Just Thankful

Today Kel came home with some great news. At least to me it's great, and there could be other, more great news that he hasn't shared, but tonight I'm happy. You see, C and D's Grandpa could use a prayer or two right now. It's not my place to post anything specific, but I know that we would appreciate any prayers coming our way. D really wants his Grandpa to get better soon so that "he doesn't have to see the doctor's anymore because they only like to give shots and when he's all better then they can go back to the shop together." Tonight's news stated that Grandpa has shown a small improvement over the past few days that is finally bringing some hope. It may be premature, but any hope with this situation is better than none.

C and D lucked out in the grandparent department. They have three sets who adore them, who at anytime will do anything for them. You ask D to list his grandparents and he'll tell you that he likes to go see Grandpa at Grandpa's shop and drive the tractor (forklift), he likes to go visit Nana and Papa because he can drive Nana's red car, and Poppy and Gigi are the best because they are fun and take him places in their big car (can you tell he's a car guy?) and have dogs. Even though D is a little afraid of dogs. But that's beside the point. The point is, my boys are very lucky to have six special people in their lives that they could turn to for anything.

Thankful Tuesday on Thursday

Today I am thankful for the maturity that comes with age. Especially when that maturity allows me to have a relationship with my sister that we didn't have when we were teenagers. It's a work in progress, and not without it's own bumps in the road, but I'm thankful that I have it now. That I have someone I can talk to and know, without a doubt, that she isn't going to sugar coat anything. And I'm hoping that it will only grow stronger as we grow older.

Happy Thanksgiving {2011}

As  it has been for the past seven years, Thanksgiving was a busy day. Unlike the last few years, it was actually relatively calm and I didn't feel rushed trying to squeeze all the family in. That is one of the main things that I am thankful for this year.

We started out with Kel's side of the family. Nana and Papa (thankfully) made the drive to us this year from Bakersfield. They arrived bearing gifts. New clothes for the boys and donuts for all. We then made our way over to Hometown Buffet and met Kel's sisters and brother in law for brunch. The boys loved it! C actually told me "No" to pineapple and "Yes, lope!" to cantaloupe. Choosing their own desserts and the 4 2 Icees each that Kel gave them was just the icing on the top.

After brunch, Nana wanted to go to our favorite park to take pictures. This is where most of the pictures of the day will be from as I forgot my memory card during brunch, my batteries ran out at the park, and I left my camera at home when we went to my parents. Oh well, at least I have a few from the beginning of the day. C and D did not really want to take pictures though (who could blame them with me as their mother) so the majority of the time was spent at the playground trying to burn off their sugar high from the Icees.

And running up and down the hills.

Of course, being the person I am, I attempted to get a family picture with my boys.

And one (or two) pictures with Nana.

After the park, we went to my parents house for dinner. I love my parents' cooking. Especially the green beans, mashed potatoes, and my mom's fruit salad. After dinner, Aunt R and Aunt K convinced C to do some laps to work off some of the turkey he ate that day. I think he did twelve laps before he and D turned my parents' living room into their very own WWE fighting ring. (Aunt R, if you read this, can you PLEASE send me any pictures/video that you took?). We ended the night with the annual Clark Holiday Poker tournament. Which, surprisingly, I took third place!

Mama Bear

Tonight has taught me a lot of things. A simple request can be misconstrued and turned into something ugly. I tried to protect my boys from someone and I turned into the bad guy.

I don't care.

You can call me any name in the book, but I will always advocate for my boys. If you are putting them in harms way, you best believe I will do something about it. I asked a family member to stop posting pictures of my boys on her Facebook page, as she is still friends with the person who tried to hurt my family. Instead of respecting my wishes, she turned it into a drama-fest that ended with us severing our ties.

I don't care.

My boys will be just fine without her.

I've tried to keep the "ugly" out of my blog. To just post the good and gloss over the bad. But at this point, this is my only outlet to vent. While Kel agrees with the outcome, he doesn't want to talk about it. And I understand, it's his family after all. So while I have a lot that I want to say, and a lot of anger, I will just leave it at this blog post and move on.

Although this wasn't the post that I originally intended to write, and I'll be getting to my "Thankful Tuesday" a little later (probably Thankful Thursday), I needed to write this. And since I don't like having a post without at least one picture, I'll leave you with one that I took today while we were on our daily walk.

It's not the "cutest"  picture in the world, but their faces pretty much sum up how I feel tonight.

And the matching shirts were not intentional...

{Flashback Friday}

This was the day we brought D home from the hospital.

Only we couldn't go to our apartment due to a mold issue in the guest bathroom, so we went straight to Gigi and Poppy's for the night. This is the first picture of my dad holding my D for the first time and I still get teary eyed looking at it. In hindsight, it was a blessing to be able to spend the night at my parents house. My mom allowed me some time to sleep, and D got some loving from his aunts and grandparents.

Thankful Tuesday

I don't have much to report, and unless something fun happens over the weekend or next, then I won't have any adventure to post until Thanksgiving. So I'm going to do a Thankful Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, and Flashback Friday post that are so popular in blogland.

So for Thankful Tuesday , I'm going to say that I am thankful for my sisters and brothers. For being apart of the Crazy Clark Crew. Sometimes it was hard being one of six, but I couldn't imagine it any other way.

A Night at the Theater

"There's one hundred and four days of summer vacation, then school comes along just to end it.    

So the annual problem of our generation is finding a good way to spend it." 

So it may not have been anything as exciting as "Wicked" (hint hint Kel?), but at the end of September,  my aunt and I took H and D to see Phineas and Ferb Live! at a nearby civics art center.

It was a gorgeous night. A little cloudy, a little cold, but a nice respite from the heat that we've been having.  D was excited, not so much for the show, but as spending a night with just H without the distraction of a little brother.

The show was really good. Started out with Phineas and Ferb on a screen trying to figure out what to do today. Then they see the audience and decide to include us in their adventures. After an amusing moment (for D) trying to get through the screen, Phineas noticed a slide for them to go down. So out came Phineas and Ferb, and the crowd went wild.

Next came Isabella and the Fireside girls, with her signature phrase, "Whatchya doing?" After a run in with the screen, they came down the slide to join Phineas and Ferb on stage.

Not to be left behind,  Buford and Baljeet round out the main cast members and the opening title sequence is performed. Who knew Isabella and the Fireside girls could rock out?

Candace and Jeremy joined in on the fun, with Candace singing her signature song "Busted." I am not afraid to admit that I jumped a little when she started popping balloons.

 

The show was awesome. Everyone enjoyed it, especially when Perry the Platypus joined the fray to battle Dr. Doofenshmirtz who wanted to build one of his 'enators to control the audiences' mind. Of course Perry couldn't allow that to happen, so his subplot was interjected into Phineas and Ferb's plot of trying to figure out what to do on the last day of summer.

It was a great show, with a lot of their best songs performed, with an ending that had D dancing in his seat with a big grin on his face. I don't want to ruin the show for those who are going to see it so I'll just leave you with some more picture collages.

Happy Halloween {2011}

This year, I let Kel decide where we went for Halloween. We'd spent the previous years with my family, and I wanted Kel to be happy since he was missing his Kansas City Chiefs play the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football. So we packed up the boys and headed to his dad's house. We haven't seen him in a few months due to his medical treatments, so it was nice to let the boys spend a little time with their Grandpa. After a short visit, and some applesauce and candy, we headed over to Aunt B's neighborhood to do some trick or treating. The boys had a blast, and loved having their cousin Z with them to collect as much candy as possible. C actually understood what was going on and said "tree or please" followed by a "tank to" when he received his candy. We started out a little later , and ended a little later, than I would have liked, but it was a great night.