Grows More Precious

Hi all! We're BACK!! Did you miss me? I missed you guys - hehehe. It's strange to go to bed without blogging. Really strange - hehehe. I felt like I was forgetting to do something each night - LOL!

We woke up on Friday morning at regular time, but instead of getting kids ready for the bus and school, we worked on getting packed and dressed and out the door. By 9:45am, we were all loaded in the truck and ready to go. We drove to Alamogordo, and stopped at Arbys for lunch. Crazy, how much eating out with 7 people can be....

But see my yummy sandwich? It was FABULOUS! I just LOVE a good turkey sandwich :)









We got back in the truck, and finished our drive to Ruidoso. We were so worried that we'd be late, but we ended up getting there right on time. Here's some pics from outside the hotel.







We checked in, and were SO pleased with our room. I took a few pics on my cell phone of our room. We stayed at the Best Western, and it was WONDERFUL!


There was a bathroom off to the left when you first walk in, then a little closet, then a king sized bed on the left wall, a TV dresser on the right, and further in the room, a doorway to another room with 2 full beds and a TV dresser, and the right wall had a fireplace, with a couch and a desk. It was SO cool. I'm a Motel 6 girl, so this was pretty fancy for me - hehehe.

At 2pm, we had our first class. The room at the end of the hall was set up for childcare. There were a few ladies there to watch all the kids. I put Eme and Joe and Jim in childcare, and left Jake and Tom in the room (since they're old enough to be on their own for a few hours), watching TV. We don't have cable at home, so they were SO excited to watch real tv. hehehe.

Our first class was about the 5 Love Languages. You know about them, right? How we each receive and show love in a different way? 5 main ways. Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receive Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. We spent a while talking about them, then took a little assessment quiz to find out what our primary love language was.

Captain America was Quality Time and Words of Affirmation, and I was Receiving Gifts and Quality Time. I'm not sure about the Receiving Gifts one, though. I guess that's me. I like it when he does little things for me. Not expensive things, though. Anyway...

We took a little break at 3:30, and we checked on the kids. Doing just fine. We did our next class, where we learned about Words of Affirmation and Quality time.

After class, we all got back together in the conference room for dinner. We had Spicy chicken, with rice, and taco fixings. It was quite tasty. And apple crisp for dinner. SO much food :)

After dinner, the fam got ready and headed to the hotels pool. They had a jacuzzi too. We had fun going from the pool to the jacuzzi and back and forth. I think it was the kids' favorite part :)

After the pool, we came back to the room, and had all the kids shower and get ready for bed. We were channel surfing, and found and edited show of "The Patriot", already 1/2 way over. We all watched it, then turned off the TVs and went to bed. I think it was only like 10pm or something :)

The next morning, we were up at 7am, getting kids ready for breakfast. We headed down to the breakfast area in our jammies (hehehe), and Captain America headed off to the gym. He ran a few miles on the treadmill, and we ate. The breakfast was SO good. They had a waffle maker, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, cereal, bagels, english muffins, cinnamon toast, cottage cheese and peaches, biscuits and gravy, sausage biscuits, hot cocoa, lots of juices. It was fabulous. I just LOVED it :) And the kids did too. See how happy we are at breakfast - hehehe.



After bfast, we dropped the kids back off at child care, left the older boys in the room, and went to class. We learned about Receiving Gifts and Acts of Service. We had a little break at around 10, then back to class.

See our snacks. Yummy! My sister thought this picture was funny, with the healthy fruit in the foreground, and the snickers bar in the background. hehehe.


At 11am, we let Tom and Jake go to the pool, since they were old enough to go and play on their own. We learned about the love language of Physical Touch.

At noon, we had lunch. Angus burgers. OMGosh, were they ever good. With baked beans, too. SUCH good food. Or premium hot dogs. The little kids picked those.

After lunch, we were released for Family time. We had 5 hours to do what we wanted in Riudoso. We got ready, and headed out. Here's some pics of us in the truck, almost ready to go...








We found a few brochures at the hotel of things to do in Ruidoso and surrounding areas, made our plan, and headed out. First stop, down town Ruidoso. We walked around and did the tourist thing. At one of the last shops, we bought some smooth, fun colored polished rocks for the kids. We play train dominos a lot, and it takes "markers", which the rocks would work perfectly for. They were pleased. They each got 2, thanks to the very friendly store lady :)

Back in the truck, we drove up to see the Smokey the Bear museum. Unfortunately, the road was really windy, and I started to get car sick. I took a pill, but it made me a bit sleepy and out of it. Yeah, not so cool :)

When we got there, we found out that there was an admittance fee to the park. Yeah, I wasn't gonna pay over $10 for us to go and see the spot that they buried Smokey the Bear. So we just went into the gift shop/museum, and looked around.

Here's Jimmy with the historical marker.

And the gang inside the museum.

Tom and Jimmy, looking at the display cases.

We were gonna drive a bit further, and see the museum of Billy the Kid, but realized that it closed in 30 minutes. And I wasn't gonna pay for only 30 minutes. See, the cheapness in me coming out - hehehe. SO, we drove around a bit more. We drove by Ft. Seldon, and old US Army fort, long since out of use. It was kinda neat, though. We also found a Merchant Marines cemetery. That was kinda cool.

Here's some pics of the view from up there.

We headed back to Ruidoso after that. I was pretty car sick, and in need of a nap. We stopped by WalMart in Ruidoso before heading back to the hotel. We bought lunch for Sunday afternoon, so we didn't have to stop and eat out on Sunday. We don't shop on Sunday, and it's always hard when traveling. Since we had a fridge in the hotel room, it would be relatively easy to pre-purchase food. AND, the total cost of more soda, food for the next day, and some treats was less $$$ than we paid to eat at Arbys on the trip up. Fast food really is expensive, you know :)

Dinner was at 6pm, and was steak. YUMMY! The place that catered the Couples Retreat was AMAZING! It was medium rare, just the way I like it. The cheesy potatoes were FABULOUS, and the spinach/mandarin orange/sunflower seed/feta cheese salad was DIVINE. My favorite meal, so far.

AFter dinner, we had cheesecake for dessert, and I was in heaven - hehehe. We went back to the room, and took a little nap. Not long, just about 45 minutes. We were supposed to take the kids to the child care place so we could have a "date nite", but we weren't allowed to leave the hotel. But we were tired, and took a quick nap, and let the kids watch TV.

At 8pm, we took the kids to the conference room, and we played train domino's. There was a big table where we could play, so it was perfect.

At 9pm, we had an ice cream party. I was starting to feel sick from all the food at this point, but who can turn down ice cream with all the toppings? They had good chocolate and vanilla ice cream, hot fudge topping, carmel, chocolate sauce, pineapple, strawberries, bananas, sprinkles, and 2 kinds of nuts. We were getting SO spoiled :) hehehe.

We went back to the room at 9:45pm, and put the little kids to bed, and sent the big kids to the pool, and had a bit of Mom & Dad time. We were all in bed and asleep by 11pm.

Next morning, we were up at 7am again, and getting ready for the day. And packing. Separating dirty clothes from clean clothes, gathering toiletries, getting the room in order.

We went to Breakfast at 8am, and had more fun eating - hehehe. I just had cottage cheese and a yogurt, with an apple today. I was still full from the night before. I'd eaten WAY too much :)

We dropped the kids off at child care, and went to our last class. We had a "vow renewal" ceremony, which frankly, I thought was kinda weird. But whatever - hehehe. We watched a little video on Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University", which I THOROUGHLY enjoyed, we tied up the classes and the weekend, and we were done.

We went back to the room, and finished cleaning up. I'm SO glad for whoever invented the suitcase with wheels and handles. Life saver, that's for sure :)

We got the truck all loaded up, and off we headed. Later, we discovered that Jake had left his glasses in the hotel (he has contacts), but that wasn't until we were already home.... Anyway, we took the LONG way out of Riudoso, more of a scenic trip.

We stopped in Alamogordo to eat lunch at a park, and had a good time. Here's some pics of the kids playing.



We got home at around 3:30pm, unloaded the truck, and relaxed for a while. I started the dirty laundry, and did the dishes (yeah, they were nasty from being left all weekend), and had Jake clean off the counters. The house looked pretty good after that.

Captain America took a nap, and I read some, and the kids took some quiet time in their rooms. They'd been together WAY too long, and were fighting. Quiet is good :)

We had cereal for dinner (yeah, I didn't feel like cooking), and at 6:30pm, I left for a Primary Inservice Meeting. A few times a year, the Primary Presidency holds an Inservice meeting, where we meet with the teachers, teach a little bit, and find out how things are going, give instructions, and what we can improve on.

Since Andrea is a teacher in the Primary, we went together. I sure missed that girl! It was good to see her again. We laughed and talked all the way to church.

The Primary president welcomed us all, we had a prayer and a song, and after talking for about 3 minutes, she released us to either Jr Primary, Sr Primary, or music/nursery. I was supposed to be teaching the Jr. Primary. Crap! That's the first I'd heard of it. Sigh.

SO, I just had us talk about how the classes were going, good things, bad things, sharing things that were helpful. Luckily, Andrea was in the group with me, and she never lets the conversation drag - hehehe. The 30 minutes flew by.

We met back up with the group, had dessert, had a few closing remarks from the Primary President, had a prayer, and were done. We still hung out and chatted for another 15-20 minutes, then headed home.

After sitting in the driveway and chatting forever longer, I finally got home a little after 9pm. Captain America was dying some wool pants, and cleaning up his mess. I guess he tried to dye too much at one time, and it boiled over on the stove. Jake had figured out that he'd lost his glasses by this point, and was making notes so he could call the hotel and see if they were there. He was writing out a script of what to say. Hard lesson to learn, so someone who hates to talk on the phone. But he did a good job. Yes, the glasses were there. They're gonna send them tomorrow, I think.

I downloaded all the pics from the trip, checked some emails, and started blogging about the long trip. Yeah, I should have just taken 25 minutes each night I was up there and blogged. It's taken FOREVER to blog for 3 days - hehehe. Here it is, 11:34, and I think I'm tired :)

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!

DOWNLOAD LINKS UPDATE WITH CORRECTED WORDART :)

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Hearth Rejoiceth

And again with the pre-publishing stuff. I'm sad that I'm missing church, but I'm sure that I'm having a great bonding time with my hubby and kids. It's JUST what we needed. A chance to get away. I wonder if I'm liking the food......

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Family

Well, I should be in New Mexico right now, with my family, having a TON of fun, and learning all about healthy marriages. I bet I'm having a blast :) Pre-publishing blogs suck..... hehehe

Here's another Second Chance Saturday WordArt :) You can find the old WordArt HERE, if you want :) I like the new one better - but it's made using the same scripty font (Freebooter Script)

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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Getting Away

See, see, look here. I'm blogging about my new releases on time! Aren't you proud of me! I was SO late last time, it was 2 days ago, I think - hehehe. Anyway, here's my new stuff for the week. Hope you like it! Click HERE to go to my store...

Layout by my CT girl, Charmaine, who just went on Maternity leave! Woohoo for tiny babies :)

Layout by Trina

Hey all! This'll be the last day for the weekend of "real" posts :) I'll have a freebee for ya, but I'll be away from internet, most likely. So my pre-published posts will be quite boring - hehehe.

I had my normal morning routine. Wake at 7am, kids to the bus at 7:30am, exercise at Andreas at 8:00am. And boy did it kick our butts today. Dang, it was hard. But I can tell that I'm getting stronger.

I came back home, changed my clothes, and realized that my friend "Johnny" had come. Nice. "He'll" be here for my Couples retreat. :(

Andrea and Luke and Jim and I headed out to Goodwill at around 10:30am. I wanted to get a few pairs of pants, and she just want to come to come. She ended up with a pair of sandals for Luke, a sweater for her, a dress, and a new pair of jeans. I got 2 pairs of jeans, and a few VHS movies for Jimmy (of course, only 1 of the 3 had the movie inside that it said on the box. sigh).

We shopped, paid, then headed home. I fed my kids lunch, put on a new outfit with my new jeans, packed Jim and Joe's suitcase, and Jim and Jake and I headed off to WalMart. I wanted to buy snacks for the car ride. And I had a few toiletries items that I needed to get for myself and Captain America.

We were back around 2pm, and I dropped Jake back off at the house to finish up school, grabbed the lunch bags, and the ziplock baggies, and a sharpie, and headed to the park in my truck. Jimmy was asleep in his carseat.

So I parked the truck, moved all my bags to the trunk, and started bagging up goodies. I wrote each kids name on a bag with the number 1 for the 1st day, and a 2 for the drive home. So 10 bags in all. Then Captain America and I got a day 1 bag and a day 2 bag. Each of the kids bags had a diet soda, and a water, and some snacks. Pretzels and fruit snacks and crackers and a bit of chocolate and a granola bar. Divided between 2 bags. We're gonna give them to the kids when we leave tomorrow, and they can ration it on the car ride.

Andrea met me at the park, and helped me bag out stuff. Just as we were finishing with the bagging, Jimmy work up, and Jake came to the park, finished with his last class. We went to the benches, and let the kids play. At 3:30, Andrea and Vernoica walked to get the kids, Jake and JImmy went home, and I drove to the school to pick up the kids from AQ. It was my turn today.

I was back at the park a little before 4pm, and stayed and let the kids play, and the moms chat, until around 4:30pm. I packed Eme's suitcase, and had Jake and Tom start on theirs. Tom said his was all packed, and on furter investigation, he had 1 pair of sweats, 1 pair of snow pants, 1 pair of shorts, 3 undershirts, 1 pair of army boots, and 1 pair of socks. Um, yeah, no. That's not 3 days worth of clothes. I helped him get his suitcase "up to par".

The boys started some laundry, and I had them do their chores. We ended up skipping Joe's Cub Scouts. The kids were OUT of control, fighting with each other, and I just couldn't leave them with Jake in charge. It wasn't fair to Jake. So we finished packing. I started on my clothes, and got 3 days worth of things laid out, and snow clothes, and exercise clothes, and pool clothes. Packing for a trip is such a pain :)

We had left overs from last night for dinner, and I had Joe and Jim take a bath. They put on Jammies, and I sent them off to bed at around 8pm. Jake and Tom and Eme took showers or baths, then went to bed too.

Captain America came home at 8:30ish, just as I was finishing with packing. We hung out for a while, and even watched a bit of the Olympics. We watched a few minutes of Mens Ice Skating, and it was all that Captain America could handle. hehehehe. Different strokes for different folks, right? Andrea, I'll just stick to watching the Olympics with you :)

Here it is, 11pm, and I'm getting ready to hit the sack. I need to get up in the morning, and finish up last minute packing stuff, and be on the road by 9am. New Mexico, here we come!!!

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Bored

Hi all! Another whirlwind day in the Harty Household. Started off at 7am, getting kids up and dressed and fed and out the door to the bus stop. We went at 7:30, and the bus was there at 7:40. I came back home, and got ready for exercise. I went to Andreas house, and we tried the next workout video. Ramp it Up. OMGosh. It was not fun. It was hard. SUPER hard. I looked SO pathetic, trying to do the workouts, but failing miserably - hehehe. Andrea was sure to take some funny pics :) See how much of a non-exerciser I really am - hehehe.

After working out (45 minutes instead of the shorter, 24 minute video), I came back home and got ready. Leigh and Veronica and I were going to go and check out a Charter school on the North East side. Harmony School of Innovation. We drove there, and found that the building used to be a grocery store. But they converted it over very nicely. Lots of parking, though - hehehe. AND, low and behold, my friend my our other Ward (congregation at church) was at the office, just getting done with a PTO meeting. Score!

We chatted with her for about 20 minutes about the school, and the ins and outs. Apparently, there's a lottery to fill the openings. She thinks that if one of the kids from a family get selected, then the whole family can come. She's gonna check for me. It's heavily slanted towards Science and Math. Looks pretty promising. Next year will be it's second year, and there's only about 350 students in grades k-8. So, we'll see if our names get drawn, I guess.

After that, we drove back near post, and went to lunch at a taco place that Veronica likes. Tacos And Tacos. It was a cute little place in a strip mall, and had good food. Not too spicy, which is just perfect for me :)

Came back home, and spent some time with the boys. Jake's teacher re-set his low math grade, and he got a MUCH better grade the 2nd time around :) Jimmy spent some time in the backyard playing. I did some dishes, since they were starting to pile up.

At 2pm, Andrea and I went to the commissary. I had a few things that I needed to get for Captain America. Dye for his wool pants, aftershave, toothpaste, and trash bags. They didn't carry any dye, didn't have is brand of aftershave, or his brand of toothpaste. Sigh. I did get the trash bags, thank goodness. We were completely out.

Andrea dropped me off back at home, and the boys and I got ready to go to the bus stop. Jake wanted to come and get out of the house. We got there, and picked up Eme and Joe, and Ben, and Veronica's 1st grade son, and Kayleys 3 kids, and we all went to the park. Andrea and I were like the pied piper, with all those kids in tow.

Kayley was supposed to only be about 30 minutes. Finally, at 4:45, I had to take all my kids and her kids back to my house. Someone had to use the restroom - hehehe. I gave them some water, and a piece of bread (I know, I have dumb snacks at my house), and put in a movie for the older ones, and Jimmy played with the little girl who was his size (but 2 years older). They got along great.

Kayley eventually got done with the doctors appointment, and came to get the kids. I was just getting our dinner started. I made fake lasagna. I cooked the noodles, and sauteed some onions, green peppers, and ground turkey. I added the meat, the noodles, 1/2 brick of mozarella cheese, some italian seasoning, 1/2 can of pasta sauce, and the cottage cheese into a large bowl, and stirred. The kids liked it, and it's super easy :)

After dinner, I got Eme and Jake ready for Scouts/Achievement days, and left as soon as Captain America walked in the door. It was the Cub Scouts parents meeting, so Tom didn't have to go. And Joe and Jim never have to go - hehehe.

We got there a few minutes late, but everyone else was late too, so it's ok :) It was Andrea and Kayley and Laurie and I in the meeting. And 9 kids. In a little classroom, where the kids played on the chalkboard. SO loud, but I guess moms are used to that, right?

We got the Blue and Gold banquet all planned and organized. It should be a great time :)

After the meeting, Andrea and I hung out, waiting for our older kids to be done with their meeting. Ours only lasted for 45 minutes, and the older kids' last for over an hour. Not a problem, as Andrea and I have never had issues passing the time - hehehe.

By the time we got home, it was 8:30pm. Captain America and Jim and Joe and Tom were watching an episode of Dukes of Hazzard, and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. I helped put Joe and Jim to bed, and left Captain America with the big 3. I came in my room, and sat down to design WordArt freebees for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The family is going to New Mexico for the weekend for a Couples Retreat, sponsored by the Chaplin in Captain Americas Unit. It should be a great time. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not sure, though, how the internet will be, and how busy things will be, so I wanted to get the designing done today, and I'll up load it all tomorrow, and pre-blog, so I won't necessarily have to do anything while on "vacation". I'm still bringing my laptop, just in case - hehehe.

Well, you can guess what the ispiration for my freebee for today was. Myself. Yeah, I'm not good with normal. See picture above.

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Winter Games

And the love keeps pouring in. Thanks so much, you guys, for all your support. You really know how to make a girl feel loved, you know! *big hugs all around*

I was up at 7am this morning, rushing to get the kids ready and out the door by 7:30am. Breakfast was just cereal, but I did buy Raisin Bran and Rice Crispies (no sugar), so that's healthy. And milk is protein, so it's all good, right?

I think it actually takes more time at the bus stop than it does driving the kids to school. LOL! I left the house at 7:30, walked 3 minutes there, and waited for the bus. It came at 7:45. But didn't leave until 7:50am. Then Andrea drove me and Kayley home. I didn't get home until 8:00am.

I got Jim and Jake up, and started on school and Breakfast, and went to exercise. I was home by 9am, and Jake was working nicely on school. I showered and got pretty, and I sat down to design for a few minutes. I picked out all my quotes, and even got 1 WordArt pack designed. Andrea called at 11am, and said that she was ready to head out.

Jimmy and I drove to her house, and picked up Luke and Andrea. We headed to WalMart. I needed to buy Dye for some pants of Captain Americas. OK, anyone have any experience with dying things? Captain America has gray wool pants, and he wants to dye them black. Does that even work? Does wool accept dye like that? The black dye that you can buy in the laundry isle of Walmart. Any comments would be appreciated :)

But, of course, Walmart was out. I did find the ringed note card thingy for Captain America, though. And some 1/2 off Valentines Gummy candies. The kids would like that :)

We paid, and headed off to Applebees. I'd made a little bit of extra money designing last month, and decided to take out a little bit more for myself. :) I was doing good on my diet so far for the day (I've put on an addition 7 lbs as of late, and was trying to be good), so I just ordered a diet coke (but they only had pepsi), and a Grilled Shrimp and Spinach salad, with the dressing on the side. Veronica and Laurie came too, and Veronica ordered the Artichoke dip with chips. Yeah, that was HARD to resist, but I did it. No cheating at lunch for me :) My salad was really good, too. It's my absolute favorite thing to eat when I go out. SO tasty.

After lunch, we headed back home. I dropped Andrea off at her house, and I came back to mine. Jake was LONG finished with school, and was playing nicely. Jimmy sat down to watch a movie, and I snuck in a quick 20 minutes of designing. I got another WordArt pack done, and another one started.

At 3:20, I headed for the bus stop. Kayley and I and Laurie hung out there until the kids came. At 3:40ish, the bus showed up. I gathered up Eme and Joe and Veronicas 2 little ones, and Andrea's Ben, and we headed to the park. Andrea was at the school picking up Sam and Tom and Vernoicas oldest from AQ. I think tomorrow is my day :)

We played at the park, and Andrea came about 10 minutes later. At 4:00, we all headed back home. My friend, Heather, called and asked for a ride from the airport to home. She's 4 blocks from my house, and the airport is under 2 miles from my house. I left Jake in charge, and went and got her and her 2 little girls, and delivered them home.

I didn't get home until about 5pm, and started on my designing again. *sigh* I got all 5 WordArt packs designed, and then started on dinner. Ever since having Crepes at Kayleys house on Sunday, I've been craving them (I know, it's only been 2 days.... it just seems like longer). SO, I found a recipe online, printed it off, an set to work.

2 cups of flour, 4 eggs, in a large bowl, and beat with the hand held mixer. Add 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of water, and continue to mix. Add 1/2 tsp of salt and 4 TBSP of melted butter, and mix a bit more.

I poured the batter into a large glass measuring bowl, and heated up my griddle. I made large circles, and cooked for about 1 minute on each side, and they were FABULOUS. A few were a bit thick, but I think that's just practice.

I filled them with a cream cheese/powdered sugar mixture and diet yogurt. Sprinkled with powdered sugar. I was SO wishing that I had strawberries, but we made due.

I ate one. It's SO not on the diet. I also had a large salad with spray on ranch and a bit of chopped lite Italian sausage. Captain America came home at about this time (6:30), and I went to finish loading my products into my store. I had the kids clean up a bit, and then they did homework, and had free time.

I was bad, and finished off Jimmy crepe. It was just SO good. I helped put the little boys to bed, and Captain America sang them guitar songs. I sent the big kids to bed, and sat down to work on WordArt Wednesday and blog, and I can now hear Captain America in the living room sing guitar songs to the big kids :) And I must admit, I went back and had another crepe. So much for my diet, right? Bad... BUT, those 3 crepes were the only variance from my diet today. That's gotta count for something, right? And the yogurt was fat free and plain. And I only put powdered sugar on 2 of the 3. hehehe.

I think I'm gonna watch an episode or two of something, and go to bed at 10 or 11. I'm feeling quite tired tonight. All my late nights are catching up with me, me thinks!

I really wanted to make a WordArt that said 2010 Olympic Winter Games, but I was afraid that the copyright police would find me - hehehe. And we don't that that, you know. I figured that this one would pass. AND, you can use it for snow layouts, too - see, I'm tricky! Olympics? What Olympics, officer? This is for snowball fights..... (It'll be our secret)

Click HERE to go to Scrap Orchard to download the ZIP file, and remember, you must be logged into the GALLERY (not the forum or store) in order to get the download. Leave some love if you won't sick the Olympics 2010 copyright police on me.

How Much Is This Tooth Worth?

OMGosh, it's already TUESDAY, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about my products from last FRIDAY. *sigh*. You still love me, right? Even though I'm slow sometimes - hehehe. Here's my new stuff from last week. Click HERE to go to Scraporchard and check out my stuff.

by Charmaine

by Trina

AND, I have a new Bundle out. Well, none of it is new, but it IS new to a bundle - hehehe. It's all my Attitude Packs, #1-8. For only $5. No too shabby, eh? Click HERE to go to the Bundle.

Wow, I'm tired. It's 12:30am, and I need sleep. LOTS of sleep. If I blog fast, I can get to bed before 1am. Still not enough sleep, but I'll take what I can get at this point :)

I woke up at 7am this morning, and hustled to get the kids up, and dressed, and fed, and homeworked, and out the door and to the bus stop by 7:30am. It was a whirwind. I walked with the 3 kids to the bus stop, which was at the intersection of 2 pretty busy streets on post. We were told to get there 10 minutes early, just to be sure.

It was FREEZING. Ok, so I know it's not as cold here as where some of you live, but when it gets to almost 70 during the day, yet when you wake up its 32, yeah, that's just not right - hehehe. I'll need a sock hat, and gloves, and a scarf, and a real coat tomorrow :) I can't wait for summer.

All the girls were there waiting too. Becky and Veronica, and Laurie and Kayley, and Andrea and I. The bus finally came, and we put them on it, and off they went. The kids were all pretty excited.

I came back home, got Jimmy situated, and headed off to exercise. Jacob and his Dad were working on a Merit Badge from scouts. Indian Lore, I think. Andrea and I were gonna do the hard workout today, but ended up doing the easy one. And it kicked our butts. It's a good thing we did the easy one.

After exercise, Veronica emailed us some info about a Charter School that we're thinking about putting the kids in next year. It's a K-8 program, so ALL of our kids would be able to go. It's about a 20-30 minute drive, but seems to be a better school. Great Schools.com rates our current school at a 4, and the new school at an 8. I don't know if that means anything, but out of a possible 10, that's not too bad.

I came home, and got Jake started on school, and Jimmy dressed, and Captain America and I and Jimmy went out to title the old truck. I needed to sign for it also. He tried to do it last Friday, but needed my signature, and didn't have time to get me there. So that's what our Monday trip was all about.

We drove to the West side to the place, and paid and signed and stuff. It's an expensive process, you know. *sigh*. BUT, it's done. And it's ours.

On the way home, my PMS hormones got the better of me, and I started yelling at Captain America. Poor guy doesn't realize what's happening, and he starts fighting back. Stupid hormones. I remember, at one point, turning off the CD (best of Muse), and sitting in silence. About 3 minutes later, he turns the music on, and says "Well, at least we can listen to some music". I ejected the CD, and said "NO, you can't listen to MY CD". Yeah, I know. I suck - hehehe. My hormones were raging, and I seriously thought I was gonna hurt someone.

We got home, him still totally flustered about my emotion break (LOL), and I retreated to my room. I laid on my bed for 30 minutes, trying to regain composure. Isn't it crappy how PMS will do that to you. Render you utterly useless and out of control. At least I knew to keep myself away from others.

I felt much better after that. I came out, and made lunch, and got ready to go shopping. I left the kids at home with Captain America (who was working on work stuff now - day off from work, but still plowing away...) and shopped by myself. Grocery shopping, nothing fun...

The commissary was closing at 3pm, and I got there at 2pm. I had to hustle. I made the rounds, and got everything that I needed. The line was HUGE, since it was Payday, but it was moving fast, since they had a TON of checkers. That's good. I paid, and went home.

It was almost 3 when I got home, and I had Jim and Jake carry in the groceries, and Captain America and I walked to the bus stop to get the kids together. I apologized for "pms-ing" on him, and he said that it was ok, that he loved me. Awe, thanks hon. I told him that I could feel myself losing control, but that there was nothing I could do about it. We laughed about how dumb it was that I took out the CD, and wouldn't let him listen to it. Funny now - hehehe.

He stayed and hung at the bus stop with the girls. Veronica was at the school, supervising the first day loading of the bus, and then staying to pick up our kids from AQ. We're gonna be taking turns driving up there to get them. Once a week driving to the school isn't bad. And whoever isn't driving up can pick up the rest of the kids.

The bus was 20 minutes past when it was supposed to be there, but it was a nice sunny day, so it was ok. We walked to the park when we were done with the bus, picking up Jimmy on the way. We were waiting for Veronica and our older kids. She stayed and played at the park with us for a while after getting them. It was SUCH a nice day outside. We didn't leave the park until 5pm.

At home, I made soup. Captain America is eating a lot more soup, and the homemade stuff is a lot cheaper than the store bought stuff. I used my new super big pot for it, too. It had onions, and celery, and parsley, and sweet potatoes, and canned tomatoes, and black beans, and kidney beans, and ground turkey, and bouillon, and a few onion soup mix packets. Pretty good soup.

I was supposed to go to a movie with some friends (Jessi and her friend from out of town), but the kids weren't ready for bed, no homework had been done, Jake was still doing school, and Captain America was working on this truck. Yeah, not the most ideal time to leave. I thought that the movie was playing at 8:55, but it was at 7:10. That's almost 2 hours difference. Yeah, my kids weren't ready for mom to leave, so I texted and bailed. Sorry, Jes! I'm a schmuch, I know :( Hope "Dear John" was good!

I did sit down and watch an episode of "Fringe" online though. Jimmy came and snuggled with me for part of it. Joe and Eme were having fun playing on Roller Blades, Jake was playing PSP, and Tom was helping his dad. It was a pleasant evening.

At 8pm, I put Jim and Joe to bed. I helped them with scriptures and prayers and articles of faith, then told them to lay down and sleep. I sat on their floor and folded laundry. See, there was a big pile of clean laundry in the living room, and Captain America put their things in their room. Then they trashed it, and mixed the clean with the dirty. So a smell check was in order. Nasty. I HATE smell checking.

By the time I had their room clean and put away, they were both asleep. I came out, and put the older kids to bed, and had them go to their rooms and read. I straightened up the living room, sweeping everything out of place to one pile, and re-arranging the living room every so slightly. I detailed the bathroom, and it looks nice again!

Then, I sat down and started to design my freebee. And blog about my new WordArt packs from last week (slacker, i know :) Now all I had to do was blog, not blog AND design. Andrea hopped on Skype at around 9pm, saying that she lost her keys. Well, Sam lost her keys. She has an extra set to her house, but not to her Suburban. Poor girl. Her man comes home in the next day or two, and she can't find her keys.

I went over to help her look for them at around 10:00pm. Captain America was just going to bed, after having worked on his truck a good part of the day. He was just beaming, he was so happy about his rig. LOL!

I brought a few sodas (diet, caffeine free (im weaning myself off), and apples) to Andreas house, with a movie to watch. It was SUPER funny, but different. Weird kind of humor. It was the same movie I'd watched with Captain America on Saturday night. I was quoting it too often for Andrea to have not seen it - hehehe.

About the last 10 minutes, I was TOTALLY nodding off. It was almost midnight. But I got the whole thing. And now I'm tired. Looks like it'll be 6 hours for me tonight :) Maybe I can schedule in a nap...... And a shower. 'Cause I didn't take one today, JUST to make a point - LOL!

And here's the WordArt for today! This request comes from Ashley. I'm working on a Tooth and Tooth Fairy WordArt packs for this Friday, and thought that this would get you warmed up - hehehe.

Click on the links below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you think loose teeth are nasty too...

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Sticks and Stones

Usually my Sundays are pretty restful. And I'm thankful for that. This one? Not so much. I woke up 30 minute before my 7:30am alarm, and remembered that I needed to design Invitations to the Blue and Gold Banquet. Thank goodness I had ink in my printer. I got those all designed and printed by 7:40am. I got the big kids awake and in the shower, and the little kids searching in the clean laundry pile for their Sunday clothes. I'm a bit behind on the folding of laundry...

Anyway, I hoped in the shower, and got all pretty for Church. At about 8:15am, when I was all ready to go, I noticed that my phone wasn't getting texts because it was full. Sigh. I get SO many texts a day, and my phone can only handle 100 in my inbox. SO, I went and deleted them all. Instantly, the texts started pouring in. *sigh*. Andrea had both called and texted in the middle of the night, and I'd missed them all.

Ben, the 7 year old, was playing at a friends house at 9:30pm, and right before Andrea took him home, he got hurt. They were all wrestling around, and he ran into a corner, and split his head open. Poor kid! Ton of blood, I guess.

They got the bleeding stopped, then took him home. Lots of pressure, but it still wasn't stopping. You know how bad head wounds bleed. By almost midnight, she realized that he needed to go to the ER. That's when she called. I felt like such a heel the next morning, for missing her when she needed me. I"M SORRY, ANDREA! I'll do a better job of keeping my phone close! (Although, right now, I have no idea where it is..... my plan isn't working too well)

So I start texting her, trying to figure out what happened. She starts sending me pics of them in the ER from last night. NASTY gash on his forehead. All the while, I was trying to get the kids some breakfast (it would have to be cereal again - we were out of bread), and get the little boys dressed.

Another text that came through was one of the primary teachers, saying that her daughter was sick, and asking me to teach her class. As a member of the Primary Presidency, I don't really have time to teach for the teachers, though. Plus, I was already subbing for Singing time. After that thought went through my head, I realized that I hadn't prepared ANYTHING for it yet. Crud. It was time to leave the house.

I quickly grabbed a left over poster board, and started cutting it into 16 rectangles. I grabbed a sharpie, my kids, my church stuff, my talk, my phone, and a Diet Dr Pepper, and headed out the door. Oh yeah, and my Blue and Gold invitations, and a generic talk for Primary, in case there wasn't a kids with a talk prepared.

I was a bit flustered by the time I got to church, but tried to relax. Jacob realized that he'd left his talk at home, the one that he stayed up 2 hours late working on. *sigh* Poor kid. I gave him the Generic Primary Talk to give. He seemed happy. His dad had told him to "wing it". That would have TOTALLY panicked me if I were in his shoes. I'm not a "wing it" kinda girl...

After the Sacrament was passed, Jimmy, Jake and I went up on the stand to talk. Eme, Joe, and Tom were just fine in the row by themselves. Jake gave his talk, and did a nice job. When I got up to speak, I gave Jimmy to his dad. He must have done fine, because I didn't hear anything behind me - :)

I think my talk went fine. I found a talk by Elder Hales, and it outlined a WHOLE bunch of things to do to improve family relationships. I encouraged everyone to pick out just one or two to work on. And my family too. I said, if any of you do ALL of these things, I wanna come and join your family - hehehe.

After my talk, I took Jimmy, and we went back and sat down with the other kids. I had to work on my Singing Time lesson, and still listen to Captain America, and keep the kids from fighting. Quite a daunting task, I must say. Captain America gave a VERY nice talk about strengthening marriages. He was quite emotional about it, tearing up a lot, but it was very endearing. I just LOVE that man :)

I finished the Singing time lesson just in the nick of time, and we headed off to class. Andrea teaches the one of the Sunbeam class (3 turning 4 yr olds), and she wasn't coming today. She'd gotten home from the Hospital at 4am. I didn't blame her. SO, we needed to find a teacher for that class. And for the 8 turning 9 year olds. They needed a teacher too. Primary is ALWAYS crazy.

I think that the kids had a TON of fun in Singing Time. We lplayed the "Sing it Like" game. I took the rectangles of poster board, and wrote "Sing It Like" on one side, and then a "style" on the back. "Sing it like.... your underwater". "Sing it like.... you're a cowboy" "Sing it like.... you're a rockstar" and so on. We sang the same song O"VER and OVER and OVER, but you know what, by the time we were done with Singing Time, those kids ALL knew the song. And I think they REALLY had fun.

The Senior primary (8-11) REALLY had a good time. They were loud and participating, and having a grand ole time. But, I was exhaused by the time church was over. Who knew I'd get my workout for the day at church - hehehe. Hopping and running in place, and fake skiing, and being a cowboy - those all work you leg muscles :)

I had to stay after church and go to a meeting, so my kids had to come and sit on the floor, and be quiet. Yeah, that's a stretch sometimes. The Youth (14-18) is going on a "trek" this summer. They're dressing up in Pioneer clothes, and talking what the pioneers would have had, and going on a 4 day "trek". Camping out, cooking their own meals. Anyway, I was asked to help some of the kids with sewing their clothes. After all the Civil War sewing experience I had, I could help :)

We got home at around 1:30pm. I got the kids out of their Sunday clothes, into their play clothes, fed, and situated with books in their rooms, and made some Soup for Andreas family. I brought it over, to check on them. Poor Bens cut looked pretty nasty. The hospital had glued it back together.

And get this. You know the part where the nurse rinses it out with saline. They made ANDREA do it. That's not cool. I take my kid to the doctor so that THEY can fix it. But she did it. I texted Captain America and asked him to drop by after he got done with church, for a visit. Captain America is assigned Andreas family, as a Home Teacher. He checks in with them to make sure that their needs are being met, and that they get the stuff that they need. I knew that Andrea was having a hard time with stress, and breaking out in hives, and thought that a Priesthood blessing out help. So he stopped by and gave her one.

I stayed for a bit longer, and visited with her. It can't be easier to have your man gone on Valentines day. I'd like to think that I helped out a little bit. We always get to laughing when we're together, so that's good :)

I came home, and Captain America was working on his truck. I know, not the best Sunday activity, but I've learned, over the years, that nagging doesn't work. Example works. I stayed out and chatted with him for a bit, then went inside to fix dinner for the kids. Scrambled eggs. Mmmm, yummy!

After the kids ate dinner, Captain America took the little ones on a truck drive, and I went with Andrea to a Valentines Dinner for the deployed ladies in the ward. She didn't want to go by herself, so I went for a little while with her. Captain America was spending time with the boys, so it was ok.

We had crepes with berries and filling and yummy stuff. It was a fun dinner. We helped clean up afterwords, and I headed back home. Captain America was finishing up his truck stuff, and heading back inside.

It was about that time that I checked my mail. I had a TON of emails. One in particular caught my attention. It was a comment on my blog from this morning. Not a nice one, either. I remember last year some time, or was it the year before, that I got a nasty comment on my blog. Something about "you don't really know Bethany, she's a bad person". This one was just as bad.

You know, I really don't know why people feel it necessary to leave nasty comments. I wonder, sometimes, if just ignoring it completely would be a better course. I guess I'll have my say today, then forget it. It's HERE, by the way.

I don't make people read my blog. Really, I use it as my Online Journal. I can look back over the 2 years that I've had it, and see what I've been up to. And I'm honest. Brutally honest. I don't do much editing. Because what I write about is MY life. My quirks. MY good and bad habits. I know I don't shower every day. Does that affect my eternal salvation? I don't think so. Does that make me a bad person? No. Does it make me smelly? Well, I shower if I'm smelly. Or at least I don't leave the house. hehehe.

As for the comment about my family relationships, well, that's just rude. Yeah, I leave my kids home sometimes. But I have a teen son who's responsible. That's the perks of having older kids. Did you know that I NEVER paid for a babysitter before I had a kid old enough to babysit? We never went out. I never went out. I would take all the kids with me when I grocery shopped. When I went to Walmart. When we went anywhere. Captain America and I had "at home" dates. We'd rent movies, or play cards, or work together around the house.

It's only been since my oldest was old enough to babysit, that I've started going out. And I must say, it's a nice feeling. To get away without the kids. Does that mean that I don't love my kids? Of course not. Does that mean that I'm a bad mom? I certainly hope not.

And yes, my husband works a lot. He tries his hardest to serve his county, his family, and his God. AND do a few things for himself. We used to go with him on his camp outs, but it's kinda lost it's fun for me. It's a lot easier to stay home. But, because I love him, I don't make him chose between it and me. I recognize that he can still have hobbies. And I know that he doesn't abuse the privilege.

Allright, that's enough, I think. I'm gonna quit responding, and just forget about the comment. How does the old saying go, "Stick and Stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me". That saying is right to a point. Words CAN hurt, but only if you let them. I kNOW that the comment that Anonymous made wasn't true, so it doesn't hurt me. Confuse me? Yeah, maybe a little. Annoy me? Um, yeah. But hurt me? Only if I truly believe the things that Anonymous said. And I don't.

I did wanna say a big THANK YOU to everyone who defended me on my blog and on facebook. Awe, thanks you guys! You guys rock!!!

It's now 1:33am, and I'm in some serious need of sleep. I've gotta get the kids to the bus stop tomorrow at 7:30am. Sweet dreams!

So, in honor of Anonymous, I'm not showering today. And I encourage you all to take a "no shower day" in the near future, in her honor as well. Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you wish Anonymous would have chosen to leave her name. Thanks!

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Valentine's Day 2010

First off, just wanted to say Happy Valentine's day to everyone! Hope your day is filled with love! What did I get for Valentine's day from my sweetheart? To talk in church. Um, yeah. One of the disadvantages of living with a member of the bishopric. Once every 3 months, the're in charge of the Sunday program, and sometimes, the wives get called on to speak. And I HATE speaking in front of people. *sigh*

Anyway, Saturday was a good day. I woke up between 10 and 11am. SWEET! The kids, for the most part, let me sleep. They were in and out for a little while, but I was able to go back to bed, so it was ok.

I helped the kids do their chores, and got the house back in order. It was TRASHED. I don't know how they can possibly do it so fast. It must be some kind of talent or something. House trashing....

Anyway, Andrea called at 11:30am, asking me to come and help her detail her Suburban. The inside part. We realized, after talking for a few minutes, though, that both families were supposed to be at a B-day part for one of Laurie's kids. Phearson. Dang, I"d have to hustle now. I read for WAY too long, and missed out on my shower. It'd have to be a bandana day - hehehe.

We got there about 15 minutes late, but it was still good. The kids got to do a pinata, play a few games, have cake and lemonade, and chicken and mashed potatoes for lunch, and open presents, and have a grand ole time.

We left at around 2;30, and after getting our kids home and situated, Andrea and I headed out to the Verizon store. We stopped at Sonic first, and got a BIG drink. I've had caffeine everyday for the past week, and I could feel my body wanting it. I hadn't had any, so I was starting to feel a bit down and getting a headache. Right before Andrea came to get me, I was in the process of downing a "fake" Dr. Pepper. And I took a migraine pill. I wasn't feeling terribly good.

After Sonic, we went to Verizon. It was a 30 minute wait, so we went to the Family Dollar store to kill some time. Andrea found some Valentine's cards for her kids, and a few things for her little primary class on Sunday. She's such a great teacher!

We finally went back to Verizon, and we learned that we were up next. The little man that helped us probably thought we were DORKS. hehehe. We were keeping him laughing, though! That's gotta be more enjoyable than the grouchy ones they get :)

Andrea activated her new phone, and got a red one instead of the black one they accidentally sent her. On the way home, we were transfering over phone numbers. We got 1/2 way through B before I started getting car sick, and had to put it down. We did figure out this REALLY cool thing though. When people call Andrea, it gives her the choice of 1) Answering, 2) Ignoring, or 3) Sending a Text reply. And they had a ton of pre-set messages to send people. I want that!

My phone was acting up a bit, so the Verizon dude flashed it. Apparently that's supposed to do the trick. My jury is still out on that one, though.

Coming back on post, I seriously thought I was gonna have an accident. I had to pee like there was no tomorrow. Andrea stopped at the gate office, and luckily there was a bathroom there I could use. Seriously, I was in pain, and jumping around on the bench. Too funny :) hehehe.

After that, we headed back off post, and stopped at McDonalds. Andrea bought McChickens and sundaes for the kids. Mine? Yeah, they didn't need anything. We still had Sherbet from Veronica in the freezer, and TONS of chocolate and goodies were consumed yesterday. Yeah, no one in our family needed McDonalds :)

We came back on post, and she dropped me off. I got a text from Leigh, shortly after that, that Eme was having an asthma like cough. Eme had gone to a Movie Birthday party for Leigh (my next door neighbor) daughter Kaleigh's b-day party. Remember the invites I said that I helped her make last week? Yeah ,this was the party.

Anyway, once they got home from the movie, I walked over to her house, and gave Eme her fast acting inhaler. She hardly EVER uses it. Only when she gets a cold. While everyone else would be having a snotty nose, or a little cough, or something little like that, when Eme gets sick, she sound's like she's coughing up a lung. It's really quite nasty :(

Anyway, I stayed a few minutes, and then came back home. I'd put a homemade pizza in the oven, and was afraid that it was gonna burn. Well, it was a little bit crispy, but not burned.

I read for a bit longer, and Captain America came home from his campout. I felt too tired and had too much to do to go out. Our original plan was to go out for Valentines day. Yeah, that didn't happen.

We bathed the kids, and sent them to bed. Jake and Captain America and I sat down and wrote our talks. We're speaking in Church on Sunday about Strengthening Families & Strengthening Marriages. I did some good research, I think.

Here it is, after midnight, and I'm just now tying up my blog/designing. I've been reading again, and it throws off all my routines. AND, I'm still sleepy, and falling asleep. That's not helpful when blogging, you know ;)

Click on the links below to go to my account, and leave some love if you can answer by text on your phone. Thanks!

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