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!