so much to blog about...

Morgan and I are back from our San Antonio/Austin trip. We had a wonderful time with Emily and her family but we were both VERY ready to see our family. When we flew back into Amarillo we were greeted by three of the cutest little rag-a-muffins I have ever seen. I really wish I had my camera with me to document Brooke's "pick me up from the airport" outfit. She was wearing shiny black church shoes with no socks, a very short pair of jean shorts that had a rip all the way down the side of them, and a long sleeve old stained Halloween pajama t-shirt. Dad is much funner when it comes to dressing and hair rules (there are no rules). I got some of the best hugs and kisses ever and several homemade cards. I really love to attend my big interpreter workshop each summer but I miss all my babies (this includes Jeremy of course) so much when I'm gone. It was Jeremy's birthday when I flew in at 9:30 pm so I missed most of it, we will be celebrating later this week with a nice dinner and cake at home. Since Jeremy is pretty much one of the most tolerant husbands EVER he was very understanding when I literally got home after being gone a week, threw my suitcases down, changed my clothes and took off for my big Breaking Dawn midnight release party.

I really wanted to make a fun shirt for the big release and also to wear to the Twilight movie that comes out in December. While I was in San Antonio with my sister Emily (one of the craftiest people ever) I was able to get her help and ideas to make a very cute shirt (if I must say so myself). I wanted a shirt that wouldn't be too cheesy or obvious, that way I could get away with wearing it on occasion. I'm too cheap to make a shirt that would only be worn like twice. We decided to use a black t-shirt and use some iron on permanent "bedazzle" style studs to spell out a single word "Bitten".

I thought it all turned out really cute. Emily worried that with the fancy font we used for our template people might be confused and think it read "Kitten" we risked the confusion and went with it. I figured, "hey I've been called worse". Emily made me model the finished shirt (she must have a really fancy camera that makes you look skinnier than you are because umm... I not this skinny in real life. I think she and her fancy camera will need to be my official photographer from now on). Yes this is my "model" face... oh my gosh is that a mustache or a shadow??

Torrie and I got to the big release "party" at about 10:40 with high hopes for some Twilight fun. Let me just say that although the word "party" is in all the advertising for the midnight release event calling it a party is a major stretch. We got there and there were maybe two dozen die hard fans hovering around a small table with a deli and fruit tray on it.

There was also some red, black and white decorations in one area of the store and a very dorky party host or "emcee" for the evening. I think the host was suppose to be wearing a tuxedo but by the time we got there he had taken the black jacket off and the bow tie was just hanging around his neck. I believe he had a word of the day calendar or something because he had the habit of using unusual words in excess. For example:

"I have some very nice shwag (I know it's swag, he pronounced it shwag) to give out to the winners of our trivia contest."

"You can chose between this Breaking Dawn t-shirt and this very nice Breaking Dawn satchel."

"It's about 11:45 right now so if you would all like to start queuing up at these two registers now we will be all ready to start selling the books at exactly midnight. We will need to leave this register open so that people renting movies or buying other things can queue up here and not interfere with our Breaking Dawn queue."

I turned to Torrie and said, "Torrie, these are our peeps."

The store had advertised that they were going to have a contest/t-shirt contest as part of the festivities but I never saw that one come to pass. There were two very sweet sisters that really tried hard to fill the roles of Rosalie and Alice.I thought they looked cute and asked for a picture. I was also one of the big winners of the trivia contest which meant I won a very nice satchel from the big shwag give away. There were five of us who won something so I rounded everyone up for a winner's picture.I informed them all that I was documenting for my blog. One of the winners, Jennifer, was not really wanting to join us for our picture but I talked her into it. I'm sure right about now she is posting something on her blog about the annoying chick in the "Kitten" t-shirt that was at the Breaking Dawn release party... oh well.

After I got my book Torrie and I went out to IHOP to eat some dessert and catch up on what went on in San Antonio and Austin. We stayed for a little while but I was so anxious the entire time to get home and start reading. I got home and chatted with Jeremy for a while then I dove into my book until I HAD to get some sleep for the next day. We had a Primary activity that I needed to be at Saturday morning at 10 am.

The Primary activity was SOOOOOO good. We did a missionary themed activity that was so cute. I remember doing one of these activities when I was in Primary and I'm sure that all the kids that attended will also think back on this activity when they have grown. We started out in the gym with a packing relay for the kids. They were on two teams and they had to run to the opposite side of the gym to unpack the suitcase and dress in the missionary clothes then grab the empty suitcase and run back to the next person on their team. They would then undress and run to the end of the line. The next person would then dress and run back to the opposite side, undress and repack everything. They ran back to the end of their team and then it was the next persons turn. They kept it up until everyone had a chance to go.

After the relay they all went to the MTC where they were taught the first discussion by one of our teachers that is reporting to the MTC at the end of the month for his mission to Ecuador.

They kids then each received their mission calls and reported to the airport where they boarded the plane and watched the in-flight movie, "Called to Serve". They then landed in their country and were met by their mission president and were taught about the culture and people of their mission. After they were finished with their mission they came back to the Primary room where they were greeted by balloons, posters, streamers and their parents. We all had "welcome home" cake for our snack and ended with a closing song and prayer. It was really a wonderful experience for these kids. When Riley walked into the Primary room she was so stunned by the decorations and everyone clapping for her that she looked around found me then ran to give me a hug and started crying. She said she was so happy that she got to go on her mission to Argentina. It really made an impact on her and on all the kids.

After I got home from the Primary activity we put Morgan down for her nap and then Jeremy (such a good guy) let me take a nap while he watched kids. I woke up ready for some serious reading time. I have read the first 420 pages and I LOVE it!! I am so torn between hurrying up and finishing it and taking my time so I can prolong it all. I think I will go ahead and finish it all up tonight, I really need to get back to reality and my responsibilities around here.If you leave a comment about Breaking Dawn please leave it general I don't want any spoilers for those that haven't read it yet.

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).

I was trying to avoid getting wet myself in this next one so I don't really have the best angle.

We're back

After a wonderful trip to California the Clement Clan is back. We look forward all year to our annual summer trip to Bakersfield. This year we had a fabulous time with our family and friends. Some of the high lights were:

A very fun blogger stlye reunion where we were able to meet up with many old and new friends

Jeremy enjoyed lots and lots of golfing

Mom and Dad treated everyone to a wonderful birthday dinner for Riley and Abby at California Pizza Kitchen

The Reed family spent the day in Santa Barbara enjoying the beach, the pier, and a short boat ride around the harbor

I was able to enjoy a wonderful kid free sister/mom lunch date

We all became a little addicted to Wii

Many pool side parties and bbqs

SWIMMING SWIMMING AND MORE SWIMMING

Jake was able to go fishing with his Papa Randy, dad and Uncle Shawn

Late night card games and ice cream runs (I think Jeremy and I counted a total of 5 different ice cream shops that we hit up)

Papa Harm treated everyone to a wonderful birthday dinner in honor of Amanda at Macaroni Grill

Eating at some of our favorite restaurants that we miss out on in TX (In and Out, El Sombrero, Jack in the Box, and Chipotle just to name a few) This truly was a vacation from any form of good food sense...

A wonderful impromptu trip to the Grand Canyon on the way home

And of course best of all was seeing everyone and enjoying each other's company

I can say that all the Clements came home tanner, well rested and in some cases fatter (diet starts today). I suppose all of these things are a sign of a good vacation. Now we are back to our real life if only I can get inspired to finish my laundry and do a big grocery shopping...


We love our family so much and hate that we live so far away however the miles apart and time spent away sure make our time together that much sweeter. Thank you all for the wonderful memories!!


Please enjoy the incomplete photo montage of the trip. Our camera went dead a few days into the trip so I had to rely on others to document everything. I should be getting everyone's pictures soon and I will add more then.


Abby and Riley celebrating their "luau" style birthday party on the patio of California Pizza Kitchen.

Abby, Brooke, and Riley posing for a picture on the Santa Barbara pier, it was slightly windy and overcast that day which was a nice break from the Bakersfield heat.

The whole gang takes a group shot while waiting for our little boat tour of the harbor, everyone was able to make it for the trip except for Sarah's husband Sean and Clare's husband Chris (they both had to work).

Morgan questions, "does this pail make my butt look big?"

Despite the cool temperatures and wind nothing was going to stop our kids from playing a little tag with the ocean.

We have all become big Wii fans, Jake is playing Wii baseball here but I think his favorite was either bowling or the Mercury Madness game.

a parenting bridge has been crossed

I can remember being in high school (maybe even Jr high school) having questions about my math homework. I would ask my mom for help and she would say, "wait for dad to come home I can't remember how to do that". At the time I thought it was strange because in my mind my mother knew everything (which is pretty much true). Now here I am a mother with my own four little babies and they are all so easily impressed. I can whistle a tune and they will ask in wonder, "how did you do that?" I can type something up on the computer and they are amazed with my speed. It seems to them that I can do everything. I can still run faster then all of them (I'm sure not for long), I can beat them every time in a game of tic tac toe, I can always find their missing shoe, and I am the family dictionary (thank goodness their vocabulary is still pretty immature). A couple of weeks ago things changed in the Clement household.

I have always been one of Jake's football buddies in the backyard, he likes when we throw the football back and forth to each other. I'm not very good but I would say in the beginning I was still better than my 5/6 year old and as he got better I was about as good as my 7/8 year old. Well sometime in the past couple of months Jake has definitely surpassed me in football throwing skills. He throws it harder, straighter, and with a much better spiral then I do. I also discovered that he is much better at yo-yoing than I am. These two realizations got me thinking, when did I become a mother of "older children"?

It so strange to have my kids get older and start "beating me" at different things. I mean believe me I want my son to be better at football than his mother, it just seems to have happened so quickly. One day they all were amazed at every silly thing I could do and now they seem to be slowly catching up to me. My Jake and Riley can both read their own bedtime stories now, all three of my older kids do their own tooth brushing and most of their hygiene stuff. As I write this I'm thinking to myself how silly this all sounds. I guess in our busy day to day lives I didn't realize how old they were getting. Then one day when I'm outside playing catch with my son it dawns on me (when he's trying to teach me a better way to hold the ball to make it spiral the way you want it to) that I am no longer able to impress him with my football skills. HE is the one that is impressing me. When did he get so old? So skilled? Other people have big kids... I have little kids. At least that's what I thought a couple of weeks ago. I guess I need to face the facts, I have graduated into being a mother of older kids. Any advice from you veterans out there?