Runner

OK, I have pictures today!!! My mom will be doing the happy dance :) LOL!

Here's a pic of Tom at the Cub Scout pack meeting, last Wednesday night. They got these CUTE little neckerchief slides, in the shape of fly swatters. See, he's posing to strike - LOL! What a funny kid.

And here's the pool pics from Thursday. Here's Jimmy

And Joe - he's got a MASSIVE head, just like me - LOL!

Tom, being all seductive (not really, but doesn't that pic look like it - hehehe)

And Emeline. It's kind of a blurry pic, but it's the only close up I have of her.

Jimmy jumping in the baby pool

Tom cannon balling into the deep end

Swimmy Jimmy - hehehe

Joe in the big pool - way to go, Joe!

Jimmy and some kid playing - they had the MOST fun splashing each other - hehehe.

Joe tried to re-apply the sunscreen himself - ROFL! He didn't get burnt, AT ALL!

And the girls and I. Katy is on the left, I'm in the middle, and Laurie on the right. Why didn't anyone tell me that we were all wearing sunglasses. I'd have put mine on - LOL!

So, after my late night again, the kids woke me up at 8:15am. I'm thinking that 8:15am is just my wake up time. Such it is. I got ready, and met my friend Laurie at another mutual friends house. Kaylee is on vacation, and has a MASSIVE garden in her backyard. Laurie is babysitting it. But Laurie is going camping this weekend, so I'm babysitting the garden for Laurie, who's babysitting the garden for Kaylee. Clear as mud? Anyway, she taught me how to water the garden. Seriously, there's like 4 different hoses going on, and plants outside, inside, and in the front yard. I REALLY hope I don't kill anything. My thumb is the farthest from green it could possible be. I'd kill fake plants if it were possible :)

That was a 9am. I took 2 of her kids home with me to play with my kids. The kids seemed to enjoy it. And, since I felt like a bum because my house was messy, I cleaned most of the time they were here. I folded all the laundry (yeah, like 8 loads), helped Joe and Jim do their laundry, cleaned Joe and Jims room, directed the kids to put away their laundry, cleaned the living room, cleaned the kitchen, and did 2 loads of dishes. And believe it or not, the house is still messy. hehehe. Somedays, it doesn't matter how much you clean, it's still gonna be trashed.
We had Mac n Cheese, carrots with ranch, and cupcakes for lunch. Yes, nutritious, I know. But I had to get the cupcakes out of my house. My kids just LOVE Mac N Cheese, so they get it about once a week. I know it's not terribly good for them, but balance is the key, right?

Laurie came and picked up her kids at about 2. I'd got some designing done after lunch, and at 3ish, I came in and tried to take a nap. I think I slept for about 45 minutes. I really have a hard time sleeping durning the day. I'm willing to keep trying, but it's usually not too successful :)

I got 2 WordArt Collabs designed today (16 Wordarts total). Woohoo for me! I was proud of my self. I showered (miracle, I know), since Captain America and I were going on a date to the movies. He was home at 5:30pm, we had dinner, and left the house at 7:30pm. The post has a movie theater, with SUPER cheap prices. Kids under 5 free (score!), 5-12 is $1.25, and over 12 is $2.00. And they are newish movies. We saw Star Trek. OMGosh it was good! I loved it :)

Captain America had seen it at Benning, but he went with his buddies. It was fun to go and see it with him. Saturday there's having a free showing of Transformers 2, but I think I'm going somewhere with the girls. Besides, imagine how busy that'll be.

We got home at 10:30pm, and I hopped on the computer. My goal is to be done with blogging by midnight. It's only 11:16pm right now, so I'm on the right course ;) Woohoo for me!

And no, I haven't forgotten about the marriage seminar notes. They're in the kitchen, and I'm too lazy to walk from my bed to there. I know, that's not a good excuse, but it is an excuse. And it's the excuse I'm going with :)

The girls and I are doing the garage sale again today. We're starting at 7:00am, so I need to leave the house at 6:30am to get it set up. Hopefully we'll make some money for our girls night out. Wouldn't that be great!?!!

Oh yeah, I wanted to show you my layout from a Speed Scrap I did over at Ginger Scraps. I just LOVE speed scraps over there. The girls are SO much fun.

Kit by Flutter Expressions (Katherine on my CT!!!) - Just For Dad
And yeah, I need to NOT bend over in that suit, because I've got some cleavage going on, and I'm anti cleavage - LOL!

So, here's my WordArt for today. This request comes from Cheryl. Her hubby just ran his first marathon. GREAT job!! Once I get back down to my goal weight, I'm gonna start jogging again. Until then, these feet were made for walkin'. LOL!

Click on the link below to go to my account, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks! Oh yeah, I had a typo in this wordart, but went back and fixed it before this post was posted. But, unfortunately, it didn't stick. SO, I'm fixing it now. It's 11:34pm MST on Saturday, June 27th 2009. If you downloaded this before now, go and grab it again. Sorry, girls.

4shared

FONTS:
Runners - BIRTH OF A HERO

s

Success in Life

All right, let's start our Friday off right with some Fresh Fruit in the Orchard (hehehe, I'm SO not a salesman - LOL) Here's 4 new WordArt packs, just from me! I hear that Canada day is just around the corner, so here's a Wordart pack for your Canadians, just in time.

And some baby attitude, some "flashback" wordart, and even a Collab. I did the collab with "Faba Scrap Designs", and think her elements are just DIVINE!

Click HERE to go to my store, and don't forget, all Fresh Fruit is 20% off for the first week, making each WordArt pack only $2.00. Hurry!

This layout is by Trina - don't you just LOVE the 80's - hehehe :)

So, I know I've been promising you guys a re-cap of day 2 of the marriage seminar, but this is not that day. I was out late again. Bad, bad, I know.

I started my day off at 8:15am, when the kids woke me up. I dragged my tired butt out of bed (3 hours of sleep), got my breakfast, and tried to stay awake. We did a few things around the house, but honestly, the morning was a blur. I know that I took a shower and shaved, since we were going to the pool, and I didn't want to scary anyone. LOL!

At 10:45am, Jimmy, Tom and I made sandwiches and got lunch ready for the pool. I like to bring a little extra, to share with everyone. We made Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, but into quarters, chips and salsa, and sliced apples. Plus water. Plus the left over juice drink from Scouts last night. Plus the left over cookies from Scout too. All in all, it was a tasty lunch.

We got to the pool a little after 11am, and had the pool to ourselves. There were a few people there, but not many. I was wearing my new swimsuit that I got from Adela, and it was BEAUTIFUL. I just love it :)

Jacob had to stay home, because I didn't want him out in the sun while his burn is healing. And let me say, his face looks FABULOUS. All the scabs are gone, and only a pailer color skin is left. He'll be good to go next week, I'm sure.

The kids and I played in the big pool for quite a while. It actually felt warm. Katy and her kids showed up at about noon. I'd gotten out, and the kids ate some lunch, and when Katy got there, we all got back in again. It wasn't quite as warm the second time around. Why is that, I wonder?

We played for a while, and Katy even went down the big water slide, at the insistance of her 13 year old daughter. I woudln't let them talk me into going. I didn't want to go underwater, because I always get water stuck in my ears. Not my favorite thing :)

Laurie and her kids got there at about 1:30pm, and we chatted and visited for a little while. Katy and I were both EXHAUSED from staying up so late the night before, so I'm not sure that we were terribly great company for poor Laurie :)

We went home at about 3:00, and Laurie took Tom and Emeline with her. They were SO excited about playing over at the Timmons house. I was excited to come home with only 3 children and take a nap.

The kids watched a movie, and after starting a load of my own laundry, I took a nap. I slept from 3:30 to 4:15, got up, checked on the kids, then slept again till about 5:15pm. It felt good to get a nap. Andrea called and said that she needed to make cupcakes for one of her kids' camp party today, and that she didn't have frosting. I told her I'd make up some, and bring it down later. Jimmy and I had fun making the frosting, and he was a GREAT help at tasting it - hehehehe.

I cooked dinner for the kids, and cooked dinner for myself later. Captain America was home by 6:00pm, and we ended up going on a walk together after Laurie dropped the kids back off. I think that was around 8:30pm. We walked for about 28 minutes. Just in the neighborhood. I showed him where all of my friends lived, and he told me all about class.

At 9pm, I headed down to Andreas house. I helped her frost cupcakes. Adela was over with all her kids playing, too. We noticed something out the kitchen window, and it was Katy dancing in her kitchen, trying to get our attention. Funny girl! She came over and hung out too. They all left at 10:30pm, and Andrea wanted me to stay and watch a movie. It didn't take much to convince me to hang out. I'm a sucker for hanging out :)

We cleaned up a bit (well, she did, and I was moral support - LOL), then started a movie. It was called Ghost Town. We were each laying on a couch with a blanket, and Andrea was out in 3 minutes. I think I held out for about 15 minutes, and didn't catch much of the movie after that. I woke up for the last 5. Hehehe. Not to self. Don't start a movie when your beat tired, or at least not on a comfy couch with a thick blanket. hehehe.

I got up, put on my shoes, and made my way, slowly, to the door. We chatted for another hour or so, but I finally went home. 2:30am is much better than 4:15am. Andrea is going on Vacation to Idaho next week, so I had to get in all my girl time before she left. I should sleep well the week she's gone. Sleep well, but be bored :) See, Andrea, you'll be missed!

This WordArt request is from Lisa. I thought it was very nice, and just love, visually, how this WordArt turned out :) I can't wait to see your layouts for it! Click on the link below to go to my 4shared account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.

4shared

Fonts:
Success - Felix Titling
In, Life - AL Verdirgis

Sparkling

Wow, girls! It's late. Or early. Or however you look at it :) I had a nice day yesterday, starting off VERY relaxing. Nothing much going on in the morning, lazy time. But my 10:30am, it got busy. I worked on my shopping list, and headed off to the grocery store with Jimmy and Joe. I had a VERY detailed list with the amounts, prices, and stuff that I needed to buy. I really was quite proud of my list.

I was able to get everything I needed from the commissary, except for kid yogurt. They were out of the tub that I usually buy for them. So, the kids and I headed off to Wal-Mart. But first, I stopped by the PX and picked up my migraine meds. Thank goodness! I went for 4 days without them ,and was so paranoid that I'd get one and not be prepared :)

I had a list of about 5 things to get from Wal-Mart, and I think I ended up with a bit more than that. I got the kids each a new towel (different color for each kid). I bought the kids each a laundry basket. See, I'm gonna try this new system that I got from one of my blog readers. Each kid gets a different day to do his/her laundry. Jake is Mon, Tom is Tue, Misc laundry is wednesday, Eme is Thurs, and Joe/Jim is Friday. I'll help them till they get the hang of it. But that should drastically reduce the amount of laundry that I have to do. They can gather it themselves, wash it, dry it, fold it, and put it away. That's my goal, anyway. I'll let you know how it goes.

So, back from Wal-Mart at about 12:30pm, and Captain America is home for lunch. Andrea and I had plans to go to the West Side mall at 1:10pm, so I hurry and get lunch, and lunch for the kids.

We head out, with me planning on not spending a dime. Well, we get to Old Navy, and they have these AWESOME swim tops for boys. Joe and Jim are so white, I'm always afraid that they'll burn. These are the perfect solution. I"ll take pics today at the pool for you all (translate = for you, Mom!).

Eme got 2 new paris of shorts, since she had NO pairs of shorts, only some cutoffs. Poor kid. I got a new shirt, but once I tried it on at home, I didn't like it. I'll have to return it. Anyway, we looked in some bath store, with lots of yummy smelling lotions and stuff. We went to Macy's, but I'm not really a department store girl. We also let the kids play in the kids place. I had brought Jimmy, and Andreas friend had brought her 2 kids.

When we headed home, Andreas friend had brought a TON of stuff for us to sell at the garage sale. She said to look through it, and keep whatever we wanted. She was donating the stuff to us, and we got to keep the proceeds anyway. Sweet!

I got a new purse (Coach). Who knew that people actually paid TONS of money for purses - LOL! I'll post a pic of it tomorrow. It's super cute. I also got some candle stick holders, a bunch of DVD's, some kid toys, and Eme got some shoes. It was pretty cool.

We got home at around 4:30pm, and I sat down to design. I got a few things done, then hustled to get dinner ready. I left for Scouts at 6:45pm, and Captain America stayed home with the little kids. I took Jake and Tom.

We had a quick pack meeting, and I had brought my laptop to design a bit more. I got one more WordArt pack designed, and it was time to go home. On the way home, Andrea texted me to say that she and Adela were hanging out at her house, and that I should come and join them.

So, I got the kids home, made sure that everyone was in bed, made sure that Captain America was taken care of, and at 9:00pm, I headed down the street to Andreas. Well, Adela, Andrea, Katy, and I had a TON of fun. We sat on the back patio and chatted for HOURS! Girl talk is SO nice :) Thanks, girls, for all the fun and the laughs! I'll never think of the word AMAZING the same way again :) hehehehe.

Well, here it is, 4:57am. Yep. I just got home. I can't believe it's SO late. Or realy. Given your perspective - hehehe I giving you guys a freebee of something that I'd previously designed, and held out to sell. I'm just too tired to do much else - hehehe.

Click on the link below to go to my 4shared account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work

4shared

Dirty Kid

Wow, it was a busy day yesterday. It's gonna be a short blog post today. I'll write more tomorrow. I had a FABULOUS last day of the marriage class. We learned about being ready for deployment (my hubby's not deploying any time soon, but the people who the class was for are), a class about conflict, and a class about sexual intimacy. All three were GREAT! I'll share some more tomorrow about these. We learned some really good stuff.

The kids had fun at the childcare place again. Some were disappointed that we weren't coming back today. hehehe. When we came home, Joe and Eme went with Laurie and her kids for a play date. I went home, and got the kids some left overs for dinner. I waited about an hour, and ate a late dinner. Captain America had already beat us home.

He and the big boys cleaned out the garage last night. We couldn't even walk through it last week. Sigh. One of these days, we'll get it cleaned :) I finished off my Twilight series (Breaking Dawn), and started WordArting for the day. I didn't even get done until 11:30pm. Hence the short post. I promise, though, tomorrow I'll share the info about the marriage conference.

Today we need to go grocery shopping. And I'm going mall shopping with Andrea and her friend. Well, I'm just going along for the ride, really. I'm not shopping. I'm saving my dollars for food. hehehe. Come to think of it, Andrea isn't shopping either. She saving her dollars for her family vacation next week. They're going to Idaho. I guess we'll just watch Andreas friend shop - ROFL! Living vicariously has its advantages for your pocketbook :)

This WordArt request is from Sheri. And you know what? It's SO true. My kids are never more happy than when they're dirty (and wet). Funny kids :) Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember, you must be logged onto the gallery in order to get the download. Thanks!

Well, it appears that Scraporchard's freebee server is having issues. And no one in management is returning my emails....... So, until they decide to talk to me again (lol!), I'm gonna off site host this. Cause I like you guys THAT much :) So, unil the above link works, click on the link below to go to my account to download the ZIP file.

4shared

Give Thanks

First off, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all of the well-wishes for Jacob :) The kids is feeling MUCH better. He was excited when he came downstairs today and was able to smile. LOL! He's happy for small blessings. The medicine is working very well and fast. He's not so much of a zombie anymore. Thank goodnes.

As for the route to go with the Scouts. I just wanted to say that we LOVE the Boy Scouts of America program. My husband, before he joined the Army, was a professional with the Boy Scouts for 9 years. He knows the program inside and out. He knows the rules and procedures. We know that if our specific leaders had followed the rules, it would have been avoided. The Boy Scouts of America are not liable for this. They have rules in place to keep everyone safe. It was just the individual leaders that I had an issue with. They are the ones that choose not to follow the rules. Captain America looked it up online, and BSA policy says no more than 10 miles a day for water trips. Clearly, our troops 28 miles in one day was WELL over the limit.

I believe that the Boy Scouts of America is an inspired program. Run by humans. Who make mistakes. Hopefully they'll learn from their mistakes, and fix it in the future. If that doesn't happen, my boy will find another troop, which follows the rules, to participate in. Either way, Scouting will be a part of our life.

Boy Scouts is a WONDERFUL program, designed to help our boys grow into strong, responsible men. It is a great tool, which, if executed properly, will effectivly do its job.

Yesterday, I went to the first day of our Marriage class. It was pretty fun. I left a good 20 minutes early, to get there in plenty of time. Well, the interstate wasn't cooperating. There was a wreck ahead of me, and I ended up getting there 10 minutes late. 6 lanes of traffic were condensed down to 2. Not so good :)

But, it turned out that the first hour was just registration and meet and greet. So, I wasn't really late. In fact, I had about 30 minutes to kill. It was nice to drop the kids off that the child care place (on site), and sit and relax. That doesn't happen too often - LOL!

Only Laurie and I, of all my friends, ended up going. Everyone else had things come up. It was nice to sit and chat and learn with her.

We had some good presenters, and learned quite a bit. We learned about the different things that men and women want out of marriage. Women want "security" and men want "significance" (or to feel that they are important to someone). I can TOTALLY see that.

We learned about the 5 threats to a happy marriage:

• difficult adjustments (our cultures, different backgrounds, superficial motivations for getting married, differeing expectations)
• getting too caught up in the "worlds" idea of what marriage is supposed to be (performance based - only worth while if living up to your "standards")
• selfishness
• failure to work though trials and difficultiies
• extramarital affairs (activity affairs, materialism affairs, career affairs, family affairs, love affairs)

We learned that when we do these things, we're choosing the path that leads away from "oneness" and that leads to "lonlieness". And none of us go into marriage saying "I want to be lonely".

And then it started to get churchy. Don't get me wrong. I'm a very religious person. I have nothing against religion. I just don't like it when I hear things, being taught as truth, that I don't agree with. Most of it I agreed with, though.

They said that Satan is very real (which I agree with), and is doing everything he can to destroy the family. So, those with strong families are the ones he's gonna try the hardest to get. Makes sense. They talked about 3 things to do to realize that your spouse is a "gift from God". It's LEAVE, CLEAVE, and RECIEVE.

• Leave - leave the family of your origin. You need to be with your spouse, and function as your own unit
• Cleave - during tough times, you need to go to your spouse. They need to be your best friend. We need to need our spouse.
• Recieve - We need to recoginze our spouse as a gift from God. We have differences, but they're not there to hurt us, but to help us come closer to each other by working through them.

Then it came to the Adam and Eve thing. I just hate it when they're portrayed as "the bad guys". Especially Eve. She made a choice. She was given 2 sets of directions. One was to multiply and replinish the earth. One was to not eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. Conflicting directions. You can't multiply and replinish without having a greater knowledge of things. Had they not eaten, they'd still be in the garden. She made a choice. She chose to have free agency. To have children. It was a noble choice. And she's smeared for it. Poor Eve.

I'm not big on the whole "original sin" thing. Adam and Eve transgressed the law, which is different than sin, in my book. They chose a path that would be hard, but that would allow all mankind an opportunity to come to earth and be tested. The presenters kept talking about how we were all born in sin. Not true. Babies are not full of sin. They are clean and precious and good. We are given the right to choose. Good or evil. But we are not inheriently sinners. We came from God, so of course we have good inside of us. Sigh. To me, it's not a hard concept to grasp.

Then, they came to the God is Jesus, and God is the Holy Ghost, and God is God. Multiple personalities? I believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are 3 distinct, separate personages. And it's not that I want to force everyone to believe what I believe. It's just that it was presented like fact in this class. And I knew that it wasn't true. It was all I could do to keep from raising my hand, and debating it with him. Which, if you know me, I'm NOT a debater. Hehehe. But, it would have been distracting from the overall flow of the marriage class. I understood the feel of what they were trying to tell us. Even if I felt they got a few of the details wrong.

What they were saying was that a marriage based on God will survive, if both persons are trying their hardest to follow him. I totally agree. That's spot on.

Wow, sorry about that. I kinda went off again. I just really wanted to say something in the class. I guess I'll suffice it to get my opinion out here. You'll listen to me rant, right? hehehe.

So, it was a good class. A bit preachy (and not totally correct in my opinion), but the overall message was a good one. Today, we're learing about Conflict, and Sexual Intimacy. Wow - we're learning how to fight and make up??? ROFL!! I'll give you a re-cap tomorrow too - hehehehe.

We got home at about 5:30pm, and I threw together a quick dinner for the kids, dinner for me, and was exhaused. I applaud all of you single working moms out there. It was hard for me, and I think that I'd easily get burnt out if that were my normal routine.

This WordArt request is from Catherine. Her church group is making signs with vinyl lettering, and wanted to know if I'd make up this WordArt for them. Well, I thought that it would be a great saying for everyone to have, so I went ahead and make it up. AND, as a bonus treat, I'm including the layered, rasterized PSD file for you all. That way, all you have to do is select the layer you wanna re-color (in the layers side bar), then click on the layer while holding control. That "marquees" it, or puts "marching ants" around it. Then, select the correct color in your color finder, and right click on the actual words themselves. Select "fill" from the drop down menu, and then select "foreground color". It should re-color that part for you.

I made the PNG have red, but if these above directions work for you, you should be able to re-color it any color. AND, if I explained it wrong, one of you ladies who know SO much more than me about scrapping can leave a comment with more, um, er, CLEAR directions - LOL!

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the zip file, which includes both the layered, rasterized PSD files, and the black/red PNG file. Thanks!

4shared

Laundry Breeds

So did all of the men in your life have a fantastic Father's Day? I know some of you had Father's day last month, right? Can't remember where that was, though :) My memory is a bit swiss cheese-ie! Oh well. (Just to warn you, I'm about to go on a bit of a tirade - hehehe)

Church was busy, but good. We had the Young Men and some of their leaders talk in church yesterday. About how fabulous their float trip was. You know, the one that maimed my child. (OK, so my hubby just said that he wasn't really maimed, but you get the idea) Needless to say, I was listening intently to the stories, and walked away resolved to never let my child go on another overnight campout in this ward again, without his father.

At one point, one of the leaders said that on their 26 mile canoe trip, they came to a fork in the river, and didn't know which way to go. The prayed, and took the one that they thought was best. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? What kind of planning is that??? I'm all for saying a prayer when you're in a tight spot, and I know that Heavenly Father will help you, but that does NOT count as a map. You've gotta do some planning on your own ahead of time. If you're gonna be in charge of youth, you need to know what you're doing.

I looked over to Captain America at that point, and he didn't look so happy either. The poor man has NO poker face, whatsoever. All emotions play across his face as he's feeling them. hehehe. I could tell he wasn't happy either.

The men were all joking about getting sunburned, too, which annoyed me. Well, there's another word for it, but we'll go with "annoyed". How can you teach youth responsibility when you, as a leader, don't even protect yourself. One of the leaders legs was so burned it was purple. Not smart. What kind of example are you setting? He had to wear flip flops to church because his feet were so burned, he coudn't put on socks. And these are the people I intrusted my child with. My precious, first born. Um, yeah. Not gonna happen again.

I've had a few people talk about teaching the boys responsibility, but you know what. They're kids. They may be 11-17, but by law, that's still a child. First off, don't take children on a 26 mile in one day float trip. Break it up. That's TOO far for one day in the desert. 9 hours on a boat. Too long.

Second, make sure they're properly dressed before getting on the boat. They need to have long sleeves, and long pants. No sunburns if you're dressed that way. And a wide brimmed hat. They need one of those too. Don't let them on the boat without it.

Third, stop every hour to reapply sunscreen. And don't just tell them. Make them line up and watch them do it. Captain America said that in the army, they do that. And the guys there are GROWN men. If you don't trust grown men to do it properly without supervision, how can you expect youth to?

The longer the day went on, the more upset about it I got. After I blog about this, I'm gonna have to let it go, and forget about it. I don't want to expend any more negative energy thinking about it. It just gets me upset. My poor little boy. You know, if I was babysitting a child Jacob's age, and brought them back to his parent looking like he looked when the Scout leaders returned him, they'd probably call the cops on me. Did I tell you than when we took him to the ER, they said that it looked like a Chemical Burn. That's bad.

They're just lucky that nothing worse happened. I know that last year in Ohio, there was an overweight kid that went on a hike with the troop, and he died. The leaders didn't recognize the signs of heat exhaustion. He was out of shape, brand new in the Boys Scouts, probably drank the wrong fluids (sugar drinks), and just died. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you think.

The BSA (Boy Scouts of America) have rules to follow to keep you safe. Obviously, our leaders weren't following the rules. And that's why people got hurt. And yes, 2nd degree sunburns count as "hurt". It's like anything else in life. The rules are there to keep you safe. If you follow them, you'll be ok. If you don't, you're risking a lot. And I don't want my son to be what's risked.

OK, moving on....I feel better now that I got that off my chest :) We came home from church, made lunch, the kids made cards for their dad, we hung out for a while, watched a movie, took a nap, cleaned up a little, but mostly just relaxed. A nice lazy Sunday afternoon. Can't beat that :)

Here's a few pictures from Father's Day:

Captain America and the kids and his card (and no, Jake's not mad, he just can't move his face without it hurting)

Captain America and I - I was sad that it was a bit blury.

Captain America and his card - yummy chocolates!

This WordArt request is from Linda. Actually, she was just sending the idea on. She saw the saying somewhere, and thought it was funny. OMGosh! It's hysterical. I SO agree. My laundry breeds on its own like RABBITS! You'd think 27 people live in this house, not 7 - hehehe. Laundry has always, and will probably always, be my nemisis. Sigh.

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

4shared

Embarassing as it is, this is my laundry pile. I HATE folding laundry. I used to keep the clean pile in my room, but when Captain America got back from Georgia, he put an end to that. He decided that on top of the kithen table was better. That way, I'd remember it. Well, it just became a pain in the butt, because I was constantly moving it to and from the floor at each meal. So now, the permanant home for the unfolded clean laundry is near the hutch, in the corner. Theoretically, Jacob will deposit one basket there, and I'll find it, fold it, and give it to who it belongs to. Unfortunately, my laundy breeds. And fast. Just check out that pile - hehehe.

True Faith

OMGoodness, but yesterday was a long day! I started my day with a SCARY nightmare about dinosaurs. Not Barney dinosaurs. Not Land Before Time dinosaurs. Think Jurassic Park dinosaurs. In my dream, we'd found a way to bring dinosaurs back, and about 3 of them ended up near where we were. In my dream, my hubby wasn't too pleased about that. "Why did you bring back the MEAT eaters???" he wanted to know! So we all ran screaming for cover. It was my family and I and a few others. The T-Rexes (yep, THOSE scray ones) chased us, while we ducked for cover. We thought we were safe inside this low ceilinged room, but they managed to find us. The only shelter was a king sized bed. We all scrambled for it, but there wasn't room for everyone. I was under it, and I managed to grab one or two of my kids, but the others didn't fit. About that time, my alarm went off, and I woke up. Dang! Scary dream!

I woke up at 6:05am to get ready for the yard sale. I quickly got dressed, fixed my hair, put on some make-up, and gathered my stuff. I got a card table from the garage, and a folding table from Eme's room. My truck was already loaded up from the day before, thank goodness.

I got my breakfast real quick, and drove down the street to Andreas. We were sitting up the garage sale between Andrea and Adela's house, on the little bike path inbetween. It worked pretty good. We lined either side with our stuff. I must say, my junk was a different class of junk from everyone elses. A lower class, that is - hehehe. We must be more rough on stuff, or maybe we started off with lower quality to begin with.

We were all ready to go by 7:00am. The girls put up posters on stratigic streets, and we were all set. We sat around for about an hour before our first customers showed up. Oh yeah, did I say that it was my first garage sale???

We ended up selling quite a few things. From about 8:30-10:00, we had a slow, but steady flow of customers. Then, the well ran dry. No one else came. We just sat around in the sun, and chatted. Later, we found out that our signs had blown away - ROFL! No one was coming because no one knew about it - hehehe. Next week, when we try it again, we'll secure our signs a bit more :)

I ended up selling an old fan, 2 bathroom shelves, a tile cutter, and some clothes, for $10.50. That was more money than I came with :) And after next week, the stuff that doesn't sell is getting donated. Adela sold the most (she had a TON of SpongeBob room decoration thing and baby/girl/boy clothes), then Andrea (end table set), then me, then Katy, then Laurie. But we all sold something. And that's important :) We'll do better next week, though.

At about 1:00, we closed up shop. Since the flyers blew away, there was no point in continuing. We didn't really find out until then, though. The Scout people called to tell us that they were back in town, and to come and pick up Jacob. I told Captain America that I'd take the kids, and he could go and get him.

The kids and I hung out with Andrea, Katy, and Adela at Andrea's house for a while. I wasn't ready to go back home, and the kids seemed content to play. I didn't end up getting home until about 4:00pm. I was ready to get ready for my date.

Unfortunately, I found this when I got back home:


My poor little baby Jacob didn't put sunblock on his face when he went on the Canoe trip on Tuesday. 8 HOURS on the water. Not good! Captain America sent him with sunblock (45) and a bucket hat. Both of which would have worked. But no. The child didn't put any on. And the leaders didn't check to see if he had. The water reflected and BAKED my childs face. It looks even worse in real life.

I called the Tel-A-Nurse to find out what to do for it (what kind of salve to use), and after explaining the situation, the said that he needed to go to Urgent Care to get checked out. We suspected that he had 2nd degree burns all over his face. His lips, all around his lip, his cheeks, on his forehead, the top of his ears, part of his chin, around his eyes. And it was scabbed over, and super red and dry. Gross. He looked like he'd got in a fight.

So, Jacob and I loaded up in the truck, and headed for Urgent Care at Del Sol Medical Center. We had to park in a parking garage (I'm always afraid my HUGE Suburban is gonna get stuck - hehehe - I get that from my mom - DUCK!), and searched for 15 minutes to find the right spot, but finally did.

When the Doctor examined him, he said that it looked like a Chemical Burn. Dang! We waited in our little waiting room for over an hour, but they finally came and washed Jacobs face with saline to make sure it was VERY clean, then put some Antibacterial cream on it. She said that our biggest problem now was keeping it clean so it woudn't get infected.

Here's what he looked like after getting it cleaned and creamed:

You can't tell in this photo, but he looks like a zombie. With rotting flesh. Nasty! Poor, poor guy! I really hope that he's learned his lesson, though. SUNBLOCK!!! I wasn't there to do it for him. He's not always gonna have his mom there. He needs to learn and remember - SUNBLOCK!

We were out of there by 8pm, and home by 8:30pm. Unfortunately, it was too late to make the game. Captain America's friends had to go by themselves. Another time, I guess. But, it gave me time to work on my Primary (church) lesson (I'm teaching Sharing time all month long), and WordArt for today. The long I work on it, the more tired I get. I'm feeling my 6am wake up. I need sleep :) And the sun. That'll do it to ya, too!

So, if your kids wanna know why they have to wear sunblock, just click on the photo of Jacob to enlarge it, and show them what will happen if they don't wear sunblock. They'll "get beat up by the sun", as Jacob says. Not a pretty picture.

AND, before I sign off, I just wanted to wish the men in my life a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! My dad is wonderful! He taught me the value of hard work. He continues to make me laugh. He taught me how to drive. He was great company for the 6 months that my hubby was gone. I love you, Dad!!!

Paul (my father in law) is a great guy! He's always first to praise. He's loving and kind to me and my family. He's a great example.

And, last, but certainly not least, my hubby, Captain America. He's just fantastic. I love him more than I can say. He's WONDERFUL with our children, and truly loves them. He wants to see them succeed, and will do what it takes to help them learn and be happy. He gives of himself to his family, his church, and his country. He's my hero! Love you, babe!

Well, since I was SO busy yesterday, the freebee isn't a request, it's the first church saying that popped into my head. Hope you like it!

Click on the image 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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Ancestors

Well, I ended up not going to my friends house the other night. She was babysitting for another friend, and the kids stayed later than she expected. Then, her youngest is teething, and had a fever, so she decided that we could do it another time. I ended up reading on the couch waiting for her to call, and fell asleep at 10:45pm. I woke up at 12:30am, and decided to go to bed :) It felt nice to get a nice nights sleep - hehehe.

I spent most of the day at home, relaxing. I read and designed a bit. The kids played with toys, played outside, and got a little computer time in. We did chores, but mostly just relaxed. At noon, we made Pigs in a Blanket for the kids. But this time, before we wrapped the hot dog in a biscuit, we wrapped them in cheese slices. The kids thought they were tasty :) But then with enough ketchup, anything is tasty. Well, if you like ketchup - ha!

At noon-ish, Andrea called me and said that she and her boys were going to the Indoor pool to work on a Cub Scout achievement. She wanted to know if we all wanted to go too. So, at 2pm, we met at the pool. I didn't like the indoor pool as well as the outdoor one. There was not very shallow area for the little kids to play in. But, they seemed to enjoy it enough. Joe and Jim hung out on the stairs of the pool. Whatever works. hehehe.

We came home at 4ish, and brought Andrea's 2 older boys with us to play. The kids just LOVE to have friends over. They had fun playing on the swing set, and with toys, and with the computer. We made yummy pudding for a snack. Layered graham cracker crumbs, vanilla pudding, graham crumbs, chocolate pudding, then more graham cracker crumbs. The kids REALLY liked it ;)

The kids went home at about 5:00, and we had dinner. At around 7:30pm, we headed out to the Outlet mall. Captain America needed new running shoes. About every 3 months, he'll need new ones. Such it is when you run every...single...day. ha!

I'd never been to the outlet mall here before, and was kinda excited to go there. He went to the New Balance shoe store with Joe, and Tom, Eme, Jim and I headed for the Old Navy Outlet store. Um, I couldn't tell any difference in the prices. Still seemed expensive to me. Not much of a discount in my book. In fact, I think that the clearance in the normal stores is more discounted. But then, I don't clothes shop often. Maybe it was just me.

We went into the Disney Outlet store also, but had the same problem. They were just like normal store. The shoe store, on the other hand, had some good prices. I ended up getting a new pair of walking/running shoes for only $20.00. That's not too bad. Captain America's shoes that were originally on sale for $80 were only $65 after his military discount. Not too bad! We'll have to start budgeting for new shoes.

We were home by 9pm, and quickly got the kids to bed. We're having a garage sale today, with the girls down the street, and needed to go through a few more boxes. Sometimes Captain America and I work FABULOUSLY together, and other times, not so much. It was a not so much evening, I'm afraid. He kept digging through the boxes, finding his "treasures", then finding my stuff or the kids stuff, and trying to convince me to donate it. Like a BRAND new set of tempura paints. Never been opened. From homeschool last year. That's good stuff, right there. Handy to have around. He's like, "Well, I haven't seen you use it since you got here." Really? Um, maybe that's because IT WAS PACKED IN A BOX IN THE GARAGE!!! Yes, painting is mess. Yes, it's not convienent. But it's GREAT for the kids to do. He just kept getting grouchier and grouchier about stuff as the evening went on.

I made the mistake of bringing my laptop out to design/prepublish my blog (so I wouldn't be up all hours of the night after cleaning the garage), and watch him work. Usually, he welcomes the company. Not tonight. I think I was annoying him, just by being there. How rude! hehehe. He finally said, "If you're not gonna help, you might as well go back inside the house". Yeah, like I was sitting in the GARAGE designing because I thought it would be fun. Um, no! I wanted to be near him, even if I couldn't do what he was doing. I'd searched through my fair share of the boxes earlier in the week. Sigh.

I think he's just tired from school, and didn't really want to be going through crap in the garage. I sure didn't. One thing great about Captain America, though, is that he's always first to come in and apologize after he's been crabby. While sometimes I just wanna SLAP the man, he's really a good and decent guy. I'm sure I'm not the easiest person to live with either. Anyway, sorry to vent. This is supposed to be a FUN and HAPPY place to be. But then, real people aren't fun and happy all the time, right? Just fake people - LOL! And I'm SO not fake :)

This WordArt request comes from Toni, who wanted something about Ancestors. Sorry it's taken me SO long to get to your request. I'm answering emails backwords at this point. Whatever is new in my inbox, and then OLD stuff. One of these days, I'll get through it all.

I liked this quote when I saw it, and thought it would be nice with older pictures. Family pictures. Don't ya think? 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! Oh yeah, and MAN, meaning Mankind. Not just men. So it's gender neutral. Just so you know. It covers women too :)

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FONTS:
Ancestors - York Script ES

Miracle

Here ya go, girls! Here's all my new stuff for the week :) I liked how they turned out - especially the masks. I just LOVE masks :) I played around with them a little bit, and I decided that I need to use them more in my layouts. They're just SO much fun :) OK, shameless plug ended - hehehe. Click HERE to go to my store.

Layout by Jaimee

Layout by Charmaine

OK, admittedly, mine isn't as good as my CT's, but it's OK. This is my sister's little girl, Ella. Isn't she adorable.

Layout by Grace

Layout by Jen (Graham Like the Cracker)

Hey girls. Hope you had a good day yesterday! Mine was good :) I ended up going to my friends house the night before. Remember how I didn't know if it was gonna pan out? Well, at 10:30pm, I headed down the street to her house - hehhe. My kids and hubby were fast asleep, and I snuck out to play. We ended up watching "Along Came Polly". It was pretty funny! Then, we just sat around for HOURS chatting. It was great! Just like a slumber party, but not slumbering - ha!

At 3:30am, I headed back home. I fell into bed, and slept till 9:30am. Good thing my kiddos are pretty self sufficient. hehehe. I got up, and cleaned for a little while, then read for a little while, then started to get people ready for the pool. We planned to meet our friends at 11am, when the pool opened. Andrea called at one point, and wanted to know if I still wanted to go, since it was cold? What? I looked outside, and sure enough, there were clouds. But it was still nice and warm. I'm sorry, but this native Pacific Northwesterner doesn't think that 83 degrees is cold. It's a nice day - ha! Our lakes that we swim in are FREEZING. The Harty's can handle the pool - LOL!

I made up a ton of sandwich quarters, and brought chips and salsa, and carrots and ranch, and bananas for my kids. I knew that the other kids would wanna share, so I brought tons. We were the first ones to get there, and the little kids wanted me to come and swim in the big pool with them. That was a first. So, I braved the water, and found that once I got used to it, it wasn't too bad. Joe, who's usually TERRIFIED of water, was doing so well. He put on a life jacket, and I pulled him aroudn the big pool. After a while, he was confident swimming around the big pool, with his life jacket, BY HIMSELF! I was so impressed. This was the kid, who last week, almost was in tears because I wanted him to get in the big pool with me. Funny kid.

Adela showed up next, and I got out of the water to visit with her. OK, so I'll admit. When you're dripping wet, 83 doesn't feel very warm. But, I dried fast, and felt much better. Andrea, Laurie, and a few others showed up by noon. The kids ate, the kids swam, the moms chatted, and it was a GREAT time. We didn't end up leaving until almost 3pm. It was a fabulous day at the pool. Free pool. Even better :)

The kids relaxed when we got home, and I decided to brave the garage in search of Garage Sale items. The girls and I are doing a multi-family garage sale this Saturday. We're meeting between Adela's and Andrea's house, and are selling what we have. I have a few baby mattresses, a few computer monitors, some of Captain America's "fat" Scout Clothes and suits, some kid clothes, and some odds and ends. I've never done a garage sale (can you believe it!), so I'm not sure what to expect. But, I'm looking forward to it :)

I found my rice cooker while I was cleaning, and was so excited that I cooked some brown rice for the kids when I was done with the garage. Captain America came home at the same time that I was cleaning up. Poor guy looked really bad. He said that his tummy hurt. Ever since his Splenectomy, he's had trouble with digestion. He can't eat too much raw veggies, or things get backed up, and he has SEVERE indigestion. So bad that he thinks he's gonna die. I helped him get into bed (he coudln't bend over to take his boots off), and left him to feel better.

The kids had rice, and chicken, and steamed veggies for dinner. For my brown rice, I cooked it in the rice cooker, then when it was done, added a 1/2 tsp of granulated chicken bullion, and a 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. The kids LOVED it. I had my usual stir fry. Yummy! I'm doing well on my diet, too. No more strong food cravings. My body is feeling pretty good. I think I've hit my groove. About time - hehehehe.

After dinner, I sat down to answer some emails. I got through about 40 of them. Sounds like a lot, but I still have over 200 to go through. And these aren't random spam. I delete all those. These are actual people who want/need something. Sigh. So, if I haven't written back to you, I"M SORRY! I'm trying. I started at the back, and am working my way to the present. I'm to January 15th. Sad, I know. 6 months off. How did it happen? Why did I let it happen. I'll try harder girls, really I will.

I put Joe and Jim to bed at 8:00pm, and Tom and Eme to bed at 9:00pm. It's not 9:30pm, and I'm gonna go design you all a FABULOUS freebee for today. My dh is still sleeping (poor thing), and I think, after I get everything done and pre-published and all, I'm gonna sneak back out to my friends house. hehehe. I'm gonna fall over one of these days from exhuastion, but it will be happy exhaustion. I think that everyone needs a girlfriend who lives down the street from them. SO much fun. And we're inviting Adela this time. She had the COOLEST blue toenail polish on her toes, and she said that she'd bring it, and we could do our toes too! I'm SO excited. And I think we're gonna watch Disturbia. SCARY movie!

This WordArt request is from WAY back in January. See how bad I am. My inbox gets OVERWHELMED, and I just can't seem to keep up. Going backwords to forwards might help me. Well, it helped "It's Daddies, Plural" anyway. She requested this saying. Sorry it took so long, girl! Hope you like it! I thought it would be good for any baby picture. Especially a pic of a parent holding a baby. Not just adopted parents, but any parent.

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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Pool Alpha

First off, just wanted to show you my NEW SWING SET! Isn't it fabulous! Thanks so much to my, um, neighbors (yeah, never did catch their names - they lived 3 blocks over too, so not really neighbors.....Tom's buddy Olens parents. We'll just call them that) for the swing set! My little boys think it's WONDERFUL!!! Here's Captain America and Jimmy taking the swing for a test ride - LOL!

And, Captain America was taking a new pic for this Facebook avatar, so I decided to get a new pic of myself too. I straightened my hair today, and look how long it's getting. Kinda fun :) Really, I'm just too cheap to go and get it cut. I just style it different as it grows out. Yep, really cheap. That's me :) But happy. Cheap and happy. (Aren't my peacock earrings FABULOUS! I think my Aunt Sue made them for me. Did you, Aunt Sue? I can't remember. If you did, THANKS!!! I just LOVE them)

hehehe, you can TOTALLY see my farmers tan - LOL! But look how BROWN i'm getting :)

Wow, 7:15am came early today. Only 5 hours of sleep. The kids and Captain America were all already awake. Really, I didn't wanna wake up. I was really just rolling over. Oh well. I'll sleep later. Sleep is overrated, right? No? You like sleep? Sigh. OK, I admit it. I like sleep too. It's not overrated. I guess I just need to schedule better - hehehe.

I managed to get up and get the kids some cereal (yeah, I know, stretching myself there), and myself breakfast. I spent the morning designing, and managed to get 2 WordArt packs designed before lunch time. Andrea stopped by to return some sunglasses I'd left at her house last night, and then was off to pick up her son from camp. I told her to bring the kids back over, and I'd make lunch for everyone.

My kids and I made some homemade mini pizzas. They turned out looking pretty nice. We made biscuit crust (with added basil), topped with pasta sauce and cheese. The little kids had fun helping to roll out the dough. And eating the dough. I can't lie - hehehe.

When Andrea finally got back (traffic was bad), she'd stopped by her house, put the baby to sleep, and left the 2 big boys at home, because they were fighting. Yeah, I know that story. That was Eme and Tom on Tuesday. Sigh. Anyway, she stayed for a few minutes, and offered to watch Joe and Jim when I went to take Tom and Eme to their "GT" (Gifted & Talented) Assesment. THANKS, my friend!

It was nice to not have to worry about small children running around the office and causing trouble. Tom, Eme, and I brought books and read. Good thing, too. They were about 30 minutes off schedule. Tom is reading Harry Potter #7, Eme had a few chapter books, and I was reading Breaking Dawn. Not a bad way to kill 30 minutes :)

Eme and Tom both thought that their assessment went well. I'm supposed to call back on Friday to get the results. If they qualify, they'll be put in GT classes in the Fall. I think it would be good for them. But then , who knows if they'll get it or not. I know that I got FABULOUS grades in school, but I worked hard for them. I was very studious. I was tested for GT (but they called it TAG there) and didn't make it. I told the kids that GT just meant that they had a special way of looking at things. If you were not GT, that was no big deal. You could still be SUPER smart and not GT. Just like me - LOL! I'd like them to be in the GT classes, though, because I know that the GT teachers have had more training. I'm just saying....

We got back to Andreas house at about 3:00, and stayed to play until 4:00pm. She's a lot of fun to chat with. Where I'm pretty shy, she not. She LOVES to talk, and there's never a dull moment with Andrea. I just LOVE it :)

I came back home, and got right to designing. Captain America beat us home! All the other days, he's been home at 5:30pm. Don't know why they got out so early today, though. It was nice to see him. The kids sat down and watched a movie, and I designed. I got another 2 WordArt packs designed before dinner.

At 7pm (I'd decided to skip Scouts even before they called to tell me it was cancelled - we must have been on the same wavelength - ha!), I finally put down the designing and cooked dinner. After dinner, the kids finished their movie, and I finished my designing. 5 WordArt packs for the week, and a FABULOUS freebee for you all.

I spent a little quality time with my hubby, and even made sure that he was in bed and asleep by 10pm. See, aren't I good :) Poor thing has to get up SO early in the morning. Such is the life of a soldier, I guess :) I'm sure glad that my job is a mom. I like that job!

So, as I'm pre-publishing this on Wednesday night, it's 10:15pm. Early for me. I'm either gonna sneak out and go watch a movie with Andrea, or read Breaking Dawn. Either choice sounds good to me! Options. I just LOVE having options :)

Hey girls! I have to giggle at the evolution of this alpha. See, I was at a speed scrap over at Ginger Scraps, and one of the directions was to use an alpha. Well, I don't have alphas. Nothing against alphas, per se, I just like to make WordArt for the title. Go figure - hehehe. So, I made the WordArt, and recolored one part with my water from the pool picture. I decided that I'd go back and turn it into an alpha later, that way I could technically say that I was using an alpha. hehehe. I'm so tricky - LOL!

So, click on the link below to go to my account to grab the zip file, and leave some love if you like my work.

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Font: CAfe Rojo

I Do All My Own Stunts

Hey girls! It's Wednesday again. Half way through the week again :) So, I got up yesterday at 5:15am to take my oldest, Jacob, to his scout activity. Who gets ups that early??? ROFL! Well, my hubby gets up that early, as does the rest of the Army….. But I’m not part of the Army - ha! Army wives don’t have to get up so early, right? That’s the story I’m going with. Hehehe.

Anyway, Jacob and I were out the door by 5:30am, and at the church parking lot by 5:50am. We were supposed to be there by 6:00am. And guess what? No one was there. Well, that’s not quite true. There was one other mom there dropping off her kid. We waited till 6:08am, and were starting to get worried that maybe they left us. A few minutes later, one of the leaders showed up, and said that they decided to meet somewhere else. Thanks for letting us know. Hehehe.

So, we headed off to the new location, and I dropped Jacob off. I managed to get back home before the kids woke up even. Why is it, that they sleep in when I have to get up early, and wake up early when I get to sleep in. Murphy’s law, I guess. Hopefully I get to sleep in today.

Eme, Joe, Jim and I worked on getting their bedrooms all switched around. We got most of it done. And it looked pretty good when we were done, even. Jimmy was a little upset that his bunk bed was still upstairs, but I know my limits. That’s gonna have to be a project for when Captain America's available to help. A girls gotta know her limitations. Hehehe.

I spent some time on the computer, and a little bit of time in the kitchen cleaning. I decided to take the kids to the movies, even if it was just the kids and I. We saw “Escape to Witch Mountain”. It was really good. A nice action/sci-fi movie for kids. Gotta love that J And the Rock is pretty nice too - hehehe. Only one kid had to leave to go to the bathroom, and Jimmy was only slightly disruptive. At one point, one of the aliens made some things in a car float, and Jimmy stood up, and pointed, and said “Look, Money!!!”. The guys behind us got a kick out of it.

After the movie, we went to another store in the little strip mall, looking for some shorts for Eme. Well, the kids were HORRIBLE. Let me clarify. Tom and Eme were horrible. Jim and Joe were just fine. The kept getting in each others space, and being super rude to each other. After several chances, I took away computer privileges from each of them. Needless to say, I’ll have to go back and hind some shorts for Emeline a different day.

We got home at 5pm, and made dinner real fast, then headed off to Andreas house for a Pampered Chef party. I texted Captain America and told him to come and pick up the kids when he got off work, which he did. It was FUN party. I didn’t eat any of the food, which looked SUPER tasty, but just had a lot of fun hanging out with my girls.

The party started to dwindle at about 9pm, and I hurried home to tell Captain America that I was coming back to hang out more - hehehe. Adela, Andrea and I put in a movie at 10:30pm. We watched “Daylight”. It was pretty good. Sylvester Stalone and Viggo Mortensen. When they were young - ha! Good action flick. I’ve got this thing for natural disaster movies. Heck, any ole disaster movie will do. And this one didn’t disappoint - hehehe.

So, it’s 2:10am, and I’m still at Andrea’s house. I’m writing this on Word, and them I’m gonna copy and paste it to blogger when I get home. Aren’t I tricky. I’m so glad that I have friends to hang out with. Thanks, girls, for having me!!!

This WordArt saying came from Andreas son’s tee shirt last night - hehehe. I thought it was hilarious, and it just screamed out to be WordArt-ed. So, here it is J

Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember, you need to be logged into the gallery to get the download. Thanks, girls!!!

Staying Cool

Wow, what started off as a slow day really was BUSY! I woke up yesterday at 8am (I KNOW! Sleeping in - hehehe) and decided that I wanted to take my kids to the water. Be it the pool or the sprinkler park, I didn't care. But, I also knew that I needed to get some food shopping done. We're trying to iron our budget out, and know EXACTLY where every penny is going, and to do that, I had to know how much money it takes for a weeks worth of groceries. And to do that, I had to have a food menu. So, since I already know what Captain America and I eat every day, I made up a menu for the kids. 7 dinners, 7 lunches, and 7 breakfasts. I planned enough fruit for each kid to have 1 apple and 1 orange each day (that's 35 of each - dang!). I planned in snacks. I typed up the menu, and typed up the shopping list.

I was trying to eat, and chat online, and on the phone at the same time, so it took a little longer than I wanted it to - ROFL! Sometimes multi-tasking can bite you in the butt - hehehe. Anyway, at about 9:30am I was finally ready to shop. I left Jake with the kids, minus Jimmy (since he left today for camp, I wanted to get one more chance to go to the store with just one kids - hehehe). I managed to get all of the groceries for one week for 7 people for under $200. I wish it didn't take so much money to feed us, but we ARE kinda like our own small army - LOL!

I wasn't able to get the yogurt at the commissary, because they were out. Grrrr. Now I needed to go somewhere else too. I got back home at around 11:00am. I put the groceries away, and texted my girls to see if they wanted to go swimming. My friend Laurie was busy with a project that needed to be done by Wednesday, but said that she could go on Thursday. My friend Andrea was babysitting, and couldn't supervise 2 babies at the pool at the same time. But the sprinkler park she could do. We decided to meet there at noon. I put all the groceries away, and hurried the kids along to get ready for the sprinkler park.

It was a different one than we went to the first time. And the good thing about the sprinkler parks (both of them), and the pool, is that their FREE to us. Woohoo! Army perks - hehehe. Anyway, back to my story.

We got to the new sprinkler park, and there were construction guys with jackhammers in there. Um, yeah, not open. Hello! Andrea said that she called last Friday, and they said it was gonna be opened on Monday. Um, not so much.

But, the girl that Andrea was babysitting for had her work appointment fall through, so she was now available to come with us to the pool! Enough Mommies to watch the babies! Yippee!!! We stopped at our houses on the way home to put on the ole swimming suits, and headed off to the pool. My kids were SO excited. The really wanted the pool, and were only mildy satisfied with the idea of the sprinkler park.

We were at the pool from about 2pm to 4pm. The kids had a GREAT time, and us Moms did too :) It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day, and we all wore enough sunblock to keep from getting sunburned. Bless you, whoever invented Sunblock!

I hurried and cooked dinner when we got home, and had it all cleaned up by 6:00pm. Captain America helped Jacob get packed for his campout (actually, canoe trip and campout), and I started working on Jimmy/Joe's room, and Eme's room. We've decided to switch bedrooms. Eme's going upstairs, and the little boys are going downstairs. I just can't monitor what's going on with the little boys easy enough with them on a different floor (and one I hardly ever go to). So, I started re-arranging. Unfortunately, most of the stuff is in the living room. Another project for today for me.

At about 7:00pm, Captain America got done helping Jacob, and he and I headed over to some people's house to get a Swing Set. We met them at a b-day party that Tom went to for their son, Olen. They're moving to Virginia tomorrow, and said that we could have their swing set. A nice wooden one. I was SO excited. Captain America was able to help me last night, so we went on over. We took it down into 3 chuncks, and shoved them in the back of my old Surburban. It was quite a site. Only about a 1/4 fit into the truck, and the rest was hanging out the back. With the barn doors open on the suburban. hehehehe. I sat in the back seat, and hung on to the swing set as Captain America drove VERY slowly home.

When we got it home, he even helped me get it set up. What a GREAT man. He was tired, but took the time to get it set up. The kids were REALLY excited when we brough them in the backyard to see it. Jimmy and Joe especially. Jake and Tom are too big for it (weight wise), but Eme should be able to play on it. As long as she doesn't swing too high - hehehe. I'll get a picture of it today. It was too dark last night.

At about 8:45pm, we had everyone to bed, and I headed out to Wal-Mart. I still had to get the yogurt. And, I wanted to get a few things for Jacob for his trip today. He was supposed to bring a sack lunch, so I got him some goodies to put in it. I want to eat his lunch - ROFL! Yummy!

I got back home at around 10:00pm, and sat down to design/blog. What a long day! I wonder if today will be any better - hehehe. I wanna take the kids to the dollar movies (if it works out), and I have a Pampered Chef party in the evening.

Since I had SUCH a long day, I decided to use my WordArt from my layout from the other day. That works, right? hehehe. Click on the link below to go to my account to download the zip file (both versions included), and leave some love if you like my work.

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FONTS:
Staying - Susie's Hand
Cool - Cafe Rojo
All rest - Pharmacy

Girlfriend Blog Train

Welcome to the BLOG TRAIN!!! First off, you should have come from AMY to here. And, look at what you'll get if you collect all of the stops along the way! Aren't these girls talented???

And, here's my part! Some Girlfriend WordArts. Nothing like scrapping pics of the girls!

Click on the link below to go to my account to download the zip file

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Then, head on over to Faith's blog to continue with the Blog Train! Choochoo!!!


AND, don't forget! Scraporchard is having a HUGE sale, to celebrate a TON of new designers joining us in the store. Click HERE to go to the store. Well, my store. You can look around if you'd like....... I guess. ROFL!


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Since the blog train is taking off at 11:59 pm June 14th EST, this blog post is gonna count for Monday. Just so you don't get confused. I usually post my posts at 7:00 am EST. Just to clear that all up. Because I'm SURE you were wondering..... Or am I just rambling. Rambling, you say? OK, I"ll move on....

Hey girls! Hope you all had a FABULOUS weekend! Did you do anything fun and exciting? Or did you take a nice relaxing break from real life? Or somewhere right in the middle :)

Sunday was super busy crazy the first half, and I spent the rest of the day trying to recover from it. hehehe. The Primary president and the 1st counselor were both out of town, so I was the only leadership there. Crazy! We have about 50 kids in our Primary. We had 2 brand new teachers in Junior primary (3 yrs to 7 yrs), and one teacher that didn't show up. I grabbed my friend, Andrea, and put her in with the 6 year olds. One little boy has Asbergers, and kept trying to escape. He's in my son, Tom's, class. I think all of the teachers for the older kids showed up, thankfully. It's just tricky, when you're the only one there. I had to get new teachers manuals, crowd control, stop the escaping kid from escaping, AND conduct all at the same time. Sigh. PLEASE ladies, come back next week :)

So, when I got home from church, I spent a nice long time in my room, recooperating. hehehe. My house will need to be detailed today, since I neglected it ALL day yesterday :) I read some, I took a nice warm bath, I watched "Harpers Island" from Saturday night (wasn't coming in on the antenna), designed a little, Speed Scrapped. I just took it easy, and relaxed. It was a nice day.

Wanna see my layout from my speed scrap? Yes? Good!

The WordArt will soon be a freebee from me (and maybe the water alpha too), and the kit is from Amanda Heimann & Ziggle Designs, called Surfer Dude. Isn't it FABULOUS??? I'm just loving it. It also comes in Hula Princess. Pretty cool!

Today should be filled with some grocery shopping, maybe some "pool-ing" or "sprinkler-ing", some packing (Jacob is going on the Scouts Summer Trip Tuesday at 6:00 am - dang!), a TON of cleaning, some playing, some organizing, some reading, and some designing.

Answer Prayers

First off, I just wanted to share a quick couple of Tom photos. His dad gave him some "extra" army stuff that he'd been giving, and Tom is just LOVING it. Look at the smile :) Doesn't he look good.

Such a cutie! My 9 year old looks so OLD! hehehe. (It's an air soft pistol, not a real gun, just so you know :)

Well, I did it again. I told myself that I wasn't gonna read any more fanfiction (Twilight), yet I got myself sucked into another one. And guess what? It's not finished. Sigh. The author last posted a chapter on May 15th. Why? Why do I do this to myself - hehehehe. It really is a great story. Too much profanity, but a very compelling story. I sure hope she finishes it. It supposes that Bella never jumped from the cliff, and Edward never came back. She graduated from high school, college, moved away, and teaches high school in New York. It's 6 years later, and guess who is the new student in her English class? Good story. I'm DYING to see how it ends :) She wrote 14 chapters, and I still can't get enough :) Sigh. Patience may be a virtue, but it's not MY virtue.

We had a nice, relaxing Saturday. We did nothing. Hehehe. OK, so we did a few things around the house. My backyard now looks MUCH better since Captain America mowed and raked it. If you saw it when we first moved in, you'd say it looks FABULOUS! But it was nice to spend the day lounging around the house. Lounging is good.

Mostly I just read. Reading is good, right? Expanding your mind, and what not. It's a worthy past time, right? AND, the more I read, and my kids see me reading, the more they'll wanna read. I know I heard that somewhere - hehehe. Excuses, I know. But if you buy them, then they served their purpose - ROFL!

So, since it's after 11 pm, and I just got done reading my fanfiction (I know, obsessed), and I haven't designed/blogged yet, I decided to make up the Visiting Teaching message scripture for the month of June. It's about prayer. I'm doing Sharing Time in Primary tomorrow (today) too, and ITS about prayer. I just LOVE how the church keeps everyone on the same/similar topics of study for the month. Coordination is GREAT!

Anyway, here's your freebee for the day :) Click on the link below to go to my account to downlaod the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :) Thanks!

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