Category: Birthdays

I’m getting way too used to using Word. When I type a word like THis, I assume Greymatter’s going to do as Word does and fix it for me. Anyway.

Mom’s almost completely moved in. Almost. Mary, Mom and I went to McAllen on Friday night to get the cologne Mario wanted for his birthday (Mom’s gift to him) and then went to buy her and John’s beds. We picked up pizza from Little Cesars at K-Mart and we get a phone call from Mario that the Yukon left him stranded. We picked him up and he sadly said goodbye to the Yukon, which was left, abandoned, at a hotel parking lot till Vito could rescue it in the morning.

Mario and I hung out at Elda and Jose’s that night, then rented movies. We got 15 minutes into the Amityville Horror and I was slipping into a coma. The movie wasn’t boring (ok, maybe slightly) but it was nearing my bedtime and I was so tired. I’m feeling older and older everyday. And I’m barely 23!

Mario went hunting Saturday morning with his dad. He didn’t kill anything, but he did see a variety of cute, furry animals. He had fun though. All day was spent cleaning, trying to watch Season 1 of Desperate Housewives while cleaning, and making 2 flans for Mario’s birthday. Needless to say, I spent the day cleaning and didn’t even get to the bedroom. It was in shambles.

Mario’s birthday get together was really nice. He spent most of the night outside with the men, grilling shriveled up little whitewings and drinking beer. I was inside with the women having our usual girl talks. Ricci, Goyo and the girls came over for a little bit. She brought a Choco-flan, which was really good. First time I’d ever tasted choco-flan. The whole get together lasted till 1:30 a.m. First time a get together’s lasted that long!

Since Mario would have to wake up at 4 to go hunting again and didn’t go to bed till almost 2, he didn’t go hunting. We went out to eat with the kids at Jesse’s when we finally woke up that afternoon. We got Eenan’s Christmas present at Target, went to Home Depot and then went home. When we got home, Mom and I left to Wal-Mart. We spent over 2 agonizing hours there getting the rest of the stuff Mom needed for her apartment. We even managed to cram a dining table into my tiny Sentra along with all the groceries, two huge packs of toilet paper and a 4-slot toaster. I’m surprised we weren’t stopped on suspicions of drug traffiking–my trunk was dragging .

We got home so late that night I was sure I’d go to sleep late. I managed to eat dinner (the kids and Mario had already eaten), did laundry, swept, made Mario’s lunch (thank God for Crock Pots), took a shower, folded/hung laundry, fed the pets and crammed in a bit more Desperate Housewives goodness and still went to sleep at the usual time. Oh yeah.

Drove Mom around again yesterday for a few more things she needed then went over to assemble her evil dining set. I thought I wanted one just like it, but after those two torturous hours I think I’ve changed my mind. I still have to go back today and help John assemble the other two chairs .

I’m going to Tinseltown to get our Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tickets after school for this Friday. I pray they still have some . Mario and I both have the day off (woo!), but Eenan doesn’t get out of school till 3:30 so we’re planning on going for the 5 o’clock showing.

I.

CANT.

WAIT!

Other than that, I think I’ve got the day free. I’m planning on going through e-mails (forgive me for not replying to any lately) and then watch Desperate Housewives. I’m on CD 4 . I didn’t think I’d like the show, but I am HOOKED! Mario is too, but I think it’s more that he gets to watch beautiful women for hours without getting yelled at .

We have a test tomorrow and an exam on Thursday. I got a 106 (answered all 3 bonus essays correctly!) on my last exam. This class is pretty darn easy (Operating Systems). I wonder what we’re doing after this?

I’ve babbled enough I think.

Woo! I just got a $25 gift certificate to the mall for getting perfect attendance for the month of October! This day is going to ROCK.

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After getting my computer fixed my internet died for 2 days so I never got a chance to update. My cold only lasted 3 days–shortest cold I’ve ever had, ever. I felt absolutely horrible on Monday but went to school anyway just in case Mrs. C-R decided to surprise us with our exam on that day. All we did was spend the day studying. I studied that night, then at breakfast and then for an hour before our exam. Needless to say, I aced the biatch with a 100. *pops collar* We got to leave at 9:30–earliest we’ve ever left!

Wednesday we started our new course: Power Point. Mrs. C-R gave us a brief overview, showed us the do’s and don’t’s of presenting and tossed us in front of a presentation and we had to present it to the class–just like that. I did alright.

That same day we were put into groups for a group presentation. I was grouped with Romeo and Miguel and our presentation was based on weather and natural disasters. I researched and made the slides for Global Warming and Earthquakes.

I picked Mom up from the SS office on Wednesday after school. Good news: they’re going to help her! Someone is finally going to help my mother and I couldn’t be happier . I’m praying and crossing my fingers that things work out.

Mario got home early that night (for once!) and we started watching the first season of Desperate Housewives. Since we watched the show and then, uh, rendevouzed in the shower (it was the only place we could be alone!) I didn’t get to bed till almost 12. At 1 a.m., I woke up with the worst stomach cramps and then got the chills. I couldn’t sleep. It was the strangest–I felt fine the next day, but all night I was thinking, “Please don’t let me be sick. I have my presentation tomorrow and I’d hate to disappoint my group.” I felt really tired when I woke up that morning and even debated staying home, but I made myself go.

On Thursday, we finished up our slides and went first. We did pretty darn good. I didn’t even get nervous .

I had an appointment to donate blood after school, and Ricci was going to donate too, so we grabbed a quick lunch at Taco Bell and went to the United Blood Services office. My iron was really good, so the nurse kept trying to convince me to get the Plasma/Red Blood Cell thing done, so I did. It took forever. I did really good even though the needle hurt my arm like crazy, but when I was done I started feeling really light headed and sleepy. The nurse asked me to keep my eyes open just in case I passed out. Ricci had to stop half-way through hers–she was definitely passing out.’

We didn’t get out till 2:20 and Mary had asked me to stuff the turkey we were having for Tommy’s birthday dinner. I was also freaking out since I had to rush to drop Ricci off and then get in line to wait for Eenan at school (it takes 30 minutes to get here and I have to be in line for Eenan at 2:45). I made it a little late to pick Eenan up and called Mary to let her know I wasn’t going to be able to put the turkey in till at least 3:30.

The turkey cooked with enough time, thank goodness, and dinner was awesome. It was like an early Thanksgiving ! Mario didn’t make it, of course.

Speaking of, it’s becoming really hard for me to keep from either moping around or being pissed off about Mario never being home. Before, I knew it was because he *had* to work and was doing everything to provide for us, but lately I know he’s been getting out of work earlier and he just doesn’t bother coming home. He’s too busy with his friends . I’m just…getting sick of it, I guess.

Today, for example, he had the day off. We started on our individual presentations at school (I’m making mine on Care Bears–I really want to change my idea, but the girls convinced me to keep it). I didn’t get to finish so I was going to take my computer in to get Microsoft Office re-installed on my computer (since it got wiped out with everything else…my pictures… *clutches heart*). I didn’t want to go on my own, so I asked him to go with me when he called me after school. He couldn’t because don’t you see he had to take Magda to bail Jorge out of jail (long story). I know I shouldn’t be that way, but my God, wasn’t there anyone ELSE who could take her?? It’s almost 4:30 and he’s STILL there…waiting. And, knowing him, when they finally let Jorge out he’s going to go straight to their house and stay there till 2am.

I was going to make myself feel better by watching Desperate Housewives (ha, the irony), but lo-and-behold, my DVD is scratched or something because it doesn’t want to go passed the 3rd episode on disk 1. Grr.

I found Mary’s copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so I think I’ll go drown my sorrows on the couch with my face in the book. Yeah, that sounds good.

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A lot’s happened since I last blogged. As always, as soon as I’d sit down in front of the computer to try and update, I’d remember I had to do something else. So, a summary (which will be long anyway):

Wednesday: Took our Final Exam on Access. I think we started it at 9:00 (or was it 8:30?) and I finished by 10:30. I thought I’d done okay, since it was a pretty difficult exam. I pulled my Harry Potter book out of my backpack and waited for the girls. To make a long story short, I heard sniffing coming from behind me, slamming of books, and at around 11, Ricci came up next to me and told me she was done. She wasn’t and was clearly upset. she was having trouble with her exam and so was Mayra. Their Relationships just weren’t working and that’s what makes the queries, reports and forms work. Poor Lucy’s database kept messing up so she lost her report and form, which I’d clearly seen her finish. After Mrs. C-R and I talked to Ricci in the bathroom, she composed herself and came back to the class to try again. After a while, I started panicking because I thought I’d gone through the exam too fast and *had* to have messed up somewhere.

We got our Exams back a few (painstaking) days later and I got a 96. I usually cry and throw fits if my grade’s anything less than a 98, but I thankfully accepted the grade–I thought I was going to do much worse!

We went to pick Mom up after school and then went grocery shopping that afternoon with Ricci. Dropped Ricci off, came home and took Mom to the Housing Authority to get her an application. The lady at the window told us we could fill out the application, but they wouldn’t be helping anyone till next year, maybe, because they were only accepting people from Louisiana. Just our luck. Mario had stayed home to watch Jaylen while John did his observation and picked Eenan up, too. Mario took a nap while I dropped Mom off, which I was really annoyed about since I hate driving over there alone.

John went in for his observation that morning and to his last class that night. He’s officially a substitute teacher now . Next on his list: his driver’s license.

Thursday: Can’t remember much from that day except that by the end of the day I was exhausted. I’d even forgotten an appointment I’d had that afternoon.

Friday: Was falling asleep in class…

(…Cntd. @ 6:42pm from home…)

Anyway, I was falling asleep in class so I really wasn’t “aware” of what we were learning in Chapter 2. Before we left class Mrs. C-R lets us know we’re having a quiz on Monday, so we might like to study. I totally forgot about this during the weekend.

After school Ricci and I met Mary at Target, where she was picking out her and my gift for Belinda, Ricci’s daughter. I got her a little outfit, so we took it with us so Ricci could dress her up before the party. I took Ricci to get a few things for the party (the piñata down Conway, a few more goodies from H-E-B) and then we went to her house where I’d help her with a few things. We ate lunch (menudo that her grandma made, yum!), and then went outside to find a huge jug for the tea they’d be making. We spent so much time looking for it that I didn’t get to help her with anything else since I needed to pick Eenan up. I picked the kids up, came home, ironed all our clothes and then went back to help her a bit. They sent me to the store to get forks and as soon as I’d gotten back with them Mary called that she was home and ready. Came back, picked her and Sammy and Brandon up and we went back to Ricci’s.

It was a nice party. There were lots of kids there and they all got along really well with Eenan and Jaylen, especially Jaclyn and Natasha, Ricci’s sister and cousin, respectively. Mayra went for a little while with her little girl, Sharlyze, and it was the cutest thing when Belinda and Sharlyze held hands and walked into the dining room together. I got to meet Mayra’s sister and mom, who are both really sweet.

The kids hit the piñata, got candies when it broke open, and then they got candy bags. We sang Happy Birthday to Belinda and ate cake and then we came home.

Saturday: Mary treated us (John included) to Peter Piper for lunch. The kids had so much fun. Mary took Eenan and I took Jaylen and they played the usual games. They both really like skee ball, this other one where you slowly roll a ball to a different colored slot each time, and one where they throw ping pong balls into the bucket that lights up. They got a pretty good amount of tickets, got their prizes and then we got there just in time to eat pizza.

We watched Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit, which was totally much cuter and funnier than I thought it would be. John was in a huff and was scowling the whole time because he couldn’t believe that I was making him watch that “stupid cartoon”, but he was laughing his ass off the whole time. The kids loved it; they thought it was hilarious.

We went to pick Mom up after that and then went to JCPenny, where she was taking John shopping for “professional clothing”. He found 3 shirts and 1 pair of slacks; he actually looks pretty decent when he’s not wearing baggy clothes.

We went to see Gramma after that. We spent time joking around with her and talking about our week. Mary was picked up by Tommy and Yadira while we were there since she was tired. Eenan, who isn’t much of a shopper (just like his father), left with Mary. Mom, John, Jaylen and I went to Target after that since we had time to kill before Mario needed to be picked up.

Or so we thought.

As soon as we got to the parking lot of Target, Mario called and said he was out–40 minutes earlier than what he initially thought. I told him we’d just gotten there–that we’d be over there in 20 minutes. We went around looking for storage boxes and a garment rack for John’s stuff (since his crap’s strewn all over my living room) and checked out the Halloween stuff. Mom got Jaylen a Ninja Turtle costume, some sais and a double-ended sword for Eenan’s ninja costume (that Andy’d bought for him). By the time we got in line at the check out, we’d already been there 40 minutes . Needless to say, I was in a hurry to get to Mario’s workplace since I didn’t feel like being yelled at. I even ran one of those “yield on green to oncoming traffic” signals and could have possibly killed us all. I was so tired my heart didn’t even start racing, as it usually does when I encounter a near-death experience (which are usually not brought on by me, surprisingly). Thinking of it now, it was the most irresponsible thing I’ve ever done while driving. John yelled out, “The OTHER time, you didn’t see the stop sign. THIS TIME, you didn’t even CARE!”

It’s funny to me now, but it was so, so wrong of me. .

We hadn’t eaten since before noon, so mom asked if we’d like to get a bite to eat. We went to this taqueria that Mario had been wanting to go to. He ordered what he’d been craving: tripa tacos and a hotdog wrapped in bacon with pico de gallo in it. Mom and I got steak tacos (which they make just like they do in Mexico!), John got a bacon hotdog and the kids got regular hot dogs. The food was delicious—they even gave us complementary beans, which were the best I’ve ever tasted.

We dropped Mom off after that and made the long commute home. When we finally got home, I helped John set up his garment rack. We hung all the clothes on it and what happens? The darn thing falls apart! We took everything off of it, wheeled it into our bedroom and he started hanging all his clothes on it again. Mario and I lay on the bed and watched John have his crisis with the rack. It was the most hilarious thing I’d seen all day–even funnier than Wallace and Grommit. I was so exhausted that night that I fell asleep right there, in the clothes I was wearing. I didn’t even get to go to Ricci’s second party for Belinda, which was at her ex-in-laws’ house. I was hoping we’d be home much earlier, but I sort of had a feeling that with everything we had to do, we wouldn’t make it.

Sunday: Spent the day cleaning and reading. Took a shower mid-afternoon and then went with Mary, Elda, Sammy, Brandon, Angela, Eenan and Jaylen to the Jamaica, which is a festival/fair type thing that was hosted by the church. They have little games and lots of food. The kids got on the moon jump (which took a total of 40 minutes to stand in line and then have them jump in), played a few little games and we ate nachos and grape soda. All in all, it was a fun night. Yazmin was at the sponge throw getting, er, sponged LOL, and I also saw Ricci’s little sister and her cousin.

Spoke to Ricci that night and apologized for not making it to Belinda’s party. She asked if I’d studied for the quiz on Monday and of course I hadn’t. I’d totally forgotten about the quiz!

Monday: Was relieved to find out Mrs. C-R was giving us 30 minutes to study. I read through the chapter (which was really long) really quick and memorized the key terms. When we got the quiz I jotted down the first thing that came to my head and I was certain I’d gotten everything wrong. To my surprise, I managed to get a 98! .

I went to make Mom’s storage unit payment after school (and got $10 back, woo! Gas money!) and then picked up some cough medicine for Eenan and a few things for Mary. I only found one single brand of medicine, which is generic. What ever happened to the Triaminic soft chews and tongue tape? Was that forward I received actually true? They really did get rid of all the kids’ cough/cold meds?

And now I’m here, stuffing my face with popcorn and waiting to make dinner (should have waited on the popcorn). I tried winning the 30,000 from Wild 104 today but of course I never got through. Well, I did get through once, and then the operator came on to tell me I hadn’t gotten through after all. Grr.

Maybe next time . Oh the things I could do with that money!

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