Dress Rehearsal for Celebration Iowa

After 3 long weeks we finally got to see Caleb at Luther College. The Celebration Iowa Show Choir had a dress rehearsal and it was Fabulous! So glad we made the 2 1/2 hour trip up there to see him. Looking forward to many more trips this summer to see him in other performances. To see his complete show schedule go to http://www.luther.edu/celebrationiowa/

I am sick of the rain. We have had storm after storm for the last week. This morning we experienced the longest thunderstorm I have ever been through. It started around 4 am and the last peal of thunder boomed at 7:12. It is still raining with even darker clouds to the west. My poor garden is getting too much rain.

Michelle thought the tornado sirens were going off at about 5:30 so I opened the window to listen (they weren't) and was met by a blast of hot, muggy air. Usually the rain gets the humidity out of the air but not today. Mom and Dad left at just the right time. Yesterday was the muggiest day of the year thus far. Our former EQ president decided that yesterday was the day to move. I spent 45 minutes in a semi-truck trailer playing tetris with his belongings while losing 5 pounds of water. He was completely drenched from head to foot with sweat. They are moving to New York but will first stop to see his family in Maryland where it is supposed to be even hotter and muggier. I feel bad for Dave and especially for Tana.

Michelle and I get to go up to Decorah on Friday to see Caleb's dress rehersal. Their tour starts this coming Saturday. We are excited to see him and see how their show has come together. To those of you who were able to help sponsor him this summer, you have our deepest gratitude. And to those of you were were not in a position to do so, we know that you would have done so had you been able and we are equally grateful for your kind words of encouragement to Caleb.

Stay dry.

Grandpa, this is for you

Today while in Nauvoo, Illinois I saw many classic cars and thought of you.
Here are a few of my favorites:

I wanted to take pictures of all of them, they were all super awesome in their own way.

5K race in Burlington, Iowa

3rd race of the year. This time it's a 5K. So glad it was only that. Last week's race was so hard that I needed a smaller race to recover.

This race was for the local YMCA/YWCA in Burlington, Iowa. It was a small unsponsored race so that meant many things.

First: No numbers on your belly. So as you will notice in all the pictures I don't have a number on.

Second: No chip timer for my shoe, they do the timing the old fashioned way, with a stop watch. Imagine that???

Third: No packet with fun prizes,food, or ads for other races

Fourth: Not many people participated

Fifth: Very few things to eat at the end

Lastly: When you cross the finish line you are given a popsicle stick with your place number on it. Your time is yelled at you. You do get a shirt to wear and brag about your race so that is fun!

Results: There were 120 racers and I placed 49th out of 120

There were 18 racers in my age group of 30-39 and I placed 7th out of 18

My first mile time was 8:58, end of second mile 18:40, end of race 29:13 so this means I ran the 3.1 miles with a pace time of 9 minutes and 40 seconds. Beating my time from my last 5 K.

And as always my goals are these:

1. to not be last
2. to beat 30 minutes
3. to finish.

I did all three. Horay for me! Next race is in Tiffin, Iowa in 3 weeks on July 10th. My son Brenden may run this one with me.


1st picture of me was when I finished the first lap of Crapo park in Burlington. I was tired but determined to make the next lap. I'm blurry because I'm so fast. :)

Running to the finish line!

This is the best feeling ever to cross over the finish and say to yourself, "I am awesome."

Jared's 14th Birthday

June 15th came and went, we didn't forget him just forgot to blog about him. Jared wanted a Wii game, gameboy game, chocolate, butterfingers and grape pop. He received those things and was happy. After the birthday celebration I tried to get pictures of the children laying on the floor in a circle. It wasn't working very well, here are a few shots to show the effort.

Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa

Remember the movie Field of Dreams?
Jason's Dad really wanted to go to see the movie site so we all went to Dyersville Iowa today. It was about a 70 mile drive Northwest of here. Jared and Brenden on home plate.

Kaitlin pitching to Jared. Daniel watching.

Jared and Brenden running the bases.

The huge white house

5 of the Clark children.

Alyssa, Daniel, Jared, Brenden and Scott

Dam to Downtown 10K Race in Iowa City

At 5a.m. there was lightening so bad I was sure the race would be cancelled today. The thunder was enough to shake the house and I'm sure I heard hail.

5:30a.m. the alarm went off, I rolled over and reset it for an hour later because I was sure the race would be postponed or cancelled, it was still raining so hard with extreme lightening.

5:45a.m. decided to get my butt out of bed and check www.weather.com to see if maybe the rain would go away soon. Sure enough it was due to lighten up by 7a.m. and only be cloudy by 8a.m. BUMMER

so I stayed up, got ready, drank a tiny bit of a vanilla smoothie I had in the house. I wanted a banana I had set out the night before, but someone obviously wanted it more, it was no where to be found.

6:20a.m. left with Jason to find College Green Park in Downtown Iowa City so we could catch a bus to where the race started

6:40a.m. Got on a bus and my friend Stephanie got on as well.

7:10a.m. arrived at the Dam where the race started, it was still raining lightly outside, however tons better than 2 hours earlier.

8a.m. the announcer told us that the race would be slightly delayed, but not by much. The rain had stopped and was just cloudy and cool with a breeze and only some humidity. Soon after, the National Anthem was sung. This time by someone who clearly knew the words and sang rather well.

Around 8:15a.m. I think the race started. This was a super hilly course and I felt was extremely hard. By the 2nd mile I wasn't sure if I'd finish, but was determined. Jason ran with me for about the first 2 tenths of a mile, but then I told him to just go ahead, I was clearly holding him back from his pace. There was a huge hill at the beginning of the race that was so steep I thought I'd die, I did walk a super fast pace up most of this hill but then ran most of the rest of the race.

Around 1 hour Jason finished.
Then around 5 minutes later I finished. The official times aren't posted yet and the race wasn't chip timed so we won't have an exact time, but the fact remains WE FINISHED and it feels great to complete this goal.

Garden

As I stood in my backyard this morning eating my oatmeal, I was proudly gazing at my new garden while being eaten alive but some kind of irritating gnat-like insect. I thought being in the backyard at 7 am would be safe but for some reason, I was being dive bombed even worse than I am at night. It reminded me of Maine. New England has Midges (also called noseeum's) that will literally eat you alive. I remember wiping my brow while out tracting or otherwise working and having blood mixed in with the sweat. The noseeum's were so small (as the name implies) that you couldn't sleep with your windows open at night since they could fly through the screens. I have found the ultimate bug protection however. It is 100% vanilla. Not the cheap stuff from Kroger or Hyvee or Alberston's but the real 100%-from-Mexico goodness. Not only does it smell good but if you accidentally get some on your lips or in your mouth you are not going to be spitting for half an hour. The stuff works like a charm. The only problem is that it doesn't last long much longer than 1 hour. Another side benefit is that it covers the horrific stink of a 13-year-old scout at camp who refuses to shower.

What I was orginally going to write about when I sat down this morning was my garden. Finally, after many back breaking hours of work removing trees, building a raised bed, and filling the garden with nearly 2500 pounds of compost, I have peas, broccolli, cantalope, cucumbers, tomatoes (not for me!) and a jalepeno. Everything is coming up. I am excited to actually eat things from my own garden this year.

I hated our garden in Nebraska as a kid. It was huge. I swore that I would never grow a garden but here I am, excited to see what is going to happen. We have a serious rabbit problem here so I fenced my plot in but rabbits are devious. If I can keep them out, I have a good chance of having fresh veggies in a couple of months.

Text

Text sent from my phone to Caleb's phone this morning

written by Daniel

Caleb Mom misses you but I don't hehehehe thanks for leaving and have fun being realllllllllllly bored by the way your bed is comfortable.

Celebration Iowa

We all traveled to Decorah, Iowa yesterday to stay in a hotel so we could take Caleb to Luther College for his final audition for Celebration Iowa today.

What a stressful week of packing, shopping, worry and stress.

Packing is never fun because I have always felt that I do almost all of it. This time not only for Caleb who will be gone for 2 months, but for all of us since we were all staying overnight.

Shopping this week happened 4 times. Caleb had a large list of things he needed, some things for his costumes and some things for just the everyday stuff. After 4 shopping trips he has it all, or we hope he does because I seriously don't want to mail anything.

Worry and Stress came from all the wondering if Caleb would pass his final audition. He had to have his music memorized, all of it and there was at least 25 songs. That's a ton in my opinion to have memorized and as of Friday night he didn't have it all memorized so I was stressing big time because I knew that IF he didn't make the final audition it would be a Super LONG van ride home that I wouldn't want to be in, and then an even longer summer with a bummed out Caleb.
Also the worry and stress that goes along with leaving a child behind for 2 months.

Here are some pictures of most of the children in the pool at the hotel.

Pictures from the pool at our hotel

Daniel doing a flip. Look at what the sign says behind him.

Caleb, Daniel, Jared, Brenden, Alyssa, Scott all posing for a picture I had to have.

The sign on Caleb's dorm room.

Caleb and some of the cast members of Celebration Iowa practicing their songs in the lobby of the hotel. What a beautiful sound. I'll post the video I took soon.






If you want to send Caleb mail send it to:

Caleb Clark

Celebration Iowa

Luther College

700 College Drive

Decorah, IA 52101

It was encouraged at our parent meeting today to send our son lots of mail, so if you feel like you have a moment and want to do so, please do.

Also, if you haven't received your thank you note yet, it is coming. Caleb is working on them and did appreciate all money sent to sponsor him. If you didn't send anything and still want to send something please do, the Celebration Iowa program can receive money for Caleb up until the end of July.

Scott's Baptism Day

Jason with Scott

Can you guess which famous painting Jason is standing in front of?