Miracle

Here ya go, girls! Here's all my new stuff for the week :) I liked how they turned out - especially the masks. I just LOVE masks :) I played around with them a little bit, and I decided that I need to use them more in my layouts. They're just SO much fun :) OK, shameless plug ended - hehehe. Click HERE to go to my store.

Layout by Jaimee

Layout by Charmaine

OK, admittedly, mine isn't as good as my CT's, but it's OK. This is my sister's little girl, Ella. Isn't she adorable.

Layout by Grace

Layout by Jen (Graham Like the Cracker)

Hey girls. Hope you had a good day yesterday! Mine was good :) I ended up going to my friends house the night before. Remember how I didn't know if it was gonna pan out? Well, at 10:30pm, I headed down the street to her house - hehhe. My kids and hubby were fast asleep, and I snuck out to play. We ended up watching "Along Came Polly". It was pretty funny! Then, we just sat around for HOURS chatting. It was great! Just like a slumber party, but not slumbering - ha!

At 3:30am, I headed back home. I fell into bed, and slept till 9:30am. Good thing my kiddos are pretty self sufficient. hehehe. I got up, and cleaned for a little while, then read for a little while, then started to get people ready for the pool. We planned to meet our friends at 11am, when the pool opened. Andrea called at one point, and wanted to know if I still wanted to go, since it was cold? What? I looked outside, and sure enough, there were clouds. But it was still nice and warm. I'm sorry, but this native Pacific Northwesterner doesn't think that 83 degrees is cold. It's a nice day - ha! Our lakes that we swim in are FREEZING. The Harty's can handle the pool - LOL!

I made up a ton of sandwich quarters, and brought chips and salsa, and carrots and ranch, and bananas for my kids. I knew that the other kids would wanna share, so I brought tons. We were the first ones to get there, and the little kids wanted me to come and swim in the big pool with them. That was a first. So, I braved the water, and found that once I got used to it, it wasn't too bad. Joe, who's usually TERRIFIED of water, was doing so well. He put on a life jacket, and I pulled him aroudn the big pool. After a while, he was confident swimming around the big pool, with his life jacket, BY HIMSELF! I was so impressed. This was the kid, who last week, almost was in tears because I wanted him to get in the big pool with me. Funny kid.

Adela showed up next, and I got out of the water to visit with her. OK, so I'll admit. When you're dripping wet, 83 doesn't feel very warm. But, I dried fast, and felt much better. Andrea, Laurie, and a few others showed up by noon. The kids ate, the kids swam, the moms chatted, and it was a GREAT time. We didn't end up leaving until almost 3pm. It was a fabulous day at the pool. Free pool. Even better :)

The kids relaxed when we got home, and I decided to brave the garage in search of Garage Sale items. The girls and I are doing a multi-family garage sale this Saturday. We're meeting between Adela's and Andrea's house, and are selling what we have. I have a few baby mattresses, a few computer monitors, some of Captain America's "fat" Scout Clothes and suits, some kid clothes, and some odds and ends. I've never done a garage sale (can you believe it!), so I'm not sure what to expect. But, I'm looking forward to it :)

I found my rice cooker while I was cleaning, and was so excited that I cooked some brown rice for the kids when I was done with the garage. Captain America came home at the same time that I was cleaning up. Poor guy looked really bad. He said that his tummy hurt. Ever since his Splenectomy, he's had trouble with digestion. He can't eat too much raw veggies, or things get backed up, and he has SEVERE indigestion. So bad that he thinks he's gonna die. I helped him get into bed (he coudln't bend over to take his boots off), and left him to feel better.

The kids had rice, and chicken, and steamed veggies for dinner. For my brown rice, I cooked it in the rice cooker, then when it was done, added a 1/2 tsp of granulated chicken bullion, and a 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. The kids LOVED it. I had my usual stir fry. Yummy! I'm doing well on my diet, too. No more strong food cravings. My body is feeling pretty good. I think I've hit my groove. About time - hehehehe.

After dinner, I sat down to answer some emails. I got through about 40 of them. Sounds like a lot, but I still have over 200 to go through. And these aren't random spam. I delete all those. These are actual people who want/need something. Sigh. So, if I haven't written back to you, I"M SORRY! I'm trying. I started at the back, and am working my way to the present. I'm to January 15th. Sad, I know. 6 months off. How did it happen? Why did I let it happen. I'll try harder girls, really I will.

I put Joe and Jim to bed at 8:00pm, and Tom and Eme to bed at 9:00pm. It's not 9:30pm, and I'm gonna go design you all a FABULOUS freebee for today. My dh is still sleeping (poor thing), and I think, after I get everything done and pre-published and all, I'm gonna sneak back out to my friends house. hehehe. I'm gonna fall over one of these days from exhuastion, but it will be happy exhaustion. I think that everyone needs a girlfriend who lives down the street from them. SO much fun. And we're inviting Adela this time. She had the COOLEST blue toenail polish on her toes, and she said that she'd bring it, and we could do our toes too! I'm SO excited. And I think we're gonna watch Disturbia. SCARY movie!

This WordArt request is from WAY back in January. See how bad I am. My inbox gets OVERWHELMED, and I just can't seem to keep up. Going backwords to forwards might help me. Well, it helped "It's Daddies, Plural" anyway. She requested this saying. Sorry it took so long, girl! Hope you like it! I thought it would be good for any baby picture. Especially a pic of a parent holding a baby. Not just adopted parents, but any parent.

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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Pool Alpha

First off, just wanted to show you my NEW SWING SET! Isn't it fabulous! Thanks so much to my, um, neighbors (yeah, never did catch their names - they lived 3 blocks over too, so not really neighbors.....Tom's buddy Olens parents. We'll just call them that) for the swing set! My little boys think it's WONDERFUL!!! Here's Captain America and Jimmy taking the swing for a test ride - LOL!

And, Captain America was taking a new pic for this Facebook avatar, so I decided to get a new pic of myself too. I straightened my hair today, and look how long it's getting. Kinda fun :) Really, I'm just too cheap to go and get it cut. I just style it different as it grows out. Yep, really cheap. That's me :) But happy. Cheap and happy. (Aren't my peacock earrings FABULOUS! I think my Aunt Sue made them for me. Did you, Aunt Sue? I can't remember. If you did, THANKS!!! I just LOVE them)

hehehe, you can TOTALLY see my farmers tan - LOL! But look how BROWN i'm getting :)

Wow, 7:15am came early today. Only 5 hours of sleep. The kids and Captain America were all already awake. Really, I didn't wanna wake up. I was really just rolling over. Oh well. I'll sleep later. Sleep is overrated, right? No? You like sleep? Sigh. OK, I admit it. I like sleep too. It's not overrated. I guess I just need to schedule better - hehehe.

I managed to get up and get the kids some cereal (yeah, I know, stretching myself there), and myself breakfast. I spent the morning designing, and managed to get 2 WordArt packs designed before lunch time. Andrea stopped by to return some sunglasses I'd left at her house last night, and then was off to pick up her son from camp. I told her to bring the kids back over, and I'd make lunch for everyone.

My kids and I made some homemade mini pizzas. They turned out looking pretty nice. We made biscuit crust (with added basil), topped with pasta sauce and cheese. The little kids had fun helping to roll out the dough. And eating the dough. I can't lie - hehehe.

When Andrea finally got back (traffic was bad), she'd stopped by her house, put the baby to sleep, and left the 2 big boys at home, because they were fighting. Yeah, I know that story. That was Eme and Tom on Tuesday. Sigh. Anyway, she stayed for a few minutes, and offered to watch Joe and Jim when I went to take Tom and Eme to their "GT" (Gifted & Talented) Assesment. THANKS, my friend!

It was nice to not have to worry about small children running around the office and causing trouble. Tom, Eme, and I brought books and read. Good thing, too. They were about 30 minutes off schedule. Tom is reading Harry Potter #7, Eme had a few chapter books, and I was reading Breaking Dawn. Not a bad way to kill 30 minutes :)

Eme and Tom both thought that their assessment went well. I'm supposed to call back on Friday to get the results. If they qualify, they'll be put in GT classes in the Fall. I think it would be good for them. But then , who knows if they'll get it or not. I know that I got FABULOUS grades in school, but I worked hard for them. I was very studious. I was tested for GT (but they called it TAG there) and didn't make it. I told the kids that GT just meant that they had a special way of looking at things. If you were not GT, that was no big deal. You could still be SUPER smart and not GT. Just like me - LOL! I'd like them to be in the GT classes, though, because I know that the GT teachers have had more training. I'm just saying....

We got back to Andreas house at about 3:00, and stayed to play until 4:00pm. She's a lot of fun to chat with. Where I'm pretty shy, she not. She LOVES to talk, and there's never a dull moment with Andrea. I just LOVE it :)

I came back home, and got right to designing. Captain America beat us home! All the other days, he's been home at 5:30pm. Don't know why they got out so early today, though. It was nice to see him. The kids sat down and watched a movie, and I designed. I got another 2 WordArt packs designed before dinner.

At 7pm (I'd decided to skip Scouts even before they called to tell me it was cancelled - we must have been on the same wavelength - ha!), I finally put down the designing and cooked dinner. After dinner, the kids finished their movie, and I finished my designing. 5 WordArt packs for the week, and a FABULOUS freebee for you all.

I spent a little quality time with my hubby, and even made sure that he was in bed and asleep by 10pm. See, aren't I good :) Poor thing has to get up SO early in the morning. Such is the life of a soldier, I guess :) I'm sure glad that my job is a mom. I like that job!

So, as I'm pre-publishing this on Wednesday night, it's 10:15pm. Early for me. I'm either gonna sneak out and go watch a movie with Andrea, or read Breaking Dawn. Either choice sounds good to me! Options. I just LOVE having options :)

Hey girls! I have to giggle at the evolution of this alpha. See, I was at a speed scrap over at Ginger Scraps, and one of the directions was to use an alpha. Well, I don't have alphas. Nothing against alphas, per se, I just like to make WordArt for the title. Go figure - hehehe. So, I made the WordArt, and recolored one part with my water from the pool picture. I decided that I'd go back and turn it into an alpha later, that way I could technically say that I was using an alpha. hehehe. I'm so tricky - LOL!

So, click on the link below to go to my account to grab the zip file, and leave some love if you like my work.

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Font: CAfe Rojo

I Do All My Own Stunts

Hey girls! It's Wednesday again. Half way through the week again :) So, I got up yesterday at 5:15am to take my oldest, Jacob, to his scout activity. Who gets ups that early??? ROFL! Well, my hubby gets up that early, as does the rest of the Army….. But I’m not part of the Army - ha! Army wives don’t have to get up so early, right? That’s the story I’m going with. Hehehe.

Anyway, Jacob and I were out the door by 5:30am, and at the church parking lot by 5:50am. We were supposed to be there by 6:00am. And guess what? No one was there. Well, that’s not quite true. There was one other mom there dropping off her kid. We waited till 6:08am, and were starting to get worried that maybe they left us. A few minutes later, one of the leaders showed up, and said that they decided to meet somewhere else. Thanks for letting us know. Hehehe.

So, we headed off to the new location, and I dropped Jacob off. I managed to get back home before the kids woke up even. Why is it, that they sleep in when I have to get up early, and wake up early when I get to sleep in. Murphy’s law, I guess. Hopefully I get to sleep in today.

Eme, Joe, Jim and I worked on getting their bedrooms all switched around. We got most of it done. And it looked pretty good when we were done, even. Jimmy was a little upset that his bunk bed was still upstairs, but I know my limits. That’s gonna have to be a project for when Captain America's available to help. A girls gotta know her limitations. Hehehe.

I spent some time on the computer, and a little bit of time in the kitchen cleaning. I decided to take the kids to the movies, even if it was just the kids and I. We saw “Escape to Witch Mountain”. It was really good. A nice action/sci-fi movie for kids. Gotta love that J And the Rock is pretty nice too - hehehe. Only one kid had to leave to go to the bathroom, and Jimmy was only slightly disruptive. At one point, one of the aliens made some things in a car float, and Jimmy stood up, and pointed, and said “Look, Money!!!”. The guys behind us got a kick out of it.

After the movie, we went to another store in the little strip mall, looking for some shorts for Eme. Well, the kids were HORRIBLE. Let me clarify. Tom and Eme were horrible. Jim and Joe were just fine. The kept getting in each others space, and being super rude to each other. After several chances, I took away computer privileges from each of them. Needless to say, I’ll have to go back and hind some shorts for Emeline a different day.

We got home at 5pm, and made dinner real fast, then headed off to Andreas house for a Pampered Chef party. I texted Captain America and told him to come and pick up the kids when he got off work, which he did. It was FUN party. I didn’t eat any of the food, which looked SUPER tasty, but just had a lot of fun hanging out with my girls.

The party started to dwindle at about 9pm, and I hurried home to tell Captain America that I was coming back to hang out more - hehehe. Adela, Andrea and I put in a movie at 10:30pm. We watched “Daylight”. It was pretty good. Sylvester Stalone and Viggo Mortensen. When they were young - ha! Good action flick. I’ve got this thing for natural disaster movies. Heck, any ole disaster movie will do. And this one didn’t disappoint - hehehe.

So, it’s 2:10am, and I’m still at Andrea’s house. I’m writing this on Word, and them I’m gonna copy and paste it to blogger when I get home. Aren’t I tricky. I’m so glad that I have friends to hang out with. Thanks, girls, for having me!!!

This WordArt saying came from Andreas son’s tee shirt last night - hehehe. I thought it was hilarious, and it just screamed out to be WordArt-ed. So, here it is J

Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember, you need to be logged into the gallery to get the download. Thanks, girls!!!

Staying Cool

Wow, what started off as a slow day really was BUSY! I woke up yesterday at 8am (I KNOW! Sleeping in - hehehe) and decided that I wanted to take my kids to the water. Be it the pool or the sprinkler park, I didn't care. But, I also knew that I needed to get some food shopping done. We're trying to iron our budget out, and know EXACTLY where every penny is going, and to do that, I had to know how much money it takes for a weeks worth of groceries. And to do that, I had to have a food menu. So, since I already know what Captain America and I eat every day, I made up a menu for the kids. 7 dinners, 7 lunches, and 7 breakfasts. I planned enough fruit for each kid to have 1 apple and 1 orange each day (that's 35 of each - dang!). I planned in snacks. I typed up the menu, and typed up the shopping list.

I was trying to eat, and chat online, and on the phone at the same time, so it took a little longer than I wanted it to - ROFL! Sometimes multi-tasking can bite you in the butt - hehehe. Anyway, at about 9:30am I was finally ready to shop. I left Jake with the kids, minus Jimmy (since he left today for camp, I wanted to get one more chance to go to the store with just one kids - hehehe). I managed to get all of the groceries for one week for 7 people for under $200. I wish it didn't take so much money to feed us, but we ARE kinda like our own small army - LOL!

I wasn't able to get the yogurt at the commissary, because they were out. Grrrr. Now I needed to go somewhere else too. I got back home at around 11:00am. I put the groceries away, and texted my girls to see if they wanted to go swimming. My friend Laurie was busy with a project that needed to be done by Wednesday, but said that she could go on Thursday. My friend Andrea was babysitting, and couldn't supervise 2 babies at the pool at the same time. But the sprinkler park she could do. We decided to meet there at noon. I put all the groceries away, and hurried the kids along to get ready for the sprinkler park.

It was a different one than we went to the first time. And the good thing about the sprinkler parks (both of them), and the pool, is that their FREE to us. Woohoo! Army perks - hehehe. Anyway, back to my story.

We got to the new sprinkler park, and there were construction guys with jackhammers in there. Um, yeah, not open. Hello! Andrea said that she called last Friday, and they said it was gonna be opened on Monday. Um, not so much.

But, the girl that Andrea was babysitting for had her work appointment fall through, so she was now available to come with us to the pool! Enough Mommies to watch the babies! Yippee!!! We stopped at our houses on the way home to put on the ole swimming suits, and headed off to the pool. My kids were SO excited. The really wanted the pool, and were only mildy satisfied with the idea of the sprinkler park.

We were at the pool from about 2pm to 4pm. The kids had a GREAT time, and us Moms did too :) It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day, and we all wore enough sunblock to keep from getting sunburned. Bless you, whoever invented Sunblock!

I hurried and cooked dinner when we got home, and had it all cleaned up by 6:00pm. Captain America helped Jacob get packed for his campout (actually, canoe trip and campout), and I started working on Jimmy/Joe's room, and Eme's room. We've decided to switch bedrooms. Eme's going upstairs, and the little boys are going downstairs. I just can't monitor what's going on with the little boys easy enough with them on a different floor (and one I hardly ever go to). So, I started re-arranging. Unfortunately, most of the stuff is in the living room. Another project for today for me.

At about 7:00pm, Captain America got done helping Jacob, and he and I headed over to some people's house to get a Swing Set. We met them at a b-day party that Tom went to for their son, Olen. They're moving to Virginia tomorrow, and said that we could have their swing set. A nice wooden one. I was SO excited. Captain America was able to help me last night, so we went on over. We took it down into 3 chuncks, and shoved them in the back of my old Surburban. It was quite a site. Only about a 1/4 fit into the truck, and the rest was hanging out the back. With the barn doors open on the suburban. hehehehe. I sat in the back seat, and hung on to the swing set as Captain America drove VERY slowly home.

When we got it home, he even helped me get it set up. What a GREAT man. He was tired, but took the time to get it set up. The kids were REALLY excited when we brough them in the backyard to see it. Jimmy and Joe especially. Jake and Tom are too big for it (weight wise), but Eme should be able to play on it. As long as she doesn't swing too high - hehehe. I'll get a picture of it today. It was too dark last night.

At about 8:45pm, we had everyone to bed, and I headed out to Wal-Mart. I still had to get the yogurt. And, I wanted to get a few things for Jacob for his trip today. He was supposed to bring a sack lunch, so I got him some goodies to put in it. I want to eat his lunch - ROFL! Yummy!

I got back home at around 10:00pm, and sat down to design/blog. What a long day! I wonder if today will be any better - hehehe. I wanna take the kids to the dollar movies (if it works out), and I have a Pampered Chef party in the evening.

Since I had SUCH a long day, I decided to use my WordArt from my layout from the other day. That works, right? hehehe. Click on the link below to go to my account to download the zip file (both versions included), and leave some love if you like my work.

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FONTS:
Staying - Susie's Hand
Cool - Cafe Rojo
All rest - Pharmacy

Girlfriend Blog Train

Welcome to the BLOG TRAIN!!! First off, you should have come from AMY to here. And, look at what you'll get if you collect all of the stops along the way! Aren't these girls talented???

And, here's my part! Some Girlfriend WordArts. Nothing like scrapping pics of the girls!

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the zip file

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Then, head on over to Faith's blog to continue with the Blog Train! Choochoo!!!


AND, don't forget! Scraporchard is having a HUGE sale, to celebrate a TON of new designers joining us in the store. Click HERE to go to the store. Well, my store. You can look around if you'd like....... I guess. ROFL!


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Since the blog train is taking off at 11:59 pm June 14th EST, this blog post is gonna count for Monday. Just so you don't get confused. I usually post my posts at 7:00 am EST. Just to clear that all up. Because I'm SURE you were wondering..... Or am I just rambling. Rambling, you say? OK, I"ll move on....

Hey girls! Hope you all had a FABULOUS weekend! Did you do anything fun and exciting? Or did you take a nice relaxing break from real life? Or somewhere right in the middle :)

Sunday was super busy crazy the first half, and I spent the rest of the day trying to recover from it. hehehe. The Primary president and the 1st counselor were both out of town, so I was the only leadership there. Crazy! We have about 50 kids in our Primary. We had 2 brand new teachers in Junior primary (3 yrs to 7 yrs), and one teacher that didn't show up. I grabbed my friend, Andrea, and put her in with the 6 year olds. One little boy has Asbergers, and kept trying to escape. He's in my son, Tom's, class. I think all of the teachers for the older kids showed up, thankfully. It's just tricky, when you're the only one there. I had to get new teachers manuals, crowd control, stop the escaping kid from escaping, AND conduct all at the same time. Sigh. PLEASE ladies, come back next week :)

So, when I got home from church, I spent a nice long time in my room, recooperating. hehehe. My house will need to be detailed today, since I neglected it ALL day yesterday :) I read some, I took a nice warm bath, I watched "Harpers Island" from Saturday night (wasn't coming in on the antenna), designed a little, Speed Scrapped. I just took it easy, and relaxed. It was a nice day.

Wanna see my layout from my speed scrap? Yes? Good!

The WordArt will soon be a freebee from me (and maybe the water alpha too), and the kit is from Amanda Heimann & Ziggle Designs, called Surfer Dude. Isn't it FABULOUS??? I'm just loving it. It also comes in Hula Princess. Pretty cool!

Today should be filled with some grocery shopping, maybe some "pool-ing" or "sprinkler-ing", some packing (Jacob is going on the Scouts Summer Trip Tuesday at 6:00 am - dang!), a TON of cleaning, some playing, some organizing, some reading, and some designing.

Answer Prayers

First off, I just wanted to share a quick couple of Tom photos. His dad gave him some "extra" army stuff that he'd been giving, and Tom is just LOVING it. Look at the smile :) Doesn't he look good.

Such a cutie! My 9 year old looks so OLD! hehehe. (It's an air soft pistol, not a real gun, just so you know :)

Well, I did it again. I told myself that I wasn't gonna read any more fanfiction (Twilight), yet I got myself sucked into another one. And guess what? It's not finished. Sigh. The author last posted a chapter on May 15th. Why? Why do I do this to myself - hehehehe. It really is a great story. Too much profanity, but a very compelling story. I sure hope she finishes it. It supposes that Bella never jumped from the cliff, and Edward never came back. She graduated from high school, college, moved away, and teaches high school in New York. It's 6 years later, and guess who is the new student in her English class? Good story. I'm DYING to see how it ends :) She wrote 14 chapters, and I still can't get enough :) Sigh. Patience may be a virtue, but it's not MY virtue.

We had a nice, relaxing Saturday. We did nothing. Hehehe. OK, so we did a few things around the house. My backyard now looks MUCH better since Captain America mowed and raked it. If you saw it when we first moved in, you'd say it looks FABULOUS! But it was nice to spend the day lounging around the house. Lounging is good.

Mostly I just read. Reading is good, right? Expanding your mind, and what not. It's a worthy past time, right? AND, the more I read, and my kids see me reading, the more they'll wanna read. I know I heard that somewhere - hehehe. Excuses, I know. But if you buy them, then they served their purpose - ROFL!

So, since it's after 11 pm, and I just got done reading my fanfiction (I know, obsessed), and I haven't designed/blogged yet, I decided to make up the Visiting Teaching message scripture for the month of June. It's about prayer. I'm doing Sharing Time in Primary tomorrow (today) too, and ITS about prayer. I just LOVE how the church keeps everyone on the same/similar topics of study for the month. Coordination is GREAT!

Anyway, here's your freebee for the day :) Click on the link below to go to my account to downlaod the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :) Thanks!

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Hearts Asleep

I forgot to post these yesterday. Oops. Well, here's my new stuff for the week. I only have 4 instead of 5. I was SO tired on Wednesday night, I just didn't have it in me to do more :) Some weeks are like that. BUT, I was VERY pleased with the 4 that I did design. Click HERE to go to my store, and remember, they're on sale for 20% off the first week. Grab 'em while they're cheap - LOL!

Layout by Trina

Layout by Trina

Layout by Jaimee

Wow, girls. I'm SUPER tired tonight as I'm prepublishing this. It's Friday night (well, really, it's Saturday AM - hehehe). Captain America took me out for a nice date for our anniversary. Technically, it's on Sunday, but Friday night works for me! 13 years! Dang, that makes me old - ROFL!

See, he'd originally set up a "triple date" with some buddies at work and their wives. Well, the bowling didn't pan out, because one of the guys hurt his ankle. So it was gonna be dinner. Then, the other guys couldn't decide where to go, and kept being wishy washy about it, and finally backed out. No skin off my nose. I had a WONDERFUL time with my husband :)

We drove about 25 minutes away to a restaurant called "The Edge of Texas". It was a fancier restaurant than I'm used to eating at - hehehe. Of course, that doesn't take much - Ha! I got a YUMMY steak, and steamed veggies, with a salad. I got to eat FABULOUS food, and stayed on my menu plan. Well, mostly. I'm sure my portions were WAY over, but the food types were correct. Except for the broccoli. I ate the cauliflour AND the broccoli instead of leaving it. I don't think that's TOO bad, considering :)

After dinner, we drove around a bit before the movie started. We drove up into the mountains, and watched the sun set. It would have been pretty romantic, had we not been parked next to about 20 other cars with the same thing in mind - hehehe. It was SO pretty, though, to see the lights in the city below. Great view.

We got to the theater at about 9pm, and bought our tickets. The show started at 9:35pm. Terminator Salvation. OMGosh was it great! I just LOVE a good action flick, an this one doesn't disappoint. AND, Christian Bale is SO much fun to look at - LOL! I've loved him since Newsies!

We got home at 12:15am, and here I am, designing and publishing blog posts. One of these days I'll learn better time management. I did finish my Dave Ramsey book today, though. And I even paid the bills. And did the dishes, and folded all the laundry. It was a productive day. Next time, I should do a bit of designing, though, if I'm gonna be out this late. My poor eyes don't wanna stay open - hehehe.

This request is from my good friend, Carla. She's the gal who gave me my "big break" in the digiscrapping world. She offered me a spot at Designing-Moments, where I gladly accepted. My first Digiscrap store :) Miss you, my friend! She wanted to know if I could make up a WordArt for her using this quote. Well, it's a fabulous quote, and I think the WordArt turned out nicely. Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :)

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Pool Time Fun

Well, I was up WAY too late Wednesday night (1am), and tried to sleep in, but my kids weren't playing that game. I need to lock my door, I guess. LOL! Every 10 minutes, someone came in and "needed" something. I mean, do you REALLY need to eat breakfast in the morning? Can't you eat it later - ROFL! I managed to drag myself out of bed at 7:50am, but I wasn't moving very fast - LOL!

I spent the morning finishing off my Twilight book. Eclipse. SO good :) Then we got ready for our pool day. We decided to meet there (the 3 families) at noon. I made up a BUNCH of sandwiches, and mostly fed my family before we left. We took the neighbor kids, Noah, too. Andrea's kids, Ben and Sam, ate a few sandwiches before we left, but I still had a BIG bag of sandwich quarters to bring with me. I also had apple slices and tortilla chips. Snacks for the pool are always good.

We got there at about 12:20, since my kids are slow. I know I was pulling out of the driveway when Jacob (the 11 yr old) said, "Mom, I should have shoes on, right?". Um, yeah, Jake. Shoes are good WHEN YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE!!! I parked near the front door, and let him run inside. When Tom found out why he was going in, he said "I don't have shoes either". So he ran in. I asked everyone in the truck, "Do you have shoes", and ONLY Emeline and the neighbor kid did. OMHeck! What's up with that??? I ran back in and got shoes for the little boys. Sigh.

The pool was AWESOME. It had a ton of seating, picnic tables, shade, a baby pool, and a big pool. It had 2 water slides, and lifeguards. My kids were in HEAVEN. Tom and Jake know how to swim, and Eme does ok. She's more confident with a life jacket, which they had there. Joe only likes to wade. Jim surprised me, and was TOTALLY loving the baby pool. Swimmy Jimmy is back - LOL! He even went with me to the big pool for a few minutes. Granted, he had a death grip on me, but he went in. Twice. That's progress :) Joe wanted NOTHING to do with the big pool. hehehe.

The girls and I had fun chatting, and watching kids, and playing in the water. Between the 3 of us, we had 13 children. OMGosh! We looked like a day care center - hehehe. My 5 plus one, Laurie's 4, and Andrea's 3. Goodness.

I think we're gonna go back at least once a week from now on. What a great activity. But I think we'll go from 11 to 2 instead of 12 to 3. The teens all start coming around 2, and it gets a little crowded.

After the pool, we came home and just relaxed. 2 neighbor kids came over to play. Jake played a game on the computer, Eme played with her little neighbor friend in her room, Tom, the neighbor kid, and Joe played gamecube, and Jimmy watched Toy Story. Me? What did I do? My friend, Laurie, had bought me Dave Ramsey's book, and I started reading it. Pretty good, so far. I'm still in the "why this book is awesome" part, and not to the "how to do it" part. I'm sure it's coming soon :) I'm pretty excited about it.

My mom sent a package to the kids, and it arrived shortly after we got back from the pool. Jake got a Batman tshirt, Tom got a striped polo shirt and a Twilight shirt, I got a Twilight shirt (the one with the cullen crest), a fun pink shirt, and a new dress, Eme got 2 shirts, and Jim and Joe each got a shirt. Thanks, Mom!!! I LOVE it!

I even dyed my hair. hehehe. It was getting pretty gray. Now, it's back to my original dark color. hehehe. I started going gray at 21, and refuse to accept the fact. Hair dye is my friend :) LOL! I showered, and put on my new Twilight shirt, and even fixed my hair and make-up. When Captain America got home, he was like, "Are you going out?". Sigh. It's a sign that I need to shower more often - hehehe.

At about 4:30 my friend Andrea called and said that she was going shopping (kid free), and wanted to know if I could come too. Captain America was home, but he was napping (from getting up at 4am. poor guy!). Jacob, though, is perfectly capable of watching the kids, so I said YES! I was So excited to get out of the house for some girl time. Good thing I showered, eh?

I helped Jacob cook dinner for the little kids, and kicked the neighbor kids out of the house (hehehe). Andrea came to get me at about 5:30pm. We picked up Laurie, and headed for the West Side Mall. We had fun chatting all the way there (about 20 minutes). But, when we got there and got to the first store, Laurie's hubby called and said that he'd been called back to work. So, we loaded back up in the Subruban, and headed back to post. Poor Laurie. I know she was looking forward to some "girl time".

We dropped her off, and Andrea and I headed back out. We went to a smaller mall closer to our house, and decided to go to the movies. It was 6:45pm, and the next movie playing was "Night at the Museum 2". We felt kinda bad going without the kids, but not THAT bad - LOL! It was SO much fun! Great movie, but better company. Thanks, Andrea, for the FUN evening.

Oh yeah, on the way out of the dark theater, these 2 guys walking behind us stopped us and said "Do you have the time", and when we told them 9ish, they said something about it not being late, and then asked if we went to college. hehehe. We both just laughed and said that no, we didn't go to college, and the we were REALLY old - ROFL!!! Yeah, I was a college student..... 13 years ago! Thanks, boys! You made 2 "old ladies" night :)

So after my LONG and BUSY and terribly FUN day, I sat down to design. And my good internet friend, Jen, gets on gmail chat, and tells me that there's a speed scrap over at Ginger Scraps. So, I jump on in, and decide to play. And, I decide that whatever WordArt I make for the layout (because EVERY layout needs a WordArt, dontcha know) would be my freebee for today. See, multitasking. I'm good, eh? LOL!

So, because we went to the pool yesterday, I chose to scrap a pic of Jimmy in the pool. Hence, Pool Time Fun. Is it warm enough for you all to go to the pool? It was in the 90's here. I just LOVE El Paso weather :) Ok, ok, I can see myself getting sidetracked! WordArt. Freebee. Focus!

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!

4shared

WordArt - by me, of course - LOL!
Kits - Scraporchard Mega (I think May, June, and Aprils, but mostly June)
Little suns - those are mine, using an Atomic Cupcake action
Stars are mine too, using a glitter style - can't remember who made that one

United We Stand

First off, THANK YOU to everyone who sent me the post from yesterday! I got it all back up and fixed. Nothing lost. You guys are the BEST!!!

Howdy hey, friends! Yes, I am a dork. And yes, I'm proud! hehehe. Another fun and exciting day in the Harty household has passed us by :) Even though I'd gone to bed at midnight the night before, I still woke up before 7am yesterday. My internal clock needs re-adjusting, I think. LOL!

Captain America was back from PT when I woke up, and Joe and Jimmy were awake. We had breakfast together, and the other kids slowly woke up. Eme was the last to wake up, at 9am. Wish I could sleep in till 9am - hehehe. I worked on my WordArt for a little while. I was up to 2 WordArt packs for the week by 10am. I was on a roll!

Sam, my friends boy, came to the door sometime around then, and wanted to know if we all wanted to come hang out at the park with his mom. So, we quickly threw on some clothes (I was still in my jammies - yes, I frequently stay in my jammies that long, and there's NOTHING wrong with it!) and headed over to the park.

The kids had fun playing, and us grown ups had fun chatting. At 11:30 ish, we headed back to our homes. I took Ben and Sam back to my house to play, and we decided to go to the Sprinkler Park. I'd never been to one before, and it sounded like fun. Anyway, back home, Eme, Jim, and I made Pigs in a Blanket. They helped me make the dough. Kids love hot dogs, and my kids LOVE biscuits, so it was a Win/Win - hehehe.

After lunch, we headed over to the sprinker park. Here was an umbrella thing with water coming down in a waterfall off of it, some squirter guns type thing, a few fountains from the ground, and this AWESOME bucket thingy. It shows it in the pictures below.

See, the buckets fill up with water, and tip, dropping a bucket full of water on whoever is below. I thought that the sprinkler park would be BORING for the big kids, but they ABSOLUTELY LOVED it! The bucket one was their favorite.

Here's Tom getting drenched

Look out below, Joe!

And again!

Jacob getting it in the face with a bucket full of water.

And Jimmy, posing for the camera.

Crack KILLS!!!!

Isn't she SO cute!

Eme and Elise. She's my friend Laurie's girl. She's 10. Eme is 7. But they're about the same size - LOL!

And, a random picture. Remember I told you that when we drove to Cub Scout Day Camp we drove along I-10, going real near Mexico. Well, here's the shot that Jacob got from the freeway. Our camera only has a 2x zoom, so we were pretty close. Check out those houses. Aren't you glad that you live where you do??? I sure am :)

OK, back to my day yesterday :) hehehe. We were at the sprinkler park from 2 to about 4pm. It was a BLAST! I'll definitly have to put that on the summer fun rotation list - ha! I think we're gonna go to the pool tomorrow. Pools are fun too!

We got home in time to cook some dinner, clean the house, and get ready for Cub Scouts. Here's a quick and easy dish to give the kids. Cook 1 package of pasta (we used the curly noodles - can't remember the name), add 1 package frozen veggies (califlour, broccoli, carrots), and continue to boil until warm. Drain. Add 1 can cream of chicken soup. Add 1/2 cup parmesean cheese. Stir. Add salt/pepper to taste. The kids seemed to like it. It sure smelled good. I'm still doing well on my diet, so no tasting for me :) If it's gross, don't blame me. THEY seemed to like it :)

After dinner, Captain America had some errands to run, and took Jimmy with him. I took the other 4 to Scouts. We got there on time, and of course, most people showed up 10 minutes late. Geesh. We need to work on tardiness, people! And, NO Cub Scout leaders showed up, so I'm glad that I grabbed something on the fly.

We made paper constelations with pencils and paper. It was midly entertaining - hehehe. The boys got to poke holes in paper, so it wasn't all bad. Then, we split into 2 teams to see how fast they could build a small dome tent. The first group got it in 3:30 and the second group got it in 3:40. The 2nd group SWEARS that the reason they lost is because they had 1 less person, but they lost because they were getting their tent poles in the wrong holes. But you can't tell that to little boys. Oh no. They don't wanna listen, the just wanna whine about why they lost - ROFL! Silly boys :)

We packed up, and came home after the meeting, and I sent kids to their rooms to read. I sat down to design. I only got 4 WordArt Packs done this week. Sigh. I just didn't have any creative juices left in me - hehehe. Next week. Next week I'll do better about NOT procrastinating my designing until Wednesday night.

I'm almost done with Eclipse (Twilight #3). Love the books :) Such a nice read. You know you wanna read them (again). You know you do! ROFL!

So, Jen, from Graham Like the Cracker, has a new Kit out this week! It's a FABULOUS Patriotic kit! I just LOVE Patriotic things :) Flags, red white and blue, songs, soldiers (wink*wink). ROFL! Anyway, here's the kit and the link.

So, here's the one that I made for Jen. Isn't it cool! You could buy some Iron Transfer paper, and make your kids a COOL 4th of July shirt out of it. Just downlad the WordArt, open it in PHotoshop, reverse the image, save it, print it, iron it on. One of a kind! Unless someone else reads this, and does it too - LOL! (Can you tell I'm getting tired - my jokes just get worse and worse!)

Anyway, click HERE to go to Jen's blog to pick up the wordart below.

And, here's mine :) 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!

4shared

Making Sand Castles

First off, I just wanted to say "I THINK MY BLOG IS HAUNTED". Seriously. Ok, not seriously. I don't believe in "haunting" ghosts. But really. Something freaky is going on here. Remember my post from the 6th? The Game. Where I talked about my vase breaking? Remember that. I know I'm not just making it up. I found some of your comments from that post in my email. Well, IT'S GONE! Disappeared. I went to 4shared, and the file I hosted there is GONE too. What the heck? How did that happen.

So, I went and re-uploaded the png file, and make a "pretend" post on the 6th. I'm kinda upset, though. I use this blog as a kinda personal history too. I now have NO idea what I was doing on that day. hehehe. Here we go. I have a request for all of you. Does anyone have a copy of the daily newsletter from the 6th still on their computer that they'd forward to me? I could just copy/paste, and re-create that post. Sigh. Anyone??? Anyone???

I can't believe how long I wasted yesterday morning playing Farm Town. Sigh. I think it was about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. OMGosh! What was I thinking. Think of all the designing I could have done! Or I could be even farther into my Twilight series. But no. I farmed. And yeah, my farm looks pretty darn nice, but IT'S A COMPUTER GAME! And I don't even like computer games - hehehe.

I went grocery shopping yesterday with ALL of my children. I know, I'm crazy :) I was gonna leave some of them at home, but then the sprinkler men came back, because water was leaking into the neighbors yard, and I wasn't sure if they were gonna keep coming back, and I didn't want to leave kids here if they were still gonna come and work on it. SO, I took everyone with me.

Luckily, Jacob and Thomas are old enough to go and look on their own in the store. So it was really like shopping with 3 little kids. I can handle 3 little kids. Piece of cake :) But by the time we were done, my cart was SO heavy, I had to get a running start just to keep it moving. Why must they eat SO much - LOL!

We were a little late getting Emeline and Thomas to their friend's birthday party, but they made it. That was at 2pm. The other kids and I worked on putting away the groceries, and straightening up the house. I'd bought them water guns at Wal-mart, so they had fun playing with them in the backyard.

We went over at 4:30ish to pick up the other kids, and came home and made dinner. I'd bought Turkey Brats at the store, and I had one of those, and a salad for dinner. Mmmmm, it was good! The kids got Chorizo and Eggs, with toast and cantelope/bananas. They liked it. It sure smelled good. I'm happy to report I'm still doing fabulous on my diet. One week today. I weighed 157.2 this morning. I was 166.2 last week. That's not too bad!

We were going to go to the movies last night, and see "Escape to Witch Mountain", but something came up with our friends, and we didn't get to go. I think it's still gonna be there next week, so we'll try again. My kids acted like they could care less. They were having fun playing with the squirt guns in the backyard. LOL! And while I really wanted to go and do something fun, I got to read, which always makes me happy :)

I got to take a nice, warm, relaxing bath tonight. Captain America kept an eye on the kids (ok, so really it was Jacob - Captain America was studying - hehehe), and I just laid back and relaxed. Really, I should do that once a week. Amazing how good you feel when you get out of a hot bath :) And, of COURSE, I read my Twilight series while I was at it. I'm about 1/2 way through Eclipse now. I think, when I'm done, I'm gonna read Harry Potter, so I'm ready for when the movie comes out in July. But I also wanna try some of those books you guys recommended the other day, too! I just need a few more hours in the day. Or the ability to go with less sleep. That would work too.

My mom keeps telling me that I need to get more pictures on here, but I haven't taken any lately. OK, Mom. I promise, that today, I will take some pictures. They may be boring, but they'll be pictures :) Call me and remind me - I have a VERY short term memory - ROFL!

So, while I was designing a new WordArt pack for this coming Friday, I decided to make a freebee to fit the theme. Any guesses as to what the WordArt pack will be - hehehe.

Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember, you have to be logged into the Gallery in order to get your download. Thanks, girls!

Chillaxin'

Happy Tuesday to you all :) So, did you all have a good Monday? Mine started off at 6:30am, with my little one coming in my room to ask me a never ending slew of questions. Can I eat breakfast? Can I watch a movie? Is mommy ready to get up yet? Then, by 7am, his sister was up too, so I got to listen to them run laps around our living room/dining room. Yeah, that was fun too :)

By 7:30, I gave up, and got up. The repair men were coming to the house that day, and said they'd be there between 8am and noon. You know, I really don't like it when they give such a HUGE window of time. Sheesh! Anyway, I tried to make my house a little presentable, but really didn't care too much - hehehe. I did make my bed, and straighten up my bathroom, since they'd be in the master bathroom looking at the fan.

They ended up coming at 9:30am for the sprinklers. It looked so nice when he left, and the sprinklers turned on in the backyard. A nice mist, all across the grass. One of these days, we'll catch it when it's on, and the kids can play in it. He was just testing it out to see if it worked, then turned it off. So far, we haven't really seen them on. But I know they're on, because I've seen the grass wet. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, it was all fixed, and he said that someone else was coming over for the other 2 work orders. Well, those guys showed up around 11am. First, they checked out the fan in the bathroom. Apparently, it had a burnt out motor. So, he extracted the motor, and said that he needed to order a new one. 2 - 3 weeks for the motor to get here. Oh well. We haven't had a bathroom fan since April 10th. What's a few more weeks :)

Next, they fixed the glass screen door. See, the part that makes it close slowly pulled out from the door frame, and ripped a big chunk with it. We could tell that it's happened before, and they kinda fixed it. Which, of course, is why it broke again when we moved in. This time, he put 5 inch screw into it, and a thin board over it. Then he repainted it, and called it good. He said that if it had any more issues, they'd have to replace the whole door frame. As long as it works, I'm good :)

Captain America was home for part of the repairs. We had lunch together, and he headed back off to school. We had the neighbor kids over for part of the day. And my Visiting Teachers (from church) came over around 3. It was nice to visit with them :) Very nice girls :) And our kids had fun playing, too.

I finally kicked the neighbor kids out at 5:00, and we got the house presentable before Captain America came home at 5:30. After dinner, he and I and Jimmy headed off to get a few staple groceries from the Commissary. I'm gonna go today for a real shopping trip.

After we got back home, we put Jimmy to bed (he'd fallen asleep in the truck), and headed out for a walk. Joe was sleeping on the couch, and Jake, Tom, and Eme were watching Zorro. Captain America and I got in a 43 minute walk. Good thing, cause I hadn't walked since last Wednesday or so. I could sure feel it.

We sent Eme to bed when we got home, and let the older boys watch one more show. Joe was still sleeping on the couch. I figured he might as well sleep there for the night. I wasn't gonna carry him upstairs. And it's much cooler down here anyway.

When Captain America was ready for bed at 10pm, I moved out to the couch to finish working. Joe was still asleep. About 20 minutes into it, he sat up, and had a red hand pring across his face. He must have been laying his head on his hand. It was SO funny. It looked like the shape of one of those giant sticky hand toys. Like he got smacked in the face with it - hehehe. Poor kid. He's just lucky I didn't pull out my camera.

I think we might go to the movies today. It's Dollar day at the cheap theater. Most days it's $2.00 a ticket, but Tuesdays it's only $1.00. "Escape to Witch Mountain" is playing. Have you seen it? I found this AWESOME site that will tell you about the bad stuff in a movie, before you let your kids watch it. It's called Kids In Mind, and I think it's WONDERFUL. Check it out, before you watch your next movie :) It rates them, on a scale of 1 to 10, in 3 categories: nudity/sex, violence/gore, and profanity. And it breaks it down into specifics, too. It looks like "Escape to Witch Mountain" is a good family friendly show. And I LOVE the Rock....

Eme and Tom have a b-day party to go to today from 2-4. That might cut into my movie time, so I might have to re-think that one. Maybe we can make both.... I'll let you know - hehehe. And, I'm now on Eclipse, about 100 pages into it. I just LOVE a good love story.

OMGosh! This WordArt was giving me fits last night. Usually, I can get a WordArt designed in under 3 minutes. This one - a good 10. I don't know that that was all about. Hopefully I'm not losing my "touch". hehehe. Anyway, like it or not, this is the finished product. This request is from Christie, who has a darling picture of her 2 year old sitting under a tree she plans to use this WordArt on. Hope you like it, girl!

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. :)

4shared

My Brother/Sister, My Friend

Hey girls! Well, remember how I was betting that I felt better yesterday? Well, I think I jinxed myself. I went to bed right after making the post, and woke up at 5:30 am with the migraine. I took more meds, and still felt crappy when I woke up at 7:30 am. Captain America got the kids all ready for church, and left at 9am. Yep, church actually STARTS at 9:00 am, so I'm pretty sure they were late - hehehe. He told me right before he left, that if I ever get sick again, we're ALL staying home from church. Some people were not cut out to be mom's, and he's definitely one of them - hehehe.

I went back to bed for a little while, and decided that I wasn't really tired. I turend on the closet light, and read New Moon (Twilight, #2). I found that if I sat really still, and kept the light to a minimum, it didn't hurt my head. If I moved, that wasn't so good.

By noon, I was ok to get up and fix lunch for my soon-to-be returning gang. I walked slowly, and didn't make any sudden movements, and, of course, it was quite, so I was ok. They were happy to have food when they got home. But BOY were they loud. I hid in my room for a while longer, and felt better. My headache never really went away, but it diminished. As long as I didn't make any sudden movements, I was ok. That afternoon, we turned on a movie we hadn't watched yet (we'd found some sci-fi movie for $0.75 at some store when we lived in Ohio), Battlefield Earth. I really liked it. Who knew? hehehe. I folded laundry, and the kids sat on my bed to watch the movie. The little ones were in and out of the room, cause it didn't really hold their attention. But the big kids liked it.

Captain America and his brothers are playing on-line games for an hour or so, then it's off to bed. I think I may have to go ask them to turn it down a bit. My head is only mildly better. The computer isn't helping. And neither are Captain America's brothers - ROLF! It's not them, it's just the volume - hehehe. Love you guys! Have fun shooting each other up!

Oh yeah, and I realized why I was so upset with everyone the other day. "Johnny" came to visit. I really should keep track of such things. Like make a little dot on the calendar when "he" comes to call. It would make my (well, my husbands) life much easier - hehehe. It's amazing how much of a relief, emotions wise, I feel after I "start". Know what I mean? And that would explain why I've been feeling like eating anything that MOVES. I've done really well on my diet, considering. I'm down to 158.0 this morning. I've been down almost a pound a day since I got back on my diet. I know it'll slow down any day now, but until then, I'm pretty excited :) Pretty soon, and I'll be back in my nice skinny clothes :) Woohoo!

So, here's a request from Tracie, from Texas. Ha! I'm in Texas too - LOL! Anyway, here ya go! Hope you like it :) click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.

4shared - Sister
4shared - Brother

I Am A Child Of God

Hey girls! It's gonna be short and fast today :) After a long day of Cub Scouting, picnic-ing at the park, delivering kids to b-day parties, and time in the sun, I've found myself with a migraine. I took drugs, and it's kinda working, but not quite :) It's 10pm on Saturday night, and I think I'm gonna call it a day. I fell asleep at 9pm, but woke up, realizing I hadn't wordart-ed/blogged yet. I know, I know. I'm addicted. LOL!

I'm fairly certain that by the time you all read this, I'll be feeling much better :) The wonders of modern medicine. Whatever did we do before it - hehehe.

So, I designed you a quick freebee, and am heading off to bed. For real, this time :) Click on the link below to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :) Thanks!

4shared