Chapter Five--Emily Benzing age, 8.

Turning 8.

The Story.
For my 8th birthday party (which I think I started planning like the day after my seventh birthday), I decided I wanted a pool party. My mom had to be especially creative because no public pools were open at this time of year. She ended up renting a hotel for the night (my teenage sisters were so excited, because they got to have a slumber party there!) so that we could use the hotel's pool. I rememeber I had a great time, splashing around and playing with my friends. I rememeber that that night after the party, I got to spend the night for the first time at my friend, Shea's house. I had never spent the night anywhere before, and I was so excited. That began the forever long timeline of us spending the night at each others' houses. Her family moved once, but the timeline continued. Honestly, I spent the night there so many times, at one point I had my own room where I kept an extra toothbrush, contact solution, and other nessisary items for bedtime. We had so many great nights just laughing or crying, and talking until who knows what time. I think all great relationships are built after hours. Its like after a certain time, you let your guard down, and the real you comes spilling out. I am thankful to my parents and her parents for letting us have all of those fun times.

All of my friendies!
(look at my baby sister leanindown to touch the pool...CUTE!)

For Mom
Thus begins my school adventure.
My memories of school at this point involve fairly easy math, and a good amount of literature. This was the time when Abby began Kindergarten. Poor little Abby did not like school one bit, and I rememeber sitting there watching her cry and cry about learning to read. By the end of Kindergarten, she still couldnt read, but my mom, being a teacher and knowing her childeren, wasn't worried at all. I rememeber when my mom took Abby to take her yearly CAT test, there was supposed to be a Kindergarten test for those who could read and those who couldn't, and they had forgotten to get the Non-reading one. They didn't tell my mom, but just sat Abby down with all the other kids, poor little thing. She had no clue what was going on, and began to get very worried. Once the teacher finally noticed and got my mom, my mom was quite upset. Needless to say, little Abby got exempt from tests that year. I find this fascinating, because just like the rest of us, she loves to read now! Many times when she lived at home, I would knock on her door to discover her engrossed in some classic work or other. We are all our mom's children when it comes to good books.
Abby graduated Kindergarten the year that my older sister Anna graduated Highschool (just like how I had graduated Kindergarten when my brother graduated highschool). I have always had fond memories of homeschool graduations. I remember so vividly what they called, "The March of the Schools" and you would walk out holding a sign of the name of your school, you would go to the center aisle, and wait for them to announce you, and then you would continue down the aisle and to your seat. The purpose of this excercise was to give everyone a chance to see all of the "Schools" involved in the group. I remember that last time that it was the three of us. Just Anna, Abby, and I walking down that aisle.

With my Grammy. (Mom's mom)

Personal Feelings
Basketball. For some reason I decided in third grade that I wanted to play on the homeschool basketball team. I don't know how much you know about homeschool sports, but to give you an idea; my sister Anna (a senior in highschool) and I (3rd grader) were on the same basketball team. Now, I will quickly say that I hardly ever played. I would ask the coach to bench me (no lie) and bench me she would (likely with relief). Sports were purely social for me. I liked to go to practice because it was another chance to see and hang out with my friends. Sadly this got me labled pretty quickly as the girl who could NOT play sports. Now, both of my older sisters were realitively athletic (although I remember my mom saying that she had no hand-eye coordination whatsoever) and so it was sort of an embarassment to me that I was so horrible.
I would like to stop here and say that I think I could have been a lot better than I was. I just didnt enjoy competition. No amount of rallying or "Go Blue!" could excite me into wanting to run that much. It just didn't compute for me. Now, I would also like to say, I still had so much fun. As years went on, I continued to play and even got put in a couple of times. I got into shape and didnt mind running so much, and it was a great let-out for my Jr. High frustrations.

I'm thinking this was Abby's 5th birthday.

The World.
At this point, and pretty much all the time after this point, I became very interested in art. I drew anything I could think of, but especially pictures of beautiful ball gowns, and wedding dresses. I thought that when I grew up, I wanted to be a fashion designer. This was also around the time that Abby and I became very interested in watching PBS. Up until this point, we really hadn't watched much TV. My mom did not allow it to be turned on during the day (post toddler years) and so we weren't really used to watching TV, but somewhere somehow some brilliant person told us about the Magic School Bus. I'm thinking it was Shea, since I know she liked that show too. Then, after the Magic School Bus, Arthur (you know, the Aardvark) came on. Those were our absolute favorite shows and it stayed that way for what was probably too long. I really felt like I could identify with Arthur. He was eight, he had a little sister, and he had glasses (which I think I got in third grade, I can't really remember for sure). He was also a peacemaker with his friends, and at this time in my life, I was too. I liked to view myself as the meek one who would step in and calm everyone down if things got ugly. I did do this, but it usually backfired and I got hurt somehow. Not only was I "meek" but I was also quite manipulating, as inward people usually tend to be. When my friends would fight, instead of fighting back, I would just leave. Just walk away until they came to get me. Usually they would feel bad and do something to get me to come back whether it was build me a beautiful house, or give me the best baby doll. Honestly, I cannot believe it worked as many times as it did. Most of that part of me is gone, but every once in a while I see a little spark, where I just want to remove myself entirely from the situation. Just walk away until everyone gets to the point where they "can't live without me" and chase after me calling my name desperately wanting me to turn around. See, the drama is definitely still within.

Gretchen's play.

Hearts I Loved.
 Both my sisters left and went away to college when I was young. My family had dropped down another size yet again. Thus begins the years of the "fab four". I remember sending my sisters care packages full of yummy treats, and them sending us little things for Valentine's Day and stuff. I also remember going to visit them a whole lot. Gretchen was in lots of plays and so we always went up there to see her. During her later years there, Gretchen met Josh Neisler. I remember her introducing us to him, and to me I didnt see what was so special. I used to like tall, blonde guys...you know, Prince William types, while Josh was short and looked about 15. As time went on though, he became a very special person to both Abby and I. I'm sure I'll write more about him in later posts, but he was and is a wonderful person with a heart for our family.
I wish there was more in this part. Honestly though, at this time in my life I became a little introverted. I loved my family, and I loved some friends that I had through the homeschool group, but I really didnt hang out with them often, and I found a lot of comfort in just hanging out by myself. I would just sit, and play piano, or read, or draw pictures. I still played with Abby, but I was discovering a whole new side to myself. The side who's favorite color was yellow and not pink.

I am telling the story of my life, and linking up with Mommy's Piggy Tales. :)