Zuppa da Latta

So, sometimes we have to improvise when it comes to dinner. When I do that, I give the improvised dish a fancy name, so it sounds good.

So, I give you Zuppa da Latta (Italian for “Soup from a Can”):

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 6 slices ham, diced
• 1 can creamed corn
• 1 can italian style stewed tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can black beans

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a pot over medium heat, and saute the onions until clear. Add the ham, and saute lightly until warm. Turn down the heat, and add the cans o’ stuff. Heat through. Add some interesting spices, like oregano or basil or thyme or cumin, and pepper to taste – there should be plenty of salt in the ham and canned veggies. Tell the family you slaved for hours. You’re a hero.

Actually, this soup got pretty good reviews from the whole family, so we’ll actually serve this again sometime.

Moving to a weekly update

So, rather than abandon the blog completely, I thought I’d switch from an attempt at daily updates, to a weekly update. So, I’ll try to post once a week on Saturday or Sunday.

It's been a really nice Christmas season this year. I think a large part of being able to enjoy Christmas this year stems from the fact that I am not unemployed. That really put a damper on last year’s holiday season. I’m glad that’s not the case this year.

This week we participated in several events: On Tuesday night, I went home teaching for the first time in my new ward and met my families. They are all wonderful families, and I look forward to serving them for many years. On Wednesday night we had our ward Christmas party, and that was a pleasant experience. On Thursday night we watched our neighbors kids, and our kids really enjoyed that. On Friday night we participated in the community Christmas celebration, put on by the Bridger Valley Coalition of Churches. James and Anna were part of the primary choir, and they sang four songs. I was part of the community choir, and we sang four songs. It was lots of fun.

Yesterday we drove down to Ogden for the Prather family Christmas party. Santa Claus comes to their party every year, and it was fun to see the kids’ reactions. Alden was really scared of Santa, and wouldn’t even let me hold him on Santa’s lap. Santa asked me what I wanted, and I told him I wanted an official Red Ryder 200-shout range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and a thing that tells time. (”Wow. That’s great.”) I also led the family in a rousing rendition of “Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer” for the two verses I could remember. All in all, good times were had by all.

We're looking forward to a short week at school and work this week, and we’re going to try and enjoy ourselves as much as we can this week.

Blog is going on hold for a while

I’ve decided to do some work on a personal/community project, and I may not blog as much as I have been (which, admittedly, ain’t all that much). The project is kind of under wraps for a little while, but I’ll be able to share additional details as it grows nearer to completion.

A Christmas Story

We watched one of my favorite Christmas films the other night: A Christmas Story. Julie likes to tease me and say that I look just like Ralphie. Frankly, I just don’t see the resemblance. I laugh all the time at the movie. Favorite line: “‘And I’d like a Red Ryder BB gun, with a compass in the stock, and a thing that tells time.’ Wow, that’s great.”

Two-for Tuesday

Last night we were driving in the car, and we were trying to remember some scriptures. My favorite was James’s: “Gentiles 5:2 – By love serve one another."

Cooking Experiment Number One

This will be the first in a series of new things we try to cook at home rather than buy at the store. The first experiment was homemade pasta—specifically, ravioli. I found a simple pasta recipe on the internet (2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups semolina flour, 6 eggs, and a pinch of salt), and made up a filling from sweet potatoes, pepper, breadcrumbs, and egg. We served it with a creamy alfredo sauce, topped with a sprinkling of nutmeg. I think it turned out delicious. Julie said it was a little too sweet (but she did think the pasta was excellent), and the kids thought it was too filling.

After we started eating, Julie asked what the filling was. After I told her that it was sweet potato, James said, “Dad, you shouldn’t have said that. Now it doesn’t taste quite so good to me."

Congratulations to Julie!

Julie was set apart yesterday as the primary president in our ward. I know she’ll do a great job.

Requiem for the Dollar

I read a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal this morning. I will fully admit that I am an armchair economist, and have no more knowledge about economic theory and monetary policy than the next guy. That said, given the little that I do know, I agree pretty much wholeheartedly with the economic principles espoused in the article.

I am a strong believer in unfettered and fully free markets. My stance is that a government should act only to ensure that the markets remain free. I do not care for price setting, central banking, industry subsidies, individual subsidies, and government bail–outs. I am also an advocate of an flat (not fair—there is no such thing in this telestial world) and transparent tax system, too.

Christmas in Midway

One of the Clark family traditions (that we don’t keep very well) is going down to the Christmas celebration in Midway, Utah. We went today, and had a great time. The gingerbread houses were, on the whole, pretty spectacular, and the nativity scenes were fantastic.

It was good to see James and Michelle, too!

Pack Meeting and Budgets

James was supposed to get his wolf last night, but apparently the pack is out of budget, so we'll wait until January to get it. Apparently we need to refer the pack to www.youneedabudget.com.

We've been using the system advocated by Jesse Mecham for several months now, and, although not particularly revolutionary, it has made the budget a much less troublesome topic of discussion around the house. Talking about the budget is no longer a major stress issue anymore, and both Julie and I are more comfortable and understanding of each others' point of view. And since we live off of last month's income, the timing issues of when we can pay the mortgage, tithing, and the credit card bill. (We use the credit card instead of cash, enjoy the cashback bonus, and pay it in full each and every month. The "poor" folks at Discover have never received a penny in interest from me.)

While we don't use the YNAB software because we already had Quicken®, I created a spreadsheet that utilizes Quicken reports and does basically the same thing. It's pretty slick. If you want a copy, let me know.

An interesting aside: Mr. Mecham (YNAB founder) and I both attended BYU at the same time, and were actually in several classes together. I doubt he remembers me, though. I was one of the outsiders who only attended for graduate school, and didn't go through the Junior Core. (It's like moving to a small town from the big city. People don't trust you for the first six months.) From what I remember, though, he's a decent and sharp fellow.

Cool New (Old) Web Application

I discovered Todoist today. I’m using Google Apps at work now, and I wasn’t satisfied with the task tracking application, but Todoist works well. I can add different contexts (@home, @office, @store, etc.), categories, lists, and link web pages and gmail messages to my tasks. Very nice.

New (Old) Hobby

This weekend Julie and I decided that we needed an official hobby to keep us busy and give us something to do during the long, cold Wyoming winter (which, by the way, has been surprisingly warm so far).

We decided that our hobby is going to be cooking. While I have enjoyed cooking for many years, it’s kind of a recent thing for Julie. We’ve decided that we’re going to try and cook new things regularly. (I’m thinking once a week, but I haven’t been told for sure.) I haven’t decided what exotic dish to cook this week. Do you, faithful reader, have any suggestions for us? Please, leave a comment.

Two weeks with Ubuntu

So, you’ve probably heard about Linux. For the past two weeks, I’ve pretty much switched from using Microsoft® Windows® to using the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. The catalyst for the switch is the fact that over the next three years, our company is going to have to shell out more money than we’d like in order to keep licensing Microsoft products. So, in an effort to determine how likely it is that we can move away from Microsoft without causing huge disruption in our general daily workflow, I made the switch to Ubuntu at work.

So far, I really like it. I am a command line kind of guy, and part of the power of Linux is the ability to use the keyboard and the command line to get things done. I like it a lot.

Here are some things that made the switch easy for me:

• Dropbox. Hat tip to Mr. Kevin McKenzie who sent me an invite to Dropbox a few years ago. You get 2GB of free storage (plus an extra 250MB for using this link.
• Crossover. The guys at Codeweavers make a product called Crossover which allows you to run Windows programs in Linux. As much as I hated to do it, I had to have Outlook for a couple of days because the web based interface for Firefox is absolutely horrible, and Evolution (an Outlook wannabe) is just not quite ready for prime time in my mind. Crossover made the installation of Outlook a breeze. I also use it to run EverNote 2.2, which is still one of the best note taking apps I’ve found.
• Google Apps. Thank you Google (full disclosure: I am a shareholder.) for putting together the thoughtful and useful and easy to use web based email system that you did. I was able to forward all my email to a Google Apps account, and now I don’t have to use Outlook anymore. Yay!
• OpenOffice.org. This is a “clone” of Microsoft Office®. I’d say this was the hardest switch to make so far – I have a lot of muscle memory from Office, and there was so much I used to be able to do in Excel, that now I feel somewhat handicapped. I’m sure it’s like learning any new application, and will just take time to get comfortable with the new stuff, but it’s still hard.

There are some other apps that I’ve enjoyed using since I switched to Ubuntu: Gnome–Do is cool for searching and quick access to all kinds of stuff. (I’m trying to get in the habit of using it more, because it is so much easier than mousing to a menu). At home, I use GRAMPS for Genealogy, and that’s a cool little program. There is a Windows version of GRAMPS, too, I believe (it’s built in Python, so it should be cross platform).

Now, before any of my faithful readers decide that they want to make this switch, I have to warn you, this is not for everyone. Ubuntu is more of a community effort than a commercial effort, and if you’re not comfortable using Google for tech support, or you don’t like editing plain text files to change some settings, then you might not be a candidate for Linux. If you’re interested in doing more, than I suggest that you download a distribution, get some software to run a virtual machine (I like VirtualBox, and play around with the system for a few months. Even better, get one of the Live CDs that allows you to use the system on your computer (your hardware), and make sure you don’t have any strange compatibility issues. I’ve been using Ubuntu on and off on virtual machines for the better part of two years, so I was pretty comfortable with the whole idea.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough to more than make up for my vacation time off. Hope you learned something new.

Thanksgiving Vacation

I’m on vacation until the 30th of November, so all blogging is on hold for a few days.

Ebay and Paypal - Never Again

I recently used Ebay and PayPal to help get rid of some surplus equipment for work. I will not do that again.

Ebay has changed a lot since I used it a few years ago to sell a cable modem that I no longer needed. That transaction was quick, smooth, easy, and I got the cash a few days after the item sold.

This transaction has been a pain in the backside. The fees were exorbitant compared to the service we received. Paypal still has a "temporary hold" on the money "pending positive feedback from the buyer," in spite of the fact that the stuff was delivered a week ago, and we haven't heard anything negative. We also sold everything "as is." I am not interested in doing business like that.

I understand that there were/are issues with some bad sellers, but what happened to eBay's trusty "Caveat emptor?"

Go RSL!

I just heard the news that RSL won the MLS championship. Holy Cow!

Shocked and Awed!

I got word from a little bird that my mother can look at her kids' blogs without a trip to the neighbors' house. Amazing! Congratulations, Mom!

Check out this video

http://roskasinlogan.blogspot.com/2009/11/whats-really-new.html

Scroll down to the bottom of the post. Yours truly was the cameraman, so I guess you can thank me or blame me. It really was good stuff. I wish I’d taped the guy’s speech before they blew it all up.

Piano Recital

James gave an excellent piano recital tonight. It was fun to listen to the 20 (20!) students all play their pieces. The students range from just starting out to “Wow.” I’ll have to download the pictures, and the video so you can hear him.

School Picture Day

Yesterday was school picture day at our school. Being discerning consumers (ie cheapskates), we decided not to buy the school’s package of photos, and opted instead for a little photo session at home before school and work.

It didn’t work.

James was mad the whole time, and I couldn’t get him to smile at all; in fact, I got a couple of pictures where he had tears becaue he wanted to ride the bus, but couldn’t. (We didn’t put them on the bus, and opted instead to drive them to school so we’d have time for a portrait session.) Anna was the complete opposite, and was too smiley. Of the 30 exposures I made, there might be two or three that will be worth printing, and everyone was stressed and upset.

Now I know how my dad felt when he tried to take family pictures. It was awesome. Dad is a professional photographer, and he’d always time things so we’d hit the right light, and he had these fancy Hasselblad cameras that cost more than our cars, but he could hardly ever get a decent picture of his family, because we’d pull faces right as the timer went off.

One shoot in particular stands out in my mind: We drove down to Sundance in Provo Canyon (I think), and Dad got out his camera, set it on the tripod, and set the timer. I would guess he shot two rolls of film. (For you digital natives, film is a piece of chemically treated acetate that reacts to light. Look it up on Wikipedia.) Between Andrew and me, we managed to ruin every single frame he shot, by doing bunny ears, pulling faces, or (no joke) sticking our fingers in each others noses.

Ahh… karma. I guess I got what I deserved.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

Take a look at this video: In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for parents who love me and raised me the best that they knew how. I'm thankful to be a parent, and for three beautiful, healthy, happy, wonderful kids. I'm thankful to have a wonderful, patient, kind, forgiving, beautiful, smart, lovely, virtuous wife. I'm very thankful for a Savior who loved me enough that he would give everything for me and all of us.

Thanks, Dad, for sharing this video.

New computer

I got an HP Mini (netbook) today, and I’m still trying to get wireless drivers for Ubuntu Karmic Koala. It’s a love/hate relationship sometimes… Full review to come later.

Edit (18 Nov 2009): The wireless drivers are now working, sort of. It’s still a little buggy, and I may move back to the prior distribution before I start putting things I like on the mini.

Edit (21 Nov 2009): After talking to my pal and Ubuntu expert, Aaron, it was determined that a roll back to the previous version of Ubuntu would be best for now. It was a good call.

Almost forgot today

I've been busy today trying to get Evolution to talk to the company's
Exchange server. What a pain.

In other news, my mom sold her house today. We're excited for her.

Challenge accepted.

Consider this gauntlet picked up.

Actually, I called Aaron the other day to visit with him and get some assistance with some Ubuntu questions (a quick aside: I have really learned to like Linux, but I still have a hard time with the command line.) Aside from telling me to "read the manual," (The worst tech support since... I guess I get what I pay for.) and then finally giving me a hand with my question, he issued an initial challenge to a 30 day blog-off, so I wasn't surprised when I read it on his blog. Sounds like fun.

And for my first trick...

Here's a fun photo of Alden. We took James's and Alden's pictures today for their official birthday portraits. James didn't smile at all (but his picture is being saved for another day). Alden was cute, though.

 

Alden Eats Spaghetti

 

Our boy is enjoying eating regular foods, as you can plainly see. Mmm... Spaghetti...

James and his new...

...spectacles. Wow!

Happy, Happy Birthday Andrew Dear...

It's my brother's birthday today. I remember that he cried every night, and my mom just ignored him for hours at a time while he cried, and I couldn't sleep. He had a weird appendage where his belly button should be, and he smelled funny. He couldn't talk and play, and I thought, "Why does everybody fawn over him so much?"

It's the anniversary of when he took my mommy away, and I didn't get to be the only kid in the family. I had to share my room, my food, my books, my spot in the car.

I've long since forgiven him for all the trouble he caused (and I hope he's forgiven me for being such a booty selfish piece of succotash brother). He's turned out to be one of the best brothers a person could ask for, and I'm glad he's mine. He is thoughtful and kind. He lets me tag along sometimes when he goes golfing. He's been there for me when I needed help.

He's a great guy. I could never hope to even get to hang out with such a cool guy as Andrew if we weren't related. Happy birthday, not-so-little brother! I hope it's been a good one, and I hope we get to enjoy many, many more.

Good Morning Alden

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

Alden at The Family Cabin?

Now before you all get your hopes up, we didn't actually buy a cabin. I took this picture at our house in Marbleton. We've spent enough time here on weekends over the past couple of months that it almost could be a cabin, though.

We hope that will change today. We got a deposit check in the mail yesterday, and we're supposed to sign paperwork on the house today for new renters.

We'll let you know what happens.

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

Blogging Difficulty

Well, I blew the challenge. There were just a lot of different things going on last week, and blogging wasn't really a priority. C'est le vie.

Here's a quick story for you: a while ago Anna and I got into a funny argument about who was dirtier. It was a silly argument and we having fun. I told her that she hadn't washed her feet for a week, so she was dirtier. She then said, "No, Daddy. You're eyes are dirtier than mine." I gave her a perplexed look, and said, "How can that be? I just got out of the shower?" She smiled smartly and then said, "Blue is water..."

She paused slightly; I waited for the rest.

"...and green is slime!"

We didn't stop laughing about that one for quite a while.

Project Management Tools

If you're every in need of boning up on project management concepts, check out Mindtools . They've got a lot of good information available.

Anna found some stuff in the closet today.

I think she would make an excellent pioneer.

=======================
Sent from my mobile phone.

We went camping at home

And anna jumped on the trampoline.

=======================
Sent from my mobile phone.

Ta-da!

 

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

Topic 16: Auditing

My company is currently undergoing its 401(k) Audit. I'm serving as the liaison between the auditors and the payroll department; I like to say I'm the peace mediator between the factions. :)

It's not really that bad. It's been kind of fun to work on the audit from the other side of the fence, because I know exactly where the auditors are coming from. Sometimes I miss public accounting, but most days, I'm just glad to be where I am. Do I ever regret that I left public accounting? Some days I definitely feel pangs of regret or guilt for having given it up, but then I think about going back, and I just have no desire to do it.

That's all for today. I'm not winning a Pulitzer today. That's for sure.

Topic 15: New technology

When I decided to write about new technology, the first thing I thought is that I would sound like an old geezer who tells anyone who would listen, "In my day we walked to school, and wore yellow onions on our belt (on account of the war you couldn't get white ones), and took the ferry to Shelbyville. It only cost a nickel, which in those days had a picture of a bee on it. Give me five bees for a quarter we'd say..."

New technology, in general, is "a good thing." I am, however, disinclined to try out a lot of the new stuff, because it just seems like a waste of time. Facebook is an example of something that can be valuable, but for too many persons, is a waste of time. I like being able to reconnect with friends who were lost to me, and see what they are up to. I don't care to see all the silly games that they play. It's nice in thought to send me a virtual fruit, or a virtual hug, or a virtual teddy bear, or whatever, but what I'd rather have is a real message that tells me how you're doing, and what's happening in your life, and if you need a favor. My good friend Ethan Stubbs and I used it to to reconnect in (I know this will sound strange to some facebookies) the real world.

We hadn't seen each other in years (maybe 10), but we reconnected on Facebook and then met for dinner and real conversation. That is what makes Facebook valuable. It's not mafia wars, or farmville, or poker, or anything else. It's about knowing that you are connected to your friends, not just virtually, but in reality.

What are your thoughts on technology? Has Facebook lost its relevance for you?

James is mad that I took his picture

Yeah. Awesome.

Aaron J. Clark

=======================
Sent from my mobile phone.

Here's a picture of Anna finally (finally!) eating her dinner.

Aaron J. Clark

=======================
Sent from my mobile phone.

Topic 12: I missed yesterday's post

I was working on a talk and lesson for church today, and I needed to get those taken care of, in addition to my normal household duties.

Both the talk and the lesson went well, I think. My lesson was on "Be of Good Cheer", and my talk was on "Protecting the Family in the Latter Days." The major takeaways were that we make a choice about whether or not we are happy, and that the simple things like scripture study, prayer, and family home evening protect And strengthen the family.

The kids are watching Mulan, which we only have on the computer. That means that I’m typing on a slideout keyboard on my phone. It’s kind of a pain to type, so I’m signing off.

Topic 11: Proud vs Prideful

This isn't a very long post, but I would like hear your thoughts: What is the difference between "proud" and "prideful?" I have some thoughts, but I'm curious to hear what you have to say. Please leave a comment.

Topic 10: James

And here are a couple of photos of James when he received his bobcat award. What a cool kid. We sure love him.

Topic 9: Anna

Here are some pictures of Anna that I've been meaning to post. These were pre-haircut pictures, so you know I've held on to these for a while.

Topic 8: Alden

I've been meaning to post a couple of pictures of Alden that I took a couple of weeks ago, but I just haven't gotten around to it. These are some of the cutest faces he's pulled for the camera.

Topic 7: Stranger Than Fiction

Tonight we watched "Stranger Than Fiction." If you haven't seen the movie, go to the library and borrow it. It's a total hoot. I won't give away the story, but I can tell you that I can relate to the main character, Harold Crick, on levels that most other people can't.

One line in particular: One character asks Harold, "What's your favorite word?" His response, "Integer." So true.

Topic 6: My Country ’Tis of Thee

Today one of our speakers in church was asked to talk about patriots and the founding fathers. The things that I heard (I was in the foyer with Alden for a good portion of the meeting) were, while not particularly eloquent, very heartfelt. I feel badly that I don't even know who the speaker was to give him credit for his thoughts.

He talked about true patriotism being a quiet, humble, feeling of respect and love for one's country; he noted that it is not boastful or superior or proud. It isn't chest beating jingoism (my words, not his), but it is something that every citizen can and probably ought to feel.

Our speaker then discussed some of the important documents in our nations history, like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I don't know about other religions, but in our's, we believe that these documents, especially the Constitution, were inspired by God. (With regards to the various compromises [eg, Three-fifths Compromise], we believe that God gives men agency, or the power to choose, and he knew that it couldn't have been ratified without them. That's my take on it anyway. Comments are open for thoughtful discussion.)

A few years ago, I read a book entitled "Miracle at Philidelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention" at the behest of one of my professors. The author asserts that it was nothing short of a miracle that the different states were able to draft such a momentous document, convince the delegates to throw out the less than perfect Articles of Confederation, and get the Constitution ratified by the states. As I read the account, as taken from notes of persons attending the convention, I found that I had to agree. There were some vehement battles, and some tough things that those delegates had to do to get everything ready and working. It was, indeed, a miracle.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a modern-day Apostle and former attorney and Utah Supreme Court Justice, wrote a stirring article with his thoughts on the Constitution. I recommend that you read it.

We live in a marvelous country. It was founded on principles of righteousness, by far-sighted and strong individuals. Our Constitution continues to serve as a model for the rest of the world, and I hope it will continue to do so.

Our fathers’ God, to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King!

Topic 5: Gone Fishing

We've decided to go fishing today. I look forward to working with Anna so that she can catch her first fish by herself. We'll probably be fishing in the Green River.

Other than that, I don't have much to report.

Perhaps tomorrow I can share some good news from the trip.

---

Small update: We didn't catch anything, but we had a lot of fun trying.

Topic 4: Money

So, let's talk about money. I never understood money while I was growing up. It was made to be spent, and I knew how to spend. I remember one summer when I worked at least 40 hours every week, went fishing every saturday, ate out frequently, and at the end of the summer, I didn't have a penny to my name. So, I had to keep working during the school year so I could buy the stuff that I wanted—music, clothes, school stuff, dates, and so forth. I just didn't understand the way it flowed. I was just trying to have some fun, but as soon as the money dried up, so did the fun.

And it isn't as if the act of getting older made me any smarter. Julie and I were blessed with an opportunity after we were married to live in an apartment for $200 a month. Good luck finding anything like that. But did we save? Were we wise? Probably not. I'm not sure we saved anything significant during that time. We did dumb things like refinance a car to pay for repairs that cost more than the car was actually worth.

Part of the reason I decided to study accounting and finance is so that I could learn more about how to manage my own money. But the one person who taught me more about money than anybody else was Jesus. Five years of accounting and finance, an advanced degree, a CPA license, and all I really needed to know, I found in the scriptures. Here's one example of a principle that I learned about:

Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).

Mammon can be defined as riches, avarice and worldly gain. We cannot serve God and riches. What does this mean? It means that if you are a servant of money, you can't fully serve God. Who are the servants of mammon? They are the people who haven't yet learned to master their money. You will either be master of money, or you will be a slave to it. If you are a slave to your money (or your boat, or your house, or your snowmachines, or whatever), you can't always fully serve God.

I can't tell you how many times I met a person who couldn't find time to attend church, or participate in a service project, or play with his kids because he "had to go to work." And, more often than not, this same person was paying several hundred dollars a month to the satellite/cable company, who was driving a leased car, who wore the latest fashions... you get the picture. Who was in charge of that persons life? Right. Mammon. It's a choice you make—you cannot serve God and mammon.

On the other hand, I know several persons who are not what most persons consider fiscally successful: they don't drive the latest car, they don't wear the coolest jeans, they don't live in the nicest house, but they seem to have time to help their neighbors, give generously to charity, share what they have, and are content with the hand that's been dealt them. They have enough.

The term "enough" was a key in my understanding of money. For most of my life, I wanted "more" (and I admit, there are still times when I find myself wanting "more"), but when your goal is "more" you can never have "enough." It's such a powerful concept to find the point where you have "enough."

When you have enough, you can create that cushion so that when the company that convinced you to move into the wilderness with their flashy stock options and promises of bonuses fires you, you can just roll with the punches. Maybe you'll take the next two weeks to appreciate your new baby, and spend time with your family, and get set for the job hunt that's coming. That's what I did.

When you have enough, you can put something away for a rainy day, or sock it away in your kid's mission fund. Or, you can do things like send some extra cash to your friends when the Spirit prompts you that they're having trouble. Or drop off some diapers and a couple gallons of milk for the people who are having troubles. That's what other people did for us.

So, dear reader… which will you choose? Will you be a slave to money and mammon? Or will you choose to be a master of money and a servant of God? I hope you'll choose the latter.

Topic 3: It’s finally summer in Lyman

July 16th will go down in my personal record books as the latest start of summer that I can remember. (Except of course for Chile, where they don’t start summer until Christmas time, but that’s another topic for another day.)

I'm not complaining, though. Every day has been in the oh&endash;so&endash;pleasant 70s and 80s for the past couple of weeks, and it’s felt just like spring. Of course, my allergies didn’t appear until mid&endash;June, so I knew that summer would be late. But it looks like it’s finally upon us.

Things that help you know for sure that the summer in Wyoming is here:

1. The kids have been sleeping outside on their new trampoline for the past couple of nights.
2. We all had a craving for grilled hamburgers.
3. I grilled hamburgers.
4. The sun no longer sets.
5. The Utah Navy stops in Mountain View to get gas on their way to Flaming Gorge.
6. The rest of the world has been complaining about the heat for at least 60 days.

That's all for tonight. Hope you have a lovely evening.

Topic 2: Health Care in America

Nothing like starting our challenge with a little controversy, is there?

One of the Wyoming senators is Dr. John Barasso, who, with his fellow senator and physician, Dr. Tom Coburn, have new webcast to discuss health care in America. As a citizen of Wyoming, and a dutiful patriot, I have sent my senators letters regarding topics about which I care, and as a result I ended up on Senator Barraso’s email list. (A quick aside: I wrote letters to the congressional delegation from Utah occasionally while we lived there, and never heard from them again. Oh well.)

Anyway, Senator Barasso emailed and asked the citizens of Wyoming to pose questions about health care in the US that they could feature on their show. This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart (pun intended), and so I responded with this question:

Could you please address in your broadcast how the Congress could create a viable health care solution that would permit the market, rather than the government, to cover the uninsured and/or reign in health care costs, without additional government spending?

What's a country to do? Everything that I have heard says that the uninsured cost the taxpayer a significant amount of money. On the other hand, our government already spends more than they bring in.

So, dear reader, does such a solution exist? If so, what is it? If not, why not? Thoughtful answers graciously accepted in the comments, or, if you have relevant links to share, please post them.

P.S. I got an email from the senators this afternoon that my question would be featured on an upcoming broadcast.

Topic 1: Something I've accomplished in the last six months

I’m pleased to say that for the past six months since we moved to Lyman, I’ve either walked or ridden my back to and from work on all but a handful of days. I’ve certainly seen some benefits: my clothes are starting to fit a bit looser than they used to.

I'd probably lose a bit more weight it I was traveling more than four or five blocks...

Accepting the challenge

Even though Aaron only said he was thinking about issuing a challenge, I’ve decided to accept. Why not?

So, I’ll try and post something on some topic during the next 30 days. We’ll see what happens.

Writer’s block?

It seems to me that every time I’ve sat down at the computer with a few minutes to write something for the blog, that I just don’t have anything to say. Like today.

Woke up… went to church/work… came home… unpacked some boxes or cleaned up my room or helped fold laundry… nothing exciting or different or special. I guess I’m just having a few of those easy going, mellow weeks. Sorry I don’t have anything exciting to report.

Anybody else ever feel that way?

It just occurred to me that I’ve probably been too busy working on the mundane, that I haven’t had time to look for the silly or amazing. Hmmm...

Two guys are floating in a hot air baloon...

... somwhere over San Francisco, when the fog comes in.

One turns to the other and asks, "How are we going to get out of this predicament?"

The other responds, "We'll just hang out for a while, and when the fog lifts, we'll find someone who can tell us where we're at."

Sure enough, about 20 minutes later, the fog lifts, and they spot someone on the ground. They float down and one of them shouts to the man on the ground, "Hey! Buddy! Where are we?"

The guy on the ground shouts back, "You're in a hot-air balloon!"

Disgustedly, one of the guys says to the other, "He must be an accountant."

His friend looks bewildered and says, "Why's that?" to which the first responds, "Well, the information was accurate and correct, but it wasn't worth crap."

Anna’s New Profession

Last Saturday, Anna decided what she wanted to be when she grew up. I was at the grocery store when she decided that, so part of this story is hearsay, and you’ll have to ask Julie about its validity.

She elected to become a hairdresser, and Julie gave her blessing. She cut the hair of one of her stuffed animals, and then Alden’s hair (with Julie’s help), and then as an act of true devotion to the art, she decided to cut her own hair. Julie says that she warned her that she might end up with a boy haircut, but that Anna was OK with that, and went in the bathroom with a pair of scissors and a comb, and started hacking.

When I got home from the store, Anna was locked in the bathroom, and wouldn’t let anybody look at her. And with good reason, I suppose. She eventually let me in after I promised not to laugh, and that was one of the hardest promises I’ve ever had to keep. I’ve never seen anybody whose hair was cut by a lawnmower, but I can only imagine that a lawnmower would have done a better job.

I offered to help her fix her hair, and she accepted, and since I had only slightly more training than Anna, we spent the next 45 minutes trimming and fixing and layering. It was definitely not the best haircut ever, but we did manage to disguise a lot of the damage; Anna even said that she liked it when we were done.

---

As Julie and I talked about that experience last week, we both admitted our surprise that it took her a little more than six years to finally cut her own hair. Several of our friends have told us stories about their little girls getting hold of the scissors at age three or four, and cutting off a pigtail, or some other strange thing. (Maybe that was Julie and her sisters….) In a way, I’m glad she decided to wait, because now she’ll be able to remember the experience; if she had done this when she was two, she’d only have the pictures.

Kids and Cleanliness

Does the state of one’s home really dictate whether kids should play together? Do moms truly only let their kids play with kids whose houses are clean and pristine?

Here’s some background: While we were driving home from church, James asked if he could invite a friend over to play today. I was getting ready to respond that, yes, he could, when Julie said that, no, he could not. I asked he why that was, and she said something about “girlie reasons,” and that I wouldn’t understand. Hmm…

When we got home, the kids went inside, and I tried (stupidly or ignorantly or both) to understand a little bit about what was going on. Julie explained to me that because our house is in a state of disarray, that a friend might be able to come and play today, but that he wouldn’t be permitted to come back if the mom heard about how “dirty” and “icky” the house was. She cited to me an example of a girl who lived in the same neighborhood as a niece who came to play twice, but never returned, supposedly because the house was chaotic.

I don’t understand. I used to play with friends whose houses were at least 20 times messier and 50 times smellier than our house is right now, and some of them were my best friends. I’m certain that my mom knew how these people lived, because they were all fairly good friends.

So, dear readers, please offer your advice to this Clark in Wyoming. Have you, either as a mother or a kid or something in between, ever stopped playing with a friend or avoided having your friend go over to a friend’s house because it was dirty? Comments are open.

Home buying

Just a little update from the Clarks in Wyoming. We're buying a home.

We've told some of you about it, but it's pretty much official. Unless there is some really crazy issue, we'll be getting a home here in Lyman. We loved our year-and-a-half in Big Piney, and we miss everyone terribly, but it's become pretty apparent that we're not going back there anytime soon.

You can look at the listing to see some pictures.

I'm mostly excited to say that we'll be cutting our monthly housing payment by nearly 30%. That's a relief.

The things some kids will do to impress the ladies

     

Bald is beautiful, right?

Simple Truths

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
• You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
• You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
• You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
• And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

Author: William J. H. Boetcker. Via they.mislead.us.

Small-town Wyoming hits the big time

Watch CBS Videos Online

This is pretty cool. The lady who runs this place, Cheryl, used to cater for EnerCrest, so I can vouch for her cooking. Her sister, Tanya (who is also featured in the video), was EnerCrest’s accounts receivable specialist, and our next door neighbor in Marbleton. I’m looking forward to visiting.

P.S. There is a 32 second ad before the video starts.

How cool is this?

The family has gone to SLC for spring break, and I have to work. So, I decided to clean up the 23 gigs of photos on the hard drive, and start deciding which were really worth keeping. I think this is definitely a keeper.

From left to right: Grandpa, Carl Clark; Me, Aaron Clark; Great-grandpa, Wilford Clark; Dad, Jed Clark.

We took a four generation picture like this with James, me, Dad, and Grandpa when James was about this age, but I haven’t seen it for quite a while. If you have any knowledge of its whereabouts, please let me know.

Ft. Bridger, Wyoming

We went down to Ft. Bridger today for an Easter Egg Hunt. It didn't go so well. We missed the opening horn by about two minutes, and as a result, we didn't end up with any eggs. Bummer.

We got over that pretty quickly, though, and decided to go for a walk around the old Fort. It's a fascinating place, with a lot of history. It's name comes from the Jim Bridger, a trapper and trader who helped explore much of the west, and, if memory serves, helped discover South Pass. That discovery helped enable the significant migration of thousands of persons throughout the west. Other than that, I don't know much about the Fort. Sorry.

I ended up shooting a few pictures, and I thought this one was kind of interesting:

 

It's not much to look at on its own, but after a little post processing, I thought it was kind of fun.

 

Weather today

We may be down later than planned.

AC

=======================
Sent from my mobile phone.

Ummm... No I'm not

Missing, that is. I’m right here where I’ve always been, readily accessible by both phone and email. It Wyoming! Not outer mongolia!

James’s Baptism

 

Some of you probably haven’t seen this yet.

Anna, Age 6

 

It’s so hard for me to believe that she’s actually six years old.

Some Photos for you

That’s his name...

 

We went to look at houses yesterday to get ideas for what we’d like to do in our next house. One of the houses had a pretty good name, wouldn’t you agree?

25 Random Things

As I feel like the absolutely last person to post something along these lines, here we go:

1. I like music. A lot. I really learned to appreciate good music while I was on my mission, and there wasn’t any. All we heard, all day, especially during the summer was Cumbia. To which I say, “Meh.”
2. I don’t play much music anymore. I used to could plunk out some tunes on the piano when I was a practicer, but I haven’t practiced regularly for years.
3. My brother and I do not agree on how he broke his leg. He thinks it was on purpose. I know it was an accident. Methinks we’ll have to wait to get the real story in Heaven.
4. You know those neat little playlists that people have on their blogs? I really can’t stand them. When I look at blogs, it’s usually after the kids go to sleep, and they always come on really loud.
5. I speak Spanish, but not as well I did 10 years ago.
6. I want to learn to speak Italian, Portuguese, and French.
7. One of my favorite emails is the Word of the Day from Merriam-Webster. I get one every day. The coolest word I’ve learned this week is “slumgullion.”
8. I think I inherited an interest in language from my father, who speaks enough foreign languages that when he was a bus driver, the kids thought he was ex-CIA.
9. I really love to cook, but only if the knives are sharp, and the ingredients are quality. Dull knives and bad ingredients are the worst.
10. I also really love to bake. Cookies and pies are my favorite, but I enjoy making bread, too.
11. We lived with my in-laws for over a year while we were saving for a house.
12. Even though I grew up in Utah, I now consider myself a Wyomingite.
13. I may have read every book that John Steinbeck wrote. My favorite is East of Eden.
14. I have had open heart surgery twice, and anticipate another one sometime in the next 10-15 years.
15. One of the hobbies I list on my résumé is computer programming.
16. Apart from my wife and kids, I consider my brother and sister my best friends.
17. I passed all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination on my first try, a feat which testifies that there is indeed a Benevolent God, because I couldn’t have done it without Him.
18. My favorite food is spaghetti.
19. My least favorite food is eggs. I like scrambled eggs and things that have eggs in them, but I don’t care for fried, over-easy, hard boiled, poached, or any other variation of cooked eggs alone.
20. I have three kids, who I adore.
21. I have three kids, who drive me crazy sometimes, too.
22. My siblings and I all have a father-in-law named David.
23. I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I don’t subscribe to the ideals or beliefs of either party. I do, however, usually vote based on economic principles, and for the most part, that means I side with Republicans.
24. We don’t have television in our home, and we don’t miss it. We have a television, and we watch videos, but we don’t have cable or satellite or over the air signals.
25. Even though I made it into the school spelling bee twice in a row when I was in elementary school, both years I messed up on my first word because I went too fast. Bummer.

Even when he’s crying, we still think he’s cute

 

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Aaron has been walking to work since we moved to Lyman, we only live about 4 blocks away but the weather has been really cold and windy, not Big Piney cold, but definitely cold! I’ve been proud of him, Andrew’s heart attack, (Andrew is Aaron’s younger brother,) has been a real wake up call that Aaron is taking seriously. Well on Tuesday Redi gave Aaron a company truck to drive, a big, new, four door, massive truck, needles to say Aaron hasn’t walked to work since. I asked Aaron why an accountant needs a work truck, he’s not really sure but he thinks they felt bad that he was walking to work in the cold. Aaron is in Elko, Nevada today and tomorrow, last week he was in Rifle, Colorado. Last night James cut his hand with a pocket knife, no stitches were needed thank goodness, and today Alden got locked into the car. A big thank you to the Lyman Police force! If it’s not one thing it’s another! Cousin Shelby is up visiting this week helping me get ready for the baptism/blessing on Saturday and James has his first pack meeting tonight. Here are a few pictures. The quilt is one that the Bear group made for their leader who just had a baby boy. On it they wrote advice on raising a boy. . . “Don’t let him eat his nails.” “Make sure he does his home work.” “Don’t let him play video games.” “Don’t let him puke.” I thought it was a cleaver idea. I should ask James what advice he would give on how to raise a boy. As I was tucking the kids into bed Anna gave some advice on a safety hazard, (one of the requirements that we have been working on for James’s Wolf badge.) She said, “Mom, I found another safety hazard, locking babies in a car!”

Aaron lost his job at Enercrest just before Thanksgiving. We looked into staying in Big Piney, but Big Piney is such a small area there just wasn’t any thing available for a business CPA. Just before Christmas Aaron accepted a job in Lyman, WY, (Lyman is two hours south of Big Piney.) Aaron now works for Redi Services as a Project Specialist Accountant. Everything has just fallen into place, we’ve found a place to rent in Lyman and we were able to rent out our home in Big Piney. We moved over Christmas break. Moving was a bit crazy, the Holidays and snow didn't help much. On Tuesday, Dec. 30th, I knew that Aaron and I wouldn't be able to get everything done, we needed help! I made one call Tuesday morning to Mary, the Laurel class President, and asked her if she could invite any of the Young Women who weren't busy to come and help at 11:00 a.m. When we arrived in Big Piney there were 8 people there to help! We finished in three hours and Wanda filled her horse trailer and brought the rest of our stuff to Lyman! I can’t forget to thank the people who were going to help us Friday after Christmas but we got snowed out. And then all the people who changed their plans and came up on Saturday to help load the U-haul and move all of the heavy items. It is strange how things work, I don't know why we were supposed to move to Big Piney for 18 months, but I do not regret that we did. We meet so many wonderful people that it was worth it! Thank you to our family and friends for babysitting, for your food, your strong backs, your horse trailers, your time, your prayers, your love and friendship. It has been amazing to see how God works thru others to bless our lives! James will be baptized at 11 a.m. on January 31st. Alden will be blessed following the baptismal service. You are all invited! Please RSVP so that we know how much food to make. Our new phone number is (307)747-1808. Our e-mail is theclarkfam@gmail.com. Love, The Clarks