Category: Family

We all slept in yesterday and around 11am. Mom came over shortly after that and we all wished her a happy birthday. 58 years young!

After I’d finished my breakfast I started checking the Sunday ads to see if there were any deals on Norton (our current antivirus, McAfee, which came bundled with our laptop, already ended and we’re desperate to download new music but are afraid to get viruses so we NEED NORTON. I don’t like McAfee anyway…). I checked Target out, just for the hell of it, then went to Circuit City. I flipped idly through pages, looking for a yellow box with “sale” or “mail-in rebate” printed near it but I stopped dead when I saw the Wii console with all its accessories floating around it. Mario calls me right that second and tells me to make him breakfast (he was outside with his uncles). I’m excited and I ask him, “What do you want? Eggs?” and he says, “Yeah, whatever,” and hangs up. Didn’t give me a chance to tell him about the Wii. I call back and he’s all moody: “Just leave it, then. I’ll make something myself,” and hangs up on me again. I call and tell him, “Quit being an asshole. I’m calling because there’s Wii’s in the Circuit City ad.” He grunts and says, “Just because they’re in the ad doesn’t mean they have them.” I call and check and they tell me yes, they have 10 in stock. Woo! We’ve been wanting one of those damn things since they came out but they’re ALWAYS sold out over here. I call him back and say, “They have 10,” and he says, “Get ready. We’re leaving.”

John comes over when I’m blasting out of the bathroom looking for my shoes and I tell him about the Wii. He says, “Let’s go!” and Mom said to hurry up, she’d stay with the kids LOL.

We arrive and are panicking because there’s TONS of people from Mexico in the store, as usual. It’s still tax-free weekend and they’ve got some serious shopping to do. All the good stuff’s usually gone by the time we get there on Sundays since we wake up late and live pretty far from it. But thank goodness, I get a ticket for one of them! We get extra controllers and a battery charger dock and take forever deciding on a game. Mario wanted Transformers, but John said it sucks so we got Wario Smooth Moves instead.

We pay (thank God for Target Visas!) and hurry home as quickly as possible. Aunt Nora stopped by to wish Mom a happy birthday and she was head over heels for Alaethia :). We talked for a while, which was nice because we hadn’t seen her, though we have talked on the phone.

Aunt Nora left and then we rearranged the living room to have enough space to play and start messing with the system. It’s AWESOME. We start by playing the sports games it comes with for a good hour before we even touch Wario Smooth Moves. I was so excited to play tennis again, even though it’s not actual tennis and it pissed me off because it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to and John and Mario beat me every time, but I loved it. I kicked their butts at boxing though ;).

I am SO SORE this morning. I can’t wait till the Fitness game comes out!

We play till around 4:30, when we start preparing everything for Mom’s birthday dinner. We were just having a little dinner for her, just us and Mario’s parents here at home. I didn’t want a disappointing repeat of last year when everyone either got here super late or didn’t come at all, so we decided it would just be us.

Mario prepped the fish (cilantro, seasonings, and some butter), I made the salsa (and I actually got it right!), I made cornbread and then Mario popped the fish in the oven. While they baked I made brownie batter and put the pan in to bake when the fish was done. Everything was done quickly, I had all the dishes washed and then we took everything over to Mary’s so we could all eat. Everything was delicious and pretty healthy (besides the brownies, of course). We chatted with Mario’s parents for a while and Mary told us about her trip to the casino and we came back. Mario left for a “drive” which ended up being a good hour. He called after 20 minutes of being gone to tell me Chris and Nancy were coming over. Thank God I was in the middle of cleaning.

They get here and the men automatically start playing games on the Wii. It was hilarious watching them box and play baseball (I don’t like that one…I can’t ever hit the ball!). I put the boys to bed at 9:30 (though Eenan didn’t actually fall asleep till almost 11 because he kept waking up to “drink water” or “go to the bathroom” which meant he was stalling). Nancy and I chatted and watched them play. She held Alaethia for a good, long time. Alaethia didn’t even scream, but that was probably because Nancy gave her a sip of her tea LOL. You feed that child and she’ll love you forever.

Mario and Chris went to McDonald’s for some late-night snacking. I surprised myself by declining a delicious $1 double cheeseburger (those things are so unhealthy but man, they taste good) and instead got a tiny fruit and walnut salad.

We ate, Mario left with Chris and Nancy, and I stayed here with Aly. It took forever to put her to sleep and I was pretty frazzled and deranged by the time she did fall asleep.

Before I fell asleep, I remembered to document what I’d eaten for the past two days, because that’s Step 1 in French Women Don’t Get Fat: document what you eat — every-single-thing — for 3 weeks. Maybe I’ll make a page here just for that, because I think that others seeing what I’m eating will help me not be so gluttonous. If I’d started earlier than two days ago you’d be surprised at how much junk food I’d consume. That, my friends, is why my scale at home — which usually shows that I weigh less than I actually do — says I weigh 125. 125!!! Which is probably more. That’s the most I’ve ever weighed in my life while not being pregnant. (Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m only 4′ 11″, so every pound shows!) So, I’ve decided that I’m going to change the way I eat, for real this time. I already ate the last bits of my S’mores ice cream, heh, and until I can start controlling myself around junk food I will not be purchasing any at all. The only junk food I bought this last time I went to the groceries were Cheetos Puffs for the kids and some Koolaid juices I got for free. Mario and I also decided we won’t be purchasing any more sodas, not even for him to take for lunch.

I was astonished when I came across a picture Mario’d taken of Alaethia and me. She was sprawled on my lap but I wasn’t looking at how cute she looked, I was staring at the huge tire that spread disgustingly around my waist. I’ve never looked like that before and I’ll be damned if I continue to!

Now, if I can only convince John to run with me at the park, I’ll be on the right track.

I’ve had most of this entry typed up (in bulleted form) since the day after my last post, just never got around to arranging it into coherent sentences and posting it.

So last Friday Mario worked to have Saturday off for Aly’s baptism. It was a same-ol, same-ol type of day. I spent most of it in a cloud, daydreaming about how awesome it would be to have the job and even started creating mental maps to Target.

Saturday was Alaethia’s baptism. I woke up first and, of course, ended up rushing around as usual. I spent about 40 minutes ironing everyone’s clothes (insane, I know). Andy and Noelia got here and Noelia started helping me get Aly ready (thank GOD). She looked gorgeous :). I didn’t get to straighten my hair, which I noticed later in the pictures just how bad I needed to have done. When we were all ready and about to leave Mario throws a fit because he can’t find his brown belt that matches his brown shoes. Grr. We’re supposed to be at the church at 9:45 and at 9:48 we’re still looking for the darn belt. He finally gave up and wore the other brown one I told him to since the beginning.

We arrive at the church. There’s tons of people and there’s still two other families that are late after us, so we were good. No lecture (which they really like to do there). There were about 30 babies/children. Alaethia did really good considering how hot it was at the church and how many layers of clothes she was dressed in. She became fussy halfway through because she’d woken up too early and she hated having the water splashed on her head, but other than that, she was fantastic. She fell asleep immediately after the “dipping”. She probably thought it was a bath LOL. Baths at home usually mean a nap afterwards. We took some group pictures and then headed home.

We had everyone over for Cabrito. I don’t usually eat it, because it’s GOAT, but I was in the mood to try something different so I did…and uh, no thanks. I bit down on something rubbery that tasted like kidney. Bleh. I wasn’t in the mood to eat anything after that.

We sat around for most of the afternoon and we talked about my interview. We (Mario, Jaylen, Aly and I; Eenan was sleeping over at Mary’s) went to Jorge and Maggie’s later. We chilled out for a bit and then Aly and I went with Maggie to her mom-in-law’s to pick up her “practice” nails. She started cosmetology school and is really excited. She’s going to practice doing nails on me when she’s ready :D. After we picked up that set of nails, she picked up some more from her friend’s house. We stuck around and watched a girl do another girl’s nails. When we left her friend’s house we picked up some Church’s chicken since we were all starving. We ate at their house and chilled out a bit more before we left. We actually got home before 1am from their house for once — 11:30!

We went to sleep as soon as we got home. Around 3:22am I was jolted awake for some reason, and went back to sleep. I had an awful dream and woke up crying. My heart was pounding in my chest. I’d never felt that way before with that sort of dream; the kind where Mario cheats on me :(. That’s only happened when I’ve had awful dreams about bad things happening to the kids. Mario woke up when I was sniffling and quickly pulled me over to him and wrapped me in his arms. I couldn’t stop crying; I just felt so weird and sad and like it was real. I’m so glad he held me and made me feel better. I don’t think I could have slept again that night if he hadn’t consoled me. I love him <3. We woke up late-ish on Sunday morning. Mario was up before me. We ate breakfast, then spent the rest of the day cleaning up the living room. Since the desktop died we took the desk apart and took it out of the room. I mopped, vacuumed, tossed, stored, and rearranged. I need to take our big desk chair to storage and maybe then it'll look like there's more space in here, because right now, it still looks really crowded since the playpen took the place of the desk. It's kind of sad. I've no place to put my desk stuff, like my pens, collection of Sharpies and my notebooks and stuff. I still need to look through and shred stacks of paper. Bleh. Mario left to Chris' later to help him with a home project, all Weekend Warriors-like.

I’d been trying to force train Alaethia to go to sleep earlier so I can get enough sleep in case I do get the job. I stayed awake after Mario left to work. Mary was taking Big Mario to the doctor since he was having chest pains the day before. He was fine, thank goodness. The pain was chest wall pain due to stress and overworking himself. I’m so glad he agreed to go to the doctor, especially after Mario’s uncles and aunts and Tommy’s dad who’ve passed from heart problems. We’re all a little upset that he didn’t go to his follow-up appointment, though =\.

The bad news of the morning: Tippy got run over :(. Mary accidentally backed up on her. Tippy’s one of two female kittens Brushka had and she was so cute :(. Chris was supposed to take her once she was ready to be weaned from Brushka. I hadn’t mentioned it, but Brushka and Waffles are now missing. Artemis, Panther, and Skinny have been missing for months, as have John’s cats Daisy and Pixy :(. It’s really weird. The animal catcher wouldn’t take them because the catcher is Mario’s friend. We’ve also never seen traps set around the neighborhood either. I wonder if someone in the neighborhood is poisoning them or something? Anyway, yeah. Brushka’s kittens are now orphans. She had 5 originally, one died at birth. We haven’t been able to find one of the little girl cats and now Tippy’s gone :(. We’ve only got the two little boys left and Ash and Alidocious. I want my Artemis back :*(.

John stayed with the boys that day while Mom and I went to town. I returned some white, sheer curtains at Target. We stopped by Petco because Mom needed bird food but it’s still not open. Mom treated me to Chili’s. We shared the Tripple Dipper and Classic Nachos. YUM. Alaethia was a hit with the waitress –she’d play with her whenever she came back to check up on us. She was really nice. We even talked about our children (she has three kids two and is 22!). We ordered some boneless wings for Mario and went to drop them off to him, then went to Pet Smart where Mom finally bought her Betta fish. Aly was made a fuss over by a nice lady :). I fell in love with the crabs (I’d totally name one Eugene Crabs if I got one!) and I will be getting at least two Robo Dwarf Hamsters/! They are SO CUTE. They sort of look like my old Pecan (R.I.P.), but smaller. Aly was thrilled watching them and was clenching her little fists in excitement.

We went to Walmart to pick up some groceries and food for Aly since we were completely out. Then we FINALLY came home and chilled out. Were supposed to have practice for Yazmin’s Quinceañera, but that fell through. Mario was out with Chris again that night, but I tried not to be too bothered by it =\.

I stayed up after Mario left to work on Tuesday morning. I finally decided to make myself an actual breakfast of eggs over easy, but all the kids decided to wake up and after tending to all of them (making the boys cheesy eggs and bacon and getting Aly’s oatmeal ready), my food was cold. At least I had some great hazelnut coffee.

Mom came over and I took a ziploc of old floppy disks to Mary’s to look through so we could get rid of them already. I found old pics of Eenan I thought I’d lost. I uploaded them to Flickr. I still need about 70 more disks to go :(.

The boys were obnoxious and rude all day and pretended they couldn’t hear me most of the time. Jaylen was especially moody in the evening and that’s because he’d had a nap in the afternoon. Transitioning back to “school night” bedtime wasn’t going too well, but we’re doing better now. I wonder if Elda’s gotten her boys to sleep earlier. They go to sleep at 4-5am and wake up super late. I would never let my Twerpies stay up that late, not even as teenagers!

Mary brought pizza for dinner that night, so that was awesome. Mario called to “ask” if he could go to his friend’s house which I thought was sweet of him. He doesn’t have to ask for “permission” but I guess since he knew he’d been out practically every night for the past week he should get in my good graces LOL. I spent a lot of that night trying to blog, but that wasn’t happening since Aly became a little moody.

I’m not sure which two days it was, but Jason and Brianna came over one day for a little while, then the next day Jason, Brianna and Adan came over and chilled out for a while.

John and I went to Kumori again on Wednesday. He’d asked if I wanted to go on Tuesday, then changed his mind and promised we’d go the next day. So we did. And it was delicious as always. I had a different roll this time, the Nevada Roll, since it has everything the rolls I usually get do (the Fiesta Roll) except the tampico paste, which I love, and fried salmon skin, which I hate. John liked that it was a dollar cheaper, so he told me to get the tampico paste added on the top. So I did it. It came out to $1.35 more than the other one because of that LOL. I love that place. I wish it was closer!

Thursday was spent biting my nails off, literally, waiting to hear from the school/job. I called and the Librarian didn’t have any info, so she told me who to get ahold of to ask. I called, she was out to lunch and nobody called me back. Rats.

I’m not usually the type of girl who feels pain and discomfort during That Time of the Month; I usually only have a little back pain. But Thursday night I started to feel really crappy.

That night was the night that some crazy, drugged up man came knocking on our doors. It was around 11:30pm and I was talking to Ricci on my cell. Mary calls to the house phone to ask if Mario was home because someone was knocking and she was afraid to get up and answer and Big Mario was already asleep. I tell her no, he’d left to Tommy’s. As soon as I said that, I heard a knock at the door and Eenan, who was sleeping in the living room, groggily yells, “Come in!” I drop both phones, grab Alaethia and run to the living room. I tell Eenan to get in my room and I pull the curtain slightly back. The crazy man notices and I see a huge eye staring back at me. I gather all my courage and pull the curtain open and see a 30ish year old man with a receding hairline and wearing a dingy white t-shirt holding a pack of cigarettes and waving money in my face. He says, “A dime, lady! A dime, c’mon!” in Spanish. I shake my head at him and wave him away and quickly close the curtain. I kind of stand there for a few seconds, wondering if he’s crazy enough to break the windows on my door. I grab Eenan and we run to my bedroom. I call Mario right away and he’s here in 5 minutes from Yadira’s. The man had long gone, but my in-law’s had called the cops and apparently they’d been looking for him because they knew he’d been knocking on other people’s doors looking for drugs. Crazy. Mario felt really bad that he wasn’t here and kept apologizing. I played it cool, because I didn’t want to make him feel worse but I was terrified. I’m just glad nothing worse happened. Mario and I stayed up watching gross videos on Ebaumsworld.com for about an hour and then went to bed.

We all slept a little late on Friday. I felt even worse than I did the night before. My legs hurt, I was cramping, my back was killing me and I was SO TIRED. Even after sleeping 9 hours. We got up and got ready to go to town. We had to pick up Mario’s paycheck and get a few more school clothes for the boys. We had totally forgotten it was Tax-Free Weekend, but it wasn’t too bad. We had lunch at Burger King and it was pretty packed there, though. Aly was so cute eating her green beans, which I remembered to pack this time. It was nice being out together :).

We went to the bank then to Target where we got the boys another pair of jeans each, socks, undies and a few other things. And then we went to Academy where I bought Mario a rifle shotgun he’d been wanting for at least 2 years. Dove (is it doves? Whitewings, whatever) season is coming up and he didn’t get to go last year since his dad was out hunting with the shotgun Mario was going to use. He deserves it for everything he does for us, especially working his fingers to the bone to give us everything we need and want. I sat at the shoe department with the kiddos and I’m pretty sure I saw my childhood friends, Jesse and Daisy, shopping around. They’ve been together since 8th grade. And I thought Mario and I’d been together long!

We went home afterwards and then to Yadira’s later, where we learned about some family drama. We came back home and went over to Elda’s where we sat around chatting and visiting with Isaac, who’d stopped by. They decided to bar-b-q and I felt like total crap so Aly and I came home (right next door LOL). I didn’t feel any better that night, after eating some chilli and cheese tater gems and munchers from Star’s. I’ve really got to stop eating so much fast food and just general junk. I felt sluggish and like I was about to barf right before I laid down. My back hurt so bad I needed to get up and warm up a rice sock.

I felt really tired this morning; so tired that I went back to sleep after the alarm went off to wake up Mario for work. Poor thing was rushing around like crazy. I slept a little longer and woke up when Alaethia did. We all ate breakfast then Mom came over. I got in the shower and John was here when I got out. We made plans to go to town. Dropping a pizza off for Mario for his lunch was the first stop, then we went to the mall. Tax-Free Weekend was in full-effect — there were no parking spaces what-so-ever. I went around the parking lots of the whole mall and finally went over to the Sears side. After a few rounds I found The Perfect Parking Space at the doors of Sears. I changed Aly’s diaper, Mom stayed with the boys at the little seating area in front of Sears and John, Alaethia and I walked off. We went to JC Penny first. I had a $10 off coupon so I was going to get a pair of jeans (because the ones I have are like, 3 years old already) but I didn’t find ONE pair of Arizona bootleg jeans. Damn sales. Instead I got two little T’s and a blouse for Mom for her birthday tomorow. I estimated it should come out to $18 after the coupon but it didn’t. It came out to $10.47! I love JCP!

John got what he needed, bought some games and met Mom and the boys. The boys wanted to get on a ride and the stupid machine ate my quarters. Grr. We picked up a pizza for ourselves and ate on the way to Gramma’s. Mom cleaned up her room a little and after talking with her for a while and getting a list of stuff she needs we went to H-E-B.

The kids didn’t want to walk around anymore so we popped a DVD in for them and Mom stayed with them in the car. As usual, John and I spent an hour in there shopping. I bought extra canned foods just in case Hurricane Dean makes its way over here. Hurricane Erin totally missed us; it went Northeast of us, but this one seems like it might hit us or Northern Mexico. The last time a hurricane hit Northern Mexico we lost power for 24 hours (and that’s also the fateful day I began reading the Harry Potter books!). So, I’m just preparing. If nothing happens the boys will be happy to know they’ve got tons of ravioli to eat LOL.

And after that we’ve just been home. I made tacos for dinner and I waited up with the boys who were waiting up for Mary. She went to a casino in Eagle Pass with her co-workers and the boys were desperate to sleepover so they waited up. And then Aly fell asleep so now I’m finally updating! She’s so cute…and grown up. She recently started holding her own bottles!

Okay, so that’s going to be a long one. I thought I heard her stirring so I should stop tapping on these keys. Goodnight!

I shouldn’t have drank that whole glass of chocolate milk. I drank it about 2 hours ago and I still feel uncomfortably full *burp*.

Right. So my interview was Friday. I hadn’t even mentioned what I’m being interviewed for. A librarian’s assistant. At a middle school.

I got ready with plenty of time, grabbed my resume, kissed all the kiddos for good luck and was out the door. I didn’t feel nervous till I put the key in the ignition and started backing out of the driveway. Then I felt as if my heart was in my throat.

I left the house about 15 minutes early, since the school I was being interviewed at isn’t far from home at all. I sat in the car for 3 minutes, composing myself, fixing my hair, then decided to get down since I didn’t know exactly what office I was meeting the woman at. I see two different entrances and try both. There’s old, yellowed newspapers at the foot of each door, and both doors are locked. Panic sets in. I curse myself for sitting those extra three minutes in the car, since now I had only 7 minutes to find the correct door. Luckily a lady sees me walking away and asks me what I needed. I told her I had an interview and she points me in the right direction: the “main” door was at the side of the school.

I walk to the front office, am asked to sign in by a cheerful secretary and sit down next to a clammy, nervous-looking young man. And do I mean nervous. He kept sighing, shaking his leg, cracking his knuckles, coughing — he started to make me feel even more nervous than I already was. My heart suddenly started pounding in my chest and then my throat. I was sure everyone in the very quiet lobby could hear me. I caught myself cracking my knuckles and thought ‘What if this guy’s here to get interviewed for the Librarian’s Assistant position, too? I can’t show him I’m nervous!’ So I tried being as calm as possible (boy was that tough) and almost screamed when a woman with black hair called my name.

She’s cheerful, introduces herself and I introduce myself. She gets to talking immediately about the job’s responsibilities and asks if I can handle the workload. I tell her yes, definitely. She tells me about how far the new location will be and asks if I’m still interested. I gulp, because it’s about 7 1/2 miles away from my house, and say yes, I still am. She tells me my hours would be from 6:30 a.m. to about 3:15 p.m. She tells me about the pay and I nonchalantly nod (but in my head I’m screaming ‘YES, PLZ!’). She has me review the questions she was going to ask me while she reviewed (and made tons of notes on) my resume.

She was impressed with my resume, overall. The whole interview lasted 1 hour. Half was discussing the job, my strengths and being questioned about my ability to do the job and the other half was talking about reading, books, our kids and schools. It was pretty interesting and honestly, I felt relaxed and comfortable after 5 minutes of speaking with Mrs. V. I could totally work for that lady.

At the end of the interview she asked if I had any questions and we started talking about how far the school was from my house. She said, if I wanted, that I could take a drive and time myself to see how far it would be, but to keep in mind a few extra minutes for morning traffic. I completely forgot to ask the important question that should always be asked at the end of the interview: ‘When can I contact you about your decision?’

We walked out talking about the school I graduated from and shake hands. I’m feeling pretty chipper and as I’m getting into the Equinox my heart sinks when I realize what I’d done. Or not done. I wasn’t at peace all day until I called to ask her, politely, when I could call back to check on the status of the position. She said there were 9 applicants. She’d submit The Name on Monday, the board would review on Wednesday and I could call by Thursday to find out. Holy shizz, I’m dying to know.

There were 8 other people. I’m competing with 8 others for this job. She told me I could “time myself” to see how “far it was” for me. Did she tell that to everyone? She wouldn’t tell me to go and waste gas and drive all the way over there if she didn’t pick me, would she? Why would someone do something so mean?

If she picks me, I’m not sure how I feel about waking up at 5:30 to get to work on time since Alaethia still isn’t falling asleep before 11, but at least it’s progress. At least it’s not 1am anymore. We’ve (Mario and I) already discussed the drop-off, pick-up situation for the boys and it would work perfectly, although I’m nervous about them riding the bus. Mom would be taking care of Aly and would probably take over making sure the boys are ready on time in the morning once I leave so Mario can drop them off, but I’m nervous as hell about what to do when she has one of her many doctor’s appointments. It’s gonna be a bitch driving down that long road in the dark, on my own, but I would totally do all this, no matter how taxing it’s all going to be. This is a good job, with good pay, benefits and days off when the kids have them off (well, most of them since they’re still in elementary). I get to see them after school for some good hours and still do everything I need to do, like help with their homework, get their showers ready and have dinner on the table by the time Mario gets home. And hey, if I do get this, after a few years I can maybe transfer closer to home? Okay, okay…I’m getting ahead of myself.

We’ll just see what Thursday brings. Right now, I’m sleepy and my lap is sweaty since Alaethia’s on it. Will update with the rest of Friday-Today tomorrow.