Ben - bio part 3

Do you know anything about your parents when they were children?

My mom had four sisters and five brothers and she grew up in Salt Lake City her whole life.  Most of my aunts and uncles still live there.  My Grandma and Grandpa still live in the very same house that my mom grew up in.  Sometimes we go play at the park of her elementary school when we visit.  But the school caught on fire when she was little and it’s kind of different now.  My mom was always tall when she was younger and she had lots of freckles like me. 

My dad had only one brother and three sisters and he was the 2^nd oldest.  His family moved everywhere. he lived lots of places, even in Mexico.  One time he lived in a three story house with an elevator.  He lived in Colorado, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, and lots of other places.  When he was about my age, his best friend died.  His name was Patrick and he got hit by a truck while riding his bike.  Now my little brother is named Simon Patrick because of him.  He got his eagle scout when he was 16, but I am going to beat his age for sure!

What kind of job did your father have? What do you remember about it?

My dad is an attorney and he works a lot of hours.  I’ve only been to his work about 3 times and it has it’s own soda machine and lots of treats in the cafeteria.  He just lost his job yesterday.  It’s kind of sad and exciting at the same time.  It’s exciting because he gets to be home more and around us all the time, and it seems like a great time because we’re going to have a baby really soon and he can be here when it comes!  It's a little sad because we need to be careful with how we spend our money.  I hope that he can get a new job in Utah because I REALLY want to move there by my cousins!

Did your mother work outside of the home?

When I was really little she had a job, but she stays at home now.  She went to college until I was about 2 years old but I never remember her working or going to school.  She stays home with us and homeschools us.  And she does a lot of cleaning and cooking and she takes us lots of fun places like the park and pump it up.  She drives a 15 passenger van so we can invite our friends and we always have enough space.  It’s awesome!

What was your favorite dinner that your mother made? What was the worst?

My favorite is making it with her.  We do homemade pizza on Friday night.  And every single Tuesday we have tacos and I love those! She makes really good rice and meatballs. And chicken and rice and barbequed chicken. And we just made lettuce wraps with chicken and they are really yummy.  We’ve been cooking hot dogs over a fire in our backyard and that is really fun and yummy too!  I don’t really hate anything that she makes.  Sometimes when we eat taco salad, I don’t really like a lot of beans mixed in with the meat.  When I was little, I didn’t really tomatoes or spaghetti sauce but now I do. 

Describe a typical weekday as a child.  Were Saturdays the same?

…So, we wake up around 7 or 7:30 and do what we call “morning chores” which is make my bed, eat breakfast, get dressed, brush my teeth and clean my room.  Then we kind of do family time where we work together and get our house clean.  Then we do the pledge of allegiance and sing songs with Simon and Roma.  Then after that, we usually go somewhere fun or do a science experiment or something cool.  Then we have lunch.  After lunch we do “rotations” and that is usually between 1-3.  We do 30 minutes each of piano practice, math, journal writing and reading in a book we choose.  At 3:00 we have “scripture story snack” where we eat something yummy and talk about a scripture story around the table. After that, we have a little bit of play time.  We will usually play on the trampoline, play cards or play Legos.  Then we help get ready for dinner.  After dinner we clean up, do something together as a family or go to scouts or something.  Then we read scriptures and go to bed.  I hardly watch any tv or movies unless it’s a Friday night.  We don’t have video games and I don’t really ever play on the computer, unless I am looking up Lego sets or trying to find some facts about school work.  Those are my weekdays.  We try to go hiking every Friday with our friends!

On Saturdays we still do morning chores but we can sleep in.  Then we work on something as a family like clean out the garage or pull weeks or work on the backyard.  Then we eat lunch, maybe a picnic somewhere and then we always try to do something fun together like play soccer or go hiking.  Saturdays are my favorite days because my Dad usually is always home to hang out with us.  And we try to get donuts at Glaziers together.