December

What a great day! It was long, but good :) I woke up a little before 7am, ready my scriptures, said my prayers, and snoozed a few more minutes before going and getting the kids ready for school and out the door and on the bus.

Jim woke up JUST as we were saying the family prayer and kids were leaving. I sat on the couch with him as he watched some cartoons, and I snoozed by him for a bit. I was supposed to be getting ready for grocery shopping, but I was slowly, but surely talking myself out of going. hehe. Because we could totally make it one more day without me going - LOL :)

So I just hung around for a while, Jake got up, got to school, and then my mom called to chat on her drive to work. So that's around 8:30 my time, I guess. Or was it 9am? I can't remember. We chatted for a few minutes, and she told me to go to the store. LOL! Good job, mom! Really, that's all I needed. For someone to tell me to do it. Because it DID need doing :) I just needed a little nudge.

So I got changed into non-jammy clothes, and headed out to the store. Jim was all dressed and ready for school, just in case I didn't make it back in time to take him to the bus. I got my produce, then called my mom to chat at work. She said that no one else was in the office for a few hours, so she had a little bit of time to chat. And her work number is in my "Friends and Family" free calls, so it's good for me - hehe :)

We chatted about stuffing going on, and such, and she was my shopping buddy for at least 1/2 of the time I was at the commissary. That was nice :)

I got in line to pay when I was finished, and clicked a quick pictures of all of my groceries. hehe :

I headed back home, and Jake and I pulled all the groceries inside the house. I didn't have time to put them all away, but I did put the fridge stuff away. And I had time to make myself a 32 oz herbal tea. I was going swimming (indoors), and I needed to get warm first - LOL. It was only 25 or something crazy like that this morning!

Here's me with a NEW holiday favorite herbal tea. Ginger snappish, with a hint of lemon, I think was what it was called. It's SOOO yummy :)

So I Threw on a swimsuit, and grabbed some warm clothe, and a towel, my IDs and phone and keys and gloves, grabbed Jimmy, and we headed out to the truck, and drove to the bus stop. After I got him on the bus, I drove the block over to the pool. And met Kari there.

Yeah, she's in MUCH better swimming shape than me. I thought I was gonna die! At least the water wasn't that cold. I wasn't shivering, at least - heheh.

He first few "laps" were the hardest. I'm counting one length of the pool as a lap. Because it makes it seem like I swam more - ha! My upper body strength is VERY weak, so my legs were getting an insane workout - hehe. I ended up going 1/2 way with the breast stroke, then flipping on my back, and doing the backstroke. Or something like that. I've never had swim lessons, so I don't know how to do correct strokes, I'm sure. But I managed, and didn't drown - ha!

Kari didn't have to rest inbetween "laps" as much as I did, but we both did good! My goal was 6 "laps", and I did 12!!! I was VERY proud of myself. I knew that I could have done more, but needed to get home for the Work Order guy to come.

So I hopped out of the pool, leaving Kari to do her 20 "laps", and headed for the locker room. And my arms and legs felt like COMPLETE Jello. Not a good sign. ROFL! Or a very good sign, whichever way you look at it - ha!

I took a HOT shower to try and warm up, then put on my warm clothes, still wet with my suit on.
I got home RIGHT at noon. No shower for me.... grrr.. At least I knew that the Work Order people wouldn't be there that early. hehe. Theoretically, they could, but I knew they wouldn't. hehe. So I spent the next solid hour cleaning my house. I organized the "flooded" bathroom, organized laundry, did a TON of dishes, picked up my bedroom and the living room, and after an hour, the house looked pretty good :)

Jake and I sat down around 1pm to watch an episode of Fringe, and I ate my lunch. I would have liked a shower and to get all pretty for the day, but you know the SECOND I hopped in the shower, the work order dudes would have been there...

Jake and I had a nice time watching our show. Captain America came home around 1:15pm for a VERY short lunch break, and we got to hang out for a few minutes. That was nice, since I wasn't expecting him!

The Work Order guys for the bugs came while Captain America was there for lunch. They sprayed the inside and the outside of the house for bugs. This means that the bugs will be wandering out from their hiding places, drugged up, for the next few days. Nice, huh? hehe.

And then, Jake went back to school, Captain America went back to work, and I decided to bake. Because I LOVE baking. It's relaxing, and methodical, and calming for me. And I just love it :)

I looked up a recipe on Allrecipe.com for Zucchini cookies. And found a GREAT chocolate one. But I didn't have an cocoa powder. So I edited it a little bit. Because I do that, you know. hehe.

There was a comment on the recipe that said to make sure that you extra shred your zucchini, or else people will be able to see it, and they'll get grossed out. Yeah, I could see that - ha!

So, I grated it in my food processor, then chopped it with my Pampered Chef chopper. It was VERY time consuming, but worked. I tried to use the blender, but it didn't work at all for shredded zucchini.

Here's my edited recipe:

1 cup butter (2 cubes)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar

Beat until creamy, about 5 minutes (yes, 5 MINUTES..... hehe)

Add 2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Beat for a long time again

Add:

4 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves

Combine, then add 2 cups zucchini

Stir in 1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips

Drop by teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Makes 8 dozen.



And I wanted to put a frosting on them, but didn't have any powdered sugar, so I made up a different recipe for the frosting. ha!

1 package softened cream cheese
1 tub cool whip
1 package pumpkin pudding (4 serving size, really, any flavor pudding would work)

Beat together, adding milk until a frosting consistency. OMHeavnes, it was tasty!

And frost the cookies. And put on paper plates for all of your friends! Just tell them the cookies are chocolate chip spice cookies, or they may not eat them - ROFL!

I even sampled one - TASTYNESS~!

And while I was baking, the Work Order dudes for the bathroom showed up. First, he re-caulked my bathroom, then he unclogged the toilet. I don't know what was in there, I didn't ask. But it flushes, so I'm all happy. I even gave him a loaf of Zucchini bread to say thanks. He seemed VERY pleased - hehe.

I sent Jake to the bus stop to get Jim, since I couldn't leave him home alone with the Work Order dudes, and Jim and Jake came back home JUST as the guys were leaving. We finished up frosting the cookies, and wrapping them up, and then it was time to go and get the kids from AQ.

We were gonna go to a Movie at the library, and Jake didn't wanna come, so I got Jim loaded up in the truck ,and 6 plates of cookies, and headed to the bus stop to get Joe. We swung by Laurie's house and gave her family some cookies, and by Maggie's house to give her cookies too. Then picked up Eme and Tom and Bella from School.

We left cookies with Bella at her house, and I got a text from Jake saying he'd changed his mind and now wanted to go to the library. So we swung by the house, picked up Jake, dropped off Tom's cello, and headed up the Library.

And had to park FOREVER away because of afternoon PT. It had closed down the library parking lot. Hmpf! Oh well. I parked a block or so away, and the 5 kids and I walked to the library.

We were about 30 minutes late, since it started while the kids were in AQ, but it was a Discovery channel special about seals and whales, so it was all good. They had sodas and popcorn and pretzels there for the kids, and my kids were in HEAVEN. They found a new Tuesday after school activity, I think - ROFL!


Kari and her 2 kids were there too, and everyone had a great time. Kari had to leave a few minutes early to take Josephine to dance practice, and I volunteered to keep Leo. He's inbetween Joe and Eme's age, and gets along well with my kids.

So she went to dance with Josephine, and after the movie, I took my kids and Leo back home. Yeah, it would have been better to NOT have to corral 6 kids a few blocks away to the truck, but that's ok. No one got ran over, so it's all good, right?

Tom brought a plate of cookies over to Leighs house, and I only had about 5 plates of cookies left. hehe.

We got home, and I left the kids play electronics, and they were SO excited. Tom and Jake and Leo played Battlefield for a while, then switched to Football on the Wii. The little kids played whatever the big kids weren't playing - hehe. I told Eme that she could have a turn after Leo went home, since there wasn't enough electronics to go around. She was fine with that.

I snapped a few pictures of the evening. Here's Eme and I. (yes, showering is HIGH on my priority list for tomorrow...)

Leo and Jake

Joe

Tom and Jim

Leo and Jake again

And I looked at the menu to see what was for dinner, and it said pizza. Hmpf. That takes a lot of work. Oh well. Pizza it was!

And, because I'm just nice like that, I decided to make a pizza for Kari's family too. If I'm making 2 pizzas, I might as well make 3, right? Not that much extra work - hehe.

I made my favorite homemade crust, and decided to put, you guessed it, zucchini, in the sauce. I opened a can of pasta sauce, and added about 2 cups of shredded zucchini to it, then spread it over the 3 pizza crusts. It looked pretty good.

I shredded cheese, and put pepperoni on one pizza, and pepperoni and mushrooms and tomatoes and zucchini on the others. 1 pepperoni and 2 supremes. Looked pretty good :)

And there's the pepperoni, all baked

No one could tell that there was zucchini in the sauce, so my kids got EXTRA veggies without knowing - Score! I'll have to remember that for next time I make pizza :)

Kari came to get Leo around 6pm, and I sent her home with some cookies and an uncooked pizza. She seemed very grateful :) And I cut the pizza, and put a salad with it, and fed my kids. And then I realized that I had a migraine. It just kinda all came on at once. Out of no where. And it hurt. I thought I was gonna puke.

Before I laid down, I hurried and designed my freebie for the day. Because I knew that it would be LATE before I could get to it, and needed to get it done. See, girls, THAT'S dedication - ROFL!

So I ate an apple, took an Imitrex, some ibprofrin, some tylenol, and a decongestant, and went to lay down for about an hour. Captain America came home a bit after I laid down, and I woke up at 7:45pm, and felt MUCH better. Numb, really - hehe. But no pain.

I came out, cooked myself a turkey burger and some steamed veggies, and made myself some more herbal tea. Aaaawww, that hit the spot!

Captain America put the kids to bed at 8pm, and then at 8:45pm-ish, he and I headed out to Academy Sports. He wanted a Foot Locker and some new compressions shorts (yeah, that's what he calls them, they look like spandex to me....).

Joe and Jim and Eme were sleeping when we left, and Jake and Tom were in their rooms reading. Good kids!

First stop, Howdys for a soda!

And then we drove to the East side to Academy Sports. You know, since I started exercising, that store is SO much more enjoyable - ROFL! But this mirror is ALWAYS a ton of fun :)
We looked around for about an hour before we eventually found the foot lockers. Here's an AWESOME fuzzy zebra chair that I found. It was attached to the shelf, so I couldn't pull it down and take a pic in it. So it's kinda wanky, but you get the idea ;)

Yeah, these are nasty. hehe. There's an older dude who comes to the pool and does laps that wears one of these. And yeah, he shouldn't. ROFL!

Now, there's another dude who wears one, and yeah, he can totally pull it off - ha! But he's SUPER short. Not my type - LOL!

I got a new pair of Yoga pants, and a jogging suit for colder weather, and we found a few long sleeve exercise shirts on clearance for $5 a piece. I got 4. I'm gonna let the kids give me 3 of them for my birthday :) hehe.

We paid, and headed home. I tried on my new clothes, and they all fit (thank goodness!), and then started blogging and such. And yeah, it's now 12:22pm, and Captain America is still packing his foot locker. He's gotta be at work before 7am tomorrow. He's gonna be sleepy. Yeah, I am too - hehehe. Even though I get to sleep in more than him :)

I'm doing yoga tomorrow, and we have Scouts and a temple recommend interview tomorrow night. Should be a good day :) And Eme's in charge of Achievement day snacks. We may let her bring 2 loaves of zucchini bread. Because I already have that. Or maybe we need some chocolate crinkle cookies..... Wait, I have no cocoa powder.... Another day, maybe...

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