Category: Family

Sunday, April 29th – We woke up around 10ish and lazily sprawled on the bed. We contemplated what we’d be having for breakfast (or rather, what I’d be cooking, heh) and we both decided: let’s go buy barbacoa!!

So we washed up, got ready and started the hour-long journey. We found a store about a mile away that had barbacoa. We wanted a cup of menudo, too, but by the time we got to the beginning of the line, we found out they’d sold their last large cup. Grrr. So we drove all the way to Mission where Jorge knew for sure that they had some. I was just praying that we’d find some before noon, which is when most places stop serving. But we went to Taco Ole and they did have some and although we had to wait a while. As we’re driving home I can’t help but remember that I hadn’t been logging my calories/carbs/sugars like I had been . And this breakfast would most definitely throw me over my calories…so maybe it was just better NOT to log them, heh.

Breakfast was delicious. Many people don’t like menudo, or think it’s gross, but I love it. The boys loved it and I had to scold mom to stop eating so much. “Your cholesterol!!” LOL. It’s not often we have barbacoa and menudo, so it was a nice change.

We did some stuff around the house and then got ready to go to the Parade of Homes. You follow a map to all these beautiful homes and get ideas, contact decorators, home theatre installers, pool installers, etc.; or apply to build, and so on. Some of Jorge’s work was being showcased and he wanted to see what the competitors were doing. I wanted to see his work and the décor. I LOVE looking at homes!

The boys didn’t want to go and asked to stay with Mom. Mom said, “Just leave them here,” so we told them it was fine since it’s something they probably wouldn’t enjoy.

We saw 4 houses I believe. They were all near the house. I was amazed by the decor in some and majorly impressed by the homes that had an entrance that would lead into a courtyard with a pool and then into the main house. Those were gorgeous. And the bathrooms in some? Holy shizz, it was like I’d died and gone to heaven. I’d post the photos of the 2 that I actually took, but they were crappy and weirdly angled since we weren’t’ really allowed to take photos :P.

I have to say I was really impressed with Jorge’s projects. I know he excels at what he does, but when you see it in person, it’s nothing short of amazing :).

And speaking of, we saw some of his competitors’ work; sweet Jesus. Makes you wonder if they left wires hanging out or hung screens/TVs wrong or left a mess in the racks just so they wouldn’t get business .

So we finished seeing the houses. Got wrong directions to another one, so instead we went to Ross to buy…who knows what. I don’t even remember. I do remember that we both got annoyed with the crowds and started snapping at each other. So we got out of there and we sat in silence all the way to Walmart, where we were getting some stuff for lunch. As we walk in Jorge says, “You want to look at the flowers?” and then I couldn’t be annoyed anymore, heh. We bought some Dwarf Celosias (which the girls fondly refer to as Lorax Trees. Eenan corrected us later: “They’re called Truffulas” :)).

We got home, made lunch, and later I planted my flowers.

When I stood back, hands on hips, admiring my work Jorge comes over and stands next to me. He says, “The neighbors must think, ‘Look at that woman, glorifying that stump'”. I turn and smack him playfully on the arm. “My stump is beautiful!” I say.

Monday, April 30th – We were surprised the next morning with breakfast at Denny’s with our boss. Michelle and I drove to work together and I had this baby:

Totally didn’t even bother logging it into my calorie counter because, frankly, I DID NOT WANT TO KNOW.

We went back to work and I had a light lunch since I was still full from breakfast.

When I got home I did my usual ritual, which is walk through the door, hug and kiss the girls, go to my bedroom and then bathroom to change into comfy clothes followed by both girls, put my hair in a pony tail and proceed to the kitchen to figure out what to make for dinner. The girls brought little socks to me and begged for sock puppets. So I waited on dinner and brought out my glue gun, yarn, flowers from my scrapbooking stash, and buttons for the eyes. I got to work, cutting, sewing, gluing and they were thrilled.

By the time I was done with the sock puppets, I felt SUPER lazy. I didn’t know WHAT to make for dinner. I whipped something up, Jorge got home, we ate, the girls stayed with Mom while we grocery shopped and then we got home and unloaded groceries. I bathed the girls and got them ready for bed while my love made me his famous Margaritas. I put the girls in bed and joined him on the sofa, where he popped open a bottle of Shiner Ruby Redbird and we watched DVR’d The Voice.

There goes my neighbor; showing off on his riding lawn mower, manicuring his green yard. I’m sitting at the dining room table, scowling at him between the open spaces of the window blind, and staring down at my already-feral looking yard that needs a trim badly and is slowly becoming yellow ! We must call the lawn guy soon, before we get a scolding that we waited too long and the grass can ruin the lawn mower belt like last time, LOL.

Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not much of a gardener. I guess it’s a learning process, but I did a few things wrong when we planted our little flower bed. I didn’t keep the little card thingies that have the name of the flower and the info. *facepalm* I know what the Petunias are, and I know that they do well in sunlight and should be watered every 2-3 days. When I was watering them every day they were wilting. I didn’t know that Impatiens, one of the other flowers we planted, were supposed to be watered daily and should be in shade most of the day. And the other plant, that has already fully wilted *cries*, well–I don’t even know the name of the poor thing to try and look up info on it to save it !!

I’m going to have to remove the flowers that don’t belong. Maybe I can salvage the unknown pink/white flower if I put it in a little, cute pot and move the Impatiens to a more shady area and just plant more Petunias in their place? It makes me annoyed because the Convention Center has Impatiens and they’re in a sunny area all day and theirs look nice!!

ANYWAY. It’s so quiet this morning. The kiddos are with Mario. I miss the usual sounds of “Good Luck Charlie” and giggling and “Mama, can you get me some milk?”

We watched “Cats and Dogs” Wednesday night before I bathed them and put them to bed for school the next day. I miss my cutie pies :)! And I miss the boys, whom I haven’t seen since last Thursday . I shouldn’t be the parent who has “weekend” visitation and it makes me sad and angry.

Blah. Anyhoot. The work-week was still a bit slow. And I stopped feeling like I should FIND something to do when I found out just how many events we have coming up. April and May will be a whirlwind, but it starts slowing down again in June.

Mario picked up the girls Thursday evening. Sorry, his mom did LOL. Again it was a weird, quiet hour where I just sat and attempted to watch the news. Jorge had some great news for me, and asked if I wanted to celebrate with dinner at Chili’s. Of course I did! I’d been behaving myself all week, watching what I ate, so I think we deserved it ;).

I had a coupon for free queso, chips and salsa and we ordered Spicy Spinach Artichoke dip, which came with more chips and salsa, so we had an abundance.

By the time our food came out, we were so full of Mango tea and chips and dips that we hardly ate. Which was a good thing considering that my Shrimp Alfredo noodles were hard and rubbery :(. So I only ate the 6 shrimp that came with it.

We felt full, and I felt nauseous, so we went to Target to walk it off. We got our curtain rods (finally) and a soap dispenser I’ve been wanting since around 2007. I’m not exaggerating, either LOL.

So now that we have our curtain rods and drapes, all we need is a painting for that northside wall above the sectional. And then the living room will finally, after almost a year, be complete :)!

We came home to drop everything off and then met Rudy and Jr. at Cigar Bar to chill out. We realized that night, as we’ve been unfortunately realizing more and more, that we’re just not into the whole going out thing. It’s nice, for a little while, maybe an hour–but I really don’t know how people can spend HOURS clubbing or drinking, especially if you have to wake up to work the next morning. We only stayed out till midnight because we had to work the next day, but I’d had enough after just an hour. Didn’t help that the early-20’s crowd next to us was loud and obnoxious. And the drinks were pretty lame, too. I think they changed bartenders or something :(. We used to enjoy going there a lot more a few months ago.

Yesterday I met my love for lunch :). We wanted to go to El Terco, but it was insanely packed. That place got way too popular way too fast and they need to figure something out to expedite the coming-and-going of the lunch crowd. The lines to wait and pay were horribly long. We ended up at Palenque Chicken again across the street. I finished my entire bowl of food and felt horrible afterwards. I’m getting used to eating small portions, so when I stuff my face like I did at Chili’s and then at Palenque I feel terrible :(.

I got out of work early to take Mom to the doctor for her follow-up. Again, this woman got scolded. So now she’s on a health kick. Let’s see how long this lasts, shall we?

I tried busying myself when I got home. Michelle and I were going to go to the ribbon cutting for Legends, but we got lazy and didn’t go, heh. I was going to take a nap, but I felt guilty (STILL can’t change that) and I got up and went outside to water the lawn and give my flowers a pep-talk so they can LIVE.

I came inside and swept while I watched the news. I cleaned up the bathroom, did some laundry and tidied up here and there. I love when the house is clean and spotless :).

Jorge got home from work late and we sat and talked with Freddy outside for about an hour or so. Jorge and I were starving, so we decided to have an impromptu date and went to Kumori. The wait was long and I couldn’t get ahold of the manager so we had to wait like everyone else, grr :P.

We finally got seated at almost 9:30 and we had a cucumber martini and our usual jalapeno firecrackers, spicy calamari and our rolls. As we were leaving Jorge ran into one of his customers and he just so happened to be best friends with one of my ex-co-worker’s wives! She works at Eenan’s school now. It was nice having a brief catch-up. Jorge and I couldn’t get over what a small world this really is! It made me so happy when he said, “It made me feel good that you were with me and I got to introduce you to all those people.” He’s wonderful !

We came home and I changed into a t-shirt while he made me a mango Margarita. We sat outside catching up on American Idol and having our drink. We sat in our chairs, hand-in-hand and he turned to me and said, “I love this time that we spend together. It’s like a breath of fresh air.” I gave his hand a squeeze and told him, “I was seriously thinking the same thing to myself just now.”

I started nodding off right after the last American Idol. He joked that I was going to stay out there with him, even if he had to bring me a blanket LOL. So I told him to bring me one and I snuggled up in the chair. I told him he needs to get me a lounge chair or outdoor chaise for times such as that, heh.

Alrighty. I have a to-do list I’d like to get accomplished today, while I’m kidless. Like possibly buying Petunias, grocery shopping, cleaning the shower stall, laundry and cleaning my incredibly messy car. Possibly vacuuming it, too. We’re gonna visit Gramma, also. And I have to pay the online bills. –Did that one already ;). I better get on with it. I’ve got about 6 hours!

This weather is putting a damper on my mood and making me sleepy and lazy. That, or it’s almost THAT TIME.

Let’s go backwards, shall we? I’m waiting for dinner to finish cooking Jorge to get home at the moment. I made a new sauce for the baked chicken I was making and it was SO GOOD. I used a 10.5 oz can of cream of chicken, 1/2 of that can of milk, 2 stalks (is that what they’re called?) of chives, 1 stalk of celery, about a little less than a handful of cilantro and half a serrano pepper and pureed them all together. I wanna grab some tortilla chips and just eat the rest of it O_O. I would have posted a picture of it, but it came out blurry and looked weird .

I cleaned the girls room from top to bottom and reorganized the closet. Sally and Quentin had come over and I made spaghetti and turkey meatballs while we caught up on the past 2 weeks. Prior to that I cleaned up the living room, sorted (more) laundry, cleared the dining table and had just gotten started on the kitchen counters.

Mario has the kiddos this weekend (probably another reason why I’m this way). I got to see them in the morning for a bit when I met him (and his mother) to give him Emily’s eardrops. I miss them all :(!

I asked the boys what they’d like for breakfast, eggs or cereal. They picked cereal, of course LOL. I made breakfast for myself: egg whites and yellow & orange peppers, cilantro, onion, tomato.

And hazelnut coffee that mom so nicely brewed for me when I woke up at 10am. Yes. 10am.

I’d fallen asleep the night before at 9:30pm or 10pm. With Ruffles on the sofa. I woke up just as Jorge was snapping a photo LOL.

I’d made baked fish (this time for all of us, heh) for dinner with a side of green bean casserole. Jorge installed a new camera lens on my Evo. Now I can take clear pics again :)! And I got a new cover for my phone so I won’t scratch it again…

I kept myself busy when I got home from work. It’s quiet and I get so bored without the kiddos here. So I cleaned till it was time to start making dinner, before Jorge got home with his boys. I had an observer:

Friday was a long, cold day. Kinda boring. Except for when we had almond cream cake from Sweet & Tasty for the boss’ birthday. Before that there was a tad bit of drama. Before that the day started out kinda crappy.

Mario’s weekend started on Thursday night. His mother came and picked up the girls, of course. I was happy I got to see my boys. My God, how I miss them :(.

I was just about to start baking some fish when we decided to go to on a little date to Kumori :). I still made dinner for Mom and then my babe and I got ready to go.

It was great and we had some laughs :). We got home and watched our DVR’d American Idols and then went to sleep :).

Thursday, after I picked up Aly from school, I picked up Mom and Emmy. They both had doctor’s appointments so we got those out of the way.

Wednesday was spent doing finance-related stuff at work. Got home, chilled with the girls, snapped a pic:

And we met Jorge at Taco Bell, which is what they wanted for dinner :).

Tuesday night was Alaethia’s first Open House :). She didn’t have much work, since she’s only been at this school for a month, but the work she has done is impressive! Even her folder is adorable:

Her teachers have wonderful things to say about her all the time *beams*.

We went grocery shopping right after, all us girls. Got home and made this wonderful dinner with my love (he got home right on time to make shrimp scampi, hehe):

Monday was a day spent in court, brought on by events from the week before.

And that’s that. Somewhat of a summary. I’d have gone into detail but it’s late now. We started watching Netflix movies, first “Limitless”, which was pretty darn good and then “Chaos Theory”, which is an older Ryan Reynolds movie. It was a little sad, comical at times, and had a happy ending. And now I’m sleepy and my love is passed out on the sofa next to me. Good night :).