Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We’ve been so busy the last few days, what with Mom and John moving in with Aunt Nora, and just everything else. I still haven’t gotten a chance to convert all the pages to PHP, so I’m still having all those 404’s popping up. I’m so loving the skins though 
! I love the idea of not having to get rid of my “old” layouts. Funny though, when the site wasn’t skinned I had so many ideas for layouts and now that it is, I’ve gone blank 
. Go figure. But anway. Hopefully this coming week will be more laid back and I can catch up with online-related things, like replying to e-mails, commenting on journals, catching up with my dailies and so on. Here’s what’s happened this past week:
Tuesday– I can’t remember much from Tuesday. We picked John up from school and took him to get his Grand Theft Auto San Andreas game he’s been waiting for forever. I was sorting through the bags and bags of makeup I had in the bathroom, and was going to throw old things out and put them in just two bags so I took them with me to sort in the car (since I’d be staying in the car with the boys). As I’m sorting, Mario and John tell me, “I don’t know why you have all that junk. You don’t need it.” I say, “It’s not like I use it at all. Which I should because well, look at me. I just buy it ’cause it’s cute.” John tells me, “At least you look decent. Lots of girls at school look…ugh. And that’s ’cause they wear make-up.” So, that coming from my brother, lifted my spirits. Mario tells me I shouldn’t worry about my face all the time, but I’m stubborn and believe that when he put that ring on my finger, he was automatically programmed to tell me I’m pretty, whether he means it or not LOL. I’m a dork, I know.
It was Sonia’s birthday that day 
. I made a chocolate cake (that I was very pissed off at because it was crooked!). Sonia wanted lasagna, so that’s what Mary made: salad, garlic/parmasean toast and lasagna. Yum. I could eat lasagna every day and not get tired of it. We all gathered around the table and laughed our asses off as usual and had a great time.
Wednesday– We found out Gramma would be having reconstructive surgery. They’d be taking flesh from a part of her body and “covering” what’s left of the pressure wound on her back. She was initially going to the doctor for a check up, but they came out with her needing surgery. Mom spent the day with her while they got paperwork ready. She was done at around 5, so we went to pick her up. Mary and Big Mario watched the boys, and Mario decided I needed practice on the highway, so there I go. I drove on the expressway all the way to Mission, praying that we’d make it back ok. I was more nervous switching lanes and making my way off the exits than I was driving 65mph 
. I did ok though, I didn’t do as horribly as I assumed. When we got back, I helped Mom and John clean up and sort a bit more. I’d helped John earlier before I’d left to pick Mom up, but they still needed a lot to do and would be leaving with Aunt Nora the next day. So I spent the night chilling outside with Mario and the kids, watching the lunar eclipse and helping Mom and John pack/clean. I must MAKE myself not be a packrat anymore. I don’t want to end up having to move someday for whatever reason, and having to clean/sort/throw out as much stuff as Mom had to. When I was done helping them I drove Mario to the store. He said I drove better than he did *beams*. I can drive so well around the neighborhood and around our teeny city…I’m a nervous wreck out in THE CITY though 
.
Thursday– Mario made flan 
. We’d gotten the recipe from Yadira when we were over there for Sonia’s birthday, and we had all the ingredients so we gave it a try. While I made the steaks (which I ended up making into carne guisada with salsa because it was too thin), and cheesy scalloped potatoes, Mario made and prepared the flan (with my guidance). Mom had been cleaning all day and had already brought over all the food she had in her kitchen, we invited her and John over. The food was awesome, especially the flan! It didn’t even break 
.
Mom gave us a whole bunch of awesome kitchen stuff she hadn’t even used yet: dish towels, glass pans, metal pans of all kinds, and of course a whole bunch of brand new food. That night Aunt Nora, Tio Arturo and David came over with the trucks and loaded all their stuff. I felt so sad 
. It sucks they’re not going to be here all the time. I haven’t felt totally bored without them yet, but it is lonely and different not having John come knock on the door in the morning so we can take him to school or Mom knocking on the door to come and chit chat. I didn’t even get to give John a hug before he left that night since I’d gone over to the house to get Aunt Nora some flan LOL. I gave Mom a hug and we acted like it was the end of the world and they drove off. *sigh* Gotta keep telling myself it’s for the best, which it is. I was so upset that night, and to top it off, Mario had been at Jorge’s house all day. He came back early and we watched a movie and went to bed.
Friday– We dropped Eenan off at school and headed to Edinburg where we’d be picking Grandpa Dario up from his doctor’s appointment. We took Jaylen trick-or-treating at Mary’s office. He was sleepy and a bit grumpy, but his spirits lifted when he saw all these ladies putting handfuls of candies into his baggy. He left the office in such a good mood . We took Grandpa to the Veteran’s Affairs office, then to set up Mom’s storage unit. After that, we went to vote! I voted for Kerry and Mario did too, though he was upset with his decision. He didn’t want to vote for Bush at all, but he’s not happy with Kerry either. I told him he should have gone Liberal, to which he replied, “And what difference would that make?!” I agree with that, unfortunately.
We got home and made lunch, and then I washed the hundereds of dishes Mom had given us and all the ones inside the counter since the sink pipes had started leaking and got everything dirty. I spent a good 2 hours washing dishes . Then we picked the kids up from school (I drove) and later we went to the hospital to see Gramma. We only took Jaylen with us–Eenan stayed with Mary of course. We met Mom and Aunt Nora there and then they left while I visited with Gramma. We then drove to Aunt Nora’s and chilled out there for a while. She needed a phone jack moved to another wall and Mario was going to fix it. Tio Arturo had bar-be-cued, so we ate there. We had a nice time talking about everything. Aunt Nora showed me her closet…OMG I’m so jealous! I want a closet like that! I love how her house smells too. John was almost relieved to see us. He gave me a hug as soon as I walked into the room, poor guy LOL. He decided to sleep over that night. Tio Arturo gave me a “Mexican Tredmil” as he called it, which is a tredmil that isn’t motorized, it’s the kind you have to push with your feet/weight LOL. I said, hell yes, I’d take it! We’d be picking it up the next day when we dropped John off.
We got home, then went to Jorge’s. We played darts. I won a sucky 2 times LOL. I’m just getting worse and worse. Mario was kicking our asses that night. John played too. Not sure if he liked it though. They played Halo for a while and OMG I was falling asleep every 5 minutes. I kept trying to keep at least one eye open but it wasn’t happening. I was so relieved when we left. Maggie was going to give us a little turtle, but we forgot to ask and Mario said maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea. Poo.
Saturday– I made breakfast for John, the boys and myself. Mario had gone with Mary to Mexico to get some medicines and stuff. When he got back, we got the boxes and furniture we’d be putting in storage together and he and John took them over there. John wanted to sleep over again, so we called Aunt Nora and Mom to let them know we wouldn’t be going over. We chilled out and then got ready to go to the Fall Festival at Eenan’s school. We dressed them in their costumes–they were so excited.
The tickets were expensive of course ($.50 each!), but they got to play a few games. Jaylen loved this fishing one and they even won three 2 liter sodas at a ring toss! Jaylen won 1 and Eenan won 2. Here they are looking quite bored when Mario went to leave the sodas in the car:
We ended up missing the costume contest since they announced it very quietly. By the time we made it over there, it was over 
. We got the boys some pickles and popcorn and we came home. They had a good time .
Sunday– I woke up and made breakfast and then we got ready to drop John off, drop off the freezer Aunt Nora’s buying off of Mom, see Mom for a little bit and pick up the tredmil they gave us. We sat around and talked for a bit. Aunt Nora showed us some pictures and even showed me a picture of an Aunt of ours whom I resemble A LOT. I was almost wondering if I was adopted because I don’t really look like anyone in my family, but ha! I do look like someone John and I looked exactly alike when we were little, but not anymore. The boys were really good while we were there, thank goodness. I’m always so afraid they’re going to destroy something–their house is so fancy. We said our see-you-laters and then made our way to H-E-B where we’d be cashing our thousands of pennies. Mario and I kept betting how much there was…there ended up being $77 
! Thank goodness too because we were *so* broke. We got some bacon since Mario was making bacon-wrapped chicken for lunch, flan ingredients and other stuff we needed like paper towels, catfood, hamster food, etc. When we got home, Mario helped Mary make little “tomb stones” for her Graveyard Pie and then I helped her with the goodie bags for tonight.
I came back to help Mario with lunch and the flan. When everything was in the oven, Mario decided it was the perfect time to be naughty since the boys were with the grandparents . He’s so bad LOL. After that *cough*, the food was done and we took the food over to Mary’s to have lunch over there. It was great. I cleaned the tredmil and step-excersizer (sp?) thing. Big Mario was out there and was using the tredmil. Everyone liked it . I got the boys ready in their costumes after that and we took them Trick-or-Treating at Chris’, City Hall, Leo’s gas station, a random house that looked friendly (which ended up being Eenan’s friend’s house!) and then we went to Yadira’s where everyone was meeting. We never take the boys “trick-or-treating” house to house–we only go to Yadira’s, because we don’t really talk to anyone in the neighborhood, so we promised we’d take them around to businesses (that we know and trust) and to relative’s houses. Most of the relatives weren’t there though LOL.
Jaylen was tired and ended up falling asleep at Yadira’s. Eenan played with the kids as usual. Mario passed out candies for a while and then the adults sat around the table and ate Flan and Graveyard Pie and talked and laughed. It’s our tradition to make jokes or just share the hilarious things that happen on a day to day basis with everyone when we get together like that. The story Mario and I contributed tonight was called “Pit Water”. A few months ago, maybe a year or so, Mario and I were being good citizens and conserving water (ie. showing together) and I was shaving my arm pits. It was an unusually quiet moment and I just idly shaved my pits, while Mario lathered himself up with soap. As I’m rinsing my pit off, I snap back to reality and notice Mario rinsing his soapy face with my stubbly pit water. It was a moment I’ll never forget LOL. By the end of the night my head felt like it was going to explode from all the laughing. I took an Aleve as soon as we got home. I started to run on the tredmil but after only 2 minutes my headache felt like it was becoming a migraine so I stopped and laid down for a bit. I’ll try again tomorrow. I’m so glad I got this tredmil…now I can actually walk/jog without having to wait for somebody to go with me! Aside from starting my workouts again I really need to get to sorting for the garage sale. We need to get all this junk OUT!. Ok, I’m really tired. ‘Nite!