Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 31

My sister, Kristy, asked me if I would teach a short lesson on photography to her young women's class. I said I would and when I came over to her house, I saw the pictures that I had taken in frames ALL over the house! It made me so excited. I felt like a legit photographer with someone who loved my work. It is a great feeling. :o)

On Sunday, we had regional conference and had to meet at the Marriott Center on BYU Campus. Many stakes were invited, so we knew it would fill up fast. We left at 8:45am to go get a good seat before the meeting started at 10am. Wasn't too excited about that since I only got a few hours of sleep that night. I thought to myself, I would rather watch it on TV or at a stake center. I wouldn't have had to get up so early and I would have had a lot more leg room than what you get in the Marriott. Then the Marriott started filling up... fast. Before the meeting started the ENTIRE Marriott Center was filled with Young Single Adults ages 18-30. I didn't see any empty seats and for those of you who don't know how many seats are in the Marriott Center... I believe there are 22, 700 seats. ALL of them filled. Everyone was talking before the meeting, so it was kind of loud. Then all the sudden everyone stood and the entire center was quite and reverent. Why? Because two apostles of the Lord walked in the room. I had forgotten how powerful that is. And the power of thousands singing praises together. Not to mention that it is an honor and a privilege to be in the presence of Apostles.The entire conference, I looked around me and almost every person had a pen and paper and were taking notes from every speaker. This is not something I experience everyday and I feel like it brings the spirit even more into the meeting. So in the end.... was I glad that I went. Yes. It is like General Conference.... but JUST for the YSA in Provo. That is an amazing opportunity! I should never take it for granted.

At work, there are 8 floors. I work on the 5th floor. Naturally I take the elevator... which I feel is legit. If I worked on the 2nd or 3rd floor, I would mostly likely take the stairs most of the time. I did at my last job. Its not that big of a deal. Especially coming down. The other day I got in the elevator to leave work. I was in the elevator with one other person that had come from a floor above mine. Then we also stopped on the 4th floor, the guy came in and then pressed floor 3 and got out. I wanted to look at him and say REALLY? You can't walk down one flight of stairs? I actually see that all the time. What would people do without elevators? I should probably be taking the stairs even though I am on the 5th floor. Okay... I will start today.

Speaking of exercise, I have been stepping it up a notch. I have not been consistent since I got off my diet. So my friend and I came up with a weekly plan. Monday we jogged 3 miles. I only had to stop twice for a speed walk for only like a block. I was pretty proud of myself because I am out of shape and it felt like death.... but I did it anyway. Then Tuesday I swam laps. For some reason, in my head... swimming seems like it should be easy. I don't know the last time I swam laps. This also felt like death and my arms were sore after. It will get better though right? I ran again yesterday and I think I will run again today and Saturday I think we are going to try and swim, bike & run! I hope I don't die. Did anyone used to hate running and then liked it after a while? If so.... tell me your secret please.

Last weekend I went to see "Eat.Pray.Love" with my good friend Angela. (I wrote about this on another post but then deleted it because I decided I wanted to go into more detail on this post). There were things that I really liked and disliked about that movie. First of all, it was WAY too long. However, I wanted to see it, so I am glad I watched it even though I will probably never watch it again. I like Julia Roberts and I like traveling, so I figured I would like the movie. For those of you who have never read the book or seen the movie, its about a woman who is married, but she wants to travel and her husband does not. She realizes that she has formed to the kind of person that her husband is. She divorces him and decides that she wants to find out who she is an find happiness while she spends 4 months each in Italy, India and Bali. What I loved about the movie is that she traveled to different parts of the world, found out who she was, found happiness and learned some great and important life lessons. I feel like not enough people take advantage of this when they have the opportunity. It is not only an amazing opportunity to see these beautiful places around the world (not the same as seeing it on TV) but you meet many amazing people that you learn a lot from and when you travel to poor countries, you realize how blessed we are to live in our country. It is humbling and you realize what is really important in this life. What I did not like about the movie (besides the length) is that she divorced her husband to do this. Find out who you are BEFORE you get married. Then marry someone that loves you for exactly who YOU are. You should never have to change who you are so that someone else will love you. In the movie, she went from guy to guy forming to whatever the guy wanted. That is not a real relationship. Does this sound familiar? Like Runaway Bride? Yep. So that was pretty much the entire beginning of the movie. After that (her experiences traveling) I liked. She learned to be happy with herself which in return made it so she could be there to serve others, she took time to meditate, find peace, heal from past wounds AND open herself up to be able to love again. I can relate to this 100%.
So here's to meditation, finding out who we are, being at peace and healing from our past and being open to love again, love ourselves and those around us.