Injured

I hate being injured, my IT Band is super tight supposedly and is causing knee problems. I have been off my legs for 5 days now! Going cold turkey from running is not easy. I miss it! It's good for me to relax, but even walking at church today hurt. Hopefully it will get better soon, I have been using the foam roller religiously! 

What I have noticed from working at the Gap is that there are a lot of very well to do mom's and a lot of homosexual guys. I don't know if it's the area we live in or just Austin. There is a poster of two heterosexual men in the store posted in the men's section, and I do work with a guy who seems to be a little on the feminine side, but that being said I'm not going to open my mouth and say something. 

Of course we all say things we regret. My visiting teachers came over a couple of weeks ago. It was late at night and I hadn't been outside. One of them is very friendly and can hold a conversation, the other is just plain awkward. That being said I try to include the awkward one. I noticed her hair was stuck straight to her forehead (like it was damp) really it was wet....or so it looked like. Me trying to pry a conversation out of her said, "Was it raining outside?" to her response, "No?" "Oh..." "I thought I heard rain earlier..." Ya the wet hair was grease... Gross! 

Chris and I had a day date yesterday. We went to the Austin Zoo which was in the middle of nowhere. Literally, we drove out to the boonies and then mazed through the dirt road until 1 mile before the zoo there was a sign ZOO. Honestly, we thought we got turned around. My favorite animals were the cute little old monkeys. They look like ornery old men. They have this face that is always looks mad. They are so tiny that it makes up for their grimace.

I had not seen the Junk Cathedral, so Chris took me to that, and there was a ton of junk! All organized junk though, categorized, and color coded. Toilet sculpture, an altar of mosaic glass, barbie mania. It was insane. All I thought to myself was, what does his wife think of all of this? He is not married...probably for a good reason. It is a popular touristy thing to do and I wanted to see it before we leave Austin.

Speaking of leaving Austin, we are going to ST. LOUIS MISSOURI! We are going to Zion with the righteous people, see ya Austin! The long waited and dreary days are behind us, well that is until March when we find out where we are going this next year... but it's set in stone we are going to St. Louis! Chris was up at 6 am when he got an email saying that he matched. To our relief we both just shed some weight when we read that. Then the next thing, where we are going to spend 3 or 4 years of our life...The Dean at Galveston called Chris, You have been accepted to St. Louis University. I had a feeling that it would be SLU, I couldn't get them out of my head. As much as I prayed and fasted, (hoping Utah), I knew in my heart where we were going already. We are visiting St. Louis next week, looking for apartments and hopefully meeting residents and members of the church. It will be exciting, I hope I like it...well too late now! 

Love and more love,

Cameryn

St. Louis Missouri!

Salt Lick with our friends Cam and Car

My healthy treats Chris loves so much...;)

Vacation in Utah

Chris and I have had a month vacation in Utah. We are so thankful for the Smith's and the Call's, and letting us go back and forth in between houses. I just hope we didn't leave anything behind, but knowing us we probably did. We spent the vacation catching up with family, friends, and worrying about residency. We are two days away from hearing where we will be moving for the next four years of our lives. If you over think it you will make yourself crazy. Chris started to over think it and within 24 hours to change our rank list he calls me from Arizona (prelim interview) and says, "I think I want to move Arkansas up the list." I am sure my mom has seen too much of my stress. At Women's Conference yesterday a women in my ward asked a question, "Lord what would thee have me do?" I have been asking this question my whole life I feel like. I know I have to work on my patience, and this whole residency and waiting thing has tested me. The Lord answers our questions on his time not exactly when we want it, I have learned.  I am sure wherever we will go it will be for the best. We have done much fasting, praying, attending the temple, reading patriarchal blessings, and pondering at this time I think the Lord knows how important of a decision this is. He is probably looking down saying, "Cameryn stop your worrying you already know everything will turn out fine, it usually does." And that is so true.

I am keeping a Happiness Journal. It is one of my New Year's resolutions. In comparison to my weekly journal, this Happiness Journal is daily and lets me focus on the things that make me happy this present day. It makes me realize that I can't sweat the small stuff and I am grateful for so many things. "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not."

Since I am in this sort of limbo stage in my life--don't know where I am going or what I am doing. I got some helpful advice from one of the ladies in my home ward whose husband went to residency for ENT. She said right now 1. Get a fun job, something that you wouldn't normally get to do! SO that is my first step to get a fun job that makes me happy and I enjoy doing. 2. Wherever you go focus on the positive things- if you like learning and want to get a higher education go to school. She wanted to keep going to school and decided to do law school while her husband was doing his residency. She said it was great because they both studied at the same times and both were busy with their school work.

I am officially on the track to training for the Boston Marathon. I am training with a team called Rogue Running in Austin. I run with them every tuesday, thursday, saturday. We do hills, 4 x 4, long distance. It's nice to be able to run with a group of people. I prefer this over to working out by myself and I look forward to meeting people when I think, "Uh I have to get up at 4:50." Running to me is like breathing. People think I am crazy, and I probably am. Running is that important to me, and I love how it makes me feel. The stress and worries of the day disappear and I am more in tune with my body. Ironically, it's one of the things that keeps me sane!

I am finally unpacked from Utah and ready to start the job search. I am trying to get my personal training done so that I could possibly do it on the side. Although, I don't find out if I passed until 50 days after I submit my final test. That's a long time...so I think for the meantime I will apply for jobs.

 Chris has been so nice in teaching me the piano. I like his lessons because they are short and to the point. He doesn't get mad and he tries to talk me through the questions I have. It's frustrating not being able to play or understand everything, but he is a great teacher. I have an end goal in mind with the piano. I don't want to be some professional piano player. I want to be able to help my kids when they start learning the piano and say hey I went through the same thing you did and I was 22! I want to be able to play in church and help out if someone needs a pianist. I want to be able to read music and not have to think, "Every.. good.. boy.. does.. fine..." So with that in mind I try to practice everyday. It's not easy, but hey what is?

Hopefully this is a good week, it can either be great or really really bad as Chris said. We will be finding out where we will be going for the next 4 years how exciting! I love this adventure.

Cameryn Smith