Thanks

Ooooo, ooooo, new stuff in the store today!!! I know you're all just SO excited! Well, you should be - LOL! Click HERE to go to my store to snag these WordArt packs at a GREAT deal. 20% off the first week, or only $2.00. I know you want to!

Layout by Jen (Graham Like the Cracker)

OK, it's gonna be short today. Yes, I know how to be short. I'm sure you don't think I do - LOL! Because I'm usually SO long winded. BUT, it's 1:33am, and I'm just now starting to blog. Luckily I already designed, so that's out of the way.

Joe was puking last night, so I didn't make him go to school. He got to stay home and rest/play. By about 9:30am, he was feeling much better. Laurie dropped off her 3 year old, Rowan, at 9:30am also. She had a hair appointment, and Jimmy and Rowan love to play!

I cooked all morning long, making different cookie doughs, and refrigeratoring them. Gingerbread and sugar cookie dough. Yummy! I cooked the kids lunch at noonish, and Laurie came back at around 12:30 to get Rowan.

I headed out to Walmart at around 1pm to do some "santa" shopping. Jake watched Jimmy, so I had the change to go alone. It was kinda nice. I am done shopping for Jacob, and Tom, and Emeline, and Joseph. Now I just need to decide what to get for Jimmy.......

I had fun chatting on the phone with both my mom and Andrea while shopping. It was like going with a friend - LOL!

I got home in time to go pick up the kids with Andrea, then came back home. We had about 30 minutes before we headed to Burger King for dinner. The kids had a ton of fun. We were there for about an hour, then Andrea took Joe to Scouts, and I took the rest of the family to the FRG meeting (Family Readiness Group). It was a short, 30 minutes information meeting. They had cake and soda/water for refreshments. I SO can't wait until I can eat real food again! Friday, here I come!

We were home by 7:30pm, and Joe got done with scouts at around that time. We put the little kids to bed, and I made Almond Roca. OMGosh, it looks good! I can't wait to try it. See how my life revolves around food? ROFL!

So at 9pm, I gathered up my cookie things, and headed over to Andreas house. We baked cookies, cleaned the house, and hung out. We also watched Twilight, since Andrea hadn't seen it yet, and we're supposed to go and see New Moon tomorrow. I didn't want the poor thing to be TOTALLY" confused - LOL!

So, it's really late, and I need to go to bed. I have to get up at 6am to put the turkey in the oven, get the kids ready for school, out the door, then head down to Andreas house to cook. My birthday party starts at 10am (my b-day is actually on Saturday). We're doing a Thanksgiving feast, and asking people to bring a side dish/dessert to share. OMGosh, we're gonna eat like there's no tomorrow- LOL!

So, this WordArt, I made for my thank you notes. I attached them to a coconut covered truffle. Oh yeah, I made truffles too. See, I was a busy baker today! Anyway, 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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Happy Life

Howdy ho everyone! Not a very eventful day, but it was still good :)

I got the kids out the door and ready for school as usual. Jake did school, Jimmy played, I cleaned, same ole same ole. I did go to the storage shed and grab out a box of toys for Jimmy, though. I'd put them in there a few months ago, so they were all "new" to him - LOL!

I cleaned his and Joe's room really well, vacuumed, organized laundry, made it look nice. I moved on to Emelines, and DANG was it bad. I pulled out 2 bags of trash. Mostly papers. That girl is a pack rat. And 3 overflowing baskets of dirty laundry. I don't know what she's been wearing, cause there were SO many clothes dirty. LOL! But, it looked very nice when it was done.

Jacob had sent a computer to Captain Americas brother a few months or so ago to get it fixed, and it came today. Jake was SO excited. He got it all set up, and said that it was working SO much better than what it had before.

We had lunch, and then at 1:30, Jimmy and I went to Andreas house to babysit Luke. He was napping, and Andrea had a "well womans" visit, so I said that I'd watch Luke for her. No one should go to those with babies. They're Un-fun enough as it is - LOL!

While she was gone, I got her wireless router hooked up. She said that she'd been struggling with it all day. By the time she was back, it was all up and working. Now she could go to whatever room she wanted with her laptop!

We watched TV for a little while, then she left to go and pick up the kids. I stayed again, and watched sleeping Luke and Jimmy. When she got back home, Jim and Ben played for a while. Sam stayed for extra PE, and my kids went to my house, and we hung out for a bit longer. Once Sam got home, I took Jimmy, and we walked home. It was about 4:30pm.

I left Jake in charge, and headed out to the store. My fan had died a while back, and desperately needed replaced. I wanted to check out Goodwill and see what they had. I stopped at Family Dollar, which is right next to Goodwill, and found some perfume for me that I liked ($3.00), 2 tubes of wrapping paper ($1 each), some Diet Dr Pepper, some disposable plates for my party, some balloons, and a head phone splitter ($3.50). Now 2 people can listen to my MP3 player with me - LOL!

Next it was on to Goodwill. I found some chaps and a vest in matching leather material for Joe for Christmas. He's gonna LOVE them. That was $7.00. Then a toy rifle for $4.00. I found an easy bake oven real meal (just the oven, no accessories) for Emeline for $6.00, and it turns out it was 1/2 off. Woohoo!



I just need to get the accessories for it. (Well, after spending HOURS online looking for accessories, I think I'll just buy the Easy Bake oven from the store, and she can have two - LOL!)

I also found my fan for $8.00. Like this one, but not so fancy - LOL! But it's the tower kind, and it spins, and has a timer and junk. All I care about is the noise. It needs to be noisy :) hehehe.
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So then I drove to Dollar General, and got a new broom for the house, and a shower caddy for the kids' bathroom. Maybe if they can't reach the soap, they can't make a mess..... maybe. I also found a pack of red bandanas for Joe's present. Score it!

Last stop was LIttle Cesears, for a $5 pizza. Then home. The house was pretty messy, so I made the kids do their chores before they could eat. I konw, mean Mom. But the chores were done SO fast, let me tell you :)

And low and behold, CAPTAIN AMERICA WAS HOME AT 6:00 pm!!! I wasn't really sure what to do - LOL! Just kidding :) It was nice to have him home for the evening. Jake and Tom got ready and headed out to Scouts with Andrea, and I kept her #2 and #3 kids, Ben and Luke. We had fun watching a Christmas movie on TV, and the kids had fun playing.

We "traded" kids back shortly after 8pm. Andrea and boys went home, and we put Harty kids to bed. Captain America and I spent the evening on our laptops in our room. Together, but doing our own thing :) How relaxing.

Well, except for the part where at 10:30 we get a knock on the door, and it's Joe, saying he's puked. He ALMOST made it to the bathroom. One more step. But no, it's on the carpet. Oranges puke. Nasty. But at least it didn't smell. Thank GOODNESS! I cleaned up the mess, and put him back to bed. With a bowl. Just in case :)

So here it is, 11:30pm, and I'm ready for bed. With my new fan. Bring on the noise!!!

I thought this saying was SO true. Especially for me. Really, it doesn't take much to make and keep me happy. Good for Captain America. What would he do with a high maintenance wife - LOL!

Click on the links 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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Weather Outside

So Andrea had to go to traffic court this morning. Nothing big, her license had expired, and she hadn't received her new one from Oklahoma yet, and the MP told her that if she brought in the paperwork on her court date, that they'd dismiss it.

Still, she didn't want to take the baby. And I perfectly understand that! So I watched Luke. I got the kids off to school at 7:30 like normal, and she came over at about that time. Jimmy and Jake has so much fun playing with him. Jimmy followed him around, saying "Lukie, lukie". Too cute!

I actually managed to get some designing in, since the boys were playing together nicely. Throughout the day, I finished off the 5 packs for this week, and even started on 2 more for next week. I'm back ahead again! LOL!

Andrea got back at around 9:30ish, and stayed and chatted and hung out for a while. At 11:00ish, we decided to go to the Dollar Tree to pick up some balloons and plates and silverware for the party. No point in doing dishes, right? That's no fun! LOL!

So we left Jake and Jim at home, took Luke, and headed out. There wasn't really anything good there. We did find the silverware, but no plates with a large enough count, and no balloons. I did find a few things that I needed though. Baggies and a penguin platter for Christmas (yeah, that's a need - ROFL!) and a turkey roaster. I guess the roaster pan WAS for the party.

So on the way home, we decided to stop at Applebees. Because their Grilled Shrimp and Spinach salad is to DIE for! We got the dressing on the side, and just dipped our forks in the dressing before getting a bite. It was SO good.

We were home by 12:30pm, and I got my kids some lunch, got Jake re-focused on school, and went to lay down with Jimmy for a nap. Yeah, I fell asleep for about 45 minutes, but I don't think he ever did - hehehe.

At 3:00pm, I went with Andrea to go and get the kids from school, then came home and made roll out sugar cookie dough. The kids were SO excited. It needed to be chilled for an hour, and we had plans to bake cookies with Andreas family at 6pm.

At 4:30pm, I went with Andrea to the PX to look for a Christmas present for one of her kids. We shopped around at a few stores there, then she decided which one she wanted, and got it.

I fed my kids, and straightened up a little before Andrea and kids came over at 6:30ish. I had 8 individual balls of dough set out on the counter, each with their own little flour pile and space for rolling. They rolled it out, then used cookie cutters to cut it, and moved it to the cookie sheets. It was SO loud in the house. 8 children and 2 moms. Oh goodness!

While they rolled it all out, I made the frosting. It looked pretty good, but I was fairly sure it wasn't gonna be enough. I frosted up the first 2 batches out of the oven, and got them all ready to go. The rest of the cookies were for the kids. We let them each decorate and eat 2. The rest? Well, I'll frost them tomorrow and decide what to do with them at that point - hehehe.

It really was a fun time. A bit crazy, but fun. It doesn't help that our houses are SO echo-ey. With those vaulted ceilings, it's hard not to be. My ears are still ringing.

I put the kids to bed at 8:30pm, and got online. I chatted with my neighbor Leslie on Facebook for a while, and Andrea on Skype. Captain America came home at around 9:30pm, and I'm getting ready to load me store for the week. All in all, it was a great day :) Lots of fun!

Oh yeah, and I am now down 7 lbs! I went from 159 to 152 in a weeks time! Yeah me :) Only Wednesday and Thursday to go, before it's eat all I can see at the Birthday party -ROFL!

Another Wednesday! I got this idea after El Paso had 70-100 mph winds today. That's BIG winds. I looked out the back window at one point, and a big storage box went zipping by. Dang! All the chain link fences were filled with trash that had blown there. 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 the download. Thanks!

Don't Just Like, Love

Holy "Sleep In Past Your Alarm Clock" Batman! I usually get up a few minutes before 7am, and get the kids ready and out the door by 7:30am. I knew that I was gonna drive the kids to school, so I knew that the time frame could be a bit later, but I woke up at 7:30am. 7:30am!!!! I was SO late. I was supposed to meet Andrea for our shopping trip to the commissary at 7:45am. Um, yeah, I was gonna be late. Luckily, Tom and Eme were up and ready. Joe? Still in bed. I ran in his room, woke him up, got him dressed, and ready. Tom helped get everything going too. He was a superb helper.

I printed out my shopping list, and checked off the stuff we already had, and loaded up in the truck. I made sure that Jake was awake, and that Jimmy was situated, and headed out. Tom had his big Science project display board to turn in, and I wasn't gonna make the poor kid carry it all the way to school. So I drove them.

It was closer to 8 when I got to school. I ditched my truck, and Andrea and I went to the commissary in her rig. It's really the best time to go grocery shopping. No one is out yet. As long as your in line by 9am or a little past, it's perfect. No super long lines.

OMGosh, I have to tell you about this bagger. First off, all you non-military folks, let me explain about the baggers. At the Commissary (Military grocery store), they have baggers. They don't work per hour, but purely on tips. I've been told that I'm really cheap by my friends, but I give out $1 per $100 that I spend. So I give out a $2 tip. And when my husband goes up in rank, I'm gonna either add a doller, or double it. See, I have a plan to be more charitable. Baby steps, right?

So Andrea didn't get a lot of stuff, so she went to the self check out lane. Me? I had $200 worth of groceries, so I was in the regular line. They checked my food, bagged it, and loaded it to 2 push carts. Just like they always do. So the older lady bagging my stuff started out the door with only one cart.

Usually, they push both. They just do. Even if you offer to push one. So it kinda threw me that she just left it, not even asking or anything. I had to stop her, and tell her that I was with Andrea, and that she was still busy. She sighed real loud, made a mean face, and scooted off to the side to wait.

I was annoyed with her by this point. Don't make faces like that at people. That's just rude. So while I could have gone and got the keys, I was annoyed at this point. I just waited. And in turn, made her wait. And she just got more and more mad. At one point, she went into the breakroom to do who knows what. She was also tapping her to REAL loud. Do people even DO that?

About a minute before Andrea came over, she muttered under her breath, but loud enough for me and the guy next to me to hear, "I wish she'd hurry up". Oh no, she didn't! I couldn't believe she'd actually said it. HOW RUDE! I was really mad at this point. When I'd paid, I'd decided to give a bigger tip than usual. Just because I was feeling in the holiday spirit.

But after that rude display, I decided that the regular $2.00 tip was WAY too much for her. I should have given her nothing. So, Andrea gets done, and heads over. The lady grabs ONE cart, and heads out the door. So, since I don't wanna leave my groceries there, grab the other cart, and follow. Rude.

So she started unloading the groceries into the car, looking all the while TOTALLY mad. Mad that she has to be waiting on us. So when she's done, I give her 1/2 of what I usually give out. $1.00. I got in the truck, and she waked by Andrea, and looked at the tip, and shook her head with a disgusted look on her face. I'm still upset at that lady.

Usually, the baggers are nothing if not kind and wonderful. I don't know what was stuck up this ladies rear today, but OMGosh, she was not pleasant.

So Andrea drops me and my groceries off at my house, and we decided that we'll pick up my truck when we get the kids from school. I didn't need it anyway. So I have Jake help me carry in/put away the groceries, and we get ready for the next thing.

Andrea and I and Katy and Adela had kinda had a falling out of sorts. We weren't sure why, or what it was all about, but could feel a weird vibe in the group, and it was just getting worse by the day. We'd stopped hanging out or doing anything together, so we had planned a brunch at Andreas house to hash it out.

I made bagels with cream cheese, these REALLY yummy marshmallow/apple skewer thingys, banana nut muffins, and some homemade pizza. All in an hour. I was flying - LOL! My kitchen was a mess, but I got the things made/assembled, and Jim and Jake and I headed down to Andreas house. There was SO much food.

And the funny thing is, Andrea and I were on the diet for the 10 days, so we weren't even eating :) It sure smelled good, though. I'd brought my apples and yogurt, and some diet soda, and some diet jello. Not quite as good, but it would have to do.

I'd like to say that after talking, everything went back to the way it was before, but I don't think that was a realistic outcome. Things are better. And that's good. Better than they were before.

Adela left first, to get her hair done. Her hubby was coming back from a 3 month deployment on Friday. Katy stayed for a bit longer and hung out, then headed back home too. Andrea and I cleaned up, put away, and straightened up the house for a bit, then ate our lunch. Cheese and cucumbers. She showed me how she puts balsamic vinegar on her cheese, and OMGosh, it's SO good. Mozarella cheese, with just a little bit of balsamic. SO good.

We headed out to pick up the kids ataround 2:40pm. We swung by Ms Kims house to turn down the heat (she'd gone to Oklahoma for a few weeks to visit a friend), then off to school. We got the kids, and headed out to our respective houses. I REALLY wanted to clean for a while. My house was a bit messy, and needed some TLC.

I got home, got the kids some left over snacks from the "party", and directed chores to be done. I went in the downstairs bathroom, and detailed it. It looked sO much nicer. And I'd even bought new shampoo (32 oz - important for later in the blog) and body wash and such for the shower. The toilet, the floor, the countertop, and the mirrors all got washed down real good.

Next, I did a WHoLE bunch of dishes. That took forever. Next, I went into my room and cleaned it. I'd dumped all the laundry on my bed the day before, which got bumped to the floor that evening before bed. How do bedrooms get so messy so fast? Anyway, I cleaned it up, and it looked much better :)

Andrea had asked if I wanted to come with her at 5:45 to take her kids to piano. She just sits in the truck while they go in. I thought it sounded good. I had time to get the kids' dinner done (leftover spaghetti, salad, and quesidillas), and gave Joe and Jim a bath. They were muddy from playing outside.

SO, I hear this funny noise from the bathroom, and go to invistigate. OMGosh, they've TRASHED the bathroom! And I worked SO hard on it. I was SO mad. Madder than mad. The mean, yelling, angry mom surfaced :)

They'd filled the water ALL the way to the top, so of course its splashed ALL over the floor. About 1/2 inch deep. There's bubbles EVERYWHERE. You know that bottle of Shampoo I bought today? Yeah, that new one? That 32 oz one? That I bought big so that I wouldn't have to replace it for a very long time? Yeah, that one? Well, they dumped the WHOLE thing in the bathtub. THE WHOLE THING. And 1/2 a bottle of new body wash. And pulled down the shower curtain.

So I made them stand up, held the shower curtain up best I could, and made them shower off. With colder water. Because I was mad :) And I hoped that they'd remember what happens when you are naughty in the bathroom. Cold shower.

I managed to get most of the bubbles off of them, toweled them off, spanked their butts (yes, we're a spanking family), and made them put on their jammies. I tried my best to clean up the bathroom, but there was SO many bubbles. And those are hard to clean up. Very hard. It took 5 big towels to sop up all the water on the floor. But it looked sparkly clean, at least.

So, when Andrea showed up at my door at 5:45pm to get me, i was SO ready to go. I left Jake in charge, and went to Piano with Andrea. The boys went in, and she and I and baby Luke just sat in the suburban, and chatted. That's just what I needed.

We hashed out the details for my b-day party on Friday. I'm really getting excited for it. I know, very 4th grade of me, but I don't care. I'm excited!

We scheduled out our next 2 weeks, just so we didn't miss any fun. LOL! She had some doctors appointments coming up, and I said that I'd watch her kids for her. And we had scouts, and school dances (mother/son dance), parties, all sorts of stuff :)

We also planned the menu for the b-day party. We decided to cook a turkey! With mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce. I know, real original, right? But it sure will feed a crowd. Plus, it's the 1st day that we can "eat" again, so we're SO excited. She bought stuff to make turtle brownies, and we'll have pumpkin pie, and birthday cake, and punch.

We're asking all our friends to come and bring a side dish/dessert. We're gonna have SO much food, and we're gonna eat like there's no tomorrow :) ROFL! So, needless to say, I'm REALLY looking forward to Friday.

And my weight? I'm holding at 6lbs lost! I have a feeling I'm gonna be down on Tuesday morning. I weighed right before bed, and I was 153, only .2 lbs more than I was this morning. So I'm sure I"ll be less in the morning :) Yeah for me! See, it payed off not eating the food at the party! Yeah Andrea and I!

I got home at about the same time as Captain America. He was getting ready to go play basketball with some guys from work. So, he had time to change, read a story to the little boys and tuck them in, then left. Dang, the man is busy. He's such a hard worker.

I sat down and played on Facebook for quite a while, and got 3 1/2 of my 5 WordArt packs for the week designed. Not too bad. I have all day Tuesday to get them finished, then uploaded to my store. I can do it! I know i can :)

This WordArt request is from Lori. She saw it in an ad in the USA Today paper. It was really long, and had a bunch of good stuff inside, but I just pulled out the main point. Hope you like it!

Click on the links below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

4shared
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Christmas is Strange

Another Sunday down - hehehe. We were up at 7am, getting ready for the day :) Captain America had been up till 3am working on a work project, and still had more to do, so he stayed home from church. It was good timing, since Eme was coughing so bad, we figured it would be good for her to stay home too. My poor family :(

The other kids and I got to church by 8:45am, plenty of time to get a good seat - LOL. The kids did pretty good staying reverent, and headed off to classes after Sacrament meeting. November was my month to teach sharing time, so I was off the hook for December. Sweet. I just went, conducted, and had it mostly easy. Sure, I was busy-ish running errands and crowd controlling, and such, but it's so much easier than teaching :)

We were home by 12:30pm, changed clothes, and had lunch. And I went to take a nap. I was tired. I fell asleep listening to Eclipse on my MP3 player. I woke up at 2:00pm, and wanted to sleep more, but got up.

We all just kinda hung out for a few hours, and lazily did chores. I'd invited Andreas family over for dinner, and the house was mostly in order. Mostly :) I just couldn't seem to muster my "get up and go". hehehe. Just as I was about to put some rice on for dinner, I got ahold of Andrea, and she wanted to know if we could do it another day. While I was looking forward to company, I wasn't looking forward to finishing off cleaning, so it worked out perfectly.

We had dinner at 6:30pm, and the kids had fun playing with their dad. They were watching old SNL videos online, and laughing and having a good time. At bed time, Captain America got out all the favorite story books, and read them all to the kids. I video-ed him doing it, and I'll post them online at some point. That way, when Jimmy comes to me at bedtime saying "But mommy, I can't go to bed because Daddy hasn't read me my story yet", I can have him pick out one from online.

After Joe and Jim went to bed, Tom and I worked on his Science project. We'd been doing the experiment back before Thanksgiving, and all the parts were done. He just needed to assemble all the info into a cardboard presentation board. It really looked quite good when it was done.

At 9:30pm, I headed down to Andreas house to help her "pre-clean" for my birthday party. She'd spent the day re-arranging her bedroom, and you know how that goes. You spend so much time in one room, everything else slips a bit. We had SO much fun cleaning and chatting and hanging out. Her in-laws left Sunday morning, so she was in need of come company.

After it was all pretty and clean, we sat down and watched a movie together. "Baptists at the BBQ". It was pretty funny. I liked it :) hehehe.

So, here it is, 1:57am, and I'm ready for bed. Luckily I pre-blogged and designed MOST of this before I left. Up to the point where I left. Cause I'm good, but I can't really blog about stuff that hasn't happened yet. You know :) hehehe.

So my mom emailed me this Christmas quote, and thought I should WordArt it. Yes, Mom. Here it is :) See, I'm a nice, obedient child - LOL! Hope you guys like it too. My boys laughed and laughed and laughed when they heard it :) I don't know if they understood it, but they sure did laugh - ROFL!

Click on the links 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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2010 Primary Theme : Savior Lives

Yes! I got to sleep in this morning! I did wake up at around 7am when my watch alarm went off. My box fan had died. And it was so quite in my room. I don't like to sleep if it's too quiet. Because then I hear all the little random noises. I use my box fan as a white noise machine.

Anyway, I heard the kids out in the main part of the house on and off till about 9:45am, when I finally got up. I wasn't moving very fast, but I was awake. hehehe. Eme went over to the nieghbors house to play, and their son came over to play with my kids.

At around 11, Captain America woke up, and the friends went home, and Eme came back. We worked with the kids to get their chores done, and had lunch, and I made some "Magic Cookie Bars" for a product party I was going to at 2pm.

But it was a little different recipe than regular. It had oats, and peanut butter, and I didn't put in nuts. I"ll have to blog about it tomorrow. I'm not going in the kitchen to find the 2 recipes that I combined and tweeked. LOL! Anyway, they looked and smelled heavenly.

At 2pm, Andrea and I headed to the party. Our friend Chelsey from church was there too. I ended up spending WAY too much money, but had a great time :)

I got home at around 5pm. Captain America and the kids had gone to watch his unit move the launchers (missle launchers - HUGE) to the Hockey stadium. He thought the kids would like to see it. Then, they drove around the mountains for a while, and played at the park under the "star". Then they headed to the USO, had a TON of snacks, and played games/pool.

I got there at around 5:30pm, and stayed till around 6pm. Jake was playing a game on the Wii, and Captain America and Tom were playing pool. The little kids were eating snacks at a little table. I joined Captain America for one game of pool, then we headed out to dinner. (my kids had SO much fun putting dollars in the donate box - LOL)

We ate at the post Burger King, and I think everyone had a good time. I had 2 side salads, with just the meat from a double cheeseburger. Pressed hard in a napkin to get rid of the grease. I'm still burping up charbroilness - LOL!

Next, we headed out to the Hockey game. Here's the kids out front, by the Rhino

SGT Wagner, SGT Stokes, 1SG Stewart (guys Captain America works with)

PATRIOT PAC 2 (Captain America made me put this) Missile Launcher

We all had on our gloves and hats and scarfs and winter coats. It's cold in the stadium - LOL! The Rhions won (or I'm assuming, we left after 2nd quarter) 7-0. Yeah, it was pretty one sided :)

More Army Dudes, members of Charlie Battery

Jimmy didn't have gloves, so I shared :) If you look close, both of our hands are in the gloves - ROFL!

We came home, put kids to bed, and here I am. It's midnight, and I should go to bed. 7am is gonna come early tomorrow. But hey, that's still 7 hours. More than the 5 that I get too often :)

This WordArt request is from Lili. She wanted me to WordArt the 2010 Primary theme, "I Know My Savior Lives". So, here it is! I hope you all like it ;)

Click on the link below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

mediafire

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Mother

Another snow day. Can you believe the amount of snow we're getting here in El Paso? Craziness! You expect it from places like Central Illinois, and Chicago, and such. But El Paso? Sun City? The boarderland? Really? Snow? I'm not sure what I think about this. I kinda feel like I came here to dry out (from Oregon) and warm up (from Chicago). And at the moment, I'm doing neither. LOL!

So since I went to bed on Thursday night at 2am, I was SO tired when I woke up at 7:15am. I finally found the right site online, and confirmed that school was indeed delayed 2 hours. I checked my email, and changed all my prices in my store back to $2.50. That was no small task. But, it was done.

Andrea was on Skype, so we chatted for a few minutes, then kids were in my room, and wanting to go and play in the snow. By 7:45am, they were outside playing. At around 8:30am, I came out of my room (couldn't go back to sleep) and started fixing breakfast. Since we had more time, I made sausage and eggs.

Leslie's kids came over again, since she was in school. At about that time (9am), I retrieved my kids from outside, bathed them (well, the big ones do that on their own - hehehe), and got them ready for school. Captain America came home around then, and I drove Hunter to school (middle school starts 40 minutes before elementary school). When I got back, we cleaned up a little bit, then at 9:50, we took the other kids to school. Captain America was gone by then.

Jake got started on school, and was SO excited that all of his classes were easy for the day. Not much work in any of them. Jimmy and I went in my room, where I tried to go back to sleep. He watched some PBS cartoons, and I dozed. I finally dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 12:30pm.

I made sandwiches for the kids, cheese and cucumbers for myself, and cleaned up some more. You know what, no matter how much I clean, it's still always mess. I hate that - LOL! I worked on the bills for a while, and tried to figure out Christmas expenses.

At around 2pm, I headed out to the grocery store. When I went on Monday, I forgot to buy Captain America his apples for the week, so he'd been eating mine. And I'd only bought enough for me. SO, a trip to the store was in order. I also wanted to buy some chocolate for a dessert for a product party I was going to on Saturday. And needed to get some cash. My spending plan works well because you get out cash, put it in envelopes, and only spend that much for the month. My envelopes needed filled because it was the new month.

I texted Andrea to see if there was anything that she needed while I was there (Vitamin D milk), and headed out. It was SO crowded at the commissary, but luckily I only had a few things, and went to the self check out. The line was short. After shopping, I swung by (yeah, it's off post, so I don't know that it's really swinging by - LOL) Sonic and got Andrea and I each a Happy Hour drink. I just LOVE their ice. Freezing, snowing, and I want cold soda with ice. I know, I'm odd.

I swung by Andreas house, dropped off the milk, and picked her up. We were going to pick up the kids from school. We got everyone, loaded them in the truck, and headed out. By the time we got back home, it was almost 4pm.

I fed the kids a brief snack, and the kids and I headed down to the park. Our Friday routine. We watch Kayleys kids so she can "piano lesson" them. But dang, Jackson, it was frigid! Buzzy! Leigh, my neighbor, and her kids came to play too. And Andrea. And Jenica, a friend of ours who is moving. She'd gone to visit her family for a few weeks, and is now driving to Georgia, but stopped off in El Paso to visit.

We could only stay at the park for about an hour, since we were freezing so bad - hehehe. So we came home, and started cleaning again. It was SO messy. Earlier in the day, I'd swept all the 'things' into a pile, so that when the kids got home from school, it could be easily picked up. Someone (insert Jimmy) had run through the piles, and it was trashed again. Sigh. SO, I made the piles all nice and neat again, and waited for the big kids to come in from playing.

They worked on their rooms they were responsible, and the house looked MUCH better when they were done. I cooked my dinner, and theirs, at around 6pm. Noah, the neighbor kid, came over to play, and stayed until about 7:30pm.

I took a shower after he left, and got all pret-ty for Captain America. Nice jeans, a black sweater, make up, jewelry, perfume, big hair (LOL) Cause we were supposed to go on a date. But he wasn't home yet. Sigh. I put the kids to bed at around 8pm (Joe and Jim), and let Tom and Eme and Jake play on the computer. I sat down on the couch and played on the puter for a while. Facebook (Happy Aquarium, Happy Pets, even Farmtown), and then started blogging and designing.

It's now 9:05pm, and Captain America just texted saying he's coming home. It's a bit late to be going out. We're both tired. I wonder if we can make it to the dollar theater before the showing of Surrogates ends? That one looked interesting. Crap, just checked it, and it's 9:20. Don't think we'll make that one. But the Vampire's Assistant starts at 9:45pm. Maybe that one will work. Hurry home, Captain America. I'm ready for my date :)

OK, he just walked in the door, and I'm leaving on my date!!!! Woohoo :) See ya guys tomorrow :)

So, I'm trying something new. You know how on Sundays, I always have something for "Faithbooking", and WordArt Wednesday, you have to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file? Well, we now have Second Chance Saturday. I'm gonna go through my older WordArts, and give them a "make over". A second chance to be good - LOL! Because frankly, some of them SUCK! Seriously. I know that I was proud of them at the time, but now? Not so much - LOL!

This WordArt first came to us on February 7th of 2008. What a nice quote, but it was poorly done. Here's an updated version, and I'm sure that you'll all love it :) Click HERE to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

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Do I Look Like I Care?

Dang, 7am came WAY too early. Especially since I went to bed at 3am the night before. Definitely tired! I somehow managed to get my kids dressed, somewhat fed, ready, and out the door. I let Jake sleep in until 8ish, and I sat down on the couch to check my emails. It was fun looking through all the orders :) You guys rock!

It was a slow morning at home, and that was ok with me. I was still dragging. Oh yea! I forgot to tell you! So I started my diet on Monday morning, and I weighed 159.2 lbs. So, I weighed on Thursday morning, and I was 154.4 bls. That's almost 5 lbs!!! I'm SO winning the bet - LOL! It almost makes the "your body fat is being eaten away from the inside out" feeling worth it - LOL! Hunger pains suck. But you know, my stomach isn't growling, so I know mostly it's in my head. It's my body throwing a fit, wanting to make me eat things and amounts that I'm not supposed to. See here, body. I'M in charge, not you :)

I'm not sure what all we did in the morning, but it seemed to pass quickly. Andrea and I were texting and Skyping back and forth all morning long. AND, I got a shower. I know, miracle of miracles. See, I'd bought this cute new red scarf on Wednesday, and I wanted to wear it. SO, I had to take a shower and get all pret-ty!
And that sweater? Yep, it's the one that I bought for Eme yesterday at the Dollar Tree. hehehe. I just put a long sleeve white shirt under it, and it worked perfectly. The bracelet, earrings, and scarf were a dollar each. What a cheap outfit.... I LOVE it :)

So eventually it was lunch time, and I cooked the kids lunch, and Andrea came to pick me up, and we headed out on some errands. First errand? Lunch at Chick Fil A. Yeah, my kids got to eat lunch out yesterday, and I just sat and watched. It was my turn to eat - LOL! I got the Southwester Grilled chicken salad. Mmmmmm, tasty! I left off the dressing, and the croutons, and chips, and just ate the salad/cheese/tomatoes/carrots/salsa (with corn and beans- very small amount). It as quite tasty. And a soda, of course. Diet Dr Pepper. I've fallen off the No Caffiene wagon, I'm afraid. I think I can only change one bad habit at a time, and if I'm dieting, then I can't concentrate on the No Caffiene thing. Baby steps, right?

After lunch, we went to Vitamin World to get Captain Americas vitamins. He's found a MIRACLE cure for his on again off again breathing problems here in El Paso. Quercetin and bromelain. They're vitamins. He takes a certain combo of them 3 times a day, and has NO problems breathing. I'm SO glad he found something that works :) A lot of people have a hard time breathing in El Paso. BAD air.

After the mall (where Chick Fil A and Vitamin World were), we headed out on some errands. Andrea had to stop by the library, and return a few books, and pay a fine. I sat in the truck with the baby, since he'd fallen asleep. I had my MP3 player in my purse, so spent some time listening to Eclipse. Next, it was on to the Post Office. Again, sat in the truck with the baby and listened to Eclipse. I didn't mind at ALL! hehehe.

Finally, it was on to the commissary, so Andrea could get Birthday Candles for Sam's cake. We got home at 2:30pm, and I told her that I'd pick up the kids today so she had more time to prepare for the family birthday party. She seemed very grateful.

I went home to my kids for about 1/2 an hour, then took Jimmy and headed out to the school. It was a super cold day, for El Paso. After having SUCH hot weather all summer, I find myself freezing here when it gets below 60. I know, I'm a wimp, says you folks in the frozen north. Whatever! It's COLD here :)

We picked up Joe and Eme and Tom, and Ben. Sam was staying for Extra PE class, so we headed home. We found Hunter and Braxton (Leslie's kids) walking home, and picked them up as well. Can't let perfectly good seats in a warm truck on a cold day go to waste, right? LOL!

I dropped off Leslie's kids at her house, then Ben at Andreas house. She showed me Sams cake, which was really fun! Great job, mom! I like it :)

I came home, and got the kids a snack, and made them do their chores, and went and laid down in my room with Jimmy. I was SO tired. I ended up sleeping from 4-5:15, and Jimmy too. I got up, and snuck out of the room. I had to make cookies for the Pack meeting, which started at 6:00pm. Crap. I should have got up a few minutes earlier. But the nap felt SOOO good :)

So, I had a package of chocolate chunks in the cupboard, so I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. Remember when I complained that I didn't know how to make them that looked pretty? Well, a few of you emailed me with your recipe, and I picked on of you, Mandi, and tried her recipe. OMGosh, they were fantabulous! Girl, I LOVE that recipe :) Here it is :

1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter

Cream together for 2 minutes.
Add:

2 eggs
1 TBLS. vanilla

Beat for 5 more minutes
Add:

3 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 pkg. chocolate chips

Bake @ 350 degrees for 10 minutes

They will look not done at 10 min. don't over cook. I really think it makes a difference to cream the ingredients for that amount of time. Hope they work out for you. Have fun making them! Mandi.

So, I followed the instructions to a tee, and guess what? Fabulousness. Seriously. Check out the pic that I took of them.

They were perfect. All the way done, soft, gooey, no burnt parts, no thinning and crispy parts. Absolutely wonderful. Thanks again, girl! You ROCK!

Captain America called, and wanted me to bring his scout uniform to the pack meeting. He was leading it, so needed to be in uniform, and didn't have time to come home. Jim was still asleep, so I asked Jake if he minded staying home. He said he wanted to get online and play with the Uncles, anyway. I was SO glad that I didn't have to wake up the sleeping child - LOL :)

So Joe, Eme, and Tom and I headed out to the pack meeting. Dang, it was cold. Winter jackets were definitely in order. We got there, and Captain America was already there, and a ton of other parents too, just not the one with the key. LOL!

We finally got in, and got started. I have SO much fun at Cub Scouts because Andrea comes too. We have such a great time together :) Captain America led the Pack Meeting, and did a great job. Good job, honey! I'm proud of you! Here's Joe getting a bead.


After the pack meeting, the kids all gorged themselves on cookies (yeah, there was a TON of cookies), then we all loaded up (my family and Andreas), and headed out to McDonalds for Ice Cream. And it was snowing. What? I thought it was supposed to be in the 60's right now. This is DEFINITELY not in the 60's. Definitely.

Andrea stopped by her house and picked up Sam (who didn't come to the pack meeting), and I stopped by my house to pick up Jim and Jacob. Jim was awake, and I thought they'd have fun at McDonalds.

We got to McDonalds, and since the kids just got a hot dog for dinner, I decided to give them a choice of McDonalds food. They could have one item. The kids from the pack meeting could NOT choose ice cream, since all of the cookies. The ones that stayed home (although they did get a cookie in the truck on the way to McDonalds) could choose ice cream.

Eme and Jim picked a hamburger. Jake and Tom picked a McChicken. Joe wanted a parfait, and I got one for Jimmy too, since he'd just woken up, and missed his hot dog. Me? I hadn't had time to fix dinner since I woke up so late from my nap (yes, 15 minutes is SO late from my nap, thank you very much. I run a tight schedule, don't ya know!), so I ordered a side sald. And 2 McDoubles. I took off the buns, and the cheese, and dabbed all the grease out of the burger, and sherdded 3 of the 4 patties over my salad. There's my protein, and my veggies. Close enough, right? And an apple. Captain America had brought me one from home. What a sweet man.

Here's Andrea and I at McDonalds. I think my phones camera was dirty. Cause it was really blurry :)


Andrea and Captain America and I sat around and chatted, while the kids terrorized McDonalds. Luckily there weren't very many people there. It had started snowing a lot harder. When we first got there, the kids ran to the playland, but within 5 minutes they closed it, because it was snowing harder. And Jim and Joe had TAKEN OFF THEIR SHOES!!! What? In an outside playland in the snow. Sigh. So I moved them all inside.

We left, and came home, and Captain America went back to work. Poor guy. Works so hard :) I put the little kids to bed, and read them a story. I said that I was gonna read them "The Red Carpet", but Jimmy wanted "The Small Pig". I found another story that I hadn't read yet, and wanted that one. Jimmy said "OK, mom, I'll read "The Small Pig" to you!".

So, he sat down, and opened up the book, and seriously, started reading it. OK, so it wasn't really reading. He'd memorized the words from his dad telling him the story. He even used the same silly voices that his dad used. Like the SSSSSSSsssss of the snake, and the "Southern Belle" accent of the Farmers Wife. I stopped him after 3 pages, and ran for the video camera. Luckily, he felt like playing along, and started over.

I capture the WHOLE thing on tape. 5 minutes of him "reading" his favorite story. It was precious. I'm in the process of uploading it, and will link it here when it's done. He's SO precious!

I sent Joe and Eme and Jake to bed after that, and sat down at my computer to do something productive. I kept getting distracted with things like Happy Aquarium and Happy Pets (or whatever it's called), but did get a bit of work done.

Captain America got home at 10:30pm, and wanted to park the car in the garage. I went out to help him rearrange the junk so that the car would almost fit. We moved it, then he dusted off the thick layer of snow blanketing his car, and we pulled it in. If fit! But just barely. hehehe. It'll be nice for him to get in the car in the morning and be able to quickly go to work, rather than dealing with scrapping off all the snow.

I showed him the Jimmy video, and my "these balls are huge" photo and story from yesterday. He laughed and laughed. He said it reminded him of an old AC/DC song, Big Balls, and, of course, had to find the video on YouTube for me to watch. Too funny :) So that, of course, launched us into video after video of AC/DC. Blast from the past for Captain America - hehehe.

So here it is, 12:30am, and I'm tired. And I still have to design. And it's still snowing. I wonder if they'll delay school again, or just cancel it? That would be nice. A LONG weekend would be nice :) We'll see. It's supposed to snow up till 5am. And here I thought I lived in Sun City - ROFL!

Ha! I'm getting fast! This one was done in 9 minutes :) Designed, saved, and preview made. See, I'm lightning fast again! Even tired - LOL! I guess I'm feeling frisky, cause here's an attitude WordArt for you all!

Click on the links 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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Dancin' Shoes

Dude, so I TOTALLY missed the boat with promoting this sale. Yes, I suck. I know :) I think it's just because we came off of the Farmers Market sale, and now, BOOM, here's another one. When they were asking who wanted what day for the sale, I said, just put me down for any day. Mistake. My sale is only like 3 days after Farmers Market. Oh well, live and learn.

SO, after that little negative tirade, check out this COOL sale that we're having - ROFL! Each day till Christmas, we have a different designer having a ROCKIN' sale. And guess what? Today is mine! All my wordart packs are only $1.25. I know, not quite as good as a buck, but practically! I was only allowed to up it on sale for 50%. And $1.00 is 60% off. LOL! What can ya do? I'm trying :)

Check out this cool ad that Kami made of us : See me, I'm WAY up there at the top - hehehe.

So, from right now, all day Thursday, and until I wake up in the morning on Friday and get the kids to school (I'll try and be slow - ROFL!), my store is on sale. So, on your marks.,...... get set....... GO!!!! Click HERE to go to my store.

AND, I even have some new products out this week, which you can pick up for $1.25 a pack! See, I'm good :) LOL. Click on the image below to go to the product in the store.

Wow, today was draining. Captain America got up and left for work, and at around 5:30am texted me. Dude, not at 5:30am when my phone is right next to my head. I tried. I really tried to go back to sleep. But it wasn't working. Finally, I grabbed my headphones, and listened to Jacob and Edward and Bella in Eclipse for the next few hours. I dozed off here and there, but I just rewinded it a bit, and it was all good.

I was up at 7am, getting kids ready for school. Breakfast and homework and clothes and teeth and shoes and backpacks and hats and coats and out the door they went. Oh yeah, first, we drew names for Christmas. Geeze, I'm having a hard time remembering what I've told you and what I haven't... So we decided that instead of each family memeber going to the Dollar Tree and spending a dollar on each family member, we'd just pool all the money that would have been spent on me, and one person will draw my name, then get me a $6.00 present. Make sense?

Joe got Tom, and Tom got Joe. Eme got Captain America, Captain America got Jake, Jake got Me, I got Jim, and Jim got Eme. I think that's everyone. Dang, that's a lot to keep straight. LOL!

7:30am, and they were gone. I got Jake going with school, and Jimmy situated with a project (ok, so it was tv, but a project sounds SO much better, don't you think?), and I got myself ready for the day. I had a TON of errands to run, and I thought I'd invite Andrea to come with me. She makes everything more fun :)

We headed out at around 8:30 or so. Maybe 8:45am. Can't quite remember. First, we went to the post office. I bought 2 books of stamps for my Christmas cards. That means 40 people. We've gotta go hash out our list, and decided who's been "naughty and nice". ROFL!

Next, we drove up by the hospital, looking for building 7772. We knew it was by the Bradly building. But we didn't know what the Bradly building was. LOL! I looked online, and it talked about a new building by Beaumont (the Army hospital), so I assumed it was up there. We asked the gate guard, and he said that the Bradly building was near the ER. I knew where that was.

So Andrea dropped me off at the front, and the little man at the info desk showed me right where to go. It WAS right next to the Bradly building. hehehe. I gave the nice woman at the desk Toms paperwork for Speech, and she made photocopies of everything, then sent me back to talk with the referral lady. She said that they'd send me a letter letting me know the insurances decision. So now I just wait.

I headed back to the parking log, and was texting Andrea to come and get me when she pulled up. Dang, woman! You've got crazy mad skills!

Next, we headed to Big Lots. And here the view of the mountains from the parking lot. Margaret. This pic is for you!

It was 9:30 by now, so we were pretty sure it was open. We were looking for Christmas stuff for Ryan (Andrea's hubby who's in Iraq) for a package. She wanted to get him a little tree, and some Holiday Cheer. They had a TON of good stuff.

Also, Andrea's son, Sam's teacher was putting up a tree in the classroom, and wanted it to be patriotic in theme. So Andrea bought some red and blue and silver ornaments. Plastic ones. So cool! What a great idea. (Come to find out, later, after school, that when Andrea gave the ornaments to the teacher, the teacher was like, oh, well, I don't want it to look like a Christmas tree, so those ornaments don't really work. I just want REAL patriotic ones. Are You Kidding Me??? What part of "decorating a tree" doesn't scream Christmas to you. Who cares if they have flags on it. It's still an ornament on a tree. It's gonna look like a Christmas tree. Who has a tree in their house for normal, anyway? I just couldn't believe the teacher. How rude.)

We found (gee, I hope my kids don't read this) a Guitar Hero for the Wii, with the guitar, and the game, for only $39. I thought it was a fabulous deal. My mom is getting my kids a Wii for xmas, did I tell you? We bought all the extra crap that goes with it, and a few games, so we should be set. I found a cooling thingy for my laptop, too. Only $13.00. Not sure how it works, but I'll give it a try. I got a few other things, and we headed to the next store.

Fallas Parades is a discount store, and is mainly Hispanic run, or so I can tell. Spanish music on the radio, everyone in there, it seems, speaks Spanish. GREAT deals, though. I found a Nurf gun for Jimmy for $5.99, and some extra darts for $2.00. OK, so I know I went over on him. But I did split the darts between him and Tom, so really it was only $0.50 that I went over - LOL!

Next, we drove to WalMart. Andrea had to get something, but it slips my mind now. I got powder and body wash for Captain America, some powdered sugar, and we found these AWESOME fakie Nerf guns, Tommy Guns, that hold 20 darts, for only $9.00. SWEET! They were originally $21.75 or something like that. I got one for Tom (from "The Big Guy") and Andrea got one for Sam for his Birthday. Which is on Thursday.

So I was supposed to meet Captain America at home at 11:15am so we could go to the mall to get his vitamins and then lunch at Chick Fil A, but I didn't even leave WalMart (on the East side, a good 10 minutes, at least, away), until 11:15am. But, he ended up calling, and canceling lunch. He was SO busy at work.

So after I got home, and go the kids all ready, we headed back out again. I drove to a different WalMart to look for Wii games. The first WalMart didn't have a $10 section. I ended up getting 3 Wii games for $10 each. Duck Shoot (or something akin to that), some Fantasy game, and Space Monkey. Anyone have those?? Are they good? We also got Star Wars Force Unleashed (online, it's not here yet) and Star Wars Lego (online too). Good? And, see how tricky I am. I did this second trip with kids!

So after Walmart, we went to the McDonalds inside the Walmart for the kids to eat. I'd grabbed cucumbers and cheese before I left the house. Cause I'm being super good on my diet. And I don't need a McChicken, or fries, or a parfiet. I can do just fine with a diet soda. Unfortunately, no one was there to slap me for drinking caffiene. Luckily, I only had one giant soda. Not 3. Not even 2. One. One may be good :)

After lunch, we headed over to Walgreens to pick up my Christmas cards that I'd printed out the day before, then just never got around to picking them up. Fantastic, as usual. LOVIN' Walgreens photo lab :)

Then, it was on to the Dollar Tree. I wanted to see if they had a charger for Eme's MP3player. She lost hers, and I know that my dad picked up one at his Dollar Tree, but ours didn't have it. Maybe he can get us one and send it out. It's the same cord as my EHD, but I'm not really wanting to give it up to the 8 year old who lost the 1st one, know what I mean?

We ended up getting a few really pretty Christmas decorations, some silly string for Andrea for her son, a broom, a dust pan, some bows, and a few sweaters. I KNOW! They had a clothes section. Seriously, I think they were donated from someone, because I swear, on of the tags has some kids name written on it - ROFL! BUT, they did have a cute pink hoodie zip up for Eme, a sleeveless pull over sweater for her, and a Christmasy Sweater for Jimmy. Can't beat a buck, right?

After the Dollar Tree, we headed home. It was getting close to school being over time. I dropped off the silly string at Andreas house, and we made plans to go to Target after the kids got home. She went off to pick them up, and I went home to quickly design up a tag for Sam's Birthday goodies. LIke I made for Tom. Just not Halloween. hehehe. It took longer than I thought, and I was just sending it to Walgreens when Andrea and mom and kids arrived. Mom was taking the boys to shop for Andrea, and I was there to keep her busy while they shopped. SO sweet :)

So we went to Target, and browsed around. We looked at Christmas stuff, and toys, and electronics, and the dollar section.

So while in the Christmas section, we see these tree skirts, and decide that they'd make great capes. And of course, and Andrea models one for us. Pret-ty!

So we round the corner, still looking at the Christmas stuff. See, we've been looking at ornaments, and the bulbs/balls for quite a while. Tiny ones. To fit on Ryans little tree. SO, I see these GINORMOUS balls, and practically yell at Andrea, "Those balls are HUGE!". After it came out of my mouth, I turned red, and almost wet myself. Did I really just shout that at Target? O....M.....Gosh! We about died laughing. So, in honor of my big mouth, we took this picture!
See, now you KNOW you are glad you don't live close enough to come and play. Because we're embarrassing like that :P But you've got to admit, those ARE some big balls. Seriously. Who has a tree that big?

I ended up getting 3 pairs of dollar socks. One for me now (purple with a penguin), one for my stocking (green/red/white/gold striped), and one for Jimmy's stocking (Red CARS). Then, we headed off to the Jewelry Box. It's all in the same mall. I just love that store. I just got 3 things, since we were gonna come back next Friday after our weigh in.

I did find a red scard, and red earrings, and a red bracelet. I'm TOTALLY gonna wear it tomrrow. They're SO cute :)

Mom and the kids called soon, and we met them at the truck. We stopped by Walgreens to pick up the baggie toppers, then they dropped me off, and I hid more of my packages in the bedroom, and started on dinner. I cooked up some Ramen noodles. I don't usually buy them, because everyone here LOVES them, and they're not the best thing to be eating. But every once in a while. Every couple of months. Right? That's not bad.

I made my stir fry, then directed the kids to do their chores. They got quite a bit accomplished before Scouts/Activity days. Andrea came to pick them up at 6:45pm, and I was left with just Joe. Where's Jim, you ask? He'd gotten in trouble earlier for being mean, and I laid him down in my closet with a pillow and blanket in the dark. His room is too light, and my bedroom was full of packages and toys and bags. So the closet it was. Well, he fell asleep.

Anyway, after the kids left, I went in my room, and started wrapping presents. Jimmy, of course, woke up. He'd been asleep for about an hour. I kicked the little boys out, and wrapped. They kept peeking under the door, and giving me a blow by blow play of what I was doing. Finally, I was able to push a box in front of the door so they couldn't peek under it :)

I wrapped up the Wii games, and some movies from the day after Thanksgiving sale, and some jammies, and some Wii accessories, and my gift to Jimmy, and had the boys put them under the tree. They were SO enthralled with the whole process. We've never had presents under the tree. We've always had a toddler, or someone who would trash it. It's kinda nice to have a 4 year old, who is, for the most part, good with things. The trees been up for about a week, and no one has tipped it over yet. Knock on wood.

Andrea brought the kids back around 8:30/9pm, and we chatted for a few minutes. Jacob wanted to show her this really cool new RC helicopter that he'd bought at WalMart with his babysitting money. It really flies. Sure, it crashes pretty hard, but he was REALLY happy with it, as a toy.

So Andrea goes home, and I put the kids to bed. I start working on my Christmas card list, then realize that I have to go and change the prices on my store. Manually. Almost 400 of them. Dang! Changed all the prices from $2.50 to $1.25. And I must say, a few of the bigger packs got changed to $1.25 also. It was taking too long - LOL

Andrea came over to borrow a stapler, to attach the baggie topper to the baggie, and we got distracted on the computer. Her Dad-in Law came looking for her an hour later. Oops. Now we were in trouble - LOL!

It was around 10:30pm, and Captain America was still not home. I started working on something, then Andrea was on Skype, so we started chatting. She was baking cookies for Sams goodie bags, and I was 1/2 working on a project, 1/2 blogging. Captain America came home after 11pm, and looked SO tired. Poor man. He is always so busy. And we were complaining about trainings. They looked easy compared to this. But at least hes happy doing what he's doing. Army life suits him just fine. What a good man.

He went to bed, and I plugged along. Andrea and I started chatting again at around 1am (yes, I know, I should have gone to bed). And now, here it is, 2:25am, and I've still yet to design anything. I blogged about my day. Even with pictures. But no WordArt. I'll see what I can design real quickly for ya. Be right back......

OK, here I am again. 2:35am. Not too bad, eh? Here's your WordArt for today. I take no responsibility for any typos, or just plain dumbness. LOL! This works, 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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Friends 4 Ever

Day 2 of my diet is over. Dang, it was a long one. We had a 2 hour snow delay (I KNOW, crazy!), but my kids were up SO early. Plus, Captain Americas battery had a phone recall from 4-6 or something like that, so his phone kept ringing. They had to have phone contact with everyone in the batter, then Captain America was supposed to make the call to the commander. I had the hardest time going back to sleep. Then Joe and Jim and Eme were up at 6:15, and kept coming in my room. Finally, I just put my headphones in, and listened to Bella and Jacob and Edward in New Moon. Ahhhh, I might not have been sleeping, but it was definitely restful :)

I got up at 7:30ish. Got kids fed, and they went out to play. We also watched the Doctor Who Thanksgiving Special, the Waters of Mars. OMGosh, it was good. Scary water monster people.

Leslie, my neighbor, had her kids come to my house in the AM before school. She had class, and I told her to let them come over, and I'd make sure they got to school on time. The kids played around a bit, and left at 9:10am. They all walked together, and I think, had fun.

Laurie and I went to the gym at 11 something. I did the elliptical for 20 minutes, and the treadmill for 10. Not the biggest of workouts, but hey, it was a workout. And it was more than yesterday. So I was pleased with that.

I got home, fed my kids, had lunch myself, and designed for a while. I needed some more WordArt packs for the week. Really, the day was all about trying to not think about food. Cause I was hungry. But I did good, and didn't eat things not on the menu.

I got my stuff together to run some errands, and went out to the truck, but it was stone dead. Someone had left the lights on inside. Crap! There was no power whatsoever. I texted Andrea, and she said that after school she'd come and jump my truck. Thank Goodness!

I worked on the budget for a while, and soon it was time for the kids to be home. Andrea came shortly after that. My truck was SO dead. It had to sit with jumper cables for 30 minutes before it would turn over. Man, that's not good.

I let it run for 45 minutes, just to make sure it was super charged up. I decided to do my errands on Wednesday. I cooked Sausage and Eggs for the kids, and REALLY wanted some. It smelled SO good, and I was SO hungry. I made my stir fry, which I ate with crackers, and ate my apple, then sat down to watch Survivor with the kids. We watched episodes 7 and 8. Russell kinda grows on you after a while, I think.

So I designed, and blogged, and put the kids to bed, and now what to do. It's 8:42 pm, Captain America is still at work, kids are asleep, the WHOLE kitchen is stocked with food. The chocolate chunks are calling my name. Or the granola bars. Or the cereal. Or a PBJ. Or some popcorn. But no, I'm not gonna do it. I just drank another BIG cup of Herbal Peppermint tea, and I think I'm gonna go hide in my room. With the audio version of Eclipse. Because Twilight won't make me fat.

WordArt Wednesday Again! How does it keeping sneaking up on me? And where, may I ask, has the whole year gone??? How can it be December already??? Sigh. hehehe.

So do you like this one? I have some Page Corner WordArt Packs coming out tomorrow, and I thought I'd give you a little preview. Cool, eh?

Anyway, Click HERE to go to scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember, you need to be logged into the gallery in order to get the download :)

Dude, we look SO funny in this picture, the longer I look at it. Captain America's eyes are a bit creepy, and I just look odd. ROFL!

Accidentally On Purpose

So it was an interesting day on Monday :) I got up at 7am, hurriedly got the kids ready for school, and sent them off on their way. Bundled up, because it was SO cold outside. And drizzly. But just a little bit. Not the soaking kind, at least. Or else I would have driven them.

Andrea and I went grocery shopping shortly after that. It's always more fun to shop with friends, even if it's just for food. Or is that especially if it's for food :) LOL! We met up with Laurie 1/2 way through, and stopped to chat for a while in the water/juice isle - hehehe. Really, 7:30am-8am is the PERFECT time to go to the commissary. No one is there :)

So we finished up, and paid, and loaded up her truck, and headed home. It was getting chilly, and sprinkling a bit more. We decided to put our groceries away, and go for a walk. Because did I tell you about our diet goal? I thought I did, but I don't think I did :)

Andrea and Laurie and I decided to go back on my original diet for the next 10 days, until my birthday party on the 11th. We weighted ourselves this morning, and that's our starting weight. We're gonna weigh ourselves on the 11th, and see who loses the most weight. By doing the diet. Not just not eating, cause that's cheating - LOL! We're all 3 of us gonna go to "The Jewelry Box" and pick out 6 things, then put them all in "the pot". The person who loses the most weight gets "the pot". I'm excited!

So, today I weighed, and I was 159.2. Sigh. Just 2 months or so ago, I was 140. See, I can't control my eating. I NEED to be on a program. Lack of self control. But I know that it comes off fast with this eating plan. I've seen it work. I know it works. I just have to keep the food out of my mouth :)

Anyway, Andrea and I wanted to walk. But it was SO cold. And my stroller was getting all wet, cause I'd left it outside. Because we live in El Paso. Sun City. Not rain city. That's Florence, Oregon, where I lived last year - ROLF!

SO, we decided to go to the gym instead. Bleh! I hate the gym. It's hard to stay motivated. I get SO bored.

Anyway, I walked down to Andreas house, and IT WAS SNOWING!!! What? I live WHERE? I thought I left Chicago long ago? It's SO not supposed to snow in El Paso. Super huge flakes, but it wasn't sticking. Good thing we decided to go to the gym. We'd have been snowmen by the time we were done walking :)

I did the treadmill for 10 minutes, and the eliptical for 10 minutes. I know, I suck. But it's better than nothing. I think my legs and butt are gonna be sore on Tuesday, though. If we go again tomorrow, I'm bringing my MP3 player and listening to Twilight: New Moon. That'll make the time fly!

We got home at lunch time, and I fed the gang. I had my cucumbers and cheese, Jake had a hamburger, and Jimmy had a hot dog. With fruit. And I think, some carrots. I don't remember what they ate - LOL! Food. It was definitely food :)

I spent some time on the computer, watching a Scooby Doo movie with Jimmy at the same time. We both almost fell asleep (LOL!), but held off :)

Andrea came to pick me up at 3pm, to go and get the kids. The snow was sticking by this time. Wet, but sticking. It was nasty out there. BIG flakes. I picked up some Speech paperwork from the school, and got the kids. Joe slipped and fell in the muddy snow, and got his pants SUPER trashed, so I made him ride in Ms Andreas truck with no pants. Good thing he was wearing undies - ROFL! My kids know my standing rule. If you get SO dirty that you're gonna mess up my vehicle (or that of my friends), you've gotta go pants-less (or shirt-less). hehehe.

So we get home, and the kids play outside in the little bit of snow that's sticking. Really, it's pretty pathetic, compared to the snow we got in Chicago and Southern Ohio. But it's a lot for El Paso.

I stole some pics from my neighbors facebook account. Beautiful, eh? This is her son and her house. (It looks just like my house, only reversed, and without the pretty decorations)

See my truck and my swing set!!!

Here's the neighborhood

So while it's not what you in the frozen north are used to, it's still snow. It's supposed to be 65 at this time in El Paso. The schools are running on a 2 hour delay on Tuesday. Crazy, eh? When we lived in Chicago, we didn't have a single snow day. Seriously. We had the same snow on the ground for 6 weeks, but they didn't cancel school. Their snow plows rocked. Or sucked, depending on which side of the "cancel school" issue you were . hehehe.

After the kids came in from the "snow", I made homemade hot chocolate for them. It smelled SO good, but I resisted. I must admit, I hid in my room for most of the evening. I can't resist the food this early in my diet, so I have to hide. I took a nice, relaxing bath for a while too. That helped.

I reheated the turkey noodle thing I'd made yesterday, and fed it to the kids. Let me tell you, they were ecstatic -not. They'll be glad that it's gone tomorrow, and they can eat something else. Waste not, right?

I designed 2 WordArt packs, and listened to more New Moon. I played on Facebook, and checked my friends' blogs, and just wasted some time :) I went in and put Jimmy and Joe to bed at 7ish. They both wanted Mommy snuggle time, which was nice. Eme, Jake, and Tom were put to bed at 8:30ish, and Captain America didn't get home till 9:30ish.

I'm hoping that tomorrow is a better "food" day. Not that I didn't eat good today, because I did. But it was hard. And I thought about food a lot. Only a few more days, and I'll be over the hump. Wish me luck, girls!

Dumb computer. It's been having issues lately. Probably because I use it too much. 4-8 hours a day, for almost a year. Yeah, it's getting old. I'm saving up to buy a new one. This one shuts itself off when it gets too hot. I need to get one of those cooling fan things. I saw one at Big Lots for 12 bucks. Maybe I'll go check it out soon...

So while watching TV tonight (I know, I usually don't watch it, but since this diet thing is TOTALLY kicking my butt, I needed more distractions), I saw this new show called "Accidentally On Purpose". Don't know what the show is about, so much, but I thought the title was hilarious. My kids do things "Accidentally on purpose" all the time :)

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

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Power in Numbers

I must say. It was a WONDERFUL Sunday :) I think I did everything I wanted to do :)

Kids got up, got showered/bathed, got ready, and we got to church on time. The kids sat mostly nice for Sacrament, and Primary went well. I did sharing time, and it was well received. We learned all about service, and how we, as a family, can serve others. I think the older primary kids got more out of it than the younger one - hehehe.

We got home a little after noon, and had lunch. I took some of the leftover turkey, ground it up in my new food chopper, added Miracle Whip, and had a sandwich. Just like tuna, but with turkey. I put it on bread, and added a layer of homemade cranberry sauce. Soooooooo tasty :)

After everyone ate, we hung out for a little while, and Captain America was actually home early. He was home by 1:15pm. Dang! At around 2pm, we got the kids situated with a movie, and we went to take a nap. I was SO tired. After staying up late so many nights in a row, I needed a nap.

I actually slept for a few hours. I felt pretty good when I woke up. At 4pm, I went out, and started to get ready for dinner. We were going over the Kayleys house. Andrea, and Laurie, and a few other girls from church were all gone come together for dinner. Bringing our Thanksgiving leftovers. SO much fun :)

I turned my leftover turkey into noodles/soup, and reheated the mashed potatoes, and baked a pound cake. And brought the cranberry sauce. We got there a little after 5pm. SO much fun! I have 5 kids, Kayley has 4, Laurie has 4, Chelsey has 2, Heather has 2, Jessica has at least 1, and Andrea only brought one of hers. That's 7 moms, at least 19 kids, and Captain America. ROFL! All the other guys are deployed :) But I think he had fun too. But let me tell you, the volume level was LOUD! hehehe.

What a great idea, for us all to get together. Because I can tell you, Sundays are the hardest when your husband is gone. Because everyone else has their families, and are busy. When Captain Americawas at trainings, Sundays were definitely the longest day of the week. Hopefully the idea will stick, and we'll get together more often :)

We got home at 7ish, I put the little kids to bed, and I chatted on the phone with Andrea for bit. Chelsey came over at 8 to borrow the first 2 Twilight books. She stayed and chatted for about 30 minutes.

I put the older kids to bed, and here I sit. Blogging, Facebooking, and listening to New Moon on the MP3 player. Life is good :)

I really liked the way this WordArt turned out :) Hopefully you can find something good to scrap with it. Like pictures of kids ganged up on their Dad - ROFL!

Click on the links 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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