All Bundled Up 2

New stuff!! Woohoo! I'm SO glad that I was working on these all last week, and that I didn't have to design them today - hehe. It pays off to be ahead sometimes...

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Yawns! Yeah, I went to bed WAY too late last night! Captain America and I had gone to get soda, and came back home relatively early, but by the time I went to bed, it was 2am, and it was 4:30am for him! He had to pack (their gear goes before them...) for the upcoming deployment, and I worked on my new blog. Did I tell you I bought my own domain back before Christmas? Captain America made me promise not to work on it before he deployed (time...) and I didn't. But he had HOURS of packing to do, and I sat on the couch with him while he packed and tried to figure it out.

I decided to go with Word Press, and my domain host helped me install it. And I MAY have got it kinda working. I have a few people who have offered to help me get things set up. Right now, I have a pixelated banner, and I copy/pasted todays blog post to it. hehe. Yeah, like I said, it needs some work. Anyway, it's www.elegantwordart.com Cool, huh! Anyway, don't expect too much at first. I need help (but then, you all knew that, right??)

So, it was 2am when I went to bed. But I didn't sleep well. And I was EXHAUSTED when I woke up. Which reminds me. I didn't read my scriptures this morning. Just said a tired prayer. hehe. I'm glad I didn't fall back asleep. hehe.

I got up and got the kids ready (well, they were practically ready by themselves. Just had to tell people to get their shoes and coats on) and on the bus at 7:30am. Jake was already up and showered. When Captain America and I were up last night, at 1am, we heard the shower going. I went upstairs to see what was going on, and Jake said that he thought the alarm said 7, not 1. ROFL! Sorry, Jake! He was clean, at least.

Anyway, I REALLY wanted to go back to bed. But I knew that I had a doctors appointment at 9:20am. Captain America went to work at 7:45am, and I laid down in my dark room till around 8:20am. At which point, I decided to get ready. And I decided to just put on fresh make up, not shower. Why? Well, I didn't really want to, but I figured that if we were taking any pictures at all today (and I was pretty sure I'd snap a few), I didn't wanna look nasty - ROFL!

I called my Mother in Law and chatted with her while I got ready. And then ran out the door to get over to Biggs part of post. I don't know WHY they changed the location of the TMC, but it's now about 15 minutes away instead of 4. Sigh. Anyway, headed over there. And yeah, it wasn't where Captain America told me to go. That was mental health.... But the chickie behind the counter told me where the new building was.

They had built a HUGE new complex. BEAUTIFUL! But I was late. They'd only moved there a week ago. I didn't know! hehe. So I was 10 minutes late, and they told me that they'd canceled my appointment. Sigh. She looked for another appointment (and I was mentally planning on going to urgent care), when she said that they had a 9:40 open. Sweet! That was only 10 minutes from now!

I waited for a few minutes, and got called back. I peed in a cup, and they stuck me in my room. And Captain America came to hang with me! He'd gotten done with the SRP (whatever that stands for) thingy he was doing, and came to hang. He didn't need to be back to work until around 1pm.


Look at those BAGS under our eyes! I got 4 hours of sleep, and he got 2. I think Nap time is DEFINITELY in order today...

Well, no UTI. The Doctor asked what the symptom were, and he said that MAYBE I just caught it at the very beginning. And prescribed some Peridium (yeah, I don't know how to spell it). It's those pills that make you pee orange and help your bladder feel better. I had some at home already, so I didn't go to the pharmacy and wait the 26 people ahead of me in line (dang!).

Captain America and I headed home, but took different routes. He went to the PX to buy a bike chain/lock, and I took the wrong exit, and ended up CLEAR across post. Oops. But, I managed to get home :)

I got Jimmy to the bus, and he finished some packing details, and I designed freebies for the next few days, and loaded my store. And then he and I headed out to lunch! El Taco Tote is definitely one of our favorites! And now that I know that I can take the beans and rice and tortillas home for the kids for dinner, it's even better! So, Harty kids, it's TACO nite!

Yeah, I changed clothes again. I do that sometimes...

He dropped me off at home, and headed back to work. I started in again on my computer, loading the store and designing and blogging, and Jake did his school. Jim got off the bus at 2:40pm, and here's a pic of me with my cranberry herbal tea at the bus stop.

Ha! My lid was crammed WAY in the back of this drawer. Think I have enough Howdy's lids??? hehe. It's cheaper for a refill at Howdys if you bring in your own Howdys cup. So we have a TON of Howdys cups at home. I'll make herbal tea in there too. 1 herbal tea bag, a bunch of splenda, and hot tap water in a 32, 44, or 64 oz cup. Yeah, I like me some herbal tea - hehe. And I'm WAY too impatient to wait for water to boil AND for it to cool off again. Hot tap water suits me just fine...

I walked back home with Jimmy from the bus, and finished up the things I was working on online. Glad that I was done with my work before Captain America came home! Thursday CAN be a stressful day for me, IF I'm not prepared. And luckily, I was prepared :)

The kids came home from school at 3:30pm (I guess no AQ again...), and Captain America too! He'd actually picked a few of the kids up at the bus stop, and was driving them home in the truck. They thought it was SO fun - hehe.

We got everyone an after school snack, and started chores and homework and such, and he and I went for a nap at 4pm. Because we were both exhausted. 4 and 2 hours of sleep is NOT enough. Yeah, that hour went SUPER fast. I woke up at 5pm, and started on dinner for the kids, and let him sleep till 5:30pm.

We had dinner, the kids having Tacos and Captain America having soup and me having a turkey burger and California blend steamed veggies.

Then we all sat down together on the couches and talked about Captain America's deployment. Because it's coming up, and the kids needed to hear from us that it would be ok. We went around the room and all said one thing that we were worried about, and one thing that was a goal for the time Dad was gone. It was really good to hear the concerns of the kids, and think of ways to lessen those concerns. And it was nice to hear what their goals were, too.

And after our discussion, and a family prayer, we watched Star Trek 6. Undiscovered Country, maybe? The one where Kirk and Bones stand trial before the Klingons, and go to some snow prison. I don't remember - hehe. I was watching it, but I was crocheting at the same time...
And then, about an hour into the movie, I decided to make dessert for everyone. I still had one package of Gingerbread cookie mix left. So I made some Gingerbread Cheesecake dessert. DIVINE!

I added 1 cube of butter, 1 TBSP water, and 1 egg to the mix, and beat it with my mixer until cookie dough was formed. Then, I pressed most of it into a 8x8 baking pan, and the rest, rolled into cookie dough balls for cookies. And baked them both at 350 for 10 minutes (but added another 7 minutes for the pan).

And then I took 1 package of cream cheese, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 1/3 cup lemon juice and blended it together until fluffy. And then I beat 2 cups of heavy whipping cream (because I didn't have cool whip, but I DID have left over whipping cream) and added it to the cream cheese mixture. OMHeavens - DIVINE!

What I was supposed to do was let the cookie pan cool, top with the cheesecake mixture, crumble the cookies on the top, and chill for an hour. Yeah, we're not the patient. I cute the 8x8 pan cookie into 8 chunks, dished out a chunk for each person on a plate, put a HUGE dollop of cheesecake mixture on the top, and crumbled a part of a cookie on the top. Yeah, SO good. And no, I shouldn't have eaten it. But I did. And I liked it. hehe.

See that fork? Yeah, I totally took 7 plastic forks from El Taco Tote today. hehe. I'm a rebel like that, you know. Or just really cheap - ha!

We put the kids to bed after the movie, and Captain America and I hung out for the rest of the evening. It's now 11:14pm, and I'm adding the last little bit of content to my blog. It's kinda nice to blog, really. To think about ones day in detail. To analyze what you did. Both the good and the bad. The fun and the not so fun. And, if I ever need or want to, I can go back over the weeks/months/years, and see what I'm thinking/feeling/experiencing. I'm sure I'll do that a lot when Captain America's gone. I'm sure gonna miss that boy. He's become my bestest friend ever these last few months...

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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Great layout, Sharon! I LOVE that hat! I need one!! hehe.

Make Up Your Mind!

Hola, peeps! How's everyone doing today? Me? Pretty good. Well, better at the beginning of the day, actually. We'd found out some date information about when Captain America was deploying, and I was all excited about it, and making plans and such.

Anyway, I woke up, finally, at 7am, read scriptures, said prayers, and headed out to help the kids get ready. They had Eggo waffles for breakfast (thank goodness I'd bought them!) and headed out to the bus. Captain America left at 7:45am for work, Jake got to school, Jim hopped on the Wii, and I went back to bed. I think the possible UTI was making me sleepy. Sure, I"d gone to bed late, but I go to bed frequently. I was totally exhausted.

I got up at 9am, but didn't get out of bed until around 9:30 or 10. Good thing I'd eaten breakfast at 7:30! Or I'd have been really hungry! Anyway, I made sure kids were doing all the things they were supposed to, and hopped in the shower. I wanted to use my new make up and hair stuff. hehe.

And after my shower, I called and chatted with my mom while I put on my make up. ON speaker phone. But then couldn't use the hair dryer, so my hair ended up not getting dried. Sigh. Oh well. I did have fun chatting with my mom. We're making plans to come and drive out for a visit this summer to Florence. So, all my Oregon peeps, anyone wanna meet up on the coast??? Maybe have a Digi Friend day at the beach? Wouldn't that be fun!!!

Anyway, got off the phone, changed into Yoga clothes, got Jim ready for the bus, pulled my hair back, and out the door I went. I was still feeling the uncomfortable feelings from the possible UTI, and I really didn't like it. Sigh. I was gonna have to call the DR when I got home. I just really wanted to go to Yoga first.

I dropped Jim off at the bus, chatted with my girls there for a bit, and Kari picked me up from the bus stop to go to Yoga. Oh yeah, and see this pretty Wreath that Eme made before
Christmas? She'd given it to Kari's daughter Josephine, and wanted to know if we wanted it back. It's so stinkin cute that I think I"m keeping it for next years decorations.

Ha! I just noticed it, but you can totally see Jim's bus in front of us. hehe. And no, I'm not driving. That's Kari - LOL!


So we get to the gym, and the location has changed. They're remodeling our room, and we've been moved to a racquetball court. Nice. Oh well. And I see this sight as we walk to the court. All I could think of was, "How many guys does it take to change a lightbulb"...
And our normal Yoga lady wasn't there today. They'd combined the Prenatal yoga with our class, and some pregnant chicky was teaching it. And yeah, I didn't like her so much as a yoga instructor. I think she would have been excellent at Spin instructor, though. hehe. Not very calming presence, in my opinion.

Anyway, we did yoga, and felt a bit stressed afterwords. Kari said she felt it too, not just me. If this same lady is gonna be the instructor from now on, we may find a workout yoga video we like better, and do it at home. Or maybe take turns driving to the Biggs gym. I hear they have more classes over there...

So we headed back home, and I spent about an hour with Captain America over lunch. We had lunch here, watched an episode of Star Trek, and he got some paperwork together that he needed. When he left, I designed for a few minutes, and messed around online before I had to go and get Jim from school.

I got Jim from the bus, and headed back home. And then it was time for Jake's Live Lesson. He got extra credit if his parent attended with him. So we both sat by his computer, and listened to his new Math teacher give an "orientation" meeting of sorts. Very informative.

I was gonna have to sneak out in the middle to pick up the kids from AQ (Bella quit, so Veronica isn't picking them up Mon/Wed anymore...), but they showed up at 3:30, saying it was canceled. Works for me!

Here's Jake and I at our "meeting"

That got over a little after 4pm, and then, at 4:30pm, I started on dinner, and tasked the kids with doing their chores. I made Chili for dinner. Jake still had homework to do, and I had Joe start on his.

Here's some pics we took of us around dinner time.

They didn't do a very good job of doing chores before dinner, so after dinner, I helped them out with cleaning. I swept the rooms into nice piles, and let them sweep them up into the dust pan. Joe and Jim and Eme had to clean their rooms VERY good, because, for some reason, the dog has decided that he needs to poop in there.

We had an impromptu brainstorm session on how to get him to stop. We all threw out ideas, and then Jake and Captain America and I decided on the best ideas to implement. We've decided that if Boxer gets near the little kids' door, he's gonna get "reprimanded". EMe and Joe and Jim are gonna try and remember to keep their door shut, and Jake is gonna check it every 30 minutes during the day to make sure it's closed. He's gonna get on more of a schedule with walking the dog, at regular times, so Boxer is used to pooping at a certain time.

Any other suggestions for us?

Captain America came home around 6:15pm, and we all decided to skip Wednesday night activities so we could hang out as a family. Captain America helped Joe do his homework, then listened to Joe read his book. At 7:30pm, we said family prayer, and put the kids to bed. Captain Americahopped in the shower, and I blogged. And it's now just a little after 8pm. The little kids are all in bed. The big kids are reading their books. Captain America and I are gonna run to Howdys to get a soda and head back home.

I'm really trying to make the most of every minute we have. Oh yeah, after lunch today, he texted and said that the "better" news we had heard yesterday wasn't happening after all. Sigh. Life is SO up in the air with deployment dates. Dates may change a few more times before it's all said and done. I guess once he's on the plane, I'll know he's gone.... Hmpf :(

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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Sharon made this one for me. Yeah, that's TOTALLY me - hehe. LOVE it, hon!

Photoshop Family

Well, I procrastinated blogging SO long, that now it's after 1am, and I don't know if I'm gonna get it done. Maybe I can pop back on here tomorrow morning and tie it up? Maybe not. I don't know.

Lets see if I can do the quick version of my day. Woke up, read scriptures, said prayers, got kids ready and out the door to the bus, Jake going on school, Jimmy situated with PBS cartoon, Captain America out the door to work, I went back to bed till 9am, got ready and dressed, Jim and I went grocery shopping, changed clothes for swimming, dropped Jim at the bus stop, swam 22 laps with Kari, back home, lunch, Captain America here for lunch, Captain America back to work, showered, Jake and I went to Walmart for the stuff that the grocery store didn't have, back to the bus stop, got Jim, back home, designed a freebie and sent it to Sharon, picked up kids from the bus stop, went straight to the library, watched a movie about the Roman collesuem (Tom & Leo LOVED it), back home, made French Toast for dinner for the kids, cooked my dinner, Captain America came home, helped kids with chores and homework assignments, put kids to bed, headed out with Captain America, went to Military Clothes, then the alteration shop, then Howdy's, then Academy sports, then home, then watched Start Trek 4 while designing my part for the next Scrapbookgraphics collab, and somehow, it got to be after 1am. Sigh. I'm SO tired. Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow morning to put ALL the many pictures I took today on here. I just don't have the energy right now. I wonder why. 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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LOVE this layout, Sharon! PERFECT!

Photoshop Family Take 2

OK, gonna blog about yesterday, finally. I'm feeling quite tired this morning. I think I may have a UTI...

Anyway, woke up yesterday am at 6:40am, hit snooze, and woke up 10 minutes later. Captain America was up and in the bathroom, and I read scriptures (1 chapter) and said prayers, and was done 10 minutes later. I went out and go the kids all ready for school (really, only Joe needed help) and got them breakfast. There wasn't really a lot of food left, so we kinda had to scrounge. hehe. Eggs and oatmeal, I think is what they decided on. Well, one of them DID get cereal, since they got the last of the milk. ROFL!

Anyway, they left for school at 7:30am, and Captain America left for work at 7:40am. And yeah, I admit it. I totally went back to bed. I was SO tired. hehe. Jake was starting on classes, and Jimmy was watching PBS cartoon. See, that's educational, right? Hey, at least it wasn't Wii or Computer...

Anyway, I woke up at 9am. And felt much better. I printed out a shopping list, decided what we needed, got Jim all ready for school, and Jim and I headed out to the commissary for grocery shopping. And I couldn't find my phone. I think I left it at home...

And yeah, I remember now why I usually leave him at home. We got one of those kid carts, and he didn't really fit in it, so he kept getting out, and trying to wander off. And the kid is almost 70 lbs, so it's hard for me to drag him back. hehe. It took longer than normal, but we got it done. And I guess he wasn't being a turd bucket the WHOLE time, just part of the time - hehe.

So we get home at 1040, and I had time to run to the bathroom (yeah, almost didn't make it - hehe) and throw on my swim suit, grab a towel, and hop back into the truck. I dropped Jimmy off at the bus, and realized that I still hadn't looked for my phone at home. Oops.

Anyway, after the bus left, I headed to the pool and met Kari there. I hadn't exercised in quite a while, and it as pretty difficult. But I did it. And I had to pee SO bad that knew I could have gone longer - ha! But I did 22 half laps, or 11 full laps. 16 full laps is a mile. Next time, I'll go further.

After swimming, I barely made it to the bathroom, but made it. At that point, I started to wonder if something was wrong. Kinda suspecting a UTI. Sigh. But I decided to drink more water/liquids, and hope for the best.

I hurried home, and Captain America was there for lunch for another 20 minutes. We hung out on the couch for a bit, I ate lunch, and he went back to work. And I took a shower. It felt SO good. Cause see, this is what I looked like before. hehe.

I was out of hair spray, and almost out of gel. And my makeup was the wrong color. And I was out of eyeliner (almost). So I needed to go to Walmart. AND, they didn't have Splenda at the commissary, and Jake needed some generic soda. So, After I got ready, we headed out. AND, I told him that if he didn't want a haircut, he needed to use gel. So we needed gel for him too.

Anywho, here's me all ready for walmart.

We decided to go to the Jaurez (not really Jaurez, we just call it that because more than 60% of the parking lot is filled with cars from Jaurez) Walmart. It sucks, but it's close, and I knew that I had to be back for Jim's bus in less than an hour.

I had a list, and Jake wanted to go off on his own and look. But did he bring the extra phone? No. So he had to stay by me. Hopefully he'll remember it next time - hehe. I look at boring stuff, apparently. Hmpf! I thought it was entertaining and exciting - hehe.

So I got the hair spray and gel for me and gel for him and shampoo for me and makeup (dang, that stuff's expensive!) and splenda and water bottles and generic soda for Jake and sugar free chocolates for me (yeah, NOT eating them all at once again - that sucked...) and we still had a few minutes left.

We hit the dog isle, and the electronics isle, and the book isle (I needed the newest book by Cassandra Clare in the Mortal Instruments series - a prequel, I think... clockwork something...), and then we were off. And we waited FOREVER in line, and finally paid and got out of there. And drove home, and the bus was already at the stop. Luckily it'd only been there for about 1 minute. We got Jim, and headed home.

And Jake put the gel in his hair, and looked SO good. I snapped a few pictures of him :)

Also, we figured out how to get Boxer to pose. The person taking the picture needs to hold a dog treat for me - ROFL! Look how still he's sitting :) LOL!

And here's a pic of Jim. I let him play on the computer for a few minutes and he was happy.

I had told Eme and Tom to skip AQ so that we could go to the Library right after school today. Because the movie starts at 3:30, and we hadn't been getting there till around 4pm. So I picked up the kids at the bus stop, and drove directly over there. Kari was already there with Leo and Josephine. It was a Roman Empire movie (Tom was THRILLED - favorite subject of his) about the Collesium. Pretty cool movie.

Kari worked on some business mail, and I started on a new crochet scarf. The people who worked at the library had forgot about the Tuesday movie thing, so the snacks were crappy today. LOL! 1 bag of popcorn for 7 kids. hehe. It was ok, though. I was glad that I'd brought bananas for my kids in the truck.

After the movie, we loaded up, and headed home. Kids did their chores, and I helped out a bit. And started on dinner. It was breakfast for dinner night. I was gonna do fruit and french toast. So I got all the stuff out.

Captain America got home around 4:45pm (yes!). But this is how he looked when he walked in the door. WHAT?? Last I heard they were going running. How do you possibly hurt yourself like this from RUNNING???

Commanders idea for PT was running, but she was sick yesterday. So the guys decided to do a game of Football. Yeah, Flag Football. Can you imagine what it would have been if it were tackle! hehe.

Apparently Captain America's head and some dude's teeth collided. Ouch! And there was blood everywhere. You know how head wounds bleed, right. He thought it was just sweat coming down. Yeah, no. NASTY!

Look how happy he is, though. Men are silly creatures...

I finished up dinner, and made extra French Toast with my diet bread for late, and enough for the kids for tonight AND some to put in the fridge for tomorrow. Works for me :)

The kids ate, and I cooked dinner for myself, Captain America cooked dinner for himself, and we both helped the kids with homework. Eme did spelling, and we helped Joe with his stuff. Joe read his AR book, and I helped him with his spelling words. I'd picked up a few books at Walmart form the $3 rack, and the kids decided who got to read what first. Tom was pretty excited about one of the books. Apparently I had picked a good one.... Yeah me!

Joe and Jim both wanted their pictures taken with the dog. Oh yeah, and see how clean my living room was? This is seconds after Eme did her chore. Yeah, it didn't last long, but it looks good in this picture, so I'll just pretend this is what it always looks like. hehe.

Joe's so weird. I told him to smile big - ROFL!

And then Captain America wanted to show the kids how he could spin a football. They were pretty impressed :) Well, maybe the dog was - hehe.
After kids were ready for bed, Captain America and I headed out to the store. He needed to run a few errands, and I was gonna take advantage of EVERY possible minute to hang out with him before he deploys. So off to Military Clothing supply we went. Yeah, there wasn't really anything there that interested me, but I had fun trying on things and taking pictures - hehe.

That's general to you!

Army face paint. hehe.

And then we headed to the alteration shop, cause he needed a few velcro name plates. Put in the order for that, got gas from the shoppette, and we headed off post. Where to? Howdys, of course! Here's a pic of us in the car.
And here's me with my DDP. He was like, Don't you ever get tired of taking the same picture over and over. Whaaaaat? I don't understand the question, sweetheart...

And then we headed to the East side and went to Academy Sports again. One of his pairs of pants he'd bought the night before didn't fit, and he wanted to see if the East side Academy had a different size. And they did! And we found a few other things that we just had to have.

This? Well, yeah, not so much. But it's sure bright!
And speaking of new things, I forgot to show you guys my new jackets! I got this leather-ish one the other days from Savers. Cute, huh?

And this one with the fluffies on it. LOVE it!

And I tried on some more hats at Adademy, but that's always fun.

Oh yeah, and I found this picture from Savers on my phone, too. ROFL! People used to wear stuff like this, you know - hehe.
And then I found the clearance slipper/boots. And I couldn't decide between the 3 pairs which to get. So I got all 3! For about $25 for all 3. Not bad, eh?

And then we headed home. And stopped at Walgreens on the way home to get butterfly bandaids for Captain Americas poor bite mark on his head - hehe. There we 3 distinct tooth marks up there. Dang!

And we found this retractable metal back scratcher at the check out. ROFL! We thought it was SO funny. I think we were both tired. LOL!
We got home, and the kids were all sleeping nicely. We popped in a Star Trek movie, and watched #4. The whale one. I remember that one from when I was a kid. hehe. My family didn't watch Star Trek episodes, but we saw some of the movies. And this was one of them.

I designed my part of the scrapbookgraphics monthly collaboration, and uploaded it to the store and sent previews to where they needed to go. And Captain America and I finished watching the end of the movie together.

And somehow, it got really really late. And I was tired. And it was starting to hurt when I peed. Well, really just uncomfortable. I was gonna have to call in the morning for an appointment. Because I didn't want a full blown UTI, or worse, Kidney Infection right before Captain America deployed. Yeah, that would be bad.

Anyhow, there ya go. Now you know the long version about my day. hehe. I'm sure your life is WAY more full. 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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LOVE this layout, Sharon! PERFECT!