Youth Conference

Youth Conference was so fun. I have been slow posting pictures but here are the few that I got. I was so impressed with the youth. They give me hope for my own children.

Shaving

Last week, I found myself getting ready to go to a summer party for Jake and his coworkers. As I was in the shower I realized that I clearly needed to shave and so that long process began. I grabbed my razor and my bottle of shaving cream. When I went to squirt the cream, to my surprise, it was gone. It seems that Tylie had a little too much fun last night when she used my shower. Normally, I would throw my hands up in the air and forget the whole thing but since this was a pool party we were going to, that simply was not an option. How I wish that I were one of those people who grow hair on their legs that resembles a new born babies hair. After my mom went through chemotherapy for her cancer, she rarely has to shave because they are so light and soft. If you brush up against her, you would just think she had a little bit of cotton stuck to her leg. My sister was lucky and got hair similar to that. She has blond hair so, even if she is having a rough morning (which she rarely does) and no time to shave, she can throw on a skirt and unless you carry a microscope with you, you would never know the difference. And then there is my other sister. This girl has the confidence of Kobe Bryant playing a little league team. She is not so lucky as my blond, invisible haired sister. She has dark black hair and I lovingly tell her that she grows tree stumps out of her legs. She knows it and fought to hack those tree stumps down for many years. Now she is comfortable with the way she is. In the winter, she locks her razors in a drawer and doesn't bring them back until people start wearing white around memorial day. I am sure you all think that she resembles a pilgrim when she goes to church in her floor length skirts, but nope! She rocks those knee lengths like she is walking down the red carpet. We all laugh at her and tell her that buying a coat is faster than growing one on your body but she is not deterred. The sunbeams that she teaches even think it is fun to play with in primary. Sick, I know but the girl doesn't care- and more power to her. I wish that I was more like that. I am stuck somewhere in the middle of the three. I am not lucky enough the grow soft bunny fur. I grow tree stumps also but I continue to break out the hack saw and shave every week for church, even when I am wearing a floor length skirt. So, as I am sitting in the shower racking my brain if I have any more shaving cream in my storage room, I decide to use Jake's shower gel instead. The ice cold sprint down two flights of stairs to enter an even colder storage room was just not worth is to me. Jake uses the "Axe" shower gel. You know the one, the commercial where the guy showers and suddenly he has a million girls licking his toes and sniffing his ears. I was desperately hoping that this was a very sensationalized commercial because that could make for some very awkward moments for Jake's coworkers and I. I didn't love the idea of smelling like a man but I just figured I would stand close enough to Jake that they would just assume it was him. When I put the stuff on my hand it was so gross. It was a deep red and when I rubbed it on my legs, I could not tell if I had nicked myself or cut and artery. Who in the multi-million dollar company at Axe decided to send this stuff out? Is this what guys like? So now, not only am I smelling like a man, I am bathing myself in blood! Great. Maybe tree stumps would have been better. Since I couldn't leave a half cleared forest, I finished shaving and jumped out vowing to never buy the stuff again for Jake. Next time, he is going to get the musky ocean smell. At least that way he won't look like a murder victim every time he showers. The party was fun. The cold pool felt good on my burning legs from all the cuts because I shaved to fast. And only one woman sniffed at my ears. Ok, not really but I saw a few of them eyeing me. Lesson learned to not let Tylie play in my shower unsupervised anymore. I am also going to work on my self confidence. You won't see me walking down the street in daisy dukes after two weeks of not shaving but maybe capris. Or maybe a mid calf skirt at church. Or maybe not, I would just feel too weird. I will just continue to admire my sister, or laugh at her. It is all the same to me.

Fourth of July celebrations: