Lame attempt at exercising this week

I went running 1 time this past week. Once! That's horrible. I didn't even lift weights. My one time running, I only ran 1 mile. I justify that by saying that my 1 measly mile was run in 8:36, but still!! Once! And I call myself a regular exerciser and a marathoner! HA!

Bruce ran 24! Way to go!

Polar Plunge 2010

If life isn't the number of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away...then life must be the number of times you jump into freezing cold water!

I'm taking the plunge this year with my friend John Braun if anyone wants to sponsor us go to Special Olympics Illinois - LETR Events - Bruce Richards's Fundraising Page

A Half a Score ago...Huesca

This is Ainara and her family. They had a huerta
(little house in the country) where they would go on the weekend.

This post is dedicated to Elder Taylor, (Happy Birthday!) who was my companion for 5 months in Huesca, Espana. I was surprised to be transferred from Mataro after only 1 month of serving there. I'd never heard of Wesca (that's how I imagined it was spelled, that's how it's pronounced). Everyone told me it was cold there, they were right.

When Elder Taylor and I arrived to Huesca, it had been months since missionaries were assigned there and there was only one active member of the church, Ainara Rubio, and another member whose husband prevented her from coming to church, Esperanza Escartin. All we had to guide us around the town was a map. We walked everywhere.

I had to include this picture of me in front of Aldi in Huesca for those of you who shop at Aldi's in Urbana.
Because there were no other priesthood leaders, my companion served as branch president and I was counselor, secretary, music chairman, and quorum instructor. We met for Sunday meetings in a conference room at a hotel. You'll notice a TV in the picture of me in our apartment. Most missionaries are not allowed to have a TV in their apartment, but because our apartment also served as headquarters of the church in Huesca, we had all the supplies for Sunday meetings in our apartment, including a TV and VCR.

I spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's, Elder Taylor's birthday and Carnival in Huesca.

In Spain, the day after Halloween is actually the holiday. It's similar to Memorial Day in the US, when everyone visits the cemeteries and remembers their dead. Thanksgiving of course isn't celebrated in Spain, I bought some sliced turkey breasts to eat in honor of the holiday.

Christmas day we spent in Zaragoza, about an hour from Huesca. There were two branches of the church in Zaragoza and 10 other missionaries there. Presidente Amigo who was president of one of the branches there invited us to dinner and then there was a talent show at the church that evening. For the children the real excitement of Christmas doesn't come until January 8th when the "tres reyes magos" (three wisemen) arrive. They are the ones that bring the presents. Their arrival is celebrated with a great parade called "carbagata". For Christmas my grandma sent me some money, and my companion had some saved up, so we went out and bought Barce jerseys for the futbol team in Barcelona.

For Carnival everyone dresses up in costumes. One lady who saw Elder Taylor and I thought we were pretty clever to dress up like the Mormon missionaries. She was embarrassed when she realized we really were Mormon missionaries.

One of my favorite parts of serving in Huesca was riding the bus to Barbastro (about an hour away) to visit Jose Luis La Farga, a member of the church who didn't attend meetings on Sunday. He was always amable (friendly/nice) and fed us delicious cake and chocolate. He even ended up coming to church a couple times.

There was a young man who lived in Huesca who befriended the missionaries, who fortunately for us had time and a car, so he could take us out to see castles that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to see.

One of our good friends in Huesca was Isabel, (pictured below with Elder Taylor and I) we always bought pan (bread) from her panaderia. We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her that there was someone with her name in it. I refused to show her where, partly because I wanted her to be motivated to read the book, and partly because Isabel was a harlot in the Book of Mormon.

Antonio was a young man who we taught while in Huesca. He felt the Holy Ghost as we taught him and as he read the Book of Mormon and prayed. When he read in the Doctrine and Covenants he saw revelations given through Joseph Smith the prophet to individual people and he wanted to get his own revelation telling him he should be baptized, so he wrote to President Hinckley, the prophet and president of the church, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Because the church is much larger now than in the days of Joseph Smith, the president of the church cannot respond to each person who asks, therefore a letter was sent to the local church leader, President Mask (our mission president) asking him to respond to Antonio's request. So, President Mask arranged to come out to Huesca from Barcelona and have a meeting with Antonio. Following their meeting, Antonio decided to be baptized. President Mask arranged his schedule to come speak at the baptism. Members of the church from Zaragoza and Antonio's mom, brother and sister came to the baptism as well (pictured above). What a special day it was to see Antonio make the choice to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by immersion by someone holding priesthood authority!

Serving together for 5 months bonded Elder Taylor and I together like brothers, though there were times I wanted to catapult him. Two things I enjoyed about serving with Elder Taylor were homemade bread and back adjustments after a hard day's work. We did get some company the last month we were in Huesca when Elder Macdonald and Elder Nielsen were assigned to Huesca as well.

Serving a mission is tough work. President Mask teased me when I started getting gray hair that I had been serving in Huesca too long. It is hard to know how big a difference we actually made to the people in Huesca. However I know what a difference it made in my life to work hard in the service of the Lord and have a "glad attitude" even when things were tough.

All Naturaal!

I am a very animated teacher. I almost have to be in order to keep the attention of a bunch of 12-14 year olds all day. Even after a long school day, I go to practice and run wild with the girls demonstrating the proper techniques and skills for certain drills. Some may describe me has having a lot of energy.
Before our volleyball game yesterday, I was trying to buy a drink from the vending machine, because the 3 water bottles I bring to school were already empty. I tried all of the Gatorade's first, but they were all sold out. I choose a bottle of pink lemonade instead. My 7th grade volleyball team were watching me, and when the lemonade came out, I had the following conversation with a girl on my team.
Whitney: Is that carbonated?
Brittney: No
Whitney: Then why is it all fizzy?
Brittney: Because it was just dropped from a cold machine. Wouldn't you be fizzy if the same thing happened to you?
Whitney: Oh! I was just wondering.
Brittney: (Reading the label) No carbonation, and no caffeine - just the way I like it!
Whitney: What? You don't drink caffeine?
Brittney: Nope! I have never had a caffeinated drink. I don't drink caffeine.
Whitney: You seem like the kind of person who would drink A LOT of caffeine.
Brittney: Nope! This energy that you see seeping from my body is all naturaaal!

Whitney and the rest of the girls started laughing. But hey - she chose me to play on her team at practice today because of all my energy.


I recently started a new exercise program that has been working out for me pretty well. I get up each morning at 6:00 and head over to the fitness room at the community "clubhouse." Monday, Wednesday, Friday I run on the treadmill (avg. 3 miles) and Tuesday, Thursday I lift weights or do circuit training. I thought I would be way too exhausted to continue this routine and I could quit. However, I found that quite the opposite is true. Not only do I feel like I am getting into pretty good shape, I also have tons more energy. My muscles are not sore and tired, I am much more alert and awake (even on my late nights at volleyball games), and I have much more stamina to get through the day. I almost look forward to my workouts. The best thing is, by the end of the day I am tired enough that I can actually go to sleep and sleep through the entire night (I used to wake up frequently during the night.) Exercising is great! I must admit that I am not perfect in my routine. Since the beginning of the year, I have missed 3 days (2 of them this week :( ). I try to make up for them with more intense workouts when I do. There are some mornings when I still have to motivate myself to get out of bed and do it!!

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

As Bruce made reference to in his last post, while we were visiting his brother in Virginia we went to a play. The play tickets were part of our Christmas present. If we arrived early enough, we had a chance to be a part of the cast.
Of course.... I was in! I have only been in one play in my entire life, but I really wanted to make this one my second. I didn't even know what the play was called or what it was about, but that didn't sway me from signing up when we walked in the doors. 5 minutes before the play was supposed to start, the director asked if someone from our group would volunteer to be a part of the cast as well. I eagerly volunteered Bruce and he agreed. By this time, I figured that we would be asked to participate in a spelling bee. Although I am an English teacher, I sometimes struggle with spelling so I must admit that I was a little nervous; I didn't want to misspell a simple word. We were ushered into a separate room to receive "instruction." We were told 9 simple rules:
1) We were to sit in our normal seats in the stand, and they would actually call us down to the stage by name. Someone would point to where we were supposed to sit.
2) When it was time for our line, we needed to raise the microphone up to our mouths and do our best at spelling the word. We were not to miss a word on purpose to try and be funny.
3) We had two lines to memorize: "Can I have the definition please?" and "Will you use that in a sentence."
4) We were not to start up a conversation with any of the other actors or actresses on stage. They might miss their cue or something.
5) Even if we knew the songs, we were not to sing them. (It was a good thing they told us this because I kind of felt silly sitting on stage while everyone around me was singing. I may have tried to "pretend" I was singing the song too just to "fit in.")
6) We were to be escorted off by the grievance counselor when we spelled a word wrong.
7) We were still part of the audience even though we were on stage, so it is okay to clap.
8) You may have to sit still on the bleachers for up to 45 minutes. (This last rule almost made me want to say that I couldn't do it. Anyone who knows me knows I can't sit still for 45 minutes at a time, especially not on wooden benches.)
9) We may be asked to dance on stage so gear up for that.

The play began and I was super excited - here was my big debut. One of the actresses mentioned that 4 spellers had not yet registered for the spelling bee, and if they were somewhere in the audience to please come forward. She proceeded to call both my and Bruce's name.
The spelling contest began. The actors and actresses were getting some difficult words - this made me a little nervous because I figured I would be the first one out of the contest.

Bruce's first word was hoarfrost. When he asked for the definition and sentence, they were trying to trick him into spelling the word incorrectly. They wanted him to spell it whorefrost. Bruce was smarter than that.
Soon it was my turn.

Announcer: Mrs. Brittney Richards. Ms. Richards is currently writing an opera in braille. (Yes, they randomly made up facts about me) Your word is Cow!

The real cast was outraged that I would get such a simple word. I was laughing at what was going on around me and I almost forgot my lines. When I finally did remember them, I felt silly asking:
Brittney: Can you give me the definition please?
Announcer: A cow is a cow!
Brittney: Can you use it in a sentence please?
Announcer: Please spell the word cow.
Brittney: C-O-W Cow!
Announcer: That is correct.

One of the real cast members got out and they sang a song called "Life is pandemonium." For this song, we were instructed to get up and dance with them. We turned around in a circle in the middle of the stage and various other dance moves. It was real pandemonium.

Bruce's next word was Xanthippe which means an angry women. Bruce spelled it Z-A-N-T-H-I-P-P-Y. When he got out, the cast members sang him a song, gave him a juice box and a spelling bee participant ribbon, and he found his seat.

By this time, it was near the end of Act I and I was the last audience member still on stage.

Announcer: Ms. Brittney Richards. Ms. Richards got kicked out of the girl scouts for giving cookies away to the boys. Your word is Knochie.
Brittney: Can you give me the definition please?
Announcer: A Japanese decoration.
Brittney: Can you use it in a sentence please?
Announcer: My grandmother always used a knochie for her lamp.
Brittney: K-N-O-C-H-I-E
Announcer: That is correct!
When I returned to my seat, all of the actors and actresses told me great job! Then immediately...
Announcer: Brittney Richards. Please spell the word rhino________.
(This word was so bizarre that I don't even remember what it was).
Brittney: Can you give me the definition please?
Announcer: A word that has 6 silent letters.
Brittney: Can you use it in a sentence please?
Announcer: rhino_______ is nearly impossible to spell.
Brittney: I spelled rhino, then I started adding random letters (making sure some of them were silent)
Announcer: What is the last letter you used?
Brittney: e
Announcer: I'm sorry that is incorrect.

Drat! I was out. I was the last audience member to get out and was therefore given the opportunity to be serenaded on stage with the song "Prayer of the comfort counselor" It was kind of awkward to have a strange male serenade me on stage, call me a spelling babe, and tell me that I was the best speller. He then gave me a hug, a juice box, and a ribbon. I excited the stage and the auditorium because that was intermission.
When I was trying to look up the word Knochie in the dictionary before I wrote this post to make sure I remembered what he said for the definition; I couldn't find it anywhere. I am pretty sure that is how I spelled it, but it might be made up. Does anyone know for sure?

I found out later that the rhino____ word was made up. They needed to get me off stage. I wasn't even supposed to get the word before that correctly, but I did. I completely guessed at the spelling, but it must have matched what was in the script; otherwise I would have been escorted off after that word.

With this play, audience participation is a common thing. You can check it out at Wikipedia. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures - so you can't see me in action.
During intermission, other audience members asked me if I really was from the audience. They thought I was part of the cast and did a good job. It was really fun! I have thought about possibly seeing what community plays they are putting on here and trying out for them. Maybe my next calling is on stage.

Virginia and Washington DC

The day after Christmas we loaded up and headed east to see my brother, Blake in Richmond, VA, and his wife Suzanne. We had debated whether to fly or to drive, weather and cost being the primary concerns. We ended up driving, which was the right choice for the direction we headed, we avoided all the snow storms of the mid-west/west, enjoyed books on tape, saw some country we hadn't seen, and made it in pretty good time. We stayed at Blake and Suzanne's house, which as you can see from the picture is pretty nice (Guess which one).














We spent time seeing the sites of Richmond, including a fancy house and a friendly goat. We played "Settlers of Catan", "Cluzzle" (pronounced like puzzle), "Scrabble, Slam" and played basketball.

We also spent a couple days in Washington DC. Our first stop was the Washington DC temple. It really just pops right out of the forest as you are driving along the freeway. It was neat to worship there with Blake and Suzanne. I thought it was neat how everything (White House, Capitol building, Washington monument, Lincoln monument, Jefferson monument, and all the museums) is so close to each other. We tried driving around the first day and that was a mistake. The second day we took the subway from our hotel and that worked out great. Of course we didn't get to see everything we would have liked in so short a time, however, we're glad we got to see all the buildings, visit the American History Smithsonian, see the Hope Diamond, admire the art gallery, and walk into the Space museum and see all the planes. I was hoping to see a space shuttle, but there wasn't one. Have any of you ever seen a space shuttle in person?Brittney was in a play on New Year's Eve, but she'll have to tell you about that. We left Blake and Suzanne's house New Year's Day at 3pm and got home at 2:30am the next morning. We drove straight through listening to "Digital Fortress" a Dan Brown book on tape. It kept me awake and alert so I could drive the whole time. We stopped twice for gas and got a pizza one of the times we stopped. It actually didn't seem like that long of a drive listening to a book the whole way. We had a great time and are glad we went.

Christmas 2009

I feel like this post is long overdue - which it is!! Christmas this year (I guess last year) was great as usual. I made a gingerbread house for the first time using real gingerbread with the young women for mutual.



Christmas eve found us playing with trains, eating Ableskiever, singing Christmas carols, and reading The Grinch who stole Christmas with our friends the Hills and Dale Kirby.
Here is a picture of Spencer "leading" the music


I wanted to attempt making pajama tops to match our pants for our Christmas pajamas this year. I was very proud of myself for buying the material the day after Christmas last year when it was on sale for 50% off. I was proud because I was "planning ahead" and had almost an entire year to get them made. Unfortunately, my good planning didn't turn out so well. On December 23, 2009 I realized that not only did I need to have the pajamas finished for that night to continue on our tradition - I also needed to start making the pajamas. Having the material for an entire year, didn't help me get the pajamas finished early in the year. I spent the entire day cutting, measuring, sewing, and panicking when I ran out of material and only had a front side cut out for Bruce's pajama top. One of my biggest sewing problems is figuring out how much material I will need for any particular project. An evening trip to Joanne's fabric turned out to be somewhat successful. I was able to find a green that very closely resembled the green I already had. You have to look very carefully at Bruce's pajamas (on the back) to notice the mistakes. But don't be too judgmental :) Pajama tops were a first, and it took me a while to figure out how to attach the sleeves. Bruce had to help me, and it finally worked out. After sewing the rest of his top together that night, putting in an elastic waist band and hemming sleeves and legs - VOILA!!! Christmas jammies 2009!!




Note to self: Avoid satin fabrics for pajama pants in the future - they snag too easily!

Christmas day was wonderful! We stayed in our pajamas all day, played games, and watched classic Christmas movies. For meals, we warmed up leftovers. (We left the day after Christmas for Virgina, and didn't want things to spoil while we were gone.) Eating leftovers isn't the ideal on Christmas, but it was perfect for this year. I finally got the 17 quart roaster oven I've been wanting for 3 years. I guess "Santa" was tired of our carbon monoxide detector going off every time my oven was on for more than an hour and a half. I also got a handful of Broadway music songbooks - which I have been enjoying singing out of.
Bruce got his under armor and running tights to help him train for that marathon.


Christmas is one of those things that you look forward to all year with great anticipation. Then it comes very quickly, and is over even more quickly. If we spent our entire Christmas holiday anticipating all of the "things" we were going to get - we can be really disappointed. That is why we are taught that the important part about Christmas is recognizing and understanding the Savior and the reason why we have the season. It is a time to spend serving others and spending time with family. This isn't something that we should just do during Christmas time, but something that we need to develop all year long so that it becomes a part of who we are. That's the lesson I learned from Christmas this year.