Bath Time!

You will notice that this tub is white without the mold that grew under the shower panels in our old house! I feel a lot better giving the girls a bath in this bath!

Happy Birthday!

As you can see from the pictures, it is not easy getting two little busy bodies to both look in the same direction and be cute at the same time, so take your pick!

Yes, that is Sara on the left, she is giving Emma a run for her money.

Totally identical in this pic...

Sara is cracking up, it must have been something that Emma said.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful little girls! I cannot believe it has been 11 months already! Next month we are having a 1st birthday party on Saturday December 13th, if you have any extra frequent flier miles, or happen to work for an airline, or are planning on being in town you are totally invited to a Twinerific 1st Birthday!

More moving details...

We left quite late on that Sunday, ugh, it just seemed like no matter how hard we pushed there was more to pack, clean, load, etc. Rod & Hannah left in the big rig 10:30ish and Nathan, the babies, Dojo, and I left I want to say 2ish. We fit everything we could possibly fit into the big rig, the cab and back of the truck, and in our van, and on top of the van. We cleaned the floors and fridge, made little piles in the garage for my dad and Jamie to help us take care of (Goodwill, Garbage, Boxes, Stuff we couldn't fit, etc.)--super big thanks by the way, and locked the doors and left! It was snowing, the weather and roads were horrible. I drove and Nathan said the prayers. The girls were great travelers. We made it to Lincoln, NE the first night. We stayed at a hotel thanks to Rod's travelers points. We even got to see our long time friends Adam & Ahnah & Family. We had breakfast with them on Monday morning, got to see their new house quick and hit the road. We got to Cheyenne, WY that night and relaxed in a super-seedy motel. I found a tin of tobacco under the covers-um, yuk! But it was again free, thanks to Rod's points. We left early that Tuesday morning, like 7:00 and drove pretty much straight to Eagle Mountain, UT--stopping only for gas and a quick bite once. We made great time. As soon as the big rig arrived at our new house about 10 guys were there to help unload it. Everything was in the house, basement, or garage within an hour. We had gas, power, and water set-up, but the phone, internet, DSL were another story!! We are still working on our cells that don't work in our house or on our block but, we have internet and directv, so we are doing ok. Hannah went to her new school on Thursday and loved it! We are getting everything unpacked and making it feel more like "home".

We made it! Home Sweet Home

It is beautiful here! I love my new house. We finally have internet and will soon have phone and TV too. Our stupid Qwest cell phones don't work here in this city so we are switching to Verizon. Our phone numbers will stay the same. I will post pics of the new house and our trip out as soon as I get a free moment. Thanks again to all of you who helped us pack and move. We love you!

We are heading out!

We are leaving today, later than we had planned I'm sure, for our new home in Utah. Email us if you would like our new address. We would love to hear from you! We will miss Minnesota and most of the people in it! A very special thank you to those of you who came to help at our time of need. It is official-I hate moving and packing. We are sore and exhausted and we are less than halfway done with the whole process--we still have the drive and the unload and the unpacking!

Love,

The Clarks

Now accepting help!

If you know me at all, I don't usually ask for help or even say "why sure" when help is offered, but I am in need of help and I am not too proud to ask. I still need help packing dishes and some other kitchen stuff. We also need help putting all of the furniture and boxes on the truck. The truck will be here on Thursday afternoon and my dad is chief truck packer, but we need lots of back power! I also need help cleaning the deep recesses of my house and patching/painting over holes in the walls. So if you are available anytime Thursday or Friday please come over and lend a hand. We have been working so hard every day but with two little ladies under toe we feel like we are falling short. And yes, we could still use some more boxes.

Thanks from the bottom of our hearts!

What am I supposed to get out of all of this?

If you know me at all you know that I am constantly thinking either about what happened and what my effect was on something or what is going to happen and what I am supposed to do about it. I have done this for as long as a remember. One of the questions that I have been asking myself during the last two months is "What am I supposed to be getting out of all of this?" I talk to friends about this and many have asked themselves the same question while facing a trial in life such as a loss of a loved one, loss of a job, premature birth of a child, illness, etc. I have been lucky in my life because during most of my trials I have been able to quickly assess the situation and know what I was supposed to get out of a situation. But this job loss, new career, moving to Las Vegas, then moving to Utah, etc. has really stumped me. Until this morning. Many people have said "I don't know how you do it." Meaning mom to twins and a 9 year old, and probably all of the other stuff I get involved in. I have quoted scripture in the past and just said "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." Frankly, I have muttered that under my breath at 3 in the morning, not neccessarily as an acknowledgement of it actually being the case but more as a pleading for help. Today at 5 am when Emma decided she didn't want to sleep anymore, I stumbled to the nursery to pick her up and comfort her. Soon after Sara awoke and I before I could feel sorry for myself that I am here by myself taking care of two great babies, wondering why God would send three amazing children to my self-proclaimed woefully inadiquate care, a thought came to me: I can do this, I am doing this.
We are taught that God will never give us a greater trial or burden or lesson than we can bare. I have been thinking a great deal about that and wondering just how much I can take, how much much more could possibly happen. (I do not want to find out. I will just leave that to Job from the Old Testament) But I am also comforted knowing that whatever I will face, I can know that it wouldn't be given to me unless I could handle it. I am capable of making it through this. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. That is what I am supposed to get out of all of this.

Settled on a location...

Nathan has been out west all week--ugh, it has been hard being in charge of packing and the three kids--looking into the Alternate Route to Licensure teaching programs and he found that Utah's program is probably going to be the best fit. While Las Vegas does offer a little more in the pay department, Utah has a lower cost of living and is not as HOT! He checked out living situations in both places and found we could have more for the money and in a "safer" area in Utah. So we are excited to announce that we will be moving to Utah and he found us a house to live in and everything. One of the bonus aspects to this house is that is on the same street as Nathan's brother Trevor and Rebekah and their 6 kids. It is at the end of a cul de sac and Hannah will be able to ride her bike to school if she wants. We can see mountains out of every window of the house. We don't know what the future holds beyond that, but we are grateful to have such kind friends and family here and there to help us and to love us.

"Last night I had a strangest dream.."

I thought I would give an update... everyone is doing well at our house. Nathan is out west interviewing for jobs and looking for a place for us to live. Hannah and I are holding down the fort. The girls are getting bigger and into so many neat things. Emma likes to dance whenever she hears anything remotely like music and Sara loves fabric and little details in things. I will post some photos or a slide show soon. Friday they will be 10 months old and I cannot tell you where the time has gone. Someone told us when were pregnant with the twins that this first year will be the fastest year of our lives yet the days will be the longest and that is exactly right.
I have to tell everyone about my brilliant and witty 9 year old. Tomorrow in class she is going to do a reader's theatre-a play script written to be read aloud in class. Her part is a reporter/scientist and she has created a costume and a prop. I guess the show has something to do with frogs and she took a drawing of a frog and some construction paper and a few other art supplies and created a full blown realistic frog habitat in a plastic shoe box container. I sent her down to take a shower and when she came up to say "goodnight" she showed me what she had done in just a few minutes. I was blown away. We are all "hanging in there". There are times when I am driving or working around the house and I am thinking to myself is this a weird dream. Am I going to wake up and none of this will have happened? You know like those weird dreams where you wake up and say "I had the craziest dream last night, we had twins, and then I quit my job to stay home with them, and then you lost your job, and to top it off we moved across the country. Weird!" That's my life right now, one crazy dream.

Rumors...

Just so this doesn't come to a complete shock to everyone when we start telling people, it looks like we might be moving. Of course we are sad to leave friends and family in Minnesota. We have built so many wonderful associations and friendships here. I cannot imagine not living here the last 6 1/2 years. I think I will use this post to tell you the story of how we came to return to Minnesota after college. We had many places we could move, Las Vegas, California, Utah, Nebraska and other states where jobs were biting, but we chose Minnesota to be close to family and, truth be told, so I could make and decorate Terry and Ellen's wedding cake, (It was the best cake I ever decorated!).
When we moved Nathan was supposed to start work with a large insurance and financial company but once we got here the recruiter that had interviewed him and offered him a job starting jerking us around and not calling back and finally when he did get a hold of her she said "um, I am very sorry but we are under a hiring freeze." Crazy! So we had to make some decisions and we decided to stay, we had great landlords, Randy and Sony. Nathan went to Prostaff and was hired to work for Carlson and until 3 weeks ago worked there ever since. It was actually a good thing that it all worked out the way it did because just a few weeks after moving to Minnesota my mom died, fortunately we were here to be able to handle all of the arrangements and we even got to see her one last time on Mother's Day that year.
During his time at Carlson, Nathan started working on a Master's of Education degree, hoping to be a elementary teacher. Eventually Nathan started making more at Carlson than he would have starting out as a teacher and with the teaching market so competitive here, he decided to discontinue the Master's knowing that it would be hard to walk away from Carlson to ??? and student teach with a family to support not knowing if he could get a teaching job when he was done anyway. Well, God works in His own way and sometimes He sends a big change your way even when you are not wanting it. Nathan will finish his Master's of Education and will do so through an Alternative Route to Licensure program. It is a pretty cool set up that allows him to student teach for a year under a mentor teacher in his own classroom yet still receive a teaching salary. Before starting he has to complete courses that are offered through the school district and the university. Upon the completion he has a license and a Master's of Education. He has an interview to do long-term subbing and will probably do that until he gets into a classroom. It is ironic that it took all of this to get my stubborn, very-comfortable husband decide to finally chase his dreams. I am happy for him and excited for what life holds for us. To answer the big question on everyone's mind--MN does not have ARL program as far as we know, but if you know about one please forward any information to us. Nathan has applied for a few of these programs and is in the process of doing informational meetings and orientation stuff, we will end up where ever he can find a job in the mean time and where ever there is an offer. As of right now that place is Las Vegas. Nathan's parents live there and we are looking for an apartment there. We will be having a going away/pack up the truck party at the end of October. I plan on cooking up sloppy joes and a bunch of other great stuff from our freezer before we have to go. We are having a moving sale on Friday, October 10th. There will be a ton of great stuff for sale because we will be majorly down-sizing.