If Love.... Part 1

OMGosh! I don't know how I made it through Friday, but it's finally over. It was LONG. Not necessarily bad, but just LONG. I'm tired just thinking about it - hehehe.

First, I woke up at 7:30am when Captain America got home from PT, and finally got out of bed at 8:00am. I got food for the kids, and got to work on my shopping list. I have a weekly menu with 7 b-fasts, 7 lunches, and 7 dinners. Then, I have a master shopping list with all the food it would take to execute all of those meals, plus extra food for a few snacks. Even things like cooking spray and gum are on it. So, I print out the master list, then go though the house and see what I still have, and cross out those items. Or adjust the number needed. If I need 4 cucumbers, and still have 1 from last week, then I only need 3.

So, I did that, and then headed out to the grocery store. Kid free. And it timed it, to see how long it takes. 52 minutes from the time I showed my ID at the commissary till the time the bagger put the last bag in my truck. I spent a bit longer than usual in the commissary, because I was shopping for the "manditory fun" trip. I was in charge of getting the pinata/candy and goodie bags for the kids. I found Halloween candy there, and got $12.00 worth. TONS of candy for the pinata. I also found fruit snacks (Toy Story) for a $1.00 a box, and I bought some Capri Suns (those cool colorless ones - less messy!) and some Rice Crispy treats (generic). Those would be good in the goodie bags.

I hurried home, had the kids help unload the truck (ok, so they didn't help - they did it. It's their job. I put the food away, they haul it - LOL!), put the food away, and grabbed Jim and Eme and headed back to the store. First, we went to the store where we bought the MP3 players. Jacob's was defective. The back button didn't work. He wanted a different one. I wasn't terribly impressed with the player myself. For instance, my other MP3 player had folders with each artist, and I could select it, and it would play ALL the songs from that artist. This new one, not so much. I wasn't too happy with it. So, I decided to return Jake's, and give him mine. I'd get my $20 back and will just use the old MP3 player that I like. I don't need a new one when this one works just fine for my needs.

They returned it no problem. Jim and Eme sat at the front of the store watching Ratatoui while I returned it. I could see them the whole time. They were so cute, sitting by the HUGE TV on display. It was like they'd never seen a TV before - they were engrossed in it - LOL!

Next, we went to the Dollar Tree. It was only 3 doors down. But, because Jimmy is a slow walker (or maybe I'm just impatient), we drove - LOL! I was looking for things to stuff the goodie bags with (17 kids are coming on our "FUN" trip), and thought the Dollar Tree would be a good place to look. Yeah, no. They didn't have what I was looking for. Their multiple packs of stuff only had 4 in it, and I'd have to buy 5 of them to give everyone something. I didn't wanna spend that much on a single item for the bags.

So, we loaded back up, and headed for Wal-Mart. The pinata was SO cool. It was shaped like a Llama. Or a horse. Eme said it was a llama, so we'll go with white and black llama. Katy had given me goodie bags last week, so I already had 13 of them. I just needed 4 more. I bought Crayola 24 pack crayons (a quarter a pack) and spiral bound notebooks ($0.15 a piece) and mini coloring books and stencils and whistles and hackie sacks. I think that was it. I wanted water guns, but decided they were too expensive. They were 8 for $3.00, and my brain was on overload, and I decided that I'd have to buy 4 packs. Because 8x3 is 16. hehehe. Funny, because the whistles were an 8 pack, and I correctly multiplied 8x3 to get 24 in that instance. Yeah, my brain was fried. Oh well. We didn't need water guns on the bus anyway. My kids would probably fill it with the capri sun and shoot everyone. And no one wasn't that - LOL!

We paid (pinata and TONS of candy and all the goodie bag supplies for $72 - Captain Americas army school class paid for it) and headed home. I got lunch ready for the kids (bologna sandwiches) and worked on bagging up the goodie bags. They were ADORABLE! Big and jam packed with stuff. By the time I added all the Wal-Mart stuff and the fruit snacks, capri sun, and rice crispy treat, it looked FABULOUS! I think the kids will LOVE them. I told Captain America that they should pass them out as the kids get on the bus, that way they'll be entertained all the way to Ruidoso.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I also made Homemade playdo to go inside. Here's my recipe:

4 cups flour
4 cups water (add food coloring at this step)
4 TBSP Oil
1/2 cup Cream of Tarter (2 little bottles)
1 cup salt

Mix it all together, and cook. When it gets to be playdo consistency, remove from heat and knead. It makes the BEST playdo. I like to add a TON of ground cloves to mine. It makes it smell DIVINE. But don't use yellow. It ended up looking like pickle poop - ROFL! I made a 1/2 batch, since I still had some of the green/blue playdo left over from Joe's b-day. I wrote PLAYDO on the bags, because it looked SO disgusting. Seriously. Poop in a bag. Gross!

By this time, it was 1:30pm. I went in my room, let the kids watch a movie, and read for about an hour. At 2 something, I started on Cinnamon rolls. I made a double batch, which makes 48. Just as I was getting to the tricky part of mixing the scalded milk/shortening/sugar part together with the yeast/egg/flour part, Captain America texted. He'd forgotten his snack at home. I quickly mixed and kneaded the best I could, put it in a bowl, put it in the back of the truck (because it was nice and warm there), and headed up to Captain Americas school with his snack. It was only 4 mintues away, luckily. I still had flour all over my hands - hehehe. Oh well. I looked domestic.

Come to find out, they were released about 10 minutes after I dropped off his snack. But, since he's the platoon leader (class leader), he didn't get home for another hour and a half. Poor guy works so hard.

I came back home, and kneaded the dough for a bit longer, and put it in the garage (the hottest place in the house) to rise. I went back to my computer and read for a bit longer. The kids did their chores, and the house ended up looking pretty good.

When Captain America got home, my dough was ALL over the place - hehehe. But I saved it. It had more than doubled -hehehe. I beat it down, and went to help Captain America gather the stuff for the trip. He was taking a load up to the place we were meeting on Saturday morning. He brough up the goodie bags, the sports equipment, the coolers, and the pinata. I had to hurry and stuff it. I thought that the entire Llama would be able to be filled with candy, but it was only the belly area. So, I had extra candy. I put the extra in the goodie bags. Yummy!

When Captain America got back home from taking up the stuff, he was texting and on the phone for EVER! I'll be glad when class is done. Well, this trip. It's taking a lot of his time. I started on the cinnamon roll assembly. I split the dough into 4 chunks, and made each into 12 cinnamon rolls. Boy did they smell good. I cut them and put them on tin foil on the counter, and covered them with a wet towel.

I needed to go back to the commissary and buy some disposable baking pans for the Cinnamon rolls. Captain America was on the phone for about an hour, all told. We hurried to the commissary, bought the pans, some Whipped Cream Cheese frosting (I was out of time, and figured it's tasty), and some pre-made Diet Jello for me for tomorrow.

We came back home, and transfered the cinnamon rolls to the pans. 4 trays of cinnamon rolls. We gathered the stuff we needed for our date (we were returning some stuff), put the cinnamon rolls in the garage to rise, gave Jake directions for the night, and headed out.

We were going to go to the West side to exchange some shoes that Captain America had bought, but ran out of time. He'd accidently got a 1/2 size too small. We'll go next week and do it. Remember my WONDERFUL bra that I bought? Well, apparently it's only wonderful if you stand still. The second I move around, my boobs fall out the top. And no one wants boobs falling out the top. That's nasty. I can see buying a $10 bra and having issues with it. But a $50 bra? I don't think so! There's no excuse for that.

Unfortunately, I'd already taken the tags off of it. I fretted over it all day. I was afraid they woudn't take it back. But, it was worth a try. Victoria's Secret was in the same mall as the movie theater we were headed to, so we stopped there first. I said that I wanted to return it, the girl asked if I wanted store credit, I said I'd rather have it returned, and she did. No explaining why I was taking it back. No hastle. I was SO relieved! Yeah for me! I'll go to Wal-Mart and buy a $10 bra and be happy. No expensive bras for me, I think. I'm just not an expensive clothes kinda girl, I guess :)

We bought our tickets to "The Time Traveler's Wife", and wandered the mall for a bit. I found an AWESOME new store! It's a jewelry store where EVERYTHING is a doller. OMGosh, I was in hog heaven. I didn't know where to start looking first! If you picked out 6 things, you'd get them for $5.50. So of COURSE I picked out 6 things. I got 5 earring/bracelet/necklace sets and a make-up bag. They were also selling sunglasses, scarfs, makeup, all sorts of accessories. I'm DEFINITELY going back.

We went to Target to walk around for a few minutes., then headed back to the theater. It was a good movie. A little too much naked guy (apparently you can't time travel with your clothes on - they fall off as you go - hehehe), but what a great story. Captain America and I both shed a few tears. I just love that about him. He's even more emotional then me - hehehe.

The movie was over at 10:30pm, and I talked him into going to Wal-Mart with me to find a new bra. I found a few that I liked, and headed to the fitting rooms. No one was around, so this Hispanic lady (who didn't speak English) and I had her kid climb under the stalls to unlock it for us. I thought we were pretty clever, but the workers spotted us and came buy and said that the dressing rooms were closed, and that we had to get out. Drat! No new bra for me. Sigh.

What a long day! But a fun one. Here it is 1:10am, and I've gotta get up at 7:00am to cook the cinnamon rolls so they're yummy for the trip. We've gotta be at the bus place at 8:30 (bus leaving at 9am). We're driving the 3 hour trip to Ruidoso NM, having a BBQ, going to Funtrackers (race carts, mini golf, maze, climbing tower, bumper boats, etc), then coming back home. Adela is having a BBQ at her house later in the evening, and my family is talking in church on Sunday, as well as I have sharing time. Pray for me that I can get everything done without dying - ROFL!

This WordArt request is from Marie. She's making a Wedding DVD for her nephew, and wanted to use this poem on it. I thought it was SO sweet, and would be great for a 4 page layout. One
WordArt per page of LOVE :) Awe, so sweet! I'll be giving this out over the next few days. Keep checking back. Probably another on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Or something like that. You'll have to keep checking (see, I've got you hooked, coming back to check - LOL!)

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks! This part is the "If love is a drop".

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