Category: Family

Positive attracts positive.

It’s one of the motto’s I’ve lived by my whole life. It’s one of the things Jorge says he’s always loved about me: my positive outlook on just about everything. However, in recent days, my optimism was wavering.

I don’t know if it was that I was PMS’ing and emotional (TMI?), that the mother of a good friend I’ve known since elementary passed away (she grew up with Mom), that I was stressed and overwhelmed at work, that Jorge and I are so busy all the time that we hardly have time to spend with each other, that I wasn’t feeling good about myself or if it was a combination of all of that, but it made me feel helpless and was putting me in a foul mood ALL. THE. TIME. I had to remind myself not to snap at Mom and Jorge over stupid things. I had to remind myself not to lose my patience with the girls when they were fighting with each other or climbing all over me for attention.

I told myself this Monday that I needed to snap the hell out of it and be positive!

-Issues with work would get better.
-I’d feel better about myself if I got off my ass and jogged again.
-Jorge and I needed to make it a point to spend time together. And just talk.
-I remembered to embrace the little things and be grateful for my life, my kids, my family.

And sure enough. I kept my positive outlook all day. Even when I got a text from Mario letting me know that there was a “mandatory” meeting regarding Eenan going to high school next year (I KNOW. OMG.) and it was THAT DAY AT 5. Which is when I get out of work. But I told myself at least I’d get to see the boys for a while. Then I had to get gas in the Routan and was 30 minutes late, but Mario was nice enough to give me a run-down of everything. I went to see the boys and they updated me about their day and we joked around a while. I got home and thank God for leftovers. Mom had already bathed and fed the girls for me, thank goodness!! I read them their stories, we played a game of Hide Hello Kitty and I put them to bed. Mom stayed up while Jorge and I went for a jog. We got to spend time together for 4 1/2 miles :).

I woke up energized and got ready for work and made some French Toast for all of us. Dropped off Alaethia, got to work, prepared stuff for meeting and my boss and I were on our way. I simultaneously felt optimistic and pessimistic, but I focused on the good. We left the meeting feeling inspired. I told myself, Good things are going to happen for me today!

And they did!

My event started picking up. I set up meetings for the next day. Had a free lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s. We got tickets to a free screening of Jack the Giant Slayer in 3D for Wednesday night, which meant spending time with my love :). I felt incredibly guilty going without the kids (I mean, GUILTY. A gut-wrenching, heart-wringing guilt), but I told myself it’s OK. I need to remind myself that it’s OK sometimes. It’s not like we’re out at bars while we’re supposed to be spending time with them or anything.

I got home and spent time with my little ladies. Made dinner. Did our nightly routine, put the girls in bed after we tidied up their bedroom and Jorge and I (quite reluctantly) changed to go jogging. It was FREEZING outside (well, for us. It was in the 50’s). They’re paving the road we jog on (FINALLY) but the smell of tar and the rocky, unpaved gaps were annoying. We only did 2 miles this time, but I’m glad we got off our butts for a while. We got home and caught up with one of our American Idol episodes. It was a great day!

I dropped off Alaethia at school the next morning and got to work. My meeting was pretty positive and then most of us from work attended the Mayor’s Prayer. The speaker was really inspiring and it was a nice ceremony. Not to mention the food was delicious. They served us a thick steak (which I only took 2 bites of since I have to be in the mood for steak. Such a waste!) and Chicken Cordon Bleu! And cheesecake :).

Got back to work, took care of some things and got more good news. My boss and I made some visits and got even more good news. I picked up Taco Bell for the girls after work, chilled out with them watching Disney and then my love got home. I reminded Mom of the nightly routine and she got the girls in the bath. Jorge and I left for the movies. It was packed, and we were a little lost, but we finally got to our seats and enjoyed the movie. It was much better than I ever expected. The boys are going to be so mad when they find out we went without them!

We drove around McAllen looking for a place to eat. All the good, non-fast food places closed at 10, which was when the movie ended. After 40 minutes of driving for nothing, we ended up at HEB where we got some sushi and beer. Now, anyone who knows me, knows I HATE beer. But I’d had this raspberry beer (the one on the left in the photo) at Roosevelt’s and I actually liked it and just so happened to find it at HEB. Who’da thought?!

My day went buy fast today. There was a meeting so I sorta helped with that. Went to HEB with Michelle to help her with some supplies she needed for an event tonight. We always find great deals when we go, heh. This time they had Wet-n-Wild cosmetics buy one get one free! And gummy snacks for the girls, too!

I bought a coupon for a restaurant called Butter Cream Deli Cafe and met Sally there :). I hadn’t seen her in a month or so, since Alaethia’s birthday party. I missed her! She looks just lovely; the epitome of glowing pregnant woman :). We ate our delicious sandwiches, crepe and ginger peach green teas and caught up on this past month. I loved that place! And it’s down the street from work and affordable to boot!

I took care of a few things when I got back to work. Super happy that we got some GREAT news!! My boss and I did more visits and our last stop was Tapioca Rush:

Jesus. Most of my photos are of food. Heh. What can I say, I love to eat!

I probably undid all my hard work the past two days, but I’ll get back on it :).

I got home and chilled out with my girls before Mario came to pick them up. I gave him instructions on their meds, etc., and they were off :(.

I blogged a bit, made dinner and then, once Jorge got home, began to get ready to go celebrate Jeramie’s birthday. I texted Michelle to ask if they were still at El Divino but they were wrapping things up and leaving. I wasn’t feeling much into going out, so I was secretly glad (isn’t that awful??) but we’ve become such homebodies. What we did instead was head to Walmart to pick up a few things. We saw a few…people from our past. It was weird. But we went about our business. We strolled the entire store and ended up at the electronics department. We saw some laptops on sale and Jorge found the perfect opportunity to try and sell one to me. It worked, heh. And the only reason I agreed (finally) was because it was SUPER ON SALE. He’d been trying since before Christmas to buy me a new one, but I could always think of something much better to do with the cash. I was ok with this one :). Typed up my first blog post on it!

AND I did my nails, too! I’m on a roll!

I’m so glad things have made a 180 for me. I need to remind myself that things will always be better.

Shoot. I’ve been through worse! This is cake!

As you can see, I updated my theme. It’s not 100%, and I’m not completely happy with it but it’ll do. I loved my previous one but I hated that you only got a sample of the entry on the front page and had to click for the rest. I like that with this one they’re already there.

It’s frustrating to me that PHP, HTML are hard for me now. I could read script like a book, and understand it. (The kids still think it’s amazing that I understand some of it, though heh.) I haven’t figured out why the background color works with all WordPress, but not my self-coded pages. Took me a couple of hours to realize that the ads that were popping up on the mobile version were due to the mobile detector plugin I was using. They apparently added those during the most recent update, grrr. (I apologize for that!)

Anyway. So I updated the theme, somewhat cleaned up my dying laptop (I shoulda listened to Jorge all those times he tried convincing me to get a new one! I couldn’t stand spending that much money though), cleaned the house, and did laundry. Jesus, it never ends!! I’m still not done.

I ran all of Mom’s errands, visited Gramma, went shopping for Emily’s birthday gifts with Jorgie and Justin and even babysat Nick and Mia. I was so caught up with everything I completely forgot about a birthday party we were invited to =\. But we watched “Dredd” in 3D, which was pretty darn impressive.

As for today, we got ready and picked up Julien (naturally 3 hours after the fact, but at least we got to pick him up this time). We ate lunch at Palenque Chicken, picked up a cake for Julien and a few other things and came home to celebrate his belated birthday. He fell in love with his dinosaurs and basketball set. He ignored the clothes and everything else lol.

The boys all played football outside for a good while. We came in and I got ready to go to Rosie’s brother’s rosary =\. Our boss and I were the only ones who showed up from work I believe. We sat with Michelle. It was a long rosary but I was glad to show my respect & support.

Jorge picked me up and he, Jorgie and I dropped off Julien. Justin was bathing and stayed home with Mom. Jorgie made us laugh the whole ride. We picked up some Micheladas and Flamin’ Hots with cheese:

…and when we got home my love made some awesome garlic shrimp in white wine sauce.

And now my stomach is regretting the unhealthy choices of my evening :(.

The boys went to bed and we watched The Walking Dead. It was a GREAT episode this week!

Now it’s midnight and it’s time for bed. I have a lot to accomplish at work this week for an upcoming event. It’s been progressing slowly, what with Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day, so it’s making me lose confidence and I’m becoming discouraged. I need to find some motivation!

It’s almost Christmas (OMG!) and I’ve been stalling updating this thing. So, with that said, here’s a Catch-Up Post with lots of pictures that should have actually been titled “The Longest Post In the History of the World” :).

Our Thanksgiving felt a little…rushed this year, probably because I undershot the time we’d need to prepare the food. John and Monique stopped by to drop off their homemade apple pie (aww!) and requested plates since they’d both be working this year =\. Then I rushed to pick up the kids, who were celebrating Thanksgiving at noon at Mario’s. (We’d be celebrating for dinner). But regardless, it was great and I was sincerely grateful for every little thing in my life, but mainly my family and wonderful kids ♥!

Keeping the kids occupied while we cooked:

The feast!

Can’t forget the ham!

Everything was super delicious. Briana and the kids came over and ate and chilled out a bit. Then, when 8:30pm rolled around we got the kids in bed and asked Mom to babysit while Jorge and I went Black Friday Shopping. It was his first time doing it, ever. I was a bit skeptical about taking him along, but he said there was no way he was letting me out into the madness on my own, so he said he had no choice, heh.

Started at Walmart, where the cars were parked in the dirt nearing the street. Lines were ridiculously long, and we weren’t sure they’d have what we’d need, so we left to Target. The line was BEHIND THE STORE!! This is a huge Target, mind you. I wish I’d taken pictures. They were incredibly organized, though. By the time we got to the area to buy what we specifically went there for…they were OUT. I couldn’t believe it. So Jorge says, “Well. We’re already here. Let’s look around and see what else we find.” So, moping slightly, I follow him and see a man hauling THE ITEM. I had a feeling I should stick around. So I did. I pretended to read my ad as I inched closer. (Jorge told me later he thought I was going to mug the guy LOL). I could hear him on the phone talking to probably his wife, and he sounded unsure about taking the item. We make eye contact and he hangs up. He looks at me and says, in Spanish, “Hey. Do you want it?” I nod an enthusiastic YES and we put it into our cart. I couldn’t contain a *squee* and Jorge asked, “Ok, what happened?” and jokingly adds, “Did you show boob or something?! How did you do that??” I was thrilled. We picked up several more things (including a spiffy blender, woo!) and stood in an hour-long line that squiggled through the isles.

Next stop was Walmart (where what we went for didn’t even make it to the store!) and then Kmart. We found what we originally went to Walmart for and stood in line for another hour. We headed home about midnight, but were pretty happy. Jorge said it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be and couldn’t believe how much we saved!

I went to bed, set my alarm for 4 hours later and planned to make it to HEB plus by 6am (BY MYSELF!), where I REALLY REALLY needed to purchase one of the kids’ gifts. Set the alarm, ate 2 bites of pecan pie for breakfast and ran out the door. The line went around the store behind the pharmacy. I made friends with 3 ladies, and they shared their ad with me in case I needed to run over to Walmart to price-match, heh. I found a map of the store that I’m assuming one of the employees misplaced and it told us exactly where everything was. Doors opened, I went straight to the place I needed to and got what I went for and then some. I was giddy with excitement! I couldn’t believe my good luck :). AND I got great deals on stuff I didn’t even expect to and got a $20 coupon to use the next day ^_^!

My kiddos left that evening for Mario’s, since it was his weekend. I bathed the girls and Emily had chills and then got a fever. I gave her Motrin and made sure she was nice and bundled up since it was drizzing outside. I told Mario to keep an eye on her; I just had a feeling she was on the road to a bad cold.

Alaethia dressed herself, as you can see, heh.

I was so bored when the kids left. First Jorgie and Justin and then mine left. The house is so quiet and I kind of come to a standstill like, “Now what?” I was glad for John’s company, who stopped by to eat and pick up a plate for Monique. He listened to my Black Friday Shopping stories and we caught up about other stuff. He left and Jorge got home and we ate and watched TV :).

I did shopping and started on wrapping the next day and then on Sunday Jorge and I had brunch at Espi’s.

We ordered the girls’ beds that day. Wouldn’t arrive for about 2 weeks. I was glad we went when we did; we got 2 different “Black Friday” discounts, $100 off for being customers so long, and 4 years no-interest (fk yes!) and we fell in love with the bed :).

Jorgie and Justin had been dumped (literally) at our house while we were out shopping, so thank God Mom was here. Jorge didn’t have his phone but had a feeling he should call them, and that just so happened to be when they were waiting outside our front door. Jesus. The woman can’t even wait to find out of they’ve made it safely inside.

We worked on the kids’ science projects the rest of the day (which included a walk to the empty lot down the streets where, for some reason, they have several different piles of roofing materials and we luckily found what Justin needed for his project). Closer to the evening Jorge started feeling really ill. He’d been complaining of a pain in his stomach but he doubled over and it scared the crap out of me. He rested after we made a run to Target to print the kids’ project photos and the kids and I continued on their project.

I talked to the kids and asked Mario how Emily was doing and if she needed to go to the doctor. Actually, I asked if she needed the doctor since the day before, but he said she was fine, feverish, but fine.

So when he brought her to me the next morning and it felt like her skin was on fire, I took her to the doctor immediately. Thank goodness I was using a vacation day. Jorge calls while we’re waiting and tells me he’s on his way to the doctor, too. His boss was taken-aback by his state and told him to come to the doctor ASAP. So there we were. 2 hours later, they were seen. He definitely had an infection and Emily was prescribed cough meds and Motrin. I asked, “Doesn’t she need some antibiotics?” Doc brushed it off and said, “Nah.” I had a bad feeling, but fine, I gave him the benefit of the doubt since he IS the doctor.

We got some food. Emily must have had a hard night, or the fever was making her lethargic, but she took a few spoonfuls of soup (that I fed her) and she fell asleep on my lap. It made me feel so sad. I can’t stand when my kids are sick and unlike themselves. I was angry at Mario for not taking her to the doctor sooner.

Emily and Jorge slept, and I went to pick Alaethia up from school. I spent that night placing cool, wet towels on Emily’s forehead and bathing her at midnight because her fever wouldn’t subside. I was so scared that I brought her to bed with me and she slept on my chest, like she did when she was a baby ♥. I got no rest, but was happy that she woke up without a fever.

Went to work, called the nurse and ordered an antibiotic for Emily, which Jorge picked up and gave her during lunch. He was feeling a tad better, too, thank God. Called Mom every hour or so to check how Emily was doing. There was a span of time where she didn’t have a fever at all.

I picked up cough drops for Emily and a new thermometer, since the newest one broke during the boys science projects and my old one’s battery was dying. I came straight to Emily’s room and checked her temp. She still looked so lethargic and unlike herself. Her temperature said 102.9, which I attributed to it being time for her fever reducers again. I stuck her in a cool bath immediately and gave her Tylenol AND Motrin and it broke my heart to see that she couldn’t even cry, she was so tired. Mom said she ate soup during her meals and drank plenty of water, but I was still afraid she’d become dehydrated. Jorge got home and saw that I was almost in tears, I felt helpless. Her fever was still at 102.6, even after a cool bath for half an hour. I put her in her bed and smoothed her hair from her face. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes and I swallowed back a lump in my throat and said, “Aw mama, don’t cry. You’ll get better.” My heart cracked into a million pieces when she slowly shook her head, letting me know that she didn’t think she’d ever get better. I dressed her up and we took her to her night doctor. It took about 30 minutes to be seen and when they checked her her temperature was still 101.3. The doctor said to keep doing the same thing, giving her Motrin and Tylenol together, keeping her hydrated, and cool baths, etc. She said the antibiotic would kick in by the next day. I decided to stay with her the next day, and to everyone’s relief she was better by the evening :). She even stuck around while I made dinner and asked to wash dishes, which she hadn’t done in days!

Thursday was Cash Mob day…where we spend money at a locally-owned member’s business. I wasn’t looking forward to spending, as I was budgeting, but it was fun trying stuff on:

Went for my kiddos that evening and spent it helping Eenan with his science project. Luckily, we had all the photos and everything, just had to put everything together (and we still didn’t end up finishing till 11pm!).

December 1st was Quentin’s birthday party. The 2 eldest boys wanted to stay home, of course, so they stayed with Mom. Justin, Jaylen, Emily and Alaethia went with me. They had such a blast and didn’t want to leave. Sally really out-did herself with the theme (circus) and decorations and games!

We were supposed to go back to the party for Carlos’ surprise party Sally was throwing, but plans changed. Jorge went to Furniture Row to pick up the girls’ bed. Long story short: he lost the phone somewhere at the store, we went to the store to search for it, walked around the Expressway and came up with nothing. We tracked it (iPhone) and it showed that it was near the Expressway, so we hoped that someone found it and left it in the store.

We cleaned the house like crazy the next day; even the boys’ room was scrubbed top to bottom. We took a break to go to Furniture Row, where we called and THANK GOD, Jorge’s phone was safely waiting. The guy at the warehouse was nice enough to find it thrown in the parking lot and kept it at the store.

My love assembled the girls’ bed that night. All he asked for was an abundance of Peach Tea and football, heh.

All the kids loved it. Justin and Jaylen even asked for a similar bed, a fire truck LOL! Err, not gonna happen :P.

Since the girls’ mattresses hadn’t come in yet, we pushed in their old toddler bed mattresses, which they were quite happy about :).

The rest of the week was the usual; helping Alaethia with projects at the beginning of the week and events at work the ending of the week.

Wednesday was the Good Day Luncheon:

Thursday my babies left to Mario’s and it was the All About Women event in the evening. It was a fun morning, even getting a visit from Santa and taking a group photo at work. I went to lunch with EZ, Laura, Michelle, and Bob Z. and then the worst thing in the world happened: I dropped my Galaxy SIII and the screen shattered into a million pieces! I was in shock!

I didn’t have time to be sad about it since Michelle and I were running errands for Gerry, like buying wine at H-E-B and buying balloons at JJ’s Party House. Then we helped decorate and so on and then it was time for the event. It was super packed and the Traveling Photo Booth made it even more fun. We took a billion pics! Even Sally and my Love got to make it at the end :).

Jorge and I were hungry, so since we were kidless we had dinner at Chili’s. It was nice to relax, just the two of us. Until JR. showed up and joined us a while LOL, but it was a quick catch-up visit and then he had a game to watch in the bar section. My love took this photo of me, almost make-up-less and tired, and posted this:

Yo quiero esta preciosa novia mía más que la vida 🙂 es mi mejor amiga y todo lo que alguien pudiera pedir en este mundo :*)

I love this precious girlfriend of mine more than life, she’s my best friend and everything anyone could ask for in this world.

He still surprises me after all this time :). I never knew my old friend Jorge to be so good with words (in English and Spanish!), or to be so sweet, heh. He’s the best!

We got home, relaxed and crashed out. I was excused from the all-day event that was happening on Saturday, since my love and I were heading to Brownsville for the day. Our Anniversary is November 18th, but we hadn’t had a chance to celebrate it till that day. And it was the best ever! We woke up, got ready and drove straight to Beef O’Brady’s for brunch, heh. The food is always great and what’s best about it is: it’s free!

We stopped by Walmart to pick up some chairs and miscellaneous things for the 10-Man Jam concert :). We weren’t going to get to see all 10 artists, because we had plans to watch the Pacquiao vs. Marquez fight at Beef’s that night, but I was really looking forward to seeing Eden’s Edge :)!

Yeah, my hair was curly. I was too lazy to straighten it that morning, heh:

Local artist Madelyn Victoria opened the show:

Eden’s Edge!!

Bucky Covington:

Greg Bates:

Jana Kramer:

By then it was too dark to get a good photo of the last group we saw, The Farm:

I was a little sad that we didn’t get to see Lauren Alaina, Katie Arminger and several others, but we had a fight to watch! And what a fight it was! We had dinner (mostly appetizers LOL) and had an awesome dessert while we watched the most epic knockout ever!

We got to our hotel pretty happy :).

The next day, we woke up, got ready and checked out and were on a mission to find the closest Denny’s. Only, my Google maps was on crack or something ’cause it made us get lost 3 times in 3 different cities >_

We had a pretty darn good beginning of December :).