Category: Family

Get comfy, Loves. It’s another long one.

I’m SO sleepy I can’t stand it. None of my Boogers are asleep yet, but the boys will be sent off soon. Aly on the other hand…well, let’s just say there’s at least two more hours before I can fall asleep :(.

She’s “exercising” as we speak. She’s standing up against my chest (so I can type, heh) and she’s doing squats LOL.

She’s been doing so many cute things that I want to remember always. Like when she does “The Cricket”. When she gets mad she screams and rubs her ankles together, much like a cricket does. As her frustration heightens so does the speed of her ankle rubbing–cutest thing, ever.

The only way to get her to eat her baby cereal is if I’m eating at the same time. Her eyes get huge when she sees regular food since she thinks I’m going to feed her from my plate, so I trick her. I hide her plate behind mine and pretend I’m spooning food off my plate to give her. Works like a charm!

She also loves drinking water from “big” cups. I think it’ll be really easy to transition her from a bottle to a sippy once the time comes. And speaking of water, she LOVES bath time! When I’m rinsing something in the sink she automatically thinks it’s time for a bath and gets really calm and just waits. Then she sort of squeals when she realizes it’s not yet time for a bath LOL.

She also got her first diaper rash yesterday, but thankfully I’d JUST bought diaper rash cream so it’s already going away. She’s been sitting up a lot more when she’s in her Boppy. And she also sleeps through most of the night but doesn’t actually fall asleep till 12:30-2am :(!

As for the past week: Last Saturday was spent paying off all the bills like I mentioned I’d be doing in the previous entry. Well, most of them, anyway. First stop was the bank to cash the check and then Capital One to pay off that stupid credit card. I felt so relieved just walking out of that bank knowing I was free from that awful card with it’s stupid member fees and Payment Protection. Grr.

I had to go to the dreaded mall since I had to pay off both our JC Penny accounts and the Sears card. The boys behaved as though they’d never been let out of the house, it was awful. They quickly changed their minds once Mom and I threatened not to take them to McDonald’s for lunch. It made my day a little brighter when we went to the food court and actually got seats within 2 minutes of looking around.

We had to wrap things up quickly after that since I’d promised Mary the kids and I would accompany her to a graduation party for one of her co-worker’s daughters. In my hurry I forgot to return my shoes at Payless. So, that would be another stop I’d have to make later on. Lovely.

We got home and unloaded the truck and not even 10 minutes later we were leaving to the party with Mary. On the way to the party I called Sears to get rid of the Account Care insurance thing. I don’t know how many times I told that woman I just wanted to get rid of it but she kept insisting I should keep it since I’d be protecting my balance up to 10,000. I told her “I’m not using this card anymore! In fact, I cut it up! (Lie) So, please cancel the Account Care.” Only then did she finally agree to cancel the darn thing.

The food at the party was good and the boys behaved for the most part since there was a Moon Jump, but they didn’t eat because there were tons of flies zooming about and they loathe flies.

Everyone was complimenting Alaethia and passing her around. We left the party and went to the mall since Mary was meeting Sonia there. Mario picked us up on his way home from work. On the way home the kids are all mellowed out and sleepy and Mario and I talk about how liberating it feels not to have those extra credit card payments anymore. He asks how much I paid at Capital One after all, since they gave him two different amounts before he disputed paying for another annual fee. I tell him, “$492,” and he begins to pretty much imply that I’m an idiot for not somehow remembering the one time he casually mentioned how much it was supposed to be. I paid what he scribbled on the statement and if that wasn’t the amount, then too bad. Naturally I was freaking the hell out about how the heck I was supposed to get our money back!

We slept in on Sunday morning, which was probably the last time I’ve actually “slept in” in the past week. Mario had to work and I had a baby shower to go to. This one was for Carol, Mario’s cousin and Aide, Mario’s cousin, Adan’s, wife. She’d actually had her baby Thursday morning, 2 weeks early. I took my time getting Aly and myself ready. Mom watched the boys since she wasn’t going due to a cold she’d caught, probably from Eenan.

We get to the party and greet Carol. She still had about 3 weeks to go at the time but the poor thing looked like she was due any minute. Aide arrived a little later, looking like she hadn’t just had a baby and was accompanied by Jennifer, her friend and little Isabelle! She was really tiny (weighed 5 lbs. 13 oz. at birth) and is so cute!

There were lots of cute, unique games. One example being the Ice Cube Birth Game, where they put one tiny, plastic baby into every slot in an ice cube tray and filled it with water. Then they put each cube with a baby in it into a cup and whoever’s baby was “born” first, or fully unfrozen, won. You could blow on the baby and warm up the cup with your hands but you couldn’t touch it. Mario’s cousin, Cindy, won that one. My baby wasn’t born till the party was almost over. Reminds me of Eenan LOL.

I won the Nursery Rhyme game, which were one line from several nursery rhymes with a word or two missing. The one who filled in the most correct ones won. My prize was the Coffee Lover’s basket, which was filled with lots of different flavored coffees, a cute ceramic coffee mug, some hazelnut Coffeemate creamer, and some vanilla flavoring. Yum! So far I’ve gone through the French Vanilla coffee and it’s delicious. Best baby shower gift I’ve ever won, I think!

After the baby showers we came home and I dropped the kiddos off with Mom so I could go with Mary to Yadira’s. I helped with some of the bouquets for the wedding. After finishing the bouquets (which hurt like hell to make!) we chilled out a while and then Mario went over to eat after he got out of work.

First thing Monday morning I called Capital One to fix the mistake and ask how I could get my money back but, everything was fine! Thanks to my dyslexia I remembered paying $492, but I actually paid the $429 I was supposed to pay!

We went to the Shoe Depot, where mom found shoes. That was after bringing her 20 that she didn’t like. I felt like a cat brining mice to its owner only to have my owner throw it out the window. I thought I was picky!

We went to JC Penny next where I was only going to buy a gift for Mario. I had a $10 coupon to use and I totally used it. We ended up spending another half hour there since Mom went to the bathroom and then we both shopped around for gut-flattering undies. I’m so going to rock my girdle-like Grannie panties at the wedding!

We went to Payless next to return my other shoes then we visited Gramma. We were starving, so we ordered burgers from Jack in the Box. We went to Home Depot afterwards and I made my payment. We didn’t pay it off, but that’s okay. We’ve only got about $100 to go on the regular interest credit. The other $300 we own on it has no interest or payments till next March. Woo!

We went to Walmart and got stuff we needed. Went home. Felt like chopping off my feet. I usually try to stuff all my errands into one day so I don’t have to be running around and wasting gas the rest of the week, but God I’m tired at the end of it.

The boys were behaving alright due to a point system I had going on. If they got 5 strikes, they’d get grounded. If they got to the five, each time they behaved well would get them a point knocked off. So they were really good LOL.

As tired as I was I went with John so he could get a Sprint account. He figured he was wasting lots more money with his pay-as-you-go Cingular. He took me to H-E-B where I did my two week’s worth of grocery shopping. I was so exhausted I got lazy and bought junk food and microwavable things, which I hardly ever do. I ended up spending $85, which wasn’t too bad considering all the junk I was taking, but still. I made Fillet Mignon and baked potatoes for dinner, which is one of the specials I bought that day. You bought the fillets, you got potatoes, shredded cheese, Mountain Dew, and tons of other food for free! Gotta love H-E-B!

We had Jaylen’s cardio appointment on Tuesday. John was here so he went with us. Mom stayed with my other two. Jaylen was really well behaved that day. I’ve noticed he’s really good when he’s by himself, but when we’re with the other two kids he acts up A LOT.

This was probably the best and fastest doctor’s office we’d ever been to, ever. They even gave Jaylen a sugar-free lolly after the first room he was in, where they stuck a bunch of little squares on him and checked him out. We were moved rooms two more times, and finally the doctor came in to give him an ultrasound and everything was fine. He said it’s an Innocent Murmur that should go away as he gets older. They gave us an appointment for two years from now LOL. We went to Mario’s work next and had lunch at Taqueria el Zarape. Yes, I braved it once more and I’m alright! I ordered the same thing I did last time, though.

We went to Target after we dropped Mario off. John finally bought an air conditioner after all these years. We went to the bank so John could get the money for his car payment and finally went home. I helped John as much as I could with the air conditioner, then left with Mary to get my Matron of Honor dress adjusted. For the first time in all my life, The Girls and I are going bra-less! This dress has a built-in bra, and although those usually don’t work out for me I have to admit I looked alright! I need to find pasties or double-sided tape or something though. Last thing I need is a nip slip at a wedding…

Anyway, we came home and I helped John with the window unit. We’re a bit wimpy and the air conditioner looked like it was about to fall out so, desperate for help, we called Jose and Jorge over to help. They helped tremendously. Next thing to do was upgrade John’s computer. I got everything done while John covered his windows up with foil. Ghetto, yes, but quick remedy.

Even after upgrading the RAM on John’s computer and adding the new wireless card the internet still wasn’t working. We can’t figure out why. I gave up and came home to make dinner and banana bread. I made the mistake of trying to take a shortcut. NEVER take shortcuts with baking, or cooking for that matter. Instead of separating the batter into two loaf pans I poured it all into a 9×9 square pan. The edges were a beautiful golden color and totally cooked. The middle…was still batter LOL. I had to cut out all the good parts and finished cooking the center. It was delicious once it was all baked!

Wednesday was a bit more low-key. I can’t remember much from that day, actually. As for Thursday, Sally came over! She called around 10am that she’d be coming over and since I haven’t cleaned much now that Alaethia’s super-clingy, I had to put her down for a nap and clean as quickly as I could. And I still had clean piles of folded laundry all over the place and she arrived when I was in my sleep clothes LOL. I cleaned up really quick and we sat around talking and catching up. We sat in the kitchen, eating lunch and talking. Aly was on my lap and the boys kept running in and out, interrupting, but Sally genuinely looked like she didn’t mind at all. That’s what I love about her company. I always feel like my wild kids are going to annoy everyone, but my friends are pretty awesome about their craziness.

Sally’s been having a bit of a tough time lately. I really hope everything sorts itself out–she feels so stressed and I fell so bad for her. I want to meet up with her again this week, but God, we have so many things to do still to prepare for the wedding. I want her to know she can confide in me–I know she and Mayra and my other friends were there for me during my pregnancy. You really need people during pregnancy; to talk, to vent, to share your happiness.

We got on Myspace and stalked searched for people we used to know. We even busted out our middle school yearbook LOL. That was pretty fun. And we were also total dorks and did the Gender Prediction test I did when I was pregnant. According to the test, she’ll be having a girl! Woo! She wanted to wait to find out the gender of the baby till he/she’s born (she still does, actually) but she’s sort of wanting a girl right now. Pete wants a boy, as men usually do, especially because it’s their first child. It’ll be so cute if she has a girl–Aly and her will be buddies since babyhood like Sally and I (and Pete) were!

That night we (Mary, Yadira and her kiddos, Sonia, Elda and Jorge, although Jorge just went to check out the women at the mall) went to look for lingerie for Noelia’s Lingerie Party on Monday. I hope she’s not reading this, but I got her a comfy tank and cute sleep shorts from Gap since everyone else will be getting her sexy things. I figured she’d want something normal. Mario got home early that night and I was out. That always happens!

On Friday I dropped Mom off at the doctor’s office since she was sick as a dog. She couldn’t stop coughing and the mixture of her diabetes medications were making her sick to her stomach. It’d gone on long enough–I told her she needed to go. After I picked her up we dropped off her prescriptions and she watched the boys for us while Jorge, Mario, Alaethia and I went to Mario’s work to pick up some tools then to give John’s car payment (which I accidentally gave twice for June! We’d already made a payment for him before he took over payments and I completely forgot. I still need to call back and make absolutely sure, but from what the automated teller told me he doesn’t have to make another one till August!). We picked up Mom’s prescription and then came home and Mario and Jorge made burgers on the grill.

Later on in the evening Jorge, Mario and I went with Chris to the lake he works at to release our turtles, Jackie and Daniel, into the wild. We never got around to building them the dream pond we wanted to, not could we afford it right now even if we wanted to, so that was the next best thing. They were spending their days in a tiny Rubbermaid box and it wasn’t fair to them. They were quickly outgrowing their 20 gallon tank and there just wasn’t any way we’d have room for a 30 gallon one in our tiny apartment. The lake was the next best thing. I didn’t even know it existed. This lake is beautiful and very private. It’s a member’s only type deal, and only 120 members are allowed per year for $500 a year, which isn’t bad at all if you think about it. Some have the memberships their whole lives if they want to. Needless to say, getting a membership is super hard. There’s a waiting list hundreds of people long.

Anyway, we found the perfect spot–where there were enough tiny fish for them to eat and where it was shallow enough for them to come back to to bask. I was seriously holding back tears when Mario was placing them in the water. I’m going to miss them. We had them for 2 wonderful years.

I’m going to change the subject before I bawl.

Mario left to work Saturday morning and I got myself and the kids ready to meet Mary in Downtown McAllen so we could pick out Alaethia’s dress for the wedding. I didn’t want it to be too “foofy” or tacky so I was bracing myself. Luckily I found some cute ones at the place we went (where Jaylen embarrassed me as always by throwing a fit on the floor) and ended up with a cream-colored satin dress. Very princess looking without being too overwhelming. It cost a bit more than I wanted it to, but oh well, what can you do?

Mary got her some little matching Mary Janes at another shop down the street. Those were super expensive. Next stop was getting nachos for the boys and then we left to get some drinks at Stripes. I got a drink and chips for Mario and dropped it off to him. We visited Gramma and then…we went to get Alaethia’s ears pierced at Wal-Mart!

I was so nervous. I tried calming my nerves by going around the store and getting a few things I needed. Then we went to the jewelry department. They didn’t have the 14 kt gold balls we originally wanted (not only because they’re real gold, but because they were pretty inexpensive $15.80. I didn’t want to get anything grand since Mom was getting them for her and I felt guilty!). They didn’t have her birth stone, Garnet, either, but I didn’t mind because I wasn’t too fond of it; it looked black =\.

The ones I truly liked were some 14 kt gold cubic zirconia stones, so we got those. Mom said she’d get those and put in $20 and I put in another $7. Eenan got the camera and took pictures for me and although he got me in very unflattering angles he caught every moment.

She screamed as soon as she felt the lady messing with her ears. I got teary eyed, but I was concentrating so much on keeping her still that I didn’t actually cry. She didn’t cry as long as I thought she would, though. She cried only while they poked her ears and as soon as I picked her up, although she was still hiccuping a little bit, she stopped crying. And she looks SO CUTE! No one will ever mistake her for a boy again! Well, nevermind. They just might.

I gave her Tylenol as soon as we got home and sat her in her high chair so she’d eat. I got her a jar of Squash for her to try. She LOVED it! She ate everything I served her, which was half the little jar. It was a day of firsts for Alaethia :).

She took a nap, which I was really nervous about since I was afraid she’d hurt her ears. She’s rubbed frantically at them already, which is her custom when she’s falling asleep, and she hasn’t fussed.

I didn’t sleep well at all last night. Jaylen caught Eenan’s cough and everytime he coughed last night I’d wake up. I gave him water twice because he’d rather cough all night than actually get up and drink something. Then of course, Mario kept trying to wake me *cough* and after that, at 3am, we wake up to a weird electric-saw sound. We jumped out of bed and he tiptoed trying to find the noise and I followed close behind, to protect him in case some alien was trying to saw through the door (hey, you never know and he’s scared of aliens). We followed the sound all the way to the living room. It was coming from the computer. Mario shut it down quickly because it sounded like it was going to explode any minute. We thought it was the power supply, but even after he changed it out today it’s still making the noise. Turns out it’s the darn hard drive. I’ve already moved all my junk to my external hard drive, just in case. We’re still going to get a new one and some more memory.

Alaethia was having trouble sleeping because she’s got chest congestion again, my poor baby. I got so scared one of the times she was coughing because of the noises she was making that I put her on my chest and let her sleep there till we woke up at 10am. Mario was already up and gone. I got the kids into the shower, fed Alaethia, bathed her and then Mario got here. He’d been at his Grandpa’s house. We gave him his gifts, which weren’t much this year unfortunately, but he liked his two new shirts. I took a shower afterwards and started on the lasagna I was taking over to Yadira’s. That was my contribution for Father’s Day. We went over there and had dinner and talked with everyone. We stuck around a while watching TLC and then came home. We chilled out eating grapes and melon and joking around with John while watching TV. It’s been a mellow day. Mario’s off putting gas in his truck right now and probably at his cousin, Adan’s, house getting tips on WTF to do about our extra harddrive. I have no idea how to check if that one’s a goner or not.

I’m finally posting this after, what? A week? I kept adding every day’s happenings but just never got around to checking everything and posting. So much for keeping up, huh? Blogging’s like washing dishes — you let a day go by and by the time you know it you’ve gotten so far behind you don’t even want to start tackling it. I’d also caught an awful ear infection and had terrible neck pain sometime in the middle of last week so I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Thank God Mary had a new bottle of Amoxcillin (sp?) — I feel so much better!

Tomorrow will be the start of what will surely be a hectic week. I’m stressing and it’s not even my wedding. Tomorrow evening’s Noelia’s Lingerie Party, Tuesday’s the rehearsal, the boys have dentist appointments on Wednesday and Friday will be spent getting the boys’ hair cut and maybe getting my nails done. I’m not sure about that one as we’ve spent so much money already. I can’t wait till everything’s back to normal and we actually get to rest!

There were 1,864 messages in my inbox this afternoon, going back as far as February 2005. I’m down to 4. Oh yeah, baby.

Alaethia’s been extra-clingy today so I haven’t been able to do much (chores-wise) while she’s been awake. I took the opportunity to roll her Boppy around myself and sit her on it while I typed and deleted. It’s amazing how much stuff I’d either held on to or just hadn’t replied to. Does anyone else have that many e-mails in their inbox just collecting dust?

While going through the e-mails I realized that I’ve gotten out-of-touch with some people and I feel terrible about it. Either we’ve grown apart, they disappeared from the ‘net, or it’s been so long that either of us have made an “effort” to chat, that I feel embarrassed doing so now. I was so busy with school and then my pregnancy after that that I kept putting e-mails and comments on hold. I’d try catching up with the older ones so I’d put new ones on the back burner which would then make me fall even farther behind. Vicious cycle. I’m going to try my hardest to be a better…Reply-er? Respond-er? Well, you know what I mean. I vow to keep in touch with people and reply to comments and e-mails as fast as humanly possible. That meaning: when Alaethia lets me :).

I made dinner with Alaethia attached to my hip yesterday evening. I didn’t think I still had it in me. I remember with Eenan and Jaylen I could actually wash dishes while holding them. I can’t do that now LOL. I totally should have invested in a sling for Aly–it would make things so much easier!

My arms are killing me. I put her down on her “circle” I’ve got on the floor and she’s smiling her goofy smile at me. I love this kid to death! She looks so sleepy, but she’s fighting it. Lately she’s been falling asleep easier if she’s got a washcloth or her blanket over her eyes. I don’t feel comfortable with her doing it in her crib when she’s alone at night, so I make sure to tuck her blanket in really snugly around her and her wedge. But if I’m with her I love when she does that! She’s such a cuddly baby!

Mario just got here and she rolled up and squealed at the sight of him. She loves to spend time with him. It sucks that he’s always out, though!

Anyway, Alaethia didn’t fall asleep till 1:30am last night and it looks like tonight will follow the same trend. She was hysterical last night, crying for what seemed like no reason. She kept rubbing her eyes and screaming until she started gagging from crying so much! I had to run to the bathroom and hold her over the toilet and after a while of hearing her I started gagging, too LOL. She was fine after she calmed down, but I still slept with her in my arms for about half an hour because I was afraid she’d choke.

I woke up every hour last night, the first two times because of Eenan. He’s been having trouble sleeping for about the past week. I don’t know why–just out of nowhere. He woke me up at 2:15 and then 3:00, both times talking about how he couldn’t sleep and how he couldn’t get something into one team. He said they kept splitting up into two teams O_o. He’s a sleep walker, and like his father, remembers dreams vividly and talks in his sleep about them…while he’s walking!

Hmm..like I said before, I’ve not done much around the house except try and keep up with laundry and dishes. I’ve been doing the dishes every time we use them, instead of letting them pile up and risk not getting a chance to do them at night because of Aly or whatever reason. I’m happy with how clean the house it, though. It still needs some work, like the boys need to get their toys off the kitchen table and I still need to put some boxes into the storage room but other than that, the house looks spiffy :).

I just remembered, Jaylen’s asleep on my bed. Since Eenan went to sleep over at Mary’s and there wouldn’t be room for Jaylen he decided he’d sleep in my bed. He gave me “permission” to have Mario put him in his bed when we’re ready to go to sleep. He’s so cute, he fell asleep listening to his nursery rhyme CD LOL.

I should get ready for bed (even though sleeping won’t actually happen for another hour or so). Mario’s off tomorrow and he gets paid, so we need to cash his check and start paying bills. So depressing. We’ve got to figure out which vehicle we’re going to move the payment date of since both are at the beginning of the month and we won’t be able to pull that off with all the other bills.

Mario also got a new credit card, but WAIT! Since it’s got such a low interest rate (after the first year of not having an interest rate at all) we’re going to consolidate some of our credit cards so we’ll have less payments to make a month. We’d never got to an actual consolidation place, not only because it’s a bad mark on your credit but because we don’t have that much debt. This shall be fun (sarcasm)…I really dislike having to go through all the bills and see how much of our money will be sucked away. *tear*

Mario just told me his cousin and his wife had their baby this morning!! A little 5 pounder! I hope we get a chance to go see them tomorrow!

(…continued from previous entry)

Elda brought Eenan over when we got here. He still looked normal–his fever was gone and his eyes didn’t look droopy like they usually do when he’s got a fever, but he did have a phlemy-sounding cough–so we took him to the doctor anyway. We had to go through the whole process of calling the insurance place and trying to get an approval but this time we weren’t so lucky. I guess they asked how he “looked”, if he was really as sick as his brother, and since he wasn’t, they didn’t send in the approval right away. It actually didn’t go through till later on that day when the office was already closed, so they made an appointment for the next morning.

We were supposed to go to Jorge and Maggie’s that night, but since the boys were sick we didn’t want to get their kids sick so we stayed in. I’ve been “staying in” a lot lately, which is probably why I’ve felt so crappy and anti-social lately. Mario, on the other hand, goes off as he pleases, always having something to do with one of his friends, uncles or cousins. I admit though, he has invited me over when he goes to his cousins’ houses and all that, but I feel a bit weird since they’re drinking and having a good time–I feel like they’re not comfortable talking like they usually would if I weren’t there.

I took Eenan to the doctor the next morning, Saturday. By then he still felt alright, but he kept getting that darn fever and we couldn’t figure out why! Alaethia was still fine, thank goodness and Jaylen was feeling much, much better and actually had cereal and ate it all. The mornings before he’d leave all his Fruity Pebbles in the bowl because it hurt too much to swallow them.

(Going off subject here but I just LOVE how the latest version of Firefox has Spell Checker built in! Yay!!!)

So, back to the doctor’s. Eenan was in a chipper mood. The nurse checked him out, only a slight fever, and when they walk us to the room he asks what else they’re going to do to him. I tell him they’re going to check his throat with a long Q-tip, to make sure he doesn’t have Strep like Jaylen. You’d have thought I’d told him they were going to remove his arms and he’d never be able to play video games again–the kid SCREAMED his head off and ran, quite dramatically, down the hallway to try and escape.

Surprised, and a tad embarrassed, I tell him, “Okay, fine, they won’t swab you!” and they give him a cup to pee in instead. Everything came out fine on that end, but of course he wasn’t checked for Strep. He still hasn’t gotten any type of sore throat or become listless like Jaylen so I guess he’s fine. All they knew was he had a cough, not even a bronchial problem like he usually has, so they prescribed some cough medicine and that was that.

I can’t remember what else I did that Saturday. I was exhausted, I remember that much. Ever since Jaylen started getting fevers I would wake up 3-4 times a night and check up on him, then later on Eenan and Alaethia, just in case. At that time, Alaethia had been sleeping through the night, not waking till at least 7 or 8am and I just couldn’t sleep well worrying about the boys.

Oh, now I remember! I know I had to drop off Eenan’s prescription and we went to McAllen. We stopped at Michael’s since Mom wanted to look for some stuff. I found some cute, inexpensive stuff, so I was happy.

I also got a jar to put the wooden spools into. They were all so cute–I want them all!

Pete and Sally were having a little get-together for Pete’s birthday that night so I was excited to see them. Well, 7 o’clock rolls around, then 8, then 9. Mario calls and tells me he’s still not being let out so I had to call Pete and tell him we weren’t going to make it. I felt awful! Then at 9:30 he calls and tells me that Maggie’s been in an accident. Nothing major, she was fine, thank God, but the front of their fairly new Honda Accord is in shambles. The people who hit here were little teenage girls who didn’t even have licenses or insurance! The dealership was also going to get in trouble since they let them take the car out of the lot without proof of insurance.

We went to the movies the next day, Sunday, to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, World’s End, is it? I braved it and took Alaethia with us and although she did have me standing at the top of the stairs for about half of the movie, she did pretty good. The boys loved it. I thought it was kind of long and my ADD was kicking in, but good nonetheless.

After the movie, the boys wanted to go with Mary so she took them. Aly, Mario and I went to Jorge and Maggie’s and just hung out for a while. We checked out the damage on the car and although it didn’t look like there was too much aesthetic damage, the car was immobile due to the springs and struts getting messed up. Maggie and I talked and she even gave me this awesome candle they sell at her workplace! It smells yummy. I wish I could see her more often. Too bad Mario only likes going over there when he feels like it!

There was word all around the neighborhood that a thunderstorm with hail was coming to the area, so we got ready to leave. It was really dark (I love when it looks like that) so we hurried home and got the boys ready for dinner and bed. There wasn’t any hail, just lots of wind and rain, so the kids got to sleep soundly. Well, as soundly as Eenan could sleep with his awful cough.

Jaylen’s awards assembly was the next day. Both boys went to school since they were fever-free and Jaylen’s throat didn’t hurt anymore. Eenan still had a slight cough, but he was on meds and took cough drops with him.

I hadn’t even left the house when at 8:05am, 15 minutes after he got dropped off by Elda at school, I get a call from the nurses office that Eenan’s got a fever of 100°. I was in disbelief; he was fine when he’d left home! His teacher’s a bit of a hypochondriac and DOES NOT like to have even slightly sick children in class and sends them home right away. They said he was fine other than the slight fever, so I told them I’d pick him up right after Jaylen’s awards assembly.

I went to Jaylen’s assembly with Mary, since right afterwards we’d be leaving to town to shop for my Matron of Honor dress and Sonia and Yadira’s dresses. Jaylen got his Pre-K completion certificate and Mathematician Wiz award. I totally thought he’d get a “Most Helpful” or “Best Behaved” award since his teachers were always talking the world of him, but his class wasn’t getting those kind. Oh well. He was pretty disappointed that he wasn’t getting a trophy, but only kids who’d gotten perfect attendance were getting those and of course, my boys missed that one day in January when they tricked Mario into letting them stay home. *scowl*

I asked if I could take Jaylen home with me after the assembly and his teacher said it was fine, all they were doing was fun activities and no work. Good! I didn’t have to worry about picking them up then. I dropped them off with Mom, gave Eenan some Motrin and made him lay down to get better and we left.

We picked up Sonia and Yadira and first went to JC Penny. I picked out three dresses I liked in the colors that would match Noelia’s theme and ended up with a white one with tiny silver flowers sort of embossed on it. I guess you could say I settled for it; it was the first decent thing I saw, I didn’t look too fat in it, and I was afraid if I left it and it was the only one in my size (it’s a 5, juniors. How I fit into it is beyond me! I’m a 7 in juniors!) I wouldn’t be able to find it later if I didn’t find anything anywhere else, which I didn’t.

Yadira and I were done within and hour of arriving at JC Penny. The rest of the day was literally spent walking around town, all of McAllen main and 10th street, looking for Sonia’s dress. She didn’t like many of the styles and wanted a certain color. We stopped to eat at Taqueria El Zarape, which I was terrified about since that’s the place where Mario and I ordered the Taco Piratas in 2004 when we got sick with that terrible food poisoning that lasted, in my case, 4 weeks and ruined my Disneyworld vacation!

I made sure to steer clear of any chicken and white cheese and ordered the baked potato, beans and Tacos de Bistek combo. It was all so delicious and I waited all day to feel ill but I was fine! I totally need to make an “I survived eating at Taqueria El Zarape 2007” button!

We spent another few hours looking around and eventually went back to JC Penny where Sonia found a dress! At the place we started at, no less! I could barely walk by the end of the day, my feet hurt so bad!

The boys went off to school on Tuesday morning since they both felt well again. Eenan was excited about his awards assembly, since he was fully expecting to get a trophy and “prize” for having All A Honor Roll all year long. But again, just like the day before, they call me from the nurse’s office to pick him up because he’s coughing and his temperature was slightly elevated (99°). I told them he was fine and that he said he felt fine enough to go to school so I allowed him to go. They told me his teacher wouldn’t want him in the class because “that’s how she is” so I got frustrated and just went to get him.

As calmly as I can, I tell his teacher he’s on medications and he’s not contagious anymore since he’s almost getting over it. She pisses me off by telling me he got the ENTIRE class sick and even his best friend, Abraham, was sent home the day before because of a fever. I’m living by now, because I hate when she blames him for getting everyone sick (apparently Eenan’s some kind of “source” or “carrier” it seems. She doesn’t think anyone else could possibly carry a sickness but him I guess). I tell her that my son, Jaylen, got Strep from someone in his class and that Eenan did not have Strep, that he caught his cold from someone else in the class so it wasn’t his fault. She still tells me that she doesn’t want him there because he coughs on everyone. (Just as she said that, this other kid was coughing in the background with his mouth wide open but she didn’t say anything.) It also pissed me off that this little girl, whom I’d never seen before, kept putting her two cents in and the teacher kept laughing at her comments like it was the funniest thing she’d heard. Usually, she yells at all the other kids to shut up because she’s got a visitor. I did not like that woman. I was totally going to report her, everyone wanted me to report her, but it was the last days of school so it’s not like they’d do anything about it. I hated how she’d yell at the kids. Urgh!

Alaethia had her 4 month appointment on that morning. It took an annoying 3 hours for them to get us in, and that’s because her appointment was at 9:15. By the time we got a room I had to leave to pick up Jaylen. So, I lost our room and had to wait another half hour to get back in. Jaylen was thankfully behaving himself. I’ve been having lots of trouble with him lately.

Anyway, Alaethia weighed 13.9 lbs. and is 24 inches long. They gave her an oral vaccine and then 3 actual shots. Poor thing lost her voice while she was crying. As soon as we got home I gave her some Tylenol because she’d already developed a fever. She was moody all afternoon, poor thing. I don’t blame her!

I didn’t send Eenan to school on Wednesday, because knowing his teacher I would have been back at the school by 8:05 again. After I picked Jaylen up from school the boys kept fighting. They were like that ALL DAY LONG.

I was folding clothes that night and I had it on Fox News. They had a commercial right before the news that there was a recall on a baby swing. I look up and it just so happened to be Aly’s Fisher Price Rain Forest Swing! Darn thing. I liked it so much. Apparently there’d already been 60 injuries where babies got their heads stuck. I took a picture of it to remember how cute it was, found all the papers it came with and took it to the store the next day, Thursday.

It was the boys’ last day of school, thank God! I took them both, because I’d be damned if I was going to keep Eenan from seeing his friends one last time before summer began. He didn’t have a fever and was well rested from being at home all those other days. Damn teacher.

Elda usually drops them off for me, but I dropped them off on the last day since I wanted to say goodbye to Jaylen’s teachers. I’d gotten them all (including Eenan’s teacher) some little plush bears that were zipped up in an apple as a donation to the March of Dimes. When you unzipped the apple, the bear would pop out with a little sign that says, “I love my teacher.” I didn’t even want to give one to Eenan’s teacher anymore for how she’d been treating Eenan, but he did so I gave her one.

Eenan’s class was having a “slumber party,” but of course we wouldn’t know that since Eenan hadn’t been present at school. I went back home and got him a blanket, pillow and snacks and took them to him. He took a few pictures with his friends, which was really cute.

I took Jaylen to his class and he happily gave Mrs. S. and Mrs. T. their apples. They loved them. Mrs. T.’s going to be a Pre-K teacher at a new school next year, so that was the last time we’d see her. I felt so sad :(. They were both so good to Jaylen, I almost cried having to say goodbye.

Mom, Aly and I went to Target to return the swing after I dropped the boys off. Since Alaethia’s already 4 months old and would need a high chair I got one of those instead of another swing. I wanted a girly-er looking one but all they had were either neutral or boy colors so I got the least boy looking one there was. It was $59.99, just like the swing so that worked out.

I like using coupons. Random, I know. I got $1 off of her wipees and totally forgot to use the $5 off one I had for buying baby furniture. When Mario and I went the next day, I “returned” the high chair and “bought it back” with the $5 off with no problem. That’s why I love Target, they never give me trouble.

When I picked Eenan up from school he was overloaded with binders and papers and seemed really frustrated since the bag he had tore. I asked him if something was wrong after Brandon had already gotten off the car and he cried a little, saying he’d miss his friends during the summer. Aww :(. He remembered to get some of their numbers though, to invite them to his birthday party in July. He spoke to his friend Rolando that night and his mom and I discussed maybe going to a park or out to eat sometime with them. I think it would be great!

Friday was awesome. It was the first official day of summer vacation and it was nice getting up at whatever time and not having to rush around picking up the boys and waiting to go to town. We went straight to get Mario and the boys’ tuxes fitted for Noelia’s wedding and ran a few errands after that. Mario dropped off his new truck to get something done at the dealership. Oh, I forgot to mention that. Mario got a 2003 Chevy Silverado about a week ago and John’s taking over payments and keeping our other car, the 2005 Dodge Neon. Our little 1998 Nissan Sentra, our first car ever, we sold to Tommy and Yadira. I’m gonna miss that little shit.

When we went back to pick up the truck I stopped by Ricci’s work to talk to her for a while. She said there’s an opening where she works and she’s going to be manager. Wow. That’s pretty awesome. I told her to keep me informed about everything and hopefully she can get me good hours that’ll work with my schedule.

Mario and I put Alaethia’s swing together that night. She’s been eating her oatmeal cereal ever since!

The next day, Saturday, Mom, Alaethia and I went to town. Since John was off he stayed with the boys. Good thing, too, since it was Mom’s turn to shop for her dress for the wedding and I knew we’d be taking a while.

Our first stop was Goodwill, where I found some pretty cool stuff.

I also found what I like to call an Anemone pillow for the boys’ room and a floating shelf for Alaethia’s toys (that Mario’s still yet to put up!). And I only spent $15! I was disappointed that I hardly found scrapbooking stuff, but oh well.

Our next stop was JC Penny, where, after trying on several arm-fulls of dresses, Mom found a great dress. We next went to Shoe Carnival, where Mother took forever to find something she liked. She ended up getting some bronze-ish colored shoes she only “sort of” likes. I found some white dressy shoes with tiny rhinestones across the strap that I liked and would match my dress perfectly, but the color was a tad off so I decided I’d exchange them. My arms were killing me by the time we were done since I’d been carrying Alaethia around everywhere. I stupidly forgot to put her stroller back in the truck.

We ordered some Taco Bell, I stopped real quick to see Mario and we came home. Felt so good to be home.

That night I accompanied Mary, Jorge, Tommy, Yadira, their kids, Elda, Jose and their kids to Progresso, Mexico to buy the rest of the Crown Royal bottles for Noelia’s wedding. I also took the opportunity to buy my birth control pills (it’s $.60 cheaper than Reynosa, so two packs came out to $10!) and a cute necklace. We ate some tacos at a Taqueria, where Yazmin gave a little boy $5 to sing to us. I felt so bad. I wanted to bring him and all the other little kids I saw working home :(.

Mario and I went to McAllen all by ourselves on Sunday morning. Mom offered to watch the kids so we left them with her. We went to eat at Jesse’s which was awesome. I had shrimp enchiladas. We had a great talk, even though there was some finger pointing on my part about how Mario’s never home, even when he does get out of work early. Hopefully it makes a difference and I wasn’t just talking for nothing!

We went to Payless after that, to see if they had any cute shoes that would actually match my dress. I found some and bought them, and they were only $7.99! We went to Shoe Carnival to return the other ones and then went to Target to get $15 back from a price adjustment on the high chair we’d bought. It always happens that we buy something and it goes on sale a few days later! So, because of the price adjustment and the $5 coupon, we ended up paying $42 for a high chair that originally cost $64!

Alaethia started feeling a little ill on Sunday night, so I took her to the doctor on Monday morning. She woke up with a stuffy nose, and sounded really gargley due to all the congestion in her chest. She caught Eenan’s cold, which I figured would happen since Eenan kept getting near her after he’d cough all over his hands. He kept assuring me he’d washed his hands, but she ended up sick anyway.

They took us in pretty quickly, since there weren’t a lot of people in the office that day. The doctor said she had a bit of bronchitis, so he prescribed some Albueterol for the nebulizer, to continue giving her her cough medicine, and he also gave her some ear drops.

I also went to visit Sally that day and took her Alaethia’s bassinet and Jaylen’s old bouncy. The poor bassinet was becoming a nice place to dump stuff since she didn’t use it anymore so I figured Sally will get better use of it once the baby’s born. We had a good time catching up and then I taught her how to make Fideo :). We sat down and had some and finally, when it was almost 7pm Alaethia and I came home (the boys had been acting up really bad, so Mom was watching them for me. I was afraid they’d destroy Sally’s house!). I got to see Pete for a little bit and then we came home. I actually made it alive! I’m so scared to drive over there because of all the bridges and on-ramps LOL.

So that brings us to now, where I’m trying to get the hang of having all 3 kiddos home all day. This is the first summer with three kids and it’s proving to be a challenge on some days. The boys are finally quiet right now, after having a snack of P&J sandwiches. They were terrible this afternoon. I even took video of them misbehaving to “show” Mario, which quieted them right down!

I don’t know how Kate from Jon and Kate Plus 8 does it–I don’t know how many times I’m going to say that. I hope they continue to air their show when their kids are 4 and up, so I can see how she disciplines them. I sometimes wonder if I’m doing something wrong–my boys are so aggressive lately! I think it’s mostly because they want attention since I’m always with Alaethia.

I finally finished reading Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes. Great, great ending! I wasn’t sure I’d like it since the beginning was a little slow, but I couldn’t put it down after the first few chapters. I’ve started on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as a refresher for the next book. I can’t wait till it comes out! Well, maybe I can because I need to finish this one and when it does come out that means summer’s almost over, the new school year plus madness will start and I’m quite enjoying these slow days now that the kiddos are feeling better. What a difference not having to pick kids up twice throughout the day makes! My days feel just a tad bit longer, which is a good thing :).