Fourteenth

Hey guys! Well, I started off the day with a bang... Banging headache, that is. Ouch, I know! Luckily, I'm not a single parent anymore! hehe :) Captain American was able to help out SO much! I did get up, take some meds and have a yogurt, then assist with getting the kids ready for the bus.

And crawled back into bed. Captain America went to the bus, and I went to sleep. I was hurting! After the kids went to school, Captain America went outside to work on his truck, and I snoozed on and off. And felt the meds kicking in. Thank goodness! Cause it sure hurt!

Finally, around 9:30 or 10am, it started to feel a TON better. Still a little off, but better. Captain America came inside and checked some e-mails, and was on Facebook a bit, and I sat by him and sat down to put an additional layout on the blog from yesterday that Sharon had done last minute for me. Cause she's awesome.

And then the school called, and said that Eme had gotten Student of the Month for her class! And that we should come and eat lunch on the stage with her! We were thinking of coming anyway, but this sealed the deal!

So I put the computer away, and hopped in the shower. I was SO proud of Eme! She's such a good student! Captain America got ready too, and at 11:05, we were out the door, and headed up to the school. We had lunch with Jim first. He was pretty excited to see mom AND dad!
We ate with the little guys, and then a teacher came by and asked if we were with little Jacob, Maggies kid. Nope, we said, but we knew his mom. She said that he didn't have a lunch, and insisted that his mom was coming. Yeah, I said she runs late. ROFL! I called her, and she said that she was REALLY late, to go ahead and have him get in the lunch line.

Kari and Brian came, and Captain America and Brian had fun chatting. Kari and I did too! Josephine came in with the 1st graders, and I had a good time helped out the kinders with their food. I helped out with milks and cracker packages and straws and banana peels. Oh yeah, I'm just that good - hehe.

I'd brought a box of mini candy canes, and I told the kids that if they finished their lunches, then they'd get one! hehe. I tricked them all into eating! ha! I had the whole table finishing their lunches. Oh yeah :)

Jim headed out to the playground after finishing his food, and the 2nd graders came in. Here's a picture of Veronica's kid, Cassie, and me, when she came in for lunch! She's in Joe's class
Joe waited in line for his food, and then his buddies were a few kids behind. The came up and asked what snacks I'd brought this week. ROFL! I'm the snack mom, apparently! I said candy canes, and pointed to Captain America, and said that Joe's dad had come home!!! They said that was cool! And the one said that he wished his dad would come home. Awe, I said, where is your dad. He just got a sad, somber look on his face, and looked up with his eyes, and pointed towards heaven. OMGosh, broke my heart! The other kid said that his dad went to visit his grandmother and his aunt, and left at Christmas. And hasn't come back yet. Um, ok....

Joe and his buddies came back, and wolfed down their food. Maybe the "eat the food and get a candy" wasn't the best for the 2nd graders. I was afraid they were gonna hurt themselves! hehe. But they all got it. Then the word got out that we had mini candy canes, and tons of kids came over to ask. So cute. hehe. Good thing there were 64 candy canes in the package, right? ha!

Here's a picture of Joe and Captain America and I.
Leo came, and he ate with Brian and Kari, and then all of the kids were done eating. The grown ups were done chatting, and Kari and Brian headed to the playground with Leo. And Captain America and I headed to the stage to sit with Eme. Cause she was a "Classy Character". For Patience. ROFL! I thought it was pretty funny, seeing her at home. School is different, right? ha!

The counselor snapped a photo of Captain America and I and Eme. Aren't we cute!
We had a nice time on the stage with Eme. She got some coupons for different restaurants around town, and we told her that sometime this week (or so), we'd take her there. Awesome job, hon!

After lunch period, Captain America and I headed out. We went to Auto Zone to take back the truck's battery (oh yeah, this is his old blue truck, not my suburban...) It was dead, we thought. It had a warranty on it, and they would either charge it, or replace it. So we started that process.

They started to charge it, and said it would take about an hour. So Captain America and I went to the Rainbow Fountain place that Kim and I went to a while back. And got shrimp! And a smoothie. And some Mexican Candy. I wasn't a fan of the candy. Captain America thought it was very good. It reminded him of a sweet fudge (minus the chocolate - ha! - that's the best part!)
After eating, we went to Walgreens and picked up a silver aluminum wallet for Captain America, and a new black on for me. I'm gonna give my purple one to Kim! They rock, you know. 2 for $10 at Walgreens. If you wanna be just like me, you should go and get one. hehe :) You'll like it too!

We headed back to Auto zone, since it'd been an hour, and it wasn't finished charging. Seriously? So we went to do another errand. Captain America had gotten some ACU's (uniforms) the other day, and the bottoms were the wrong size. And he needed something sewn on some uniforms too.

So we hit the Alteration shop, and the Clothing Supply shop. While he worked on the return/exchange/whatever, I installed Blogger on my phone and tried to get that last layout posted. Sharon had worked so hard on it, and I really wanted to get it on the blog for her.

Well, I managed to get it on there, but in the wrong spot. Crap. Oh well, it was on there at least, right? I did manage to get a hold of my girl, Stephanie, who edits my blog. You know, when I mess up and spell out Captain America's real name. She goes in and changes it. She's AWESOME. Anyway, she moved it around for me. Thanks, my dear!

Eventually, he was done, and we headed back over to Auto Zone. And it was done this time. Thank goodness! Back home we went, and just in time to get the kids from the bus. Captain America worked on his truck for a bit, and I walked on over and retrieved them. Some of the kids helped their dad on the truck, and others did their chores to earn privileges.

I designed for a while, and got 2 WordArt packs done! Oh yeah! I'm gonna be ahead of the game this week! Now watch, that little comment right there is probably gonna be enough to jinx it - hehe.

I made up some Tuna and Cheese sandwiches for dinner (I started too late and didn't have time to cook anything real), then got Jim ready for his game. By the time Captain America got in from working on his truck, he needed a shower, and we would have been late for the game if we'd have waited for him. So we told him to hurry, to bring his own vehicle, and that he could catch up with us.

Jim and I headed out, and he made it in time to warm up for about 3 minutes! That's some kind of a record for us, I think! RoFL! I visited with Suzanne Cullen (I still find it awesome that her last name is Cullen (Oh Edward....)) and her hubby during the game. Here's a picture of Jim, right before half time.

This is when I realized that Kari wasn't there, and neither was Josephine. I guess they forgot! Oops! I texted her the picture, and she said that Brian was in charge of it, because she had a party, and apparently he forgot about it. Oops. Next time!

Captain America got to the game a little after half time. We had fun watching the last half together, and cheering Jim on. You know, if he realized that he has size to his advantage, he'd dominate that court! He could just take that ball and run. We started to yell (in a good way) at him to take the ball, and when he listened and did it, he REALLY did a good job! Ha! Way to go, Jim!
Oh yeah, and they don't really have to dribble. It's just encouraged. ha!

So after the game, the kids got their snacks (Jim's FAVORITE part), and we ditched one vehicle, and headed to the Biggs youth center to get Tom. He'd ridden the bus there after school. He said that there was a family meeting (they call it a Coffee house meeting), and he wanted us to come! But we got there, and the place was relatively dead...

I guess he got his Friday Nights wrong... 2 weeks from today. Works out better for us, anyway. I wanted my babysitter at home. LOL! Captain America and Tom played 2 games of Pool, Jim watched a few minutes of the movie they were showing, and I tinkered on my phone.











We headed back to the house, dropped of Jim and Tom, gave them explicit instructions for babysitting and bedtimes, and Captain America and I headed out to the movies. We decided to go and see the new Mission Impossible movie! It looked pretty good :)

The Carmike 16 was starting at 8pm, so we headed over there. And got the popcorn deal. But forgot to get the extra candy "rider" at the time of purchase, so got back in line, but because we'd waited 3 minutes, it was too late. Screw them. I didn't feel bad smuggling dollar store boxed candy in now. ha!
The movie was pretty good. If I had to choose between Sherlock Holmes and MI, I'd choose Sherlock Holmes. But it was still pretty good. There was a lot of action. And startling parts. I found myself sitting on the edge of my chair a lot. And jumping. But it was kinda long. And I know that Captain America fell asleep in one part. But that has no bearing on the movie, per se... He falls asleep in dark rooms. ROFL!

After the movie, we got a refill of soda (for tomorrow for us - because flat soda is SO good, you know *inset sarcasm...*) and popcorn (for tomorrow for the kids) and headed back home. The little kids were put to bed at 9:30pm, and the big kids were supposed to go to bed at 10:30. But yeah, it was 11pm, and they were still going strong.

I started Blogging, and Captain America totally had a talk with them about following the rules, and keeping the house clean, and babysitting. Good for him! And good that I didn't have to do it! LOL :)

Anyway, it's now 12:30am, and I'm tired. Luckily, there are no early morning appointments or games or meetings or anythings tomorrow. I'm sleeping in :) Oh yeah :)

Night, all!

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Thirteenth

New stuff FINALLY this year! hehe :) Captain America had to go in for a few hours this morning, so I worked for a little while. See how productive I was! Woohoo. LOL :) Click HERE to go to my store. And thanks to Sharon for hustling on some layouts for me. I didn't give her much time, and she ROCKED them!

Captain America had to go into work for a few hours in the morning, and I got up and got the kids ready for school. Typical morning. I got them to the bus, and out the door. And I started in on organizing Jim and Joe's clothes. I was supposed to go hiking with Kari, but after seeing how stressed Captain America was over the messy house issue, I figured that staying home and organizing for a bit would be good :) hehe.

So, I paired down the shirts, then went to design for a while. I got 4 of the 5 WordArt packs for the week done! Yeah me! Then I rested my eyes for a bit, and ended up falling asleep for 30 minutes! Oops. Which left me with only 30 minutes to get ready and be at my therapy appointment. Dang it!

I changed real fast, jumped in the truck, and headed to the west side. I did make it in time for my 11:30 appointment, though. It was a good session. We talked about how good I was doing, and how much improvement I'd made of the year deployment. Over hard circumstances! Yeah me! We talked about a few things to work on, and soon my hour was up.

I called captain america, and made plans to meet him at the PX. He was at Clothing Supply getting his uniform up to speed, and I went and looked at the Miche booth for a bit. The girl had gotten a few shells in that I liked. We chatted for a bit, and she soon saw that I was a Miche lover. She told me that she'd give me Classic shells for $25, not the $30 price. Cause I was obviously a loyal customer. Awesome. I told her I'd more than likely be back after lunch. hehe.

It took Captain America longer than he thought at the place, so I sat on a couch and played with my phone for a bit. He came one over eventually. We went to Spudnicks and had sandwiches and salads for lunch . I really liked it. He thought it was ok. It was the same place that Kari and I ate at that one time. SUPER good! The guys there (it seemed like everyone in Captain America's battery was there!) decided it wasn't Manly portions. Perfect for girls, though. I was stuffed in just the right way :)

Anyway, after lunch, we went to Miche, and I got my purple shell that I wanted! And a pink one too! SO stinkin' cute! And Captain America got a wallet at another Kiosk. But I don't know that he's crazy about it. He kinda likes me purple hard shell one. Not the purple-ness of it, but the hard-shell-ness of it. hehe. We may be going to Walgreens here soon to look for a different one for him!

After the PX, we headed back home. And got some stuff done around the house. I did some designing, and finished off the WordArt pack. And he got some stuff unpacked. Tom was home at 3, and we went to get the little kids from the bus at 3:30pm. Then got ready for ice skating!

Thursdays are now "Teach the military kids how to skate at 4pm" again! So cool, huh??? So we loaded up, and headed on over to the Ice Rink. Kari and I chatted while Captain America and the kids skated. Jim, of course, was the first one to be done. hehe. He's not much of a skater. LOL. But I think that Everyone had fun.

After skating, we headed home, and had leftovers for dinner. The kids did their homework, and hustled and did their chores. Then Eme and Tom and Captain America and I left for games. We were testing Jake out for a short time period (1 hour) with a tiny babysitting job. He's been SO good on his meds. He had the phone, and neighbors I could call that were super close. I trusted him :) hehe.

We dropped Tom off at one game, and Captain America and I went to Eme's game. He's never seen her play. And she did a GREAT job!!! Her coach said that she played her heart out this time!!! Well done, Eme!!! We hustled back to get Tom after his game, then back to the house. Jake and Jim and Joe were playing so nicely on the Wii. Good job, Jake! You did it!

I went straight to my room to load my store, and Captain America worked to put the kids to bed. And talked with Jake about his report card. he was the only one who didn't get a conference about it the night before.

It's now 9:30pm. And I'm done with the blog. And with the store. And with everything. Time for some sleep. Or whatever. hehe. Night, y'all!!! See ya in the morning! Oh yeah, and it's Friday the 13 tomorrow!!! SUPER cool! :)

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Twelfth

Hey you guys :) How goes it??? So I was awoken to the sound of the phone. At 2:30am. I was SO confused!! I hopped up out of bed, and ran to the bathroom where the sound was coming from. And that's where I found Captain America, testing out ringtones on his new iPhone... Um, yeah, NOT cool...

He told me he's usually a better roommate. hehe. I told him he needed to work on that. ha! He was having trouble sleeping, and continued to play on his phone for a while. I showed him how to turn down his phone, closed the door, and tried to go back to sleep. It was till noisy, though. But I finally went back to sleep. And was woken up again.... but we won't go into that. hehe.

Luckily, he decided to stay awake, and get the kids up and ready for school when the time came. And let me sleep in. What a SUPER sweet man! I was able to catch back up on my sleep, and still be up and ready to make it to Jake's therapy appointment. And he came with me. Awe, so sweet!

We headed over there, but were a few minutes late. Jake's therapist thought he was doing SO good, that we decided to go with every other week instead of every week. Good job, Jake! You are working hard :)

We took Jake back to school, and then Captain America and I headed to lunch at L&J's. The other day, we wanted to get Beef Fajitas, but didn't wanna pay so much for them. The ones here were only $11.95. That's not too bad.

Me and my DDP!

Fajitas toppings with corn tortillas
They were so yummy :) We ate and chatted and it was fun. Although, I must say, I am used to more interaction during lunch... there was a sports show on. ROLF! My girls don't seem to be sucked into it quite as much. hehe :)

At the tail end of lunch, we got a call from the school, saying that Joe had wet his pants again. Poor Joe. Luckily, it wasn't too noticeable. His shirt covered it. So he went back to class, and we headed home to get him a change of clothes. Then back to school.

The nurse called him back out of class, he changed his clothes, and Captain America and I drove on over to Big Lots. He needed a few items that we didn't get at Walmart the other day. Mostly an ironing board for his uniforms, and some spray starch. We had a good time walking around and shopping.

All the Christmas stuff was 75% off! I did get a few ornaments. And some Wrapping paper. I'll never have to buy wrapping paper again in my life, I think. LOL :)


Since 1999, Tom's of Oregon. ROLF! That's what I thought of, the second I saw it - hehe :)
I saw this, and it was HUGE! And they were advertising that it fits in your pocket? Only if you weight 500 lbs!


The folding chair takes up the WHOLE box. I opened it up because I was so curious... There's no way this is fitting inside of Captain America's pocket...
Single use. I'm SO glad :)
After Big Lots, we headed home. And had about an hour before the kids got home from school. Captain America headed up to Housing to get a new long light bulb for the closet (cause it had burnt out), and I continued with the laundry. We're trying to go through the little boys' clothes. It's SO out of control... We needed to get everything clean so we know what we have...

Anyway, I cleaned and sorted and organized for the hour, then headed to the bus stop. I chatted with the girls for a while (I was missing them!), then headed home with the kids. In between washing and folding, I went out to watch Captain America and Tom mess with the truck.

The battery on the old truck had been disconnected while Captain America was deployed, and I guess the battery still got drained somehow. Also, they were helping me out with Cub Scouts tonight. The achievement with tools. They were getting ready to saw a large board into chunks.

I went back inside to cook dinner (two nights in a row, I know!!) and to get the kids ready for the evening activities. Joe had a game, and Joe and Jake and Tom had Scouts later. And Captain America had spent so much time helping to get stuff ready for Scouts, that he wasn't ready for the evening of activities.

We took two cars up to the game, and he followed when he was ready. I chatted with Kari and with Rebecca for a while, and then Captain America was there. And I must say, having a bit strong man to sit behind me to snuggle with during the game is SO the way to go! He needs to come to ALL of the games. hehe :)

Joe and Leo played very well in the game, and it got over earlier than I though! We had time to head home, and for Captain America to put on Scout clothes. And for Leo to get Scout clothes on. Joe had brought his in a backpack. It was nice to be early!

But we were late by the time were were done... Oh well! And I was excited that all 6 of my Cub Scouts there there!!! My Joe, and Leo, and Maria's Joseph, and Aiden, and Charlotte's Matthew, and a new kid, Bromilee. While Captain America set up his tool display, I had an opening ceremony, and we talked about what achievements we've already one, and which ones we need to do.




Then, we moved on over to Captain America's tool demonstration. They boys had a BLAST!
Check out Joe with the safety glasses on! I was gonna take a picture of all of the boys in the glasses, but the next kid totally broke them! Oops!
At the end of the meeting, we had the living circle and did the Cub Scout motto, then closing prayer. It really was a great meeting! We loaded up, and headed home. And dropped Leo off, and picked up Jim (he stayed at Kari's house - Kid swap!), then back to the house.

We worked on getting the kids to bed, and I did a little bit more laundry. I was SO done with it. Hehe. And then I started blogging. And Captain America worked on ironing his uniforms. And that's where we are now. How did it get to be 10:27pm? I need to go to sleep :) I'm gonna try and go hiking with Kari in the morning. Captain America has to go into work in the morning. And I have counseling at 11:30ish too. We might have ice skating after school, then Eme and Tom both have games later. Yeah, busy day.... ha!

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Eleventh

So, apparently I'm not used to sleeping with someone else in the bed. hehe. I can remember waking up a few times in the middle of the night, thinking that someone had started a load of laundry, and that the drying was breaking. It was SO squeeky! And I could even hear it over the BIG fan! What the heck. I was still half asleep, but it was keeping me up....

Until I finally woke up enough to realize that it was just Captain America breathing. ROFL! Noises that I sure wasn't used to. LOL. Things to get used to, right?

We woke up at 5:30am, and talked (YES, talked) until it was time to get the kids ready for school. It was nice to just have someone to talk to me in the morning! I've SO missed that!!!

We hustled to get kids ready and fed and out the door. It was super nice having 2 grown ups helping out with the process! Captain Americas standards are higher than mine (hehe), so the kids looked better today - ha!

Here's us at the bus stop. It was colder than Captain America expected it to be!!
But it was me that looked cold! We did some chores, and got Jake going with getting ready for school. He got showered, and did his chores too. And since I wasn't feeling so overwhelmed, I even washed some dishes. Miracle, I know. lol.

Captain America and I spent some time together, then showered and got ready for our errands. We decided to go to lunch at Carlos and Mickeys! And SUPER yum, we got the homemade Chicken Soup lunch special! I was super excited about it! It looked DIVINE!

Big chunks of chicken, and HUGE chunks of veggies. Super yummy! I was totally full on it. And I didn't even eat the quesidillas that came with it. I gave those to Captain America. And I just ate the rice. I eventually dumped it in my soup. Oh yeah. That was the best. And the chips and salsa and Diet Dr Pepper. SOOOO good!

After lunch, we headed to Walmart, and got some groceries. Cause we were out. And Captain America needed food for the house. And a few toiletries. And then my phone freaked out, and he needed his iPhone hooked up. He was using the Droid. We went to Verizon, but it was taking FOREVER. He wanted to drive down Alameda and look at the old car lots and see what they had. And it was causing some tension. You know how it is. When you have a plan of how things are supposed to go. And it seems like every little thing is getting in the way. I can see how that would be frustrating....

So there was some stress...

We had to leave the phone at Verizon to get switched over, and we drove down Alameda for a bit, then went back to post to get Jim and Joe from the bus. And drop off the groceries. Then back to Verizon to get the phones. Then to Wendys for a Frosty for Joe and Jim. Then back home for dinner (I made homemade sloppy Joes - the kids were SO excited!).

Then change really fast for Basketball practice for Joe and Tom and Eme. Then off to drop off Eme and Tom at their location. Then to Logan for Joe. Captain America and I visited with Kari, and Jim played his game. And Captain America had a good time watching Joe play and practice, and getting to know how Joe plays.

When practice was over, we headed to O'Rileys to get a new bulb for the Brake lights, then back to pick up Tom. Eme had already gotten a ride home with Ms Rebecca. Tom still had 15 minutes left on practice. We waited in the truck, and Captain America ran in to watch the last few minutes. So he got a chance to watch Tom practice too.

We got home, and I changed into Jammies, and helped the little boys pick out clothes for the morning. So that the morning would go more smoothly. Thank goodness! Now Jim won't go to school looking so funny. And underwearless. ROFL!

Captain America went over report cards with all the kids, and then talked about basketball form with them. And I did my blog. It's now 8:30pm. Jake is the only one left to go to bed. He's out there talking with his dad right now. As soon as he goes to bed, I get Captain America all to my self :) Sounds good to me.

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