Back-to-School Time

The kids & I spent this afternoon meeting their new teachers.  They are both looking forward to a fun year.  Taylor has Ms. Mitchell for 3rd grade and is excited to have several girlfriends in her class.  Derek has Ms. Cribbs for 5th grade and a room full of buddies.  For now he is most excited that he is sitting by 3 friends and NO GIRLS!!!  I told him he better not be a chatter-box or she might surround him w/ girls. :)

I am backing off of my PTA duties this school year and spending more time in the kids's individual classrooms.  This is Derek's last year before middle school so I figure this is my last chance to spend time w/ him in that setting.

I have several personal goals for this school year as well.  Including, but not limited to.........completing the Couch to 5K program that I attempted to start earlier this summer and then got halted due to a staph infection & ecoli.  Also hope to get my scrapbooking caught up, I have hardly touched it for the past 2-3 years due to my PTA responsibilities. 

I will try to remember to take pictures & post on Thur morning before the kids head out for their first day!

La La La La La La La

Can you say "awkward"? That's my word to describe parts of my afternoon w/ my Grandma. Let me explain....I got a call at approx 2pm from my great uncle saying my gma was in the ER at CMH & could I go be w/ her b/c he had to go back to work. So I leave home feeling all warm & fuzzy cuz she thought to have him call ME and she wants ME to be there w/ her........I spent A LOT of time w/ her as a child & miss our visits. Well, I get to the hospital and they had already done a chest xray, EKG & CT scan so she proceeds to tell me her symptoms, etc. Then after that info we got caught up on all the "family news" about all my cousins & such. Soon after the dr came in & said all tests were clear and she was only severely dehydrated, she was being sent home & is to follow up w her regular dr next week. So........I think all is well, we will get her discharged & I will drive her back to Stockton.

NOT SO FAST!! She then proceeds to tell me about her other upcoming appt w another dr re: her bowel issues and describes it all in great detail. Followed by a tale of how she has used the same GYNECOLOGIST for 157 yrs and how much she likes him.

This is where I want to cover both ears & say "la la la la la la la la....I'm not listening." God bless her, I love her to pieces, she has been a huge part of my life but I do NOT care to discuss bowel problems nor gynecology issues w my grandma.

I have officially vowed that should God ever bless me w grandchildren of my own, I will not under any circumstances discuss bowels or gyno with them.

I LOVE MY GRANDMA!!! :)

We are Cheap!

Ok, maybe not cheap but it certainly doesn't cost much to entertain us!

~My mom took both kids to the city pool today for ONE HOUR, then to Sonic for ice cream cones; cost $7

~My mom took both kids overnight recently for a trip to the beach at Stockton Lake including roasting hot dogs and having candy and orange soda; cost $10

~Mike took a giant sheet of plastic from his shop, put baby oil & water on it and the kids had a slip & slide; FREE

~Taylor and I checked-out 2 seasons of Little House on the Prairie on DVD from our local library, she loved them; FREE

~Derek found a random bobby-pin today in my truck.......entertained him for like 30 min; free.

All of this makes me very happy that my kids can be happy without me having to sell a major organ to finance their fun. Summer is almost over but it's been one of our best ever.

Trying again...

Ok, here we go! I am trying the blog AGAIN! This latest attempt is motivated by a couple of different people; a local teacher whose husband was in a serious accident recently and she created a blog to keep everyone updated on his condition and their prayer needs and secondly, a good friend at church mentioned that he had stumbled upon my blog & enjoyed it (thanks JK).

Summer is nearing an end but it has been quite wonderful for our family. June was pretty much a blur. Taylor played softball (see team pic above) and we stayed busy w/ that including a weekend tournament in Arkansas that was a fabulous trip for the two of us. Then the following weekend we met Aunt Sue in Tulsa to watch a WNBA game and that was great fun as well. In the middle of those two trips, my mom had some surgery done and it went well and she is doing great.

On a sad note, Mike lost his Uncle John Griffith and his Grandma Lorene Clayton within 2 weeks of each other at the beginning of June. Cancer is an ugly enemy and though we are thankful they are neither one suffering any longer, we miss them bunches.

Derek worked w/ Mike for a few weeks at the beginning of summer and learned about stucco. But I have enjoyed having him home w/ me in recent weeks too. Taylor did one week of volleyball camp, 2 weeks of VBS and celebrated her 8th birthday on July 10th.

We feel very blessed that Mike's work has picked up and is nearly all in Bolivar....yay! Last winter seemed to last forever around here.

The kids start back to school on Aug 19th with Taylor in 3rd grade & Derek in 5th. It will be nice to have them both in the same building again (for 1 yr)!

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!