Magical Wonderland

Hey guys! Happy Saturday to you! Hope your weeks was fantastic, and that you all are doing well!

I woke up at 7am, and Captain America too! He had most of the day off. So he got up to help the kids get ready for school too. We got them out the door at 7:30am, then we went back to bed. hehe. Jake started school, Jimmy watched a movie, and I woke up at around 9:30am. I played around on my laptop for a while, and Jimmy and I hung for a bit. And all of a sudden, it was 10:45am, and it was time for Jim to go to the bus.

So I got him changed and took him up to the bus. And then Captain America woke up, and he did some around the house things. And I headed out at noon to go Grocery shopping. Oh the joy. hehe. I got most of the stuff that we needed for the week. I still haven't Thanksgiving shopped. Eme and I are probably gonna do it next week.

I got home, put away the groceries, and Captain America and I headed to the West side for Captain Americas one on one therapy session. I took my laptop, and designed 3 wordart packs while he was in with Dr Slade. Good for me, huh? hehe.

We headed back to post, and he hurried and changed clothes, and got ready for the ball. See, they were having a ball at work, and it was SUPER lame last year. So we decided not to spend the $35 for me to go. But Captain America had to, because it was work.

And I regretted it ALL day. The closer it got to ball time, the more I wanted to go. Hmpf! Here's a picture of Captain America right before he left for the ball.

We had leftover night for dinner. Chili, or Ravioli, or Rice and Hamburger Gravy. Lots of options. hehe. And I had my steamed veggies and turkey hamburger. It was pretty tasty :)

And I watched a movie on my laptop, and hung for a while, and finally, at 7pm, decided that I wanted to go out. Should have showered today, but I didn't let it stop me. I threw on some clothes, and grabbed Eme, and she and I went out for some shopping and dessert.

First stop, Goodwill. She got a couple pairs of shoes and a dress, and I got Tom some hiking boots, and a dressy jacket for me. Here's Eme with her shoes.

And we went to Family Dollar, that was next door, and looked around for a while. They had a TON of little kids toys. And christmas decorations.

And then we headed for some dessert. At Chilis. Mmmm. We only had to wait for about 3 minutes to be seated.

We ordered water, and Eme picked out this dessert. Chocolate Chip something or another. I can't remember now. It had coconut, I know that much. Here's Eme with the menu.

And the yummy dessert :) Well, kinda yummy. I wouldn't order it again. I'd get something else...

And then we headed home. The little kids were put to bed, the big kids and I sat down, and we watched an episode of Fringe. And Captain America got home at 9:30pm. And I'm gonna tie this up real fast, and go hang with him. Because I've missed the man :)

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 - again with the not working...hmpf!
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Blazing A Trail

Woohoo! New stuff for the week is here! I hope you like it! Click HERE to go to my store.

Morning, girls! It's turning out to be a SUPER long day for me today. I'm feeling SO sleepy, and I'm not quite finished with my work. No rest for the wicked, eh? OK, fine, I'm not wicked. hehe. I try hard to be good :) I'm happy when I'm doing good. Maybe it should be No Rest for those Anxiously Engaged in a Good Cause? Whatever the case, it's past midnight, and I'm just now blogging. I did get most of my store loaded, though. Just waiting on a few files to upload...

I got up a little before 7am, said prayers, and got the kids ready for school. We said family prayer, and the kids were out the door. I hung with Captain America until he left for work, then got myself ready for my hike. Thursday is our new hiking day. After the SUPER fun hike a few weeks ago, it's now part of the routine :)

I got Jimmy all ready for the bus and school, left instructions for Jake, and here's me, in my hiking outfit. Either that, or I'm gonna rob a bank. Because I look all shady in my black. But maybe the pink Hello Kitty backpack gives me away. Too stand out-ish?

I grabbed some earmuffs and a scarf at the last minute. I sure didn't wanna freeze! It was 50, maybe, outside. And that's FREEZING for me, you know :)

Kari and I went back to the same State Park (Tom Mays) that we went to last time, but picked a different trail. It's actually the trail that Captain America and I and kids hiked when we first moved to El Paso. But it was MUCH easier this time. hehe. Amazing what even a little bit of getting into shape will do for a person :) It's SO beautiful up in the mountains :)








We hiked for about 40 minutes, then decided to turn around and go back. And yeah, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because we soon lost the trail. But decided to blaze ahead. How far off could we be? hehe.

Here's a tarantella we found on the trail. We were staying WAY back, but when it didn't respond at all, we finally poked it with a stick to see if it was alive, and yeah, it was dead. I think if it had jumped, I would have peed myself. hehe.


So it must have been the "run out" part of the mountain that we were following. Because it kept getting more rocky and more narrow. And we still decided to push ahead. I wasn't worried. I had no idea where we were, but Kari seemed to have a WONDERFUL sense of direction.

We ended up climbing up the side of the mountain, and way below, past the valley, and up the next hill, was the trail. Yeah, I wasn't sure how we were gonna get over there, but it was ok. I really wanted to continue up to the top of the mountain/hill we were on, so we pushed ahead. And guess what? The parking lot was JUST on the other side. Good thing we pushed ahead, and didn't blaze a path down the mountain and up the other side. hehe.

It was SUPER fun. I was totally sweaty by the time we got back to the car, but it was WELL worth it. Great workout! And I had SO much fun chatting with Kari. She's originally from Wyoming, and is my kind of person :) Thanks, hon, for inviting me on your hiking adventures!

Kari dropped me off at my house at 3 minutes after Captain America got home for lunch. PERFECT timing. I changed my clothes real fast, and he and I headed out for lunch at El Taco Tote. I was supposed to go to lunch at the bagel shop with Terra, but she had other plans she'd forgotten about. And Captain America was supposed to be busy at lunch, but his schedule cleared up. So it worked out PERFECTLY :)

Here's me and my El TAco Tote food. I was STARVING from hiking, and ate a TON of chips. hehe.


Captain America had to be back on post at 1240, so we left El Taco Tote at 1230, but not before snapping a few pictures of ourselves.





Captain America dropped me off at the house, and went on to him meeting. Jake and I watched an episode of Fringe together, and I napped for 30 minutes before Jim's bus. And then I picked up Jim from the bus stop, and he and I went to Dollar Tree. Captain America needed more foot powder, and it's the cheapest place in town.

AND, I got some more bread. 50 calorie Natures Own, Whole Wheat, plus english muffins, and bagels, and buns, and all sorts of stuff. AND candy for the movie tonight. And bags to put it in, and water bottles and flavor packs.

And then, we headed back to the kids school. Thursday is my day for AQ pick up. But we ended up back to the school 20 minutes early, so we went to Big Lots. Because it's only 3 minutes from the school.

And I found a Halloween Mullet wig for $0.80, so I had to get it. And I got myself a new laptop sleeve. And a few other things. But I didn't buy these wreaths. I just posed with them. ha! And off we went, to get the kids.

I picked up Eme, Tom, and Bella, and we headed back on post. I dropped Bella off at her house, then headed home. The kids played nicely for about 30 minutes, then I cooked dinner. And made muffins. We were giving teacher gifts for Thanksgiving tomorrow. Muffins and Pumpkin Bread. I wish I'd have had more time to do it properly, but it turned out good enough.

Anyway, Captain America was home a few minutes later, and I dished up the kids' food. I left Eme making muffins, and Joe and Tom and Jim and I went to the elementar school for a Movie with Moms/Sons night. It was pretty good :)

We sat by Maggie and Little Jacob, and the kids had fun eating their candy and waters. I even had a bag of candy, too! We watched Toy Story 3, and were home by a few minutes after 7pm. I finally ate dinner, and an apple (trying to rid the chocolate overload from my body!), and helped get the kids ready for bed.

At around 8pm, kids were in beds/rooms, and Captain America and I headed out on a Mini Date night. He has a work function Friday night, so Thursday night it would be. Plus, he has most of the day off tomorrow, so he could stay out late. Me? Yeah, I'm gonna be tired.

Our first stop was the mall. He needed to get his vitamins from Vitamin World. And while we were walking around, we saw this display. I just now noticed that it says not to take pictures. Oops. Really, who would wear one of those???

Next stop, Howdys for a Diet Dr Pepper. Then on to the Montana Walmart. Far away, but worth the drive. Because it's new and well stocked and the workers are super helpful and friends.

Check out my cool socks and sandals, Maddie. Don't you like it? I know you're jealous :)
We were at Walmart WAY too long. Captain America and I enjoy hanging out, and browsing, so it takes a lot longer than it actually needed. I can get in and out of Walmart pretty quickly, if by myself. But, I guess we were counting it as a date, so it was ok that it was taking forever. Here's Captain America and I posing for a picture.

Whaaat? How are these any different than regular wipies?

We finished up, and paid, and headed to the car. Me, pretending to drink my soda. Yeah, it was WAY too cold for sodas. I wish it could have been a hot, herbal tea. Now THAT Would have been wonderful.

And me by the car with my new Poinsettia! Captain America bought it for me, and I LOVE it :)

And then the evening kinda fell apart. Captain America was mad at me when he got in the car, and I didn't know why. Apparently it hurt his feelings that I was playing on my cell phone. I tried to explain to him that I was just taking pictures of myself, then uploading them to FaceBook (just a few clicks), then deleting them from my phone.

Anyway, I think the real problem was that we were both tired, and we'd been at Walmart WAY too long. And that's what came out. Was grouchy in the car. And I didn't like it.

So, following the directions of my therapist, I called a time out on the conversation. We still needed to go home, I needed to blog, and load my store, and go to bed, because I had to get the kids up at 7am for school. But he didn't wanna end the conversation, but I knew that I could call a "time out", because that's something we've talked about during couples counseling.

SO, he's asleep, still mad at me, and I'm sitting here blogging. I'm gonna design a quick freebie, then go to bed. And hopefully we can get it all talked about in the morning, and be back on happy, loving feelings. Because he doesn't have many days before he deploys, and I wanna spend all the time I can with that man :) Because I like him, you know :)

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 - not playing nicely tonight....sorry :(
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The Saddest Face Imaginable

Morning, girls :) How's your week progressing so far? Wednesday was low keyed, but good, for me. I woke up at 6:45ish, read scriptures, said prayers, had couples prayer, and came out to get the kids ready for school. Joe, of course, was the only one not ready. That child... I guess he IS only 7. AND he's a boy - LOL.

Anyway, they were a few minutes late, but the bus still hadn't come yet, so it was all good. And I REALLY wanted to go back to bed, but I didn't. hehe. I visited with Captain America until he left for work, then tried to convince Jim that he needed to pick up his mess in the backyard. He wasn't having anything to do with it.

So he lost all "fun" privliges until he picked up all the packing peanuts that he spilt last night. And really, there weren't many left. The other kids had helped last night, and the majority of them were cleaned up. It would have taken me about 3 minutes to go around the backyard and picked them up. But he refused. So, since it wasn't cold or raining, or anything nasty, I made him stay outside until he cleaned it up. And yeah, he chose not to.

Check out the "I'm gonna die it's so hard to do" face... The saddest face imaginable...

I played on my computer for a bit, and did chores for a bit. I got 2 loads of laundry washed, dried, and folded. I re-organized Eme and Joe's room. It was TRASHED. I think this new arrangement will stay cleaner longer. They still needed to vacuum and do laundry, but it was a LOT cleaner. And I did some dishes, and organized in my room for a little while.

And at 10:30am, I had Jim come inside to get ready for school. Yup, no cleaning... I got him ready, got the rest of my banana bread muffins bagged up, and headed to the bus stop. I gave 4 to Erin's family, and 5 to Kari's family. Maggie was supposed to get 2, but she missed the bus. hehe.

After the bus left, Kari and I headed to Yoga. I LOVE yoga. It's so relaxing, and yet hard at the same time. We focused on backs. Yeah, those were HARD moves, but I was able to do all but one. Some wheel thing. My arms weren't strong enough to lift my body. hehe.

After Yoga, Kari drove us home, and Jake and I made lunch. Then Captain America came home for lunch, and we hung out for the 30 minutes that he was home. We even sat on the back porch for a while. SO nice. The wind wasn't crazy today, so it really felt like 70 degrees. I wasn't freezing for once. ha!

Captain America went back to work, and Jake and I watched an episode of Fringe. And I designed a WordArt pack. Last one for this week. Yes! I love being ahead of the game :)

I wanted to take a nap, but only had 13 minutes before the bus came. So I took a 13 minute nap on the couch. ROFL! I grabbed a Diet Mt Dew on the way to the bus, and headed out. Maggie and her hubby were there, and he was in uniform. He JUST last week started work. What's that, like 3 months since they got here. Dang, must have been nice! hehe. I hardly recognized him in his ACU's. LOL ;)

Jim and I headed back home, and I decided to take my nap. But yeah, with the Diet Mt Dew in my system, THAT wasn't happening. LOL. So I decided to take a shower instead. And get pretty. Because it had been too long. hehe.

Joe was home just as I got done getting pretty, and Tom and Eme shortly after that. I had kids do chores, and I did a few chores too. And I made sure that everyone did their homework, because we had Wednesday night activities tonight, and I didn't want the kids being up EVEN later than they had to...

Here's a few pics I snapped of us around the house.





And then at 4:30pm, Joe and Tom and Eme and I made dinner. Chili. Eme made the Cornbread, and Tom opened all the cans of beans, and Joe dumped in the tomatoes (diced and crushed) and the chili seasoning. And I browned the meat and onions. We all worked together to get dinner done.

Here's the school paper. Tom is on the Newspaper staff, and is in the group picture on the right. And his article is in there. And Joe's class was featured in the paper, and he had 2 pictures taken of him :)



So here it is, 5:25pm, and kids are eating dinner, and I'm blogging. I need to decide what I want to eat for dinner. Turkey burger, or taco salad, or cheese and cucumber, or yogurt. Hmmm, Nothing sounds particularly good. El Taco Tote or a hospital pre-made salad sound good. hehe.

If we have fun at church tonight and take pictures, I'll come back on here and post some :) If not, that's it for me for the day!

Well, I'm back! hehe :) I made homemade chili for the kids for dinner, and when Captain America got home, he had his soup, and I had a turkey burger with steamed broccoli. And a bag of microwave popcorn. OK, so it's not El Taco Tote, but it was pretty good :)

And then we all changed clothes, and headed out to Wednesday night activities. Eme and Jake and Tom all had meetings in our new ward. And my friend, Karin, from the old ward, had asked if they could borrow our HotWheel Derby track for their race. So Captain America and Joe went to the old ward and set it up while Jim and I dropped off the other kids at the new church.

Then Captain America and Joe and Jim and I met at Carls Jr. Because they had an AWESOME playland, Diet Dr Pepper, and Free Wi Fi, and I'd brought my laptop. hehe. We were just gonna hang for an hour, and let the kids play. And it was cheaper than shopping for an hour. A lot cheaper. LOL!

Here's Captain America and I with our soda



My laptop. I had Captain America help me with a new WordArt Pack I'm working on. It was kinda fun working together :)
Jimmy getting a drink. I bought a large fries for the boys to share. And Karin had given Captain America a HUGE plate of chocolate chip cookies, so Joe and Jim had some of those too, and we saved the rest for the other kids.


At 8:25pm, Jim and I headed to the new ward building to pick up the kids, and Captain America and Joe headed to the old ward building to collect the race track. I grabbed Eme, Joe, and Jake, who had all had a TON of fun at their meetings, and we headed home. I turned up Muse real loud, and started singing...

Captain America and Joe got home the same time as I did. Whaaat? I guess my "shortcut" isn't so short. I"ll have to remember that one. Robert E Lee gate is NOT faster than Cassidy from Hondo Pass building....

Anyway, we got home, put kids to bed, and here it is, 9:29 pm, and I need to decide what to do with the rest of the evening :) Watch some Office withCaptain America? Design for a while? Go to bed early? We shall see :)

Tomorrow is gonna be a fun, yet busy, day again. I'm going hiking with Kari in the mountains again tomorrow, and then to lunch with Terra at the bagel shop (yes!), and Captain America should be getting off work early, cause it's family day, and Joe, Jim, and Tom have Mother/Son Movie night at school. We're watching Toy Story III. Should be a good day! AND, I just found out that Captain America has the day off on Friday! Who knew??? 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!

4shared
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