Monster Math Night at School

Hey, you guys!  I'm giving it a second change :)  It helps when your "boss" gives you a gentle nudge to do so.  hehe.  LOVE Maya.  She's a great lady, and I'm glad that she did.  I need to get back to designing.  And blogging is part of my process.  So here we go.

But first, here are 2 of my new wordart packs for the week!!!  Get excited!!!

Leaves 3 WordArt Pack

Halloween 8 WordArt Pack

I really can't even remember when the last time that I consistently blogged was.  Or what was going on.  I know that we were having Jake troubles.  Of course.  And yeah, we still are.  He's in a treatment center.  And only has a month left.  And we can't find a place to send him after.  Because no one will take him.  Because of his condition.  Sigh.  It's just one big struggle.

So our new strategy is to convince him that we WANT to give him another chance.  Have him thinking that he is home on OUR terms.  Then, at the first terroristic threat or aggressive behavior, we call the MP's and they take him to the mental hospital, and Medicaid pays for it.  We got him declared Disabled over the summer, and on Medicaid.  So that was good.  We have a plan, even if it's gonna be tricky.

So there's an update on that.  That happens right before Thanksgiving.  And CPT is going on a training.  So it'll be tricky.  We need to get the house all prepared for that.  We are working closely with the therapist to get a contract worked out between all parties.

A lot of my friends moved.  It was so sad.  But I've made some new ones, and there are some still here.  I'm hanging out with Julia every day.  And I see Laura, and Charlotte, and Maggie, Elaine, Leanne, Chelsey, Lesa, and Maria.  Yeah, I know there are more.  hehe.  Anyway, kids are in school, and I keep busy during the days.  Because if I didn't, I would just sleep.  That's what my meds do to me!  LOL. 

I have family therapy for Jacob once a week.  We do lunch at the school with the kids every Friday.  Joe is in Hockey.  Eme has piano on Tuesdays.  I am the den leader for Joe's den, and we do that on Wednesday.  Anyway, I can't go and catch you up on everything.  That would take forever...  Lets just pretend that I never stopped.  hehe.  Let's just pretend that you know what I've been up to.  ROFL!

So today, I got up and got the kids ready.  I now get up at 6:30am.  Because I help the kids get ready.  Instead of sleeping on the couch.  See, I've improved.  hehe.  I make sure that they have good clothes on (usually ones that I picked out the night before), and we get breakfast from the menu (we're back on a menu!).   Tom leaves at 7am, and the other kids go to the bus stop at 7:15am.  I go sometimes, and other times, I let Emeline supervise.  She IS a 5th grader this year, you know!

Today was Crazy hair day, so we use my SUPER sticky hair goo for Eme's hair.  She looked super fantastic!  Such a cutie!  Jim?  He doesn't have much hair, so when he asked to have a mohawk, I tried not to laugh.  I settled for face paint crayons in his blond hair.  hehe.  I thought it was cute :)

And KIM is at my house!!!  She had a doctors appoint at the VA hospital here in El Paso that couldn't be taken care of at Ft Hood, and flew in yesterday.  So we got ready for her appointment, picked up Julia, and headed to the hospital.

She was hurting, because she had to fast, and couldn't take her meds.  Poor thing.  She headed off to her appointment, and Julia and I hung in the waiting room, and cut out paper stuff for the "Monster Math" Halloween party that evening.  Julia had gotten roped into helping.  hehe.

After a while, we were done, and headed over to the main hospital cafeteria for a bit to eat.  We got chicken wraps.  They were super yummy.  We ate and chatted, telling stories from our lives, and then Kim was done.

We headed stopped by Julia's house to get her jacket, and then we went to Rainbow Fountain for Kim to get a shrimp cocktail!!!!  Remember those?  I'm SURE I blogged about those.  They are da bomb!!!

This is us, posing in front of the sign.  See how happy we are.  That's because I made my Suburban fit in the parking spot.  We all clapped.  The girl walking by thought we were quite funny....  hehe.  I live to amuse.

Julia and I got smoothies instead of food, because we were SO full.  I got Mango, and she got strawberry.  Yums!  We sat and ate and chatted, then headed to Bassett and the Jewelry Box.  You KNEW that was coming next, right???

Kim got a few things, Julia got a few things, and I abstained.  I know, right?  I am showing self restraint!  Amazing :)  I was trying to put the finishing touches on my grocery shopping list while the girls shopped (I had the menu done, but needed the detailed list).  We then headed to Target.  Julia needed to get Brooke a white shirt for her Halloween costume.  We wandered around for a bit, then headed out.

We dropped Julia off at Costco so she could pick up her prescription, and we circled the parking lot a few times.  And look what we found in the air!!!  I'm not sure what it is.  But I've seen it at the airport before.  Laura would TOTALLY know what this is.  She JUST got a job at the airport as a baggage handler.  How cool is that.  She used to work in Canada doing that, and now she is practically in Mexico doing that.

Next stop, Commissary.  Because I was on a menu, but I ran out of food.  So now my kids were used to following it, and I didn't have the stuff.  Anyway, I convinced Julia and Kim to come with me.  That's JUST what she wanted to do.  Fly to El Paso to go to the commissary.  hehe.  Actually, being part of her old groups everyday life is EXACTLY what she wanted to do.  hehe.

We started shopping, and I gathered the stuff on my list.  And I actually came in under budget.  But we were running out of time.  Julia volunteered to go and pick up the children, and we checked out, used her money to get her groceries, and we were waiting by the curb when she got there.  Perfect timing!

I dropped her and her kids and the groceries off at her house, and then my kiddos carried in my groceries.  My theory is, if I buy it, YOU can carry it in.  ha!  I got all the stuff put away, the kids had snack, we cleaned up a tad (and I mean a very little tad), and got ready for Monster Math night, the kid's school Halloween party.

Everyone threw on a costume from the costume box, and we called it good enough.  I should have probably looked at Jim's costume a bit more careful.  It was too small.  hehe.  I didn't know that boys could have "camel toe" until tonight.  Wait, can I say that out loud?  Too late....  Bless my heart.

My kids LOVE this event.  It's the Halloween party for the school, and they have educational games in the gym.  Bingo games, spelling activities, math activities, you name it.  And the kids get candy.  There are nachos and hot dogs and stuff for sale.  They had a costume contest, and it was just a LOT of fun.  Here's a few pictures from the event.

Here is Alex, Julia's oldest.  He's precious ;)

Emeline and her friend

Me and Kim and Delia (my behind the fence neighbor)

Jim, Jacob, and Hannah (Maggie's Kids)

Julia and Brooke (she was NOT pleased she had to wear her karate outfit.  They were going STRAIGHT to practice after the party.  She would rather have been the angel she wanted to be and is going to be on Halloween)

Emeline is SO adorable :)

After the party, we all headed home.  We left about 20 minutes before it got over.  Kim was tired, and my feet hurt.  And I think Tom was done.  hehe.  Jim could have kept going strong.  LOL.  Oh yeah, Jim and Brent were at Hockey practice.  That's why they were not at the event.

We un-costumed, and started on dinner.  Taco Pie.  I found it on Pinterest, and thought it looked good.  OMGosh, it was SO yummy!  Click HERE to go to the website for the recipe.  FABULOUS!

I didn't have the right pan, so mine didn't come up over the edge, and next time I'm gonna try and have it go that way.  And I had too much sour cream on top.  But it was delicious!!!!  Everyone at it.  Every last drop was eaten.  Definitely a keeper.

Just as I was getting ready to put kids to bed, Emeline asked if we could ready scriptures together as a family.  How could we say no to that.  She's SUCH a sweet girl.  So Kim got to experience Harty Family scripture reading.  LOL.

And yeah, don't be thinking that we're all perfect here.  I may be portraying the wrong thing.  We have problems.  CPT and I haven't been getting along so well lately.  He had surgery on his knee.  He's been on Convalescent leave for 3 weeks.  Men are made to work.  hehe.  He's going stir crazy.  And getting nit picky.  Anyway, we've been fighting.  So the fact that Eme asked for scripture reading was SO nice for a change.  It brought a peaceful spirit into the house.  So, THANKS Emeline.  I love you all the more for that.

Then the kids went to bed, CPT started cleaning our bedroom (for some reason), Kim played on her phone, and I blogged and uploaded photos to facebook and loaded my store.  See how productive I am!  And I'm done now.  It's 10:15pm.  I'm uber exhaused.  This is late for me.  LOL.  I'm not up for super late nights anymore.  I need my, well, sleep.  

We'll see how this blogging/designing/staying on top of it goes.  I want to get some freebies together too.  I don't have one today, so please forgive me.  Hopefully an update will suffice. 

Anyway, night, y'all, and I will see you tomorrow!!!