Long overdue update

Well the time has flown. Before you know it it will be christmas again. The Allen family has of course been very busy. Last fall some of the pipes were dripping down the wall to the carpet in the hallway in the basement, oh and a while ago the rest of the basement flooded (like Ben's room and the family room) the dripping caused mold to grow down the cement wall in the basement and on the carpet underneath the shelving that was lining the hall. So all who live at home ripped up the carpet down the hall, and Mom has been looking at getting new carpet ever since. She found a carpet style she liked, shopped around and found a reasonably priced company that would come and lay the carpet she wanted. Then she found some paint for the family room because the blue that was down there was "cold". She spent several days painting the family room, and then they spent wednesday, well into the night hauling all the stuff out of the basement (including the rooms). The only rooms that had things in them were the food storage room, the furnace room, the laundry room, and the woodroom. All of which don't have carpet. So the upstairs became overflowin with belongings from the basement, and all the concrete floored rooms in the basement became practically unnavigable because of all the stuff piled in there to get it out of the rooms. I wish I would have taken pictures of the finished basement to post, but lets just say the walls are pained "peanut brittle" which is not far off what they actually look like, its a kinda orangy yellow. the carpet is dark and has pretty much every color in it, and the doors to the closets in the basement are still that dark blue. Dad jokes that mom has been in scouts to long because she turned the basement into the blue and gold banquet. It looks good and is warm, which is what mom was hoping for.
Ben just finished the wrestling season, and durring the course of the season he had his arms torked pretty bad, the arm he dislocated was hyper extended and now he can't reach forward very far with his left arm. Needless to say he made it to state, but couldn't do much because of his injuries. He lost out in his first two matches.
Jake is getting bigger. He is now the same size (or slightly taller, but we'll stick with same size) as Memorie. Not much of an accomplishment, but that's the second little brother to become bigger all around, and he isn't even 12 yet. Zac is also growing, but he still has a head to grow before he'll be the same size as Memorie. They both talk about their teachers and school and seem to be enjoying school.