Pictures of Lily!

This post is dedicated to my grandma and my daddy, because I know they are always so excited to see pictures of Lily. These were taken when she was 10 days old.

Baby Lily is Here!

Well, she has finally arrived! I guess I shouldn't say finally because she came right on her due date - November 21. But it sure felt like a long time in coming to me, especially during those final weeks.

My water broke at 4 am on Monday morning and contractions began almost immediately. We arrived at the birth center at 7 am, and I finally started pushing at around 8:00 pm. Our precious Lily Diana Clark arrived on Monday night at 8:47 pm, weighing 8 pounds even. She was 20.5 inches, and was very alert, healthy, and happy from the beginning.

I had Lily naturally, but I will save that story and why we chose to do it that way for another time, since I know most of you just want see pictures. :) In short, yes, it was absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done, and yes, I will certainly do it again this way next time.

We brought Lily home on Tuesday night and have enjoyed a wonderfully quiet week getting to know her. I can never remember a quieter Thanksgiving, or one when I had so much to be thankful for. She is so perfectly precious and I am completely amazed at how overcome I am with awe and love for her. To me, she is complete proof that God exists and loves us. Something so perfect and incredible as this tiny little one could not possibly be an accident. She is a miracle, and we are so thankful to have her here.


This picture was actually taken the next morning. Due to some complications with me, I was not able to hold her very much or take pictures the night after she was born. I was also not permitted to sleep that night until about 4 am, and having only had about 3 hours of sleep the previous night (I was kept up most of Sunday night with small "practice" contractions), I was still exhausted when this picture was taken.

Oh, and we also got a cat. His name is Jack. He seems to love Lily and treats her very nicely. :)

I Chopped It

So I cut my hair off. Not all of it, but what felt like all of it at the time - 6 inches! This is kind of a big deal, since I have never cut more than 3 inches of my hair off at once, and it has never been shorter than . . . well, long (see picture below). But I decided it was something I should experience at least once in my life.

Actually I decided this in high school, but there always seemed to be some reason not to cut it - senior pictures, I played Rapunzel in the school play (a short-haired Rapunzel would not have worked out so well), I was trying to impress some guy whom I (who knows why) assumed liked long hair better than short. Ultimately, I think I was just scared to cut it. So I made up my mind: I would cut my hair when I went on a mission. Who needs long, vain tresses to take care of when you spend your whole day walking around in frumpy sister missionary clothes and Mary-Janes talking to people you will mostly never see again, and trying NOT to get attention from guys?

Well, that was the plan. Everything was going smoothly. I worked hard learning Spanish, read my scriptures diligently, talked to my bishop about serving a mission, mentally committed myself to chopping off my hair, and then this guy named Adam had the audacity to come along and ask me to get married to him instead of going on a mission! Needless to say, I never went on a mission so I never cut my hair off.

But I still thought I should experience short(er) hair sometime in my life. It just seemed so difficult to do it at an arbitrary time (I struggle with arbitrary decisions), when cutting it before going on a mission would have been so intentional and planned. I knew that if I didn't tie it to another major life change, it would not happen. So I committed to cut it when I had a baby. That was not a hard decision, since I knew it would be a couple years at least before we had a baby (well, I hoped it would :). It actually ended up taking a lot longer than I had expected before I was expecting, further delaying my need to come through on my commitment. But, finally, here I am - my due date is in one week, so I went down to the salon and had them chop it off.

Now, the question everyone asks is always "Do you like it?" I will just answer that question now, so you don't have to wait for me to comment on your comment.

Yes, fortunately, I like it. It is fun. It is very different. I almost feel like a different person now that I have such different hair, but I do like it. And I didn't cry, like I was almost sure I would. I was basically positive that I would come home, look in the mirror, have chopper's remorse, and melt into a pool of tears on the bathroom floor. But instead I came home and smiled when I looked in the mirror, especially when Adam told me how cute he thought it was. He is so great.

There is also a major benefit to having shorter hair: it saves money! I only have to use half as much shampoo, half as much conditioner, and half as much electricity to blow dry it. Okay, I guess shampoo, conditioner, and a little electricity don't cost that much, but every little bit helps when you are starving students. Plus, the electricity point is actually significant, since I have succeeded in blowing our bathroom breaker at least once every time I have blow-dried my hair since we moved to Oregon three months ago. Last week I blew the breaker twice in the space of 10 minutes (yes, I had turned off all other lights and unplugged all other appliances, the breaker just hates me), and I decided that our apartment was trying to tell me that I waste too much electricity on my hair. So it was quite exciting when I blow-dried my new hairstyle this morning continuously without having to re-set the breaker even once!

I guess that means it also saves me time. This will probably be important in the coming months as I explore the new horizons of being a mom to a little baby. I have heard that new moms are lucky if they get to wash their hair, let alone blow dry it, so shorter hair cannot be a bad thing.

Will I grow it back out? Yes, probably. As much fun as my new shorter hair is, I think I still prefer it long. But now I have done it - I experienced what I wanted to experience, and I can say that I have been there and done that. And I will enjoy it in the mean time. :)

Timeline-ish of our lives together

So many of you are probably already familiar with our story but for those of you who aren't (and for those of you who want it retold WITH PICTURES!!!!) here's a little stroll down my memory lane.

Christina and I first met in 2004. I had just gotten home from my mission in the Czech Republic and Christina was just out of high school. We both moved into Campus Plaza and by fortuitous circumstance we happened to be neighbors. We were also in the same Family Home Evening group so we spent many Monday evenings together playing silly games and eating sugary treats. We passed the school year as friends but nothing more.

The next Fall Semester (2005) we both came back to Campus Plaza having spent the summer working. We went on a group date that one of my roommates set up and had a good time playing three-legged miniature golf at Trafalga. We both had a good time but no sparks...yet.

Winter Semester - 2006: We were both taking Stats so we started doing homework together. We also started running together in the mornings. After several unsuccessful attempts to get Christina to go on a date with me she consented.

Then one day she forgot her Stats textbook during our normal study time so she had to sit a little closer to me to do the homework. She "forgot" her textbook a lot more after that. We dated through the summer and I proposed to her on September on a dock by a pond in the rain. Basically the smartest thing I ever did.

We got married on December 28th, 2006 in Salt Lake City temple and thus started our lives together. But wait there's more!

Being married during the end of our undergrad time at BYU was a wonderful experience. I later found out that because Christina had heard so many times that marriage is hard work that she was afraid that sometime after we got married things would stop being wonderful and that life would be miserable or something. Good thing she was wrong and we love each other more than ever!

Over the past (almost) five years, we have had many wonderful experiences together. Like our first summer when we would have picnics in the backyard and spit watermelon seeds at each other. One of those seeds sprouted and grew into an enormous watermelon plant that yeilded two or three 30+ lb watermelons!

In 2008 we had the wonderful experience of being able to live and work in Seattle for the summer. I collected data for the Flourishing Families Project and Christina had an HR internship at Oki Golf in Bellevue.

2009 was an important year for us. We both finished our bachelor's degrees, Christina's in Business and mine in Marriage, Family, and Human Development. We went back up to Seattle one more time to continue the internship experiences we had the year before. At the end of the summer I started BYU's Marriage and Family Therapy Program and Christina got her first "grown-up" job at DecisionWise, a leadership and employee engagement consulting firm in Provo.

Not much changed for us in 2010. Graduate school was in full swing for me, going to class, doing therapy at the BYU clinic, and working on my thesis. Christina was hard at work at DecisionWise and (usually) enjoying it. However we were fortunate enough to have really awesome parents who set aside some money for us to use for a European vacation. We spent 5 amazing days in Prague, and another 5 exciting days in Barcelona. Best. Trip. Ever.

And so far the year 2011 has proved to be quite eventful. WE FOUND OUT THAT CHRISTINA WAS PREGNANT!!!! I graduated with my Masters in MFT, Christina quit her job and we moved to Corvallis, OR where I started my PhD at Oregon State, Christina's brother Stephen and her sister Jessica both got married, my older sister Amber had a baby and my youngest brother Travis left on his mission to Brazil. So now we are patiently awaiting the arrival of our baby girl in the next couple of weeks and looking forward to the new experience of parenthood. And don't worry, we'll post pictures :)

Redefining my Identity . . .

I have been having a minor identity crisis. Nothing big, but it feels weird that I will no longer be able to label myself with a professional position title when people ask "So what do you do?" From now on, the answer will be "I'm a mom!" I am absolutely proud of this, but like I said, it feels a little weird.

For the last few years I have been a "project manager for DecisionWise, a leadership consulting firm in Provo, UT," which status will be ending as of next Tuesday. I have been working part-time remotely since we moved to Oregon, and it has been nice to hold on to my title for a few more months. And I have to admit, I'm a little sad. As nerdy as it sounds, I have realized that I am fairly attached to my spreadsheets, power point templates, and statistical analyses (not to mention clients and co-workers). What am I going to do without any demographics to code or any data correlations to run? Oh yeah . . . I will be changing diapers and cleaning spit-up off my clothes - haha. But anyway, sad as it might be, I think I will really miss staring at enormous spreadsheets full of survey responses all day. So, in my post-statistics and data-analysis-free life, I will have to find some other ways to define myself. So I have come up with a list that describes who I am, aside from "former project manager". So here goes - I am a:

• Child of God! A Mormon, Christian, follower of Christ. I am grateful for God's love and His amazing plan for all His children!
• Wife of the most amazing husband ever!
• Soon-to-be mommy to a baby girl!
• Friend, daughter, sister, cousin, granddaughter, neighbor
• American citizen
• Opinionated conservative. If you plan to read this blog, you should be prepared for some political rants. :)
• BYU graduate, with a degree in Business and a minor in Spanish
• Excel nerd
• Runner
• Jazz vocalist, although I haven't done much singing since I graduated
• Amateur ballroom dancer - not competitive, but Adam and I love dancing together
• Pianist
• Guitarist
• Sentimental romantic
• Shoe fanatic
• Skier
• Amateur cook: I have become a food enthusiast over the past couple years, and I have become obsessed with trying new recipes. I am happy to say that I am no longer afraid of making dishes that include ingredients like escarole, Brussels sprouts, or cardamom pods. Yes, I will be using this blog to share my recipes with you. :)
• Fan of jazz, country, classic rock, Christian, pop, oldies, classical, reggae, alternative, broadway, hip-hop, and basically all music
• Grammar/spelling nazi
• Perfectionist
• Sucker for old architecture
• Travel enthusiast
• Really, really bad artist. I also stink at biology and softball.
• Ice cream and popcorn addict
• Night person
• Blonde
• Lover of rain
• Devoted Harry Potter fan (the books, not the movies)

Okay I feel better now. I guess there are lots of elements of my life that still define me as well as they did before. With so many recent changes (moving to a new state away from everyone I know, quitting my job, becoming a parent really soon) it has been something of a challenge to remember what hasn't changed. But I guess I am still me and the most important things are still the same!

Welcome to our blog!

Hello friends, acquaintances, and devoted fans. :) Welcome to the Clark family blog. I have decided to establish this online repository to hold all the pictures, opinions, news, fun facts, stories etc. that won't fit in my head (or on my Facebook profile). The other reason is that we just moved far, far away from all our friends and family to the distant land of Oregon where it rains 152.4 days per year (I got that statistic from the ever-reliable online source for all knowledge: Wikipedia - Adam and I are Wikipedia addicts), where more people ride bicycles than drive cars (yes, ESPECIALLY in the rain), and where everything from chocolate to baby blankets can be found in its pure organic form.

So . . . we fit right in! I love the rain, we both like riding bikes (thought not particularly in the rain), and we think organic is great, although we often can't afford it. But alas, our new abode is still hundreds of miles from our beloved friends and family, so the other purpose of this blog is to provide a window into our lives. Even if you are too far away to visit our home here in Corvallis, you can still visit our casita online!

This will become particularly important in the very near future when our family size increases by 100%! We are going from two of us to four, in only two weeks! Yes, it's true, I am having a baby. I'm not having twins though (despite my family history). We are also adopting a kitten. Why we have chosen to make these two momentous life changes, becoming parents and pet owners, in the same week is very complicated so don't ask. But as neither of us has ever been a parent, and Adam has never been a pet owner, it will be a BIG change. And I am guessing that a whole lot of our relatives will be much more interested in our lives now that we will have an adorable, cuddly, cute little baby girl. Babies always seem to attract a lot of attention, even if the parents aren't too interesting by themselves. SO if you are bitter about the fact that we moved away from you just before we are "finally" going to have a baby, here is my solution: just follow this blog and we will only be a few mouse clicks away!