Halloween

Halloween checklist:

Decorating for Halloween - Check

Haunted houses - Check

Lagoon's Frightmares - Check

Haunted Halloween space misison - Check

Halloween parties - Check

Dressing up - Check

Halloween food (including caramel apples) - Check

Trick or Treating - Check

Helping Bob get ready to be Ferb (Riley was Phineus) - Check

Answering  the door for trick or treaters - Check

Yup, awesome Halloween indeed!!!!

More details, for my own remembering:

Frightmares was a blast. I even toughed out the  haunted houses. Kip told me he'd buy me a caramel apple if I went into scary ones. They rate the haunted houses 1-6. We started small. We couldn't get into the 1 rating, since we were over 50 inches. So we went to 2. I decided I could handle scarier. We went into the 3. It was scary, but I did awesome! So we went into 4... it was WAY scarier than 3. I tried to be brave but I wasn't really. All that mattered though, is that I went in so I got my caramel apple. It was a really fun night, and great way to start off Halloween.

The Friday before I left for home, October 28th, at work we had trick or treating. Everyone invites their families and everyone brings candy, and the kids go around trick or treating. This is my favorite work day! The kids are so cute in their cosutmes. It's so fun to see how they all dress up, and to see my co-workers' families.

Last year, I invited Brittney Henderson and her little girls to come trick or treating. Apparently they had a blast, because they asked her if they could come again this year, and I was happy to have them. This year was a new addition though, cute baby Alivn. So we walked around with the 3 kids and got candy, and went through the spook alleys.

That night, was Kip and my halloween party. We had people over, and we ate dinner and payed games. After, we went to iWorlds' haunted space mission, which is a blast!!! Taylor and Liz drove from Rexburg to join us, which was so fun. After, we went into space at iWorlds, in Thanksgiving Point. For Halloween, they've done haunted missions. They are pretty scary and awesome.

After, some of us hung out at my house until 3:30am. Great last night in the states!

On Halloween day in Saudi, Bobbie and Riley were Phinneus and Ferb, and 2 of their friends were also dressed like characters from the show. We even died Bob's hair green. They looked awesome.

That night the trick or treaters came, which was awesome. Everyone who came to our house was Saudi and spoke NO English.

They had memorized, "happy Halloween" and "have a nice day". No matter what you said, they would just say that. If you deviated from either of those phrases, they were completely thrown off and would just stare at you. One little boy was so cute. I was handing out New York Peppermint patties, and had some Butterfinger wafers on the floor. This little boy, after I handed him the peppermint patty, kept pointing at the floor. I figured he wanted the other candies, but was only willing to give him one piece (we didn't have a whole lot of candy) so he pointed to the candy, then he rubbed his tummy while saying, "yuuummmyy!!"

Hahahhaa...

Happy Halloween!!

Love,

Brittney

A Family Anecdote: Ghosty vs Pee

In our family, we have the firm (although we all know it's completely false) belief in a 6th child in our family; Ghosty.

Ghosty was born before me, making him the actual eldest Johnson. He, sadly, died in infancy and has continued to make his presence felt by haunting our house/family. 

Ghosty has been known to eat the cookies no one was allowed to eat, to make a huge mess in the living room, to slam a door, hit a sibling, etc.

Sometimes Ghosty just wants us to know he's around, in the case of things falling randomly, lights flickering, or other creepy phenomenons. 

One time, when we were living in the Duplex in SLC, Taylor was fighting the battle of man vs. toilet. He was slow to potty train. Even the floating cheerios in the toilet bowl could not persuade him to come hither. 

My Dad, in an effort to convince Taylor to enter the world of big boy underwear, decided the ultimate father-son-potty-training-bonding experience would come in the form of a pee race.

Taylor wouldn't participate - so my Dad said he'd just race Ghosty instead.

From the bathroom (this is a duplex, remember. So the neighbor's bathroom is right on the other side of the thin duplex wall) we hear Dad bellow,

"Taylor! I beat Ghosty!!"

Without missing a beat, through the wall from the neighbor's bathroom comes,

"WOOHOOO!!"

Why, you may wonder, has this delightful family memory come to mind?

Because, friends, I have made an epic purchase on Amazon.com:

The pStyle! This little gadget (supposedly) allows girls to pee standing up. Since I'm embarking on a 10 day trip in the desert with my Dad, I felt this was worth all $11.

You see, a desert is not at all like a forest. There are no trees to hide behind, no logs to squat on... nothing but dunes and sand. This seemed like a pretty logical solution to the problems those facts present. 

I emailed my Dad with the link, and his response was,

I don't know if you are joking with me or serious, but either way. I got quite a chuckle out of it. See you soon.

Love Dad


I doubt a peeing war like with Ghosty will hardly be appropriate, but either way - I sure hope the pStyle and I conquer the Rub a Khali together.

Love,
Brittney

Hand Holding Mittens

In case you were dying to know, I'll outline my idea of a perfect date.

He picks me up for a surprise date, because I live for surprises.

We'll end up at an outside skating rink, ideally located on a lake. There is just something magical about a lake, about skating in the winter on a lake, with snow and the atmosphere and the cold, all bundled up...

Once we're there on the ice, he pulls out these bad boys (the color - not so much. Ideally, they would be baby blue). Yes, hand holding mittens. A friend informed me of their existence the other day, and I've been awestruck ever since.

The guy who takes me on an iceskating date with these mittens will absolutely win my heart.

FYI.

Love,

Brittney

Homeward bound and Loss of Rights

Fear

My whole life, I've been terrified of flying. I hate flying. I love the adventure of it all - the different planes, different people, the various airports, diverse countries, people watching... but the actual flying part freaks me out.


I'm pretty prideful when it comes to showing fear/weakness, so I suck it up. Most people probably have no idea I'm terrified of flying.


My fear is incredibly ironic - considering I've grow up in Saudi Arabia and Alaska - both quite distant from mainland USA.


After I got my Patriarchal Blessing, I felt safer. I knew I was supposed to get married and have kids, so I knew my time was not yet. During turbulence, I'd just hold on to that thought... 


Since I've grown older, though, the whole Patriarchal Blessing thing has done less to dissolve my fears. I never pray so hard as when I'm on an airplane.


This fear, unfortunately, came to a head last April when I went to Barbados. I had an utterly terrifying experience flying from Barbados to the States.


Andrew and our new Bajan friend dropped me at the airport. I went inside, checked in, and was waiting for my flight when this overwhelming feeling came over me that I shouldn't get on the plane. I've never had an experience like that before. I am afraid of flying, but it's always just kind of there. I haven't ever just had this feeling that I shouldn't get on a flight, or just felt sheer terror. 


I wasn't sure what to do. They were getting ready to start boarding the flight. I kept praying in my head, trying to figure out what I should do. I want to live by the Spirit - but the line between a warning and me being retarded is sometimes really hard for me to differentiate between.


I was ready to not get on the plane. Messing around with a prompting concerning a plane flight seemed to me like a prompting I should definitely follow. IF it was a prompting. 


I got in line to board, but just couldn't shake this feeling I had. I left the line, and went into the bathroom - which was luckily right next to the line to board the plane. 


I knelt down in one of the stalls, and jut prayed... asking the Lord to tell me what I should do. Telling Him that I was willing to do whatever He wanted me to do. At the same time, I was nervous about what all this meant. If I didn't get on the flight - what would I do? There wasn't another flight to the States for 24 hours. How would I get in touch with Andrew? He had gone to go to Church with our Bajan friend, and he had no cell, no phone at our place (well there was a phone but I didn't know the number). If I got a taxi back to our place, how would I get in? I had no key - and Andrew had a full day ahead and wouldn't be home for hours. How would I explain my not showing up to work the next day? 


I have known people who seem to have revelations or spiritual promptings about the randomest things, and I must confess I do judge them a bit. "I can't go to lunch today, I just don't feel right about it", etc.


Anyways, I was at a loss what to do. I've never really felt like I've had a strong revelation or feeling about anything really, especially out of the blue like this.


What if this was just me being afraid for some reason?


But what if this plane is going to crash???


I eventually decided I just had to make a decision, and pray to know if that was right. So I told the Lord all my feelings and desires, how I wanted to always follow the Spirit, but that I was really at a loss in this situation. I told the Lord I was going to get on that flight, get back to work, and that if that was the wrong decision, to let me know. 


I can't really say what I felt at that point. I still felt uneasy, but I felt it was just more residual fear than a warning to not get on the plane. So I sucked up all the fear, and got back in line. I was literally shaking at this point. I've never been so uneasy/fearful about anything in my life.


I got on the plane, and just prayed and prayed and prayed... during the first part of the flight, I read, trying to keep my mind off everything, not letting myself think too much.


And then...


We experienced really bad turbulence. Really bad. I literally thought I was about to die. I was so scared, I can't even explain. I was hyperventilating, shaking... Scenes from LOST kept going through my head - the plane crash, dead bodies...


Anyone who knows me, knows I have a very vivid (ok - overactive) imagination. I love the scene in Anne of Green Gables, when Anne is alone in the forest she has imagined is haunted. She gets herself so freaked out by her own stories, she passes out. Sadly, I can absolutely see myself doing something similar.


I was so visibly upset, the cute old man next to me asked if I was ok. I told him I was fearful of the turbulence, and he preceded to show me every single picture of his week long stay in Barbados with his wife. We're talking 100+ pictures, with a full narrative on each. This cute couple was a total Godsend - as I think I might have lost it if they hadn't distracted me. 


Side note - the couple, it turns out, were FLDS. We had quite the interesting conversation. A couple years ago, their prophet received revelation that women could hold the Priesthood. But not all women - just the ones called. We talked a lot about things. It was very interesting to hear about their religion. This guy was seriously the sweetest, cutest old guy ever. His wife was not nearly so friendly or awesome. As we were talking about all this religious stuff, and I was thinking what a standup individual she is - his wife was reading. At one point, I accidentally caught a sentence of her book -  and it was absolutely, without a doubt, 100% a porn novel. I about died. This old woman (they were probably in their late 60's) was sitting there, while we were talking about the Priesthood and the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, reading a porn novel! What kind of old woman reads those anyways? Hahaha... I got a good laugh out of that. 


This will not be a shock to any reading this - I survived the plane ride. We did not crash. Didn't even have a rough landing.


I still have no idea why I got that feeling, or why I had to go through that extremely traumatic incident. I know it sounds dramatic, but I literally thought I was about to die. I have never been so afraid in my life. 


I am wondering if the Lord was just letting me know that He is in charge. That He is with me, and in control. While my decisions are mine, and affect my life's outcome, He is the Master. He knows me, loves me, and will always guide me. Maybe He just wanted to remind me of how small I am in this world, and how important the Gospel is in my life, how important living near the spirit is. 


Or maybe, it was to get to know this great couple, and tell them more about the LDS Church. 


I don't know - all I know is that was the scariest experience I've ever had. 


Sadly - surviving the plane ride didn't end my anxiety. Now, I'm officially terrified of flying. I'm flying home on Saturday. And while I'm so excited to go home - I'm terrified to fly. I start getting anxious just thinking about it now.


How on earth can I, someone who loves traveling, lives overseas, wants to live overseas in my future and travel a ton, survive with this type of overwhelming fear?


Sigh... I really need to overcome this!!! 


Love,


Brittney

Did you know?

That the lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers, is Mormon? I had no idea. I love The Killers way too much. I sing to them and insist on playing "When you Were Young" on Rock Band every time I play. Every time.

And now I learn Brandon Flowers is a Mormon.

Good day for me.

Check it out here

In case you were wondering...

Yes, those are my pajama bottoms poking out from the bottom of my dress. 

I am wearing my pajama bottoms underneath my dress today. If you look closely when I walk, you can see my pant legs. I discovered this in the big mirror in the women's restroom. Do I care? Nope. It's cold outside, I went to bed after 2am last night, I didn't want to wake up this morning, I got a flu shot the other day and am experiencing slightly fluish symptoms, so this is the best you're going to get today, world. Deal with it.

Oh, and yes I am wearing 2 sweaters of differing lengths that look ridiculous together, because my office is so cold and this is the only source of warmth I had.

Oh, and yeah I didn't bother with makeup either. But baby, with this smokin' outfit, who needs makeup?

And yes, as a followup answer to the question everyone is thinking, this does happen quite often.

Do I care? Nope. Because I was super comfy and snuggly all day long, even though I had to wear a dress and had to be at work.

Which basically makes me the victor.

Take that, world.

Pakistan

Gchat convo with Mom:

brittneydeannjohnson: I'm really bummed I prob won't get to go to Pakistan.
 

I want to go so badly.

 

Mom: Why won't you?

 

brittneydeannjohnson: They aren't giving visas to Americans.

No American tourist visas have been approved in the last 6 weeks.

 

Mom: Why?

 

brittneydeannjohnson: Pakistan is in a state of war (ok - this is not true - but there is a huge civil movement going on, bombs, and basic destruction. This just seemed like the easiest way to explain the reason)

Mom: Hopefully things will change before December!!!!!!

 

brittneydeannjohnson: I know... I'm praying my heart out.

 

I will be so sad if I can't go. I've been so excited about this for so long

 

Mom: Why would that make them block US citizens? Are they afraid they will join the war?

 

brittneydeannjohnson: They are afraid they will die.