Ding Dong...

The TMI (too much information) part of my brain doesn't always work so sometimes I need to ask friends if certain stories are a little too much for my family blog. I have a great story that cracks me up but until I read this post on my friend's blog I wasn't sure if it was TMI or in any way offensive. I know I wasn't offended just amused.

Let me set the stage for you... a few weeks back Jeremy and I were in our bedroom with most of the kids. I was messing around on our computer and Jeremy was watching a basketball game in his baggy athletic shorts with a pillow on his lap. Riley and Morgan were playing together on the floor between our computer and t.v.

Morgan is very fond of playing the ever popular baby game of, "find the belly button". Riley was keeping her entertained by said game and I kept hearing them finding each other's button and then pushing it and saying, "ding dong". They kept taking turns finding and then ringing each other's "ding dong" it was cracking Morgan up. I guess the game was getting a little old though because as I was checking out blogs I over heard Riley say, "Morgan let's find Daddy's ding dong." I looked over at Jeremy who was very much "in the zone" so he was totally unaware of the game that was being played between the girls or what Riley had just said. Riley kind of crawled over to Jeremy and then once again said, "where's Daddy's ding dong?" This time as she said it she started to stick her hand underneath his pillow. Jeremy heard it this time and the look on his face was priceless. He jumped out of his chair and grabbed that pillow for dear life. He looked at a confused Riley and said, "What are you doing?!?!?!" Our very confused innocent little Riley said, "playing find the ding dong with Morgan." Now Jeremy was the confused one he looked at me and I was just busting up. I lifted up my shirt a little, pointed at my own belly button and repeated what Riley said, "they're playing find the ding dong Jerm." It was hilarious!!

Tag you're it!!

I started this post a couple of weeks ago but then things all went really crazy with my mom so I never posted it. Well I finished it all up tonight but can't seem to get it at the top of my blog so you will have to click here to read yet another silly tag... :)

A kind moment

I have to record these little conversations I have with my children or else they will get lost in this big empty head of mine.

Today I picked up Jake from school earlier than normal so he could go get some blood work done. I was going over his day at school and asked him what he learned about today. Jake's class has been learning about slavery in America and with shock in his voice he likes to give me a daily report. Today they talked about Harriet Tubman and "the drinking gourd". Jacob went over it all in detail with me. He told me Harriet was a train engineer in the underground railroad and that she found her freedom from running away and following the north star. He even sang an old slavery song about following the drinking gourd which is the Little Dipper and North star. After going over everything with me he quieted down for a second and then in all seriousness asked me, "could Heavenly Father ever forgive the people who made black people into slaves?" We talked about forgiveness for a little while and I told him that I believe that Heavenly Father could forgive almost anything if the person was truly repentant and went through the repentance process. It is really not hard to find these teaching moments with Jacob he loves to learn new things.

After sharing this story with Jeremy he reminded me of some of the words that he spoke at Jacob's blessing almost nine years ago.

Jeremy felt strongly to bless Jacob with empathy but just at that moment couldn't come up with the word 'empathy' he paused for a moment and used the synonym 'compassion' and then elaborated on it with something like, "...that he will have the ability to know what others are feeling and comfort them when needed."

A funny moment

Last night we were having what I call a mobile FHE. being a one car family we needed to pick up Jeremy at work at about 8:15 and then get everyone home, have our scripture study time, brush teeth, get pjs on and lights out by 9:00. This meant we would use our drive time for our FHE lesson. Jake was assigned the lesson and had prepared a great one on tithing. He started the lesson off by using his "primary teacher" voice and asking, "Does anyone know what tithing is?" I rose my hand and the two older girls followed my lead. Jake asked Brooke first (in the same primary teacher voice), "Brooke what do you think it means?" Brooke yelled back, "Mom raised her hand too, ask her first!" I think he called her bluff. He then asked Riley, "Riley what do you think it means?" Riley's answer I think demonstrates that she in not always the most attentive member of primary/FHE, "Ummmm..... It makes you itchy all over." Jake was a little confused by this answer but went right on with his lesson.

I am proud to say that all three of the oldest Clement children could now answer the question:

What is tithing? (or at least they could have on Monday night)

Busy weekend

I love having a busy weekend because if there is nothing scheduled I could totally stay in my pajamas from Friday evening until I needed to shower on Sunday. I'm trying to keep it honest people.

Luckily for everyone in my family we had stuff on the calendar. Saturday morning we had a ward primary activity. The theme was preparing for General Conference and our presidency did an amazing job. The kids loved playing a General Authority matching game, they made conference bingo cards, we had singing time, they each got to take home a General Conference activity book and crayons to keep them interested/quiet during conference next weekend. It was a lot of fun for everyone and we topped it off by eating President Monson's favorite dessert... ice cream!! I know Riley was paying attention because in the car after the activity she said to me, "Mom did you know we have a new prophet? His name's President Monson!" I don't know where she has been the last couple of months but I'm pleased to see that she had her little light bulb moment.

After the activity I took the three oldest kids and Jake's best buddy Beau out for lunch and then to our local children's science museum, the Discovery Center. We had a great time I unfortunately didn't have my camera with me but the kids had a blast checking out all of the exhibits. They have two main exhibits right now including "the amazing human body" there is a little area that focuses on gas they have some bouncy stools that the kids can keep bounce up and down on each time lands it lets out a loud gassy sound. Needless to say this was the hot spot for my kids to hang out at. After spending all day together Jake got invited to go to Beau's grandparent's house for a movie night. From the report I got they had a blast. Later that evening I went to a my good friend Shaunna's house (her husband is working out of town this week so she needed some company) we rented a chick flick and I worked on my singing time props the next day. It was so fun to sit and visit with her I am sure going to miss her when she moves this summer.

Sunday Jeremy stayed home with Morgan she seems to have a stomach virus or something because she has lots of diarrhea and gas. Poor baby isn't really sleeping well and she really seems to be uncomfortable. I took the other three kids and I had my usual singing time with the primary. I really like my calling I can be creative I get to have fun with the kids and I get to learn new songs and relearn all the classics I grew up on. This week I got my singing time idea from where I get all of my better ideas... the internet. It really turned out cute I know I have a couple of friends who work Primary on here so I will show you what I did. We started the April song, We Thank Thee O God For A Prophet, and I made some props to try and help the kids remember the the words for the first verse and then I took pictures of them holding their props up. I will glue the pictures onto card stock so THEY can be the visual aide. I did this last year with one song and they LOVED it.

We thank thee, O God, for a prophet

To guide us in these latter days.

We thank thee for sending the gospel

To lighten our minds with its rays.

We thank thee for every blessing

Bestowed by thy bounteous hand.

We feel it a pleasure to serve thee

And love to obey thy command.

I realize that two out of the four kids here are mine. I took several pictures of kids holding the same props and I will chose two from jr. and two from sr. primary to make the "final cut" for my visual aide. I didn't want people to think I favored my kids... If anything I am drawn to two other family's kids because they behave so well for me in singing time.

Medical updates

I have had so many kind people comment, email and call to see how thing are going with our family. Things are really going very well. Both my mother and niece are doing much better. They are both still in the hospital Abby, my niece has pneumonia and as a result low blood oxygen levels. She is really feeling pretty good but they don't want to release her until she can go 24 hours without oxygen assistance. Emily says she really does good during the day however her oxygen dips down when she tries to sleep so they have to put her on oxygen at night. The doctors also continue to order chest x-rays hoping to see the pneumonia cleared up.

I actually talked to my mother on the phone today for a second. She sounds very weak but the fact that she was talking to me is a huge improvement. When she was taken to the emergency room on Wednesday night she was diagnosed with sepsis which is basically an all over the body infection. She had been at the doctor's office on Tuesday and was told she had both bronchitis and pneumonia. She started breathing treatments and antibiotics but I guess things continued to spread until she was very critical on Wednesday and had to be taken to the hospital. She is no longer on the ventilator and no longer on an insulin drip (her blood sugar had spiked to around 700). The doctors have taken her off the sedation medication as well so she is awake and thinking clearly again. She continues with her IV antibiotic and breathing treatments to try and get her lungs stronger. My mom also is struggling a little with regulating some of her different levels. The doctors are taking her blood and then having to give her booster shots of different things that are too low or high. She is technically still in ICU but my Dad thinks she will be moved to a regular room as soon as one opens up. My mother has used up yet another of her nine lives and needs to slow down... I don't know how many more she has left!!

I want to thanks everyone again for everything they have done. The prayers have been amazing I know I personally feel the support and prayers being said on our families behalf. I have told some friends that I was such a panicky mess on Wednesday and Thursday but after the prayers started being said I felt such peace. Thank you, thank you, thank you...

***SIDE NOTE*** I am sure I violated HIPPA laws left and right in this post... If my friendly blog lurcher from the US government is reading again please don't turn me it. I'm like 91% sure my mother and niece don't mind me posting about their medical business.

A silver lining

As blessed as my life is the last couple of months have been a little yucky for the Clement Clan, shall we recap?

1. We had the car accident which has left us down to one vehicle now for over a month... the van should be fixed in another week or two.

2. The good news is Jake's new doctor thinks he can finally clear him up. The bad news is that the drug he needs to start is actually a mild chemotherapy drug which comes with all the potential nasty side effects.

3. My mother, whom I am probably in contact with like 6-8 times a day, was admitted last night to the ICU at Memorial hospital 1,100 miles away from me. Things were critical last night however she seems to have turned a corner. We have all been praying like crazy for her and my dad. She will probably be in ICU for a couple more days and then if all goes well they will downgrade her condition and move her to the regular hospital.

4. Just got a call from my sister and her little girl is now being admitted to the hospital (thankfully it's not nearly as serious as my mom). She will hopefully be able to come home in a day or two.

You may ask, "Liza, where's the silver lining" ?

Well our very smart son just got his results for the big Texas standardized test and he not only passed (had he not passed he would have had to repeat the third grade again) but was commended (he only missed one problem). I guess the great state of Texas now knows what we already knew. Jake is one smart kid!! I think we were all due for a little good news around here.


Any and all prayers are welcome on behalf of my mother. She has such a strong personal testimony of the power of prayer and I know she would appreciate it. She inspires so many people everyday. We love you mom!!

TAG I'm it... again

I got tagged by two of my friends (thanks Cami and Leasa) this one's different and not really fair for someone who was blessed with an 8 letter middle name. Here are the rules:

You must post the rules before you give your answers.You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don’t have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you’ve been tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged and need to read your blog for details.

Just to mix it up I am going to challenge myself with this one and try and only give you some embarrassing facts. Doesn't this whole thing kind of remind you of the "poems" we all wrote in elementary school?

Forgot my own anniversary. Believe me Jeremy likes to use this one against me from time to time. I was young... I was busy... there is no excuse. Sadly I can't remember which anniversary it was. I'm thinking it was our 3rd, maybe 4th...

LOATHE laundry!!! I'm talking mountains of laundry that I need to do at any given time. It's so bad that if you do the pop in at my house and you happen to see my "laundry table" (this is where we keep the clean clothes) I will probably tell you I'm working on a big laundry project. I really don't consider this a lie because I always have a "laundry project".

Oprah addict... You know the type, always quoting her or something seen on her show. My daughter Brooke at a very young age would point at classy black women at the grocery store and call them Oprah. That kind of a addiction. I really don't think it's all that embarrassing but Jeremy does so I will add it.

Raunchy sulfur burps (I told you I was going with embarrassing). This is totally a medical condition I really can't control when I get them or how long they will last. I would say I have a case of them 2-4 times a year. I don't know how much detail you all would like but let's just say the first time I had a case after Jeremy and I were married I was horrified. Jeremy's a good sport but he would be the first to tell you it's HORRIBLE.

Earlobe: I once ripped off my sweet, beautiful, precious baby daughter's earlobe. Here's what happened; Jake (4 yrs. old) and Riley (about 2 yrs old) loved playing in our backyard. They would beg me to let them play out there on our little plastic jungle gym. I had a very new baby Brooke whom I was busy feeding/taking care of so I would go outside make sure all the gates were locked and tell them they could play as long as they promised to stay right where I could see them. I would then leave the back door open and try to multi task with taking care of Brooke and watching them at the same time. They would do pretty good on their own until they started a horrible habit of turning on the outside hose and coming in soaked. This went on a couple of times with me "talking" to them about how naughty that was and them promising me to NEVER do it again. After they started this bad habit every time they would ask to go out I would look them in their little eyes and say, "only if you promise not to turn on the water." They of course would promise and then come back into the house soaked and muddy and I would get incredibly frustrated with it all. I really really wanted them to be good in the backyard because I loved that they could run around while I was working on lunch, cleaning, laundry or baby. One week was particularly bad and when they came up to the back door soaked and dirty three days in a row (we all know how much I loathe laundry). The fourth time this happened I sort of snapped and grabbed Jake's shirt ripped it off his head took off his pants and made him march straight to the tub. I then went to do the same thing with Riley really trying hard to express how upset I was with their decision. I grabbed her shirt and yanked it off her body yanking with it her little hoop earring that just ripped right through her tiny little earlobe. It was horrible. Bleeding everywhere she was crying. Jake was crying. I was crying. Jeremy was at work with our only car. Her earlobe hung by a small piece of skin I grabbed an ice pack and a towel for her to hold onto while I called Jeremy back home so we could rush to the hospital. We got there and I felt like such a monster as I waited for the doctor to come and make my baby whole again. The doctor was able to sew it back on and assured me that he sews ears on all the time from earring accidents. Horrible!! We never did re pierce our Riley or pierce our other two daughters.

Sadly about two weeks later Jake and Riley came to me to see if they could go outside to play again and I looked them in the eyes and said, "please, please, please don't turn on the water again... ok?" Jake said ok and Riley said, "or else you will rip my ear off again?"

HORRIBLE!!

Napped on the job. I use to work for a cleaning company as a janitor. I would go to an office park at night with a small crew and clean the offices. I worked for the company for a couple of months when they asked me if I wanted to fill in for some guy who worked at one of those huge bank buildings where they rent space to other businesses as well. I would be working a six hour shift starting early in the morning (I think it was 7:00 am) and until noon. I would have the responsibility to clean the outside of this tall building including windows and parking garage before they opened for business. Once they were open I would need to keep a pager on me and they would page me if I was needed for some kind of janitorial emergency. If I was not being paged I would just have to make sure things looked nice and neat inside if trashes were getting full in the lobby area I had to empty them, If ashtrays were getting full outside I needed to clean them. Really nothing specific just make sure it looked ok. I would get my outside work done in like 45 min. and then I found this small vacant office on an upper floor that I would lay on the floor and fall asleep in everyday. I only had to fill in for a couple of weeks but I think it was the easiest money I have ever made. By the way there were no "janitorial emergencies" thank goodness. I'm not even sure what that would entail but I'm pretty sure it would have been disgusting.

Cryed at a NKOTB (in cause you are a younger reader to my blog that would be New Kids On The Block) concert. It was a weird situation all together. I didn't feel particularly moved by the experience. I went with a less popular girl from my ward and her grandmother who as I remember were both crying. I felt sort of obligated because they were the ones who bought my ticket. I can remember making the conscious decision to cry so I could "fit in" and so I didn't seem ungrateful for the tickets which apparently meant a lot more to them than me. I suppose I could blame this incident on "the cool kids were all doing it" but let's just say that wasn't the case. I believe this all happened the summer before I started high school.

Enough with me it's now time to tag anyone who would like to participate. Yeah I know this is kind of a cheap ending but I am totally tapped out on ideas here.

Easter Sunday

The whole gang

Mommy's
Funny
Bunnies

I was feeling really sick on Friday night and all day Saturday but woke up feeling much better this morning. I figured I would be going to church regardless because I had actually planned a really cute Easter Primary singing time so I hated to call last minute for a sub. Jeremy came home from work Saturday also feeling really sick and woke up feeling even worse. Poor guy has been in bed all day so he missed Easter Sunday. I am always very nervous to take the kids to church by myself but it actually went really well today. They all behaved themselves pretty well and I was even able to get a couple of pictures of them in their homemade Easter clothes (thanks again Grandma). After church we had to stop at Walmart on the way home because between being sick and poor planning we discovered this morning that Morgan was all out of wipes and bum cream, and lets just say she is a little sick too and really needs to have both available to her (if you get what I'm saying). It was sort of embarrassing because we ran into three other families from our ward... YIKES. We got home to the awesome smell of our Easter ham all done cooking and just waiting for us to eat. Thanks homegirl for the recipe it was amazing. I have never cooked a ham before, it always seemed very intimidating but it was sooooooo easy and yummy!!! I fixed the sides really quickly and then me and the kids had our Easter dinner/lunch. It was very tasty. After our clean up Brooke asked me if she could make a movie of her singing to one of the Hairspray songs. We are very much fans of all things Hairspray in this family. I made the video for her, and since her last picture I posted only showed the one side of our little Brookie I thought I would post the movie here to show everyone the softer side of Brooke. Now if only she sang for me in Primary this well...

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).