Category: Brudder

I spend most of my work days daydreaming about being at home. Most of the time, the daydream’s setting is the porch.

Or in the kitchen cooking with the girls while I swoon over my succulents ^_^.

This has been my “thing” lately; well, the weeks I’m kid-less. Free time is spent reading succulent care blogs or Pinning Succulents I eventually want to possess. Or visiting nurseries (like during lunch on Tuesday and after work today) or Home Depot, like on Wednesday night with John (and then he and Jorge ruined my workout by convincing me to eat Wing Stop!!). Gardening just…soothes me.

I never thought I’d get into gardening and then I did when we moved to this house and I planted flower beds everywhere. Then the Great Hail Storm of 2012 hit and ruined it all and then I stuck to my little succulents I’d planted in 2011 when I had the kiddos paint terra cotta pots for them. Just recently I got back into them (succulents are okay with being neglected, but I kind of overdid it, heh) and wanting to grow them myself, from cuttings.

So I searched for succulent propagation blogs and found these two to be really helpful: Life With SarahB and Succulents & Sunshine

So far, I think I’ve been doing pretty well!

This batch were the first little guys to undergo my latest project. I left them in the egg carton so the little cut end would dry up. Not all of them made it =|.

I laid some dirt in the carton, laid them out and began giving them a spritz of water once a day, every day for about 2 weeks.

That little cactus actually hitched a ride from Home Depot to our house when I bought a few other small pots. I hope he’ll grow!

Here are the leaves with their roots and buds almost a month later (I took these photos today):

These are a few little buds that completely propagated on their own. I actually found this Ghost Plant bud propagating on the windowsill!

I put it in a small pot, along with 2 other buds that began to propagate on their own in my large succulent pot:

This little guy overgrew the little pot Emily had painted. I picked up this blue-green-yellow pot at that nursery I stopped at today and transferred him over as soon as I got home.

I added the teeny Ghost Plant that had propagated itself so it can hopefully, eventually fill in that side of the pot. I was happy to see the Ghost Plant had a new sprout on one of the stems, too.

So now I have my first succulent garden that I wrote about 3 entries ago:

I’ve since removed the Baby Toes, which I named Roger, from the pot. It seemed unhealthy when I bought it, but it just never got better and eventually it started shriveling up. I took such good care of my first Baby Toes and now I can’t seem to keep them alive :(.

My Donkey Tail Burrito is also having a bit of trouble. At first I thought it was too hot outside, so I moved the pot to the windowsill and it’s still dropping a lot of “beads”. My String of Pearls was unhealthy when I bought it as well, and doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I’m keeping my fingers crossed though. Maybe neglecting it a bit will help.

I had bought a few succulents here and there for the past couple of weeks. A pink/green Echeveria and a Gollum at H-E-B, a severely over-watered Zebra Haworthia from Valley Garden Center, and then the other few that I bought when John and I went to Home Depot this Wednesday. So I made Succulent Garden #2:

I’m so happy with them. I hope I can keep them all alive. I’m so impatient. I want the sprouts to grow and I want to know the big ones will be ok!

So there you go: a bit of my madness and my current hobby. I’d been in a funk the last weeks of May and early June (no idea why, either, it was just weird), but I’ve been taking this literally lately:

It seems to be working pretty well!

It had been a hectic month and a half, what with 3 important, somewhat unexpected events at work. To think they weren’t even large expos or festivals. One was a dinner, the second one was a breakfast and those two were pretty easy. They flowed well. The last–and largest–was the most stressful. It was a 2 1/2 day event and it was my department’s duty to take care of all details (and by my department, I mean my boss and myself LOL). I asked myself daily if I’d actually be able to pull it off. We got tons of help from EZ, Bob, Michelle and Gerry–tons. I was eternally grateful. And in the end, everything worked out, THANK GOD.

The press conference at the airport started late, but it went well. Lunch at House.Wine was perfect; they do such a great job with our groups!

I’m pending a photo from the first evening’s dinner at the museum. Alexis, Michelle and Anabel took over for me and helped me so much that night. I made sure to have everything ready since they’d be taking over for me. Jorge and I had already made plans way before we learned about this event to attend the George Strait “Cowboy Rides Away” Tour. Of course I was on my phone the entire time, making sure the violinists arrived, that the crew ate, that the food was ok, that there was enough seating, etc. I really didn’t relax until George’s encore!

I was a little nervous about the concert, as we got to attend last year in San Antonio and it really wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. He didn’t sing an encore, didn’t sing very long, sang a few covers instead of his own songs and at the end, didn’t even sing “The Cowboy Rides Away! BUT. He completely redeemed himself with this one!! He did a great rendition of “Folsom Prison” with a huge gunshot blast and all, had an encore, sang “The Cowboy Rides Away” at the end and sand for almost 3 hours!! It was fantastic :).

Anyway, the most important part of the visit, the ceremony, was the next morning. After that, I headed to the office to double and triple check my RSVP list. I KNEW I was going to get some last-minute attendees, but so far, everything was okay.

After many, MANY visits to shops downtown and HEB, Gerry helped us get the gifts ready and then Michelle, Bob, EZ and I headed to Quinta to set up. After a misunderstanding (isn’t there always one??), we were ready to go.

Everything went without a hitch, thank goodness. Even after 13 extra people showed up O_O.

Since our crew didn’t get to eat, our boss took us to House.Wine for dinner. We chit-chatted, ate and had dessert. He even gave me a high five. All the weight floated off my shoulders. The last part of the event was the next morning and then, THEN I could relax.

The Cowboy Breakfast the next morning was a hit and everything went smoothly. I was so glad!! After picking up some vases we forgot at Quinta, I was FREEEE!!! I joked with Jorge that I needed to get a T-Shirt that says, “I Survived SLP Delegation Visit 2014” LOL.

I made sure to ENJOY and relax the rest of the weekend. Well, as much as I could following a 3-yr-old around and vice versa LOL.

I was awarded a gift certificate to Tony Roma’s so Jorge and I planned a date night for Wednesday. It was so odd to have a non-stressful week! But you can bet I appreciated the crap out of it!

My babies were picked up the Thursday afternoon (day of the first event/concert) by their dad and his family. They were taking them to Disney World. I tried my hardest not to text every 5 minutes to ask Mario to please take care of my children. And when I felt that I was missing them to the point that I was going to become depressed, I’d keep myself busy. Mario was nice enough to send me photos of their activities throughout the trip, and I spoke to them every single day, so that was nice and comforting.

I’d been running and eating well for 2 weeks straight (running for almost a month in total, with breaks in between)…until the Wednesday before the event, and after that my diet and exercise went down-hill :(. I keep saying I’m going to start again but Jorge and I started watching Orange is the New Black while our kids were gone so…yeah. You can say it took precedence =\.

Jorge and I finally had a date night on Wednesday. I can’t really remember the last time we had a date night. We eat lunch together often, but we’re usually accompanied, so it doesn’t really count, heh. It was nice to spend time alone together and reflect on our day and talk about ourselves and just everything. The food was pretty darn good, too.

We didn’t have dessert there. Instead we went to House.Wine just to have the Banoffee ^_^. It was a pretty great night :).

Thursday was a pretty easy day at work and I got to take Friday off. I made the most of it, cleaning a little, making myself breakfast and lunch and I finally decided I was going to plant a succulent garden! So I went to Home Depot and picked up these babies:

It was a lot of work to find the perfect pot and to get them just right in the pot, and even then I left a few spaces in the pot bald =\. But it was so satisfying to see it come together and it brought such a huge change to my patio table!

I hope they thrive! I check on them all the time and I even added new cactus soil to my old ones on my windowsill ^_^.

I’m reading up about propagating them and have a few started up already, most of which happened on their own.

Sally and I finally got a chance to meet up on Saturday :). We tried having brunch at Birdie’s but that didn’t work out very well so we ended up at Los Cazadores. We had a nice long catch-up chat; it was therapeutic!

We went to Marshall’s next and browsed and then I dropped her off and came home to be picked up by Jorge, Jr. and their cousin Joey and his wife, who are in town for a while. We went to Cheddar’s for afternoon drinks and this was the continuation of my bad eating (had scrambled yellow eggs, bacon and a pancake at Los Cazadores, then spinach artichoke dip and chips and a Maui Margarita at Cheddar’s). We shared some stories and shared some laughs, it was nice. We headed to a Vape Shop for Jorge and then we tidied up at home since everyone was coming over to watch the UFC fight. I managed to stay awake most of the time, until we ordered pizza and I crashed out on the patio sofa LOL. Poor Jr. wasn’t far away, lounging as well since he was in pain from being diagnosed with gout =\.

Father’s Day was the next day and my babies came home early that morning. They brought me some gifts <3. [caption id="attachment_2247" align="aligncenter" width="253"] Cheshire cat cup and Ariel blouse![/caption]

We all settled inside and I started making breakfast. Took Jorge some breakfast in bed and asked what he wanted to do. He said: nothing. Just stay home and relax and do nothing. We obliged :). Well, until we had to go get a few groceries LOL.

We had the traditional botana from Espi’s and watched movies with the kids. It was a really low-key day, just like he wanted :).

We had a lunch date yesterday at Kumori. We hadn’t been there in a LONG time!! I missed the miso soup and the jalapeño firecracker. MMMmmm.

We took my truck in to the shop since the air conditioning in the back of the truck stopped working so I picked my love up after work. We did some MORE grocery shopping and we got home to find out poor Emmos didn’t feel well. Needless to say, she had a terrible fever around midnight and I had her sleep with us since fevers at night terrify me. That’s always when they get so much worse. So I held her and gave her medicine and water and took her to pee and refreshed the washcloth on her forehead. We woke up, took Jorge to work and I took her to the doctor. She had a throat infection and the ear infection started as soon as we got home. Since I was already in the office, I got another cholesterol lab done. I was hoping I’d be eating well and exercising–the way I had originally planned so I could get off the pill completely, but I ate like crap all weekend =\. I wouldn’t doubt I still have to be on the darn thing :*(.

My Emmos had fever on and off all day, but she was in good spirits and I’m hoping the fever finally subsided. The only bad thing is, now she’s really feeling the sore throat. I cleaned up since I was home and the boys helped me with the lawn. Made dinner and now I’m beat and ready for bed. Hoping for a much better day all around tomorrow :).

You know how I mentioned that the kids and I didn’t have to go anywhere on Monday since they had Spring Break and I had gotten 2 days off?

Yeah. That didn’t happen.

Jorge has the house automated, which is a beautiful thing when I have to wake up at 6am every morning. The accent lighting under the bed turns on, the air conditioning turns off (since I absolutely despise feeling cold in the morning), the lights slowly turn on (from 20% to 50% in 10 minutes), as does music over the speakers. Meanwhile the TV turns on to channel 5 news in the bathroom. It’s perfect.

But I didn’t have to wake up at 6am Monday morning, so I had to wake up and turn everything off from my phone. No biggie. Then Jorge’s alarm for work goes off at 7:00. Then 7:15. Then 7:30. I crash out when I make sure he’s awake and getting ready and am briefly awakened when he kisses me before he leaves.

Then my boss calls at 8:15am to ask where some documents are. Then John texts me at 8:30 about going car shopping (his car’s transmission had died on him the week before). Then Gerry begins to text about some linens I had in my car that needed to be taken to the cleaners and could I go drop them off? FML.

We’d stayed up late with the kids the night before and I figured they’d sleep late anyway so I, somewhat reluctantly, decided I’d just get up and get ready to pick John up and go to the place Briana had just bought her car at last Saturday.

But first: he treated me to breakfast!

All was forgiven!

(Not really, but it subdued my morning “Snickers Moment” ^_^.)

So we went on to the place Briana went, and to make a long story short: John has no credit. 0 And because of this, he was presented with a 2004 who-knows-what, with peeling leather seats and dents all over the place. Oh yes, and they wanted $3,000 down. WTF.

So we scratched that and John immediately shut down and wanted to forget the whole thing. I told him Jorge’s friends, the ones who hooked us up with our vehicles, could help. I asked Jorge to call them and he did. They told us to go right over but John was unsure. So while he debated I stopped by Hidden Treasures, hehe.

Minnie, the owner, and I reminisced about the kids and how long I’ve been stopping by her store. I don’t stop by as often as I’d like, but I do at least twice a year. And I also snapped this pic:

How true is that? I picked up a Strawberry Shortcake rag doll (even though I already have one, heh) but you couldn’t beat the price. I also found a $2 Glow Worm that still had the battery compartment. Jorge IMMEDIATELY claimed it as his that evening ^_^.

We went home to make sure the kids were fed and so I could snuggle the girls for a while. They weren’t falling apart without me, though. They were having fun on their iPads and sprawled all over the living room. We chilled out for a while until John FINALLY made up his mind. We ate lunch, and I once again unwillingly got ready to go. I half-jokingly jabbed at John that he was ruining my day off.

We dropped the stupid linens off at my work and then we left to the dealership. We got to Weslaco, in the ugly, drizzly rain. To make another long story short (a story about 4+ hours long), John saw some cars, we spoke to RG and Ringo, they ran some numbers, we sat for a long time, John almost lost his shit because he was second-guessing EVERYTHING, I almost lost my shit because John was losing his shit, they got him the car he wanted, he was on the phone with insurance companies forever and FINALLY: he drove off in his new Dart. He kept it in the Dodge family LOL.

After dinner, the girls had a tea party:

Jorge, Justin, Jaylen and Eenan were in the background ^_^. Jorgie snuck in and I snapped a pic. Justin got away LOL

Jorge and Jorgie, Jaylen and Justin went to pick up a game at midnight at Game Stop, while Eenan played on his computer and the girls and I lazied around on the couch. I love how he’s all into these things with the kids :).

I spent the next day at home, at least, but I spent a lot of it cleaning and doing everything I didn’t do during the weekend, like laundry (grr).

I spent time playing Candy Land with the girls, then Jenga and then they got bored and abandoned me LOL. Later on I got the kids in on cleaning. Jorge was impressed when he got home :).

The weather was better so I planned to take the kiddos to the park, but there was 6 of them and one of me and the last thing I needed was an accident to happen *shudder*. Hate the thought. It’s not like the boys wanted to move anyway: they were too enthralled in their new game.

I taught Eenan how to use the skillet to make over-easy eggs and I made lunch for everyone else:

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out. It was back to work for me the next day and the kids would be leaving with Mario for the rest of the week after we got out of work. We split their “holiday” like we usually do. I just wish I’d gotten to spend more time with them =\.

It was a day of “catch up” for me at work. I had tons of bills to process and turn in for my department and they were due that day. Thankfully I’d already gotten everything started on Friday before I left. I got to meet my love for lunch at Tacos Kissi (LOVE that place! Became one of my faves!) and Marco and Jessica joined us. I ran some errands for work and the day went by pretty fast. I rushed home so I could get see the kids and make sure they had their things ready. Mary was already here waiting, grr.

So I made dinner for Jorge, Mom and I, which was garlic parmesan chicken, roasted broccoli and some guac. Javi and Eric stopped by with a gift for Jorge and I:

It was great! The pickles, candy and drink itself were so good. I didn’t eat the shrimpies (watching the cholesterol still), but it had TONS of shrimpies.

The guys hung out a while and they had dinner. They were already planning to go get tacos, but I guilt-tripped them into eating the plates I’d saved for them since they kept complaining they were hungry LOL. They cleaned their plates ^_^.

My boss was out on Thursday and it was sort of a slow day. I ran some errands for our bossboss and then it was time for lunch with my love. We went to Roosevelt’s this time. We finally made a date to go there! I haven’t had many opportunities to hang out with my love for lunch since I pick up my Emmos, so it’s really nice when we can go :).

I probably shouldn’t have had this meal, but it’s one of my faves. And I didn’t feel like having salmon or grilled chicken again =\.

Went back to work and cleaned my desk and some files. That took quite a while since I’d been sort of ignoring my mess, heh. My love wanted to look for some shoes for work and I wanted to get a price adjustment on 2 pairs of pants I’d bought for work at Old Navy, so I picked him up and we went. I got a whopping $30 back from my price adjustment, which was awesome. Jorge was impressed and so was the cashier, who had no idea LOL. I remember from my Old Navy days from 2000-2001 heh.

We went to Macy’s and my love had no luck finding shoes. They had a very small selection. So we picked up Jorge’s car and we came home. He and the boys had food I couldn’t eat for dinner, so I was satisfied with some multi-grain Cheerios. And then I passed out LOL.

I picked up some coffee and oatmeal for myself at McDonald’s the next morning since I was in a hurry to get to work. Laura, Ms. Thelma and I were going shopping for materials at Hobby Lobby for Latina.Hope. I was super excited. We got to go shopping and not spend our own money, woo!

Well. I still bought some crocheted lace for some straps I need to replace on a sundress and a display for my bracelets. (I had to put it in my closet ’cause Kika and Ruffles would knock it into the sink with my luck.)

I spent the rest of the morning organizing my charm bracelet supplies, typing up a tutorial and then it was lunch time. As much as my job stresses me out sometimes, some days are just AWESOME.

I met my love at Espi’s this time, where I had some chalupas. Probably could have done without the tortilla, but I’ve been doing alright.

I headed over to the antique shop next door where the owner and I got into a long-winded conversation about 80s toys and so on. He has my contact info just in case he gets anything in, woo!

I went grocery shopping after work (ugh) but it had to be done. I served Jorge and Justin some dinner when I got home and we chit chatted about their day before their mom got there. Jorge was home before she got here (of course) so he at least got to see the boys for a while.

We freshened up, as we actually made plans to do something on a Friday night, heh. Junior called us right before we left and asked us to go over since he had a surprise for us. We had no idea what he was talking about, but we’d be there right after dinner.

We met Esmer and Robert at Beef’s. It was nice catching up and talking about everything with them. They reminisced about their times at work together and then we got into how our past marriages exploded in our face and how Jorge and I ended up together. We’ve hung out many times before, but we’d never really gotten into talking about WHY it all happened. It was…therapeutic to vent about it all. I need actual therapy to forgive and forget I think, LOL.

So we ate (I had blackened fish, broccoli and rice and I have to say it was great!) and then we said our ‘see you laters’. We went to Tony’s afterwards. Our surprise was Rick!! We hadn’t seen him since he left back in 2011! The old Shack-mates (except for Billy and Roly) were back together again. We had another reminisce-fest and just had a great time singing, laughing, dancing and taking photos. Rick told us tons of times how glad he was that we ended up together and that we’re perfect for each other and compliment each other. I got teary several times, heh. I love those people!

Javi joined us later. It was the latest we’ve stayed out in probably 3 years LOL. It was so much fun!

Poor Jorge had to work in the morning but he was so tired he called his guys and pushed their schedule to 10am LOL. I’m glad he can do that. I made sure he woke up and then I passed out till…noon. I know. I NEVER sleep that late!!

I ate some cereal and chit-chatted with Mom. I went to my room to have my coffee and lazy in my PJ’s. Of course I started cleaning and forgot about my coffee for a while. I did some minor sprucing up to my 80’s page and I realized I wasted about 2 hours doing that LOL. I was inspired after receiving 2 packages:

I’m still missing 2 Fluppy Puppies (I had no idea until recently!) and these Nosy Bears are 2 of the rarer ones that I got for a bargain.

I got dressed and Mom and I visited Gramma for a while. She’s doing good, thank goodness. I love that little lady. I seriously need to make more time to see her. I feel crappy that I don’t sometimes :*(.

I got home and made some amazing fish tacos, if I do say so myself ^_^. I tried a new avocado-cabbage slaw. Both Mom and Jorge loved them.

We had told the guys we were going to go out to Hillbilly’s tonight, but Rick was recovering, Jorge took a nap, Javi’s out at a fight, Jr. is out with friends and so on. I spoke with the kiddos and since then I’ve been typing this up, watched and won an auction for Lisa on eBay, watched shows on DIY Network and once Jorge woke up we watched cat videos, more home improvement shows and have been on our respective electronics. And we’re ok with that, hehe. It’s been a pretty darn good week. Can’t wait to see my babies!