Last Day of Freedom

Hey there, kids :) Yeah, it was an EARLY morning for me. Ok, ok, so I know some of you (Hilary) get up WAY earlier than me, but 0630 is WAY early for me.... I got out of bed, and proceeded to shower and get all ready for the day. I'm not sure I like getting up that early. It WAS peaceful, though. No kids are awake at time :)

Captain America got home right before I was ready to head out to the commissary. Some of the kids were awake, but not all. Captain America stayed with the kids and got ready for work. Here's me on the way to the commissary.

I did the weekly grocery shopping (about an hour), then headed home. Yeah, before 8am is DEFINITELY the time to go to the Ft Bliss Commissary. Cause there's NO one there. Gotta love it.

I came back home, put the groceries away, saw Captain America off to work, and started cleaning. I got about 20 minutes in before my girls were there to pick me up. We were having our "No Sales Tax" shopping excursion. Different girls from the Tuesday shopping trip.

Aimee and Hilary came to pick me up, and we went to get Maggie. Who wasn't home. She was still registering her kids for school. So we took a detour off post to grab a Circle K Diet Dr Pepper, and then came back to pick her up. Well, let her follow us, really.

We drove to the Fallas by my doctors appointment, the one we went to across the street from McDonalds. We got not sales tax, AND 10% military discount. It was awesome :)

Here's Aimee and I. Why I'm always SOOOO much taller than everyone else I know is beyond me. Any tall people wanna come and be my friend???

Cool zebra sunglasses, which I didn't get

This hat actually FIT! Which is amazing, considering the size of my head. I should have bought it just to say that I owned a hat that fit - ROFL!
As opposed to Hilary, who had to grab a pair of sunglasses to keep it from falling over her eyes. Yeah, my head is LARGE...

Maggie

This was a funny pic, but I can't for the life of me remember why.... There was a story associated with it.... hmmmm...

Aimee....ha! SO not a gangsta! She's married to a Mexican dude (who looks like the ROCK), but she's white, thru and thru... LOVE ya, girl!

And this hat fit like most hats fit me. WAY too tiny...
We were there for about an hour or so, then headed out. Maggie was hungry, so we decided to do lunch. We saw this store from the parking lot of Fallas, and I was left wondering.... WHO picked out that name. Tool Driver? I'm just sayin'...

We got to Carlos and Mickeys at around 1130. Captain America called, and wanted to know if I wanted to meet him for lunch on the Northeast Side, so I told him to come with us, and that I'd order for him so his food would be there in time for him to eat. He agreed, and joined us within 20 minutes of arriving. Maggie's hubby, Tom, came with us too.

I must be getting used to El Paso, because the spicy salsa wasn't so bad for me. Remember, Andrea and Laurie, how I almost DIED on the salsa last time. I drank like 5 glasses of water, and the waiter was almost making fun of me - hehehe.

Ha! It was THAT funny...

Maggie and Tom

Maggie's boy, Jacob, and Aimee, caught unaware by the camera - hehe

So Captain America and Tom went back to work, and Maggie and her kids went back to her house. She was having a couch delivered, and needed to be home by 1pm. So Aimee and Hilary and I headed out for some more shopping.

First stop, Jewelry Box in the Bassett Center. It's REAL close to Carlos and Mickeys. And Hilary and I saw these pics of Jacob inside FYE, and just HAD to get a pic with him. hehehe. I totally forgot to suck in my extra skin.... ha!

I found a few things that I liked at the Jewerly Box. You know, after being to the one at the outlet mall, this one PALES in comparison. NO ring selection. I did find a few bracelets and earrings, though, so it wasn't a total loss. hehe.

See my new earrings?

Hilary rocking out to a song - hehehe

So we left Jewelry Box, and headed to Savers. But Hilary forgot where we were going, and we ended up at Goodwill on McCrae. Sounds good to me - hehehe. I hadn't been to that one before. We bumped into the Missionaries from church in there - ha!

We tried on pants, and looks at shoes. I found 3 of the CUTEST pairs of shoes. 2 are Steve Madden, and one are some other brand, but red with black lace. Yeah, sounds kinda hoochie, but SUPER cute. Believe me :) I'll take pics later :) I also got Jacob a pair of Sunday pants, as his were getting a bit tight. AND, it cost me under $10. Not bad, eh?

After Goodwill, we went across the street to those shops Maddie and I found. I'm gonna have to find out their name, so they're not "Those shops Maddie and I found". ROFL! Anyway, I wanted a belt. I'd gotten one of those long shirts with the loose neck, that you wear skinny jeans and a big chunky belt with. But I needed the belt. And I knew those stores had them. I ended up getting a black one and a white one, and a checkered one, and a new shirt.

It was funny, because Aimee wanted to get a pair of skinny jeans, and there was no trying on room. So she went behind a rack, and had us run a screen for her. And the lady who worked there came over, and was like, you can't try things on in here, we have a camera, you know. Aimee was like, yeah, I don't care, I'm not gonna buy something unless I try it on first. hehehe. Who would you possibly know if the pants will fit you if you can't try it on first? Doesn't make sense to me....

Anyway, we got a good laugh about that. Then, Hilary kept trying on shirts and getting her arms stuck inside of them, so she kept needing people to help her "take her clothes off". ROFL! Yeah, it was an interesting shopping trip - ha! Don't you wish you were with us! LMBO! Hilary, if you didn't work out CONSTANTLY, you wouldn't have such BUFF arms - hehehe.

And that was the end of our shopping day. We headed back to post, stopping at Circle K for a refill. Yeah, that was my 3rd 44 oz of the day. Good thing I only got water at lunch. I need a little bit of blood in my caffeine system, you know...

Hilary and Aimee dropped me off at home, then off they went. I came in, and the kids were happy to see me :) The house was still somewhat cleaned, and they were all happy and well. They're such good kids :)

I went in and tried on my new clothes, and was pretty happy with them. Here's my $5.99 shirt with my $4.99 belt.

And my $2.99 shirt

I started dinner for the kids, and sat down with my 46 inch laptop and started blogging. I designed my freebie for tomorrow, posted pictures, and here I am. It's 5:54pm, and I'm caught up for the day. Captain America should be home soon, and we're gonna go out with the Nouhans tonight. We were gonna do dinner, but since the guys both had to go to late formations, we're just gonna hit a movie. "Vampires Suck". The previews looked real funny - hehehe.


This WordArt is in honor of back to school. hehehe. And if you don't like the sarcasm at the bottom, just delete that part - hehehe.

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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Oh Those Summer Nights

Woohoo! I have new products this week! Doesn't it feel like it's been a while? hehehe. It's been Bundles the last few times :) SO, here's they are! Enjoy!

Click HERE to go to my store to check out my new products. 20% off the first week, making them $2.00 per pack!

And, as a side note, did you know you can "Like" my products in the store? Yup, there's a Facebook "Like" button on every one of my products. Technology is amazing, don't you think?







Howdy, peeps :) Hope you all had a fabulous Thursday. They're always good at our house, cause it's Family Day, and the soldiers get off early. And Captain America really gets to come home early nowadays. Since not being XO anymore, life has been SO much better - ha!

Anyway, I started off my day with a cleaning project. A BIG one, in fact. I knew that I had to be home most of the day because of my package (PHONE!!!) coming, so I figured now was as good a time as any to rearrange the bedrooms.

I cleared a space in my bedroom, and moved Captain Americas office stuff into our room. Then cleaned out the empty office space, and moved in a kid bed. This would be Jimmy's bedroom. It's tiny, but he was SO thrilled to have his own space. Then, we cleaned out Joe and Jim's room, and moved Eme's stuff in, along with Joe's stuff. Then Tom moved his stuff into Eme's room. And Jake organized his stuff left in his room. What a pain. hehe.

So Joe and Eme are sharing a downstairs bedroom, Jimmy gets a glorified closet as his room, and Jake and Tom get their own rooms upstairs. Kids were mostly happy. But my house is kinda trashed now. Tomorrow is gonna be another cleaning project. Finish off what I started project, kinda thing :)

Captain America came home at lunchtime, and we hung for the hour he was there. AND, while he was there, MY PHONE CAME!!!!! We thought it was the neighbor kid at the door, but it was the UPS man. AND, he didn't make me sign for it. So I guess I didn't need to sit home all day after all.... Maybe it's only FedEx that makes you sign... I don't know..

Anyway, after Captain America went back to work, I headed out to meet Hilary at the mall. I needed to buy a case for my phone, and she was there getting a gift card for Old Navy. We got the few things we each needed, then headed to Sam's. I haven't been there in a while.

While there, I realized that I needed a Memory Card for my phone. It comes with one, but they were on back order. And I can't take pics without one. And I SO can't wait a week for that - hehehe. SO, I bought a little one from Sam's. Just a little 2GB one. Not too bad.

I bought crackers, and soup, and little zebra flip flops like mine for Eme. They were on clearance, and in her size. I can't believe that child is wearing a size 6/7 in womens in shoes. Dang, girl! You're gonna have your mamma's feet, I'm afraid - hehehe.

Here's Hilary and I in the check out line. Yeah, I know, the candy isle isn't a safe place to hang, but it's where the line was - hehehe.

And, note to self, I need to apply make up next time I leave the house - hehehe. I look horrible - ROFL!

After Sam's, Hilary headed home, and I went to the Dollar Tree. Here's me, testing out my camera - LOL!
I bought some household stuff at the Dollar Tree, and a few storage boxes for the kids to keep their clothes in. Collapsible boxes. Kinda cool.

I bought a box of Nutty Bars (or the equilivant) for the kids for a treat, and ate one of the bars in a 2 pack on the way home. Because I need to learn how to eat sweets again. It would have been a lot easier to just NOT eat the Nutty Bar. I sat there the whole way home debating about eating the other one. Sigh. BUT, I didn't eat the other one. OR go in the back of the truck, grab the box, and eat the other 5 packages. ha! Cause there WAS a part of me that wanted to do that :)

So far, I've had a dessert type item every day this week, and haven't gotten out of control with it. I'm pretty proud of myself for that fact. AND I haven't gone up in weight at all. I've been 140 for 3 weeks in a row now. I think that's the longest I've maintained while at 140. Woohoo!

So I got home, unloaded all of the things, and Captain America and I headed out to grab a Sonic soda. I like their ice, and their cups. But I don't really trust their soda. And again, this tasted funny this time. Captain America said his tasted like diet, so I took it.

I love you, Droid phone. Please, never leave me again...

We headed home, picked up the kids, and headed out for their schools Open House. While Captain Americaran in to get the kids, he filled up his Sonic cup with another diet Dr Pepper (cause he chugged his). He came back out, and had me taste it. I hadn't had a taste of mine in a few minutes, and I was like, yeah, it tastes the same. Then I took a swig of mine, and OH YEAH, it was regular. STUPID SONIC!!! That's it. I'm done. No more Sonic.

My stomach didn't feel too grand after that. 1/2 a Rt 44 (I guess that's 22 oz) of sugar soda. Yeah, not so helpful with the ole diet...

When we got to the school, I had Tom fill up my Sonic cup with water, and drank the whole thing. That helped a bit.

We found all the kids teachers on the list on the door, then headed to the Gym for some words from the Principal. TOO many words, in my opinion, but it was fine, I guess. 30 minutes worth of info, then on to chat with the teachers. We saw our new friends from church/the neighborhood, the Nelson's there, too. Maggie. They have a kid in Pre-K like Jimmy. We're hoping to get them in the same class, and hang at the bus stop. hehehe.

First, we went to Jimmy's class. Mrs Villa. She seemed pretty nice. We didn't stay there long. Next, off to Joe's class. Mrs McCabe. It's the teacher that Andrea's 1st grader had last year. She liked her. Strict, but awesome, teacher. Sounds good :)

Next, we went to Eme's Math/Science teacher, then to Tom's teachers. Finally, we ended up at Eme's Language/Reading teacher. I think we hit everyone. It was fast and furious. 6 teachers in an hour. Those people with only 1-2 kids probably had a MUCH easier time than me, with 4 kids in this school. Oh well.

So once we were finally done with Open House, the kids were STARVING. I didn't really feel like cooking, so we swung by Arby's on the way home. We ordered some sandwiches, and had fun eating with the kids. I had 2 of their sandwiches. Well, I ate the meat off of 2 of their sandwiches. I guess I did eat a bottom bun of one of them as one of my pieces of bread for the day. See, control :) Today I have control :)




So at one point, I look across the table, and Joe is doing this. WHaaaat? I was like, Joe, what are you doing, and he didn't answer. Just kept looking. So I looked up to see what he was gawking at...

Himself- ROFL! See how the ceiling is reflective - LOL!

We headed home, brought Jake his dinner (he's not going to this school, so didn't wanna come to to the open house), and let the kids watch a movie. Captain America and I hung for a while, then put the kids to bed. After kids were in bed, I hooked my laptop up to the big TV, and he and I sat on the couch. He worked on his laptop, and had to make a Facebook Fan Page for his battery.

We hooked up Pandora, and listened to music the whole time. AND, I found out that I don't have all of the Muse CD's after all. Whaaaaat? Who knew there were more albums!

At about 10pm, I got a text from Danielle, wanting to know if I was still up. Yup. I was designing, and loading my store, and such. She said that she'd been detail cleaning her car tonight, and the battery had died. Oops. They only have one vehicle, so she needed a jump.

So Captain America and I paused our electronics stuff, and headed over to Danielles house. I was noticing my bush/shrub by my driveway on the way out. It's TOTALLY falling over. I was wondering if I could put in a housing work order for it - LOL! See it hanging ALL in the sidewalk?
So we get to Danielles house, give her car a jump, and headed back home. And we took another look at the bush. It was getting HUGE. Captain America gathered the branches all togheter, and pushed it up. It was freakin' tall. hehehe. I held it while he went inside to look for some 550 cord.

See, here's me holding up the bush. I felt like bugs were crawling all over me the rest of the night - hehehe. AND, the neighbors decide to come home at that very moment. He rolled down his window, and was like, "Yeah, that's what I wanna see at 10:30pm, my neighbor holding up a tree". ROFL! Perfect timing..... NOT!
So Captain America tied the 550 cord around the tree, then put a big stake in the ground. He tied a bowline and a taut line hitch to rig it up. It was standing vertically by the time we were done. Captain America, you've got some mad skills with rope and bushes.

So that was our bush adventure for the night - hehehe. We came back inside, and picked up where we left off. I got all my products designed, and loaded up in my store. I started blogging for the night, and listened to Pandora some more. And got distracted on Facebook for a bit, too. ha!

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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Miracles Never Cease

Not having a phone is NOT cool, you know. I'm SO off of my groove without it. I woke up, reached for it on my bedside stand to check my emails, and it was gone. And I didn't even remember at first why. Sigh. I miss you, phone :(

I got up and helped the kids with breakfast, and saw Captain America off to work, and got kinda ready for the day. Ready enough - hehehe. I pulled back my hair, threw on some clothes, and Tom and I set out for an errand. We stopped at the Shoppette for a large soda, and headed to ACS. They'll do free faxes for military. I had to fax in an affidavit saying that my phone was indeed stolen.

We waited around for just a short time, and were on our way. We needed to go to the post office to mail something. Captain America had the box all ready, and wanted me to go to FedEx. I checked online, and a package that size would be $15-20. Um, yeah, no. So I checked UPS and it was about the same. So I checked USPS, and it was under $5 for a flat rate small box. I could fit a phone in a small flat rate box, I was sure.

Anyway, we drove to the post office, but the road right before getting there was closed. So I'd have to go ALL the way around to get there. Sigh. I didn't have time to do that AND make it to our 10am Cub Scout activity on time.

So we headed home. Kids got dressed, and Tom and Joe had on their uniforms. We loaded up, grabbed water bottles, and headed out. We got there a few minutes after 10am, but were still the first family to arrive.

We ended up having 3 of our Cub Scout families there. Us, and the Timmons, and the Porters. Sister Couddle was there (Acting Committee Chair) with her daughter too. We had 4 women and 13 children, oldest being 12. Yeah, it was a bit crazy.

I took a few pictures, but since this phone that I'm using right now (the home phone that Jake thinks is his) TOTALLY sucks, I can't get them off of it. Sigh. So much for that....

(I was looking at Laurie's Facebook account tonight, and found these pics. At least SOMEONE got pictures...)








At 11:15am, we called it good, and people dispersed. Kids and I headed to the Post office, going the OTHER way this time. I grabbed a pre paid box, got almost all of the stuff to fit, paid, and off we went. We were meeting Captain America at the PX for lunch. Kids got Taco Bell, Captain America had soup from home, and I got Burger King. 2 Buck Doubles and 2 side salads. I just take the meat off of one of the burgers, and crumble it into my salad. No dressing. It's really quite good. And I have 2 of their little salads. Not bad for only $4.00.

Us at the PX. Just as a side note, that uniform hanging on the wall behind me makes me look like a have a pointy head - hehehe.


After lunch, we looked at the little Kiosks there, and the Exchanged, and headed home. Captain Americawent back to work. I was SOOOO sleepy when I got home. Jimmy and I laid down and took a nap. I'm really feeling better from the UTI, but I think maybe the sleepiness was a side effect. Or it could be the LATE nights 3 nights in a row. Yeah, that could do it too - hehehe.

Anyway, I was awoken at 3pm with texts and such. The phone was on vibrate, but it was shaking the bed. I went to the bathroom, and decided to check my email before trying to go back to sleep.

I noticed that the Verizon Insurance place had emailed me. I followed the link, and started filling out the pages to get my phone back. I got to the page about which phone I was requesting, (Droid), and they informed me they were out of stock. WHAAAAAT? That was SO not the answer I was wanting. I was already feeling off of my groove. Now it's out of stock?

So I called the Insurance people, and talked with some chickie about it. And yeah, it wasn't good. She said it could be at least a week, probably longer. OK, so I sound SOOO drama queen right now, but ONE WEEK??? Are you kidding me??? All my friends will TOTALLY forget who I am in 1 week! I won't have a social life AT ALL in 1 week. Sigh.

So she tells me that I could get a Comp model. Which are those, I ask. The LG Ally. Total downgrade. Nope. A precurser to the Droid. Another nope. Not gonna go down, doesn't make sense. I'd have to keep that phone for 2 years, and I LOVE my droid. I was pissed off. Really, my voice even started to crack a few times.

I know, Drama queen....

So I say I just wanna stay on back order, cause I don't want anything besides the Droid. She said probably in 1 week they'd get something in. And I say, WHY don't you have more in stock. If people use this phone a lot, then you should have supply to meet the demand. I'm sure that people ahead of me are still waiting for one too. She just apologized, and said there was nothing she could do. She was like, yeah, a lot of people were calling in today trying to get a Droid replaced. My case in point, insurance chickie.

She said "Is there anything else I can help you with today" before she got off the phone, and I was like "You couldn't even help me with this, why would I want you to help me with anything else". OK, so maybe that was a low blow, but I was pissed off.

So I got off the phone, and instantly burst into tears. I couldn't handle one more bad thing happening. I was at the end of my rope. And it was unraveling. I sat on my bed and sobbed in the dark. I texted Captain America, and he called the second he got my text. He was on his way home (they got off early for an FRG meeting), and was soon there to hold me. Pathetic of me, I know. But I was falling apart :)

So we talk about how sad I am (I know, he's very patient with me :), then he takes a shower and gets ready for our evening meetings, then I hop in the shower too. While I'm showering, he calls the Verizon Insurance place. And by the time I'm out of the shower, I have a new Droid phone coming FedEx tomorrow. I don't know what he did, and I don't really care, but I LOVE YOU, HONEY!!!! You saved me :) Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

We got the kids ready, and headed out at 5:30 for our FRG meeting at Kelly Park. Commander talked for about 30 minutes with everyone, then we had a BBQ. Captain America chatted with people so long there was no food left - hehe. Poor guy. I had some burger meat, and a hot dog, and just dipped it in ketchup. Kids enjoyed the food :)

We came home, I got some veggies, and Captain America got some soup. We changed our clothes real fast, and headed off to our church meetings. Eme had Activity Days and Jake had a Duty to God program overview. Parents needed to be there too. We let the little boys and Tom play in the gym with the other siblings.

Bishop talked about the program, and we all got the manuals. It sounds like a great program. We headed home at about 8:15pm, and worked on getting the kids to bed. It's now 9:20pm, and I'm SUPER tired. I'm gonna go design something, then go to sleep. Cause I'm fried.

I'll be home most of tomorrow, unless the FedEx dude comes early in the day. I've gotta be here to sign for the package. I'll help the kids clean, and design a bit, and such. A nice, relaxing day at home might be nice. :)

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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