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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Runner

OK, I have pictures today!!! My mom will be doing the happy dance :) LOL!

Here's a pic of Tom at the Cub Scout pack meeting, last Wednesday night. They got these CUTE little neckerchief slides, in the shape of fly swatters. See, he's posing to strike - LOL! What a funny kid.

And here's the pool pics from Thursday. Here's Jimmy

And Joe - he's got a MASSIVE head, just like me - LOL!

Tom, being all seductive (not really, but doesn't that pic look like it - hehehe)

And Emeline. It's kind of a blurry pic, but it's the only close up I have of her.

Jimmy jumping in the baby pool

Tom cannon balling into the deep end

Swimmy Jimmy - hehehe

Joe in the big pool - way to go, Joe!

Jimmy and some kid playing - they had the MOST fun splashing each other - hehehe.

Joe tried to re-apply the sunscreen himself - ROFL! He didn't get burnt, AT ALL!

And the girls and I. Katy is on the left, I'm in the middle, and Laurie on the right. Why didn't anyone tell me that we were all wearing sunglasses. I'd have put mine on - LOL!

So, after my late night again, the kids woke me up at 8:15am. I'm thinking that 8:15am is just my wake up time. Such it is. I got ready, and met my friend Laurie at another mutual friends house. Kaylee is on vacation, and has a MASSIVE garden in her backyard. Laurie is babysitting it. But Laurie is going camping this weekend, so I'm babysitting the garden for Laurie, who's babysitting the garden for Kaylee. Clear as mud? Anyway, she taught me how to water the garden. Seriously, there's like 4 different hoses going on, and plants outside, inside, and in the front yard. I REALLY hope I don't kill anything. My thumb is the farthest from green it could possible be. I'd kill fake plants if it were possible :)

That was a 9am. I took 2 of her kids home with me to play with my kids. The kids seemed to enjoy it. And, since I felt like a bum because my house was messy, I cleaned most of the time they were here. I folded all the laundry (yeah, like 8 loads), helped Joe and Jim do their laundry, cleaned Joe and Jims room, directed the kids to put away their laundry, cleaned the living room, cleaned the kitchen, and did 2 loads of dishes. And believe it or not, the house is still messy. hehehe. Somedays, it doesn't matter how much you clean, it's still gonna be trashed.
We had Mac n Cheese, carrots with ranch, and cupcakes for lunch. Yes, nutritious, I know. But I had to get the cupcakes out of my house. My kids just LOVE Mac N Cheese, so they get it about once a week. I know it's not terribly good for them, but balance is the key, right?

Laurie came and picked up her kids at about 2. I'd got some designing done after lunch, and at 3ish, I came in and tried to take a nap. I think I slept for about 45 minutes. I really have a hard time sleeping durning the day. I'm willing to keep trying, but it's usually not too successful :)

I got 2 WordArt Collabs designed today (16 Wordarts total). Woohoo for me! I was proud of my self. I showered (miracle, I know), since Captain America and I were going on a date to the movies. He was home at 5:30pm, we had dinner, and left the house at 7:30pm. The post has a movie theater, with SUPER cheap prices. Kids under 5 free (score!), 5-12 is $1.25, and over 12 is $2.00. And they are newish movies. We saw Star Trek. OMGosh it was good! I loved it :)

Captain America had seen it at Benning, but he went with his buddies. It was fun to go and see it with him. Saturday there's having a free showing of Transformers 2, but I think I'm going somewhere with the girls. Besides, imagine how busy that'll be.

We got home at 10:30pm, and I hopped on the computer. My goal is to be done with blogging by midnight. It's only 11:16pm right now, so I'm on the right course ;) Woohoo for me!

And no, I haven't forgotten about the marriage seminar notes. They're in the kitchen, and I'm too lazy to walk from my bed to there. I know, that's not a good excuse, but it is an excuse. And it's the excuse I'm going with :)

The girls and I are doing the garage sale again today. We're starting at 7:00am, so I need to leave the house at 6:30am to get it set up. Hopefully we'll make some money for our girls night out. Wouldn't that be great!?!!

Oh yeah, I wanted to show you my layout from a Speed Scrap I did over at Ginger Scraps. I just LOVE speed scraps over there. The girls are SO much fun.



Kit by Flutter Expressions (Katherine on my CT!!!) - Just For Dad
And yeah, I need to NOT bend over in that suit, because I've got some cleavage going on, and I'm anti cleavage - LOL!

So, here's my WordArt for today. This request comes from Cheryl. Her hubby just ran his first marathon. GREAT job!! Once I get back down to my goal weight, I'm gonna start jogging again. Until then, these feet were made for walkin'. LOL!

Click on the link below to go to my account, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks! Oh yeah, I had a typo in this wordart, but went back and fixed it before this post was posted. But, unfortunately, it didn't stick. SO, I'm fixing it now. It's 11:34pm MST on Saturday, June 27th 2009. If you downloaded this before now, go and grab it again. Sorry, girls.

4shared


FONTS:
Runners - BIRTH OF A HERO
s

Friday, June 26, 2009

Success in Life

All right, let's start our Friday off right with some Fresh Fruit in the Orchard (hehehe, I'm SO not a salesman - LOL) Here's 4 new WordArt packs, just from me! I hear that Canada day is just around the corner, so here's a Wordart pack for your Canadians, just in time.

And some baby attitude, some "flashback" wordart, and even a Collab. I did the collab with "Faba Scrap Designs", and think her elements are just DIVINE!

Click HERE to go to my store, and don't forget, all Fresh Fruit is 20% off for the first week, making each WordArt pack only $2.00. Hurry!





This layout is by Trina - don't you just LOVE the 80's - hehehe :)

So, I know I've been promising you guys a re-cap of day 2 of the marriage seminar, but this is not that day. I was out late again. Bad, bad, I know.

I started my day off at 8:15am, when the kids woke me up. I dragged my tired butt out of bed (3 hours of sleep), got my breakfast, and tried to stay awake. We did a few things around the house, but honestly, the morning was a blur. I know that I took a shower and shaved, since we were going to the pool, and I didn't want to scary anyone. LOL!

At 10:45am, Jimmy, Tom and I made sandwiches and got lunch ready for the pool. I like to bring a little extra, to share with everyone. We made Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, but into quarters, chips and salsa, and sliced apples. Plus water. Plus the left over juice drink from Scouts last night. Plus the left over cookies from Scout too. All in all, it was a tasty lunch.

We got to the pool a little after 11am, and had the pool to ourselves. There were a few people there, but not many. I was wearing my new swimsuit that I got from Adela, and it was BEAUTIFUL. I just love it :)

Jacob had to stay home, because I didn't want him out in the sun while his burn is healing. And let me say, his face looks FABULOUS. All the scabs are gone, and only a pailer color skin is left. He'll be good to go next week, I'm sure.

The kids and I played in the big pool for quite a while. It actually felt warm. Katy and her kids showed up at about noon. I'd gotten out, and the kids ate some lunch, and when Katy got there, we all got back in again. It wasn't quite as warm the second time around. Why is that, I wonder?

We played for a while, and Katy even went down the big water slide, at the insistance of her 13 year old daughter. I woudln't let them talk me into going. I didn't want to go underwater, because I always get water stuck in my ears. Not my favorite thing :)

Laurie and her kids got there at about 1:30pm, and we chatted and visited for a little while. Katy and I were both EXHAUSED from staying up so late the night before, so I'm not sure that we were terribly great company for poor Laurie :)

We went home at about 3:00, and Laurie took Tom and Emeline with her. They were SO excited about playing over at the Timmons house. I was excited to come home with only 3 children and take a nap.

The kids watched a movie, and after starting a load of my own laundry, I took a nap. I slept from 3:30 to 4:15, got up, checked on the kids, then slept again till about 5:15pm. It felt good to get a nap. Andrea called and said that she needed to make cupcakes for one of her kids' camp party today, and that she didn't have frosting. I told her I'd make up some, and bring it down later. Jimmy and I had fun making the frosting, and he was a GREAT help at tasting it - hehehehe.

I cooked dinner for the kids, and cooked dinner for myself later. Captain America was home by 6:00pm, and we ended up going on a walk together after Laurie dropped the kids back off. I think that was around 8:30pm. We walked for about 28 minutes. Just in the neighborhood. I showed him where all of my friends lived, and he told me all about class.

At 9pm, I headed down to Andreas house. I helped her frost cupcakes. Adela was over with all her kids playing, too. We noticed something out the kitchen window, and it was Katy dancing in her kitchen, trying to get our attention. Funny girl! She came over and hung out too. They all left at 10:30pm, and Andrea wanted me to stay and watch a movie. It didn't take much to convince me to hang out. I'm a sucker for hanging out :)

We cleaned up a bit (well, she did, and I was moral support - LOL), then started a movie. It was called Ghost Town. We were each laying on a couch with a blanket, and Andrea was out in 3 minutes. I think I held out for about 15 minutes, and didn't catch much of the movie after that. I woke up for the last 5. Hehehe. Not to self. Don't start a movie when your beat tired, or at least not on a comfy couch with a thick blanket. hehehe.

I got up, put on my shoes, and made my way, slowly, to the door. We chatted for another hour or so, but I finally went home. 2:30am is much better than 4:15am. Andrea is going on Vacation to Idaho next week, so I had to get in all my girl time before she left. I should sleep well the week she's gone. Sleep well, but be bored :) See, Andrea, you'll be missed!

This WordArt request is from Lisa. I thought it was very nice, and just love, visually, how this WordArt turned out :) I can't wait to see your layouts for it! Click on the link below to go to my 4shared account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.



Fonts:
Success - Felix Titling
In, Life - AL Verdirgis

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sparkling

Wow, girls! It's late. Or early. Or however you look at it :) I had a nice day yesterday, starting off VERY relaxing. Nothing much going on in the morning, lazy time. But my 10:30am, it got busy. I worked on my shopping list, and headed off to the grocery store with Jimmy and Joe. I had a VERY detailed list with the amounts, prices, and stuff that I needed to buy. I really was quite proud of my list.

I was able to get everything I needed from the commissary, except for kid yogurt. They were out of the tub that I usually buy for them. So, the kids and I headed off to Wal-Mart. But first, I stopped by the PX and picked up my migraine meds. Thank goodness! I went for 4 days without them ,and was so paranoid that I'd get one and not be prepared :)

I had a list of about 5 things to get from Wal-Mart, and I think I ended up with a bit more than that. I got the kids each a new towel (different color for each kid). I bought the kids each a laundry basket. See, I'm gonna try this new system that I got from one of my blog readers. Each kid gets a different day to do his/her laundry. Jake is Mon, Tom is Tue, Misc laundry is wednesday, Eme is Thurs, and Joe/Jim is Friday. I'll help them till they get the hang of it. But that should drastically reduce the amount of laundry that I have to do. They can gather it themselves, wash it, dry it, fold it, and put it away. That's my goal, anyway. I'll let you know how it goes.

So, back from Wal-Mart at about 12:30pm, and Captain America is home for lunch. Andrea and I had plans to go to the West Side mall at 1:10pm, so I hurry and get lunch, and lunch for the kids.

We head out, with me planning on not spending a dime. Well, we get to Old Navy, and they have these AWESOME swim tops for boys. Joe and Jim are so white, I'm always afraid that they'll burn. These are the perfect solution. I"ll take pics today at the pool for you all (translate = for you, Mom!).

Eme got 2 new paris of shorts, since she had NO pairs of shorts, only some cutoffs. Poor kid. I got a new shirt, but once I tried it on at home, I didn't like it. I'll have to return it. Anyway, we looked in some bath store, with lots of yummy smelling lotions and stuff. We went to Macy's, but I'm not really a department store girl. We also let the kids play in the kids place. I had brought Jimmy, and Andreas friend had brought her 2 kids.

When we headed home, Andreas friend had brought a TON of stuff for us to sell at the garage sale. She said to look through it, and keep whatever we wanted. She was donating the stuff to us, and we got to keep the proceeds anyway. Sweet!

I got a new purse (Coach). Who knew that people actually paid TONS of money for purses - LOL! I'll post a pic of it tomorrow. It's super cute. I also got some candle stick holders, a bunch of DVD's, some kid toys, and Eme got some shoes. It was pretty cool.

We got home at around 4:30pm, and I sat down to design. I got a few things done, then hustled to get dinner ready. I left for Scouts at 6:45pm, and Captain America stayed home with the little kids. I took Jake and Tom.

We had a quick pack meeting, and I had brought my laptop to design a bit more. I got one more WordArt pack designed, and it was time to go home. On the way home, Andrea texted me to say that she and Adela were hanging out at her house, and that I should come and join them.

So, I got the kids home, made sure that everyone was in bed, made sure that Captain America was taken care of, and at 9:00pm, I headed down the street to Andreas. Well, Adela, Andrea, Katy, and I had a TON of fun. We sat on the back patio and chatted for HOURS! Girl talk is SO nice :) Thanks, girls, for all the fun and the laughs! I'll never think of the word AMAZING the same way again :) hehehehe.

Well, here it is, 4:57am. Yep. I just got home. I can't believe it's SO late. Or realy. Given your perspective - hehehe I giving you guys a freebee of something that I'd previously designed, and held out to sell. I'm just too tired to do much else - hehehe.

Click on the link below to go to my 4shared account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work


Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Dirty Kid

Wow, it was a busy day yesterday. It's gonna be a short blog post today. I'll write more tomorrow. I had a FABULOUS last day of the marriage class. We learned about being ready for deployment (my hubby's not deploying any time soon, but the people who the class was for are), a class about conflict, and a class about sexual intimacy. All three were GREAT! I'll share some more tomorrow about these. We learned some really good stuff.

The kids had fun at the childcare place again. Some were disappointed that we weren't coming back today. hehehe. When we came home, Joe and Eme went with Laurie and her kids for a play date. I went home, and got the kids some left overs for dinner. I waited about an hour, and ate a late dinner. Captain America had already beat us home.

He and the big boys cleaned out the garage last night. We couldn't even walk through it last week. Sigh. One of these days, we'll get it cleaned :) I finished off my Twilight series (Breaking Dawn), and started WordArting for the day. I didn't even get done until 11:30pm. Hence the short post. I promise, though, tomorrow I'll share the info about the marriage conference.

Today we need to go grocery shopping. And I'm going mall shopping with Andrea and her friend. Well, I'm just going along for the ride, really. I'm not shopping. I'm saving my dollars for food. hehehe. Come to think of it, Andrea isn't shopping either. She saving her dollars for her family vacation next week. They're going to Idaho. I guess we'll just watch Andreas friend shop - ROFL! Living vicariously has its advantages for your pocketbook :)

This WordArt request is from Sheri. And you know what? It's SO true. My kids are never more happy than when they're dirty (and wet). Funny kids :) Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember, you must be logged onto the gallery in order to get the download. Thanks!

Well, it appears that Scraporchard's freebee server is having issues. And no one in management is returning my emails....... So, until they decide to talk to me again (lol!), I'm gonna off site host this. Cause I like you guys THAT much :) So, unil the above link works, click on the link below to go to my account to download the ZIP file.


Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Give Thanks

First off, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all of the well-wishes for Jacob :) The kids is feeling MUCH better. He was excited when he came downstairs today and was able to smile. LOL! He's happy for small blessings. The medicine is working very well and fast. He's not so much of a zombie anymore. Thank goodnes.

As for the route to go with the Scouts. I just wanted to say that we LOVE the Boy Scouts of America program. My husband, before he joined the Army, was a professional with the Boy Scouts for 9 years. He knows the program inside and out. He knows the rules and procedures. We know that if our specific leaders had followed the rules, it would have been avoided. The Boy Scouts of America are not liable for this. They have rules in place to keep everyone safe. It was just the individual leaders that I had an issue with. They are the ones that choose not to follow the rules. Captain America looked it up online, and BSA policy says no more than 10 miles a day for water trips. Clearly, our troops 28 miles in one day was WELL over the limit.

I believe that the Boy Scouts of America is an inspired program. Run by humans. Who make mistakes. Hopefully they'll learn from their mistakes, and fix it in the future. If that doesn't happen, my boy will find another troop, which follows the rules, to participate in. Either way, Scouting will be a part of our life.

Boy Scouts is a WONDERFUL program, designed to help our boys grow into strong, responsible men. It is a great tool, which, if executed properly, will effectivly do its job.

Yesterday, I went to the first day of our Marriage class. It was pretty fun. I left a good 20 minutes early, to get there in plenty of time. Well, the interstate wasn't cooperating. There was a wreck ahead of me, and I ended up getting there 10 minutes late. 6 lanes of traffic were condensed down to 2. Not so good :)

But, it turned out that the first hour was just registration and meet and greet. So, I wasn't really late. In fact, I had about 30 minutes to kill. It was nice to drop the kids off that the child care place (on site), and sit and relax. That doesn't happen too often - LOL!

Only Laurie and I, of all my friends, ended up going. Everyone else had things come up. It was nice to sit and chat and learn with her.

We had some good presenters, and learned quite a bit. We learned about the different things that men and women want out of marriage. Women want "security" and men want "significance" (or to feel that they are important to someone). I can TOTALLY see that.

We learned about the 5 threats to a happy marriage:
  • difficult adjustments (our cultures, different backgrounds, superficial motivations for getting married, differeing expectations)
  • getting too caught up in the "worlds" idea of what marriage is supposed to be (performance based - only worth while if living up to your "standards")
  • selfishness
  • failure to work though trials and difficultiies
  • extramarital affairs (activity affairs, materialism affairs, career affairs, family affairs, love affairs)
We learned that when we do these things, we're choosing the path that leads away from "oneness" and that leads to "lonlieness". And none of us go into marriage saying "I want to be lonely".

And then it started to get churchy. Don't get me wrong. I'm a very religious person. I have nothing against religion. I just don't like it when I hear things, being taught as truth, that I don't agree with. Most of it I agreed with, though.

They said that Satan is very real (which I agree with), and is doing everything he can to destroy the family. So, those with strong families are the ones he's gonna try the hardest to get. Makes sense. They talked about 3 things to do to realize that your spouse is a "gift from God". It's LEAVE, CLEAVE, and RECIEVE.
  • Leave - leave the family of your origin. You need to be with your spouse, and function as your own unit
  • Cleave - during tough times, you need to go to your spouse. They need to be your best friend. We need to need our spouse.
  • Recieve - We need to recoginze our spouse as a gift from God. We have differences, but they're not there to hurt us, but to help us come closer to each other by working through them.
Then it came to the Adam and Eve thing. I just hate it when they're portrayed as "the bad guys". Especially Eve. She made a choice. She was given 2 sets of directions. One was to multiply and replinish the earth. One was to not eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. Conflicting directions. You can't multiply and replinish without having a greater knowledge of things. Had they not eaten, they'd still be in the garden. She made a choice. She chose to have free agency. To have children. It was a noble choice. And she's smeared for it. Poor Eve.

I'm not big on the whole "original sin" thing. Adam and Eve transgressed the law, which is different than sin, in my book. They chose a path that would be hard, but that would allow all mankind an opportunity to come to earth and be tested. The presenters kept talking about how we were all born in sin. Not true. Babies are not full of sin. They are clean and precious and good. We are given the right to choose. Good or evil. But we are not inheriently sinners. We came from God, so of course we have good inside of us. Sigh. To me, it's not a hard concept to grasp.

Then, they came to the God is Jesus, and God is the Holy Ghost, and God is God. Multiple personalities? I believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are 3 distinct, separate personages. And it's not that I want to force everyone to believe what I believe. It's just that it was presented like fact in this class. And I knew that it wasn't true. It was all I could do to keep from raising my hand, and debating it with him. Which, if you know me, I'm NOT a debater. Hehehe. But, it would have been distracting from the overall flow of the marriage class. I understood the feel of what they were trying to tell us. Even if I felt they got a few of the details wrong.

What they were saying was that a marriage based on God will survive, if both persons are trying their hardest to follow him. I totally agree. That's spot on.

Wow, sorry about that. I kinda went off again. I just really wanted to say something in the class. I guess I'll suffice it to get my opinion out here. You'll listen to me rant, right? hehehe.

So, it was a good class. A bit preachy (and not totally correct in my opinion), but the overall message was a good one. Today, we're learing about Conflict, and Sexual Intimacy. Wow - we're learning how to fight and make up??? ROFL!! I'll give you a re-cap tomorrow too - hehehehe.

We got home at about 5:30pm, and I threw together a quick dinner for the kids, dinner for me, and was exhaused. I applaud all of you single working moms out there. It was hard for me, and I think that I'd easily get burnt out if that were my normal routine.

This WordArt request is from Catherine. Her church group is making signs with vinyl lettering, and wanted to know if I'd make up this WordArt for them. Well, I thought that it would be a great saying for everyone to have, so I went ahead and make it up. AND, as a bonus treat, I'm including the layered, rasterized PSD file for you all. That way, all you have to do is select the layer you wanna re-color (in the layers side bar), then click on the layer while holding control. That "marquees" it, or puts "marching ants" around it. Then, select the correct color in your color finder, and right click on the actual words themselves. Select "fill" from the drop down menu, and then select "foreground color". It should re-color that part for you.

I made the PNG have red, but if these above directions work for you, you should be able to re-color it any color. AND, if I explained it wrong, one of you ladies who know SO much more than me about scrapping can leave a comment with more, um, er, CLEAR directions - LOL!

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the zip file, which includes both the layered, rasterized PSD files, and the black/red PNG file. Thanks!


Monday, June 22, 2009

Laundry Breeds

So did all of the men in your life have a fantastic Father's Day? I know some of you had Father's day last month, right? Can't remember where that was, though :) My memory is a bit swiss cheese-ie! Oh well. (Just to warn you, I'm about to go on a bit of a tirade - hehehe)

Church was busy, but good. We had the Young Men and some of their leaders talk in church yesterday. About how fabulous their float trip was. You know, the one that maimed my child. (OK, so my hubby just said that he wasn't really maimed, but you get the idea) Needless to say, I was listening intently to the stories, and walked away resolved to never let my child go on another overnight campout in this ward again, without his father.

At one point, one of the leaders said that on their 26 mile canoe trip, they came to a fork in the river, and didn't know which way to go. The prayed, and took the one that they thought was best. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? What kind of planning is that??? I'm all for saying a prayer when you're in a tight spot, and I know that Heavenly Father will help you, but that does NOT count as a map. You've gotta do some planning on your own ahead of time. If you're gonna be in charge of youth, you need to know what you're doing.

I looked over to Captain America at that point, and he didn't look so happy either. The poor man has NO poker face, whatsoever. All emotions play across his face as he's feeling them. hehehe. I could tell he wasn't happy either.

The men were all joking about getting sunburned, too, which annoyed me. Well, there's another word for it, but we'll go with "annoyed". How can you teach youth responsibility when you, as a leader, don't even protect yourself. One of the leaders legs was so burned it was purple. Not smart. What kind of example are you setting? He had to wear flip flops to church because his feet were so burned, he coudn't put on socks. And these are the people I intrusted my child with. My precious, first born. Um, yeah. Not gonna happen again.

I've had a few people talk about teaching the boys responsibility, but you know what. They're kids. They may be 11-17, but by law, that's still a child. First off, don't take children on a 26 mile in one day float trip. Break it up. That's TOO far for one day in the desert. 9 hours on a boat. Too long.

Second, make sure they're properly dressed before getting on the boat. They need to have long sleeves, and long pants. No sunburns if you're dressed that way. And a wide brimmed hat. They need one of those too. Don't let them on the boat without it.

Third, stop every hour to reapply sunscreen. And don't just tell them. Make them line up and watch them do it. Captain America said that in the army, they do that. And the guys there are GROWN men. If you don't trust grown men to do it properly without supervision, how can you expect youth to?

The longer the day went on, the more upset about it I got. After I blog about this, I'm gonna have to let it go, and forget about it. I don't want to expend any more negative energy thinking about it. It just gets me upset. My poor little boy. You know, if I was babysitting a child Jacob's age, and brought them back to his parent looking like he looked when the Scout leaders returned him, they'd probably call the cops on me. Did I tell you than when we took him to the ER, they said that it looked like a Chemical Burn. That's bad.

They're just lucky that nothing worse happened. I know that last year in Ohio, there was an overweight kid that went on a hike with the troop, and he died. The leaders didn't recognize the signs of heat exhaustion. He was out of shape, brand new in the Boys Scouts, probably drank the wrong fluids (sugar drinks), and just died. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you think.

The BSA (Boy Scouts of America) have rules to follow to keep you safe. Obviously, our leaders weren't following the rules. And that's why people got hurt. And yes, 2nd degree sunburns count as "hurt". It's like anything else in life. The rules are there to keep you safe. If you follow them, you'll be ok. If you don't, you're risking a lot. And I don't want my son to be what's risked.

OK, moving on....I feel better now that I got that off my chest :) We came home from church, made lunch, the kids made cards for their dad, we hung out for a while, watched a movie, took a nap, cleaned up a little, but mostly just relaxed. A nice lazy Sunday afternoon. Can't beat that :)

Here's a few pictures from Father's Day:

Captain America and the kids and his card (and no, Jake's not mad, he just can't move his face without it hurting)

Captain America and I - I was sad that it was a bit blury.

Captain America and his card - yummy chocolates!

This WordArt request is from Linda. Actually, she was just sending the idea on. She saw the saying somewhere, and thought it was funny. OMGosh! It's hysterical. I SO agree. My laundry breeds on its own like RABBITS! You'd think 27 people live in this house, not 7 - hehehe. Laundry has always, and will probably always, be my nemisis. Sigh.

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :)


Embarassing as it is, this is my laundry pile. I HATE folding laundry. I used to keep the clean pile in my room, but when Captain America got back from Georgia, he put an end to that. He decided that on top of the kithen table was better. That way, I'd remember it. Well, it just became a pain in the butt, because I was constantly moving it to and from the floor at each meal. So now, the permanant home for the unfolded clean laundry is near the hutch, in the corner. Theoretically, Jacob will deposit one basket there, and I'll find it, fold it, and give it to who it belongs to. Unfortunately, my laundy breeds. And fast. Just check out that pile - hehehe.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

True Faith

OMGoodness, but yesterday was a long day! I started my day with a SCARY nightmare about dinosaurs. Not Barney dinosaurs. Not Land Before Time dinosaurs. Think Jurassic Park dinosaurs. In my dream, we'd found a way to bring dinosaurs back, and about 3 of them ended up near where we were. In my dream, my hubby wasn't too pleased about that. "Why did you bring back the MEAT eaters???" he wanted to know! So we all ran screaming for cover. It was my family and I and a few others. The T-Rexes (yep, THOSE scray ones) chased us, while we ducked for cover. We thought we were safe inside this low ceilinged room, but they managed to find us. The only shelter was a king sized bed. We all scrambled for it, but there wasn't room for everyone. I was under it, and I managed to grab one or two of my kids, but the others didn't fit. About that time, my alarm went off, and I woke up. Dang! Scary dream!

I woke up at 6:05am to get ready for the yard sale. I quickly got dressed, fixed my hair, put on some make-up, and gathered my stuff. I got a card table from the garage, and a folding table from Eme's room. My truck was already loaded up from the day before, thank goodness.

I got my breakfast real quick, and drove down the street to Andreas. We were sitting up the garage sale between Andrea and Adela's house, on the little bike path inbetween. It worked pretty good. We lined either side with our stuff. I must say, my junk was a different class of junk from everyone elses. A lower class, that is - hehehe. We must be more rough on stuff, or maybe we started off with lower quality to begin with.

We were all ready to go by 7:00am. The girls put up posters on stratigic streets, and we were all set. We sat around for about an hour before our first customers showed up. Oh yeah, did I say that it was my first garage sale???

We ended up selling quite a few things. From about 8:30-10:00, we had a slow, but steady flow of customers. Then, the well ran dry. No one else came. We just sat around in the sun, and chatted. Later, we found out that our signs had blown away - ROFL! No one was coming because no one knew about it - hehehe. Next week, when we try it again, we'll secure our signs a bit more :)

I ended up selling an old fan, 2 bathroom shelves, a tile cutter, and some clothes, for $10.50. That was more money than I came with :) And after next week, the stuff that doesn't sell is getting donated. Adela sold the most (she had a TON of SpongeBob room decoration thing and baby/girl/boy clothes), then Andrea (end table set), then me, then Katy, then Laurie. But we all sold something. And that's important :) We'll do better next week, though.

At about 1:00, we closed up shop. Since the flyers blew away, there was no point in continuing. We didn't really find out until then, though. The Scout people called to tell us that they were back in town, and to come and pick up Jacob. I told Captain America that I'd take the kids, and he could go and get him.

The kids and I hung out with Andrea, Katy, and Adela at Andrea's house for a while. I wasn't ready to go back home, and the kids seemed content to play. I didn't end up getting home until about 4:00pm. I was ready to get ready for my date.

Unfortunately, I found this when I got back home:


My poor little baby Jacob didn't put sunblock on his face when he went on the Canoe trip on Tuesday. 8 HOURS on the water. Not good! Captain America sent him with sunblock (45) and a bucket hat. Both of which would have worked. But no. The child didn't put any on. And the leaders didn't check to see if he had. The water reflected and BAKED my childs face. It looks even worse in real life.

I called the Tel-A-Nurse to find out what to do for it (what kind of salve to use), and after explaining the situation, the said that he needed to go to Urgent Care to get checked out. We suspected that he had 2nd degree burns all over his face. His lips, all around his lip, his cheeks, on his forehead, the top of his ears, part of his chin, around his eyes. And it was scabbed over, and super red and dry. Gross. He looked like he'd got in a fight.

So, Jacob and I loaded up in the truck, and headed for Urgent Care at Del Sol Medical Center. We had to park in a parking garage (I'm always afraid my HUGE Suburban is gonna get stuck - hehehe - I get that from my mom - DUCK!), and searched for 15 minutes to find the right spot, but finally did.

When the Doctor examined him, he said that it looked like a Chemical Burn. Dang! We waited in our little waiting room for over an hour, but they finally came and washed Jacobs face with saline to make sure it was VERY clean, then put some Antibacterial cream on it. She said that our biggest problem now was keeping it clean so it woudn't get infected.

Here's what he looked like after getting it cleaned and creamed:


You can't tell in this photo, but he looks like a zombie. With rotting flesh. Nasty! Poor, poor guy! I really hope that he's learned his lesson, though. SUNBLOCK!!! I wasn't there to do it for him. He's not always gonna have his mom there. He needs to learn and remember - SUNBLOCK!

We were out of there by 8pm, and home by 8:30pm. Unfortunately, it was too late to make the game. Captain America's friends had to go by themselves. Another time, I guess. But, it gave me time to work on my Primary (church) lesson (I'm teaching Sharing time all month long), and WordArt for today. The long I work on it, the more tired I get. I'm feeling my 6am wake up. I need sleep :) And the sun. That'll do it to ya, too!

So, if your kids wanna know why they have to wear sunblock, just click on the photo of Jacob to enlarge it, and show them what will happen if they don't wear sunblock. They'll "get beat up by the sun", as Jacob says. Not a pretty picture.

AND, before I sign off, I just wanted to wish the men in my life a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! My dad is wonderful! He taught me the value of hard work. He continues to make me laugh. He taught me how to drive. He was great company for the 6 months that my hubby was gone. I love you, Dad!!!

Paul (my father in law) is a great guy! He's always first to praise. He's loving and kind to me and my family. He's a great example.

And, last, but certainly not least, my hubby, Captain America. He's just fantastic. I love him more than I can say. He's WONDERFUL with our children, and truly loves them. He wants to see them succeed, and will do what it takes to help them learn and be happy. He gives of himself to his family, his church, and his country. He's my hero! Love you, babe!

Well, since I was SO busy yesterday, the freebee isn't a request, it's the first church saying that popped into my head. Hope you like it!

Click on the image 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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