We have moved!

The Allen's have switched blogs. The explanation is on the new blog.

http://brianjessallen.blogspot.com/

Hmmm

What has happened since the last post? I guess not too much. We had our one year anniversary this last week and Brian got me golf clubs. I have really wanted to learn to play so I can go with him. We have just been to the driving range a couple times and I am starting to get frustrated. I am horrible and I don't like to do things I am not good at. I will still keep going though. Brian has meetings this week and will travel to Peoria for a couple days. Now that he is in to the swing of things I think he truly is enjoying it. I am really happy for him.

Last night we were driving to the driving range. The road we were traveling was like 17th street if you are familiar with Idaho Falls. Next thing we know the car in front of us swerves all over the road! We were like what the heck! That is when we see a ginormous tire/wheel coming straight for us! We too then had to swerve and thank heavens no one hit each other. It was scary! Brian said the wheel came from a brand new Ford Explorer. He thought it looked like the wheels were new and could have been they just got them and the tire store didn't put on the lug nuts.

Anyways, nothing else is new. I can tell it is going to be a long week. I am sick of living in a college town and having everything revolve around the college. The wards are just typical college wards and as of today, still not my new favorite place to live.

They Are HERE!

Our cars FINALLY CAME!!!! I feel so much better about things! I haven't drove a car in weeks so I honestly felt a little funny driving for the first time again! It was so great! I feel like I have freedom again! And... my ZUMBA disks came! I finally decided to order the new set because I have now been to 2 classes here... two locations, two teachers and last night was so bad I walked out early. I did a disk this morning and it is still not as great as Kelsie's ZUMBA class but better than anything here! It has been a good day!

A Good Day

Well, Brian started work this last Monday the 8th. His supervisor is in Peoria so no one really knew what to have him do. I think he got a little bored. Tomorrow they have some new hires so a big orientation is going to happen so I think that he is going to go to that and get more familiar with things. From the sounds of things, he will get off work at 4 every day which will be really nice. He has been able to come home and have lunch with me and it has been really nice. We still don't have our cars here yet so I am home all day. It will be nice once they are here so I can get out and go do things. I decided to order new Zumba disks and hope they get here soon so I can start back up my exercise routine. Tuesday we fed the missionaries and they were nice. Nothing else exciting happened the rest of the week. At nights we just find random stores to go to and walk around. We are looking for some new furniture. Well I say new, I mean new to us. We went to the Good Will store, like the DI, and they must not believe in selling furniture. We may have to start garage selling on saturdays. Yesterday we cleaned the church and there was a really cute boy there named John. He is 6 years old and was born in Hawaii and his family moved here a couple years ago. He was my cleaning partner. We were in charge of vacuuming and he used the 'wand' to get the roaming fuzzies. We spent the day cleaning the house and went and got some grocery shopping done. We made some really yummy shishcabobs! super good. I was proud. With grilled bacon potatoes :) While we were grilling we saw some black clouds over the top of some distant houses. By the time we got done grilling the wind was blowing very badly and the rain started comind down in buckets. We think we even heard sirens... maybe not... The storm lasted an hour and I don't think I have ever been in a storm like that. You don't get storms like that in Idaho.

Today we had to speak in church and it went well. We got invited to eat at the couples house we cleaned the church with. rumor is that they are very good cooks. We also went to the Gardner's homes. We had roast and Idaho mashed potatoes :) It was very good. I wanted to go back for seconds but that is not polite. We sat and talked for a couple hours and it was so nice. I love the wife. I would really like to get to know her.

Well that is all for this week.

Jessica

We have been Nabbed

Well we have been nabbed! At church today we got asked to speak in church next sunday, Brian got asked to teach Priesthood, we are cleaning the church Saturday, and they needed someone to feed the missionaries this Tuesday... guess who is doing that? ME! Now what to fix??

The Lake County Fair!

Brian has been very excited about moving here because sled/tractor pulling is a big deal. Well on the radio the other day he heard about the Lake County Fair. We decided to go yesterday afternoon. We put it in our GPS and we soon found out that the NW part of the state is in the Eastern Time Zone. We thought it was going to be two hours away but it ended up only being an hour away. We get off the main road and drive about 9 miles out in the country. We think it had to have been a really good size town but you couldn't see it because of all the trees. We passed a signed that said soccer parking here, soccer parking and shuttle here etc. etc. Next thing you know you see a sign that says soccer field 1-30 turn right now. Holy freaking soccer fields!! Soccer must be a big deal around here! There was free parking at the Crown Point High School and they have shuttles that would take you to the fair grounds. It is a really really nice town. BEAUTIFUL! Way prettier than Lafayette. Trees everywhere and people's yards are immaculate and big ponds everywhere. We got to the high school and it may be the biggest, nicest high school that I have ever seen. We load up on a bus and head to the fair about five minutes away. I was expecting a hick-ville fair like the county fairs you find in Idaho or a fair with a single booth and two food stands and two chickens. This fair was legit! They had really nice venues and just as many food stands as the Eastern Idaho State Fair. They had lots of multiples though.... like 8 corn dog stands ha! It was really fun though. I needed it. We got looking through the fair guide they give you and they had a pig race for a cookie... random we know, but needed something to do while we waiting for the sled pulls. It was really quite hysterical to see these little piggies race for a cookie.





You can ride camels at this fair!



This is a family joke between Brian and Logan. Brian is always joking that he wants a mini horse.







We went to the produce barn and it is amazing how many things grow here that just don't exist in Idaho. The best part was this potato that got the award for being the best and largest potato. Don't worry Idaho farmers... I think you are going to be ok!




The tractor broke and they didn't get it working until the sled pulls were supposed to start so we waited a long time for them to get the pull strip perfect. We had to get a video of how the Fords did in the working class vs the dodge :)

House

Well the long awaited house pictures are here. I have not got the decorating bug yet. Too much money. But if anyone has decorating ideas, you just let me know :) And instead of taking pictures, I took movies for a change. Let's see how they work!

Here is my living room


This is my kitchen, laundry, pantry and a little of outside



Here is my upstairs.


We have another bedroom upstairs but it is my 'War Zone.' Everything that hasn't found a home yet lives in that room.

Observing Indiana

There have been several things I have noticed about this area that have been really surprising. Here are my findings:

1-At 1:30 in the morning the temperature is 79 degrees. It doesn't cool off here. Don't open your windows at night.


2-There are firework stands every where here. I take that back... not STANDS... BUILDINGS! There are HUGE buildings everywhere dedicated just to selling fireworks. Must be legal here???

3- In Idaho, there is a stereotype for people that smoke. That is not mean right? But let's be real, there really is! Here, the most beautiful people smoke. Everyone smokes.

4-Shorts. Bermuda shorts? I don't think I have seen a pair for sale. Girls from age 2-80 wear the booty hugging shorts.

5- I think I have talked about the roads here and speeding? Well, while going down the road you have to be careful. There are tires all over the road. Not exaggerating. Brian says that in Idaho there are crews that go around and pick up all of the tire fragments from all of the truck blow-outs. Not Here.

6- You hear all of the time 'no one has big families anymore, only Mormon families.' Totally not true here. I have been surprised how big families are here. There are cute little pregnant girls here that are already toting around five little kids under 6! Everyone is prego here...

Well that is all I can think of for now!

I almost forgot!

Brian did it! He made it to graduation! On July 22, 2011 he graduated from BYU-I with a bachelors in Mechanical Engineering! I am so proud of him. He took the long path in school but he made it! With this new degree of his, he will start working for CAT on Monday the 8th!






GRADUATION!!!!!!

The Move

Well, many people want to know all about our move. So here we go… We left from Sugar City last Wednesday July 27th and drove to Jackson where we flew out. Our plane was delayed 40 minutes so we got to sit outside longer with my family before had to check in. I held it together until we went through security. At that point I lost it. The airport in Jackson has been recently renovated but the didn’t have WiFi so Brian was pretty bummed about that.



Brian playing Ipad

We arrived in Chicago on time surprisingly. We got our rental car and were supposed to stay in Chicago that night but our movers called and said they needed us to either find a place to live by Friday morning or our stuff would go in to their storage for 3+ weeks. CAT paid for a realtor for us and she found a place we could move in right away that she could show us that night. So instead of driving to our hotel, we drove to Lafayette, IN.

On our way, the GPS took us dead through the middle of town and it seemed to take forever to get here. We think there is probably a better way to getting to and from Chicago but our Landlord says everyone takes the same route we did. The speed limit even on freeways here is like 55-65. NO ONE goes what the speed limit is! you have to go whatever everyone else is going, which is well over 75. It makes me nervous. There are no police on the roads but with our luck we will go along with traffic and be the ones to get a massive speeding ticket.

Our first day here we met our new landlord and got the house taken care of. I haven't taken any pictures yet because it still looks like a war zone. I will take some soon though. Today, I was a wreck. I did NOT want to be in this 'Hell Hole.' It is not pretty here. Brian tells me it is because they are having a major heat wave and no rain so everything is brown and ugly. I would second that. We wanted to try a good pizza place and the hotel lady told us to try Arnie's or Pizza King. We chose Arnie's. We put it in the GPS and it took us to a mini pizza place. It reminded me of the Craigo's that used to be in Broulims. The 'Mother Store' is across town somewhere. But it turned out ok because it just so happened to be right across from the mall. I tell brian that it was the best thing he could have done because they have a great Macy's and a Kohls in the mall.




Weird looking pizza but it was decent. Next time we want something more plain.


So Brian and I are really big Celebrity Apprentice Fans. This season the finally was to create 7-UP boxes and have a big party. Well the executives liked both boxes and put both of them in to production.... Well we hadn't seen them. So much for the production...

Well, when we went to Walmart (which is only like 2 minutes away from my house!) we saw the boxes!!! We had to take a picture.





Saturday we went to this 'Diesel and Gas Engine Show.' Brian was so excited. It was so hot it was MISERABLE!!! And I just have to say... They think Idaho is a bunch or Hill Billies??? Idaho is full with a bunch of class if you ask us. And I did have to take a picture of the potty :)







Sunday....
Well a lot of the brothers in the ward came up and said hi to us. There is actually an elderly couple on a mission from Star here. There is right outside of Eagle, ID :) To bad they got transferred a couple days ago. You know, everyone seemed nice enough but I still came away feeling like a worthless piece of flesh. People here are so educated it is not even funny. You feel like an idiot because your husband isn't working on his PhD and you didn't complete your masters and deciding whether to go on or not.

Here is our church



Sunday night we had nothing to do and we went for a drive. I can't tell you where because I don't even know which way is north around this place. It was much prettier out in the country. We found this race track and we are very excited to find some races that we could find to go watch.

Tuesday we decided to go in to Indianapolis. We were there in less than an hour. We went to the zoo and I loved it! Zoos are my favorite. It was very very hot. Am I every going to get used to this place??? There was a dolphin show that we went to. It was a nice venue but it is nothing compared to the show at Sea World.

After the zoo we thought we would go find the Brick Yard. They had a museum that we HAD to go to you know??? I went through in about ten minutes and just sat there and relaxed on a comfy chair while Brian enjoyed himself. I think he could have spent hours there! After that, we tried yet another pizza place. It is supposed to be one of the best in Indy. It was really good... but they messed our order up. They made it right though and we got a free extra pizza to take home with us which was our lunch yesterday.








Yesterday I went to a Zumba class. I miss Kelsey Harris my old zumba teacher!!! Wow... maybe zumba just hasn't caught on here?? It has inspired me to just get my our teaching certificate and teach my own class. Yesterday night was stake basketball night. To be honest I didn't want Brian to go. We don't have insurance this week until he starts work on Monday and I didn't have a good feeling about playing but last time I told him he couldn't play, due to a recent nose surgery.... I got in big trouble. So I didn't say anything and let him go. I figured we won't learn to like this place if we don't get involved and meet people. I said it was time to go and I got the 'Oh just one more game answer.' Well that one more game turned in to one more etc. Well we only played half of that game and came home early with another broken nose. Will this be another surgery nose??? We will find out next week I guess. I think that church ball is jungle ball anyways but especially after you have been playing for three hours. People get sloppy and that people we getting banged up everywhere. Oh well.... Live and learn I guess. His nose doesn't look too terribly crooked so it can't be that bad :)

As for today... Who knows what we will do. I try and be positive and don't have a set idea that I am going to hate the new day but I am having a really hard time. about noon it starts to hit me and I hate the evenings. Nothing to do and no one to do things with. It is too hot to be outside and this is the time when we would be in Idaho playing basketball or Botche ball or playing card games with family and friends? It is going to be a long day on Monday when I am all alone for the week.

Oh well.... another day at a time...

Where to Start?

I have spent the past hour trying to create a new blog that has our updated email address and doesn't have 'Tingey' everywhere and I am fit-to-be-tied trying to get everything to work. UGH!!! Well it has been a very emotional day and it is one in the morning so I need to go to bed.

On my list of things to do tomorrow:
- Update the blog!


-Jessica

It is getting close!

So here is the update. I finished working at Premier Performance last friday the 15th. It was very bitter sweet for me. I love the girls that I worked with. After spending 8 hours every day with each other for over a year you get to be really close to one another. I really feel like I left my friends behind. This week I have been trying to get a lot done. However, the heat has really put a damper on my spirits. We can't keep our apartment below 78 degrees. It is 10:51 and 78.9 degrees. I really feel like I am getting heat exhaustion just by being in the house or sleeping at night. I haven't sleep good for weeks no and it is really catching up to me.

Well here is the move update. We have to be out of this apartment by this weekend. We called our manager last Friday and asked if we could stay another week and she said oh ya, that is totally fine! Well yesterday, which would have been Monday, she called back and said that won't work any more and you do need to be out this weekend. Well that sets in the panick as we have not hear a WORD from the moving company. For being such a big company and resources for everything, we feel like things have gone way too slow. So yesterday I try and get a lot done and the manager calls yesterday evening and says she came move the couple in to another unit and we can stay a little longer. YEA!!!!

We are still waiting to find out when we can move but we have been in contact with the relocation agency and they are on the ball! Brian has been so busy with school. We are almost there...4 days! Today we are going to a graduation luncheon that the ME department is putting on and then we get to go to an open house where he showcases the project he has been working on. He built an engine to run without a Cam Shaft. Whatever that means. There will lots of new stories I can post and I am really going to try and stay on top of it now that I have more time.

Life of Late

I really enjoy reading other people's blogs and see what they have going on in their lives. I thought I was going to do better and update our blog more frequently. I thought I was doing a little better at it until I noticed my last post… MAY 29th!!! That is over a month ago. And within that month, a lot has changed. The first weekend in June we went to Filer for Steph and Clint’s cute little boys blessing. While we were there, we received an email from CAT that said they wanted to bring Brian out for an interview!! On June 16th I dropped him off at the airport where he flew from IF to Denver. His flight leaving was delayed and he only made his connection flight truly in matter of seconds. They were closing the door to the plane!! He then flew to Peoria, IL. He said it was just beautiful there!! The next morning he went to his interview and it went great! Brian was very pleased and felt great about things. He came home and we really thought we would be moving to Peoria. The whole next week I had been checking the email and looking online about the town and was getting myself prepared. On the next Friday the head-honcho called us and says we want you as soon as possible and you are moving to Lafayette, IN! Completely different state! At first I panicked a little bit but then I had a much better feeling. We feel so much better about going to Indiana. Brian graduates on the 22nd of July and we head out of town on the 27th. So much has changed in two weeks. We are excited but I am getting really nervous. It is a long ways to come back home. 26 hours and 34 minutes to be exact. Here is to our new adventure...

A Heartfelt, Tear Dropping Story

My mom told me about this family she read a blog about and it broke my heart. I post the link so everyone can read because it really makes you appreciate what you have. You're going to tell your family you love them after this.
http://www.dennyandwendy.blogspot.com/

5 Months, 17 Days Later...

Well a lot has happened since the last post, January 1st. Where to begin. Oldest to newest I guess. We were in twin before Christmas and Brian came home from riding one day and said he was going to do the snow-bike race on January 28th in McCall, Idaho. I have never been there. People from this side of the state don’t go there for vacation. We go to Jackson or Island Park. I guess it is quite the popular vacation place on the other side of the state. Brian was very determined to do well. He hasn’t been able to ride much this year with school but he said he would rather loose because he just hasn’t had the time on the bike that everyone else had instead of loosing because he was out of shape. We started to go to the gym and exercise 5 days a week. I loved it! I lost 5 pounds! He lost his motivation to exercise on January 29th and I am still looking for ways to motivate him to go to the gym with me. We took a three day weekend and headed up there with the Meacham’s and Doxey’s and stayed at a really really nice place. We had a blast and he did awesome! Not to mention it was the Winter Carnival and there were SO MANY fantastic and wonderful sculptures!




On our Way




Brian Racing Pictures
He came in second to Shane Donica. I guess he was a really good retired pro rider so not to shabby! Way to go Brian!





I guess the next thing to tell is school. Brian is now in his last semester at BYU-I studying Mechanical Engineering. We have been job searching and hoping that we hear something soon. I had no idea it takes this long! I am starting to get stressed out! We have applied at some of the following places:
-Paccar
-Cummins
-John Deere
-Cat
-Peterbuilt

If you know of anyone looking for an engineer straight out of college…. LET US KNOW!

We are getting down to the wire. I have had to let work know that I don’t know where I will be come August and the anticipation of where we will make our next adventure is starting to get to me. I think mid-terms are next week! CRAZY!


And the most recent adventure, SUPERCROSS. Brian loves this sport. This year he got us all tickets and we headed down to Salt Lake. We stayed at Little America and it was really nice. It was fun because they had really fun motifs in the rooms. Ours was PINK! It was a really cold weekend. Brian says it was a lot warmer than it has been in the past however which was good I guess. We did a little shopping Saturday and Brian and Dad went early to the races and went to the pits. Edge and MBRP were there and all the Premier people that were there got to have free food! Lucky boys.

We had a really great time. We hate Chad Reed. We are so glad he didn’t win! What do you think Monster girls do during the day to look the way they do??

After the races we headed out to Jerolyn William’s home, owner of Industrial Injection and enjoyed a fun night with her family and some people from work. The next day we spent the afternoon at the Hill Airforce Base. Yipee… I could be in and out in an hour. My husband…. Who drug me to the Midway aircraft carrier for six hours… could have stayed there for two days!

Christmas

My family has always been huge boise fans. Last year Brian and I were able to go the the Fiesta Bowl with Brian's family and it was AMAZING! Unfortunately things didn't work out our way this year with a loss to Nevada leading to nothing more but the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl. True fans don't die with a single loss! Once again Trent and Cheri get us tickets and we head to Vegas. My parents were very sad that they couldn't go. We head to Filer the Friday before the game and spent the weekend there. Brian went Snow-Biking and us girls did some errands while the rest of the guys took the kids to a movie. That night we had Prime Rib. I have never had Prime Rib as good as what his sisters make... EVER. Sunday after church Brian and I and Steph and Clint load up the truck and head out of town for vegas! Boise State here we come!! It rained and blew so hard the entire way there! We make it to Vegas around midnight and we are so tired we hit the can fast! Well, without giving you a play by play of our time in Vegas, all I am going to say is R.A.I.N... It rained the ENTIRE time we were there. It wasn't just a light rain. It was a full out monsoon! Streets were flooded. Parking lots were flooded. Flash flood warnings on the radio every ten minutes... It was crazy!! Wednesday, game day, came around and it was raining as hard as it had all week. We were a little worried. we bought some blue ponchos just in case Monday morning and it was a good thing because every store in the state of Nevada seemed to be out! We thought we had allowed plenty of time to get to the game. We were wrong. Take note Las Vegas, TRAFFIC CONTROL!!! It took us and hour and twenty minutes to go 1.7 miles. Traffic was awful! We missed the fireworks and fly by by some really special airplane according to Brian... Everyone hopped out of the truck and started to run the last half a mile. The parking lots at the stadium were so mucky and messy they had a lot of things blocked off. We turned between two cement barriers and parked in the middle of this messy parking lot and we hauled to the gate. We only missed the first couple minutes of the game but we were soooo mad. Lets just say the game started with half the people it should have. There was still a ten mile traffic jam just waiting to get there as well. Lets just say we went off-roading and the 4-wheel drive came in handy to getting us out of traffic fast on the way home :).




We headed home from Vegas on Thursday and drove back to Filer and back on home to Sugar City. The next morning, Christmas Eve, we have a tradition to go to breakfast for my cousins birthday. We got up and went to that and spent the day at my grandma's in Idaho Falls and then had a wonderful dinner, program and gift exchange.





We spent the night at my parents so we could have Christmas with them. WE, the 20 yr olds had to wake the 11yr old up at eight! That is a first. We had a great christmas. We truly were spoiled!

Brian got:
Boots
Shoes
Fruit Snacks...economy sized box!
Slippers
Clothes
Socks for church and winter weather
Magazine Sub.
The List goes on and on!

Me:
Watch
Rolling Pin
Rice Bags
A Coat
Jewelry
Jeans... that don't currently fit anymore after all the holiday eating... :(
The list goes on and on!

We had a great holiday and look forward to what the new year will bring!

Oh Metal Roof!

The house we are currently living at has a metal roof. The cabin has a metal roof so I thought I knew what to expect. A Little creek here and there and a little clattering when it would rain. Boy were we not prepared for what winter would bring! On warm days and warmer nights we would hear these massive bangs, or pounds and pounds of snow falling off the roof. On a couple of occasions it has woken me up and scared the living daylights out of me in the middle of the night! The snow has also kept us out of the garage...




Don't worry! The snowblower works great!