This last week was great! I literally ran away, I packed up the van and my three children and a week ago Thursday I went down to my Great Grandmother's in Roy. She is an older lady, she'll be eighty five this year. And she loves to talk, which is nice for some like me who is never really around other adults, I am so lonely and really no one is there for me. To go up there was a return to sanity for me. Each day I am a little depressed and angry living here. Paul is not here, he is at work at night and no one reaches out to
me where I live. Going "home" was the greatest thing, having all that family around there was always something to do and if there wasn't, well then there was someone or something to visit or someone to help out. Mike and Tiff live under my grandmother and they were almost always there. It was the greatest thing and feeling to know that you were coming home to someone. They care and will watch out for your kids if you need to go to the bathroom or run to the car or run an errand. Family, I never knew how much I missed it until I got a taste of it. Paul and I have been talking about the kids and I going to stay up there until he finished with school. It would be healthier in some ways for me and well our kids, since I am with them 24 hours a day. The main down part is how we would see Paul even less than what we see him now,
which is about twice a week and it isn't for very long and we are trying to cram everything that we have to do together in that small amount of time, its more hectic and stressful. Today Paul got home at 8:30, what a relief it was to even have him home at that time. To have some one here, to have him read to the kids while I watched the show and see how lit up the girls were ((Abbi's smile and wiggles=priceless)).
My Grandma talked and it was nice to see some of the things that we have in common even with our SIXTY ONE year difference:: **She has/had wavy hair just like I do, ** She loves to walk to get exercise, she would walk the 18 miles from school a couple times a week when she was a child instead of taking the bus, **We both like crunchy peanut butter. There were other things that I noticed that we shared, be can't recall.
I made sure that I thought of things to do while we were down there since most people worked during the day and so their cousins were in day care and so on. Thursday we went to Michael, Tiffany and Taunya's softball game, the kids didn't do as much
watchin as they did playing with the doggies and the bleachers. On Friday we went to the Aerospace Museum, that was awesome. There was a missile, a bomb, a retired Air Force One and many other planes along with war memorabilia. That night we went to a reception for my Mom's cousin, it was real nice to see all of my great aunts and uncles there. The Groom, Kenneth Porter, actually remembered my name. You have to understand, he has more than 80 some odd first cousins, and
my mother is one of them. So I am the next generation down and he knew my name! I was astonished, and then my aunt came next in line and he was flabbergasted as to what name fit her. Saturday we went to the Bingham Family Reunion at Fort Buenaventura, which is my Great Grandmothers maiden name. It was fun, and lunch was good! It was a dutch oven with apple and peach cobbler for dessert and churned ice cream.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~us4allen/people/hist_main/char_abr/abr.chart6/6.2.htmlOn Sunday we went to church with Paul's dad and then went to Legand's birthday party. They had a different way of putting kids down the slip and slide and they all had fun! We brought
Legand a soccer ball, he was signed up last year and lost his ball. I figured that would be a good present. The warpping that I had put on it days before at our house got mangled from us stepping and tripping over it in the van, though he didn't seem to notice. Monday we went to Union Station and explored the grounds first and then went and looked at the trains, the tracks and then to the gift shop where the clerk told us as we were checking out that she had just sent someone to go and open up some of the train cars. So
we rushed out there and the kids were able to get in to a mail car and in to a hospital car from the war when they would carry the injured to the hospital. When we were finished we went up to my aunt Taunya's, we went to visit and she fed us some nummy spaghetti. Kacen was scared of their dogs, but not as scared as he was of Tiff and Mike's two bigger dogs. He would scream once we arrived at their house and were heading to their stairs. I had to hold him the entire time in their
house or he would have a spaz attack.
Tuesday we went home after playing at the park and having lunch with Grandma Price we went to Ruth's work and waited for her to finish what she needed to and then went on to the gateway to play. And play we DID, even though the Mommy took the children out in to the water unwillingly they were still smiling as it was going on! We then each had a different entree for dinner, I had Edo Japan, Ruth and Abbi had SBarro's and Alona had McDonald's- she wanted the toy! And well Kacen and Abbi had only half of the full pizza that Abbi had ordered and it still did not get completed.
I have been stressing myself out lately and unlike some people, for me it feels good to let it out, though not much good comes until I have gone through the trial that I am dreading. I am so freaked out about starting to pay the 40,000 some odd dollars in student loans that we have accrued. And
there is finding a job (close by family would definitely be preferable). And paying for rent while paying on the loans, I mean have you seen the price of a three bedroom lately. I have perusing on craigslist and on ksl just for the heck of it and it ranges between 900 and 1500 or more for one and then trying to pay more than 500 a month for loans. Maybe you can see why I stress just thinking about it. I haven't gotten the gall yet to ask any relative that have extra bedrooms if we could pay them a little to live with them until we figure everything out.
This last week was great! I literally ran away, I packed up the van and my three children and a week ago Thursday I went down to my Great Grandmother's in Roy. She is an older lady, she'll be eighty five this year. And she loves to talk, which is nice for some like me who is never really around other adults, I am so lonely and really no one is there for me. To go up there was a return to sanity for me. Each day I am a little depressed and angry living here. Paul is not here, he is at work at night and no one reaches out to
me where I live. Going "home" was the greatest thing, having all that family around there was always something to do and if there wasn't, well then there was someone or something to visit or someone to help out. Mike and Tiff live under my grandmother and they were almost always there. It was the greatest thing and feeling to know that you were coming home to someone. They care and will watch out for your kids if you need to go to the bathroom or run to the car or run an errand. Family, I never knew how much I missed it until I got a taste of it. Paul and I have been talking about the kids and I going to stay up there until he finished with school. It would be healthier in some ways for me and well our kids, since I am with them 24 hours a day. The main down part is how we would see Paul even less than what we see him now, 
which is about twice a week and it isn't for very long and we are trying to cram everything that we have to do together in that small amount of time, its more hectic and stressful. Today Paul got home at 8:30, what a relief it was to even have him home at that time. To have some one here, to have him read to the kids while I watched the show and see how lit up the girls were ((Abbi's smile and wiggles=priceless)).
watchin as they did playing with the doggies and the bleachers. On Friday we went to the Aerospace Museum, that was awesome. There was a missile, a bomb, a retired Air Force One and many other planes along with war memorabilia. That night we went to a reception for my Mom's cousin, it was real nice to see all of my great aunts and uncles there. The Groom, Kenneth Porter, actually remembered my name. You have to understand, he has more than 80 some odd first cousins, and
my mother is one of them. So I am the next generation down and he knew my name! I was astonished, and then my aunt came next in line and he was flabbergasted as to what name fit her. Saturday we went to the Bingham Family Reunion at Fort Buenaventura, which is my Great Grandmothers maiden name. It was fun, and lunch was good! It was a dutch oven with apple and peach cobbler for dessert and churned ice cream. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~us4allen/people/hist_main/char_abr/abr.chart6/6.2.html
Legand a soccer ball, he was signed up last year and lost his ball. I figured that would be a good present. The warpping that I had put on it days before at our house got mangled from us stepping and tripping over it in the van, though he didn't seem to notice. Monday we went to Union Station and explored the grounds first and then went and looked at the trains, the tracks and then to the gift shop where the clerk told us as we were checking out that she had just sent someone to go and open up some of the train cars. So
we rushed out there and the kids were able to get in to a mail car and in to a hospital car from the war when they would carry the injured to the hospital. When we were finished we went up to my aunt Taunya's, we went to visit and she fed us some nummy spaghetti. Kacen was scared of their dogs, but not as scared as he was of Tiff and Mike's two bigger dogs. He would scream once we arrived at their house and were heading to their stairs. I had to hold him the entire time in their
house or he would have a spaz attack.
there is finding a job (close by family would definitely be preferable). And paying for rent while paying on the loans, I mean have you seen the price of a three bedroom lately. I have perusing on craigslist and on ksl just for the heck of it and it ranges between 900 and 1500 or more for one and then trying to pay more than 500 a month for loans. Maybe you can see why I stress just thinking about it. I haven't gotten the gall yet to ask any relative that have extra bedrooms if we could pay them a little to live with them until we figure everything out.
no point in waiting any longer. It was fun and wet, the kids were so cute. Kacen kept drinking the water, I love the picture of the water going in to his eyes and him just staring at me wide eyed while it was occurring.
one in Florida about seven years ago and it was so nice that they brought one here to Utah. Last year I missed the bird show, we were an hour late at the zoo. I think the white alligator was
awesome, though it looked more like it had an off green tint to it. It was pretty cool to get a picture with it in the background. Kacen loved the kitty's, we saw a tiger and a few leopards and at the very top at the end of the Asian Highlands there is a bronze statue of some cats, Kacen went up and climbed on them and then had to keep giving them kisses until
Mommy convinced him that we needed to go. We passed the gift shop on the way back down towards the reptile building and they just had to get something, which I was happy to do. Last year they didn't get anything, I mean with gas up to the zoo, entrances fees and food it is hard to get souvenirs. Kacen was able to get a leopard that opened and closed its mouth when you pushed on the lever. He kept calling it his sword! Cutest thing, well I guess all except for him trying to fight with it. Alona got a stuffed leopard, Abbi a tiger that can hang by its string. While paying I only had a $20 bill for all three children's souvenirs. So I handed all of it to the lady with the money and told her that I could only get all of it if it costed this much. 
She then told me that she was giving me the members discount, woohoo! So the total was quite a bit under the $20 and with the extra money we rode the train before we left.
for kids, throwing candy and frisbees. This year the grocery store threw bubbles and t-shirts. Another float threw mini first aid kits and sunscreen, Kacen got a ball and there was PLENTY of candy to go around. There was even a mini fire engine that came and parked itself right by
where we were. A few of the floats came up next to him and just dumped candy in to the fire engine. Kacen was real excited about running out and getting the candy, other years I had to drag my girls to get the candy. They were so much fun this year! We went back and had lunch and came back wit their dad to the carnival around 5:00. Half of the rides were already cleaned up, but we caught quite a few of them before they deflated and disassembled their rides. They went on a big inflated slide and on some electric powered swings, then to the playground and Alona played a bean bag game for fifty cents where the girls won glow in the dark bracelets. We went to the fireworks at 9:30 and waited just a little while for them to start, they were amazing, so up close, loud and spectacular, like the sky was literally falling on you. We got an amazing parking spot right past
the fire zone (the red painted curb) up along the edge of the high school which was right across the street from the park where the fire works were being launched. It was a pretty good forth of July and I was so happy to have others around during the time that Paul was sleeping, made my day!
