Category: Movies

Today was one of the most tiring days I’ve had to endure during this pregnancy. I only slept 5 hours (I’ll get to that in a bit) and woke up 3 times during the night–two of those to pee and drink water (<--which completely defeats the purpose of trying to sleep though the night). I should be sleeping right now but I like to procrastinate. I forgot about the laundry and now I have to wait for a load to finish washing so I can at least put the clothes to dry. Lovely. The boys were angels for a whole hour and a half while I took a nap this afternoon. Eenan took it upon himself to go to Postopia.com and play games (and I’m just now noticing there’s greasy Cheeto Puffs fingerprints all over my computer screen. Jaylen watched TV in our bedroom. They actually whispered the whole time I slept! That’s never happened before!

Friday was an interesting and memorable day. We chilled out at home in the morning and around 11 we left for town. Mario picked up his paycheck, cashed it and then we had lunch at Denny’s. I had fried shrimp, green beans and mashed potatoes and it was SO good. The plan for the day was to buy them school shoes, maybe a few more shirts, school supplies, and then get the stuff for the bar-b-q we were having for mom on Sunday. We went straight to the shoe stores on Jackson & 10th St. to find either Sketchers Airators or Lights for the boys, since those were the shoes they’d been raving about all summer. Never did we think these shoes were going to be so darn hard to find. We checked every shoe store in the mall, and nothing. Our last stop was JC Penny and finally, a store that had the Lights. We’d checked out the Airators at Kid’s Footlocker and they were fugly, so the kids changed their minds. We found Eenan’s size and one in Jaylen’s. Literally, just one shoe in Jaylen’s size. The guy helping us searched everywhere for it and nothing. We left with only Eenan’s shoe and felt quite defeated.

To make a long story short, we spent 3 hours looking for his shoes and had no luck and we got nothing else done. Apparently “those shoes are really hard to find”. No shit. We even went to El Centro Mall, which has a total of 5 stores in it and well, that was a trip we didn’t have to make. At least we had nachos there.

We went home since it was already 6 and Mario needed to shower and shave his head before we met Sally and her fiance Joe at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. She called me at 6:45 and we confirmed that we’d meet at the restaurant at 7:40. We made it just in time and Sally and Joe had just arrived a few minutes before. John babysat the kids, so it was just us four. It was a nice break and so nice to finally see Sally after 4 years! We talked, ate peanuts and took pictures while we waited to be seated. Ordered our food and while we ate, we caught up. We talked about everything from news of old classmates to reminiscing about when we were little–we covered everything. She even told Mario about how my mom would dress me like a little doll–a repressed memory I’d stored away for years. Mario was just smiling and looked over me and said, “Why didn’t I ever know about this?” LOL.

After we had dinner (Mario and I both ordered Road Kill, which I barely touched since it was so much food) and talked outside some more we said our ‘see you laters’. We went to Jorge & Maggie’s next. Maggie and I sat and talked inside for a while then joined the men outside. They’ve got this crazy neighbor, I mean crazy, and let’s just say he got the cops called on him at least 3 times. He just terrorizes the neighborhood, including kids. He has this thing about how the area around his house, including the street belongs to him. He confided to Jorge when he first moved there that he bought a two-story house because he wanted to snipe people. He thinks he’s this war hero from Iraq/big-shit in prison, but I think he’s making everything up. I think the Coke just fried his brain a little. Or a lot, whatever.

Jorge has taken LOTS of crap from this guy for the past 6 months. He finally lost his patience that night and told the guy off. I’d never heard Jorge get like that. It was funny though. Jorge kept telling him all this offensive stuff and the guy was so high he kept agreeing with him. It was hilarious. We didn’t get home till 1:30 that night which means we didn’t fall asleep till 2.

Then we had to wake up at 7, which is why I was so sleepy today.

Ooh, and Mario got me Fantasy and Curious by Britney Spears. I think they smell very similar, but the bottles are pretty so I got them both :D.

Today was spent paying more bills then going to JC Penny to order Jaylen’s shoes. The salesguy gave us that option yesterday and we figured it was our last resort. It took about 15 minutes for the ladies to tell me they didn’t have it in the catalog or online. Great. The “sample” shoe they had was the one in Jaylen’s size we had yesterday. They asked if I wanted to leave my name and number with the shoe and if they found the other one they’d give me a call. I was positive they wouldn’t find it but left my info anyway. Mom and I were on our way to another store to check when they give me a call that they FOUND IT! And they were 3 bucks less than Eenan’s for some reason! I should have known it was going to be a good day when I found a parking space right away and really close to the entrance :).

We went to Melissa Guerra to check the sale out and then to Target to get Mom’s birthday gift. Happy Birthday to the lil’ ol’ lady. We keep teasing her about how she’s going to be a Senior Citizen soon LOL.

While supervising Teeth Brushing Time I asked Eenan to show me his teeth to check if they were loose yet. I wiggled them just a bit and sure enough, they’re finally loosening up! I told Eenan, “Alright! They’re loose!” and he jumped with joy. Jaylen, who was busy brushing his teeth, says, “HEY! I want cash, too. You need to give me one of your tooths, Nano.” It was hilarious the way he said it. Cash? Mario and I couldn’t stop laughing.

Those kids come up with the most hilarious things. Eenan once asked, “Mama, why are Weedos jiggly?” (If I still have this blog when he’s a teenager, he’s going to kill me for announcing that to the world.)

After I woke up from my nap this afternoon, Jaylen asked if he could call Sammy and Brandon over since he was having trouble killing the “Glob Monster” on one of his Mega Man games. I haven’t let anyone come over since the rooms aren’t done and there’s stuff everywhere. When those two cousins come over there’s usually always a disaster to clean up afterwards, so yeah. Jaylen started whining so I told him, “Let’s see your game. I’ll help you.” He stares at me, mouth wide open and kind of confused. I tell him, “Hey, I used to play video games, too.”

We sit on my bed and he shows me which buttons do what, and I start trying to kill the Monster. The whole time Jaylen’s staring at me in amazement, a huge grin on his face because he’s probably shocked to see his mom playing games.

I’ve never felt so old!

Totally random thought: I love how coffee smells when it’s scent is wafting through the house. Even decaf smells good!

We ended up watching RV at the dollar movies, because we’re broke LOL. It was a really cute movie, no matter what anyone says. I’ve always loved Robin Williams. The kids laughed non-stop throughout the movie and we adults (Mario, Noelia and I) loved it, too.

After the movie we stopped by Home Depot to get paint chips/swatches and idea books. Only Noelia and I got down at the place and we went crazy with the books. That night Mario and I laid in bed and argued decided we wanted a light tan color and picked out 3 paint chips.

Nothing interesting happened on Thursday except that I woke up feeling really sick–worse than the day before. I don’t know if I caught a cold from someone or if it was because I slept with the fan practically on my face, but I had a sore throat, ear ache, constant sneezing, and a nasty runny nose.

I spent most of Friday feeling like crap too, but worked up some energy to get ready and go to Mary’s. She was making lasanga and everyone was invited over for dinner. We talked about baby names and I told everyone which name we picked. Annie, of course, didn’t like how ‘Rose’ sounded with Alathia (still not sure if I want to spell it that way or Alaethia, which I think would make more sense) but I love how it sounds. I’ve only liked it since I was pregnant with Eenan.

Mary invited the boys and I to the movies on Saturday. I still didn’t feel too hot, but went anyway when she said Tommy, Yadira and Yazmin were watching World Trade Center. As I expected, I bawled my eyes out 5 minutes into the movie all the way till the end. I kept remembering that actual day; Mario still worked at the hospital and had his day off–it was a Tuesday? We had decided to sleep in and at around 9:20 we get a knock at the door. It was my dad-in-law telling us we were under “Terrace Attack”, or that was what I understood anyway. Up to that day, I didn’t really know anything about Terrorist Attacks. I remember we sat in front of the TV with Eenan on our laps and my hand on my tummy. I kept thinking how this would undeniably start a war and what if more terrorists bombed Texas because the President’s from here? I was 2 months pregnant with Jaylen. It was horrible watching all those people throwing themselves from the buildings, trying to somehow save themselves. It was like something out of an action movie, only unfortunately, it was real life. I probably bawled even more at the ending credits when they rolled the names of all the Port Authority cops that didn’t make it out. *sigh* I should stop thinking about this. I’m getting a huge lump in my throat again.

Anyway, it was a long process after the movies–they were driving around looking for ballrooms for Yazmin’s Quincenera next year. After they decided on the second one, we had lunch at Denny’s, and I became a little upset because Tommy made fun of Alaethia’s name. Grrr. I was quickly growing tired. We stopped by Andy’s to see how big his hound, Curtis had gotten. That dog is huge. He’s much bigger than the kids are.

We got home and I didn’t get a chance to rest. We had a Quincenera to go to and I had to iron. I didn’t have anything to wear so that made me even more frustrated, but I decided on a blouse and jeans. When we got there I didn’t feel too uncomfortable since there were others in jeans, too. The Quince was nice. Mario and I both agreed we need to learn to dance–he’s never ever said he’s wanted to learn and I’m running with it LOL. We definitely need to learn by Noelia and Andy’s wedding.

Mario woke up in a crappy mood on Sunday and totally upset me. We didn’t talk most of the day. I called several places that sold paint and oh my gosh, most places were so expensive. The $25 paint place we usually go to was closed and I really wanted to get started ASAP so we went with Walmart which has the 5 gallon tub for $54. We finally started talking while we were there, because we had to talk to eachother and then we bar-be-qued that night. Mario made the fajitas (beef and chicken) and I made Frijoles a la Charra and Rice. We ate at my dad-in-law’s house when everything was done. The only thing missing was guacamole dip :(.

Monday came around and my cold finally went away. I went to buy paint supplies, such as a paint pan, rollers and masks. I started painting at 12pm and didn’t finish till 5:30, with a lunch break and water breaks. I painted all day. John helped move things, like furniture and the ladder for me, but that’s it. I love how the room looks. The paint looks different during day and night. I was afraid the paint would be too dark, but it’s pretty light and looks even lighter at night for some reason.

Here’s the actual paint color:

And here’s a piece of my room:

I was SO sore that night. Everyone kept telling me to take it easy, and I thought I was but going up and down the ladder as carefully as I was, was a workout I didn’t expect. I felt like I’d been doing crunches all day. I still need 1/2 of a wall; I couldn’t do it since a dresser and the bed are against that wall.

One of the most greatest, most unexpected things happened that day. I spoke to Sally after what? Almost 4 years? The last time I saw her was when Jaylen was a few months old. Thanks to Myspace and my old buddy Kristina we got back in touch. Sally gave her my number and I called her. I love Myspace. I’ve found a few of my childhood friends there–literally people I’ve known since I was 4! I’ve also found a few middle school friends. I’m so glad we’re back in touch. I couldn’t imagine going through life without ever seeing her again. Maybe I’ll even get the chance to rekindle my friendship with Veronica. Sally still speaks to her, but hasn’t in a few months. The ball of jealousy that was in my chest unraveled when she told me that. I was sort of relieved to find out they weren’t having the time of their lives without me LOL. I haven’t seen Vero in like, 5 years. I didn’t even know she had a little boy now! And people are married! People who grew up together! We made plans to get together on Friday, probably for dinner. We have so much to catch up on!

I also spoke to Jessica M. that night. I remembered that it was her birthday and called her and we made plans to get together Friday night to celebrate. We’ll be meeting her at a club and I’m sort of nervous about that because of the smoke and all, but we’ll at least see her for a little while.

Mom had yet another one of her appointments on Tuesday morning, only this time it was at the ripe hour of 8:00am. I had to wake up an hour earlier than usual to do everything, like get Mario’s lunch packed, make him breakfast, iron his clothes, feed the kids and myself and get them ready. Oy. Sally and I kept calling eachother in case she would stop by on her way from Laredo. She needed to get to work so she didn’t get a chance to stop by.

I was EVEN MORE SORE yesterday. The back of thighs hurt, my calves hurt. Now I know what to do after the baby’s born :P. I’ll just walk up and down the ladder about 1,000 times.

Speaking of, I read that Gwenyth Paltrow gained 40 lbs. with each of her pregnancies! I see that woman now and I just don’t know how she does it. Here’s an article I read:

“They should see the cellulite on my thighs right now,” the part-time actress and full-time mom of Apple, 2, and Moses, four months, reveals to Harper’s Bazaar.

Paltrow, 33, who gained 40 pounds during each pregnancy, says she no longer agonizes over whether her body will snap back to its pre-baby shape.

“The first time, you are horrified,” she admits of the added baggage. “It’s all lovely when you are pregnant; but when you are not pregnant and you haven’t been for a couple months and you are still carrying tons of extra weight and everything’s all hanging and sagging, you think, ‘How is this ever going to go back?’ But it does — if you do a lot of working out.”

According to Gwyneth, she lost 20 pounds immediately after giving birth and sweated off the rest with exercise: “With Apple I kept the extra 20 pounds on until she was three months old, and then it came off. And that’s exactly what’s happening now.”

She’s been working out, “but not dieting, because I am a milk machine … I’ve got the appetite of a breastfeeding mother.”

(Full story here.)

Now, if she’d just be a dear and tell us exactly WHAT she’s doing to lose that weight, I’ll buy all her movies.

And speaking of babies, I think Alaethia’s been moving a little more. I get worried sometimes since the boys were definitely moving by 4 months, but I hear girls move “later” than boys do. I can’t wait to feel that sudden *bump* though! I think I’m just impatient.

As for today, I have nothing to do! Well, that’s a bit of a lie. I have to wash dishes, put laundry away, pray that the rooms get finished–or at least the closets! Sweep/mop, put junk away where I can. And, if I can work up the energy, I want to paint the boys’ room. They start school on Monday and they don’t have a decent closet and there’s still that huge wardrobe/closet and a dresser I’d LOVE to get rid of in the way. Plus, they keep taking tons of toys to my bedroom. There’s nothing more painful than playfully jumping into bed with Mario and landing ass-first on a Power Ranger. Holding a sword upright.

I keep thinking, “Mario can finish painting”, but we definitely won’t have time to do anything over the weekend. Mother has another appointment on Thursday and it’s also meet the teacher night. We have bills to pay on Friday, plus buying the remainder of the kids’ school supplies (yup, they added more!) and clothes, a present for Mom for her birthday on Saturday, buy stuff for her bar-be-que on Sunday to celebrate her birthday, then we have dinner w/ Sally and meeting Jessica–and there’s no way I’m giving the last two up. I can paint on Saturday, but that’s about it. I also really need to clean the house for Sunday when we have company over for Mom’s birthday.

My back aches already.

We had a very eventful day on Friday. We all got ready (including John) and left to visit Isaac at the hospital. John stayed with the boys in the truck while we went up to see Isaac.

He was doing great that day. Natalie, Isiah, their mother and another little girl was there with him. We didn’t even say hi to his mom–we were a bit disgusted by her behavior, which I won’t mention here, but we opted to ignore her. We ended up talking to her by the end since she wouldn’t stop talking while we were trying to talk to Isaac.

We talked to Isaac about everything. He told us his diabetes was at 400-some when he got to the hospital and he lost 30-some pounds in a month. He looks really fit, but it’s unfortunate that he lost all that weight because of his sickness.

I was standing near the wall across from Isaac and Mario was right next to me. When we were all talking about diabetes and how he needs to be careful I got this horrible ringing in my ears and started feeling really dizzy. I felt really hot and sweaty and then the room started turning blue and white as I tried to focus on something. I softly told Mario, “I don’t feel well,” and Isaac’s mom overheard and had me sit down. My heart was racing and I fanned myself with my hand to calm down. When I finally felt better we got up and excused ourselves since it was time for Isaac to eat. I still felt really hot and I felt that my blouse was completely soaked in sweat. I didn’t know what was going on; I’d never felt so bad.

They released Isaac later on that day. Thankfully, his mom agreed to let him go back home with Cat and Annie.

We went to pick up Mario’s check after that and were relieved that it was indeed a nice check. He was afraid (as always) that since it’s been slow, he wasn’t going to make enough. Thankfully he did–we had to put aside for Eenan’s party, pay bills, buy the supplies for remodeling, pay my dad-in-law back for the money he’d lent Mario the week before and buy groceries and stuff for the house. Thankfully we had enough to do everything we needed to do.

We got some lunch at Burger King (stupid Luca Pizza in McAllen was still being worked on). After the kids played in the indoor playground for a little while we went and got the tickets for Monster House before they sold out. John was going to watch Clerks but it ended an hour after ours did so he got tickets to Monster House instead.

We had about 45 minutes before the movie started so we stopped by the Home Depot nearby to get a few things we needed for the bedrooms (plugs, coaxial cables, speaker wire, etc.). We went to Wal-Mart after that to get the rest of the stuff we needed.

Since we’d just eaten we stopped by a gas station and just got candies to snack on (which cost about $2 less than buying them at the theatre!). The kids were exceptionally well-behaved and were content with their Life Savers Gummies. It was a pretty good cartoon. Very funny and it kept you entertained (Jaylen didn’t even fall asleep this time!). Gotta buy that one on DVD :).

We picked up some yummy pizzas from the Luca in Mission. Mario had to go back since they jipped him out of $10. He kept counting and recounting the money and told me to count it. I told him, “We’re missing $10”. When he got the money back he said, “The guy was new. Apparently he’s not good with math. And since I’m not good with math I thought I’d check with you since something seemed off.” LOL

We ate in a hurry and Mario started working on the cabling. He had to go up into the hot attic to run stuff to the new bedrooms and he came back down looking like he’d spent a week in a cave. He had cobwebs all over himself and was dripping in sweat.

Later on (Mario was still working on all the cabling) my dad-in-law came over and they started working on the new door to the hallway, which used to be the door directly to our huge bedroom we shared with the kiddos. Since they added the new walk-in closet to our bedroom they had to move the doorway 3 feet to the right to coincide better with the hallway. After lots of sawing and hammering (and a layer of dust in the living room) this was what we were staring at from the living room:

Scary. The entryway into the hallway’s going to have a nice angled arch to match the arch that divides the kitchen and living room. I can’t wait till it’s all done!

I spent the rest of the evening sweeping up drywall dust and fetching anything Mario needed for what he was doing. It was 1am by the time he finished. In the end the speaker wire wasn’t run correctly because the wall’s shaped funny and the cable in the living room didn’t work, probably due to an old plug that was already installed there. He ended up having to run the cable that was hanging out of the wall back out just so we could at least have TV in the living room.

I don’t remember much from Saturday except feeling more tired than usual and still feeling short of breath. I went to the doctor first thing in the morning only to be there for 1 hour and not get seen. People that were there way before me were finally being seen by the time I got annoyed and left. I was annoyed because I was there so long and because on one side of me there was this horrible mother yelling at her daughter and on the other side there was a kid who’s dad was in a daze and couldn’t hear him shaking a tin can full of coins. Who carries a tin can with coins in a diaper bag??

Once I got home and felt better I dragged John with me to reserve Eenan’s party and then we went to H-E-B so I could get groceries. (I kept becoming short of breath and started suspecting that my heart murmur was back.) I got a pretty good amount of food for $75–very proud of myself. When we got back home my dad-in-law arrived with the rest of the supplies we’d ordered: sheetrock, joint compound, electrical boxes and other stuff. Ricky’s brother hooked us up and we got the sheetrock for $4 a sheet. The catch is, the corners are slightly damaged, but hey, for $4, Mario and his dad had no problem trimming the sheets. They sell at Home Depot and Lowe’s for about $8 a sheet.

We went to sleep early since we were to wake up early on Sunday. Mario and Big Mario were going to start working on the room. They put up most of the drywall and I’m so proud of my Babe–he did most of it himself and didn’t mess up one sheet! Drywall used to be his least favorite thing about construction because it never failed that he’d get a measurement wrong and he’d have to start all over. But he did SO good this time.

Elda’s birthday was Sunday so we went over to Mary’s to celebrate. They had shrimp cocktail and OMG it was good. We talked for a while with the family and then I came back over here to see what Mario and his dad were doing. I’m so, so thrilled with the way everything’s coming out. I can’t wait till it’s all done. Big Mario even approved of the colors I want to paint the rooms (we can do what we want, but have to get it approved with the landlord, heh).

Everything’s mostly done–Mario was so tired (poor thing) that he left a few small areas without sheetrock but he can do that in a snap when he’s got the time. Other than that, everything electrical needs to be done and then the taping/floating/sanding and the texture and painting. I CAN’T WAIT!!!

John went with me to Wal-Mart to get the rest of the stuff I needed and then Mario had me stop by Video Plus to rent some movies. We didn’t get around to watching them last night (you know you’re parents when your kids are watching the Disney Channel and you’re watching it along with them!).

I got up, saw Mario off to work and then ate breakfast. Then I got to sweeping all the rooms since everything was covered in sheetrock dust. I got tired after sweeping only my kitchen and living room–which aren’t big at all. Tried taking a nap, but of course THAT didn’t happen. Got up and swore not to stop until I finished sweeping and mopping. After 3 water/apple cleaner changes, the floor was back to normal.

I had my appointment today to see what was up with the episode I had on Friday. Again, I waited for over an hour. I had an appointment at 2:30 and they didn’t see me till 3:40. All that waiting just to find out that I definitely had the heart murmur again and everything I was experiencing is normal. While I laid on the table and he ran the ultrasound wand over my belly I could see the baby moving around. She/he was so active today! Dr. C had me hold the wand while he went out to get something. A book. He explained a little more about the heart murmur and how 90% of women get them during pregnancy. While he read I ran the wand over and over myself and saw the baby turn back and forth, pick up it’s little legs then stretch out–how cute is that?? I got a look at her/his perfect little hands–all 5 fingers were present :). I can’t WAIT to find out what this baby is so I can start buying little clothes! I can’t wait to HOLD this little one :).

Ack, it’s 7pm and I haven’t even started thinking of what to make for dinner. Toodles!