Family Founded Upon Jesus Christ

How was your Valentine's day??? Was it good? Did you have fun??? I spent the morning working on my Sunday lesson (sharing time), and once I got it all planned, and typed up, and such, I went to install my printer, only to realize that it was broke. Sigh. So guess what I got for Valentines Day - LMBO!

But, before we went to .... yep, you guess it, Wal-mart, we went on a family outing. We drove up to the Franklin Mountains State Park and went on a little hike. We hiked down a little trail and then back up again. It didn't look like that far in distance, but it was a smidge bit steep, and the little kids needed to go slow. It was fun looking at all the desert vegetation. I'd never been that close to a wild cactus before - I was so intrigued by it - hehehe. Remember, it doesn't take much to impress me - hehehe.

Jimmy needed carried back up the trail when we left, and boy was it a long way up - hehehe. I started off giving him a piggy back, then I decided that if I let him sit on my purse/bag, kinda like a sling. It made it where I didn't have to "carry" him with my arms. It was a long climb, though. Now I know why people overweight don't hike. Carrying 40 extra lbs up that hill just about did me under - hehehe.

After the hike, we went to Wal-Mart for dinner. What a romantic Valentines Dinner, eh? Wal-mart with 5 kids. Ha! But I lOVED every minute of it. We bought one of their giant sub sandwhiches, 2 chicken cesear salads, and went to sit in the In-store McDonalds. Then, we got drinks, fries, and sundaes from McDonalds (well, not me, cause I'm ROCKIN' my diet - ha! Just chicken salad for me).

We got the new printer (printer/scanner/fax by cannon for $39.99) and I broke down, and got a different camera. I SO hated the old new one. It took crappy pictures, was big and bulky, and the battery didn't hold a charge for very long. AND, sometimes it would malfunction to the point that I'd have to take out the batteries and start over again. Nice, eh? BUT, I lost the receipt, and Wal-Mart wouldn't take it back without one. Something about if you have an item over $100 ish you need a receipt for a return. Sigh. Expensive lesson. I'll be more careful with receipts in the future.

But, I hope that this new one works out for me. It's a Panasonic DMC-LS80. 8.1 MP with a 3x zoom. Not a great zoom, but the pictures seem to be pretty good. Only time will tell :) It's tiny, though. Now I can fit it in my purse/pocket when I go out, so hopefully I get some more pictures :)

Oh yeah, on Friday, I went to register with my Tricare (army) health insurance at the hospital. Boy, was that a process. First off, when you go there, you have to show your military ID's to get into the parking lot. The guy at the gate told us that the Tricare place was over that the VA hospital (connected with the main hospital). We parked, and I went in. Captain America sat in the car with a sleeping Jimmy.

The little old man at the front desk said that I was in the wrong place, that the Tricare office was in the main hospital. He showed me a LONG hallway to walk down, and said "Just go through those doors that say "Authorized personal only", follow the corridor, and it'll take you to the 3rd floor of the main hospital". Great. That's NOT what I wanted to do, but I followed his directions. I don't know why it bothers me so much to be in "off limits" areas. Something about being an obsessive rule follower, maybe - hehehe.

So, as I walked, I was trying to memorize the way back, because I knew I'd have to come back that way to find Captain America. So I got to the 3rd floor, and asked more directions. Down to the first floor, and follow the signs to Tricare. The ladies in that office were pretty nice. I filled out about 4 pages of paperwork (I have a TON of kids, remember - hehehe), and then went back into another office where the lady filled out some more paperwork to fax into the main headquarters.

She gave me a paper with the number for the appointment phone line, and I thought I was all good to go. Nope, she said. I was now registered with Tricare, but now I needed to register with the Army Hospital and Ft. Bliss. That was back up on the 3rd floor. Nice. At least it was near my "shortcut" though the ER.

So I went to another office, and took a number. They got me in pretty quick. There was a TON of info to enter into the computers. It took about 30 minutes or so. It may not sound like a long time, but it was a long time to sit and give someone info to enter into a computer. But, when she was done, I was in the system, complete with blue cards. Not sure what they were for, but I have blue cards for each person - hehehe.

And, I'm proud to say that I manuvered that hospital like a pro. I didn't get lost once. I have NO idea how I managed to get back to my truck, but I sure did. Surely someone up above was steering my feet in the right direction - LOL!

As we were leaving for home, I tried calling the appointment line to set up appointments for us all, only to learn that it closed at 3:45. It was 4pm. It woudln't be opened again until Tuesday. Nice. I guess we'll wait till then to get an appointment. But, at least we're in the system now. That's the hard part.

So I debated about giving this one away today as a freebee. I, personally, LOVE it! I used it in my Sunday lesson today on a hand out. (It's the Primary scripture that goes with the theme for 2009 - My Eternal Family) But, I know that some of you out there don't "do" church, but a lot of you do. So, I decided to give it out, as a nice WordArt for your "faithbooking". That's what it's called, right? See, my lack of Scrapbook experience is showing through. You'd think I'd have picked up on a little bit more over the past year - LMBO!

Anyway, here it is :) I hope you like it and can use it - I thought it would be GREAT on pictures of the fam going to/coming from church on Sunday. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.

FONTS:
Family - AL Professor
Founded, Upon, Christ - An Unfortunate Event Dewarped
Jesus - AL Aunt Marie