December

What a great day! It was long, but good :) I woke up a little before 7am, ready my scriptures, said my prayers, and snoozed a few more minutes before going and getting the kids ready for school and out the door and on the bus.

Jim woke up JUST as we were saying the family prayer and kids were leaving. I sat on the couch with him as he watched some cartoons, and I snoozed by him for a bit. I was supposed to be getting ready for grocery shopping, but I was slowly, but surely talking myself out of going. hehe. Because we could totally make it one more day without me going - LOL :)

So I just hung around for a while, Jake got up, got to school, and then my mom called to chat on her drive to work. So that's around 8:30 my time, I guess. Or was it 9am? I can't remember. We chatted for a few minutes, and she told me to go to the store. LOL! Good job, mom! Really, that's all I needed. For someone to tell me to do it. Because it DID need doing :) I just needed a little nudge.

So I got changed into non-jammy clothes, and headed out to the store. Jim was all dressed and ready for school, just in case I didn't make it back in time to take him to the bus. I got my produce, then called my mom to chat at work. She said that no one else was in the office for a few hours, so she had a little bit of time to chat. And her work number is in my "Friends and Family" free calls, so it's good for me - hehe :)

We chatted about stuffing going on, and such, and she was my shopping buddy for at least 1/2 of the time I was at the commissary. That was nice :)

I got in line to pay when I was finished, and clicked a quick pictures of all of my groceries. hehe :

I headed back home, and Jake and I pulled all the groceries inside the house. I didn't have time to put them all away, but I did put the fridge stuff away. And I had time to make myself a 32 oz herbal tea. I was going swimming (indoors), and I needed to get warm first - LOL. It was only 25 or something crazy like that this morning!

Here's me with a NEW holiday favorite herbal tea. Ginger snappish, with a hint of lemon, I think was what it was called. It's SOOO yummy :)

So I Threw on a swimsuit, and grabbed some warm clothe, and a towel, my IDs and phone and keys and gloves, grabbed Jimmy, and we headed out to the truck, and drove to the bus stop. After I got him on the bus, I drove the block over to the pool. And met Kari there.

Yeah, she's in MUCH better swimming shape than me. I thought I was gonna die! At least the water wasn't that cold. I wasn't shivering, at least - heheh.

He first few "laps" were the hardest. I'm counting one length of the pool as a lap. Because it makes it seem like I swam more - ha! My upper body strength is VERY weak, so my legs were getting an insane workout - hehe. I ended up going 1/2 way with the breast stroke, then flipping on my back, and doing the backstroke. Or something like that. I've never had swim lessons, so I don't know how to do correct strokes, I'm sure. But I managed, and didn't drown - ha!

Kari didn't have to rest inbetween "laps" as much as I did, but we both did good! My goal was 6 "laps", and I did 12!!! I was VERY proud of myself. I knew that I could have done more, but needed to get home for the Work Order guy to come.

So I hopped out of the pool, leaving Kari to do her 20 "laps", and headed for the locker room. And my arms and legs felt like COMPLETE Jello. Not a good sign. ROFL! Or a very good sign, whichever way you look at it - ha!

I took a HOT shower to try and warm up, then put on my warm clothes, still wet with my suit on.
I got home RIGHT at noon. No shower for me.... grrr.. At least I knew that the Work Order people wouldn't be there that early. hehe. Theoretically, they could, but I knew they wouldn't. hehe. So I spent the next solid hour cleaning my house. I organized the "flooded" bathroom, organized laundry, did a TON of dishes, picked up my bedroom and the living room, and after an hour, the house looked pretty good :)

Jake and I sat down around 1pm to watch an episode of Fringe, and I ate my lunch. I would have liked a shower and to get all pretty for the day, but you know the SECOND I hopped in the shower, the work order dudes would have been there...

Jake and I had a nice time watching our show. Captain America came home around 1:15pm for a VERY short lunch break, and we got to hang out for a few minutes. That was nice, since I wasn't expecting him!

The Work Order guys for the bugs came while Captain America was there for lunch. They sprayed the inside and the outside of the house for bugs. This means that the bugs will be wandering out from their hiding places, drugged up, for the next few days. Nice, huh? hehe.

And then, Jake went back to school, Captain America went back to work, and I decided to bake. Because I LOVE baking. It's relaxing, and methodical, and calming for me. And I just love it :)

I looked up a recipe on Allrecipe.com for Zucchini cookies. And found a GREAT chocolate one. But I didn't have an cocoa powder. So I edited it a little bit. Because I do that, you know. hehe.

There was a comment on the recipe that said to make sure that you extra shred your zucchini, or else people will be able to see it, and they'll get grossed out. Yeah, I could see that - ha!

So, I grated it in my food processor, then chopped it with my Pampered Chef chopper. It was VERY time consuming, but worked. I tried to use the blender, but it didn't work at all for shredded zucchini.

Here's my edited recipe:

1 cup butter (2 cubes)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar

Beat until creamy, about 5 minutes (yes, 5 MINUTES..... hehe)

Add 2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Beat for a long time again

Add:

4 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves

Combine, then add 2 cups zucchini

Stir in 1 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips

Drop by teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Makes 8 dozen.



And I wanted to put a frosting on them, but didn't have any powdered sugar, so I made up a different recipe for the frosting. ha!

1 package softened cream cheese
1 tub cool whip
1 package pumpkin pudding (4 serving size, really, any flavor pudding would work)

Beat together, adding milk until a frosting consistency. OMHeavnes, it was tasty!

And frost the cookies. And put on paper plates for all of your friends! Just tell them the cookies are chocolate chip spice cookies, or they may not eat them - ROFL!

I even sampled one - TASTYNESS~!

And while I was baking, the Work Order dudes for the bathroom showed up. First, he re-caulked my bathroom, then he unclogged the toilet. I don't know what was in there, I didn't ask. But it flushes, so I'm all happy. I even gave him a loaf of Zucchini bread to say thanks. He seemed VERY pleased - hehe.

I sent Jake to the bus stop to get Jim, since I couldn't leave him home alone with the Work Order dudes, and Jim and Jake came back home JUST as the guys were leaving. We finished up frosting the cookies, and wrapping them up, and then it was time to go and get the kids from AQ.

We were gonna go to a Movie at the library, and Jake didn't wanna come, so I got Jim loaded up in the truck ,and 6 plates of cookies, and headed to the bus stop to get Joe. We swung by Laurie's house and gave her family some cookies, and by Maggie's house to give her cookies too. Then picked up Eme and Tom and Bella from School.

We left cookies with Bella at her house, and I got a text from Jake saying he'd changed his mind and now wanted to go to the library. So we swung by the house, picked up Jake, dropped off Tom's cello, and headed up the Library.

And had to park FOREVER away because of afternoon PT. It had closed down the library parking lot. Hmpf! Oh well. I parked a block or so away, and the 5 kids and I walked to the library.

We were about 30 minutes late, since it started while the kids were in AQ, but it was a Discovery channel special about seals and whales, so it was all good. They had sodas and popcorn and pretzels there for the kids, and my kids were in HEAVEN. They found a new Tuesday after school activity, I think - ROFL!


Kari and her 2 kids were there too, and everyone had a great time. Kari had to leave a few minutes early to take Josephine to dance practice, and I volunteered to keep Leo. He's inbetween Joe and Eme's age, and gets along well with my kids.

So she went to dance with Josephine, and after the movie, I took my kids and Leo back home. Yeah, it would have been better to NOT have to corral 6 kids a few blocks away to the truck, but that's ok. No one got ran over, so it's all good, right?

Tom brought a plate of cookies over to Leighs house, and I only had about 5 plates of cookies left. hehe.

We got home, and I left the kids play electronics, and they were SO excited. Tom and Jake and Leo played Battlefield for a while, then switched to Football on the Wii. The little kids played whatever the big kids weren't playing - hehe. I told Eme that she could have a turn after Leo went home, since there wasn't enough electronics to go around. She was fine with that.

I snapped a few pictures of the evening. Here's Eme and I. (yes, showering is HIGH on my priority list for tomorrow...)

Leo and Jake

Joe

Tom and Jim

Leo and Jake again

And I looked at the menu to see what was for dinner, and it said pizza. Hmpf. That takes a lot of work. Oh well. Pizza it was!

And, because I'm just nice like that, I decided to make a pizza for Kari's family too. If I'm making 2 pizzas, I might as well make 3, right? Not that much extra work - hehe.

I made my favorite homemade crust, and decided to put, you guessed it, zucchini, in the sauce. I opened a can of pasta sauce, and added about 2 cups of shredded zucchini to it, then spread it over the 3 pizza crusts. It looked pretty good.

I shredded cheese, and put pepperoni on one pizza, and pepperoni and mushrooms and tomatoes and zucchini on the others. 1 pepperoni and 2 supremes. Looked pretty good :)

And there's the pepperoni, all baked

No one could tell that there was zucchini in the sauce, so my kids got EXTRA veggies without knowing - Score! I'll have to remember that for next time I make pizza :)

Kari came to get Leo around 6pm, and I sent her home with some cookies and an uncooked pizza. She seemed very grateful :) And I cut the pizza, and put a salad with it, and fed my kids. And then I realized that I had a migraine. It just kinda all came on at once. Out of no where. And it hurt. I thought I was gonna puke.

Before I laid down, I hurried and designed my freebie for the day. Because I knew that it would be LATE before I could get to it, and needed to get it done. See, girls, THAT'S dedication - ROFL!

So I ate an apple, took an Imitrex, some ibprofrin, some tylenol, and a decongestant, and went to lay down for about an hour. Captain America came home a bit after I laid down, and I woke up at 7:45pm, and felt MUCH better. Numb, really - hehe. But no pain.

I came out, cooked myself a turkey burger and some steamed veggies, and made myself some more herbal tea. Aaaawww, that hit the spot!

Captain America put the kids to bed at 8pm, and then at 8:45pm-ish, he and I headed out to Academy Sports. He wanted a Foot Locker and some new compressions shorts (yeah, that's what he calls them, they look like spandex to me....).

Joe and Jim and Eme were sleeping when we left, and Jake and Tom were in their rooms reading. Good kids!

First stop, Howdys for a soda!

And then we drove to the East side to Academy Sports. You know, since I started exercising, that store is SO much more enjoyable - ROFL! But this mirror is ALWAYS a ton of fun :)
We looked around for about an hour before we eventually found the foot lockers. Here's an AWESOME fuzzy zebra chair that I found. It was attached to the shelf, so I couldn't pull it down and take a pic in it. So it's kinda wanky, but you get the idea ;)

Yeah, these are nasty. hehe. There's an older dude who comes to the pool and does laps that wears one of these. And yeah, he shouldn't. ROFL!

Now, there's another dude who wears one, and yeah, he can totally pull it off - ha! But he's SUPER short. Not my type - LOL!

I got a new pair of Yoga pants, and a jogging suit for colder weather, and we found a few long sleeve exercise shirts on clearance for $5 a piece. I got 4. I'm gonna let the kids give me 3 of them for my birthday :) hehe.

We paid, and headed home. I tried on my new clothes, and they all fit (thank goodness!), and then started blogging and such. And yeah, it's now 12:22pm, and Captain America is still packing his foot locker. He's gotta be at work before 7am tomorrow. He's gonna be sleepy. Yeah, I am too - hehehe. Even though I get to sleep in more than him :)

I'm doing yoga tomorrow, and we have Scouts and a temple recommend interview tomorrow night. Should be a good day :) And Eme's in charge of Achievement day snacks. We may let her bring 2 loaves of zucchini bread. Because I already have that. Or maybe we need some chocolate crinkle cookies..... Wait, I have no cocoa powder.... Another day, maybe...

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Leave Me Alone

Hola, my friends! Hope everyone had a WONDERFUL start to their week! Mine was pretty good :) I was actually glad to be getting back into a routine again.

I woke up at 4:15am to Captain America getting ready for work. I headed to the bathroom, and he informed me that the downstairs bathroom (the one the little kids use) was flooding, and that the dining room was flooded as well. Great. Perfect (hehe).

So I threw on my glasses, and went to take a look. Yup, standing water in the bathroom, out the door, in the linen closet (where we keep extra blankets and games, which were getting wet), by the bookshelves, and around the corner. Splendid!

I grabbed a few dirty towels from the laundry room, and mopped up some of the water from the dining room. And I took off my socks and waded into the bathroom. Luckily is was clean-ish water. No floaters - ROFL!

I grabbed the snake, and tried to unclog it. Yeah, not happening. I don't know what was in it, but not even the snake was getting it. I turned off the water from behind the toilet, shut the door, and called it good. I figured that since El Paso is a VERY dry environment, most of it would dry while I went back to sleep - ROFL!

I kissed Captain America bye for the day, and went back to bed. I woke up at 6:35, 6:45, and 6:55 am, read my scriptures, and set the alarm for 7:15am. I got up, and the kids were all dressed, shoes, socks, coats, backpacks. And sitting on the couch, reading books. Whaaaat? Who's kids were these? hehe. I guess THEY were excited for school, too! I gave them lunch money, and breakfast money (we were out of milk...), and sent them to the bus after family prayer.

And yeah, since Jake and Jim were still asleep, I TOTALLY went back to bed. hehe. Jimmy came in at 8:00am asking to watch a movie, which I said he could. And I got up for the day around 9:30m. So much for a Savers trip - ha!

I checked my email, and got another comment on my blog that troubled me. I've been getting a few of them lately, but have been deleting them. I think I know who's leaving them, and I figure that if I "ignore" it long enough, the problem will go away. Hopefully mentioning it on here today isn't gonna "fuel the fire". Sometimes people just don't know when to stop, I think....

At around 10am, I got Jimmy all ready for the bus, and I headed to the commissary. We needed milk and a few other essentials. AND, I'd tried to call in a work order for the toilet with housing, and a work order for the guys to come and spray for bugs, AND to have someone come and re-caulk the bathtub, but I could not get through.

It was trying to tell me that the area code had changed. Whaaaat? I know that's not true... Something was amiss.... So I decided to swing by on the way to the commissary. I put in a work order by hand, and they said that they'd be out tomorrow between noon and 5. Works for me :) I'll bake some more :)

So I get to the commissary, and I found THESE!


Big bags of zucchinis! For $0.79 each! I call it their "Clearance Fruits/Vegetables" section. Every once in a while, the commissary puts almost old produce on sale. Like the bananas that I regularly get. Well, it was zucchinis today! So I got 4 big bags. hehe. Can you say zucchini bread? ha!

I got the milk ,and a few other things, and headed home. Jake got Jimmy to the bus, and I swung by Terra's house to get a bag of clothes for Emeline. Her daughter, 12, had gone through some of her clothes and gotten rid of a BIG bag of SUPER nice things :) Eme was gonna be SO excited! I chatted for a few minutes, then headed home.

I only missed Jim's bus by like 10 minutes! I was so close. Good thing I have Jacob and that he's SUCH a good helper :) Jake helped me carry in the groceries, and I cleaned and put away groceries while he finished up classes. Then he had a "live lesson" for school, and I kept cleaning. The kitchen looked pretty good when I was done. I didn't wanna bake with a messy kitchen, you know!

Jake and I watched "Fringe" during his lunch break, and I worked on a work project. And got it all done and completed. Yeah me!

After lunch, he went back to work, and I started in on the zucchini bread. I don't know if I've made it before or not. Surely I must have, right? My online friend Sharon (who makes all the layouts for me) told me that she had a GREAT recipe, but I didn't get it in time to make it. So I looked up a recipe on allrecipe.com. LOVE that site :) I'll use Sharons later on in the week. I have TONS of zucchini's. ROFL!

Oh yeah, but first, check out this Christmas countdown calendar that I found at the Dollar Tree. My kids are SO excited to start using it. hehe. I had to show Jimmy on the real calendar that we're still in November, and that Wednesday was the first day for the countdown. He tried to convince me that we were on day 24. Yeah, not buying it, kid...AND, I finally bought some more of my FAVORITE seasoning! I'd been out for about a month. I just kept forgetting to go and buy more. Silly me! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it in my melted cheese sandwich! Buy some, I'm SURE you'll love it too!

And, here's my 4 big bags of zucchinis!

I got out my cheese grater, and then realized that I had a food processor! I'd gotten it from my brother/sister in law one year for Christmas! So, I shredded one whole bag of zucchinis. And here's a WHoLE bowl full. I had to put the soda can there for perspective, you know...

Here's what I did. In a LARGE bowl, combine:

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp nutmeg

Mix, and set aside.

In a separate large bowl, combine:

3 eggs
1 cup oil
3 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups sugar

Beat until well combined, then add in the flour mixture.

Mix until well combined, then add in:

2 cups shredded zucchini

Mix until well combined, then add in:

1/2 bag chocolate chips

Gently mix, and split batter between 2 well greased loaf pans. Bake at 325 for 40-60 minutes. It was WAY closer to 60 minutes for me :)


And I made 3 batches. Yeah, I was a baking MACHINE! After the last batch was mixed and in the loaf pans, I put all 6 loaves into the oven, and ran to the bus stop to get Jim. My how the time flew! hehe.

Ha! I totally forgot to take off my apron - hehe

We came back home, Jake finished up some more school, Jimmy watched a show, and I cleaned up my HUGE mess while my zucchini bread baked. And here I am, sporting a very SEXY bandaid on my face...



See, a while back, at the Dollar Tree, we found this product called "Liquid Skin". Super glue for owies. OK, so the theory is sound. You get a cut, you glue it back together. No mess. No bandaid. Sounds solid, right? Yeah, well, they didn't intend it for your face, apparently. hehe.

See, I'd gotten this zit on my face a few days ago, and yeah, I'm incapable of leaving it alone. I squeeze it and pick at it and AHHH, if I just left it alone, it'd be gone by now. But no.... Anyhow, I decided to squeeze it real good, and then put some Liquid Skin on it so it wouldn't bleed. And it appeared to work for a few hours!

But then, it started to stretch funny. And tear at my skin. And so I put more on. Not such a great idea. Then the next day, it started to peel, and take my skin with it. And then I had a HUGE sore on my face the size of the glue. Grrrr. So my little zit that I picked is now a HUGE sore on my face. Nice, huh?

I kept putting cream on it (antibacterial ointment or something like that), but it would dry out So fast. So I decided to put a bandaid on it. I was gonna just be home, no worries, right? hehe.

Yeah, I know, I'm a dork. At least I could have gotten one of those circular ones, right? I should buy some of those.....

Anyway, around the time that Joe got home from the bus, the zucchini bread was done! Isn't it beautiful!!!???

KaI had a piece, and it was SOOOO good!

At 4:00pm, all the kids were home from school, had had a snack, and changed into their swim clothes, and we headed for the pool. I made sure that they brought their big coats, because it was COLD outside. And super windy, too. It's supposed to get into the 20's-30's tonight! That's cold for El Paso, you know! Not terrible during the day, because it's SO sunny, but when the sun goes down, watch out! You'll freeze!

Kari was there, and Veronica, and we chatted while the kids swam. Kari and I made plans to go back on Tuesday and swim laps, kid free. Swimming is an aWESOMe workout, I hear. hehe. I hope I don't die - LOL!

Here's Joe after swimming. Freezing! Look at those beautiful eyes he has!

I worked on my new headband I was crocheting while at the pool, and finished it off! What do ya think? I still have some yarn left, so I'm totally making more :)

I'd started a crock pot with sausage, onions, chicken, potatoes, frozen veggies, chicken broth, italian seasoning, and zucchini's before we went to the pool, and we headed home at 5:30pm, so I figured that it should be about done.

It was SO cold for the poor kids on the way home. Next time, we may need to bring towels to dry off on, and blankets to snuggle with in the truck. ROFL!

We got home, kids changed into warm clothes, and we ate some dinner. Yeah, the potatoes were not soft enough, so we dipped up bowls of stew, put the potatoes back in to cook longer, and ate dinner. It was really pretty good. And since I didn't eat the potatoes, it was on my menu, and I could eat it! Yes!

After we cleaned up the dinner mess, the kids were SO getting on my nerves. hehe. Bickering and fighting and complaining. Ahhhhh. Somedays it's easier to block it all out more than others. hehe. Tonight was NOT that night - ha!

I was SO happy when Captain America came home, and we got him some stew, and chatted for a bit. Then went out and had FAmily Home Evening with the kids. We decided to sing Christmas Hymns all month long at Family Prayer time, so we pulled up the church website on my laptop that's connected to the TV, and pulled up the music player, and sang along with the hymn. And it was cool, because we could choose what parts the piano played, and showed the kids which part Captain America sang (bass), which part I sang (alto), which part Eme would sing (soprano), and the tenor part. They thought it was pretty neat.

Then, we read our scriptures together, and had a family prayer, and put the little boys to bed, and sent kids to their room. It was about 8:30pm, and the house was finally quiet. hehe. Captain America and I watched the last 2 episodes of The Office that we hadn't seen yet (we're not all caught up!) and headed to bed. Well, he headed to bed. He's fast asleep now, and I'm almost done blogging. And it's not even 11pm yet! Yes!

I'm hoping that tomorrow is another great day, filled with things that I enjoy doing, and that make me happy :) Taking time for myself, and doing things things that I enjoy really has improved my mental well-being, you know. Instead of doing negative things when I started to feel down, or upset, or self destructive things, or dwelling on negative things, I've been filling my "time" with things that "fill me up" and make me happy. Exercising, and crocheting, and designing, and chatting with friends, and thrift store shopping, and baking, and baking some more, and watching Fringe with Jake, and taking kids to the pool, and watching shows with Captain America, and soda runs, and all those little things that make my life SO much more enjoyable! You know, there really is joy in "righteous living"... :)

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Madly in Love

Don't forget to pick up my Christmas Bundle before it either a) goes away, or 2) increases in price. I haven't yet decided what I'm gonna do with it :)

You get 21 Christmas WordArt Pack for only $15. Not too shabby, huh? Click HERE to go to my store :)


Hey there, girls! Hope your Sunday was great :) Mine was pretty darn good! I got to sleep in until after 9am, showered, got ready, got to wear my new dress and my favorite boots! We got the kids ready, had lunch, packed a snack, cleaned up a little bit, and off we went, to church.

Jimmy and I before leaving the house

Here's me with my cool shades. hehe

We got to church RIGHT as it was starting, but our row was taken, so we had to sit in the back. Hmpf! Oh well. Maybe next week we'll be on time! Oh wait, we're going to a Military Family retreat in the mountains next weekend.... Well, maybe NEXT next weekend we'll be on time :)

Here's a pic of Captain America and I inbetween classes :)

Captain America and I met with the bishop for a few minutes during Sunday school, and we have our Tithing settlement set up for this coming Wednesday night. We're both gonna have our Temple Recommend interviews that night too. Now we just need to set up an appointment for the stake part.

We wanna do a temple trip to the Albuquerque temple the weekend of the 10th/11th of December :) Anyone from Albuquerque who lives near the temple wanna volunteer to babysit my kids??? Anyone??? hehe :)

After church, we headed home, and I talked Jake into taking some new pics of Captain America and I. Here's some of my favorites :)










We all had some pie for snack, then had leftover turkey noodles for dinner. And then we popped in a movie, and I designed 2 WordArt Packs, and the WordArt for tomorrow, and started blogging. And I just looked at the time. It's 6:04pm. I need to go and cook some dinner for myself. I think I'll have a turkey burger with steamed veggies. That sounds pretty yummy :)

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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