Category: Health

Dear JC Penny,

Please quit raising my credit limit, as I’m having enough trouble paying off the $600 balance I currently owe you. It’s quite rude of you to keep tempting me so.

Yours Truly,
Me

Dammit! Why do they do that to us!? I already have a $10 off on any purchase of $10 or more coupon I’ve been dying to use (I need more jeans or capris!) and now they raise my credit limit another $300? Argh!

Mario and I completed 10 years of being together (our “dating” anniversary) yesterday, April 30th. I still can’t believe it’s been that long. It doesn’t even feel like it, really. Can’t think of anyone else I’d like to spend 10 years with :).

I’m so beat. Alaethia fell asleep about 15 minutes ago and I should already be in bed taking advantage but I decided to blog before the days accumulate on me. Alaethia actually let me sleep in with her till 11am after the boys and Mario left (though I was woken up by a phone call from Jorge once and jolted out of bed a second time because I was dreaming that I slept in and was late picking up Jaylen). Poor Eenan had a fever in the morning of 100.3, but I gave him some Motrin and it got back to normal so he went to school. After I picked Jaylen up I went straight to tackling the yard sale stuff, as much as I didn’t want to.

I tidied up my bedroom and closet since I hadn’t paid much attention to that part of the house in a few weeks. It looks much better and more organized in my closet. I also managed to pick a whole bunch of flip flops to get rid of! I had no idea I was so obsessed with those darn things. I also looked through the kids bookcase and although I didn’t get rid of too many books, I did get rid of 4 huge school boxes full of crayons! The things these kids collect.

I emptied out the two 30-gallon bins the boys had toys in (that are mostly being sold in the yard sale) and put Mario’s car collections and my 80s stuff that’d been in cardboard boxes in them instead. I need Mario to help me get the highest stuff out of the living room closet so that I can properly stack the bins. The whole house is a mess right now, what with all the yard sale stuff that needs to be taken out, and I’m getting a bit…overwhelmed by it all. I can’t wait till we’re done with the yard sale!

I went to the mall yesterday with John to pay a bill and John went to get an application but they weren’t hiring yet. Later in the evening, we went to Yadira’s for a bar-b-q Jose and Elda had planned (Alaethia wore the overalls that both my boys wore and held her bottle for a good long while for the first time!). Both events totally threw my day off, so I didn’t get anything done for the yard sale (and I kind of didn’t want to, heh). Oh! And Ricky, Big Mario’s friend, came to check our sink and figured out the source of the leak was from our darn spray thing! It was messed up since we bought it at Home Depot a few months ago and that’s what was causing all the leakage. I’m still not sure what we’re going to do about the wood, though.

I went to Dollar General today to buy some neon-colored posters to make signs and some more gallon-sized Ziplocs to stuff toys in and sell. Then I went to buy the permit at the City Hall. We’re allowed 3 days. I’m doing mine Thursday and Friday and Elda’s doing hers on Saturday. I was originally going to do mine on Saturday, too, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste my Saturday doing the yardsale LOL. I’ve places to go and a Gramma to see :P. I also plan on taking all the stuff that didn’t sell straight to storage or Salvation Army. I hardly ever go to Salvation Army, so I figured if I take them to a charity shop that one would be the best bet. I wouldn’t leave the junk at the other ones I go to since I’m fully capable of buying my own crap back!

Tomorrow will be spent putting neon-colored price stickers on everything. How fun. We’ll that’s if I don’t end up taking Eenan to the doctor after picking up Jaylen. I’m scared for the little guy. We don’t know what’s wrong. Nothing hurts. He keeps getting a slight fever and his eyes get hot, but he doesn’t feel pain. He also says his legs feel “jiggly” and that his tummy bothers him. I’ve asked him if he feels like throwing up, but he forgot what it feels like. My poor dude.

Mario put him to bed before leaving to Chris’ since I had Aly in my arms (he took a towel and put it next to Eenan’s bed on the floor with a trashcan on top of it), and I went in afterwards to tuck him in. I brought him an extra pillow to prop him up, just in case. As I’m fluffing his pillow I hear him sniffle and he says, “I love you guys. Thank you for everything you do for me.” My son, with his big eyes and his big heart, can always dissolve me to a pile of mush :*).

I hate when my kiddos are sick. I feel so…helpless. Then I start to feel all icky, too, and I hate when that happens. I should be strong for them!

Okay, I’m brushing my teeth and going to bed while I can. I also plan on putting Alaethia in her crib from now on, since Mario flings his arms around and although he’s careful with her, you never know. Better to be safe than sorry.

I can’t wait till the yard sale’s over.

I’m about 3 hours into scanning the house for more yard-sale-worthy (i.e. JUNK) things and am already sick of it. I went through every-single-thing in the cabinets under the sink and am keeping about 1/3 of the stuff that was down there. I still need to do a bit more searching, as I may just be keeping a bit too much stuff. I even rediscovered my cake-sicle pan (makes cupcakes in the shape of popsicles!) and my Betty Crocker Bake-n-Fill pans. Need to use those for mother’s day ;).

I also discovered that the water damage that happened about a year ago to the wood down there is more extensive that I thought. I removed the contact paper I’d put under there for easier cleaning and was disgusted to find the wood almost completely rotten. Not good, and NOT healthy. I kept telling Mario and my dad-in-law about the problem and everyone just kept shrugging me off. Now we’re going to have to replace just about everything!

AND we’re also going to have to re-do the bathroom floor. One of the boys (all signs point to Eenan) threw a wad of green bubble gum into the bathroom wastebasket and completely missed. Well, Mario obviously didn’t pay attention that night and threw a towel on the floor since the bathroom rug was in the wash. When I went in there to hang the towel up to dry (men!) I pulled the towel up and the tile came with it!! I guess it was a blessing in disguise since I noticed the floor was covered in mold. Like, a layer of mold, no kidding. It’s disgusting. It must have happened when our toilet was on the fritz a few months ago and overflowed a few times. So now, we have to measure, get prices for, and buy ceramic tile. We’re not putting any of that commercial stuff in there anymore. That’s what we had in there before: commercial tile. Water can easily get under there and lift the glue, thus causing mold. I don’t know why we ever put it in there in the first place! I don’t know how people can have the sense to put carpet in their bathrooms (I’ve seen it several times!).

Why do houses and cars decide to fall apart when you’re not only broke, but trying to save money. Mario’s vacation is coming up and it looks like we won’t be doing a damn thing this year. Not fun :(. That’s probably where the money I make at the yard sale will go–saving for either repairs or vacation.

I guess that means I should get a move on and get back to searching through stuff and cleaning. I just wish I had help *slumps*. Mario’s off helping his Mom get her stuff out of storage. It’s going to take all day. By the time he gets home, he’ll be too tired to help me.

But at least I got my 3 last boxes of 80s stuff out of our outdoor unit and into my house!

I noticed I’ve got a few extras of vintage Care Bears and Popples, so I might add those to my Thrift Shop soon.

I took care of Saturday in the previous entry so now I’ll catch up from Sunday-today. I wish I did One Photo An Hour all the time so that I can remember everything, heh.

Sunday, Apr. 8th – Mario was off on Sunday, Easter, and since we stayed up so late the night before, we slept in a tad Easter morning. I woke up around 9:45am, got myself and the kiddos ready and we went over to Mary’s. We basically chilled out all day while the men were outside bar-b-q’ing. When the food was done we ate. And boy did we eat! I had bar-b-q’d fajitas and pork ribs, broccoli rice, beans, potato salad and I can’t even remember what else. It was all so delicious. We sat around and talked some more and then devoured the desserts. I had some blackberry pie Elda made and some cherry and pineapple Dump Cake Mary made. It was SO sweet, but incredibly delicious.

The kiddos all opened their baskets around 4pm. There was lots of hustle and bustle around since everyone was packed in Mary’s living room.

After they’d all spent about an hour with their new goodies, we went outside to crack the piñata Mom had bought for the kids. It was cold outside, but we braved it since the kids were excited. This was around the time Mario started to feel tired and went to sleep. I wish I could just up and go to sleep whenever I felt a little tired. I’d be sleeping all day!

Since it was so cold and muddy from the rain the day before, we decided not to crack the eggs. For the second year in a row. Last year, we opted out of cracking eggs since it was in the 100’s and was extremely hot. Who’da thought it would be in the 50’s this year?!

So, we’ve got lots of eggs, once again, for next year.

Since we were stuffed from lunch still, I made sandwiches for all of us and Mario and I sat on the futon to watch Desperate Housewives. He commented, “The highlight of our lives, huh?” LOL

Monday, Apr. 9th – The kids had the day off the next day, so after Mario left to work I got them ready and we went to Joy Dollar. I needed to ask Ricci about a car charger for my phone, so I stopped by and talked to her for a while. They didn’t have any and another customer walked in so I said by and wandered off to get batteries and some new flip flops. I got two, black and pink ones, for $1 each. And some batteries. Yay for cheap purchases! I keep telling everyone not to step on me though. You never know if the straps will unravel LOL.

I had a few groceries to get, but I didn’t feel like driving all the way to H-E-B so we went to Dollar General. After Mom and I got everything we needed we came back home to put the perishable foods away and then went to the new beauty salon. NEVER AGAIN! The darn woman totally ruined my boys’ hair! I had to keep telling the nit-wit to fix this or that on Jaylen and she kept cutting Eenan’s hair crooked so she ended up cutting it super short. Then she has the gall to tell me that if the hair looks uneven, I need to find exactly where the “part” is so that it’ll look right. WTF? No other beautician’s ever told me I have to find the part to make it look right. When we got home and Eenan shook his hair out after his shower we noticed it was 2 inches longer on the left side than the right. I had to fix it myself!

And don’t even get me started on Mom’s hair. She kept insisting that she get highlights and kept telling her she’d leave them for a lower price if she got them that minute! She left her hair all uneven in the front, too!

I’d been avoiding going to McAllen all day so that I wouldn’t spend any money, but then Mario called and asked me to drop the camera off to him since he was doing a custom job on a car. So there John and I go, to drop it off. We left the kiddos at home with Mom so that we could stop by the storage unit to get more of my boxes out since they’re closing on the 25th. (Bastards.)

We drop the camera off and then John asks to stop by the mall, so we go. First stop was Hot Topic, where he found the Skelanimals blanket he’d been wanting to get Alaethia since she was born.

He looked around at a game store and then we left. I stopped by the H-E-B at Shary Crossing to get gas since it was cheapest there: $2.49 at the time. My gas tank’s on the right, and it’s so annoying to find a gas pump that’s empty where I can just squeeze in and it was no different that day. All the people were going in the opposite direction of how I was driving in so I went around. My luck would have it that suddenly everyone was turning the opposite direction again when I reached the other side! There was an old lady in front of me, at the diesel pump so I knew I was going to have trouble getting out. Turns out she was paying, but for my pump, not the one she was at. She starts telling me I need to move, and this is after I’ve already paid my money for my gas. The attendant calls me on the speaker to wait so she can reset it since the old woman had already paid. Total chaos. Everyone was staring right at me — so embarrassing! To top it off, the lady had blocked me in, so I had to ask the guy in the white Mustang behind me to please scoot back a bit so I can back out. Thank God he was nice about it and didn’t give me any problems or ugly faces.

We go to the storage unit next, where I’m kind of hoping the manager is present so that I can yell at him and release my anger. He’s not there. Poo. I wanted to ask him for half the month’s rent back since they were basically kicking us all out and I was planning to be out within the week. I spoke to him later on and he acted like a complete idiot. Supposedly didn’t know anything about the storage units and when they’re closing or anything. The only thing he did know was that he couldn’t give me my money back. How convenient!

Mario got home late that night since he was working on that car. Around 8pm I notice that Alaethia feels really hot, which isn’t unlike her; she’s a sweaty baby. Still, I got her pacifier thermometer and to my surprise it read 101.1. Not good. I gave her some Tylenol and her fever was gone within half an hour and didn’t get one the rest of the night. She didn’t fall asleep till at least 1am because of her cold and stuffy nose. She woke up at 3 and then again at 5, so I knew she was feeling worse and decided to take her to the doctor the next day.

Tuesday, Apr. 10th – The boys went back to school and I was exhausted from getting a crappy night’s rest. Alaethia was asleep after the kids went to school and stayed asleep even after Mario left to work so I decided I’d leave the doctor’s visit till after I picked Jaylen up. I took a nap with her until it was time to pick Jaylen up.

John had the day off, so he accompanied us to the doctor’s office. Mom was at her own appointment, or else she would have probably gone with us, too. It didn’t take long to get in, thank goodness. She weighed 10.10 lbs. and was either 22 1/2 or 23 1/2 inches long. I can’t remember now =\. The doctor checked her up and down and nothing. No infections anywhere. He gave her some Tylenol just in case and prescribed some more cold medicine (like the one she had last time) and some new nose drops.

While we were there, I weighed myself and to my absolute horror, realized I’m back at 122. Not cool! I have no one to blame but myself, however. Eating burgers at 12am and stuffing myself silly with ice cream will surely pack on the pounds. But it’s so delicious :(.

Later on, after I’d already picked up Eenan, Mom, Alaethia and I went to drop off the prescriptions. It would be a two-hour wait. I figured we could walk around and buy a few things, but nope, we were done after half an hour. I got some more Special K cereal in chocolate for my “diet” (they actually had it, Mayra!). So far, I don’t think it’s working! I have been eating only a bowl for breakfast, lunch and having a well-portioned dinner. We’ll see if anything happens.

I made meatloaf for dinner that night, mostly because Mario’s co-worker wanted some. He told Mario he loved how the meatloaf smelled when he’d microwave it when he’d take it for lunch. Mario took him some and he said he loved it. Yay :). I didn’t have as much as I usually do and I was starving later on but I didn’t let myself break and have say, one of those delicious chocolate Pop Tarts that are in the cabinet *cries*.

Wednesday, Apr. 11th – Alaethia slept much better the night before — all through the night actually. She didn’t wake up till 6:40am, which is when I wake the boys up to get ready for school. After the boys left to school and Mario left to work, Aly and I slept in a little more till it was time to pick up her brother.

Mom, Alaethia and I picked Jaylen up and then we went thrifting! Too bad it was an incredibly disappointing day. I saw “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” at both stores we went to, but I thought, “Eh, what do I get it for now?” So I just left it.

We stopped by H-E-B to pick up the prescriptions we’d left the night before and Mom got down to get some groceries. I stayed in the car with the kiddos and read “Shopaholic Takes Manhattan” while we waited. Those are really the only moments I actually get a chance to read.

We got home, I ate my Special K and then picked up Eenan. I decided I’d stay away from the computer if I wanted to get anything done around the house. It looks like a tornado crashed through the place now that I have garage sale bags and Sterilite Tote boxes littered everywhere till Mario can remove the shelves from the living room closet. Mary had called and asked for a number she’d e-mailed to me, so I had no choice by to plop myself on my computer chair and check my mail. And Myspace. I had a comment from Karina and it said that she, Carmen and Sally were having dinner that night so to let them know if I wanted to go. I look at the time: she’d sent it since 10am!

I look at the clock. 5:15. I call Sally up quick, praying that there was still time for me to get ready (I really needed a shower!) and thank God, they were meeting at 6. I had 15 minutes to shower and get ready since it takes 30 minutes to get to McAllen. I got ready as fast as I could, bathed the boys, gave Mom instructions on what to give them for dinner if I was too late getting back, made sure Alaethia’s stuff was within reach and kissed them all goodbye and left.

I left the house at 5:50. I had the cruise control set at 70; fast enough to get there quick, but slow enough to keep from getting pulled over. I made it there at 6:10, woo! It was so great walking into Chilli’s and seeing the girls together. It felt just like old times. We all hugged and had a great chat, mostly updating eachother on our lives. I threw my diet out the window just for that night, and my jog, too, as I was supposed to start walking/jogging again that night. But flabby legs and tummy? Friends? Friends totally win!

I had some nachos, as I didn’t want to eat a huge plate of food as I usually do and just enjoyed the atmosphere and the laughter. We made plans to meet for Sally’s birthday on Friday night and then, as we were getting ready to leave since Carment was already 20 minutes late to work (she was on her lunch break! The rebel!), Sally shares some incredibly awesome news with us! I won’t mention it here, as I don’t have her blessing yet, but OMG, I’m THRILLED for her and Pete! I need to get more details. I tried calling her tonight but got her voicemail. I can’t wait to see her again :). I’m counting the minutes till we all have dinner tomorrow :)!

Thursday, Apr. 12th – Today was a pretty low-key day. The morning was normal and I got to nap again with Alaethia in the morning. I’m taking advantage as much as I can, because I hate feeling like I’m dragging in the afternoon. Mom kept nudging me to go thrifting again, but I didn’t have cash and they don’t take Debit so I declined. I also was still disappointed that I didn’t find anything at all yesterday. I cleaned up a little bit, then had a quick chat with everyone at Mary’s and a bit of food she made, then I came over here and made Mario some dinner: pork chops and cheesey broccoli rice. Too bad he’d already eaten at work since one of the reps treated them to pizza. Grr!

I got the boys bathed and ready for school tomorrow. They’re totally into “The Tall Book of Nursery Tales,” which Jaylen found at Goodwill a week ago or so. I just found out yesterday that it’s vintage: from 1944! The pictures are lovely and the pages are immaculate. It doesn’t even look like it belonged to anyone!

Ok. I wanted to get this entry up and I did it! And Alaethia just fell asleep so it’s time for me to hit the sack as well. Goodnight!