{Family} Family

I woke up sick last night, so I got left home this morning. My family split between a workday at the Beacon Center and picking up bountiful baskets (a food co-op we've been trying). SO, it seemed like a good time to write my blog for this week. As I said, this will be one last post in my {Family} series.

First of all, my family is very competitive. (Tyler and Sam would be the slight exceptions. Tyler's competitive in a quiet way. Sam is competitive until she gets distracted with a butterfly, or a pretty flower.) We compete with each other on a day-to-day basis. By "day-to-day basis" I mean things like racing to see who can get in the shower first, or read the most books, etc. "Last one buckled in is a rotten egg" is something we hear a lot. Outside of our family, we are also competitive whenever we get the chance. Playing games, playing sports, pretty much any opportunity. :)

Board games :)

Family volleyball tournament 2012

Second, my family tends to enjoy dangerous activities. (The exception here is my mom. She DOES NOT like dangerous activities.) Some of my favorites are our zipline, where you jump off a platform in a tree and ride handle bars across the creek. It's not REALLY dangerous, just sort of :) Sledding on a truck hood in our field is also fantastic. That's only really dangerous when you try things like jumping the hood over a tree that's fallen down. We used to have a a tire swing that we could drag up a ladder, then jump off. I never got the hang of it because the tire was heavy enough, it would pull me off the ladder if I went too high. Or just playing sledding demolition derby on an icy hill. The point of that game was to knock as many people off their sleds before you reached the bottom of the hill. All of the above activities are courtesy of my dad. He knows how to have fun! ;)

Blanket swings, inside. My mom's face shows her ideas on "dangerous" activities :)

Hood sledding

All-in-all, I couldn't ask for a better family. It's easy for me to forget how blessed I am by my family and their characteristics. These blog posts have been particularly helpful in making me think through what I appreciate and learn from in each family member. It's been a great exercise in thankfulness!

Proverbs 17:17

A friend loves at all times, and a brother [family] is born for a time of adversity.

{Family} Dakota

This is my last individual family member blog post. I'm going to do one more after this of my family altogether! Then I'll have to be creative with a new theme. NOT my strong point! ;)


Dakota (Kota) is my littlest, baby brother!

He has the cutest, baby-ish giggle. It melts my heart every. single. time.

AAWWW! I LOVE this picture! ;)

To sum up Kota's personality in one word, I would probably say competitive. He loves to play sports, outside group games, or board games. Actually, just any game. He will stay engaged in LONG, difficult, and strategic board games. His favorites are "Risk" (A LONG, LONG, complicated war game), "Scrabble", and "Aggravation". If there's no on to play with, Kota will sometimes resort to a game of tackle football or tic-tac-toe with himself. :)

Although Kota loves sports and games, he's always been interested in farming and equipment as well. I don't think his interest goes QUITE as far as Storm or Tyler's, but he still enjoys playing with tractors, and dreaming about operating huge machinery.

If I were to pick a phrase to describe Kota, I would say "reckless abandon". He tends to be sorta' (okay, VERY) reckless. Which is usually just fine. (My family really isn't very safe, as a general rule). He's gotten some really crazy injuries over the years. He's also NOT gotten hurt when he was doing crazy things. For instance, when he was jumping on the trampoline and decided to run from one side to the other then go flying OFF, and land rolling. He told mom he was going to do a FLIP off and land rolling, but she said "NO!" :)

Sledding stunts :)

He IS on a trampoline in this picture :)

 Sports, playing farm, being reckless, or just doing school, Kota and Storm are NEVER far apart. If you watched them play, you would never think they were best friends. They fight, really roughly! Any game you play with those two ends up being a wrestling match over this-or-that! They're crazy brothers!

They were playing "alligator" in the mud!

So, to sum up Dakota in one sentence, I would say: Dakota is my crazy, competitive baby brother!

(He also says the GOOFIEST things. Like this one, talking about what he wants to do when he grows up:
"I plan to fight in the navy for a few years. Then, if I don't die in the navy, I will work at Taco Bell until my death." WHERE did he come up with that?!)

{Family} Stormy

Here's the fifth installment of my family blog posts. It's worked so well, maybe I could continue to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. Then again, maybe not ;)

I met Stormy just after he turned four.

Homeschool Tuesdays at the art museum.

He was the cutest little kid ever. Because Stormy wasn't the baby (Kota), and wasn't my future little sister (Sam), I don't think I paid as much attention to his personality at first. But, seven years later, that's changed. I remember a few things about Stormy vividly. First of all, my parents met them about a week before Tyler and I got to, so they told us about what they were like. I remember them saying Stormy had been somewhere and was so thrilled because he'd gotten a doughnut. Second, I remember that he was really, REALLY hard to understand. He couldn't say "s", "l", "r", or "g". ("s" was "t", "l" was "w", "r" was "w" or "m", and "g" was "y"). He would say "yamma" instead of "grandma". My most prominent memory of Stormy is how much he loved keys. Oh my. He would do anything to carry them around (he had several of his own he had with him constantly.) They totally fascinated him. In his profile, it warned about not leaving keys in vehicles. Thinking about it now, did he really have a tendency to START things and DRIVE OFF?! :)

 

I can totally see how these personality things I remember about Storm have stayed as he's gotten older. He still loves doughnuts :) Actually, he loves food in general. Even if he doesn't like something, he'll eat it, and never say a word.  He loves to help cook as well. Pastry chef in the making, I think. ;)
Although he pronounces everything correctly now, Storm has to focus really hard on communicating what he wants to. It takes patience to listen to him. It's just so much easier to finish the sentence when you KNOW what he wants to say!
And the keys? Well thank goodness he eventually started not taking them everywhere with him, but his fascination for equipment is absolutely still there. Stormy would hop in anything and drive it off if he was allowed to. (and he probably wouldn't wreck. He's talented and pays attention to things like that. He'll so be driving before me.)

Sam was having trouble getting the back of her hair dried, so he did it for her. *heart melted*

Storm is the middle child through-and-through! He's not even bossy like me. He will happily do whatever you tell him to, as long as he gets to be with someone. He loves to deliver firewood with Tyler, or help mom clean the kitchen. He always seems to be the one with extra chores, because he's so handy and ready to help. He can also get anywhere he has ever been. According to my family, when I am actually allowed to drive by myself, I will take Stormy everywhere with me so I don't get lost. :)
The last thing about Stormy is,  he is so, so sweet. Sometimes I wonder how someone with such a kind, caring personality got put in our family of rough, "think it say it" people. He's probably a good influence on us!

{Family} Samantha

I took a break last week from my posts about family. There back again now. (Starring the first younger sibling I've written about.)

Samantha (we call her Sam, or "Bug". I'm not really sure about the "Bug". I think it's because she used to go galloping through the house saying "Bug-dig-u-bug-di-gu-bugdigubugdigubugdigu" over and OVER and OVER.) first came to our family when I was nine.

That was the first picture  I saw of my little siblings. I stared at it SO long trying to figure out what they really looked like.

The first time I met them was at a park. I played with Stormy and Dakota, and they played with us. I don't really remember Sam, except that she wondered off to the opposite side of the park, and my dad went after her. I also remember that she had a bug zoo case she was carrying around.

In the months after this, we met them frequently to play, and they were eventually permanently placed in our home. This was a really, really difficult several months. We were trying to do school, and mom was adding "triplets" to her schedule, and just wasn't able to spend the same amount of time we were used to with us.  (Our grades dropped.). It was a lot to get used to very quickly. At nine-years-old, I wasn't prepared for some of the difficulties. I remember spending a lot of time crying and being sick, half the time just because I was so stressed.

Playing dress-up with my mom and aunt's old prom dresses :)

Sam has always been the boy's big sister. When they first came to our house, Stormy even called her Sissy, which was so adorable. (But he couldn't say "S", so it came out "Titty") She's always loved bugs, and animals in general, but especially birds. What always surprised me about Sam is, as much as she likes creepy crawly things, she like "girly" things as well. (dress-up, hair, make-up, fingernail polish, and crafts. She's WAY more artsy than me :)) Recently she has taken an interest in volleyball as well :)

Our official court date.

I often feel cheated when I think about not knowing Sam as a baby, or as she grew older. It's just different to be part of a family from the time your born, and to know nothing else. It's a feeling of discontent that I constantly war with. It's like many other things that I KNOW God  has a plan, but I still struggle with the sin of not trusting completely.

{Family} Tyler

This post should be interesting. Tyler (IF you didn't already know, he's my only older sibling) and I have an interesting relationship. He's my best friend and my worst enemy in the same day. 

Tyler is my best friend because (aside from my parents) he is the person I have known the longest. Regardless of how much you dislike someone, knowing them since birth and seeing them every day, makes your relationship with them special. I love (most things) about Tyler's personality. He loves to serve by working. HARD working.  Helping people move, or doing work on their house, their trucks, or trailers, or combines, or tractors, or balers, or corn-pickers.... yeah. :) Tyler doesn't verbally show that he is passionate about things, he shows by how hard and long he works at them. I am always shocked at the joy he finds in equipment, and motion. That is so not me.
Another thing I love about Tyler is he KNOWS what I am thinking. He can look at my face and KNOW what quote, story, joke, or thought process I am going through. It's scary and funny at the same time. Also handy. Like in church, I don't have to whisper whatever was sparked in my memory, he usually knows.

Tyler is my worst enemy because (aside from my parents)  he is the person I have known the longest. [It's good to be able to argue both sides of an argument, right?] When you know someone that well, and they know you, it gets one-hundred times easier to push their buttons. Which he can do perfectly. I actually think he's working on writing a book called Big Brother's Unite to Drive Little Sisters Crazy. I keep thinking he's going to grow out of making me scream by jumping out in front of me. It's a nice thought, but it hasn't happened yet. I can't say I'm innocent. *evil giggle* When he kept complaining about how I never put the right socks in his pile, I drew red hearts on the top of his socks to "remember which ones where his". :)


Anyhow, worst enemy or best friend doesn't change the fact that Tyler is graduating this year. He's played his last game of high school football, he's gotten his senior pictures taken, he owns a truck (oh wait, he's owned that since he was 13), and he can officially only bake when it's brownies from a box (everything you need to move out of the house.). And he has plans to move to Nebraska and be gone for the better part of the year. That's great, he's planning on doing what he has always loved (insert here: equipment, farming, working) but what am I supposed to DO without my redneck, annoying, big brother? I'm not sure yet. I'll keep you posted. :)

{Family} Mom

I posted about our sports, which was mainly about my dad. Because he's a serious cheerleader. Now it's my mom's turn. She deserves several blog posts :) (I think I'll just do a post on each member of my family. I do better when I know a "theme" for my posts.)

First, my mom and I are the light and dark difference.... uh-huh. Fantastic.We miscommunicate all the time. She and Tyler have similar personalities. They are firstborns with the gifts of organizing, scheduling, and keeping things together. It is so different from my life of total chaos. But, when I was with my aunt, who is more laid back and just "go-with-it" personality, I was so confused. Turns out, when you grow up with an organizer, you learn to rely on that, and even be comfortable with it. As long as I'm not the one organizing. (insert here: a disaster)

Once, my mom told me about a nightmare she had. Basically, she was at college, and she didn't know where her classes were, when they started, or what assignments she needed to have done. That's a nightmare for her. I explained how that's just the state of life I live in :) That right there, folks, is the sum of our different personalities.

My mom and I are also different concerning hugs (I love them, she doesn't), flowers (she loves them, I can tolerate them, as long as I don't have to weed), prunes (she enjoys them, I CAN NOT stand them), and an organized  house (It really bothers my mom if the house is in shambles. It has to be REALLY messy before I notice.).

Nonetheless, there's also things we both really enjoy! Jane Austen, or other "sappy" movies :), garage saling, running shoes, clothes (more or less), and baking or not following recipes (not at the same time. That does not work out well.)

Although we are so different, over the years I have learned to appreciate my mom's personality. The way she can keep a schedule in her head, or remember her list (not only does she make a list, she follows it. I lose mine.) amazes me. God has certainly blessed me with parents that are perfect for my personality and needs!

Mom at 5 years old

Me at 5 years old

I maybe looked a little like her :) Yes, we both had dress cakes on our 5th birthdays! When I was about 4, my mom's relatives would tell how much I looked like her. But seriously, to a 4-year-old? I was smaller than her, she had curly hair and I didn't. I started crying once when someone told me I looked like her. I just thought it was ridiculous! I have learned to take that as a compliment! ;)