Category: Home Improvement

As always, I’m typing this MONTHS after the fact, but this was one of the best weekends, ever, and I want to document it since it was Jorge and I’s first trip to San Antonio (not just passing through), ever :).

We were anticipating this weekend for MONTHS and I was almost in disbelief when Friday, May 31st came around.

We decided to leave that night, the night before the concert, and stay at a hotel either outside of San Antonio or in San Antonio to beat the traffic. We’d booked a room for Saturday night and didn’t bother to book one for Friday. We ended up leaving later than we’d planned, since we took our time packing (okay, who am I kidding–we left everything for the last minute, heh).

We ate dinner and were on the road by 9pm. We figured we’d be arriving in San Antonio, or nearby, by midnight or 1am. My favorite part about road trips is the music and the pit-stops at gas stations, but this time, since we were saving our bad eating for the weekend, we behaved. I only got a coffee and Jorge just got beef jerky and caffeine gum in Falfurrias to keep him awake for the trip.

I was nodding off after Premont, TX; I was being a bad co-pilot. But Jorge assured me that he was fine, to take a nap.

We arrived in San Antonio at 12:44am. Apparently I’d passed out for 44 minutes O_o. He checked us into a hotel and we quite literally passed out as soon as we got inside our room.

Woke up the next day, washed up and headed to breakfast downstairs. The selection wasn’t the best, but we had some eggs and sausage. Jorge surprised me by having a biscuit, so I surprised him by having a mini poppyseed muffin. I hadn’t had bread in so long that it was THE BEST THING I’D EVER PUT IN MY MOUTH. (That’s what she said.)

We had some coffee while we watched the news, which was all about the George Straight Concert. The parking was going to be insane, and they mentioned several options to try. I looked over at Jorge, worried, and he said, “We’ll be fine. Let’s try and check-in early at the Crowne Plaza.”

We showered and watched some TV then gathered all our stuff to check-out. It was lunch time, so we headed to the River Walk.

All the times I’ve visited San Antonio, I’ve never actually browsed the shops or eaten at the restaurants there. I’ve passed through several times; like once long ago when we did a ghost hunters tour, but that’s the closest I’ve come that I can remember. Jorge wasn’t having it. He said, “We’re changing that today, Baby!”

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was awesome. The place was bustling with people already in their cowboy hats and boots, ready for the concert.

Our waiter–who was a character straight out of “Waiting”–threw himself into the chair across from me and, with a look of boredom on his face, took our drink order. Jorge waits for him to walk away before he asks me, “Have you ever been to Dick’s?”

I wasn’t sure if that was his introduction to a bad joke or not. I raise an eyebrow and say, “Um…no? Why?”

He explains how the restaurant has rude waiters (hence the name). “That dude should totally work there,” he says. LOL

I looked at the scrumptious lists of food but all that popped out at me was NACHOS. I hadn’t had nachos in a LONG time. They were glorious! Jorge had the pork carnitas. Hell, go hard or go home, hehe.

And of course we took photos while we were there. Too bad Jorge took the photo of me with his iPhone and the lighting in there combined with the flash made my already-existing under-eye circles look worse. Oh well. At least we got pics :).

We finished eating, browsed the artists’ memorabilia on the walls and purchased our Hard Rock glasses. Poor Jorge had a huge collection of them and well, this pyscho person he used to know broke all of them in a drunken fit of rage, so he’s on a mission to start a new collection. I told him I have no problem with that and I promise not to break them, heh.

We headed over to the Crowne Plaza, in the hopes that we’d be able to check-in a little early. The hoteliers had to know how packed the city was going to be so we were sure that they’d expedite the check-in time.

We walked into the hotel and it was beautiful. Sophisticated, nice colors. It even had a modern fish tank/waterfall that fell into a fountain in the middle of the room. We go to the front desk and tell the receptionist our name. She says, “Oh no. That room won’t be ready till after 3:30.” I tell her, “Check-in is at 3. We need to be in the room by 3.” She made an exasperated sigh and I didn’t see it, but Jorge said she rolled her eyes. We got out of there before either one of us said something we’d regret.

We had some time to waste, so we headed next door to the ajoining restaurant/bar. The place was quiet and empty. A waitress comes to our table a few minutes later and asks what we’d like to order. Jorge asks for a drinks menu. She blinks and says, “The bar is closed. Actually all we have is appetizers. It’ll take a while ’cause the chef just came in.” Jorge closes the menu and says, “Let’s go.” And we get up to leave. He was still fired up from the conversation with the receptionist, so I’m glad that’s all the poor waitress got to hear from him, heh.

We went to Best Buy to waste time. Jorge was looking for a lens for his iPhone and I wanted to look at the Bluetooth keyboards. I’d seen some on eBay but was skeptical about purchasing one since they were mostly from Hong Kong.

We were nervous about our camera lens; it’s not a professional camera, but when we went to the Eli Young Band concert they made us take the camera back to the car, so we were pretty sure it wasn’t allowed at the George Strait concert. I even made a pocket in my bag to smuggle it in, shhhh! But we spoke to one of the camera guys and he said, “Nah. That one will be fine. The lens has to be over 4″, and this one’s just under so you’ll be fine.”

Jorge found his lens and he insisted I get a keyboard so we got our purchases and we on our way. We were hoping Miss Ma’am back at the hotel was in a better mood by the time we got back.

Luckily, we had a more helpful receptionist this time, but it was still 3pm and we were asked to wait. I heard the manager giving people tips about the shuttles to and from the Alamodome. I asked, just to be sure, and she said the hotel shuttle would take us to the airport, the airport shuttle would take us to the concert and then they’d bring us back. But she wanted us to be aware that we probably wouldn’t be back till midnight. I said that was fine, we were expecting not to be back till around that time, but was she absolutely positive that they were bringing us back? She said, yes, of course.

We waited about 20 minutes until I heard the people behind us mention that they were going up to their suite already. I turned to Jorge, who’d heard this also and I said, “Ah hell no…” I spoke to the same manager, nicely, and told her, “They arrived way after we did and they’re already in their suite. It’s past 3pm…” She typed something up on the computer and told us to go ahead. I was annoyed, but at least we could go up and finally get ready.

We walked into our room at the top floor and, like Jorge said, “They redeemed themselves for making us late.” Everything about the room was wonderful; especially the champagne, chocolate covered strawberries and yellow spider mum flowers in the middle of the room. I went over to Jorge after I put our bags down and gave him a huge hug and said, “Thank you, Baby, this is so awesome!!” He smooched me, “Anything for you, Baby.”

It was already 4pm and we needed to get ready fast. Luckily, all I had to do was give my hair a quick re-do and change into my dress and boots.

We went downstairs, where we met a couple from South Padre Island, and we grabbed a shuttle together, along with another family. They dropped us off, quite literally in the middle of the airport parking lot. Nobody knew what we were supposed to do next. The family in the shuttle went to where the taxis were all corralled; it seriously seemed like all the taxis in the city were in there. I tell Jorge, “No wonder we couldn’t get ahold of one.”

We follow the herd of people aimlessly walking until we find a LOOOONG line. Speaking to some of the people and listening to conversations, we were in line for busses, not shuttles, and we needed to go to a little trailer up ahead and buy our round-trip tokens. It was effn’ hot!! We look down the line and think, “Hey, it’s not too bad!” Until Jorge goes to the trailer, comes back and says, “Yeah. It looks like it’s straight ahead, but no…it snakes around about 6 rows up towards the front.”

We walked. And stood. And a little boy in front of us screamed until his mom took him under the shade of an overpass. Everyone just wanted to get to under the overpass shade…it was cool there. Finally, after forever, we were there. As we got closer, the little token trailer ran out. There were some ANGRY people. We got on the bus around 5pm. They had to take a detour because of construction. The concert started at 5:30, and we made it to the Alamodome just in time. There’s a recording firing off rules on the loudspeaker. It was almost a creepy sight, as people walked liked zombies to the entrance, slowly, as they listened. The voice announces that non-professional cameras are allowed, and our bags will be checked. I’m frantically trying to feel for my camera in the bag, but I hid it so well that I can’t find it and I momentarily panic thinking I left it at the hotel. To my relief, I find it just as they scan our tickets and let us inside. Just like that. Panicked for nothing about everything!

The next few minutes are a frenzy of getting drinks and finding bathrooms, because we were NOT planning on getting up at all through the entire show. We find our seats and the guy next to Jorge keeps rubbing elbows with him, so we switch seats.

It’s not long before Martina McBride makes her way to the stage. That woman can sing BEAUTIFULLY live! I was so impressed. We took tons of photos. (These that I’m posting, though, are from my phone, heh.)

Next up was Miranda Lambert! We had no idea she was going to be part of the concert till about a week before, so that was an awesome surprise. I love her. Jorge said she sounded much better when he saw her the first time, around 2006 or so. She has some trouble live, but she does put on a good show (she was probably my favorite, heh).

This is around the time that our 24x zoom camera decides that it’s a good time to start dying. My heart sank. I almost had a heart attack. Jorge was visibly disappointed. How were we supposed to take pics of George Strait’s concert?!

We got over it fast, though. My phone still had plenty of juice. There was an intermission, and it was obvious when George Strait was making his way towards the stage with the ear-piercing screams. He starts out by telling us, “I hope y’all are ready for some stories!”

He started from way back in 1981, when his dream took off; and sang a song that corresponded to each story. He even sang a duet with Martina McBride.

He got to the part of his life when he starred in “Pure Country”; Jorge was POSITIVE he was going to sing “Pure Country”, the song, but…he didn’t.

Then the guy next to Jorge, who so happened to be from Brownsville and was very drunk, further annoyed Jorge by losing his footing and falling forward so that he’d spill his beer on the poor unsuspecting people in the row below us. Jorge had to grab him from his arm to help him regain his balance. He spent the rest of the night thanking Jorge profusely, to Jorge’s annoyance LOL.

George Strait had a few military families come up and receive awards, and he surprised them with homes and groceries from Walmart. I don’t know if it’s his age, or that he became tired during the break, but he sang a few more COVERS of other people’s songs and then waved and began to depart from the stage. Jorge and I nudged each other; we were sure he was going to come back for an encore like he did when we saw him previously. I mean, c’mon, the tour is called “The Cowboy Rides Away” and he hadn’t sang it, so he HAD to come back!

Only…he didn’t. The cheers were deafening; but they slowly died down when we realized he wasn’t coming back. It was strange even, and I’m pretty sure we weren’t the only ones who felt a little cheated.

But we got over it fast and decided to make a run for it; the buses were all lined up outside and walked quickly to the platform.

We missed the first bus, but got on the second. Whew. We got to witness a young blonde, blue-eyed girl flirt with a guy who wasn’t her husband (we knew he was out at the oil rigs…because she announced it O_o). We also knew her name was Mary Beth, because the guy she was flirting with kept belligerently yelling, “You…you’re an ANGEL, Mary Beth!!” every few minutes. Sure made the ride…interesting!

The bus dropped us off at the airport, at a little substation (#2) and everyone kind of looked around at each other wondering what the heck we were supposed to do next. People got on their phones and started calling their hotels for their respective shuttles, so we did the same. We couldn’t get through. It was 11:15pm. The shuttles are arriving, but they’re all from other hotels. I call again and finally get through. I’m so glad, and I cheerfully ask the receptionist if she can please send a shuttle over. My phone beeps that it’s got low battery. I tell her please hurry, my phone is dying. She says, “Oh. I’m sorry, you were misinformed. We don’t send shuttles out after 11pm.” I was in shock. I usually have great phone etiquette, but I’m so pissed off I yell, “What the hell do you mean?? The manager on duty at the time of check-in TOLD ME that they’d send a shuttle, even if it was after midnight!! It’s barely ll:15!!” The receptionist irritatingly tells me in a calm, sing-song voice, “I’m sorry, ma’am. Again, there’s nothing I can do.”

I was furious. I hang up on her and start Googling taxi services. The lines are all still busy. We spend the next 15 minutes trying to bribe other shuttles from other hotels to take us to ours, even if we have to walk a bit. No one obliges. I call the woman again at the hotel and I tell her she BEST reimburse me for my cab fare, IF we ever get a taxi. She says they can’t do that. I tell her their hotel has THE WORST customer service of all the hotels I’ve ever stayed at.

Then, like a bat out of hell, this Palestinian lady appears out of nowhere in her tan taxi and yells, “Hurry up! Get in!!” Jorge and I don’t even hesitate and jump in. We thank her profusely, and she starts telling us that the taxi’s aren’t allowed near the airport, but she knew the hotels were going to be jerks and she was taking advantage. She’s hilarious, telling people off, making fun of the skinny girls wearing short skirts. She says, in perfect Spanish with perfect dialect, “They don’t even have boobs or butts!” LOL. She’s driving like a maniac, but we’re seat-belted and glad we’re IN a car. She sees fellow taxi-cabs from her company and lowers her window. She yells, “The airport!! Lots of stranded people! GO!!”

He guy keeps saying, “Huh?” and she keeps repeating herself. She gets tired and says, “Ahhh, nevermind!! Damn Mexican!” We weren’t even offended, she was hilarious!!

She drops us off and charges us $12. She tries giving us change and we tell her no, please keep it, you saved us!

We barge into the hotel and without even saying anything the woman realizes who we are, probably from my crazed expression, flared nostrils and wind-blown hair. She immediately says, “Let me get the receipt book to refund your cab fare.” At least she did that right!!

Jorge and I go up to our room and realize that we’re positively starving. We hadn’t eaten anything since lunchtime, not counting the chocolate covered strawberry we’d each had before we left to the concert. We get in our truck and search for an IHOP.

There’s hardly any people, surprisingly. I can’t quite decided what I want, and I want to behave but my eyes keep glancing at the strawberry cheesecake pancakes.

The waitress said I should enjoy them; it was their last night on the menu!! They were being discontinued for those blueberry pancake bites, or whatever they’re called :(.

I hadn’t had the cheesecake pancakes since 2010, and I can remember the night clearly, too. It was back before Jorge and I were ever together, but it was a particularly annoying night for me, when I found out that my ex-husband was texting all these lovely things with his little curly-haired co-worker, when he’d told me they’d already stopped talking. We were leaving Hillbilly’s due to this incident, and ended up at IHOP. But anyway, I digress. None of that’s important anymore.

So we ate, happily. We reviewed the night, and decided that although it was watered-down and not what we’d expected from George Strait, Miranda Lambert and Martina McBride had a good show (though Jorge swears Miranda is now tone-deaf) and we still had a few more days of fun planned. I love the time we get to spend together :).

I slept so soundly, and was well rested the next morning when we were awoken by room service.

We ordered identical omelets, and the coffee was delicious! We ate while we watched “Fast 5”, then we showered and got ready to leave to Austin, where we were visiting Jorge’s mama and brother :).

We managed to leave during lunch rush-hour, so our 1-hour trip took double. We finally arrived at Dina’s apartment and chilled out momentarily, chit-chatting. Jorge stands there and asks Dina and Javi, “Have you all eaten?” They say no. Jorge says, “What are you all waiting around for then, let’s go!”

We were treating Dina to a late Mother’s Day lunch at Pappadeaux’s. The wait for seating was about 45 minutes or so. We were called in, but the table was awkward, so we asked to please be moved. We ordered our drinks (non-alcoholic, initially), which took about 20 minutes, along with bread, to get to us. We blamed it on asking to be moved, but hoped we were wrong. When our waiter brought our drinks, we ordered a fried ‘gator appetizer…which took forever to get to us as well. Jorge and I each ordered drinks:

THOSE took about 20 minutes, and the ‘gator still hadn’t arrived. Our waiter was trying to be humorous and keep us entertained, but the guys were growing antsy. We looked around and noticed that there were still TONS of people waiting outside…but the restaurant was half-empty. We attributed to them being short-staffed in the kitchen, hence our food taking long.

Jorge and I hadn’t really drank much since being on our diets, so it hit us pretty fast. We got the giggles, and then we were just being annoying LOL. But it helped distract from the fact that we’d been waiting for our food for 1 whole hour!!

When we hit the 2-hour mark, I told myself: THAT’S IT!, and asked to speak to a manager. The girl was sweet, and said the food was on its way and they’d not only deduct a portion of our bill, but send us free desserts.

Appetizers.

My Halibut.

(It took me 2 whole days to finish that. With Dina’s help LOL)

Let’s not mention the fun that was made at Jorge’s expense for ordering a Creme Brulee LOL. He wasn’t amused.

We were surprised by the very generous amount that was deducted from our bill, AND the $50 gift card that was gifted to us by the manager (aside from the free desserts). I have to say, they made up for it big time!

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV at the apartment, and then we went to the movies in the evening to watch “Hangover 3”. It was, of course, hilarious. The 4 of us laughed the entire time.

We ate breakfast the next morning, and then we all loaded up in Dina’s truck and went to my happiest place on earth: IKEA!!

We’d budgeted for several things, including something for the still-bare living room wall and patio furniture.

We initially wanted some of these mirror tiles for the living room wall:

But went for this other mirror I’d had my eye on for a while:

We also got a shiny black cabinet for under the TV, which I’d wanted for years :D.

We wanted to get these for each one of the boys:

But they weren’t in stock. Boo!

After a lot of walking, we had lunch:

I look forward to that fish all year! Hehe!

We found our patio furniture on the way out, and picked out all the things we were buying from the warehouse. We loaded the truck, got to the apartment, loaded the IKEA things and our bags in the truck and said our ‘see you laters’. I always miss them! They’re a blast :).

We turned on our navigation and looked for a theatre. Of course we would catch rush-hour traffic, but we got there just in time.

I was amazed by the concessions at the Palladium; not only was there a Starbucks, there was a huge room with all the drinks you can think of! You just pay $5 for your large cup and you can refill as many times as you’d like, with anything you’d like! Too bad the movie, “After Earth” was about to start and I didn’t want to move from my seat the entire time LOL.

So we headed home after the movie, which always feels like it takes an eternity. We stopped for dinner at Whataburger in Falfurrias, and vowed to get back to the Keto diet once we arrived home. The trip had its not-so-good moments, but all-in-all, it was the best!!

Yesterday, I had one of those types of Saturdays that, as a child, I envisioned having with my best friend as an adult. Like when you’re playing Barbies with your BFF and your Barbies are having brunch and then go shopping? Like that. And the best part is: it’s the same BFF!

I had a hard time sleeping after Jorge left to work (he later told me he was telepathically trying to wake me ’cause he was jealous buahaha). I may or may not have had a headache/hangover due to going out the night before >_<.

Darn air and smoke in there makes my eyes squinty!! >_<

But I took an Aleve and began scrubbing the kitchen down since I was making lunch for Sally after she got out of work :).

A corner of my kitchen counter becomes bombarded with mail and Alaethia’s work she brings home from school. I feel such guilt throwing some of it out, but OMG. I can’t keep all of it. It’s overwhelming. So I have the cutest things she makes saved in a small box. I later asked Sally what in the world she did with all of Quentin’s stuff and she, too, has his work piled in a box.

What do other Mom’s do with your kids’ work??

I scrapbooked some of Eenan’s and Jaylen’s. When I was a “new mom”, I literally kept EVERY. SINGLE. THING. Eenan ever made in school (a huge Rubbermaid tote full) and eventually weeded out the cutest things (and almost shriveled up and died of sadness and guilt LOL) and scrapbooked them.

Anyway, eventually I made myself some breakfast: egg whites with mushrooms, fresh spinach, chives and bacon pieces.

I did my hair, stuck in my contacts and got ready to go drop Mom off with Gramma, withdraw my rent (*tear*) and head to HEB to get some ingredients I needed to make Sally some Pesto Bacon Caprese Paninis (recipe following photo below!).

I also found some cute Celosia flowers on sale for .99¢!! Yes. I’m going to try the garden thing again. Let’s hope we don’t get another hail storm!

I got home and unloaded the groceries and stuck new Plug-ins into the walls, heh. Sally arrived not long after. We caught up for about an hour and she rested on the sofa while I made our lunch. This is seriously one of my most favorite sandwiches EVER.

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RECIPE:

For 2 sandwiches, you will need:

♥ 6 bacon slices
♥ Pesto sauce. I use 1 whole Knorr Pesto packet (in the gravy section;) or half a jar of HEB Basil Pesto (I prefer this one)
♥ 2-3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
♥ 4 slices Oroweat Premium Italian Bread (you can always use your favorite whole wheat)
♥ 4 fresh Mozzarella medallions (I used: 7oz Galbani Mozzarella Fresca Medallions)
♥ 2 large tomato slices
♥ Black Pepper
♥ A handful of fresh spinach

In a large skillet, fry your bacon at medium-high heat. In another, smaller pan, set your burner to low-medium heat and heat up your Pesto. Drain your bacon and toss into the Pesto pan. Make sure all of your bacon is covered. Simmer.

Now, since I hate using so many pans, I washed my bacon pan and set it to medium heat. Drizzle your olive oil and place two bread slices on it. Quickly spread some of the hot pesto sauce the bacon has been simmering in on the bread slices. Add two Mozzarella medallions to one of your bread slices. On top of that, add 1 tomato slice, sprinkle with pepper, add half of your spinach and on top of your spinach add 3 of the pesto bacon slices. Using a spatula or tongs, check that your bread slice is golden brown. Cover the full bread slice with the single one. Repeat for your next sandwich. Enjoy with your favorite hot or cold tea :).

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In this case we had some hot Lipton Island Mango & Peach tea sweetened with honey. I think I found a new favorite tea!

(I just told Jorge I was putting up the recipe for the Caprese sandwich and he said, “What you need to do is put it on the stove!” Buahahahaha. He’s only half-joking.)

We ate, sat back and reflected on how darn good that food was, and got ready to head out to Goodwill. Back in the day, like around 2007, I’d go religiously, every Saturday that they had their 50% off sale. Target takes all their clearance stuff there, brand-new. You could buy anything at 50% off. So we thought we’d give it a try.

We spent about 2 hours there and found tons of new stuff, including new running shorts and cute matching beach hats. I was a little sad I didn’t find any scrapbooking stuff like I used to, but we did arrive a little late.

Since I gave myself a budget I put a few things back, but now I’m having the opposite of Buyer’s Remorse! Although they changed the rules and not everything is 50% off during those sales (brand-new items with barcode tags are the price on the tag) you still can’t beat those prices!

Our next stop was Iguana Rana’s, which is a snack shop. We were still full from lunch, but we had some natural agua de sandia (watermelon water). It was SO GOOD.

We got home and talked some more about an event she has coming up. I hope to be of some help since I can’t totally throw this bash on my own =\. I need to get on Pinterest and research some things :).

Sally left and I tidied up a bit and then relaxed till Jorge got home. I asked him if he wanted me to make dinner, but he said we’d go to Walmart to get a few things and find something quick to make.

Our humungous cats are so horribly messy we decided it was time to get them a new, covered litterbox. Then we found a Lazy Groomer cat bed, which will be great for Kika because she loves sleeping on our mats and covers them in her fur (I know, gross!).

We walked around some more and wandered into the garden section. They didn’t have the plants I wanted, but we did find a topiary. I’ve been wanting one of those darn things since we moved into the house almost 2 years ago (2 years we’ve lived here! Damn!).

We found a cute pot, got a few more things and finally left. It was quite a feat shoving that tiny tree into the BMW >_<. I spoke to Eenan for a good hour while I was making dinner and watching Jorge fix the topiary. We ate, and watched a tiny bit of "The Hobbit". Great Saturday, indeed!!

This entry will probably make male readers–if I have any–roll their eyes or cause said eyes to glaze over.

Tuesday, June 12th

It’s not often I wake up having a good hair day. That was probably one of my worst fears when Jorge and I got together: Was he going to run in the opposite direction the day we’d wake up beside each other when he saw my unruly mane? Luckily, he says he loves my crazy hair (I think he’s just being nice). Most of the time I flat-iron it. But when I don’t have much time in the morning I add a touch of gel and leave it to curl/wave. Only now–in my late 20’s/now that I’ve turned 30–have I finally embraced my curls. So, of course I’d take a picture of my waves the ONE TIME I woke up with them looking decent:

(My complexion was behaving itself, as well :D. That doesn’t happen often, either.)

I began my “spring cleaning” early at work. Robert inspired Michelle and I with his early cleaning. All I have to do is organize our storage area in the storage room and dust the top of my desk. I need to get some frames for my photos and spiff it up a bit :).

I got out of work and was greeted by this:

I love that darn kitty! I promised him I would never, ever let Jorge throw him out. Even if he does cause us to sneeze 100 times before we leave in the morning and rubs on our legs when we’re wearing black or dripping wet, freshly showered .

I changed into shorts and sandals and went to HEB to stock up on food/snacks for the kids. I’d be picking them up the next day from Mario’s and my babe’s boys would be there, too :).

I did my shopping, Jorge got home and we had some pizza that I’d brought home from work. I tell you, it’s super hard to lose weight working there! There were 2 pizza boxes left and I brought them home ’cause no one could take them and I felt guilty having them thrown out :(. (I know, I know: excuses, excuses lol.)

We did pretty good, pizza-wise; I only had 1 slice of the supreme and it was thin-crust. I casually brought up jogging and Jorge shot down that idea right away LOL. He said he wanted to watch “John Carter” and then we’d exercise the next day, for real. I said fine. I didn’t think I’d like the movie, but I’d picked the one the night before so I let him have it.

We picked up some Red Mango (used up both certificates, yes!) and then we got the movie.

I felt super guilty after my TUB of yogurt. I told myself that I was definitely starting my workouts the next day; whether Jorge wanted to or not. I feel jiggly and not happy with myself right now. I have no one to blame but myself. And Pinterest.

We ate our Red Mango and watched the movie. And then Jorge made fresh strawberry/mango Margaritas. (Hey, they’re sorta healthy!) It was SUPER GOOD.

And then I fell asleep right after that on the sofa and missed the ending . I’m a cheap date. I only need ONE, heh.

Wednesday, June 13th

The next day was spent cleaning up some more at work and in my free time I went through my Flickr pics and organized some of the photos. Sadly, there’s a huge gap from July 2010-October 2010, but that’s when the shizz hit the fan with Mario and I just lost the desire to take photos, blog, or do anything really. The photos from the past year and a half just made me so happy, though ♥. I can’t complain at all; we’ve been able to do so much with the kids, to our home and with each other :).

I left work at 3pm to pick up the kiddos and then we headed to Alaethia and Emily’s appointment. It was a completely new office and, Jesus, it took forever. The girls were at least entertained with TV and a few toys. Jaylen entertained himself in other ways:

And then he took a nap with his earphones on. I remember when he was around 2; the only way he’d fall asleep in his own bed was if he had his little blue CD player playing his nursery rhyme CD, aww :*)!

Eenan, on the other hand, was being loud and bothering the girls, so they’d start screaming, grrr. And once, Emily found one of those small bubbles the little toys from the machines come in and stuck the lid in her mouth. It got stuck the “vertical” way and she started freaking out. I almost started freaking out until she spit it out and made this funny noise, kind of like a “raspberry”. I immediately started to scold and lecture her and Eenan made the noise mid-lecture and I couldn’t help but crack up laughing! And then I snapped out of it and started lecturing him about not encouraging her or else she’d continue to do it .

The girls WERE NOT happy about being seen by the dentist, which is crazy since they used to love it. Alaethia got her Xrays taken just fine, but when it was Emily’s turn she started crying! 🙁 Her little lip quivered as she stared at me with her big eyes and then she just started bawling. My poor girl. I went and grabbed her as soon as they were done and consoled her. She was terrified. Her dentist, a nice Turkish man with a somewhat goofy voice (heh) started making her laugh. He gave them tons of stickers, crayons and coloring sheets. And all the assistants were admiring Alaethia’s long locks and Emily’s curls at the end of her straight hair. They started feeling more comfortable and got their cleaning done. They’re leaving the sealants for the 20th, tho. .

We finally got to leave around 6:15pm. We got home, I changed and was going to start on dinner. The kids saw the pizza and wanted that for dinner. They never get tired of pizza. Alaethia ate two slices and they’re pretty big! She’s a bottomless pit, that one!

I made some simple chicken salad for us. We ate it plain, without chips or anything! Shocking!

I was pleasantly surprised when Jorge brought up exercising. He said we needed to do something. I brought up jogging at the park, he agreed. We changed, put on a movie for the kids and had Mom stay with them. I have to say, I missed that park.

We started off with power walking for 2 laps (which is about 2 miles) and from the 3-5 we jogged on and off. I love the feeling of the wind in your face, the expanding of the lungs, the strength of my legs; it’s just the best. We chatted about everything, discussed our old work-out regimen and what we’d be doing after the jog, and we hated on the athletic people who were jogging effortlessly, hehe.

We got home, made sure all was well with the kiddos and then we lifted some dumbbells. Alaethia asked to come in right before we started Ab-Ripper. She giggled when Jorge would struggle lol. I did every single rep. When we were doing Heels to the Heavens Jorge stared at me from his position on the floor across from me and said, “What the hell?! It’s like you never stopped!!” 😀

I am super proud of him, though. Even though his back was giving him some trouble, he did as many reps as he could :).

We finished and hobbled to the living room. We watched a bit of “Tin Tin” with them…until I passed out! He said he called me like 5 times and I didn’t wake up till Alaethia, who was resting on my hip, moved me lol.

They watched the movie while we showered. When we got out, Jaylen was falling asleep, Emily was asleep and Alaethia was totally passed out. Jorge picked her up to move her to her bedroom and she’d peed everywhere lol. Jesus. So we put the covers to wash and set the cushions to drain. I sent Eenan to bed (he likes to stick around and stay awake as much as possible). And THEN we went to bed.

Thursday, June 14th

We went in to work at 9am the next morning. We still managed to snooze till the last possible minute so we didn’t eat breakfast at home like we’d planned.

We drove to work together :). At work, I cleaned here and there and got rid of stuff on my computer. I had a few minutes before we left to the Luncheon, so I got on Pinterest. I read this article about bra sizes. Holy crap! I need to find my “correct” size. I seriously had no idea there were such things as THOSE SIZES. No wonder nothing ever fits me correctly!

I also saw this girl’s ab progress and it motivated me even more to continue with it. I wish I’d kept my photos from when I was actually doing P90X/tae kwon do religiously; I know for a fact that it works, so I’m totally going to make an effort!

We went to the luncheon and I helped with registration. Then we had lunch. It was pretty healthy: salad, fish in cilantro sauce, glazed carrots and roasted potatoes, but the fish was super salty . I had only half of my glazed carrots and one tiny potato. And then, dessert. Cheesecake. I admit, I ate most of it. But I left a little bit, which is more than I can say I would have done 2 weeks ago, heh. I even had my brewed tea without sugar and some water.

We got back to work and I continued with my tidying up. And some more Pinterest, hehe.

I got home, changed, chilled out with the kids and painted Emily’s nails while I waited for dinner dinner to finish cooking.

I made fish. I had no idea they were serving that for lunch and had already planned for it . But it was good :). Jaylen even had seconds!

Jorge got home from work and ate and we watched TV with the kids while our stomachs settled, for about 30 minutes. Then we got ready and went to the park. We walked 4 and jogged 1. We felt awesome afterwards. We stopped by Exxon to get something to drink since we finished our water. Everything had TONS of sugar. Or sucralose or some other type of sugar substitute. We found some Sobe Life Waters, which had lower sugar than all the other drinks, including tea or juice. I got pomegranate and Jorge got mango mandarin. We tried the other’s drink and we switched LOL. The mango mandarin one is SO GOOD!

We get home and park in the driveway. He says, “Ok, let’s bet. I bet that Alaethia’s whining for snacks, Emily’s throwing a fit and the boys were fighting so Eenan’s in our room. What do you think?” I say, “Somewhat the same; Alaethia fell asleep though, Emily’s throwing a fit and the boys did fight, so Eenan’s playing in their room and Jaylen’s in the living room watching TV or on my computer.”

“Ok,” he says, “Let’s go see.”

So we get down and quietly walk through the garage and the laundry room and open the boys’ door. We both say, “What the–??”

Jorgie and Justin were there. All 4 boys are quietly playing, peacefully.

Jorge asks when they got there, they said a few minutes before. We weren’t expecting them that night, but it was nice that they got to come over :). They told us they had a doctor’s appointment in the morning (finally) due to their bad coughs so their mother would pick them up. We let them know they wouldn’t be staying up long. None of them were happy about that LOL.

Friday, June 15th

It was cleaning day at work and we got to wear JEANS! Since I’d already done most of the cleaning during the week, all I really had to do was dust everything and organize a few binders.

I was finished and satisfied with my work. Then I made the mistake of opening my desk cabinets up top and thought, Hmm. Maybe I should put the binders from 2010 into the storage room filing cabinets?

So I took them all out. Michelle passes by and says, “Oh my God! Your desk is messy again!”

It was awful. I had no room in the storage room cabinets and stuffed one of them to the top so now I can’t open the darn thing. Grr. BUT. I put my trays in one cabinet at my desk and freed up a lot of desk space. And now I only have current binders. I told my boss we need to go through that stuff. Some is 5+ years old!

I finished just in time for lunch and met my love at Palenque Chicken. We joked around with his co-workers and just had a good time. I love meeting him for lunch :).

I got back to work and get a text from Jorge about 20 minutes later. All hell is breaking loose with the boys. Fighting over games, picking on each other–the works. It became a HUGE drama because, of course, as much as we love each other’s kids, we both become defensive over our own children. We’re human. Didn’t help that some dumbass was making it an even bigger drama show than it should have been. (We knew this because we gathered the kids later and talked about it.) But it put a damper on the day a little.

I was scheduled to work till 3, so I went to do some Father’s Day shopping, even though I wasn’t in the best of moods. Jorge is always stealing my Iso-cool pillow, so that was one of his gifts. Too bad they weren’t in stock . I’d have to wait a week for it. I figured I’d be creative and put in a little IOU tag or something with the rest of his gifts.

I started getting prices for the girls’ future twin beds (they’re growing out of their toddler beds fast!). I wanted bunk beds, but there weren’t any in stock and the ones they had in the catalog look too masculine. As I was walking, I saw a patio table and chairs. An employee jumped at the chance to get a sale and gave me an amazing price for them, since it was the last set. We’ve been wanting a patio set, but when I asked if they were getting any new ones the employee said no. I okayed the last set with Jorge (whom I had to tell about the pillow because he was wondering why I’d go to Furniture Row all random-like) and we got it! For about a 3rd of the cost AND 6 months, no interest LOL. I’m almost done paying it, and we just got it, that’s how cheap it was!

I got Jorge some clothes at Old Navy and headed to his work to pick him up. I was slowly getting out of my funky mood, but when I had to wait an additional hour and a half…I wasn’t so cheery anymore. When he finally got out, we decided to get Subway for us and the kids wanted pizza. So that took a while longer. And then we realize the passenger-side tail light was out…and we were being followed by a cop. So we quickly stopped by O’Reily’s and he changed out the light.

I was annoyed at how late we got home. The girls were all over me ’cause they missed me, aww :*). We chilled for a bit, let the food settle, and then we went for our (quiet) jog.

We walked the first 3 miles, then jogged the last 2. I finally stopped with the ice queen facade after he bumped me several times and I grabbed his hand. We had a talk when we got home and–eventually–all was well, thank goodness :).

Saturday, June 16th

I was meeting Sally for breakfast the next morning, at Jimmy’s Egg. It’s a fairly new restaurant and one of my co-workers was raving about it and we both wanted to try it. We hadn’t hung out in a long time; probably since before our birthdays. We made plans to take the littlest ones with us.

We caught up: gossiped, talked about the kids, our love life, work. It was nice to just chill with a girlfriend. I let her know how crazy the past few months were for me, and all my time and energy was focused on my family. She totally understood.

The kids played and giggled and colored. Then our food came and OMG. I have never had better whole-wheat pancakes in my LIFE. They were cinnamon-y and so delicious! Too bad I didn’t get a photo! But Sally did take one of the girls and me:

I look so sleepy in it, but I like it :). Sally and I were too caught up in the gossip and the kids that we didn’t take one with each other LOL.

When we were done eating Sally and QC came over for a bit and he played with the girls. It’s so fun watching them play together :). The girls kinda fight for his attention, tho :P.

My boys had all eaten while we were on our way home and Jaylen took the girls’ leftover pancakes LOL. Mario came for the kiddos about 30 minutes later and Sally left. I tidied up and then went to buy groceries. My LEAST favorite chore. Other than laundry.

That’s where I found out my driver’s license was expired. And they didn’t let me buy Jorge’s Shiner LOL.

When I got back home I found a 12-pack of Shiner beer carefully placed beside the garage. My first thought? SHINER FAIRY!? But no, it was Jorge’s friend/employee, who was kissing butt for getting in trouble that morning for calling in and later busting himself partying when he butt-dialed another co-worker LOL.

I made dinner and Jorge got home. His sister came over with her kiddos and we caught up. Two of Jorge’s friends were coming over so we gathered outside in the garage. Jorge put the new patio table together (and playfully joked, “You see what she has me doing? The night before Father’s Day?!” LOL) and after he was done Briana and I came in so I could make us some Margaritas. It was seriously mostly strawberries (and 1 mango) because the strawberries looked close to spoiling and I wanted to save them LOL.

We had our drink and laughed at the guys. Briana whispers to me, “Is that really all they talk about? Farts?” Buahaha! I thought that was hilarious. (And yes, they do!)

We got a visit from Big Red, a neighbor’s beautiful Labrador, who has seemed lost in recent days because his buddy, a tiny white chihuahua, moved away :(. It’s the saddest thing. It’s like he comes to our yard to look for him, because he remembers this is where they’d play and take a short-cut to the other neighborhood behind us .

Briana and Mia left (Nick was sleeping over) and then it was midnight. We said our “Happy Father’s Day!” to everyone and the guys left about 30 minutes later. As Jorge and I were getting ready for bed I asked him, “What do you want to do for Father’s Day, my love?” He said, “Nothing,” and smiled. I asked, “Really? Nothing?” He said, “Nope. I just want to chill out at home and do nothing.”

Sounds like a plan :).