Category: Family

I’d been doing a little better at updating and there I went and let tons of days pass by again. Grr.

So Mario ended up working on Friday, since he had Christmas Day off and was going to have Monday off, too. It was a pretty darn boring day; I spent most of it freaking out over how fast January’s going to go by.

Saturday – Woke up with a sore throat because I brilliantly had the fan on when it was in the 40’s during the night. (My hot flashes could care less how cold it really is outside.) We spent the day chilling out and I felt great until around 2pm. Out of nowhere I started getting horrible pains in my lower abdomen that were coming every 3-5 minutes apart. John was freaking out; he could tell just how uncomfortable I was. He told me to call Mario but I told him no, I didn’t want to bother him when it was probably just Braxton Hicks contractions and I need to drink more water since I was probably dehydrated. John said the baby was probably thinking, “This place is getting really small…the water’s getting really low…I’m starting to see a light…” and that maybe I REALLY SHOULD call Mario.

Mary invited us to the movies. I almost didn’t want to go, but I took a shower hoping I’d feel better. I still felt uncomfortable, but went to movies anyway.

We watched Night at the Museum. It was really cute; totally going to buy it on DVD when it comes out. Eenan said it was “Hilarious!” and both boys laughed the whole time. Halfway through the movie, my belly didn’t hurt anymore, even after eating pickle, dipping popcorn into nacho cheese and drinking a small Coke.

Almost immediately after I got up from my seat when the movie was over, I got a horrible, stabbing pain in my back. It felt like a pinched nerve and felt terrible with every step I took. I could barely walk to the car.

Mary decided to pick up pizzas for dinner from Pizza hut. Since Jose and Elda were picking up pizzas from the same place and were already done when we got there, Mary suggested I come home with them, Jorge, Sammy, Brandon and Angela to rest for a little bit. Jaylen and Eenan stayed with Mary, Noelia and Yazmin. (Mary later told me Jaylen said, “Take care of yourself and Alaethia, Mom!” Aww!)

After laying on the couch for a while (and feeling insanely bored and alone), I went to Mary’s to eat some pizza. I didn’t have much of an appetite. Mario got here a little later and we all sat around and talked since everyone was here for dinner.

Eenan had four loose teeth. The bottom adult teeth already came in behind his baby ones and the top ones started doing the same thing. Their dentist told me the bottom ones were fine; they’d eventually be pushed out, but if the top ones did that they’d have to remove them. Of course I was praying his teeth would fall out soon.

I got my wish that night. The kids were all playing in the living room and Eenan somehow got a tooth knocked out by accident. After cleaning him up and lecturing him about how they all shouldn’t be so rough, he went back to play and got the other one loosened, too! I got his little “Tooth Fairy Pillow”, which you can hang from a doorknob or bed post and has a pocket just for the tooth out of my closet. Noelia bought him that little pillow when he was around 1 or 2 :). He was sleeping over at Mary’s so he was a little nervous that the Tooth Fairy wouldn’t find him, but we reassured him that all teeth have little invisible tracking devices and the Tooth Fairy would certainly find him ;). I also told him that I was going to leave a note for the Tooth Fairy asking to leave me a “copy” of his tooth, since I wanted to keep a memory of it :).

He was really happy that the Tooth Fairy gave him $5. I think it would have been $10, except the Tooth Fairy didn’t have any change, heh.

Mario and I stayed up watching The Devil Wears Prada. It was 1am by the time we went to sleep.

Sunday – The boys stayed with mom the next afternoon while Noelia, Mary and I went to get ribbon, candles and stuff for my babyshower and some stuff for Noelia’s wedding. We came home, worked on invitations, then went back to Wal-Mart a few hours later for ribbon and shrimp cocktail stuff, since that’s what we were having for dinner. We made a stop at H-E-B for Clamato, one of the ingredients, since Wal-Mart was completely out. We picked up Bonnie and got home around 6. Mario was already here when we arrived since he was let out 15 minutes early. His tummy was upset so he chilled out at our house for a while.

Jose, Elda and Mary made shrimp cocktail and I made cheese dip (ground beef, Rotel, Velveeta all melted and delicious together). Everything was yummy. We went out at 9pm to pop fireworks. Mario and Jose popped the big, dangerous ones and Brandon, Sammy, Eenan and Jaylen watched and enjoyed sparklers and poppers. Mary came out for a few moments since she was watching Bonnie but Elda, Mom and I stayed out the whole time and took pictures. I won’t even bother posting them to Flickr since they suck ’cause it was dark.

It was freezing outside. My nose started running and I got worse by the hour. Everyone cleaned up (except me. I can’t bend anymore!) and we came back inside to chill for a while. We went back out at 11:55 to see all the huge fireworks the neighbors like to get and hug eachother and call people (which didn’t work out for most of us since the phone lines were backed up). We had to quickly go back inside since crazy people started shooting their guns. We do live in the boonies, afterall.

Monday – I had a horrible night’s sleep. Peed like, 5 times, and the other times I woke up I was coughing because of my itchy throat. Since Mario wasn’t working, we thought, “Yes, at least we can sleep in!” but that didn’t happen. We woke up at 9am to Big Mario blasting rancheras and Tejano music from his radio in his carport/workshop, which just so happens to be a few feet away from our bedroom. We laid there, wide-eyed and annoyed. Mario kept talking about how he couldn’t wait to start building a house–he was in a terrible mood. He told the boys and me to have breakfast and get ready so we could leave somewhere, anywhere. He got impatient and left on a drive somewhere. We were ready by 11:30, which is when he got back and says, “You know, I don’t feel like going anywhere anymore.” Grr. I hate when he does that.

We chilled out at Mary’s with everyone. Mario pissed me off during lunchtime because he didn’t give me shrimp cocktail. He had a HUGE bowl that I new he wasn’t going to finish (and didn’t) and drowned it in hotsauce after I told him I couldn’t eat it that way. He insisted I could and said he’d get me a bowl, but I told him no thanks. Later on I found out there was more and he knew about it, but he still didn’t give me any. I decided to suck it up and just ate deer soup my dad-in-law had made. It was pretty good anyway. *hiss*

We’d made plans to go to the movies at 4:55, but since nobody else never confirmed plans and my mom-in-law got busy we decided to go for the 7:15 showing instead.

Since nobody was sure they were going to even go, we decided to go to a taqueria called “El Primito” we like to go to. Eenan didn’t want to go, which kind of upset me but, fine, we let him stay. Jaylen went with us. We get there, and they’re closed. Talk about nothing going our way. We quickly start getting annoyed.

We can’t decide where to eat; Mario doesn’t like my suggestions but won’t make any suggestions himself. Everyone decided to go to the movies after all, so as a last resort we decided we’d go, too. Finally, something would go right. We went to check out the movies but Mario had a fit since they didn’t have a poster for The Marine and he didn’t want to watch anything else. He starts driving back home.

On the way, he makes me even more upset about something stupid like not thinking of a restaurant to go to, so I bawl my eyes out since I’m so darn emotional after all the little things that go to me throughout the day. We get home and I sit here, trying to stop feeling like crap. After 20 minutes he asks Jaylen if he wants something from Star’s. Jaylen says yes, corndogs. He asks me if I want anything. I hate Star’s right now since everything they make gives me heartburn, but I decide on a burrito supreme and some munchers. He gets back and we’re quiet, but peaceful. We eventually started making small talk and then he started playing around with me, which is his usually way of appologizing.

I got a text message from Sally and called her right back. My phone’s a PDA and does almost everything but the damn thing doesn’t allow me to text message, piece of crap. We decide to get together the next day for lunch. It would totally do me some good to chat with a friend and I’m super excited to get out of the house since Mario usually has the truck now that the kids are at home and John borrows the Sentra for work.

I was too emotionally and physically tired to clean that night, or even take a shower, so I leave it for the next morning.

Tuesday – I get Mario up and ready for work then haul ass cleaning like never before. Where I got all that energy from is beyond me. I washed the pile of dishes that had shamefully accumulated since Friday since we’re always at Mary’s since family’s over almost every night. It took half an hour to wash a sink-ful of dishes, and that’s a record. I’m a total snail when it comes to washing dishes.

I thought Sally would get here at 10am, but she was running late and would get here at 12 instead. I was sort of relieved that she’d get here a little later–it would give me time to finish up and shower!

Eenan vacummed and Jaylen took toys they’d left in the living room to their bedroom. I cleaned the turtle tank while Mom swept for me. I got the tank clean and turtles fed and mom refilled the tank with water while I quickly took a shower. Didn’t have a chance to blowdry or flat-iron my hair, but at least I was clean :). Thank God for the extra help!

Sally gets here and she talks and catches up a bit with my mom and the boys. Mom watches them while we go to Chilli’s. We spoke about every single subject we could think of.

That’s what I’ve always loved about that girl: we can be apart for years but when we meet up again it’s like we’d been talking the whole time. We had some great food (which she refused to let me help pay for!) and even better talk. Our old friend Magda married another childhood friend of ours, Steve, which I find totally adorable and just…wow! I love to hear about stuff like that. Like when I heard about Johanna and Ralph? Totally unexpected! They knew eachother since they were little and ended up married. That’s just so awesome!

Sally vented to me about her current situation and then she listened to me vent about ours; my thoughts of the future and so on. Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately. We talked about Vero, too. I wish I could see her and catch up. And with everyone else, too!

I’m hoping, hoping, hoping we can meet up again next week. It was great catching up. I’m definitely going to need my friends after I have Alaethia, especially if it’s going to be like the last two times when I had mild Post Partum Depression. Only it was really crappy after having Jaylen since I really didn’t talk to any of my friends anymore. That’s one of my New Years Resolutions for this year: make more time for my friends!

Later in the evening, Mom, Jaylen and I stopped by Stripes (formerly Circle K) and got Mario an orange juice (his throat’s botherin him now, too) and some donuts and a Yoohoo, Kool-aide drink and donuts for Jaylen and I. We dropped them off to Mario and then went to Target, where Mom wanted to get Alaethia some things off of my Registry.

Not only was traffic total hell, but just about every-single-thing I put on my Registry is on clearance! It totally sucks. I’m probably not even going to get her the Womb Sounds Bear since they totally ran out at that Target. It’s listed at $4.98!! It used to be $19.99. I’d LOVE IT if I could find it for that price at another Target. Too bad Mario has the truck :(.

It took about an hour or so to find everything she wanted to get, plus marking everything on the list so the cashier could “remove” them from the Registry. Since they added that stupid median on McColl and there’s no way to easily get to the other shopping center, I had to go all around the damn block to get to Pet Smart. I had a horrible, throbbing pain in my back when we got in the truck, probably for standing and walking so long. I could barely move!

Jaylen remembered we promised him a Beta but I told him we’d wait till Friday, so we could get everything his fish would need since we were in a hurry. Mom offered to buy him the fish, so he got a blue Beta. They were sold out of Beta tanks completely since Christmas but the girl said we could keep him in the little cup we bought him in for a while since it’s all the space he needs. The girl cleaned out his little “tank” and told us which food and water conditioner to get him and we were set. We got baby crickets, since they were sold out of large ones if you can believe that, and finally came home.

Jaylen was infatuated with his fish and was showing him off to everyone. He was so happy and proud he quickly came to find the perfect spot for him. He decided Blastoise would be his name and he would reside on his desk. Aww :).

We ate lasagna at Mary’s and Mario got home a while after. We chilled out with everyone and then came home to bathe the boys. Eenan wanted to sleep over at Mary’s and was excited that the Tooth Fairy would be visiting him again. Earlier during the day before Sally came over, he somehow turned the loose tooth backwards. I told him to let me gently pull it, but he said he’d rather the doctor do it. After telling him the doctor would charge us $200 just to pull the tooth away from the tiny bit of gum that was stuck to it, he let me do it. It came off right away and he started making plans to buy a game, or a toy LOL.

Mario and I stayed up watching The Family Stone, which could easily be one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. Both of us got teary-eyed near the end and just sat there with my head on his shoulder and his head on mine. We went to sleep when the movie was done and I told him how lucky I was to have him and he said the same about me. I told him my concerns about the future; what I want and how maybe I shouldn’t be in such a hurry for Alaethia to grow up so I can work since I’ll definitely regret it once she does start growing up, just like I mourn the kids’ babyhood.

This will be a good year, I just know it. It will be if we make it one.

(Alaethia’s got hiccups again :).)

So much has been going on I don’t even know where to start. Work from Thursday on was okay. Doing the same things over and over again (like filing–bleh) but at least I’ve learned how to take payments without help and I’m getting better and better at closing at the end of the day. The “box” would have come out perfectly today had there not been a discrepancy that wasn’t at all my, or Emma or Eliza’s, doing.

Aunt Nora and I ate lunch together Thursday and Friday. We did a “mall run”, which is something Aunt Nora likes to do often, and then ate back at the office. I got 4 pretty necklaces to go with my outfits on Friday, 3 of which were on sale at JC Penny.

Mary, Noelia and Jorge got here Friday and we all got together that night and talked. Tia Alicia, Amelia, and Aurora stopped by also.

I went to work on Saturday. It went by surprisingly fast. An hour went by where the girls (Emma and Eliza) were giving me a mini makeover and another hour where a lady had her daughter dancing for us like Shakira. We meet some interesting people there LOL.

I met Mario for lunch after work. We ate at Taco Bell and then stopped at H-E-B for something important. He drove back to work, gave me a kiss and told me to call him as soon as I found out. I got home and took that special something and this was the result:

Yep. I’m preggers :). You can barely tell in the picture that the second window’s a plus sign, and at first I thought, “Nah, I’m not pregnant”, but the pamphlet said it didn’t matter how light the plus sign is as long as it’s there. Mario and I’d been trying since the end of March following the ovulation cycle tracker Mrs. C-R. taught me, and well, it seems to have worked :). I was so thrilled, and scared at the same time as I just started working and I knew, just knew there were going to be a few rotten apples in the bunch who had to put in their unwanted 2 cents. I won’t lie, I was shitting bricks when I started having the symptoms that I was pregnant (sore boobs, nausea, hungry every 2 hours, etc.)–I don’t know how I’m going to do it to get insurance since my job doesn’t offer it. I was going to apply at another job, much closer to home even, but I get out too late and basically can’t do anything, not even go to the doctor since they close at 5:30 and it takes me 30 minutes to get to the doctor’s office. When I started having a nervous breakdown on Friday night during my shower, Mario’s the one who reassured me that everything would be fine, and he had this goofy grin on his face and said, “Get a test tomorrow, I want to find out.”

Later on that night he hugged me and said, “It might be baby time!” I don’t know if he was really that excited or if he was just trying to make me feel better, but if it was the latter, it worked. I can’t express how much he means to me.

So yeah, I’m pregnant! I still can’t believe it! I really want to be thrilled about this pregnancy so I’m hoping God will lead me to do what I need to do. I’ve got so many things running through my head right now I can’t even enjoy being pregnant. Then there’s those people who think I care what their opinion is saying things like, “You should have waited!” I think my husband and I are adult enough to plan our own lives, thankyouverymuch, and yes, I may be having this insurance dilemma, but I assure you I’ll figure it out. I always do. I’m even keeping this hidden from my collegues for now. Not until I figure out what I’m going to do.

Oh, and Eenan had his awards ceremony at school today and he got a trophy for perfect attendance all year and a medal for A & B honor roll. I’m so thrilled for him :). He’s adorable 🙂

Jaylen’s busy learning his alphabet and is just thrilled about his new brother or sister. Both of them were so happy when I told them on Saturday. They’re both wishing for their sister :).

It’s 7, so I gotta get on the ball and figure out what I’m making for dinner. There’s leftover lasagna from the dinner I made for the whole family yesterday (yes, even more stress, but Mario helped me so everything came out alright) but nah, I’ll make something else.

Man, I feel like I’m getting hot flashes .

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Hamburger Helper is surely to become my best friend. I like not having to actually think of what to make for dinner–just tossing everything from a box into a pan (with water, milk, and cooked beef of course). That’s why I have like .5 seconds to actually update.

Wow, this American Idol finale is pretty darn cool. I love the songs they’ve been singing and they’ve had some big stars singing. All the contestants that got voted off sang so nicely. I love how Katherine and Taylor sing–I wonder who’s going to win??

Anyway, I’m learning more and more at work–thank God I can say that and not that I’m a total failure. I was already giving up on myself yesterday since I got kind of nervous thinking they were expecting me to do everything by the 3rd day. I was also starting to feel like I was intruding and being a pest to Emma and Eliza, but Eliza assured me today that I’m doing great and they’re not tired of me LOL. When I got home yesterday John told me his car’s messing up again and Mom told me they found a lump in her breast according to her mammogram. Her doctor says he’s not too worried about it. I’m praying that it’s nothing bad, too.

I already have a meeting to go to next Wednesday at 9a.m. I was nervous since I thought I was going to have to go on my own all the way to Edinburg, but Mr. Y. asked Eliza if she’d accompany me and she said yes, yay!

We found out during a conversation we were having that we’re both 24 and we both graduated a year early and then had our babies. Aww. I sort of figured she was around my age. It’s pretty cool to have things in common.

Work seems to fly by–when I’m busy. There was a span of about 30 minutes where I really wasn’t doing anything and time felt like it just slivered like molasses. But yeah, once lunch gets there it’s all cake after that. I went to eat lunch with Aunt Nora and her friend (that also works there) today. We ate at Lotus–love that place :). I had fun listening to Aunt Nora and Lisa talk and make jokes. I didn’t feel awkward at all :).

I closed the “book” again today. I’m getting the hang of it, even though I had a few questions here and there. I’m so glad that Emma and Eliza are so patient–I think I would have yelled at me to be quiet by now LOL. But I have to give myself some credit, too. I think I’m doing pretty good.

OH MY GOSH, TAYLOR WONNNN!! That’s so cool. I think both of them will have good careers, though. Now that I look at him closely, Taylor’s kind of handsome with that salt-n-pepper hair, heh. My God, they’re going to set him on fire with all those pyrotechnics!

Anyway, I went to the mall to get John’s gift from Mom after work (it’s his 19th birthday!), so I got home late and am barely eating dinner. I didn’t even get to offer my father-in-law food since he’s already in bed. He eats really early. Getting home late kind of messed up my routine…funny how after only two days I already developed a routine. Get up at 6a.m., leave to work, get there at 7:45, work, lunch is from around 11-1p.m., work, get out of work at 5:30 (they like to leave right on time, yay!), get home around 6, relax and spend time with the kids for about an hour. Start making dinner at 7 and get the boys in the shower, get the boys out around 7:30, eat at 8p.m., iron at 8:30, get the kids in bed and take a shower around 9, get out around 9:15 (I’ve learned how to take quick showers!), spend time with Mario and then go to bed at around 10:30-10:45.

So that means that I’m behind schedule. Goody! Time to rush. Mario’s barely getting home so I’m probably not going to spend that much time with him. I can’t wait till my day off on Monday.

I love this! I already get an extra day off. AND I get paid EVERY Tuesday!

Okay, now I’m really going to iron, I swear.

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