Scottie Pippen

Now, I really don't want anyone to get  the wrong impression of my sister, Ciara. She is awesome, but seriously the best stories are of when things went wrong or there was some kind of fighting going on. Ciara knows how to end a fight once and for all!
So, I have no idea what Ciara and Isak were fighting about, but apparently something had to be done. Isak was probably about 5 years old and he had a Scottie Pippen action figure, I think it was exactly like this one.



Isak took Scottie with him everywhere. Well, Ciara came up with a plan I guess. We had a bathroom wall heater that you could turn on and within seconds it would be glowing red hot. She took Scottie from Isak and turned on the heater. She stuck Scottie's hand right in there and burned/melted it away! I don't remember if it was his free hand or the hand with the basketball. I just remember how horrible it was and how Ciara felt SO bad. Poor Scottie lived on with one hand and still got the love he deserved from Isak. It kind of reminds me of Andy and Woody on Toy Story 2. haha!
So I thought of this story yesterday when I was looking at the heater in my bathroom and I started laughing my head off. I told Ryan about it and then I thought of something. Isn't it interesting that as children we can be so "cruel", breaking and ruining people's favorite things, but once you grow up, if you get angry you can't do that. If you do, the favorite thing is usually pretty valuable like a car or something  and at that point, adults have power to get the law involved. Kids think that their things are as important as an adult's important thing and they are! But we don't see it as such a big deal. So pretty much what I am saying is that adults are just kids in big bodies. When I was little I used to wonder what it would feel like to be 16 or 20, etc. Well, when I hit both of those ages, I still felt like me. I think that it will be like that forever. Even when I am 80 I will still laugh about Scottie Pippen and feel a little bit sad.

My Daddy

This week in school I have been studying the importance of Father involvement in a child's life. I wrote this as a part of a paper for that topic.

          After going through and learning about father involvement and its importance and the lack of father involvement there seems to be in society, I realize even more that I had a seriously super dad. I have been reminiscing about the many things my dad did that I just knew as normal and never gave much thought to, but observing children and families a lot recently I have seen that it was quite a novelty.

            My father figured out implementing the truths in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, as it reads, “By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.” I just don’t remember too many other fathers that I knew or have known to take responsibility for certain aspects of care of their children. I remember as a small child having my dad come in and help me with a bath and teaching me that it is important to wash our bodies and it was no shoddy job. He made sure that all of us kids had clean ears. That is one specific thing that stands out to me.

            I knew without a doubt that my dad loved me. He told me, a lot. Both of my parents were wonderful in loving and rearing their five children, but as much as my mom was the “nagger”, my dad always backed her up or was the one encouraging us to do better and be better in everything we were involved in. It was dad who always asked if my homework was done or would find us doing homework with a television on and turn it off and get us back on track. He was the one that I ran to with my report card in hand to show how great I had done in the last term.

            Dad understood another principle that I want to point out from The Family: A Proclamation to the World, “WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God.” He understood and understands the great responsibility it is to be a husband and a father and that he is accountable to his Eternal Father.  One amazing thing is when a man can be a father to more than just his own children. There are many examples that I saw while growing up of how my father filled that role for many different children at different times. My dad was a friend, a support, an encourager, and more than I will ever really realize I owe to him. 

Hair Mishap

Christmas time of 2010 was super fun...there was snow! We played in the snow and it was great. It came to be New Year's Eve and I wanted to re-highlight my hair before going to the stake dance that night. Ciara and I decided that we could do this and so we bought a box of bleach/highlighting stuff and went into the bathroom to get my head ready. We put on the "cap" and started pulling hair through the little holes with a pick. We decided that our best option for success would be to use this method.

Looks great, eh? Yeah, one mistake that was often made at home was to leave the door open, laughing and talking loud enough for Mom to get curious. She came in and was telling us that this was a bad idea, because we didn't know what we were doing, as we had never dyed hair before, (at least "substantially", there was one time with hot pink hair dye...that is another story) and that she could help us, because of her expertise of hair dying. She said we needed to get rid of the cap and do foils, because that is how the professionals do it. I have heard that foils are tricky and so I was quite apprehensive, but we were having fun and it is just hair, right?

Just from the look of it, we should have been anticipating some problems I believe, because most the time foils are very neatly folded and flopped to different sides of the head...I had a crazy rats nest on the top of my head with hair knotted up in tin foil from the kitchen...was it heavy duty? haha!?

  Now, I wish I had a picture to show the severity of the rest of the story, but I did not want pictures of such a disaster. We defoiled/unraveled my hair and it looked as though their might be some issues with what areas got highlighted, but Mom assured me that once I dried my freshly washed hair I could see the full effect. Yes, I saw the full effect! Ciara is the funniest when it comes to things like this, because her facial expressions let you know whether you need to be concerned or not. She gets big eyes and starts laughing/breathing deeply. It is pretty disconcerting. So, I had a bunch of round splotches of bleached hair, right around my part. I was trying to stay calm and remember that I am ok with whatever happens to my hair, because it is just hair. I decided I could roll with it by just flipping which side I part my hair on and getting my hair re-highlighted by a professional later. So, we had dyed my hair, but once flipping it, the highlighting was pretty much on one side of my head. Kind of like Cruella de Vil. 

Ciara helped me do my hair so you couldn't see any major Ooops! in my hair and we continued to be crazy and have fun. Apparently Ciara wanted to pick my nose...?

Pretty much I absolutely love my big sister, because she is hilarious just like me...well, I am constantly trying to be funny like her. Me trying too hard is what is actually funny. The rest of the story? I pretty much did a comb over for 7 months, before we decided we should probably fix the big splotches in my hair.  It was a fun New Year's Eve and the only people that knew there was something seriously wrong with my hair were the ones I showed it to at the dance. 

Isak and I were the best of friends...

Oh Me and Isak...Isak and I. Sometimes it seemed like we wanted to destroy each other....but seriously I told him everything and he told me ...ha as much as boys talk....
We had a lot of fun...even when there were mishaps.

Isak was a student of Yavapai College before he went on his mission and I was still in High School. He was helping someone with their garage door that was broken and .....he got an injury.

It was really bad. This is a picture a day or two after the fact. He got to have stitches all over his eye lid and all that jazz. Well, he didn't want to miss a lecture for his biology class and needed to have good notes taken, but his eyes needed to rest and I don't think he was supposed to drive either. So, I got to skip my school, which of course high school doesn't matter all that much especially when you are a super genius like I was (not really ha). I went to the college with Isak and we waltzed right into that classroom and sat and waited for the instructor to enter. Everyone was slappin' Isak on the back, "yo, man, what's with the patch?"

He had fun with the attention as I sat there awkwardly awaiting being in a college course, at the college. I took college classes that were taught at the high school, but this was a new experience. 

Teacher comes in and Isak goes to chat with him and see if it is okay that I am there to take notes for him. The teacher was quite hesitant as it is against policy to let someone in on lecture who is not registered for the class and Isak didn't have a doctor's note...but the professor decided it was okay as Isak was wearing an eye patch and offered to let the professor see the ridiculous mess beneath that brilliant white cloth....apparently that wouldn't be necessary.  

   Do you know what Isak looked like through the entire 2 hour lecture? He leaned back in his nice rolling chair, hands behind his head and workable eye closed as I wrote notes furiously and legibly... ha this is what it looked like....He really enjoyed relaxing his eyes during this time. 

It was quite a scene for me as I can remember sitting there next to him and kids behind would say to him that he was so lucky to have a secretary in class with him and he would just give 'em a little smirk and just say they were jealous. 

so, here is me on my first day of college secretarial work. 

Isak, I love you and I think you are the greatest. I miss hanging out with you, fighting with you in the truck, listening to music and head banging, etc. The list could go on and on. 

Sisters are forever!! (: Some Fun stories!

So I was just reminded of a time when you were honing your nursing skills. We were at Girl's Camp and it was my first year. I was unpacking and grabbed my razor out of my bag, slicing my finger open, it was a gory scene. I went to find you, because you were the only person I wanted to help me. I still remember the cool 'cast' you made for me. You had everything in your homemade first aid kit. Once I thought of this experience I was trying to remember if there were earlier experiences of your skills. I remembered when I let a neighborhood girl put a concoction of weeds and berries onto my scraped knee. When I came home and you saw it and found out who I let do it, you went to work on cleaning it up so I wouldn't get an infection. You are awesome. I won't go into detail about the time mom left you to watch me when I was running a high fever. I am sure you remember that one. wink emoticonFredrika!!!! I love you.

Story for today: haha. Do you remember Tah Wah? I really don't know if that is the proper way to spell it. I feel like you invented the game, but who knows. We did it a lot when you were babysitting and Isak would be crazy. The best spot was right at the bottom of the stairs so that there were three walls available to pin a person to. Hands in the notches of each others shoulders and straight elbows. That game was intense and I seriously think it was a great outlet for sibling disputes. I also just remembered how you used to pin Isak on the ground and sit on him, holding his arms down to make him listen. Got a little more difficult when he started to grow and so did everyone else, you couldn't sit on anyone anymore. Yep. yep. I think that some forms of "fighting" are quite healthy...and entertaining.

So, I was pretty dang sick one summer and I was running a really high fever for a couple of days. Mom went to the store for food and probably stuff for me. You were supposed to watch me and get stuff for me and I think run me a bath. I was in the bathroom upstairs and I was crying and stuff. We decided you needed to check my temperature and I told you to get the thermometer out of Mom's bathroom drawer. You came back and rinsed off the thermometer and started to shake it clear. The way I remember it was that you were walking toward me real creepy like, with your arm extended ready to pop that sucker in my mouth. I screamed and said, "Not that one!" You were startled and said you didn't know what I was talking about and I started crying and telling you that you can't put it in my mouth. I either whacked it out of your hand or you just dropped it when you were so scared of my wrath. I told you, "That is a butt thermometer!!" Apparently you didn't know about those things, but I did. But yet, you are the nurse.

Sister, So...One time You+Me decided that we wanted to go to Tucson for the weekend so we took that cute, little red truck and we were off...with a coooool book in hand. I read the entire thing to you on the way there, through our stay, and back. Hunger Games, yo! But umm, so we got lost in Phoenix through the spaghetti bowl,but then figured out how to keep heading south and somehow cut off time, making it to the Grandparent's Casa in 3 hours flat. .....That story isn't very exciting, but it is something that I like to remember. 
smile emoticon I love you!

Hiking with Little Brother

Spencer, I was just thinking about when I came home to visit you for Thanksgiving and you took me for a 'hike' and we kept going and all of a sudden we were ankle deep in sludge of the lake and you let me hop on your back as you trumped through, splashing mud all over us. That was super fantastic. The rest of our little hike was fun too, because you are so adventurous. Thank you for being my baby brother all the time and carrying me on your back when my new shoes get all yucked. Well, the moral of the story is; you need to stay in tip top shape in Uruguay so in two years you can still carry me through sludge if need be. I miss you a ton already. It is not fair that I have to go longer than everyone else before seeing you. 25 1/2 months. ridiculous. I love you.