Category: Birthdays

I’m still alive, but just barely. Kidding…Sort of…

I’m still trying to get used to waking up at 5:30am. That’s really the only thing I dislike about working: the exhaustion from lack of sleep thing.

I totally thought Alaethia was sleeping through the night since she’d done so well Sunday and Monday night. Sunday night we went to sleep at 10pm and she didn’t wake up for a bottle till after I left at 6:20am, mom said. That was the most restful night of sleep I’ve had in a year!

I told my boss and just around everyone around me how happy I was that she was sleeping through. I spoke way too soon. We went to sleep at around 9:30 last night (EARLIEST I’ve slept since I was pregnant with her!). She was up for a bottle at 2:20am — and stayed awake, playing and cooing happily, till 3:43! I joked with Mario about calling in (he actually stayed up with us!) and set the alarm for 5:50 instead of 5:30.

I wake up at 5:28 and sigh with relief because I still have a few more minutes. I wake up again and look at the clock: 6:47!!! I had just woken up and I was ALREADY late to work! Stupid alarm didn’t go off! I’d never gotten ready so fast. Thank God I’d already packed my lunch the night before and just grabbed everything and ran out of the house. Mom was already waiting outside to watch Alaethia and for the first time ever I wish she’d knocked, loudly, on my window or something! As I’m fumbling with my junk, I’m getting my cell out to call my boss and tell her I’m super late and the phone rings in my hands. I’m panicking, because I think, ‘She’s going to scold me!’

I answer, it’s her and I start babbling 100 miles a minute about how sorry and late I am and she says, “Well, that makes two of us.” LOL I was SO RELIEVED.

I joked with everyone about it all day. I’m so glad they bring me breakfast along with our two student aids. I don’t know how I would have survived till lunch at 12:30! I’m even going to get to make up the 39 (!) minutes I was late tomorrow, so that’s cool. I thought Veronica, the girl in charge of punch-ins, punch-outs was going to yell at me, because just yesterday she was praising me for what a good job I was doing about being prompt. We laughed that she’d jinxed me and all was good. I’m so glad!

It was an overall good day, although I’ve been doing the same thing for about 5 days straight: inputting students into the Reading Renaissance system and the library system. 700+ kids, every-single-one. It’s cool though, I don’t mind being on the computer and it makes time pass quickly.

As for the weekend, it was the usual cramming everything into two days thing. I finally went to Goodwill on Saturday and scored two awesome brand-new frames from Target and 2 sets of glass tumblers, which we needed! All for $12! We visited Gramma and then went to Target.

Sunday was Mary’s 50th birthday so we got together at Yadira’s to celebrate. We all pitched in to give her a surprise party and it actually worked out! We had a really nice time. I hope she did, too :).

I spoke to Sally after almost a month because her phone messed up. We’ll hopefully meet up this Saturday with Carmen and Karina. I’ve also got to cram in getting the boys’ tuxes, mom’s and my dresses, and Yazmin’s necklace sometime this weekend too!

Alaethia started standing all on her own on Monday (9-10-07), right when I got here from work. She just stood up in her playpen to greet me :). She’d been trying since she was 6 months old and finally got it. We already lowered her crib down, just to be on the safe side.

I took Eenan to the doctor that day after school to get his Varicella vaccine, finally. He didn’t even cry! He was so proud of himself, and so was I of course :).

I had to pick up Jaylen’s Singulair since he’d run out and was already starting to get a runny nose and had that funny cough he does. I wonder what exactly he’s allergic to? I wouldn’t want to put him through the test though–I hear it’s brutal on them :(.

Eenan had UIL practice today so I picked Jaylen and Brandon up from school. I spoke to his teacher and she said he’s incredibly smart *beams*. I’m so darn proud of all my kiddos :).

Okay, it’s 10. Time for bed! Gotta make sure that alarm’s working first!

We all slept in yesterday and around 11am. Mom came over shortly after that and we all wished her a happy birthday. 58 years young!

After I’d finished my breakfast I started checking the Sunday ads to see if there were any deals on Norton (our current antivirus, McAfee, which came bundled with our laptop, already ended and we’re desperate to download new music but are afraid to get viruses so we NEED NORTON. I don’t like McAfee anyway…). I checked Target out, just for the hell of it, then went to Circuit City. I flipped idly through pages, looking for a yellow box with “sale” or “mail-in rebate” printed near it but I stopped dead when I saw the Wii console with all its accessories floating around it. Mario calls me right that second and tells me to make him breakfast (he was outside with his uncles). I’m excited and I ask him, “What do you want? Eggs?” and he says, “Yeah, whatever,” and hangs up. Didn’t give me a chance to tell him about the Wii. I call back and he’s all moody: “Just leave it, then. I’ll make something myself,” and hangs up on me again. I call and tell him, “Quit being an asshole. I’m calling because there’s Wii’s in the Circuit City ad.” He grunts and says, “Just because they’re in the ad doesn’t mean they have them.” I call and check and they tell me yes, they have 10 in stock. Woo! We’ve been wanting one of those damn things since they came out but they’re ALWAYS sold out over here. I call him back and say, “They have 10,” and he says, “Get ready. We’re leaving.”

John comes over when I’m blasting out of the bathroom looking for my shoes and I tell him about the Wii. He says, “Let’s go!” and Mom said to hurry up, she’d stay with the kids LOL.

We arrive and are panicking because there’s TONS of people from Mexico in the store, as usual. It’s still tax-free weekend and they’ve got some serious shopping to do. All the good stuff’s usually gone by the time we get there on Sundays since we wake up late and live pretty far from it. But thank goodness, I get a ticket for one of them! We get extra controllers and a battery charger dock and take forever deciding on a game. Mario wanted Transformers, but John said it sucks so we got Wario Smooth Moves instead.

We pay (thank God for Target Visas!) and hurry home as quickly as possible. Aunt Nora stopped by to wish Mom a happy birthday and she was head over heels for Alaethia :). We talked for a while, which was nice because we hadn’t seen her, though we have talked on the phone.

Aunt Nora left and then we rearranged the living room to have enough space to play and start messing with the system. It’s AWESOME. We start by playing the sports games it comes with for a good hour before we even touch Wario Smooth Moves. I was so excited to play tennis again, even though it’s not actual tennis and it pissed me off because it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to and John and Mario beat me every time, but I loved it. I kicked their butts at boxing though ;).

I am SO SORE this morning. I can’t wait till the Fitness game comes out!

We play till around 4:30, when we start preparing everything for Mom’s birthday dinner. We were just having a little dinner for her, just us and Mario’s parents here at home. I didn’t want a disappointing repeat of last year when everyone either got here super late or didn’t come at all, so we decided it would just be us.

Mario prepped the fish (cilantro, seasonings, and some butter), I made the salsa (and I actually got it right!), I made cornbread and then Mario popped the fish in the oven. While they baked I made brownie batter and put the pan in to bake when the fish was done. Everything was done quickly, I had all the dishes washed and then we took everything over to Mary’s so we could all eat. Everything was delicious and pretty healthy (besides the brownies, of course). We chatted with Mario’s parents for a while and Mary told us about her trip to the casino and we came back. Mario left for a “drive” which ended up being a good hour. He called after 20 minutes of being gone to tell me Chris and Nancy were coming over. Thank God I was in the middle of cleaning.

They get here and the men automatically start playing games on the Wii. It was hilarious watching them box and play baseball (I don’t like that one…I can’t ever hit the ball!). I put the boys to bed at 9:30 (though Eenan didn’t actually fall asleep till almost 11 because he kept waking up to “drink water” or “go to the bathroom” which meant he was stalling). Nancy and I chatted and watched them play. She held Alaethia for a good, long time. Alaethia didn’t even scream, but that was probably because Nancy gave her a sip of her tea LOL. You feed that child and she’ll love you forever.

Mario and Chris went to McDonald’s for some late-night snacking. I surprised myself by declining a delicious $1 double cheeseburger (those things are so unhealthy but man, they taste good) and instead got a tiny fruit and walnut salad.

We ate, Mario left with Chris and Nancy, and I stayed here with Aly. It took forever to put her to sleep and I was pretty frazzled and deranged by the time she did fall asleep.

Before I fell asleep, I remembered to document what I’d eaten for the past two days, because that’s Step 1 in French Women Don’t Get Fat: document what you eat — every-single-thing — for 3 weeks. Maybe I’ll make a page here just for that, because I think that others seeing what I’m eating will help me not be so gluttonous. If I’d started earlier than two days ago you’d be surprised at how much junk food I’d consume. That, my friends, is why my scale at home — which usually shows that I weigh less than I actually do — says I weigh 125. 125!!! Which is probably more. That’s the most I’ve ever weighed in my life while not being pregnant. (Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m only 4′ 11″, so every pound shows!) So, I’ve decided that I’m going to change the way I eat, for real this time. I already ate the last bits of my S’mores ice cream, heh, and until I can start controlling myself around junk food I will not be purchasing any at all. The only junk food I bought this last time I went to the groceries were Cheetos Puffs for the kids and some Koolaid juices I got for free. Mario and I also decided we won’t be purchasing any more sodas, not even for him to take for lunch.

I was astonished when I came across a picture Mario’d taken of Alaethia and me. She was sprawled on my lap but I wasn’t looking at how cute she looked, I was staring at the huge tire that spread disgustingly around my waist. I’ve never looked like that before and I’ll be damned if I continue to!

Now, if I can only convince John to run with me at the park, I’ll be on the right track.

So first I wasn’t around because I was shutting myself away from everyone so Harry Potter wouldn’t be spoiled for me. I’m so happy that the site I went to didn’t write about what really happened! After finishing the book I still haven’t been around much due to having a life LOL.

Friday, July 20th

♥ Mario got paid and it was a lovely amount. We cashed his check, paid our bills and saved money for Eenan’s birthday party.
♥ Ate at Wendy’s.
♥ Mom stayed with Aly while the rest of us watched Meet the Robinson’s at the Dollar Movies. It was a steaming bowl of ADD…and I loved it! Why didn’t anyone tell me how awesome it is?! Eenan (who is most like me) and I both cried like babies at the end.
♥ I thought Aly was all better but her fever started up again that afternoon.

Saturday, July 21st

♥ Woke up at 7:30am to get my Harry Potter 7 book at Target. Mom went with me, Mary stayed with kids. The store was EMPTY. I got my book and some Starbucks went home.

♥ Saw a cute family of brown ducks — two adult ducks walking side-by-by-side and a trail of about 15 ducklings behind them — happily walking beside the median wall of the expressway. Too bad I couldn’t get a picture!
♥ Read for one hour.
♥ The boys and I went with Mary to her 1st annual company picnic at the lake. It was hot and humid, but there was a nice breeze at least. It was an overall nice day — when the boys weren’t swimming deeper into the lake and scaring the crap of out us. There were lots of fun activities for them (water balloon game, obstacle course, a pi&ntildge;ata and they even gave them huge bags with goodies) and it was fun watching Mary’s co-workers trying to drench each other with bottles of water.

♥ Read as much as I could the rest of the day.
♥ I know I reluctantly went somewhere else, but I can’t remember where now.

Sunday, July 22nd

♥ Slept in.
♥ Mario ordered pizza from Pizza Hut. Something we hadn’t done in a while and it’s always nice to get a break from cooking!
♥ Andy and Noelia came over. We had a 3-hour class to attend for Alaethia’s Baptism.
♥ Alaethia got her last fever that afternoon at 2pm. Thank God!
♥ The class was excruciatingly long and boring. We had to watch videos that had nothing to do with Baptism and then come up with reasons they did have something to do with Baptism. The man who was in charge of our group was kind of odd. He said things like “All the good things that happen are because of God. Everything else, the bad stuff like bad weather, happens because of the devil,” then contradicted himself by saying, “God loves us. More than anything. But he can hate you, too. I can go into the bible and show you where he wiped out cities full of people with storms.” I still can’t believe he said God could hate us.
♥ I read some more.

Monday, July 23rd

♥ Spent the whole day running errands; paying bills, grocery shopping and getting all the stuff we still needed for Eenan’s birthday party. This time I wasn’t bothering with spending $40 on candy. We filled the goodie bags with crayons (Crayola, of course), little notepads, erasers, a drink, chips and nutter-butter wafer thingies.
♥ This was around the time my desktop computer died, and along with it went my Adobe programs (idiot that I am, I didn’t back those up) and my favorites. Very sad day indeed. It gave us 4 wonderful years. Thank God we had everything else on our external harddrive, though.

Tuesday, July 24th
♥ Alaethia turned 6 months old!
♥ Spent as much time as I could reading HP7. I vowed to finish reading it that night (partly because the rest of the family wanted to discuss it already!). It was a perfect night for reading. The kiddos slept over at Mary’s, Aly fell asleep early, Mario was over at Chris’ and it was storming outside. The perfect background noise for the end of the book. I read the last word at 1:36am that night (or Wednesday morning, whatever). If I have a chance (Aly’s on my lap making this very difficult) I’ll give my opinion on it under “more” at the end of the entry.

Wednesday, July 25th
♥ Sat around feeling numb and bored. What the hell was I supposed to read now?!?
♥ Made a tuna casserole for the first time, ever that night. It was alright.
♥ Yadira and Matthew were here while I was making it. Most of our conversation revolved around Harry Potter.
♥ We watched a movie (I can’t remember which one at the moment) and Chris and Nancy came over for a little bit.

Thursday, July 26th
♥ I don’t remember much about this day except that I finally got around to looking through a plastic bin I had in the hallway and only kept what I needed from it. I also looked through all the junk I had outside that was left over from the garage sale. I threw out a whole bunch of crap, almost died when I realized my 80s Care Bears, Rainbow Brite and Popples books had gotten wet and moldy from a few corners; and made a Goodwill and Dump pile.
♥ I still need to clean up the hallway some more. I’ve got the boys’ artwork in boxes from last school year that still need to be scrapbooked!

Friday, July 27th
♥ Mario and I woke up early and went to toss junk at the dump while Mom watched the kids.
♥ Mario sprained his wrist, badly, while hauling a box spring mattress into the dumpster.
♥ Met Mayra at McDonald’s for lunch. Mario stayed with the kiddos. It was nice seeing her after so long.
♥ Chilled out at home with the kiddos for a while.
♥ Mario and I decided to go on a date. Mom watched the kids. We ate at Taco Bell then watched Knocked Up at the Dollar Movies (LOVE the Dollar Movies!). It was a great movie. There were lots of boobs, but other than that it was hilarious. Reminds me of the Mario and Yajaira from way back when LOL.
♥ Got back home and went to Yadira’s with Mary, Mom and the kiddos. All the women sat around the table like we usually do and looked over ABC books and talked.

Saturday, July 28th
♥ Mario had a hard time sleeping and his wrist hurt so much in the morning that he called in. It takes A LOT for him to call into work. He didn’t even want to call in when we had Mono last year.
♥ Sally and I missed each other’s calls, so we didn’t get to go to Goodwill together, unfortunately :(. I finally decided to leave around 11am. Mom and I left the boys with Mario and she, Aly and I left. We dropped the crap off at Goodwill, then went inside to shop a little. I came home with a new Pyrex pie pan for $.50, the book French Women Don’t Get Fat which I’m currently reading (I found life after Harry Potter!), a jumbo frisbee for the boys, a telescope for their clubhouse for $1, a whole bunch of scrapbooking magazines, a huge pack of paint brushes, a bar-b-q wire brush, and a pillbox and some other thing for Mom. Everything was brand-new except the Pyrex pan and came out to $8.60! I love Goodwill!
♥ We ate at Taco Bell. Aly melted the heart of a tattooed, septum-piereced, tough-looking guy. She also stuck her whole hand into Mom’s nachos.
♥ We finished running errands and picked up Eenan’s cake from the cake shop. I’m never going there again. They charged me an extra $5 for the Transformers toys for the cake when I ordered it. I was livid to see that they’d put in some crappy dollar store robots. They gave me my $5 back and I went to Family Dollar, which is one of the only stores in my area, and prayed they had Transformers toys. They did. And they were much better than the darn ones they put on there.
♥ Got home, started on the party bags. Had to make a last-minute run to Joy Dollar to get a few things we’d forgotten. Mary later went to Dollar General to get us some more of the Little Debbie wafer snacks because I miscalculated and didn’t get enough.

Sunday, July 29th

♥ We all got ready and left to Peter Piper Pizza. Since we had to reschedule Eenan’s party for 11am because we had the Baptism meeting at 2:30, we were quite alone for a good 15-20 minutes before anyone started to arrive. Our kiddos played by themselves and once everyone got there, it was still only our kids playing out there.
♥ I saw someone I did not expect to see.
♥ It was a nice intimate party. The whole family made it. Maggie and her boys went, and Sally and Pete made it as well, yay!
♥ Eenan had a great time and loved his gifts. Jaylen threw a fit shortly after present-opening because Eenan wouldn’t lend him a new video game he got from us.

♥ We got home and chilled out before leaving to the Baptism meeting. Another 3 hours of videos and confusing talk about why we should baptize. The man kept going off subject and even got told off by a new girl when he told them God would hate us LOL.
♥ Mario got me some Hot Cheetos with cheese. I had to add that one in because it was really sweet that he went from one side of town to the other because one place had the chips but not the cheese and vice versa.

Monday, July 30th

♥ Met Sally for lunch at a new deli called Hagen Baks. I’d never had a more delicious sandwich. The bread alone was amazing!
♥ We had a good, long chat about pregnancy at the deli.
♥ We went to Auto Zone for a bulb for her headlight and dropped her car off at Mario’s work so he could switch it for her.
♥ Next we walked around the mall and looked at clothes and tried on make-up at Sephora. It was so fun! Took me right back to when we’d chill out at the mall in high school!
♥ Dropped her off at Mario’s so she could get her car. I came home and started on Eenan’s birthday cake, since the 30th is his actual birthday. My boy is now 8 years old!. I can’t believe it’s been so long that I’ve been a mother!

Tuesday, July 31st

♥ Aly had her 6 month checkup. I ate breakfast as quickly as possible and Mom watched the boys when we left.
♥ She weighed 15.6 lbs. and is 25 1/2 inches long. I was told she’s tiny for her age, but perfect for her height and weight. She’s a bit advanced for her age, too :). She got three immunizations, poor girl, but she did really good. Dr. C. confirmed that she has eczema and prescribed some cream for her. Her skin feels so much better to the touch now.
♥ Went to H-E-B to get a few groceries and get her prescription.
♥ Went to Jorge and Maggie’s that night. Both boys actually went for once!

Wednesday, August 1st

♥ I can’t believe we’re already in August! The kids start school on the 27th.
♥ Went with John to check out a gym. My payment for taking him in my truck was lunch at Kumori’s. I had the same sushi I had when we went for Sally’s birthday in April. It was delicious. John felt, as he said, “like a cat in a brand-new environment; ready to run up the curtains and hide” — he was really uncomfortable but he finally tried real sushi like he’d always wanted! I’m craving sushi now…
♥ I really want to join the gym. It’s awesome because there’s no contract and now starting fee, just $35 a month! I’m feeling incredibly fat and unhealthy, and I’m not just saying that. I need to do something about it. We just have so many things going on right now that I’d feel…guilty using $35 we could put towards something else.
♥ Went to Maggie’s to pick up my cellphone since I’d forgotten it there the night before.

Thursday, August 2nd

♥ I spent this whole afternoon cleaning the house from top to bottom. Or trying to, anyway. I only got to do the kitchen, bathroom and part of the living room. I still need the two bedrooms, part of the living room and the hallway.

Friday, August 3rd

♥ We had breakfast and Mario left to his Grandpa’s for a while. We got ready and the plan was to take the boys to pick out their school clothes, but instead they stayed with Mom while we went to pick stuff out. They just said to, “pick good stuff!”
♥ The boys were replaced by Jorge and John.
♥ Cashed Mario’s paycheck. Deposited money for bills. Went to Big Lots where I found some cute scrapbooking stuff.

♥ Went to JC Penny to get a few things for the boys and buy a blouse for Mom for her birthday. I needed to find one for myself for the baptism, but didn’t have any luck and the three men were getting tired of waiting around (grr!). We found shoes for the boys, too, some cute Vans, and a back pack for Jaylen.
♥ Ate lunch at El Pato.
♥ Went home. Construction on the way over was hellish. I think they’re repaving the roads because of the new Wal-Mart. I can’t wait for them to finish this thing and to see what other stores are coming to the area!

♥ Andy and Noelia invited us over for dinner at their house. Noelia made Chicken Pamesean and garlic bread — it was delicious! The boys had a blast playing with Curtis, their hound. He tried to lick Alaethia at one point and she screamed her little head off; it was unexpected and SO cute!
♥ Eenan left with Mary and Jaylen, Aly, Mario and I went to Walmart to get a few things.
♥ We went to Jorge and Maggie’s and chilled out for a while. Maggie and I talked about stuff we’d never discussed before.

Saturday, August 4th

♥ Woke up early and Aly and I went with Mary and Noelia downtown McAllen to find Aly’s baptism dress. We found a beautiful one at the first shop we went to. Got Aly a “lighter” stroller than the one she has at JC Penny (she loved it, mostly because she could suck on the long straps LOL) and I found an Optimus Prime backpack for Jaylen. I called him and he told me to return the Power Rangers one for that one. On our way to the car I found an Optimus Prime one with wheels for Eenan!
♥ Picked Mario up and had lunch with him at Taqueria el Zarape.
♥ We went to a Payless next door where we found shoes for Aly’s dress and Mario actually found some shoes for himself! He has the hardest time finding shoes because his feet are wide.
♥ We made a few more stops then got a few groceries at H-E-B.
♥ The boys slept over at Mary’s; Mario and I finished watching 300, which was really good.

Sunday, August 5th

♥ I didn’t want to go anywhere, but had crap to do. All my kiddos and my mom and I left around noon.
♥ Went to two different stores to buy CDrs (Comp USA) and DVDrs (Office Depot).
♥ Went to Rue 21 — where Maggie told me she bought blouses for $4 each –to find something for the baptism. Fell in love with so many things but nothing for the event. Ended up buying a cute pink shirt in size large since I feel fat. It was too big.
♥ Returned a lamp at Target.
♥ Ate at Luby’s.
♥ Saw Mario at his workplace.
♥ Returned Jaylen’s Power Ranger backpack and found a blouse for the baptism at JC Penny. Returned an outfit of Eenan’s at Bealle’s and he ended up with two more shirts and some jeans.
♥ Boys were terrors everywhere we went. Only Mom got down at Gramma’s.
♥ Stopped at H-E-B since Mom needed stuff.

And that’s been my two weeks. I’m tired reliving it all while I write about it. We’ve got a hectic week ahead of us, what with Aly’s baptism coming up this Saturday. I guess my Harry Potter review will have to wait. I’m so tired. Aly’s already woken up for her first bottle of the night (after only half an hour of falling asleep) so hopefully she’ll sleep the rest of the night till I have to wake up at 7:30. I’m totally going back to sleep after Mario leaves to work! Well, if the children let me!