Week One, Subtle Captivation: People Around Me

People Around Me

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.

1. Wasilla/dance friends (Renaye and Bekah) 
2. Eagle River friends (Mason, Regina, Holly, Kori, and Stephen) 
3. 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~

Subtle Captivation

Here’s the thing…I’ve decided to start a new project. I know what you’re thinking, but I am determined to stick with this one! Here’s what it is.

The name is "Subtle Captivation".

Every month has a theme. Each day I will take a picture and write something to go along with the theme. It can be poetry, observation, anything. This happens every day of the week, but I’ll post the entire thing on Sunday. Some weeks may be longer than others, that’s just life. Deal with it.

Here are the themes:

January: People Around Me
February: Change
March: Color
April: Religion
May: Light
June: Beauty
July: Clothing
August: Knowledge
September: Loss
October: Memories
November: Dance
December: Music

~La vie est belle, Bri~

The Important Things

I was reading in my old journal and came across this entry. After some grammar and punctuation correction, this is going on my wall.

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

I've been reading a book called Secrets in Zarahemla. I just finished it a couple minutes ago. The love that Kiah and Jared share for each other and their faith in God is overwhelmingly evident.
That's how I want my marriage to be. I want my faith in God to be strong. I want to marry a man who loves me for me and who has a strong faith in God and the church.
I want to be worthy to enter the temple and sealed for all time and eternity to the one I love, and start a family.
I don't know right now what I want temporally, but spiritually...
I want to be strong in the Church, raise my children in the church with faith, and have family home evening every Monday, and scripture and prayer every night.
I want to visit the temple weekly, and keep God's commandments fully. I want to have a strong testimony of the church and of God.
And I want my kids to have that, too.

Sabrina <3

~La vie est belle, Bri~

HomeschoolED

Friend: Wait, you’re homeschooled?
Me: Yeah?
Friend: Huh. You don’t seem to have any trouble in social situations.

This past year I’ve made a lot of new friends, and when school started I realized that most of them are public schooled, and don’t really know anything about homeschool except the stereotype of “socially awkward” and “they don’t do anything but play”.

Let’s just get this straight; not all people who are homeschooled are socially awkward! And typically, home schooled people are more advanced in school then the average public schooler, and we have more time to do things. And we’re just plain awesome.

For those friends, here is a wonderful video explaining the difference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQoSRfu5z_4

~La vie est belle, Bri~

Operation Flat Belly Skinny Legs

Check out my new project over at Dancing Day by Day

This week I didn’t work on anything steadily. I didn’t start swimming, and now my swimming buddy has left the state. I didn’t exercise or stretch. Can I have a redo? Can I restart? I didn’t even take a picture of my splits last week! Okay, well, here’s week two.

Dance-wise, I think the main thing this week was stamina. I haven’t been able to keep up with any of my dance practices in Eagle River. Every five minutes I need a break because I can’t breathe and by the end of practice a sharp pain is shooting through my right shoulder. I haven’t had trouble keeping up until about two weeks ago. Does anybody know why that is? Answers are mucho appreciated.

Life-wise, I just got some amazing new purple boots, new clothes from Helen, and I learned how to tie a tie (thanks to Mason). Go me!

Don’t judge too harshly, my splits really kind of suck, not to mention the fact that I didn’t stretch at all before taking these pictures.
Dance starts tomorrow; nervous? ME? Whatchutalkinbout? Heh…heh….
And you know...I somehow ended up losing my water bottle O.o

See ya'll next Sunday!

~La vie est belle, Bri~

Just Life

Life...oh how I love you, and loathe you too. It has been so busy lately, I've hardly had any time to write anything. Girl's Camp and Youth Conference was last week. I'm kind of glad that's over, although I enjoyed the review of things that I learned in the past, not to mention the new things I learned.

I learned how to "throw" people, and all sorts of defensive moves from a retired Alaska Trooper. It got me interested in Judo, something a couple of my friends have been doing for awhile. Come to think of it, I always thought "WHY do they do that?" I got my answer; because it's FUN. It makes you feel kind of powerful. Of course, Renaye was the only person I could successfully throw, and she's only 115 pounds and two inches shorter than me...maybe I'll get Caity to teach me some of it. Hmmm...

I re-learned fire building, giving me just enough to realize my older brother positively fails at making fires to cook hot dogs on. Also, I'm pretty good at fire building, if I do say so myself (which I do).

I learned how to be safe on the internet, and how to present the Book of Mormon. I learned more about how relationships work, and re-discovered how important education is. I touched dry ice and nearly choked on my sandwich. I did CPR on a dummy, and turned red from laughing so hard.

Yes, last week was fun, despite some of the virtual rain clouds.

I'm nannying for one of my dad's friends this summer, and she gave me emergency numbers for a couple of her friends who are certified at one of the local clinics. Made me seriously consider getting CPR certified...I need to look into that.

I also need to fill my prescription for my glasses, and start studying for my drivers permit. I *have* to get it this month in order to get my license in December.

~La vie est belle, Bri~

Samantha Koenig

Early February I heard that a young women was abducted in Anchorage. I didn't bother to find out her name or her story; it wasn't really important. I felt like I had too many things going on in my life already, and it was so far away that it just slipped my mind.
Today my Facebook feed was covered with statuses about a girl named Samantha Koenig; they said her body was found in the Matanuska Lake. I realized after looking up the story that the girl who'd been abducted was never found. The girl who I'd just dismissed because it wasn't my problem never got back to her family. I got to thinking...why do things like this happen? What could possibly drive somebody to do something so horrible? And finally...why does God let it happen?
You know, I've read lots of books where people are so angry at God for not preventing things like murders, and I always thought how stupid those people were, how silly and naive. But it's not stupid. It's not silly or naive. It's almost a rational reaction.
Who gave that man the right to decide whether Samantha would live or die? What gives him the right to take away someone's life?
God.
God gave us agency, the right to choose. But what happens when someone chooses to do something awful? What happens to the innocent people they hurt?

I decided to do something that my Sunday school teacher has been stressing all year; study, ponder, and pray. I went to lds.org and looked up my question "Why does God let bad things happen?" and came up with these answers from an article written by John Bytheway:

We Know That God Allows Evil to Exist in the World (Moses 7:26–33)


Sometimes our trials are a direct result of someone using their agency to do evil. Often when tragedy strikes, someone will say, “Well, it must have been God’s will.” What exactly is “God’s will”? It seems to me that God’s will is that we choose righteousness over wickedness! However, He also desires that we have a choice in the matter.
In the Pearl of Great Price, Enoch sees a frightening vision. “And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced” (Moses 7:26).
Chains often symbolize bondage in the scriptures, and Enoch sees Satan looking up and laughing at the world in chains. Enoch also sees the Lord, who looks down on the sinful world and weeps. Enoch asks:


“How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?” (Moses 7:29).
The Lord answers in what I think is one of the saddest passages of scripture:
“Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
“And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood” (Moses 7:32–33).
Clearly, what the Lord desires is that we love one another and choose to obey Him. But some do not. They are “without affection.” Everyone on earth has agency, and sometimes those who misuse it have an impact on many innocent people. This scripture provides evidence that the Lord notices the tragedies on the earth and that He is affected by them.
Many of the bad things that happen are contrary to God’s will. But remember that man’s will is temporary, and ultimately God’s will is what will be done.
There are other questions in all of this, too. How many acts of premeditated evil has God prevented? How many of these tragedies could have been much worse? There is no way we could know. Sometimes we see things on the news and ask, “How could God allow this to happen?” Could it be that one day we’ll discover that God prevented much more than He allowed?
How many times has someone prayed that “we might get home in safety,” and we actually did? How many traffic accidents has He helped you avoid? How many times has He inspired you to do something that saved someone from injury? We will never know in this life.
The plan of happiness allows for agency, and therefore it also allows for evil. There is no flaw in the plan.


...Why did this happen to me? (or, why did this happen to them?)
Everyone on earth has agency, and sometimes those who misuse it have an impact on many innocent people.
How could God allow evil to happen?
Don’t let tragedy define your life.
We may never have all the answers in this life.

The next step is to ponder and pray. I'll be praying for Samantha's family, that they will find peace and understanding. I'll be praying that I find the understanding I am looking for.

~La vie est belle, Bri~