Category: Grimmy Grim

It’s so sad that it’s my last day of vacation today. I’m so not looking forward to going back to work; not because I feel lazy but because I just don’t see how I’ll make it through the day since I’m exhausted by the end of the day and that’s because right now I’m at home! Granted, I’ve been sort of overdoing the housework and am constantly on my feet, but I’ll probably be on my feet and running errands all over the place at work, too. We’ll see. I just have to keep telling myself it’s only 4 days this week, then 3 weeks and that’s it!

I didn’t want to go anywhere today but, like I mentioned in my previous blog, I have to visit Gramma, have to deposit at the bank for my online bills, have to get milk and a few other things like trash bags, and as for home: I still need to do laundry, sew the valance (at least) for the kitchen window, and mop. Although I didn’t get to paint Alaethia’s room pink like I’d wanted to, I can always get that done during the almost-month that I’m going to be off before I have the baby. I’m hoping to finish painting the trim (white) for the kitchen and all the doors. I feel pretty darn good about everything I managed to accomplish in the last week.

Later…we visited Gramma and she’s doing just fine. She was laughing with the kids and we even talked about Aunt Sylvia and some stuff Aunt Nora told her about when she visited. Mom had seen me searching for sometime a few days before and I got the guts to tell her I’d been doing research and found out what her father’s name is and I was going to get in contact (again—she doesn’t know about the first time). She told me no, that I had the wrong name, but when we were at Gramma’s she asked her and Gramma gave me a knowing look. I nodded inconspicuously and she told her the real name. And Mom took it well!

We stopped at H-E-B for a few groceries and then I rushed home.

When we got home I left all the kids with the in-laws and then rushed to the salon to get my hair cut. It was down to my waist and the pregnancy hot flashes were becoming unbearable—I HAD to get it cut. They let me in even though it was late and I asked the lady to hack my hair up to my shoulders. It’s still a little longer than I wanted, but it’ll do.

I had so much to do before I went to work the next day and I was so tired. I still had to shower and straighten my hair and Mario decided that he was going to go to sleep early. How convenient. I hate when he does that. He fell asleep on the sofa and Alaethia sat on the other sofa watching Noggin’. I asked her if she was okay and she said yes. I told her to pound on her daddy’s head if she needed something. I took the quickest shower in history and when I was done I peeked my head out the door and told her I was almost out. She said okay and turned back to Wa-Wa-Wubzy. She starts knocking on the door while I’m drying myself and I ask her to please hold on. She knocks two more times and tells me something about her diaper. I’m thinking the worst. She starts jiggling the door handle and I finish putting on my clothes. I come out and look down at her and she gives me that sweet smile that only means she’s up to no good. I lift her pajama top and sure enough: she’s naked…and the most putrid smell starts wafting in the air. I scream, “OH MY GOD!!!” and Mario, of course, is woken from his sleep. But does he move? No. I’m running around cleaning her up (hands, feet, butt) and realize the offending diaper’s nowhere to be found. I ask her, “Where did you take your diaper off? In the living room?”

She tilts her head to one side and says, “I dunno….um, yes!”

I ask again, “Or did you take it off in the kitchen?”

She smiles again and says a happy, “Yes!”

Gosh. I had no idea where it was. There wasn’t anything on the floor in the living room, but once I’m in the kitchen I see little toeprints of poop. Lovely. I lug my tub of Lysol wipes around with me and clean up the whole floor. There’s a trail all the way to the trashcan. Thank goodness, the diaper’s in there, but it’s empty. Upon further inspection I notice that she’d shaken her poop into the trash can and managed to drop some on the floor and scooped it back into the trash. I re-washed her hands for good measure and remembered that she’d been messing with the door handle so I wiped that and re-washed my hands as well. It was now 10:30pm. I was so angry. And Mario just sat there all drowsy looking not saying a word!

He got up and took a huge drink of water. I wanted to hit him, but quietly blow-dried and flat-ironed my hair. What a night!

Sun., Nov. 23rd – Jorge and Tommy came over, equipped with a trailer and an extra truck, to help Mario and I pick up Mary’s furniture and my ottoman. We were all over at Mary’s house most of the day watching the guys take out the old furniture and bring in the new. Andy and Noelia came by in their truck with Mary’s new dresser that she ended up finding at Big Lots, solid wood. After I’d made some lunch and cleaned up a bit I left to Target with John, who needed to return something and then to JC Penny for myself for some new maternity pants since they were having a huge sale and I had two awesome coupons: one for $10 off and one for $15 anything $10 or more. I *had* to go before the sale was over on Monday. I didn’t want to fork out any more money for maternity clothes but I only had 3 pants and now that winter’s coming I absolutely had to get some. Plus, I’m justifying my purchases by keeping them in good shape to give to Noelia for when she finally decides to have her babies.

After I’d found a pair of khakis and a pair of jeans in size small (it was quite a hunt, let me tell you), we paid and then we went to Best Buy to look around. John was looking around to see what games he’d buy the boys for Christmas and then we went into the instruments section and messed around with some drums. He wants to get Alaethia a small drum set, can you believe that?

John said he was hungry and asked if I wanted sushi. Um, yeah! You don’t have to tell me twice! I called in the order and then we drove a few shops over and picked up our take-out from Kumori. I couldn’t wait to get home and devour my yummy rolls.

We got home and everyone was over, like they usually are at least one night during the weekend. Mario and his Nino had been bar-b-q’ing. I unfortunately had to share my sushi with whoever wanted to try it because I’m polite like that, so I didn’t have my fill at all. Needless to say, I hunger for more, as John would say.

Monday, Nov. 24th – I didn’t go to work (Alaethia had a cardiologist appointment ) and since I already knew I’d be absent and had signed my sheet I got a little extra sleep. But I hadn’t realized how long it would take me to make breakfast, get myself and then Alaethia ready so I was running late. I was down the street when I called into the office to tell them I’d be late. The girl said they’d only gave me 15 minutes to get there. How nice. I managed to get there in 17 minutes and prayed for both my and the nurse’s sake that they’d still see us. They did, only to call me up when I was almost done filling out the paperwork and told me they didn’t accept her insurance, which is CHIPs. Lovely. I was so pissed I tore up the referral in front of her face and told her they should let people know about these things before they show up to the appointment. Shouldn’t things like insurance be confirmed during the whole appointment setup? I called Laura, one of our nurses, and asked her what was up, what happened? She said they didn’t say anything about not accepting her insurance during the appointment setup at all and that she’d try to get her another appointment at a place where they did accept it. Of course I didn’t get one for that day.

I collected all of Alaethia’s things, scooped her in my arms and buckled her into her car seat. Once she was busy watching her Care Bears cartoon I silently wiped at tears of frustration. I cry for everything these days and keeping my daughter from an appointment she needs is the ultimate tear-jerker.

Once I calmed down I called Furniture Row to see if they’d do a few changes to my account. One of Mary’s couch pillows had a teensy hole and she wanted two more chairs for her dining set. The guy I spoke to was a total moron and couldn’t tell me anything about anything. All he said was, “When you call back at 10, someone else can help you out.” Um…okay.”

I called Mary to tell her about my morning and how the guy at Furniture Row was not helpful and she told me to go to her office and chill out for an hour before going to Furniture Row. So I did. The girls hadn’t seen Alaethia in a long time and were head-over-heels for her. I talked to Yvonne for a while and showed off my belly. After Alaethia had been paraded around the office and collected a handful of lollipops and sticks of gum, we got in the car and left to Furniture Row. Thank God they gave me no problems what-so-ever.

I got a few groceries on the way home and was so relieved that Alaethia was in such a good mood. She’s at the age where it’s actually tolerable for her to be in town for a long time without getting tired. She was great.

When I got home after picking the boys up from school Mario texts me and says he had lunch at Kumori…could my day get any worse? He doesn’t even LIKE Kumori that much!! He promised me Kumori on Friday. He was forgiven.

Tues., Nov. 25th – My first and last day of work for that week, woo! I couldn’t believe the Thanksgiving holiday was already here. When we started work again this fall and I made the decision to stop working after January it felt like it’d be forever before the Thanksgiving holiday would come. Now that it was finally here that only means one thing: my last day of work’s going to creep up in the blink of an eye.

I kept on top of everything so that I wouldn’t have anything waiting for me when we got back the next Monday. Mrs. V. wasn’t there most of the day; she’d gone shopping for Christmas decorations at Walmart and other places. I actually had a chance to loosen up and read when I had nothing else to do. Usually I feel like I need to BE busy with something or else someone (Mrs. V.) will see me and think I’m slacking—even if I don’t have anything to work on.

Mrs. Ruiz arrived after lunch and we started putting up the 12 ft. pre-lit tree she donated. Yes, she donated it! One of our students, who calls himself Chocolate, and Jorge D. helped. They were glad to get out of ISS LOL. The kids were having their Good Life Celebration and were having a Jamaica (festival). We were so busy with the tree that I completely forgot to go out there and see the rides and games and buy my nachos. I heard it was awesome, though.

I couldn’t believe I was going to have 5 whole days off! I was finally going to get everything in the house organized and cleaned and I was going to update my blog once and for all!

Wed., Nov. 26th – I had my doctor’s appointment in the morning. I could go in anytime in the morning. I should have gone in much sooner than I did. I made it there at 9:30 and was there well into 12pm. I was supposed to take Mom in for an appointment, too, but they were closing after 2:30 that day until Monday.

I weighed 138—not bad at all! That’s only 1 lb. in 2 weeks. Elizabeth (the nurse practitioner) told me taking Robitussin DM for cough and congestion was okay to take for my dry cough. I didn’t end up taking it at all anyway. The doctor asked about my sugar and told me just to keep monitoring myself. She almost wanted to do the 3-hour test but she spoke to Dr. C. and he said no, we’d agreed to monitor my sugars. Elizabeth did say that the baby’s full turned over, which is insane because at the time I was only 26 weeks! The other three didn’t turn over till at least 28 weeks!

I asked her, as I usually do, to check if she’s still a girl and she said, because the way her legs were positioned, that she couldn’t really tell. Although she and Dr. C. have already told me countless times that she is a girl LOL.

We left the kiddos with my in-laws while John, Mom and I went to visit Gramma. She was eating dinner and watching one of her novelas when we arrived. She spent most of the time shushing us and waving us out of the way when we’d get in front of her TV–she was really into her show! We stayed a while and then went home.

Mario came home at night and got into a discussion with his uncles and he became a bit peeved/upset and decided to leave the house at 10:30pm. I’m usually pretty lenient about stuff like that, but I was actually hoping to spend time with him and watch a movie or something now that I didn’t have to be in bed by 9:30. I expressed my thoughts which sent him barging out the door. I stayed up on my own watching TV and right when I was going to go to sleep around 12:30, he walked through the door. He lay next to me and put his arm around me and asked if I was upset. I kind of shrugged and that was the exact moment that I heard a weird sound coming from Alaethia’s crib. I practically pushed him off me so we could check on her. She was throwing up, completely out of the blue. Nobody was sick so she couldn’t have caught it from someone. I figured it was that she’d been eating a mixture of stuff.

Mario changed her sheets while I washed her up in the shower. Poor thing was falling asleep the whole time. I dried her up and got her dressed and Mario sat with her in our bed while I put everything in to wash. When I got back, she’d already thrown up again all over our pillows and sheets. So we made a new pile to wash.

She’d coughed on my face while I was carrying her, so I figured I’d get sick. I just hoped it wasn’t the next day, Thanksgiving! And I hoped Alaethia wouldn’t be sick the whole time, either. How unfair that would be :(.

Wed., Oct. 8th – It was an okay day at work–the usual, really. I rushed to pick Jaylen up from school, dropped off our stuff at home and then I took him to get a haircut. Eenan was at UIL practice till 5, so I asked Mary if she could pick him up on her way home and take him for a haircut, too. She said yes, thank goodness. Just like their school to let me know they have pictures with such short notice. At least it was two days notice this time.

I got Jaylen into the shower to wash up when we got home, then went straight to pick up Mario from work and took him to his Lasik consultation. To make a long story short: the whole procedure would cost $4,400–after the $1,300 “discount”!! Because of Mario’s severe astigmatism he’d need two surgeries to fix his vision. Something told me to ask what his vision was without corrective lenses and the lady said 20/75 in one, 20/80-1 in the other. I looked at Mario and couldn’t help smiling: his vision was within the requirement for Border Patrol without corrective lenses! Yes!! The reason they’d sent him that notice was because his vision was 20/20 in one eye with his current glasses, 20/25 in the other eye. We didn’t even think that would be the case. We kindly declined the (very expensive–$250) dilation and came home. We decided we’d set up an appointment with another ophthalmologist on Saturday for new glasses. Even though I feel incredibly nervous all over again just thinking of him being away for three months (and possibly missing the baby’s birth) I know this is something he really wants to do, so I’m supporting him all the way.

Mario and I lay in bed that night watching TV with Alaethia between us. I’d been feeling the baby flutter for a few days already and have a habit of just placing my hand on my belly, just in case the baby would kick. I actually felt her kick hard for the first time! It wasn’t just the little it-might-be-gas fluttering that I usually feel—this was a swift, genuine kick!

Thurs., Oct. 9th – Mrs. V. took Mrs. Ruiz and I a huge bag of corn each from her mom’s garden. All I could think about was some yummy corn with mayo, chile and lime for the rest of the afternoon.

The boys had picture day so I left their clothes and instructions with Mom like I usually do. I prayed that they’d stay clean until they took their picture. I was so tired that afternoon after work that I just chilled out till 5:30, when Report Card Night started. It wasn’t very restful, as Jaylen was sleepy and refused to take a nap. It’s so exhausting when he gets that way. I told him I wasn’t taking him with me since he was acting up and he stayed behind with my dad-in-law and Alaethia. He ended up falling asleep on the hammock Big Mario had just put up again.

The teachers both had nothing but good things to say about the boys. I was a bit disappointed to find out Jaylen had been moved to a different class, but still reports to his old class as his “advisory” for breakfast. He was moved away from his best friend, Aaron. And I’m not sure I’m too keen on having him in a Bilingual class, even though it’s considered “GT”. He already has a GT class. But still, his old teacher said he’s extremely bright. I didn’t get to talk to the new one because her mother had passed away and she was absent.

We visited Eenan’s class and I was glad to find out his behavior’s been improving. He isn’t talking as much (but he is still talking) and he’s turning in his work. He got off of his “half-grounding” and now gets to play video games (for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on behavior at home) after he finishes his homework and reads for half an hour like Jaylen. His teacher still seems…different. She’s not as happy-go-lucky as she was when I first met her. Maybe she was just tired?

I’m so proud of my dudes—they both made the All ‘A’ Honor Roll! Eenan had a close call—there was an 81 printed on his report for Language Arts, but when I showed the teacher she said it was the system messing up—he’d actually gotten a 94!

We got home and my dad-in-law had already put some of the corn-on-the-cobs on the grill…they were delicious!

I stayed up that night feeling for Little One’s kicks but felt nothing. I know it’s still early, but I was worried since by this time in my other pregnancies I’m sure I was already doing Kick Counts. I didn’t fall asleep till 11. Add to that Alaethia beginning to get sick and teething; she kept tugging at her ear and was having a hard time swallowing. Then she woke me up for some milk at 4:30 and again I stayed up feeling for kicks, but I didn’t feel anything. I fell asleep finally at 5:15—and my alarm went off at 5:30. Needless to say I felt like a slug all day and couldn’t wait to just get home.

Fri., Oct. 10th – One of the teams at work was going on a field trip for the Goodlife Celebration and we’d agreed that we’d watch 2 of their kids that hadn’t passed, had referrals, etc. Well, Mrs. V. agreed—I obliged, which basically means that I was mostly the one dealing with them. At the last second they left us 4 kids, but the only boy refused to stay, so he was left somewhere else. So we were left with three girls, one of them being a girl who’d given me trouble in the past. Later on they sent us two boys and they actually did everything they were told with no problem. The girls on the other hand…well, let’s just say all three ended up writing words from the dictionary till it was time for them to leave. I kept my cool the whole time, but by the end of their stay I had a headache.

Mrs. Ruiz and I left to lunch after that, which was such a relief. When we got back it was time for the Goodlife video-game party another team was throwing in there. They played Xbox—loudly. I wouldn’t have minded, but I had a pounding headache from being with the girls all day.

I was so glad to get home and just chill out. When Mario got home we went outside with the rest of the family. We hung out and then grilled some more corn-on-the-cob again.

Falling asleep that night—and staying asleep—was a challenge since poor Alaethia was in pain again. She was fine all day; her cold and teething were only bothering her at night.

Sat., Oct. 11th – I woke up as soon as I could the next morning and had a quick breakfast, fed her and got her dressed to go to the doctor. Ear infection and sore throat, just as I’d suspected. Jaylen had made plans to go to Aaron’s house that morning, so we went to the pharmacy to get Alaethia’s prescription and then dropped him off at Aaron’s. We went home and I tried giving Alaethia her medicine to no avail; she quickly squirted it through her lips as soon as I gave it to her. It was that nasty ear-wax-tasting antibiotic. So there I go back to the pharmacy to get them to flavor it, even though it didn’t make a big difference. We left Eenan and Alaethia with Mary while Mario and I went to his optometrist appointment. He got his exams done and he JUST BARELY passed the requirements for Border Patrol! We picked up his check afterwards and then went to Walmart to cash it since the bank was closed. We picked up McDonald’s and then picked up Jaylen from Aaron’s. We sat around talking with family at Mary’s. Noelia was over getting help with grading her students’ work. Aaron’s mom was picking up Jaylen so we turbo-cleaned just in case she wanted a tour (she did the same for us when Jaylen first went over)…but she only came to the door. Oh well, at least the house was clean.

Jaylen was invited to a party at Aaron’s aunt’s house so they picked him up and went to party. We’d made plans with Mary to go to the movies so we let Aaron’s mom know to drop Jaylen off with Mom at our house when the party was over. She was babysitting Alaethia and Eenan, too.

Mario and I watched Pineapple Express, which was even funnier than I thought it would be! I couldn’t stop laughing. Mary watched The Mummy 3, I think. We ended the night by picking up pizza for dinner. Lately—even though the food’s fattening—there’s nothing I like more than not having to stand in front of a boiling stove and minimal dishes to wash, heh.