A New Tradition

When I was growing up Fast Sunday dinner was always a special dinner. I lived in a town with all of my relatives. We would all get together for a big dinner. I loved to do this and always looked forward to Fast Sunday because of it. We don't live by enough family out here to do that, so we started our own Fast Sunday dinner tradition. We are going to have a "fancy" dinner every fast Sunday. Today was our first one. We started with appetizers, then moved on to soup, salad, main course, and dessert. No one was allowed to complain because if it was a fancy dinner at somewhere else you could not complain, and we need the practice. The kids had a wonderful time, and it was fun to prepare it all for them. I am hoping with this tradition my children can learn proper manners when eating away from home. Yes, I should be teaching this every day, but life gets crazy and I don't. I hope this will help them in the future!

I Need a Tissue?!

It seems like most children go through a stage that whenever they get hurt they cry and cry until they get a band aid, and then like magic the band aid is placed on their "ouchy" and they are healed. Abigail has the same tendency, except instead of asking for a band aid, she cries for a tissue. When she gets her tissue she blows her nose and then is magically better! We can not figure out where this came from. We don't have allergies in the family, and don't use a whole lot of tissues on a regular basis, but if it makes her feel better we will continue to give her a tissue when she gets hurt!

I Am So Sad

I have lived in Lubbock for 13 years. One of the first things I noticed about Lubbock is how much pride people have for this city. It blew me away when I first moved here because I didn't find a whole lot to have pride in. But as the years have gone by I understand more of where their pride comes from, and I too have some of that same pride. One thing I always had pride for was the fact that Lubbock was a "dry" city. The fact that there was no alcohol or beer in the stores was something that I loved. This is no longer here in Lubbock! Wednesday Lubbock became a "wet" city. It makes me so sad. I have gotten used to not seeing all that in the stores, and when I went shopping today, it blew me away! No one has wasted anytime putting it out, and it has been placed in prominent spots in a lot of the stores. Some of my pride for Lubbock is now gone, and I am so sad!

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer

Soccer season has started and Justin and Tyson had their first games yesterday. Justin is now playing on the "B" fields which are quite a bit bigger than the "A" fields. They only play one extra person, so there is a lot more running involved. Their first game wasn't the best, but I think they will have a good year. It would really help all of them if they would mow the grass, it is a frustrating that they don't.

Tyson is on the same fields for one more season, but they tried him at as goalie yesterday. He did a great job, and they only scored one point on him. Their team won by quite a bit. It makes me as a mom nervous to have him playing goalie, that is a lot of pressure, but he enjoys it.

Friends Next Door

Five years ago when we bought the land to build a house on our friends bought the lot next to us. After four years of being out here by ourselves they finally built their house and moved in. Having the Hardy's next door has been such a wonderful blessing. It makes me so happy to see the children going from one house to the other playing and creating who knows what. We have enjoyed many games of wallyball, Cluffs vs. Hardys, not to mention having someone to borrow an egg, etc. I always felt so isolated out here, but now I would never want to leave. I am also enjoying the fact that when ever I look out the window or go out my front door I get to see this. I am thankful for friends!!!!

The Smell That Wouldn't Leave

This past weekend we traveled to Dallas. At the end of our trip Ryan started to have a strange smell about him. I asked Jeff if he thought he stunk and he told me I was just being over sensitive. I gave him a bath thinking maybe that would take care of it; it did not. The next day it continued. I changed his clothes a few times thinking it was on his clothes, but it wouldn't go away. I then noticed he was chewing on one of the strings on his blanket and I thought, "that must be it." I washed his blanket, gave him yet another bath, but the smell did not go away. Monday night we were reading scriptures and he was sitting on my lap. He leaned back and I noticed there was something in his nose. Once I noticed this I started putting more of the pieces together. He had been breathing like he had a stuffed up nose. I had him blow out really hard, and out popped a gum wrapper. I am pretty sure he put it in his nose on Friday when we were traveling to Dallas. Ryan no longer smells funny and his breathing is back to normal, so all is well. I am not sure why he didn't ever tell me when this happened, but if you ever have a child that starts to smell funny, check the nose!!!

10 and 1

We went to Dallas this weekend. We stayed in a motel. The swimming was good, the train ride was great, and six flags was horrible because the rides were scary. I liked eating starbursts in the car. This is a summary of our trip according to Ryan. A few of the comments would be disputed by the rest of the family, mainly the comment about six flags being horrible. We had a great time at six flags because we got there right when it opened and it wasn't busy at all. The kids were able to go on all of the big rides that they love without waiting in lines. Ryan and Abigail were able to stay on a ride as long as they wanted because there were no people in line. Ryan was tall enough to go on a few rides he discovered he did not enjoy. That is the reason for his last comment, it was a fun day, but it only got better that night. Because I was not there for the biggest event of the day, Jeff is going to write about this.

The biggest event of the day was the Cluff family improving its record to 10-1 in BYU games it has attended with a thrilling 14-13 victory over the #3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners. I went into the game hoping BYU would be able to stay within 2 touchdowns. The kids were much more opimistic than I was (Tyson said he had the same feeling he did for thr 4th and 18 game). BYU played great, especially the defense, and we were able to pull it out. This was the first official football game to be played at the new Dallas Cowboys' stadium and it was impressive. Even though we were in the highest level, the seats were good. Definetly a game to remember.