Category: Daily

Monday – I dropped the boys off on that very foggy morning.

Like always, they made me crack up laughing with their jokes and teenage meanderings. Eenan was telling me about his video games and said, “And then the DS got YouTube and it was like Jesus kissed my forehead.” Buahaha!

Then Jaylen let me know he can finally snap his fingers, and snaps to prove it. I snap mine and Eenan says, “I’m the only one who can’t do that. I can never be sassy. On my grave it will read ‘The Only Boy Who Had No Sass”.

And the last one: “I’m not a social butterfly. I’m more of an anti-social moth…”

HOW does this boy come up with those things?? LOL

The consequences of taking a week off (i.e.: being slammed with work when I got back) caught up with me that Monday. I have 3 events coming up, 2 in January and 1 in February. My 3 BIG events of the year, and I swear there aren’t enough hours in the day. Add to that the other tasks I have, like Certificate processing, committee meetings, reception duty and rushing everyday to pick Emily up at 11:30am–and it gets a little crazy. And it just so happened that that day, during the Monday morning meeting, that we had a reception for a Mayor to start organizing. In 10 days. Sweet Jesus.

The good thing is that the day goes by SUPER FAST.

After grocery shopping (it feels like I’m at H-E-B at least 5x a week), I got home, made dinner and then Jorge and I relaxed with the girls after their baths and watched “The Santa Clause”. Emily had never watched it before and she loved it. It was my favorite Christmas movie for a long time ^_^.

Tuesday – I helped Jessica set up for an event she was having that evening at the Incubator, after one of my committee meetings. I finalized all the details for the reception, like catering and set-up. I’d be doing the centerpieces so I placed an order for Birds of Paradise with H-E-B. I wanted something Christmas-y, but my boss wanted a more masculine-looking arrangement so I had some work to do =\.

After helping the girls with homework and getting them ready for the next day, Jorge and I sat with them and got more ideas for Christmas from them. We watched as they circled things in the Target gift book.

We looked for a gift Emily wanted online. I was panicking because we couldn’t find it anywhere. I even sent out a plea on Facebook and Carmen came through, ordering this gift online at her local Walmart in Louisiana and then we’d work out shipping it to me later. I was thrilled.

Wednesday – Mom had yet another appointment, so I was taking half a day from work, which meant I was running like a chicken with my head cut off to accomplish everything on my to-do list for the day. I’m so glad I have such understanding bosses, seriously.

I picked up Emmos, and then we went to Mom’s appointment while John waited at the house for Aly to get home. I receive a text from Walmart stating that the item I’d ordered was out of stock and so my order was cancelled. I couldn’t believe it. Then came the 2 hours of run-around telephone calls with the Walmart in Louisiana. I was in such a bad mood that I was a rude bitch to the Wal-mart manager I was on the phone with and thereafter, every clinic employee we came in contact with, especially after they told me we had to go to yet another clinic and it still would be about 3 months plus before they could help my Mother with what she needed.

I used 3 vacation days in 2 1/2 weeks to take Mom to appointments, just to have them tell us, “She needs to come back in a week” at every single place. It’s so annoying.

Sally and I had a conversation about our short fuses lately and we’ve both realized we’ve become snappier and take-no-shit-from-people. I don’t know if it’s that we’re more confident and mature…or just getting old and cranky buahaha.

We hung out with John and I vented about all the drama with Mom’s appointments. We ate dinner, Emily worked on her little diamond ornament and I got the girls ready for bed, and when my love got home we put up the Christmas decorations ^_^.

Thursday – I dropped the girls off at school and smooched and hugged them since their dad would pick them up for the weekend.

This was a busy day at work. 2 events in one day. First was the Good Day Luncheon, where Laura, Rosie and I took an intermission when we were done with our duties (my boss and I were in charge of the Santa photos) to take photos around the Country Club.

Then Michelle and I helped Gerry prepare for the All About Women Christmas Affair. Poor Bob fell and hurt himself that night. Michelle and I were in charge of the wine and dessert section. My vices LOL.

There were TONS of ladies at this event. The night didn’t go without incident though; a poor lady fainted and I was left in charge of her vendor booth.

I was exhausted by the end of the night. When I got home, my wonderful love had already wrapped most of the gifts we’d bought the kids. He’s so awesome ^_^.

Friday – I did as much as I could that morning at work before we made it out to Oh Kay’s (a store) for the Cash Mob event. Everything was so expensive, so we were all kind of tip-toeing around, trying to keep from breaking all the beautiful, sparkly things and finding something that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, heh.

I went straight to pick up Emmo’s since her other family couldn’t that day. I was glad to see my little lady ^_^. I ate lunch with her and then headed back to work to finish up the tons of e-mails I was still trying to catch up on. Most are regarding the Mexican Artisan Expo, and it takes me an eternity to complete an e-mail that’s entirely in Spanish LOL. I’m much better than I was 3 years ago, for sure! I ended up working till almost 5:30pm, then headed to Payless where Kristina had called an order of boots in for me. It was FREEZING out and the next day was the Candlelight Posada and I had no black boots. She found them for me and I got a great deal with her coupon ^_^.

My love got home from work that night and we went to Old Navy so I could find a black undershirt to wear under my Posada T-shirt. I found a black blouse, and a chiffon shirt for work. Since I had a coupon it cost us a total of $0.80 hehe.

We were starving so we went to Chili’s for dinner. I had the spiciest darn tilapia, ever >_<. My love was sweet and let me have half his steak since I couldn't eat my darn food. We got back home and changed into some warm PJ's and sat out on the porch, reminiscing about our high school days. We always go back to that, and playfully argue about me breaking up with him and him letting me, heh. Neither one of us thinks the other has the original story right about why or how we broke up. We know WHO the two people were who encouraged us to, but I stick to my story about why and he sticks to his about why. I couldn't remember where we met, which isn't like me because I remember the smallest details about just about everything (well, he'd argue that I don't remember about why we broke up LOL). I thought the first time we met was at Alma's house, but he said the first time he ever saw me was at that arcade place at the mall, which was turned into a clothing store that had a lounge upstairs with black-lighting and teens would just hang out there. I, for the life of me, can't remember that, but I do remember we'd frequent that place. We talked about everything--all the years in between and how much it bothered him being the "good friend" all the time, convincing my ex-husband to stay with his family, not to cheat, that his life didn't suck, etc. But we each made our lives work, each made our friends and family believe we were happy where we were. Made ourselves believe it, too. We played our parts really well, even till the end with the other people we were married to, even when they destroyed our marriages, cheating on us with other people and then conveniently turning the blame to us. And us, being the ones who keep our business to ourselves, never put on blast why our relationships ended, or how long those other people were "unhappy" with us. Oh, but they did. And they made things up and ruined our reputations. But we attribute all that happened in our lives to be something that had to happen; it was part of our history and part of the way that paved the road to each other. Jorge always says that we needed to go through all that to grow and learn, so that when fate brought us together we’d be ready for each other :*).

But, I digress!

Saturday – I woke up and made my coffee, then bundled up and got dressed. For the first time, ever, I wore leggings under my jeans, 2 socks, my boots, 2 shirts, a scarf, my jacket and a beanie. It was cold as balls outside, 34 degrees and I was scheduled to work outside from 9:30am till 11pm.

Ivan and I were in charge of the Marketplace. It went a little better than I thought, although there were a couple of feisty vendors. It always happens though.

I got to hang out with my BFF, Sally:

We took a little break and got some hot chocolate from her department and some sausage on a stick and brisket tacos from mine, heh. Gerry, Bob, my boss, Wally and Steve were at the food booth, and although the grill was warm, they were still out there in the biting cold. Ivan and I were in the biting cold period, and kept taking turns to go inside to get warm or to the grill LOL.

When we were done with most of the work, Steve told Michelle and I to take a couple-hour break, but we thought it would be silly to come all the way home, and then go back so we just clocked out for a bit and hung out inside. Then it was time to clock back in at 4:30 and I was assigned to the gazebo for Santa pics with Sally, woo! It was insanely cold up there. I didn’t even tell Mario to take the kids this year, because it was just so gosh-darn cold. Jorge showed up with Jorgie and Justin (who were dropped off by their mother while she shopped) for a little bit, but of course they didn’t have thick jackets (but I bet someone else did!) so they went home.

We got to see Kristina and her little boy and an old classmate and her family, Sylvia. Our shift was over around 9:30pm, and then it was clean-up time. We were given the green-light to leave and I came home. I was tired, but since we were kidless (the boys had been picked up by their mother) and Junior invited us over, we went.

I was starving, and realized I really hadn’t had food since that sausage on a stick and a crappy hot chocolate from earlier. We looked for a drive-thru that had nachos and Michelada’s, and it took a while, but we found one.

We hung out and talked about the Keto diet, all while consuming carbs, hehe.

Sunday – We got to sleep in, yay! We watched the Patriots win, woo, and then we got ready to go to the mall. My love was insistent that we go. He reminded me that I needed pants, and wanted to look at Pandora charms for me. I wasn’t too into spending on Pandora charms, but I did need pants. All my size 4’s are pinned and the pins really scratch my back LOL. I wasn’t even sure HOW I had started to fit into size 2’s again, what with all the junk-food eating, but I wasn’t complaining, heh.

I got a huge, unexpected surprise that day, but I’ll have to save that for a later post ^_^.

November 26th – I picked the boys up that afternoon and Eenan makes my day by showing me this story he wrote about me:

He made me all teary. I asked him, “Why’d you keep saying you give me a hard time? You don’t!” He shrugs and says, “I dunno.” He’s such a teenager LOL. My big boy :*).

The girls had a Girl Scout meeting and we were using the board room at work so leave it to me to go into work on my day off, heh. I said hi to the girls and ran upstairs with my girls and Jaylen to reply to some e-mails. Ran downstairs and had our hour-and-a-half long meeting. I was exhausted by the time we got home so my love ordered us some Domino’s. Pizza Day is usually Friday, but it felt like a Friday so *hmph*. We watched Cloud Atlas. Well, Eenan was the only kid that watched it with us and I made him close his eyes in the more “mature” parts.

November 27th – Briana, Dina and the kids were on their way to spend Thanksgiving with us and I still had grocery shopping and cleaning to do so I was panicking. Grocery shopping took an eternity since everyone else had the sense to wait till the day before Thanksgiving, like me, to shop. Got home and made Texas toast French Toast for the kids. It was SO GOOD.

Mom had an appointment at her audiologist and that place takes FOREVER. The kids were, understandably, bored. Jorge jumped into hero-mode and picked the kids up and took them back to his office/store so the kids could watch a 3D movie in one of the theaters hehe. When Mom was done and I picked them up they were disappointed LOL.

I ran an errand for Jorge…just to get to the place and find that they’re closed. Super frustrating. Those types of things only happen to me LOL.

The kids wanted snacks so we stopped at Mr. Fast for some sushi and nachos. Yes, there is a restaurant in a convenience store/gas station that sells cheap, albeit delicious, sushi and other snacks. They didn’t have nachos, so we went across town to La Hormiga to get some for Emily. Their dad picked them up that evening since they were spending Thanksgiving lunch with his family.

John came over with his homemade cinnamon buns. We laughed and caught up and I told him about my dramas with Mother. I miss that crazy dude. I remember when we’d hang out all the time and eat sushi 3x a week LOL.

Dina, Briana and the kids got here around 10pm. We sat outside on the porch talking till almost 1am. Needless to say, we got up late-ish.

November 28th – The next day we made a quick trip to Walgreens for a few things and found some amazing sales. We got the girls those pink kitty Seat Pet things and lots of stuff for Julien. Finished about 40% of the shopping in 1 visit.

Dina was in a frenzy getting everything ready. I felt almost guilty ’cause she was a whirlwind in the kitchen. All I really took care of on my own was the mashed potatoes (and that’s ’cause she started peeling them until I took them away LOL).

Half-way through I picked up my kiddos :). Missed them tons, even though they were only gone less than a day.

Jorge’s boys arrived and we got ready for the feast:

It was just so great being together and laughing. We were just missing John and Javi.

All the other photos of the boys were dark or blurry or Eenan would duck and blur out of the photo. Grrr.

Ah, the teenage thing again LOL.

We chilled out and watched a movie with the kids after dinner.

We put the kids to bed and discussed Black Friday (Thursday?) and whether we should even bother. We hadn’t thought about it at all until that moment, so we looked up ads and went to each of their rooms to confirm Christmas lists with the kids and then decided that yeah, we’d try it. Dina said she’d stay with the kids. We risked not actually finding any deals since most of the deals had already started since 6pm. I mean, really? That’s ridiculous. That’s the time we ate dinner!

Jorge and I went to Target and Walmart and found a few things for the girls. Jorge went crazy at Walmart with the Barbie things. I turned around at one point and he had his arms piled high with pink things and an excited twinkle in his eye LOL. You really couldn’t beat the prices.

November 29th – We didn’t end up going to sleep till almost 2am and I set my alarm for 5am to make it to the HEB Plus sale. I’m insane, I know. I wanted to get some T-Fal pans sets for myself and Dina, a coffee pot, an Android kid’s tablet for Julien, and some video games for the boys. I get there and the line is around the store like last year, but I’m glad that the whole event was smooth and people were polite. I didn’t get the T-Fal pots (I swear they only had like 5 in stock, ’cause I went straight for those), but I got everything else ^_^. Between the Walgreen’s shopping and the Black-Friday shopping, we got 80% of our Christmas shopping done!

Dina and Briana had family to visit so they did that. John visited and we watched stupid, funny videos with the boys. The little ones became extremely hyper after lunch and the boys were getting cabin fever so they went outside. Julien was sick with some kind of stomach bug since he’d arrived and he’d just eaten, so I stayed in with him. Emily was getting moody and stubbornly insisted I go outside with her. I distracted the girls by playing Candyland with them and Julien calmed down too. All the calm is over when Justin, Jaylen and Nick come in and Justin’s got his hand over his mouth. The geniuses got the idea to play Hide and Clap with a beanie over their heads and he ran into a mesquite tree. Sweet Jesus. I helped him clean out his mouth for at least 30 minutes. And they didn’t learn. Apparently they were doing it again when they went home later >_<. We spent the post-Thanksgiving days with the kiddos, lazying around and enjoying our time together. Jorge and I took a very late-night trip to Walmart to find one of Emily's gifts...to no avail :(. The rain and cold had calmed down a bit so we took them to the park on Saturday. [caption id="attachment_1992" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Aly and Jaylen[/caption]

Alaethia was a little upset because we went to a different park this time. We came home to get a few kids to use the bathroom and then it started raining, so we couldn’t go back to Daffodil park, the one she likes to go to. So we promised her we’d go the next day.

December 1st – We went to Daffodil park first this time and we told the boys we’d go to McAuliff park afterwards so they could play basketball.

We went back to the house, again for bathroom breaks and to pick up Alaethia’s bike and the basketball. We stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up snacks for the kids and headed to McAuliff Park.

The girls rode the bike around and were tired so we sat and they had their snacks. The boys and Jorge headed to the basketball court and played. Then we see Jorge and all 3 boys (Eenan stayed at home, again) coming back to us, with Justin looking upset. He was innocently elbowed in the face by Jorgie, in the same spot he’d run into the tree on Friday. The already-healing cut opened up and was bleeding. His face was swollen so we rushed the kids home, and instructed Mom to give them dinner because we were off to the ER clinic.

He was nervous, but we joked around and after a few hours and some X-rays, they prescribed a cream and an anti-inflammatory. His doctor was really nice and gave him an encouraging speech. It was out of left field, but it was really sweet :).

We got home, got the kids who hadn’t showered into the shower and into bed. We finished laundry and got ready for the week. It’s never a dull moment in our household!

I took this week off from work since I have some vacation days that need to be used. Mario and I are splitting time with the kids during the week so I had a day to myself today. I almost debated going into work, but I figured I should just take advantage of it.

I took my sweet time getting out of bed this morning (Mom totally banged on my door and yelled that I was super late to work, so when I shooed her away I slept till 9:30am). Had some Lucky Charms and coffee while I watched last night’s American Music Awards and then painted my nails and toenails. I bit all my nails off during the Patriots/Broncos game last night. I never thought I’d get back into football, but I have my Love to thank ^_^. I was obsessed in middle school, even played with the neighborhood boys, but I lost interest after, erm, my first serious relationship which later turned into marriage. Grr.

I cleared a few things off of my to-do list (like cleaning the bathroom) and even got a chance to watch “Pitch Perfect”. Some of it. Been meaning to sit and watch that one with my love for a while :).

I visited Gramma and hung the wreath I made for her on her door. Tia Nora and Tio Arturo arrived with Gramma’s new TV amd we caught up for a while. I meant to go to Goodwill but decided not to. It’s been open a few months and it’s near the house and I still haven’t gone.

Got home, watched the news with Mom and later folded laundry while I talked to the kids. We shared opinions about last night’s The Walking Dead episode and talked about the animals.

Hung up with the kids and Pinterest-ed some recipes for fresh green beans and made my love and epic meal, if I do say so myself. I appreciate these rare stay-at-home-mom-esque moments, when all I have to worry about is cleaning the house, running errands and making good meals.

Yes, those are Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits. You can now buy the box at Walmart and bake them at home. I’m impressed! This was my trial run. I’ll make more for the kids tomorrow when they return :).

I guess I’ll summarize with a bit of what’s been going on since the last time I updated. My memory isn’t what it used to be, but here goes:

Work

The Wine Classic was in September. Michelle and I were chosen to work the event and I have to admit, although our feet were numb from pain by the end of the night, it was fun.

I was in charge of the Sweet & Tasty table. FML lol. AND we got to bring the extra cupcakes home!

We had a group of delegates we needed to entertain a few weeks later. I went to El Patio downtown for the first time, ever. And probably the only time, heh. It’s one of the swankier restaurants in the city, and one of the pricier ones. I had a salad with Parmesan crostini, the best tilapia in butter caper creme sauce I’ve ever had and a brownie a lá mode. And Moscato d’asti. My taste buds were in Heaven.

My love had an event at work that was pretty successful too. I was glad to be there :). 2 of the reps invited us and Jorge’s team to Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, which was awesome because Jorge got to show off his work :).

The Annual Banquet was the first week of November. It was so stressful finding an outfit, and a mask since it was a Masquerade Ball this year. All us girls were stressed out about it at work. I made no attempt to tone up but I think my love and I still pulled it off.

I was so glad Jessica’s and Laura’s husbands got to mingle with Jorge for the duration of the event. They all got along so well :).

Steve treated us to House.Wine after the event like last year. It was nice, but we were exhausted!

All my events are coming up in January and February, so work has been hectic but I love it. I’d rather have an event-filled day than a slow day that feels like it’s never going to end.

Kiddos

The girls had a carnival at school and had so much fun with their buddies.

Alaethia and her BFF are too cute!

They were invited to Leila’s party, which was the most AWESOME party ever!

Even Julien had fun!

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch and got a few pics 🙂

Only the 3 youngest wanted to dress up for Halloween.

Alaethia was Chee Chee from Teen Beach Movie. Even did the beehive ‘do lol. Emily was Minnie Mouse. Jaylen was a Reaper and I did his face paint. We took them Trick or Treating at Michelle’s neighborhood and visited Gramma :).

Eenan stayed home with Mom. We didn’t get 1 trick or treater lol.

They carved a pumpkin that weekend:

And we roasted the pumpkin seeds. It was a success!

Eenan is becoming quite the teenager. Spends his time drawing and online, but I’m glad he still keeps me in the loop about his daily life and friends and all. He’s still my snuggly Nano ♥.

We took the kids to the park last week when they were here. It was fun ^_^. And I’m so out of shape that pushing the 2 little ones in the swings caused me to be sore for 2 whole days LOL.

(There’s my Eenan being a teenager again. Make it stop!!!)

We also had a cookie-making sesh. Of course the boys were boys and mixed all the colors together and made POOP LOL.

The girls have been busy with Girl Scouts. Well, so have I, since I’m a troop co-leader. The girls have attended several activities, including their Halloween party. I’ve attended 2 trainings, one being a scary cookie training. That one makes me nervous! We have another meeting tomorrow.

Jorge and I

We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary on November 18th :). We’ve had some stresses lately (not concerning us directly), but at the end of the day, I’m glad we have each other for comfort and companionship. I couldn’t be happier :). I can’t believe it’s already been 3 years! Although, when we put it all in perspective and look at the big picture it feels like it’s been much longer :).

We’re as much homebodies as ever, and I’m glad for it. On a kid-less weekend we always tell ourselves, “Let’s go out!” And then the weekend comes and we’re like, “Ehhh…let’s just stay home.” We’d been budgeting for a while, but even now we just don’t feel like fussing with getting ready and going somewhere. If we socialize, it’s usually at our house. Like this past weekend, when we hung out with our friends for the Pacquiao fight.

Sally got to come over for a bit :). We’ve been so busy with work, the kids, LIFE that I haven’t made time for my friends in a while. I at least got to hang out with Karina for Dayse’s babyshower two weekends ago.

Karina gave me some awesome, crazy news, but I’ll leave that for when she’s ready ^_^. I shall cut this short (short, ha!) and rejoin him on this sofa to catch up on The Voice.

[Edit] Thank you, WordPress app, for screwing up my post and removing all the photos I compiled into it. Argh!!!

[Edit #2] Fixed, finally!!