Look to the Light

Hey girls! Thanks SOOO much for all of the well wishes and support! I felt so good all day long reading your comments/emails. Thanks, you guys! I felt the love :)

And yeah, my day was SO much better. SO good :) I went to bed around 10:30pm, and took a sleeping pill, since I had been pretty upset during the day, and needed to get some good rest. And I remember waking up around midnight or so, thinking I was hearing a phone, but I was too out of it. And then at 5pm, I woke up, and it was my skpye on my phone ringing! Captain America was calling :)

So I chatted with him until 6:30am. And yeah, that was him calling earlier, but I was SO out of it, I didn't even wake up - hehe.

We had a really nice chat. I told him all about my crappy day, and he helped me feel better. I love that he supports me, even half way across the world. I love that boy :)

And I posted a few pics from yesterday. Cause it wasn't the least bit amusing yesterday, but I think I can handle it today. Here's the MP's that were at our house.

And the flyer that went out post wide, looking for Jake

And me, trying my best to hold it all together. Thank goodness for Prozac. I wasn't too self conscious with crying in front of people like I typically would be - hehe.

But that was yesterday. And today was a whole new day. I went back to sleep after chatting with Captain America, and woke up around 9am. And I went out for breakfast, and made sure that all of the kids were awake. And fed.

At 9:30am, Captain America called back, and all of the kids got a chance to talk with him. It was SO good. Everyone got a turn, and we showed him the tricks that Boxer can do, and we chatted for about an hour. And in the middle of Skyping, Terra brought me a Howdys! She didn't stay, just dropped it off at the front door with a kid and headed to the airport to pick up her in-laws. WHAT A SWEETHEART!!!!! Thanks, my dear :)

Tom left the house at 9:45am with Noah (Leigh's son) to go to a movie and the German Bazaar, and around 11:30am, the other kids and I loaded up in the truck, grabbed a quick lunch, and headed out shopping. BIG shopping day ahead of us :) It was either gonna be a lot of fun, or sucky. I was being optimistic!

First stop, gas station. I had the suburban, and it was almost on empty. So off to the shoppette we went. What are y'all paying for gas? Mine was $3.39 a gallon today. That's pretty high for us.

I had $80 in cash in my "Gas Envelope", so I went inside and prepayed, and went to pump the gas. And I"d never prepaid inside before, so I thought it was SO cool that the pump turned off at exactly $80. Yeah, I'm SO easy to impress/entertain...

Jake helped me, then we were off to the East side. Savers was our first stop. Ross Middle School has a uniform of sorts, and Jake needed clothes. I let the kids look in the toy section, and Jake and I headed to the shorts (it's an open enough store that we could see all the way to toys...)

We found several in his size, and that were blue/khacky. And then I texted Terra to be sure. Her daughter goes to that school, so she knew the drill. Yeah, no pockets on the dockers. Cause that makes them cargo shorts, apparently. Sigh. We searched and searched, and ended up finding one pair of navy blue shorts, and one pair of khacky shorts. And polo shirts. They could be white or hunter green, no pockets. We found 2 that fit that bill.

And I don't know if this is an autistic trait or not, but Jake is EXTREMELY picky about the feel of his fabrics. He doesn't care what it looks like, as long as it FEELS good. So, some of the shirts that technically would have worked didn't feel good for him. Sigh.

And gray exercise shorts (found 2 pairs) and gray tee shirts. Found 2 of those. Again, we had to test out the FEEL of each of the shirts. And, check out this gray shirt that we found in the mens section! What's so cool about it, you say?


That's my hometown! I was born there! My parents live there. And the shirt was in my thrift store in El Paso, Texas. How random was that! I was super impressed, so of course I bought it - hehe. Jake was stoked. Florence is his favoritest place on earth, I think :)

Eme found a book that she just had to have, and Joe and Jim found Nerf guns. And generic Nerf guns. 4 total. So we got one for each boy. They were pretty excited.

And as we were walking to the check out, I noticed that it was yellow tag day! Whaaaat? Saturday isn't an any color tag day? What was the deal? And I misread it, and thought it was $0.99 yellow tag day. But really it was 50% off yellow tag day. There's a big difference, you know.

So I found 2 jackets and 1 coat, thinking they were for $0.99, and went to pay. And I paid for the guns and the clothes, and for Jakes stuff, and headed outside. And realized my error. My 2 jakets were $3.50 a piece. OK, I'll pay that for them. But the coat was $10. Yeah, SO not worth that for me. $0.99, yeah, but not ten bucks. I looked at the receipt, and it said no refunds. Sigh. BUT, they'll do exchanges. I think I'm gonna keep the 2 jackets, and take the coat back to the West side Savers, and see if I can get some more uniform stuff for Jake. Good plan, huh?

After Savers, we loaded up, and headed to Dollar Tree. And yeah, they were out of bread, and the line was SUPER long, so we just left, and headed to Walmart. Jake changed into his new jean shorts and Florence OR shirt, and we were ready to hit the store.



We were in Walmart FOR-EV-ER! But it was fun. And the kids were good. So I wasn't complaining. The kids wanted to split a pack of Nerf darts for their new (to them) dart guns, and I figured that was fair. And Jake, realizing that his babysitting gig was over, had no money. And his gun took special darts. So, remember that I'd offered the kids money to clean the bathrooms/trucks/cars, decided to wheel and deal, and get a pack of darts for cleaning the bathroom. I assured him that he could do that, but he had to clean FIRST, and it had to meet my expectations. He seemed fine with that.

One of y'all mentioned something about a special diet helping Jake, and I decided to give it a partial try. Jake TOTALLY freaked out when I mentioned going Gluten Free. Later, I found out that he thought I meant Glucose, or ALL sugar. Yeah, I might have freaked out too. hehe. My thought was, replace one meal gluten/dairy free. And see if it helps. Instead of cereal and milk for breakfast, I bought gluten free cereal (fruity pebbles) and soy milk. He was skeptical, but promised to give it a try for a week. The Fruity Pebbles was what saved the day. Those can't be too bad, he said - hehe.

We stopped by the steam cleaner section, and the cheapest thing they had was $80. More than I wanted to pay. Boxer has a HORRIBLE habit of pooping in the stair well if no one lets him out in time. So, there were some nasty stains there. And we needed a little help. So no steam cleaner for us.

After forever and a half, we went to pay. 3 separate transactions out of 3 separate envelopes. hehe. But, whatever works, right!

And we headed home. But decided to swing by Big Lots and see if they had a cheaper steam cleaner. Big Lots sometimes has stuff like that. And as I was parking in the parking lot, my sister texted this to me:

I was like, um, pr-waffle....Proffil? What? I was so confused. And after about a minute, I got it. I"M PREGO! My sister is gonna have a 3rd baby!!! How cool is that! She's 11 weeks along, and I'm so excited for her! My kids were pretty excited to have a new cousin, and poor Joe still wanted to know what a proffil was. So it was our joke for the day that Maddie was proffil. ha!

The little kids went to the toy section, and Jake and I went to the vacuum section. And there it was, a Bissel spot remove steam cleaner, for $50. I'd pay that! AND, they had my Shark steam mop like I've been wanting! For only $65. Too good to pass up. I had leftover money from groceries, so I decided to get it. And pull some money out of household expenses. Cause that fits!

Jake and I were pretty excited to get them home and try them out - ROFL! You can totally tell that I'm a mom, getting excited about cleaning supplies and gadgets! And this Big Lots that we stopped at was HUGE! Not the regular Big Lots by our house that we frequent. Definitely worth the little bit longer drive :)

Anyway, we paid, and off we went. As I turned on our exit to post, I saw Howdys, and knew that I just had to stop. hehe. I got a refill for myself, and a refill for the kids, then split it between empty waterbottles for them to share. I know that sounds cheap, but I was just super stoked that I was generous enough to buy them a refill out of my Howdys fund - ha!

And we got home, and Tom had been there for about an hour by himself. But he's old enough to do that. He was playing, and was fine. He and Jake DID get into a squabble about a "trade gone wrong" or something like that. Lego's traded for a Nerf gun, or something or another. Sigh. Still, it wasn't too bad of a "bicker".

I got the stuff put in the right rooms, and pulled out the steam cleaner, and realized that it was re-chargeable and needed to charge for 12 hours. Hmpf! Oh well, we'll clean the stairs tomorrow after church.

Then my phone started beeping, telling me of an appointment. What? What appointment did I have? I checked it, and IT WAS HOCKEY! The last game of the season. I'd TOTALLY forgot it! We had 10 minutes to load up and be at the stadium. Oh crap!

Went into total hustle mode, but made it only 5 minutes late. Sweet! Kari was there (her party canceled on her last minute), and she helped me get one of the boys ready, since her's was already ready. And, I'll take help wherever I can get it - hehe.

Jim came up about 1/2 way through, and had to go to the bathroom. So we trekked to the women s bathroom, and undressed him, he peed, then re-dressed him. SUCH a pain. And I put him back on the ice.

Then I noticed that he'd escaped again, and I went back to investigate. Apparently his skates were hurting him, and a coach was helping him get a different size and lace them back up. Sounded good to me.

Kari and I had fun chatting while we waited for the boys. We talked a lot about Jake, and what my plans for him were, and such. She was very sympathetic to my situation, and I was appreciative of that :)

At 5:30pm, we were done, turned in our gear, and headed home. The boys got to keep the "socks' and the jerseys. No more hockey till next year. I think I'll put Joe in it again, but my snow angel boy may not get another chance - hehe. I had to practically drag him to practice anyway - LOL!

I made Breakfast Burritos for dinner, and had everyone do their chores. And once they'd swept their chore rooms, we pulled out the Shark mop. AMAZING thing. It was pretty cool. It had about 3 different attachment heads for it, and made cool noises. Boxer didn't really think so, but the rest of us did. And each of the kids got a turn mopping.


I'm hoping that the "newness" of the steam mop lasts for a long time. Tom just KNEW that Captain America was gonna love it - hehe.

Eme got done with her chores first, and started on a school project.

And we finished up chores, and I put the little kids to bed. Eme stayed in her closet room, and worked on a homework assignment, and Joe and Jim screwed around, being too noisy to be sleeping. Sigh. At least they sounded like they were having a good time up there - ha!

Tom and I watched the season finale of Chuck season 3, but not Jake. I told him that he was electronics grounded until Monday. But that if he got his room all detail cleaned tonight, and had a GOOD Sunday (no complaints or outbursts), that he could earn watching an Episode of Chuck with Tom and I before bedtime. He seemed pretty excited about it.

I blogged, and sent Tom to bed after the episode, and checked on the little kids, who were STILL being loud. Sigh. And I checked on Jakes room, and it really was looking good. He had all of his toys set out on shelves, and his stuff was just how he wanted it.

And he wanted me to help him make up a schedule for tomorrow, so that he could get done the things he wanted to get done before church, and not be grouchy. 7:30, wake up, and eat his "gluten and dairy free" breakfast. 7:45, walk Boxer. 8:15am, hop in shower and get ready for church. And he'd already laid out his clothes.

And he sharpened pencils and found a pencil box and found his notebook and color book and stuff for tomorrow. Because he said that if he had his things, he wouldn't complain so much. Whatever it takes to lessen the complains, I'm ALL about that. He's really in a good mood right now. Super upbeat and positive.

And this is SO the day that I needed. I'm so glad that it turned out great! I could feel the prayers of y'all from all over the world uplifting me and my family, and helping us out! THANK YOU!

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Great one, Sharon! Hope your trip back from Disney is great!