Traygen James Clark

February 23, 2010 Traygen James Clark came into this world. He is such a joy in our family. We love him more than any little child. Since I was in the middle of midterms and it's hard to get away from school We met and Traygen's great grandparents house in Brigham City. When his favorite aunt got there we proceeded to have a photo shoot!
This is Great Grandpa Jim who Traygen's middle name comes from. I have never met someone more proud. He calls him "Little Jim" this, by far, is the cutest nickname for him yet!

Then Great Grandma had her turn. She knows all the tricks to new babies. I think she's had a few years of experience.

I finally made it through the one day blizzard that Utah seems to have so many have in the spring. For the very first time I got to meet him and I love him so much! It is so touching to hold something that not very long ago was in the presence our Heavenly Father.


This is one of my favorite pictures from the day

Over the past semester I have have taken a child development class and even more I love children. I am so excited to spend every day this summer working, playing, and loving them. They are so special to our Heavenly Father and I learn so much from their simple faith and love. I am excited for the day when Lord trusts me enough to put one of His children in my care.

Small town girl moving to the big city!

Most of my life has been spent in a small town living on a farm. I love the way I was raised and have learned things that could be taught in no other way. Moving to Provo was a big change for me and I loved it. The concept of having more than one option when shopping for groceries is kind of fun and a mall just up the road is awesome! Well Provo is a little bit of a bubble and I'm ready for an adventure and I've found one! This summer I will be moving to WASHINGTON D.C!!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! Over Christmas break I was praying a lot about what I should do over the summer. I had some ideas but none of them felt quite right. One morning I woke up and decided that I needed to move to Washington D.C.. I wasn't exactly sure how my parents would take it so I went and told them and they were fully supportive of me. Yes, there were a little nerves letting their little girl move all the way across the country but they know it will be a great experience and an opportunity that I may never have again.
Once I made it past the decision to move I needed to find a job to support me while I am out there. As I looked at housing the first thing I realized was it cost a lot more to live in D.C. than it does to live in Provo or Oregon! But the up side the jobs pay more out there so it equaled out. I applied for several government student jobs, including one at the library of congress. However, since I do not have a degree in library science I did not get that job. But I do have a dear friend who has taken a special interest in me who has some connections in Washington D.C. Through a line a people he got in contact with the director of the Children's National hospital out there who has a pediatric cancer unit. They offered me an internship, a place to live, and everything else I need to go out there. I am so grateful! I never imagined getting an internship that is so perfectly fitted to me. It is all I have ever wanted to do and more!
My main responsibility will be the be the ambassador for the summer for their
Some of the other responsibilities I will have bead program. This is a way for children to tell their story. Each patient will make a necklace with their name and throughout their journey they will receive different beads with different meanings. For example for surgery they receive a gray bead, a stem cell harvest is a dark green bead, and my favorite, radiation is a red glow in the dark bead. I love it! I am so excited for this opportunity to learn and to help them tell their story.
I have various other responsibilities that include helping families and patients during their stay with routine things. They also have a teen room where patients can hang out and need someone there to supervise to be able to have it open more often.
Having a wide variety of tasks will give me the opportunity to gain experience in all different age groups. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I've been smiling since I found out. I could not have dreamed of a better opportunity. I know the Lord makes a way for things to happen if you are willing to follow the promptings. I can't wait to be out there and explore a whole new world! I will definitely not need my skills of gathering eggs and changing sprinkler pipe this summer because I'm moving to the big city!!

A Legacy

Since my topic for my talk at Women's Conference is a lot about passing on a legacy from heart to heart I've had it on my mind a lot lately. I have thought about the legacy that my parents are passing on to me and the legacy that I hope to pass on to my future family and the people around me. I hope I can leave a legacy of love, service and a desire to be better where ever I go and what ever I do.

The Plan

It truly is amazing how the Lord has a plan for each one of His children. I always like to have a plan and know where I'm going but recently I've let go of my plans and really became open to the Lord's plan for me. And by far it is better than anything I could have ever imagined! A few months ago I was talking to my roommate and we trying to decide what we were going to do this summer. We wanted to do something fun and we knew that we needed to get a head start on it if we going to find something great! We talked about a lot of things but nothing seemed quite right. We let it go for a few months and one day I came home from school and my roommate came in and said, "So I've decided I'm going on a mission!" I was completely shocked for about two seconds and then completely happy and knew that this is what the Lord had in store for her. She has since sent in her mission papers and received a mission call to the Sweden Stockholm Mission! I am so excited for her and she will be a great missionary! I'm still working on my plan but I am at peace the the Lord has something in store for me. I know it will be coming soon!

Learning

Last week my roommate met with the stake president to turn her mission papers in. Since she wrecked her car over Christmas break I was happy to be her chauffeur! I’ve been in this stake for over a over a year and a half and I love our stake presidency is awesome! When we got there the stake president was running a little behind, which I think is normal, so we got to meet with the first counselor while he “wailed” on us. He is a great man and knows so much about the gospel. While my roommate met with the stake president I got to continue to learn from him. He taught us about the temple and I learned so much. He taught it all from the scriptures. It made me really want to learn the Old Testament and Pearl of Great Price more! It was so wonderful to just be taught one on one by someone I look up to so much! I love the gospel and am so grateful to be in an environment where I can learn about the gospel!

San Diego State Vs. BYU

Not very often do we have a huge game played in the Marriott Center. This year we are currently ranked #7 which makes us kind of a big deal. A few weeks ago we were ranked #9 and we were hosting #4 SDSU on a Wednesday night at the Marriott Center. I feel like sports is one of those things that goes along with the college experience so my friends and I decided we were going to be serious about getting into this game! BYU was not very smart about how they planned on doing this so our journey to the game began Tuesday at 11am! We stood in line for 2 1/2 hours!

I only have one class on Tuesdays and I have a meeting at 7am. At 6:30am when I went to school it was really warm and I thought I would be just find to wear my moccasins. However, just as I got out of class at 10:45am it started to snow a VERY wet snow! I braved the weather and walked to get in line. As it continued to snow this very we snow my feet got even more wet, and soon enough they were freezing! The line moved so slowly and at one point I was at the bottom right before the sidewalk started going up. So there was a nice big puddle that I was standing in. So I huddled up to some people that I didn't know trying to stay out of the water. I was not sure how much longer I could take of having frozen feet but I had already been there for over 2 hours and I couldn't leave now! So I started to count to 1000 just to get my mind off of how cold my feet were. and by the time I got to 472, I was counting very VERY slowly, we made it to the front of the line!

When you got to the front of the line they gave you the beloved green wristband! When you saw someone else on campus that had that wristband you formed a connection and you knew that they had stood out in the cold for hours just like you just to get into the game the NEXT day!

Wednesday finally came and they told us that you had to be in line at 4pm, which was 4 hours before the game! If you weren't in line by then you lost your spot and had to go to the end of the line. So I left one class early and skipped on class entirely just to stand in line and freeze! However, today I was smart and not going to let my feet get cold again so I wore my warmest shoes!

We stood in line for 2 hours outside waiting to go in. It wasn't too bad for the first bit while the sun was up but once it went down it got pretty cold! But we had pizza delivered to us by my wonderful friend's mom and we visited and we were doing good! We finally got to go inside and man it was crazy. I am surprised the older lady in front of me didn't get trampled! They let everyone in so fast that the line was running! But we made it in and we were 4 rows up from the friends and family section which I was pretty happy with! When we got in there, there was a performance by TJ Fredette, Jimmer's older brother it is was alright, it was cool because it was about Jimmer and pretty sweet. Though I'm not sure I can take a white guy, with a missionary part in his hair, and an argyle sweater on, that can rap. But I guess we are at BYU so what can you do?

Finally the game began! It was awesome! It was so loud in there you couldn't even hear yourself cheer at the top of you lungs! it was so fun! Jimmer and the whole team played well! However, if you've ever gone to a basketball game with me you know there is something that always happens. My feet get really hot. It always really warm in the Marriott Center and I feet are temperature sensitive anyway so I always have to take my shoes off if I want to enjoy the game. So I did! And even down to my socks I'm a true blue cougar!

We were so excited to be at the game! Here are some of the friends that I was with!

After the game it was crazy! Fans stormed the court! They weren't supposed to but how can you not when we just had a game like that? So the security guards tried to make a statement and grabbed anyone they could! It really was the funniest thing I have ever seen! It it wasn't such a good game that could have been the best part. There was a cop that had a really big belly and he used to to push people out of they way! If you ask me someone I'll reenact it for you! It was the best!

It was a great day for BYU basketball and definitely worth skipping class for! I am proud to be a cougar!

Missing my brother

I love my brother! I'm so proud of him and what he's doing. He was in the MTC for Christmas but he flew out to Columbia the morning after which means we got to talk to him! It was so good to be able to talk to him. He has never been much of a phone talker and things didn't change but it was so nice just to be able to talk to him The past couple months have been a little rough not being with him. He has been my best friend from the day he was born. I have been his number one fan and always loved spending time with him. Weather is was buying lunch for him every day my senior year because he "forgot his wallet" to those early days when I would speak for him, or he would hold my hand as I got my hair brushed. or the times when we would be moving sprinkler pipes and I would complain about not wanting to carry the heavy side and he would willingly take the heavier side so I wouldn't have to even though I was older. Or the times we shared a room and we would stay up late every night talking. Or the moments when there was a spider and I would be the one sometimes that had to go smash it because we were both so scared of them. Or our trips to buy as many bottles of soda at Coast to Coast that we could fit on our bikes as be drove to the barn. Or the sometime endless dogpiles that consisted of Kati, him, and me just because he missed me. Or the texts as I was driving home,wondering where my face was because he was waiting up for me to be home. The movies that we would start too late at night and end up both falling asleep on the couch. The random phone calls I would get every once in a while just to see when I was coming home next. When he would come to visit me at school, when we would go on double dates together and we would be on the way to go pick up his date before I found out who he was taking. Or being on the big toy at McDonald's and I was so scared to go across the net because I thought it might fall and he would go over to the other side and reach out his had and promise me that I wouldn't fall and that I could hold on him to him the whole time. He always put up with the endless cute little brother comments and even when I thought I was tough and could take him in a wrestling match he humor me for a while before he would always win. Or when I met him the last Wednesday at the temple just because I needed to see him and he sent a letter home telling me it was against the rules but he was happy to see me!
He has never been a better example of me as he is now and I love and miss him dearly! Not a day goes by I don't think about him. He inspires me to be better than I am and to do things that no one thought I could. His unwaivering faith and complete willingness to do what he has always known he wanted to do gives me strength. The letters that I got from him in the MTC when he was bearing his testimony or when he was thinking of me I will always cherish! I love you brother and I would not want you anywhere else in the world! I know this is where the Lord wants you to be and that is enough to give me the strength to have my best friend 3,309 miles away.