Nearer, My God, To Thee

So after blogging last night, GUESS what showed up at my door???

Captain America had used ProFlower to get me flowers! And, timed it so that they showed up on the Friday Date night before Valentines day. What a sweetheart! I love you, honey! Tulips are my ABSOLUTE favorite :) So sweet that you remembered :)

I chatted with Andrea on Skype last night for like 3 hours after blogging. She's such a great friend. More like a sister, really. We can talk about absolutely anything. No secrets between up :) hehe. And nothing is off limits - ROFL!

I think it may have otherwise been a bad, hard night for me, since Captain America and I hadn't been able to resolve anything, and he was on 24 hour shift. She kept me more than distracted. And it was after midnight when we got done chatting, so I went straight to bed. Thanks, my dear :)

I woke up around 8am the next morning, after having told the kids to go to the upstairs bathroom and not wake me up in the morning - hehe. I came out, had breakfast, and started in on a few projects that I needed to get to.

First, those candy sprinkle pictures for my mom. She is making them on Sunday for the girls in Young Womens. So I finished them off, and sent them to her local photo lab. And then I started working on my kids' valentines.

And then Andrea was on Skype again, and asked if I could make her a Valentine card with her son. She'd taken a picture of him holding his hand out, and making a kissy face. She wanted to print them, and glue a hersheys kiss to it. SUCH a great idea :) So I added some text, and some flair, and it was good to go.

Then finished my kids' Valentines. And sent them to Walgreens. But my regular Walgreens was down (or their photo lab, at least), so I picked a different one. Which was near the Transmountain Walmart, so I could go there too, while I was out and about. I was still looking for Valentines sprinkles.

We had lunch at home, and I took a short nap, and then, at 1:30pm, I headed out to the store. The kids were watching a movie (since some of them had been banned from computer for arguments), and I took a little break. No kids with me, thank you very much - hehe.

I stopped at Big Lots to look for a doggie bed that I'd seen there at Christmas time. It matched the pattern of my living room couches PERFECTLY. But they were all gone. So I continued on to Walgreen, paid for the prints, and headed off to Walmart.

I bought sugar free chocolates, and some new conditioner, and I found the sprinkles, and I grabbed some chicken nuggets and fries to cook up for the kids for dinner. I wasn't gonna have time to cook tonight. And then I headed home.


It was about 3:30pm when I got home, and Joe was all ready and dressed for Hockey, and I just needed to get Jim dressed. I'd bought new socks at Walmart (so I didn't have to do laundry, how sad is that - ROFL!), and soon, we were out the door, and on the way to the rink. Jake and Eme and Tom were home holding down the fort.

Kari had a party to go to (she sells Pure Romance products), so Brian brought Leo to hockey. So he and I hung out while the boys played. Jim's getting a little better on the ice, and Joe is still doing great. And I even got a WordArt Pack designed - woohoo!

Hockey soon was over, and we packed up, and headed home. And Jake and Eme had started dinner, so it was almost ready when we got there. I had the kids all get on presentable clothes, I cooked myself some stir fry for dinner, and out the door we went to the bowling party. Busy, busy day :)

And we signed in under the waiting families program, and found out that they were having pizza and a veggie tray and wings and cake and punch. Sa-weet! My kids were pretty excited about that :)

We went to get shoes, and waited what seemed like forever in line. My kids were SO excited that they were being a tad bit naughty...


We got a pair 14 1/2 shoes for Jake (they were out of 13), a size 10 1/2 for Tom, 9 1/2 in womens for me, 7 in womens for Eme, and 2 size 3's for the little boys (Jim's feet are the same size as Joe's!). And we headed down to the next to last lane (by the food!) to bowl. Lane 51, I think. It's a big bowling alley. And nice and newly remodeled too :)

Check out the SUPER cute cake for the waiting families

We set up the game, and used the bumpers. Because I do ok with bumpers. Not so much without it...



And the first 10 minutes of bowling SUCKED. Because Jake was having an attitude. I think it was because it was super loud, and busy. WAY too many people in his zone. And the lady in charge wanted to take our family photo, and he didn't wanna be in it. So we moved to where he was sitting, and he kinda hid behind us, but I made her take the photo anyway. I wanted to say, "Just take the picture, he's kinda special and won't smile", but I didn't. hehe.

And then, magically, about 10 minutes into it, he snapped out of it, and had a WONDERFUL time. He came up to me and wanted to have his picture taken with me, was helping Jimmy and Joe with their bowling balls, and was talkative and nice. Whatever it was, I was glad for the switch. And after that, the night was a huge success.

Before, when he was refusing to even look at the camera

And after, when he was happy :)

Check it out! My shoes matched PERFECTLY with my new Jacket!

I got a strike!!!

Joe being happy for me getting a strike - LOL

And then they brought out the food. Jake and Tom were SO excited to see all the pizza boxes - ROFL! The kids ate and ate and ate. I had carrots and broccoli and a few wings. I figured that wouldn't kill my diet, right? Since I had less veggies than I needed with dinner, and the wings are just protein, I didn't count it as breaking my diet at all. The cake? Yeah, I stayed away from that. There's NO justifying that one.


I think Jimmy took 3 pieces of cake, and licked the frosting off of each one, but didn't eat the cake part. Yeah, I wonder why he was complaining that his tummy hurt when we were ready to go...

I did knock that last one down, too!

We bowled a first game, and I won. Woohoo!!! 122 with the bumpers. And Joe got 91, and Jake got 90. I don't remember what the rest of the kids did. We started on a 2nd game, but everyone had had too much sugar, and the little ones were getting tired and restless. So we decided to head out after round 4. Worked for me, though.

And really, they all did fabulous at the place. We were on the end, so they weren't messing up anyone elses game. There was a wheelchair ramp for them to play around on, and we had our own little chairs section. There was plenty of food, and they had fun with the first game of bowling. I wasn't overly concerned with what they were doing, and they were staying where they were supposed to, and being good, for the most part. We did have 2 cups of punch dumped over, but we just went and got towels for that, and cleaned it up. I was relaxed, so I think they were relaxed too. It was definitely the best bowling with 5 children experience I'd ever had - hehe.

I think the last time I took all 5 of them was for Tom's Cub Scout activity back in Ohio.... Yeah, NOT a good time...

Anyway, we got home around 8:30pm, and I quickly put the little kids to bed, and the older kids and I watched an episode of Chuck together. They've come to really enjoy watching a show in the evening with Mom. Tom will sit near me, and we'll snuggle, and it's really a good time.

And then they went to bed, and I blogged, and finished up the last little bits of a project for my mom, and texted with Andrea for a bit. And Terra. And Aimee at the bowling alley. I love my friends :) They're SO wonderful :)

And here it is, 10:22pm. And I think I'm gonna read for a little while. "I Am Number Four". Anyone read that one? It seems pretty good so far. I know it's coming out as a movie, next week, I think.

Hopefully I get to Skype with Captain America tomorrow. I miss that boy, and want him to be happy with me again :) Hopefully his 24 hour shift gets over soon :) Miss you, honey! Wish you were here today for our family adventures!

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