Where has the time gone?

As I was driving home from teaching early morning 5:20a.m. Body Pump today I saw a great number of moving trucks around. This is the time (July 31st) every year that all the contracts end for housing. All landlords end their leases at the end of July and hundreds of people are moving in and out of Iowa City. It is a time when it would be nearly impossible to rent such a moving truck if you needed one.

It got me thinking 8 years have gone by and we were doing just that, moving here to Iowa City. 8 whole years ago. When I was just 27 and Jason 29, we were kids then with 5 children of our own. Jason had decided to do more schooling so we moved here to get just that, more education at the Universityof Iowa. I thought then, "luckily just 5 years we will be out of here!" That didn't happen as most of you know. Jason found a job he absolutely loves working as a Research Scientist for Dr. Marlan Hansen. We are stuck here for a while I guess, until he gets his next dream job in Pocatello, Idaho and we move there to retire. I just can't believe it's been 8 years in this state. What has happened in that time?

Let me take you back. We moved here the beginning of August of 2000 into a small (very small) basement duplex type deal. It seemed like the entire Iowa City congregation from our church showed up to help us move. Thank goodness since my Mom had just been traveling with Jason and I across the country to move here, and my Dad had just traveled several states to meet us. Both of my parents were so tired, but pitched in to help. They moved us in. Much to our surprise, the foundation of this basement duplex on Dodge St. was not doing well, the foundation was leaking. The walls were wet. I noticed this on Day 2 when unpacking stuff to go into the closet, I touched the wall and said, "This is wet and the carpet is too!" The landlord, knowingly had a major foundation problem but carpeted and painted over the problem. We should have known something was up when the landlord said, "Oh just get settled in, then you can hook up the utilities."

So on Day 3 we moved to a new house. a 900 square foot house, no basement, but a huge backyard and a garage, both of which we never had. And to my surprise a dishwasher and garbage disposal, both things I wanted in the kitchen. Once again most of the Iowa City ward came over to help us move again. My parents were still there to help thank goodness.

So we moved to Hollywood Blvd. This was in South East Iowa City.

Almost 1 year later we were sick of renting and bought our first home on Esther St. What a joy!

Then 5 years later we bought the home we are in now on Cae Dr. on the South West side of Iowa City, so a total of 4 moves. Wow what a pain. Moving has got to be top of my list for most unfavorite things to do.

It's been an amazing 8 years full of 4 moves, a new baby, as we call him (our little Iowa Hawkeye) Scooter or his real name Scott Thomas Clark. All last names to signify the last child no matter what. 5 children getting baptized, 3 receiving the Priesthood, 1 starting high school, 2 going into middle school. And many visits from family and friends. Thanks to all who have made the trek here to Iowa to visit. I know, not a fun place to visit or in the top 10 of places to vacation to, but none the less so many of you have taken time to be here (some several times)and it's been much appreciated. (Especially those who are deathly afraid of flying and still did it) Thanks!

In these 8 years Jason and I have had a lot go on. We have traveled to many wonderful places, courtesy of the Pampered Chef (Cancun, Hawaii, Disney World, Alaska, Carribean and our last trip London) I have completed over 700 Pampered Chef shows since moving here and have met tons of great people, some I never would have met had it not been for my PC job.

Jason has lost over 40 pounds and me around 80 pounds. Jason has completed 2 mini triatholons and I have ran my first 5K. We both became fitness instructors and now both teach 3 different types of classes at the local club called Core fitness.

Caleb has learned how to fly a plane and play percussion. Daniel has learned how to play football, ride a wave board and out run me. Jared has learned how to play trumpet and read more books than we have in the house (literally hundreds of books). Brenden has learned how to play Baritone and draw extrodinary pictures of aliens, and make tons of friends. Alyssa has learned how to dance, read and write well. Lastly Scott has learned how to make friends with anyone, fire safety and definately how to eat more pancakes then anyone else in the house. Scott has the best appetite and will out eat anyone. Pretty good for someone who is only 6.

We have survived many violent storms that had heavy rains, hail and damaging winds, snow in excess of 14 inches all at once, a tornado, microwave fire (that thank goodness didn't burn the entire house down)(courtesy of Scott) and a major Flood.

We are blessed to have met all the wonderful friends, so many that I can't begin to name them all, but you are all so special to us.

Have a great day in the wonderful state you live, we will have fun in Iowa and probably write about it tomorrow!!

Alyssa's 9th Birthday

First Picture --Alyssa with "Grandma Phyllis" she went to Alyssa's dinner of choice. Alyssa picked Godfather's Pizza.

Picture below is Alyssa with her favorite gift from her birthday. She wanted roller skates so badly, she asked for them for Christmas and no where sold them, she didn't want inline skates. Now I see skates everywhere so I bought her a pair this year.

Michelle's coming home!!!!

Michelle will be coming home tomorrow night at 11:55. It has been a long 11 days so far. I can't wait to go back to work. Does that make me a horrible father? I don't know how Michelle does the whole running all over town for appointments and such every day without going crazy. I have been able to get some things done around the house that have needed to be done for quite some time but I am ready to go back to work.

Caleb had youth conference this last week. He seemed to really enjoy it - all but the dance anyway. He told me that three girls turned him down. How rude is that? Aren't their parents teaching them common decency? It takes a lot of guts to ask a girl to dance when you are a teenager.

While Caleb was at Youth Conference, the rest of us went swimming. Both Dan and Brenden dove off the diving board for their first time. It took Dan about 10 trys before he actually did it but Brenden just went to the end of the board and dove right in. We had a great time.

The river is up about a foot today. We had a huge storm this morning. It started at about 5:15 and rained buckets for about 45 minutes. There were recorded wind gusts of up to 90 miles an hour. One of our neighbors had a mature Ash tree downed onto his garage and his car in the driveway. There were trees uprooted all over town. What a mess. It looks like another storm is on the way. I can hear the thunder now.

Lagoon

Yesterday Rodona and I and two of her older children went to Lagoon.

It was a blast. I rode ever coaster in the park. My favorite was one of the newer ones called Wicked. If you haven't been there, it's a great place to go for a day to ride fun rides.

I would compare Wicked to some of the coasters I've ridden at King's Island in Cincinnati, Ohio and others from Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.

Wow what a day, we didn't get back to Idaho until 1a.m. this morning, then rose bright and early to go garage sailing around Pocatello.

I found a nice looking, in good condition trumpet for Jared, so excited, now he won't have to borrow one anymore.

Idaho Girl's Trip

I made it to Idaho super late Thursday night. I'm here for a trip to spend time with my best friend Rodona who lives in Pocatello, Idaho. I used to live here and would love to move back. Hey Jason guess what? Rodona said that Idaho State University is planning on putting in a whole new medical program here, bigger than it is now, they are re-vamping the entire program. Apparently ISU has a new president and he is going to have a huge medical program here with research opportunities and everything. Horray!!!! Maybe we can move back someday in 5 years or so.

Rodona is the kind of friend you never get sick of, you can talk about anything and you have everything in common. Literally everything, we have the same shoe size, love the same candy bar, are the same religion, like the same movies, enjoy working out, love the same vacation places and we both enjoy Mexican food!

The fun began here on Friday morning when Rodona and I went garage saling. I love to garage sale and haven't been all year. I was waiting for this trip to go. We found some great buys on clothing for Jason, Caleb and Alyssa so far. All shirts have been just $1.00-$1.50 What a deal! I have also purchased something for the entire family that will be a surprise until I arrive home. I just can't reveal that yet. Too much fun!

I don't quite miss Iowa yet. Maybe next week.

A little of this and a little of that

I am waiting for an agarose gel to stain so I thought I would take a moment and write something. The river is under flood stage as of today. Most roads have been open for awhile now but one of the main roads into town is still closed although it is projected to be open by midweek. The mess is unbelievable. I am going to take some pictures to give everyone a feel for what has happened. One of the bike paths that is normally 6-8 feet above the river now has 2-3 feet of dirt on it. Many businesses are destroyed and the smell is awful. The water completely destroyed the UI baseball and softball fields as well as the UI track. Nobody will be running on that track for awhile. Although this flood has been quite devasting for so many people, it has given members of the church great opportunities to serve. Tonight, a group of us are going to go down to one of the neighborhoods we helped sandbag and do some cleanup. Actually, it will be some demolition. We will be tearing out carpet and drywall as well as doing some mud removal. I don't know how many if any of those houses will be able to be saved. A member of our ward owns two houses on that street and has been out of town for a couple of weeks. I am pretty sure that both of his houses will have to come down since no clean-up of his properties has occurred yet.

Last night for Family Home Evening, we decided to have a movie night. Do you know how hard it is to find a movie that will keep a 15 year old and a 6 year old happy? I think we succeded. We watched Zathura. After family prayer, Caleb and I spent about an hour on Google Earth. I asked him if he wanted to see where I grew up. He said yes and so we found the farm in NE and I pointed out all the fun places where Adam and I used to play. Did you know that they tore out the railroad tracks through Panama that eventually went over 134th street to the infamous railroad bridge? Caleb wondered if the workers ever found Adam's shoe. I showed him where we had the garden, where I got in bike wrecks, how we built the farm, etc... After that, I took him to Sacramento and showed him around there. I think the sheer size of the city surprised him. He really seemed to enjoy looking at the old Air Force bases. It was nice to be able to share some stories with him. I was surprised that he seemed so interested. What a good way to share family history.

My gel is done staining and I have a lot left to do today so I will finish this and get back to what I get paid to do.

Completely Mortified

I'm sure it doesn't help that I couldn't fall asleep last night, but then I woke up at 5:15a.m. so I maybe got 4 hours sleep.


Woke up did many things around the house: made breakfast (fresh homemade waffles) made dinner, did the dishes, cleaned the entire kitchen, did a load of laundry, got the garbage out to the street, emptied cat litter, and practiced for my aerobics class today. I felt extremely accomplished especially since it wasn't even 7a.m. yet.

Daniel's appointment this morning was at 8a.m. I was excited to get Daniel braces he so desperately needed, not just for looks, he needs them for several reasons, very medically necessary.


Took BEFORE pictures of Daniel, pumped him up, explained everything he would have done, and headed to the orthodontist at 7:45 a.m.


We step inside and they call him right back. Before they got started I asked the front desk lady how much she would want today as payment. I was surprised I didn't know this yet, but figured Jason had discussed this with them, but when I mentioned it to him last night he said he had no idea how much this would all cost. They never discussed it with us. I know they should have, but don't remember the conversation.


She then went on to say that they needed $650 up front. They only take Visa Mastercard, Checks or cash.
$650 yeah right. I don't have that. I was completely shocked. I even said, "Are you serious? Can I do something in payments less than that over time?" She said No. It would be $650 today just to do the work and if we didn't have that we didn't get it done.

I'm sorry, but who has that? That is not pocket change. Then she began to figure up the rest, it would be $178.50 a month for 18 months.

I said, "I can't do that, no way, this wouldn't work at all, I just don't have it." "I don't remember ever going over this financial information with anyone." I wouldn't have made the appointment today, I wouldn't have put myself through that embarrasment at the counter in front of my son.


I asked her if their office took a thing called "Care Credit" http://www.carecredit.com/

Basically what that is, it's like a credit card, it's offered at Dental offices and other places like oral surgery and stuff like that, my own dentist takes it, but you pay 0% interest as long as you pay the amount of the monthly payment, which is kinda high and probably would have been around $150 or more a month, but it is stretched out over time and it's 0% interest till it's paid off unless you miss a payment. Where as if I put this all on a credit card I would have enormous interest.
She said they didn't accept Care Credit that their office wasn't set up for it. I said, then I can't do this for my son, I'm sorry. I had no idea it was $650 up front.

She looked shocked. I was so embarrased. I looked at Daniel who said to me, "Does this mean I don't get braces today?"

I said, not unless I can work something out. the front desk woman said, "There's nothing to work out, sorry, everyone else in town will charge the same or more up front. that's how it is."

Daniel looked at me and seemed okay with it and said, "It's okay Mom I didn't want them anyway."

The girl with him started to try and talk him into the braces saying how much he needed them and how much better he will look and so on. Making me feel worse about what I was about to say.


I told Daniel we were going to the van and Daniel left first. I apologized to the front desk woman and the other lady and left.

I went to the van and cried.

I grew food

I actually grew something and didn't kill it. I am so excited. The picture on the Right is the entire tomato plant. It is a grape tomato plant and it is about 5 feet 5 inches tall currently.

The picture on the Left is a picture of my first ripe tomato and shortly after taking the picture I picked the tomato, washed it and ate it. YUM!!!

I feel so Grateful!

So many things to be grateful for on this fine Thursday in July:


1. I will be in Idaho in a week for my "Girls trip" It doesn't really seem real, but as I'm preparing and doing stuff I need to do for next week to leave it's so real and I'm so overly excited I can't handle it.


2. I was able to drag my three oldest boys to haircuts today and they needed it badly and as much as they complained about going and saying they wouldn't get it done, they all got it done.

3. I taught Step aerobics as a sub and my legs are feeling great, no pain so far so it seems that my shin splin injury I had for so long may be finallly history since I've been teaching once a week for 4 weeks now and no pain.

4. The sun is shining it's not raining



5. I just feel happy and that's always great.


6. I was able to donate plasma today since all my hematocrit and protein numbers were high enough so I was able to get my bonus this week!! Just means more extra money to travel with.

7. There's a big Zumba party tonight at Core Fitness Eastside and I was asked to be a part of it and teach 5 dances. That will be fun!


8. It was payday early for both of my jobs since tomorrow is a holiday

9. My dryer works! After going through all we have with several dryer repairs for this only 2 year old Kenmore dryer it's nice to have a day that I can say "It's working!"

10. Nobody is fighting currently. My children are all in happy moods. Especially Scott who earlier lost his sandle at the creek and then found it again!! Happy Day!

Anyway I just feel so blessed and wanted to share.

June Events

We actually traveled further than 10 miles on Saturday to attend a wedding in Northern Cedar Rapids.

We were attending a wedding and reception. Here are some pictures before the reception of the children.

Some pictures from Jared's birthday. We went to Phyllis' home to celebrate Jared's birthday. Phyllis is our adopted grandma since we live so far away from the real grandmas and rarely see them.