Category: Alaethia

Well, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how the heck to change the background and header back to the old images before I decided to “update” the Pinboard theme. Tried to no avail since last night, so I had to resort to my old, old theme. I really wish I was still php/css/Wordpress savvy!!

Had a hard time waking up today but jumped in the shower after 15 minutes of snoozing the alarm. I had my morning pep-talk with myself: “Get over it. You may be tired, but at least you woke up this morning. At least you have a roof over your head and hot water to shower in. At least you have tons of clothes to find “nothing to wear”. At least you have your babies and a vehicle to drop them off at school with. At least you have a job.”

Jorge woke up early and showered too. We chit-chatted, I got Aly ready, and then, out of nowhere, Jorge and I got into an argument over an old Directv box that neither one of us had sent back with the Post Office. It was stupid really. I picked up some breakfast at El Pato (chicharron and eggs…so spicy!) and got to work. After a few texts back and forth with Jorge, we both just gave each other the silent treatment. Then, at 11:30am he texts, “I want to see you for lunch.” I replied, “Ok”.

He and Marco met me at Logan’s. As he slid into the bench beside me, he side-smiles and apologizes again. We threw a few playful jabs at each other throughout our meal, but I was glad we could smile and have a nice hour together.

Lunch was soooo good! I was craving this since we had it last Friday.

Salmon in dill sauce. And skewers…heaven!

My day at work went by fast, thank goodness. I searched for a dress to wear to the George Strait concert (eeep!!!) on Pinterest and later Forever21 (which I made a new board for here!).

I got out of work and went to Old Navy, since my search online showed a dress in my size and the color I wanted. But of course, I didn’t find it. But I did find a lilac cardigan I’d been keeping my eye on for $3.77!

I was feeling extremely tired, so I picked up my Keto-friendly iced coffee across the street at Starbucks. I picked up my boys and we came home while we talked about their day and their field trips. The kids all joked around and played while we waited for the wings and pizza Jorge had ordered for dinner. He was actually supposed to cook dinner tonight, but he cheated LOL. Emily spent a chunk of time upset with Jaylen, ’cause he hurt her feelings. She responded with, “You’re ruining my life!” Or something like that LOL. She’s so dramatic!

I bathed the girls, the boys bathed themselves and we chilled out watching TV for a few minutes till I put them to bed. Poor Aly complained for yet another night about her knees hurting =\. Eenan stayed up a little bit working on a Powerpoint presentation while I painstakingly attempted to fix my blog (and ate a Carb Smart fudge pop. Oh, how I suffer, heh!). Bleh. I’m so glad tomorrow is Friday! I desperately need some rest. All week Jorge and I have said we’re going to jog! Or do P90X! But man, we’re just exhausted all the time. I really do want to give our brand-new SIDEWALKS a try!

I haven’t even bothered flat-ironing my hair all week! I’ve sported my wild, curly mane every single day. And tomorrow will be no exception. 5am wake-up call for this gal! Goodnight!

Original Blog Post from May 7, 2013.

I was on a roll since last night; first I made my love some steak and veggies for dinner (I only had a bit; not a huge fan of red meat), and then I searched Pinterest until I found a Keto-friendly pancake recipe because I was really craving some =\. I followed one that I’d but changed a few things around. I’m still trying to perfect the recipe, but the batch I made was as follows:
 
2 oz. cream cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon (this is optional; cinnamon adds about 5g of carbs)
1/2 tsp. of Swerve (or your favorite sweetener. You may want to add more if you like sweet pancakes)
1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tablespoon almond flour (this is also optional; it adds about 1 carb, but it makes the pancakes easier to flip!)

Warm the cream cheese up about 10 seconds so it’s mixable, then combine all ingredients together in a blender (it’s super fast in my Magic Bullet!) and puree. Careful not to over-beat. Heat your pan up (medium-high worked for me) and cook each side of the pancake till it’s bubbly and brown. Careful when you’re flipping them; they’re much thinner than regular pancakes. The texture is more like a crepe, but they’re so satisfying! This recipe makes about 4 small crepes. Top with blackberries (pretty low-carb) and sugar free syrup (I like Walden Farms) if you’re trying to keep these low-cal, low-carb, no-sugar ;).

I woke up early, got ready for work, got Alaethia’s things ready, made some eggs to go along with Jorge’s leftover steak from last night, packed my lunch (salad!) and dropped Aly off at school. While I was there, I signed up to volunteer my help at her Field Day on the 17th. I hope I get to see her participating though =\.

I couldn’t wait to get to work and devour my crepes :). They were SO. DAMN. GOOD!!

I did some research because I get these bouts of fatigue, but it’s probably due to my electrolytes being low so I need to take care of that. My stomach was feeling weird after lunch, and that was probably due to my eating too much protein and not enough “fat”. I’m learning as I go.

The day went by quickly what with helping my boss with a photo shoot, talking with Jessica through lunch and going to HEB with Michelle to buy flowers (I’m doing some centerpieces for a reception tomorrow) and beverages for work. Followed by a meeting which ran 45 minutes after 5, followed by picking up Mom’s prescriptions and doing a bit of grocery shopping (again!). Got home, made dinner (a low-carb broccoli & cauliflower cheese gumbo! Recipe soon! It contains both the fat and sodium I need for the symptoms I’m having.), ate while I tested Aly on her spelling words, bathed the girls, brushed their tangled hair, supervised while Aly read her book, put them to bed, swept and mopped while I chatted with my boys and I’m finally sitting!! My love already passed out; he had a long day. I should really pack my soup, iron my dress and get in the shower, but bed sounds so much more appealing!!

Of course I’m typing this up a month later than it actually happened! But it was such a AMAZING birthday I just have to document it! It was especially amazing because we didn’t have anything planned since Jorge and I both worked Saturday and neither of us had gotten Monday off. And my kiddos were at Mario’s for the weekend =\.

This post will be photo-heavy, as our adventures could be told with pics alone.

I’ll start from April 9th, 5 days before my birthday, when Jorge gave me the charms he went and picked at Kay Jeweler’s and Pandora, all by himself during his lunch hour :*). He even paid in cash so I wouldn’t see it on our bank account! He was seriously like an excited kid: jumping up and down and texting me randomly that he couldn’t WAIT to show me my gifts. And then he brought them out that night LOL.

Love them! My bracelet is now halfway full!

On Friday, April 12th, the entire staff had lunch at Tony Roma’s, courtesy of our boss and the owner of Tony Roma’s himself. That was pretty darn awesome. We closed down the office and everything.

We got ready to celebrate Sally’s birthday that evening (which is the 13th, the day before mine :)). Carlos had organized a surprise birthday party for her at Kobe Sushi. Jess met us there, too, and we waited for the guest of honor :).

She was simply stunning in all her 9-month pregnant glory!

Speaking of, you would have never guessed Jessica has a baby (much less 3!)!!

Jorge had begun the Keto Diet about a week before this, so he was watching what he ate and drank. He ordered sashimi, absolutely nothing carby (well, except a Michelob Ultra, heh). I was being mindful, but I still had sushi and a drink hehe.

Jorge, Jess and I chit-chatted; Sally and Carlos were on the other side of the grills so it was difficult to chat. We got to get up and chat once everyone was getting ready to go. The night was still young, so we made plans with Jess to go to Buffalo Wild Wings. We joked that we were starting my birthday celebration early :). We talked, ranted and just had a good time :). I still wasn’t much in the mood for drinking, so I only had one Margarita.

The next day was our BBQ Cook-Off at work. The day went by fast since I switched stations several times and the weather was AMAZING!!

My love and Marco stopped by to have lunch, which was great :).

5:30pm rolled around and our boss appointed me as “trophy girl” LOL. I wasn’t too into it, seeing as how one of the band’s band members had been staring at me the entire event and eventually told EZ that he wanted my number. To which EZ replied, “No way dude, she’s got kids and is married.” Not even that deterred him -_-.

Luckily, Wally took over most of the handing out of trophies (with the occasional one our boss wanted me to stand in on). Then it was 6pm, clean-up time, time for our 2nd annual group photo and then we got to leave home.

Jorge was on his way home, as it was “Night at the Brew-seum” and his company was one of the sponsors. He’d been working on this for the last few days and he said I was going to be amazed.

After we got ready (surprisingly fast for me!), we left in his car, and when we arrived one of his guys told him they’d forgotten a remote they needed. So back home we go, with Jorge muttering profanities, heh. We got the key to the van that the remote was in and when we opened the van…it wasn’t there! Then Jorge’s VIP tickets hadn’t arrived because his bosses hadn’t arrived. So he spoke to their marketing guy and all was well. Jorge got everything running manually, just in time! And man, was I amazed with he and his guys’ work!! Everyone was!

The rest of the night was the complete opposite of our hectic, high-energy start. It was a nice night out, the food was amazing, there was a Vineyard for people who don’t drink beer like me :).

I tried so much great food, but seriously, this ice cream sandwich from House.Wine was THE BEST DAMN THING EVER!!

Jorge enjoyed trying all these different types of beers, and we had some good laughs with the guys. I got to chit-chat with Jorge’s bosses for a while, too, so that was nice. Selene congratulated Jorge on such a great job and told him he deserved the day off on Monday!! Woohoo!!!

I also ran into tons of people I’ve met through work, Audrey’s parents, and Jeramie, but by then my darn phone was low and my flash wasn’t working so we didn’t get a photo together :(.

Jorge and I stayed late, since he and his guys had to pack up their equipment, but we didn’t stay for the VIP after party. We were beat! And we had a lunch date with my kiddos for my birthday the next day so we needed to be nice and rested :).

We decided on Dairy Queen. I had my favorite, a Reese’s ice cream cake. The kids loved it, too :).

We ate and laughed and just had a nice time :). We dropped them off and went home, and I made some coffee while we caught up on The Voice episodes.

Jorge said, “Let’s go to the beach. Right now. Let’s get a room.” I had a 20% off coupon for La Copa Inn at the beach from work, so it was perfect! We set up a reservation, packed, and were on our way :). I was already having such a great birthday; I didn’t think it could get any better! I texted my boss that I wouldn’t be in on Monday and he ok’d it :).

We sang out hearts out as we drove. It was great :). It was dark by the time we reached the island and we were starving since we didn’t really have lunch. We wanted to try Dirty Al’s, but they were closed so we went to Daddy’s. The atmosphere changed a lot since they moved locations, but the food was AWESOME:

We had tons of food leftover. It was safe to say Jorge was “carbing up” that weekend hehe.

We went to our hotel and checked in. The room was so nice!

We watched Game of Thrones for a bit and then a movie. Then we decided to take a midnight stroll on the beach :).

We got back and took full advantage of all the amenities of the room, heh. And it was truly one of the best nights of sleep at a hotel that I’ve had.

We had breakfast at the hotel the next morning and took our time checking out. We drove around a while, visited a few shops like Tuesday Morning, and called to do the horseback riding but were too late for the morning one and a few hours early for the next one. We decided to just take another stroll on the beach to get some exercise.

We walked at least 3 miles. We decided that was plenty and were ready to go home. We wanted to catch a movie before we had to get home to the girls.

We hadn’t had lunch, and we’d never been to Padreritaville, so we stopped by to have some appetizers and a drink. Our waitress was so sweet and had such a great time chit-chatting we actually stayed for quite a long while!

I made a quick trip to the ladies room and by the time I got back, there was a huge slice of chocolate cake and a crown waiting for me :). How awesome!!

We finished up, talked about how awful the Boston Marathon Bombings were. We’d been sitting right there when the news started announcing the tragedy.

As we drove home we saw a house with tons of bougainvilleas for sale. There were even some red ones!!

Jorge stopped by and got me my final birthday presents, one red and one medium pink bougainvillea!

We got home to the girls and just enjoyed the rest of the evening :). It was truly one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had, ever!

And it didn’t stop that day. Michelle treated me to lunch the next day and the guys joined us :).

Again: Best. Birthday. EVER!! So blessed with all the wonderful people in my life!!