Clark's Birthday

It's been so long since I've updated this. I guess between email, facebook, and my journal this has taken a back seat.

Here is my journal entry for 27 July 2009, Clark's Birthday:

Today was Clark's birthday! Last night we stayed up late making the cake. Ruth and I did another carved fondant cake. For Clark we did a treasure chest since he was getting some pirate toys for his birthday. As we started to make it Ruth realized that we didn't have any marshmallows so we had to go asking the neighbors (10:00pm) if we could barrow some. No body on our street had any, but Kristi Sexton thought that a lady in our ward (the Twitchel's) would have some and they don't live far from us. They did, and Ruth drove over to get them. I carved it and Ruth made the fondant and put it on the cake. I also did a little decorating, but mainly Ruth.

Last night Clark wanted us to tape a walkie-talkie to the wall in the dining room and one to his bedroom wall. He wanted us to wake him up with it this morning and tell him to come down and for us to hide and yell "surprise, happy birthday!" Pretty funny, especially since he woke up before us and was saying, "get up, you guys need to go down and tell me to come down!" Ruth didn't go to bed until like 2:30 or so, so just me and the kids went down and called Clark on his little "intercom" set-up and yelled surprise when he came down. He was pretty excited to see his cake and I think he thought it was pretty neat looking.

After breakfast we all went to the community center so that Ruth could run/walk on the treadmill. I rode the stationary bike for 16 minutes and did some push-ups. The kids watched TV. That's what they always do down there when Ruth goes to exercise.

After that we went home and Cal and I went to a pre-school screening. They did some developmental type screening on Cal. He did really well. He's definitely where he needs to be as far as his age and development are concerned.

On the way home Cal and I stopped at the store and got some carrots for the roast that Clark wanted for his birthday dinner. When we got home I peeled some potatoes and carrots, cut some onions, and put the roast and all the cut-up vegetables in the crockpot.

While Cal and I were gone Ruth made a few dozen cupcakes. After lunch we all got ready to go to the sprinkler park for Clark's little "birthday party/get-together".

On the way I stopped at the hospital to get Elden's medical record and at the 43rd to talk to Tom about getting time off to go out to Hanna's wedding. There are just too few doctors in August for it to work out. I feel bad because if I would have made plans to attend months ago, we probably could have worked something out at work, but we weren't planning on going anywhere this summer.

Clark had a lot of friends show up to the sprinkler park. He had a good time and we parents had a good visit as well. A few of his friends brought presents! We were totally not expecting people to bring anything. Next time we'll have to tell people to specifically not bring them. One of the presents was a big water gun and the other was the game "Mouse Trap". When we got home they really wanted to play it but it was time to eat dinner. For dinner we had Clark's choice, pot roast and pickles.

When dinner was over a bunch of friends came over and played mouse trap. Well, after I set it up, they set and released the trap over and over again. A few of the older kids actually wanted to play the game, but everybody else just wanted to watch the trap go off.

After the kids went home we got Clark's cake down and sang to him after which he successfully blew out all SIX candles. Then we gave him his presents, a huge pirate ship thing (hand-me-downs from the neighbor's kids) and a horn for his bike (he's really been wanting one).

The kids went to bed pretty well. Ruth and I read scriptures and then finished watching one of those "Thin Man" movies that we'd started on Saturday. Actually we practically had to start over since I kept falling asleep the first time we watched it. It was pretty good.

Clark w/ his cake Monday morning


About the only still picture I got of Clark while at the sprinkler park


More pics from the park:






Cal was dumping water on my feet - he thought it was funny and I thought it felt great so I ended up getting at least 10 bucket fulls dumped on me.


Haley has a question:


Cal was pretending to be a lion - I think it's fitting that he's in the shade.


A very serious (longing....?) stare


Some presents:



The show stopper: A light up Yoda w/ light saber card:


Mouse Trap!!!


Blowing out the candles



More presents:


The cake truly had a yummy treasure inside!!

What's your phone number?

I was reading a picture book with the boys a week a go or so and I would point to something and say it in Spanish and they would repeat it back to me.

Every now and then I would just point to a picture and ask them what it was (in Spanish).

They were doing pretty good until we got to a picture of a frog....which is sapo.

Cal spoke before thinking about it too much and said zapato!... which is shoe in Spanish.

Sapo / Zapato - they sound pretty close together. The funny thing was how funny Clark thought it was. He was laughing hysterically and from then on had to yell ZAPATO!! every time I pointed to a picture. Actually it got a little annoying, but overall, it was pretty funny.

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This afternoon we all went to the sprinkler park and while we were there Cal said:

"Wow Dad, you have big feet! How come I don't have big feet like you?" "Because" I answered "you're still little Cal." "But I want to be big like you."

"Cal, you will be at least as big as me when you're 15"

"Daddy...what's your phone number?"
"What???"
"What's your phone number?"
"How old am I?" I asked.
"YEEES!...how old are you?"
"28"
"Ooooh."

A conversation I was able to hear during those last few moments before the boys fell asleep the other night:

Cal: Daddy...do dogs eat bones?

Me: Sometimes, but mainly they just chew on them to clean their teeth

Cal: Oh...Daddy...can I have a kitten?

Clark: No Cal!! You can't! Mom doesn't like cats!

Cal: Bud Daddy, I want a little kitten.

Clark: Cal!! They bite!!! He will bite you!!

Cal: My kitty won't bite me....

Clark: ...well, they bite me!....Cal! You have to buy food for it at the store!! It cost $12.00...or $100.00!

Cal: Oh

Both were asleep within the next 30 seconds. I bet Cal dreamt about cats that night. He's definitely our little animal lover.

Our Pet Turtle

Elden seems to be doing well. He hasn't been gaining weight as fast as the doctor would like, but at least he's growing.

Ruth and I have been alternating going to church since Elden came home. She is at church right now with the boys. The girls had really runny noses so they're home with me too.

Kelly and Chris moved this week. We were all very sad. We had them over for dinner about a week ago and Ruth went with Kelly to play Bunko last Friday.

On Tuesday I went bowling with Clark and his class - which was fun. We all walked over to the bowling alley. A lot of the kindergartners acted like that was the furthest they'd ever walked in their lives - maybe it was. While we were walking there was this little girl in the other kindergarten glass that knew Clark and was trying to hold his had while we walked. He let her for about 30 seconds and then decided he didn't like that. She turned around and told me that Clark wouldn't let her hold his hand and asked if she could hold mine. I guess she's used to holding somebody's hand when she walks. Anyway, she held my hand the whole way there. I think Clark had a good time bowling. The kids seemed more excited about the balls rolling back than they were about actually bowling.




Clark finished school last week. He scored in the 99th percentile for the nation on their standardized testing. He also received the National Physical Fitness Award. That's like the second best one. He was pretty close to getting the Presidential one (which is the highest). We only did that program my 5th grade year and I didn't get the Presidential one either.

Work was really busy this week. We processed over 1000 soldiers this week - over 500 of them on Thursday and 300 on Friday...and only one Med-board (keratoconus).

This week I signed up for the unit softball team and we had our first practice yesterday. It was pretty good. At least I'm not the worst one there. It would be more fun if I knew more people, but maybe I'll get to know the people on the team. I recognize a lot of them from the hospital, but I don't really know any of them.

After that I watched the kids while Ruth went grocery shopping. Sebastian was over here too. Our van has been making a new rubbing/grinding sound up front so when she got back I took it into the shop. I should have taken care of it sooner because since I waited until the end of the week Firestone was the only one that could do it in time for Ruth and Elden's trip up to Columbia for his MRI. I took my bike with me and rode home. When I got home Clark was playing with his friend Patrick from school that he always talks about. His little brother and Mom were here too. The Mom left a couple of times to do some stuff and once to take the younger one home. When the younger brother went home we went outside to play.

While outside Cal and Sebastian found a turtle in our backyard. It was in its shell but we put it in a little bit of water and it came out and swam around for awhile. The kids were completely entertained the rest of the afternoon. They were pretty good with it too - considering.





We let the turtle go last night while the kids were getting ready for bed. I couldn't help but think it was out neighbor's pet or something but I convinced myself that there was no way a pet turtle could escape somebody's house so I didn't ask.

Last night Ruth and I played Othello. She added another win to her many-many-game winning streak.

Spanish #2

Hace mucho que escribo algo en español. Ultimamente he sentido un poco frustrado con el idioma. No me ayuda que no he estado leyendo nada en español ni mis niños han mirado tantas peliculas en español. A medida que Clark y Cal crecen el diálogo que quiero usar con ellos me cuesta mas y mas. No sé que necesito harcer, pero sé que tenemos que subirlo todo un nivel. Seguramente, tengo que ser mas escricto con los niños menores (Shanna, Haley, y Elden); o sea, si no me hablan en español no les responderé. Necesito mejorar mi habilidad de hablar el idioma. Ya sé que necesito leer y escuchar mas español, pero lo que en realidad creo que me ayudará mas que todo es tener una buena conversación con un hispano cuanto a mendo que posible. Tengo una vecina de Honduras que me hablaba en español de vez en cuando, pero ultimamente solo me habla en el inglés. Bueno, con esto me basta. Ya sé que hay muchas cosas que debo hacer para mejorar mi español – ahora viene el desafío a cumplir con lo que he hablado.

I was just adding my pull-ups to my original post but later realized that software used to notify you of updates doesn't show the update unless you actually make a new post.

Anyway...

11 May 2009: 9
12 May 2009: 9
13 May 2009: 10 - Half way there!!!
14 May 2009: 10

16 May 2009: 10
17 May 2009: Ahhh, the day of rest!
18 May 2009: 10
20 May 2009: I seem to be stuck at 10, so tonight I did 10 sets or 4
21 May 2009: 6 sets of 4
22 May 2009: 12
23 May 2009: 5 sets of 5
25 May 2009: 13

28 May 2009: 4 sets of 5
30 May 2009: 10 sets of 5
04 June 2009: 5 then 10
06 June 2009: 3 sets of 5
12 June 2009: 9 sets of 6
13 June 2009: 18!!!!!!
15 June 2009: 17
22 June 2009: 4 sets of 10

Pull-up's

So I bought this "iron gym" thing to hang over my door and do pull-up's with.

Tonight (30 April 2009) I did: 5

01 May 2009: 6

03 May 2009: 6

04 May 2009: 6

05 May 2009: 7

06 May 2009: 8

07 May 2009: 8

08 May 2009: 8

09 May 2009: 5 (rough day :)

I'll try and do them every night I'm home and I'll tell you how many I did.

My goal is 20 in a row.

Two wheels are better than four!

Clark has learned to ride his bike!!!

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If you need more details, read on - otherwise skip down to the pictures. You can probaby guess they are of Clark riding a bike.

Last summer Clark wanted a bicycle. I found a fairly nice one on Craig's List that cost us $10 plus gas to get it plus several hours of my time giving it an overhaul.

Clark was excited to ride it - until he actually got on. He let me push him a couple of times (both of which I could tell he had the balance to learn quickly) but just felt too scared.

He told me he wanted training wheels so I got him some. He already knew how to ride one of those little scooters so riding a big bike w/ clunky training wheels was pretty lame.

Clark has ignored his bike ever since. His friends here can ride their bikes but Clark has been content to keep up with them on his scooter (which works pretty well so he didn't have a lot of motivation to learn to ride his bike).

The day before yesterday they were all out playing and Clark told me he wanted his bike, so he went up and got it. He rode it around with the training wheels but was getting frustraited with them - like I said, 2 wheels are better than 4. I told him I'd take them off and he said that would be fine. I gave him a push and he just started riding.

We've been riding bikes to and from school the last couple of days and he rides it all afternoon when he gets home. He's so proud of himself!

Here's some pictures:



Here the stick Cal threw into the front wheel of Clark's bike -
Just kidding - Cal would never do that, but as you can see he is a great admirerer of sticks.

Today when I was out with the kids Cal and Shanna were having fun watering the garden that Grandpa Bartholomew planted for us.

Our Kitchen's Bath

Not too long ago I had a post called "Clark's Shower". Read on to see why this is titled "Our Kitchen's Bath".

We've had an ant problem in our south kitchen no mater how clean we keep it (and you all know how clean Ruth and I can be) or how often the pest-guy came and sprayed. They just kept coming back. So we decided to swap kitchens. I moved everything from our south kitchen over to the north kitchen and then had a friend come over Thursday night to help me move the washer and dryer from the north kitchen in the south kitchen.

The move went fairly well. The cupboards are different on each side so I couldn't match our north kitchen to our old south kitchen perfectly but pretty close.

When I hooked up the washer I found that the cold valve on that side had a leak, so I had to just shut if off. I'll have to call maintenance to come and fix it.

The next day during lunch as I was getting things ready to go up to Columbia after work I realized I had to do a load of laundry. I didn't have time to wash and dry, but all I really needed were some socks for Clark. I decide to just wash them and let them dry in the car.

When I got home I picked up Cal from the baby sitter and started loading the van up. Cal and I were just about to leave and pick up Clark on the way out of town when I remembered Clark's socks in the washer! I went down there and the entire kitchen floor and first 3 feet of carpet on either side was full of water!!

At first I thought there was a leak in the hot valve too, but when I looked back there I realized that I hadn't secured the plastic drainage tube very well. Sometime when I was at work and it was draining, the force was enough to eject it out of the hole and spill water all over! I dried as much of it up with towels as I could and ended up being a little late to pick up Clark. We came back home and I finished cleaning up.

We had a good trip up to Columbia Friday and down to Memphis and back home on Saturday. I'm sure Ruth will write all about it on our family blog so I'll let her "tell all". I will say it was sure fun to see our girls again! At the same time, it's a littler weird; it's like we're babysitting them for somebody else. I'm sure after a few days we'll all feel like things are back to normal.

When we got home last night the house stunk down in the basement from the wet carpet. I sure hope we can get it cleaned up enough that it smells normal again!

So two weeks ago the Army sent me to Las Vegas for a Vision Conservation conference. It was basically a 3 day class about keeping people from hurting their eyes. There were a handful of optometrists, some occupational nurses, and some industrial hygienists.he

On the second day we went on an exclusive tour of the Hoover Dam. A chance to see places there that only employees see. Our tour guide was one of the mangers of the plant.

Enjoy the pictures.


This is a bridge that they're building across the canyon. From this view the dam is just to my left. It was quite the sight. I think for most of us it was more interesting than the dam.

As you can see the water level is way down - I think they said almost 100 feet.


For all of those that saw the movie "Transformers", I found the tanks where they keep them.


A view from the top - the Nevada side.


This is one of the spillways. This is the one on the Nevada side. It's definitely the largest drainage pipe I've ever seen.

This is the hallway we went down after we went down the elevators. Notice the granite floor, tiled walls and ceiling, and fancy light fixtures. Although this is an industrial plant in the middle of the desert, all types of craftsmen were utilized in the dam's construction (obviously to put people to work).

Generators.


The CONTROL ROOM!

The two pictures above are of one of four LARGE pipes used to bring water from the resiviour to the turbines.

Our tour guide showing us a diagram of how the dam works.


The upper portion of the turnbines. The turbins are below us here and the generators are above us.


Here we are on the Arizona side looking at the end of the pipes that go to the generators. If they wanted to bypass the generators the water would come out of the holes up there on the cliff wall.


Me at the bottom.


Some pictures of the cool designs in the floors. These Native American-inspirered floor designs were all over the place. Very cool.