My Great White Hunter

A few Saturdays ago,

 Eddie and his bestest buddy

since grade school, Rob went duck hunting.

They've done quite a bit of duck

hunting this year, and thankfully only

bagged one or two a time.

I'm not the biggest fan of "duck".

But, this outing was a little different.

The morning started out foggy-

which forced the birds to fly low.

While waiting for the ducks to appear,

a whole flock of Canadian geese

flew fairly low over their heads.

I guess this is very unusual,

the geese normally stay so high in

the sky that you can't get off a good 

shot at them (so I'm told).

With shaking hands and wobbly guns

Eddie and Rob shot the first 

Canadian geese of their long hunting careers.

As soon as they got home, Eddie ran

into the house and had me take my camera

out to snap a few pictures of them.

They were so excited- retelling the story

of the hunt a few times, getting more

and more animated as they went :)

My mom, on the other hand, wasn't

quite as excited. She served one of her missions

in Canada, and when seeing the geese, shed

a few tears over them. (Which is weird- 

because she is a big hunter herself.

So first thing Monday morning I took

her to get what she calls her "distemper

shot". It helps her emotions even out a bit :)

Now I am not such a fan of hunting.

I do not understand the whole concept of 

the thing. I am grateful for the meat,

which has saved us many a years, and

is dang healthy for you.

But when the sport can make Eddie this giddy

and feel like a kid again-

Hey, I'm all for it! 

MEN vs WOMEN (warning: crazed woman writing)

Lately, I've wondered more than a few times,

WHY MEN AND WOMEN ARE SO DIFFERENT-

and why did women get the short end of the deal

back in the Garden?

I understand that it is my off balance hormones

speaking, but it doesn't make me any less curious.

Am I the only one who has wondered

why men have it easier in so many areas of life?

Take camping for example-

they have to use the restroom-

so they stand on the opposite side of the truck

and problem solved.

I have to go- bad- and often-

I have to hike a mile away to find a tree

big enough to hide my white behind, take

toilet paper with me, squat and hope something's

not going to bite my back side.

Is this fair?

I think not.

Now let's look at the hairdo issue.

I just cut Eddie's hair the other day-

"how do you want you hair cut?"

"Shave it all off! I don't want to mess with it!"

But then I ask him- "how should I do my hair?"

"Oh I love long hair!! Let it grow!"

How come does he get to shave his off

and I get to have long hair that takes hours to do?

Is this fair?

I think not!!!

Now let's discuss a subject every man HATES to

hear about :)

Why is it every month for the past 40 years

I've had to put up with cramps, bloating, not to

mention a ton of inconvienence, and

what is their equivalent? huh?

Finally, now that I don't have to put up

with that every month junk anymore-

Mother Nature -as a joke now tortures me with

hot flashes!

Eddie freezes at night while I throw the blankets off the

bed before I burst into flames.

How come! What's up with this?

When do things ever get even?

What do men have to go through?

or do?

go to work?

what do I do everyday?

And who birthed all those babies?

I know in the Garden of Eden, Adam was told

"by the sweat of thy brow....."

well, I've had more sweat on my brow (thanks to those

stupid hot flashes) for the last 7 years

than Eddie's had all his working career.

Is this fair?

I guess it is, because that's the way it goes.

When I get to create MY own world-

you better believe

I'm gonna spread the joy-

I'll take the 40 years of bloating-

but the men on my world-

they get the dang hot flashes! :)

Some Things That Make Me Smile :)

Here are a few recent photos that just make me smile :)

Eddie got the chance to take a work related trip to Boston.

He almost turned it down because "I'll miss the opening day

of the muzzle loader hunt!"

Oh my goodness. Are men weird or what?

After a bit of talking to- he changed his mind :)

and got to visit a part of the U.S. he's never been to before.

That thought alone makes me smile,

The picture below is of Fenway Park-

home to the Boston Red Sox.

Now Eddie is in no way a baseball fan,

so when he came home with multiple picture of this

ball park and calling it with much familiarity,

and in a manly voice-

the Big Green Monster,

that really made me smile. :)

I'm so glad he went, and btw, so is he. He says

we both need to go back a spend a while site seeing!

This next pic of a little boy with a great big grin

really makes me giggle.

It's Mags.

He has grapes stashed in his mouth like a squirrel

and was hamming it up for me.

When I asked him "should I get the camera

and take your picture?"

He quickly nodded yes and reloaded with

fresh new grapes! What a nut.

He's only two. What are we gonna do with him when

he realizes how goofy he can be? They

say the nut doesn't fall far from his dads tree :)

************************

This picture gets me smiling in a misty eyed kind of way.

For a couple of weeks my Uncle Neil was here from CA.

This is my mom and her posse.

Starting from the left-

Uncle Lynn and Aunt NaDean (mom's sister)

Uncle Eldon and Aunt Colleen (mom's brother)

Mom

Uncle Neil (mom's brother)

only Aunt Faye was missing.

If you look close at mom's face- you notice it's kind of

raccoon-y looking.

That's because the crazies went fishing- in a boat-

and got totally sunburned.

When she's with her posse, she'll

do things I would never dream she'd do.

Climb in a boat. Neil has a walker right now,

did that stop him? no.

I love that my mom's family LOVE to be together.

It's a great example for their children.

I love being with my sisters

and I think my kids love to be together too.

What a legacy to pass on.

This next picture puts a sad little smile on my face

just because I know how hard Sierra worked

with this darn sheep.

And how much she learned to love it.

Kevin.

I feel bad the sheep didn't show any better

than she did. I'm not sure why

she could get such high marks at the

county fair and then not so good ones at State.

I hope Sierra is still proud of her efforts

because she should be.

Sierra never quit, she learned she could do hard things,

and I was the MOST proud when-

we learned Sierra's sheep came in last of her class-

Sierra held it together, with her head held high

and still loved her sheep.

We Clark girls are known for easy tears.

something I hate about myself -

so I was extra proud of my girl.

This last picture was taken at the fair.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

And of course it made me smile while

I gagged a little bit :)

deep fried chocolate covered bacon. ?

who doesn't love that?

Smile.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Father's Day and Birthdays

Sunday we celebrated!

We celebrated that summer is finally here-

to stay I hope.

We celebrated Father's Day

Dave and Eddie grilled hamburgers, brats,

and trout on the bar-b-quer for us.

That's what dads do.

Women are not allowed to touch the grill.

(Notice the GREEN grass in the background:)

We celebrated Sarai's birthday.

I don't have a picture of Sarai-

(somebody has got to tell me how I

can post more than just 5 pictures in one post.

I know it can be done, I've seen your

posts out there- please share your secret with me)

So I post the next best thing to Sarai-

Olivia.

Time goes by too fast.

Look how big she is.

We celebrated family.

I'm sorry if you are not a part of our family-

you are definitely missing out.

But you can become a honorary member pretty darn easy.

And I'm sorry if you are a member of our family.

We are just not normal.

What is Tommy doing to Brad anyway?

And can Brad never just "look like a normal boy?"

We celebrated Tommy and Eddie's birthdays too.

Someday I'll post us singing happy birthday.

Poor Olivia's ears had to be covered,

but she still whimpered through the

whole song.

Finally we celebrated when everybody went home.

Sunday's are the best,

but I'm sure glad they only come once a week.

We missed you. xoxoxo

Famous Family Proms :)

While writing/whining about Sierra's prom dress (see posting below)

I got thinking about other proms, proms of the past.

I decided to find the pictures I have of proms

gone by. If the pictures are a little bit blurry

(okay so a lot of blurriness)

It's because I took photos of them with my

handy camera. No scanning here people, I'm

just a novice at this stuff. But you'll get the picture. :)

This is Eddie and his buddy Robert (Rob to his friends)

ready for their Junior Prom- circa 1974.

Look how handsome, hubba hubba.

In a bit I'll show you Eddie and his date.

This is Brad and his first prom, first date, only a sophmore,

barely 16.

His date Amber was a few days shy of 16, but got

special permission from dad Lew to go. Notice Brads

hair, the style then, shaved underneath :) 1995

This was the only prom picture I could find of Tommy,

it was a group picture, I just cut it down. Too bad kids

don't give their mom's the pictures from prom- then we'd

know where they are :) Tom went with Sara. He looks very

handsome :) 2006

Here we have Kira with Andrew. He sure looks

serious :( Kira looks stunning :) I made her dress-

We were going through a "Lord of the Rings" period.

weird that Sierra is now dating Andrew's little bro.

2003

Lisa's Junior prom. She went with some guy-

I don't remember his name, I do remember their group

rented out the old Grove theater and watched a movie

after prom there. She wasn't so impressed with him.

But she looked gorgeous! I made her dress too.

Do I hint a bit of Mallory in her face???

1998

Oops, Brad again:) Well his hair is worth another look :)

Brad and Kelly before Senior prom. He looks a lot more

confident, eh? Sporting a kilt and all. Yes, his mother

was still proud of him, at least it's modest :) We had

to find.... I wish I could remember.... 11 or 13 kilts

for he and ALL his friends to wear. Believe it or not

Brad won Prom King this year in this outfit :)

Must have been his hunky legs :)

1997

I know you've been waiting- here's Eddie with his date-

Lola.

They look like babies.

1974

I've saved the best for last-

Eddie and I ready for my Senior prom.

12 sets of professionally done photos didn't turn

out that year- ours was one of them. I remember being so

sad. I'm grateful Eddie's mom took this one so we'd have

something to remember. I didn't make this dress, I did

make the dress for my Junior prom, but I didn't really like

the guy I went with, so I didn't post it (sorry Carlos, I'm

sure you're a nice person:) LOVE the color of Eddie's tux-

it was very far out in the day.

1976

That's my walk down prom memory lane :)

Thanks for coming!

and if you're mad that I posted your old prom pics-

don't leave your pictures at my house. xoxoxoxo