Category: Kiddos

So Hurricane Dolly came and went. We all expected this huge disaster, because that’s what they were making it out to be, but luckily it only rained, became windy, and a few trees fell over and that was that. Well, for our area anyway. I know South Padre, Port Isabel, Brownsville and Harlingen were really battered by the storm. I need to call Dad tomorrow and see how he’s doing (totally forgot to today =\)…it said on the news that in his area it rained 13 inches! It flooded badly in some other small towns, too.

We spent most of the day yesterday cooped up at Mary’s. Well, the kids, mom and I did anyway. Mario was outside with his dad, Adan and later Jason drinking some beers and enjoying the rain and breeze. We didn’t have any thunder or lightning that I know of and the lights only flickered and went out twice for about 3 seconds.

Mario didn’t have to go to work again today because there wasn’t any electricity at his workplace. So he and Jorge (his Nino) spent most of the day chopping down the mesquite tree that uprooted.

My dad-in-law had actually been talking about getting rid of that tree because it’s so messy, but he joked, “I didn’t want to do it this week!”

Mario and I took a quick drive around town to assess the damage. Thankfully we only saw two uprooted trees:

I have so many things to do these next two weeks around the house. I need to unclutter my bathroom and convince Mario to fix the patch of wall he had to remove in order to fix our shower pipes, um…about a month ago. I won’t bore you with the details, but yes, I’ve got tons to do! Eenan’s birthday’s coming up and for the first time ever, we’re not having a proper party for him at say, Peter Piper Pizza the way we usually do. We’re just taking him out to eat at his favorite restaurant. With everything going on I didn’t have time to plan, nor did I save money. But he’s okay with our new plan, so that’s what counts.

I feel like having some Olive Garden…they’re having that soup and salad special for $5.99 again! Oh! And speaking of food, a while back I mentioned that my doctor said my diabetes results were normal, but to keep monitoring my sugars daily, just in case. Well, sometimes it does spike up, but rarely. I’ve been eating junk food lately, such as yesterday. We were bored and eating junk all day long. I kept checking my sugar and I was fine! Then this morning while having lunch at Mary’s I had a small amount of regular Dr. Pepper (I’ve been leery of diet drinks and aspartame since I found out I’m pregnant. I don’t know what the effects may be?) and then had a leftover Pop Tart of hers (my first Pop Tart in 3 months!) and when I checked my sugar I was fine! So hopefully I won’t have to worry too much about it during my pregnancy. I was terrified they’d tell me I’d have to inject myself with insulin, but I’m praying that’s not the case. We’ll see during my 28th week checkup, when they make me drink that orange sugar liquid.

Oh and one last quick thing about Alaethia. She loves to sing. She randomly starts singing “Happy Birthday” and “Twinkle Little Star”. She loves to sing while I’m changing her diaper. I started teaching her “Itsy Bitsy Spider” today and she caught on really quickly! Even the hand motions!

Then she was hitting the TV with the Wii sensor (OMG, I know) and I took it from her and scolded her, “You don’t hit the TV with anything, Alaethia, you understand?” And without missing a beat she turns to Jaylen who’s sitting on the sofa, points her finger and him and tells him, “‘Tand? ‘Tand?” as if he’s the one who was in trouble LOL.

She turned 1 1/2 today and I’m just so amazed by her and everything she does. She’s so brilliant I’m hoping she’ll make potty training a walk in the park for me ;).

We were up all night with Alaethia, who caught a cold out of nowhere and was having a hard time breathing. Not even the nebulizer helped. We were waiting and waiting for the crashing thunder, but nothing came.

It’s been raining on and off since we woke up at 11:28am, since we were up watching the Weather Channel, up with Alaethia and then waiting to call Mario’s boss to check if he had to go in to work or not. Hurricane Dolly’s a category 2 now and already made landfall. I’m worried about the Rio Grande River overflowing (it was already at 80% capacity) or the levees breaking. I’m worried about my cats, Alidocious and Ash (the only two I have because someone “stole” all my other ones), and Rocko :(. I don’t even have a litter box to stick them in my bathroom till the worst is over. But everyone’s trying to convince me that they’ll be okay. Not if it floods. If I have to I’ll stick them all in the bathroom, litter box or not.

And I hope Gramma’s okay. I’m sure her nursing home took proper precautions but since I’m not over there and can’t see how they’ve prepared I can’t help but feel anxious.

We made a last-minute run to Dollar General for Mom and it was PACKED yesterday night. We went to put gas in the 5-gallon jug for the generator and Mayra just so happened to park right next to me. It was so nice to see her after all this time! Hopefully next time it’s over lunch and not preparing for a hurricane LOL.

I’m just glad we’re all together (Mario and Mary didn’t have to go in to work after all). John’s at his house, but I’m sure the big chicken will come over here soon. Mom’s already over here.

I wonder how long the power will be out once it goes–because it will go. John goes bat-shit when the power’s out.

At least we’ve got tons of canned ravioli and books to keep us busy.

(For those of you subscribed to updates: yes, you did just receive a notification that I just updated an entry from January 2008! It’s one of the last entries I had pending and I finally added it. Now I just have to add the one of Alaethia’s birthday and I’ll be all set…or so…I think I will?)

Is it completely coincidental that I was searching for TEP-time trainings on the ERO website and one of the digital photography trainings I came across is being presented by a man by my grandfather’s name? Too bad there are no openings. There never is on those things. I’m curious to see who this man is (although I have no idea what my grandfather looks like to begin with). I bet he resembles Mom, because Mom and Gramma don’t really look alike. Or what if it’s his son? My uncle?! I put myself on the waiting list, just in case!

Anyway. It’s going to be a bummer getting up to go to the training tomorrow. Especially because it’s a complete repeat of one I already took last year in November. Boo. The new one I was going to take on Wednesday was canceled, probably due to Tropical Storm Dolly making it’s way over here.

These past few weeks have been pretty awesome. I’m loving this summer. I’m clutching onto it with my claws, like it’s going to be ripped away from me any second! I still have so much I want to do (like paint my kitchen, all the trim & mouldings need a retouch of white, I haven’t scrap booked, my kitchen needs to be cleaned and wiped out, and my closet and bedroom need to be reorganized, BAD!).

Rewinding a little bit: the 8th, after I found out I was pregnant, I went over to Maggie’s–well, Judith’s actually–and picked them up, to get my mind off everything. Maggie was going to get her eyebrows tattooed, but I found out she didn’t even have an appointment and the lady wasn’t taking any more walk-ins. We drove over there for nothing! My gas, people! So they wanted to go to Anna’s Linens instead. Maggie got tons of nice stuff to start redecorating her house. Then we went to eat at Chick-fil-a and went to Wal-Mart, where lucky Maggie found a gallon of yellow paint in the perfect shade to paint her kitchen! I’m debating whether to paint the kitchen yellow or light lime green (very light).

I went to the doctor on the 11th, just to get a proper pregnancy test done. All the girls were congratulating me and poking fun at me LOL. Laura, one of the nurses whom I get along really well with, said from now on I was just going to walk in, take my own urine sample, strap myself onto the ultrasound machine and do everything on my own since I’m so familiar with everything now LOL. I’m not kidding; I had that sheet in my hands with big, bold POSITIVE typed out on it and it still didn’t feel real!

If I remember correctly we went to watch Hellboy II on Friday, the 11th. It was actually much better than I thought it would be. Jaylen went with us (Eenan went along with Mary and Noelia to watch Journey to the Center of the Earth) and he was terrified the whole time! He even fell asleep through one part so he wouldn’t have to endure anymore LOL!

We went to visit Gramma on the 12th (and actually went to Goodwill for once, but it was quite disappointing =\). Then we had lunch with Mario at Taco Bell, yum.

Can’t remember much from Sunday…what is happening to my mind lately? I used to be able to remember things I did MONTHS ago!

I had an appointment on Monday, to get additional help with my insurance from work and I qualified! YES! John and I went to eat at Kumori (this time the one on Ridge Rd., which wasn’t very impressive–the Spicy Calamari sucked). I love my Fiesta Rolls. I plan on craving them muchly this pregnancy ;).

We went to the mall afterward, where we bought stupid things at Hot Topic LOL. We had some good exercise walking around. I’ve got to admit, the outings with my lil’ bro are always a laugh. He says some crazy shit LOL.

I had my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. That day I was 5 weeks along, gestationally, and 7 weeks along as per my LMP. I weighed in at 126 (eek!), but am doing fine with my weight gain (I’ve gained about 4 lbs. since the beginning). They didn’t even mention anything about my sugar, which is awesome. I hope it stays that way.

There wasn’t a heartbeat, yet. That always makes me nervous. I have another appointment on the 6th of August, so I hope to hear it then. That heartbeat’s what confirms the whole thing. I think it won’t feel completely “real” until I hear that beautiful sound.

Dr. C. gave me a sono pic of the baby. He/she is incredibly tiny! The amniotic sac looked like a bean, and the baby looked like a spec in the bean. The boys turned to mush and “awwwed” when I showed it to them LOL.

I went with Mary to Mexico that night to get some pills for my dad-in-law, ’cause he’d run out. I got a few chips (yum!) and we came home. Then we went to Walmart and got a few things. Mary shared some stories with me about her first few years with my dad-in-law. I love those kinds of stories :).

Thursday was the night (I think?) that Maggie invited us over for dinner. Eenan stayed with Mary of course, but we took the two younger ones with us. Jaylen loves to play with the boys–although that night they were extremely hyper which caused them all to get in trouble quite often. Alaethia was busy exploring her new surroundings and was being a good girl. Maggie did a great job painting the house. The kitchen are a combination of yellow and red walls, and as you walk in to the house you see green and blue walls. Her kitchen looked totally different and new from just adding new seat cushions to her chairs and a painting!

I think it was Friday that John and I went to Kumori again. I love that place. I ordered for Mario and as I was dropping it off to him he was already getting ready to come home–at 4pm! I wish it was always that way. Friday’s are usually his day off, but since they’re having an inventory sale he had to work. Grr.

We called Mary and made plans to go to the movies to watch The Dark Knight. Oh my gosh, it was awesome! I knew it was going to be good, but it exceeded my expectations. I couldn’t help but be sad over Heath Ledger’s death. He was amazing. So talented :(.

Jaylen, Aly, Mom and I went to pick up Mario’s paycheck the next morning (Eenan went with Mary to watch Hellboy II) and then I got to paying bills. We’re trying to pay off all our credit cards so we can be a little free once the baby arrives. It’s stressful and we’re having to pinch pennies, but it’ll be worth it.

I had to come all the way back home to cash the check, though, because they were giving me trouble at the bank in McAllen. I stopped at Stripes to get gas and a Mario wanted cigarettes, and I made the mistake and letting Jaylen get down with me. I spent $8 on chips and drinks. I took Mario some and boy was he grateful. He loves when we take him little snacks out of the blue :).

We visited Gramma and went to Target, where I bought 2 maternity blouses, a pair of maternity capris, and another blouse that looks maternity-ish, but isn’t. This pregnancy’s finally starting to feel real, especially because I can’t stop peeing and my boobs feel like they’re on fire at the slightest touch (getting into the shower feels like someone’s shooting at me with a million bb guns!).

I left my keys behind at the counter when I was making a payment, so I lost my mind for a minute, but I went back and the girl had them.

It was Annie’s birthday that day and we had to be at her house (well, the pool anyway) by 4, so we tried doing everything as quickly as possible. We left the house at 5, though, since they’d asked Mary to make some potato salad at the last minute.

The kids took their swimming gear (and I stupidly forgot their new boogie boards and goggles in the truck!) and had a blast. I was feeling dizzy since I hadn’t eaten all afternoon so I didn’t get in, but Yazmin and Angela took Alaethia in for me. Angela’s been Alaethia’s favorite lately. As soon as she sees her she climbs into her arms and won’t leave her alone LOL.

Yesterday I lazied around and did some laundry and then I got to making the white rice I was contributing for a little celebration we were throwing for Annie (the party from Saturday was from Cat). We got all the kiddos ready and went to Annie’s. They weren’t home so we took the party to Yadira’s LOL. Elda made her famous chicken enchiladas–gosh they were good. I’d learn how to make them if making the salsa for them and frying them wasn’t so much hard work!

I started reading The Tale of Despereaux to the kids (and Mario LOL) last night. It’s such a cute story. They all listened attentively while I read, even Mario. We only got to chapter 8, but I’m planning to read them the whole thing before school starts. Our goal is in 1 week.

That’s what I love about this summer. We’ve been having movie nights, reading, ah…it’s just so awesome. Alaethia’s so talkative and brilliant. I want to soak up as much of her as I can, especially with the new baby coming. Eenan and Jaylen are almost 3 years apart and I sometimes confuse their stories because they were so close in age. Now imagine these two! So I’m trying to take as many pictures, video and document everything she does and says. My favorite sentences right now? When she gets annoyed with my mom she says, “Awwww! Mudduh! I told juuu!” which means, “Awww! Mother! I told you!” I wonder where she gets that one?!

The other one is when she gets upset with someone, especially when the boys are trying to take something from her. She’ll say, “No, don’t touch it!” or “No, don’t take it!” She’s so hilarious! And so girlie! She walks around with a purse most of the time, filled with little bracelets and toys. It’s the cutest thing, ever!

As for today…I woke up and got a huge shock: Tropical Storm Dolly’s heading our way! So I called John up after I stopped feeling too sleepy and asked him to go with me to stock up on canned goods and batteries. I couldn’t sleep all night. I keep wondering how exactly I’m going to break it to my boss that I’m expecting and that I might not go back after a) the 2nd semester or b) after my maternity leave–both of which I know she won’t be too happy with :(. I hate abandoning her, as I love my job and think she’s awesome, but I just can’t imagine Mom trying to take care of both my kiddos :(. I really can’t. But more on that later.

We’re all stocked up. Mary got tons of canned goods too, and snacks! We picked up dinner at Whataburger for the adults and McDonald’s for the kids, which is awesome because I have this training tomorrow and I was already feeling tired and lazy. Speaking of, it’s already really late and Alaethia’s been asleep for about 45 minutes so I should join her. Poor thing gave herself and everyone else a scare…I ran to tell the boys to brush their teeth and go to bed in the next room and she managed to fall off my bed. I’m going to sneak her into her crib right now ’cause she kicks like crazy. Maybe that’s another reason I kept waking up last night.