Tag

Thanks to Shandy for the tag.................
My husband...

What is his name? Darren Phil Clark

How long have you been together? Married 13 years in December

How old is he? 37

Who eats more? Darren

Who said I love you first? I did

Who is taller? Darren

Who sings better? I do

Who is smarter? Anyone who has played Trivial Pursuit with Darren knows the Darren is the smart one in our family.

Whose temper is worse? I would say we are both the same tempered.

Who does the laundry? I do. I like doing laundry, too. But I hate to iron.

Who does the dishes? Me - someday we will have a rule that whoever cooks doesn't have to do dishes.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do.

Who pays the bills? I do.

Who mows the lawn? Used to be Tracie, now it's supposed to be Darren. I have only mowed the lawn twice since we've lived in our house.

Who cooks dinner? Usually me. Darren does on occasion, though, and he's a good cook.

Who drives when you are together? Usually Darren unless it's one of those lengthy drives to Utah and he gets tired.

Who is more stubborn? I don't think either one of us is stubborn. I'm a big pushover so for that reason I will say Darren is more stubborn.

Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? Darren

Whose parents do you see the most? Probably Darren's but we don't really see either set too often.

Who kissed who first? Darren kissed me. No stories, Darren.

Who asked who out? Darren asked me out, with the help of co-workers from Taco Time.

Who proposed? Darren

Who is more sensitive? Me

Who has more friends? Definitely Darren. When the phone rings in the evening it's almost always a photo, fishing or birding buddy.

Who has more siblings? Me-3 sisters, 4 brothers.

Who wears the pants in the family? Darren

I am tagging:
Rose
MaryAnn
Mom
Ami

Plums and Jam Saturday

Saturday for us started out with picking plums. It was a whole family activity with Darren, myself, Kevin, and Ethan picking plums and Jacob taking them out of the bucket. Most of them were too high for the boys, even when standing on the ladder, so Darren and I did most of the work. But they had fun. At the end there were one and a half large buckets full of plums.



















The boys picking plums while Jake watches.















Darren's photo of the plums after they were picked.
















After the picking was done it was all me. I made raspberry plum jam and didn't finish until 9:30 pm. Okay, I didn't start right after they were picked. And I did stop in the middle to take a nap, fix meals, go to the video store etc. But it sounds good to say I worked all day. I also made a big mess, as you can kind of see in the picture.















Darren's picture of the jam in the pot. This is only the plums and sugar. It's a much prettier color after you add the raspberries and raspberry Jell-O.















Finished bottles of jam and mess not cleaned up yet. I was still making another batch. And notice there are still two bowls of plums left. If anyone wants them in the next day or two you are welcome to them but you will have to come and get them yourself :-).

Before and After

BEFORE



















AFTER

Wii

This weekend I was trying to think of something to put on my blog but couldn't think of anything. Our week was just too ordinary. But Saturday night Jon brought over his Wii he got for his birthday and I thought it could make a blog entry. I believe we were playing tennis in these pictures. For those of you who don't know anything about a Wii, you hold the controller in your hand and then make the motions you would normally make if you were playing tennis. That's why we are standing up and doing wierd things with our arms. It's pretty fun.

Marshmallows Roasting on an Open Fire

Last night we went out to a spot on the Teton River and had a cookout. Darren and Jon went a little early to fish and get the fire going. The kids, Kristi, Jon's mom, Linda, and myself came a little later. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, the kids threw rocks in the water, and the guys fished a little more. I even gave my first attempt at fly fishing. As soon as I started, Jacob fell in a puddle and got wet. Darren went to the car to change him, and while he was gone I hooked a fish. Having no idea what to do I just pulled on the rod some and tried to reel it in but it didn't work. The fish got away. So that was my attempt at fishing.
















Kevin and Ethan by the campfire. Ethan is pulling a funny face because the smoke went his direction and he didn't like it.















Kristi roasting a marshmallow.



















Darren in all his fishing gear. I'm not sure why Jake isn't happy in this picture. He was happy the whole time we were there. Events like this are fun but not relaxing when you have a high energy toddler, a river and a campfire all in one place. Luckily, everyone else was helping to keep an eye on him.

















Kevin roasting a marshmallow.















Kevin checking out the results of his roasting efforts.

Just One More Thing

One more "home improvement" project occurred over the weekend. Our washing machine hasn't been working up to par for a couple of months but it still worked. This week, however, it started leaking. At first it would just leak a small amount once in a while, but not every time. When it started leaking every time and more and more amounts, we decided it was time to call in our friend, the Sears repair guy. He came Friday (same guy that tried to fix our oven). After he looked at the washing machine he said it needed a new pump and that would cost $235, did I want him to fix it? (He also mentioned the motor was old and didn't know how long that would last.) I chose not to have him fix it. The poor guy felt bad that he could never help us. So Saturday morning I marched back into Sears and bought a new washer. Nothing ever seems to be simple for us. Usually you should be able to simply unhook the old hoses, take out your old washer, bring in your new washer and hook up the new hoses. Well, our house is an older home. First we couldn't get the water to turn off that goes to the washer. They wouldn't even budge becuase of all the build up on them. We even tried Lime Away and that didn't work, either. So the next step would be to turn off the main water source. I knew exactly where that was from previous plumber experience. That wouldn't turn all the way off. It still left a drip. I remembered the plumber had gone outside and turned the water off - I knew where that was, too. But, neither Darren or I could figure out how to do it. ( And there was no way I was sticking my arm down that hole filled with spiders and who knows what else, either. But, Darren was brave enough.) We went back inside and tried, again, to turn off the water by the washer but just ended up breaking off one of the turning things (okay, I know that's not what it's really called but I'm a girl so I won't get a beer can dropped on me.) So we decided to unhook the hoses from the old washer and let them drip into a bucket until the new washer was picked up. We still managed to get a small amount of water on the floor and wall, though. Darren's friend/coworker, Brian Atkinson and his son, Chris, brought their truck to pick up the new washer and take the old one to the dump. They also lent us their manpower to get the washers up and down the stairs. The new washer was easy to hook up, it works well, and we got everything dried out and cleaned up. So it did end happily. Here are some pictures of the event:


















The old washer.




















The "turning thing" that broke off.
























Our make do situation with the leaking hose.























Getting the new washer into place. Most people wouldn't want this view of themselves on a blog, but Darren's is a good one.
























The new washer and hooked up and ready to go!