Category: Birthdays

I’m pleased to announce that I have resurrected my beloved “Fang” theme! This is one of my favorite layouts I’ve ever created and couldn’t wait to sit down and update it to suit my current content.

I started the day by making myself an epic omelet. This one consisted of crab, spinach, avocado and gouda cheese :).

I slacked around a while, sitting with Mom in the kitchen nook and then I started cleaning. Freddy ordered the Marquez fight, so we’d be having company. My love called during lunchtime and needed me to drop off a key, so I joined him and Marco for lunch at Palenque Chicken. I went grocery shopping since I was already over there, then to the bank and headed home. I cleaned some more and THEN…I sat at my now-favorite part of the house:

Jorge and I did some Autumn-cleaning last week and I have to give him most of the credit for our bedroom makeover. He’s a genius :).

I was surprised that I hadn’t completely forgotten how to move around my website and my old theme. I did however, shamefully, had to reinstall my good ol’ Paint Shop Pro…because I couldn’t for the life of my dinosaur brain figure out how to use this damn Windows 8!!! >_< But I remembered how to use PSP and voila!! Fang is reborn!!! I'm proud to mention I still have my pixel-drawing skillz buahaha. I made my tiny little social media icons there on the top right. Not too shabby, eh?? I guess I'll go outside and be social. I hope Sally comes over after all. We got to hang out last night for Michelle's birthday at Kohnami, a lot of our co-workers and my love and Sally made an appearance, too, so that was pretty nice :). I sang "Cowboy Take Me Away" during karaoke, and "Como La Flor" with Gerry. We had a great time :).

Alright, alright. Going off on a tangent again. Goodnight!

We had an eventful end-of-July and it seems like August is just whizzing by! I feel like this summer went by way too fast :(. But we’re trying to make the best of our time together (Jorge and I alone, and our weeks with the kids :)).

We’ve been doing lots of baking when the kids are here. Emily kept asking me to find a brownies recipe so I checked out Pinterest and found several. Some called for tons of ingredients to keep them from crumbling or the Oreos from sinking but I wanted to keep it simple. I tried these 2 simple ingredients and was glad these worked out for me:

1 box Duncan Hines chewy fudge brownies (make sure it’s the 13×9 family size box).
24 Oreos of your choice (I used Birthday Cake Oreos!)

Prepare the brownie batter as stated on the box. Set aside and preheat your oven. Spray Pam on a 13×9 pan (I used a glass one).

Spread half the batter in the pan, set aside the rest. Begin carefully making an Oreo layer until you fill the pan.

Carefully pour the remaining batter over your Oreo layer. You may need to spread some with a spoon to completely cover the Oreos. Bake your brownies according to the 13×9 time on the box (I’m typing this weeks later so I forget what the time is!).

Once they’re out, let them cool just a bit.

Once cool-ish, cut your brownies into squares.

I was thrilled that the butter knife just slid through! Use a spatula to serve your brownies and enjoy :).

When the kiddos are at their other parents’ homes Jorge and I will do something around the house (like paint the doors and trim in the kitchen, or clean), or watch movies. We STILL haven’t re-started with the jogging, but we’re still doing the low-carb thing (when we’re not baking with the kids, heh), so we’re maintaining, thank goodness.

Sally and I hadn’t gotten together, or talked really, in almost 2 months, so we caught up last week (having lunch at Feldman’s and then I went over after work one day) and we’ve been texting back and forth. I need to remember to make time for my friends. I get so busy with everyday life that I neglect them sometimes :(.

We were fortunate enough to celebrate Eenan’s 14th birthday at South Padre Island last weekend. It was hectic, getting things ready literally that morning, and the commute was insanely long! Well, not really, we actually made it to Port Isabel in 45 minutes…but we were in line from Port Isabel to the bridge for about an hour. It was like Spring Break, not even joking.

We got to the hotel, checked in, then unloaded all our luggage and the kids and Mom. A lot of crap gets packed for 3 adults and 6 kids!! The room was booked for Jorge for us, so when we got to the hotel and realized it wasn’t exactly like the photo they showed us, we were a little disappointed. But we couldn’t complain. We got hooked up.

We got everyone settled and went to pick up dinner. The streets were INSANE. People everywhere, traffic. It was seriously like some kind of holiday. We ended up at Daddy’s, which was packed, went straight to the bar and ordered our seafood platters. My love and I chit-chatted while we waited, then headed back to the hotel to eat with the family. The kids loved the food. Mmm…I’m craving some now!!

Jorgie didn’t have trunks, so we went to the nearest store and bought him some and picked up a few things at the only supermaket on the island. We put the kids to sleep around 10pm (Emily crashed out at 8pm!), then my love and I sat in the balcony and just talked about everything. About us, our kids, our plans for the future, everything. We don’t always have time to sit and just TALK, so it was nice :).

We went to bed and at around 3am Emily woke me up. “Mama,” she whispers and tugs at my arm sleeve.

“What happened, Baby?” I croak. I open one eye and see two huge eyes staring back.

“I can’t sleep anymore!!” she whispers back. I snuggle her and we both fall asleep again.

We get up and wash up for breakfast the next morning. After we all ate, we went back to the room and the kids watched TV for a good hour or so while Jorge napped (or tried to, heh).

We showered, got our stuff together, checked out and headed to the beach. We parked, sunscreened everyone up and then it was play time. The kids had a blast :).

The birthday boy!

The shells we found:

We couldn’t find a place to have lunch, so after we washed up (took me FOREVER because the older lady that was in front of my literally washed every fold and crevice she had. Twice -_-), we headed to Burger King.

We ate, drove home, and picked up an Oreo ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (Eenan’s request).

We picked Eenan’s gift up (The Last of Us) and then they all got ready to leave for the week :(. I love those kiddos! We had such a great weekend. Too bad it couldn’t have lasted longer!!

Ok. Just wanted to get this posted before more time passed. I’ve got an UNO game to join!

I swear, this website will be the death of me (that, or bacon–one of those).

I’ve spent the last hour or so trying to fix this darn layout. Apparently, I didn’t have an uploads folder anymore O_o. I’m still at a loss on how to keep my header image from shrinking, but this will have to do for now. I hate this layout already -_-. In some weird way it keeps me from updating, ’cause I’m weird like that.

Anyhoot. A lot has gone on since the last time I updated (doesn’t it always?), and I’m still trying to compile a post about our trip to San Antonio/Austin at the beginning of June. Some of you may have seen the unfinished entry; my stupid Bluetooth keyboard uploaded the post without my consent >_<. Stupid technology! So. Fourth of July was such a great day. It was Mario's week with the kids but he was nice enough to let me go for them that day and keep them overnight till he picked them up the next day. I'd asked for them because he just so happened to have them the previous 2 years. So that was great. We picked them up, picked up fireworks on the way back, chilled out, and visited Gramma for her birthday. Aunt Sylvia was already there. Gramma ate her tamales that Tia brought her and we took a bunch of photos. She's 84 :*).

We got home and started bar-b-quing for lunch.

I for some reason don’t have a picture of the sides O_o. This may have been the day my 32 gig SD card took a dump and started deleting photos so I panicked and removed it and the rest of the July 4th photos may be on it.

We ate and quickly got ready to go watch the fireworks. When I was little, Dad would bring us almost every 4th of July. When Mario and I got married, we only went one year, when Eenan was 1, and Mario HATED the crowds and waiting and we never went back. Jorge isn’t big on crowds and doesn’t like waiting most of the time either, so I never brought it up. I did this year, and he was all for it. I was excited and so were the kiddos. We packed some blankets, waters, and some glow-necklaces and parked on 23rd street.

People go ALL OUT!! Some were there super early, and fenced off spaces with their lawn chairs, tables, BBQ pits and trucks. It was great :). Now we know, heh.

The show started and I think the kids really enjoyed it. Alaethia was a little scared at first and covered her head with a blanket until Jorge asked her how she was going to see LOL.

I hope this is something we can turn into a tradition ♥.

It took us about 45 minutes to get out of that parking lot so by the time we got home it was almost 10pm. We had promised the kids s’mores so we sprayed everyone completely with Off spray and brought out the packs of fireworks we bought.

It was just such a great night. We all crashed out fast that night :).

When the kiddos are here we try and watch a movie with them every night, Emily helps me cook most nights, the girls and I will do little projects–it’s great just being around them ♥. We need to start planning Eenan’s 14th (FOURTEENTH!!! FML!!) birthday soon; he wants to go to the beach, so that’ll be fun :).

Alaethia had 2 fillings done on the 9th and she did wonderfully!! I was seriously more nervous about it than she was; she’s a trooper :).

She lost a tooth the next day, so now her two bottom ones are gone, awww LOL.

As for when it’s not our week with the kids, well, the majority of the time we stay home. For the most part, we’re hermits, heh. We have to force ourselves to go out. We’re comfortable and happy to have a drink on the porch, by ourselves, or watch our movies/shows (we recently got into “Mistresses” on ABC. Love it!).

In the past month, however, we have gotten out a few times. We went to Beef ‘O’ Brady’s for the commercial shooting (invited by the owner) and Jorge had a mini reunion with Rolie, Junior, Jesus, Sean and even Robert and Esmer :). It was a great night.

Then we went to Beef’s again for the UFC fight, where we won free tickets to see Genuwine LOL. That was pretty unexpected, and although we haven’t heard his music since our high school years (FML), it’ll be fun.

Carmen and her hubby and Dayse were in town so Kary and I planned an impromptu get-together. Dayse is…PREGNANT!! So we wanted to get together to celebrate before they left. Sally didn’t make it and I haven’t seen her in a while :(, but hopefully we can get together soon. It was a great night though, filled with carbs and laughs and great conversation. I love those girls!!

And speaking of carbs, we’ve been eating horribly since 4th of July. For example, this was our dinner on Tuesday night:

I decided today that I was getting back on the wagon and eating well again. Until Jorge invited the guys over and I drank 2 pineapple Margaritas. FML. And Jessica (from work) and her hubby are coming over tomorrow night, which reminds me: I must clean!! Jorge and I are getting some breakfast before I go to my dentist appointment in the morning. That should be interesting!