What Will Be Your Word?

I just re-watched Eat, Pray, Love and was drawn to the idea once again of having a word that describes you, your life, your views on the world, etc. I asked Adam what he thought his word would be and he siad, "fortuitous" because as he put it, "He feels pretty lucky lately." Nice touch fiance.

Last summer my mom gave Brytten, herself, and I a bracelet with the word "Aisling" stamped on it. She wanted something that would describe us all and settled on dream and then looked it up in different languages and discovered that aisling is dream in Gaelic. This is probably my word for the three of us and now that I am embarking on the next great love of my life I am on the hunt for my word.

Remembering

I was going through old photos to work on a project for my bridesmaids and I found this. This photo will always be one of my faves not only because of the hilarity of it but because of the wonderful two-legged and four-legged creatures in it!

Be Thankful

My family is filled with adorable people. My grandpa was working at Karl's where he fixes furniture the day before Thanksgiving and to every customer he said, "Be Thankful." I love that! I haven't been to Spearfish since early July and thus it has been so lovely to be surrounded by my people. This is why Thanksgiving will always be my favorite holiday.

More and More Pottery

My sister, Brytten Noel called me two days before I was heading out to Spearfish for Thanksgiving asking for pottery which just thrilled me beyond belief. She uses pottery in the same way I do and even had to stop at Walgreens for a half hour on Thanksgiving Day to buy an assortment of makeup brushes to fill up three of the pots I gave her.

The Ceramics Jeans

Birdie

This is the second post I have written under the same title. A year ago today, our dog Birdie died and without a doubt went to heaven. The real, golden-gate-billowy-white-cloud heaven, not simply dog heaven.

A year ago, I avoided calling my mom from Spearfish because I knew what she was going to tell me. Once I had called her I perched myself on my grandparents' deck with my feet propped up on their patio table and cried. Normally when I cry, I cry without heavy tears but that day I cried and tears fell from my eyes into my lap. And then I wrote this post 

I feel like my mom has been braving herself for this day all summer. Losing our dog was a significant loss to our tight little family. My mom recently ordered bracelets for each of the three of us to wear. The three bracelets are strung on different colored cords to suit each of us individually. Brytten's is on a purple cord- fittingly as it is the color of royalty- mine is on orange because I love little surprises especially orange ones and my mom's is on turquoise because it is a happy color. The silver band on the bracelet is stamped with the word, "Aisling" which is Gaelic for "dream." My mom picked the word as a symbolic representation of the three of us. Also on the silver band is a sketch of a bird. For Birdie.

About a week ago I was scrounging through my bedroom for a piece of paper and found a card that accompanied a bouquet of flowers I sent my mom after Birdie died. I now use it as a bookmark.

It is amazing what an impact a four-legged family member can leave. I know that even decades from now when our family has multiplied by other two-legged and four-legged members we will still think of Birdie and wish all the new people and pets could have known her. Those lovely future people will probably even want to hear her bark along to Christmas carols "sung" by mother.

I found this on Pinterest today which seemed very fitting for this day of remembrance for Miss Birdie who was notorious for a good french-fry-bribing.

Love.

Coffee, Swimming, and Skunks

This past weekend, Jackie, my mom, and I drove out to Spearfish to hang with the fam. We spent the weekend in coffee shops and one particular visit we happened to walk into Common Grounds during a folk band's practice session. They sang about not eating hot soup with your hands- to give you an idea of their musicality.

Jackie, Brytten and I hung out at the water park and I had one of the most adorable grown-up sister moments with Brytten. She and I went down a double-tube slide and she insisted on sitting backwards so we faced each other on our tube and giggled during the entire trip down. Its an odd realization when you and your only sister are both grownups. In the last year Brytten and I have only seen each other about half a dozen times which is completely different from living in the same house. She and I appreciate each other that much more because of how infrequently we see each other and when we say goodbye after a weekend we aren't always positive when we will see each other again.

On Friday night when we first got there we were all sitting on my grandparent's deck and my grandma started explaining how during a recent ending-of-a-skunk's-life on my grandpa's part, my grandma wanted the skunk's death to be used as a life lesson for my 7 and 5-year-old cousins because as she said, "Bad things get shot." This phrase became quite the thing particularly with my mom and my grandpa naming off the "bad things to be shot" in recent history. Everyone from Al Capone and Bonnie and Clyde was named. The next morning in the newspaper my grandpa read an article about Bonnie and Clyde's entire gun collection being sold and my grandpa joked that he was going to mortgage the house to buy the coveted collection.

Sunday morning brought another skunk's death. My grandpa had trapped it in his garden by placing a duck egg in a trap and the skunk ate the entire egg, shell and all. So because no one else was awake at the time he asked my mom to go help him. As she started to say something he thought she was going to complain about having to shoot a gun and kill the skunk when in actuality she was about to complain about her being the last thing the skunk saw before it died. Then to enhance matters as only my mother could, when my grandpa fired his gun (which keep in mind- they live in a very peaceful residential neighborhood) all my mom could think was, "He popped a cap in his ass!" Then she got the hell out.

We didn't see my grandpa for a long time and when he finally emerged and thank god, smelled normal, I got in trouble for not being willing to rescue him if he had indeed needed rescuing. He said he would never rescue me. I don't really believe him.

Spearfish Creek 

It should not surprise anyone that I didn't get a picture of the skunk...

A Different Take on Mount Rushmore

After reading this next anecdote there will be no doubt that I am truly my grandpa's granddaughter. Good ol' Roger had this idea that became an adventure to add to the list for spring break. He subscribes to a duck raising magazine and the magazine conducts a contest in which readers pose with the magazine in front of famous spots around the world and then have the chance to appear on the cover of the magazine. His idea was for his two eldest granddaughters to pose holding the magazine in front of Mount Rushmore. He thought the editors of the magazine would "get a kick out of that."

Brytten wasn't super pumped about the idea but I loved it. I don't have any of the magazine-holding pics but you can guarantee once we get on the cover I will be talking about it!

Looking Smart

This entire event would be impossible to completely describe in perfect detail but at one point my aunt Jackie said to my uncle John, "Honey, look dumber."
If that gives you some perspective...

Good Things Come In Three's

As any good traveler to Spearfish should do, Jackie and I journeyed through Spearfish Canyon twice today. The second time we picked Brytten up and grabbed coffee for a little spin through the canyon. The best feeling is when you are surrounded by people who love you and know you better than you know yourself most days. These two incredible women fall under that category.

"Does it Feel Like You are Back Home?"

This is quite possibly the best week ever. I am sitting at my favorite coffee shop -The Green Bean- in my favorite place in the world -Spearfish- with two of my favorite people- my best friend, Jackie and my sister, Brytten. Jackie and I hit the road around 6:30 this morning and then drove a little bit on the fast side and pulled into my grandparents' driveway at 10:45 a.m. A.K.A. in record time!

Thus far in the day Jackie and I have taken two naps, visited the ducks, had lunch at Guadalajara's with my grandpa, drove to Belle Fourche for chicken feed, and are now sitting on the couches at the Green Bean. After I had picked Brytten up at her dorm room she asked from my backseat, if it felt like I was back home. It indeed does.

Jackie, Brytten and I came with the intention of doing homework but so far we have simply been listening to Brytten's stories she spews in between winks of a nap. We are now fully aware of the fact that she pulls hairs out of her boyfriends back (sooooo gross!), has been practicing her Donald Duck voice and has been told once she gets more comfortable with it she will be able to speak naturally (naturally, as in Donald Duck, of course), and she informed us that flies can lay about 1,000 eggs at a time. I am not sure if I believe that one...

Maybe whenever I am with Brytten, I am home.

A New Do becomes Prayer

As I have been saying for the past 10 days, this is going to be a big year of great significance. Yesterday was the first ginormous thing that will be memorable for 2012!

My second cousin, Megan was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer in Stage IV over the summer. She is only 23 which makes it even more stunning and my sister and I have looked at it as though it could happen to one of us, making it that more real.

Prior to yesterday I had very long hair and now I have 14 inches fewer that became a donation in honor of Megan. I put a picture up on Facebook with the intention that Megan, her parents, and her four siblings could see and know that there are people praying for her all day, every day. I have never been good at sitting down and intentionally praying, but my mom, Brytten and I believe that actions are forms of prayer. Cutting my hair was simply a prayer for Megan. That picture on Facebook got over 125 "likes" which is absolutely astounding to me but I like to think of it as 125 prayers for Megan and her family.

Cutting my hair will probably remain one of the ways I always remember 2012.

I also saw a strong resemblance in myself to the princess in "Tangled"...

Before...

After...

My Girls

I always refer to the residents of the two floors I have been a PA to as "my girls." I have 61 girls and by the time I am done being a PA at Augie I will have been a PA to close to 100 girls. I am certain that all of them come into my life for a reason and I love spending a year with them not only helping them get through their freshman years and adjust to college but also figuring out exactly what the reason is why we came into each other's lives. Today a few of my 1N girls took a study break and came back to Solberg (their first home at Augie) for an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. I loved saying hi to my current girls in the building while spending time with my first batch of girls.

My 2N girls

Some of my 1N girls 

They will always have a special place in my life 

I have to give my sister, Brytten Noel, a lot of credit for why I am such a good PA and why I love it so much. Her endearing pain-in-the-assness has helped me deal with a wide variety of young women trying to figure out their lives. I have recognized something in all of my 61 girls that reminds me of Brytten. She was my first girl. 

Wunce Upon a Time

My mom and I are still at Coffea but this seems like a blog-worthy post. Brytten is about to take her first college final and is going in to the momentous occasion with what sounds like about two pots of coffee in her little self. She has called my mom and I, as she says, "literally 27 times." These comical conversations have included her telling us that the back fell off of her desk chair but now it makes a nice makeup stool, she made our grandpa do his first pinky promise, and she almost fell out of her bed because her blankets started rolling and she was in them. All of this has been said at about five times her normal speaking rate.

She needs a burger.

These very Brytten-like interactions prompted my mom and I to share our favorite Brytten-isms. My personal favorite is when I came across one of Brytten's papers from when she was in about 8th grade- as in way too late in life to make this mistake. She started her story with, "Wunce upon a time."

That's right... Wunce.

Here is Brytten in all her glory.

16th Birthday Celebration

Wunce upon a time, Brytten knitted.

She is going to hate me for this... 

As Only Spearfish Could Do

Today I have rode a horse, put insulation in a duck house, ground flour to make bread, and had a photo shoot while wearing an oversize flannel shirt. Safe to say, I am in Spearfish.

My mom, Grandpa and I visited Jackie while she was riding her horse, Sven this morning and then I got a chance to ride in the arena. I will probably need a horse one day. My mom brought her camera and snapped some great pics!

Jackie's new saddle 

Me and my grandpa. And the intent horse

Telling each other stories

Jackie and Sven

Classic

Me and Sven

This afternoon my grandpa and I continued work on the duck house which included me stapling in insulation. I basically could build a house now.

After supper Brytten had a photo shoot with Grandpa that she has been talking about for days. I got in a few of the pics too!