Do I Expect Too Much?

Saturday was a crazy day for the Claytons. Mike had been sick w/ a nasty head cold for a few days and had to be in Clinton all day to play music. The kids and I had a marathon day of soccer...Derek played at 10am & 2pm and Taylor played at 4pm. I was all proud as we left for Springfield at 9:00 that morning only to get my bubble burst shortly thereafter. We were south of Bolivar when I realized Derek did not have shin guards on his person. He would not be allowed on the field w/o them so I put in an SOS call to Mike who then met us on the highway w/ said shin guards. I might also add that Derek's entire team was unable to play until our arrival at the field b/c I am their team manager and had all of their player ID cards & liability waivers. This might not seem like such a big deal until I do a Paul Harvey and tell you "the rest of the story." Just a few weeks ago we got to the soccer fields in Springfield only to realize that Derek had on TWO RIGHT shoes........so I made a crazy trip to the nearest walmart for another pair. This is where I begin talking to myself and say, "Am I unreasonable? Do I expect too much from my kids? He is 10 yrs old, shouldn't he be able to dress himself?" In case you are wondering, the answers are no, no and YES!

The day ended on a happy note! Taylor is the goalie for her team and they had a shut-out and won 3-0 and the three goals were scored by three different girls so they played well! We took Nana to Steak & Shake to celebrate afterwards!

Spoiled Rotten...

I took the kids to Wichita this past weekend to visit Aunt Sue. On Friday night we went to All Star amusement park to ride the rides. There was hardly anyone else there besides us and they didn't have enough staff to work each ride so my kids got to go from ride to ride w/ their own personal worker and ride each one as many times as they wanted! Spoiled! They also got in a fun round of mini-golf w/ Aunt Sue before heading to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream.

On Sat. morning we went to the pumpkin patch in the freezing cold. The kids had tons of fun riding down Boo Mountain, climbing the rope ladder, jumping on the giant Pumpkin Pillow, swinging on the sack swing, jumping off of hay bales & mining for "jewels." We rounded out our weekend w/ a game night on Sat. evening.

Very busy, very fun weekend!!!!!!!!!

Weekend Summary

OK, sooooo....I didn't mean to wait a whole month between posts, it just happened.

We had a pretty relaxing weekend, kids' soccer games in Springfield were cancelled due to rain and that was a welcome surprise. We are having so much fun w/ soccer but none of us were complaining about the free Saturday either. Actually turned out to be very productive. Took a washing machine to one of our houses in Wheatland and then came home and cooked for 2 hours. I made a pot of chili, a pot of chicken & noodles and a batch of spaghetti. Then made 2 kinds of cookies.

We had Fall Gospel Meeting at our church this weekend and were blessed by the words of Bro. Dave Miller....very insightful messages.

Looking forward to a short school week and then the kids, my mom and I are off to Wichita to see Aunt Sue. We will spend all of Saturday at an AWESOME place called Walter's Pumpkin Patch that is non-stop fun & activities, we are counting down the days!

Deer Crossing

Driving down the road w/ Taylor today and she lets out this little giggle and says, "Mom, do the people who put up those signs that say 'deer crossing' REALLY think that the deer understand that they should cross the road right there?" I wanted to bust up laughing but knew I'd hurt her feelings, so I explained that those signs aren't for the deer but for the drivers. And she was just amazed, it was so funny!

The search is on....

I am currently looking for members of the male gender whom RESPECT the school night routine in a household with young children. They are not to be found in my household, nor in the Clayton bloodline in general I don't think. I am the first to admit that I am very Type A when it comes to the after school/evening schedule at our house, but in my defense....it's the ONLY way to get it all done. As I am venting my frustrations in this post, my husband, his dad, Mike's fiddle student & his dad are all occupying my dining room/kitchen discussing who knows what. Meanwhile, I am awaiting the use of my kitchen so that I can begin to prepare dinner, then move quickly to math & reading homework, spelling words & baths all before 8pm. And did I mention that my sweet husband needs to leave by 7pm to go play music in Springfield? Ohhh, how I love him! :)

PS Dinner is looking more & more like either leftovers or canned soup/grilled cheese sandwiches.

Consistency!

Whoever said "Consistency is Key" has never met Derek Clayton. That boy would lose his head were it not attached to his body. We have had the very same after school routine for 4 yrs now, it has NOT changed and yet I find myself saying "Put your shoes in your room, hang your backpack in the hall, etc" every day. Why is that? :)

My kids have been enjoying a big supply of water balloons leftover from summer break, they can entertain themselves for hours w/ those things! Thankfully Derek is able to tie them because I am awful at that and would be a huge disappointment to them. Ha!

Back to School

Wow! It's been nearly six months since my last post.....can you say "off the wagon?" I will try again to make a success of this whole blogging experience. The Clayton kids are back to school. Derek is in 4th grade & Taylor in 2nd. They both really like their teachers and have made new friends. Both are playing soccer this fall and while it takes up quite a bit of our time, it has been great fun so far. Again, new friends have been made on each team which also translates to new adult friends for me. :) I am not a PTA officer this year and that has opened up my schedule quite a bit, hoping to catch up on my scrapbooking eventually.

If you have occassionally checked in on my blog.....thanks for not giving up on it!!!!!

Derek & Obama

Most of you know by now that Derek considers himself a "strong Republican." Imagine my shock this morning when he says, "Mom, I've decided that Barack Obama might be OK." I didn't even reply as I was speechless. However, Taylor chimed right in and says, "NO he's not, he's letting terror people out of the jails and people don't have money to pledge to my jump-a-thon at school because Obama won't give people any money." Uhhhh......????? Derek then explained his logic, a reporter asked Obama about being on Mt Rushmore someday and he said his ears probably wouldn't fit. Well, Derek hates his own ears, thinks they're too big and apparently has decided to "bond" w/ Obama over this issue.

Kids Are Funny!

I'm a big slacker

Clearly I haven't blogged for several days.....sorry about that, March tends to be a little crazy around here. Here's my best summarization of the Claytons...

Mike is very busy w/ stucco work and that is a wonderful blessing for our family, the economy had us pretty nervous. He's also getting lots of music dates booked, especially around Springfield & Branson and that will lead to many new contacts for him. Last, but not least, MIKE CLAYTON WILL BE 40 YEARS OLD ON THE 18TH OF MARCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Derek is a natural comedian, he cracks us up daily. He is still into the whole archery thing and anxious to go turkey hunting w/ his daddy. The 3rd grade program was this past week, all patriotic songs and they did fabulous. I have no idea how that teacher got 224 kids to do so well.

Taylor had a busy week too. She attended a dance clinic w/ the high school girls on Thur. night and had science night at her school where she got to ride a hovercraft, make her own slime (lovely) and do some optical illusion stuff.

I have been busy wrapping up my PTA obligations....I have book fair all next week, so that will be chaos. I began a new Bible study group this week and got to meet several new Bolivar ladies that were just a hoot!

Happy St. Pat's Day!

I'm trying...honest, I am!

Once again, I am attempting to incorporate exercise into my life on a regular basis. So far, so good but I gotta' tell ya, it makes me kind of cranky. Plus I'm trying to cut back on the Dr Pepper and the headaches are killer. Notice I said "cut back" not quit. I have been walking w/ a friend at the park & that's been fun. I also bought myself "My Wii Fitness Coach" and am going to give that a whirl tomorrow. I figure I don't have any excuses that way b/c the weather will no longer be a factor. Most of my local friends go to either the Y or to Curves....my budget can't afford the Y and I tried Curves before but many of their machines are primarily abdominal and the whole ostomy thing just doesn't jive w/ that.

Taylor has been doing some sort of Healthy Heart thing in PE this month and it's all about jumping rope. That's been a hoot. I loved to jump rope as a kid & spent every recess doing just that w/ my friend. So when Taylor was having trouble, I decided I'd show her how her sweet momma could jump.....Uh, not a good idea. I could still do it, but good grief, my body weighs a whole lot more now & it was like major impact to my entire body...head to toe! So then I let her daddy help after that!

Wish me luck w/ the exercise thing, I'm so NOT good w/ self-discipline!

What a week!

I haven't posted anything for several days, thought I'd add a quick update......

I am the current PTA President at Taylor's school (Bolivar Primary) and spent most of this week doing a major book project. Our profits from our Scholastic book fairs allowed our PTA group to buy approx $6,000 worth of books for the 27 classrooms! That's a really awesome thing, however, it means a lot of labor for myself and 3 of my buddies. That $6,000 bought about 2,000 books and each one had to be stamped twice (prop. of school, donated by PTA, etc) and then 'leveled' based on reading difficulty. I'm very proud of this project but it has meant about 20hrs at the school this week plus some from home. Good news is that I should finish up on Monday....YEAH!

Mike is playing a bunch of music this weekend, Springfield tonight & Lake of the Ozarks tomorrow.

Both kids have learned to shoot a bow this week...IN DEREK'S BEDROOM. Yes, they have missed the obscenely large target more than once & there are holes in Derek's wall but lucky for my husband, he's a plasterer and can repair those. Otherwise, they would all be in trouble. I gotta' admit, it's pretty darn cute to see Taylor in her pink pj's shooting a bow.

Happy thoughts, good wishes & God Bless to all!

Restraining Orders

Derek & Taylor are exhausted from a full day of playing w/ their Nana.....thus, they are bickering non-stop. Eventually that led to wrestling and Taylor came up the loser, she lost her balance & pretty much bashed her head into the wall. So she's crying the crocodile tears & carrying on like nobody's business and I say, "Is there anything I can do to make it better? Would you like to take a warm bath?" Her response (as she's still moaning & crying)...."I think the only thing that will make me feel better is if I can get a restraining order against Derek so he has to stay 10ft away from me." I must have showed some confusion b/c then she proceed to define 'restraining order' for me. "It's something you get that means the other person has to stay 10 or 100 or 12 feet or something away from you."

She's SIX!!!! Restraining orders are not a topic of conversation in our home, where does this come from? Mike will be home soon & I can't wait to discuss his children's legal situation with him. :)

The Birds & The Bees...almost

Yesterday Derek asked me what is the minimum age to have a baby....well, I didn't really have a response for that. So I just told him that some girls have babies as young as 14 or 15 but that it wasn't a great choice & it's better to wait until you get an education, get married, have a job, etc. Taylor (in all of her innocence) says, "But Mommy, how could it ever be a bad choice to have a baby?" Again, I didn't really know how to respond. There are some things I'm just not ready to talk about w/ my kids, they pretty much think you go to the hospital to pick out the baby, kind of like going to Wal-Mart & choosing a new Barbie or Legos set.

The above conversation makes me thankful for their innocence, the next one scares me to death. Derek is NINE & in 3rd grade and began talking to his six year old sister about FRENCH KISSING recently, I nearly wrecked my truck, thank goodness for the straight stretch of road. He said something about French kissing and Taylor says "You mean they kiss different in France than in America?" He says, "Yeah, they use their tongues & get each other's spit in their mouths, doesn't that sound disgusting!" She agreed & on they went to some other topic. It took me two days to recover from that discussion. Thankfully, Derek still thinks girls have cooties & Taylor thinks most boys are dumb, so I've lucked out so far.

Deer are DUMB!!

There really IS a first time for everything! Mike & I were on our way to Eldo tonight for a visitation service; while traveling West on Hwy 32, we whacked a deer. That was a first for me. Thankfully Mike was driving, not me. And most importantly, we are both fine & the kids were at my mom's house. I was pretty much mortified that the stupid deer just kept gyrating around in the middle of the dang road. He was dead center in the other lane and I was scared to death that an oncoming car would pop over, hit it and crash. Eventually the dumb deer got himself off the road and we went on our way. My truck is ok too...I have a headlight to get fixed and some lovely deer hair coming out of my bumper in various places but otherwise we're good. :)

Snow much fun...

I love to see a good snowfall, it's a beautiful thing. However, the practical side of me can only handle so many snow days in a row. We got the call at 1:30 that they've already cancelled for tomorrow (day #3). The kids have done ok so far but one more day will be pushing it. We took them sledding on the sleet yesterday before all the snow began to fall. It was a lot of fun. Mike has them out in the snow right now; hopefully they will be tired and call it an early night.

Mike wanted to drive to Stockton to the East end of the dam and sled. I'm too much of a nervous nelly for that. I wasn't allowed to do that growing up so I'm a little unsure....too many large people that could squish my babies and the hill is sooooo long!

I am thankful that we haven't lost power this time around. We are blessed w/ a warm home, plenty of food and entertainment....

But in my mind, I'm dreaming of Stockton Lake in mid-July! :)

Enough Already!

Can we please move on from this crazy Obama-mania nonsense! I get it, he's the male Oprah, going to save the world. Let's not forget (b/c we've only heard it a million times) that his wife wore some kind of bizarre yellow-green outfit for his inauguration and the girls wore JCrew. Seriously! Do we not have other issues that are more important than what brand those kids wore. Here are some ideas...the war, our economy, our new VP and his wife who are a trainwreck waiting to happen.

Blogging Newbie

Wish me luck! I am officially a blogger now, but not sure I'll ever be as faithful at posting as others are. I got inspired by my cousin, Jeanie, at Christmas time so I decided to give it a whirl.