Holiday Travels

We are now back in Texas (for the holidays). And we left before the snow storm hit in Indiana. Yea!

Wait, Wait......We live in Indiana? Since when? Oh, yea....It's been a year now! A whole year and we are officially Hoosiers!! We each have a very ugly driver licenses, Indiana plates on the cars and a "permanent" address!

However, we are in Texas for 2 weeks for the holidays (yea for paid vacations!). So far we've driven 20 hours (which includes a 2 hour stop at a rest area at 4am). Oh and btw, the reasons the hotels are empty is because everyone is was asleep at the rest areas. What recession!!??

We've had Christmas with my brother Walter and his wife Lynsi (Walty & Lula), had AWESOME BBQ (THANKS Dad!!!), and a huge turkey dinner with all the sides. Plus all the deserts you can eat. We're going to be so fat when this is done with. Hurray for New Years Resolutions. :)

We'll head to San Angelo tomorrow and go to war, ie paintball with ALL the Clayson siblings. BRING IT ON!

Hopefully, I'll have some great pictures of the event. Until then, enjoy these others.

Josh - Age 7

Aaron - Age 5 1/2

Celeste - Age 10

Eli - Age 3 1/2

Summer Time ...... Fun?!

Summer started for us one week ago.   It's been a rather eventful week and I thought I would expound on all the ....fun?

Celeste and Josh had school on Monday and Tuesday.  

Monday was a regular normal day.  We FINALLY figured out how to get the pool up and running and got an extensive run down from Jenny at the pool store.    We also found out that the heater for the pool is shot.  Since we don't have $3000 laying around, the heater will have to wait.  We've spent the week vacuuming, skimming, scrubbing, repeat.  Eli and Aaron have been helping me.  

Tuesday, Aaron and Eli were helping me.  I'm sitting on the diving board reading about how to do stuff and I hear something and look up and Eli is under the water....fully dressed.  When they say that you see life threatening events in slow motion, it's true.  I can minutely see every detail of me running around the corner of the pool and realizing he was too far out to reach and me jumping in fully dressed to drag him back out.  He was probably in the water a total of 30 seconds, but time really does stand still.  That and I learned that denim pants and denim overalls are Really Heavy when they are wet!  :)  We were both shaken and other than a really big bruise on my knee from dragging him out, we're injure free.  Yea!  AND the day gets even better......

Late Tuesday.....I made soup for dinner and it was boiling hot and Celeste spilled some on her hand and got 4 blisters from it.  Then Eli spilled a whole bowl on his tummy and legs.  I'm glad my mom gave me silvidine (a silver based burn cream) and both of those wounds were healed my the morning.  (Eli didn't have a very good Tues.)

Wed. I was cleaning the pool and stepped off the end of the diving board to the ground and twisted my ankle.  Didn't think much of it, but by Wed. night and Thursday morning, I really thought it was broken.  It hurt so bad.  

Thurs afternoon I went in for Xrays.  It's not broken, but I tore the ligaments.  I'm doing better now, but it's still sore.

Friday, Scott calls me early morning to tell me he'd been in a car wreck.  A semi missed it's turn and slammed on it's brakes.  So did Scott and everyone else on this major road (at 7:45 am).  The semi decided that it would back up a few feet to make the turn instead of going around the block.  It saw the line of cars behind it, but not the little 1990 Saab convertible directly behind it.  Scott held his brakes to keep from hitting the car behind him and layed on the horn.  The truck stopped after the front end of his car looked a little squished in.  We're waiting for the insurance money to pay.  At least he was honest about it and admitted to backing up, instead of Scott running into him (which is what the Police officer thought when he first got there).    Other than a sore back, Scott is doing well.

Saturday we officially swam in the pool.  It took me 30 minutes to get in as far as my waist.  (Think upper Rocky Mountain stream cold).  Eli only got his feet wet, Aaron and Josh only got to their chests.  And then there's Celeste and Scott.  Both enjoyed jumping off the board and gasping for air as they came up.  Definitely like father like daughter moments!  We'll get a pool cover soon and that should help keep the heat.

Sunday, today, has been a beautiful day.  Church was wonderful and the afternoon has been great.  I'm glad Heavenly Father has blessed us with such a beautiful day, after such an eventful week!  Hopefully, this week will be a little less crazy.  I'm leaving for San Angelo on Wed. (all by myself!!!!) to paint the house we have for sale and Scott will have the kids for 5 days!!  So the next blog could be just as eventful!  hahaha  We'll see.  :)

Playing around with IMovie

Here are a few clips of movies I took around Christmas.  Grandpa Denison is saying his famous poem that he say's every Christmas "But just before Christmas, I'm as good as I can be."  The plane is my brother Walter taking us up.  Josh is TERRIFIED!   Eli was having the time of his life!  All the other clips are pretty self explanatory.  Aaron really wanted to only ride a little horse at Christmas at Old Fort Concho.  At the end, Scott was asking the kids what Graceland was as we drove through Memphis on our way to Indiana.  I hope you enjoy!!

On the Road Again

Scott has been offered a full time position at Zimmer (the plant that he works at in Indiana).....SO we are moving by January! Again!! Yes, we just bought a house in April and yes we are selling it and buying a new one in Warsaw and yes I am going a little crazy. haha Actually I'm doing pretty good. I was going really crazy for a while and then Scott got the official offer and my stress levels really dropped. I guess making it official gave me a definite time line. We're working like crazy to strip wallpaper in the bathrooms and paint them, the living room and finish up the kitchen. Nothing like a good days work. I'll get pictures posted as soon as I can. And I'll let everyone know what our new address is when we know. Looks like another holiday move. The plan is to spend new years in Indiana. :) Good times!

Eli looking cute as ever. We call him "Sir Destructo".

Aaron having a blast at Chucky Cheese.

Celeste is getting so big. She loved being a part of the reception and wearing her cowgirl shirt!

Dog pile Dad!!

"Life is like a box of Chocolates. You never know what you're going to get." - Forrest Gump

The shrimp at Bubba Gump Shrimp company was so good! Almost better than a box of chocolate!

Joshua in his cast. Of course the cast HAD to be blue! Cutie- he's getting so big.

Demaree helping with the Dinning room.

There's nothing more beautiful than covered wagon loaded with mouth watering BBQ.

Hungry yet?

The plates are of the Texas Flag. It is, after all, a Texas themed BBQ Reception.

Come on over ya'll!

The wedding planner (Alisha), the Bride (Lisa) and Groom (Denis).

Yea, I just like this! :)

Denis and Lisa's cake at Texas Reception. There's a cowboy hat on the top and the flowers are bluebonnets (the Texas state flower). I had fun making it!

Good times in Chicago at Wicked!

Broken Bones

Well we finally had our first broken bone. At my brother in law's wedding reception(Denis & Lisa), Joshua fell off the monkey bars at Grandpa Greats (Denison's) and landed on his arm. *Ouch* Scott took him to the ER and sure enough he had broken his arm just above the elbow. The doctors said it's the 2nd most common break in kids (collar bone is the first). We actually handled it better than I thought. I was sure that I would totally freak out when anyone of my kids got injured like that, but survival instincts kicked in and we did pretty good with it. Plus it really helped that Joshua was a trooper through the whole thing. So far he's been our most injured kid, but our bravest. Who would have thought that the little toddler who was scared of the slide & the swings and totally wigged at Rainforest Cafe, would turn out to be our toughest! After watching the Olympics this summer (so cool!), Josh wanted to sign up from gymnastics so he could "go to the Olympics some day." Well those plans were put on halt when he fell. I thought he would be upset and we would have to spend tons of time consoling him. He was a little upset at first, but he just informed me tonight that he is practicing his splits! Go Josh!



Celeste and Josh are in school. Celeste swings moods like the tides coming in. You know there there and can plan on it. When she's happy, she's great. When she's not, just move out of the way. She's still mega helpful. It's great to have her home in the afternoons. She's in twirling (I have to show her the baton boy on America's Got Talent-he's so good) and loves it. She's also taking art lessons from my mom and piano lessons from me. I've been trying to teach her piano lessons for the past 3 YEARS!!! We are still in the FIRST BOOK!!! UGH!!! I told her that she would have to take piano lessons until she could play the hymns. Then she could stop lessons or keep going. It would be her choice. After many heated debates she walked in the room, sat down at the piano and has almost finished the first book on her own (no help from mom). She comes in daily to tell me about a new song she just learned how to play. I'm so excited that she is taking off with this on her own and really doing well with it! Finally! :) Joshua is also taking piano lessons and art lessons. He loves them both. We've even figured out a way to have him practice the left hand parts with out hurting his arm or bending it weird. With Celeste's help (who of course is now "all knowing" since she's almost finished level 1A), Josh is really plugging right along.



Aaron started Joy School again. He was so excited to see his new friends. Plus we have some new ones. He loves it. Everynight he'll ask, "Is Joy School tomorrow." It's really cute. He's really excellerating with mom time and friend time.



Eli is finally learning how to clean up after himself. It's been a crazy 2 1/2 years. I can't believe he'll be 3 in January. Where did the time go!? He's wanted to potty train himself for months, but with summer travel and busy lives, I didn't want to. We are going for it now. We'll see how he does. His cousin Rebekah is also potty training, so Rachael and I have great stories to swap. It's fun to compare how many messes we each have to clean up in a day. Good times.



My life is slowing down a litte and I'm really enjoying it. I'm going to start more painting projects around the house. The dining room was finished about a month ago. I really love the color. Thanks Demaree for all your help! And Dad, I couldn't have done most of the work without your help and advice. I've been wanting to paint the Living room a suede color, but the room is massive. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to take it on. Then Eli *sigh* took a red crayon to the white flat paint walls. I've tried Magic Eraser, 409, straight Clorox, and more and that stuff with not come off. SO, the room get's painted. It'll look really good when I'm done with it.



Scott gets to look forward to painting and cleaning each weekend when he comes home. Fun. He's still going back and forth from Indiana. We should get to be together in January. More to come on that when we actually know something. He stay busy working 4 10-12 hour days and then flying home for 2 days and then flying back. It's a busy schedule, but he seems to manage. It's not ideal, but we are learning alot from it.



We've been very blessed in all of are goings and doings. I love teaching my 11 yr old primary class. They're a riot. And FALL is finally here!! After all the rains from the hurrican's, the weather has gone from hot and sticky to wonderful. I get so motivated when it's cool outside!!