Bri Clark the "belle" of Boise

Goodbye

Bri Clark — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:39:58 +0000

WordPress you have been so good to me and I appreciate all your have done and though there are definietly pro’s to your site. I am now focusing on my other blog for the time being. If you want to know what I’m into

Here is am http://briclarkthebelleofboise.blogspot.com/

4800 square feet to 900 square feet in less than a year

Bri Clark — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:48:30 +0000

As I sit at our kitchen table clipping coupons and making a grocery list for this week. I hear my husband say “4800 square feet to 900 square feet in less than a year.” Hence the title of this blog. We will be in a 900 square feet apartment in a little over a month. We lived in a 4800 squft home in TN before moving here to Idaho in May. A home we lost to foreclosure. A house we never needed. I don’t dwell so you will hear no if I would have done this or that here. However I am not naive to the fact that this will not be easy. 4 children in one room two boys two girls you probably ask am I insane. And yes I am . But more faith is more prevalent than my insanity. My granny (a middle child of 9 who actually shared a bed for many years with several siblings) said ” Some people won’t like that two teen boys and two little girls sharing a room.” I responded with this. “I don’t really care what they think and furthermore sharing a room in an apartment is a lot better than a halfway house, homeless shelter or living under a bridge.” And that my will be the destiny of my family if I am not smart.

So the first step at making this work is to quote my friends license plate “Simplify” So all furniture that isn’t going in the house or I have an emotional attachment to is being given a way for free. This leaves in the house only what furniture we are taking.

second. Going through all clothing, shoes, coats, toys, household items and donating excess to Deseret industries. My friend Gretch said that two towels per family member is all you need. A good rule of thumb. Another word of her advice is one comforter and two sets of sheets per bed. The extra set of sheets are folded and fitted into a pillow case and stored under the mattress of the bed.

third step. Assemble all photos and wall hangings, pick what will go in the apartment set aside then wrap and pack excess.

My tentative plan is to move in two waves. First sorting and getting rid all that I do not need then. Then boxing what I will be storing and moving out of the current house to storage. Finally only leaving in th house what we will be bringing with us to the apartment.

This gives me the ability to prepare and pace myself. It also gets us acquainted to living with less and making it easier on the Elders of our church when we move so their burden is lighter. People’s time is precious you should always show respect for that time by being as ready and organized as possible when they help you so they can be done quickly. Another perk to clearing out the bigger house before the move make it easier to repair any damage. We have nail holes to putty, cabinets and baseboard to clean, carpets to shampoo and so on and so forth. Which we really need to do to get our deposit back. Which we really need.

So thats the tentative plan I will update as I progress or need to vent.

To Get ahead you have to Sacrafice

Bri Clark — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:28:45 +0000

So here’s what’s new with the me. We have decided to move from our beautiful 2200 squ foot rental to a beautiful 900 squ ft apartment ultimately cutting all of our bills in half or more. We are destitute. We are preventing being destitute. We are all counseled to live within our means. Well in our line of work there is no way to guarantee what your means is. So we are sacraficing space for peace of mind in an attempt to save money and when work is very slow being able to depend on that savings or since being in a smaller expense bracket we can make enough to pay those bills. Now I know all of you are wondering how I’m going to pull this off. I have a plan and am trying to get all the tools I need to make it as painless, organized and funtional as possible. Oh and we aren’t moving out of the ward boundaries and the kids stay in the same school. So you all can guess where I’m moving.

One blog inspires another…

Bri Clark — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:27:23 +0000

Oh my dear friend has decided to leave the Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and though this is saddening it is not the worst. My dismay is over what has transpired over the last few weeks. I have read her blog for months. She is a Morman Democrat and convert who has endured alot. She has two children under the age of 4 and a husband who has lost not one but two jobs this year and had their house burn down only after loosing everything and filing bankruptcy. There is the sum of it however you get to know it all if your are interested here http://www.theinmomniac.com

So I have many things i desire to do here. A the fighter in me the defender perhaps you could say would like to do just that. Anyone who knows me knows not only do I have words but I have the faith, intellect and sass to back them up.

B. The sister in me wants to get on a plane go to where she lives start an impromptu fast and testimony meeting in her ward and say hey “lets fix this!”

C. the convert in me just knows.

And finally D. The outside the box, do what I want to do, sassy southern belle that is at my core applaudes her in her courage to ask why and try something new and I will pray for her whether she likes it or not.

Cheers Gabrielle

FICTION PRESS IS THE VERY BEST

Bri Clark — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:00:46 +0000

You ever had something looking you in the face and you didn’t see it. This reminds me of a scripture , something about a beam and a boulder. Idk anyways it’s always the obvious that is well hidden. I am a member of several author networking sites and that is where Glazier is posted. However I am now ready to share her with others and therefore wanted to make it reader friendly. Well I have been a member of fictionpress.com for a while. I follow several stories by other authors and it was there all along. I humor myself into thinking that perhaps it is finally the very best I can make it if I finally see what is in front of me.

Here is the link for the first 5 chapters of Glazier. If you join the forum it will automatically email you everytime I update and you can read on.

http://www.fictionpress.com/~briclark

YEAR OF THE SAINTS

Bri Clark — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:54:30 +0000

When I say year of the saints I’m not talking about the football team. I’m talking about my brethern and sistern. Now don’t take my words the wrong way I’m not trying to elude anyone into thinking I’m a prophetess. But I am a positivess. So with that said I believe that 2010 will be a year of prosperity and growth to those who endure well and obey well. I also believe those that don’t will be tried and will come out and over true. I speak from experience and to quote a beloved sister Sandra Wilson who dubbed her 2009 theme “Bring it on.”

The Thyroid Cure…..

Bri Clark — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:08:59 +0000

So I go the Endo and they tell me that the cure is to take a radioactive pill, kill my thyroid, be isolated in my home from everyone for three days including family, then take medicine for the rest of my life to do what the thyroid would have done. Oh and it will take 1 to 2 years to get the dosage right. I laughed and said wow modern medicine really lowered the definition of what a cure is. What are my other options? I went with option B. I’m going to try medicine first. I will take something to stablize the levels and then once they are will slowly be weaned off the medicine and see how long it will stay normal. But remember this is not a cure. Hmmmmm….. What would you have done. LOL I’m just glad to be getting somewhere i feel good about. Oh but I may develop a rash, the pills taste bad and my white blood cell count can drop rapidly. So…. Still not afraid is that crazy or what. NO wait I am crazy.

The Measure of a Man

Bri Clark — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:35:24 +0000

I find myself lately being very observant of the men that surround me. Namely of course CC, my husband, and the only other men that are prominent in my life are those I attend church with. My grandfather is far away but his influence has been left and so that is there. But I find myself in this kind of objective mode lately. I am the mother of two young men and one day two young women. My boys are coming into young adult hood at 15 and 13. I have no father to base upon any right or wrong, strong or weak, kind or cruel examples.So this is why I find myself doing this. So that as I admire the qualities of these men I may be able to guide and instill in them these same attributes.The grandest observation of this whole internal process is that I am not without many many fine examples.

These thoughts bring me to my daughters as well, being only 8 and 5 you ask how. Well it is the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer that poses this. I read that series as an author and as a sister. I read about Stephenie before i read any of her books and I read New Moon (the second book) first. So I am a very different kind of fan. I was overjoyed that a sister in our church could experience such success and I was very elated that (from my experiences) her books were able to establish a sense of intimacy and romance with moral values as well. There are those who expressed their disapproval over the fourth book and then there were others who didn’t even read them because they didn’t want their daughters to and then there were many that were just infatuated with the characters and the story.

I found many women pining away over the character of Edward. I although very much a team Edward fan did not pine away. I found myself grateful for what he could accomplish as a positive influence on society. Being born of the 1700′s and having those morals instilled in him for over a hundred years he is not a 17 year old man of today. But as young women day dream about this brooding vampire and the way he cares for his love Bella I can’t help but be glad. Because with so much weighing down on women causing them to feel unloved, unspecial and ugly this character from ,a book even will, cause them to have an expectation of treatment that they do deserve. Don’t get me wrong I know young men are not going to be Edward. But is it a bad thing for young women to expect that they are that special?

Am I alone? What up with the smut?

Bri Clark — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:50:27 +0000

I am unpublished, unsheltered, multi generely read writer, author whatever you want to call me. But before it all I was a reader. I am still a reader and I’m highly opinionated! But guess what it’s my blog so I get that luxury. I am a member of several authors websites, I will link them to the side. But my favorite at the moment is authonomy.com. It was developed by Harper Collins to “to flush out the brightest, freshest new writing talent around.” And let me tell you have they! It’s like being a member of an elite society of authors with undiminished, unaltered raw talent. But with that there are drawbacks as well.

I am not a reader who reads, regency or books of such. But upon many occasions I have found myself in the depths of a great story, bonding with the characters, walking their roads and feeling their emotions, completely engrossed in the story when BAM out of nowhere I become assaulted with words like clitoris. I’ve seen and heard worse but this is a Grated blog so I am going as technical as I can while still expressing my sentiments. Or I am caught up in a great monologue of conversation between two wonderful characters I have a great connection with only to have them throw out a totally unnecessary and obscene curse word.

Now the reason for my rant. I am a mother, a wife and a woman. I want intimacy, adventure, intrigue and excitement But I have a my ethics. Those ethics are set by two things my experience and my religion. I read the books, I’ve lived the life of those books. And then I became LDS and I live this life and I prefer it.

So when those BAMS happen I find myself in a highly moral dilemma. One that is my own. But I always consider these words, Shall I continue. And depending on whether or not I do depends on the story and how into the characters I am. But when I it is never quite the same. There is a lost connection that was once so strong. I usually skip whole chapters and sequences as a protection for my own mind. And as I read there is a sadness there. I know I will never read it again unless it is edited and I mourn for the potential of the characters and I mourn for the audience that will never know them.

I express my view to the author in a respectful but honest way. I praise them for all that I love and express my ethical view of my own opinion. For it is that all my own. But I ponder. Am I alone in my opinion? Are there other people out there that desire the intimacy of the character and the story without the explicit explanation?

Don’t get my wrong, I know that sex is going to happen. It’s not a sin. But I believe it has and can be done in a more exciting, eloquent and intimate way. I have always believed that the talent of an author lies in not telling the whole story.

FREE COUPON CLIPPING SERVICE i.e. Granny

Bri Clark — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:09:17 +0000

I recently thanks to a frugal friend started power couponing. To quote my cousin “Woa, it just go serious.” Thats what I mean when I saw power couponing. I have a hot pink black binder with a long black strap, subject dividers, baseball card holders etc. See what I mean by serious. I eagerly look forward to purchasing the sunday paper on Monday. I don’t buy items unless absolutely necessary on Sundays. And a local store has the papers for 1.50 instead of 2.00 That’s 2.00 a month and 24.00 a year. I mean come on. Anyways I do the internet couponing. Check the sales etc. I have read about the coupon clipping services that you pay for and they send them to you. But felt like it defeated the purpose. Anyways Granny came to visit recently from about 2,000 miles away. She brought with her months worth of Sunday paper coupons. I stayed up late cutting out the best, unexpired ones and awoke early to use them. I had told her of my new hobby before she came. Perhaps it was the fact she actually saw it, perhaps it is the deep rooted nurturing desire she has always had to serve and help as much as she could my children and I. But not matter what her motives, today in the mail I received a thick enveloped full of carefully clipped coupons. For free by Granny.