Category: Books

I felt miserable all Thursday night. Didn’t help that I had to put away dinner since Mario failed to call and tell me he was going to be “out with the guys”. He’d forgotten his cellphone at home, and apparently couldn’t borrow anyone else’s to let me know he’d be late. Really late. It was 12am when he got here. I was already in bed, Jaylen sleeping soundly at my side, reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I decided to read since I couldn’t sleep. My back and ear were throbbing horribly. Mario walks into the room and smiles; not a regular smile, but one of those “let me test the water” ones. I slap on a fake smile and say, “Hi, Babe! I take it everyone forgot their cellphones today?”

He sort of smiles and says, “Actually, yeah–”

I interrupt him and say, “No: ‘I’ll be late, don’t make dinner’ or ‘Babe, how are you feeling?’ But if it were you that were sick, I’d be waiting on you hand and foot!”

He looks half guilty, half annoyed so he turns and leaves. His Godfather, Jorge, had tried calling him earlier, and I figure he wants to get some beers and talk since he’d be leaving Saturday morning and that’s exactly what they did.

Usually I’m pretty “awesome” (as I’ve been told by Mario’s friends) when it comes to Mario going out with his friends or having a few beers with the guys, but since I was deathly ill and would have LOVED to be taken care of, I was annoyed and frustrated and just didn’t want to see his face. I tried going to sleep after that, but ended up staying awake till almost 2am, which is around the time Mario finally came back inside. He ended up sleeping on the couch, since Jaylen had happily taken his place in our bed.

Mario’s way of trying to appologize and be peaceful is joking around. When I’m trying to hack down breakfast he says, “May I ask why there’s another man in my bed?” meaning Jaylen, of course.

I turn and look at him, and since I didn’t feel like being peaceful just yet and say, “Because he was the only one around to comfort me last night.” Buahaha.

I quickly got ready, figured I’d leave my shower for after my appointment, left the boys with Mario and went to the doctor before it was too late. I hate being a “walk-in” because they take long enough when you actually have an appointment, but I felt so terrible that I sucked it up, took my book with me and was totally ready to wait 3 hours to be seen.

It took about an hour for them to call me, and that’s because there were only 2 people waiting before me in the lobby when I arrived.

I get my finger pricked to check my sugar; there was 250 somethings of glucose in my urine and when they checked my finger my sugar was at 160, which is kind of high for me. Turns out the waffles with syrup and coffee I had in the morning weren’t processing too well. I ask if I should be concerned and not eat anything sweet at all in the mornings but they assure me that I’m fine and don’t have to change my diet at all. Good :).

I’m weighing 134.6 (or was it .8?) and my blood pressure’s fine. My luck would have it that I go in for a cold and end up having to be “swabbed” for the GB Strep test. I was supposed to have that done on Wednesday, but since this practitioner had me as 35 weeks 5 days (my actual doctor has be down as around 34 weeks 5 days and I had myself down as 36 weeks 4 days) she insisted I do the test that morning, since you’re supposed to do it at 35 weeks.

I didn’t want to get it done just yet (I didn’t shower, for Pete’s Sake!) so they told me it was super easy, I could do it on myself. My nurse, Laura, even drew an illustration for me, depicting what to do where. So I did it LOL. I’ve never been positive for GB Strep, so hopefully everything is alright.

What sucks is, starting this Wednesday, I start having lovely weekly pelvic exams done. I can hardly wait.

As for my cold: My right ear was terribly infected, my throat was red and my sinuses make my face feel like I’ve been hit by a train. They prescribed ear drops, antibiotics for my ears, and I was told to get Tylenol Sinus and Robitussin DM for my congestion and cough. So now I’m on 3 meds, plus ear drops, plus vitamins. I hate taking so many medicines during pregnancy. I know they wouldn’t be giving them to me if they were harmful to the baby, but still. It makes me uneasy. At least I stopped the doctor for prescribing Zithromax–that stuff gave me horrible contractions when I got the upper respiratory infection the last month of pregnancy with Jaylen.

We went to cash Mario’s paycheck and pay most of our bills. The first part of the month is crappy for us since we have the “big” payment (the truck) and most of our tiny, little bills. The tiny, little bills add up and we end up almost broke.

We did pretty good with our budget anyway. We (the boys, Mario and I) had lunch at Jesse’s, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, where we were serenaded by a wonderful singer/guitar player and had great food. I had shrimp enchiladas, which were delicious. That’s all I’ve been craving lately! Shrimp!

We went to the Pawn Shop to leave the 2nd to the last payment on the gun Mario’s buying himself and then to JC Penny make a payment and to get Eenan 2 pairs of jeans since these kids are still going through growth spurts! He’s passing all his size 5 jeans to Jaylen, so Jaylen has plenty of pants. It’s poor Eenan who’s been walking around in high-water pants for the past few weeks LOL.

Next stop was Target, where the boys were buying themselves some cheap video games; Eenan with his Tooth Fairy money, Jaylen with his Piggy Bank money :P. We got a few things we needed, and went to Walmart next.

I was going to leave my prescription, but there was a 20 person-long line. I did not feel like waiting; my feet were killing me already. I paid for my pictures I’d dropped off earlier during the week and we came home.

We chilled out here at home for a while. Everyone started to arrive around 6 to have one last “whole family” dinner before Jorge left this morning. Around 7 o’clock I remember we need to go to H-E-B to get my prescriptions (I couldn’t stand my ear ache anymore!) so we leave. The boys stayed here while Mario and I went.

They took forever with the prescription of course, so we grocery shopped while they finished up at the pharmacy. We only spent $66, which is a frickin’ record! We didn’t get any junk food, which could probably be why we saved so much, but I’m cool with that. I don’t need to be pigging out so close to delivering anyway =\.

We ate and talked with everyone when we got back and then just chilled out, bathed and went to bed. Mario put drops in my ears and I fell asleep pretty fast. Staying asleep was quite the challenge though.

At 3am I woke up sweating, coughing and with my ears throbbing again. I pointed the fan to the wall, to at least get some air without drying up my sinuses or making my throat worse. I took all my meds since they were already wearing off, and went to bed. At 5am I woke up with stomach cramps and finally I went to sleep and woke up when the alarm went off at 7:30.

I’ve got to drop John off at work, put gas in the car (because these men LOVE to leave it on extra-empty) then Mom, the boys and I are going to visit Gramma, go to Walmart real quick and then visit Aunt Nora for a while. John wants to go to the mall, but I don’t feel like waiting for him till whatever time they decide to let him out like last week. It’s getting harder for me to drive at night since I need new glasses. I haven’t gone yet because I’m afraid I’ll get glasses and then my vision’ll change again when I give birth. I’ve heard it can happen, so I don’t want to take any chances.

We have a wedding to go to tonight, but Mario will probably end up going by without me with Manny and his wife. I feel like crap, look like crap and don’t have anything to wear so I don’t feel like going at all.

I’m going to lay down for a little bit and then get ready before the madness starts. I just want to hybernate :(.

Okay, either I’m hallucinating because of all the sugar in my coffee or I actually heard them say on Today that J.K. Rowling named her 7th book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow” or “Hollow”? Okay, maybe I was hearing things, because the dude (the one with the salt-n-pepper hair) said the name of the book then said, “But first…” and went on to something else and they haven’t mentioned it. Now they have Anita Baker singing. Grr.

Okay, just checked on Mugglenet.com and yes, it’s called, “Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows.” Now that I know this new bit of information, I feel just a tad bit more impatient. I want the book finished already! The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie isn’t coming out till July 13, 2007–I don’t think I can stand waiting for the book even longer than that (like I have a choice, right?).

Anyway, I’m so sorry if I scared some of you since I haven’t updated in a few days. I’m fine, baby’s fine and she’s still happily using my insides as a kickboxing bag. I’ve just been super busy since it was the boys’ last week of school before vacation began. Thank you so much for your concern though, it means a lot to me :). I promise, if something big does happen, like going into labor, I will somehow get to a computer and inform you guys (I’d do it through my PDA but it hates me and WordPress).

So the Saturday after I last posted started off as a calm and relaxing one. We’d be attending Catherine’s birthday party in the afternoon, which, according to my mother, was at 3pm. I took my sweet time washing my towering pile of dishes, bathed the boys and let them run around in their underwear for a while and started sewing a little camera bag for my new camera. Mario keeps telling me, “Why won’t you just buy one?” I don’t like the big, black, bulky bags for my camera. I like carrying it in my purse and one of those bags just won’t fit with all the other crap I have in there.

Well, after about an hour of fighting with the satiny fabric and having a fit because I’d have to sew some of it by hand I ended up with this:

(Holy Moly, I just saw Salma Hayek and Ellen eat crickets! Eww!)

It did not fit my new camera! It did, however, fit my old one, but that kinda sucks anyway since I don’t use my old camera anymore! I ended up using it as a little make-up bag till I can get some fabric and a zipper to make a new one.

While I’m finishing up the little bag, Mary calls and tells me that they’re ready (her and Noelia); to let her know when I’m ready. I look at the clock and it’s 1pm. I ask, “What time are we leaving?”

“Mmm…around 1:15?”

I panic and yell, “What?! But it doesn’t start till 3! I was barely going to take a shower!”

It actually started at 2, but my mother was misinformed. I don’t know why I didn’t bother looking at my own darn invitation. I had half an hour to dress the boys, take a quick shower (which sucked since the water pressure was SUPER LOW and I was about an inch away from the wall of the shower stall), iron my and Mario’s clothes (for Noelia’s graduation later that night) and get myself dressed and hair done. I hate being in a rush, just hate it. I was so frustrated by the time we left, but I sucked it up and tried to be in a good mood for the kids. We picked up Sonia and arrived at the party.

We should have just left late; the food wasn’t served till 3 and I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, which was around 9am. My sugar was dropping quickly and I was starting to shake badly. Thankfully, Elda had a 3 Musketeers in her purse which I quickly gobbled down. I felt better almost instantly and then finally, the food came. The kids inhaled their pizzas and punch and continued to play and enjoy themselves. They always have fun at that place but I wouldn’t have their parties there; it would probably cost me one of them to pay for it.

We left the party early since we’d have to drop Mom off at home with the boys. Noelia’s graduation was at 6:30pm, but we had to be there super early to get seats and before they closed the doors on us. Mario called while he was on his way home from work and asked me to pick up a plate for him from Long John Silvers since he got out early and didn’t have lunch. We get home and he’s frantically getting ready and starts stuffing his mouth with food simultaneously.

Noelia had left the party with Andy and went straight to UTPA. Big Mario, Mary, Mario and I left in our truck and Elda and Jose followed. We met Tommy, Yadira and the kids there and found Noelia, who instructed us on where to go.

I knew the ceremony was being held in the gym, but I had no idea we’d be seated in the bleachers. Normally, I’m not afraid of heights–not at all. But since I’m pregnant and my center of balance is way off at 8 months, I felt incredibly nervous going up the bleachers. My heart sank and I felt even worse when we got to the row we were going to sit in; we were high up and there was a 5, maybe 6 inch strip of wood we could walk on. I kind of froze at the beginning of the row and just stood there looking down. Is that what being afraid of heights feels like? I’d never felt that way before in my life. I must have looked like a loon, but I squatted down a little and held on to the bench while I slowly inched my way to Mario. He was looking at me like I was insane LOL.

I thought I’d lost my camera for a few (horrifying) minutes, but I’d left it in the car. We tried focusing the camera as best as we could but none of the settings would get a clear picture; we were really far. The ceremony was long and boring and then a man who sounded exactly like the one from the Visine commercials (…For red, dry eyes…) starts calling out names of honors students. I had absentmindedly started slumping on Mario’s shoulder and was falling asleep by the time they started giving out the “diplomas”. When they were done, we met Noelia outside and took pictures then everyone went their seperate ways. Big Mario, Mary, and I were hungry (Mario still wasn’t) so we stopped at Wendy’s. I had some chicken nuggets and a very cheesy baked potato with sour cream and chives. We had a good time. Our last stop was Wal-Mart and then home. I was exhausted.

We had plans to go to Target to start on my registry and then to our storage unit and get stuff out for the Garcia Family but we only got a chance to do the latter. Our unit was an eyesore of a mess, so we spent a good half hour organizing it. Jorge, Mario’s godfather, has a bunch of his stuff in there, too, so he put his stuff on one side and ours on another. Now we can actually walk in there.

I took the opportunity to get the boys’ baby clothes boxes out and check what I’ll be keeping as a memory of them, using for Alaethia (like white onesies and gowns), and giving to charity. I need to buy some Dreft soap, so I haven’t even tackled the boxes yet.

We dropped the stuff off at home, ate a quick lunch of sandwiches and chips and all of us piled in the truck again since we were going to the Motorcross Park and the Mud Pits with some of Mario’s friends. Out of all the guys that were going (like 4 or 5), only one went: Manny and his family. We chilled out with them for a few good hours. The kids were being absolute brats at first and I was quickly getting frustrated since Mario was having the time of his life on the ATVs, but after we gave the boys a talking-to they calmed down. I enjoyed the rest of the night after that. I was terrified of the boys being taken around in the ATVs, especially after it got dark but they followed instructions well and Manny and Mario took good care of them. We came home super late for a school night, so we fed the boys a quick meal of corn dogs, gave them 5-minute showers each and put them to bed. Mario was making some baked fish for us and it wasn’t done till around 10, but it was delicious.

Mario was off work the next day so after we picked Jaylen up from school Mario, Jaylen, John and I went to Target and I started on my Registry. (I really dislike that the only way you can view it is by using our first and last names :(!) It took all of 35 minutes to scan everything we liked/needed. We let Jaylen join in so he wouldn’t feel left out; I’d bring him the items and he’d scan them for me. I feel pretty good about the list. I left out the Graco Mikhala stroller set since Mario’s getting it, and we left out the bouncer since Yadira wants to give us hers. We also left out things she’ll be using much later on, like a playpen and highchair. I’m so excited. I thought it was so cute how Mario scanned some pink booties and a pink and yellow cap :).

I had every intention of starting on my baking that day, but it didn’t happen. John and I went to Dollar General to get some ingredients I needed (sugar, flour, crushed pineapple, etc.) and some nice baskets for the cookies. That would be the kids’ gifts to their teachers: a pretty basket full of homemade cookies.

For the first time ever, my little brother had to bail me out of something. I’d put gas in the truck earlier that day and left my debit card in my back pocket. It fell out of my pants when we’d gotten home and I didn’t notice. I had to change into decent clothes again when we went to the store, and totally forgot about the debit card. Well, I’m getting ready to pay for my stuff ($18-something) and realize I’m missing my card. I couldn’t even remember if I’d put it in my pocket at the gas station; I imagined everyone getting free gas with my card. John pays for my stuff with his debit card and gloats about it for the rest of the day. I told him I’d pay him back but he said since he owes me a Christmas present I can use the money to buy it for myself. How sweet LOL.

I was put in a worse mood when we got home after the ordeal at the store and Mary reminded us that there was a birthday party we’d made plans to attend. Great. No baking for me, which meant being in a hurry the next day, and possibly night like every other year.

The kids had fun at the party and we got to see Venessa’s newborn twins. They’re two months old, but since they were born a month early they’re actually 1 month old. They were so cute and tiny :).

I had a foot-in-mouth moment when Mario’s cousin Betty was asking me when I was due. Then I asked her when she was due (which was a few days before Christmas) and she half-laughs, “I had him last Saturday! He’s a week old.” I felt so embarrassed that I further shoved my foot in my mouth when I said, “I thought you looked smaller!” Lord, help me.

Mario already wasn’t happy that we were going to the party and became even more frustrated when Mary and I took half an hour at H-E-B after the party. We needed to get a few more ingredients they didn’t have at Dollar General and of course with people traffic and the lines it took forever. When we got home, Mario had a total fit and made a mess in the kitchen. He made me feel like crap right away and I told him so. We didn’t talk the rest of the night; I took a shower and went straight to bed without saying a word to him. I woke up in the middle of the night to find his arm around my belly. I took that as his way of feeling sorry and guilty, even though I probably wasn’t supposed to “know” he was holding me.

The greatest thing just happened! Itzel, my former instructor (Mrs. C-R), just called to say hello and wish us a Merry Christmas. Her little girl just turned 3 months old on the 19th! I need to stop by school and visit her and have some lunch or something to catch up :).

As I was saying before, I spent the next day, Tuesday, making the batter for Snickerdoodles, picking up the boys and making cookies all in between everything else. I made Snickerdoodles of course, and some cookies called Butter Spritz Cookies I found in a stack of recipes Mom’d given me last year. NEVER AGAIN will I make those pieces of crap. I followed the directions step-by-step and they didn’t taste at all the way the description said they would. Dumb things. Didn’t help that the cookie press I’d borrowed from Mary (which she’d never used before herself) wasn’t working. I had to use cookie cutters. Even if the cookie press did work, I doubt they would have tasted any better >_<. Mary made Pan De Polvo and Pineapple bars and told me to use some of those, too. Lifesaver! It was 9:30 by the time I finished with the last cookie sheet and was about to start on chocolate chip cookies but took Mary's advice and just used the four sweets we already had. I had a hell of a time with the plastic wrap I was putting around the baskets but they turned out really nice. The kids each took the baskets that were for their teachers on their lap yesterday morning. Eenan handed his to Mrs. R., who said she loves Snickerdoodles, especially those that are homemade :). Jaylen carried a basket in each hand and gave them to Mrs. T. and Mrs. S., who hugged him and said he was a "handsome boy". I came home and quickly made Mario some breakfast. I scarfed down my food since my doctor's appointment was at 9. There's never any point to going early anyway, since they don't see you for at least an hour and a half after your appointment. Yesterday was no different. They called me in at 10:30 and took my vitals. I didn't gain any weight in the past 3 weeks. In fact, I lost 5 oz., which is surprising considering how much I eat. Laura, my nurse, said everything went straight to my belly because it's definitely bigger than last time. I told her about my constant aching feet and how they've been swelling at night lately. My urinalysis was perfect and so was my sugar, after they pricked my finger to check my glucose since I had glucose in my pee once again (Mario warns me not to put so much sugar in my coffee!). They took me into the Sono room and the doctor came in about 10 minutes later. He checked my feet and said I looked fine and my blood pressure was fine, too, so the swelling might be because I'm on my feet a lot and my belly growing isn't helping. So, I just gotta keep my feet elevated sometimes. He gave me an ultrasound to check the baby's measurements and he said she's weighing about 4 lbs. 6 oz. :). I saw her legs, big belly, her huge head (which is nicely wedged in my pelvis which is why I've been feeling those annoying I-desperately-need-to-pee pains lately), and her little privates, which still show she's a girl :). The only thing that I found a bit strange was he said I was 32 weeks, which is NOT TRUE! I'm 34 weeks and some days. He told the nurse to schedule my next appointment for 35 weeks, which according to him is January 10th! I'm supposed to be 35 weeks next Tuesday, so I don't know what the deal is. All I know is when I go back on the 10th, it starts the beginning of my pelvic exams and some swab that tests for some bacteria or something that causes premature labor. How lovely. Since the doctor moved my due date even further, I'm now supposedly due Feb. 8th. *bangs head* I picked Jaylen up at noon, and he was happily lugging a huge red truck he got in the gift exchange around and his backpack was full of goodies and glitter from art projects he was bringing home. We came home and chilled out till it was time to pick up Eenan, who had a huge gift bag and even more glittery projects with him. He made Mario this adorable basket, full of copper glitter and foam stickers. He was so proud of his basket. When he got home he quickly took all of Mario's keys off the key rings on the wall and put them in the basket :P. John and I left the kids with Mom and then headed for McAllen to drop off the bag of clothes, toys and a brand-new Scooby blanket for the Garcia family. I stop by Mario's work first, just to chat and as I'm leaving one of his co-workers tells me to go the other way, since something's going on at the Chase Bank Tower. I go the way he instructed me to and sure enough, when passing the bank we see a whole bunch of people standing outside the bank, looking up. There's cops and firemen everywhere. We try our hardest to find the building, but with all the one-way streets over there it was kind of difficult. I call the number in the newspaper and the lady says they're located right behind Chase Bank, but they're being evacuated so she was on her way home. I ask what happened and she said there was a bomb threat and everyone was told to leave. She told me I could drop them off today. Just my luck. I want to do something nice and it's the day the whole damn place is evacuated! I had Mario take the bag with him today to drop it off for me, since I didn't want to drive all the way over there for nothing again. I hope he got it to them okay. Mom's behind me, crocheting a blanket for Alaethia. She'd been wanting to start crocheting again, but after not crocheting for almost 30 years she'd forgotten how. She didn't stop trying till she "got it" again yesterday and now she's about a fourth of the way through with the blanket. It's all cute and pastel-ly :). I'm so glad she's got a hobby again; she's thrilled about it. Now she can teach me how! I've always wanted to learn but my brain turns to mush when I try to learn from tutorials online. It's taken me half the day, literally, to type this out while doing everything else I need to do. I have to stop slacking and start cleaning this place up since Jorge, Mario's godfather, will arrive here from California sometime tomorrow and I don't want him seeing this mess. Tomorrow's also the day that I'm PRAYING we finish with our Christmas shopping. I do not want to be in town on the 23rd and 24th--it's way too dangerous. I still need gift ideas for some people, too. Which reminds me: I need to e-mail Noelia to send me a copy of her List. The hard one's going to be Mario's dad. We still owe him a birthday present from the beginning of December! We can never find his sizes or the stuff he wants :(. Okay, that's it. I'm going to start from the kitchen and work my way to the bathroom and living room. THEN I'll tackle the bedrooms.

I’m going to have a wonderful, unemployed week of scrapbooking come this Sunday. Since Mario left with Chris around 4 this afternoon to fish and ride the ATVs, I spent the day reading (Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is proving to be quite a good read! Just got two more chapters to go!), cleaning up a little, made dinner, washed dishes, and went to Mary’s to spend some time with little Matthew, Mary, Yazmin and my boys. When I came back over here, I checked my e-mail and found a most lovely coupon from Walgreens, where I could get 5 5×7 prints for free! So I went ahead and did it and it came out to a whopping $0.27–no shipping cost since I’ll pick them up at the store. I’m planning to frame and hang those chosen pictures, and since I hadn’t gotten my 20 free prints yet, I uploaded 36, got the 20 free and the rest came out to $3.08–beautiful! I can finally use up at least half of those scrapbooking supplies in my plastic drawer.

I can hardly contain myself *squeal*. I’m a dork like that .

Last night was the first night in about 3 days that I had to cook. Having Mario home this week has been such a relief and just…wonderful. He cooked burgers outside on Tuesday night, bar-be-cued Wednesday night, and made hot dogs for us Thursday afternoon. I love having him around to hug and cuddle when I please–it’s nice not having to wait till 9p.m., or whenever he gets home from work, to hold him. I love that we can watch movies and take junk to storage (still getting ready for remodeling) when we feel like it. He goes back to work tomorrow, and in a way I feel sad, as if my vacation’s over, too.

In a way, my vacation kind of is over. Gotta get on the ball. I have an appointment with the Career Services Department at school to revise my resume and check what jobs they can hook me up with, if any. I’m hoping I can get something good .

I finally spoke to Jessica M. yesterday. We had a long talk–catching up on just about everything since our last conversation, which was right after I had Jaylen and she found out she was pregnant with her second little girl. That’s what I love about Jessica–we lose touch sometimes but when we get back in touch it’s like there wasn’t a break in our friendship at all. It’s hard to come by friends like that. I hope we can get together soon and have some coffees or something.

Part of the conversation Jessica and I had was about jobs. She’s making an amazing amount of money where she’s working and I kind of want to go there too, but they want you to be available all the time and I just can’t. I’ve got Eenan, who needs to be ready for and taken to school by 7:40a.m. If I were to apply and they were to give me their latest shift, I’d be getting out of work at 1a.m., getting home about 1:45a.m. and sleeping for about 4 hours if I’m lucky. I just can’t function on such little sleep. But we’ll see. If I become desperate enough I may just go there. The bad thing is, John wanted a job there, too!

We went to Jorge and Maggie’s last night and talked about jobs and politics. When I sit down and really think about it, it hits me that we’re actually adults and have the responsibilities of adults. When the hell did that happen?? And there’s no slowing down either. By the time we know it, we’re going to have a freaking mortgage! If all goes well, of course.

It’s almost 12 midnight. I really want to finish up that book before I fall asleep, so I can start on my new one (Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman). I love that the library’s down the street :).

Yeah. I’m enjoying this free time. For now.

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