Category: Alaethia

Happy New Year, everyone!

Starting this up at 12:11, so I’m not to late, heh. Had to stop our celebration half an hour early and bring the kids inside because idiots in our neighborhood started shooting their guns. They do this crap every year!

John chilled out with me most of the day. We watched some marathon on VH1 about the new millennium and I got a quick work out in before I showered and went to McAllen to cash Mario’s pay check. I wanted to have the entire house completely clean, but I only got to do a few dishes, 2 loads of laundry and toss out the trash before I had to leave. I always hear Mom in my head saying “if you don’t have the house clean on New Year’s Eve, you’re going to have a messy house the entire new year” and “if you don’t shower on New Year’s Eve, you’re going to be dirty the entire new year”. I at least got the shower part done LOL. And the messy house isn’t anything new, heh.

We had lunch and Mom got situated with all the kiddos before we left. We went all the way to McAllen and I stopped by Mario’s work to drop off the things he asked me to take with me. He said the checks still weren’t in, so to go ahead and waste time in town. I looked down at my legs, which haven’t been shaven in weeks because it’s been cold. I was in shorts since it was in the 70’s today and my favorite jeans were in the dryer back at home. I was NOT about to go into Barnes & Noble with legs like that LOL. So John and I just waited in the parking lot, listening to music and sharing the latest gossip. We waited about an hour and a half, just so that Mario could finally get his check and tell me he needs to get something for his Boost phone so he’d go ahead and go to the bank. So basically…I went to McAllen for NOTHING. I could have been cleaning the house! Or baking! Or starting on the dips for tonight!

So I get home and since John wasted all that time he asked me to give him a haircut. Fine. Then Mario gets home and wants one. Fine. Then my dad-in-law wanted one and a beard trim. Oh, alright.

So needless to say, I didn’t get the dips done :(. And we find out at the last minute that everyone’s going over to Grandpa Dario’s for a bar-b-q instead of getting together at our house. As crappy as it would be not hanging out with the entire family, it’s a tradition to pop fireworks with the kids, eat and have a few drinks here, at home.

Mario and Jaylen left to buy fireworks and Mary, Alaethia and I went to Walmart to get a few things. Mom stayed with Eenan & Emily. I got the s’more’s stuff, got some Moscato wine, beer, and pizzas since I wasn’t making the dips (can you tell I’m bummed about not having Spinach Artichoke and Velveeta/Rotel dip? LOL).

As soon as I got home I popped the pizzas in the oven. Rolando, Eenan’s friend, was already here. The boys were outside popping fireworks under Mario’s supervision.

Mario wasn’t in a good mood at all. He even snapped at me a few times, and I told him to stop ’cause he was being super rude. What a way to bring in the new year! I ignored it, though, and enjoyed spending time with the in-laws, Mom and my kiddos.

Eenan had a little moment of emo-ness, too. He was sad because Angela and the other kids weren’t here, but I told him it was fine, he was still spending time with his best friend and siblings. He threw a small fit outside and I just snapped. I sternly told him, “All the people that matter the most are HERE! You, and everyone else that’s complaining (*cough*Mario*cough*) need to realize that!”

I didn’t hear any more complaining after that.

I got everyone fed and the boys popped more fireworks. Emily was having a blast with her grandparents and Alaethia was coloring with her Crayola stuff. She’s still not too fond of fireworks.

The boys were getting a little overexcited with the fireworks, so we brought out the S’mores stuff. They were excited to melt their own marshmallows with the skewers.

They had about another hour to pop fireworks before Rolando was picked up. I brought out the bottle of wine and Mario opened it and poured my glass, as a nice peace offering that I gladly accepted.

The girls were becoming antsy, Jaylen was sleepy and quickly becoming moody and then the neighbors started shooting so we came inside. I texted and responded to a few New Years texts and then John came over around 12:40 to pick up some food he forgot here. He chilled for a bit, shared some disgusting stories (LOL, typcial John) and then left. The girls are now sleeping and Mario’s still outside, drinking alone, still in a not-so-good mood according to his Myspace status. *sigh*

I can’t believe a whole year’s passed. 2009 was a really good year. I became a stay-at-home mom again. Emily, my surprise baby, came into my life and made it even better than it was. My entire family’s healthy and well, even though Gramma did have her bouts of pneumonia, she prevailed and she’s healthy again. I hope God keeps her that way for many more years to come. We did lots of cool things during summer, like going to my very first concert every (George Strait & Sugarland in Houston!) and we visited Disney World again! The boys and I joined Taekwondo and I feel healthier than I have in a long time. I’m finally 120 pounds again (hope to get to 110–it’s not too little, I’m only 4’11”, remember!). And countless other blessings I can’t recall off the top of my head. I know 2010 will be even better!

Must work on a New Year’s Resolution list tomorrow!

It’s so nice to have a moment of peace and quiet! All the kiddos are asleep and I started browsing through Ebay, so before I get myself into trouble I figured I’d blog instead, heh.

Today was one of those days I spend running around non-stop.

I fed the kiddos, did some dishes and once Mom came over I got ready and went to pick up Mary’s renter’s check. I missed the crossover to the building so I had to drive about a mile more to cross at the next one. There was some kind of crime scene or something weird going on. There were two sheriffs and 6 state troopers looking for something on the road and putting up little markers. It was strange.

I get to the place and the lady tells me, “You’ll have to come back. My daughter just left with my checkbook. Is there something else you need to do in town?”

I inhaled to keep my cool and asked, “Didn’t Mary tell you I’d be here at noon?” I knew she had. It was 11:58. I’m sorry. I was 2 minutes early.

She says she wasn’t expecting another man to come pick up a payment for who-knows-what, so she gave him the check that was supposed to be for Mary. WTF? So there I am, waiting 18 minutes for her daughter to get back with the darn checkbook. Grr.

My next stop is Academy, where I was returning two work out blouses and some shorts (got the wrong length and that’s because I picked them out myself!).

Went to Sally’s Beauty Supply after that to get some wax stuff and a few nail things. I got the nail things but of course they were out of the other stuff I needed. Oh well. I spent so much time browsing and I was already getting hungry I figured I’d come straight home and eat some lunch. Something I told me I should go to the other store, but I wasn’t sure where it was so I went home.

I ate and looked up the number to the store. Sure enough, they had only 2 left. So I went back, got it and rushed back home. Caught up with the kiddos a bit and took pictures of Emily who looked so adorable hugging a ducky plush Alaethia had brought to her. She reminded me so much of Eenan! I’ve got a pic of him holding a telephone the exact same way ^_^.

I got ready for Taekwondo as fast as I could. I was 2 minutes late LOL.

Taekwondo was awesome. We started with stretching of course. I didn’t know why Luis was asking me to do this leg stretch we hadn’t done for a while, but I found out later during Forms.

He did sort of a practice test, with the Horse Stand, kicks laps and then 30 situps and 40 leg lifts. Then he told me to do the white, yellow and orange forms. I did those correctly so he said he was going to teach me the orange-advanced form. OMG. I thought I’d never get it! I felt all desperate and frustrated like I did when I first started back in September LOL. There’s two new basics in that form, the neck chop and back stand, I believe it’s called. The neck chop was easy to understand (he said it’s like a waiter holding a tray and you bring it forward and show it to the customer–once he put it in those terms I totally got it LOL). The back stand though, oh gosh. It’s weird because you have to lean on your legs all weird (hence the weird leg stretches he had me doing) and do the opposite with your hands. I’ll get it eventually. Luis showed me the basic that’s introduced in each form…it gets crazy! I laughed when he said, “Once you get to your Black Belt it’s easy” LOL.

I had to stop and get gas after class and then remembered Mary’d asked me to cash her check for her. Oops! So I go over there and they give me trouble about it ’cause she’s not there, so we make plans to meet in 10 minutes. I rush home and tell the boys to get ready for their TKD class, because of course they weren’t yet and then I rushed back to the bank to meet Mary. Get that done, rush back home, the boys jump in the car and off we go to their class.

They’re class was similar to mine. I need to get those boys to be a little more…calm in class. Since they’re really comfortable with their teachers now they’ve begun to act up a little. I constantly have to remind them to quit jumping around, or laughing or talking and I never had to before! They used to make a big deal about how well-behaved they were LOL.

Mary texts me while class is going on and tells me she picked up dinner: Subway! Woo! We all ate at their house and we watched the kids go insane. I don’t know how they have so much energy! Especially the boys, who had just gotten home from TKD!

I took video of Emily being insanely cute, as she usually is. Mom taught her Pat-a-Cake and she KNOWS IT! Then I gave her a little stuffed animal to show the in-laws how she hugs them. OMG I wanted to bite her LOL.

The next hour and a half was spent in the living room putting Jaylen’s huge Lego Miners vehicle together. I didn’t get to help poor Eenan much, but he actually likes to do them himself. He just needed help putting the stickers on.

And after snacks and letting them run off the rest of their energy, they all went to bed and now I’m here. I forgot to mention that Mario went to Adan’s since it’s his birthday. He got to have his guy’s night out last night when he went to Jorge’s and now he’s having another one. How nice. That reminds me. He better be awake enough to tell me the juicy gossip he promised to share.

See? There I go with my internet ADD. I barely finished editing my post from November 18th and already I was wandering off to Facebook when I only meant to close the tab. THAT’S why I never blog anymore!

Anyway. Let me start this post from December 18th…if the girls allow it. I think, what I’m going to do to catch up with my blogs is going back and just copy/pasting all my Tweets from all the days in between posts. I’d hate for Twitter to have some kind of glitch and lose my memories!

Fri., Dec. 18th – I’d spent the entire day/night the previous day baking away for the kids’ teacher’s cookie tins. That was my gift to them this year. I made Snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, mini banana muffins and Mary contributed some of her famous Pan De Polvo. I finished with everything around 11:30pm.

I called Mom over earlier than usual to watch the girls since Mario wanted me to drop him off at work. Went straight home after that.

As sore as I was from my work out at Taekwondo the previous day, I managed to busy myself around the house till it was time to pick up the boys at 1:15 (early release). My Eenan would leave me for 3 days that afternoon. He was going to Eagle Pass with my in-laws. I’ve been away from him before, like when I was giving birth to the other 3 kids and when Mario, Mary and I went to Houston with Mario’s aunts for the George Straight concert. But each of those times we were only apart for 1-2 days! This time HE was the one leaving me. I was terrified, but I knew he’d be well taken care of, of course.

He had a breakdown before he left, telling me how much he’d miss Mario, Mom and me, but I assured him we’d all be ok, he’d be ok and we’d see each other very soon. Plus, he had his cell phone to keep in contact with us.

When he left and the kiddos were all situated with Mom I left to run a few errands, like depositing Mario’s paycheck, paying a bill at the Credit Union and getting my hair cut. I was already running late, so I was hoping the lady would hurry. It was the owner this time, and not the other lady who used a razor to cut my hair the last time and totally effed it up. I figured my hair would be fine.

The little boy who was cutting his hair before me kept staring at me. I smiled at him and continued texting with John. When I looked up once he mouthed, “Help. Me.” I couldn’t help but giggle. He was so cute! Little did I know he was trying to warn me!

I told the lady exactly how I wanted my hair, and of course she did the complete opposite of what I wanted! Why do they do that! I didn’t even know how bad the damage really was until I got home, showered, blow-dried and flat-ironed my hair (which is how I usually wear it). It looked like she’d gone to town on my hair with a weed-whacker :(. I was so upset. She didn’t even CUT the length of the back, which is what I wanted done in the first place! I wanted a shorter version of what I already had! She even added bangs! Argh.

I get to TKD and, because I’d skipped lunch, was shaking. Didn’t help that I was cold and still livid about my hair cut. Class helped me sort of forget about it and I had a few laughs about the whole situation with my instructor. He even warned me not to go back to have her “fix it” because she might ruin it more. I could hear him in the back of my mind when I was getting in the van to get it “fixed”, so I didn’t go LOL. I took both instructors their cookie tins, too, before they disappeared at the house LOL.

Mario called before I had to pick him up and asked if we wanted to go to the movies to watch “Avatar”. Um, yeah! It would bring up Jaylen’s spirits since he was feeling a little bummed about Eenan not being home, which always boggles my mind because they’re constantly at each other’s throats! That’s brotherly love for ya.

Alaethia was excited as soon as she heard “movies”. I think she mainly likes to go for the popcorn LOL.

Elda offered to watch Emmy for us, which was awesome of her. I took them a plate of cookies and all of her things and as soon as I knew she was alright we took off.

The movie was…AWESOME. It just was. I didn’t think I’d like it but I LOVED it! Jason and Mirella just so happened to walk in as we were and they sat a row above us. Jaylen was literally on the edge of his seat and Alaethia only had 1 potty break and stayed awake for the most part!

It was super foggy on the way home. I hadn’t seen that kind of fog since the months of October when I was still working at the middle school.

We got home and the girls played together with Alaethia’s old Laugh and Learn kitchen, aww. Cutest thing ever watching them interact. I can’t wait to see them both in fairy or princess dress-up clothes! Jaylen played a game on the Xbox even though it was late; he just got ungrounded that day after the long grounding both boys had. We had some celery & ranch (even Emmy got in on that) and we went to bed about half an hour later.

Even though I missed my Nano terribly, it was a perfect evening. Totally made up for the hair cut!