Adventures in Snipe Hunting
Posted by brittany | Filed under Uncategorized
I’ve decided to share this little tale, only because it is amusing to me and to the girls that came to girls’ camp this week. So every year, we take the first years snipe hunting. We convince the girls that snipes are like little pot guts with razor sharp teeth and claws. Our ultimate goal is to capture a snipe, and the only way to protect yourself from their venomous and painful bites, is to put toothpaste all over your face. The strong smell of minty toothpaste repels the snipes and makes it so they won’t bite you, (it also stings really bad when you smear it on your face). My first year of girls’ camp, I was so excited to catch a snipe for the first time! Unfortunately, that was not the case. The younger girls weren’t allowed to catch the snipes, they could just watch while the older girls caught them. I was so mad. But nonetheless, I journeyed through the pitch black night with a minty, burning face and a tummy full of butterflies. My favorite young woman, Brynne, let the hunt. She grabbed her pillowcase, and then after wading through waist-high weeds, she scooped up a snipe from the ground like a professional. I was shocked at her next comment, “Do you want to touch it?” Thousands of thoughts flooded my head. “Uhh, sure?” Then before I knew it, she was opening the pillowcase! I hesitantly put my head closer to the opening where the snipe lay. Then suddenly, without warning, she lunged at me!! I thought for sure that the snipe was going to jump out and tear my head off. I screamed so loud that it scared the girls beside me. We all joined in a huge blood-curdling scream, and next to me, the older girls were laughing! I could have hit ‘em! Why were they laughing when me and my friends almost died by venomous teeth sinking into our skin?! Then the truth came out: SNIPES DON’T EXIST. Well SHOOT, now I feel like an idiot!!
So anyway, that’s been the tradition for FOREVER. The older girls take the younger ones snipe hunting, scare the pants off of them, and then reveal to the terrified 12-year-olds that they’ve been pranked. 
It’s awesome.
Well, the main point I was trying to come to was the adventures that I’ve had in snipe hunting. You see, this was my first year that I was going to be able to lead the snipe hunt, and actually catch the snipe. I asked Taylor, a girl older than me to bring up the rear on the hunt, and to throw small rocks into the bushes in front of us (so they’d move and give the illusion of something in the bush).
So we set on our hunt. Flashlights off, and faces burning with toothpaste. I had my pillowcase in hand as we walked in the pitch black night. Suddenly, I had a brilliant idea. Well, sort of brilliant. I thought, “What’s the fun in scooping up the snipe? Wouldn’t it be more heart-pounding for the girls and fun for me if I tackled the snipe?” GENIUS. So, as we trudged through the bushes and weeds, I spotted a perfect spot in front of me. The bushes were really tall, and I thought I’d just leap into the bushes and come back up with a pillowcase enclosing a snipe! (really it was just a t-shirt that I had previously rolled up) So, I shushed the girls, and told them that we had found our snipe. I told them to stay back as I crept up to the bush. Then, I crouched down and held my pillowcase up, I jumped into the tangle of bushes. But, to my utter and horrific surprise, the bushes concealed a small cliff about 1-2 feet. I fell in a crouched position, only to land my knees on some hard, sharp rocks. A shockwave went through my leg and instantly, I felt a lot of pain. The strangled cries behind me of, “Brittany? Did you catch it?” “Are you okay?” “Did the snipe get you?”. I immediately let out an “Umm, guys? I need help.” Taylor looked at me from above. “Are you okay?” I responded, “No. I fell on my knees and it really hurts.” Purely on adrenaline, I shakily got to my feet and almost immediately fell over. I couldn’t even stand up! The girls went into, ‘emergency mode’ and picked me up from the ground. As I was being carried back to camp, we started laughing and joking about how funny I looked. Sure, it may have looked hilarious, but at the moment, my right knee hurt so bad that I couldn’t even bend it.
When we got back to camp, I was sat on the table while my first-aid certified, coolest life-guard on the planet lifted up my pant-leg. The girls around me yelled audible, “Ohhhh’s” and “Ewww’s” as my knee was revealed. There was blood coming all out of a puncture wound and a rug-burn looking scrape. But that’s not what hurt. It felt as though someone had grabbed my knee cap and twisted it. O-U-C-H.
After my life-guard Jourdan cleaned my wound and taped a gauze pad onto it, I went to bed. The next morning, my knee was so stiff that I couldn’t even bend it. We cleaned up camp, and I hobbled around like a lame duck. When we got home, I took the bandage off. The nasty looking wound was still bleeding and my knee had now bloomed into a beautiful bruise. Purple, red and speckled, it formed a C around part of my knee. Numerous bruises scattered around it, and it was clearly swollen. It was so pretty.
Well, now that I’ve described that tale to seem like I just escaped death, I’ll tell you that my knee is healing nicely. Hobbling around isn’t fun, especially when my knee remains un-bendable. The bruise is going away, except for that C shape. The bleeding has stopped and it just looks like a healing, disgusting wound. All in all, it was a good adventure. Taylor said I’ll go down into the Snipe Hunting Hall of Fame. 
Boredom and Forgetfulness
Posted by brittany | Filed under Uncategorized
As mentioned in past posts, you can pretty much say that I am bored. To tears? Yes. To insanity? Possibly. To death? Not quite there yet.
Mom is mostly out and about, doing school and trying to teach impatient children piano, leaving me at home to babysit. I don’t mind much, except for the fact that there is nothing to do. I try to play with my siblings, but it doesn’t always work. They get obnoxious easily, and I get bored easily. (I think I may have the attention span of a first grader?) Anyway, so most of the time, I try to entertain myself. I found Mythbusters on Netflix, and so I added all 6 seasons plus a “Bonus Blasters” season compiling of the team’s biggest booms. I think I may have watched somewhere around 30 episodes so far? I also eat toast. Toast is the food of the Gods. Grandma Sycamore’s white bread with real salted butter… mmm….. I think I will eat some tomorrow for breakfast.
So, besides wasting my life on the floor in front of our TV, and repeatedly attempting to ignore my mother’s voice chanting “Brittany… bread makes your butt fat…”, I have hung out with the best people on the planet a few times, went to youth conference, packed for girl’s camp and am sitting here typing this pitiful tale. I am now at the height of boredom. That’s right, the “up to here”, last straw, end of my nerve board-um. What is with this summer?
And speaking of girl’s camp, what happens when you pack? Well for a girl, this means a lot of things. First, you need clothes, that’s kind of essential. For me, it’s pretty easy to find clothes. I have one pair of jeans that I’ll always take camping, throw in a few t-shirts, grab my sweats for sleeping and some socks and voilà. I can now clothe myself. But then comes the difficult part. You see, my pride and glory (sort of) is my hair. I’m not as vain about it as some people, but even at camp with a bunch of sweaty gross girls, I’d still like to have decent looking hair. So, into the duffel bag goes the brush and a couple of hair bands, hoping and praying that I don’t achieve some dramatic disaster such as falling into mud or some horrendous feat such as that. I throw in a toothbrush and some really strong mint toothpaste (for snipe hunting! muahaha!!) and deodorant. (So I don’t smell bad like the beehives do! bleghh.) Then, I stuff my secret sister gifts in the bag along with my “spoiling treats” for my girls. (Which by the way, is an epic failure, I’m pretty sure the other YCL’s girls are going to be much more spoiled… oh well, it’s the thought that counts?) Then, I gently place in my worn journal and my scriptures, along with a pen and pencil. This should be it, right? WRONG. I have to find a sleeping bag, grab a pillow and then that’s it…………. I think……….. gahhh. I give up. I’m sure to forget something really important, and then I’ll receive a tsk tsk from my disappointed leaders.
So you may be thinking, “Why don’t you just pack earlier? Then you’ll have time to remember things that you’ve forgotten? Well, I’ve tried that. And when I did, I packed pretty much my whole bedroom and then some. It’s a difficult task…. So, solution? Pack later?? No, because then the chances increase that I’ll forget something REALLY important.
Well, let’s just say that girl’s camp is Tuesday. We have to have all of our equipment in by tomorrow so it can be loaded onto the trailer. The horrible thing is that I haven’t even finished packing yet… oops. I better do that, huh? Want to know another sad thing? Too bad cuz you’re gonna hear it: I have summer school during camp. Wonderful, huh? Yeah, I have to leave with a leader, come down the mountain from clear up past Heber, come home and sleep, wake up the next morning to go to school from 10am-2pm, then drive back up the mountain in time for dinner and singing in the trees. Then at camp I get to do homework for the two days of school that I’m skipping so I can spend the remainder of my time at camp. The things I sacrifice for my religion *sighhh* Don’t worry though, its totally worth it.
What happens now?
Posted by brittany | Filed under Uncategorized
Pretty much, I’m horrible at keeping up with this blog. Oh well, whatever.
So… what happens now? Summer is turning out to be potentially the most boring thing that ever happened to me. I’d rather be in school right now. No, seriously…. but I guess I get my wish granted? Because I start summer school next week. Bleghh… I wish that I could rewind my life and relive the past several months. No, I would not change anything, I’d just relive it. Life has been so good to me, that I just want to get some more of it. But, as always, things have to change. People change and things change… life changes in huge ways and in the smallest ways that we can’t even recognize.
Speaking of people changing, youth conference was phenomenal. I would go back and do it all over again. Every day, we’d watch vignettes, little monologues done by some of the Church’s most famous actors. Inspirational to the maximum, I watched every scene with intent and realization. I could apply everything to my life, past, present and future, and I waited impatiently for the next one. I wish everyone could have seen and felt what I did….. We also played lots of games at youth conference. Haha, my least favorite one was the “lost sheep” game. They spread over 1000 easter eggs across a huge field. Inside 20 of them were little pieces of paper with a sheep on them. We could go out one team member at a time to get ONE egg to bring back to our team. It was highly obnoxious and I seriously gave up after the first one. : )
And… speaking of things changing, what do you do when your best friend moves away? What happens now? I’m not going to sit on my bed and cry, that’s for sure. I’ll be far too upset to do that. Right now, I think I’m a bit… in shock? I don’t know, it’s all very confusing. I think I’ll just… well I don’t know! I guess the real question is…
What happens now?
Oh what do you do in the summertime?
Posted by brittany | Filed under Uncategorized
I must admit, I find summer to be one of the most boring of the four seasons. Why? Because I have to entertain myself, instead of others entertaining me. I have to work so I have something to do. Sound horrible? Yes, it is. I am a solitary person, so I like to be alone more than I do with a large number of people, BUT, if I do spend a lot of time by myself, I get extremely bored. What is this?
So my mom makes fun of me. When I’m sitting at home, bored out of my mind, all I can do is complain to her how much I want to see my friends, or hang out with my friends or even just talk to someone. But about two seconds later, when my siblings ask if I want to play outside with them, I immediately spurt a huge, “NO. I want to be alone right now.” Am I a hypocrite?…….. I don’t think so. Do I have issues……hmmm….. yes.
“So what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? Do you eat some ice cream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by? Is that what you do? So do I!” (my rendition of an LDS children’s song) So most every day is the same, I wake up late, (which makes me happy) and I roll out of bed to eat my cereal and I do chores around the house. I practice my piano and viola, play with my puppies, listen to my siblings complain that they’re hungry at 11:00 am, work on my lamesillydummypoop online class and then make lunch for me and my brothers and sisters. Then I might do something fun, like run around in circles, attempt handstands, trip over flat ground, or have a howling contest with my beagle. Usually around this time, my beloved mother calls to check up on us from her school of doom, (I feel for you mom) then I might watch a movie with my siblings. Sometimes, I’ll half attempt to contact my friends through Facebook, and most of the time, it fails miserably. I just have to wait one more day for something to maybe, mysteriously, hopefully, possibly pop up to do. Other than all this, I anxiously wait for a call from any place wishing to hire me for a part-time job. No success. I was hoping with extreme enthusiasm for someone to call me so that I can have a somewhat steady income. I have a whole bunch of stuff to pay for during the school year, and unfortunately, no money to pay for it. 
Well, anyway, if anyone is listening, or anyone cares, this is what I do in the summertime. It’s kind of a downer entry, full of unhappy things, but hey… what can I say? Well I can say, I love watermelon, and parades, and loud drums, and music and all the fun and exciting things that come in the one gigantic package labeled, “SUMMER.”
