Catching Up

Well, I guess I need to fill everyone in our the Clark Family’s escapades for the past couple of days weeks months. The last few months have been nothing if not eventful.

On the anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride, I celebrated another birthday. On the anniversary of Lexington and Concorde I participated in a 5K run with Andrew and Emily. While none of us did very well (I came in third... from last. Incidentally, we were all outrun by an amputee.), we sure had a good time thinking about doing well. Emily reminded me the other day of some of the silly things we did.

I was laughing with Aaron and Andrew before the race that we should be an episode of reality television or that we should have been part of a documentary film. I imagined the film of Andrew and I training in Logan versus the film of Aaron in WY. Then the morning of, the anxiety and anticipation, our amature outfits, the car ride over pumping up to a fast paced song, and then us getting out of the car to a victorious soundtrack. Slow motion, ready for the course that lies ahead. I told the boys about that and we had a good laugh. Andrew added the camera shot of Aaron puking in the bushes 10 meters in. (Which by the way did not happen.) Aaron finished right behind Andrew and I. It was a good experience and I’d like to try it again. reprinted without permission

We really had a fun weekend, and we really appreciate Andrew and Kristi’s and Drew and Emily’s hospitality and giving. They let us hang out with them for a couple of days, and we just had a really great time.

 

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On the work front, we celebrated Administrative Professionals’ day on the 23rd of April, and I was surprised to receive a gift from my boss. I still remember when it was called “Secretaries’ Day,” so I thought it was still sort of a chance to say thanks to your Administrative Assistant. Well, I do work in the administration department, and you can hardly get much more professional than CPA, so I suppose it’s fine. Just surprising.

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The Saturday after the big run, we (the Wyoming Clarks) decided to meander up to Middle Piney lake to see if the ice had melted. We took off in the late afternoon, and enjoyed the ride immensely. The roads were clear, the trees were lovely and green (they are pine trees after all), but When we got to the National Forest, the road up to Middle Piney hadn’t been plowed. Most of the snow had melted, but there was still a good 4-6 inches on the road. Julie turned to me and said, “If my dad were here, he’d try it.” Well, after having the gauntlet thrown down like that, I threw the truck into 4WD, and we headed up the road. We had scarcely gone 40 feet, when I knew that the snow was still too deep for us. I started to turn around, but about 4 inches from the unsnowy dirt, we weren’t moving. It felt like a scene out of some Patrick McManus short story.

Well, I threw the truck into 4WL, thinking that we just needed a little extra power to get us up and over. No such luck. Rear-wheel differential lock didn’t do any good either. Down in the valley at 7,000 feet, the day had been pretty pleasant, but up in the mountains at 7,500 feet or so, it was right cold. Fortunately, we all had coats and jackets, so we weren’t worried about that. We said a prayer to ask for help, and then got out and started working. We shoved rocks and dirt under the tires, but that didn’t help. We stuck the floormats under the tires, but that didn’t help. We tried jacking the truck up to get rocks and mats directly under the tires, but the jack just sank into the snow and mud. We put James in the drivers seat so Julie and I could push together, but we couldn’t budge the truck. We worked at it for the better part of an hour. Then, as I was sitting in the truck wondering how the kids would handle spending the night in the truck, the Spirit brought a little something to my remembrance.

I heard a story once on NPR about a group that was touring in Iceland, and once they got off road, in order to maintain better traction through streams and snow, they let most of the air out of their tires. So, I got out, dropped the pressure in the tires by about 15 psi. Julie shoved the floormats under the tires again, and we said a quick prayer. Julie drove, and I pushed, and that did it. We were out! I can’t tell you the relief we felt when we got onto a patch of snow free ground. It was great. We said a prayer of gratitude, and headed home.

 

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Last weekend, the kids and I headed back down to Logan to be a part of Andrew’s graduation, and to celebrate Cuatro de Mayo with Emily and Drew. We had a great time with the piñata, and it’s exciting to me that the Clark siblings have all earned college degrees. Now I’ve got to figure out how to help Julie finish her Bachelor’s degree. We’ll get there soon enough. We’ve got other important things to do right now.

So, that’s the way things are going here in Marbleton. Thanks for your patience with us. We promise we’ll write more often. Don’t worry a bit.

Quick update

Some of you had commented about wishing we would update more often. I wish I were updating more often, too.

We do have a story to tell about getting stuck, but that will have to wait for the weekend.

Anyway, we’re here, we’re alive, we’re having fun, enjoying the beautiful spring weather, and we love (or at least like) all or most of you.

Hello again from your long lost friend, brother, son, father, and so forth

Just so you know, I am still here. I’ve just been busy doing things that have gotten in the way of my blogging.

My auditors issued the final audit last week, so they’re out of my hair for another six months or so. Hooray! It’s a wonderful feeling to know that the audit is finished this year, and that we’ve got several months of audit-free bliss to enjoy now. It is, in some ways, easier to be on this side of the table.

Tanya, our accounts receivable specialist decided to go work for her sister’s new diner. So, two weeks ago, I got trained by her so I could train a replacement; last week I was the replacement; this week I’m training her replacement. I’m glad that we were able to find someone quickly, because there was no way I was going to keep up with everything that was piling up in my inbox.

This weekend, I’m participating in some 5K run in Logan. You’ll notice I didn’t say running. I haven’t run more than a mile for several years, and I have chosen to use my time for other things.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know we are still here.

Disneyland Photos and Such

Well, I’m certain that you’re all dying to hear about our excursion to the happiest place on earth. I promised that I would tell you a little bit about it, and post some pictures to go with it. Here you go.

This was our hotel room. The kids thought it was fun, but the adults found things a bit uncomfortable. What are you going to do?

This, of course, was James, feeling less than comfortable about riding a ride that includes a 50 drop into a big puddle of water. It turned out to be his most favorite ride, and he asked to ride it at least every day. We didn’t ride every day, but we did ride it a few times.

Everybody else was pretty excited to take the dive on splash mountain.

We met quite a few pirates on our trip to Tom Sawyer’s Island/The Pirate Lair.

James and Anna found the treasure. Too bad it wasn’t real, or I would have let them pay for the vacation.

The Beast wonders where he dropped that darn contact lens.

Some of Pinocchio’s sisters. They haven’t yet met the blue fairy.

Here’s Rafiki from the Lion King. He’s helping the Beast find his contact lens.

I have to admit, sometimes I felt like a paprazzo taking pictures of the characters in the parade. The park was pretty busy, so getting a photo opp with the characters was tougher than I remembered.

Here the kids are enjoying everyone’s favorite Disney pastime. Actually, we found a way to get around the long lines, and we spent very little time standing in line. Thank you RideMax!

There was so much brotherly love to go around, even the kids found time for an affectionate moment.

Here I am, totally excited to be standing in The Longest Line in the Park®.

The aforementioned line was to get onto the Finding Nemo Submarines. Even with our early entry opportunity (we got in an hour before most everyone else), we still ended up waiting 40 minutes for this one. I don’t feel too bad, though. Most of the time we were there, there were 90-120 minute lines. Yikes!

Julie got scared on the rocket ride. James and Anna had that thing flying up as high as it could go. "Thank you for riding the rockets, where every trip is a round trip." I do enjoy the awful jokes that the cast members make. The Jungle Cruise is the best (or the worst, depending on how you look at it).

Our favorite performers, hands down, are Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. These guys are hilarious. They are definitely not in any of the brochures for Disney, but their show is one of the best.

Additional paparazzi-style photos of Goofy.

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is kind of the same. Can you guess which one is not like the other? If you guessed Anna, you're probably right. That's my mom jab for Andrew. Seriously, though, we're glad she was there. It was a lot of fun.

We had a wonderful trip, full of laughs and excitement. Maybe next time, we'll even get James to ride a roller coaster with Anna and me. Maybe.

Anna and James

Anna and James

Brenda hadn't seen these yet, I think I forgot to post them.

A moment to breathe

I’m currently waiting for my Excel to run the company’s financial statements, so I thought I’d take a quick breather to let people know that I’m still here. I’m closing up our audit, closing out the month of February, teaching Seminary (Isaiah specifically), and getting ready for vacation. I’m excited to take a break and relax with the family for a week. Look for some vacation photos next week.

Things we find when we work on other people’s computers.

This book ranks right up there with "Everybody Poops."

 

James’s Wacky Hair Day

Today was wacky hair day at Big Piney Elementary. This was James’s hairdo; he ended up being too embarrassed to go through with it, but we had fun with it anyway.

Baby James

This is my latest animoto production

The Hand of God and the Kindness of Strangers

Yesterday was one of those days.

To start off, we got an email from Dad who told a story about his day in Mosul:

Near the air terminal, and near the hospital, and near the P.X. is a small, gravel lot that’s shaded by huge weeping willow trees—a quiet, peaceful place to park the bus and read, so I turned my bus in that direction and went there to wait. I sat and read a copy of the Stars and Stripes from the previous day, then, with a growing urge, I left the bus to walk 20 yards to the nearest Porta-John. Coming back from the P.J. I thought, “I need to get a Valentine in the mail to Candace this afternoon.” I changed my course and walked a half block to the P.X.

While I stood perusing the four Valentine choices, there was a thunderous explosion that rocked the building and raised an audible “Ohhhh” from everyone inside the P.X. As I stood in line to pay for my card, we could all hear the sirens rushing by.

I paid for Candace’s Valentine and stepped outside into the middle of unbelieveable chaos. There were Humvees with flashing red and blue lights, there were fire trucks, and there were armored vehicles from the E.O.D.T. (Explosive Ordnance Demolition Team). People were gathering from all around in the street and thick, black smoke roiled from the source. As I continued to walk up the street I kept wondering how I would ever get my bus through this maze of hubbub to go back and pick up the Major.

Arriving at the corner, I was struck dumb by the sight. The entire front of my now smoldering bus was gone! I stood and stared in total disbelief. When I finally recovered enough to wobble to the M.P. who was shouting orders at everyone, I calmly said, “I’m the driver. This is my bus.”

“Was there anyone else in there?” I could see the sudden expression of panic and hopeful anticipation flash in his eyes.

“No, sir. Just me.”

“Thank God!” Then, turning away, he shouted, “It’s all good! No casualties!”

I found a concrete barrier to sit down on. Behind the bus, sitting on the wooden steps that led into their shack, were two Philipino men, both faces buried in their hands as they considered how close they had been to the deadly force. I unclipped my radio from my belt and called my foreman. “My bus has just been mortared. I’ve got firefighters, E.O.D., and Force Protection all over the place. I’m not going to be driving this bus back.”

For the next hour I filled out reports and gave my statement to half a dozen people, and as they finally began to drive away I was able to take a closer look at the damage that a five-inch, tube-launched bomb can do.

The shell entered at the base of the windshield in the center. The dashboard was gone, the engine and transmission were gone, the steering wheel was bent until it leaned against the driver’s door, and the two front seats were charred and blown backward about two feet. Miraculously, my backpack that had been sitting on the engine box was lying nearly intact about halfway back in the aisle. My sunglasses that had been laid on the backpack were embedded in the steel ceiling of the bus. There were no windows left, and the broken glass that had been blown everywhere was black—not with soot, but the glass itself had darkened to an inky black.

When I picked up my backpack, there were two small holes in the bottom. I opened the pack and found that my scriptures, my camera, and my CD’s [sic] were untouched! I took out the camera, wiped the dust off, and took a few photos of what was left of the giant puffed wheat kernel that had been my bus.

My foreman quietly put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Somebody’s looking out for you.” I already knew it. I had already humbly expressed my gratitude to a loving Father in Heaven for His protecting care. My pillow throughout the night was soaked as I continued to give my thanks.

The hand of God played a part in keeping Dad safe yesterday. Needless to say, I was kind of shaken when I read this.

But it doesn’t end there.

At about noon yesterday, I was sitting at work, and I started to feel some serious aches and chills. I went home for lunch and soaked in a hot bath to help get rid of some of the aches. After the bath, I felt a lot better, so I returned to work, because our auditors are in town, and I’ve been working with them to make sure that they got all the stuff that they needed. Well, around 4:00, the aches and the chills started coming back, until there was a period of 20 minutes when I just couldn’t stop shivering. I told Kristi that I was heading home, went out to the 4Runner, and started driving home.

As I drove, I could see the wind gusting across the highway, blowing snow across the ground like fog. I didn’t think anything of it because that’s pretty normal here, until I got hit by a gust that threw the truck into a fishtail. Fortunately, I was calm enough to remember to steer with the skid instead of against it, and after a couple of fishtails, I regained some control, but unfortunately, not enough, and I slid off the highway into a very deep drift of snow.

I threw the truck into 4-wheel drive low, and tried to get out of the snow, but it was too deep. Another truck pulled over to the side of the road, and a young guy named Steven (he wouldn’t give me his last name) pulled out a couple of tow chains, and quickly pulled me out. How grateful I am for kind strangers who recognize trouble and do what they can to help. After he pulled me out, I shook his hand and thanked him, and he told me how “lucky” I had been to pull out of the skid. When he saw me down the road, he said that my truck had nearly turned sideways, and he thought for sure that I was going to roll the truck. The Lord was watching over the Clarks yesterday.

After I got home, Julie called two wonderful men, who dropped what they were doing to come and serve me by administering to me. They blessed me that I would quickly heal, and that I would be able to return to my duties very soon. Within an hour of the blessing, I had regained an appetite, and the chills that had caused me to shiver for most of the afternoon alleviated, and I was able to stand up without dizzyness. A little later, my fever had subsided, and I was able to sleep soundly last night.

I’m so grateful to have the protective hand of a Loving Heavenly Father in my life. Even though I hardly deserve any of His blessings, He sees fit to keep and watch over me and mine.

A Snowy Sunday in Marbleton

For the second time in as many weeks, I’ve been the victim of a financial audit. Today’s, however, was a lot quicker, and a lot less painful than the kind I’ve been preparing for daily over the past four weeks at work. Today’s audit was conducted by a kindly brother who lives in my ward, and who (by his own admittance) has difficulty balancing a checkbook. Yes, it’s the infamous (insert forboding music; perhaps a batman-like “Dum, dum, dum!” [Not to be confused with Mom’s “Dumb ditty-dumb dumb dumb.”]) stake audit.

He did a good job, I’d say. He let me run the 10-key, because he couldn’t do it without looking at the numbers, and, not to boast or anything, I can do it with my eyes closed. I answered some of his questions about auditing and internal controls, like why the bishopric is not supposed to keep financial records (It’s a matter of the authorization–custody–recordkeeping theory. Strong internal controls do not permit one person to have any combination of two of the three without mitigating controls.) He found a couple of tiny issues, and both of them were mistakes on my watch. I gave him some suggestions for how to judgmentally select “random” dates when picking deposits for testing.

While we were inside, a light snow fell outside. It was one of those beautiful snows that is light and fluffy like good pancakes. The chain link fences and trees looked like they were covered in feathers. The nice thing about snow up here, is that if it’s snowing, it’s warm. Once we lose the cloud cover, it gets cold. Some of our friends emailed this week because we made the news in Salt Lake with our -27° weather. Apparently, it gets colder than that. Stay tuned for further weather updates.

Julie got a new calling today, but since she hasn’t been sustained, I can’t tell what it is. (Although from the sound of her phone conversation behind me, she’s telling every Tom, Dick and Jeannette in the West. Whatever.)

I’ve got seminary this week, and I believe we’re starting 2 Samuel. Poor King David; he had such promise, and then he screwed everything up through a couple of dumb decisions. It’s a sad, sad story. I hope the kids will pick some good things up from it.

That’s the news from Marbleton this week. We have added the weekend of February 29th to our 2008 touring calendar. We’ll keep you updated as we know more.

2008 Touring Dates

You may want to bookmark this post. I’ll try and keep it current with our comings and goings between here and there.

• 01/30/2008 (Tentative)–Aaron will travel to Provo for the BYU career fair to try to recruit folks for gainful employment.
• 02/29/2008–The family is going to Salt Lake to run errands and hang out. We’re going to the CES “Evening with Elder Packer.” Should be good.
• 03/14/2008–Vacation. We’re going to Disneyland. I love the idea of taking a vacation in the middle of winter. I haven’t been able to do that for a long time.

The week in review

This week I spent my first real time on the other side of the audit fence. From Wednesday morning until Friday afternoon, the auditors from Tanner LC were at the office doing tests and writing documentation of our controls as part of our audit. I must admit that there were certain parts of me that waxed nostalgic for the old days, but overall, I don’t think I’d care to go back to that life for anything.

I certainly have tried to make their lives as easy and pain-free as possible, because I know that they probably have 12 other clients who are not making the transition to the new SASs without a fight. We spent a lot of time late in 2007 doing documentation and write-ups of our controls, and I put together a 58 page document filled with flow-charts and matrices, so that they wouldn’t have to spend as much time doing that, and I worked hard to make sure that they had the things they needed to complete their planning and preparation work so that when they come back in two weeks to do the financial audit, they’ll be ready to go.

But getting all those things done, and keeping up with my regular workload takes time. This was also my week to teach Seminary, so I started each day at 5:00 AM, and didn’t get home before 7:00 PM each night, so I am feeling pretty wasted this week. Last night when I got home, I crashed with the Julie and the kids on the couch, and watched Cars. Andrew and Kristi’s son Ethan loves Cars, and several times during the movie, I was able to think about Ethan’s demonstration of the same scene. Like: “Hi! My name’s Mater. Like Mater without the ‘Ta.’”

Anyway, that’s what’s happened this week in my life, I think.

A Poem: Why I Love Christmas In Wyoming

When it’s Christmas in Wyoming,
And the gentle breezes blow,
About seventy miles an hour
And its fifty-two below,
You can tell you’re in Wyoming
‘Cause the snow’s up to your butt.
You take a breath of Christmas air
And your nostrils both freeze shut.
The weather here is wonderful,
So I guess I’ll hang around,
I could never leave Wyoming—
My feet are frozen to the ground!

—Unknown

My dad sent this to me today, and I thought you all might enjoy it. It’s not as bad as the poem makes it out to be, but it’s close.

Snowy Weekend in Logan

We spent this weekend in lovely Logan, Utah with my sister and her husband. We also got to hang out for a little while with my brother and his wife and Julie’s brother and his wife (link pending). All in all, it was a great weekend.

We went with the intent to visit the temple, but we didn’t check the schedules very well, and it was closed. So we played Guitar Hero with Drew, and Curses with Emily, Drew, Jimmy and Michelle. (My big curse was to talk like Mr. T and say “I pity the fool” every time I spoke. For those who haven’t played the game, you ought to try it. It was a hoot.) We saw Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrell. Emily and Drew wanted me to watch it because he’s an accountant. (“What’s your favorite word? Integer.” Yes indeed.)

We went to church with Emily and Drew, had some lunch, and tried to drive home, but we got snowed in, and had to crash for another night. But now we’re back, and safe and sound. Thanks to all who helped us have fun in Logan.

New prescription glasses at a great price

So, being the curious fellow that I am, I try to read a lot of interesting stuff from a lot of interesting people. One day I stumbled upon an article on 43Folders about buying prescription glasses online. Being a long-time wearer of spectacles, my curiosity was piqued. I read the article, which pointed to a blog called Glassy Eyes. Ira Mitchell, the owner of said website, got fed up with the whole prescription eyeglass system, did did some research, tried a whole bunch of glasses, and started a blog to tell about his experience. I joined the rest of his readers and tried a purchase from Zenni Optical. That was two weeks ago.

Yesterday my new glasses came in the mail. The prescriptions seem pretty good and they came with anti-scratch, anti-reflective, UV blocking lenses. All for about $20 a pair. Wow. Last time I bought glasses (4 years ago), I probably paid 10 times that amount just for frames. And when those frames got broken, I was very sad to have to shell out that much again to keep the lenses going. If only I had known.

There is a downside to this process. You can’t try things on in the store to see how they fit or look. I did OK with my purchases, but Julie doesn’t like the new frames as much as she liked the old. The old rated 9 on her scale, and these are only showing a 7 on her scale.

Pictures to come.

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.