Family & Poem

This is my family. It shows my dad in the very back. Then, from left to right, there's my mother, my sister, Becky (Rebecca) me, and my sister, Rachel, and then there's my sister, Sara in the front. To the side is my brother, Clarence who, in order for us to have a current picture with our whole family, I managed to add in. He wasn't there since he died 5 years ago on November 7th because of a fire in our house. My mother has recently joined him in death, she died about 2 months ago on September 18th because of cancer. I'm currently working on books on the life histories of my brother and my mother. Clarence's will be entitled "The Best Brother in the World", which was a statement Rachel used to describe him, and my mother's books will be called "A Hero in Disguise", which Rachel came up with as the perfect title for hers. I'm currently trying to collect as many memories of them as I can, but no one has given me anything yet.

I wrote a poem on Sunday, and Monday night, Rachel helped me to edit a few awkward lines. This is the poem I wrote:

All These I Miss and More

The greeting of a son
Not seen in five years time
An embrace of love
Together once again.
My mother and my brother,
I miss more than I can say
Together they now dwell
They seem so far away.
As a daughter and a sister
I will see them again.

Now, the house seems empty
Her presence is no longer there.
Now, who will I talk to?
To whom will I tell all?
My mother is gone,
She's nowhere to be seen
Her spot on the couch is empty
Her vital companionship is gone.

The sound of her voice
Telling me to get up each day;
The smile on her face
When I would do something right;
Talking to her anytime of day,
Telling her all that happened:
All these I miss and more
Since she went away.

For five long years,
His presence has not been here.
His strange behavior is nowhere in sight.
His weirdness is absent from our house,
Except for his voice singing his song,
The song he wrote about being weird
Tah, and the home videos and pictures
Remind us of who he was.

The sight of his strange concoctions;
The sound of his simple laugh;
The smile everyone seemed to love
And always needed to smile back;
His simple silence when around others;
His sense of humor when around us:
All these I miss and more
Since he went away.

The mother is gone,
The brother is nowhere in sight.
They seem to be so far away.
We miss them every day.
They now dwell together,
Mom left to join him there.
We'll see them agan one day
A family forever we will be.

Wierd Encounters

On Thursdays, I don't go to work. I go to a church class called Institute every week at 7 pm. Since, I had to ride the bus to school and would not be getting a ride to the church for Institute, I had decided that I would walk to the church from the school. Early that week, we discovered that Gizmo, my older sister, Rachel's cat, was almost out of food and we were going to need to get more, somehow. I decided that the best thing to do was for me to walk over to PetSmart from the school before Institute to pick up a bag of food for him. I ended up having to use my own money to pay for it because there wasn't enough of the money Dad gave to me left for it. First, I used the remainder of the cash then I paid with my checking account to minimize the amount of money I'd use from my account. Yesterday, I talked it over with Mom and Dad, and they said that I could just deduct the amount taken from my account from the money I owe them, since they lent $125 to me for my tuition. Dad also told me that instead of getting money from them when I needed it, for lunch and bus passes, I could just continue to deduct it from that amount as well. Since, it would be a lot easier to deal with.
So, I purchased Gizmo's food and I was planning on walking over to the church from there, but I saw Sister Pedersen (a member of my ward, in my church) and some of her children in line a couple people ahead of me. After they were done, they saw me and went out, and were waiting for me to exit the store. Sister Pedersen offered me a ride to the church. So, I got a ride to the church instead of walking, as I had initially planned. I had left the school immediately after my last class ended at 1:50 pm, because I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get to PetSmart, so, I got to the church at around 2:30, and lucky for me that there the missionaries were there, so, the church was open and I got sit inside to work on homework or read. While I was sitting there, Brother Billings (another member of the ward) came in and started to talk to me, asked me why I was there. I told him for Institute. He asked what time it started, and I answered at 7 pm (I'm pretty sure that that may have been the reason his son, Taylor, who is a year younger than me, actually showed up at Institute, because I'm pretty sure I saw Brother Billings make a phone call after I told him that and I can only remember Taylor showing up one time before that.). We started talking about other things, and he asked me if I was a Heroes fan, and I answered that I liked the show fine, but that I had missed several episodes, but that Sara was obsessed with it and about her watching the same episode at least 2 days in a row, and coming in on her watching it day after day after day. He said that he was what could be probably called a "closet Heroes fan" and before he left he told me to tell Sara that he had Heroes on DVD (Sara has been wanting Heroes on DVD for her birthday on October 2nd, since she found out it was coming out this month.). It was very strange. I've also decided that I really would like to walk to the Church from school from now on.
On Friday, I took the bus to the Gateway Mall (the mall on the north side of town) in Bismarck, to wait for the bus I would take to the Kirkwood Mall (the mall on the south side of town) in Bismarck, because the Arby's I work at is located within it. While I was waiting for the bus, this man of African descent, came to the bus stop to wait as well. I was reading The New Era, which is published by my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while waiting for the bus and this man asked me what I was reading, I told him. He wanted me to tell him about it, my church. He also said that he liked to hear about other churches. So, I started to tell him about it. Then, when I had just started talking, I saw Gennifer Glum (another member of my ward) walking as well; it was the last place I expected to see someone from my church. So, I just continued telling him a bit about my church.
I've discovered that taking the bus is the perfect way to get more exercise and that walking to the church for Institute is another. I plan on continuing to take the bus and walk to the Church for Institute even after it's not necessary anymore.

Terrible News and Panicking

Last Thursday (I think), my mom was put into the hospital. No one knew what was wrong with her. That is, until two days ago. On Sunday, September 2nd, Dad took Sara (my younger sister by 2 years) and I to see her at Medcenter One here in Bismarck after we got through with church. It was the first time Sara or I had seen her since the day she was put into the hospital. She told us that they had made a decision on what is apparently wrong with her. She told us that she has "cancer of the cervix" and that she was going to have to go to Minneapolis, Minnesota for surgery. It was some of the worst news I had heard in my life. Just as bad as when Mom told me that Clarence was dead when we were sitting in a waiting room at Medcenter One where Sara was at on the morning of November 7th, 2002. They had Mom go to Minneapolis yesterday, Dad going with her, leaving Sara and I at home on our own for the first time in our lives. Dad told us that they would be doing the surgery in Minneapolis and after Mom had recovered from that she would be brought back to Bismarck for Chemotherapy. I still can't believe this can possibly be happening; it still doesn't feel quite real.
This morning both Sara and I had to get up on our own for the first time in our lives and unfortunately we slept in until 7:00 a.m. We had to hurry to get up and deliver newspapers and all the while I was praying silently that I would be able to get finished in time to be able to take my shower and make it to the bus stop on N 3rd Street and Boulevard Ave. which is about 7 blocks from our house in time to make it to my first class and thankfully, and surprisingly, though I had pretty much jogged and quickly walked the entire way, I actually finished around 7:40 a.m., my best record yet for delivering newspapers yet, pretty good when it usually takes me one and a half to two hours to do the same number. But, when I got home, I realized I was locked out, so eventually after panicking for a while, I managed to find a ladder, go to my open window, which unfortunately had a screen, which I hope can be fixed after I pulled about half of it out of its frame, just enough for me to get in. I was desperate, and it's not like anyone would be around to unlock the door anytime soon. So, I managed to take my shower and get ready in time to start my walk to the previously specified bus stop, but I'm not sure that Sara made it to school on time, she still wasn't home by the time I left, so I left a note for her to lock the door after her and to make sure to take her key.
I got to the bus stop with just about 20 minutes to spare but first I went over to the US Bank, which is right across a parking lot from the bus stop, since I had to get change for a $20 (Dad had given us 2-$20, 1-$5, and 3-$1), since I apparently needed $35 (in exact cash) for a 30-day bus pass, which I figured would be cheaper then spending $10 a week for the bus. When I got on the bus, I discovered that they had changed the price for 30-day passes in June, apparently it is only $30 now for College students instead of the full price for an adult at $35. So, we ended up having instead of just $13 for whatever else we might need, we have $18, which coinsidentally is about the same amount I have left in my checking account after paying for my tuition today, thanks to the $125 that Mom had to lend me, since I didn't have enough for tuition without help.

School

I go to school at Bismarck State College in Bismarck, North Dakota. There, I am majoring in mathematics, but after I get my Associates Degree, I'm planning on transferring to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and majoring in Statistics.
I started at BSC last spring. I took Calculus I, Beginning Visual Basic (a computer programming class), Fundamentals of Public Speaking, College Composition I, Concert Choir, and Applied Music. I actually ended up getting all A's! It was a complete surprise! Especially since I'm not very good at speaking in front of people.
I just started my second semester on Tuesday the 21st of August. I'm taking First Year Spanish, College Composition II, and University Physics (along with the lab to go with it).

My name is Elizabeth. I have lived my entire life in North Dakota. I have 3 sisters and 1 brother, though my brother died around 4 1/2 years ago.

My sister suggested that I create a blog.