A Most Random Message

A few weeks ago I got this message sent to me through my blog.

Hi, my name is Julie. We don't know each other, but I heard from a friend that you are the bra expert and I have a question for you. I married my dear husband 7 months ago in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, and as such, I have been wearing garments since that time. So my question is this: What is your "expert" opinion about wearing the bra under or over the garment top? I don't know if I should feel bad about this, but I think it the bra serves its purpose much better under the garment. I get rashes and feel uncomfortable with the bra over the garment top, but once a sister told me that my bra should never go under. This probably all sounds silly to you, but I'm too embarassed to talk to my friends about the subject. I would appreciate any help you could give me with this dilemma. If you could e-mail me, that would be great. Thank you so much for any help you can give me!!!

When I got this it was so random I couldn't believe it. I think it's so funny I'm considered the "Bra Expert" to the public. I was so excited to answer her question because I got this asked a lot when I worked at Nordstrom. Here is my opinion to her question.

Julie,

I have to be honest I was so suprised and excited to get your e-mail. I no longer work as a "bra expert", but when I read your e-mail it got me so giddy and it reminded me how much I enjoyed being a "bra expert." I'm so curious, if you don't mind, who is this friend of yours that knows me? This is a great question, you shouldn't feel embarrassed at all about it. Talking about breasts and bras is so natural to me because I would do it all day for my job. I would get asked the same question a lot too because I helped women who were 95% LDS. Here is my "expert" opinion on this topic.

When I got married in 2006, my grandfather who sealed us in the temple and who use to be a temple president, stake president, and bishop told me that there's no doctrine in the church saying there's one right way to wear your garments. Meaning wearing your bra over or under your garments. He told me this decision on how to wear your garments should be between you and the Lord. Some women who are physically handicapped and have to wear their garments one way. You should wear your garments in a way that will help you to carry out the covenants you've made.

Here is an exmaple, the Lord said to multiply and replenish the earth. This doesn't mean you need to have a baby as soon as you get married. I've heard many church leaders say that no one outside your marriage and the Lord should influence you on when it's the right time to start a family. That this decision to start a family will be revealed to the people who will be doing the procreating and the Lord. To be honest, I don't think Heavenly Father is going to care how you wear your bra, I think he's more concerned about other things. No one should judge you or tell you you're a bad person if you wear your bra a certain way. I think the reason why some LDS women are so opinionated about this is because they've seen their mothers, grandmothers, and friends wear their garments and bra one way; so they think that's the only way they can wear them.

I hope I answered your questions. If you have anymore please feel free to e-mail me again. Thanks for the inspiration you gave me! Look forward to hearing back from you.

This is her response:

Hi Courtney

I just wanted to tell you that I went to the distribution center on Saturday and have been wearing the tops you've recommended for the last couple days. So far, so good! I also had a nice little chat with my dear husband and he agreed that if I am wearing certain tops, it is ok to wear my bra against my skin!!! That's like a double breakthrough. Thanks for responding to me. I hope to hear back from you again some time.

Julie

My response to her

Hey Julie, sorry it's taken me a long time to get back with you. This is the first time in a few weeks I've been able to sit down and go through my e-mail. I'm so happy to hear you're enjoying those tops I've recommended, are they still working out? I'm glad I could help you. I have a question for you actually.... Why is your husband so concerned about your garments? I would think husbands wouldn't really how you wear your bra with your garments, as long as you wear them and are committed to your covenants. I know it took a lot of courage for you to ask me your question. Maybe you have friends or girls in the ward who have that same question as you did. So I challenge you to be more open about this topic. You never know when a friend or family member is someone is struggling spiritually or having a hard time adjusting to their garments. Anyway, stay in touch and if you have more questions please don't hesitate! Are you on facebook? If you are, I'm going to add you.

If any of you have different opinions or questions regarding this same topic, let's start a conversation about this!

Sincerely, the Bra Expert

Spring Break

McKay, myself, my cousin Erin, and her husband Tanner took some time off and went on a little vaca, we stayed in Vegas, LA, and San Diego. This is what we did:

Went to beautiful Balboa Park in San Diego

Visited Cabrillo National Monument

Overlooked San Diego Bay

Cruised Mission Beach

Played some frisbee on Coronado Island

Went to the Jay Leno Show

Janet Jackson was the guest on the show. Sorry Janet you were kind of boring

Spent a day in Vegas

Saw this

5K

My pregnant cousin invited me to run with her in the Operation Smile 5K in Provo on Saturday. I think running is boring and have never had any desire to participate in a grueling activity such as this one. This was my first race and was expecting to place last. To my surprise we did pretty well. Our goal was to finish before 45 minutes, but we finished at 35 minutes! My cousin is a tough girl, I didn't see any other pregnant girls running the race. Overall, it wasn't that bad. It's defiantly more fun to run with a friend. I got a cool t-shirt that I'm proudly wearing right now. I'm already feeling sore and will need assistance from McKay to get out of bed tomorrow morning.

Happy 23rd Birthday to Me

Today I celebrated my birthday. So many people have wished me a happy birthday and want to say thank you to all of you who care and love me. This morning when I got to work there was a big Happy Birthday sign over my desk. I got flowers delivered to me at work from my mommy and daddy (I never get flowers!). My good friend Liz sent me a book in the mail, and my cousin gave me a big flower pot and some bulbs for my garden! I felt so spoiled today. McKay got me some much needed racquetball glasses and and a glove. I've been using a hybrid of safety goggles safety glasses for the past couple of months. Finally, one of the guys in the league said, "Sister, you definitely need to get new glasses." I feel like such a glam sporty girl in my pink glasses and glove.

The New News

There's some exciting things that have happened in the past couple weeks:

McKay got accepted to BYU's Master's Program for Electrical Engineering. This is great relief for the both of us, especially McKay. We feel very blessed that everything has worked out so far. Even though were not moving to somewhere exotic to go to grad school. It's comforting to know we have our families near by. This means we'll be living in Utah County for another two years. McKay is graduating in May and will start school up again in the Summer.

I started to take private racquetball lessons every other week. I joined the racquetball league at the Orem Rec Center and have enjoyed getting my butt kicked a lot. There's about 20 people and league and I'm outnumbered 19 boys: 1 girl. I'm planning on continuing my racquetball training and education and hope to get good enough to beat the 19 boys in the league in the fall.



I want to plant a small garden this summer. Thanks to a friend from work who let me borrow all of her gardening books, I've been planning out what I'm going to plant. I don't have any land so I'm using a bunch of pots to do the trick.