Category: Holiday

My new theme is up; late and wonky, but it’s up. I created and tossed out at least 10 ideas. I came to the realization today WHY I don’t do graphic design anymore: it’s so darn frustrating! How did I ENJOY doing this years ago?!

So anyway. I’m still debating on some design aspects and I really need to find a new Flickr plugin. The one I have stopped working and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to display it in a row instead of a column. But I’m just glad that, after 5 years, I FINALLY have a new layout!!

Now that I’ve got this up and running I’ll hopefully catch up with blogging. Hopefully.

I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was wonderful. Ours most certainly was and I’m so incredibly thankful for all of my blessings!! Ok. My babe’s been patient while I coded this thing up and now he’s disappeared somewhere, heh. Goodnight!

I’ll start this post by saying that Friday night, the 4th, I renewed my domain for another 2 years :)! I usually only renew for a year at a time, but…I had a coupon, heh. 2 years for $16? Can’t beat that.

Pixydust.net will officially be 10 years old on November 16th. I can’t believe it! Even though I slowed down a bit in recent years with blogging I’m really glad I never let the domain go ♥.

I left off on October 29th. Mom and I packed snacks for the kiddos (grapes, Doritos, pretzels, pears, waters) and we got in the car to find a park to go to. I figured the one on Daffodil would be packed, I forgot about the one on Daffodil that’s closer to the house, so we went to the one on Nolana since we were going to Walmart afterwards. It’s a small park, but it was empty except for a dad and his little boy and toddler girl. Mom took a walk and I took turns with the girls, “catching them” at the end of the slides. Jaylen hung out mostly with Emily and Eenan did his teenage thing and watched videos on his phone and listened to music. It’s so…gosh, I can’t even explain it. Weird, shocking nervewracking? Heh, I can’t explain it. It’s just amazing that I have a 12-year-old boy and he’s becoming this little teenager. He has his moments, but he really has matured in the past year ♥.

Emily made friends with the little blonde-curled toddler girl :). She loves “babies”. She wants to befriend all the little kids she sees :).

The kids had their snacks and then we packed up and went to Walmart. Eenan and I got down to pick the pumpkins. Of course we wouldn’t find very attractive ones as it was 2 days before Halloween, heh. We finally found two big ones that weren’t too wilty. They didn’t have the medium sized ones in stock at all, but we found the only bag of tiny ones they had. The girls and Eenan wanted to paint those, and Jaylen wanted to carve one. We took an extra big one in case Jorgie, Justin or Nick wanted to carve another. They’d just carved some earlier that day. We got a carving kit and the few groceries we’d need for dinner and went home since we were expecting Jorge’s family :). We’d planned a movie night outside on the porch on the projector. A cheesy movie that wouldn’t really scare the kids. “Killer Clowns from Outer Space” was the movie of choice, heh.

I got home and made some chili. Everyone got here and I served everyone dinner while my babe and Javi got the movie on the screen. Briana and the boys brought with them the pumpkins they’d carved and displayed them on the porch ledge and lit a pumpkin spice scented candle in each. It smelled like Autumn ♥. When everyone finished eating, the adults grabbed lawn chairs and the kids got a spot on the exercise mats Jorge put on the floor for them. We got each kid a blanket, Jorge brought out several bowls of popcorn and Briana brought cookies. The kids were surprisingly into the movie!

Alaethia politely reminded me every-so-often that I had promised they’d paint their pumpkins. I waited till the movie was about half way and then I got the box of paints out.

The movie finished shortly after and then the boys started getting everything ready to carve their pumpkins.

Jorge’s family left a little while after and we sat outside with the kiddos while they degutted the pumpkins. The girls went inside with Mom since it started to get chillier. The boys each slowly went back inside until only Justin was left carving a pumpkin, but he didn’t mind. I told my love it was a great night for Abuelita chocolate…and he made some for us !

It was great :). I got sleepy right after that and went inside to watch TV and crashed out. I woke up a while later, I can’t remember why now, but I went outside and saw my babe had strung the lights up with all the kids’ pumpkins. It looked so nice!

We sat outside recounting moments of that great day. I felt so blessed . It truly felt like Halloween and fall and family :).

I can’t remember much from the next morning (Jorge and I are trying to remember right now, heh). We remember our traditional Sunday omelet. Eenan wanted one too, so I made him one even though all the kids had eaten :). And here’s where we’re drawing a blank, up until I texted Briana so everyone could come over for lunch and cupcakes. I’d promised Javi strawberry cheesecake cookies, so I was making those, too. Briana texts back that they’re in Mission and on their way. Oops! I was just starting with the Mummy Dogs, but I figured I’d have enough time to do everything.

Everyone got here and the kids played and everyone lounged around. The first batch of Mummies came out and they were a hit, even with the adults, heh.

I started on the strawberry cheesecake cookies and realized I didn’t have white chocolate chips. I let everyone know I’d be right back, took Emily with me because she wanted to tag a long and headed to Family Dollar. Emily had fallen asleep, so I lugged her inside and lo and behold: no white chocolate chips. Grr.

I go to Target next since it’s nearby and go straight to the baking section. That was the fastest trip to Target of my life. I didn’t allow myself to get distracted :P.

I start baking the cookies and the first dozen comes out. There were none left by the time I finished putting the next batch in. Javi really liked them, hehe.

We only got to have cookies since the family needed to go. It was so fun though, that whole weekend. I took my kiddos to La Joya later that evening and on the way back I saw a shooting star! Hadn’t seen one of those in a while!

When I got back Jorge asked, “Do you want to pick something up for dinner, Babe? You’ve been in the kitchen all day.” I thought it was a great idea. We got Church’s :). We all ate and then I did stuff around the site, like adding a “Like” button. I’d really like to get a new layout up by my 10th anniversary, but you know how that goes!

It was Halloween the next day. I had agreed to let Emily spend Halloween over there since I had them last year. I was trying my hardest to be fair and civil, but it really bothered me that my kiddos weren’t going to be here with me this year .

That morning at work went by quickly. We’re having to wrap things up for this next event. I was going to munch on stuff at work for lunch since my stomach felt weird but Michelle told me to accompany her and we’d share a Palenque Bowl from Palenque Chicken. OMG. It was so good, heh.

I got a call from the kids’ school that afternoon around 3:45 that poor Alaethia was still in the front office. She missed the bus. Jaylen was on it, and she wasn’t. Of course, nobody wanted to take blame for it but I had nice “I told you so’s” to share with Mario and his mother. THAT’S why I wasn’t ok with my poor baby taking the bus, as much as they say SHE wants to go. I’m just happy they didn’t put her on a different bus :(. Sonia went for her eventually (again, if she could go, I don’t know why she can’t do it all the time!)

I went to HEB to pick up sushi stuff. My babe was kinda down about not spending Halloween with the kiddos, too, so we figured we’d have a movie and sushi night ♥.

As I was rolling the sushi, Mario shows up with the kiddos. I was so happy :*).

That was nice of him. I was surprised, really, and I appreciated it :D. Almost made up for my baby girl being left at school for 30 minutes. Almost. Not quite.

We ate dinner and then Jorge and I got comfy on the sofa to watch TV…and crashed out immediately!! That’s how we spent our Halloween, buaha!

The Annual Banquet was the next day. I got all my stuff ready and took it with me so I could change at work. Darryl “the Moose” Johnston, former player for the Dallas Cowboys, was the speaker so we were dressing in Cowboys jerseys and t-shirts and jeans. I don’t really go for anyone in football and wasn’t about to spend $60 on a jersey, but I got a cute t-shirt and I was thrilled about wearing jeans :).

I met my love at Old Navy for work since he was going to go with me and he needed jeans. We found them really quickly (30% off, too!) and then I took him to lunch at Palenque Chicken, heh. It was so good and inexpensive, $12 for both of us! It’s so nice to just unwind with him during lunch :).

I stayed till 5 that day and covered the front desk since Rosie and everyone needed to go home to change. I got to change and be in jeans at work, heh. I had a few things to lug with me and went to the Convention Center to meet everyone. I got sent back a while later since they forgot a bottle of wine, and since we’d be selling roses for a fundraiser and had them in this awful 5-gallon bucket, I found a nice black satin tablecloth to cover it with.

My babe was running late, and when he finally got there they were going to separate us. Neither of us was too happy with that idea, so he went to chill out with his work buddies. I’m glad he did. I would have felt even more guilty that he got dressed up and everything =\.

We sold roses later on. I was kinda annoyed thinking I had to do it on my own, but another co-worker and the boss’ daughter did it, too. I actually sold most of my roses until they called me to do something else. We got to eat (wasn’t too happy about it, hotdogs and burgers, blah) and I didn’t see the nachos or pretzels so I didn’t get any LOL. I woulda been much happier with the latter!

I ended up being moved to the silent auction and once that was done we cleaned up, went back to work and unloaded and THEN I could come home. My babe was still a little upset about the whole thing, and I started getting upset and quickly went into panic mode because it was exactly a year to the hour since The Big Drama happened last year. I was actually a lot…calmer than I thought I would be on that night, but I owe it to keeping busy all day. I didn’t have time to “think” too much. But we were okay and we were together and in our soft bed and comfy sheets ♥. All was wonderful again by the next morning :).

I was so stressed out at work. One sponsor dropped because they’re closing their business. Another changed marketing directors and the new one didn’t include our event on their calendar. OMG I was so mad. And THEN, another company wanted to drop out too because my contact is just…awful. I knew she was going to be trouble as soon as I started dealing with her. I was about to lose my shit and texted Jorge to tell him how stressed I was. He asked when I was going to lunch and told me he’d meet me. He surprised me by showing up at my work ! We drove to Espi’s together and I just spewed everything out, everything that happened. He listened, offered advice and listened some more. And then he told me to forget everything and just enjoy lunch, so I did :). I was so grateful that he went out of his way to make me feel better.

I reluctantly went back to work. I wished Jorge could stay with me, or I could go with him, heh. But the day got better; my boss dealt with the sponsor and I got about 3 new exhibitors.

My Emily was brought to me 😀 and I made us dinner. We all got in our PJ’s and went to Walmart to get goodies and catfood, heh. We browsed around and then went home and watched XFactor. Emily fell asleep on my lap and Jorge took her to her bedroom where she stayed all night ♥. We finished watching the show and sat together enjoying each other’s company. We both expressed how we’d like every day to be like that :).

I couldn’t help but think to myself how much better this November 2nd was compared to last year. And we both agreed: it’s only going to get better :).

(This was started on Friday night and I didn’t finish updating and then I started back on it Saturday morning *sigh*)

(Friday) Ahhh…one of the best things about making Tortilla Soup is that you have enough caldito left to poach some more chicken the next day :). Did that, chopped up and baked some tortillas, cubed an avocado and voila!, dinner!

(May I also add that one of the best things about finally upgrading my WP is that I forgot about my laptop after dinner last night and it shut down to install updates, but it thankfully saved my draft, *whew*!)

I’m waiting for my babe to get back from dropping off his boys. Mine were picked up earlier by Mary. Mario supposedly caught the kids’ virus and was home so he couldn’t come. Mary had to come early since she had a Rosary to attend. Another one of their aunts passed away =\.

(Saturday) The house is utterly quiet, except for the Mexican soap opera Mom’s watching in another room. Between having my kids a few days here and a few days there and my babe’s for over a week straight, it was pretty routine coming home and being greeted by tons of little voices excited to tell you what they did throughout the day. Ok. I’ll stop. I’m just going to depress myself. They’ll be back soon :).

Ok, so let’s see. It’s been extremely hot (103-105, not including the “heat index” blah) and Mom was awesome and bought the kids a pool. (Which I heard caused a certain someone to spaz out and start talking smack about how we’re “buying” our children off with material things. Is he serious? Says the one whose mommy buys them everything they want the second they ask for it. Moron.) Anyway, the pool is nothing huge, which was a relief once we put Emily and Alaethia in there. The boys play around and knock them over accidentally and OMG–I go into panic-mode. I just CANNOT STAND the idea of a kid drowning, not even feeling that awful choking/burning in the back of your throat and nostrils. It’s the worst thing. So I make sure to go in there with them and I’m glad that the rare times the boys do push them over, they can get right back up.

My babe went to a training on the 14th in Houston. I had the girls till the evening the first night. We got in the pool and they kept me pretty distracted, but they ended up leaving with Mario and I was quickly becoming lonely and depressed. I would have been fine if my babe could just text with me all day and night, but he couldn’t, heh. Michelle and Rosie invited me to walk the trail with them near their house both nights, so that kept me nice and busy. I wish there was a walking trail at the park that’s 2 blocks down but there’s only playground equipment =\. I came home and actually did Ab Ripper–OMG, the pain! Too bad I only kept up with it for 3 days =\.

I finally took the kiddos to the library last weekend. The library I spent many summers at :). Only Eenan, Alaethia and Emily wanted to go at the last minute; the rest of the boys were into a video game and refused to move >_<. But, Eenan had fun and my poor Alaethia (who'd caught the stomach virus that the kids are taking turns passing around) enjoyed the puzzles and games, as did Emily :).

We gathered a few books, I changed Emily’s diaper (she’s regressing with the potty training from when she had the darn virus. And I’m sure that other family isn’t helping much, grr) and Alaethia had to go to the bathroom so we got all that done. That was my cue to leave before Aly’s stomach really started to bother her. So, I braced myself for the wails when I announced it was time to go. And sure enough. Emily screamed. Loudly. Everyone thought she was the most adorable thing in the world, so they didn’t seem bothered, thank God LOL. I checked out the books. Chased her a little bit and then we walked out. She began to drag herself as soon as we walked outside but she became momentarily distracted when Eenan pointed out a little dead chick that had fallen out of a tree. Eenan, Alaethia and I hovered over it and began to analyze what may have happened, when all of a sudden a little 2-year-old foot comes out of nowhere and not only STOMPS, bug DRAGS across the pavement, squishing the already demised birdie :(. It was a bit traumatizing and I was so shocked I tried not to laugh. Eenan thought it was the craziest thing and was openly giggling. I gave Emily a scolding about how mean it was and she was silent on the way home. Kids!

We got home and I started on dinner: spaghetti and meatballs, one of my poor Alaethia’s favorites. She hardly ate because she was so out of it from that darn virus (she sure did enjoy it the next day, though!). Emily had a blast with it. She even took her fork back to me as I was serving the other kids and said, “Here. I don’t need this.” She had spaghetti EVERYWHERE.

My babe and I got into a 5-minute argument about something I can’t even remember now and we sat outside on the bed of the truck and talked about it. I love that about us. We don’t stay mad long because one of us always gives in and either apologizes or explains why we’re upset ♥.

We lazied around the house the rest of the evening. We watched TV. I read my book while the girls slept. The boys played Xbox and then acted like total boys; roughhousing, climbing all over my babe, SPINNING! It was crazy and they had a BLAST! Jorge spun all of them from their LEGS and they loved it LOL. All 4 boys even dragged me over to my babe and he attempted to spin me but I was terrified LOL.

We woke up the next morning, Father’s Day, and I made my babe his favorite, an omelet with the works :).

First thing on the agenda was relocating the pool. It was beginning to sag on one side where the ground was unleveled. My babe emptied it out and then I helped him smooth it out and refill it on the driveway. It was the most level ground we could find. The kids were sitting in the garage just watching us. They had popsicles and drinks while they waited. I found it kinda odd that Mario nor Mary had called to ask to pick up the kids since it was Father’s Day, but around 1:30 Mary called and asked if I could take them over sooner than 6. I told her about them waiting for the pool and they’d be over at 4.

We all go in the pool and had an awesome time. It was so hot that the water was a wonderful relief.

We stayed in there a good hour and a half. I was almost sunburned and my babe was most definitely sunburned for being out so long. It was already 5 so we all hustled to get changed so I could drop the kids off with Mario. While I changed Alaethia, Emily and my babe fell asleep. It was the cutest thing LOL.

So I got back from the long drive and we started with the BBQing. I really wish my kiddos had been there, but I tried to be understanding and giving Mario time with them, too. The food was great and it was really nice sitting outside and chatting :).

(It’s now Sunday night and I’m STILL trying to finish this post! I’m so bad at this!)

Let’s see. We chilled out with my babe’s boys Tuesday night. We were watching TV and then got bored and came outside to sit on the porch. The boys started blowing bubbles and one of them was kinda crappy so I searched Google for homemade bubbles. We went inside and mixed some water, dish soap and Karo syrup together and they were AWESOME! The boys had so much fun ^_^!

We had an emergency with the pool; a neighborhood kitty seems to have clawed it so we tried our hardest to patch it up but it didn’t work. We made a trip to Walmart to hopefully find a repair kit but ended up with ice cream instead since there were no repair kits, heh. I finally found Dreyers Brownie Fudge and Justin and I picked that one :).

It FINALLY rained on Wednesday, just like the forecast predicted! It was wonderful! I love love love overcast skies and rain!

My babe and I hardly meet for lunch anymore (one, because he’s usually far away with work and two, because we’re cutting back on extra things) so we thought we’d have lunch at El Terco Seafood that day. It was SO GOOD.

They postponed one of my events 🙁 so the rest of the day at work was pretty laid back for me. I got home and made dinner for all of us and then my babe and I went grocery shopping. We ended up with this:

We sat outside on the porch watching TV, eating our cheesecakes and I had a glass of wine. It was a great, great night :).

The next day it was nice and overcast and the forecast didn’t disappoint. It rained again after lunch. I had to walk barefoot to my van, which I’d parked across the street because the parking lot directly across was blocked off!

I prayed on the way to pick up the kids. It’s a 35 minute drive on a good day and the rain was coming down hard so it took about 15 extra minutes to get there. Thankfully, by the time I picked them up and was on my way back with them, the rain had stopped.

This was the night I originally made tortilla soup. I fed everyone (got great reviews, including from Emily, heh) and then we spent the rest of the night chilling out and watching TV, or being out on the porch. It’s so awesome when we’re all together. We literally feel complete :).

So this brings us back to Friday evening after the kids were picked up/dropped off. We ate dinner quietly, which was really weird. No crazy, funny stories. It was just QUIET. You usually crave a second of silence when all 6 kids are screaming but it’s just awful when you don’t hear ANYTHING :(.

We finished dinner at chatted at the table and decided to go to Red Mango for some yogurt (buy one get one free, baby!) before heading to the Duckie Park (as Alaethia calls it) and eat our yogurt there.

We sat at a covered bench and ate our yogurt, people watched and just talked. I enjoy my little dates with my babe. It’s so comfortable and we can be quiet or sharing stories or laughing and it’s always NICE. I love it. I told him about how I always feel guilty when the kids aren’t here. Like, it’s…wrong…to have fun or a good time if they’re not around. He told me he felt that way too sometimes but it was ok for us to have fun once in a while when we’re alone. So I gave myself a break that night and enjoyed myself :).

I was told the exact same thing by Pete and Sally later that night, when we visited them in their new house :). It’s GORGEOUS! They gave us the grand tour and then we sat in their living room and caught up. I love them, love our conversations. We each shared cute anecdotes about our relationships (how Sally and I both follow the guys around the house switching off lights, heh) and we discussed our kiddos. It’s always great meeting up with them!

My babe worked the next day and I spent the day lazying around the house. I wanted to do absolutely nothing. John came over and we chit chatted and laughed at everything like always. I typed up this entry, uploading pics to Flickr, commented on Facebook and I had this crushing feeling in my chest telling me to Get up! Quit wasting time! Quit being lazy and clean the house!! Go buy groceries! Visit your Gramma!!!

So I eventually gave in (around 3pm) and Mom and I visited Gramma. I wanted to make sushi for dinner but we didn’t have rice, so I went to HEB Plus in Shary instead of the HEB down the road. Who in the world do I run into but my babe’s psycho ex. I saw Justin and he lit up when he realized it was me. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him with her. She had her 20-some-year-old niece and her son with her. I told Mom, “Just wait. There’s gonna be drama.”

Sure enough. She came into the “Asian isle” and proceeded to cause a scene. She went on and on about how he still sleeps with her and so forth (which is funny considering that WE’RE ALWAYS TOGETHER) and was just EMBARRASSING. She event\ went as far as tapping an innocent customer on the shoulder to get her involved in her psycho babble. She pushed me once and I told her, “I’m not doing this here with you, and definitely not in front of Justin.” Of course she goes into *snap*snap* mode and says, “So what? I wait for you outside, or what?” So completely childish and ghetto!

I called my babe to let him know there was most likely going to be a show later on. I said, “I wouldn’t doubt she leaves her cart somewhere and goes straight outside to wait for me behind my van.”

I should be a psychic! I got to my van with a cart-full of groceries and there was the silver car she was in, parked directly behind my van. She gets down and I go on about my business, putting groceries away. She yells God knows what to me and my mom tells her, “Just leave her alone. Go away.” And when she got in front of my Mom’s face and yelled at her I snapped, “Don’t yell at my mother that way!”

She yelled in all her ghetto glory, “I don’t give a FUCK about your mom!” and pushed me. I’m not sure what she grabbed first, but she pulled my hair, tried ripping my (brand new!) tank top repeatedly (’cause she’s a perv like that) & flailed her arms in pathetic attempts to punch me. I had my stupid bag on my shoulder, open as always and I did NOT want to let it go. I was afraid her niece would grab it and run. But her niece was too busy holding my left arm away from her lovely aunt. I had managed to grab her stupid face since she first attacked me and I did NOT let go. The other hand was wrapped around a chunk of her hair, too. I couldn’t get out of the knot of arms and I saw her legs spread open so I kicked her square in her ghetto balls. She moved back and started with her made up sob stories so the lovely crowd that had assembled around us could hear. And the entire time Justin and the other little boy were watching from inside. She’s seriously something else. What exactly did she accomplish? What was she trying to change? I’m not leaving him, he’s not leaving me, so…? Well, Karma’s a bitch, though, just wait and see.

Last night was, needless to say, a total flop. But today completely made up for it :). My babe and I slept in, I made crab & avocado omelets and then we showered and got ready for the day.

We stopped by Red Mango (it’s an addiction, I tell ya!) and got our usual yogurts. That was our lunch. I beat my babe at the Slug Bug game hehe. I sold Emily’s old crib, so John finally got that out of his apartment :P. We went to my babe’s sis’ house to get more of his things and tell her about my adventure yesterday, heh. We got home and unloaded his stuff and went to Walmart for a few things I’d forgotten yesterday. We had some popcorn when we got home and then we went outside to clean the pool. My babe’s friend came over for a bit and then we relaxed in the pool for a good while. We hadn’t noticed just how many different types of birds fly around our house. I finally saw two little hummingbirds here!

We washed up and I made us some awesome sushi :).

And now we’re sitting outside on the back porch. We’re so not gonna want to get ready for work in the morning. Why must the weekend be so short!