Memory Lane

Happy Birthday

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Memory Lane

November 30th Mom will be 83 yrs old. For this birthday I wanted to take her down memory lane. She grew up in Ogden, Utah and it has been a while since I have taken her back up to see where she grew up and to visit the graves of her parents, grandparents, brother, aunts and uncles. I was talking to Anna, one of my clients, asking her what was going on up in Ogden over the Holidays. She told me that they will be having a parade and lighting the Christmas Village on the 27th of November. She also is owner of the Ben Lomond Suites in Ogden. I asked her if she would book us a room, which she kindly did. Shelley, Jim, Brandi, Dan, Lukas and Blair joined us. The hotel was amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Ogden.

When we got up to Ogden we did a drive by of all of Mom's memories of Ogden. You will be seeing just a few of the places we went. Starting with the Levitt Cemetery.
This is the Mausoleum that Aunt Aldine and Uncle Leo and her cousin Carol
are buried. Mom was named after Aunt Aldine.

Aunt Aldines burial place

Uncle Pauls grave buried in the snow.

Grandma and Grandpa Pauls is buried here too.

This is the house Grandpa bought during the war. It was built by Uncle Earl

They paid $3500 for it. 2 bedroom, 1 bath full basement home. Yeah for plumbing!

In 1936 the Case family moved into this home at 2147 Robbins Ave.

This is Aunt Aldine's home. It is a beautiful home but I must say the owners need to work on curb appeal. I wish I could have walked through this home. Ogden has some beautiful "old" houses. Kristy lets move to Ogden so we can find us some beautiful old houses!

Mom's High School, Ogden High.

This is the chapel Mom was Baptised in when she was 8.
August 12th, 1936
Also she sang in their Leiber Karntz Choir
They sang all over during World War 2.

Since I am not familar with Ogden we stopped to eat at Denny's. DO NOT eat at this Denny's if you happen to be in Ogden. I must say it was the worst place we could have chosen.

We drove up to Pleasant View to Grandma and Grandpa Case's grave.

It has been many years since Mom and I have been up. It was cold so we didn't stay long. Just long enough to get a picture and put their Christmas wreath on the grave. Everyone else stayed in the car. Jim had to stay and listen to BYU lose to the Utes.

This is the house Mom lived in from age 15 to marriage. There was an outhouse, no indoor plumbing at first. It came later as Grandpa was a carpenter and very handy with tools. They did have electric lights that hung down but no light switches. I'm sure it was hard going from indoor plumbing to none. I know with my travels to Pakistan and Kenya what luxuries these are. Mom had a natural stream right outside her window. How nice it would be to sleep to the sound of water.

This home Grandpa Case built after Mom had gotten married and moved out. It reminds me of the house I would go visit Grandpa Case in SLC. He built that one to. Same color bricks. I wish I would have gotten some of his creations he made. He was so handy with wood. He did lose a few fingers to his saws but his work wouldn't show it. I never met Mom's mother. She passed away when Mom was carrying Greg. Grandpa did remarry Carma but she really wasn't a Grandma....

After dinner we went back to the hotel to watch the parade from Shelley's window. She had a great view from her room. Which was really nice since it was so cold outside. I didn't get any pictures of the parade just a few of the Christmas Village. Here is the Ben Lomond Suites display. I must say this Christmas Village was so cute. I think this might be a yearly thing. I found the displays better then the windows at the old ZCMI center.

The Ghosts of the Ben Lomond came to join us in the picture.
(Not sure what happened but I thought it was pretty cool.)

This was the display window from the Lavish Salon in town.

It was to crowded to get a better picture.

All in All it was a great weekend and I was so glad I could share this with Mom. I saw parts of Ogden I had never seen before and learned more about Mom's growing up.

Happy Birthday Mom!
I love you! You are an awesome Mom and best Friend. I don't know what I would do without you. You have taught me to love and care for people. You bring a spirit to life that noone else can. I am so grateful for the time I have had to live with you. I know you say I am the Mom and you are the Child now. But you have taught me more then I could imagine being your Mom. I am proud to have you as my Mother.

A Christmas Angel

You hear of Christmas Angels but rarely does one have there own. This year I have a Christmas Angel. Last Friday this Angel touched my life in ways they will never know. God knew we needed this Angel.
As everyone knows Shobi and I have been going through the immigration process for over 3 years now. Getting our hopes up just to have them destroyed. A year ago I went out to Pakistan for our final interview. We were told at our interview that we were approved but had to wait 2 to 3 months until he was to get his green card visa. Very disappointed I came home at Christmas without him. Happy that we were approved but sad to still be without him. March came and so did new from the Embassy in Islamabad that they has decided to take away our approval and deny him. Without any email just a phone call from the translator I found it very suspicious so I called back the Embassy. Staying up until 2am to do so only to be treated rudely and hung up on. Needless to say we were now told to file a Hardship Waiver. After contacting my Lawyer and working on the hardship papers for 4 months I sent them off to Shobi so he could hand deliver them to the Embassy. They will have it no other way. He bought his ticket to fly and found a hotel only to be told when he got there that they were incomplete. Having a nervous breakdown I called my Lawyer asking her why she said they were complete and them saying they were not. No Real answer from her. So again .... this time I did research myself in what was suppose to be in a Hardship Waiver and realized she had dropped the ball. Her daughter was getting married so I think it was just the very basics she did for me. Anyways 130 pages later and $125 to mail it Shobi has the hardship in hand. The only problem now was coming up with the money needed to fly him there and give him a place to stay for the night. We knew that we would come up with it in time knowing it would just be longer wait for us to be together.
This is where the Christmas Angel comes into play. Knowing how long we have waited and how much longer it will be once we turn in our Hardship papers. This Angel didn't want us to wait and help us out getting his ticket to fly. I can not say in words how much I love and appreciate this Angel. It was very hard for me to accept this generous offer of help but the Angel would not take no for an anwser. Thank you God for sending this Angel into my life. They have touched my life in more ways then one. Shobi thanks you from the bottom of his heart. Shobi will now be flying over this weekend to deliver the Hardship papers instead of sometime next month. We ask for everyones prays that they will accept the papers and send then on to New Dehli for processing and that some how ours will end up on top of the stack and not the bottom. We have waited so long and it is getting extremely hard for both of us. I might put on a strong front but that is all it is. Please pray for us and Thank you my Christmas Angel! Thank you!

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving Dinner with LeAnn and Harry

This year we had a rather small Thanksgiving. After traveling for the last 2 years it was nice and relaxing. Yes we cooked for 2 days still and made the normal Thanksgiving dinner. It was very yummy and VERY filling. After dinner we played a few games of cards... I was not the winner of any of the games. But we had lots of laughs and great company. The only thing really missing for me was my Husband. Three years still without him here for any Holiday. Hopefully next year we will be together whether it be here in Utah or there in Pakistan. It has been very hard being married and apart now for over 3 years. One thing I am very grateful for is phones and internet. Without them we would have to rely on snail mail and snail mail in Pakistan means no mail or at least 3 months to get to him. I am thankful for a wonderful loving Husband! He loves me as I am and is very patient with this bossy wife. I am grateful for all the love and support giving to me by so many people during this immigration process. It means so much to me! Thank you everyone!

Halloween 2010

Halloween

Here are a few creatures that came to trick or treat at our house this year.

Batman (Lukas) and WonderWoman (Blair)
Witchy Poo (Alyssa)

Cowboy Kia

Sushi (Stephanie) with some soy sauce (Sal)

with Pirate Isaak and cowboy Kia.

don't know why I didn't have a better picture of Isaak.

Tinkerbell (Alexye) and Witch (Sayge)

Witch (LeAnn) with little witch Angel

Tinkerbell, Grandma B and witch Sayge

I took the last group of kids around to trick or treat in our neighborhood. It was funny watching little Angel trick or treating. Once she figured out she got candy she pushed her way through the 2 older girls with her hand held out. And since she was so little she was able to snag 2 treats out of people. I believe it was Matias that taught her this. :) We had fun and I'm sure the girls would have kept going but Witch LeAnn and I got tired and had to come home. Thanks everyone for coming trick or treating to our place.

Grandma "B"s Halloween Party

Mom hasn't had one of her Halloween parties in a very long time since all the grandkids were to old for it. Now that she has so many adorable great grandkids she decided to have one last one. We had it over at Brandi's new house since she has more room and it is more kid friendly then ours. Thank you Brandi! Mom had dressed up as the story book character from the story time book she was going to read to them all.

Grandma wanted individual pictures with each great grandchild to put in

her Halloween book.

Grandma B and Lukas


Grandma B and Blair
she had to have her own rocking chair like grandma.

Grandma B and Savannah

Grandma B and Tia

Grandma B and Senia
she wasn't to sure about sitting on this old woman's lap. :)

Grandma B and Kaitlinn

Grandma B and Isaac

Grandma B and Mr Mo
AKA: Geronimo

Well since I'm not doing to well here and just deleted a picture I wanted here and blogger won't let me put it back without it being out of place.... I'll just tell you what it was. As the Grandma greeted the kids she gave each of them a Boo picture to color. So the children were coloring them on the floor. Grandma had them return them to her and they will be posted in her Halloween book.

Then came Story Time.

This is the book Grandma read to them. Shelley held up pictures as she told the story.

We, Grandma and I, built a scarecrow to have in the front yard for the kids to see at the end of her Story but the rain destroyed it and the head fell off. It was a very sad scarecrow and since it was missing a head we didn't get any pictures of it.

The great grandkids enjoying Story Time.

After story time we played Grandma "B" famous Halloween bingo.

I don't think there was a holiday we didn't play a bingo.

Very fond memories of all of our bingo games.

Rachel, Mo and Isaac

Dan, Lukas, Brandi and Ryane

Shannon and Senia
I didn't get pictures of everyone playing sorry.

The Halloween Graveyard Cake!

Ryane helped Grandma make this cake. Well maybe I should say Ryane made the cake. She did an awesome job and the pumpkin cake inside was delicious !

Blair going to town on the frosting! She would rub the cupcake across her mouth just to get all the frosting off. She thought it was hilourous and so did I.

Then came the Halloween Pinta`

Thanks to Aunt LeAnn for the Pinta`

The stash!

Thanks to all that could make it.... we had a blast. We miss those that couldn't make it. It's hard to get such a big family together at one time.

Grandma B loves each one of you so much and was so happy she could put this party on for you. I know you are young but hopefully you can remember always what a "Great" Grandma B

you have. And Also your Great Aunt Suzanne loves you too! I am so grateful for the family I have and I want you all to know I love you all so much!

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This year I thought it would be fun to get into the halloween spirit and decorate the house. So I am sharing with you some of the decorations. I got a few of my ideas from Stephanie, a friend. She has great ideas. Thanks for letting me reuse your ideas Steph.

This is on the front porch

Welcome our new friend Spider

and our little ghost.

This is the inside of the house. I had fun this year.