Category: Alaethia

I left work early to come to a doctor’s appointment.

I was referred here from my family physician and I’ve been nervous about this appointment. I hope all is well. And I hope it doesn’t seem like I gained 10 lbs. overnight from my huge lunch. I had an entire chicken pita (eaten in the span of 2 hours, but still) and a small fideo, a few Sunchips and agua de melon.

I went to Salads Plus, which is near the house but we never bothered trying it out. It took 30 minutes to get my food, with 10 of those being ignored at the drive thru till I got annoyed and got down. They redeemed themselves tho; the food was great. Makes me wonder if Siempre Natural and Salads Plus aren’t the same thing o_O.

(I’m babbling ’cause I’m nervous…)

I hope this doesn’t take forever. I told Emmos I would be home earlier than usual =/.

My babygirls came back yesterday and needless to say: I was BEAT by the time we were done with: homework, looking for apps on their iPads, cooking dinner, fighting with BOTH my SD cards (that like to ruin my photos on my S4, while I spoke with the boys), bathing the girls, and reading their books. I sent them off to brush their teeth and passed out on the sofa. I woke up to Jorge and the girls giggling trying to wake me lol. They got in bed, I got up and Jorge and I watched The Voice. Emily came back to the living room later to let us know Alaethia’s leg hurt. I love how they do that: if one doesn’t feel good, the other comes to seek aid. I love to see that they care about each other that way :*).

Grrr. I just realized I need to go to HEB. Maybe I should scoop up the girls, go to the park and then go to HEB?  It’s turned into such a beautiful day :).

Update: I’m editing to say this is quite an odd experience. This used to be my doctor’s office back when Eenan and Jaylen were babies. Hadn’t been here in over 12 years, so I had to update my info. It was so weird to turn over the medications I’m currently taking and let them know why I’m here.

2 things dawned on me with a lurch from my gut, as it has a lot lately:

OMFG. I’m getting old. I’ve turned into my mother!

Update #2: So. After being scared for several hours and my heart jumping into my throat every time I heard footsteps getting closer to the exam room and then being bombarded with tons of information: I’m okay. Hopefully it stays that way.

In my usual manor, I’m finishing this entry up a month after the actual date, but that’s how I do .

Dina, Briana, Javi and the kids got to come down for the holiday . There was a lot of laughing and running around, since Jorge and I had to share the kids with the other parents, like we usually do on holidays.

On Christmas Eve, we visited Gramma and took her her gifts :).

The girls and I visited Rosie and Michelle for a few minutes that evening. The girls had a blast with Sheeba, Rosie’s 4th baby, heh, and looking at their Christmas decorations. They go all out!

The kiddos all played with their cousins and Javi, Briana, Dina, Mom, Jorge and I sat around and opened our gifts from them. I wanted to wait till Christmas, but Javi said, “You’re adults, you don’t have to wait till freakin’ Christmas!”

Javi and Mia brought Ruffles some presents, too. Little toys with bells and a standing thing with a ball and feathers; he had a blast!

They brought us an awesome candle holder centerpiece for the table and 3 bottles of Moscato d’asti! I love my family, they know us too well!

We woke up early on Christmas morning and Jorge went to pick his boys up. They got back and then commenced the ripping open of packages and squeals from the kids. I feel so blessed and great inside that, er, Santa, got to make all their wishes come true. (This is around the time that Jorge would say the fat man gets all the credit .

Javi helped Emily put her Doc McStuffins Check-up Center together. That thing was the bain of Santa’s existence for the month of December .

Eenan, who asked for an old-school Gameboy, was–I think–pleased with his special edition Pikachu Game Boy and 4 games that came with it. Too bad one of them doesn’t save the progress, grr. Eenan hung out in their room while the other boys played a game of Monopoly while their new Xbox downloaded who knows what. This was their expression:

Alaethia opened every package she could find and when everything was nice and strewn all over their bedroom, we put their newest Barbie beach house together. She messed around with her new 2DS and then she, Emily and Mia played Barbie’s and Doc McStuffins together. Julien played with his toys for a while and got so tired he passed out. It didn’t help that the poor thing had a stomach virus. He arrived needing to throw up . That poor baby is sick from some ailment every weekend he visits, and when they don’t allow him to come, it’s because he’s got a brand-new virus of some sort. Anyway. I digress.

We hung around the rest of the day, enjoying the kids and our family :). We got mom a new TV that we got an INSANE deal on, but we aren’t sure if it’s a pro or a con, since I have a hard enough time getting her to do her chores as it is. I’m beginning to realize that what people say is true: as you and your parents get older, you switch roles .

Dina, Javi, Bri and the kids visited more family and then my kids were going to be picked up by their dad and would be back the next day. We took a few photos before they left. Don’t mind my make-up-less face and wild mane .

My loves were picked up and Dina, Javi, Bri and the kids came back. With a huge tray of cookies from Tony and Noni. I had these awesome little moon-shaped, powdered sugary cookies and I vowed to find a recipe on Pinterest and make them!

John, his girlfriend and her little girl came over for a while. It was the first time we’d met them even though they’ve been together a while. I was in the middle of making a crescent-wrapped brie when they arrived. I’d found the original recipe on Pinterest, but the link has since been turned into a spam-link so I winged it. Javi and Jorge brought back the peach jam I asked for, but brought garlic-flavored crescents back. I wasn’t sure how it was going to taste, but it was a huge hit!

John and his girlfriend and her baby left and I joined the rest of the family on the porch. We ate brie and had wine and just chit-chatted about everything, good and bad. I love when we just start talking about the past, the present, future, everything!

We went out to the driveway for a while so Julien could ride his new bike :).

We came inside and we sat around the table, on Facebook and watching TV. Javi and I scrolled through our newsfeed and saw some cute/cheesy/hilarious Christmas Family Photos. So we decided that every year from here on out, we were going to have our own Super Happy Family Fun Time Photo. And here it is:

We had actually taken several, one of them a super-hilariously cheesy one where we each had our hand on the person in front of us’ shoulder, very 1980’s, but Briana didn’t like how she came out and I didn’t like how I came out so we scratched that one LOL. We decided that next year, we were somehow going to find footie pajamas for everyone, with stockings in the background and a Christmas movie playing in the background, much like this one. Someone had a photo like that on Facebook this year and we decided we’re going to ONE-UP THEM.

We had such a great time and I feel so blessed that we could spend it together .

I swear, this website will be the death of me (that, or bacon–one of those).

I’ve spent the last hour or so trying to fix this darn layout. Apparently, I didn’t have an uploads folder anymore O_o. I’m still at a loss on how to keep my header image from shrinking, but this will have to do for now. I hate this layout already -_-. In some weird way it keeps me from updating, ’cause I’m weird like that.

Anyhoot. A lot has gone on since the last time I updated (doesn’t it always?), and I’m still trying to compile a post about our trip to San Antonio/Austin at the beginning of June. Some of you may have seen the unfinished entry; my stupid Bluetooth keyboard uploaded the post without my consent >_<. Stupid technology! So. Fourth of July was such a great day. It was Mario's week with the kids but he was nice enough to let me go for them that day and keep them overnight till he picked them up the next day. I'd asked for them because he just so happened to have them the previous 2 years. So that was great. We picked them up, picked up fireworks on the way back, chilled out, and visited Gramma for her birthday. Aunt Sylvia was already there. Gramma ate her tamales that Tia brought her and we took a bunch of photos. She's 84 :*).

We got home and started bar-b-quing for lunch.

I for some reason don’t have a picture of the sides O_o. This may have been the day my 32 gig SD card took a dump and started deleting photos so I panicked and removed it and the rest of the July 4th photos may be on it.

We ate and quickly got ready to go watch the fireworks. When I was little, Dad would bring us almost every 4th of July. When Mario and I got married, we only went one year, when Eenan was 1, and Mario HATED the crowds and waiting and we never went back. Jorge isn’t big on crowds and doesn’t like waiting most of the time either, so I never brought it up. I did this year, and he was all for it. I was excited and so were the kiddos. We packed some blankets, waters, and some glow-necklaces and parked on 23rd street.

People go ALL OUT!! Some were there super early, and fenced off spaces with their lawn chairs, tables, BBQ pits and trucks. It was great :). Now we know, heh.

The show started and I think the kids really enjoyed it. Alaethia was a little scared at first and covered her head with a blanket until Jorge asked her how she was going to see LOL.

I hope this is something we can turn into a tradition ♥.

It took us about 45 minutes to get out of that parking lot so by the time we got home it was almost 10pm. We had promised the kids s’mores so we sprayed everyone completely with Off spray and brought out the packs of fireworks we bought.

It was just such a great night. We all crashed out fast that night :).

When the kiddos are here we try and watch a movie with them every night, Emily helps me cook most nights, the girls and I will do little projects–it’s great just being around them ♥. We need to start planning Eenan’s 14th (FOURTEENTH!!! FML!!) birthday soon; he wants to go to the beach, so that’ll be fun :).

Alaethia had 2 fillings done on the 9th and she did wonderfully!! I was seriously more nervous about it than she was; she’s a trooper :).

She lost a tooth the next day, so now her two bottom ones are gone, awww LOL.

As for when it’s not our week with the kids, well, the majority of the time we stay home. For the most part, we’re hermits, heh. We have to force ourselves to go out. We’re comfortable and happy to have a drink on the porch, by ourselves, or watch our movies/shows (we recently got into “Mistresses” on ABC. Love it!).

In the past month, however, we have gotten out a few times. We went to Beef ‘O’ Brady’s for the commercial shooting (invited by the owner) and Jorge had a mini reunion with Rolie, Junior, Jesus, Sean and even Robert and Esmer :). It was a great night.

Then we went to Beef’s again for the UFC fight, where we won free tickets to see Genuwine LOL. That was pretty unexpected, and although we haven’t heard his music since our high school years (FML), it’ll be fun.

Carmen and her hubby and Dayse were in town so Kary and I planned an impromptu get-together. Dayse is…PREGNANT!! So we wanted to get together to celebrate before they left. Sally didn’t make it and I haven’t seen her in a while :(, but hopefully we can get together soon. It was a great night though, filled with carbs and laughs and great conversation. I love those girls!!

And speaking of carbs, we’ve been eating horribly since 4th of July. For example, this was our dinner on Tuesday night:

I decided today that I was getting back on the wagon and eating well again. Until Jorge invited the guys over and I drank 2 pineapple Margaritas. FML. And Jessica (from work) and her hubby are coming over tomorrow night, which reminds me: I must clean!! Jorge and I are getting some breakfast before I go to my dentist appointment in the morning. That should be interesting!