School Shopping

Morning, girls :) Today was SUPER fun, and SUPER frustrating all in one. Ever had one of those days? Highest highs and lowest lows all wrapped up into one? Ok, so it wasn't highest or lowest, but you get the idea :)

So after going to bed at 2-3ish, I got up at 8:45am, and got ready for my fun and exciting day. Girls lunch at Olive Garden, followed by shopping. I was pretty excited. I hadn't done anything with the group of girls for a while.

Here's me all ready to go!

So I leave my house at 10am, and pick up Leslie, who lives 2 houses down. We drive in my Suburban over to Danielles house. She lives across main post. We picked up her and her 3 kids. And we all drive over to Hilary's house. She lives off post, but on post. I know, confusing :)

We dropped off Danielle's kids at Hilary's house with her kids. Cause she has a babysitter age child. Gotta love that :)

We all load up in Hilary's car, and drive over to pick up Karen, and head to Olive Garden. My other friends hadn't gotten to experience Hilary on I-10 yet, so that was a good time. Doesn't phase me, but it sure made Danielle sweat - ROFL!

We got to Olive Garden, and Chelsie and Laurie and Laurie's mom joined us. It was a good group. We ordered our drinks, then ordered our food. I got Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks. I asked for my salad with no dressing, and not cheese. I know, boring, but safe. And safe is good. I ate 2 bowls of Minestrone soup. I figured it was the least carbs, and the most veggies. Worked for me. And I had NO breadsticks. In fact, I made sure they stayed WAY away on the other side of the table.

At one point, I left to go to the bathroom. I set my phone on the toilet paper holder, peed, and went back to lunch. About 5 minutes later, I realized I"d left my phone in the bathroom. So I went back to retrieve it. I'd left my old phone in Applebees bathroom one time, and it was turned into the management. So I went and checked the stall, and it was gone. I asked the hostess at the main desk, and she said no one had turned in a phone. Sigh.

I went back to the table, and had Hilary try and call it. INSTANTLY to voicemail. Nice. Someone had stolen it, and turned it off. I'm sure waiting to flash it, and have themselves a BRAND NEW Droid phone. That sucks.

I tried to not let it get me down. It was done and over with. Worrying about it wasn't gonna change it. I did have insurance, so it would only cost me $50 to replace it. Sure, I could have used that $50 on something better, but such it is...

We finished up lunch, and Laurie and her mom, and Chelise headed out. Karen and Danielle and Leslie and Hilary and I drove over to some stores that I wanted to shop at. Near Ross. Where Madi and I got our new purses a few weeks ago.

I found a $4 shirt, a $6 shirt, and 2 new purses (brown and yellow). And one of those shirts has a belt. Ha! I'm learning, slowly but surely. hehehe.

We stopped by Ross to go to the bathroom. Yeah, the fluid intake increase is killing me - hehehe. At least it doesn't hurt to pee anymore. Amazing thing, antibiotics are. One or two doses, and it's good as new again. Gotta love that :)

Here's some driving around pictures. Me in my new yellow/zebra sunglasses (gotta love $5 sunglasses!)

Hilary

Lelsie and Karen

Hilary and I. It was funny, songs would come on the radio we knew and liked, and we'd be signing along, and the rest of the car would look at us like were were crazy - ha! Maybe we are crazy - hehehe.

Danielle

Me sporting my NEW purse. Cute, eh?

We headed back to post, and dropped off Leslie first, then Karen. We gathered up Danielle's kids, and I drove them home. Hilary met me at my house, and we headed out for shoppping, round two.

She and I headed to the East side, and went to Savers. I found 4 new pairs of pants. Cause I now wear a size 7!!! Sweet, eh? I'd gone through all of my pants yesterday, and pulled out all of the "too big" ones. I only had about 1/3 of the pile left that still fit. And most of them were too short to wear with my tall shoes. So I was looking for size 7 that were long. Cause I'm 5'8", you know. And it's hard to find tall enough pants.

Anyway, I took all of the cool looking, long, size 7 pants (and a few size 8's) to the fitting room, and found 4 that worked for me. And I am a size 7. Those 8's were a bit baggy. This is coming from a girl, who at her biggest, wore a size 40 in mens. Yeah, one of the pants I tried on was a 28. That's a BIG difference.

Hilary got a few pairs of pants, too. After Savers, we headed to Hobby Lobby. Hilary had been there a few days ago, and looked in their Bandana section. And found a zebra one, in hot pink, like my zebra shirt I wore on Sunday. So, of course, I got it :) Gotta love zebra stuff :)

We headed back near post, stopping for a Circle K Diet Doctor Pepper first. She dropped me off at home, and the kids and I got ready and headed to The Dollar Tree. I had a bunch of clothes that needed organized, and I wanted some hangers to hang my pants on. You know, with the clips. Like at the stores.

We found some school supplies at the Dollar Tree, but not cool hangers. So we stopped by Walmart on the way home. And I was quickly tiring of shopping with Children. Individually, any of the kids would have been fine. But times that by 5, and it's a whole different matter. At one point, I let them lose in the toy isle, and went a few isles away to look at sheets. It was the most peaceful part of the trip - hehehe. Again, thankful for babysitting age kids :) LOL!

I found some new sheets for the beds upstairs, since the ones from Fallas were crap. I'm not buying super cheap sheets anymore. Remind me if I start talking about getting some, ok? That's your job :) hehehe.

We paid, and headed home. Hot dogs and baked beans for dinner, and Joe and Jim and I worked on organizing my closet. See, I had a TON TON TON of clothes. Cause I love clothes. And people like to give them to me when they don't fit them anymore. My sister, Andrea, Leigh. AND I love thrift store/cheap store shopping. So you can get a ton more clothes that way.

Anyway, some of what was in my closet didn't fit. I just didn't know what. So, first I hung up all my pants. I had Joe get a stool, and sit inside the closet. Then, I'd pass the clothes to Jimmy, he'd walk them to Joe, and Joe would hang them up. Starting with pants.

Then, I'd take down one color section (cause my closet is organized by colors) at at time, and try one each and every thing. And the ones that were too big, I'd put in a pile. Those that fit would go back on a hanger, and Jim would pass it to Joe and Joe would hang it up.

First Black, then gray, then white, then tan, then brown, then yellow, then orange, then purple, then pink, then hot pink, then red, then blue, then teal, then green. And that's how my closet is organized. Yeah, I had a TON of stuff that didn't fit. At least half was too baggy. But seriously, I still had a TON of clothes left in my closet.

You know those storage boxes from Walmart? The Sterilite ones? There's the HUGE ones, then the medium ones, then the small ones. Imagine the medium ones. Filled to bursting, it took 4 of them to hold all of the too big clothes. Yeah, there were that many :)

Anyway, my closet looks SO nice now. And everything in it fits. Not more finding just the right thing, only to find out it's too big.

Captain America got home shortly after that, and he and I headed to El Taco Tote for dinner. The kids were already in bed, since it was after 9pm. Yeah, I usually eat dinner at 5pm, but for some reason, I wasn't that hungry. And I know, I should eat. I shouldn't not, just because I wasn't hungry. So when Captain America got home, I asked if he'd take me to El Taco Tote. See, I was being good.

We drove on up, and ordered our usual, and had a very nice time eating and chatting. I hadn't got to see him at all that day. He'd had a busy work day, so it was nice to spend the late evening with him.

We drove to the mall, and checked out Kohl's jewelry department for sales. My wedding ring was WAY too big, and I wanted a cheap sterling silver ring to replace it. We found a really pretty one for $13. Not too bad :) It's a cute, petite little thing. Not like my monster sized cheap jewelry I usually buy - hehehe.

We looked around the jewelry department until they kicked us out at closing time, and headed home. I was SUPER sore from Slim in 6 yesterday, so Captain America said that going on a short walk should loosen up my muscles. So we put on our work out clothes, and headed out. We walked to Old Ft Bliss, then jogged around it, then walked back home. And he was right, my muscles DID feel a lot better. We're gonna try and do that together in the evenings. I really like spending time with my hubby walking. It makes me happy :)

I finished cleaned up my clothes, hung out a bit more, and started blogging. It's now 1:28pm, and I'm sleepy. And I still have to design something. Please, brain, work. I don't need a typo in my WordArt tonight :) LOL!

This WordArt comes because I STILL need to do this - LOL :) 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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Are You Kidding Me???

So I was being held captive in a hotel room by some FBI agents (they were corrupt, if you ask me), the second hotel room that day. We'd driven real close to an airport, so I was trying to get my bearings. I was left alone for a little while, and figured out how to rewire the ceiling fan, and and just KNEW I could make it work with my escape.

And about that time, Captain America woke me up. hehehe. I was doing very well with my escape plan, thank you very much! I didn't need rescuing - ROFL! Anyway, that was 8am. It was nice to sleep in, even if busy alluding the FBI....

Captain America headed off to work, and I decided to do a work out. I KNOW! What's up with that??? I put in Slim In Six and did the start up video. About 25 minutes. I was sweating by the end, and felt pretty good. Aren't you proud of me?

I played online for a little while, chatted with me mom for a bit (my sister DID make it to Ft Hood ok, just in case you were worried - hehehe) then showered and got ready for the day. At around 11:30am, Eme and I headed out for some girl time. We hit Fallas Parades on Dyer, and looked for curtains for my living room.

Captain America was having his CAT scan done today, and was at the hospital drinking some imaginig solution, or something like that. After he'd drank it, he headed to Fallas. We looked around for just a few more minutes, then headed back home.

Eme went with Captain America, so it was just me and Muse. Here's me in my truck.
And me SINGING my heart out, windows down, hair blowing all around. Yeah, I KNOW you wish you were riding with me...

We got home, got lunch for everyone, and Captain America and I got ready to go back to the hospital. I had a few minutes, so I figured that I'd pre-blog a little bit.

AND, fast forward. It's now 8:41pm, and I'm sitting on the phone with Telenurse. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

So Captain America and I headed up to the hospital. He went and had his MRI and I sat in the waiting room. It was very quick, and we stopped by the hospital mini cafeteria for lunch. I got a chicken salad, with slivered almonds, manderine oranges, and cranberries. It was SOOO good :)

After lunch, we headed back to post. Well, back to main post. It was almost 3pm. Or was it 4pm. I can't remember. I made homemade pizza for the kids, and Captain America and I made plans to go to a store after the ballgame. I wanted to look at a new purse.....

I was kinda having a tiny bit of discomfort when I urinated, but nothing major. I tried to drink some extra water to help it out :)

Here's me before the ballgame.

And Jimmy with his pizza before the ballgame

So at 5:45PM, the kids and I loaded up in the truck and headed to the ballgame. My stomach was hurting me by this point. I thought I'd eaten too many sugar free candies, and it was causing a laxative effect. And while that may be true, I was noticing more burning. Yeah, never a great sign. I know I had to go to the bathroom twice during the 45 minute game. Another bad sign.

Tom and I at the game

And they won!!! Lets see if I can explain the structure of it all for ya. You have the platoon, whichas about 20 guys in it. There's 3 platoons in Captain Americas Battery, which is about 80 people. When Captain America was XO, he was leadership in the Battery. Then, he has 6 Battery's in a Battalion. And 5 Batallions in a Brigade. This was the Brigade championship game. And they WON! It was pretty neat. The score was 12-8, and it was close in places. I enjoyed it :) Minus the "burning" sensation.

I took some pics of the team during/after the awards ceremony. They all got trophies, which was pretty cool. Next step, Post Wide playoffs. Go Charlie 2-43!

That chickie is the scorekeeper :)

So by the time the game/ceremony was over, I was hurting. I told Captain America I didn't wanna go shopping, that we should just go home. Yeah, BIG clue that I was sick. hehehe. I peed a few more times, and called the Telenurse. She said it sounded like a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), and that I should go to either WBAMC (army hospital), or she could refer me off post. Off post, thanks!

Here's Captain America and I in the waiting room of Del Sol.

It was only about a 45 minute wait. Captain America and I played our Scrabble Droid game while we waiting. It was pretty fun. Finally, we got called back. Our doctor was super cool. He was a former Special Ops Medic, and he and Captain America chatted quite a while.

I peed in a cup, and we waited FOREVER (well, probably an hour) in a little waiting room for the results. Dude came back to get us, yes, it was a UTI, and gave me some prescriptions for meds. He helped us get out of there faster than normal (thank goodness), and we were on our way.

We drove back over by our house ,and went to Walgreens. And yeah, this one by our house was not a 24 hour pharmacy. Only a 24 hour store. What's up with that???

So we headed to the 24 hour pharmacy Walgreens, and swung by Circle K on the way. Just to give it a try. Yeah, not a good one. No Diet Dr Pepper even. Cross that one off of the "good Circle K" list.

Here I am sporting my drink

And my scripts

So we get to the 24 hr walgreens at midnight. And the dude says its gonna be an hour wait. WHAAAT? Are you kidding me? That's so not cool. So we go to the car, and sleep for an hour. Then come back in. And wait for another 20 minutes. FINALLY, we have my meds, and head home.

It's now 2:14am.Captain America isn't gonna be able to go to 0445 formation, needless to say. But I'm really glad that he came with me. Last time I was sick and went to Del Sol, I had a kidney infection. And it was a BAD one. I had to drive myself, and it sucked. So it really meant a lot to me that he'd take time to come. Thanks, honey :) I love you :)

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Opportunity

So I kinda heardCaptain America getting ready for his early morning meeting at church this morning, but only kind of. He SAID he told me when he left that it was 7:20am, but yeah, I have no memory of that. All I know is that I woke up at 8am in a bit of a panic. Crap!

I hurried and pulled my hair back, slapped on another quick layer of make up, got dressed, and was ready to go. hehe. Here's the finished product. Do I look OK for not having time to shower?

I got the kids ready quickly, fed them either a bowl of cereal or a PBJ, and we were out the door and off to church. I ate my yogurt in the truck, but I got it in.

Church was good, too. Since I started paying more attention in classes and such, I've really gotten more out of it. Novel concept, I know- hehehe. But I think we need to re-evaluate ouuselves every once in a while, and not take things for granted. I'd been doing that with church for a while. I REALLY liked the talks, and the lessons, and everything. And, since I'd been reading my scriptures a lot this past week, it was amazing how much of what I'd read tied into what the talks/lessons were about. I really enjoyed it.

I came home, got kids fed, clothes changed, and headed to Leslie's house. Her daughter was gonna die Leslie's hair, and Leslie did my gray at the same time, while all the stuff was out. THANKS! It was starting to show again - hehehe.

Colby doing Leslie's hair

I came back home after, and Captain America and the kids were finishing up a movie. See, no more gray in my hair! Woohoo!!!

I took my laptop into my room, and Captain America took a nap, and I did a project that I had to get finished up. The kids did their chores and had some quiet time. It's now 3:30pm, and I've gotta go make something for a potluck we're going to at 5pm with church friends I thought I'd get some of this blog entry done before we go. See, I'm using my time wisely :)

K, back again. It's not 9:33pm. We just got home a short while ago from the park, and had a TON of fun :) I'd gone and started dinner around 4pm. I made Lasagna casserole and lemon cupcakes. Mmmm, everything smelled yummy. Me? I had leftover pork, with salad, and a bit more yogurt (for more protein). Not fun, but good for me, I guess :)

We got everyone ready, and headed out at a little after 5pm. Yeah, late, but it's all good. The Nouhans were running late too, and we were going with them, so it worked.

Here's me in the truck. Like my Zebra outfit - ha!


We drove down near the boarder. Actually, from our position in the park, we could see the boarder patrol dude and the fence. Yeah, we were THAT close. ha! Parking was bad, and we parked down the road at a school. Actually, it was the same school that Jacob had an orchestra competition at back in the spring of '09, for anyone who's a long time follower - hehe.

Anyway, we parked, and here's a pic of the gang carrying all of our junk to the park.

Jannie Nouhan and Tom. Don't they look enthused?

And here's some more kids :)

It was hot, but there was a real nice breeze. We just sat and chatted and listened to the band in the distance. I'd eaten before we came, BUT I did try Hilary's lemon bars. Just a little piece, and I totally counted it as my "1 plain cookie" for the day - hehehe.

Here's Jimmy and I.

And Captain America.

Me in the sunshine :)

Captain America and I

Here's some new people from church, AND from our neighborhood. Maggie is her name, and their oldest kid is Jacob, but I didn't ever catch his name, or the little girl. FUN people, though. They'd fit right in with our rowdy group - hehehe.

Hilary and Paul

I like this picture of Captain America and I - hehehe.

We stayed until almost 9pm, and headed home. Don't wanna be too close to the boarder after dark, you know - hehe. But really, it was getting dark, kids needed to go to bed, my eyes were itchy from my contacts. So we headed home.

After we got home, we had a little Family Home Evening lesson on being selfish, and how complaining about things IS selfish. We have some children that REALLY needed to hear that lesson - hehehe. Hopefully it sunk in... We'll see :)

I'm sleepy, and getting ready for bed. Early night for me :)

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World More Beautiful

Holy cow, another busy day :) Woke up at 9am, a little panicked that my sister and her family had left without me knowing it. They said they were gonna leave in the morning, and I didn't mean to sleep in so long. But they got up around 9am too, so I didn't have to worry - lol.

Eme and I made french toast, while Joe and Maddie packed their car.

Captain Americaand I in the morning. Scary, I know...

At a little before 11am, Joe and Maddie and family were ready to hit the road for the trip to Kileen, Texas (Ft Hood). We'll miss you guys! Thanks SOOOO much for coming to visit :)


So after they left, we got lunch, then got ready to head out for the day. We were going to Captain America's buddy Joe's house to do some yard work. It's the same Joe who helped Captain America re-build his truck. And then Joe had to PCS move to Ft Sill for 6 months, but he didn't sell his house. So we're looking in on it.

Anyway, here's me ready to go. Yeah, I SO needed to come back home and shower before my date - heheeh
I took the suburban with the homemade trailer on it, with Jake and Eme and Joe and Jim. Captain America went in his old truck with Tom. Aren't I cool?

See my trailer in the mirror? We're gonna store it at Joe's house until he comes back home. So it doesn't have to be in our garage, and we can park the car in there. Works for me :)


So we got there, and I pulled the weeds out front. It took me about 5 minutes, and they were all gone. Not a lot of weeds. Captain America and the kids cleared the backyard of rocks so he could mow. It was a HUGE area, though, so it took forever. Since I'm whimpy, Jimmy and I sat on the back porch the whole time. Wait, I did get up once to try and pull some more weeds, but I got hit by a little rock from the lawnmower, and retreated back to my seat with Jim. I'll leave the hard work to Captain America and the kids.

So while sitting there, I convinced Jimmy to let me take a picture of his throat. See those white areas? Those are the sores from where they cauterized it. Poor baby.

And here's Jimmy and I

Captain America during water break

Jimmy found this dolls head in the yard. ha!

Here's the backyard. See why they had to look for the big rocks before mowing. It's a ton of gravel, and a little bit of grass...

Eme at water break

Joe at water break

Pulling more weeds

So apparently just watching people pull weeds can work up a sweat. Nasty. Or maybe it was the 96 degree weather.... either way, sweating is GROSS.


BUT, as a reward for hard work, we all headed over to McDonalds for ice cream after the work was done :) Here's Captain America and I cooling off in the playland :) Ice cream cones were on sale for fifty cents, so we each got one. YES, I had one too. I ate about 1/2 the ice cream, and gave the rest away. I also at 1/2 a parfait. But I don't think the sugar sat very well with me.... I'll stick to the diet coke from now on...

Lowes was our next stop. It shared a parking lot with McDonalds, so it was EXTREMELY convinent. Like I planned it that way or something... hehehe.

Our Cub Scout pack is having a Raingutter Regatta, but we have no track. And it's not that expenive to make one, so Captain America and I are gonna do it. And keep it, since the Primary is out of budget for the year. We have a Hot Wheel Derby track, why not a Raingutter Regatta?

But we decided, instead of Raingutters, to take a length of 4 inch PVC piping, cut it in half, and have 2 tracks. We got some end caps, and some PVC glue, and some valves to let the water drain out, and something to make a stand out of. And, because Captain America needed one, we got a table saw - ha! We've needed one quite a few times over the years, and never broke down and bought one. I think we're gonna work on building the track next Saturday.

Me with my big pipe

We paid for our supplies, loaded them into the truck, and headed home. We got the kids some dinner, and showered, got ready, and Captain America and I headed out on our date. Oh yeah, and dinner. He'd eaten before the shower, and I grabbed another portion of cheese and cucumbers for dinner, then we hit the road. We were going to a baseball game with the Nouhans.

Here's me riding in Captain Americas truck.

Yeahm, sometimes I can't seem to take a "normal" picture and have it look good. So you see a lot of goofy pictures of me, because they actually look better than the serious or smiling ones. Sigh.

Here's Captain America driving the truck.

We got to the game, bought tickets, and waited for Paul and Hilary to get there. They didn't know they needed cash, so had to run out to an ATM in order to have cash to park. Oops :)

Here's a few pics we took while sitting on the row closes to the main gate while waiting for the Nouhans.
You wouldn't believe how many attempts it took to get this picture - LOL. And it's not even that good!

Sometimes the silly face is better than the smiley face...

So then we found Paul and Hilary, and sat over by the 2nd base line. And I worried about getting hit with a foul ball. hehehe.


We spent the evening taking pictures of ourselves, watching the game, chatting, and having fun. It was a nice evening. Here's a few pics. I found out my camera has effects. Kinda cool :)



Hilarys let in the background. Whaaaaat? I guess she wanted her flip flops in the picture, but ended up giving me a "boot to the head". LOL!

After trying SO hard to get a good pic of Captain America and I and failing, I decided to take pics of our feet. Yeah, at least THOSE turned out good - hehehe






So a few times, there were foul balls trying to kill me. Seriously. I didn't find it funny. Captain America LOVED it, though. Here's his injury from running after a ball, and getting it. Poor guy.

This pic is from Hilarys phone. It does a pencil drawing. SO cool

Our team was losing horribly, so we left in the 6th inning. Really, we just left because we didn't wanna be out all night. We drove over to our favorite Circle K, and Paul and Hilary followed. Or we followed. I don't remember. We both went there. hehehe.

We got sodas, and chatted in the Circle K parking lot for a bit. Then they headed home, and Captain America and I headed back to Lowes to get the stuff we forgot the first time. Cause Circle K, McDonalds, and Lowes are all in the same place. hehe.

Here's me at the Key section (we needed more truck keys)

Me in the garden section (we needed a stake to fix a wayward bush in the front yard)

Me in the power tools.

Me with horns. Does that make me .... nevermind...

Me on a lawnmower, waiting in the check out line

It was a busy, but good day. I was real tired by the time we finally got home. It's now 1:26pm, and I've gotta get up at 7:20am tomorrow. Or is that today now? I don't know.

I'm gonna go desing a quick freebie, then post it, then sleep. Night, all!

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