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Monday, July 18, 2011

A Long Way To Happy

Hey there, peeps :) How was your Sunday? Mine? Pretty good! We were all up and going at 7:30am, getting food, and kids ready for church, and grown ups ready, and junk. I decided against showering, and just applied a fresh layer of make up. hehe.




At 8:45am, we loaded up in the truck, and headed out.
And made it to church, but just 3 minutes late. They were singing opening song when we got there. We picked an open row in the back. And Joe was SO upset about something or another, and he wouldn't sit with us. So he sat in his own row, all by himself. I figured that he'd get over it and come back... eventually :)

Check out this AWESOME bracelet that my aunt got for me! SO cool!

After Sacrament, another family came in and needed the space, so I made Joe come and sit with us. And he didn't wanna sit on the chairs, so he sat behind us on the floor. And pouted, and touched Jim, and caused problems. Finally, I had to take him out to the hall. It's been quite a while since I've had to do that with a kid.

Here's his face JUST before I took him out.
He was REALLY not doing well. I sat him down, and asked what was the matter "I'm NEVER EVER gonna tell you, mom!!!". OK, ok, I'll stop asking. I made him sit with me until after Sacrament, then deposited him in the primary room, where he stood in the back of the room for all of sharing time. But apparently class time was much better...

So an old, Spanish sister from church came up to me (she doesn't speak English so well, so she hugs people to let them know that she cares about them), patted my tummy, and said "Baby?"... Nope, just fat... Sigh. hehe. Is that the sign that you should go on a diet? When people think you're prego???

Mom and Dad and Aunt Sue and I went to Sunday school, then third hour Mom and Aunt Sue and I went to Relief Society. We had a lesson on missionary work. And I was captivated with the teacher. She was just filling in for someone, but she was FABULOUS!

And then we were done, we loaded up in the hot, crowded truck, and we all headed home.

We had bologna and cheese sandwiches for lunch, and some more banana bread. And we made some frozen banana ice cream. Did you know, that if you freeze banana chunks solid, and put them in a food processor (NOT blender), and add just a tiny bit of water, it makes banana puree, which is JUST like ice cream??? We put a little bit of cool whip on it, and it was JUST as good as ice cream :) Give it a try. Single ingredient ice cream. Especially for those of you who are Gluten free or Dairy free!





And here's me and my soda!
And my mom :)


I was telling her that I looked like I had a HUGE head in this picture...

So I scooted back, for some forced perspective! Now my head is normal sized!
I come by it naturally, you know :)
We had about 3 hours to kill until our BBQ, and we spent part of the time in the back yard. My dad cleaned up for a while, and washed down the NASTY table, and organized and straightened up. Then he unstrung the lights that were broken, and re-hung some new lights!



Where are my sunglasses at???

Jake's job is to pick up the dog poop, and getting that child to do anything that he doesn't wanna do is like pulling teeth. So my mom said that she'd pay Jim 2 quarters to pick up all the poop. He was like, "I'll do it for 3", and she said DEAL! So off he went, to get poop bags, and proceeded to de-dog poop the entire back yard. Good job, Jim!

My mom ended up giving him a whole dollar. At first, he was bummed. "I thought I was getting 3 quarters". hehe. We had to tell him that it was more than 3. ROFL!
Then my dad climbed up on the covering part, and tacked down some screen. Captain America started it last summer/fall, and now my dad is finishing it off! Thanks, Papa Steve!


I think I've been spending too much time with Jake, because the child was getting on my nerves a tad. He was trying to tease people and "show off" for Aunt Sue, but in actuality, he was being SUPER mean and rude. Sigh.

I couldn't handle it much longer, so I came inside and baked cookies. hehe. Chocolate chip oatmeal banana. 10 dozen or so. hehe. And that made me feel a lot better :)

At around 3:30pm, we started getting ready for the BBQ. We started the grill, pulled out all the supplies, and straightened up a little.

Here's Joe
I told you I come by it naturally!!!

Terra and family came over at 4pm, and we started eating around 4:30pm. Charlotte got there around 5pm. And we had fun eating and laughing and having a good time :)

Here's Aunt Sue and I





I totally tried to lean in for a picture with Terra, and tipped over, and almost landed on the floor! Oops!

We were talking about how Charlotte is "Cat Lady" in Terra's family. Because her glasses look like cat eyes. She said that she's been called "Roz", like the slug lady in Monsters, Inc. Jake went and got the laptop, and looked up a picture so that we could compare. hehe.
The twins had a grand time feeding the dog hot dogs here and there, when no one was looking. And yeah, we don't feed the dog people food on a regular basis, so this is what happened. He totally puked in two different places on the rug. Nasty!
My mom did her ACN presentation (well, as much as you can with 8 kids and 7 adults and 1 puking dog), we chatted with my Sister on her video phone for a bit, then we tied up the party, and they all headed home.

We cleaned up the mess (well, kinda), and ate some more (hehe, gotta support that "baby"), and all sat down to play a game. Scattergories! LOVE that game :) My mom and Dad hadn't played it before, and really liked it!

My favorite was when the letter was P, and the word was tools. Yeah, Jake said penis. ROFL! How could we NOT give him the point. hehe.

And then, body part that started with O. No one except Jake got it. Ovaries! And a bad habit that starts with R? Robbing banks and rectal spazms... Yeah, we're a fun bunch!


Me and my water :)
When the game was over, we put the little kids to bed, since it was almost 9pm. And my head was hurting, so I didn't go on a walk with my mom and dad. I'm totally going tomorrow, though. I took some meds, and sat down to watch a movie with the grown ups and blog. And it's now 10:30pm. My head still mostly hurts, and I'm sleepy. I didn't get my typical Sunday afternoon nap. LOL! I'm totally taking a nap next Sunday. ROFL!

We're going to Savers in the morning, and probably to the Pool. Amanda comes home from New Mexico tomorrow, and may meet us at the pool. Not sure what else is on the plan for the day :) But I'm sure it'll be fun!


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!


I couldn't find the layout that Sharon made, so I couldn't post it. And I didn't get to blogging until too late to ask her where it was. Sorry :(

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Each Life

My, oh my. It was a bad night Friday night. Most of the day was good. The majority, actually... I think the problem was that Jake was home ALL day long. And he got bored in the evening. And started being mean to people. Well, I'm sure he wasn't being mean in his own head, but he was everyone else. Hurting feelings, hurting people... Sigh.

I sent Joe and Jim to bed, and Jake wouldn't get out of their room. And I snapped. Between the stress of having family come to visit, trying to keep my house clean, and just stress from deployment in general. I was the yelling mom. And I tried to drag him out of the room. One benefit of picking up a little weight is that I did a better job of getting him from one place to another. hehe. Well, I wasn't laughing at the time...

Anyway, we went back and forth, with me pulling him out of the room, then him going back. He said a lot of mean things, and I said a lot of mean things, and I eventually locked myself in my room, sobbing. I wasn't dealing well...

I made sure that the other kids were all in bed, and I popped an Ambien, and laid down. I texted with Terra for a bit until I driffed off to sleep. Apparently, I was texting some random letters to her. LOL!

So I woke up at 6am, feeling MUCH better emotionally. But I had a killer headache. I grabbed a protein bar, some meds, and went back to sleep. And by 8am, it was almost all better. I got up, and we cleaned for a little while, and hung out for a bit, too.

The kids came in like every 5 minutes asking if it was time to go and get grandma. hehe. At 10am, I put on a fresh layer of make up and got ready to go :)





All the kids and I loaded up in the truck, and headed to the airport. We parked, and walked up to the main terminal, then found the arrivals lounge. The kids has a lot of fun watching the airplanes.
And they were SO excited when Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Sue got there! And we headed to baggage claim :)

My mom and dad
My dad


Eme
My mom
We gathered up the bags, and headed back to my house. And the truck was SO squishy! hehe. We unloaded the bags, my parent's "freshened up", and we headed out to lunch. At the PX food court. Oh yeah, we're big time. hehe. But my kids LOVE Taco Bell, and we usually don't go there.

I didn't really want Taco Bell, so I got Subway.

Here's Joe
Me and my Dad
Aunt sue and the 3 big kids :)
Aunt Sue and me
Jacob and Aunt Sue
Jim
Joe SO didn't want his picture taken. hehe. Joe and Grandma
All 9 of us...
Me and my mom
We walked around Freedom Crossing for a bit, then headed back home. My dad and the kids relaxed and watched some TV or played computers, and my mom and aunt and I (and Joe) headed to the commissary to get some groceries and stuff for the cookout tomorrow.

Check out the GREAT deal on Bananas I got! That whole bag for only $1.29.
She's so funny!


We were there for about an hour, and grabbed all the groceries we needed for a few days. We paid, the bagger helped us out to our car, and we headed home. We got all the groceries put away/locked away (hehe), and changed into our swim clothes. And headed to the pool.

Eme
Tom
My dad
Me
My mom
We were there for about an hour, and called it quits. Not friends for the kids to play with, and they were bored...

Here's me in the truck. Yeah, going down the slide with a ton of make up on isn't such a great idea. hehe.


We got home, changed clothes, and started on dinner. My mom made this YUMMY creamy pasta stuff. We boiled 2 packages of pasta until done. Then, in a separate sauce pan, we melted 2 packs of cream cheese. Then added in 2 cans of pasta sauce. Then some Parmesan cheese. And melted and combined it. Oh yeah, SO good!

We got 2 loaves of french bread, and split one and smeared it with Butter and garlic, and baked it. The other one was just normal. So yummy and tasty!

After dinner, we sat down to watch a movie. And yeah, it wasn't happening. It was way too loud in here to pay attention. This is when we first turned it on. They watched for like 10 minutes...
Stop, Boxer! I just wanted a nice photo with the dog, not slobbers!

We sat inside and visited for a bit, and sat outside and chatted and warmed up for a while. hehe. Then Mom and Aunt Sue and I went inside to make Banana bread. 4 loaves. And it was SOOOO yummy!

At 9pm, we put the kids to bed, and dad a final round of chores. Once they were asleep, my mom and dad and I went on a walk. And I took the dog. He's crazy. hehe. But towards the end of it, he figured out how to walk nicely by me.

We just did a short loop, since my mom didn't have walking shoes. And the walking trail is gravel. And she just had sandals. Yeah, gravel and sandals and walking is NOT such a great combo...

We were gone for about 30 minutes, and headed back home. It's now 11:16pm. My dad and I are watching a movie. Mom went to bed, and Aunt Sue is sleeping on the couch.

My head is super hurting at this point. It went away during the day, but come back around dinner time. Ouch! I get to pick up more migraine meds on Monday. Unfortunately, I'm out. Boo! Here's to hoping that tomorrow is a fabulous day :)

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!


Awe, Sharon, LOVE this one. Those oranges/blues/greens go PERFECTLY together! Great job :)