The Haircuts

I decided to try out my hair cutting skills again. My nephews were in dire need of a haircut, so I found a way to get them to let me do it. I told them I was going to make them into dinosaurs, with spikes coming down their heads. I was planning on cutting them off after I took pictures, but they wouldn't let me. Oh well, Darren's not here to be embarrassed by it. Kev wants to wear his hair like that to school tomorrow. I'll try and post pictures of them individually. Kev has a good one. But for some reason, it's not letting me download the other pictures. Check out Kevin with his gang signs in the background.

A Forgotten Memory

I can't believe I almost forgot to post this picture. Every once in a while, we have game night at the Clark's. It is lots of fun and I usually loose, but this last time I won!! I had to document the occasion with my new digital camera. We were playing "Screw Your Neighbor" There's probably a better name for it, but that's the name I was taught. It is a lot of fun! Anyone want to play?? The scores are in this order. Kristi, Jon, Darren, Susan, and Tracie. Who lost??

An Eventful day

These last couple of days have been pretty eventful . . . . . . . not really.
I talked to a friend who said he was breaking a piñata for 5 de Mayo. So I decided I should take a picture of our lame 5 de Mayo party. We watched Spongebob. Today Susan and I got ambitious and bound up all the tree limbs we cut from their big pine tree last weekend, so the city will come pick them up. It took us a while, but it sure looks good. Those city workers won´t be able to complain now.
Then I told the boys that I would go on a walk with them and Ethan told me that I needed to bring my camera to take pictures of them. He asked me about 40 times before we left if I had my camera, so I decided to take a picture of them at the park. It was such a nice day today! Great park weather!!!

Commencement

Today was a great day! I finally graduated! It feels so good. My parents came up, along with my sister and her kids. It was fun to see everyone. Only my parents were able to attend the ceremony with me, but it was really good. Elder Russel M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was our keynote speaker. It was really good. He talked about the three circles of life. The circle of Families, Saints and the Savior. He said we should encircle ourselves with three circles.
These are just a few pictures from our photo shoot after the ceremony. Check out the sweet car in the background. The family picture is me with my sister Susan, her husband Darren, and their three boys. They have been kind enough to let me live with them over the last couple of years. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to afford college. They were/are very kind.
We came home and had a BBQ. It was tasty. Marinated Chicken and veggies. I love grilled veggies. Asparagus and zucchini are the best.
I also went out and bought a digital camera today. My brother-in-law has been bugging me to do it for a really long time. Today I finally gave in! Prepare for more blog entries!!!! I'm so excited.

Guadalahonky's

One of the first things we noticed when we moved here to Draper was this Guadalahonky's Restaurant. We have always wanted to eat here, so we finally did for Family Home Evening on Monday. It was really good. I ordered the Taco Grande with Shredded beef. It was TASTY! and as you can tell from the picuture....GRANDE! I had to eat some with a fork before I could even wrap it up in the tortilla. If ever in Draper....eat at Guadalahonky's.

Who knew nylons could be so much fun?

Okay, so when I was younger we often times had to find or make our own fun. One of the blessings of growing up in a small town. (Because there are so many!!)
Tonight I introduced one of those small-town activities to my roommates. As youngsters we used to steal my moms knee-high's and put them over our heads....and she would always get mad at us. I don't understand why.
So here we are; Jenna, me, Christine, Roni, and Becca....with nylons on our heads. Jenna said "Tracie, you need horns or something. You look evil!" We sure do have good times in our apartment. Too bad it is all coming to a close. We are all done doing our student teaching next week, so we will separate and go our own seperate ways. :( We have clean check tonight so our apartment is nice and clean too!

Blonde Baby

Look, I use to be blonde! This post is actually just a test. I'm playing around with my blog to see if it will do what I want it to do!! We'll see!

Short it is!

This isn't a very good picture, but I just wanted to let you know that the short haired people won the battle. So I cut my hair again this weekend. This was right after our ward BBQ. I stole my roommates camera while she slept, and took some pictures for her. The rest are pictures of everyone else hanging out in the apartment. That's Roni asleep on the couch. She does that a lot. She sleeps in really weird positions. I'll be surprised if she doesn't have serious back problems in the near future. She usually moves to her bed around 2:00 a.m. Next is my little sister, Mary Ann. She was just visiting. Wanted to see what single life was like again, so while her husband went and spent the night playing video games with his buddies, she came and hung out with me and my roommates. Although she missed our dance party. By looking at the picture, I don't think she likes the single life! And last but not least is Jenna. Checking her email, and showing off her buff muscles. Yeah, she works out! I will try and get pictures of the rest of my roommates at some point to put on here too!!

Long or Short???

If you look at this post, you MUST state your opinion. I'm debating whether or not I should cut my hair again, or let it grow out. What do you think??

A Trip to Idaho....Already

This last weekend I had a three day weekend so I decided to venture up to Idaho to partake in a MaryKay party, and play with friends and family. It was a lot of fun. I took two of Rose's kids up to play with their cousins. They had a lot of fun....and I enjoyed their company in the car. It was fun to play with baby Jacob. He is still cute as ever. I shared my apple with him...his first time eating an apple. It was so cute, I had Susan take pictures with her digital camera. I'm glad everyone I know has digital cameras. :) The older kids had a slumber party in the basement with their new matching sleeping bags they got from their grandparents. It was too cute. I figured my parents would like to see the picture, so here it is. I didn't want to leave Ethan out of the shots either, so here's one of him too...posing for the camera. I still think I have the cutest nieces and nephews. These pictures only add proof to that statement!!
I chose to write in blue ink this time, because it was also very cold in Rexburg...as usual. I don't miss that!!!

Resolutions

My brother Ryan got married back in September. The best part about his reception was that he didn't have a reception. It was great! The family all got together, ate some food and then they were gone. This is me at the chocolate fountain at the dinner. I am posting this, because I have ONCE AGAIN given up the sweets. My new apartment complex in Draper, Utah (I just moved in last weekend) has a fitness center, so I make my roommates go with me. It's time to feel good again, and shed the winter fat!! Have a great day, and a wonderful new year.

Family Party

This last weekend we went to Fayette to say good by to my little brother Andy who leaves for Costa Rica on Wednesday to serve a full time mission. We also took advantage of all us kids being there to take a family photo, and have our family Christmas party. Even Santa came to our party. It was a lot of fun. These are just some crazy pictures of us kids. I sure do love my family!! As you can see. The boys are a bit more wild than the girls.

Los Ortega

Finally!! Honestly, I have tried to post before today, but I have had some technical difficulties. But after playing around on my computer today, I think I've got it figured out. Blogger doesn't like .bmp files. It likes .jpg files. So I had to go through and convert some files over. So I should have several posts go up in the next couple of days.

This is a picture of a couple I met while serving a mission in Spain. I went to a mission reunion in October, and they showed up. What a surprise. I love them so much!! They are great people. He was the ward mission leader in Lerida. I served there for six months, (the longest area of my mission) so I got to know them pretty well. It was a great day. If only all of my friends from Spain could have been there. That would have made a great reunion even better!

Las Hermanas

It's been a while since this picture was taken, but it is so cute, I just had to post it. This was taken the day that Susan's new baby was blessed. In September I think. Anyway, this picture is of my sisters and I. Before my mission, I was never told that I look like my sisters, but as you can see in the picture, we are looking more and more alike as we get older. I can't complain though, I have CUTE sisters. I don' t mind looking like them. The little girl on my lap is my neice, Heather, and the little baby on Susan's lap, is baby Jacob.

Hace tiempo que sacamos este foto, pero es tan hermosa que tuve que ponerla. La sacamos el día en que bedicimos el nuevo bebé de mi hermana. Creo que fue septiembre. Estamos mis hermanas y yo. Antes de mi mision, nunca nos dijeron que nos parecemos, pero ahora, como ves en la foto, nos parecemos más y más cada día. Pero no puedo quejarme. Tengo hermanas BIEN GUAPAS!! No me molesta parecer como ellas. La niña conmigo es mi sobrina, Heather, y el bebé con mi hermana Susan, es bebé Jacob.

Who would have thought / Quien lo pensaria?

I traveled once again to the distant land of Provo last weekend. I had a mission reunion in Salt Lake, so I decided to go the extra half-hour to Provo to hang with my friends there. I ended up one evening in Kate Kelly's house. (Kate is one of my companions from the mission.) It's always great fun there! She took me to her room and showed me the newest addition. It is a classic as you can tell from the photo. Everyone should have an Elvis lamp in their bedroom!!! The other photo is just Kate and I hanging out in CC's bedroom.

Viajé a Provo otravez este fin de semana. Tuve una reunión de la mision en Salt Lake, por eso decidí viajar media hora mas para ver a mis amigos en Provo. Fui a la casa de Kate Kelly, una de mis compañeras de la mision. Siempre es divertido en su casa. Fuimos a su cuarto para ver una lámpara que le dio su madre. Es genial!! Todos deben tener una lámpara de Elvis en su cuarto! La otra foto es de Kate y yo en el cuarto de mi otra amiga, CC.

Miracles Happen

So I don't have a picture for this post (I'm still waiting to have them developed). However, I do want to share a really amazing story. Here at Brigham Young University - Idaho a lot of changes are happening. Last year our president, President Bednar, was called to be one of the twelve apostles. We had an interim president for a while, but this Tuesday our new president, President Kim B. Clark, will be inaugurated. This is a huge event. All of the first presidency will be there along with half of the 12 apostles and various other general authorities.
As always when something this big happens, it is going to be difficult to obtain tickets to get into the actual room where the event is happening. There were very few tickets being offered to students. They were to be available online on Thursday at 7:00 a.m. I really wanted a ticket, so I made sure I was logged in on time. However, the tickets were not posted. I tried for forty min. to find them, with no luck. I was very sad and disappointed at this time, but I had to go to work. I was going to call the ticket office at nine-thirty when they opened, but I got busy at work, and forgot. When I was leaving work to go to class, I remembered and decided to give it a try even though I was sure the tickets were gone by then. And sure enough, I was right. They told me they were sorry for my troubles, but that they were all out of tickets. Then the lady said "Why don't you give me your ID number, and if by chance a ticket comes through, you can have it. Don't tell anyone though, or you will lessen your chance of getting one. Don't plan on it happening, because chances are you won't get one. "
I hung up the phone disappointed again because I really wanted to go. I was depressed and bitter all day long because the tickets weren't posted when they were supposed to be. I just kept praying that somehow, somewhere a ticket would surface. When I got home and I checked my email there was an email from the ticket office saying that they had found another ticket, and they had it reserved under my name in the ticket office. I am so happy!!
I went and picked up my ticket today and thanked the people there for saving me that ticket. It could have been saved for anyone, but they chose me. This just shows once again that my Heavenly Father loves me. He knew that I really wanted to go to the inauguration and He made it possible. I am very blessed.

Hats!

School is going great! I am keeping really busy. (Especially since I took on a second job.) I know, I'm crazy, but one of my professors begged me to come and work for her. So I did. It will look good on my resume.
For one of my classes, we have to design and set up a display for the university library. While packing up our department's building for remodeling, they found some really OLD hats. They are so neat, that we want everyone to see them. So we are doing our display case on hats. We have gone around campus and taken pictures of random students wearing our hats. It's a shame hats are no longer in style. Some of the people actually looked really good in the hats. We even got a picture of the new university president, Pres. Clark, and his wife to take a picture with us in some of our hats.
This picture is a picture of my class. Each of us is sporting one of our favorite hats. Aren't they cute?? If any of you are in the area during the month of October, you should come and see our display. It's going to be really cute!!

One HOT Mamma!

By Popular demand, here's a picture of me wearing a shirt I found in my sister's closet. It's a pretty hot shirt. She says she thinks she should wear it to bed one night just to see her husband's reaction. I think she should!!

Utah

About two weeks ago I decided to take a last min. trip to Utah. I wasn't going to go at first, but I decided that it would be fun. I didn't want to drive down by myself, so I made Katie come with me. It was a lot of fun. We had some sister bonding time. We stayed at my sister, Rose's house. Susan was also there with her kids, so we were only missing MaryAnn. We got up on Saturday and all did pilates together. Four of us on Rose's living room floor plus baby Luke, who couldn't figure out what all these strange girls were doing. It was kind of crowded, but fun. Then we decided to dye our hair. Susan and Rose had never done it before but I talked them into it. They put a little tint of red into their hair and I went a darker brown. It was only a 6 day coloring job, but it was fun for a few days. Katie chickened out and wouldn't dye her hair.

House Dress

Well, it's been a while since I have posted anything on my blog. Pure laziness is my only excuse. We blew up the volcano, and it was awesome. However, my photographer, Katie, didn't show up so I don't have any pictures. However Darren was there with his camera, so if you want to see pictures of our volcano you can see them here.

Now to explain this picture! I dedicate this posting to my friend Kate, who was also one of my companions from the mission. Almost all of the women in Spain have house dresses, and they wear them everywhere. Well, Kate loved them so much, she just had to have one. We searched all over for one, and found out they were pretty expensive. However she found one that was worth the price. I have also found one worth the $3 I paid for it at DI. It is so great! Notice the ribbin bow, and the huge pockets. I feel like a true Spainard when I wear it. (Even though I am ridiculed by my Sister and brother-in-law everytime I do) They don't like it for some reason. I personally think they are just jelous they don't have one. :)

Babysitting Part II

In addition to making a volcano, we also ran through the sprinkler. We didn't plan this activity. My friend Katie, who was joining us for our party, started it all. This was Kevin's idea of Running through the sprinkler. Ethan on the other hand doesn't like to get wet and dirty, so he didn't want to run through. I'm a mean aunt though and drug him through the sprinkler. It was so funny. He didn't like it very much at first, but he grew to like it in the end. We had a good time that night. When Susan and Darren returned home, we showed them the pictures of our fun night. They were sad they missed it!

Babysitting

The other night, I stayed home to babysit while Darren and Susan went out on the town. So what do you do when mom and dad are out of town?? You have a party! It was a fun night. We started off the evening by making a volcano. It turned out pretty cool. Kevin knows a lot about volcanos. More than what I would think a six year old would know. He was very meticulas about the shape and bumps on the volcano. Ethan wasn't much help. He just wanted to get the cookie cutters out. He thought we were just playing in play dough.

The finished product is still waiting to dry before we can make it explode. Notice the little bumps and holes in the volcano. That was all Kevin's idea, "because that's what volcanos have because the hot lava does that to them." Kevin asks me every day if it's dry enough to explode. It'll still be a couple more days. I'll be sure and post pictures when we do.

Here Comes the Bride

This last weekend I went down to Utah once again to my friend, Becki's, wedding. It was so fun, but sad at the same time. I am so happy for her. The guy she's marrying, Chris, is perfect for her. Although it's sad to lose another friend to marriage. :)

This is a bunch of us the night before the wedding at a BBQ. Our final farewell before she said "I Do" Holly, Kortney, Mary Ann, Sheri, Becki, Tracie, Brandi, CC.

This was our final goodby, before she left on her honeymoon. I love this picture. I think she looks so beautiful. She looked really good, very happy. Go Becki!!!

Baby Jacob

This is the newest addition to my slew of nephews...Jacob Keith Clark. He is such a cute baby. He was born on July 14th. His due date was July 10th. I told Susan that if he was born on July 10th, she had to name him after me. She told me no.
I love holding him and snuggling with him. He is soooo little. His legs and feet look like chicken feet because they are so skinny. He's cute though. Check out the hair!!