Seriously?

What kind of world do we live in that the first time the ice cream truck comes around all season is on a cloudy not-too-hot day halfway through the summer?

Free

As a poor starving college student, I am always in the market for free stuff. AND, add to that the fact that I will be getting married in a little over a month. Free is good. Freely given is always preferred to forcibely taken, or just doing without.

One of the blogs that I follow is having a giveaway. [[I do hereby present thee, dear reader, with a link.]]

Of course, one of the ways to enter is to post something about it on my own blog. I could just post something like "Hey, here it is, have a link and an info dump and I HOPE I WIN!" All of which would be true. But instead, I would like to take this opportunity to spotlight the blog hosting the contest and yes, perhaps suck up just a little bit.

Every newlywed couple has questions, and there are boatloads of answers out there for them. But you have to be careful on whose advice you take. I trust my parents (especially my mother), my grandparents, and all of my aunts and uncles wholeheartedly when it comes to marital and familial advice. But rarely would I go to a stranger, and follow her with the same sort of trust.

I think it has something to do with the values. I found this blog by accident one day, and have been following it ever since. Because the woman who writes it voices common sense when it comes to family life, alongside the exact same strong moral and religious background that I grew up with. I've read other "family" blogs, and I know how other families operate. But I like the LDS way. We specialize in families. So I would like to tip my hat to you Mrs. Mordecai, even if I don't win. Here's to you and your values. May my new family and I continue to honor them as you have.

And here's to my mother, and my grandmother. My future mother-in-law. All of my married and soon-to-be-married friends who have kept those values alive and strong in their homes and their families. To all of you, and your free advice. I am very greatful for it.

Downhill

The thing about going downhill on a bike is this : Part of your mind is always going "Hey, I'm on a bike, so this is exercise! It's not as bad as I thought it would be!" Forget the fact that you're not pedaling, or even breaking a mild sweat at that point. It's all in your head.

But whether or not you chose to give in to this part of your mind and believe that you are becoming a more physically fit person by soaring downhill at incredible and sometimes psychotic speeds, going down is an important part of the biking process. Not only because it's a break from the painful uphill that threatens to kill you off, but because you did, after all, have to go up to reach it in the first place. It's not only your break, it's your reward. Somehow, riding downhill if you've simply walked your bike uphill is never quite as thrilling. I always feel a little bit guilty for wimping out, and I can't enjoy the ride down as much as I should.

At the risk of sounding incredibly corny, I believe life, especially student life, can be looked at the same way. Maybe it's just me, but I never trust something that comes too easy. Grades, health, physical fitness. Love. I think that if we succeed in these areas, it's because we've worked for them. Because we were willing to sacrifice more in the beginning to have more in the end. I went through six years of chorus line roles and bit parts before I ever got a lead, and I don't regret a bit of it. I never would have appreciated getting a bigger part if I didn't know what it took to get there, and if I hadn't been willing to work for it.

I'm getting married in August, and I'm facing all manner of sacrifices. In fact, Brayden keeps telling me, "Less now equals more later." I agree with him. Yes, the first year of marriage is the hardest. But the couples who make it through are even stronger. We're willing to work for what we have, because it's important to us. And every now and then in the uphill life, we get that breath of fresh air as we soar downhill. A break. A reward. But we have to ride all the way to the top of that hill first. Then, the downhill is truly worth it.

**image lovingly borrowed from http://mtnbikersblog.blogspot.com/