Category: Birthdays

(Started on 11-5-07 after work.) It’s been tons of weeks between an entry again. *sigh* I’ve actually been jotting down important little details on sticky-notes all over the place, just so I’ll remember when I finally do get to blog.

So this entry will be like most of the others, where I summarize by dates and is so darn long you probably won’t bother reading it. But that’s okay. I need it for my own reference because I’m neurotic that way.

Sun. Oct. 14th – Pete and Sally’s co-ed baby shower was that Sunday. Mom, Mary, the kiddos and I were all at Target the day before (I think?) going crazy, buying baby things. I love baby showers. I LOVE buying baby stuff, even if it’s not for me and my babies. I actually convinced Mario to go with us! I first accompanied Mary to church (which I really need to start attending more often) at noon, then went to the cemetery with the whole family to place flowers on Mario’s Grandma’s grave since it was her birthday.

We went home, got ready, the boys stayed with Isaac, Sammy and Brandon, and were later watched by Jose and Elda, and then we made our way to Weslaco, where the baby shower was being held in a hotel. I visited the room with Pete and Sally last January, when I was still pregnant and they had just become a couple. They invited me to lunch at an ajoining restaurant to tell me the good news, actually. They had a safari theme going on (went great with the Wild Room theme) and everything was really fun. The men mostly played the games (Mario was a good sport and played the Beer in a Baby Bottle race) and Mom won the nursery rhyme game. We got to see Veronica for a few moments. I was so surprised! She’s pregnant with her 3rd child, another girl. She was supposedly going to pick up her husband and kids because she didn’t know it was for everyone, but she never returned. I was disappointed. I had this naive little glimmer of hope in my chest that now that she’d finally come out of hiding, the three of us — Sally, Vero and me — would be best girlfriends like we used to be and take all our babies out to play together and have tea or frappuccinos. But, oh well.

Kristina was there and a few of Sally’s friends I met during her birthday.

(11-6-07 – I’m at work right now continuing the entry since it’s a bit slow this morning. Well, thankfully it usually is on Tuesdays.)

Sally and Pete received lots of awesome stuff. They still don’t know what they’re having (they don’t want to find out till the baby’s born), so they’re going pretty neutral. I went ahead and got Sally some extra stuff I didn’t see on her registry but I’ve yet to drop them off to her. Sucks not having any extra time!

As we were leaving the party, a security guard tells us that a gray truck has a bad flat tire. Sure enough, it was us. Mario fixed it and then finally, after what seemed like forever, we left home.

Mon. Oct. 15th – It was Jorge’s birthday so we all got together at Yadira’s to celebrate.

Sat. Oct. 20th – We got together at Yadira’s again, this time for Tommy’s birthday. After we ate and had cake Mom, the boys, Aly and I went to visit Gramma and then rushed back home since we had to be at a party for one of Mary’s co-worker’s grandson’s first birthday. It was at Peter Piper Pizza and a Transformers theme. It got me thinking about Alaethia’s first birthday. I have no idea what I want to do as the theme, where I want to have it, ect. And I’ve got less than 3 months to plan it!

Sun. Oct. 21st – Like most Sundays, I spent the morning cleaning until Alaethia woke up. Mario had the day off so he just played Halo 3 for a while and then we decided to look through the Furniture Row ads online. We decided, after 4 years of having a futon as our main (and only) seating area in our tiny living room, it was time we get new furniture. It’s our last big-spending hoorah since we’re planning on paying off all the debt we’ve collected and cutting up our credit cards. We royally messed up about 2 months ago when we went crazy putting stuff on our Target card. Two big purchases were ones we didn’t have to make at all, but the rest were for groceries or things that we actually needed when we were really low on cash. So we, for the 2nd time, have fallen hard into debt and will no longer be opening credit card accounts or anything like that. This totally messed up our future plans, but oh well. Live and learn.

But anyway, Mom stayed with the boys (because are you kidding—I can totally see them jumping on the couches) and Mario, Aly and I went to Furniture Row, mainly the Sofa Mart. As soon as we walked in I started scanning the sofas. After 8 ½ years of marriage, Mario and I have never properly picked out and purchased a living room set before, so I was quite excited. I wanted something that was easy to clean and then we spotted them: some sage couches in easy-to-clean suede. We fell in love immediately, called up Big Mario to please take measurements to make sure they’d all fit, and we went straight to the credit department. We passed for a pretty good amount, no interest or payments for 18 months. Woo! I still wish we’d just gone ahead and gotten new mattresses (because we really need new ones after having these since we got married), but Mario gently told me we should finish paying the couches off first.

They only had the loveseat available and were allowed to take it home that day. Stupidly we’d taken the Equinox with us, so we had to go back home to get Mario’s Silverado and leave Aly with Mom. Went back, got the couch, get home and Jorge and my dad-in-law helped Mario get it off the truck. Luck would have it that the couch didn’t fit in the nook we wanted it in by one inch. The fluff of the arms were too thick to push it in. We eventually conceded that yes, we’d have to “move the wall over” 3 inches, which means knocking it down, which means dust and drywall everywhere like the last time we had a big home improvement project.

We were supposed to go to Pete and Sally’s that night but they’re doing home improvement stuff too and Pete hurt his back. So we just chilled out the rest of the day.

Mon. Oct. 22nd – My boss was out most of the week due to Star testing kids in the labs. It was really quiet most of the week and I handled the library pretty well, with the help of Mrs. Ruiz in the afternoons. It was so quiet, in fact, that I had the chance to move shelves around and fix things here and there.

I think this was the day Eenan’s filling fell out.

Tues. Oct 23rd – I was busy eating pecan sandies while I was helping Jaylen with his homework when my molar broke. I don’t know when it broke — I probably swallowed the piece of tooth. All I know was I could feel something sharp scraping against my tongue. It was awful!

Wed. Oct. 24th – (The last time I blogged.) I picked Rolando and Eenan up from UIL practice and they played for a while before I dropped him off. That kid is awesome. I’d totally adopt him if his parents ever wanted me to LOL. Mario’d been off that day and invited everyone over for an impromptu bar-b-q. Everyone being Adan, Aide, little Belle, Jennifer, Sethie, Jason, Mireya and Brianna. It was great eating and talking with everyone. Don’t get much adult conversation during the week unless it’s Mom or my in-laws. The men were outside under the carport playing Halo 3 on the projector. Mary arrived around that time with a bag from the Disney Store. She’d gotten Alaethia her first costume: a Tinkerbelle costume! It was the last one in her size! I either wanted her to be Snow White or Tinkerbelle so it’s awesome Mary got the last costume! We tried it on her straight away and it was perfect! It was a great night, but by the time everyone left, I was rushing around getting all the kids into the shower, ironing, and preparing lunch for Mario and I for the next day.

Thurs. Oct. 25th – Eenan’s loose top tooth fell out sometime during this week and he had his appointment to fix his missing filling after lunch. Jorge did me the huge favor of taking him and then dropped him off at home. Since it’s the same filling that keeps falling out, they didn’t charge anything, so that was cool. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have paid the last time it fell out!

I called Elda after work while I was in line waiting for the other two boys and she told me she could get me an appointment for myself that afternoon. Luckily it was payday for me, so I said fine. I was nervous about the cost, but she said they could give me an estimate before I went ahead with anything. According to the dentist I’d been seeing in Mexico (the one that messed up my teeth in the first place), I was going to need a root canal and I knew another filling had fallen out for sure. I wasn’t looking forward to finding out how much it was going to cost.

Jose picked the boys up and took them home and then I went in. They took xrays and surprisingly they didn’t say anything about my impacted wisdom teeth. After cleaning my teeth and checking everything out the dentist told me I needed my broken molar fixed, which could easily be done with a filling (NOT a root canal!), another filling needed to be filled and a cavity I already had filled was getting worse. Not bad. I even apologized to the guy who was cleaning my teeth, because I was so embarrassed about my messed up teeth, but he said, “Oh, you’re fine. They’re not that bad.” WOW. If my teeth aren’t that bad I don’t even want to imagine what “bad” teeth look like!

I only opted to get the broken tooth fixed so it came out to $105. I could deal with that. I need to get the other two done, which’ll probably come out to around the same thing.

I was really nervous the whole time. I mean nervous. Mostly because of the shots they poked me with. That’s that part I hate the most, but at least I didn’t feel anything. My mouth hurt like crazy after a few hours but I was so glad my tooth was fixed!

Fri. Oct. 26th – It was a slow day at work. There was a dance in the afternoon so all the kids were preparing for that. I had an extra 30 minutes of lunch “voucher” I received for having perfect attendance the month of September, so the girls (Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Ruiz) and I went to a restaurant we’d never been to, El Meson de Pancho Villa. Funny name, but the food was delicious. I induldged and had the $9.99 shrimp buffet LOL.

Rolando’s mom and I had talked earlier in the week and decided that Rolando would sleep over on Friday night so that he and Eenan could leave to their UIL meet together. I had to go straight to Target after I picked the boys up after work that day since I needed to get the boys their Halloween costumes. Leave it to us to wait till the last minute. Jaylen decided on his costume right away – a grim reaper with a visible, blood-pumping chest. Eenan, of course, took forever picking something. He finally decided on a Dark Knight costume.

I rushed home as safely as I could since I needed to pick Rolando up to sleep over. His mom was awesome and had a pizza for us so I wouldn’t have to cook. We stood on the sidewalk and chatted for a good while and made sure he was all packed and ready to go (he’d actually been packed since the day before LOL). It was already 7:30 by the time we got home so the kids didn’t have much time to play, but they did enjoy a little Xbox 360 and some ice cream before they had to shower and go to bed. Just as I knew it would happen, Eenan had the hardest time falling asleep. They kept giggling because they were so excited to finally be having a sleepover (first for both of them!) and because they were going to ride the bus together to the meet.

Sat. Oct. 27th – I woke them up at 6:30 the next morning so they’d eat breakfast (which neither of them did – thankfully they were serving breakfast at the meet) and then I dropped them off at 7.

I went back home and got Mario’s things ready for work, fed Alaethia when she woke up, ate some breakfast and once Mario had left to work I went back to sleep with Alaethia. That’s what I miss about being a stay-at-home mom: if you didn’t get to sleep much the night before, you could catch up during the day.

Mom, Jaylen, Aly and I all went over to the meet at 11:30. Rolando’s parents had already picked him up. Eenan, to everyone’s surprise, didn’t place in Storytelling this time, but he did go to the finals in Oral Reading (the first time participating) and he either placed 3rd or 8th, we’re not sure. I’m so proud of him. Especially after his little fiasco – when he was in the semi-finals and was about to read his poem, he opened up his binder, and to his horror, the poem had slipped out! He was in tears when he went up to his coach, but thankfully she had an extra one in her bag. If he did place eighth, I think he would have done much better had that incident not occurred =\.

After we picked Eenan up we went straight home where a birthday get-together was going on for Sonia’s birthday. After everyone left, we chilled out for a while with Andy and Noelia before getting the kids into their costumes for a birthday party for Mario’s cousin Venessa’s, twin boys. The kids all looked great and we packed everything up into Mary’s car to get going. Mom’s got Alaethia and I’m lugging her car seat in my arms, which is full of our bags, when I hear Eenan screaming, “Jaylen can’t breathe! He can’t breathe!”

I toss the car seat aside and my heart sinks even further down as I see Jaylen flailing his legs and arms around. He looks as though he’s really having trouble. I grab him, rip off his mask…and he looks up at me innocently, like he has no idea what’s going on. I could have strangled him! Eenan was as terrified as I was. I almost started bawling out of simultaneous relief and anger but I just leaned against the car and quietly tried to catch my breath. And then I began lecturing them on how awful it is to play jokes on people, especially those kinds of jokes, and especially on their mother.

The kids had fun at the party. They played games, jumped on the Moon Jump, busted open the piñata and ate. We only stayed for a little while since we had the Jamaica (the church’s annual fall festival) to go to. Jaylen was the only one to get out of his costume since the chest plate was bothering him. This was the only Jamaica that we’ve ever gone to that the kids aren’t begging to leave. Eenan gave the rock wall a try, which Jason was in charge of, but is still too terrified of heights to go all the way up. Okay, so he barely even gave it a try, but he did hang on the rope for a little while.

They went on the train ride a few times and then they found this rubber ducky game where you choose 3 ducks and add up the numbers they have on their underside, if any. They give you that amount of tickets and you get to go to this little shop and buy toys. They had a blast! Not that we need any more toys, but most were cute, like hockey pucks and puzzles. We also ran into Rolando and his family and the boys all played together at the ducky game for a while. Rolando also won a cake at the cake walk. When Eenan and Jaylen gave it a try they’d run out of cakes, but were giving away plants. Neither of them won. They desperately wanted plants for some reason, so they kept trying but no luck LOL.

Alaethia was such a doll that night. It was a cool night and she was all cozy in her little Tinkerbelle costume, hoodie sweater and since she wasn’t wearing tights, I cocooned her up in her blanket. She enjoyed being in her stroller – while we were moving. Whenever we’d stop, she’d start squealing.

We didn’t feel like cooking so we bought turkey legs, menudo, and mom got tacos. The boys were incredibly well-behaved after that, playing with their puzzles and Frisbees and new stuff they got. Mario got home shortly after. The boys were sleeping over at Mary’s house and Mom said she’d stay with Alaethia if we needed to go anywhere so we figured we’d go to Wal-mart and grocery shop while we had the chance. I loathe doing all the house/grocery shopping alone with the kids because more often than not, one of them throws the Fit of All Fits.

We left around 10pm and got back home at 12:30. It’s about 20 minutes to and from. I can’t wait for the new Wal-mart to be completed. They’re moving pretty fast, but I heard it won’t open till March 2008. It’ll be SO much closer. 6 minutes instead of 20.

Anyway, it was nice shopping around with Mario, just the two of us, laughing and joking around. We don’t get time to even talk anymore, let alone shop. Much like when I was going to school, we’ve begun communicating by Post-its.

Tues. Oct. 30th – Since Jaylen couldn’t wear his scary Grim Reaper costume to school, we spent a good chunk of the night looking for their old costumes. Ever since we remodeled last summer, we have no idea where anything is since everything that was stored in the living room closet is now in boxes. We couldn’t find their old Darth Vader or Ninja costume anywhere. Luckily I remembered their cute Aladar costume from the Dinosaur movie was stuffed in my closet. I showed it to Jaylen and he was thrilled. He even got in front of the long bathroom mirror and wagged his tail from side to side.

Wed. Oct. 31st – I didn’t go to work dressed up in my costume (my fairy one from 2 years ago) because I’d feel silly if I was the only one. I told myself that if I saw one other staff member with a costume on, I’d put mine on. As soon as I’m nearing the time clock I see a teacher dressed up in Roman robes. Cool. I’m walking to the library building and am greeted by the same group of kids that usually already waiting for me each morning. They all ask me to put it on, so I oblige. It’s only wings and a dress, so I put the dress over my blouse and slacks. I would have been freezing had I only worn the dress. We keep the library at 65-68°. I put my wings on and voila! Instant costume. Whenever the kids would ask who I was I’d say The Library Fairy.

I got a call from Mary around 7:15 that they were having trouble with Jaylen. He was refusing to put on the Aladar costume. He was in hysterics asking for the ninja one. He ended up leaving in tears, sweat pants, a red shirt and the old ninja mask, which is all we found of the costume. I felt awful, especially because I was stuck at work and couldn’t help him. I could imagine him looking sadly at all the other kids and wishing he had a costume.

Mary called around noon that she’d bought him the exact same ninja costume from last year and Noelia took it to him and was changing him into it at school. You’ve gotta love that woman. It’s in her blood to keep everyone happy. I told her she didn’t have to do that at all, but she insisted.

I didn’t get to take many pictures of the staff members who were dressed up because I was really busy most of the day, but I did get like, 3 at least. I didn’t get the girls at the office who looked so cute dressed up as Geishas. I might go for that next year. Maybe.

I got home that day and just sat on the couch and rested. Eenan didn’t have UIL practice, so that was cool; we wouldn’t have to rush. I started getting the kids back into their costumes around 5:30 since I promised I’d take them to the haunted house at the city hall. Elda was dressing up, too, and we were really surprised to see her look almost identical to Jack Sparrow! It was an awesome costume.

We all met at the city hall. I was becoming increasingly nervous because mothers kept exiting the haunted house with screaming babies and toddlers. Mom was about to stay in the truck with her (because she admitted she was a bit nervous about getting too frightened LOL) but we all just went in. We bumped into Ricci momentarily. Eenan’s actually the one that screamed, “Mom, Ricci’s here!”

All her girls are so big. We didn’t get to talk much but I’m assuming she’s doing well. I haven’t spoken to her since last month when we kept trying to make plans to get together but it never happened. I just don’t have time, and that sucks. She’d also invited me to one of her daughter’s birthday parties (Belinda’s, if I remember correctly) but I got the message a day late =\.

The haunted house wasn’t all that scary, and I’m grateful since I had little Alaethia in my arms. I had her little head pressed against my shoulder because I was trying to cover her ears. She was listening intently, very quietly. But she didn’t cry or get scared once. The boys would yell every-so-often, but they weren’t terrified. Mom was okay, too.

We followed Elda to her Grandma’s house. I love going over there because most of the houses actually give out candy and we know a lot of the people there. We had a 10-house limit, since Mary’d stayed by herself at the house waiting for trick-or-treaters. The boys had a blast going up to everyone and yelling “trick-or-treat”. Most of the houses in that neighborhood usually decorate so all three of them had fun looking at everything. We saw two teachers that work at the boys’ school; one was a witch and the other was Velma from Scooby!

Alaethia was awesome. She was quiet just taking in all the kids running everywhere and lights and sounds. She only got feisty about two minutes before we got to the car because she was sleepy.

It’d already been an hour since we’d left the house, so Mary’d been alone for that long. I needed to stop by and put gas in the truck and I get a call from Mario saying he needed to do the same thing. He’d just stopped by Aziz and all the pumps were shut down, so we met at Leo’s and put gas there. Good thing, too! I’d left my debit card at home and had only taken $9 with me, just in case!

Mario took the boys with him to Chris’ house and Aly, Mom and I went straight home. We went straight to Mary’s and she said not one trick-or-treater had stopped by! I don’t know if it’s because everyone in the neighborhood was trick-or-treating elsewhere or just not giving candy, but the only house that had a light on outside was Mary’s. No wonder the kids are terrified of going into our neighborhood. We got about 3 truck-fulls of kids (yes, TRUCK-FULLS) and a family here and there, but that was it. Mom, Mary and I dumped our candy into two huge bowls and we had one bowl left untouched. We need to start putting on scary music and strobes and stuff to get kids’ attention next year. And maybe the rest of the neighborhood will hopefully follow suit.

I took a few pictures before we went inside. I stupidly didn’t get ONE picture of all three kids together. I got some of Aly alone, and the boys together, but not all of them.

Jaylen fell asleep in his costume and Eenan happily nestled next to him since they were sleeping over at Mary’s again. I’m so glad they had fun.

Fri. Nov. 2nd – I don’t know what was wrong with me that Friday, but I had the worst luck all day. I can’t exactly remember right now what had me so worked up, but I just wanted to go home and hide that day. It was Mario’s day off so of course he was going to bar-b-q. He didn’t tell me the whole family was coming over, I thought it was just the men, so Mom, Aly and I went to the mall where I was going to use up some coupons at JC Penny.

Well, my bad luck didn’t end at work. All I wanted to do was buy some new jeans, because I only actually wear 3 of the 10 that I own and my two favorite ones are literally ripping at the seams. Well, apparently none of the three coupons I had could be used because everything was on sale. So after throwing a little fit and calling Mario to whine, I ended up using my credit card, which I DID NOT want to do, because Mario told me to just quit it and use it. Fine. I did. He also bitched a little about how the whole family was there, basically making me think that they were waiting for me and was trying to make me feel guilty. I got here, spent a little time with everyone and everyone ended up leaving anyway.

Sat. Nov. 3rd – I didn’t sleep in, of course, but I did try cleaning up a little before John and I had lunch at Kumori. Our broke asses put our $15 together and had our usual California (John) and Fiesta (mine) rolls, miso soup, lemonade, Spicy Fried Calamari, and this time added some little mozzarella cubes (which are like mozzarella sticks). I’d been craving sushi for so long and it’d been over a month since we’d gone.

We picked up Mario’s birthday gift from Mom (a drill-bit set) and dropped it off to him, picked some stuff up at Big Lots, stopped by Circuit City but didn’t buy anything, and then went home.

Mary invited us to the movies to watch Bee Movie. It was actually much funnier than I thought it would be, though it’s not one of my favorites. The kids loved it though. Alaethia was screaming at the beginning, so I went down to the little hallway where I could easily run off if she started screaming again. She eventually focused on a light and fell asleep as I rocked her. She stayed asleep the whole movie. Hopefully she’ll be like Jaylen, who was an excellent baby at the movies because he’d always fall asleep 10 minutes into them. He didn’t stop doing that till he was 4 LOL.

I’m not sure exactly when it was last week, but we discovered that Alaethia sprouted a tooth! And not on the bottom like most babies; it was a canine, or however you spell it, on top! She’s been teething like crazy and has been moodier than usual, but she’s getting better. The tooth that we thought would have broken through by now on the bottom still hasn’t. I’m sure that one’s coming soon.

She’s also been standing alone for a few seconds before she panics and falls to the floor. It sucks that we hardly have any room in the living room to let her walk around and explore.

We didn’t do much this past Sunday besides going to H-E-B and then cleaning up at home. Mario and I got off on the wrong foot since he woke up, so we unfortunately spent it pissed at each other most of the day. My dad-in-law came to us with an idea Sunday night after Mario bar-b-q’d (and played Halo all day with Jason and then stayed outside all night with Adan) about expanding our house/apartment and building us a new, bigger living room. They have it all planned out. He said it would be our Christmas present from him. I couldn’t think of anything better, especially with the new furniture we bought! It was really unexpected, but welcome and much appreciated news!

My boss was absent Monday and Tuesday but I did pretty good on my own. I even had a little bit of time to read (and typed up a bit of this blog!). Alaethia let me sleep 6 hours straight Sunday and Monday night, but I didn’t get lucky again last night. Hopefully she’ll nap right now so she’ll let me fall asleep at 11 and sleep through till at least 5 like before.

I’m going to shower now. And iron, and probably figure out what the heck I’m taking for lunch tomorrow since Mom bought Church’s for everyone for dinner. I’m becoming very spoiled. Mary bought us all dinner last night. I had Rolando and his little sister over today, since Eenan made them miss the bus. But they were really well behaved. Jaylen and Ali (Rolando’s sister) played so well together. They played with puzzles, clay, stickers — it was really cute. Then when their dad came to pick them up he took the boys with them for another hour. I’m so glad the kids have friends they can play with :).

Okay, I’m really going. Alaethia’s becoming really moody and poor Mom’s been here long enough already. Goodnight!

(started on 10-5-07 @ 9:30pm) Although I’m nodding off, I figured I’d try and update as much as I can since the house is nice and quiet. Alaethia’s napping and Mario, our boys, and all the male relatives are outside under the carport playing Halo 3 on Big Mario’s projector. I’ve gotta admit: it looks pretty damn cool.

So when I last left off it was Tuesday (the 25th of September) and I was going to have my benefits/insurance meeting. I got out of work feeling confident, with my head held high and my mind made up. I knew exactly what plans I was getting and had come to terms with how minuscule my paycheck would be, but it was okay because we’d all have insurance.

My smile was quickly wiped off my face when I realized exactly how much I was going to be paying. Even though I was barely having my insurance meeting the 25th, they wanted to charge me for the whole month of September, the new month of October, and for some reason they make you pay an extra month by default. Since they didn’t hold the $350 for the first two months from my first paycheck — which I’d just received that day — they were going to have to triple deduct it from my October paycheck! I almost fainted. As I was going through each sheet in my packet and feeling like my heart was falling rapidly down my body, the woman presenting told me it would be better to keep my kids on Chips, get the free insurance for myself that work offers, and Mario…well, he just wouldn’t have any.

I felt so helpless and confused I hightailed out of there before I started bawling in front of everyone. To add insult to injury I only had a month from the time I started working (Aug. 27th) to make a decision about my benefits. So that left me with a lovely TWO DAYS to figure out what the heck I was going to do. I was panicking tremendously because I didn’t bother renewing the boys’ Chips insurance (which they’d sent me late to begin with) since I was so sure I was getting it at work and I wasn’t even sure if we still qualified.

I get home and I’m so emotional that when my Dad-in-law asks, “How’d it go?” that I cup my hands over my face and start bawling. I feel so embarrassed and I’m sure he felt really awkward, but I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I explained everything that happened and he offers words of support and tells me we’d figure it out and that everything would be okay. I felt a little better and try to control myself. I get inside the house and Mom and John are both here. I immediately break down and tell them what happened and I’m halfway through when Mary, who’d just gotten home from work, comes in and then I’m explaining to everyone. I felt like my world was crumbling apart. I could have cared less if I had insurance; I was worried about the kids. John offers to lend me the money and I decline, then Mary offers to let me use the money for bills I was giving her towards the insurance and she said we could worry about paying her back during tax-return time. I felt really humbled and blessed to have such great family, and then felt awful that I’d have to tell everyone there would be a change of plans; I’d offered to take everyone out for dinner on Friday to Chili’s with my first paycheck, to celebrate, but that wouldn’t be happening now.

I figured I’d fill out the Chips application, which I thankfully still had, and would go with what Mary told me to do. Although I hate being in debt with people :(.

Mom stayed with the boys while Mary, Alaethia and I went to Mexico to buy Penicillin for Mario because he was sick. I got 2 more packs of birth control, so I’m good for the next three months. I got some potato chips, too, since you can only get those in Mexico (Mayra, remember the Tostitos and Crujitos chips we’d buy at school with the crema and Sabrosita salsa? THOSE!). I felt much better on the way home and began filling out all the paperwork I needed.

I was going to march up to the benefits dept. on Wednesday and let them know it was unfair and I would only allow them to deduct a double payment, not a triple. I felt really nervous and just down the next morning. Even Mrs. G. noticed. It was a slow morning and during my downtime I couldn’t stop thinking about my insurance problem, when suddenly I had a stroke of genius. I called Mary up and she didn’t answer, so I left her a message to please give me a quote for insurance for Mario. She calls me back with good news: she asked a girl at the office who is in contact with people from Chips (I’d been trying to call and never got ahold of anyone) and she said we may still qualify, even with me working. We were cutting it close, but we would most likely qualify. She gave me the quote for Mario’s insurance, and it was more than half off of what I’d be spending per month at work. So I decided to get him that insurance, faxed all the Chips stuff to their office and went into the benefits dept. that afternoon and got only the free insurance for myself and the dental insurance for both Mario and I (which is really inexpensive, surprisingly!). After I felt like a thousand pound weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I breathed a sigh of relief, Mary joked, “Now you can take us out to Chili’s!” Yay!

On a serious note, I really, really hope everything works out with Chips. I’m going to call Monday to follow up on the fax because they sent me a “you haven’t sent your renewal” letter and since they take so long sending their mail out in the first place I don’t know how long it’ll be before I hear from them. I don’t want my kiddos to stay without health insurance, especially the boys who’re in school and get sick all the time.

I picked Jaylen and Brandon up from school on Wednesday since Eenan was having UIL practice. When I went back to pick Eenan up, I brought his best friend, Rolando, home with us. I offered to pick him up from practice every Wednesday and bring him home from Meets if his parents wanted. I met his mom for the first time that day. I’d already met his dad when Eenan had gone over to his house after practice once. He’s such a sweet kid and so respectful and polite. I’d totally adopt him LOL.

Thursday was the morning I dropped my darn phone into the toilet before I left to work. Those darn black pants with the tiny back pockets. The phone just slipped out when I pulled my pants down. It had already almost happened once at work while I was wearing those exact pants, except the phone crashed right on the floor. I pulled the phone out, removed the battery and left it drying on a towel after a quick spray of Lysol. I felt so naked that day without my phone.

We had our first pep-rally that Thursday, so the parent volunteers and I were helping Mrs. V. with all the cheerleading stuff and anything else she needed help with. Mrs. G. brought us some Burger King breakfast around 10:30, and I was so grateful because the biscuit and sausage they’d brought for me that morning (school food) tasted and smelled like catfood. I feel so bad for the kids who don’t eat at home and have no choice. We had a kitten (yes, a kitten) stuck in one of the walls of school for two days, so I saved the awful meal for him, just in case. (The custodians ended up scaring him and he ran out into the parking lot later on that day.) We closed the library at 12:30 and went to the gym and then I realized I wasn’t going to have lunch. The pep-rally was a great success and finished when school ends for the kids, at 2:30. I went up to Mrs. V. and asked her what I should do and she said I could leave right then. Awesome.

I was starving, so I get home and John’s here. He jokes that he wants Kumori and since he doesn’t like Chili’s and wasn’t going with us on Friday Mom watched the kiddos while we left to Kumori. It was so awesome to eat sushi after what felt like forever. Too bad I completely forgot to ask for my Fiesta Rolls without the darn fried salmon skin they put in there. Bleh. John had already eaten chicken strips from his work that didn’t agree with his stomach so he didn’t enjoy his food as much either. I picked up dinner for the family (Burger King) on the way home since there was no way I’d have enough time to cook and do everything else. I don’t want to get too used to getting take-out, but gosh, it sucks to have to cook all the time now that I’m working!

Friday passed by pretty quickly and when I got home we all just chilled out till it was 6:00. We met everyone (mom, Mary, Jorge, Andy, Noelia and the rest of us) at Chili’s at that time. It was a great meal and it was nice talking and catching up with everybody. The first thing I ordered was the Spinach and Artichoke dip and Alaethia helped me eat it. She LOVED it! We had a really nice time. Hope to do it again. And it wasn’t as expensive as I thought it was going to be, so that’s a plus!

That was also the night Mario decided to use our almost-paid-off Circuit City card to buy the Xbox 360, the Legendary Halo 3 thing, and another controller. It came with a helmet and poster. He was in heaven. And now we’re in debt again LOL.

Eenan had a UIL competition on Saturday, so we woke up bright and early and I dropped him off. We freaked out a little because everyone was parked on the edge of the street since the custodians or whoever were supposed to open up the place were late. They eventually came and opened the gates and when I was done being paranoid and collecting numbers to reach the sponsors I came home. I cleaned a little then Mom, Alaethia and I went shopping. Jaylen stayed with Mary. I made the mistake of going to Ross first, where I was supposed to find some nice work shirts, a shower curtain and a bath rug, but ended up finding a white $13 jacket, a nice shower curtain, 1 blouse and some photo boxes. No nice work shirts and all the rugs were torn. We were in line for 45 minutes and I was not going to make it on time to pick Eenan up from the meet. So I called Mary and she said she’d get him. He placed 7th :).

We picked up Mario and then met Mary and the boys for lunch at Burger King. We chilled out and talked for a while, then dropped Mario off and went over to Sally’s mom’s house where Sally and Pete were. We picked up the invitation for their baby shower and OMG, Sally’s belly’s gotten so big! She’s still got 2 months to go. The baby’s gender is still a surprise. I can’t remember if they know or not, but I admire their strength LOL. There’s no way I could have waited to find out the genders of my babies. We caught up and laughed and Alaethia kept freaking out because she didn’t recognize where we were, and then we went to visit Gramma. We kept making jokes and she was laughing her butt off. She also told us the lead singer of a Mexican band, Los Bookis, is her boyfriend, aww LOL. She scared the crap out of me when she was going to choke on a Hershey’s, though. We didn’t make her laugh again till she finished it LOL.

What was really sad was that her room mate, Carolina, isn’t there anymore :(. The last time I remember seeing her, she was playing with Alaethia and was smiling and really cheerful. The next time we went she was at the hospital and this last time all her stuff was gone and someone else was occupying her bed. So sad. I hope nothing bad happened to her. Or maybe it happened like it did to Gramma the time she went to the hospital? She was only gone two days and they moved her out of her old room and in with Carolina. I need to ask what happened.

We didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping or to Walmart because Mary needed to leave somewhere but the boys didn’t want to go. So we went home. She didn’t end up going anywhere after all and I got ready to go to church with her and Eenan (Mom stayed with Jaylen and Aly). It was a nice service, even though Eenan was bored. He even freaked me out by giggling when he saw the word “Sex” in Sexto in the prayer book. I pretended not to be horrified and asked where he heard that. He said Rolando told him but he didn’t know what it means. Thank God. I’m so not ready for that talk yet. He’s barely in 3rd grade for Pete’s sake! Thinking back though, that’s when everyone started becoming curious and asking questions when I was little. *gulp*

As we’re walking back from church that night (it’s a block away) Mary says she feels like having a strawberry margarita and says we should totally go to The Outback to have some drinks. Mario had gone straight to Chris’ to help him fix something and came straight home when I called him about going out. Mom stayed with the kiddos and then we all picked up Jorge and went. That was the best margarita I’ve ever had in my life! Too bad it’s so darn expensive. Everything there is! And the waiter lied to me. He said the spinach and artichoke dip was so much better than Chili’s, no comparison. Not really. It was too darn salty. The bread they give you with butter was SO GOOD, though! And so were the lobster-crab cakes I had.

Let’s see. We chilled out most of Sunday and then Mary, Mom, Aly and I all went to the groceries. The boys stayed with John. Later that night, after Mario got home from work (it was his Sunday to work) Jorge, Mary, Jaylen, Aly and I went to visit Cat and Annie at their new house. Eenan was too busy watching TV so he stayed with Mom. Their new house is awesome. Too expensive for the square footage, but it’s because of it’s location that it cost so much. It’s a gated community and they live right next to the community park and pool! It was a little awkward after a while though, because some drama got stirred up as usual, so we came home. I didn’t mind; I needed to get the kiddos ready for school the next day.

Gotta finish this up…gotta start dinner!

I came straight home Monday and took Mom to the bank to deposit money John lent her because she’d overdrafted. I don’t know how many times I have to tell her to write her expenses down in her transaction book! Alaethia got sick on Wednesday night; she was up every two hours and at 3am I realized she had a bad fever. 103° is what the thermometer said. I gave her a lukewarm bath and she played happily in the water. That’s why were never know when she’s sick; she never actually “feels” hot like other babies and she’s in a good mood. Only her neck and legs feel hot when she’s got a fever.

I decided I wouldn’t go into work Thursday morning. I hated to call in after only working a month and a week, but she needed me. I got the boys ready in the morning and made sure they went to Elda’s, tried calling the number we’re supposed to call to report absences but it never worked, got Mario’s stuff ready and made him breakfast, I called everyone I needed to call at work to let them know I was going to be out and then called the front desk to let them know I’d be in half a day (or so I hoped). I ate breakfast, got Aly in her carseat and Mom accompanied us to the doctor when it opened at 8:30. There were only 3 people in front of us but it was still 10am by the time they called us in. I was panicking since I had to be at work at 10:30. I was about to ask someone to hurry when the Nurse Practitioner walked in. Alaethia had a slight infection in both ears. She was prescribed antibiotics, Tylenol, cough/congestion medicine, and ear drops. I got home just in time to give her Tylenol; I’d have to pick up her meds after work since I wouldn’t have time to do it that morning. I didn’t take my lunch with me because I was under the impression that I wouldn’t have a lunch since I was going to be making up my hours. Turns out I get 10 days of sick leave and I’d only used up half a day so I didn’t have to stay in extra time after work, yay! I started feeling a little under the weather myself that day and I’m still trying to get over this darn sore throat.

We went to Cat and Annie’s house on Thursday night to have cake and pizza for Isiah’s birthday. I went over and saw Nelsy’s (Annie’s sister, who lives right across from her) house and Mario got there right when we were walking back. I came back home with Mary, Mom and the kids and Mario was in his truck. We arrived before he did and we watched him drive into the driveway. When I walk over to him he asks, “What did I run over?” and I look under the car. It was one of the two kittens :(. Now 3 have been run over! I don’t even know how it happened; he drove in really slowly!

Friday went by pretty quickly and I was so grateful to get home and spend time with Mario, mom, John and the kids. We called Chris and Nancy after a while to accompany us to a liquor store to buy Midori to make drinks with since we invited everyone over for Bailey’s milkshakes. NOBODY CAME. It was a pretty hard bitchslap to the face, but oh well. That was the night I started this entry, when Mario set up the projector to play Halo outside with his cousins.

Yesterday Mary and I went to Target in the afternoon to get stuff for Annie and Cat’s housewarming party later that day. I was still pretty upset that not even they came the night before so I wasn’t going to go, but I was convinced. Mary got us some mango smoothies and then we came home. We wrapped stuff up, I got the kiddos ready and then we left to the Housewarming/Tupperware Bingo. The boys immediately went to the pool when we got there. Jorge and the men who were at the pool were watching them. Alaethia was still feeling sickly so she was incredibly moody, but my spirits lifted when I won 2 bingo games in a row! Mom won the last one and gave me her Tupperware and I gave one to Mary because she didn’t win anything =\. I got myself a Jell-O Mold! Woo!

Mario was waiting for us at home. He’d rented movies and set up the screen again and we watched Premonition outside. The movie (and watching it as if we were at the movies) was awesome. Elda, Jose, their boys, Jorge and Tommy joined us about halfway through the movie. That’s definitely something we should do more often!

I woke up early today and cleaned the house! I had tons of laundry to put away. Mom thankfully does laundry for me throughout the week, but I do not have time to put anything away after work. I didn’t get everything done but at least we can walk through the living room now!

I also finished reading The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I can finally turn it in LOL. I ordered Shopaholic Ties the Knot and Shopaholic and Sister off Ebay, so I can’t wait to get started on those. Then I can start reading all the awesome books I keep running into at work!

Yay, I finished the entry! I never thought it would happen. Now I can start dinner. I’ve really gotta start making time to blog. I hate not blogging as often as I did before, even though it was sparse at that time, too. Anyway, Alaethia’s moody and crawling all over me, so I have to calm her down before I start cooking. Hope all of you are well, that your eyes didn’t glaze over and that you’re not in a coma after reading this entry LOL.

I can’t believe I haven’t written since the 12th! It’s been a crazy few weeks. Trying to get into a new routine, spending time with the kids and still holding up the fort (although the fort’s a little messier than usual these days!) barely allows me time to check my e-mail, much less update my site.

I’ve gotten the hang of all my tasks at work, even when we have a flood of students stopping by the library. I imagined myself running away screaming if it got overwhelmingly crowded (which it does), but I’ve dealt surprisingly well. My boss is great, the parent volunteers are great and just about everyone I’ve met there is great. I’m still not too thrilled about waking up at 5:50am (and tossing and turning about an hour before that because I’m paranoid the alarm won’t go off), but I like getting out early and spending time with my kiddos. I see Mario even less now, unfortunately, but we’re trying to work on that =\.

It’s time for me to iron and shower, so I’ll go ahead and make this quick. Alaethia turned 8 months old today…aww, my little baby’s growing up so quickly! She’s been teething since Saturday, which was the day of Yazmin’s Quinceañera, and Mom recently taught her how to dance (i.e. bopping up and down) and clap! It’s the cutest thing! She brightens up the room with her gummy smile and she’s thrilled to see me when I come home from work. She’s got separation anxiety like crazy, but it makes me a bit happy that she does because I was certain she’d forget me now that I’m working LOL. She stands and crawls like a pro and takes wide, ski-like steps with our help. She’s a doll :). She already got sick with a cold this past week (woke up every 2 hours the first night!), but it went away pretty quickly.

The boys are doing great at school. Their teachers speak the world of them. I’m so proud :). They performed so well at the Quince–I need to add all this past month’s pictures to Flickr. The sad thing that happened that night was that Jaylen was running around and tripped on his shoelace and busted his lip open. I was so afraid he’d broken all his teeth, but he’s alright, thank God. I had fun, even though Mario and I only danced to one son (I’ll Be – Edwin McCain) which was prompted by Yazmin. Eenan asked me to dance though, and then he requested the Chicken Dance and took me and Angela with him LOL. It was a nice night.

Okay, I probably missed a whole bunch of stuff, but I’ve gotta go. Hope everyone’s well and thank all 20 of you who’ve stuck by me even though I’m not updating much. Okay, at all. One day I’ll get all this worked out and I’ll have room for updating again! I’ve got my insurance meeting tomorrow. Wish me luck with that. I feel like I’m working for insurance alone–it’s so darn expensive!