LIMBO

Hello there family and friends! Just a quick update. We had a wonderful Halloween - Aubry was the CUTEST Pebbles Flintstone ever and Riley made a great Batman! Pictures will come when I go and get them onto a CD and upload them (once we get a faster Internet connection here)!

We moved out of our town home on November 1 and we are staying with Tyson's mom while we wait for our HOUSE to close!!!! We found a good sized fixer-upper in Malad, nice neighborhood, big yard!! Tyson is excited to start working on it, I am excited to stake my claim on a room in the basement for an office/library/scrapbook area!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ty is waiting for his license (should be here any day) and will start work VERY soon! Life is a little crazy, the house is a little crowded, and we only have dial-up! But all-in-all we are very blessed and grateful!
JUST CANNOT WAIT TO BE OUT OF LIMBO AND GET SETTLED AT HOME!!!!! After 4 long years of school and moving, HOME is the best word in the world!

We love all of you guys and hope all is well for you!!!!

Tyson has a JOB!!!

Now that I have gotten caught up for the summer...on to the news for fall! (Sorry, I have a touch of OCD and need to blog chronologically). Tyson has interviewed with a few Orthopedic Surgeons (he loves the surgery), but we had been holding out...hoping and PRAYING (a lot) for a family practice job in Malad, Idaho. Let me explain. As a PA Tyson has to take the certification exam every 6 years, should he specialize (ortho) right away, he would have to really study for the exam every 6 years throughout his career. Spending his first few years in family practice will give him a very strong general medical foundation!!! Also, Malad is considered an under served, rural area and therefore qualifies for LOAN REPAYMENT. Finally, the cost of living is very low in Malad, Idaho and it is only 45 minutes away from where we live now.

With all of that said, Tyson was finally offered the job on Wednesday (10-15-2008). YAY!!!!!! We have been extremely blessed and are very thankful for this job opportunity! The pay is great, the loan repayment will start in a few months and we know where we are going to be for the next 5 or so years!!! Just wanted to share our good news with all of you and I will be emailing our new mailing address and all that information soon!!!!

Corn Picking with Grandpa Cluff

We were home to UT for maybe TWO days, when Tyson decides that we should go and visit his dad up in Blackfoot Idaho! Granted, we had told his dad that we wanted to pick corn with him, but we had just been gone for so looooooooooooooooooooooooooong! Luckily I had no laundry to do (thanks to mom - again) so we unpacked everything and re-packed for a two day trip and off to Blackfoot we went. It was a nice trip. Ty's dad has a big, cozy house and they like to cook for us (very nice)!! We went and picked the yummiest corn EVER! That was the fun part. We picked some 150 ears of corn and then came the work. The boys shucked the corn and then the ladies boiled the corn. Then Ty, Jerry (Ty's dad) and I cut the kernels to make a cream corn and then scraped the kernels (germ and all) off with the edge of a spoon and then bagged them for freezing! I appreciate my corn VERY much! Lots of work to have yummy summer corn into the winter (it is NOT gonna last too long)!

Tyson in the stalks
Riley had lots of fun trying to find the biggest ears!
Yummy, white corn!
I picked two ears, the rest of the time I was with Brie! Not stroller friendly!
Our yummy corn treasure!!!

Tyson Cluff, PA-C

Yep, Tyson is now officially: Tyson A. Cluff, PA-C!!!!!! He took the test on September 3, 2008. Usually it takes two to three weeks to find out whether you passed, luckily for Tyson he found out the next day. Actually, luckily for ALL of us...he came home from the testing center in Pasadena certain that he had failed! His friends who had taken the test ALL told him that they felt like they failed too! He was in quite a BAD mood! So Thursday morning he went online just to see and when he logged in to his NCCPA website, across the top it said that he had passed the exam and that he was now a PA-C!!!!! My mom was wu-wuing and then we called my dad and he said, pick a place to eat to CELEBRATE! Everyone except for Matt and Raechel were able to come. We missed them, but had a great dinner with the rest of the fam!! Nothing like PF Chang's to celebrate!!!!

Ricky, Jett, Missa and Ace
Cade, Drake and Riley - yes he is crying...over chopsticks!!! Kaliegh, Randy, Delaney and Cade again!
Ber, Jasper and Justin
Katie, Mom, Madelyn and Dad!

Happy Birthday - to ME!!!!

Okay, my birthday was August 29, and I am 29!!! My Golden Birthday. It was awesome! Since we were in California still, with a little prodding from my mother (who went with my dad for her birthday the next night) Tyson surprised me with tickets to see WICKED at the Pantages Theatre! IT WAS AWESOME!! I want to go again, again and AGAIN! The music, the costumes, the story...most of all it was FUNNY! Thank you Tyson for a wonderful "Golden Birthday". We went to dinner and then to the show. A night without the kiddos (thanks, mom)...what more could I ask for?!?!? Well, next year is the big 30, so...he'll have to top this one somehow!!! :)

Maui - Pool Time

The Marriott where my parents have their timeshares has an awesome pool with waterfalls, water slides and pirate ship and two hot tubs!! Fun stuff. These are some pics from pool time play!

Brie just LOVED the water!!!!
He is sooooo CUTE!
He is soooooo FUNNY!
This is the swim outfit we got her while in Maui, we realized that with her skin the more covered she is the BETTER!!! This cute suit prevented some major sunburn!!

Soda and swimming pool, what more do you need?

The water balls were oh so popular this year! Riley had tons of fun!

Maui - Reef Dancer

We wanted to go on a submarine, but they had height restrictions and we wanted to do this as a family. So, we went on a semi-sub called the reef dancer. It was fun, the kids loved it. We all got kinda sick, but each diver (there are two) found an octopus.

The diver with an octopus
The thing in the middle is it's beak.

Funny diver, the smaller octopus kept inking, it was cool.
Riley was very happy, isn't that what it is ALL about?!?!?!

Maui - Cool Tree

We went to Lahaina to go on a semi-sub (that blog post is next), while we were waiting we found this cool courtyard with this huge tree and others grafted into it to support all of the extending branches - hard to explain - you get it, it was SUPER COOL!!

Ry and Rick's kids - Kaleigh, Ace, Cade, Jett and Drake

The SUPER COOL tree!!

Shave Ice

Every year when my parent's family goes to Maui, they take this specific drive (no clue what the name of the road is), they call it the shave ice drive. Anywho, the road goes along the coast of the island and is very scenic and beautiful but extremely narrow and a little scary! The locals fly down the road and that gets a little crazy on the blind corners!!! We all made it there safely, only Cade puked (which he did very tidily in his Ziploc baggie - I was impressed!!!) We had the best Shave Ice EVER and took some pictures. After we drove to da kitchen (local restaurant) for the best dinner!!!!!!! Good times!

All of us, the pic is a little dark, the shave ice lady took it for us!
Our little family!

Maui - "Helicopter Fly-er"

This is the volcano crater from the air
The shore of Hana, this is definately the way to see Hana, the "road to Hana" should be named the "road to Pukville"!

So we totally splurged and Ty, Ry and I went on a helicopter ride! It was awesome and we will be doing it again! Ry and I were in the front and we had the best views! Ry was excited and dancing around the 2 days before and up until about 10 minutes before we got on the copter. He kept asking, are we going yet?, Let's go mom!, and so forth. Then 10 minutes before it was time to get on when they gave us the life vests to put around out waist, he was so NERVOUS. He kept saying, "mom, we don't need to go. I think I will just stay here and watch the helicopter take off and land". (Ty and Ry often go to the small airport and watch planes). We coaxed him on and he sat sooooooooooooooo still with his head down for about two minutes CLUTCHING my hand! It was kind of funny!! After that he wouldn't stop talking into the microphone - HE LOVED IT! He kept saying the whole trip, "Mom, I am going to be a helicopter fly-er"!!!! It was awesome!!!!

Air vent holes from when Haleakala erupted
Pretty Waterfalls
Me in my gear
More waterfalls
Our helicopter. I will do another post when I find the rest of the pics!!!

Maui - Haleakala Volcano

Okay, time to move on with the "Great Summer of 08" update. We did A LOT in Maui, so I am breaking out trip up into different blogs.
We were there on a Sunday and slept through the 9am church (oops)!! We didn't feel like swimming and playing in the pool, so we took a nice drive - as we often do on Sundays. We decided to drive up to the top of the Haleakala Volcano. The drive was a little long and windy, but it was worth it. The views were amazing and it was a breezy 55 or 60 degrees up there!!!! We had fun and stopped to buy some really pretty flowers on the way down for me and my mom. The elevation was really high so we were a little light headed. Very interesting experience. Not too many pics, we have some better ones of the volcano from the Helicopter ride.

Us at the lookout point. Brie does not like to cooperate!!
I think that is the Island of Oahu!?!?!?! Maybe the big island of Hawaii. I can't remember! We were above a lot of clouds, it was really cool!
My boys, behind them is the crater.
Riley is a ROCK collector. To this day he still has all of these volcano rocks in his backpack. He finds them every once in a while and gets really excited!!!

Please do not be offended!!!

So, I finally took the time to make my blog oh so pretty!! I love it, except for the fact that I lost my bloggin' buddies list in doing so! So I am trying to update it, PLEASE do not be offended if you are no longer on the list - I am trying to find everyone an put it back together!!!
Laters!

Tyson Graduates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! Tyson has his Masters of Science Degree in Physician Assistant Studies. All of the hard work and LONG hours have paid off. It was awesome. I want to say that I am extremely proud of my husband for all of his hard work and still making time for me and kids through it all! He is a very smart guy - but he REALLY does not like school!!! He did very well and I will not be hiding his college transcripts from the kids (just his high school ones!!!!) He attended a Catholic school, so there were lots of read prayers and such (not what we are used to). It was a very nice ceremony in a beautiful room at Marywood University. Ry and Brie are very proud of their daddy too!

Ty and two of his biggest fans!!!
Next to the podium with his Certificate of Completion, we are still waiting for his diploma to come in the mail.
This is Lori, she is his good friend from the program.
Ty and his mother.
All of us! We did it!! 4 long years of school with kids, finally OVER!!

Carpinteria 2008

Okay, so every summer the Cluff family ( and like 100 other people from the Collings family line) go to Carpinteria for a family reunion. They have been doing so for almost 60 years and though I hate camping in tents with dirt and sand and hot and sunblock and sunburn (you get it yet) I still go because it is a tradition and my kids LOVE it. What am I to do, I am a mom now and life is SO NOT about me. Anyway - My mom went with me to help with the kids because poor Tyson had to go to Pennsylvania for testing and all that jazz to finish up PA school. I didn't get many pics, but I did remember to take my camera to the birthday party. We celebrate the all of the kids under 12 I think and all of the zero birthdays and since this just so happens to be my mom's 50th bday year - she was included!!! Very fun.

Mom in her Bday hat, she pulls it off!!!
Mom and my bro-in-law (mom's bishop no less) David Cluff he is 40!!!
Riley was soooooooo excited to get his treats!!!
He totally ran up there when they called his name. Funny kid.

Well we do a lot more at Carp. This year we had Olympic competitions since it was an Olympic year, we had a Pioneer Trek because we were there on Pioneer Day, we go to the beach most days, I always go to the outlets at Carmarillo one day (which mom and I did - can't buck tradition!!!), campfire every night (that was fun) and lots more fun stuff. I am sure I will have way more pics in 2009, my photographer, Tyson, will be there!!