Category: Family

I woke up and went on a cleaning frenzy. It was really the first day since I started my Christmas vacation that I could actually concentrate on tidying up. I was so behind on everything that just maintaining cleanliness wasn’t going to be enough; I’d have to clean hardcore in order to start maintaining! That’s what working does to me; I get lazy. I don’t know how other women do it to be a full-time mom and wife, hold a job, work and still have a clean house.

I took a break and checked my Myspace for a while, then cleaned again. I was just folding towels and telling to John I should call Sally when my phone starts singing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. She read my mind! She asked if I wanted to meet for lunch at Olive Garden and I said of course. Mom was thankfully already over and offered to stay with the kiddos.

It was so nice seeing her. We hadn’t seen each other since Quentin’s birthday on the 6th. We talked about friends, my pregnancy, her work, my work and our marriages—those conversations are always interesting, heh. She said it was so different actually saying Emily’s name now that we knew what she’d be called, because she’s so used to just Eenan, Jaylen and Alaethia.

We talked about our houses (she wants to re-do her kitchen and I want to get my bedroom more organized) and she asked if I needed help. I said yes, sure! She said she’d be over the next day, at 7am. I promised I’d have breakfast ready.

She insisted on treating me at Olive Garden. She spoils me. I wish we could have hung out much longer but she had to get back to work. We said our ‘see you laters’ and I stopped to put gas in the truck. Can you believe I filled up with $15 (gas was $1.39 at this time)!

I stopped by Target to buy the 500gig external that was in the ads, but of course they were out. I got my inspection on the way home, finally. I’d needed to get it since October—how I dodged that bullet with the cops over here, I have no idea, but I’m grateful. How sad that I never went to get it because it takes too long and sure enough, they took about an hour or more. I got home and started cleaning again. I went into the bedroom and for once didn’t feel overwhelmed. I figured out how to rearrange the furniture; even drew a diagram. I feel really accomplished but I still have a lot to go.

Mario called on his way home from work and asked if I wanted to go to Adan’s for a bar-b-q they were having for his birthday. I said sure. Mom stayed with Alaethia, the boys stayed with Mary. The guys are so funny. So many pics nad incriminating videos were taken LOL. Jorge, Jason, Adan, Mario, two of Adan’s friends, 3 of his cousins, me and later Mirella were over. We probably would have stayed much longer, but since I had to be up early we came home at midnight. Alaethia was sleepy by the time we got home (yup, Mom still hadn’t put her to bed, can you believe it?) so that kind of worked out for us.

Sat., Dec. 27th – I woke up, ate breakfast, and got to cleaning. I played with Aly and checked the movie times for Tale of Despereaux. We hadn’t been to the movies in a while and though we never finished reading the book, I really wanted to see the movie during the holidays. Plus, the kids wanted to go, too LOL.

We watched Wall-E while we waited for the time to pass. Mary brought in bag-fulls of stuff Yvonne sent for Aly, like Princess bags, Sesame Street toys, a helmet and pads. She had a blast looking through everything, like it was Christmas all over again.

We braved taking Alaethia with us, since she is getting a little older and can actually watch a movie now that she actually has somewhat of an attention span. I was sure to pack her diaper bag with her Gerber Stars, yogurt bites and other snacks.

When we got into the theatre, it was dark and they were already showing the previews. She kept saying—loudly—”Why’s it so dark? I can’t see!” It was funny, but everyone kept turning to stare.

Even though I tried fishing everything out of her bag to keep her busy before she started screaming, she was really talkative and wouldn’t sit still. Mario wanted to get up and leave, but I told him to watch the movie and be quiet; she was tired and just needed to be rocked to sleep. She talks a lot when she’s sleepy, like her Mama, heh. But sure enough, after some rocking she was fast asleep. I got to enjoy the rest of the movie. The kids and I didn’t get very far in the book, but from what I read and saw in the movie, they’re completely different from each other!

We went to Target then Walmart to cash Mario’s pay check after the movie. We bought some meat from T-Rey’s (gosh I hate how meat markets smell, especially when I’m pregnant) for yet another bar-b-q. We got home and I started cleaning. I still have a lot to go. I mainly organized things, in my room and Alaethia’s. When I got tired I went outside with everyone. Aly was moody so I went inside to Mary’s with most of the women. We ate and talked and then I came back to my house since Aly still felt warm. Since the last time she’d gotten a fever she’d only get them at night, and only for a while. This time she’d gotten it earlier though and she was hysterical. I couldn’t understand what was wrong with her. She’d kind of rub her ear, cheek and the side of her neck, but when I’d ask her if her ears, throat or teeth were bothering her she’d scream no. The little canker sore she’d had was totally gone, too, so it wasn’t that.

I was up all night with her. She’d fall asleep but then would wake up crying and screaming her head off. I felt like I was going insane. It didn’t help that she’d gotten ahold of a Lysol wipe earlier during the evening (Mario took them out and I forgot to put them back in the drawer =/) and I was afraid she’d gotten an upset tummy in case she’d put it in her mouth. Heck, I was afraid the chemicals were ripping up her insides! I asked her if she’d been sucking on it but she just smiled and said “no”. I called everywhere, including the number on the Lysol package and the Poison Control Center and nothing was open. I couldn’t believe it. I gave her a little bread and milk (the usual foods they tell you to give them when they ingest something they shouldn’t) and started doing research online. Every site I went to said there wasn’t any harm if ingested…but do call an ambulance if you get the liquid in your eyes!? How strange.

After another hour and half of Alaethia screaming her head off I called Mario and asked him to come in at 1:30. Why should I be the only parent worried sick? Hey, I want to be outside relaxing with everyone, too. So, reluctantly, he came in, complaining the whole time of course. She was so hysterical by the time Mario came in that she cried threw up from crying so much. We stayed up till around 2:15am and I woke up with her every hour after that. Tomorrow would definitely consist of a trip to her night/weekend doctor.

Sun., Dec. 28th – It was Grandpa D’s birthday. We woke up super late, around noon for being up with Aly all night. The tamales I was going to help Mary, Elda and Mom with were already done. We had some of the tamales, cake and sang happy birthday and excused ourselves to take Alaethia to the weekend pediatric clinic. I couldn’t remember what time they opened, but thankfully they’d been open an hour when we arrived. There weren’t a lot of people in the lobby, so that was good. The nurse told me I’d have to call her regular doctor and ask for an authorization. I found that a little strange since it’s usually the office that has to call. So I called and sure enough, the CSR that answered told me to ask the office to call and ask for the authorization themselves. So I did, even though the guy looked a little annoyed about it.

It took about 10 minutes, but he let me know that Dr. C. gave them the okay to see her. We entertained her with her Spongebob Magna Doodle and Gerber Stars while we waited.

Once we were in the room they let us know that she had an ear infection in both ears, the left one being severe. They prescribed cough/congestion medicine, Motrin for her fevers, some ear drops and an antibiotic. We had to go all the way back to McAllen to Lee’s Pharmacy because it was the only pharmacy that was open after 6pm. As soon as we got home, we gave her the meds. She wanted to go to her room to watch a movie (Terabithium or Wizard of Oz, one of them) so we made her all comfy and she relaxed. I was really behind on dishes and was about to start washing them when Mario told me to sit down; we had a movie date. We watched Journey to the Center of the Earth and then Baby Mama. I removed my acrylic nails while we watched Baby Mama. It took forever, but it felt so good to have them off. I can only have fake nails on for so long.

We paused the movies several times because Alaethia needed this or that so they felt like they were really long LOL. I started cleaning after the movies finished. I stayed up till 2:30 with Aly who refused to fall asleep and then passed out. She was still feverish, but she slept much better than the night before. You have no idea how glad I was to be on vacation; there’s no way I’d be able to stay up with her that late when it was a work night!

I planned on starting my painting project that day (painting the new trim white in the bathroom and kitchen/living room divide and painting the kitchen yellow), but Mary needed to do some exchanges/returns. I had to exchange my slippers (I’d just gotten a pair from Mrs. Ruiz and already have some other ones) and my City of Angels DVD so I offered to go along with her. Better than having to drive on my own and brave the insane crowds with the kids. They stayed with Mom.

We picked up Yazmin and Angela and when we’re on the Expressway getting into McAllen, Mario calls Mary. All I hear her say is, “Are you okay? Was there any damage?” My heart sinks. I know he’s been in an accident. I don’t freak out and say silent until she turns and tells me he’s at Jack-in-the-Box and had a fender-bender. It was nothing serious, but Mario was at fault and the women are from Monterrey, Mexico and we should make our way over there. I’m so glad she was there. We know nothing of that stuff, except being able to tell when we’re trying to get screwed.

We get there and meet the two sisters and the mom who were in the other car. The girl who’d been driving was nice and actually really knowledgeable about all the paperwork. They didn’t, however, want to call the cops which we found weird, but Mario insisted. So while we waited we assessed the damage.

Mario was trying to turn left on a busy, busy street and when he was looking to the left and the women were in front of him, he slightly accelerated thinking they’d moved up, but they hadn’t. Still, the only damage was a tiny swipe that smudged the dust on the bumper (seriously, it was mostly dust—no paint got scraped off) and the light impact caused the bumper to unsnap from the clips. Mario could have just pushed it back in himself and wiped the car down, but we decided it would be best to let the cop examine it first. I took pictures of the damage just in case, because I had a weird feeling. The cop got there, took the report and he was on his way.

We exchanged phone numbers, policy numbers and Mary told them she’d be in touch from her office once the report went through around the next Wednesday. We were already starting to walk away when the quiet, tall and lanky sister says something about paying upfront. We kind of chuckle and tell her no, that’s not how it works. The mom chimes in and says that in other countries she’s been to, that’s how it works. Mary tells her she’s in America and it doesn’t work like that here. They ask us to wait and are on the phone for an eternity. Every time we gesture that we’re leaving the Mom or sister raise their palm up to us to wait. After about half an hour we tell Mario to leave, that they’re just trying to get money out of us. Sure enough, I hear the lanky sister talking to someone and getting really frustrated because they don’t have an answer she wants to hear. They give us the same crap again about how we should pay up front and Mary raises her voice and tells them that’s what our insurance is for—to avoid having to worry about anything or paying anything “up front”. So we leave. This was half an hour after the cop had left. Dumb women.

The mall parking lot was insane, just as we thought it would be. Traffic wasn’t too bad on the roads, but it was awful at the actual stores.

We went to JC Penny and I exchanged the slippers for a nice sleeveless nightgown. I wasn’t a big fan of nightgowns before, but since I’m becoming so huge and PJ bottoms but me I’m warming up to nightgowns more now.

We were starving, for waiting around so long after the darn accident and whatnot so we got some pizza at the mall. We were extremely lucky to find a table and chairs since the mall was packed to the brim with people. We went to Academy next and then to Walmart, where I exchanged City of Angels for Baby Mama and A Knight’s Tale. It was a total pain in the ass, though. I couldn’t find the price for the 1 Baby Mama Blu-Ray left and it took me forever to find the regular DVD. It said $13, so I grabbed it and went to pay. We were in line for half an hour because they were charging me the DVD for the Blu-Ray price. I should have just gone back and gotten the darn Blu-Ray since they were taking forever. We even sent Yazmin over there to show them because not even the people that work in electronics could find anything but the guy was being a jerk with her. Even though I could see people in line behind us breathing smoke through their nose for having to wait so long, I was even more insistent on having them give me the correct price because they were all being idiots. Acting like we made the price up. After what seemed like forever they finally went to the counter and agreed that it was $13 after Yazmin showed them the price on the rack. The DVD was just mislabeled. Grr.

Mario and I chilled out with the kids and then watched Journey to the Center of the Earth with Alaethia (and Jaylen for a little while). That was one of the movies Mario received for Christmas. I really need to update my DVD List! Too bad Alaethia had a field day moving her favorite ones all over the place and took them out of alphabetical order!