Birthday Thoughts

I forgot to post on my birthday. I know- I should have written about the past 26 years and what they have meant to me, but I just realized this evening that I forgot to write, so here it is- 4 days late. In honor of my birth 26 years and 4 days ago, I would like to share 3 ruminations from my past week.

1- One thing that I really dislike about living in Provo is the lack of kids around to play with. I have been over at my cousin's house quite a bit since I've been home for Christmas and I absolutely love her kids. They can always make you happy. I really wish I lived closer to them all!

2- My Mom always decides to take "family pictures" without consulting anyone else. AND she never wants to take formal ones. For example- Monday night after the Riggs family Christmas party, she decided that right when we got home, we were going to stand in front of the Christmas tree (her favorite place to take pictures) and take a "family picture". Well, nobody had taken the time to get dressed or do their hair or any of the above- so needless to say, it didn't turn out superb. This isn't the only time, either. This has been a yearly "out-of-the-blue" occurance. She didn't like the ones we did on Monday, so tonight she informed us right before we left Demetria's house that we were going to take a few more. I have given up. This is not to say I don't appreciate my Mom's picture-taking efforts (despite the fact that nobody in our family enjoys being photographed AND my dad never smiles).


3- Finally, I have realized that now that I am 26, I am eligible for about 57% more single jokes than I was previously. (Lucky for me, I think that they are hilarious!) This evening, I was at my cousin's house for Christmas Eve dinner and songs and other great Christmas Eve stuff, and I figured that I had already gotten through all the awesome "Did you get your tuition back?", "Are you just too mean to the boys?", or my personal favorite, "I have a sweet son...He just needs some motivation..." type of awkward conversations on Sunday at my parents' ward or throughout the week, but I was definitely wrong. My cousin's Dad began the questioning while we were finishing dinner. Needless to say, he took pictures of me helping cook Christmas Eve dinner to put on my "resume" which he will distribute to all eligible bachelors in Carlsbad when he returns home and then he will screen them for job security, savings and credit rating along with the run-of-the-mill interrogation. LOVE IT!!! This was actually pretty funny!! We had a good time with it. I do wonder if there is something they see that I don't since I don't seem to worry about it nearly as much as others do. At least we can all have a good laugh. So if you know anybody that needs to be screened to go out with me, send them to Don first! :)

I do love my birthday. It is so close to Christmas, how could anyone not get excited about being able to celebrate their birthday at this fantastic time of year? All in all, I am very happy with where I am in my life and my plans for the next year. I hope that this next year will bring me as much happiness as the last one has!

Christmas Party

Just like every other year, we had our annual Riggs Christmas party last night at my cousin's house. This is the first year that we didn't open presents while we were there. The kids were all having so much fun playing spies and chasing each other around the house that we decided to let them play and we all just sat around and talked. Kaila, my cute little cousin, thought that playing spies was very boyish and therefore decided to hang around with us. She just got baptized a few weeks ago so she is 8. I got to carry her around like I used to do when she was 4 (it was a tad bit harder!). While I was holding her, she started playing with my necklace and asking me questions about it.



Kaila: Where did you get this?
Me: I stole it from my Mom's jewelry box
Kaila: I steal my mommy's jewelry all the time
Me: really??? for some reason I don't think that you do.
Kaila: uh huh! and her shoes too. If I am going to be a princess I have to have beautiful shoes and jewelry!!

That's my kind of girl!! Kaila is the ultimate princess...... We must be related!!

What do I do at work????

well, sometimes people ask me what I do at work. The answer that I am supposed to give is this: "I work at the MTC. In my department we try to find ways to help missionaries teach better and just be overall more effective missionaries". Maybe from now on if people ask me that question I will just show them these:

NOW I am not saying that I don't do anything at work because A: I LOVE my job.  It is the best place to work ever and 2: We have been swamped with work lately.  But, we just put our calendar with deadlines for the project we are working on up on a wall in our office a few days ago and I thought it looked rather boring with just a calendar and a white wall- so I decided to put pictures of the people in our department that are working on the project up too- It will look much better now!  

Really- they only hired me so that I could make these pictures.  Actually, that is all we do in our department all day log- we play on photohsop.  All of you who thought you knew what the MTC is all about were obviously wrong! jk:)

SLC trip for Carly

So a few nights ago I went with my roomies and a few of my old roomies to Savior of the World in SLC. We went out to Z Tejas before the show and I had eaten there once before in AZ on Mill, but HOLY COW it was amazing- I didn't remember it being that good the last time. I ordered their chile relleno and was astounded at how delicious it was. Honestly it was heavenly. Everyone at the table had to try it.

Sadly, our roommate Carly sold her winter contract today. She thinks lately that "the SLC" as she so fondly calls it is the place to be. I'll miss Carly!!

But, here are a few pictures of our little excursion that I shouldn't have gone on because I still have oodles of papers to write before Tuesday. ( just like I shouldn't have gone on that date tonight, and shouldn't be writing on here.......... oops!) :)

Note to Self

Never take an independent study class that you have to complete in a week- it isn't fun. Writing About Literature ENG 314=BARF!!!!!!!

She was right!

As much as I hate to admit it- my mother was right. I am possibly the biggest procrastinator in the world. Imagine for a second that you are taking the ACTs again (dreaded day). Fill in the missing blank Curiosity:Cat::Procrastination:______________. If you guessed Brittany, then you are correct! I am almost finished with college. Many of you may be saying, "what is this almost business? We saw your pictures in a graduation outfit already on this blog". To you I say- I lied. I really didn't graduate. I just wanted to feel good about myself and act like I graduated. I still have to finish this stupid writing class to get my diploma. AND what is even worse is that it has to be finished by November 25th to count for December graduation. So- my life kind of stinks right now. I go to work in the mornings, come home to eat dinner, and then go back to the office at the MTC to work on my class because I definitely can't concentrate on it at home. Tonight I wrote 2 papers. Tomorrow I will be there all day long. My goal is to get at least 4 papers finished by tomorrow night. Lately this is what my life consists of:

going to my awesome job in the mornings


then going during lunch to teach seminary


then returning to the MTC to finish the work day and do my homework at my desk until about 9:30 at night


and then coming home to do this (at least my bed is super comfortable since I bought a new memory foam mattress topper!)


Aren't you jealous?!?!?!?! :)

Halloween and roomie fun

I love my roomies!! We have tons of fun together and they are some of the greatest people I know- not to mention HOT!!! Wouldn't you agree??? Here are a few fun pics that we have taken recently together- Halloween and other stuff.

Thriller

Last Thursday we went to Thriller in Salt Lake. For the past 3 years Stevie and I have gone to see that show together. It is always a blast. I usually get super freaked out when the zombies chase me around- I'm talking extremely freaked out! It is so dumb because I know that they are totally fake, but something in me can't handle it. If anyone hasn't seen the show yet, I would recommend going before it ends. Also, Stevie got married about a week before we went to the show. It was so great to be in the temple when Spencer and Stevie were sealed. I just love them. Here is a happy picture from that as well. Today we had a fun missionary lunch with my seminary class. My fantastic friends came in and talked about their missions and answered questions from my students about missions. I have the greatest friends ever. I'm so glad they were willing to come in and do that. The kids loved it!

Beautiful!

I absolutely LOVE being outside. I guess it didn't hit me how much I enjoy the outdoors until I entered the real world and find myself working in a lifeless basement all day every day. Every Saturday I feel like all I want to do is be outside and play. This past Saturday morning I woke up to find that I had fallen asleep on the couch the night before. Anyone that knows me knows that that is not a rare occurance. The thing about it is, I have no idea when I fell asleep or who was here- Also not a rare occurance. Anyways- after I got myself woken up and out of morning mode, I had this overwhelming urge to go and hike Mount Timpanogos. I thought that I'd give Kaity a call and see if she'd want to go with me and lucky for me, she did. It was exactly what I needed. The trees are so gorgeous right now and the weather is perfect. It was a great hike. We didn't have time to hike all the way up to the summit but we went about 3/4 of the way. IT is just so refreshing to be out in nature and just listen to the leaves blow and be surrounded by beauty. IT is also nice to just get away from here and have some wide open space. I hate feeling like I am cramped into all of these little spaces all the time. It was also really nice to get the chance to be with Kaity and just catch up with her. I wish I could do that every Saturday. Maybe I will be selfish and make every Saturday "me" day where I get to just go and play outside. I doubt I could ever pull that off, but it sure would be nice! Plus after our glorious hike, we went and played some tennis- honestly, how much better can it get???? Overall, great weekend with great friends all around. I got to watch a wonderful movie, hike, play tennis, go to church, do a little party- life is just great!

Art Blart

Since I've been going through lots of my papers and random things this past little while, I've found some pretty cool stuff. One of the greatest treasures that I found was my little miniature copies of some of my favorite Russian art that I bought while I was in Russia last summer. Two of the originals are found in the Russian Museum in the heart of St. Petersburg. I remember just loving to go to that museum while I was on my mission and just look at these pictures in particular- there are quite a few others there that are amazing as well. One of them is called "The Ninth Wave" by Aivakovski. I think that the color is absolutely incredible, but just the hope that it offers when you look at it is so refreshing. Even though the men in the painting are really small, I like to look at them and see how they are barely holding on for dear life, but if they can just survive this ninth wave, there is sunshine ahead. It is breathtaking to look at!!


The other one that I absolutely love is called "Holy Russia" by Mikhail Nesterov. This one has particular meaning to me because I was lucky enough to teach the gospel and be a representative of Christ in the blessed land of Russia. The painting is a depiction of Christ appearing to the Russian people presumably after his crucifixion. I think that it is beautiful!!! I love to look at how the people received Him. I think that it is very reflective of how we receive the Savior today. Some of the people are bowing at His feet and worshipping Him, while others just look at Him in wonderment not really understanding who He is, and still others turn away from Him and stretch out their necks as if to assert their independence and lack of need for a Savior. Another reason that this painting means so much to me is because I taught people constantly that the Book of Mormon teaches of Christ's appearance after His resurrection to the people who lived on the American continent. When I read the scripture in John 10:16 that says that the Savior must visit His other sheep- I can't help but wonder if he was referring to more than one group of people. I just think that this painting shows how much faith the Russian people had in the Savior to paint a masterpiece about this topic. I don't know if it really happened. Of course, we have no scriptural evidence that says that it did, and I am not one to argue for or against it- I just really like the idea of it. Despite all of the things that I have just said I don't know, I do know that He loves the Russian people extensively and that they are a chosen people and some day He will appear to them and all of us in all His glory.


So these are some beautiful paintings that I love. On another note- today I went mountain biking and played tennis. It felt so good to get up in the mountains after being cooped up in an office and a classroom all week long. I had a blast!!! :)

Teacher leave them kids alone!

Although it was kind of weird- tonight we had parent-teacher conferences.  I got to sit on the side of the desk that I never felt mature enough to be on and talk to parents about their children's progress in Seminary.  The funny thing is that I actually enjoyed it.  I didn't enjoy the 6-hour marathon of it all (honestly, why do we need to be there from 3-9??), but I really liked getting to meet my students' parents.  It really helped me to see another glimpse of why it is so important for me to teach them "in the right way" as my

 Tongan missionaries always used to pray that I would do.  Those parents love their kids so much and they actually trust me to assist them in teaching the gospel to their children.  I really do have incredible students.  They amaze me constantly by what they know and the comments that they make.  I love teaching seminary.  I didn't have many negative things to say to parents.  Almost everything that we talked about was encouraging.  You know, when everyone talks about how our country is going to pot because of the quality of our youth, I just think about my students and how I would be proud to put them in front of anyone and introduce them as the future leaders of the Church and our nation.  They're wonderful.  

On another note, my new calling is to be an FHE mom.  For FHE on Monday night, our dad had everyone get to know each other and then he gave a lesson and then we did the coolest activity- at least I thought it was cool.  We got a pet for our little family.  Her name is Peggy.  Isn't she cute???  

Bloggle!

Well, yesterday during my day of boredom I played an online game of boggle.  I LOVE Boggle!!  I love all of those crazy word games like Boggle, Scrabble, Balderdash, Taboo, etc.  I know, I know I am an official dweeb- it's ok if other people tell me that, too, because I have been aware of the fact that I am a nerd ever since I was little.  I have never even tried to deceive myself into thinking that I was cool.  But, I love words and random knowledge.  When I was little, I legitimately loved to read the encyclopedias that we had in the bookshelf by the fireplace.  Maybe this is a little bit too much info about myself, but it is all true.  Anyways- this morning after I finished reading all of my lessons for church today, I started to get excited about playing games tonight.  One of my favorite things to do on Sunday is to play Boggle.  Most people don't like to play with me because I get kind of competitive.  I get kind of competitive about all stupid little board games that I play.  I don't plan on it happening, it just does.  I have always wondered why I get this way when I get to play these games.  I am usually a pretty calm person, at least I think I am.  When I was playing tennis competitively, I got this way as well.  I would get super intensely competitive during the game(not loudly competitive- more like a silent stubbornness), but right when it finished, I was fine.  I am only competitive in things that don't matter.  Big things I tend to be somewhat uncompetitive in.  Maybe there is a huge underlying problem with me.  Maybe I have issues that I don't even want to confront, but all that I know right now is that I am really looking forward to playing Boggle tonight after Sunday dinner. Now I just have to try to convince people to play with me!           

I'm Done!!!!!....... Well, almost

So believe it or not, I have almost graduated from college.  It took a good 7 years to do (ridiculous!) but, it is almost here.  I have one independent study writing class to finish before I can get my diploma, which is going to be like pulling teeth to get me to finish, but once I am done, it will finally be over!!  This has left me thinking about the future.  What in the world am I going to do with my life????  I have a few current options, but I have not decided concretely on any of them.  Most of it isn't even my decision.  I am teaching seminary right now in Orem and really love it.  It definitely has its ups and downs, but overall, it is so fulfilling and rewarding.  I am also working at the MTC in the Development area.  We are writing new curriculum for the missionaries right now.  The MTC is such a marvelous place to work.  I love it, too!!  I guess the dilemma would come if I was given a choice of full-time employment at both places- which would I choose???  At this point, I don't have a clue.  Both of these jobs would require me to stay in Utah or the surrounding states.  Both of them are extremely rewarding and edifying, and both of them are things that I am passionate about.  I keep hoping that I don't have to make a huge decision- that somehow I will be able to work full-time in one area and keep a small part-time job in the other.  Who knows though. 

On another note, this is my first post on my new blog.  I am actually really excited to have a blog.  I have felt so alienated from society without one.  Now, hopefully, I will start to keep track of the things that I am up to better.  For example, I went to possibly the best concert of my life a few weeks ago.  It was a sixth grade dream come true.  Amanda and I got dates and went to the Boyz II Men concert.  Who would have thought that they would still have us screaming like 13 year olds over ten years after we had bought any of their albums (and by albums, I mean tapes!).  It was amazing.  Near the end of the concert, we decided that we had to go to the front to see if we could touch them.  We grabbed each other's hands and ran up there like fanatic pre-teens.  We pushed our way through to the second row and stood on chairs until we could be noticed by them over the front row.  You know what?? What happened superseded our expectations.  We only wanted to touch one of them.  But, as fate would have it, we touched all three.  We were screaming like 13 year old girls trapped in an issue of Teen-Beat magazine.  Like I said- Dream Come True!!!