Free As A Bird 2

Hey there! So, it's been another long day. While I'm not looking forward to Christmas break, I am looking forward to taking at least one restful day. Cause I'm SO tired... hehe. But if I don't play hard, then I don't sleep well at night. LOL. Sleep because of total exhaustion... Yeah, that works :)

I got up at 6:45 ish, and got the kids ready. Tom left for school at 7am, then I took Joe and Jim and Eme to the bus at 7:15am. Luckily, all the kids were awake when I woke up. Except for Jake. So it was easy to get the little ones ready.

Kari gave me a ride home from the bus stop, and I eventually woke Jake up. He had therapy at 9am, so I didn't need to wake him up early. But we did finally get ready and head out. We made it to the appointment a few minutes early. And sat in the parking lot in the warm car, and chatted for a bit.

Then it was time to go in. Jake had his session, and I guess they learned about social situations. Watched a video, and talked about how to react when this, that, or the other thing happens. He really does seem to be coming along nicely....

We loaded up, and headed out to his school. I dropped him off, and headed back to post. I reheated the soup from last night, and made some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for the party. And baked 2 dozen gingersnaps with the left over dough from last night. And was still about 15-20 minutes late for the Ugly Christmas Sweater party. Sigh. I try. LOL :)

Check out my cool Ugly Sweater!!! You like it???

And I went with Pig Tails and bells in my hair. hehe. I thought it was fun :)
Margot, and Terra, and Kari, and Maggie, and Amanda, and Charlotte, and Veronica were all at the party. It was a fun time! We had a ton of food, and lots of yummy desserts. Check out this fun cake that Veronica bought for us!!!

Margot and I being goofy!
Before the party got over, we had Terra's hubby take a photo of us all. Aren't we special! hehe :)
Here's Veronica, with the puppy Christmas sweater. Nice.... real nice!

Hot mama in the Santa vest!!! You rock it, Charlotte!!!
And me, being me!
So for the ornament exchange, we were supposed to all bring an ornament. But I ended up with the one that wasn't an ornament. Oops. hehe. At least they were SUPER cute plates! hehe.

After the party, we had about an hour before bus stop time. Kari wanted to go and get a Carpet Cleaner machine from Walmart, so we all decided to go! We all loaded into Terra's van, and off we went. Most of us. Veronica had to go, and Margot and Emma headed back to the East side.

We grabbed the few things that we needed, and noticed this guy in front of us.... Um, why???
We paid, headed back to post, and picked up our cars at Terra's house. Then headed to the bus stop. I grabbed my kids, dropped them off at home, then took Eme to her piano practice on Biggs. It's at a chapel over there, where they will be having the concert on Saturday. er So they can get used to the piano. I brought my laptop, and got 2 WordArt packs designed. Sweet :)

Eme did very nice, and after the hour was up, we headed back home. I didn't really have a lot of time. I tried to find something to feed kids, but everything that I had at the house required cooking. And I didn't have the time. I guess I'd have to feed them when we got home late from scouts...

And then, like the little miracle worker that she is (hehe), Amanda show's up with all the leftover chicken that she brought to lunch today!!! Instant dinner for my kids! I was stoked. Because I wasn't gonna have time to feed them :)

We brought the bread and the chicken and the cookies with us to Jim's basketball practice, and off we went. I got a WordArt pack designed, and got to visit with Kari and Suzanne. It was a fun time. I volunteered for snack for the game for Friday, and got to chance to talk with the coachor a bit. And iron out the "i left my kid unattended" situation. He has 4 of his own, and coaches for 3 of them. Oh yeah, he gets it! hehe.

After practice, we loaded up, switched out Jim for Leo, and headed to the church. My cub scout lesson was pretty lame, but it worked. We made picture frames for our gathering activity, then talked about collections. And then talked about the Food Pyramid. And the boys played hackey sack for a bit. More like threw and kicked the ball at each other. they here having a grand time, though.

I let them out a few minutes early so they could go and play outside (in the freezing cold), and went to chat with the ladies in the hall. And got an inmpromptu Tithing Settlement meeting. Sweet. Now I don't have to sign up! Woohoo! hehe. It's always nice to meet with the bishop, though. I can tell that he really does care and have concern for me and my family. He is a very good man :)

I chatted in the hall for a bit more, then Jake helped me gather up all the kids, and we headed back to post. My head was somewhat hurting. I think I'm on the verge of getting a headache. The lower dose of Topomax is making me think a lot clearer, but now I get headaches easier...

Anyway, we switched Jim/Leo back, and headed home. I worked on getting kids to bed ,and made Tom and Joe do their chores. They had the worse off downstairs chores. Everyone else's rooms were passable. I sat down to design/blog, and everyone else worked on going to bed. Some more than others. Jim was out instantly. Eme went right upstairs.

Tom was on his laptop doing some research, then played on a math website after I told him not to. Jake kept trying to play video games. Hmpf! See, some people did really good, and some people, not so much. ha!

And here it is, 10:30pm. I'm falling asleep. You know, I really do sleep well at night. Exhaustion is a great way to sleep. Utterly wear yourself out, and you'll sleep fabulously.! Ha!

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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LOVE these color combos! These greens and oranges/browns are fab!!! Great layout, Sharon! Looking good!

Foxy Lady

Well, luckily, it was only 2 hour delay for school. Praise the Lord. hehe. I wasn't ready for a whole day off of school. The weekend had already been long enough. ROFL! Unfortunately, my plan if sleeping in did not pan out. The kids were SO excited about the snow, that they woke up early. Like 6:30 or 6:45am. And were in and out of my room, asking questions and bothering me. Hmpf!

Then they were asking about school, and asking about the snow, and about playing outside, and about gloves, and the screen door kept slamming... It was SO annoying...

At around 7:30am, I gave up, and grabbed my phone and messed around on it for a while. Captain America was on Skype, so we messanged for a bit. Its so nice to be able to catch that boy online and be able to chat with him.

Eventually, it was time to put the phone away, and get the kids ready for school. Even with the 2 hour delay, the monring went pretty fast. Toms bus normally comes at 7am. So he left at 9am. Here's a picture that I napped of him right before he left for the day. Isnt he getting handsome :)

And here's eme
15 more minutes, and it was time to take the rest of the kids to the bus stop. We walked on over, and I snapped a few pictures on the way. We did get a light dusting of snow, and a sheet of ice. It was pretty slippery out there!

Crystal and Amanda and I! Ha!

Kids galore at the bus stop. ha!
Joe is the CUTEST thing ever!!!

Soon the bus came, and us moms stood around and chatted for a bit. Then we all headed back home. Luckily Amanda's car was SUPER warm, and she was giving me a ride!I made sure that Jake was ready, and he headed off for school. I watched an episode or two of X-files, and messed around on the laptop for a bit. It was having a few issues, so I was trying to get it to work right. Yeah, I wasn't having the best of luck...

At around 10:30 or 11 or so, Amanda and I decided to head out. We didn't know where, but we were gonna go. hehe. We texted everyone and invited them, but most were busy. Maggie said that she'd meet us at the Cielo Vista mall. Sounded good to us! But we had a while to kill first.

So we did a quick Walmart stop. Amanda needed a few things. We grabbed them real quick, paid, and then decided that since it was lunch time, it was time to head to eat. Olive Garden sounded awfully nice! We texted a few more people, and got Veronica to come too! And Maggie and Hannah finally came too. It was a great lunch!

Here's our salad. Don't you just LOVE Olive Garden?!

Me and my diet coke!
We ate and chatted and enjoyed ourselves. Then paid, and headed to the mall. We had about an hour to spend. Maggie wanted to go to the Apple Store. And wouldn't you know it, the ONE store that was affected by the storm was the apple store. hehe. It was closed because of a busted pipe. Poor maggie. hehe.

We looked around for a bit more, then headed to Pennys for some of the girls to look for Ornaments. For the gift exchange tomorrow. What do you think about this one???
These nutcrackers were pretty cool!
I don't even know what to say about this one...

Maggie and Hannah.

Maggie showed me where she got her cool boots from, and we popped our head into it. They were having buy one pair of boots, get a 2nd pair for $15.50. Not too bad, for boots, right? So for about $60, I could have gotten 2 pairs of boots. But we didn't have time to look. Maybe tomorrow we'll go back...

We had to hurry. We were gonna be late for the bus! Hustle!

Going down the elevator :)
We headed out to the car, and Amanda was having a hard time finding her keys in her purse. Yeah, I found them for you, Amanda!!! Poor thing. This move is jacking her up!
We made it home in JUST enough time to grab the kids from the bus, chat with the girls for a bit, then let the kids play for a minute or tow, and go home. Amanda and Austin came over too, and Amanda and I used my new mixer and we made cookies! Gingersnaps. Oh yeah, they are SO good!

And the mixer from the day after thanksgiving at Walmart? It kinda sucked. Sorry Amanda. It was an AWESOME present. Cause I know you were thinking about me. It was a perfect present for me, because I don't have a big mixer like that.... Just not this one. It doesn't work that well....

Anyway, I grabbed out my old Kitchen Aide handheld mixer, and finished up the cookies. Oh yeah, SUPER good :) We cooked a few dozen, and put the rest of the dough in the dridge. Then started on some Minestrone soup. I added sausage to mine. Oh yeah! Super duper yummy!

By the time the soup was done ate, it was time to go to basketball. The kids all got a cookie for dinner, and a small bowl of soup. They had to chow it down super fast before we left.

We all loaded up in the car, and headed out. We dropped Tom and Eme off at the Youth Center, then continued up to Logan for Joe's practice. Amanda and I hung with Kari while the little kids played. they were really pretty good today. Thank goodness! Except for how I noticed that Jim didn't have on shoes. Whaaaaat? So, at what age do you have to stop reminding kids to wear shoes???? Geepers!

After the practice, we gathered up all of the people, and headed over to Biggs field. We had to pick up Jake. He'd done VERy well today and called me to ask if he could go to the youth center. He did SUCH A great job!!! Just what we had talked about! Perfect, jake!

We grabbed him, then headed back to the house. It was about 7pm by now. Eme had gotten a ride home, so we had everyone except Tom back home. The kids finished off more soup, and had some crackers to go with it. I straightened up in my room a little bit, then Amanda and I went to pick up Tom from basketball.

We also got a few gallons of gas for Amanda's car, and did a quick Burger King drive thru. Amanda was hungry. Tom and I got some little Whopper Jr meal thingy, and I told Tom that he had to eat it faster, because I didn't have enough for everyone. hehe. I'm so bad - LOL! He was pretty good with it, though :)

And we went back to the house. Oh yeah, my Cyber Monday Miche purse order came! I was SO stinkin' excited about it!!! They are SO pretty :)

I got the kids all calmed down and ready for bed. It had been a long night. My computer was doing a re-boot thin, and was taking forever! Slowly, slowly, slowly..... Then Amanda texted, and asked if I wanted to go to Walmart! The movers had packed ALL of her sheets. And they didn't wanna sleep on the air mattress without it. Ot... So I got ready, and off we went. And oh yeah!!! I found the hat!!!
We went to Walmart, and there were hardly any carts there. Well, a lot for Walmart in general, but not for a Saturday and not for a 13. OK, I think I'm falling asleep... LOL. It's 11pm. And I'm sleepy. And blogging with my eyes closed :) Can you imagine me over there, sleep blogging. hehe :)

Anyway, we went to Walmart, grabbed the few things that we needed, and headed back to post. We had some rappy music station on. It was pretty funny. We were dancing and having a grand time. Well, this song by LMFAO is called, "I'm Sexy and I Know It" is really popular right now. Anyway, it was blaring on the radio. And just as we get to be checked out by the guard, Amanda hands him the ID's, he hears the song, which is saying "I'm secy and I know it", and Amanda points to me. And I give myself 2 big thumbs up. Yeah, the gate guard was all laughing. ha! We do that to the best of people :)

Kids were all asleep when I got back home. Luckily, Jake woke up to go to the bathroom or something, so I could sent him to take out the trash. ha! And now, it's SO time for bed. I'm tired. And ready to go to sleep. So that I can wake up and have fun tomorrow!!! Cause that's what I do best. Have fun, you know :)

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Busy As A Bee

Hey there girls. Crazy busy monday, and I loved every minute of it. hehe. I realized when I went to bed that I'd forgotten my phone in the truck. Oops. So, no Seminary for Jake and I. Because, if I don't have a phone, then I don't have an alarm. Tom woke me up at 7am to tell me he was leaving for the bus. At least he has an alarm clock, right??? He's such a good kid!

I hurried to get the other kids up and dressed and to the bus in 15 minutes (we made it!), then came back home to get jake ready. And I got ready for Savers. Kim and I headed out at 8:40am, and made it there in time to donate something for our 20% off coupon, and make it inside just as the doors opened. Oh yeah!

Today was Orange day. $0.99 for Orange Tags. I got some jeans for the boys, and a few other things. I found a winter jacket for Joe (not on sale...) and some sweaters for our Ugly Christmas sweater party. TOO funny. Kim and I had WAY too much fun shopping and looking around.

After Savers, we went to Hobby Lobby and found the PERFECT ornaments for our Ornament exchange on Wednesday. Mine is a santa ornament. I love it! Her's is a frog, and I SO want it!!!

Next, we swung by Chick-fil-a for lunch. And they have Diet Dr Pepper there, and I can actually taste it again. hehe. I got the more healthy chicken (good choices, see!), and I was proud of myself :)

And we headed back toward post. Kim stopped by the school to pick up a sick kid, but after talking to the nurse at the school, they decided that he was just nervous about getting his tonsils out later in the week. Makes sense.

Kim dropped me off at Terra's house, and Terra and I headed to the West Side. We went to the Corner Bakery so that she could get some lunch. I got a hot chocolate. Oh yeah!

I haven't had a hot chocolate in quite a while! It was SOOOO tasty! I loved it. I had fun chatting with Terra over lunch. After eating, we headed over to Target and walked around for a little bit. I found the CUTEST hat, and a scarf and gloves set. We paid, and headed to pick up the girls from ABA therapy.
We headed back to post, and picked up Amanda. The movers were at her house today. SO not cool. They'd decided, instead of packing another day, to start loading the truck. So her house is almost empty. Yeah, NOT liking this.....

Anyway, we got Amanda, and took her for a Sonic run. Score! Then back to post. Terra dropped off amanda, then dropped me off at the house. I had just enough time to organize all my stuff from the day that I'd gotten, and put away things.

Check out my new shall thing, and my new hat, and my new scarf!

And gloves!
And I found these ornaments at Hobby Lobby, and decided to get them for my Cub Scouts. I thought they were SO cute. I figured that I'd give them to the boys this Wednesday, so they could hang them on their trees for this season. Good idea, huh???
And here they are, wrapped :)
That's about all the time I had, then I headed to the bus stop. And met Amanda there. And sat in her car, cause it was SO cold! The moms all went and stood out to wait for the bus the last 3 minutes before the bus got there. And then I see Tom walking up. And wonder what he's doing there. Apparently the middle school bus never showed up! So they had to walk home. And it wasn't far, but it was SUPER cold today. In fact, it was supposed to snow overnight. Or that was the forecast, anyway...

We got the kids off the bus, and sent them all back to my house with Tom. And Amanda and I headed to her house to grab some stuff from her freezer. Since the movers had loaded EVERYTHING on the truck, she no longer had a way to cook a lot of the stuff in her freezer. So I was getting food early. hehe. More "shopping" at Amanda's house.

Isn't this the saddest sight....
Check it out! It was really starting to come down!!!

Amanda and Austin decided to stay and play for a bit, but after a few minutes, decided that it wasn't gonna happen. Austin felt a bit warm, and was being a bit whiny. I think he wasn't feeling well. Amanda decided to take him home and give him some meds. Poor kid. It can't be easy to come home and have your whole house packed up. Moving is hard for a grown up. It's even harder on a little guy!

I got dinner for my kids, and had them sit down and do homework. And a 5:30pm, Amanda and I snuck out for a quick Big Lots trip. See, I was trying to earn a 20% off discount. I have to make a certain number of qualifying purchases, and I'll get the coupon. LOL! So I can't buy everything all in one day, I have to break up my purchases over time. Slow and steady kinda thing...

Anyway, we looked around for a bit. I found gummy vitamins for $1 a bottle. So I got a bottle for each kid. They'd be excited. ROFL! And some kid protein bars for $0.30. They'll like that. And I found an e-reader for under $50. I decided to get it for Tom for Christmas (Shhhh, don't tell). He's SUCH an avid reader. I figured that he'd LOVE it! We paid, and headed back home.

Amanda headed home, and the kids worked on their chores for a while. At 6:30pm, I braved the weather, and headed out to get Jake. He'd decided to go to the Youth Center. Which I totally wouldn't have cared, if he'd have let me know first.... I was a little panicked when he didn't show up after school.... Sigh. He'll get it figured out eventually :)

It was SUPER nasty outside. I went SUPER slow. Cause it was snowing pretty good now. You know, if you drive slow, especially when turning, you'll do ok. I just wish that the other people around me realized that. I almost got hit at the stoplight. Because the dude in the white van next to me didn't realize that he needed to start stopping early. Luckily he was able to swerve into the next lane. Sigh. Freak....

I drove slowly to the Youth Center and got Jake, then came back home. I dropped him off, then went to pick up Amanda. She needed a foot locker from the PX to pack a few more things in. And I said that I'd go and get her. My kids were doing great at home. They'd done chores and homework and were on electronics. Sounded good to me :)

I went and got her, and we took the back route to the PX. I had a bad feeling that someone was gonna hit us. So I wanted to stay off of the main roads. I just had the premonition that something bad would happen if we took a main road. And yeah, I listen to promptings, you know :)

So we took the long, round about way, and made it just fine. We went into the PX, and she got her foot locker. And we walked around for a bit, looking at some interesting stuff. Like these COOL shoes. They reminded us of Maggie!
It's a turkey towel!
That's a freakin' big chocolate bar!!!

RoFL!
Since the movers had packed the coffee maker, Amanda decided to be a super nice wife and go to the Starbucks at the PX and get her man some instant coffee. Awe, she's a sweetheart! And while there, she treated me to a hot chocolate. And yeah, she swore that it really was a hot chocolate. It was supposed to be mint. I could totally taste the mint. But I'll be darned if it didn't taste mocha-ish. Seriously....
We headed home, and by the time I got all my kids in bed, it was 9pm. Luckily, after checking the news sites and the districts website, we discovered that there was a 2 hour delay on school! Perfecto! We get to sleep in, AND still get rid of the little monsters! I mean kids! Yes! Perfect! hehe :)

I turned on the X-files, and started blogging. And uploaded photos. And such. And here it is, 11pm. And I'm sleepy. And ready to go snuggle in my bed, and sleep in tomorrow! And if they've canceled school for some strange reason, I'm gonna cry. hehehe.

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

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Love the layering on this one, Sharon, my dear! Great job! Cute little bee!!!