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