Helping

So it was another long day. I was at home most of it. Thanks to setting my watch right last night, I was up at 7am getting my kids ready for school. They were all dragging a bit. I think, over vacation, we'll all sleep a lot - hehehe. Well, at least that's what I wanna do :)

I straightened up a bit, and my Visiting Teachers came over at 9ish. They taught a nice little lesson, chatted with me for a while, and left a GINORMOUS plate of cookies/chocolates/goodies for us. OMGosh, they were SO good. When they left, Jake, Jim and I tasted them all. SO good. Kayley and Chelsie, THANK YOU!!!

Jimmy and I laid down on the couch to relax and watch a movie. At one point, I asked him to go and get me a soda from the fridge, and he did, and dropped it over the couch, into what he thought was my lap. But really, it was my EYE! It hurt SO bad. I instantly started crying, and tried to hide my face from Jim, but he noticed. He felt SO bad. We're quite a pair - LOL!

Luckily it didn't leave a mark. But dang, it still hurts and is tender. I was afraid that I'd end up with a shiner :)

At around lunch time, Andrea and I were both on the computer, and were Skyping. Yes, she lives down the block. I know it's kinda pathetic, but we like it - LOL! At about the same time, she got a call from Ryan, and I got a call from Laurie. We both went our separate ways - hehehe.

Laurie wanted me to drive her to the airport (about 3 minutes away) so she could run in and pick up a camera that her niece had left there earlier in the day. She didn't wanna pay for parking. I can totally relate - LOL!

So I went to Lauries house with Jimmy, and picked up her and Rowan. We dropped Miss Laurie off at the airport, and circled it once. On the 2nd time around, she was out. It was such a quick trip :)

Jimmy and I ended up staying at Lauries house to play until the kids came home from school. It was a good time. Except for the fact that Jimmy was wearing his jammies and no socks. LOL! I didn't know that he'd be leaving the truck - hehehe.

At school, Andrea went in to gather the kindergartners, but since I had Jim, and Jim had no shoes, and there's no way on Gods green earth that I could carry that child for an significant distance (he's 55 lbs), I decided to just wait for them all to come out.

The moms chatted, the kids played, and eventually we gathered everyone we needed, and headed home.

The kids did their chores, and I worked on Cub Scouts. I had some papers to print out, some parts to cut out, some badges to make, and a few activites to plan. All in all, it went pretty fast.

So as I'm sitting in my bedroom, on the floor, working on Cub Scouts, I hear this SUPER loud crash. Great, I think. What did they break. I went out to investigate, and this is what I found.

Apparently Jake and Tom were looking at a funny part in a book at the table, and Joe coudln't see. So he climbed up on the table, and was sitting on it. Well, true, he's the smallest Harty kid (by 5 lbs), but still, the table wasn't designed to hold a 50lb child. It really wasn't.

There were splinters of wood everywhere. I don't know if it's saveable or not. Jake, Tom, and I carried the pieces to the backyard, and figured that Captain America could work on it over the weekend. And if it's broke, well, I'm not sure what we'll do. Probably buy a folding card table at Walmart. Until I can decide what to do for real. Not so cool. Lets just hope that it's fixable.

I didn't really feel like cooking, so I cut up some sausage (precooked) and cheese and crackers, and we did that for dinner. I know, bad. But it's Wednesday. And some Wednesdays are like that in my house :)

About 20 minutes before we had to leave the house, Jacob informs me that he's having a white elephant exchange at church, and that the gift needs to cost under $5.00. Are you freakin' kidding me? And you didn't tell me this when we were at the store because......????? Sigh. OK, make it work. Find something.... Scramble mode.

I found a package of M&M's (the big ones, Christmas themed), and a box from Amazon.com, and the wrapping paper, and some filling fluff, and I make it work. The gift looked pretty nice, anyway. And really, who wouldn't be happy with a WHOLE bag of chocolate? I'd like that- LOL!

We left for church at 6:15pm, trying to get there at 6:30pm, in order to set up the gym. We got there at about 6:27pm, and the doors were locked. So we waited. And waited. And waited. And Joe puked. It was nasty. He has this cough, and it's gotten worse as the day went on. So he was hacking and coughing and, well, puked. Poor kid.

Most of it got on his coat. Which I took up, wadded into a ball, and put in the trunk. I passed him a whole bunch of napkins that were in the truck (no one had taken them inside the house yet), and had him wipe up the small amount that got on the seat.

And we waited some more. And more. 30 minutes worth of waiting in the truck. Luckily, I had my MP3 player, and my cord that goes to my CD player. We listened to the final battle in Eclipse. Only Jacob and I knew the story, so it was pretty entertaining to the kids.

Someone finally showed up at 6:55pm, and we rushed in and set up. It was a pretty good pack meeting. SANTA came! Our Cubmaster wasn't there (hint hint), so Santa filled in. The kids LOVED it. Well, the siblings LOVED it. The scouts kinda had a I'm too Cool for you look. Or maybe that was just my son, Tom. Maybe...

Tom received his Citizenship badge, and we were so proud of him. Way to go, Tom! And thanks, Andrea, for being such a great den leader for Tom!


Santa had a TON of presents in his bag, and we played a game with them. Everyone sat in a circle, and we passed the presents either left or right, as Santa read a story. When the word Left was said, we passed Left, and Right when Right was said. It was SO funny. The presents kept bogging down around the little kids. At one point, Rowan (3) had about 8 presents in his lap. ROFL!

After the game, we opened our Candy Canes and ate them. Santa then let all the kids come and sit on his lap, and tell him what they wanted for christmas. And, it was SO cute, but Santa told the kids with dad's who were deployed that he'd talked to them earlier in the day, and that they said "I love you and miss you". OMGosh, it was the most cutest, most adorable thing I'd seen in a long time. Santa, you rock! Those kids really needed to hear that from you :)

We closed the Pack meeting, cleaned up, and headed home. I was tired, and a bit fried from man handling kids all evening.

Jake was pretty excited when he got back from his meeting. He'd scored a glass chess set. He was SO stoked about it. Way to go, Jake!

As we were entering the gate on Post, we were stopped for a random inspection. Really? I was cold, I had 5 kids in the truck, and I was grouchy. Not so cool. Jimmy tried to run into traffic, I couldn't figure out how to get the latch open for the hood, I had to point out all the puke areas so that the guards didn't puke themselves. OMGosh, it was crazy. Joe was FREEZING, because his coat was covered in puke. I must admit, I wasn't having very nice thoughts.

The one lady (out of 4 guards) kept giving me looks of utter pity. As she should. ROFL! Let that be birth control for anyone thinking of having children. I loaded the kids back up, shut all the doors, buckled in Jimmy, went around to buckle Joe, who was afraid to touch the place where the puke used to be, got situated, and headed off. I'm sure that about 3 or 4 people were spared inspections because the of the sheer amount of time it took me. So there. You're welcome, people. I took one for ya! You owe me :)

I was even more fried when I got home, but luckily Captain America was there to help me. I quickly put the kids to bed, and sat down for some "quiet time". I downloaded a few of the new Christmas kits from Scraporchard (OMGosh, their amazing), and started to design a framed picture for the kids' teachers for Christmas gifts. I did 3 before I got real tired.

Captain America was in the room too, watching his new Dukes of Hazzard episodes, and reading something or another to do with work. It was a relaxing hour or so.

Then I designed, and blogged, and now it's only 11pm. And I'm tired. I'm going to sleep early (well, for me :)

So this comes from a song that we sing with the kids in Primary. When we're helping we're happy and we sing as we go, for we like to help (insert adult - Mother), for we all love her so. I find myself singing this to my kids often. Because maybe if they *think* they like to help me, then, well, maybe they *will* like to help me - LOL!

I thought this WordArt would be perfect for pictures of little kids helping out. Don't you think?
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!

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