Just A Kiss

Hi! Welcome to the next day - hehe. I slept pretty well last night, despite the thunderstorm. I know I woke up to Thunder one time, but went back to sleep. It doesn't really phase me. Aunt Sue? Yeah, it scares the snot out of her. So while it didn't affect my sleep, it made me worry about her a tad bit.

I woke up at 7:30am, and got dressed, had breakfast, and got Tom ready for baseball camp. Everyone else was awake too. Well, when I say "got Tom ready", I really just said "Hey, go eat some breakfast". hehe. He had the rest of it covered on his own.

I dropped him off a little before 8am, then headed back home. And had grand plans to clean the house..... I did something productive, but the whole house didn't get cleaned. hehe. I went through Eme's closet with her. And we got a HUGE massive bag of clothes to donate. Most of her pants don't fit.

Anyway, we got all the clothes put away where they go, hung up, or what not. And the closet looked much better. I came back downstairs, fixed my hair, did my make up, and I was all ready to go to my Therapy appointment. I left the house at 9:40am, and drove to the West side, alone. hehe.

UPS!!!

I had my session, and we mainly talked about Jake. What I can do to make things better, and how I can control the situation so that the "meltdowns" don't occur in the first place. I'm gonna give it my best shot!

I headed back home, and we all hung out until lunchtime. I made some Mac N Cheese for the kids, then realized it was time to go and pick up Tom. Aunt Sue finished up the lunch prep, and I took Jim, and went to pick up Tom. The two of them had Free lunch, and we headed back home. It makes the box of Mac N Cheese go further when 2 of the kids have already eaten - hehe.

At 1, I dropped Jake off at the youth center. Tom babysat the little kids, and Aunt Sue, Madi, and I stopped by the religious building to sign the kids up for Vacation Bible School. They pick the kids up on the bus from our neighborhood around 9am, and it gets over at 1pm (they feed them lunch), and they'll drop them back off. First week in August, everyday. And it's free. Oh yeah, can't beat that!

Then we headed back home to all the kids. Oh yeah. hehe. We just relaxed the rest of the afternoon. The little girls wanted to watch a movie in my room, and I went to lay down with them. I got about a 30 minute nap when Lily fell asleep. Then I came out to see what everyone else was doing.

We watched some Psych, and then Jake called and wanted to come home. That was around 4:30pm. By 5pm, the episode of Psych was over, most of the little kids (and the prego girl) were sleeping, so Aunt Sue and I went to the youth Center to pick up Jake. And decided to stop by the Commissary on the way home to pick up something for dinner.

We settled on Fish Stick sandwiches. Ever had one? I always found that fish sticks didn't fill anyone up. But a bun with cheese and ranch and fish sticks? Yeah, that's more of a meal. We had it with some tater tots, and salad. We got a few other things for some other meals, and headed to pay.

And the woman a few isles down was at the check out, and she had a BUTTLOAD of Snickers bars. I wonder what she was gonna do with them all???? I snapped a quick picture of her and them. hehe.
We took longer than we thought at the commissary, and it was nearly 6pm by the time we got back home. Everyone helped bring in the groceries, we put them all away, and cooked dinner. I had a big salad with fake crab meat. Oh yeah, SO tasty. hehe.

We cleaned up a little bit, then Maddie and Lily headed out for a bit. Aunt Sue and I went and cleaned up the little boys room. If it gets so bad that I have to clean it, then they're not allowed in there, and I throw all sorts of stuff away. 2 trash bags worth of stuff. And I found 10 plastic red plates in there. What the crap??? How did they possibly get that many plates in there??? Freakin' kids!

It really did look pretty good when we were finished, though. Maddie and Lily got back, and Aunt Sue and Maddie and I sat around and chatted for a bit. We rearranged the living room so that we could fit another couch in there (need more seating, cause we now have 10 in the house). And move the table in the dining room around a bit. Now we can fit more people at it. That is, if I ever get the folded laundry off of it... hehe. That's a job for tomorrow.

We watched a few more episodes of Psych, and the little kids fell asleep on my bed. I carried Joe to his room, and yeah, it was WAY too much for me to carry Jim. I just kinda grabbed him under the shoulders, and drug him to bed. It was quite humorous... And I couldn't lift him into this bed, so I left him hanging over the edge. So I covered him up, and left him. Sorry, hon. You're big. LOL!

So here it is, 10:24pm. And I'm done blogging. And this episode of Psych is almost over. It's thunderstorming again. So I'm not sure what the plans will be for tomorrow. We'd thought that we'd do something outside, but not if its storming...

Oh yeah, real fast, before I go. I found chickens at the Commissary. Whole chickens. For $1.50 a piece. So I bought 4. What do I do with them? I have 3 in the freezer, and one defrosted in the fridge. Anyone know how to cook a chicken? How to make it tasty????

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

4shared
box.net

Awe, lovely wedding layout, my dear! Thanks, Sharon!

Take Me Home, Country Road

Hey there, friends! Welcome to the new week :) How was your Monday? Mine was pretty good!

I woke up at 7:15am, and got Tom ready for Baseball camp. Everyone but Jake was awake when I left to drop him off at 7:40am. I got him all signed in, then headed back home.

We all had breakfast, and got ready for the day, then headed out for a Savers Monday. hehe. With kids! Lots of kids :) We had a 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9 year old. Crazy, huh? hehe.

We grabbed some Howdys cups, and off we went. And I figured out that if I used a 44 oz cup (which fits in the cup holder), and put the 64 oz cup inside of it, then I don't have to put it between my legs when I drive! Score - hehe :)

We headed across town to the East side, and all went and waited in line to get in the store at 9am. ha! We're silly, huh?

Here's the line!

And oh the fun we had! It was yellow tag day, and I found quite a few things! Tom got a BUNCH of school clothes, and Jake and Eme too. Jim and Joe got a few things. I found a few things, too.

And we were there for 2 1/2 hours. hehe. Amanda and Austin came, and Margot and Emma came too. It was a GREAT Savers day.

We also found out that we could sign up for a Savers Discount Card. So we did that online to get extra savings. 50% off of kids clothes, and 30% off of everything else. Oh yeah! It took a while to get the phone internet to cooperate, but we finally got it. So we got our cards.

Here's my cart of stuff!

My receipt was a big as Ella!!! (Don't worry, Captain America, most of it was school clothes!)

Amanda took Joe and Jim with her, and headed to our favorite McDonalds. And the rest of us headed back to post to pick up Tom, then joined her at McDonalds. The AC is FABULOUS there. hehe.

We got $1.99 Happy Meals for the kids, and lunch for us. And, a soda, of course - hehe.

Ha!

Ella

The boys found these COOL army men buildings and army men at Savers, and brought them to play with.

Lily

Joe

Maddie's hamburger (plain, with mayo and fries)

Me and Tom

Me and Ella

Me and Lily

Austin and his pirate patch from Savers

Joe

Lily and Ella

Maddie, Amanda, and Aunt Sue

Eme

We stayed for a few hours, then headed back home. And unloaded all of our new stuff, and sorted it out, and the kids tried on their stuff.

Here's Tom with a new shirt and jacket. He LOVED the Jean Jacket.

And yeah, he doesn't wear a 32 in mens. Sigh. I bought him 7 pairs of school shorts in a size 32. So I have to take them back and get a different size...

Here's Ella in her new Jammies :)

Joe and his new shirt and his new jacket

Jake's new shirt, and Lily's new outfit.

Jimmy's new zip up Jammies. He just LOVED them! hehe.

Aunt Sue's new shirt

Eme's new pants and shirt

My new shirt

We put the kids down for a nap/movie, left Tom in charge, and headed out. Maddie and Aunt Sue and I took Jake to the youth center, then headed back to the east side. And went to a few stores. Check out the BRIGHT orange sunglasses I found. hehe. Don't worry, I didn't get 'em!
We went to Fallas, and found some GREAT deals on School clothes! I got white polo shirts for Tom for $1.99 a piece! And then my phone died. Sigh. I hate it when it dies. hehe. We finished up at Fallas, paid, and headed back to Savers.

I found out that you can't return $0.99 sale items (crap!), so 4 of the 7 couldn't be returned. Dang! But I did find 3 more to exchange, so that was good. And got a few more $0.99 items for the kids. And we paid, and headed home.

We cooked dinner for the kids (waffles), and got everyone settled in for the night. Oh yeah, and when we pulled out the waffle maker, the smaller of the 2 had waffles still in them!!!! Epic fail on the dishwashers (TOM) job! hehe. It was nasty, and I made him clean it up himself :)

We put Maddie's kids to bed at 8pm, let Joe and Jim watch a movie in their bed, and left Tom and Jake and Eme watching a movie in the living room. All was quiet and calm. hehe.

So we snuck out for a quick trip to the Jewelry Box at the mall. Oh yeah! It was fun looking at al the stuff!

Everything in the store is only a dollar. Sweet, huh?

I found these nail things, and was SO excited! I'll let ya know if they work :)
We finished up at the Jewelry Box, and headed to Target (same mall) for Maddie to look at the baby clothes. And to pick up some milk. Cause we were almost out.

Check out the pink. Do I need it?

Hat?

Maddie and baby - hehe

We paid, and headed back home. The little kids were all sleeping soundly, and the big kids were watching something or another on TV. We put Tom and Eme to bed, and I went off to shower. And oh yeah, it felt SO good :) hehe. I put on my new jammies, and started to blog.

It's now 11:41pm, and we're finishing up the 2nd episode of Hoarders. That show still makes me feel weird. LOL. Maybe I need to go and clean up the kitchen.... ROFL!

Tuesday Tom has camp, and I have a therapy appointment at 10am. And maybe I'll go through Eme's clothes and see what she has/needs for school. Hoarders will make ya wanna do that, you know. hehe.

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

4shared
box.net

Thanks, Sharon! Great hiking layout!

That Don't Impress Me Much

Hey, all! Hope your Sunday was good. Ours was relaxing, if nothing else. We skipped church today, because my mom and dad had to get dropped off at the airport at around that time. I know, I know, I suck. But we did get to spend a few more hours with my parents before they left.

My alarm went off at 7:30am, but I didn't get up till closer to 8am. We got breakfast for the kids, and just hung out for the morning. It was pretty low keyed. My mom and dad packed up their stuff, and we snapped a few pictures.

Aunt Sue

Madi

Tom and my mom and Joe

Eme and Grandma Lyn

Papa Steve

Me and my dad

We loaded up in the truck, and off we went around 10:30ish to take my parents to the airport. Aunt Sue came along for the ride, too. Kid free. Oh yeah :) Thanks, Maddie, for watching them all - ha!



We came back home, cleaned up the kitchen a bit, cleaned out the fridge for a while, and had lunch. Leftovers and PBJ's. Oh yeah :)

Then, we cleaned in the dining room for a bit, and cleaned the stairs. Maddie got the "nesting" bug, and cleaned my floorboards going up the stairs. I vacuumed and steam cleaned 3 of the stairs. Yeah, my "stick-to-it-ness" didn't last very long... But those 3 stairs look nice :)

Then we watched some TV. For a long time. For like 8 episodes of Psych. We'd never watched that show before, and I found it SO good and funny! And the older boys liked it too, which was a plus. We just watched it all day long. hehe.

Maddie took a nap on the couch at one point. I snuggled with kids and watched TV and just hung out for a bit.

Ella fell asleep with Jake :)

Lily

Lily and I have fun when we're together. hehe. We were making funny faces for the camera :)

And then I told her that she should try and lick her elbow. So she tried, and couldn't. I tried too, and couldn't. So I was like, "Hey Lily, I can lick YOUR elbow", and I licked it. So she had to lick mine. Then run around the room and lick everyone elses elbows too. You're welcome, Maddie. hehe.

Tom, intently watching his show :)





At dinner time, I searched for random ingredients to make something or another out of. It turned out to be a chicken pasta bake of sorts. We had leftover baked chicken, so Aunt Sue and I picked it from the bone, diced it, and used that for our chicken.

I added 2 cans of Cream of Chicken soup, 3/4 cup of sour cream, and 1 cup of shredded cheese to it. With a bit of milk. Then cooked a package of spaghetti (whole wheat, broken in 1/4's), and mixed that into the sauce. And put it in a greased baking pan, and baked in the oven at 375. I also put some shredded cheese on top. And cooked until warmed and cheese was melted. It was pretty good, for a random concoction.

And the kids actually ate it - ha! Ella ate hers, and Joe sucked his down. Jimmy wasn't too interested (not a surprise), but Lily was napping already, so she missed it.
Closer to bedtime, Lily woke up, and was hungry. So we pulled the casserole out of the fridge, and gave her a fork, and let her have at it. ha! Joe got in on the action too. hehe.

Jim getting a drink

We made peanut butter cookies (NOT a good recipe, gotta find an alternative one), and Ginger Snaps. I didn't have enough molassas, so they were a super light color. Still tasted pretty good, though. Nice and soft.

After the cookies were done, we put the kids to bed, and Tom, Jake, Aunt Sue, Maddie, and I watched a final episode of Psych. We couldn't decide on something to watch after Tom went to bed, and Jake got frustrated with the lot of us, turned off the TV, and stormed off to bed. He tried to get the dog to come with him, but poor Boxer knew Jake was upset, and jumped up onto Maddie's lap! Poor prego girl!

Jake headed off to bed by himself, and I started blogging, and Maddie decided to just go to bed. It's only 10:30pm, and it might be an early night for the lot of us. Sitting around all day doing nothing but watching kids and cleaning up their messes can really wear a body out, you know. hehe.

Tomorrow, Tom has baseball camp early in the morning. Then, the rest of us are gonna go to Savers. I have a 30% off coupon that expires at the end of the month. We'll probably make a grown up trip to Fallas at some point on Monday, too. Gotta love that store :)
Click on the link below to go to my account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!

4shared
box.net

Awe, cute! Love this one, Sharon :) Great colors :)