This I Believe

Sarah Ashby

Sis. Abenroth

Eng. 106

12 May 2015

“This I believe”

I believe in sisters. Sisters can be the worst and the best. How are they the worst you ask? I will tell you. When you were younger having a room to yourself was probably unheard of. If you were in my family you didn’t even get your own bed; my two younger sisters and I shared a king-sized bed for most of my childhood. And because you had to share a room, if you had to go somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, 7:00 am or earlier, you had to get dressed in the dark, so your socks probably didn’t match. You most likely had to share a bathroom. I had to share mine with five others, sheesh. If you had more than one sister, like I did, your mom probably had to initiate some sort of quiet time. We actually had to read books and we couldn’t talk above a whisper.

Sisters can also bring on arguments (that of course weren’t your fault). There were two doozies in our family that I can remember. One was over chapstick. The other was about Barbie clothes. Someone wouldn’t give something back…ok, so that one was my fault, let’s move on.

It was on my 18th birthday when I thought sisters were the worst. My sisters thought it would be funny to make me do things I didn’t like in order to get my presents: walk across poky grass in my bare feet, eat raw onion, beets, egg yolk, and other things. I’ve tried to block that day from my memory.  If your own family is out to get you, what do you have left?

What you have left is why sisters are the best. If you are like me you have a built-in best friend. I have five best friends. We are there for each other anytime day or night, except when they live clear across the world, “Now let’s see, it’s 12:00 noon here. Thailand is three hours ahead of us, tomorrow night.” Then I might have to pick a different sister to call. But even if I called that groggy sister I know she would still be there for moral support.

They make me laugh. When we are all home for holidays or when we’re all at the beach together you might find me on the floor from laughing too hard. That might also be that the clock says 12:30 am, but we’ll say it’s because they know how to tell a good story.

Sisters will listen to you complain, at least mine will. I have a deal with one of my sisters: that when you want to complain but don’t actually want advice, the other person just listens. But if you want advice, they will give you that too. Sometimes they give it even if you don’t ask.

So as you can see having five sisters can have its downside but for the most part my sisters are my life. If something ever happened to one of them nothing would be the same. We laugh, we cry, we love. What more could you ask for? We are the Ashby girls.

 

the truth hurts

So Tarrin has this bear that sings the song "Jesus loves me this I know..."
Arianna and her were in the other room and I hear Tarrin sing it this way, "Jesus loves me more than you."

25 last words

In conference one of the speakers told of a man who was in prison and was allowed to write home but was told he could only write 25 words. I thought about what I would say also I thought this entry was appropriate considering Carrie might not come back from Thailand. So funny or serious what would you say? (commas and periods don't count )

Sarah:  I love you be good, kind, laugh, play. I know the church is true. Having sisters is great. There's always money in the piggy bank.

Claire: I love you all. Think of me fondly. Enjoy the wildflowers and spring thunderstorms. Rachel, I forgive you. I love you, Gordon! Go, baby, go!

Beth: (this is hard!  like choosing a tatoo..)  tim. babies. family. work hard. eat good food. i love the word of God.  fear not.  be nice.  stuff doesn't matter... in a good way.

Vivian: I'm sorry for always trying to get out of folding the laundry.  If I ever get out of here, I'll fold all of your socks forever.

Carrie:  I told you I was sick. I swear I did not know that shirt was in my suitcase. Can I go back to bed now?

Rachel:  Why didn't I listen to Vivian? Why didn't I listen to Vivian? Why didn't I listen to Vivian? Why didn't I listen to Vivian? Why...

It was all wrong

Well you may have heard Beth and I are going on a little trip to NYC to see Newsies, well I had a little dream about it.

So Mom, Beth and I were at the show and we were up in the balcony and we couldn't see very well so Mom and Beth decided that they were just going to go down to the lower half and take unoccupied seats I of corse think this is morally wrong, even thought I hate the seats were in, and I stay put now I can see Mom and Beth and they look like there having so much fun and that its way better down there where they are so I decided I'm going to go down heck with what's right or wrong but just then the lady (authority figure) tells me I need to stay in my seat. I start to cry. I sit there for a while and agin decided to just go down so I just sort of slip past the lady and go find Mom and Beth but now I can see the show is awful I mean really bad they'er singing off key, there's a crazy light show, and I think there was even smoke. I just cried, "I spent all that money on this?" Then I woke up.

Graveyard Hunting

(Don't worry, Beth - there are no zombies in this story.)

It all started with a name: Thaddeus Constantine Hix. Uncle Gordon let Mom know that an ancestor of ours was buried somewhere near Auburn and sent her a document with all of the information he had on him...which was not much:

Born: Jan. 14 1818.
Lived in White Oak Township, El Dorado.
Died: Jan 19 1868, and was buried at New York Ravine, next to his daughter.

Mom sent us this information and suggested we go find where he was buried.

But White Oak Township doesn't exist anymore, and there is no record of where it was. And New York Ravine? The nearest geographical location currently named that is a 2-hour drive to the north of El Dorado County and is in the middle of nowhere. So we did some research, found a list of historic graveyards around El Dorado County, and decided to do a little hunting when Sarah came up to visit for her birthday weekend.

We hit four graveyards- one in Pilot Hill, a town of 415; one called Uniontown, which was behind a barn at the end of a narrow lane; Pioneer Graveyard (which seemed promising); and Mormon Island Cemetery, which had been relocated so as to not be at the bottom of Folsom Lake. Even though we hit the most promising spots, we had no luck locating Thaddeus...we're guessing his grave is one of the hundreds marked with a weather-beaten rock or simply labeled "Unknown".

Although we didn't find Thaddeus, we sure did find a lot of other treasures. We saw beautiful green countryside and dilapidated old barns and we pulled over at historic points of interest. At the end of windy back roads, we were rewarded with tiny overgrown cemeteries. We ate lunch at an old saloon-turned-cafe. We stopped in Sutter's Mill and saw the cabin where James S Brown lived. We watched a blacksmith at work and listened to an old lady playing violin. All in all, we had an adventure.

And maybe we'll find him next time - there are still lots of remote graveyards to explore...like this one.

A conversation with a two yr. old

Me: Tarrin what do you want for lunch? How about a potato?( now the reason I asked is because she usually has the same thing for lunch- lunch meat, chips and cheese so I thought she might want something different.)
Tarrin: No, I want Macaroni and cheese.
me: ok, sounds good. (I put some water on to heat up)
T: I don't like mac 'n' cheese I want a sandwhich with no meat. ( she has never eaten a sandwhich here she doesn't like the bread)
me: why don't you just have mac 'n' cheese since that's what I have started here?
T: no! I don't like it. (I turn off the water I haven't put in the noodles yet so no harm done)
me: do you want a corndog ?
T: no, cookies I want cookies.
me: well you can't have cookies until you have something good for lunch so do you want some lunch meat? (she likes lunch meat)
T: I don't like lunch meat.
me: well do you want a potato?( thought I would try that suggestion again)
T: no, I want mac 'n' cheese.
me: ok. (as I turn back on the water and dump in the noodles. She ate a whole bowl.)

Sarah

1. I can't open my eyes wide
2. I broke my arm trying to stop the microphone/podium from going up and down. It won.
3. I'm afraid of heights. When you're in a tree and the branches start moving in the wind it gives me the creeps.
4. speaking for creeps I don't like pulling the drain in dirty dish water.
5. I love power tools
6. I like to quote movies. I've seen a lot and I seem to have the ability to remember them even if I've only seen them once.
7. I've always been able to understand kids. I had a whole conversation with one of the kids at my preschool when we were done there were several members of my family sitting at the table and they said "what did he just say?" me "oh, he said I need to buy more juice at the store" they said that's not what we heard.
8.One of my favorite things when I was a kid was going on the job site with dad even though I did the dirty work.
9. I've never been kissed
10.I love those fruit pies you know the ones with the sugar on top and theyre not good for you at all? yah those. yum
11. when i was younger i stepped in a bobcat trap.
12. I have trouble sleeping. I haven't gotten more than 6 hours of sleep, without help, in a long time
13. I love getting a call in the morning for my b-day.
14. I've lived in Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. I liked Colorado the best.
15. I've writen in a journal everyday (I may have missed once or twice) since I was 16.
16.I want to go to Prince Edward Island, Greece, New York in the fall before I die.
17. If I could ware pj bottoms all the time I would.
18. fresh home made bread is one of my favorite things
19. I came in last 2 or 3 (I've tryed to block it from my brain) times in march madness. In my defense I was going for the underdogs. i picked buckenell to win and they did
20. I too have a crush on Anderson Cooper, but I dosen't stop there other tv people I have a crush on: Wentworth Miller, Simon Baker, and the guys on supernatural( i don't watch the show but theyre hot).
21. I would like to decorate a store window. i sort of got the chance when i worked for eddie bauwer but I couldn't do my own thing i had to follow what corpret wanted.
22. I like country music. There I said it.
23. It makes me happy when the netflix comes in the mail.
24.spring time in auberry is my favorite time
25. i like maps i like to knowing where i'm going or see where i could go.

Squeezable grape jelly

Today I made sandwiches with Skippy peanut butter and Welch's squeezable grape jelly. It doesn't get more american than that. The part that gets me is the squeezable part. getting jelly out of a jar was too hard? We need to make that easier. Oh, I know, let's put the peanut butter and jelly in the SAME squeezable container. Save time. Oh wait, they already do.

A Cat Named Maybe

A cat wandered into our yard:
Maybe it has another home; maybe it doesn't.
Maybe we'll feed it; maybe we won't.
Maybe it'll stay; maybe it won't.
Maybe we'll let it in; maybe we won't.
Maybe it's a girl; maybe it's a boy.
Maybe she's fat; maybe she's pregnant.
Maybe she'll have babies this week; maybe she'll have babies next month.
Maybe the next baby will be alive; maybe it won't.
Maybe we don't have babies; but we still have - Maybe.

(poem by Mom)

RIP Maybe babies. Maybe Mom won't get Maybe fixed?