Birthday Bliss

Today is Sam's birthday and he has been happy to tell anyone who will listen that, "Now I am six AND I passed kindergarten!" Way to go buddy!



More to come on the birthday party!

Pretty, Pretty, Princess

Sam and Ellie decided to play some sort of beauty shop the other day. Sam spent a lot of time and effort getting Ellie dressed up and whippin' up a new hair-do, and this is what happened...



Nice.

Josh's 1st Pinewood Derby

Josh is not quite 8 yet, but they decided to let Josh join scouts a month early so he could participate in the annual pinewood derby. Glad they did, he loved every minute of it. He helped design, build, and paint his car. He ended up with a really nice, sleek black car. He was up against some tough competition and 15 other cars, but he was ready.




Josh's car was pretty quick, he did really well in the heat races finishing 1st, 2nd, 1st. After the heats, he ended up in a tie for second so they had a head to head race for 2nd. Josh won the first run off by two car lengths. Then they switched lanes and did it again. You can see the results in the video below. Check out the catch up speed on Josh's car. If you look close, the orange car even leaves just a little early.



So Josh ended up with a very good 2nd place finish, not bad for his first pinewood derby. He had a blast watching his car win just about every race of the night.

Ok.... I know it was just a pinewood derby and it was just for fun and we should be happy with second, but.... There is an asterisk in the record books for the 2009 pinewood derby. The folks in the BCS.... I mean the scout leaders, had some tricky formula that prevented Josh's 2nd place car from ever racing the 1st place car. That's right, #1 and #2 never raced against each other. In fact, the 1st place car never raced against the 3rd place car either. This was not a timed race, it was all about placement in each race, so you might ask how could this be? Wouldn't the first place car have to prove itself against the fastest cars? How could they award a car 1st place that didn't even beat the 2nd or 3rd place cars? What's even crazier is that the one car that beat Josh in the heat races didn't even place in the top 3.... What? Oh well, what are you going to do. I don't really have a case that I can take to Congress but we will always wonder who really won that night.

Here is one more video of the heat races. Josh is in the far right lane, the other black car in the middle lane was beating everyone pretty easily in its races so we were a little nervous about the outcome of this race.



It was a great night, Josh had a blast. We must say a BIG thank you to Grandpa for helping put together another really fast car. The Clark Pinewood Racing Team legacy lives on.

Posted by Matt

What I've been up to...

If anyone was wondering how my week was, here is the answer....



Why did I have both knees operated on at the same time? Its a long story, and honestly, I am struggling with coherency as it is, (aaahhhh...painkillers...) but it was very necessary, and my recovery is actually going quite well. The procedure on my right knee was pretty standard, but the work on my left knee was fairly extensive so I had to stay in the hospital for a few days. While I was there I had this cool drain in my knee.

There was about 8-10 inches of tubing inside my knee...constantly draining...
It was there to help with swelling / bruising. Imagine how swollen I'd be without it!


Anyway, I am home now and on the mend. (Matt has taken wonderful care of me!) Even though the surgery was more complicated than we expected it seems that we have finally gotten a big clue to what is going on in there. I have a follow-up with the Dr in a few days and we will get the pathology results. I can see that things are just falling into place and I feel very optimistic about the situation. I have a lot of be grateful for!!! Thanks for the support and prayers of so many friends/family members-we have certainly felt a lot of blessings this past week or so and we appreciate you!