Let It Snow

Hello, hello, hello! Hope today finds everyone happy and healthy! I know yesterday was a GREAT, but super LONG day for me.

First off, though, lets start with the NEW goodies in my store!!! I have 5 new WordArt packs, one of which is an alphabet wordart bundle, and one which is a 12 month circular calendar pack. Some REALLY fun stuff! And a crossword WordArt pack. Cool, huh??!!

Click HERE to go to my store to check out my NEW products :)

Captain America had to be to work by 7am ish, so he woke up a little before 6am. And yeah, I woke up too. I really did want to go back to sleep, but I just kinda laid there and pretended to sleep. I eventually did wake up, read my scriptures, say my prayers, and help the kids get ready for school.

Eme and Tom were already ready when I went out, but Joe was still asleep. I woke the poor little thing up, and he was super sleepy. And he was taking FOREVER in the bathroom. When I asked him about it, he said he had diarrhea. Nice...

AND, he had a bad cough. You know what? If I had diarrhea and a bad cough, I sure wouldn't wanna go to a public place and hang out all day long. That's not a good combo, you know. So I gave him the option of staying home. Which he took. hehe. I gave him some cough medicine, and sent him back to bed.

Tom and Eme left for the bus after family prayer, and I sat on the couch with Jimmy and snuggled for a little while. Jake woke up and got to school, and Jim and Joe eventually put on a movie.

I got ready for my hike after a bit. Laurie and Kari and I were going hiking in the Franklin mountains again! One of my favoritest days of the week, you know! HIking day!

Here's me before leaving

Kari came to pick me up, then we got Laurie, and we headed out to the mountains. Here's me in the car. Sporting my BRAND NEW zit. Lovely, isn't it!

And I took a ton of pictures, and it was an AWESOME view, and yeah, this is the ONLY one that worked. My phone SAID that it was uploading them to Facebook, but it lied. It lied horribly.... But at least I got this one. I'm almost to the top, and I'm giving the phone a "thumbs up". hehe.

So, Kari, you lucked out, and the picture I took where you were worried that your butt was in it, it's gone - hehe. Your saved!

It was very peaceful on top of the mountain. You could see all of El Paso's West side, and a lot of the surrounding Franklin Mountains. It felt very good to be that close to nature. The mountain air was WONDERFUL! It was chilly in the shady part of the mountain, but once we got to the sunshine, it was a warm 55 degrees. I loved EVERY minute of it!

We hiked back down the mountain, and headed back to post. They dropped me off at my house JUST as it was time for Jim to go to the bus. PERFECT timing, huh? hehe.

Joe and Jake and I got lunch organized, I changed out of my sweaty workout clothes into some regular clothes, I got my lunch together, and I headed out for another appointment. Captain America and I were supposed to have a couples therapy session today, but he had to go to the range. So the therapist met with me for an individual session. We already had the time slot booked, might as well use it, right? hehe.

It was a good session. I know in the past, he's say things that I may not have agreed with right off the bat, and I'd start feeling sorry for myself, or just take whatever he said without question. But the more that I start thinking for myself, the more I'm able to explain myself and my reasons for doing certain things. Which, ultimately, is his goal, I think :) So when I "argued my point" today, I think he was proud of me. The me from a few months ago wouldn't have done that. The me today did :) And I felt pretty good about myself, too. This therapist is WONDERFUL. I really appreciate all the time and energy and prayer and care that he's put into Captain America and I. I know that because of him, my family is going to be more than just all right. They're gonna be a lot stronger and better because of him. Thanks!

As I was leaving the office, I noticed this BEAUTIFUL Christmas tree. And yeah, I'd like to say that it's MY Christmas tree in my house. But that would be a lie - hehe. Still, it's super pretty :)

My appointment was running a bit behind, so I ended up waiting for 20 minutes in the office. See my "waiting patiently" face... What? Don't you take goofy pictures of yourself when you're bored? No? OK, so maybe I'm strange...




And then I headed to the Dollar Tree. I had a few minutes before I needed to leave for home to get Jim from the bus, and Jake had eaten all of my thin whole wheat low calorie buns. Grrr... He didn't realize that they weren't for him....

Anyway, I checked out Dollar Tree, and they didn't have any. Drat! I was gonna get a few cookie sheets, but the line to pay was about 8 people long. Yeah, I didn't want them THAT bad. So I put them back and headed home.

I tried calling Andrea on the way home, but she wasn't answering. Then I tried calling my friend Tracy in Illinois, but I didn't have her phone number, just her facebook and email info. Drat!

I tried calling my mom, but she had to go back to work. I tried calling my Grandma, but she wasn't answering either. Dang, I was striking out.

And just so you know, I have a bluetooth. It's illegal to talk on the phone and drive without a hands free device in the city limits of El Paso.

Anyway, a few minutes later, my Grandma called me back, and we chatted for a few minutes. She's not much of a chatter (hehe), but I really like to talk with her :) She's awesome :)

Then I called my Aunt Sue (my mom's mom) and we chatted the rest of the way home. I really wish that she'd come out and visit me. I know that we'd have a GREAT time, us together :)

I came inside the house, and it was about time to go and get Jim from the bus. Joe wanted to walk with me, so we headed on over. I couldn't find my phone (I set it down and the newspaper was on top of it on the kitchen counter), so I headed out without it.

Maggie was at he bus stop, and instead of us all heading to her house for a playgroup, we decided to go to the park. It was almost 60 degrees, and we couldn't pass up the outside opportunity.

The boys had a TON of fun playing at the park. And, of course, Jim was the one kid that decided to jump in the puddles and get all wet. Sigh. So he ended up playing in his sweatshirt and underware for part of the time - LOL!

At 3:40pm, we headed to the school to pick up the kids from AQ. Captain America was home, so I left Jake and Jim and Joe at home, and Captain America and I headed on up. We got Tom and Eme (Bella skipped AQ today), and headed back home.

Captain America and I hung and chatted for a little bit, then I started on dinner for the kids. Chili and cornbread. Mmmmm, smelled really good :) And Captain America taught Jake how to put on a gas mask, just for fun. Here's Jake trying it out. Yeah, I don't think I'd like that ...

At 5pm, we set the kids up with food, and Captain America and I headed to El Taco Tote. Mini date night! hehe. Something they put in their Brocheta was SUPER spicy tonight! I don't know what it was, but my poor mouth was ON FIRE!

I told Captain America to pose with his drink, and setting it on his head was his idea of posing - ROFL!
We made it back on post JUST before they shut the gate by our house, picked up Joe from the house (and dropped off the El Taco Tote leftovers (rice and tortillas) for the kids) and headed to Cub Scouts. It was the pack meeting, and we needed to pay our fees for the upcoming year in Scouting :)

Here's the 3 of us, kinda blurry, but you get the general idea...

I wanted a picture of Joe and me, and the child REFUSED to smile. Hmpf!

But he was all grins when he posed with his daddy...

The boys decorated and made Christmas Cards, and got cookies and drinks for snack. It was a nice pack meeting. We paid our fee, and jetted. We had to get home to get the kids busy packing, and head to Walmart.




We drove home, and made a list on the Dry Erase board of all the clothes that the kids needed to pack for our trip, and all of the stuff they needed to get together. I assigned a couch cushion to each child to lay out their clothes on.

And Captain America and I hurried out to Walmart. He needed new razors and floss. Essentials, you know - hehe :) And we parked by the garden/Christmas section, so we picked up a few lights as we went inside. See, I'm getting OUTSIDE Christmas lights this year! Yippee!

We were home within an hour (that's SUPER good time for a Walmart trip - ha!), and helped the kids get the rest of the way packed. Well, Captain America did. I retreated to my room to do my weekly WordArt work. I'd already designed the packs, but I needed to get them loaded into the store. And I needed to blog.

And here it is, 9:32pm. I can hear Captain America out there still packing away. I don't hear any kids, so I'm assuming they were all sent to bed. I know we did family prayer shortly after we got home, so it's all good :)

I'm feeling SUPER sleepy tonight. I don't know if it's all the fresh air and exercise I got today, the fact that I went to bed close to midnight and got up before 6am this morning, or what, but I'm exhausted! I hope I sleep well tonight!

We're leaving her no later than 10am for our trip. We're going to Cloudcroft New Mexico, and staying at a nice hotel/lodge up there. Should be a GREAT trip :) The kids are looking forward to it, and I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with Captain America, and having the kids be at the on-site babysitter! We counted up the time, and Captain America leaves in about 5 weeks. Sigh. It's gonna be a LONG year without him... So I'm making the most of EVERY opportunity I have!

Here's a SUPER cool layout by my girl, Sharon!

Click on the image above to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks! (see, I changed things up a bit - hehe - my fingers didn't know how to type that one quite as fast. I had to think about it - LOL!)

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