End of Summer Vacation

Clifford and I did another house project this week that we need to finish on Monday. I decided it was time for Clifford to get good shelves on his side of the garage so we used the others as models and scrounged around the house and grounds and found enough wood to make the frame. We just need to by some plywood for the shelves themselves. I hope this will clean up the garage again and put everything in a proper place. I have had nice shelves for many years and put food storage and household things in them.

I have really enjoyed reading the blogs and e-mails. James and Mandy your new home looks wonderful. I love the hardwood floors, the yard, The white farmer's porch and all the pictures. I am glad you have a fire place too in case of emergencies. I bet you are really excited to have a home of your own. It is really really nice. We are so excited for you. I loved Lily's idea of "putting a person's letter on paper and that means you love them." Sweet words of love from the children, no wonder the Savior knew how important they are.

This is the last week of summer school and I start back to work at the library on Monday for a few hours each day.

Our missionaries will transfer this week and Elder Shivley(left side) will stay and Elder McCord (right side) who has been here since March right out of the MTC is going to Porterville. Elder Shivley will be training a new missionary. It is so fun to see them grow in experience and love of the gospel. It is fun to talk with them about the gospel and missionary work. Elder Shivley is the district leader and will be a trainner for this next transfer. We also have a new mission president this Month so a lot of changes.

Adam Hightower got married this weekend and we went to his reception last night. All these kids have grown up in the ward and are doing so well. Our kids remember him as a little boy.

Life has been good this week. Our garden is growning and almost done. We have had cucumbers, yellow summer squash, tomatoes, carrots, green beans. It is nice to have a chance to try to raise things and to have learned these skills from parents at home. Thanks to Mom and Dad Clatworthy who were hard workers and good examples to us.

Trying New Experiences

So many of our family have started their own blogs we decided to try out this new media. It is amazing how fast things change in this computer world and there is no way to keep up the the "younger generation". It is fun to go on and see their pictures and families.

Since it is Sunday and we do our family news letter I guess we will get started. Clifford hooked up the old video cam again because Daniel, Brittany and Eve wanted to see and talk with us. That was fun and Eve is talking so much. However, Daniel could not get our sound to come through. We could hear and see them just fine. So we called Jonathan and he did not have the camera hooked up but we did a voice conversation and our mike worked just fine. So Daniel I guess it was on your end of the connection.

I have been so amazed at the good things our children have been doing to keep in shape so I decided to ride my bike home from Visalia which is 12 miles on Wednesday. It was only 98 degrees outside but I did not have on a hat and by the time I got home I was exhausted and a little red. But I made it and will try again this week. It is a good thing I did all those tests in Boston to see what kind of shape I am in. Now I know there is no excuse for not doing more exercise except lazyness.

Clifford and I have been doing some projects around the house to take care of the weeds. We and the missionaries poured a patio on the North side of the house. You can see the corner of the dutch oven table, then on the left side is a huge rose that blooms all the time if we keep the dead heads off and then the bar-be-que grill and of course the carbage cans. However, no weeds. The humming bird feed is busier than ever this year with at least 4 birds all the time. They drink that container full each week. I will need a can of sugar in the food storage just for them.

As you can tell we have not done the side walk at the end of the patio yet.

Also to make our home more organized and give us more room for things we built a metal shed and cleaned out the garage. Our next project is to build shelves in the garage to organize the stuff that we have in there.

You see our truck tire garden with squash and cucumbers. Clifford brought in 6 yellow squash to day and 4 cucumbers. The tomatoes have slowed down in the heat but will come back with lots as soon as the weather starts to cool off.

Dad will notice that Clifford is learning from him and has gone sky high. I do not know how we will pick the cherry tomatoes if they go to the top of the pole. I did not know how to rotate the picture so I guess you will have to turn your head.

I have been going to summer school and Clifford has been working so not much time for fun and vacations. However, I spent two weeks in Boston with James, Mandy, Lily and Kate and it was wonderful.

Well, I guess I will see if this new experience is going to work and if you can read my creation.