Rexburg Temple

I was driving to church this morning and the temple was looking so great I thought I would take a picture so you can all see how much progress they are making on it. I'm really excited for it to be done. Even though I won't be living in Rexburg when it's done, it will still be a great asset to all those in the area. I made Susan and Jacob take a walk with me this afternoon to go take the picture. This is a picture of them waiting for me on the side of the road.

Teton Dam Marathon

Last year Susan and I decided that we were going to run in a 5K some day. We watched our friend Kristi come into the finish line of a triathlon, and decided we were going to take up running too. So today we finally did it. We ran the 5K in the Teton Dam Marathon here in Rexburg. We ran the actual course on Monday and timed ourselves. Today we shaved off 5 min. from our time on Monday. I ran it in 32:09, and Susan ran it in 31:44. Yes, Susan came in before me! She did awesome. I took some medication before the race, and I didn't run my best today. I don't know if it was the medicine or what, but I couldn't breath. I'm not trying to make excuses, I'm just saying...it was a tough race for me today. I started out in front of Susan, but she came up from behind, and was in front of me for the rest of the race. GO SUSAN!! Here are some pictures from the race. Darren has the best pictures on his camera, so I'll post them just as soon as he gets back from photographing. I want to be a volunteer next year so I can have one of their shirts. They're pretty awesome. We went back after the race and took a picture of the Dam Finish.

Old

Today was employee appreciation day at work. They fed us lunch at work, so I didn't have to make my usual trek home. I decided to go sit out in my car and read my book when I was done eating. As I was getting in my car, I was blinded by a bright ray of light reflecting in my rearview mirror, so I took a second look to see what it was only to realize.......it was a gray hair!! Yes, you heard that right. I have gray hair. I'm too young to have gray hair. I don't even have any kids to blame it on either. Some people at work told me that I should blame it on my parents....so THANKS MOM AND DAD!!! (yes, that thank you is full of sarcasm!)
I tried to get some good pictures, but as you can see, you can't really see them while they are still on my head (you can if you look hard enough....it's the little fly away hair), so I plucked them out and put them on a dark surface to photograph them. I think I'll be paranoid for the rest of my young life of gray hair now.....dye...here we come!!

LOST

Darren's new favorite TV show has become the theme of my life this week. It all started on Wednesday night when Susan and I decided to go for a run. We decided to take a different route than we normally do and found that the road didn't go where we thought it did. We ended up in the neighboring town of Sugar City. It got dark faster than we wanted it to too, so we were out on some pretty dark back roads. That wasn't very fun. Although it's amazing how much easier it is to run when you're scared. We clocked it when we were done and found we had gone 8 miles. We only ended up running 5 1/2 of those, and walking 2 1/2, but still!!! We were tired when we were done.
Last night, after our traditional Saturday BBQ, we played a few rounds of lightning, and then decided to go build a bonfire at the sand dunes in St. Anthony. It was tons of fun. I was in charge of building the fire, while the guys photographed. Around 11:00, we decided to pack up and leave. Katie and I rode with Jon and Kristi, and Susan and Darren had their boys with them. The kids were getting pretty fussy, so Darren and Susan left while Jon finished up a photo he was shooting. Katie, Kristi, and I waited at the car for Jon to come with the keys. When he got there, he realized he had left the keys in Darren's car.....which was already on it's way to Rexburg. Of course Jon didn't have service on his phone, and everyone else's phones were locked in the car. So we started walking. We hadn't walked very far when we heard coyotes howling and yipping a couple of miles away from us. That was pretty scary. Fortunatly they were in the opposite direction we were walking. We walked for about two miles before Jon was able to get through to his mom. For some reason, he couldn't get through to Darren's phone. So Jon's mom called Darren and he started the 30 min. drive back to where we were. We got back home a little after 1:00am. It was another dark highway adventure. I guess I should mention that all of these pictures are pirated from Katie. I forgot my camera when we went to the dunes. OOPS. Thanks Katie!!!

What's this weekends activity??

So many of you have asked... "What's this weekend's project?" Well, here you see it. Susan and I went to the salon and got our hair cut off. The girl who cut my hair got a little carried away and cut it a little too short. At least she styled it cute, instead of leaving a big bob like the last girl that completely messed up my hair. Anyway, here is a shot. Susan has a before shot, so you can look at Susan's Blog to see the difference.

Moose on the Loose

So I was driving along on my way to work this morning...pressed for time, as usual, and all of a sudden, I see a moose running down the streets of Rexburg. Who needs to go to Yellowstone?? It reminded me of that show Northern Exposure my dad used to watch all the time. The sad thing is, I had my camera in my car with me, but I couldn't get it out fast enough to snap the picture, and the cars behind me were getting a little impatient...and I couldn't stop to look, because I would have been late for work. Oh well, here's a cool picture of a moose running down a road. I stole it off the internet. Life's exciting here in Rexburg!! Especially if you work at Artco!

Memorial Day Continued

On the way up to Jackson we saw a couple other places we wanted to go see, so we decided to stop on the way home. Katie had never seen the Teton Dam that caused so much trouble years ago here in the Rexburg area, so I took her to see that. We turned onto the wrong road and ended up doing a little off-roading on a pretty muddy road...but no worries. My car handled it beautifully!! Then she took me to a place called Monkey Rock. I love waterfalls, and have wanted to go for a long time, but just haven't gone, so we went to see it. We would have gone swimming, but didn't feel like catching hypothermia. The water was FREEZING!! We are definatly going this summer though. We have a picture of us in front of the waterfalls, but it looks a lot like an engagement picture, so I'm not adding it to the post. I like Katie and all......just not in that way. I prefer big buff MEN! So I've just included a picture of Katie playing photographer with her fancy cameras. (yes, that's cameraS with an S)

Memorial Day

I wasn't about to sit around on my day off, so first I made plans to go to Yellowstone. (I have never been, and I've lived an hour and a half away for almost three years now) My friends backed out on me at the last min. because they had heard the weather was going to be bad, so I had to come up with an alternative. Darren told me I could go to Menan and visit the cemetary with them....that didn't sound like too much fun, but then he suggested that I go to Jackson Hole Wyoming. That was a much better idea. I decided I was going to go even if I had to go by myself, but fortunatly my friend Katie gave up on doing homework (as any true friend would do) to come with me. Thanks Katie!! We had a lot of fun. We stopped at the spud drive inn on the way up to take a picture of the giant spud on the truck. Katie took this awesome picture of me jumping off the truck. Ha!! It makes me laugh every time I look at it. Everyone has to take a picture in front of the antler arch whenever in Jackson. Katie and I were about to cross the street and a lady handed us a flag and told us we needed to use it. A lady on the opposite side of the street thought it was so funny she took our picture for us. The last picture is just Katie and I hanging out in the park before we headed home. It snowed on us a little on the way up and on the way back coming over the pass, but while we were there it just rained off and on but nothing too bad. It actually turned out to be a nice day to be in Jackson. It sure was a fun day!!

BTS

A little BTS and a lot of hard work and the wall is done!! Doesn't it look great!! This picture was taken before we put the molding back on, but you can still get the idea of the drastic change in the wall. The basement seems so much brighter now.....although that could have something to do with the two new light bulbs I put in too. Who knows??!!

Home Repairs

Another busy Saturday at the Clarks! This time we took on a project that I started for them about three years ago. It's really a shame I don't have a picture of what the wall looked like before I started on it. It was checkerboard corkboard and mirrors. One weekend while Susan and Darren went out of town, I took the corkboard and mirror decor down for them. We didn't want people to actually think we liked it. And ever since then.....the wall has looked like what you see in the pictures. This weekend, Darren's parents came up and we got started on getting it fixed up. Darren's dad showed me all sorts of mudding tricks, and how to hang sheet rock. They were glad I didn't leave town this weekend as I had planned.
The other pictures are of me sporting my "home repair" outfit. I always wear these overalls when painting and such. Although ugly, they are fun...even though they're about 40 sizes too big for me. I always "accidently" get paint on them. It's a fun tradition. I should get a house of my own now!! Ha just kidding. That's not going to happen for a while....although it would be fun. It is still a work in progress, but the weekend is not over yet!! I'll post pictures when we're done!

Piano Lessons

On Sundays I usually spend a little bit of time playing the piano. I wish I did it more, but...I'm kind of a slacker. Tonight Jacob was being fussy, so I decided to let him help me play. It's not very easy to play with him on your lap. You can't move your arms very well because you have to hold him on there, and he bangs on the keys I need to use, or he'll grab my hands. It sure is cute though, so I allow it!!

A Busy Saturday

Saturdays are always busy days. Well almost always. This Saturday we decided it was time to get the garden ready for planting. So we went and rented a tiller. I couldn't figure out how to make the handles go any higher. I honestly don't think there is a way, so I had to till bent over. Not so great for the back, but well worth it. The garden looks great!! Now we just need to plant it. Our friend Jon was nice enough to let us use his truck to haul the tiller back and forth to the rental place, so as payment we had to wash it. Even with my long arm I couldn't reach the top of the truck, so Susan had the brilliant idea to get the mop out. It worked great!! We decided to wash all of the other cars while we were at it. (Although you can't tell now, because they have a thick layer of yellow pollen all over them. My allergies are bad.)
Then Darren came home from birding and felt left out on all the yard work, so He and Jon decided to pull the juniper bushes out in the front yard. I was helping dig out the dirt around the roots, and got a bunch of stickers down my pants. I started complaining of course, and said "Oh man! I got a bunch of crap down my pants! Kevin, seven years old, said, "I know what crap is!!" I assured him it wasn't that kind of crap. I was tired by the end of the day. And my body is sore today. Probably from fighting with the tiller.

Free Rent??

People often say I'm lucky because I don't have to pay rent, but let me assure you I do have to pay rent. Just a different kind. Two nights in a row I have had to give kids baths because they pooped all over me. This was tonight's diaper. I would have taken a picture of the open diaper, but I thought it would have been a little too graphic. This one was a pretty messy one. These photos stink (pun intended), and don't do it justice at all. Even with all of this though, I still have a pretty good deal living here with Susan and Darren. They sure are nice to me!!!

Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day MOM!!!! I love you!!

BBQ Part 2

I forgot about a couple of other parts of our BBQ. I have wanted to buy a bike for a while now, but I decided I didn't need to because I can just ride Kevin's bike. I tried riding Ethan's too, but that didn't work out so well. I broke his bike. But don't worry, I fixed it!!
When it got too dark to play basketball, we moved the party indoors. We played a great game of Screw your neighbor, and Dominos. Until the boys gave up that is. I came in second on Screw your neighbor. Fun times, Fun times!!! Nice hair Darren!

BBQ Time!!

Every summer we have a tradition of having a killer BBQ and then finishing it off by playing an intense game of lightning. It is so much fun. So Saturday after the wedding, I ditched out on the wedding reception and went home to the BBQ. Jon and Kristi came over, and Katie Grinder. It was a lot of fun. As you can tell, I have great form when it comes to playing basketball. Everyone makes fun of me for it, I think it's the short arm. :) It works for me though, I won 4 out of the 8 games we played. More than anyone else. Although I did get taken out by a seven year old......twice. That was pretty embarassing!! Then Darren and Susan made me finish Ethan's hair cut. They wouldn't let him go to church with a mohawk!!! I can't believe it! What an eventful day. I'm sorry for all of you that missed the fun!!!

Wedding Bells

My trainer from the mission, Flor Alvarado, got married on Saturday to Cody Camp. It was so fun to see her get married. I got to be the mother of the bride. She asked me to be her escort. It was kind of fun to see what happens behind the scenes of a temple wedding. She looked so beautiful, and the ceremony was beautiful. Several people from my mission showed up to show their support, as Flor did not have any family there. It was fun to see everyone. The top picture are all people from my mission. My mission president was called as a member of the first quorum of the 70 last conference so he was able to perform the marriage. It was fun to get to spend some time with them before they leave for Argentina where they have been assigned. They leave in August, so they told me I should get married in July so he can marry me too before they leave. I told him not to count on it. It is going to be a while before that happens. Then Hna. Bowen told me she had someone she wanted to set me up with. I'm glad everyone is looking out for me! :) I should have kept track of how many blind dates I have been on since I have been back from my mission. Some better than others!

Dance, Dance, Dance

Tonight was a pretty fun night. I thought it was going to be really boring because my friend Katie had a hot date so we couldn't hang out. So I decided it was time to finish unpacking from my move to Idaho (a month later). Yeah, I hate unpacking! Anyway, I wasn't in my room for too long before my two nephews were in there with me. We turned the music on and had a dance party. It was great!! Even though we had to take a break to change a stinky diaper. Someday it will be nice to dance with boys that don't have stinky bums! It was a great way to get my workout in for the day too. I've been kind of a slacker lately. Monday I'm going to start being good again. Here's a picture Kevin took of our dance party.
Even though you can't really see it in this picture, Ethan still has his mohawk. Although Darren says it's coming off before he goes to church on Sunday.

Kev the Dinosaur

Ha! It let me download it. Isn't he a stud???

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!!!