Temple Pics

In January of my best friends got married. I had decided that I didn't want to give a traditional wedding gift like something from a registry or a crock pot or towels...it didn't seem very symbolic to me of the happiness I felt for him and his eternal companion. A towel said nothing to me in the way of sentiments so I decided to do something completely from me. I decided that if I were to get married I would want pictures in my house! Pictures of things that were important to me and symbolized my life, personality, goals, and happiness. What better to take a picture of than the temple? And what an appropriate occasion. I had a vision of what I wanted it to turn out as so I went to the temple and took pictures for about an hour all over the grounds trying to get my perfect shot for what I was envisioning. I knew that I didn't want it to be a traditional front view of the temple and I new that I didn't want to see the whole temple. I wanted it to be from a different angle than you normally see, so I took lots of pictures! I found the ONE in all those pictures and I was so excited! It was perfect! I had to go to a printer to get it done because I had it made into an 11x14 picture. I made it a sepia color and it really gave the effect I wanted! I was so excited about it! Anyway, it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to! I was pretty pleased with the results! By no means am I a photographer so it isn't perfect or edited in any way besides being changed to sepia, but for me, I was pretty happy! My friend loved the gift so that made me really excited too! Anyway, here are some of the ones I liked and then the last two are the original picture and then after I changed the color.







This is the ONE! I love how it turned out...

I took this picture on the baptistry side.


I took these about a week later when I went with some friends to the visitors center. It's hard to take pics at night! I didn't know that until I started taking them! I'll bring my tripod next time!

I like how this one turned out despite the people and the golf cart in front of it but that's ok!


This one is a little blurry but I still like it a lot

A Fun Week With Great Friends!

What fantastic friends I have! Seriously!! My friend Curtis was down from EAC for his spring break (the week before mine) and we had lots of fun doing all sorts of things that week! We had a lot of fun going to an Asian market and seeing all sorts of interesting things like avocado, purple yam, cheese & corn, green bean, and red bean ice creams....um, no thank you!! We played it safe and got mango, but maybe we'll be brave and try something new next time! :) We also went to my grandparents house and talked with them for awhile and had a fun night with them, we went to the musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" which was absolutely hilarious!! I would highly recommend it!! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Then I met up with him and our good friend Mary-Anne at the temple after I got off work and we walked around and of course had to get Dairy Queen afterward! It's tradition! Then on Saturday we went to the Ostrich Festival with my best friend Julie. Oh what fun that was!! Then this last Thursday I went to the Cheesecake factory and had amazing dessert with my friend Jillene!! What a doll! Afterward we went to the mall and looked at cute formal dresses and fun jewelry and all that fun stuff that you definitely can't afford as a student!! ;) I had a great time all week with these amazing people and I just love them to death! Happy times!

Curtis and I


Mary-Anne(she is so amazing!)Me, and Curtis


Julie with an ostrich at the "Ostrich Festival"!


Demolition Derby!! I don't know if you even know what this is, but in a sentence it's a bunch of beat up cars that run into each other as hard as they can, trying to defeat each other in order to be the last one standing. We all agreed that we felt a little more redneck after watching that! What a crazy thing!


Julie and I waiting for the demolition derby to start


Curtis, me and Julie at the carnival


Jillene and I after going to Cheesecake Factory

A Very Good Weekend!

WOW! This last weekend was full of so many different things! I had a blast! I started out the weekend with a Mary Kay Party with some of my girly friends. It was fun! We had a great time! I was able to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in a while and it was just a fun time to be a silly girl!

Then I worked all day Friday, from 10-7, but I was able to learn some new things at the store to help out on the front end and stuff. I had fun learning how to do U-Scan (self-checkouts) and I was able to help out the cashiers and courtesy clerks. I definitely miss being up in the front of the store helping customers! I loved being a cashier when I was in Thatcher! I just love being able to talk to people and interact with the people I work with. In the Cub House I am in a little glass box and I can't really leave and interact with anyone besides the kids. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job and I love being with the kids I work with! It is so rewarding and lots of fun, but I have to admit that I do miss the adult conversation sometimes. So it was a nice break for me to be able to work the front end on Friday.

Then on Saturday I was super busy! I woke up at 6:30 and got ready to go to a service project that our Relief Society was doing for our enrichment night. It was awesome! We went to a domestic violence shelter and helped for about 2 hours and cleaned things up a bit. It was very rewarding and I am so glad that I did it! I was in the kitchen helping out and we were all supposed to sign up for specific jobs and no one wanted to clean the oven, so I took it. I was happy to do it though. Cleaning a stove, and the grill and degreasing everything is kind of important for sanitation and stuff! Let me tell you though, this was a BIG job! It was huge!! Two ovens, a 6 burner stove, and then a grill that covered the whole top of one over sized oven. All of it was cast iron. WOW! It was a lot of work but so worth it! It took me the entire 2 hours to clean all of that up but I felt so good after doing it! After I was all done the supervisor over our group came up to me and told me how much she appreciated me taking the initiative and doing that because it needed to be done so badly. I was just happy to be there. I have needed to get outside myself for a long time and I was just so glad for the opportunity to do something like that for these people who needed it so badly.

After I was down there I had to go home and get ready to go to Ben's Regional Choir Concert. It was so good! My choir director at the college was his director for regionals so that was pretty cool! They did a FANTASTIC job! Ben has decided that he is definitely going to take choir at the college the semester before he goes on his mission so that is pretty cool! I'm excited for him! I have loved being part of that choir!

After the concert I went with my family to my cousin's birthday party which was a blast! She turned 9 years old! I can't believe how old my cousins are getting! All of the girls in that family are absolutely adorable! I just love them to pieces!

We left around 7:30 and I had to get ready to go to a Young Single Adults Activity that started at 9. I was so tired, but I knew that I should go and meet some new people. I am trying to be better about getting involved in my single's ward and going to the activities that are going on! I definitely need to be more social! So anyway, I went to the activity and it was really fun! We went to Polar Ice and I went ice skating for the first time! It was exciting! I think that I will like it even better the next time I go because I was just trying to get used to it this time, but I really did enjoy myself! And another cool thing was that I was able to see alot of people from my hometown and that was fun too! I really enjoyed being able to catch up with people and meeting some new people too! There were 750 people there! Insane! I was pretty proud of myself for going and it ended up being alot better than I expected it to be! Plus, I go to do something I have never done before which is always exciting and fun! :)

An AMAZING birthday!

WOW! Talk about fun! This birthday was definitely one to remember! I'm now 22 years old! Holy Cow! It seems so weird to think I am that old! And looking back on things that have happened in these last few years since high school I have realized that I have done a lot! I have experienced many things and I am so excited to experience even more!

Anyway, my birthday was last week on the 3rd. The night before that I was a little sad I must admit. No, not with pre-birthday "oh-my-goodness-I'm-getting-old" blues, but I was just a little sad because I hadn't heard from Josh. I really wasn't expecting anything from him (he's on a mission for heaven's sake!) but I was still just missing him like crazy and wanted to hear from him. So I went to bed that night and my wonderful sleep was soon interrupted by a phone call at midnight! What in the world?! So I got up, rather groggily, and I saw that it was a number I didn't recognize. Hmmm...should I just ignore this call? Well I answered it and the conversation went something like this:

"Hello?"
"HI! HOW ARE YOU?!" It was a guy!
"Uh...I'm fine...how are you?"
"I'm great! Is this Brittney Chapman?" At this point I could hear a very heavy French accent...
"Yeeesss...Who in the world is this?"
"This is Elder Cheung!"
"WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! Are you serious?!?!?!"
Lots of laughing..."Yeah!" Now an important thing to know is that Elder Cheung was a "mini-mission" companion to Josh. He was only with him for about two weeks. He is a convert of about a year and a half and he lives in France.
"Oh my gosh! I can't believe this!"
More laughing..."Well Brittney I have a message for you. I just left Josh today from being on my mini-mission with him and he made me promise him that this would be the first thing I did when I got home. He was very adamant about it. He wanted me to tell you that he loves you and that he feels really bad because he wanted to send you something but he knew it would never get there in time because the mail system is so slow here in France. He said to tell you that he hopes you have a wonderful birthday."
I was in complete shock! WOW! For Josh to even think of having him call me was so thoughtful! I couldn't even believe he had Elder Cheung do that! I just kept telling him thank you over and over. We had a great discussion about some of the things he had experienced while he was with Josh, and while we were talking he said, "Brittney, your brother is the man!! He is amazing!" I told him I knew that. I said, "I don't know if Josh has talked to you about his relationship with me but we are pretty tight and he has always been someone I've looked up to. He is amazing!" He told me about a girl that was baptized just that Sunday before, that Josh had baptized her and that everything he said was absolutely perfect and that everything went the best it could have possibly gone. He just kept telling me how wonderful Josh had been. It just made me so happy to be able to talk to him and to feel of the excitement he had. It was so neat! What an amazing way to start my birthday huh?! I was set! I felt like I was on top of the world and I was just so happy! My birthday was already perfect as far as I was concerned! I was so excited I ran into my parent's bedroom after the phone call and told my mom all about it! Of course she was way excited too! It was just awesome!

Then at 6 in the morning I woke up and had breakfast with my family, scrambled eggs with bacon in them, and English muffins! Yummy! Then I opened presents which was fun!


As I was walking out to my car later that morning to go to school I saw my car and wow! My friend Jillene had painted all my windows! It was so fun! It said things like "What a Babe!" "Honk I'm 22!" "Happy Birthday!" And then I had a "frame" painted on the driver's side of the windshield. It was so cute and how special was I?!

Then I got to the school and somehow everyone knew it was my birthday! Holy cow! Everyone was coming up to me and wishing me happy birthday and giving me hugs and making me feel so special! It was so neat! We started jazz choir that day so I went to that and we had a blast in there! Right before class I decided to treat myself and buy a "Naked" juice. Oh my! I love those things! Way too addicting! Anyway, so I went and got one of those, and was talking to everyone in the room before class started and one of my friends started to walk into the classroom. I was so excited to see him I yelled hi to him before he walked in and he smiled at me and kind of motioned with his finger for me to go outside with him. He was hiding something behind his back and he pulled me behind the door (which was open by the way). He said "Happy Birthday Brittney" and then he pulled these gorgeous flowers out from behind his back! What?! This doesn't happen to me! How sweet is he?! I couldn't believe he was giving me flowers! WOW! I just kind of half screamed half gasped in shock and just wrapped my arms around him and gave him a big hug and just kept saying thank you and that I appreciated it so much! He just kind of laughed at me and said "You're welcome" and we walked into class together. As I walked in I realized that everyone's eyes were glued to the door. Remember that the door was open? Well they pretty much heard everything I said and at least saw half the "action" I was giving him behind the door. I almost just started busting up laughing when everyone just looked at us like something was up. Ha Ha! Believe me! It was nothing! This guy was actually my husband in a play I did this summer and we had just grown to have a really neat friendship. Anyway, for some reason during class I was just on this super big high and I was just a crack-up if I do say so myself! I was just plain goofy! Even more so than normal, but it was fun! We had a great time in there and everyone sang me happy birthday. I just felt so special! Then I came home and my mom asked what I was doing the rest of the day. I didn't have plans til that evening so she asked if I wanted to go get a pedicure for my birthday. FUNNESS! My mom got me the deluxe package which came with amazing bonuses during the pedicure. It was amazing! We had 4 different massages on our legs! We had a salt scrub, a mask (it smelled like chocolate!), then they put massage oil on our legs and used hot rocks (oh my gosh! That was one of the greatest things ever!), and then they rubbed in lotion too! I definitely felt pampered! Then of course they did my toenails and painted on this amazing flower design with glittery stuff. They were just so cute! Then I also got a manicure! I can't even remember the last time I painted my nails! So that was a fun treat too! We had a great time together! Another fun part about it was that my mom had never gotten one before so it was a first time experience for her so it was great to be with her for that!


After that I had to hurry home and get dressed up. I was going to dinner with one of my best friends that night. Cassi! She wanted to take me out so we got all cute and dressed up really nice and I told her I wanted to go somewhere I'd never been before so she was going to surprise me. We went to "My Big Fat Greek Restaurant"! It was AMAZING! WOW! They had these huge tumblers that our lemonades came out in and then we had an appetizer. Greek Fries! Can I just tell you that it was a completely new taste experience for me! It had this sauce on top of it that we figured out was vinegar and a melted sharp goat cheese. It had garlic and fresh oregano and feta cheese on it too. Really good! Then I ordered the "Award Winning Greek Platter" which was slivered Gyro (roast lamb) with lemon pepper potatoes, fresh squash, pita bread, and a sauce for the lamb to be dipped in. It was amazing! There was so much food though! I hardly put a dent in it! Cassi got Mousaka (if you've seen 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' you'll definitely remember the line "Moose Caca?!" Yeah, it's the same stuff!) It was layers of eggplant, zucchini, a spicy meat, and sauce with a hugely thick piece of cheese melted on top. She liked hers as well! We were both so full that we were dying but our waiter came and brought us two completely new silverware rolls. He said, "You are going to need these. I'm bringing you out a special treat!" I looked at Cass and she just put up her hands in surrender and said, "I promise I didn't tell them it was your birthday!" Anyway, he brought out Baklava. Oh baklava, how I love thee! It was seriously one of the most amazing desserts I have ever had in my life! It was like 27 layers of philo dough with layers of hazelnut, chopped almonds, honey, and cinnamon in between. It was all melted together atop a platter drizzled with honey in this criss cross pattern, with two dollops of whipped cream on either side of the platter containing a mint leaf for garnish. It was so elegant looking! WOW! Anyway, it tasted just as amazing as it looked! We were both in heaven! It was AMAZING! Then we came back to my house and we both fell asleep on my couch waiting for our friend Jason to come over to my house after he got off work at 11:30. Once he got here we talked for about 45 minutes and then we all decided we were too dead to be awake any longer, besides the fact it was a school night!



All in all it was an amazing birthday! I had the greatest time with my family and friends! I also have to say that my family and I had celebrated my birthday early since there was a holiday weekend, and we went out to eat and went to the movies so that was a lot of fun! And then we also had a big family party on Saturday night! It was so much fun! I really enjoyed being with everyone! We celebrated my little cousin's birthday too! She is turning seven this month and so we combined our birthdays. She is such a cutie! She was even sweet enough to let me blow out the last candle on our birthday cake! She is so cute! We had a fun time! I just love my family! They are just the greatest!


Well there we go, my birthday update! Also I have to thank everyone who wrote on my facebook and gave me a call! I had so many people do that for me and I so appreciated it! It was just so great to feel so loved all day! What fun I had! It was definitely a great time!

A Very Fun Night!

Curtis with the lovely polar bear on Main Street

Peek-a-boo! I see you!

Curtis just hangin' out!

Me balancing on some stones in the middle of the water

Curtis

There were all these cool walls that had water on the top with a light shining through the bottom with all these cool colored stones. I liked the effect of this pic!

A timed pic with all of us. These tiers were pretty cool!

Curtis is much more sneaky than I am!

Just Me!

Curtis' powerful sermon!

The Hunt's begun! Ha Ha! (Total inside joke! Sorry I had to say it!)

This wall behind us lit up different colors. It was pretty much awesome!!

Oh cute little Julie in the pretty flowers!

Curtis on top of the big water wall thingy...sounds like a good name for it...

They do men's and women's nails! How exciting!

Julie and Curtis decided to look for jobs...

The lazy bums! Obviously that plan failed!

Curtis pretending to be like the cool climber guy...I think Curtis is a little cooler myself!

Julie and I playing an imaginary game of chess! It was intense!



I got to meet up with a wonderful friend, Curtis Gardner (who I knew from my EAC days), a few weeks ago and we had some fun times over the course of a couple weeks. On this particular night we were with another of our really good friends Julie Hatch. Oh I just love her! Anyway, we had a great time going to the temple, looking at the "Reflections of Christ" exhibit there, then taking lots of random pictures at the Mesa Arts Center, and then having a nice chat over Dairy Queen treats! It was such a fun night!! We all had a really great time together!

Change is good....at least that's what I'm supposed to say...

I have this amazing friend. His name is Ryan. I met him my first semester at CGCC and he has truly been a wonderful friend to me! One of the best I've ever had! When I first came to Chandler-Gilbert Community College he was one of the first people that actually talked to me and wanted to get to know me. I had him in a few classes and I could tell he was just one of those top of the line kind of guys. He came to me at a really tough time in my life. I had just found out my grandpa had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and it was very difficult for me to deal with. I was very close to my grandpa and at the time I didn't feel like there was really anyone I could talk to about it or just hang out with to get my mind off things. Ryan was a real blessing! He and I were in A Capella and Jazz Choir together and we always had a lot of fun in those classes! I don't think it was until spring semester though when I finally was able to get to know Ryan really well. He is an incredible person! He has been there through lots of rough spots and he has been my go-to when I just need to talk or let go. We have made some great memories together, some of which I will never forget the rest of my life. He understands alot without much being said and I appreciate that. Well, Ryan is leaving on Saturday to move to Flagstaff for school. I am so happy for him! He is going to do amazing! He is majoring in music education and he has so much talent that he is just going to have some incredible experiences! He gets to be apart of the top Jazz group at NAU called "High Altitude" and he also made the top choir. I am so pumped for him! He really has worked hard! But I am going to miss him so much. He has touched my life in so many ways and there really isn't any way that I could possibly convey my gratefulness to him. But he has changed my life for the better and I will be eternally grateful to him. Yeah, we'll get to see each other every now and again, but as in all things, there must be change and now is the time.

Some of the greatest memories and things that I appreciate about Ryan are:
*His sense of humor
*Ability to Listen
*Crazy arranging talents
*Lunchtime in the car
*Listening to random songs
*Going to his cabin for General Conference
*Being there for a friend no matter where or when
*Living his testimony
*Chivalry :)
*Takes t he initiative
*Is patient enough to teach me things
*Winks
*"I'll Be Home For Christmas"
*Duke Ellington Concert
*My official introduction to jazz composers
*Barnes and Noble
*Jaramillo Sodas
*Beef Tongue
*Good long talks about life
*Song of the South ("A Dolla A Minute" Ha Ha!)
*No qualms about totally ruining a chick flick or any "moment" in a movie
*Wall-E
*Snow Ball Fight
*Flan (and the exploding pan!)
*3-day affair with facebook
*Mr. Bean
*Teen Girl Squad
*The funniest joke in the world
*Jazz Concerts
*Making dinners
*His birthday
*Conducting
*Secret Garden
*Recitals (especially our last Broadway one)
*Ultimate Frisbee
*Volleyball
*Climbing on the jungle gym
*Teasing

Oh and there is soooo much more I can think of, but these have seriously become some of the funnest times I have ever had! I am so grateful for Ryan, for the wonderful person he is and for what I have learned from him. He is going to do amazing things in his life and I can't wait to see what awaits him!


"Hangin" out in the hammock

Buddies! Me, Ryan, and Jillene