Category: Family

Thank you to all who gave me suggestions for presentations; I really appreciated the comments .

I decided on doing my presentation on MRSA (or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus), which is the bacterial infection Jaylen had gotten around the time he was 2. I didn’t have a chance to work on my PowerPoint at all during the weekend, but I got it started on Monday at school and finished by the first hour on Tuesday. I really wasn’t nervous about presenting since I had everything memorized. What I was nervous about were the people Mrs. C-R was going to bring in to critique us.

I went to bed super early on Friday night. I was exhausted. Mario got home really late since he was working with his friend so I didn’t even get to see him.

Saturday morning was spent helping Elda and Mary get the “haunted house” ready for that night. After a few hours of hot-gluing spiders and bugs to plastic champagne glasses and passing hanging bats and spiders to Elda, who was nailing them to the ceiling, we left for town. Mom got me a costume (“Moonlight Fairy”) at Party Universe and Mary picked up a few more decorations there. We went to Mom’s storage unit to look for her witch costume but only found her broom and hat. I felt miserable that she’d bought me a costume and she wasn’t going to wear one, so I fixed up a hooded black gown that Elda had brought for me to borrow. I cut the hood off, sewed some spider web printed lace onto the collar and added a few wisps of hanging tulle to match her hat. I was relieved when I showed it to her and she loved it .

We stopped by H-E-B and picked up some baking supplies and headed home. At 5 p.m. I started getting my boys into their costumes for the Jamaica (fall festival) they were having at Eenan’s school. I got Angela’s face paint done (she was a dead cheerleader) and after Jaylen threw a fit that he didn’t want to be in his Ninja Turtle costume, we (Mom, Brandon, Eenan, Jaylen, Angela and I) left at almost 6:30.

That’s Jaylen (without his costume) and eating his nachos. Eenan and Brandon won a 3-liter and 1-liter soda (respectively) when they played a ring toss game. We got all the kids nachos and raspas and that’s basically all we did. We got home at 7:30, dropped the kids off, picked Ricci and her girls up (her cousin, Alex, and new boyfriend, Goyo, brought her sister and cousin), and when we got home I was greeted by everyone rushing me to get ready since they were ready to let the kids into the haunted house. I didn’t get to take a shower, shave my legs (and boy did they need shaving!), curl my hair, put makeup or my glitter on—nothing! All I did was put my dress and wings on and that’s it.

Ricci’s costume was cute. (Gotta remember to ask for permission to post the pic I took of her). She was dressed as a Mexican character named Chupitos, which was hobo-like. She had a bottle of Presidente and everything . She dressed Rashelle as Chucky and Belinda as a little bumble bee.

We went around the haunted house and everything was just really fun. The kids had a blast. I think I saw them about 5 times the whole night since they were too busy playing with their cousins.

Mario got here after work and we all chilled out with the rest of the family. He was a bit upset he couldn’t be there since the beginning, but thankfully almost everyone stayed a little later just to chat with him for a while.

After I dropped Ricci and the girls off at home, Mario and I picked up some McDonald’s and stayed up talking with Jose, Elda, and Chris. We didn’t go to bed till 2am! Latest I’ve gone to sleep since I started school.

We slept in pretty late since Mario doesn’t go in till 12 on the Sundays he works. Too bad I sent my poor husband off an hour earlier than I should have. That’s right, I forgot to change the clock back an hour .

Mary, Mom and I went to Mexico to get candies and medications. After that we went to Joy Dollar real quick, and then to the mall’s food court to grab some lunch. When we were done eating, we got up and started walking towards JCPenny and I saw a familiar face. I met Johanna! I’d never met anyone I knew online so it was pretty cool. Her little boy is adorable !

We went to JCPenny where I took about an hour and a half to find my “professional” outfit. I ended up having to chop off and sew about 5 inches off the darn pants, but I did a pretty good job. I’d post the pic I took up, but a lot of my classmates are in it and I’m not sure how they’d feel about me posting it on the ‘net .

We went to El Centro Mall where we were meeting Elda and Brandon. There, I found a really cool and inexpensive shoe store and bought the cutest shoes for my outfit. We went to the movies to watch The Brothers Grimm, or whatever it’s called for the second time. I wasn’t paying much attention to the movie and all I could think about was how the boys were at home with John and I’d been out all day and really missed them. Funny how you desperately want a break and all you can think about is them when you finally get one.

Monday and Tuesday were spent worrying about our presentations. Monday’s also the day mom went home *sniff*. Ricci came over and worked on hers both days. Elda and I took the boys trick-or-treating (all except Jaylen, who fell asleep while he was in his costume and didn’t go ). We took them to the Police Department, the Leo’s store and a whole bunch of houses, including Elda’s grandmother’s. That lady’s house is immaculate! The neighborhoods over there were all nicely decorated and almost every single house was giving out candy. Our neighborhood? Almost everyone turns their lights off. Rudeness!

We got home, and we had Brains, which were red Jello in the champagne glasses we’d decorated. Jaylen didn’t get to go trick-or-treating, but Eenan split a little of his candy treasure with him . John also dressed up for the occasion. He was half Freddy Crouger (sp?), half werewolf.

Eenan wanted to sleep over at Mary’s that night and then we dropped Ricci off and the rest of us (Jaylen, Mario and I) went to Jorge and Maggie’s. On the way over there it stormed horribly. I kept closing my eyes in the passenger seat since I was terrified. Jaylen on the other hand was having a blast looking at the blinding lightning. .

We got there and ate some of the bar-be-que Jorge and Hiram got to cook before the storm came. We talked with the men out in the garage and then Maggie and I went in to talk chisme (gossip). I was really, really shocked by what she told me. I never expected that. I won’t go into it because it’s not my place but…she never should have allowed that. That’s all I’m going to say.

As for today: the presentations were all really cool. The girls told me I was one of the calmest and did a good job. They all did really well, too. We didn’t even have “people we didn’t know” in the class. I just hope we get really good grades. This is the first class I haven’t gotten a single 100 in! I love PowerPoint, but I’m just glad it’s all over. To celebrate, Mayra, Ricci and I ate at Taco Bell. Wish Lucy’d gone with us!

Ahh…I should start on dinner. I’ve really got to start updating more often.

A convo with John:

John: My poor car! It’s going to be winter and it’s going to be more fucked up! And YOU PEOPLE never looked at it.

Me: You people? I’m not a mechanic.

John: *pokes me in the back as I’m passing by* You look at it! You can fix computers, a car isn’t far from it! YOU FIX IT! FIX IT!!

(He really is that crazy.)

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I did indeed spend all of Friday pissed at Mario. He got home at 10 (not 2, as I’d assumed) that night, but I pretended I didn’t hear him get home. I was already half-asleep in bed with Jaylen (Eenan was watching Cartoon Network in the living room with John) and since I’d been reading all evening I was quickly becoming sleepy. I was civilized but still angry the next morning and even made a few sarcastic comments throughout breakfast that he quietly ignored.

I, uh, got a copy of Microsoft Office XP (which isn’t 2003, but it works) and worked on my Power Point presentation all day until I got it done. I’m actually pretty proud of it (and Mario saying it was interesting to him made me even happier with it). I tried forgetting about the day before since I was going to an engagement party with Mary and didn’t want to be in a bad mood. We didn’t stay long, since we were going to a mass dedicated to Anthony (Buddy) afterwards, but the time we spent there was nice. John stayed with the boys so we had a nice, relaxing time. We had some cream cheese loaf that had jalapeño and ham pressed on the outside–it was delicious. We had tiny, triangle-shaped sandwiches, too. The roast beef ones were to die for. I even tried wine, White Merlot, for the first time ever, and I have to admit I didn’t like it at all. If all wine tastes like that, there goes my little fantasy of eating at an expensive restaurant with Mario and feeling all fancy with my wine glass. I wonder what champagne tastes like?

We met with Annie here at the house when we came home to pick Jaylen up (Eenan didn’t want to shower so he decided not to go) and then went to church. Jaylen was actually quite pleasant the first half hour since he was drawing on a little pad of paper, but after that–oh Lordy. He kept trying to run into the isle and kept talking exaggeratingly loud since everyone was so quiet. I was asking God to forgive me for having ill thoughts toward my child–that boy had me muttering profanities left and right. I was holding on to his arm trying to get him to sit still and he got loose! He screamed, “I’M FREEEE!”, and promptly ran down the isle. Mary and I quickly got up and took him outside. He was very silent and looking left and right since it was so dark out and we were telling him the Ware (Were?) Rabbit was out looking for little boys who didn’t behave in church.

When Mario got here we talked outside and were just fine until I brought up the whole “you’re-never-here” thing. He actually listened this time, though. We talked about everything and I just let it all out and I feel much better now. I just hope it stays this way and I really hope he makes the effort to spend time with us at least once in a while.

We had menudo at Mary’s today and then she treated us all to the movies. Mario and I watched Four Brothers (which was really, really good) and the kids and Mary watched Sky High. We grabbed some pizza afterwards, looked around Kohl’s (we finally have one here!), and then picked Mom up from work. This is the week she’ll be staying with us while Aunt Nora and Tio Arturo are in Las Vegas.

The children are rebelling again (they refuse to clean up the mess in the bedroom) and I need to do more laundry so I think this’ll do for now.

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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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