I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Morgan and I will be in San Antonio/Austin for the next week I will catch everyone up when we get back. Thank you Aunt Emily for watching Morgan while I'm at my conference in Austin. Good luck to Elizabeth (one of our favorite babysitters) she will have the other three kids all week long while daddy is at work.

a photo recap

We have been enjoying some of the public pools in Amarillo

Like any good American we ate lots of meat and blew things up for the 4th of July (Jim Gaffigan would have been so proud).
Jake is always so sweet to the little kids. This little girl really wanted to watch the firework show with Jake.
The dads were in charge of the actual blowing up of things... this was our grand finale!

Last weekend Jake and Jeremy ripped up our ONLY bathroom so that we could do some much needed remodeling. I didn't get a before picture but we had a very old out dated vanity/sink, the peel and stick linoleum tile, and paneling on the walls. They ended up keeping the toilet and tub but the rest had to come down. The boys (Jeremy, Jake and our very good friend Garth) ended up having to strip some of the walls that were ruined under the panels all the way down to the wood studs. It was a lot of work but very much worth it.

After the girls and I spent last weekend in Lubbock avoiding all the blood, sweat, tears (and bum cracks) we came home to find that the boys had done a very nice job fixing our bathroom up.

I still need too repaint the top of the walls and hang a toilet paper thingy onto our vanity but for the most part it is all done!!

After seeing our Nephew dancing on this blog we decided to video Morgan cutting a rug. I think she gets most of her sweet moves from me. We think it's very funny that she "snaps her fingers" by moving her hand up and down and clicking her tongue in her mouth.

Memories

My friend Emily posted this on her blog and I was up for the challenge, besides I would like to hear all the memories that we have had together! I guess this is a type of tag post. I am excited to read the posts!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

I heart cats

You're either a cat person or you're not. Jeremy is NOT. I have no idea what he finds objectionable about sweet little kitten.

Exciting news!!!

About four months ago I started going to the National Psoriasis Foundation website to read some of the messages on the message board and to ask questions I had about Jake. I also started emailing a woman on the site who works for the foundation she was asking parents for fun ideas for the big convention that was going to be held this summer in Orlando, Fl. For the first time they were going to try and plan a youth track for their weekend conference. She needed ideas for workshops to offer to some of the youngest sufferers of this disease. I shared some of my thoughts with her and over the next four months we emailed several times to bounce ideas off each other. She emailed me last week asking me if Jake and I would be at the convention I told her, "I don't think so we were just in California and we really couldn't afford another big trip." She emailed me back saying they still have scholarship money to award and that they might be able to arrange a partial scholarship for Jake and I. She also said she really wanted me to have the opportunity to go because they used many of my ideas for the workshops. I was flattered but I knew that even a partial scholarship wouldn't be enough (I mean the airline tickets alone would be over $600). She said to just fill out the application for a scholarship and see what happens. After much convincing on her part we filled out the paper work and within about an hour we got a letter back saying that they would like to offer us a scholarship which included our airfare, hotel accommodations for three nights, and conference fees. We were so excited. It was hard to say no to that. We will be flying out on August 14th and we can't wait. We've never been to Disney World and the entire convention takes place at this hotel located in downtown Disney. Jacob is now hard at work selling candy bars so that he can have plenty of spending money when he gets there. He knows that this is a big blessing and he plans on buying all his sisters and his dad something special from Florida.

A touch of class

Last night I went to see a late night movie at the dollar theater with my friend Hope. After we finished the movie we did what most normal people do at 11:00 pm and tried to figure out where in Amarillo a girl could get her some 4th meal (why am I so fat?). We decided on IHOP but thought we would drive out to the east side of town IHOP since the other one just reopened after a nice little food poisoning mandated closure. We ordered our food and then just sat around talking. We waited and waited and waited and waited for our order and finally after about 25 min of waiting our waitress came back and apologized for taking so long but reassured us that, "the cook was back so it shouldn't be much longer"... what the heck?!?!?! While we waited for our food we both noticed something that struck us as odd. We saw not one, but TWO men eating their french fries with a knife and fork. FYI these men were the kind of men you would expect to see on the east side of town at an IHOP at midnight. It really intrigued me, I couldn't figure out what was going on. I had to try it myself (I'm always up for a new experience). When our food FINALLY got there I was armed with my knife and fork. I cut my fries into very appropriate bite size pieces and then I even took it up a notch and used my knife to spread my ketchup before I ate it. I have to be honest with you, it felt very classy.

(Luckily we had a camera phone there to document it all)


Who knew that IHOP customers were on the cutting edge of classy dinner etiquette? I'm a changed woman and I recommend everyone giving it a try. I mean really... eating fries with your hands is so barbaric.

That's one big hole in the ground...

Like I said in an earlier post our family stopped to see the Grand Canyon on the way back to Texas. Our digital camera had died and I didn't have the charger with us so we bought a disposable camera before we set out on our adventure. I finally got the pictures developed (remember when cameras weren't digital and you had no idea if any of the pictures would turn out until you drove somewhere to develope them...what a head ache...) I thought I would post some of our favorite shots that did turn out:).

We loved our little side trip and would recommend this stop to anyone. We would however like to share some things we learned from our impromptu day at the Grand Canyon.

1. $2.00 flip flops really don't cut it at the Grand Canyon.

2. Don't forget the sunscreen!! (OOPS)

3. Pack a picnic, when you're a good 1 1/2 hour radius from any normal town that realizes a hot dog shouldn't cost $4.

4. Don't feed the animals... did you know that: "on average 30 people are bitten by squirrels everyday at the Grand Canyon." I'm proud to say that none of the Clements became a sad squirrel bite statistic.

Question...

Are the Clements watching too much t.v.?


Mom: Jake it's time to go to bed.

Jake: Mom I have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep, I think I need Ambien.

--Jake age 6



Riley: Mom did you know that we would never need to buy paper towels again if you would just buy ShamWow?



--Riley age 7

Jake: Do you have any old gold lying around?

Mom: ummm... no why?

Jake: If you did you could turn it into cash.

--Jake age 9

Brooke: You need one of those purses with lots of pockets. "It's the biggest little bag ever, it holds it all, it keeps it organized."

Hahahaha... when I was on the Buxton Bag website looking for this picture Brooke happened to walk in. She saw the picture and quoted their slogan again... word for word. "It's the biggest little bag ever, it holds it all, it keeps it organized." It's been several months since she first spouted these words out. In case your questioning if she read the words on the website let me just add this is one of my kids we're talking about not Carl and Heather's, she can't read yet.

--Brooke age 4

I'm not sure if the ad executives for Ambien, ShamWow, Gold Kit, and the Buxton Bag intended for their target audience to be 4-9 years old but my kids are sold!!

***Side note*** We do not endorse any of these products (unless there is a pay check to be earned).