Christmas Shopping

Morning! Hope everyone's week is going well :) Captain America was up and gone before 5am this morning, but me? Yeah, not so much - hehe. I finally got up at 7am, read scriptures, said prayers, and drug my sorry butt out of the bed. I REALLY didn't wanna. But I did. I got the kids fed and dressed and prayered and ready and out the door. 8 minutes late, buy they didn't miss the bus, so it was all good :)

I got Jim situated with PBS cartoons, Jake at school, and I went back to bed. I don't know why I was exhausted, but I sure was. I know I was in bed before 11pm. Hmmm. Oh well. I was happy for the extra rest.

And I totally woke up around 9:30am or so. Feeling much better. I got dressed, came out on the couch, and designed while Jimmy sat next to me. It was a very peaceful hour before Jim's bus. I designed Christmas WordArt, and was really in a groove :)

I stopped at around 10:30am, and got Jim ready for school, and myself ready for the pool. Kari and I were swimming laps today. I did 12 half laps last time, so my goal was 20 this time. Eeek! But I knew I could do it!

I walked Jim to the bus, chatted with Erin and Maggie for a bit, Jim left on the bus, and I went off to meet Kari at the pool. And I decided to bring Jake with me this time. He could use some exercise too :) Gotta get those PE hours in, you know! I told him that he just needed to go down and back the whole time we were there. I didn't care if he walked it in the water and swam when he couldn't reach, even slowly. Movement was the idea... He did an EXCELLENT job :)

I stopped after 10 half laps and had to use the bathroom, so Kari got 2 laps ahead of me. But I finished my 20, and felt pretty good. When I got out of the pool, though, my legs felt like Jello again - hehe. Swimming is a GREAT workout.

Here's me, proud of my 20 half laps in an hour (with my new $4.00 Speedo Swimsuit)

Last week when we went swimming, it was FREEZING! This week? 70 and sunny. It was almost too warm for the hoodie. LOL! Almost...

Jake and I went home, and Captain America was there for lunch. He'd already eaten, and had about 20 minutes before he had to be back to work. Jake got himself lunch, and I changed my clothes real fast, and Captain America and I headed off post for a Howdy's run. He drove his truck, which scares me (hehe), but it was a good time :)

He dropped me off at home, and continued on to work. I got my lunch, and Jake and I watched an episode of Fringe during his lunch break. And I designed more. Cause I was REALLY on a roll. hehe.

At 2:oopm, I decided that I wanted to chat with Andrea. I'd been trying to call for about a week now, and our schedules just hadn't lined up. So I called, and got through this time! We ended up chatting for about an hour and a half. She's SUCH A good friend, and I love her to bits! She's like the sister my age than I never had :)

She came to the bus stop to pick up Jimmy with me at 2:30pm and didn't even know it - hehe. And when I had to get the kids from AQ at 3:30ish, we were done talking. Joe was just getting home from school, and I left Jake in charge, telling them to all get ready for the Library movie.

I went to the school and picked up Tom and Eme (Bella's mom got her today), and we hurried back to post, dropped off their backpacks, picked up Jake and Joe and Tom, and headed to the library.

We got there about 30 minutes late, and missed most of the movie. But it was ok, because once it got over, we just hit PLAY again, and watched it from the beginning until where we'd come in - hehe. It was only a 40 minute video. National Geographics "Monsters of the Sea" or something like that. It was really a pretty cool DVD.

Kari and her kids had to leave around 4:30pm to get Josephine to her dance practice. She has a recital on Frida

My kids had Animal Crackers for snack, and had fun sitting on the Bean Bags and watching the show. I like this new Tuesday Afterschool Routine. Eme and Tom wanted to know if they could ditch out of AQ a few minutes early on Tuesday so they could make it to the movie closer to on time. We'll see, I told them :)

And while we were there, we saw this sign that promo-ed their Christmas Movie days over Christmas Break. My kids were pretty excited about coming back for the snacks. ROFL!

The kids all had to go to the bathroom before we left for home, and as we were walking to the truck, I noticed that Jim was carrying his shoes AND his underwear. WHAAAT? New family rule: No removing your underwear in public.... Silly boys!


We got home, and started on chores and homework. And yeah, the kids were bickering SO bad I felt like yelling. But then I came up with a MUCH better idea. I sent EVERYONE to their rooms for mandatory quiet time. And I did the kitchen chores. I did the dishes, and cleared the counters a bit. THATS how much I wasn't enjoying the bickering.

Captain America got home around that time, and was AMAZED at how quiet the house was - hehe. Maybe we need to do mandatory quiet time more often! I cooked Pizza Sandwiches for the kids for dinner, and once they were done, let them come out of their rooms. And, magically, the bickering ceased.

Captain America changed clothes, and he and I headed out on a Christmas Shopping date. Since my kids don't read this blog, I can freely blog about our Christmas plans for them, right? hehe.

BUT, first stop, El Taco Tote for dinner. Just because it's my favorite place!

After dinner, we headed over to Guitar Center. We'd found a used acoustic guitar last time we went for $59. Yeah, it was gone. But we found this one for $99. And it had pretty good sound. Tom really wanted one. And of course, we had to get a sturdy case for it. You've SEEN my kids, right? hehe. They break EVERYTHING. And the softer hard case didn't fit the guitar! What? The dude seemed surprised too. So he gave us a hard case for the softer case price. That's was a GREAT deal :) I think the hard case cost as much as the guitar, so we saved quite a bit :)


After Guitar Center, we headed over to Bassett Center to go to the Jewelry Box. I wanted to look for new earrings to wear to the Ball on Thursday :)

We parked by Kohls, and walked through the rings department. Yeah, my FAVORITE place - hehe. I had birthday money from my Grandma, and, well, I just LOVE their rings.

I wanted to replace the one on my right hand, middle finger. And Captain America helped me find the PERFECT one. AND, they had 2 pinkie rings that fit my fingers! Apparently, my fingers are small. Maybe they didn't used to be, and that's why it surprises me so much now.

My right hand pinkie is a 4 and my left hand pinkie is a 5. And, I found the only 4 and 5 in the store, and the BOTH fit. Sweet!

Middle ring from Captain America, and pinkie ring from Grandma Ida

I had to keep the pointer ring finger open for my Jewelry Box rings. hehehe. But I can't wear them any more than a few hours, or else they turn my fingers green. The Kohl's rings NEVER turn my fingers green, so I don't take them off...

New Pinkie ring

I wanted to try them on before I bought them, because with their security thing on them, it's hard to tell if they really fit or not. So the lady cut them all off, and I picked the ones that I wanted.


We headed to Jewelry Box, and Captain America headed to the Target Bathroom - hehe. He found me a few minutes later. I found a few earrings that should work well for the dress I picked, and a few things for Eme. And some socks for me. And some nail polish the same teal/blue as my dress. I'm excited to try it all together tomorrow! Balls a fun, you know!

We headed home after that, since the mall was closing. But decided to stop and see if Big Lots was open later than 9pm. And it was! So we stopped in to see if they had a light up star to put with our outside lights.

And we were there for WAY too long, but found some good stuff. They had a Turkey BBQ. And we got it - hehe. We have 2 turkeys in the freezer, so we'll be able to use it at least twice - ha! It holds up to a 16 lb turkey. Who doesn't liked Grilled Turkey, right? hehe. It works on propane, which we have. Maybe I'll pull a turkey out of the freezer this weekend so we can try cooking it on Sunday...

We found a few Christmas presents for the kids, too. They had a Disney Car's race track that we got for Jim, and some Hot Wheels for Jake, some Wii controllers for $25 a piece (and they came with numchucks (off brand)), and some art stuff for Emeline. I'm still not sure what everyone's getting for Christmas yet... But we're SO much further along than we were at the beginning of the day. hehe.

We paid, and headed home, and hung for a while at home, then Captain America went to bed, and I started blogging. Poor guy has to get up and be at work at 5am again. It's now 1 minute till midnight, and I'm gonna head to bed.

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