What a Crazy Week!

I don't have pictures this time, sorry! I thought I'd keep you posted on life in the Clawson household. This past week has been ridiculously busy! Ever since I started going back to school, seems like I have hours and hours of homework and am overwhelmed with trying to juggle everything. Andrew has been such a good sport about coming home to hungry kids and making dinners.. ( I have also been sick with a bad sinus infection!) I literally spent all day yesterday doing homework. I'm thinking.. when will this ever end?! I'm going through a rough patch trying to figure out how to balance my time with the children, homework, housework, being a wife, a soccer mom, my calling, and now as a student.

I had a breakdown earlier today crying and complaining to Andrew how hard it is. I have a very strict English teacher who flip flops all over the place and is not clear about what she wants. It's frustrating!!!! She likes to give out lots of homework!!! I feel like the homework takes away from my family time. So.. we'll see how it goes.

Andrew was able to calm me down and get me started. He was such a big help today, critiquing my work, and making lunch and dinner for us today. He even cleaned up! I have such a good husband don't I? I am so grateful to have him! Anyway- enough of that!!!

The kids had soccer games today. Luke is still learning the rules of soccer.. Emma is pretty darn good at it! She is pretty aggressive!!!! I can't believe how well she plays! Her team won, with 6 players!!! The other team had 8 players! We are very proud of the kids!

Only 2 weeks left of school for the kids, then they're out for a month! Time flies!

Hopefully I'll be able to relax tomorrow and not think about homework and just focus on my family! Hope you are all doing well!

Soccer!!

Emma and Luke in their soccer garb! They did such a good job at their games!

Disneyland!!!

Space Mountain was our first ride of the day! We had so much fun! (ahem! except for Luke!) It was also our last ride of the day, and it became Luke's favorite! :-)

Minnie Mouse!!! Aren't the kiddos cute or what?!

In Toon Town lounging on a car! Sorry folks! No getting your driver's license until you're 25 years old!

Everyone knows these famous Teacups! The kids had a blast spinning their teacup.. I was forbidden to spin the one Andrew and I were on, otherwise he would have puked on me!! Yech!

This picture was taken after the day was over, in the parking garage. I wanted a picture of the kiddos in their new Disney garb!

Well! If you want to read a story... be prepared not to get up for a while! A friend of mine from Santa Rosa's mother sent us 2 free tickets to Disneyland. I started looking online for tickets for the children. We were broke and couldn't afford to buy tickets for them...Tickets for the kids would have cost $172!!!! NO WAY!! Anyway, while looking for cheap tickets, a name popped up in my head many times. The name was "Queenie", she's a mom of Luke's classmate from kindergarten. Anyway, the name kept popping in my head and, so I decided to give her a call, and basically said to her," I don't know why I'm calling you, but your name kept popping in my head. Do you know of how or where I can get cheap tickets to Disneyland?" She responded and said,"oh! I work there! I can only let 3 people in not your whole family." I'm like..."oh really!? I only need 3 tickets for my kids!" So we proceeded to plan on a day and time to meet.

I decided that I would surprise the kids. They have wanted to go to Disneyland eversince before we moved here, and they stopped asking to go, I guess they figured that we would never go.

Andrew told the kids the night before, not to be surprised that he would be home the next day. He told them that he had errands to do with me. (he never takes days off!)

He told the kids to get their backpacks in the car and we would drop them off at school (ok, ok!! so we lied a bit!) The kids got really confused when we passed the school. I preteneded to get "frustrated" with Andrew... heehee! I told the kids that since he had never taken them to school, that he was just confused! They accepted that! Then we kept going and they were so worried that they would get a "pink" slip for being tardy. So I calmed the kids down by telling them, "oh I'll explain to the office, don't worry! We'll take care of it!" Well needless to say they accepted that!

We got on the freeway, and school had already started and we told them, "ohh!, I guess you'll have to go on the errands with us!" the kids were not excited at that prospect.

Andrew and I had a hard time trying not to laugh! When we finally pulled into Disneyland, they didn't realize it until I rolled down my window and paid for parking, and the attendant said " Welcome to Disneyland! Have a wonderful day!" I immediately looked back at the kids to see their expressions. I wish I snapped a few pictures! It was unforgetable! They did not believe that we were actually there!

Emma told us, while we were waiting at the gate for Queenie to let us in, " I am in shock!"

What an unforgetable experience for us! We had the time of our lives there! I know people think- oh Disneyland.. everyone's been there already! But for my children, it really meant a lot to them. I am so happy that we had the opportunity to do this, and for free!

We came on the best possible day! We basically were able to go on all the rides. A day we will not soon forget!

Now you can get up! Smile!

We're Still ALIVE!!!

I cant believe it's been almost a month since I last blogged! A lot has happened since the 9th! The kids have been back in school full swing.. They took turns getting the flu- (including me!) They are doing well in their classes and love their teachers! I go and volunteer every week in all the children's classes. I am able to get a sense of where the kids are in comparison to the rest of the class. They are doing fantastic! Their teachers tell me how much they love and enjoy having my kids in their classes. and I can see that they behave well. Luke Just won an award from the principal on Thursday.

I thought it would be embarrassing for the kids to have me come in to their classrooms, but on the contrary- the LOVE it when I come in! The teachers are very appreciative of my help and I do the dirty work for them! Making copies, correcting papers, making homework packets, taking care of homework packets, a few of the many things that I do...

I'm a college student! I am so proud of myself! I'm going back to school- it starts Sept 3rd. I have been busy going to the school and meeting with counselors... getting interpreters set up.. getting myself registered, taking the assessment placement tests.. and today I went to the Department of Rehabilitation office and the school as well. I hope that the Dept of Rehab will be able to pay for my schooling or help.. I'm taking 8 units this semester, Algebra and English.. I'm in the class before English 1A to review my writing skills.. So hopefully I'll be able to do OK and be able to handle the homework load on top of everything else that I need to do. Wish me luck and keep your fingers crossed for me!

It's been just over one year since we moved down here! Aug 4th was our one year anniversary! Time flies! I think I am finally adjusting to life here, keeping myself busy with different things.

I am going to have a friend here from Utah for a week..so am looking forward to having her with me! We're going to go to 2 temples, hopefully 3 while she's here. We 're going to go to Newport Beach Temple tomorrow night, and San Diego Temple Wednesday, we still haven't decided if we're going to go to the Los Angeles Temple or not... (lots of driving for me!)

Well... Hope everyone is doing well! Keep in touch! I will be posting soon with pictures!

First Day of School!

Emma being cute while standing in line waiting for her teacher..

You are all probably thinking huh??? First day of school in July!? They go to a year round school. Ashley is in 5th grade now, Emma in 3rd, and Luke in 1st. The year has flown by so fast! We just realized that in a few weeks that we will be reaching our 1 year mark since we moved here. One whole year!

Andrew and I have decided that I'm going to go back to school hopefully this semester. I'm going to go to the community college a few miles away from my house, and see if i can get registered..I'm excited and nervous all at the same time! All these years of saying I'll go back when my kids were all in school. I would have liked to go last year, but because Luke was in school half days so, it wasn't ideal. We would still need to figure out what to do with the children when I'm in school while theu're off track. Keep your fingers crossed that it will all work out for me. I have been really hoping that my vertigo won't affect me.I haven't had an attack in a long time so.. I'm hoping for the best.

Anyway, the children love their teachers.. seems like we are so blessed to be in this school district. Ashley says that her new teacher, Mrs. Miller is the best so far! (probably because she hasn't seen her "other side yet!" haha!) Luke was really hoping to get into Mrs. Oatman's class and he's in her class, so he's happy as can be! Emma likes Mrs. Garcia, so hopefully it'll be the best for them.

Today it finally cooled down! I didn't turn on the AC! YAY!

Today Ashley turned 10!!!

We had a very busy day! Ashley invited 2 of her good friends over. We got wooden letters for their intitals.. They painted and decorated them. Andrew made some pizza dough and the kids made their own pizzas. I made brownies and we had ice cream for dessert. We had originally planned to take everyone to the pool, but it was closed, so we went to another pool in Corona, and they weren't letting anymore people in. We didn't feel like it was full at all (but with my experience working at pools for many years, I think it was the lack of staffing as in not enough lifeguards.) So we went back home and decided to get all our water toys out, water guns, waterballoons, and Andrew hosed them off while they were jumping on the trampoline. They seemed to have a ton of fun even though the pools were closed.

Enjoying their pizzas

Having a ball on the trampoline!

Wondering if her wishes will come true!

It was an interesting date, that will never happen again in our lifetime..

7-07-07

Happy Birthday to you Ashley, Wendy, Danielle, and Pamela (tmw)

Clawson Family VACATION!!!!

Day 1~ Driving to Utah.. see that beautiful Sunset?? It took us 10 hours to get to Mapleton, UT (including all our stops) We stopped in Las Vegas for Breakfast, The children saw people in the casinos, and it was a good teaching moment. They noticed how people were glued to slot machines.. "wasting their money"... We stopped only twice to get to Utah.. both times for gas and breakfast. The children were so excited that they did not go to sleep in the car when we woke them up at 4 30 am.

When we finally got there, I hurried and changed clothes and washed up a bit. I had a girls night out with some girlfriends.. We went to get pedicures and shopped a bit at the University Mall in Provo. We ate dinner at Los Hermanos...(Utahans don''t know how to make real mexican food!) We stayed in the restaurant chatted and laughed and cried..until they were about ready to kick us out at 11 pm! We then went to a lobby with couches and continued to chat, until a man walked by and said want some free ice cream? of course we all wanted free ice- cream! It was next door to the restaurant that we ate at. They were just opening for the first time and were giving free samples of their Italian ice cream- which I've got to say was delicious! I think we girls needed a girls night out. My first one since we moved to Southern CA. Here we are... all smiles in the garage parking lot. I forgot my camera but we had lots of fun! Jennifer in the middle and Katrina on the right...

Here's a cute picture of Emma with Joy, a cockatoo bird. April has 2 of them, it brought back so many memories of our family birds when I was growing up... I got Joy out almost everyday that I was at their house. I asked Andrew if I could bring Joy home, he remarked sarcastically " what for? so tigger can eat it?" sigh....

Day 2~ Sunday, We went to the Provo Deaf ward, then we went to Andrew's Grandma's house in SLC and spent all afternoon and evening with her. Different families came to see us.

Here's Luke in Grandma C's backyard having fun...

The kiddos with Great Grandma Clawson. These 3 were the ones she had never met! Now She can say she's met all of her great grandchildren!

Andrew's cousin's kids with our kids

Day 3~ After we left Grandma's house, we called different hotels and just decided to stop at one, in SLC, So we stopped at the Hampton's Inn A few blocks away from Temple Square which is where we spent most of our day.

It was a beautiful day! The weather was in our favor! we had so much fun and enjoyed going to all the sights and museums. I am proud of the kids, because we walked a lot that day....

In front of SLC Temple doors

Emma was getting a bit tired (understandably!)

The view from the top of the Conference Center.. It was mind bogglingly huge! ( I don't know if that's a real word! haha)

After we got tired of walking around Temple Square, we went to Lehi, and stayed with Karen and Sam, they fed us and let us sleep there. It was soo good to see them again. Thanks!


Day 4~ We went to a dinosaur museum I think it's called Xango, at Thanksgiving Point. We splurged a bit for this fun museum.. we spent all day there!! We left for lunch to meet Suzy, Doug and Jr, who was going into the MTC the following day. After lunch, we headed back and watched a 3D movie.. which was awesome but Luke took off his 3D glasses because he was too scared. Andrew and I both got headaches, I think our 3D glasses weren't working exactly right. Plus we were pretty tired. But you can see the children had a ton of fun!

Screaming in front of a dinosaur that they made in the kiddie section in the museum.

Digging for dinosaur bones

The kids made casts of different fossils, they had fun!

At the Old Spaghetti Factory with Suzy, Doug and Doug Jr.

After the museum, we went and stayed with Allen and April,

Day 5~ Andrew went fishing up in the canyons.. so I hung out at the Clawsons house until Suzy and Doug came to pick us up.. they took us to their favorite Mexican restaurant in Springville.. which was really tasty.. Thanks!! Then they took us to Costco to get discount tickets for 7 peaks. They took us to Karen and Sam's house. They put up with us again! Thanks!! Sam set up a movie projector outside and we watched "Night at the Museum", which was fun to watch. Andrew met us there after he was done fishing. It was fun to be with them and watch the children play.

Day 6~ After breakfast at the Smith's we headed out to Provo and went to 7 Peaks, where we spent our day! I slathered all of us in sunscreen and we ended up getting a little bit burned but not bad! We had so much fun there! Andrew and I went on the Freefall water slide, which looked a bit scary, but it was fun! I went airborne!!! Andrew took Luke on a tube ride called the "Cave in" and they flipped over! Andrew bonked his head Luke was underneath the tube, the tube was dragging Luke.. so Andrew somehow stopped in the middle of the ride and got the tube off of Luke who was probably freaking out at the time and let the tube go.. they finished the slide without the tube... they survived!! Andrew still has a bump on his head.. oh well!

We went to Allen and Aprils house after we were done, April had dinner ready for us when we got there. Thanks April! We were tired and hungry... we watched a movie in their theater room with a projector.. ( I want one of these!!)

Day 7~ We left to go camping a few miles away from the Clawsons house, we stayed at the Hobble Creek campgrounds. It was fun, and relaxing.. the kids played and played. Allen and 2 of his boys came by after he finished work and joined us for dinner. Nathan climbed up a very tall tree .. I was amazed at his climbing skills and am not looking forward to when my son starts climbing trees! My heart stopped a few times while watching him climb up and climbing down.

Day 8~ We decided to go home a day early, we were very tired and wanted one day to rest before Andrew started working again. We needed a vacation from our vacation! We packed up and stopped at Allen and April's and took showers, changed clothes and left.. (thanks for putting up with us!)

We met up with Allen and Jared at Cove Fort a historical fort built by some LDS... it was interesting to go and see. The one thing that stood out, was the guide was talking about how they had different irons for different purposes, including a special ruffle iron!!! I couldn't get that out of my head.. a Ruffle Iron!!!! you would think they would have better things to do than iron ruffles!!haha I rarely iron!! thought it was funny.. You can see the irons in the pictures that Emma took.. on the very last one on the right hand side is the ruffle iron, which still boggles my mind!

At Cove Fort

We stopped in Cedar City at an Iceberg.. Their shakes are hugmougous! WOW! We got home at 11:15 pm our time... It was so good to be home again. We found Tigger locked up in Luke's room, We don't know how long he had been stuck in there with no food, water or litter box. He seemed ok.. Anyway.. we had a good time and we rested a lot today, unpacked and did some laundry... Thanks to all who put up with us!

The weather has been really nice these past few days, not going higher than 87 degrees. Its been beautiful. I took the kids swimming at the small country pool. Not very many people there but the kids had fun!

I decided I wanted to learn how to play tennis. We have a park with 2 tennis courts a few houses down from us, so thinking that would be a fun way to get some exercise in and time with Andrew as well. Andrew was so patient with me... we played for about 45 minutes, then let the kids take turns for another 15 or 20 minutes... I think I like it! I have never played tennis before...I'm looking forward to practicing and getting better at it! I don't think I will ever beat Andrew though, with his experience....

Well... We had stake conference this past weekend, and our stake is no more. We had 2 general authorities come to our stake, and speak to us. There were 4 stakes involved... Corona Stake, which used to be our residence stake, Jurupa Stake, Riverside Stake and Riverside West (ours).

Anyway, there were 2 small, struggling stakes, (Jurupa Stake and Riverside) and one huge stake...(Corona) Sooo... The general authorities decided to dissolve our stake and give some of our wards to Riverside and Jurupa... and take some wards from Corona stake and give to Jurupa. So a lot of changes including some ward boundaries. We also found out that our residence hearing ward got moved to another building...and some changes to the boundaries. We had a busy Fathers Day weekend, going to all kinds of meetings about the changes... Andrew and I went to a special meeting given by our new stake presidency.. (Pres. Bishop was released! Boo- hoo!) we all knew that would possibly happen) the new Stake pres. was talking to the bishoprics and their wives from the different wards in preparation for all the changes that will be made. Hopefully it will all go smoothly...

We're looking forward to going to Utah for our first family vacation in a year since before we moved here. Yes we went up to Santa Rosa, but that wasnt a vacation!haha.. so hopefully we'll be able to do fun stuff while we're in Utah. I think we'll leave at 4 in the morning, on Sat. I already have plans to get together with some of my girlfriends on saturday. We're going to the Deaf Ward on Sunday, then heading out to SLC to meet Andrew's Grandma and aunts, uncles, etc. We'll probably stay at a friend's house for one night.. in Lehi and go back to SLC and tour SLC, temple square and all. We hope to go to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, and at some point go to 7 peaks water park, then we'll be going camping with Allen's family the remainder of our vacation. Hope we can find time to do everything we want to do. I will be sure to bring a camera this time!! Smile!

I'm glad that Elisa and Rachel are joining the blogger world..welcome!

Here's a pic that Emma snapped of herself saying "I really love you" so sharing her sentiments! Love ya all!

Happy Sunday!!!

We had a great weekend! We were invited by some friends to go camping at San Clemente State Beach. We had so much fun!! The one thing I forgot to pack, was my camera!! I was so sure I had everything in order! Until I was about 25 minutes away from home, i realized my mistake, Oh well!

We went and picked Andrew up from work, then headed on down to San Clemente, which was about half hour South from where he works. We got there around 2pm.. and set up camp quickly, then my children seeing the ocean right there, got antsy and got their swimsuits on as soon as the last nail went on the tents...The beach was about a 5 minute walk from camp. so it was nice to be able to walk...

We saw a whole bunch of dolphins.. it doesn't cease to amaze me how beautiful those animals are, gliding and jumping out of the water. It takes my breath away to watch them.

The girls are 2 silly little fish! they love going in the ocean and body surfing and trying out the boogie board. Andrew went way out in the water, so i thought I'd go and be with him... when I decided to go in.. the water was beginning to get rough and i had a hard time swimming. I think I got stuck in rip currents. I was going sideways.. which is all you can do in a rip current.. and after about half hour of swimming, i got tired of fighting the waves so I decided to get out... When I got out, the waves calmed down, and i was like ummmm what's up? I guess the ocean wanted to battle with me? smile

we had sand every where.. good thing we had showers! After showers the guys started a fire for our foil dinners, I left to go to another campground, My good friend from growing up was camping a mile down from us, so I took the opportunity to go and visit for a bit.

The other family set up a big movie theater, with a while sheet and projector, with a lap top. the kids loved it! There were so many kids from another campground i think 13 kids... who stood at the boundaries of our campground and watched... so we invited them all to come and join us.

I brought stuff to make smores.... of course we must have smores when we go camping right!? smile..

The next day Andrew made pancakes for everybody and we brought OJ and hot chocolate... yummmm....

When we checked out, we went to the beach again... and the kids swam and swam.... for 3 hours. We didn't get burned this time..I brought spray sunscreen so I was pretty vigilant about spraying sun block on them.

We are pretty worn out, but we had a lot of fun! We're now talking about our trip to Utah! We can't wait! We hope to see lots of people while we're there. We're going to take the kids to meet Andrew's Grandma (they've never met her before!) Anyway.. we hope we can do lots of fun stuff while we're there! We leave Friday June 22nd, coming home July 1st.

Well.. Have a good Sunday!!

YIKES!!!

I took Ashley to the Orthodontist today, and they were prepared to put braces on her today, But i said. hold it, let me talk to hubby about the cost. It about flipped me over when they told me how much it would cost.. UMMM!!! :-)

I was able to find a payment plan that we could work with..it's like a car payment! Yikes! But in the long run.. Ashley will have beautiful straight teeth!

I was finally able to sleep in for the 1st time today snice it's the first day of summer vacation.. if you guys have any fun and cheap ideas please let me know... :-)

A friend has just invited our family camping next weekend to San Clemente State Beach.. so that should be fun! We are just starting to meet people here. I guess it's a matter of time and patience to get to know people. It was so easy iun Santa Rosa where I knew lots of people.

Today, the orthodontist had a form for me to fill out, and asked about our previous address, and I had to dig deep to remember our old address!! It was scary to see that I'm starting to forget.. Getting old huh??

We went to see the San Diego Temple together as a family a while back, it was beautiful! I can't wait until we can go back again.

We are planning on going to Utah the last week of June to see people and tour SLC with the kids, so that should be fun.

Here's a pic of the San Diego Temple at sunset..

Here's another picture with the lights on.. Cool huh??

What is happening!!! These were washed ashore... Take a look!

Of Course, I had to take a picture of it. There were quite a few washed ashore... Interesting!

We went to the pier where there were a lot of people fishing. It was a nice evening.

Thanks Emily and Chris for helping us set this blog up! Hope I dont get too addicted.. Maybe this will be a good way to chronicle our lives.. and be able to look back at what silly or fun things we've done.

I decided that it'd be cool to have our own blog so that family and friends can check and see what we're up to these days! Seems like life has been a whirlwind.. so wanted to keep connected with our loved ones. Emily and Chris, (Andrew's sister and hubby) were here for a long weekend vacation..We had lots of fun with them. They have a blog, so they helped us get started with this one... Happy reading!!

Here we are shivering on the pier in Newport Beach....