Recent Family Field Trip - A Hike in Saguaro National Park

We like field trips!  Who doesn't?  The mark of a "good teacher" in school was always who took their class on the most and best field trips.  Well, our family is no different, only we get to pick our own field trips.  Recently, we went hiking in Saguaro National Park.  Granted, we didn't get very far before hearing, "Dad, I'm tired... I wanna go back."  Regardless, we took the whole clan, and it was fun.  Here's a few photos of our trip:

We've Known for Weeks Now

I had my 20 week songram back in early January and we found out that we are having another . . . GIRL. Poor Dan. All I can say is that it is good that he has boy cousins his age and a father who has a healthy portion of redneck in his background and personality. Unfortunately for my bank account most of my girl baby stuff was not fit for use after three girls so I got rid of it--all my boy stuff looks great! Any takers? Now we just have to agree on a name . . . Charlotte or Esmerelda? What do you think?

Counting Our Blessings

I love the words of the hymn, "Count Your Blessings".  The lines which state, "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done..." ring true in my ears and heart tonight for so many reasons.

The first is that today was the Sabbath for us, and that means going to Church.  I love going to Church, though I haven't always.  Going to Church is a blessing because it helps me keep the right perspective on life. 

The second blessing I am thankful for tonight is the wonderful family I have.  I recall thinking as a selfish, arrogant, and confused teenager that I didn't really want a family.  Instead, I yearned for a huge 4x4 truck.  Over the years since then, my views have changed (see previous paragraph for possible reason why my views have changed), and I wouldn't trade my family for any 4x4 (not even "Bigfoot").   I have a wonderful wife that loves and takes care of me.  I have three intelligent, beautiful, healthy, and mostly obedient daughters.  True, there's a bit of drama in our home, and I joke about living in the shed, but truthfully, I the drama is far less 'negative' than the vast 'positives' that the girls bring to our home and family.  I have a little boy that loves me and likes to be around me.  Hopefully I won't destroy that blessing though stupid father behavior.  I love my little guy tremendously even though he drives me bonkers sometimes.  I have a baby in the making right now, which is a blessing in an of itself.  I know so many couples who aren't able to have children, and then there's us; if I look at Melissa, she gets pregnant.  That is a real blessing.  I'm exited to meet the new little Clark next May.

The third blessing I am thankful for is the Priesthood.  It really is God's power, delegated to man.  I have recently witnessed the power of the Priesthood in blessing family members plagued with sickness, pain, or other troubles.  I have seen the healing blessings realized.  God really does live and He really has given some of His power to man to bless the lives of His children.

The fourth blessing I am thankful for tonight is revelation.  For the past 15 months, I've been working on a competitive contract at work.  It had the promise of $400-500 million over the next five years, with upwards of $1 billion in production over the next 10+ years.  It looked promising.  We believed our company's team was going to be selected as the winning contractor and that the contract would be awarded to us.  However, there was some chance in it.  Several months ago, I had the impression that I needed to have a contingency plan for work. So I talked to some friends, contacts, and started researching potential opportunities.  Then after discussion with Melissa and our children, I took the impression and my alternatives to the Lord in prayer and fasting.  We felt it would be good to move back to Tucson.  This was without knowing whether the promising contract at work would be awarded to my company.  So I pursued a job back in Tucson and thankfully, was offered a great job working with people I know and trust.  I am blessed that people were willing to make efforts on my behalf to get me a job so that my family could be near our extended family again. 
Then tonight, I found out that my company did NOT receive the contract, but that it was awarded to the other company.  Though this is NOT good for the company I work for, I am overwhelmed at how the Lord steered me to pursue a new job before anyone knew for certain that I would even need it.  Had I not heeded that impression to create a contingency plan, I would be full of fear, uncertainty, and who knows, maybe even unemployed with a wife, 4.5 children, and the debts of two homes.  Instead, I have gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father, current and future employment, and yes, still the debt of two homes, though with one for sale and the means to pay off the other one in time.

I have many other blessings, though you will tire quickly from reading about them all and will likely close your web browser, so stop here.  Suffice it to say, I have been blessed.  Only a fool would call it the reward of my hard work, or coincidence.

Family Pictures

Reinforcing the 2nd Amendment

There are many reasons why Americans feel the need to preserve and protect the right to bear arms, such as: deterring undemocratic government, repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, facilitating a natural right of self-defense, participating in law enforcement, etc. Today we had fun preserivng our rights granted under the Constitution. It's always nice to have fun fulfilling one's civic duty. Today we did just that: we introduced the young Clark cousins to firearms.

We (Papa, Matt, Jolene, Megan, and I) took Lilly, Morgan, Sierra, and Boden to the range to introduce them to firearms.  We had a great time and several men thanked us for bringing kids out to the range to introduce them to firearms the right way.  I guess I just took it for granted that most kids would have a proper introduction and instruction using firearms, but after thinking about it more, I guess our society generally introduces children and adolescents to firearms the wrong way: through violent media.  Before I start "going off", I want to recap how the kids did as some of the kiddos had experienced using a firearm previously, while others had not.

Lilly had reservations about shooting, but after seeing Morgan use the child-sized .22 rifle, she decided she wanted to try. After firing 10 or so rounds, she kept asking, "Five more?"  See below for how they ended up doing.

Sierra and Boden also did very well.  See below for how they ended up doing.

How We Broke the News to Grandma

Most of you know by now that we've moved back to Tucson. For those of you who were curious how Melissa broke the news to her Mom, here's the video:

The Christmas News

We love Christmas!  It's full of family, better-than-average-societal kindness, smiles, laughing, good food, and surprises.  We've had much of that this Christmas... including surprises.  Our great surprise is that we've moved back to Tucson!  Yep, you heard it right folks, we've moved back to Tucson.

This little plan of our has been in the works since last September, but it wasn't final until just a couple weeks ago.  So we thought it would be fun to surprise our families at Christmas when we arrived in Tucson for our "visit".  It was fun to see the surprise in their faces when we told them.

Here's how it all went down:

Back in September, it wasn't clear to me that the competitive contract I've been working on for the past 18mos would be awarded to my company.  Now I'm not a "glass is half empty" kind of guy, but I do believe that the glass will be empty before you know it unless you do something about it.  So I started my contingency planning.  That contingency planning led me to talk to some friends within my company back in Tucson.  After a couple conversations, it was apparent that there was a great opportunity back in Tucson.  So I talked to Melissa about it and she was excited about the chance to be back with family... I take that back... she was ECSTATIC about the chance to move back to Tucson.  So I pursued the opportunity, and it led to fruition.  So I start work in Tucson on Jan 25th!

Now rather than make the arduous 1700 mile trip for Christmas, then go back for a couple weeks, then make it all again, we decided to just move before Christmas.  So we loaded up the stuff that Melissa and the kids will need for a couple weeks and hit the road.  I'll have to go back to Huntsville for a couple weeks to work, watch the movers pack our stuff, and finalize the sale of our home in Huntsville.  But then I'll be back in Tucson in late January.


We'll miss Alabama.  We'll miss the many friends we have there, the woods in our backyard, the short commute to work, the verdant beauty of the south, living in the country, and so much more, but family is priceless.  We're glad to be back with them.