Eliza turned 14! I don't know why this seems so much older than 13 but it does. Instead of being a young teen, she is just a full fledged teenager. Thankfully, she is proving all of the teenage rumors wrong. She has minimal sass and angst. Seriously, though Eliza is a gem of human being and is exceptional in so many ways. She makes me want to be a better person, and I feel so lucky to be her mom.
Eliza is hard working, kind, super smart, talented, and enthusiastic. I am in awe of her ability to keep her cool and work through whatever situation is happening. She is brave and has taken so well to making new friends in this move and trying a bunch of new things, including high school. Since I am writing this way late, I already know that she is doing great at high school, and is responsible and a go getter at swim team.
She started wearing make up about a month after her 14th birthday, and now she looks way older. I also get more comments than ever about her being the younger version of me. Ha! She is way prettier than I ever was. What is truly remarkable though, is that she is even more beautiful on the inside. She was just nominated for Hope Squad by a friend from school. I think that is precisely on point. She is the kind of person that makes me have hope for the future.
She is so much fun though! I love doing Teen Tuesday with her. What a perfect excuse to have some one on one time with my Eliza Belle. She is funny too. She told me once, "There is no such thing as too many strawberries, until you get diarrhea."
Another time she had tasted my homemade chocolate pudding, "At the end it tastes a little bit like a balloon smells." (This is 1000% false.)
Eliza has a lovely singing voice and enjoys singing in MCO, the school choirs, and the ward choir. She really loved doing ice skating lessons (we need to get back in those!). She is turning into quite the pianist, and worked crazy hard at swim team. She did the community swim team and is now on the high school swim team. I am so proud of her.
Eliza is such a wonderful older sister. She blows me away with her ability stay calm and help her sisters through the hard times. She is compassionate and nurturing. She is so loving to all of us. We are extremely lucky to have her in our family.
I am impressed with all of things she has tackled being 14. I will write more about this later, but she went to Washington DC for a week without us. She went with her school. More than that she raised over $500 to help pay for it.
Eliza also went to Young Women Camp and FSY this summer. I am amazed at her love of the gospel and spiritual things. I swear I can see God's love in her eyes.
I love her more than I can say.
I would love to hear from Eliza. So here are a bunch of random get to know you questions for her to answer:
If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be? The lady I was named after
Where and when would you travel if you had a time machine? I don't want to go into the past. Not much I learn about the past sounds cool to go see. It would be fun to see me in 20 years, or to see my parents when they were my age.
What is your dream job? I want to be a stay at home mom, but it sounds really cool to be an underwater photographer. I could snorkel and scuba dive for my job!
What would you do with a billion dollars? I would donate most of it, and keep just a few million for trips, building an amazing house, and future stuff.
Create a menu for the perfect meal. Homegrown cucumber and tomato salad, lemon garlic orzo soup, croissant bread, and milk.
If you could change your name, what would you change it to? Marie Eucalyptus. I love my middle name, and Eucalyptus is fun to say.
What three items (not people or pets) would you save if your house was on fire? My scriptures, my quilt, and a hard drive with all of our pictures on it.
If you wrote a book, what would it be about? It would be about a teenage girl with little sisters being sucked into a community that lived under the mountain by her house.
What’s your earliest childhood memory? I was 3 or 4, and in our apartment complex there was a little girl my age, and I was jealous she got to take showers instead of baths.
What’s the best thing about being a kid? Less responsibility and stress, and lots of free time
How are you similar and different from your siblings? All of my sisters love stories, and I do to. We all like being outside and listening to music, although we like different kinds of music. I am older, though, so I have more freedom to hang out with my friends more, have more privileges, and be more flexible. I also have a lot more homework and and responsibilities.
What is your favorite thing to learn? I love learning fun facts, history, and science. I also like coding.
What do you daydream about? Various books and what ifs.
If you could fly like a superhero for a day, where would you go? I would look at our old house, fly to the top of Timpanogos, have a picnic on top of the house/school, read on top of the cabinets, fly over Canada and the ocean, fly over Lake Powell and have dinner there, and find geese and fly with them.
What would you most want to be famous for? Being rich and donating a lot.
If you ran a TV or streaming channel, what kinds of shows would you air? Cooking competition shows, Disney movies/shows, and nature documentaries.
Choose parts of three different animals and put them together to make the ultimate animal. Swimming, speed, electricity, and agility of an electric eel on the body, speed, strength and senses of a wolf with the mind of a human.
If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? Invisibility or pyrokinesis
If you could change one law, what would it be? I would make it be illegal for public schools to start before 8:30 am.
What character from a movie, TV show, or book would you want to be? I would want to be an innocent bystander in Keeper of the Lost Cities because the world is really cool.
Describe your dream house, including its location. I would want a private island in Hawaii, with a house that was in the jungle. It would be a network of treehouses, with cool rope bridges. The actual rooms would be modern, and some trees would be fake and conceal secret entrances and tunnels to other fake trees.
If you could invent something to make life easier, what would it be? I would make a watch that had a screen that could expand like a phone. It would be so cool!
If you were a ghost, who would you haunt first? I would tickle Miriam's feet at night and look over her shoulder in the mirror.
What would be the name of your ship if you were a pirate captain? Ortu Scelestus
If your toys could talk when you aren’t there, what do you think they’d chat about? They would complain about me, and talk about types of fabric and stuffing.
How long would you last in a zombie apocalypse? I might actually last because I would just hide. I would die as soon as the zombies found me, though.
If you had a human body but the head of an animal, what animal would you pick? I would pick the head of a snake head fish because they have gills and can store oxygen to survive on land for a long time.
Describe the last time you laughed really, really hard. Maybe when Darcy said a funny thing?
What is the best thing that ever happened to you? I was born. That set all of the amazing things in motion!
If you could be any age for the rest of your life, what age would you be and why? Early thirties. Being a kid or teenager forever sounds terrible, and people in their twenties are still figuring life out.
What is the worst food you’ve ever eaten? The school's grilled cheese in 7th grade was completely inedible. I can choke down my least favorite foods, but that was impossible to eat.
Where do you prefer to sit on airplanes? The very front row because it has a lot of leg space.
If you could live someplace else for a year, where would it be? I would want to live in Oregon because it is beautiful and would actually work, unlike my actual dream of Hawaii.
What’s your favorite theme park? California Adventure- the Incredicoaster was really fun.
What are you good at? I am a good reader, swimmer, and singer. I'm good at school, and I hope I'm a good sister and daughter!
If you could try an adventurous activity like skydiving or bungee jumping, what would it be? I would want to go parasailing, or on a really big zipline. It would be so cool!!!!!
Color? Blue/purple/white/gold/green/red/really anything but weird shades and orange/yellow
Season? Summer. Winter in Provo is ugly unless it snows, spring barely exists, and fall is sad because winter is coming too soon. In summer I have no school and can go swimming.
Food? Lemon pretty much anything.
Ice cream flavor? See above.
Book? This is the worst question! Even if it were series instead of book, I would have multiple answers.
Movie? Recently, I like The Princess Bride, and I really liked Elementals.
Game? I like Quacks and Rummikub.
TV show? I like All Around Champion on BYU tv.
Song or kind of music? I like lots of music, like country, church, and pop music.
Place to vacation? Lake Powell, and Hawaii was so pretty!!!!
Class at school? Seminary and Choir.
Time of day? The morning on A days, and after dinner when I can relax.
Joke? Darcy's Knock Knock, who's there, cashew, cashew who, Do you have a owl in your ear?. It's so cute!
Hobby? Choir
Sport? Swim team
Who is your favorite celebrity? I don't have one. I don't pay attention to actors, and I only care about singers because of music.
Holiday? Christmas!!!!!!!
Pizza topping? Basil
Thing to do after school? Talk with my family
Restaurant? Café Rio!!
 |
| Fourteen! |
 |
| She's darling! |
 |
| My favorite one of the photo shoot. |
On Eliza's birthday we had a fun evening when my parents came down. Eliza received earrings (for getting her ears pierced), ice skates and equipment for them, a backpack, fidget animals, and a pop it fidget spinner.
 |
| Raspberry Cheesecake for dessert! Happy Birthday Eliza! |
No comments:
Post a Comment