Category: Memories

Argh. Just found out my hours are being cut at work. Not good AT ALL!! I’m trying to avoid going into panic mode, so I figured I’d update while it is still lunchtime.

(I’m typing this on the iPad…so don’t be surprised if you find weird typos, heh. I wanted to remove the auto-correct deal but my babe finds it useful >_>.)

I can’t remember many of the details from Friday during work (what is happening to me?!) but I went straight to pick up Eenan and we stopped by John’s apartment so that I could throw out his old fridge food and clean up a bit. When we were done, Eenan and I got home and I started on dinner. They all settled down and watched TV and my babe had his friend over. Not exactly what I had in mind for my Friday night, but I gave him his guy time and watched TV with the kids.

I lazied around in the morning, fed the kiddos and just kinda slothed around all day, except for getting a few things at Target, dropping stuff off for Gramma, and stopping for burritos for lunch, a request from the boys of course, hehe.

I was feeling a little down–could have been the Girl Sickness or just the stress of bills–so I snuggled on the Cuddle Chair with Emily and watched Lifetime movies. There was one that got all 6 kids’ attention (about a psycho nanny) and they watched it with me. Emmy was with me, 2 boys sprawled on the rug, and 2 boys flanking Alaethia on the big ottoman. We’d get into discussions about it during commercials and then they’d all shush each other and their undivided attention was on the movie. It was really cute.

All the kiddos played together; tv, wrestling, chasing Ruffles, all simultaneously quieting down and playing on some sort of handheld device. It was wonderful :).

My babe got home from work and I grocery shopped. An easy dinner of hotdogs :). We sat outside on the back patio, talking :). I love those nights. All our kiddos fell asleep in the boys’ room…until Emmos woke up of course and we took her to our bedroom :). She has the habit of wanting us to drag her toddler bed mattress to our room and she sleeps there. She says, “I pwomise I’ll go to sleep.” Aww! Who can resist that?

I woke up the next day and made pancakes for all the kiddos while they bathed. We ate, got ready, and then my babe dropped off his boys as my kiddos and I went to church. We went to Sacred Heart, my childhood church, and it was so nice to be back. It is just as I remembered it :). Eenan said he loved the church, Jaylen said he loved that it went by fast (LOL), I loved that the Priest’s readings involved the kids and they all loved being in the Cry Room upstairs, overlooking everything :).

We got back home and my babe was napping so I took the kiddos out to the patio, where they blew bubbles. I’d bought them some green Crayola ones and OMG, those things are messy! I put them away pretty quickly heh.

I made lunch and later we went outside to just chill out (well, my babe raked up the backyard and I watched, heh). He filled up the kickboxing target and then we played frisbee with the kids. It was so much fun! Even the baby girls got into it. And it was so hot that we turned on the water hose and had a water fight :). Gotta do that again!

I asked Mario to let me keep the kids again but he wanted to see them so I took them back :(. My babe rented a movie and I stopped for Red Mango on the way home from dropping them off and we had a great movie night :). It was “The Mechanic”. I TRIED staying up with all my might, but I crashed out at the end. My babe’s so sweet and just lets me fall asleep with my head on his shoulder till the movie is done. It happens quite often hehe.

Gosh, that was just such a great weekend. I’m so, so grateful for everything in my life :).

Ok, that took much longer than a lunch break! Typed up parts here and there throughout the day. Time to go!

I dragged through last Friday. It felt like the longest day OF MY LIFE. BUT! They celebrated Jesse (my co-worker) and my birthdays, which made it go by much faster :).

I also had a ton of errands to run after work, like buying the hot water hose for the washing machine and the new plug for the dryer from Home Depot. Then I had to buy a blouse, because I was out of clean clothes and had nothing to wear for Jesse’s party that night.

We were late, as always LOL. And almost DIED on the way there. There was a long line of cars that were stopped at a green light on 10th street and we had to stop and then swerve out of the way in like, 2 seconds. I had Emily’s carseat loose in the back and it came flying forward and hit me on the elbow >_<. I was kind of in shock so I didn't feel the throbbing pain till about 15 minutes later! We hung out at Russo's for Jesse's party for a bit with the work peeps and then headed to Longhorn Steakhouse. We sit down, excited to have a drink...only to find out they close in 10 minutes. Oh well. I had a quick Watermelon Margarita which was AWESOME! I'd never had one of those before!

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings right after and had a very late dinner >_<. It was super good though; I'd never had the Spinach & Artichoke Chicken on Flatbread! Now I wanna make some at home. But I was doing my research and making Flatbread at home takes AT LEAST 4 hours! I wonder if I can buy some good, healthy flatbread? Mario had the kids that weekend :( and my babe was at work but I managed to keep busy. I cleaned the house, unpacked and organized (I love that everything has its place!), bought groceries, visited Gramma (who is super nearby now :D!), and made the Spinach Artichoke Dip I was contributing to Harvey and Evelyn's potluck going away party. They're a Winter Texan couple who volunteer at the Chamber :). They're leaving for the spring and shall return permanently during summer and they invited a few of us to dinner, aww :). I hurried through the dip and then got in the shower. My babe called that he was on his way home, yayyy! I rushed over to Harvey and Evelyn's, where Michelle, EZ, Maritza and Teo already were. It was nice talking and laughing with my co-workers :). The food was GREAT! And everyone loved my Dip :)!

I left home and then made some lasagna for everyone at home. I had a teeny piece since I’d already stuffed my face at the party. We went to sleep semi-early and tried our hardest to sleep in but NOPE! We were up by 9 and then again at 10 hehe. I made omelets for us and eggs for the boys and Mom. We ran errands at Target, Walmart and Home Depot, did some little home-improvement things here and there and we dug out the bird feeder. I’d bought that fairy bird feeder back in 2001 when I sold Avon!! And I finally had a yard and tree to call my own and hang it from :). Next we need a hummingbird feeder to attract them!

We were cleaning up the yard so we changed…and promptly had a waterhose fight :). I only wish my kiddos had been there to have fun with us, but we will soon :). Mario came to drop off Emily and all the other kids wanted to stay so I told him I’d drop them off :). It’s so nice watching them sprawled all over the house, comfortable, being able to run and play as they please. I’d waited so long to see that :).

My babe’s friend and his son and daughter came over and the kids all played wonderfully together. I made dinner and we sat outside on the patio while the kids played tag and then ate. It felt like time had gone by so quickly; by the time I knew it, it was time to take the kids home :(.

It was such a wonderful weekend :). Jaylen’s birthday was Monday and I got to see him for a bit, but we’ll hopefully celebrate this weekend. This week is a short work-week so I’m keeping the kiddos since Thursday night :).

I passed out last night (those Tostadas I made were so delicious I went into a food coma LOL), and my babe stayed up late assembling our dresser and the last bunk bed ♥. Even though I slept 3 hours, then woke up and showered and slept 4 1/2 more, I felt refreshed, got ready on time and made my babe some breakfast. We had our first next event’s meeting today and had to take the dreaded picture for the paper >_

01/01/10 – New Years – I stayed up a little late but woke up early (and woke the girls up early) to go over to Mary’s to help embarar (spread) tamales. She was shredding the pork off the bone with her fingers for the pork ones and she’d already seasoned the deer & beans for the other two batches.

Sonia, Mom, Elda and myself helped Mary spread the masa on the tamales. I suck at that LOL. Not to mention what a perfectionist I am; the whole thing had to be even and perfect! I didn’t even get a picture of the mountain of tamales. We were too busy eating them. But I only had 4 (I can usually eat up to 6 or 7!).

Mario was still in a mood from the night before. He stayed holed up in our bedroom pretty much all day. I chilled at Mary’s with Mom, the kids, Andy, Noelia, Sonia and Elda for a good while.

When Mario finally got out of bed we had the moms watch the kiddos and we went to Walmart for a few things. I wanted some cheapy boots, because I have nothing nice or warm to wear for winter (I’ve only got flats and sneakers) but of course, they didn’t have my size.

We get home and I decided to make Velveeta cheese dip (with Rotel & ground beef) for dinner. Hey! It’s got all the food groups (chips made the grains one LOL!).

Aide and I sat in the dining room and chit-chatted about everything and looked through a little Izone album I had since Eenan was a tiny baby. Emily looks exactly like he did back then, aww :).

When Adan, Aide and their kiddos left we got all comfy on the sofa and watched “The Half-Blood Prince” on Blu-ray (one of my gifts from Mary :D). Mario hadn’t seen it and he actually enjoyed it.

I started my 365 that night. I highly doubt I’ll keep up with it, but we’ll see LOL.

Mario and I stayed up till 4am that night, even later than New Years the night before! We’re such an old married couple. We were sitting in the living room, across from each other on the sofas looking for pictures of kitchens we liked on Flickr and Ikea.com LOL.

01/02/10 – Girl’s Night Out – I spent most of that day cleaning. John had come over and kept bugging me to make banana muffins, so I made some. We had Sebastian, one of our neighbors here most of the day; he’s Eenan’s age. He’s always here, poor kid. I don’t mind, though.

We went to pick up Subway for lunch, ate really quick and then Aaron came over to play video games with Jaylen for a bit. I continued with cleaning but oh my gosh. I have so much to go. The living room & kitchen were clean, but a corner of the dining room’s a storage unit for now. I still need to go through all those boxes of Alaethia’s old clothes and hang up what I’m going to use for Emily.

I texted Mario and asked if he wanted to go out. He said he’d already made plans with Jorge so to make plans of my own. I called Sally up and she invited me to a bar-b-q at her friend Monica’s house. I got ready in record time (heh) and drove over to her house. We switched to her vehicle and made it over to Monica’s. It was a CRAZY night. We played Flip Cup, which I’d never played before and we played with this really crappy champagne so I got tipsy really fast LOL, but it was fun!

We ate, had some laughs and talked about high school and old crushes and by the end of the night polished off almost a whole block of Philadelphia cheese and salsa with tiny wheat crackers.

We wanted to get some drinks somewhere so we went to Woodreaux’s. Neither of us had ever been there, so we figured we’d try it out. As soon as we walk in, a surly short dude with a black cowboy had and a huge mustache pulls my sweater from my shoulder. I scowl at him and shake my head when he waved us over to his table.

Sally and I sit at the bar and browse through the menu and talk about how weird that guy was. She says, “I thought you knew him. Thought he was one of Mario’s friends.” I tell her, “I have no idea who he is,” and we just laughed about it.

10 minutes later the dude comes back. Tries to literally pull us off the bar stools asking if we want to dance. We both say no and he insists. We again, politely decline and he leaves. Sally and I can’t help but laugh. We decide that if any other creepy guy approaches us again we’d pretend we were lesbian Life Partners LOL.

Well, that completely goes out the window as we’re finishing our drinks and the same dude comes up to us and begs us to dance with him again. We couldn’t stop laughing from how uncomfortable we were! He told us just about every lie and line in the book. Couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful we were. Even mentioned how he was a widower. Uh huh, sure. I started getting really mad once he kept insisting we see his truck. He kept raving how we’d love it. Um, no. I kept staring at the bartender, asking for help with my eyes LOL. He finally got the hint and directed the crazy dude to a couple who was already getting up to leave. Bartender tells Crazy Dude, “Look, this girl in the purple? She LOVES to dance!” So Crazy Dude goes over there and embraces both the guy and girl as they’re getting up. We took the opportunity to run out of there like bats out of hell LOL.

We got to Sally’s and retold the story to Pete, Alyssa and her boyfriend. Buahaha. It was insane but truly a night to remember!