Category: Backstories

It has truly been a great week :).

Sunday, July 29th

Eenan would be turning 13–YES, THIRTEEN!!–on Monday, the 30th. Since Mario was picking all the kids up on Monday night to celebrate Eenan’s birthday, we decided to celebrate on Sunday instead.

We slept-in somewhat, gave the kids a light breakfast, showered, got the kiddos ready and gave Eenan his gifts:

He was happy with his stuff and immediately opened up his sketch book and pencils and got to drawing <3. He's still into drawing, still loveable, still my sensitive boy (but don't tell anyone I told you so, heh). I knew he had to become a teenager eventually, but I feel like it just crept up on me. One day I'm lugging around this chunky, adorable baby and now he's 13 and at eye level with me?? (Ok, we all knew that would happen sooner than later, considering I'm 4'11"!)

Where did the time go!? The past year and a half or so were a blur, considering he’s in his dad’s custody most of the time, so it feels like I’ve missed things; like time’s passed so quickly even moreso :(. It still kills me, but I’m glad most of that whole drama is over for their sake.

ANYWAY.

We braved Golden Corral on a Sunday, because that’s where Eenan wanted to celebrate. During our drive there, several chaotic scenarios played in my head: the long line we were going to have to wait in, losing a kid in the crowd, the insane bill we were going to have with 3 adults and 6 kids, the girls (probably Emily) having a fit in public, one of the kids eating so much they barf. BUT, I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived and went straight to the cash register, our bill was half of what I’d budgeted, all the kids were calm and went in 2’s as they picked their food, the girls were very well behaved and ate their food before asking for orange sherbet ice cream cones with gummi bears and chocolate-covered marshmallows, and only Jaylen had a slight stomach ache when we left, heh. Jorge and I even behaved ourselves better than I thought we would :P. Everyone had a great time :).

I’m sad I didn’t get a pic of the kids at the restaurant, but everyone was up and down and just concentrating on eating :P. We got home and we chilled out the rest of the day. I made dinner, we watched movies. It was a great Sunday :).

While we watched a movie, Jorge downloaded a program on his phone and surprised me with this:

It still takes me by surprise how sweet he is !

Monday, July 30th

Eenan’s actual birthday! My big boy chilled out with me while I got ready for work and we had cereal together :).

Most of my work week involved planning for a video we’re working on to promote one of our upcoming events. Other than that, I spent the week covering the front desk during Rosie’s breaks.

I wanted to start taking lunch all week, 1, because if I ever go through with trying to eat healthy, it isn’t going to happen in restaurants. And 2, we spent a SHIT TON of money the week before eating out, going out. We’re blessed and lucky to have these extra funds, but we need to stop spending so much on unhealthy food . I’d like to put that extra cash towards paying off some of our bills!

The only bad part about eating at work is that my day goes by much slower when I don’t leave work for lunch. The crappiest part is not seeing Jorge :(. But we both wanted to start eating better, so we were going to try.

I got out of work an hour early, got some things at H-E-B and then got home to make sure my babies were ready. Mario picked them up and as soon as they left I started making dinner for Jorge, Mom, Jorge’s boys and myself. Then I started on a cake for Eenan. It was going to be a regular round cake, but then I thought I’d try making a Minecraft Creeper cake for him. I risked it being an epic fail since I didn’t have fondant to make it nice, or a square pan to make a cube, but I ended up cutting up a rectangular sheet cake into 4 and dying the batter green :). End result:

The kids got home as I was decorating it. It’s messy and I thought it was pretty crappy, but the boys were actually impressed, heh. They each started making requests for their next birthdays. They always know how to make me feel good .

Jorge got home and we sang Happy Birthday to Eenan :).

My darn flash kept taking too long, so poor Alaethia was struggling to keep her eyes open, can you tell? LOL

He WANTED us to push his face in the cake. Then his face had a black hue the rest of the night LOL.

We told the boys to shut off the video games and watched “Wrath of the Titans”. Of course the girls and I passed out, but the boys enjoyed it :). I love my family ♥!

Tuesday, July 31st

More video planning at work. More covering reception. I believe this was the day I received yet another copy of the final decree of divorce (yep, STILL haven’t signed the Final, despite having our “final hearing” since April 18th!) and I sent back some corrections.

I ate lunch at work and started feeling REALLY ill. Same thing had happened the day before, but this time my eye was twitching, I was nauseous and I had heart palpitations every few minutes. I had been getting a feeling like my heart was skipping a beat for the past few nights, but this time they wouldn’t stop. Michelle said I probably had anxiety. I looked up my symptoms and 80% of what I read said I had anxiety. I didn’t know what I’d have anxiety about. I mean, I worry about bills and stretching our paychecks much more than any normal person should, but it’s the norm for me. Other than that, the only thing I felt might be stressing me out was the fact that we were going to need to get another vehicle soon, since Javi was picking up the F-150 after it being in our possession for a year and a half. Jorge had already had several appointments that his boss had set up with different dealerships, but he wasn’t happy with any of them.

I made it till 4:40pm; almost till 5. I got home, greeted all the kiddos, changed and made fideo with chicken and squash for dinner. During prepping ingredients for dinner Alaethia asked for a piece of watermelon, 2 jumbo marshmallows and a small glass of milk. When the food was almost done, she came up to me and told me, with a squeaky, small voice, that she’d thrown up. I cleaned her up and put her in the bath, all the while lecturing about how I told you, one of these days you were going to eat so much you’d barf!

Still, it didn’t stop her from sitting at the table with all the other kids and eating her entire bowl of fideo, heh. I’m glad she was ok :).

Jorge got home and we ate, and then we sat to watch Gymnastics on the Olympics. He went outside to start skimming the pool and I helped. As we cleaned we talked about the car dealerships and what our options were. We discussed current finances and what was going to be necessary to make a new car possible. And then my eye started twitching and I started getting heart palpitations! I told Jorge, “You see! It’s the car thing stressing me out!” LOL

We swam around with the kids for about an hour. I got the girls inside for a bath in the tub, read them a story and tucked them into bed. Alaethia’s doing great and falling asleep in her room and staying put till the morning. Emily: not so much, heh. She still sneaks off to Mom’s room every-so-often. We’ll get there one of these days :).

Wednesday, August 1st

I managed to eat lunch at work for 2 days in a row…and then Michelle said she felt like having Olive Garden’s soup and salad lunch. That might be healthy…if I could refrain from eating 5 of the delicious bread sticks .

On the way there, Jorge calls and lets me know he’s been having a meeting via cell phone with a guy from a dealership. I talked to him and gave him some info, too, and Michelle and I enjoyed our lunch. I managed to only have 1 1/2 bread sticks *beams*.

My love texted me and let me know we were approved for the car. Now we just needed to get them to give us the monthly payment we wanted. Which we got :). We’d be going in the next morning!

I got out of work and hurried home to make sure my kiddos were ready. I smooched them and helped them get their stuff together and Mario got here for them. I changed and went to Jessica’s to pick up a kitten. Little did I know he was a very tiny kitten and wouldn’t stop meowing and refused to drink from a bowl :(.

I made us some seafood soup when I got back home. Jorge loved it. I have to admit, I wasn’t too crazy about the octopus LOL.

We sat on the sofa and watched the newest Kevin Hart comedy. It was funny, but I enjoyed the one that came before this one a lot more.

Thursday, August 2nd

I had no idea how busy my day would be. As soon as I got to work I started typing out the scripts for the video interviews we’d be shooting that afternoon. Jorge calls me at almost 10am to drive over to the dealership. Jorge’s boss and the guys there really outdid themselves; they helped us out a lot :). The man who helped us last, Augie, was such a sweet man. He kept talking about his wife and was giving us marriage advice, aww. We were done in under 2 hours and got to drive our new BMW to lunch, heh :).

I know. A BMW. I never in a million years thought I’d OWN one of those, ever!

The afternoon went by fast after we shot our videos at work. I went to Old Navy after work to get Alaethia some jeans since they were on sale. I found myself a cute red top for the pie party at the boss’ house that night. And then I waited in line for close to eternity.

I waited for Jorge to get out of work, and then for my black cardigan to dry in the dryer. We finally made it to the boss’ house at 9pm (in our new car, woo!), had a slice of blueberry cheesecake and a slice peanut butter pie. I’m proud of myself for only having 2 slices; I’m pretty sure I had about 5 last year, heh.

We were polite and sat for a while but left since we didn’t know any of the guests. All my co-workers had already gone home. I found out some of them were talking about me earlier that day, so I can’t say I was sad that some of them weren’t there, grr.

Jorge and I got in the car and decided to go to Cigar Bar for a few drinks since it was early. We laughed and watched Olympics and took pics. We even ran into Karina at Delorean’s next door :).

It was a great night :).

Friday, August 3rd

Friday felt like such a long day for me, probably because I stayed in for lunch. One of the highlights of my day was when Nancy, my first boss at my current workplace, told me she knew it was me in the bathroom stall next to her when she looked down and saw turquoise toe nails and tall fushia wedges, heh. As we walked down the hallway she says, “You are JUST DARLING. Hey…do you have a boyfriend?” When I blushed and answered yes she said, “Shoot. Of course you do!” And began to tell me how she met this rich, handsome young man and wanted to find him a girlfriend and I was the first girl to pop in her mind. I guess that’s a pretty nice compliment, heh!

I’d bought one of those Deal of the Day coupons so Jorge and I had a dinner date at La Jaiba and I couldn’t wait :). I love our dates :).

I tried calming the tiny kitty down when I got home. He’s so screamy and loud :(. And he scratches and has razor sharp teeth. I can tell I’m getting old, because when I was younger I had no qualms about staying up all night with kittens and puppies and keeping them quiet and entertained. Now, I have no patience!!

*sigh*

My love got home and we got fancy for our date :). There was an insane amount of food, and it was all so good :).

We joked and laughed and he reached across and rubbed my hand and said, “We need to continue to do this. Spend time with the kids, have friends over, but once every week or two we should have a date where it’s just US.” I agreed :).

We wanted to watch a movie, so we stopped by a Red Box. We decided, after flipping through selections, that we’d just rent “American Reunion” from DirecTV. I’m so glad we did; it was hilarious :).

I was going to finish writing about Saturday, but I’ll finish with that later. I’m sleepy. I’m going to go and enjoy a full night’s sleep without heart palpitations :).

This entry will probably make male readers–if I have any–roll their eyes or cause said eyes to glaze over.

Tuesday, June 12th

It’s not often I wake up having a good hair day. That was probably one of my worst fears when Jorge and I got together: Was he going to run in the opposite direction the day we’d wake up beside each other when he saw my unruly mane? Luckily, he says he loves my crazy hair (I think he’s just being nice). Most of the time I flat-iron it. But when I don’t have much time in the morning I add a touch of gel and leave it to curl/wave. Only now–in my late 20’s/now that I’ve turned 30–have I finally embraced my curls. So, of course I’d take a picture of my waves the ONE TIME I woke up with them looking decent:

(My complexion was behaving itself, as well :D. That doesn’t happen often, either.)

I began my “spring cleaning” early at work. Robert inspired Michelle and I with his early cleaning. All I have to do is organize our storage area in the storage room and dust the top of my desk. I need to get some frames for my photos and spiff it up a bit :).

I got out of work and was greeted by this:

I love that darn kitty! I promised him I would never, ever let Jorge throw him out. Even if he does cause us to sneeze 100 times before we leave in the morning and rubs on our legs when we’re wearing black or dripping wet, freshly showered .

I changed into shorts and sandals and went to HEB to stock up on food/snacks for the kids. I’d be picking them up the next day from Mario’s and my babe’s boys would be there, too :).

I did my shopping, Jorge got home and we had some pizza that I’d brought home from work. I tell you, it’s super hard to lose weight working there! There were 2 pizza boxes left and I brought them home ’cause no one could take them and I felt guilty having them thrown out :(. (I know, I know: excuses, excuses lol.)

We did pretty good, pizza-wise; I only had 1 slice of the supreme and it was thin-crust. I casually brought up jogging and Jorge shot down that idea right away LOL. He said he wanted to watch “John Carter” and then we’d exercise the next day, for real. I said fine. I didn’t think I’d like the movie, but I’d picked the one the night before so I let him have it.

We picked up some Red Mango (used up both certificates, yes!) and then we got the movie.

I felt super guilty after my TUB of yogurt. I told myself that I was definitely starting my workouts the next day; whether Jorge wanted to or not. I feel jiggly and not happy with myself right now. I have no one to blame but myself. And Pinterest.

We ate our Red Mango and watched the movie. And then Jorge made fresh strawberry/mango Margaritas. (Hey, they’re sorta healthy!) It was SUPER GOOD.

And then I fell asleep right after that on the sofa and missed the ending . I’m a cheap date. I only need ONE, heh.

Wednesday, June 13th

The next day was spent cleaning up some more at work and in my free time I went through my Flickr pics and organized some of the photos. Sadly, there’s a huge gap from July 2010-October 2010, but that’s when the shizz hit the fan with Mario and I just lost the desire to take photos, blog, or do anything really. The photos from the past year and a half just made me so happy, though ♥. I can’t complain at all; we’ve been able to do so much with the kids, to our home and with each other :).

I left work at 3pm to pick up the kiddos and then we headed to Alaethia and Emily’s appointment. It was a completely new office and, Jesus, it took forever. The girls were at least entertained with TV and a few toys. Jaylen entertained himself in other ways:

And then he took a nap with his earphones on. I remember when he was around 2; the only way he’d fall asleep in his own bed was if he had his little blue CD player playing his nursery rhyme CD, aww :*)!

Eenan, on the other hand, was being loud and bothering the girls, so they’d start screaming, grrr. And once, Emily found one of those small bubbles the little toys from the machines come in and stuck the lid in her mouth. It got stuck the “vertical” way and she started freaking out. I almost started freaking out until she spit it out and made this funny noise, kind of like a “raspberry”. I immediately started to scold and lecture her and Eenan made the noise mid-lecture and I couldn’t help but crack up laughing! And then I snapped out of it and started lecturing him about not encouraging her or else she’d continue to do it .

The girls WERE NOT happy about being seen by the dentist, which is crazy since they used to love it. Alaethia got her Xrays taken just fine, but when it was Emily’s turn she started crying! 🙁 Her little lip quivered as she stared at me with her big eyes and then she just started bawling. My poor girl. I went and grabbed her as soon as they were done and consoled her. She was terrified. Her dentist, a nice Turkish man with a somewhat goofy voice (heh) started making her laugh. He gave them tons of stickers, crayons and coloring sheets. And all the assistants were admiring Alaethia’s long locks and Emily’s curls at the end of her straight hair. They started feeling more comfortable and got their cleaning done. They’re leaving the sealants for the 20th, tho. .

We finally got to leave around 6:15pm. We got home, I changed and was going to start on dinner. The kids saw the pizza and wanted that for dinner. They never get tired of pizza. Alaethia ate two slices and they’re pretty big! She’s a bottomless pit, that one!

I made some simple chicken salad for us. We ate it plain, without chips or anything! Shocking!

I was pleasantly surprised when Jorge brought up exercising. He said we needed to do something. I brought up jogging at the park, he agreed. We changed, put on a movie for the kids and had Mom stay with them. I have to say, I missed that park.

We started off with power walking for 2 laps (which is about 2 miles) and from the 3-5 we jogged on and off. I love the feeling of the wind in your face, the expanding of the lungs, the strength of my legs; it’s just the best. We chatted about everything, discussed our old work-out regimen and what we’d be doing after the jog, and we hated on the athletic people who were jogging effortlessly, hehe.

We got home, made sure all was well with the kiddos and then we lifted some dumbbells. Alaethia asked to come in right before we started Ab-Ripper. She giggled when Jorge would struggle lol. I did every single rep. When we were doing Heels to the Heavens Jorge stared at me from his position on the floor across from me and said, “What the hell?! It’s like you never stopped!!” 😀

I am super proud of him, though. Even though his back was giving him some trouble, he did as many reps as he could :).

We finished and hobbled to the living room. We watched a bit of “Tin Tin” with them…until I passed out! He said he called me like 5 times and I didn’t wake up till Alaethia, who was resting on my hip, moved me lol.

They watched the movie while we showered. When we got out, Jaylen was falling asleep, Emily was asleep and Alaethia was totally passed out. Jorge picked her up to move her to her bedroom and she’d peed everywhere lol. Jesus. So we put the covers to wash and set the cushions to drain. I sent Eenan to bed (he likes to stick around and stay awake as much as possible). And THEN we went to bed.

Thursday, June 14th

We went in to work at 9am the next morning. We still managed to snooze till the last possible minute so we didn’t eat breakfast at home like we’d planned.

We drove to work together :). At work, I cleaned here and there and got rid of stuff on my computer. I had a few minutes before we left to the Luncheon, so I got on Pinterest. I read this article about bra sizes. Holy crap! I need to find my “correct” size. I seriously had no idea there were such things as THOSE SIZES. No wonder nothing ever fits me correctly!

I also saw this girl’s ab progress and it motivated me even more to continue with it. I wish I’d kept my photos from when I was actually doing P90X/tae kwon do religiously; I know for a fact that it works, so I’m totally going to make an effort!

We went to the luncheon and I helped with registration. Then we had lunch. It was pretty healthy: salad, fish in cilantro sauce, glazed carrots and roasted potatoes, but the fish was super salty . I had only half of my glazed carrots and one tiny potato. And then, dessert. Cheesecake. I admit, I ate most of it. But I left a little bit, which is more than I can say I would have done 2 weeks ago, heh. I even had my brewed tea without sugar and some water.

We got back to work and I continued with my tidying up. And some more Pinterest, hehe.

I got home, changed, chilled out with the kids and painted Emily’s nails while I waited for dinner dinner to finish cooking.

I made fish. I had no idea they were serving that for lunch and had already planned for it . But it was good :). Jaylen even had seconds!

Jorge got home from work and ate and we watched TV with the kids while our stomachs settled, for about 30 minutes. Then we got ready and went to the park. We walked 4 and jogged 1. We felt awesome afterwards. We stopped by Exxon to get something to drink since we finished our water. Everything had TONS of sugar. Or sucralose or some other type of sugar substitute. We found some Sobe Life Waters, which had lower sugar than all the other drinks, including tea or juice. I got pomegranate and Jorge got mango mandarin. We tried the other’s drink and we switched LOL. The mango mandarin one is SO GOOD!

We get home and park in the driveway. He says, “Ok, let’s bet. I bet that Alaethia’s whining for snacks, Emily’s throwing a fit and the boys were fighting so Eenan’s in our room. What do you think?” I say, “Somewhat the same; Alaethia fell asleep though, Emily’s throwing a fit and the boys did fight, so Eenan’s playing in their room and Jaylen’s in the living room watching TV or on my computer.”

“Ok,” he says, “Let’s go see.”

So we get down and quietly walk through the garage and the laundry room and open the boys’ door. We both say, “What the–??”

Jorgie and Justin were there. All 4 boys are quietly playing, peacefully.

Jorge asks when they got there, they said a few minutes before. We weren’t expecting them that night, but it was nice that they got to come over :). They told us they had a doctor’s appointment in the morning (finally) due to their bad coughs so their mother would pick them up. We let them know they wouldn’t be staying up long. None of them were happy about that LOL.

Friday, June 15th

It was cleaning day at work and we got to wear JEANS! Since I’d already done most of the cleaning during the week, all I really had to do was dust everything and organize a few binders.

I was finished and satisfied with my work. Then I made the mistake of opening my desk cabinets up top and thought, Hmm. Maybe I should put the binders from 2010 into the storage room filing cabinets?

So I took them all out. Michelle passes by and says, “Oh my God! Your desk is messy again!”

It was awful. I had no room in the storage room cabinets and stuffed one of them to the top so now I can’t open the darn thing. Grr. BUT. I put my trays in one cabinet at my desk and freed up a lot of desk space. And now I only have current binders. I told my boss we need to go through that stuff. Some is 5+ years old!

I finished just in time for lunch and met my love at Palenque Chicken. We joked around with his co-workers and just had a good time. I love meeting him for lunch :).

I got back to work and get a text from Jorge about 20 minutes later. All hell is breaking loose with the boys. Fighting over games, picking on each other–the works. It became a HUGE drama because, of course, as much as we love each other’s kids, we both become defensive over our own children. We’re human. Didn’t help that some dumbass was making it an even bigger drama show than it should have been. (We knew this because we gathered the kids later and talked about it.) But it put a damper on the day a little.

I was scheduled to work till 3, so I went to do some Father’s Day shopping, even though I wasn’t in the best of moods. Jorge is always stealing my Iso-cool pillow, so that was one of his gifts. Too bad they weren’t in stock . I’d have to wait a week for it. I figured I’d be creative and put in a little IOU tag or something with the rest of his gifts.

I started getting prices for the girls’ future twin beds (they’re growing out of their toddler beds fast!). I wanted bunk beds, but there weren’t any in stock and the ones they had in the catalog look too masculine. As I was walking, I saw a patio table and chairs. An employee jumped at the chance to get a sale and gave me an amazing price for them, since it was the last set. We’ve been wanting a patio set, but when I asked if they were getting any new ones the employee said no. I okayed the last set with Jorge (whom I had to tell about the pillow because he was wondering why I’d go to Furniture Row all random-like) and we got it! For about a 3rd of the cost AND 6 months, no interest LOL. I’m almost done paying it, and we just got it, that’s how cheap it was!

I got Jorge some clothes at Old Navy and headed to his work to pick him up. I was slowly getting out of my funky mood, but when I had to wait an additional hour and a half…I wasn’t so cheery anymore. When he finally got out, we decided to get Subway for us and the kids wanted pizza. So that took a while longer. And then we realize the passenger-side tail light was out…and we were being followed by a cop. So we quickly stopped by O’Reily’s and he changed out the light.

I was annoyed at how late we got home. The girls were all over me ’cause they missed me, aww :*). We chilled for a bit, let the food settle, and then we went for our (quiet) jog.

We walked the first 3 miles, then jogged the last 2. I finally stopped with the ice queen facade after he bumped me several times and I grabbed his hand. We had a talk when we got home and–eventually–all was well, thank goodness :).

Saturday, June 16th

I was meeting Sally for breakfast the next morning, at Jimmy’s Egg. It’s a fairly new restaurant and one of my co-workers was raving about it and we both wanted to try it. We hadn’t hung out in a long time; probably since before our birthdays. We made plans to take the littlest ones with us.

We caught up: gossiped, talked about the kids, our love life, work. It was nice to just chill with a girlfriend. I let her know how crazy the past few months were for me, and all my time and energy was focused on my family. She totally understood.

The kids played and giggled and colored. Then our food came and OMG. I have never had better whole-wheat pancakes in my LIFE. They were cinnamon-y and so delicious! Too bad I didn’t get a photo! But Sally did take one of the girls and me:

I look so sleepy in it, but I like it :). Sally and I were too caught up in the gossip and the kids that we didn’t take one with each other LOL.

When we were done eating Sally and QC came over for a bit and he played with the girls. It’s so fun watching them play together :). The girls kinda fight for his attention, tho :P.

My boys had all eaten while we were on our way home and Jaylen took the girls’ leftover pancakes LOL. Mario came for the kiddos about 30 minutes later and Sally left. I tidied up and then went to buy groceries. My LEAST favorite chore. Other than laundry.

That’s where I found out my driver’s license was expired. And they didn’t let me buy Jorge’s Shiner LOL.

When I got back home I found a 12-pack of Shiner beer carefully placed beside the garage. My first thought? SHINER FAIRY!? But no, it was Jorge’s friend/employee, who was kissing butt for getting in trouble that morning for calling in and later busting himself partying when he butt-dialed another co-worker LOL.

I made dinner and Jorge got home. His sister came over with her kiddos and we caught up. Two of Jorge’s friends were coming over so we gathered outside in the garage. Jorge put the new patio table together (and playfully joked, “You see what she has me doing? The night before Father’s Day?!” LOL) and after he was done Briana and I came in so I could make us some Margaritas. It was seriously mostly strawberries (and 1 mango) because the strawberries looked close to spoiling and I wanted to save them LOL.

We had our drink and laughed at the guys. Briana whispers to me, “Is that really all they talk about? Farts?” Buahaha! I thought that was hilarious. (And yes, they do!)

We got a visit from Big Red, a neighbor’s beautiful Labrador, who has seemed lost in recent days because his buddy, a tiny white chihuahua, moved away :(. It’s the saddest thing. It’s like he comes to our yard to look for him, because he remembers this is where they’d play and take a short-cut to the other neighborhood behind us .

Briana and Mia left (Nick was sleeping over) and then it was midnight. We said our “Happy Father’s Day!” to everyone and the guys left about 30 minutes later. As Jorge and I were getting ready for bed I asked him, “What do you want to do for Father’s Day, my love?” He said, “Nothing,” and smiled. I asked, “Really? Nothing?” He said, “Nope. I just want to chill out at home and do nothing.”

Sounds like a plan :).

April 16th – I packed my bag for work and attended our meeting. I expected to go to the Golf Tournament around 11am, but they asked me to change so we could leave around 9 or so. I changed (into jeans, yay!), made a few calls & replied to emails I had pending, we loaded everyone’s vehicles and got to the Country Club. It was a fresh and overcast day, but it was swarming with mosquitoes

We started off slow, then it got crazy and then we got to have lunch! The morning went by fast. Wally was grilling burgers for us–which I was dreading since I’d been eating so well. And Palenque Chicken was catering that night so…that would be interesting!

We were in the dining hall. Everyone went to their posts. I stayed in the hall with Maritza, Gerry & Blanca until my boss was ready to be relieved from his post. There was junkfood everywhere and I did pretty well until Maritza busted out a Moonpie. OMG. I used to consume at least 2 of those every day for like…a month about 4 years ago. Terrible. Highly caloric. We really wanted one, though, so we decided to split one LOL.

My boss and I switched places as spotters for the Hole-in-one. I’d made sure my phone was charged so I could finish reading my eBook. Wally & Michelle dropped me off and I told them to PLEASE return for me if it started to rain. Thunder had been rumbling softly all day. During our department’s tournament last October I got drenched when I was driving back in a golf cart a little too late from my post. This year, our tournament shirt was white and my hair was straightened–two things I definitely didn’t want to wet!

I sat at the post and enjoyed the breeze. I sat out there a total of 20 minutes until it started to drizzle. Wally and Maritza were already driving around the corner to come get me, whew!!

We spent the rest of the day in the pool house watching it rain.

Then we started getting reports of hail in places and severe weather. Luckily nothing happened in our area. The teams played only the holes they had already played and we got ready for dinner. I wish I could have enjoyed it a bit more; I took over for one of the girls, picking the numbers for the door prizes. The door prizes were called out, then the auction was done and voila! It was over!

I got home and my babe was already home. Mom had made dinner for the girls already, so we sat around watching their shows on Disney. We did our nightly routine: bath, hair detangling, teeth brushing, read a story, gave kisses and hugs three times and then I joined my love in the living room. We watched one of our shows and then headed to bed. We are SO BEHIND on all our shows. But we’re always so tired. Most of the time I’m the one who passes out on the sofa . Then he gently rouses me from sleep and leads me to the bedroom and tucks me in .

April 17th – The next day was a normal day at work. I picked up Alaethia from school, I ate with the girls and then went back to work.

The Conn’s guys called that our fridge and freezer were out for delivery. Mom called around 3pm that they’d just finished installing them. She said the girls couldn’t open the doors, buahaha. (That didn’t last long, though…)

It’s beautiful!! It even made our more, er, vintage cabinets look nice, heh. I want to change those old handles to stainless steel ones. And eventually a stainless steel microwave, but that’s later, later.

Our old co-worker Jesse, invited us to his birthday party. We had our birthday party together last year at Zushi and this year he was starting his birth week on his actual birthday at Russo’s. My love was going to try to make it, but wasn’t sure; he was swamped with work. I got the girls ready and off we went.

The girls behaved wonderfully; even when the pizza took “too long to come out” as they said LOL. I was surprised with how much Alaethia ate! She had 2 1/2 slices. She really liked it. We chit-chatted, sang “Happy Birthday”, had cake and then I excused myself. We picked up some Whataburger for my love, who was on his way home.

I gave the girls a quick bath, tucked them into bed and they were out like lights!!

April 18th – Jaylen’s 10th birthday!! My littlest boy, already TEN!! I tried calling him that morning to wish him a happy birthday, but his phone was off and his dad didn’t answer his phone. It made me feel an immense sadness inside, not being able to physically be there in the morning and giving him a huge hug and wishing him a good day (I’m tearing up as I write this); even moreso knowing that I was going to court that day and agreeing to keeping the custody terms as they are; Mario keeps the boys, I keep the girls. The weeks we each have all 4 kids we’ll have them from Thursday evening to Monday morning, which is what we’ve been doing since February 8th. Everyone told me to keep things as they are if things were working out, but I want my boys. Unfortunately, attorneys work by the hour. I wish I had a million dollars to go all the way with this thing :'(. More than anything, I wish I did.

The boys were both stressed out about it (Jaylen’s a little more reserved about his feelings, but Eenan himself had told me he couldn’t concentrate at school because he was only thinking about what was going to happen; who was he going to end up with) and I didn’t want this whole thing to interfere with their state tests that were coming up. Eenan is 12 and can choose whom he wants to live with. I know how attached he is to that woman, but I’m hoping he’ll come with me one day soon . And Jaylen said where Eenan goes, he goes.

I was nice and let the charges against his mother be dropped for what she did. I hope they understand the severity of what they did at the end of February and this was a lesson learned. You never know with them, though. I still have my guard up with them.

The morning went by slowly. We got to witness other hearings before ours. Then we were up. I got my spare keys to my van back, finally. I wouldn’t doubt he made a copy since he had it for almost 2 years. But I’m glad to have it back. I should have thrown out there that his mother still owes on my account for her furniture after 4 years. And a few other things but wasn’t thinking. It took a lot of inner strength to not crumble into a million pieces; I couldn’t stop thinking of the boys. My mind kept going back to that August. September. October. HOW they gained custody of the kids. As we’d sat there listening to everyone else’s hearings I blocked it all out and went back to August and how stupid I was for listening to them, to that woman, coaxing me in her fake-sugary voice that I should leave the kids there because of school not stressing them out and blah, blah, blah. I regret more than anything listening to those people. Believing them. Believing her every single time she’d say she wasn’t going to take them from me–sometimes without me even asking, which should have told me a lot. But this past February proved what I knew would happen: even if I had taken the boys with me that very minute like I did the girls, even if I’d withdrawn them from their current schools and moved them to the schools near John’s apartment where I’d been staying, his mother would have just gone right over there and stolen them from the school…and then proceeded with the very thought-out plan as they did in actuality.

Ugh, anyway. So that was that. I called Mario right after court and asked him if he’d told the boys anything. Even though the boys will eventually know what day we officially divorced on, I didn’t want them knowing it was that day that we went to court and agreed to it. I didn’t want Jaylen knowing it was on his birthday. I know how Mario likes to give them more information that they should, and he likes to have everything out there right away (i.e. him telling them we were divorcing as soon as we signed the papers, etc.). Sure enough, he said he didn’t tell Jaylen but he told Eenan since he was older. Oh yes, like he isn’t going to run and tell his brother. *sigh*

I picked up my Aly from school, dropped her off with Mom and Emmos and went back to work. My co-workers are awesome and stepped in for me while I was absent that morning and helped me out with one of my luncheons. I got there, updated everyone, even though it wasn’t the big celebration that I’d liked. It would have been a grand one if I’d actually had my boys :'(. (I shouldn’t be writing this right now. I’m hormonal and a total wreck.)

Whoooo. Ok.

Laura and I ate at the luncheon, I took over reception and then the rest of the day was as they usually go.

I spoke to Jaylen later that afternoon. They were taking him out for his birthday and I let them pick up the girls so they can spend the night, on the condition that they’d bring Jaylen and Eenan over so I could see them. We chit-chatted a little bit and Mom and I gave him his birthday money :). I swear Jaylen grew another inch since a few days before that. They’re growing so quickly :(.

They left and I changed into jeans and sandals. Jessica invited me to a Rainbow Room benefit, which is an organization against child abuse. We met at Alhambra and went in. The point was to support the event, have a few appetizers and catch up some more, but we couldn’t get out of work-mode heh. We chatted with one of my old exhibitors from the Health Fair; James, Alhambra’s chef and the photographer from one of the events. Even though we didn’t get to chat much, it was fun. And I won a door prize! A Honey basket, which had 4 bottles of organic honey and 2 cinnamon honey butter spread, which were made in McAllen :). (I have no pictures…must email Laura from the magazine to send me some LOL.)

My love had gotten home and he was bored LOL. Since we didn’t have much time to chat, Jessica suggested we have dinner at Bayou Grill. We’d never been there; I’d met the chef, but had never actually eaten there. I told Jorge to get ready and I told Jess we’d meet her and her friend Joe there.

We wanted to go “light” lol, so we had some stuffed mushrooms to start and shared a chicken and shrimp plate–which I was really glad for since, as we expected, it was a huge plate!

And I had a Midouri Sour, which I hadn’t had in about 2 years!

I love that photo, hehe.

We caught up and ate. It was really nice to get out and be social, heh. They wanted us to follow them to Rings and Wings, but man, we’re getting old and we were sleepy :P.

April 19 – I honestly can’t remember much from this day, for some reason, heh. Pretty normal day at work. Picked up Aly from school like usual, ate with the girls. I remember being really sleepy around 3pm and hoping and praying I’d be sent on some errand at work so I could stop by a Starbucks LOL. But no, I ended up getting busier towards the end of the day and then I went to pick up the boys. We talked and caught up on the way home. I missed them!! We got home, I made dinner and we chilled out the rest of the evening, all sprawled out in the living room. Then of course came the bathing and the putting to bed. Both girls had begun showing signs of a cold so I’d be taking them to the doctor in the morning.

April 20 – I took the girls to the doctor and got there about 10 minutes after they opened. I expected it to be fast, since it usually is, but I was sadly mistaken. We were there for about 2 hours and then had to wait longer for their prescriptions. The doctor had left to deliver a baby, hence the wait. I was glad to get it all done, though, so they wouldn’t have to suffer through the weekend.

I got to work about noontime. The afternoon went by quickly. My boss tells me we’re going to go to an Expo around 3pm to recruit for our Expo in January, hehe. We chit-chatted with a few of our old wonderful exhibitors. I “posed” in one of the hammocks one of the exhibitors had and gave me a little outdoor decorative turtle. She now resides with my bougainvillea, heh. I ended up walking away with 2 bags of discounted or free items from different people. One of the perks of my job .

As my boss and I drove back to the office we started hearing severe thunderstorm and hail warnings. I was hoping it was a false alarm; I had to pick up the boys, pick up Jaylen’s and Justin’s birthday cake and then we were taking them all out to eat. But as we drove, the reports were more frequent and the sky was becoming darker. We got to work, I turned off my computer and rushed to clock out. I decided I should go for the cake first and then to pick up the boys. I was hoping I could avoid the storm, but nope. I got to Sweet and Tasty, picked up the kids’ almond creme cake and as soon as I walked out little ice pebbles started falling on the clear plastic cover of the cake. I ran to the car as fast as I could and called Jorge. I told him I was on north 10th St. and OH MY GOD, WHAT DO I DO?!?!

He told me to go to a bank or car wash and park in their lanes under a roof. Every single gas station, car wash and bank was taken! Finally, after what seemed like forever, I got to his office’s parking lot and parked next to the building. A tree was somewhat breaking the fall of the golf ball to baseball-sized hail. I called Mario to let him know I’d be late for the boys and he should be lucky I called to warn him because he got to move his Mom’s van just in time. I called Mom and she said it was hailing very little, thank goodness, and the girls were fine. Jorge was at a project site and was driving back to the store already. He uploaded this to Facebook:

All the while I was waiting for him, HUGE hail balls were hitting the van. I knew for sure I had at least 5 huge dents (and I later confirmed that I did ). He got to the store, jumped in his truck and we drove to Palmview. On our way there we only slightly missed crashing twice; people are terrible at driving in wet weather here . I don’t know how I did it, but both times I swore I was going to slam into him and I was about 1/2 an inch away from his bumper both times.

We left his truck in Palmview so he could go with me in case the weather was bad, went for my babies (while eating those peanut butter chocolate drizzle cookies from Sweet & Tasty, mmmmm!), went back to his truck and he went for his boys. The weather was clearing up on the way back, thank God. We were celebrating Jaylen and Justin’s birthdays that night and I prayed the weather wouldn’t become ugly again so we could take them to dinner.

They both wanted House of China, so there we went. It was a nice night :). There wasn’t a huge crowd, the kids were all wonderful, they enjoyed their food and Jorge and I behaved pretty well, too. We tried not being too gluttonous!

We got home and watched some TV with the kids. None of them even asked about the cake, since we were sorta grateful for because it was after 9pm and they certainly didn’t need to be hopped up on sugar LOL. The girls fell asleep and we moved them to their beds and the boys played for a little bit. We chilled out in the garage and we each had a drink and talked about everything. I love nights like that: when everything important to me is under one roof .