Category: Daily

At the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, that is. I know we’re going on Friday for sure since I already have the tickets, but I got a little pang of jealousy in my gut when I was watching the news at 10 and they showed a huge group of people counting down to seating time. Wahh!

I didn’t do much today besides laundry and cooking and all that. Mario took the Equinox (to save gas) so I had no means of transportation. Well, I did; I had his truck but he left it on Empty and I hate having to pray that I don’t stay stranded all the way to the gas station so I just stayed home. I need to keep the Equinox tomorrow since I need to give his truck payment and go to the bank. You know, all that lovely adult crap.

Anyway, Mario got home early from work for once. He had to *ask* though. I wish it were like this everyday. I made dinner (chicken tacos and rice) and Mario and Jorge were over at Mary’s so I took them food over there, fed the kiddos and Mom, Aly and I went to Mary’s to see Noelia’s wedding photos with Yadira, Elda and the girls. I’m still quite peeved that the darn photographer decided to keep the picture of me where I have my eyes closed. I even asked him to take another one, please, because I knew I’d closed my eyes and he said he did. LIAR!

Mario’s back from Jorge’s (he escaped for a while) and now I need to shower before he falls asleep and Aly wakes up. Hopefully she’ll go to sleep early tonight!

I’m finally able to just sit. That damn chicken. I’m never making it again. I used this McCormick packet for chicken and veggies — same one I used last time — and the darn chicken cooked for almost 2 hours because it wouldn’t cook all the way through. I hate making chicken to begin with because I’m deathly afraid of poisoning my family with Salmonella. Never again!

Anyhoo, I slept a little after Mario left to work and I’d given the boys breakfast. I didn’t let Alaethia sleep more than 15 minutes 2 different times all day yesterday (I’m trying to train her to sleep earlier) and she still didn’t go to sleep till 1:50am. At least it’s progress. At least it’s not 2:30. Mario and I were ready to go to bed by 12 (after we’d watched TV while eating popcorn and Tostitos cheese in bed), but Aly had other plans.

(Mario just told me he envisions me as Sam’s mom, from Transformers, when we get older LOL.)

After I slept for a little bit I got up, made some coffee and started making lists. Of groceries, house supplies, and toiletries with the price of each next to it so I could tally everything up and come up with a budget. Then I added up the last three bills we needed to pay (it wasn’t much, just $36), cost of movie tickets and snacks (most of which I bought at H-E-B. I’m boycotting the expensive ass candies they sell at the theatre), and gas and extra money for Mario. I waited for John to get out of work because he needed to go buy groceries too, and then we left to the bank while Mom babysat the kiddos.

The plan was to get money out of my Target Visa. No such luck. They didn’t have a cash advance machine and I couldn’t just go to an ATM since I barely ordered my PIN number. John agreed to lend me the money and I’d pay him back when the PIN came in. Awesome. I went to an office to drop off copies of my diploma and transcript for some jobs I applied to, put some gas, then off we went.

I stayed within my budget at Walmart ($10 less, even) and within my $100 budget for two weeks of groceries at H-E-B (I was actually $4 under). L33t. I was wondering about this when I was idly scanning the isles while shopping: how much do you spend on groceries a week/every two weeks? Do you shop only for a few days at a time or do you shop for a long span of time, like I do? I buy enough for two weeks for the 4 of us (I don’t count Aly since she doesn’t eat our food yet) and try to stay under $115.

I feel so much better about everything. Bills are paid off and we won’t starve. Thank God for my little brother. It works out even better for us since Mario was going to sell John a brand-new amplifier for $100 and he said to knock it off the money we owe him. Awesome.

AND we’re going to the movies on Friday after all on top of everything else. I’m so excited! Mom’s going with us, so we’ll be taking Aly. This shall be interesting. Mom offered to stay but I told her, “Oh, yeah right! You have to go!” I’m gonna need an isle seat, though. If the last few times we’d taken Aly to the movies are any indication, I’m going to be on my feet for the duration of the movie. Must remember to wear comfortable shoes!

Yup…she did it again. I put her in her crib when she fell asleep at 11:45 and now, at 12:11, she’s awake again. Little booger! I should have Eenan make her crack up laughing like he was doing earlier to tire her out. It was the cutest thing hearing her expel these huge belly laughs.

This is all for tonight. Let me try this again…

Well that didn’t last long. The giddy happiness I felt on Friday is no more. I don’t usually write about our hardships on my blog, but I can’t get this out of my head. I have to vent.

The situation at Mario’s work turned into yet another drama and in the midst of it all Mario had to hand over $150. Out of his own pocket. $150 that we needed for bills. His paycheck was going to be short as it is because of his vacation pay (which, after 2 years of him working there, they still haven’t increased), so we were going to be cutting it close as it is. But I would have budgeted. Now I have no idea how we’re going to make it till the next paycheck. I’m going to have to withdraw money from my Target Visa, which I didn’t want to have to do at all. Which will then raise the finance charges, which will ultimately cause us to have to pay much more a month. John said he’d lend us the money, but I feel totally, well — for lack of a better word — weird borrowing money from my little brother. And then what if we can’t pay him back? No, no. I’d rather just take the risk with my Visa.

How the heck did we get to this? Everything was peachy and now I’m panicking, worrying about what’s going to happen next. I’ve been looking for jobs left and right even before this happened, but everything I want is either taken or I’ve been overlooked. I’m not used to that. I’m used to wanting something, going for it, and having it in the palm of my hands. I don’t want to have to call the Career Services department at my old school because then they’ll be calling me EVERY DAY to go in for interviews to jobs that are either too far away or just suck. Blah.

And on top of it all Alaethia still goes to sleep at 2am. If she falls asleep before then and I think, Awesome, I’m putting her in her crib and going to sleep! she’ll wake up as soon as her head grazes the softness of her mattress. I’m totally thinking of taking up Maggie’s offer of working with her. The plus is that it’s close by. I’ll be going in in the afternoon, but the shitty thing is that I won’t be getting out till 9pm. There goes all my time with the kids :(. The pay isn’t anything to celebrate about, either.

And I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m GOING to watch Harry Potter next week.

Right now would be the perfect time to fall into some money, like an inheritance left to me by some long-lost relative. Or winning the lottery. Not state lottery; I’d be happy with $500 off a scratch-off. Or finding a $100 bill on the ground somewhere. I wouldn’t feel guilty about taking it because there wouldn’t be anyone around…

Okay, enough of the day dreaming. I just have to keep thinking positive! That’s it. We’ll make it. We’ll figure it out. We always have. And that reminds me of the song that Mario had me listen to a few days ago. I’ve been absolutely in love with “Hey There, Delilah” by The Plain White T’s. He said he thought of me when he heard it, aww :). It’s funny how it’s sort of fitting right now.

(P.S. I added the radio.blog on the right as you’ve probably noticed. After messing around with it for a while I ended up with those two awful lines of numbers up at the top. I can’t be bothered to fix it right now, as unsightly as it is. And I had to resize it to fit in the column so it’s sort of hard to see the text, but enjoy anyway.)