Defending myself.

OK So after the Hillyard Herald I need to defend myself- I am NOT a stalker!! OK so I told Lissy and Kelli about this Boy we'll call him... "k" that I thought was really cute. I've never had a conversation with him but I sat by him during a stake activity. During thanksgiving it was announced that I like "k". Of course he is now brought up in every single conversation and I am asked how I will talk to him or when we are getting married. I'm just going along with it cause I know eventually they will forget about it. So hey kept joking around that we should do a drive by. So Friday night we were sitting at home bored. When Nic, Tiffany, and Lissy got the bright idea that we should do a drive by. I didn't really wanna do it cause i thought it was stalker like but I realized we weren't stalking him we were just bored and it was kinda a joke. So we looked up his address and Headed up towards his house. When we found it we flipped a U'e and drove past a second time. The second time his little brother saw us and pointed at us as we drove past. Yeah... good time good time. SO there I defended myself and now you have the WHOLE story.

P.S. he is NOT I repeat NOT shorter than me, In fact he is TALLER than ME!

FHE via webcam

On Saturday (11/28) at 1 pm pst we are going to have FHE via webcam. We are going to do it like we did in May where everyone picks a conference talk and we all take turns discussing it. So that we don't all end up doing the same talks, please let us know which one you will do by making a comment to this blog. Also Elder Holland's talk is off limits. Mom wants everyone to listen to it and not just read it. We can all discuss our thought on it after we have all listened to it. If you have any questions about this you can talk to Mom or me. See you all on Saturday!

Ta Da!

As everyone knows I am now 18. Recently I have discovered my newest life goal. Since I am 18 I am now old enough to legally smoke. So my life goal is to take up smoking, get lung cancer or emphazema (sp), hopefully end up in the hospital with a gapping hole in my throat, and (Mandy's suggestion) have to talk with one of those machines that makes you sound like a robot. This is my new goal and I hope everyone will support me with my aspirations (sp). =)

p.s. Ella almost started crying today in the car because her butt itched and she couldn't reach it. we were all cracking up even though the poor kid was in distress. Then she announces that she wants milk when she gets home, so mom tells her that she can go to the bathroom and have milk when we get home. to this Ella exclaims...
"If I drink milk then my poop will be white!"
she then places her hands on her temples (as if she is extremely stressed out by this)

its was halarious! (sp)

Dogs

First of all, it is sad that Casey died but we all know she was very uncomfortable in the end and she is much better off now. She is that young dog who waited for us when we got off the bus now.

Anyway I am just wondering if there are any wagers on how long it takes until there is a new dog? Right now there are only 2 dogs at home. The last time that happened was when Chewy died and 4 months later we got Toby. So do you think we can last with only 2 dogs or do you think there will be a new one? Any wagers on how many months it takes to get a new one?

Memories....

I was driving with Nic the other day to the grocery store when I had to actually get out and scrap my car off. Being the cheerful person that I am, I grumbled the whole time (even though I sat in the car and Nic did it all for me). When he got in the car, he cheerfully said "Christmas is coming" to which I immediately responding "And the boss is getting fat" to finish the line in the song. Nic sat there puzzled and said "Wait, what? You're boss is getting fat?". I looked at him like he was a weirdo and said "No, like the song." He said "What song?". Then it hit me and I burst out laughing.

After laughing for quite some time I relayed the story of when mom was in the hospital for Kelli's birth and dad would drive us back and forth to the hospital all the while singing songs he of course made up.

Eighteen years later, I can't remember the words to the actual song but can still remember dad's version so well, that I think everyone else should know it too.

No...Steen's are just crazy!

It all started last Thursday...

A lot has happened this last week so I will start at the beginning. Last Thursday Meric received an achievement award from the army. He started a course in San Antonio and had to finish it here by giving several presentations. One of the doctors who was evaluating Meric's presentations recognized his hard work and nominated him for the award. It was a nice award ceremony and I got all embarrassed when they call me up from the crowd to get my picture taken with Meric. I really wasn't expecting that, but it was still good.

Friday was another pies for patriots day and this time we got 10 free pumpkin pies. This time I didn't want to keep them all though. After I picked them up, I stopped by Meric's clinic, took 2 pies and left the rest for everyone else to take home. Between the apple and pumpkin pies I won't have to make pies for Thanksgiving. (Of course if Lissy and Kelli want to come I could always make more. I know how much they love to eat pie all day long.)

Saturday as most of you know was quite the interesting day. It didn't start off too bad but in the afternoon Emmy had one of her "I must attack Lucy" moments and I didn't end good. After finally seperating the two, we cleaned them off to discover that Lucy had some deep cuts in her leg and face and Emmy broke one of her canine teeth pretty much in half. After looking up broken dog teeth online, we decided to take them to urgent care. Since Emmy's tooth had the root exposed not only was she in pain, but it could easily get infected. We sat in urgent care for 4 hours before the doctor took a look at them. He said that Lucy's wounds could be cared for at home and gave her an antibiotic so that they didn't get infected. Emmy's tooth needed to be pulled (well we could have saved it but there isn't a vet in Fayetteville who could do it and she would have needed a root canal so I figure it would be easier on her just to be done with it.) so she had to stay over night. Jasper got left home alone during this time and was completely freaked out when we got home. In fact the dog bone I gave him right before we left still had not been eaten by the time we got back. Everyone in the vet's office thought it was funny that while we were waiting Lucy and Emmy laid next to eat other licking the other's wounds, the wounds they caused. We declared Lucy the winner since Emmy's vet bill was higher. It could have been worse though because Emmy has some deep bite marks right next to her eye so she is lucky all she lost was a tooth. Now I have pain meds to give Emmy and antibiotics for both girls. Such a pain to remember all those pills and when to give them. I usually wrap pills up in cheese to give the dogs. They gobble them right up. That is except Lucy. She caught on to it and stopped eating the cheese. So I switched to bread, which worked once. Now I give Jasper and Lucy treats when I give Emmy here cheesy medicine and then shove the pills down Lucy's throat and hold her moth until she swallows. Such fun. Anyway, Meric and I decided to try a shock collar on Emmy to try and get her to be nicer to Lucy. Emmy doesn't always full out attack Lucy, she likes to just target and intimidate her too. So we figure if we can stop all that behavior she might not do this again.

So that was our long Saturday-into-Sunday. On Monday Meric got a nice suprise in the mail. He wants to thank everyone for the notes and card. It was a nice pick me up for when he got home. And I would like to thank who ever though of putting all those stars in the envelope. I have stars all over the place now. Thanks. :)

Wednesday was veteran's day so Meric had the day off. We took that opportunity to go to the temple and spend the day in Raleigh. Sitting in the celestial room Meric and I figured out that this trip was only our second time in the temple, just the two of us. It was nice to be in the temple and feel the spirit. Afterward we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. It was very yummy! Then we did our Costco run and headed home. It was really a nice day, even though it rained non-stop. It is weird having a day off in the middle of the week though because today feels like Monday.

So there is our week. Love and miss you all!

What's up with the Clutters lately

So it's been a while since we have posted anything about the family.

Let's see. So everyone knows that Jason was laid off. Right now he's taking some time off. He's spending time doing things around the house and enjoying Ella's company! :-) I love having him home because I get some yummy dinners when I get home. We've had a yummy roast and some very yummy roasted potatoes. This week we'll have a turkey dinner. It's great! Anyway, he'll spend some time looking into options and what he'd like to pursue. Probably after the holidays he'll really start looking for some work.

I'm dealing with having everyone gone at work. It's hard because I miss Jason and Lissy being around. I'm trapped now for the most part at work, so that's another pain. I'm sure it'll get better. At least I still have a job. I'm looking at joining another book club. Diana Crossley invited me, so we'll see how it is. The book for this month is called Lemon Tart. It's by an LDS author and is a "culinary mystery" so it sounds like it should be good. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Dora has been doing well at school and really enjoying her improv classes. Her last class is this Thursday and then the following week is her showcase. It's all very exciting. I'll send pictures after the showcase and let you all know how it was. She's also very excited about the play they are doing at school for Christmas. She had gotten a part last year, but wasn't going to be able to do it because of her tonsil surgery. But then we had all the snow and the whole thing got cancelled because of no school. So they are going to do it this year. I will follow up on that later too.

Ella is enjoying time at home with Daddy. She has also discovered a love for doing crafts. I blame Sprout and her Grandmas for that! Anyway, she has made all sorts of cute things and has come really far on her drawings of people and faces. She loved Halloween and keeps telling us she wants it to be Halloween again, or she wants to go trick-or-treating again.

Speaking of Halloween, we had a really good one. The weather was pretty nice, but a little too windy. It disappointed Jason and Devin a little because they couldn't use the fog machines in the yard. As it is, our house was too spooky for some little kids. Our house got skipped by some of the littler ones. Oh well. We had fun with everyone over for our "party" too. It was very laid back with some very yummy foods. To me, those are the best kind of parties. I love having family get-togethers! Kelli and Bradley were nice enough to take Dora and Ella out into the neighborhood trick-or-treating. I think they were practicing for when they have their own....ahhhh! :-)

Other than that, there's not a lot going on. We're getting ready for Thanksgiving and Dora's birthday. Fun stuff! I'm going to post some pictures from Halloween. I'm sure most of you have already seen them on mine or Kenna's facebook.

Christmas Announcement

So we have made an executive decision. (Yes, the executive committee now consists of Mom, Mandy and yours truly.) Effective immediately, Mom, Dad, Dora, and Ella are no longer part of the family name exchange for Christmas.
This was done because usually Mom and Dad are giving and getting gifts from us all anyway. Also, Dora and Ella are usually getting enough gifts anyway. This also cuts done on both the Clutters and Mom & Dad's financial obligations.
We're going to keep the name exchange between the siblings and spouses from now on. Once Dora and Ella have more cousins (hint, hint, anyone) we can do a name exchange between cousins.
As you know we keep Tara and her kids out of the exchange as well, but everyone is free to get Tara and the kids gifts.
So hopefully this is now clear as mud! :-) Please add your feedback and let us know what everyone thinks. I am listing below the new list of who has who for Christmas this year. I am suggesting now that it might be a good idea to draw names in Portland this year, if we can get a good group together. Let me know what ya'll think.

McKenna has Meric
Kelli has Lissy
Robbie has Tiffany
Kristy has Jason
Devin has Dany
Tiffany has Kelli
AJ has Devin
Lissy has Mandy
Meric has AJ
Mandy has McKenna
Jason has Kristy
Dany has Robbie