, and I will be SO GLAD to finally get done with all of that! I have no idea what school I'm going to, and that is defnately something to prayerfully consider. I want to study Nursing, so obviously the first place I turn is UAB. I love Tuscaloosa, so I turn to UA. But most importantly, I want to get married. So I turn to BYU. I guess we will see what Heavenly Father wants for me first!
So this morning I thought I was going to fail a pre-calculus test, And Andrew taught me what my class has been learning for a week in 20 minutes. The boy is amazing! I owe him big time! I ended up getting an A, as opposed to completely bombing it. I will take that!

Thursday :)

This long week is finally coming to a close. With physics, Bryan leaving, and LAX on my shoulders, I am so ready for the break! Actually I am ready for the whole school year to be over....and to GRADUATE!!

Mt. Timpanogas Temple

Bryan sent me this picture of the Mt. Timpanogas Temple before he entered the MTC! So pretty!

LAX and Bryan!

So, lately I have started playing lacrosse on OMHS Women's Team. I have NEVER in my life played a sport this fun. I absolutely love it! A ton of my friend play, so we make practice a blast. We have had practice almost everyday...the team was second in the state last year, so I am sure that they want to keep their ranking! We'll see what this season brings!
Recently all of my friends that I've been through the youth program with are leaving to serve missions! Today, Bryan entered the MTC! He is going to be serving in Bolivia! He is so excited. I think its so awesome that everyone in his family speaks spanish, and now he can too. All of his brothers served in spanish speaking missions, so he is going to fit right in!! He is the sweestest, and I know he is going to do an amazing job preaching the gospel that I know he loves!!

I almost forgot.. :)

I am so grateful for people who are quick to forgive. I think that is the most difficult attribute to gain. I got the most meaningful wink and smile I think I will ever get in my entire life last night, and it came from someone who has every right in the world to hate me, and he doesn't. I think there is much to learn from men like I have spoken. I know that there is for me :)

The BIG Ten!

Day Ten, and the new Brittany is still kicking. President Smartt told me that it takes 21 days to make a habbit, So I guess I am halfway there! I won't tell you its been easy, because it hasn't. But I wont tell you its been a piece of cake, because it hasn't been that either. I am realizing now that I never really said in my blog what the new Brittany means. The new Brittany means developing Christ-like attributes. It means being a better daughter. Being a better sister. Being a better friend. Being an example, being a light. Being happy. Being content with fifty bucks when I feel liked I earned a hundred, doing school work honestly when it would be easy to cheat, keeping promises I would rather not keep, and telling the truth even when it makes me look like a fool. I have done some just plain stupid things. Not wicked things, necessarily, but just prideful and stupid. I cared too much about what man thinks about me that what my Heavenly Father does. But the past is behind us, and the Lord has said "Look not behind thee.." -Genesis 19:17. :)

♥The House♥

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
-C.S. Lewis

*Day Seven*

Day Seven. Well, still blogging. Today was rough, a bunch of stuff is stressing me out! Tests and projects and senior year dont mix very well.
Today I was reading in 3 Nephi 12: 23-24, and its says, "Therefore, if ye shall come unto me, or shall DESIRE to come unto me, and rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee—

 24Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be recoinciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I will receive you."

Websters dictionary defines desire as the following:

1. to wish or long for; crave; want.

2. to express a wish to obtain; ask for; request

"If ye shall come unto me, or shall DESIRE to come unto me..." I was particularly interested in that word. Even if we don't come running to Him, if we just WISH to, or ASK for help to He will place in us the strength too. As I came to this I knew something sounded familiar. I look in my notebook of notes from talks that I have taken, I found a talk from Stake Conference last year that President Greene gave. I wrote down that he quoted Alma 32: 27. It reads:

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and

exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

Word for word confirmation of what I previously stated. In my mind, I see this as hope for the hopeless, and I find it interesting and amazing that the Savior is willing to work with us toward any righteous desire, including coming to believe in Him. I think it is good for everyone to let a little desire work in them. :)

Six Days Later...

Well, six days later and everything is going great! Its been less than a week and I feel like my whole life has been turned around. I'm praying a lot more, reading my scriptures a lot more. Well actually I am reading everything a lot more. I've really picked up Elder Maxwell, although all of the sentences in His books are profound statements, and all of them require some insane literary analysis. My Mom is the one who reads them in the house, so shes the reason why a ton of His books are laying around. My Mom and I usually fight a lot. But I've given up on that. When I see that we are starting to disagree on something I just walk away and tell her to forget it, in a nice way. That way it saves both of us our breath. If I do have to stay here over the summer, I might as well try and make it nice.
School is flying by. I was really lazy last semester and now its catching up to me. My Calculus class is giving me grief, but I guess thats normal because I don't know anyone who isn't struggling with it. I have a really nice teacher. Well I take that back. She is an amazing teacher one on one, but in class she seems like a jerk because she has too lay down the law I guess. Her name is Mrs. Roberts, and I used to hate her. But now she is amazing!! Thats really the only class that gives me any trouble. I suspected Physics to, but I have a group of friends in there and we just work on everything together. We tend to answer each others questions a lot. Sara is the genius of the group. Whenever we mess it all up, she tends to figure it out. Justin is the verbal commentor. He always talks to himself outloud, telling himself which values go where in the formulas. Cory is the copier, pretty much. But he makes us laugh while we work..so we dont mind. And me, well I guess I am the formula determiner. I always choose the formula we use. Thats one of my favorite classes, I love group work. My English class is always interesting too. I have two really good friends in there, Kate and Dalia. And the rest of the class is boys with senioritis already. Kate is the Anarchist, and Dalia is the fashionista. I love them to death. We usually just talk about Demetrius Heart  in that class now, because Mrs. Plaia thinks that she is responsible for recruiting him to Alabama to play football next year.
Well, keep crossing your fingers for my. This new lifestyle full of humility,selflessness, grace, and meekness definately is not natural for me..but its definately needed. I am learning a lot of stuff that I should've learned a long long time ago. But like President Smartt said, I am only eighteen. So maybe I do have time. ♥

The First Day -♥

Today is the first day of a new life. Someone once told me that to change, all one must do is "Decide its the time to change." I have honestly never given much thought to that phrase before now, but as a last resort I turn to it. If this is true, then human willpower, persistance, and dilligence are three very powerful things. I have been on the same road my entire life, fighting dragons and demons at every turn, claiming defeat more than victory. But I am eighteen years old, and I am at a HUGE fork in the road,. To the left, I can continue on as I have for 18 years. To the right, I can play "the game", meaning balance my life in a way in which everyonce can be happy to some degree,  and in the long run get what I eternally seek. In my mind, the choice is obvious. But staring down a path that looks nice and easy is a lot different than actually taking it. I like to think that maybe, just maybe if I am lucky..my willpower, persistance, and dilligence are far stronger than I know.