Day nine. Meet Sally.

so I stole this from Brookes archive of pics. But it does pinpoint sally. she can leap. she is a jumper (view my sally the jumper post) http://brittanyhansen.blogspot.com/2008/04/school-eye-tulips-and-sally-jumper.html
stick out those lips and smile sal. I can just hear sallys voice in regards to this pic, "I look sick" no you dont sally! you look like a model
well i look sick so hush
we were born with the same face basically.

Sally. Sal Pal. Sallster. Salamander. Ima (Shhh dont tell her i told you that is her nickname) (we put things after it..like Ima Dinkus) shhh! (but i really dont know why we called her that, because we were really just calling ourselves a dinkus)Sally Pearl is another one. She was born on Pearl Harbor Day. History lesson for all of you. Pearl Harbor Day is December 7. Sally is 17 and almost 18. She drives...if you want to call it that. Its more like a freakin safety course every time you ride with her. Sally go faster! Sally you could have ran that yellow light! Sally DONT wait for pedestrians! (jk jk JK) Anyway...Sally is an all around athlete. She... loves to play basketball, volleyball, do track and field, cross country, she even was on the dance team and cheer team with me at one point when I was a senior she was a freshman, she plays monopoly pretty good (remember sal that one time you won!) Oh ya Sal is another nick name for her. ANd I apologize but I already know Sally's is going to be a BOOK. So here is chapter one for you. Ha. Sorry. But she is my closest sister. Okay..so I could explain her but ill just write about her. in stories..
where to begin...well lets start with childhood. We loved barney. A lot. And If I had access to our infamous barney and baby bop picture I would put it up here to embarrass myself..and sally of course...but at least she wasnt barney. That was bad for me. Really bad. I was purple, and I hate purple. Anyway this is about Sal Pal (which is what I have her as in my phonebook in my celly) so..We loved Barney. And we had all the songs memorized. And I clearly remember I had a STRONG desire to be on Barney with Micheal. Tall handsome blonde boy. Truly. Sally probably did too. Dont lie Sally you did!
So Sally and I were friends when we were little but that did not discourage fighting. Brutal fighting. Very painful fighting. Let me tell you my mean streak and then Ill tell you Sallys. Sally had braces what I felt like was my entire life. 7 years? Something drastic like that. Anyway whenever she made us angered...I would hit her in the mouth. She would bleed really bad, and her lips were really puffy all the time. OH i feel so bad writing this...but she made me so mad! This was in our younger years when fighting is normal. But, Sally dear was not void of this meanhood. She loved to pull my hair. Hard. ANd kick me. Hard. So we fought and I think we still fought up until I matOUREd and got some sense that fighting did nothing. But I know the main reason of why we fought. I exaggerate...a lot. I will say..ya there was like 30 or 40 people there and Sally will say, NO there was 24.5 if you wanna count Lucy who is having a baby. And That bothered me so bad. She wouldnt let me tell a story to save my life. Is she still like this?? YEs to a degree. She knows her perfectionist self and so she is mellower. This was in our younger years. we have discussed this and know we drove each other mad.
Chapter 3..or is this 4 now..oh well.
High school days. Sally spent her sophmore year living with me in Provo while I went to college for my first year and she went to ALA. A charter school in Spanish Fork. This was really hard for her to be away from her mama and family and friends. I feel terrible that I wasnt more of her friend, but I feel like she really grew up in this time and became that athlete and woman she was trying to be. Sally is always MVP of everything. And did I mention her high ACT score. Trust me its high. triple digits. So she is smart too. Oh freak dont even get me started on her hair. She can go to bed with her hair WET, IN A TOWEL, and wake up pull the towel out, brush it once and have straight blonde hair to perfection. Gosh, lucky...
Now if there is one story you all need to know it will be this one. I hope I dont cry when writing it. ONe time I re-told it in Relief Society and just bawled. Gosh. Sal dont cry. Sally was a freshman in highschool and I was a Senior. It was track season. I was running four events at state track. Sally was in four events as well. Long jump, triple jump, 4X2 and 4X1 (i think) I was in the open 400, medley, 4X4, and the 4X2. The 400 was my favorite. The 4X4 was a very good race for us that year at state track. We had worked all year, and at districts we barely made it in the 4X4 by a chest throw, so I had passion for that race. Sally was long jumping on the first day of state track. She scratched out but in the process tore her hamstring. This is the muscle at the back of your thigh. Running was clearly going to be impossible for her. But she felt horrid about this torn hammy, so she made a mark in the triple and ran and jumped. She did well. She won. A gold medal for the limping sally. I was soooo happy for her!!! A gold at state track is a HUGE deal. ITs everyone (excuse me not everyone, everyone that is the best in the state) in your division (1A, 2A) competing for the gold. Everyone in the state! STate of Idaho. HUge deal. So kudos to Sal Pal. Then...I remember her trying to run in the field, as she knew her Senior sister was having her very last track meet and if sally didnt run in those relays, then her coach would have to put in an alternate who had no idea what they were doing, as they hadnt competed in this event ..ever..usually. So she was running on that blue turf. IF you want to call it running. She was trying to make her leg not hurt. She ran and then she would fall. Collapse more like. Grab her leg and then try again. Same thing. Come on sally, its not going to heal itself. So I saw this torture she was putting herself through and went down to the middle of this field. I said okay try a soft jog to me. She ran softly to me then tried to sprint. Then I caught her right before she collapsed and she began to sob (sob is a word for cry full of emotion) She cried right there in the middle of the field with all these athletes going to compete, and she was done competing. Because she could barely walk. I held her and began to cry too. Sally, I said, Sally you won the triple. You are done, you cannot run. She said, Dont tell Qualls Im not running the relays, Im running them. I said, No you are not, you cannot walk. She said, I know but then your 4X4 will be messed up. I said, Sally its a race, you are much more important to me then a race. It doesnt matter to me. She said, I dont want you to be mad at me. So Sally didnt run those relays. And I got the baton in last place at state track. I was crying before it was passed to me. I ended up getting second to last in the race. I left the race crying. I sat and cried and cried and cried while sally cried watching me telling everyone it was her fault her fault that we lost. (clearly it was not her fault) So we went home. We spoke hushed about it. A few days later Sally came into my room. She threw a state track sweater on my floor. I picked it up and saw that it had State Champion on the back of it. I said, Oh whoops Sally this one is yours, and as I reached for the blank sweater with no State Champion printed on it she pulled it away pointed to what I thought was her sweater and said, "Brit, that one is yours. You were a State Champion to me."
I spent the next few hours...sobbing.
I also remember another bonding moment with Sally. I was in Canada. I probably didnt talk to sally very much when I was a nanny, but I remember walking into the cottage and Kitty said, "your sister Sally called." I thought what? Nobody calls me here, and Sally doesnt really ever call me. So I went upstairs to call her back. My dad answered and informed me that my cousin had been killed. Sally was immediately put on the phone and we just cried to each other. I dont even think words were spoken. I said I love you then spent a sleepless night in Canada. Shortly after I was home and she met me to be picked up with my dad. Words dont really need to be spoken I guess.
So I could tell you more stories about Sally. But just know that this sister of mine is incredible at more than just being an athlete. I love her to death and we have this unspoken bond, that nobody sees from the surface..
please do not judge landon for this oddness. This is part of sally's athlete bit.