Just closure. Of Peru.

So I am not sure how this post will turn out. My last few days have been very eventful and there are experiences in which have changed who I am. I know the meaning of foreign country. I know what it feels like to be in danger. I know poverty. I know fear. I know love. I know protection. I know how it feels to be accepted by a culture only after I have accepted their ways. I know what it feels like to miss a shower and a toliet. I know the meaning of friend. I know what rice and chicken tastes like. 100 times over. I know what oranges off of a jungle tree taste like. I know pollution. I know Peruvian concert. I know coca cola. I know dirty toes. I know Hostel. I know dogs. I know taxis. I know friendship, did I say that already? Oh let me emphasis friendship. I know bargaining. I know soles. I know snotty noses. I know theft. I know pain. I know bird poop in my hair. I know this was an incredible experience that I would not change for anything. Granted...I could have seen the experiences then made some different choices...of course..but then ya..lets not go there. But I will be back in America on Monday. I feel grateful for that country. Thats what I know. I know America and I know clean running hot water. Im going to a glacier tommorow. I hear its beautiful.

sliding down a waterfall. in a jungle.

i really climbed this. then slid down it. really really. hiking in the jungle is humid. good thing we had a guide. dont worry i will get more of peru when i get home its just a pain to upload here. this video took 2 hours to upload. blah....be patient okay.

giants in peru

i am a giant here. dont try to buy a jacket in peru. they are cheap but the sleeves are for midgets. dont try to stand up on a bus. it hurts your head. dont get attacked by children with scissors and cleaning supplies. i have a cold. but it was bound to happen surrounded by hundreds of children who dont wash their hands. i am going to a concert in peru. my second one actually. i got back from the jungle. where i climbed waterfalls then slide down them. injuries are minor. i ate a rodent. are you kidding. that is so gross. i didnt. i cant believe i only have six days left. it has flown by. i found a chocolate bar today and ate it, or rather consumed it in a couple bites. you better believe that is what all the siblings are getting for a treat. it is fifty cents here. which turns into 17 cents in america. i cant tell if i have a tan line on my feet from the chacos or from the dirt surronding the chaco lines. i eat a lot of rice. but i love it. and ive cinched another belt hole. meaning im losing weight. i think. a girl today was telling me a spanish word, then asked what it was in english. i looked it up in my spanish dictionary (thanks benj) oh because they ripped apart my electronic one and i have the lid but the main part has disappeared. stolen by the angels. (thanks angels) anyway the word was fleas. so she was itching her leg saying this spanish word, which means fleas, meaning...hey volunteer im itching my legs because i have fleas, now give me some carmellos and take my picture and maybe give me some stickers too. and i will dig through your bag and steal your electronic translation device. oh and break it in half..... this is getting too long. basically its hard work. its stressful, and our teachers left us again today. not just mine. all three classes. children were storming the school, and the cook had to come help. it was drastically funny. humor saves me. i miss food that i dont have to think twice about eating..like is this going to make me ill.... i miss that kinda food. i miss my bed. i miss being surronded by clean people. honest. i do.

por que?

i like peru. i like it a lot. let me tell you my basic day. wake up around 7...providing someone yells at me to get up. leave around 730 ish. walk about 15 minutes and try to avoid getting hit, or hit on (this happens but not too often so dont worry about me) and walk down to a busy street while we wait for our bus. how do we know what bus to get on? a person hangs out the side of these minivan type things yelling the city they are going ´chupaca chupaca chupaca´or sicaya sicaya sicaya´sicaya is where we go. we then flag them down and get on the bus. this bus is usually stuffed to the limit. and we are HUGE for peruvians so our knees and heads get busted. or bust people. one of the two. then we yell baja! then we get off and walk somemore, where we encounter herds of various animals, dead animals, dogs out of control of every breed possible and diseased as well. then we arrive at the orphanage slash underprivledged children. sorry i dont care about spelling right now. k how about i explain my day yesterday. yes. okay.

i arrived in a chipper mood, but i took some allergy medicine before i left home because all the poop and crap on the kids and on the bottom of their shoes gets me sneezing and wheezing and junk. so that made me drowsy. so drowsy that i fell asleep standing up, and my dear friend shayla said to me ´tia! blaah alkajdlfkjeimkjbñ´ because i cant understanad a word they say. they call me tia. not sure....senorita maybe. who knows. so i go into my classroom where they have a teacher teaching these lovelies. they are four. there is about 30 of them. one teacher and me. anyone who knows how guidlines work it is usually required in usa to have 1 teacher to about every ten kids or less. so...we are outnumbered. so the teacher cant speak to me, i cant speak to her, but we try. and i understand some, and she understands nothing i say. she has to hand draw out every activity. so i help her. we were drawing rombus´ which are diamonds i believe. yes. then she writes every childs name on them. in the meantime i am trying to keep them from killing each other. time out. think of the most violent child you have ever seen or known. times that by a trillion. welcome to my 30 four year olds. all of them would probably kill you in your sleep. or worse. today one child tried to rip out my throat, then he shoved his hand down my shirt and jerked my shirt towards him and bit my shirt and wouldnt let go then began spitting down my shirt and revealed my top portion. as he is laughing and then others join in to get there super clean hands down my shirt. sorry mom. its tough to be modest here. okay. distraction.

so yesterday jessica another volunteer from london was with me in my room. it was her last day. the teacher informed us she was going to get some fruit. okay? two hours later. and many swear words later she came back. im trying to laugh about this still. its tough. but i didnt cry. i was too angered. what happened while our teacher was gone? a lot.
1. peeing. 2. on me. 3. fights. 4 bloody faces. 5. a flood. 6. children climbing out the window. 7. jessica using every profane word she knew. in english. 8. me thinking and maybe just maybe saying some profanes. no i didnt. okay i did. okay you decide. 9.me bleeding. 10. chaos. 11. did i say chaos i meant hell. 12. hell. 13. 30 4 year olds attacking us with pencils and throwing chairs, big wooden chairs at us and other children. 12.jessica gaurding the door. 13. me trying to sing five little ducks in english. 14. me attempting to sing head shoulders knees in toes in spanish. ugly picture. dont think about it. 15. jessica holding a child down while i tried to remove the coveted stolen stickers from her hand as she spat in my face, all the while other lovelies running around attacking me and destructing the classroom. in about an hour every thing that was on teh wall was on the ground ripped to shreds. oh sorry..numbers 16. sink being overflooded and children standing in it throwing each other to teh ground. 17. me maintaining chaos for 15 minutes of the two hours by pulling out the cars puzzle raquel gave me (thanks raquel) and taping it to the wall. did i finish...nope they ripped it down and began throwing it at each other. they have gangs too. at four. they do. one kid hits another. the other goes and gets all their friends and they pumble the other one. until blood is oozing. things are not safe here. (if you ever wondered why orphans are not normal when adopted, this is why)18. throwing pencils. all of them all across the room. 19. all of them screaming. 20. while all of this is happening please picture jessica guarding the door warding off about 7 kids, me trying to stop fights and get things like pencils and scissors away from them. 21. i gritted my teeth a lot. 22. i grabbed about 3 children causing problems all at once and sat them in the corner and stood over them so they couldnt move. as i warded off about 6 others who were poking and throwing things at us, as they were screaming. i probably was screaming too. 23. oh about an hour had passed and i wanted to know where in the H my teacher was...so i went exploring.

I FOUND HER DANCING WITH A GROUP OF OTHER ADULTS IN THE COURTYARD NEARBY!!!!!! LIES!!! no fruit was visable.

i could tell you more. i could scar you for life with some things that i have seen here, but...ill keep it pg13 rated. unedited version is in my journal. read it sometime. just know that yelling in english at the children does work, for five seconds. just know that i dont yell. except here.

oh there is an and then. if that wasnt enough...and then lunch came. i was cleaning up the 400 dishes and i had a stack of about 5 or 6 plates i looked up for a second and the slime caused them all to fall to the tile floor. (maybe i am clumsy. i am. there is not a maybe) so i fell to my knees and began to pick them up. the huge shards of glass. jana ran over, as she knew i was absolutely a wreck. my nerves have never been so shot. she put her hand on my shoulder and said, ýou can cry, just cry´ i couldnt. i didnt. no tears would come. i just was in awe. at least i quieted the entire lunchroom, and all the kids had this look at me, like...she is dangerous..why do the teachers not care. why do they leave us for hours. why. por que. please tell me. please. i went home. i layed in bed and stared at the wall. did i do anything for those children? taught them swear words in english maybe...jk. really though. my day was a disaster. i then had to say goodbye to other volunteers after we ate dinner together in a large eating place behind the cathedral in the center of huancayo.

today was better. the children were sweet looking. still abusive little devils, but im sick of saying no mas no mas, and every other spanish word i know. i have found that love seems to create some peace between me and the devil child. i walk away from a lot of dangerous things, but they swarm me and i cannot stop 50 of them from beating each other with chairs, and they know it irritates me, and the nails on the chairs are semi dangerous..so..you know. i dont like it. i also dont like it when they dig through the garbage can. i dont like it when they pee on the playground, but i find humor. i laugh a lot. after yesterday thats all i can do. i am falling in love with a few of these kids who really care about my well being and do everything i ask and help me learn spanish. they dont have much. next to nothing. i wish i could take them all home and save them. but i cant. i can be an example though. i can give them gum. i can fix their hair, and put hand sanitizer all over there never been washed hands. i can be happy here. i love peru. i love the people. i just wrote my worst day ever. it wont happen again. i wont let it. i will be happier, its all i can do. im going to the amazon jungle today. 5 hour bus ride for 7 dollars, roughly. cheap. im rich here. sorry this is long. you are bored. if you even made it this far. i dont miss home. i have some things i miss. but for the most part, the people i am living with help me not be homesick. i could stay here for awhile. providing i got a new supply of herbal remedies from my mom to keep me alive. i drink coke. a lot. it helps my stomach. sorry mom. dont tell dad. i hope im not addicted to inca kola when i get back. i hope you read this. you should keep praying for me. its nice. i feel safe and loved. if you worry. stop. im okay. rabid dogs scare me. i like my chacos.

oh peru.

saturday i went to a concert. you just need to know a few small things. dog fight. me in the middle. phil a co volunteer kicking the pack of dogs away from me. me kinda in shock that i just participated in a dog fight. concert. the line was 3000 people. wrapped around about four large blocks. two hour line. lots of smoke, beer, and peruvian tunes. i was impressed with the music though. not with the concert morale. it was kinda stand there and bounce with a blank expression. 3000 people. i had to go to the bathroom, but...jana and megan friends. . they walked with me to the womans bathroom. and i said, um is that a guy in our bathroom, sure is. is he..ya he is. he is preparing food in our bathroom and selling it outside. now if you imagine the grossest dirtiest most horrendous bathroom you have ever seen in your life... cancel that out of your mind. because it is not even close to this bathroom. first of all they dont flush..do you want details...ya you do. they dont flush papel down the taza so that reeks. then the toliets leak so that creates 7 inches of water on the ground. then they were using large garbage cans filled with muggy water as sinks. um...germ fest. so he had some crates stacked up and was preparing these sandwiches and selling them for like 5 soles. which can be compared to like a dollar fifty. so i decided i would hold it. for another two plus hours. so we walk back through the crowd..oh did i say walk, i meant squoze. i cant think how to spell..so whatever. squoze ourselves back through the crowd and then we told the story about sandwiches being prepared to claire, and she said, oh phil just had a sandwich. we then made a large mistake and told phil. first of all it was dumb of him to eat it and pay five soles for it. sorry phil. but it was. hes from new zealand....dont worry about it. so he was a little queasy. but that didnt stop him from staying at this concert till one in the morning. goodness. i went home early and we did it ourselves around midnight. it was an accomplishment. okay that was longer than i wanted it to be. sunday i went to church in a very nice building right down the street. the hymns were not put up anywhere, so i had to guess the tune, they were very easy to guess and find the page and i dont know why i struggled so much with guessing i stand all amazed. anyway i ran into 6 missionaries today at the market that was fun today. one was from st. george, cali, you know the normal. i love explaining even to the volunteers about mormons. they are pretty fascinated. we have such a selection of volunteers and accents.- kentucky, london, new zealand, canada,montana me...i say oh my heck and apparently that is unheard of..or rather they just think im lame cuz i say it. but..this is...an experience. lets see..today we saw a car. think small piece of junko car with the back open like a station wagon with twin sized mattresses stacked up, probably about 10 inside and on top. no probably 14 serious. i went to an orphanage yesterday and played some sunday activity games.....ha..those kids pretty much need everything and anything. so mi donations will come in handy. my orphange is a bit nicer. 35 point something cents americano money. there is so much to know about peru. i could write books. but of course i am long winded. but i am starting to slack with freaking out about a two year old sitting on the street or a 14 year old peeing right in front of me. its normal here. as well as cows with bright ribbons all over them. and a herd may or may not consist of various different animals. sheep. cows. dogs. dont see any cats being herded. kids. lambs. goats. boars. all in one herd. people think im crazy. one. im mormon. two i brought pictures of our family and they like that. three. im crazy without the mormon and family status. i like peru. im rich here. way rich.

peru. first full day.

we went to visit some ruins in chupaco. some guy absolutely was furious that we wanted to jump off teh ruins and take a pic. we waited till he turned then suceeded in some incredible pictures. oh did i mention the elevation is 10,000 here. it is. and we hiked a large mountain and i thought i was going to die. i have a constant headache, they say it will go away. i hope. the bus alone is an experience. so their are two lanes but they squeeze three cars or more in there. i was sticking my camera taking a picture of oh maybe a lamb in a baby carrier that they wrap around their bodies, or maybe i was taking a photo of 15 dogs lined up around a food stand, or hey i think i could have been taking a picture of the cow that wouldnt get out of the road, oh no i was taking a picture of the car that just cut us off as we went up onto the curb and missed a pole, anyway this is a two lane street meaning cars in one lane go one way and cars in the other lane go the otehr way and i just thought i heard something coming up next to me. yes it was another bus who saw that the road got bigger there so it decided to go between us and oncoming traffic...not a big deal. one hour of internet cost 1 soles which is about 35 cents. and 1 soles is like their dollar i guess. or more. sunday market is a huge deal here. everybody talks about it all day long. oh the market on sunday ill buy that. people stare at us group of volunteers alot, maybe because we are tall, or maybe because jana has orange hair. i did dance with some locals today. we are going to a rock concert ton ight where there will be 3000 people. wow! a co uple of volunteers have gotten their purse stolen or money or something. i ate dinner yesterday at this place and somehow forgot i was supposed to not drink the water but i got a frozen limeade.stupid. so if that doesnt give me parasites, maybe if that doesnt work then forgetting to clean off my forks might, oh if that doesnt do it the toliet surely will. i asked claire who has been here 5 weeks how many times she has gotten sick she said 2ce really really bad and it took her days to get over it, then other times like 5. i was like oh great. ha. but i should be okay. ive found that if they say they will there at 10 it will really be eleven. i dont know if anyone even desires to hear bout this random info. ihave already written 17 pages in my blue journal. thank goodness for hand sanitizer and my oils. the peppermint oil saved my life on the bus ride. i was so queasy. but i brushed my teeth with spice traders. not recommended and if that doesnt kill parasites nothing will. thanks mom.

peru. im here im here im here

location. huancayo peru. in a plywood divided internet place im getting eaten alive by invisible bugs. great. my flight was delayed. of course. customs took forever. benj and i left my house in provo at 4 am. i arrived in lima around 11pm. got to the home we stayed at 1 am. so im alive. i feel your prayers for reals. the people here are amazing. lima was smoggy overcrowded and im glad i came here. 7 hour bus ride with very tiny roads that i thought i was going to die on werent so bad. 3 soles to every dollar. still workin on the math. well iuts more like 2. 85 ish. anyway. i had a travelling companion from kentucky. his name is craig. he is such a blessing. we find humor in everything. peru is... more and less than i expected. i probably have already used 1gb on my camera. adn its just been 4 8hrs of travel. so the volunteers are going camping tonight. no tents. somewhere random. i was like..uh i have only gotten 6 hours of night sleep so..no. haha. it is kinda unreal here. no it is. really unreal. im not sure if i can upload pictures because i cant see its too dark in here. well our time is up. up up up. fifteen minutes goes fast when yu are used to unlimted access. why am i talking about this. its boring compared to waht i have seen. i am oging to a concert tommorow peruvian music. murray ill get yo some music dont u worry. you will hear from me soon.

what now?

Well looks like IM finished with my siblings. Plans? I plan to do my parents here shortly (in about 25 days when I get back from...my vacation) BUt in between that, I plan to write about Peru. I plan to keep a journal and give you pieces of it. Not all of it. That would bore you. But good pieces. I do not know when I will post again as I get on a plane at 6 am tommorow morning to fly away to Peru. I will arrive back sept 1. Start school on the 2nd and hopefully not be tired. (i will be). Dont worry. You will hear from me soon.

Day fifteen. Meet Brooke. LAsT SIBLING!!!

she was preparing my cake. Look at how nice she is.
this is brooke's (and mine of course) dear friend Julie. Julie hangs with us. All the time.
this is a great picture of Brooke and I decorated in miley attire. Did I mention that brooke themed my party with miley cyrus!!! YEs she did.
brooke is so strong. She can hold onto this wakeboard handle through the current of the river. Thats why she was iron woman like 10 years in a row (i dont exaggerate) this is why (this meaning muscles) she knocked a guy out jello wrestling him.
welcome to the adorable, posing, cute side of brooke. with the muscles, she is fun and happy and everything you could ever dream of (imagine the tone of voice as a commercial on TV trying to sell you cleaner, or a vaccuum.)

Brooke! Brooker Brookey brooke brooke!!!!!!!!! (notice how I got bored of capsing brookes name.) LEt me just get a few things out there for you.
1. I live with Brooke.
2. Brooke is OCD about cleanliness. (which is fine brooke, remember how I told you it was not good nor bad but both in different circumstances, depending on how you deal with things, we will talk bout this later if you are offended)
3. Brooke travels a lot and Im not really a fan of it because I rarely see her. But I do take baths in her bath and sleep in her bed sometimes. Thats the only pro. But...I just like it better when she is there, lets be truthful.
4. I am kinda worried about this being the last sibling. You will want to know, what next where to from here brittany? Well Here is my plan. Ill make another post telling you what is coming next.

Lets start from the beginning. My parents got married..well about 29 years ago. WEnt on their honeymoon to Jackson Hole (i think) in a snow storm (april) and then nine months later out came brooke. Brooke is just a few years younger than my uncle jed, whom is my mom's youngest sibling. So Jed and Brooke were friends..as well as TJ and GUY my moms other brothers. Brooke wore bikinis as a baby. (thats all I remember from her childhood, I looked at her p. album one day, p stands for photo) Oh and she also has a nice large scar on her leg from when a bike spoke actually crawled in there. I dont know if crawl was the right word. Stuck, pertruded, invaded, climbed? You choose the word, then fill in the blank. I do remember this injury because we have a family video of us at easter. I was 2 and had a pot belly with a belly shirt on. ANd I was sassy in this video. And they called me Bratney. But this is about Brooke. Not me.

Then brooke grew up as the first child of 16 children. Of course she was only living at home to see the first 10 kids grow up, but she sure loves the next six. Brooke is always spoiling those kids with clothes and other stuff. Brooke is their second mom, lets just call her that. Brooke works at AMerican Crafts (Scrapbooking) and supplies our whole family with supplies. Bless her heart. She is also one of the top sales personel in their whole store. How do I know this. OH word of mouth. But not outta Brookes. HA!

(THIS NEXT PART IS NOT RELATED TO BROOKE SO YOU CAN SKIP)IF you have been staying updated on the siblings postings..you will find that these keep getting longer. And I apologize but...I feel like the older ones care more what I say about them, so I have to make sure I say lots of good things in these posts to make up for the bad stories I tell about them. Yikes.

Brooke: wow I get side tracked. Brooke recently learned how to dive. Yes its true. Dive into the pool. When she is pretty terrified of water. YEs that is true as well. I just thought of a story. When Brooke was going to DIXIE college doing basketball and probably track I went down to stay with her in her ghetto apartment. When I was visiting her we went swimming, i was probably 12 or littler. (probably not a word) I remember Brooke CLimBING into the pool with her two casts on each foot. STress fractures. GOsh brooke be careful. They were colorful too, like pink and purple? My memory probably has faded. Oh well.

Brooke also did track for BYU competed in some tri-thons, which we went and saw. I remember. Then she had some bball tourney in Washington? ORegon? I dont know I just remember taking our 15 passenger van to this. Funny the details that come up when I think about Brooke. Random things. As she is eight years older...and my memories of her are random, but I could tell you oobers of stories of her now. How about when she and I got 22 seconds in the saw wood cutting competition. Or how we flipped on the tube at lava..or did I already tell that story..and how brooke nearly drowned because her feet could not find the bottom. HOw bout how she planned a huge bday party for me at jons, purchased all the food, AND organized surprises too, hung up pictures of me and julie (blown up for the small eye) and invited tons of other souls to come join in the fun. Did I tell you how I asked her to come to colorado with me and she and I drove her brand new BMW (it doesnt matter that it is a BMW, but that she was so excited to go)
Im not sure how much I LOVE this picture of us. But this is in Vail, COlorado where I went to nanny for my triplet boys (they arent mine..but ..you know) We went to a night show of skiiers and fireworks which was cold and fun, and the triplets didnt love the fireworks. Brooke went skiing in Vail and had a great time! I played with 2 year olds did stuff like painting, other stuff, and had a great time!

Back to Brooke's life. Sometimes I feel like we could be on a reality show. Just the ongoing saga of dating life. It should happen. I would watch it. Admit it, you probably would too, because you know me, and it would be sweet to know somebody on tv. So you would watch it and have big parties with chips and salsa. I thought I was going back to Brookes life, then I started talking about us on a reality show. Anyway. WE drove to Lava and basically consumed two bags of delicious popcorn all to ourselves. K this popcorn is delish because it is coated in white chocolate and other stuff which I do not know, that makes you addicted. OH my mouth is trickling saliva thinking about it. We stopped at wendys. We went to the bathroom. When we were walking out we heard one worker at wendys say to the other, "did you guys fill out the application to Wal-mart too?" -a combined yes from all the other employees rung out in the air. Brooke and I looked at each other and burst into jokes and laughter. "as if they applied to Walmart and got denied." This was their second option. Oh goodness.

Brooke seems to be the one I call for everything now. She also has supported me in every decision I choose to make, and has helped me through some tough times. (k i know thats like...ya ive been through tough times...blah blah..but really) she really has been there for me. I wont see this dear sister of mine for over a month because she left on a busy trip (business: abv: busy) on sunday. Welp I will see her again though, so no frets.

I want to make this post everything and more for all of you to read about her. She is incredible, and forgets her life for serving others. (like my bday) Running and doing things for everybody. I cannot even ask for a better second mom. I cannot take up enough room on this blog to explain brooke, freak I cannot even write a book that explains her. Maybe a dictionary of all her 4-syllable words. Maybe I could get windex to donate a lifetime supply to her so she can keep the fingerprints that she hates so much off of her black microwave and stove and fridge handles. Maybe I can get somebody to give her lemon injections in order to suffice her addiction to lemon products. Or lets talk about how every once in awhile I give her a shot in the bum of B-12 and she is paranoid about bubbles killing her. I am too.

Day fourteen. Meet Tosha.

Tosha. Tosha P. Thats what grandpa calls her. I dont think she likes it. My friend was over to my house when I was younger. Junior high I believe and she said...'oh Tosha and Hannah are twins right? Because I cannot tell them apart.' Never in my life have I ever thought they look even remotely similar. But..I guess thats your call. So Tosha is a bit reserved, but still not afraid to speak out. I wouldnt say she needs to be the center of attention ever..but she can be. She is married to Lance Arnout and they have a pretty little 19th month old Remi. (whos full name is NOT remington)
This is right after I went down the river with Remi and Tosha. Remi screamed while Tosha laughed and continued to tell her it was okay. But...She wanted Lance as soon as we got off the river and Tosh traumatized her. Seriously.

Lets not waste time. StorY: Tosha modeled in high school. So did Brooke and Hannah, but tosh took it a step further and went on some trips. She is 5'10 blonde skinny as HECK and (but not too skinny) and probably 130. 130 pounds. Not old. She is like 26? No 27. Yes 27 years old.
Story 2:TOsha speaks Spanish bueno. como? she served in equador. por qué? On a mission. Can you tell I have been working on my spanish!?? No I havent been like I should be. But I try. I keep eating sixlets. IM going to be sick.
Story 3: Tosha came home very sick from her mission. With parasites. She actually came home a month earlier but didnt get an honorable release because she came home early, but completed the full mission! YAY! But she apparently spent the last month of her mission throwing up..and other stuff at the mission home. Then enough was enough and she came home to do all that. Now..it was bad. She had eCOLI and well..she layed in bed while she asked me to read her scriptures to her in Spanish. I really mutilated it. And she was correcting me every other word. Then I would just give up and just go with however I felt like pronouncing..which led her to just laugh hysterically at me. It was not successful that Spanish reading. Then I do recall her crawling to the closet. Then saying, Brit can you come in here? I walk in and she needed me to dress her. She was sicker than sicky. She couldnt walk around much and had to basically lay in bed all day. She did eventually go to a blood doctor, get things sorted out, and welp now we have Lance and Remi to watch her. :)

Story again: Remi, her daughter..is ALWAYS saying 'mama' mama' Well that means that is what I listen to for hours on end when Tosha is trying to finish school at BYU. In Home and family. NO in Neuroscience. Yah. Neuroscience. Gross...I mean Awesome. So here is a pic of Tosh...what she looks like ALL the time. Unless Remi is napping.
Tosha's new model shot.

Well Tosha lives in Midway now and Lance is a drug rep. Yep he sells drugs. ALl the time. Everyday. Tosha will never turn anyone away for a meal or a place to stay. Here is the deal though. If you ever plan on staying there...be prepared for the extreme. Ill tell you. THey have either complete JUNK food (lance) or complete HEALTHY food. LIke all organic no wheat no glucose no GNI no R40 Or blue 24. Okay so IM making that up. But its true, TOsh is so healthy all the time! Well she does eat hamburgers every once in awhile she admitted to me once on a trip to state track. SHe said, "Brit just be okay with A&W (lance and tanner's choice) sometimes I just eat like crap on road trips because they wont go anywhere healthy, you just have to okay brit?" as I was near tears because I dont love greasy foods. JK about the tears, but I was angered.

Tosha and I have became a lot closer since she moved here from Arizona. I love going up to her house and just hanging out, the relaxed do anything or whatever atmosphere is so wonderful. People just all need to calm down and talk for 3 hours because running around doing errands and important stuff is boring and creates no memories. Agree with me? did you agree? I hope so.

I love Tosha and her skinny (lets add white) legs. And her no bum, which I will inform you, she has been working on and it no longer indents. Serious, it doesnt anymore. I just thought of quite a humorous story. I can make it short. Ill do that.
Tosh was going down the slide at my birthday party. She lost her top. Her ..whats the scientific word for upper top growth? Well it fell out of her swim suit. TOsh dont kill me for telling this story. And brooke dont kill me for what I am about to say next. Brooke said to me later as we were talking about it, "Tosha has nice looking boobs" OH my gosh Brooke. HAHHAAHAHA I hope NOBODY reads this far down today. WOwzer I am PG-13. But I trust that nobody is CTRL F-ing this page for the word b**b. OH and disregard that I just said F-ing. Its not like it sounds. OH my gosh I am so bad. I am done. HEre is a pic which I stole from Brookes facebook to show you of TOsh right before...she had that swimsuit mess up her life. (just Lance and brooke saw, no worries) And if any of you are seriously offended by this story. I wont take it off. Unless it is Brooke, or TOsha, then I will think about it for a little while, then feel bad then when I get back from Peru I MIGHT take it off. (the story, I know we are talking about clothes coming off, but Im not)


Tosha is pretty isnt she? Well just know that she is one of my 7 sisters. And I like her. A lot. I would say love, but thats cliche and cheezy right now. But I do love her, and her family and Oh my hecko I just thought of something else. One time/all the time I call tosha and ask her what scripture it is that talks about (choose any subject) and she knows it. She knows the exact scripture. Always and can recite it back to you. ANd no her mission did not do that for her, she was like that before.
GOsh. Meet Tosha. You can call her Tosha P. I think its funny when Grampy does it.

Day thirteen! Meet Hannah.

if you hate this picture hannah. dont tell me. cuz then ill feel like something is wrong with me because i think it is cute.
i was sweaty, hannah was happy. Molly was fearing for her life as a ball was rolling towards her. Great combo for a picture at this place which i seriously just forgot the name. OH! JUmp on it! DUh.
when looking at this picture I almost forget that this post is about hannah. I want to talk about how good I did in getting this moment. But I wont. Ill talk about how beautiful Hannah is, and how adorable her baby is. And I will tell you what an awesome mama she is. Sacrifices all over the place. (that sounded kinda....gorey. Its not)
When I see this picture I want to show you the video of the fireworks at stadium of fire. Or how hannah almost paid 20 dollars for a glowing cup with stadium of fire on it for Maddie. Then I talked her out of it. THank goodness or she would be out 20 bucks and have a cup that didnt blink lights anymore. (due to the battery dying..or something worse)

Hannah. Hannah bo bannah..fee fie fo fannah. Hannah. Her name is perfect for that song. Brief on Hannah: she hates mice. Really bad. Her name spelled backwards is hannaH. She has two beautiful little girls. Maddie. And Molly.
Maddie. She was wearing an extreme shirt. Due to her dad's extreme's sports.
Smile Molly, because you are sitting on a 200 year old couch made outta horse hair.

Hannah is married to a very extreme man. Jeremy, whom we like to call J. they are married, and this is a stolen picture. but you were never going to see the wherd side of them had I not stolen it.
Although this picture portrays him as everything BUT extreme. He is. Her husband is extreme because he wakeboards and does flips and jumps and stuff, and he snowboards (i have seen the snowboarding skills, I can do same things on skis. Lie.) OKay so J is the nicest man alive. Stories to follow. J is at dental school about to start? has started? his very last year there. Where? In owings mills, MD. And if you want to see the full extent of their lives.Visit their MMHJMB (molly, maddie, hannah, jeremy maryland blog) not to be confused with jeremyandhannah.blogspot.com..that is somebody completely different. but interesting. So they live in MD. And I visited them. And I just want to tell a few stories about my visits.
Number one visit: Hannah only had one child. It was back in 2006. Maddie stayed with J. Hannah and I got on the Metro. We are (still) young and beautiful so of course we were hit on. Hit on..meaning: opposite sex (nowadays it could be same sex and it would be normal, not good but normal..so I guess my def. of 'hit on' is a bit inaccurate) pressing interest towards the certain someone (s) in order to get gain. (gain meaning...maybe a kiss, or a hug, or heck a hang out all day) So we went on the metro. A man with gold teeth. A black man. A very scary man. Whom we could not even understand due to his MD lingo. He was 'hitting' on us. He asked if we were single. Hannah informed him that she was married. He informed us that that did not bother him. As he had been with many 'married' women. I informed him I was 'taken' as I quickly slipped my CTR ring on my married finger. Like he even knew what CTR or MARRIAGE even was. He asked us if he could 'chill' with us for the day. Ummm...."oh sure come on along" NO! what were we going to do. Hannah and I kept scooting closer together as if that would offer protection. Then luckily and an answer to our fleeting prayers (fleeting because we were TRYING to avoid convo with him and more so have a convo with God to just help us) the other bros and homies on the bus told him to leave us alone. He wouldnt really. So they kept saying, dude (I dont believe that was one of their words but its the only one I can think of) leave them alone. Stop talking to them. WElp he got off at the next stop. Wheph I didnt want to spend my day with him with the gold teeth. He was random.

So story two:Hannah's meals. This one goes both ways. FIrst visit and second visit. She just makes the best freakin food in the world. And we had a tea party for the little girls which I dont know if you even want to compete with hannah's cuteness. .

Hannah planned this, decorated this and created so many happy children due to her loveliness.
So story three: The fox. Jogging. We were jogging on this trail in a park in Maryland May 2008. Oh I said, look a fox. Hannah freaked. Ha...well this is what I mean by freak. "lets turn around. Scary, what if it has rabies. What if it jumps on the stroller and eats Maddie. What if it jumps on my leg bites me and gives me rabies" As I was picturing all these things. I was picturing me just standing there watching. NO I was picturing me jumping in front of the rabid fox and saving Hannahs leg. Meanwhile as I was rolling with this 2 foot fox...No... I wasnt picturing this. Harmless fox. Very cautious mother. Its okay. Emily was with us too. She was .. probably scared too. We turned around. WE did the trail again. Short version. Oh goodness.
Story four: this trip is where I lost my camera. What does that have to do with Hannah..um she felt really bad for me and I was kinda mean to her on the phone. Sorry Hannah. No excuse to be mean to you.

Okay so those were some sum (same word, different meaning, different spelling, fun to say simultaneously) up stories of my visits. But Hannah is so much more than those stories in which I just told you. She is scared of mouses, mice and rodents. One occurance that is very vivid in my mind (i always say that..i need to come up with something new) is when we were in the old kitchen. Which is now transformed into a locker room with a sink. But our house transformations is not on subject here. So Hannah..saw a mouse. began to scream then leaped/jumped/did an amazing feat and landed on the kitchen table..which rocked due to her weight (not that she was over-weight) and it rocked and I stood there not sure if I was scared or not. But eventually I think hannah's fear osmosised over into me. So now IM scared of them. Great. But IM not scared like hyperfreak out scared, need to call 911 scared. Im just scared.

So Hannah is OCD about organization. Everytime she comes home she just cleans and organizes..such random things. The drawer under my mom's phone and microwave. Which drives her mad because its just my mom's throw in drawer, which everyone needs, but apparently in hannah's house everything has a place. Not apparently. It does.

Hannah loves to sew. SO much that she sews bags. Sews and sews them. And they are lovely. I own a black one. My friend owns a custom made huge one. Which she loves. And hannah can cook, sew bags, and organize. Who needs Martha Stewart when they have hannah? (Sidenote: Martha and hannah have a lot in common, except the jailtime.)

I DO have more personal stories. But without the written consent of Hannah I forbid to post them. Why? Well She lives in maryland and it would be way too much work to get her to mail/fax me the consent. And..they involve things that are personal for me as well. But if you want to read a very interesting pee story. scroll down to where you see brittany. I really didnt want to post it on my blog. just for the hope less people would read it. P. With or without ME.

Let me tell you about Hannah's personality. Now remember this is my perspective..so do NOT try to correct what I perceive my lovely sister as.! (the period then the ! means I put a little umph after my sentence. But didnt want to make it a yelling sentence.) Hannah will also accommodate her needs and schedule to make you a happier person. Hence clean all night for mom before activities and let her kids be watched by random siblings in order to help mom. Another quality I love about her is her desire to do what is right. If something is not right. It will not go past hannah. She will make it right, choose the right, or inform the person that it is not right.

I think Maryland has helped her see the world and help her make her decisions about what is right and wrong. I know she will raise her family in an environment that is good and choose the rightey (sorry but thats what came to my mind. so i typed it) no matter what her location. SHe is outspoken and will not associate herself with ANY bad. Which is very respectable. Speaking of family. Look below to see them for yourself.

This is another stolen pic. I do not frequently steal. Except over the internet. Its easy to steal. And not bad.

One other thing Maryland has done to my sister is make her appreciate her home. Her family. Her parents. Her husbands parents. Utah. Standrod. Farms. No traffic. No stop signs. No traffic lights. No creeepy people (three e's to show you how creepy people can be) No malls/stores to spend your money at. No play groups, so you make your own fun with what you have. No TV. Mormons. The gospel. Me. Duh I was going to say me...this is my post and my blog so I can say whatever I want. (OH that brings up another topic. Hannah is sassy.) (oh my i just remembered a story. Ill share it in a few sentences) So hannah loves her brothers and sisters and cares a LOT about them. In fact she just called me and was worried about me going to Peru. Ligit worry. (spelling...who cares) I love her concern for me. And she is always praying for somebody, she is always thinking about others needs before her own. She is my sister.

Story. Setting: Boise Idaho. Why there?: Hannah's senior bball year. They made it to state. Stuff: I really DISLIKE..cuz i dont say hate (thanks dad) starting a story with 'so' but I do it everytime..then delete it. And I bet there are probably ten or MORE 'so's' in this freakin post. I do LOVE saying freakin. And I dont like 'anyway' either. I gotta expand my vocabulary. Gosh. So ..oh my heck i did that without even thinking. TO BEGIN my story. THere. To begin my story of hannah at state bball. I believe it was the game for 3rd place. It was being played. There was very very very little to none time left (obviously there was some time left so scratch none). I was in charge of video-taping this game. (I just had a guilty feeling in my stomach. no joke) I was plugged in under our basket. Videoing. This is in my head so clear. The pictures. What happened. The feelings of anger towards me after this occurance. I was taping. Hannah had fouled out. I believe (This is my memory..so I didnt really do research..so you are (scratch so) getting the story from my very head). There was seconds left. Other teams ball. We were down by one. Other team were dribbling slowly down to their basket. Pointgaurd passed ball to teammate (other team) Trisha (our team) stole the ball and PAUSE this is where I got really excited about what just happened. Trish stealing the ball, and I actually jumped with excite in my body, and in the process of jumping I DROPPED the camera and threw my arms up in the air for joy. UNPAUSE she stole the ball and made a layin (which is a basket. which means two points. Which means we were ahead by one point now) Now the buzzer went off. This means we won!! But...as Hannah watched the game to evaluate it (maybe she has a bit of dad in her in the overanalyzing games..see post below) she noticed that I had missed the MOST important part of the game. The layin. Oh shoot. She was mad at me. I dont remember the words that were spoken, but I do remember her face of disgust with me. I doo remember crying about it and being very sorry. I completely ruined her senior bball year. (As if getting third place at state could affect her anger..i wish it could have) Well she probably doesnt even CARE now. And I only remember that story because I messed up and learned to not EVER make that mistake again. But..Hannah dont feel bad you were young and didnt realize that I didnt miss the most important parts. That shot won the game..but what about all the other shots that I didnt miss!! I hope that story wasnt more about me than her. And I hope that she doesnt feel bad when reading this thinking I still have this anger towards her for this. I just wanted everyone to know..she won third..hahaha. NO im serious. No im not.

Hannah doesnt know this, but whenever I need advice I usually just think of a reason that seems reasonable to call her like...whats your address? for the millionth time. But really..Im calling to get advice or just talk to her. I could talk to her for days and hours and why? Because she TRULY cares and gives her opinion and doesnt give the general answers. (not that my other sisters do, but I feel like she is always on my side with everything) Mainly I make sure when she is here we have lots of talk time. I love spending time with her and her family. She honestly stresses way too much about the good-well being of me and my siblings, while she has enough on her plate. I cannot imagine how I would get through without her chest (I would say shoulder, but I dont think i have ever cried on her shoulder) to cry on. She is so sincerly in love with all of her siblings and would give and do anything to and for them. Hannah is my sister. Sassy? Yah probably. But it gets her around, and she is a good mama. So let her be sassy, its who she is. (Sassy is not bad ps. I like it when people call me sassy. It means you stand up for what you believe and you have a spunk about you. NOt like the madonna sassy.) OH and I said 'so' up there. Scratch that.

Day twelve. Meet Tanner.

so not the highest quality picture..but it shows his talls. (how tall he is) and i was tiptoeing. at least i think i was.
Tanner and his 'fiance' at the time. Read below for details on her. she is a treat. And he hearts her. ps..they did get married. pps. we were at a jazz game.
Faith is such a cute newborn. Especially in her blessing dress. Tanner was playing ball. I probably said, hey tanner, come get in this pic. He probably didnt want to. I probably made him. I believe it took us a few tries to actually get a smile from Tanner. Yes yes it did.

He is really nice to old ladies. And I pulled this pic from the archives. She is probably saying,"wow you got so tall, last time I saw you you were this tall. and chubbier."

Tanner. Brian Tanner Hansen. Brian comes from my dad. Well technically it COMES from my nana whom named my dad. besides the point. So its late!!! And im sure you are asking yourself..Brittany H. What took you so freakin long to post today..I was on the edge of my seat just checking your blog every five mintues! Then I almost called you to see why in the world you hadnt posted yet. To make sure everything was okay. Well the truth is...my computer is very SLOW. I know not 12 hours slow..but! I am apologizing for the slowness, and if any of you want your money back...whatever I need your money. I leave for peru on Thursday morning. GOsh this is about Tanner. I get so selfish sometimes. Tanner. I believe he is 24. He is attending BYU studying (ag business) which I think...is way cool. Cool like AJ (summers hubby). See post below. K my computer is seriously struggling. Typing is not okay. every other word (i feel like) my dearest computer will stop and freeze. Lameness. This could hinder tanners post. If it already hasnt. Gosho. SO. Tanner. I have a few very vivid memories of Tanner.

He plays basketball. really well. He can and will dunk it in your face. He is really tall. 6'5'' He married Amanda who is really ..short.. k amanda you are...just deal with the fact. But she is cute. Too cute for Tanner :) tanner im kidding. she is pregnant!! shout out to amanda and her cute belly. Gosh I was thinking Im going to have to do a post about all my nieces and nephews..oh wait i have no nephews. But and for my bro and sis in laws. Back to tanner and bball. So in highschool at a home game. I was in eighth grade. Tanner was a senior. He fell. Some stuff happened to his knee. Sorry i dont know details. remember how I just pull stuff from my head to make it more natural. i dont do research, thats boring. I guess. This is more natural. So Tanner tore something bad. I remember standing up with the crowd. ANd I remember Tanner's face squinched in pain. My big invincible brother was in serious pain. My little heart just hurt. I remember that. I remember on the way home. He sat in the seat in the van. 15 passenger. Propped up and sideways. I sat behind him. it was dark. I dont remember if he was crying or not. But if he was it was in secret as my dad over analyzed what happened over and over again. I dont think my dad reads my blog. So.. ha! He will not be offended that I said that. But dad..if you do read. . I dont mean that you did not analyze without purpose. You do it so you can figure it out in your own head. I know this. Dont worry. so Tanner. I watched him as he said goodbye to his senior bball season. ON that car ride home to Standrod. I remember hurting so bad inside for him. (I was 14 really emotional and vibrant) I cried for him on that ride home. then probably felt awkward when I thought about it the next day. Because if you knew tanner and I's relationship.....well ya. About that relationship. Storytime.

We fought. Constantly. I was younger he was the older brother he had to tease right? I guess. On the way home from church one sunday. we were about a 3/4 mile away from home. Him and I were fighting about something. Mom tanner did this! Mom tanner keeps pulling faces at me and I HATE HIM!! well I am pretty sure my dad hates the word hate. So now I try to say dislike unless I really despise something. So my dad slammed on his brakes. I thought. Oh no. He said, "Get out" Me I was thinking he meant Tanner so Tanner got out. He said, "You too brit." I thought..uh Im an innocent Girl. He said, "you babies and kiss and make up on the walk home" I really had this really angry feeling towards tanner and my dad. I got out. Tanner walked home. I stayed in the woods. My dad came back for me. I was mad at him so I did come out of the woods. He eventually left. My mom came back. I wouldnt get in the car. So I rode on the outside. On the dirt road. On the way home. Welp you are probably thinking..wow brit that is your best memory of tanner. Horrid. Ha. well kinda. I also remember some other details.

He made fun of me cuz I wore a 'training bra' in fourth grade. when I was flat as a plain in Arkansas. (they have plains right) Now..well we can talk later how that training bra worked. if you even read this far down. Im sorry.
Okay..thats probably all I wanna tell about unhappy stuff. but..it did create this bond.

next story. We were driving home from school one night. I was in eighth grade, he was a senior. And we ran out of fuel in the Dodge. we were probably 4 miles? Anyway, so I have crap shoes on. great! So tanner tells me to stay in the truck (it was still light or I would NOT have done this in the middle of nowhere) and he puts on a coat and I still remember him not telling me what he was doing or saying nothing but.. stay here. I also can remember his driver side door slamming, watching him take a deep breath and then starting to jog away down the long long straight road. dirt. Then I sit. I two way radio every couple of minutes to see if somebody at home (no cell service) will walk through the ONE room that the radio sits in. nobody ever heard. An hour or more goes by. Then I remember someone coming to get me. Other details happened.
Tanner's personality is very...extraordinary. he makes me laugh a lot. I cannot even explain it. He and his cousin whom is my cousin as well. They get together and get talking in this voices that resemble borat.. And oh my hack. Hack is like heck but more....umph. Tanner also threw the discus. Far. I remember. He served in Minnesota/Wisconsin speaking Hmong. 6'5'' Blonde with 3 foot Asians. Ironically funny. The language is very difficult and he mastered it. He loves his mission president very much. He brought me back a wisconsin sweater. I love it. I wear it still.

tanner treats his wife Amanda very well with humor and love. Tanner I know will be a great father...a bit funny and I cannot WAIT to see his child and see his face when he sees his baby. oh my heck I almost began to tear up.
So I know Tanner has a great testimony of the gospel and he also would do anything for his family members. Anytime I ask him a favor he more than willingly does it without questioning why or why can someone else not do it. i love that quality in him. He also is very good with plants and ag stuff. business ideas in his head all the time. If I need advice about cars...or something that takes intelligence beyond my own I usually call tanner. I love having him as a brother. I have so much respect for his choice to live the gospel and marry in the temple. He also is a very good chef, and Amanda and him together love cooking. which is great. Because amanda doesnt play a nick of bball intensely like tanner does.

HA! Funny story. I lived with Tanner and Amanda and i was sitting on the couch one day talking about how we were going to play on a city league basketball team and I said looking at Amanda, we are trying to get a team together with good athletes who can meet some standards of playing level, and I said, Amanda you could play. And Tanner said, "what are your standards?, being able to walk and dribble isnt a standard" And I said, Amanda can dribble. And he kinda was quiet, then he said, "ya Amanda can be on your team if you dont care about winning." HA! what a good sport amanda is.. she just took it and nodded and said, "ill come and watch" And she did..thanks amanda :)
This talking reminds me of another quite vivid item of convo. Tanner and I were at costco and I was picking out my first phone. CELLY. I was 17 fresh outta highschoool. I wanted a PINK razor. Tanner said, "No brit, all the girls who have those have this attitude." I said, what? no I want one. He said, If you get one I will not talk to you.. Then he said.."If I saw a girl, met her, saw she had a pink razor, I would stop talking to her, and never talk to her again, even if i was supposed to marry her. I wouldnt. If she had a pink razor. Okay fine I said. Fine! Wont get one then!
One year and some later. Tanner met Amanda. Who was 18. Who had that attitude about her. He met her. Saw her pink razor. Lied to me. And still married her. obviously the pink razor did not matter that much to you Tanner. You just didnt want boys to like me for my razor. (phone not blades, duh)

Did I mention tanner had a fro.
Something bad just happened. I lost half my post. GREEETTT. mad brittany. Whatever I dont get mad.
Brittany redid post. took forever. Gosho. K. If you dont know tanner. You should sit and talk to him. And then you will know him. And then due to his type, he will probably get your phone number and help you with your car, or help you do something. Only if he likes you though. tanner is my brother. And dont you forget it. I love him. So does my mom. And dad. Oh and all the others...like all 20 of them. Even maddie my niece. She loves him too. he throws her. She giggles. Tanner is a nice uncle and soon to be dad. Watch out Parenting Magazine. Tanner is subscribing.

Day eleven. Meet Summer.

doesnt she just look creative??? oh man she is.
so for awhile summer, echo and i had this disease, called...take tons of pics together.
state basketball. summer obviously is so beautiful.

Sum bum. Summer Sariah. Sum. The sum of summer is fantastic. Oh gosh!! Summer its your turn!! Are you excited!! ahhhhhh!!! what am I going to say???? i have no idea yet. I never even think about it. I just write. Yesterday I was told by Brooke that it 'took forever' to get my post up. (2pm) So here I am at 8ish AM posting. For all those die hards. Brooke's asleep..PS.. anyway. Summer. well she has a blog which you know Im posting. sumbums blog Yep. Read her post about farming. I thought it humorous. (and summer, never ever compare yourself to me and my posting capabilities)

So some very important key things about summer that you need to know:
She is more creative than you. Ha no but really. She is extremely creative. If any of you ever saw anything I have made. times that by a trillion in quality and..summer made it.
This is a pile of pop obviously. That word is pop. As in soda pop. Duh. So AJ(her hubby) loves mDew and other stuff..and golf. More than he loves summer. JK. Joke aj. She made this for him..anniversary.

Another bullet point about sum. She cant say no. HA! So basically if her life is complete havic and chaos (ps havic is not really a word and im too lazy to check on dictionary.com right now) then she will STILL say YES to that person who needs something done!! A lady asked her to draw the mormon trail for primary and this was the outcome. What the? And if you want to hear how she spent FIVE hours on this. You can. On her blog.


So she is creative (which you havent even seen her real creativity at ALL!) and really nice and will DO anything for anyone! So let me give you some life history on summer. She was a senior when I was a freshman. Stories to come. She then went to SVU southern Virginia University. Which is basically a really drastic version of BYU, rules more strict and such. She told me she had her hair braided with like extentions, which she probably did herself. Shpill on her for a second: she can braid corn rows anything you want..sideways..also she can put extensions in. She did blue ones for my state track one year. Just pieces not my whole head that would have KILLEd. Too heavy. So back to SVU. She braided her hair. They told her she had to take it out. Too radical. Put your bonnet back on they told her. Seriously. She played basketball there. Which I heard she loved...right summer? HA. talk to her about that experience. No..she met a lot of great people and has made many friends from it. My home teacher actually here in provo told me he went there, and i was like..oh my sister went there. He knew her. I talked to summer about him. She said, "oh he dated the pointgaurd on my bball team, she was a *bad word*. No summer didnt say a swear, she just called her a name i think..and i REFUSE to put words like retard, jerkface, idiot, on my blog. I wont. I refuse. So. Summer SVU. She also did track there. Hepathlete or something strange like that. Okay so you want a story?
Story:so i keep thinking back to when we were in highschool and the memory that keeps coming to my mind is how summer and I got in a car accident. And I really DiDnt want to tell that story, because I feel like everyone has heard it. Heard how we bonded and I cried. but maybe if I get that one outta me, more will come. Ohp, one just came. OKay so wreck first. lets start with landon, and how he sorta blamed himself. he wanted to drive Tosha's Yukon which is a purple tint because she was in college and it was cool I guess. He wanted to drive it to school that day. Summer and I stayed after the game or something my memory fails me (i feel like thats what old people say in books) and then my family all left in our van (15passenger) after the game. Summer and I stayed to the dance. So we got in the car. summer used her blocky nokia phone that had snake the game on it. which im pretty sure i held the high score.35 minute drives to school provided that opportunity for me. She called my parents (requirement) and said, we are on our way home. So i put my seatbelt on and slouched in my seat attempting to fall asleep. We arrived at the place called the GEOthermal. which has alligator pits. no allies though. We hit some washboards. Summer hit her brakes. I hit the dash with my hands. Summer and I began to fishtail what I like to call violently. I was getting thrown against the door then towards Summer again it was so violent. Then it happened. Summer swore a couple times. I clearly remember her saying, DAD IS GOING TO KILL ME. Then the real fun began. We spun around and going backwards we slid on the drivers side like car tipped on its side. Windows broke. And it was sorta slow mo. I remember thinking..oh summer doesnt have her seatbelt on. As if that thought can exist in full range while we crashed in a 5 second time period. AS i thought this I had this very STRONG urge for her to be near me. So I reached over and grabbed her arm. I dont remember seeing anything. I just remember feeling her arm clenched in my hands and feeling better. She told me afterwards that she was going out. then my hands came. I wanna see a replay to see if I really did keep her from suffering greater injuries though. Then we landed standing up. Glass was everywhere. I couldnt feel any pain at all. Summer said, "we gotta get outta the car." Fearing it would blow. I know thats what she was thinking, because thats exactly what I was thinking. You know like the movies. Remember this is in December. I brought no coat. I dont remember what shoes I was wearing but they probably werent that good. I hAVE NO idea what I was wearing but I remember what she was wearing exactly. Because...I remember looking at it in the laundry room in the process of trying to get blood out. Oh shoot I gave it away..that summer was injured. So she said, "brit I cant open my door." Due to being smashed. We climbed out my door. We looked around found a blanket that had been thrown out. I wasnt cold. (shock) I still see all the glass and purple pieces of the car and ALL the contents of the car scattered across the small skiff of snow and yellow grass and gravel. Oh great this story is making this post last forever. If you have made it this far, you are probably only Brooke, Mom or summer herself. So lets finish this. As I remember. We had no cell service. We had to walk somewhere. Or in our case..run. Summer was bleeding. I dont know who noticed it first. But it was on her back and her pants and shirt were soaked. 20x pants. Gap shirt 3/4 sleeves with flowers. She had me look at it. She said, "how bad is it" I saw lots of hamburger skin and rocks. and glass. I said, oh ...its not that bad. gross. Then we ran. We ran till we had bars. Service bars. SUmmer called home. I was bawling. Sobbing. Summer was hugging me. She wasnt bawling. Then mom answered. Summer didnt even want to go there. "can i talk to dad," she said calmly. Dad answered and said, "is anybody hurt" (obviously he knew something was wrong he told me about 2 months ago, why else would we call again 20 minutes later) Summer said, no, but brit wont stop crying. (thanks summer) Dad gave us instructions. Then we ran back (seriously running holding on to each other in the cold on these dirt roads at one in the morn) We started cleaning up. it was tanners farewell the next day so they brought two cars to get us. the details dont matter. But you better believe dad and the brothers and bro in laws had to evaluate what happened completely from our tracks and such. i remember tanners farewell. I was in shock. I sat on the stage and watched all the people like...wow im alive. Okay. So that story was long I know and Im sorry.
Story 2: (you are probably scared this is going to be long..dont be) Summer and track practice. She would just wear those spandex tights. which was fine. I wore them too. but I wore shorts over them to hide the curves and sweat and creases in the butt and front region. Summer didnt wear shorts. She just wore the silky tights. So this is a story to demonstrate how summer just doesnt care. She had long lean sexy legs that I never had, so flaunt it right? maybe thats why she kissed a boy, then I kissed him too. then my best friend kissed him. (small town, small school, not many options)

Summer is so talented. I cant let that escape my head. She is super athletic. She used to make amazing beaded flowers that would go on your bracelets of beads or something. She had huge kits. She can draw anything. She can oil paint anything. She applied to BYU's art program. Then had to leave..due to marriage. She now lives in Oakley Idaho while her husband who just graduated in ag business is being a farmer. And summer now coaches volleyball for Oakley girls. Whom are Raft river (my school) 's rivals. first game. Sally my sister (see below) against Summer (rival coach) who is also my sister. You know Ill be there. Are you coming? you should. Summer also used to do something when she was little. (BEFORE I EXISTED i just have heard about it) she used to pass out. My mom took the little stink to the doc. they didnt know. So my mom figured out that summer would get mad and hold her breath. Okay summer you could have been genius had you not killed all those brain cells.
I thought of another story. Oh goody you are thinking. Dont worry its short.
we used to stack hay. As I mentioned in Lando's post. HA!! Summer came one day, or a couple days, im not sure. but she took Sallys semi, due to sally having a bday. Nope that was me that had to stack hay on my birthday. Dont worry im not bitter It just makes a really good pity party. Anyway. summer had to go through a fence. So fence post here..........then another one here to get into the field. Fence post here....gone after sum went through. Meaning she took it out with her semi trailer. which was nice for me. As I followed. Because I didnt have to worry about taking it out and also because she made more space. (thanks summer)
So if you (you being a sibling, or someone who knows her) feel like I have missed a story or a moment, or a saying...you need to write it. Even sum herself. Please add your side of the story. As with each sibling I could go on FOREVER. I could write a book about each one. Not kidding. So what I am trying to say is I really dont want to end with this post about Summer. I really dont. But I have to. So farewell. And just a n ironic piece of info. . . . you know that yukon of toshas we wrecked? we fixed it..and now summer owns it. funny. ha. laugh summer. you know you wannu.
oh do you see where it says I posted at like 4 pm..ya..thats because I had to run an errand and I got back here around two. now its four because my computer is being so slow...I read my book in between uploading pictures. And Im starved. And Im tired. and im done complaining. hope this post was all you ever dreamed of summer. Sorry it took me all freakin day. freak face. Im sorry. I love you like I posted it at 8am. Just pretend I did.

videos.

So I got pictures and documents and things from my old computer and i missed some very crucial videos of Ian and Lad. now I always say 'ignore my voice' but on this one...really ignore it. I dont know why I feel like I needed to get him slash force him to say i love you. This was a year and somemore months ago. easter time. He was eating all my candy. His voice is so cute. He talks more maturely now. we still called him baby at this point.


Ian. dancing to a wiggles song. Lad is the background. Me saying bad words like bum. And saying shake too.

Day ten. Meet Landon.

I caught him right before he was about to hurt Echo. Good distraction bRit.
Im his favorite sister. Dont tell. SHH.
he came home from that west indies mission and spoke beautiful french and still swished all over the place?? WHAAT did you serve a mission or just shoot hoops all day!?!?!??!
walked off the plane wearing these. hot.
so helpful. Chandler now gets hit on by all the 9 year old ladies due to this hair cut he recieved.
And jen, this is how you do this...this horse thing.

So...I am in between Landon and Sally. But...I am not a sibling of myself so I am not doing a post about myself..but I will tell you a few things of updated info. I leave for Peru on Thursday the 14th of August. Which is roughly 5 days. I am pretty intensely scared/excited/i dont know really what to feel, anxiety? Anyway. So I have exactly enough time to finish all my siblings before I leave. Except I leave at 6 in the morning on Thursday so I will probably post the last sibling late that night. As I have to be at teh airport around 4:30...AM i dont really want to wake up to post. We will see where my dedication lies though.
Anyway so here is landon.

Did I mention that Landon is always doing something like this. pouring water down my mom's back is only a small example of what he is capable of. Right before this landon was trying to tackle my mom, this is my mom giving in and just letting him do it because she couldnt move nor breathe in the grasp he had her in. but i missed that part. Im sorry. I wish you could have seen it. Of course he does have a nice side. :) So I grew up with Landon. He is just a couple months older than me. Like 15 or so. I have a couple of awesome memories with him. Lets see if first I can explain him.
He gets along with everyone. He makes everyone feel welcome. he will laugh and joke with complete strangers. When I say complete, I mean the lady that needs help getting groceries into her car, or the man next to us in line, or even the guy who sees landon pushing a cart full of toliet paper packages at costco and tells landon he has a problem. You see..Landon has always been easy going..sometimes a little much which causes me to be angry when we were frequently late. Anyway, Landon is a gem. Apparently he just got back from his mission where he was an exceptional missionary. Lad loves landon and lad spent his whole first 2 years right next to his side, now that Landon is home Lad is back at his side. Landon is a good brother. Story: We got home really late one night..like 2 am. Dad was mad. Really mad. It was my fault we got home so late. Dad went to tear into me. Landon took the blame. What a good brother. Love billowing for him after that. Landons football team won the state championship his senior year. I was a lucky cheerleader. Landon was the quarterback. When he was playing I would just assume he was going to be awesome, and he was. They never lost a game...all season. Not only did they never lose. But they mercy ruled just about every game. Which means once they got over 45 points. The game was over. If it was in the second half. And sometimes it wasnt so they had to keep playing. Ya they were good. Could have played a NFL team and probably won. Too bad the NFL is 11man, not 8man like us. Anyway, football. I mean landon. Landon is the best piggy back giver out there. For sure.
Story #2: Lunch buddies. Landon and I were lunch buddies. I think he was better at it than I. RIght before a little kid kicked a football into my face at lunchtime I was glancing over watching a group of about 30 girls (which was about half the gradeschool in Malta) were chasing landon. I then did not see Landon anymore but yet a huge pile of little girls. Landon was at the bottom. So girls are attracted to him, and he doesnt know how to repel them.
Story #3: Arm. Landon always used to give me horsey rides when we were little. Like really little. Like 4 years old. I dont know how I remember this, nobody videoed it or took a picture of it. and it is just a short conversation by our stairs in the old house. I was standing there and I said, "will you give me a horsey ride." He said, "No brit, (I dont think he has called me brittany in my life) I have a broken arm." He then held up his arm and showed me his cast. Thats all I remember. But its vivid.
Story #4 stacking hay. Not much to tell in this story, but that I would bring the load of hay from the field and he would stack it in the stackyard. He was in the volvo. A lot of long hot days. I didnt have AC. Sally did. I didnt have a radio. Sally did. AM I bitter still? Probably.
So if you want to learn how to become a nicer, friendlier, never hold grudges, somewhat of a temper person, learn from landon. He will teach you Im sure. After he talks to you all about your life for an hour. Heart goes out for Gear. (did I mention thats what people sometimes call him..i dont know why)

Day nine. Meet Sally.

so I stole this from Brookes archive of pics. But it does pinpoint sally. she can leap. she is a jumper (view my sally the jumper post) http://brittanyhansen.blogspot.com/2008/04/school-eye-tulips-and-sally-jumper.html
stick out those lips and smile sal. I can just hear sallys voice in regards to this pic, "I look sick" no you dont sally! you look like a model
well i look sick so hush
we were born with the same face basically.

Sally. Sal Pal. Sallster. Salamander. Ima (Shhh dont tell her i told you that is her nickname) (we put things after it..like Ima Dinkus) shhh! (but i really dont know why we called her that, because we were really just calling ourselves a dinkus)Sally Pearl is another one. She was born on Pearl Harbor Day. History lesson for all of you. Pearl Harbor Day is December 7. Sally is 17 and almost 18. She drives...if you want to call it that. Its more like a freakin safety course every time you ride with her. Sally go faster! Sally you could have ran that yellow light! Sally DONT wait for pedestrians! (jk jk JK) Anyway...Sally is an all around athlete. She... loves to play basketball, volleyball, do track and field, cross country, she even was on the dance team and cheer team with me at one point when I was a senior she was a freshman, she plays monopoly pretty good (remember sal that one time you won!) Oh ya Sal is another nick name for her. ANd I apologize but I already know Sally's is going to be a BOOK. So here is chapter one for you. Ha. Sorry. But she is my closest sister. Okay..so I could explain her but ill just write about her. in stories..
where to begin...well lets start with childhood. We loved barney. A lot. And If I had access to our infamous barney and baby bop picture I would put it up here to embarrass myself..and sally of course...but at least she wasnt barney. That was bad for me. Really bad. I was purple, and I hate purple. Anyway this is about Sal Pal (which is what I have her as in my phonebook in my celly) so..We loved Barney. And we had all the songs memorized. And I clearly remember I had a STRONG desire to be on Barney with Micheal. Tall handsome blonde boy. Truly. Sally probably did too. Dont lie Sally you did!
So Sally and I were friends when we were little but that did not discourage fighting. Brutal fighting. Very painful fighting. Let me tell you my mean streak and then Ill tell you Sallys. Sally had braces what I felt like was my entire life. 7 years? Something drastic like that. Anyway whenever she made us angered...I would hit her in the mouth. She would bleed really bad, and her lips were really puffy all the time. OH i feel so bad writing this...but she made me so mad! This was in our younger years when fighting is normal. But, Sally dear was not void of this meanhood. She loved to pull my hair. Hard. ANd kick me. Hard. So we fought and I think we still fought up until I matOUREd and got some sense that fighting did nothing. But I know the main reason of why we fought. I exaggerate...a lot. I will say..ya there was like 30 or 40 people there and Sally will say, NO there was 24.5 if you wanna count Lucy who is having a baby. And That bothered me so bad. She wouldnt let me tell a story to save my life. Is she still like this?? YEs to a degree. She knows her perfectionist self and so she is mellower. This was in our younger years. we have discussed this and know we drove each other mad.
Chapter 3..or is this 4 now..oh well.
High school days. Sally spent her sophmore year living with me in Provo while I went to college for my first year and she went to ALA. A charter school in Spanish Fork. This was really hard for her to be away from her mama and family and friends. I feel terrible that I wasnt more of her friend, but I feel like she really grew up in this time and became that athlete and woman she was trying to be. Sally is always MVP of everything. And did I mention her high ACT score. Trust me its high. triple digits. So she is smart too. Oh freak dont even get me started on her hair. She can go to bed with her hair WET, IN A TOWEL, and wake up pull the towel out, brush it once and have straight blonde hair to perfection. Gosh, lucky...
Now if there is one story you all need to know it will be this one. I hope I dont cry when writing it. ONe time I re-told it in Relief Society and just bawled. Gosh. Sal dont cry. Sally was a freshman in highschool and I was a Senior. It was track season. I was running four events at state track. Sally was in four events as well. Long jump, triple jump, 4X2 and 4X1 (i think) I was in the open 400, medley, 4X4, and the 4X2. The 400 was my favorite. The 4X4 was a very good race for us that year at state track. We had worked all year, and at districts we barely made it in the 4X4 by a chest throw, so I had passion for that race. Sally was long jumping on the first day of state track. She scratched out but in the process tore her hamstring. This is the muscle at the back of your thigh. Running was clearly going to be impossible for her. But she felt horrid about this torn hammy, so she made a mark in the triple and ran and jumped. She did well. She won. A gold medal for the limping sally. I was soooo happy for her!!! A gold at state track is a HUGE deal. ITs everyone (excuse me not everyone, everyone that is the best in the state) in your division (1A, 2A) competing for the gold. Everyone in the state! STate of Idaho. HUge deal. So kudos to Sal Pal. Then...I remember her trying to run in the field, as she knew her Senior sister was having her very last track meet and if sally didnt run in those relays, then her coach would have to put in an alternate who had no idea what they were doing, as they hadnt competed in this event ..ever..usually. So she was running on that blue turf. IF you want to call it running. She was trying to make her leg not hurt. She ran and then she would fall. Collapse more like. Grab her leg and then try again. Same thing. Come on sally, its not going to heal itself. So I saw this torture she was putting herself through and went down to the middle of this field. I said okay try a soft jog to me. She ran softly to me then tried to sprint. Then I caught her right before she collapsed and she began to sob (sob is a word for cry full of emotion) She cried right there in the middle of the field with all these athletes going to compete, and she was done competing. Because she could barely walk. I held her and began to cry too. Sally, I said, Sally you won the triple. You are done, you cannot run. She said, Dont tell Qualls Im not running the relays, Im running them. I said, No you are not, you cannot walk. She said, I know but then your 4X4 will be messed up. I said, Sally its a race, you are much more important to me then a race. It doesnt matter to me. She said, I dont want you to be mad at me. So Sally didnt run those relays. And I got the baton in last place at state track. I was crying before it was passed to me. I ended up getting second to last in the race. I left the race crying. I sat and cried and cried and cried while sally cried watching me telling everyone it was her fault her fault that we lost. (clearly it was not her fault) So we went home. We spoke hushed about it. A few days later Sally came into my room. She threw a state track sweater on my floor. I picked it up and saw that it had State Champion on the back of it. I said, Oh whoops Sally this one is yours, and as I reached for the blank sweater with no State Champion printed on it she pulled it away pointed to what I thought was her sweater and said, "Brit, that one is yours. You were a State Champion to me."
I spent the next few hours...sobbing.
I also remember another bonding moment with Sally. I was in Canada. I probably didnt talk to sally very much when I was a nanny, but I remember walking into the cottage and Kitty said, "your sister Sally called." I thought what? Nobody calls me here, and Sally doesnt really ever call me. So I went upstairs to call her back. My dad answered and informed me that my cousin had been killed. Sally was immediately put on the phone and we just cried to each other. I dont even think words were spoken. I said I love you then spent a sleepless night in Canada. Shortly after I was home and she met me to be picked up with my dad. Words dont really need to be spoken I guess.
So I could tell you more stories about Sally. But just know that this sister of mine is incredible at more than just being an athlete. I love her to death and we have this unspoken bond, that nobody sees from the surface..
please do not judge landon for this oddness. This is part of sally's athlete bit.