Category: Birthdays

Tues., Oct. 14th – Back to the daily grind. Only it wasn’t so bad because the library was closed due to a guest speaker visiting the 7th grade classes to give them a quick training on the writing portion of the TAKS test. I got to work on updating several things on Reading Renaissance and then our check-out system. It was a restful day, and I got to jot down some points to give Eenan because he’s taking the writing TAKS this year.

Since the library was closed, Mrs. V., Mrs. Ruiz and I went to eat lunch together. Mrs. Ruiz was awesome enough to pick up food from Starlight Burger for us both. I was going to treat her for once, but of course she gives me my $20 back! I finally got my delicious fried Shrimp plate with fries dipped in nacho cheese. *drool*

Wed., Oct. 15th – It was another normal day at work. It was Jorge’s birthday that day (Mario’s Nino) and we were celebrating at Yadira’s. After homework and everything else I didn’t have time to bathe the kids or get anything ready for the next day before it was time to leave. We had a good time over there and sat and talked like we usually do. Poor Alaethia got beaten up once by Matthew, but that was it. She’s learning to defend herself, but he did manage to catch her off guard that one time, heh.

We got home and we were in a frenzy getting everyone bathed and ready for bed. I was so tired I was literally falling asleep wherever I sat. I didn’t have lunch for myself or Mario the next day but he can always buy something from a restaurant. I only have 30 minutes for lunch so I can’t exactly leave campus so I figured I’d just buy the school lunch.

Thurs., Oct. 16th – I can’t remember much from this day. It was probably one of those usual ones, where 1st and 2nd period are hectic and crazy and the rest of the day is spent trying to make the system work with us. Mrs. Ruiz didn’t go that day so I had a late, quiet lunch and read a little.

Fri., Oct. 17th – We’d ordered brisket plates for a Migrant fundraiser and were worried that we weren’t going to get to eat that day since they never came in. But the lady did come in, by 11:30. Poor staff members that eat from 10:30-11:30…they didn’t get to eat that day if they’d ordered a plate!

When Mrs. Ruiz and I got back from lunch it was nice and quiet and we actually had time to just sit and chit chat.

We got home and I get a call from Mario asking me if I’d like to go to Jorge’s at night. I said it would be fine. Mary asked if we’d like to go to town with her. Mario didn’t want to go—in fact, he made it a point to fall asleep on the couch just to stress how sure he was. Mom, Alaethia and I went along with Mary and the boys stayed with Mario.

JC Penny was having this huge sale…let’s just say between Mary and I, we got the boys a whole new wardrobe! The t-shirts were $2-3 each, no joke. It was awesome! I finally got myself some new er, undergarments. No luck finding anything in the maternity section; everything was huge!

We got a few things at Target, where I lost my mother. Darn woman made me walk the whole of the store 3 times and I couldn’t find her. I went to the car with Alaethia, who needed a diaper change and Mary found Mom later, still in the Halloween section. That’s supposedly where she was the whole time. Not when I checked!

We stopped to pick up dinner at Chick-fil-a and then Mary dropped me off at Jorge’s with Mario and picked up the boys. We stayed pretty late that night, talking about anything from the upcoming election to the end of the world LOL.

Sat., Oct. 18th – Since we went to sleep really late, we woke up really late. We decided we’d go to the movies after Mario finished helping his dad with something. So I took my time getting ready. Around 3pm, half an hour before our movie started, Mario gets a call from Jorge that they need to go to the Dodge Arena to set up. Grr. I was so pissed and kept asking myself I didn’t know this was an on-call job. Fumed the rest of the day while doing my housework.

Sun., Oct. 19th – We were supposed to go to Tio V’s girlfriend’s daughter’s baby shower, but Lisa had her baby that morning. We kind of just chilled out most of the day until we decided to go to Home Depot to look for a new fluorescent light for the back porch and to buy meat for an impromptu bar-b-q. We invited everyone over. After spending time with everyone outside I came in and got everything ready for the next day. I was so not looking forward to going to work the next day. I guess because I know I’m going to eventually stop working I feel lazy waking up each morning, hoping that the day I don’t have to wake up at 5:30am comes quickly. It feels like it can’t come fast enough when Alaethia wakes me up 2+ times a night.

Mon. 18th – the 20th – That week at work was spent adding the newcoming 6th graders into our database and the beginning of adding them to our Reading Renaissance database because our lovely coordinator deleted everyone from the database. We had this false sense of security that this year we were just going to add the 6th graders and voila! we’d be done! But no. So I had the pleasure of adding all the kids. One by one, I added them.

Tues. 19th – Mom’s 59th birthday. I rushed home and started on the enchiladas and rice I was making her for dinner. John wanted to get her a cake, which was better for me—one less thing to do, so we drove to H-E-B and got an Oreo cake for her. Got back and the food was ready. My dad-in-law was sick and sleeping, Mario was still at work so it was just John, Mom, Mary, the kids and I. I didn’t invite anyone else since in the past, when I have, no one makes it.

Thurs. 21st – My fingers were on fire as I added students to the database. At one point Mrs. V. passes by and says, “I’m really gonna miss you,” and smiles warmly. I told her, “Aww, I’m going to miss you, too!”
I made sure to clock out right on time, since we were still getting out at 5pm that week and I had to rush home, get the boys to the salon to cut their hair because they hadn’t had one since Natalie’s Quinceanera in June! And then we had Meet the Teacher night at their school. At the salon I’m relieved to find out Meet the Teacher night would be ending at 8 instead of 7:00, so I had plenty of time.

Jaylen got Eenan’s 1st grade teacher this year, which is great ’cause she’s awesome. And Eenan’s teacher is one I’d seen around before and I hear she’s great, too. She asked him questions and was really nice to him right off the bat. When we’d walked in she said excitedly, “Yay! I got Eenan!!” like he’s a prize LOL. She’s also going to be his UIL coach this year, which is cool. Eenan was a little disappointed to find out, though, that he wouldn’t be in the same class with his two best buds, Abraham and Rolando.

Fri. 22nd – Friday was our huge district meeting at the Dodge Arena. The girls from work and I decided to carpool, so we all met at the school at 6:45am, which seemed really early considering we’d been going in at 8 every morning. Well, it was something we had to get used to since we’d be going in at 6:30 again on Monday.

We went in Amaveli’s Tahoe and it’s always a laugh with those girls. I was so relieved they invited me to go along with them since I’d never been to one of those events before. I felt overwhelmed just thinking about it!
We got there right on time, waved to everyone we knew from other schools or departments (I saw my dad-in-law and Ricky there!), and laughed our butts off at our really funny, enthusiastic motivational speaker (who just happened to be nicknamed “Mr. Enthusiasm” LOL). We all agreed he reminded us of Mr. D.!

We went to eat at House of China for lunch. I was disappointed that they didn’t have the crab & cream cheese thingies I like and the green beans were crappy. Those were my favorite to have there when I was pregnant with Aly and was looking forward to both this time around. After we ate we went to Palms Crossing and visited the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, where I bought a sal-y-limon & chile candy apple. If you haven’t had one, you must!! You don’t know what you’re missing. They’re SO GOOD. (Man, now I really want one…)

Mario had his Physical for Border Patrol that Friday. I was so nervous for him, but I knew he’d do well. He texted me to call him after work, so I did—and he passed!! He said he thought he’d done a little mistake during the stepping part (kind of like when you step up and down in aerobics?), but the instructor didn’t say anything so whew!

I got home and Mario, my dad-in-law and Mom were outside chilling out while the kids all sloshed around in the kiddie pool. It was a nice day. Alaethia was having a blast. Jaylen needed a nap so he quickly became moody =\.

Sat. 23rd – I think this was the day the two moms, my kiddos and I all crammed ourselves into my Equinox and went to town. We had bills to pay and then we met Mario for lunch at Jesse’s. I love that place. I had enchiladas as usual.

Sun. 24th – We lazied around all morning and around noon, when businesses open on Sunday, we went to Conn’s to dispute the extra $65 I’d noticed they’d charged us on our 47″ TV. We only had about $78 to go and once they credited that extra $65, we’d only owe $8!! We talked to the guy who’d originally started our account and he swore up and down he’d fix it. He told me to call on Wednesday to follow up.

Can’t remember much else from that day; I know for sure I did laundry and cleaned and got the boys’ backpacks and clothes for their first day of school ready the next morning (eek!).

Mon. 25th – I was so sad I wouldn’t be there to see them off since I’m taking off to work about 30 minutes before they even wake up, but Mario dropped them off. He said they did really well and took tons of pictures (which I still need to add to Flickr!). They both loved their teachers; Jaylen was especially excited. They high-fived each other when Jaylen told Eenan how much fun he had in the class with his (Eenan’s) former teacher. It was too cute :). Eenan was a little sad, however, because Rolando and Abraham weren’t in his class, but he said on the plus side he’d behave better this year without the distractions, aww. We later found out that Rolando hadn’t showed up to school all week!

Tues. 26th – Can’t remember much from that day…I think I mainly stuck to doing stuff to the database: adding students to the checkout system and continued adding them to Reading Renaissance. Mrs. V. said I could start on the classes that were going to attend the Star Testing first and the teachers could help me with the rest. I completely intended on finishing it on my own before Friday. A pounding sinus headache hit me around noontime. I felt awful.

Wed. 27th – I had a doctor’s appointment at 4pm. I picked up the boys, took quick shower , and rushed over there. Made it right on time. I weighed 130 (!!) already. My glucose and blood pressure were fine. Still no pap smear, though I’m not complaining. I told the doctor about the sharp pain in my right side behind my ribs; he said it may be my gallbladder. He freaked me out saying they’d operate after delivery if they had to — what? I didn’t think it was my gallbladder, but he told me to do some detective work and check if I got the pain after I ate anything spicy or greasy. I got an appointment for the Friday after that week, but cancelled it at the last minute because I suddenly stopped getting the pain right after that appointment O_o.

I asked for something for the horrible sinus headaches I’d been having. He gave me two bottles that had only 4 tiny pills in them. He said be careful when you take them, I’m much bigger than you and they knocked me out.

When he began doing the ultrasound and saw the baby sort of hiccup as soon as the doctor put the monitor to my belly. I think it was asleep :). It moved its little hands and kicked its little legs. He checked the baby’s gender; I told him I had a feeling it’s a girl, because my symptoms and everything else were so similar to Alaethia’s. As he slid the monitor around my belly he said, “I think so, too.” And then I see it! What looks like a tiny “peach”! But then he says, “No, no! Aha! It’s a boy!!” I sort of saw what he was talking about; a tiny little orb between the little legs. I feel awful saying this, but I felt a little disappointed. I kind of had these visions of having two boys and two girls. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for either a boy or a girl–too many things went wrong with Jaylen’s pregnancy and I learned not to take anything for granted. I just want a healthy baby. But the weird thing is: I still feel in my heart of hearts that it’s a girl! We’ll see what turns up in 3 weeks on Sept. 17th!

I told Mom and Big Mario about my appointment and when they told me to go rest I excused myself, took a pill and got comfy on the couch for when this deep sleep should hit me. I even did some boring check-balancing to bore myself into oblivion…but nothing happened. I stayed awake till 9:15pm–when Alaethia and I both crashed out on the couch. Everyone just left us alone and let us sleep. I woke up at 10:30 and moved both of us to the bedroom. Mario had already kindly made me some Jalapeno Tuna for work the next day.

Thurs. 28th – I woke up the next morning hoping I’d slept off the headache, but nope, it was in full swing. I decided I’d call in for the morning and go in in the afternoon to finish up the copies that awaited me. I slept that whole morning and when I woke up at 9am I still felt a little groggy and the back of my eyes still hurt, but I felt much better than the days before.

I got to the library at 10:30 and started working. I was sure I’d finish with everything I needed to do by the next day.

I haven’t updated because I’ve been out and about. Friday, the 25th, we lazied around the house and then John, Alaethia and I went to Kumori. I called first to make sure they were open since some parts of McAllen still didn’t have electricity.

I wasn’t too happy with my visit that day. They were packed, so I wasn’t too bitchy, but they took forever to bring us our Miso soup, which made Alaethia throw a fit. Not even the chopsticks were keeping her busy. Then they took forever with the food and never came around to refill our lemonades, which they’re usually right on top of. Alaethia was not happy in her high chair so we tried eating as fast as possible so we could leave. She’d done so well the last time we took her LOL.

On Saturday we didn’t go anywhere since we were having a get together for Elda’s birthday, which had been on the 23rd but we were in the middle of a hurricane so we didn’t do anything. I contributed a Dump Cake (really have to add that recipe; it’s more delicious than it sounds!) and we had Shrimp Cocktail as the main course, yum. Mario got to Yadira’s early (where we were having the party) and I get a text from Maggie inviting us over for brisket that Hiram was making. We picked up some sodas and went over. Alaethia stayed with Mom (the mosquitoes were awful and her bites get really infected), Eenan slept over at Mary’s as always and Jaylen had gone with us but their boys were with their grandma so poor Jaylen was bored. Well, somewhat. He got to play games on their computer and then went outside to the garage with us where Jorge let hi play Guitar Hero. Jorge is obsessed with it! Jaylen caught on pretty fast.

We woke up late Sunday morning and browsed through the ads online, fed the kiddos and then Mario and I went on a date. We ate at Whataburger and then went to the movies. We watched Step Brothers, which was kind of disturbing and so ridiculous it was funny. John was going to go with u