Dressing Up

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

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






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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don't we all look good?

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

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





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



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

Here's Jimmy and I

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

4shared
box.net

Color Hair / Colour Hair

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

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

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

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

Here's the recipe...

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

combine

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's me with the roots covered.

And all of it covered for the last 15 minutes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, in honor of my NON gray hair, here's a Hair Coloring WordArt for y'all! Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. thanks!

4shared - color
4shared - colour

box.net - color
box.net - colour

Parent Teacher Conference

Howdy, howdy, howdy! Hope today finds you all happy and well! It was kind of a whirl wind day for me, but then, aren't they all that way.... ha!

I woke up at 6:35, 6:45, and 6:55 am (ha!), got up, got kids dressed and ready and family prayered and everyone out the door at 7:30am. Captain America had to be out the door then too! And Jimmy! It was parent teacher conference day, so the preschoolers from both morning and afternoon sessions went from 8-12 ish. So Jim rode the bus with the big kids!

I walked to the bus stop with the kids, and waited around for the bus to come at 7:45am. And then headed back to the house. And yeah, Jake was still asleep, and Jim was at school, and Captain America was a work, so yeah, I totally went back to bed! ROFL! And I woke up around 9am. I said my prayers and read my scriptures, and went to check on Jake. Jake was up and dressed and fed and doing school. What a great kid!

Leslie was supposed to do my hair at 10am, but had to postpone till tomorrow. That's cool, more time for me to be lazy - ROFL! Anyway, I decided that today was the day to tackle my super messy bedroom. And I totally should have taken a before picture, because the different was HUGE. Piles of clothes and stuff everywhere. I know that I'd said I was gonna clean a few months ago, and made piles in laundry baskets.

All the electonics/movies/random crap in one pile, all the bills/paper type crap in another pile, clothes in a pile, donate stuff in a pile. And yeah, they got up in laundry baskets, then moved to the back of the closet. I think I have about 4 extra laundry baskets now that the room is all cleaned! ha!

I threw a bunch of stuff away, and put up some stuff, and hung up a TON of clothes. And it really did look a lot better. Wanna see? Here's some pics of my closet and my jewelry :)






My room seems a lot bigger now that it's clean. ROFL! Jake and I had lunch around noon, and around 12:30pm, the kids all got home from school. And Eme informed me at 12:35 that my parent teacher conference for her was at 1:00pm. Um, yeah, no shower for me! I threw on some better clothes and my hat and out the door I went.

And I decided to let Jake babysit, because there was no way I was taking 3-5 kids to school for a parent teacher conference if I didn't have to. I told them to do their chores while I was gone, and that they could play outside with their friends when I got home if the chores were done. Works for me.

So I drove up to the school for conferences. Here's me on the way.

And I met with Eme's teacher first. And she got straight A's on her report card, and her teachers said how wonderful she was doing in school, and how sweet she was. Awe, Eme, you ARE sweet!

Next, I went to Tom's teachers, because the 5th graders were doing "drop ins" not appointments. So I caught his English teacher first. And she said what a pleasure he was in class, and how good he was doing. Awe, that's what I like to hear. hehehe.

Next, it was his math teacher. She also said how good he was doing, and how he's improved so much from the beginning of the year. Way to go, Tom! He made 2 B's and the rest A's.

And by that point, it was almost time for Joe's conference at 1:30pm. So I went to the 1st grade hall, and waited outside for my turn. His teacher was running a bit behind.

She said what a very nice boy Joe was, and how she even used him as an example of how to be nice the other day in class. hehe. He needs to practice reading a bit more, but he's doing very good over all. Yeah Joe! Here's a pic of a paper he had hanging up in the hall :)

And then it was almost 2pm, and Jim's conference wasn't until 3:05pm. So I went down the PreK hall to see if there were any open time slots available so I didn't have to go home and come back. And yeah, there weren't. But I did see Maggie in the hall and got to visit with her for a little bit. She's a fun girl :) She didn't ever get assigned a time for parent teacher conference, so she was there asking for a time slot. And got the one one slot before mine!

So I drove home, got myself and the kids a snack, and had enough time to redirect them in their chores, and headed back up. And saw Maggie again! She was just getting out of her conference. And Elijah (from the bus stop)'s mom was there too. It's funny, they send a bus to pick up our 3 kids. So it's always us 3 moms there at the bus. And there we were at our 3 kids' parent teacher conferences, all waiting in the hall together. Too funny!

Here's Jimmy's Halloween Artwork hanging in the hall. His was actually a face! ha!
The teacher said that Jimmy was doing great, and was right where he should be for his age. We should work a little more on letter recognition, but all in all, he was doing great academically and socially. Sounds good to me. He's a preschooler, after all! ROFL!

I came home, and the kids had done their chores, so they got free time. Some played with friends, some watched a movie, since homework was mostly done, some played on computer. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon at home.

At 5pm, I left Eme in charge of French Toast (I'd gotten it all set up for her) and went to take a shower. Because I was FREEZING! And I knew that a nice hot shower would warm me up. And put on my warm, compfy clothes! My favorite new hoodie :)
And just bummed around for the rest of the early evening. Captain America got home around 6:30pm, and we both had dinner, then put kids to bed. He went out to take out his carberator (cause it's broken) to take it back to the Auto Parts store for an exchange. And I was gonna come with him. I snuggled with Jimmy in his bed until he drifted off to sleep, and it was SOOO nice. I was supposed to be blogging while he was working on the truck, but I decided that snuggle time was better!

Once all the kids were in bed, Captain America was done, and we headed out to the store. Jake was left in charge, and we drove to O'Reilly's Auto Parts on Dyer. And they took back the carberator, but didn't have the new one that he needed. But they had it across town. So they got all the paperwork and junk taken care of, and we headed out.

Right next door was a Howdy's, so we popped in for a Diet Dr Pepper. And they had Sonic Ice! SaWEET! Got a quick refill in our 44 oz cups, and off we went.

The other O'Reilly's was about 15 minutes away, so we had some nice chats in the car. The therapist said that my homework this week was to "open my mouth" and express my thoughts and feelings and emotions. And I've been trying a lot harder to do that. And I think Captain America noticed. I just jumped right in, and shared what I was thinking and feeling. It felt pretty good! I'm liking this :)

So we get to the auto parts store, we get the new part, and he chats with the guys some more, and I played on my phone (good thing it didn't die or I may have been a bit bored...) and off we went, home. We listened to Scorpions on the way to the Auto Store, and Muse on the way home. I showed him a few of my favorite songs, and even told him why they were my favorite songs, and what about them I liked. More than just, I like this one... See, sharing feelings and thoughts. Aren't you proud of me?

So we get home, and he's now out in the garage trying to put the carberator in his truck. And I'm inside blogging and designing. On my 46 inch laptop. hehe. And it's 10:25pm. And yeah, he's gonna be really tired come 4:30am. Me? Well, I get to sleep in until 6:35/6:45/6:55 am. ROFL!

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

4shared
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Love of our Lost Ones

Hey there peeps! Wow, I must say, I'm glad that Sunday was yesterday. Because I got a lot of sleep and relaxing in, because today was TOTALLY opposite of that. Ha!!!

So I woke up at 6:35am, and hit snooze a few times, and finally, at 6:55am, read scriptures, said my prayer, threw on some clothes, and went out to help the kids get ready for school. I had them on the bus by 7:30am.

Captain America was home by then, and I hung with him for a little bit, then got my shopping list ready. And I was actually able to print it out this time. Thank goodness! I got dressed for real (well, if a hat counts as "for real") and headed out to the store.

Jake and Jim were gonna stay home so I could shop faster. Thank goodness! The grocery store is NOT a place you wanna bring little kids. Trust me, I know. I've spent years and years taking ALL of them with me every time I went, and now that I have an alternative, you'd better believe I'm taking advantage of it - ha!

I got all the food I needed for the week, minus soda and nectarines. I won't pay that much for soda, and they had no nectarines. Hmpf! I'll have to go to Walmart...

I headed back home, and Jake and Jimmy helped me unload the car. Here's me in my driveway. I just LOVE that hat. hehe.


So we put away all the groceries, got Jimmy ready for school, loaded back up in the truck, and headed to Savers. Because, you know, it's Monday. And Monday is one colored tag (blue) $0.99 day. And how could I pass that up?

We chatted and sang all the way to Savers, donated a bag of stuff, and got right to shopping. And yeah, there were NO blue tags. OK, so I found a few things, but really, nothing. I ended up with 3 shirts, and I found a corduroy red jacket that was NOT blue tagged. $10, but I had a 20% off coupon, so thats not too bad, right?

And Eme got a Columbia jacket for 20% off of $7. It's a nice warm one, too. Score!

The boys and I headed over to Dollar Tree next. I needed Bread and energy drinks for Captain America. Grabbed it real fast, swung by McDonalds drive thru to get Jake and Jim some lunch, and me a biggie soda, and headed back home.

And decided to just drop Jim off at school, since by the time we got home the bus would have been just pulling away. Works for me. Good thing I had him bring his Backpack, just in case. ha! I was prepared :P

Jake and I went back home, and I took a few pics of my new things.

So it was a little after 11am, and I knew I needed to leave the house at 12:30 to make it to my therapy appointment on time. BUT, I wanted to exercise. More even than needed to. Isn't that good! I actually wanted to. I debated back and forth between an exercise video and jogging. Jogging won out.

I walked for about 5 minutes to warm up, jogged for about 20, then cooled down for another 5. So a total of 30 minutes for a work out. Not too bad, right?

Here's me when I got home. I was NASTY sweaty. hehe.
I hopped in the shower real fast, got ready, grabbed lunch, got Jake settled, and headed out the door. And I decided to keep the hat on, because I LOVE my hat! ha! And yeah, I refilled my McDonalds cup with water, because I'm trying to be healthy.

My therapy session went really well today. I feel like I'm doing SO much better, and learning SO much more about myself. So my homework for this week is to open my mouth and start telling people how I feel. hehe. I'm kinda a chatter, but not really a talker, if that makes sense. Sometimes talking about feelings stresses me out, so I avoid it. But, I'm gonna try better this week. Tell people what I think and what I feel and what I want.

We talked about how I was taking negative behaviors and patterns, and switching them for positives. He said he was really pleased with the amount of progress I was making. *blushes* I was very happy to hear that, because I thought I was doing pretty good too! I know I sure FEEL a lot better :) And happy. I feel pretty happy too!

So I got done with my session, scheduled the next one (he was going out of town for a week or so to Hawaii......LUCKY!), and headed out. ANd, since I was RIGHT down the street from the West side Savers, I figured Id swing by and give it a look see. And yeah, there were NO blue tags here either. I managed to find a black knee length skirt for $0.99, a black Hawaiian shirt for Jake for $0.99, and a gray Purdue hoodie for $0.99. I think the small hoodie is my FAVORITE buy of today. hehe. Well, that or the Red coat. LOVE that one, too...

I swung by Walmart for Nectarines (yeah, they were out too, so I got peaches) and soda, and headed home. AQ was canceled, so all of the kids were just getting home when I got there.

And I got an email from my mom right around that time of the MOST ADORABLE cupcakes I've seen in a long time! And I TOTALLY wanted to make them for the Family Home Evening snack. So I got the kids situated, and Eme and I made a quick trip to the Commissary, just us girls, to get the supplies. I already had the cake, but I needed frosting and oreos and M&M's. And we headed right back home.

Eme and I made the cupcakes, and then started on dinner. I made Haystacks. I cooked rice in the rice cooker, and browned up some onions and ground turkey, then added a can of cream of mushroom soup and a few big scoops of sour cream. Then, I put the Chinese crunchy noodles (the correct name escapes me....) on a plate, with the rice, and then the sauce. The kids seemed to like it!

And Leslie's kids came over about that time, so I fed them too, because I had left overs. And then, just as I was about to call everyone in to dinner, a bunny rabbit was spotted in the back yard. And the kids cornered it under a pile of scrap wood. Hmmm. Now I was gonna have to compete with a rabbit....

So, against my better judgment, I let the kids take their food to the back patio table. And yeah, there it sat, while they messed with the rabbit. And of course, the El Paso wind did a number on their paper plates. I know that some of the kids were scraping food off of chairs, trying to salvage what they could. And I should have had more sympathy for them, but I DID try to get them to eat it right away. And had they listened to me..... I'm just saying...

And then Eme and I decorated the cupcakes, once they were cooled. Jim and Joe went to play in the backyard, and Tom and Jake went to the park with Hunter and Braxton.

Eme and I took Oreo's, and split them in half, trying to keep all the white intact on one side. Yeah, better in theory. I had to use a knife to get it to stay on one side...

And you frost the chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, then put on 2 Oreo halves, add brown M&Ms for the eyes, and an orange M&M for the nose, and voila! You have a cute little owl!








And I ran out of Oreos with white middles, so I used the other sides. And some frosting. And made Evil Owls. ROFL! Possessed Owls...

Captain America got home around 6pm, we had dinner, and around 6:30pm we gathered all the kids back up, and had Family Home Evening. Emeline picked a talk from the most recent General Conference, and gave us a little re-cap. She did a great job. We had a prayer and a song, a lesson, and a closing prayer. Short and sweet and very nice discussion :)

And then we had dessert. And it was OH SO GOOD! And yes, I ate one! OMHeavens, I forgot how much I like Oreos. hehe.

And Captain America and I and our cupcakes

And everyone else and their cupcakes. Aren't they cute!

We sent the kids to bed, helped Joe with his homework, I had a work project to get done, then blogged, Captain America did his slide show for work, and here we are, me blogging, him doing someone right next to me on the couch on his computer, and we're both almost done for the night. 8:50pm, and I'm tired and in sore need of a back/neck rub..... Oh sweetheart......

This WordArt is for Alma. She requested it for a card for her sister-in-law who just lost a baby. Sorry, hon :( We miscarried 2 little babies over the years too, and I know how NOT fun that is :(

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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