Editing

I hardly ever mess with the layout and what not of my blog so I've been playing with it today. So if I need to stop before I'm finished and it looks REALLY dumb, that's why and hopefully sometime I will get things back to normal. ha ha

Christmas with the Clarks

This year Matt and I stayed here in Laramie to spend Christmas with his family. It was my first Christmas being away from my family so it was different but very fun. On Christmas Eve we spent most of the day at his parent's house and then ate a shrimp dinner, which is a tradition for them. I'm not all too fond of shrimp, but it wasn't too bad and I ended up eating 11 of the little creatures (everyone else ate more... even 9 year old Brad). :) Then we read Luke chapters 1 and 2 then had a little music program where we all sang and played the piano and stuff. After that we played cards until about 11:30 and we stayed the night there even though we only live a few minutes away.
Christmas morning was different from my family, too. Normally we wake my parents up at like 6:00am then we all gather in their room to read from Luke 2 before we can open our presents. Well with Matt's family we didn't wake up until around 8:00 and Brad, Mary, (Matt's 9 and 11 year old sibblings) Matt, and I had to drag his brothers (ages 17 and 22) out of bed and we didn't read scriptures because we had done it the night before. Then Matt's dad calls everyone upstairs when he declares that it's time, and the opening of presents is pretty much the same. Then we had breakfast, talked to Matt's missionary brother Lane who is serving in Russia, played some games, then ate dinner, played some more games, and Matt and I went home at about midnight.
I didn't take hardly any pictures but here are a couple. We're headed over to Lyman next week to spend the New Year with my family and watch my little brother play varsity basketball so we'll get to open some more presents then. Merry Christmas (a little late) to everyone!

Out little Christmas tree. I posted a pic of it when we cut it down, but here it is all decorated.


Matt and his siblings, Nate, Brad, and Mary playing the new playstation trivia game. (we played that game ALL day). :)

Handsome Matthew wearing his new sweater getting ready to open another present.

And Link resting on my lap. This is the Clark family dog and I adore him. I think the feelings are mutual because he comes to me no matter who else is calling him and he spent literally the entire Christmas Eve and day on my lap. The only times I can remember him moving are when we were eating. Brad and Mary bought him a new vest, they didn't think he would like it but he got mad when they tried to take it off. :)

Oh and I forgot to mention the present that I most appreciated from Matt's parents: they're paying for me to go to the eye doctor and to get new contacts. That meant a lot to me because it's something that I deseperately need! I'm very thankful for my amazing inlaws.

Busy semester and lots of pictures

Hey out there to any of you who still read this since it's been like 2 months since I've posted. I've been finishing out the semester and have been pretty busy.
So back around Halloween I went to Lyman to visit. I had fun with my sisters and played in the leaves with my nieces and nephews. I have a TON of pictures, but I thought I'd just post a couple.



This one of Ashton is so cute. :)


Even before that, my mom, dad, and brother Michael came to see one of my concerts so here are a few pictues from that.






For Thanksgiving Matt and I went to Lovell with his family. It was a lot of fun and Matt had lots of cousins there! In fact, I think there were about 80 people at dinner (which was held in the church cultural hall). The next two days we played in a volleyball tournament. Matt's family came up with 3 teams, but our team did the best and took 2nd overall. I actually could still play pretty well and even though I can't hit on a men's net, I could set and it was said by many that I was the best passer on the team. ;) So there's me, Matt, his cousin Bailey, Megan who is married to Matt's cousin Jared, and last is Kyle my brother in law.


This year Matt and I decided to go to the mountains and cut down a Christmas tree. I wore snowshoes the whole time and it was so pretty and so much fun. So here are some pictures of that event.

And finally, here are some pictures of my last weekend of college performing (unless I decide to get a masters and am in choirs then...). The first two are of the Messiah where I was a soloist, the first one I'm sitting next to Kyle (he was in the performance also) and the next one is with Matt and my family who came to visit again. Then the last two pictures are of me and my sister in law Mary (she's burried under the many layers of material on my choir dress. hee hee) and then of me and my awesome choir director Dr. Lamartine after my last concert.

I wore this dress in high school choir, but I think I've lost weight cause I kept having to adjust the dang thing. YAY! :)

I only cried a little.... so what if I'm emotional and sentimental? :)

Vocal Jazz!

Last Friday the Vocal Jazz Ensemble here at UW did a workshop for about 140 high school students. It was so much fun, probably the funnest thing I've done with this group so far and this is my third year in it. I worked a lot with the students which was good for me since I'm about ready to do that with the rest of my life! I'm kinda sad that this semester is my last hurrah as far as college performing and this workshop was a blast. The first picture is me with some of the group (Steph, Mike, me, Erik, and our awesome director Dr. Lamartine who is very small. :) The next two are pictures of us performing. We have another concert on November 13th so if you're in town come watch!

Tagged!

I've never been "tagged" before but Karissa got me so here ya go. :) So if I tag you, copy and paste and post with your own answers.

8 TV shows I like to watch:
1. The Office
2. Chuck
3. Alias
4. Scrubs
5. Invader Zim (haha)
6. Sportscenter (just not baseball. so boring)
7. My Name is Earl
8. I don't have cable and can't think of others that I like!

Favorite Restaurants:
1. Olive Garden
2. Old Chicago
3. Grand Avenue Pizza
4. Corona Village
5. Mandarin Garden
6. Little Ceasears :)
7. Sonic
8. Fazolis

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1. Went to classes
2. Practiced jazz music
3. Typed two papers
4. Hugged Matt
5. Got my hair cut (AGAIN! Thanks Stef!!)
6. Finished my bag of halloween pumpkins
7. Got a parking ticket :(
8. Played cards on the computer

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Student teaching
2. Graduation!
3. Starting a family! (I'm so impatient about this)
4. Seeing my family
5. The holidays
6. Matt finishing pharmacy school
7. Having some money and paying off loans! (someday...)
8. Buying a decent car and a house (someday...)

8 People I tag
1. April
2. Christena
3. Dallin
4. Brookie Carroll
5. Stefany
6. Rani (if she's alive!) ;)
7. Cassie (if she even reads my blog!)
8. Mikey

About Matt

I've seen a few people post this little survey thingy and I kinda liked it so here ya go. Nice and boring. ;)

What's his name? Matthew Randal Clark

How long have you been married? A year and 7 months

How long did you date? We dated for about 3 months then we were engaged for a little less than 3! Faster than I ever thought it would happen, but it worked out great. :)

How old is he? 24

Who eats more? Geez probably me, ha ha we actually eat about the same but I really do think he eats a little bit more.

Who said I love you first? Matt did, technically. :)

Who is smarter? Matt for sure.

Whose temper is worse? Mine! Matt is a very patient person.

Who does the laundry? Me but he washes his work clothes and always helps put clothes away.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? uh, if you're standing at the foot of the bed then it's me.

Who cooks dinner? Cook... dinner...? hee hee when we cook I probably do it more, but we both kinda do and his ideas are usually more creative and tasty.

Who pays the bills? Both of us, I keep track of them and when they're due but we pay them together so we know how much money we're spending.

Who is more spoiled? ME.

Who drives when you are in the same car? Most of the time Matt does but sometimes I do, usually when it's my idea to go somewhere.

Who is more stubborn? ha ha me for sure.

Whose parents do you see the most? Matt's parents live in town so we see them a lot but I like it.

Who proposed? Well, Matt did but we talked about it and knew we were getting married before he got down on one knee. :)

Who has more friends? Uh, probably me but he has lots, too. We have a lot of mutual friends.

Who has more siblings? Matt does, he has 4 brothers and 1 sister, and I have 2 sisters and 2 brothers.

Who wears the pants in the family? Me of course. ;) Nah we're a pretty equal partnership.

Student teaching/I'm kinda a psycho

I finally got my student teaching placement and...... I get to stay here in Laramie! Matt and I are both pretty excited about it cause I won't have to commute so we can save money and we won't have to be apart. I'll spend 8 weeks at an elementary school out in west Laramie, then another 8 weeks at the Junior High which is only a block from our apartment so that is great for us!
So I have to talk about the "dress code" that's been pounded into the heads of all the girls in my phase class (the people who are student teaching in the spring). This code is for our practicum, student teaching, and future teaching. Our advisor has told us that we basically have to wear shirts up to our noses that two people can wear at the same time (translation: it can not be known that you are a woman. No "curves" can be visible. Shirts must be baggy and "frumpy" and must be very high cut). We also have to wear pants that come up higher than the belly button to ensure that nothing shows if we bend over or ect. Plus we are to have NO open toed shoes and NO jeans (which is kinda a given). I'm kinda making fun of it, but I really can see the point of it.
So here are some pictures of me just being a dork. The first one is what I wore today when I did peer teaching. I think it's a good example of "teacher" dress. I have to tell you that I don't particularily like the way I look though, which is the point I think. :) The other ones are of me sporting Matt's new pharmacy lab coat. I think I was more excited about him getting it than he was. haha I just think it looks awesome! Those pics are kinda blurry but it's cool cause on one side it says "UW School of Pharmacy" and the other side has his name on it. So enjoy and those of you who already know who weird I am will appreciate these. :)

Long time no talk. :)

So Matt and I took a really great trip to California and I've been wanting to post pictures but our internet hasn't been working much and when it does it is s............l.................o.....................w. That could be because we have a wireless card and are stealing it from some random source but who knows! heh heh. So Matt just started pharmacy school and we're both way excited. I'm starting my LAST year of school here at UW. This fall I take a 4 hour a day class to prepare me for teaching (along with practicum) and then I student teach in the spring (I still have yet to know where I'll be going, though). I'm really excited to be done and I'm excited to be a teacher! I don't know why I really even write things anyway cause I can count 2 maybe 3 people who read this and they are my sisters and my mom, all of whom I talk to on at least a semi-regular basis and they already know what's going on in my life. I think I'll maybe delete this blog but I'm not sure yet... so for now, here's some lame news for you to read. :)

Temple Time!

Last weekend Matt and I ventured to Lyman again and then on to Utah to go to the Jordan River temple with Mike. It was a really great weekend and the temple was amazing as usual. Everyone was happy and cheerful that day, even my grandma who is cranky more than 80% of the time. :) It was just a really good day and here are some pictures.

Matt and I in Rik and Christena's car on the way.

Everyone who went to the session. Christena and I "kissing" Mike. He doesn't seem to like it. hee hee

Rik, Christena, Mike, me, Matt. Happy times. :)

Christena, my mom, and me after the temple. More happy times! hee hee us with our hubbies again, and Christena could NOT keep her balance. :) Matt and I in front of the temple.

Mike's Visit and Sobe Bombs

My younger brother Michael came to visit us for a few days. I felt kinda bad cause we didn't do anything too exciting and he had to sit here for a few hours by himself while we were both at work, but I think he had fun. We went to the mountains to build a fire and have marshmallows, played lots of games, and went jet skiing. I don't have any jet ski pictures, though. :( I was glad that Mike came up to visit cause he had never been to Laramie before and it was great to be able to spend some time with him since he's leaving on his mission soon.

Matt, trying to start the fire.

You can't really see it, but there is a huge boulder above Mike's head to the right.

I felt bad for the tree that Matt ripped up, so here I am hugging it. :)

Matt being annoyed with me while we're playing "the bean game."

Mike with his goofy grin while winning the bean game.

Also, I wanted to post this awhile ago and kept forgetting. A few weeks ago Matt and I went to the mountains in just about the same spot as these pictures, and taught his cousin Jared and his wife Megan the art of sobe bombs (thank you Rik). :D We tried three bottles and this is the only one that worked. It wasn't really great, but still pretty good. If you get bored, fast forward to about 40 seconds. :)

More About WORK!

Since I wasn't getting enough hours at the Open School, Matt begged his dad to give me a job within the family business: "Clark and Sons Lawn Care." My generous father in law was ok with it, and we assured him that I was experienced. In high school I worked a summer on the grounds crew at Little America and the next summer for Jack Bluemel in Lyman. But those were both crews made up of mostly girls, so this is totally different for me. We have Matt, his younger brother Kyle (who is a year younger than me), another brother Nate age 16, a cousin Brian (my age) who moved our couch and our washer into two different apartments by himself, and Jacob who is not related whatsoever and is 18. So I'm the only girl and totally out of my leauge. I have never worked so hard in my life, but it's nice to be doing some physical labor and I get to work with Matt almost all of the time so that makes it even better. Plus since I do have another job, I'm only there until lunch.
Anyway, so today Matt and I were pruning a yard. When I say pruning you probably think it's clipping a few bushes. OH no no no. This week Matt has already cut down 24 aspen trees and is working on a box elder tree today. So I started clipping down some lilac bushes and hauling trees and branches to the truck and trailer. In the two hours I was there, I pulled four splinters from my flesh, three branches from my clothes and hair (they really were stuck, honest), lost my shoe in the truck bed amidst all of the trees, and almost had at least three heart attacks while watching Matt work the chain saw.
This is getting long, but I have to tell this. So when you're chopping down a whole tree in someones yard, you're supposed to chop off the branches first, then the main trunk in pieces. So I'm dragging a large piece of aspen (hee hee) from the backyard and look up to see Matt half way up the tallest and fattest branch on the box elder WHILE running the chain saw on the SAME branch. Heart attack #1. Next he gets the saw stuck in the branch so he climbs higher, with no foot holds like a freakish monkey, and is yanking on the saw and the top of the branch at the same time and all the while periodically losing his balance. Heart attack #2. Next he has me climb the latter that's next to the tree (very tall) to hand him a tie down so that he can tie the saw to the tree so that if it falls it won't hit the ground. I get to the top, hand him the thing and he starts violently shaking the branch. Suddenly the saw falls, along with the huge branch, and the branch hits Matt, then the latter (which I'm on), then the ground with a boom. Heart attack #3. So when we came home for lunch, we had to mend three gashes in Matt's arm along with one across his right eye brow where he was stabbed by a limb. And he just went back to do more of this... Heart attack #4. :)

Pharmacy School!!!

So we found out today that Matt got into the UW Pharmacy school after all! It's very exciting cause now I feel like our lives are going in a definite direction. He's SUCH a smart guy, one of the smartest people I have ever met so I'm happy for him. That means we'll be in Laramie for another 4 years, but after that it will be well worth it! :) I love him SO much and I feel very happy and blessed to have such a wonderful person in my life and I get to keep him for forever. :D

Guns and Stuff

Matt and I went on another adventure today. His mom and the younguns are in Lovell right now so they asked us to deliver their papers. So after waking up to do that, we decided to stay awake and go up to the Snowy Range mountains about 30 miles west of Laramie. We took Matt's 22 rifle, along with a backpack filled with chocolate sandwhich cookies, bananas, water, bug spray with 40% deet, and my camera. We hiked and fished, too, but I only had the camera for the shooting. :)

We forgot targets, so Matt made some snowballs and I decorated them with pine cones. :)

This is me loading the gun. See the intense concentration.
Matt taking aim.
Me taking aim. I actually hit like 4 of those snowballs there in the distance!
We decided to go out a different way that we came in, but we were stopped only about a mile away by this snow drift that was blocking the road. Matt wasn't too pleased about that.

Oh Long Gone Childhood!

Last weekend we ventured to Lyman again because April was coming from Washington and our mom MADE us go visit her. ;) While we were there, Christena and I, along with our husbands, went to the rodeo grounds (if you're from Lyman you know what I mean) and played tennis. It was pretty funny cause the courts are CRAP but we still had fun. Then Christena and I recalled some childhood memories and photo documented the occasion.

I was always too scared to climb the top part, but Christena never was.

Yay! I conquered my fear!

ha ha we're too old for the merry-go-round. We both got so dizzy!

Christena was always more flexible than me.

She could also do the monkey bars, which I never could.

Haiku

My religion teacher told us that if we came up with an interesting haiku for the Buddhism test he might give us extra points. So, while I was vigorously "studying" for the test, (I got an A, thank you) I thought I'd practice my haiku writing. I'm not embarassed about sharing some cause the people who read this already know that I'm somewhat of a psycho. :) Plus I think I'm funny.

About People:

I love my husband
He is the joy of my life
His name is Matthew.

Sarah is too loud
She draws lots of attention
How embarassing.

Mel is a dumb girl
Oh why does she know nothing?
That girl is stupid.

Buudha is insane
I think he's off his rocker
So ridiculous.

About Food:

Food is on my mind
Though I am not too hungry
I still think of food.

Pop-tarts are yummy
They will likely make me fat
But I just don't care.

I love strawberries
Man they are delicious!
Yay I eat healthy!

A cake sounds yummy
But my oven is broken
Geez I want my cake!

About nothing:

This pencil is dumb
Why? The lead is much too short
I'll get a new one.

I am studying
I do not understand this
I will surely fail.

I cannot focus
I'm done with summer classes
Time to go have fun.

I love green and 4
They basically rule my life
I am really weird.

P.S. I do take requests. ;)

The Working Life...

I'm taking summer classes and I have a job, but since this is my last week of class I've been starting to wonder how I'm going to earn money. I got a job at the Open School here in Laramie, and I thought it would be a good idea cause it would look good on a resume (since I want to be a teacher) and would give me good experience. I actually like it, but I don't do any teaching at all and I feel like I'm just basically baby sitting. Also, when I got hired they told me I'd work MWF from 3:00-5:30 which is fine cause I have class all day. So I figured I'd find another job after my classes that worked in the mornings so I'd be able to make more money. So my schedule has been changed 15 million times and I'm always confused about it and I've been working TT afternoons, too, which is nice cause it's extra hours. But I looked at the schedule last night, and I'm not working those anymore, but they want me to work during the lunch hour from 11:00-12:30 which would make it hard to get a different job (and I told them I couldn't work that once my classes ended). I'm kinda frustrated about it... I don't mean to complain, but why not vent here on this little page to my 1.5 readers? :)

Impatient

I have decided that I'm an impatient person. Well I guess it didn't take too much for me to decide that. :)
My whole life I've had a hard time enjoying the phase that I'm in because I want to move on to what's next. It was especially hard that Christena is only a year older, so when she got to do things (like shave her legs, pierce her ears, wear makeup, and other girlish things) before I did, I felt like I had the right to do them, too. I did beat her on contacts, though. :D
So the one thing I wasn't impatient about was getting married. For one thing, I was waiting for a missionary when I met Matt and I had zero plans of settling down with anyone else (I'm very happy with the way things worked out by the way). So we'd been married about a year and I wanted to move on to the next phase... babies. Most of you know that I did think I was pregnant, but it was some sort of false alarm (I guess it's what the world calls a miscarriage). :) So now I'm impatient about that.
I'm also impatient about student teaching... I turned in my application months ago, and I still don't know where I'll be next spring and all the normal ed. (not music ed) people at the university already know where they're going, so I'm bugged by it. I don't like not knowing things, espeically when I know that other people know them. I don't like secrets.
I guess I'll have to work on my patience, but the more I try, the worse it seems to be!

Posting

I never have anything very exciting to post, plus I don't really think anyone really reads this blog anyway, ha ha... maybe if I had kids it would be more interesting to read... oh well, Matt and I are just boring. :)

I LIED!!!!

I totally lied about the "beauty" of Laramie. I HATE it and the crazy weather. Yesterday we had rain, hail, lightening, thunder, wind, snow, sun, and (best of all) TORNADOES!!!! Stupid Laramie, tornadoes are one of my biggest fears! I was in class in the basement of the classroom building at the time and we all were gathered together in the hallways, but Matt was in our 2nd story apartment, ONE BLOCK away from the Jr. High School where an equipment shed was blown to shreds and took many trees, fences, and goal posts with it. There were a few tornadoes really close to my inlaws house and lots of stop lights are out. The one closest to their house still has the polls, but no lights except one that is wrapped around the poll. And there are a TON of trees down in that area, torn up by the roots or broken in half and hanging out on top of houses. There was a ton of rain coming down yesterday and the day before, so the weight of the water on the trees and the soft ground probably didn't help out in the fate of those trees. And to top things off, we don't have power and probably won't for a few days due to downed power lines. I'm at the university right now cause they have power (bummer cause I had to go to class). So, bottom line, Laramie BITES. :) We were actually pretty lucky though cause Windsor Colorado got hit pretty bad and as far as I know no one was hurt in Laramie. But still, it was scary, and it's really annoying to not have power. It makes me count my blessings and think about maybe actually getting some food storage... but on the other hand, we do have a propane camp stove, and I could eat a few things on that. :) Good thing I'm going to Lyman today where I will have power, but where I'll have to boil my drinking water... I'll post some pictues of the damage later.

Bike Safety

I have this friend, and her name is Sarah. She's a great person, but sometimes klutzy. People make fun of her for it sometimes, which is sad, but when I do it's totally out of love and she should know that by now. So the other day, while Matt and I were on our adventure, I didn't have my phone and when we got back there were two missed calls and a text from Sarah. The text basically said that she got hit by a car on her bike but she was ok. I kinda freaked out for a second, but remembered that she was ok and called her. The poor girl was doing nothing wrong but a car hit her while she was crossing the street at an intersection and it was turning right; the guy didn't even see her til they hit. She thought he saw her, so she kept going. Not her fault and it didn't happen cause she's a klutz. But still, if anyone would have asked me before this happened which one of my friends was most likely to get hit by a car, I would have said Sarah. :) If she reads this she may think that I only wrote it cause she was talking about it today, but I actually saw a guy almost get hit today on his bike, but he was being dumb so it would have been his fault. So I wanted to comment on general bike safety. :) She has some bumps and bruises, but over all she's ok cause she was wearing a helmet and close toe shoes. Way to go! Everyone remember to be SAFE! hee hee

The Unspoken Beauty Surrounding Laramie

I started summer classes and work yesterday, so it was a pretty long day. So when Matt came home from work at around 5:30 and wanted me to go "help" him catch a fish, I thought it would be nice and relaxing.
We drove about 20 miles outside of Laramie (kinda toward Cheyenne) to Curt Gowdy State Park. There's a reservoir there so I thought we'd just go and fish, but Matt had other plans. We started to hike. I really do like hiking, and it looked like a pretty easy trail so I went with it even though I didn't plan on strenuous activities. The trail went up above the reservoir, and it was really pretty to look down on the water. After hiking for awhile, we saw a little trail map nailed to a post and saw that the one we were on was 2 miles long, and ended at a "hidden falls." We both wanted to see it, so we decided that we could make the journey; 2 miles there, and 2 more miles back. Along the way we crossed a few neat bridges, identified trees (a fir is flat and friendly), climbed rocks, and heard animal sounds.

When we finally arrived at the hidden falls, it was a disappointment. Pretty I suppose, but alas, not what we thought it could be. So Matt decided we should climb up on top of the cliff to look down at the falls to see if it was more impressive.

That was the hardest part of the hike because it was just flat out climbing rocks, but the end result was worth it. I didn't take a picture of the falls from above, cause it just looked like a river, but the view was really pretty, and we had to climb pretty steep to get there. We're a lot higher than the pictures look, you have to kinda look at the trees down below to get perspective.

Matt climbing with me waiting on top. heh heh

At the top. Man I'm outa shape!

Next we headed down the path and about half way back when Matt stopped me and said "Mel! It's a bobcat!" I hurried, as quietly as I could, over to where he was hiking, and low and behold...! not a bobcat. BUT it was a cute little baby fox scampering away from us. I got out the camera, but it was too late and we couldn't find him again. Then Matt, being the outdoors man that he is, decided we should leave the trail and pave our own way back. It was pretty fun and not too hard but I was attacked by a couple of trees and small birds along the way. Then we (well, Matt) fished on the reservoir but didn't catch anything.

Matt always gets me out and about to hike, fish, climb around on Veadauwoo, (if you don't know what it is, google it) and other out doors things. I LOVE that about him, cause I'd be too lazy to do it on my own. I know that I love it when I get out there, but it's hard for me to be motivated. So it felt really good yesterday to get a 4 mile hike work out in (yay! met my goal) and see nature. I had no idea how beautiful it is around Laramie until I met Matt, and he has shown me a ton of it. I'm tired of people who think it's ugly, and if any of you still think it is, come visit and I'll show you that you just have to go 20 miles in almost any direction and you will find BEAUTY!