Heaven

So we're playing Twitter/Facebook tag, and I kinda suck at it - ROFL! I kept looking at my fan page, and it was only showing things that I'd posted, and not things that EVERYONE had posted, so I didn't see when I was tagged. Sorry for holding up the game, for like 5 hours - ROFL! I guess I WAS on my date at the time. hehehe.

SO, if you wanna play, just click HERE for the start of the game. Ziggle Design has the first piece :) Enjoy!

First off, I have to tell you about my tongue. I know, that's nasty. We shouldn't be talking about our tongues. Just hear me out :) SO, I wake up and my tongue feels weird. Like I've been sucking on something metallic. I thought that if brushed my teeth, it would feel better, but no. It was still weird. Kinda swollen feeling. I kept waiting for it to get better, and it felt like that ALL day long. And I was kinda itchy on my upper chest/throat area. Not terribly, but once I start itching, it gets worse. OK, so diagnose me. What's wrong with me? hehehe. And don't say that I'm just weird. Because we already know that :) Any thoughts?

So, remember my nice relaxing day planned for Friday? Well, you be the judge... I was up at 7am, getting the kids ready for school. Everyone was EXHAUSTED from the movie the night before. Poor Joe didn't want to get up at all. Eme needed woken up (she's usually awake before I get up). I'll have to think twice about letting the kids go to the movies on a school night.

Anyway, the left for school at 7:30am. Because the gate was open. For a while :) I sat down on my computer, and worked on a new food menu for the kids. A healthy one. LOTS more healthy. I found healthy snacks, healthy dinners, and made a menu. And edited the shopping list. Which is set up by isle in the commissary. I know, anal. BUT, it saves on time for shopping.

It took a SUPER long time to do, though. I probably doesn't sound like a lengthy process, but it sure was. Captain America woke up at 9am, and he was disappointed that I hadn't gone shopping yet. I was too, but I didn't like being told that. I was exhausted from the long week, and I was hungry too. We were out of milk, out of splenda, out of fruit, out of spices. Out of lettuce, and salad, and carrots, and most of the diet type food that we eat regularly.

Captain America also told me that he needed to go to work for few hours today. Sigh. So much for a day off. I was looking forward to a lazy day at home with my husband.... SO, I called Andrea and made plans to go to the commissary with her. Because it was going to be PACKED because it was payday. Payday at the commissary is a time avoid. Trust me. The lines are horrendous!

Anyway, I asked if she wanted to come, and she said give her 30 minutes to get ready. So I took a shower, cause it'd been a while - ROFL! Then, right before Captain America was ready to go to work, he said that he wanted to drop the car off at Saturn to get it fixed. Sigh. That threw off my plan for shopping. I called Andrea back, and told her to give me an hour, then we'd go.

So I took Captain America to Saturn, who said that they could fix the car for $205. At least I had that much put into the "Fix the Vehicles" fund. It was the ignition switch that was bad. When it goes, it throws a code to the computer that the car is being stolen, so it won't start. It happens when it's cold outside. So if it's a chilly morning, Captain America's car won't start, and he can't get to work. Not the most convinent thing to happen, wouldn't you say :)

I drove to Andreas house after dropping Captain America off, and we decided to go to lunch first. Because, you know, we needed to keep our strength up - ROFL! And, we wanted to go somewhere good. LOL! So we picked Olive Garden. Because that's good - hehehe. We got the unlimited soup and salad bar (0nly $5.99). I just LOVE their potato/sausage soup. One of you gave me the recipe, and I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I'm gonna!

I ordered a "salad to go" for Captain America, since he was stuck at the battery. We dropped if off after lunch. He seemed very happy to have it :) Love ya, honey!

Next, it was on to the commissary. And it didn't disappoint, crowd wise - hehhe. It was packed. BUT, they did have everything that I needed, so that was good. AND, by the time I reached the line, it wasn't that back. Only about 4 people in front of me. When we first got there, it was backed up to the dairy isle. 4 people is MUCH better than that.

Oh yeah, when Andrea and I were in the soda isle, we ran into Katy. And it was awkward. She looked at the ground and kept on going, and we didn't make eye contact either. Sigh. I think smiling and nodding would have been less weird. Oh well. What do you do? Just because I didn't want to be her friend (because of things she said about my husband) didn't mean that I wanted to pretend that she didn't exist. I've never been in a situation like this before..... Awkward....

Anyway, we took the groceries home (I was riding with Andrea, and my truck was at her house - she dropped me off at my house), unloaded them ,and put them away. I individual serving sized out the cereal, and a few other things. It took about an hour to get it all put away. Oh yeah, and I barely came in under budget for shopping! I have $200 for the week budgeted, and it was $198. That's pretty close! Healthy food costs more than non-healthy food, I think. Last week, I only spent $160. That's kinda a big difference.

At 3pm, I walked down to Andreas house, and was gonna get my truck, but ended up riding to school to get the kids with her :) We went in and helped get the kindergarteners/1st graders, and brought them to the back. The Military Liaison was there, and was talking about a note that went home with the kids today.

The kids can't walk to school any longer, but can still be dropped off at the back gate for a few more days. Until the 29th. OK, I can handle that. And, she was pretty sure that there was going to be busing. Awesome! I'm excited :)

Andrea dropped Eme off at the house, and took me and Tom and Joe to our Truck at her house. They wanted to come with me to give Captain America his snack at the battery. It was about 4pm. He said that he'd text me when he was ready to come home, and that we'd go and get the Saturn. Sounded good to me.

I got home finally, and made dinner. Healthy dinner. Do you want my recipe? It was SOOOOO good. Well, I liked it, anyway :)

Hamburger Buddy

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
• 2 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 10 ounces white mushrooms, large ones cut in half
• 1 large onion, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1 pound 90%-lean ground beef
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 2 cups water
• 1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium beef broth, divided
• 8 ounces whole-wheat elbow noodles, (2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, or chives for garnish

Preparation

1. Fit a food processor with the steel blade attachment. With the motor running, drop garlic through the feed tube and process until minced, then add carrots and mushrooms and process until finely chopped. Turn it off, add onion, and pulse until roughly chopped.
2. Cook beef in a large straight-sided skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the chopped vegetables, thyme, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables start to soften and the mushrooms release their juices, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Stir in water, 1 1/2 cups broth, noodles and Worcestershire sauce; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender, 8 to 10 minutes.
4. Whisk flour with the remaining 1/4 cup broth in a small bowl until smooth; stir into the hamburger mixture. Stir in the sour cream. Simmer, stirring often, until the sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Serve sprinkled with parsley (or chives), if desired.

It was like Hamburger helper. I used whole wheat noodles, and you know what, the veggies really cooked down, so the kids didn't even really notice them. I did, and they tasted wonderful! It was yummy :)

Captain America texted me at 5:30 to come and get him. Saturn closed at 6pm. We'd better hurry. I left the kids, all fed and happy playing Wii, and headed to the battery, got him, and headed to Saturn. The interstate was SO backed up, we just took the frontage road. Still busy, but not as bad. We got there with 3 minutes to spare. Pfew! We paid our bill (only $162 - how often does THAT happen), and bought a dash cover for the Saturn (only $10), and were on our way. It was 6:30 by then, and Captain America was hungry. We were close to a BBQ place, so we went in and got some food.

He got some turkey, and we shared some cole slaw, and we got a chocolate cake with flan on top, and some pudding. I'd already eaten at home, so it was just dessert for me. I was full. I decided that I like flan as chocolate cake frosting - ROFL! I just don't enjoy it by itself :) Sorry, Andrea...

After dinner, we went to Best Buy to look at car stereos. (We took Captain Americas car, and left mine at the BBQ place) Captain Americas stereo's code got messed up when we switched batteries while back, and Saturn wanted to charge us $50 to re-set it. That's ridiculous! We wanted to see how much a new car stereo would cost. He HATED his old one, anyway. So we priced it out, then headed to the movies.

2012 was playing at the dollar theater. Captain America hadn't seen it yet, and it was the only thing vaguely good playing :) I fell asleep the last 10 minutes because I was so tired, but still enjoyed it. I think Captain America liked it too. Not as much as Avatar, but it was good :)

We drove back to post, and yes, Captain America got stopped coming onto post. I tried to take the "bullet" for him, by being in the lane to be selected for inspection, but the guard waved me on, and pulled Captain America over. I tried, honey. I really did. I can't help it that the guards have a man-crush on your car. hehehehe. What else could it be?

The big 3 kids were still awake, and playing games. Jake had put Joe and Jim to bed at 7:30 like I asked him. What a good babysitter. The house was pretty mess, so when I came in to blog real fast, Captain America directed the cleaning up of the house. And let me tell you, it looked pretty good when I came out to check on them :)

So here it is, midnight. Did I have a relaxing day? Um no. Was it a good day? yes. Maybe tomorrow will be my relaxing day.....

So, here's my "Saturday Second Chance" wordart. This WordArt was first released on Feb 7th of 2008. Thats almost 2 years ago. I remember liking this WordArt at the time, but can see SO many problems with it now. Do you like the re-do?

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

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A Mother's Love

OMGosh, you guys! Can I just tell you how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE my CT!!! They did a fantabulous job with my previews for this week. Look at how AWESOME they are! I have 5 new WordArt packs for you today, 4 dealing with love or Valentines day, and one for volleyball! Enjoy :)

Click HERE to go to my store to check out my new stuff. It's 20% off the first week, which makes it $2.00 a pack! What a sweet deal :)

Layout by Grace

Layout by Trina

Layout by Netty

Layout by Tanja

Layout by Grace

Layout by Jaimee

Layout by Chharmaine

AND, another special treat!!! I teamed up with Suzy Q Scraps to bring you this FABULOUS WordArt collaboration pack! Look at all of the FABULOUS goodies inside :) Head on over to the market to pick it up. You can find it HERE.



TG(oodness)IF!!! Thursday was super long, and I'm SO glad it's over - LOL! Maybe Friday will hold less. Which will make it more. Because less is more, right?

Thursday dawned bright and early, before my alarm went off, to the joyous sounds of fighting. Eme and Joe were going at it in the kitchen. I had NO idea what about, but I could hear it from my peaceful sleeping. So I got up, stumbled to the bathroom, and finally went out to the dining room to see what was the issue.

There's Tom sitting at the table, reading a book. Eme and Joe have a TON of towels on the floor, trying to mop something up, and are YELLING at each other. The milk jug (remember, my expensive milk from the Shoppette (gas station)) is cracked and about 1/8 full, sitting on the table. Great.

I helped them continue to get all the milk up off the floor, and asked what happened. And the fight started again. I never did figure out what happened. Only that they were fighting, and the milk lost. Poor milk.

I poured the rest of the 1/8 of the jug into a container, and told Eme and Joe that they lost the privilege of eating Cereal for breakfast. They got peanut butter and jelly instead. I was gonna save it for Jimmy.

I remember telling the kids before I went to bed on Wednesday night, to wake up and take a shower. I looked at Eme, and it was TOTALLY obvious that she hadn't. Her hair still had "pony tail" marks in it. So I asked her if she'd showered, giving her the chance to say no.

"Yes, mom, I did" she repiled. Lied straight to my face.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes mom!"

"I can tell by your hair that you didn't".

*hangs head in shame*.

I sent her upstairs to take a shower. She didn't look to happy.

Next, I turned to Tom.

"Tom, you showered, right?"

"Yes, mom, I did".

"Then why do you still look dirty?"

"Well, because I woke up extra early to take my shower, then went outside to play".

I looked at his hands ,and they SEEMED clean. I looked at his clothes, and the SEEMED fine. I smelled his hair, and it was obvious that he hadn't showered. Another one lying to me. What th heck!

What do you do to kids when they lie? What's an appropriate punishment for that? I sent them both off to shower, then took them to school. I wasn't very happy about the whole lying situation. Not good, not good.

I came back home, and started to work on the "FRG Phone Tree". Sigh. There were 85 people in the unit. So I had to go through each name, and see who turned in a FRG info sheet, then decide where they were single with no kids, single with kids, married (dual military), or married.

Then decide whether they wanted contact with the FRG, and what kind. We had about 18 who wanted some kind of contact with the FRG. That's really not that many. How sad is that :( But I know that there's a TON of horror stories about bad FRG's out there. I wouldn't want to be involved in something like that, either.

I ended up working on it up until about 10:50am. I hurried and slapped on some clothes, and Jake and Jim and I headed up to the USO for free food. Fudruckers was coming to the USO to pass out free lunch! Score it!!!

Jake LOVES going to the USO because he can play X-Box. We got in line, and got our food, and went to a tiny little table to sit. Laurie and her friend were there with their kids too. One of the volunteers (one I'd never seen before) came over and told me that Jake wasn't allowed to play the gaming system unless he had a parent sitting with him. What? That was news to me. I was about 15 feet away, and in direct line of site. Still wasn't good enough. So I made him turn it off and come back with me.

OMGosh, he was upset. Looked like he wanted to slap someone. Or cry. It's hard to deal with disappointments when your 12, you know. He got a plate of food, and sat with us "old ladies" for about 30 minutes, and I put him out of his misery by going home. Without the bonus incentive of Jake being happy and occupied, the USO didn't really hold our attention long. That and there was a TON of people there, and our toddlers/preschoolers were becoming restless :)

I dropped the kids off at home, and headed out to my FRG planning meeting. I was meeting Angela (FRG leader) and a soldier at the coffee shop. We even got the compfy chairs this time! I thought that we were gonna go over the phone tree, but it turned out that we were planning a "Haiti Relief Drive" for the unit.

They'd contacted Red Cross, and found out what they needed. Mostly money at this point. But they said that in a few weeks, they'd need stuff like toilietries, bedding, non-perishable foods, clothes, that kind of stuff. So, we're gonna start collecting that stuff, then have it shipped down when they need it.

We figured out the exact working for the flier, and I was put in charge of making it. We'd need to get commanders approval, also. We did work on getting the phone tree organized, and I went through the list of "contact me" people, and gave it to our Key Caller volunteer. I'm SO glad that we got one of those. Latoya was her name. Seemed like a nice lady. I just met her for the first time today.

I loathe making phone calls. Really, it stresses me out. Big time. So having someone designated to make ALL the reminder phone calls makes me feel SO much better. Pfew!

We headed over to the battery to see commander, and ended up in the day room for quiet some time waiting. We finally got in to see him, and he gave us a bit more direction about what to do, and sent us on our way.

We stopped by Housing, and asked if we could put up fliers around the housing areas for our "refief drive". They said it was great! That we could even put a donation box inside the housing office. Sweet!

I got a text from one of my friends saying that the gate to school was going to be open this afternoon. Thank goodness! I left to pick up the kids from school at around 2:45 from the housing office.

I swung by Andreas house to see if she wanted to drive with me to get the kids. She did, so we headed up there together. Apparently, the Post Commander heard about the mess with the gate and the kids and the school and all, and opened the gate again between now and the 29th. On the 30th (of Jan), it will be closed, but hopefully they'll have a bus in place for the Ft Bliss students. THANK GOODNESS!!! I was pretty excited about it.

When I got home from dropping off Andrea at her house, I got a call from the school, and it was an automated message about the gate from the school. See, that's how you do it. Send a message to all of the families. Perfect! I was very pleased.

Tom got home a little after us, since he walked from his "extra PE" class. The kids played for a while, and I went to my room to "hide" for a bit. It'd been a busy crazy day, and I just needed to sit down and breath and read for a little while.

I made dinner for the kids, and we headed out the door at 5:55pm for Scouts. We were only about 4 minutes late - hehehe. The leader was a bit late in getting there, but it was ok. We got most of the meeting. I brought all of the kids, because after scouts, we were gonna go to the movie theater (1 building away) and see New Moon. The kids had been BEGGING to go and see it, since they hadn't yet.

Andrea and I hung out at Scouts, and the big kids (and little kids) played with toys and such. Joe had a great time with his Den.

We left a few minutes early, loaded up in the truck, and headed to the theater. 2 minutes later, we were there. hehehe. Tickets were only $0.99 (and Jimmy was free because he's young), and we got double stamps towards our free popcorn. Since I bought 6 tickets (well, 5, but it was 6 people), we got 12 stamps. And it only took 10 to get a free med popcorn and med soda. The kids were SO excited!

We sat a girl form school in line, and waved and found out where she was sitting. We sat a few rows back from her. And then my friend Jessi from church (she came to the last New Moon movie with us) and her friend came and sat directly behind us! Yeah for friends to visit with!!! She was Toms Sunday school teacher for a few weeks last year, and she's Eme's Activity Days leader at church.

Eme went back and sat with Jessi and her friend, and the boys and I in the next row. Jake, Tom, Joe, Me, and Jim. Well, if there was a scary part, it was 2 little boys vying for my lap. That was fun. ROFL! I decided that New Moon was designed to be watched Kid free for your maximum viewing pleasure. hehehe. BUT, I think the kids enjoyed it. They seemed pleased, anyway.

With about 20 minutes to go, Captain America finally got off work and joined us. It was a very nice surprise! I don't even know if he had to pay to get in, since it was almost over. Either way, $0.99 is a good price to pay for almost 30 minutes snuggle time in the movie with your husband (and 2 little boys).

We came home, and put the kids to bed. Everyone was tired. I felt bad that they're gonna be sleepy in the morning, but know it was worth it for our family date night. Captain America will get to sleep in in the morning, since he has the day off. But he's gotta work a little bit. Apparently they have inspections at work, which I don't know what that means, but he's been stressing about it for the past few days. Poor guy. I love you, sweetie!!!

It's 11:30 already (HOW did that happen), and I need to design a freebee real quick and I'm off to bed. I wanna be to sleep before midnight. That would give me 7 hours, and I think I can survive on 7 hours....

This WordArt request is from Chelsea. What a great quote, girl! I LOVE it :) Hope you like the WordArt! Click on the llinks 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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Toys

Hi again :) How goes your week so far? Good, I hope. Thursday already? How did that happen? Days are just zooming by! I guess when you fill every possible second, time flies - hehehe.

I was up at 7am this morning, after going to bed a little after 1am. More sleep than the last few days, but still, I was tired. I couldn't quite bring myself to hop in the shower. I settled with pulling my hair back into a fake ponytail, washing off all the old make-up, and applying new stuff. I actually looked pretty good - hehehe. I had on a newer shirt I bought at Fallas for $3 (but looked more fancy that that), and the $5 leather jacket. And my high heel boots. And some big hoop earrings. It was a fun outfit :)

I dropped the kids off at school at 7:55am, and came back and got Jimmy ready. We left the house at 8:15am, leaving Jake on his last day of the semester to finish up. He got a TON of work done yesterday while we were out of the house. It's nice to be uninterrupted, I guess- hehehe.

Dropped Jimmy off at "preschool" at 8:30am, dropped Captain Americas broken phone off at the post office in the FedEx drop slot, and headed to ACS (Army Community Services) for the FRG (Family Readiness Group) training, day 2.

We had a good group of girls in the trainings. I think there were 10 of us in all. And there was actually a girl from the same battilion as me. Or is it bragade? I can never keep those right. We're in different companies, but in the same whatever is above that - hehehe. I'll get it one of these day :)

We learned about how the FRG works with the commander, and what the FRSA (the paid FRG person) does, and how to utilize them. We learned about volunteers, and how to find, recruit, and foster them. It was pretty good.

At 11:35 we broke for lunch, and I headed back home. Andrea had a doctors appointment for Luke, so lunch at her house was out. I went home and hung with Jake for an hour, and Captain America even came back for part of the time. We sat on the couch for a few minutes and chatted. Then I was back off to class again.

We were done by 2:45pm, and I headed back to CDC (Child Development Center - I think that's what CDC stands for - it doesn't look right for some reason..). Jimmy had another fun day, and came more happy today - LOL! No tears involved this time.

We drove all the way across post, out the gate, and parked FAR away from the school and walked down to pick up the kids. I've decided to let Tom join the "Extra PE" program at school, and let Tom stay with Sam, and let all the kids play at the playground, and Andrea and I can chat. I figure, since I have to leave the house anyway, and park, and be there, might as well. Make the most of a crappy situation, right? Give all the kids 45 minutes worth of outside play. Can't hurt. And Tom could use the Extra PE class.

We were home by 4:15, and I put chicken in the oven. I had a Chipotle marinade, which smelled really yummy. I started work on the Den meeting, and got some stuff gathered for it. The den leader asked if I could come and run a "sample" meeting for him. Which I gladly did. Well, gladly in the sense that I wanted to help him. Not that I necessarily wanted to be there with ALL the kids. hehehe.

We ate at around 5:45pm, and Joe worked on his homework a little bit. We were out the door to scouts by 6:30pm. But didn't leave, because people kept forgetting things. First it was "I need to go and get a paper for Webelos!", then "I forgot my coat", then "I need crayons for my homeowrk", then "I forgot to print out my Merit Badge progress". OMGosh. We WOULD have been early. Instead, we were late. But we were there :)

I ran the den meeting, and it went pretty good. We did a little activity at the beginning, had the opening (Law of the Pack, Cub Scout Promise, Pledge of Allegiance, and prayer), played a game, did an achievement, did a "construction" project (boys don't do crafts, you know), had closing, and ended with prayer. I chatted with the leader, and showed him the agenda, and how to fill it in, and where to pull the information from. I answered all his questions, and reminded him that if he wasn't going to be there, that he needed to either get a sub, or call the boys personally to cancel. No not showing up. hehehe.

It seemed FOREVER before Jacob was finished with his activity. The Cub Scouts goes from 7-7:50pm, and the boys scouts goes from 7:00-8:30. So I've got about 40 minutes to kill with 4 extra kids. Not so much fun.

We were out of there by 8:40pm, and headed back on post. I stopped for gas, and got some milk too. We've been out for DAYS. LOL! I paid more for it, but it was there. It cost me almost $90 to fill up. SO not cool. I have a 36 gallon tank. That hurts, eh? Luckily, I can get by for the whole month on that tank of gas.

I got home, and worked to get the kids all in bed. Wednesdays are hard days. With scouts being so late. Although, usually I watch the bottom 4, and Andrea takes the top 4 kids. That's a much nicer arrangement. Next week, we have a parents meeting, where we're planning the pack meeting. Then the pack meeting. Then an extra Wednesdays. We need to plan next week what we're doing...

I started designing, and Captain America got home about an hour later. Maybe it was only 45 minutes. I don't recall. Andrea and I had talked about going grocery shopping right after the kids went to school, but we both decided that we needed a quiet morning at home. Seriously. I've been SO running and going and doing lately, I don't know if I could handle a trip to the commissary :) LOL!

I do need to go over some FRG papers before our meeting tomorrow at 12:30. I'm meeting with the FRG leader at the coffee shop again to discuss some business. I had a turkey and swiss sandwich last time, and it was SO good!

Plus, I'm going to the USO for lunch tomorrow at 11am. Fudruckers is bringing in food for the soldiers and families again. We did it a few times in the summer. I'm excited :) I haven't told Jake yet, but he's gonna be excited. He likes the USO :)

Joe has Scouts at 6pm, and I'm gonna have to take the kids to "New Moon" on post. It starts at 7pm. I've been promising, and haven't been delivering. They'll definitely hold it against me if I don't. ROFL! See what happens when you make promises! It's better to be non-committal. I'm just saying.....

So, Jen of Graham Like the Cracker has another FABULOUS kit!! It's called Junior, and is just PERFECT for little boys :) She always does such a great job :) Here's a preview for ya :)

You can find it HERE in her store :)

And here's what I made for you guys! You can pick up her part by going to her blog, HERE


And you can grab my part by clicking on the links below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file :) Thanks, girls! And remember, leave some love if you like my work ;) AND leave Jen some love. She did a WONDERFUL job on her kit!!!

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(both shadowed and non shadowed included in zip file)

I Cannot Live Without Books

I seriously thought that I was gonna keel over today when I got out of bed at 7am. Seriously. I was dragging. I had to drive my kids to school, because of the stupid gate situation. I didn't know if it would be open or not.

I told you about that yesterday, right? Hughey Elementary and Ross Middle school's back fence boarders post. And there's a locked gate. And there's MP's (Military Police) that come and unlock it before school, and after school, and supervise kids and roads and such. Very safe. Very nice.

Well, there was this rumor going around school yesterday that it was going to be closed. Because of construction. Indefinitely. SO, I had to drive the kids to school. Because if I sent them off walking to school, and got there right when it started, and the gate was closed, what would they do? Sigh.

I got up at 7am, directed them a bit, and took a shower, and fixed my new non-gray hair. I looked pretty cute. ROFL! I clean up nicely - hehehe. I left the house at quarter till 8 and drove over to the back entrance to school. And there was the MP. I dropped the kids off, and went over to talk to the guy. Andrea showed up at about the same time. We got the phone numbers for his boss, and for the Provost Marshall's office. Someone was bound to know what was going on.

We chatted with MP for a while, and thoroughly embarrassed him. Andrea went on and on and on about how proud she was of me showering. I'm not sure what the poor MP thought - ROFL! Before we left, she told HIM that she was proud of him, too, for showering. He'll never think of women the same way again, I'm sure :)

It was SO cold outside, I was very grateful to get back in my truck and head home. I helped Jimmy get on some shoes and socks, and we headed out the door. Jake had a TON of work to do for school today, and he was going to have the house to himself Peace and quite. Undisturbed working time (well, except for Captain America's lunch hour. He'd be home).

We headed to CDC (Child Development Center), and I got Jimmy all signed in. We went to the preschool room, and Jim was SO excited. He was SO happy to be at "preschool". ROFL! It looked like a preschool, so I let him think it was :) He didn't even want a hug goodbye. He was too busy scoping out the room, and playing. Looked like he was gonna fit in just fine.

I drove over to ACS (Army Community Services) for my class, and was the first to arrive. There were about 10 women total in the class. Nice girls :) They had snacks for us (donations), and some M&Ms for our chocolate fix. They knew how to treat us right :) hehehe.

From 9-11:40, we had an overview of the FRG (Family Readiness Group), its mission and purpose. Next, we learned about how to effectivly communicate with the families that we're responsible for. We had a break in there at some point, and I got some snacks (sun chips and peanuts), and I felt MUCH better. I'd ran out of the house with just an apple and a water bottle, and needed something else in my poor tummy.

I called the numbers from the MP during the break, and I finally got a hold of someone. They said that they'd received a TON of calls, and that they were currently trying to get a hold of housing AND the construction guys, and said to call back in 2 hours. That would be around lunch. Sounded good.

Andrea texted me around lunch time, and wanted to know if I wanted to go to Applebees. Sounded PERFECT to me! Shrimp and spinach salad is the BOMB! I got there first, and ordered for me and her and Luke. So when she got there, there was already food on the table. See, we're efficient. We only had about 20 minutes to eat and chat before I had to run off to my meeting, but lunch was fun! Thanks, girl!

The 2nd 1/2 of the day we learned about how the FRG leader and the unit leader work together. And then we had a bunch of the services at ACS come and talk to us about their programs.

They have a TON of classes. A ton, really. And I got to thinking. If I picked classes, twice a week, for a few hours, Jimmy would get free childcare in the preschool room. Well, isn't that preschool? And all I'd have to pay is my time. And I'd be learning something at the same time. Sounded like a win/win to me - hehehe. I'm gonna look into that more...

We got some free stuff as hand outs too. Pens, and a 3 sided highlighter (triangle shaped), and even a flash (thumb, whatever it's called) drive. Only 1GB, but still. It's free. And mine - ROFL!

At 2:50, I was headed back to the CDC to pick up Jimmy. He'd had a WONDERFUL time, and didn't want to leave. He wanted to go back and play outside. Sigh. I almost had to drag a crying child from the building. But he "manned up", and came peacefully - hehehe.

On the way across post, Andrea called and said that the gate was locked. Sigh. I was gonna be late getting off post and picking up the kids. What a mad house. Who locks a gate without giving warning to ANYONE. I was getting madder and madder by the second. That's SO not cool. Parent didn't have time to make a "plan" as to how to get their "walking" children home from school.

The 2 schools sit side by side, and let me tell you, it was a madhouse. No parking anywhere. I had to park in the middle school parking lot, and walk down to find my kids. I waited outside Joe's room, and no Joe. His teacher said that all the Ft Bliss kids were being held in the gym. OMGosh!

So I went in the gym, and there were parents and kids and teachers everywhere. It was chaos. And let me tell you. Those moms were just as hot as me. I kinda felt sorry for the principal. He didn't cause this problem (for once). He has no control over the MPs locking the gate. That's not his job. And I think he was glad for that. I woudln't want this angry group against me - hehehe.

After about 5 minutes, I realized that I was missing a child. And I started to panic a bit. I couldn't find Emeline. She wasn't in the gym. I left the other 2, took Jim with me, and went to search for her. She wasn't in her classroom, and neither was her teacher. I finally found her out by the back gate, waiting for her brothers. Just like she was normally supposed to do. Sigh.

I took her back to the gym, and we all talked about possible solutions. I thought maybe we could just transfer to the "on post" school. I didn't want to have to leave post and get back on post each day to take my child to school. (I called later, and the school wasn't accepting transfers, though, so that option was out).

We talked about either the school district or the post providing a bus for the kids. Really, that would be great. I'd be happy with that. People started to trickle out, and Andrea said that she couldn't leave, because Sam (her 11 yr old) had extra PE club. So I decided to stay and wait with her, and we took the kids to the playground to play. I think they had fun. And we had more time to be mad about the stupid gate.

After extra PE, I took Jim, Joe, Tom, and Eme, and walked to the other school, got the truck, and came inside the gate. What a hassle! When we got home, Andrea texted and said to come and hang at the park for a while.

Really, I had a TOn of work to do, but went for a little while. I stayed until about 5pm, and chatted with her and Leslie. I hadn't seen Leslie for a while. We eventually came home, and I directed Tom in fixing Hot Dogs for the kids, and I retreated to my room to work. Tuesday at 10pm my time is the deadline to get new products in the store for Friday. So, I already had 2 done, and needed 3 more.

I ended up designing some "kid" Valentines packs. Pirates and Princesses. I liked 'em! I got Joe's homework done with him, and put the kids to bed by 8pm.

I worked on a WordArt collaberation with SuzyQScraps, and got it all ready for release on Friday too. I did my WordArt Wednesday, and got it all posted. Captain America came home at around 9pm (yeah, so much for coming home early)

I started blogging at 10:30pm, and am almost done now. I'm SO tired. Hopefully tomorrow will be less stressful. But then, I have to drive the kids to off post school, drop Jimmy off at CDC, go to my class at ACS, lunch at Andreas, back to ACS, pick up Jimmy at CDC, pick up kids off post, come home, prepare a Cub Scout Den Meeting (the leader is struggling, and wanted me to do a "sample" meeting), dinner, Cub Scouts at 7pm with all 5 kids (sigh), come home, design, blog, sleep. See, tomorrow isn't gonna be any better than today.

I know. How about you all donate 10 minutes of sleep from your night to me. I'd be SO rested when I woke up, with all of your 10 minutes..... No? You need your sleep? Crud. Well, it sounded like a good plan, anyway...

Oh yes, this statement is SO true! Well, I can, but how fun it THAT! Not fun at all :) Click HERE to go to scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember few things. First, it's only available for about a week. Second, you must be signed into the GALLERY in order to get the download. And third, leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

I'll Start Tomorrow

Sleepy.... so.... sleepy.....eyes....drooping.....stay....awake...

It's now 2:21am, and I'm EXHAUSTED. And it's all Andreas fault! ROFL! I went over to her house at 10pm to dye my hair, and of COURSE we stayed up WAY too late laughing and giggling and having WAY too much fun. And now I'm working. Blogging at 2:21am is not good. Neither is designing. I'll have to do something REALLY simple. You know how I get with typos - ROFL!

So I was tired already when I woke up, from reading too late the night before. 2:30am will NOT be my new bedtime. I promise. I'm getting some more sleep after today :) I got the kids ready and out the door (somehow), and Jimmy and I went back to my room for some sleep. Well, trying to sleep for me, and PBS cartoon for him.

I woke up/got up at 9am. My mom called, then Andrea called, then I spent some time on the phone with CDC (Child Development Centers - Day Care for the Army) trying to schedule child care for Jim during my FRG (Family Readiness Group) leader training. They said I had to call CYS (Children Youth Services) and give them my sponsor (husbands) duty number (work phone number) before I could make an appointment.

So, I texted Captain America to tell him to text me the Duty number, and waited. My friend from church, Heather Shoaf, came over to visit, and we were gonna work on a "flyer" for her for work. She sells Scentsy. She's gonna put up a nice flyer (framed) in the local day salon/spa, and wanted some help to make it look nice.

We mostly chatted the whole time, and let her 1 and 3 year old girls play with Jimmy and Jake. I think Jake had the most fun - LOL! He really likes babies :) Jimmy? Well, he had some fun. But they are girls, you know :)

We got a good start on the flyer, and she had to go. I finished it up after she left. Captain America came home for lunch at noon, right as Heather was leaving. After lunch, I read for a bit, helped Jake with school for a bit, played with Jimmy for a bit (but mostly just read - LOL!), and finally, at 3pm, decided to get ready for my meeting at 4pm.

Kids were home at 3:50pm, right when I was leaving the house. I left Jake in charge, and headed for the battery (where Captain America works) (dang, there's a lot of Army Specific lingo in my language, isn't there!). The FRG leader and I were meeting with the Commander to go over some FRG stuff and to try and schedule dates. The dates were penciled in, cause he didn't know a hard fast set time for "field exercises". Sigh. We tried, though. We penciled in activities through April, I think. Or was it March?

It only last about 30 minutes with Commander, but we waited 1 1/2 hours to just get in to see him. Sigh. His previous meeting went long. So Angela (FRG leader) and I stood and sat and chatted about FRG stuff. For a very long time - heehehe.

When I finally left, it was almost 6pm. I stopped by Burger King on the way home, because i just knew that my kids would be starving. I waited in line F.O.R.E.V.E.R!!! How long does it take to make up a few fries and a few Whopper Juniors? I mean, really!

After about 20 minutes, I was back home. I started passing out the burgers, and found that I had 6 plates, and 6 fries, yet only 5 burgers. But I paid for 6. I was not happy. Jimmy said that he'd be fine with a hot dog, so I did end up with a burger after all. But I was out the dollar. Sigh.

I told the kids to do their chores, but they were a bit fried from being home for 2 hours with Jake. Captain America got home at about that time, and let me just go hide in the bedroom. I know that "Johnny" will be here soon ,and it makes me irritable. Plus, I'd just found out from Andrea that they may or may not be closing the gate behind the school. So my kids would have to be dropped off and picked up from school (outside of post) everday. SO not cool. For one, it's their exercise. For another, I'd have to leave post to drop off/pick up the kids. That kinda requires a different level of readiness for the day, you know. Bras are kinda required. And I have to leave the house.

I'm gonna have to speak to someone about it, and find out what's going on. Because that's not cool.

While in my room, I got 2 WordArt packs designed, and some emails taken care of. I told myself, that if I was productive, and did 2 WordArt packs, that I could be rewareded with reading more of my book - LOL!

Captain America put the little kids to bed, reading them stories and such, and played a game of Wii Tennis with Tom and played a real game of Chess with Jake. I like that it's becoming their nightly routine.

At 9pm, I texted Andrea and asked if she could help me color my hair. Because my graw was simple out of control. SO bad around my ears. Not so cool! No response, so I sat down on the bed and read for a little while.

Captain America came in, and popped in a Civil War DVD, and watched a few minutes of it while I read. Andrea texted again at around 10pm, and said that I could come over now for the hair party. Sigh. It was SO late, and I was tired, and hadn't blogged yet, but I just couldn't resist. I hadn't seen Andrea in over 24 hours, and that's just not right - ROFL! So I drug my tired butt down to her house.

She did a GREAT job on my hair! No more gray! Just some pretty Dark Mahogany highlight -hehehe.

SO, my tired brain came up with this. Hopefully it's passable. Hopefully :) I'm tired. I can hardly see the screen. I don't know if it's spelled right. My eyes won't stay awake. SO, Here it is. Hopefully it's fine :) Click on the lnks below to go to my accont to dwonload the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. See, typos galore...

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Hmmmmm...

Well, I woke up this morning with a head cold. Not so fun. I'd been feeling a bit congested for a while, and had some sinus pressure. I couldn't breathe. I took some Dayquil, and pushed on - LOL! I directed the older kits to the shower, and started a bath for the younger ones.

I picked out their clothes (the little ones), and laid it out in their room. In piles. Really, could it be any easier for them? - LOL! They managed to get the wrong piles after their bath, and Joe's clothes were HUGE, and Jim couldn't get his undies past his butt crack, and his pants wouldn't button. I had to strip them down and switch clothes. Sigh.

I showered, and found something to wear that didn't require my "full body girdle". And let me tell you, being 20 lbs up from my goal weight, it's slim pickin's. But I finally found something nice, yet baggy. Do those even go together - hehehe.

I wanted Tom to go out to the truck to grab my Sunday bag so I could "dump the extra weight" from all the crap that the kids seem to dump in my bag every Sunday. But Tom said the truck was gone. Sigh. The car must not have started this morning. It doesn't like the cold. And El Paso isn't supposed to be this cold. Anyway, Captain America had left for church at 6am, long before I was awake. hehehe.

Captain America came back home at around 8:30am, and we all loaded up in the truck, his car now started, and he headed off in his car to church. He's gotta say after for more meetings. Church was good. I was bad, and went through my Sunday bag there. I found a TON of stuff to throw away, and put my new rosters in the page protectors, and threw out the old ones. I know, that's not reverent. I usually sit nice and quietly. Maybe I can blame it on the headcold. Does that work? No? OK, I'm sorry. I will be more reverent next week, I promise...

Primary was busy as usual. We had the Sunbeam A teacher (Andrea), home with Luke (can't take him out for a few days, doctors orders), and we currently don't have a Sunbeam B teacher (she moved last week). Luckily, Laurie was subbing for the A class, and Kayley said that she'd sit with the B class for the first hour. There was few enough kids (usually 8-10 in each class - but only 8 total today) that we could combine A & B together, then just get an extra "body" to "crowd control". It worked nicely.

The 7 yr old teacher was gone, but actually got her own sub. Miracles never cease - ROFL! I love it when a plan comes together!

We got home at around 12:45pm, and got lunch started. Sausage and eggs with onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and some dehydrated hashbrown potatoes. It was really pretty good. I sat down and watched a movie with the kids after lunch. "Monsters and Mazes". OMGosh, it was lame. I guess it was one of Tom Hanks first movies. It was a stinker - ROFL!

It was all about how this game, "monsters and mazes" (think Dungeons and Dragons) corrupted these kids, and one went insane and almost killed himself. We play Dungeons and Dragons, and we've never gone crazy. ROFL! I told the boys that the moral of the story is to just not go Crazy. Not that D&D is bad. Or computer games. Or video games. Or guns. Same concept. It's not the tool that is bad, it's how it's used. Things can be used for good or for "evil". It's all a personal choice. So, if nothing else, it was a good "conversation starter" with the kids.

Captain America got home at about the time the movie was over, changed clothes, and went to set up the Hotwheel Race Track for the little boys. It goes from my kitchen to my computer area. Nice. It's just slightly in the way. hehehe. It's a good thing I like those little boys - hehehe.

They had fun racing their hot wheels with their dad. That lasted for about 20 minutes, then Captain America went in to nap. He and Jake had a "fireside" to go to in the evening, and they'd volunteered me to bring cookies. No problem.

I wanted a nap, but before I took one, I wanted to get the cookies out of the way. SO, I made some Oatmeal chocolate cookies. I didn't have chocolate chips, so I just put some cocoa powder in the dough. It was pretty tasty. And we even had some extras to munch on here. I know, not so good for ANY of our diets.

I laid down for a nap, but Captain America kept talking in his sleep, and was disturbing me - ROFL! He kept asking about the "slides", and if someone was supposed to be coming over to work on them, and then saying how if they weren't done, it was gonna be my fault. I swear he was awake. He even got up and went to the bathroom, and was still talking about it. I coudln't convince him that he was asleep, and to just lay back down. Really, it was funny.

After that episode, I wasn't tired anymore. I grabbed my laptop, and played on it for a while. I woke him up at 5:30, asking what time the fireside was. Thinking it was at 7:00. It was 6pm. Dang. They were gonna be late. I helped the guys get ready and out the door, then cooked dinner for the remaining Harty's at home :)

The little boys continued to play on the race track, and I designed for a while. Tom read his book for a while, and Eme.... well, I'm not sure what she was doing.

When the "guys" came back home, we started on chores, and put kids to bed. It's now 8:28, and I'm done blogging, and done designing. Wow, actually done early. What to do with the rest of the evening. Maybe the big kids and Captain America and I will play a game together.... Although, they really should go to bed if they're gonna get up in the morning for school :)

Hehehehe, I thought this one was TOO funny. I couldn't resist. I'm sure y'all could come up with some funny layouts with this one, right?

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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Children of God

Another busy day at the Harty Household... I heard the kids at about 7:30am, but ignored them, and went back to sleep. Hehehe. I woke up at around 8:30am, and went out to see what they all were doing. I turned on Saturday morning cartoons for them, ate some breakfast, and at 9am, went to wake up Captain America.

We had a Cub Scout activity at 10am, and I knew he wanted to come. It was a crazy hour as we got everyone ready to go. It was 26 degrees when I woke up, so we bundled up a lot. Hats and scarves and gloves and coats. The works. Everyone was sweating by the time we got to the truck. LOL!

We went to Old Fort Bliss for our Cub Scout Tiger's Go-See-It. It was pretty cool. I'd driven by it almost daily, but hadn't gone inside. It was pretty neat. The time period of the artifacts was just right before the Civil War. 1850's. Pretty cool stuff. The kids had fun picking out the stuff that they recgnized, or that we had. Tom saw a bugle very similar to his. We noticed the lanterns that looks just the same as our. And some things that we didn't have, that looked pretty cool. Like the clay pots, which were very cool. Tons of neat stuff there.

They had about 6 buildings set up on display. The Tiger cubs (1st grade) were kinda hard to keep focused, but the older siblings learned a lot - hehehe. My favorite part was when the boys would see a jack rabbit in the field, and all take off chasing it. There was no hope to catch it, but the boys didn't know that. TOO funny :)

The field trip was tying up at 11am, and Captain America and the Old Fort Bliss lady stood around and chatted about possible Civil War reenacting possibilities for about 45 minutes. The kids ran and played for part of the time, and sat in the truck for the last 10 minutes. We got out of there at about 10:45am. We went back home, changed out of our scout stuff, and headed out for lunch. We thought that we'd give El Taco Tote a try with the kids. It wasn't my idea of a good place to go (it's too spicy for me, so what will the kids think???), butCaptain America really wanted it, and I wanted him to be happy.

While driving, he got a call, saying that the Young Mens activity that he thought was at night, was actually at 1pm. Sigh. It was almost noon now. There wasn't time for both. SO, we headed to Big Lots to buy a gift for Joe's friends b-day party, picked up some Burgers from Burger King, and headed back home.

Joe was 10 minutes late for the party, but it was fine. He had a lot of fun. Captain America got ready and headed out for Ice Skating. I had about 35 minutes before I had to go to the next party :) Busy day, I know ;)

Jake and Tom opted to stay home and play Wii/computer, and I drove Eme and Jim over to Laurie's daughter Katya's party. The just live a few blocks away. Jake and Tom would be home for when Joe got home.

Jimmy and Eme had SUCH a good time at the party. There were a TON of people there. Lauire has 4 kids, plus herself, plus her mom and dad, plus her inlaws and sister in law, plus her sister, brother-in-law, and their kids, plus a friend from her husbands unit and her 2 kids, plus our friend Kayley and her 4 kids, plus me and my 2. Like I said, a house full. But it was fun!

They had hot dogs and chips and a veggie tray and some snacks. The kids had fun playing on the trampoline, and in and out of the house, and eating. They played a "pin the tail on the donkey" game, but without a tail or donkey. It was something with pawprints, I think. I wasn't paying that close attention - hehehe.

Around the time for cake, I called Jake and had him and the others walk over. That was around 4pm. They had a hot dog, and some ice cream, and watched Kayta open presents, and we headed home.

We got there at the same time Captain America was getting home from skating. He had to turn and go to a "Friends of Fort Seldon" meeting, his Civil War reenacting group. It was their annual meeting where they talked about the direction of the group and such. Captain America want's to see it be more "historically accurate". He asked me to come too, but I opted to say at home with the kids.

I gave Jake instructions to let the kids ONLY eat salad, since the rest of the day was filled with junk food, and went to take a nap. I was fried. I got to sleep from 4-5. At 5pm, I woke up, and helped the stragglers get some salad (sometimes the big kids are only helpful to themselves - hehe), and honestly, I don't remember what I did between 5 and 7. I think I was on the computer for a bit. Maybe it took me longer to wake up at 5pm. Maybe it was more like 5:30 before I went out. Who knows.

At 7pm, I told the kids to shut off all electronics, and start on their chores. In about an hour, the house looked MUCH better. I sent the big kids to their rooms to read, and helped the little kids clean their room. I helped them with their prayers, tucked them in, and turned out the light. I had to go back in about 5 minutes later for something, and realized that they were both awake. And sleeping in the same bed.

I heard Joe saying "We slept in my bed last night, so it's your beds turn tonight". ROFL! They were both squishing into a twin bed. SO, I rearranged the room, so that both twin mattresses (we don't have bed frames - I know, we're ghetto...) were side by side. Like one big bed. At least if they're gonna sleep in the "same bed", this way they'll have a TON more space :)

I spent from 8-9 cleaning. The dishes needed done, and the sink needed washed. I did some laundry, and spot mopped a few areas in the kitchen. I folded some clothes, and picked up the few areas that the kids missed in their chores. Really, the house looked "company worthy" when I was done. Now, lets see how long I can maintain this - hehehe.

Captain America got home at around 9:30ish, and we'd talked about going to a movie, but I didn't really feel like it. We were both kinda tired. We were just gonna hang out for a bit, then go to bed early.

I was on the computer right before he got home, and saw Andrea online. She'd gotten back from the hospital! She said that Luke (2o months) was doing MUCH better. Thank goodness.

She said that he needed a prescription, but she didn't want to go out late by herself on a Saturday night. Captain America said that I could go with her, if that would make her feel better. I think she was glad :)

It felt like I hadn't seen the girl in FOREVER! She explained how she'd gone to the Army hospital with Luke, thinking they'd give him a breathing treatment. Then they transferred him to a hospital with a children s department. And she rode behind the ambulance in her car. And when she parked and went into the hospital to see him, that they wouldn't let her. It took her 2 hours to be with her infant son again. Oh, she was NOT happy.

And she's not one to let her displeasure go unheard :) EVERYONE at the hospital knew that she wasn't happy about it. But it didn't speed up the process any. Dang! The doctors had determined that Luke is allergic to El Paso. Well, really it's Jaurez. There's SO many pollutants in the air, it's not funny. Who knows what they burn for heat down there. There's this haze over Jaurez in recent days with the temperatures dropping. EVERYONE is getting sick. Sigh.

Anyway, Luke got out at 6pm tonight. They told her that she had to go to the pharmacy, and get him his medicine for an evening treatment. So we were headed to the Army hospital to use their "in patient" pharmacy to get his prescription filled. We were 2nd in line, and there was NO one at the counter. The chickie in front of us rang the buzzer, but no once came. Some army guy doctor/nurse came down the hall behind us, and asked if we'd been helped. No, we tell him. He says he can help us. So he goes to the window, dings the bell, just like the chickie in front of us.

Well, someone comes to the window, and the dude proceeds to get HIS order filled. He just TOTALLY took cuts. After he left, Andrea asked the chickie about it, and was like "Can you believe that that guy just took cuts? If that's helping, I don't need help!"

She puts in her prescriptions, and leaves, and it's our turn. But there's no one behind the counter. Another Army doctor/nurse guy comes, and looks like he's gonna do the same thing, so while we're waiting, Andrea tells him about the other guy, and was like "Yeah, he TOTALLY cut in front of us, and if that's help, I don't NEED help". The guy got the hint and waited patiently behind us - ROFL!

So Andrea gets her turn, and the lady tells her that because it's from a different hospital (because he was transferred to a facility with a childrens unit), he can't get the prescription filled there. Ohhh, she was not happy. They said that we could take it to Walgreens (70 bucks), or wait till Monday. Luke was supposed to get a treatment on Saturday night and Sunday night. Not Monday morning.

Andrea told the woman that she wasn't going to pay $70 for the prescription, and that she'd just take her son back to the ER if he had problems. Didn't phase the woman at all. Poor Andrea. She wasn't happy.

On the way back home, we talked about why the medicine costs so much. Most prescriptions in the army cost $3 or $9. $3 for generic, and $9 for the real stuff. BUT, if there's a generic, the army makes you take it. And the doctor prescribed the real stuff. Not the generic. And there was a generic. So insurance wouldn't cover it, unless we went to the army hospital. Which wasn't open until Monday. Sigh.

So we talk about maybe getting the generic (for $3) would be better than waiting till Monday. So we take a chance, and drive to a 24 hour Walgreens. And wait. And wait. And wait. And finally, a guy comes out. Andrea asked him if he could tell her how much it would cost, and he said that it wouldn't be until 2am that he could help us. That there were 18 prescriptions waiting in front of her. What? He couldn't even look at the prescription? That's not cool.

On the way home (for real this time), she said that maybe there's a reason that she couldn't get the medicine. Maybe Luke doesn't really need it. Maybe something else is supposed to happen. But it seemed like everything was keeping her away from the medicine. I just hope that little Luke is OK during the night.

I think they decided that until he moves from El Paso, he needs to be on a preventative inhaler of some sorts. Steroids. Not fun for a baby.

So we got back home at 11:30pm, and my family were all asleep. I snuck in my room, grabbed my laptop, and came to the couch. And noticed that there were only 1 of the 4 new decorative couch pillows. I didn't turn the lights on, but where could they be? They were there when I left. I wonder if a small child snuck out, grabbed a few, and went back to bed. But how random is that. Maybe the mystery will be solved Sunday...

Oh yeah, and Mom, I have pictures from Old Fort Bliss, but they're on my camera. And it's 12:30am on Sunday morning, and I should probably go to bed. But I'll try and get them on for tomorrows post. I'll try :)

I thought that this quote was just PERFECT, so I made it into a WordArt for you all! Hope you like it :) Click on the links 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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