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Saturday, June 11, 2011

Light My Fire

So this was taped to the inside of my bedroom door when I woke up this morning. Funny, huh???

I was up and getting ready at 8am for our 8:30am hike. I got the kids up and moving, but Joe and Jim were already up. Jake? Nope. I woke him up, and played up the fact that Boxer REALLY wanted to come on this hike in the mountains. And he was moving SO slow. So I reminded him that the later we got to the mountains, the hotter it would be. That hurried him up. hehe.

We headed out, and dropped by to pick up Kari and Josephine and Leo. And off over Transmountain we headed! It was SO loud in the Suburban with the windows down that kids and the music and all, but it was fun. ha!
We decided to take the kids on the nature hike for the first trip. Because it's super short and easy. Don't wanna scare them off from hiking first time... And we saw one of the park volunteer guys there, and talked to us for quite a while about the wildlife and such. GREAT source of information.

Jake noticed this lizard, and snapped a picture of her for me. Gladys, the dude told us.
THis is a bird watching facility, not a hut, Leo informed us. hehe.

Boxer was SO ready to go!
It was a quick little hike, and everyone did a fabulous job. Jake asked to PLEASE not be included in the hiking plans for the future. ha! He didn't find it fun in the least. Josephine kept pointing out the beauty, and Jake would go "That's not beautiful, that's ugly" "This nature SUCKS" was my favorite Jacob quote of the day, though... ROFL!

When we got back to the trail head, we chatted with the nature dude for a while longer, then headed home. It was a GREAT first hike of the summer!

Kari had told me that her hubby was sick. He was in the field, and had been on IV's for a while. Poor guy. When we headed home, she got a text from his saying that he was in the hospital. I dropped her off at her house, and offered to keep her kids so she could go up and see him, but she said that her 15 year old step son would watch them. Poor Kari.

We spent an hour at home doing chores and cleaning up, because the house was trashed. SO super messy. I did Tom and Eme's chores, and Jake did his, and Joe and Jim did theirs, and it looked SO much better.

Then we got on our swim clothes, and got ready to go to the sprinkler park on Biggs. Because that's where we were picking up Tom and Eme at 1pm. Jake wanted to go to the Youth Center, and since it didn't close until 9pm, that worked well with my Cub Scout Day Camp schedule too.

See, I'm wearing my new wrap from Captain America!
I dropped Jake off at 12:05pm, and then we headed to Biggs Sprinkler Park. And we only had to wait about 5 minutes to get in. Not too bad. There was no seating left, so I sat down by the rock wall, and let the kids play. At 12:45pm they called a Pool Break (silly, for a sprinkler park, I know...), and we gathered up our stuff and headed to the Biggs park main office to see when the Purple Campers would be arriving. 1:30pm. OK, so back to the sprinkler park we went.

And we found Maggie and her family there! So Jim and Joe got to play with Little Jacob. SO much fun to find friends!

Here's me eating my apple. Oh yeah, and I"m doing well on my diet! I've lost 7 lbs so far!

We left to get the kids at around 1:20pm, and I just HAD to snap a few photos of these flowers. Aren't they pretty???





After waiting for about 15 minutes, the bus finally arrived, and tired but happy campers started to unload. Tom and Eme both looked like they'd had a WONDERFUL time. They grabbed their gear, said bye to their friends, and we loaded up the truck and headed home.
And the second we walked away from Biggs park, Eme and Tom started in on it. Bickering and carrying on. OMHeavens, I SO wanted to just ship them back off to camp!!! It was SO annoying.

We got home, and the kids unloaded their stuff, and we turned on a movie. I took a little nap because I was getting a headache. I took some meds, and laid down, and felt SO much better after!.

I got up at 4pm, and started to get ready. I'd put chicken drumsticks in the crock pot with BBQ earlier in the day, so I gave everyone some chicken, and made sure they were dressed appropriately, threw on some better clothes, did my make up, and I was good to go.

And it took forever to actually get out the door. Eme had gone to her friends house and wasn't back home when she was supposed to be, so I had to track her down. Joe needed water bottles. Leo spilled chicken on his pants. And on and on and on. We didn't leave post until around 5pm.

And then we hit rush hour traffic. Crap! It was slow going for a while, but it finally picked up. Here's me with my 64 oz flavored water! Yeah me!

We made is JUST in the nick of time. I sent Eme and Jim off to childcare, and Leo and Joe off to their Wolf's group, and I took my supplies into the gym. I had 2 11 year old Scouts who were my helpers, and we got it all set up.

First, we were teaching the Wolf's (8 yrs old) an Indian story, then they were using Indian drawings to tell a story. We had a TON of symbols and words hung up, and they picked and choosed and made up a story.

Bear hunt man. Man eat bear. Man build Tepee. Deer eat grass. Very simple, but they LOVED it. Each boy had a chance to come up and share his story. It was a good time.

The second group had a harder time with it. I don't know if they just weren't as creative as the first, or what. Boy in the first group were writing 3 and 4 stories, and the 2nd group some were still struggling with the first story.

The 3rd group were Bears (9 yr olds). They were supposed to make things to play 2 Native American INdian games, and know the rules and such. We made a game from the Bear book, where you make corn cob darts. It was pretty cool.

We punched holes in the end of the corn cobs (dried), and stuck 2 feathers in it. Then, you were supposed to hold 2 of the "darts" between your thumb and pointer finger, then one between your pointer finger and middle finger, and toss them both at the same time into a bucket or pot. It was funny watching the boys try it. hehe. Sometimes one would just stay in their hands, and they'd look at their fingers as if they'd betrayed them. ha!

During my last class (after it had JUST started), I got a call from Jake saying that there wasn't enough people at the Youth Center to keep it open, and they were closing it early. And if I could come and pick him up. Nope, sorry, hon. I was teaching a class 30 minutes away... So I told him to read the book he'd brought, and I'd come and pick him up as soon as day camp was over. Poor kid. At least he had his book. And at least it's not cold outside. hehe.

We finished up with the last class, had closing ceremony, and we were out of there. We made it to the youth center a few minutes before 9pm. I would have been doing well, had they not closed early. Sorry, Jake. I tried :)

We drove home, and Leo came with us. He was gonna spend the night, since we had to be back over there at 8:30am. Joe and Jim and Leo slept in a fort in the little boys' room, and Eme and Jake and Tom and I worked on the chores real fast. And Tom was falling apart. Crying at the drop of a hat. I think the boy needed more sleep. Finally, I sent him up to his room.

Eme went to bed too, and Jake is watching a Star Wars movie. It's now 10:36pm, and I'm gonna finish this up, and watch some of Season 2, 24. It's been a long week, and it's ALMOST over. hehe.

Gotta get up at 7am to be out the door by 7:45am to be to the West Side by 8:15am to teach another class at 8:30am-1pm. Then we'll head back home, chill for a few hours, and I have Scrapbooking class with the Hearts Apart program. I need to call and see if they have any openings in childcare. Otherwise, I'll just let Tom babysit. There's never a dull moment in my day, you know...

Oh yeah, I talked with Kari, and she said that her hubby has Diverticulitis. It's a stomach/intestinal swelling problem, I guess. Poor guy. He's home resting now. Prayers for him would be good. Poor Brian :(

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!


Great use of Orange, Sharon, my dear! LOVE this one :)


Friday, June 10, 2011

Dancing in the Street

Lots of fun, new stuff this week! Hurry over HERE and check it out! 20% off the first week, or $2.00 per WordArt pack! Can't beat it! All layouts are by Sharon.













Welcome to Friday! Well, it was Thursday for me, but by the time you read this, I'll be Friday. hehe. The weeks are just ZOOMING by! Can you believe that Captain America has already been gone going on 6 months! Almost 1/2 way there!!!

Anyway, had a good day today. Woke up at normal school time, and just lounged around in bed until around 8am. I got up, got the kids breakfast, and Joe and Jim and I headed out to the store. I had a few things I needed to get.

First stop, Shoppette for Gas. See, here's the deal. The suburban gets 11 miles to the gallon. Not so good. But I've already had it's emissions testing done, so I don't have to worry about getting a ticket. The Saturn gets 30+ miles to the gallon, but doesn't have a current emissions test sticker. It's easy to get, I just haven't made the time. So, the suburban was out of gas, so I filled it up. That's a spendy trip...

Here's us in the truck. Me and my flavored water! Gotta get those 100 oz in, you know!

Jim's flip flop broke! Crap! Luckily, there were black socks and shoes inside the truck (SO not supposed to be there...) so I didn't have to go back home.

And here I thought I was looking good today, having lost 7 lbs last week, until I saw THIS picture...



We headed to the commissary, and got a few needed food items. And toilet paper and deodorant for Jake. Then paid, and headed out to Walmart.

And they now carry Sally Hansens nail things! Yes! I didn't buy any, because I still have some left overs at home, but I'm coming back soon :)

We got some sunburn lotion, and some face lotion, and a pool filter, and a few other essential things. And wandered around for a bit. Joe and Jim ended up with new sandals, and these Phineas and Ferb coloring packets. Kinda cool, huh? Had pens and stickers and junk, designed for taking in the car. Clever!
We got home, woke Jake up, had a snack, and got ready to go to the movies. I had a MASSIVE sinus headache, so I medicated myself and laid down for about 45 minutes. And felt a lot better when I woke up.

Jake and Jim and Joe and I loaded up in the car, and drove across town to the Dollar Theater to see Hop. We ended up getting there 30 minutes before the movie started, and the theater wasn't even unlocked yet. hehe.

Eventually, we were let inside, paid, and got some popcorn. Since I only had 3 kids at the movies, I figured we'd splurge and buy popcorn! And it had refills! Yes!

We finished off the first popcorn before the movie ever started. Granted, we'd gone to the WRONG theater for Hop. We were in the 12:45 showing, not the 12:10 showing. When we finally figured it out, we'd missed the first few minutes of the movie. Oops. hehe. We gathered up our stuff, and switched theaters. LOL.

My family and Terra's family sat together. Apparently Kari's family was there, but we didn't see them, due to being in the wrong theater, and getting there late. We found them afterwords.

I had a twin part of the time, and Jim and Joe sat on either side of me. The kids really did enjoy themselves. And I was quite impressed with the twins! They did a fabulous job at the movies. Not to cranky or anything :) You've got excellent kids, Terra, my dear!
I SO don't let my kids out of the house dressed like this! Where's his undershirt!!! Bad mom moment. hehe.



We chatted for a bit after the movie, then all headed back home. I worked on my Cub Scout day camp stuff for a bit, and the boys played in the pool and watched movies (not at the same time, of course. lol)

And after I was done prepping for Day Camp, Jake and I worked on designing a T-Shirt for him. He wanted Darth Someone or another. He was SO excited about it. hehe. Luckily, he had a light-ish colored t-shirt all ready to go.
And then I decided to make shirts for everyone. I got a DDP shirt! Score!

Joe got Star Wars and Star Wars Legos



Jimmy got Cars 2. Can't really tell from this picture, but it's kinda cool.
After the shirts were done, we gathered up our Day Camp stuff, packed a sack dinner, and got ready to head out. Leo came over around 4:30pm, and we left the house by 4:45pm. And drove ALL the way over to the West Side.

I took a 44 oz Diet Dr Pepper, and a 64 oz water flavored "green". That's a flavor, right? hehe.
We got there, and I found out that I wasn't teaching a class until tomorrow. That's still good :) Just prepared a day early, right? ha! I decided to help out in the craft class, making name tags. Sounded good to me!

My first group had Joe and Leo in it! And Jake decided to make a name tag too. He went back and forth between helping me and watching Star Wars on the portable DVD player behind the piano. Silly kid. He was very good, though.

Here's Leo and Joe



The nursery was RIGHT next door to our craft room... So Jimmy kept popping his head in to check on me. hehe. There were 4 groups of boys that came through, and on the 2nd group, Jim came in to make a name tag. Works for me.

We decided to pick the best name tag, and give that kid a piece of gum. Had to make it into a contest so they'd spend more time on the name tag. We had 30 minutes to kill. ROFL!
During the 4th group, I snuck out to go and look around at what the other kids were doing. I found Leo and Joe learning how to tie a tie in the gym. Now they can teach me! hehe.

It really was a good first day of day camp. We were out of there by 8:40, and dropped Leo off at his house a little after 9pm. I think the kids all had fun.

I had Jake help me get the kids to bed when we got home, because my sinus headache was back. And I still had to load my store and blog. And I'm FINALLY all done. Jake's watchings Star Wars in the living room, and it's 10:25pm. I'm gonna go finish the end of my movie, and go to bed. My head hurts...

We're hiking in the mountains in the morning. I told Jake I wanted him to come with us, and bring Boxer, because he really needed some exercise. Really ,I want Jake to get the exercise, but playing it off as if Boxer needs it will probably get better results. LOL.

Then, Eme and Tom get home around 1pm. And day 2 of Cub Scout Day Camp is in the evening. We're always busy, huh? 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!


Nice one, Sharon! Love the newspaper and the music notes!