Great Grandma Faye's Funeral Day

The night before us cousins probably stayed out a little past the point of no return, but we had a good time hanging out together.  Of course that meant getting up in the morning was not the easiest thing in the world.  I stayed at my cousin Jamie's again since I had a room to myself.  Thank you to his son Skyler for letting me take over his room for the weekend.  We all had to shower and get ready and get to the funeral home.  All 90 some of us make up the Allen family and we all had roses to leave at the front of the church in honor of my Great Grandma.  My mom came to Jamie's in the morning (maybe to be sure that we remembered the flowers since they were at his house?).  We of course were running a little late trying to get ready and were running out the door at the end.  We ended up getting in just in time to get in line to walk in.  Looking at over 90 roses piled up together was really beautiful and sent the message to my Great Grandma that we all loved her flower bed and she loved her roses.  The service was nice and the stories that the grandchildren told were wonderful.  Many people wondered how she made it to 101 years old with all her own teeth and her mind in complete tact - well - they said it was probably a few things - oatmeal every morning for breakfast and she ate coleslaw.  So take that as you will for a little advice to living a long life.

After the funeral we headed back to my grandparents house.  We had a wonderful gift of being able to go out and walk through my great grandparents farmhouse even though it had been sold a few years back.  It was really special for me to be able to get to go out there.  Most of my family had been there during the auction and when it was being sold, but I wasn't.  We were able to walk through the house and listening to their grand kids re-minis about times they had there.  We were also able to spread her ashes where her flower garden used to be. We hung out at the farm for awhile just visiting and taking pictures and then headed back to my grandparents house.  We really just hung out there as a family and enjoyed each other's company.  I stayed at my aunt and uncle's, Shelly and John, that night and we did some visiting and had a few beers.  Shelly and I went out in the morning for breakfast and took a quick stop at Target so I could finally get my Vikings apparel.  Back to the airport for my flight home.  I was very happy that I went home for this and was able to pay my respects.

The Farm House

My nephew Landon and cousin Reid.

Nana & BapBap

Everyone doing the Ashley pose! Peace.

Prayer Service Day & Family Time

The next day had a to do list.

• Take my nephews out for breakfast
• Shop for Minnesota Vikings apparel 
• Help Jamie pick out an appropriate outfit/suite for the funeral
• Help make sandwiches and food for family and friends with my aunts and grandma for after the Prayer Service for my Great Grandma

In the morning we or at least I was a little slow moving.  I am not used to staying up so late.  Thank goodness I didn't have to get up with my kids and slept in until around 8am.  Jamie, Jess, and I headed out of their house to Perkins to meet my nephews for breakfast, my treat.  After waiting awhile for them to actually arrive it went fairly smoothly.  After we sat and had some coffee and started wondering where they were I started thinking about it - a 16 year old boy getting his 3 year old and 1 year old brothers ready in the morning and loading them into the van and driving them to breakfast - ya - that might take a little while when you don't have Mommy Mode!  Breakfast went really good and it was fun to see my nephews and spend a little quality time with them, which I rarely ever get to do.  Next we headed over to Target to find the Vikings clothes. I figured that I could get some cheaper stuff at Target or Walmart while I was in town and it would save me from ordering on-line and paying a bundle.  Shopping is never an easy task with my relatives or at least with Jamie for that matter.  We walked through Target and I found the rack with the Vikings apparel and picked out some matching shirts for me and Katelynn and found something for Junior (and a few extra for each of us).  I was pretty happy and was walking up to the registers and pay and move on to the next task on our list for the day.  On the way to the checkout Jamie took a look at the price tags and said that I was paying way too much and we should take Jeff's advice and head to Fleet Farm because they had cheaper shirts.  So I put everything back and we drove to Fargo to Fleet Farm.  I found absolutely nothing there except for one pair of Vikings socks for me - $6.00 and we left the store.  We were starting to get behind on time and we still had to get Jamie's clothes and my aunts were now waiting for us to help with the food.  We headed back to Moorhead after some debate about stopping at Kohl's to look at their Vikings selection and prices.  We went to my grandma's instead and starting helping cut and butter buns and cut up fruit.  One funny story about this is teaching Jamie how to butter buns.  The butter was frozen so he grabbed a bowl to put it in the microwave and soften in.  He left it in there way to long and pretty much melted the entire stick and then decided that he would just put it back in the freezer and start to re-freeze it.  I grabbed a new bowl and new stick of butter and told him that we were not going to play the game of melt the butter, freeze the butter and melt the butter all day - get a new stick and get a move on buttering!  As we were making sandwiches with the deli turkey they had bought my grandpa was out waiting for some lunch.  My aunts told me that he would not eat turkey, doesn't like it, won't eat it.  So they decided that I should be the one to bring him a turkey sandwich and see what would happen and I gladly accepted the challenge.  I took his sandwich out to the garage on a plate and served him his lunch.  He gladly accepted the sandwich and thanked me and gave me the look that I was a fabulous granddaughter.  Then he opened the sandwich to see what was inside - I thought I was toast, but he closed it and took a bite and thanked me again.  Success!  I went back in and resumed cutting buns.  We had a good laugh inside about it, especially when he came in and took another sandwich and ate it!  We did tell him later that it was turkey and he argued with us that it wasn't.  My family was also on beer duty and my aunts had went to the store to get the beer and ice.  One requirement was to buy Michelob which is the beer my great grandpa used to drink.  As we were unloading the beer into coolers Jamie looked at the Michelob bottles and thought that they looked like a dark beer and we said that no one in our family would drink a dark beer.  My aunt Pam and I decided to take it back to the liquor store and attempt to find the correct Michelob that my great grandpa drank almost 20 years ago.  At the liquor the lady explained to us multiple, multiple, multiple times that this was the regular Michelob and that the labels are now different than back then and that it was not a dark beer, but a lager beer.  We sat there and listened to her say the same thing about 6 times before Pam finally just said "stop, we understand" (and we had already said it enough times, that yes, we got it, but she wasn't listening to us).  We ended up taking the beer back and opening one and drinking it.  Whew - that was an episode and a half that I do not ever want to have again with someone.  Now that food and beer was ready we still had to get Jamie his clothes and we all still needed to shower and get ready before the prayer service.  This meant no nap.
Taking Jamie shopping is a whole story in itself.  The reason this started was that my brother told us the night before when we were out that he had decided that it was really time to start dressing nicer and looking more appropriate for his age - gasp - Jeffrey?!  He told us he was going to even buy a suit the next day.  This got Jamie thinking that he didn't have a suit to where and needed one.  We headed to Herbergers.  I grabbed a lady in the men's clothing store and told her what I wanted.  I wanted some darker brown almost chocolate colored slacks for him and a fitted shirt.  Jamie had shoes that he thought he was going where with this outfit, but they were not dress shoes, but they were brown so we attempted to go with it.  The poor girl that had to help us.  I told her absolutely no khaki colored pants.  At least they were having a sale on their fitted shirts, but that also meant that they were picked through.  We finally found some pants and shirts and sent Jamie to the dressing room.  He then decided that he needed a tie and a new belt and then at the end needed new shoes as well.  Seriously, the poor girl at the store.  This was quite the shopping episode and sorry to say Jamie I will probably never go shopping with you again, but I still love you!  Back to the house to shower and get ready and we were off.  The visitation was very nice and they had a nice video and I saw a lot of family that I haven't seen for a very long time.  After the visitation we headed back to my grandma's for food and visiting and a toast to my great grandma.

Jeff and my dad.  Obviously my dad was coming from work and in a hurry .
We thought it was pretty funny - Jeff in a tie and dressed up and my dad not .
Side note:  Jeff came into the funeral home without his tie actually tied, I had to grab my cousins husband and have him come and tie it for him.

Yep, even my dad was shocked - look at him - who is this ?!

Me and my BapBap

All the grandkids and Nana and BapBap.
So happy that we took this picture.  I think its rare that we are all together anymore
(yeah - that would be me for moving away that is not ever there.)

Me and my aunt Pam

Cheers to Great Grandma Faye

The girl cousins later that night.
Ashley, Natalie, me, and Amy.

The bad girls club.  Don't mess with us!

Back to Fargo I Go

A few weeks after our trip to Minnesota my Great Grandmother passed away.  She was 101 years old.  How lucky our family was to have her for so long and for my kids to have been able to meet their Great Great Grandmother.  It was time to head back to Fargo again to pay respects and celebrate her life and be there with my family.

Let me start by stating again that I do not enjoy flying and 2 weeks is not enough downtime for me in between flights.  I had a terrible time getting my bereavement ticket through United Airlines.  I have always gone through them and had no issues and they used to offer at least 40% off tickets.  Well, tickets to Fargo have skyrocketed and a round trip flight from Denver to Fargo with only one day notice was around $980.  You can imagine my shock.  I thought, well that is alright because I will get half off for the bereavement rate. The guy on the phone came back on and said - would you like to book that ticket then for $899.00?  I said, Excuse me?  He then told me the bereavement rate was only 10% off for United Airlines and proceeded to argue with me about what the bereavement rate used to be.  He finally did admit that it probably was 40 to 50% off until the merger and now it was only 10% off.  I then made him go through all the outgoing flights the next day and the return flights for my return trip home and how many seats were left on each flight.  I then told him, Thank you, I will now go and get my ticket elsewhere and I did.  I jumped onto Priceline.com and made them an offer of $400 for any flights and on my dates and credit card and hit "OK".  I basically knew which flights I would be getting based on the what United told me and the seat availability for each flight.  Priceline came back and said they would book me for $468.00 and it was a done deal and I got the same flights I was looking for through United Airlines.  Not a good way to start my trip.  I was so full of adrenaline at this point it was making it hard to concentrate at work and I still had to go home and pack quick and head straight to the airport.  My flight was to arrive that night at 11:30pm.  I then secured a ride.  I was a little bit of a nervous mess and went home and packed.  Said good-bye to everyone and headed back to the airport.  My car now knows its way there since being there multiple times that month.  I checked in, checked my bag and headed for the Smoker's Lounge for a nice bacardi limon.  I ended up having 2.  I boarded the plane and I think I was definitely feeling the two drinks I had because she made them strong.  I was attempting to read my book I brought with and act like a normal person during take-off, but as we taxied out the plane abruptly stopped and the pilot got on and said they had to check some circuit board or something.  That was enough for me, time to freak out.  I couldn't read my book anymore at this point and then out of nowhere the plane starts moving and the pilot says they restarted something and we were good to go and poof we were gone.  I am freaking out at this point - What!  You can't just restart something and now its good.  I finally fell asleep, but there was some turbulence during the flight and I kept waking up or jolting up.  All I could keep thinking was - yep, I pressed my luck getting back on a plane only 2 weeks after some relatively good flights and I'm going to be in hell now.  As we started our landing into Fargo I woke up and was glancing across the way out the other guys window briefly (I couldn't open my own, too scared) and of course then the pilot decides to take a sharp downward turn.  Here we go again - freak out # 2.  I am clutching my seat and my necklace at this point, but at least I wasn't screaming, out loud anyways!  At the same time that we have a little more turbulence and I am already freaking out from looking out the window the landing gear opens and I must have been sitting right on top of because I felt a jolt and just about lost my shit.  Then we are close to the ground and I look out the guys window again and we are coming in and I can see the plane going from right to left with the wings - what the hell, pull it together buddy - straight is best, not wobbly and all over!  We finally land and I really don't know if I looked at the guy across from me or if he said something to me, but I just said to him - I need to get off of here, now, really I just need off, I need off of here.  He probably thought I was insane.  I went and got my bags and went outside to wait for my ride.  Thank goodness that was done, but I was a slight wreck after the flight.  

My cousin Jamie and my aunt Shelly picked me up at the airport.  We gave hugs and headed to drop Shelly off at home.  It was almost midnight.  Jamie and I headed to my brothers house and picked him up.  I needed to go somewhere and get a beer and attempt to calm down.  We found an old hang out we used to go to and the place had 2 to 4 other people in the bar.  We played a game of darts and then I talked the guys into playing bar jenga.  They hadn't played before so we took a bunch of pictures and had a good time with it and it was now their new favorite thing!  Off to bed when we went back to Jamie's house.  

Jeffrey

Jamie

Side note of the night:  Jeff at the bar finally looked at me and said - Is that what you wore on the plane?  Well, yeah Jeffrey, I did, what's wrong with it?  He said I was a tad dressed up to be traveling.  I should have been in sweats and a t-shirt.  I told him that is what I will look like on my way home because I'm going to be so tired.

Beef N Bean Day

Every year we do look forward to all the small town activities and it was finally time for ours, Beef n Bean Day (I know the name is a little ridiculous!)  We always get up early in the morning and head down to the Fire Station for our Fireman's Breakfast.  Junior loved walking around the fire trucks, but of course he wanted to drive them.  Katelynn enjoyed being his own personal tour guide for each truck.  It was hilarious listening to her try and point to certain items on the truck and tell him what they were, a couple of them were way off of what they were.  The town has a little parade and then we headed down to the park where all the tents are set up.  We grabbed some lunch this year as well.  There were a couple of booths set up and we decided to wait in line for some burgers and hot dogs that supported the FFA at the school.  I would much rather give my money to a school sponsored activity; the parents work hard at those booths to help their kids.  We walked through some of the booths and ran into a few people we knew.  We got some information from a booth for Katelynn to take singing lessons this year.  This is what she said she really would like to do this year and has opted out of dance. (You can about hear my heart breaking about it, but hopefully she will pick it back up one day?)  We headed home after the chaos at the park for nap time.  At around dusk we walked down to the front of our subdivision for the firework show.  It was a nice day and we didn't have to go far.

Birthday Time

I was definitely slow moving the next day for my birthday, but I think we all were, but I managed to get my butt out of bed and make the most of my day.  I got a ton of birthday wishes, via phone calls, texts and Facebook which always make the day better and my mom was here this year as an added bonus!  Since the Fair was still in town I even had something to do on my birthday!  We went to the Rodeo and thanks to a fabulous friend at work we got our tickets for free!  It always brings out the cowgirl in me and makes me want to ride again.  To end the night perfectly once the rodeo was over we got to watch the fireworks from our truck, what a nice surprise for all of us.

We of course did the opening of presents and cake.  My favorite and Dan always manage to pull it off, Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake - I love it. 

Here are some pictures from my day.

At the Rodeo 

County Fair Time / Gnarley Barley Brew Festival

The County Fair was the weekend of my birthday and I was pretty excited.  I grew up showing horses at the county fair and going on rides and playing games.  It's what you look forward to being from a small town.  We took the kids to the fair mid-morning to go on as many rides as they could.  We were a little nervous that Junior wouldn't make the height limit, but he just squeezed by so he could go on the rides by himself.  The kids had a fabulous time.  Junior seemed a little nervous about the rides at first, but then he eventually did show off a few smiles of enjoyment.  Katelynn was a pro at the rides and she loved every minute of it.  She even went on the little roller coaster this year, twice.  I was watching her from the ground and was a little nervous for her.  You just never know how someone will handle a roller coaster.  The first dip and turn she had a terrified look at her face and then she got the biggest smile.  By the second time around she was holding her hands up in the air on the dips and laughing.

We also had another reason to be at the fair this year.  We were going to our first brew festival.  Dan, me, Joe, Adrian, and Ashley all met up at the fair.  This was definitely something to see. There were tents set up in a big circle and you had tokens and it was a little crazy.  We had a few of our own competitions going on within our group.  We ran into a few people that we knew from around town and really just had a great time.  We all said that we would like to go back as a group again next year.  Thank goodness my mother was here to watch the kids.  Her and Paula cooked up some delicious food and we all definitely needed something to help soak up some of the suds that we drank that day.

Dan and Joe ready for the Budweiser beer and food pairing.

Taryn and Ashley

Adrian and Taryn

Taryn and Joe

Joe, Dan, Adrian, and Taryn

Dan, Joe, and Taryn.
This is at the end - can you tell?