brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things...

I have a couple of public thank yous to make. I want to thank Leasa for her fabulous "pay it forward" gift that came in the mail. I feel very lucky to have won a box of her favorites. She included; a dvd, yummy carmel corn, a magazine, body wash and scrubber, and delicious dove chocolates. Can you believe it? It was such an awsome gift to get in the mail (much better then our usual bills/junk). Thanks so much Leasa, you can "pay it forward" anytime!!! I also need to thank my mother she is such an amazing person. She finished all of the granddaughter (sorry boys) Easter dresses and they are cute. Can you believe she sewed 7 of these?!?!?! The picture sort of distorts the color believe me they are adorable! Thanks again mom we LOVE them!! I will have to get the girls all done up and take a picture. I am still considering little off white satin gloves, I think that would be really cute with this dress. What do you all think?

It's all about ME!!!

So I was tagged on my friend Emily's blog and now I get to answer a few questions.

What were you doing ten years ago?

I was a newly wed working at Van Horn elementary school as an interpreter. We were still living in good old Bakersfield, CA renting a tiny loft apartment.

5 things on my to do list today:

1. Get kids ready for school and leave with them by 7:45 so I can get to work on time.
2. Find a way to get out of my 7th period art class early so I can take Jake to his UV treatment.
3. Take Jake to his UV appointment.
4. Come up with some kind of fast dinner that is semi nutritious.
5. KIDS IN BED BY 8:00!!!

3 bad habits:

1. temper...temper...temper (I know what you are thinking NOT ELIZA you're shocked I'm sure)
2. procrastination (I got this tag like 2 weeks ago)
3. thank you cards (I pretty much don't do them, I do make thank you phone calls or emails though).

If I were suddenly a billionaire:

I would get out of debt and totally upgrade the house. I would quite work and stay home full time with my kids. I think I would seriously consider going back to school. Maybe not yet but it would happen (don't you love how committed I am to my education?). I would also set up college/mission/start a new life funds for all of our nieces and nephews (a billion dollars is a lot of money). I just thought of one more... plastic surgery!! :)

5 places I have lived:

1. Ventura, CA
2. Oxnard, CA
3. Bakersfield, CA
4. Bozeman, MT
5. Amarillo, TX

5 jobs I have had:

1. newspaper route
2. worked at a Nascar store in the mall (yup you read it right)
3. janitorial arts
4. waitress
5. GAP
6. interpreter (I have more but I should have stoped at GAP)

5 things people don't know about me:

1. I have total Jedi powers (acutally lots of people know this about me)
2. total fear of needles, we're talking about crying, passing out, cold sweats etc.
3. VERY picky eater (I know it doesn't look like it but I really am)
4. I got my first pedicure ever when I was 30.
5. I can be very shy at times.

Feel free to consider yourself tagged.
As a side note this picture of me is the closest thing I had to a Glamour Shot. Anna and Emily know what I am talking about. :)

Thinking about Jake

Most of our family have been sent pictures of Jake's psoriasis however I have never posted anything on my blog about his condition. Two years ago Jake has a very strange rash start on his legs and quickly spread to most of his body we went to several doctors and got a different diagnosis from each one. Eventually we were told that his condition was psoriasis which has not cure but could be controlled to some extent. We tried prescription lotions and creams as well as over the counter stuff. Nothing seemed to help him except for time and exposure to sun. His first outbreak really effected him for months until he started swimming during the summer time and getting lots of sun. The next year he never had a severe outbreak the smaller incident lasted for a much shorter amount of time and once again over time he seemed to heal himself and we continued to use the creams and lotions that were prescribed to us. This year he was hit hard again and we decided we needed a new dermatologist and new treatment. I couldn't imagine him suffering through this for 6 months like he did the first year. Jake is now in UV therapy three times a week and it seems to be helping. Our hope and prayer is once we get this outbreak under control we can try and prevent a huge problem from occurring the next time he starts to show signs we hope to immediately start him up with the UV and avoid another situation like this one he is in. Psoriasis.org explains exactly what this disease is:

No one knows exactly what causes psoriasis, though scientists believe it is an immune-mediated disease. With psoriasis, skin cells reproduce in 3 to 4 days instead of 28 to 30 days, as is normal. While normal skin cells are shed unnoticed, psoriasis skin cells build up and form raised, scaly lesions. It affects people differently, and its course is not easy to predict.
Skin involved with psoriasis becomes red from the increased blood supply to the rapidly dividing cells. The white scale, called plaque, is composed of dead skin cells that build up on the skin's surface. Psoriasis goes through an unpredictable cycle: flares, improvement, remission and reappearance. The severity of each case is categorized by the percent of the body involved with psoriasis. Mild cases involve only a few lesions.
Moderate cases cover 3 to 10 percent of the body. (The palm of your hand represents 1 percent of the body's skin surface.) Severe cases involve more than 10 percent of the skin surface, and, in rare cases, may include all of a person's skin. It is not contagious. People do not "catch" psoriasis from other people, nor can they transmit the disease to others. Psoriasis does not spread on an individual's skin because of self-contagion.

Jacob really for the most part does very well. He has great friends who have known him for two years as "Jake the kid with psoriasis". They know he looks a little different but Jake is such a great kid most of the other kids at school and church accept and love him despite this disease. One of the things we have tried to do to help him heal is to keep his hair cut as short as possible. He has horrible scabbing and scaling on his head that itch, bleed, and cause LOTS of flaking in his hair. We hope that in keeping it short the UV therapy and sun will help it to heal up faster. He has really needed a haircut for over a week but honestly I was dreading the process and have been putting it off. Before I can shave it all off I have to try and get rid of all of the scabs/scales so that the hair is cut evenly (his hair mats up really badly in the areas that are effected). I have learned through different websites that by pouring olive oil onto his head and then covering up the hair with plastic wrap for about 20 minutes helps soften up the scales and then you can comb through with a fine tooth comb and get rid of all of the scabs quickly and less painfully. We tried that today and it worked so well. It was still a little uncomfortable but not nearly as bad as it has been in the past. We shaved off his hair again after we finished combing through and Jacob made a comment to me that made me feel bad for him. He asked me why he couldn't be normal. I told him that such and exceptional boy like he is could never be normal. I also told him that there are many different diseases that effect people and so many of them are much much worse than his. We talked about his disease and how it is yucky but that the doctors are trying to help him heal everything up and hopefully in the future we can stop it from getting this bad again.

Jeremy and I love Jake so much and couldn't have asked for a better son. We are so proud of everything he has become and know he has an incredibly bright future. On a much lighter subject Jacob had an award assembly at school yesterday to honor the kid's performances over the past six weeks. He was awarded several things including, "A" honor roll, perfect attendance and no tardies, commended on his reading benchmark test, commended on his math benchmark test, and 20 AR points (points that kids earn by reading certain books and taking comprehension tests after they are done). Jacob and Riley's school has a reward system to encourage kids to try their hardest. The kids are given "dollars" for doing certain things. They use the dollars to buy things at the school store. Jacob was given 92 dollars for all of his achievements over the past six weeks. The next highest 3rd grader was awarded 76 dollars. The average 3rd grader was awarded between 25 and 35 dollars. Like I told Jacob today, their is no way such an exceptional kid can be "normal".

I wrote this post because I was thinking about Jacob, his disease and the struggles that come along with that. I need to take just a second and brag about Riley as well though. At Riley's 1st grade award assembly she was also awarded with "dollars" she did very well in her class and was awarded for perfect attendance and no tardies, reading above grade level, and passing the 1st grade tiger math test. In all she was awarded with 48 dollars. She won every thing that was available for a 1st grader to win except for one award that is called "staying on San Jacinto". This award is a behavior award that is given to a child who never had to be warned or reminded that they need to adjust some kind of behavior problem. Anyone who knows our sweet Riley also knows that talking is her "thing" I could never imagine my baby earning this award because it would mean she was not being herself. We love Riley for everything she is including her excessive talking.

Calling all Primary workers!!!

Hey everyone I have a really great idea for a primary project and I need your help. The Yahoo primary group that I get all of my great ideas from is buzzing about a pen pal project and my ward wants in. This year's primary theme is "I am a Child of God". Our primary wants to have a sharing time where we talk about the fact that Heavenly Father loves all of his children through out the world, and that the gospel is true everywhere. After the lesson and some songs we are going to have the kids write down their testimony and a little something about living in Amarillo Texas. We will take a group picture of everyone and then we want to find primaries though out the US and the world to send our letters and pictures to. We hope to get some postcards, letters, and pictures back from primaries everywhere. I think the kids will love to get mail and to see pictures of kids just like them who believe in this gospel and attend primary just like they do. So what do you all think?? I would love to have some addresses of primaries that would like to participate and recieve a letter and picture from the kids in Amarillo 4th Ward. Please email me if your primary is interested or if you have an international connection. We are hopeing to decorate our entire primary room with testimonies from around the world!!

clementfam97@sbcglobal.net

Get out and vote!!!

This is one reason I love Mitt:



A quote I stole from someone else's blog:

"There comes a rare opportunity, maybe once in a generation if we're lucky, to elect someone of both high morals and high ability. Usually candidates are mediocre at best in both of these categories. This chance may not come again for most of us. The time is now for Mitt Romney and for America. Use your voice and vote to make a difference this Tuesday."

Now it's bathtime for little girls. Please remember to do you part America, we NEED Mitt!!!

Visiting Teaching Conference

Today our Relief Society president arranged for all the women in the ward to meet during third hour for our annual VT conference. I really thought this was a great way to ensure a good turn out. Our RS president also happens to be a great friend of mine and I was at her home visiting her last Wednesday when she asked me if I would possibly prepare a short testimony of the VT program to share with the sisters. I told her no problem and started thinking of what I would speak on. I decided to speak on a personal experience that in retrospect taught me two very important lessons.

In June of 2001 Jeremy and I had just given birth to our second child Riley. Everything went well until the delivery and I very unexpectedly was told I would have to have an emergency C-section. I was very nervous and upset but of course agreed to do what ever I had to do to have this baby safely. She was delivered and other than a slight amount of jaundice she was perfect. At the time Jeremy was very busy going to school and working full time. His job did not give him much vacation or personal time off and we planned to bless Riley in California so we both agreed that he would be there for the delivery but I didn't expect him to be at the hospital for the remainder of our stay. My parents were kind enough to drive down for her delivery to help us with Jacob who had just turned two but didn't know how long they could stay because my sister was due any day with her first child. Luckily they were still around when we were discharged so my father was able to drive Riley and me home but they had to leave immediately after because they had gotten word that Emily was in labor. They left and I remember having this over whelming feeling of despair come over me. I felt so unprepared and nervous about taking care of the two kids. I was also in quite a bit of pain from my surgery. At the time we were living in this little apartment that was literally underground. The final straw for my little pity party was when my sweet little two year old son came up to me while I was sitting in our recliner and climbed up onto my lap. I wasn't thinking about the huge incision on my stomach so I didn't try and stop him. His little foot dug deep into my stomach ripping out two of my staples. I remember thinking what else could possibly happen to make this situation even harder. It was a very dark time in my life and I spent the first day home alone crying and worrying about how I will ever be able to be a good mother to these two babies. Looking back it almost seems silly but between the medications I was on and the situation of feeling very alone this was just how I felt. I did not call any one from the ward to ask for help and this was my biggest mistake. I should have picked up the phone and called someone but I kept thinking that they will call me. It really never happened. I had no one come by and visit and no one bring in any food. I would have loved to have had someone come by and pick up Jake for the day but that didn't happen either. I got through it with time but it was a truly sad and lonely place for me to be in.

Fast forward about five and half years when we were delivering our little Morgan. Morgan was another C-section baby and was born with severe jaundice. She had to stay in the hospital a little longer then I did and went home with a special UV bed that she was required to stay in as much as possible for the first two weeks of her life. The situation could have been one that would lead to another episode of depression but this story is a much happier one. I had some of the best visiting teachers a woman could ask for and so many others who were not "assigned" to me but offered help. The three kids were all farmed out to different people's homes until my mom and dad were able to get there. Meals came pouring into the house, friends came to visit, and best of all Sister Curtis one of my visiting teachers came by after my parents had left and took all three of my older kids for hours. Morgan was still in her UV bed and I was trapped in our house, she came by without asking and offered to take all of them all day long. It was such a needed break for all of us. It was as if Sister Curtis was anticipating my needs and I will always be grateful to her. I felt so much love from the members of the church toward me and my family. We were all so impressed with how much people were willing to help us. Living so far away from family means that our friends and ward members very much become our extended family.

Comparing these two experiences has taught me two very important lessons. I have such a testimony of visiting teaching and compassionate service. I love to give service to others and feel so blessed when I have that opportunity. The other lesson I learned is that I should not just sit there and wait for help when I so desperately need it. I could have very easily called my visiting teachers when I was feeling so depressed after Riley was born. I did not make that call and in essence I denied sisters from the blessings they could have received had I called and given them the opportunity. I was grateful for the opportunity I had to share these experiences today at church. I have a love for the visiting teaching program and for providing service to others.

I saw this one on someone else's blog....

All in a days work

Today I was able to watch most of the funeral services for President Hinckley. I was truely moved by what a saw and felt great peace. After the sevices the BYU channel had many different programs on the life of Gordon B. Hinckley and so we had them playing while the girls and I all got ready for a baptizm. One of our great friends, Iain, was baptized today and we were able to attend and witness this great moment in his life. Jake and Iain are the best of friends however Jake was unable to attend with us because he went hunting with Jeremy this morning to try for the third Saturday in a row to kill some quail.

I have mixed feelings about this whole thing. I am all for Jeremy and Jake spending lots of time together in the great outdoors I just sort of secretly hope they don't bring home any "food". I am not an idiot I obviously do realize that the meat I buy in the grocery store was in fact a living breathing animal. However I really like knowing that the meat I am about to serve to my family was farm raised and feed some quality grain or whatever it is they eat. I do not like the idea of butchering some random wild animal that has been fending for itself and eating who know what. I guess you could call me a meat snob this is just how I feel. Today Jeremy got lucky (yeahhhhh....) he brought home two quail for us to eat (gag). Thankfully he did all the defeathering and gutting out in the wild so it sort of looks like food I am more familiar with. I do not know if I will be able to eat this or not. Lucky for me the little guys are really small so I could go with the old, "It's so special that you caught/killed this fine piece of meat I wouldn't want to take the prize from you. Why don't you go ahead and eat both of them they're so small." Do you think this will work? I will let you know if it does.

Today I tried a little pony tail on our sweet little Morgan. It was kind of cute and kind of pathetic at the same time. Bless her heart she had the total baby mullet thing going on. I was able to get a ver small amount on top of her hair and I think I will try this out again on Sundays and special occasions. She does also have some VERY cute curls. I remember when Jeremy and I got pregnant with our first one I told him I really was hoping for a curly headed little girl. Some of Jeremy's sisters have the best curls and I have always been very envious. Riley came along and although she has lovely hair it is just as straight as mine. Next was Brooke and well lets just say Brooke struggles with growing hair. She will be five in a couple of weeks and her hair is VERY thin, short, and pretty much straight. To quote Riley, "we just aren't lucky". It looks like Morgan might have broken our families hair luck and have that great Clement curl. If you can't tell Morgan is standing in these pictures. She stands pretty good we are just patiently waiting her first steps alone. If at all possible before she starts nursery at church. This little goals only gives her about three more months.

P.S. My spell checker deal isn't working for me on blogger so please excuse any horrible spelling errors. I am known for my bad spelling so I have no doubt there are problems with this post.

They're here!!!

Braxton Reese 6 lbs. 7 oz.
Brinkley Jada 6 lbs. 3 oz.

Our newest Niece and Nephew were born on Jan. 30th at approximently 4:30 a.m. They are healthy and adorable and I just had to share a picture. Congratulations to Amanda and David and their new little angels.

Funeral Services

You can watch the funeral services for
Gordon B. Hinckley on Saturday at 11:00 MST on the BYU channel as well as at
many of the church buildings.

I am the primary chorister in our ward and I ran across this song that was published in the Friend in 1996. I thought it was a very sweet song that I plan on teaching to my kids. I thought I would share the song for anyone who might be interested. You can find the sheet music on the church website.

Cheryl Boyer Hansen, “Gordon B. Hinckley—Constant As the North Star,” Friend, June 1996

1. When President Hinckley was a boy,

he slept outside for fun.

He noticed all the stars would move,

except for one.

2. Discouraged while in the mission
field,

he read these words from home:

“Forget yourself and go to work.”

His heart was stirred to

3. So if you’re discouraged or
confused,

just think of that bright star.

Remember what our prophet said And who you are.

Chorus: Be constant as the North Star that
shines for you and me,

Anchored in the gospel with pure integrity,

Steadfast in your service to God and fellowman.

President Hinckley has shown us that we can.

Till We Meet Again

I have had such an emotional day after hearing that our dear Prophet has passed. I knew that I needed to record some of my feelings about this time for my children to read in the future. For totally selfish reasons I wanted so much to hold on to our sweet Prophet for even more time then we were blessed to have him with us. What a truly inspiring man he is. Gordon B. Hinckley is the essence of kindness, charity, love, hard work, integrity and obedience. I marvel at all of the good he did for the church in his many years of service. Just one example of a lesson I learned from the actions of our Prophet occurred in April of 2002 when Jeremy and I were able to attend the dedication of the Lubbock, Texas temple.

We made our arrangements and got our tickets a couple of weeks prior to the big day. We knew that we would need to leave Amarillo very early so we could get to Lubbock (120 miles away) and drop Jake and Riley off with my cousin Vickie and her family. Our stake was assigned the earlier session of the dedication and even though this was such a joyous time I was feeling sort of bitter about the fact that we had to make this huge sacrifice to be their so early when the members who lived in Lubbock were going to be attending a latter time slot. I even spoke the words out loud to Jeremy that this just doesn't seem fair it was just bad planning in my mind. We woke up very early that morning and I was feeling a little under the weather I had this bad attitude and as horrible as this sounds I considered for a moment cancelling the trip. We got to Lubbock and dropped off the kids and got to the temple in plenty of time in fact we were a little early. Many people were walking around the temple grounds and rumors started circling that the Prophet was on his way over for the ceremony. A sudden wave of emotion enveloped my whole being as I saw a black car pull up, park in front of the temple and then the Prophet and his sweet wife were assisted out of the car. The Prophet turned to the people and waved at us all as he used a cane to walk into the temple. I felt the spirit so strongly just being in his presence knowing that he is the Lord's mouth piece. What a change in my attitude I had as I saw this elderly man who had made many sacrifices to be with us in Lubbock on this special day. President Hinckley could have easily sent another General Authority to preform this ceremony but he knew how important it was to us to have our own temple close to us and he wanted to be there himself as it was dedicated. From this experience I took with me several lessons including the lesson of being where you should be at all times. It is so easy for us to think I won't be missed at church or convince ourselves that we are not feeling 100% so we can catch up with sleep instead of attend a 9:00 am Sacrament meeting. How does taking the easier road ever help us grow? It does not and will never. I also gained such a personal testimony of the love of our Prophet for each of us. At the time of this experience President Hinckley was 92 years old. Standing in the same place as our prophet was a wonderful experience I felt his love as well as the love of our Savior. Everyone did. We will all miss President Hinckley greatly, the words to the hymn "Till We Meet Again" keep playing in my head I believe this is a great time to read those lyrics once again.

God be with you till we meet again;

By his counsels guide, uphold you;

With his sheep securely fold you.

God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,

Till we meet at Jesus’ feet,

Till we meet, till we meet,

God be with you till we meet again.

El luchadores no es bueno... :(

Another Friday night in Amarillo and another oportunity to watch me some wresteling. I heard some of the kids at school talking about the underground WW(whatever) scene. I decided to check it out even if that meant on my own. The venue for this wrestling happens to be right around the corner from where we live so tonight I waited until Jeremy got home. Tucked the kidos in bed and prepared myself for an adventure. In my mind to make this a sucess and worth my time I had to see a few things:

1. masks

2. stretchy pants

3. capes

and to make it extra special I wanted to see:

1. a little person

2. some sort of hairy dog/man

3. a vendor selling some nice hot corn on the cob

As a deprived gringo my only exposure to this sort of cultural experience was of course Nacho Libre. I looked through my closet to find my best wrestling outfit and finally settled on a hoodie sweatshirt and jeans. I was definitely NOT going to wear any jewelry or freshen up the deodorant (I didn't' want to stick out like a sore thumb). I was ready and I was pumped!! This is a picture of me "pumped" I do NOT have a lazy eye and that would be the "rock on" sign not the "by jove I've got it" hand shape the pinkie is just a little hidden there.

I get there and the lady at the front door tells me it is going to cost me eleven bucks. I was kind of shocked at the pricey entry fee but my people were all expecting pictures so I handed her a twenty and what happens next is still a little confusing to me. She hands me back a five and a one and apologized that she is out of ones. I look at her like this isn't going to cut it and then she says wait a sec takes the change back from me and then hands me a ten and a five. I still didn't get it then she explains to me, "I don't have enough ones so next time you come I will have to get it to you." I was very confused. Perhaps she meant eleven pesos and I totally over paid her. I was in and there were already a couple of guys in the ring fighting. As I walked over toward the crowd and action I was hit by a total funk of cigarettes, beer and a generic bad hygiene smell. Pretty gross but I was glad I choose the no touch up on the deodorant. FUNKY!! The second thing that shocked me was exactly who the wrestling fans were. Apparently wrestling bridges all race, age, mental capacity, and economic gaps. There seemed to be a representative from all paths of life. Grandparents with their small grand kids. Random children running around unattended, very preppy looking college kids, middle aged clean cut "we just finished dinner at the Outback" kind of people mixed in with what I am sure was the homeless community of Amarillo. When I checked out the action in the ring I was totally disappointed, it was a couple of gross white 20 somethings without a mask in sight. "This isn't what I just paid to see!" I don't know what I was expecting but it was all totally fake too. Fake hits to the face and body while the hitter slapped his own leg really hard and loud. Throw in some basic tumble moves and you too can be a "semi-professional wrestler". The sillier you make your "I'm in pain" face the more the crowd eats it up. It was so loud and if your guy gets hurt you boo and hiss at his opponent. People had signs and shirts made up it was a little like a white trash version of American Idol. At this point I was mostly enjoying the fabulous people watching. I had my camera out and I was snapping pictures left and right. I was a little nervous that someone would ask me why I wasn't taking any pictures of the fighters so in my mind I had a cover story already about writing an article for some "online magazine".

After the first fight was over one of the crowd favorites stood in the ring and offered to take pictures with people for five dollars. I loved how the parents, who just seconds earlier were cussing, and flipping off the wrestlers were now throwing their young children up on to the ring to have this sweaty greasy guy hold their baby for a Polaroid souvenir of the evening. CLASSY!! I try not to be judgemental of other's parenting techniques but come on. After the photo session was over the announcer (this is the guy with the suit and microphone for all of you newbies at wrestling) yells out, "I have good news and great news!" The good news was that the main event was about to start and "El Grande" was in the house, the great news was that he had two bags of candy for all the kiddos in the audience. I was a little surprised that even the announcer thought the candy was the more exciting of the two pieces of news. This is when all the little unattended children had to fight off the homeless community for all the free candy as it was thrown into the audience. After the candy was cleared off the floor the lights all started to dim and some fantastic mariachi music started to blare. I knew I was getting what I came for as they announced the next two fighters El Grande verses El Gringo. My mental list came back to me as the guys walked to the ring. Masks CHECK, stretchy pants CHECK, capes... well two out of three ain't bad. I took some pictures of the main event and their eclectic fans but just couldn't stick it out to see the finish. The smells, language and atmosphere was just getting to me. I got what I came for and I had enough to make my report.

It was seriously hilarious but honestly the funniest parts were all of the people as shocking as it is to see big masked, greasy guys in spandex "fighting" each other it was much more shocking to see these parents and what goes on just around the corner from my house. I would say that the pictures and description of the evening should be enough to satisfy most of you.