Familial Fridays: Meet Mary

A few months ago (November), I ambitiously set out to blog about each one of our immediate family members. So far, I have blogged about my brother, David, and Mitchell and Madeline, my little in-laws, also known as Matt's siblings... In order to keep myself accountable to finishing this task, every Friday from today until I finish will be "Familial Friday." And today is MARY'S lucky day. (Dad, Meyer, I promise, your time is coming.)
-------------------------------------------
Mary's on the left. I don't know who the dude in the middle is.
-------------------------------------------

Mary is Matt's 2nd youngest sibling. She is almost 14 and almost in high school, which is REALLY hard to believe. When we started dating she was in 2nd grade.

The first thing I learned about Mary is that she is a huge TALKER. She loves to talk, ask questions, make random chit-chat. She has actually become a good conversationalist, and there are times when I'm talking to her that I forget she's only 13. Of course there are other times when she makes her age seem very obvious. :) Famous quote by Mary to Maddie, her little sister. "Maddie, you might have the brains, but I have the looks."

Mary is not afraid to ask what words mean, or what things are, or why things are the way they are. I admire this because when I was growing up, I thought it would make me seem stupid if I asked a question and everyone else around already knew the answer. So, my brother would ask questions, and I would sneer at him for asking, even though I didn't know the answer either. This happens to Mary A LOT, and it makes me love her more.

Also, Mary overhears and pays attention to EVERYTHING. She LOVES knowing secrets and HATES not knowing them. She and Matt both have big ears (not literally). But they both randomly overhear conversations, and Mary especially is great at gathering information. (I won't call it gossip.) She is a "go-to" in the Gibson household for information... much to the chagrin of her brothers and sisters.

Mary is also very good at several different extracurriculars. She is a star swimmer, high-jumper, volleyball player, and dancer (which is her favorite). Unfortunately, she also inherited (like Matt) a proneness to injury, and has spent much of this year with an broken ankle and a hip problem. :( Hopefully she gets better soon!

Mary loves to shop and she loves designer brands. In the last couple of years she's become obessesed with everything Coach. She has used hard-earned babysitting money to buy Coach purses, Coach shoes, Coach everything. And it makes shopping for her relatively easy, though many in the family are skeptical about whether we should encourage this behavior.

We love Mary and are excited to see her grow up and mature into a young high-school lady!