Clara's Sayings

This week has brought several ups and downs. So instead of going into details of our lives, I decided to do a post on some things Clara has said to me in the last little bit.Clara was playing with her stuffed Nala and Simba toys right next to the computer keyboard as I was trying to type some things. She kept pushing the keys, which would frustrate me. So I asked her not to touch the keys. When it happened again, I said, "What did I say?"
Clara's response: "Not touch keys."
"So why did you?"
"Simba did."

Clara was asking for something I didn't want her to have. After telling her no, she continued to ask for it. I looked at her and said, "I said no." Clara's response: "I said yes!"

When Clara wants something, instead of asking for it directly, she comes and asks me, "What would Clara like?" I then have to respond by saying, "I don't know, what would Clara like?"

Clara and Daddy love to be silly together. The latest "game" they play is calling each other names. Clara thinks this is quite funny and has been very quick to join in. Usually Jeremy calls Clara a hamburger or something like that, and then Clara calls him the same thing he just called her. However, the other day Clara made up her own name and said, "Daddy's a cow." She then laughed hysterically at her own joke.

Clara and I were playing together when she stopped and said, "Clara and Mommy are best friends."

Matt's Wedding

I'm going to start with a disclaimer. This post is extremely long. You are more than welcome to read everything, but if you are like me, I like to skip to the good parts - the pictures. The problem is that the reason why this post is so long is that there are a few stories that don't have pictures. So I'm going to change the color of the text of stories that I think my reading audience won't want to miss but also don't have pictures.

This has been a crazy week. It started with me making Clara a new dress on Monday so that she could wear Matt's colors to his wedding.

I was supposed to leave on Tuesday, but Mom called me Tuesday morning to inform me that she was really sick. Since Jeremy couldn't get off work to go with me, I had planned to connect with my Mom halfway between her house and our house. Jeremy would drive me to the meeting point, Mom would pick me up there, and then Mom would drive us to her house. We would stay the night and then leave for California the next morning. Well, my mom lives with 2 of my sisters, my brother-in-law and 5 kids. 5 out of the 8 people who live there were sick. Since my mom was so sick, she couldn't drive to meet me, neither could the well people since they were taking care of all the sick people. Our car wouldn't make it to my Mom's house and that's why we were meeting half way. It looked like I was going to have a hard time getting to my little brother's wedding.

My mom happened to call when my good friend Aubs was visiting. When Aubs heard the situation, she kindly offered to let me use her car! Jeremy has a cousin in the area where my Mom lives, so I called them and asked if I could stay there instead. They said yes even though I only gave them about an 8 hour notice. So 3 hours after my mom's phone call, I was on the road with Clara on the way to Lon and Melanie's.

Clara and I had so much fun visiting with them. I've met this family a few times, but it was always with lots of people around, so I didn't really know them. It was great to get to know the Egbert's better. Clara had so much fun playing with them. They had a motorized bike that Clara loved to ride on.

She also loved getting to play on their neighbor's playground equipment and of course, Clara loved to play with all their toys. Thanks Lon and Melanie for letting me stay at your house, and a BIG thanks to Aubs for letting me drive her car 4 hours away and letting it sit for almost a week until I got back and could return it!

The next day brought a remarkable recovery for all who were sick. There was no more symptoms for about 12 hours, so we decided to let everybody go. (At least we thought so. The kids got their symptoms back the next day during the wedding ceremonies. 2 more of our family got this sickness and all of Kamee's family got it, including the bride and groom, so they had an interesting honeymoon! But at least the day of the wedding was a success!) We didn't leave until about 3:30 due to all the discussions, so we pulled into CA around 12:30 in the morning.

We were up very early in the morning to prepare for the wedding day festivities. The sealing was wonderful and both the bride and groom had perm-a-grins for the entire day.The luncheon had a pinata to accommodate a Panamanian tradition. (Matt served his mission in Panama and really wanted a pinata on his wedding day.) It took quite the beating before it finally broke, but all the kids sure loved it.The reception brought lots of dancing. Here is a picture of Clara dancing with Claire, my cousin's girl. Those two girls danced the night away.Matt and Kamee did the "wedding dance," something they saw on You Tube. But they sure had fun doing it, and it was a crowd pleaser as well.Matt was very nice to Kamee as he fed her cake, but Kamee smeared it all over Matt!Clara loves her Aunt Emma. Clara would often say, "I need Emma," and then run and get a hug from Emma. It was sure cute. Here is a picture of one of the times she did that.The day after the wedding, we had a day for our "family reunion." We spend the morning at a spray park that also had a playground. Clara loved getting to roam free and run around.When we got back to my brother's house, Clara had fun climbing up to the top bunk. She even helped her 18 month old cousin climb up there too by saying things like: you can do it, keep coming, and you're almost there. It made me laugh and both had a blast.We left the next day for my Mom's house again and then I left yesterday to meet up with Jeremy. I didn't think I would miss him as much as I did. I couldn't wait to see him. While I was gone, we had some crazy things happen to us. Just as I was heading out of town on Tuesday, Jeremy called me to let me know he had been offered a full time graphic design job! We were both so thrilled. I almost turned around to bring him with me, but he had to start his new job the next day, Wednesday. So I smiled the entire drive up north. Jeremy finished out the day with Verio and then quit. He also talked to his part time boss that night and put a 2 week notice in. I was so excited to finally have a full time graphic design job, a job that Jeremy would love, and one that made all the time and money for school worth it. Jeremy called me on Wednesday and told me how much he loved his new job. On Thursday, while I was in the sealing, Jeremy tried and tried to call me. He left a message on my phone saying that I needed to call him as soon as possible. By the sound of his voice, I could tell something was wrong. I thought, "He sounds like he's been laid off, but that can't be." Sure enough, it was. After working a day, he was called into the office. The company had hired him without getting permission from the main office in Ohio. They didn't think there would be an issue since Jeremy was replacing someone. They guessed wrong. Corporate didn't approve the budget for the new hire, so Jeremy was laid off. The company felt so bad, and I guess they fought corporate for a long time, but lost. So now we are back to square one. Luckily, Jeremy gets to work at his part time job still. But we no longer have a full time job. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions this week!

Fun Week

A colony of ants have decided to take over our side walk. Clara loves going outside and just watching them. I think it's gross!

I met a girl named Danielle my freshman year of college. Her and I became fast friends and stayed close friends for many years. I've met her family on several occasions, and have fallen in love with them. I love all the Hinsdales and consider them my own family. I'm not sure if they feel the same way about me though. They all live out East though, and so I haven't seen them in years. I was so excited to learn that one of the Hinsdale girls now lives in Salt Lake. As soon as I found that out, I invited her over for dinner. When you haven't seen a friend in years, you always worry if visiting with them will be awkward. I was so glad to have Erin over and talk just like old times. I had a blast. Jeremy ended up having to work late, so she didn't get to meet him. But having her meet Clara and getting to visit with her was the highlight of my week! Thanks for coming Erin!

The day after she left, I headed out to a family reunion on Jeremy's side of the family. Jeremy couldn't come because he couldn't take time off with his job being so new. But Clara had a blast playing with her cousins.

Because I don't want to have to retype things again, here is what I wrote as a post on a different blog about 0ur family reunion:

Clara loved getting to play in our tent. That first day there, she kept asking me to come with her to go "sleep" in the tent.

Soon after arriving, Camille got out her finger nail polish and painted all the girls' fingernails. Clara LOVED her sparkly nails and they were one of the first things she showed Jeremy when we got home.Once the finger painting was done, Clara, Bradley, and Caden played in the water. This was the first of many activities these three did together. They were the best of friends all weekend.Clara brought out her "house" with some people to play in the house. As soon as Caden and Bradley saw that, they wanted to play too. Clara was so good about sharing!We had a campfire program that night. For some reason, every time John does the actions to our silly songs, I have to get a picture. Clara had a blast singing songs and being with her "friends." (All weekend long she kept calling our family members friends. Each time we got separated from the group, she would ask, "Where are our friends?")Clara slept very soundly both nights. That first night, she slept longer than I did. I was awake about 45 minutes before Clara woke up. I was a little bored, so I decided to get out the camera. Here's a picture of my sleeping beauty at 8 in the morning.After breakfast came a game of horse shoes. Clara was one of the best spectators there. She would say, "ahhh" every time the horse shoe landed. Clara also learned how to blow bubbles for the first time this weekend. She's been trying to do it herself all summer. I think she needed to see Caden and Bradley blow them to understand that someone her size really could do it. She was so proud of herself.As soon as the adult game of horse shoes was over, Caden, Bradley, and Clara took their chance at getting to play horse shoes.It soon turned into "raining" dirt. Those three made it rain dirt on each other and had a blast doing it. There was a tepee already built when we arrived. The kids spent a lot of time all weekend trying to build tepees of their own. This is Clara mimicking the bigger kids by "pounding" a stick into the ground.Clara's older boy cousins decided to build a bow and arrow. Clara would watch them and when she found it laying on the ground, picked it up. She then slung rocks and sticks with the best of them. I was pretty impressed with how quickly she got that thing to work.Melissa was playing the doubles game with the older cousins. This is where you all take turns rolling dice. As soon as you get doubles, you have to put on a few articles of clothing and then attempt to eat a candy bar with 2 knives before the next person rolls their doubles and you have to pass everything to them so that they can have their chance to eat chocolate. Clara watched that game intently and kept wanting to wear the hat and gloves. When that game was over, she got to wear them, and was so excited to show them to me.During the "doubles" games, play-dough was out for the 3 youngest kids to play with. Clara didn't want to do it while she could watch the silly hat game. But when that was over, she happily played with the play-dough for about 20 minutes.Clara had fun playing ring around the rosies with Alyssa. They were doing it backwards. They would walk in a circle crouched like that and then say, "all fall up," and stood up. We played a family version of fear factor. Here is a picture of Ashlyn and Tanner after they had to eat a plate full of whip cream. (By the way - Ashlyn beat the pants off Tanner.)After Fear Factor, we did our nightly campfire program. Clara was so tired that she fell asleep in her chair in about 5 minutes.We ended the night playing games. Melissa had brought glow sticks for the kids. They all wore them as we played. I couldn't get a non blurry picture because the kids couldn't keep the sticks still long enough, but the blurry ones were pretty cool too.The next morning we broke camp right after breakfast. We were all ready to go home and get cleaned up!

After we were all cleaned up, all the adults went to Texas Roadhouse to eat dinner. Camille watched Clara for us so that Jeremy and I could go. Thanks again Camille, we really appreciated it!

As soon as the dinner was over, we helped my little brother move in to his new apartment. He gets married on Thursday this week. I can't wait for Kamee and him to live near me. I haven't lived in the same area as one of my siblings since I left home to go to school 15 years ago. I'm so excited to have family that close! Needless to say, it was a very long weekend for me.

New Bike

Jeremy started his new job this week. It's weird to have him gone so long, but nice to know that he's making some money. He has an hour for lunch, so he does get to come home every day for lunch. That helps make it seem that he's not really gone that long.

I was able to have 2 girls night outs this week, and I loved every minute of them. On Tuesday, my good friend Natalie took me out to dinner and a movie for my birthday. (I know my birthday was a long time ago, but it took us a while to find a day we could both go.) We went to Cafe Rio and saw Letters to Juliet. It was so nice to laugh and enjoy ourselves. Thursday was my monthly book club. We hardly ever talk about the book we all read, but instead just visit about life in general.

On Saturday, Jeremy and I were able to attend the sealing of a friend of Jeremy's from High School. We dropped Clara off with an old roommate and headed to the Bountiful Temple. I love getting to attend sealings because I always leave them feeling grateful for my own wonderful husband and a desire to have the best marriage we can possibly have. They also make me feel like we are still newlyweds and I get so giddy when I'm around Jeremy.

When we picked Clara up from Suzi's house, she was riding a big wheel bike. Suzi asked me if Clara had any bikes. When Suzi found out that Clara didn't have any bikes, she promptly gave us the one Clara was currently riding. So far we've kept it in our house. Because I'm a clean freak, I gave it a bath as soon as we got it home. Since it was clean, I decided to just keep it in doors until Clara's ready to ride it outside. Clara is always on her bike. Every morning, when she walks into the living room and sees it, she says, "My bike!" She then runs right over and gives it a hug or sits on it. So thanks Suzi for the gift, Clara ADORES it.

This is Clara using it as a chair to watch TV. Here she is hugging it. And here is a great picture of how happy she is when she's riding it. Clara has gotten to where she no longer takes a nap. Usually she makes it to bed time just fine. However, one day this week, I left her playing in the living room as I was cleaning the house. I wasn't out of the room for that long, but when I came back, I found this: I can't believe she fell asleep playing with her toys!

New Job

Jeremy starts his 3 week training today for his full time job. He is so nervous, I hope he does ok. The great news is that Jeremy also found out his part time job is willing to give him the next 3 weeks off for this training. Which means in 3 weeks Jeremy will be able to work evenings at this full time job and work part time during the day for Provo City doing graphic design work. We are happy to have an income!

Clara likes to read a book before she takes her nap. Usually she reads it, throws it on the floor, and then falls asleep. However, I went to get her up from her nap one day and found this: