SENIOR PICTURES!

I am officially old enough to be sorting through senior picture proofs with a child I gave birth to. Wherever did the time go? Are our children catching up with us, or am I actually 17 years older than I was the day I lay in that hospital bed feeling as if I was birthing a Volkswagen? Alas, I believe it is the latter, and I am fast approaching the big 4-0! (Well in reality I am fast approaching the big 3-8, but the other will be here in a wink)

Back to those senior pictures. An interesting experience, one I enjoyed thoroughly. I have found it interesting however to discuss the process with the other mothers at church. On one hand my dear Brittany found the whole thing exhilarating and would have continued posing indefinitely had the photographer wished her to. We debated for weeks over which outfits would look the best and painstakingly narrowed it down to eight! We spent many, many hours shopping for and coordinating the perfect jewelry, accessories and make-up, and of course the manicure and pedicure. We agonized over just the perfect hairstyle for each ensemble, and truth-be-told, we both loved every minute of it. The 6 hours spent posing were a hoot, and gobs of fun! On the other hand, the young men at church took a completely different approach. They grudgingly spent a few minutes picking two shirts that would match their jeans well enough, and were adamant that they be in and out in an hour. The whole of which they found rather tedious. And we wonder why men find us women so hard to figure out!

I will get my turn at experiencing the other end of things. David greatly dislikes posing for pictures and I am usually able at best to capture an awkward and pained expression on his face. I have learned to try to catch him unawares and have found the results much better. Christian is a bit less camera-shy, and while he doesn't always give me a nice, sweet pose, he certainly likes to jump into as many candid shots as he can. As a result, I have dozens of pictures with his goofy little face peeking into the corner. I guess it's not necessarily just a gender thing!

Perchance you are completely eager to view Brittany's proofs... you can do so at victoryphotography.biz (password: brittany)

GOTTA KEEP UP!

Okay, I must admit I have been motivated to blog this morning by my sister, who is presently cranking out a new post each day! Have any of you ever had a sibling who could do anything you could do, only better? That's my sister! The thing is, she is so nice and likeable and willing to laugh at herself that it's tough to resent her for it (AND she'll always be older than me, which is a big plus now that I'm pushing 40!) Therefore, I have happily resigned myself to being the lesser Clark sister (rather ironic if one stops to consider...well, let's just not go there!) Lesser in accomplishment that is! One might be tempted to read some underlying bitterness into my words; however one would be wrong... I love her dearly, admire and respect her, often hold her up as my role model, and only very rarely take delight in HER embarrassing moments! Well, that's not completely true, we've both always been prone to enjoy the other's faux-pas (I don't know how to make that plural!) it's just that she has a much better memory than I do despite her short-term memory claim. I remember the rough details of an event, and often have to rely on my creativity to fill it out.

You all might be expecting this next paragraph to be an anecdote about my sister, given the lead in, but alas, it's not. Just a little update on midwest living... We are nearing the end of our second week back in school and have almost adjusted to being back on a scheduled routine. We were in a bit of a rush this morning as Brittany's alarm didn't wake her up. She is the one who gets the ball rolling at 5:30am. I am next to arise at 6:30am, at which time Brittany has usually just finished the "wash hair--blow dry hair--straighten hair--curl hair" routine that she goes through each and every morning. I roust the boy's out of bed (not as easy as it sounds mind you!) point David in the direction of the shower, feed and dress a semi-comatose Christian and scoot him out the door in time to catch the bus at 7:05am. We try to have lunches made, clothes laid out and backpacks packed the night before, which certainly helps the morning run more smoothly. We are usually quite good about keeping up with this through, oh say, mid September! I pledge to last at least until October this year!

I happily report that the humidity seems to be easing up just a bit, which is quite nice since the air conditioning in the car went out two weeks ago. I have had to adjust to the bird's nest hair look that I seem to sport after driving with the windows down. As I've admitted before, I am a firm believer in climate-controlled living and this fresh air blowing through my hair thing just doesn't work for me. Seems every time we turn around lately, one of the cars needs work. I must say however, I was quite impressed when our mechanic (whom we are getting to know quite well!) made a house call the other day. Our car would not start despite our best efforts, and we feared we might need to have it towed the 20+ miles to the mechanic's shop. Not so... he just came over and fixed it right in our driveway. Now granted, it wasn't a complicated repair, but nonetheless, I think that's just gotta be a perk of small-town living!

And that's the news from Dale, where all the women are organized, the pastor's good-looking and his children are above-average! (I kind of stole that line...)

NEW BLOG ON THE BLOCK!

I know Peter Brown has been disheartened by the plethara of blog shut-downs, so I'm here to give a plug for a new one, my sister's, and she's still in that honeymoon phase where you blog everyday (you know, the one that Jeff never went through!) We all remember starting our blogs and feeling like we have achieved literary genius and realize there is one person actually reading it, two if we count the spouse we've pretty much cornered and made read it. I can look back and laugh about it now that I have gathered my great following of oh, probably about 10 readers! But I am not so puffed up as to forget my humble beginnings. So in your daily blog perusing, stop over at www.unmerited-favor.blogspot.com/ and of course, leave a comment for her. Just don't be so wowwed by her wit that you forget to come visit me as well!

SELF-PORTRAITS!

Brittany returned home from her trip to California late last night! We picked her up in Indianapolis (a mere 3 hours from our small blip on the map!)at 10:05pm. We finally arrived home somewhere around 1:00am at which time Jeff and the boys went right to bed. I, being the wonderful and attentive mother that I am (you don't call me June for nothin'!) stayed up with my rather wound up daughter, eager to see all the goodies she had accumulated in her two weeks away from home, and also to see the pictures from her trip. After patiently waiting for her 200+ pictures to upload onto the computer, we set up a slide show, anxious to relive her trip. I have included some of my personal favorites above... just a small sampling of the 29 self-portraits she had taken while riding in the car with her cousin.

She had a wonderful trip, plans to return at Christmas, and is now sure the Lord is calling her to California for college. Thank you to each of you who took such good care of her and made her trip so very special!

The kid's headed back to school this morning. I caught Christian stuffing a few Hot Wheels into his pocket in the event of indoor recess. I looked out the window at the bright, sunny weather and laughed as I confiscated the vehicles. It is now mid-morning and we are enjoying a rather heavy downpour and I'm pretty sure I am hearing thunder in the distance! I hope Brittany's car windows are rolled up...

I AM ALL ALONE!

I am never alone! Sometimes my children even follow me into the bathroom, and yet here I find myself home alone for four days! Brittany is in California for a visit while Jeff and the boys are at camp. I was originally planning to spend the week at camp but felt the Lord leading me in a different direction when I discovered the heat index would be in the 110-115 range! That insane heat makes me cranky, and camp is not the place for a hot, cranky, sleep-deprived woman who hates being sweaty! Did you know that your eyelids sweat! I didn't know that previous to living here, but I do now! I must say, I feel called to a climate-controlled environment!

Last week we enjoyed a lovely visit from Don and Ralphine Totemeier! They are presently biking across the country. They started in Southern Cal sometime in May and plan to end up at the Statue of Liberty pert near September I believe! I must admit that the thought of riding my bicycle 1/5 of a mile to the grocery store has never crossed my mind until now! And even now, although it has crossed my mind, I have no intention of actually doing it. Moving on... we had such a nice visit with the Totes. They helped us with a few projects around the house too! Those of you who have visited my home and observed how keenly I guard my bedroom door, lest someone actually open it and see where I clean my house into, will get a kick out of the freak incident that occurred during the visit. Upon opening my room the smallest amount possible to wedge myself through, lo and behold if that darned door didn't just fall off the hinges! Well, Don kindly fixed it for me while graciously pretending he didn't notice it's ransacked appearance! While he fixed the door, I replaced the air-condition filter, and while unwrappping the new filter, let go of the plastic wrap it came in, which was then promptly sucked right up the vent! Don moved from the door to the utility closet to attempt to recover the errant plastic wrap! In so doing, he of course had to open the closet door, revealing another one of my emergency stash-the-mess zones! The phone rang just then, and by the time I got finished with the call, Ralphine was in the thick of things cleaning my closet! The best part however was when she thanked me for allowing her to do it! I promptly invited them to stay another month! (-: No, just kidding, well actually not!

They were able to stay until Sunday and attend church with us before cycling off into the moist blue yonder! They were a great encouragement to us and we thoroughly enjoyed every moment of their visit. I have a couple more closets that need cleaning if any of you would like to plan a trip!

Well, summer progresses and in just 12 short days, school will start! Once there is a bit of routine back in my life, I am sure I will be better about posting regularly! Besides, Christian riding the school bus has always provided a lot of fodder for my Indiana updates! I am hoping I don't have to remind him not to lick people on the bus this year...