I'll Always Be With You

It was a very nice Sunday yesterday. I made up Cub Scout folders for all of our new Cub Scout leaders, and brought them to church with us. I got asked to give the opening prayer, and Eme bore her testimony. I conducted in Primary, and everything seemed to go just fine there. It was a nice Sacrament meeting.

After church, we had lunch, then took naps. Well, I tried to. I couldn't fall asleep. I hate that. I'm beat tired, and can't sleep. I just lay there. I gave it my best for 45 minutes, then gave up. I made Tom and Jake go upstairs with me and clean their room. I got a HUGE trash bag of trash, and 2 bags of stuff to donate out of their room. It looked much better. I don't know how it gets so messy so fast. AND, I found out where all the plastic cups in the house went. Those silly boys bring cups of ice to their room at night to read, then just leave them there. Sigh.

We were done at about 3:30pm, and I came back to my room to read for a while. I could tell that I was being hormonal and in risk of yelling at everyone, so I busied myself with reading. I'm sure everyone was grateful for that - hehehe.

At 5ish, we started dinner. I made wet burritos for the kids, and they LOVED it. I had a nice stir fry, and Captain America had his shake. We did some downstairs chores, and the house looked much nicer. Kaylee (from a few blocks over and from church) and her kids brought over some cookies and garden fresh orange cherry tomatoes for us. The kids LOVED them. Captain Americas excited about the tomatoes for tomorrow. The cookies sure smelled good :)

Later in the evening, we watched the 2nd half of Lonesome Dove. There was one part where we had to change the channel for a few seconds cause we really didn't want the boys to see a few scenes. But all in all, they really liked the series. Eme thought it had a lot of fighting and dying (which it did), and the boys just thought it was cool. Jim was the first one asleep. I think he lasted 30 minutes. We started the movie at 8:45pm, so that was pretty late for the little guy. Joe was next.

When we switched secionts (3rd to 4th), Captain America carried Jim and Joe to their beds. Eme fell asleep during the 4th section. After the movie got over (around midnight), we woke Eme up to make her go to bed. She's WAY too heavy to carry - hehehe. Especially up the stairs. I think Tom liked it most of all. He's WAY into cowboys and horses and such. And it was good that we were there to point out the things that characters did good, and things that other characters did that were definitely wrong. That way, it's all a learning time.

It's late now, and since I didn't get my nap, i'm pretty tired. I was glad that I designed on Friday, because I had all my wordart done ahead of time - I just had to blog - Woohoo for me!!! We're looking forward to a fun Labor Day with the family. I know that our Chick-Fil-A here is giving away free chicken sandwiches from 10:30 to close (or until they run out) to people in a sports team logo shirt. We're going up at around 11am to the mall. Should be a good time. The kdis are pretty excited :)

This WordArt request is from nachtstern, back in January. I know, I'm slow :) hehehe. On the day she requested it, it was A.A. Milne's birthday, so it was a very nice request. Well, now that it's 9 months later, it's still a very nice quote :) 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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Baptism

Well, I tried to sleep in on Saturday. I think I managed to stay asleep until almost 8am. Well, I was woken up a few times before that, but I didn't get out of bed until 8am. Does that count? Why can't I haveCaptain Americas ability to sleep through everything? There could be a kid pulling at his eyelids, and he'd still be sawing logs. It must be a dad thing - hehehe.

I drug myself out of bed, got food for everyone, and settled in on the couch in my jammies with my laptop. Email was on the top of my list of things to do. For all of you who have emailed me and think that I'm a schmuck for not emailing you back, I'm guilty as charged. I looked at my inbox, and there were almost 400 messages. Sigh. How did I let it get so out of control.

I decided to start at the back, and work my way forward. My oldest email was from January. I know. That's 9 months ago. I could have had a kid in that amount of time (and it would have been a good excuse why I hadn't written/responded back - but I've got no baby to show for it). I went through the ole emails, responding and designing as I came to a request. I've got freebees though a week from Monday now :)

Whenever one of you guys leaves a comment on my post, I get an email. I usually delete the comments, and keep the ones that have a request attached to it. Well, I deleted some of those. Some of the requests that were "not good for the whole group". Stuff that wouldn't translate well to WordArt. Things that, really, only you could use. SO, if you left a message on my blog, and you haven't seen your request made, and it was pretty specific (not good for the whole group), it's probably not gonna get done.... I'm so sorry :( There's only one of me, and there are many of you. And it's stressing me out to have my inbox at almost 400.

SO, after responding to almost 100 emails, and deleting/archiving things that no longer were applicable, or things that my mom/aunt/husband/mother-in-law/father-in-law/friends sent to me, I was left with about 197 emails in the ole inbox. ALL personal emails from blog readers. But I'm up to March now. That's better than January, anyway you look at it - hehehe. Slowly, but surely, I'll get it back to 0. I'm doing my best, girls!

So, by about 10am, the kids were STIR crazy. They were running laps around the living room/dining room area. I just plugged my headphones into my laptop and CRANKED "Muse". Drowning them out seemed like the best option. But then, Jimmy grabbed the wooden spoons from the drawer and started beating them together like drumsticks, and I couldn't really ignore it any longer. My phone rang about then, and Captain America woke up wondering what the heck was going on. I guess it just takes a PARADE in the living room to wake the man up - LOL!

Andrea was on the phone, telling me that she and Kim were going to go to the Mall to get their Eyebrows threaded in about an hour. I hurried and hopped into the shower, got all pretty, got my kids all situated, and headed down to Andreas house. I was SO excited because I was able to wear a pair of black pants that I hadn't been able to wear since last time I was down to my goal weight! Happy day!

Andrea and I drove over the Transmountain area to pick up Kim. She was at Wal-Mart, having just dropped off her jeep. I think it was for an oil change. I don't know. Some car something or another - hehehe. Next, we drove over to the West Side mall to the Threading place. Once again, the lady worked her magic, and Kim and Andrea got BEAUTIFUL eyebrows. I think I'll do mine again next month. I self-threadded a bit, and plucked a bit, and they're still good enough for now. But next month.

Next, we went to Chick-Fil_A for lunch. I got a salad, and picked off all the stuff I wasn't supposed to have. See, I'm still being good. Lettuce, cabbage, and chicken breast. No dressing. And a Diet Dr. Pepper. I know, I know. Caffeine again. But it tasted SO good. I'm a glutton for punishment :) We had fun eating lunch, then sitting and chatting for about an hour. Girl talk is great :)

Next, we loaded back up in Andreas rig, and drove back to Transmountain area to drop Kim back off at her Jeep. Andrea drove me back home, and said that she and Kim were gonna go to the East side and go to Hobby Lobby in about an hour or so. I said that I'd assess the situation at home, and let her know if I could come or not. Captain America was watching the kids, and I had to make sure that all was still well :)

Everyone seemed happy and content when I got home. They were getting ready to go roller bladeing. Captain America was at the table doing something to the wheels. I asked him what he thought about more "girl" time, and he said it was fine. I ate my snack, played for a bit, then headed back to Andreas.

When I got there, Kim was just getting there too. Andrea didn't know if she could go, because one of her kids really didn't want to go. He was still having a hard time from his dad leaving for a month (trainings) the day before. But, after hanging out at Andreas house for about 45 minutes, he decided that coming wouldn't be too bad, so we all loaded up, and headed off to the East side.

The girls and I decided that even though my wreath stuff wasn't on sale, I should still buy the actual wreath, the hanger, and the ribbons. The other parts would be on sale next week, or the week after. So, I spent $11.00, and got 2 different spools of ribbons, and HUGE wreath (brown, made with branches), and a door hanger. My job now is to come back next week or so, and look for the cutesie stuff to put on it :) But for now, I have a brown branch wreath hanging on my door - LOL!

Andrea and Kim are making Scrapbooks of their "doings" while their men are gone. They wanted to look for stickers and papers and cutesie stuff to scrapbook with. We had fun walking around the craft store, looking at all the great stuff they had.

Next, it was on to the Skin/Hair/Make up store. Andrea was considering buying a Hair Iron (A Chi, I think it was called). In the end, she didn't know if she'd use it enough to warrant $80. That's a lot of money to only fix your hair twice a month. Poor girl was SO undecided.

Then, it was back home. Captain America and I were going to the movies at 7:45, so I had to be home by 7pm. I got home at 6:45, well within my parameters. Only Jacob was home when I got there. Captain America had the kids at the neighborhood park, playing Soccer. What a great dad :)

I hurried and made dinner, and called Captain America to tell him to hurry home so we'd make it to the movies on time. We needed to leave by 7:15 to make it in time. At 7:11, Captain America still hadn't showered, and I was starting to get panicked. I went to look online to see if there was a later showing. Come to find out, the movie didn't start until 9:10pm. Wow, I was WAY off on the start time.

So, we slowed things down, and had time to hang out a bit more, then put all the kids to bed. That was nice, to have them in bed before we left. And much easier for Jake to babysit sleeping kids - heehe.

We got to the movies with a few minutes to spare. We saw Transformers. At first, I didn't care for the movie. The first 1/2 was not the best. There was a lot of language (I still think of Transformers as a kid movie, and it DEFINITELY wasn't), and a lot of unnecessary "sex" appeal. The college scenes were TOTALLY fake (any of you go to colleges like that??? Where everyone is GORGEOUS?), and I wasn't crazy about the drug reference.

But then the 2nd 1/2 of the movie was good. A lot of action, some humor, increased story line. I actually liked the last half. It salvaged the movie for me. I came away saying it was a good movie. I don't know if I'll buy it or not, but I did like it. But boy was it long. 2 1/2 hours. We didn't get out until quarter to midnight.

We made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home (I needed another days worth of pineapple), then drove the 15 minutes to home. Luckily, we didn't get stopped by the guards coming back into Ft. Bliss. But then, it wasn't Friday night. That's usually when we get stopped. Maybe Saturday night they're not as bad. Really, it's just luck of the draw who gets searched when re-entering the gate, but Friday nights in a row makes one wonder......

OK, remember how I told you all that on Thursday, my friend Krista came over and I helped her make a baptism announcement for her daughter? Well, I liked the WordArt I designed for her so much, I decided to give it to you all! I thought it would be PERFECT for your Faithbooking pages :) SO, 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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Without You

OK, shameless plug, but don't forget about my Grab Bag. If you've never bought anything from me, now is a GREAT time to get something. It's 6 new WordArt packs, all for only $3.50. You really can't beat that as a deal. There's a calendar type wordart in there, a days of the week thingy, some good for kids, some for friendliness/kindness, lots of good stuff. Give it a try. You know you want to. Hehehe. Click HERE to go to my Grab Bag in my store :)

Wow, I'm pretty sure that I'm sick. Sigh. I hate to be sick. After staying up late on Thursday night, 7am came SO early :) I managed to get the kids out the door and off to school. Captain America had the day off, so he got to sleep in :) I hauled my computer to the couch, and read. I didn't really have the energy to do much else. I took a 12 hour decongestant, and some DayQuil. But I still felt yucky. I helped Jake on and off with his school work when he needed help, and tried my best to keep Jimmy from getting into trouble.

Captain America was awake at around 9am, and went running. We all just kinda did our own thing for the morning. We had lunch at noon-ish, and I took a nap. At 2:30ish, Jim, Captain America and I went back to the PX to exchange a few of the clothes we bought yesterday. Eme's didn't fit. They were WAY too big. They almost fit me - hehehe.

Captain America needed a bigger size in the shorts, and so did Tom. I'm guessing they ran a size small, since both needed a different size. I even found 2 shirts for myself the 2nd time around. They were pretty cute. One was red with a white bow and the other was black/white/gray. Yes, I know. It's my favorite color. Black is good :) hehehe.

After the PX, we headed off post. We needed protein powder, an ink cartridge, and some take and bake pizzas from Wal-Mart. We'd promised the kids pizza yesterday, and it didn't happen, so today was the day :) After Wal-Mart, we dropped the movie back at Blockbuster, and headed home.

The kids LOVED the pizza, and were enjoying their Friday night. Eme and Joe played at the park for a while, and Tom had a friend over for a while. Captain America and I had planned to go to the movies, like we do every Friday night, but I really wasn't feeling up to it. The little excursion earlier in the day was almost too much for me.

I put Captain America in charge of the house, and went to take a bath. It's amazing how much better you feel after soaking in a HOT bath. It's not even 9pm yet, and I'm almost done with all my work for the night. I think I'm gonna go to bed early tonight. And hope that I feel better on Saturday. The girls wanna go "Eyebrow Threadding" at the mall, and I SO wanna go and play. I just plucked mine, so I'm good, but I'm always good for a "road trip". hehehe. Being sick puts a serious damper on the fun. AND, if I'm feeling better, Captain America and I can go and see Transformers II at the dollar theater tomorrow night. Plus, UP is playing at the post theater tomorrow at 4pm ish. I bet the kids would really like that. And you can't beat 99 cents for a movie. We'll see how much I'm up for :)

This WordArt request is from Diane. I just love Winnie the Pooh quotes. Too bad I can't make a WordArt pack out of them. Silly Disney and copyright laws - 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.

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Responsible Adult

Well, the day is finally here! My grab bag is up for sale - hehehe. I know you were all sleepless last night waiting for it - ROFL! OK, so maybe no, but it's still here. And it's cool. My CT told me so. And they don't lie to me :)

If you wanna grab my "Grab Bag", just click HERE to go to my store. And, while you're there, check out some of the other AWESOME Scraporchard designers who have Grab Bags up for grab too. You'll like them, trust me!

And, just to show you how AWESOME my CT is, here are a few layouts that they made using my WordArt Grab Bag WordArt pack. I just love 'em!!!

Layout by Breon

Layout by Jen (Graham Like the Cracker)

Layout by Grace

Layout by Charmaine

Layout by Katherine

So, I woke up on Thursday morning, migraine free. THANK goodness! I was still a little groggy after all the NiQuil, but I was good :) I got the kids ready and out the door for school, started Jake on some Math, and sat down with Jimmy for a little while.

Man was he in a mood. My mom called at some point in the morning, and he just ran from room to room, getting into stuff. He tried to erase all the days/appointments on my dry/erase calendar, tried to mess up my bathroom things, tried to sneak food into him room. You name it, he tried it. And, whenever he got caught, he'd start SCREAMING. Sigh. It was gonna be one of THOSE days again.

Jake and Jim and I went for a little walk this morning. 18 minutes, briskly around the neighborhood. I pushed Jim in the stroller, and Jake walked with me. And, I had the privilege of listening to him give me a blow by blow description of his newest video game. Oh yes, it was quite joyous. At about 11 1/2 minutes into it, I thought he was getting winded, and would stop. But by minute 13 he'd found his 2nd wind, and started up again. And, being the good mom that I am, I said "Uh huh" and "Oh Wow" and "Good Job, Sweetie" at all the right times. Now THAT's true love :)

At 10:20am, we left for Jim's Doctor's appointment for his physical. Not quite as easy as Eme's appointment. He wanted to run around the office, and couldn't understand why I didn't want him to. The army is notorious for "take a number" kinda lines, and Jimmy SO wanted to take a number. But we didn't need one. Sigh.

Finally, we got called back, and he wanted to touch EVERYTHING in the patient room. Sigh. After he got height/weight/blood pressured, we were sent to another waiting room. Here, he wanted to climb on ALL the chairs, look at ALL the magazines, and climb all over me. After about 10 minutes, we went back to a patient room, and saw the doctor. After looking in Jimmy's ears, he said it was kinda red, so he perscribed some antibiotics. Since we (in the army) have a 4 day weekend this weekend, he wanted to make sure Jim was all set. That was nice.

Jim and I are also pretty congested, so he ordered some Dimatapp for Jim. And some Motrin. He gave me proper dosage information, signed the physical, and we were good to go. We stopped by the pharmacy, got our goodies (drugs), and were off to home.

We stopped by the Shoppette on the way back home to rent "State of Play", but it was out. Dang! That was my easy fix. Now I was gonna have to go off post. We went home, had lunch, chatted with Captain America over his lunch hour, and started to straighten up a bit.

My friend, Krista, was coming over. Her son's turning 12, and her daughters turning 8 later in the month, and she wanted Baptism/Ordination invitations made up. I didn't want my house to look like a total pigsty. I moved the launrdry from the couch to the bedroom (and shut the door), did a once over on the bathroom, and then quit. If my friends don't like me, messy house and all, then maybe they're not great friends - LOL!

I heard a funny noise coming from the bedroom right before she got there, over the sound of Jims movie. I went to check on it, and it was Jim, snoring. Totally passed out. Thank you, Dimatapp! I turned off the movie, turned out the light, and shut the door. Score!

Krista and I worked on the invites until about 2:30pm, when she had to leave to go and pick up her kids from school. They looked pretty good when they were all done :) I'm gonna have to make some up for Eme when she gets baptized. I think she'd like that ;)

I was feeling my headache come back on at about 3pm. I realized that maybe it wasn't a migraine as much as it was a sinus problem. Since Jimmy obviously had something going on, maybe I'd got something too. I was stuff, had a stiff neck, and a sore throat. Not good signs.

So, I took a 12 hour decongestant, and laid down for a nap. I woke up at 4pm, and the kids were home from school, and Jimmy had just woken up from his nap. Dang, that was a long nap for a kid who doesn't nap! Sweet! I still felt kinda sick/headachey, so I took a migraine pill too. I got a snack for the kids, and hung out with them for a bit.

Captain America got home at about 5pm, and we headed out to the store. We were gonna go rent "State of Play" for a "Movies at home" date night. I've been wanting to see that one :) But, Andrea had told me that the PX was having a sale on clothes at the Exchange. Regular price, minus the clearance price (25%, 50%, or 75%), plus take 70% off of that. It made it a really good deal. We got 4 shirts for Eme, 3 shorts, a polo shirt, and a nice tee shirt for Captain America, and a shorts for Tom, all for $24. Not bad :) I SO love a good deal.

We stopped by the Military Clothing store before heading home, to look at the Dress Blues for Captain America. The army is getting rid of their Green Dress uniform, and going with a Blue one. It's pretty sharp looking. Captain America is gonna go buy it tomorrow, so I'll take some pictures for you all :) He's SO cute!

It was too late to keep looking for the movie, so we headed home, cooked dinner for everyone, helped Joe with his homework, then went to Blockbuster for the video. It was the last one in the store, and it cost us $4.10 to rent, but I got it! Dang, the lenghts I go to see a movie. Redbox was all out of it. Sigh. Oh well.

We got home, put all the kids to bed, and watched our movie. It was nice to hang out with Captain America on a weekday night. He has the day off tomorrow, so he didn't have to be to bed early. It was a pretty good movie, too. Russell Crowe and Ben Afflick, and the chickie from "The Time Travelers Wife". I liked it. It was my kind of suspense/thinking movie.

Did I tell you that we realized that the army has been paying us too much money? And that when they realize it, they're probably gonna just not pay us that much for the next check. Nice, eh? I figure it's about $750 worth. Captain Americas gonna go and try and get it all straightend out. Maybe they'll just deduct a percentage of it each month, rather than take it all at once. Oops. I wasn't sure how to read the LES statement, so I didn't know. But I do now :)

I'm on day 4 of my "Re-Feed" program, and down to 141!!! I'm so excited. All my old clothes fit again, finally. And I'm liking eating more food. The pineapple is SO tasty. And I got a piece of breat today. Mmmmmm. I can't wait for the day that I get to put butter on it. That taste's SO good :) I remember from last time I did "re-feed". Funny, how little things make me SO happy.

And, here's your freebee for today! This request comes from Linda, and I thought it was HILARIOUS! This should be my slogan in life. hehehe. Just ask my kids. They'll tell you :) ROFL!

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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Everything Goes Wrong

Bear with me, here. I'm trying to fight off a migraine. And no, I didn't drink caffiene. I don't know where this one came from. But it's feeling pretty nasty right about now. Sigh.

I woke up at 3am on Wednesday, and had the hardest time falling back asleep. I was afriad that I was gonna sleep through my alarm. I needed to get up at 6:30am to take a shower to be ready for Eme's doctor appointment at 7:20am. I got up at 6:15am and started getting ready.

I woke everyone up a little early, so that Tom and Joe could be ready and out the door at 7:30am. Eme and I left the house at 7:05am. We made it just in time for her appointment. To sign up with CYS (kinda like the army's equivalant to the Boys and Girls Club), you needed a physical for each child. So starts the fun. hehehe.

The doctor that we saw was really nice. I liked him. Eme got 2 different kinds of lotion for her dry patches, and 2 inhalors (one for home and one for school (if needed)). Then, we got some free OTC drugs from the pharmacy too. What a great program :) I got foot powder, cough drops, throat spray, and upset stomach pills. Sweet!

Then, it was home, and get ready for the meeting with Joe's principal and teachers. We got there right on time. After pleading our case (and it seemed like his teacher thought it was a good idea too), the principal said that he didn't have the authority to hold back a child. That Texas laws state that kids who turn 6 by Sept 1st need to be enrolled in 1st grade.

He said to wait and see how Joe does on the state assesment test on the 17th of September, and if it's poorly, that we can write a letter to the district, and see if they'll hold him back. So, it's wait and see time. Sigh. Poor Joe. I was hoping for a quick and easy fix, but I guess that we'll see how it goes later in the month.

So, we came home, I did school with Jake, and finished designing stuff for my Grab Bag. After lunch, I decided that I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby and get some supplies to make a COOL wreath like Andreas. It took about 30 minutes to get there, and Jimmy and I had fun walking around the store for about an hour. I found the PEFECT wreath, then some really pretty ribbons. Everything was 50% off, so it was gonna be a good deal. I got about 6 or 7 fall-ish elements to put on it. It looked so pretty. I arranged it how I wanted it, and even took a picture so I'd know how to re-assemble it.

I figured it should cost about 15-20 dollars. I got to the check out, and it was $35. What the heck? I asked the girl why it was so much, and she told me that the "elements" weren't on sale. So I told her to take those off. I bought the ribbons and the wreath and the door hanger, and headed back into the store to find the 50% off stuff.

Well, there wasn't any good stuff 50% off. And I wasn't gonna pay that much for a decoration, so finally, after another 30 minutes of wandering (and a little boy who had had his fill of the craft store), I went to customer service, got all my money back, and left the store empty handed. I was so sad.

So, I stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home (right next door), to buy an ink cartridge for my printer. Guess what? They were out of my kind. They had EVERY other imaginable print cartridge. But not the one I needed.

I went to see if they had any wreath type things ,but they didn't. I looked in the little boys clothes, and found $2.00 tee shirts. And they were SO cool. Sports themed. I picked up 5, so it should be $10.00. But, when I got to the check-out, I realized that the display was mislabeled, and 2 of the shirts were really $3.00. Sigh. After I got done paying, I went ot customer service and returned the $3.00 shirts. I know it's only a dollar, but I was a little miffed.

So, I had to salvage the trip somehow. I needed a little retail therapy. I decided to stop at Fallas on the way home. It's a REALLY cheap clothes store, and give a 10% military discount. I ended up spending $24, and got a cute shirt, a cute longer blouse, a pair of pants, a SUPER cute skirt, and some unmentionables. I was pretty proud of all my purchases. Unfortunately, they didn't have a trying on room there. I tired on the shirts over top of my clothes in the store, and eyeballed the skirt and pants.

I tried them all on when I got home, and luckily they all fit. That store has a no return policy too. I lucked out there. I let the kids relax for a bit when they got home from school, and then started on chores. The floors were super messy, so I had Tom, Eme, and Jake each mop a room. It went pretty quick.

The house looked a lot better when they were done. Next, I started on dinner. Spaghetti night. Some of the kids really like it, and some don't. Oh well. You can't please everyone every time, right?

After dinner, I came back in my room and uploaded my weekly products to my store. I usually do this super late on Wednesday night, but I was ahead of the game for once. That's pretty good!

I noticed that my neck was starting to get tight, and feared that a migraine was coming on. I put the kids to bed at 7:30 (Jake was at scouts with his dad), and came in my dark, cold room. Unfortunately, I found some perfume in my bathroom cupboard, and was excited about smelling good, so I sprayed some on. I think it's kicking my headache into high gear. I've taken drugs, but they haven't yet kicked in. I'm gonna give it another 30 minutes, then take another pill. But it had better be better by tomorrow. I've got stuff to do. Jimmy has a doctors appointment at 10:40, and my friend Krista is coming over at 1pm. There's no room for a migraine. You hear that, migraine! Go away! (hehehe)

So, in honor of my day yesterday, I made this WordArt. hehehe. OK, so it wasn't a horrible day. I've had much worse. BUT, I thought this WordArt was funny, and I know I could use it on a WHOLE bunch of photos. Especially sad, poutty little kid faced pictures :)

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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The Art of Being Happy

First off, thank you SO much to everyone who gave me words of encouragement yesterday! I set up a meeting with the principal and Joe's teacher for today at 9:45am to discuss putting Joe back in Kindergarten. I really think it's the best option for him.

As I was looking for his report card from this school from last year (my kids were in this school from Mid April to end of school), this is what I discovered. On the front of the report card, it says that they want kids to be able to do Stages 1-4 of Math/Language in order to be ready for 1st grade. There are 31 "goals" in Stage 4. Joe passed 4 of them. 4 OF THEM. Why in the world would they promote a child that only had a 13% success rate. ( I didn't copy it, but he passed 4 of the 4 physical education ones, but they don't really count.)


The more I think about it, the more upset I get. I really hope that when we meet tomorrow, they tell me what I want to hear. I really hope so. Captain America is gonna be able to come with me, I think. He said that they'd let him out of his class for it. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

So, other than that, the day went well yesterday. I had Captain America call at 7:30am to the school to try and get the appointment set up, and we were told to wait for a call from the principal. I got the kids off to school, then worked on my shopping list and the bills. I needed to know how much money we still had left over from last month. Also, my ink was out, so I only got 1/2 of the shopping list, and had to write in the rest by hand. grrrr. I hate it when that happens.

I asked Jake if he wanted to come with me to go grocery shopping. He'd never been since we moved to Texas. He seemed pretty excited. On the way to the store, I told him all about how our "Dave Ramsey" plan worked. About getting the $1000 reserve, then paying off all the bills, then getting the 3 month reserve, then saving for college/missions. He seemed pretty interested.

Once at the store, he pushed Jimmy in the cart, and I pushed the food cart. He helped me bag up the fruit, and get certain things from the shelves. He decided to spend a few of his Birthday $$$ on a bag of Lays Chips. Nasty, I know. But apparently they're his favorites. Who knew? He said he liked them because they're salty. Whatever. To each his own. I myself love me some Doritos, some Sour Cream and Cheddar, and some Sour Cream and Onion. mmmmmm!!! Anyway, how did I get talking about food. ha!

So, we got all the food, and got in line. I also bought the kids a GIANT pixie stick. It was only 10 cents. Dang, can't beat that!

The next store was Wal-Mart. I had to buy Captain America some fake Zyrtex and Imitation Vanilla. I couldn't find the fake stuff at the commissary. So, off we went. Jake wanted to spend some of his Birthday/babysitting money on games, so we spent quite a bit of time in the game/computer section. He found 2 that he liked, and still had $30 left over.

After Wal-Mart, we stopped by Andreas house to grab an old TV of hers. She's giving my boys their old PlayStation 2. They didn't want it anymore, and my boys are SO excited to get it. It came with the old TV. Even better! So, we loaded up the TV, and I headed for home.

We unloaded all the groceries (I sure missed Tom, Eme, and Joe during the unloading process), ate lunch, I got Jake started on his lessons, and Jimmy and I headed back to Andreas house to hang out. It's been FOREVER since I've seen my friends. Their hubby's leave on Friday/Saturday for NTC (National Training Center) for 29 days, then come back for a month, then leave for a year. They'll be more available to play next week. And I'm counting on it!

Kim came over, and Andrea and her made an ADORABLE fall wreath to hang on her door. I'm SO jealous. I'm going to Hobby Lobby in the next few days to get me some wreath makin' supplies! I want one too! And Kim was FABULOUS with putting together the wreath. Her bows were DIVINE!!!

When it was time to get kids from school, I headed back home. I sorted out all the cash from my budget into piles/envelopes, and made sure that I still had the right amount of money - hehehe. I did. I cooked dinner, and started the kids on their chores.

Captain America was home at 6ish, and after he ate, he and I headed out to the Verizon store. His phone's screen was shattered (but still almost useable), and we have the insurance plan. So, we wanted to see what our options were. For $50, he could get a completely new phone. And it's pretty cool.

Sweet, eh? We tried to arrange it where I'd get a new phone too, because mine is weird, but I wasn't eligible. BUT, because my phone is psycho sometimes, they gave me a new one (of the same kind I had before) for free. Sometimes, when my hands are cold, it doesn't push the right buttons. Or sometimes, it just turns itself off for no reason. I know, not so good. Hopefully this new one isn't so buggy.

Also, we decided that on Sunday (our new billing cycle day), we're gonna call in and scale back our plan. 700 minutes a month (we're not even using 600 right now), with unlimited text on all the phones, for $99 a month, then one extra line for $9.99, then insurance on each phone. All told, it'll be about $130 a month. We're paying about $210 a month right now. We're dropping the internet off our phones, and scaling back to a smaller plan. I'd sure like to same a few dollars :)

It took FOREVER in the store. The store closed at 8pm, and we didn't even leave until after 9pm. I'm sure the guy helping us was MORE than ready to leave. Oh well. That's why he makes the big bucks, right - hehehe. Just kidding :) I'm sure retail jobs like that suck....

We got home, got the big kids ready for bed (Joe and Eme and Jim were already asleep), and I started designing/blogging. Wednesday is gonna be a busy morning. I have a doctors appointment for Emeline (physical) at 7:20am, then Homeschool with Jake, then the Principal meeting for Joe at 9:45am. If I survive the morning, the rest of the day should be a breeze. hehehe.

And, one more day of our SUMMER REWIND SALE. I've moved 25 of my WordArt packs released this summer into the SUMMER REWIND section of Scraporchard's Market. The sale is, spend $10.00 and get 33% off. AND, to sweeten the deal, I've put them all on sale for $2.00 a pack. Bear with me here, as my math skills suck, but if I did this right, it should be like this:

Buy 5 WordArt packs for $10.00
get 33% off

So your total price for 5 WordArt packs would be $6.70
SO, they would be $1.34 a pack. Dang, that's a good deal! Don't you think???

Here's a list of all the WordArt packs that are on sale:

Kiss WordArt Pack
New Love WordArt Pack
Friends 2 WordArt Pack
Fashion WordArt Pack
Walking WordArt Pack

Charles Dickens WordArt Pack
Courage WordArt Pack
Water Fun WordArt Pack
Summer Masks WordArt Pack
Looks Funny Decade WordArt Pack

Baby Attitude 2 WordArt Pack
Baby Attitude 3 WordArt Pack
Butterfly WordArt Pack
Masks Baby WordArt Pack
Sand Castle WordArt Pack

Bicycle WordArt Pack
Word Strip Summer WordArt Pack
BBQ WordArt Pack
First Day of School 2 WordArt Pack
Kid Attitude WordArt Pack

Scrapbook Attitude WordArt Pack
Linear Definition Family WordArt Pack
Acting WordArt Pack
Senior Attitude WordArt Pack
Scrapbook WordArt Pack

Click HERE to go to the SUMMER REWIND section :P


Well, it's WordArt Wednesday time again! Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download this weeks WAW, and remember, leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

Laugh.

OK girls! I've got a SWEET deal for you all! So I've moved 25 of my WordArt packs released this summer into the SUMMER REWIND section of Scraporchard's Market. The sale is, spend $10.00 and get 33% off. AND, to sweeten the deal, I've put them all on sale for $2.00 a pack. Bear with me here, as my math skills suck, but if I did this right, it should be like this:

Buy 5 WordArt packs for $10.00
get 33% off

So your total price for 5 WordArt packs would be $6.70
SO, they would be $1.34 a pack. Dang, that's a good deal! Don't you think???

Here's a list of all the WordArt packs that are on sale:

Kiss WordArt Pack
New Love WordArt Pack
Friends 2 WordArt Pack
Fashion WordArt Pack
Walking WordArt Pack

Charles Dickens WordArt Pack
Courage WordArt Pack
Water Fun WordArt Pack
Summer Masks WordArt Pack
Looks Funny Decade WordArt Pack

Baby Attitude 2 WordArt Pack
Baby Attitude 3 WordArt Pack
Butterfly WordArt Pack
Masks Baby WordArt Pack
Sand Castle WordArt Pack

Bicycle WordArt Pack
Word Strip Summer WordArt Pack
BBQ WordArt Pack
First Day of School 2 WordArt Pack
Kid Attitude WordArt Pack

Scrapbook Attitude WordArt Pack
Linear Definition Family WordArt Pack
Acting WordArt Pack
Senior Attitude WordArt Pack
Scrapbook WordArt Pack

Click HERE to go to the SUMMER REWIND section :P


Here's a few pics from the party Jimmy went to on Saturday. See him there on the end in the yellow. He looks SO happy.

Until he threw down his bag and announced "I QUIT". Nice.

And decided to ride the bouncy horse the rest of the time we were oustide.

Wow, what a long and exhausing Monday I had! I was up before my alarm went off this morning. Well, not much, but still. Every 4 minutes counts. I was out of bed at 7am, getting kids ready for school. I managed to get them out the door at 7:35am (5 minutes late, but they'd make it). Next, I situated Jake with his History, then Jim and I headed out the door the Commissary. We needed Hot Dogs for the party, Ice cream for the "after" party, pineapple for me (woohoo!!!), and laundry detergent (I was on my last pair of underclothes and we were out of laundry soap!). I hurried home, set Jim up with a movie, helped Jake switch subjects, and baked cupcakes. Strawberry (sounds better than pink) with white frosting. Dang, they smelled good.

Jim had a lot of fun helping me with the cupcakes. He SO wanted to lick everything. hehehe. After the cupcakes were all done, I left Jim with Jake and headed off to Legal Aid. Captain America's cashing out his old retirement accounts (not very big), and I needed to get my signature on it Notarized. The army offeres that servies free for it's soldiers/families. So, I waited in line for about 15 minutes, got it signed, and was on my way home.

We made Steak for lunch. I'd bought it at the commissary for Jake. It's his favorite. Instead of my normal cheese and cucumbers, I had a stir fry, and got to put pineapple in it. DIVINE!!! It was SO good :)

Next, I helped Jake with his pendulum lab. It was pretty fun. And, his Lap Report looked nice! I forgot that I was supposed to put my "Summer Rewind" items on sale the night before, so spent part of the afternoon doing that.

I went to pick up the kids from school at 3pm, and had them home by 3:40. Yeah, it takes a long time to pick them up. Tom wanted to walk, and got home only 5 minutes after I did. I guess that's why I make them walk most of the time.

I got home, and started cooking the hot dogs. I grilled 1/2 and boiled 1/2. Who knew that boiled hot dogs will stay hotter longer? Well, they do. If you need to pre-cook hot dogs and take them someplace, boil them, then put them in a ziplock bag, then wrap them in a few dish towels, then place them in a cooler. They'll be SUPER hot.

We left for the party at about 4:15pm. Party started at 4:30. When we got to the pool, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. There were a few other people there, must mostly us.

Since none of our friends had shown up yet, I decided to take a few minutes and take some pictures. Here's Jimmy

Tom, Eme, and Jacob

And our friend, Mr. Buttcrack. He was here ALL party long :)

Look how big Jake is!

Happy Tom :)

It was really sunny, but Joe's doing his best to pose for my photo op!

Jake even took a pic of me!

A happy Joe face

And a crazy/funny/demented Joe face (my favorite kind - it makes his eyes extra sparkle!)

And 4 of my kids, playing nicely in the baby pool during pool break.

Mr. Buttcrack again!

Pull up your shorts!!!

Our first friends showed up at almost 5pm. My kids were starting to panic, because no one was there yet. Check out Jake's sad face because no one came to his party..... poor guy!

And his happy face when Ayden and his family showed up!

They were SO excited when the Huezo's showed. And a few mintues after that, the Timmons (Laurie) came. It was a nice party. We swam (well, they did), ate hot dogs and pretzels, and drank lemonade and water.

Jake opened his presents, and everyone had TONS of cupcakes. Between the 3 families, there were 6 grown ups and 14 kids. That's a HUGE b-day party - hehehe. I think Jacob had a lot of fun. All total (grandmas, family, friends), he ended up with $60. He's wanting to buy a different gaming system, but it having a hard time keeping his money. It seems to burn a hole in his pocket - hehehe. Silly kid!











We headed home at around 7pm, and my family had the "after" birthday party party. They ate Mint Chocolate Chip Brownie ice cream. Dryers, none the less. Sigh. I sang Happy Birthday to Jake then quickly retreated to my room. I let Captain America handle the ice cream. I don't think I could do that kind of temptation. And no cheats for me!

So, that was my day. Long. But good. Except. I'm so frustrated about my #4 son, Joe. He's in 1st grade. He went to Kindergarten for almost 5 months in Oregon. Very liberal, touchy feely Oregon. 1/2 day Kindergarten. They were learning the letters when he left. Moves to Texas. They've learned the letters in Pre-School. Joe never had pre-school. They can read in Kindergarten. He was WAY behind. We were in one school for 3 months, then another school for about a month. He was so far behind, it wasn't funny.

Fast forward to now. The 1st graders here know SO much more than him. He doesn't even know all his letters. Most of them, but not all. He can't read. He only knows about 6 sight words. So, when we went to talk to his teacher on Thursday night, we explained the situation to her. She told us that he'd catch up, and that we could work with him at home. I made up flash cards with the words he didn't know, but there were a TON of them. It was gonna take a long time.

So, today, he comes home with a note saying : Does not know his Kinder-Sight words - needs to know them!!

Um, what the heck? First of all, why are you shouting at me with all your exclaimation points. That's just plain rude. Second of all, didn't you even pay attention when we were talking on Thursday night? HE DOESN"T KNOW THEM. I already told you that. And you think he's gonna learn them ALL over the weekend? I think it's a much bigger problem than just needing to memorize a few words.

I really think he needs to go back to Kindergarten. Obviously, to be in the Texas schools, you need to know more. And clearly, he doesn't. His Birthday is August 12th, so he a VERY young 1st grader. I know he comes home frustrated with school, and crying. He doesn't like to be the only one in the class who doesn't have a clue what's going on.

I think Captain America and I are gonna go talk to the school people and tell them that we'd like him to go back to Kindergarten. It would help him out SO much. They never should have promoted him. Not in this school district. He's gonna just keep getting further and further behind. I can't do all of Kindergarten with him, AND expect him to keep up with 1st grade at the same time. It doesn't make sense.

Anyway, it's really bugging me. I can't seem to stop thinking about it. I'm gonna have Captain America call first thing on Tuesday morning, and either get it straightened out, or set us up an appointment to get it straightened out. Something needs to change. Joe can't come home feeling "dumb" every day. I think doing Kindergarten over would be GREAT for him. I really do :)

This WordArt request is from RoseAngel (Paula). I thought it was pretty funny. Doesn't it seem that way in life, sometimes. No matter how hard you plan and plan, things just don't seem to work out. Most of the time, looking back, they work out better. But often times, the here and now is pretty hard and not too plesant. I think, if we'd just sit back, and instead of fighting against the plan the Lord has for us, and insisting that our plan is better, we'd be a lot happier. 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.

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