Beautiful (Emerson)

Morning, all :) Hope you all had a great Sunday :)

Mine dawned at 7:15am. I got up, got kids going and read, and got myself ready for church. I woke Captain America up right before we left the house, so he could take care of Jimmy, since he was too sick to go to church.

Sacrament meeting was good, and primary went well. We're practicing a Father's Day song, and learning a song about the Holy Ghost for the month.

It was SUPER hot as we were driving home. It's times like these that I wish my Suburban had A/C. It got up to 108 or something crazy like that today. But it was nice and cold at church, and nice and cold at home.

Got home, fed the kids lunch, and laid down for a nap. I just LOVE Sunday afternoon naps :) I woke up at around 3pm, and spent some time watching a show with the kids, and fixing dinner. I chatted with the neighbor for a while. It was hot outside, but VERY pleasant. I came back inside when the wind picked up. There was a HUGE thunderstorm moving into the area. I just love the sound of thunder :)

At 5pm, I headed over to Lauries house. There's a family in the ward, the Kirkmans (Kayley), who are moving on Friday. So Laurie had a "farewell" dinner for them at her house. Just I went, since Jimmy was sick. I'd already eaten, so I just went to visit. Eme made me promise to tell the girls "bye" for her.

At 7pm, I had a primary presidency meeting. So Laurie and I and Andrea and Hilary and Karin met at Karins house, and had our meeting. And we always stay after and visit, of course :)

I was home by 9:30pm, and the little kids were all in bed, and Jake and Tom were playing football (or was it baseball....) with Captain America on the Wii. Male bonding, right? hehehe.

I read for a little while, then started blogging. Tonight may be an early night for me. I'm kicking around the idea of getting up at 6am and going jogging. I wasn't gonna start until I got to my goal weight, but I'm thinking of starting a little earlier. I'll have to decide....

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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Tomorrow Will Be Better

SOOO, I guess I touched off a hot topic yesterday, and I didn't even mean to. Teenage babysitting. Is it good or is it bad? Well, apparently "anonymous" thinks it's bad. AND, do you leave kids home when they're kinda sick? Good or bad.

Jimmy has been sick for 2 days. VERY low fever, laying on the couch, no puking. Just puny. Content to watch TV. Loss of appetite. Hence the no puking. Sleepy a lot. I've been giving him Motrin or Tylenol, and he returns to almost normal. No complaints about anything else. His throat was a bit swollen on the inside, but seriously, the child has the LARGEST tonsils that I've seen, and snores horribly. So it didn't look any different than normal.

So I left him at home with Jake a few times. And went about life as normal. Was this bad? He wasn't overly whiny or clingy. He was just content to lay on the couch and watch TV. I was in contact with Jake by phone. And it's not like I left him alone for an 8 hour stretch. Friday, I was gone for about 30 minutes in the morning, then home till lunch. Then gone from lunch till about the time kids got home from school. Enough time for an hour or so at Hilarys house, a Sonic run ,and a trip to Old Navy. Then I was home for after school time, dinner, and I left again at almost bedtime.

Each time I was there, I was sitting with Jimmy, or doing chores. He didn't seem to care either way. He was watching movies. Or sleeping. Mostly he was sleeping. I'd give him meds every 4 hours, and gatorade, and saltine crackers. I knew exactly what was going on.

Jake would text about every hour when I was gone, and he would let me know how things were going. Jimmy is napping. Jimmy is watching a movie. I gave him more gatorade. He doesn't wanna eat the crackers.

The kids were all watching a movie when Captain America and I headed out on our date at almost 7pm. Jimmy, again, was laying on the couch, watching a movie, with his brothers and sister. At 8pm, Jake put Jim to bed, and he fell asleep.

We got home at 11:30pm, and Jimmy was in the bathroom peeing. And then he puked. But nothing came out, because he hadn't eaten anything. I gave him more liquids, some more meds, and set him up on the couch with a pillow and blanket, tucked him in, and he went right back to sleep. It was the only time he'd puked.

To me, this sounded like the flu. Or teething. Or something common, not treatable with much more than Tylenol and rest. I have 5 kids, so unless there's something more than a fever, no doctor is needed. Just time.

Which is why I didn't feel the need to sit home and monitor his every movement. Warning signs in my book are puking (and then only sometimes), headaches, sore throats, ouchy ears, asthma-like breathing, those kinds of things. Not fevers. Especially low fevers.

SO, Saturday morning, Captain America and I both had a meeting to go to. We volunteer for Cub Scouts in the church AND Cub Scouts in the community. We were doing our Annual Planning meeting for the Community pack, and it was a family picnic.

Since Jimmy was puny, and the weather was supposed to be over 100 degrees (it was 105, I think), I left him and Jake at home. Jake didn't wanna go anyway. I told him I'd bring him back a plate of food, and he was fine. Jim still had the same symptoms as yesterday and the day before.

BUT, while at the meeting, around lunchtime, Jake texted and said that Jimmy said that his ears were hurting. OK, warning sign.

We finished up within the hour, and I came home, got kids situated, and took Jimmy to the ER. You don't bring your otherwise healthy child to the ER for a low fever. But you do for a low fever combined with earache.

We got there at 2pm, and got seen right away. He had a fever of 100.1, and was drowzy. Maybe this is a bad thing, but before I take my kids to the ER, I don't medicate them. Whats the point of going to the doctor when they can't see the problem. So he hadn't had any meds since 8am. So the nurse gave him some Motrin, and we waited for a few more minutes.

Really, it was a super fast visit. We were seen within 20 minutes. They looked in his ears, and said that he had ear infections in both ears. Then they looked in his throat, and did a Strep test. Strep was positive. Right after the strep test, he was crying (cause they shoved that stick down his throat), and I went and held him on the bed, and he puked all over me. Nice. Pedialite and Watermelon slushie from Sonic. Wonderful. hehehe.

After that, he felt SO much better. He wanted to get up and play with the spinny stool/chair, and acted like a new kid. We got our prescription, signed a few papers, went to the pharmacy right there in the hospital, and only had to wait for 2 people in front of us.

We were walking out of the hospital by 3:30. Yeah, record time. I gave him his first dose of Penicillin, and took him home.

So tell me, was I an irresponsible parent as "anonymous" implied? Is it bad to leave a little one home with a sibling when they're sick, even if you're monitoring them the entire time? And if so, why? I only took Jimmy to the ER AFTER I found out about his ear. He hadn't mentioned a sore throat, or earaches before that. How does me staying home all day yesterday tell me that? All the time I spent with him yesterday, he didn't say a thing about it. Or mention it to Jake. Or Captain America. Or anyone else. I'm not omniscient, you know :)

Anyway, while I feel I did nothing "wrong", anonymous' comment has been in my head today. I don't really feel like blogging the rest of the day. Someone is just gonna take offense at it anyway, right? Pick apart everything that I do. Comment on how much of a bad parent I must be for whatever it is I choose to do.

I use my blog as my journal. To chronicle my "journey" through my days. And if I have to "guard" what I write, for fear of being looked at as a "bad parent", well, then, it's kinda losing it's appeal. Hopefully I'll feel different tomorrow. Because I love tying up my day by blogging. After a long day of activities, it's a nice 30 minutes to an hour that I sit and reflect on what I really did for the day. Positives and negatives. It gives me pause to organize my thoughts. And see what all I really did accomplish.

But I guess this is what I get for putting my life in the public eye, right? I open myself up to scrutiny.....

Anyway, here's a freebie. I hope you like it :) Even if I am a bad parent, at least I make nice WordArts, right?

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Some Like It Hot

Hey there :) Yeah for the end of school!!!

I got up at 7am, got the kids ready and out the door, and snuggled with Jimmy. Poor child still isn't feeling well. I gave him some Tylenol and laid him on the couch, and he watched part of a movie.

I got ready for a walk, and Hilary came over around 9am. We were gonna walk in the neighborhood for about 30 minutes, then my Visit Teachers were coming at 9:45am. Hilary's work is super close to my house, so we drove there real fast to fax in her time sheets. Well, it took longer than we expected, and we only got a 2 minute walk. hehehe. 2 minutes is better than nothing, right? Maybe? I'll just tell myself that - LOL

She dropped me back off at my house at 9:40am, and my VT'ers came shortly after that. Kayely's family is moving next week, and Chelsey's family is moving at the end of the summer. Our Ward is gonna look a lot different at the end of summer, I think.

Did I mention that Captain America got released out of the Bishopric? We have a new bishop now, with 2 new counselors. Captain America's hoping to get a calling with the Scouts. That'd be good for him. Either way, he'll have a LOT more time for us on Sundays, and get to sit with us! I'm looking forward to it :)

So after the Visiting Teachers left, Jake and Jimmy both woke up. Did I mention that Jimmy fell asleep at 9:30am, and was snoring SO loud? Poor baby. He's really not feeling so hot.

I got ready, and left the house at 11:30am. Jake was playing Wii, and Jimmy was vegging on the couch. We were giving him Tylenol every 4-6 hours, and he'd feel a tiny bit better, but just mostly laid around. Crackers and Gatorade are all he ate. Poor baby :(

I went to Hilarys house, and Julie came over too. We hung for a bit, made a Sonic run, and even went to the Mall so Hilary could pick up a pair of Denim Shorts for Paul. It was a very nice afternoon.

The kids were all excited about it being the last day of school. But mostly, they were excited about NO MORE SCHOOL, and I was kinda excited about it too.

It was SUPER hot today. Over 100. Joe and Tom played outside in the slip and slide for the longest time. They had a good time.

At 6:30pm, I put on a movie for the kids, and gave Jake instructions for the night, and Captain America and I left for our date at 6:40pm. We met Paul and Hilary at BJ's the restrauant. The wait was 45 minutes. We sat and chatted and waited, but it was fun.

I had the chicken and salad and veggies again, and it was DIVINE. I really liked it. Captain America got the same, Hilary got the salmon, and Paul got some chicken thing. It smelled pretty good.

After dinner, we drove back on post, and went to the movies. "The Losers" was playing. Yeah, I was sleepy, and didn't make it through the movie. I fell asleep the last 20 minutes or so. I'll watch it again later, I'm sure :) hehehe.

When we got home, we found Jimmy puking in the bathroom. Poor little guy. At least he'd woken himself up and gone to the bathroom. I gave him some more meds, some Gatorade, and got him set up on the couch. With a "puke bowl", just in case. I sure hope he feels better tomorrow.

Click HERE to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

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New Products for the Last 2 Weeks

K, so for 2 weeks now, I haven't posted my new WordArts, so I'm doing it now :) hehehe. Here's my new stuff for this week and from last week:

Click HERE to go to my store.

I Don't Think So!

Hey there :) Hope you guys all had a grand Thursday :) Mine was pretty good.

Started off at 7am, where I got up, and the kids were already up and eating breakfast. I got Joe dressed and situated, and saw poor little Jimmy. He didn't look too good. He was warm, and said that his throat hurt, and was a bit whiny. The big kids went to the bus, and Jimmy and I went back to bed in my room. He bed hogged the bed, and I slept till around 8:30am.

I snuck out of the room, and he slept till around 9am. I designed on and off till 11am. Jimmy and I watched Incredibles during that time, and I fed him and gave him some meds. Jake worked on his Merit Badge work for a while, on and off too.

I took a shower and got ready for the day at 11am, and Captain America came home at quarter to noon. We headed up to Joe's school, and were just a few minutes late for his awards ceremony in his class. Check out the super cute pics we got of Joe getting awards :) You only graduate from Kindergarten once, you know..... or maybe twice - LOL.




We drove back home, and after a few minutes, I dropped Captain America off at the Auto Crafts shop, where he got his car back. I drove back up to the school, for Tom's awards ceremony. This one wasn't in the classroom, but it was in the gym. For all of 4th grade. It took FOREVER. And I seriously felt that I needed to learn Spanish to recognize some of these names - hehehe. I guess I live in the wrong part of the country for names like Smith and Jones and Walker and such.

Anyway, here's Tom getting ALL of his awards. 2 Medals, one for TAKS Writing and one for TAKS Reading, a trophy for AB honor roll, and a HUGE MASSIVE trophy for AR. Accelerated Reader is a great program, and Tom has the most AR points in the school. In all grades. He's got 500 points. The next closest kid has 400. You needed 50 to get a trophy. So yeah, he's WAY over. Which is why they gave him a special, super big trophy :)

Mrs. Mendez & Tom (math teacher)

Mrs. Carrillo & Tom (language teacher)

Mr Vasquez and Tom (Vice Principal)

Tom and his buddy, Grant

So after the awards ceremony, headed over to Hilarys house, so we could go on our daily Sonic run. I ditched my truck at her house, and we headed over to the Montana Sonic. Where our "Sonic Boys" work. Which is a lot further, but I needed my daily dose of "Hilary". hehehe. She'd been working ALL day long.

So we drove to Sonic, and alas, our Boys were not working. Some chicke brought us our drinks, AND she made us use our coupons. Sigh. But, they were free, right? hehehe.

Where yesterday they gave us WAAAAY too much ice, today they didn't give us enough. Hardly ANY ice at all. And the soda tasted off. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

We went back to Hilarys house, and I stayed for about 15 minutes, then headed home. I'd put ice in my cup at Hilarys house, but it was still off. I was starting to feel a bit sick. I stopped at Sonic (the close one) and got a NEW Diet Dr Pepper. Easy ice. For $1.07. And yeah, IT tasted right. The other wasn't diet. It was regular. NASTY! That's why I felt sick. It was sugar soda. Crap. It didn't make me too happy. And now my stomach is upset.

I went home, got dinner going, and designed for another hour. Only one more WordArt pack to do! At 5:40pm, I headed up to Captain America's battery for an FRG meeting. We'd gotten a new FRG leader, and she wanted to introduce herself, and commander, and everyone else. Commander told the group that the guys would probably be deploying within 7 months, so that we needed to get ready for when that day came.

It's sound reasoning, really. I'd use the FRG to stay abreast of Army issues, but really, if I had a need, I'd ask my family, my friends, and then church. So it's not as big of a need for me and my family as it is for some. But I do see the value in it.

Here's a pic of Captain America cutting the cake at the mtg. We took the extras home for the kids, so they could have some yummy dessert :)


We stayed for about 45 minutes, then Captain America went back to work, and I went home. The kids were watching a movie, and I cooked my dinner real fast, than sat down and half watched the movie with them, and designed my last wordart pack. I'll have to go back and watch that movie again - LOL. I didn't get much out of it.

After designing, I uploaded my pics from the awards ceremony to facebook, then started blogging. Captain America got home around 8:15pm, and here it is, 8:45pm, and I just need to design a freebie, and I'm done with the computer work. I do need to bake some, though. Both Tom and Eme promised that I'd bake something for their classroom parties tomorrow. I guess the last couple of times I baked for the teachers, they liked it. I DO have a ton of bananas that need used, and one more box of brownies.... I guess I'm baking tonight :)

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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End of the Year

Dang, how did it get to be 11:27pm already! And I'm just starting. Let's see if I can speed blog through my day - hehehe.

I woke up at 7am, and was super tired. Even more tired than the day before, for some reason. Oh yeah, I went to bed the night before at 1am. That could have had something to do with it. I managed to get the kids dressed and fed and out the door to the bus. And I folded a few loads of laundry. Then, as soon as the last load was folded, I went back to bed. Jake and Jimmy did their own thing, Captain America eventually came home from PT, and I slept till 9:20am. Yeah, I felt much better.

Hilary and I texted for a bit. She was at an Awards Ceremony for her kids, and stopped by Sonic on the way to work and got a drink, and me one too! My house and her work are very close, so she dropped it off. Sa-weet!

I spent the rest of the morning cleaning my room. I made my bed, picked up the MASSIVE clean clothes pile off the floor, folded and sorted it, and went through my closet. I tried on all my pants, sorting into piles of FITS NOW, TOO BIG, TOO SMALL, and I HATE. I folded stuff up, and put stuff away. And I hung up all the hang up stuff, but didn't actually put it in the closet. There was a big pile on my bed. But, the floor was clear, and it looked pretty good.

At lunch time, Captain America and I went to El Taco Tote together. It was yummy. He was on the phone with work quite a bit, and my cell was dead and in the truck charging, so it could have been better, but I did get to spend some time with him, so I'll take what I can get :)

We headed home, and I followed him up to the Auto Crafts shop to drop off his car. His brakes need looking at. I drove him back home, and he took his old truck back to his office. Jake had somehow downloaded a virus, so I was trying to help him get it off of his computer. Yeah, no such luck. I tried to run the Avast Antivirus scan, but it wasn't working. Sigh. My brother-in-law is really good with computers, so we'll see if maybe he can help Jake get it worked out. Until then, the kids are all on a computer ban. No more computer time until the virus is removed.

Hilary came over around 2:30 and picked me us, and we went to the PX. She'd had a zipper malfunction, and needed some new jeans. We met Laurie at the PX, and looked around in the clothes section for a while. I found a few pairs of pants, but they didn't really fit good. One of the size 10's were WAY too big, and one of the size 10 pants were WAY too small. Another pair fit just perfect, but I know that they'd be too big in a matter of weeks, so I didn't feel like spending the $8. Sure, $8 for a nice pair of dress slacks is a great deal, but for 2 weeks? Yeah, I'll pass.

I started out at 170 at the end of April, and here at the beginning on June I'm 155. I've lost 15 lbs. Not too shabby. Only 15 more lbs to go until I'm at my goal weight. I'm slowly but surely plugging along :)

We headed to the mall after the PX. Jake had the kids at home, so I didn't have to worry about them. We went to Old Navy, and Hilary found a pair of pants for Paul, but none for herself. Next, we went to JCPennys. They had a lot of skinny jeans, but Hilary finally managed to find a pair of "normal" jeans for herself. Crazy styles they have, nowadays. Does that make me old? hehehe.

So I took this pair of skinny jeans, and put my arm inside them. Yeah, it's SUPER tight on my arm. And my arm isn't big. Can you imagine what this would do to your thighs. Really, people. This isn't attractive. ESPECIALLY BOYS. Nastiness...

Isn't this jacket funny. Purple sequins. LOL!

After the mall, we headed back home, stopping at Sonic. And our "Sonic Boys" gave us more free drinks. We've now used the same coupons 3 times. hehehe. Giggling and smiling definitely pay off, you guys :)

I got dinner cooked for the kids, and chores started, and the dinning room and living room cleaned, and was starting on the kitchen when it was time to go to Scouts. I got my kids ready, and picked up Leslies kids, and out we headed. We got there at 7pm.

Andrea took the Tom's Webelos group, Eme went with her group, and Jake went with his group. Jimmy and Joe played outside with Terri's kids, while Terri and I and Hilary stayed outside and chatted.

At one point, I went inside to see who was going to Cub Scout Day Camp, and to pass out permission slips. We only have 4 boys going, including mine and Leslies. Small group this year.

At some point, the sprinklers turned on, and Jim and Joe got super soaking wet. Oh well, they'd be riding home in their undies. Jimmy wore Joe's cowboy boots from christmas to Scouts, then took them off. Then Joe threw them up into a tree, and got the stuck. All the kids were working to get them "unstuck". Here's a pic of Jake and Tom trying to get them down, and Nathan (Hilary's son) is way up in the tree working on it too. They eventually got them down.

At about 8:25pm, we headed home. Joe and Jim rode in their undies (Joe was mortified), and I had Jake put the kids to bed. Captain America and I needed to head out to another Scout Meeting. The "On Post" pack is having a planning meeting on Saturday, and Captain America is helping out. We were having a planning meeting for the planning meeting. hehehe.

We met at the Carl's Jr on Airport rd, and got some details worked out. 2 hours later, we were on our way home. While it was a good meeting, I'm tired now.

Tomorrow, Joe and Tom have awards ceremonies at school around lunchtime. I'm gonna go and get some pics. Captain America is gonna try and be there, but we'll see how his work schedule is. I know he wishes he could be around more, but such is the life of an army guy.

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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conGRADulations

OK, to preface this, I have a TON TON TON of pics to share. So, if you don't really wanna see my fun and exciting camping trip, just scroll to the bottom. But I'm sure that you all wanna see my pics. Right? Right? hehehe.

So just to bug Hilary, these photos are NOT in order. At all. Just put them on here randomly. OK, so I'd really like for it to be in order, but it's just not gonna happen. I don't have all night, you know - hehehe.

We left for Ruidoso on Thursday night at around 7 0r 8pm, and met up with Paul and Hilary on the way out of town. We stopped in Alamogordo for gas, then pushed along. We finally made it to our "dispersed camping" spot at around 11pm. It was pretty late. And dark. Yeah, dispersed camping means that you just pick a spot in the forest and camp there. No running water. No bathrooms or outhouses. Just a spot in the woods. It's amazing that we found somewhere in the dark. hehehe. It was actually a pretty good location.

We pitched our tents, got the kids into bed, unloaded a little bit, then went to sleep. It was past midnight when we finally fell asleep.

The next morning, we cooked fried egg sandwiches for everyone, and had banana muffins for breakfast. After getting it all cleaned up, Captain America headed into town because the truck was having issues. He feared that it was the rear end that we'd just had fixed. Sigh.

Hilary and I headed into town to pick up a few last minute things at Walmart. We took Jimmy with us, but left Joe at camp because he'd already gone to the creek, waded, fallen in, and was filthy. He was supposed to sit in a chair in the sunshine and dry. Paul was gonna be in charge of the 7 other kids.

We drove in to Walmart, and got quite a bit of supplies. All the kids needed rubber boots. Because of the creek and mud and junk. It was pretty wet up there. Soggy too. Did I mention that there was snow on the ground in places. We FROZE! It was almost 100 in El Paso, and about 50 in the mountains. Quite a difference.

Of course, there were no warm weather clothes at Walmart. Only summer junk. So that wasn't helpful. We did buy a toilet seat. We were gonna have Paul attach it to a broken camp chair with duct tape and 550 cord. Yeah, it was gonna be awesome.

So after getting our stuff, we headed to Sonic for a Diet Dr Pepper, and headed back to camp. It was a 45 minute drive each direction, so we'd been gone for about 3 hours. On the way back, it started to rain. We hoped that it hadn't rained at camp. Poor Paul.

We pull into camp, and it's TRASHED with water. Apparently, it rained the whole time we were gone, and hailed for a good 45 minutes. EVERYTHING was wet. Tents, sleeping bags, children, supplies, all of it. Paul was not a happy camper. Poor little Joe was FREEZING. First thing, I changed him into new clothes. Which was hard, since the tents all got rained out. Luckily, I'd put all their clothes into Walmart bags, so most of them were dry.

And because Jimmy had missed all the rain out fun, he decided to fall in the creek. So I had to change him too. And we put rubber boots on everyone.

Paul and the kids got to work on the toilet seat, and I strung up all the rope I could find between trees, and make clothes lines. We had TONS AND TONS of clothes to hang up. And sleeping bags. And pillows. It looked like we'd been camping for weeks, not just a day. LOL.

Eventually, the sun came out, dried things out a tiny bit, then it rained and hailed again. Sigh. It was on and off raining the rest of the day. We did manage to stay mostly dry, though. And got the tents mopped up.

Captain America came back around dinner time. $600 for a new read end, but the truck was fixed. Sigh. He's gonna go talk to the guys who fixed it the first time, and see what they can do to give us some $$$ back.

We cooked Chili for dinner. And Chocolate Cherry cake. Mmmm, smelled good. I was good, though, and stayed on my diet the entire time.

Next day, we all went into town, and went to Lincoln, New Mexico. It was a Billy the Kid site, or something like that. We left after lunch, and stopped by Walmart first. To get a few things. And we bought some wood. And by the time we got to Lincoln NM, the touristy places were closing in an hour. So we walked real fast, and saw a few of the shops and museum places, then headed back home.

We had foil dinners for dinner, which turned out pretty yummy :) The kids had s'mores for dessert. Tasty! After the kids went to bed, Hilary and I stood around in the fire pit (because it was warmer near the coals) and took silly pictures of ourselves. Because that's what people do who are fun and don't drink, apparently. ROFL! Can you imagine us WITH alcohol? hehehe.

Next day was Sunday. The girls went into town, and the boys went on a hike. Captain America told an Indian story of the Piasa Bird around the campfire that evening, and played guitar songs for the kids. The grown ups stayed up late and chatted, and then Monday, we broke camp and headed back to El Paso.

We left at around 4pm, and got to Alamorgordo at 5pm. We went to dinner as a group at Applebees. Yeah, our waitress was awful. She messed up on the drinks order, and it took us over an hour to get our food. And she didn't get Captain Americas order right, and messed up on Hilarys girls food. In fact, after and hour and a half, one of her girls STILL didn't have her food. We eventually called the manager over.

He ended up cutting our bill in half, which was supposed to be separate orders, but she messed that up too, and put it all together. So, instead of $120 for 12 people, it was $60 for 12 people. I guess it worked out. We stopped at the gas station for gas, then headed home again.

We got back late, unloaded, showered, and headed to bed. All in all, it was a VERY fun trip. I'm SO glad that Hilary and her family came with us. Girl, I'll camp with you guys again ANYTIME! hehehe.

OK, on to the pictures. Again, no particular order.

This was in Ruidoso, on our way to Lincoln. We stopped and let the kids pose with them

In Lincoln, there was this circular 3 story building used as a fort of sorts.

And in one of the shops, this lady was showing the kids how to spin wool.

Hilary and I

One of the museums, of a store. It was about 75% authentic stuff, from the store, back in the 1800's.

Jim, Nathan, Tom, and Eme

Eh?

On the way back home, we stopped at this Pistachio farm to get our pics taken with the Worlds Largest Pistachio. Funny, huh?

Nouhan Family

Me and Jannie and Hilary, at the museums, astonished by something - hehehe

Megan (11), Tom (10), Nathan (13), and Emeline (8)

The group, on the Lincoln Courthouse museum steps. Make a funny face, everyone!

OK, now look bored!

And the lady took a pic of ALL of us

And what good is a camera without a funny pic of me?

Eme and I and Jimmy one evening at camp

Captain America and Jimmy at Applebees (see, I told you they weren't in order)

Me sporting my new hat BEFORE we left on our camping trip on Thursday

Eme and Jannie and Megan in town

Stopping at Sonic with our RT 44 Diet Dr Peppers. Yeah, we were trying to give Sexy faces. It's amazing that we both found men to marry and had children, if this is our sexy face - hehehe.

Joe and Hilary and Paul at Applebees. It was them, and Captain America and Jimmy and I at one booth, then ALL of the other kids at another booth.

Hilary taking a pic while driving, almost dropping her Diet Dr Pepper (DDP), which would have been VERY bad...

Kids at the kid booth at Applebees

Hilary gropeing the wooden Indian... hehehe.

The boys on their hike. Drove to the top of the mountain then walked around a little bit. Paul is still on crutches, so he stayed in the truck with a sleeping Jimmy :)

We ended up with Sonic every day of our campout. So here's me with my "love" one of the days...

And Hilary and I at the drive up.... again!

So here's some pics for that night we stood in the fire pit to keep warm and took goofy pics. This is an angry face :)

Surprised?

So we both do thins thing were we curl our lips under, expose our teeth, and pretend we have no lips. I know, we're both freaks. Who knew there were 2 of us in the world?

Me with my pizza dough. Making Dutch Oven pizzas.

Captain America and Tom making fire

So Paul and the kids made us an AWESOME toilet seat, but you could TOTALLY see peoples white butts when the used it, even though it was in the bushes. SO, Hilary and I strung up this tarp for some privacy. Me, modeling the new bathroom. hehehe.

My dutch oven pizza. I cooked the whole time, and it was SO much fun. I just love cooking at camp. Really, I do. Especially when someone else cleans up - hehehe.

Nathan and Captain America with the Cherry Chocolate cake

The boys wee totally on a "can we light our farts on fire" kick the WHOLE weekend. hehehe.

I leaned over to Hilary like this, and said, "If I do this, do I look skinnier?" She had to get a pic....

Captain America working on the fire

Check out the massive clothesline in the background...

Me cooking sausage, onions, hamburger, and bacon for the chili. Don't I look tired? This is the same day as the rain, hail, and laundry hanging :)

Hilary and Jimmy (child never looks at the camera, it seems)

It sure was a pretty spot, even if it was wet.

Jannie, Emeline, and Joe

Me, faking being oblivious to the face that little boys are behind me.

ROFL!

Check out how wet the ground it....

So after getting ditched with 7 children in a rain and hail storm, Paul decided to take the older boys and drive into town. Here are the little boys and the girls playing games under the canopy in the rain. It only hailed on us for a minute, but rained on and off.

While Hilary and I and JImmy were in town, Nathan, Tom, and Jake were playing with the Aeroboe (or however you say it - some kind of frisbee thingy), and got it stuck in the tree. Hilary had Eme go try and shake it to see if she could get it to fall down. Poor, gullible Eme...

This is an actually somewhat normal pic of Hilary and I - ha!

Jimmy and I

All the laundry and wet things

Here's our finished product toilet, complete with pit toilet underneath and wet wipes.

Hilary taking it for a test drive - hehehe

Nathan digging the hole.

The kids. We had 8 kids on this campout. Nathan (13), Jake (12), Megan (11), Tom (10), Jannie (9), Eme (8), Joe (6), Jim (4)

The kids are showing us all the finished toilet. Beautiful, isn't it

Me, still hanging stuff up

Paul in the chair that's destined to be the "potty seat"

Jacob in the toilet seat

Jannie in the toilet seat. New, by the way.

Nathan in the toilet sat

Paul was quite the trooper to come camping, primitive, none the less, on crutches!

Here's Paul and Hilary's tent after the giant rain storm

Check out the size of the hail. Hail!

Not a happy camper! Hilary right after we got back and found camp SOAKING WET

Eeewww, it's all wet!

Trying to clean up

At Sonic, once again :)

This was funny. On the way into Camp, Jannie noticed this sign, and was like "We have to fight bears?????". So we just had to get a pic for her - hehehe.

Coming into Ruidoso

Me playing with Hilary's camera on a trip into town

Hilary and I both agreed that we would NEVER EVER live in a house on stilts on the side of a mountain...

Looking normal, for once

Snow on the side of the road when we first got there. Yeah, not so cool....

Tom at camp

Me in the smoke at the campfire. My bandanna was very helpful - hehehe

This child was filthy the entire weekend. hehehe.

The girls and the indian

Me gropeing the indian

Eme in town

Captain America playing campfire songs one night

Joe hiding from the camera

Jannie and Hilary

Joe and I and Hilary in my glasses - hehehe

Another funny face pic

The group from the 2nd story of the Courthouse museum in Lincoln NM

Look bored...

Big smile!

I thought this one was cute of Megan and Joe

Nathan behind bars in the Courthouse

Me and 8 kids at Walmart. Yeah, it was too much for the dads, so they sent the kids and the moms to the vehicles. Yeah, the moms put the kids in the vehicles, and stood outside and chatted. Smart moms :)

When we drove to LIncoln, Paul and Hilary took Nathan and Tom and Joe, and Captain America and I took Joe, Jim, Eme, Megan, and Jannie.

Jimmy and I at camp

Nathan, in the Kitchen, with a Stick

Jannie and Paul

Yes, I know I'm strange :)

so the day after the huge rain incident, Joe falls in the creek and gets all nasty. And to teach him to stay away from the creek, we make him sit in his underware in the sun to dry. He got this blanket to keep warm. And covered. But he didn't got off an play in the creek anymore, that's for sure.

Another Sonic run

Joe and Nathan when the boys went to the top of the mountain

Me at happy hour

So, there were a BUTTLOAD of pictures. Hope you enjoyed my camping trip. I sure know I did :)

When we got home, I took a shower and washed my hair 3 times, trying to get the smoke smell out. Tuesday morning, I got up at 7am, got the kids ready for school, off to the bus, and vegged. Jake too. He finished up school last Thursday. So we just had a lazy morning.

I took a shower at about 10:30, and got all clean and girly. I printed out my shopping list, looked at the bills, and read for a bit. At 11:30am, Hilary and I went grocery shopping.

We went to the commissary, then brought my food back here, and put her freezer/regridgerator itmes in my outside fridge, then headed to Sam's Club. I got crackers and milk, and she got a few things.

Next, it was on to Walmart. I got a few things, she got a few things, then we headed home. We did stop at Sonic, and used our Free coupons again. See, last time when they gave us regular Doctor Pepper instead of diet, the dude gave us free coupons. This is the 2nd time we've used them - hehehe. He keeps letting us keep them. Thanks, Sonic Dude! We love ya!

She dropped me off at home, and I did more laundry. 7 load total, today. I put away all the groceries, and cleaned up a bit.

Jacob had an appointment at 4pm for a physical. We were home by 5pm. He's all good and healthy. 5'5" and 173 lbs at 12 years old. The doctor said he'd probably his a major growth spurt at 13 or 14. Like the kid isn't already tall enough as it is. hehehe. He's grown 2 inches in the past 4 months.

I started on dinner, and read for a bit longer. I took a bath at 6:30pm, soaking for a while. At 7:30pm, Captain America came home.

After the kids were in bed, Captain America and I headed out to the mall to get his vitamins. We headed over to Academy sports after that, so he could get some baseball gear. His Battery has a team, and he needed a red baseball belt, and red socks. I found a super cute pair of flip flops, and got a pair for Hilary and I. Navy blue. We love flip flops - hehehe.

We stopped by Captain Americas battery on the way home so he could email something home, then went home. He worked on his slides, and I uploaded pic after pic to this post. It's 1:03 right now, and I'm sleepy. Off to take out my contacts and go to sleep.

I had a request from Judy for something that would work with preschool graduation. I figured that conGRADulations would work! Hopefully it will :) And all of us with kids in school can use it for "last day of school' pics, or something like that, right. Which reminds me, I need to take a pic of my kids some time this week....

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

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