Slice of Life #19 - "Get Into My Car"

The year is 1993 and I was 15 when I started to learn to drive my dad would take me to large empty parking lots and have me practice on a Sunday afternoons.  We would use his car which was a Pontiac but I don't remember what model.  And then as it got closer to getting my license we used the Nissan mini-van that we owned.  Of course a month before I got my licences they sold the mini-van and got a large blue suburban.  Which I drove a lot.

But the month before I was to turn 16 in 1994, My grandfather had some health issues and gave up his drivers license.  That summer, my sister and I moved in my my grandparents, since my parents were moving into a small 3 bedroom apartment and with 6 girls it just wasn't going to work.  So I got to drive grandpa's car.  He had  a 1984 Century.

In Oct 1994 I was in a car accident that wasn't my fault and totalled the car.  He then bought this 1986 Ford Taurse with all the bells and wistels.  I drove that until I left on my mission and while I was gone it died.

When I got home from my mission I bought my first car.  A 1999 Toyota Corolla.  I loved that car!  Of course I had driven Corollas on my mission.  We sold this car in Jan 2009, just before the twins were born because we couldn't fit 4 kids in it.  We bought a 1998 Dodge Caravan.  And it is alright to drive, not my favorite.

 What  I would really like to drive is a 8 passenger Toyota Sienna.  I love the space in that thing.  One day  That is my dream car right now. And someday that may change.

We own a 1994 Honda Civic and I have never driven it.  Dan got it when he got home from his mission in 1994.  It is still running good and he plans to drive  it until it dies.  The reason I have never driven it, is I have never learned to drive a stick.  My dad bought his first stick in about 15 years when I bought my Corolla.  So I never learned, as I had my car and never needed to borrow Dad's car.  And with 4 kids under the age of 5 it is hard to get out and have Dan teach me.  Maybe someday we can still do it.

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Slice of life #18 ~ Random Picture day

This weeks Slice of Life is Random Picture day.  Because I seem to have lost a scrapbook with a lot of my old pictures from me as a child (think it is in one of the boxes that I haven't ever unpacked).  I chose a picture that I had scanned into my computer.  This is when I was about 10 day old.   I was born at 28 weeks and my twin sister Lynnette didn't make it.  I weighted in at 1 lbs 14 ozs and 12 inches long.  I was in the hospital for 12 weeks after I was born before my parents could take me home.  This is how my Mom and Dad got to hold me  at first.

There is a story about my birth.  My parents were living in Rexburg, ID when they found out they were having twins.  They found out about 2 weeks before we were born.  My Mom was going into labor just after Mother's Day and the Dr's knew they didn't have the set up to handle preemie babies(remember this was 1978) so they sent her by ambulance to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City.    The only ambulance that was available was a brand new one that had no radio.  The ambulance goes speeding down I-15 to Salt Lake City, and the Highway Patrol is trying to get a hold of them to find out what the emergency was,  and can't because there was no radio.  So the Highway Patrol thought it was a stolen ambulance.  And they then got enough cops there to surround the ambulance south of Pocatello or so.  When they found out what was going on, they called a helicopter from Salt Lake City to come and get my parents.  They got my parents to the hospital and I was born at 10:10am.  My parents had lost a baby just nine months before I was born, so when they told my mom that there was a good chance I wasn't going to survive, she just knew that I was going to.  I have 4 younger sister that were born in the 7 years after I was born, and my mother was on bed rest for most of her pregnancies to help them from coming early.  When I was born my lungs were not fully developed, and I have a hearing loss and wear hearing aids in both ears that is said to be a side effect of being born so early.

It has been 32 years since this day, and I am grateful, that the medicine and technology was around to help keep me here on this earth, even though it has come a long ways in the last 32 years as well.

Ruth & Irene 7 days old

In Jan 2009 when I gave birth to my twins, my husband didn't want to be in the room with me.  He didn't like the thought of them cutting me open for a c-section, I was privileged to have my Mom in the operating room with me, and I think she enjoyed getting to see the birth of the next generation of twins, born from one of her twin daughters.  I love you Mom and Dad, Thanks for being there for me!

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Slice of Life # 17~ Chores

This weeks Slice of Life prompt is chores.

When I was about 14 my Dad decided that all of us were old enough to start cooking some of the meals and doing our own laundry.  My Mom had gone back to school, and to help ease the burden he wanted us all to do two things besides our normal chores.  We were to each have a night to cook dinner and we each had a day that we did our laundry.  My Dad told us that he wanted us to learn to cook things other then Mac and Cheese, Hot Dogs and Raman!  Since there was 6 girls we each had a night and Mom and Dad cooked on Sunday.  If we couldn't do our assigned day then we had to get one of the other girls to trade with us.  Our laundry day was on a different day from our dinner cooking night, so that we could get homework done and stuff.  If we didn't do our laundry on our day then we had to ask the person who's day it was if we could do a load with their stuff.  I think it worked out pretty well.  I am glad my dad came up with this plan so that we could all learn.  My youngest sister was 8 at the time and I am the oldest of my sisters and I was 14, and my foster sister was 15.  Sweet times.  Now I wish my kids were old enough to do this with, but I know in time they will be and I am going to do this with them.

P.S. The pictures were taken off line!  My dishes never looked that good!

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How old are you?

This is Irene, she is 20 months old.  Saturday night was a rough night for sick kids in our house.  First Irene came and climbed in bed with me at 1:30am and then her big brother Dillon joined us shortly after.  Then my 3 year old daughter came in at 2am crying because she had wet her bed.  I get up and help her and try to get Dillon and Jennilyn back in bed with a lot of fighting and when I got up I though Irene had gone back to sleep on my bed.  While I was trying to get Jennilyn and Dillon back to bed and going to sleep, I notice the TV coming on in my room.  Irene had gotten a hold of the remote and turned on the TV and Blue Ray player and was watching the credits of Star Trek (the newest one) and she was just laying on my pillows watching with the remote in hand.  I took her to her bed and she went right back to sleep.

I just had to laugh that a 20 month old little girl could figure out the remote and just lay down and watch the movie that was in.  Funny little girl!

Slice of life # 16~ Jobs

This weeks Slice of Life is Jobs.

I started working when I was 14.  Cleaning house for a neighbor.  And I have had many jobs sense then.

But I think the crazies time is when I worked 3 part time jobs the Summer of 1996.   The day after graduation I had to be to my first day on the job at 12 noon after being up all night with the High school graduation party.  I worked as a bagger at Smith's food and drug store.  Then I was hired at Madsen dry cleaner in Provo across the street from BYU, I was a shirt presser.  Then I worked doing secretarial work and house cleaning for my neighbor that I had started working for when I was 14.  I did this from May 30~ Oct 15 when I left for college in Phoenix, AZ.  That was one busy summer.  It seems like I was never home, because I was always at work.  But as a bagger, I got to help Marie Osmond out to the car with her groceries, and then in 1999 when I worked at Harmon's grocery story I got to check out Steve Young the football player.  I am grateful for the opportunity that I have had to work and help pay my way through school and my mission.  Now that I am a stay at home mom, I miss the friendship and change of pace that work gave me.  Now it seems all I do is take care of the house and kids and I never get to go out and meet new people.  But maybe in the future that will be an option again.

Until next time.
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Look A Like meters

My cousins wife did this, so I decided to see what it said about our kids!
I thought it was interesting that Dillon was 17% more like me.  Jennilyn 3% more like Dan, and the twins wow, Ruth was 6% more like Dan and Irene was 6% more like me!  Crazy!

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology