What Fosters Creativity?

Hey - well, my plan to cheer up today didn't work. Oh well. There's always tomorrow. I found out today that my tummy tuck was denied, and even with a discount for having another procedure done, it would STILL cost close to $17,000. Yeah, not gonna happen. So the tummy tuck is out.

Also found out that Captain America's not coming home tonight. Maybe Saturday morning. Sigh. I didn't really do much today. I did clean the living room, if that counts as something fun and exciting. Maybe that will have to count for fun from now on.... It does look better, though.

It's 6:30pm, and I'm gonna design a few freebies for the next few days. Since I have nothing else to do. Watching a movie on the couch with the kids at the same time. It's good to be productive, right?

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Hmpf!

OK, before I get all sad and whiny on you, here's my new stuff for the week. Oh wait. I didn't feel like designing, because my funk is back, and I just repackaged up some old crap into a bundle, and selling it to you SUPER cheap. Cause I'm lazy, and didn't feel like making anything new. Or feel creative. Or anything.... See, pitty party is back. Hmpf!

Anyway, 2 bundles, one all about families, and one all about friends. They end up being either sixty or eighty ish cents a wordart pack. Which I'm crazy to sell them at that low of a price, but I don't care right now. You should buy them. Maybe I'll feel better if I make a lot of money this weekend. ha!

I linked the item to the picture, so you can click on it below to go to the store and that particular product. So don't click HERE, because it won't take you anywhere. Really, it won't.


And you know, the thing is, it started off as a fine day. Normal. Routine. Everything I normally do. I went to a friends house in the morning, because she was feeling sad, and brought her a soda, and we were laughing and happy by the time I went back home. I spent lunchtime with Jake, then after Jimmy went on the bus and after lunch, Aimee and Hilary and I went to Savers, for 1/2 price blue tag day, and I had a 20% off coupon for regular priced items. And I had fun. Until the ride home, when I started feeling like crap. Yeah, my stomach was a little upset, but I was almost to tears, and I honestly didn't know why.

I know, you all think I'm crazy. Maybe I am crazy. I'm not hormonal, because I just got done with that a few days ago. Sigh. I haven't been eating very well lately, and I'm afraid it's related to that. No, I haven't been eating too much. The opposite, in fact. I haven't been hungry, so I haven't been eating that much. I need to. Maybe that's why I'm so tired. And irritable. And emotional. And moody.

And I know I'm opening myself up to all sorts of criticisms, but I really don't care right now. I don't feel good. And if it's because I haven't eaten much in the past 10 days, then maybe I need to look closer at that. Not eating enough is just as bad as eating too much...

But for some reason, I'm doing it to myself. That wordart from yesterday is so appropriate, right? And having Captain America gone isn't helping things. But I know there's gonna be times that he's gone. Like ALL of next year. Hmpf! I miss him... Even though I complain about him sometimes, and get annoyed with him too. I still miss him. And he's freakin' coming back late Friday, so I should stop having my stupid pity party, and get over it....

It's now 6:45pm, and I'm done. I can't handle life anymore, so I'm retreating to my room. I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep, probably, with the mood I'm in. I left Jake and Tom in charge of finishing up dinner, and getting the younger kids to beds. And helping with homework. I know they can do it. They're great kids. See, I am blessed. I don't know why I feel so down...

Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve to be happy. And it's almost feels like I do things to sabotage myself when I start to be or feel happy. How messed up is that... Hmpf. I don't even know if this post makes sense. I should have just posted the freebie without my rantings. But that didn't go over too well last time, and I promised Andrea I wouldn't do that to her again. So here's my crappy post, but at least it's a post, right?

I'm hoping I feel better when I wake up in the morning. And I have all intentions of eating a bowl of yogurt like I know I should. Cause it would be good for me. I know it would...

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Insanity

Howdy, girls :) How's life treatin' ya? Me? I'm ok. Been better, been worse. I'm doing fine, though. Captain America's gone for a few days, so that probably has something to do with my melancholy mood. I'm sitting here with my 46 inch laptop, wearing his shirt, feeling a little sorry for myself. hehe. Whatever am I gonna do when he leaves for a WHOLE year??....

Anyway, he left this morning before I woke up. I remember him kissing my before he left, but that's all I remember. I woke up with the kids at 6:55am to get them ready for the bus. Jim and Jake woke up after that.

I moved the MASSIVE pile of laundry from the dining room to the living room, where my plan was to watch a movie and sit and fold laundry. And yeah, after moving it, I was done - hehehe. So my living room was getting a laundry pile. Oh well. I got Jake going with school, and relaxed in my room for a bit. Cause I like being lazy. hehe.

I got Jimmy ready and on the bus at 11am, and headed out to Verizon. Because I needed to pay my bill (I'd gotten rebate cards) and I wanted them to tell me why my camera was having issues.

Verizon usually takes about an hour to wait in line, so I made sure I had plenty of time. And for some reason, there was NO line. So I got right in. Seriously? That must have been a fluke. hehehe.

I showed the dude what was wrong, and we worked to get it a Hard Reset. And it was taking FOREVER. But we had a nice little chat. I told him all about my scrapbooking business, and about you all. hehehe. And about my blog, and how he was gonna be on it tomorrow. ROFL!

After the phone was all set, I practiced with a picture. Of my Verizon Dude. And yes, I told him he'd be on the blog. And he approved this picture. hehehe.

Me, waiting for the phone to load the contacts. ALL of my gmail contacts had to load, and I had almost 2000. Crazy! Seriously, I don't think I needed all those people on my phone. Sigh. But whatever... That's how the Droids work, I guess...

I met Captain America at the DFAC (mess hall - don't know that acronym) for lunch. I"d already eaten what I was gonna eat, so he paid for himself and the dude working there let me in for free. Cause yeah, I wasn't gonna eat anything.

Captain America had chicken and veggies and a salad and some corn bread. We had fun chatting and hanging out. Since he's "in the field", he's not supposed to go home. But I came to him, so I got to see him! Tricky, huh?

After lunch, I met Hilary and Aimee at my house, and we headed to the Dollar Tree. More looking for stuff for our Pirate Party. I really need to make those invites. Maybe tomorrow - hehehe. That's my new mantra. "Maybe I'll work on that tomorrow". ROFL!

We found a few good things, but mostly had fun goofing off in Dollar Tree. Really, we're 12. ha! After Dollar Tree, Aimee headed back home, and Hilary and I went for a soda. The Howdy's that was near where we happened to be didn't have Diet Dr Pepper, so it was dubbed the "Bad Howdy's". So we drove over to the "Good Howdy's", which did have Diet Dr Pepper. Good. hehe.

We picked up kids from school, delivered them to their houses, checked on my kids, and headed to Sam's for milk. She'd bought milk yesterday, and it was rotten. Whaaaat? Luckily, they let her exchange it. And I grabbed some milk, too. And I'd gotten bread at the Dollar Tree, so I was all set for a while. hehe. I'm gonna hold off on my grocery shopping trip as long as I can. Captain America's not home, anyway...

I wasn't feeling too well when I got back home. I think I'd had too much caffeine again. I'm still getting used to how much I can have at this weight - hehehe. Or maybe I'd drank it too fast. I don't know. Anyway, I got kids some dinner, and laid down for about an hour.

I had time to take a shower before Scouts (cause it's been too long, and I was ready to be girly again) and get pretty. Cause I like to get pretty :) And I wanted to wear pink. I'd been wearing pink, but it's not the same without a shower, you know...

So we all got ready and headed out to Scouts. They were having a Court of Honor, where the boys got awards. Jacob got some Merit Badges awarded, but didn't get his rank advancement, because Captain Americas in the field, and wanted to be there. He's earned it, but will be presented it later. Congrats, Jake!

Eme

Me and Jimmy (yeah, what's up with the old person wrinkles....)

Meghan

So when Kristie's son got his Rank Advancement, I held the little girl they were babysitting. Yeah, I don't remember what to do with babies - ROFL!
After the meeting, Hilary and I went downstairs to say HI to Aimee. She was helping teach the Young Women to decorate cakes. I gathered up my rowdy crew, and headed home.

Here's me singing to something or another... hehehe. That must be my "I'm singing" face - ROFL!
And, to prove that I wore pink, I took a pic. Yes, it's VERY light pink. hehe. BUT, it still counts as pink...

And my new facebook profile picture.

So I got home, put the kids to bed, and sat down with my MASSIVE laundry pile. I wanted to design, since I had a project due before midnight in some time zone (yeah, I think I missed it...), but I coudln't access the TV. I had to fold first, then move the chair to reach the 46 inch laptop. ha! It took about an hour or so to get the 8-10 loads of laundry folded. But I got it done.

And I moved my chair over to the TV, and started designing. And got distracted on Facebook, of course. I chatted with a dude I'd gone to High School with that had added me as a Facebook friend just today. Seems like a nice guy. Didn't really know him in High School. Knew of him (coming from a class of 120 people), but didn't know him personally. I was so shy and quiet in High School, I didn't know many people personally. Really, I'm still like that. I just like to pretend like I'm a social butterfly. I'm really quite shy. Really. I am :)

So I finally got my project finished, an hour or so late. Probably should have folded the laundry AFTER working. But I really didn't wanna push it aside, and risk not folding it at all. Hopefully it was ok.

Then, on to blogging and freebie. And Facebook was still distracting me. Traded posts with Hilary and my friend Krista. See, maybe I AM a social butterfly. hehehe.

So here it is, 12:25pm. And I still need a freebie. Off I go to design one :) Hope you like it. It's a saying that I've been thinking about a lot lately...

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Tears

Morning, girls! Hope everyone's day was fabulous :) Back to the grind - hehe. Captain America was back early from PT, and getting ready for his week in the field. I got the kids breakfast (we were out of cereal, so they had left over pancakes), and sent them off on the bus.

Captain America loaded up all of his gear, and headed out around 8:30am. They were gonna be gone till Monday ( thought Friday, at the time), but would be on post. But couldn't come home. Sucks, huh? He was gonna see if maybe the kids and I could meet him at the PX, or a park, or somewhere durning lunch or dinner to visit. We'd never experienced one of these training before...

Anyway, I was feeling kinda sad when Captain America left. Not super down, but just lonely. Such is to be expected, I guess. He did say he'd text and see if he could come home for lunch. Sweet!

I sat around and didn't do much after the kids went to school. Hilary texted at some point to see if I wanted to go to Sam's, and as much as I wanted to sit around the house in my jammies and do absolutely nothing, I agreed. I recognized that getting out of the house would be good for me.

So I got Jimmy on the bus, and headed to Sam's. She had a few things to get, then we went to Walmart, since it's right next door. I got a few things that I needed, we hit Howdy's for refills, and we headed home.

I got home just a few minutes before Captain America was able to come for lunch. Sweet! They'd got things set up, and were back on main post. He also said that they were gonna get to sleep at home tonight! Woohoo! AND, if training went well, that they'd be done on Friday, not Monday. Althought I hadn't realized it was gonna be Monday. Good deal, either way!

He stayed till around 1:30 or 2pm, and headed out again. I was feeling a bit better knowing he was coming home tonight.

I went to Bassett Center Mall for a quick trip to Jewelry Box for some Pink accessories, and was able to get home before Jimmy got off the bus.

We spent the rest of the evening at home. But first, check out this manniquin we found at Bassett Center. TOO funny!

Me eating my nectarine. I've decided that I REALLY like nectarines...

And me gearing up to clean my room. I had new clothes to hang up, and needed to go through my old pants and see what was too big.
Here's my too big pile. I'm gonna hold on to them for a bit, cause they're not that big. Just a little lose. And I had SO many jeans, that I figured I might as well just keep arond the ones that fit the best, right? Made sense to me :) I'm wearing between a 5-9. Mostly a 7, though.

Yup, here's my pink section. I'm totally wearing pink tomorrow, just to prove that I can :) hehe.

See, pink accessories even!

I made dinner for the kids (homemade mac and cheese), and got them ready for bed. I told Joe and Jim to go and take a bath, and they completely trashed the bathroom. Sigh.
Nasty boys! Really? I thought the purpose of a bath was to get clean, not to MESS up the entire room. Sigh. I made them clean it up afterwords, so it's all good :)
I sent Jake and Tom upstairs to read, Eme to her room to read, put Jim to bed, and sat down with Joe to do his homework. He read a book to me, and we worked on a few papers. And I tried to get a few pictures of us together. And he wanted nothing to do with the camera. LOL!



This is my "YOU WILL take a picture with me" face - ROFL!


I finished up with Joe, and Captain America finally got home at 9pm. We hung for a while, and had a great time talking. I'm not much of a talker when I'm feeling down, so he was happy to see me chatty. That meant I was feeling better :)

I stayed up WAY too late on Facebook after Captain America went to bed, and working on my blog, and making a freebie. And it's now almost 2am. But I'm gonna get to sleep before that. I know I will. hehe.

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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Friends Make Life Fun

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged. hehehe. I really hate missing days, because it gets to be SUCH a pain to go back in time and fill y'all in - hehehe. What? Didn't you know that I'm a time traveler, too? ROFL!

So lets see what I can remember from this weekend. I think I left off on Thursday afternoon. I continued packing, had a few more errands to run, packed some more, Captain America finally got home from work (commander wasn't letting anyone go...), and anyway, we didn't roll out of El Paso until around 9pm. Yeah, late start.

I ended up driving most of the way, because Captain America was SO tired. And I was tired. But we made it there in one piece.

I slept in the truck until the men folk pitched a tent and got my bed ready, then I went to bed. That was my reward for driving the 2 1/2 hours while Captain America slept. I'll take it :)

He must have got the kids unpacked and in their tents too. Cause camp was mostly set up when I woke up at 7am Friday morning.

And I was FREEZING! Seriously!

And it wasn't just me! Hilary was freezing too!

Apparently, though, we were the only ones freezing. Check out Paul in his t-shirt and shorts. Whaaaaat? I know it was freezing!

So as we were sitting around, freezing, Hilarys phone got a text. WHAAAAAAT? We have reception? I ran to the tent and grabbed my phone. and YES, I had reception too! Last time we camped here, there was no reception at all. Sure, it's a different location, but same area. Or maybe we just have a better phone? I don't know, but I wasn't complaining.

Look at my face - hehe. I can't contain my joy - ROFL!

And then there's a TON of pictures. I'm not sure of the order, but you get the idea. We camped and had a lot of fun - hehe.

Here's our campsite

And our toilet

Campsite

Mmmm, dinner one night

Captain America and I

So Friday, we decided that we need some stuff from Walmart. Which is an hour away in town. And there's no way we're taking 8 children into Walmart. There's just not. ha! So the men decide to go to Walmart, and the women are gonna stay in camp.

The kids go off to play. I read in my book, and Hilary takes a nap. And around 4pm, we start to cook dinner. And of course, when you cook over a campfire, you get all dirty. Check out our hands.

Which leads to the next series of pictures. ROFL!

OK, so we all had a TON of fun playing in the ashes. What? Haven't you ever done that? hehehe. Our kids thought we were crazy, but they sure joined in!

When the men got back from Walmart 3-4 hours later (ok, so there was 2 hours at least of drive time...), they brought us gifts! 44 oz sodas from the gas station. Diet Dr Pepper, even! We were SO excited!

Yeah, I know, I'm a freak - hehehe

People around camp

I'm not sure how this all transpired, but Jake is tree man, or something. ha!

Eme and Meghan

Tom

Joe

Jimmy

Joe, Me, Jannie, Hilary, and Paul

Me and Hilary

OK, this picture does NOT do justice to the slope of this mountain. They had to crawl up it it was so steep. then, they'd slide down it, and get FILTHY. It was a favorite entertainment for the weekend...

Captain America and I

At least they were on the OUTSIDE of the tent...

Meghan and Joe

Captain America and I one morning. I'm telling ya, I FROZE!

Me at the campfire one night. Yeah, CRAZY hair!

Captain America and I again

OK, so Saturday, since the men got the Walmart (no kids) trip into town, it was the Women's turn. We got our soda refills first off, bought some more campfire wood, and went to the dollar tree. We decided that we wanted to have another "girls party" like we had earlier this year. Like the St. Patricks and Valentines and Tacky parties. This one? Pirates! Arrrrgh!

So we wanted to see what the Dollar Tree had. Ha! A pirate flask!

This was hilarious! Hilary took my picture, and was like "Are you SMILING under there?" And I TOTALLY was. hehehe.

We got some sugar free candies, and thought the back was HILARIOUS! Really? They're slippery? OK, we'll watch out for that - hehehe.

These glasses were priceless!

I don't think I've laughed that hard in FOREVER. Thanks, Dollar Tree, for not kicking us out. ha!

Next, on to Walmart. And I found my new favorite Sugar Free candies. Basking Robins cookies and cream. I swear, it's JUST like eating an oreo.
So we got what we needed on our shopping list, and headed back to camp, but not before grabbing another refill and one for the men. We even got back 30 minutes before they were expecting us! See how good we are - hehehe.

Captain America took the kids on a hike that evening. Here's him and "round 1". I don't think we got a pic of "round 2".

Eme and I

Me and my refill

Sunday morning, we broke down camp, and headed home. Here we are, stopping at the gas station on the way out of town.

We got home before dark, or near to it. And Captain America, who was SUCH a sweetheart, had me go in, get the little boys and Eme to bed, then relax. He and the older two boys unpacked and organized everything, and I took a bath. It was SO nice.

It was a great campout, and I'm SO glad that we got to spend so much time with family and friends! Can't wait for the next campout :)

We went to bed early on Sunday night, so Monday morning, we were up and going by 8am. OK, so it's not terribly early, but it WAS a day off. hehehe.

I've decided I don't like my hair like this. I can't seem to take a pic of myself that I like with my hair pulled back. I resort to silly faces. Ha!




We got the kids all organized and happy, and at 10am, Captain America and I headed out for a date. Cause we totally missed date night. ha! And the kids were happy to be home with all of their things, so it was good.

We met Paul and Hilary at Savers, and the girls shopped while the guys held our purses and stuff. Yeah, it was awesome! I found some new jeans and some shoes and a few tops. It was 1/2 off all clothing. I was so excited. But I think 1/2 of El Paso was there too, so it wasn't quite as enjoyable as it could have been. Still, 1/2 price IS 1/2 price. I ended up with 2 pairs of sandals (one of them Steve Madden), 4 tops, 5 pairs of jeans, and 2 Halloween accessories for $40. Not too bad :) My jeans were getting too loose, so I needed some new ones :)

We found these at Savers, and I'm TOTALLY going back to get these before our Pirate party. Oh yeah, we're doing a pirate theme because Sept 19th is National Talk Like a Pirate day. Did you know? Arrrrgh!


After Savers, we headed over to Academy Sports. Just to balance our the girls store, I think. hehe. The men LOVE Academy Sports. ha! Hilary and I were gonna go look at shoes, when we TOTALLY got distracted by this mirror. ROFL!

Yeah, so those pics are on Hilarys phone, and I can't get them. Sigh. Cause they're SO funny. Maybe she'll upload them before I go to bed for the night so I can put them on here. Otherwise, I may grab them for tomorrow. I was a fun house mirror. So it made us have super long legs, or neck, or face, depending on where you stood. Yeah, it entertained us for a good 15 minutes :)

Then, we decided to go look for size 20 womens/40 mens pants. Cause that's the size both of us used to wear. And we tried them on over our clothes. Dang, I can't believe that was my size! I got both legs into one pant leg of some size 40 mens shorts.

Then, we wandered back to the men folk. And hung out on some ammo while the guys looked at guns. Then headed out for lunch.

Captain America and I in the car on the way to lunch

We went to Rudy's BBQ for lunch. Here's Captain America and I with our lunch

After lunch, we headed to the Outlet Mall, stopping for a soda first. We got new 64 oz cups from Howdy's. If you use their cup, the refill is only $0.69. That's even cheaper than Circle K..... hmmmm.

We got to the Outlet mall, and went to Jewelry Box, and then to Vitamin World. Here's Captain Americaand I with our new Jewelry Box $1 sunglasses :)

And me with my new Soda cup - ha!

Oh yeah, and while the men were in Vitamin world, Hilary and I went to Claires next door. And yeah, it's SO not the Jewelry Box. hehe. I would much rather spend $1 than more... Check out these big sunglasses we found, though. ha!

And, after heading home, we stopped for another refill.

Hilary and I had made plans to take Aimee to Walmart later in the day. She was having a rough week, and had missed us TERRIBLY while we were camping. I guess we're fun or something.... hehehe.

So she and Aimee and I went to Walmart. I needed to get a few things for Captain America anyway, since he was going to the field on Tuesday. He stayed at home and did some things with the kids. He's such a good guy :)

I think Aimee enjoyed the trip. We were laughing so hard we almost peed a few times. Hence the trip to the Walmart bathroom. Whaaaaat? Look at this fancy bathroom! ha!
I got most of the things that Captain America needed, the girls go the things on their list, and we headed out. After dropping off Aimee at home, we saw Captain America with the kids and the truck and trailer. He was dropping it off at his friends house, Joe, who's letting us keep it there. So we pulled over, I went with Captain America, and Hilary didn't need to take me home. It worked out perfect :)

We dropped the trailer back off at Joe's house, and headed home. And I decided that yeah, 2 64 oz sodas are NOT good for me. That was WAY too much caffeine. Not when I'm weighing what I'm weighing. At a heavier weight, I could totally pull it off. But not being under 140. Not happening.

I didn't really feel good the rest of the night. We had family home evening, Captain America and the two older boys cleaned the vehicles, and I put the little ones to bed, and started blogging. And just felt sick to my stomach.

OK, I've learned my lesson. Too much caffeine is not good. I'm sticking to a under 64 oz limit per day, thank you very much. hehe.

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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