Bountiful Harvest

First off, I need to put out a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my son, Thomas! He's turning 10 today. Double digits! Woohoo Tom :) I love ya, kid! You're such a GREAT son. I love how you LOVE to read (just like your mom!), you care about other people, you are SO funny, and you are so sweet with your brothers and sister. Thanks for being in our family, Tom!

Wow, my Wednesday was SO non stop busy. Sigh. I don't wanna repeat performance on Thursday. It'd better be slower - hehehehe.

Started off like normal, getting kids ready for school and out the door. We'd failed to do Joe's homework the night before, so we did it from 7:10 to 7:30am. Worked out ok, though. Sent the kids off to school, then spent the morning on the computer.

First off, I remembered that I needed to design some invites to Andrea's son, Sam's, Arrow of LIght and Cross Over ceremony for Cub Scout/Boy Scouts. I'd promised the Cubmaster that I'd do it on Sunday, and forgot. Dang! SO, I sat down and designed it. I think it looked pretty good when it was all finished.

And yes, I see the typo. But not before I got it printed. Oh well. I just went with it :)

Next, I designed the baggie toppers for Tom's b-day. I decided that I could design baggie toppers, and put them on baggies filled with the Halloween Candy that we failed to pass out. And I found Halloween pencils at Wal-Mart the other day on clearance. I really think they looked cute when they were all done. Here's the finished product.


I just opened up a blank 4x6 in photoshop, then designed a card for 1/2 one direction, and 1/2 the other direction. So when they were printed out, I just folded them in 1/2, and it worked like a charm. Cute, eh?

I sent the Birthday photos and the Invitation photos to Walgreens.com for printing. They're running a special right now, where you can get prints for 10 cents a piece. Not bad, eh?

Next, there was a lady from where my mom lives that wanted me to do some WordArt for her. I worked up an estimate of how much money it would cost, which took a bit of time.

Next, Captain America needed me to work some more on his Crazy Train logo. Wanna see it?

He drew it himself, then scanned it in. I took out the background, then re-colored it. It's gonna go on a red shirt, hence the red background. It took me about an hour and a half worth of extracting/recoloring to get it just right. Sigh. It was quite a process.

I got done about 15 minutes before I had to leave the house to pick up the kids early from school. It was Parent Teacher conferences, so school got out early. I had just enough time to hop in the shower and get ready. Captain America came home, had enough time to cook his lunch, then I was ready to head out. I made him come with me to pick up the kids, so that I could at least ride in the car with him for a while. He's always so busy.

We got the kids, chatted with the other parents there picking up their kids, and headed back home. I had just enough time to see Captain America back off to work, and get the kids all situated with lunch and such, and we had to turn around and head back to school for conferences.

Joe's was up first at 1:15pm. We got there about 10 minutes early, so we decided to check out the book fair. We needed to get the last book in the Percy Jones series, and luckily they had it there. Tom desperately wanted to read it, but it was already checked out at the library. This worked out perfectly.

Joe's conference went very well. Joe's doing fabulous in Kindergarten. He's right on target (if not a bit ahead) as to where he should be. It was definitely the right decision. His teacher is such a sweet lady. I like her.

Next, it was on to Tom's conference. His teacher was running a bit behind, so we went to Eme's teachers room. She only had good things to say about Eme. She's the perfect student, apparently - hehehe. She's so smart, the teacher's not quite sure what to do with her. The only reason she gets problems wrong is because she does her work too fast. Otherwise, she'd have had straight A's.

The teacher said that she got Eme in a 3rd grade math class (Eme's in 2nd grade), and tries to find books for her to read. She reads them as fast as she finds them. I sent her to school with "The Hunger Games - Catching Fire". LOL! I think it's a bit hard for her, but she's LOVING it! Any recommendations for chapter books for girls? We have Junnie B JOnes and she's read "The Magic Treehouse". But she just blasts though those. I think they're a bit too easy for her. Suggestions??? Anyone??? I'm out of my realm here. I do boys, remember - hehehe.

Next, on to Tom's class. His teacher said that he's a super smart kid too. He's got more AR points that most 5th graders (Tom's in 4th). He got all A's and 2 B's. Good job, Tom! She said that he's a good kid, but needs to socialize a bit more with the other kids. He reads too much. LOL! Funny, but Tom used to be a social butterfly like Eme. I wonder what happened. I'll have to encourage him to make more friends.

Next, it was on to Tom's 2nd teacher (math). She said he was a good kid, too. He just needs to practice his multiplication tables a bit more, and ask when he doesn't know the answer to a problem, or how to do a problem. Everyone likes Tom :) He's a good kid!

Next, it was on to chat with the Vice Principal about Speech for the boys. We decided that the speech therapist would evaluate the kids (Tom and Joe) in the classroom over the next few weeks, and they'd let me know. They seemed loathe to label the kids at "special ed" to get speech help. We'll see how that goes. I really don't want Tom to have speech issues forever. Woudln't it be better to bite the proverbial bullet now and get it taken care of?

By this time, it was almost 3pm. We stopped at Wal-Greens on the way home to get the photos (they turned out beautiful, btw!), bought some ice cream, and headed home. We stopped by Andreas house first to give her a few Invites. She loved them :)

Once home, we broke out the ice cream, and had a little ice cream party. Mmmmm, Cookies and Cream ice cream is the BOMB!!! Love it!

I spent a few hours designing. I got 2 WordArt packs done, and decided to give the kids left overs for dinner. Yeah, I know. Then, I decided to re-arrange my room. It was getting to be such a PIT. Stuff strewn everywhere. SO, I piled it ALL onto my bed, then arranged it how I wanted it. Then, I put all the stuff on my bed away. It looks pretty good. I'm all about change :)

I ran out of steam, so I didn't make cupcakes for the Cub Scout for Tom's birthday. A man's gotta know his limitations, right? I had good intentions. I'll make up some cupcakes later for Tom.

We headed out for Scouts at 6:40pm. At 7pm, Jake went to Boy Scouts, Tom went to Webelos Scouts (Joe went too), and Eme went to Achievement days (Jim and I went with her). Dang, we're busy.

Jake and his group was watching Journey to the Center of the Earth. Something about a Theater Merit Badge. Hmmmm, whatever. hehehe.

Tom went with Andrea (who is his leader), and learned about something good, I'm sure. Citizenship, I think.

Eme and I and Jimmy went with the Achievement day girls, and had a really fun time. We played "The Newlywed Game" with the girls. The moms/dads answered questions about the girls, and the girls answered questions about the parents. It was a very nice activity.

The 2 most embarrassing parts were :

When asked "what's the one thing that you'd give rid of of your parents?", Eme answered "My mom's anger". Thanks, hon. I'm sure ALL the other parents got a kick out of that one.

When Jimmy grabbed my boobs and said "Mom, your boobies feel like they have sand in them" You've gotta love 4 year olds. I happen to like my padded bra - hehehe.

We got done with activities at 8:15pm, so I pulled Jake out of Boy Scouts to go home. I don't know how much longer the movie had, but I wasn't waiting around with 4 little kids any longer than I had to - hehehe. He didn't seem too upset.

We'd bought GI Joe the other day, and the kids were just starting it when we went ot Scouts. SO, he was all excited to go back home and finish it off. We got home at 8:30pm, put the little kids to bed, and let the big kids watch GI JOE.

Captain America called at 8:30pm and said that he was STARVING, and asked if I could bring him some food. He was still at work. Sigh. I cooked him up a taco salad, left Jake in charge, and drove up to the battery.

I got to see his new office (I guess only a few people actually have offices there), and meet a few people. Poor thing works too hard. He had papers ALL over his desk. He was working on getting a binder put together.

I was back home by 9:30pm, and got to work on my freebee for Thursday. I was texting Andrea, chatting with my friend Jen on gmail chat, AND chatting with my mom on gmail chat, AND designing all at the same time. Yeah, it was slow going, but I got everything done. Then I blogged. And here it is, 11:48pm. Still no hubby. He's still at work. Sigh. I really am never gonna see him, right? It's good that I made him come with me at lunch, eh?

I've got a SPECIAL treat for you guys today! My good friend, Jen (Graham Like the Cracker) let me "play" with her new kit!!!! And, I've got a few WordArts for ya! You'll have to hop on over to her blog to pick up hers. Click HERE to go to her blog.

And, here's the one from me. Isn't her kit WONDERFUL! Great colors, girl! Click on the links below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

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