Honky Tonk-ing...it's a verb! And more goodies...

I will have to write all about Nashville when I have pictures to go with it. Just to give you a comparison, when I went to Europe, my friends and I took almost 2,000 photos. We were in Nashville for 5 days, with one more additional camera than in Europe, and we still managed almost 1,000 photos. A little FYI so you know why the pictures are taking a little while to get organized:)

I just needed to thank my Grandma for hosting so many girls in her house. She allowed 6 girls to take over, use her space, come home late, stay up talking probably too late and still got up early to make us breakfast. Waffles, French toast, bacon, fruit, she had the spread and it was so nice of her. We would come home at night, talk about what we'd done and seen and she listened. It was great to spend time with Grandma at her house and in the temple. It was a great trip! So more to come!

Just a few thoughts I've been having lately. As you know, I did the Ragnar Relay down here with 11 other ladies and it was so fun and uplifting. The ladies I ran with were all so positive and had a great spirit about them. Most were members, 2 were not. But it was a wonderful spirit of friendship and support. Going back to work after that event was hard, because it's a totally opposite spirit at work. I need my job and like my work, but I felt a complete downward pressure when I walked into work the Monday after, it wasn't uplifting. Unfortunately, the depressing feeling started when I met up with my carpooler, who I like as a person, but I'm realizing more that it's not that fun to be around him. It requires a lot of work to be have the spirit and be a positive person around him and many of my coworkers. I had the same experience after Nashville. I loved being with 7 (Grandma included!) wonderful ladies, who were happy, lived the gospel, we could talk about that and were overall positive and uplifiting for me. Going back to work was a struggle (not just because my car had been towed while I was gone and I had to go find it and pay to break it out of jail) but because I knew exactly what I was going to walk into, another spirit draining environment. And that's not to say that I can really help the work environment, except to be my own little island of positiveness, it's the way work environments are I think. But it really struck me how much I need friends who have the same standards and beliefs as me and be around them as much as possible. Work can be so draining with it's cattiness, politicking, back-stabbing and micromanaging. The gospel and spirit of friendliness, positiveness, happiness and concern for others is so much better. Last night, my relay team went to the Mormon Battalion Historical Site with one of the non members on my team. She is investigating the church now because of the spirit she felt with the team. She said she wanted to have the same spirit that the other girls had. It was a great experience to be with her as she felt the spirit again and is totally happy and excited about finding true happiness. It's great stuff, the gospel.