Falling In Love

What a crazy day! Remember how I said that on Tuesday I went to Sonic and got a GINORMOUS drink? Well, I could NOT sleep that night. I was seriously up till like 2pm, reading. Then, I laid in bed for 30 minutes trying to fall alseep. Caffeine is NOT my friend - hehehe.

I was up at 7:30am. I got showered, and started on Party prep. I made frosting and frosted/sprinkled all the cupcakes, and put them in air-tight containers. If you've ever lived in the desert, you know what I'm talking about - hehehe. It's amazing how fast things dry out here. I found all the party supplies, and made sure that I had tape and balloons and such.

I filled a few water balloons and put them in my cooler. I got my kids breakfast, and saw my hubby off to work. I chatted with my mom on the phone for a few mintues, and ran out the door to the park.

We staked claim on a pavillion nearest the park enterance (but furthest from the activities/food - oh well - I didn't wanna carry my stuff that far - hehehe). We put up balloons and streamers and tried to make it look festive. Joe was pleased with my efforts - hehehe.


Our friends started showing up at 10am. By 11am, they were all there. They played on the bouncy things, played in the sand, played Star Wars games, played in the sprinklers, played cowboys and indians, and just had good kid fun. We ate lunch at 11pm, the usual for Free lunch. But with potato salad this time.

The kids were climbing the wall, so I figured it was time to start with the cake - LOL!


After lunch, we sang to Joe, he "fake blew" out his candle (no matches - nice, eh?), and they had cupcakes. I had enough that several of the kids could have 2.





Joe was SO excited to open his presents. He got a lot of fun stuff. Thanks so much, everyone! For his first b-day party with friends, I think it was a HUGE success.

Joe's present from his buddy in his primary class (sorry, they're new and I can't remember their last name...I think the mom's name is Tiffany.... Maybe - LOL)

Joe's present from Eric (Katy and Emily)

Joe's present from Ben (Sam, Luke, and Andrea)

Joe's present from the Huezo's

Joe's present from Helen

Joe's present from the Timmons (Laurie's family)

Drat, who was this from.....

Joe's present from Kim

Joe's present from Adela

After the party, we took the kids home, got them all situated, and the Mom's went to Taco Cabana for lunch. Since we didn't eat at Free lunch park. Jimmy and Eme laid in my bed and watched a movie, and Jake, Tom and Joe were more than occupied at the kitchen table playing with all of Joe's new stuff.

Andrea and I rode with Katy to Taco Cabana. I just ordered a LARGE soda. I'm on day 9 of my no cheats, and I really want the $$$. I brought my cucumber, crackers, and cheese. I was good. BUT, the only soda they had was Diet Coke. I drank 2 giant sodas, all with Caffiene. Nice. But, it's girls night, so maybe it'll be a good thing. I"m gonna seriously be going through withdrawls on Thursday. Sigh.

We had SO much fun at lunch. We got there at 1, and stayed till almost 3. Just chatting and laughing and having fun. Inside was way crowded, so we sat outside. It was so nice :)

When I got home, I made arrangements with Laurie to pick up my "fundraiser" dinner. She had ordered them too, and was already going to get them at 5pm. I dropped off the money at her house, and came back home.

I thought that Jimmy was gonna fall asleep when I was at lunch, but nope. I went in my room with him and laid down with him for a little while, hopeing he'd fall asleep. After about an hour, he was still awake. I guess no nap for him today. Oh well, he'll go to bed earlier tonight, I guess.

Laurie came by at 5:30 with the food. The young women were running a little behind, which made Laurie a little behind. We didn't even leave the house for Cub Scouts until 5:52, and we were supposed to leave at 5:30. Oops. We got there a little late.

First, we finished cutting the pipe to length. You needed a 1/2 inch PVC pipe, cut into one 7" length and five 3" lengths. Then, you need 2 elbow pieces and two end caps and two tees. When you get it all assembled, you have a MIGHTY FINE marshmallow gun. Here's Brother Bird with his. (his is a little longer than everyone elses :)

Here's Andrea and Joe in the staging area.

Andrea and I

OK, not the most attractive of poses. Next time, I'm not really gonna blow. Look how nasty my cheeks look - ROFL!

OK, this was the COOLEST place I've ever seen. It was all fenced in, and had these awesome spool to hide behind. And little plywood buildings. And broken cars. And old barrels. And old tires. And an old tank. It was SO awesome. I've decided I want my backyard to look like this. My kids would never come inside. Heck, I'd play out there with him. You think I'm kidding, about the backyard. I'm serious - hehehe.

Here's Joe trying to shoot someone and then run away.

Kayley running away from Brother Bird. He found that if you lick the marshmallows first, they go farther and faster. And hurt worse - hehehe. Run, Kayley, run!!!

The Cub Scouts decided to gang up on the moms. It was Andrea and I and Kaylee against all the Cub Scouts and Brother Bird. We ran and screamed and fought back, and had a blast. I SO wanna go back and play again. Dang, it was fun!

Here's a pic of some of the group shooting at me :)

Part of the reason that we got to use the facilities for free was that we promised to pick up ALL of the marshmallows. It took longer to pick them up than it did to play in the first place - hehehe. But, with everyone working together, we got the job done. Anyone wanna come over and have a marshmallow war with me???

So, it's almost 9pm on Wednesday night. I'm gonna put the kids to bed, and head out for girls night at Katy's house. Helen and Kim and Andrea and Katy and I and Adela. The group is finally ALL back together again. We're gonna play Scategories and Pictionary and who knows what else until the wee hours of the night :) Life is SO good :)

This WordArt request is from Sarah. I thought it was a WONDERFUL quote :) But then, if I didn't, I wouldn't make a WordArt from it, right? ROFL! 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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Art

First off, I just have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSEPH!!! My little boy is turning 6 today :) I'm so happy that you came to our family. You are so sweet, so giving, so kind. You are a quiet strength in our family. You always try to do what is right and good. Your smile melts my heart, and your bright blue eyes are my absolute favorite, EVER! I love you, my Joe Joe!!!

Here's a few pics of Joe throughout the years. Here's Joe when he's just a tiny little guy.

Somehow, we've misplaced a few years worth of digital pictures. I'm trying to not think about the possibility too hard, for fear that it'll be true. Anyway, here's a pic of Joe, almost on his 2nd birthday (maybe a month shy)

Joe on his 3rd birthday

Joe on his 4th Birthday

Joe on his 5th Birthday

We're having Joe's b-day party at Kelly Park today. He's SO excited :) It's not every day you turn 6, you know!

So, yesterday was a crazy busy day. But I'm afraid that today is gonna be even more busy.... I can't wait till it's all over - hehehe. The girls and I had talked about catching a movie on Tuesday, but the longer the day went on, the less it seemed likely. I spent the majority of the morning reading. I SO love a good Fan Fic - hehehe. I know, I'm getting obsessive again. Andrea called at around 11am, wanting to know what the plan was, and to say that she was going to buy cold mecidine for Sam. I told her to drop Ben off to play with Joe, and while she was here, I loaned her come cold medicine. My bathroom is like a pharmacy. Seriously. I have a fix for what ails you - hehehe.

She also needed envelopes, which I had, so I just saved her 2 stops. She just needed to go to the library - LOL. Ben stayed and played, and I fixed lunch. The little boys played in the backyard in the hose and "decorative rock" - otherwise knows to the rest of the world as dirt. They were SO dirty - hehehe.

Andrea called at around 1pm and said that we should all go school shopping for the kids. Without them - ha! So, I made Ben and Joe hop in the bath, put Jimmy down for a nap, got the boys in clean clothes, got the big kids all situated, and we headed out to Wal-Mart. It was Kim and I and Adela (woohoo!!! she finally came back!) and Katy and Andrea. What fun we had! I got all of the supplies for 3 kids for about 20 bucks. That's fabulous, compared to how much stuff we needed at all 3 schools last year. This was much more reasonable. I bought another 20 bucks worth of supplies for the house (paper, pencils, pens, crayons, markers, glue, etc). Have you ever tired to buy crayons when it's not school shopping season? It's outrageous! I bought about 12 boxes. If I'm conservative with them, they should last for a while. I hope :)

We stopped at Sonic afterwords, and got their GINORMOUS drinks. Yummy. I got Diet Dr Pepper. I bet that's why it's 12:38pm and I'm still going strong. I don't drink caffiene, and that was a MASSIVE soda - hehehe. Maybe I need another one for Wednesday. I've got a LONG day ahead of me :)

We came home, settled in for a bit, and the internet went out. WHAT??? I called Katy, and her's was out too. So was Andreas and Adelas. Dang! Now what to do? Seriously, it was pretty pathetic. I was at a loss as to what to do. I decided to design. I already had 3 of the 5 WordArt packs done for the week. By the time I needed to start dinner, I had 8 of the 5 done. Woohoo!!! Ahead for next week :) I need to have a loss of internet more often..... no, not really. It wasn't soo cool :)

We had dinner, and Captain America, Jimmy, and I headed back to Wal-Mart. Captain America had some "pricing" to do for the goodie bags that will be handed out to the kids on the Army Class trip we're taking on the 22nd. It'll be fun to put those together.

We also need toliet paper and mini marshmellows. I know, essentials - hehehe. We're doing the marshmellow wars on Wed. night, so now was the time to buy them. I also found some sheriff badges and red balloons for Joe's party. Should be a lot of fun.

While we were there, Andrea called wanting to know if I wanted her to get some White Glue for me. They were out earlier in the day. She was at a different Wal-Mart. With ALL the girls. How rude - I told her I was crying inside that they'd ditched me (ROFL!). I was just teasing. She said that they all got together to go get Joe a b-day present, and didn't want me to see. Such funny girls!

We got home, put the kids to bed, and I needed to make cupcakes. And I'd forgotten to buy cupcake papers. I texted Andrea, asking if she had some I could borrow. About an hour later, they were back, and I walked down to get them. Katy was still dropping people off at their houses, and I talked her into letting me come over and make the cupcakes there. I needed company. Everyone at my house was sleeping. Hopefully I wasn't being annoying by inviting myself over. :P

We made cupcakes, and chatted, and filled waterballoons, and ate diet jello and water, and just hung out. I was home at around 11pm, and made homemade playdough for Joe's party. I only have 16 badges and 16 bags of playdough, but I have absolutely no idea how many kids are coming. I figure if there's not that many, they can have one of each, and if a ton of little kids show up (some of my friends have a butt load of kids (like me) - hehehe), they can pick either/or.

I'm gonna read a little fan fic before I got to bed, then get up in the morning, make frosting, frost and decorate the cupcakes, find my party supplies, and try and be at the park at 9:30ish. Wish us luck!

Here's this weeks WordArt Wednesday. I've been hanging onto this quote for a while now, and I was so glad to finally make it. I just LOVED it when I read it. Something about the way that it flowed. I don't know. I just liked it. I thought it would be great for pics of kids/adults doing something artistic. Or beautiful nature pictures. Or especially a Sunset/Sunrise picture. You know, when the sky is red and orange and looks like it's on fire. That would be fabulous!

Click HERE to go to scraporchard to download the ZIP file, and leaves some love if you like my work. Thanks!

I Love You.

Hey all! Monday morning came bright and early for us. Well, not too early :) 7:30 or so. That's a nice time to wake up. I got the kids breakfast, checked some emails, and we headed off to Wal-Mart. The kids had allowance money that was SERIOUSLY burning a hole in their pockets. Unfortunately, the little kids only had one and two dollars. Not much to buy at Wal-Mart for a buck :) I let the big kids go to the toy section, and the little kids and I went to get Captain America his Protein Powder for his protein shakes.

We stopped by the photo lab to pick up Joe's b-day invites, and they couldn't find the order. Oh, I was mad. I'd sent it in on Saturday. They should have been there. Sigh. Oh well. At least now I'm not out the $4.00. I just left everyone the picture on their facebook account. Sorry, to all my friends without a facebook account..... Anyway, it was frustrating.

Then, we went to the Office Supply section. Captain America wanted me to get a different filing system for the "envelopes". I found a nice plastic file folder holder. It was JUST what I was looking for. I can now slide a file folder in, add the envelopes for the month, even a tracking sheet to see what money we have left. Good job, sweetie! what a great idea :)

We then joined the kids in the toy isle. Jacob found a remote control jeep that he wanted. Tom found a cap gun. Eme found a gum ball machine. Joe and Jim didn't find anything. I told them that we'd go to the Dollar Tree, and they were happy. It took forever at the check-out because we had so many different purchases, and all paid in cash. hehehe. Oh well, it works for us :)

Next, we drove to the Dollar Tree. I'm sure that there's one closer to our house, but I only know where the one by where we used to live is. So, we drove there. Jimmy picked out army men. He just loves those little plastic guys. I found some cowboys and indians to put on his b-day cupcakes, and some lipgloss for myself. Jake found some batteries for his remote control car, and Eme found a Hannah Montana coloring poster. Jimmy found a Diego floaty toy.

Again, it took FOREVER at the check-out. I bet the people behind us weren't pleased. Oh well. When Jimmy finally got to pay, they said that his toy had been recalled, and he needed to get something else. Are you kidding me??? Do you know how long it took me to convince the kid to get that??? Sigh. We sent Jake back to get Spiderman of the same toy, and had to re-wait in line again. When we finally all got to the truck, Jake realized that he's left his stuff sitting on the quarter machines, so had to run back in. We were late for the pool, needless to say - hehehe.

We managed to make it home, change, get lunch together, and be at the pool by 11:30pm. Only 30 mintues late. Helen was already there, and Katy got there about 5 minutes after us. At least she was running late too - hehehe.

We had a lot of fun at the pool. The moms spent most of the time in the pool, exercising. Jumping in place. Or something like that. It was nice and refreshing. We got out at 1pm for lunch. The kids had already eating (hot dogs), and continuted to swim. Kim came after a bit, and we had fun chatting with her.

Helen and I noticed something on my towel when I got up to get something, and realized that it wasn't Ketchup from the hot dogs. Johnny had come. Thank goodness. Grant it, at the pool wasn't the place for him to make his appearance, but now, at least, my hormones should be back under control. Luckily Helen had something in the car to help. No more swimming for me :)

We went home around 2pm. Eric (Katy's son) wanted Tom and Jake to come and play, but I told them that they needed to do their chores first. I went into my room to help Jimmy take a nap. I went out after about 30 minutes to check on them, and OMGosh, it looked fantastic out there. They were almost all done. The counters were cleaned. The table was cleaned. The floors were picked up and swept. Nice. They went to Erics, and Eme and Joe got on the computers. Jimmy finally fell asleep around 3pm, and I found a new Twilight Fan Fic to read.

It was really good. It's only rated T, so it's not as bad as some of them out there. It's the premise that Edward leaves, once Jacob turns werewolf they aren't friends anymore, and Bella marries Mike Newton, who turns out to be abusive. It's really a very well written story. You can find it HERE, AND, it's a complete, finished story. Gotta love that. She did start a sequel, but it's only got 2 chapters, and she hasn't updated that in about 8 months. I didn't even read the first 2. I"ll wait to see if she decides to finish (or at least update it).

I put a casserole in the oven (the taco thingy) at 4:30ish, and the big kids came home around 5pm. Jimmy woke up around then, and Captain America came home at 5:30pm. The kids ate, Captain America and I made our food, and we all went about our various activities. We had Family Home Evening at 6:30pm, and it was all about the importance of Education. How we only get to take from this life the knowledge that we gain here. It was pretty good. Then, we played 3 rounds of Kung Fu Panda Uno. I won. By a landslide. It was awesome! hehehe.

Tuesday, the girls and I might go to a movie. Kidless. That would be fun. I don't even know what's playing. But we all agreed that we need a "girls break". Then, Wednesday is the big day for Joe. We have Kelly park at 10am, we're picking up dinner from the Young Women's fundraiser (enchaladas) around 5pm, then Scouts (marshmallow wars) at 6pm, and girls night at 9pm. Holy crow! That's a ton of stuff all on one day. I'd better get my designing done on Tuesday. No rest for the wicked, eh? hehehe.

This WordArt request is from Jen. I thought it would be ADORABLE on layouts of parents/siblings/families loving each other :) Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

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Love - PHarmacy
You - Susie's Hand
All rest - Pussycat

Virtue

My days just keep flying by :) Another week down - hehehe. Like I'm counting down to something. Not really. I just noticed how fast life seems to be flying by recently. I guess that's why I try and cram it all in, so I don't miss out on anything :)

And I know it's sad to admit, but I am sore from Wii fit - hehehe. How many days ago was that? My legs are sore from balancing - ROFL! Katy, I need to come over and play more often to get in shape - LOL!

Actually, she and I decided that once we're done with the first phase of the diet, and move onto the "re-feed" stage, where we get to add in more and different kinds of foods, we'll start jogging. My sister found this AWESOME site that teaches you how to run. It's called "Couch to 5 K Running Plan" Ok, so not teaches you how to run, but teaches you how to ease into running. So you don't die - LOL! Click HERE to give it a look see :) I only have about 8 more lbs until I start re-feed. Can't wait! I'm on day 7 of no cheats. Only 23 more days in a row until I get my $$$!!! Woohoo! Spa day, here I come :)

Church was good today. The speaker didn't show up, so the bishop had the youth come up and talk about their youth conference they'd had the day before. It sounded like a lot of fun. They played "The Game Of Life". They got to get jobs, and married, and work, and live, and die. Lots of different "life" things happened to them, and at the end, they evaluated how their lives went. After hearing all about it, I wanted to play the game - hehehe. And my kids were actually paying attention. That's the best part. They just LOVE to hear stories for the youth.

I taught sharing time again. We learned about preparing for the temple. About trying your hardest to do your best. About making good choices. It turned out pretty good :)

After church, we had lunch, then had "manditory sleep/reading" time. I'm SO loving that. Jimmy and I took a nap. We slept from 2ish to 3:30. Captain America came in after we were awake and took a nap. I guess he missed the "manditory" part - hehehe. His time schedule was a little off.

I went out, and orchestrated the doing of chores (I know it may not be a sunday activitiy, but my house will fall apart without it - hehehe), and after that was done, snuck back in to the bedroom. Captain America had put on "Dances with Wolves" to sleep to (I SO don't sleep with distractions, but it put him right 0ut - hehehe), and I watched the end of it. And designed at the same time. I got 2 WordArt packs done for the week so far - yeah me!

I went out at 5ish to get dinner. I'd crock-potted some food when we got home from church. I ginormous can of Dinty Moore beef stew, a package of noodles, and a can of cream of mushroom soup (plus can of water). All in a crock pot on high. It sure smelled good. Jake and Tom liked it. The little kids are had to please unless it's peanut butter and jelly. Oh well. Varitey is good for them. My rule is, if you don't like what's offered, you can always wait for the next meal :) They'll eat when they get hungry enough, I guess.

After dinner, I let the kids watch a movie. Half way through, Katy called, and we met at the park. The kids got to play with her last remaining Boxer puppy. It was SO stinkin' cute! And I'm not even a dog person. But it sure was tempting! SUCH a cutie :) Emily (Katy's daughter) had just gotten back from Summer Camp. I missed her, and was glad that she was home. She seemed like she had a good time at camp :)

Captain America joined us at the park after he'd made all of his phone calls. What a busy guy :) We stayed till it was dark, then walked home. The kids were put to bed, and I started blogging. Pretty low keyed day. Gotta love those :)

Monday we're planning on going to the Pool. It seems like FOREVER since we've been there. I also have been promising the kids that they can go to either the Dollar Tree or Wal-Mart to spend part of their allowances. Wendesday is Joe's party at the "Free Lunch" park, and also Cub Scouts (Marshmallow gun shooters at the paint ball park). Adela is coming back home from vacation in San Antonio (boy, I missed her!), so we'll have to do another girls night soon! Busy time :)

Well, since I was working on some new WordArt packs for this coming Friday, I decided to give you a little taste of one of my new WordArt Packs. It's called "Linear Definitions Virtue WordArt Pack". It's filled with different Virtues. I thought they were SO pretty. I just had to make up a freebee for you guys, and thought what better thing than "Virtue". So appropriate - hehehe.

So, 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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Fonts:
Virtue - Felix Titling
AL Verdigris (available for sale at 2peas)

Little Ones

Hey girls! Happy Sunday :) How is your weekend going so far?

Well, Saturday turned out to be a much better day than Friday - hehehe. I was up bright and early for my meeting. Brighter and earlier than I'd planned, actually. The curtain in my room (thick, dark brown corduroy) didn't get pulled before I went to sleep, so the bright El Paso sun woke me up. But that's OK. My alarm was supposed to go off at 7:45, and I ended up out of bed by 7:15am. No biggie. I had enough time to make up a handout for my meeting, so it was all good.

I was out the door by 8:20am, and headed to the church. I'm in the Primary Presidency, the organization in our church that's incharge of the children. We had a meething planned with the teachers. We got there 1 1/2 hours early to clean out the supply closet, restock what needed restocking, and assemble the handouts. We got it all done in time.

We had our Teacher Training meeting first at 10am. Heidi (the president) talked about a book, "Teaching, No Greater Call", and 7 points to being a better teacher. It was great :) Then, Jennica talked. She's a behaviorial specialist, and taught us about dicipline/motivation. She had some good things to say too.

Then, at 11am, we had our Teacher Board Meeting. We passed out updated info on class rosters, substitute lists, teaching tips, etc. We talked about that for a while, and split into 3 groups. It gave the ladies a chance to ask questions and voice concerns about their classes. We spent about 10 mintues in smaller groups, and got back together.

We had a nice lunch (well, I brought my own) of pasta/shrimp salad, rolls, and fresh fruit. With Brownies for dessert. During lunch, we played a "getting to know you" game. It was pretty fun.

Captain America was SO happy when I got home. It was 1pm, and he was done with kids for a little while - hehehe. I helped finish off lunch with the kids, and put Jimmy down for a nap. He's so cute. He'd just bearly fallen asleep when Katy came to the door with my cell phone. THAT'S why I hadn't been able to find it. When we went to take the dog to those people, it had fallen out on the floor of her car. hehehe. Mystery solved - LOL

So, I charged my phone, then slipped in with Jimmy to take a nap. That was around 2:00pm. I slept until around 4 pm. It was SO nice. When I got up, Captain America was mowing the grass. Correction, Jacob was mowing the grass, Captain America was teaching him how. It was cute to watch :)

Jimmy got up at the same time as I did, so we went to the kitchen to start dinner. We did some dishes, and cooked some food. I made a noodle/chicken casserole, and had enough to freeze 1/2 for later. Now, I have a chicken/noodle casserole and a taco casserole in the freezer. SO easy :) I think next time I make the taco casserole thing, I'm gonna split it into 2 smaller pans, so I can get 2 meals out of it. See, I'm thinking ahead :)

At 5:45pm, I realized 2 things. First, I was starving because I'd forgotten to eat dinner - LOL. And second, I wanted to make invites to Joe's b-day party (wednesday) and send them to Wal-Mart photo lab before the movie. Drat! I hurridly designed an invitation, sent it to Wal-Mart, and cooked some food. I was done by 6:30pm. Fast, I know. I hurried into my room to change, and Captain America was almost ready for our date too.

Anyway, here's Joe's party invite. If you're in the area, stop by and say "Happy Birthday" - hehehe. And see how cheap I am. Kelly Park (the sprinkler park) has FREE activities and lunch on Wednesdays. All I have to bring is the cake. I know, I know. But I don't care. I'm taking advantage of all of the "perks" the army has to offer :)



As we drove to the movies, I realized that I had no way to go and get the invites from Wal-Mart. The photo lab closed at 9pm, and the movie woudn't get out until after that. And I don't shop on Sunday, so it woudln't be until Monday that I'd be able to pick them up. And I wanted to pass thm out to the kids in Joes class on Sunday...... grrrrr. Should have remembered that one sooner. Drat!

Anyway, I tried not to think about it, and enjoyed the movie. No fights this time - hehehe. We saw G.I Joe, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of action, enough of a plot to keep me interested, and hey, it's GI Joe. I used to watch the cartoons as a kid. And my brother had ALL the toys. What's not to love :) AND, Doctor Who (well, the Doctor before David Tennent) was the Bad Guy. LOVE him :)

Captain America wasn't quite as impressed with it as I was. He kept talking about how there was no ADA (Air defense artillery - his Army Job - ground missles who guard air space) presence in the movie. That kinda ticked him off - ROFL!

We got home at 9:30pm, and finished putting the little kids to bed. Jacob tried, but they kept sneaking out and going to Eme's room. Hopefully everyone's not too tired for church. I'd hate to see them nodding off during Sacrament meeting :)

This freebee is my handout from my meeting on Saturday. Isn't it cool! I thought it would be PERFECT for layouts of little kids :) Enjoy!

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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Gladness

What a crazy day. If I don't start my period soon (sorry, too much info, I know), I think I'm gonna go insane. I'm sure you all know how that goes :)

I started off the day with grocery shopping. I was in the truck, and pulling out of the driveway when Captain Americacalled. He needed me to bring something for him to his class. Sigh. I made Tom and Jim (who were shopping with me) go back into the house, grabbed what he needed, and drove on up. He was very grateful :)

I came back home, picked up the two boys, and headed out. First stop, Time Warner cable. Apparently, when we moved on post, and switched our internet, the account number changed too. Who knew. So, the last few payments were made to the wrong account, but were automatically switched over. For some reason, they didn't do it last month, and my account was past due. I didn't realize it until they called me. Sigh. Anyway, I got it all straightened out.

Next, we went to the commisary. And guess what? I was $35 under budget! Woohoo! I'll hang on to it, though, because next week I might be over. I headed home, and put all the groceries away. I even cooked up one of the dinners and froze it. The past few weeks, I've gotten to the end of the week, and not had the needed ingredients left for one of my dinners. I decided to cook it up ahead of time to fix the problem - aren't I tricky! LOL.

Next, I helped the kids clean their rooms. And it took ALL DAY LONG. The bunk bed was in Eme's room, and we moved it to Jake and Tom's room. We had to use the allen wrenches to take it completely apart, then rebuild it. Jake and Tom's beds went to Joe and Jim's room. Joe and Jim's futon mattrress (from the floor) went to Jake and Tom's room. Man, it was crazy.

Jake and Tom's room was SO messy. They had so much stuff, and it was all over the room. We moved the desks to a better place, organized the gamecube and tv, and made a pile in the middle of the floor with the rest. Then, we went through and pulled out the trash, then the books, then the dishes (I KNOW! I found all the plastic cups in the house - seriously, more than a dozen), then the dirty clothes, then the clean clothes. And on and on and on. Then, we went through the closet, and played the "Does it fit and will I wear it" game. Yep, that's a fun one - hehehe. We got rid of a bunch of stuff that didn't fit, and got it looking all good and organized.

Then, I moved onto Joe and Jim's room. It looked just as messy on the surface, but only took about 20 minutes to clean and organize. Thank goodness. I was exhausted when it was all said and done.

About 4 something, Katy called and said that she was going to go deliver a puppy to some guys house. She didn't feel comfortable going by herself, so she asked if I'd go with her. Andrea went too. They guy was late getting there, so we got home late. I was supposed to go on my date night at 6:30pm (to get to the movie at 7:05pm), and it was 6:40pm when I got home. And I hadn't even showered. Sigh. I felt really bad. Captain America didn't want to go to the movies later, because he was tired from getting up at 4 something.

I still had to make dinner for myself, and cook dinner for the kids (yeah, I don't know why he didn't cook something for them when he got home, but he didn't). I went and looked for a later showing of GI Joe (our date night movie), and found one at 7:45pm and one at 8:30pm. I hopped in the shower, and got all pretty (hehehe). We headed out for the 8:30 movie. Well, Captain America was still upset about the "late" thing, and I got upset that he was upset, and we ended up fighting the whole way there, sitting in the parking lot fighting, then drove home fighting. Sigh.

About 1/2 way home, he said that we could turn around and go back and still see the movie. I was still feeling pretty upset and hormonal, but said that there was a showing across town at 8:45pm. We made it to the theater a few minutes after the starting time, but it was sold out. Sigh. We went back to the car, fought a little longer, then went home.

Once I was home, in the privacy of my own closet, and cried and let it all out. Wow, it's amazing how much better you feel after a good cry. Too bad I couldn't just have done that in the car and got it over with. We talked it out, and both felt better. Come on, stupid hormones - work yourself out and let me get back to normal :) I think we may try the movies again on Saturday night.

Captain Americawent to bed, and I headed out to Wal-Mart. I have a primary meeting on Saturday morning, and was in charge of buying the plates, silverware, cups, and napkins. Plus rolls and butter. Plus bringing a dessert. So, off I went. Luckily it didn't take too long.

I came back home, baked the brownies, and watched a movie. And blogged and designed for the next day. Hopefully Saturday will be less hormonal. Or more, depending on how you look at it- hehehe.

I thought this quote was fabulous, so I decided to make a WordArt out of it :) Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file. And as always, leave some love if you like my work :)

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Stories

Dang! I almost forgot to post these. hehehe. At least I didn't totally forget about it :) I swear, if my head wasn't attached, I'd love it! hehehe. Anyway, here's my new stuff for the week. Fabulous, isn't it (ROFL!). click HERE to go to my store to pick it up for 20% off the first week ($2.00 a pack).

Layout by Trina

This one is SO cool. It's a collab I did with Graham Like the Cracker (Jen). Doesn't she do FABULOUS work??? I used her kit to make a WordArt pack for me and one for her. She has another set of WordArts for sale at her store. You can click HERE to go there.

And here's my WordArt pack for sale at my store :)

Layout by Jen (Graham Like the Cracker)

Howdy hey! Well, it was a very uneventful day. Nice, but uneventful. I slept in till 8am, then got up with Jimmy. Got him some cereal (the very last of it), got Joe some oatmeal, Eme some oatmeal, myself apples and yogurt, and we all went back to my room. The kids watched some PBS cartoon, and I tired to sleep. I don't know if I actually did, but I felt better when I woke up/got out of bed around 10am. By then, the big kids were awake, and starving.

There was no cereal left, and they hate oatmeal, so they just cooked themselves eggs. I decided that it was finally the day to clean my room. It had become the dumping ground for everything. Seriously. It was trashed. I worked on it for 3 1/2 hours, and it looked much better! I hung up/put away all the clothes, put all my jewelry away, found 6 pairs of sunglasses (LOL!), filed all the bills that were sitting loose, threw away a ton of papers, re-arranged a tad bit to make stuff fit a bit better, and I even made the bed - LOL! I hate making the bed. Captain America LOVES it made. I should start making it for him. It would show him that I love him, right?

At 2:00pm, I decided it was time to Jimmy to take a nap. I'd taken away all eletronics from the kids at some point in cleaning my room. They were fighting and acting nasty to each other. I find that removing all electronics (except music) really helps. They have to interact with each other or they'll be bored. When I went in the bedroom with Jimmy, the kids were playing a board game at the table. Great summer activity. Much better than playing on the computer and watching TV.

Jimmy quickly fell asleep, and I worked on some contributions to our Monthly Megas at Scraporchard. I have September and October all done! Woohoo for being ahead of the game. I've also been listening to MUSE a lot. When I first listened to the album, I thought it was odd. But I gave it another chance yesterday, and you know what? It kinda grows on ya! One of there songs is from Twilight, and one is from Watchmen (I didn't see that one - I don't do rated R). Give them a listen if you're looking for something new. Just make sure you give it a while to sink in. It's kinda different.

Andrea's kids came over to play at some point. I was in the bedroom with Jimmy. I could hear them running through the house playing Star Wars (or war, or something). They were having SO much fun, I just ignored them. As long as they didn't break anything, I didn't care :) It was Jake, Tom, Ben, Sam, Joe, and Aiden (the kid we had the b-day party for at the pool). Poor Emeline. She was so bummed that she was the only girl. She needs a "girlfirned!"

Captain America got home at around 5pm, and wasn't in a good mood. He's tired of dealing with guys that just mess around the whole time. Playing video games on their computer when they're supposed to be studying. Making wise cracks all the time. Not taking the course seriously. And he's in charge of them. But he has no power to do anything to them. He's just leadership in names sake. Being Platoon Leader is a hard job for this class. He was a bit grouchy, but realized why.

I sent the kids home, and made dinner for the kids. We had our dinner, and the kids started playing Star Wars Life. It's a fun one. We put Jimmy to bed, and Captain America and I headed out to the mall. He needed more vitamins for the month. We walked around for a while, him choosing to go to the Sports hat store, and me going to Old Navy. We each pick a store to take the other one too. That way, we both get to look at stuff we like. I don't know - I don't find hats too exciting. He did find a St. Louis Cardinals (his favorite BaseBall team) street sign. If I had an extra $40 laying around, I'd totally buy it for him as a gift - :)

I like Old Navy much better. They were having a 50% off of clearance sale. I found a short sleeve zip up hoodie (gray with the prettiest color of blue accents), a white zip up hoodie, a blue shirt 9same color as the blue accents in the gray hoodie), and 2 pairs of flip flops (gray and brown), all for under $15.00. Not too bad. My part of the clothes allowance for the month is gone - hehehe. I thought about buying new swim shorts for the little boys ($2.50 a piece), but decided that they really didn't need them. I'd save the $5.00 for school clothes. See how responsible I can be.... sometimes - hehehe.

We came outside, and it was raining. But just lightly. And it wasn't cold. Just a nice summer shower. We drove home, and got stopped at the gate onto Post. Apparently, they do random car checks. I'd never been stopped before, but Captain America said that he had a Ft. Benning. Anyway, they get your drivers license, military id (and for the passenger too), registration, insurance, and verify it all. Then, they ask that you open up all glove boxes, compartments, hood, trunk, and all doors. We got out, and stood behind it. They checked it all out, to make sure we were safe. Looking for drug, alcohol, or weapons, I guess. They did find Captain America's "beat down stick". They asked him what it was, and he said it was a tire checker. Good thinking, honey. Well, it was a tire checker for semi's. But he doesn't drive a semi - LOL The guy said that it could be viewed as a weapon, and to keep it in the trunk. OK. Works for me :) No "beat down stick" in the car - hehehe.

We got home, put the big kids to bed, and that was the day. See how uneventful it was. All my girls were busy, and didn't play with me :( It's 10:45 right now, and I'm wondering what to do - hehehe. Captain America said I should just go to bed. What? It's WAY too early - LOL! Maybe I"ll read for a while. I'm all designed out.

Again, not a request. I know, I know, I'm getting lazy in my "old age" - hehehe. Sometimes I like to design what I like to design. That's not so wrong, right? It is a freebee, anyway - LOL! So, I LOVED this quote, and showed the finished product to Captain America, and he was like, "Yeah, it's nice, but what does it mean". I thought, well, maybe if he doesn't get it, no one else will either. I thought it meant using your imagination, and how stories come alive in your mind. I know when I get into a good book, it's SO real to me. Or even when your kids play pretend. It's "real" to them. I thought this would be good on layouts of reading or dress-up play ;) 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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FONTS:
Stories - Rage

Smile

Hey girls! How was your Wednesday??? I slept in until around 8am, then woke up with Jimmy. Jake, Tom, and Joe were at Andrea's house for the sleepover, and Emeline sleeps in, so it was pretty quiet at my house. There was just enough cereal for the kids to eat breakfast, and I let them watch some cartoons. Not while eating cereal, but after - LOL. The only TV in the house that will pick up PBS is the TV in my bedroom. So I occasionally let them watch morning cartoons. Since it was Wednesday (designing day), I thought it was a good time for some PBS cartoons :)

I got 2 WordArt packs designed before "free lunch" at the park. I left the house at 10:30am, and went to pick up the kids from Andreas house. By the time we finally got to the park, it was 11am. The kids got lunch, which was NOT ham and cheese sandwiches. For the past, um, I don't know how many weeks, it's been Ham and Cheese sandwiches. They had hot dogs today. My kids were happy.

While we were there, there was this kid (with a daycare group), probably around 7 or so, who ran into a tree. The maintanence workers came to Katy and I and said that the kids ran into the tree really hard. We went over to check him out, patted him off, helped him up, and looked around to see where his "grown-up" was. One of the daycare ladies came over, kinda yelled at him for messing around, and took him back to the bench. It was so sad. I wouldn't want my kids being supervised like that. There were about 20 kids, and 2 workers. Seems a bit too many kids for that many workers.

And I know that there's a lot of parents who have no other choice than to put their children in daycare. Hopefully yours is much better than this one appears to be. I just felt sorry for the poor kid. He needed a parent (or adult who loved him) to pick him up, gush over him a little bit, give him a hug, and tell him that he was loved. Anyway, enough on that subject ;)

We went home at around 12:30pm, and Captain America was still there for lunch. I got to see him for a few minutes, then he was off to school again. Busy, busy guy. I designed a b-day present for our friend, Helen. Her b-day is on Saturday, and we decided to throw her a b-day party on Wednesday night. We'd taken pics when we went eyebrow threading last week, and I used all those pics for it. I sent it to Wal-Mart at an 8x10, and got ready to go and pick it up.

Katy came with me. Well, technically, I went with her. Jim was napping, and Jake was watching all the kids, so just Katy and I went. Sweet! I had a few things that I had to get for Captain America, and I needed computer printer paper, and the photo.

Captain America needed Splenda, because in the past 4 or 5 days, he's eating a WHOLE bag. What? Don't you ration? I was SO mad. I ony have $200 a week for food. I have $1.00 for the rest of the week for food. Buying a $6.00 bag of Splenda is not in the budget. I just isn't. I bought him a $2.00 box of generic artifical sweetener. I knew he woudln't like it, but then he needs to ration a bit better.

I got home, and went back to designing. I did another collab with Jen (Graham like the Cracker), and wanted to get it in the store by Wednesday night (my deadline). I got it half way done, and stopped for dinner.

Let me tell you, PMS is not my friend. Really, it isn't. And it's not Captain Americas friend either. You never know when, why, or where it will strike. All you can know is that it'll be bad. I'm embarassed to tell you the store, and I'm sure my sister will be embarassed for me, but I'm gonna tell it anyway. That's why you like me. Because I'm real - LOL!

So Captain America was making his dinner, a protein shake, and realized that I hadn't bought Splenda. He wasn't pleased. He didn't understand why I didn't pull money from a different fund for the Splenda. I wasn't gonna spend my own money on Splenda. Or our entertainment money. Or his running shoes money. Every $ is allocated to something. It's to prevent overspending. So I told him to buy the Splenda out of his own money. He didn't like that answer.

He let it drop, and went about what he was doing. But by then, I could feel myself getting hormonal. He went to the sink, and organized the dirty dishes again. A few minutes later, as I was chopping up some green peppers to put in a container in the fridge, something set me off. I can't remember what it was exactly, but I told him to stop being mad at me. "I'm not acting mad at you', he said. "Yes you are, you're doing the dishes all mad", I said, and I went to the sink, and rummaged through it all hastily, knocking stuff all around and out of the sink (I know, how embarassing!) He didn't quite know how to take it, so he started to chuckle. I almost started to chuckle too, then the hormones took over, and I yelled something, and threw what was in my hands across the room. Unfortunately, that was my little chopping knife and the container of green peppers. I don't know where I was throwing it, but it almost hit the bookshelf, and bounced all over the floor. Tom just happened to be coming out of the other room, and got green peppered. Luckily not knifed.

What's up with the hormonal flares? Do you ever do embarassing stuff like that? OMGosh - looking back - how embarassing. I left the room crying, and hid in the garage. After about 10 minutes, the hormonal surge passed, and I felt much better. Embarassed ,but better. I snuck back into the house, and into my room. People kinda gave me wide berth for a while. After 30 more minutes of designing, and I was good enough to go back into the kitchen and make myself some food.

I got on facebook, and said something about PMS not being my friend (Captain America was on facebook too), and he commented on it, saying it wasn't Tom's friend either. Then a bunch of people said that they get hormonal too, and I felt much better. Captain America had forgiven me, and I wasn't alone. Thank goodness. I sure hope I "Start" (or Johnny comes) soon, so I can put those freakish episodes behind me, at least for another month. Isn't being a girl fun sometimes!

I finished loading my store and designing by 9pm-ish, and after Captain America got back from Scouts (11 year old scouts - just Jake's group), I headed over to Katy's for the b-day party. Helen was there when I got there, but didn't know it was a party. We were gonna surprise her. Andrea and Kim got there about 20 minutes later We compared days, and we were ALL having hormonal times. It was crappy afternoons all around. Andrea got locked out of her house (not her fault - child related), Katy had issues with the fish tank, Kim had something or another going one, same with Helen. We'd all had our moments that day.

But, it was SO good to have a girls night. We sang to Helen, who was surprised, and gave her her presents and cake. We just bought the little individual cake, cause Andrea and Katy and I were all dieting. We made diet jello for ourselves.

We played a few rounds of PIT, then Helen had to go home. After that, we got out the Wii, and I made a Wii fit character. My BMI was in the normal range, so I was happy! And, it said that my age was 30. Woohoo!!! Andrea was 43 or something like that - hehehe. I think it was because she coudln't balance at all. For some reason, I had freakishly good balance. Too bad it wasn't like that in real life. I can't even look up at the stars without tipping over - hehehe.

Anyway, it was fun playing on the Wii. I did the ski jump, the tight rope walker, the hula hooper, the soccer ball thing, and some marble in the hole game. Then, we all played Mario Tennis. OMGosh, it was confusing. I wasn't very good at that one. hehehe. I think my team won, though. Who knows. I didn't know what I was doing half the time. LOL!

We chatted till about 2pm, then all headed home. I'm blogging now, and ready to go to sleep. Tomorrow is usually pool day, but I don't know if we're going or not. I may just stay home. Or not - hehehe. We'll see.

Well, this isn't a request, but I'm tired of designing for the night. I did 4 WordArt packs today (one was a collab, so it was twice as long as normal), and then I still had to blog for tomorrow. I'm getting ready to go to girls night, and I'm swimming with PMS hormones. hehehe. Not a good combo. But, the designing is all done, so that's half the battle. Anyway, that long tirade was just to say that I picked this saying out all by myself - hehehe. 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. Thanks!

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FONTS:
Smile - Smiley Monster

Break

Wow, what a whirl wind of a day! It started off at 8am, what I considered at "sleep in" day almost. Jimmy came in and got me up, but the other kids stayed asleep. I'd made extra pancake the night before for dinner, so there was leftover pancakes for breakfast. See, I was thinking ahead - hehehe.

I spent the morning showering (I know, miracle of miracles!), straightening up a bit, and getting Jake's homeschool paperwork in order. I just needed 2 more pieces. A withdrawal form from his old school, and his last report card. I dug around in my papers pile, and found the report card, and went to the school at around 11:15am to get the withdrawal papers. It took forever, because they were in the process of registration, and the computers were bogging down. But, I was home by 11:50am.

We were going over to Andreas house for lunch before the movies. I was bringing the stuff to make Pizzawiches (bread, pasta sauce, shredded cheese & peporroni in the George Forman grill), and super stiff hair gel for Andreas Hair. I wanted to see what it would look like super curly.

Anyway, I got back from the school, and Jimmy was just wailing. He kept crying and saying that he'd got hurt. Jake said that he'd thrown a toy at Eme, so Jacob put him in timeout. It was between 2 barstools. Jim was screwing around, tipped over the barstools, and one landed on his finger. It was a little swollen, but looked fine. As I was gathering up all the stuff I needed for lunch, I put some ice in a baggie and gave it to him to carry around.

We had a lot of fun at Andreas. The kids like the food, the moms at the diet food (Andrea and Katy and Laurie are all doing my diet now), and I super curled Andreas hair. Actually, I just put in the gel and dried it with the hair dryer. It was SO stinkin' cute! I should have taken a picture.

We noticed that Jimmy's finger was swelling a little bit, but not too bad. He was just not touching/moving it too much. Still didn't think much of it. I went over to Katy's (she lives directly behind Andreas - whe jumped the fence) and faxed in our Virtual Academy application. She saved me some serious money. Have you faxed anything recently at a business? They charge you an arm and a leg!!

We left for the movies at 2:00pm, and got there in plenty of time to get a good seat. Ben and Joe sat by each other, Sam and Tom sat by each other, the Mom's sat by each other, and Eric sat by himself - LOL. Jimmy was with us. It's kinda nice to see a movie "without kids". LOL . We saw Night at the Museum II. It was pretty funny. The mom's had all seen it before, but my kids and Andrea's kids hadn't seen it yet. Lots of laughing.

During the movie, Jimmy came and sat on my lap and said that he thought his finger was gonna pop. What? I felt it, and OMGosh it was nasty. He's right. It felt SO full, that I thought it was gonna pop. And it was starting to bruise up. Turning purple. Nasty.

On the way home from the movies, I called Tele-Nurse (and Jim fell asleep) and asked what to do. After 40 minutes on the phone, they said to sleep on it, and call the doctor in the morning. They probably woudn't have an appointment for me (after calling at 6am and waiting on the phone for a LONG time) so I'd have to call back Tele-Nurse (and probably wait on the phone for a LONG time), then they'd send me to the ER. Nice. Not much of a choice.

So, as we started to get home, Jimmy woke up and was screaming. He said it hurt so bad. Right then, I knew I'd be taking him to the ER that night. My poor baby was in pain, and I wanted to rule out fracture. Poor thing!

My boys (Tom, Jake, and Joe) had already set up a sleepover with Andrea's kids, so they stayed, and Eme and Jim and I headed for home. Captain America was there, and after we all had dinner, we went to the ER. Someone had told me that if you wear your military uniform, they see you faster. I don't know that that worked. It still felt like it took forever.

When we first got there, they called us back, took his height, weight, and assessed him. They gave him an ice pack, and told us to wait. It was about an hour before we got called back to our room. A very LONG hour. Captain America was starting to regret coming with us - hehehe.

We were in the room for about 15 minutes, when someone came and got us to take us for xrays. I went with Jimmy, and Captain America stayed in the room with Eme. The guy sat Jimmy down and was getting him situated, when he said "James, you need to hold your hand like this". Jim was SO surprised. "Mom, how does he know my name???!!!" he wanted to know. "It's on your arm band", I tell him. Silly kid.

It was another hour or so after the xrays when the doctor came back in. Maybe even an hour and a half. Captain America slept in the chair most of that time, waking up occassionally to tell the kids that they were being too noisy. He was SO tired after a long day of class. He really needed to be home resting. Not sitting in the ER. Heck, I didn't need to be sitting in the ER either :) I just kept telling myself, "at least you only have 2 kids with you". That kinda helped.

As I was killing time in the room, Jimmy stuck out his tongue at me. I was looking at it, then looked at Eme's. She has a Geographic Tongue like Captain America. I took a pic of my tongue, and of hers. Can you see the pattern on the side of hers? Weird, eh? I wonder which of Captain Americas parents have it too? They say that it runs in families, and more in people who are affected by their environment (allergies, asthma), and 3 times more likey in girls. Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Yes, I know your life is full now. You've seen a close up of my tongue - ROFL!

When the doctor finally came in, he checked out the finger, said that the xrays looked fine, and prescribed us some Motrin. Army joke - they prescribe Motrin for EVERYTHING! If I hadn't been waiting for 3 hours, I would have found it comical. So, we left, and were home by 10pm-ish. Jimmy and Eme went right to bed, and I sat down to design. I was pretty tired, but managed to get something out.

Well, in light of the evening I had at the ER, I thought that this WordArt would be appropriate. I know it wasn't broke, but I thought it was for a while there. Poor little guy. Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

Draw of the Cards

Another fun day! I was SO tired when I got up, but I still managed to do it - hehehe. One of these days, I'll go to bed early. 4 - 5 hours of sleep, when you play as hard as I do, isn't much - LOL!

Anyway, Captain Americaand Jacob and I were talking about it the other day, and we've decided to do an Online Virtual Academy with him for 7th grade. He's SO excited. He likes learning, but not so much school. He said that the teachers yell all the time, and the kids are mean and nasty. Yep, middle school sucked for me too.

Anyway, I had such a GREAT experience with the K12 program back in Ohio, that I was sad that they didn't offer it here in El Paso. But then I learned that "Connections Academy" is good for all of Texas. Woohoo!!! I chatted with the lady on the phone this morning, and I'm in the process of enrolling him. School starts in 14 days (for the virtual academy), and she said it takes 2-3 weeks to be enrolled and up and running with the program. In Ohio, we started 3 months late, and finished on time. Making up 1 week is gonna be nothing :)

Then send you the computer, the curriculum, pay for part of your internet, very similar to the K12 program. I think it'll be good for us. The other kids are gonna stay in Public School. They've been having good, positive experiences there. Joe's a bit behind because of all of the bouncing around school (3 different schools for kindergarten), but he's a smart kid. I think he'll catch up.

Anyway, I printed off all the required paperwork, and started filling it out. Gathered birth certificates and our lease and immunization records. Today, I've gotta go "withdraw" Jake from school at his old Middle School, and get his transcripts, and then I'm ready to go. Katy has a fax/printer/scanner at her house, and a phone line, so we're gonna try and see if we can figure out how to do it. Sure beats paying for it. Faxing things is EXPENSIVE!

Next, I called Verizon. Our phone bill was ALL messed up, and we coudn't access our account on the website. It took about 35 minutes, but I think I got it all squared away. Well, last time I called I thought it was all squared away too. Hopefully this time it really is. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Next, I started on the budget. It was already done, and I'd taken out cash to put in the envelopes a few days ago, just never did it. So, I divided it up and put it where it went. I'm really liking the system. Dave Ramsey is the man! You should really by his book. He can help you too!

I was bearly done in time to make it to the pool. i was supposed to make pizza for the kids for lunch, but, um, yeah, that didn't happen - LOL! I ended up taking a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Talk about a rush job lunch - ha! At least kids are relatively easy to please.

We got to the pool at 11:25ish, and there were only 3 other people there. Where was everyone??? I got in and played with the little kids for about 1/2 an hour, then got out. I started texting/calling my friends, asking why they ditched me. Of course no one answered. About 2 minutes later, Andrea showed up. Woohoo for friends!!! Katy got there shortly after that. Helen and Kim also came, but later. It was a nice pool day.

Here's Sam pretending to be "the bad guy". He was chasing the kids around the little pool.

And yes, he may not be PC, but his Dad is a soldier, getting ready to deploy to Iraq for the 2nd (or 3rd) time, so what else is a 10 year old boy gonna be playing?

And here's the girls! Kim, Andrea (holding Luke), Helen, Katy, and Tom (and a sliver of Eric - Katy's son)

I told Joe to make a funny face for me, and he gave me this cute pose instead :)

Tom, on the other hand, was more than happy to oblige.

And a pic of Tom and I.

I don't know why, but i thought this was the CUTEST picture ever of Joe and Ben. There almost exactly 1 year apart (Joe is younger), but so similar. They're both painfully shy, quiet, love legos, dress-up, and are a bit scared of the water. Best of friends, those boys are :)

It was funny, because Ben was wearing blue swim shorts, and Joe was wearing an Orange swim shirt. They were SO color coordinated!

We got home from the pool with just enough time to change clothes (yeah, not enough time for a shower - the last time I'd showered was Saturday before threading - I know, I'm nasty. I did reply deoderant, and I did swim at the pool. That kinda counts, right? A little? Marginally? You'll give me marginally? I promise I'll shower today! Promise! :)

Jacob was gonna watch the kids for me, and the girls and I headed out to Wal-Mart. Katy is gonna try my diet, so she needed a digital food scale. And, we were hoping to get a school supply list also. Well, we struck out on both accounts. No school supply list. No digital food scale. We did find a TON of people with "out of country" license plate tags that were trying to run us over. And people in the store that were trying to "run us over" too. We must have had a "HIT ME" sign on our face somewhere. It was bad! It's not like we're so tiny that people can't see us. A Brazilian girl, a tall dark haired white girl, and a tall blond white girl. You' can't miss us. Well, that's true. They weren't trying to miss us. They were trying to run us over with cars and carts. Dumb people!

We went to Target next, hoping to find one there. We did find one, but it was $10.00 more expensive. Katy got it anyway. Andrea found a few things that she needed, and I got a pack of gum. For some reason, my mouth tasted like I'd been licking envelopes. Which I did not. No envelopes for me. Weird, eh? anyway, my gum was good.

Next, we headed for the commissary. We helped katy get the items she needed to do the diet. Apples, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, crackers, cheese, yogurt, meat. Just the basics. As we started walking down the last isle, we ran into a traffic jam. It was the line for the checkouts. OMGosh, I'd never seen the line that long. The line starts 1/2 way in the middle of the store, in the front, and makes one big line across the store. Then, it turned down the freezer (ice cream) isle, and snaked back around by the deli. That's TOTALLY out of control. Goodness.

We, because there were 3 of us, and we really didn't have that much, went to the self-checkout. I found a bag of Bananas for $0.99. Captain America uses them in his shake, so can can just peel them, slice them, and put them in ther freezer. It would make his shake taste yummy, too! Frozen bananas.

We were home by 5:30, and Captain America was already there. The kids were getting in trouble for leaving out and messing up the DVD's. I coudln't agree more. They're trashing our DVD collection. It makes me sad. I'm glad that Captain America put his foot down, and made the kids realize how lucky they are to have the things they have. To not trash things.

I folded some laundry, and made dinner for the kids. Pancake and eggs. Mmmmmm. Yummy pancakes!

After dinner, we decided to play a family card game. Sam (Andrea's oldest) was over to play with the big kids, so we re-cruited him to play with us. We played "PIT". Anyone ever played it? It's one of my favorites. It was originally made in 1916, and our edition was from the 60's. It's my moms game, but somehow I ended up with it. I'm SO glad that I did. Its a lot of fun. I even took a movie of one of our rounds. Let me tell you. This was a calm round. Andrea stopped by a bit later to search for her child (we'd kept him pretty late, but we were having SO much fun playing), and she joined in for a few rounds. It was SO lound, that my ears were ringning. Captain America and Jacob were especially noisy. I was laughing so hard i thought I was gonna pee- hehehe. That's when you know it's fun - LOL!


I ended up winning, and Tom came in 2nd. Good for us!!! Woohoo. After the game, Andrea and boys went home, I put the kids to bed, and I started on my work. Well, on my play, more like it. I played on Farmtown for a while, then checked my email. I got an email from Stephanie, saying that one of my favorite Twilight Fan Fics (Seducing Ms Swan - the one where Bella grows up and becomes a teacher and ends up with Edward for her student) had an update!!! A new chapter. I could hardly contain myself. I instantly went and read it. Ooooo, I can't wait to see what happens next, and how Bella reacts to Edward! Soooooo cool!

Then, I went back to Farming. And chatting on Facebook chat. It was almost midnight when I decided to design. Sigh. I was SO tired I could bearly keep my eyes open. But, this WordArt is in honor of our Pit game. I thought it was appropriate - hehehe.

So, Tuesday, we're going to the Movies. Night at the Museum II is at the Dollar Theater, and Tuesday is dollar day. We're also gonna get the withdrawl slip for Jake, and try and fax in the application. Another fun and busy day planned :) The best kinds!

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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Fonts Used
Draw, of, the - Turtle club
Club - Cafe Rojo

My Eternal Family

Hey girls! How was your Sunday? Fabulous, I hope. I slept in on accident, and woke up at 8:00am. Not good, considering I like to leave the house at 8:30am. So, I pulled my hair up, threw on some lip gloss, more mascara, covered up my zits by my mouth (which I'm sure would go away if I'd stop picking them), got dressed (shaving of the legs would have to wait - people shouldn't be that close to my legs anyway, right?), and went to get the kids ready.

It was a whirlwind morning, but we got there on time. A little early, in fact. And everyone looked pretty presentable. Tom and Jim were both missing buttons from their Sunday shirts, but Jim had on a vest, and Tom had a tie to cover it. Good enough for me. Everyone got food, except Joe, so I made him a real fast peanut butter sandwich to eat on the way.

Church was good. It was Fast and Testimony meeting. Emeline wanted to bear her testimony. It's a time, once a month, when the members can publically say what they believe in. She was so cute. She started off saying what she believed, and ended up kinda expounding truth - LOL! Friends will be there for you. Your family loves you, and you should love them. People should help each other. Be nice. It was WAY too cute. She was concentrating really hard on what she was saying. Too stinkin' cute! We'll have to have a family home evening lesson on "how to bear your testimony". I think the kids can all use a refresher course.

I taught in primary for Sharing time. My theme was about the temple. So, we learned what a temple is (a house of god, a place of love and beauty), and what you do inside the temple (covenant with Heavenly Father, make promises, feel the holy spirit, be sealed together). We sang the song , "I love to see the temple" (one of my very favorites), and talked about a scripture. Then, Captain America came and helped me, and talked about the temple recommend interview. How anyone has the potential to go to the temple, but we have to make good choices, and follow Heavenly Father to get a recommend. We talked about preparing to go to the temple now, when they are kids. It was good.

Then, I handed out a little bookmark as a handout. I told them to put it in their scriptures and remember the temple. They seemed to like it. Well, the older ones. The little ones just tried to eat it - ROFL!

When we got home from church, we decided to take another family picture. Since everyone was still in their Sunday clothes, and looking all nice. I wanted to do it in the backyard, since the last one we took was pixelated. So, we drug a chair and a stool in the backyard to prop the camera up on. Our neighbor guy noticed what we were doing, and hopped the fence so he could take it for us. What a sweetheart!

We went in the front yard, and he positioned us in the shadows, where he thought we'd look the best. He did a FABULOUS job. We got 3 really good pictures. Here's my favorite. I worked my photoshop magic on it, and this is the result. What do ya think??? (And, not bad for no shower day - hehehe)

Once we were done with the picture, everyone changed clothes, and we cooked lunch. Cheese & cucumber for me, and Mac N Cheese for the kids. After lunch, I told the kids that we were starting a new family tradition. Naps or quiet reading in their rooms. I read for a little while, then fell asleep around 1:30pm. I woke up at 4pm. OMGosh, it felt good. I woke up because Jimmy had woken up from his nap, and the kids had left their rooms, and were being noisy. Very loud. But I was done sleeping.

I came out, let everyone else out of their room (hehehe), and started on dinner. Taco salad. It's Tom's FAVORITE. Jimmy? Not so much. But you can't please everyone all of the time. The other kids liked it.

After dinner, the kids were a bit out of control. At one point, i noticed they were running laps around my living room/dining room areas. Not so good. About that same time Andrea sent me a message saying she was going to the park, and wondered if we wanted to join her. Typically, we don't go to the park on Sunday. But I had to agree with her. My kids were MAJOR out of control, and needed to work off some steam. So, we went to the park at around 6:30pm and stayed till 8:30pm. It was such a nice evening. Katy came and hung out with us too. It was a good time.

We came back home, cleaned up for a little while (you'd think that with all of the cleaning, my house would be clean. but, um, not so much), cleaned Joe/Jim's room (thoroughly trashed), and put all the kids to bed. I played on the computer for a while, and read for a while. Captain America came to bed at around 10:30, and was asleep by 11pm. I saw that Katy was on Facebook, and she said "Hey, let's go scare Andrea'. hehehehe. So, I snuck out, and walked down to their houses. She met me outside of Andrea's house.

We snuck to the window by her computer, and tapped on the window, but she wasn't there. So, we went to the backyard, and tapped on the kitchen window. We could kinda see her through the blinds. She was on the phone. We tapped a little bit more, and she left the kitchen. Dang. We were beginning to think that she was deaf -hehe. We went back to the front, but still didn't see her. We tapped on the window a little bit more, then knoced on the door lightly. And again a little bit harder. We were afraid she'd get her gun and shoot us if we scared her - hehehe. She turned on the porch light, and I jumped up and down waving in front of the peep hole. She came out, and was like "YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH"!!! hehehe. We told her we were afraid that she was gonna shoot us - LOL! She took it well - ha! She invited us in, and we heard her side of the story.

She was in the kitchen chatting with Kim on the phone, and she thought she heard rain. She ask Kim if it was raining, and Kim said no. She said it was probably us playing a trick on her. To go outside and check. Andrea was spooked, and went upstairs to look out the window. No rain. hehehe. Then, she came back downstairs to look for us on the computer, when she heard the tapping on the window again. The the knocking at the door. But when she looked out the peephole, no one was there (we were off to the side, in case she decided to shoot us - hehehe). Then, she looked again, that's when she saw me.

Yes, I know, we act like teens. hehehe. Aren't you glad you don't live close to me. Katy and I wold come to your house and freak you out too - what a mean trick - LOL! It was kinda funny.

After that, we stayed and hung out. We played on Farm town, at the Inn, for a while, but it wasn't too exciting. We researched boob jobs and tummy tucks (a girl can dream, right?) and talked about random things.

Katy and Andrea walked me home at 3am, then walked themselves back home. Thanks, girls, for walking me back home! It was a fun, spur of the moment evening!

Monday, we're gonna go to the pool, go to Wal-Mart, and I need to call about a Virtual Academy for Jake. He's wanting to be homeschooled in 7th grade. I'll have to look into it. There's a virtual academy for all of Texas that we could do for free. I'll call them tomorrow and find out more info.

OK, so for my freebee for today, I decided to give away the WordArt from my family picture. I thought it was SO cool for a family picture. 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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