Need For Speed

First off, I just had to say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!" Make Mom take you out to dinner. Somewhere yummy. And go ride at the dunes. You like that. Hmmm, what else? Eat lots of cake (or donuts, whatever y'all are having at your party) and some for me too!

AND, I wanted to show you a pic of my new hair. And my new red sweater. Isn't it cute! It's getting cold here, so I can wear my long sleeves under stuff again. Funny when I think that low 70's is cold. Did I really spend last winter on the coast? I must have froze to death!


ALSO, did you all know that it's National Talk Like a Pirate day? Seriously. It is. Arrrrrgh, matey. Writing this here blog post will be a whale of a good time. Ok. Maybe not so much with me and the pirate talk. I'll just stick to Arrrrgh and call it good - ha! I do have an eye patch I can wear though......

So my alarm failed to go off for the 2nd day in a row. Friday morning, I woke myself up at 7:15. Sigh. Luckily everyone was already awake. I use my watches alarm, and it got turned off somehow. I'll have to make sure to check it before I got to bed from now on. I can't be sleeping in, or things don't go well :)

I got the kids off to school just fine, then started with Jake on his work. He did Math, and Science, and History, and Educational Technology today. I went with Jimmy into his room ,and we watch Jimmy Neutron. I think it's a funny movie. The one where the chicken loving aliens abduct all the parents and Jimmy has to figure out a way to get them back. It's Jim's new favorite..... We've been watching it a lot - hehehe.

I showered and got ready and headed off to Captain America's graduation. It was at the Air Defense Artillery Museum. Pretty neat place. Unfortunately, they had all the lights on the audience, and hardly any at all on the front of the room. My camera didn't like it at all. So I decided to take a movie of Captain America graduating instead. As they called his name, the entire back row stood, waiting to take their place at the side of the row, to be called. SO, I got a nice movie of soldiers standing in front of my camera. Oh well. If you look inbetween all the people, you can see Captain America getting his award. hehehe. I tried.

After the ceremony, I made him come back into the room and take some pictures in front of the flag. Isn't he handsome!

I figured out this cool trick a while back. I you try and take a pic of yourself or you and a friend, some kind soul is likely to come along and offer to take your picture for you. Here's me taking the pic by myself of Captain America and I.

See, worked like a charm. One of Captain America's classmates offered to take our picture. Aren't we cute!

So after graduation, Captain America went and ran some last minute, end of class, errands, and I went home. I swung by Burger King and got some dollar menu items for Jim and Jake. They LOVED it. They were so excited that I actually got them fries. hehehe.

When Captain America got home, he and I went out to lunch. We went to Carlos and Mickey's (the place that Pat took me out to when she came and visited from Eastern Texas). It's a cute Mexican restaurant. Captain America had never been, and it's supposed to be one of the better places to eat in El Paso. It was SO tasty. I was done with my refeed part of my diet today, so I knew the rules for eating out and still eating healthy. I didn't do too bad.

I ordered a Taco Salad. I picked Beef, and MMmmmmmm it was good. Spicy. YES. I'm not so much into spicy. But it was delicious. Lettuce and tomatoes and just a tiny bit of cheese, and onions, and the beef with onins and jalapenos (I picked those out and gave them to Captain America). I don't like Guacamole, so I scooped it off and gave it to Captain America, but I did eat the sour cream. I left most of the shell. I did eat a corner of it, and a few chips. All in all, I thought I did pretty good.

For dessert, we got a slice of New York Style Cheesecake to share. It was SO tasty. I wasn't used to sugary foods, so it was awfully sweet for me. But SO heavenly. I'm glad we got one to share. It was just the right amount.

Before we left, we took pictures out in the courtyard entrance. It was a lot of fun.
Here I am being "afraid" of the "Weeping Angel". Scary!
And me posing by the fountain.

And Captain America by the fountain.

We came home, and I helped Jake finish off his work. I helped Jimmy clean his room, and got snack ready for when the kids got home from school. I read them 2 chapters from "The Hunger Games", and they were disappointed when I had to stop. I made them Sausage and Eggs and BAnanas and Toast for dinner. Mmmmm, smelled really good.

Captain America and I left the house at around 7:00 pm for Date night. Jake only had to really watch the little kids for an hour, because I told him to put them to bed at 8pm. Not too bad. Captain America and I headed out to the USO. It's really close to our house. Just a ways across post. We signed in, then checked out an XBox 360 game. Some racing game. And we couldn't figure out how to work it. Neither one of us had ever played XBox before. We felt real old.

The pool tables were all busy, so XBox it was for us. We finally figured out how to turn on the TV and hook up the controller and such, but then we couldn't figure out how to make it a 2 player game. We settled for each taking a turn to see how fast we could complete the course. It was kinda fun. I ended up getting the high score. Yes!

We finally gave up on that game, and went to get a different racing game. Need for Speed. Running away from the police or something like that. It was kinda fun. Not as hard to control the car as the last game. But it was only for 1 player. Just just took turns, racing until we crashed or got caught by the police. Captain America liked it a little bit too much - hehehe. I did manage to win once, though. Woohoo for me!

We played XBox for about an hour and a half, drinking Diet Coke all the while. Free soda is good! They also had snacks there you could eat. Captain America got some trail mix. It's his favorite. Mmmmmm. I just had gum. I didn't wanna press my luck with the extra foods today :)

At 9pm, the USO closed, and we headed out to the $2.00 theater across town. We were gonna go see "The Proposal". We got on the interstate, and it was raining. Pretty hard, for the desert, in fact. The cars in front of us were going SO slow. Captain America was starting to get agitated. Just like in the Need for Speed game. Hehehe, ok, so not really. But he was getting annoyed with the car in front of us. THEN, we saw what the problem was. TONS of standing water on the road. It was raining so hard, and there was no where for the water to go.

We turned off the interstate, and started towards the movie theater. We were going uphill, and the water was coming down SO fast it was like a little river. Captain America was getting pretty nervous about it. And it takes a lot to rattle the man. Needless to say, I said a little prayer in my head as we were driving. We got there safely, though. We made a mad dash for the movie theater, trying not to get too soaked.

We were a few minutes late, but I don't think we missed anything terribly important. It's a comedy, after all - hehehe. It was a pretty funny show. I liked him in X-Men Wolverine Origins, although it wasn't a really big part. And I like Sandra Buttox... um, er, Bullock. She's a great actress. I enjoy her a lot. Captain America and I were both laughing the whole time.

When the movie got over, the majority of the water was gone. Most of the concrete outside wasn't even wet. How is that even possible? hehehe. SUCH different weather/climate from where I grew up. If it rained that hard/much on the coast, it would be soaked for days. I guess the difference in the dessert is, there's no where for it to go. The ground is so hard and impermeable, it just runs off. It soaks in on the Coast. The ground is highly permeable. Not so much in El Paso. It just runs away. I bed the Rio Grande is flowing wide tonight!

We made it home without incident, afraid that our truck was gonna be full of water. We'd left the windows down in the front seat. But it wasn't even wet. I guess the storm didn't go over that part of Ft Bliss. Strange. Not that I'm complaining. I was glad that it was spared getting soaked. I don't like getting in the truck, sitting down, and getting a wet bum - hehehe.

In honor of my date night on Friday, we get the following WordArt. I thought it would be cute on pics of kids driving things. Or running real fast. Or teens in the car. Or anything fast. You get the idea ;) Click on the links 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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Ancestors

Hey girls! Here's my new products for the week. Hope you like them! And thanks to everyone who purchased my Grab Bag! It was a GREAT sale :) Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to check out this weeks Fresh Fruit, and pick it up at 20% off this first week ($2.00 a pack)

Layout by Jen (Graham Like the Cracker)

You know, for staying home most of the day, I'm still exhausted - hehehe. My alarm didn't wake me up thismorning. It went off at 7am, and I slept right through it. Captain America woke me up at 7:20, and was like, "aren't you supposed to be getting kids ready for school?". Crud! I jumped up out of bed, and headed out to wake everyone up. Tom was already up and showered. Jim and Joe were both up and mostly dressed. Jake was up, but just barely. Eme was still in bed. I was so proud of them for getting ready without me! Woohoo.

Eme came out of her room, said that her stomach hurt, and that she thought she was gonna puke. I sent her right back to bed. Poor thing. I got everyone else ready, and out the door. Laurie brought Rowan (2 almost 3) at about 7:45am, and he and Jimmy had fun playing most of the morning.

Eme came back downstairs at about 8:30am, saying she felt better. Um, no. That doesn't work in our house. If your too sick for school on time, your too sick for play. I made her stay in her room till about noon. Reading, or doing whatever. I think she was just tired from being at the rodeo so late the night before. AND, because I was babysitting, I couldn't drive her to school. So, she got the day off. She's SO far ahead in her class, I'm sure she didn't miss anything. She's such a smartie pants - hehehe.

I worked on my presentation for Enrichment meeting all morning/afternoon long. Did I tell you about it? The other ward asked me to come and present a 5 minute mini-class on fun things to do as a family or as a couple with little to no money. Right up my alley, eh? I found a TON of stuff that we've done. I was gonna print out the pictures and make scrapbook pages, ran out of time and found WAY too many pictures. SO, I made a movie. Do ya wanna see? It's kinda fun. It's divided into sections. One about School Activities. One about Job Perk Activities. And so on. But, it's all things my family has done in the past 10 years. SO much fun.



Laurie came at 11:30ish to pick up Rowan, and the kids had lunch. Jake did his school work, and went jogging for 30 minutes. He's really doing a great job. His lab report for Science looked pretty good today too! Way to go, Jacob!

The movie took me most of the afternoon to make. I also typed up a page of fun stuff to do around El Paso. Who knew there was SO many things to do. Lots of museums and historical sites and missions and such. Maybe we'll go visit some of them when my parent visit in October. That might be fun.

I also made up some Thank You cards for the leadership in Captain Americas class. He graduates on Friday. They looked SO stinkin' cute. We sent them to Wal-Mart for pick up later. I got the kids dinner all ready (it was a sandwich night - ran out of time), and headed off to my Enrichment meeting. Captain America was taking Joe to Cub Scouts at 6pm, and I was supposed to be at the Hondo Pass chapel at 6:10pm.

It was SO nice to see my friends from the old ward. They seemed excited to see me too. I was just glad that people remembered who I was - ROFL! We had a class on getting a 3 month food supply that our families would actually eat together. Then a class about relaxation and breathing. Did you know that at about teen years, we stop breathing right. Look at how a baby breaths. Deep breaths, stomach moving, whole body into the breath. We get self conscious, and stop breathing correctly about then. We need to make an effort to breath deeply and correctly.

Next, a lesson about Object Lessons. How to use them, and where and why to use them. It was pretty good.

Next, they had a Homemade Jam and Homemade Bread tasting contest. TONS of food to sample. I brought a diet root beer to drink. I was full from dinner, so it was ok. I'd also brought an apple that I ate earlier. So I wasn't hungry.

Next, it was my class. I think it went pretty well. I just showed the video, and talked about how you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a good time. You just have to have a good attitude and be a bit creative.

I left 1/2 way through the "What to do with powdered milk" class, but got the handout. Actually, there were some pretty neat looking recipes on it. I'm gonna have to test some of them out. Especially the one for chocolate milk. I bet my kids would LOVE that one :)

I drove to Wal-Mart to meet Captain America there. He needed to get the photo cards before 9pm. It was cutting it pretty close. A storm had rolled in, and the lightning was SO bright and scary. And it was raining so hard, I almost had to come to a stop. Crazy downpour!

We got to Wal-Mart, and the photo lab was closed. 5 minutes early. He wasn't too happy, but what do ya do? I made him go ask at electronics if they could go and look in the drawer. I'd paid online, so if it was in there, they should be able to just give it to me. And she did. And it was there. And we got it. Captain America was SO glad that I made him check :) Yeah me! Now he can give his instructors/cadre the thank you cards :)

We walked around for a little bit longer, and I found a book to buy. The Hunger Games. I had a digital copy, but wanted to have the real thing. I'm reading it to the kids, and reading it off of the laptop was getting annoying. SO, I now own it! Woohoo! Owning books makes me VERY happy. hehehe.

We got the yogurt that we needed (the commissary was out), and headed home. Again in the rain. Coming in Cassiday gate, Captain America got "randomly" selected for the car searching again. For the 3rd time in 3 months at the same gate. Now how random is that? I'm just saying..... Poor guy was tired and just wanted to come home and go to bed.

I am looking forward to Captain America's graduation tomorrow. I need to find out exactly what time it is. AND, after graduation, he gets 10 days TDY. It's for travel and getting set up and such. Um, yeah, no moving. No setting up. BUT, if the army wasn't to let us have 10 days TDY, by all mean, we'll take it. We needed a little vacation from school, anyway :) hehehe.

This WordArt request is from Shannon. I hope you like it, girl! I think it would be great on a heritage page, don't you? Click on the link below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.

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Breakfast of Champions

Well, I had to go grocery shopping today. I couldn't hold off any longer. We were running long on stuff that I need to eat. hehehe. Sure, the kids could have held out a few more days, but when my food supplies start running low, I'm off to the grocery store.

I got Jake going with school, and did a few projects around the house that needed done, then headed out to the store. I stopped by Wal-Mart and go my hair cut first. It was getting really long. I really like it short, but am too cheap to pay to cut it every month or so. The last time I had it cut was December, I think. Something like that.

I brought pics of myself from back then, and the Wal-Mart girl did a GREAT job. I was feeling pretty happy with the cut. I picked up some pics from Wal-Mart, found a new Bra that I liked, and headed to the grocery store.

It was a quick trip, since I"m getting so good at knowing where everything I need is. hehehe. I had to wait in line for about 5 minutes, but that's not too bad. Wal-Mart is always worse. The commissary at least has lots of lanes open when there's lots of people there. I think there were 10 lanes open when I was there.

I hurried home, and Jake helped me carry in groceries. He looked at me, and said "Mom, did you get your hair cut?". "Yep", I said. "Oh, well, it looked better before". Nice. Kids can be brutally honest. I got the groceries alll put away, helped with school a bit more, and sat down to design. I got 2 more WordArt packs designed. I also started on a Thank You card for the instructors in Captain America's class. It turned out very nice.

I had to plan out the Pack Meeting for the Cub Scouts, since I'm the committee chair, and our meeting was tonight. I got it all figured out, and such. It took about an hours worth of time.

I was running out of time fast. At 5:30, I dug out all the leftovers from the past few nights, and arranged the "buffet" style on the counter. I hurridly made my food, grabbed my scout stuff, and jetted out the door. Captain America was getting everyone at home ready for the Rodeo while I was at my meeting.

Andrea nad I were the only 2 there. Well, it could be because I changed the time and didn't tell anyone else. I know, i'm so bad. But I was so sick the last few days, that I didn't get around to it, and when I'm sick, I don't really care. ROFL! What a nice thing to say, right? Well, too bad for you not reading my mind. hehehe. I'm heartless, I know.

I was back home by 7pm, and we were at the Rodeo almost when it started. Just a few minutes late. It was Military Appreciation night. Free tickets! It was great. Captain America and I had wanted to go on a date night one day this week, cause we knew it was coming to down. When we found out there were free tickets, we decided to take the whole family.

They really did enjoy it. We weren't supposed to take cameras inside, so I kept mine nice and hidden in my purse. BUT, cell phone cameras were just fine. I even asked. Here's some fun pics from the night.

Captain America and Jimmy

Joe, Jim, and Captain America. I don't know why the kids are being so serious. Really, they had fun.

The Reays (Andrea) came and sat right behind us. Here's Tom and Sam and Ben. Aren't they cute!

Captain America and I. See, my hair is super short.

I promise. They liked it. Don't know why everyone looks like they're at a funeral or something.

Tom and baby Luke

Captain America and I again

So, after the calf roping and barrel racing and horse riding and bull riding, they had these dirt bikes come out, with giant ramps. It was the coolest thing ever. I think I liked it better than the actual rodeo - hehehe. I got a few pics with my cell phone, then realized that there was a movie option. Who knew? hehehe. Pretty cool, eh?




Thursday morning I'm babysitting my friend Laurie's youngest, Rowan. Jimmy should have fun having a playmate for the morning. Laurie is going back to school, and has class on Tue and Thurs mornings. He's coming at 7:30am. My house is trashed. At least he's 2 and won't be able to tell everyone how messy my house is. ROFL! I guess I could clean it..... nah. I need to rest. That's right. Rest is good.

OK, so at 12:56 am this looked like a good WordArt idea. If it's not, I can't be held accountable for anything I design after midnight. Truly. You never know what's gonna come out - hehehe. You can put it on layouts with kids eating breakfast. See, it works!

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

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Every Life is Precious

First off, Trina, one of my CT girls, reminded me last night that it's my 1 year anniversary of getting a CT. Dang! Time sure flies by when your SUPER busy, eh? hehehe. Thanks so much, girls, for all that you do for me. For proofing my WordArts (yeah, I know - my spelling sucks - LOL!) and for finding me GREAT material and ideas to work with, and for making the BEST layouts EVER with my products. You girls rock.

I woke up on Tuesday morning, feeling ok. My kidneys (I still think it feels like my back) was sore, but no where near the pain of the night before. The nights rest must have helped. I got up, got the kids going, but I was moving pretty slow. I cooked sausage and eggs and toast and apple slices for the kids for breakfast. And no, I didn't decide to go all out just because I was sick. We were out of cereal. I had to make something - hehehe.

I got the kids off to school, and went back to lay down. I was starting to feel a little bit nausious. Not a grand feeling. Still no burning when peeing, though. That's always good. I was a little bit light headed too. I just stayed in bed. In my pajamas. Jake did school, and Jimmy watched cartoons with me in my bed. It was a nice morning.

BUT, I knew that I wasn't gonna be getting better without my medicine. SO, I gave Captain America the prescriptions, and he said he'd do his best to get to the Army Pharmacy. He thought he might have time between 10 and 11 am. So, he headed up there. BUT, he needed my ID card, which was at home, so he swung back by the house, dropped off the prescriptions, said sorry, and went back to work. Dang. Now I was gonna have to go get them myself.

It was almost 11am, and my plan for a jammie day wasn't going so well. At least I wasn't feeling terrible. Just kinda icky. SO, I leave Jake in charge, and drive up to the hospital pharmacy. There's no parking, so I have to park forever away and walk. Not the best thing. I go slow, but still, I'm hurting by the time I get there.

I take a number, and sit and wait. And wait. And wait. It's not like Wal-Greens or Wal_Mart where you drop off your prescription and wait to be called. You take a number, and wait till they call you, then they fill it right then and there. Soldiers in uniform have their own shorter and faster line. All us other people have the mondo massive long line to wait in. And some people say that national health care would be SO good. hmpf! I think not. Anyway....

I turn on my MP3 player to Muse, try and not squish my kidneys the way I'm setting, and doze. I can still hear the obnoxiously loud spearker calling out the numbers (I'm 149 and it started at 120), but it drowns out all the kids/talking/background noises. I'm really not feeling good at this point.

Finally, they call my number, and I go on up. They give me the antibiotic and the pills to help with the ouchie pee. Of course the drinking fountain is out of order, so I go and take my pills in the bathroom. I've gotta get some drugs in my system fast - hehehe.

I'm still a little put out that I had to go and get my own drug (but not terribly mad), so I decided that I might as well go grocery shopping while I'm out. It's not like anyone is gonna take care of poor sick me. (Insert "feeling sorry for yourself" tone). I decided to go to Wal-Mart first to grab the few things I need from there.

The walk back from the hospital to my truck was long and brutal, and the drive to Wal-Mart isn't helping. I park, and walk in, and who knew how heavy my purse was. Not a good sign. I see the new Dan Brown book, "The Lost Symbol", and decide to use my own money to buy it. I also buy a CARS playset for Jimmy with the last of his Birthday money. I get a plug for my MP3 player to hook it up to the truck's CD player. Also, I bought X-Men Wolverine Origins. It came out on Tuesday. GREAT movie. I think I may actually like it best out of the 4. But then, maybe I just like to look at Hugh Jackman.

I get a few more essential things that we need, and realize that I'm not doing so well. My kidneys are starting to really ache, and I'm feeling sweatie. I need to sit down. I'm gonna skip the shopping at the Commissary, and go straight home. As I'm in line, Captain America texts me. He's at home, and realizes that I'm not there. Jake told him I was shopping. He's not pleased. I tell him that I already decided to come home, and wait the 20 minutes in the Wal-Mart line, then drive the 20 minutes home. I"m exhausted by the time I get there.

THEN, I have to make my food. I ask Captain America for help, but he's really not very helpful when it comes to sick people. Sigh. He's good at SO many other things, but not so much with this one. He ends up sending Jake to help me, and honestly, when it comes to food, I'd rather do it myself than let the 12 year old mess up the only carbs I get to eat for the day. Know what I mean?

I finally get my lunch all ready, take the X-Men movie, and go and lay down in my bed. I didn't see much of it. I slept through most of it. But I'd already seen it. Jake watched it with me, and Jimmy spent the WHOLE afternoon playing with his CARS track. He just loved it.

I woke up (well, I was really just dozing) when the kids got home from school. I helped Joe learn some of his spelling words for the week. We have one of those LeapPad refridgerator things where it plays a song with letter names/sounds. We just took the letters, and I gave him all the letters for the spelling words, and he formed the words. I think that visual part helped him out. He did a really good job with it. He still has troubles hearing the difference between A and I and E. Really, they are pretty similar. AND, he can never remember the name of the sound /g/. G. We'll keep practicing.

As I was coming in the Army Gate today from being off post, there was a Papa John's lady passing out fliers. $3.99 for a large one topping pizza. Sweet deal. It was military appreciation day. 12-6pm. Unfortunately, Captain America didn't leave the house until 5:40pm, and there was a HUGE line. He didn't want to wait in it, and drove to Little Ceasears and spent $10 something and got 2 medium pizzas instead. Either way, I didn't have to cook.

I spent a little time designing, but couldn't get comfortable on my bed. When I'd twist or reposition myself, my kidneys hurt. Dang. BUT, I did get 2 WordArt packs designed for this week. Only 3 more to go.

I read chapter 2 of The Hunger Games to the kids in my room, and I think they liked it. I can see a great new tradition starting :)

I asked Captain America to cook my dinner for me, and he drug his feet. He didn't want to do it, because everything had to be measured out just exactly. I mean, I don't like doing it either. It's a pain in the butt. He wasn't really paying enough attention to my directions when I tried to show him what to do, then when he messed a part up, he tried to say that I hadn't told him right. Sigh. Mom's just shouldn't be sick. That's all I can say. I don't know what we possibly would have done if I'd ever been put on Bed rest. It would have been bad. I do appreciate him trying to help, though. He wasn't really too helpful, but I know that deep down, he wanted to be. It's just not in his personality type to be a "caregiver".

I tried to watch TV for a while, but couldn't find anything entertaining. I looked for a movie online, but coudln't find anything I wanted to watch. I decided to blog/design for Wednesday, and then read a bit in the new book. And I'll probably go to bed early tonight. Rest is what I need. Lots of rest. Especially since one way or another, I've gotta go grocery shopping first thing Wednesday morning. We're seriously out of the foods that I eat. And I'm not messing up my deit when I only have 3 or 4 more refeed days left. And Wednesday is the day it says "ADD 1 PLAIN COOKIE". I'm SO not missing that day - hehehe.

I made this one for ya, and like how it turned out. I love this font. It's called Selfish. There's another one called Porcelain that's very similar. I just think they're cool. Anyway, click HERE to go to Scraporchard to grab the download, and remember, leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

Memories Together

Wow. Remember yesterday with my "I'm out of shape and my back is killing me" comment. Well, not out of shape. Bad kidney infection. Sometimes I'm a rock - hehehe. Since Thursday, it's hurt to pee. But, when I drink a lot of water, it's better-ish. My friend gives me cranberry tea on Sunday. It's almost all better on Monday. Except for the backache, which I think is from the walk.

Only, by Monday night, its so bad I can't hardly stand it. And I'm tough. You all know me. I had natural childbirth 5 times. I get migraine frequently. I still go about my daily life. But this really hurt. After I got the kids to bed, I called Tel-a-nurse, which sent me to the ER off post (i picked that one because it's faster). 3 hours later, I had a diagnosis of bad Kidney Infection, and 2 different drugs. One was a big ole antibiotic, and the other was supposed to turn my pee orange, but stop the "burning when peeing". Sounds good to me.

So, here it is, 1:46am, and I'm just now home from the ER. I can't fill the prescription until William Beaumont Army Hospital opens up tomorrow am. But I"m also supposed to take it easy and not go anywhere until my symptoms recede. I'm gonna have to make Captain America go after PT. Poor me.

Other than the evening, though, the day went well. I got up, got kids off to school (sore back and all - well, really sore kidneys), and then went walking with the girls. I told them I had to go a bit slower because my back was bothering me. Still, we walked for an hour 20 minutes. That's a big walk. I was sweating and everything.

About an hour later, the girls and I went to the USO. Never been there before. It was AMAZING! Free snack bar (diet soda anyone?), free xbox 360 on flat screen tv's (yeah, jake was in heaven!) (about 6-8 of them you could check out), pool, tv, movies, internet. Then, Fudruckers came and catered lunch today. For free. Apparently they do it the last Thursday of the month. Well, it's not the last Thursday of the month, but I'm not complaining. Jim and Jake got free food. I brought myself my apple (I would eat lunch when I got home) and drank all the diet soda I wanted. Katy (and Eric) and Adela (and Victoria) and Andrea (and Luke) and her mother in law were all there. I see a new lunch date for the last Thursday of the month. Heck, I see a new free date place for Captain America and I. I'm going this Friday - hehehe.

I got home, and read my book in Jimmys room. Jake worked on homework. I didn't really feel much like moving. My back hurt when I did. But if I sat real still it wasn't too bad.

I finished off "Catching Fire". OMGosh it was SO good. And a cliffhanger isn't really nice. Do you hear that, Suzanne Collins! You'd better hurry up and write that 3rd book - hehehe. I'm anxious to see what happens. It's such a captivating story. I just love it. If you haven't read it, buy it or check it out from the library. It doesn't disappoint.

Captain America was around and about on and off during the day. They were taking a week for "processing". Tying up loose ends before graduation. He was weighing the car empty and full for some kind of reimbursement. He went to the Scout office and got some stuff for Scouts. I don't know what else he did. He said that he got about 90 texts today from class. Dang, they keeps that boy busy!

Captain America took Jake to his first wrestling practice on Monday night. They were gone from 6pm to 8pm. Jake home home looking tired, but happy. The coach told them that as soon as they get home, they've gotta take a shower and wash all the clothes they were wearing. There's some mat disease they can get if they don't. Because those mats on Ft. Bliss are used SO much, there's so many germs living on them. Nasty. I sent him straight to the shower.

I decided that since I love the Hunger Games books so much, and since I hadn't continued with the little kids a tradition I started with the big kids, I was gonna start reading a chapter a night to the kids. Jim and Joe mostly played around, and Eme and Tom tried to listen. But, I've gotta tell you, when we got to the end of the chapter (a bit of a cliffhanger), the kids ALL wanted me to keep going. They wanted to see what would happen next. Yes! They were listening.

As I was sitting in bed after the kids went to sleep is when I realized that my back really hurt, and maybe it wasn't my back. My sister had had a kidney infection, and said that it felt like back labor. The later it got, the more it felt like it. And, you know the rest of my evening.

I don't think I'm ever gonna get to re-cap my Civil War weekend. I didn't even mean to re-cap todays events. It just kinda came out. Funny, eh? I haven't blogged (really blogged) in a few days, and it just kinda creeps out of me. That's when you know you're really obesses. When you have a serious kidney infection, and rather than go to bed (like a sane person would do), you blog about it. I need help - ROFL!

I made this WordArt earlier today. I was taking pics from the Civil War Living History event, and turning them Black and White, then adding a Vintage Action to make them look old fashioned. Look on my facebook account under photos, and you'll see them. They're kinda cool. Anyway, there was a empty space on the page, and I needed a WordArt. I planned to include it in a new WordArt pack I'm making, but because of my kidney infection, and trip to the ER, I needed something to give you. And you all know what happens when I design after midnight. No one wants to think about that. Hehhe.

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!

4shared
box.net

You can pick up this pretty frame on Raspberry Roads site. I used the color dropper tool thingy to pick out a color from the ribbon, make a paper, then added one of Shauna (Pineapple Plantation Design)'s overlays. Pretty, eh?

Make Lemonade

So, I know I promised a recap of the weekend, but you'll have to wait one more day. I found myself getting sick on Saturday, and I barely managed to make it through church on Sunday, and then "died" at home the rest of the day. But, I'd better be better on Monday. I've got stuff to do. I don't have time to not feel well. Plus, Laurie gave me some Herbal Tea that's supposed to help with "Urinary Tract Health", so I should be feeling better, right? I don't know if it's a bladder infection or not, but it sure hurts, and it's wiping me out.

Plus, after my walk on Friday, I feel like someone beat me with a bat - hehehe. Who knew I was so out of shape. My legs and my back are KILLING me. Ouchie sore muscles. I'm falling apaprt - hehehe. BUT, on a good note, I hit my goal weight today! 140 baby! PLUS, I got to start adding back in some carbs. I made rice cake pizzas for lunch. They were SO good. I'm looking forward to that on Monday again. OK, I need to go to bed. Hopefully I feel a lot better with a good nights sleep behind me. At any rate, I can't keep my eyes open much longer...

This WordArt request is from Sharman. She says that her daughter is always saying it. What a nice, optomistic saying :) I 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!

4shared

box.net

mediafire

Pray (Row)

I'm gonna come back later and blog about my day yesterday. I'm too tired to do anything right now but upload and link this one :) Good thing I got a wild hair last week and designed freebees like crazy - hehehe. It was already done for me :)

This WordArt request is from Rose. Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.

mediafire
box.net
4shared (having issues, it appears)