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Thursday, December 31, 2009

New Years Eve Party

First off, since i forget yesterday, here it is for today :) New proucts. And yes, I know it's not Friday. It was a special release date. Because the scraporchard market will be done for a few days after the 1st of the year for maintanence. SO, here's your chance to grab a bit of new stuff. I have 5 WordArts packs on sale, for only $2.00 a pack.

Click HERE to go to my store :)





Another day is over - hehehe. And it's 12:41 am, and I'm just now starting my blog. Still haven't designed. Sigh. I think I try and cram too much into my days. Maybe I need to do less. Nah, that's no fun!

I was supposed to wake up at 7am, to go grocery shopping with Andrea at 7:30am, but Captain America got a text at 6:00 am or something like that, that the post was operating on a delay, and wouldn't open until 9am. Because of the freezing overpasses. Sweet! SO, since the Commissary wouldn't be open anyway, I went back to bed. Sleep is a glorious thing...

Since I couldn't go grocery shopping when I wanted to, and my "flow" of the day was off anyway, I just took a real relaxing, lesiurely morning. At some point, I decided that it would be good to do the bills. Because that's always good.

I finished off my budget from last month, and figured out how much cash I needed to take out, and what "envelopes" to put it in, then started a new budget for this month. I tweeked a few of the categories, and it was all set. I just LOVE my new budget. It's great!

I headed out grocery shopping at around 11:30am. I know, kinda late, but it was ok. I took Joe with me for his "mom" time. Not quite as much fun as horseback riding or going to a movie, but grocery shopping with mom can be fun too. I'm not used to going with kids, though. Every single isle was the child asking "Can we get that? Can we get this?". And it wasn't just sugary food, either. It was stuffing, and box rice mix, and stuff like that. I must say, we did end up with a lot of stuff that we don't normally buy. BUT, we stayed in budget. I have $200 for the week budgeted, and the total was $201.17. I had an extra dollar from last week, and some change left over. So I just took the bagger tip out of my personal fund. It all worked out.

Joe and I ate Peanut M&M's on the way home. They were only $1.22 a bag in the Christmas section. I just LOVE cheap candy - hehehe.

We got home, and the kids all helped me carry in the groceries. I'd just got them all put away, and was starting on our bagel sandwiches, when Captain America called. It was only then that I realized that Tom wasn't at home. Captain America had come home for lunch, and taken Tom to the ID office to get his ID card. ROFL! I guess that Jake and Eme carried in al the groceries by themselves. And here I thought that Tom had helped. hehehe.

So, I put my bagel sandwich making skills on pause, and headed up to the ID office to bring Captain America Tom's Social Security card. When I got there, they didn't really need it. Oh well. Tom got his ID, Captain America went back to work, and Tom and I headed home.

I made up my sandwich, dished out a few chips to the kids, checked my emails, and started to get ready for the pool. The indoor pools opens at 1pm for open swim. We were gonna go and give it a "look see" today. We'd planned on going at 1pm, but it was 2:30pm before we actually got there. Right before we left the house to go to the pool, I heard this LOUD crashing noise, and went out to the dining room to investigate. The kids were yelling "Jimmy broke the window", and I was ready to really start yelling, but it was just one of the glass doors to my hutch. Just. Sigh. Tom broke one a few years back. Now half are broke, and half are glass. I guess 2 of them must look REALLY clean - LOL! At least it wasn't a window. I'd have been REALLY mad if it was a window.

My neighbor, Leigh, and her kids were there. We chatted for about an hour, then she left to go and do something. My kids were having a BLAST playing. I'm gonna have to come up more often. Because the pool is fun :)




I texted Andrea, and told her to come and play with me. About an hour later, she came. We stayed for about another hour, and she and I even got in the pool. It was FREEZING cold. OK, not freezing. But I was shivering. Too cold for me. But it didn't seem to affect the kids at all - crazy kids!

When we were about ready to leave, Andrea and I and the little kids went to the showers. We kept our suits on, but went and hung out in the warm water. It was SO nice. LOL! I think it may have been my favorite part :)

We were FREEZING all the way home. At least it's only about 6 blocks away. How handy is that :) I made the kids strip down, and take showers. We had tithing settlement at 6:30, and it was 5:45. We were cutting it close. Jim and Joe showered in the downstairs bathroom, Jake and Tom in the upstairs, and I don't know where Eme showered, but I know that she did. Everyone looked real nice when Captain America got home at 6pm.

So we're all ready to go, and I'm in the bedroom getting ready, and I hear Joe and Tom going at it. Captain America gets involved too. Tom is whining that Joe hurt him, they both start to get smoked. Then we look over, and Toms bleeding. Apparently, Joe threw a spoon at Toms face, and it cut him on the cheek. How does that even happen??? Poor Tom. It left quite the mark.


I didn't have time for a shower, so I just fixed my hair and make up, and threw on a black shirt and skirt. And my black trench coat. And a scarf. And some black boots. Perfect! I made some rice mix stuff (THANKS, Joe), and we headed out the door.

Tithing settlement was good. It's always nice to meet with the bishop. It's our chance to tell him if we pay a full tithe. And we do. 10% of what we make, we gve to our church. The kids has some tithing to pay too, which was real cute :) They filled out the tithing slips, and passed in the money. Cute kids!

We hurried home, dropped off the kids and hubby, and I headed back out to my Primary Presidency meeting. Heidi (the president) lives only about 5 blocks away (by the pool), and it was at her house. We talked about teachers, and classes, and the "Meet Your Teacher" brunch on Saturday, and binders. Every teacher gets a manual with all the lessons, and a picture packet. Numbered. So we had to go through each binder, and check to see if all the pictures were there. It took a LONG time,but we managed to get it done. Definitely faster with 3 people instead of only one doing it :)

Next, it was home to the fam. They were all sitting around watching Captain America play Guitar Hero. And seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'd told them earlier in the day that they weren't allowed to play Wii/computer, unless their rooms were VERY clean, and their chores were done well. We had a mostly electronics free day in the Harty Household. BUT, the rooms were looking better as the day went on.

I somehow managed to drag Captain America away from the game, and we went out on our date. To the cheap movie theater. We saw "Couples Retreat". I didn't know a thing about it going into it. It was ok funny. Vince Vaughn is a funny guy :) Maybe a bit too much suggestive stuff, but funny, none the less. The yoga guy was NASTY! ROFL!

As we were driving back through the gate, Captain America was like "They're gonna pull us over for the inspection", and low and behold, they did. When they asked for our ID's, Captain America handed it to the, smiled, and said, "I was REALLY hoping that you guys would pick up". LOL! The guards laughed and though he was funny - hehehehe.

I was FREEZING to death, and was SO grateful to get back in the car. I'd worn a dress to tithing settlement, then went immediatley to the meeting, then on the date. (Plus, the dress is elastic waisted, so it wasn't a tights as my jeans, and I'd been eating junk food today - ROFL!), but it was SURE cold outisde waiting on the guards....

So here it is, 1:05am, and I'm off to design a quick freebee, then I'll be back to post it here :)

K, I'm back. And it's only 1:16am. Only - ROFL! Here's the freebee for today. I thought it was appropriate :) We're going to a New Years Eve party on Thursday. Should be a lot of fun :)

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!



Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Home Sweet Home

What a day! It started WAY too early. Seriously. The kids and Captain America were up past midnight last night playing Guitar Hero on the Wii, and I wanted to go to bed. But it was super loud. SO, even with the door shut, and 2 fans going, I could still hear them. SO, I put in my MP3 player and headphones, and listened to a bit of Eclipse as I fell asleep. I don't know what time they finally went to bed. I turned off my MP3 player around 1:30am. It had started over again at the beginning of the book, so I'll need go back and re-listen to the end of the book - LOL!

Anyway, I'm sleeping along nicely, and Captain America wakes me up before he goes to work. Why, you ask? Was it something important? Life and death? Car wouldn't start? Couldn't find his keys? No, he wanted his College diploma. Yup. He wanted to know if I knew where it was, because he wanted to hang it on his wall at work. WHAT??? Why would you wake me up early to ask me that??? Couldn't you get it at noon? Or shouldn't you have looked for it last night? Like when you were playing Guitar Hero for hours? Men.....

If I'd have woken him up early on a Saturday morning to ask him if he'd seen the collindar, he'd be mad. I know he would. I'm just saying....

I tried my best to go back to sleep, but it wasn't working for me. I was up, as much as I hated to admit it.

I decided to clean my room a bit. I got these cool soft storage boxes yesterday, and wanted to use them for something. I decided to reoragnize my closet a bit. See, I don't have a dresser. I just use storage boxes. I know, it's ghetto. I don't care. I'm cheap, and I move a lot. It works for me. Anyway, I thought that if I put socks in one box, undies in one box, bras in one box, etc, I could line them on the bottom of my closet, and it would look nice. And it did!

I folded a whole bunch of laundry, and washed a whole bunch more. All while listening to Muse. It was an enjoyable morning.

At around 11am, I was ready for a break. It seemed liked forever since I'd been out, and I needed to get away :) SO, I made sure that they kids were happy and taken care of, and headed to the store. I wanted to check out Family Dollar, and see if they had any more of the storage soft boxes. They were 3 for $5. Similar to the ones that Target had on sale, one for $5.50. Anyway...

I got there, and scoured the store, but they didn't have them. I bought 2 new shower curtain liners, and a shower rod, and some light bulbs (did you know good old fashioned light bulbs are hard to find these days???), a power surge protected power strip, and some clothes for the little boys. Sweat suits for $5. That's a GREAT deal. I got 2 Lightening McQueen ones, one BMX one, and a Power Ranger one. The little boys would LOVE them.

Next, it was on to Fallas. OMGosh, they were having Winter sales! Coats for $3 or $5 or $10. Really, it was GREAT prices. I got Eme a purple coat for $3, a sweater for $3, and a sweat suit for $5. I got myself a fake black leather coat for $5. It's SO cute!

I found undershirts for the little boys, and more sweat suits. I got 3 or 4 more, and some Jeans/long sleeve shirt sets. For $5. Can't pass up jeans AND a shirt for $5. All totaled, I spent $72 at Fallas. I know, that's a TON of money, but I got a BUTTLOAD of clothes for the little boys. Jimmy mostly. Because he's a bigger size than Joe, and can't fit into the pants anymore.

Andrea met me at Fallas, and drug me away - ROFL! I put my bags in her Suburban, left my truck there, and we headed for Chili's on Transmountain. Did you know that they have a Soup/Salad/Chips lunch special? For $6.49, you get unlimited chips and salsa, your choice of 2 salads (house or cesear, unlimited refills), and you choice of 3 soups (unlimited refills and choices). They had a tortilla one, a creamy potato, and a black bean.

I was SO full by the time I waddled out of that restaurant. I'm going back on my diet on New Years Day, I think. I'm tired of feeling fat and nasty all the time - LOL! BUT, the soups were good. Not as good as Olive Garden, but still good. I'd do it again :)

After Chili's we went across the street to WalMart. Andrea wanted to get one of those wrapping paper storage containers. You know the ones. With a little storage compartment in the top to hold tape and scissors and tags and such. Well, they had one, but it wasn't the one she wanted. It didn't have the additional storage part. So we kept looking.

She needed milk and a few other things, but it was a very quick trip. I got a flavored water drink thing, and that was it for me. I'd more than spent my wad at the last store - LOL!

Then it was home. The kids were doing fine. They'd had fun playing, and were still happy and content. They LOVED all their new stuff. Joe and Jim especially, since they were the ones with most of the loot. LOL!

Andrea and I and Kim headed out about an hour later to Target on the Far East side. Kim said that they had the storage containers that Andrea wanted. But we struck out again. They had had them at one point, but they were out. Sigh. Andrea and Kim both got a different storage box, to put away the Christmas crap. Mine's still up. I'm not tired of it yet - LOL! I think because it's not in the way of anything. You know what I mean? It's tucked away, not to obtrusive. And the tree is pretty. How long can I leave it up before it's tacky?

I got home, and got the kids some dinner. I made pancakes with mini chocolate chips. TASTY. And another reason why I feel fat - ROFL! BUT, they were good :) Captain America was home around then, and after getting all settled in after work, he and Jake got on Guitar Hero. We were being serenaded again - LOL!

I got on my laptop to get my blogging done for the day, and here I am. It's 8:41pm. My room is still "fluffed up" after cleaning. You know, where you pull stuff out, or make piles after folding, and you haven't quite got it put away yet. Sigh. It's on it's way to being organized, but not quite there yet. I've been doing laundry all day long. I did 4 load for Joe and Jim, and 2 loads for Captain America and I. Jakes on his 2nd load now. And the dryer is broke-ish. SUPER squeeky. It keeps life real - ROFL!

Here's my WordArt Wednesday week 77 for ya! I thought it was funny. A facebook friend recommended the saying :) hehehe.

Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to get the download. And remember, you MUST BE SIGNED into the gallery to get the download. Don't forget :) Otherwise it won't work.... And leave some love if you like my work :)

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Have A Nice Day

Hey girls! What a day, what a day.... I woke up at 7:00am to go walking with Andrea, but after texting her, found out that she had sick kids. Poor Ben had been puking. SO, I went back to bed, and didn't wake up until about 8:15am. It was SO nice. Just to be lazy and sleep :)

Captain America came home from PT around that time, and got ready for the day. The kids slowly woke up one by one, and went about their day off. I got ready, and decided to go do some After Christmas sale shopping around 9:30am. I had a TON of stores to hit. I left Jake in charge, and headed out.

First stop was the Sears repair shop to ask about a part for my dying washing machine. No dice, though, because they were closed until 11:30am. Next stop, the furniture warehouse store across from Target. Andrea and I have a friend who bought her table there for $5. Seriously. And it's big, and relatively nice. But they weren't open either. I was totally striking out.

I decided to give WalMart a try. They had practically nothing left. And it was only 50% off. That's not a great deal. I was looking for a pre-lit tree, preferably 7 foot or taller. They had 7 footer for $40, but it wasn't pre-lit. I didn't need that. They had a 6 foot something tree, pre lit, but it was $50. Didn't want that either. I left Walmart with nothing.

Next, Walgreens. I knew that they had trees at one point. But none that were tall and prelit. Sigh. I did get some lights, white, 100 count, for $2.00. I ended up with 2 packages.

Next, I went to Big Lots, but they didn't have anything good. Their stuff was on 50% off a few days before Christmas, so it had been picked over pretty good.

I went next door to Kmart, and they had a TON of stuff, but it was SO expensive. Their trees were 50% off, but when they start off at $300, it's WAY too cheap to buy and put in the garage for a year. That's probably why they had SO much left.

I went to Target, and they had quite a bit of stuff, but I wasn't gonna pay $68 for a 6 1/2 foot prelit tree. I thought it was still too expensive. Strike out at that store too.

But now the furniture store was open, so I swung by there after Target. I found a SUPER nice little man to help me, and I told him the kind of table I was looking for, and how my friend had got a KILLER deal last year. He explained that the new owner/manager/person didn't want them doing that anymore, so deals like that didn't happen anymore. I told him that I needed a table to fit 7 people, I didn't care what it looked like, and I didn't want to spend more than $50. He said that he'd look around, and ask the guys in the warehouse tomorrow, and see what he could dig up for me. So, while it wasn't really a no, I walked away with nothing again.

I went home, and was a bit disappointed in my shopping day. Sure, I got out of the house, but I hadn't really accomplished anything. My house was getting SO messy, but I wasn't feeling motivated to clean it.

Captain America got home a bit after me, and I hung out with him for lunch. He was back to work by 1pm, and the kids and got ready to go to the store again. They had "Grandma Ida" dollars ($5 each) to spend, and it was burning a whole in their pockets. Jake decided to stay home and play Wii, but all the other kids wanted to come.

First dropped by the Sears appliance repair center, since it was now open. I asked the little man if they sold parts for an Admiral dryer, and he was like, yeah, but it's not gonna do you any good, because you don't know what's wrong with the dryer. You need to hire a repair man. Sigh. Not the answer I was looking for. My friend Kim had said, yeah, just go flirt with them, and they'll give you what you need. Yeah, my "flirt skills" suck, apparently. :(

The kids and I headed out to Family Dollar, and actually found some good deals. I could have bought a 6 foot prelit tree for $20, but passed. But that was the cheap deal that I was looking for. I just wanted it bigger :) Because bigger is better, right? LOL!

Tom found a HUGE aircraft carrier that he wanted, Joe found a skateboard, and Jim found a BIG car that played music and drove itself an such. They were happy with their choices. Goodwill was right next door, so we went there too. Eme found a new in the box Easy Bake oven, for $7, and decided to get it. Sure, she already had the oven, but now she has 4 pans. And you can't buy the pans online for cheaper than that. She was pretty excited to have 3 ovens now - ROFL! And we found a bike helmet for Joe for his skateboard. See, I'm all about safety - LOL!

After that, we headed over to the church. I was supposed to meet the Cubmaster there to fill out some paperwork. For about the 5th time. The Boy Scout council keeps loosing my paperwork. What's up with that? SO not cool. Anyway, I filled out a new application, and the Cubmaster said that he'd get it taken care of for me. He's a good guy :)

After that, it was back home. I'd been working with my Brother in Law Nathaniel (Fan for short) to find a new laptop for myself. Mine is having serious issues. It keeps overheating, and turning off at random times, or locking up, or what not. I can't be working on something important, and have it die on me. That's just NOT cool.

Anyway, he'd found a really good one for me around Thanksgiving, and I'd waited too long, and it was now $100 more than then. SO, I asked him to find me a different good one - ROFL! HERE's what he found for me. Looked good to me. I ordered it, and it should be here in a few days!

So my old laptop will go out to the kids, and we'll have another computer to add to the mix. I think that will bring our family total to 7. Sigh. See how big of nerds we are - ROFL!

SO, I spent the majority of the rest of the day transferring files from my laptop to my EHD. My digiscrapping file is HUGE, so I try and re-save it once a week to my EHD. Because I would be SO sad if I lost all of my designing files. All that hard work..... BUT, it's all backed up now, so while I don't want it to die, it can. But because I'd be fine with it dying, it won't. Murphys law and everything, you know :)

At 6pm, I got on the Wii, and played Wii fit for 33 minutes. Aren't you proud of me?? Never mind the fact that I ate anything and everything that happened to come within my line of site today. I Wii fitted for 33 minutes! Woohoo me!

Apparently I have good balance. Because my Wii age is 33. And I'm 34. How cool is that! Jake's Wii age is 27, and he's 12. Tom's is 28, and he's 10. Eme's is 28, and she's 8. Hmmmm, somethings wrong with this picture, I'm thinking. Captain America was 39 on the Wii, and he's really 37.

Anyway, I played a whole bunch of Wii balance board games, and it was SO much fun. I raced 3 times, and played the step aerobics (LOVED it), did the tight rope walker game, some penguin on ice game, a bubble game, soccer ball game, ski jumping, and a few more. It was fun.

Captain America got home a few minutes before I was done playing, and we made him get on the Wii and make a character. He enjoyed it! He picked a girl trainer, and had fun doing the strength training exercise. He thought it was SO cool when she kept telling him, "You're really strong". Should I be jealous??? Yes, he's really strong. And he's all mine. Go find your own strong guy...

After Wii fit, they moved on to Guitar Hero. At least there's some good music coming from the living room now :) I spent quite a bit of time online on Facebook, doing who knows what, and now I'm blogging. Then I have to make a freebee. I think I need to go to bed. It's almost 11pm, and my eyes are burning. Or maybe I just need to take out my contacts - LOL!

So because I was exhausted, and didn't feel like coming up with a saying/quote, I changed my status on Facebook to ask for sayings. And you girls really d come through for me! I got a WHOLE ton of ideas! I actually made one for Tuesday, one for Wed, one for Monday AND Tue of next week. See how good you guys are to me! Thanks, girls.

Anyway, I thought that this was just hilarious! Because you know, sometimes, I DO have other plans - 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. Thanks!



And someone was asking "How do you use this WordArt"? Well, think sarcasm. Find a pic of someone CLEARLY not having a good day, and scrap that picture. I'm sure you have those pics. I do. I don't know why I have a sick fascination with taking pictures of people when they're angry crying. LOL! I think i have pics of EACH of my children that way. I think it's because it makes them even madder, and I like to torment them. Sigh. Maybe I need to work on that....


Monday, December 28, 2009

Capable of Being

Don't you hate it when you get in a fight with your spouse. Especially over something dumb. Well, I guess that fighting over something dumb is better than fighting over something important, right? Apparently, last night when I got home from the movie and he was watching Kung Fu Panda, and I joined him on the couch, he thought that we were starting a "date night".

And he thought that it was SUPER rude of me to bring my laptop on our "date night". And true, if it were a date night, and I brought my laptop and "worked", that would have been super rude. But in my mind, I was just joining him in watching the movie he was already watching. I was planning on going in our room and watching a movie that I'd picked out earlier, just the two of us.

Sigh. It was a big misunderstanding. Then he got his feelings hurt, and I got my feelings hurt, and it kinda sucked. Why must things be so hard sometimes.....

He got up early to go to church, and by the time I woke up to get ready for church, he was gone. We didn't sit together at church, because he sits up front, and I sit in the audience with the kids (not because he was mad), and then he went home early because he wasn't feeling good.

The kids were mostly well behaved during sacrament (Jimmy needs to learn to whisper quieter - LOL), and besides the fact that a Junior Primary teacher, a Senior Primary teacher, and the music choristor didn't show up, Primary was good. Really, people. You can't just not show up and not get a sub. That's not cool. Don't you know that it puts everyone else in scramble mode. Sigh.

Anyway, we came home from church, and got lunch. Guess what it was? Go ahead, guess? Chili? You're right!!! I also made some fruit salad. I didn't have coolwhip, so I used light sour cream and splenda. I think I actually liked it better. I had a big can of light fruit cocktail, a can of light mandarin oranges, a can of pineapple chunks, a red delicious apple, and a golden delicious apple. And 2 bananas. All diced up, with a cup of walnuts. OMGosh, it was SO tasty. I ate WAY too much - hehehe. I guess eating too much fruit isn't a terrible thing, right?

After lunch, I can't remember what I did until 2:30, but at 2:30, I went in to take a nap. I told the kids that they could turn on the TV and watch a movie, AFTER they did their chores and cleaned their rooms. Needless to say, when I woke up at 3:30, the TV was still off - hehehe. They were coloring, and reading, and playing nicely with their toys. No TV days are a good thing!

Captain America and I hashed out our feelings, and finally got on good terms again. I hate fighting. It's SO draining. But it's important to work though it, and get back to feeling happy and loving towards each other again. I know that :)

At 6pm, we went out to fix dinner. Yup, Chili. This time with crackers and cheese. And a bit of left over fruit salad. Original, I know :) We played a "family" round of Wii bowling, then sat down to watch the Dr Who 2009 Christmas Special, "The End of Time" Part 1. So so so so so so GOOD!!!! I can't wait for Part 2 on New Years day.

After Dr Who, Captain America and I did our "date night" that we were supposed to do on Saturday night. We watched a movie, just the 2 of us :)

Captain America has to work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then has Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. Should be a good week to come! I hope that everyone had a VERY Merry Christmas, and spent some good time with family and friends. I know that we did :)

Oh yeah, and just a random thought, but did you see that Ikeagoddess quit? I went to her site last night, after not having checked in almost a month, and discovered that she was calling it quits. How sad. She said that it just wasn't fun anymore. I can totally relate. I know when I first started, it was purely a hobby. Somedays, now, I find myself not wanting to design, or blog, or anything. Luckily, I look that the blogging as an "online journal", and I know how important journaling is. Hopefully that'll keep me going. And the designing? Well, honestly, that only takes about 6 minutes to get the WordArt freebee done for the day, so I think I can continue to devote 6 minutes a day to it - LOL! I guess what I'm saying is, I don't have plans to quit yet, but I can understand why she did.

This WordArt request comes from . 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!


Sunday, December 27, 2009

Peace

Happy Sunday! It's the last Sunday of 2009! Hopefully it's a good one for everyone :)

Saturday, I slept in. Till after 9am. It was HEAVENLY! Sleep is SO nice :) hehehe. The house was still mostly clean from our cleaning on Christmas Day evening, which was nice to wake up to also. The kids were happy, and playing with the Wii and their new toys. What a great morning :)

Captain America and Emeline got ready to go horseback riding, and I got ready to go to the store with Andrea. We both needed a few things from the store. Her, milk, and I contact solution. I only had enough solution to put my contacts in one more time. That's not good - LOL!

Captain America left around 11am, and so did I. Andrea and I headed out to the mall. She needed to check on a video game exchange, and I wanted to stop by a clothes store. The trade in deal they were gonna do wasn't very good, so she decided to try her luck with amazon.com. The clothes? I found some CUTE stuff. I got a hoodie sweater (black, of course) with faux fur hood trim and pom pom strings (SO cute!) for $12.99, a leather looking green coat for $5.50 (SOOOO cute!), and a red button up dressy shirt for $6.00. I got it all for about $26 after tax. Almost exactly what I had left from Santa. I just love new things :)

After the mall, we headed to the West side of El Paso. There's this awesome Chinese buffet that Ryan and Andrea used to go to over there, and she wanted to take me there. DIVINE! I wanted to start my diet on Saturday, but we'll start it on Sunday - ROFL!

I had some white rice, some chicken broccoli, some beef with broccoli, ( i tried to stay away from the stuff with the dried red peppery looking things - I'm not good with hot...) a few noodles, some terykai chicken, and some coconut shrimp. OMGosh, the coconut shrimp was SOOOOO yummy. With just the plain rice. I lOVED it. We also got some crab legs.

Crab legs..... just not the same as fresh. The shell was harder to crack, the meat was a bit rubbery, and it just wasn't like my Dad catches. I know, I'm spoiled. Andrea said that it was really good crab. She's tried a lot at a lot of different restaurants, and had a lot of crab legs. Apparently they WERE good, if fresh out of the ocean isn't what you're used ot. Dad, can you get me some crab to share with my friend???

We got a bit of Mongolia grill, which was SOO awesome. There's this whole buffet table with different raw ingredients. You assemble what you want on your plate, add sauces and oils and such, then give it to the guy to grill. SO fun! I even took a movie...

I got some more coconut shrimp with rice, a bit of sweet and sour, and a YUMMY roll. Have you ever had rolls with cream cheese in the center? Anyone have a recipe for that? OMGosh, they were to die for :) My grill was pretty good. Needed more sauce, or some oil or something though. And, you'd be proud of me. No diet soda with caffeine :) Just water!

Next, it was on to Target, which was on the same side of the road. Andrea found her milk, and I got my contact solution. And hair dye. And a set of Star Wars playing cards. And a new slinkie for Joe, since Jimmy broke it yesterday.

We got home at around 2. The kids were doing just fine. It's amazing how well the kids get along when you take just one of the kids out of the mix - LOL! And it doesn't even matter which child it is. Go figure ;)

I thought about taking a nap, but ended up farting around on the computer instead. I used my new popcorn maker, and made popped popcorn for the kids and I, and Jimmy and I watched CARS in my bed. I almost took a nap. Almost.

I made some homemade Chili around 5:30pm. Kim had given me this MASSIVE can of chili beans, and I decided to turn it into Chili. There was a recipe on the back, and I followed it. After browning all 3 lbs of burger with 3 onions, I realized that I didn't have a pot big enough to handle it. Crap! What was I gonna do? I'd already opened up the can of beans, too.

I ended up getting our big galvanized bucket that we used for Civil War reenacting to boil water with, and making chili in that. SO funny. It was a TON of Chili. SO, anyone who wasn't to drop by for food tomorrow, just let me know! I'll hook you up with some chili :)

Captain America was supposed to be back home at a decent hour, and we were supposed to go to the movies, but he didn't get home in time. SO, I decided to go on a date with Tom. 2012 was playing at the theater, and I thought it would be fun to go with Tom. He seemed pretty excited about it Eme got to go on a "date" with Captain America, Jim and I had a "date" the day before Christmas Eve where we went shopping and ate breakfast at Target, and then Tom and I to the movies tonight. Just Joe is left. I wonder what fun thing we'll go and do?

We made some Carmel Corn right before the movies, and it was SO good. I think the kids liked it. Thanks, Andrea, for the new Popcorn Popper!

Tom and I left for the movies at 6:45pm, and got there just in time. I had Tom pay for the movie ($2 for me and $1.25 for him), and get our movie card stamped. We'd earned a FREE medium popcorn and soda! Score it for us! I had him go and redeem it, then we went and picked our seats. Andrea and Sam sat with us.

Sam had met a kid in line, and sat in front of us, and chatted the whole time. I sat by Andrea, and we chatted the whole time, but whispered better than the boys - ROFL! Tom sat by me, and we shared the popcorn/soda, and I kept him filled in in the parts that he didn't understand. He held my hand during the exciting parts, and he squeeled and just the right times. He's SO much fun to watch a movie with, because he gets SO excited.

After the movie was over, I turned to Tom, and I was like, "Tom, did you like it?", expecting a huge "That was AWESOME", and he was like, "Um, no, not really". What? How could you act like you did during the movie and then say that you don't like it. Strange child - LOL!

All in all, it was a nice date. I think that taking him to the movies, and showing him how to take a girl to the movies will be beneficial to him in the long run. How else can we expect our boys to know how to treat girls if they don't practice? And practicing on mom is the BEST way to learn :)

We got home at almost 10pm, and Captain America was already home. Eme and him and Jake were watcing Kung Fu Panda. Jim and Joe were in bed. After about 20 minutes, we made Jake and Tom and Eme go to bed, then finished watching the movie together. He'd never seen it before, and laughed so hard I thought he was gonna wet himself a few times. Jack Black is HILARIOUS! Especially in kid movies, because he's not being dirty. Gotta love Kung Fu Panda!

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!



Saturday, December 26, 2009

Mess

I'm longwinded today. I really am. Just a quick warning. My mom and aunt and grandma will love me, but the rest of you? Sorry, girls.....

*shameless plug...*

I have an extra special treat for you guys for Christmas!!! I made up some more WordArt Bundles!!! 8 Christmas WordArt Packs in a bundle, all for a low price of $5.00. That's $0.625 cents per pack, or $0.15 per single WordArt. Now really, you can't beat that, right? $0.15 a piece? I'm practically giving it away - hehehe. Anyway, I have 3 different packs to choose from. SO, Merry Christmas!!!


I hope that you all had a FANTABULOUS Christmas day yesterday! I know that my family sure did :)

First off, here's some pics from Christmas Eve. I was too tired that night to download the pic and post them on my blog for my mom. Sorry! BUT, here they are today :)

Jimmy :)

Jacob

Tom

Andrea

Captain America

Andrea and I

Eme and Joe pestering Sam - LOL!

Joe and Ben coloring on their dry erase board presents
Tom had the MOST fun putting baby Luke in the giant bag. I think Luke had fun too - hehehe.

Captain America & I

I can't be serious for too long without my crazyiness slipping through :)

Luke and his chocolate face mess - hehehe

Jimmy and his funny face :)
My alarm went off at 6:40am, because I forgot to turn it off. Drat! I half slept in longer, though. At 8am, the kids were "accidentally" bumping into our door a bit too regularly, so we decided to get up - ROFL! I thought it was good of them to wait that long for us - hehehe.

We went out, and found that Joe and Jim had gotten into their stockings. Jimmy had opened up a Hot Wheel trailer, and they'd both found their packages of Thin Mints. Sigh. Little boys, right? We had the talk about not opening up Christmas presents/stocking/stuff until Mom and Dad wake up. Hopefully they won't do it again next year. At least it was just the top layer of their stockings those two got into - LOL! It could have been a lot worse ;)

We made the kids eat breakfast, do a few quick chores, and then we were ready for opening presents. Let the fun begin!

First off, we opened the Wii from my mom. The kids were SO excited to get it! Because Santa was bringing Jake Wii games, it woudln't make sense unless we'd already opened the Wii gift. Hence the order - LOL!

The kids when they realized what was in the box - check out Tom - hehehe.

This about says it all - LOL!

OK, this really bothers me that they're not in order, but I'm just gonna have to go with it. See, we opened the Wii, then did stockings, then did one present per person from Santa, then passed out the ones from Madi, then the ones that we drew names for, then the rest of the stuff under the tree. But I divided it up unto Wii, each child, then Captain America and I. So, just for my piece of mind, know that we didn't open presents in this order - LOL!

Here's the Wii Fit Plus

Wii Guitar Hero (only $40 at Big Lots!)

Wii Lightsabers (the ones I stood in line a Ross FOREVER for....)


Rechargable station. This oughta be handy...

Here's Jimmy on Christmas Morning. I forgot to have them open their new pajamas on Christmas Eve, so here he is, opening them.

See, much better! Lightening McQueen jammies!

Mini CARS cars from Santa

This car drives and plays music and is annoying....I mean fun...

Shake and Go Chick Hicks. He LOVES it! Thanks, Santa!


2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys from Santa

Shake and Go Sarge was from my sister Madi. Thanks, girl!!!

And the fake Nerf gun is from me! I drew Jimmy's name ;)

And JOE!!! Joe is such a fun kid at Christmas time. He likes the good old fashioned toys. He asked for Cowboy stuff this year. He's SO fun :)

Here's Joe before his new jammies...


And after...

Cowboys and Indians in his stocking

A cap rifle from Santa

And a bow and arrow set

He was SO excited about this. A Cowboy shirt, bandanas, and a leather vest and chaps. He was ONE happy kid :)

Here's the outfit so far...

Add some caps for his pistols...


and some new Cowboy Boots, and you're stylin'!

He wanted a Slinkie from Santa also

And a Cowboy Hat (although it's a foam one from the Dollar Tree, and I'm thinking it won't survive the weekend...)

Oh yeah, there's my little Cowboy!

He got a dart gun and a sword from Tom from the gift name draw thing...

Reach for the sky...

And here's Eme with her new Jammies

Eme looking inside of her stocking

Eme and the Easy Bake Oven (She was SO excited!)

And the "goodwill" Easy Bake Oven - she didn't even know - LOL!

The Tea Set

A horse

A fuzzy warm red blanket (I'm SERIOUSLY jealous :)

A mini Furreal Friend puppy

A nightlight

And with the gift from Aunt Madi

And with the Paint-Your-Own-Tea-Set from Jimmy

Tom with his stocking (and his booklight)

Tom with his Tommy Gun. Dang, that thing is powerful - LOL! It had batteries, and power shoots 20 bullets one after another. Steer clear of that child - hehehe.

Tom and his Star Wars Legos. He really really really really really liked it!

The 5th of the Percy Jackson books!

Tom with his present from Joe. A Star Trek action figure. Spock. Or Sylar, if you watch Heroes - ROFl!

And a cool Lego creation that he made :)


Jacob and his stocking. Really, he was happy. I just snapped the picture and he looked sad. Really.


He was pretty happy about the Star Wars Lightsaber Game

He didn't know he was getting this one all for himself, so he was pretty excited!

And some cash. Cash is good!

He got 2 shirts from his Dad for the gift exchange.


My sister got Captain America and Jake and Tom "Legos Batman" for the Wii, but it was sitting in the mailbox as we were opening gifts- LOL!

Here's Captain America with his stocking stuff. He got a tin with Civil War DVD's inside it - he was SO excited!
ROFL! It looks like I like the guy in the DVD, not the DVD - hehehe. Tay Diggs IS hot, but mostly I just like the show!
This is my present from my sister! Thanks, Madi! I almost bought it the day after Thanksgiving! See, you're just that good!
Here's Captain America with his present from Emeline. A shirt from Fallas Parades.
Me with my present from Jake. From the Jewlery Box. I just LOVE my hat, but it's stinky. Smells like oil. I washed it with Woolite in the sink, so hopefully it smells better tomorrow :)
I give up, don't shoot!

Captain America opening his gift from Santa. Horse tack for his Civil War impression :)
So, after opening presents for about an hour and a half, we were done. Seriously, 1 1/2 hours of presents. I was tired by the time I was done. And so was Captain America. Do you know how hard some of these toys are to get out of the box? Dang!

So, we hooked up the Wii. Andrea had given the kids a HUGE TV a while back to use with an older gaming system (it worked, but every once in a while you had to whack it to get it to work - LOL), so we hauled it downstairs, and put it in the living room, on the desk. I think it's gonna work out fine. You can still watch TV, and have most of the living room, AND play the Wii.

Captain America and the boys played most of the day. I watched on and off. I did go in my room with Eme and Joe (and a few on again/off again stragglers) and watch "White Christmas". It was SO nice. Such a nice way to spend the afternoon.

I went into the little boys' room, and helped them clean it. They had SO many dirty clothes. It's amazing that they even have clothes on - ROFL! I vaccumed, and straightened out toys, and shoes, and clothes, and everything. It took an hour or so. BUT, it looked SO good when I was done.

Then I looked at the rest of the house, and about had a cow. It was TRASHED. Remember, we opened presents for 1 1/2 hours. That's bound to make some mess. Then we just kinda pushed it to the side. Luckily Andrea had called and said that she was "ditching" me for Christmas dinner. Pfew. I didn't wanna cook or clean anyway. It's almost scary how we're on the same wavelength all the time - hehehe. A nice relaxing day at home was JUST what I needed!

At 6ish (or was it later?), I announced that I was going in my room to watch one of our new movies. Cloverfield. Captain America came and watched with me, as did Eme and Jimmy. Man, there's a lot of language in it. Well, just one word. The poop word. I hate that word. Sigh. But I really liked the movie. Captain America didn't really like the ending, but I won't give it away. By the time it was over, Jimmy was snoring.

Captain America went and put him to bed (since it was SO clean - hehehe), and I made everyone else come and help me clean the house. Actually, I just grabbed a trash bag and started cleaning, and the big kids volunteered to help. I was pretty surprised. What great kids. Of course, they lost interest fast, but still. It's the thought that counts.

After about 20 minutes, Captain America jumped in and helped out too. All the kids and I cleaned for about 30 minutes straight, and the house was spotless. Seriously, it looked good! By 9pm, it was looking nice!

After that, we all sat down on the couch, and did our Christmas Program. I was really glad that we did it. We read about the birth of Christ, and sang our hearts out. Eme and I sat next to each other and had so much fun singing. It's definitely a tradition that I wanna continue. If you wanna see our program (no, I didn't write it - I "borrowed" it from someone else), click HERE.

We got done at 10:30pm. The kids /Captain America started playing Wii again, I started blogging and editing Christmas pictures, Joe fell asleep, Jim was already sleeping, and Eme went to the table to draw. It was gonna be a late night.

I spent HOURS blogging. Here it is, 12:36am, and I'm just now nearing the end of my day. Sigh. I guess this is why I usually don't take so many pictures - ROFL! I wonder if anyone is still reading? That's a lot to read. hehehe. You've probably had your fill of Hartys :)

In honor of the ginormous mess that my house was BEFORE we cleaned it up, here's your WordArt for today :)

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