Category: Holiday

I finally have time to blog and whaddya know, I can’t! I’m currently typing this in Word (9:00am).

I hate the cable guy right now. Namely, the cable guy who came over yesterday to fix the few channels that weren’t showing from our box and ruined everything. My channels are now working correctly, but for some reason he ran a new line to the pole and totally effed up Mary’s cable at her house—the box in Noelia’s room and the regular cable in her bedroom. Oh yeah, and the Roadrunner as well.

Alaethia decided that last night was the perfect time to fall asleep at 2am. Grr. She always does things like that when I absolutely have to stay awake the next morning after Mario and the boys are gone. I feel so darn sleepy right now.

So, I guess I can update a bit since I haven’t really since last Saturday. Lord knows I have the time right now. The Little Miss won’t be awake for at least 15 more minutes.

Sunday, the 6th – Mario and I spent all of last Sunday morning and afternoon putting together our new TV table for the living room. We cleaned up a tangle of wires and several piles of dust bunnies from behind and under the old entertainment center. Everything looks much neater now and there’s a lot less free surface on the TV table to leave junk on. That’s always a plus. We also freed up at least 10 cubic feet of space since getting rid of the old entertainment center.

We went to Home Depot (accompanied by John—Mom stayed with all the kiddos) to buy the stuff for The Bathroom Floor Makeover. Some 16×16 ceramic tile, adhesive, grout, a step ladder (yay, now I can finally reach the highest cupboards in the kitchen!), and a few other things equaled to $125. Our bathroom is kind of small, so that seemed like quite a lot but what can you do?

We went to an impromptu party on the way back home. It was a Communion party for one of Mario’s co-worker’s little girls. We had some posole and John and I talked about the fight from the night before and how I was more like Oscar de la Hoya (hitting and going crazy) and he was more like Mayweather (running around like a sissy after getting a little punch in) LOL. It was John’s analogy, not mine!

I tried not to leave the house unless I absolutely needed to the rest of the week. 1) because of gas prices (going to and from town will guzzle up a quarter of a tank) and 2) because I had a lot to do around the house and leaving would only prolong housecleaning. I did, however, go to Goodwill on Monday with John to drop off all the dishes, breakables and trinkets that didn’t sell at the yard sale.

Remember how I said I shouldn’t take my junk to a thrift shop I frequent because I’d buy it back? I almost did just that! I told John, “Let’s look around real quick,” after getting the stuff off the car. I ended up finding a really cute Fondue set, which I’ve always wanted for $5. Can’t WAIT to use it! I also got the boys a brand-new Golden Book of Poems for $1.

One of the items I’d donated was a ceramic Care Bear. I’d glued it back together after it came crashing down on the floor once. Since Noelia gave me another Funshine Bear exactly like the one I’d glued back together I took that one to Goodwill. As we were walking out I noticed they were bringing a shopping cart out from the back. That only means that they’re bringing out “new” merchandise. I scuttle over to the cart and tell John, “Oh, look! This Care Bear looks just like mine!” As I get closer I notice IT IS MINE. The one I’d just donated LOL. Told you I’d end up doing that!

I spent most of last week trying to gather all the junk leftover from the yard sale and what I didn’t take to Goodwill to distribute it wherever it needed to go. Didn’t help that once again the darn news didn’t tell us that it was going to rain so a lot of the stuff got wet. I had to let a lot of the clothes air-dry and some of the toys, too. I was trying to find a place to take the clothes to where they just give them to the needy and I had no luck until I remembered Norma C., one of Mary’s co-workers. Her church gives the clothes, toys, anything to needy people. So Mary took all the clothes and small toys. In all she took a good 10-15 bags of toys and clothes combined.

I still have a few things left to take to Goodwill that I didn’t notice the last time I went, so I’ll save that trip for this weekend.

(Grr. It’s already 10am and the darn cable guy STILL hasn’t gotten here. Alaethia already woke up and had a bottle and went back to sleep. I could have spent all this time sleeping! I KNEW Time Warner would do this to me!)

Mario had his day off on Friday, of course, so after picking Jaylen up we went straight to pick up Mario’s paycheck. It was pretty depressing. He made a pretty good amount this time but most of it went towards the bills. I was so hysterical over how we’d make ends meet that I was already talking about trading in my Equinox for a smaller, less expensive car. But Mario talked sense into me and told me, with the size of our family, the truck was the most practical vehicle we could have. And, as always, he was supportive and made me feel so much better about being poor LOL. He also took us to the Taco Bell/Long John Silvers restaurant, which was really sweet of him since I know he doesn’t really like either one and both are my favorites :P.

(Mother’s such a bad influence! We’re watching the DIY channel and they’re showing how to make really cute things out of polymer clay. Well, she wants to go to Michael’s—which’ll use up that quarter of a tank I was talking about—to go buy some. And some paints. Lately she’s been the one nudging me to go places when all I want to do is stay home and save gas!)

We bar-b-q’d that night (it was Jorge’s idea), which I didn’t mind at all since it saved me from cooking! I tried going to sleep early that night but of course Alaethia had other plans. I didn’t take a shower till really late and had to wake up the next morning to go run errands.

I deposited money at the bank to pay bills (damn bills!) and then I drove Mom around all over the place to get a check and then find a bank that would cash it. We ended up going to her own bank, which she was positive wasn’t going to cash it *scowl*. We went to JC Penny next, where I was going to buy myself some capri pants from Mario for Mother’s Day and got Mom some Capri pants for herself. I bought two blouses with $20 Mom gave me for Mother’s Day. I didn’t try them on at the store since there was a line a mile long for the fitting room, so unfortunately when I got home and finally tried them on I didn’t like how they fit.

We bought Gramma an outfit and some snacks for the kids and then went to see her. We spent some time with her and fixed her closet a bit and then went to have lunch again at the Taco Bell/Long John Silver’s restaurant. (And then I wonder why I don’t lose weight!)

Mario, bless him, tried to surprise me for Mother’s Day and got me a PSP. He’d overheard me saying how cool John’s was, so he thought I wanted one for myself and got me one. He told me he was going to Sears with his co-worker, Ricky, since Ricky was buying one for his son. He kept going on and on about it and said he wanted to get one. Since I thought he was talking about getting one for himself I told him John said he didn’t really like how you browsed with it online and then he said, “Well, darnit, I got you one for Mother’s Day.” Aww. I told him to keep it, since he never gets anything like that for himself. He tried. He really did try to love it and use it but he got bored really quick. That’s why the boys have the Xbox in their bedroom—Mario got bored of it REAL QUICK. He’s currently getting offers from guys at work (I think he’s selling the PSP + game and all the accessories for $250?).

We stayed home Saturday night and watched Spiderman 3 (shh!) with the kids. We had some brownies and ice cream and just sat on the couch together. It was great—we hadn’t had a night like that in quite some time!

I woke up around 10:30am Sunday morning, Mother’s Day. I noticed Mario disappeared for a while but thought nothing of it. When I got out of the shower he tells me breakfast is on the table. He’d gone over to his Mom’s to surprise me with an omelet he’d made and fruit—my favorite breakfast!

John, Mario, Mom and Alaethia stayed at the house while the rest of us went to church. It was a lovely service—long, but nice. They even sang “Las Mañanitas” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.” All around us people were crying silently and sniffing. I was emotional but held it in and was proud of myself for not bawling. Eenan had been acting up, so I told him to sit down and listen to the words of the song and after a few minutes he turns around, tears in his eyes, and wraps his arms around my waist and says, “I LOVE YOU, MOM!” I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing after that LOL.

We came back after church and this time Mom and John stayed with all the kids while Mario and I went with Mary and everyone to the cemetery to visit Mario’s maternal grandmother. We visited Grandma Ofelia, his paternal grandmother, next. She immediately told us to leave upon noticing that we didn’t have Alaethia with us LOL.

After visiting for a while, we came back home and chilled out for a bit. Noelia invited us to the Olive Garden and Mario quickly started making excuses about not going. He’s the only person on Earth that I know that doesn’t like Olive Garden. He said to take Mom with me and it can be a Mom’s night out. Plus Andy LOL. I, of course, took Aly with me since Mario was already becoming panic-stricken about looking after her. The boys are no problem since, you know, they can basically look after themselves.

It was a 2-hour wait at Olive Garden. I had to have Alaethia in my arms since it was hot and steamy with all the people that were clogging up the waiting area. We eventually made it in to the benches inside with the cool air, after we’d been waiting about 45 minutes. It was actually an hour wait, so it wasn’t that bad.

I ordered the Seafood Alfredo, which is one of my favorites. It was a really nice meal and a nice evening altogether. It would have been much more enjoyable had Mario been there, but I’m not going to force him to eat something he doesn’t want to eat.

Alaethia spent the whole time, since we left the house, sucking on her bottle and didn’t finish one ounce. It was like she was just sucking on it for comfort. I really do think she’s teething. When she became inconsolable in the car I gave her her pacifier, even though she doesn’t use it. Well, to everyone’s surprise she used it for a good 15 minutes until she fell asleep.

I half-jokingly told her, “You’re finally, at 3 months, using your chupy! You do know I’m going to take it away from you in three months, right?”

We got home later that I thought we would. We stopped by Subway to get Mario and John some meatball subs and then at Noelia’s friends’ house to drop off Noelia’s wedding invitation. By the time we got here I was exhausted and had a huge pile of dishes that had slowly accumulated throughout the week (please tell me I’m not the only one who puts off chores like that!). Since it was Mother’s Day I thought, “I’m not doing dishes today!”

The boys had Monday off from school. Inservice day. After Mario left to work and giving the boys breakfast, I cuddled up with Aly for a nap. Until around 10am when I heard Jaylen yelling at Eenan. At least I got about an hour’s worth of a nap.

I had lots of places to go that day, like Target. I knew though, that if I went without John I wouldn’t hear the end of it, so I waited for him. Then I remembered that the stupid cable guy was supposed to come by and fix my nonworking channels and I had to wait for him from 1-5pm. Greaaaat. I spent the whole afternoon washing all the darn dishes (I made a vow not to let that happen again!) and did laundry, too.

4:30 rolled around and John had already gotten home from work. Mom told us to go ahead and go, she’d watch the boys. I didn’t want to get home super late, and I knew I was, so we went. We got Alaethia in the car and left.

Post office first, forgot Mario’s PSP so we went back home, then went to the Mall to return my blouses, couldn’t find a white long-sleeved shirt for Jaylen’s field trip, John went to a few stores, then we went to Target. Our last stop was H-E-B to get groceries since we were low on everything. We got home at 8:30pm. I’d bought a ready-made lasagna since I wasn’t going to have time to get dinner ready but Mario didn’t get home till 11:30pm anyway. Hate when he does that. He could at least call and let me know he’s going to be late!

Which brings us to now, 12:12pm and still no signs of the damn cable guy. They called Jorge, to let him know they were coming to Elda’s to fix her problem but they haven’t called us. What fuckers!

(3:03pm) I got Roadrunner back up. All it took was a call to reset the IP address. The cable, however, is still not fixed. We’re still waiting for the cable guy. So yes, I stayed awake and I’m dead sleepy right now for absolutely nothing. They supposedly didn’t have a work order for our address at all. GRR.

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!

I’ve seriously got to get some kind of written schedule going to help me stay on track. I’ve got piles of folded laundry that need to be put away in drawers stacked on the futon, half the dishes that were in the sink are still in there, and I put the toilet cleaner in the toilet, but I’m just now remembering I was supposed to clean it. I can’t just do one thing and finish it. I get bored and absentmindedly move on to something else.

I need to shower, but Mario’s at a seminar and won’t get here till who knows what time. I don’t want to go to sleep stinky :(. I think it’s about time I rearrange my routine and bathe while Mom’s here during the day. I bathe the boys around 6-6:30pm, so maybe I should bathe them at 6 and take a shower myself at 6:30. Then get dinner started at 7 like I usually try to. But then when am I supposed to work out?! At 5:30? Darn John won’t go running with me. I totally need a running partner and nobody wants to join me :(. I’d feel silly jiggling running out there all by myself.

Anyway, going off on a tangent there.

Tonight would totally be a great night to update from bed. I’m crossing my fingers that there’s a fantastic sale on awesome laptops in this Sunday’s ads so we can get one already.

Alaethia slept in her crib for the very first time Monday night. My sore throat was awful and my nose was between running and being stuffy so I was certain I’d end up having to sleep with my mouth open that night–you know, to avoid suffocation and all. Since Alaethia sleeps in the crook of my arm I didn’t want to get her sick so I placed her between her little wedge thing in her crib and prayed for the best. I was super paranoid even though her crib’s right next to my bed. I closed my eyes and felt like I’d woken up just as quickly when I heard her little “I’m hungry” cries. Look at the clock; she’d let me sleep for 4 hours!

I fed her, burped her, changed her, cuddled her and put her back in the crib. It was no-go that time though. I was too tired to continue to try and get her to sleep in there. I like holding her and breathing in her baby smell anyway :).

I tried putting her in her crib on Tuesday night after giving her her bath (the last piece of belly button scab fell off Saturday night, so I can bathe her freely now :)!) and feeding her. It takes so long to burp her. Most of the time she doesn’t even burp and she’s gotten into the habit of spitting up a little bit after her feedings. I placed her in the crib and she stayed asleep. I curled up in bed while Mario was making copies of CDs and fell asleep. I could hear something far away, something like a gasp and then I heard gurgling sounds. I realize that it’s Alaethia and I spring out of bed to find her gagging on her spit up. I freaked out, picked her up and turned her onto her stomach and patted her back to help her stop choking. I was so scared I scrapped the idea of putting her in her crib for now. Maybe after she starts learning how to burp correctly =\.

I had absolutely no idea what we were going to do for Valentine’s Day. I’d asked Mario and we both just sort of shrugged it off since we knew he wouldn’t be getting out early enough to celebrate. I tried not to be excited, and I tried to convince myself that I wouldn’t be disappointed if something incredibly romantic didn’t happen.

The boys were little terrors the morning of Valentine’s Day. Eenan eventually got the point that I was quickly getting frustrated, so he shaped up right away. Jaylen on the other hand continued to lazy around on the couch and talk back to me when I told him to get ready. He left me all of 5 minutes to get myself ready. I told him he was grounded since he never listened and then began the waterworks. He wailed and cried all the way to school and once we parked in a parking space, he magically stopped crying. Just like that.

I got them both to their classrooms and made sure they had their large Ziplocs containing their Valentine Cards for their classmates. Rushed back home since I needed to get Mario’s stuff ready and then drop him off to pick up the Sentra at Whataburger since John had taken it in the morning to get to work. First thing Mario does is start complaining about how he only had one pair of tube socks left in his drawer, how my coffee was watered down and how tired he was of having to rush to pick up his car. He was all ready to go by 8:30, but Noelia wasn’t ready till 8:45. Not my fault he was rushing, even though he didn’t have to be at work till 10. We’d made plans the night before to have lunch together for Valentine’s Day. He continued to make little complaints about the car and when I’d finally had enough I told him, “You know what? Forget meeting for lunch. Just forget the whole thing.”

When we were about to walk out the door he tells me, “Are we meeting for lunch or not? If not, so I can pack something.” I roll my eyes and say, “Yeah, we’ll meet. Whatever.”

I tried napping with Alaethia when I got back but I got about half an hour worth of sleep since she wanted a bottle and then wanted to stay awake. Picked up Jaylen then got home and flat-ironed my hair and put on some make-up. I call Mario and ask him what time he’d like to meet and he said he was at a service call with Albert, so he’d call me whenever they were on their way back to work. This causes me to quickly become annoyed, but I was trying to be civil so, through gritted teeth I said, “Okay. That’s fine.”

He calls back not long after that and tells me to go ahead and take off so we’d get there around the same time. I give Mom a quick run-down of what Alaethia needs and how Jaylen’s not allowed to play video games and I take off. Traffic was terrible, but I made it over there in half an hour.

I see him when I drive into the alley behind the shops and he gives me a huge smile and suddenly I don’t feel as resentful towards him as I did just seconds before. (I hate it how he can make me forgive him so quickly just by flashing a sweet smile. I’m so weak!) He gets into the truck and says, “Hey, Beautiful, where do you want to go?” We decide on a Chinese Buffet place since it’s pretty fast.

We get our food and have a nice chat. We discuss how the kids behaved (or misbehaved) in the morning and chatted about the cute things Alaethia does. He tells me how he told everyone that I was upset with him and it all becomes a huge joke. I tell him thank you for lunch; it made my Valentine’s Day. The hour went by too quickly. I dropped him off at work and gave him a smooch on the cheek. I was pretty bummed that I’m sick and couldn’t even give him a decent kiss. I won’t even get into the fact that we can’t be, erm, intimate for six weeks and Alaethia barely turned 3 weeks yesterday LOL.

The rest of the day’s pretty normal. Mom wanted to get the kids a little gift, so after we picked Eenan up we went to visit Gramma then to Target. Jaylen was acting up at first, but after a while he calmed down and behaved. We chatted with Gramma for a while and she swooned over Alaethia. We said our goodbyes after half an hour and set off to Target. I wanted to get home before it got dark, since I can’t see well at night and I was already feeling dreadfully sleepy.

Mom lets the boys pick out a toy each (Jaylen, a Batman action figure, Eenan, a Naruto action figure) and I get some diapers and a burgundy bed sheet set that was on clearance for $13. I’d been looking for burgundy sheets and hadn’t had any luck. Can’t beat $13!

I get home and do my nightly routine and Mary treats everyone to some McDonald’s. I didn’t even have to make dinner–yay! I get a call from Mario that he’s going to be a bit late, again, since he and the guys had a system to do. He appologizes, but I tell him it’s fine and I genuinely mean it. I put Alaethia in her crib and change the bedsheets. Alaethia starts fussing when I’m done so I pick her up and hold her and Jaylen joins me on the new, crisp sheets. We’re watching TV when I suddenly see a shadow on the door. It’s too high to be Eenan, who was in their bedroom playing. I stare at the doorway at to my surprise it’s Mario holding a beautiful bouquet of flowers and two packages wrapped in yellow paper. He has the cutest expression on his face and says, “Happy Valentine’s Day!” I immediately feel a lump crawl up my throat and my eyes welled up with tears. I croak, “Babe! What…you didn’t have to!” I place sleeping Alaethia on the bed and hold him, bawling my eyes out. Eenan starts to get worried, because he hates to see me cry and Mario tells him softly, “It’s okay, man, Mama’s crying because she’s happy.” The boys both come over and hug us and Mario asks me to read the card attached to the bouquet. And I bawled my eyes out again :).

He tells me, “Open the rest!” So the boys help me tear open the small package first, which is a DVD I’d wanted: Friends With Money with Jennifer Aniston. The second package is something I’d been wanting forever: a box of Whitman’s chocolates :). How he guessed I’d really wanted one of those is beyond me.

We put the boys to bed after that and then we bathed Alaethia. We cuddled in bed while we watched Open Season until I started drifting into sleep. I brought Alaethia back into bed with me, who’d been sleeping in her crib until she needed a bottle. She slept pretty well the first part of the night and then, after she’d woken up at 3:45 stayed awake till 5:15. I was so tired this morning. I was supposed to drop Noelia off at work but I didn’t think I would make it back, alive, afterwards. My throat also felt horrible, my ear ached, my Wisdom tooth is ripping my gums apart and I was afraid I’d gotten Alaethia sick. I called Mary to let her know I couldn’t drop Noelia off and instead I went to the doctor.

I weight 119 right now, which is pretty good but I’d LOVE to get to 115, and maybe even 110. That’s my goal. Alaethia is now 7 lbs. 10 oz. and is 20 inches long. She got a clean bill of health. Dr. C. recommended cuddling if she gets fussy LOL. I, on the other hand, have a throat infection but no Strep, thank goodness. My ear was clear of infections (and clear of everything else–Dr. C. said I maybe needed some ear wax since my ears were that clean LOL); he said, as I suspected, that the pain was probably due to my darn Wisdom tooth.

Mario’s been home for a while and Alaethia’s asleep so I should take the chance to take a quick shower and put some beef stew to cook in the slow cooker for Mario’s lunch tomorrow. I hope Alaethia lets me get some good sleep tonight. I have to drop Mario off tomorrow so I need to sleep!