Dessert

Howdy, peeps :) Friday, at last! I woke up at 7am, read scriptures, said prayers, and barely got kids out the door to the bus. But they did get out the door to the bus on time. AND we remembered prayer, so that's all that matters, right? hehe.

And I can't remember if I went back to sleep or not. How sad is that. hehe. My days are totally blurring together. ha! I know that I did some laundry, restarted a load because it had soured (don't you HATE that), and folded some laundry. And put away some dishes, and loaded the dishwasher, and was productive. Of course, that may have been after I slept in, too. Really can't remember.

I do know that at 8:30am, I went on a walk. And Jimmy came with me! We only walked for about 30 minutes, but it was a nice, brisk walk. Jim sat in the stroller, and I listened to Muse on my phone with one earphone and Jim with the other. hehe. He's a jabber :)

We came back home, I showered and got ready, and headed over to my friend Karin's house. She'd missed the Candy Corn wreath party, so I went to her with some of the left over supplies.

Here's me on the way

We had a good time visiting and chatting and catching up. I haven't seen her since we switched wards. She's a nice girl :)

Here's our project. I wrapped the wreath in tape this time, so if it falls, it won't shatter, at least... Hopefully it won't fall. Ha!

I came home, got Jimmy on the bus, and got ready for lunch. Veronica had invited me to Olive Garden with her and some of her friends, and I invited Maggie to come too! I was pretty excited!

I left Jake doing homework, and headed to pick up Maggie at quarter to noon. We drove to Olive Garden, and had a VERY nice time. It was Veronica and I and Maggie and 3 of Veronicas friends. Nice girls. Maggie and I got the Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks, and couldn't have been happier.

I'd decided that I was gonna eat 1 breadstick, as much salad as I wanted, and 2 bowls of soup, one Minestrone and one that sausage/potato kind. And I stuck to what I wanted to do! I was happy with myself :)

Here's my yummy soup :)

We headed home, and I dropped off Maggie, then headed home. Jake was done with school, and I changed clothes and started cleaning again. Maybe it was the 5 diet sodas at lunch? Ha!

I rearranged things in the kitchen a little, and washed down the counters. And did more dishes. And organized the cabinets. And it looked SO much better. Jake got Jimmy from the bus and I did his dishes from him. Ha! It was a good trade, I thought :)

And the other kids got home an hour later. And I was tired by then. And went to take a nap. So I'm thinking that maybe I didn't nap after the kids went to school....

Jim was freaking out in the living room, so I grabbed him and he took a nap with me. I knew if he was screaming that loud over nothing, then he was tired. I slept for about 45 minutes while the kids did their chores, and Jimmy slept for a couple of hours. He's totally not gonna be tired tonight, but at least he wasn't screaming, right? hehe.

I made homemade chili for the kids, and corn bread. Everyone seemed to like it. Hunter and Braxton came over to play, and I fed them too. Because, apparently, I don't know how to cook for only 5 people. hehe. Kids played games and whatever else they do, and I had cheese and cucumbers.

I did some more laundry, and tried to unplug the downstairs toilet, but I think I need a snake. It's really plugged. I know that I fished a car out of there a few days ago, but apparently something else is in there too. Hmmmm. Either I need to put in a workorder, or I need to buy a snake. I know we owned one at one point. Must not have made the move a few moves ago...

I found this while cleaning. Yeah, I'm hot! ROFL!

Jimmy eventually woke up, and yeah, he wasn't feeling the chili. Oh well, he'll be hungry then. It's still sitting on the counter for him....

It's now 7pm, and Captain America is not home yet. There's a movie on post thats PG-13 (I don't watch rated R), and I want to go with him. The theater closes tomorrow. Because they're opening up a brand new one. But I KNOW it's not gonna be a $2 movie theater... hmpf!

And maybe I'll have him take me out for dessert first. Cause I didn't have my "one plain cookie" for today. Applebees has some yummy desserts! I exercised 4 times this week, I should get some yummy dessert, right? hehe.

And you know what's funny, is the way that I look at my "one plain cookie". See, I can justify TONS of desserts as my "one plain cookie". But I can only have one. SO, if I have the option of eating a dessert during the day, I have to be choosy. They had mint chocolates at Olive Garden today. But had I eaten it, I wouldn't get another dessert. So it's kinda like gambling with desserts. ROFL! Or like on Survivor, when they can bid on some food, or trade it away for whatever is under this dish kinda thing. I know, I'm kinda strange. That's why you like me, right?

OK, I'm back! Bet you didn't know that I was gone, huh? Captain America got home around 7:30pm. Or was it 8pm? Something like that. He changed real fast, I put on some "going out" clothes (hehe), and we headed out! Kids were watching a movie happily together, and we were gonna go get dessert :)

So we took his Saturn and drove to Applebees for a dessert. Yummy! I like Applebees desserts. And check out this COOL Halloween decoration. I thought that Jake would LOVE it :)

It took 15 minutes for us to get a table, and we looked in the dessert menu, and found what we wanted.

THIS is what we wanted, to share

5 minutes later, had our waters and this TASTY dessert!

Yeah, it only took about 4 minutes for the whole thing to be devoured. hehe. We split it in half, and I almost ate my whole half, but ended up giving the last 2 bites away to Captain America. He seemed happy to "help" me out. ROFL!

After Applebees, we headed to Circle K for a soda. We'd forgot our Howdy's cups, and Circle K is cheaper if you don't have your own cups. We were still trying to decide if we wanted to go see a movie on post. The verdict was still out...

Anyway, we parked at Circle K and Captain America noticed this sign. He thought it was HILARIOUS! See, he has to wear a gas mask A LOT during work. When they go to the field and do stuff, they wear gas masks. So he thought it was TOO funny, considering how he spent all week long in a "truck" with a "mask". It took me a while to realize that the sign was referring to Halloween Masks. hehehe. I think I was in a sugar induced coma - ha!

I didn't know that they made King Sized Almond Joys! Mmmmm

We got our Diet Dr Pepper, and decided to head home. We were gonna watch some more of Season 3 of the Office in jammies with our sodas and get some popcorn at home. Sounded better than a theater for $4 (ok, so that's still cheap...) for a movie that may or may not have been any good.

I also realized that the "person" I take the most pictures with is my diet soda. ROFL! I'm such a dork. hehe :)
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!

4shared
box.net

Dressing Up

First off, here's my new stuff for the week!!! 5 New WordArt packs and a Bundle. Because I know that you ALL love bundles. hehehe. Here's a 10 WordArt pack for $8.00. Good deal, huh?

Click HERE to go to my store to check out the AWESOME stuff this week :)






Hey there, girls :) So you wanna hear about my nice, relaxing day at home? Well, part of that is true. hehe.

I was SUPER tired when I woke up this morning, for some reason. I snoozed in WAY too long, and by the time I prayed and read scriptures, it was 7:15am. I barely got the kids out the door on time. And yeah, I totally went back to bed after eating breakfast. And woke up at 8:40am, and freaked out because I thought that I'd forgotten to wake up and get the kids ready, and that they'd missed the bus. hehe. So I was kinda startled awake by myself, if that's possible. hehe.

Jimmy wanted to play the Wii, and instead of doing something else, or going somewhere, I decided to sit with him on the couch and crochet. I bought stuff yesterday to make a scarf. It took me a while to remember how to start it, but I eventually figured it out. hehe.


And soon it was time for Jimmy to get on the bus. 10:50am, and he and I walked to the bus stop. I visited with Elijah's mom, who I finally asked what her name was, and it's Erin. She's a super sweet girl. I'm gonna have to start doing things with her, cause she's cool :)

I came back home, and got on my 46 inch laptop and worked on my store. I got a bundle ready, and loaded a product. And it wasn't as easy of a job as I thought it was gonna be, because I kept having typos. Dang hehe. But I eventually got it figured out.

At lunch time, Jake and I started watching season 1 of Fringe. And I didn't realize it, but the first episode is SUPER long. So he got a much longer lunch break that I thought he was gonna get. hehe. I crocheted some more, and watched, and he and I had a very pleasant lunch break.

Here's my progress so far, after watching the first episode of Fringe

At almost 2pm, I threw on some exercise clothes, and headed out for a walk. Jake got back to school, and over to the walking path I went. And yeah, I wasn't feeling like running, so I just walked. And chatted on the phone with my friend Mandi in Vegas. She's awesome :)

And I got back home JUST in time to pick Jimmy up from the bus. We came back home, and I went to the garage and started looking for Halloween costumes. I knew that one of the boxes had costumes in it. I was looking for Captain America's Cesear costume. I knew it was there....

And I finally found the right box. And it had a TON of costumes that I forgot that we had. Like this pirate one...
And some Red Coat outfits that Captain America wore when he was 5. Cool, huh? We'd dressed up colonially one year for Cub Scout camp, and still had the costumes. Jimmy wanted to be a Red Coat for the school party tonight. Sounded fine to me :) So I pulled that one out too.

And then I went in my room and worked on my costume. I got the wig out, and brushed it real good. And it didn't look so bad. I trimmed up the bangs a bit, and tied some ribbon for a crown, and it was good to go!
And then I found this Snow White costume from last year, and convinced Jake that it would be funny to try it on, AND that it was OK for me to put the picture on Facebook. Yeah, I'm not sure what I said to the child, but he agreed to let me, and was even laughing about it. Ha! He's gonna hate me when he gets older..... ROFL!
So I took the curtain and cut off the part that attached to the curtain rod, and took the little table cloth thingy and draped it around my neck, and fastened it with my chunky belt. And safety pinned the curtain to the yellow part behind my neck. Then tied the ends of the curtain to my bracelets. I thought the effect was pretty good!

Joe got home at 3:30pm, and I left the house at 3:40 to pick up the AQ kids. AND, I learned what AQ stands for! Activity Quotient. Hmmm, who knew... hehe.

We got home around 4pm, and I told the kids to hurry and do their chores, then get on their costumes. I put mine on, and it took WAY longer than I thought it would. hehe. But I liked the finish results, so it was all good.

Joe decided that he wanted to be a Red Coat also, so it was a good thing that we had 2 costumes for that. hehe. And Tom wanted to wear the costume that Captain America wore for the colonial thingy. It was a little big on him, but looked OK. And Eme was Athena, the greek goddess. I put a little make up on her, and she was good to go.

Don't we all look good?

And at the last minute, Jake decided that he wanted to come too. It's not his school, and he didn't enjoy it last year, so he'd decided to stay home. But jumped in the truck (no costume), and came with us. Yeah! Captain America was supposed to come, but had to stay late at work, so he missed it. Hmpf!

We got to school, signed in, and bought some dinner. $0.75 for a slice of pizza, $0.50 for a soda, and $1.50 for nachos. Everyone got one of each. Here we are eating dinner. Well, I got a nachos and a soda....





Jake was all excited about the fact that I could raise my eyebrows and that no one could tell that I had forehead wrinkles. How RUDE! (That's what this face is staying - hehe)



Maggie and her family came and sat with us at dinner, then we all went inside for the Monster Math Night. They had a ton of activities (math orientated) where the kids could earn candy, and it was a madhouse. hehe. But I just let the kids go and play and do, and didn't worry too much about keeping tabs on them. They could tell where I was, because I was one of the only tall people wearing a costume. ha! I kinda stuck out.

Here's Jimmy and I

At first, when I found out that Captain America wasn't gonna be able to go, I wasn't gonna wear a costume. But then I decided that I REALLY like costumes and dressing up. And the only reason I wouldn't wear one would be because I was insecure. And it would be better to have a costume with Captain America. BUT, if dressing up makes me happy and I like it, I don't need Captain America to be there in costume for me to enjoy it, right? So I decided to do it for myself because I like it. See, therapy is helping me - hehehe.

Here's a few pictures of the craziness that was Monster Math night


At one point, the singing/dancing club (US kids) put on a dance performance of Thriller, and they turned out all the lights. And Eme's glasses she'd won glowed in the dark. Ha!


We stayed the entire 2 hours, and it was a pretty good time. The kids had a BLAST! I got to visit with Maggie, and Kari, and Laurie, and Erin, and Veronica. So it was a good time for me, too. hehe.

Veronica invited me to lunch tomorrow at Olive Garden with her and some friends, and I asked if Maggie could come too, and she said yes. So we're gonna go at noon tomorrow, and I'm SO excited. Love me some Olive Garden!

We headed home at 7pm, and we cleaned up the costumes, and got them all ready for Trick or Treating. And I sat down to load my store the rest of the way, and Jake and Tom volunteered to get the little kids to bed. Well, they kinda bargened with it. "If we put the little kids to bed nicely, can Tom and I watch a short movie in my room" was the deal. OK, sounds good to me. One did scriptures and prayers with Joe and one did it with Jim. SUCH great big brothers!

I got my store loaded, and just as I was starting on my blog, Captain America got home. Around 8 something. Poor guy works SO hard. He looked at my pics from the day, changed, and got his truck "driveable", and he and I took his truck and my truck out to the shop. And we drove back home together in the suburban. That kinda took a big chunck out of the evening. Hmpf!

We spent some time together at home (since I haven't seen the man in FOREVER, or so it seems...), and after he went to sleep, I finished up my blog. And now it's late, and I'm sleepy. I'm gonna blog some during the day tomorrow. No more waiting till late to blog. I'm too sleepy for that. 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. Thanks!

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Color Hair / Colour Hair

Wow, another longest day ever... hehe. I need to stop having those, and start having nice, relaxing easy days. If you see any of those lying around, please let me know....

I woke up at 7am, did scriptures and prayers, then went out and did a SUPER rush job of getting kids dressed and out the door. And yeah, Jimmy got in trouble. See, he'd come in a 6:30am asking to turn on a movie. And my standard rule is, NO TV before school. So I told him no. And yeah, when I came out at 7am, Eme and Joe and Jim were watching Scooby Doo. I was like, What the heck is going on?, and they were all like, Jim said he asked and you said it was ok.

So Joe and Eme didn't get in trouble, but Jim did. He lost his TV privileges for the morning. Usually once the kids get on the bus and his room and chores are clean, then he can watch something. Not today.... Tough lesson, but a good one to learn...

So that left me with a 5 year old to entertain until his bus came. hehe. We need to make sure that when we punish our children, we don't punish ourselves too. ROFL! Anyway, we snuggled in my room for a while, then around 8:30am, decided to go make cookies. SUPER yummy peanut butter ones :)

Here's the recipe...

2 sticks of butter (I used one butter, one margarine)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar

combine

mix in:
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Add:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

And I filled my cookie press with the dough, and used a pumpkin shape. They were pretty dang cute! hehe. And Jimmy helped me put 2 M&M's on each cookie.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Super tasty cookies :)


See the homeschooler in the background, chillin' on the couch, feet kicked up, doing his homework on the laptop, jammies, hoodie. Yeah, that's the life, huh? hehe.

I think I ended up with about 8 dozen cookies. Tiny little things, but tasty :)

So once we finished up with the cookies, we put 4 dozen in a plastic container for us, and the other 4 dozen, one dozen at a time, on paper plates and wrapped them in saran wrap for our friends. And we got Jimmy ready for the day, and headed out to the park at 10am.

Laurie and Rowan came, and Jimmy and Jake and Rowan played for about an hour. And we left a plate of cookies for Laurie's family. It was some nice fresh air time. And at 10:50, we headed over to the bus.

We gave a plate of cookies to Elijah's mom, and to Maggie's family. They both seemed pleased with Peanut Butter cookies. See, don't you wish you were my neighbor too? hehe.

I hurried back home, and Leslie came over around 11:15am to color my hair. She does such a WONDERFUL job with it! Thanks, hon! It's because of you Jimmy thinks I'm only 18. ROFL!

Here's me with the roots covered.

And all of it covered for the last 15 minutes!

Jake was like, Um, WHAT did you do to your hair. hehe

When the color was about ready to come off, Leslie hurried back home to get some more cleaning/packing done (and took the last of the plate cookies), and I hopped in the shower to get it all rinsed out. Cause sometimes thats easier than the kitchen sink, you know..

Anyway, I still hadn't worked out, so after I showered, I put on my workout clothes, willing myself to work out. I didn't really want to, but I knew that it would help me feel good. So I decided to just put on the work out clothes and DO IT!

But after I ate lunch. hehe. So I cooked up my cheese and cucumber and got my apple, and sat down on the couch to watch an episode of Lie to Me with Jake and eat lunch, let it settle, then go walk/run. Sounded like a plan.

And within 3 minutes of the show, Captain America called and said that while he'd already eaten lunch and couldn't come home, he needed to leave Tobin Wells and come near post to get something, and asked if I wanted to meet him at Howdy's gas station for a soda? Sounded like a plan to me!

So I drove 10 minutes over to Howdy's, and sat in the car another 5 minutes waiting for him. And I got to looking at my burn, and it's looking even nastier now than it was before. Hmpf!
Captain America got there, and I gave him the remainder of the cookies (minus the ones I put in a baggie for the kids for after school...) for his soldiers. Those guys are gonna get spoiled. We got our sodas, and chatted for a few minutes, and he had to run. 5 minutes at Howdys. And I drove 10 minutes home. hehe. 25 minutes for a 5 minute visit. And you know what? I'd TOTALLY do it again. hehehe.

So once I got home, Jake was back to school, and I grabbed my phone and my headphones and out the door I went for a walk. I decided not to jog. Just walk. That cucumber was roughing up my tummy. hehe.

And I called my mom, and chatted with her the WHOLE time. It was so nice. She was on her lunch break, so she could take the time to chat! Worked out perfectly :)

I ended up walking for about 35-40 minutes, then headed back home. And sat down at my computer, and designed my final WordArt pack for the week. Yippee! Done a day before the deadline. I"m slowly getting ahead. hehe.

And Jake and I walked to pick up Jim from the bus stop, then came back home. And I showered AGAIN! I know, can you believe it! Twice in one day! hehe. But this time I fixed my hair and got all pretty. Cause sometimes you gotta do that :)



Apparently, unless I'm pulling a face, I can't get a good picture of myself. ROFL! So the other kids got home from school, had chips and bean dip salsa for snack, did chores, then played. Jake and Tom went to the park with Hunter and Braxton. Eme had some homework to do. Jim and Joe played in the driveway on roller blades, then moved to the kitchen and played with clay.

Eme went to the park after homework, and Jim was running in and out, and ended up SMASHING his finger in the door. Poor baby! I didn't know that child could yell that loud! And believe me, it was LOUD! It bled a lot, so we ran it under water for a while, then it stopped bleeding. I put 2 bandaids on it, and sat with Jim on the couch for a while.

And the kids all slowly started trickling back in from playing, and came to watch Dr Who with Jimmy and I. Season 3, Smith and Jones (LOVE that one!). Anyway, they were all rather offended that Jimmy was flipping them off. ROFL! I had to explain to EACH one of them that it was his injured bandaged finger, and that he was NOT flipping them off.
We had sandwiches and chips/salsa/bean dip for dinner. Yeah, crappy dinner, but I was holding an "injured" child on my lap all early evening.... I did have a child get me a bowl of yogurt for my dinner. And an apple. Works for me :)

And soon it was time for Scouts. I had the boys put on their uniforms, had everyone get shoes, and jackets, get Hunter and Braxton, and off we went. Here's me with my COOLEST fake leather jacket :) LOVE me some Savers, you know... And the hair turned out to be a pretty good color!We dropped off Eme and Tom and Jake and Braxton and Hunter at the church, and Jim and Joe and I headed out to Big Lots and Fallas Paredes. Just to look around. And no, I didn't buy anything there. See, I do have some self control! ROFL!

Here's an interesting toy I found at Big Lots. Yeah, what kind of parent puts a sand box in a little boys bedroom? Really? Have you never seen a real little boy before???

Jim and Joe were having SO much fun in the Big Lot's toy isle, but we had to make our way to Walmart next, so I managed to get them out the door. hehe.

At Walmart, I got a big Dry Erase board for our house, and some yarn to make a scarf for myself, and some new razors for Captain America (those replacement blades are SUPER expensive....), and some paper towels. And a rice crispy treat for 2 little boys who did SO good at the stores. If they always acted like they did tonight, they could be my shopping buddies any time. hehe.

We were driving back to the church when we got a text from Hunter saying their activities were done. Perfect timing. And here's Joe, sleeping in the truck when we got to the church.

We had to wait around a little bit, because Jacob was helping the bishop carry out some boxes from the library to his car, which was fine. The kids eventually all piled in the truck ,and we headed back to post.

And yeah, 7 kids ages 5-13, 6 of which are boys, 2 are 10 and 2 are 13 are NOT good on the nose. Someone (or someones) smelled NASTY! And yes, boys smell SO much worse than girls at that age. I'm just putting that out there. hehehe. I rolled down all the windows, hoping that the smell would be a little less, and it was, a little..... I just tried to focus on other things for the 10 minute drive home. ROFL! Smelly little boys :) hehe.

And Jake and Tom both helped me get kids into bed, and everyone was in their room, mostly asleep by 9:30pm. And here it is, 9:50pm. Captain America is still not home from work. Hmpf! I had fun last Wednesday when we went together to Wednesday night activities. Maybe next week.... They had a lot of big trainings today, or something like that... I guess the next couple of months are gonna be HARD. Then they deploy. Oh joy.... I know we'll get blessings for our service, though...

So, in honor of my NON gray hair, here's a Hair Coloring WordArt for y'all! 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!

4shared - color
4shared - colour

box.net - color
box.net - colour