Category: Pets

(started on 10-5-07 @ 9:30pm) Although I’m nodding off, I figured I’d try and update as much as I can since the house is nice and quiet. Alaethia’s napping and Mario, our boys, and all the male relatives are outside under the carport playing Halo 3 on Big Mario’s projector. I’ve gotta admit: it looks pretty damn cool.

So when I last left off it was Tuesday (the 25th of September) and I was going to have my benefits/insurance meeting. I got out of work feeling confident, with my head held high and my mind made up. I knew exactly what plans I was getting and had come to terms with how minuscule my paycheck would be, but it was okay because we’d all have insurance.

My smile was quickly wiped off my face when I realized exactly how much I was going to be paying. Even though I was barely having my insurance meeting the 25th, they wanted to charge me for the whole month of September, the new month of October, and for some reason they make you pay an extra month by default. Since they didn’t hold the $350 for the first two months from my first paycheck — which I’d just received that day — they were going to have to triple deduct it from my October paycheck! I almost fainted. As I was going through each sheet in my packet and feeling like my heart was falling rapidly down my body, the woman presenting told me it would be better to keep my kids on Chips, get the free insurance for myself that work offers, and Mario…well, he just wouldn’t have any.

I felt so helpless and confused I hightailed out of there before I started bawling in front of everyone. To add insult to injury I only had a month from the time I started working (Aug. 27th) to make a decision about my benefits. So that left me with a lovely TWO DAYS to figure out what the heck I was going to do. I was panicking tremendously because I didn’t bother renewing the boys’ Chips insurance (which they’d sent me late to begin with) since I was so sure I was getting it at work and I wasn’t even sure if we still qualified.

I get home and I’m so emotional that when my Dad-in-law asks, “How’d it go?” that I cup my hands over my face and start bawling. I feel so embarrassed and I’m sure he felt really awkward, but I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I explained everything that happened and he offers words of support and tells me we’d figure it out and that everything would be okay. I felt a little better and try to control myself. I get inside the house and Mom and John are both here. I immediately break down and tell them what happened and I’m halfway through when Mary, who’d just gotten home from work, comes in and then I’m explaining to everyone. I felt like my world was crumbling apart. I could have cared less if I had insurance; I was worried about the kids. John offers to lend me the money and I decline, then Mary offers to let me use the money for bills I was giving her towards the insurance and she said we could worry about paying her back during tax-return time. I felt really humbled and blessed to have such great family, and then felt awful that I’d have to tell everyone there would be a change of plans; I’d offered to take everyone out for dinner on Friday to Chili’s with my first paycheck, to celebrate, but that wouldn’t be happening now.

I figured I’d fill out the Chips application, which I thankfully still had, and would go with what Mary told me to do. Although I hate being in debt with people :(.

Mom stayed with the boys while Mary, Alaethia and I went to Mexico to buy Penicillin for Mario because he was sick. I got 2 more packs of birth control, so I’m good for the next three months. I got some potato chips, too, since you can only get those in Mexico (Mayra, remember the Tostitos and Crujitos chips we’d buy at school with the crema and Sabrosita salsa? THOSE!). I felt much better on the way home and began filling out all the paperwork I needed.

I was going to march up to the benefits dept. on Wednesday and let them know it was unfair and I would only allow them to deduct a double payment, not a triple. I felt really nervous and just down the next morning. Even Mrs. G. noticed. It was a slow morning and during my downtime I couldn’t stop thinking about my insurance problem, when suddenly I had a stroke of genius. I called Mary up and she didn’t answer, so I left her a message to please give me a quote for insurance for Mario. She calls me back with good news: she asked a girl at the office who is in contact with people from Chips (I’d been trying to call and never got ahold of anyone) and she said we may still qualify, even with me working. We were cutting it close, but we would most likely qualify. She gave me the quote for Mario’s insurance, and it was more than half off of what I’d be spending per month at work. So I decided to get him that insurance, faxed all the Chips stuff to their office and went into the benefits dept. that afternoon and got only the free insurance for myself and the dental insurance for both Mario and I (which is really inexpensive, surprisingly!). After I felt like a thousand pound weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I breathed a sigh of relief, Mary joked, “Now you can take us out to Chili’s!” Yay!

On a serious note, I really, really hope everything works out with Chips. I’m going to call Monday to follow up on the fax because they sent me a “you haven’t sent your renewal” letter and since they take so long sending their mail out in the first place I don’t know how long it’ll be before I hear from them. I don’t want my kiddos to stay without health insurance, especially the boys who’re in school and get sick all the time.

I picked Jaylen and Brandon up from school on Wednesday since Eenan was having UIL practice. When I went back to pick Eenan up, I brought his best friend, Rolando, home with us. I offered to pick him up from practice every Wednesday and bring him home from Meets if his parents wanted. I met his mom for the first time that day. I’d already met his dad when Eenan had gone over to his house after practice once. He’s such a sweet kid and so respectful and polite. I’d totally adopt him LOL.

Thursday was the morning I dropped my darn phone into the toilet before I left to work. Those darn black pants with the tiny back pockets. The phone just slipped out when I pulled my pants down. It had already almost happened once at work while I was wearing those exact pants, except the phone crashed right on the floor. I pulled the phone out, removed the battery and left it drying on a towel after a quick spray of Lysol. I felt so naked that day without my phone.

We had our first pep-rally that Thursday, so the parent volunteers and I were helping Mrs. V. with all the cheerleading stuff and anything else she needed help with. Mrs. G. brought us some Burger King breakfast around 10:30, and I was so grateful because the biscuit and sausage they’d brought for me that morning (school food) tasted and smelled like catfood. I feel so bad for the kids who don’t eat at home and have no choice. We had a kitten (yes, a kitten) stuck in one of the walls of school for two days, so I saved the awful meal for him, just in case. (The custodians ended up scaring him and he ran out into the parking lot later on that day.) We closed the library at 12:30 and went to the gym and then I realized I wasn’t going to have lunch. The pep-rally was a great success and finished when school ends for the kids, at 2:30. I went up to Mrs. V. and asked her what I should do and she said I could leave right then. Awesome.

I was starving, so I get home and John’s here. He jokes that he wants Kumori and since he doesn’t like Chili’s and wasn’t going with us on Friday Mom watched the kiddos while we left to Kumori. It was so awesome to eat sushi after what felt like forever. Too bad I completely forgot to ask for my Fiesta Rolls without the darn fried salmon skin they put in there. Bleh. John had already eaten chicken strips from his work that didn’t agree with his stomach so he didn’t enjoy his food as much either. I picked up dinner for the family (Burger King) on the way home since there was no way I’d have enough time to cook and do everything else. I don’t want to get too used to getting take-out, but gosh, it sucks to have to cook all the time now that I’m working!

Friday passed by pretty quickly and when I got home we all just chilled out till it was 6:00. We met everyone (mom, Mary, Jorge, Andy, Noelia and the rest of us) at Chili’s at that time. It was a great meal and it was nice talking and catching up with everybody. The first thing I ordered was the Spinach and Artichoke dip and Alaethia helped me eat it. She LOVED it! We had a really nice time. Hope to do it again. And it wasn’t as expensive as I thought it was going to be, so that’s a plus!

That was also the night Mario decided to use our almost-paid-off Circuit City card to buy the Xbox 360, the Legendary Halo 3 thing, and another controller. It came with a helmet and poster. He was in heaven. And now we’re in debt again LOL.

Eenan had a UIL competition on Saturday, so we woke up bright and early and I dropped him off. We freaked out a little because everyone was parked on the edge of the street since the custodians or whoever were supposed to open up the place were late. They eventually came and opened the gates and when I was done being paranoid and collecting numbers to reach the sponsors I came home. I cleaned a little then Mom, Alaethia and I went shopping. Jaylen stayed with Mary. I made the mistake of going to Ross first, where I was supposed to find some nice work shirts, a shower curtain and a bath rug, but ended up finding a white $13 jacket, a nice shower curtain, 1 blouse and some photo boxes. No nice work shirts and all the rugs were torn. We were in line for 45 minutes and I was not going to make it on time to pick Eenan up from the meet. So I called Mary and she said she’d get him. He placed 7th :).

We picked up Mario and then met Mary and the boys for lunch at Burger King. We chilled out and talked for a while, then dropped Mario off and went over to Sally’s mom’s house where Sally and Pete were. We picked up the invitation for their baby shower and OMG, Sally’s belly’s gotten so big! She’s still got 2 months to go. The baby’s gender is still a surprise. I can’t remember if they know or not, but I admire their strength LOL. There’s no way I could have waited to find out the genders of my babies. We caught up and laughed and Alaethia kept freaking out because she didn’t recognize where we were, and then we went to visit Gramma. We kept making jokes and she was laughing her butt off. She also told us the lead singer of a Mexican band, Los Bookis, is her boyfriend, aww LOL. She scared the crap out of me when she was going to choke on a Hershey’s, though. We didn’t make her laugh again till she finished it LOL.

What was really sad was that her room mate, Carolina, isn’t there anymore :(. The last time I remember seeing her, she was playing with Alaethia and was smiling and really cheerful. The next time we went she was at the hospital and this last time all her stuff was gone and someone else was occupying her bed. So sad. I hope nothing bad happened to her. Or maybe it happened like it did to Gramma the time she went to the hospital? She was only gone two days and they moved her out of her old room and in with Carolina. I need to ask what happened.

We didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping or to Walmart because Mary needed to leave somewhere but the boys didn’t want to go. So we went home. She didn’t end up going anywhere after all and I got ready to go to church with her and Eenan (Mom stayed with Jaylen and Aly). It was a nice service, even though Eenan was bored. He even freaked me out by giggling when he saw the word “Sex” in Sexto in the prayer book. I pretended not to be horrified and asked where he heard that. He said Rolando told him but he didn’t know what it means. Thank God. I’m so not ready for that talk yet. He’s barely in 3rd grade for Pete’s sake! Thinking back though, that’s when everyone started becoming curious and asking questions when I was little. *gulp*

As we’re walking back from church that night (it’s a block away) Mary says she feels like having a strawberry margarita and says we should totally go to The Outback to have some drinks. Mario had gone straight to Chris’ to help him fix something and came straight home when I called him about going out. Mom stayed with the kiddos and then we all picked up Jorge and went. That was the best margarita I’ve ever had in my life! Too bad it’s so darn expensive. Everything there is! And the waiter lied to me. He said the spinach and artichoke dip was so much better than Chili’s, no comparison. Not really. It was too darn salty. The bread they give you with butter was SO GOOD, though! And so were the lobster-crab cakes I had.

Let’s see. We chilled out most of Sunday and then Mary, Mom, Aly and I all went to the groceries. The boys stayed with John. Later that night, after Mario got home from work (it was his Sunday to work) Jorge, Mary, Jaylen, Aly and I went to visit Cat and Annie at their new house. Eenan was too busy watching TV so he stayed with Mom. Their new house is awesome. Too expensive for the square footage, but it’s because of it’s location that it cost so much. It’s a gated community and they live right next to the community park and pool! It was a little awkward after a while though, because some drama got stirred up as usual, so we came home. I didn’t mind; I needed to get the kiddos ready for school the next day.

Gotta finish this up…gotta start dinner!

I came straight home Monday and took Mom to the bank to deposit money John lent her because she’d overdrafted. I don’t know how many times I have to tell her to write her expenses down in her transaction book! Alaethia got sick on Wednesday night; she was up every two hours and at 3am I realized she had a bad fever. 103° is what the thermometer said. I gave her a lukewarm bath and she played happily in the water. That’s why were never know when she’s sick; she never actually “feels” hot like other babies and she’s in a good mood. Only her neck and legs feel hot when she’s got a fever.

I decided I wouldn’t go into work Thursday morning. I hated to call in after only working a month and a week, but she needed me. I got the boys ready in the morning and made sure they went to Elda’s, tried calling the number we’re supposed to call to report absences but it never worked, got Mario’s stuff ready and made him breakfast, I called everyone I needed to call at work to let them know I was going to be out and then called the front desk to let them know I’d be in half a day (or so I hoped). I ate breakfast, got Aly in her carseat and Mom accompanied us to the doctor when it opened at 8:30. There were only 3 people in front of us but it was still 10am by the time they called us in. I was panicking since I had to be at work at 10:30. I was about to ask someone to hurry when the Nurse Practitioner walked in. Alaethia had a slight infection in both ears. She was prescribed antibiotics, Tylenol, cough/congestion medicine, and ear drops. I got home just in time to give her Tylenol; I’d have to pick up her meds after work since I wouldn’t have time to do it that morning. I didn’t take my lunch with me because I was under the impression that I wouldn’t have a lunch since I was going to be making up my hours. Turns out I get 10 days of sick leave and I’d only used up half a day so I didn’t have to stay in extra time after work, yay! I started feeling a little under the weather myself that day and I’m still trying to get over this darn sore throat.

We went to Cat and Annie’s house on Thursday night to have cake and pizza for Isiah’s birthday. I went over and saw Nelsy’s (Annie’s sister, who lives right across from her) house and Mario got there right when we were walking back. I came back home with Mary, Mom and the kids and Mario was in his truck. We arrived before he did and we watched him drive into the driveway. When I walk over to him he asks, “What did I run over?” and I look under the car. It was one of the two kittens :(. Now 3 have been run over! I don’t even know how it happened; he drove in really slowly!

Friday went by pretty quickly and I was so grateful to get home and spend time with Mario, mom, John and the kids. We called Chris and Nancy after a while to accompany us to a liquor store to buy Midori to make drinks with since we invited everyone over for Bailey’s milkshakes. NOBODY CAME. It was a pretty hard bitchslap to the face, but oh well. That was the night I started this entry, when Mario set up the projector to play Halo outside with his cousins.

Yesterday Mary and I went to Target in the afternoon to get stuff for Annie and Cat’s housewarming party later that day. I was still pretty upset that not even they came the night before so I wasn’t going to go, but I was convinced. Mary got us some mango smoothies and then we came home. We wrapped stuff up, I got the kiddos ready and then we left to the Housewarming/Tupperware Bingo. The boys immediately went to the pool when we got there. Jorge and the men who were at the pool were watching them. Alaethia was still feeling sickly so she was incredibly moody, but my spirits lifted when I won 2 bingo games in a row! Mom won the last one and gave me her Tupperware and I gave one to Mary because she didn’t win anything =\. I got myself a Jell-O Mold! Woo!

Mario was waiting for us at home. He’d rented movies and set up the screen again and we watched Premonition outside. The movie (and watching it as if we were at the movies) was awesome. Elda, Jose, their boys, Jorge and Tommy joined us about halfway through the movie. That’s definitely something we should do more often!

I woke up early today and cleaned the house! I had tons of laundry to put away. Mom thankfully does laundry for me throughout the week, but I do not have time to put anything away after work. I didn’t get everything done but at least we can walk through the living room now!

I also finished reading The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I can finally turn it in LOL. I ordered Shopaholic Ties the Knot and Shopaholic and Sister off Ebay, so I can’t wait to get started on those. Then I can start reading all the awesome books I keep running into at work!

Yay, I finished the entry! I never thought it would happen. Now I can start dinner. I’ve really gotta start making time to blog. I hate not blogging as often as I did before, even though it was sparse at that time, too. Anyway, Alaethia’s moody and crawling all over me, so I have to calm her down before I start cooking. Hope all of you are well, that your eyes didn’t glaze over and that you’re not in a coma after reading this entry LOL.

I’ve had most of this entry typed up (in bulleted form) since the day after my last post, just never got around to arranging it into coherent sentences and posting it.

So last Friday Mario worked to have Saturday off for Aly’s baptism. It was a same-ol, same-ol type of day. I spent most of it in a cloud, daydreaming about how awesome it would be to have the job and even started creating mental maps to Target.

Saturday was Alaethia’s baptism. I woke up first and, of course, ended up rushing around as usual. I spent about 40 minutes ironing everyone’s clothes (insane, I know). Andy and Noelia got here and Noelia started helping me get Aly ready (thank GOD). She looked gorgeous :). I didn’t get to straighten my hair, which I noticed later in the pictures just how bad I needed to have done. When we were all ready and about to leave Mario throws a fit because he can’t find his brown belt that matches his brown shoes. Grr. We’re supposed to be at the church at 9:45 and at 9:48 we’re still looking for the darn belt. He finally gave up and wore the other brown one I told him to since the beginning.

We arrive at the church. There’s tons of people and there’s still two other families that are late after us, so we were good. No lecture (which they really like to do there). There were about 30 babies/children. Alaethia did really good considering how hot it was at the church and how many layers of clothes she was dressed in. She became fussy halfway through because she’d woken up too early and she hated having the water splashed on her head, but other than that, she was fantastic. She fell asleep immediately after the “dipping”. She probably thought it was a bath LOL. Baths at home usually mean a nap afterwards. We took some group pictures and then headed home.

We had everyone over for Cabrito. I don’t usually eat it, because it’s GOAT, but I was in the mood to try something different so I did…and uh, no thanks. I bit down on something rubbery that tasted like kidney. Bleh. I wasn’t in the mood to eat anything after that.

We sat around for most of the afternoon and we talked about my interview. We (Mario, Jaylen, Aly and I; Eenan was sleeping over at Mary’s) went to Jorge and Maggie’s later. We chilled out for a bit and then Aly and I went with Maggie to her mom-in-law’s to pick up her “practice” nails. She started cosmetology school and is really excited. She’s going to practice doing nails on me when she’s ready :D. After we picked up that set of nails, she picked up some more from her friend’s house. We stuck around and watched a girl do another girl’s nails. When we left her friend’s house we picked up some Church’s chicken since we were all starving. We ate at their house and chilled out a bit more before we left. We actually got home before 1am from their house for once — 11:30!

We went to sleep as soon as we got home. Around 3:22am I was jolted awake for some reason, and went back to sleep. I had an awful dream and woke up crying. My heart was pounding in my chest. I’d never felt that way before with that sort of dream; the kind where Mario cheats on me :(. That’s only happened when I’ve had awful dreams about bad things happening to the kids. Mario woke up when I was sniffling and quickly pulled me over to him and wrapped me in his arms. I couldn’t stop crying; I just felt so weird and sad and like it was real. I’m so glad he held me and made me feel better. I don’t think I could have slept again that night if he hadn’t consoled me. I love him <3. We woke up late-ish on Sunday morning. Mario was up before me. We ate breakfast, then spent the rest of the day cleaning up the living room. Since the desktop died we took the desk apart and took it out of the room. I mopped, vacuumed, tossed, stored, and rearranged. I need to take our big desk chair to storage and maybe then it'll look like there's more space in here, because right now, it still looks really crowded since the playpen took the place of the desk. It's kind of sad. I've no place to put my desk stuff, like my pens, collection of Sharpies and my notebooks and stuff. I still need to look through and shred stacks of paper. Bleh. Mario left to Chris' later to help him with a home project, all Weekend Warriors-like.

I’d been trying to force train Alaethia to go to sleep earlier so I can get enough sleep in case I do get the job. I stayed awake after Mario left to work. Mary was taking Big Mario to the doctor since he was having chest pains the day before. He was fine, thank goodness. The pain was chest wall pain due to stress and overworking himself. I’m so glad he agreed to go to the doctor, especially after Mario’s uncles and aunts and Tommy’s dad who’ve passed from heart problems. We’re all a little upset that he didn’t go to his follow-up appointment, though =\.

The bad news of the morning: Tippy got run over :(. Mary accidentally backed up on her. Tippy’s one of two female kittens Brushka had and she was so cute :(. Chris was supposed to take her once she was ready to be weaned from Brushka. I hadn’t mentioned it, but Brushka and Waffles are now missing. Artemis, Panther, and Skinny have been missing for months, as have John’s cats Daisy and Pixy :(. It’s really weird. The animal catcher wouldn’t take them because the catcher is Mario’s friend. We’ve also never seen traps set around the neighborhood either. I wonder if someone in the neighborhood is poisoning them or something? Anyway, yeah. Brushka’s kittens are now orphans. She had 5 originally, one died at birth. We haven’t been able to find one of the little girl cats and now Tippy’s gone :(. We’ve only got the two little boys left and Ash and Alidocious. I want my Artemis back :*(.

John stayed with the boys that day while Mom and I went to town. I returned some white, sheer curtains at Target. We stopped by Petco because Mom needed bird food but it’s still not open. Mom treated me to Chili’s. We shared the Tripple Dipper and Classic Nachos. YUM. Alaethia was a hit with the waitress –she’d play with her whenever she came back to check up on us. She was really nice. We even talked about our children (she has three kids two and is 22!). We ordered some boneless wings for Mario and went to drop them off to him, then went to Pet Smart where Mom finally bought her Betta fish. Aly was made a fuss over by a nice lady :). I fell in love with the crabs (I’d totally name one Eugene Crabs if I got one!) and I will be getting at least two Robo Dwarf Hamsters/! They are SO CUTE. They sort of look like my old Pecan (R.I.P.), but smaller. Aly was thrilled watching them and was clenching her little fists in excitement.

We went to Walmart to pick up some groceries and food for Aly since we were completely out. Then we FINALLY came home and chilled out. Were supposed to have practice for Yazmin’s Quinceañera, but that fell through. Mario was out with Chris again that night, but I tried not to be too bothered by it =\.

I stayed up after Mario left to work on Tuesday morning. I finally decided to make myself an actual breakfast of eggs over easy, but all the kids decided to wake up and after tending to all of them (making the boys cheesy eggs and bacon and getting Aly’s oatmeal ready), my food was cold. At least I had some great hazelnut coffee.

Mom came over and I took a ziploc of old floppy disks to Mary’s to look through so we could get rid of them already. I found old pics of Eenan I thought I’d lost. I uploaded them to Flickr. I still need about 70 more disks to go :(.

The boys were obnoxious and rude all day and pretended they couldn’t hear me most of the time. Jaylen was especially moody in the evening and that’s because he’d had a nap in the afternoon. Transitioning back to “school night” bedtime wasn’t going too well, but we’re doing better now. I wonder if Elda’s gotten her boys to sleep earlier. They go to sleep at 4-5am and wake up super late. I would never let my Twerpies stay up that late, not even as teenagers!

Mary brought pizza for dinner that night, so that was awesome. Mario called to “ask” if he could go to his friend’s house which I thought was sweet of him. He doesn’t have to ask for “permission” but I guess since he knew he’d been out practically every night for the past week he should get in my good graces LOL. I spent a lot of that night trying to blog, but that wasn’t happening since Aly became a little moody.

I’m not sure which two days it was, but Jason and Brianna came over one day for a little while, then the next day Jason, Brianna and Adan came over and chilled out for a while.

John and I went to Kumori again on Wednesday. He’d asked if I wanted to go on Tuesday, then changed his mind and promised we’d go the next day. So we did. And it was delicious as always. I had a different roll this time, the Nevada Roll, since it has everything the rolls I usually get do (the Fiesta Roll) except the tampico paste, which I love, and fried salmon skin, which I hate. John liked that it was a dollar cheaper, so he told me to get the tampico paste added on the top. So I did it. It came out to $1.35 more than the other one because of that LOL. I love that place. I wish it was closer!

Thursday was spent biting my nails off, literally, waiting to hear from the school/job. I called and the Librarian didn’t have any info, so she told me who to get ahold of to ask. I called, she was out to lunch and nobody called me back. Rats.

I’m not usually the type of girl who feels pain and discomfort during That Time of the Month; I usually only have a little back pain. But Thursday night I started to feel really crappy.

That night was the night that some crazy, drugged up man came knocking on our doors. It was around 11:30pm and I was talking to Ricci on my cell. Mary calls to the house phone to ask if Mario was home because someone was knocking and she was afraid to get up and answer and Big Mario was already asleep. I tell her no, he’d left to Tommy’s. As soon as I said that, I heard a knock at the door and Eenan, who was sleeping in the living room, groggily yells, “Come in!” I drop both phones, grab Alaethia and run to the living room. I tell Eenan to get in my room and I pull the curtain slightly back. The crazy man notices and I see a huge eye staring back at me. I gather all my courage and pull the curtain open and see a 30ish year old man with a receding hairline and wearing a dingy white t-shirt holding a pack of cigarettes and waving money in my face. He says, “A dime, lady! A dime, c’mon!” in Spanish. I shake my head at him and wave him away and quickly close the curtain. I kind of stand there for a few seconds, wondering if he’s crazy enough to break the windows on my door. I grab Eenan and we run to my bedroom. I call Mario right away and he’s here in 5 minutes from Yadira’s. The man had long gone, but my in-law’s had called the cops and apparently they’d been looking for him because they knew he’d been knocking on other people’s doors looking for drugs. Crazy. Mario felt really bad that he wasn’t here and kept apologizing. I played it cool, because I didn’t want to make him feel worse but I was terrified. I’m just glad nothing worse happened. Mario and I stayed up watching gross videos on Ebaumsworld.com for about an hour and then went to bed.

We all slept a little late on Friday. I felt even worse than I did the night before. My legs hurt, I was cramping, my back was killing me and I was SO TIRED. Even after sleeping 9 hours. We got up and got ready to go to town. We had to pick up Mario’s paycheck and get a few more school clothes for the boys. We had totally forgotten it was Tax-Free Weekend, but it wasn’t too bad. We had lunch at Burger King and it was pretty packed there, though. Aly was so cute eating her green beans, which I remembered to pack this time. It was nice being out together :).

We went to the bank then to Target where we got the boys another pair of jeans each, socks, undies and a few other things. And then we went to Academy where I bought Mario a rifle shotgun he’d been wanting for at least 2 years. Dove (is it doves? Whitewings, whatever) season is coming up and he didn’t get to go last year since his dad was out hunting with the shotgun Mario was going to use. He deserves it for everything he does for us, especially working his fingers to the bone to give us everything we need and want. I sat at the shoe department with the kiddos and I’m pretty sure I saw my childhood friends, Jesse and Daisy, shopping around. They’ve been together since 8th grade. And I thought Mario and I’d been together long!

We went home afterwards and then to Yadira’s later, where we learned about some family drama. We came back home and went over to Elda’s where we sat around chatting and visiting with Isaac, who’d stopped by. They decided to bar-b-q and I felt like total crap so Aly and I came home (right next door LOL). I didn’t feel any better that night, after eating some chilli and cheese tater gems and munchers from Star’s. I’ve really got to stop eating so much fast food and just general junk. I felt sluggish and like I was about to barf right before I laid down. My back hurt so bad I needed to get up and warm up a rice sock.

I felt really tired this morning; so tired that I went back to sleep after the alarm went off to wake up Mario for work. Poor thing was rushing around like crazy. I slept a little longer and woke up when Alaethia did. We all ate breakfast then Mom came over. I got in the shower and John was here when I got out. We made plans to go to town. Dropping a pizza off for Mario for his lunch was the first stop, then we went to the mall. Tax-Free Weekend was in full-effect — there were no parking spaces what-so-ever. I went around the parking lots of the whole mall and finally went over to the Sears side. After a few rounds I found The Perfect Parking Space at the doors of Sears. I changed Aly’s diaper, Mom stayed with the boys at the little seating area in front of Sears and John, Alaethia and I walked off. We went to JC Penny first. I had a $10 off coupon so I was going to get a pair of jeans (because the ones I have are like, 3 years old already) but I didn’t find ONE pair of Arizona bootleg jeans. Damn sales. Instead I got two little T’s and a blouse for Mom for her birthday tomorow. I estimated it should come out to $18 after the coupon but it didn’t. It came out to $10.47! I love JCP!

John got what he needed, bought some games and met Mom and the boys. The boys wanted to get on a ride and the stupid machine ate my quarters. Grr. We picked up a pizza for ourselves and ate on the way to Gramma’s. Mom cleaned up her room a little and after talking with her for a while and getting a list of stuff she needs we went to H-E-B.

The kids didn’t want to walk around anymore so we popped a DVD in for them and Mom stayed with them in the car. As usual, John and I spent an hour in there shopping. I bought extra canned foods just in case Hurricane Dean makes its way over here. Hurricane Erin totally missed us; it went Northeast of us, but this one seems like it might hit us or Northern Mexico. The last time a hurricane hit Northern Mexico we lost power for 24 hours (and that’s also the fateful day I began reading the Harry Potter books!). So, I’m just preparing. If nothing happens the boys will be happy to know they’ve got tons of ravioli to eat LOL.

And after that we’ve just been home. I made tacos for dinner and I waited up with the boys who were waiting up for Mary. She went to a casino in Eagle Pass with her co-workers and the boys were desperate to sleepover so they waited up. And then Aly fell asleep so now I’m finally updating! She’s so cute…and grown up. She recently started holding her own bottles!

Okay, so that’s going to be a long one. I thought I heard her stirring so I should stop tapping on these keys. Goodnight!

Get comfy, Loves. It’s another long one.

I’m SO sleepy I can’t stand it. None of my Boogers are asleep yet, but the boys will be sent off soon. Aly on the other hand…well, let’s just say there’s at least two more hours before I can fall asleep :(.

She’s “exercising” as we speak. She’s standing up against my chest (so I can type, heh) and she’s doing squats LOL.

She’s been doing so many cute things that I want to remember always. Like when she does “The Cricket”. When she gets mad she screams and rubs her ankles together, much like a cricket does. As her frustration heightens so does the speed of her ankle rubbing–cutest thing, ever.

The only way to get her to eat her baby cereal is if I’m eating at the same time. Her eyes get huge when she sees regular food since she thinks I’m going to feed her from my plate, so I trick her. I hide her plate behind mine and pretend I’m spooning food off my plate to give her. Works like a charm!

She also loves drinking water from “big” cups. I think it’ll be really easy to transition her from a bottle to a sippy once the time comes. And speaking of water, she LOVES bath time! When I’m rinsing something in the sink she automatically thinks it’s time for a bath and gets really calm and just waits. Then she sort of squeals when she realizes it’s not yet time for a bath LOL.

She also got her first diaper rash yesterday, but thankfully I’d JUST bought diaper rash cream so it’s already going away. She’s been sitting up a lot more when she’s in her Boppy. And she also sleeps through most of the night but doesn’t actually fall asleep till 12:30-2am :(!

As for the past week: Last Saturday was spent paying off all the bills like I mentioned I’d be doing in the previous entry. Well, most of them, anyway. First stop was the bank to cash the check and then Capital One to pay off that stupid credit card. I felt so relieved just walking out of that bank knowing I was free from that awful card with it’s stupid member fees and Payment Protection. Grr.

I had to go to the dreaded mall since I had to pay off both our JC Penny accounts and the Sears card. The boys behaved as though they’d never been let out of the house, it was awful. They quickly changed their minds once Mom and I threatened not to take them to McDonald’s for lunch. It made my day a little brighter when we went to the food court and actually got seats within 2 minutes of looking around.

We had to wrap things up quickly after that since I’d promised Mary the kids and I would accompany her to a graduation party for one of her co-worker’s daughters. In my hurry I forgot to return my shoes at Payless. So, that would be another stop I’d have to make later on. Lovely.

We got home and unloaded the truck and not even 10 minutes later we were leaving to the party with Mary. On the way to the party I called Sears to get rid of the Account Care insurance thing. I don’t know how many times I told that woman I just wanted to get rid of it but she kept insisting I should keep it since I’d be protecting my balance up to 10,000. I told her “I’m not using this card anymore! In fact, I cut it up! (Lie) So, please cancel the Account Care.” Only then did she finally agree to cancel the darn thing.

The food at the party was good and the boys behaved for the most part since there was a Moon Jump, but they didn’t eat because there were tons of flies zooming about and they loathe flies.

Everyone was complimenting Alaethia and passing her around. We left the party and went to the mall since Mary was meeting Sonia there. Mario picked us up on his way home from work. On the way home the kids are all mellowed out and sleepy and Mario and I talk about how liberating it feels not to have those extra credit card payments anymore. He asks how much I paid at Capital One after all, since they gave him two different amounts before he disputed paying for another annual fee. I tell him, “$492,” and he begins to pretty much imply that I’m an idiot for not somehow remembering the one time he casually mentioned how much it was supposed to be. I paid what he scribbled on the statement and if that wasn’t the amount, then too bad. Naturally I was freaking the hell out about how the heck I was supposed to get our money back!

We slept in on Sunday morning, which was probably the last time I’ve actually “slept in” in the past week. Mario had to work and I had a baby shower to go to. This one was for Carol, Mario’s cousin and Aide, Mario’s cousin, Adan’s, wife. She’d actually had her baby Thursday morning, 2 weeks early. I took my time getting Aly and myself ready. Mom watched the boys since she wasn’t going due to a cold she’d caught, probably from Eenan.

We get to the party and greet Carol. She still had about 3 weeks to go at the time but the poor thing looked like she was due any minute. Aide arrived a little later, looking like she hadn’t just had a baby and was accompanied by Jennifer, her friend and little Isabelle! She was really tiny (weighed 5 lbs. 13 oz. at birth) and is so cute!

There were lots of cute, unique games. One example being the Ice Cube Birth Game, where they put one tiny, plastic baby into every slot in an ice cube tray and filled it with water. Then they put each cube with a baby in it into a cup and whoever’s baby was “born” first, or fully unfrozen, won. You could blow on the baby and warm up the cup with your hands but you couldn’t touch it. Mario’s cousin, Cindy, won that one. My baby wasn’t born till the party was almost over. Reminds me of Eenan LOL.

I won the Nursery Rhyme game, which were one line from several nursery rhymes with a word or two missing. The one who filled in the most correct ones won. My prize was the Coffee Lover’s basket, which was filled with lots of different flavored coffees, a cute ceramic coffee mug, some hazelnut Coffeemate creamer, and some vanilla flavoring. Yum! So far I’ve gone through the French Vanilla coffee and it’s delicious. Best baby shower gift I’ve ever won, I think!

After the baby showers we came home and I dropped the kiddos off with Mom so I could go with Mary to Yadira’s. I helped with some of the bouquets for the wedding. After finishing the bouquets (which hurt like hell to make!) we chilled out a while and then Mario went over to eat after he got out of work.

First thing Monday morning I called Capital One to fix the mistake and ask how I could get my money back but, everything was fine! Thanks to my dyslexia I remembered paying $492, but I actually paid the $429 I was supposed to pay!

We went to the Shoe Depot, where mom found shoes. That was after bringing her 20 that she didn’t like. I felt like a cat brining mice to its owner only to have my owner throw it out the window. I thought I was picky!

We went to JC Penny next where I was only going to buy a gift for Mario. I had a $10 coupon to use and I totally used it. We ended up spending another half hour there since Mom went to the bathroom and then we both shopped around for gut-flattering undies. I’m so going to rock my girdle-like Grannie panties at the wedding!

We went to Payless next to return my other shoes then we visited Gramma. We were starving, so we ordered burgers from Jack in the Box. We went to Home Depot afterwards and I made my payment. We didn’t pay it off, but that’s okay. We’ve only got about $100 to go on the regular interest credit. The other $300 we own on it has no interest or payments till next March. Woo!

We went to Walmart and got stuff we needed. Went home. Felt like chopping off my feet. I usually try to stuff all my errands into one day so I don’t have to be running around and wasting gas the rest of the week, but God I’m tired at the end of it.

The boys were behaving alright due to a point system I had going on. If they got 5 strikes, they’d get grounded. If they got to the five, each time they behaved well would get them a point knocked off. So they were really good LOL.

As tired as I was I went with John so he could get a Sprint account. He figured he was wasting lots more money with his pay-as-you-go Cingular. He took me to H-E-B where I did my two week’s worth of grocery shopping. I was so exhausted I got lazy and bought junk food and microwavable things, which I hardly ever do. I ended up spending $85, which wasn’t too bad considering all the junk I was taking, but still. I made Fillet Mignon and baked potatoes for dinner, which is one of the specials I bought that day. You bought the fillets, you got potatoes, shredded cheese, Mountain Dew, and tons of other food for free! Gotta love H-E-B!

We had Jaylen’s cardio appointment on Tuesday. John was here so he went with us. Mom stayed with my other two. Jaylen was really well behaved that day. I’ve noticed he’s really good when he’s by himself, but when we’re with the other two kids he acts up A LOT.

This was probably the best and fastest doctor’s office we’d ever been to, ever. They even gave Jaylen a sugar-free lolly after the first room he was in, where they stuck a bunch of little squares on him and checked him out. We were moved rooms two more times, and finally the doctor came in to give him an ultrasound and everything was fine. He said it’s an Innocent Murmur that should go away as he gets older. They gave us an appointment for two years from now LOL. We went to Mario’s work next and had lunch at Taqueria el Zarape. Yes, I braved it once more and I’m alright! I ordered the same thing I did last time, though.

We went to Target after we dropped Mario off. John finally bought an air conditioner after all these years. We went to the bank so John could get the money for his car payment and finally went home. I helped John as much as I could with the air conditioner, then left with Mary to get my Matron of Honor dress adjusted. For the first time in all my life, The Girls and I are going bra-less! This dress has a built-in bra, and although those usually don’t work out for me I have to admit I looked alright! I need to find pasties or double-sided tape or something though. Last thing I need is a nip slip at a wedding…

Anyway, we came home and I helped John with the window unit. We’re a bit wimpy and the air conditioner looked like it was about to fall out so, desperate for help, we called Jose and Jorge over to help. They helped tremendously. Next thing to do was upgrade John’s computer. I got everything done while John covered his windows up with foil. Ghetto, yes, but quick remedy.

Even after upgrading the RAM on John’s computer and adding the new wireless card the internet still wasn’t working. We can’t figure out why. I gave up and came home to make dinner and banana bread. I made the mistake of trying to take a shortcut. NEVER take shortcuts with baking, or cooking for that matter. Instead of separating the batter into two loaf pans I poured it all into a 9×9 square pan. The edges were a beautiful golden color and totally cooked. The middle…was still batter LOL. I had to cut out all the good parts and finished cooking the center. It was delicious once it was all baked!

Wednesday was a bit more low-key. I can’t remember much from that day, actually. As for Thursday, Sally came over! She called around 10am that she’d be coming over and since I haven’t cleaned much now that Alaethia’s super-clingy, I had to put her down for a nap and clean as quickly as I could. And I still had clean piles of folded laundry all over the place and she arrived when I was in my sleep clothes LOL. I cleaned up really quick and we sat around talking and catching up. We sat in the kitchen, eating lunch and talking. Aly was on my lap and the boys kept running in and out, interrupting, but Sally genuinely looked like she didn’t mind at all. That’s what I love about her company. I always feel like my wild kids are going to annoy everyone, but my friends are pretty awesome about their craziness.

Sally’s been having a bit of a tough time lately. I really hope everything sorts itself out–she feels so stressed and I fell so bad for her. I want to meet up with her again this week, but God, we have so many things to do still to prepare for the wedding. I want her to know she can confide in me–I know she and Mayra and my other friends were there for me during my pregnancy. You really need people during pregnancy; to talk, to vent, to share your happiness.

We got on Myspace and stalked searched for people we used to know. We even busted out our middle school yearbook LOL. That was pretty fun. And we were also total dorks and did the Gender Prediction test I did when I was pregnant. According to the test, she’ll be having a girl! Woo! She wanted to wait to find out the gender of the baby till he/she’s born (she still does, actually) but she’s sort of wanting a girl right now. Pete wants a boy, as men usually do, especially because it’s their first child. It’ll be so cute if she has a girl–Aly and her will be buddies since babyhood like Sally and I (and Pete) were!

That night we (Mary, Yadira and her kiddos, Sonia, Elda and Jorge, although Jorge just went to check out the women at the mall) went to look for lingerie for Noelia’s Lingerie Party on Monday. I hope she’s not reading this, but I got her a comfy tank and cute sleep shorts from Gap since everyone else will be getting her sexy things. I figured she’d want something normal. Mario got home early that night and I was out. That always happens!

On Friday I dropped Mom off at the doctor’s office since she was sick as a dog. She couldn’t stop coughing and the mixture of her diabetes medications were making her sick to her stomach. It’d gone on long enough–I told her she needed to go. After I picked her up we dropped off her prescriptions and she watched the boys for us while Jorge, Mario, Alaethia and I went to Mario’s work to pick up some tools then to give John’s car payment (which I accidentally gave twice for June! We’d already made a payment for him before he took over payments and I completely forgot. I still need to call back and make absolutely sure, but from what the automated teller told me he doesn’t have to make another one till August!). We picked up Mom’s prescription and then came home and Mario and Jorge made burgers on the grill.

Later on in the evening Jorge, Mario and I went with Chris to the lake he works at to release our turtles, Jackie and Daniel, into the wild. We never got around to building them the dream pond we wanted to, not could we afford it right now even if we wanted to, so that was the next best thing. They were spending their days in a tiny Rubbermaid box and it wasn’t fair to them. They were quickly outgrowing their 20 gallon tank and there just wasn’t any way we’d have room for a 30 gallon one in our tiny apartment. The lake was the next best thing. I didn’t even know it existed. This lake is beautiful and very private. It’s a member’s only type deal, and only 120 members are allowed per year for $500 a year, which isn’t bad at all if you think about it. Some have the memberships their whole lives if they want to. Needless to say, getting a membership is super hard. There’s a waiting list hundreds of people long.

Anyway, we found the perfect spot–where there were enough tiny fish for them to eat and where it was shallow enough for them to come back to to bask. I was seriously holding back tears when Mario was placing them in the water. I’m going to miss them. We had them for 2 wonderful years.

I’m going to change the subject before I bawl.

Mario left to work Saturday morning and I got myself and the kids ready to meet Mary in Downtown McAllen so we could pick out Alaethia’s dress for the wedding. I didn’t want it to be too “foofy” or tacky so I was bracing myself. Luckily I found some cute ones at the place we went (where Jaylen embarrassed me as always by throwing a fit on the floor) and ended up with a cream-colored satin dress. Very princess looking without being too overwhelming. It cost a bit more than I wanted it to, but oh well, what can you do?

Mary got her some little matching Mary Janes at another shop down the street. Those were super expensive. Next stop was getting nachos for the boys and then we left to get some drinks at Stripes. I got a drink and chips for Mario and dropped it off to him. We visited Gramma and then…we went to get Alaethia’s ears pierced at Wal-Mart!

I was so nervous. I tried calming my nerves by going around the store and getting a few things I needed. Then we went to the jewelry department. They didn’t have the 14 kt gold balls we originally wanted (not only because they’re real gold, but because they were pretty inexpensive $15.80. I didn’t want to get anything grand since Mom was getting them for her and I felt guilty!). They didn’t have her birth stone, Garnet, either, but I didn’t mind because I wasn’t too fond of it; it looked black =\.

The ones I truly liked were some 14 kt gold cubic zirconia stones, so we got those. Mom said she’d get those and put in $20 and I put in another $7. Eenan got the camera and took pictures for me and although he got me in very unflattering angles he caught every moment.

She screamed as soon as she felt the lady messing with her ears. I got teary eyed, but I was concentrating so much on keeping her still that I didn’t actually cry. She didn’t cry as long as I thought she would, though. She cried only while they poked her ears and as soon as I picked her up, although she was still hiccuping a little bit, she stopped crying. And she looks SO CUTE! No one will ever mistake her for a boy again! Well, nevermind. They just might.

I gave her Tylenol as soon as we got home and sat her in her high chair so she’d eat. I got her a jar of Squash for her to try. She LOVED it! She ate everything I served her, which was half the little jar. It was a day of firsts for Alaethia :).

She took a nap, which I was really nervous about since I was afraid she’d hurt her ears. She’s rubbed frantically at them already, which is her custom when she’s falling asleep, and she hasn’t fussed.

I didn’t sleep well at all last night. Jaylen caught Eenan’s cough and everytime he coughed last night I’d wake up. I gave him water twice because he’d rather cough all night than actually get up and drink something. Then of course, Mario kept trying to wake me *cough* and after that, at 3am, we wake up to a weird electric-saw sound. We jumped out of bed and he tiptoed trying to find the noise and I followed close behind, to protect him in case some alien was trying to saw through the door (hey, you never know and he’s scared of aliens). We followed the sound all the way to the living room. It was coming from the computer. Mario shut it down quickly because it sounded like it was going to explode any minute. We thought it was the power supply, but even after he changed it out today it’s still making the noise. Turns out it’s the darn hard drive. I’ve already moved all my junk to my external hard drive, just in case. We’re still going to get a new one and some more memory.

Alaethia was having trouble sleeping because she’s got chest congestion again, my poor baby. I got so scared one of the times she was coughing because of the noises she was making that I put her on my chest and let her sleep there till we woke up at 10am. Mario was already up and gone. I got the kids into the shower, fed Alaethia, bathed her and then Mario got here. He’d been at his Grandpa’s house. We gave him his gifts, which weren’t much this year unfortunately, but he liked his two new shirts. I took a shower afterwards and started on the lasagna I was taking over to Yadira’s. That was my contribution for Father’s Day. We went over there and had dinner and talked with everyone. We stuck around a while watching TLC and then came home. We chilled out eating grapes and melon and joking around with John while watching TV. It’s been a mellow day. Mario’s off putting gas in his truck right now and probably at his cousin, Adan’s, house getting tips on WTF to do about our extra harddrive. I have no idea how to check if that one’s a goner or not.

I’m finally posting this after, what? A week? I kept adding every day’s happenings but just never got around to checking everything and posting. So much for keeping up, huh? Blogging’s like washing dishes — you let a day go by and by the time you know it you’ve gotten so far behind you don’t even want to start tackling it. I’d also caught an awful ear infection and had terrible neck pain sometime in the middle of last week so I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. Thank God Mary had a new bottle of Amoxcillin (sp?) — I feel so much better!

Tomorrow will be the start of what will surely be a hectic week. I’m stressing and it’s not even my wedding. Tomorrow evening’s Noelia’s Lingerie Party, Tuesday’s the rehearsal, the boys have dentist appointments on Wednesday and Friday will be spent getting the boys’ hair cut and maybe getting my nails done. I’m not sure about that one as we’ve spent so much money already. I can’t wait till everything’s back to normal and we actually get to rest!