Easter Morning

Good morning and happy Easter everyone!! The kids all woke up fairly early (7:00 I know I'm spoiled my kids are really not morning people) They went through their baskets and I must say thank you to the Easter Bunny for not including grass this year. We need to start baths for church but I thought I would post some pictures. One of these kids is not a team player... can you guess which one?

***Morgan does wear jammies she just leaked through her diaper last night. Brooke decides when and where she will take a picture. We love our strong willed five year old!***

clean sweep

Just a quick shout out to my brother Carl who has decided to play with the all the cool kids and start a blog. We sure do love Carl and his family and we look forward to reading all his exciting news. Hop on over there and look at how cute his kids are. Their newest member Will is such a precious baby!!

We went to the "Big D" and I DO mean Dallas

Let me share a little something about myself with everyone out there. I HATE HATE HATE driving in any city with more than two highways. Driving is not one of my skills. I get nervous, frustrated and second guess every move I make. Driving in Dallas was no exception. The entire time I was there trying to navigate all of the MILLIONS of highways and freeways I was a mess. My poor kids probably thought I was nuts or something because any time I would start stressing or get shot off onto a wrong freeway I would tell them we were sort of lost again and to pray that mommy could find the right freeway (there were a lot of prayers on Thursday through out the day). I kept wishing I could just borrow a native Dallasonian and make them drive us to all the places we needed to get to. By the time we finished our doctor's appointment and finally found our hotel I was soooo tense that my head, neck, shoulders and arms were all very sore. It really was very pathetic. I kept thinking about The Amazing Race and wondered how the heck they do it. I made the very easy decision right then and there that when Emily and I go and compete on The Amazing Race she will have to do all of the driving (and eat all the gross stuff too) honestly I don't know what I will be able to contribute to the race (being on The Amazing Race is just an on going personal dream of mine we are not actually scheduled to be on... yet).

Jacob's appointment went really well. I LOVED Jake's doctor. He was so sweet and I totally feel like I got my money's worth with him. Many a times I have left a doctor's office shaking my head as I pay my $30 co-pay thinking... wow that really doesn't seem worth it. This visit was nothing like that. The doctor spent a ton of time with Jake and I discussing the disease and going over treatment options. He was so kind to Jacob and made several comments to me that Jake seems "incredibly bright". I know Jacob is a special little boy but I love when others can see the same thing as I do. In fact when we were talking with Dr. Menter Jacob mentioned that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up. Dr. Menter told Jake that if he works hard and gets through all of the schooling he would hire Jake on with his research team and they would find a cure for psoriasis together. It was really cute.

Basically Dr. Menter confirmed what I was already thinking when he said that Jake is beyond creams, lotions, and even UV therapy. The nature of Jacob's chronic and severe condition puts him in a category of needing systemic medication. Jake needs to treat his condition from the inside out. Unfortunately he is too young to be treated with some of the newer "biological" injections (the FDA has not approved them for the use of children with severe psoriasis yet but it should be approved this summer if all goes as planned). The doctor believes that the best treatment option for Jake is Methotrexate. Methotrexate is a chemotherapy drug that was FDA approved for treating severe psoriasis in the 1970's. Although it does have the potential for some pretty yucky side effects it has been found very successful. The doctor explained to me that Jacob's own immune system is fighting against him which is causing his skin cells to rapidly grow. This medication will greatly weaken his immune system until his skin is able to heal itself. After he is all healed up the doctor will have to find the appropriate amount of the medication to allow him to have a certain amount of a healthy immune system but suppress it enough so that it doesn't try and reject his own skin by growing skin cells too fast. We will all have to take huge precautions to keep Jake healthy. We will be doing everything we can to keep our house as healthy an environment as possible. He will need to use a mask in class once he is on the medication to try and avoid catching all the school cooties. If he does get sick then we need to immediately take him to his primary doctor and inform them that he is on this medication. Then Dr. Menter needs to decide if we take him off the medication until his body heals from whatever sickness he has caught. Jacob will need to have his blood drawn frequently to monitor all of his levels and to ensure he is still healthy enough for this treatment. He had blood work done on Thursday to get his base levels and once the doctor checks out the results he will take one test pill followed by more blood work and then after results are read he will start his full treatment. Jacob's one comment about it all was that he is excited to wear a mask at school. He is pretty sure that all of his friends will want one too. We will keep everyone updated with how it all goes. The doctor feels really confident that within six weeks he should have a huge improvement.

After the day at the clinic we went to the hotel and then went out to see the movie Horton Hears a Who. It was really cute the kids both seemed to enjoy it and I would recommend it to parents with older kids... I'm thinking five or older. Younger ones might get bored, much like the Dr. Seuss books it definitely has some life lessons in it so it's not just a funny cartoon. I think the kids liked the eating out the most. We were able to eat at a couple of places that I miss because we don't have them in Amarillo. Jake and Riley especially liked eating at Jack In The Box. They thought the toy in the kids meal was AWESOME (they each got an issue of Ranger Rick... remember that magazine??)

After a long drive back to Amarillo this is how I found Riley in the back seat. She is such a girly girl she can and will turn anything into Lee Press On Nails (I think she want with the "glamour" length this time).

What to do?

As I am heading off to bed tonight I do my nightly check on the kids and this is what I see when I get to Jake and Morgan's room:

Jake of course has his own bed right next to Morgan's crib actually. This has become an on going problem with Jacob. He is such a snuggler he sneaks into Morgan's crib with his blanket and pillow then positions Morgan onto his pillow and under his blanket. My biggest problems with this is I'm not sure how much weight this crib can take and a couple of weeks ago Morgan woke up very angry because her big eight year old brother was squashing her. He of course slept through her cries and I had to wake him and help him out in out of her crib at one in the morning. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES his sister Morgan so much but this has to stop. I think if I threaten to change roommates on him he might take me more seriously.

big brother...

I like to know who is checking out my blog so I did what most of you have done. I installed the sitemeter. It doesn't give me names of people who check out my blog but it does say what city they are in and their domain name. With a little detective type work I can pretty much figure out who has been on. It's usually not that hard most of my visitors are the same 10 people or so. This morning I checked who had been on and this is what I saw:


Domain Name

usaid.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address

165.13.174.# (U.S. Agency for International Development)
ISP

U.S. Agency for International Development
Location

Continent
:
North America
Country
:
United States (Facts)
State
:
District of Columbia
City
:
Washington
Lat/Long
:
38.9097, -77.0231 (Map)
Language

English (U.S.)en-us
Operating System

Microsoft WinXP
Browser

Internet Explorer 6.0Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; InfoPath.1)
Javascript

version 1.3
Monitor

Resolution
:
1024 x 768
Color Depth
:
32 bits
Time of Visit

Mar 18 2008 10:10:02 am
Last Page View

Mar 18 2008 10:25:10 am
Visit Length

15 minutes 8 seconds
Page Views

3
Referring URL
http://lemonsfam.blogspot.com/
Visit Entry Page

http://www.clementhappenings.blogspot.com/
Visit Exit Page

http://clementhappenings.blogspot.com/
Out Click

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCoiEvSqGf3Le4QHSUTQzTpy6R-UMyAf88Hs85ROKzQcIJF4keHIsqzzLT8Bs7gkHwRMjB3sHFETNK05Pprf_qApttM6rqn-IMyFvTPrB5DzkNq5lPAlBkYifTbZ8RbxmzhTNDNq_OivCM/s400/chuck e cheese 008.jpghttps://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCoiEvSqGf3Le4QHSUTQzTpy6R-UMyAf88Hs85ROKzQcIJF4keHIsqzzLT8Bs7gkHwRMjB3sHFETNK05Pprf_qApttM6rqn-IMyFvTPrB5DzkNq5lPAlBkYifTbZ8RbxmzhTNDNq_OivCM/s1600-h/chuck%20e%20cheese%20008.jpg
Time Zone

UTC-4:00
Visitor's Time

Mar 18 2008 12:10:02 pm

Should I be nervous? Should Chuck E. Cheese be nervous? I see the person was really most interested in my Chuck E. Cheese post... I don't want to get Chuck in trouble for possibly poisoning my kid I knew it was a possibility when I went. I don't think it's any kind of secret that there is a certain amount of gamble in eating/playing at this establishment. I also see that the government hoped over to my blog through our good friends the Lemons. Erin do you know anything about this? I hate to think that "Big Brother" has an eye on the Clement family. Just thought I would share some of my morning paranoia with everyone. I also want to apologize to any true Chuck E. fans for any possible government action that might be taken against this establishment. I didn't mean to tattle.

Last thought:
If you are a friend of the Lemons family or someone that is linked to the Lemons family I say welcome. I'm sorry that I went a little nutty a second ago your domain name sort of freaked me out but hey I also enjoy a little web surfing at work no biggie. I understand there is occasional "down time". Feel free to browse the family site perhaps you can leave me a message let me know what you think.

Another convert!

Wow Emily and Mom are taking things into their own hands. They have set up a blog for my sister Sarah and her family and I encourage everyone to give them a quick howdy and welcome to this friendly bloggerhood. I think she might need a little encouragement to start posting on her own so don't be shy extend that hand friendship everyone... come on... no time like the present.

vacation has officially begun

Last week was gorgeous in Amarillo. Everyday had high temperatures in the low to mid 70's. Just perfect... then spring break starts for everyone and we have horrible weather. Today for example had a high in the low 50's and it is totally foggy and misty all day long. YUCK!!

A good friend of mine is really sick so I told her I would take her four oldest children (ages 7-3) for part of the day so she could have a little easier day. I decided with a day like today we would have to go somewhere inside. I had a coupon for Chuck E. Cheese tokens so I made plans to meet a few of my friends there. All of us moms not only had our own children but we were all also watching someone else's kids too. The grand total was 17 kids between the 4 of us moms. Talk about birth control!!

It really wasn't that bad but there was a lot of conversations between me and the other moms that went something like this, "Have you seen Eric?" "Last time I saw him he was with Brooke." "Oh ok... he should be ok then... right?" "Yeah I wouldn't worry too much about it." We all ate before we went to avoid paying like $18 for a large pizza. We spent 2 and half hours there and managed to spend 180 tokens between the 8 kids. Everyone walked away with about 75 cents worth of prizes. You gotta love it!!

It really was a good idea though. Unfortunately we were not the only moms in Amarillo that had this idea. The place was PACKED. I really do love how they stamp each kid with the invisible stamp and WILL NOT let you leave the place until they verify that everyone in your party has the same number. That is a great idea!!!

Tomorrow looks like more of the same weather but I think we have spent enough money for the next few days. We will have some friends over to the house rent a movie and have a "picnic" on our living room floor. Hope things are just as exciting for everyone else out there.

SIDE NOTE:

Ewwww... As I was typing my last sentence Jake (who was sitting next to me by the computer) jumped out of his chair and took about 5 steps before he threw up all over my bedroom floor. He then took about three more steps before the next round started. I know he was trying to get to the bathroom but jeez he was only like two more steps from it when he stoped to do his business... sigh.... More birth control.

SIDE NOTE 2:

My good friend Torrie ALWAYS calls Chuck E. Cheese, Chuck E. Disease could it be? Does it work that fast? Hmmmm.... Just a thought.

Another convert!

After months of bugging my little sister to start a blog she (when I say she I mean my sister Emily and mother) finally started one today. Please jump over to her blog and welcome her to the bloggerhood. Everyone is welcome to say hi she is very friendly!!

What exactly is this supposed to mean?

I meant to post this picture with my Albuquerque post but forgot.



What do you think? Is this 'caution people crossing' sign looking a little fat? I might be wrong (actually I know I'm not wrong... I'm just saying that because it's polite to act humble) but, I believe the traffic sign makers of America are perhaps trying to make a statement about the obesity epidemic. Actually I don't know what kind of statement they are trying to make. Maybe we all got so fat that the typical driver had no idea what type or species of animal the old stick man represented in these particular caution signs. Maybe this particular intersection in Albuquerque had a horrible rate of pedestrian accidents because the average driver was only on the look out for very fit walkers therefore unfortunately missing the more heavy set walker crossing the road. Well what ever the case might be as a plus sized American I'm sure proud to see that I am now more accurately being represented in yet another facet of life.

I still however might have to contact the ACLU about bringing some kind of case against the traffic sign people because the Americans with no hands or feet population of this nation have really monopolized things for way too long.

Spring break!!!

Is anyone else TOTALLY ready for spring break? I can't tell you how much I need this. I really do love my job in fact I always say that I feel lucky that I like going to work and feel satisfaction in my work. That being said I can't believe I only have one day left. I go to work tomorrow and then I am off work for the next 10 days. I had all kinds of plans for what the kids and I would do during our time off school but things have taken a turn for us. The original plan was that I would drive to San Antonio with all the kids and visit Em and her family. Mom liked the idea so much that she bought a plane ticket and flies down on Saturday. Then things changed... for one thing the accident put a "dent" in our plan and then Jake's dermatologist suggested that we go down to Dallas to meet with a doctor there. I called the new doctor's office and found out that they have their psoriasis clinic open on Tues and Thurs. I knew the best think would be to go down there during our spring break. We are really excited (well Jeremy and I are excited...not so much Jake) to have the opportunity to meet with Dr. Menter. Dr. Menter is the president of the International Psoriasis Council. He has written several articles and books about psoriasis and treatments. He works along side Baylor University where he also works on studies and with a research team. Jake's severity and age make him a little bit more rare with his condition and Jake's Amarillo dermatologist wants to start him on a kind of injection that he reads studies about for treating children with psoriasis. His one reservation is that he has never actually had a patient this young that he has put on the shots before. He really wants to have Dr. Menter provide a second opinion for him. We will be leaving on Thursday the 20th early in the morning then we will spend the night in Dallas and hopefully find something fun and special to do together on Friday. I will be taking Jake and Riley both, I figured it was her spring break for her too and she would love to have a little mini trip. I would love to take the whole family down and make it a family affair but Jeremy is stuck working. I have wonderful friends who have volunteered to take Morgan and Brooke while daddy is at work. I really hope for great things to come out of this trip. Jake is doing ok but there is definitely some room for improvement. His rash has improved in color but none of it has really gone away. It's just much lighter.

If anyone out there knows of any cheap exciting kid friendly things to do in Dallas let me know. Cheap is the word I am stressing the most here :).

I'm not feeling the blog these days

I feel like I have been neglecting our family journal/blog. I'm trying to get motivated enough to post something because I really wanted to make sure and document our little adventure to Albuquerque, NM.

Jeremy's sister Amanda and her husband David invited everyone to Albuquerque last weekend to meet their new twins and witness their blessing. We were lucky to only live about four hours away so of course we went. It was so fun to see the babies. I just love being around a new baby they are so sweet and innocent. We arrived late Friday night after working all day. Amanda and David were blessed to have many family members attend so things were kind of tight at their house. They were kind enough to make hotel arrangements for some of the family including us (staying in a hotel is WAY to exciting for little kids... big fights over the tiny notebook and pen). After a good nights rest we went over to Amanda's house for the big moment of meeting our newest niece and nephew. They did not disappoint, they are adorable babies and they really seem to have very nice newborn personalities.


We all hung out for a little while then packed up a picnic lunch and headed for the zoo. It was a gorgeous day and everyone really enjoyed being outside all day long. We walked all over the place and saw so many cool animals. This zoo was much nicer than the one in Amarillo, of course you can't beat the cost of our little Amarillo zoo... it's free. The best thing about the day was spending time with everyone. We all talked about it and had decided it had been over two years since we were all together. After a long day at the zoo we all had supper together and then turned in so we could wash our dirty little children and prepare for the big day.

I would say that Cooper was perhaps the most excited about being re-acquainted with one of his cousins. I can't say I blame him Morgan is VERY kissable.

Sunday went wonderfully. The blessings were so sincere and heartfelt. Amanda and David were great hosts, we thank them for inviting us and letting us share in their big day.

My faboulous girls weekend retreat/ I have an awesome husband

I am not what you would call a world traveler however the past two weekends I have been able to make quick weekend trips. Two weekends ago I was very lucky (thanks Jeremy!!!) to go on a girls weekend out (much like my girls night out but much longer). Two of my best friends Torrie and Danielle, and of course myself had been planning and budgeting for our little Oklahoma City retreat for about six weeks when I was in the car crash. The girls all told me they would understand if I couldn't make it but after talking with Jeremy we decided I should still go.

It was so much fun. We got in late on Friday night and walked around the Brickyard district. We soon figured that this was not the place for married, LDS women. It was mostly bars and drunk college kids. We did find a bar and grill so we could at least get something to eat and then we headed to our hotel. I am very pleased to say that after very little persuasion on Danielle and my self's part we were upgraded from a boring normal room to an awesome huge suite (Jedi powers). It never hurts to ask... We stayed up and chatted and just had a great time.

Saturday was set aside for some shopping and movie watching. I was pretty much broke but all I heard the week heading up to our great escape was "Steve and Barry" this and "Steve and Barry" that. Danielle totally loved this store and she promised us that everything in there was less than nine bucks. Torrie and I were thinking there were probably some good deals but come on EVERYTHING was under nine dollars?!?!?! We drove out there it was not in the nicest mall but I guess if you are giving things away how could they afford the rent? We walked in and saw the $8.98 signs everywhere. There were thick winter jackets, jeans, shoes, swimsuits tons of stuff all sizes and $8.98 signs next to all of it. Torrie leaned over to me and said, "I think I want to double check with a worker that EVERYTHING is included in this sale before I get too excited". I agreed and so we asked a girl working there and shock of all shocks Danielle was right (sorry we ever doubted you girl). I know I said I was broke but come on. When else do you see these kinds of prices. I bought some stuff for the kids focusing on the jackets, shoes, and jeans. I found a pair of Sarah Jessica Parker's jeans in my size so I had to buy that. Big girls don't normally get the good deals. I also grabbed me a new hoodie. I'm a sucker for a nice thick hoodie. It was really fun and we were there for two and half hours. We had lunch and then went to the nice mall.

I have a hard time stomaching "nice" malls. It all makes me nauseas. The $500+ purses for sale, the women wearing outfits that cost more than one months mortgage, the little kids dressed in better clothes than I will ever own. It's not my favorite. I don't get it I guess. I mean my nine dollar jeans are doing a great job of doing what they are suppose to. Why do some people NEED/want two hundred dollar jeans? It blows my mind. This particular mall had a teeth whitening kiosk. You can pay $100 and have your teeth at least two shades whitter in 15 minutes. They use the gel and intense LED lights to do it. Have you ever heard of this? I was sort of shocked. I don't know what to think of this. I am all for nice white teeth but at the mall? The people working it had on white coats to fool you into thinking they are dentists or something. What do you think? Would you chance it? While we were at the mall we watched a chick flick "29 dresses". It was cute but very much rent able.

We had another fabulous meal and then we headed to Wal-Mart to buy us some false eyelashes (another item we saw lots of people wearing at the mall, not always on women though...). We couldn't find any of the cheap eyelashes and we were NOT willing to pay five bucks for them we settled for Easter candy and a card game. I would like to say this is where we turned in for the night however what would a girls weekend be without a quick trip to your local Indian casino? We drove out to River...something Torrie and Danielle each took out a twenty and made me promise not to let them dip into any more money. I totally would have taken out a twenty but I think I already established I was broke so I didn't. I went along as their voice of reason. They both headed for the nickel slots and I sat there with them looking a bit pathetic I guess because they both would occasionally slip a dollar into my machine. After Danielle hit it rich by winning $50 in nickels (of course you have to subtract her initial investment of $20) we decided to call it quites. We left smelling very stinky which of course made my morning shower a must (dang it).




The next day was Sunday and we thought it would be very appropriate to visit the Oklahoma City bombing memorial. It was so peaceful, sullen, inspiring, and reverent all at the same time. We walked all over the grounds remembering the day of the horrible incident and reading the inspirational moving words that were engraved on parts of the memorial. I would totally recommend this memorial to anyone. It is a must see if you are ever even close to OKC. The last stop before we took off was for a nice meal at the Toby Kieth BBQ place. It was really good but so stinking fatty it kind of makes you sick to think about it (this coming from someone who doesn't exactly watch what she eats enough). My grilled chicken sandwich for example comes with bacon, ham and LOTS of melted cheese on it. I wanted to avoid the fried food so I TRIED to make a healthier choice oh well... it was dang good. The weekend was wonderful. Our husbands were wonderful for taking over for us (I came home to a totally clean house, and left over homemade dinner in the fridge) and we sure do hope this can be a yearly treat.