Are You Kidding Me?

OMGosh! I sure paid for my late night on Thursday on Friday morning. I dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 7am, and kinda got kids ready for school. I sat on the couch and directed them mostly. I think I'm getting too old for lack of sleep - LOL!

As soon as they were out the door, I crawled back into bed. Jim and Jake were still asleep. I finally woke up at 10:30am. Jake, bless his heart, had started school, got his brother breakfast, and was doing his best to keep Jimmy quite. What a total sweetheart! Extra hugs for that kid!

I spent the day at home, cleaning, playing with the kids, playing online a bit, helping Jake with homework, hanging out with Captain America during his lunch hour. Basically, just a nice, relaxing day at home. I decided that i needed to go get cash, and go to Walmart for a few things, but needed to look at my budget for a bit first. I told Jake that he could come with me if he was mostly done with school. He cranked it up :)

I sat down in my room, and got out all the bill stuff. I cleaned out my purse, and tried to just keep the essentials. When my "organizing" was at the height of its messiness, I broke my tooth while chewing gum. Seriously. One of those "Are you kidding me?" moments. I had a filling on that particular molar, and apparently it had a cavity under it. Crumbled on me. It was SO nasty. That sensation is GROSS. I don't like teeth to start with. I even had to have the neighbor lady pull out one of Tom's dangling teeth way back when. GROSS.

Anyway, since we don't have a dentist, but do have dental insurance, I started calling everyone who took United Concordia. After about 8 calls, I found someone who could get me in immediately. Thank goodness!

I left Jake in charge, and headed out, Dan Brown book in hand. I've been slowly reading it (a first for me), so I still had a lot to read. The office was only 7 minutes from my house, luckily. I got there real quick. I think that was about 1:30. I was all done and finished and home by 3:45pm. I spent a great deal of that time reading. GREAT book so far.

The dentist said that he was gonna fill the tooth for now, but that it needed a crown. Sigh. That sounds expensive, doesn't it. I only have about $50 bucks left in the ole dentist fund. I'm going back on Tuesday for a check up, xrays, and cleaning. It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've been to the dentist. Sigh. Hopefully it's not too expensive to fix.....

I stopped at Sonic on the way home, got a Route 44 drink (under a dollar during happy hour - 2pm-4pm) and a milkshake. I figured that since I couldn't feel 1/2 of my face, eating was out of the question. Before I left the dentist office, the assistant actually told me "Be careful and don't bite off your tongue!" Yeah, not funny!

I got home, and Tom instantly asked to go and play with Sam (Andrea's oldest). I sent him off with a BIG smile on his face. He and Sam seem to get along well. Captain America was home at around 4pm, and at 4:30pm Andrea and I went to the park to watch Kayley's kids for piano lessons. My kids really like playing at the park. Well, the little ones do, anyway. And I enjoy hanging out there, IF I have a friend too - LOL!

We got home at around 6pm, fixed dinner, ate, got the kids situated, and headed out on our date at around 7:45pm. Captain America and I went to the USO again. It's really a neat place.

See the XBox's against that far wall. There's 4 on that wall, and 4 more on a different wall. Sweet! There's pool here too. They were busy when we got there, so we got a Wii game to play. We played Wii pool. LOL! I wasn't too good at it. OK, I was horrible. I was better at the tank game. I did manage to win one of the shooting sports games, though. Well, 1 out of the 4 shooting games we played, but hey, it was a BIG win. Does that count?



We left some love, then headed out for the movies at about 8:30ish. We got to the theater a bit late, but we only missed the first minute of two of the movie. It was an OK movie. Kinda funny, in a dorky kinda way. I found myself laughing quite a bit. Michael Keaton plays the dad, and Carol Burnett is the grandma. They're pretty funny!

It really was a nice date. Even when we do something seemingly silly or trivial, I just enjoy spending time with Captain America. He's truly my best friend!

So as I was sitting in my room on Friday night, trying to decide what I wanted to design for my freebee for Saturday morning, this saying kept popping up in my head. Yeah, so maybe I overuse it. But hey! If the saying fits.... 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

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Fresh Fruit Friday!!!

Once again, I forgot to post my new products. hehehe. Maybe I need to do a little less playing and a little more work..... maybe. I'm having SO much fun playing, though. Maybe you all will just forgive me, and I can keep playing.... Sounds like a good plan to me - hehehe

Click HERE to go to my store at Scraporchard to pick up this weeks new products! And remember, they're on sale for 20% off, of $2.00 a pack this week ;) Thanks!

OMGosh! Trina made this card, and it's ADORABLE!!! Don't you just LOVE it!

Circle of Friends

What a MUCH better day I had on Thursday! I woke up at 7am, got the kids fed and clothed and out the door. It was really a pretty lazy morning. I was planning on going with Andrea at 10am to get her hair cut, for moral support. Then, we were gonna go and dye our hair at home.

Well, at 9am, movers showed up at my door. Crud. I'd forgotten that we were storing some stuff for one of Captain Americas friends who was assigned to Korea, and that was the day the packers were coming. I was supposed to be home ALL day to wait for them. Sigh. Well, at least I was there, and it was only 9am. Unfortunately, I had a bandana on, jammie pants, an old t-shirt (no bra), yesterdays make-up, and glasses. I know. I'm SO hot. But honestly, I didn't care - hehehe.

I showed them where the stuff was, and they got to work. 45 minutes, and they were done. It took them 2 days to pack all our stuff last time we moved - LOL! I guess that's the difference between a single soldier and a married couple with 5 kids. ROFL!

Anyway, I texted Andrea and she said that 11:30 was better for her. Sweet! I had a bit more time to do a few things around the house, and help Jake with math. I told him that if he finished 1/2 his classes, he could come with us. He hurried and got 1/2 done.

I drove down to Andreas at 11:30-ish, with both kids. We decided to take my truck, but it needed gas. I was seriously on fumes. Like it didn't wanna start almost. Good thing the shoppette (army gas station) was less than a mile away.

But let me tell you, those pumps at the shoppette? SLOW! I don't know what was the deal though. You'd put the nozzle in the truck, and it would go for about 30 seconds, then shut off. You'd have to remove the nozzle, which let out a TON of pressure, then start the process all over again. Lengthy if you have a 10 gallon tank. Mine? A 36 gallon. OMGosh! Good think I hadn't dyed my hair yet! I would have had to do it again, what with all the new gray!

Here's Andrea, thinking that I was just dumb and couldn't figure out the pump. What was that, Andrea? It does it for you too? Hmmmm, see, I'm not as slow as you think - ROFL!

Andrea filling my truck with gas

Andrea filling my truck with gas

We ran into Captain America at the Shoppette. He was on his lunch break, and was filling up to. Can you tell it was payday - hehehe. SO, Andrea and I had decided to go to Taco Cabana for lunch, and invited Captain America to come too. It was pretty fun. You know, they have their Cabana Bowls on sale for $3.00. Mmmmm, tasty!

After lunch, we went to the mall for Andrea to get her hair cut. Jake took Luke and Jimmy in the stroller, and walked around the mall. He just LOVES Luke. It's funny, because he always is asking to go and play with him. So funny. Luke is almost 18 months, and the cutest little thing! Jake does SO good with him.

Here's Andrea, after her wash, getting ready to get her cut

She got some very long layers...

And long bangs

Then the chickie straightened it, and made it SO pretty. It really shone (shined? - LOL)

Here's her "sexy" look - LOL! Her hubby comes back tomorrow after being gone for a month!

We got back home at about 2:45pm. Kids got out of school at 3 - ish pm. We were unloading everyone, when Laurie called. I couldn't quite get to it fast enough. I called back, but it was busy. I texted to see what she wanted. After Andrea picked up the kids from school, we'd planned on dying my hair.

I went home, and got a text from her that she'd been in a car wreck! She was ok, but her car was trashed. I called a few more times, and finally got through. She'd already called someone else to pick up her kids, but I said that I'd still go, and take a few. She has 3 school-aged kids.

My friends were SO surprised to see me up at the school. I make my kids walk home - LOL! I took 2 of her kids home, and our other friend, Kayley, took the 3rd, and my daughter (she really wanted to go and play with all the girls). We got home, and started making dinner. I decided that since Laurie was busy dealing with police and wreckers and rental car places and such, she didn't want to be worring about dinner. AND , her hubby was coming home that night! He'd been gone with Andreas hubby for a month too! Poor Laurie! Not what she wanted to be doing mere hours before her hubby came home.

She finally got done and was on her way home at 5:45ish. Poor girl. She collected her kids, I gave her her dinner, and she headed home. I just wanted to hug her and make it all better. I don't know if it helped, but I hope so :( Poor girl! Laurie, my friend - it'll be ok!

We decided to pass on Cub Scouts for Joe. Good thing, too, because Captain America had the same guy who we were storing his stuff for call and say that he wanted to trade all the foods in his house for a home cooked meal. SO, I whipped something up real fast, and he was over in about 30 minutes. Good thing I'm fast - LOL!

Once dinner was served, I headed out to Katys for a bit. She'd invited me over earlier in the day (before the surprise plans), and I SO wanted the roast with mashed potatoes. OMGosh they were delicious! Kim was there, and helped me fix my ribbon, and taught me how to do it. Thanks, Kim!

I got back home in time to help put the kids to bed. I took Eme's french braid out of her hair, and just had to get a picture of her curly locks. Isn't it pretty???

So, after everyone was in bed, I grabbed my box of hair dye, and walked to Andreas. I coudln't wait another day. It was SO bad. Adela did a FANTABULOUS job on it! She wants to go to beauty school, and honestly, I think she'd do wonderfully! You rock, girl!

Andrea chatting with her sweetie. He comes home late late late Friday night

Here's the 4 of us at my "hair dye" party. LOL! Check out my crazy do! And Adela's crazy eyes - hehehe. We'd taken 3 other pictures, and her eyes were closed. We all said, OPEN your eyes. ha! I just LOVE this picture, though!

So I'd never dyed my eyebrows before. Maybe this is why. I look like a monkey - ROFL!

Dang, that's a scary look!

These are edamame beans. I thought they tasted a little bit like peanuts. I really liked them. Mmmm, yummy snacks!

So after we rinsed my hair, we put in the conditioner. Check it out! It looks like I've got a FULL head of gray hair - LOL!

And Adela washing out my hair. It really was a pretty color when it was all done. Mahogany, or something like that. I'll fix it tomorrow, and take a picture.

WEll, needless to say, we stayed out too late playing and giggling. It's now 2:58am, and I'm SO tired. I made this WordArt in honor of my girls! Thanks for helping me with my hair!

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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Angel Baby

I don't think that I had a free minute on Tuesday. I'm SO tired, it won't be much of a recap. Got up at 7am (after dreaming that I'd overslept because I went to bed at 5am - in the dream) and was SO tired. Got kids off to school, and went back to sleep for an hour. It went by WAY too fast.

I re-worked my October budget, and printed off my shopping list. I texted Laurie to see if she wanted to come shopping with me. I know, grocery shopping is the most fun thing, but it was nice to get out and see her! Hope ya had fun, girl!

Next home and put the groceries away as fast as I could. At noon, I wandered down to Andrea's house. First stop, Chick-Fil-A. And I discovered that they take a military discount. I'll have to ask next time I go in there. I just had a soda. I was trying to be good on the ole diet.

We went to Hobby Lobby to buy stuff for Adela and Katy to make wreaths for their door. I got a little wreath for my back door. It looks SO cool. I still need Kim to come and help me with my bows.

We got home at around 3:30pm, and I instantly went to my room to design the Hot Wheel Derby awards. They turned out SO super cool! It took me until 4:57pm to get them done, after which I sent them to Wal-Mart's photo lab.

I went outside, and worked on my checkered flag thing. I tied a long rope from the lamppost to the back door of my truck. I stapled alternating black and white pennants to it. It looked AMAZING! I was pretty impressed with myself.

I got everything for the Pack Meeting organized, loaded it into the car, then went to check on Captain America. He was getting the track loaded into the truck. I took Eme with me, and we headed to Wal-Mart. When we got there, the photo lab was closed.

WHAT??? At 6pm??? It's supposed to stay open till 9pm. Well, I wasn't about to go to the Hot Wheel Derby without awards. No way! I found the people in Electronics, and told them that there was gonna be a room full of disappointed Cub Scouts if someone didn't print me up my pictures. Some nice kid (in his 20's) from Electronics went behind the photo counter, and started playing around with the machines/computer, and made a few calls, and 30 minutes later, I had my prints. I think he helped me because I had that "If you don't help me, and help me right now, I'm going to murder you" look in my eyes. I don't know. I'm just saying....

I got to Cub Scouts with 10 minutes to spare, and frantically started setting up. By this point, I was stressing. I had that meeting with the bishop/primary counselor, and the Cub Scout guy after the Pack Meeting, I was rushed, I hadn't done all that I wanted to do, and I had forgotten to eat dinner. Not a great combo. Oh yeah, the caffeine shakes didn't help much either.

The pack meeting was WONDERFUL! Our Cubmaster has a TON of spirit, and he does a great job! The boys liked getting their recognition, and LOVED the Hot Wheel race. Captain America came and brought Jacob to help out. They ran the race. I raced, and won my first heat, but didn't move on after that. Captain America and Jimmy made it to the final 2, then Captain Americawon. I took a movie of him winning - it was kinda funny. hehehe. When I get a breather, I'll add some pics...

None of my kids won in the Cub Scout age category. They tried, though. BUT, everyone seemed to be a great sport, and they all got a "participation" award to take home. It was a great meetings.

Well, we had the meeting, like we'd planned, to discuss Cub Scouts, after our regular Pack Meeting. And I have to admit, it went SO much better than I was anticipating. They Cub Scout guy apologized for the way that he'd acted in the email, and said that he had a hard time keeping a level head sometimes. I can relate to that. I like to blow up too. My poor kids. From that meeting, I could tell that we were gonna be able to work together again. We really do have a lot of Scouting beliefs in common. About 90% of the stuff we think is the same. That's really not too bad. But, the apology went a LONG way in making me feel better.

We didn't get done with the meeting until 9:30pm, and Captain America was still cleaning up the track, and helping Jake with his Boy Scout Board of Review. We stayed around and chatted in the parking lot about Scouts until 10:30pm. My poor kids. They were SO tired when we finally got them home.

I was exhausted. And I still had to design. I only have 4 WordArt packs this week, not 5. I just didn't have it in me. In fact I was totally falling asleep when I was loading the products in the store. I went back and checked it, and I'd uploaded the train download on the blankie wordart pack. Sigh. I fixed it, though. At one point, I wrote 64 Pack on a WordArt pack. I wonder what I was dreaming/thinking about. hehehe. Clearly, 1:38am is WAY too late to be doing something work-related.

I sure hope that the next few days are more relaxing. No more stress or drama. That Cub Scout thing really took the energy out of me. OK. Stress is not allowed. Well, I can listen to it from other people, but none directly involving me. I'm really more of a "non-drama" kinda of gal. I don't know how to deal with it.


OK, I'm seriously falling asleep. Must..... go...... to...... bed. NEED rest..... Rest? What is rest again?? This WordArt request is from a sweet lady who's husbands cousin's infant son just passed away. She made them up a very nice page/layout with this saying. My heart goes out to you and yours! 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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Welcome to our (my) Home

Hey girls! Not a lot of blogging tonight. It's 2:03am, and I'm exhausted. I got kids up and to school, got Jake going with school, went to the elementary school to drop off Joe's letter to the district, stopped by the Scout office to buy a book, stopped by Wal-Mart to get some air freshener and melting chocolate, home, lunch at the USO (it was SO crowded - dang!), home again, dipped my cake ball things, over to Andreas to work on Cub Scout stuff, back home, dipped more chocolate things, dinner for the kids, designed for a while, cleaned for a while, helped kids with homework, got ready for my party, went to Andreas, drove to the party with Andrea and Katy, helped set up, product party from 8pm to 10:30pm, hanging with the girls until 12:45am, home at 1pm, bed at 2pm. Sigh. Maybe more details tomorrow. Maybe..... No, Andrea. Not too many details - hehehe.

Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and leave some love if you like my work. Remember, you need to be signed into the gallery in order to get the download.

New Blossom of Humanity

Hola, my friends! Another Monday has come and gone, yet again! It was the last day before Captain America had to go back to work, so he spent the day doing all the stuff he failed to shove into the past 9 days. hehehe.

After the kids got off to school, I woke up Captain America and reminded him that I needed him to come to the ID place for me to get a new Military ID. His old one said that he was still an E-4. Still enlisted. Not an officer. I knew that would get him motivated. He's very proud (in a good, not bad way) of being an Officer with the United States Army. It was just the motivation he needed!

The last time I went to that particular office, we waited in line for over an hour, and the line moved one or two people. It was out of control. I still had 15 people in front of me. I knew that I needed to come back when I had the whole day to devote to it. SO, we were ready for the long haul. Jake had brought homework, I had a book. We were set.

We get to the waiting room, and there's 3 other people there. Are you kidding me??? This is what I had been dreading??? Seriously, it took us 20 minutes from start to finish. Jake and I both got new ID's. It was SO easy. All this worrying for nothing. I was SO happy.

We went to the Junkyard to return a part that we'd got for the Suburban that one, didn't fit, and two, the mechanics on post said that we didn't need. After that, we stopped at Lowes (did you know they give a 10% military discount???) and got some supplies for the Hot Wheel Derby track and to make a new Civil War reenacting table. I LOVE thatCaptain America's so handy :)

We made it home by noon, and I made the boys' lunch. I made a quick salad, and some Banana Chocolate pudding pie, and wandered down to Adela's for lunch. She made Chicken Tacos and homemade spanish rice. Andrea made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, Laurie brought chicken in red sauce, what else?? There's was TONS of food. Yummy. Adela and Kim and Laurie and Katy and Andrea and I were there. I just LOVE my girls!

We ate and chatted and hung out for about an hour. Right before I had to go, we practiced our dance for a bit - hehehe. I still don't know my right from my left, and I kept messing everyone up - ha!

I got home at around 2:30, and Captain America and I headed up to the school to talk with Joe's principal. The follow up after his testing. Yes, he scored low on the test. But not the lowest in the class. The teacher and principal said that they could see that he's improving slowly. They thought that with more parental help, he might be able to catch up by the end of the year, and if not, he could just do 1st grade over again.

Um, no. I didn't like that option. First off, they have Joe 8 hours a day. And you want me to spend a few more extra hours a night working with him? The poor kids fried when he gets home. They're wanting to cram kindergarten and 1st grade together for the poor child. We respectfully told the principal that we didn't like that option, and asked what our next course of action was.

He said that we needed to write a letter to the district, including all of our information about the situation, and give it to him. He's give it to his boss, and we'd go from there. Hopefully we'll have some resolution to this soon. If they refuse totally, I guess we'll make due. I'm just hoping that someone from the district level will understand where we're coming from. Poor Joe.

We got home before the kids were out of school. I took Jim and Eme and Tom and Joe with me to the commissary to pick up a few items for some dessert for Tuesday night. Cream Cheese frosting and White Melting Chocolate. I'm making THIS, but with German Chocolate cake instead of Red Velvet cake. I don't know how she makes hers quite so pretty. Mine aren't so nice. But I'm sure they still take the same :)

Jake had wrestling practice, and by the time we got back from the commissary, Captain America had already taken him up there. At bedtime, I read the kids another chapter in the Hunger Games, and Jake got home for the tail end of it. He'd accidentally (um, yeah, whatever) read a chapter ahead last night, so it worked out perfect. We're all back at the same place again :)

Captain America got a phone call from a buddy of his who needed a ride home from the airport at 10:45pm on Monday night. It's 10pm right now. Captain America's sleeping, and gonna wake up in about 30 minutes and rush to the airport. I think we live about 5-7 minutes away. Not too bad. I told him, it's too bad your friend is a boy and I'm a girl, or I would have totally picked him up and taken him where he needed to go. I'm up this late anyway. Oh well. Captain America seemed pleased to be helping a friend.

Tuesday is lunch at the USO and our girls party in the evening. I'm also going to Andreas at some point to work on Cub Scout props for the Pack meeting. Should be a fun and busy day!

This WordArt request actually comes from my husband. He wanted me to scrap a page with my new niece. Captain America's younger brother, Josh, and his wife just had a BRAND new baby girl. She's SO cute! And Captain America thought that she should have an original WordArt to go with her layout, and that I should give it to you guys too! SO, here it is. Click on the link below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file, and leaves some love if you like my work. Thanks!

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Kaiya Faye Harty (Captain America's Brother Josh's Daughter)

Kit by Irene Alexeeva - Milkshake Quick Pages

Little Acts of Kindness

Wow, it's another new week again. How do they keep zipping by so fast. Already, it's almost October. I'm gonna put my Halloween decorations up either today or tomorrow. I just LOVE fall time. Especially Halloween. It could have something to do with the fact that it's Captain America's FAVORITE holiday :)

Church was good today. Captain America wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home. SO, I was single-parenting it today. It's always tough. Jimmy seemed to know that I was stressed, and was extra naughty, just for me. Jake kept touching his siblings, but everyone else did ok. Why is it that the youngest and the oldest give me the worst problems?

We worked on getting parts for the Primary Program ready. We told each class what their topic was, then had the teachers take down thoughts from the kids on paper. The little ones drew pictures, the older ones wrote paragraphs. Sister Laird will take them, and "morph" them into our Primary program. Should be pretty good :)

I came home, and Captain America had lunch started for the kids. What a good guy! After lunch, I took a nice long nap. It was SO nice. I woke up around 4:30pm. Can't remember what time I went to sleep. It really was a lazy evening. The kids played Battlefield with the uncles for a while, and I made Italian Meatballs with spaghetti. They liked them pretty good. My batch was about twice as much as I needed, so I froze 1/2 of them for next week. SWEET!

I chatted with my mom for a while during the evening too. She and my dad and my aunt and my uncle had driven to Seattle (6 hours away) on Saturday to a book signing for Glenn Beck. Mom has a crush on the man, I think. They were trying their best to get everyone through the line. The were expecting about 1500 people. 7000 showed up. Dang, Jackson! That's a TON of people. Everyone loves Glenn, it seems. I do enjoy his show. But I rarely get a chance to listen. He's pretty funny, and I agree with most of what he says.

Anyway, my grandma stopped by my moms house while I was there, and wanted to know where her pictures of Emeline were. She's sent Eme a Barbie in the mail, and it came last week. SO, while I was still on the phone with them, I found Eme, got her doll, and took some pictures. Here they are.

Grandma Ida thinks the Barbie should be called 'Jezebell Barbie". ROFL! Too funny, Grandma!




I read some of "The Hunger Games" to the kids too. 3 chapters, in fact! It's getting really good now. They hate it when I say it's time to stop. They really liked the part about the Tracker Jackers. Come on, I know you all wanna read the book. You'll like it, I just know you will....

This WordArt request is from Joy Rangel. I just love her name. hehehe. We had a friend when we were first married and lived near St. Louis named Roy Angel. I think it sounds similar. You know, like Stephanie Barty. Or Tim Marty. OK, enough of my weird random tangent - hehehe. My husband is telling me that I'm a dork. ROFL!

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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Charity Never Faileth

Oh My Heavens! I SO need to go to bed earlier. Seriously, as soon as I'm done blogging, I'm going to sleep. It's only 9:36 pm right now on Saturday night, but seriously, girls, I'm wiped. I need a good 9-10 hours of sleep - hehehe.

I was up at 7:45am on Saturday, trying to get ready for the McKelligon Canyon run/walk with the wrestling team and my kids. It took me a long time to wake up, and Eme and Jake didn't wanna wake up either. Jim and Joe were already awake, so that part was easy.

We got ready, and hustled up to the canyon. We actually made it there on time. I had to drive Captain America's car, which is a stick shift. Going up hill makes me nervous. I'm afraid that I'll get stuck on a hill at a traffic sign, and not know what to do. That it'll roll back and hit the car behind me, or that I'll kill it. Lots of stress. BUT, I managed to get greens on all the lights up the canyon. Thank goodness!

We parked, and the kids got ready for the walk/run. There did a bit of stretching before we actually started walking.

Here's Eme and Joe before the walk. I don't know why Joe didn't want his picture taken. Funny kid!

Group shot! It was SO bright and sunny, that the kids didn't wanna pose for me. Notice all the hands over the faces. Jake and Eme did a GREAT job of actually looking decent. hehehe.

See, even I'm squinting, and even have on sunglasses.

There's my nice Joe face!

Here's where we go jogging. Up the canyon between the mountains. We follow the driving path (um, road - ha!)

So, I bring the stroller this time, because Jim freaked out last time. I start pushing, and the child is a ton of bricks! Seriously. What do I feed the kids, rocks? Gravel? Cement? Lead? He's SO heavy! I push him up the very steepest part, and feel like I'm pushing weights up a stair step machine. I was definitely sweating bullets this week!

We got to the top of the first hill, and coach said to start running. Eme and Jake and Joe (Tom's camping remember?) did SO good. TONS better than last time. About 1/2 mile before the turn around place, I make Jim get out of the stroller and run/walk. Oh, he was not happy about it. I was, but him? Not so much.

I frankly don't know what was worse. Pushing him in the stroller and DYING from the exertion, or listening to him whine and moan and scream and cry while I drug him the remaining way to the turn around. Seriously, after we'd gone about 50 feet, we passed a family going the other direction. Jim was screaming. They looked at me with such sympathy. I pointed behind me (to the stroller), and said "I just barely ditched the thing. I don't know why he's screaming". They got a good laugh out of that. I'm glad that someone did - hehehe.

2 other parents were dealing with "I quit" children. All about the same age 3-5. It's a hard walk for the little ones. But, I drug Jimmy to the turn around, then at least had the "keep walking till you find the stroller" ploy. There's always the standby "don't be a straggler or the Mountain Lions will eat you." I really like that one. It worked well for Eme and Joe as well - ROFL!

Eme tripped and fell at one point, and came and ran/walked with me. She didn't get really hurt, but she was tired. When we got the stroller back, I pushed, and Eme held my hand, and I walked as fast as I could. She had to 1/2 walk 1/2 run to keep up with me. She got a good workout.

Here's the kids running. Jake is in front, in front of the chickie with the pink shirt and pony tail. And Eme with jeans and a sweater. Yeah, clearly not the "exercise" clothes I told them all to put on before we left the house...

Joe in the red shirt.
We stopped right before coming down the final hill, and as the kids stopped, the coaches said to put their hands on their heads. Anyone know why? Seriously, anyone? I assume it has to do with keeping your heart rate going? Or your blood flowing? Or something from not cramping? OK, I'm just making stuff up. I have no idea why. Any runners out there with an answer?

Yeah, not quite to your head, Jake. Come on, kid! Try a little harder :)

And Jim, I don't think they were talking to you - ROFL!

Eme knows what she's doing! Good listening to the directions, sweetie!

After we were done, coach gave us water, told the kids to practice their moves, and we headed back home. First thing I did when I got there (after making sure everyone was inside and safe) was take off my shoes and crash on my bed. I SO needed a nap. But I couldn't fall asleep. I even turned on my fan, shut my blinds/curtains, shut the bedroom door, cuddled up in the blanket. No luck. It just wasn't gonna happen.

I threw on some flip flops, put my hair back in my bandanna, and got the kids ready. Kayley was doing a Pampered Chef party, and I was debating going. Since I couldn't sleep anyway, I decided to go. The kids were excited to go to ANYONE's house and play. Apparently I'm not that much fun. Who knew?

The had ALL sorts of yummy foods there. And again, somewhat stress eating. Kayley had made foods with different kinds of chocolate. Pudding with Mexican chocolate. Dark chocolate covered peanut butter balls, zuchinni bread with semi sweet chocolate, white chocolate chip cookies, tarts with milk chocolate. TONS of chocolate. Plus some bread and strawberries. And chips and nacho cheese. OMHeck. WHY did I eat the foods. See, this is why I need to be on a diet. Because I have absolutely no self control. I NEED structure.

My tummy hurt SO bad about 30 minutes after eating. I'm SO not used to those kinds of foods. Not good. At one point, the spinklers came on in the backyard, and the little boys were out there playing. Rather than scold them, I grabbed my camera and ran out to take a few pics. Funny, eh?

Joe's in the blue tube, and Kayley's Joseph is in the red one.

Here's the girls. The ones on the left are friends of Kayley, and there's Katy and Adela on the right. Um, are you gonna beat someone up, Katy? hehehe.

Jake just LOVED this chair. I was a little concerned that it was gonna get popped. The kids ALL loved to flop on it. It did make a cool noise. hehehe.

And here's Chelsey making some chocolate monstrosity thing. It had 1 cup chopped chocolate chips in the brownie mix, Bake for 20 minutes. Then, she took chopped mixed nuts, more chocolate chips, brown sugar, and sprinkled it over the warm brownies. Then she pushed Rolo's into the brownies, and chopped up some Rolos too, and sprinkled them on. OMGosh it was chocolatey. Had I not just had a chocolate eating marathon, I'd have liked it better. She served it with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm.

I got done with the party at 2:30, and headed home. Captain America was home from his camp out, and Andrea was picking me up in 30 minutes to go to Women's Conference. And I was still wearing the same clothes from the day before, with a bandanna. After having just hiked the canyon. Sigh. I rushed home, and hopped in the shower. Beauty doesn't just happen by itself, you know. ROFL! Here I am in Andrea's car while she drops her kids off with the sitter. What else was I supposed to do while I was sitting in the car? Taking pictures of myself is one of the things I do best, don't ya know!

So it takes about 40 minutes to get to the Stake center. Andrea had never been. It's a BEAUTIFUL building. We go in the gym, and they have tables set up for different crafty projects. The one we sat at was making cut out candy cups for the nursing home people. At Christmas time. We got to color with colored pencils, and cut them out and use glue dots to assemble them. It was very fun, actually. I like to color.

At first it was just Andrea and I. Then Kayley and Chelsey joined us. We had SUCH a good time at our table. A little irreverent, but SO much fun. We convinced Chelsey to come "threading" with us next week. She needed it - hehehe. Just like Andrea needed it when we went the first time. We love ya, Chelsey! You'll like it. Sure, it's painful. But it looks SO stinkin' good when you're done!

These ladies also joined our table. They're from a different ward, but were fun too. I don't know what they thought of Andrea and I - hehehe. We may have been too much for them. BUT, they stuck it out, and stayed with us for dinner too.

There was SUCH a long line for dinner, that we just went to the short dessert line, and got dessert first. After we were done, the dinner line was much shorter. See, we're pretty smart and resourceful, eh?

Here's a pic of Andrea and I.

And Chelsey and Kayley and Andrea. The first one I took Andrea had her eyes closed. So I took another one, this time telling her to keep them open. This is what I got. Nice - LOL!

After dinner, we moved into the chapel and listened to Womens Conference. We had the General Relief Society president, 1st, and 2nd counselor talk to us, a bunch of music, and President Eyring talk to us. It was a wonderful conference. I came out feeling uplifted and good! And, you know, that's the point of the meeting :)

Andrea and I headed back home, first to the babysitters to pick up her kids. When I got home, Captain America had already put Jim and Joe and Eme to bed. It was about 8:30pm. He was in the garage working on the Hot Wheel derby track. It was looking FABULOUS! Jake and Tom were playing computer, and my house smelled like freshly mopped floor. AWESOME! What a great family I have :) They do love me!

So, in honor of Womens Conference on Saturday, I thought I'd make up this WordArt for you guys! Click on the link below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

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