Our Talks in Church

So, my family talked in church yesterday. It went pretty well. Eme "ate the microphone" according to the boys, but she was able to be heard. Jake and Tom stood farther way, and no one could hear them. I guess it's better to eat the microphone - LOL! But they all did good. They were nervous, but did just fine. I was SO proud of them.

I talked for about 20 minutes, but didn't leave much time for Captain America. Poor guy. He'd prepared a nice talk, and only have 5 minutes. I don't get up and talk on the fly well. I have to have everything pre-written, or I just babble. So, it was either 20 minutes worth of talk, or none at all. Sorry, sweetheart! Next time, we'll coordinate better. And you can give your WONDERFUL talk :)

If you wanna read our talks, you can find them below :)

Bethany
Emeline
Jacob
Thomas

Joe's B-Day Recap

We had Joe's bday at Kelly park today.

We staked claim on a pavillion nearest the park enterance (but furthest from the activities/food - oh well - I didn't wanna carry my stuff that far - hehehe). We put up balloons and streamers and tried to make it look festive. Joe was pleased with my efforts - hehehe.


Our friends started showing up at 10am. By 11am, they were all there. They played on the bouncy things, played in the sand, played Star Wars games, played in the sprinklers, played cowboys and indians, and just had good kid fun. We ate lunch at 11pm, the usual for Free lunch. But with potato salad this time.

The kids were climbing the wall, so I figured it was time to start with the cake - LOL!


After lunch, we sang to Joe, he "fake blew" out his candle (no matches - nice, eh?), and they had cupcakes. I had enough that several of the kids could have 2.





Joe was SO excited to open his presents. He got a lot of fun stuff. Thanks so much, everyone! For his first b-day party with friends, I think it was a HUGE success.

Joe's present from his buddy in his primary class (sorry, they're new and I can't remember their last name...I think the mom's name is Tiffany.... Maybe - LOL)

Joe's present from Eric (Katy and Emily)

Joe's present from Ben (Sam, Luke, and Andrea)

Joe's present from the Huezo's

Joe's present from Helen

Joe's present from the Timmons (Laurie's family)

Drat, who was this from.....

Joe's present from Kim

Joe's present from Adela

AND, we did marshmallow shooters for Cub Scouts that night.

First, we finished cutting the pipe to length. You needed a 1/2 inch PVC pipe, cut into one 7" length and five 3" lengths. Then, you need 2 elbow pieces and two end caps and two tees. When you get it all assembled, you have a MIGHTY FINE marshmallow gun. Here's Brother Bird with his. (his is a little longer than everyone elses :)

Here's Andrea and Joe in the staging area.

Andrea and I

OK, not the most attractive of poses. Next time, I'm not really gonna blow. Look how nasty my cheeks look - ROFL!

OK, this was the COOLEST place I've ever seen. It was all fenced in, and had these awesome spool to hide behind. And little plywood buildings. And broken cars. And old barrels. And old tires. And an old tank. It was SO awesome. I've decided I want my backyard to look like this. My kids would never come inside. Heck, I'd play out there with him. You think I'm kidding, about the backyard. I'm serious - hehehe.

Here's Joe trying to shoot someone and then run away.

Kayley running away from Brother Bird. He found that if you lick the marshmallows first, they go farther and faster. And hurt worse - hehehe. Run, Kayley, run!!!

The Cub Scouts decided to gang up on the moms. It was Andrea and I and Kaylee against all the Cub Scouts and Brother Bird. We ran and screamed and fought back, and had a blast. I SO wanna go back and play again. Dang, it was fun!

Here's a pic of some of the group shooting at me :)

Part of the reason that we got to use the facilities for free was that we promised to pick up ALL of the marshmallows. It took longer to pick them up than it did to play in the first place - hehehe. But, with everyone working together, we got the job done. Anyone wanna come over and have a marshmallow war with me???

Happy Birthday Joe!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSEPH!!! My little boy is turning 6 today :) I'm so happy that you came to our family. You are so sweet, so giving, so kind. You are a quiet strength in our family. You always try to do what is right and good. Your smile melts my heart, and your bright blue eyes are my absolute favorite, EVER! I love you, my Joe Joe!!!

Here's a few pics of Joe throughout the years. Here's Joe when he's just a tiny little guy.

Somehow, we've misplaced a few years worth of digital pictures. I'm trying to not think about the possibility too hard, for fear that it'll be true. Anyway, here's a pic of Joe, almost on his 2nd birthday (maybe a month shy)

Joe on his 3rd birthday

Joe on his 4th Birthday

Joe on his 5th Birthday

We're having Joe's b-day party at Kelly Park today. He's SO excited :) It's not every day you turn 6, you know!

Pool, Shopping, and Pit

Another fun day! I was SO tired when I got up, but I still managed to do it - hehehe. One of these days, I'll go to bed early. 4 - 5 hours of sleep, when you play as hard as I do, isn't much - LOL!

Anyway, Captain America and Jacob and I were talking about it the other day, and we've decided to do an Online Virtual Academy with him for 7th grade. He's SO excited. He likes learning, but not so much school. He said that the teachers yell all the time, and the kids are mean and nasty. Yep, middle school sucked for me too.

Anyway, I had such a GREAT experience with the K12 program back in Ohio, that I was sad that they didn't offer it here in El Paso. But then I learned that "Connections Academy" is good for all of Texas. Woohoo!!! I chatted with the lady on the phone this morning, and I'm in the process of enrolling him. School starts in 14 days (for the virtual academy), and she said it takes 2-3 weeks to be enrolled and up and running with the program. In Ohio, we started 3 months late, and finished on time. Making up 1 week is gonna be nothing :)

Then send you the computer, the curriculum, pay for part of your internet, very similar to the K12 program. I think it'll be good for us. The other kids are gonna stay in Public School. They've been having good, positive experiences there. Joe's a bit behind because of all of the bouncing around school (3 different schools for kindergarten), but he's a smart kid. I think he'll catch up.

Anyway, I printed off all the required paperwork, and started filling it out. Gathered birth certificates and our lease and immunization records. Today, I've gotta go "withdraw" Jake from school at his old Middle School, and get his transcripts, and then I'm ready to go. Katy has a fax/printer/scanner at her house, and a phone line, so we're gonna try and see if we can figure out how to do it. Sure beats paying for it. Faxing things is EXPENSIVE!

Next, I called Verizon. Our phone bill was ALL messed up, and we coudn't access our account on the website. It took about 35 minutes, but I think I got it all squared away. Well, last time I called I thought it was all squared away too. Hopefully this time it really is. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Next, I started on the budget. It was already done, and I'd taken out cash to put in the envelopes a few days ago, just never did it. So, I divided it up and put it where it went. I'm really liking the system. Dave Ramsey is the man! You should really by his book. He can help you too!

I was bearly done in time to make it to the pool. i was supposed to make pizza for the kids for lunch, but, um, yeah, that didn't happen - LOL! I ended up taking a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Talk about a rush job lunch - ha! At least kids are relatively easy to please.

We got to the pool at 11:25ish, and there were only 3 other people there. Where was everyone??? I got in and played with the little kids for about 1/2 an hour, then got out. I started texting/calling my friends, asking why they ditched me. Of course no one answered. About 2 minutes later, Andrea showed up. Woohoo for friends!!! Katy got there shortly after that. Helen and Kim also came, but later. It was a nice pool day.

Here's Sam pretending to be "the bad guy". He was chasing the kids around the little pool.

And yes, he may not be PC, but his Dad is a soldier, getting ready to deploy to Iraq for the 2nd (or 3rd) time, so what else is a 10 year old boy gonna be playing?

And here's the girls! Kim, Andrea (holding Luke), Helen, Katy, and Tom (and a sliver of Eric - Katy's son)

I told Joe to make a funny face for me, and he gave me this cute pose instead :)

Tom, on the other hand, was more than happy to oblige.

And a pic of Tom and I.

I don't know why, but i thought this was the CUTEST picture ever of Joe and Ben. There almost exactly 1 year apart (Joe is younger), but so similar. They're both painfully shy, quiet, love legos, dress-up, and are a bit scared of the water. Best of friends, those boys are :)

It was funny, because Ben was wearing blue swim shorts, and Joe was wearing an Orange swim shirt. They were SO color coordinated!

We got home from the pool with just enough time to change clothes (yeah, not enough time for a shower - the last time I'd showered was Saturday before threading - I know, I'm nasty. I did reply deoderant, and I did swim at the pool. That kinda counts, right? A little? Marginally? You'll give me marginally? I promise I'll shower today! Promise! :)

Jacob was gonna watch the kids for me, and the girls and I headed out to Wal-Mart. Katy is gonna try my diet, so she needed a digital food scale. And, we were hoping to get a school supply list also. Well, we struck out on both accounts. No school supply list. No digital food scale. We did find a TON of people with "out of country" license plate tags that were trying to run us over. And people in the store that were trying to "run us over" too. We must have had a "HIT ME" sign on our face somewhere. It was bad! It's not like we're so tiny that people can't see us. A Brazilian girl, a tall dark haired white girl, and a tall blond white girl. You' can't miss us. Well, that's true. They weren't trying to miss us. They were trying to run us over with cars and carts. Dumb people!

We went to Target next, hoping to find one there. We did find one, but it was $10.00 more expensive. Katy got it anyway. Andrea found a few things that she needed, and I got a pack of gum. For some reason, my mouth tasted like I'd been licking envelopes. Which I did not. No envelopes for me. Weird, eh? anyway, my gum was good.

Next, we headed for the commissary. We helped katy get the items she needed to do the diet. Apples, cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, crackers, cheese, yogurt, meat. Just the basics. As we started walking down the last isle, we ran into a traffic jam. It was the line for the checkouts. OMGosh, I'd never seen the line that long. The line starts 1/2 way in the middle of the store, in the front, and makes one big line across the store. Then, it turned down the freezer (ice cream) isle, and snaked back around by the deli. That's TOTALLY out of control. Goodness.

We, because there were 3 of us, and we really didn't have that much, went to the self-checkout. I found a bag of Bananas for $0.99. Captain America uses them in his shake, so can can just peel them, slice them, and put them in ther freezer. It would make his shake taste yummy, too! Frozen bananas.

We were home by 5:30, and Captain America was already there. The kids were getting in trouble for leaving out and messing up the DVD's. I coudln't agree more. They're trashing our DVD collection. It makes me sad. I'm glad that Captain America put his foot down, and made the kids realize how lucky they are to have the things they have. To not trash things.

I folded some laundry, and made dinner for the kids. Pancake and eggs. Mmmmmm. Yummy pancakes!

After dinner, we decided to play a family card game. Sam (Andrea's oldest) was over to play with the big kids, so we re-cruited him to play with us. We played "PIT". Anyone ever played it? It's one of my favorites. It was originally made in 1916, and our edition was from the 60's. It's my moms game, but somehow I ended up with it. I'm SO glad that I did. Its a lot of fun. I even took a movie of one of our rounds. Let me tell you. This was a calm round. Andrea stopped by a bit later to search for her child (we'd kept him pretty late, but we were having SO much fun playing), and she joined in for a few rounds. It was SO lound, that my ears were ringning. Captain America and Jacob were especially noisy. I was laughing so hard i thought I was gonna pee- hehehe. That's when you know it's fun - LOL!


I ended up winning, and Tom came in 2nd. Good for us!!! Woohoo. After the game, Andrea and boys went home, I put the kids to bed, and I started on my work. Well, on my play, more like it. I played on Farmtown for a while, then checked my email. I got an email from Stephanie, saying that one of my favorite Twilight Fan Fics (Seducing Ms Swan - the one where Bella grows up and becomes a teacher and ends up with Edward for her student) had an update!!! A new chapter. I could hardly contain myself. I instantly went and read it. Ooooo, I can't wait to see what happens next, and how Bella reacts to Edward! Soooooo cool!

Then, I went back to Farming. And chatting on Facebook chat. It was almost midnight when I decided to design. Sigh. I was SO tired I could bearly keep my eyes open. But, this WordArt is in honor of our Pit game. I thought it was appropriate - hehehe.

So, Tuesday, we're going to the Movies. Night at the Museum II is at the Dollar Theater, and Tuesday is dollar day. We're also gonna get the withdrawl slip for Jake, and try and fax in the application. Another fun and busy day planned :) The best kinds!