Ellie's broken foot...Part II

Hi. This is Ellie, the girl that Erika babysits. I want to tell you about how I broke my foot. It's driving me craaaaazy! It all started at 8:30 pm, I was standing on the foot steps to our olyptic machine, reaching for a BIG platter above it on a white shelf... I had it in my arms, so i couldn't see the ground.. so on the ground was a small pinkish weight ball.... so when my right foot put its weight on it, it twisted hard and i feel on the ground spilling old cookies that i was going to throw away EVERYWHERE i screamed and started crying and my dad came rushing in and carried me to the couch and he said, “ I think it's just sprained" and he asked where it was hurt and stuff... i sat on the couch with my foot rolled in gauze rap all propped up.. I sat there till 11:30 with my dad then he carried me to bed... I woke up at 7:49 am and wasn't tired anymore.. i hopped to the couch in pain until my parents got up.... then we went to the doctor and i got x-rays and it turns out.... it was broken...... So i got a splint walking boot thing and a pair of cretches....... -Ellie with her first broken bone... OW!

Ellie's broken foot...

The girl i babysit broke her foot last night :( She now has a splint thing over her foot/lower leg, and she has to use cretches to get around..... She can hardly get around a lot so she is really bored.... ;(

-Erika L. Wilcox

Bucket List--with Ellie

Hey all. Today I'm here with Ellie--an 11 year old super-awesome pink-wearing cookie-baking girl. The other day we got to talking about Bucket Lists, so I dug up my old bucket list--from the 8th grade. I was supposed to have to done by the time I left for college, and since I have less than a month to go....... Well, here goes!

To Do Before I Leave Sitka For Good (college etc.)

Kayak Indian River during spawning season. CHECK!
That was an amazing time, lemme tell ya. I was with a couple of very dear friends and my dad. Two to a kayak. We paddled up river as far as we could, lodged ourselves between a couple of rocks, ate some plums, then surfed down on the backs of salmon. That was the closest to surfing I've ever come. And even better? It was sunset. I love Alaska.

Swim at sandy beach while it's raining. CHECK!
While I don't have any one specific memory, I believe I'd been to Sandy in every kind of weather, barring thunder storms. Yeah, that means snow.

Climb a tree. CHECK!
This is a basic one, but very important. Trees that I've climbed: A HUGE spruce at girls camp....Sister Jones made Tessa (my partner in crime) and I get down, the pine-y thing at Centennial, another one. Oooh, story about the other one. I was with Leah, I think, and we saw a handsome man playing with his dog. We were probably, what? 14? 15? Whatever it was, we were too young to spy obviously, so we very obviously climbed the tree so we could watch him play fetch. I think we ended up having more fun climbing the tree than watching the guy.

Read in a tree CHECK!
I did this at my Grandma and Grandpa Wilcox's house in Utah. It's a beautiful walnut tree, and I read Beware, Princess Elizabeth.

Sing in a tree. not sure....
I sing everywhere, so I'd like to say I've sung in a tree, but I have no specific memories.

Kiss someone in a tree. Nope. (I was quite the romantic in 8th grade....Still am, I guess.)

Find designs in clouds. CHECK!
If you don't do this regularly, I'm sorry for you. I guess in Sitka it's hard at times because the clouds are all spread out like cake batter in a pan...but grey.

Wear a fancy a dress while ice skating. Never did get to that one, and now it's too late!

Plan a day to run away from home with parents permission CHECK!
Bolivia.

Walk the outer rim of Castle Hill. nope.
This is no longer one of my priorities.

Watch the sunset over the ocean with someone special. CHECK!
Oh good heavens, this should be a mandatory way of life! I've sunsetted with my dog, my family, and of course, my besties. We did this almost every night in Hawaii. We've also had two photo shoots at sunset at various beaches.

Get my Driver's permit and license. CHECK!......aaaagh.
Yeah, so I've had my permit...twice. I got it when I was 15, had it expire when I was in Bolivia, and renewed last February. And at last count I've failed the driving test twice. I'm thinking about giving up.

Go to prom or something as equally fabulous. CHECK!
I've been to two American proms and two Bolivian proms. My favorite was my Senior Prom. I went with my best friend Caitlin's younger brother, Sam, all because of a bargain made in the eighth grade. He didn't wear the pink tux in the end, but he was the best date to a dance I've ever had. To top it all off, let's add a tiara. :) I was prom queen.

Do yoga/tai chi on the beach. CHECK!
I did this as part of a dance class once with Melinda....at sunset.

Have a pamper-yourself spa day. CHECK!
This was most recently done with Ellie. She rubbed cooked brown sugar (aka caramel NOUGATS!) into my face, actually scratching me up. What I do for beauty....?

Read an entire chapter book in the bathtub. CHECK!
I've got to start writing harder bucket lists--I do this at least biannually!

Spit off the back of the ferry. CHECK!
...every time I ride the ferry.

Serenade my special someone or help my friends serenade theirs. CHECK!
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine....my Zachy B....ah, 6th grade.

Skip a rock 5 times. CHECK!
Here's another one from Girls Camp. And I skipped it 8 times.

Write a story. CHECK!
Quite a few, actually. But most were for class. Then there are the everyday occasions when....I live a story.

Introduce my body to a barnacle. CHECK!
AAGH! Blood! Scars! BARNACLES!

Chew gum in class. CHECK!
This would've been a big deal in Middle School where it wasn't allowed, but I fulfilled this one in frosh block.

Climb Mt. Edgecume again. CHECK!
Maybe only two times, but I love that mountain.

Bike from 1 end of the road to the other. oooh....
I still haven't done this yet. :( However, I bike 8 miles to work a couple of times a week.

Sit on the roof while the sun is rising or setting. nope.

Sing in front of an audience and have them like me. CHECK!
I sang a solo, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in Bolivia, upon request.

Wear a skirt everyday for a week. CHECK!
Private school with uniform in Bolivia. Yep, good little Catholic school girl. :)

Make a wish at O'Connell Bridge. CHECK!
6th grade...pennies....

Back float on the beach. CHECK!
Alaska, Hawaii.

Ride two people on a bike. CHECK!
Kari and I one summer, with her cousin Nik running alongside.

Go snorkeling. CHECK!
The Hawaiian fish are pretty dang cool. The 3 legged turtle was also pretty amazing. It's so peaceful down there...

Cook a meal over a campfire. CHECK!
Hobo dinners....

Fill at least 3 more journals. CHECK!
More like 6? 7?


Anyway, that was my bucket list. I don't know what I'll put on my new one. But I'm at a proverbial crossroads, with only 3 1/2 more weeks in Sitka. Something's going to happen.

I leave you now with a challenge: Create your own bucket list! Even if you don't actively work on it, look back at it every now and then and see what has happened!

That's it. Typing by Ellie for Erika.

A little less wisdom

I wrote this last Monday, the day after I got my wisdom teeth out. I would've written more, but by the time I had typed all this up I was needing more drugs and a nap. And I had them (drugs and naps) for the rest of the week. Anyway, without further ado:



LuLu asked me the other day, "Erika, what happens when you get your wisdom teeth out?"
I said, "Well, since you lose that wisdom, you get a little dumb."

Here I am, ladies and gents, a little dumb. Yesterday I got my four wisdom teeth pulled. I sat in the dentist chair and watched while the assistant lady (normally I'd call her a dental hygienist, but she wasn't actually cleaning, so she's become the assistant lady) poked and prodded. She stuck two electrode thingies on my chest and one on my ribs. I watched a screen they were attached to as it read my heart rate. I'd like to report that I have a nice slow heart rate of about 60 beats per minute. However, when the oral surgeon came in and opened up a needle the beeps sped up. Soon my heart was beating over 80 beats a minute. I'm generally good with needles (heaven knows and exchange student needs to be!) but the heart monitor doesn't lie.
Once the needle was in my arm...I don't remember much. I looked at it one, slowing filling with blood, then the next thing I knew, I heard the assistant lady's voice. Somewhere in my dazed and drugged head, I figured it was a good time to sing. Never mind I had just had four big, nasty teeth yanked out of my skull. I started in on my Italian arietta, "Danza, danza fanciulla gentile." My mouth was too numb to get out words, but I was doing a great job mumbling along until the A.L. told me to stop singing. Dangit.
From there mom and dad came in. I think. Again, the whole drugged thing... Well, they asked how I was doing, and I discovered it was difficult to talk. For whatever reason, I said Pucha. Probably because it was difficult to talk. Mom asked what pucha meant, and I explained es como puta pero mas amable. Por ejemplo, miercoles es como mierda, pero mas amable. Poor Dad had to translate for me.
Why was I speaking in Spanish? For that I blame my dear friend Aren. We were talking about what people say when they're drugged. The last time I was given general anesthesia (also for oral surgery) I told the A.L. all about that summer's Youth Conference crush. I expressed my fears to Aren about how maybe I'd have the same verbal diarrhea. He told me to go into the surgery planning on speaking Spanish when I woke up. Lo and behold, Spanish was the only thing I could speak when I came too. I got rather frustrated with Mom when I had to switch to English repeatedly to get my point across.

Regions and farther!

Hello hello. This weekend is proving to be pretty fantastic because half of SouthEast is here for the basketball tournaments. There isn't school on Thursday and Friday, so I'm filling my precious days off with dance, homework, writing, and catching up with my out-of-town girlies. We're housing four Kay-town girls, two of which are LDS, and let me tell you, it's a blast! We gossiped and giggled until one a.m. this morning. On the rock, I feel like a bit of an anomaly...LDS girls are fairly few and far between. We have only three LDS girls in my class. Add Ketchikan, Juneau, Wrangell, and Petersburg, however, and there are quite a few of us. I mean, it's no Bountiful, Utah, but.... :)

Last night we got to talking about old Youth Conference friends and what's happening to them. There are friends on missions, brothers on missions, significant others on missions.... :O ! I was pretty happy to discover the future BYU students, too. Having not told you, I guess you might not know: I was recently accepted to BYU Hawaii and BYU Utah. I haven't technically decided yet, but Hawaii doesn't have a Spanish major, and Provo is just close enough to "home" for me to be happy. Not to mention that John's thinking BYU Hawaii, Jenny's going for BYUI, and Peter's looking at BYU Provo. I'm extremely excited for Youth Conference and everything we'll have to talk about! On the flip side, it will be soooooo strange to be the oldest kids at YC. The rest are all at college or on their missions. And then it will be us. Class of 2010. Woohoo!!

Going from here to the Bubble will be a big difference, but I know one incredible girl who's going to be facing even bigger changes next year: My little sister Brittany! She's been chosen as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student to spend a year in Thailand! Possibly the only person more excited for her than I am is her. She spends hours on the computer almost every day practicing Thai with a computer program. She greets the Thai exchange student here in Thai. She reads books about it, and talks to anyone who knows anything about it. All while bouncing on the balls of her feet and grinning like the Chesire Cat (reminds me...is Alice in Wonderland going to be any good?)

So we're all headed places. Look out world!

Words of Wisdom

"Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?"
-Doctrine & Covenants 6:23

Translation: You have your answer from Heaven. Why are you asking for more?


Merry Christmas everyone! I found this scripture tonight when I was catching up on some seminary work and like it so much that I highlighted it with sky-blue pencil and wrote it down in my notebook. If there's one thing I do most, it's looking for an answer after I already have the most important one. As a Christmas present, I'm offering you this verse along with some good old-fashioned advice: KISS. Keep it simple, stupid (or silly, or Susan, if that happens to be your name.) Don't overcomplicate things and everything will work out.

XOXO and Merry Christmas. And now Happy New Year as well.

An Alaskan Nutcracker

OPENING NIGHT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!

Let me gush for a moment:


I'm so glad to live in Sitka where I can dance and sing....but especially dance, after tonight.

I didn't have any of the big solos, but I wore a pretty red dress and pointe shoes. I didn't mess up....well, a little, but not enough to wreck anything. I hurt my shoulder during warm-ups but got through the entire show smiling.

And even while I know I'm not the best dancer in the world, and will probably never even be pro, there is nothing I'd rather do right now than exactly what I'm doing.

My best friends were up there looking for all the world like the Seniors that we are, and at the same time I was in a show with one of my little sisters and my brother, and my mom.

And I knew out in the audience my dad sat with my baby sister....who actually had a bloody nose for most of the second act.

And to think this morning I was missing Spanish speaking countries again.....well, I still miss them, but I feel so incredibly lucky to grow up here, in all the wet and cold and pot fumes (haha, kidding.) and dance and family and craziness that is my life.

I felt so beautiful tonight. I felt like everyone was beautiful.

Okay, done gushing.