Week 6 - Personal History

Have you traveled to any place outside of your home country? What was the reason for making such trips and what memorable things happen with some of those trips.

JACKIE:

The only trip I made outside of our country of The United States of America, was to make a trip with my sister Jenny to England and France on a student tour group. I was in June of 1996. (Can't believe it has been 17.5 years already!) Her teacher Mr. Magee was the head leader in making our trip safe and the guide to all the famous buildings in both countries. We saw the Changing of the Guard, in England, saw Big Ben (the tall clock tower), traveled by boat across the Atlantic Ocean to France, stayed in Dinar, France by the coastline, saw The Mont St. Michael, visited the Cathedral there, saw some traveling artists and ate at the restaurant where some of our friends tried the caviar (snails...yuck.), Jenny bought a portrait of herself from an artist there, and a small doll in that marketplace. I bought a watch. Then, in Paris, France we saw the Eiffel Tower went in the elevator to the top and walked down the steps to the bottom. Jenny and I went on a walking trip and saw the grocery store by our motel, and we decided to buy a baguette and some strawberries. (We got an extra baguette to show everyone on the flight back but it got flat.) Jenny and I had a wonderful time. We were known as "The Sisters," for they just said this instead of our names. :) (Wish I known French better, but someday I'd like to go back with Mom. She always wanted to go.) I painted some paintings after this trip, an oil, and a lithograph, of the coastline of Dinar, France and of Jenny in London, England. -JACKIE    

 

STACY:

The only place I have traveled outside of the US is Belize.  My mom and I went there for my friend Oanh's wedding in August 2009.  We had a great time there.  We stayed in a nice private resort where each of the wedding party had their own bungalow.  It was located in Ambergris Caye.    Mom and I did not like the humidity and heat.  That took a while to get used to.  We were mostly red faced and sweaty the whole time.  But, we did have an enjoyable time hanging out at the beach and sitting on the hammocks.  I remember the breakfasts that they served at the restaurant that were really delicious, especially the huevos rancheros.  One evening was scary when we were coming back from Belize City to our little resort on a small boat and there was a bad storm. The young guy who was driving the boat was going into the large ocean waves that was making us really nervous that we might tip over.  I was worried that we might not make it back.  Luckily, we made it safely.  Oanh did had a beautiful wedding ceremony on the beach.  Deidre and I walked her down the aisle.  It did rain though for the dinner reception afterwards.  We hurried and moved all the tables to the semi-indoor restaurant and had our dinner there.  Afterwards was fun and dancing.  My mom and I said that we would be glad to go back there again someday. 

Week 5 - Personal History

What kind of work did your parents do (farm, salesman, manager, seamstress, nurse, stay at home mom, professional/laborer, etc.)

JACKIE:
 Our parents worked in jobs that were the same growing up, Mom a teacher for middle schools for Canyons district, and Dad, a CPA at his own office in Murray. But perhaps us kids didn't know that Dad also worked in a cannery, worked in an office at the University of Utah as an accountant, and Mom was once a secretary (I believe.) To me, I am very proud of my parents for sticking it out and making their jobs work for our family for our financial well being, and now so Mom could retire on Social Security. I am also very proud that Dad was strong to begin his company as a CPA. Although he had some financial difficulties at times, he stuck it out for nearly 30 years, and developed some great friends and clients in his business. He told me, after the U of U as an accountant, and after leaving, he wanted to start his company so, he could be the head boss and to not get fired. So, he got the testing done to become a CPA, started at home when we were just babies, then worked in three different offices in two separate buildings over the years. The last one was at Independence Hall a clock tower building on 5600 South State. Yesterday, 2/4/2014 I took Drakie to see Grandpa Drake's old office for the first time, and we walked inside. Drakie liked knowing stuff about his grandpa whom he is named after. -Jackie   


STACY:
My dad was a self-employed CPA.  He had his own CPA business in Murray.  He did many personal taxes for people and small businesses.  Many of us kids were employees of dad. Jeff and Jenny worked there the longest.  They helped him do data entry.  My dad made the most organized tax books for people that had all their information attached and inserted in plastic sheets and in a 3-ring binder. 

My mom was a middle school teacher.  The schools I remember her teaching at were Mt. Jordan where she did the Title 1 program.  She taught at Eastmont and Crescent View Middle.  She also taught at Union early in her career.  She had a variety of subjects: reading, english, journalism and history.  She was employed by Jordan School District and retired just before the split of the districts to Canyons School District.  She was glad to have retireed when she did.