Category: Daily

I ran around doing all the last-minute school things for the boys on Sunday. It never fails; we started everything super early this year — clothes shopping, supply shopping, etc. — and yet, I was still labeling and putting stuff away in their backpacks on Sunday. I also filled out all their paperwork which is always annoying. We had a quinceanera practice for Yazmin’s quince, where I bribed the boys with a Wii game after my first paycheck (which is 3 days after the quinceanera) if they cooperate during practices and do well during their performance. (Had I mentioned that? That they’re both participating in Yazmin’s dance? I think I did.) They did much better than the last time. I went to buy formula for Alaethia at H-E-B because just by chance I noticed she was completely out. Then we went to Yadira’s, where all the women helped with the centerpieces for the quince. It was nice. Noelia went over there, too. By the time we were done, it was already 8:30. We got home, we ate dinner, the boys bathed, I bathed Aly, got everything together, I showered while Mario watched Aly and then I went to bed. It was the most nervous I’d felt before bed in a long time.

I got up and got the boys up. I woke them up too early, so tomorrow I’ll wake them up later. Well, Mom or Mario will. I’ll already be on my way to work by the time they get up. They looked so cute in their new clothes and were really cooperative. I kept running everything by them, like their bus number, and they were fine. Mario, Aly and I all took them to school. I wish it were like that every morning *sigh*. Eenan took right to his class, especially because his best friend is in there. He saw me and said, “Hi Miss!” Aww!

Jaylen did awesomely, too. He looked nervous but didn’t act like it. A good bunch of his classmates from last year are in his class this year so he did just fine. I spoke to the teacher and she promised to get him on the right bus. I was so nervous about that!

We came home, Mario made us breakfast while I got his work clothes ready (aww!) and I finished getting ready. It was pouring outside. We wished eachother luck and he left. I held Aly then left her with Mom and spent the next hour and a half literally running all around one of the old campuses getting my paperwork signed. I’ll go into detail when I have time. I started work at 11:48am, had lunch at home at 1:08 because we’re stationed at an old school 9 blocks away from my house until we get moved into the new school, which is 8 miles away, jeesh!

Everything was pretty easy, for now while the kids still aren’t checking books out. We’ll be circulating about 1,500 books a day. My boss is great; I love how she gets excited about books. All the people I met were great. It was Noelia’s birthday. We met at Lotus for Chinese food and now I’ve got tons of crap to do before I get up at 5:45. And Mario and I are already arguing.

Meet the Teacher Night was Thursday night, and it went really well. Eenan has a male teacher this year and he seems nice. He’s an older man and he’s big on reading like his teacher last year. Eenan’s taking the TAKS test this year so they’re going to be practicing for that all year.

Jaylen’s teacher is one John observed when he was taking the Substitute Teacher training a few years ago. He said she was mean to the kids LOL. I’m hoping she’s not; she seemed pretty nice when I met her. When she saw Jaylen and Eenan playing with the blocks and stuff she asked me, “He’s quiet, isn’t he?” I tell her, “At school, yes, very. At home, no so much.” She laughs and says, “Yes, I can tell right away which ones I won’t have trouble with.” Aww :).

I had to peel myself away from the bed yesterday; it felt so nice and fresh in the bedroom and I was so cozy cuddled up next to Mario. I got up, set the coffee pot, got washed up and dressed, ate my cereal and looked at the time: 8:30am. I picked up the phone and called the HR office, again, to set up an appointment to get my paperwork finally done. I finally speak to the lady who “takes care of” paperwork and guess what? She sets an appointment for Monday at 10am. Grr. I tell her my boss would have liked for me to go in that day, Friday, and that she definitely wanted me in by Monday. So simple things are for that woman; she tells me, “Oh, yes. You can come in, get everything done at 10, and go into work right after that if you’d like.” Um. Duh. Yes, I would like that.

I called my boss and gave her the news. She was cheerful, thank God, and bid me a good weekend.

I was fuming and boiling with rage for a few minutes, just thinking of how long everything’s been taking, but then I realized that I’d be able to drop the boys off on the first day of school! Mario and I will both be accompanying them that morning and I feel so much better about being there. I need to know about their bus schedule and all that and I need to turn in their enrollment papers. My babies will be going on the bus after school now! I’m so nervous! The last thing I want is to feel that helplessness in the pit of my stomach when I call home and Mom tells me they haven’t — or worse, ONE of them hasn’t — arrived yet *gulp*. But…they’ll be alright I hope. All the neighborhood children come in the bus and they’ve all been fine.

So after a bit of debate, John and I went to Target to pick up some photos I’d left for developing. Only because I had two $1 off coupons, if not, FORGET IT. Target is my world, but I don’t much care for their photo department’s ridiculous processing prices!

I found two blouses, one of which is a little thin, so it needed a tank or something under. We scanned the whole store and couldn’t find the perfect raspberry-colored tank anywhere. I look down at the blouse I’m wearing and pull from under it the raspberry tank I was wearing. Duh. John was really mad I’d taken so long for nothing LOL. We got some diapers for Aly and some scrapbooking stickers I wanted, stopped at H-E-B for milk (it’s too expensive at Dollar General! We ran into Chris and Nancy and they invited us over for dinner) and came home.

Alaethia turned 7 months old yesterday ^_^! Time’s just flashing by too quickly :(. Even John said, “I’ve been working too much. She’s already 7 months and I hardly ever see her.” It’s going to feel even faster once I’m working, but at least I get the afternoons with her. She’s already talking and babbling and crawling and trying to hold herself up…it’s crazy! She started saying “Deh-deh” the night Mario was setting up the mini fridge and held herself up in her crib for a good while. She’s so confident she tried walking off and immediately fell on her bootie LOL. She hasn’t started pulling herself up yet, but I’m sure she’ll do it any minute. She’s been goofy, sticking her tongue out at anyone who does it to her and has completely gotten the hang of holding her bottle and sippy cups on her own. She’s such a big girl :*).

I played with Alaethia awhile and Mario slept for about 2 hours before we left to Chris and Nancy’s. Their house is looking so cute with all the repairs Chris has done and the decorating Nancy’s done. They make me want to go out and buy a new living room set (which we’re going to have to do in the next year or so anyway).

Gloria and Jorge were there and it was nice catching up with her. We gossiped about husbands, family, decorating and played with Alaethia. She was such a good girl. The boys were alright for a while, got bored and Mario dropped them off at home since they wanted to sleep over at Mary’s. We stayed till 11pm, Mario and I searched for people on Myspace, then went to bed.

I didn’t want to get up again this morning, but at least I had an extra hour of sleep. It’s going to be so hard getting used to waking up at 5-5:30am! Ugh. That’s probably the only thing I won’t like about working LOL.

Mom and I (and Aly) borrowed John’s car and went to the thrift shop (shh! He doesn’t know, buahaha!) but found nothing. I mainly go for scrapbooking stuff and they didn’t have zip, except for some chipboard letters I found. We went to see Gramma after that and dropped some stuff off to her she needed, chatted a bit about my new job and everything else, and came home. She looked so tired today :(. She has a cough, again, and it just drains her of her energy. I asked her what her current favorite color is and she sort of just shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal, when usually she’d think about it and happily tell me. I hope she feels better soon :(.

And now I’m here. I’m waiting for 5 o’clock to roll around so I could go to a party with Mary. I was supposed to go to another party with Chris and Nancy, but I’d forgotten about this other one so I’ll have to call and let them know. I’m going to try and scrapbook a bit and then get the boys’ school papers done. Or maybe I should do it the other way around LOL?

Alaethia woke up for a bottle at 5:30am Tuesday morning and I couldn’t fall asleep after that. I was up till 7am, making mental lists of things I needed to do. I tried sleeping, but couldn’t. Needless to say, I did not want to wake up when the alarm went off at 7:45. But at least I didn’t end up falling asleep, again, like I had been all week and waking Mario up super late.

Everything went really fast. John and Isaac came over and we dropped Isaac off at work, deposited money at the credit union for Mary, then went to Mary’s work to pick up a coupon she printed out for me (we still can’t find the CD to the printer so we can’t connect it to the laptop, grr). Luck would have it that it would be pouring when we arrived at the building. I got the coupon, got some papers I needed to take to a school for Noelia records, we stopped by Petsmart to see the animals, then went to the mall. We found some awesome parking close by JC Penny and went in. As soon as I went in there I knew I was going to have a hell of a time finding stuff in my size. I figured that after Saturday they’d replenish stock after all the sales, but it sure didn’t look like they did. I didn’t even know what to buy, so I bothered Mrs. V. again and asked what the dress code was. No sleeveless, capris are okay but you have to have nice legs (LOL), professional clothing and there were Polo shirts as our “uniform” if I’d like to do that, but it’s not required. They’re $28, which is more than I’d ever usually spend on a blouse, but it beats having to come up with an outfit every morning.

I spent two hours there and found hardly anything. I usually have to put blouses away because I want so many, but this time I couldn’t find anything at all. Out of everything I did try on I bought two pairs of “dressy” capris, a blue blouse and some black dress pants, which look like a pair I already have. Since all I have are open-toed shoes and they’re not allowed, I had to buy some. I’m going to be on my feet a whole lot of the day so I got some cute Mudd mary janes in black and brown. I had to order the black ones from the catalog, but I’m glad I found them.

John was acting like he was dying and he was doing me a great service by “being there” with me while I shopped for those two hours and wanted food. He was in a bad mood because Game Stop wouldn’t return one of the crappy games he’d bought. We went to the food court and got pizza and the shittiest sushi I’ve ever eaten. He bought dessert: a Minibon from Cinnabon. Those things are HUGE. I wonder what the regular cinnamon rolls look like.

I’d been doing so good watching what I eat and went and ruined it yesterday. And let me tell you, I immediately felt it. Carb-overload. I felt overly full and bloated.

We went to H-E-B after that to get the rest of the boys’ school supplies. I didn’t find Jaylen’s jumbo primary pencils. We went straight to the school to get Noelia’s paper, which took forever because they kept sending me to different doors and then told me the woman I needed to speak to wasn’t there at all. Pissed me off. A woman finally showed us to the gym, where the lady was stationed, and I got the darn paper. We rushed to the church to pick up Alaethia’s baptism certificate and I made it about 10 minutes before they closed at 5. I got home on time to pick up Isaac, but he’d gotten a ride with Jose.

I did everything I needed to do in the evening then Mario called while I was making dinner around 8pm. He wanted to buy a mini fridge so there Jaylen, Alaethia and I go at 9pm to meet him at Target. Mary watched Eenan while we went. We get there, get a few things Mary needed, get a few things we needed (and I found Jaylen’s jumbo pencils!) and got the fridge and paid. And I dropped off two rolls of film, finally. Still got about 10 more to go! I can’t wait to see what’s on them…they’re from like…3-4 years ago!

As for today…I didn’t want to wake up again in the morning and spent about 10 minutes huddled up in Mario’s arms for a while. That made me want to climb out of bed even less, but I did. Got Mario’s lunch ready, his breakfast ready, his clothes ironed and then fed myself and the boys. Eenan got ready, we dropped off Isaac at work, and then we left to the doctor’s office.

It was full, but they saw me right away. I was freaking out a little because the area that they’d injected me with the TB thing was RED. I’d stupidly hung the shopping basket yesterday while we were at H-E-B and hurt my arm. They said I was fine, though, and filled out my immunization card. I’d have to bring Eenan back in though, since they’d just received the vaccines and had to inventory them and all that. They told me to go in at 1-1:30, while they were at lunch so they’d do it really quick.

I dropped Eenan off then went to the HR office. My luck — the woman I needed to speak to about my paperwork was at a funeral and might be out all day. GREAT. I told the receptionist my supervisor wanted me in at least tomorrow but she apologized and said that the other woman was the only one I could see. She gave me a number to call back to to check if the woman went back to work.

I feed the kids lunch, spend time with little Aly and then call the HR office at 1. The woman’s still out, but they think she might return. Fine. I said I’d call back at 2. I took off with Eenan (who was quite reluctant knowing he was going to get a shot) and we get to the office. THE DOOR IS LOCKED. With a huge note that says they’ll be back at 2. ARGH. I’m so frustrated right now. At least Mario just called and made me feel better.

I’m off to call and go to the doctor’s office. I hope this day takes a turn for the better! I want to go to work tomorrow! (I may not be saying that later LOL…)

Update: 2:37pm – NO GO. Went to the doctor’s: NO VACCINES. They said call tomorrow. Called to see if Mrs. Lopez was in: SHE’S OUT OF THE OFFICE…again. She went back to work after the funeral apparently, but she’s “in and out of the office”. I left a message with all my info and told them to tell her it’s about my damn paperwork. How stressful.