Category: Family

Inclement Weather

We returned all the supplies we’d bought to re-do the bathroom floor yesterday, after all. We were never going to do it and nobody was going to have time to help us, so yeah. I guess it’s better though. Since we got everything on our Home Depot card and returned it, we only owe $7 on our Regular balance. The rest ($300) is the promotional “no interest or payment for 12 months”, which is awesome because there’s no pressure to pay it off :). We’ll eventually do it, fixing the floor. Maybe next income tax refund time.

It started getting cloudy last night and eventually drizzled a little. Alaethia, for some reason unbeknownst to me, didn’t fall asleep till after 2am last night. I like to cuddle her when I’m giving her her before-bed bottle because I love that closeness, but she was just impossible last night. Mario was out at Chris’ last night and didn’t get home till late and she was STILL awake. I was already half asleep while she was still happily kicking away so I told him to just lay her in her crib. About 10 minutes later, after she’d rolled in circles all around her crib, she surrendered. Needless to say I didn’t feel like doing anything in the morning. It sucks waking up again at 7:30 to get Mario’s stuff ready for work after sleeping in till 11am every morning for a week. I got Mario’s clothes ironed and since he woke up late too and only had 10 minutes to get ready, he left and I went back to bed. Mom wanted to be in town bright and early, but I told her I just couldn’t. I ended up sleeping in till 11 and only woke up because Mary called. I got to eat breakfast and take a shower in peace; Alaethia slept in till 1:15pm! I kept checking up on her to check if she was still breathing, no joke. It freaks me out when she sleeps for long stretches like that. Too bad she sleeps in those long stretches only after I’m awake.

We didn’t end up going to town or to see Gramma because it started pouring. Instead, Mom stayed with the kiddos while I went with Yazmin and everyone to pick out Yazmin’s Quinceañera stuff. We spent a good 2 and a half hours there and came home.

I ripped my CDs onto the iPod for a good hour, then Noelia and Andy came over to open up their gifts they received at their wedding. They got in from their honeymoon at Disneyworld today and poor things had their luggage lost. I wonder if they went to pick it up at 8pm like they told them to?

They got lots of good stuff, and as it usually happens, 2 toasters and about 4 slow cookers LOL. They packed up the rest of Noelia’s things from her room, which is really sad since everyone’s so used to all her stuff being there. The kids miss her terribly, but they’ve called Dibs on her bedroom already. They’re sleeping over there tonight.

We chilled out for a while at Mary’s with everyone and made plans for the 4th. We’re having burgers and hot dogs and apple pie a la mode! Yum! I love the Fourth of July :). We need to go see Gramma, too, since it’s her birthday as well.

I am so darn sleepy, but I’m getting to the end of The Half-Blood Prince and I really want to finish it soon. I might just eat some of that banana split Mary bought me today that I forgot about so I can stay awake. Yes, I am aware that it’s 11:30pm. But Aly’s not ready to fall asleep and what better way to spend a thundery, rainy night than reading with a nice bowl of ice cream?!

The Wedding, the Husband, the Friends

Seems like forever, again, since I last updated with an actual “update”. The last time I made a decent post was last Wednesday, over a week ago. I mentioned that September would be around the time we wouldn’t have anything to worry about…I was wrong. That’s the month of Yazmin’s Quinceañera! Thank God we don’t have as much to do in it as we did with the wedding. All I have to worry about is buying a cute, inexpensive dress.

Anyway, the boys had their dentist appointments that afternoon (no cavities! And they did really well!) and then I went to pick up my dress for the wedding at the alterations place. I was really happy with how it came out. Everything I wanted the lady to do for me, she did well.

I don’t remember much from Thursday. It wasn’t until Friday that we were running around doing, literally, the last-minute things. We all went (including Mom) to pick up the tuxes. All my boys looked so handsome. After that we ate at Burger King, because we’d promised the boys then went to get everyone’s haircuts. Except mine. Mine I was keeping long for the wedding.

Mayra did a great job on the kids; Jaylen wanted his hair spiky so spiky he got it. It stayed really nice. Eenan got his usual “mushroom cut” and Mario just got a trim since he’d forgotten about the wedding and had shaved his head a few weeks ago. Mayra did a GREAT job on Mom’s hair. I called it Superstar hair, it looked so nice. And me, for the first time ever, I got waxing done. I thought it was going to hurt like hell, because that’s what everyone always tells me, but it wasn’t bad at all.

We went home and then just chilled out over at Mary’s. They were filling the mint baggies and little hexagon-shaped boxes with peanuts. I looked at the clock and remembered I hadn’t bought any jewelry to go with my dress. I didn’t want to go, but I really had nothing to wear. We had two hours to get to the mall (we live half an hour away) and Mario decided to throw a fit about watching Alaethia. They’d already stuffed my Equinox full of junk for the wedding, so there was no way I’d be able to take Alaethia in her car seat if I tried. So I left her, to his great displeasure, but I didn’t care. She’s his daughter, too, dammit.

John accompanied Mom and I. We got the jewelry we needed, which was fake and still cost $14.50, dammit. Add to that the eyeshadow I bought and it came out to over $20. Not cool. We walked around a bit more, then went home.

I had so much crap to do that night I was as stressed out as Noelia was, and let me tell you: she was STRESSED. At 11:30pm I was raising the hem on a pair of Noelia’s new jeans she was taking with her to her honeymoon. After everything else I had to do I didn’t fall asleep till 2am.

And then I had to be up by 8:30 the next morning since our hair appointments were at 9. Didn’t start out as a good day. First, they gave me the wrong directions to the salon, which stressed me the hell out since I hadn’t bothered to stop for gas because I thought I was going to go straight there and I was going to put gas after. I thought I was going to stay stranded. But no, I eventually found it.

I ask them to let me see books for ideas on hairdo’s and a woman points me to a large stack of magazines. Regular magazines. She expected me to flip through each one and somehow magically find a hair style I liked. Didn’t happen. After pouting and feeling like I was on the verge of tears I finally decided to just do one of the hair styles Mary had printed out.

Noelia, on the other hand, was stressing and crying because the darn women never hurried up. They’d given 6 other women appointments at 9am, too, which equaled to 9 of us. That was pretty damn stupid since there was only 3 cosmetologists there in all. They didn’t let Noelia up there till 10:20, Mary at 10:25 and me at 10:30. Thankfully the woman doing my hair did a really good job, or else I think I would have dropped out of the wedding, I was that pissed already. She added some little jewels to my hair (which cost me $1.50 each and there was 6) and doused me in glitter. I was pretty thrilled with the results and saw it as a good omen for the rest of the day.

Before I Massacred It

This picture was taken at 2am, right before I took out all the pins holding it together. It was much less frizzy than that and much more glittery.

I stopped to get gas after my hair was done then stopped by dollar general to get a spray bottle (I still had to do Mom’s hair) and some hair spray for Jaylen’s spikes. I got home, bathed Alaethia, did Mom’s hair, Mario helped get the boys ready, I got my makeup done and helped Noelia with hers, got my clothes on, helped Mario with his bow tie, got Aly ready and after standing around taking in how awesome everyone looked we left to the church.

My Men

Mama and Aly

Everything came to a halt at the church. The Deacon that was doing the wedding messed everything up and was completely rude. He was trying to change the chart they’d originally given Noelia when we were practicing on Tuesday. There were things here and there that were changed as well, like when Mario and I were supposed to go up to do the readings. We were supposed to go after they sang a certain song. Well, there came a point where everyone was hissing and whispering to us that it was our turn, so there we go and read. We did really well, then went back to sit. AND THEN they started singing the song. Darnit.

The boys did really good when walking down the isle; Eenan held onto the little ring pillow and did really good when he was walking up to give them the rings and Jaylen did a great job ringing the bell before Noelia walked. There was a part where the Deacon was saying a really nice story about two little birds he’d seen the night before and how to him they represented Noelia and Andy but he kept saying TUNDER instead of Thunder, so everyone was snickering and suppressing laughs. Mario looked at me when I was standing with Aly in the isle near a window (she’d begun to shriek) and made me laugh, then mouthed, “STOP IT!” as if I was the one who started it!

When it was over we all walked out and gave our congrats to Andy and Noelia and then it began to drizzle so we hurried up and got in the car. We stopped by the house to pick something up, I changed Aly’s diaper because she pooped and then we left to the reception.

We sort of just chilled out and I took my camera with me but I regretfully didn’t get too many pictures since there was so much going on. I got complimented on my dress and hair several times, which was a nice boost of confidence. I was, however, incredibly uncomfortable. Since I carried Alaethia around most of the night, she kept shifting my dress and I felt like my boobs were going to fall out every few seconds. I didn’t get one picture of the 5 of us together, which was really depressing, so I can’t wait to get the photo from their photographer. The boys kept throwing fits every few minutes because they took those darn DS’s with them so they got confiscated about an hour into the reception. We chilled out with Mayra and Manny, Maggie and Jorge, and an old friend of Mario’s, Patty and her husband, Eric.

I was ready to call it a night by 12. I hadn’t slept well in 2 weeks, since the kids had been sick, so as I expected my fatigue caught up with me that night. Alaethia hadn’t been able to sleep that whole night because of the music so she was moody and the boys were ready to hit the sack, too. I said goodbye to everyone and got ready to leave, but Mary asked me to wait for them to put stuff in my truck. I grudgingly obliged and put Pokemon DVDs on, a gift from Andy to the boys for being Junior Groomsmen, to keep them occupied. When Alaethia’s lungs sounded like they’d absolutely explode from crying so much, I called Mario (who was sticking around to drink with friends and relatives) and asked him what was going on; why were we still waiting half an hour later. He came out with boxes and told me his Mom forgot I was waiting. Grr. I leave, and when we’re halfway home I get a call telling me to go back to the ballroom because Yazmin had left Mary’s keys to her car in my purse. Lovely. I was not in a good mood, was falling asleep on the way home and still had to get all the crap out of my hair and wash it. Poor Alaethia fell asleep as soon as I laid her on the couch and the boys fell asleep not long after. Needless to say, I didn’t fall asleep till 3am that night.

We woke up nice and late the next morning and had lunch at Denny’s. It was the first day of Mario’s vacation and we decided, since we were broke and weren’t having much of a vacation this summer, that we’d at least have one day of fun. We had a delicious breakfast/lunch then went home. We waited around a bit and then met everyone at the theatre to watch Fantastic 4 Rise of the Silver Surfer. I’m not a HUGE fan of Fantastic 4, and I thought Jessica Alba looked extremely different in this movie, but it was good. The boys had a blast and Mario did, too, since Jessica Alba’s in it.

We didn’t do much the rest of the week. Jorge invited us to lunch at Taqueria el Molcajete in Mission on Monday, before he left back to Arizona on Tuesday to check on his house to get ready to sell it. We went grocery shopping that day, and Mario was amazed by my budgeting skillz. I went with John to Target on Wednesday, where I bought diapers and a few things for Alaethia (with my Target Visa, which we didn’t want to have to do, since by this time we were already broke).

Yesterday in the evening I met the girls, Sally, Kristina, Karina, and Carmen, for coffee at Moonbeans. It was great hanging out with them and having some laughs. Even Pete stopped by really quick since he works in the same building.

We caught up with what we’ve been doing lately and discussed people we knew in middle school/high school and what they’re doing, who they married, etc. We met at 6pm and I didn’t end up coming home till 10, which surprised Mario LOL. He kept calling me, not to check up but to see if I’d make it to a bar-b-q at Chris’.

We even had a bit of an adventure. Men kept walking up to our table; first one asked if we’d like to buy official Jerseys, the other asked if we had a dollar for gas O_o. The next one was packed with luggage and asked if we’d give him a ride to the airport. We all kinda looked around and pretended we couldn’t hear him. Then he said that if he didn’t make his flight to Mexico, he wouldn’t see his daughter graduate from Kindergarten. Aww. So we all went together (in my truck since I thought it was the biggest but Karina said it was the same size as her car) and hauled ass to get him to the airport in 15 minutes. We were all really nervous, as we were giving this strange man a ride. At one point I see him reaching for his back pocket and my heart sank. I couldn’t help but laugh when I look in the rear view mirror and see Sally with her purse strap, ready to strangle if need be, and Karina with her cell phone in the air, in case she needed to knock him out LOL. He was reaching to get a $20 he’d promised for driving him (which is a lifesaver because I can’t tell you just how broke we are). We made it with, like, 3 minutes to spare, if even that. We stopped by the mall after that for a pee stop then went back to Moonbeans, where we chatted some more and inhaled the weird popcorn smell that was in the air. I think a building was burning, or something–there were cops and fire trucks about a block down from where we were.

It was great. Hope to do it again. I’m so glad that after all these years, I can get together with those crazy girls and still laugh and talk like we used to in middle school (and in the case of Sally and Kristina, since elementary!). I was a little annoyed as I kept being referred to as “Mother Teresa” since apparently I’m still thought of as the sweet, goody-two-shoes I was back then, but other than that, I had a blast :).

As for today, we chilled out watching Little Man and eating half a bag of Reese’s mini cups. We didn’t even do any of the work we were going to do on the bathroom and it’s the last day of Mario’s vacation. I think we’ll just return all the stuff, because, knowing us, we won’t ever do it!

Going to take mom to the store real quick. This woman’s still having problems with all the pills she has to take. And Alaethia is happily rolling towards me in her walker. She’s so big already *sniff*. 5 whole months and she’s already drinking for sippy cups and is trying to crawl!

A Quickie

So I’m going to try and update right now that Alaethia’s still asleep and the boys have begun their video game time. Let’s see how far I get!

Okay, so I didn’t sleep very well Sunday night because of Alaethia’s cough. I had to sleep propped up with her on my chest so that she wouldn’t be choking on her congestion. We didn’t fall asleep till 2am and in between that I kept waking up during Jaylen’s coughing fits. Poor dude. I had to take Mom to her follow-up doctor’s appointment that morning and figured it was a good a time as any to get Aly and Jaylen squeezed in for an appointment.

The office was almost empty, which was cool for us. We got called in so fast I only read about 3 pages of my book (usually I can read 2-3 chapters — that’s how long they take!). We got into the vitals room and I spotted Mario’s cousin, Jennifer, across the hall in the lab department. We found out she’s having a tough time with health concerns right now and she’s pregnant, so please keep her in your thoughts.

My tiny girl still weighs 13.15 lbs. and she’s almost five months old. Big difference from the boys who were lingering around 16-18 lbs. by now! I guess there is a big difference between boys and girls when it comes to weight; I would carry my friends’ daughters and they always seemed so light!

Our doctor wasn’t in so we saw the other one, Dr. M. I don’t really like him. He doesn’t answer my questions and really just doesn’t listen to me. I asked him to give me a generic prescription for Jaylen (since we’re so short on cash right now) and he told me he’d be giving me a cough medicine for him that “wasn’t expensive”. Right. When we get to the pharmacy they tell me it’s my regular co-pay of $20 for the name brand because that’s what he gave me. Grr!

He diagnosed Jaylen with a dry cough and no chest congestion. Aly’s got chest congestion, but he says it’s not too bad. He said her ear was red, but only gave me one prescription for her, which I believe is only for cough (see why I don’t like him?). He said it wasn’t bad enough that she’d need antibiotics. I hope he’s right — she’d been pulling at her ear yesterday. I’m to give her nebulizer treatments every 4 hours, but I only give them to her 2-3 times a day, right after she wakes up and at night usually, because they raise her heart rate tremendously.

Eenan stayed at home with John that morning since I didn’t want him exposed to any more sicknesses at the doctor’s office. He just got over his nasty cough and I’d like to keep it that way, especially since the wedding’s this weekend. Poor thing spent all morning cleaning their room since he was expecting his friend, Rolando, to come over. We waited all afternoon and he never showed up :(. Eenan was pretty sad. He remained hopeful even after I left with Elda, Noelia, Yadira, and Sonia to Noelia’s Lingerie Party, but nope, he never showed. Mom stayed with all my kiddos since no kids were allowed at the party.

Let me just say I know some crazy women. I laughed so much that the back of my head was throbbing by the end of the night. We’re all a bunch of pervs, that’s for sure LOL. They’d told Noelia it was only a Lingerie Party and not a Bachelorette Party to surprise her. I’d never been to one in my life and I had an awesome time. There was a penis cake and I even won the only two games of Dirty Bingo! Woo!

We got home pretty late, around 10pm. I got the boys ready for bed and then Alaethia and I began another sleepless night. Mario got home, late of course, around 12:30 and Alaethia was still awake. We had a long talk about some issues we’ve been having lately, mostly having to do with him always being out. I try to be patient, but it gets tiring. Hopefully we can work everything out and continue to have a good, strong relationship.

I spent yesterday trying to do housework (as much as Alaethia would let me). I’ve been doing pretty darn good with upkeep in the kitchen, even with Alaethia being sick. The dishes haven’t piled up overwhelmingly at all these past two weeks and it’s been such a weight off my shoulders. Yes, dishes were this much of a burden to me. I hate washing dishes and ever since Alaethia was born they’d become even more of a bother. But now that I’m doing them after each meal, after every dish we use, it’s SO much easier. Whodathunkit?!

Around 5pm Yazmin came over and she downloaded some songs she needed. Then John and I started remembering some old cartoons and searched for those on Youtube and I downloaded some old jazzy songs I’d sang in middle school choir. Gotta love technology.

I got in a bad mood quickly though when they asked me to drop Yazmin off at church in Peñitas, only to be sent right back when I was already arriving because the priest hadn’t shown up. This is like, the 2nd time he stands them up. How unprofessional. Still, I was pissed because I was in the middle of getting ready and had to be in a hurry now that I had to be driving around. It’s my luck that when I’m actually getting ready early something happens where I’m still going to be the one they have to be waiting around for. (Same thing happened the night of Noelia’s party.) But I took my time and we still made it on time, at 7pm, to the rehearsal.

Everything was all over the place and really unplanned. My boys were being extra hyper and were not minding anyone. I just pray that they’re on their best behavior the day of the wedding. They moved us around the three times we rehearsed, so imagine how confused they are. Mario and I are supposed to do the readings and when I was up there “practicing” I was told it was the wrong reading and I read too damn fast. Well, that’s how I read, dammit! So now I have to practice reading SLOW. Nice. Mario and I were practicing in front of each other and I was joking around that I was going to read it William Shatner slow. Buahaha.

So tonight we shall be practicing walking down the isle down our driveway. L33t. I should be getting my dress back from the seamstress today and I just hope it came out alright. I seriously need to go buy some double sided tape or something guys. I had a dream The Girls popped out and scarred everyone for life.

I need to start getting ready. The boys have their dentist appointments today and after this, we’ll have a grand total of $6 left in our bank account. Nice, eh? Thank God Mario gets paid this Friday. We’ve got so much shit we’ve still got to buy (Eenan’s party stuff, both boys’ school clothes and supplies, the rest of the wedding stuff, and soon they’re going to want to Baptize Aly *pulls out hair*) I’m so ready to hide in my closet until at least September. September seems like a safe month. Nothing overwhelming happens in September.

(Woo! I just finished this up and Aly woke up. I’m GOOD.)