Guess I took a break...

Sorry folks. I had a bit of a blogger break there. Well we had a very exciting visit with some dear friends of ours. We went to Matt and Lisa Sanderson's home on Sunday for a lovely dinner (we can always count an something fun and exciting or new when we eat at the Sanderson's.) It had been such a long time since we had all seen each other it was really nice to just catch up on what was new with both of our families. After dinner we all went out for a nice walk to the nearby park to let all 4 kids play while we caught up some more. KC has a Lagoon day coming up for work and they are offering discounted Lagoon tickets for friends and family to come along and I'm really hoping for a big turn out.

We had another family run in at the library and got me a new book that I actually have really enjoyed. Its a young adult fantasy novel called "Dragon Slippers" its definitely for young readers but I think that the reason I like it so much is I don't have to think too hard...lol

Tatumn got a whole bunch of "My little pony" books and Cort got some more books from the "Avatar: That last Airbender" series. We have all finished our books by now and I can't wait to take them in again so I can read the sequel and see if they have the other book I really want to read. I want to start the The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I've heard so much about them and every time I have been in to the library the librarian tells me that his books go really fast.

KC and I got a rebate in the mail for the phone that I got for my birthday so we took the opportunity to take the kids out for a movie and dinner. We went and saw "Monsters Vs. Aliens" in 3D. It was really really cute! We all enjoyed it very much. Although I admit I was rather disappointed to find out that they charge you an extra $2.50 for the stupid 3D glasses they give you. So KC realized why the tickets (for a matinee) were so expensive and looked at me and said "We are keeping these stupid glasses" haha So next time were bringing our own!!!! THAT'S RIGHT CINEMARK WE ARE BRINGING OUR OWN!!! lol

I'm also happy to report that I've been spending quite a bit outdoors lately so I'm getting a nice sun touched look that I needed desperately. (yeah Mom I know...white and delitesome.../sigh) =P

Hmmm What else? KC has been working so hard at work and doing a really great job there. I love when he comes home and tells me stories about work and how he saved the day. Every day when he comes home from work I ask him "So honey how was work?" and I almost always get the same response. "It was work." or slightly better "It was workalicious" that one made me smile. But every once in a while he tells me something fun that happened at work and I really look forward to hearing him tell me stories. I don't think his employer knows just how lucky they are to have him. He's an amazing worker. If you give him a job to do he will do it in record time and probably find a better and faster way to do it.

I'm trying to find some new and exciting music for my Ipod so if any of you have any idea's for me let me know. I think I have left myself a pretty limited list of bands I will listen to and recently at the behest of close friends I've been listening to a lot of different band and freaking loving it! I listen to all kinds but I love a song that I can sing along to. (People around me may not like it but TUFF! Its my music and I'LL DO WHAT I WANT! <---KC that was for you. lol)

Cort and Tatumn are in really big trouble today. This morning KC wakes up quite early for work and when he leaves he resets the alarm for me to wake up to so I have time to get the kids to school on time. Well the kids got up when KC did this morning and laid down in bed next to me while I was still sleeping and when the alarm went off Cort turned it off completely so when I woke up it was WAY too late. So Cort and Tatumn had a rather non-exciting day of cleaning the apartment with me and running in to Tooele to pick up some more stuff from our old house. I'm still hearing how mean and unfair I am. I also remember telling my Mom how unfair she was and I think this is what is called "the mothers curse" Where your kids are just like you were to your Mom. Sorry Mom...I think your amazing!

OH! OK one of my favorite memories. This is how awesome my Mom is. So the boys and Dad had gone hunting and would be gone for a week. I knew it would still be fun at home with just Me and Mom and I was looking forward to it. Well I get home from school on Friday and walk in to see my mom standing in the doorway holding a bag of my clothes and hers with a huge grin on her face. I can still imagine the look I must have had on my face, one eyebrow raised and my mouth wide open trying to figure out just what Mom had planned here. She giggled and said "Lets go!" I said "umm OK where are we going?" and she said "That's the best part!!! I have no idea!" I just laughed and said "no plans huh?" and she said..."well...I was thinking south?" We seriously just got in the car and drove. We would laugh, talk and share things with each other the whole car ride. If we got hungry we stopped at whatever local restaurant that sounded like fun and then just kept on driving. I'd try and throw her off with my taste in music. I remember saying "Hey Mom do you like "Megadeath"? and she would frown and say "No Karen I'm sure I don't like Megadeath". Then I'd ask her others and then I'd throw in a CD and not tell her what it was. I put in "Sweating Bullets" by Megadeath and she was laughing so hard. My Mom has fun taste in music so I knew she might like them. (We are both still HUGE Metallica fans) After the song was over I turned to her and said "what did you think? Did you like it?" and she said "I loved it! That was actually really good!" to which I had to respond with "THAT was Megadeath" and she hit me in the arm and just laughed with me for a while. Ahhhhh good times. I hope I'm as fun and exciting of a Mom as mine was to me.

I liked that. I think I'll have to do more fun memories in my blog from now on. Till next time...

~Ciao

Birthday party!

So today was a birthday party for Josh! It was so much. We all drove over to their friends house as it was a combined party for 3 kids. We were very happy to see Josh was excited about the Pokemon cards we got him. It was a fun outdoor water party. There was pizza and drinks and water balloons and 3 swimming pools! Cort and Tatumn both got VERY wet and loved every second of it. They love the water. They are so excited for our pool to open up on Monday.

Lots of love and happy birthday wishes to Josh-a-poozles!

No school!

So the kids have not had any school all day today and they get Monday off as well. I'm really hoping I can get some batteries for my camera so I can start adding pictures to my blog. Today after KC went to work me and the kids went through the house and cleaned up a bit got some dishes done then we were off to Toys R' us! WHOO HOO! To me this is such a scary place to be...I can't buy them everything they want at this store or really ANYTHING at this store but they want EVERYTHING at this store...*sigh* Well we went there to pick up a gift for their cousin Josh who is going to be having a birthday party this weekend. I think we picked out a good gift for him so Joshy should be a happy birthday boy. So then on our way back I decided that we needed to spend some time outside on such a beautiful day.

The kids are getting tired of the park that is in our backyard as it is rather small...so today we went for a walk around the neighborhood to a nearby park that is swings! Swings are very exciting...I'm hoping my camera will work for this so I'm posting our new pic If its possible. All in all a wonderful day! Got a bit of a tan and a lovely walk and kids played while I read a book.

~Ciao

Mothers day gift

You know how cute that is when on Mothers day your kids come home with a cute homemade gift? I LOVE that. Well this year Cort come home with a cute little flower for me to grow and he was so proud of it and I was so excited for it too! My fear is...I SUCK at keeping them alive and I'm terrified I'll hurt his feelers if it dies so I've been super careful with it and its turning into a fun little hobby of mine. Well Tatumn got me a gift too but she wouldn't let me see what was in the white bag till Mothers day that Sunday. So we put it up on the shelf and when I opened it when we got home from Nana's house (where we spent the weekend) I saw that she had a plant too! lol well I figured there was no hope for the poor thing at this point but that we would try anyways. It was in the cutest little hand painted pot too. Hers wasn't grown at all though so all I saw in the bag was the pot and a lot of dirt on the bottom of the bag. So we poured it all back in the pot and put some water in it to see if we could bring the poor thing back. And its already growing! Funny how two small plants can make you feel like you have had this huge accomplishment. Tatumn and Cort are both very good about reminding me or checking with me to see if they have been watered. I need some new batteries for my camera but as soon as I get ahold of some double A's I'll post some pictures of our lovley plants.

~Ciao

OMG ADORABLE!!

You guys HAVE to check out this movie...I seriously almost Pee'd myself watching it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0

Almost an event...

Today was one of those days where we have the whole day ahead of us and we made all these great plans and nothing came to fruition...Dad I think of you every time I use that word LOL!!! Mom will get that joke too...

We got up this morning and KC has no work today so as one of my new goals of trying to get out of this apartment at least once a day I decided that we would use our gift card for the movies. Well I dropped the kids off at school and let KC sleep in on his day off and got back and took a nap with him. Then we got up and got showered and ready for the day while the kids were still at school and were so excited to go out and see Star Trek. But we took too long of a nap and we slept through the movie hehehe Then we decided it may not be a bad movie for the kids to see with us so we got them from school and we picked up all of our extra change we had been saving up for a family night and went to the coinstar to cash them all in. We had like $24 and that's not too shabby if I do say so myself. So we picked up some cheap wal-mart candies to sneak in the movies (shhhhh) and we drove to the theatre only to find out we just missed the last showing lol. It just wasn't meant to be...*sigh* oh whoa is me. I was fine but I think KC took it pretty hard. Poor fella. So with promise's of our next wednesday off together and a lot better planning we came back home to our nice air conditioned apartment (its like 80 degree's out her today) and we started up on the kids's homework so we can all sit down to a lovely family game of Star wars:Battlefront. (This is where I say thank you Dad again for the X-box for my birthday a few years back...its great cheap family entertainment)

And now I think of mom and dad up at Montana without me.../cry My warmest thoughts and feelings go to Mom and Dad who are camping without me lol I can't wait for our next trip to Montana. I hear Charice got to go up there to hang out with the rent's for a bit and I was sooo jealous. One of these days we will have to have a fun Allen family reunion up there so we can all enjoy each other's company at the same time. I thought the season ending of having Thanksgiving up there was a blast if only everybody could have come.

LOVE TO YA ALL!

~Ciao

Another note...

OK it was pretty late when I finished up my last blog so I didn't get to add what happened the rest of the day! I may have to start doing my blogs at midnight lol So after KC got home and I showed him my blog we had a nice long talk and I got a bit emotional and we hugged and were happy...YAY FOR HAPPY ENDINGS!

I am also very excited because KC got a new work schedule. He works longer hours Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday but he gets Wednesdays off! HOORAY! So today me and KC are going to a movie while the kids are at school and the best part is...its FREE! (Thank you Dave and Julie for the movie gift card at Christmas hehehe) So our plan is to let KC finish up his school final online and I'm posting my blog and AFTER that were going to go to the movie (a matinee so its cheaper) Were planning on seeing Star Trek and I'm really excited about it too.

omg...I totally went offtrack again...OK so last night after my last blog entry me, KC and the kids went to the SLC library to have a little fun for free cuz thats the best kinda fun right? WHOO HOO FOR FREE KID ENTERTAINMENT! I learned this one from my mom folks...I remember she used to take all of us kids to the library and me and Levi would make photo copies of puzzle books and I actually made up my own "Where's Waldo" book haha Do you remember those? They were so cool at one point...and I think its coming back because my son Cort found my homemade Where's Waldo book and LOVED it! He even found a Mormon version from a pile of Nana's old books called "find the Nephite" it made me laugh but he loves it and has gone over every page of it with Tatumn so its a hit. ANYWHO back to the "free" entertainment. For those of you who don't know, the library does movie nights, family reading nights, kids reading nights usually around 7 PM so its really a fun thing to do after work and school. I'd like to thank our very dear friends the Sandersons for introducing us to the Salt Lake library cuz that building is seriously AMAZING! For those of you who haven't seen the Salt Lake library you must go see it...its like a building masterpiece. So we all went to the library last night and Cort got some more "Avatar: The last airbender" books and Tatumn got some "My little pony" books and I got "Heros" the one from the TV show but its a graphic novel. It was a second choice because I REALLY want to get "Wizards First Rule" but its always gone! The Librarian said its a fast mover and that its never there for longer than a day. KC got some documentary type books about Bob Marley.

When we got out of the library the kids started to run around in the grass and hiding from us behind these HUGE tree's on the other side of the street so I had to take a picture for my blog. =)

OK well now that my mind is empty of thought...I will leave my blog for now...but I'll be back!

~ Ciao

May 19, 2009

Today is a big day! I have decided that since I am horrible at keeping in touch and my family and friends are starting to think i'm a shut-in that I need to keep them updated via a brand spanking new BLOG! omg YAY I can feel your excitement from here!

OK so I got the kids involved here and they are really excited to help me get this blog underway. I had a breakthrough today about myself. I thought back to when I was 17 years old and asked my 17 year old Karen "hey...do you like what you've become?" I don't know her answer but I think I got the gist of it when she slapped me in the face and walked away. Sooooooo I've decided that I need to stop living my life according to what I think will make other people happy and I'm going to live my life doing what makes ME happy. I know this is a breakthrough and I'm sure nobody thought of this before me...(sad huh?)

OK first things first. As many of you know I am a licensed pharmacy technician with a lot of experience in the pharmaceutical field now. I think I've done every different type of pharmacy work out there minus the whole "getting my doctorate" and all that. Due to some recent financial issues we could no longer pay for daycare (for those of you who don't know this...daycare is highway robbery...sometimes as expensive as a house or apt payment) and I had to leave my job at RxAmerica and try out the stay-at-home-mom thing for a bit. I must say the time I get to spend with my kids is AMAZING and I wouldn't trade it for the world but its lacking in the "income"department. So I started looking at ways to make money at home and all I got out of it is a metric crap ton of SPAM email...it sucks. So if any of you guys know a way I can make a few bucks at home, LET ME KNOW! haha

So my family again due to financial difficulties has moved from our suburban home to an apartment in downtown Salt Lake. I was really hesitant at first but I have to say that its SOOO nice living close to everything. KC's work has a lot of volunteer spots open so KC likes to volunteer whenever he can. They used to do "Boozers buddies" with the Utah Jazz but now that the basketball season is over they now have a table up at the Bee's stadium before and during most games to help support CHIP and some other healthcare programs they have available. We are within walking distance of the stadium so me, KC and the kids just pack up his table stuff and walk down there and its such a pretty walk. This last time we had the pleasure of having KC's sister Heather with us. For those of you who don't know...I freaking love Heather, she is so much fun to be around. So naturally I was very excited to hear she was coming along. :)

OK so that was sorta my "intro" now I'm going in to my "what happened today" post. WELLLLLL it all started out this morning when KC got up early for work he resets the alarm so I can get the kids to school on time. I thought we were all ready to walk out the door with a half hour to spare when I realized that my daughter Tatumn (who is usually first up and ready to go) was hiding in her room under the covers. So I run in there and go "Tatumn hurry! Were gonna be late if you dont get ready fast!" well she just falls apart at the seems...like you wouldn't beleive...I mean she had herself a genuine hissy fit. Kicking, screaming, pulling her freaking hair! I thought she was possessed...she is yelling "I DON'T WANNA GO TO SCHOOL" so I put down the whole "Wow...thats ruff tay...but its just too bad cuz You HAVE to go to school." and then I asked her why all of a sudden she didn't want to go and I got every excuse in the book from "I hate wearing school uniforms" (they aren't that bad) to "There are 2 bullies in my class" Well they are still new to this school and I have a constant email string going between me and their teachers with my constant worrying and fretting over how they are doing in school. I sent a polite little note to check and see how she is doing "socially" in school to her teacher as I found out the hard way that when she was in daycare and one of the kids was rude to her she doesnt fight back, she hides in the corner and refuses to interact with the other kids. I was hoping we weren't going to have another one of those episodes. When I hear back from her teacher I'll be sure to post her response. When I picked them up from school though they were very happy and excited and she said she had a great day so I'm not too worried.

So then we got home and I decided to wage the ever-increasing battle of Kids vs. the television. As soon as we got home I said "Hey! lets grab the Frisbee and go outside and play!" So since I was going with them they got all excited and we ran outside to the nice playground that our apartment has in our backyard and we tossed it around for a bit and the kids showed me their cool "hanging out" poses. So I posted them here. I mean...DANG they are freaking adorable!

OK so here is where I get a little mushy...so bear with me. I just want to say that I love my family soooo much. I have a really bad habit of not asking for help when I really need it but I also have the luxory of knowing that if I needed help that my family is behind me in every way they can be. I know I haven't been myself for a while and this is my first attempt to get the old Karen back so that really mean defiant 17 year old Karen will stop slapping my face. I've had a lot of tough time recently not just financial onces either and when my family found out about them they were shocked because they had NO IDEA what I was going through...I felt like such a turd. I have kept everybody in the dark and its hurt them and honestly its hurt me too...Sometimes I feel like I've been suffering alone in a lot of ways. There are of course a lot of things I wont publicly post about my problems lol BUT I want you all to know how much I love you and care about you and that I think about all of you all the time. I have a lot of time on my hands now and its given me a really big picture view of what I have become. And guess what? I'M GONNA FIX IT! haha If there is one thing I know about myself it's that when I put my mind to something I freaking JUST DO IT (Nike please don't sue me) haha

OK well I'm going to close down for now. Stay tuned! More to come later,

~Ciao