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.

My Favorite Abode

This article was sent to me by bachelorsdegreeonline.com and is right up my alley especially since I am moving back into a dorm room (my home away from home going on four years) next week. Even though other 21-year-olds would feel like living in a dorm room puts a cramp in your style, I love it. I love being surrounded by people on the same life track and also learning how to make the most of our 12' 1/2" x 15' 9" space. This article is aptly titled, "48 Ways to Make Dorm Life Worth Living”.

The very first suggestion struck me as highly ironic. My mother is basically a pro gardener and loving guardian to plants. Thus, you would think those genes would pass themselves down but they haven't so much. However, this spring I was able to successfully grow a plant I don't know the name of in my "hot girl" coffee mug.

Another suggestion is to "Get Creative." For those of you privileged people that have seen my lovely dorm room, you realize this is my motto for my dorm room. I must also give my mom credit because otherwise the green vintage rocking chair, the creaky turquoise book shelf, the red and turquoise end table, the green owl lamp and the garland made of horses cut out of French magazines would all be blatantly missing from my dorm room.

Number 15 on the list is (drum roll please): "Run for office or apply to be an RA." You can guess how I feel about that.

Number 40 on the list encourages harmless pranks. If Jackie Miles had written this list that suggestion would have been much closer to the top.

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.

Favorite Flower

One of the reasons I am always so readily thrilled to jump in my 15-year-old car and drive either twelve hours east or 6 hours (5 when I am driving) west is because I can see fields and fields of my favorite flower. There is something both magical and whimsical about sunflowers. I blogged about them a lot last summer because my grandpa appreciated them too and we would have surprisingly in depth conversations about the loveliness of sunflowers.

My mom, being the good bird friend that she so prides herself on being, sprinkles about a gallon of birdseed in our drive way and front yard daily. Thus we now have about 8-feet tall volunteer sunflowers that have popped up like a security fence at the end of our driveway in front of the antique headboard that serves as a trellis for a pink rose.

Being the Coolest Person Possible

This post follows on the heels of yesterday's post that discussed how to create your own customized area of study. This next article titled, "15 Ways Parents Can Promote Entrepreneurship" from onlinecollegecourses.com.

What I really liked about this article was the running theme of how important it is for parents to take on a role of encouragement for their children as they are trying to figure out what kind of people they want to be. Suggestion 5 is to Encourage Them to Follow Their Ideas. My sister and I often have new ideas or variations to existing ideas of what we want to pursue and what we want to conquer in this world. And my mom just supports us through all those thought processes.

Parents are the foundation for the people we will become and I love that this article tells parents that their role is to be very involved in their children's lives and to encourage their children to think outside the box and be in control of the people they want to become.

Check out the article here: http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/07/16/15-ways-parents-can-promote-entrepreneurship/

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...

Pastiche

Upon the many occasions in which I have to somehow put into words how wonderful my mother is, I often describe how she doesn't care what either me or my sister do with our lives or study at school, just so long as we do something that is fulfilling and makes us joyously happy. Brytten and I have both looked at our college experiences as a time to try out our plethora of interests and both of us have an idea of what we would ideally like to do for the rest of our lives but those things don't necessarily exist as a solidified career just yet. 

If I could somehow combine working in Student Affairs with freelance writing, creating pottery, dancing, hiking, running, swimming, roadtripping, have school spirit and creating artistic masterpieces I would be all over it. Well I will probably end up doing exactly that...

This article, "7 Tips for Creating Your Own Degree Program" was sent to me from top10onlineuniversities.org and encourages college students to pursue a modified career path that perfectly fits their interests and isn't necessarily a set major or area of study. The article details specific ideas on how to enter into a hand-created career that will best suit you and enhance your already rockin' talents! 

Check out the article here: http://www.top10onlineuniversities.org/7-tips-for-creating-your-own-degree-program.html

On a separate but somewhat related note, when I was looking for words to use as the title for this post I was looking for something that described the hodge podge of abilities, interests, and ideas that combine for an awesome career. I "thesaurused" hodge podge and found these lovely new words. 

Pastiche: work of art formed from disparate sources

Farrago: mess

Olio: miscellany 

Summer Reading

Summer is the season of sunshine, hammocks, swimming, hiking, and of course reading. From the time we are able to read we start drafting a summer reading list. Much to my mother's unwarranted perplexity, I read the same four books every summer to kick off my own summer reading list. I, of course, then add new reads to the list but I think of these four as a staple to my summer. My absolute favorite book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, is the foundation of my summer and I make it a personal goal to get as many of my friends as possible to adopt it as their favorite book as well.

I blogged about this book last summer here and quoted some of my favorite quips and passages. It was interesting to read it again this summer and underline/highlight/dog-ear different parts of the book that jumped out at me. That's the thing about reading the same book multiple times... It stays the same but you are different. Thus its definitely like reading a totally different book, Mother! And she is the woman that reads books multiple times simply because she forgets that she has already read them. At least I do it with a purpose.

And now here is what 2012 decided were my favorite parts of this lovely book:

“Susan Scott said you took to the audience at the luncheon like a drunkard to rum - and they to you.”

Ok, maybe I just liked this line because this happens to be the summer I turned 21...

“I can’t think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can’t talk to, or worse, someone I can’t be silent with.” 

So true...

“The hairs, they are a disaster.”

This is my sentiment basically every day..

“He had no imagination, either- fatal for one engaged in child-rearing.”

After living with my mom again I realize that an imagination is necessary in one's hopes of being a good parent...

“I am a grown woman - mostly - and I can guzzle champagne with whomever I choose.” 

Again, that whole turning 21 thing...

“I didn’t ask if you were in love with him, I asked what his favorite animal was.”

That is obviously an important characteristic in a person

“... defying her will be such a pleasure.”

I have become quite defiant in the last year

“increasing personhood”

This may be one of the loveliest things I have ever read. I hope I have increasing personhood throughout all my days.

“Now he talks to himself, which I find terribly endearing since I do, too.” 

Who doesn't? 

“I remember lying in our hay-loft reading The Secret Garden with a cowbell beside me. I’d read for an hour and then ring the bell for a glass of lemonade to be brought to me. Mrs. Hutchins, the cook, finally grew weary of this arrangement and told my mother, and that was the end of my cowbell, but not my reading in the hay.” 

This is precisely why summer reading is so necessary 

Living With My Mom Pt. 1

Last summer, I lived with my grandparents in Spearfish which was such an experience that it prompted me to start this blog. Now I am living at home with my mom for the first time in two years. Last summer was just my mom and Brytten and now it is just me and my mom.

Let me tell ya, it's a little weird.

I have been joking with some of my friends that there is no doubt that I will be a different person in the fall after this summer living with my mama. My mom and I have the same humor which manifests itself in an ability to make fairly dirty jokes and appreciate each other's ability to do so that we will probably end up high-fiving each sexually explicit joke that is uttered this summer.

This past weekend we road-tripped to Spearfish. I created quite possibly the most perfect road trip playlist for my mom and I and our twelve hours in the super-cool (not so much) mini van. I am not sure if it is a good or bad thing that my mom and I know all the words to the same forty or so songs...

Being Extremely Good at Summer

It is only May 23 and I have tan lines, sun-bleached hair and freckled shoulders and knee caps. I forgot just how good at summer I am. On Sunday my Solberg staff was able to move out of the dorms at 5 p.m. but we didn't leave until about 9:30 p.m. because we had spent the afternoon grilling at Matt's house and gorging on grapes and then jumping off docks into lakes fully clothed. Totally worth it. The rest of this week will include runs through neighborhoods lined with full, green trees, hiking at Devil's Gulch, movie nights, and then road-tripping to Spearfish with my mom on Friday. I will go horse back riding and hiking and run through the sprinklers with my sister and cousins all weekend.

This is the first time I am living at home for an extended amount of time in two years and it is a little weird. My mom's cat, Ted, doesn't know quite what to think of me. I joked with my hall director that I am PA-ing my house by utilizing our kitchen's chalkboard for passive programming techniques. And my mom and I are having one-on-ones frequently that involve going for a walk and sitting on our front steps with a bottle of wine.

Bachelorsdegreesonline contacted me and wanted me to share their recent post about the ideal ways for college students to spend their summers. Check out their awesome article for some inspiration.

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2012/how-to-spend-your-summer/ 

Like Mother, Like Daughters

My mom recently became reunited with an old friend from high school. I had the privilege of meeting Jo tonight when I stopped by. I also managed to get supper out of the deal in my very Sanna-like way. Eventually Jo and my mom started telling me some of their great stories from 'back in the day.' Let's just say it's interesting when you learn a whole lot about your mother and it's things you never imagined hearing and that she and Brytten may have more in common than she and I do! Shocker! Later this evening Jo posted this picture to my mom's facebook wall. I love seeing the similarities between us and how much I look like her.

We have the same hair!! Slightly embarrassing... 

Best Friday Morning of 2012/EVER

This morning after 5 hours of sleep my mom picked me up armed with coffee to go to an estate sale. This was quite the event. We had to park a ways a way, take a number and wait for about an hour, part of time in the frigid cold and the other part in the car. I had my Michael Jackson notebook in hand studying for my test this afternoon. When we were waiting outside and knew we would be let into the house soon a woman walked out with an amazing rocking chair. I whacked my mom, as is my tendency to do when I am excited and exclaimed that we had to get in there. Once we did, we were stunned.

There were more rooms then I could count including a two-level attic and a perfect room with hardwood floors, oodles of windows and built in bookshelves that would be an ideal library. There were treasures lining every inch of the house. We quickly realized that we had the best attitudes to be scrounging for things we just had to have surrounded by a plethora of people quickly growing crabbier and crabbier. My mom and I just loved it. After an entire process that took about two and a half hours we exited the wonderful house with lovely new trinkets just in time to get in another hour of studying!

The whole morning is going down as one of my favorite mornings of 2012

Dainty porcelain mug

Autograph book from 1959 filled with humorous messages to the owner

Purse that I will probably carry everyday starting in April... or when I get utterly sick of winter in March

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...

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... 

Prep Work

It is Monday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. which means that I am sitting at Coffea with my mom alternating between homework and my blog. Because most days I would much rather delve into my blog than study for my upcoming finals.

I was going through all my photos that have been taken within the last three years to prep for a post I have had planned for months. Ooooh the suspense! Look for it the first day of Christmas break, Wednesday the 21st. While doing the prep work I found this photo from one of the first outings that Abbie, Kaycee and I had from freshman year!

Icky-ness

There is snow on Augie's campus.

Am I wearing sensible wintery shoes?
Nope

Am I at least wearing socks?
Nope

Would my grandma yell at me?
Yep

Did my mom yell at me?
Nope, she isn't wearing socks either

Would my grandma yell at her too?
Yep

Mondays with Mom

Over the weekend while admiring the horses that reside at the Black Hills Equestrian Center I realized that God might have made a mistake and given me horse hair rather than regular people hair. My mane and the horses' are strikingly similar. I also dubbed a new word to describe my hair- flizzly. It isn't necessarily frizzy but it definitely isn't straight and smooth either. Thus, because of my flizzly hair and ungodly lack of hair product, I am rocking a ballerina bun for about the eighth day this month.

I was feeling majorly moderately depleted today when my mom picked me up for our Monday coffee date. There are a whole lot of stressors which is extra frustrating after having such a wonderful, stressless weekend in Spearfish. My mom has a subtle way of just doing her "Mom" thing and making me get my Sanna-groove back. Today in Coffea, we were doing our traditional Monday activities of drinking coffee, talking about life and love, while I work on homework. Eventually my mom noticed a girl around my age smiling at us. We guessed she probably missed her mom. We are just that adorable together. I came back to Augie feeling slightly more whole with some wounds healed.

I have not yet mentioned the massive actual wound that I acquired grinding flour to make wheat bread with my grandpa- how else? I managed to install insulation and use a staple gun and hammer in nails unscathed, yet when it comes to being domestic, I acquire a big, bad, and downright ugly blister. Seriously, this is a doozy. When I went to get a band-aid from my grandma to repair the palm of my hand she instead had to find cuticle cream for that problem. I still need a band-aid...
Anyways, growing what feels like five layers of skin back is rather painful and I have to wash my massive amount of hair with only one hand. I guess it is all part of building character.

Over the weekend my mom gave my sister and I very distinctly picked-out earrings. Brytten's are very Brytten-like and mine are very Sanna-like. I like having someone who knows me so well especially when it comes to making me feel better - so much so - that I stand up straighter. It takes a lot for me to not stand up straight but when it does happen, my mom is there with an invisible rod behind me to keep me upright. She also picks out B-E-A- uuuuutiful earrings.

Tomato - Tomato, Antelope - Cantaloupe, Potato - Potato

I am back in Spearfish!

When I left on August 18th, after spending over three of the best months possible living in my favorite place in the world with my grandparents, I cried for parts of the entire road trip back to Sioux Falls. I have fallen back into the step of Augie things but yesterday when I bounded up the green-carpeted stairs and hugged my grandpa, he asked if it was good to be back. It definitely is good to be back. My mom, Brytten and I are all in one place which hasn't happened since August. My grandpa then said that he loves Brytten and I. He also said we are neat. Few words could describe both Brytten and I, but neat seems like a good fit especially coming from our grandpa.

So here I sit at the kitchen table eating eggs from my grandpa's chickens and wheat toast made from homegrown wheat that was made by my grandpa spread with Grapple - grape and apple - Jelly also made by my grandpa.

Yesterday's road trip with my mom was a blast! She was a fan of the road trip cd's I had made for our journey. My blue scarf served as a cd case. When "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers came on I thought she might make fun of me for my love of S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!! But instead she sang along and admitted that she had crushes on the singers of the Bay City Rollers. Brytten and I looked them up and now we are slightly ashamed that our mom thinks they are cute. Seriously look them up!

Miss Sarajevo by U2 and Pavarotti was a hit. My mom's favorite song has always been Hotel California. Up until this summer I really didn't like The Eagles and my mom threatened disownment several times. I put several songs by Electric Light Orchestra. My mom told me that one year for Christmas she got an 8-track player and on Christmas Day my grandpa took her to buy her first 8-track and she got the ELO one.

Our road trip was wonderful but of course, I didn't get a whole lot of studying done. Oops!

Last night was one of the best nights ever and was the perfect way to spend away from Augie. I got to stop and see Brytten's dorm. Just seeing her in a dorm is a cool thing. My PA-self came out and I had to check out the building's programming initiatives and the bathroom situation. When we first got to the house I visited the ducks which are now HUGE! Even their heads are gigantic. As my grandpa and I were walking out to visit the ducks and the chickens he commented right away on how well Brytten is doing in school and in general, life.

My grandpa and grandma, Jackie and John, Brytten and her friend, Megan, and I all enjoyed pizza- 6 of them actually. But before we did the grands went to pick it up and then when they got back and saw the full driveway their natural inclination was to park right in the middle of their 1-acre backyard and walk up the deck steps to deliver the pizza. Classical grands move.

My favorite card game is Phase 10 and during every family gathering I suggest it. But last night before I could, my grandpa said that whoever suggested Phase 10 would be shot. He later took back the threat and we played with the typical tensions and uttered swear words. It was great!

Later in the night, the three of us, went downstairs and stayed up talking about life. Hearing Brytten sound like a quintessential college student is one of the best feelings. We are both on the same track in life and are able to appreciate each other so much more.

The best part of the evening was when Brytten admitted that she had always thought that antelope were also called cantaloupe. In Brytten's mind, cantaloupe is a melon fruit and a pronged mammal. It was so Brytten!

Now after a cup of coffee in my favorite Grandpa mug, we are headed out to visit Sven- Jackie's new horse.

This is possibly the best weekend ever!

Sanna Night

Last night was joyful bliss. It was my much-hyped-up Sanna Night and was absolutely delightful. I had grapes, a large Chai, gummy hamburgers, popcorn, Glamour magazine, face pampering scrubs, and movies to watch with my Mamacita. And then I slept without an alarm set for the first time in nearly three months!

I had to instruct freshman boys to erase male anatomical drawings from white boards but that didn't deter from my wonderful night!

The making's of a Sanna Night

Triangle

My mom and I had a moment today that would only happen in my family. We were sitting at Barnes and Noble and she gave me a credit card with a little over $5 on it. She explained that this was the last of the child support money that we would ever receive. This became a comical situation (thank god because otherwise it is super depressing to think about) and she gave me the money to spend on coffee to which I responded, "Ooooh I will put honey in it!"

Such a Sanna thing to do but it is also quite metaphorical. Whenever I need a little boost in my day/life I put honey in my coffee in addition to my normal cream and cinnamon. I like that you don't truly taste the honey until the very last sip. Life is like that. We know that something great is coming and when it does, it is perfect. Through everything that my mom, Brytten and I have been through I have always maintained the slightly Polyanna-like thought that the next wonderful thing is just around the corner. And it always was.