Best. Day. EVER! :D

So, I don't know if any of you noticed, but..... I haven't been the most chipper of God's creations for quite a while now.  Like, since school started.

(Most of you prolly didn't know that, but hey! Now you do.)

Today.  It fixed all of that.  I hope.

Today, I only had two classes.  Two of my favorite classes.  And I decided that the four hour break between them would be a perfect time to visit here:

The Provo Temple

And while I walked there from campus after devotional, I called Eric William Walter Mordecai to wish him a happy birthday. :)

And while I was at the temple, I experienced an hour and a half of peace.  It was wonderful, and I was happier.

And when I went outside, I had two hours to ponder and walk around the beautiful grounds and read my scriptures some more and write.  And that was also very wonderful.  

And I was even happier.

And I started reading the writings within the book I was writing, and I found a quote from my wonderful Grandpa Rodabough:

"Whatever you're doing that's making you miserable--quit it."

What a splendid kick in the pants!  My draw dropped in amazement at the applicability of that statement to my life at that point.  And then I threw my head back and laughed wholeheartedly.  Grandpa's so great!

And right after I read that, my eyes happened to fall on my scriptures that were open on my lap, and a marked verse said this:

"Behold, my beloved [daughter], remember the words or your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice."

--2 Nephi 9:52

Joy! :)  I'm commanded to be joyful!  At this point, I realized that I had no good reason to be grouchy.  God has blessed me waaaaayyyy too much for me to justify myself in such an action!  So, smiling a great smile and being very happy, I put my books in my bag, took one last look at the beautiful temple and grounds, and started on my way back to campus.

And as I was walking and reading some more, I heard a voice that I knew all too well.  Elder Larsen Alma was walking by me! :D  He ran up to me and gave me a h.....hhandshake.  Gotcha! ;)  Haha!  He was smiling his biggest smile, and it was evident that he loved being a missionary and that he was thoroughly enjoying his time at the MTC.

I can't even convey my pride!  I was just so happy to see him!  He was so excited to be there, and he obviously was learning and growing lots!  He's just such a wonderful person! :)  >Sigh< He was so happy, in fact, that he made me want to serve a mission.  Right now. :P

Anyways, I left him to his volleyball, and I skipped--quite literally--all the way back to campus.  I was just SO HAPPY! :D  All in all, its been a splendid day!  I'm so joyful, and I'll just have to do all I can to make tomorrow just as wonderful!

 :)

P.S.  Just for kicks and giggles...

Sometimes, when you are an Abi, and you buy liquid eyeliner.... you draw a mustache.  

On your face.

Ees for fun.
:D

26.2 Miles of Glory...

For those of you who don't know, I have a champ for a sister.

Actually all of my family members are champs, but Liza Anne just happens to have run a 26.2 MILE MARATHON on Saturday.

But wait!  She didn't just run 26.2 miles, oh no!  She ran 26.2 miles through the rain... and hail.  That's right, my friends, through the HAIL!  It hailed!  While she was running!


Okay, not that I've impressed upon you the weight of the words '26.2' and 'hail,' I'll get on with the rest of my story...

Not only did she do all that, but she smiled.  The. Whole. Time.

Click the pictures to see them bigger.  'Cause, I'll be honest, they're kinda hard to see.

You kinda can't see her because of the green guy, but she's smiling!

She was drop-dead gorgeous!  As she was running 26.2 miles!  I know because Dad, Ma, and I all drove/rode along the course and cheered her on at 8-ish different places.

Did she collapse near the finish?  Did she waver and fall along the course?  Did she curse the weather and ask "Why me?!"  If you answered yes to any of those questions, you obvilously don't know how much of a champ she is.  This is Liza sprinting to the finish:

And this is her I-just-ran-a-marathon-and-I-need-to-go-get-my-freakin-awesome-medal-but-I-guess-I'll-turn-around-to-say-hi-to-my-family-face:

Do you SEE that smile?!  She's beautiful!

Needless to say, I'm so proud of her!

She did milk the 'Hey! I just ran a marathon!" excuse for all it was worth, but--I mean--it was a valid excuse.  For everything.  Haha!  She's just great!

And after the marathon, she ran (figuratively) for the rest of the day until midnight because she just couldn't shirk her duties.  Aaaand she had to go to the BYU football game.

Yes, my friends, she's amazing. :)

Something Sweet :)

I witnessed the cutest thing in class today.

It made me melt.

Its a small writing class (easily my favorite class this semester), and we spent today critiquing short works of literature composed by our classmates when lo and behold, some random guy pokes his head in the door.  He turned out to be one of our teachers favorite students from a previous semester and the older brother of one of the girls in our class.

Well, he walked in, and took a chair.  And he was handsome.

But that's not what made me melt.

Instead of watching him in the short conversation that ensued, I leaned forward so I could see the look on his sister's face.  That was a very good decision on my part.  That has to be one of the healthiest sibling relationships I've ever seen.  Her face lit up.  It was very obvious that this big brother and little sister loved each other with all their hearts.  Kaatje and David smiled at each other across the room with such a happy, fun-loving, slightly teasing look--MY day was made just to witness it.

The rest of the class period, they would glance at each other and grin.  It was sooooooooo happy, and I loved it.

After class, I was so glad to have a question for my teacher because it did my heart so much good to listen to them tease and compliment each other.  I loved it so much.  And I'm a HUGE fan of them both.

And they don't even know.

I'm prolly a creeper.

What is a smile anyways?

Today, I was confronted with a smile.  If you can call it that.  The teeth were showing.  The corners of the mouth turned up pleasantly.  Overall, the face looked pleased...ish.

But it didn't feel like a smile.  Not a true one.

It was just an action--an action that was supposed to mean something, but it didn't.  Not to me.  I didn't feel sincerity in that smile.  In it, I perceived a need to seem pleasant, and a wish for a good-natured interaction, but I felt nothing of the genuine cheer that should accompany such an expression.

I was stunned.  This smile made me cock my head to one side, not smile back.  I forced myself to make an answering smile--realizing as I did so that I was mirroring the expression that had perplexed me in the first place.  Why did it bug me so much?  This wasn't a smile.  What makes a smile anyways?

Being in English 218R - Creative Writing, I did what I have been trained to do.  I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary.  (I'll be honest, I was excited.  The OED gives the etymology of words as well as the definition so you can see  what a word meant centuries ago and discover how it has changed.  Exciting, eh?  I think so.)  :)  (P.S. I promise that smile was legit.)

According to the OED a smile is:

"An act of smiling; a slight and more or less involuntary movement of the countenance expressive of pleasure, amusement, affection, etc., or of amused contempt, disdain, incredulity, or similar emotion..."
"smile, n.1". OED Online. June 2011. Oxford University Press. 6 September 2011 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/182595?rskey=Yy3QQf&result=1&isAdvanced=false>

So what was wrong with this smile I'd encountered?  Was it an expression of pleasure? No. Amusement? Hardly.  Affection?  Definitely not.  We weren't acquaintances like that.  None of those, but it wasn't amused contempt or any of the others either.  This smile was not involuntary in any way.  It seemed forced.  Habitual.

Now I'm not saying smiling a lot is a bad thing.  I love to smile and see smiles because they remind me that I should be wearing one.  Often, as soon as I see one, it somehow elicits an answering grin from my own features.  It's a simple way to make someone's day, and if you haven't noticed, I seem to be bound to type a smiley face whenever what I'm writing makes me smile. (Hence the overload of emoticons.)  What I'm saying is this:  If you don't mean the smile at all, why would you give it?  If that is the case, it is, by definition, not a smile at all.

Too often, we use the kind of 'smile' that fades as soon as we turn away from the subject it was meant for.  Too often, we use the 'courtesy smile' that really has no meaning.  If it lapses into a frown, it's not a real smile.  And I guess it's okay that we have fake ones.  After all, we don't want to be straight-faced all the time.  All that I ask is that you don't let that become your default smile.  Make sure that, when the time comes, you have a ready, genuine, fantastic smile on call and ready to go.  You don't want to be known for a fake one, do you?

A real, true, honest-to-gosh smile is so much more than an action of your mouth.  Sure, that's where most of us look, but a real smile can be seen in all of you.  Your eyes join in and get squinty and sparkly.  Your face smiles, you stand a little taller, you take in a short breath, and you can feel the smile work its way from your face, through your body, clear down to your toes.  It's a real smile when your whole self is required to display the happiness you feel inside.  It's a real smile, when your body is just an outward expression of a grinning spirit.

A real smile doesn't just disappear.  It lingers.  Evidence of a true smile will display itself in your eyes, face, and heart for a while after.  A real smile changes you.

So go out and smile at someone for reals. :D

My Grandparents are Champions

It's true.

I was born to goodly parents.  And they were born to champions.

......Oh yes, and my parents are champions too.  :)

More than a month ago, my dad's parents gave a mission farewell in our ward at church.  Usually, at farewells, I sit and listen and beam with pride all the day long.  I'm just so happy and proud to know people who are so willing and worthy to go serve.  This was no exception.  And I think I was beaming even more than usual (if possible).

All during Gramma's talk, her pretty blue eyes sparkled, and I just thought of how great she is.  She's a wonderful woman, Gramma Kate.  She's taught me a lot about how to work hard, how to be kind, how to sew and paint and knit and crochet, and she's always just loved each of us with all her heart.  As she stood in front of a packed chapel to speak, she bore her testimony of the truth of the Gospel of Christ, and I was so happy and proud (the good kind, I promise) to be her granddaughter. :)

After she spoke, it was Grampa's turn.  His talk was short and to the point, and he prolly didn't say all that he wanted to, but it was so heartfelt and powerful.  I was just overjoyed at seeing them prepare to go and serve together.  It's such a wonderful opportunity, and it has been a humbling one for them, I'm sure.  He made me cry.  Like a lot.  And then during the closing song, he saw that I had been and laughed at me.  (Or, as he puts it, he smiled inside).  But he was really laughing. :]

Two weeks ago today, I moved back to school, and the day I brought my belongings and my self to Provo was the same day they came down.  The next morning, they were scheduled to enter the Missionary Training Center to begin their 18 months of serving the Lord.  Liza and I invited them to come to our apartment for waffles that morning.  It was great to have a good visit and see them so ready to go.  They're simply splendid!

This morning, I was checking my blog stats and I saw that I had two views from Finland.  That reminded me--oh! I have a half-finished blog-post about my champion grandparents! :)

Yes, they're now in Finland.  In my opinion, they've taken a bigger leap of faith than most of the younger missionaries who choose to serve do.  They've left their posterity--their children, 30 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren--to serve.  I'm so proud of them!  They've chosen to follow the council of the Prophet.   I'm so happy that they have chosen to be such wonderful examples for their family.  Their great, and I love them, and they love the Lord enough to sacrifice so much to serve Him.  I'm beaming with pride as I write this. :D  I'm so happy!