Gladness

What a crazy day. If I don't start my period soon (sorry, too much info, I know), I think I'm gonna go insane. I'm sure you all know how that goes :)

I started off the day with grocery shopping. I was in the truck, and pulling out of the driveway when Captain Americacalled. He needed me to bring something for him to his class. Sigh. I made Tom and Jim (who were shopping with me) go back into the house, grabbed what he needed, and drove on up. He was very grateful :)

I came back home, picked up the two boys, and headed out. First stop, Time Warner cable. Apparently, when we moved on post, and switched our internet, the account number changed too. Who knew. So, the last few payments were made to the wrong account, but were automatically switched over. For some reason, they didn't do it last month, and my account was past due. I didn't realize it until they called me. Sigh. Anyway, I got it all straightened out.

Next, we went to the commisary. And guess what? I was $35 under budget! Woohoo! I'll hang on to it, though, because next week I might be over. I headed home, and put all the groceries away. I even cooked up one of the dinners and froze it. The past few weeks, I've gotten to the end of the week, and not had the needed ingredients left for one of my dinners. I decided to cook it up ahead of time to fix the problem - aren't I tricky! LOL.

Next, I helped the kids clean their rooms. And it took ALL DAY LONG. The bunk bed was in Eme's room, and we moved it to Jake and Tom's room. We had to use the allen wrenches to take it completely apart, then rebuild it. Jake and Tom's beds went to Joe and Jim's room. Joe and Jim's futon mattrress (from the floor) went to Jake and Tom's room. Man, it was crazy.

Jake and Tom's room was SO messy. They had so much stuff, and it was all over the room. We moved the desks to a better place, organized the gamecube and tv, and made a pile in the middle of the floor with the rest. Then, we went through and pulled out the trash, then the books, then the dishes (I KNOW! I found all the plastic cups in the house - seriously, more than a dozen), then the dirty clothes, then the clean clothes. And on and on and on. Then, we went through the closet, and played the "Does it fit and will I wear it" game. Yep, that's a fun one - hehehe. We got rid of a bunch of stuff that didn't fit, and got it looking all good and organized.

Then, I moved onto Joe and Jim's room. It looked just as messy on the surface, but only took about 20 minutes to clean and organize. Thank goodness. I was exhausted when it was all said and done.

About 4 something, Katy called and said that she was going to go deliver a puppy to some guys house. She didn't feel comfortable going by herself, so she asked if I'd go with her. Andrea went too. They guy was late getting there, so we got home late. I was supposed to go on my date night at 6:30pm (to get to the movie at 7:05pm), and it was 6:40pm when I got home. And I hadn't even showered. Sigh. I felt really bad. Captain America didn't want to go to the movies later, because he was tired from getting up at 4 something.

I still had to make dinner for myself, and cook dinner for the kids (yeah, I don't know why he didn't cook something for them when he got home, but he didn't). I went and looked for a later showing of GI Joe (our date night movie), and found one at 7:45pm and one at 8:30pm. I hopped in the shower, and got all pretty (hehehe). We headed out for the 8:30 movie. Well, Captain America was still upset about the "late" thing, and I got upset that he was upset, and we ended up fighting the whole way there, sitting in the parking lot fighting, then drove home fighting. Sigh.

About 1/2 way home, he said that we could turn around and go back and still see the movie. I was still feeling pretty upset and hormonal, but said that there was a showing across town at 8:45pm. We made it to the theater a few minutes after the starting time, but it was sold out. Sigh. We went back to the car, fought a little longer, then went home.

Once I was home, in the privacy of my own closet, and cried and let it all out. Wow, it's amazing how much better you feel after a good cry. Too bad I couldn't just have done that in the car and got it over with. We talked it out, and both felt better. Come on, stupid hormones - work yourself out and let me get back to normal :) I think we may try the movies again on Saturday night.

Captain Americawent to bed, and I headed out to Wal-Mart. I have a primary meeting on Saturday morning, and was in charge of buying the plates, silverware, cups, and napkins. Plus rolls and butter. Plus bringing a dessert. So, off I went. Luckily it didn't take too long.

I came back home, baked the brownies, and watched a movie. And blogged and designed for the next day. Hopefully Saturday will be less hormonal. Or more, depending on how you look at it- hehehe.

I thought this quote was fabulous, so I decided to make a WordArt out of it :) Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file. And as always, leave some love if you like my work :)

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Stories

Dang! I almost forgot to post these. hehehe. At least I didn't totally forget about it :) I swear, if my head wasn't attached, I'd love it! hehehe. Anyway, here's my new stuff for the week. Fabulous, isn't it (ROFL!). click HERE to go to my store to pick it up for 20% off the first week ($2.00 a pack).

Layout by Trina

This one is SO cool. It's a collab I did with Graham Like the Cracker (Jen). Doesn't she do FABULOUS work??? I used her kit to make a WordArt pack for me and one for her. She has another set of WordArts for sale at her store. You can click HERE to go there.

And here's my WordArt pack for sale at my store :)

Layout by Jen (Graham Like the Cracker)

Howdy hey! Well, it was a very uneventful day. Nice, but uneventful. I slept in till 8am, then got up with Jimmy. Got him some cereal (the very last of it), got Joe some oatmeal, Eme some oatmeal, myself apples and yogurt, and we all went back to my room. The kids watched some PBS cartoon, and I tired to sleep. I don't know if I actually did, but I felt better when I woke up/got out of bed around 10am. By then, the big kids were awake, and starving.

There was no cereal left, and they hate oatmeal, so they just cooked themselves eggs. I decided that it was finally the day to clean my room. It had become the dumping ground for everything. Seriously. It was trashed. I worked on it for 3 1/2 hours, and it looked much better! I hung up/put away all the clothes, put all my jewelry away, found 6 pairs of sunglasses (LOL!), filed all the bills that were sitting loose, threw away a ton of papers, re-arranged a tad bit to make stuff fit a bit better, and I even made the bed - LOL! I hate making the bed. Captain America LOVES it made. I should start making it for him. It would show him that I love him, right?

At 2:00pm, I decided it was time to Jimmy to take a nap. I'd taken away all eletronics from the kids at some point in cleaning my room. They were fighting and acting nasty to each other. I find that removing all electronics (except music) really helps. They have to interact with each other or they'll be bored. When I went in the bedroom with Jimmy, the kids were playing a board game at the table. Great summer activity. Much better than playing on the computer and watching TV.

Jimmy quickly fell asleep, and I worked on some contributions to our Monthly Megas at Scraporchard. I have September and October all done! Woohoo for being ahead of the game. I've also been listening to MUSE a lot. When I first listened to the album, I thought it was odd. But I gave it another chance yesterday, and you know what? It kinda grows on ya! One of there songs is from Twilight, and one is from Watchmen (I didn't see that one - I don't do rated R). Give them a listen if you're looking for something new. Just make sure you give it a while to sink in. It's kinda different.

Andrea's kids came over to play at some point. I was in the bedroom with Jimmy. I could hear them running through the house playing Star Wars (or war, or something). They were having SO much fun, I just ignored them. As long as they didn't break anything, I didn't care :) It was Jake, Tom, Ben, Sam, Joe, and Aiden (the kid we had the b-day party for at the pool). Poor Emeline. She was so bummed that she was the only girl. She needs a "girlfirned!"

Captain America got home at around 5pm, and wasn't in a good mood. He's tired of dealing with guys that just mess around the whole time. Playing video games on their computer when they're supposed to be studying. Making wise cracks all the time. Not taking the course seriously. And he's in charge of them. But he has no power to do anything to them. He's just leadership in names sake. Being Platoon Leader is a hard job for this class. He was a bit grouchy, but realized why.

I sent the kids home, and made dinner for the kids. We had our dinner, and the kids started playing Star Wars Life. It's a fun one. We put Jimmy to bed, and Captain America and I headed out to the mall. He needed more vitamins for the month. We walked around for a while, him choosing to go to the Sports hat store, and me going to Old Navy. We each pick a store to take the other one too. That way, we both get to look at stuff we like. I don't know - I don't find hats too exciting. He did find a St. Louis Cardinals (his favorite BaseBall team) street sign. If I had an extra $40 laying around, I'd totally buy it for him as a gift - :)

I like Old Navy much better. They were having a 50% off of clearance sale. I found a short sleeve zip up hoodie (gray with the prettiest color of blue accents), a white zip up hoodie, a blue shirt 9same color as the blue accents in the gray hoodie), and 2 pairs of flip flops (gray and brown), all for under $15.00. Not too bad. My part of the clothes allowance for the month is gone - hehehe. I thought about buying new swim shorts for the little boys ($2.50 a piece), but decided that they really didn't need them. I'd save the $5.00 for school clothes. See how responsible I can be.... sometimes - hehehe.

We came outside, and it was raining. But just lightly. And it wasn't cold. Just a nice summer shower. We drove home, and got stopped at the gate onto Post. Apparently, they do random car checks. I'd never been stopped before, but Captain America said that he had a Ft. Benning. Anyway, they get your drivers license, military id (and for the passenger too), registration, insurance, and verify it all. Then, they ask that you open up all glove boxes, compartments, hood, trunk, and all doors. We got out, and stood behind it. They checked it all out, to make sure we were safe. Looking for drug, alcohol, or weapons, I guess. They did find Captain America's "beat down stick". They asked him what it was, and he said it was a tire checker. Good thinking, honey. Well, it was a tire checker for semi's. But he doesn't drive a semi - LOL The guy said that it could be viewed as a weapon, and to keep it in the trunk. OK. Works for me :) No "beat down stick" in the car - hehehe.

We got home, put the big kids to bed, and that was the day. See how uneventful it was. All my girls were busy, and didn't play with me :( It's 10:45 right now, and I'm wondering what to do - hehehe. Captain America said I should just go to bed. What? It's WAY too early - LOL! Maybe I"ll read for a while. I'm all designed out.

Again, not a request. I know, I know, I'm getting lazy in my "old age" - hehehe. Sometimes I like to design what I like to design. That's not so wrong, right? It is a freebee, anyway - LOL! So, I LOVED this quote, and showed the finished product to Captain America, and he was like, "Yeah, it's nice, but what does it mean". I thought, well, maybe if he doesn't get it, no one else will either. I thought it meant using your imagination, and how stories come alive in your mind. I know when I get into a good book, it's SO real to me. Or even when your kids play pretend. It's "real" to them. I thought this would be good on layouts of reading or dress-up play ;) Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :)

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FONTS:
Stories - Rage

Smile

Hey girls! How was your Wednesday??? I slept in until around 8am, then woke up with Jimmy. Jake, Tom, and Joe were at Andrea's house for the sleepover, and Emeline sleeps in, so it was pretty quiet at my house. There was just enough cereal for the kids to eat breakfast, and I let them watch some cartoons. Not while eating cereal, but after - LOL. The only TV in the house that will pick up PBS is the TV in my bedroom. So I occasionally let them watch morning cartoons. Since it was Wednesday (designing day), I thought it was a good time for some PBS cartoons :)

I got 2 WordArt packs designed before "free lunch" at the park. I left the house at 10:30am, and went to pick up the kids from Andreas house. By the time we finally got to the park, it was 11am. The kids got lunch, which was NOT ham and cheese sandwiches. For the past, um, I don't know how many weeks, it's been Ham and Cheese sandwiches. They had hot dogs today. My kids were happy.

While we were there, there was this kid (with a daycare group), probably around 7 or so, who ran into a tree. The maintanence workers came to Katy and I and said that the kids ran into the tree really hard. We went over to check him out, patted him off, helped him up, and looked around to see where his "grown-up" was. One of the daycare ladies came over, kinda yelled at him for messing around, and took him back to the bench. It was so sad. I wouldn't want my kids being supervised like that. There were about 20 kids, and 2 workers. Seems a bit too many kids for that many workers.

And I know that there's a lot of parents who have no other choice than to put their children in daycare. Hopefully yours is much better than this one appears to be. I just felt sorry for the poor kid. He needed a parent (or adult who loved him) to pick him up, gush over him a little bit, give him a hug, and tell him that he was loved. Anyway, enough on that subject ;)

We went home at around 12:30pm, and Captain America was still there for lunch. I got to see him for a few minutes, then he was off to school again. Busy, busy guy. I designed a b-day present for our friend, Helen. Her b-day is on Saturday, and we decided to throw her a b-day party on Wednesday night. We'd taken pics when we went eyebrow threading last week, and I used all those pics for it. I sent it to Wal-Mart at an 8x10, and got ready to go and pick it up.

Katy came with me. Well, technically, I went with her. Jim was napping, and Jake was watching all the kids, so just Katy and I went. Sweet! I had a few things that I had to get for Captain America, and I needed computer printer paper, and the photo.

Captain America needed Splenda, because in the past 4 or 5 days, he's eating a WHOLE bag. What? Don't you ration? I was SO mad. I ony have $200 a week for food. I have $1.00 for the rest of the week for food. Buying a $6.00 bag of Splenda is not in the budget. I just isn't. I bought him a $2.00 box of generic artifical sweetener. I knew he woudln't like it, but then he needs to ration a bit better.

I got home, and went back to designing. I did another collab with Jen (Graham like the Cracker), and wanted to get it in the store by Wednesday night (my deadline). I got it half way done, and stopped for dinner.

Let me tell you, PMS is not my friend. Really, it isn't. And it's not Captain Americas friend either. You never know when, why, or where it will strike. All you can know is that it'll be bad. I'm embarassed to tell you the store, and I'm sure my sister will be embarassed for me, but I'm gonna tell it anyway. That's why you like me. Because I'm real - LOL!

So Captain America was making his dinner, a protein shake, and realized that I hadn't bought Splenda. He wasn't pleased. He didn't understand why I didn't pull money from a different fund for the Splenda. I wasn't gonna spend my own money on Splenda. Or our entertainment money. Or his running shoes money. Every $ is allocated to something. It's to prevent overspending. So I told him to buy the Splenda out of his own money. He didn't like that answer.

He let it drop, and went about what he was doing. But by then, I could feel myself getting hormonal. He went to the sink, and organized the dirty dishes again. A few minutes later, as I was chopping up some green peppers to put in a container in the fridge, something set me off. I can't remember what it was exactly, but I told him to stop being mad at me. "I'm not acting mad at you', he said. "Yes you are, you're doing the dishes all mad", I said, and I went to the sink, and rummaged through it all hastily, knocking stuff all around and out of the sink (I know, how embarassing!) He didn't quite know how to take it, so he started to chuckle. I almost started to chuckle too, then the hormones took over, and I yelled something, and threw what was in my hands across the room. Unfortunately, that was my little chopping knife and the container of green peppers. I don't know where I was throwing it, but it almost hit the bookshelf, and bounced all over the floor. Tom just happened to be coming out of the other room, and got green peppered. Luckily not knifed.

What's up with the hormonal flares? Do you ever do embarassing stuff like that? OMGosh - looking back - how embarassing. I left the room crying, and hid in the garage. After about 10 minutes, the hormonal surge passed, and I felt much better. Embarassed ,but better. I snuck back into the house, and into my room. People kinda gave me wide berth for a while. After 30 more minutes of designing, and I was good enough to go back into the kitchen and make myself some food.

I got on facebook, and said something about PMS not being my friend (Captain America was on facebook too), and he commented on it, saying it wasn't Tom's friend either. Then a bunch of people said that they get hormonal too, and I felt much better. Captain America had forgiven me, and I wasn't alone. Thank goodness. I sure hope I "Start" (or Johnny comes) soon, so I can put those freakish episodes behind me, at least for another month. Isn't being a girl fun sometimes!

I finished loading my store and designing by 9pm-ish, and after Captain America got back from Scouts (11 year old scouts - just Jake's group), I headed over to Katy's for the b-day party. Helen was there when I got there, but didn't know it was a party. We were gonna surprise her. Andrea and Kim got there about 20 minutes later We compared days, and we were ALL having hormonal times. It was crappy afternoons all around. Andrea got locked out of her house (not her fault - child related), Katy had issues with the fish tank, Kim had something or another going one, same with Helen. We'd all had our moments that day.

But, it was SO good to have a girls night. We sang to Helen, who was surprised, and gave her her presents and cake. We just bought the little individual cake, cause Andrea and Katy and I were all dieting. We made diet jello for ourselves.

We played a few rounds of PIT, then Helen had to go home. After that, we got out the Wii, and I made a Wii fit character. My BMI was in the normal range, so I was happy! And, it said that my age was 30. Woohoo!!! Andrea was 43 or something like that - hehehe. I think it was because she coudln't balance at all. For some reason, I had freakishly good balance. Too bad it wasn't like that in real life. I can't even look up at the stars without tipping over - hehehe.

Anyway, it was fun playing on the Wii. I did the ski jump, the tight rope walker, the hula hooper, the soccer ball thing, and some marble in the hole game. Then, we all played Mario Tennis. OMGosh, it was confusing. I wasn't very good at that one. hehehe. I think my team won, though. Who knows. I didn't know what I was doing half the time. LOL!

We chatted till about 2pm, then all headed home. I'm blogging now, and ready to go to sleep. Tomorrow is usually pool day, but I don't know if we're going or not. I may just stay home. Or not - hehehe. We'll see.

Well, this isn't a request, but I'm tired of designing for the night. I did 4 WordArt packs today (one was a collab, so it was twice as long as normal), and then I still had to blog for tomorrow. I'm getting ready to go to girls night, and I'm swimming with PMS hormones. hehehe. Not a good combo. But, the designing is all done, so that's half the battle. Anyway, that long tirade was just to say that I picked this saying out all by myself - hehehe. Hope you like it!

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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FONTS:
Smile - Smiley Monster

Break

Wow, what a whirl wind of a day! It started off at 8am, what I considered at "sleep in" day almost. Jimmy came in and got me up, but the other kids stayed asleep. I'd made extra pancake the night before for dinner, so there was leftover pancakes for breakfast. See, I was thinking ahead - hehehe.

I spent the morning showering (I know, miracle of miracles!), straightening up a bit, and getting Jake's homeschool paperwork in order. I just needed 2 more pieces. A withdrawal form from his old school, and his last report card. I dug around in my papers pile, and found the report card, and went to the school at around 11:15am to get the withdrawal papers. It took forever, because they were in the process of registration, and the computers were bogging down. But, I was home by 11:50am.

We were going over to Andreas house for lunch before the movies. I was bringing the stuff to make Pizzawiches (bread, pasta sauce, shredded cheese & peporroni in the George Forman grill), and super stiff hair gel for Andreas Hair. I wanted to see what it would look like super curly.

Anyway, I got back from the school, and Jimmy was just wailing. He kept crying and saying that he'd got hurt. Jake said that he'd thrown a toy at Eme, so Jacob put him in timeout. It was between 2 barstools. Jim was screwing around, tipped over the barstools, and one landed on his finger. It was a little swollen, but looked fine. As I was gathering up all the stuff I needed for lunch, I put some ice in a baggie and gave it to him to carry around.

We had a lot of fun at Andreas. The kids like the food, the moms at the diet food (Andrea and Katy and Laurie are all doing my diet now), and I super curled Andreas hair. Actually, I just put in the gel and dried it with the hair dryer. It was SO stinkin' cute! I should have taken a picture.

We noticed that Jimmy's finger was swelling a little bit, but not too bad. He was just not touching/moving it too much. Still didn't think much of it. I went over to Katy's (she lives directly behind Andreas - whe jumped the fence) and faxed in our Virtual Academy application. She saved me some serious money. Have you faxed anything recently at a business? They charge you an arm and a leg!!

We left for the movies at 2:00pm, and got there in plenty of time to get a good seat. Ben and Joe sat by each other, Sam and Tom sat by each other, the Mom's sat by each other, and Eric sat by himself - LOL. Jimmy was with us. It's kinda nice to see a movie "without kids". LOL . We saw Night at the Museum II. It was pretty funny. The mom's had all seen it before, but my kids and Andrea's kids hadn't seen it yet. Lots of laughing.

During the movie, Jimmy came and sat on my lap and said that he thought his finger was gonna pop. What? I felt it, and OMGosh it was nasty. He's right. It felt SO full, that I thought it was gonna pop. And it was starting to bruise up. Turning purple. Nasty.

On the way home from the movies, I called Tele-Nurse (and Jim fell asleep) and asked what to do. After 40 minutes on the phone, they said to sleep on it, and call the doctor in the morning. They probably woudn't have an appointment for me (after calling at 6am and waiting on the phone for a LONG time) so I'd have to call back Tele-Nurse (and probably wait on the phone for a LONG time), then they'd send me to the ER. Nice. Not much of a choice.

So, as we started to get home, Jimmy woke up and was screaming. He said it hurt so bad. Right then, I knew I'd be taking him to the ER that night. My poor baby was in pain, and I wanted to rule out fracture. Poor thing!

My boys (Tom, Jake, and Joe) had already set up a sleepover with Andrea's kids, so they stayed, and Eme and Jim and I headed for home. Captain America was there, and after we all had dinner, we went to the ER. Someone had told me that if you wear your military uniform, they see you faster. I don't know that that worked. It still felt like it took forever.

When we first got there, they called us back, took his height, weight, and assessed him. They gave him an ice pack, and told us to wait. It was about an hour before we got called back to our room. A very LONG hour. Captain America was starting to regret coming with us - hehehe.

We were in the room for about 15 minutes, when someone came and got us to take us for xrays. I went with Jimmy, and Captain America stayed in the room with Eme. The guy sat Jimmy down and was getting him situated, when he said "James, you need to hold your hand like this". Jim was SO surprised. "Mom, how does he know my name???!!!" he wanted to know. "It's on your arm band", I tell him. Silly kid.

It was another hour or so after the xrays when the doctor came back in. Maybe even an hour and a half. Captain America slept in the chair most of that time, waking up occassionally to tell the kids that they were being too noisy. He was SO tired after a long day of class. He really needed to be home resting. Not sitting in the ER. Heck, I didn't need to be sitting in the ER either :) I just kept telling myself, "at least you only have 2 kids with you". That kinda helped.

As I was killing time in the room, Jimmy stuck out his tongue at me. I was looking at it, then looked at Eme's. She has a Geographic Tongue like Captain America. I took a pic of my tongue, and of hers. Can you see the pattern on the side of hers? Weird, eh? I wonder which of Captain Americas parents have it too? They say that it runs in families, and more in people who are affected by their environment (allergies, asthma), and 3 times more likey in girls. Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Yes, I know your life is full now. You've seen a close up of my tongue - ROFL!

When the doctor finally came in, he checked out the finger, said that the xrays looked fine, and prescribed us some Motrin. Army joke - they prescribe Motrin for EVERYTHING! If I hadn't been waiting for 3 hours, I would have found it comical. So, we left, and were home by 10pm-ish. Jimmy and Eme went right to bed, and I sat down to design. I was pretty tired, but managed to get something out.

Well, in light of the evening I had at the ER, I thought that this WordArt would be appropriate. I know it wasn't broke, but I thought it was for a while there. Poor little guy. Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

Draw of the Cards

Another fun day! I was SO tired when I got up, but I still managed to do it - hehehe. One of these days, I'll go to bed early. 4 - 5 hours of sleep, when you play as hard as I do, isn't much - LOL!

Anyway, Captain Americaand Jacob and I were talking about it the other day, and we've decided to do an Online Virtual Academy with him for 7th grade. He's SO excited. He likes learning, but not so much school. He said that the teachers yell all the time, and the kids are mean and nasty. Yep, middle school sucked for me too.

Anyway, I had such a GREAT experience with the K12 program back in Ohio, that I was sad that they didn't offer it here in El Paso. But then I learned that "Connections Academy" is good for all of Texas. Woohoo!!! I chatted with the lady on the phone this morning, and I'm in the process of enrolling him. School starts in 14 days (for the virtual academy), and she said it takes 2-3 weeks to be enrolled and up and running with the program. In Ohio, we started 3 months late, and finished on time. Making up 1 week is gonna be nothing :)

Then send you the computer, the curriculum, pay for part of your internet, very similar to the K12 program. I think it'll be good for us. The other kids are gonna stay in Public School. They've been having good, positive experiences there. Joe's a bit behind because of all of the bouncing around school (3 different schools for kindergarten), but he's a smart kid. I think he'll catch up.

Anyway, I printed off all the required paperwork, and started filling it out. Gathered birth certificates and our lease and immunization records. Today, I've gotta go "withdraw" Jake from school at his old Middle School, and get his transcripts, and then I'm ready to go. Katy has a fax/printer/scanner at her house, and a phone line, so we're gonna try and see if we can figure out how to do it. Sure beats paying for it. Faxing things is EXPENSIVE!

Next, I called Verizon. Our phone bill was ALL messed up, and we coudn't access our account on the website. It took about 35 minutes, but I think I got it all squared away. Well, last time I called I thought it was all squared away too. Hopefully this time it really is. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Next, I started on the budget. It was already done, and I'd taken out cash to put in the envelopes a few days ago, just never did it. So, I divided it up and put it where it went. I'm really liking the system. Dave Ramsey is the man! You should really by his book. He can help you too!

I was bearly done in time to make it to the pool. i was supposed to make pizza for the kids for lunch, but, um, yeah, that didn't happen - LOL! I ended up taking a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Talk about a rush job lunch - ha! At least kids are relatively easy to please.

We got to the pool at 11:25ish, and there were only 3 other people there. Where was everyone??? I got in and played with the little kids for about 1/2 an hour, then got out. I started texting/calling my friends, asking why they ditched me. Of course no one answered. About 2 minutes later, Andrea showed up. Woohoo for friends!!! Katy got there shortly after that. Helen and Kim also came, but later. It was a nice pool day.

Here's Sam pretending to be "the bad guy". He was chasing the kids around the little pool.

And yes, he may not be PC, but his Dad is a soldier, getting ready to deploy to Iraq for the 2nd (or 3rd) time, so what else is a 10 year old boy gonna be playing?

And here's the girls! Kim, Andrea (holding Luke), Helen, Katy, and Tom (and a sliver of Eric - Katy's son)

I told Joe to make a funny face for me, and he gave me this cute pose instead :)

Tom, on the other hand, was more than happy to oblige.

And a pic of Tom and I.

I don't know why, but i thought this was the CUTEST picture ever of Joe and Ben. There almost exactly 1 year apart (Joe is younger), but so similar. They're both painfully shy, quiet, love legos, dress-up, and are a bit scared of the water. Best of friends, those boys are :)

It was funny, because Ben was wearing blue swim shorts, and Joe was wearing an Orange swim shirt. They were SO color coordinated!

We got home from the pool with just enough time to change clothes (yeah, not enough time for a shower - the last time I'd showered was Saturday before threading - I know, I'm nasty. I did reply deoderant, and I did swim at the pool. That kinda counts, right? A little? Marginally? You'll give me marginally? I promise I'll shower today! Promise! :)

Jacob was gonna watch the kids for me, and the girls and I headed out to Wal-Mart. Katy is gonna try my diet, so she needed a digital food scale. And, we were hoping to get a school supply list also. Well, we struck out on both accounts. No school supply list. No digital food scale. We did find a TON of people with "out of country" license plate tags that were trying to run us over. And people in the store that were trying to "run us over" too. We must have had a "HIT ME" sign on our face somewhere. It was bad! It's not like we're so tiny that people can't see us. A Brazilian girl, a tall dark haired white girl, and a tall blond white girl. You' can't miss us. Well, that's true. They weren't trying to miss us. They were trying to run us over with cars and carts. Dumb people!

We went to Target next, hoping to find one there. We did find one, but it was $10.00 more expensive. Katy got it anyway. Andrea found a few things that she needed, and I got a pack of gum. For some reason, my mouth tasted like I'd been licking envelopes. Which I did not. No envelopes for me. Weird, eh? anyway, my gum was good.

Next, we headed for the commissary. We helped katy get the items she needed to do the diet. Apples, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, crackers, cheese, yogurt, meat. Just the basics. As we started walking down the last isle, we ran into a traffic jam. It was the line for the checkouts. OMGosh, I'd never seen the line that long. The line starts 1/2 way in the middle of the store, in the front, and makes one big line across the store. Then, it turned down the freezer (ice cream) isle, and snaked back around by the deli. That's TOTALLY out of control. Goodness.

We, because there were 3 of us, and we really didn't have that much, went to the self-checkout. I found a bag of Bananas for $0.99. Captain America uses them in his shake, so can can just peel them, slice them, and put them in ther freezer. It would make his shake taste yummy, too! Frozen bananas.

We were home by 5:30, and Captain America was already there. The kids were getting in trouble for leaving out and messing up the DVD's. I coudln't agree more. They're trashing our DVD collection. It makes me sad. I'm glad that Captain America put his foot down, and made the kids realize how lucky they are to have the things they have. To not trash things.

I folded some laundry, and made dinner for the kids. Pancake and eggs. Mmmmmm. Yummy pancakes!

After dinner, we decided to play a family card game. Sam (Andrea's oldest) was over to play with the big kids, so we re-cruited him to play with us. We played "PIT". Anyone ever played it? It's one of my favorites. It was originally made in 1916, and our edition was from the 60's. It's my moms game, but somehow I ended up with it. I'm SO glad that I did. Its a lot of fun. I even took a movie of one of our rounds. Let me tell you. This was a calm round. Andrea stopped by a bit later to search for her child (we'd kept him pretty late, but we were having SO much fun playing), and she joined in for a few rounds. It was SO lound, that my ears were ringning. Captain America and Jacob were especially noisy. I was laughing so hard i thought I was gonna pee- hehehe. That's when you know it's fun - LOL!


I ended up winning, and Tom came in 2nd. Good for us!!! Woohoo. After the game, Andrea and boys went home, I put the kids to bed, and I started on my work. Well, on my play, more like it. I played on Farmtown for a while, then checked my email. I got an email from Stephanie, saying that one of my favorite Twilight Fan Fics (Seducing Ms Swan - the one where Bella grows up and becomes a teacher and ends up with Edward for her student) had an update!!! A new chapter. I could hardly contain myself. I instantly went and read it. Ooooo, I can't wait to see what happens next, and how Bella reacts to Edward! Soooooo cool!

Then, I went back to Farming. And chatting on Facebook chat. It was almost midnight when I decided to design. Sigh. I was SO tired I could bearly keep my eyes open. But, this WordArt is in honor of our Pit game. I thought it was appropriate - hehehe.

So, Tuesday, we're going to the Movies. Night at the Museum II is at the Dollar Theater, and Tuesday is dollar day. We're also gonna get the withdrawl slip for Jake, and try and fax in the application. Another fun and busy day planned :) The best kinds!

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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Fonts Used
Draw, of, the - Turtle club
Club - Cafe Rojo

My Eternal Family

Hey girls! How was your Sunday? Fabulous, I hope. I slept in on accident, and woke up at 8:00am. Not good, considering I like to leave the house at 8:30am. So, I pulled my hair up, threw on some lip gloss, more mascara, covered up my zits by my mouth (which I'm sure would go away if I'd stop picking them), got dressed (shaving of the legs would have to wait - people shouldn't be that close to my legs anyway, right?), and went to get the kids ready.

It was a whirlwind morning, but we got there on time. A little early, in fact. And everyone looked pretty presentable. Tom and Jim were both missing buttons from their Sunday shirts, but Jim had on a vest, and Tom had a tie to cover it. Good enough for me. Everyone got food, except Joe, so I made him a real fast peanut butter sandwich to eat on the way.

Church was good. It was Fast and Testimony meeting. Emeline wanted to bear her testimony. It's a time, once a month, when the members can publically say what they believe in. She was so cute. She started off saying what she believed, and ended up kinda expounding truth - LOL! Friends will be there for you. Your family loves you, and you should love them. People should help each other. Be nice. It was WAY too cute. She was concentrating really hard on what she was saying. Too stinkin' cute! We'll have to have a family home evening lesson on "how to bear your testimony". I think the kids can all use a refresher course.

I taught in primary for Sharing time. My theme was about the temple. So, we learned what a temple is (a house of god, a place of love and beauty), and what you do inside the temple (covenant with Heavenly Father, make promises, feel the holy spirit, be sealed together). We sang the song , "I love to see the temple" (one of my very favorites), and talked about a scripture. Then, Captain America came and helped me, and talked about the temple recommend interview. How anyone has the potential to go to the temple, but we have to make good choices, and follow Heavenly Father to get a recommend. We talked about preparing to go to the temple now, when they are kids. It was good.

Then, I handed out a little bookmark as a handout. I told them to put it in their scriptures and remember the temple. They seemed to like it. Well, the older ones. The little ones just tried to eat it - ROFL!

When we got home from church, we decided to take another family picture. Since everyone was still in their Sunday clothes, and looking all nice. I wanted to do it in the backyard, since the last one we took was pixelated. So, we drug a chair and a stool in the backyard to prop the camera up on. Our neighbor guy noticed what we were doing, and hopped the fence so he could take it for us. What a sweetheart!

We went in the front yard, and he positioned us in the shadows, where he thought we'd look the best. He did a FABULOUS job. We got 3 really good pictures. Here's my favorite. I worked my photoshop magic on it, and this is the result. What do ya think??? (And, not bad for no shower day - hehehe)

Once we were done with the picture, everyone changed clothes, and we cooked lunch. Cheese & cucumber for me, and Mac N Cheese for the kids. After lunch, I told the kids that we were starting a new family tradition. Naps or quiet reading in their rooms. I read for a little while, then fell asleep around 1:30pm. I woke up at 4pm. OMGosh, it felt good. I woke up because Jimmy had woken up from his nap, and the kids had left their rooms, and were being noisy. Very loud. But I was done sleeping.

I came out, let everyone else out of their room (hehehe), and started on dinner. Taco salad. It's Tom's FAVORITE. Jimmy? Not so much. But you can't please everyone all of the time. The other kids liked it.

After dinner, the kids were a bit out of control. At one point, i noticed they were running laps around my living room/dining room areas. Not so good. About that same time Andrea sent me a message saying she was going to the park, and wondered if we wanted to join her. Typically, we don't go to the park on Sunday. But I had to agree with her. My kids were MAJOR out of control, and needed to work off some steam. So, we went to the park at around 6:30pm and stayed till 8:30pm. It was such a nice evening. Katy came and hung out with us too. It was a good time.

We came back home, cleaned up for a little while (you'd think that with all of the cleaning, my house would be clean. but, um, not so much), cleaned Joe/Jim's room (thoroughly trashed), and put all the kids to bed. I played on the computer for a while, and read for a while. Captain America came to bed at around 10:30, and was asleep by 11pm. I saw that Katy was on Facebook, and she said "Hey, let's go scare Andrea'. hehehehe. So, I snuck out, and walked down to their houses. She met me outside of Andrea's house.

We snuck to the window by her computer, and tapped on the window, but she wasn't there. So, we went to the backyard, and tapped on the kitchen window. We could kinda see her through the blinds. She was on the phone. We tapped a little bit more, and she left the kitchen. Dang. We were beginning to think that she was deaf -hehe. We went back to the front, but still didn't see her. We tapped on the window a little bit more, then knoced on the door lightly. And again a little bit harder. We were afraid she'd get her gun and shoot us if we scared her - hehehe. She turned on the porch light, and I jumped up and down waving in front of the peep hole. She came out, and was like "YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH"!!! hehehe. We told her we were afraid that she was gonna shoot us - LOL! She took it well - ha! She invited us in, and we heard her side of the story.

She was in the kitchen chatting with Kim on the phone, and she thought she heard rain. She ask Kim if it was raining, and Kim said no. She said it was probably us playing a trick on her. To go outside and check. Andrea was spooked, and went upstairs to look out the window. No rain. hehehe. Then, she came back downstairs to look for us on the computer, when she heard the tapping on the window again. The the knocking at the door. But when she looked out the peephole, no one was there (we were off to the side, in case she decided to shoot us - hehehe). Then, she looked again, that's when she saw me.

Yes, I know, we act like teens. hehehe. Aren't you glad you don't live close to me. Katy and I wold come to your house and freak you out too - what a mean trick - LOL! It was kinda funny.

After that, we stayed and hung out. We played on Farm town, at the Inn, for a while, but it wasn't too exciting. We researched boob jobs and tummy tucks (a girl can dream, right?) and talked about random things.

Katy and Andrea walked me home at 3am, then walked themselves back home. Thanks, girls, for walking me back home! It was a fun, spur of the moment evening!

Monday, we're gonna go to the pool, go to Wal-Mart, and I need to call about a Virtual Academy for Jake. He's wanting to be homeschooled in 7th grade. I'll have to look into it. There's a virtual academy for all of Texas that we could do for free. I'll call them tomorrow and find out more info.

OK, so for my freebee for today, I decided to give away the WordArt from my family picture. I thought it was SO cool for a family picture. 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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Light and Truth

Howdy hey! How was your Saturday??? Was it super fantastic? Hehehe. Captain America and I stayed up late on Friday night, so we slept in on Saturday. I was up at 9am, but I don’t know how long the kids had been up. They were watching TV. I went in the kitchen, and got them some cereal.

Captain America and I decided to re-organize the garage. Remember how we had to pull EVERYTHING out to get the trailer out? Well, it was never put back in. I was afraid that we’d get a ticket, or citation, or whatever it is the housing place does to you when you break the rules (we can’t have vehicles in the rocks, which is where the trailer is parked), so we need to get it back into the garage.

Here's what our garage looked like before

First, we pulled everything out of the garage. As we pulled it, we sorted it into piles. Camping gear, empty storage boxes, trash, recycle, keep, and donate. About ½ way through, we stopped for lunch. It was SO hot in the garage, so we took quite a while eating and relaxing in the cool air. But eventually, we were back at it. We loaded the truck with all the cardboard so that Captain Americacould take it to the recycle place. We pulled the trailer back into the garage, and loaded all of the empty storage boxes into it. Seemed like as good a place as any to keep empty storage boxes.

And here's what the garage looked like when it was done!

It was around 3:00pm, and I went in to shower and get ready. The girls and I were finally going to get our eyebrows done! I was SO excited! The girls came by at around 3:30pm to pick me up. Katy, Andrea, Helen, and Kim. What a fun group!

Sorry it's blurry. We were standing in front of a ginormous mirror, taking pictures of ourselves. The flash just made us have big flash marks on our faces, but the forced flash off just left us blury. But you get the idea. Here's the group :)



We drove to the West Side Mall (Sunland Park - about 20 minutes away), and searched around the mall for the threading booth. We finally found it. We kinda bombarded the poor lady at the place. There were 5 of us and only one of her. And 2 of us had cameras, and Andrea talks A LOT - ROFL!

Andrea went first. It was hard for her to sit still that long. She kept talking - hehehe. We love ya, girl! We forgot to get a “before” picture - dang! Anyway, she kept saying “Oooch!”. we didn’t know if it really hurt, or if she was wimpy - hehehe. She looked SO hot when she was done! Love the brows, girl!

Katy went next. Here's Katy's Before picture

She was concerned that because he skin was SO light, that she’d be pink afterwards. She wanted to have the most time to “de-pink” - hehehe. We did get a before picture of Katy. You know how people take sad, funny before pictures. Well, here’s Katy’s sad “before” picture - LOL!

Her eyebrows just kept getting redder and redder. Towards the end, her eyes were watering a lot. Poor thing! See, doesn’t she look FABULOUS in her “after” picture?


Then, it was my turn. Here's my "sad, pathetic before" picture - hehehe

And my "up close and personal" before picture.

Let me tell you, ladies. It hurt. I won’t lie. You know how it feels to tweeze your eyebrows. Well, imagine pulling ALL of your hairs out at the same time. Ouch! But, I had to remind myself, I’ve had 5 children, all with no drugs. My kids hurt me worse on a daily basis. Be it someone jumping on me when I’m not expecting it, or someone throwing something and hitting me on accident, or dropping something on my foot. Grant it, their not doing it all at the same time. Hehehe.

After the first few swipes with the thread, every time she came near me with the thread, I winced. Hehehe. I could feel it pressing on my eye, which kinda worried me. But she didn’t pull out any hair that wasn’t supposed to be pulled out. Good thing, too - LOL

Here’s my “after” picture. Aren’t my eyebrows FABULOUS!!!

Next up was Kim. She’d just come as an observer, but peer pressure won out! I almost missed a before picture for her, but caught it at the last second. She had a few tears streaming down her face when all was said and done, too.

Isn’t she cute!

And, lastly, was Helen. She, too, didn’t want to do it at the beginning, but decided to do it! Woohoo for us! Here’s Helens “Before” picture.

And here’s Helen during.

And here’s Helen’s After picture. Beautiful brows, girl!'

You know, it was SO funny. Andrea kept talking to everyone who walked by, and tried to get them to come and do it too. At one point, there were about 20 people crowded around the kiosk. We’re such trend setters - ROFL!!! People were stopping and staring, and coming closer for a better view. And we were snapping pictures and laughing and having fun the WHOLE time J

Here’s a pic of the group, with the nice lady who did our eyebrows. Her hubby is taking the picture.



We walked around the mall for a little while afterwards, catching glimpses of our brows in mirrors, and stopping to admire them. LOL! We went to Old Navy, looked around for a few minutes, and then headed home. Andreas family and my family family were going to the church for a Cub Scout/Boy Scout event. Aiden was earning his Arrow of Light award. It’s the highest award in Cub Scouts.

So, I had about 30 minutes to get everyone dressed and cook my food, and head out the door to the Crossover Ceremony. We were a few minutes late, but we made it. Captain America and I were both there, one of us representing the Primary, and one of uf representing Boy Scouts. It really was well done. Great job, Brother Sodeberg and Captain America! It was a very nice ceremony :)'

Captain Americaand I (don't you just LOVE my yellow uniform - hehehe)

Self Portriat - :)

Captain America and his scout age kids (Jake, Joe, and Tom)

Captain America and Jacob

Captain America and Tom

Captain America and Joe

Then, it was home again. Captain America decided to play guitar songs to the kids before bedtime. He's great on his acoustic guitar. I sat on my bed and was on my laptop designing, and the kids all sat on the floor and listened to the music. I was fine until he decided to switch to the electric guitar. He promised that he'd keep the volume down, but after about 30 minutes, I could tell that a migraine was gonna come if I didn't take a pill.

I grabbed my laptop, got my pills, and headed out to a different room. He felt bad, but it wasn't really his fault. I should have left when he first started to play. I should have known that it would be too loud. Oh well. Live and learn. And hopefully remember from it- heheh.

At around 8:30pm, he called his dad to wish him a happy birthday, and was gonna get online to play Battlefield with his brothers. Since he was gonna be busy and preoccupied, I went over to Katy's house to hang out with the girls. I made sure the kids were tucked into bed first, of course. Jimmy and Joe were gonna have a "sleepover" at Eme's room - too cute. Of course, she decided to sleep on the top bunk and let the 2 little boys sleep on the bottom one. SHe's no dummy - ha!

At Katy's house, I took my laptop and preblogged a little bit. They were playing the Wii. It looked like a lot of fun, but I had a bit of work to finish up. After they played Wii, we put in a movie. Neither I nor Helen had seen "The Notebook", so we watched it. FABULOUS! It was so good, yet so sad at the same time. I recommend it. Nice love story.

After the movie, Helen went home, and Katy and I played on Farmtown. We went to the Inn and harassed people. It was WAY funny. I know, I know. Childish. But we were laughing so hard I though I was gonna pee myself. hehehe. Maybe it was because it was after midnight. Hmmmm, that could have lent to the funnyness factor - hehehe.

I got home at 2am, and blogged for about 30 minutes, then went to bed. I'll definitely be taking a nap after church. Definitely.

OK girls, so as I was thinking of what to do for todays WordArt, I decided to go with part of the Visiting Teaching message for August. It's all about seeking education, and having a lifetime of learning. I thought this scripture was fabulous, and decided to make it for you all! Enjoy!

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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