Chocolate Makes Life Worth Living

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Layout by Sharon

Layout by Sharon
Layout by Andi

Layout by Sharon

Layout by Sharon

Layout by Sharon

Layout by Sharon

You know, one of these days, I'm gonna get on here, and be like, yeah, we didn't nothing today.... just not today - ha! Today was crazy busy...

Woke up after sleeping in my own bed, with no laundry man. I actually missed him.... I need the weight on the other side of the bed... gonna have to figure out a solution for that one, but NOT have a monstrous pile of laundry laying around.

Anyhow, I said my prayers, and headed out to help the kids get ready. Jake was running behind, and was yelling at people.

"Will someone bring me my shoes?" he was saying.

Silence...

"Why are you guys being so selfish and only thinking about yourselves???" he said...

Autistic reasoning, there... Or is that just 13 year old reasoning. hehe.

He left the house at 7am, and the other kids left the house at 7:30am. And Jim and I watched part of an episode of Kim Possible, then left for hiking. I was dropping Jim off at Childcare first. Can't let those 16 free hours a month disappear, you know!

I dropped him off in the hourly care room, and Rowan was already there (Laurie's little boy). Jim was SO excited to stay. And I headed over to Kari's house. She drives over the mountain. And here's me, busting a move with my dollar tree mic...

I got to Kari's house, and Laurie met us there too, and we all piled into Kari's car and headed over the mountain. And we went on the Nature Trail this week, because we've never done it before. And at the head of the nature trail, we found this bird observatory place. Kinda cool!




Unfortunately, the nature hike only took about 20 minutes. So we did it twice. And still had left over time. Kari had led the first "lap", and Laurie the 2nd, to they said it was my turn to pick where we walked. To the outhouse! ROFL! I had to pee - hehe.

So we walked there, and back. And you know, I kinda enjoyed walking on the road. I wasn't so concerned about where I place my feet, and I could look at the mountains and the scenery. It's BEAUTIFUL in the high desert, you know!

We finished up with our walk, and headed back on post. I drove back over to the child care place, and picked up Jim. He said that he had SO much fun! Check out these cool "glasses" he was playing with. hehe.

Jim and I hustled across post to catch the bus, and missed it. So I drove and dropped him off at Pre-school, then headed back on post. But I didn't want to go home. Terra and I were supposed to go to Costco, but she said that she was feeling sick, and couldn't play. So I decided to just drive around, and see where I ended up.

I pulled over on post at one point to make a phone call. I want Jake involved in some kind of After School thing, but he doesn't want it to be sports. So I got an email the other day about the Milam Youth Activity Center. Milam YAC. There seemed to be some pretty cool activities. Bio-something (building robots) seemed pretty cool, and Jake thought the Gamers Den sounded cool.

Anyway, I drove to what I thought was the place, but it wasn't. So I called the number from the email, and ended up talking with Ms. Susan, one of the directors there, for about 15 minutes. Super nice lady. She encouraged us to come and give it a look-see, and to introduce Jake to all of the kids there. Apparently the YAC on main post is more geared for sports. And this one is more geared for Non-sportsy kids. Yeah, Jake is definitely a non-sportsy kid.

She said that they were having an "open house" of sorts on Friday night, from 7-9pm, and that the WHOLE family was invited, and that we could come and check it out. PERFECT! I assured her that we'd be there on Friday night, hung up, and continued driving.

Yeah, I ended up at Walmart. ha! I just mostly "window shopped". I did end up with a few things. But not this, although I really really want one...


I got apples and a retractable clothes line and a rotisserie chicken (for lunch/dinner for me) a.nd 1 bag of sugar free chocolates (couldn't get anymore than that...). And paid, and headed home.

I had about 2 hours before Jim got home from the bus. I did some chores (laundry mostly), and watched an episode of something or another while I loaded my store. I made some phone calls, and got an appointment set up for Boxer to get his 2nd/3rd round of Heartworm treatment. And got Childcare set up for Tom/Joe/Jim on Saturday. Because my free hours will expire on the last day of the month. Eme couldn't go, because she's waiting on someone to approve her Asthma status, and the dude is on vacation for 2 weeks. Yeah, NOT so efficient... I tried to get child care for Jim for tomorrow (he had SO much fun at childcare today, that he wanted to go back), but they were full for tomorrow.

Then it was time to go to the bus. So I took Boxer. And yeah, the bus stop location was moved, because of the construction. But only for Pre-k. Don't ask... I don't know why...

Anyway, it was in a new location, and Boxer wanted to sniff out EVERYTHING. But it was near a main road, and I was worried that he or Jim would get run over, and yeah, it was stressful. hehe. I was having a hard time holding Jim's papers and my phone and Boxers leash and Jim's hand. Somehow I managed to "butt dial" 2 different people on the walk home, and didn't even know it. Nice, huh.

Jim watched a little TV, and I got a double batch of oatmeal banana cookie dough ready to be baked. Jake came home, and I had just enough time to get 2 dozen cookies in the oven and baked before the kids came home at 4pm.

We all loaded up in the truck, and headed out to the skating rink. They're doing Free Military kid skate on Thursdays at 4pm. Sa-WEET! I'm all about free, you know.

Since school is extended an extra 30 minutes, we were late, and only got 30 minutes of skating time, instead of the full hour. But the kids had a TON of fun, and decided they wanted to add ice skating to the list of activities for the week. Sounds good to me!

It's just diet lemonade, unfortunately...

Can you tell we're related?

Kari's daughter, Josephine

THe kids only got to skate about 20 minutes, then it was time to go. Kari and I decided that if we pick the kids up from school next week, that should give us a little bit of extra time. We'll try it...

And Jacob reminded me that he had a campout this weekend. So Friday night wouldn't work. Crap. So we decided to drive on over to Biggs and check out the youth center right now.

OMGosh, it was the coolest teen hang out place EVER! One whole room devoted to Legos. Seriously. They had this camera area set up, too, so they could make "lego movies". SO stinking cool. Lego's is one of Jake's favorite things.

And computers. And XBox. And the craft room was amazing. They had these ceramic dragons that they had painted, and Jake just LOVEd those. Then we saw the gym, and it had a HUGE climbing wall. They're doing something in April, where if you climb the wall a certain number of times for a certain number of days, you can win some REALLY good prizes. Jake was pretty impressed.

We saw the kitchen area, where the kids were cooking snacks and dinner. They get to do that every night, too. They were all SO friendly. There were even about 4 kids that Jake said went to his school. There was an outdoor hang out place, and then the tour was over. Jake begged and begged and begged to let him stay for an hour until closing, but I had to get the kids home, get dinner cooked, and then go to my meeting. He was pretty bummed. Because the YAC was the coolest place he'd ever seen.

The lady in charge said that while they could only really take 6th graders (Tom is 5th grade) and above, because Tom was 11, if Jacob would "vouch" for him, then Tom could come too. But of course, Jake said NO WAY to vouching for him. Poor Tom was crushed. Don't worry, Tom, you can go in August.

So, I'm gonna have to make up a "Schedule" for what days Jake can go to the youth center. He's super excited about it all. I think the next available time he can go (for us) is Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, we loaded back up in the truck, and headed home. I re-fashioned some left overs into dinner, and had the kids do their chores, and homework, and left Tom with directions, and Jake with separate directions, and I headed out to my Relief Society meeting.

Tom's so good, he texted to check in a few times, and told me all the important babysitter stuff. SUCH A responsible young man!

Charlotte got there a few minutes after I did, with her Howdys cup. Sigh. I didn't have time to get a re-fill on mine. So I made her sneak out with me to get a refill. ha! We totally would have been on time, too. Instead, we walked into the meeting about 15 minutes late.

But I had me some soda :) The had us split between 4 tables, based on when our birthdays were. Sorry, Charlotte, I wish we had the same birth month!!!

After a short "devotional", they had a pinata. They drew names to see who got to whack it, and when it broke open, most people dashed forward. Yeah, me? Not so much - ha!

Here's Charlotte "beating" me with the pinata poll after all was said and done - ha!

I sucked it dry within the hour...

Someone gave me a prize from the pinata. A dollar tree necklace! Woohoo!

Here's the ladies at my table.

THis was part of the pinata...

See, no more soda...

Charlotte texted me a picture of herself eating a cookie from the other table, so I decided to pose with the cake and text her a picture. ha!

The party got over at 8pm, and I didn't leave the church parking lot until 9:30pm. ROFL! The "after party" was pretty fun. Me and about 4 other ladies stood outside chatting. SUCH fun! I showed them all my "before" picture from losing 100+ lbs, and they couldn't believe it!

And finally, we all headed home. I realized that caffeine makes me sing SO much louder, but not necessiarly SO much better - ROFL! Still, I was belting out the Glee version of "Don't Even Know My Last Name". I was singing my little heart out!

Jake and Tom were still awake when I got home, so I sent them to bed, and sat down to blog. And was gonna watch a movie, but my old laptop that's hooked up to the TV (the broke screen one) died. It kept turning to a blue screen, then re-booting, then freaking out and repeating the process. Sigh. I DO have it all backed up, but it's backed up on the EHD that Captain America has with him. Yeah, not so good!

So I'm gonna have to put that laptop away, and take over one of the other old ones for the "TV Laptop"... But that's a job for tomorrow. It's now 11:11 pm, and I'm gonna hit the sack. I'm tired from my hike today, and need my "beauty" sleep - ROFL! I have exercise group in the morning. And Jim to the bus by 11am, then Crafters Lunch at 11 (which I need to make food for, too), then kids from the bus, then Jake's campout... Hmmm, I guess tomorrow isn't gonna be a "sit around doing nothing" day either, huh? LOL!

Oh yeah, AND I got an email today from Captain America, saying that he'd got his St Patricks day package. Yeah, someone in customs, I'm assuming, had gone through his box, and stolen his MP3 player that I'd bought for him. I wasn't very happy....

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Like this one, Sharon! SWEET chocolatey face - hehe :)