Self Realization

I think I found something out about myself that I 'm not sure if I like or not. I have realized that I'm not as forgiving as I should be.? It's one of those things- I can call myself fat, but if you do, I'm gonna get real mad at you things. The other day as I was walking in a large, annoying store, a mom and her kids were walking toward me in the aisle. The mom was pushing a shopping cart with a little one in the seat, a carrier in the basket portion and a little boy about 4 years old walking backwards beside her. I had no cart, just me walking in the aisle. The closer they got, I started worrying the little boy was going to run into me, because he was walking backwards not looking at me. I had no where to go to get out of the way, I was pinned between boy and shelves. The little boy looked up right in time to dodge me and they went on their way. I played out the scene in my mind, with the mom saying something like, "Bobby (little boy:) watch where you are going!" and I would reply politely, "No problem, Isn't he cute?" and we would be on our way. But as it was all going down, the mom, even though she was aware of the situation never said a word. We came within a fraction of an inch of him running into me. But because the mom didn't utter a sound, I was a bit frustrated. I was ready to be forgiving and even complimentary, but because the other adult involved acted like nothing was wrong, I was perturbed.

So here's my dilemma, why can I be nice and forgiving IF the other party asks for forgiveness, but if they don't ask or act sorry, why does it make me upset? I've a a few of these situations lately that have brought this reaction in me to the forefront of my mind. I guess I better get one of those stretchy WWJD bands to wear on my wrist, and whenever something like this happens again, I will snap that bracelet until I either stop having bad thoughts or get a big welt on my arm :)

Thanks for listening :) xoxoxo

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

Yard Sale Saturday

I'm having a yard sale Saturday.

What started out as a "family thing"

has turned into a "Wendy thing".

Our garage has been FULL of junk
(don't tell mom I said that :)

since we moved into our house, a little

over 1 1/2 years now.

We couldn't take it to DI because

it's all good stuff. (sarcastically said-

don't tell mom again.)

We have to sell it. Get our money's worth

out of it.

The time has never been right for a yard sale,

until now.

I was offered the use of a friends yard who lives

right across the street from Central school-

that is prime property for a sale!

Who could turn that down?

But the day she is having her sale is

tomorrow.

Only problem?

Sierra left today to go to Lake Powell

with her "other" family.

(does it seem like she spends a ton of time with them,

or that just me? How serious is she getting?

and am I the only one who's a little bit nervous about it?)

So Sierra's out of the picture.

Eddie has the chukar hunt.

Can't miss the chukar hunt.

One of the stake presidency is going with him,

can't disappoint the stake presidency.

My goodness-

where does our allegences lie?

(I know that's spelled wrong, I'm too lazy to look

it up. you get the picture)

So I seriously haven't been able to sleep

at nights, thinking- "how am I going to be

able to set all that crap up by myself?"

You should see how much stuff there is!

And it's good stuff, let's not forget that.

I am happy about the idea that the garage will

be empty (er).

Just not happy that at one time, I had tons

of offers to help, and now,

better offers (for them) have come up

and I'm stuck :/

Oh well.....

I'm having a yard sale on Saturday!

Some of this good stuff could be yours!

But right at noon- whatever is left is going to DI.

Some Thursday Thoughts

So many things to talk about today.

But I'll keep it down to just the most important

things rolling around in my skull.

+ I want more money, so I'm going to start charging

the city for the use of my newly laid blacktop in front

of my house. The area where they clean out the ditch

and leave all the dead branches, rotting apples, used

plastic bottles, whatever is stuck in the ditch.

The refuse they leave there and think fairies will clean up

after them. They want a raise? Me too. frustrating.

+Last week we helped with a funeral of a gentleman in our

ward. He was an athlete of world class caliber.

His family had all his trophies, ribbons, newspaper

articles and accolades on display.

They spoke of his prowess in the athletic world.

He broke world records and still holds a few.

An amazing feat.

They never mentioned he was on the YM General Board

or that he served in the Stake YM presidency

or that he was in many Elders quorum and HP presidencies

or that he spoke in youth conferences and firesides.

We had him speak at a stake girls camp a few years ago.

When I die- I want everyone to know

I served my Heavenly Father the best I knew how.

I felt so hollow for him.

His children didn't know him.

They looked at him with "worldly" eyes.

how sad.

+Book review!

I didn't realize how fascinating the history of Egypt could be!

I just finished the book "Nefertiti" by Michelle Moran.

What a great read!

I Googled Nefertiti and found the book to be

historically sound.

And on the plus side- it is

a smut-free book, sometimes hard to find :)

This is a bust of Nefertiti found in the studio of

an Egyptian artist named Thutmose.

The author tells her story in a totally believable way.

She puts facts and fiction together to weave a

hard to put down story!

I'm a fan of the Hunger Games, but this story

was every bit as entertaining.

This bust is a computer generated depiction of

what Nefertiti actually looked like.

She is one tough woman.

The life span of ancient Egyptians was much shorter than ours.

they matured quicker?

She was only 15 when married to

17 year old Amunhotep the future pharaoh.

This bust depicts her in her very early 20"s.

She had an unheard of at the time- six daughters,

while trying to have one heir to the throne son.

The picture below is what the experts think is her

mummy.

The author comes up with an explanation of

how the body is mutilated. And it's very believable :)

As when I read about the pioneers, or any

of those who came before us, I am amazed

at how people would survive, live, love and progress.

I am floored when I read of how civilized these people were

and yet how paganistic and superstitious they could be.

A great, quick, grab you by the collar and run read.

Good thing Thursdays are made for rambling,

I certainly did my share.

I'm still frustrated with the city though,

wish my want for my $ could come true too.

but let's not start that again :)

Lake Powell - Red Neck Style

Over the Labor Day weekend-

Eddie and I got to go to Lake Powell.

Lucky, lucky, lucky, you'd say.

And you'd be right :)

We left early Friday morning- 5 am

(the best time to travel in my opinion)

And headed for the Bullfrog area of Powell.

I've never been to this end of the lake, so I was

pretty stoked!

Just before Hanksville we stopped at a scenic

viewing area. It looks

like a eagle scout project where

the scout put up metal pipes to point out

points of interest. Notice that Eddie is looking at

"Brigham's Butt"

This should have been my first clue to the

tone of the trip.

We went with Kim
(this is him driving his AWESOME boat!

It is yellow, beautiful and fast.

You feel rich just sitting in it.

I loved riding around in it, seeing the sights.

That is Mike in the background.

I love him :)

We also went with Marla-

Kim's wife, Eddie's sister.

Two of the most generous people I know.

This is Marla's favorite seat on the boat-

It is the very back (stern?)

She even sits there when we are going

scary fast across the water.

She is brave.

On the way to Powell,

we had Mike and Jeromy ride with us.

We were to stay with Kim's relatives on a new houseboat

they just purchased. They told us all about this new boat,

it is 54 feet long, can sleep tons of people-

(that's good, cause there is going to be 22 of us)

has a slide, the luxury edition.

We are so excited! The closer to the lake we get, we

start seeing houseboats. We point out one

that we think it's going to look like.

Kinda like this one ------>

What a beauty!

When we get to where our houseboat is docked,

we see our boat.

But let me tell you a little bit more before I

show you it.

Our boat was a floating liquor store.

Eddie and I brought ONE case of water

for the two of us to share.

one.

One lady on the boat had 8 cases of Corona's in a bottle.

eight.

one lady.

Oh my,

this makes for exciting nights :)

and afternoons,

and lets admit it-

mornings.

Even the kids-

a 3 year old, 7 year old,

two 11 year olds,

a 15 year old and a boy 17ish

are drinking what I think is hard core for kids.

Coke.

a 3 year and coke?

imagine that all day.

a little hyper.

anywho, the unveiling of our houseboat-

This was the "Weekend Locators"

maiden voyage.

Yep, a trailer park trailer that floats :)

complete with the dark wood paneling.

Not quite what we were expecting, but

we had a blast on the darn thing.

Turns out the owners did look at a time share into

the bigger, fancier boat- but wanted something

they could use when they had the time to use it.

Who can blame them.

Sherry- the owner, told me not to take

this picture, she didn't want anybody to know it

was her boat :)

We slept on the top, under the stars-

it was beautiful. Really the best place

on the boat.

(when the holding tanks in the bathroom got full,

inside the cabin was not so fun)

The boat we stayed on might have been a little bit red necked, but we

still had a TON of FUN. Eddie even went down the crazy slapped up

slide quite a few times! Each time you'd reach the bottom, your bottom

would slap the end of the slide, I'm sure it hurt :)

Notice the stack of 2x4's under the end of the slide-

they were used to get the angle of the slide just right :)

We did see some of the most beautiful scenery on God's earth!

And while we were viewing it - in my head is playing "How Great Thou Art"

(seriously, hymns play through my mind the whole time we sight see-

it's just so beautiful.)

But blaring out of the speakers of the boat is that song Brendon Frazier

dances to in Encino Man (? or George of the Jungle?) about

"my monkey don't dance, my monkey don't......."

or we are listening to Metallica-

so I hide in my little hymnal head :)

According to the maps we have of Lake Powell-

up almost every little fingerling of the lake are ruins

and petroglyphs. We only see one set of any of them-

but those we see are fabulous!

I hope to see the DVD in the next life of

the person who drew these pictures-

just to see who it is, what it depicts and why he drew them.

Kim and Marla bought a blow-up drag behind the boat thing from

a guy on KSL.com- he said the tube had never tipped over..... ever.

So our gang had to prove that wrong. Of course we tipped it over

multiple times :) I rode it for a while- I don't think my arms and

shoulders will ever be the same :) Luckily I rode it with small

children on board, so no tipping while I was on it.

This picture is of Eddie and Marla-

they had a heck of a ride and just a few minutes after this

picture was taken, they had a phenomenal tipage :) Marla flew

off first- then Eddie flew! I am surprised something wasn't broken

on either of them! But they both had a blast.

Mike, Jeromy and Travis all rode it at once-

that's a lot of weight!

That sucker bounced so high, it took MY breath away.

They had the worse wipe-out- bumping into each

other while flying through the air and pushing each other down to the

bottom of the lake :) Travis came up hurt, he looked hurt

(and how could he

tell he was hurt after ingesting all that beer?)

It must have been a pretty big booboo :)

This is Eddie's usual pose for my camera :)

Worn out from all the fun :) poor boy.

We had a great time, LOVE my family

and their quirky ways. They are so generous.

fun and crazy!

It made for a memorable, bloggable weekend!

I hope to go again next year!

but, maybe stay in a motel.

Ode to Too Much on My Plate :)

Life is a bit crazy

especially at this particular time.

Four more days and we'll have

a wedding.

Two more days and we'll have

a Grandma Pugh carnival.

I don't know which is more work

or stress.

But both will make someone

happy.

So both are worthy events.

I do pray every night

that I can survive

and

be pleasant :)

That is the trick- enjoying the journey!

All of you are invited to the Carny-

Thursday 6:30 - 8:00 pm

at my house.

Come enjoy the night with me!!