Love, Brittney

Put down the casserole and step away from the minivan!

2012-01-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Date: About 7 years ago, making Bobbie about 6 years old. She could have been younger, I’m not sure.

Location: Saudi Arabia, old Dammam highway (I think?)

Purpose of trip: Dad was taking Taylor, some of his friends, Kamiah and Bobbie sand sledding/boarding. They were all piled in the suburban.
Situation: They are driving on the highway, and there is a security checkpoint (the military/police set up random checkpoints all over the roads. They are mostly to check for Iqamas – making sure that people haven’t come for Hajj and then stayed in Saudi to work) ahead.

Dad slows down, and the military man motions for Dad to roll down his window. He proceeds to ask for all of Dad’s documentation, Iqama, Istemara.

As he and his comrades are going over the documents, Bob rolls down the window in the Suburban – she’s in the back, but on the same side as the military checkpoint- and she yells,

“PUT DOWN THE CASSEROLE AND STEP AWAY FROM THE MINIVAN!!”

**Bob is a pretty shy kid. Really shy, actually. So why she decided to do this, which is way out of her personality, is beyond explanation.

**Also – why she decided this would be a good thing to yell at the Saudi military is also unexplainable.

** It is also somewhat sentimental to note that Dad brought Kamiah for 2 purposes:

#1 she LOVED playing in the sand dunes, and

#2 – the Saudi’s HATE dogs. A lot. He thought if he put Kamiah in the car next to him, the military would see her and freak out and just let him through without scrutinizing his documents.

**If you don’t know this casserole reference, it's from a Mormon movie, The Singles Ward.

Skittle Bowling of '11

2012-01-10T13:59:00.001-07:00

What is better than bowling?

I'll tell you.

Skittle bowling.

Skittle bowling with my siblings, the loves of my life.

Skittle bowling with my siblings, the loves of my life, in Aramco (PS - they redid the bowling alley! I'm not completely in love with the changes. It has TV screens now that calculate your score, display whose turn it is and show cartoons dying when you strike out. In Jr. High, it was mandatory to take a bowling class. The point of the class wasn't to learn how to bowl and improve your score - it was to learn HOW to calculate your score by hand. We had to take tests. In PE. To prove we could mathematically calculate our scores. I hated it).

Skittle bowling with my siblings, the loves of my life, in Aramco, wearing matching shirts.

Mom gave us these shirts for Christmas. So, we wore them to bowl. You know, in case people wondered if these crazy white kids skittle bowling were from the same family. We wanted to show our solidarity.

YAH! YAH!

In case you've never had the opportunity to skittle bowl, I'll fill in the details.

I don't know where I first became acquainted with skittle bowling, but I immediately recognized the merits and introduced the sport to my family. Now it's a tradition. I think maybe the matching shirts should become one as well. It went over great.

You draw a skittle before each turn. Each color represents a certain way you have to bowl.

This round, the schematics went as follows:

Red - Between legs

Purple - Left handed

Yellow - Backwards and draw 1 more

Green - eyes closed

Orange - One handed, no fingers in holes

Last turn -draw 3 skittles until they are all different.

Then you eat your skittle and bowl!

The first game, we bowled normally. I creamed their sorry butts. The next game was skittle bowling, and I actually did the worst, I think. I have no skittle skills. I am oddly at peace with that.

We wrote our names on a piece of paper and they entered our names in for us at the desk. I didn't know they were going to do that, (in my experience you enter your own names in the computer) and apparently I didn't write my name very legibly (in my defense, the guys working behind the counter speak barely any English).

World, meet BNHNY!!

I am now Bnhny Ninnie!

Bob's Artistic take on the skittle bag.

Bob is possibly the cutest kid in the entire world. Actually, for sure she is. Wearing an iGame shirt, a bright yellow hoodie and a platypus hat (As demoed by me below. I guess we didn't really get pics of her in it while bowling).

Apparently I needed comfort after a bad bowl? Not sure.

In case there was question about where Ramzi rocks or not.

I love you guys! Until we skittle bowl next, I remain yours,

Bnhny Ninnie

Rosewood Gold Inlay Roll Top Desk

2011-12-31T02:44:00.000-07:00

I’ve always wanted a roll top desk. I love vintage things, and the roll top desk is something I’ve always really wanted. Grandma Reynolds had a nice roll top desk in her house, and that is probably where I first got the idea.

They have lots of beautiful furniture here in Saudi. Mostly imported from Pakistan and other Asian countries.

They have roll top desks here, and I’ve known one year for Christmas I would ask for one. This was that year.

Mom, Dad and I went and looked around. Nowhere had exactly what I wanted. The desks are all in rosewood. And most have gold inlay. I’m not a huge fan of most gold inlay. It is usually kind of bulky and just not my style. All the desks I saw had the rosewood and gold inlay, and just didn’t exactly fit what I had in mind.

As we were driving, we saw a little shop in this random alley way that was called “Rosewood Furniture”. So Dad quickly turned off the main road and jumped onto the curb (because no one cares if you do that in Saudi and as Dad says, the FJ can do wherever the heck it wants) and Mom and I ran across a sand field while Dad finagled the world of Khobar one-way streets.

As soon as I walked in, there it was. The most beautiful roll top desk ever!

Here it is in the shop.

It’s everything I’ve been looking for. It has the traditional gold inlay, but there is less of it, and the inlay is very delicate, instead of the typical bulky design.

It also has a very unique feature, which is the carving. I've never seen this on a desk before. It's always just the inlay. I love how the carvings compliment and soften the inlay.

It has the relief on the top - also very unique.

The legs are curved - I know there is a special name for it, and I could Google it to find out but really, I don't care enough about the terminology. I love the curved legs. I wanted this in the desk - but again, could never find it.

The 3 drawers on the top are curved in a semi-circle shape. Also unique and it looks really nice.

I love the gold keyhole!

The inside slides out, so you can sit and work.

I'm so excited about it. It has everything I wanted and more! It really is a very rare find. The guy selling it to us also told us that all the drawers are solid wood - not inlays, which is very rare. There aren't enough big pieces anymore to make large drawers out of one piece of wood. He said any newer pieces all have fake wood in the drawers.

I can't wait to have a place of my own to put it!

Thanks, Mom and Dad!!!

Love,

Brittney

Bob's Bedazzled Bangs

2011-12-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Birkin Bag

2011-12-27T02:08:00.002-07:00

I had a great Christmas this year. I got 2 things I'm especially in love with, I'll post on the other later.

Dad got me a Birkin Bag for Christmas. It is beautiful!! If you don't know what a Birkin bag is, see the link below (mine is the same orange)...

I first became aware of the Birkin Bag through the Gilmore Girls.

Dad got each of us girls a bag on his last business trip to China (ok - secret is out!! It's a fake Birkin bag. But who really who knows me or my family would think we would ((or could!!)) spent $20,000 on a bag?)

Mom, Ramzi, Bobbie and I all opened our bags and were admiring them, and I looked at Ramz and said something like, "I'ts a Birkin bag!! Oh my gosh, he got me a Birkin bag!" quoting the Girlmore Girls. The brand is Hermes, which I'll admit - I didn't know existed until Christmas day.

Dad has a colleague in China who is an expert in fake bags. Her friend makes a living taking bags from China to Hong Kong to sell. So she insisted she go with him to pick out the legitimate replicas - the ones you honesly can't really tell are imitations.

I really liked my bag, and after Dad told me they sell from $6,000-$80,000 I decided to do some research. It was then I realized it was in fact a Birkin Bag. That made my Christmas! I know it's super lame, but I now own a $20,000 bag and it's really cute. Even comes with a lock. But my favorite part is definitely that I know about Birkin Bags from the Gilmore Girls.

Thanks, Dad!!

Love,

Brittney

The Things Bob Says

2011-12-23T01:34:00.000-07:00

Case 1:

Bob got bags cut. She looks ridiculously cute.

We went to Bahrain at 7am to get to the Pakistani Embassy (2nd day in a row) and Bob had to come because she needed a whip and handcuffs and you can only get those items at a specialty store in Bahrain. (Ok - so she didn't need a whip and handcuffs - she needed a whip and chest gaurd. She's starting to jump Nahran, her horse - and apparently every horse jumper needs a whip and chest guard. With 3 older siblings who love her so much and enjoy teasing her, you can imagine how we jumped all over her need for a whip. And at such a tender age, too).

She may have fallen asleep in the back seat, and I woke her up when we got to the embassy around 8:30am. She sat up, and proceeded to move her hair out of her face. At which point she frantically began to yell, "MY SHORT HAIRS!! NINNIE, MY SHORT HAIRS!!" while groping her face trying to locate her "short hairs". Eventually she found her bangs, and Taylor and I laughed so hard we cried. Well, almost.

Case 2:

We (Bob, Taylor, Camree and I) are driving in the car, and this guy goes by in a black Audi with a sunroof. Taylor goes, "you can tell that guy is a total tool." We ask why, and he says, "look at him. In his Audi with the sunroof down. Big sunglasses, speeding along. You can just tell."

Bobbie chimes in from the backseat, "how do you know what his stomach looks like?"

Oh man, we died over that one.

I love that girl.

My First Real Christmas Tree!

2011-12-10T01:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so not my first real Christmas tree in my whole life- only of my adult - it's my tree life.

In Alaska as kids, we always had a real tree. But in Saudi we have a fake one. And I've never put up my own tree.

This year, I wanted a real, official tree! (One day ((on my bucket list)) I want to go deep into the forest and cut down my own tree!) So I bought my first decorations, and my first tree. It is beautiful! Only problem, is it doesn't exactly stand straight. Nor does the star on top stand straight - in fact it's at more of a 60 degree angle.

I took the pictures before it got too leany.

Tree on Tim!! First real cargo tied to the luggage racks.

Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Brittney

Venting!

2011-11-29T14:45:00.001-07:00

Remember those posts on my awesome roommate? Well, I underestimated her. Yes, yes I did.

I came back on Sunday night after an awesome vacation, excited to shower in my own shower, sleep in my own bed, and go to bed at a decent hour so I could function at work the next day.

While in St.George, I get a call from my other roommate (Brittany) saying that I probably shouldn't come home - the gas had been turned off and the house was freezing.

Why was the gas turned off, I assume you are wondering?

Good question. I'll tell you why.

BECAUSE ALI TURNED IT OFF.

Yes, yes she did.

When she moved, in the utilities were in her name. When she got married, she took her name off the utilities.

Wasn't that just super great of her? The electicity is still on, but the gas was really fast to shut it off. She didn't tell us she was doing this.

I was on the way home, after having heard I shouldn't go home because it was freezing, when I got a call from Ali. I didnt' see it come through, so didn't answer. She left a vm saying she really needed to speak with me, could I call her back. Talking to her made me want to die, so I texted her instead.

She wanted me to switch her laundry for her. She didn't want to sit and wait for them.

Yes, YES SHE DID!

She got married 2 weeks ago, her crap is still all over the condo, she closed our gas and electricity, and she's OVER DOING LAUNDRY BEFORE THEY SHUT OFF THE ELECTRICITY.

I was so mad! I am still mad!!!

I told her I was confused how she was doing laundry - as she had turned off the utilities. She told me she had done no such thing. She'd taken her name off our utilities and they would turn them off in a week or two if we didn't switch them to someone elses name. Telling us that before they cut power would have been really nice.

I told her the gas had been cut - it was freezing in the house.

She said it wasn't shut off. She was just there to do laundry and it was fine. (Trying to convince me to come finish her laundry for her)

So I called my other roommate, Brittany, to make sure the thermostat just hadn't been turned down or something weird like that, and she said it was FREAKING FREEZING and she'd called the gas company and they confirmed Ali had turned it off, and they couldn't come turn it on until Monday.

So I told this to Ali. Specifying that Brittany had called the gas company and they confirmed it had been turned off.

She never responded to the message.

I am SOOOOOOO MAD!! She was a terror to live with. But even after she moves out - she's still crazy!! Turning off the utilities was just mean! Not letting us know!?? Who does that?

And then having the gall to come over and do laundry at our place?? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

So after being gone for almost a week, I couldn't go home. I had to crash at a friends house (THANK YOU!).

When I got home yesterday at 8pm, it was 50 degrees inside. The gas guy finally came at 9:00 and turned everything on.

I'm not sure what happened after that - but I woke up at 11pm in sweltering heat. Like, insane heat!! I didn't sleep much until 2am - when I was finally awake enough to realize there was a problem, instead of just psuedo-sleeping.

I went downstairs, and it was fine down there. The thermostat was set to 79 - but upstairs had to be about 90 degrees. As I walked up the stairs, about half way up suddenlty the heat just hit me. Really weird. I set the thermostat to 70, opened the windows in my room and curled up next to them. I got little sleep last night.

Anyone know a good hit man!?

Love,

Brittney

Happy Thanksgiving, 2011!

2011-11-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Roadtrip to California with a good friend (you know who you are *wink* *wink*)
Wonderful Thanksgiving with some awesome company
Rolls to die for... seriously. But the mashed potatoes! Oh the potatoes...
Bike ride by a wildlife preserve/the ocean
Trader Joe's
Orange County syle shopping
6 Flags (most insane roller coasters ever!)
Vegas!
Phantom of the Opera
Lost car... whoops.
Insanely late nights
St.George

Love,
Brittney

Rub Al Khali

2011-11-19T21:19:00.001-07:00

First off, disclaimer. I don't actually own a working camera. This trip was so last minute, I didn't have time to buy a real camera before I left (well, before I realized I needed one). So all these photos are from my I-Phone. I was dying the entire time that I couldn't really capture the incredible sights I was lucky enough to see.

Also, this is a very lengthy post with pictures and text, but I didn't want to forget a moment of the trip.

The purpose of my trip to Saudi was to go on a 10 day camping trip to the Rub Al Khali (Empty Quarter) with my Dad. This is his 3rd time going. My Brother went with him the first year and hated it. My Mom and McKenzie went with him the second year (Taylor wouldn't go) and (mostly) hated it. Every year they've gone I've been completely jealous I couldn't go.

This year, I had budgeted out a week to go to Cozumel and Cancun with friends. The trip had to be postponed last minute to the summer, leaving me with a budgeted week off in November. Dad emailed and asked if I wanted to go on the trip with him? And yes, YES I DID!

It was an ordeal to get home, but one we managed beautifully. Dad, this year, officially took us kids off his Iqama, so for the first time I had to apply for a 5 year multiple exit/reentry visa.

But first, I had to re-new my passport. My passport expired in 3 years, and they will not give a 5 year visa on a passport that expires in less than 5 years. I had to run through lots of hoops, pay way too much money, but I ended up getting it in under a month. Woo hoo! (At this point I didn't know about the Rub trip - I needed to get my passport renewed and my Saudi visa issued before I could send it to the Pakistani consulate to get a Pakistani visa, all before Christmas.)

As soon as I got my passport, I sent it to Texas to get my Saudi visa. The guy who handles these issues is basically incompetent. Actually - he's officially and undoubtedly incompetent. But, Dad wrote a well directed and potent email to the guys' bosses boss. It included lots of facts, pleasantries - but the real persuading point was where he described the love of a parent for a child, the joy upon seeing the child, the sadness at so few times together, and the emotional toil of incompetency preventing said parent from seeing said child.

I was moved. And apparently so was mr. Head Honcho Visa man, because I got my Visa in 2 weeks (usually takes anywhere from a month to a year - depending on the level of Mr. Incompetency's incompetentness).

Brand new passport in hand with visa security attached (received it days before I left - hence the last minute official departure and no time to purchase a camera) I embarked to my much beloved home, Dhahran Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this Rub trip is primarily to search for ancient artifacts. Arrowheads, grinding stones, hand axes, knives, etc. You can't find any pottery or cups or plates or anything - the people were too primitive for those types of remains (much to my sadness).

I got home and worked from home for 3 days, we ((mostly Mom and Dad)) packed and loaded the FJ ((McKenzie and my contribution here)) and then Dad and I left for the greatest adventure of a lifetime! (Disclaimer - at this point, I was getting more than a little nervous about the trip. Taylor hated it so much he wouldn't go the second year. He said it was boring and long, among other things. Mom said it was fun sometimes, but waaay too long, and boring a lot of the time. McKenzie had little positive to say at all. I started to doubt my enthusiasm. I'd never camped for 10 days before. No showers. And the bathroom situation... I really hate the camping bathroom situation (see here on an effort to resolve said issue). What if it was that boring? What if I don't "click" with the people there? Especially the women - who my Mom warned me to bond with quickly so I didn't have to go on bathroom runs alone) What if......

I'm happy to report I needn't have worried. I had SO MUCH FUN. It was quite seriously one of my most favorite adventures (if you know me, you know I'm always in a search for a good adventure).

We left Thursday morning at 7am (the weekend in Saudi is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and met at the group leaders' house, Tim Cooper (Timbo).

Official Rub group list:

The Coopers - Land Cruiser

Tim and Mary Katherine - 2 kids, Emily and Fleet

The Crissi's - Land Cruiser

Pete and Jenny - 4 kids, ((no, not Mormon!)) Jackson, Julia, Anne, Elise

The Bowe's - Land Cruiser

Andy and Madeline - 2 kids, Robin and Katherine

The Bachelor's - Land Cruiser

Marek Wiechula, Glenn Jones- Both single, in their late 50's

Johnson's - FJ Cruiser

Jerry and Brittney

Gallaf's- Unimog

Yousif - 2 kids, Adam and Hamoody

Group Photo. I realize this is out of order - but here is a shot of everyone, minus our photographer, Fleet.

The Rub is located in Saudi, as well as in Oman and Yemen. The really good artifacts are located closer to Yemen. However, the whole turmoil in Yemen thing posed a big barrier. There is a lot of drug and arms trafficking that goes on between the borders (Yemen into Saudi), via the Rub (there was a recent article published about two 8 year old Yemenite boys having drugs strapped to their chests, and told to walk over the border and deliver the drugs into Saudi Arabia. They were paid something like $1.00, and had no idea what they were carrying or why. They were caught by the Saudi police).

Since things are really tense with Yemen, and the whole arms/drug smuggling thing, the Saudi police are on high alert in the area we were heading. If an American was captured in Saudi by Yemen arms dealers and held for ransom or killed, it would make major headlines and put Saudi in a really bad light. Therefore, Americans in the Rub is not ok according to the Police. All our Rub exploring friends have, at one point or another, accidentally encountered police and were escorted home, cutting their trip short.

As such, instead of taking the highways to the part of the Rub we wanted to enter (12 hr drive), we entered the Rub close to home and basically crossed the entire thing.

See the pinpoint on the Persian Gulf? It's on Dhahran. Sadly, I wasn't paying super close attention on the way there, to see where we entered the Rub. I think we headed down right into the Rub, because it only took us 3 or 4 hours to get to where we entered. It took us 3 days driving all day to reach where we started to look for artifacts (which I loved! Driving in the dunes is the most incredible thing ever!)

So the 5 cars left, with the intention to meet Yousif along the way. He had left earlier than us, to get a head start, since he was in the Unimog, which only gets max 50mph.

November 3rd

First gas station we stopped at:

These were for sale at the gas station. The slides are so old and full of rust/dust/gross stuff. Also - there is a circular thing with a weird looking sewn animal thing inside. I had to take a picture.

2nd gas station we went to, to fill up all the cans of gas we had before entering the Rub (There is no water, no stores, no gas stations ((well, there are a couple little gas spots for the Bedouins, but they have gas only at certain days/times)) so you have to bring everything into the Rub you will need for 10 days of driving/living. All your gas, water, food.

Here we got some awesome Cupsa (traditional rice dish. You can have it with camel or chicken or lamb. We chose chicken) as our last real meal for 10 days. It was awesome!

I didn't drink all day on the drive, and that night I was basically dying. I waited until dark, and hiked far out, just to make sure no kids found me... and I couldn't go. I tried. I just - had this intense mental block, and couldn't bring myself to pee in the dunes. After about 30 minutes (I wish I was exaggerating) I finally was able to conquer my head block and go! Good moment for me.

(((While I'm on the subject, I'll just jump ahead and regale my 2 other noteworthy bathroom experiences. The second night, I didn't go all day. At night, I again climbed to the top of a dune and over, about dying I had to go so bad. You know, the barely can walk stage. I didn't want to go too far though, because I was a little scared. Lame, yes. But - there are random people out there! And animals! And Jinns!

So As I was trying to convince myself I can do this, I can pee in the dunes, I saw movement on my right. I clammed up. I stayed there for a while, trying to convince myself it was nothing. I finally thought I saw eyes in the darkness, and I booked it back to camp - passing a fellow camper on her way. I sat on my cot for a while convincing myself nothing was out there. Madeline was out there - she's ok! She comes walking back quickly, safe and sound and without a dangerously full bladder. So I began to walk up, and said I thought I had seen something when I passed her. She said the same, seen eyes - but then began to say she realized they were mine. YET - She thought I had walked around to where I thought I saw something, but I hadn't! I'd gone back to camp. Which means she'd seen something else. I tried to talk myself out of it, went back, and thought I saw something again. I began to picture myself being abducted by drug smugglers or being possessed by a jinn. I nearly died of fright and ran back to my cot and had to pee ALL NIGHT LONG. In the morning, I took the FJ further from camp, found a dune that formed a wall, pulled the FJ in and made an almost complete room.

After that, I had much better experiences. I got pretty brazen and speedy at the end. However, there was one last poor potty attempt...

We had camped in place that really offered very low privacy. There was on set of dunes behind us, and I climbed to the top. However, it was just up and over - no shielding offered at all. I figured if I was incredibly speedy, I could make it. I was about to go, when I saw a Bedouin truck coming towards me! I regained composure and turned, and saw Fleet (13) on dune just over. He was in the same spot I was. So awkward - could have been much more awkward. It took 10 minutes before they were out of site (I was hiding from them too at this point) and then I walked and walked till I found a more secluded spot. But I was afraid the Bedouins would come back, so I was trying so hard to hurry and ended up falling over and being covered in sand. I couldn't get all the sand off for fear of being exposed too long so I just had a very sandy day.)))

First camping spot after driving all day. Every night, we slept under the stars. It was incredible. The stars were to die for - so bright and so many! Sleeping under the stars was one of my favorite parts of the trip. When we stopped for the night, we'd lay down a tarp and set up our cots and sleeping bags, the table, and 2 chairs. Then the next morning we'd put it all back in (doesn't seem like much, but it was a lot of work!). We were driving every day, so we camped somewhere new every night but one night. We'd drive until we found somewhere that was lower, and surrounded by dunes. We needed to be "hidden". Again - didn't want to be caught by guns or arms smugglers, or by the police. Also - provided bathroom privacy.

Looking away from the camp.

This is the top of the dune, looking down to our camp. One car is missing. The kids sand sledded and played all night long. They had so much fun - I wish we'd taken a trip like this when I was small. The oldest kid was 13, and youngest was 4.

Also note - going to the bathroom entailed hiking to the top of this dune, down the other side, repeating until you find a secluded spot there were no kids playing at.

We took turns cooking for everyone. The first night was Yousif's night. He cooked fish in the fire and we all peeled garlic and cooked onions, rice, garlic, salad and fish. It was so fun, everyone sitting around preparing food and talking, with music going.

Who ever cooked played music from their vehicle, it just added a fun touch.

We also made fires every night. It got pretty chilly!

2nd day, November 4th:

Driving. We drove so much! I wish I knew exactly how many miles we did. Maybe Dad knows, i'll have to ask. I'd say over 1,000 miles of driving. Before I left, I put some audio book on my iphone, so we could listen. I picked books I thought Dad would like. First we listened to The Blind Side - which Dad loved, and I liked too - it was a great choice. So we'd just cruise through the desert, enjoying the beauties, listening to audio books. We ended up listening to two and half audio books - the first two were 20 ish hours each - giving you some idea of just how much time we spent in the car.

Guys congregated around the map (also everyone had GPS's with points plugged in ((also, hidden police stations to avoid, Bedouin camps to avoid, spots prone to loose sand to avoid, etc).

We'd drive around, up dunes - looking for a good place to go down the other side "slip face". This one was relatively short, but still pretty long and steep - you can't really tell by the picture, which is really disappointing.

Here the Unimog is, coming down. We all stopped, since the other side was really steep and the sand was really lose - Yousif kept getting stuck and the Bachelors ((Marek is the best desert driver in the group - so he headed up last to make sure everyone made it through all the slip faces, climbs, etc, ok) had to dig him out a little bit.

Marek's car is missing here, he's behind the Unimog.

Our first stuck! No fear though, the Unimog pulled us out beautifully!

November 5th

More driving. We all had walkie talkies, so we could contact each other. Warn of upcoming slip faces, sandy spots, bumps, camels, etc.

One of our steeper slip faces. We'd just cruise along, and suddenly the car in front of us would tip vertically, and be gone. Tim (he lead) would occassionaly stop at the top of a dune to look down, ensuring the other side was safe - but most of the time, he'd just cruise straight up and over. I would have been way too freaked out as the driver to do that! The slip faces made me nervous enough, even knowing the car before made it ok! Once we were going down, I wasn't nervous at all. It was just the drive over the top and straight down. Most of the time, the top of the dune had a steep bump before you went over. Which meant you had to accelerate rapidly to make it to the top and over, before sliding down the other side. That is what made me nervous.

Once the person was over the dune on the other side, they would walkie "clear" so the next person in the train would go over.

One of my favorite pictures. I wish so badly I'd had a real camera!

November 6th

More driving. This is the last day of all day driving, until we reached some of the artifact points.

One of the longest slip faces. Over 300 feet high. You had to be careful on slip faces this high. You can't use the breaks at all - you'll fish tail and tip. You fish tail as it is - the breaks make it worse.

And yes, I did a fair share of the driving on the trip ((once we were in the Rub, that is. Women can't drive in Saudi so I couldn't drive on the main roads)) which included slip faces.

Desert driving is one of my favorite things. It is so much fun. and so beautiful!

We reached our first artifact place that night, after dark. We made camp, and Dad wanted to go searching in the dark for artifacts. You head a head lamp and a flashlight, and comb through the area looking for artifacts.

It was fun! Dad, Marek, Glenn, Pete and his 13 yr old son Jackson came with us. It was great because it was cool! The days had been in the upper 90's - full force sunshine as well.

We also determined that since we'd spent the last 3 days driving all day just to get where we're going, we didn't have enough gas. So Tim and Yousif were appointed to go to the nearest gas station and fill all our cans up with the Unimog (we were closer to our exit point now, so they could make the trip in a day).

November 7th

First day artifact searching! After searching (I found some good stuff!) we did a little sigh seeing. Since Yousif and Tim were getting gas, we were staying in the same camp spot that night. So we just looked around for artifacts, did some sightseeing during the day.

The other side of these rocky dunes is where the artifact spot was. When you climbed to the top of these rocky dunes, you found:

Hieroglyphics!

View at the top! See the darker spots in the sand? Thats where we were searching for artifacts.

This is cool sight to see. You climb to the top of another small, flat dune, and find this:

This last one is more clear. There are just tons of circles! Circles formed by rocks. The people who lived in this region during this time period probably would have been pagans. So I'm sure it's some type of pagan ritual spot. It would be so interesting to learn more. Since Saudi doesn't let archaeologists and scientists into the Rub to explore (besides oil expeditions) not much is really known about the Rub and this type of thing.

Same dunes as where the hieroglyphics are. This picture is taken from our camping spot.

Camel bones!

That night, hell broke loose! In the form of a shamal (sand storm). On a scale of shamals, it wasn't too bad. But - being in the middle of it is much different that running to the school bus in it and staying home all night.

Since it was so windy/sandy, we put up our tent. The only night we did this. Putting it up was hysterical. Try putting up a tent in intense winds, with sand blowing so hard it's in your eyes, nose, mouth - and you can't see to put up the tent.

November 8th

The next morning. We had the tent flaps closed, door closed. The sand is so fine and wind so strong, it blew through holes. I woke up to sand covering my face, in my eyes, in my hair (well - ok - sand was already embedded in my scalp from the last however many days. There was just a new layer). Sand covering my pillow, and in my sleeping bag. Like, in to my toes in.

All of this sand was blown in, none of it trekked in through shoes.

The good part about the shamal is that it brought cooler wheather. The rest of the trip bordered more cold than hot. Which made searching all day for artifacts must nicer!

One day it actually got in the 70's and I only had shorts, and I ended up looking for artifacts with a blanket wrapped around me, while thinking, "I can't go back to Utah. I'll die".

I didn't get pictures, but there are lots of places you can find petrified wood. One place, you can actually see the petrified tree. Lying there like it fell. It was so cool! Amazing to think how there were so many trees back in the day, where now there is just sand and no water and nothing else.

November 9th

More searching for artifacts and driving.

This is us searching for artifacts. There are certain spots that are known to have artifacts. We had probably 10 or more sites in the GPS to check out. We'd drive to a point (sometimes points were 5 kilometers apart, some 100) and get out and look. We had the 5 minute rule. We'd get out and look, and if no one found something within 5 minutes, we'd leave (with 22 people looking, odds are someone would have found something if there was much there to be found).

We'd park somewhat apart, and then just walk through the area. We'd do this for hours. And hours and hours. And yet - it was fun! I really am a nerd... the kids really enjoyed it too. If they got bored, they'd just play.

We would look for spots that had lots of flint. Pieces of formed material that was chipped off. If there was flit, chances are there will be the completed materials as well. That made it tricky. You'd have to go through and look at all the flint to decide whether it was an artifact or not.

Our camping spot that night. This dune was HUGE. You can't tell though. This is what you had to climb to go to the bathroom. Oh, man - the bathroom thing was bad. The figure on the dune is a lady, hiking up to go to the bathroom. I'm standing at the bottom of the dune. It just looks far away - but really it's just high.

Dad was really nice and would let me take the car after we had camped and unloaded everything, and drive somewhere remote to go to the bathroom. I'd try to drink as little as possible and go to the bathroom 2 times - in the morning and before bed.

This was also our night to cook. We took turns, someone cooking every night for everyone. It was the best! We only had to cook one night, meaning only had to clean up one night (we ate cold foods for lunch and for the dinners we didn't have someone else cooking).

Mom made jumbalaya and froze it. So we just warmed it up. Sound simple, but wasn't so much. It took about an hour to get warm. Dad wanted to add water - he was certain we needed water to cook it. So we cooked in the dark on burners while people hung around and talked, it was really fun. Yousif provided music. He put on some Jazz, and then I switched it to Reggae. It was so fun to cook with Dad, talk with Yousif and others, listening to Reggae underneath the stars with the kids playing around the fire.

November 10th

This was our last day as a group (Marek and Glenn had actually left a couple days prior, so we were down to 5 cars). 3 of the cars wanted to do the drive home in 2 parts. When we exited the Rub, it would be a 12 hr drive home, and we were about 3 hours from the exit point. They wanted to do half the drive one day, camp and do the rest of the drive the next.

We and the Coopers wanted to have one more glorious day in the Rub, exploring and driving, so we decided to spend this day driving to the Triangle, then would do all 12 hours the next day.

This was actually probably one of my very favorite days.

So before, we'd drive to specific locations we knew people had found artifacts. Then we'd stay there till we'd exhausted the site. See below for an example of us searching:

This day, though, was very different.

Thousands of years ago, they say places in the Rub were like the Serengeti plains in Africa. Thats why we drove all the way to the South West of the Rub - it's where all the lake beds used to be, hence where the people lived (When we entered the rub close to home, it was just straight dunes. When we got closer to the artifact places, they were rockier dunes).

So we'd drive along, heading towards the highway where we'd exit, in the flatter areas, paralleling the irks (what we call the large range of dunes. Irk in Arabic means veins, as in veins in our bodies - since the ranges kind of resemble veins from an ariel view).

In these areas were ancient lake beds! Again, boo for not having a real camera! Can you see the dark areas by the dunes in the picture above? Ancient lake bed. They've found hippopotamus bones in these lake beds, as well as other animals. There were ostriches (you can find petrified ostrich eggs. It's really cool - they reflect the sun, so you'd see patches of shiny stuff, and it'd be just shells, all over the area. Like 4 or 5 eggs cracked and the shells were just lying on the sand, perfect. I wish I'd taken a picture) and other Serengeti plains type animals.

So, we'd drive through these areas, and just stop at areas we thought might have arrowheads and other artifacts. The hunters would sit in areas above the lake beds to make arrowheads and knives and hunt. In these areas, you could sometimes find things. I found quite a few arrowheads this way, and a cool knife. These were my favorite things to find, because we found them at lakes, which meant the tools were used to actually kill the animals, Maybe they even were embedded in a carcass at some point. It's just way cool.

So we'd drive along, and I'd hang on the side of the FJ and yell for Dad to stop anytime I thought I saw something. We were all still heading to the road, but we did our own thing, stopping at different lake beds. I had a blast doing this. And seeing the lake beds and envisioning how it must have looked thousands of years ago - SO COOL!

We finally made it to the Highway (goes through the Rub - so we never actually exited the Rub, just got to where there was the Highway and villages).

We said goodbye to everyone, and the Coopers and us headed on to the Triangle!! See in the Southwest corner of the Rub - where I conveniently added an arrow and a label - Triangle?

Getting to the Triangle is quite the perilous feat, which is why most people don't do it. We were 15ish miles from Yemen in the Triangle. Police were more prevalent. And we had to cross the highway to enter it, where there is traffic - aka - people and police.

But, some of the best sites are in this area (some awesome sites are also in the Oryx Preserve - which is unpenatrable. Drat).

Yousif knows a place he found 30 something years ago in the Triangle, what he called "Happy Valley". He said he doesn't think anyone has been there since then, and gave us the GPS coordinates. This was the destination we had in mind.

So we braved the dangers and police and headed onward! I'm so glad we did - it was one of my favorite driving days ever! The dunes were different in this area, and it was just beautiful. So much fun to drive in!

In this area, we saw a kangaroo mouse or rat. I'm not such which. I think it was a mouse. I looked them both up and couldn't decide which it was. They jump like kangaroos. We chased it, going 60 clicks and we were going a tad slower than the kangaroo mouse/rat. They can book it!!! It was actually really cool.

While I'm on the subject, here are the animals we saw in the Rub:

Kangaroo rat/mouse

Camels

Owl

Hawk

Snake

Birds

Coopers' first stuck of the trip. And on the last full day of the trip. We dug him out and Dad was able to pull him pretty easily.

We found this - Mosque foundation. I have no idea how you would know this, but Yousif said so, and he's the closest to a Saudi archeologist I've ever seen - so I'm going with it.

It was so fun to just drive, and see what random things we came across.

Our first destination - ancient burial ground! Yes, these are human bones. We were told 3 human skeletons could be seen on the surface - and I was dying to come to this loction. The coordinates were given about 20 years ago or so, and this is all that was left.

Can you see the dark mounds? Graves.

This was a really cool geological feature we happened accross. I wish you could see it better. We're on top of dunes, and then randomly on the other side of the irk, is a big camelish looking rock, with irks on the other side. It was soo cool!

This view is from between the irks, on the bottom side.

Ok, here we have the Coopers' second stuck, and biggest stuck of the trip. In a beautiful location. See the irks on the right side of the picture above? we climbed that irk and on the slip face - the Coopers (who were leading) struck disaster. They radioed us and told us to hold off, or we would have hit into them and gotten us both stuck and unable to move.

The picture below is the backside of the irks above.

The Coopers climbed the irk, and went down the slip face. Instead of a straight slip face like the pictures above, here is what they encountered:

Oops. They got suuper stuck. Not only that, they got this:

The wheel came off the rim. Bad news! They radioed us and told us to find an alternate route. We came up the irk from further to the North, around and came straight through the flat area, instead of down the slip face. We did not get stuck, luckily. That would have been horrible. Both cars would remain there and we'd have had to walk out of the Rub - most likely dying in the process. Or you know, something like that.

This is Dad on the irk further down, before cutting through to bail out the Coopers.

Beautiful dunes! (Ps - the ridges in the sand are good. They generally mean the sand is harder).

Dad coming through to pull the Coopers' out.

Emily and I

So stuck. We had to dig the front of the car out, jack up the car, change the tire, then Dad had to wench the car out (I have a video of this).

Waiting for the FJ to wench out the Land Cruiser.

After we were finally unstuck, we were out of time - not being able to reach Happy Valley. So disappointing! I was so excited to see the remains at Happy Valley. I definitely had the artifact fever by this point!

This is an alter we came accross. Again, I'd love to know what exactly this was used for. SO COOL!

Driving along to our campsite, the most beautiful sunset. I tried to get the best picture I could with my phone. Below are my best attempts. Imagine if I'd had a real camera!

Are you dying yet? SO BEAUTIFUL!!! I was in awe of the beauty the whole time we were in the Rub.

Camp site as we pulled in. This was my favorite camp site of the whole trip.

Emily, Fleet and I (ages 8 and 13) sat around the fire for an hour before dinner, playing sand pictionary in the light of the flames. So fun! We ate dinner and had smores around the fire. It was the perfect night.

November 11th

Campsite the next morning. Yes, I'd love to sleep under the stars and wake up to this beautiful site every morning. I'm considering marrying a Bedouin and moving to the Rub. No stress. No shoes. Drive around in the dunes all day, eat great food, sleep under the stars... hmmm... yes please!

One of the best parts of the trip? I went barefoot about 95% of the trip. I was barefoot 95% of 9 days. INCREDIBLE. I hate shoes. I hate socks. This was heaven for me.

We left the Triangle, and began our journey home (with a quick planned stop at one last site). First gas station we got to, once on the road.

So, these pictures should really be at the beginning, to show how we looked for artifacts. But I forgot to take the pictures till the end, so here they are! Looking for arrowheads at one last spot off the road.

This is what we used to pick flint/artifacts up, and filter through the sand. Everyone had their own. You can't buy stuff like this, so we all had homemade ones. We are so hard core.

Dad, looking for something good.

Now prepare for a special treat - road signs!

Oh yes, we know about sandstorms!

Another gas station.

Didn't get a picture, but there was a bigger gas station, the first main gas station close to Yemen, and the police started asking questions. Next thing we know, they're telling us we have to go home (which we were doing! Hence hiding from the police the whole trip) and providing us with a police escort.

You can't see, but we got the flashing lights and all.

Checkpoint - where our escorts asked for all our documentations and then let us free!

Copies of our Iqamas. Interesting point - McKenzie is listed as MC Rose. I think this should be her rapper name. And her first album will be Bobulation Plantation. Much thought went into this.

Agriculture!!! First time I have seen agriculture in Saudi. Ever. We've done tons of road trips - been all over the country. First time. My favorite is the sand everywhere, but the actual artificially implanted grass.

Palm tree farm. So pretty.

I love this shot. The Mosque sign right next to the Mosque.

Somewhat of a random/funny story, although I have no pictures to document.

I mostly on the trip tried to dehydrate myself. Pulling off the the side of a 6 person caravan and peeing on the side of the car with Dad inside and the possibility of Bedouins driving by - NO THANK YOU. Not drinking just made so much more sense. On the 12 hr trip back I tried not to drink. But finally, what I did sip caught up to me and I had to pee so bad. I held it for something like 4 hours but man, I was dying. The Coopers were stopping by the side of the road and going - but yeah right, like I'd do that.

We stopped to get gas close to Riyadh. Tim had to go to the bathroom too, he asked and was told the bathroom was through this big double door (which was open). In Saudi, all gas station bathrooms are Mosque bathrooms. And in Saudi - men and women can't even order at the same restaurant window, let along have their bathrooms close to each other. I asked Tim if the women's bathroom was around the corner, and he said it was through the same door. Which I found odd, but I had to pee so bad. So I followed him through. Inside, was another set of doors after a little open area. Inside were 3 closed bathroom stalls, and an area to wash for prayer. No one was inside. I told Tim I didn't think this was the women's restroom, but he told me to just hurry inside, and Dad said he'd keep watch. I ran in a stall, and Emily and Tim went into one. When I came out, a Saudi man walked out of the one next to me - and there were men in the bathroom washing. I ran out as more men walked in. It was right before prayer.

I was so embarrassed. I would have been humiliated in the states. But in Saudi!? Women cover, head to foot! There are men and womens' sections of restaurants! But using the men's bathroom!??? BAD. I was so embarrassed.

Needless to say, I didn't drink anything more the rest of the night, and we pulled home a little after 11pm. I came home, woke Bob up and hugged her and it was the best thing ever.

Ok, now pictures of what I found!!! So exciting!! This is the whole loot! Well, except for the large petrified wood pieces.

One of the best treasures I found. An almost whole knife!! It's a rare find. 6-7 inches long.

These are the knives I found Most of them are just tips. Finding a whole one is really rare. The one on the far left is the one above. The one on the far left next to the knife, on the first row is the knife I found next to a lake bottom. It is almost whole. It's really thick, and really old. I love it especially a lot, because when you hold it in your hand, like they would have, you can feel how it was formed to fit someone's hand. CAN YOU SAW AWESOME?

Another one of my favorite finds. This is a scraper. You find the most of these. They come in all shapes and sizes. They would have been used to - scrape.

I like this one, because you can see how it was specifically made to have a place to put your thumb, to give you leverage.

These are 5000 ish old hand axes - Dad found these last trips. So beautiful!

Bigger knife tips - still broken. Pretty colors, and really old. Too bad the picture is so poor.

These are my favorites. We call them laurel leaves. They really don't look cool here though. They are small knives. Notice the pretty colors (hard to see, I know). And they are varying ages.

These are some of my favorites - again so hard to see in the picture. The big knife in the top middle is gorgeous. Not as defined as my big knife, but you can see how old it is, how primitive. I also love the one next to it on the left. Spear tip! And the material is so pretty!

Closer up of 3 of my favorites. The one in the middle has the prettiest coloration. I love the one on the left because it is super tiny, but also because in the middle you can see where they carved a rivet to put their finger on, to give leverage while skinning hide, most likely.

Ah! How cool is that!? I think finding this stuff, and seeing how they used these things, made them to fit them, is just so cool. I wish I could have seen these things in use! Seen how all this was 5000 years ago.

Guitar picks. Not exactly sure what they would have been used for - I think a cross between a scraper and a knife.

Arrowheads!!! This is all I found, whole.

Broken arrowheads.

Scrapers

Petrified wood. It really is beautiful with incredible coloration. Bright reds, yellows, blacks, browns. So awesome.

Ostrich egg shells!

My favorite piece. Dad found this last year, and I wanted so much to find something like it. It is a pendant!!!! AWESOME!!!!!

Well, that basically sums up my trip. I have videos I can't get to work right yet, so I'll post them in a separate post.

I had so much fun. I loved being in the Rub Al Khali. I loved being in Saudi. I loved getting to spend this time with my Dad.

I love the Middle East so much. I get to distraught every time I have to come to the states.

I'm so grateful I got this incredible experience to spend 10 days in one of the most beautiful places in the world with my Dad.

Love,

Brittney

Thursday's at the COB

2011-11-19T01:28:00.001-07:00

Dead Mouse! Dead Mouse!

2011-11-16T14:48:00.001-07:00

Continuation of this post, on my horrible, no good rotten roommate (please – ask me how I REALLY feel). Also - those pictures are pretty tame on how things have been recently.

Things have gotten worse. Our house is DIIIISSGGUUUSSTTINNGG. I won't go into every little episode, but I'll give the most recent frustration.

She left work early the other day, since she needed enough time to WAX HER LEGS. Really? Who takes off work early to wax their legs? She was doing it herself, no appointment she had to make. She just wanted enough time to wax her legs and still be able to have ample making out time that night. Heaven forbid she put in a full day of work, waxed her legs, and had less time to make out.

I came home that night to wax on the kitchen counter and chairs, strips of wax/hair on the counter and chair.

SHE WAXED HER LEGS IN OUR KITCHEN.

And left everything out. For 2 days.

GROSS
DISGUSTING
FRUSTERATING!

The kitchen and living room are constantly complete messes, so is the upstairs – run off from the laundry room, her room is a disaster, and she's commandeered the last bedroom which she was supposed to get a roommate for, as her very own personal wedding plan room/chaos central.

Now on top of that, there is her hair/wax all over the kitchen, on top of her weeks of compiled filth.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

On top of all this, she is just insane. Her personality really, really, severely bites. She's rude, self-centered, lazy, demanding and downright CRAZY (I don't feel bad saying this, everyone at work who knows her well thinks the same thing, as does my other roommate – who loves everyone. She's the sweetest person ever, and she's going insane, too).

So she puts up the condo for rent. She gets a couple calls, and she leaves Brittany (my other roommate) a VM saying that someone was coming; can she please clean the house? Clean the house of all her stuff. So Brittany does it!! She went home and cleaned. I came home later that night, unaware that any of this had gone on, to Brittany cleaning up all of Ali's crap. She tells me Ali asked her too (she was mad too, but we need to rent out the open spaces). I WAS SO MAD! There Brittany is, cleaning Ali's waxy hair off of our dining room chairs and kitchen counter, kitchen floor. Cleaning all Ali's and Blake's dishes, spills, etc. Putting away all of Ali's wedding stuff that is covering the dining room (the table hasn't been usable in a month, at least). Cleaning up Ali's personal make out couch, with their leftover bottles, candy wrappers, blankets, pillows, etc.

Not fair. Not fair that she is so inconsiderate and leaves the house a complete and utter disgusting mess every day, not fair that she makes Brittany clean up after her.

I walked up the stairs to put my stuff in my room (and not in the middle of the living room – SHOCKING CONCEPT!) and on the top of the stairs was a rubber rat, leftover from our Halloween party, compliments of Sachi (yes, Sachi – you are responsible for the drama about to enfold, and I know you're loving it!)

I picked up the rat, and put it as strategically in her bed as possible.

Yes, yes I did.

Then I went to bed.

I missed the freak out that ensued, but Brittany gave me a full re-cap the next morning (I didn't tell her I'd done it, so she assumed I had done it, or it had fallen out in a bunch of stuff she'd put on Ali's bed, while cleaning).

Brittany swore to Ali she didn't do it, but said it was possible that it had fallen out while she was putting stuff on Ali's bed.

So, Ali either bought it or thinks I did it. I really don't care, either way.

I feel like after 3 months of all her ridiculousness, inconsiderateness, messiness, and CRAZYNESS, putting a rubber rat in her bed is really tame compared to what I WANTED to do.

Note – there are many more stories, much more frustration - I just don't feel like typing it all, nor do I feel like in 10 years I'll care to remember just how awful she really is. But – I think I'll still smile when I think about her screaming, "DEAD MOUSE! DEAD MOUSE! And dancing around and screaming and freaking out, while wearing nothing but her underwear, all for Brittany to see.

So, basically, in the end – I win.

Love, Brittney

Dad's Egyptian Head - Real or Replica?

2011-11-13T11:29:00.001-07:00

When we were in Egypt, Dad wanted to get something really Egyptian. We fought him on it (no one really was interested in heavy stone carvings of an Egyptian head or something similar).

We thought we'd made it free and clear, until at the airport to fly home, Dad beelined for one last souvenir shop. He came back with a 50lb stone head.

As we went through security, they looked at the head for a long time. Then they called in more security guys to look at the head. They called in their bosses and artifact security. They couldn't tell if the head was a replica, or the real deal.

45 minutes later, reinforcements were on the way. They called in 2-4 Egyptologists to come look at the head and give their professional declaration before we were permitted to take the head home with us.

After over an hour, at least 10 people looking at the head, the decision was inconclusive. They could not decide whether the head was real or not.

So they let us take it home.

Side note - this was also the trip where Taylor set of small fireworks in the security line of the airport.

Side side note - this is also the trip where Taylor bought an Egyptian dagger and didn't tell my parents. He also didn't tell the security personnel in Bahrain that there were weapons in his luggage when they asked. They were not delighted to open the bag and find a big dagger sitting on top of his underwear. Nor were my parents.

Al-Khobar

2011-11-02T07:39:00.000-06:00

Our favorite shop to buy pashminas.

Al-Ramaniya mall. Burnt down almost 15 years ago.

Right next to the Al-Ramaniya mall. There are always tons of trucks lined around the perimeter. Just waiting for... I'm not sure what. With men just sitting and smoking.

The best shawarma shop in all of Khobar!! This is the fruit drink part of the shop, the shawarmas aren't open until evening.

Latif! Our favorite place to eat. Accross from the burnt Al-Ramaniya mall.

It was an exciting day when they split the restaurant, and made a Women's Section. Probably happened 5 or so years ago.

We now have our very own eatng section! Notice the kleenex boxes on the tables? That replaces napkins.

Women's ordering section. You can see a man through the window - the men's section is right on the other side.

Latif menu! See thje item in the middle bottom: Tomato, zatar, olives, cheese? Our family got that on the menu. There used to be no menu. We would always order our favorite, the tomato, zatar, olives and cheese - and when they got a menu, it was on it! We made our mark in the Latif Bakery!

These boxes have been on the wall for over 10 years.

Gatorade

2011-11-01T08:25:00.001-06:00

For our trip, everything needs to be frozen. We've filled our freezers, the Boy Scout house and Girl Scout house (luckily, considering my Mom is the top dog with the Girl Scouts, and my Dad is the top dog with the Boy Scouts, we live across the street from both Houses) freezers with water jugs and other things. By the 10th day, everything is thawed.

My Mom came home today with a bunch of Gatorade that needs to be frozen. One small problem- Gatorade is filled to the very top of the bottle, leaving no room to expand and lots of room to explode.

Luckily, I saved the trip with my unmatchable problem solving skills.

We just drank a few swigs out of each bottle.

We both felt sick afterwards. I discovered I don't like the dark blue - which was Bob's favorite. Bob discovered the green one makes her make a horrible face, run out of the house hunched over holding her stomach, and throw up in the bushes.

Halloween

2011-10-31T08:36:00.000-06:00

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

2011-10-26T20:19:00.000-06:00

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

2011-10-26T19:56:00.000-06:00

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

2011-10-21T15:40:00.000-06:00

Fear

2011-10-19T22:49:00.000-06:00

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?

2011-10-17T19:23:00.000-06:00

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...

2011-10-17T19:14:00.000-06:00

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

2011-10-05T19:04:00.000-06:00

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.

Truths from Alex Boye

2011-09-29T09:34:00.004-06:00

Alex Boye gave a devotional at the Sandy Institute. I missed it. A friend gave me an awesome re-cap, though, and this guy is seriously awesome.

One of the things that he said that I thought was cool, was he mentioned how usually the last things we think before going to bed and waking up in the morning are negative.

"I'm so exhausted" "today did not go the way I had planned" "I didn't get .... accomplished"

"I don't want to go to work today" "I'm so tired..." "today is going to be so long..."

He said that we need to make the first and last thing we think about in the day positive.

Every night and every morning, say out loud these 3 truths:

I believe I am always divinely guided

I believe that I am always going to take the correct fork in the road

I believe God will always make a way where there is no way.

Thank you,

Alex Boye!

Love,

Brittney

Home Sweet Home

2011-09-26T08:36:00.000-06:00

I just want to take a minute and thank you, dear roommate, for filling our home with all your.... crap.

Picture slide show to document that I'm not exaggerating in my complete frustration at living in a pigsty for the last 2 months (also - in all the pictures, nothing in them is mine or my other roommates'. All the stuff in the kitchen, the empty bottles, the trash, junk - all the mess and clutter is exclusively Ali's):

Dining room, on a good day. I haven't been able to sit and eat at the kitchen table since the first couple weeks I moved in.

I feel the need to clarify that I had picked up part of the living room earlier, so it’s actually relatively clean. She brings in the chair and hooks up the speakers to her laptop and watches movies on the couch, leaves a complete mess of trash, candy, bottles, etc - and then leaves it there until someone else picks it up. Also, notice her sleeping bag, TV, and other random stuff? Love having that in the middle of the living room. Once, she left the ironing board in the center of the living room for an entire week. Another time she cleaned out her closet and just left all the stuff in the middle of the living room. For a week. We're talking enough stuff to fill half the living room floor space. Or more. For a week.

I guess she ran out of room for all her crap in her room, so she made piles in the hallway.

Entry way into her room:

And then, as if she didn't have enough space to clutter, she decided to take the last bedroom (which we were supposed to have anothe roommate, but she never did her job to get someone in there) as her other personal room. She even took a couple things my other roommate had in there, put them on her bed, and moved more of her stuff in. Seriously?

I didn't take a picture of the kitchen, mostly because it was too embarrassing. But I will share a short story:

One time, she decided to make cookies. Mixed all the dry stuff in a huge bowl, getting flour and sugar all over. Then Mixed the liquids, added eggs to the top - and decided she didn't want cookies? I don't know what happened. But she left that huge mess, including raw eggs with the beater stuck in it, for over a week until my other roommate broke down and cleaned it.

We're all moving out, so we need to get the place decent for people to look at. She asked me yesterday to have a cleaning party with her. I told her that nothing outside of my room was mine, and that I'd love to have a clean house. I told her I'd be delighted to clean my room. I think that made her mad because she told my other roommate what I'd said.

After I mentioned I would love to have a clean house, she did apologize.

"Sorry we've been so messy since Blake and I got engaged. I just get so exhausted making decisions all day."

WOW. You really get so exhausted making DECISIONS you expect me to understand why you can't do your dishes, or clean up our living space??

She actually did clean the kitchen that night. I was having a halloween party that night, so I was making a bunch of food. I cleaned everything up. On Saturday morning, when I was stressed and trying to get ready for my flight to Saudi, she came up to me and said,

"I cleaned the kitchen, and then you made food for your party and didn't clean well. Can you sweep/mop the kitchen floor?"

I was so mad. I wanted to say about a thousand things to her, all in a less than friendly tone. SERIOUSLY?? You keep the house a total mess, we clean up after you all the time, you clean one time, and I miss 1 or 2 imperfections on the floor and you have the nerve to ask me to clean up everything?? I went downstairs just to see if I had left a mess, and I had cleaned everything up. There were 1 or 2 tiny spots on the floor, like a tiny piece of stray carrot, but that was it.

Want to hear the best part of the story? She told a mutual friend (a guy, of course) that she is a "total neat freak!!!!"

HAHAHAHA. Talk about no self awareness.
If this is neat, I'd hate to see your dirty.

Elevate Your Thoughts

2011-09-15T15:55:00.002-06:00

Just another day of work...

2011-09-15T15:54:00.002-06:00

Yeah, I'm one lucky girl.

Love,
Brittney

Elevate Your Thoughts

2011-09-08T15:51:00.000-06:00

In the elevator at the Church Office building (COB) there are quotes from General Authorites. There are 6 elevators, and they change monthly. I'm at the COB once a week (every Thursday). I've decided to post my favorite elevator quote every Thursday.

Come Unto Him

2011-09-06T11:48:00.000-06:00

Today in a portfolio devotional, one of our managers gave spoke of the incident where the Disciples are on the ship, in the midst of a great storm. The Savior walks onto the water. They all call to him, to save them. Yet only one of the 11 has the faith to put one foot over the boat, into the raging storm, and walk to the Savior.

Oh, how I feel like that is my life in many ways. I’m in a little raft and the storm is raging around. I’m crying to the Savior to save me, to calm the storm and make peace once again. Yet I do not step a foot off the raft, to meet Him. What would happen if I left my fears back, and stepped into the unknown, the wild winds, and walked towards the Savior, instead of waiting for Him to do something while I sit and do nothing, where it is safe.

This relates back to a couple posts ago, when Elder Bednar spoke on being an agent, versus an object.

Love,

Brittney

A Night In Pictures...

2011-08-28T19:41:00.001-06:00

Moved

2011-08-28T19:14:00.000-06:00

I moved to Riverton with 2 friends. I am now 2 miles from work, instead of the 45minute plus commute I had before. With all the construction on I-15 my commute was usually about an hour, give or take depending on accidents and construction.

A few pictures. Kitchen, my room, my bathroom.

Elder Bednar Notes

2011-08-25T18:31:00.001-06:00

ICS Devotional

Elder Bednar

August 25, 2011

Elder Bednar spoke at our devotional today. Such a great experience. He wanted to highlight three main points: The reality of revelation, the importance of acting in doctrine, and the power of grace through the Atonement.

Reality of revelation – Within this topic, he specified 3 main events/things that have strengthened his testimony and understand of revelation. The first one is the pattern and process of assigning missionaries. Only the Brethren assign missionaries. Only they know exactly how the process works, only they will ever know. They are presented with a picture, background information, and recommendation from the Bishop and Stake President. They take this information, and they just know where this missionary is to go. The Brethren have been to almost every single of the 300+ missions. They have been there, know the mission, and have been involved in some capacity with calling the Mission President. As they look at the picture, the background, the recommendations, a spirit comes and manifests where the missionary should go. They know where they are to go based on their experience with the mission. Some missionaries need to not necessarily go to a place, but to a certain mission president.

Applicable to my life – what would the Lord see if he saw my “papers”? If he saw my picture, my eyes, read my background and the recommendations of my Ecclesiastical leaders who know my history? Where would He assign me if i were assigned to a Glory after death based on my application? Would I make the Celestial Kingdom?

The second event he mentioned is the process of calling a stake presidency. He shows up, and has to Interview 30+ people in 2 hours- he gets 3 minutes with each Brother. Elder Bednar described it as, “when you see him, you know. You are finding who the Lord has already called.” He said you sit there and interview all these men, and you have 3 minutes. It has nothing to do with what they say, but when the spirit says, “that’s your guy!” you know. Elder Bednar described his first experience in selecting a Stake President, when he was assigned to go with Elder Scott. They had over 60 interviews to do. They went through 30 something of them, and Elder Scott asked, “David, do you know who the stake president is?” Elder Bednar sort of scrambled a bit, put on the spot like that. He said “no, but you do, don’t you?” and Elder Scott asked again, “David, David, do you know who the stake president is?” Elder Bednar told him he hadn’t felt inclined towards anyone. So Elder Scott said, “then let’s keep interviewing.”

After they had finished interviewing the last of the candidates, Elder Scott again turned to Elder Bednar and said, “David, do you know who the stake president is?”. Elder Bednar again raced in his tracks, not sure what to say. In the end, he said he felt like three individuals (out of the 60) felt right. Elder Scott told him to write down the three names, and Elder Scott did the same. They then showed each other, and both had written the same names. Elder Scott asked which of the 3 was the Stake President (the other 2 would be his counselors)? Elder Bednar said he didn’t know, and asked if he could take a minute to think and pray. He want into the hall, and came back. He said the name he had felt impressed was the Stake President to be called, and Elder Scott said, “me too”. They called him and asked him to immediately (10 minutes) give them his two councilors to be called. The new Stake President wrote down the same 2 names Elder Scott and Elder Bednar had, independently of each other.

He went on to say that that pattern is the same but each time is different. The Lord is able to do His own work. He is powerful and great enough. But he chooses to do it through us. Hearing this example was so powerful. What an incredible experience, to see the Lord’s had so specifically. He’s done this so many times, and every time it is the same pattern. It is no coincidence or “miracle” or lucky guess. Logic can’t describe it, common sense refutes it, but it is there. I can’t imagine having such a repeated spiritual experience, such a witness that the Lord is watching out for us and really does give such direct revelation.

The third event he specified is General Conference. He specified that there are no assignment for topics at General Conference. They are given an invitation to speak, a day and session, and a length. That is it. He gave specific instances of how he was awed that God is the one writing the theme/outline of General Conference. He mentioned how he wrote and gave a talk entitled "mothers who know”. Two speakers later, sister Beck got up and spoke about “mothers who know”. His talk had perfectly set the tone and stage for her talk. He mentioned another occasion where he was going to be in Europe until right before GC. So he wrote his talk before he left, and turned it into translation. He came back on Sunday night. Monday morning, he woke up feeling unsettled about his talk. He told Sister bednar, and she said, “If you don't feel settled, get to work”. So he did. He felt impressed to write his talk on Temple Covenants. After he spoke, a member of the 70 got up and spoke on Temples and Family. After that, President Monson got up and concluded the conference, and spoke about the Temple. Elder Bednar was in awe of how the talks had related and complimented each other. How he had been impressed to change his conference address, and now it fit so well in the overall theme God had wanted it to fit into. He lastly mentioned a conference where Elder Uchtdorf got up, and towards the middle began to give Elder Bednar’s talk. He was slightly panicked, thinking his talk was already being given! But Elder Uchtdorf touched the very basis of the concept Elder Bednar was to speak about, and then he related it to another topic entirely. But he had completely set the tone and the foundation for where Elder Bednar would go in his own address. He mentioned that had they sat together for a year, trying to incorporate their talks in the most subtle and complimentary way, they never could have done it better than the Lord did, without them having any idea.

Hearing this testimony was extraordinary. Can you imagine being able to see, first hand, through personal experiences, how the Lord has guided you and others to make the most perfect General Conference for Latter-day Saints?

Elder Bednar emphasized that we are all entitled to revelation. As we honor covenants and maintain holiness in ourselves and our lives, these blessings are here for us 24/7 - The power of Godliness is ours to have. They are our right 24/7 if we are worthy.

Importance of acting in doctrine - D&C 101:78 “That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment.”

Elder Bednar told us that in general, most people tend to think of doctrine as thinking, or studying. But do we think of it as an action? Act in agency. In doctrine.

We tend to pray as objects not agents. When Nephi’s brothers beat him and tied him up, Nephi didn't pray for someone to deliver him, but he prays for strength that he may break the bands. He prayed not as an object (save me! Send someone to beat my brothers and loose these bands!!) but as an agent (give me the strength to break the bands!)

1 Nephi 7: 17-18

17 But it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound.

18 And it came to pass that when I had said these words, behold, the bands were loosed from off my hands and feet, and I stood before my brethren, and I spake unto them again.

I had never thought about this in that context before. If I had been in Nephi’s position, I’m pretty sure I would have prayed for someone to come help me, or for the Lord to loosen the bands. But Nephi prayed that the Lord would (through Nephi’s faith and pleading) give HIM the strength to break the bands. He didn’t leave his own life in the Lord’s hands – he prayed to be able to take action (faithfully and in accord with the Lord’s will) in his own life.

Elder Bednar went on to say that he does not believe that the Lord broke the bands immediately. He said he believes Nephi worked very hard and for a very long time to break the bands.

Then he encouraged us to have the prayers of an agent. He went on to say that so many times we say some form of this in our Church prayers, “please help those who are not here to be here next week.” That is the prayer of an object. What, just because we said that are these people going to just magically appear?? Go and get them!! Instead of that prayer, an agent would pray something like, “Heavenly Father, there are many people not here at Church today. Please help us to have the courage and love to go find them! To bring them to Church.” That is the prayer of an agent!! Dont just sit and read your scriptures. Act!! Go into it with a question or principle. Be in agent in the scriptures. Do what you know is right and the power follows. Open your mouth and it will know what to say. Don't pray to know and hesitate. Go and do!!!!! If you are acting instead of waiting for action to happen, that effort is a powerful invitation to the spirit. Joseph smith showed us such a good example of this. When he was prayingto know which Church to join, he didn’t just say “help to know” or “show me which is true” but he specified so that he could know to join one or to join none of them. He specified an action. Faith is the principle of action and power. He prayed so he could go do something!!!

The power of grace through the Atonement – “When he is weak he is strong” - Paul. When he is strengthened by God he can do anything. Book of Mormon is full of examples of the strength of God. Grace of God's Atonement. Trust if you do your very best God will strengthen you and bless you beyond your own capacity. We are not fully aware of how much the Lord will strengthen us and bless us. This power is not reserved for apostles. We are all entitled to those blessing. We have received the ordinances that entitle us to the blessings.

This whole talk was so incredible to me. I learned so much. I realized I need to be much more of an agent in my life, and especially in my prayers.

I loved when Elder Bednar went to sister Bednar about feeling unsettled, and she said “well then get to work.” There are so many times I am unsettled about things, or have questions, etc. And I just waver and suffer with indecision, when I should simply get to work.

This was a much needed talk in my life. I so love being a member of the Church or Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am so grateful for the apostles and the words of wisdom they give to me!

Love,
Brittney

Elder

2011-08-15T08:42:00.000-06:00

As of 8-14-11 at 7:00pm - Taylor Wesley Johnson is an Elder.

So proud.

Love,

Brittney

Life is like one big-fat-giant-corpulent-awesome-muchly anticipated surprise!

2011-08-08T16:05:00.003-06:00

So I love surprises. A LOT! I get as excited about surprises as children do.

In fact, to be honest, I still don't sleep much on Christmas Eve because I'm so excited about Christmas morning and all the presents and fun to be had.

A friend was mentioning my love of surprises to me the other day. And then I was thinking about an institute lesson I recently had, and one of the themes from the lesson was about how God is constantly trying us to mold us into something great, and how we need to make a correction plan for our life. To expound on that concept – there are things in life we are doing/not doing that need to be modified. Going over our life and seeing those things, and making a plan of action, a plan of correction.

The next morning on the way to work I was listening to one of my favorite talks ever, "The Infinite Power of Hope" by Elder Uchtdorf.

And suddenly all of those ideas/concepts game together.

And I thought, what if I looked at life like a surprise?

We all want something – are searching for something or working towards something. The ultimate goal is exaltation of course – but there are other steps along the way: Schooling, career, marriage, family, relationships, etc. We have hope that God is looking out for us and good things will come. But sometimes that hope is hard to hold on to, and seems like nothing more than a flimsy dream.

Well, what if I related hope to the feeling of anticipation before a surprise? Like on my birthday. I know I'm going to get surprises and I love it. What if I looked at certain events in my life like that? And instead of getting upset I don't have the present now, applying the anticipation to the power of hope. The faith of knowing something good is happening, and the hope to keep a good positive attitude.

Like a surprise!

Also on an allegorical level – you know when you have a surprise for someone and you tell them you have it? The Lord has done that for us. He's told us through personal revelation, Patriarcle blessings, Priesthood blessings, etc – that he has blessings – aka - surprises - in store for us – if we just stay strong!!

Some people when you tell them you have a present for them, but the time isn't yet – they get moody and cranky – they want the surprise NOW and don't want to wait. How pathetic that seems to us… yet we do that to the Lord ALL THE TIME! We want our surprise now and don't want to wait, don't want to ENJOY the time of anticipation (preparation) until we are ready for this great surprise.

We have a sour attitude, and as the giver – who wants to give a gift to someone who is behaving so childish? You just want to say, "I told you there is a surprise!! Just calm down and enjoy the time to prepare for this gift! Enjoy the anticipation!"

And there are so many levels of gifts… just think about the progression of gifts in your life. As we age – the gifts change. We get toys, progression in age ranges – then we start to get electronics as we are ready, and it keeps going from there. It is the same with us in the spiritual sense. As we progress spiritually, the gifts change. We never know what gift we're going to get, what the Giver thinks we could enjoy or benefit from the best. And often the gift is something we didn't even want! Or know existed. But there is always a gift that is selected specifically for us, and as we progress and grow, those gifts will progress and grow with us.

In relation to hope vs faith, which is a concept I struggle with – both practicing them and in understanding how they differ, I think in this analogy, faith would be knowing you're getting the gift. And hope would be remembering that you are getting the gift, and doing whatever you can mentally and spiritually to prepare yourself to get the gift.

Here's to all the surprises waiting for us in life, and to enjoying every second of anticipation until those gifts arrive!

Love,
Brittney

Lonely

2011-07-11T12:07:00.001-06:00

Bob: I hate taking showers. I get so lonely.

*Ramz and I look surprised and laugh a little...*

Me: Is that the only time you are ever alone?

Bob: Yeah. It's so lonely. And sometimes when I'm doing my homework. But I just tell Mom I need help so she helps me. I just don't want to be alone.

Ramz: So you really aren't stupid?

Bob: Well sometimes I really need the help.

Kamiah

2011-06-23T15:35:00.004-06:00

I'm very sad to say that Kamiah died a couple of days ago.

We got her when McKenzie was just a baby. Some friends of ours were shipping an Australian shepherd from this prestigious breeding family and asked if we wanted one of the litter? We did, and not long after, we got Ellie. I hated the name Ellie (weird this now is I don't hate it, haha). I didn't just not like it, I hated it. I thought everything about it was dumb. So, even though all her genealogical breeding records had her as Ellie, my parents asked if I had a name I'd rather call her?

I thought about it, and in my 7^th grade choir class (this really says how long we've had her!!) there had been a girl named Kamiah. I guess I loved the name, so I submitted it for review and it passed!! She was officially named Kamiah (I cannot think of the name Kamiah for a person any longer. It is a dog's name!!).

We had her 12 years. She was getting old, but no one expected her to die this soon! It was really without warning.

Here is the story:

Kamiah was acting a little weird the last 2-3 weeks so Mom took her into the vet just to see, and turns out her kidneys were failing. The dr. said we could put her on an IV and it might flush out her kidneys and give her a little bit longer. Mom called Dad, and he was having a bad day at work and was so busy and hard to reach. Mom told him the situation, and expected him to say to put her down, as putting her on IV's would be really expensive. But Dad said to do what Mom thought best. So she called the vet back, intending to say we wanted to put her on IV's and see if we could give her kidneys a kick. When she called, the vet told her he hadn't painted a very good picture, and told her the IV's would be painful for Kamiah, and would most likely extend her maybe 3 days, and not a good 3 days. He suggested we put her down. When Mom left Mia at the vet, she said she was just laying on the cement floor, just staring at her like, "why are you leaving me?"

It was almost time for McKenzie to come home for lunch. Mom didn't know what to do. She knew if she told Bob, she wouldn't be able to go back to school. She wasn't sure what decision to make and couldn't reach Dad. When Bob came home, she told her, and Bob started to cry and they went to the vet to tell them to put Mia down. It was hard because they had to make a decision by noon, as all the medical staff was leaving.

Mom said she and Bob held Kamiah as they put her down, and just cried and cried. They took her home, and that night Taylor and Bob (let's be honest... Taylor) dug a hole in the backyard. Then the family had a memorial service for her.

I've never been as close to Kamiah as Mom or Dad or Bob. I loved her a lot, but was more of a distance lover J. More than anything it was just nice having her around, she was part of home.

I'm doing ok... I get teary when I look at pictures of her, but I'm ok. I was mostly worried about Bob. We got them at the same time, so they've grown up together. She took it really hard and kept crying and crying and saying, "I don't know life without her!!" Which is really cute, dramatic and true all at the same time. She slept with my parents last night and fell asleep crying, poor kid. My parents are both really sad... She was the best dog... It'll be so weird going home without her... when I'd come home at Christmas I was so excited to see her. She'd get SO excited, and jump on us, and her butt would be wagging all over the place.

She was so even tempered, and so freaking smart. She rarely barked. Really, the best dog ever.

Just for memories sake – because in 5 or 10 years from now I will have forgotten all of this, I'm going to list her nicknames and memories of her.

Names:

Kamiah (obviously)
Mia
Kamiah Bear
Mia Bear
Myes

Memories:

How hard she was to walk. She was trained to walk right by your side. And she'd do it for Dad because she loved and respected him, but she wouldn't do it for me and it drove me crazy. I'd yell heel!! Over and over and she'd do it for a split second before pulling on the leash. She'd never just take off running and leave your side – but she would push her limits.
She didn't have a tail. So she wagged her butt. Funniest/cutest thing ever.
She looked seriously nasty when she was shaved - but it's so hott in Saudi it really is the only option in the summer. I think she knew she was really ugly shaved, too. Self-conscious about it.
When not shaved, seriously the most beautiful dog ever.

You would take her somewhere, and tell her to sit. Then walk away and she wouldn't move. When you were ready, you'd yell, RELEASE! And she'd come tearing to you.
Going rollerblading with her on the leash and trying to get her to pull me.
Walking with Samar and her dog, Julie. The two of them together… and this one time, we were at the hills soccer field really late at night, and Julie and Kamiah were running all over the place and would run at us and miss us at the last second, and we were screaming like little girls and having a blast. After an hour of this, I noticed a floating light at the other end of the field… I showed Samar, and after squinting it became clear the floating lights were the end of something (we'll just say something) on fire in some peoples' mouthes… we freaked out and left. On the way home, we saw a group of guys from BISA (Boarding school in Bahrain). So we knew the guys, who had been watching us act retarded with our dogs for the last hour. So embarrassing. Hopefully they were to out of their minds to realize it was us or to remember it come Monday.
Arabs in general are afraid of dogs. Having a dog in Saudi was so fun. The weird looks we got, the people running to the other side of the street when they saw her, etc.

One time, Dad was taking the kids sand sledding. This was right after the terrorist attacks, and so security was really tight. So Dad decided to take Kamiah in the car to the dunes and roll down the window so the soldiers would see her and freak out and let us go without going through the iqama and other checks. When we got to the security station, they looked at Kamiah and everyone got jittery. It was at this point Bob reached her head out the window next to Kamiah's and yelled, "PUT DOWN THE CASAROLE AND STEP AWAY FROM THE MINIVAN!!!!" (That is a quote from the movie The Singles Ward. She was probably 6 at the time).
Kamiah bit Bob one time in her whole life. When she was maybe a year old or less. She made Bobbie bleed. Bob deserved it, of course. Messing with Kamiah. But Kamiah didn't mean to hurt her. After that one time of lashing out, it didn't matter how much Bobbie abused her or mauled her or pulled her hair or stuck her fingers in her mouth – Kamiah never again bit her.
When we were going on repat, Kamiah could tell. She'd get all weird and clingy. It was kind of amazing. Even if just one of us was leaving, she could tell.
How we had to have Nilo come dog sit for repats and stuff and it made me mad.
One night I was home alone when I was in jr. high school and scared, so I made her sleep in my bed with me. She hated it.
She was prejudiced against people of color. And she only ever lived in Saudi Arabia where 98% of the people she saw were not white. Go figure.

She never barked. So when she did, it FREAKED me out. I heard somewhere animals are really sensitive to earthy stuff, and would bark before a natural disaster. So i'd be terrified a natural disaster was coming, or some unsavory character was lurking outside our house.
This one time Mom was trying to give her a bath and she didn't want to, and kept hiding underneath my desk at my feet. Mom would pull her on the tile, and she'd slide and fight and get away and come back and it went on for a long time and it was the funniest thing ever.
How she had no self-control when it came to cats or food. She'd chase cats and go under cars after them, and hurt her front legs really bad after years of doing that and had to get surgery. She even face planted into a couple of cars chasing cats and didn't duck soon enough.

(Eating grapes off Camree's forehead. That is really wanting food...)

She loved going through the trash if there was food. She'd make such an awful mess and we'd get so mad at her and she'd cower and cover her face with her paws, but she didn't care. She wanted food.
We had to put any piece of food as far back on the counter as possible, or she'd manage to get it. I still to this day instinctively push my food to the back of the counter, before realizing I don't need to…
She ate Camree's birthday cake one year. The whole thing. We have no idea how she got it off the counter. That is a whole lot of willpower and perseverance.
I loved the freckles on her snout… very favorite.
She followed Mom everywhere.
She had to be next to someone at all times. She was always sitting on your feet. Her favorite spot was under the desk, on your feet. And you'd roll over her paws on accident with the chair but she stayed there right there on your feet anyways.

She loved the sand dunes. And going places with us.

Well, she was the best dog ever. Now I'm super dog-hungry. I want an Australian shepherd named Kamiah. J

(I wish I had more/better pictures of her. This is all i've got though.... i'm sure other people have tons more. Oh well)

Love,
Brittney

Married

2011-06-21T10:59:00.004-06:00

I went to Excel training last week. I highly enjoy going to trainings – it makes me feel hardcore. Like – really legit.

I walked in about 5 minute early, but the whole banquet room at the Radisson was full. There were over 100 people there, in long tight banquet tables. Every seat was taken. There were a couple random seats in the middle of the tables, where I’d have to squeeze past 5 or 6 people or more.

This is where my shyness really comes out – in big settings like this. I hate having to squeeze past people, while lots of people watch. It makes me uncomfortable.

So I walk in, and immediately this guy turns and looks at me. This really cute guy. He doesn’t just look – our eyes meet and he keeps looking at me. I’m scanning the room looking for a seat, and nothing really is open. The seat closest to the end of the table is right next to this cute guy who is still looking at me. I’m really shy when it comes to guys and dating and all that – so going and sitting next to him was way out of my comfort zone. Really forward. But honestly that was the best option for seating. So I went and sat next to him.

We introduced ourselves and were kinda joking around. And I thought, “this guy is cute and awesome!” and then I realized, I hadn’t checked for a wedding ring. So I looked over, and indeed there was a ring on his finger. Sad! Of course I would sit next to the cute awesome MARRIED guy. The training started and he continued to joke with me and we were just having fun, and I noticed – wait – there is no ring on his finger. Hmmm… I’ve seen a ring before and thought they were married, then noticed it was on the middle finger, not the ring finger. But there was no ring at all on his hand. Really weird. And he’s really flirting with me. So I start to think maybe he’s going through a divorce. The divorce is really new, he hadn’t yet taken off his wedding ring – then he sits next to a girl he things is nice, and realized he isn’t married and should take of the ring…

He continues flirting with me, leaning in, sitting close… and then he mentions going through a divorce. Ah ha! So that was it… he talks about how crazy she was, and all this stuff… and mentions the divorce is the best thing that could have happened… lunch comes around and he asks me if I want to have lunch with him? Did I mention he is really cute and completely my type? So I said yes.

We went outside and he drives this sweet truck. Keeps getting better and better. We eat lunch, and he’s really flirting and I’m having a blast – he’s making me laugh and is just cool. The check comes – and that always makes me awkward. I didn’t really know what to do/say – so I just said I can pay for my portion? And he says no, he’s got this. Then he took me out for gelato after.

The rest of the training went the same, joking around, laughing, flirting. It was very entertaining. He owns his own business and he showed me his website – so I knew where he worked, his name, etc – and he was saying how I know all his information – and I mentioned all he really knew about me was the company I work for and my first name.

As we were leaving, he looked over at my instructor evaluation form, where I had written my full name. We got outside and ready to part, and he didn’t ask me for my number. I was kinda disappointed, but I mean if the guy is going through a divorce, the last thing he should be doing is picking up girls. And although I really thought he was great and had fun, I’m not really looking for a divorced guy.

So I went on my way, never to see him again.

I was mentioning the story to a friend, how crappy it was to meet a great guy I actually liked and had fun with, who turns out is going through a divorce. Boo. She told me to add him on Facebook. I’m not going to add him on FB when he could have gotten my number and didn’t. Curiosity did get the best of me and I looked him up on FB. His profile picture was one of him, his wife and 2 little girls. WHAAAT? His about me said something to the effect of: I love my wife and girls, they are my life, etc. Ummm… this divorce but be really, really new! That explains why the ring was still on… no way I’m adding this guy on FB! He’s still married!! Eek!! So I exit out and don’t think about him any more.

On Fathers Day, I get a friend request from him. What!? He added me on FB? So I go through his pictures, and he’s still very, very married!! Then I see his wife had written on his wall for Father Day about how much she loves him and what a great Dad he is, etc. That doesn’t sound like a divorced wife to me… then I remembered he’d said his wife was crazy and said some random stories – so I assume she is crazy and just not accepting the divorce?

Then I notice he’s responded to her post of love – saying how much he loves her!!!!!! WHAT? Not only is he married, he’s not going through a divorce and he’s definitely not intending to be from the looks of it!!!

But why add me on FB when it’s OBVIOUS he’s married?? Gag. A couple days later, he wrote me a message asking me how training was the second day (he couldn’t come that day). Initiating more contact….

WEIRD.

So anyways, I went on a really awesome date with a married man. I feel super weird about it (clearly).

I keep thinking maybe I misinterpreted, and it really was innocent? But he did take off his ring, he bought me lunch, flirted with me, asked me how I was still single – inquiring about my dating status, added me on FB and wrote me a message. All things married men should not, in my opinion, do.

I mean he could have mentioned how he was married?? Especially where there was no ring on his finger.

The saddest part about the whole thing (well besides his poor wife) is I really could have seen myself liking him. It was a really fun date.

Except he’s MARRIED.

I told my co-workers (all men) and they were so weirded out and told me that his actions were really iffy and I wasn’t misinterpreting them or making a bigger deal about it than it was…

Suggestions so far for handling the situation have been:

• Delete him off FB and never talk to him or respond to his email (probably the best option and what will happen).

• Write on his wall, “Thanks so much for taking me to lunch. I had so much fun!” (so his wife can see what he’s doing in his free time – taking young single girls out and flirting with them and taking off his wedding ring).

• Tell his bishop (Ha).

So basically, I need to go on a really great date asap so I can’t say the last awesome date I went on was with a married man.

The iPhone that was and the tire that wasn’t

2011-04-15T11:01:00.001-06:00

I got an iphone. A branspakin new iphone. I am delighted. It’s awesome! For work I needed one. Work pays for my entire plan – all I had to buy was the actual phone. I am completely in love. And it really has helped my productivity at work.

For example – this morning I needed to wake up and order bagels for an all day meeting we have today. Normally – this would consist of me opening my computer, waiting for it to turn on, looking up the specifics for the meetings, looking up the nearest Einstein bagels number to the meeting, putting the number in my phone and calling. Today – I woke up, grabbed my phone – looked up the meeting and number, and it automatically called it from the website. Now I realize this is old news to most people. And I know the capabilities of phones that actually work – but this is exciting for me! I can check my work email so quickly now, wherever I am. Work during meetings at an offsite location, where I have no internet… Also this weekend, we all played Words With Friends on our iphones. It was a blast. LOVE my iphone! And love that I don’t have to pay anything to have it!!

So I’m driving down the freeway on the way to work on Friday morning. Listening to Pandora on my iphone because I CAN! Normally I carpool and would not be driving, but I was leaving straight after work to go to some friends’ house for the weekend. I’m in the left lane, and suddenly I lose control of my car. It starts going back and forth and swaying and I know I’ve completely lost a tire. A tire going flat/ shredding is one of my greatest fears, as I’ve heard horror stories about them. Fortunately, I had heard the stories, so I knew what had happened – knew the signs and could stop quickly. Unfortunately, I was in the far left lane and there was no way I could get over to the right side. There was space to pull over, but I still was out in the road a little bit. I hadn’t ever been in that position before, so I had no idea what to do. Do I pull over to the left? Is that legal? There is a lane so it must be… can I make it to the right? I know you are not supposed to drive on a flat tire and my car was completely gone at that point… so I pulled over as much as I could. Cars are going around me, and my car is shaking from the speed. I am a little freaked out.

Who do I call? I’m pretty sure I let my AAA expire. I think I have roadside assistance with Toyota. I’m partly in the road – how are they going to tow me? Do I call the police? I’m still partly in the road… do I call my Dad? I decided against calling Dad - I thought he’d really question my sanity in calling him clear across the world to ask him these questions. Daren had just gotten to town Thursday night and knows everything and is one of my best friends, and is actually close enough to help if I need it, so I called him. About 4 times. He didn’t answer – and who does answer their phone at 7:30am when they don’t have to work? (He actually called me back a couple minutes later, all groggy and concerned. What a good friend!).

Next step – I called Toyota. As I thought, I do have road side assistance. They transferred me over to someone who could help, and almost as soon as he got on the phone with me, there was someone by my window. A cop! He told me they were stopping traffic so I could get across the road. Great! I look behind me, and there is an incident management vehicle in the middle of the road, completely halting all traffic. I limped across the road to the right side and pulled off. The cop told me he and the incident management guy could change the tire, no problem. So I hung off with Toyota who was going to send a tow truck (I was so flustered, it didn’t even occur to me it was my TIRE. I have a spare and think I know how to change the tire. I could change it myself. I could ask someone who lives close to help me. Absolutely no need for a tow truck. But clearly I was not thinking clearly. The cop and the incident management guy were great. They changed the tire and had me on my way in no time.

But, it still remains, that I completely stopped all Northbound traffic for about 5 minutes on Friday morning. I was that awful person who makes everyone late. I am more than a little embarrassed.

The funny thing, is while I was sitting there nearly being obliterated by traffic, I saw the incident management guy go by going south, with his sirens on. And I thought, “Well Brittney – it could be worse. You could need that guy.” And he was coming for me. Hahahaa…

I took Tim into Toyota later that day. They said there was a hole in my tire almost the size of my fist. He had no idea what would cause a hole like that. Said it was punctured from the inside out. Whatever caused the hole must have worked its way out at freeway speeds. So I had to pay $200 for a new spare tire. In the whole 5ish years I had my Olds, I never needed my spare. I guess I was really lucky.

So now, if that ever happens again, I know what to do. Having my tire go out on the freeway is now no longer a big fear – I’ve experienced it. It was absolutely no fun – and turned into a whole drama since I was on the left hand side, but it all worked out.

Lessons I learned – never drive fast on the freeway, never drive in the left side lane, and check your tires every day. Yup – that’ll all happen.