Saturday, September 15, 2007

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!

Monday, September 10, 2007

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!