Holiday Week Update

Well, I haven’t posted much in the past couple of weeks, so I thought I’d let everyone know what we’re up to.

• Christmas was wonderful. Mom came up and spent the weekend with us. We hope that she didn’t get too sick from hanging out with us and our colds.
• James and Anna were excited about the visit from Santa Claus. When I walked down the hall to their room at 7:00 AM, Anna burst out and told me that she’d been waiting for “a really long time” for me to go get them. We tried to eat a little breakfast before we started opening presents, but that just didn’t work.
• It’s a nice, slow week at work. It’s nice to not have a lot of pressure this week.
• Julie is speaking in Church on Sunday. If you’ll be in the area, sacrament meeting is at 9:00, give or take. Her subject is “charity.” I’m looking forward to it.
• The Clarks are officially not going anywhere this weekend. Julie’s speaking assignment, and the Young Women’s New Year’s Eve party have pretty much shut that down for us.

Hope that satisfies your information craving! Later.

Chunky Vegetable Lasagna

Here’s a Clark family favorite. It takes some time to prepare, so we don’t get to make it very often, but we do like it.

Chunky Vegetable Lasagna

• 12 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 3 cups broccoli flowerets
• 3 large carrots, coarsely shredded (2 cups)
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 medium red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1 medium green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 3/4 cup pesto sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 container (15 ounces) ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 large egg
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (8 ounces)

1. Cook and drain noodles as directed on package.
2. Mix broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, bell peppers, pesto and and salt.
3. Mix ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsely and egg.
4. Melt margarine in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Cook garlic in margarine about 2 minutes, stirring frequently until garlic is tender. Stir in flour. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute.
5. Heat oven to 350°.
6. Place 3 noodles in ungreased rectangular pan, 13 × 9 × 2 inches. Spread half of the cheese mixture over the noodles. Top with 3 noodles; spread with half of the vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese. Top with 3 noodles; spread with remaining cheese mixture. Top with 3 noodles; spread with remaining vegetable mixture. Pour sauce evenly over the top. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
7. Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes or until hot in center. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

School Programs

We shot this video last night at Anna's preschool program.

Here's a photo from James's school program. Our seats weren't nearly as good because the entire town showed up for the elementary school program.

Drum roll, please...

This is the official unveiling of ClarksInWyoming 2.0, codename: “Wrigley.” Version 1.0 (codename: “Chocolate”) was a lot of fun to build and to see, but now that we’re into winter, it doesn’t make sense to keep all those fall colors up.

Things to note:

• The comments function. I kind of like it, but I’d like to know what you think.
• Internet Explorer bugs. I’ve done what I can to work around them, but if you are using IE, and something doesn’t look right, then let me know. I’ll do what I can to fix it. I still highly recommend Firefox, though.
• Comments and videos. For some reason and on some videos, the comment appears behind the video. Why does this happen? I don’t know. I’m still looking into it.
• Updated: I figured out why the videos and comments were doing what they did. Technically, its complicated. To fix it, fairly simple.

I appreciate thoughts and comments on improvements we can make.

Belated Birthday for Grampy

We sent this to Grampy in the email, but he wasn’t able to download it, so we’re uploading it here. Happy Birthday Grampy!

Starring Anna and James!

I just made a video starring Anna and James, I hope you like it! My cousin and aunt introduced us to this site, it is so much fun! Animoto.com

Virtual Caroling

In accordance with wish number 1 on Drew’s list, here is the (now) World Famous Clarks in Wyoming Children’s Choir with two rousing renditions of some Christmas favorites. Enjoy!

Updates for this week

• We went to Grandma Swensen’s funeral
• James and I came home from SLC and left Julie and Anna with the Harlines
• It snowed here in Big Piney.
• We’re going to attempt a reconnaisance mission tonight to find the girls. Wish us luck.

Aaron’s Christmas Memories

Drew’s post on Christmas memories was quite touching. It was a really good post, and made me think about a couple of times when people have helped me out. Way to be Drew.

I also completely agree with Andrew’s Post, which is absolutely the truth for me. I can’t remember a Christmas where we didn’t get together and watch “A Christmas Story” or at least laugh and talk about Scott Farkus. (“He had yellow eyes.... So help me, yellow eyes!”)

One of my favorite Christmas memories is the time that my family was a secret Santa for one of our relatives. We drove down to their house every night for the 12 days of Christmas, put some silly presents on their doorstep, knocked and ran. Dad wrote silly poems to go with the presents every night, and I remember laughing at them. We were close, and it was fun to drive and plan how we were going to pull off that nights scheme.

I had my first kiss during the Christmas season. It was 1996, er, 1995, December 18th to be exact, and it was the first kiss for both of us. What a cool Christmas memory!

Christmas 1996 was in La Pintana, Chile, and it was my first summer Christmas. We had so many good people in the branch who wanted to spend time with us. It was around Christmas that Daniel, Juana, and Miguel (my first family to go to the temple) were baptized. I also met Luz and Mario Aaron Sanchez for the first time. Christmas 1997 was back in La Pintana in a different ward, with the Matthews family. (Yes, Matthews. One of two in the entire Santiago phonebook.) I had spent five months in the area, and it felt like home. Four days later, I got news that I was being transferred, and I cried like a baby for the better part of two days because I really wanted to end my mission there.

Christmas 1998 was Julie’s and my first Christmas together, and when we announced our first pregnancy, which was exciting. (It turned out to be a false alarm.) I finished my AS at Weber just in time for Christmas 1999. James’s first Christmas was 2000. I was in school in December 2001 and 2002. I graduated with a BS in Accounting in December 2003, which was Anna’s first Christmas, went to my first Christmas party with Tanner in December 2004, had Dad and Candace come up for Christmas 2005, went to Houston in 2006, and have, thus far, had a great holiday season in 2007.

We’re looking forward to having Mom come north to spend a couple days with us. We’ve already gotten a Christmas tree (the first for my kids because we’ve been living in places where we didn’t have space), decorated it, and I’ve done most of my shopping. It’s been great.

I hope you all have a great Holiday!

The Story

O.K. here is the story. One day out of the blue I got an e-mail from our West Valley neighbor Holliann. Holliann was wondering if they could fly up and visit! Holliann's son, Ben, had been wanting to visit James. Holliann had just helped a guy at work with some major computer issues, he asked Holliann if there was anything he could do for her. He happened to be a pilot, and so they arranged to fly up here to the little Big Piney Airport, it also just happened to be James's Birthday weekend! They flew up on Friday, Nov. 9th it took about an hour and twenty minutes from Salt Lake. Me, James, and Anna all got to go for a ride over the city, and then they had to head back home.

How can you not love a face like this?

Maybe I’m just a sentimental old Dad, but my heart melts. What can I say? My kids are just so darn cute. They can’t help it though. They get it from their mom.

Grocery Shopping

Today on the way home from the grocery store I saw a herd of 30 antelope, a 5 point buck, and a bald eagle. I need to start carrying a camera! -Julie

Due to popular demand...

Well, perhaps not due to popular, but at least due to limited demand, we have removed the “invited person only” restriction on the blog. We hope this makes it easier for certain readers (you know who you are) to easily gain access to our inner lives because they couldn’t figure out how to use email and invitations. We still love them, of course.

Newsworthy items: We spent the weekend in Salt Lake to have some time with Dad, Andrew and Kristi, and Emily and Drew. We stayed with David and Mary Jean, and talked to Mom. For those who aren’t aware, Dad is heading to Iraq, to be a bus driver. We had a great time with him, and it was good to see everyone before he left.

Next week is James’s birthday, and the clan is trekking up to our little town for a couple of days to celebrate his birthday. We’re excited to see all of them. We just barely got off the phone with one of James’s friends’ moms (that was a grammar test to get those Ss and apostrophes right), and she and her son are flying (yes, flying) into Big Piney for a couple of hours, and James will get to go on an airplane ride for his birthday. Wow!

Happy Halloween!

I just wanted to take a quick second to wish everyone a very happy Halloween. I hope you’re having a great time. We’ll be sure and put some pictures up here of the kids in costumes as soon as I get them on the computer.

See you all soon!

Aren’t names great?

Yesterday’s High Council speaker’s name was, get this, Brother Feller. How cool is that? Wouldn’t that be a great name for a guy in Woodruff, Utah? Imagine the conversations:

“How’s it going, feller?”
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

On the mission:

“Tell me about yourself, feller.”
“That’s Elder Feller, to you.”

Others? Please post in the comments. Andrew, I’m counting on you for some good ones.

James and Anna are Cowboys

 

Emily Minchew, Julie’s cousin, is visiting for a couple of days on her way back to Salt Lake from the Grand Tetons. Today we drove into Pinedale to do a little fishing, but the weather did not cooperate as we would have liked. So we all ended up walking through some of the little shops on Pine Street in Pinedale. We took the picture of the kids in the western shop.

I don’t know how I’m going to convince them that riding horses, wearing Wranglers and cowboy hats, and roping cattle just isn’t as cool as they think it is.

Fall in Marbleton

I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about fall up here. I’ve enjoyed some of the most beautiful fall weather I’ve seen in a long time. The leaves along the highway are changing color, and the bushes next to the creek are a beautiful golden hue.

As Bob Pliley from the WV3 would say (and has on numerous occasions), “You just can’t beat the Wyoming air.” This morning as I was heading to work, the air was crisp and cold, and you could smell the pine smoke from a neighbor’s stove. It made me feel like watching football. (Too bad Big Piney High is playing in a town that’s 2 hours away, and I don’t have either TV or a signal to watch football on TV. Maybe for Christmas or something.)

Yesterday, I took a late lunch and went to the park with James and Anna to watch them do some of their new tricks. Anna learned how to slide down the fireman’s pole all by herself, and James has learned to climb up the pole. It was such a nice day to be outside. I’m going to head home in a few minutes and try to take a ride on my bike.

Emily Minchew is coming down from Jackson to stay for a day or two on her way back to Salt Lake. So we’ll probably go to Pinedale tomorrow. I’m going to try and do a little fishing with the kids at Fremont Lake. It should be fun.

Quiet evening at home last night

You may or may not know, but our TV doesn’t work, so last night after volleyball, I explored the wonderful world of YouTube for a little while. I had fun watching Neg’s urban sports (do a search), but this video had me laughing out loud for most of the six minutes. Based on the various responses and such on the site, this may be old news to some of you younger whippersnappers, but if you haven’t seen it, it was pretty dang cool.

Other than that, we are really kicking into gear here at the office on internal controls. I won’t bore you (or excite you if you sign “CPA” after your name) with details, but it’s a time consuming process, and can be fairly grueling if you do it for several hours at a time, like we did.

Another day, another $0.67 (after taxes)

I’m at work today, as I am most every day. I’ve had a great week, though, so I can’t complain.

On Monday afternoon, I drove to Salt Lake for CPE. I stayed with Mom, had dinner at Café Rio (Mmmm... Pork Burrito. Mmmmm...), went Tuesday to class with one of my friends who used to work at the same place I used to work, ran some errands, and drove home.

This is my week to teach seminary, and we’ve had a raucous good time doing that. Well, I have anyway.

I’ve spent some time working on internal controls, and recurring journal entries. I’ve done a little database development and fixed some problems. And that’s what’s happening with me. What’s up with you?

Clark Family Touring Dates Announced!

MARBLETON, WY—The Clark Family (http://clarksinwyoming.blogspot.com/) has determined tour dates for the remainder of 2007:

• September 25: Aaron to attend the AICPA‘s Annual Update for Controllers at the UACPA Offices.
• October 6-7: The entire family to visit Salt Lake City for family pictures, semi-annual mexican food fiesta, and General Conference.
• October 16-17: Aaron to attend SEC Reporting CPE.
• Thanksgiving: Probable excursion to either Logan or SLC* for food, feasting, and football. Unless, of course, you want to come hang out with us.
• December 31: Possible excursion to Logan or SLC* for New Year’s.

* Weather permitting.

Some days are more intellectually stimulating than others

Today was a pretty good day for me. I spent some time figuring out how to account for stock options given as compensation for employees. My company uses stock options regularly as signing and annual bonuses, and until today, nobody here really knew how to account for them. Well, I read the accounting guidance, and looked at the auditors calculation for 2006, and I feel like I got a pretty good handle on things.

For those readers who may not be accountants, accounting for stock option expense is one of the more “technical” bits of accounting. The literature uses a lot of terms of art, and you have to determine things like volatility of the underlying stock, and the fair value of the option. (We use the Black-Scholes model, for those who are interested.) All in all, it’s now 7:15 pm, and I just finished putting together the spreadsheet that will handle the appropriate calculations, and figure our expense for each month. It feels really good to be done with that.

Now I’ll go home and take my stripes from Julie for not being home for dinner. Doh!

Chilean Independence Day 2007

If we were in Chile right now, we would have spent the day feasting on one of the most delicious Chilean dishes ever: the empanada (pronounced empana’a).

This is the best empanada recipe I’ve had since I came home:

RELLENO (Filling)

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 3 medium-size onions, chopped (about 3 cups)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces lean ground beef
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Hot pepper sauce of your choice, to taste
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

MASA (Dough)

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegetable shortening (Chileans would turn and spit at the thought of using shortening instead of lard, but this is an American version of the recipe.)
• 1 cup warm milk

ADDITIONAL ITEMS

• 1 large egg white lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon of water
• 12 pitted black olives, sliced (In Chile, you would neither pit nor slice the olives.)
• 2 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 cup seedless black raisins, optional (The recipe says “optional” but I completely disagree. Julie made these once without raisins, and it just wasn’t right.)

DIRECTIONS

1. To make the filling, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring a few times, until transparent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and salt and cook for 30 seconds. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the beef, and cook, stirring constantly, until it loses its pink color. Stir in spices and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the beef broth and cook for a few minutes, until the meat absorbs some of the liquid. Sprinkle in the flow, stir, and cook until thickened. The mixture should be soupy. Let cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight to let the flavors develop.
2. To make the dough, put the flour, baking powder and salt in a food processor and process for 5 seconds. Add the shortening and process until the mixture looks like cornmeal. With the machine running, add the warm milk through the feed tube until the dough almost gathers into a ball. Transfer to a floured board and knead for a few seconds. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
3. Form the dough into a log and cut into 12 portions. On a lightly floured board, roll each portion in to a 6-inch circle. Lightly brush the edge of half the circle with the egg white mixture. Place about 2 heaping tablespoons of the filling in the center, top with a few slices of olives, a slice of egg, and a few raisins. Fold half o fhte circle over to form a half—moon and press the edges together firmly. Brush the top with the egg white mixture. Fold the rounded edge over 1/2 inch, making three separate folds—one on each side, then one on the bottom—to create a trapezoid shape. Brush the folds with the egg white mixture and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
4. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
5. Pierce the tops of the empanadas once with a fork and bake until lightly colored, about 20 minutes. Be careful not to overbake. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with onion and tomato salad, drizzled with equal parts oil, salt, lemon and cilantro. Mas rico que los mormones!

As requested, the photo from the header

This is the photo that I took when we were last at Fremont Lake. It was part of that week when we had nine guests from WV3 come and stay with us. I thought it turned out rather nicely.

Hope you enjoy the new template

So, I stuck with the monochromatic thing. I just can’t seem to get away and find a multichromatic theme that I like. Does that mean I’m a boring person?

If you were trying to look at the site this morning, and saw some of the garbage that I was seeing as I was frantically trying to see the new version of the site, I apologize.

Some of the exciting new features:

• Everything was hand coded by yours truly (except for the Blogger Bar at the top).
• Totally breaks on Internet Explorer. I’m working on it, but that will have to be another day. Until then, get Firefox.
• Comments are visible (or possibly invisible) on each page, so you don’t have to click through to see more stuff.
• The picture at the top? Fremont Lake outside of Pinedale.

Yes, there are probably a bunch of bugs, but I'm no longer dependent on someone else for design. Freedom, sweet freedom.

Updates from Aaron

Things here are going along swimmingly. Julie got mad at me for spending time on the computer, so I have been avoiding it a bit over the past couple of weeks. We’re in the middle of period close for August, and I have a couple of big projects that I’m tackling in conjunction with that.

Seminary is good. The waking up early has been difficult, to say the least. When I was a missionary, we followed special rules in our mission to conform with the Chilean culture: In bed at 12:00 AM, up at 8:00 AM. Ever since then I have had a hard time waking up early. When Julie and I had jobs that started at 6:30 AM and we lived in Ogden, there was many a morning when I pulled out of bed at the last possible second, skipped breakfast, and then took a nap when I got home because my system wasn’t used to the early hours.

I used one of Andrew’s favorite phrases today in Seminary about hopping in the “Wayback Machine” and it went right over everybody’s head. These kids today just aren’t getting educated in the classics like they should.

I find that I still have trouble, although, for seminary, it’s been easier. I think the Lord has a hand in making sure that my body wakes up at 4:45ish so I can prepare lessons and teach classes. I still like to take naps when I go home for lunch, though. Have I ever mentioned that I love having work be only 3 miles from home?

Tonight I have a meeting to talk about inventory. Inventory is such a fascinating issue. Businesses can live and die by their abilities to manage their inventory, because for a lot of businesses, inventory is such an important part of operations. I’m curious to see what happens at the meeting.

I’ve got to go. Props to Andrew (invite required) and Emily for creating blogs. We sure enjoy reading about your escapades.

Sorry for falling behind

I know, I know. I am becoming more and more lax in my posting of information. I’m also becoming busier and busier. Here’s a quick update:

• James started school last week. He like’s it a lot, so far.
• Anna started pre-school yesterday. The jury is still out on that one.
• Aaron was called to be the assistant ward clerk, and set apart on Sunday.
• Julie was called to be the Gospel Doctrine teacher in Sunday School. She was also set apart on Sunday.
• We are “bad” debt free as of 5 minutes ago. We paid off our car loan, and now we have only a mortgage and a student loan. Awesome!

James scored a goal!

Ladies and gentlemen, he did it! He scored a goal! James played soccer the best that I’ve seen him play tonight. He was more aggressive, and really went for the ball tonight, and in the course of doing that, he scored his first goal.

I may need to add a little background to this story. There’s a boy on James’s team named Jake, and he is the “star” player on James’s team. He’s the best 7-year-old player I’ve probably ever seen, and allegedly he’s the national wrestling champion for kids his age. Anyway, this whole season, I’m not sure that any other person on their team has scored, other than Jake. So tonight, while the coach had Jake pulled out for a rest, James took control of the ball and took it down field, and kicked in a goal. It was awesome! He was pretty dang pumped.

That was the bright spot on what has been a somewhat difficult week. The kids are trying to adjust to their new schedule, so they are cranky; I’m adjusting to my new schedule, so I’m just tired; Julie is adjusting to her new calling (sorry, it’s not officially done yet, so you’ll just have to wait); and my step-mom’s sister died tragically in a turn of events that apparently took everyone by surprise. So, seeing James succeed tonight, and seeing how excited he was really made my day.

Cell phones gone

For those of you who aren’t aware, our old cell phone numbers are no longer in service. You can now (usually) reach me at 801-797-1315 and Julie’s phone number is in the sidebar. We have prepaid cards for emergencies and such, but we’d prefer you call us on the other numbers.

When we discovered that we only used 150 of our allotted 1000 minutes last month, and since work doesn’t reimburse me for my half of the bill, we decided it just wasn’t worth keeping the account. Thanks for understanding.

Labor Day Invitation

SPECIAL: For all faithful readers of the ClarksInWyoming blog, you are cordially invited to join us for thin pancakes on Monday, September 3, 2007 (Labor Day). We'll gather at approximately 9:30. Please RSVP your acceptance of the invitation by email to either Aaron or Julie. The RSVP deadline is Friday August 31, 2007. Plan to bring a healthy appetite and an appropriate side dish.

After breakfast, we will make our escape from the run-amok lifestyle of Marbleton/Big Piney to the nearby mountains for a quiet mountain constitutional.

For those needing accommodations, we have inside staterooms, hostel style lodging, a garden view lodge, and mountain view rustic lodging* available to meet your needs, with check-in available as early as Thursday, August 30.

*Mountain view rustic lodging not available on premises. Please bring your own garden view lodge and sleeping accouterments.

After all the hype: Photos

I'm not sure I need to say anything else.

Useful tools for blogging

For those of you who might be interested in how I run and post to this blog, the following items are really quite useful:

1. Picasa. Picasa makes it easy to post a photo to your blog. I also like the sorting/tracking functionality it offers when you have a lot of photos on your computer. My Dad probably would overload it, because he’s a professional photographer, but for us amateurs, it’s great.
2. Blogger Markdown Support. Can I say wow? This is awesome. You type in basically plain text, and it converts it to properly formed HTML. For us HTML nerds who (used to) post to our blogs in handwritten HTML, this is very helpful. It requires the following two tools.
3. Firefox. The best browser I’ve ever used. Period.
4. Greasemonkey. If you have Firefox, you should try Greasemonkey. It allows you to modify your browser with javascript. This is ubernerd territory, but you can download scripts that other people have written. I’ve customized the Blogger Markdown Script to use Showdown and to convert straight quotes to curly quotes.
5. Blogger. I’ve been on Blogger since before it was owned by the Big G, and I still like it a lot. It is really easy to use, and I can customize most of their stuff to my heart’s content.

That would about do it. My extensive knowledge of HTML and CSS are helpful, too. (That’s joke, by the way. It’s hard to express sarcasm on the web.) Hope that satisfies any curiosity that may have existed.

So, how about that fish

Things have been pretty hectic around our house and at work for the past few days, so we apologize to our reader for any lack of output from the ClarksInWyoming clan. This week should be a little lighter.

Julie will probably have to tell us all about the guest experience from last week. (Nine guests, plus our four, makes 13 persons living in our house. We were surprisingly comfortable!) Or, perhaps, I’ll find some time to tell about it. But Julie was there the whole time, whilst I was there only in the evenings.

I’ll tell you about our post-guest excursion to Middle Piney Lake. After the guests left, Julie wanted some time to herself to unwind and straighten up our castle. James, Anna, and I, eager to oblige, decided to take our equipment and head up the road for a little bit of fishing.

We drove up to Middle Piney Lake, which we had heard was a good fishing spot. It only takes about 30 minutes to get there from our home, and the drive itself is worth the trip. We saw all kinds of animals, trees, rivers, and hills. The mountains are gorgeous. I look forward to camping there sometime.

When we got to the lake (also gorgeous), the wind had picked up a bit, and casting was difficult. James was having a pretty rough time, and Anna didn’t even want to fish. I put a big sinker and some bait on Anna’s rod (yes, Anna has a rod), cast it out, and handed the rod to James. Then I worked on fixing his line, which had become tangled in the wind. After fixing it, I cast it out, and began to reel in.

I felt a familiar tug, and told the kids, “I have a fish!” Then I realized that my line had crossed James’s line in the wind, and that I was just reeling in his line. When I told James to reel in, he got really excited, and started to reel. When the drag on his line started to sing, I got really excited for him. James kept working on bringing in the fish, and then we brought it in.

The fish he pulled in was bigger than any fish I’ve ever caught. When we took it home to measure it, it measured 16.5" in length, which is a good size for a rainbow trout. Boy, were the kids excited to see the fish. Anna kept asking if she could pet it, and when she did, she jumped back when the fish wriggled for her.

Anyway, it was a fun experience. Here are the pictures we took of the triumphant fisherman and his fish: So, the pictures I thought I had copied onto my computer didn’t actually get copied. Sorry. As soon as I find them, they’ll be here.

About the fish

For those of you who read this blog’s comments, I had planned on posting something yesterday, but we encountered one of our infamous wind storms, and lost power for most of the afternoon. I hope to get something posted later today or tomorrow.

Additionally, we’ll be hanging out in Salt Lake later this week, so if you want to get together, drop us a line.

Our talks today

Since I intended to write about Maggie on Saturday, but didn’t have the chance, you have to get a couple of posts on the same day. I’m hoping that this won’t cause ClarksInWyoming overload for anybody, but if it does, I apologize in advance. This post is somewhat churchy in nature, so if that bothers you, you can quit reading now.

We’ve had a great day today. Our talks went off without a hitch. The kids both did a great job: Anna recited her line from last year’s primary program, and James recited a scripture that he memorized for primary last month. I started to get pretty nervous during Julie’s talk, so I (sheepishly) admit, that I don’t know what she talked about.

My talk covered some of the impressions that I got as I read “The Living Christ”. I talked about the need to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord; we should prepare ourselves physically (food storage, financial reserves), mentally (education and understanding), and spiritually (obedience to the commandments and learning to love God). Then I talked about the hope that Christ gives us, especially the hope of a resurrection. I talked about Miguel, one of the converts that Elder Allison and I taught in Chile, who drowned on a scout activity just a month after his baptism. His family, though beset by grief at the loss of their son, was strong because of their knowledge of the resurrection. They were sealed together a year later (Miguel by proxy), and as far as I know, they continue to be a beacon in their branch. I talked about how I hoped for the day of resurrection to see my grandfathers, whom I love a lot, and long to see again. Because of Christ, I am sure that I will see them again, and it gladdens my heart. I also talked about the Atonement and its importance to all of us. I shared some of my favorite scriptures on the Atonement, and finished by bearing my testimony. I closed, we sang the closing hymn, and walked out of the chapel at precisely 10:10. I couldn’t have planned it better if I had tried.

Every time I speak in Church, I’m amazed by the way the Spirit works. There were a couple of times when I had planned on saying one thing, but I said something else, and there were a couple of scriptures that came to mind while I was speaking that I hadn’t even thought of during my preparation, but that I felt needed to be shared. I’m certain that the Lord had something in mind for someone when He prompted me to say and do what I did.

The new preferred method of locomotion

I’d like everybody to meet Maggie, my new bicycle. Do you remember “A Christmas Story” and Ralphie’s desire to get “an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and ‘this thing’ which tells time”? Well, for a while now, Aaron has been desiring a soft-tail, aluminum-frame, disc-brake equipped mountain bike with Shimano components and Rock Shox for riding around town. And he got it.

I should explain: when we moved here, we finally had both time to take leisurely bike rides, and a place to store bikes so we could take said rides. The problem was, we didn’t have a bike for everyone to ride. So, while I was at work, Julie, James and Anna would ride their bikes to the library, and to the fair grounds, and through the neighborhoods. In the evenings, I would occasionally borrow Julie’s bike to take a ride of my own, but it was really hard for the whole family to ride bikes. So, Julie gave me permission to buy a bike.

I did some research, and discovered this Orem based outfit called Fezzari. They sell bikes directly to consumers, so they cut out the middle-men and sell cool bikes for a lot less than the competition. I was looking at a Trek 6100 (I believe that’s the model), which is more in the starter end of Trek bikes. For about the same price, I was able to get a bunch of sweet upgrades (including the soft-tail), and have the bike delivered straight to my door in Marbleton, Wyoming. How cool is that? Not only do I laud the Fezzari folks for building a good product at a good price, I must mention that I ordered the bike on Monday, and it was delivered on Thursday. I thought it would take at least a week, so huzzah for Fezzari.

The bike, which I am naming Maggie in honor of the horse that Anna rode, arrived on Thursday night, and we took it for two rides: a quick ride on Friday morning before work, and a longer ride in the Red Hills yesterday. She performed superbly. Even now, I become a little verklempt, just thinking about it.

And that’s the news from Marbleton, where all the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.

Assignments from the Church

Our dastardly Bishop showed up at our house last night under the guise of “wanting to visit.” So, we let him in. How could I, of all persons, not recognize the ploy used by bishops and stake presidents the world over?

The visit started innocently enough with some chit-chat about how we enjoyed life here in Marbleton, and if we were growing accustomed to the climate, and so on and so forth. Then, without any warning, he dropped a bomb: “Have you ever spoken in Church?” To which we replied that yes, we had spoken many times in church. “In our ward?” he asked. “Not yet,” we answered. “Would you like to?” How do you say “I’d rather eat prickly pear cactus without skinning and de-prickling it first” without offending? So we agreed to speak in church. And that, we thought, was the end of the visit.

But it didn’t stop there. He started asking about our background in the church, and did I have any teaching experience. I told about my different callings, and my stint as a trainer at the hotel chain. He nodded his head, said something in Japanese to his wife, and then turned and dropped the big bomb: “We’d like you to be a seminary teacher. Would you be willing to do that for us?”

Stunned silence.

I didn’t know quite what to say, other than, “Sure. Yes.” OK. What did I just do?! Seminary teacher? Me? Yikes!

Well, I’ve had a day to let the idea sink in, and it still doesn’t seem real. I met the CES Coordinator for the area today, and signed my volunteer form, so after it gets processed later this week, I will officially be one of two seminary teachers for the Big Piney Ward. Wow!

Ahh, to be back home

Let me start by saying that I had a splendid weekend. I enjoyed hanging out with everyone, and being a part of James and Michelle’s wedding. Going to the old ward and seeing our friends was cool, too, and almost made me nostalgic for the old life in Salt Lake.

But then I spent today in Salt Lake, and felt myself strangely (or perhaps not so strangely) longing for home. I missed the slow-going rural lifestyle. For all of my life, I considered myself a city-slicker, and I probably always will be one, but there’s just something undeniably addictive about life in the country. It could be the lack of traffic, or the clean mountain air, or the slower pace of life, or the folks who talk to you in the line at the grocery store who don’t know you from Adam, but whatever it is, I missed it this weekend. I suspect that it may be all of those things, but even more than that, I’m fairly certain that there is something in our subconscience selves that likes to be “home:” sleeping in your own bed, using your own toothbrush (Julie has a story about that, I hope), being able to find what you are looking for in the kitchen: it is all part of “home,” and I’m glad to be back.

A Great Day!

Jimmy and Michelle were married Saturday in the Bountiful temple. They were married at noon and had a lunchen at 3 p.m. with just close friends and family members. It was just right, everyone stayed and danced, and then bride and groom left about 6 p.m.

This picture was taken at the Bountiful temple. Anna and James were trying to hide from a camera. Little did they know there were being ambushed from the side.

Who does this remind you of?

 

Andrew and Emily: I set this up especially for you. Remind you of anyone we know?

Roping

Roping for “Dummies”, Thursday, July 26^th 11:00 a.m – 2:00 p.m. Come learn the fine art of roping with veteran Big Piney team roper. No need to bring your horse, your rope or a calf. Lunch is included. Meet at the Pinedale Rodeo Grounds at 10:45 a.m. These events are free and open to the public. Please call to register. . .

We saw this ad at the local grocery store and then again in the news paper. So in keeping with my theme, “When in Rome, do as the Romans,” I called to sign up.

James was really into it. I think he did more practicing than anyone else there. He even wanted to skip lunch to practice. I convinced him to take five bites before returning to his lasso. One of the other adults commented about how hard he worked and how patient he was. He wasn’t real natural with it, I am surprised that anyone can be natural with a lasso, but he just kept trying. James has been asking for a lasso since we went to the Rodeo on the 4^th.

Anna was not interested in roping. She hung out on a blanket for the first hour. Just before lunch I went over and showed her how to rope Mom and then she decided that it might be fun after all.

Mom roped a little, and was roped a little, and talked a lot. People in Wyoming aren’t scared to talk to each other. I made a few new friends. It was a great afternoon!

Minor error

A previous post somehow did not manage to post completely. Like Brenda, I too was intrigued. Mrs. ClarksInWyoming is aware of the issue, and has promised to remedy the situation.

Soon.

I hope.

Roping

Things I miss from life in Salt Lake

The following is a (more or less) comprehensive list:

• Golf. Or perhaps I miss getting together with Anthony, Josh, Bob, Kevin and the rest of my golfing buddies and playing and shooting the breeze.
• Tanner LC. I had a great time working there, and there are some people there who I wish were working with me here. I’ll see some of them next year when they come back for the audit, but that’s still a few months out.
• The 24th of July Parade. For only the 4th time in as long as I can remember, I will not be attending the parade. I missed twice during the mission, once because I was in training at Marriott, and today because I am new here, and don’t have vacation time. It’s all good, though, because at least I can watch it on TV. Oh, wait. No I can’t.
UPDATED: July 26, 2007
• Bagels. How could I forget the easy access to bagels?

First Trip to Grand Tetons, subtitled Visiting Cousins in the Park

We took our first (first of many, we hope) family trip to the Grand Tetons yesterday, and had a great time. We started our day at about 11:00 and drove up through Daniel and Bondurant, and into Teton County. We stopped next to the Hoback river and had lunch. My favorite part was watching the bird who lived in the hollow tree next to our spot come and go with bugs and things to feed its babies. Lamentably, I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of the bird, but I have the memories in my mind.

We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch, prepared by Julie on Friday night. After lunch, Julie and the kids took a wade in the river to cool down, while yours truly manned the camera.

We continued our trek north into Jackson and Grand Teton National Park. We stopped and enjoyed a Clark family tradition, when the car (for some strange reason) lost control, and pulled into a Maverick station. Since we were there anyway, we got some cool sodas. [Side note: It is interesting to me that this particular tradition was started when my dad bought a car that didn’t have air conditioning, and how easily it was revived when we are driving cars that don’t have air conditioning.] After refreshing ourselves, we continued into the park. For those that aren’t familiar with the Grand Tetons, when you drive into Jackson from the south (like we did) you go through the town, past the National Elk Refuge, past the National Wildlife Art Museum (Which, by the way, is a really neat museum, and there is a great café where you can pick up lunch on the cheap. I recommend the turkey sandwich with smoked gouda cheese. Wow.), and past the National Fish Hatchery, and then all of a sudden there they are: The Grand Tetons. Spectacular!

We picked up an annual pass to Grand Teton and Yellowstone, partly in preparation for next year’s annual hoopla, which I have affectionately dubbed (as of this very moment, actually) “Hoopla Dos” (BTW: It will never meet or exceed the fun had during Hoopla Uno, so don’t get your hopes up. Andrew and Kristi really know how to party.) We drove up to Colter Bay and visited with Emily Minchew and Kaylie Harline, Julie’s cousins who are working up there for the summer. Emily celebrated her th birthday on Friday, so we took her out to dinner. Kaylie had to work all night, so we didn’t get much time to visit with her. But we did get a picture of everyone. Say cheese!

On the way out, we stopped to take the photo that you see above, and we met some really nice folks from Pennsylvania, who offered to take our picture. Then they took a picture of us for their scrapbook, and we took their’s for ours. Then we drove home, and everyone (except me) slept. Hope you had a great weekend!

Life in Wyoming

This week has been our first in Wyoming without visitors from Salt Lake, we moved in June 26th. I must admit it has been a little bit lonely, but I figure, “when in Rome. . .” So yesterday I took the kids horse back riding and today we rode our bikes to the fair ground and watched some team roping.

Needless to say every other sentence Anna speaks is about Maggie, and Rooster, these are the names of the horses they road, and James has decided he wants a lasso. I understand Ranches and Rodeo have an important role in our history and economic society but it is a life style that I am not yet ready to embrace. Next week the kids start swimming and soccer lessons. I think as long as the kids do not decide they want to do some mutton (sheep), or bronco bustin’, we can all live here together, in little Big Piney, in peace.

P.s. Sorry, no pictures! One of these days when I’ve got a spare hour I’ll find my camera manual and figure out how to download pictures.

No posts from Julie

Due to large number of readers from the other side of the family, I’m quite surprised at the lack of clamor to see more posts from Mrs. ClarksInWyoming. I happen to be privy to the fact that Julie and the kids rode horses in Pinedale, and that they took pictures. But shouldn’t Julie be the one to tell you about that? Can I get a witness?!? Let’s here some “Amens” in the comments please!

James before he was lost

Doesn’t he look so happy and innocent, so unaware of the misfortune about to befall him? In a previous post, I said that David was like a papparazzo taking photos of everyone from around corners. Well, here are some of the photos he took. We’re much obliged to him for taking and sharing these photos, for sure.

Happy monday morning

I hope you all enjoyed a pleasant weekend.

Changes to the template

I did a little customization of the blog today. I mucked about in the HTML and CSS code of the Blogger template, so if it looks strange on your computer, let me know, and I’ll change things back.

Monday Bike Ride

First, I apologize for the dearth of posts this week. Our regular reader probably missed them. This week is a big week in accounting, and there has been a lot to do. Happily, though, I completed the reconciliation of debt for the past six months tonight. And there was much rejoicing. (Yay...)

Monday evening for FHE we took a bike ride through town. We started north of town and the fairgrounds, and rode five miles through both towns to the Church. In between Marbleton and Big Piney, Anna and I stopped to shoot some pictures. We hope you like them.

 

We had a lot of fun riding bikes. Anna rode in our bike trailer, and I pumped with her most of the way through town. Surprisingly, I didn’t keel over dead after riding five miles, like I thought I might. James rode his bike the entire way, Mary Jean rode Shelby’s bike, and Julie and Shelby rode Mary Jean’s tandem bike. I didn’t realize that I had left my memory card for the camera in the computer, so I didn’t get any photos of anyone else, but David had his sweet camera, and took quite a few photos. It was like having our own paparazzi, actually.

After a bit, Julie and I switched, and Shelby and I rode the tandem bike together. We went through one of the neighborhoods on the way to the Church, and James tried to follow us, but we didn’t realize it. Julie and Anna had gone straight in an effort to beat us, and they didn’t realize that James had given up on Shelby and me, and was trying to follow them. Needless to say, when everyone showed up at the Church and James was not in the group, we all got really nervous. Julie kept her head in the game, though, and suggested that we say a prayer. A quick, but heartfelt prayer was offered, and we started backtracking to find James. We were fairly confident we would find him (there are only so many places a kid on a bike can go in this town), but it was good to know that the Lord was on our side, too.

I started out of the church parking lot going about 20 miles an hour, and headed down the road for about 2 minutes when I spotted a little red bike and a little red rider. (James had on his red outfit.) I was so relieved that he was OK. I talked to him for a few minutes, and he had realized that he was lost, but knew where to go, and kept coming to find us. We all met back up, and said another prayer of gratitude that James had been found. How grateful we are for a Heavenly Father who watches out for us.

A Day of Rest

Mary Jean, David, and Shelby drove up early this morning to make it to church with us at 9:00 AM. They got here about 8:10 or so, while we were getting ready for our first Sunday as official members of the ward in Big Piney. It takes about 10 minutes to get to the Church house from our home in Marbleton, which really isn’t too bad when you consider how far some folks drive to get to church. We were greeted at the front door by a member of the bishopric, and when I told him my name, he said, “I already knew that. We got your records last week.” Nothing gets past anybody in a small town.

The meetings were pleasant, the speakers were both inspiring and enjoyable, and the spirit was felt by all present. David and I went to Priesthood together; the Elders and the High Priests typically meet together because there are so few bretheren. I’m pretty sure that we were supposed to have a lesson from the manual today, but it turned into a discussion about cattle and swear-words used to “bless” the beeves once they’ve been roped. I have to admit, it is certainly more fun to attend priesthood meeting here.

After church we came home and had a quick lunch, and enjoyed one of my favorite Harline family traditions: happy hour. Happy hour is a time when all the kids are quiet and play nicely, and the grown-ups take a nap. After seven hours of driving yesterday, and barely six hours of sleep last night, I was ready for a nice nap. It was wonderful. The kids did a great job of playing quietly, so everyone enjoyed a pleasant mid-afternoon nap.

After our nap, we decided to embark on another Harline tradition: the Sunday drive. David had a couple of places in mind that he wanted to see, one of which was the green river. It was absolutely gorgeous today. I’ve posted a couple of pictures here of the river. It made me want to run home and get my fishing rod just to see how many fish I could catch. And the great part is, it is only 5 minutes away from home. How cool is that!

We’ve returned home now, and are just enjoying a low-key evening. Tomorrow I return to work, and Julie, Mary Jean, David and the kids have a day of fun planned. It should be great.

Another week has come and gone

This week is nearly over. We’ve enjoyed some fun adventures this week: I’ve learned about plumbing, we’ve spent time learning to like the local flavor of independence day, and most importantly, we’ve taken time to relax and enjoy the world around us. That is definitely one of the things that drew us up here. I can work as an accountant in any big city I choose, but where else can I also enjoy the quiet and peace that comes from life in a small town. Yes, I suppose we pay a small premium on things like groceries and gas, and when we want to eat at a restaurant, there are only two choices, but when it comes down to it, you can’t put a price on being away from the crowds and the traffic and the smog and the hurried pace that comes with life in the city.

We’ll always love Salt Lake, and Utah will always be home, but for now, we’re taking a stab at being Wyomingites. Don’t worry, though, Andrew. We’ll never give you a chair with the Wyoming flag on it.

Happy Independence Day

We just wanted to wish everyone a very happy Independence Day. Big Piney and Marbleton really know how to celebrate the 4th of July in style.

We started our day at the parade. We arrived at about 9:30, and enjoyed watching all the people arrive until the parade started in earnest at 10:00. Once the parade started, there were about four floats. It almost seemed like the parade was over at that point, but it was just a really long break in the action. The whole parade lasted for about an hour and a half.

The kids enjoyed the parade a lot, especially when the cement truck that we had decorated at EnerCrest came by. I didn’t get a picture of it, but James and Anna were both jumping up and down as excitedly as could be to see “their” float in the parade.

The parade reminded me a lot of the Magna parade, except that there were no groups from the various high schools and junior high/middle schools present. There were no bands, but there were quite a few oil company sponsored entries in the parade. Entry rules are pretty relaxed; all you have to do is show up at one of the company parking lots in town at the right time, and you can drive through the parade.

After the parade, we drove to the county fairgrounds (about 45 seconds north of town), where the oil companies sponsor a barbecue for the entire town. As far as we could tell, everybody from town was in attendance, and some folks from Pinedale were there, too. We looked around in the parking lot, and there were a couple of out of state license plates. We actually sat at a picnic table with a family from Missouri, who comes every year to spend time on a ranch in Pinedale. We also saw Kristi (from work), her husband John, and her son John, too. They drove down from Pinedale for the parade and the luncheon. Little John and James are about the same age, and Anna, James, and John played at the fairgrounds for about an hour.

After lunch, we came home and had a small celebration for Julie’s birthday. She got some nice presents this year. I gave her a new house and a computer. We have been relaxing and taking it easy since then. It’s been a really nice holiday. I hope yours has been as nice as ours.

We’re looking forward to seeing Jed and Candace and family in Salt Lake, and David and Mary Jean in Marbleton this weekend. Brenda and Norman are coming up around the 24th.

Finally some photos

Here’s a photo of the kids playing in our front yard/road.

Here’s a photo of the front porch, taken on Sunday, July 1, 2007.

Minor update

The photo in the header was taken on Saturday night from my front porch. Hope I don’t make anybody jealous.

DIY Plumbing with Aaron

David and MJ commented the other day that if I needed help installing the garbage disposal, I should contact them. Well, I almost wish I would have read that comment before I installed it this morning.

As I explained earlier, part of the fun of living in a semi-secluded town is that you don’t have a Home Depot or a Lowes close enough that you can run to the store three or four times during a project to pick up whatever it was that you forgot. So, when I discovered that the disposal Julie selected didn’t come with an electric cord, we became creative and resourceful. I went out to our trashcan (fortunately, the garbage truck had not come yet), and dug out the old disposal. 10 minutes (and a few under the breath curse words) later I had a very serviceable cord that worked quite well with the new disposal.

After an hour and a half of struggling with the blasted thing, and salvaging a few parts from the old one, the new disposal was installed and humming like a dream. Ah, life in the wilderness.

Weekend without the woman

This is going to take a little explaining, so, Sherman, crank up that crazy Wayback Machine: When we moved up here this week, our kids were a bit nervous about not having any friends or anything to play with. Julie thought it would be a great idea to bring James’s friend Aaron along for the first couple of days to play with the kids. It was a great idea and worked splendidly, except that we had to take him back to his family. Turns out they are quite fond of him.

This whole “taking the friend back to his family in Salt Lake“ was sort of a logistical problem though, because it meant that someone had to run a 400 mile roundtrip errand just to return Aaron. Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may be, the garbage disposal is on the fritz, the deck needs staining, and there are a host of other tiny things that need to be done in Salt Lake, so it all ended up working out for the best.

Since Julie drove back to Salt Lake, the kids and I have been hanging out for a couple of days trying to make order of the chaos that is unpacking. The kids have made it fun, though, because every time we open a box that has some treasure that they haven’t seen for a while, they light up like Christmas. They’ll ooh and ahh about how they wondered where the toy had been, and how happy they were to have it back. I doubt I’ve had this much fun unpacking ever. I’m glad the kids have helped me out, or I would have gone crazy.

So, we really miss Julie, and we also miss groceries. I was going to go to the store yesterday, but we got involved in other things, so we didn’t make it. Julie is planning a trip to the grocery store tomorrow, so we should be back on track tomorrow.

Sorry about the problem with comments

For those of you who have attempted to make comments, but have not been able to, and thought that I was just trying to protect myself from your wrath, I apologize. I had a setting in Blogger that restricted anybody but authors from making comments. Sorry.

Unloading the Truck OR How I Learned To Love the Movers

Yesterday was the big day. The movers showed up in Marbleton at about 10:30 AM and had everything unloaded from the truck at about 1:00 PM. There’s a reason that these people get paid to do what they do. They do it quickly, efficiently, and without complaint. It is so much better than having an Elders’ Quorum try and move everything in and out of your home without doing significant damage to your former home, current home, and any and all of your furniture. Trust me. I’ve been in enough EQPs to know the kind of hassle that they are. Julie and I decided that we would never move again without a relocation package.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with oohs and aahs akin to those heard at fireworks displays as we rediscovered our treasures, silverware, dishwashing soap, clothing, home electronics, children, and other goodies hidden in packing boxes. It’s hard to believe how much stuff we've accumulated over the course of our marriage. It’s also a wonder that we were able to keep so much of that stuff in our tiny condo.

So, after an entire afternoon and most of the evening of unpacking and putting things away, our living room is still strewn with boxes of things that are still searching for their niche. We hope to be prepared for all the persons who will be visiting us this summer. If not, well, there’s always the ever popular Marbleton Inn. It reminds me a lot of the Marriott^®, except that it smells like smoke, and the beds aren’t as comfortable, and there’s no pool or complimentary cookies at check-in. But other than that, it’s great.

Still no photos. I keep forgetting that I have a camera on my cell phone.

How to sign away 30 years of future cash flows in an hour

We are at the end of our troubles. Which end remains to be seen. We closed on our home this afternoon in Pinedale. Since signing documents for a house closing is more boring than watching the Utah State <fill in team of choice> play <fill in sport of choice> (I bet I get some nasty comments for that one, to which I say, “Bring it on, sheepherders.”) (That’s an inside joke, by the way.), I'll give you the condensed version here. The dialogue went something like this:

Title Company Lady: Sign here, here, here, here, and here. And here. OK. Now sign here, here, here and here. And here, and here. Don't worry about all that legalese. It’s just to protect the interest of the lenders and ensure that you get screwed if anything ever happens to you.

Aaron: (Upon looking at the 30 year amortization schedule) Ahh... the magic of compound interest. I just made some bank a bunch of money.

Our Realtor^®: It just makes you want to throw up.

Aaron: Here's the confirmation number for the wire transfer. My down payment on this house is more than half of the total purchase price of my last home.

Our Realtor^®: Yep. It just makes you want to throw up.

Title Company Lady: Mr. and Mrs. Clark, welcome to Sublette County, Wyoming. We hope you enjoy yourselves.

Aaron: I’ll try to avoid throwing up. <Grin>

And with a few strokes of our quills and a ring to the credit union for a wire transer, we are the happy and (very) satisfied owners of a home in picturesque Marbleton, Wyoming. For those wishing to visit, the address is:

715 East Third Street
Marbleton, Wyoming 83113

For those wishing to send information by post, the address is:

General Delivery
Marbleton, Wyoming 83113

Photos of the place to come forth once I remember that I have a camera on my cell phone. Duh.

It's really happening

I just got off the phone with Julie, and she's on the road, with Marbleton in her sights. She said that the movers were at the house (Hooray for movers!), and that her dad was supervising everything (Hooray for David!), and that everything should be rip-rarin' to go. I must admit that I'm both nervous and excited about this move. I still haven't seen the inside of the house, except in pictures. I trust Julie completely, though, so I know that things will work out well.

Thanks again to everyone who has been so helpful and kind during this transition of life. The persons who have made this possible are too numerable to mention, and I'm sure I would forget someone. Thanks, everybody.

Hello all

Well tonight is the last night in West Valley, Christine is helping me clean and Mom has made us all dinner. Thank you to everyone for all your help, it has made all the difference in all the world!

Welcome to our new life in Wyoming

The New EnerCrest Building: a work in progress

Tomorrow begins our first real day of our adventure. We're moving from our home metropolis of Salt Lake City, Utah (Population: 1,000,000 plus) to the tiny town of Marbleton, Wyoming (Population: 700, plus or minus). The movers will pack things up in the morning, we'll close on the new house in the afternoon, and we'll take delivery of our stuff on Wednesday. We're thrilled to have this opportunity.

Julie, James, Anna, and I are all very excited about the changes this will mean in our lives. We're looking forward to a slower pace of life, to a chance to work for a young and exciting and dynamic company, and to be closer to the outdoors that we've loved for so many years. We'll finally be able to buy a home with a yard

There are a few downsides to small town life. Some we're aware of (We'll be about 30 minutes from a regular grocery store, although most of the locals have told me that they go to Green River [about 100 miles away] once a month to take care of their major shopping.), and I'm certain that there will be plenty of things to surprise us.

As part of our move, we're creating this blog to share the things that happen in our life. As long as we have electricity and internet service, we'll try and keep things updated.

That's it for tonight. We'll let you know how things go with the close and the move.