ALOT of Catching up to do!!

WOW!! What a crazy couple of months we have had!! I will do what I can to get you all caught up on the happenings of the Clark family!!


As some of you know, my store was robbed back in April! Luckily, it was an inside job done after hours!! Unfortunately they got away with over $3000 and a whole lot of cigarettes!! The robbery is still under investigation right now. It is a little more complicated than a typical robbery. The people involved in the robbery were also involved in the robbery at the family dollar up north. That is about all the information I can give you!! UGH! Just keep your fingers crossed that we can get them ALL!!! Needless to say, I spent MANY MANY hours helping with the investigation and also trying to recover from having NO STAFF!! There were many days that I worked from 5 am - 11 pm several days in a row! Luckily I am fully staffed now and just about done training all of them!



Once things had settled down at my store, I did some begging for just a weekend off!! My family was having a birthday party for my Grandpa's 85th!! My boss who is totally awesome and was very understanding helped me find people from another store to work in my store and run things for me for the weekend!! Actually, I was not going to go until the day before we were supposed to leave my boss informed me that I had no choice!! She is so awesome!! So, we packed up our stuff and the kids and caravanned with my sister and her little family and drove to MESQUITE!! The kids were soooo excited to go!! We actually made plans for Kasey to go spend the weekend in Vegas with his friend Anthony!! We drove down on a Friday night after work!! It was SO awesome to get to see some of our friends that we left behind there!! The kids got to go swimming and bowling and play in the arcade for a couple hours!! One of our really good friends arranged for her daughter (who was a regular babysitter for us when we lived there) to babysit ALL of our kids, so that we could all go out together!! So, Jeff and I and my sister and her husband had an awesome night out!! Early Sunday morning Kasey's friends' mom brought him back to the hotel! Then we packed everything up and drove to Cedar City for the Birthday lunch! We had lunch with my extended family on my moms side! It was so fun to be able to get out that weekend!!



So, Kasey has been in Karate now for a couple of months!! He just recently became a Yellow Belt!! It was so neat to watch him be so serious!! He is doing very well at it!! I just love the respect that is taught in Karate!! Not that Kasey has ever really had a problem with respecting others, but it is nice for him to get the training just in case he ever changes! Although he did not play Baseball this spring, he will continue playing in the fall!! For now, he is focussing on Karate!!



After much time of recooperating and saving money!! We were finally able to get into a house!! We had been looking for a long time but because we were being picky about it...we could just never find the right one!! My dad would joke with me and say "if you would look in a bigger area than one block radious from your sister then maybe you will find something!!" This house had actually been on the market for a couple months! I had called on it once before but the realtor said I would need alot more money down and that my payments would be....ALOT! So, I just continued looking! About a month later, Jeff called on the house and the made an appointment to meet with the Realtor. So, we went to look inside and fell in love with the house!! The realtor said he would take our offer to the homeowners and let us know! He called us about an hour later and said that the homeowners wanted to meet with us! So the next day we met them!! It was pretty much a done deal within minutes!! They were awesome and very willing to compromise on the down and the terms. We made a verbal agreement and went about our businness with plans to sign papers the following Thursday! Well, about three hours before we were to sign papers, we got a phone call from the realtor saying that the homeowners got another offer!! So, basically we lost the house!! We were DEVASTATED!! Jeff called the realtor a couple times Friday and Saturday trying to see if they had accepted the other offer. Friday night the Realtor said they had counteroffered and he would let us know what happened! Saturday evening...about 8:00 pm. The realtor called and said meet me at the house in ten minutes with a check to sign papers and the house is yours!! Luckily, we were at my sisters house (a block away)!! So, we zipped over to the house, signed a lease option, handed over the check and Whalla!! Persistence paid off!!



We started moving in the next day!! That was the 4th of May!! I guess I must explain why this house was so important to our family!! When we moved back from Mesquite our intention was to find a house near my sister Andria! For a few reasons...most importantly was because she has two awesome children!! Sydney who has microcephaly and can be quite a challenge at times and Dylan who IS ALWAYS a challenge (just because he is a rambunctious 5 year old)!! Andria and I were never really close when we were younger....okay so we basically fought constantly!! After her cancer when she was 18 we started to get closer!! Well, marriage and motherhood has brought us extremely close together!! Sydney is a year older than Kylie, however because of her handicap she is more like a 5 year old in some areas. Dylan is almost 6 years old!! We have had alot of fun raising our kids together!! Another reason for our strong desire to live by her was so that our kids could continue attending school together!! When we moved back from Mesquite we put the kids in the same school!! We have commuted from South Jordan this whole school year!! Kennadie and Dylan are both in Kindergarten (two different classes). Sydney is going to the Junior High next year..Kylie will join her after next year!! It is SOO much fun living this close to my sister!! She gets the little ones from kindergarten and then watches Kenna until I get home from work! It is great for the kids to be able to walk to and from our houses multiple times a day! Andria just purchased Wii Fitness, so we are going to start doing that together too!!

Kylie and Kasey are in absolute heaven here!! We live right by alot of their friends from school, so they always have friends they can play with!! There are some awesome kids in this neighborhood too!! Kennadie is just happy to finally have her own bedroom!! We were surprised at how well she adapted to the change!!

Two weeks ago we had to take Doc in for some surgery!! It was a very hard day for me!! I was very nervous about taking him in the first place because I thought the vet would tell me they had to put him down! Doc has had multiple tumors all over his body and this one had gotten so big that it ruptured! Then he would scratch and break it open again and again! Finally I broke down and took him in! The Vet was very understanding and actually he told me that Doc's heart would take him before the Cancer! So, honestly it is nice to know that instead of suffering too much my baby will just peacefully pass away some day! Unfortunately, the Vet doesn't think it will be too long before that happens! I bawled my eyes out when I left him at the Vet for his surgery!! I called my mom and just cried and cried!! My Doc has been the absolute best companion I have ever had!! I know that when the time comes it will be a very sad day for our entire family!! Trying to find another dog will be a very daunting task for this family!!


So, last week when I was taking a shower at 3:30 in the morning, getting ready for work; I had a brand new economy sized bottle of Shampoo fall out of the window sill and land on my foot!! At first I just stopped breathing and bit my lip trying not to scream and wake the entire family! Then I regained my composure! When I looked down there was alot of blood in the water!! I finished up my shower quickly and then hobbled into my bedroom!! I really didn't want to wake Jeff up but I knew I needed some help! So I TRIED to wake him up.....not so easy...So I flipped on the light switch and more loudly and sternly said his name and said Help!! He eventually got up and looked at my foot...it would not stop Bleeding!! At this point I realized I was never going to make it to my store by 5am to open! So I called another Director who is also a good friend of mine and asked him to go open my store! We srambled to find something to close up the cut on my foot (we were still a little unorganized from the move). Once we got the steri-strips on it and got it cleaned up...I finished getting ready and hobbled to my car to go to work. I knew that I needed to get to the Doctor at some point...but unfortunately I didn't have anyone in my store to cover me!! When I got to the store I called my newly hired assistant and asked her to come in for a few hours until someone else could get there (it was supposed to be her day off). I finished up the books and ordering and when she got there I drove myself to the hospital. By the time I got there my foot was already bruising and quite swollen!! When the nurse saw it she said...I think you broke your foot!! I had kinda had that thought..but who would have thought that I stupid Shampoo bottle could do so much damage!! Well, the doctor came in and glued one of the cuts back together. That cut ran the entire length of my big toe! The other cut was on the toe next to it and did not need to be glued together! The doctor suggested we do an x-ray just to be safe.....and wouldn't ya know it...BROKEN!! That stupid shampoo bottle broke one of the little bones at the base of my big toe! They recommended that once the swelling go down that I come back and get it casted...I told them that with my job it would really be difficult and asked if there was any way to avoid it? They said it would probably heal ok without the cast as long as I stayed off of it!! YA RIGHT!! I am doing fine now!! I did not go back to get a cast!! It still hurts sometimes...I just can't apply alot of weight on it! In cases like this...I just smile and move on!! Just for the record....I did go back to work and finished out my work day!!

We went to Kylie's Dare Graduation just the other day!! What a neat program that is!! It was really neat to hear from the kids that they are aware of the dangers of substance abuse and how they have learned that they have the control to say NO!! All of the kids in the program (4 fifth grade classes) had to do an essay on what they have learned through this program!! Then out of the 4 classes, the teachers and Officers chose 9 essays to be read at the graduation assembly! Kylie's essay was chosen as one of the 9!! Each of the 9 students had to get up to read their essays on stage!! Kylie was up first.....Crazy as it seems...my little Kylie got stage fright!! So...after a few minutes of silence and her mouthing to us in the audience "HELP ME" they let her sit down. Then my brave little baby stood up after everyone else had read their essay's and she read hers as if she had never been afraid!! It was an awesome experience!! She even got a special medal for being a Dare Essay winner!!

Funny thing is....the very next day was the school's Karaoke assembly!! Of course she failed to mention to us that she was in it!!!!! Kylie got up on stage in front of the entrire school (as opposed to 4th graders and a few parents) and sang God Bless The U.S.A!! Jeff and I were actually a little thankful that she didn't tell us she was going to be in it! The night before when she was in the shower, she was singing God Bless The U.S.A at the top of her lungs!! Let's just say....she hasn't quite mastered the gift of singing!! Luckily, the students disagree with Jeff and I! Kasey, said she did really good and that the whole school clapped and cheered for her!! I think it is just a matter of popularity and not talent!! We have tried to get her to take voice lessons but she is opposed to it!

Well, last week Kasey found another lump in his neck!! He pointed it out to Andria one day before school and she called me and told me about it!! I took him to the pediatrician and he said that it will most likely have to be cut out and biopsied!! He has already had to have one of his lymph nodes removed because of this!! The doctor said we could just watch it for a while and then decide what to do. It has been a week...we checked him again last night...it has grown and he has another one right next to it!! I will be calling the surgeon on Monday to schedule his appointment to meet with him. Please pray that these ones are benign!! We got lucky last time and I just pray that we will be blessed this time!! I will let you know!!

Well, I am sure that I have left some things out....even though this is alot of news! If I think of more I will be sure to let you all know! Now that we are in our own place and have the computer set up I am sure I will have more time to blogg more frequently!! Time to head to the gym!!