Aal Izz Well

 Just thought I would share a few pictures from a couple weeks back. Don't worry. I've got in mostly under control now. It was a decent summer morning in Nebraska. Nebraska hates me :) My gauge went from 0 to Hugh Jackman in like 2 seconds flat! sheesh. It was the beginning of a long long day. I hadn't been on the road more than two hours.

 God Bless America for Christmas gifts that I like to store in my car. And God Bless Holly for giving me a "car repair kit" for christmas that included one roll of duct tape that had gone mostly unused up until this point in the life of this car. I made a quick phone call to my brother to make sure a quick fix would be acceptable to get me to a parts store. Up until this point I'm pretty sure there were only a handful of people that knew I was on my way back to Ohio. I had given up on vacation and was ready to head back to work and some sort of real life that I had left in Ohio. I'm still up to my eye balls in debt, but I needed the time away. I've always said I'd rather be poor and happy than...well I wont even mention the other alternative because I've sort of just always been poor and happy.

 The quick fix (plus a few tears of frustration) got me to the next town over where there was a parts store that had the $8 piece of crap part that was to save the day and get me back on the road. No thanks to the guys in the store my car got fixed. Okay, I lie, they did let me borrow their pliers. I think this little hole set me back a solid 5 hrs on my drive. I had to let the car cool down twice. And then gather my will to drive at the end of it all. I'm sort of done driving this car. She's been mostly good to me, but I'm so done.

 The freaking clamps and hose were "easy" to fix. What wasn't easy was keeping clean words running through my mind every time the pliers lost grip and I would hurt myself, or when I had to reach between two hot parts of an engine to grab the loosened clamp only to land myself an interesting arm burn. I was bound to be burnt, if not by the sun, then by my car I guess. Like I said, I think it was only putting me behind 5 hours by the end of the whole ordeal. At that point though...I think I sent out a few texts of frustration about everything so a few more people knew I was coming. Oh and my brother told my mom. Its not a big deal that I was coming home, but I just wanted to be out of sight and out of mind for a little while longer. (which is working with my parents...still have yet to see them)

In the end I had to sit and think about the good things in the day and remember my blessings. There was someone looking after me I know. I am not usually one to get a hotel room on my long journey from east to west and west to east. BUT for some reason I decided the night before my ordeal would be a good night to just get a cheap hotel room. So I got a really good nights sleep. I also got a shower in the morning. If I had kept going, this would've happened really late at night when it was raining. And the day before I had had some thought that my car might overheat so I needed to have coolant in my car. If I wouldn't have had that coolant to fill my radiator the quick duct tape fix wouldn't have been able to do much anyway. So glad that was in the car. Pretty glad I wasn't on a busy road too. Also, I got to be back on the road during a time when I could see the sunset again in a super beautiful spot. You know sometimes in life there are times when you think you know why it is that you do the things you do. And other times you just obey because it makes sense to obey the thoughts and feelings and impressions you get. Yeah, I do that, and I wonder when or IF I'll ever know all the reasons I do things.  I thought for sure I was done going out to Utah, then I ended up there for a good portion of my summer. I thought I would end up staying there. HA, next thing you know. I'm back in Ohio. I can't always explain it in a way that everyone understands, but its okay. Not every needs to understand me :) Don't get me wrong, that would be nice. But it just won't happen anytime soon.  OH yeah, and I can't forget to say that AFTER I had been in Ohio a week. On a quite awful sunday....My car battery decides to give out on me. Meaning, the cables were almost completely disconnected and I hadn't realized it. Wow, can you believe I made it out to Oregon and back this summer without ever once noticing that my cables on my battery were almost completely disconnected. Thankful I made it out there and back and I'm still alive. Yep, aal izz well.

Before I forget....

 

4 generation photo.

I have been here at my aunt and uncles house for a few weeks. This was the week that Grandpa & Grandma Benson came to visit. Zak and Allysia and their kids also came to visit too. It's been such a busy week. Yesterday most of us went down to Salt Lake City and visited temple square. It was lots of fun walking around seeing things. We got to walk quickly through it all. Saw some bird watchers and some musicians....and as always, lots and lots of missionaries. Just a side note, that night, the wind was unbelievable. Today the grandparents decided to go back down to visit more family in Utah before they headed home. While we sat in the kitchen this morning I thought I would ask a question I wasn't sure of the answer. It started quite a funny conversation/story time. I asked grandma how her and grandpa met. She said it was probably just because she was from Cardington and grandpa was from a town close by (Fulton). Grandma then told me how people used to just walk into this "filling station" and the owner would be busy fixing some car or something so they would just write down an I owe you and then leave. Usually, she said, grandpa would get a dollar in gas and that was all. Then someone mentioned how people used to sit around and talk and watch cars pass. I guess at one point grandpa said he wasn't "going steady" with grandma but he wanted to take her to a movie. She said she would go if he asked her dad. So of course he has to go into the bar and ask her dad. I just found that really funny. He said her dad didn't care what she did. Somehow Grandpa started on about some story of when he was 12 or 13 he had a pack of cigarettes..."you know the cool, long ones" (there was more to that description, but I can't remember...he just got excited about the sort of cigarette it was) So he has this pack of cigarettes and his dad asked him what he was doing with it. He then basically told him, "I'm smokin' them! what are you going to do about it?!"  I think this story was to demonstrate why he wanted to marry my grandma. He said there was no one that really cared about or took care of him when he was that age. He was the only sibling of his family that didn't finish his schooling. I guess that age (12 or 13) was when he decided he was going to hitch hike and go to WV. I guess by the time he got there it was winter. He said it got so cold he was just hitch hiking back and forth in any direction to stay warm. Then someone finally brought him back to Columbus. He said he walked all the way across Columbus because he couldn't hitch hike in town. Then he got a rug from somewhere and made himself a little tent/shelter. He camped all summer and worked for some farmers. Made $3 a day, working 10 hr days. He said he would buy his groceries and fix all the stuff he needed to out where he was camping. He said others would come stay out with him too. I don't know how he ended up back in cardington/fulton area, but I guess when he was 16 is when he started "going steady" with grandma. When he had to ask grandma's dad if they could get married her dad said, I don't care what she does as long as she finishes school. Well I guess they were both 17 when they got married. And I guess it was in April that year. Grandpa said he wanted to get married because he didn't have anyone else looking after him. He made it sound like that was the only way he was going to get a place to live. I guess Grandma found it important to tell us, they got married because they wanted to, not because they HAD to like lots of kids these days. She told me do the math :) Michael was born 10 months after they got married. I guess Grandpa said he almost left her at first. He was too used to roaming and doing whatever he wanted to. She was pregnant though and he felt like he needed to be responsible and take care of them. (thank goodness) Then he told me how whenever he was 27....just after their 4th kid was born...He was having all kinds of coughing fits. The doctor told him the only way he was going to get better was to move to arizona, live in a different climate. He said they doctor was an idiot. He knew how he was going to fix it! He threw away the pack of cigarettes in his pocket and then when home and threw away the other half of a carton of cigarettes he had left there. That worked! haha He sure showed that doctor huh? Apparently the quitting smoking just ruined his love of hunting squirrels though. He also mentioned how he used to just sit and smoke while he waited for them to come along. When he wasn't smoking he couldn't stand the waiting around though. haha We were all (me and ben mostly) kind of grossed out at the thought of eating a squirrel. So these were pretty much the stories I wanted to write down before I forgot about the funny stuff they were telling us this morning. It was a good visit.

Provo ...Friday Night.

 I've always wanted to go to one of these free rooftop concerts. I'm glad I had some cousins come with me. It was a really good show....started off hot as all get out....and way mellow music...

 By the time the lights dimmed and it was cool....the music was way more upbeat and kept us completely entertained the whole time. Good times.