Expect the Unexpected

Life is so crazy. Jake was at the hospital for 14 days, and on the 15th day, just when we thought that they were for sure gonna keep him for their Residential Treatment Center summer program, we got a call at 2pm saying to come pick him up... He was coming home. Apparently he was doing SO well that he was to be discharged.

Model resident. Kind. Caring. Never caused a problem. Leadership. Helpful. Understand. Glowing reports from both therapist and psychiatrist. Because he's a smart kid. Aspies are, you know.

I picked him up and was home with him 4pm. And then we had Joe's baseball game at 5:30pm and Tom's last baseball game at 7:oopm and the end of the season party. LONG night. Jake did well, but I think it was too much for him. I blame PEAKS, because it was dumped on us last minute.

So by the time we got home, everyone was tired. But I don't think that we quite realized it. We were not prepared with a spot for Jake yet. His room was not ready. So when he started in on a melt down, we had no where to send him yet. So it escalated. And escalated. And soon, CPT and I were both a$$holes and we couldn't make him do anything, and he wasn't going to budge from the couch. Sigh. I was regretting picking him up. An hour later, and we finally managed to convince him to go to his no emptied out and cot fitted room. Exhausted.

Morning brought new perspective. A little, anyway. But CPT had his feeling hurt. Jake had said many mean things. And CPT has very sensitive feelings. I'm not sure how to help him when dealing with Jake. I'm really not. We are going camping in just a few hours. And I'm a bit afraid. We will be about 3 hours from home. In the woods. With 5 kids. Wish us luck...

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Let The Countdown Begin Freebie

I was looking at the calendar today, and realizing how close it is till the end of school! Only a few more days, really! School for our kids is the 6th of June, I think. Early release this Friday. And no school on Monday! Holy crap!

Anyway, busy and fun day today. I met Laura at Starbucks at 8:30am. My choices were limited, since I don't do coffee or real tea (ha!), so I got the Mango pineapple (or something like that) smoothie, and a cheese danish. Oh yeah, SUPER yummy breakfast! We sat and chatted for about an hour, then headed to the commissary. She'd never been, and I had stuff for the house and a list from CPT that I needed to get.

It took FOREVER, but we had fun. We found on-sale produce, and I showed her my theory on cereal. Less than 10 cents an ounce. Or however that works out. All I know is that the 10 is what we are looking for. We ended up having to get 2 11's and a 10. Cereal is expensive, you know. All the yummy cereal costs 20...

By the time we were ready to pay, there wasn't an inch of space left in that cart for food! LOL. She bought cookies for our potluck dinner tonight, and I got watermelon and strawberries. SO yummy!

We paid, and I showed her how to work the baggers, and how to tip them. It's always good to have a friend to show you the ropes. I didn't have anyone there to show me! Our bagger made out with a SWEET tip. I gave her $5, and I think Laura did too. hehe.

We unloaded the groceries at my house, then stopped by Military Clothing supplies. Laura wanted to get something for her Camelback. I'd forgotten to put the eggs and CPT's chocolates away (they were in the middle seat), so before heading to Laura's for lunch, we stopped back by my house. I grabbed some paperwork to close out a party, and we headed out.

We had lunch, played with her cats, and watched a few episodes of Big Bang Theory. It's the show that the girls have been trying to get me to watch for ages. Seemed pretty funny. I'm gonna give it a try once I finish up with "How I Met Your Mother".

I headed back towards home around 3, and stopped off at Fallas for a little shopping detour. LOL. I ended up finding a few summer dresses. Cause it's SO hot out! It was near 100 today! After gaining a bit of weight, El Paso seems hotter - ha!

I got 2 fancy-ish vests too. But the shirt that I bought, I don't like so much. I need to return it in the next day or so. It looks like a tent. Ever get a shirt like that? Made for stick people?

Then I headed home, and the kids and I had about 30 minutes to get the watermelon and strawberries prepared before we had to be to Joe's game early for team pictures. We were in ultimate hustle mode. Tom and Eme stepped up big time!

I worked on Joe and Jim and their uniforms, and Tom and Eme sliced and scooped and helped out a lot. We were only about 7 minutes late to the pictures. But we made it! hehe.

Julia and I hung at the game, and eventually Corby and Laura came. And then CPT came too! It was a very enjoyable evening. Julia left to take the little kids to the other field, and she hung with Kim and Tim there. Tim got back YESTERDAY from his TDY training in MO. Welcome back, Mr Tim!!!! They leave this Friday to PCS to Ft Hood, TX. I will miss her SO!!!!

Anyway, after Joe's game, we packed everything up, and headed to Jim's game. We caught the last 7 minutes. ha! We hung after the game for about 10 minutes chatting with Julia and Corby, and Kim and Tim. Then I dropped Laura back off at her car, and we all headed home.

We cleaned up the house for a while after we got back home, and the sports kids took showers. It was a late night, with kids not getting to bed until around 9pm.

What else... This past weekend, CPT had staff duty on Saturday, and we did absolutely nothing. Ok, so I took Joe and Leo to hockey practice. But I put my jammies back on as soon as I walked in the door. LOL. We just watched TV all day long. TOTAL day off. Sometimes you need that, right?

I had a party on Friday for Miche. It was a little party, but a lot of fun. I got a new party booking off of it, and the girl is SUPER excited about it. She even moved the party up because she's SO excited. Which made me even MORE excited - ha!

Jake called from PEAKS a few times. One time he was mad, and wanted to know how told on him for doing drugs. I wouldn't give up the name. He ended up hanging up on me. The other time he called, though, he was much nicer. He said that they had learned about support groups for when they get out. And he said that he wanted to join one. I said that I would find one for him. He sounded more positive. He also seemed over interested in his socks. Hmmmm. I bought him new ones when I went to Fallas today. I keep thinking that he's hiding "weed" places... I guess I have reason to be suspicious, right? I'm going to try and make it out to visit him tomorrow. CPT and Tom have a game, and so does Emeline. Wait. That leaves me with no babysitter.... Hmmmm.

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Tough Love Freebie

So Monday is was a horrible sore throat. And Tuesday I was SO without energy ALL day long. Today? Migraine from HE Double Hockey Sticks. Oh yeah. I woke up at 5am in serious pain. I took an imitrex and a few crackers, and woke up again an hour later puking. Then at 7am, I took another imitrex and a dose of excedrine Migraine and 3 more crackers, and managed to keep those down. And felt HORRIBLE. I had Tom and Eme help get the little boys to school. My standards were , different clothes from yesterday. That's all I asked. Sometimes that good enough :)

CPT came home around 8am to get ready for work, and when he was getting ready to leave, he gave me a blessing. I went back to sleep, and set my alarm for 9am. I needed to meet a lady about a Miche purchase outside the gate at 9:30am. And, I felt TONS better. Still had the headache, but it was do-able. Thank you, Heavenly Father and my sweet husband and the power of the priesthood!!!! I'm very blessed to have that in my life!!!

I finished my business, and headed back home. And didn't even change my clothes for my 11am meeting. I was wearing flip flops, jeans, and a hoodie. And a bandana. No bra. Oh yeah. I felt THAT bad. And I didn't even change my purse shell. You know I feel like crap when I don't change my shell! LOL!

CPT came and picked me up, and we headed to PEAKS to meet with the therapist, then with Jake. And she was SO much better than the therapist that was there back in November when he was in for anger. SO much better! CPT and I were very impressed. She 100% agreed with the diagnosis of Aspergers. She said he was very typical Aspergers. And she said she was VERY proud of us for being so pro-active in our approach and the changes we were making in our home and family. And she said that it sounded like a residential treatment facility for a time would be good for him. He isn't making good enough choice to come back home right now. I agree.

We talked to her for a good hour before Jake came in. And the beginning of the visit was good. He seemed happyish to see us. But by the end, it was more of what we would expect. "You are ruining my life". Typical teenager rage. He asked to be taken back to the unit. The therapist said that she'd talk to him. We were all very calm, and tried to explain to him how serious what he was doing was. And how we were only trying to help him because we loved him and cared for him. But, of course, he's young and doesn't see that. He only sees that we are trying to control him and take away his freedoms.

We left PEAKS, and headed over to Marriage counseling across town. We were a bit late, but still got most of our session in. Then CPT dropped me off at home. And I had about 30 minutes before the bus got there. Leigh came over to chat real fast, and let me know that my Miche order was at the door!!!! That was FREAKING lightening fast! I'd JUST put the party order in the day before!!!! Less than 24 hours, and I had the order! Oh yeah :)

I spent the next 30 minutes dividing the stuff up. Julia came over and helped. She took hers and her sisters, and we bagged everything up. Then I worked to get everyone ready for baseball. Eme headed off to Piano. Tom and Eme were staying home with CPT (when he got home from work) and were going to scouts/activity days. I was taking Joe and Jim to baseball. I'd canceled my den meeting because of my headache. I was still there. I re-medicated on the way to baseball.

We left a few minutes early to pick up pizzas. I was in charge of main dish. And didn't feel like cooking. I hate buying fast food, but yeah, I wasn't prepared. So pizza it was. Yuck! Oh well.

We got to practice early, actually. And had fun visiting. Practice got over at 6:30pm, and we ended up letting the kids stay and play forever afterwords. I still felt like crap, and wasn't looking forward to driving home. So I just sat there chatting longer. And before I knew it, it was 8:15pm. We'd talked until dark. Finally, we gathered our kids and all headed home. I really enjoy those girls. Julia and Kari and Laura. I'm gonna super miss Kari when she moves in 2 weeks! Even though I joked with her and told her that I wasn't going to, that I was just going to replace her! hehe ;)

I got home, and put the kids to bed, and blogged real fast before CPT and the other kids got home from church activities. And it's 9:30 now. I'm headed to bed early. I need some sleep. Tomorrow, the bug guy comes to spray, so I have to be home in the morning. I'm gonna bake a cake, I think. Laura might come to hang out. She's pretty cool. Did I mention that she's Canadian?

Oh yeah, and just so there wasn't any questions, all 5 of us moms who got Jake to pee in the cup have special needs kids. Aspergers, full blown autism, bi-polar, HFA, PDD, you name it, one of our kids has it. We know how to deal with it. We are good moms. There was no yelling. There was no shaming. Julia held his hand and said calm words to him the whole time I was in the bedroom talking to the therapist. There was a lot of love and support going on. A lot of "We are doing this because we care about you". Just throwing that out there :)

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Tender Moments Freebie

OK, so my friends have skills. And my friend Julia wrote a BOOK! How freaking cool is that! She had it e-published last week! And I wanted to share it with y'all! Click HERE to download it!!!
Born to Guardians—gifted humans who battle demons and protect human souls—17 year old Rose lacks the abilities her family has used for generations to fight. When she and her father figure, an age old Warrior, are wounded in a demonic ambush, Rose rails against his replacement, Ouriel, who vows she can survive only if she learns how to protect herself from the demons she never intended to fight.

So, not feeling too good the last few days. Sore throat. Tired. I'm definitely coming down with something. Today, no sore throat. Luckily, I had a work order on the house, so I had to be here in the morning. I just bummed around, and waited for the worker dude to come. In my jammies. Yeah, I'm hot. It was high class :)

After he left, CPT came home for lunch, and helped me clean up. I had an "It Works" wrap party at 1. He did the dishes, cleaned the c ounters, swept, and mopped! He freaking rocks!!!

The party was fun. It was supposed to flush toxins, tone, and whatever else it does. It must have got lots of my toxins, because it gave me a headache. Mostly, it was fun to try it with my girl buddies. I don't know that I'd do it again, but it was fun to play.

By 3:30, everyone was gone, and it was time for the bus. All I know, is that now I was freaking exhausted. Totally wiped. I hung with the girls for about 30 minutes at the bus stop, then headed home. And I laid down until CPT came home. I was in a major stupor for the rest of the evening. And my head still hurts. And I'm sleepy.

I managed to get Eme her uniform up to her for volleyball (CPT dropped her off, but she forgot it), and then go up and get her afterwords. And then check a few things online. And get this blog post done. Major accomplishments, I know.

And Jake called, wanting to know if I was coming to visit. I said no, because we had prior commitments to sports. He was a little disappointed. But mostly because he wanted me to bring him and the kids hes been hanging out with there some playing cards. Sorry, Jake. That's not why you are there...

Anyway hopefully after some niquil tonight I will feel better in the morning :) Wish me luck!


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Quick Update

So yeah, I fallen off the edge of the earth. OK, not really. But it seems that way, huh? Things got REALLY crazy and serious around here. Seriously.

We got a tip from Kari's son, Justin, on Wednesday night, that we should buy a home drug test and use it on Jake. And that's all the intel that we got. Hmmm, strange. Really? But I took the advice, and bought it late Wednesday night, and woke him up early on Thursday morning, and directed him to pee in a cup. If it's good when you are doing a pregnancy test, it should be good for a drug test, right? Made sense to me.

Anyway, he claimed that he didn't have to pee. So I made him drink water. Still didn't have to pee. Hmmm. Strange. Doesn't eVERYONE have to pee first thing in the morning. Time went on, and still no pee. I got the other kids ready for school and off to the bus, and he was still being adamant that he didn't have to pee. Aspergers kids can be like that, though. And he swore up and down that he wasn't doing drugs, so that he shouldn't have to take that kind of a test. He's a great liar, reguardless of whether or not he was using. I told him just pee in a cup, and we could clear up the whole thing.

Still, no pee. He told me he was just going to go to school. Go ahead, I told him. And I'll just come on down to the school, tell the administration that I wanted to get you out of class for a drug test, and haul your butt back home. Sigh. Kari and the girls texted, and soon I had 4 other moms in my living room for backup. Kari and Kim and Julia and Erin and Me. Oh yeah. Power in numbers, right? CPT was at the range, so he didn't get to experience the fun day.

Well, he eventually did pee in the cup. No one can resist that much mom power. I took the pee cup into the bathroom to test it, and changed into workout clothes. We were gonna go hiking after getting the results back and dropping him off at school. Finally, I looked at the results.

Positive for marijuana. NOT what I wanted to see :( He had done that, and a lot of Spice.

I came out, set the pee cup on the coffee table, and asked the group of moms what we were gonna do now. It got super quiet. Group decision time. I was glad to have all those wonderful ladies there for me. I've never gone though a teen drug user experience before. I was at a loss. None of them had either, but we were all in this together! We also decided that all of our kids 13 and up were gonna be taking drug tests today. The group voted :)

We talked with Jake, and he gave us some answers. He had been using for about 2 months at the most. He was using during PE. At school???? Sigh. Alex was his dealer. No last name. He liked the way it made him feel. He didn't want to stop. Yes, these boys were his friends, because when he'd tried to buy the harder stuff (which he really wanted to try), they wouldn't sell it to him. Sigh. It's not fun listening to your son talk about drugs in such a frank manner.

Anyway, I went in the bathroom and called his therapist to find out what my next move should be. She said to take him back to school, and inform the school. So we did. And like dummies, we didn't search his person. Apparently he had a Spice (synthetic pot) pipe on him! Which he later passed off to a chick in English.

So off we went. We got him signed back in, the asked to speak to an administrator about a serious offense committed on campus. And with 5 of us, we got attention super fast. 3 administrators in the conference room within 5 minutes. Oh yeah. We're gonna pull the mom power card all the time!

They took us very seriously. We told them the situation, and they wanted to know more about the Alex character. I told them to WATCH Jake closer, and to make sure that it didn't happen again. They were gonna switch him out of PE also. And that was all for then. Off we went.

We went and got some lunch, then after lunch, we drove around post looking for things to help with teen drug use on post. And mostly got the run-around. Not so good.

CPT and Joe had hockey practice at 6pm, and Tom had a teacher appreciation evening at church. Tom was SO excited about it. I took Tom, and CPT took all the other kids. Well, while I was at the evening with Tom, I got some calls from CPT saying that he was talking to Jake, and Jake was saying how he would rather die than continue to talk to his dad. And CPT had been talking to Jake's Psychiatrist about PEAKS, and that was what we needed to get him admitted to the hospital. Suicidal thoughts. Technically that counts :)

So during the teacher meeting (which was SUPER nice, BTW, CPT dropped off the little kids with me, and he and Jake headed off to the hospital in NM). We finished off the eveving, visited with Tom's humanities teacher, then headed back home.

Tom babysat, and I headed out for a girl night. Veronica and Kari and Kim and Terra are all moving at the end of the month. So it was our last Girs Night Out before the move. And I didn't wanna miss it. Even though I was upset about the days events! I'd asked CPT several times if he wanted me to go and meet him at the hospital, but he said he was fine each time. OK :)

So yeah. That's where we are. The next day after, I was pretty upset. I didn't feel like doing much of anything. My friends all went to the beauty school for Mothers Day make overs, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was bummed out.

But by the day after that, I was good. And CPT and I had come up with a plan. We decided to donate/throw away EVERYTHING that he owned. It was pot stained anyway. He and his friends sprayed body spray/cologne on themselves to mask the smell. So everything stank of nasty cologne.

I threw away all of this clothes. And his stuffed animals. And gave away his hot wheels. And thew away his nerf guns. And light sabers. And everything. If you are going to do the crime, you are going to do the time. We threw away his bed. And he lost his bedroom.

It's back to the closet for that child. And I threw away his backpacks too. I went to savers today, Monday, and bought him khaki slack shorts. And I will cut out the pockets, and sew them shut. And I bought him polo shirts. And some slacks. Oh yeah. Don't mess with me, kid. I'm not playin'.

And, when he goes back to school, I'm going with him. To each and every class. To lunch. To before and after school. No more bus. I will make his life hell. Just like he as made mine. I got you, Jake. I got you :) Be this a lesson to all you Harty kids. DON'T DO DRUGS. It DOES not pay. I will find out. And you will lose. Jake, you picked the wrong parents to mess with. I will not turn a blind eye on your drug use or bad behavior. I know that Aspies turn to "self medicating" as a coping behavior. Not acceptable in this house. Find a better way.

I just found out that you can buy Marijuana drug test at the Dollar Tree.... Interesting :) I think I may need to make a stock up trip before my child comes home :) Random drug tests WILL become a way of life for a while in my household.

Lazy Bones Freebie

Hey there. Yeah, lazy bones was DEFINITELY my name today - hehe. I woke up on time, got all the kids off to the bus, then went back to sleep. Ha! Till 10:30am!!! ROFL! And then I just kinda hung out and watched TV and did nothing until my doctors appointment at 1:40pm. I did take a shower and get cute. That's gotta count for something, right?

At my appointment, we talked about what my meds were, and how they needed to change. The Topomax needed to be bumped back up to 100. 50 wasn't enough. And then I needed to take them at night. LOL. I can be as dumb as I want in my dreams :)

And my anti-depressant/social anxiety meds, she increased those too. I've been having a rough go of it lately with Jake and all. I figured that upping the dose would be a good thing to do with all of the crap that's been going on...

I picked up my meds from the pharmacy, scheduled a revisit for 4 weeks, then headed home. And hung out until Tom came home from school. Then went to get the kids from the bus at 3:30pm. And chatted with Julia until around 4:15. Then headed home, and after the kids had snack, I had them do chores. I set the alarm for 40 minutes, and told them that whoever had chores/rooms done when the beeper went off would be able to have electronics free time! They worked hard, too.

I also moved a dresser from the living room into my room, and pulled out the black couch. I don't need it in here anymore. And cleaned out my closet a tiny bit and moved stuff into drawers. It looked a lot better when I was done.

We had Ramen for dinner (oh yeah, I went all out), and then I took Eme to volleyball at 6:15pm. I chatted with Leigh in the driveway for a bit, then went back inside. And did nothing until CPT got home from the range at 7ish. I was happy to see him, though :)

We worked on getting kids to bed, and got Jake to take his dog for a walk. CPT helped Tom with his Civil War report for a bit, and Eme came home from volleyball practice. It's now 8:20pm. CPT has to go to bed early because he has the range again SUPER early. I think I"ll watch TV on my iPad in bed next to him. With headphones, of course - hehe :)

Night, you guys! Tomorrow, I have the initial intake appointment for Jake at the psychologists office. Then, in the afternoon, I'm taking Jake to the psychiatrist for a meds check. Wish us luck!

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Spectacle

So, busy weekend for us Hartys. We had games on Friday night, and I had a Miche open house in the neighborhood (combined with Cookie Lee and Scentsy) in the afternoon. It just seemed like a SUPER long weekend.

Oh yeah, and I got a ticket coming through the gate on Friday night. I'd inadvertently left my wallet at home. And I couldn't get back on post to get it! The Gate guard had me pull over, then CALLED THE MP's on me!!!! What???

I was so mad. I'd made an honest mistake, and I was trying to fix it. I wanted to get my ID. And I couldn't, because I had to go thru a check point to get it. Grrrrr. This MP was a piece of work. Even a crying mom with kids in the car didn't deter him from giving out a ticket on a Friday night. Karma.... That's right...... That's ok, I'm gonna find out how to fight it. I HAVE a drivers license in the state of Texas. I was trying to go and get it. People make mistakes all the time. It shouldn't cost me $100, right? Sigh.

Sunday sucked, because CPT and I were fighting. Dealing with Jake is frustrating, and sometimes we take it out on each other. That's what happened this weekend, I think. Sigh. Either way, it sucked.

We found out that Jake had been sneaking matches and lighters and such to start fires in the backyard. And we caught him in the act of doing it. Also, I found him trying to sneak and knife and a sharpie into his room. He wanted to "see what was inside of it". Still, NOT what we do.

Anyway, I was glad when Monday morning came, and the kids all went back to school. CPT left for work, and I headed out too. I had to pick up the prints for Julia's Miche party this weekend. And then off to Tom's Speech ARD dismissal meeting. It went well. I got to talk to Tom's favorite teacher, too. He seemed like a cool guy. Thought Tom was a GREAT kid!

Then I came back home, and took a little nap. Or watched some TV. Or both. Yeah, I think I did both. CPT came back home for lunch, and after lunch, I headed out to buy Dish soap. We were out, and the dishes were piling up. Tom and Eme do a good job of washing them/putting them away, but they kinda need soap. LOL.

So, any excuse to go to Big Lots, right? I wandered around there way too long, and found just a few things that I needed/wanted. Then headed to the Dollar Tree. There was something there that I wanted, but I can't now remember what it was. Just that I found it, got it, got some snacks, and headed back to post.

I made up a double batch of Sugar Cookie dough, and when the kids got home from the bus, Eme and I baked them up. We made them into Sombrero cookies! You put a ring around them with frosting, and then sprinkle sprinkles on it. And a dab of frosting in the middle, and attach a gum drop. Looks JUST like a sombrero. I found it on Pinterest.

I baked the cookies, and Eme and Lexie decorated them. And I had the little boys get ready for Baseball. We ended up leaving the house at 4:45ish, and made it to the field on time. BUT, the infield was FLOODED. Someone hadn't done a great job monitoring the sprinklers, and it made a mess.

Our coach was mad, and canceled practice. We already went to the troubles of arranging dinner at the field, and there was NO way we were going home without the picnic dinner. So, we all ate there at the field, and let the bigger boys practice hitting/catching/throwing in the outfield. Personally, I don't think that the coach should have canceled practice.

Anyway, we hung there until it was time to go to the little kids' practice. I'd gotten those water noodle things at the Dollar Tree earlier in the day, cut them in thirds, and duct taped the ends. They looked like stubby Light Sabers! The boys and girls had a BLAST with them! Ha!

Then, it was over to the little kids' practice. Jake was in the front seat, and I couldn't convince him NOT to push the lock/unlock buttons. I kept telling him to leave it alone, and he kept, seemingly, ignoring me.

When we got to the next field, I don't know what he hit, but the alarm was triggered. Crap. And I had NO way to un-trigger it. My keys are the only ones that have the remote unlock. And I lost them, remember? Crap. So it honked. And honked. I tried locking, unlocking, starting the car, backing it up, moving it. Finally, I just shut it up and left it alone. And it stopped honking in about 5 minutes.

But then I forgot my purse in there, and went to get it (it's unlocked at this point), and it started honking at me again!!! SO embarrassing. Well, frustrating more like it. I just played it off to the strangers there that it was some new fancy machine that I didn't understand. LOL. Which is true, my primary car has NEVER had the bells and whistles that this one does....

So, back to the little kid practice, it continued with no incident. I figured that the alarm would reset itself while we sat there. Not so. When we all loaded up to leave, the incessant honking started again. What else could I do, but drive down the 15 MPH Logan neighborhood, with the horn blaring. Yeah, I stole my own car!!!

And onto the interstate, horn blaring at 65 MPH. Oh yeah, we rocked it. Luckily, after about 8 minutes or so, it stopped the incessant honking, and moved on to every 60 seconds a "honk honk honk honk honk honk honk" in rapid fire succession. Much better! We managed to get through the gate without it going off. I'm just THAT good at timing...

We drove home, honking every 60 seconds. And CPT was there waiting for us when we got home. To disconnect the battery so that we could open the doors and get out. Because, when you open a door, it honks. Freakin' new car!

Battery disconnected, I hurried and put the kids to bed, then CPT and I headed out to O'Rileys to buy a $200 battery for my Suburban. We got home, and all the kids were asleep. Thank goodness!

I helped CPT put the battery in, and by that, I mean that I held the flash light. And wouldn't you know it, the second that we attached both of the terminals, the freakin' horn starts up again!!!! Are you kidding me??? Well, CPT knew how to fix that! He pulled the fuse on the horn! Ha! So now it just blinks lights and flashes funny. Sigh.

I tried pushing buttons inside again, and starting the car, and turning it off. Finally, I leaned over and pushed the locked/unlocked button that Jake had pushed in the first place, and it seemed to fix it all. No more blinking. We were even able to put the horn fuse back inside of it.

So yeah, Harty kids (read: Jake) DO NOT PUSH MY CAR BUTTONS EVER AGAIN!!!! Thanks :)

CPT loaded up his car for the range tomorrow, and I blogged out in the garage as he worked. I'm a little sleepy, but wanna watch an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" before I got to sleep tonight.

Tomorrow, I have my Doctors appointment for my Topomax. And we have Eme's volleyball practice and Tom's Baseball practice. I think that's all for now :)

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Winking Freebie

New stuff in the store! Oh yeah, get excited!!! LOTS of good stuff for you!!! Click HERE to go to my store!




Also, I have a new bundle!!! A school one, for all of your school photos from the year! Oh yeah :)
AND a sale??? Oh yeah, NOW you are talking!!! So, with the 50% off, it takes the WordArt Packs down to about $1.25 a pack. Now, you can't beat that, right? Right? Just PLEASE don't use the coupon on the bundles. I wanna make a little bit of money, you know. The bundles are already drastically slashed. Besides, I asked nicely. And if you do, I will see your name come through on the order, and think bad thoughts about you. And you wouldn't want that, right?? Am I right???


So, woke up with a migraine today. Boo. So I got the kids to school, somehow, took some meds, ate 1/2 a BPJ minus the J, and went back to bed. And woke up at 10am feeling slightly better. More like drugged. ha! At least the head wasn't pounding. Such it is when you run out of your preventative medicine, right?

Anyway, I had to cancel hiking, and I postponed the Mary Kay facial that I had planned. I gathered up my laptop and headed to Kim's house in my jammies. She was packing boxes, since the movers come tomorrow. Boo. Another friend leaving... Such it is. She's going to Hood, where my sister Madi is, at least!

Anyway, she packed boxes, and I designed. I got 3 WordArt packs designed, and then she got a call from the school about her kinder, and had to go up there. So I headed home. I worked some more at home on designing and Miche and stuff. CPT was at the range today, so he didn't come home for lunch. I watched episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" and worked on my projects.

After I was done designing, the FedEx delivered my Miche order!!! And the new releases are DIVINE!!! I think the Green Demi, Judith, may be my favorite so far. I love bold colors :) The electric coral color is BEAUTIFUL too! And Jaz and Jasmine are SO stinking cute!

And the new Hope shells are great! I like their crossword like designs. I instantly duplicated it on Photoshop so I could make a t-shirt for my sales meeting next week in Las Cruces. Oh yeah, I'm TOTALLY winning the "Dress like your shell" contest... hehe :) It took SO long to do, but I think it looked good! I ordered a t-shirt with green ribbing to put the design on, and it's due in tomorrow. As soon as it come and I get it made up, I'll take a picture of me wearing it and show y'all!

Soon, it was almost time to go and get the little kids from the bus. I hopped in the shower, and threw on something green. Because I just HAD to use Judith! hehe. I chatted with Kari and Julia at the bus stop for a few minutes, then headed home. CPT was home from the range by then, and was SUPER tired. He'd had to leave the house at 4am. So he took a nap. The kids worked on chores (or didn't, but didn't get privileges until they were done with them - and rooms) and I loaded the store. And worked on blogging.

Tom helped make sloppy joes for dinner, and then at 5:30, Joe and CPT left for hockey practice. Joe had a baseball game tonight, but ice time is more precious, says CPT. Joe wasn't happy, but I really think he ended up having fun with his dad :) I think he forgot all about the game. It's the last time that Hockey practice and baseball games conflict, too. Thank goodness! hehe :)

Jake worked on cleaning his room, and doing his chores, and he finally got done. Eme had already gotten done, and went to play in the neighborhood. Jake wanted to go and play at Justin's house, but we couldn't get ahold of him. He wanted to watch TV, but because Tom and Jim were not finished with their chores/rooms, I didn't want the TV on. So I let Jake watch Netflix on my iPad.

Then Tom was being a dork and made Jake mad about something. I don't even remember what it was, but Jake was minding his business, watching TV, and Tom negatively interacted with him. And it made Jake mad, and he threatened to beat up Tom, and called him bad words. So, of course, I had to take away the iPad... Sigh. Then Jake was upset, because he had worked ALL afternoon (45 minutes) to earn the privilege. His life was so hard... hehe.

I told him that he'd lost the privilege of using the iPad, but that he should go and spend some time with the dog. Because it calms him down. And that's what his therapist says to do when he is upset. At first, he didn't want to. But then he realized that it was a good idea, and he went to sit with Boxer (as if it were his own idea). And it worked! He calmed down quite a bit. And, I had already sent Tom to his room for being disruptive to Jake, so that stimuli was gone.

After about 10 minutes of calming down, he asked if he could have another chance with the iPad. I said that if he continued to remain calm for 15 more minutes, that he could have another chance. And he did. Even with Jim being "annoying". The increase in meds and the fear of returning to the hospital helped, I think.

Anyway, CPT, after hockey practice, wanted to take his truck to the shop for the weekend. In New Mexico. So he called after practice, and Jake and I left the house in the Saturn to meet him there.

He and the dude talked FOREVER, but it was ok. I'd let Jake bring the iPad, so he and Joe were playing angry birds. And I chatted Miche with Aunt Sue for a bit. She has a party on the 9th that she's getting ready for, and I have one on the 12th, and just booked one for the following week too! SO much fun!

And soon, we were all crammed into the little Saturn Ion and headed back to post. But first, as stop off at the Gas Station Wendys for a frosty. Oh yeah, that was my treat - LOL. And they had Diet Mt Dew, so of course, a 44 oz-er of that!

CPT and I chatted all the way home. He told me about something or another the first part (sorry, honey, I can't remember now what it was....), then it was my turn! I talked about Miche. ROFL! There is a super high up trainer that is coming to ABQ in June, and I wanna go to the meeting! ABQ weekend! Oh yeah. I think it's the same weekend that CPT and the 2 older boys will be at scout camp. So, I just have to find something to do with the little 3. I've got about 2 months to figure it out :)

Oh Amanda... Wanna meet up in ABQ???? hehe :)

Anyway, we got home, got kids to bed, and there ya go, that's my evening. It's now 11pm, and I'm just now getting back to finishing this up. I'm gonna watch an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" on my iPad, then go to sleep. And hope that the migraine that I woke up with today is gone :)


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Sticking Out Tongue Freebie

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Happy Face Freebie

Well, better day in some reguards. We had a plan, anyway. And Jake knew that he was in big trouble. So he was somewhat better. I forgot to make sure that he was awake (how I became his replacement alarm clock is beyond me), and he cussed me out. That wasn't so good.

I ordered my Miche new releases for May today! SO exciting! I used last months Miche paycheck to pay for it, too! Oh yeah, GREAT feeling :) Hope they get here fast, because I'm SUPER excited to see how BEAUTIFUL they will be!!!

But anyway, Joe stayed home till around 10 am sick. After getting meds, he felt MUCH better. So I sent him to school. It's amazing. When kids are NOT allowed to watch TV or play games, they wanna go to school. LOL. Because just being home and doing nothing is boring. So he asked me to take him to school. Ha!

Then I hustled back home, showered, and CPT came to pick me up for our therapy appointment at 11am. And it was a good one. We were both happy with each other. United in our dissatisfaction with Jake, maybe? I don't know. Sometimes that's what it takes, right? And I think that CPT has just adjusted a lot more to being home. Things are going well (knock on wood (big time)) for now with us.

After the appointment, we went to lunch at Applebees. Super yum! I got the Philly Cheese Steak burger thing. Good, but not as good as it usually is. The bread was dry - ha! But I still liked it :)

CPT dropped me off at home when he was done, and I had time to work on closing my Mother In Law's Miche party. She had several orders come in last minute, and I was working on getting them entered. She went from a $200 party to a $400 party! Sweet!

I went to pick up Jake at 2, and got home around 2:35pm. It took FOREVER to get him out of school. We got back home, and I got another call about Carol's party. And it went up to $600! Yes! CPT got home, and we headed out to Jake's appointment. The therapist moved her office across town, so we were a bit late. But we did get there.

We filled her in on Jake's behavior, and some of our plans. She said that she was NOT crazy about residential treatment facilities. That they didn't work, in her opinion. She said that we should, 1st, get Jake a meds review. 2nd, get him a FULL psych evaluation. And 3rd, see how things went from there. We were cool with that.

She talked with him for a little while, and while she was talking to him, we called around to the doctor. Um, yeah, we couldn't get in. What? So not cool. Dr. Perez didn't have openings (the Dr she referred us to). And Dr Gazarav couldn't get us in for a month. I can't wait a month. Not at current rate...

So, we decided that if we put him in PEAKS (where he was last Thanksgiving time), the doctor would HAVE to see him and evaluate his meds. I hate that we would HAVE to do that for a meds evaluation, but sometimes you HAVE to do what you have to do, right? Sigh.

The psychologist that works in the therapists office has Jake on the list for testing, so step 2 is scheduled. We didn't have time today for PEAKS. Maybe tomorrow. He wasn't happy about it. He called the other doctor some choice names for not letting him in to be seen. Yeah, THAT'S why the other doctor didn't wanna see him. LOL.

But really, it wasn't too unpleasant of a trip home. We got home, and watched some Dukes of Hazard as a family. Tom had held down the fort with the other kids. I worked on closing out Carol's party all the way, and she ended up getting $60 worth of free credit, 2 1/2 price shells, and 25% off her other stuff. I threw some stuff in there for her for Mother's day, and she ended up with 5 shells and a purse organizer! Oh yeah! GREAT party for her!

CPT and Tom and Hunter had baseball practice at 6:30pm, and Eme started Volleyball. Her first practice was at 6:30pm at the youth plex on main post. She was pretty excited. CPT dropped her off on his way to practice, and I was gonna go and pick her up.

I ended up with Joe and Leo and Alex for about 30 minutes at one point in the evening, and Leigh caught them playing in my Suburban. So they got to clean out my trunk. After that, I had them come inside and watch Dukes. Until Kari texted that they should come home.

We had dinner, and then did some chores. Jake was on his BEST behavior. He was PLEADING with us to let him wait out the month at home for the appointment instead of going to PEAKS. So he was doing chores and being helpful and being happy so we would change our minds.

We went to pick up Eme, and I got the schedule for her games, and then CPT got home. And it took FOREVER to get these kids to bed. It think it was 9pm before they were in bed tonight. Not sure what the deal was. ha! People just kept coming in asking questions and getting drinks and junk. "Oh yeah, you need to sign this paper". "Oh yeah, I forgot to eat dinner" "Oh yeah,...." "GO TO BED!!!" ha!

I facebooked with Amanda and Maddie and Aunt Sue and chatted with my mom and blogged and visited with CPT and multitasked a bit too much for the rest of the evening. I just wanna finish this up, watch an episode of "How I Met Your MOther", and go to sleep... Tomorrow is a new day :)

Oh yeah, and I've been having dizzy spells. Any ideas on that one? I ran out of topomax. Could it be from that? And I may have forgotten to take my antidepressant for a few days. I'm a mess - LOL!

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Sad Face Freebie

So. I took the weekend off like I said that I was gonna start to do. And here it is, Monday night. And Monday was a good day in general. But then i took Jake to practice with me, and after the 2nd practice we had a melt down, and I was just DONE. I got cussed out, and Joe got cussed out, and I was just mentally done.

I spent the 3rd practice in the car crying. Good thing it was dark. I don't want to have a special needs kid anymore. I don't want to check his pockets for things like matches and lighters and pocket knives. And I don't wanna make sure that he takes his meds, because if he doesn't, he will beat me or the other kids up. I'm tired of it all.

And as I sit here and write this, I'm sobbing again. I'm tired of it all. We are looking into residential treatment facilities for Jake. Something has to give. It can't go on like this. Someone is going to get hurt. We have an appointment with the therapist tomorrow. Hopefully we can get the application process started. Pray for us... I don't know what else to do at this point...

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Wind Storm Freebie

Only 3 new releases this week. I tried. OK, so not as hard as I SHOULD have tired. But I did try :) Sometimes, something just has to give. It's been a rough week, special needs wise. Autism is kicking our butt! We are looking into options...

Anyway, click HERE to go to my store. I hope you like the new stuff! I may only have 3, but I like them!!!




Hey there party people!!! What's up in your world?? I hope that everything is good :) Life is ok here. I woke up, and knew that I should be designing. But when Kari texted and asked if I wanted to go walking, I really wanted to go. So, I knew that I wouldn't get all 5 packs done, but so be it...

I got the kids to school, then chatted with CPT after he got back from PT, then headed to walk. It was a good walk, too. Kari and Kim and me and Julia and Erin all went. We walked the loop and chatted the whole way. Lots of different people to talk to. LOL.

We got home, and had about 20 minutes to change and get ready for the movies. Erin didn't go, but Liz and Maggie met us there. We saw, "The Vow". And yeah, I wasn't a fan of the girl's character. I just wanted to punch her the whole time! Like that quote circulating on FB and Pinterest, "If I woke up from a coma, and Channing Tatum said that he was my husband, I'd go with it..." I'm just saying.... I thought she was a brat. We talked about it after, and it's kind of like that after a deployment. Who is this stranger? Why did I marry you? To a small extent, anyway.

We went to Schlotskis afterwords. I know I butchered that name. But I don't feel like looking it up. We got soup and a 1/2 a sandwich, and chatted for about an hour. About special needs, and schools, and teachers, and whatever else came up. Good friends, and good conversations.

Then we headed home. I cleaned the stove for about 30 minutes (I'd already self cleaned it, so I was finishing it off), then it was time for the kids to come home. Then CPT came home. We'd decided that Joe should go to Hockey practice even though he had a baseball game, because Ice time was more "precious" than field time. But Joe was almost in tears when I told him that he was gonna miss his game.

So we decided to let him go to the game. I took Joe and Jim and Eme to the baseball game at 4:45 to make it there at 5:00pm. The game started at 5:30, but they needed to be there early to warm up. CPT was in charge of Jake, and was taking Tom to his game at 7pm. We would stay at the game, and watch Tom's game. I had it all figured out.

Anyway, met Julia and Kari at the baseball game, and we were only about 10 minutes into the game before they called it. Because of wind. We couldn't even see the mountains. No more games for the rest of the night. All canceled. But, on the up side, Joe and CPT could still make it to Hockey.

We hurried and loaded up in the car, and hustled on home. CPT was still there calling people for his baseball team, so as soon as we pulled in the driveway, he grabbed Joe and he and Jake and Tom and Joe headed out. Tom still wanted to go, and Jake had fallen asleep in the backseat for some reason. Strange child.

I had from 6-730 to design and upload to the store and blog. So here I sit. 3 packs designed. And packaged. And loaded to the store. And blogged. And it's only 7:17pm. Oh yeah. I'm good :) But if I was really good, I'd go back and design the other 2 packs, right? Nope, not that good - hehe :)

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Breaking and Entering.

So, the migraine endures... But with drugs, it WILL go away... I took more, and waited for it to subside. I got the kids off to the bus, then started to get Jake ready. And ended up having to toss his room while he was in the shower. I found the electronics closet unlocked, and wanted to see if he either had a key, or had something in his room that he shouldn't have. But I couldn't find anything... I did accidentally see him when he got out of the shower, though!!!! Grab a towel next time, dude!!!!!! AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

After CPT went off to work, I chatted with my mom for a while, then hopped in the shower. And then Kim and I went to the beauty school. We got pedicures and I got a fill for my nails. We'd thought about getting our grays covered, but decided that it wasn't quite that bad.

We had a lot of fun at the beauty school. We talked to the nail techs about Miche purses, and about kids, and about this that and the other thing. We were done around 1, and headed to Bassett center.

We went to Wendys for a Jr Bacon Cheeseburger, then to Jewelry Box, and then to Dollar Tree. Then back home. I had about 30 minutes before the bus. Kari and I got Julia's kids from the bus, and we headed to the park. Julia was at the dentist. She was done shortly. We stayed for a few more minutes, then all headed home to get our kids ready for baseball.

I let Jake and Tom stay home, and I took Eme and Joe and Jim with me to the ball park. CPT should be home shortly, I figured. Kim was in charge of dinner tonight, and she brought Taco Bell Tacos (oops for Kari :( ). My kids were happy. Practice was good. We chatted and enjoyed each others company.

And soon it was time to switch fields. The older kids got done sooner than normal. Usually practice goes till 6:30. But it was just 6pm tonight. Sweet! That gave us extra time! And no Cub Scouts tonight, so I was able to go to Jim's practice too.

And then I got the text from CPT that Jake had convinced Tom to help him to take the hinges off of the electronics door. Seriously??? Breaking and entering???? What lengths won't this child go to get electronics???? I really don't know what to do. I'm at my wits end.

Luckily CPT was at home and was in charge and controlling it. I'm glad that I wasn't.

We finished up the 2nd practice, then headed home. I was tired. It had been a long day. The headache was mostly gone. Mostly. I got the little kids to bed, and set to looking for my keys. Did I mention that I couldn't find my car keys? I had to drive the Saturn tonight because I couldn't find my real keys! Oh crap! Plus, it has my mail key on it :(

So, I looked all around the house for it. And still couldn't find it. I cleaned the Suburban out, and part of my room, and my Miche purses. No luck. I still couldn't find it! Tomorrow. I'll look some more tomorrow.

CPT and Jake and Tom got home around 9pm, and we talked about the "stealing" thing, and it didn't go too well. Well, not horrible, but Jake didn't like it. Tom took it ok. But then, he's Neuro-typical.... CPT went to work on his truck, and I blogged. Yeah, that's about it. I'm ready for bed. It's 10:30 pm now, and I'm sleepy. Night, all! See ya tomorrow :)

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To Know Me Is To Love Me

I held the migraine off with drugs for most of the day, but just barely. I ended up taking more Imitrex than I was supposed to take. I just took some Motrin, some Excedrine migraine, my Topomax, and a drowsy sudafed. Hopefully I sleep well tonight. It really was good day, despite the headache.... My new Summer Miche catalogs came!!! I love the MAY shells!!!!! Vibrant coral and green and blue colors!!!!!

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Gardening Guru freebie

Sorry I didn't get to blogging. By the time I got home from the long night at the ball park, I was tired. I was gonna blog in the morning, but I woke up puking at 4am from a migraine! Darn it!

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Birthday Bash WordArt

Hey, you guys. So, yeah, um, MIA this weekend. Let me explain. It's been getting increasingly harder to blog over the weekends. CPT seems to like me around. hehe. And doesn't want me to disappear off to the ole computer or something like that. So here's the NEW an improved plan. Over the weekends, if I'm ahead of the curve, I've gonna pre-blog some WordArt. If I'm not, you'll just have to wait till Monday for a freebie. Can you all survive without me for a weekend? I think you can... hehe. Do it for CPT then. ha!

Anyway, it was his Birthday on Saturday!!! He had to wake up super extra early on Saturday morning (3am) for a youth temple trip! He and Tom and Jake were going to ABQ NM to the temple! Of course, Jake refused to wake up. Sigh. That child. CPT didn't mess with him. He took his, "I won't wake up" as a sign of insubordination, and left him. I'm not sure what's going on with Jake and the "I won't wake up", so I'm gonna ask the therapist next time we go...

Anyway, Tom and CPT were out of the house by 4am, and when the rest of the kids and I got up at 7:30am to get ready for ball games, I had 4 for the day. And Aspergers teen, and 4 kids that required adult supervision all day long. Oh the joy. Let the Saturday fun begin!

We had Joe's baseball game at 9, but had to be to the ball park at 8:30am. Kari and Julia (and Corby) were both there, and we all had fun chatting. I'd gotten a bit sunburned the day before, but it had already turned to tan! Oh yeah! Bring on the summer! Now, if I could just lose 30 lbs... hehe ;)

Julia took the little kids and Eme to the next game. It started at 10am. And this game didn't get over until 10:30. AND, I got my first call from my Miche magnet on my car! I was super excited! Yeah me!!!

After the boys' game (Astros), I took all the kids in my Suburban, and Kari and Corby went in her car, and we all headed to the little kids' game (Angels). We made the last 15 minutes of the game. They were adorable. A much different feel than the older kids. hehe. Kim was there, and we all said "hey", and visited for a bit.

I was slightly on edge from parenting Jake all morning long. He really didn't wanna be at the ball park. He was mostly being good. He was just bored. I THINK he had a lighter in his pocket. But he was denying it. And he's too big for me to pat him down if he doesn't want me to. I'd end up hurt. He said it was just a pointer light. He was trying to play catch with Joe and Leo and Corey and Alex. Which was fine and all, but when someone who weighs 230 (and doesn't know how to use their body the right way) tries to play catch with people who weigh 75 lbs, someone is gonna get hurt. It was stressful for me.

Anyway, what I wanted to do when the game got over was to go straight home and sleep. BUT, we didn't have food in the house. SO, we went to the commissary. And grocery shopped. With 4 children. OH yeah, totally living the dream! ha! And they were good, but naughty. And my nerves continued to be grated against. And about 1/2 way thru, the shopping cart was so full, I had to look for an additional one. By the time we checked out, it was $365 worth of groceries. Maybe I should shop for food more regularly.... ha!

We finally headed for home, then I remembered that I had to get a cake for CPT! He wanted a Dairy Queen cake. We've never bought one before, and we have one at the PX, so I ran in real fast. And bought the biggest one I could find. Oh yeah, those things are super spendy! And a box of dilly bars as a reward for kids for helping me carry in groceries. Because they WILL help carry in groceries. LOL.

We got home, and all ate some ice cream. It was hot in the suburban! hehe. Then started the daunting task of unloading and putting away all the groceries. And had about 45 minutes before we had to go to Hockey. Like I said, busy day!

I had just enough time for a part of a Vampire Diaries, then had to turn it off. I got Joe ready, and noticed that Jake had fallen asleep. Yeah, let sleeping dogs lie. We quietly left the house. hehe. I took everyone else, and went to pick up Kari and Leo. And off to hockey we went. We chatted, and the boys skated. And Jim played around in the stands. And the hour flew by. Then we headed back home.

I dropped Kari and Leo off at home, then Kim texted and said that she had some canned food that she didn't wanna take on her move. So I went over to pick it up. And we all went in. And I convinced her to come to Big Lots with me :) I left Eme and Joe and Jim at her house with her Middle schooler babysitter - oh yeah :) Jake was still sleeping :)

I found some Easter clearance stuff for my Miche parties for the ticket drawings, and a few other things that I just had to have. A toy for Boxer, and some cheap soap for the bathroom, and some shampoo that I like. Just typical Big Lots stuff. Oh yeah, and I earned my 20% reward! Score :)

We weren't there that long, really. Then we headed back. I collected my kids, and the canned food, then headed home. Jake had called while I was at Big Lots, wondering where everyone was. LOL. I said I was on my way home. We unloaded the stuff, and CPT called and said that he was almost home. Perfect timing!!!

We got the house straightened up just in time. We cooked Hamburgers for Dinner, then had the Ice Cream cake for dessert. It was a GLORIOUS birthday! And I don't remember the rest. LOL. See, this is why I like to blog each day. I did give all of the boy's (including Leo) hair cuts!

Sunday was a good day. Leo spent the night. And Kari's family and Kim's families came to church!!! That was super neat :)

After church, the power went out. I boiled some chicken and then we BBQ'd it. When the power finally came back on, we watched 2 episodes of Dr Who, then put kids to bed. I worked on cleaning the house for a few hours. I have a party on Tuesday at the house.

And yeah, that's all I can remember! So there, you are mostly caught up. hehe :)

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Trying New Things

It's Friday, so you know what time it is! New Release time! I've got 5 Brand New Wordart Packs in the store, plus an Easter Bundle for you!!! $2.00 per WordArt Pack, and only $7 for the 10 WordArt pack bundle!!! Click HERE to go to the store :)

All layouts by Sharon - Our schedules actually lined up this week! Woohoo! I've missed her AWESOME layouts!!!






So remember that big party that I closed out on Tuesday night at Kims? Oh yeah, it came in today! And it was only Thursday!!! We were SO stoked!!! Overnight shipping totally rocks! hehe.

I got the kids up and dressed and out the door to school, then made sure that Jake was moving, and took my laptop and headed to Kim's house. Her bi-polar kid was "dying", and needed to stay home today. But she still needed to get the kindergartner to school. So, I supervised the "dying" one while she drove Austin to school. Jake checked in with me before he went to the bus. Thank goodness he was happy and on time. ha!

I designed while at Kim's house, and stayed till around 9am. I had 4 Wordart packs done when I left, too! Oh yeah for me! I was on a roll! I hurried home at 9, and changed real fast for Yoga. I told the girls that if I got enough work done, that I'd go.

Erin picked me up, and she and I and Kari and Julia and I headed to yoga. We met Laura and Nicky and Jenny and her mother-in-law Shirley there. Oh yeah, there were a TON of us. That class was PACKED full of people today. And I think he was trying to kill me today. Because I'm so far out of shape it's even funny. I've totally let myself go... :( But I didn't quit. I kept on plugging on. Shaking legs and arms besides the point. ha!

My reward for yoga was going out to lunch. I told the girls that from the get go - ha! Jenny wasn't going to go, but I made the group put it to a vote, and we ALL voted that she had to come with us. And it actually worked! She came with us! ROFL! Who knew that she would listen to my crazy rantings!!!

We decided to try the Japanese place on Airway. It was $12 for the lunch buffet (that was INCLUDING the military discount), but I thought it was pretty good. All sorts of sushi and meats and soups and junk. I didn't know what half of it was. I needed someone to explain it all to me. Amanda, my dear, you needed to be my Sushi translator!!! hehe :)

Kari and Julia didn't care for it, since Kari is a vegetarian, and Julia's stomach can't handle meats. And almost everything they had was meats. So it was expensive for not much for them. Sorry, girls. It's Jenny's fault. She picked it. Erin and I were in hog heaven, though. LOL.

After lunch, we headed pack to post, and found Kim's party order in my house!!! We all came inside (minus Jenny and Shirley) and separated the orders. It was like Christmas! We all had SUCH a great time! hehe ;) Again we were thrilled with how quickly it came in!

We loaded up all the orders, and dropped Laura off at her car at the gym. Then we went to Kim's house. And dropped off her order, and 2 of the other orders. She would see Cherylynn and the other chickie at her kids' school today. We stayed and chatted for about 20 minutes, then headed home. Erin dropped of Julia, then dropped off me.

Tom was home by that point, and I worked on a project for a little bit, and sent him to the bus. And then CPT was home, and I continued working. Then headed up to the bank to deposit money from Leigh's party. We wanted to close it out around 5 tonight. Jim came with me. I don't know what he thought a bank was, but was sorely disappointed with what it actually was. hehe.

We came back home, and I met with Leigh briefly and closed out her party, then came back home. CPT and Joe and Leo went to hockey at 5:45pm, and the other kids and I hung here. After Jake's chores were done, he went to a friends house in the neighborhood across the street from ours. Nick, I think. Funny, because that was the other friends name who moved to Ft. Sill! LOL. I guess he doesn't have to remember his name, right?

Eme made Strawberry cupcakes with powdered sugar dusting, and Tom made sloppy joes for us. And I designed and loaded my store. Thursdays are my "bad parent" nights. ha! Unless I'm uber productive during the day. I was only uber productive between 7:30-9:00. And that wasn't long enough. hehe. Last week I was. But this week was SO much more fun!

It's now 7:30pm. CPT and Joe and Leo are on their way home. Jake is hanging with Boxer. I had him come home at 6:45pm. Eme is on her way home from the park with Lexie. Tom is working on a merit badge for Boy Scouts. Jim is doing something in the other room that involves singing to himself - LOL!

The girls and I are gonna go on a walk tomorrow morning, then I'm not sure what else the day holds. I DO know that come 9am, I'm placing my order for the new catalogs!!!! hehe :)

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Garden Grow

So, tomorrow is the 20th. And I'm SO excited, because that means that I can order the May catalogs for Miche!! I guess they're just doing a one month catalog thing for May. Not sure how that's gonna work. We shall see. I wonder how many I will need to order, then.... Hmmmm. I have tomorrow to figure it out, I guess. ha!

I woke up at normal time, and got the kids off to school. I was super sleepy, though, for some reason. CPT had a bunch of errands for me to do. Sigh. I told him to email me a shopping list and that I would go. But then he never did. Ha! So I didn't go. He did say to go and get the title of the 2001 Suburban transferred over before the temple trip this weekend, though. He and Tom and Jake are going. So that was a priority.

But I wanted to watch a Vampire Diaries first. So that was a priority. LOL. Then my mom called, so I chatted with her for about an hour first. THEN watched the hour long show. Then headed on up to the title place on post. Which took about an hour.

And that took me up to lunch. CPT came home, and I was SO incredibly sleepy by that point, I could hardly stay awake. What was wrong with me??? I managed to be poor company during lunch hour, he went back to work and 1, and I napped until 3:15. Seriously!

Tom came home, and asked if I'd gone and bought the modeling clay that he needed for his science project due tomorrow. Crapit! Nope, I hadn't... So I left him in charge of going to the bus, and headed out the close gate (thank goodness it's open from 2-4) to go to Target. And bought the last 2 packs of modeling clay. Then went to the Dollar Tree for some supplies for Cub Scouts. We can plan seeds! They had all of that! Perfect :)

And got home a few minutes past 4pm. We had time to shuck 15 ears of corn, and get it in 2 big old pots of water with a stick of butter. And get it boiling. And get kids changed for baseball, and the suburban loaded, and Tom started on his project. Jake was being "special needs", so he had to come to the park with me. Tom and Eme got to stay at home and wait to come to Scouts later with CPT.

The corn wasn't done when it was time to go, but I put it in a seal-able zipper cooler, and it steamed itself the rest of the way done. And it turned out PERFECT. I learned a trick to picking the perfect ear of corn at the store. And from a random stranger, none the less. Look for the ears with the nastiest silky parts coming out of the stalk. Those are the yummiest ears. It's been true every time!

Anyway, we took the corn, and headed off to the park. Jim and Joe and Jake and I. Joe went to practice, and the rest of us ate. Julia brought crissount (I know that's not spelled right...) sandwiches. With turkey and tomato and lettuce. SO freakin' good! And Kari brought drinks, and Kim brought apples and bananas and fruit snacks. Good dinner, girls! And I had the fresh corn on the cob. Oh yeah! I think the other families were jealous- ha!

We had a lot of fun sitting around chatting and laughing and making fun of people, as usual. I don't know what Julia and I are gonna do when Kari and Kim move after school gets out! We need to find 2 crazy friends to replace them! If possible - :( I don't think it IS possible - hehe :)

Kim took the little kids over to the other ball field at 6:30, and I cleaned up the ginormous mess of food that we had, and Kari and Julia picked up the uniforms. Then I took Joe and Leo and Alex (I let him come this time) to Scouts. Alex was PERFECT. Joe and Leo were naughty this week.

We did have a great den meeting, though. We spent the first 10 minutes playing freeze tag outside. And by we, I meant I watched 7 rowdy Cub Scouts, and wondered how I was gonna get through it. I decided to move our table and chairs outside. It was 85 degrees. It would work :)

Next, we had the opening ceremony. And had to deal with people jumping off chairs, and being unruly and rowdy and squirrely and junk. Dang, these kids are hyper... Maybe because I have a special needs kid at home, when you add 2 more into the mix, I get annoyed. I don't know.

Anyway, we talked about the different kinds of plants. Then passed out the planters (7 per boy). And put labels on them. Then passed out markers. And let them pick what kinds of seeds they wanted (from 12 kinds). And they labeled the planters.

Then they got the dirt, and we passed out the seeds. And they planted the seeds. And that was the 60 minute den meeting. We had the prayer, got a snack, and cleaned up. I released kids back to their parents, and headed home. I dropped Alex off, then exchanged Leo for Jim. I put kids to bed, and started blogging.

It's now 9:30pm. CPT and Tom and Jake are still at church. I'm still tired. Even with that 2 hour nap. I hope I'm not coming down with something. That would be sad :( I don't have time to be sick, you know! hehe.

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