Heart and Soul

Fun day, fun day :) Started off at 6:45am, when I got up, and went to check on the kids. Everyone was up and getting ready. Fabulous! All of their alarms had gone off, and no one was complaining. EVEN BETTER! Jake left the house first, at 7:05am. I found out later from Terra that the bus frequently comes early, so he needs to leave the house at 7am tomorrow. Sorry, Jake. hehe.

I got Tom, Eme, and Joe off to the bus at 7:35am, got Jim set up with a movie, and went back to bed till around 9am. Sure, I had some kid interruptions, but still, it was sleep. ha!

I woke up around 9am, changed clothes, and Jim and I headed to the store. I facebooked and texted and tried to get a shopping buddy, but I guess no one wanted to go with me..... ha! I'm fun, people! hehe.

So we headed out to the Dollar Tree. I had a box that I was sending to Captain America, and it needed some stuff in it. The book I was sending was too small for the small flat rate box, and the medium flat rate box had a TON of room. So I was gonna make up an Easter box.

And Terra had company over, and was getting a tiny bit overwhelmed, so she needed a "pick me up" present. So I searched for the perfect thing for her, too.

Sugar Free Candies, Energy Shot, and Lipgloss (OK, so that would be MY perfect "Pick me up"...)

And all sorts of Easter crap to go inside of Captain America's box.

Jim picked Popsicle as his treat.

My treat? Howdys refill. I thought I'd introduce Terra to the magical wonderfulness that is a 64 oz DDP... Now, getting 2 of those home was another thing... ha!

After Howdys, we headed for post, stopping at the PX to go to GNC for some vitamins for Captain America. And waited FOREVER in line, but finally got them. And headed back home.

And the bus was already driving away when we got to the bus stop, but luckily he recognized my car, stopped, and let Jim hop in. THANKS BUS DRIVER DUDE! I owe you goodies!

I decided to take a picture of my GNC bag to document my trip there, only to realize afterwords that it was a picture of a dude....

After dropping Jim off at the bus, I headed to Terra's house, and dropped off her goodie basket and soda. And chatted with her for about 15 minutes. Her hubby and brother in law were there, and I tried to convince them that she just NEEDED to come to Girls Night with us.

Then, it was off to the West side for my therapy appointment. I tried to call Andrea, since she always calls me to chat when she's driving, but she didn't answer. I called my mom, at work, and she and I chatted the whole way there :) Thanks, mom, for keeping me company!

It was a good session. We talked about Jake, and the past week, and how I handled the situation mostly good. The emotional eating on Sunday wasn't the best, but I'd stopped it, and didn't repeat it, so that's good. He said he thought I was doing good at making the best of a difficult situation.

And I don't know how my "socialness" came up, but he said that I was THE most social person that he'd ever met. Moi? Really? You think so? I have a hard time thinking of myself like that. I still sometimes think of myself as that shy, awkward girl from high school...

Anyway, after my appointment, I headed back on post. Singing the whole way home, of course...And Kari and I were gonna go to the pool. I ate lunch real fast, left Boxer out of his kennel for about 20 minutes, then headed to the pool. And it was SOOOO busy. Idon't know hat was going on there, but there was NO room for me in the lanes. I'm not a good sharer..... ha!

so Kari and I decided to go on a 4 mile walk instead. I called Laurie, to see if her and Rowan wanted to come too, then we all met at my house.

And as I walked out the front door (I usually go out through the garage), I found a box of flowers!!




Captain America had sent them, with a nice note about how awesome I was, and that I could handle things, and how proud of me he was. Awwwwww, thanks sweetie!!! I really appreciated it!!!

Kari and Laurie and Rowan and Boxer and I went on a walk, and it was a pretty good one. Boxer figured out about 1/2 way thought that I wasn't gonna stop at EVERY tree, bush, rock, fire hydrant, etc, and let him pee on it. I had to keep his leash really short, but he figured it out eventually. I think he really enjoyed his walk. I know I did. Thanks, girls, for walking with me! GREAT company :)

I got home JUST in time time get Jim from the bus. Well, according to my watch. But the bus was 10 minutes late, so really, I got to sit at the bus stop and chat with Erin and Maggie for 10 minutes. But I didn't mind - hehe.

After the bus dropped off the kids, I hurried home, addressed the box, and filled out the customs form for Captain America's package, grabbed some money, and Kari picked it up and took it to the post office for me, since she was going anyway. Thanks, my dear!

Here's me finishing off the last of my 64 oz-er...

Jake got home from the bus at 3:30pm, and had had another great day at school. Thanks goodness! I was so worried about my decision to put him back in public school, but each positive day he has reinforces that I made the right decision :)

And I hopped in the shower. Because it had been WAY too long. ha! And let me tell you, the shower felt WAY good :) I didn't quite have time to make myself all the way up, so I put in some hair gel, and a foundation layer, grabbed the rest of my make up, got dressed, and gathered up the kids from the bus to go to the library.

The library lady was SUPER grouchy today. She was yelling at kids, and grouchy about snack. She's usually not like that... hmmm.

The movie we watched was about "Weather". Our joke for the day was about how on windy days, studies show that there are more heart attacks and playground fights.... Maybe THAT'S why the library lady was grouchy! It WAS windy, after all.... LMBO!

The kids had Goldfish crackers and tortilla chips for snack, and the movie got over WAY too quickly. We pushed play on the projector again, and watched it a 2nd time. ha! Since I'd drug everyone up here, I was gonna stay for longer than 15 minutes. ha!

About 3/4 of the way through the movie the 2nd time, we decided to head out. I gathered up all the kids, and headed home. I cooked some Biscuits and Gravy casserole for them, and finished getting myself ready for my girls night.

I gave Tom all the directions on what/when/how to do things, and gave Jacob separate directions on how to stay out of everyone elses way (ha!). And told Tom to call me if he needed anything.

And off I went. Terra was driving herself and meeting us there. I picked up Amanda, but Laurie and Kari and Maggie all couldn't come last minute. As we left post, Kari texted and said that her hubby JUST got home, and that if we hadn't left yet, she still wanted to come. So of course, we drove the 2 minutes back to pick her up! Yeah! Kari was coming too!

Terra was there for about 15-20 minutes by herself, with a BIG group of girls that she didn't know. Sorry, hon, that we were late. They were nice, though, right? hehe.

I thought this fruity drink was JUST the cutest thing ever!

Diet Coke: What we drink when there's no DDP..

Hmpf! I ran out!

Ooo, a camera! Lets make faces!

Terra ordered this appetizer. It was yummy, but spicy

Terra and I. Or should that be Me and Terra?

2, 3, 4, 5? I lost count...

I texted Charlotte to see if she was coming, and managed to convince her to come! She was about 30 minutes late getting there, but I was SO glad she came. She's a TON of fun. hehe.

Salad

Breadsticks

Charlotte and her bread stick...

My yummy soup!

I love you, breadstick!

More Soda

Amanda ordered this SUPER tasty looking cake. Mmmm!

And since it was 3 of the girls' birthdays, they had cake! I had a little slice, and it was pretty good!

Charlotte and I

OMHeavens, it was SOOO much fun. We ended up with 17 girls. The way the table was situated, though, it was hard to interact with everyone. Our "end" of the table sure had a great time, though! hehe.

And here's the whole group! I'm totally pulling a face - ha!

Amanda, Kari, Charlotte, and I were the very last people to leave. ha! Chatterboxes, we are! I brought some mints home for Tom, and went searching the table for more. And found 3 breadsticks. Sweet! I was gonna take those home for him too. And Amanda said that I could take her left over seafood pasta home for him too. Awe, so sweet! I just KNEW that Tom would love it.

And we headed outside, and of course chatting in the parking lot for a while. And yeah, I must have been snuggling with my food. Because I looked down, saw it pressed to my body, and just KNEW that I must have been dripping all over myself. Yup, all down the front of me with seafood sauce...

Amanda looked at me like she thought I was gonna get upset, or freak out, or something, but I grabbed my camera, threw it at her, and told her to take a picture. ROFL! Silly, but that was my first impulse!

I know, I know, you can't take me anywhere, Terra :P I keep telling everyone that I'm the comic relief! On the up side, my dog was SUPER excited to see me :) ROFL!

We drove back to post, and I dropped off Amanda, then Kari, then went home. And I started blogging, and facebooking, and it's now 11:40pm. Laundry man has totally taken over everything. I'm considering sleeping on the couch. I wonder if I'd be able to sleep???

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Great page, Sharon! Looks fantastic!

The Music is Inside Me

Holy long day! But a good day :) I woke up at 6:45am, said prayers, and got kids ready. Even Jim and Jake. Cause we were going to get registered. Tom, Eme, and Joe caught the bus at 7:30am, and Jake and Jim and I headed on up to the school.

I'd printed out all the documents that I needed last night, and gathered up the rest of the stuff that I needed. And out the door we went.

First stop, front office to see where we needed to go. Registrars office. She was busy, so she sent us to the nurse to turn in the immunizations. Then back to the registrars office. Who was still busy. So she directed us to the Special Ed office, where we talked to Mr. Joseph, the director of the special ed department.

We filled out some papers, and he sent us back to the registrars office. Who was busy, so we went to the office. And asked about lunch and bus. But they were busy too. So I talked with the office lady, and she made copies of our important documents, and took us on a tour of the school. Then we went to the registrars office, and grabbed a contact information sheet, filled it out, and gave it to the nurse. Then we went to the scheduling place, and Jake picked his classes. He was SO excited that he didn't have to take PE. ha!




So after we got classes, we went to get books. The way this school works, is that they check out books to the kids, which they keep at home. Then there's a set of books that stay in the classroom. What a GREAT system! No forgotten books! LOVE it!

And then back to the Special Ed place, more forms to fill out, an evaluation form to fill out, more papers to sign, and back to the front office. One of the special ed counselors decided to take Jake around for the day, and show him where classes were and such. First stop, 2nd period, Art. Jake LOVES art! The counselor dude made sure that the teacher knew that Jake was Autistic, and as I left, I heard some kid say "Hey, I know that kid! He lives in my neighborhood". Good sign, huh?

And we went back to the office, and found out about the bus, and got Jake a bus card, and a print out of the times for the bus stop. And we found out that since the other kids had reduced lunch, Jake qualified for it too! $0.40 lunches, can't beat that price!

I gave some money to the counselor guy to give to Jake for lunch, and we were done! 3 hours later! hehe. Next stop, home. Jim had 30 minutes before he had to catch the bus. I Skyped with Captain America the whole time. It was SO nice to chat with him, and fill him in on the process.

Then,I got Jim ready for the bus, gathered up my thing ad headed out. I told Maggie and Erin all about my crazy Friday when Jake ran away, and the MP's, and the window jumping, and the 3 hours hiding in the shed, and I could actually laugh about it. Let me tell you, it made for a good story - ROFL!

And I hoped in the car after the bus came, and drove on over to the army hospital. The 11th floor is where Jake used to see Dr Meyers, the child psychologist. And I needed him to fill out the Special papers for Autism.

But when I finally parked and hiked up to the hospital and found the 11th floor, there was a sign on the door saying that the entire floor had moved onto main post. Real close to our house. Crap! So, to salvage a wasted trip, I grabbed a pre-made salad from the dining facility mini shop. The one that I LOVE with mandarine oranges, cranberries, chicken, sliced almonds, and spinach. OMGosh, I'd drive up to the hospital JUST for that salad. Anyone wanna join me, and grab a YUMMY salad one of these days???

Anyhow, I paid, and grabbed a fork, and headed back on post. And ended up eating the whole salad before getting to my destination, with my fingers. Classy, aren't I? It was SO good, though. hehe.

And I drove to where I thought the building was, but it wasn't. So I asked the lady behind the desk, and she said ask next door. So I went next door, and there was a sign on the door directing me where to go. Wild goose chase, huh? ha!

I finally found the office, and talked to the SUPER nice receptionist lady. She had worked with Autistic kids in the schools for YEARS. We chatted a bit about Jacob, and she took the paperwork, and said that she'd have Dr Meyers fill it out, and call me when he was done (he was at lunch). And we got an appointment set up for me/Jake/Dr Meyers. The first available appointment was April 5th.

And I walked across the street to ACS and picked up my Waiting Families card, and headed home. And on the way, got a call from the nice lady at Dr Meyers office, saying that since Jake hadn't been seen since September, that Dr Meyers had to see Jake BEFORE he signed the form. Crap. Oh well, the school would just have to work with us....

And I got home, and it was SO peaceful. No one around. Quiet. Boxer and I went to the backyard, and I laid on a chair in the sun for about 15 minutes. It felt SO good. Then came back inside, and was gonna finish up a movie that I started on Sunday, but Laurie texted and said that she had some dresses to return to me, and if she could drop by. OF COURSE!

She and Rowan came over, and she stayed for about 45 minutes chatting. LOVE ya, girl! Thanks for the chat! I had a few minutes after she left, before I had to get Jim from the bus. I talked with my mom for a little bit, then headed to the bus stop. With Boxer. He seemed happy to be going.

Jim and I just hung for an hour, and I watched a few episodes of Kim Possible with him. Very relaxing. And then it was 3:30pm, and time for Jake to get off the bus. I snapped a picture of him when he got home. He was pretty happy :)

He said that he had a good time, and that it was WAY better than he thought it would be. That he actually LIKED being around people. ha! That's a first! He said that a lot of people came up and introduced themselves to him, and that most of is teachers were pretty nice.

And that, academically, the classes were SO much easier than homeschool. hehe. I knew that he'd like that :) And soon it was 4:00pm, and all the kids were home from school. And Laurie's kids walked over after the bus for about 15 minutes until she picked up her middle school daughter, then got back on post. We had snack, and the kids played for a few minutes.

Between 4-5, we did chores, and homework, an the carpet repair man came. He was gonna stretch the carpet in my room, and put down a new tack strip at the door. You know, the one that Boxer trashed.

I had to take a practice picture to make sure that the flash wouldn't go off, and alert the dude that he was being photographed, so I tested it on Jake. Phone on silent, and no flash. hehe. I'm so tricky!

And here's Joe, eating snacks!

Boxer was WAY too excited about the repair dude, and I put him in his kennel.
And the tool that he was using wasn't good enough for the job, apparently. Because he informed me that "He was going to get his big tool, and that he'd be right back". I contained myself, but just barely..... naughty, I know - hehehe.


Ignore Laundry man. I know, I said that he was going away today. I had grand intentions. I also thought that registration would take 20 minutes. Yeah, I underestimated the school districts need for paperwork...

Yup, that's DEFINITELY a big tool...

The boys eating snack in the kitchen

Me, happy about Jake's good day at school!

I helped Joe finish his homework, had the kids get changed into swim clothes, and we all headed up to the pool. And Kari dropped off Josephine to play, and we brought Noah (Leigh's son). So I had 7 kids. Kari was gonna come back if Leo's soccer practice was canceled because of the wind, but it wasn't. So it was just me.

And it was the ONLY time that I've been to the pool recently and didn't bring a laptop. Grrr. hehe. If I'm overly prepared I don't need anything, and if I'm under prepared, I'm bored. hehe. Oh well. But I do think it was the SLOWEST pool trip yet. 90 minutes of me, sitting by myself. WANTING to chat with someone, and no one around. And a dying phone, so I couldn't even call someone. Don't you feel sorry for me? hehe.






Finally, it was time to go. Jake and Tom were fighting, and I didn't like it. But, I guess for an hour and a half in the water, and I only had to yell at them 3 times, that's not bad...

Josephine stayed about 10 minutes at our house before he mom came to get her, and I started on dinner. Taco mush of sorts. hehe. I browned up 1 lb of turkey hamburger and 1 lb of turkey sausage. Then added 1 HUGE jar of pasta sauce, and 20 diced corn tortillas, and about 1/2 cup of milk. And cooked until softened, then added some shredded cheese. And the kids really liked it! Mostly because there was SO much meat in it. My kids are carnivores... Just like their mama!

We finished up chores, and I put the little kids to bed at 7:30pm. And Tom and Jake and I watched an episode of Chuck, and Eme had a classmate over for an hour to work on Homework.

And here it is, 9pm. Eme and Tom are in bed. Jake is waking boxer, then he's gonna be in bed. Cause his bus come 30 minutes before the elementary school bus. 7:15am. He's not really looking forward to that, but school in general, he is :) Yeah for school!


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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Sharon, my dear, I LOVE this one! I played Clarinet for all of my middle school/high school years, and LOVED every minute of it :)

Fun in the Sun

Woke up this morning at 7:25am, and was sleepy. And didn't feel like getting ready. Yeah, it was gonna be a "dress down" for church day. Somedays have to be like that. I just didn't have the energy to shower and be pretty. Or even put on a fresh layer of make up. Sigh. hehe.

Jake's alarm wasn't turned on, so he was off of his schedule, but did ok with getting ready. Not too many complaints. Eme and Tom were getting ready, and I helped Joe and Jim get dressed.

And here's me, ready for church. 3 day old hair, no make up, puffy eyes, fuzzy hoodie, (I did have on a skirt), and black flip flops. Lovely, eh? Hey, I did put on jewelry, so that counts as "dress up", right?

And we headed out to church. Jake was in a decent mood, but Tom wasn't. Work with me, kids - hehe. We got to church 5 minutes early, and had our normal row. Jake has decided that he no longer needs to pass Sacrament, and I guess that I have to pick my battles, right?

But our family rule has always been, that the 15-20 minutes that they pass the Sacrament, you put away your color books and pencils and notebooks, and sit quietly. Well, Jake has decided that he doesn't need to do that either. And was HORRIBLE. Making noises, touching the other kids, tapping the books, being loud. Sigh. It was the longest 15 minutes of the day, instead of the most reverent. I didn't like it...

So now I'm wondering. Do I keep up the "sit reverently" during Sacrament, or do I let him color. Because the remainder of the meeting, he was perfectly fine. Content. In his own little world. But when I made him get out of it for that 15 minutes, it was horrible...

Anyway, eventually the meeting was over, and I happily sent the kids off to their classes. And went to Sunday School. And tired to pay attention. I really did. OK, so maybe I didn't try as hard as I should have. When I say Paige (primary counselor) at the door looking for a sub, I practically bounded from the room to volunteer. hehe.

I got to help out with the Sunbeams again. Yeah, they're loud. And wiggly. And irreverent. But they're supposed to be. But they listen to me. So I feel like whatever I'm doing is working. Unlike someone else I have to deal with daily....

Anyway, we sat through Singing time, then sharing time, then went to class. We learned about fish, and made fishing poles, and had snack, and sang songs, and it really was a good time. Then it was over, I gathered up the kids, and we headed home.

And Jake was in a much better mood. He even said that he mildly enjoyed his other meetings. There's an improvement. AND, I found my wallet. Once I left post, I realized that the wallet was not in my purse. I thought maybe it had fallen out in my room. And I was gonna have to "flirt" my way onto post (hehe). No, really, I have a post sticker on my car, so it's not hard to get on post.

But, I found my wallet in the crack of my seat and the middle console, so I didn't have to use my "flirt" skills. Good thing, too, because I was looking kinda nasty today - hehe.

We got home, and got changed out of our church clothes, and had lunch, and watched some TV. And over the course of the day, I ate 3 bags of sugar free candies. And 2 packages of Ramen noodles. And I think I'm gonna die. I must have had some unresolved stress floating around inside me, because I couldn't control myself today.

My poor stomach is hard as a rock. Sugar free candies give you gas and diarrhea, you know. I'm not buying any more sugar free candies. Because I can't control myself, and I eat them all. And this is SO not good.

I also designed 2 invitations for upcoming events. One was for Ladies Night that the girls from Hondo Pass ward put on. We're going to Olive Garden on Tuesday night. The invite turned out pretty cute! And then we facebook tagged all the peeps we wanted to invite. Pretty tricky, huh?

Then I made up an invite for the neighborhood easter egg hunt, and tagged the neighborhood peeps in that one too. And finally, at around 3pm, I went in to try and nap. And got about 40 minutes. Not too bad, but NOT near long enough. I was still sleepy.

But Jake was being grouchy. He was still off of electronics, and was yelling at everyone, and being too rough with the little kids. He'd have moments of super good, then super bad. NOT liking the mood swings.

We had dinner of sorts, and I played Angry Birds on the computer with the kids for a little bit. I watched part of a movie, and eventually it was time to put the kids to bed. I laid in bed with Joe and Jim for about 30 minutes, chatting and snuggling.

Jim made up a song that was filled with words like poop, crap, pee, puke... Yeah, 5 year old boys are SO pleasant. And Joe, dang, I can't remember the funny thing that he said. But it was SO random that it made me giggle.

And the boys took turns giving me karate chops on my back (felt SO good) as hard as they could. What sweet boys. hehe.

And I left them upstairs at 8:30pm to sleep. And put Tom to bed (yeah, he wasn't happy about the 30 minute early bedtime), and Jake to bed too. And I sat down to blog in the quiet, peaceful house. Just me and the dog. On separate couches, of course. hehe.

And then my in-laws called, and I chatted with them for 30-45 minutes. LOVE them :) We had a good chat, and I asked for advice with Jake, and asked their opinions on stuff. It was a nice chat ;)

And then I started back on the blog. And here it is, 10pm. And I'm gonna tie this us, and watch an episode of Glee, then go to bed. I'm heading to the public school tomorrow morning to get Jake enrolled. I'm not sure what all it entails, but I'll figure it out. I know that I have to have his new school request his transcript and records to his old school. Hopefully the new school will do that...

And exercise group is tomorrow too. May have to skip that if the enrollment thing is taking too long. Not sure of when/how it's all gonna get done. Wish me luck! I've never got a kid enrolled as "Special Needs" before, and not sure of the process.

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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LOVIN' this one, Sharon! I need some more sun in my life. And El Paso has enough of it! I'm tired of looking so pasty. I've decided that I need an hour of sun a day. So tomorrow, I'm setting out in the backyard and reading, or something.

Look to the Light

Hey girls! Thanks SOOO much for all of the well wishes and support! I felt so good all day long reading your comments/emails. Thanks, you guys! I felt the love :)

And yeah, my day was SO much better. SO good :) I went to bed around 10:30pm, and took a sleeping pill, since I had been pretty upset during the day, and needed to get some good rest. And I remember waking up around midnight or so, thinking I was hearing a phone, but I was too out of it. And then at 5pm, I woke up, and it was my skpye on my phone ringing! Captain America was calling :)

So I chatted with him until 6:30am. And yeah, that was him calling earlier, but I was SO out of it, I didn't even wake up - hehe.

We had a really nice chat. I told him all about my crappy day, and he helped me feel better. I love that he supports me, even half way across the world. I love that boy :)

And I posted a few pics from yesterday. Cause it wasn't the least bit amusing yesterday, but I think I can handle it today. Here's the MP's that were at our house.

And the flyer that went out post wide, looking for Jake

And me, trying my best to hold it all together. Thank goodness for Prozac. I wasn't too self conscious with crying in front of people like I typically would be - hehe.

But that was yesterday. And today was a whole new day. I went back to sleep after chatting with Captain America, and woke up around 9am. And I went out for breakfast, and made sure that all of the kids were awake. And fed.

At 9:30am, Captain America called back, and all of the kids got a chance to talk with him. It was SO good. Everyone got a turn, and we showed him the tricks that Boxer can do, and we chatted for about an hour. And in the middle of Skyping, Terra brought me a Howdys! She didn't stay, just dropped it off at the front door with a kid and headed to the airport to pick up her in-laws. WHAT A SWEETHEART!!!!! Thanks, my dear :)

Tom left the house at 9:45am with Noah (Leigh's son) to go to a movie and the German Bazaar, and around 11:30am, the other kids and I loaded up in the truck, grabbed a quick lunch, and headed out shopping. BIG shopping day ahead of us :) It was either gonna be a lot of fun, or sucky. I was being optimistic!

First stop, gas station. I had the suburban, and it was almost on empty. So off to the shoppette we went. What are y'all paying for gas? Mine was $3.39 a gallon today. That's pretty high for us.

I had $80 in cash in my "Gas Envelope", so I went inside and prepayed, and went to pump the gas. And I"d never prepaid inside before, so I thought it was SO cool that the pump turned off at exactly $80. Yeah, I'm SO easy to impress/entertain...

Jake helped me, then we were off to the East side. Savers was our first stop. Ross Middle School has a uniform of sorts, and Jake needed clothes. I let the kids look in the toy section, and Jake and I headed to the shorts (it's an open enough store that we could see all the way to toys...)

We found several in his size, and that were blue/khacky. And then I texted Terra to be sure. Her daughter goes to that school, so she knew the drill. Yeah, no pockets on the dockers. Cause that makes them cargo shorts, apparently. Sigh. We searched and searched, and ended up finding one pair of navy blue shorts, and one pair of khacky shorts. And polo shirts. They could be white or hunter green, no pockets. We found 2 that fit that bill.

And I don't know if this is an autistic trait or not, but Jake is EXTREMELY picky about the feel of his fabrics. He doesn't care what it looks like, as long as it FEELS good. So, some of the shirts that technically would have worked didn't feel good for him. Sigh.

And gray exercise shorts (found 2 pairs) and gray tee shirts. Found 2 of those. Again, we had to test out the FEEL of each of the shirts. And, check out this gray shirt that we found in the mens section! What's so cool about it, you say?


That's my hometown! I was born there! My parents live there. And the shirt was in my thrift store in El Paso, Texas. How random was that! I was super impressed, so of course I bought it - hehe. Jake was stoked. Florence is his favoritest place on earth, I think :)

Eme found a book that she just had to have, and Joe and Jim found Nerf guns. And generic Nerf guns. 4 total. So we got one for each boy. They were pretty excited.

And as we were walking to the check out, I noticed that it was yellow tag day! Whaaaat? Saturday isn't an any color tag day? What was the deal? And I misread it, and thought it was $0.99 yellow tag day. But really it was 50% off yellow tag day. There's a big difference, you know.

So I found 2 jackets and 1 coat, thinking they were for $0.99, and went to pay. And I paid for the guns and the clothes, and for Jakes stuff, and headed outside. And realized my error. My 2 jakets were $3.50 a piece. OK, I'll pay that for them. But the coat was $10. Yeah, SO not worth that for me. $0.99, yeah, but not ten bucks. I looked at the receipt, and it said no refunds. Sigh. BUT, they'll do exchanges. I think I'm gonna keep the 2 jackets, and take the coat back to the West side Savers, and see if I can get some more uniform stuff for Jake. Good plan, huh?

After Savers, we loaded up, and headed to Dollar Tree. And yeah, they were out of bread, and the line was SUPER long, so we just left, and headed to Walmart. Jake changed into his new jean shorts and Florence OR shirt, and we were ready to hit the store.



We were in Walmart FOR-EV-ER! But it was fun. And the kids were good. So I wasn't complaining. The kids wanted to split a pack of Nerf darts for their new (to them) dart guns, and I figured that was fair. And Jake, realizing that his babysitting gig was over, had no money. And his gun took special darts. So, remember that I'd offered the kids money to clean the bathrooms/trucks/cars, decided to wheel and deal, and get a pack of darts for cleaning the bathroom. I assured him that he could do that, but he had to clean FIRST, and it had to meet my expectations. He seemed fine with that.

One of y'all mentioned something about a special diet helping Jake, and I decided to give it a partial try. Jake TOTALLY freaked out when I mentioned going Gluten Free. Later, I found out that he thought I meant Glucose, or ALL sugar. Yeah, I might have freaked out too. hehe. My thought was, replace one meal gluten/dairy free. And see if it helps. Instead of cereal and milk for breakfast, I bought gluten free cereal (fruity pebbles) and soy milk. He was skeptical, but promised to give it a try for a week. The Fruity Pebbles was what saved the day. Those can't be too bad, he said - hehe.

We stopped by the steam cleaner section, and the cheapest thing they had was $80. More than I wanted to pay. Boxer has a HORRIBLE habit of pooping in the stair well if no one lets him out in time. So, there were some nasty stains there. And we needed a little help. So no steam cleaner for us.

After forever and a half, we went to pay. 3 separate transactions out of 3 separate envelopes. hehe. But, whatever works, right!

And we headed home. But decided to swing by Big Lots and see if they had a cheaper steam cleaner. Big Lots sometimes has stuff like that. And as I was parking in the parking lot, my sister texted this to me:

I was like, um, pr-waffle....Proffil? What? I was so confused. And after about a minute, I got it. I"M PREGO! My sister is gonna have a 3rd baby!!! How cool is that! She's 11 weeks along, and I'm so excited for her! My kids were pretty excited to have a new cousin, and poor Joe still wanted to know what a proffil was. So it was our joke for the day that Maddie was proffil. ha!

The little kids went to the toy section, and Jake and I went to the vacuum section. And there it was, a Bissel spot remove steam cleaner, for $50. I'd pay that! AND, they had my Shark steam mop like I've been wanting! For only $65. Too good to pass up. I had leftover money from groceries, so I decided to get it. And pull some money out of household expenses. Cause that fits!

Jake and I were pretty excited to get them home and try them out - ROFL! You can totally tell that I'm a mom, getting excited about cleaning supplies and gadgets! And this Big Lots that we stopped at was HUGE! Not the regular Big Lots by our house that we frequent. Definitely worth the little bit longer drive :)

Anyway, we paid, and off we went. As I turned on our exit to post, I saw Howdys, and knew that I just had to stop. hehe. I got a refill for myself, and a refill for the kids, then split it between empty waterbottles for them to share. I know that sounds cheap, but I was just super stoked that I was generous enough to buy them a refill out of my Howdys fund - ha!

And we got home, and Tom had been there for about an hour by himself. But he's old enough to do that. He was playing, and was fine. He and Jake DID get into a squabble about a "trade gone wrong" or something like that. Lego's traded for a Nerf gun, or something or another. Sigh. Still, it wasn't too bad of a "bicker".

I got the stuff put in the right rooms, and pulled out the steam cleaner, and realized that it was re-chargeable and needed to charge for 12 hours. Hmpf! Oh well, we'll clean the stairs tomorrow after church.

Then my phone started beeping, telling me of an appointment. What? What appointment did I have? I checked it, and IT WAS HOCKEY! The last game of the season. I'd TOTALLY forgot it! We had 10 minutes to load up and be at the stadium. Oh crap!

Went into total hustle mode, but made it only 5 minutes late. Sweet! Kari was there (her party canceled on her last minute), and she helped me get one of the boys ready, since her's was already ready. And, I'll take help wherever I can get it - hehe.

Jim came up about 1/2 way through, and had to go to the bathroom. So we trekked to the women s bathroom, and undressed him, he peed, then re-dressed him. SUCH a pain. And I put him back on the ice.

Then I noticed that he'd escaped again, and I went back to investigate. Apparently his skates were hurting him, and a coach was helping him get a different size and lace them back up. Sounded good to me.

Kari and I had fun chatting while we waited for the boys. We talked a lot about Jake, and what my plans for him were, and such. She was very sympathetic to my situation, and I was appreciative of that :)

At 5:30pm, we were done, turned in our gear, and headed home. The boys got to keep the "socks' and the jerseys. No more hockey till next year. I think I'll put Joe in it again, but my snow angel boy may not get another chance - hehe. I had to practically drag him to practice anyway - LOL!

I made Breakfast Burritos for dinner, and had everyone do their chores. And once they'd swept their chore rooms, we pulled out the Shark mop. AMAZING thing. It was pretty cool. It had about 3 different attachment heads for it, and made cool noises. Boxer didn't really think so, but the rest of us did. And each of the kids got a turn mopping.


I'm hoping that the "newness" of the steam mop lasts for a long time. Tom just KNEW that Captain America was gonna love it - hehe.

Eme got done with her chores first, and started on a school project.

And we finished up chores, and I put the little kids to bed. Eme stayed in her closet room, and worked on a homework assignment, and Joe and Jim screwed around, being too noisy to be sleeping. Sigh. At least they sounded like they were having a good time up there - ha!

Tom and I watched the season finale of Chuck season 3, but not Jake. I told him that he was electronics grounded until Monday. But that if he got his room all detail cleaned tonight, and had a GOOD Sunday (no complaints or outbursts), that he could earn watching an Episode of Chuck with Tom and I before bedtime. He seemed pretty excited about it.

I blogged, and sent Tom to bed after the episode, and checked on the little kids, who were STILL being loud. Sigh. And I checked on Jakes room, and it really was looking good. He had all of his toys set out on shelves, and his stuff was just how he wanted it.

And he wanted me to help him make up a schedule for tomorrow, so that he could get done the things he wanted to get done before church, and not be grouchy. 7:30, wake up, and eat his "gluten and dairy free" breakfast. 7:45, walk Boxer. 8:15am, hop in shower and get ready for church. And he'd already laid out his clothes.

And he sharpened pencils and found a pencil box and found his notebook and color book and stuff for tomorrow. Because he said that if he had his things, he wouldn't complain so much. Whatever it takes to lessen the complains, I'm ALL about that. He's really in a good mood right now. Super upbeat and positive.

And this is SO the day that I needed. I'm so glad that it turned out great! I could feel the prayers of y'all from all over the world uplifting me and my family, and helping us out! THANK YOU!

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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Great one, Sharon! Hope your trip back from Disney is great!

A Kiss Just For You

Seriously??? You wouldn't even believe the day I had. Awful. Horrible. One of the worst days ever. And you know me. I'm happy go lucky. I'm positive. I'm fun. Yeah, not so much today. I think I sobbed all day long.... Well, not all day.

Started out ok. A girl from church and her hubby were gonna stop by and give little Joe a blessing around 9am, because he was SO sick yesterday, but he woke up better. Feeling fine. So I got ahold of her, and let her know that they didn't need to stop by.

And around 9:30am, we started on chores. The chores didn't get done yesterday, so it was pretty messy. I woke up Jake, since he was the only kid asleep, and had him get stated too. And he was SO grouchy. Overly grouchy. Extremely grouchy.

But we plugged along. I started cleaning my room, since it was pretty messy too. I got the clothes separated into piles, and I went to check on the kids. And Jake was being mean and yelling at everyone. And wasn't doing his chores well, so I had to tell him what he was doing wrong (you have to move the chairs to sweep in the dining room, or it doesn't really get clean).

And apparently, that was his last straw. Cause he snapped. He started yelling about he was DONE cleaning, and that he'd be spending the rest of the day in his room, and huffed off to his room. So I followed him up there, MAD MAD MAD.

And he locked himself inside the room. So I unlocked it, and tried to press the door open, but he was holding it. And yeah, it wasn't budging. AT ALL. Crap. Now what was I gonna do. I stood there for a little bit, and tried a few more times, to which is practically taunted me, and then I gave up and came back downstairs.

And went to my room, and prayed. I didn't know what else to do. And my next thought was that I needed to talk to someone. So I called my inlaws, but no one answered. So I texted Terra. And went back upstairs a few more times to reason with him, and he was still grouchy and belligerent.

And I couldn't take it anymore. And the waterworks started. And I cried and cried and cried. What was I gonna do with the child. I don't think I can handle many more days like these. And Terra said that she'd be right over. Cause she could tell that I needed someone.

And she came over, with a power screw drive. We were gonna get that door off! So up stairs we went, and the two of us tried to get the door open. Yeah, TOTALLY not working. And he was taunting me again. We saw that he'd propped a chair behind the door, and that's why we couldn't get it to oepn. She called her hubby to see what we should do, and we noticed out the upstairs window that he was on the balcony!!! He'd climbed out his window, and was gonna run.

Crap. And he was down, and away. Now what? We got the door open, and yup, he was gone. So we called the MP's. Because I didn't know what else to do. I really didn't. And I was sobbing again by this point.

The police came, and there were like 5 cars on our street. And they took the story, like 5 times, and wrote it all down. And tried to figure out where he'd go. And what he'd do. I really figured that he'd be close. He's not an "exerciser", and walking too far isn't his MO. But then, I didn't know for sure what he was doing.

They took a picture of him from the house, and printed up some "Have you seen this missing child" poster of sorts, and distributed it to all the MP's throughout post, and to the gate guards. And the guards at Pershing gate said that they'd seen him leave!!!! Holy crap. Yeah, that's SO not what I was expecting him to do!

The MP's said that because he walked off of post, that their jurisdiction was over, and there was nothing they could do. It was turned over to the El Paso police department, and they suggested that I drive around the blocks right outside of post.

I finished filling out all of the paperwork, and really was at a loss as to what to do. I dropped Eme and Tom off at Kari's house, and took Joe and Jim in the suburban, and off we went, to drive around looking for my 13 year old autistic run away. Sigh. Terra was driving around looking too. And MP's were stationed at the gates to wait and see if he'd come back.

I talked with my inlaws, and my mom, and my friend Andrea, on my earpiece, all the while driving around. And it was 1:30pm. And the kids were starving. So we stopped by McDonalds on Dyer, and grabbed some burgers. And I ate 3 naked burgers (without the buns). And felt sick.

And I drove around more. And more. And more. And had to pee. So I headed home. And I asked at the gate I came in through if they'd seen him, and no, they hadn't. So I went home. And pulled into the driveway. And Jacob came out of the outside shed. He said that he'd been in there the whole time. (see, my first thought that he was close was right!)

So the Gate Guards had mis-ID'd him. And I'd worried that he was roaming the streets of El Paso. I was so mad. I was so upset. I didn't know what to feel or think or do. I told him that all of the MP's on post were out looking for him, and that the El Paso police were looking for him, and that he had all of us worried. And I don't think that he really got how serious it was. I sent him to his room, and proceeded to call/text everyone and let them know that he was home.

I called back the MP's, and asked if they'd come by and talk to him. Scare some sense into him. And the MP said that because Jake is autistic, that they couldn't. Sigh. I guess I was on my own.

I called my friend Charlotte, and she said that she was coming over to bring me a DDP and visit for a while. Thank goodness! Jake came back downstairs, and had some food, and kinda followed me around from room to room. He was very contrite. And very meek. And very repentant. But I was still upset.

And I decided that it would be best for him to be in the downstairs bedroom. So that I could keep a closer eye on him. And I told Tom that he was my new babysitter. Jake was "fired". And Tom could earn some money. He'd already taken the babysitter class, so Tom is good to go! And I'm putting Jake back in Public School. I'm not gonna have a disrespectful child around.... And maybe some special ed classes will do him good. So I told him all of these plans. And he accepted them very meekly.

So we started moving around bedrooms. And that's a LOT more work than I anticipated. First we moved EVE RYTHING out of the little kids' room into the dining room. Yeah, HUGE mess.

And then Charlotte came over with her kids. And had fun playing with my kids and all of the toys in the dining room. Ha! She'd brought skittles for all of my kids, and me a 54 oz DDP. Such a life saver. He 12 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with depression, and she's been seeing a therapist on post. And she gave me the phone number. But the dude was on vacation, so I'm gonna call on Monday. And she stayed for about an hour, and we chatted and the kids played, and I got my mind off of the horrible situation that was playing out.

And then she went home, and we kept cleaning. And cleaning. And cleaning. And half way through the project, I got overwhelmed, and found myself alone in the kitchen, sobbing again. And Jake came up, and hugged me, and rubbed my back, and my arm, and tried to comfort me. I really don't know what to do with the child. I know it's the "Autism" that I'm having a hard time with, and not "him". He is a good kid. He really is.

So we plugged along. And finally, the rooms were mostly switched. The dining room is still pretty messy, but all in all, it looks pretty good. It's now almost 9pm. And the kids are eating Ramen. Because I'm not a good mom today, and I didn't cook. I haven't eaten since the naked burgers from McDonalds. Wait. I had 2 more naked burgers at home, and an apple. Does that count as food? Maybe that's why I feel like crap right now.

I need to send the kids to bed. And have a good cry. Again. And wake up refreshed in the morning. And ready for the day. Happy. And positive. And renewed. Because I can't handle another day like today. Really, I can't... Pray for me that tomorrow is a fabulous day. Because I need some fabulous-ness after the day I had today...

I made this WordArt for a homemade Valentines card for my girl, Andrea. She had a picture of her son, Ben, kissing at the camera and holding out his hand. And she glued a Hurshey's kiss to the card. It was SO stinking cutE! And I made the WordArt for it. And now you get it! So enjoy!

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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