The ability to wait...and never give up...

I've been working on this lately...and some days I do much, much better than others.  But just yesterday I realized a little more how very important it really is in my life; in all our lives.   So many greater blessings await us if we can just be patient.  The joy in that little girl's face as she receives her reward to patiently waiting...that and so much more can be mine - can be ours - if we can just wait for it. 

I need that reminder always...

The Dirty Dash kicked my...trash. :)

Welcome to my first 10K.  Welcome to the first time I have ever actually swam through mud.  That's right.  I have never been so gross in my entire life!  BUT it was CRAZY FUN!  Okay, yes, I was sore afterward.  In fact, I thought I never wanted to move again for the next few hours.

...I mean days.

At least.

I could most definitely get a better time in a road race, but honestly, this was awesome.  (Okay, minus the REALLY SMELLY, disgusting swamp where you could sink down to your knees if you weren't careful...or if you were...and I felt like we were running uphill most of the time...phew!)

The showers were like ICE afterward, but all I could think about was how to get all the mud OFF of me as soon as possible.  A brainfreeze or two later, I was sort of rinsed off...good enough to go home, at least.

There's apparently another one in the spring, and that one is rumored to only be a 5K, which I think is a phenomenal idea.  Do it, people.  DO IT!

Also: I might be dating the coolest, most attractive man on the planet, who might have come up for the race and actually wasn't embarrassed to be seen with muddy, disgusting DeeAura.  Can we say big time points?  Okay, then.  That's all the blog world needs to know about that.  :)

PICK ME!

Hello.

DeeAura would like to officially apologize for the current lameness of her blog.  Real-life updates will come soon, but until then please enjoy the following true story.

Sincerely,

DeeAura's crazy life.

So. I have this friend that just started a blog consisting entirely of chats he's had with...well...mostly girls, so far.  It's sort of a brilliant idea if you think about it.  Especially if said friend is chatting with extremely funny, embarrassment/accident prone people like ME.  (no bias here.)  Following is said post from today.  I'm openly admitting "Girl" is me.  And yes, that really happened.  

Surprisingly enough, it's not the most embarrassing thing that's happened to me today...but that's another story for another day in the future.  Distant or close, I don't know.  We'll see.

Anyway....proceed.

Girl: But that's the friend who tells me I have to touch boys.

me: wait, what?

 me: touch boys?

  please explain.

 Girl: She was just apparently observing me talk to a guy she knew I...*cough*...liked...

 me: boy toucher!!!

 Girl: HAHAH STOP!

  now...where was I

 me: you were talking with a boy you liked

 Girl: right

 me: but you weren't touching him

  but you should have

 Girl: and, quite frankly, I DID TOO touch him. I just didn't throw myself all over him

 but this is apparently not good enough

 me: you touched him?

 Girl: HIS ARM

 Girl: uh...and I'm pretty sure he hugged me

 me: oh

 Girl: or whatever

  That's touching, right?

  Well, we get in the car to go somewhere later that day (my friend and I...not the guy)

 Girl: and she turns to me

 Girl: she's like ". Don't you really like him?"

 me: and you were like:

 Girl: me: uh...yes. Can we talk about something else?

 me: hahaha

 Girl: so then she goes

 ", I don't think I've ever seen you touch a guy."

  GUH. What, did my MOTHER pay her to yell at me?

 me: hahahahahahaha

 Girl: good grief.

 Girl: I tried to defend myself

  but to no avail

 me: start touching boys

 Girl: HAHAH

  I swear I do!

  I...just...

  I just don't...

 Girl: so then she goes, ". YOU HAVE TO TOUCH HIM!"

  YOU HAVE TO TOUCH BOYS!

 me: hahahahahaha

 Girl: she's yelling this at me

  in the car

  me: so, if a girl touches my arm, that's a good sign?

  Girl: Yes, supposedly, this is the blaring neon sign saying "PICK ME, PICK ME"

The truest, best, most complete kinds of friends...

I need a picture like this with so many more people....

So this is a long overdue post...I have too many of them sitting there, waiting to be published. I swear I always finish things...eventually. :)

I love it when my favorite people get married. Alaina and Todd are so fantastic together. I have this growing list of married friends I want to be so much like when I finally get that part figured out. :) I just love you guys!

And that leads me to what I kept thinking about yesterday. I really am blessed...there are so many friends to whom I owe serious gratitude.

"A true friend is someone who makes it easier to live the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Malcolm S. Jeppsen, “Who Is a True Friend?,” Ensign, May 1990, 44

Thanks for the late night talks (even the ones boys will never understand...Aubs... :]) or the ones in the middle of the day on a lunch break (Cali, I don't even need grilled cheese...unless it's on that homemade bread...in which case, I'll trade you whatever you want. Also, someday I'll have the terrible twos to deal with and you can give me actual words of wisdom instead of my desperate attempts!) or the surprise visits in my office that can get so quiet these days (you know who you are) or the seriously far too kind notes taped to my front door (you extra know who you are) that come on just the days I think I've bargained for too much, or think I might not be living up to everything I hope to become. Or just coming over and sitting on my couch with me even though we both end up in semi-tears. (haha, Carla, I seriously love you...) In every case described, as well as those I didn't describe, I have come away feeling uplifted and I know that very conversation was in some way an answer to a prayer, voiced or not. I only hope I'm not the only one being lifted.

Sister Julie B. Beck spoke in our Regional Conference yesterday, and I only wish I had every word everyone said there, but something she said really stuck with me yesterday.

You are doing so much better than you think you are. But we can still all be doing better than we currently are doing.

I don't want to put quotes...because that's just what I managed to write down fast enough to keep up with everything coming afterward. It was like a fountain of words I needed to hear yesterday.

I only wish I had all my notes with me so I could remember specifically the beautiful things Elder Holland said, or President Packer...who was hilarious, by the way.

The point of all of that is that I realized more than ever yesterday that I have so many blessings, yes, but so many of the good things in my life have come from good friends who truly do make it easier to live the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the best thing in my life.

Someday, I'll figure out the boy part of that equation. Haha. But until one fits somewhere in those categories, I'm good. :)

Anyway...just as a parting treat...go listen to this preview:

http://www.spiremusic.net/servlet/Detail?no=66

Yes, I already ordered it. And I seriously cannot wait for it to get here!

Anyway. Sort of scattered, but...there you have it.

Dear Joel, I am so glad you have fewer stomachaches....

Oh my gosh. This is hysterical....

So I get these emails from BYU every now and again with reports on new studies being published, etc. The most recent one caught my attention, due to its School of Family Life focus, so instead of deleting it, I read the overview. It actually is interesting, and talks about the importance of sibling influence, etc.

You can read it here if you're interested.

After reading said article, my eyes drifted to the bottom of the page where my new best friend Joel had left his comment. Only...I didn't even register that it was a comment until...well...

hahha...just read it.


Brothers Give Siblings Benefits Too

9/2/2010 9:51 AM by Joel

In a sister study (no pun intended) about the effect of brothers in families, it was found that having a brother--even a younger brother--makes girls less annoying to their boyfriends.

"Turns out girls with brothers are less whiney, and don't giggle as much as girls with only sisters," another professor observed.

The boyfriends of girls with only sisters reported much higher levels of annoyance with their girlfriends than did the boyfriends of girls with a brother.

One boyfriend commented, "My ex-girlfriend, who had no sisters, freaked out when I gave her noogies, but my current girlfriend has five older brothers and she loves it!"

Besides being more tolerant of noogies, girls with brothers also are less disgusted by flatuence and burping. Consequently, boyfriends dating girls with brothers report fewer stomachaches.

Levels of "cattiness" and time spent in the bathroom were also significantly lower in girls who had brothers.

"The scripture might say neither is the brother without the sister, neither the sister without the brother in the Lord," says the professor in charge of the study.

In yet a third study, siblings whose parents work either in accounting or insurance have boring personalities.

Aaah...now I get it! Duly noted. Thank you, Joel. :)