GREER!!

This last weekend my family and I went to Greer. And of course it was SO much fun! We went there for "The Capital Christmas Tree Celebration." Every year there is is a tree (among many others) that is decorated for the White House. This particular one will which will be outside the White House, was chosen from a forest right outside of Alpine while you're on your way to Big Lake. It was pretty exciting to say the least, especially for this small community. They made over 6,000 ornaments, cut enough trees for the inside of the White House (there were lots) and there were outside and inside decorations that the communities had made a sent as well. It was a HUGE task to take on but this little community rallied together and did an amazing thing! They had a special ceremony where one of the senators spoke, an elementary school sang, a high school performance choir sang, the mayor spoke, the forest service spoke, and cowboy poet got up and shared a Cowboy Christmas Poem with us. This cowboy impressed me probably the most because of something he said before he began reciting his poem. He said that he was hesitant to be apart of the festivities that day, and he wouldn't have done it at all, until he found out that the celebration was for a "Christmas" tree and not a "Holiday" tree. I appreciated that immensely! I had just been talking to my family in the car prior to getting there that I hoped it wasn't going to be called a holiday tree. I was pleasantly surprised!
The reason my family went was because my dad and Bashas' had a hand in helping with the event. Bashas' has a small store in Eager and we provided all the pies and hot cocoa for the event. We also gave a sapling pine to each family that was there. It was a really neat event! I was so glad to be a part of it!

The diesel pulling this HUGE tree

This is an 85' Blue Spruce. It was a beautiful tree!

The sibs at the ceremony! Love my brothers!

Josh, Cass, and I. These two are so fun!

Grandma and I!! I love her so much!

All of us by the Spruce


It was fun having Cass with us on this trip because she had never been to Greer before and we were able to show her a lot of our favorite places there and make some fun new memories.

All the kiddos

ME!

Preston wanted me to take some pictures of him for some new facebook profile pics. I liked em!

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! :)

Benny's Birthday!

Ben turned 18 last week! Crazy huh?! I can hardly believe it! He is graduating in a few months! We made the observation that Preston is now the only one in our family who is not an adult and that he will be the only child left in public school starting next school year! That was weird!

I wanted to do something for Ben so I took him out for lunch when he got out of school and then we went to the mall and got him a couple shirts! It was way fun! I just love Benny! You know you are always in for a good time when you're with him!

Later that night we had a big party with the fam (of course! When do we not make an excuse to have a party with the fam?!) and had a ton of fun! Happy Happy Birthday Benito!! You are so loved!

Of course there was a ton of food! Do you know us? P.S. I made those things on the oven! They are called jalapeno poppers! Oh man they are yummy!


Benny getting ready to blow out ALL the candles!


Me and my sweet cousin Bailey! Oh I love this girl!


Here's Benny and Mal! We had a fire going that night and Ben was making up goofy songs with his guitar! They were hilarious! Oh fun times!

Did I Mention...

So have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE jazz choir?!?! I believe that whoever knows me, knows I love jazz choir!! It has become the love of my life! It was funny, tonight I was going through some pictures with my mom and we found this one and I thought, "WOW! I really am getting into that!" Nothing could be more true! I love that choir so much! I believe that this picture is of me doing an awesome crazy high, very fun solo. We sang "Lady Madonna" and it is by far my favorite one we have performed so far! Anyway, just in case I never told you....I LOVE JAZZ CHOIR!!! :)

Me singin a solo at "Jazz Night"

New Years Eve!

More family time!! I had to pass up some parties to be with the fam, but believe me, that was where I wanted to be! We always have New Year's Eve at my Aunt Paula's house which is always a blast! We all like to have a good time! I forgot to mention in my last blog that Ben bought our family a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) for Christmas! We love that thing! It is so much fun! Anyway, we took it to Paula's house for the party and you should have seen us being crazy on that thing! Aunt Paula, Uncle Rick and my dad got on it with all of us kids too! So much fun!

Dad and Mal Pal dancin' it up!

Ben and Paula and Rick "Movin' It!"


We were definitely having a great time! We also played Quelf!! YAY! Oh so fun! My aunt Paula and Uncle Rick had never played it before so it was fun to get to do it with them for the first time! They were so funny! Somehow Paula got out of doing a lot of the crazy stuff, but that's ok! We'll get her next time! Mwah hahahaha! :)

Holding hands with the person you were sharing a space with on the board.


Doing the splits as low as you can go! Uncle Rick was pretty sore after this!


Doing a ballet dance for 30 seconds! Go Grandma!!


We played this up until midnight when of course we had the countdown, popped confetti everywhere, and drank sparkling cider and grape juice! It was fun!

Mal with her blowhorns! She even made up a little song for us with all three of those things! Ha ha! Silly Mal!

Cass and Me drinking our "mixers" Yummy!

Drinkin that sparkling grape juice!

Hugs all around for the new year!

Popping confetti and blowing the horns! Oh we love fun!


After that we finished up our Quelf game and then we hit the road! We were dead tired! So fun though! We had a great time together!

Kids...gotta love 'em!

Well, school has been a lot more intense than I had originally thought it would be. It's actually been a little stressful, and I'm definitely not complaining (it's good to be challenged!), but work has become a type of sanctuary from the rest of my crazy life. I actually look forward to being there and having fun with all the little kids that come in! I have one little girl who is there every single day i work except for Saturdays. Her name is Cassandra. She is 5 years old and she is so much fun! She LOVES to make me laugh! Her favorite thing to say to me is, "Brittney, you are such a laugher!" It makes me laugh even more. She is very extroverted and so she automatically assumes that other children should be just as friendly as she is. We'll have some really shy kids come in and she has a hard time with them not wanting to talk or play with her, so she'll come and ask me what to do about it. So I'll usually make a suggestion of playing a game or playing "tea party" to help them start playing together. It usually works and Cassandra always wins them over in the end. It is fun to be around her! Her favorite game is "Cooties". Did you know there was such a game? Well the condensed version of how to play is that you build bugs. She loves it and we have to play it every time she comes in. I always make mine with a tongue that sticks out. After we're done building them I try and make the bug "lick" her. She thinks that is the silliest thing and she just laughs and laughs so hard. Another thing she likes to do is see if she can scare me. She'll try and be sneaky and come up behind me and say "BOO!" But most of the time I'll turn around and scare her before she gets the chance and she'll get these really wide eyes and start laughing hysterically. I love it! She is just a bundle of fun! Her Grandpa (who is grumpy a lot of the time) came to get her right as we were laughing about something and he started laughing too. I had never seen him do that before!! He told me, "You are having just as much fun as she is aren't you?" I told him I most definitely was and he just nodded his head and said, "I like that!" It was funny that that made me so happy but I really was having so much fun with her!

A little boy came in to the cub house and his mom told him that he needed to watch out for his younger sister who was also coming in. He is probably 4 years old and his sister is 2. So anyway, he walks into the Cub House and he is so excited. He can't even get the words out of his mouth because he is stuttering so much. Can I just say adorable?! I'm sorry but I think that stuttering is so cute, I can't help it! He wanted to do the project so we sat and did it together while his sister colored a picture. Now, the project that day was "Edible Dirt" so every kid that came in was excited to make it. So I got him a bag with two graham crackers, and a couple of oreos. Then I got him a roller (more like a thing to use for hammering!) to break up the cookies to look like dirt. He loved it! He was goin' at it like no other. Then he told me that he needed to do his sister's for her because she told him she wanted him to (ummm...OK, seeming how she hasn't even talked to you the entire time she's been in here, but OK...), so he did hers too. After they smash up the "dirt" they get to stick in a couple gummy worms. He was just so excited about it he asked me if he could make his mom and dad one too. I just laughed and told him we needed to save some for all the other little kids that were going to come in later. He looked so sad when I told him that, so what do I do? I give in!! Who in their right mind could make a little kid sad like that? :) Anyway, so he did two more and then he wanted to start in on grandma and grandpa's dirt too. I finally had to draw the line, but it was so fun to see him get so excited about something so simple. That is the coolest thing about kids! They like the little things. I think that the most popular toy in the cub house is the birthday cakes. They are these little plastic cakes that have holes in the top for candles. That is the first thing to be pulled off the shelf, they just love it, even amidst all the really cool toys we have in there, they just want to play with the birthday cakes.

I love being with those kids! They teach me new things all the time. They teach me how to be silly and have fun, they teach me patience and understanding, and they teach me that sometimes less is more, the simple things are the best things. I just love being with them! They are all my little buddies and I love them to pieces!

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!

Road show!!!!

Our Muscular Men!

Our world-premiere "Unwicked" cast

Preston and I

Silly girls!

Me and my silly girls

Cuties!



Last Saturday I helped out with a road show for my stake. I was an assistant director with a lady in my family ward. She is one of those amazingly fun people that you just love to be around. Anyway, our play was called "Unwicked". It was a play about a brother and sister who were moving to a new school and they were really worried about fitting in. They soon meet some of the "popular" kids in school. The sister (Abby) is in the girl's locker room and all the popular girls try to help her with her obvious popularity problem. They sing the song "Popular" from Wicked but afterward Abby meets this girl who is really nice and kind to her. Then it jumps to the boy's locker room. The brother, Connor, walks in to find a bunch of incredibly muscular guys. (All the boys wore muscle suits!) They were showing off with how many push-ups they could do and they start asking Connor about any cute girls he's seen. Then they all start telling Connor about how he can be popular and they do a parody on "Popular" with a song called "Muscular". Holy Cow! The boys totally got into it and hammed it up great! It was hilarious! then it shows Abby and Connor after school talking about their day and they end up making some really great friends. The kids on our group were in the 7th and 8th grades with a couple boys in 9th. I was so proud of all my kids! They did a fantastic job!

We had to build our own set and we practiced the songs all day. The cool thing our group got to do was they were able to record the songs before the performance. our director's husband has professional recording equipment and had them all recorded before. It was so fun for the kids to get to do that! They were pretty pumped about it! The whole thing just turned out wonderful and we got the "Goody-two-shoes" award! Ha Ha! It was so fun! I just loved all those kids! They were awesome!

Another really cool thing was that I got to be with Preston! He was in my group and he really enjoyed himself! It was fun to see a side of him I never get to see and I grew to appreciate him a lot more through this experience which was really cool! What a stud!

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!