People Who Have Made A Big Impact (1 of 6): The Sandersons

I decided to highlight several people who have made a big impact over the course of my adult life. Of course it is almost impossible to recreate the thousands of people in my sphere of influence who have changed my life and most of them for the better. Rather than trying to write well into my 50's about people who have made an impact (or maybe beyond) I instead thought "you know what I will make this my late Summer/early Fall series every year" so I am. Every year I will do a 6-part series with 6 different people who have made a positive impact in my adult life. I will explain how I met them, how they made an impact, and what I have done to make an impact in their life. Here is my first one of my first 6 highlighting one of the most delightful married couples I have ever met.

Phyllis and Steve Sanderson met me before I was born. My Mom was initially a member of the church I go to now at that point and they started going years prior. They have been married for over 50 years and are soulmates- they married shortly after high school was over. In the span of time that they have known me they have become like mother and father figure's in my life. They have helped me since I was 3 with Steve always saving me from the pool I remember this only because my Mom told me the story approximately 5,978 times and every time I laugh. In the decades since they have helped with numerous projects that I was involved with for church and in their yard they have continued to be church pew buddies for years I have met their whole family and I have continued to see a vital sense of humor in everything they do. Whether it is the fact that I give Phyllis a tin of snack mix every year and it is always gone in day 1 mostly by her or whether it is the fact that they are a couple of the most loving people in the church's family and give more people hugs than I do or that they made me a quesedilla recipe for my high school graduation letters they have  always supported me and have supported me greatly not only financially but also with finding my current apartment and with finding my way through college telling me numerous times to never quit and constantly encouraging me to find ways to work on my safety and to get away from the various stressful living situations I was in. In return with the years at their pool with the many times giving them a hard time or giving them solid stories of what has gone on in my life with all the laughter and all the love and all the kind moments with their family that I have shown them and with all of their own wisdom that I have learned and the lessons I have continued to learn from my mistakes when I was a youth and show them that I am passionate about getting better I would like to think that through 35 years of life we have both shown each other forgiveness and compassion and kindness and generosity and I have continued to make their Sunday experience what it was to be better. One last story then I will write the conclusion: when I was at Family Camp in 2006 I wrote a nickname my BUS driver gave me on my name tag and my friend at the time wrote a country singer's name on his nametag. Steve in his punny sense of humor saw it and said "Ian is going Iancognito this weekend" which means that 12 years of Ian puns that are said almost every day either online or in person was started by Steve Sanderson.

In conclusion, they have continued to be great mother and father figures but also unyielding amounts of kindness, compassion, love, and integrity. Phyllis's animus in cartoons is probably hard to find (or storybooks for that matter) but Steve's is clearly Winnie-The-Pooh because he is kind, loving, huggable, larger than life, and harmless. I have been blessed to know them for as long as I have as they have been literally life-long friends and I am beyond grateful to have that great familial bond.

Alaska Three Things To Take Away From The Trip Besides My Gifts

Alaska was a wonderful trip. Getting to hang out with my two best friends, create solid memories, take a lot of pictures, laugh, drink good beer and eat solid food, and hike a lot. I got to hang out with one of the most fun, rad parents and grandparents ever and genuinely enjoyed being anonymous and blending in whereas in Boise I see someone I know and someone else within inches of each other. Yeah the biggest extrovert in town. I also went on hikes and saw great water. I had a great trip one of the best ever. So without further adieu three things I learned:
1) Unexpected things happen and you can continue to work through them: there were several unexpected things that happened on the trip: the cost was pretty high and I thought I would be compensated more, there were long stretches without food and long waits and there were so much more traffic than expected with fast drivers and of course the airport drama. Surprisingly I worked on using my words and working through the conflict resolution and made it to Boise on Thursday (almost Friday) as expected. I wasn't expecting sleeping well but I slept like a rock without all of the horses going into the night. I am genuinely grateful for how it  worked out everything worked out well and the trip was better because of it.
2) Alexis's family loves me almost as much as she does: Or not. No one loves me as much as Alexis outside of my family. But they sure did love me and we had great long conversations, Alexis and Alex told stories, they were genuinely interested in hearing about my jobs and wish I could stay longer and they were way better hosts than I could ever imagine. I am lucky to have a family that loves me almost as much as their daughter and her Mom got to see almost drunk version of Ian and still accepted me well. Also the whole time I tried convincing them that I am an angel and they didn't buy it so basically they are truth-tellers and don't believe everything I tell them which is appreciated because honesty is refreshing.
3) A great place to go Iancognito for a while for me: I met a few of Alexis's friends who I had conversations with but other than the few people I met besides that, Alexis's family (and Alexis and Alex), and a staff from an organization that was doing work up there I didn't have much of a conversation outside of compliments and service from anyone. Not one person and it was kind of refreshing even though I love being the center of attention (for a while when I was playing basketball literally) it was nice to hide and not know many souls and soak in the beauty while only really being on for phone for short spurts of social media. I was able to be physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually at peace without rushing to see the next person. It was a genuine thing to really show I care and compliment others without knowing them though except for the hugs from Alexis's family I only got a few hugs and that was way weird because I am a lovable human. And due to my at the time mountain man beard and my jacket and sassy attitude and kindness I blended in well.
So that's a short recap from Alaska. Another blog in a couple of weeks talking about a wonderful hero to me as the first session of the series of the hero chronicles where I talk about 6 wonderful heroes who have shaped my adult life begins.