Our New Piano

How we aquired it will soon follow....

Debt Free: What I Won't Miss About the Journey

During school we tried to live as frugally as possible, but we still acquired a student loan to the tune of more than $37,000. Thanks to the Army and Grandpa Hibbard, that number is about 1/3 to 1/4 what it could have been! Our original goal was to pay it off in 18 months, and then save the same amount for the next 18 months of our first tour of duty with the military. At first I thought this was ambitious; in fact, I remember feeling like it may have been a little too ambitious. On paper it just didn't look possible to pay it off any faster than that. Luckily, both Ruth and I are pretty content people. We have a job, food on the table, chairs to sit on (albeit the metal folding kind), live in a nice rental, enjoy great health, and wonderful kids!

Once we arrived here in Missouri and started getting paid we realized that we had a little more left over at the end of the month than we had planned on (always a good thing). It didn't take us long to realize that we could get this debt taken care of in less than 18 months. At the pace we had chosen we were scheduled to pay it off in around 13 months. In the middle of August Ruth realized that if we paid it off one pay check earlier we could say we paid it off in "one year!" Basically the only place the extra money could come from to accomplish this one-year feat was from the food budget.

As content as we are, there will be a few things I won't miss about this these last few months as we made that push to finish our goal in one year.

A list comes to mind of a few things I won't miss missing:
Yogurt
Cheese
Lunch meat
Beef
Pork
Ice cream
"Snacks" (although, Ruth makes great cookies, and other desserts no matter what the food budget is)
Paper towels!!

Things I'm looking forward to:
Saving money instead of giving it to our creditors
Buying a computer that stays on for more than an hour
Buying a DVD player that actually plays an entire movie (I personally hate DVD players, but I'm not sure what the alternative is)
Buying Christmas presents that total more than $15 a person
Going out to eat every now and then (meaning 3-4 times a year instead of once or twice)
Netflix!
Doing stuff that costs money (water parks, museums, tours, games, etc...)

It's been a good journey, but I am glad it's over. (Till we buy a house, that is.)

Cold Cereal: Confessions of an Addict

Growing up cold cereal was reserved for Sunday morning. The rest of the week's breakfasts were a rotation of hot cereal, eggs, and either pancakes or French toast on Saturdays.

Yep, I was a lucky boy! My cold cereal and pop-tart-eating friends were always envious of my home cooked meals.

Over time I really started to enjoy cold cereal on Sundays and in a way start to look forward to it. By the time I was in middle school I frequently had it as an after-school or late-night snack.

I now consider cold cereal one of my favorite foods! It's a great meal and a great dessert! I still try to reserve it for breakfast only, but occasionally I splurge and eat it for a snack as well.

Occasionally, at the end of the day when I'm laying in bed and I start to think of all the things I have to do, or trials coming up, I'll catch myself thinking to myself, "Well, at least I get to eat cold cereal first thing tomorrow morning!!"

Crazy? Obsessed?

I think so. I know I've thought about cold cereal in times of stress several times before I ever really thought about it and realized how strange of a thought process it was.

I can't think of a cold cereal I don't like. Whatever it is, I like it to be a little soggy and the milk to be around 55-60 degrees instead of the cold 45 degrees at which the refrigerator keeps it. One way to do this is to just let it sit out for 5 minutes, but once it's in the bowl I can't wait that long. Fifteen seconds in the microwave get's it just right!!

APFT

This week I took my semi-annual Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT)! I was a little worried about it since I haven't been working out like I ought to have been, but I have been riding my bike to work almost every day and sometimes several times a day.

BUT...as it turned out I scored better this time around than last!

Push-up's: 64
Sit-up's: 63
2-mile run: 14:30

That's a 252. Last April I scored a 230 and a year ago I think I got a 220. Three hundred is the score to get. My push-up's and sit-up's were pretty close to the same as last time although I think I did do a few more in each one, but my run was the big improvement. I did it extactly one minute faster than in April! I think 14:10 or 20 is the fastest I've ever ran it and that was just because I was trying to beat Sheldon.

To get a 300 I need to do the run in 13:18, 82 sit-up's, and 77 push-up's. The sit-up's are the hardest for me because I run out of time. You have to do the sit-up's in 2 minutes (same thing with the push-up's). We'll see, maybe I'll get motivated and go for it.

Mr. Fix-it!

Excerpts from my journal this last weekend:

Friday we went to the temple. We met the Stouts there and they watched our kids while Ruth and I went in. Always a good experience. Unfortunately it was raining the whole time so the Stouts and all the kids just stayed in their van and watched movies on their car DVD player - glad they had one; one of the few times I wished we did. Then we switched. We all went into the annex waiting room and did our best to let the kids release their pent up energy without causing too much of a ruckus.

After that we went home and stopped in Rolla to stock up on some food from Aldi. They were doing road work around Rolla so we couldn't get back on the free way there. We had to drive down a country road about 10 miles or so to get to the next on-ramp.

We had decided to have me change he oil in the van instead of having the shop do it so we stopped at Autozone and just as we were pulling in our front passenger tire went flat. We had to drive a whole 20 yards on the flat tire. Pretty blessed if you ask me. I went in and bought the oil, oil filter, and a tire repair kit. It all still turned out to cost less than an oil change. While we were there I saw a guy from our church and he helped me change the tire.

On the way home we stopped at the PX pharmacy to get my artificial tears since I was almost out. There were a lot of people waiting and it didn't seem to be moving very quickly. It was around 4:45 and it said they closed at 6:00 so I figured it would be better to just get everybody home as it had been a long day. I was back there by 5:20 and they were closed!! There was a lady there closing up and turning off the lights and she could tell I was confused. She pointed out a sign that said they closed at 5:00 due to the holiday weekend (Columbus Day). I must have looked pretty disappointed because she asked if it was just a refill that was ready to pick up - which it was. She took me back there and found a worker that hadn't turned their computer off yet and they let me fill the Rx!!! Thank you PX Pharmacy!!

That night for dinner I made pizza. I think I finally got it just how I wanted. Ruth said it was the best pizza dough we've made yet!! After the kids were in bed Ruth and I played Set, a "matching" card game we have. It had been a while since we'd played; we ended up tying, which is always nice.

Saturday I made pancakes, changed the oil by myself for the (almost ashamed to say it) first time. I also found the hole in our tire and patched it up. I had seen my Dad do it once before on a trip to Uncle Bert's in San Diego. At the time I was very skeptical that any type of patch that worked by essentially ramming a sticky worm into a hole would actually work. Well, it did then for my Dad and it did yesterday for me. I have to admit, I felt pretty good about myself after changing our oil and fixing the hole in our tire.

After that we went to a baptism at the church. When we got home we ate lunch and and Cal and I went to the library and Commissary. After dinner we got everybody ready for bed and got the girls in bed. Then Ruth, myself, and the boys played That's Life, a German-style board game that I bought a couple of years ago. It says you're supposed to be 8 to play it but Clark understands it pretty well and Cal likes to roll the dice and move his little man around the board. Again, Ruth and I tied.

Later that night I listened to the first half of the BYU / UNLV game. BYU was up by at least 17 by the end of the first half and it was late so I went to bed.

Church was pretty good today. Lots of great testimonies. Shanna and Haley had a little "moment" before we even got through the opening hymn, but for the most part they eventually settled down. No official dinner tonight. We just sort of snacked on food around the house, plus Ruth made some yummy zucchini muffins. We listened to a conference talk and ate ice cream before the kids went to bed. Ruth put them to bed and I cleaned up.

Tomorrow is Columbus Day so no work! To bad Clark has to go to school. One of the perks of working for the government.

PRK Trip

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In June I sent in my application to have refractive surgery done by the military. They accept all active duty soldiers that are good candidates for the procedure; but the appointments aren’t made on a first come first serve basis, there’s a three-tier priority list based on your job (not rank) in the military. I’m the lowest priority so I didn’t get a surgery date until September.

You can have it done in either San Antonio or at an Army base near Clarksville TN. The ophthalmologist here does them in TN but he was on his way out of the military and was going to be gone by September. I knew the new one would be fresh out of residency so I figured I’d take my chances with the doctors in San Antonio.

As many of you know we are almost out of debt (~30 Oct 2009) and so finding the money to cover a trip down to TX was the first problem. I went through my optometry books and found 3 that we were told to buy but never used. I decided that if I hadn’t used them yet, I probably wouldn’t ever use them. I put them on Amazon.com and within 3-4 weeks they had all sold for a total of around $350.00!

Monday we left after work and drove to Darrell and Stacie’s house in Stillwater OK. The next morning we had some yummy pancakes and before noon we were on our way to San Antonio. My pre-op appointment was at 7:00am the next morning so we didn’t stay with Paul and Cindy that first night, but with a brother of a friend of ours. They were very nice and our kids enjoyed playing together for an hour or so before we got them to bed.

The next morning we got lost on the way to the Air Force base and I was a couple minutes late to my exam. It went well and the rest of the morning the kids played at a park there on base. The weather was a little cool and windy but we didn’t bring any warm clothes. Since it was nice in Missouri we figured it would be even warmer in south Texas; so much for that. At noon I had a “consent briefing” where the surgeon talked to all her patients for the next day about the surgery and follow-up care, etc. I looked to me like there were 15 of us. She said she would be looking at everybody’s records that afternoon and evening to decide in each case whether LASIK or PRK would be better. I had figured based on my own numbers that PRK would be better, but for a different reason than the surgeon thought PRK would be better. In any case, we both agreed that PRK would be better.

That afternoon we drove up to Austin to stay with Paul and Cindy. The kids had a blast playing with their big bucket of Legos. We had a good visit and a great dinner (thanks Cindy).

The next morning, Wednesday, was my surgery. I was supposed to be there at 7:00 am again so we had to leave really early to get down there in time. It turned out that all the patients had to be there at 7:00. I don’t know how they picked who went first, but I was third to last. I had my surgery at 11:20 and was outside waiting for Ruth to pick me up at 11:40.

Right before I went into the room with the laser they put some numbing drops in my eyes. For the surgery they had me lay down on this flat bench/bed thing that, once I was settled, swiveled around so that my head was underneath the laser/microscope. They stuck a speculum in my eye to hold my eye lids open. I’d seen it done in real life and in pictures loads of times and always thought it looked really uncomfortable – it wasn’t. I looked at an orange light strait in front of me (somewhere up inside the machine) while the surgeon did everything. First she put a little dish on my eye to hold alcohol. It’s like a bucket without a bottom. The alcohol loosens that outer layer of cells that in LASIK they cut under. They did that for 15 seconds and then she took a little brush – looks more like a squeegee – and wiped it clean and made sure it was smooth and ready to be lasered. Then she rinsed it all off and told me to look at the orange light and not move – I never stared so hard at a light in my life. Earlier they had said it would take like 30-40 seconds, but I think it was less. It only seemed like 15-20. Then they rinsed that eye off really well and put a bandage contact lens on it; then they did the other eye. Like I said, not long after that I had called Ruth and I was outside waiting for her to pick me up.

Then we went to Chachos. It is a big Mexican restaurant in San Antonio. It has a normal place where you order food, a place where you order their homemade ice cream, and a bakery where they have various assortments of huge cookies, pieces of cake, brownies, and many other huge things you can bake in a bakery. They also have a really big play area for kids. We ordered some ice cream and the kids played.

At that point my vision was pretty good and my eyes felt pretty good. After ice cream at Chachos we drove back up to Austin and Paul and Cindy took us out to Rudy’s for some yummy BBQ. My 1-day post-op the next day was scheduled for 12:30 so we were able to sleep in a little the next day (Thursday).

When I woke up Thursday my eyes were a little more blurry and felt a little worse, but not bad enough to warrant any of the pain medication they had prescribed for all of us. Paul made us some yummy pancakes, including some with blueberries!

My appointment went well. They told me that I should probably start taking the pain medication that night because it would probably get worse. It did. From about that afternoon and for the next 2-3 days my eyes felt pretty crummy.

Once we were done there we started on our way back home. I was supposed to stay for a 5-day post-op on Monday, but I figured they wouldn’t mind if we left as long as I sent them a copy of my 5-day post-op done up here at Ft. Leonard Wood.

From then on Ruth had to do all the driving and so we didn’t make it all the way to Darrell’s before she got too tired to drive. We slept in the car and finished our trip up to Darrell’s the next morning. The kids played and we hung out there the rest of the morning and after lunch we drove back home.

By Sunday afternoon my eyes were feeling pretty good, but my vision was only slightly better if any.

Monday morning I went in to have my colleagues look at my eyes and get the bandage contact lens out. They said that they felt the bandage contact wasn’t ready to come out so we decided to keep it in for another day or two. That morning the refractive surgery center called and said that I wasn’t supposed to leave the area and that they were going to talk to the surgeon to see what she wanted to do. They called back and had me talk to her. She said since they were the ones that did the surgery they had to see me and that I had to come back down for my 5-day post-op!! I tried to reason with her and she just got very nasty about it and told me that she would notify my chain of command and execute disciplinary action if I wasn’t there at 8:00am the next morning! So, we set Clark up to stay with some friends so he could stay in school and we got in the car and drove back down to San Antonio. Ruth was a trooper and drove all night except for a 1 ½ hour nap in the middle of the night. We got there about an hour early. The doctor said my eyes were healing a little slower than normal, but that they looked good. They took out the contact lens and by 9:30 I was done. We went to the commissary and got some snacks, filled up the gas tank and were on our way. Before we even got out of the San Antonio city limits the kids were all asleep so Ruth pulled over in some neighborhood and we all took a nap. I don’t think we actually got out of town until around noon or so. We stopped in Dallas at a park we saw on the map and ate dinner and let the kids run around for about an hour. Then we drove until 9:30 at which time Ruth had to take another nap. She tried to drive a couple more times during the night, but in the end we basically slept most the night. We were on the road again around 6:00am Wednesday morning and got home that afternoon before Clark was out of school.

Now it’s been a week and my eyes feel pretty good. I still have to use the artificial tears every 30 minutes or so, which is normal. That will go down as my eyes heal. My vision is about 20/30 or so. It is slowly getting better, but I’ve seen enough PRK post-op patients myself to know that it can take several weeks for the vision to get better.

I was and am hopeful that eventually my vision will be acceptable to me without glasses; however, if by next spring it’s still a little too blurry for my taste I’ll probably get some glasses again. But this time the prescription would be very minimal.

Cal looses his pants

So Shanna likes to change her clothes several times a day. Sometimes she does it because what she's wearing gets dirty, and other times she just needs to try something different. Well, this evening she must have elicited Cal in her little clothing changing activity because when they came downstairs for dinner this is what they were wearing:


Yes, Cal has on Shanna's pants, and Shanna has on Cal's.

When Ruth saw him she busted up laughing and it took me a little bit to figure out what was so funny. Cal just stared at us like we were crazy; however, I figured he knew that he had Shanna's pants on.

Well, later that evening Clark was asking why Cal had Shanna's pants on and Cal said that he didn't! He said they were his pants. Again, I thought maybe he was just joking around but he seemed pretty serious/clueless. Finally Clark said, "Well, look Cal, there's pink hearts on the back!" and Cal looked and I could tell that for the first time all evening he realized that he really did have Shanna's pants on!

I don't know what was more funny, the fact that we thought he was trying to be funny and in reality was clueless all along, or that they actually fit him!

Kids, you gotta' love 'em.

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.

_______________________________________________________

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!!!

________________________________________

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.