If Love.... Part 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4shared

Home Family

I'm wanting to make up a little question/answer page about myself, and need to think of some good questions. Any suggestions??? Anything you wanna know about me? You know I'm an open book - LOL! Too open sometimes, right Madi :) Anyway, if you can think of any questions for me to put up on my page, leave them here in this thread for me . Thanks!

Ha! I'm remembering to post these.... finally. I was late last week. Oh well. Here's a few new WordArt packs from me for the week. You can find them in my store HERE, and remember, they're 20% off for the first week.

If you wanna buy both the boy and girl name packs, choose this option. You save money that way, and we're ALL about saving money, right???

You know, sometimes when I come home from girls night and have to design, I don't feel this tired. It's not even midnight yet. It's not even 11pm yet. I'm losing my touch, i think. I'm SO sleepy I can bearly keep my eyes open. I almost fell asleep while I waited for my PNG file to load in 4shared - ROFL! Sleep is good :)

I spent all day long waiting for the silly UPS man to deliver our homeschool packages. I really don't like waiting around for people. Did you know that? I don't. I didn't get to leave the house at all on Wednesday, and Thursday seemed to be the same.

Tom got to escape. He's buddy Eston's family were going to the pool, and invited him to go too. I SO wanted to go and hang out with Kobi (the mom) because she's SO much fun. But, I had to be here for the UPS man. OH well. I'm sure they'll be another opportunity.

The UPS man finally came at around 3 or something like that. I busted out hte boxes, and looked at all the cool text books and such that they sent. Captain America was impressed with the art supplies they sent. Nice, eh?

My visiting teachers came by for a visit at 4:30pm, and stayed till about 5:00pm. Captain America got home about the time they were leaving, and Andrea and I went visiting teaching at 6:00pm. There is a lady that we visit teach who's having a rough time, and we needed to go visit her and make sure she was ok. She seemed to enjoy our visit.

Captain America looked SO tired when I got back home. It was 7pm. At 8pm I made him come to bed and read for a while. He was asleep by 9pm. Poor guy. I moved to the couch, and read for quite a while. See, had I designed and blogged first, I wouldn't be having such a hard time now - LOL.

As I sit here listening to my MP3 player, I find it funny that the batteries are about to die. It's playing just a faint bit slower than normal in places. Maybe it's the late hour, but I find it comical. Or maybe it's sad that I listen to it so much that I recognize such a faint variance to my music. LOL. Ok, now I know I'm rambling :)

This WordArt request is from Aurelia. I thought it was FABULOUS. The saying, that is - hehehe. 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!

4shared

Original

OMGosh! I just learned something new. Did you know that you can write an email address in the phone number part of a text message, and it'll go there??? Am I the only person on the planet that didn't know how to do that??? I'm SO excited I figured something new out - hehehe. Bear with me. I'm slow sometimes :)

So, Wednesday was a "don't leave the house" day. Do you ever have those? Where you stay in your jammies ALL day long. It's fabulous, every once in a while. hehehe. Too often, and it starts to create emotion troubles - ROFL! So, my UPS package was set to arrive on Wednesday, so I coudln't leave the house. Jacob's homeschool computer was arriving. I decided to spend the day cleaning. But first, I wanted to finish off my Twilight Fan Fiction I was reading. It only had 4 or 5 more chapters, so I figured it wouldn't take that long. Goodness! Those were the longest chapters ever. I didn't get finshed until after lunch! Then, I found out that it was a work in progress. Drat! I hate to have a story unfinished.

Joe was playing with the big kids and the neighbor boy, and ended up getting hurt. I told Joe that he shouldn't play with this boy, because he's too old to be playing with a 6 year old. The kid needs to play with kids his own age. Anyway, I don't know what exactly they were doing, but they were screwing around, and Joe got hurt. Not on purpose, but hurt none the less. Check out the MASSIVE goose egg on poor little Joe's head. This is right before we iced it. It grossed out the other boys. I figured that as long as it went out and not in, he was good. He was a little worried about starting school on Monday with it looking this way. I think it'll just be a bruise by Monday. I hope....



I cooked Mac N Cheese for the kids for lunch, and it felt TOALLY wrong to be serving it on a day that wasn't Sunday after church. We've had that for lunch every Sunday since we moved on post. I don't know why, but we have - isn't that funny :) I'm a creature of habit, I guess.

So, the computer came, and I cleaned for a little while. I did 3 cycles of the dishwasher and a drain rack and 2 dish towels worth of dishes. I know, I know. That's a lot of dishes. I'll try and keep up with them better from now on :)

I organized a tiny bit in the kitchen, then decided to go finish designing for the week. I already had 3 WordArt packs done, so I only needed 2 more. I ended up making 3 more. Overachiever, I know - LOL!

Then, I watched some Orientation videos for Jakes School. I'll never get those 2 hours back, no matter how hard I try. SO boring. It taught me how to send an email. Really? And use a forum. Yeah, like I don't use those every day (insert sarcasm). OH well. I guess they're trying to get everyone on a level playing field. I just have one more to watch. Being safe on the internet. Sigh. Maybe it'll be faster than the other 2. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath.

I'm coming out on Friday with a new WordArt Pack that highlights the most popular baby names from 2008. They look VERY similar to the WordArt below. Giant first letter of their names in a scripty font, then the name. I had SO much fun making them, I thought I'm make you guys up a freebee in the same vain. Hope you 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!

4shared

Sky's the Limit

I've decided that maybe the Fan Fiction with the M rating is a bit too much for me :) hehehe. I don't swear. I don't watch rated R movies. Frankly, while well written and enthralling stories, the ones rated M are a bit too much for me to stomach. I've been reading one that's a T rating, and it's much more my speed. I wouldn't want to become all corrupted by Twilight Fan Fiction, you know - ROFL!

I spent the morning reading. I know, I know, I should be using my time more wisely, but it was fun. I went to Andreas house around 11:30am to hang out. We spent a few hours there, then decided that all of us girls should go to Victoria Secret. Katy's hubby is coming home from Iraq next week on leave (for 2 weeks, then goes back to finish off he year there), so she wanted to get something new and pretty. OMGosh - it was GORGEOUS! Loved it :)

I really needed a new bra. The one I was wearing was too big, so I sewed it smaller. I know, I'm cheap. But you already knew that. Anyway, I had some sticker shock at the prices there. I'd never actually been to Victoria's Secret to browse. I'd walked past it pleanty of times, but never ventured in. I think becuase I knew I didn't have money for that store.

Anyway, Andrea, Katy and I all got fitted. All they did was put a tape measure around our body and around our bady+boobs, and declare what size we were. They called me a 36B. Um, no. There's no way on God's green earth that my saggy boobs will fit into a 36B. But, I humored the chickie. I picked on out, and tried it on. It was DISGUSTING. All my loose skin was EVERYWHERE. I informed her that I was NOT a B, and got the C's. Much better.

The first bra I tried on was the one I ultimately bought. It was PERFECT. It had padding, which I've never had padding before. When I was heavy, I had MASSIVE boobs, so I didn't need padding. Now they're kinda like balloons that have been deflated a bit. Nice mental picture, eh? Sorry about that :) Think happy thoughts!!!

Anyway, HERE's the pretty bra that I bought. But I don't like my boobs hanging out like the model. I don't know of anyone who does - hehehe. But then, we all can't have beautiful boobs like her, right?

How did my post turn out to be all about boobs - hehehe. Maybe it's all the Fan Fic being a bad influence on me - ROFL! I swear, I wasn't reading about boobs - hehehe. So, we all took turns trying on bras, and helping each other decide which one to get. I must say, I've never done that before. It felt too to have a group of girls to help me out, and give me honest advice about what to get. Thanks, girls! I had fun Bra shopping with ya!

I must say, I think this was the biggest (money wise) purchase on a single item. Ever. Even my formals for the ball were cheaper. I don't spend a lot of money on shoes. Pants? Not so much. Shirts, definitely not. I spent $45 (almost 50 with tax) on a Bra. OMGosh! I took money from my 30-day no cheats fund. But I must say, I LOVE it. My boobs feel awesome - hehehe. I like the padding, because I can't feel them. I found myself feeling them (not in a bad way, ok) all day long. I know, Madi (my sister), too much information. Sorry that your sister is such a freak - ROFL!

The girls dropped me off at home at 2pm, then continued "playing". I think they said they were gonna go to Sonic and then to, um, er, can't remember. I wasn't there.

I gathered up my stuff at home and headed out to my 2:30 pm appointment. I was registering the kids with CYS (children and youth services - army). If I want my kids to be in sports on post, I've gotta register them. It was a long and involved process. I need to get physicals for Tom, Eme, Joe and Jim. Sigh. Lucikly Jakes boy scout one is still good and counts. I was there for at least an hour and a half. Sigh.

I got home at 4 something, and read for a while longer, then worked on designing a flyer for Captain America's class trip/mandatory fun. It turned out really good, but unfortuantely I didn't have time to make dinner. When Captain America came home, he helped me edit the flyer, then I sat down for the final touches, and he got the kids left overs. Sounds good to me. hehehe. Here's the final product of the invite/flyer. Isn't it pretty :)



I sent it off to Wal-Mart, but only 5 of them. Captain America's gonna give them to the commanders (all women). We're making 8 1/2 by 11 photocopies of the black & white version for his classmates. No point in wasting pretty prints on silly boys - LOL. You know what I mean.

I left the kids with Captain America, and headed out to Wal-Mart to pick them up. I tried calling Andrea and Katy and seeing what their evening plans were, since Captain America had planned on playing Battlefield with his brothers, but no one was answering. I called my mom to chat, but she, too, was not answering. Sigh.

On the way home, I tried me mom again, no answer. I decided to leave a message on Katy's machine, but she picked up! She said to come over when I got home, and I could watch her clean her kitchen - ROFL! Helping clean the kitchen sounded better than listening to a game of battlefield, so I went.

I put the little kids to bed at 8:30pm, and headed out. I don't know how much help we were (Andrea and Adela came too), but we had fun. Adela is very good at organizing, so she helped with the cupboards, getting them all organized. They looked very nice when "we" were done.

I was even home before midnight. The girls walked me the block back to my house, since I'd walked, not driven. It was garbage night, and we noticed that someone was throwing away a perfectly good pair of army boots. We promply rescued them. hehehe. We also rescued a lawn chair. Sure, the arm was broke, but it wasn't anything that a bit of glue or duct tape wouldn't fix. I'm so glad that I found cheap friends just like me - hehehehe.

The first of my homeschool (virtural school) boxes are supposed to be showing up today. Unfortuantly, that means that I have to stay home. Sigh. Maybe I'll be proactive and get some cleaning/organizing done. I'd love for my house to be as clean as my friends' house. Or maybe I can get some designing done earlier rather than later. Either way, until that package is delivered, I'll be home. Sigh. The girls are gonna go to the dollar store. I wanna play :( I'll make sure to say my prayers for the UPS man - hehehe.

This WordArt request is from Joanne. Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and leave some love if you like my work :) Thanks!

Children Are The Future

Hey girls! Monday passed in a bit of a blur for me. hehehe. I started off the morning at 7:30am, getting up and seeing Captain America off to work. I showered, got ready, and headed out to the store with my children. Jacob had purchased a remote control car last week, and didn't like it. It didn't perform very well. Really, to get a remote control vehicle that works well, you've gotta spend over $50. Really. You do :)

So, we headed to Wal-Mart, and returned it. We needed Vanilla and deoderant at the house, and we bought some soda and pretzels for the pool. On the way out of Wal-Mart, we saw to young people begging for food. I didn't have/want to share my money (insert joke about how cheap I am, Andrea), so I gave them each a Soda. They said they were hungry. Soda will help, right? Anyway, the seemed grateful for it :)

We headed out to CompUSA (a computer/electronics store), where Jacob had seen an ad for an MP3 player. We got there, walked around the store, and coudln't find it. We asked someone, and they said that it hadn't come on the truck yet. Nice. My kids were trying to run amok, but I was doing my best at crowd control. Jake was SO upset.

We went to Best Buy, which was right next door, but they didn't have anything either. We stopped at LIttle Ceasars on the way to the pool, and bought 2 $5.00 pizzas for lunch. We stopped off at Wal-Mart to see if they had a $20.00 4GB MP3 player, but no dice. But I did get my cucumbers and cheese for lunch. It was cheaper to just buy a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese, so I did.

And, we headed off to the pool. Andrea and Adela and Katy ended up not coming, but I got to hang out with my friend Krista from our old ward. She's AWESOME! She has 5 kids, just like me, and they're similar ages. And, later on, Helen came to the pool, so we got to chat for a few minutes.

And I have to tell you, the shredded cheese? Not so much. They put some kind of coating on it, and it tasted WEIRD! Before the diet, I woudln't have noticed, but I could TOTALLY taste the potato starch that supposed to keep it from sticking together. Next time, I'm buying string cheese, or a brick. Gross!

We left the pool at 2:30ish pm, and headed home. Jake called CompUSA to see if the MP3 player was there yet, and it was! We'd go later. As we were walking in the door, Sam (Andrea's oldest) called and asked to come over. Come on, I said! He and Ben came over and played nicely with my kids ALL afternoon. You'd think that it would be crazy with 7 kids in the house, but honestly, it was so much more peaceful with 2 extras. Ben kept Joe entertained, and Ben kept Jake and Tom entertained. It was SO nice.

I cooked Taco Salad for everyone (yummy! - it smelled SO good), then made stir fry for myself at dinner time. I found some steak in the freezer, which was SO much tastier than the ground turkey. No brainer there. hehehe.

When Captain America got home at almost 7pm, I sent Ben and Sam home, got Captain America situated for the evening, and Jake and I headed off to the store. Jimmy was sleeping on the couch (thank GOODNESS! He was grouchy. Like earlier, he's brought me a root beer to drink, and wanted me to pour a drink in his cup. I did, and apparently he didn't think I'd given him enough, because he threw himself on the floor screaming. So, I asked if he still wanted the drink, to which he screamed louder, so I drank it. OMGosh, you'd think I had stabbed the kid. I sent him to his room until he got under control. It wasn't too much later that he fell asleep on the couch). We got there, asked for help finding them, and bought one for Jake with his money, and one for me!

We got home, put Jimmy in his bed, and let the kids play on computer for the rest of the evening. Captain America was studying, and I arranged my music on my new MP3 player and my computer. It's not the most user friendly thing I've ever owned. I'm not sure if I like it. Jake's doesn't work right, so we're gonna have to take it back and get a different one tomorrow. What a pain in the butt all around. One of his buttons don't work. Nice.

Anyway, I organized all my music, and deleted the stuff that I didn't like/didn't need. I don't know why, but it makes me happy to have my files all organized. Now, if that only translated over to my house - ROFL!

And, I have to update you all on my diet! I'm only 4 lbs away from my goal! I'm SO excited. Most of my clothes fit again (although a tiny bit tight - but buttonable, which is HUGE!). Not sure how long it's gonna take me to lose those last 4 lbs, but after that, I start on re-feed (retraining your body to handle larger quanities of food, and different foods). And this time, I'm not gonna abandon the diet. That's what happened last time.

Some people have issues with drugs, or with alcohol, or with smoking, and they need to radically change their habits. They can't "play" with the things that tempt them. It's the same with food and me. I need to just eat what I'm supposed to, and leave the other stuff alone. I have no self-control when it comes to food, and the sooner I learn that, the better off I'll be. Sigh. But YEAH for being 4 lbs from my goal!!! Woohoo for me :)

How about his. The day that I hit 140lbs, I'll give out a 50% coupon code for 1 day. Give you something to look forward to, eh? hehehe.

This WordArt request is from Renee. What a great quote! I could totally see it on SO many layouts. 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!

4shared

I just have to say, I really shouldn't design late at night. First, I messed up the quote, had "are the" written twice. After going back and fixing the PSD file and the PNG file and the preview and re-uploading it, I realized that I'd forgotten the JFK part. Dang. So, I had to fix it, then re-save the PDS file and the PNG file and the preview and re-upload it. Third time's the charm, right? I think it's all good now :)

Wonders

Hey girls! Can you believe it's Monday already? My kids start school in one week. Dang! Where did the summer go???

Sunday was good at the Harty house. We had Stake Conference (church) today, and the Stake Center is about 30 minutes away. Still in town, but El Paso is HUGE. We drove over the the West Side (by the outlet malls we went to on Saturday). It's so pretty over there. I just LOVE the houses. Conference didn't start until 1pm.

I worked with Jimmy to get his and Joe's room cleaned before church. It was TRASHED in there. It looks fabulous now. Still kinda smells like pee, though. Nasty. One of these days, we'll move past that..... right?

We ate lunch before church, then headed out. It took longer to get there than we thought (or something - either way we were late) and were about 15 minutes late. There weren't 7 seats together anywhere we could find, so we split up. Captain America and Jimmy and I got 3 seats together, and there were 2 more behind us for Joe and Eme. Tom and Jake were 2 rows back and to the side. Still in "I'm watching you" range. hehehe. The kids did FABULOUS for sitting still for 2 hours. Good thing we remembered pencils and paper :)

After church, we had "mandatory reading/nap time". I just love it. Jimmy and I took a nap (well, I read and he slept, then I slept for a bit too). I got about an hours worth of nap in. We fed the kids, fed ourselves, then cleaned up the house a bit more.

At around 7pm, we headed ot the neighborhood park. Adela and Katy and Andrea met us there. The kids were going crazy in the house, so it as nice to let them out for a while. hehehe. You could tell that the girls were all tired, cause we just kinda sat there and looked at each other - ROFL! I think we'll all end up in bed early- hehehe.

When we got back home at 8 something, we put the kids to bed, and I played on line for a while. I re-designed my personal and wordart blogs, and chatted on Facebook for a little while. Captain America was studying for a big test, so he wasn't around. Come to find out, he really wanted me to come and hang out with him, but I was trying to give him "study space". Sometimes you can't win for trying.... Hopefully after his big test today, he'll be in a better mood. It's stressing him out. Poor guy. One more month, and school is over.

Today is pool day, and Jake wasn't to go to Wal-Mart to return something he bought last week, and wants to go to a computer store to look at an MP3 player he saw an ad for last week. I sure hope they have some left, or he's gonna be grouchy too. And I can't handle any more grouchy. hehehe. I already filled the montly quota for our house single handedly last week - ROFL!

This WordArt suggestion came from Mary. She sent me a message on Facebook requesting it. But for some reason, my Facebook account freaked out and no longer sends notifications when things like messages come through. Good thing I've been checking it lately - hehehe. I wonder if it's ending up in my spam file? I never thought of that :)

Anyway, I thought this quote was pretty cool! I hope you do too. Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.

4shared

Believe

Wow, it's gonna be short and sweet tonight. It's now 2:45 am on Sunday morning, and I'm just getting home from an impromptu Girls Night. We hung out in Andreas backyard on her patio set, and the weather was PERFECT! Gotta love nights in the El Paso desert :) Short sleeve weather, even late at night :)

We had a busy and full day on Saturday, but I'm too tired to give a complete re-cap. Captain America washed the cars, we went to the outlet mall to get the kids new school shoes (20% military discount doesn't hurt either - $140 for 6 pairs of New Balance shoes for all 5 kids and BCaptain America), we hurried home and went to the movies on post (Ice Age III, and the on post movies are now on sale for $0.99 for all tickets (under 6 is free), came home, had dinner, then went to play with the girls. Captain America stayed home, put the kids to bed, called and talked to his dad, and played computer for a while.

We had a fun time at Andreas house. Just chatting and laughing and sharing :) My girls are THE BEST!!! My face always hurts when I come home from smiling so much. Seriously - hehehe.

So, if there's typos in the WordArt below, it's because I designed after midnight, and I'm not supposed to - LOL! I don't take responsibility for it. Unless you like it, in which case, it was ALL me :) ROFL!

Click on the links below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

box.net