Category: Family

Happy New Year, everyone!

Starting this up at 12:11, so I’m not to late, heh. Had to stop our celebration half an hour early and bring the kids inside because idiots in our neighborhood started shooting their guns. They do this crap every year!

John chilled out with me most of the day. We watched some marathon on VH1 about the new millennium and I got a quick work out in before I showered and went to McAllen to cash Mario’s pay check. I wanted to have the entire house completely clean, but I only got to do a few dishes, 2 loads of laundry and toss out the trash before I had to leave. I always hear Mom in my head saying “if you don’t have the house clean on New Year’s Eve, you’re going to have a messy house the entire new year” and “if you don’t shower on New Year’s Eve, you’re going to be dirty the entire new year”. I at least got the shower part done LOL. And the messy house isn’t anything new, heh.

We had lunch and Mom got situated with all the kiddos before we left. We went all the way to McAllen and I stopped by Mario’s work to drop off the things he asked me to take with me. He said the checks still weren’t in, so to go ahead and waste time in town. I looked down at my legs, which haven’t been shaven in weeks because it’s been cold. I was in shorts since it was in the 70’s today and my favorite jeans were in the dryer back at home. I was NOT about to go into Barnes & Noble with legs like that LOL. So John and I just waited in the parking lot, listening to music and sharing the latest gossip. We waited about an hour and a half, just so that Mario could finally get his check and tell me he needs to get something for his Boost phone so he’d go ahead and go to the bank. So basically…I went to McAllen for NOTHING. I could have been cleaning the house! Or baking! Or starting on the dips for tonight!

So I get home and since John wasted all that time he asked me to give him a haircut. Fine. Then Mario gets home and wants one. Fine. Then my dad-in-law wanted one and a beard trim. Oh, alright.

So needless to say, I didn’t get the dips done :(. And we find out at the last minute that everyone’s going over to Grandpa Dario’s for a bar-b-q instead of getting together at our house. As crappy as it would be not hanging out with the entire family, it’s a tradition to pop fireworks with the kids, eat and have a few drinks here, at home.

Mario and Jaylen left to buy fireworks and Mary, Alaethia and I went to Walmart to get a few things. Mom stayed with Eenan & Emily. I got the s’more’s stuff, got some Moscato wine, beer, and pizzas since I wasn’t making the dips (can you tell I’m bummed about not having Spinach Artichoke and Velveeta/Rotel dip? LOL).

As soon as I got home I popped the pizzas in the oven. Rolando, Eenan’s friend, was already here. The boys were outside popping fireworks under Mario’s supervision.

Mario wasn’t in a good mood at all. He even snapped at me a few times, and I told him to stop ’cause he was being super rude. What a way to bring in the new year! I ignored it, though, and enjoyed spending time with the in-laws, Mom and my kiddos.

Eenan had a little moment of emo-ness, too. He was sad because Angela and the other kids weren’t here, but I told him it was fine, he was still spending time with his best friend and siblings. He threw a small fit outside and I just snapped. I sternly told him, “All the people that matter the most are HERE! You, and everyone else that’s complaining (*cough*Mario*cough*) need to realize that!”

I didn’t hear any more complaining after that.

I got everyone fed and the boys popped more fireworks. Emily was having a blast with her grandparents and Alaethia was coloring with her Crayola stuff. She’s still not too fond of fireworks.

The boys were getting a little overexcited with the fireworks, so we brought out the S’mores stuff. They were excited to melt their own marshmallows with the skewers.

They had about another hour to pop fireworks before Rolando was picked up. I brought out the bottle of wine and Mario opened it and poured my glass, as a nice peace offering that I gladly accepted.

The girls were becoming antsy, Jaylen was sleepy and quickly becoming moody and then the neighbors started shooting so we came inside. I texted and responded to a few New Years texts and then John came over around 12:40 to pick up some food he forgot here. He chilled for a bit, shared some disgusting stories (LOL, typcial John) and then left. The girls are now sleeping and Mario’s still outside, drinking alone, still in a not-so-good mood according to his Myspace status. *sigh*

I can’t believe a whole year’s passed. 2009 was a really good year. I became a stay-at-home mom again. Emily, my surprise baby, came into my life and made it even better than it was. My entire family’s healthy and well, even though Gramma did have her bouts of pneumonia, she prevailed and she’s healthy again. I hope God keeps her that way for many more years to come. We did lots of cool things during summer, like going to my very first concert every (George Strait & Sugarland in Houston!) and we visited Disney World again! The boys and I joined Taekwondo and I feel healthier than I have in a long time. I’m finally 120 pounds again (hope to get to 110–it’s not too little, I’m only 4’11”, remember!). And countless other blessings I can’t recall off the top of my head. I know 2010 will be even better!

Must work on a New Year’s Resolution list tomorrow!

It’s so nice to have a moment of peace and quiet! All the kiddos are asleep and I started browsing through Ebay, so before I get myself into trouble I figured I’d blog instead, heh.

Today was one of those days I spend running around non-stop.

I fed the kiddos, did some dishes and once Mom came over I got ready and went to pick up Mary’s renter’s check. I missed the crossover to the building so I had to drive about a mile more to cross at the next one. There was some kind of crime scene or something weird going on. There were two sheriffs and 6 state troopers looking for something on the road and putting up little markers. It was strange.

I get to the place and the lady tells me, “You’ll have to come back. My daughter just left with my checkbook. Is there something else you need to do in town?”

I inhaled to keep my cool and asked, “Didn’t Mary tell you I’d be here at noon?” I knew she had. It was 11:58. I’m sorry. I was 2 minutes early.

She says she wasn’t expecting another man to come pick up a payment for who-knows-what, so she gave him the check that was supposed to be for Mary. WTF? So there I am, waiting 18 minutes for her daughter to get back with the darn checkbook. Grr.

My next stop is Academy, where I was returning two work out blouses and some shorts (got the wrong length and that’s because I picked them out myself!).

Went to Sally’s Beauty Supply after that to get some wax stuff and a few nail things. I got the nail things but of course they were out of the other stuff I needed. Oh well. I spent so much time browsing and I was already getting hungry I figured I’d come straight home and eat some lunch. Something I told me I should go to the other store, but I wasn’t sure where it was so I went home.

I ate and looked up the number to the store. Sure enough, they had only 2 left. So I went back, got it and rushed back home. Caught up with the kiddos a bit and took pictures of Emily who looked so adorable hugging a ducky plush Alaethia had brought to her. She reminded me so much of Eenan! I’ve got a pic of him holding a telephone the exact same way ^_^.

I got ready for Taekwondo as fast as I could. I was 2 minutes late LOL.

Taekwondo was awesome. We started with stretching of course. I didn’t know why Luis was asking me to do this leg stretch we hadn’t done for a while, but I found out later during Forms.

He did sort of a practice test, with the Horse Stand, kicks laps and then 30 situps and 40 leg lifts. Then he told me to do the white, yellow and orange forms. I did those correctly so he said he was going to teach me the orange-advanced form. OMG. I thought I’d never get it! I felt all desperate and frustrated like I did when I first started back in September LOL. There’s two new basics in that form, the neck chop and back stand, I believe it’s called. The neck chop was easy to understand (he said it’s like a waiter holding a tray and you bring it forward and show it to the customer–once he put it in those terms I totally got it LOL). The back stand though, oh gosh. It’s weird because you have to lean on your legs all weird (hence the weird leg stretches he had me doing) and do the opposite with your hands. I’ll get it eventually. Luis showed me the basic that’s introduced in each form…it gets crazy! I laughed when he said, “Once you get to your Black Belt it’s easy” LOL.

I had to stop and get gas after class and then remembered Mary’d asked me to cash her check for her. Oops! So I go over there and they give me trouble about it ’cause she’s not there, so we make plans to meet in 10 minutes. I rush home and tell the boys to get ready for their TKD class, because of course they weren’t yet and then I rushed back to the bank to meet Mary. Get that done, rush back home, the boys jump in the car and off we go to their class.

They’re class was similar to mine. I need to get those boys to be a little more…calm in class. Since they’re really comfortable with their teachers now they’ve begun to act up a little. I constantly have to remind them to quit jumping around, or laughing or talking and I never had to before! They used to make a big deal about how well-behaved they were LOL.

Mary texts me while class is going on and tells me she picked up dinner: Subway! Woo! We all ate at their house and we watched the kids go insane. I don’t know how they have so much energy! Especially the boys, who had just gotten home from TKD!

I took video of Emily being insanely cute, as she usually is. Mom taught her Pat-a-Cake and she KNOWS IT! Then I gave her a little stuffed animal to show the in-laws how she hugs them. OMG I wanted to bite her LOL.

The next hour and a half was spent in the living room putting Jaylen’s huge Lego Miners vehicle together. I didn’t get to help poor Eenan much, but he actually likes to do them himself. He just needed help putting the stickers on.

And after snacks and letting them run off the rest of their energy, they all went to bed and now I’m here. I forgot to mention that Mario went to Adan’s since it’s his birthday. He got to have his guy’s night out last night when he went to Jorge’s and now he’s having another one. How nice. That reminds me. He better be awake enough to tell me the juicy gossip he promised to share.

Sat., Dec. 19th – I had a hard time sleeping the night before, but I had a good breakfast, got the kiddos fed and, along with Mom, left to town. Had to go to the bank, pay a bill, Target for Emily’s diapers and a new make-up bag for me (only $0.97!), and Sprint for screen protectors for my Centro that they didn’t have.

The kids were getting hungry so we went to eat at Taco Bell. It feels like we’re never going to leave a place when I’ve got all the kiddos, and that day I only had 3, so you can imagine LOL. Alaethia was being picky about her food as always, Emily was quickly becoming bored and Jaylen kept making Alaethia laugh. Loudly. We finished up as quickly as we could, dropped off some food for Mario since he was really busy at work and hadn’t had a chance to take lunch yet, and then we went to Gramma’s.

We walked into her room and were a bit taken aback that she was wearing an oxygen mask again. She seemed really down and when I asked if she was okay she shook her head and said she felt dizzy. She was in better spirits by the time we left though, since we made her laugh and the kids entertain her. I just prayed she wasn’t feeling sick for Christmas.

We went straight to Walmart after Gramma’s. I hate grocery shopping. That takes forever with all the kiddos, too. It was wonderful getting home, but not so much because I had to put all the food away and make dinner LOL. If I remember correctly, I think I popped some Dijorno’s in the oven.

Sun., Dec. 20th – Mario had to unfortunately work that Sunday. When the kiddos took a noon nap I locked myself in my bedroom while Mom watched the kids in the living room and I got to wrapping presents. The plan was to wrap every last gift that was in my closet, at least.

I was on a roll, and then Eenan called at 1:30 that they were almost home, about 2 hours away and they’d really like enchiladas for their arrival. Shoot. I scrambled everywhere looking for all the ingredients. I didn’t have cheese! I had to go over to Elda’s and borrow a bag from her. We got to talking and then I realized they’d be home in an hour LOL. I got everything done on time, though, thank goodness.

We went over to the in-law’s to eat and chit-chatted about their trip. They brought back the cutest little gloves for the girls! I’d never seen gloves as teeny as the ones they brought Emily!

I wasn’t going to get much else done wrapping-wise, so I left the remainder of the stuff on my bed for when we got back from Andy’s birthday get-together at Golden Corral.

I went straight to Maggie’s to get some beautifying done and when I was on my way to the restaurant with everyone Mario calls that he’s not feeling well and won’t go. Darnit. Oh well. At least the kiddos would have fun. It’s Eenan’s favorite restaurant.

We all meet at Golden Corral. We get down and there’s just no way we were going to be seated within in the next hour. So we go to Furr’s. Eenan was throwing a fit about who-knows-what, Alaethia was complaining about being in her car seat, Jaylen was bothered by Eenan’s noise and Emily was crying for a bottle when I was already driving. OMG. It was awful LOL. I was glad to get to the restaurant. All the kiddos ate what they wanted and the adults had some chatting time. I had the most unhealthy brownie a la mode drenched in hot fudge LOL.

I wasn’t too happy to get home and find out that Mario had been snooping in the gifts, so he knew exactly what Blu-rays the kids and I got him! I wasn’t counting on him being home since he was supposed to meet us at the restaurant, so I didn’t even think to put those away. Argh. Oh well LOL.

Before bed I flipped through a few of my Scrapbooking magazines. I really wish I just had a few hours to scrapbook. I have so much awesome stuff and haven’t even used it! And pictures galore too, thanks to the awesome $0.10 print sales Walgreens has every-so-often!