Crazy Summer

Woohoo! New stuff for the week :) Enjoy! Click on the link below to go to my store, and remember, it's all only $2.00 for the first week :)

Studio Bethany

Holy Cow, long day! I'm ready for a few lazy days of summer. Cause I don't know where they went, but they're sure not lazy. It's more like CRAZY days of summer. Sigh. Hey, that gives me an idea for a wordart - hehehe.

So I woke up at 8 something today. That was nice, at least. I got up, got things going around the house. We were going to go to the Sprinkler park on Biggs today at 10am. But the kids wanted to spend their money on some Goggles. And they asked to PLEASE not go to the dollar tree. Because those break too early - hehehe.

So at 9:30am, we loaded up in the truck and headed to Walmart. Once i got there, I realized what I'd done. Walmart with 5 kids? Was I crazy? We went to the bandana section, but they didn't have a green one for me. Sniff. i really wanted one.

We were in the pool section FOREVER. JOe and Jim found $3 goggles for kids. Eme and Tom got $5 goggles for youth. Jake? Yeah, he didn't want a crappy Walmart goggles. Can't say I blame him. He also wanted fins. He had money, so he asked if we could go to a real sports store. There was one near, so I agreed.

We also bought a big red basket to put all of our swim stuff in. I thought it would work pretty good.

Here's me in the parking lot of Walmart, or Big 5. One or the other. Can't remember. I had some lady say "Surely these kids aren't all yours!" today. hehehe. I'll take the compliment :)


Jake found a package deal at Big 5. Flippers, snorkle, and mask, in a nice bag, for $45. He had enough, so he went up to pay for it. Well, it was on sale for $35, so he was even happier. He was pretty excited to try it out.

I'd decided, since none of my "peeps" could come to Biggs, that we'd just do free lunch ,then head to the pool. The kids were SO much happier about it :)

We met Laurie and Kayley and Danielle at Free Lunch. Got last hugs from Kayley before the left. We'll miss them!

It was Spaghetti, Broccoli, and Cantelope for lunch. And the milk was frozen. Nasty! hehehe.

We stopped by the UPS store on the way to the pool, and I mailed back Jakes text books. They had sent me the shipping labels a while back, and I was just now getting around to sending it. Oops.

Next, we had to swing by the house and change into swim clothes. We were running behind. We picked up Braxon and Hunter (wait, we picked them up BEFORE free lunch...) got changed, and headed to the pool. With my cool new bag.

I sat and chatted with Laurie for a while, then she and her kids left. We were only there for about 20 minutes together :( Danielle was there too, and she was going down the big slide during pool break (kids under 18 have to get out)(her hubby was watching the kids), so I went with her! 3 times down the big slide. It was pretty fun.

It was only in the high 90's today, so the pool felt cold. I stayed in for about an hour, and chatted with Leigh, my neighbor. We had a nice chat, but by the time I got out, I was seriously shivering! hehehe.

We dried off, and headed back home. Freezing the whole way. Here's me in the truck.


We got home, changed our clothes, and I made up a new chore list. The way the chores were before, Jake had more, since he was home more. Tom, Eme, and Joe hardly had any. It's more distrubted now. I'm gonna have to teach Joe (6) how to sweep, though.

We did chores, and it really looked pretty good when we were done. I think it's gonna work out :) I went into Joe and Jim's room with them, and we cleaned. We put up all the long sleeved clothes (who wears long sleeves in 100 degree weather?), and the hats and scarfs and mittens and such. I threw away a HUGE trash bag of stuff, orgainzed the toys, put away the clothes, rearranged the furniture a bit.

It's not all done, but it's closer. A lot closer. BUT, I looked at the clock, and it was 4:15. CRAP! This pic is me realizing I had 15 minutes to get ready, get the kids ready, cook dinner, and be out the door. Yeah, not gonna happen.

I found a yellow bandana, put on my yellow scout shirt, slapped on some foundation and pressed powder and blush, some lip gloss, and called it good. I grabbed my zebra bag and my zebra flip flops, to match with my zebra name tag I made yesterday. Yeah, I'm gonna be hot - hehehe.

I loaded the kids up in the truck, and we headed to Burger King. They have burgers/chicken for a buck. We all got one, and I got a side salad. I can kinda eat the burger part. It's not exactly on the diet, but it was close enough for tonight :)

Here's me, right before we left.

Me in Burger King parking lot, waiting for our food :)

We got to the church at around 5pm, so I had time to set up my room. They had all the supplies I needed. Well, mostly. I got the rest. They'd planned on having the kids wet the leather with a sponge. Yeah, that wasn't gonna work. You need to submerse it. So we got a few pitchers and a bowl of water. They needed to let it soak.

I also made up a place on the table, with marker, where each of the tools went. I didn't want some to accidentally walk off, without me knowing. This way, I'd know, at a glance, what pieces were out. Smart, eh?

Jake was helping with me class, so once it was all set up, we went outside to flags. Brother Perez (Danielles hubby) and Sister Porter (Tiffany) were our leaders today. Because I couldn't help, because I was teaching a station.

Anyway, here's Tom and I at flags, or right before it :)

After flags, it was in to the gym, to leatherworking. It was SO loud. I was seriously afraid I was gonna get a migraine. hehehe. I mostly didn't. I gave my spheal about leatherworking, then had the boys soak their leather. Then assigned out mallets to groups of two, then let them loose. We had 30 mintues to spend, and only took about 20. So they had 10 minutes of playtime. Worked out ok :)

Here's the 1st group of boys.

And the 2nd group of boys.

We got done at 8:10pm, and headed back to flags. We had 4 groups of boys come though, and it really worked out pretty good. I think the boys al had fun.

All the volunteers who taught classes were called up front, and given "thank you" prizes (I picked beef jerkey) and a Leai. Yeah, I don't know how to spell that. Jimmy came with me, because he wasn't standing nicely by himself - hehehe.

But check out this picture. Me, the biggest head EVER, looks like I have a tiny head. I guess Jimmy wins for biggest head ever. LOL! See, I just had to birth someone with a bigger head than me :) hehehe

We finished up flags, and headed home, getting home a few minutes after 9pm. We dropped off Hunter and Braxton, put the little kids to bed, then Jake and Tom and I cleaned the living room, then sat down to watch a show we'd missed on Monday. Persons Unknown. Or something like that. It was weird, but I think I'm gonna like it.

Captain America came in after the first 3 minutes, and sat down and watched it with us. I grabbed my computer after it was over, put the kids to bed, and Captain America fell asleep on my shoulder. After about 30 minutes, he went to bed, and I kept working.

I had a store project to get done, and then I started blogging and designing. It's now 1:20pm, and I'm exhausted. I have to get up at 6:45am to get ready for day 3 of camp. I'm SO ready for it to be over...

And, did you see what was missing from my day? Huh? My friend Hilary :( Sniff. Sniff. She and her family went to Ft Hood area, and Dallas. For a family thing. Waaaaaaahhhh! She left me all alone.... So sad :(

We texted on and off all day, and I'm even chatting with her on FB right now. Dang, it's late where she is, I just realized. Hope she functions well tomorrow :)

They stopped at Ft Worth for dinner with a friend, and someone busted out their window, and stole their GPS. Dang! Stupid robbers! I'm not sure what they're doing with their window. They had a backup GPS, Laptop, Ipods, all sorts of electronics hidden in the car, but the thief just grabbed the GPS from the dash. At least that was all he/she took. But the broken window is problematic.

Sorry, Hil! Hope the rest of your trip goes better, and without hitch. I miss you friend...

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

4shared
box.net

Summer Camp

Morning, everyone :) I must say, one of these days real soon, I'm gonna blog at 7pm, and go to bed at 8pm. I'm getting real tired. It's 11pm, and I'm just now starting this. SUPER sleepy. Sigh.

Got up at 6:45am (yeah, even earlier than for school days!), showered, got ready, and headed out to my doctors appointment. My last batch of Migraine meds didn't do it for me. They made me drowsy, and feel funny. So, I wanted them switched to something else. The doctor lady assured me that the generic Imitrex was exactly the same as real Imitrex. Yeah, I know that it made me feel different. Sigh.

So, she prescribed me something different. Can't remember what it's called, but I got a box of 12 pills. We'll see how it goes :)

I stopped by Kayleys house on the way home. She's moving tomorrow, and needed someone to take all of her fresh and frozen things from the freezer and fridge. Laurie and I were more than happy to oblige. hehe.

I came away with a few grocery bags of food! My favorite was the frozen Talipia. I can actually eat that on my diet. And it's individually frozen in bags, so it's even better for me. I just need to defrost one, pop it in the little George Foreman grill, and it's all done :) Sa-weet!


Laurie had walked to Kayleys house, so I drove her home with all of her "groceries". While there, I was mentioning the fact that Captain America was going to St. Louis area for a little less than 2 weeks here at the end of the month, and I was bummed I didn't get to go. There was no way we could afford 7 plane tickets, and it would be almost as expensive to drive our suburban there. So we decided that just he'd go. Since he's deploying soon, and won't see his family for a year. And it's been over a year since he's seen them last.

Anyway, Laurie offered to watch the kids if just I wanted to go. I'd never considered the possibility of leaving the kids with someone. I told her I'd have to go home and mull it over, and see if it was feasible.

I checked my Paypal account, and I had $300 in it. And the tickets costs almost $400. So really, I'd just have to come up with $100 for a plane ticket. That's not too bad :) I found a flight at the same time as Captain America for departure, and picked on a week later for coming back. Leaving on a Saturday, and arriving back in El Paso on a Friday night. That way, I'd only be gone from the kids for a week, but would still get a "get away" with my hubby before he deployed.

It took me about an hour to get the tickets all lined up, and bought, and arrangements made. OMGosh, Laurie. You're AWESOME! I love ya, hon!!!!

So that took me right up until Free Lunch. I got the kids all loaded up and ready for the pool, and we headed out to lunch. They had Tater tots, chili, tortilla strips, and apples. Not the kids' favorite free lunch item, but they mostly ate it.

On the way to the pool, there was some hitting going on the backseat, and I'd had enough. I told them they lost the pool, and I just drove home. I let Jake and Tom go play at Hunter and Braxtons house, and I let Jimmy play outside for a while, then lay in my bed and watch a movie, and made Joe and Eme (the fighters) go to their rooms. They were in there for a while, then could come out and do some chores and read. Yeah, they weren't too happy with me, but I don't think we'll have a repeat performance anytime soon.

I spent the afternoon designing. 3 hours worth. I need to start designing a WordArt pack a day. That would be perfect. Then I wouldn't have this mondo designing session on Thursday nights. I'm sure Joy, my WordArt packager, and my CT would like that too :)

Me, still in my swimsuit, after designing...


I need to start waking up earlier, and getting things done. I think maybe I'll start on Monday- hehehe.

Hilary stopped by my house on her way home from work to pick up our car outlet for her trip to Kileen (near Ft Hood) this weekend. Sniff. Sniff. WAAAAA!! I did get to see her before he left, though, so it was good.

At 4:30ish, we started making sack dinners for all the kids, and I cooked myself some fish, and bagged up some crackers and some cucumbers for me. I loaded up all 7 of the kids (Hunter and Braxton were coming too) in the truck, and we headed for the West-sieed. It was Cub Scout Day Camp. It was hot out, so it wasn't the most enjoyable of rides (Suburban has no A/C), but we made it there.

Braxton and Tom are Webelos, so they got to do a few more things than the younger boys. I let Jake and Hunter (both Boy Scouts) be helpers to the adult leaders. Jake hung out in crafts, and Hunter helped with the BBGun range. He had a BLAST!

The little kids went to the Nursery, and I went around with the Bears. We were supposed to have leaders for each den, but somehow our den missed that. So it was just me. We're gonna have more people there tomorrow.

Our younger boys registering for Day Camp

Our boys at flags

It's me!

I totally missed - hehehe

We went to Citizenship first, and learned about flags, and how to fold them, and how to display them, we learned about Texas, and the pledge of allegiance, and some influential Americans. It was a good class.

Next, it was on to knotss. The boys learned a few knots, but I spent a good portion of that class walking back to my truck to charge my dying phone.

After Knots, we moved on to Crafts. They were making their name tags. They were pretty cool, really. Jake was helping out in that class, so I got to hang with him for a bit.

Last class was Archery. The boys had a good time with the bows and arrows. I hung with a leader from our old ward, Brother Fox, and had fun chatting.

Captain America made it at closing flag ceremony. His battery has a softball team, and he's on it. So he came in his softball clothes. But it was nice that he could be there, if only for a little while.

Braxton and Tom and Jake and Hunter (back row). William and Phearson and Joseph (front row)

Joe and I at flags

We did flags, then headed home. It was around 9pm or later when we finally got back. It seemed like it took me FOREVER to get kids to bed. Eme and Captain America rode in his truck, and they were even later than us. I did notice a McDonalds yogurt cup, so I'm thinking they stopped on the way home for some daddy time. hehehe.

I spent some time with my hubby, then sat down to blog. 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!

4shared
box.net

Fast Lane

oops, i forgot to push publish - hehehe

Crap! I totally ran out of time to blog. Sigh. I don't like to go to bed without having mentally "tied" up my day, but alas, I'm super tired. I've been up till 3 am 2 nights in a row, and it's after midnight tonight. I'm beat. I've got a doctors appointment at 7:40am tomorrow, so I'm getting up at 6:45am. That gives me 6 1/2 hours of sleep, IF I got to bed right now, and it's not gonna happen. Sigh.

Here's the brief version. We cleaned up in the morning, then I took Jimmy to the doctor to get a referral for an ENT. He's got huge tonsils, and snores a lot. The dr said he had an adnodial voice, so to try and get those out too. They put in for a referral.

We came back home, got ready, and went to free lunch at 11:20ish. Hilary got off work early and came with us. Leigh, Laurie, and Danielle were there too. Then we stopped by Circle K and got Diet Dr Pepper (you can refill your cup from Sonic there for $0.79) for us, and slushies for the kids, then headed to the pool.

We were at the pool from noon to 2pm, then headed home. When I was taking Jimmys swim clothes off, I noticed a rash ALL over his legs. I didn't have a clue what it was. Redish pink bumps. Like a cross between a bump, a blister, and a pimple. Kinda weird. And it was itching him.

I called Telenurse, and she recommended taking him to urgent care off post. Hilary came with me, so Jimmy, Hilary, and I headed out to the doctor. They saw him fairly fast, and said that they didn't think it was from the Penicillin. He thought it was an outside allergien. He perscribed me some cream, and said to use it for 15 minutes, then apply vasiline to the area. Ok, sounds good to me.

Jimmy got some Benadryl, and he was good to go. We headed back to my house, and dropped Jimmy off. He was sleepy, so he napped while Hilary and I ran another errand. She needed to go to the Sprint store for her phone. But the line was WAY too long, so we returned something at Walmart real quick, and headed home. I did find a pair of $3 jeans and a $1 shirt. Can't beat that.

Kids had dinner at home (sausage & eggs), and they got ready for Scouts. Captain America said he was gonna try and be home at 5, then take the big boys to scouts, but by 7pm he was still at the office. So I loaded all the kids up in the truck, and drove them to Scouts. Captain America was there about 10 minutes later. I left Jake and Hunter at Scouts, and drove to Hilarys house. She and I had dinner there (both sets of kids had already eaten). We chatted and hung out on the back porch, and our kids played a board game, then watched a DVD. It was a pleasant hour and a half.

Jake texted when they headed home, and the kids and I left Hilarys house, so we'd make it home the same time as Captain America and Jake. Hilary is going to her hometown for the weekend, and I'm gonna miss my buddy :( Sniff. Sniff. WAAAAA! You'd better come back soon, my dear! I'm not sure I like the idea of not seeing you for a few days. (wow, I sound pretty stalker-ish, don't I! That's ok, she likes to be stalked, I think....)

I got the kids in bed, then straightened up the kitchen for a bit, and Captain America and I hung out on the back patio for about an hour. We ended up getting in a little tift about something. Sigh. I think I'm tired, and need more sleep. I'm a bit short lately.

Anyway, that was my day. The short version. I kinda got more long winded as the story progressed, didn't I :) hehe.

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

4shared
box.net

Busy Worker

Morning, girls :) My internet is running SO super low, it's about to drive me crazy. Actually, I think it's my computer, not my internet... I tried restarting it, but it's still slow. I'm running a spyware checker right now. hopefully that helps. Although, it is quite cool watch it spit out 2 rows of typing, all at once, when it finally catches up to what I'm typing. Yeah, I feel SUPER lightening fast - ROFL!

OK, so after going to bed at 3am last night, I was tired this morning. To be expected, right? LOL. I woke up at 8am, and was pretty sleepy still. I got kids fed (well, those who didn't feed themselves), got some chores started, and got ready for the sprinkler park. I showered, got pretty, and threw on my swim clothes.

At 9:40am, Eme and I ran out the door for a quick errand to Circle K. Sodas are only $0,79 all day. It's not Sonic, and I kinda felt like I was cheating on Sonic, but it was cheaper. I came home real fast, picked up the kids, and headed to the Sprinkler park. We were a few minutes late, but my friends were waiting for me :)

I took Braxton and Hunter with me, and the kids all had a good time. Hilary's friend Julie (well, she's my friend too, but I met her though Hilary) was there with her 2 boys, and Karin was there with her 1 girl. We all 3 have kids who are within 6 months of each other. Jimmy and Sammy and Wyatt. That was pretty neat :)

Braxton

Julie's baby

Jimmy and Eme

Hunter, Tom, Jake, Jim and Braxton

Joe (or is that Jim....wait, it's Jim) and Hunter

Julie and Wyatt

Braxton and Jim and Joe

Me :)

So I decided to go around and take an individual pic of all the kids that I brought. And for some reason, Jake and Tom decided to be turds in the pictures. Everyone was just fine with it. Whatever. They get to look like dorks on my blog. So be it :)

Jake
Hunter

Braxton

I've noticed a trend with Jimmy pictures. He's either not looking at the camera, gazing off into the distance, or making this exact face. Complete with the hands and tongue and all. LOL!

Tom.... Sigh...

Eme, Braxton, Tom, Jimmy, and Jake

Emeline (Joe in the background)

Joe got water in his eyes in this pic. Poor guy was taking a break for a few minutes

Joe and Hunter

This pic is one of my FAVORITEST!

Joe

Sammy and Karin

Me again :)

Julie, her little baby boy, and Eme in the background :)

Jimmy and Wyatt

So about 15 minutes before it was time to leave the sprinkler park, I made the kids get out of the water, and sit in the sun, and dry off. We gathered our junk, and got our shoes, and dried off best we could (ha! I saw we, but the only water on me was sweat - hehhe), and loaded up in the truck. And it was off to Free Lunch we went. It's called the Summer Food Service Program, and is a national program, offered in many cities around the country. Google SFSP plus your city, and see if they offer it near where you live :)

Karin and Julie and kids followed us over to the CDC for lunch, and we saw Leigh and kids and Chelsie and kids there. We had quite the group!

Julie and I :)

So after lunch, I drove back home, got kids changed, things organized, and set them up with a movie. Everyone was tired from being outside so long, and needed a rest.

Since Hilary is gonna be gone this weekend to visit her family (sniff, sniff), I needed to get some "hilary" time in, so I decided to go with her to her daughters dentist/ortho appointment on the West-sieed, and then we were gonna go to Sam's and Walmart to complete our grocery shopping from yesterday.

So, this dentist's office was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was SO kid friendly. And fun and energetic and exciting. They had little kid nooks, and TV's and games and everyone got Ice Cream and Balloons when they left. Seriously. hehehe. Everyone I've talked to here know's Dr. Bowden. LOL. SO, while waiting for Jannie's appointment, I went and signed my kids up. They take my insurance, and my kids needed to get a cleaning and be seen by a dentist. We got appointment for the week of the 20th. Can't remember the exact date. It's a Monday, I know.

So after seeing this at the dentists office with water and sliced strawberries floating in it (tried a cup, and it had a hint of strawberry - kinda cool - apparently last time, it had cucumbers in it), I just HAD to buy it when I found it at Sam's. Isn't it cool!

Also at Sam's, I got a text from my sister asking if I'd bought the new Stephanie Meyers book. WHAAAAAAT? There's a new book? We went to the book isle, and sure enough, there it was. VERY short. It was a "character study" of Bree. You remember, the newborn vampire from the end of Eclipse? The one who surrenders. It's about 150 pages. So I got it.

Then later that evening, I found out from a Facebook fan that they have it FREE online for a month. Sigh. So I guess I didn't need to buy it. But I guess it completes my series, right? Click HERE to go to the site.

It was a quick trip to Sam's. I just needed a few things, and Hilary just needed a few things too. We stopped by the Walmart over on the West-sieed, then headed home. We dropped off Jannie and a few cold things at Hilarys, then realized that we still needed to go to Albertsons. They were having a 10 for $10 sale, and cheese, 18 ct eggs, real butter, and a few other things were on it that Hilary needed.

While on that side of town, I picked up a few Little Caesars pizzas too. I got my truck, and Hilary followed me back to post. But I forgot something at Walmart, so we went to the "Jaurez" Walmart, then realized that it was cheaper at Sam's, which happened to be next door, so we went there. Then we headed back to my house.

But remembered that we needed one quick thing from the commissary, so stopped there. K, explaination of this picture - ROFL! There's this cardboard cut out of this soldier dude next to the ATM's at the commissary. And he get's me every time I walk in. I'm always like, who's that dude hiding back there? Hilary was like, go take your picture with him. So I did- hehehe.

But we had to act inconspicuous as people were walking in the front door. hehehe. We're such dorks. It took a few attempts to get the pic without anyone noticing how big of dorks we were.

OK, now we were done - hehe. The kids LOVED the pizza, and were very excited to have it :) I made them straighten up a bit before they ate it, though :) Didn't take too long.

We hung out in the backyard after dinner, and I chatted with the neighbors for a while, and the little kids went over and jumped on the trampoline. It was a very the nice and pleasant evening. Rick and Sarah are moving next week. I'll miss them as neighbors. They're good people.

I set the kids up with a movie (one Jake and Tom and Eme hadn't seen yet) at 8pm, knowing the Jim and Joe would be "out" within minutes, and headed out to Captain America's softball game. I told the kids that they could got to a game that started at 6pm. He's got a few coming up soon. 8 was too late to have the little kids out.

I brought my new book, and read it most of the time. I kinda kept track of what was going on in the game. I saw Captain America bat twice, and took pics each time he was up. They looked real good in their new uniforms. But you know, I still can't used to people calling him "sir". LOL! I guess I'd just figure that if they're playing Softball, it'd be "Captain America", not "sir". I guess since it's a Battery sponsored team, it's "sir". Still new to the army, I guess. "Way to go, Captain America" sounds better than "Way to go, Sir", in my book - hehehe.





Jim and Joe were totally snoring when I got home. I remember summer days as a kid, staying up late, watching TV, falling asleep on the couch. I just love summertime :) I sent the kids to bed, and laid down on the couch and finished off my book. Then started blogging. Yeah, it's late now. It's almost 3am again. Sigh. I keep forgetting to go to bed - hehehe.

This WordArt request is from Toby. Hope you like it, hon! 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!

4shared
box.net