Category: Grimmy Grim

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We’ve been so busy the last few days, what with Mom and John moving in with Aunt Nora, and just everything else. I still haven’t gotten a chance to convert all the pages to PHP, so I’m still having all those 404’s popping up. I’m so loving the skins though ! I love the idea of not having to get rid of my “old” layouts. Funny though, when the site wasn’t skinned I had so many ideas for layouts and now that it is, I’ve gone blank . Go figure. But anway. Hopefully this coming week will be more laid back and I can catch up with online-related things, like replying to e-mails, commenting on journals, catching up with my dailies and so on. Here’s what’s happened this past week:

Tuesday– I can’t remember much from Tuesday. We picked John up from school and took him to get his Grand Theft Auto San Andreas game he’s been waiting for forever. I was sorting through the bags and bags of makeup I had in the bathroom, and was going to throw old things out and put them in just two bags so I took them with me to sort in the car (since I’d be staying in the car with the boys). As I’m sorting, Mario and John tell me, “I don’t know why you have all that junk. You don’t need it.” I say, “It’s not like I use it at all. Which I should because well, look at me. I just buy it ’cause it’s cute.” John tells me, “At least you look decent. Lots of girls at school look…ugh. And that’s ’cause they wear make-up.” So, that coming from my brother, lifted my spirits. Mario tells me I shouldn’t worry about my face all the time, but I’m stubborn and believe that when he put that ring on my finger, he was automatically programmed to tell me I’m pretty, whether he means it or not LOL. I’m a dork, I know.

It was Sonia’s birthday that day . I made a chocolate cake (that I was very pissed off at because it was crooked!). Sonia wanted lasagna, so that’s what Mary made: salad, garlic/parmasean toast and lasagna. Yum. I could eat lasagna every day and not get tired of it. We all gathered around the table and laughed our asses off as usual and had a great time.

Wednesday– We found out Gramma would be having reconstructive surgery. They’d be taking flesh from a part of her body and “covering” what’s left of the pressure wound on her back. She was initially going to the doctor for a check up, but they came out with her needing surgery. Mom spent the day with her while they got paperwork ready. She was done at around 5, so we went to pick her up. Mary and Big Mario watched the boys, and Mario decided I needed practice on the highway, so there I go. I drove on the expressway all the way to Mission, praying that we’d make it back ok. I was more nervous switching lanes and making my way off the exits than I was driving 65mph . I did ok though, I didn’t do as horribly as I assumed. When we got back, I helped Mom and John clean up and sort a bit more. I’d helped John earlier before I’d left to pick Mom up, but they still needed a lot to do and would be leaving with Aunt Nora the next day. So I spent the night chilling outside with Mario and the kids, watching the lunar eclipse and helping Mom and John pack/clean. I must MAKE myself not be a packrat anymore. I don’t want to end up having to move someday for whatever reason, and having to clean/sort/throw out as much stuff as Mom had to. When I was done helping them I drove Mario to the store. He said I drove better than he did *beams*. I can drive so well around the neighborhood and around our teeny city…I’m a nervous wreck out in THE CITY though .

Thursday– Mario made flan . We’d gotten the recipe from Yadira when we were over there for Sonia’s birthday, and we had all the ingredients so we gave it a try. While I made the steaks (which I ended up making into carne guisada with salsa because it was too thin), and cheesy scalloped potatoes, Mario made and prepared the flan (with my guidance). Mom had been cleaning all day and had already brought over all the food she had in her kitchen, we invited her and John over. The food was awesome, especially the flan! It didn’t even break .

Mom gave us a whole bunch of awesome kitchen stuff she hadn’t even used yet: dish towels, glass pans, metal pans of all kinds, and of course a whole bunch of brand new food. That night Aunt Nora, Tio Arturo and David came over with the trucks and loaded all their stuff. I felt so sad . It sucks they’re not going to be here all the time. I haven’t felt totally bored without them yet, but it is lonely and different not having John come knock on the door in the morning so we can take him to school or Mom knocking on the door to come and chit chat. I didn’t even get to give John a hug before he left that night since I’d gone over to the house to get Aunt Nora some flan LOL. I gave Mom a hug and we acted like it was the end of the world and they drove off. *sigh* Gotta keep telling myself it’s for the best, which it is. I was so upset that night, and to top it off, Mario had been at Jorge’s house all day. He came back early and we watched a movie and went to bed.

Friday– We dropped Eenan off at school and headed to Edinburg where we’d be picking Grandpa Dario up from his doctor’s appointment. We took Jaylen trick-or-treating at Mary’s office. He was sleepy and a bit grumpy, but his spirits lifted when he saw all these ladies putting handfuls of candies into his baggy. He left the office in such a good mood . We took Grandpa to the Veteran’s Affairs office, then to set up Mom’s storage unit. After that, we went to vote! I voted for Kerry and Mario did too, though he was upset with his decision. He didn’t want to vote for Bush at all, but he’s not happy with Kerry either. I told him he should have gone Liberal, to which he replied, “And what difference would that make?!” I agree with that, unfortunately.

We got home and made lunch, and then I washed the hundereds of dishes Mom had given us and all the ones inside the counter since the sink pipes had started leaking and got everything dirty. I spent a good 2 hours washing dishes . Then we picked the kids up from school (I drove) and later we went to the hospital to see Gramma. We only took Jaylen with us–Eenan stayed with Mary of course. We met Mom and Aunt Nora there and then they left while I visited with Gramma. We then drove to Aunt Nora’s and chilled out there for a while. She needed a phone jack moved to another wall and Mario was going to fix it. Tio Arturo had bar-be-cued, so we ate there. We had a nice time talking about everything. Aunt Nora showed me her closet…OMG I’m so jealous! I want a closet like that! I love how her house smells too. John was almost relieved to see us. He gave me a hug as soon as I walked into the room, poor guy LOL. He decided to sleep over that night. Tio Arturo gave me a “Mexican Tredmil” as he called it, which is a tredmil that isn’t motorized, it’s the kind you have to push with your feet/weight LOL. I said, hell yes, I’d take it! We’d be picking it up the next day when we dropped John off.

We got home, then went to Jorge’s. We played darts. I won a sucky 2 times LOL. I’m just getting worse and worse. Mario was kicking our asses that night. John played too. Not sure if he liked it though. They played Halo for a while and OMG I was falling asleep every 5 minutes. I kept trying to keep at least one eye open but it wasn’t happening. I was so relieved when we left. Maggie was going to give us a little turtle, but we forgot to ask and Mario said maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea. Poo.

Saturday– I made breakfast for John, the boys and myself. Mario had gone with Mary to Mexico to get some medicines and stuff. When he got back, we got the boxes and furniture we’d be putting in storage together and he and John took them over there. John wanted to sleep over again, so we called Aunt Nora and Mom to let them know we wouldn’t be going over. We chilled out and then got ready to go to the Fall Festival at Eenan’s school. We dressed them in their costumes–they were so excited.

The tickets were expensive of course ($.50 each!), but they got to play a few games. Jaylen loved this fishing one and they even won three 2 liter sodas at a ring toss! Jaylen won 1 and Eenan won 2. Here they are looking quite bored when Mario went to leave the sodas in the car:

We ended up missing the costume contest since they announced it very quietly. By the time we made it over there, it was over . We got the boys some pickles and popcorn and we came home. They had a good time .

Sunday– I woke up and made breakfast and then we got ready to drop John off, drop off the freezer Aunt Nora’s buying off of Mom, see Mom for a little bit and pick up the tredmil they gave us. We sat around and talked for a bit. Aunt Nora showed us some pictures and even showed me a picture of an Aunt of ours whom I resemble A LOT. I was almost wondering if I was adopted because I don’t really look like anyone in my family, but ha! I do look like someone John and I looked exactly alike when we were little, but not anymore. The boys were really good while we were there, thank goodness. I’m always so afraid they’re going to destroy something–their house is so fancy. We said our see-you-laters and then made our way to H-E-B where we’d be cashing our thousands of pennies. Mario and I kept betting how much there was…there ended up being $77 ! Thank goodness too because we were *so* broke. We got some bacon since Mario was making bacon-wrapped chicken for lunch, flan ingredients and other stuff we needed like paper towels, catfood, hamster food, etc. When we got home, Mario helped Mary make little “tomb stones” for her Graveyard Pie and then I helped her with the goodie bags for tonight.

I came back to help Mario with lunch and the flan. When everything was in the oven, Mario decided it was the perfect time to be naughty since the boys were with the grandparents . He’s so bad LOL. After that *cough*, the food was done and we took the food over to Mary’s to have lunch over there. It was great. I cleaned the tredmil and step-excersizer (sp?) thing. Big Mario was out there and was using the tredmil. Everyone liked it . I got the boys ready in their costumes after that and we took them Trick-or-Treating at Chris’, City Hall, Leo’s gas station, a random house that looked friendly (which ended up being Eenan’s friend’s house!) and then we went to Yadira’s where everyone was meeting. We never take the boys “trick-or-treating” house to house–we only go to Yadira’s, because we don’t really talk to anyone in the neighborhood, so we promised we’d take them around to businesses (that we know and trust) and to relative’s houses. Most of the relatives weren’t there though LOL.

Jaylen was tired and ended up falling asleep at Yadira’s. Eenan played with the kids as usual. Mario passed out candies for a while and then the adults sat around the table and ate Flan and Graveyard Pie and talked and laughed. It’s our tradition to make jokes or just share the hilarious things that happen on a day to day basis with everyone when we get together like that. The story Mario and I contributed tonight was called “Pit Water”. A few months ago, maybe a year or so, Mario and I were being good citizens and conserving water (ie. showing together) and I was shaving my arm pits. It was an unusually quiet moment and I just idly shaved my pits, while Mario lathered himself up with soap. As I’m rinsing my pit off, I snap back to reality and notice Mario rinsing his soapy face with my stubbly pit water. It was a moment I’ll never forget LOL. By the end of the night my head felt like it was going to explode from all the laughing. I took an Aleve as soon as we got home. I started to run on the tredmil but after only 2 minutes my headache felt like it was becoming a migraine so I stopped and laid down for a bit. I’ll try again tomorrow. I’m so glad I got this tredmil…now I can actually walk/jog without having to wait for somebody to go with me! Aside from starting my workouts again I really need to get to sorting for the garage sale. We need to get all this junk OUT!. Ok, I’m really tired. ‘Nite!

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I’ve totally stalled with the skinning/PHP’ing of the site. Actually, it’s more like I’ve come to a sudden halt. My brain+PHP+HTML=Mush. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I can’t get the site to do what I want it to do; I almost ruined it today . The tutorial I used to skin the site allows Iframes…all the others don’t mention iframes or how to incorporate them into the site. Yet, with the one I used…I’m still having trouble…I don’t even want to think about it right now. But then I really want to get it done . ARGH!

Anyway, as for the past few days…Wednesday was Tommy’s birthday so we got together at their house. I made one of the cakes–Monci took the other one. It was almost like Thanksgiving…Yadira was craving turkey and Tommy thought it would be cool to have turkey so Mary made the works. It was awesome. I made Yadira laugh her ass off when I told her about my little incident at the store. I’d write about it here but it’s a lot funnier if you actually “see” what happened LOL. It was a cool night. After we left the party we went to Autozone to get a part Mario needed and the next day he fixed the Sentra! It’s so good to have my little car back !

On Thursday after we took Eenan to school, I cleaned. And cleaned, and cleaned. The kitchen and livingroom were spotless. Mario even cleaned the bathroom without me asking him to! I still need to give the bedroom a good cleaning. I have to sort their toys once again since they won’t fit into their bedroom if we ever split the room. Here’s a pic of their stuffed animals in a pile:

Cheer Bear’s mine though . But yeah…and it’s so hard to choose what to get rid of because they’re so attatched to everything. They have a gazillion Care Bears. Here’s a pic of their toy boxes:

And that’s just one side of the bedroom . I’ve got my work cut out for me! Is everyone else like this? Do all other parents out there have rooms with toys popping out all over the place? I seriously don’t know how we’ve accumulated so much stuff…we *just* had a darn garage sale and we haven’t even bought the kids toys in forever!

Anyway, that day I took Mom to the store since she needed packing materials and cleaning supplies. I needed milk and got some pumpkin spice scented candles. They make the house smell so good! And they were only $.70 for both!

When we got back, Mario and I cleaned the car from top to bottom. We cleaned the spots on the carpet with Tuff Stuff (it works so well!) and detailed the rest of the car. It looks and smells great . After we were done, we picked the kids up, I gave Jaylen a quick bath since he was super sticky and then went to Jorge’s. We chilled out for a bit then the neighbor came over and we played darts. When it was my turn everyone was like, “Oh no! Here she comes!” I won the first two games I played, and then I SUCKED. I only won 4 or 5 games (compared to the 20 or so I won last time). I was so disappointed. I wanted to play darts so badly, and when I finally do, I did horribly. I blame it on the “new” darts…I couldn’t grip them correctly . On top of that, I started getting horrible pains in my knees, which caused me to focus a lot less. Grr I say. Mario didn’t do too well that night either…he only won 3

That day we also found out Mary had the beginning signs of osteoperosis in her back . About time the darn Surgeon General made it a point to get women checked for that. I wonder how Gramma and Mom are…if they have any signs of osteoperosis. Neither of them are big on calcium.

Friday I cleaned a bit more (I’ve had huge bursts of energy lately…I like it!) and I got out some costumes we had that the kids hadn’t worn before and tried them on the boys. Eenan liked the bee costume, but I think someone had used it before and broke the side tie and it was a bit small on him. Jaylen loved the spider costume.

After we picked the kids up and Mary got home we went on a search for Eenan’s costume. He wanted to be a tarantula from the beginning, but we had no luck finding one. We ended up getting him a Ninja costume he liked from Target. He especially loves the blade he got for it. Jaylen wanted to be a Ninja too, but also likes the spider costume so HE decided he’s going to be a Ninja Spider. He said he needs a sword LOL.

We picked up Chinese at the House of China and the General Tao’s chicken we got was awesome. I think it’s even better than Lotus’, and like, 3 times less expensive!

After we finished eating I went over to Mom’s and helped them pack. I thought they had more done, but nope. We got a good amount of stuff packed/separated for the garage sale. John and I were joking around and laughing our asses off most of the night–Mom kept getting mad at us and telling us to get to work. Just like old times LOL. We even “fenced”…he with a thousand year old duster and me with a toilet brush. I got him a few times LOL. Later Mario came over with Jaylen (Eenan was sleeping over at Mary’s) and he joined in on the jokes. It was fun and we made good progress. We came home and Sonia taught Mario and I how to play poker, so we did. We played a few games. It was fun .

Mario left to Chris’ after that and Jaylen fell asleep, so I stayed up and watched the episode of Life As We Know It that I recorded and the episode I missed and downloaded. I wanted to start watching that show just because Kelly Osbourne was in it, but I really got hooked on it. It’s…different.

Yesterday we just lounged around. I helped Mary make some (very delicious) candy apples for Noey’s carnival at the college and later I made some killer cheese and chicken enchiladas for lunch. Then we got ready and picked Mom up from work and then went to see Gramma. We got there in time for her dinner, so I fed her again. I asked her if she liked it better at this place and she said yes, that the lady she shares the room with is very nice and gave her a roll of deoderant, goodies, and some hair clips. As she says that, she turns her head and shows me her hair and I see a blue clip that’s falling off. I fixed her hair and she looked so nice . I’m glad she’s not lonely and is doing well.

We went home and all piled up in the van to go the carnival at UTPA. Noey dressed up as a vampiress and looked awesome. I was angry at Mario because he didn’t want to go, but I sucked it up and decided I was going to have fun. Mom and John went too. We stopped at a bakery on the way over there and picked up some little cakes Mary’s friend from work had given us once. They are SO good. I’ve never tasted anything like them. That bakery brought back memories of the bakery Mom and I would go to when I was little. It smelled so old fashioned and really nice.

The boys had fun at the carnival. They could only get on a few rides…most were too big. Jaylen freaked out at this inflatable slide thing, but Eenan loved it. Jaylen went on the Moon Jump instead. He only got on it twice, since there were lots of kids who had to take turns, but they did get about 10 minutes each turn. They also got lots of free candy and nachos .

When we got home, Mario got here too. He’d left to Chris’, which pissed me off even more because I thought, “He didn’t spend time with his family, but he can always spend time with his friends”, and he’s always going to Chris’ at night. I normally don’t mind, but I wanted him to go with us somewhere for once. He was going to go back to Chris’ and I let him know how I felt about the whole thing. He just said “Whatever” and walked out. We’d gotten The Grudge (shh!) and I really wanted to watch it since I heard from everyone that it was really scary, and was disappointed that Mario wasn’t here to see it. So I just washed dishes. Mario calls about 30 minutes later and asks if I wanted to watch the movie. I said no, that I wasn’t in the mood anymore. When we hung up, he walked through the door. He ended up making me laugh, as always and we agreed to watch the movie. Eenan was sleeping over at Mary’s again and Jaylen was already falling asleep, so he brought the twin bed from the kids’ bunk beds and put it in the living room. We all laid there and got comfy. The movie though, was a HUGE disappointment! I expected it to be so much scarier than that. Some things were pointless. Noelia watched it the day before and said grown men were walking out of the theatre, so I thought, ‘If MEN were walking out, this has got to be a GREAT movie’. No way. They were walking out because it was WEAK! I dozed off at least 4 times while watching it, no joke–and I’m not one to fall asleep during movies. I’m so in the mood for something scary…especially since Halloween’s right around the corner!

Today we didn’t do much. I cleaned again, then later we picked Mom up and then went to see Gramma and then to H-E-B to get some fajitas for dinner. We took Gramma some pics of the boys. I didn’t have any of Jaylen…we only have them on CD’s or on the computer, so I took a picture of the boys and took my memory stick to Yadira’s and printed out a picture on her Canon picture maker. It came out so nice…I want one of those cameras/printers so badly! Gramma loved the picture . We got there after dinner, so we didn’t get to feed her and I think she missed that. She said, “I already ate…I was waiting for you!” Awww .

Wow this was long…gonna go find Cookie and put him back in his cage. We’ve been letting him run around the house and he loves it. He’s such a little fatso! He is constantly eating. I also have to follow him around and scoop his lil dumplings of poop . Here’s a pic of him resting on the twin bed before we took it back to the bedroom:

Goodnight!

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We went and saw Gramma as planned on Sunday. Mom didn’t end up going to work so she went with us. We saw Aunt Nora and Justin there. Aunt Nora took Gramma a TV and shelf :). We sat with her and talked, and then they brought her lunch so I fed her. As I fed her, I thought, “I could do this. I could feed little old people.” I’ve always wanted to do something in the medical field, but I’m not sure what. But then I thought…”Ok, maybe I’m just thinking this because I’m feeding my own Gramma and she’s cute.” LOL I don’t know if I could feed other people. And Gramma’s so pleasant…I used to volunteer at a nursing home (back in 7th grade) and some elderly people are a bit grumpy. All the nurses kept telling us how sweet Gramma is…aww

When we got into the car we noticed ants crawling all over the seats and the center console. We’d taken honey buns in the car with us and left the wrappers there and they were all over the place. We got rid of as many as we could…but I still got bitten on my butt . When we got home, Mario figured out they were coming from the fender of the car. We had the car parked wayyy on the other side of the yard and there’s tons of ants over there. They messed up the alarm–it kept going off by itself in the wee hours of the morning. I’m afraid to know what other electrical wires they’ve screwed up .

When we got home, Mom, Jaylen, Mary and I went to the church’s Jamaica…which is like this fair-type thing. Eenan stayed home with Mario. It was just down the street, so we walked there. It was OK. I was pretty damn disappointed that we didn’t win a cake at the cake walk . But we did have some nachos, a pineapple soda and a smoked turkey leg…which wasn’t as good as the ones we’ve had from H-E-B, but it was good anyway. We didn’t play many games since most of the prizes were toys…and we’re trying to get rid of toys so it didn’t seem like a good idea LOL.

Yesterday wasn’t too exciting. I actually can’t remember what we did besides the usual. I do remember Mom falling down at night and John frantically calling me to get over there. She was hyperventilating…that’s how scared she got. But she’s OK…a little sore, but OK. She scared the crap out of us though.

Today, we dropped Eenan off at school and Mario, Jaylen and I took a nap when we got home. Then I made rice and sausage for lunch, while Mario made brownies for dessert. I ate a whole row of brownies by myself! They weren’t huge brownies…but still. I just stuffed my face. Mario even called me his lil’ heffer–he’s so romantic . And then I wonder how I’m back to 120 . Bye bye 112 lbs. I think it’s because I watched “The Biggest Loser” on NBC today…or because I downloaded and have watched all the eps of “America’s Next Top Model” (we don’t get UPN)…but I’m feeling…ugly. Yes, yes, woe is me. But yeah…I’m tired of this here roll *points to belly* and I’m tired of my face breaking out. I don’t know WHAT I’ve been doing that’s making my face go crazy, but it is, and it looks so bad. I’ve been waking up with zits and I have scars from others. All this in less than two weeks. I need to start using that scar-diminishing cream I got from Mexico…it worked wonders with the scar on my chin last time. Why I’m sharing this with the internet, I don’t know…

Other than feeling like crap about myself all day, we went to a few lil’ stores around here to get some things…we finally went to Joy Dollar. I must go back when I have more cash…I love these kitchen decorations they have. I got one…and I already have two. I may get two more. But then I’m trying to minimize the amount of stuff I already have. Something else on my to-do list…finish cleaning this place up and start getting things bagged up for the garage sale. If all goes well, we should have it on Nov. 5th and 6th.

OK…it’s 12am…I should get to bed or I’ll be napping during the day again tomorrow.

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