First Boy

There probably should be some boy souls on this little soul spotlight, and so when contemplating which boys I've known for the longest and which would probably be my brother since I don't have any real ones, I of course immediately thought of James Allen!

J- Jumpy. When I picture James Allen, I think of him hopping around the basketball court, dodging poison balls and shniking rebounds. Playing basketball with James constitutes seriously some of my best childhood mornings.

A-Abashed. Ask my dad to do an impersonation of Bro. Allen talking to you, and James is the same way. Just kind of abashed, kind of mumbly, but always funny.

M-Momma's Boy. I have never known a son more endeared to his mother, maybe because he's the only son, but I can tell James respects his mother, and for that he gets a lot of brownie points. And brownies.

E-Enthusiastic. I've had the pleasure of serving with James on several committees or at least at a lot of service projects and such over the years, and he is definitely a team get-up-and-goer. And can't you just picture his raised eyebrows face like, "Oh! Yeah! What can I do? What do you need us to do? Oh, there's no one with me? Don't worry, I'll get a herd of willing servants in about 5 seconds" and then he does.

S-Squinty. Another classic James face. You know he appreciates your humor, which he always tries to appreciate everyone's humor, when his face gets all squinty like a happy little siamese cat hahaha in the best possible way, of course




A- Altruistic. I'm pretty sure every mom in our ward wanted their daughter to marry James, the noble, spiritual, serving, dashing young man, regardless of whether their daughter was in nursery or about to graduate young women's.

L-Humble. Ok, so Humble doesn't start with an L, but because it's one of his most prominent characteristics, I just had to throw it in there, and I already have to think of another L

L-Leader. I always remember James being the one to get up and lead any sort of movement; testimony meetings, service projects, fun gatherings, movie making endeavors, bike rides, etc. etc.

E-Eccentric. One time James came with me and a bunch of other people to Keller Park in the dark of the night and we rode the tandem around and he was wearing a yellow felt vest with piano notes on it, a pink poodle skirt, a black cape, and a cowboy hat. Oh what a silhouette in the night of my childhood. And that did not occur in just one instance.

N-No one compares. Seriously, James Allen is like a brother to me and I don't think I could have found a soul like him anywhere else to provide such big brother hoodness! What a pure soul!