My Family

Well, it's another one of those nights where it's hard to fall asleep. So I thought I'd write a post since I haven't written one in a couple of weeks. It seems like this semester has been going in overdrive. All the weeks seem to be melding into one big glob and it's hard for me to keep one day seperate from another. But today was a good break. While I was sitting in church, the thought just kept coming into my mind how much I love my family. They really are the greatest. We've all certainly had our troubles because I'm pretty sure we have the worst luck ever, but we have each other to laugh about all of our troubles with. Here's why I love my family:

Dad-My dad is such a hard worker. He taught me that if you start out with a disadvantage, you just have to work that much harder to keep up. It's been very annoying at times, but I believe that I am stronger than most other people because of it. I also know that if I ever need anything done for me, he will be willing to help. When I got in a car accident a few years ago and was having a minor panic attack, he was there to help me straighten everything out and get things taken care of. I really appreciated that.

Mama-I can talk to my mom about almost anything. She's very good at listening to me complain about things and is there to celebrate with me in all my successes. I can't begin to count how many times she has lent me a shoulder to cry on. She helped me out a lot in my drawing and design & color classes by lending me her supplies and helping me with technique and all that fun stuff. It's also been great to share with her all my art knowledge and I look forward to going on our art trip with the school together! She's probably my best friend. Life hasn't been easy, but she's always been there to help me through it.

David-Growing up, David was my absolute favorite. I still remember cruising around in his orange car listening to the Beatles and going to see The X-Files at the movie theater. Now that he's moved and we're both going our seperate ways, it's a bit harder to see him but he still manages to make us laugh when him and Joni get together and mock things. I don't approve of some of the topics, but they can usually get me laughing pretty hard.

Emily-Emily isn't the newest addition to my family, but I still haven't gotten to get a chance to know her as well as I know my biological sisters. Emily is a very sweet person and I respect her for all the hard work she puts into raising her family. I can't imagine it is easy with 2 kids and a job. She always tries to stay so upbeat and look for the good in every situation. I admire that.

Lisa-Being the first girl couldn't have been easy, but Lisa has laid down a good path for the rest of us to follow. Not necessarily going into music or teaching, but she has shown how much importance she puts on following her dream and making sure the gospel is a big part of her life. It's been a long time since we shared a twin bed, but we still manage to stay close by having out ditcher time and keeping up the tradition of stealing each others clothes. It's nice to run into her at the Snow building every once in awhile and be able to talk about the music aspect of my life with her. I can't wait to go support her at her big concert this weekend!

Tyler-Tyler is the most recent addition to our family so I've know him probably the least, but he's been a lot of fun. It's always fun to make Lisa mad when I tell her about the dates I went on with Tyler (and we've gone on a few!) I know that he takes good care of Lisa and that makes me happy. He's also brought something to our family that we don't get a lot of - Cowboy yodeling! I still remember the first time he brought his guitar over to our house for the first time and sang Chime Bells for us. I hope he teaches Lisa how to yodel just like that!

Joni-It's been an interesting time with Joni. For about the first 20 years of our lives, I'm pretty sure we were banned from talking to each other because we would always fight. But now she is one of the people that can usually make me laugh. We have so many inside jokes that people have said it's like we have our own language. Anything from "panclocks" to "why don't you just drink poison?" we can have whole conversations just quoting things to each other. I guess all those years of sharing a bed/room together is finally paying off. When she gets a job and moves away, I'm really going to miss her.

Andy-All growing up people always thought we were twins (although lately Joni and I have been called that) because we would do everything together. Our favorite summertime activity was playing with the hose in the mud and grass out front or spending the day perfecting our fort in the forest of our backyard. Once I hit high school, I felt like his second mother because I'd have to drive him everywhere and make sure he got his homework done and all that fun stuff. And after he graduated, him and Joni and I spent the summer bonding at home together going on pop runs with Oscar and watching ER. He's one of the funniest, quirkiest kids I know. Now he's in New York and I really miss him. But I'm so proud of what he's doing.

I love my family so much and I'm so thankful for phones and the internet and all those other means of communication so that we can hopefully continue to stay close. I've always kind of thought of our family as like the Mafia. I think we're a little bit intimidating and very close. I will always stick up for my family and try to do everything I can for them. They are the best thing that has ever happened to me.