Disclaimer: I basically ended up doing a regular blog post/journal entry type thing after the first day this week.
1/1/13 People Around Me: Abigail
Abigail is my younger sister. She is a beautiful, vibrant, talkative, and quite active four year old. What many people don’t know is that Abigail was born with an extremely rare heart defect called Tetrology of Fallot. She’s been attached to my hip since the day she came home from the hospital in Seattle with my mom, eight days after she was born. Although she has nearly died several times in her young life, Abigail is thriving. It’s fascinating watching how much she has changed.
Abigail started speech therapy as well as preschool two years ago, but she didn’t really start thriving until she switched to a smaller preschool class taught at the home of a friend of ours. Now Abigail has an avid fascination with letters and numbers, constantly pointing them out with exclamations of delight and sounding them out; “Ahhh” for “A” and “Sssss” for “S” are her favorites. Because we’re so close I can understand Abigail’s gestures and words with only a small amount of effort now that she has new words in her vocabulary, and boy does she talk. She’s a true Smith, using her hands and her words at the same time to communicate the full meaning, jabbering almost nonstop.
Her fascination doesn’t end with words and numbers though. It extends to my cat, Jasmine, as well as soda and candy and anything else with sugar in it, and bags. For Christmas we bought Abigail a unicorn back pack similar to a pillow pet (except it’s a back pack, obviously) because she would always steal mine and my mom’s bags and fill them with little treasures. My poor cat is so patient and sweet. She allows Abigail to do basically anything to her with only small protest. I’m sad to be leaving Abigail when I go to Utah next week (I’ll be there for nearly eight months). I don’t know what I’ll do without her!
1/2/13 People Around Me: Mason, JayCee, and Forrest Today I went on a date with Mason, doubling with Forrest and JayCee. It was just…fun. A lot of fun. We painted shirts and ate pizza, and then went on a photo scavenger hunt. Mason stayed for dinner and the my siblings wouldn't leave him alone, he is now their favorite person in the world.
All in all, today was fantastic.
1/3/13 People Around Me
I was supposed to get my permit today. Yeah, that failed. Note, I didn’t say I failed. We didn’t actually go to get it, but to make up for it I got to help with a 4 month old photo shoot AND….I got to hold her for 45 minutes. BESTDAYEVER. She was such a happy baby, too. Smiling and giggling and it was just so cute! I noticed that the mother had a heavy Spanish accent, and a little trouble with her English, but when her husband came in, he had impeccable English with only a slight accent.
The way he carried himself, I thought he was military. Upright, respectful, and aware. Turns out he’s actually a carpenter, but he was raised on a farm in a…er…well he said “Kind of like the Amish, but almost like a cult”, until they moved and he attended public school. Weird? Yes, my mom said she thinks he probably meant the Mennonites.
1/4/13 People Around Me
Once again, we attempted to get my permit, but we forgot my birth certificate and social security card. I cried. In my defense, it’d been a long day of waiting at the church while my mom helped with a funeral. I helped a bit with food, but today was just…dull. I didn’t want to do anything. Anyway, it was fun to watch the way the Sister Walther thought about all the little details and what needed to be done, and then helping to get them accomplished. Sister Jones lightheartedly made jokes while accomplishing what needed to be done. The women in my ward are quite fantastic.
1/5/13 People Around Me
Swabamalama. Today was mah birthday party. First, we picked up Renaye at her house, then we went to the DMV in Eagle River, and then went back to Regina’s house where she “dressed” me. Then we went to the ice rink (Renaye rode on my lap because we had Regina and Stephen with us, and only three seats).
When we arrived at the ice rink, we met up with Helen and Bekah. Skip along to when Mason arrived as well, and then we all played tag and did a conga line. Yeah, we’re weird. Also, I fell. Well, “fell” is somewhat of an understatement. I kind of almost flew, and then hit the ground with extreme force. I have a wonderfully giant bruise from that. On my knees, hip, and hands. Worth it, though.
We then split into two cars and drove over to Pizza Hut where Holly, Kori, and Diego showed up. Boom, everybody who is gonna show up is here, yay! Proceed some entertaining conversations, head over to Pizza Hut after eating only a small amount of the FIVE PIZZAS my parents ordered, and then some silent observation.
Basically, there were three groups of friends at my party.
- Wasilla/dance friends (Renaye and Bekah)
- Eagle River friends (Mason, Regina, Holly, Kori, and Stephen)
- Anchorage Friends (Helen and Diego)
It was hard, not going to lie, trying to breach the gap between the different groups of people. Seriously! It’s as if they just didn’t have anything in common at all. Hmm.
After saying goodbye, we headed home (we gave Bekah and Renaye a ride), and I basically spent the rest of the day trying not to fall asleep and backing up my phone.
1/6/13 People Around Me
We ended up getting to church after sacrament ended. JayCee and I went to the Gospel Doctrine class because we didn’t have a teacher and were rebelling against being put into a younger class again.
Teacher: Could I get a volunteer for prayer?
Adult: I can do it
JayCee: *wide eyes, whispers* People actually volunteer in here!
We had the beginning of Relief Society, and then had a combined class. I got pulled out for the first part of the class to go watch my dad get ordained as a High Priest (that’s what it’s called, right? Above Elder?). Went back to class, had testimony meeting, and then started saying goodbye to everyone. I stopped and said goodbye to Becca and Caity in the hallway, and my mom left me at the church. My dad was still there, but he’s the ward clerk and had things he needed to do, so I didn’t get home until 4:30 (church gets out at 2pm).
The rest of the day kind of lazed by.
~La vie est belle, Bri~
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