Popcorn Trees, Pizza and Exhaust Oh My

Popcorn trees, Brick Oven Pizza and exhaust fumes: three smells that make my 3 mile run around the outside of BYU Campus almost unbearable. Popcorn trees have the worst, vomit with a mix of smelly feet, smell in the world. Some cars have incredibly strong smelling exhaust fumes that make me feel like I’m going to get black lung disease by inhaling. Brick Oven Pizza is usually a delicious aroma, but not at the tail end of a run with a stomach already upset by the Popcorn trees and exhaust fumes.

I’m not fully recovered from my knee injury yet. I’m trying to take it real slow so I don’t mess it up worse. It will just take some time before I can run my usual 3 miles a day. For now I run between 1 and 3 miles a few times a week. SO SAD.

I went to a Bridal Extravaganza last weekend. I was a finalist for a love story contest. We had to wait until the very end to hear the winner’s announced. What we witnessed was pure chaos. The announcer guy was just giving away gift certificates valued between 50 and 500 dollars. Brides of all ages were jumping up and down, charging the stage, almost knocking down the stage, and pushing other brides out of their way. Some of them did push-ups, some of them showed their white legs, some of them revealed their old age. I think some of them lied in order to get the prize. Yeah right, like that lady in the back left really just got engaged that day, on a Saturday before 5:00 p.m. And the red-head who won the photography shoot, please, like she is really getting married in a week and hasn’t booked a photographer. That was the requirement to win: the girl getting married the soonest who had not booked a photographer yet. My favorite was the girl in the front row, who we later found out was almost 38 years old. She jumped up and down to try to get EVERY prize. She finally won the one he gave to the tallest bride. Even after she won she continued jumping up and down to win more, More, MORE. Free-stuff can make a person go crazy. It was super entertaining to watch. I knew the lady who had rounded up all the certificates for the extravaganza. It turns out, she would have just given me a prize if I would have caught her attention sooner, and I wouldn’t have had to show her my white legs or stretch my leg behind my neck. She looked for something for me, but everything was gone.

I didn’t leave empty handed though. We got a bag and a stomach full of yummy treats, and we got a 2 night’s stay for 2 in any of 20 selected cities for a total of $40. That’s what I got for being a love story finalist.

Kameron is the best fiancé in the world. He is so patient with me, even though sometimes I’m a meanie. We’re just 2 months away!

Worry or Not

I went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with my roommate Jing. She was baptized in January and this was her first experience in the temple. We had a really good time. She said she felt the spirit while she was there. She also got really excited when we started telling her that you can actually do genealogy to find your relatives who have passed away and do their temple work for them. She started asking us how she can find her family. We told her to start by asking her mom and dad about their grandparents etc... She said something about not even knowing who her great great grandma is. Anyway, that was a neat experience.

I went to a BRIDAL FAIR today!! It was a lot of fun too. Free food, discounted tuxedos, men's rings, Dj's and photobooth's. I'm glad my roommate came with me, I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to keep track of all my free stuff and enter all the free drawings.

I'm a worrier by genetics. My dad worries, his mom worries, his grandparents worry etc... I'm pretty sure it's genetic... So I have a LOT of things to worry about now that I'm on my way to get married. I instituted a worry jar awhile back so I could place all my worries that I have no control over in that jar and just way for them to work out. I hadn't put anything in it for a few months and just remembered about it as I was worrying to Kameron the other night. I put 15-20 new worry things, which I think doubled what was already in there. I am the kind of person who needs to actually do something in order to let go and move on. I've smashed pumpkins, thrown flowers in the lake, let go of helium balloons, and now I have my worry jar. It's only symbolic of course, but it does WONDERS for me.

One of my worries just last night was about finding an apartment and being able to afford to furnish it etc. etc. etc. Kameron kept telling me it would be okay, and I know it will be. My dad said they used to say about his worrier grandma that she was really good at worrying because nothing she ever worried about actually ended up happening. I read a quote this morning by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland while I was in the temple:

“I am not saying you shouldn’t be very careful about something as significant and serious as marriage. … Yes, there are cautions and considerations to make, but once there has been genuine illumination, beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now. Don’t give up when the pressure mounts. You can find an apartment. You can win over your mother-in-law. You can sell your harmonica and therein fund one more meal. It’s been done before. Don’t give in. Certainly don’t give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. He wants everyone to be miserable like unto himself. Face your doubts. Master your fears. ‘Cast not away therefore your confidence.’ Stay the course and see the beauty of life unfold for you.”

Perfect, don't you think? I'm glad to know that if all else fails, I can sell my harmonica and eat one more meal. Oh no ,wait!!!! I DON'T HAVE A HARMONICA! I guess we'll starve Kam. :)

These are some pictures we had my mom take of us really quick one day. The second one is really funny to me.