The Fabulous You

Warning: This is a booger of a post. It may induce extreme hunger, dehydration, or a feeling of being lost. Proceed with caution.

Last night I attended a stake RS activity. I did not want to go. At all. We were told on Sunday that we'd be learning about hair and makeup. I know it's not completely obvious by my perpetually bunned, braided, or pony-tailed hair and my notoriously makeupless face, but talking hair and makeup doesn't do it for me.

The evening began with some brief remarks by our stake president. He was followed by a series of guest speakers.

President Shippen
President Shippen spoke a lot about how precious each day is. He emphasized that just as your outer appearance reflects your inner self, the way we live our lives reflects that which we seek. His hope for us is that we will walk in virtue and live righteous lives so that we can fulfill our purpose.

He asked the sisters what their morning routine was. Nobody was brave enough to answer but that was alright cause he had a new one for us. He said the first thing we should do every morning is get on our knees and pray and have a conversation with the Lord. We should discuss with him our day, and ask that he give us his blessing as we live it. Next, Presdient Shippen said, he wants us to find a mirror, stare ourselves down, and say this:

A personal pep talk. But you can't just say it, he said. You have to mean it. This is not something that will come easy to me. The last three will be no problem. The first three, well, it's going to take me some time to be able to say that to myself and mean it. Perhaps if it was "You rock," or "You are fabulous." That would be easy peasy (most days) because I am fabulous. But I cannot tell myself I'm beautiful and mean it. Which is the point.

Sherrie Johnson
Sherrie Johnson is an institute teacher and religion instructor and holy moly is she awesome. Really, I want to be her when I grow up. She talked about how important it is to not just read your scriptures, but to study them. Reading your scriptures will bore your brains out. Studying them will keep things exciting. There are tons and tons of different ways to study the scriptures and it's important to find the one that works for you. If it doesn't work for you, it isn't going to work and there goes your scripture studying.

My Pa likes to color code his scriptures by topic. When I was a preteen, Pa bought me a set of scripture marking crayons in lots of colors and we spent an entire family night lesson talking about color coding and using our crayons. I think I may have even put a key to the colors in the front of my family scripture study BoM. I never once used those colors because it didn't work for me. And that's fine. His scriptures look like a rainbow inside and my scriptures look like this:

Both are valid ways of studying the scriptures and we've both found what works for us.

When Sister Johnson was 28, she realized that although she knew the scriptures well, she hadn't ever ready them on a daily basis. She made a commitment then to never go to bed without reading a verse of scripture, which, she said, works about as well as telling yourself you're only going to eat one potato chip. She said to tithe your time the same way you do you money. Time is a gift from the Lord and if you give back 10% (which to me seems like an awful lot of time, but I'm going to try to work my way up there), there will be plenty of time leftover for everything else.

It's a choice really. Is scripture study a priority or isn't it?

Kathy Hill
Pretty sure I want Kathy Hill to be my new best friend. I appreciated her upfront, frank approach to the subject and her insights into why looking your best is so important. She said it is important to be pulled  together so you can forget about yourself and think about others. Soap is cheap so shower every day. Unless you have dry hair, in which case every other is okay. According to Kathy, it doesn't take more than 30 minutes a day to get ready (her hair took her 10 minutes to go from wet-from-the-shower to fabulous and her makeup takes her 6).

In the words of Kathy Hill, "Let's just groom up!"

Larry Tucker
Larry Tucker spoke to use about nutrition. He said that while reading your scriptures is more important than proper nutrition, being close to the Lord becomes much more important if you don't eat well since you'll be meeting him sooner.

He gave us three principles:

1. Focus on foods with a low energy density (a small number of calories per gram). You can eat these suckers til you topple over from being perfectly satiated. No going hungry here.
2. Don't eat when you're not hungry. That means recreational eating. I am a champion recreational eater. I suppose it's time to pursue new hobbies.
3. Don't drink your calories. Sodas and other high calorie drinks will make you fat, fat, fat.

Following these three principles will allow you to eat til you're full always and either lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

Super simple, really. Until you're faced with a jumbo, chocolate, gooey brownie smothered in mint chocolate chip ice cream and marshmallow ice cream topping. Yum.

Heather Anderson
Heather Anderson spoke to use about makeup. I already knew just about everything she told us, I just don't apply it.

Here's your basic face.

• Barriers: Toner (for oily skin, not for dry), moisturizer, and a foundation primer
• Foundation - During summer a tinted moisturizer works great in place of your foundation
• Eye primer (this stops shadow from running or creasing and keeps it true to color) - She uses Urban Decay which I've heard is fantastic. I use, excuse me, have an eye primer from NS Minerals which worked great that one time when I had makeup on my face.
• Eye shadow - Don't forget to blend your colors
• Eye liner
• Mascara primer (gives the mascara something to hold on to)
• Mascara

She wanted us all to remember that we are beautiful and should work with what we have. Also that it doesn't matter how beautiful we are on the outside, we'll never be beautiful if we aren't also beautiful on the inside.

She also wanted us to know that grocery store makeup is great (except a couple things which she didn't specify, so good luck with that) and that sleeping in your makeup will ruin your face and make your eyelashes fall out.

Rogan Taylor
By the time it was Rogan Taylor's turn I was getting antsy. I can only take makeup talk for so long. But then I saw he used a Prezi. I'm slightly obsessed with Prezis. I've never done one myself, but someday I will be a Prezi maestro. This is happening.

He talked with us about exercise. There are three main parts to exercise: stretching, cardio, and strengthening. It's important to work on each as they all play a major part in our physical fitness.

Robin Harmon
Robin Harmon gave us a handout with the top 10 (which actually included 14 items) essentials in a girl's wardrobe. I'm ashamed to say that I don't own a single one of those things. Except maybe the cute PJs. But only if it's okay for them to be old and fraying at the hems.

She gave us the 3Cs:

• Clean - This is pretty self-explanatory (remember Kathey? Soap is cheap!).
• Color - Fashion colors change every six months or so. To incorporate these colors without purchasing a new wardrobe get them in a lipstick, bag, belt, shoes, scarf, or jacket. Personally, I love getting new nail polish colors (I hardly ever wear anything but green so I don't know why I bother but I can't deny that I love having two palms full of fantastic nail polish colors).
• Creative - Don't worry about how other people are wearing things; wear things your way. Be bold and daring. I apparently have this one down pat. Once said to me by my mother: "You wear things other people wouldn't." [Long Pause] "But wish they could." Thanks, Ma.

I am so grateful to the many talented people that gave of their time and knowledge last night so I could learn a lot bit more about how to be a better me.