Jamie Wheeler

It has been really good to take this class and look at my relationship with my sister Jamie, it used to be a challenging (not in a bad way) relationship and she still challenges me, but it makes me a better person. It makes me look at my life in a different way, and I can really appreciate that now whereas I didn't before. I am grateful for what I've learned about communication this semester and how it has strengthened the relationship that I have with my sister, I feel a lot more love for her and we are a lot closer. I can share pretty much everything with her!

Ariel Belnap

It was interesting this semester to see how the relationship I have with Ariel went in ups and downs. We would spend a lot of time together, then get busy, and then spend a lot of time together again. Overall I am excited to be living in the same room with her next semester so even when we're busy we'll be able to see each other more than we do now. I just love Ariel and I definitely feel like we have built up a strong friendship this semester. I am glad that I could learn about communication this semester and how to make our relationships with other people stronger.

My seeester

I find it harder to write about Jamie since we aren't in the same city, and our only real "interaction" is through texting. She has been a good anchor and influence in my life though, and I am glad that she can be there to support me. I absolutely love her and though our relationship has been a challenge in the past, I know that as we work on our communication with others we can strengthen relationships.

Ariel- the Red.

So Ariel decided that she wanted to find out what her color code personality was, so she took the test and we found out that she was mostly red! I knew that she was logic-based and had to be either white, or red (unlike me, who is emotion-based). It was really funny because under the description of reds it was saying that she is a workaholic and she laughed and said it was totally true! She is definitely a red and it's funny that now that I know that I see better the way that she communicates because of her personality, and I also know now how to communicate better with her. LOVE IT!

Air-ee-uhl

Well in reflection on my relationship with Ariel I guess it has been a bit of a rollercoaster. The last month I don't feel like we have really spent a lot of time communicating. We have done things together, went to Rupert, to Vegas, hung out with our guy frineds... I haven't spent a lot of time talking to Ariel about what has been going on with her life and I feel bad about that. I have just had so much going on that I have been a little bit selfish and need to do better. I guess it's a combination of both Ariel and I being super busy this past month, I know that we are still friends and I hope that our friendship is still building because she's a great girl and has been a good friend.

Jay-me

I love my sister! I love how well she knows me and how she can help me to see things that I can't. We, in our family, have had a faceful of the world because of certain circumstances in our family. We have seen and dealt with things that have changed our perspective on the world and have given us a more "grown-up" approach in certain life situations. Ours has, previously, been a challenging relationship but like I said we have both grown up and had different life experiences and time has brought us a lot closer. I am able to go to her for advice because I know she'll give me clear cut answers or make me question what I am doing. This has happened recently, she knows me so well and isn't afraid to sugar-coat things. She reminds me not to rush into thing and take my time. I love this girl. Learning how to communicate better has been a real blessing in this relationship.

20 Questions

Another reason that I love working on my communication skills with Jamie is that she is amazing. I love asking her about things because she questions my choices sometimes. I have had a few things on my mind lately and so I asked her about something and she pretty much gave me the "20-question" treatment about it. It helped me to reflect on the things going on in my life, and the things I have been thinking about. It was just the type of listening response that I needed. :) She's great, and I believe she'd call some of it "constructive criticism."

Little spurts

I think that my good communication skills go in spurts. I was doing really well with communicating with Ariel, and then a lot of things happened in my life that put a lot of stress on me and on our relationship. I kind of shut off from her. But then on Thursday last week, her and I went out to eat and spent a few hours just me and her and I was able to talk about some things that are bothering me and we had some good communication between us. I learned a lot about myself and that I go in spurts of communication with people.

Ariel

Well I got some upsetting news this week and I knew that Ariel could tell something was upsetting me. So I said to her, "Look, I'll tell you what's wrong, but I don't want to talk about it and I don't want you to tell me that you're sorry..." And then I told her about not getting accepted into a radiology technician program at one of the schools I applied too. Well thankfully Ariel didn't say anything about it, we went to work out, play dodgeball and then volleyball and I felt a lot better at the end of the night. Sometimes I just don't want to talk about things but I knew that I needed to communicate with Ariel and so it kept our relationship strong this week.

Jamie

This week some crazy things happened in my life and it was good to know that I could talk to Jamie about what has been going on in my life. She asks me a lot of questions about certain things going on that really made me think. I love her personality and the way that she is because it helps me think outside the box. I also get the opportunity to look a little bit deeper into myself and get the perspective from an outsider's view. Thank you Jamie!

J.A.M.I.E.

J-Just
A-Adventurous
M-Magnificent
I-Incredible
E-Enchanting

W-Winsome
H-Happy
E-Extremely inventive
E-Energetic
L-Lots of fun
E-Entertaining
R-Really good at revenge

More words to describe my sister. I think it's good to take the time to think about positive qualities in people that you deal with a lot. It helps you to see them in a more positive light and appreciate more what they bring to your life!

A.R.I.E.L.

A-Adventurous
R-Really studious
I-Interested in Exercise
E-Easy-going
L-Lovable

B-Beautiful
E-Extraordinary
L-Lots of laughs
N-Never gives up
A-Always happy
P-Perfectly content



I'm picking out the good characteristics that I like about Ariel, seeing the good and positive side of our relationship!

Farm Life

This weekend I went home with Ariel! She lives on a farm here in Idaho and it was beautiful to go visit there! I love the open farmland and the openness of the countryside. I like to see the cows and tractors and just how relaxed it is, the world seems to slow down out in the country, not as fast-paced as in the city. The communication issue here was that this was a good time to see how Ariel and I function and communicate outside of being at Rexburg. I am not going to lie, our communication struggled a little because I wasn't bothered about what we did while we were at her house and just wanted her to relax and enjoy her time with her family and spend that time however she wanted; but she didn't want me to be bored. I think she was a bit frustrated until I told her that I wasn't bored at all, that I was fine sitting at her house, that's why you get away right? So you don't have to worry, so you can relax. I told her that when I went home over President's Day weekend I read 2 books... she laughed and then understood that I really was ok with anything.We had a good time, but I'm glad that we could have the chat about things and come to an understanding of each other.

Magical Head Nod

Communication is really a beautiful thing. I know a lot of people say that text-messaging is taking away from face-to-face and personal communication, but sometimes it’s really nice to get a funny text/story from someone that you can’t otherwise talk to face-to-face. Take Jamie for instance… she is down in Provo and I am up in Rexburg and we don’t get to see each other very often. When we do see each other we update on each other’s lives but if she didn’t text me about her life every once in a while I would miss out on some of the most epic stories, like the one I heard last night. I was driving back to Rexburg with my roommate Ariel when Jamie text me… this is our conversation:

JAMIE- Remember my magical wave?
ME-Haha yeeeeees! Is there a good story accompanying this?
JAMIE- Well I have a magical head nod now too!
ME-Ooh!! You must teach me your ways!! What happened to get this magical head nod?
JAMIE-I was in a car when I head nodded to the car next to me, then we started following each other and doing funny car things, somehow it escalated to them coming to my apartment and getting my number haha
ME-Oh that is fantastic!! Were they hot? Lol I wish things like that would happen to me!! Rubbish Rexburg.
JAMIE-Yes they were super hot and tall…
ME-Oh my gosh!! …I might as well just worship the ground that you walk on and learn of your ways!! Props to my little sis!
JAMIE- Haha I don’t even know how it happened, one second I am on my way home to sleep and before you know it two cute boys are coming to my apartment

Man I love this story, totally typical of Jamie to have some amazing thing like this happen, and I am so glad she decided to share it with me. Totally made me laugh, she is ridiculous! Hearing a story like this… definitely makes for good communication.

My Sister: Jamie

Well Jamie went on vacation to California last week, a "self-proclaimed spring break" to visit Disneyland and some other places for one of her classes at university. Anyway it was weird that she was kind of out on vacation because she didn't answer her phone like I was used to! However it didn't put too much of a damper on our communication line, we are working back into it I guess? Haha I don't know but I do love talking to her now. I am glad that I chose to continue to improve this relationship. On facebook I sent her a picture I knew she'd love:


Communication is a beautiful thing.

My Roommate: Ariel

I have been working on listening better when I talk to Ariel and I think that our communication is really good. We both seem to really understand each other and understand how the other feels. We definitely stick together as well. We were trying to figure out where to live next semester (kind of a pain) but we had good communication and shared the things that we learned about different housing places together and we decided together were we'd live. I really like Ariel, she is a really good friend and it's easy to talk to her.

Jamie

Jamie is a fantastic sister, she really is. I went home for the long weekend and was able to talk with her face-to-face about some things that are going on. What's better than having a sister who is also my best friend. I remember when I was younger one of my cousins lived with me... she was older than us by a few years. I remember one night I got into a big fight with Jamie and told this particular cousin that I would never be friends with Jamie. My cousin said she used to fight with her sister all the time as well when they were younger and that as they became older they came to be best friends. Of course I didn't believe her and told her that would never happen with Jamie. Well... I guess sometimes we have to eat our own words like I did at this time. As I look back I can see the progression of my friendship with Jamie and as we've gotten older our communication skills and maturity have grown so much! It's interesting to see that progression of how communication and maturity (especially in this case) really work together to build a stronger relationship. We're still sisters, and we don't agree on everything but we don't fight about the things we don't agree on, we respect each others opinions and I'm glad to have someone who does at times challenge me and the things that I do or think.

I la you!

"I La You" is a phrase that Ariel and I and some of our other friends use to say "I love you." I guess you could say that this is a quirk in our friendship because it is something you could probably pick up on, but that is unique to this particular friendship I have with her and our other friends. I found this past week that Ariel and I tend to think a lot on the same level. It's so funny that after something happens our through process is the same. For example we found out that our friends were out of their apartment and wouldn't be back for like 20 minutes and both of us thought, "let's go prank them". It was pretty funny, we stole their lightbulbs. Unfortunately they caught us right as we were about to leave. It ended up being a fun night.

(Not) The Little Mermaid

I have found that the more you open up to people the stronger your relationship becomes with that person. Since we have been talking about non-verbal communication I have been trying to use that to show that I am a better listener. Ariel is a great listener, she just sits there and listens to me whine! I am generally a pretty good listener and so I have just been working on being better. I hadn't seen Ariel for quite a few days because of the long weekend so we had a good opportunity to chat and catch up last night and I think we had some pretty good communication. She is a good friend and I am glad to have her. I guess one thing I learned about our conversation yesterday is that even though I was unpacking my luggage while she was talking to me I was still able to listen very well and ask questions and respond to what she was saying. I learned that I am pretty good at listening even if it appears that I am not paying full attention.

Jammer-Pies

Well my communication with my sister has been going very well. A once difficult relationship has blossomed into a really good friendship. We went snowboarding today and I said to Jamie, "I have been better at communicating with you huh!?" And she just laughed and said, "Yep! A lot better, but only because I yelled at you." Haha well there you go. We had so much fun today up at Park City Mountain Resort snowboarding. At one point I got my board stuck in the snow and couldn't get out, but never fear Jamie came to my rescue and we were both laughing and having a good time. I love this new relationship that we have!! :)