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Saturday, July 17, 2010

Oopsy Daisy

First off, here's my BRAND NEW products for the week! Aren't you excited???? hehehe. Click HERE to go to my Store to pick up this weeks goodies for 20% off! Only $2.00 per wordart pack :)








And yes, I know that my blog is late. VERY late. But it's still here. hehehe. Let me go ahead and blog my day and I'll explain :)

First off, here's 2 pics that failed to make the blog yesterday. First one if me with my soda cup from the PX from dinner. Me and Edward :) hehehe


And the next one is me with the Cardinals cup that Tom and I got for Captain America. We thought he'd LOVE it since he LOVES the Cardinals. Go St. Louis!


Woke up at 6am on Friday. Yeah, too early. Captain America left for PT and I just couldn't fall asleep. I tried. I really did. And I probably dozed a bit, but I didn't fall back asleep. Around 7am (or a bit before), I got out of bed and went out to make breakfast for the kids.

I used the left over hot dog and hamburger buns from the picnic to make French Toast. Have you ever done that? Works out pretty good! You should try it some time. French Toast on Hot Dog bungs. It's a good time :)

Anyway, that took about 30 minutes or so, and by 7:45am, most of the people in the house were awake. I printed out my shopping list, and figured out what I needed to get and what I had, and at around 8 something my mom and sister and I headed to the commissary. Neither one had been before.

My sister wanted to start my diet. Well, a modified version of my diet. She was gonna do the last day of my "refeed" portion of my diet. The maintain portion. Where you add in a bit of starches, some breads, different fruits, more veggies, and different meats. And even a plain cookie. It's a good diet. She's a jogger, so she wanted to do something similar to my diet, but with more calories so she could still run. I'm getting close to that point too. Only 2 1/2 more lbs to go :)

Anyway, we walked around the commissary, shopping and filling up our carts. hehehe. They'd never had baggers before, and didn't really like other people messing with their groceries. I remember feeling that way when I first got here too. It's almost easier to just do it yourself. But I guess it's not all about that, though. That's the way the baggers make their money. And until the commissary takes that away, that's just how it is :)

Anyway, paid and packed the car with groceries, then headed home. I think it was around 9:30am when we got there. It took about an hour to unload the car and put everything away. I had all of my food, then the extra stuff my mom bought, then the stuff that my sister bought for herself and her girls. I gave her a few shelves in the fridge in the garage :)

I'd been having issues with the kids getting into the cereal and eating the whole box in a day, so I individually bagged out serving sizes for the cereal. Now a box should last for 2 days. hehehe.

So after all the groceries were done, I started on lunch for Captain America and my dad. I was making them Taco Salad. I cooked up the cooked parts, bagged up the salad parts, packed the chips and salsa and sour cream and bowls and forks and such, gathered sodas, got my lunches together, my sister made food her mom and her, and snacks for the kids, and we got everyone ready for the pool.

We loaded up in the truck, and my older boys were fighting HORRIBLY. I hate it when they do that. SO mouthy sometimes. They were fighting over who had to help who with the seatbelts in the backseat, and who was touching how. Tom and Jake were sitting right next to each other, and their legs were touching. Sigh.

We were 2 houses away from home when the really started in on it, and I slammed on the brakes, and made them get out and go home. I told them to sit on their beds, think about being nice to each other, and that I'd feed them when we got back. They both got out and walked back home (FYI, 12 & 10 yr olds can legally be left home for a few hours alone....)

The car was MUCH more calm and happy from that point on. It's amazing how contention can take that all away. I hoped that the loss of fun activity would help the boys realize that they needed to fix their behavior.

We headed to free lunch, and the little kids all enjoyed their lunch. Sandwiches and oranges and potato salad and milk. We took all the extras with us, and headed to the pool. We had to swing by the PX on the way for my sister to grab some Swim Diapers for her 18 month old. But we coudln't find them . We searched the WHOLE PX and couldn't find them. But we did find a swim suit with a build in swim diaper, so she got that. And it was only $10. Swim diapers for a month would have been more than that :)

We got to the pool, and Captain America met us there. I sat with him while he ate, and the kids swam. He was there for about 20 minutes, then headed home to pick up some stuff, then back off to work. He took sandwiches and milks and potato salad and oranges and sodas home to the boys and had a little talk with them about how to treat moms and each other.

We stayed for about an hour at the pool, and a BIG thunder storm rolled in. And some kid puked in/near the pool, so they had to clear it for 30 minutes. So we left. We gathered up the people, and headed home.

Jake and Tom were VERY remorseful for their fighting, and did SO much better for the rest of the day. See, loss of privileges is sometimes the VERY best course of action :)

We watched some movies at home in the afternoon, and just hung out. At around 3:30pm, the little kids and I made pizza crust. Ella and Jimmy had fun helping. We got them all ready to go by 4:15, and put them in the fridge until dinner time.

Ella and I :)


We cooked up the pizzas a little after 5pm, and had the kids fed and happy. Captain America got home at around 6:15pm, and the grown ups got ready to go out. Jake was babysitting, and they had ice cream to eat when we left, so the kids were all anxious for us to leave - hehehe.

Me getting ready for our grown up only date :)

Captain America and I at dinner.



We went to BJ's, and ate dinner, my mom, dad, sister, Captain America and I. It was a nice dinner. We'd called and made reservations before leaving the house, so when we got there, it was only a 4 minute wait. Which is SUPER fast if you've ever eaten at BJ's on a Friday night.

After dinner, my mom, sister, and dad went next door to Crispy Creme to get a free donut (the light was on - ha!), then headed back home. Captain America and I went out to the movies. Cause you know, it IS Friday night, and that's date night.

We went to see Iron Man 2, which started off as a good movie, but I fell asleep at the end. Not that it wasn't a good movie, but that I was SO tired. Cause I'd gotten up at 6am, and the movie didn't even start until 9:25pm. And the dark theater with someone warm to snuggle with didn't help. hehehe.

We headed home, and it was past 1am when I finally fell asleep, exhausted from a long day. And guess what? I didn't blog. Oopsy daisy..... So I woke up this morning, and got it done. I promise I won't fall asleep before blogging again - hehehe.

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



Friday, July 16, 2010

Little Star

Another busy day comes to a close. hehehe. I was up at 6:40am, showering, getting ready, and heading to the doctors. I had an appointment to talk about my tailbone issues. The lady doctor said that she had the same thing. That Physical Therapy would probably help. But that there's not too many people who do it. So she was gonna make some calls and find a therapist who did it.

I told her that it wasn't so bad when I was fat, but now that I'd lost weight, that it hurt more. I also asked about if the army would pay for extra skin to be removed. She said that the army will pay for one elective surgery per person. She put in a referral to talk to someone about a "tummy tuck". I know a ton of people who have had referrals, and the insurance have denied them. Doesn't hurt to ask, right? We'll see how it goes.

I was back home by 8:3oam ish, and helped make pancakes for the family. We hung at home for a bit, and I designed 3 WordArt packs. I still had 2 more to do, but figured I'd do them in the afternoon.

At 11am, we all got our swim suits on, and headed to free lunch. We had 4 adults and 7 kids. Not too bad ratio, huh? LOL. They had tacos and salad and oranges and milk for lunch.

After eating, we drove to the pool and stayed till around 2pm. It was a fun time. The kids all had a BLAST! But we got a bit burned, even with 50 spf sunscreen.

Here's my niece Ella and me in the background

And me in all my swim suit glory. Sigh. hehehe


My dad and the baby in the big pool

Ella and Jacob


Laurie and Madi and I chatting


After the pool, we came home and vegged for the afternoon. We watched Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Lily took a nap. The kids just kinda laid there and rested while watching the movie - hehehe. I got my other 2 WordArt Packs done.

At around 5pm, we headed up to the PX for dinner in the food court. We figured it would be easier than a restaurant with 7 kids ages 1-12. LOL

Here's us walking into the Food Court



Joe, Jim, and my dad


After dinner, we headed to the Exchange to browse around. We didn't mean for it to be a group shot, but it kinda turned into it when everyone jumped into the picture...

After just a few minutes in the Exchange, we realized we needed to go. WAY too many children - hehehe. We headed to the On Post movie theater, and watched Prince of Persia. About 10 minutes into the movie (if even that), Madi decided that it wasn't for Lily. Lily didn't want any part of being at the theater. hehehe. Good thing it only cost a buck on Thursday nights.

Madi and my mom and Jacob (he'd already seen the movie) and Lily headed home. Ella came to sit with me about 30 minutes in, and instantly fell asleep. Jimmy sat on one side of me, and fell asleep next, and Joe came to sit on my other side, and fell asleep. Where I'd normally be cold at a movie theater, the kids kept me nice and heated. I just wished I'd had socks - hehehe.

After the movie, we took the sleepy kids home, and put them to bed. Here it is, 10:12pm, and I think I'm gonna be to bed early. Nice! Especially where I'm getting up early to go grocery shopping in the morning. I need my strength - ha!

So I have a Page Corners WordArt pack coming out on Friday, so in honor of that, I made you guys a "Page Corners" WordArt. Hope you like it!

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



Thursday, July 15, 2010

Busy Boy

Can I just say that TODAY should have been the "Busy Girl" wordart. As busy as I thought I was yesterday, it had nothing on today - hehehe.

I woke up at around 7:30 or 8am, had breakfast, and got the kids fed. I sat on the back patio for a while, and watched the kids play. The little kids. The big ones were sleeping in. It was very peaceful, and I really enjoyed it :)

I texted back and for with my friends for a while, planning what we'd do for the rest of the day. Captain America had invited the Reay's (Andrea's family) over for dinner this evening, so I decided to open it up to a few more families. Plus I was texting my mom and sister, and found out that they'd left Ft Hood at 5:30am MY time. Oh crap. That meant they were gonna be here even sooner. So I needed to clean.

I took everything out of the downstairs bedroom, and vacuumed REALLY well. Then arranged stuff how I wanted it, and moved in Eme's toys. I figured that the little girls would have fun playing with them, and Eme was agreeable to it :)

But that meant that there was a TON of crap in the dining room. Sigh. I went upstairs, and helped Eme clean her room. It was trashed. We hung up clothes, threw away papers, put some stuff up for a while, and moved around the bed. Jim and Joe were gonna be spending the month in her room, so we needed to make room. We brought their toys up to Eme's room ,but but their Clothes out in the garage where they could easily access it, but where i could definitely monitor them. Little boys mess things up really quickly, you know ;)

Andrea texted and asked if I could take her to Time Warner cable to return her modem, and we could take all the kids to Free Lunch. But I didn't have the truck, cause Captain America had to take it to work. So I just took Andrea and Luke, and the three of us went, then stopped by Burger King and got burgers for the kids for lunch.

Andrea helped me clean my downstairs bathroom, and the kids helped me clean the dining room. Jake and Tom cleaned the kitchen, and in about an hour and a half, the house was clean enough. hehehe.

We left Jake in charge, and headed for the mall. Andrea needed her eyebrows threaded, and honestly, I did too. hehehe. Leigh came too! It was a nice, fun hour with the girls. We stopped at Old Navy real fast, and bought our older boys $2 tee shirts from the clearance rack. Gotta love that.

Here's Andrea with her threading lady :)


My sister texted and said that they were 18 miles from the Ft Bliss exit on i-10. Crap! We hurried and paid and headed back to post. We made it on post about 5 minutes before them. We waited at the Day Pass office, and helped my sister fill out the paperwork for her car, then headed to my house.

Andrea took her kids and headed to Veronicas house, Leigh headed home, and I helped my mom and dad and sister and kids unload. My kids were SUPER excited to see their cousins!

I needed to run to walmart to grab a few things for the BBQ, and my mom and sister came with me. Yeah, my mom doesn't like my hot truck so much. hehehe. It was 102 today, and my non-AC truck wasn't high on her list, I think. LOL

Anyway, we grabbed some more hot dog buns, hot dogs, plastic cups, cleaning supplies, Glad Plus In refills, and a few other things, then hurried home. I made it just in time to drop stuff off, grab Jake, and head to the doctor for his 5:20pm appointment.

We were home by 6pm, and started the grill. Leslie was letting me borrow her HUGE gas grill, so my Dad and I walked over to pick it up. We had most of the food ready to go by 7pm. And people started showing up at around 6:30pm. Not too bad.

We had burgers and hot dogs and brawts and rice a roni and chips and grilled corn on the cob and cookies and cup cakes and pudding. It was pretty fun. Here's a few pics from the evening.


I had a hard time figuring out my camera - LOL. My sister Madi, and me. Well, our heads...


Me, trying to take a pic of the two of us. Yeah, not working so well.


I finally enlisted someone else to help. hehehe


My friends thought it was funny how similar my sister and I were in some ways. Same upper body, same chins, similar goofy faces - ROFL!




And here's some of my girls. Leigh and Andrea and Leslie.


My dad Steve and my mom Lyn



And here's the guys. Captain America and Leigh's hubby, Greg.


Jacob


We had my family (of 7), my mom and dad, my sister and her 2 kids, Leigh & her hubby and 2 kids, Leslie and her 2 kids, and Andrea & Ryan and their 3 kids. It was pretty busy.

At around 8:30pm, Laurie and her 4 kids showed up too. But Andrea was just leaving. Her family was driving to Idaho for a week of vacation, then off to Ft Jackson, SC.

Here's a pic of Andrea and I right before she left. I'll miss you, my friend. You'd BETTER keep in touch with me...... OR ELSE!!! You're not getting off of the friendship hook that easily! You know too many of my secrets - hehehe.


Everyone started to disperse around 9pm. But somehow my mom, sister, Leslie and I ended up chatting away in the the downstairs for an hour or so.

At about 10pm, everyone was gone, the backyard and kitchen were cleaned up, the kids were in bed, and I was ready too. I grabbed my computer, and Captain America and I retreated to my room. My poor dad wasn't ready to go, but since everyone else was going to bed, he went to the downstairs bedroom too - hehehe.

I have a doctors appointment at 7:40am tomorrow morning to see about my monkey nub. hehehe. Hopefully they'll get rid of it. I'm sure I'll be referred to some Monkey Nub specialist, where they're experts in cutting off extra large tailbones. hehehe.

And here's the other part! 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!



Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Busy Girl

First off, I wanted to let you all know about a sale I'm doing today and tomorrow only!!! I have a coupon code I'm gonna give out for 50% off!!!! And it's only valid for the 14th and 15th of July! Are you excited? You should be - hehehe.

CODE: FAMILYinTOWN
50% off
Click HERE to go to my store to give it a look-see :)


One more day closer to when my sister gets here!!! hehehe. Can you tell that I'm excited??? A live in friend, at least for a while :) Oh yeah, it's gonna be good - ha!

So I woke up today when Captain America got back from Recall Formation at around 7:30am. I was tired, but happy to see him. At around 9ish, I showered and got ready for whatever the day would present - hehe.

I drove down to Andreas house and picked up Ben (7) and Luke (2) and brought them back to my house. Laurie was there with Andrea and a few people from church helping her clean. The PODS were gone, and the housing people were gonna be there at noon to check everything off. I figured taking the kids would be helpful - hehehe.

So I brought them back to my house, and the kids all played nicely together :) Here's a few pics of Me and Captain America and Me before free lunch:


Right at 11am we headed up to Free lunch. Me and 7 kids. LOL! They had a good time. Rice and Corn and BBQ Beef and C antelope. It seemed to be a big hit :)

Here's Ben and Joe at Free Lunch. They're gonna miss each other, I think :)


Jimmy and I




Luke and Jake, with Jimmy in the background - hehehe


Jake and Jimmy


Eme and Joe

Eme and I


Tom and I
Jim, Eme, Joe, and Tom

Joe, Ben, and Tom

Me :)

And I noticed this as I was coming out of free lunch. WHHHAAAAAATTT? I parked on a manhole? SOOO not cool. Manholes are one of my worst phobias.... I'm just saying. Parking on one is better than actually standing on one, though...


We came back to our house and hung out for a few more hours. Amazingly, the kids started asking for food the second we got back home. What the heck? Do your kids do that? Sigh. I DID feed them - hehe.

Andrea had her final inspection at noon. And showed up at my house at about 1:15ish. They'd passed with flying colors! Not bad for having cleaned it and moved it herself! Good job, guys!

Anyway, we were gonna have a picnic at the park with us and her and Laurie and some other friends, but really, it was WAY too hot outside. So we decided to go to the pool. She didn't have a car, cause her hubby had it, and it had ALL of her stuff she needed. But between all of her friends in the neighborhood, we outfitted her AND her kids with swimming suits and towels and all the necessities for pool fun - LOL!

Now, I've gotta visually show you why it's better NOT to shower before going to the pool. See, I look nice after coming out of the shower and getting all fixed up. Sure, it takes about 30 minutes, but I look nice - ROFL!


No this is me after 5 minutes in the pool. Nice, huh? Totally erases all of the hard work that me and the shower put in. TOTALLY not worth it - hehehe. I guess I didn't know I was going to the pool. That'll be my excuse - ROFL!


Here's Laurie and Kari at the pool at our normal table :)


Andrea and Luke


We were at the pool from 2pm till 5pm. It was really a good time. Leigh brought granola bars, I had a TON of water bottles and a watermelon, Laurie had sandwiches. They kids were happy and hydrated. hehe. The mom's played in the water too, so we didn't totally die from the El Paso heat. It was super hot today is all I'm gonna say :)

Andrea and I headed home at 5ish. We started on dinner, and her hubby showed up about 5:30pm looking SUPER tired. Poor guy. He sat on the couch and was instantly out. They had no home to go to, since housing had already been cleared. Andrea and I texted Veronica, who's out of town, to see if Andrea and family could crash at her empty house. She eventually texted back and said it was fine. Veronica is a sweetheart :)
We fed the kids and grown ups, and Andrea and I sat on the back porch for a few hours chatting. It was very nice and pleasant. I'm gonna miss her as a neighbor friend. Friends are one thing, but having a friend how lives only 7 houses away is something more :) Big hugs, girl!

Captain America came home at around 8pm, and Andrea and Ryan headed to Veronicas house at 8:30pm. Ben spent the night here with Joe, and the boys were having a blast :) Captain America and I headed out to Lowes to grab something for him for work at around 9pm, after the little kids had gone to bed. Jake and Tom were watching Dr Who, I think. Something on TV.

Here's Captain America finding the right piece of plywood.
And here's me, being sleepy. Yeah, another reason not to go to the pool after showing. Don't I look lovely - hehehe


We bumped into Captain America's friend Joe and his family at Lowes too, and chatted with them for about 15 minutes in the parking lot. We tried out best to get the plywood to fit into his little Saturn, and eventually got it in there - hehehe. Our seats were pushed up WAY close to the dash, and our heads were bumping on the board, but it fit. Kind of - ROFL!

We headed to Circle K to get our drinks, then to Walmart for a few things. We're having a BBQ tomorrow with Andrea's family, and my family should be in town too. So we got some hamburgers, and brawts, and hot dogs, and rice mixes, and buns, and condiments. And popsicles. And a few other essential things - hehehe. Should be a fun time :)

So to find all the items we needed at Walmart took hardly any time at all, but to go thru the check out took FOREVER! Sigh. It took longer in line than it took to shop, and that's just not right. On our way out of the store, we found a few interesting things in the return baskets.

I'm wearing a Woody hat. hehehe


And Captain Americafound this Shake Weight - have you seen the infomercials for this? Naughty!


Also tomorrow evening I have a doctors appointment for Jacob, so we'll see how that works into a BBQ. And I have to clean my house and get ready for company. And I might go to a movie and lunch with Andrea since it's her last day in El Paso. Yup, I'm one busy girl....

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


(be sure to stop by tomorrow for Busy Boy)