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.