As A City Girl

I adulted hard this week. I went to the dentist AND the doctor (twice) to get Tb tested (part I). The nurse was funny and complained to me about how she left her burrito at home and was super salty about it. I level.

The better engagement pics.

I also youthed hard this week. I went to FHE (only because they roped me into participating as the Sorting Hat for an HP-themed family history competition). Becca and I made guac and chips at the hot tub, then crashed a game night we weren't invited to and used the pool and massage chair. I went hot tubbing a lot, actually. It's getting too hot for hot tubbing.

Only medium fat. 

I religioned hard this week too. I went to institute. AND the temple. The Chin, Special K, Shiboi, Shennsley, Markies, and HanNip-Nip Cheerio met up in San Diego for Hannah's endowment. Everything is a competition or a joke.

The Chin and his city girl.

With the Chin in town (and his wallet), we had delicious strawberry lemon pancakes, PB chocolate gorilla protein shakes, and (of course) tacos for dinner. The betrothed, the parentals, and I went yaking for a couple hours off La Jolla beach and Markies and I got to test out our chemistry. It didn't go well, but we also didn't flip over, so there's hope for us yet.

Castle or temple?

I've also been doing some of the BYU-I personal trainer workouts that are notoriously challenging. The chest workout is a killer. I could barely do a single pushup halfway through. D-E-D dead.

Me in the massage chair.

AND while I was in San Diego, my friend Matt happened to be home. So I hung out with him for a few hours just telling ridiculous stories. I love how easily he laughs at stuff - makes me feel really funny.

Wait, what? - Markies

I'm moving to Flagstaff soon and had to pay my first month's rent already. Which means I can move in. So I started packing some stuff, so when I go hiking in the area for July 4, I can drop half my crap off.

Literal goddess.

Religious tangent of the week:

Miracles. They're real. And the more we recognize them, the more we get.

#thechins #bloodnugs

As a preface to this story, it's important to note that I am a firm believer in actively avoiding trials. Often in the scriptures, the people are righteous and blessed with food and money and they forget how good their lives are. So God sends them "reminder trials". Which are totally avoidable.

Boi be lookin fly.

All you have to do is regularly thank God for your health, and he won't need to send you a sickness to remind you how nice your normal life is. I really think this makes life a lot easier.

A la Will Smith. 

Another example is that as I'm driving, whether it be 5 miles or 500, I like to shoot up regular prayers saying "Hey, thanks that I have NOT been pulled over, really appreciate it, if you could keep it going, that would be awesome." And I've been pulled over much LESS frequently since I started doing this.

However. I shot one of these prayers up about 10mi from the CA-AZ state border yesterday and got pulled over not 5min later. Awkward.

To be fair, I definitely deserved it. Like '50 over in a construction zone' deserved it.

And as a woman who knows that they deserve a ticket, there's four schools of thought that run through your head on how to get out of it.

1. You hope that you're going so fast that the cop just gives up. Unfortunately, I had already slowed down to a chasable speed in the hopes that the cop had not seen me. He had.

2. You hope that you're so devastatingly attractive that the cop drops all charges and buys you a drink. On the best of days, this would be a long shot. It was not the best of days.

3. I hear that inconsolable crying works wonders. And if I were a cop, it would work for me. However, I was born without tear ducts or emotions. Which left me with one option.

4. Be such an honest and reasonable human being that the cop has mercy. Let me tell you, option 4 has not worked well for me in the past.

But this is a miracle story and for the first time EVER, option 4 came in clutch. The cop reduced it to 5 over, no construction zone and all I have to do is online traffic school - no fine, no points. Bless.

I definitely didn't think this would be a miracle as I was getting chased by the blue and reds. And often, I think we don't recognize miracles. If we're expecting manna to fall from heaven when we're hungry, we're going to be disappointed a lot. BUT don't discount those leftover tacos in the fridge.

God knows us. He knows the trials and blessings we need. Which are different than the ones we want, but more effective for growth.