Category: Pets

The boys dropped out. They don’t want to go to the Reading Program anymore, so we didn’t go today. It’s not that they don’t like reading; they just don’t want to do the reports that are “required”. I don’t blame them. I’m not going to force them to do something they don’t want. I have to turn in 3 of their library books. They still have one left to read. I do need to go back to get their pictures for the Fingerprints Kit. I paid $10 for those and I bet thier quality’s going to be craptastic, too. Grr.

Yesterday was a bustling whirlwind. I woke up late…about 10:30 or so, I think? Since I kept waking up from the thunderstorm that rolled in about 2am. I didn’t wake up because of the thunder–I woke up because the electricity went out and I was HOT. I hate feeling sweaty when I’m sleeping !

Anyway, Mario was helping Tommy with something, then he, Jose and Tommy worked on Big Mario’s indisposed truck. I ran around feeding the children, myself, the turtles, cleaning up here and there, and by the time I knew it, it was lunchtime. I made carne guisada and rice for them to eat, took John to get some applications for a job, got the kids ready and headed out to the library.

They were having Story Time and were going to learn about spiders. The librarian read them a book, then they brought a basket of pipe-cleaners, styrofoam balls, tissue paper and googly eyes so the kids could create their own spiders.

The kids had a few conniptions because “the paper isn’t sticking!” and “I need gluuuuue!” and “MOOO-OOOM! I can’t get the legs in!”, but after helping them glue, and cut and stab the ball, they were happy with their little spiders .

Eenan played Sorry! with two little boys and then we came home. I can’t stand how hot it is outside at that time (2-3pm). The boys hate putting on their seat belts because, “IT BURNS US!”, as Eenan says.

Mario and Jaylen took a nap and when they woke up it was time for their swimming lessons. They had a blast, as usual, but this time, Jaylen didn’t want to jump off the diving board. He’d done so well before–he was more willing than Eenan!–but not yesterday . They got little certificates for completing Session 1 . They’ll start Session 2 on Monday.

Mario smoked a cigarrette at the park under a little pavillion, while I got the boys dried and dressed. When we get home, he says he can’t find one of the $20’s he had in his pocket. He was a bit upset and asked if, on the way to Mom’s (John and I were going to drop off some stuff), I could stop by the pool and ask if anyone found a 20. I tell him that, sadly, no one’s going to be that honest and return a $20 bill…not around here anyway. BUT, I went and checked at the park anyway.

I looked around the table he’d been sitting on and then scanned the grass. Sure enough, the bill was securely attatched to a weed, still nicely folded into fours. It obviously fell out when he took the keys out of his pocket. Thank you, God, for letting me find that money or else the husband would have been quite moody.

We left to Mom’s, talked for a bit with her and then Aunt Nora, then came home. Got here, then I went with Mario and Jaylen (Eenan was too busy having fun with the cousins) to Wal-Mart to find a 20-25 gallon aquarium for the turtles to have more room to swim in. (Had I mentioned we’re turtle-sitting Sammy and Brandon’s huge sliders? Well, we are. And they’re huge!) No luck. The only thing they had were 20 gallon tank kits–for fish, and they were upwards of about $75. No thanks.

Since the kids didn’t have to go to the library and they don’t have swimming classes tonight I’m incredibly bored. Boredom leads to eating. I’ve eaten so much junk food I probably gained the weight I’ve lost in the span of a few hours. Bad Yajaira. Bad.

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Warning: The first two paragraphs have a bit of swearing. Read at your own discretion.

John’s graduation was on Friday night. He was cool and collected until 5 o’clock came around and he only had an hour before he had to be at the Stadium. After that, he was a nervous wreck. Mary dropped him off then picked Sonia up and the boys and I finished getting ready.

We left when she got here and tried to find parking and a place to sit at the stadium. It was so packed. We got good seats anyway–well, until this woman and her noisy kids decided to sit beside us. Wait no, I meant to say, she sat ON TOP OF THE BOY beside me. And her kids sat on the boy too, which meant her daughter was half sitting on MY lap. This woman had to have been in her late 20’s, early 30’s and she was stomping her feet, jumping up and down, laughing, screaming–she was ridiculous. I tried ignoring her, which was extremely hard to do since she was right next to me. I scanned the field for John and Jennifer (who was also graduating) and the bottom of the bleachers for Mom and Aunt Nora to keep myself from smacking her (I’m not a violent person, really, but had you been next to that woman you’d understand–I should have taken video with my camera). Finally, after what seemed like forever, they started with the Pledge of Allegiance…and that woman YELLED THE WHOLE TIME while we stood there with our hands over our hearts. When Pomp and Circumstance blared out of the loudspeakers and the kids marched to their seats, the bitch smacks me on the back of the head with her disposable camera because she was swinging her arms like a maniac. She tells me, “Ay, perdon!” (sorry) while laughing the whole time. By then, I’d had it. I get about 4 inches from her face and tell her, “Can you please calm down? You’re moving way too much.” She looks at the boy who’s lap she’s sitting on and airheadedly says, “Que dijo?” (what’d she say?). I respond, “Que te calmes. Te estas moviendo mucho.” She shrinks back behind the guy, talking crap about me no doubt, and I mouth out, “Dumb bitch” . She moved away after that, thank the Lord. I feel sorry for the people she terrorized next.

The ceremony took forever. It was hot. There was 1,029 kids. The people giving out the diplomas kept getting the names screwed up. And finally, we see John go up there. I tried getting as many pictures as I could. We saw Jennifer go up and since they were getting to the end, we made our way down to the field to meet with everyone. It was absolute hell getting down there! People are so rude. They were pushing and shoving and elbowing. Jaylen had been asleep the whole time, and had just woken up when we started walking down, so he was kind of moody. I carried him the whole time we were down there basically, and my arm was SORE. It took about 15 minutes to find John…it was pure madness. He looked upset. I know for sure it was because he didn’t want to eat with everyone (Mom was treating all of us to Chilli’s) and 2, he didn’t get to see most of his friends, though honestly it would have taken all night to find anyone out there.

Mario was meeting us at Chilli’s since he wasn’t allowed to get out of work early. It was already 10 and we were barely eating dinner. We met my cousins Art, David and Art’s fiance Michelle there, too. It was a nice night. We all talked and laughed and talked with John about what he wanted to do now that school was over. I had the Alfredo Shrimp and Pasta, or something like that. It was good. It was so much food, I had to bring some with me. It was really late, so Eenan ended up falling asleep and came home with Mary. We all said our goodbyes and Mario, Jaylen and I went to Wal-Mart. He needed a new toolbox, locks, flints for his lighter and I got a Goodluck Bear tee and two cute skirts. We ended up leaving behind the darn bag with the locks, flints and tools Mario bought . I called Wal-Mart when we got home and talked to a manager. She told me to take our receipt with us and we could get our stuff back.

When Mary went to Wal-Mart the next day I talked to a cashier and everything went smoothly.

We went to watch Madagascar Saturday morning. It was such a cute movie . It was very predictable but it made the kids laugh uncontrollably. They really liked it. Can’t wait till it comes out on DVD .

We came home and basically just vegged out all day. When I was going to feed the turtles I noticed Squirt didn’t swim away from me frantically like he usually did. I look closer and notice the filter’s sucking up his little foot! I talk to him and say, “Squirt, what are you doing?” and when I pick him up, his little head flops to the side. My heart sank. He was dead . I don’t know what happened. I had just been telling Mario 2 days before about how wierd I thought it was that Squirt hadn’t been basking and was sleeping in the water for long periods of time. He’d swim around and was eating fine, so I didn’t think anything was really wrong. Poor little guy. I put him in a little box while I cleaned out the tank, rocks and filter, just in case anything in there made him sick. I wonder if whatever caused Shelly to die (Yadira’s other turtle) was what made Squirt die. And is it contageous??

I had to break it to the kids, so I straight out told them Squirt went to heaven. Eenan cried a little and it was so heartbreaking when Jaylen innocently, quietly said, “Wake up Qwoht, wake up.” They were okay after a while though, thank goodness.

Jackie and Daniel seem fine. They were even doing a little mating dance last night! I’ll be so upset if they die too .

John left with his friends at around 6pm. Mario got home that night and we watched Alone in the Dark, which he searched all over for and finally found at Best Buy. John called at 9pm and said he was going to another friend’s house and would be a late. I was glad he called and figured he’d be home at 11-11:30, the latest. We were super tired, probably from not sleeping much the night before, so we went to bed after the movie was over. Which was around 11:45. Mario and I were to rendevous later on, but Eenan was freaked out because of the movie (he insisted on staying up with us) and wouldn’t let us close the door, so we scratched the idea and fell asleep.

When we were laying there Mario asks, “Does John have a key?”.

“No. I didn’t think he was going to be out this late. He should get here any time now.” *snore*

At around 12:10am I hear a knock on the door. I figure it’s John, so I open it and peek my head out. Nobody’s there. I close it, then open it again and nothing. I hiss out, “Psssssssst!”, just in case, but again, nothing. So I go back to sleep.

At 2:20am I hear something at the door again. I get up, open the door and again, nobody’s there. I peek over to Mary’s house and notice the light’s on and Big Mario passes by the door. Wierd. I shut the door and begin to get really annoyed because surely the waking up/going back to sleep is going to make me feel really tired in the morning. I hear something, so I open the door and Noelia’s there. She said John’s been waiting to get inside. Dork. He’d supposedly been “knocking loudly” all night, yet I didn’t hear anything but those two knocks. I’m a very light sleeper, so I, well, I didn’t really believe he’d been knocking as loudly as he claimed. He later said he didn’t want to wake Mario and have him kick his ass. Okay, I’ll stop. I’m laughing out loud and he’s right behind me saying, “Quit laughing at my misfourtunes”. Oh! Oh my gosh! I can’t breaf! *holds side* You can read about his experience here .

We had two kiddie parties to go to the next day. One was for Jennifer’s baby, Seth, and the other was for one of Mario’s cousin’s little boys. Even after the tiring night he had, John decided to go with us. It was cool. The first one, Seth’s, was at Peter Piper Pizza. The boys had fun. We stayed there a while and then left to the other party, which was being held at The Zone (formerly Mountasia) and was already in progress. We didn’t eat since we got there late (and had just eaten at the other one). The kids got to hit the piñata, got candy bags and then played on the games. They had so much fun, but since we’d been in town all day they were getting tired and fussy. We came home, rested a bit and then went to Wal-Mart (where I returned my two cute skirts because I didn’t like how they fit *sigh*), and then grocery shopping at H-E-B. We got home, Mario made us sub sandwiches and then we watched Are We There Yet?. John kept talking about how he wished we’d stayed up that late the night before LOL.

At around 2am I wake up to what sounded like rocks being thrown at the window. It had been thundering before we went to bed and sure enough, it was a full-blown thunderstorm with golf-ball sized hail. It sounded horrible. The kids, who are terrified of thunder, slept right through it. But not John and I. We got up and just stared out the door. He says, “First snow. Now golf-ball-sized hail. It’s the Appocalypse!”

Our car was out there and the alarm was going crazy so Big Mario moved it under the carport as much as he could. After staring a bit more I came back to bed. I. COULD. NOT. SLEEP. I woke up with every thunder, every hail that hit, and then woke up again at 4am to an Earth-cracking thunder and then about 30 minutes later to another huge boom. Another sleepless night indeed.

Today, my plans are to clean this hell-hole place. I hardly did any cleaning last week and boy has it accumulated . I did it to myself. The boys are going to swimming classes for the next week and they start tonight. Already got their little trunks out. Must take camera .

Bah. I guess I’ll start cleaning now…

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I told myself this morning that I’d only eat one breakfast taco, so I only used 3 eggs (instead of the usual 4–2 for Mario, 1 for me this time) and then added the diced tomatoes, onions and cheese. I stuffed the mixture in flour tortillas. Mario and I were watching something where they were talking about heart disease last night and I told him, “I really need to stop making you so much food that you ‘require’ flour tortillas with.”

He replied with, “No, you need to stop being stingy and put more in there.” “There” being his lunch bag.

I began my lecture about cholesterol and heart disease (which runs in both our families, aside from diabetes) and he, of course, tried blocking me out. He hates talking about his health. Just because he’s thin and fit doesn’t mean other things (bad things) are going on inside. He already smokes for Pete’s sake!

Anyway, Mario left one of his tacos and well, I ate it. With a glass of Coke . Then I told myself, “Okay, no coffee this morning. Try your hardest to stay awake.” Soon after Mario finished breakfast I laid next to him on the futon where he was watching TV. And I fell asleep …right after eating! I’m so disappointed in myself *hangs head*. At this rate, I’m going to end up a very short, round woman.

Yesterday was a really nice day and I almost wanted to pick Eenan up walking but since Noelia was here and so was the car, I took it. Noelia has meetings at UTPA today, so she won’t be home so I’ll pick Eenan up on foot. He wanted to go walking to school yesterday morning, but it was drizzling so we didn’t go. He’ll be happy to know we’re walking today. Lord knows I need the exercise, heh.

He’s probably back from practice at the high school right now. They were going to be there from 8:30 till 11:30. He must have been so excited since he got to ride the bus .

Gar…the darn internet keeps disconnecting. It’s been this way all week! It’s a miracle I got this much finished with the skins and all. I hope I can finish today and maybe resurect a few old layouts? I’m just glad I got GM to work. I was so afraid I’d screw something up. This time, I’m keeping one of my scripts off the site–the print screen disabler, buahahaha–since it even annoyed me and lots of visitors using I.E. probably didn’t even know I had it enabled. It sure did give me that extra peace of mind though–haven’t had my layouts jacked since I started using it a few months back. Since it doesn’t work in other browsers other than I.E., it’s safe to say most of the layout stealers use I.E. LOL.

Oooh, forgot to mention: Andy was visiting with Noelia last night and they came over to see the turtles. He couldn’t believe how big Daniel’s gotten . I don’t see a difference, probably because I see him all the time. I’m just glad they’re doing well. It scares me to think we’ll have to eventually put them in a kiddie pool when they become adults!

Mary was talking to Jorge (Mario’s Nino) last night. He’ll be coming down from California during the Mother’s Day weekend. She was bragging about my cooking (how sweet!) and he said he wants to see how good a cook I am so I was appointed to cook one of the nights he’s here. I’ll be making enchiladas…chicken enchiladas probably. I hope I do well LOL. I don’t wanna goof up, especially in the presence of Jorge…he’ll be making fun of me for years!

Okay, going to reset the modem and hopefully it starts working again. Damn Roadrunner .

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