Category: Movies

I am having the time of my life being on my 2-week vacation. I haven’t gotten as much done as I would like (I have a huge mental to-do list) but I’ve been pretty productive. Right now, we’re at Church’s waiting for our greasy, yummy lunch before we go watch National Treasure 2. My poor blog is rotting away from lack of use, so I figured I’d update while I had a a moment. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to blog at least once every few days. I have the boys’ lives archived and I’ve missed writing about most of Alaethia’s. She’s 11 months already, I can hardly believe it! Okay, will update with more later–Aly’s pinching my arm fat.

Wow. I didn’t think I’d taken this long to make a proper update! It’s been exactly a month, isn’t that insane? I keep telling myself I need to update at least during the weekend but my gosh, I just don’t have time for anything these days! But there’s only one week left till Christmas vacation and that’s going to ROCK. I probably won’t update as often as I used to, but I’m hoping to at least update a little bit.

There’s been so much going on I hope I can recapture at least half of all the good stuff (and well, not-so-good stuff) that’s been happening. Since I’d been slowly updating back in November, around the 12th to the 15th, it’s a little more detailed at the beginning.

Sunday, Nov. 11th – I got up early to make lasagna for Mario’s birthday get-together. Mary made his birthday cake and tea. It was a
big success and I’m so glad everyone came over and just made it a special day for Mario. He deserves it. Family came over and although we invited a few other friends, only Pete and Sally came over. Couldn’t have asked for better company. She looked so round and cute. We chilled out and talked and had a great time. I remembered to give her the bag of stuff from Target. We chilled out a bit then went to the Killer Bees hockey game with Andy and Noey — their birthday present to Mario, and they treated me, too. It was SO FUN. I’d always wanted to go to a hockey game. There were pucks flying, they were giving out prizes, FIGHTS between the teams, and even a Kiss Cam, where they focus the camera on a couple and they *have* to kiss. It was great, even though the Bees lost. We went to Target afterwards to pick up diapers and a few other things and we sawJason, Mireya and Brianna. When we got home it was straight to bed. Thank God Mary’d already bathed the kids for us.

Monday, Nov. 12th – It was Mario’s actual birthday that day. 26-years-old. I started doing regular work that day. A little bit of boxing up books in the milk crates that we got permission from Hygeia to borrow. I worked on a few quizzes, which means I read a short story that’s online and then typed up 5 questions for each one with alternate answers. I noticed we had a broken window, which we figured happened over the weekend during a football game. I had a follow-up appointment at the doctor regarding my injured wrist. Turns out I my sprained wrist was doing better, but I have a bad Ganglion Cyst. I already had a slight bump before the injury, but it became much worse after the “trauma” to my wrist. I later received a letter from Workman’s Comp that a Ganglion Cyst is a “natural life” type of injury so they won’t cover anything having to do with it. Lovely. We went to see Gramma that night since we hadn’t seen her in 2 weeks and I’m so glad we did. She sadly only had two teeth left and one of them was giving her such grief and pain that she wasn’t eating at all and constantly asking for Tylenol. The nurses told us they were concerned since, at her age, she may damage her liver because of excess medication. We asked them to set up an appointment for her with a dentist for later on during the week and they said they’d do what they could. Only problem: she doesn’t have any type of dental insurance so it would cost a pretty penny.

Tuesday, Nov. 13th – I don’t remember much from work — I think it was the day of the Robot Competition, which was really awesome. My boss’ son ended up winning 1st place for his Lego truck with music and lights. Or it could have been the day of the Science Bowl? We packed a little more and I got to work on a few more quizzes. The nursing home set up an appointment for Gramma. I had 1 day to figure out what to do about money, how to get Mom to the nursing home to accompany Gramma (who, naturally, didn’t want to go alone), and who was going to babysit Alaethia while Mom was gone.

I helped out here and there with the Science Bowl. I was in charge of taking pictures and burning them onto CDs once the memory cards filled up. We tried packing a little more. After work I had to go to the bank. John went along with me and couldn’t help making fun of my Ganglion Cyst. He kept saying things like, “Gang-li-ON – apply directly to the ganglion!” and ” Well, you always wanted a cyst-er!” I continued worrying about what to do about Gramma. The cost of her appointment would be $100, which I thought was pretty cheap for a tooth extraction, but I didn’t have any money other than gas money after paying all the bills. I called up Aunt Nora and she said to go over, she had the money (duh). It was nice seeing her after so long even though I was so tired of driving. Aunt Nora was in love with Alaethia, who was being a charmer with her funny laugh and curly hair. We caught up a bit and Aunt Nora showed us her awesome bedroom. I will always love how that lady decorates her house. She’s got a gift. Once Mom was inside the truck with the kids Aunt Nora and I talked about my Grandfather and her dad and how they suck as human beings (only Jaylen and Aly were with us. Eenan was with — you guessed it — his Nana.). Although we’d figured out the money situation, I had no idea how I’d get Mom to Gramma’s and had no idea who’d take care of Alaethia. There was no way I could miss work what with packing and everything going on at work. I was close to tears when I expressed my dilemma to Mary. She had a plan: she’d wake up a little earlier and drop Mom off at the nursing home, then she’d drop off Alaethia with Noelia, who’d babysit her till Mom got back to the nursing home. The only problem was that Mom absolutely had to be back at the nursing home by at least 12:30 so Noelia could drop Aly off to her (and then Mary would pick them both up after work and bring them home) and then make it on time to college. We were hoping for the best. I felt so relieved. Thank God for family! I have to say I have the best you could ask for.

Wednesday, Nov. 14th – We packed a little more. We also heard a rumor about the new school we were waiting for not actually belonging to the community and the students. Something about it becoming a new high school and our middle school moving into the old high school. I thought that was totally messed up. My boss was really ticked, especially since she’s a parent and she did pay taxes for that school. Everything with Gramma worked out incredibly. She felt fine after having both her teeth extracted (now she needs dentures, but we’ll have to save up a lot of money for that :\). Noelia had a great day with Aly, thank goodness, and she even got to pick Mom and Aly up and take them home with plenty of time to get home. I owe her, big time. I picked up the kids from school and then I took Aly to the doctor. Noelia discovered a blister on her thigh and it freaked me out when I saw it. Turns out Aly had an allergic reaction to an insect bite. I picked up and dropped off Rolando after their UIL practice.

Thursday, Nov. 15th – We were having Lights Out Day at the library to celebrate Children’s Book Week, where the kids would bring a flashlight to check out books. None of the kids brought flashlights and we hardly had any books to check out since we were about 75% packed. The window cracked a little more that day, so we weren’t really allowing any kids in by the end of the day. We had an early lunch and then I had a slice of pizza since the science department was having a party in celebration of a great science week. I was supposed to be working on quizzes but there was so much noise I couldn’t concentrate. Mrs. Ruiz and Mrs. Garcia and I talked and then I talked with Mrs. R., Mrs. M. and my Boss. Such a funny convo. On the way to my truck after work I saw a beautiful red bird laying on the concrete. Poor thing had no head. I had a weird feeling, almost like it was a bad omen. I shouldn’t have thought of that because I had it in my head the rest of the day and I think that’s why we had such bad luck that afternoon. John and I went to Capital One to give his car payment. As we’re arriving it suddenly dawns on me that I don’t quite remember grabbing my purse from the kitchen table before we left. Sure enough, I forgot it — along with John’s car payment. Poor John had to withdraw more money to make the payment. And since I forgot my money as well, he lent me some cash so I could buy my groceries and some supplies for the Thanksgiving basket Mrs. V., Mrs. Ruiz, Mrs. Garcia and I were making. We also stopped by Game Stop where John bought tons of PSP games.

Friday, Nov. 16th – I was alone most of the day since Mrs. V. didn’t go in. I had a productive day anyway. I had a chat with the Speech teacher and right after she left the broken window was fixed. Mario stopped by to pick up the sofa receipts and left in a huff because I didn’t have them with me. He refused to look for it at home and didn’t pick up the sofas. Everyone at the front office thought he was student LOL. Mrs. Ruiz and Mrs. Garcia and I got the baskets ready. Since I’d gone over my “time” twice in the week and accumulated 30 minutes I had an hour lunch. The girls and I went to Burger King. When we got back to work we were about to go collect more milk crates from the cafeteria when I was stopped by one of the assistant principals and got scolded about using my bad wrist. I assured her I was fine, but she took me to her office and showed me the fax that they’d barely sent that day about how I wasn’t allowed to use my wrist at all, plus a list of restrictions–a week later. So I was put on light duty again and was given a copy of the paper to give to Mrs. V. Mrs. V. showed up to work at the end of the day to fix the extra basket she made. I told her about my scolding and she seemed to be okay with it. I picked up the kids and we chilled out till I picked up Rolando later on for a last-minute sleepover. Eenan started freaking out because they had a UIL meet the next morning and they hadn’t planned to sleepover at all. They like to go together. I spent the evening cleaning and moving furniture around to figure out how to make sofas fit. I didn’t feel like having to spend more money just to move the wall 3 inches. The kids played and Adan, Aide and baby Belle visited. I got the kids in bed, which isn’t an easy task since they’re so excited to be having a sleepover. I finally threatened to separate Eenan and Rolando (Jaylen was asleep on the futon for the very last time!) and they finally fell asleep.

Saturday, Nov. 17th – I woke up at 6:30, fed the boys, got then ready and dropped them off. I got no additional sleep. Got Mario’s stuff ready, had a quick breakfast and cleaned and cleaned before and after Aly woke up and had breakfast. The cleaning was long overdue and I now only have the weekends to get things done, even though most of the time I don’t get everything done. It’s so overwhelming. Mom stayed with Alaethia and Jaylen while I went to pick up Eenan and Rolando. Eenan was, as always, the last one to compete, so we had to wait for him. I sat in the hallway with Eenan, Lauren and Rolando while we waited for them to call Eenan in for his Storytelling. After he was done, we waited for the results. We saw Mrs. V. there. Her daughter was competing as well and she, too, was waiting for the results. The kids were running rampant. After almost an hour of waiting they finally posted the results: Eenan got 1st place in Storytelling and 2nd place in Oral Reading!! I was so excited I screamed and picked up my 55 pound 8 year old and hugged him to bits. I came back home after dropping off Rolando and cleaned some more. When Mario got home I took a shower and then we went over to Jason and Adan’s. Mario’s cousin, DJ, whom we hadn’t seen in a long time, was there. All the girls and DJ chatted and it was pretty cool. Alaethia was such a doll. It was a bit nervewracking watching Adan get plastered, but it was fun nonetheless. We got home at 12:30 and by the time we washed up and got Alaethia ready for bed it was well passed 1:30. I was so exhausted.

Sunday, Nov. 18th – We didn’t wake up till 11am. I had a quick breakfast, then started getting crap out of the futon pockets, like magazines and Pokemon cards. Mario and Jorge picked up the sofas and had to take the door down to bring them in. When all three couches and entertainment center were Tetris-ed into our tiny living room we left to the movies to watch Mr. Magorian’s Wonder Imporium. I didn’t think I’d like it but it was such a cute movie. It even had some sad parts. I cried, as usual. Dustin Hoffman was awesome and so was Natalie Portman. We came home and I got the boys ready for school and did everything else I usually have to do at night. I was exhausted once again.

Monday, Nov. 19th – We brought in more milk crates and packed as many books as we could fit. I felt really bad that day because my boss sort of snapped at me and it’s not like her to do so. I reminded her about my wrist and how the office people kept getting after me for using it after she asked me to pick up cardboard boxes on a rolling cart and I guess she didn’t like that. She didn’t really talk to me much that day. Although I took it easy because I was being watched I still accomplished a lot. After work we had our Thanksgiving lunch. I was getting increasingly nervous since it was sort of long and I had to pick up the kids, but it was really fun. We did a “What Was Popular When You Were In 7th Grade?” game. The 90’s middle school group was the biggest LOL. The food was great.

Tuesday, Nov. 20th – It was a productive day and my boss was in a much better mood. I still felt a little uncomfortable, but I eventually got over it. I spent about 15 minutes making copies for our new reading folders for the classes and then another 2 hours laminating folders — which was my own fault since it was my brilliant idea. I was starving by lunch time. I went to buy my lunch first before clocking out and to my horror they ran out of EVERYTHING. I went to the lounge anyway so I could buy something from the vending machine and my heart sinks when I open up my wallet and realize Mario’d stolen my dollar bills. Grr. Thank God Gemima brought a dairy queen ice cream cake — my favorite! — to celebrate out last day before Thanksgiving break. After that I had a cream cheese danish. Talk about a sugar rush. I checked in the few books that had been turned in and spent the rest of the afternoon trimming the laminated folders. I had to clock out about 20 minutes early and my boss gave me an apple pie, how nice :). I picked up the kids and they did their homework. Sally and I’d made plans to meet at Olive Garden. They’d invited me to go with them the Friday before but I had company and was rearranging the furniture so I didn’t get to go. Pete met us about 20 minutes later. It was so much fun being with two of my best friends in the world. The waiter was kinda cute and kept flirting. Pete said he was going to call Mario LOL. After we ate (I had the endless soup and salad/breadsticks–SO GOOD. I’d been wanting it forever!) We had a great chat about life and our high school days, back before Sally even knew Pete liked her. We sat around and talked a while then we departed. I met Mario at his work and we drove to Walmart (in separate cars), each got gas, then went to Target. Mario and I are similar in the fact that we have very short attention spans. We were supposedly in a hurry and were stopping only for what we needed but we somehow ended up at the birthday cards and laughed our asses off at some of them. We got home and I got my stuff ready for my training the next day. Although it was my first official day of vacation, I didn’t mind having to attend a training because we got to go in at 7:30 and got out at 1:30. Sure beats waking up at 5:40!

Wednesday, November 21st – Mom woke me up 45 minutes earlier than I was supposed to wake up. Oh well. The training was alright. A girl and I started talking right away and we sat together through most of the training. I was a bit peeved at this one annoying fellow clerk — she kept talking about herself and how awesome she thinks she is that they completely overlooked me and didn’t even ask me to introduce myself! It happened twice. Every time they started introducing themselves, she’d start talking about herself and everyone would have to stop and then start over. So they overlooked me. It was sort of dumb to feel offended about that, but I was. I ran into one of Mario’s old friends, Ralph. He was actually the one training us on the AV equipment. I’d already done AV set-ups — I’d actually just been thrown into doing it LOL — but I learned a little more. After that we had training with the actual librarian, who showed us how to access the websites (again, something I’d already done) and we got a list of all the passwords to the databases, so that was pretty cool. We were given donuts, cookies and water so it was easy to make it to 1:30. I got home and just CHILLED OUT, because I was so darn tired. I spent time with the kiddos and then started on my Death By Chocolate dessert that I was contributing to our Thanksgiving feast.

Okay, well, I thought I’d be able to finish this up, but there’s no way. Alaethia’s up from her first “round” of sleeping and I’m pretty sleepy so this’ll be all for now. I shall continue with Thanksgiving day up until now tomorrow. Good night, everyone!

(Started on 11-5-07 after work.) It’s been tons of weeks between an entry again. *sigh* I’ve actually been jotting down important little details on sticky-notes all over the place, just so I’ll remember when I finally do get to blog.

So this entry will be like most of the others, where I summarize by dates and is so darn long you probably won’t bother reading it. But that’s okay. I need it for my own reference because I’m neurotic that way.

Sun. Oct. 14th – Pete and Sally’s co-ed baby shower was that Sunday. Mom, Mary, the kiddos and I were all at Target the day before (I think?) going crazy, buying baby things. I love baby showers. I LOVE buying baby stuff, even if it’s not for me and my babies. I actually convinced Mario to go with us! I first accompanied Mary to church (which I really need to start attending more often) at noon, then went to the cemetery with the whole family to place flowers on Mario’s Grandma’s grave since it was her birthday.

We went home, got ready, the boys stayed with Isaac, Sammy and Brandon, and were later watched by Jose and Elda, and then we made our way to Weslaco, where the baby shower was being held in a hotel. I visited the room with Pete and Sally last January, when I was still pregnant and they had just become a couple. They invited me to lunch at an ajoining restaurant to tell me the good news, actually. They had a safari theme going on (went great with the Wild Room theme) and everything was really fun. The men mostly played the games (Mario was a good sport and played the Beer in a Baby Bottle race) and Mom won the nursery rhyme game. We got to see Veronica for a few moments. I was so surprised! She’s pregnant with her 3rd child, another girl. She was supposedly going to pick up her husband and kids because she didn’t know it was for everyone, but she never returned. I was disappointed. I had this naive little glimmer of hope in my chest that now that she’d finally come out of hiding, the three of us — Sally, Vero and me — would be best girlfriends like we used to be and take all our babies out to play together and have tea or frappuccinos. But, oh well.

Kristina was there and a few of Sally’s friends I met during her birthday.

(11-6-07 – I’m at work right now continuing the entry since it’s a bit slow this morning. Well, thankfully it usually is on Tuesdays.)

Sally and Pete received lots of awesome stuff. They still don’t know what they’re having (they don’t want to find out till the baby’s born), so they’re going pretty neutral. I went ahead and got Sally some extra stuff I didn’t see on her registry but I’ve yet to drop them off to her. Sucks not having any extra time!

As we were leaving the party, a security guard tells us that a gray truck has a bad flat tire. Sure enough, it was us. Mario fixed it and then finally, after what seemed like forever, we left home.

Mon. Oct. 15th – It was Jorge’s birthday so we all got together at Yadira’s to celebrate.

Sat. Oct. 20th – We got together at Yadira’s again, this time for Tommy’s birthday. After we ate and had cake Mom, the boys, Aly and I went to visit Gramma and then rushed back home since we had to be at a party for one of Mary’s co-worker’s grandson’s first birthday. It was at Peter Piper Pizza and a Transformers theme. It got me thinking about Alaethia’s first birthday. I have no idea what I want to do as the theme, where I want to have it, ect. And I’ve got less than 3 months to plan it!

Sun. Oct. 21st – Like most Sundays, I spent the morning cleaning until Alaethia woke up. Mario had the day off so he just played Halo 3 for a while and then we decided to look through the Furniture Row ads online. We decided, after 4 years of having a futon as our main (and only) seating area in our tiny living room, it was time we get new furniture. It’s our last big-spending hoorah since we’re planning on paying off all the debt we’ve collected and cutting up our credit cards. We royally messed up about 2 months ago when we went crazy putting stuff on our Target card. Two big purchases were ones we didn’t have to make at all, but the rest were for groceries or things that we actually needed when we were really low on cash. So we, for the 2nd time, have fallen hard into debt and will no longer be opening credit card accounts or anything like that. This totally messed up our future plans, but oh well. Live and learn.

But anyway, Mom stayed with the boys (because are you kidding—I can totally see them jumping on the couches) and Mario, Aly and I went to Furniture Row, mainly the Sofa Mart. As soon as we walked in I started scanning the sofas. After 8 ½ years of marriage, Mario and I have never properly picked out and purchased a living room set before, so I was quite excited. I wanted something that was easy to clean and then we spotted them: some sage couches in easy-to-clean suede. We fell in love immediately, called up Big Mario to please take measurements to make sure they’d all fit, and we went straight to the credit department. We passed for a pretty good amount, no interest or payments for 18 months. Woo! I still wish we’d just gone ahead and gotten new mattresses (because we really need new ones after having these since we got married), but Mario gently told me we should finish paying the couches off first.

They only had the loveseat available and were allowed to take it home that day. Stupidly we’d taken the Equinox with us, so we had to go back home to get Mario’s Silverado and leave Aly with Mom. Went back, got the couch, get home and Jorge and my dad-in-law helped Mario get it off the truck. Luck would have it that the couch didn’t fit in the nook we wanted it in by one inch. The fluff of the arms were too thick to push it in. We eventually conceded that yes, we’d have to “move the wall over” 3 inches, which means knocking it down, which means dust and drywall everywhere like the last time we had a big home improvement project.

We were supposed to go to Pete and Sally’s that night but they’re doing home improvement stuff too and Pete hurt his back. So we just chilled out the rest of the day.

Mon. Oct. 22nd – My boss was out most of the week due to Star testing kids in the labs. It was really quiet most of the week and I handled the library pretty well, with the help of Mrs. Ruiz in the afternoons. It was so quiet, in fact, that I had the chance to move shelves around and fix things here and there.

I think this was the day Eenan’s filling fell out.

Tues. Oct 23rd – I was busy eating pecan sandies while I was helping Jaylen with his homework when my molar broke. I don’t know when it broke — I probably swallowed the piece of tooth. All I know was I could feel something sharp scraping against my tongue. It was awful!

Wed. Oct. 24th – (The last time I blogged.) I picked Rolando and Eenan up from UIL practice and they played for a while before I dropped him off. That kid is awesome. I’d totally adopt him if his parents ever wanted me to LOL. Mario’d been off that day and invited everyone over for an impromptu bar-b-q. Everyone being Adan, Aide, little Belle, Jennifer, Sethie, Jason, Mireya and Brianna. It was great eating and talking with everyone. Don’t get much adult conversation during the week unless it’s Mom or my in-laws. The men were outside under the carport playing Halo 3 on the projector. Mary arrived around that time with a bag from the Disney Store. She’d gotten Alaethia her first costume: a Tinkerbelle costume! It was the last one in her size! I either wanted her to be Snow White or Tinkerbelle so it’s awesome Mary got the last costume! We tried it on her straight away and it was perfect! It was a great night, but by the time everyone left, I was rushing around getting all the kids into the shower, ironing, and preparing lunch for Mario and I for the next day.

Thurs. Oct. 25th – Eenan’s loose top tooth fell out sometime during this week and he had his appointment to fix his missing filling after lunch. Jorge did me the huge favor of taking him and then dropped him off at home. Since it’s the same filling that keeps falling out, they didn’t charge anything, so that was cool. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have paid the last time it fell out!

I called Elda after work while I was in line waiting for the other two boys and she told me she could get me an appointment for myself that afternoon. Luckily it was payday for me, so I said fine. I was nervous about the cost, but she said they could give me an estimate before I went ahead with anything. According to the dentist I’d been seeing in Mexico (the one that messed up my teeth in the first place), I was going to need a root canal and I knew another filling had fallen out for sure. I wasn’t looking forward to finding out how much it was going to cost.

Jose picked the boys up and took them home and then I went in. They took xrays and surprisingly they didn’t say anything about my impacted wisdom teeth. After cleaning my teeth and checking everything out the dentist told me I needed my broken molar fixed, which could easily be done with a filling (NOT a root canal!), another filling needed to be filled and a cavity I already had filled was getting worse. Not bad. I even apologized to the guy who was cleaning my teeth, because I was so embarrassed about my messed up teeth, but he said, “Oh, you’re fine. They’re not that bad.” WOW. If my teeth aren’t that bad I don’t even want to imagine what “bad” teeth look like!

I only opted to get the broken tooth fixed so it came out to $105. I could deal with that. I need to get the other two done, which’ll probably come out to around the same thing.

I was really nervous the whole time. I mean nervous. Mostly because of the shots they poked me with. That’s that part I hate the most, but at least I didn’t feel anything. My mouth hurt like crazy after a few hours but I was so glad my tooth was fixed!

Fri. Oct. 26th – It was a slow day at work. There was a dance in the afternoon so all the kids were preparing for that. I had an extra 30 minutes of lunch “voucher” I received for having perfect attendance the month of September, so the girls (Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Ruiz) and I went to a restaurant we’d never been to, El Meson de Pancho Villa. Funny name, but the food was delicious. I induldged and had the $9.99 shrimp buffet LOL.

Rolando’s mom and I had talked earlier in the week and decided that Rolando would sleep over on Friday night so that he and Eenan could leave to their UIL meet together. I had to go straight to Target after I picked the boys up after work that day since I needed to get the boys their Halloween costumes. Leave it to us to wait till the last minute. Jaylen decided on his costume right away – a grim reaper with a visible, blood-pumping chest. Eenan, of course, took forever picking something. He finally decided on a Dark Knight costume.

I rushed home as safely as I could since I needed to pick Rolando up to sleep over. His mom was awesome and had a pizza for us so I wouldn’t have to cook. We stood on the sidewalk and chatted for a good while and made sure he was all packed and ready to go (he’d actually been packed since the day before LOL). It was already 7:30 by the time we got home so the kids didn’t have much time to play, but they did enjoy a little Xbox 360 and some ice cream before they had to shower and go to bed. Just as I knew it would happen, Eenan had the hardest time falling asleep. They kept giggling because they were so excited to finally be having a sleepover (first for both of them!) and because they were going to ride the bus together to the meet.

Sat. Oct. 27th – I woke them up at 6:30 the next morning so they’d eat breakfast (which neither of them did – thankfully they were serving breakfast at the meet) and then I dropped them off at 7.

I went back home and got Mario’s things ready for work, fed Alaethia when she woke up, ate some breakfast and once Mario had left to work I went back to sleep with Alaethia. That’s what I miss about being a stay-at-home mom: if you didn’t get to sleep much the night before, you could catch up during the day.

Mom, Jaylen, Aly and I all went over to the meet at 11:30. Rolando’s parents had already picked him up. Eenan, to everyone’s surprise, didn’t place in Storytelling this time, but he did go to the finals in Oral Reading (the first time participating) and he either placed 3rd or 8th, we’re not sure. I’m so proud of him. Especially after his little fiasco – when he was in the semi-finals and was about to read his poem, he opened up his binder, and to his horror, the poem had slipped out! He was in tears when he went up to his coach, but thankfully she had an extra one in her bag. If he did place eighth, I think he would have done much better had that incident not occurred =\.

After we picked Eenan up we went straight home where a birthday get-together was going on for Sonia’s birthday. After everyone left, we chilled out for a while with Andy and Noelia before getting the kids into their costumes for a birthday party for Mario’s cousin Venessa’s, twin boys. The kids all looked great and we packed everything up into Mary’s car to get going. Mom’s got Alaethia and I’m lugging her car seat in my arms, which is full of our bags, when I hear Eenan screaming, “Jaylen can’t breathe! He can’t breathe!”

I toss the car seat aside and my heart sinks even further down as I see Jaylen flailing his legs and arms around. He looks as though he’s really having trouble. I grab him, rip off his mask…and he looks up at me innocently, like he has no idea what’s going on. I could have strangled him! Eenan was as terrified as I was. I almost started bawling out of simultaneous relief and anger but I just leaned against the car and quietly tried to catch my breath. And then I began lecturing them on how awful it is to play jokes on people, especially those kinds of jokes, and especially on their mother.

The kids had fun at the party. They played games, jumped on the Moon Jump, busted open the piñata and ate. We only stayed for a little while since we had the Jamaica (the church’s annual fall festival) to go to. Jaylen was the only one to get out of his costume since the chest plate was bothering him. This was the only Jamaica that we’ve ever gone to that the kids aren’t begging to leave. Eenan gave the rock wall a try, which Jason was in charge of, but is still too terrified of heights to go all the way up. Okay, so he barely even gave it a try, but he did hang on the rope for a little while.

They went on the train ride a few times and then they found this rubber ducky game where you choose 3 ducks and add up the numbers they have on their underside, if any. They give you that amount of tickets and you get to go to this little shop and buy toys. They had a blast! Not that we need any more toys, but most were cute, like hockey pucks and puzzles. We also ran into Rolando and his family and the boys all played together at the ducky game for a while. Rolando also won a cake at the cake walk. When Eenan and Jaylen gave it a try they’d run out of cakes, but were giving away plants. Neither of them won. They desperately wanted plants for some reason, so they kept trying but no luck LOL.

Alaethia was such a doll that night. It was a cool night and she was all cozy in her little Tinkerbelle costume, hoodie sweater and since she wasn’t wearing tights, I cocooned her up in her blanket. She enjoyed being in her stroller – while we were moving. Whenever we’d stop, she’d start squealing.

We didn’t feel like cooking so we bought turkey legs, menudo, and mom got tacos. The boys were incredibly well-behaved after that, playing with their puzzles and Frisbees and new stuff they got. Mario got home shortly after. The boys were sleeping over at Mary’s house and Mom said she’d stay with Alaethia if we needed to go anywhere so we figured we’d go to Wal-mart and grocery shop while we had the chance. I loathe doing all the house/grocery shopping alone with the kids because more often than not, one of them throws the Fit of All Fits.

We left around 10pm and got back home at 12:30. It’s about 20 minutes to and from. I can’t wait for the new Wal-mart to be completed. They’re moving pretty fast, but I heard it won’t open till March 2008. It’ll be SO much closer. 6 minutes instead of 20.

Anyway, it was nice shopping around with Mario, just the two of us, laughing and joking around. We don’t get time to even talk anymore, let alone shop. Much like when I was going to school, we’ve begun communicating by Post-its.

Tues. Oct. 30th – Since Jaylen couldn’t wear his scary Grim Reaper costume to school, we spent a good chunk of the night looking for their old costumes. Ever since we remodeled last summer, we have no idea where anything is since everything that was stored in the living room closet is now in boxes. We couldn’t find their old Darth Vader or Ninja costume anywhere. Luckily I remembered their cute Aladar costume from the Dinosaur movie was stuffed in my closet. I showed it to Jaylen and he was thrilled. He even got in front of the long bathroom mirror and wagged his tail from side to side.

Wed. Oct. 31st – I didn’t go to work dressed up in my costume (my fairy one from 2 years ago) because I’d feel silly if I was the only one. I told myself that if I saw one other staff member with a costume on, I’d put mine on. As soon as I’m nearing the time clock I see a teacher dressed up in Roman robes. Cool. I’m walking to the library building and am greeted by the same group of kids that usually already waiting for me each morning. They all ask me to put it on, so I oblige. It’s only wings and a dress, so I put the dress over my blouse and slacks. I would have been freezing had I only worn the dress. We keep the library at 65-68°. I put my wings on and voila! Instant costume. Whenever the kids would ask who I was I’d say The Library Fairy.

I got a call from Mary around 7:15 that they were having trouble with Jaylen. He was refusing to put on the Aladar costume. He was in hysterics asking for the ninja one. He ended up leaving in tears, sweat pants, a red shirt and the old ninja mask, which is all we found of the costume. I felt awful, especially because I was stuck at work and couldn’t help him. I could imagine him looking sadly at all the other kids and wishing he had a costume.

Mary called around noon that she’d bought him the exact same ninja costume from last year and Noelia took it to him and was changing him into it at school. You’ve gotta love that woman. It’s in her blood to keep everyone happy. I told her she didn’t have to do that at all, but she insisted.

I didn’t get to take many pictures of the staff members who were dressed up because I was really busy most of the day, but I did get like, 3 at least. I didn’t get the girls at the office who looked so cute dressed up as Geishas. I might go for that next year. Maybe.

I got home that day and just sat on the couch and rested. Eenan didn’t have UIL practice, so that was cool; we wouldn’t have to rush. I started getting the kids back into their costumes around 5:30 since I promised I’d take them to the haunted house at the city hall. Elda was dressing up, too, and we were really surprised to see her look almost identical to Jack Sparrow! It was an awesome costume.

We all met at the city hall. I was becoming increasingly nervous because mothers kept exiting the haunted house with screaming babies and toddlers. Mom was about to stay in the truck with her (because she admitted she was a bit nervous about getting too frightened LOL) but we all just went in. We bumped into Ricci momentarily. Eenan’s actually the one that screamed, “Mom, Ricci’s here!”

All her girls are so big. We didn’t get to talk much but I’m assuming she’s doing well. I haven’t spoken to her since last month when we kept trying to make plans to get together but it never happened. I just don’t have time, and that sucks. She’d also invited me to one of her daughter’s birthday parties (Belinda’s, if I remember correctly) but I got the message a day late =\.

The haunted house wasn’t all that scary, and I’m grateful since I had little Alaethia in my arms. I had her little head pressed against my shoulder because I was trying to cover her ears. She was listening intently, very quietly. But she didn’t cry or get scared once. The boys would yell every-so-often, but they weren’t terrified. Mom was okay, too.

We followed Elda to her Grandma’s house. I love going over there because most of the houses actually give out candy and we know a lot of the people there. We had a 10-house limit, since Mary’d stayed by herself at the house waiting for trick-or-treaters. The boys had a blast going up to everyone and yelling “trick-or-treat”. Most of the houses in that neighborhood usually decorate so all three of them had fun looking at everything. We saw two teachers that work at the boys’ school; one was a witch and the other was Velma from Scooby!

Alaethia was awesome. She was quiet just taking in all the kids running everywhere and lights and sounds. She only got feisty about two minutes before we got to the car because she was sleepy.

It’d already been an hour since we’d left the house, so Mary’d been alone for that long. I needed to stop by and put gas in the truck and I get a call from Mario saying he needed to do the same thing. He’d just stopped by Aziz and all the pumps were shut down, so we met at Leo’s and put gas there. Good thing, too! I’d left my debit card at home and had only taken $9 with me, just in case!

Mario took the boys with him to Chris’ house and Aly, Mom and I went straight home. We went straight to Mary’s and she said not one trick-or-treater had stopped by! I don’t know if it’s because everyone in the neighborhood was trick-or-treating elsewhere or just not giving candy, but the only house that had a light on outside was Mary’s. No wonder the kids are terrified of going into our neighborhood. We got about 3 truck-fulls of kids (yes, TRUCK-FULLS) and a family here and there, but that was it. Mom, Mary and I dumped our candy into two huge bowls and we had one bowl left untouched. We need to start putting on scary music and strobes and stuff to get kids’ attention next year. And maybe the rest of the neighborhood will hopefully follow suit.

I took a few pictures before we went inside. I stupidly didn’t get ONE picture of all three kids together. I got some of Aly alone, and the boys together, but not all of them.

Jaylen fell asleep in his costume and Eenan happily nestled next to him since they were sleeping over at Mary’s again. I’m so glad they had fun.

Fri. Nov. 2nd – I don’t know what was wrong with me that Friday, but I had the worst luck all day. I can’t exactly remember right now what had me so worked up, but I just wanted to go home and hide that day. It was Mario’s day off so of course he was going to bar-b-q. He didn’t tell me the whole family was coming over, I thought it was just the men, so Mom, Aly and I went to the mall where I was going to use up some coupons at JC Penny.

Well, my bad luck didn’t end at work. All I wanted to do was buy some new jeans, because I only actually wear 3 of the 10 that I own and my two favorite ones are literally ripping at the seams. Well, apparently none of the three coupons I had could be used because everything was on sale. So after throwing a little fit and calling Mario to whine, I ended up using my credit card, which I DID NOT want to do, because Mario told me to just quit it and use it. Fine. I did. He also bitched a little about how the whole family was there, basically making me think that they were waiting for me and was trying to make me feel guilty. I got here, spent a little time with everyone and everyone ended up leaving anyway.

Sat. Nov. 3rd – I didn’t sleep in, of course, but I did try cleaning up a little before John and I had lunch at Kumori. Our broke asses put our $15 together and had our usual California (John) and Fiesta (mine) rolls, miso soup, lemonade, Spicy Fried Calamari, and this time added some little mozzarella cubes (which are like mozzarella sticks). I’d been craving sushi for so long and it’d been over a month since we’d gone.

We picked up Mario’s birthday gift from Mom (a drill-bit set) and dropped it off to him, picked some stuff up at Big Lots, stopped by Circuit City but didn’t buy anything, and then went home.

Mary invited us to the movies to watch Bee Movie. It was actually much funnier than I thought it would be, though it’s not one of my favorites. The kids loved it though. Alaethia was screaming at the beginning, so I went down to the little hallway where I could easily run off if she started screaming again. She eventually focused on a light and fell asleep as I rocked her. She stayed asleep the whole movie. Hopefully she’ll be like Jaylen, who was an excellent baby at the movies because he’d always fall asleep 10 minutes into them. He didn’t stop doing that till he was 4 LOL.

I’m not sure exactly when it was last week, but we discovered that Alaethia sprouted a tooth! And not on the bottom like most babies; it was a canine, or however you spell it, on top! She’s been teething like crazy and has been moodier than usual, but she’s getting better. The tooth that we thought would have broken through by now on the bottom still hasn’t. I’m sure that one’s coming soon.

She’s also been standing alone for a few seconds before she panics and falls to the floor. It sucks that we hardly have any room in the living room to let her walk around and explore.

We didn’t do much this past Sunday besides going to H-E-B and then cleaning up at home. Mario and I got off on the wrong foot since he woke up, so we unfortunately spent it pissed at each other most of the day. My dad-in-law came to us with an idea Sunday night after Mario bar-b-q’d (and played Halo all day with Jason and then stayed outside all night with Adan) about expanding our house/apartment and building us a new, bigger living room. They have it all planned out. He said it would be our Christmas present from him. I couldn’t think of anything better, especially with the new furniture we bought! It was really unexpected, but welcome and much appreciated news!

My boss was absent Monday and Tuesday but I did pretty good on my own. I even had a little bit of time to read (and typed up a bit of this blog!). Alaethia let me sleep 6 hours straight Sunday and Monday night, but I didn’t get lucky again last night. Hopefully she’ll nap right now so she’ll let me fall asleep at 11 and sleep through till at least 5 like before.

I’m going to shower now. And iron, and probably figure out what the heck I’m taking for lunch tomorrow since Mom bought Church’s for everyone for dinner. I’m becoming very spoiled. Mary bought us all dinner last night. I had Rolando and his little sister over today, since Eenan made them miss the bus. But they were really well behaved. Jaylen and Ali (Rolando’s sister) played so well together. They played with puzzles, clay, stickers — it was really cute. Then when their dad came to pick them up he took the boys with them for another hour. I’m so glad the kids have friends they can play with :).

Okay, I’m really going. Alaethia’s becoming really moody and poor Mom’s been here long enough already. Goodnight!