LIttle Girls

So today actually WAS a lazy day. Really, it was :) I was up at normal time, getting the kids ready for school, and out the door. Usually, it's Tom (the 10 yr old) yelling at Joe (the 6 yr old) to hurry up, but today, Tom forgot to do some homework, so he was keeping everyone late. I asked him later how it felt to feel rushed by everyone else, and he said "not good". I hope he'll remember it tomorrow when Joe is slow - hehehe. We'll see :)

We didn't walk in the morning, so I sat down and did some designing. I got a new WordArt pack designed, and a few Christmas cards scrapped. They looked pretty good, too.

Jake was SO fast with school today. He got done with all of his classes by 11am. And he even went back and looked over a math test that he's gonna retake soon. Good job, Jake!

Jim and Jacob and I watched "The Santa Clause III: The Escape Clause" today. It's pretty funny. Well, I saw the beginning, and I saw the end, but I kinda missed the middle part - LOL!

I spent quite a bit of time in the garage going through garage sale stuff. I'd just thrown it in laundry baskets, and it was lining the walkway through the garage. Yeah, Captain America wasn't so thrilled with that - hehehe. SO, I got 6 of those giant plastic totes, and started filling them. I have one filled to the top with my clothes, one filled with Jim/Joe sized clothes, one with shoes/belts/scarves/accessories, two overflowing with Jake/Tom sized clothes, and I have still yet to go through Emeline closet. That's a job for when she's at school tomorrow, I guess.

I found the jacket box, and found them all moldy. I washed them with bleach, and it smells SO much better. I only have a few more boxes to go through, then look through the closets again, and I'll be ready for Saturday's garage sale. Really, I hate garage sales. Well, doing them. They're fun to go to. Anyway.....

So Andrea texted me at 3 and asked me to come and pick up the kids with her. I'd totally forgot. I hurried and put on some clothes (read:bra), and headed out the door. Jimmy had fallen asleep in his bed earlier, so Jake didn't really have a difficult time babysitting :)

We got the kids, and headed home. We got them all settled in, and "snacked", and she came back to pick me up to go to the commissary. We needed "Tub Butter (margarine in a tub - LOL), Splenda, and I promised the kids I'd bring them a treat (read:ice cream). I picked up some more dried cranberries, and something else, but I can't recall what it was.... Oh yeah, bagels and cream cheese. So we could have bagel sandwiches. With cheese slices, cotti salami, lettuce, and tomatoes. Mmmmm, so good!

We still had a bit of time before Scouts, so I went in to take a bath. A nice, warm, relaxing bath. Of course, how relaxing is it if you have people CONSTANTLY at the door, asking for things, wanting to know stuff, trying to see where you are. Sigh. I just kept yelling back, "I'm in the bath!". They didn't really get the hint, though.

I felt nice and clean and warm when I got out. Gotta love that :) I got the kids ready for Scouts. Andrea is the Webelos leader, and said that she'd take Tom. And she'd take Eme and Jake too, since they have meeting at the same time. She's so good! Thanks, girl :)

So here I sit. It's only 7:45pm. And I can feel the beginnings of my caffiene withdrawls starting. My neck is getting tight. My head is feeling a little off. Yeah, a migraine is on it's way. My plan is, to get this done and blogged and designed and uploaded and linked and all, then I'm gonna take some pain medicine, maybe even some sleeping medicine, and go to bed. Maybe I can sleep the majority of it off. Wouldn't that be nice :) I'd like that ;)

And, I'm kinda excited about going to New Moon on Friday, but kinda apprehensive. I don't really know the girls I'm going with very well. They asked me to drive, but I get the feeling that it's a "designated driver" kinda thing. I don't even really know how to take that. Hmmm. OK, anyone out there live in the general vicinity of Ft Bliss, El Paso? Will you come to the movie with me??? hehehe. I'll drive! I need some moral support, I think. Andrea hasn't read the books yet, and doesn't really wanna go before she's read it. Laurie's hubby leaves that day (as in deploys to Iraq for a year), and I don't know if she'll be up for it. Katy and Adela have other plans. I asked Helen, but I haven't heard back as to wether she has plans or not. And Leslie doesn't wanna go to the theater we're going to, because all the teeny boppers hang out there. And they totally do - hehehe. Why is life so hard sometimes?

So, I've got another Collab WordArt for you guys! Jen, from Graham Like the Cracker, let me play with her new kit, Little Princess (so sweet!), and I made up a few WordArts for you all! One of them you can grab at her blog, and one of them you can get here. Just scroll down for more directions.

Jen's Blog to grab a WordArt

My WordArt, regular 4shared
My WordArt, regular box.net

My WordArt, drop shadowed (I might be a bit slow getting this one posted)

Thanks in Many Languages

Hi again :) It still amazes me that people come to read about my days. LOL! Am I interesting? Or do I just make you all feel normal. Because I'm so weird. I bet that's it - ROFL! Anyway, I like that you like to come read. hehehe.

I was up at 7am, getting kids ready for school. I helped Joe with his homework, got kids all ready, and out the door. They've been wanting to go a little early to walk with neighbor friends. That's cool. I'm good with that :)

Andrea didn't wanna walk because she was super tired from being kept up too late. It's hard when you have company at your house. Poor thing was SUPER tired. I took the time and hung out with Jimmy for a while. We laid in my bed and watched some PBS cartoons. He seemed very pleased that mommy was laying there with him.

Jake was a workhorse when it came to school. He plowed through a TON of classes today. Good job, Jake!

At 9:30am, Jimmy and I walked down to Andreas house. We wrapped the present we'd bought for little Sam the day before. Yeah, I suck at wrapping presents. I get the theory of how you're supposed to make it look pretty. I really do. But I can't find the patience to do it. I just kinda slapped the wrapping paper on there, and had Jimmy come help me tape it, so if asked, I could play it off like a 4 year old had wrapped it. And believe me, it looked like a 4 year old had wrapped it - LOL!

We walked over to Kayley's house at 10am for the party. The little kids all had fun. She had playdough for them to play with, and did a pinata, and had cake and push pops. The moms all had fun chatting and hanging out.

Andrea and I left at about 11:45, and walked home. I got lunch for Jake and Jim and I, and sat down to design. Then, at 12:30, I got a text from Adela saying that the girls were doing lunch at Taco Cabana at 12:30. Like right then. I couldn't get ahold of Andrea, and had already eaten, but hadn't seen the girls in a while, so decided to go and just get a soda.

It was fun to see those girls again. It HAD been a long time since we'd gotten together. There was a lot of laughing and giggling and having fun. And 2 1/2 extra large diet cokes. Yeah, not such a good idea. By the time we were done with lunch, my hands were shaking. From all the caffeine. Not so good. Adela and Katy mentioned that they usually do Ice Cream on Tuesday nights. Apparently Baskin Robbins has a $1.00 kid scoop that night. Sounded like fun!

I got home at 2:30pm, and felt really weird. My stomach started to feel odd, and I couldn't sit still. I felt nervous, and gittery, and un-focus-able. Andrea picked me up at 2:50pm, and we headed to the school to get the kids. It's become our daily routine, I think. Works for me :)

We went into the classrooms to get the kindergarten/1st graders who live on Ft Bliss, and walked them to the gate. Tom and Sam and Joe wanted to stay and walk, so we just drove Ben and Eme home. We sat outside my house and chatted for the longest time. I could tell that the gitteriness was getting worse.

Eventually, Ryan (Andrea's hubby who just left for Iraq) called, so Eme and I went inside so she could chat with her man. I got snacks for the kids, and immediately started cleaning. I did a load of dishwasher dishes, PLUS washed all the ones that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher. I cleared off all the counters, and swept the floors in the kitchen and dining room. I moved all the chairs so I could sweep under the table/chairs and get all the stuff out. I moved the couches in the living room, and swept under that. I made piles for the kids to pick up for their chores. I rearranged just a tiny bit in the living room, exchanged one couch for another. Minor, really.

I went in my room, and folded ALL the laundry, and hung it up, and put it away, and cleaned up the shoes, and all the stuff laying around. I sat down to try and design, but my hands were still shaking, so it wasn't gonna happen. Yeah, not good.

I made dinner at around 5:30pm. We had sausage and eggs. With bananas. AND, I decided that it would be good to start sitting at the table together as a family again. We used to be SO good about that. Before Captain America joined the army. Then we kinda got out of the habit. BUT, I know it's important, so I'm gonna make an effort. We all sat together. A few of the kids tried to duck out early, but we all sat there. For at least 15 minutes. It'll get easier :)

After dinner, we cleaned up a bit more, and I started drinking water. I figured that maybe if I diluted the caffiene, it would be better. I dumped the rest of the Taco Cabana soda, and filled it with water. I drank 2 of those. It kinda helped. Kinda.

I was starting to get annoyed with the kids, and all the running around, and craziness. I decided that maybe sitting down at Baskin Robbins wasn't gonna be the best. Maybe McDonalds playland would be better. I called Andrea to see if she and her gang wanted to come too.

I talked with Adela, and she said that Baskin Robbins was right next door to McDonalds, so that she and Katy and kids would meet us there after 7pm. Sounded like a plan.

Andrea came over at 7pm-ish. She'd snuck out without kids (perk from having in-laws visiting), and came with me and my kids. Captain America was still at work. We got there, and ordered ice cream sundaes (plain for the kids, hot fudge for us), and hot chocolates for us. Mmmmm, tasty.

Adela and Katy were running late, and just when we were about to leave, they walked in. So we stayed another 20 minutes and chatted. It was a good time. It was SO cold outside, and feeding them ice cream didn't seem to help. Duh! Wonder why - LOL! But I think that everyone had a good time.

We got home at 8:30pm, and I dropped off Andrea. I put the little kids to bed and read them a story (Small Pig, it's one of our favorites!), and went in to try and design. I realized that the WordArts I designed for church this coming Saturday would be PERFECT for a WordArt pack, so I didn't even have to design. I already had 4 WordArt packs designed, and with that one, I was all done. I just had to package it up. Sweet! Someone was looking out for me :)

Captain America got home at 9pm. He looked pretty tired. We chatted for a while, since we hadn't seen each other in so long, it seemed :) The man is SO busy. But he's a hard worker, and I know that people at work are noticing how hard he works, and it'll pay off in the long run. He's worked salary before, and knew what to expect when he signed up :)

I worked on loading my products in my store for the week, and he read his book. Even though we weren't really interacting, it was nice to be there together.

So, after my caffeine experience today, I'm swearing off the stuff. No more for me. That was not a pleasant experience. I don't wanna feel like that again. And I know that the withdrawl headache will be bad too. But, I think that enough is finally enough. I'm done with you, caffeine. You are NO longer my friend :)

So, since it's almost Thanksgiving here in the states, and since I know that everyone needs a thank you card every once in a while, here's a Thanks WordArt for ya! Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, and remember, leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

Could Be Worse!

First off, did you know that I've been telling everyone on my blog that I'm 34. Dang, I've still got another month of 33. Why am I doing that? hehehe. I just noticed it on my "About Me" section, that I said I was 34. Sigh.

AND, I keep forgetting, but I finally made a "Fan Of " page for Elegant WordArt by Bethany on Facebook. I know, I know, I'm slower than slow. But, I did it :) So, wanna be my fan??? Click HERE to go to my fan page - LOL! Never in a million years did I ever expect to have "fans". ROFL!

Well, I know that the reason that you all like to read my blog is because I do interesting thing. hehehe. Fun and exciting, that's my life. Sometimes TOO fun and exciting. At least if you've got a head cold. but it WAS fun!

So Monday was Andrea's 33rd birthday. We're the same age for a month! Too funny :) Anyway, I started off the day at 6:45am, getting up, getting ready, getting kids ready and out the door a little bit early, getting Jake set up with school, and heading out to the grocery store. Shopping day for the week.

While at the commissary, I got a tiny box of chocolates for Andrea, and a cinnamon roll from the deli. Then, on the way home, stopped at the Post's coffee shop and bought us each a hot chocolate. I paid Jake a dollar to carry in all the groceries, and Jimmy and I walked down to Andreas house for our walk. She was SO excited about her birthday morning breakfast - LOL!

We walked for about an hour, and let me tell you, it sure cleared up my head cold. For that 60 mintues, I could breath. It was SO nice. But, the second I got back home, it clogged right back up. LOL!

I showered and got ready, and Andrea picked me up at 11:45am to go to lunch with her and her in laws and little Luke. We went to Red Lobster. Mmmmm. It was a lot of fun. I got the soup and grilled shrimp salad. Clam chowder in a bread bowl is my absolute favorite!!! Too bad I coudln't taste anything. But, I remember what clam chowder tastes like, so I'm assuming it was good. hehehe. It was warm, if nothing else :)

After lunch, we stopped by the dealership so "dad" could check on the progress of his car. Remember, the story about getting hit by the drunk driver a few weeks ago. It's still in the shop. They said it should be done by Friday. Yeah, we'll see if it happens or not.

We went back home, dropped off Dad, Mom, and the baby (saw Katy over the fence breifly), and headed out to Wal-mart to pick up some birthday stuff. I needed to finish off Andreas present, and get one for Adela. She has a b-day the same day. But she didn't come to lunch with us. She and Katy went somewhere else for lunch together.

We stopped by Walgreens, and I got my pics, and she got hers. Then, off to WalMart. I got a frame for the pics, and a clock. Yeah, sounds like a dorky present, but it was really cool. I was trying to be sneaky so she didn't know what she was getting - LOL! I found that shirt I wanted a few days ago in black, so I picked it up, and got some batteries, a Splash of Cranberry Sierra Mist Free (mmmmm, favorite holiday drink!), and some peppermint sticks. Yummy! Andrea picked up a few things too.

After Wal-Mart, as we were headed back to pick up the kids from school, we got stopped coming back in the gate for a "random" inspection. Sigh. We told the guy we were late to get the kids, and he said it would be only 2 minutes. We didn't believe him, but guess what? It was actually under 2 mintues. Dang, those guys were fast. Of course, Andrea keeps a gun in her car, and they didn't find it. So, what does that tell you about how thoroughly they check the vehicles. Hmmmm, wonder whats the point of stopping us? Anyway.

We went and picked up the kids from school, and I saw Adela there, so I gave her her present. I found the CUTEST softest blankets at WalMart in the Christmas section. If anyone wants to get me one for Christmas, I'd LOVE it :) hehehehe.

Andrea dropped me and the kids off at home, and told me to be ready to go again in 20 minutes. We needed to go to Target to get a present for a little boys party on Tuesday. Go, go, go!

I got the kids a snack, and pulled out the stuff to make homemade pizza. I put a few kids in one room watching TV, and a few in another room watching a different TV, and put Jake with his homework, and headed out again with Andrea.

I found some Matchbox Cars for the little boy. I think he'll like it. Jimmy would, and Jimmy's a year older than the kid. Andrea got him some kind of car thingy too. Should be good. We browsed for a little while, then headed out. She stopped at Taco Cabana on the way home to pick up food for her family.

She dropped me back at home, and I hurried in to make dinner. The kids had fun watching/helping with the pizza. I made 3 pizzas. Two pepperioni, and one supreme with Taco Meat. Mmmm.

I cooked up 2 of the pizzas, then had to take Jake to wrestling. SO, we ALL loaded in the truck and headed out. Captain America said that he needed me to bring him food, so I took some pizza, some apples, and some sodas for him too.

Dropped Jake off at wrestling, dropped dinner off at the battery for Captain America, then headed home. I sat down on the computer with my laptop, and was exhausted. Busy, busy, busy day. I facebooked for a while, checked emails for a while, tried to play a few facebook games, but was too tired for that.

We watched a few minutes of Time Bandits (Tom didn't get to watch it the other day), and I went in my room to lay down. I got about 10 minutes rest when Jake called at 7:40 to come and pick him up. By the time we got back to the house, it was 8pm. Jake got a wrestling sweatshirt, teeshirt, and singlet. Dang, seeing a kid who weighs 172 lbs, 5 foot 4 inches, in a red, white, and blue wrestling singlet? Um, yeah. Not so much. Poor Jake. He was SO embarrassed. I'm gonna have to threaten death to any child of mine who makes fun of him. Poor kid!

I read a story to Joe and Jim (Could Be Worse!), put them to bed, put Eme, Tom, and Jake to bed, then came in to blog and design and sleep. Andrea might call and have me come down and hang out around their fire pit in the backyard. But if she doesn't, I'm gonna watch a bit of TV and sleep. With Niquil. That sounds good!

Somedays I feel like I coudln't cram one more thing into the day. I guess some days are just like that. And, if you notice, Captain America wasn't in the day very much. He got up and left for PT before I got up. I went to the grocery store while he was still gone. When I got back, and before my walk, he was in the shower (I did steal a kiss, though!), I was gone when he came home for lunch, I gave him his dinner in the dark parking lot of the battery, and here it is, 8:38pm, and still no sign of him. He texted a while back and said it'd be another couple of hours.

I think the hard part is that he's been gone for a while now. Remember, weekend before this past one, he went to Dallas area for a reenactment. Got home Monday morning, then slept all day long.

Worked all week long, and LATE nights. We went out on Friday night together. From 8:30pm till 12:30am. Then, we slept in on Saturday till 10am, I got up, but he kept sleeping till 2pm. I did see him for an hour in the truck on Saturday when we went to Walgreens and Target, but then I went to my friends' house while he did whatever he did on Saturday evening.

Then he worked some more at home, and I was sick in bed on the computer. Sunday, he left before I got up, and he didn't get home until right before I left for my meeting. By the time I got back home, he was napping. Then, at almost 7pm, he got up and went to his office, and didn't come home till 10pm.

See, I just haven't seen the man in a REALLY long time. Which means that I'm doing the kids all by myself. And that starts to wear on you a bit. I totally know how my friends who's husbands have just deployed feel like. Except I'm not getting the extra thousand dollars a month. But then, I do get to see him, even if only occasionally. OK, not fair comparison. Sorry, girls. I know it's not the same :)


So, of course, this WordArt is the title of the book I read to my kids at bedtime. It's one of Captain America and my favorites. It was my book when I was a kid, in fact. It say Bethany Winona on the inside cover - hehehe. It's a story about a Grandpa, that, no matter what the kids tell him, always says "Could Be Worse!". Then, one day, after wondering why nothing exciting ever happens to Grandpa, Grandpa tells a whopper of a story, about flying off with strange creatures, deserts, snowy mountains, bottom of the sea, flying on paper airplanes, giant squids, marmalade monsters. It's really pretty good. Anyway, at the end, Grandpa says, "So, kids, what do you think about that!". And the kids say "Could Be Worse!". Anyway, I thought it was a cute story.

And I thought that this WordArt could be used in a number of ways on layouts. Click on the links below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

4shared
box.net

All Stuffed Up

Ever have days where you wish you could take a sick day, but have too much going on? Yeah, that was my Sunday. Captain America was up and gone to church before I even woke up. I think he left at 6am or something crazy like that. Yeah, I was up at 7am.

I ALMOST went back to bed. Almost. I SO wanted to. But, I hopped into the shower instead. Guess what? That make 3 days in a row that I've showered. That's a record, I think!

Anyway, I got all ready, and went out to get the kids ready. Tom was fixing eggs for everyone. Joe was all dressed, and Eme was all dressed, but her dress was too short. I need to go through her closet. I showed her how you kneel on the floor, and if the dress touches the ground, it's acceptable. Yeah, it was a good hands length too short. Time for the garage sale.

I choked down some breakfast, got Jimmy dressed, fixed Eme's hair, and even did some prep work for my sharing time. We were out the door on time, and off to church.

Jake gave his talk, and it was wonderful. I was so proud of him. He'd talked in church before, but this was his first talk that he wrote ALL by himself. He talked about the 6 steps to repentance, and bore his testimony about repentance. Great job, Jake!

My nose was dripping the WHOLE entire time. I even had to send Tom out to get me new tissues from the bathroom. Because I was using an napkin from the truck - LOL! I SO wished I could just break off pieces of toilet paper and shove it up my nose. Why is that socially unacceptable? Really, isn't it better than snot? No, neither are good? Ok, fine. I only shove the toilet paper up my nose at home.....

So 2nd and 3rd house I taught sharing time. The theme was "I can be an example to my family". We talked about standards, and about what we should be doing to be a good example. I think it went over well.

After church, I loaded up everyone in the truck, and off we went to home. Jake made everyone pizza sandwiches, I got a salad, and took a nap. I was dying! Well, not really, but my head was all nasty.

I took some antihistamine, some DayQuil, and some ibprofrin. I was hoping that something would help, but I don't know that it did.

I had a meeting at 3pm. that I was late for. Captain America got home about 15 minutes before the meeting started, and I was late. But I was there. Sister King (the primary secretary), had the most WONDERFUL tissues ever. They had Vics in it. OMGosh, they were wonderful. I seriously wanted to pocket a few, but thought that woudl be bad form - LOL.

I was feeling a little distractable on the way home. I guess that's why you don't drive with a bunch of drugs in your system. But, I made it home safely. So it's all good :)

Everyone was watching a movie when I got home. Captain America and Joe had fallen asleep on the couch. They were SO cute! Captain America went to take a nap in the bedroom when I got home, and I think I laid down for a while too. It all kinda blurs together - hehehe.

I know that at 5:30pm, I went out to fix dinner. I wanted to make homemade Mac N Cheese. BUT, realized that it had to bake for 40 minutes. That wasn't gonna work. So I made spaghetti instead. It works.

Captain America took Tom, and they headed up to his work office. Captain America wanted to re-arrange a little bit, and Tom was excited to see where dad worked. Jimmy had fallen asleep on the couch, and Captain America had moved him to his bed before he left. At least I think it was Captain America- ROFL!

Anyway, I'd facebooked about being sick and congested, and I got a text from Adela saying that Katy and her wanted to bring me over some "get better" snacks. Awe, thanks you guys! They showed up with chocolates and cookies. Mmmmm, they were SO good! The girls stayed and visited for about 15 minutes. I hadn't seen them in FOREVER.

Tomorrow is Adela and Andrea's b-day. I think we're gonna try and go out to lunch together. It'll be fun if we can all get our schedules to line up. If nothing else, though, Andrea and I are going to lunch.

Jake, Joe, Eme, and I watched part of Time Bandits. You guys seen that one? I think it was made in 1986. We used to watch it ALL the time as kids. And I loved it. But I hadn't seen it in a VERY long time. Didn't really remember a lot about it.

We watched up to the point where they leave the Atlantic ocean after crashing on the Titanic, and end up in water near a giants ship. Jake finished watching it. I'd put the little kids to better earlier. I was done. It was still good, and I was enjoying it, but I knew that I still had to blog and design, and I was tired. And my head was stuffy.

So, I came in and started working. Here it is, 10:30pm, and I'm about ready for sleep. I took a dose of NiQuill, which may be the real reason for the droziness. Niquil is my friend :) hehehe.

So, Monday I need to go and get b-day presents for my friends, grocery shop, walk with Andrea, do lunch with the girls, do school with Jake, and Jake also has wrestling practice. Busy days ahead.


I should totally take a picture of myself and scrap this. But I don't think it would look quite like I feel. Remember those commercials, with the people who are all nose? Yeah, that's how I feel. And I've been using tissues so much, now my nose is raw. Adela suggested using Vaseline before bed, so I'm gonna do that too.

Anyway, click on the links below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. And if you don't want me to die from being a giant nose - LOL!

4shared
box.net

Seek Him

Dang, girls. I think I'm getting sick again. Well, at least catching a cold :( I woke up this morning at 7am, hearing the kids out in the other room, but not really caring. It felt like I was maybe gonna get a migraine, so I just went back to room. I yelled out to eat cereal :) LOL!

I finally woke up at around 10am. I know, I know. But we didn't go to bed until late, and it was SO nice to sleep in. Poor, neglected kids - LOL!

I got up, and ate some breakfast, and after it settled, took a migraine pill. I stayed in my room for about another hour, then came out. I wasn't feeling terribly well, but not too bad. It could have been/and has been/ much worse. I'll take this :P

I'd been asked to design a few WordArts for Enrichment meeting at church next Saturday, and decided to spend some time working on it. Here's what I came up with. I used some WordArts from a new, upcoming WordArt pack, and Megan Turnidges christmas kit. She's the BEST! Really, I'm in love with her stuff :)


I made 2 others, but really, they're kinda bad. The wordart is good, but the scrapping is HORRIBLE. I'm gonna work on them a bit after church, and see if I can make them presentable :) LOL!

The kids and I were supposed to go over to our new friends/neighbors house on Saturday and play. The time kept getting bumped back, but that's ok. By the time I got a hard, fast time to go, I was feeling much better. The headache seemed to be gone. But the nose was starting to freak out a bit. Really stuffy, but drippy at the same time. That's no fun.

I sent my example photos to Walgreens, and took Captain America and Jimmy and headed out to get them. That way, I could bring it to church and show people what their project would look like. Anyway, Walgreens was fast. Then, on to WalMart to buy a cheap frame. The closer we got, the more annoyed Captain America got. You know it's bad when the road to Walmart is backed up 5 business away.

Yeah, we weren't gonna play that game. We turned around, and went to Target. Grant it, I paid more for what I got. But I was able to find a parking spot, find what I wanted (they were stocked full of stuff), paid without waiting forever in line, and was on my way. See, Walmart. Your managers need to do a better job. You're losing customers :( Unfortunately, I don't think they care.....

Anyway, I got back to the house, and it was time to go to Leslie's house. The kids were SOOOOO excited. Andrea came too. She had a ton of snacks for us. See, me and the food again. The moms had herbal tea (I had sugar cookie - MMMMM), and the kids had fun making "mixes" with all the different sodas - LOL!

She had cookies, and bean dip with tortilla chips, and cheese and crackers, and a veggie tray. Dang, girl! You didn't have to do all that. Not that I'm complaining! I LOVED it :) We really did have a lot of fun having girl talk.

And, surprisingly, the kids did great. Tom and Jake both had someone their age to play with, and Jim, Joe, and Eme played with Leslie's older son. He's 18, and was told that he was on "little kid" duty - ROFL! Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

We left at around 8pm, and headed home. Captain America cut the little boys' hair, showered them, and I got them in their jammies and off to bed. Jake started writing his talk for Sunday, and Captain America and I headed out for the shoe store. Captain America wanted new shoes. We've budgeted for new running shoes ever 3 months. Sounds like a lot, but he uses them every day for PT. Part of the uniform, you know :)

Anyway, about 1/2 way across post, we realized that we weren't gonna have time, so we turned around and went home. We ended up sitting in the car for about 15-20 minutes just chatting. Mini date, you know. I'll take whatever time I can get with the man :)

I was really starting to feel nasty by this point. I asked Captain America to get me some hot herbal peppermint tea and a bowl of chicken noodle soup. I plopped down in bed with my laptop, prepared to design real fast, blog, look at sharing time for Sunday, then go to bed.

I kept hearing this funny noise on my laptop, and finally realized that Andrea was calling me on Skype. LOL! How funny it that. That we chat on Skype. When we live so close, and see each other so often. Really, it's funny, because we spend most of our time on there making faces at each other. Like flaring our nostrils, or bugging out our eyes, or sticking out our tounges. You'd think we were 8 or something - ROFL!

After an hour of that (I know, some people are REALLY easy to entertain), we hung up, and I started to do the things I was supposed to be doing all along - LOL. I designed a WordArt all about stuffy noses, then realized that tomorrow is Sunday. I need a Faithbooking WordArt. SO, I took one that I'd designed this afternoon, and decided to give it as a freebee (You can have the stuffy noses one on Monday)

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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Christmas Shopping

Yeah! Another week is gone :) I don't know what I'm counting down to, but another week is gone - LOL! Got up at 7am again, got kids off to school, got Jake going on school, and Jimmy and I went on a walk with Andrea. It was good! We walked at a pretty good clip, but slow enough to chat. It was perfect :)

After the walk, we went in the backyard of her house and hung for a while. Jimmy played with the toys in the back, and Andrea and I visited. Her father-in-law came out for a while and chatted with us, and we ate some apples from their tree back in Idaho. Good times :)

Jimmy and I headed home at around 11am. I found the kids a snack, then did some dishes. Dishes are never ending, you know -LOL! Soon it was lunch time, and we were making hot dogs. My neighbor came over to tell me that her and Mindy had got tickets for Twilight. 7:45pm on the 20th at the Tinseltown Cinemark. Sweet! They paid $10 online for them.

Andrea and I both installed Skype on our computers, and tested it out today too. Too funny. It worked pretty good :) She wanted to test it so that when Ryan gets to Iraq, they can chat over the computer.

At around 3pm, Andrea headed up to the school to pick up the kids, and I went with her. I just needed out of the house, kid free, for a half hour or so. Jake was good with Jimmy :) We went in and picked up the kids that were walking to the back.

See, the school sits right on the edge of the post. On the outside of it. So the MP's (Military Police) unlock the gate in the morning so the kids can get in, and unlock the gate in the afternoon so the kids can get out. But the Kindergartners and 1st graders are all supposed to be released to the front of the school. Not to the back gate.

SO, some of the Ft Bliss moms come to the classrooms, and pick up the kids who walk to the gate. Then walk the kids to the back gate, where the other parents come (on the Ft Bliss side), and pick them up. Saves time of going off post, then coming back on post through the check point. Tricky, eh?

Anyway, as I was helping pick up the kids from the classroom, the Vice Principal found me, and told me that he had talked to the speech teacher. They did a classroom observation for Joe, and found that they wanted to test him for speech. As for Tom, they said that his only problem was his "R" sound.

And because he was doing SO well in school, there wasn't really an educational need for Speech. BUT, that he could be referred to an outside speech therapist for help. So he wouldn't have to be special ed.

Andrea and I gathered up all our kids, and headed home. We stopped on the way home for her to pick up something from a friends house, and I made a call to the doctor, for a referral for speech. I got through in 20 seconds (believe me, it was a miracle), and actually got an appointment for next Friday. Can you believe it! hehehe.

We got home at 3:45pm, and got the kids a snack, and at 4pm headed to the park. Andrea came too, and we watched Kayleys kids while she did piano one on one with them (switching out 1/2 way). My neighbor girl (Leslie) came and hung out too. She's pretty cool!

AND, Adela and Katy came to the park too. It'd been FOREVER since I'd seen them. They've been doing their own thing for a while now, and we haven't seen them :(

The kids all played nicely, but there was sure a ton of them. I have 5, Kayley has 4, Andrea has 3, Leslie has 2, Katy has 2, and Adela has 3. Then, the Hunts from church rode their bikes over too, and they have 5 kids. Plus all the kids at the park who didn't belong to us. Mad house, let me tell you. And keeping track of them all was crazy too - LOL!

At 5:20ish, we headed home. Leslie invited me and the kids to come over to her house on Saturday for a "play" date. Should be fun!

I made pancakes and sausage & eggs for dinner. Mmmm, tasty! It was a quick dinner.

At 6:00pm, Jake had wrestling. We were a bit late, but got him there. Back him, and we did some chores. The house was a mess. After cleaning, though, it looked much better.

At 7:35pm, Jake called, and was ready to come home from wrestling. His coach said that next Saturday was his first meet. Cool! Captain America can take Jake and another kid while I stay home and do the Yard sale with the other kids. Busy, busy, busy.

Captain America got home at around 8pm, so making the 8:30pm movie wasn't gonna happen :) We'd go to a late showing. He ate some dinner, and put the little kids to bed, and we were off by 9pm. We drove to Tinseltown (Eastish side of town) Cinemark. The same place where I"m going to see Twilight. I figured that if I bought my ticket in person, I could get a military discount. And avoid the online fee. See, I'm tricky. Instead of the $10 that my neighbors paid, I only paid $6.50.

Of course, the movie that we wanted to see was sold out. But another movie I wanted to see, "The Box" had tickets. But we had an hour and 10 minutes to kill. We walked around for a while (dang, there were SO many teenyboppers there), but didn't like the "teen scene". And, can I just say, when did I get old? And what's up with the skinny jeans thing for boys. Come on. Really? You think you look good? You look like a girl. And that's just not right. Not right at all. Sigh. MOving on.

We came back to the car, and decided to go look for fast food to get a soda. We drove for a while, and found a Jack in the Box. Soda and a breakfast sandwich later (mmmm, breakfast all day long!), we were headed back to the movies.

I really enjoyed the movie. Captain Americadidn't really care for it. I found it to be a very deep thinking movie. I could see a lot of analogies to be drawn from it. But Captain America didn't like the message that he thought it was sending. And I could see where he was coming from. But I just looked at it a different way. I'll write real small in case you don't wanna see a spoiler.

See, there was this button that the people were supposed to push. They were presented with a choice. Push the button, and someone, somewhere, that you don't know will die. But you'll be given a million dollars. Captain America didn't like the concept. And the movie made it out like EVEYRONE pushed the button. LIke humanity was so flawed, that eveyone made that poor choice.

I interpreted it a bit different. Don't take it at face value. Replace the killing and the million dollars. People choose something that benefits them while being bad for someone else. LIke cutting someone off while driving. Cutting in line at the store. Bigger things, like stealing, or lying, or such. We push "buttons" every day.

One thing Captain America really didn't like about the movie, was once the button was pushed, you were stuck into a course of action, and couldn't get out. And I see his point. Life isn't like that. You can always change. You can always decide to do good. Maybe, though, if you took it as you can't "unring the bell" or unpush the button, though. You can't change your consequences. But unlike this movie, you CAN change your actions and choices.

Anyway, it was a very thought provoking movie. I enjoyed it. We sat in the theater and talked about it for quite a while, then sat in the car and talked about it after we got home too. And I guess that's the point of movies like that. To spark conversation, right? To get you thinking about things :) Mission accomplished :)

The movie didn't get over until 12:45pm, and we didn't get home till after 1pm. SO tired.... I'm hoping the kids let me sleep in tomorrow. Hoping, but not holding my breath :)

So as I'm sitting here at 1:30am, trying to figure out what to do for a WordArt freebee, Christmas shopping comes to mind. Do you take pics of your trips? We always do. But then, we take pics of everything. (Mom, the reason why there's been no pics as of late is because I lost the camera - shhhhh, don't tell Captain America! We've been using my cell phone camera and the old crappy camera........)

Click on the links 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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Geezzsshh!

Here's my new products for the week, complete with a few layouts from my CT!!! Amazing, aren't they :) Love ya, girls!!! Click HERE to go to scraporchard to grab my new stuff, at 20% off the first week ($2.00 each).

Layout by Charmaine

Layout by Grace

Layout by Diana

Layout by Diana

layout by Tanja

So, Friday the 13th, huh? Isn't that supposed to be a bad day? Lets hope not. hehehe. Thursday was good for me. Started off at 7am, getting kids ready for school, and out the door at 7:30am.

Rowan (Laurie's youngest) came over at 7:45am to play for the morning. Laurie has classes on Tue/Thurs. She's studying to be a nutritionist. Cool, eh? Andrea usually watches Rowan (they switch babysitting), but Andrea's hubby was leaving Thursday am, so she asked me.

The boy played real nicely. They watched a movie, played a TON of time in the backyard, raced cars on the hot wheel derby track, and had a few snacks. The morning actually passed pretty fast.

Jake was SO distractable today with his school work. I think he needs a better workspace. Our house is not the most quiet of places. We need a library. hehehe.

I got to spend some time today reading my fan fictions that I like. You know, that one that I recommended is a lot more, um, risque than I'd remembered. Sorry, girls. It's definitely a M rating. Sigh. Why must they do that? The Bleed one.

The kids were about 15 minutes late getting home from school. I was starting to get a bit worried. Finally, I went out to see where they were. And the second I opened the door, there they were. Another mom, and her 2 boys were there with them. She said that her kids were late too, so she went to find them. I guess my kids and her kids were walking together, and just going REALLY slow.

I stayed outside and chatted with her for about 20 minutes. Apparently, she lived 2 houses from me. And I'd never even seen her. See how unobservant I am. She has a kid who's about a week younger than Jake (but a grade off), and one that's in the same grade as Tom. They walk home together almost every day. Go figure!

She's pretty cool. She also has 2 older kids. One is married, has a kid, and is stationed here. Same battery as her hubby. Pretty cool. She said that she didn't know anyone in the neighborhood, so I told her that she could hang with us some if she wanted. Leslie was her name. Nice gal!

I'd put chicken and veggies in the crock pot earlier in the day, so dinner was all ready by 5pm. I fed the kids, then we all got ready for scouts. Field Trip (go-see-it) to the Fire Department. Plus, Jake had Wrestling practice. Busy night.

I had Jake go 20 minutes early to practice, take a book, and wait outside. Then the other kids and I went to the fire house. It was really a good time. Plus, the guy giving the tour was SUCH a hottie. *drool* That always makes the trip more enjoyable!

The little boys had a ton of fun looking at the fire trucks, playing on the stairs, looking at the pool table, but their favorite part was the foozeball table. Funny, huh?

We got the boys all together at the end to take a pic. I'm gonna print them off at Walgreens, one for each kid, and one for the fire department, to say thanks for letting us come. I thought it turned out nicely.

Kit is by Ziggle Scraps, Stop, Drop, and Roll, at Scraporchard.com

We left the fire house, and stopped by wrestling to get Jake. We waited for about 15 minutes for him to come out. Then it was home, and to bed. Jimmy actually fell asleep in the truck, so he was easy to put to bed - hehehe.

Jake, since he hadn't done a lot of school during the day, had a TON of work to do in the evening. He got most of his classes done, though.

I watched a little bit of TV (Fringe on Fox), then read some, chatted on facebook messenger some, and designed some. Really, though, I'm low on motivation. I need to find some. Anyone have any extra I can borrow?

Ha! I know I can use this one on WAY too many photos. LOL! Click on the links below to go to my accounts to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

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Really?

OK, first off, I just have to say that 2 of my favoritest Twilight Fan Fics were updated recently. I just found them last night. I'm SO excited to read them :) *jumping up and down in seat*. I know you thought I was past this stage in my life. Well, my hubby thought so at least - ROFL!

Seducing Ms Swan
It's Better Wnen I Bleed For You

Yeah, these links are because I know you have nothing better to do today. Come on, I know you wanna read 'em - hehehe.

Well, it was a nice, relaxing holiday today :) Sure, it was busy, but it was good. We didn't really do many "Veteran" things, or things that remembered Veterans, but we had an enjoyable time with the family. And that's important too, right?

We were gonna get up and go to the parade, but when the "You'd better get out of bed now or be late" alarm went off, Captain America and I decided to skip it this year. It was nice to just spend a lazy morning in bed, dozing. Good times :)

We eventually got up, fed the kidlets, and go on with the day. Captain America and I worked on our budget for a while. I'm more abstract when it comes to recording our budget. Things written ALL over the paper. Yeah, probably not the easiest to read. WELL, Captain America decided to help me make a spreadsheet for it. I don't know how to use Excell, so he got it all set up for me. I really need to install Microsoft Word. I have Works, and it really bites. I have the disk sitting on my nightstand. I just haven't done it yet.

But when I do, does anyone know how to make the columns total themselves?

So after doing the budget for WAY too long (why do numbers always make my head hurt - LOL), Captain America went running, and I got the kids ready and showered. I tried my hand at threading my face after my shower. OK, probably too much info, but my lip hair is NASTY. When I was a senior or junior in high school, I started bleaching it. Because it was dark. That helped.

Then, after a few kids, I decided that waxing it would be easier (with a home kit). That was pretty effective too. And no, it doesn't grow back "manly". It's still the same consistency/thickness.

Well, a few years back, I decided that I didn't have time to mess with it anymore, so I just started shaving it in the shower. I know, that's gross. But it's SO easy. Every 3 or 4 days, when I was washing my face in the shower, just run the razor over the 'ole 'stash, and it's all good.

SO, after threading my eyebrows, and LOVIN' it, I decided to try my hand at the 'ole lip. Because you can't mess up your lip. The point is to get it all. Not like the eyebrow, where you have to leave some - ROFL!

I must say, I got most of it. But dang, girls, it was painful. That part of your skin is SO sensitive. But it looked a lot better when it was done. So, my recommendation for any of you with unsightly lip hair? Bleach, wax, shave, or thread it. I've tried them all, and they're all effective. Trust me, you'll feel better :) I sure do :) hehehe. Ok, long tangent again :)

My phone showed up about that time, and I plugged it in to charge. That was sure fast!

SO, we got ready, and headed out to lunch. Applebees was offereing a free meal to all Veterans. Score it! We got there, though, and it was PaCKED. Seriously, there were probably 30 people standing around outside waiting to get in. Yeah, a free $9.00 meal TOTALLY wasn't worth it.

We drove across town and headed to Golden Corral. The kids like buffets better anyway, and it would probably be a tad bit cheaper. Captain America's not big on crowds, so it worked out better.

It was busy, but not too bad. I had a very yummy salad. Spinach and greens and bacon bits and tomatoes and olives and cheese and eggs and ham and chinese noodles and cranberries and ranch. OMGosh. I just love salads.

I had some pork (not the best), some chinese chicken with rice (very good), some cheesey potatoes (ok), a roll with honey butter (yeah, it was SO good). I just love buffets. Just take a tiny bit of a lot of different stuff. Oh yeah, and a bowl of clam chowder. Did you know it's my favorite kind of soup? LOVE it!

Next, on to desserts. I got a piece of carrot cake, a brownie, a rice crispy treat, and a cookie. Oh yeah, and some ice cream with magic shell. But I only had a few bites of each, then shared. Really, I just wanted a taste.

I'm not sure what everyone else ate. It was a madhouse at our table. 7 people with 7 plates and cups and new plates and napkins and food they didn't like and ice and forks and spoons and the forks that fell on the floor and such. Dang! And the table clearer people didn't come around, because it was a bit busy in there. SO, we just ate with the mounting pile in the middle of the table. Really, it was kinda funny.

Here's a few pics of the lunch. Here's Captain America and I. Don't I look like I'm up to something sneaky?

Me and Eme and Joe

Eme and Joe

Jake

And you wanna know my favorite part of the meal? I know, more about food. But hey, food is kinda a big deal to me. More so than it should be, but I like it :) Anyway, the Cranberries. OMGosh they were fabulous. They were in the salad buffet line. I went and got a soup bowl, and got a few scoops to just eat. They were SO yummy. Sweet yet very sour/tart at the same time. So if anyone wants to get me a Christmas gift, Cranberries. Now you know ;)

Since Wal-Mart was right next to Golden Corral, we decided to try and get a few things that we needed. Tom and I went in, and Captain America and the others waited in the truck for us. And, of course, they were out of what Captain America wanted. Foot powder there should be about $2.00. The only kind they had was almost $6.00. I'm sorry, I'm not paying that much for it. The PX has it, and it's always stocked.

But we did get the Q-tips, the face wash cloths, the super glue, and the science experiment supplies. Yes, mom, I finally remembered. It's only been 2 weeks, I think. LOL! She's been concerned :) We got 4 little terra cotta planters, some turf builder grass seeds, and some potting soil.

Once home, Captain America went to try and take a nap, and Tom and I planted the seeds. We took pictures of all the steps, and it looked pretty good. Soil in, a layer of seeds, then a 1/4 inch layer of soil on the top. He watered #1 with tap water, #2 with diet Root Beer, #3 with light lemonade, and #4 with vinegar. We decided against milk/juice because of the bacteria. It would get moldy eventually, I think. Hopefully the grass germinates.

Any idea of how long it should take? And how often to water it? We gave the tiny pot 1/2 cup today. Is that enough? I really don't know how to grow things. Do I just keep the surface wet?

As soon as we were done with project, and had it cleaned up, Laurie texted to say that her hubby was sick, and if Captain America could come over and help give him a Priesthood blessing. I went and checked, and he wasn't asleep yet. So, we left Jake with the kids, and headed ALL the way over to Laurie's house (3 blocks - LOL). Poor Spencer looked like crap. Poor guy :(

But he seemed to enjoy chatting with Captain America and the other guy who came. He had to take them to the garage and show them "man stuff". Laurie and I joked that he wasn't really sick, that he just needed some "guy" time. hehehe. Captain America and he seem to get along pretty good. And I just adore Laurie. What a nice girl!

We came back home, and spent some time doing chores, and hanging out. Captain America took a brief nap, and then suddenly it was time for Scouts. It was supposed to be the Committee meeting, which I'm in charge of, and I really wasn't prepared. I was kicking around the idea of combining Nov/Dec pack meetings, since we'd planned on 1 den mtg, 1 committee mgs, and then the pack meeting. This would give us more den time, and more chances to work on advancement.

So, as unprepared as I was, I woke Captain America up so he'd be on time for his meetings, and got the kids ready to go. Dinner was just a quick sandwich, since we'd had buffet at 2:30ish. No one seemed to mind.

There really weren't a lot of Scouts or parents at the church. All the parents should be coming to the parents meeting to plan the months pack meeting, but it rarely happens. Granted it, it's a holiday, and I didn't pass out reminders. That would have helped ;)

But it worked out. I just ran the idea of combining things to the one parent there, and the Cubmaster, and it was all set. Worked out great.

Even though we didn't have a meeting for my kids (Jake had regular Young Mens activities, but the other kids didn't), I stayed with Kayley (her boys a Wolf) while her son worked on a project with the Cubmaster. Our other kids played in the gym, and she and I had fun chatting. Her hubby's gone to Iraq. She's the lady who's house I went to the other night for the game girls night. She's good people :)

After about an hour, I loaded up the kids and headed home. I put the kids to bed, and spend some "quality time" with my laptop. I watched the newest episode of "Lie to Me". Captain America got home at around 9ish, and brought his laptop in, so that while we were doing different activities, we were still hanging out together - hehehe.

I saw the most HILARIOUS pic in my CT forum, and had the PERFECT WordArt for it. I didn't know if Charmaine wanted a pic of her daughter posted here for all to see, so I didn't, but it was really funny. The cutest, tiniest baby (very newborn), flipping off the camera. TOO cute! Funny, because really, it's just a finger. My kids call it the cussing finger. I grew up calling it "middle man". But her hand was resting on a blanket, and all but the middle just happened to be curling in. It looked hilarious!

SO, I thought this WordArt was perfect for it.! Click on the links below to go to my accounts to download the PNG files, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

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Freedom is Never Free

Another busy day. Are you seeing a pattern here. I need a relaxing day off, don't you think? Where I just stay in bed and do nothing. But you know what? That sounds too much like being sick. If I have to be sick to get a day off, I'd rather be busy. OK, no more complaining about being busy - hehehe.

I got the kids up and fed and off to school, then printed out my shopping list. I got Jake going with school, checked my emails, and puttered around online for a few. Jimmy was coloring at the table for a while, and brought me a picture at one point.

"Mommy"

"Yes Jimmy"

"This picture is for you"

It was a nose, two eyes, and a straight line for a mouth.

"It's you, crying, after I die"

OMGosh. How sad is that. Yes, Jimmy. Mommy would be crying if you die. I would be SO sad. My poor little guy :(

So I decided that he needed some mommy time, so I took him grocery shopping with me. We found everything on our list, and a few extras. He picked out a snack in the Asian food isle. Some Hello Kitty snack. Some kind of pretzel sticks that you dip in chocolate. I don't know - it had cool packaging - LOL.

We picked out a lunchable for Jake, and some Scooby Doo fruit snacks. Not things we usually buy, but I thought it would be fun for a change. We got all our shopping done before 11am, which really helped when going through the line. Not so busy yet.

I paid Jake a dollar to carry all the groceries in. I think I may just add an extra dollar to my grocery bill each week for his services - LOL. He's really a good kid :)

We had lunch, then I sat down to design for a bit. Yeah, that didn't happen. At about 12:30pm, Captain America called and wanted me to bring him some lunch. I cooked up his Taco Salad, got his afternoon snacks ready (apples and crackers and a Diet Mt Dew - LOL), and headed up to his office.

We chatted with his Captain for a bit, then I headed home. As I was getting ready to leave, I got a text from Laurie. I'd forgotten that one of our friends was going home during her hubbys deployment, and she was giving away all the food in her house! I headed on over.

OMGosh! There was SO much canned and boxed foods. I also scored a TON of spices, real olive oil, and some frozen stuff. Sirloin hamburgers. Mmmmm. And frozen chicken breasts. And veggies. TONS of stuff.

Laurie and I stayed and chatted with our friend for a bit (she was having a rough day), then headed out to Sonic for Happy Hour. We brought her back one. Sometimes, when you don't know what else to do to help, a Cherry Limeade from Sonic's Happy Hour is the best course of action, don't you think?

We got home at about 3pm, and Jake and Jimmy helped me put all the other groceries away. Now my cupboards are FULL to the brim. We're gonna save a TON of money on groceries this month :) Score!

The other kids got home at around 4pm, and they were excited to have a HUGE canister of mixed nuts to eat. Free food is the BEST. They also shared a Strawberry slushie. Yeah, life is good :)

Chores, homework, and dinner. I went in the backyard and chatted with my neighbor lady for a while after dinner. She invited me to go with her and her neighbor to the New Moon premiere. Sounds like FUN!!! Of course, I agreed. And she said that anyone else who wanted to come was invited. So, girls, come on! Let's all go see New Moon together! Wouldn't that be fun :)

It's funny, because between the two of us, we have 9 kids. It was getting dark, and the boys (7 boys and 2 girls) were throwing balls over the fences, and us moms kept feeling like we were gonna get clocked in the head with one. It was close a few times. Her kids are 1 (girl), twin kindergartners (boys), and a 2nd grader (boy). Nice kids.

Captain America got home shortly after that, and I went back inside to see him. The kids were finishing up their chores (with a lot of direction), and settling down for the night. They put in the 2nd episode of Survivor, since Jake had missed it when we watched it over the weekend.

So, I went into my bathroom to, well, er, go to the bathroom, and as I sat down at the toliet, I heard a splash, and realized that my PHONE fell in the toliet! Are you kidding me? I fished it out lickety split, and tried my best to dry it off. There's not much you can do about a submerged electronics, though. I shook it out real good, removed the case, and the battery, and even got out the hair dryer.

You know, funny thing is, Andrea had done the EXACT same thing 2 weeks ago. See, normally I can feel my phone on me. I keep it in my butt pocket, and I know it's there. Well, since I've been eating more than I should lately, and have picked up a few lbs, I've been wearing my girdle. Don't make fun of me. Only the cool kids wear them - ROFL!

Anyway, I couldn't feel my butt. SO, that's my excuse for why it felt in the toilet. I couldn't feel that my phone was in my pocket. Sigh. See, another reason to stick to my diet. So I can feel my butt - ROFL! Yeah, that doesn't sound very good - hehehe. I'm sure you're thinking, "Why was it I read this blog?' hehehe.

After a time, I put the phone back together again, and was actually able to get it to turn on. But only briefly. I called the phone insurance place, and they gave me the website to get my replacement phone. $50. I guess its better than having to buy a new phone outright. Sigh.

After that, I was able to get my phone to turn on, and I pulled up all the contacts, and copied them down. And after I was writing down the last contact number, the phone died. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for letting me get all my numbers. I hate it when people call me, and I don't know who it is before I answer the phone. LOL!

At 7:15pm, Captain America and I headed out to a Cub Scout parent meeting for our Tiger cub pack. It was at Carls Jr. What a great place for a meeting - LOL. All the Diet Dr Pepper you can drink. I know, 2 days in a row of caffeine. AND, 2 giant sodas in one day. Not good. I'll have to steal one of Captain Americas Coke Zero's tomorrow afternoon to keep up my addiction :(

After the meeting, we hurried home, and I got some snacks together for Girls night. One of my church friends had organized a game night girls nite out. We were supposed to bring a healthy snack. I got Whole wheat bagels with cream cheese, and veggies with dip. Yeah, so the dip probably wasn't too healthy. But the veggies were, right?

It was a fun group. Laurie was there. I was pretty late getting there, though. An hour late. But I came, and that's the important part. We played spoons (TONS of fun), some linking word game ( I liked that one), and Taboo. Yeah, not a big fan of that one. Too much attention on me. LOL. I was happy that I didn't have to be the reader, though. Pfew!

By 11:30, we were all feeling tired, and a few of the girls had got babysitters for the night, so we all headed home. It was fun to get together, and have some girl talk. It'd been a while for me :) Well, for group girl time, anyway. hehehe.

So Wednesday is Veterans Day. That means no school for my kids. Except for Jake. His online school has classes scheduled for him. He's not gonna like that very much when he learns that he still has to do school. Sigh. Life is rough sometimes :)

We have scheduled to go to the Veterans Day parade, and march with the Cub Scouts. We'll see how that goes. I don't even know what time it starts. I guess I should figure that out before I go to bed, so that I make sure I wake up on time, right? I'm so bad - hehehe. Which brings me full circle. Wishing I had a day off. But not. Because I don't wanna be sick. And not whining. ha! And now you're thinking, "OK, she's just weird!"

Since today is Veterans Day, I decided to give you all a Freedom saying. I just love this one. Because really, freedom isn't free. It's earned. It's fought for. I needs to be cared for. It takes work. It takes effort. It needs protecting.

Again, a big thank you to all of the men and women out there who are serving or who have served in the military, be it my country's or your country's. Thank you for all you do. For your sacrifices. For you time. For you!

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Be Happy

First off, here a few pics from my camera that I didn't know were on there. Do you ever have "mystery" photos show up on your camera? My kids like to sneak it and take pics when I don't know they're doing it - LOL.

Here's Jimmy, in the garage. What a cute little guy :)

And Jake. With Joe and Tom playing a board game in the background. Really don't know when this was taken. Maybe last Sunday? Hmmmm.

So I woke up at 6am to Captain Americas text. He was about 3 hours away, and thought it was 7am my time. He was being sweet, and telling me that he loved me, but oh boy was I tired. I was expecting him at 3am, so I didn't sleep real well.

I laid in bed until my alarm went off at 7am, then got up and got the kids off to school. I was supposed to go grocery shopping, so we were out of everything. I ended up making the kids a protein shake for breakfast. With bananas and hot chocolate mix. That's a little bit better than my mozarella cheese dinner - hehehe.

Captain America and Jake got home at around 8:30am. They looked SO tired. Jake went to the bathroom, then went directly to bed. Captain America hung out with me for a few minutes, then went to bed too.

Jimmy and I hung out for about and hour, then Laurie and I headed to the Mall. She needed to get a new hand held mixer, and the Kitchen Aid ones were on sale at Kohls. There was a brand new one that just opened by our house, and I'd never been.

Well, once we got there, we realized that the sale didn't start till Wednesday, but we weren't about to let a good shopping trip pass us by - LOL! With 2 toddlers in tow, we headed into the store.

We found the clearance racks, and found a bunch of cool stuff. A bunch of funny 80's stuff too. LOL! Seriously, who needs stretchy lizard print skinny jean pants? Really? What does one do with those? hehehe.

I found a few cute shirts, though. One teal, one purple, one with skulls and crossbones, and a skull black zipper jacket. I LOVED them :) Laurie got a few tops and some jeans. Let me tell you, taking 2 little boys to the fitting room is something else - ROFL!

Next, we went upstairs in the elevator, and looked at the kitchen stuff. They have some nice things! I was looking at the toaster ovens, and realized that I've never had one. Anyone have any opinions on Toaster ovens? Needed? Good? Just wondering. I've gotten by 33 years without one. Maybe I don't know what I'm missing - hehehe.

Next, we went and paid (did you know that Kohl's offers a 10% military discount? Score!), and took the little boys to the play area. Most malls have them. OMGosh, they were SO loud. They were being monsters. It's was too funny. Well, I'm sure the other parents didn't think it was funny, but Laurie and I did. LOL! At least they weren't at our houses growling and loud - ha!

Next, we went to lunch at the food court. Laurie and I got chinese. I haven't had chinese in SO long. Like since Christmas time when we went to Sprinfield Oregon to see Glenn Beck in the theater for his Christmas Sweater thingy. I'm pretty sure that we ate at the food court, and my dad and I got chinese. Or maybe that was another trip with chinese. Either way, it was when I lived in Oregon. And I moved to Texas in January. So it's November now. Yeah, that's a long time :) Sorry, tangent.....

Laurie got the noodles, and I got the rice, along with our meats/veggies, and split with each other. I wish they'd let you get a little of both. Know what I mean? Anyway, it was yummy! Jimmy and Rowan and Spencer (Laurie's hubby joined us for lunch) had Wendy's. Mmmmm.

After lunch, Spencer took Rowan home, and we headed to The Jewlery Box. Everything's a dollar. FABULOUS store. We got the 6 for $5.50 deal. Of course, I found more than 6, so I did the 12 for $11 deal. LOL! SO many cute things!!!

We went to a few more stores, then headed home. It was SO much fun. Laurie, girl, I'll shop with you ANYTIME you want. That was a great day :) Next time, I'll get lunch!

Jake and Captain America were awake when I got home. But just barely. Jake was starting on school, and Captain America was catching up on emails. They both still looked pretty tired.

The other kids got home at almost 4pm, and we worked on chores, and homework, and played for a while. I sat down to do the bills. Sigh. I hate the bills. I really shanked it in October. We spent WAY too much money. All of the extra money I earned in designing. But that's why we have a plan, so I did out the budget, and decided what money needed to go where, and we got back on track. We still have a good chunk of money in the savings account, which is a first for us. We've NEVER had a savings before. Amazing how good it feels.

I re-heated the shepherds pie for the kids at 5:45pm, and made some pancakes too. Tuesday is DEFINITELY gonna be shopping day :) We need food - hehehe. Captain America left for work (crazy, I know. He had the day off, but had to get some stuff done in his office - oh the joys of being on salary), and I let the kids watch another episode of Survivor. Episode 4. I've seen up through 4.

While they were watching that, I was chatting with a friend from when we lived in Chicago. He's having a rough go of it, and I hope that I helped him feel better. His wife and I were friends while we lived there. They're good people.

I put the kids to bed at 8pm, and continued to facebook chat until 9pm. Then facebook freaked out, and I took it as a sign that I needed to do my work - LOL.

I took a few pics of my purchases from today. Nice, eh? I got all 4 shirts/sweatshirts for $16 total. That's $4 a piece. Not bad :) And the jewelry was a dollar each. I love a bargain!

Yeah, and Captain America, if you read this (I know you don't most of the time, but you really should! hehehe), I need a new jewelry holder. You said you'd make one for me January of last year. Sigh. It's clearly not January anymore. Heck, it's almost not even 2009 anymore. I need a bigger jewelry holder. Please, honey! Pretty please :)

One last thing. As I was browsing Facebook after pre-publishing this, I found a post from my cousin in Oregon. It linked to THIS story. A little boy in Michigan is dying of cancer. He's had it since he was 3. The family knows he's not gonna make it until Christmas, so they're doing Christmas early. The little boy REALY wanted to get Christmas cards, so they put it in the paper, asking that people send him a Christmas card. OMGoodness! My heart goes out to the family. Just thought I'd pass the article along to you all. SO sad :(

I wasn't really in the mood to dig through my inbox to find a quote, so I posted on my Facebook wall "I need a quote". Well, within 1 minute, I had a quote. Thanks, Alyson, for helping me out! AND, it was a great one :)

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