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!

Goodbye trees

This summer has been an interesting one for us. We have done four big home improvement projects but only one of them was our choice. First was the sidewalk, then the new oven, then painting and then this one, cutting down trees. Last summer our neighbors cut down their aspen trees. They also put root killer on them so they could remove the stumps easier. Well, if you know anything about aspens, they are connected to each other. So when our neighbors put root killer on their stumps, it also killed two of our trees. Today he and Darren cut the trees down.


















I put this picture in because you can see the neighbor across the street watching. Projects like this always draw attention.

Sidewalk changes

Soon after the 24th of July, the city came and tore up the sidewalk leading to our driveway. I guess I should back up a little. Last summer we got a letter stating our sidewalk didn't pass and had to be fixed. The city would pay half of it and we had to pay the other half. We were given the option of doing it ourselves or hiring our own people to do it but no one was available at the time and we were only given a month to find someone. A few months later we got another letter saying we had a few more months to find someone. We didn't even try that time because it was too much of a bother. We just decided the city could do it and we would pay them. So this summer it all started around the 24th of July. It happened in small steps with big time distances between each step. This past Monday we finally got to drive into our driveway again after 6 weeks of parking on the street. Here are pictures of the progress.















All torn up.















This is with the new pavement put on the road.















The sidewalk poured but still wet.
















All done!!!

Home Improvement

This weekend we have been doing some home improvement. Carl came up on Thursday morning and helped us work until Saturday evening. Tracie came up Friday night and helped until we were done on Saturday. They were both a wonderful help and we accomplished a lot. We "home improved" our bedroom, hallway, and bathroom. I only have before pictures of the bedroom. Carl also fixed a water damage spot on the ceiling in the living room and now you can't even tell it was there.
















Before shot of the bedroom















Another before shot of the bedroom.















Carl hard at work.















After shot of the bedroom - done in "Cinder gray" on the bottom and "Whitecliff" on the top.















More bedroom















Kevin's comment: someone stole all are books and now we are poor

The bookshelf in the hallway and one other part of the hallway is cinder gray. The rest is whitecliff.















Kevin's comment: ethan is crying because we have no books to spare

More hallway















Kevin's comment: someone stole our favret towle

Bathroom done in "aerial view"















More bathroom















Kevin's comment: the t.v. was blank we had to fix it.

More bedroom

Dad time

Friday night Darren was photographing and I was home with the kids. They wanted me to play games with them. Ethan chose Candyland and Kevin wanted Spongebob Life. We played Candyland first and I won. Then we played Spongebob Life and Ethan won. Both games went pretty smoothly so I let them talk me into a second round of Spongebob Life. My patience died halfway through the game. (It takes a lot of patience to play board games with 4 yr olds.) Just at about that same time Darren got home and offered to take over. Was I ever grateful. I don't even know who won that round. He was very thoughtful that way. He also took the kids to the county fair Saturday morning and I got the house to myself for an hour. Right now he and Ethan are out photographing. I think dad time is important, don't you? I sure appreciate it. (I know this photo has some bad lighting going on and is unfocused but it was the better of the two so that's what I have to use.)

Doorknob

Darren was on a photo trip for the past 5 days and it seems whenever he goes anywhere for a length of time something goes wrong at home. This time was no exception. Jacob and Ethan were in my room and had shut the door. I went to open the door and it was locked. We haven't been able to get the door to lock for several months now. I don't know what trick the boys used but it was a good one. I told Ethan to unlock and tried to talk him through it but he couldn't make it work. So I proceeded to take off the door knob. That is something that I've had to do before and it was easy. But this time I couldn't get it off. Kevin was trying to help but I felt like he was getting in the way more than anything else. After a half hour of this, Ethan was starting to freak out and had to go to the bathroom. I tried pushing a pull-up under the door and told him to put it on but he wouldn't do that. Kevin disappeared for a few minutes and then came back. We had gotten the actual doorknob off -- it was the inside of the doorknob that wouldn't come out. Kevin did something and out it came. I guess I won't doubt him anymore. He said he went downstairs to the other doorknob that has just the inside showing with no outside knob and watched how it worked. Then he came upstairs and tried it on that one and it worked. Maybe he'll be my fix it guy. By that time the old door knob was ruined so I went and bought another one and installed it. I had to drill a little bigger hole so the picture below is of me being a handywoman.

Kevin's last soccerr game

Last night was Kevin's last soccer game. It was also the first night I had brought my camera so I was glad they took a group picture. Who is that nerdy kid pulling the face?

Our new oven

For some reason, since we got this new computer, I can't figure out how to get the pictures in the positions I want them. So, you'll have to guess which pictures I am talking about.
Anyway, we have been having problems with our oven for over a year now. It would work well for a while and then not heat up when we turned it on. We would jiggle the heating element and then it would work for a while longer. About two months ago it decided it wasn't going to work anymore. It was done. We had the Sears repair man come and he said they did not make parts for this oven anymore since it was 30 or more years old. He gave us a coupon for $65 dollars off a new one and that was that. New wall ovens are not very cheap so we would rather have fixed the old one. Since that wasn't possible we started researching new ones. We found that, because of all the computerized panels in the new ovens, they were too tall for the spot our old oven was in. We thought we would have to take out the cupboards above our oven and build the opening bigger. Luckily, we have a guy in our ward who does handyman things on the side of his full time job. He helped us figure out we could still fit the oven in if we lowered it instead of building it higher. He also sheetrocked the wall on the side of the oven and got it ready to be painted as well. (And he installed the oven, too.) So now we have a working oven again and it works much better than the old one did. So I'm glad we have it now, even with the extra expense. Some good things you have to be forced into.
Below are some pictures of this whole process. First, there's a picture of the old oven. Then there are a couple of pictures of Darren and Ethan taking the brick off the wall. (Kevin helped a little, too. They thought that was pretty fun.) Next is the wall, waiting to be painted when we paint everything else and last is the new oven.

OCD

I'm afraid Jake has a little obssessive/compulsive disorder in him. Several times I have found him gathering similar objects (cars, toy animals, minature shampoo/toothpaste containers) and lining them up in a row. He gets mad if they are messed up. Yesterday he came out of the bathroom carrying some items and this picture is what he did with them. My other two children did not do that. Anybody else have kids like that?

Jake's bum

Just a random picture of a leaf on Jake's bum. We were out in the garden and he came inside like that. Oh, and check out Darren's blog. He did a few updates.

Last weekend we went camping in Swan Valley. I am slow at getting pictures posted. I realized this was also Jake's first time going camping. As you can see, he enjoyed it.

Darren showing the boys a fish he caught. All of the boys, including the grown up boys, spent a lot of their time in the creek.





The boys right before bedtime.






How Jake looked the whole time we were camping.