Miah Brynn

*warning: one of the longest posts ever!  If you are one of those who picks up the newspaper and only looks at the pictures and maybe reads the captions, you might want to start scrolling.  I failed to do her birthday post this summer, so this will be considered her 1/2 birthday post.  Miah turned 11 this summer!  I hate that her birthday often gets lost in the shuffle of all the back-to-school chaos.  She celebrated her birthday the day before school started. It is very important to her that she still gets to celebrate in the summer, so she made it by one day this year!

Writing about Miah has become a challenge.  As the kids have gotten older, I have started asking them before I post anything on the blog.  There are many things that they have said they would prefer not having posted on the blog.  Miah is especially private.  It takes a lot for her to trust and open up to people, so “airing” the happenings of her life on the blog is not “her cup of tea”.  I respect that, and as much as I would love to share some of the things that are happening in her life, those posts continue to go on “hidden”.  When I print the book for our family journal, I can go back and include those before printing.

Just like the rest of us, Miah’s favorite time of year, is the two weeks spent at Big Sand.  She is not a fan of the water ski’s, but she loves tubing.  The rougher the better as far as she is concerned.  I still have hopes of convincing her to try the ski’s again, but she is almost as stubborn as her namesake! 

She continues to have a dear friend in Miss Lissie.  You know you have a dear friend when you don’t see each other for weeks, and just pick up where you last left off.  That is how it is for Miah and Lissie.  They don’t see each other as often as they see their school friends, but quantity of time does seem to hinder their quality of time spent together.  (this picture was taken on the Sioux Falls Trolley.  This summer, Heather and I spent a day in downtown Sioux Falls with our 10 kids and it was SO much fun.  This is just one of the many pictures taken that day)

Two more dear friends, Emily and Tyra.  I call these three “The Three Musketeers”.  I absolutely love spending time with these three girls.  I love them for so many reasons, but the best thing about them…they get my sarcasm and they have such good humor!  They are also very mature (in a good way) for their age.  Talking with them is like talking with little adults, but without the negativity that comes with some adult conversation.  In the next couple of years, their paths will part and God will take them all down different roads, but my prayer is that they will continue to nurture and grow a very meaningful friendship that God has begun in them.  We spent the afternoon of Miah’s birthday snacking on dessert shooters (Miah’s request) and crafting.  We made fabric banners to hang in their bedrooms.  It was a really fun afternoon. 

We also went to our first drive-in movie to celebrate Miah’s birthday.  We saw the Plane’s movie. 

Besides staying busy with her school work, Miah also enjoyed playing her first organized sport.  We refuse to call the one year she chased a heard of Kindergartens, all fighting over a soccer ball “organized”.  She played basketball for about 6 weeks this winter.  It was so much fun to see her enjoy the game that we all love so much.  I am so proud of the way she competed and played hard wherever, whenever her coaches asked her to play.  They never won a tournament and in fact, they won very few games, but she is a Champion in this house! 

She also started drumming in September.  We haven’t even gotten to hear an “official” performance yet, but I am looking forward to April when I finally get to hear the “fruit” of all that banging coming from her bedroom!  She also continues to do her weekly piano lessons with Minerva.  She seemed to have hit a “wall” last year, but she has gotten over the hump and is really enjoying her lessons again.  Her favorite music to play right now is hymns...girl after my own heart.  She is also playing AAU volleyball right now.  She had her first tournament last weekend.  We will spent the next 7 weeks bouncing back and forth between  Caden’s basketball tourney’s and her volleyball tournaments.  Miah says very little and it is often hard to know what she is thinking.  However, when you mention “volleyball”,her face tells it all.  

This is Miah with her Language Arts and Bible teacher before the SCCS 5K Fun Run.  She loves Mrs. Vanden Hul and loves 5th grade…or “grade 5” as Mrs. Vanden Hul would call it.  She’s from Canada!  She is a great teacher, and perfect for Miah’s perfectionist tendencies.  She loves to have a good time with them, but also has very high expectations.  I really don’t think they should allow 16 year-old girls to teach in the schools, but if they are as good as Mrs. Vanden Hul, I say, “let ‘em teach!”

This is Miah’s homeroom class on the fieldtrip to Des Moines.  I got the opportunity to go along on this field trip.  I have to admit, I was not looking forward to the bus ride, and didn’t have very many nice things to say about it before the trip, but it really wasn’t that bad.  I had a very mild panic attack as we were leaving {seriously…like a cold sweat, shortness of breath, nausea}, thinking about being on this bus, in the dark {we left at 4 am}, with no way out for 5 hours!  It was a really funny moment between Miah and I.  We still laugh about how she was trying to settle me…poor girl, she was probably envisioning a very embarrassing scene!  I am so glad I plowed through the panic attack, because we went on to have a really fun day.  In fact, some of my favorite memories with Miah were made this day.  

I will end this post with this picture.  This picture makes me smile!  These glasses are big, and loud, and trendy…all the things that my Miss Miah is not.  Miah is quiet, understated, contemplative, and classic, but she still looks darn cute in those glasses! 

See Miah, that wasn’t so bad.  I will save all the mush, and the gush, and the tooting of your horn, and of course all your writings and our funny conversations for somewhere else. {wink}  I love you Boo!