Category: Photos

Friday was a hectic one for me. It was my last day before my week “vacation” (and by vacation I mean staying home with the girls and being as lazy as I can :D), so I was haulin’, getting things done before I left work. I had to cover Rosie’s lunch hour so I had a quick dinner at Feldman’s with my boss. Yummiest lasagna I’ve had in a while:

Amazingly, I didn’t eat the whole thing, heh.

Picked up my boys after work and got the girls ready to go. Alaethia desperately wanted to go to a classmate’s party, and since she missed her friend’s party a few months ago I promised we could go. I was so exhausted though! But thankfully, Jorge was ordering a pizza after he picked up his boys, so I didn’t have to worry about dinner.

We went to Target and got the little girl a Cinderella doll, and we browsed the dollar section. The girls were satisfied with a little pack of 3D erasers (sushi for Aly, sweets for Ems). I totally made a mental note to go back and buy all the kiddos stocking stuffers before they ran out!

We wrapped up the gift in the car (I have made a point to always carry tissue paper!) and we were off. To make a super long, my-feet-ache-immensely story short: we arrived, the girls played for 2 straight hours.

They hardly sat to eat. I had a sliver of pizza LOL. But it was nice to meet some of the other parents. We’re still the “new family” in town, so it was nice to sit and chat with them and let them know we’re not some weird people.

My love, some buddies and the boys were here chilling out. Dina came by later (she had been presenting at the Island all week and got to visit!). I got the girls ready for bed and then I finally, FINALLY got to sit down, kick off my shoes and have a glass of wine with Dina and catch up :). We had some great conversation, even discussing some of Jorge’s ex-girlfriends, buahaha!

I had no chance of sleeping in on Saturday. The girls woke me up bright and early. I made all the kiddos some Sprinkles Pancakes, they ate, I got ready to go pick up cash from my love, deposit at the bank and then I went to Target to get the kiddos some stocking stuffers. I had to control myself and put some back; they had so many cute things!

I went to HEB next and OMG. I hate grocery shopping. Dina had already arrived at the house and was prepping the turkey for cooking. It took me a whole hour to shop, grr. I got home and Briana had arrived, too. I put all the groceries away with Mom’s help, made lunch for the kiddos (all different: some had macaroni, some had grilled cheese, some had chicken nuggets LOL) and THEN, I got to sit with them and watch part of John Tucker Must Die.

We got up later and started on the sides. I made green-bean and bacon casserole. Before we knew it, everything was done! We were just waiting for Jorge and Julien to arrive :).

Mia and Alaethia:

The boys:

Emily and Julien:

The family:

The food:

I realized later there wasn’t one photo of me this time =\. Oh well. Next time!

The food was soooo good! Briana left a while after with Mia and Nick slept over. Dina and I joined Jorge and Tony outside after I put the girls to bed and we had a glass of wine. I had gotten 2 bottles of Moscato for $2.50 each at HEB! I regret not buying more, to keep for special occasions. I still have one of them left since we only had 2 cups each. I was so exhausted that I was literally nodding off, so when Dina excused herself I excused myself. I wish we’d had more time to catch up, but she had to leave at 5am =\.

Julien came to bed with me since he was tired, too. He woke up twice, because of his congestion, but he slept like a rock the rest of the night. As much as I wanted to sleep in, I was still awake before everyone else at 9am! I read a while and then Julien began to stir. Jorge woke up and then I got up and started making breakfast. Somewhere in between we got into an argument, and proceeded to ignore each other the rest of the day, heh.

I’m always skeptical about writing about any arguments we have (because we do, but thankfully not often) because the last time I did about a year ago he got a text from his ex telling him she loved how we were “always” fighting. But, this is my blog and I haven’t censored what I write in 10 years and I’m not about to start now over some over-dramatic, wishful person.

So, with that said, he left his omelet (that I painstakingly diced veggies for) on the table. To get cold. After 30 minutes I called the boys over and Justin and Jaylen shared it. If it’s one thing I hate, is cooking and my food not being eaten -__-. And I knew giving his food away would boil his blood, buahahaha!

So, the day went on. Eenan and I worked on his science project. I made lunch for the kiddos…which…just so happened to be cheese and bacon omelets LOL. They all wanted some. Except for Jorgie and Jaylen. They made their very own pigs in a blanket (with supervision, of course). Proud mama here :).

The boys went out to play football, then later played Yugioh cards. And we didn’t even have to ask them to get away from their games!

I showered and then I went with Eenan and Emily to get Eenan’s hair cut. Jorge and I texted each other back and forth (while I pleaded with Emily to quit hiding under the bench seat at the salon), and we both got over it, thank goodness.

He was on his way to drop Julien off and was really upset about it. Julien didn’t want to take his seat belt off and was crying when his aunt came out to get him. Aww :(.

Got home and my love and I snuggled and made up. As I nuzzled his neck he whispers, “I can’t believe you gave my food away! It was ruthless!” I giggle and say, “Well. I wanted you to know I meant business!”

Before we knew it, it was dinnertime. Leftovers from Saturday it was!

Jorge had all the boys bathe while I was gone, so all we had to do was eat and then we all huddled in the living room with some popcorn and pickles to watch The Walking Dead. As hectic as our Sunday evenings usually are, I love them :).

The kiddos were all in bed right after Walking Dead, and Jorge and I were in bed by 10:40! We crashed out immediately. I don’t know if it’s because I fell asleep so “early” or if I was afraid my phone would die and I wouldn’t hear my alarm, but I kept waking up after 4am. I got up when the alarm went off at 5:45am and woke the boys up. I wore the same t-shirt I slept in, heh, washed my face, slipped on some jeans and flip flops and we were out the door. Late, because Eenan couldn’t find his sweatshirt and was looking for it.

I dropped the kiddos off, got gas in the van and came home. I could have slept, but I didn’t. Yes. I know I’ll regret this later, heh.

The girls were up an hour later and asked for cereal. So we sat and ate together. Then we started cleaning the kitchen. They, as always, wanted to help:

Alaethia noted, “The fridge looks like a giant tree. I’m not kidding–look at the lines it has!” I just said, “Oh yeah!” LOL

I started cleaning the bathroom, then their bedroom, then I showered and then I bathed them. Then I made lunch (chicken curry salad) since my love was eating lunch at home ’cause he’s been working nearby :D!

The girls and Mom ate before he got here, but I waited so Jorge and I could eat together. He got here, kissed me, and we chatted about our day as we ate. It was so nice. We haven’t eaten lunch together in about a week, and it was great to eat and then have a 10-minute cuddlefest hehe.

He left and we got ready for Mom’s appointment. The girls picked their movies, their Hello Kitty plushies and we were off. I was regretting not taking a nap as soon as we parked; my book, the overcast sky and cool air conditioning was making me sleepy. And then Mom is walking up to the door and I’m thinking, “What the–?” She tells me, that for some reason, she didn’t actually have an appointment. Grrrr. I could have finished cleaning during that time!

So we came back home, the girls changed from their boots to flip flops and put shorts under their skirts and we went to the park. They played on the jungle gym while I swayed on the swing right in front. Then they moved to the other toddler side of the park:

They kept asking for 5 more minutes so I tried luring them away with smoothies from Burger King. Emily STILL bawled that she wanted to stay, then bawled because she wanted a chocolate shake and NOT a smoothie. And then we got home and she crashed out, heh.

Emily woke up, fought with Alaethia over who knows what and then they had snacks and now they’re playing peacefully, thank goodness! My poor babe was almost on his way home and then he got called, but hopefully it’s quick. They’re going to have their Monday Night Football bar-b-que, which means I don’t have to cook! Woo! I’m hoping to wake up early tomorrow and make my love breakfast (and maybe this time, he’ll eat it >_< !!).

I’m feeling a little under the weather (and by that I mean “Girl Sick”) so it’s a mac-n-cheese in a cup and comfy yoga sweats kinda evening. Jorgie and Justin are fed, bathed and in bed, my kiddos are still at their dad’s and my love is getting ready so we can get comfy on the couch and watch The Walking Dead. I’m excited!

So Friday was all about work. Work at work, preparing for this event. Meetings here and there. Tamales in said meeting. Got out of work, got a hair cut (finally) and picked up my Babe. Went to Old Navy, had an unsuccessful shopping trip and then we got some parts my van needed, he fixed it real quick, we picked up some “snacks” at Jack-in-the-Box, we did some more work in the cold, picked up Starbucks and then we got some Wendy’s on the way home. I “behaved” and got some chili, heh. Michelle had wanted to go out, but man, I was just so exhausted and I couldn’t bare to spend more money so we got home and crashed out.

The next morning I showered, had Jorge’s leftover Starbucks (he didn’t like his Venti Caramel Macchiato) and I took Mom to run an errand. We went to the Halloween stores, where we met up with Michelle and Rosie, to try and find costumes for Jorge and I for Jim’s party that night. The first store was messy and I didn’t find anything. We went to the second and stood in line for an hour and a half where you could only browse the costumes by the picture on the wall, just so Jorge’s costume wouldn’t be the right size and I didn’t remember the right “number” for mine. I was so frustrated and I was meeting Mario and my babies at the Pumpkin Patch to take their pics so we left. It was great seeing my babies and we got some good shots 🙂

Don’t mind the hair, heh. I totally didn’t plan on being in any pics, but I think it came out ok :).

The kiddos left with Mario and Mom and I headed to another store. This one was SUPER EXPENSIVE. So I gave up. I went to Payless to find some cheap boots so I could use the pirate wench costume I already had and just buy Jorge a pirate one to match, but I didn’t like any of the boots. I headed to Walmart to get the girls their boots and a Hello Kitty Halloween shirt since Aly can’t wear her costume at school. We got a few other Halloween-y things and came home.

I ate a very late lunch and texted back and forth with Michelle. I had no idea what to do about our costumes. When my love got home and hour and a half later, we decided we’d buy Halloween shirts and stop stressing.

Jorge’s boys got here (I wasn’t expecting them so I hadn’t planned on making dinner) so we ordered pizza for them and Mom and took off to Walmart to get our shirts and some cookies. We changed in the car and made our way to the party.

Michelle, Marie, EZ, Eduardo and his wife were there from work. And Harvey. Without Evelyn. She’s back in the hospital. I hope she gets better very soon, and I hope she’s not there long-term like last year :(. I feel so bad for Harvey.

Michelle looked cute in her costume. And Marie, too. She was Zorro! She’s super funny. We played a guessing game, where they pin the name of a celebrity to your back and you ask people clues where there answer will be yes or no. I guessed my first one, Madonna, in 2 tries, heh. The second one was Regis :P. Jorge’s was Frankenstein. Michelle’s was Lance Armstrong and she took FOREVER to guess LOL.

It was super fun. Jim took us on a tour of his garden and pond. Jorge was impressed. I’m so glad he can be sociable and get along with my co-workers :). He’s the best, I could just squeeze him ♥!

Again we made plans to go out…and at the last minute we said, Nah. The boys were at home and it was still early, so we came home. My love and I chilled out on the porch. I was freezing, though. I had my booties, sweat pants, my warm sweater and a blanket and I was still cold! I said, “Some Abuelita chocolate would be great!” We were running low on milk, and the boys wouldn’t have any for their cereal in the morning, so we went to the corner store to get some. My love made me my hot chocolate when we got back.

See what I mean? THE BEST!

I drank my chocolate and since I was sleepy I gathered my things and came inside. I washed my face snuggled up with my Wish Bear…

…and woke up at noon today! Haven’t slept that long in FOREVER!

We got up and showered and picked up menudo at the Taco Ole nearest to us. The boys were quite happy, as were the adults, heh. We spent the rest of the day at home; Jorge playing Xbox with the boys and me–well, I spent the afternoon working on the program for my event this weekend and getting the email ready that I’ll be sending out tomorrow. I would have sent it today but smarty pants that I am, forgot to forward myself my exhibitor list. Grr.

My love and I snuggled a bit, then got up and went to HEB to grocery shop. It’s so much better when he accompanies me :).

We gave the boys dinner, I talked to my kiddos. They carved pumpkins at their dad’s, the girls a monkey and the boys a zombie coming out of a graveyard. Really cute. The boys told me about the movies they’re watching and the costumes they want to make. I’m taking them trick-or-treating this year :D! We need to work on both their costumes; it should be interesting, heh.

Eenan told me I was going to like The Walking Dead, so I’m going to get off this computer since my love started it already. Goodnight!

Jesus. I get SO BORED when the girls leave to Mario’s house for the weekend (our “weekends” start on Thursday). I’ve texted Jorge at least 5 times asking if he’s on his way home yet, heh.

I really should have started blogging as soon as they left instead of idly browsing through Facebook. I’m actually quite surprised I didn’t bust out the tortilla chips and Pace salsa while I waited for Jorge to get here. I’ve had an insatiable hunger these days, probably due to the fact that I’m Pre-PMS’ing :D. Yay!!

Work has been HECTIC, but as exhausted as I’ve been I was a good girl and made my love his caldo de mariscos (seafood soup). I forgot to take a photo, can you believe it?? I also made some garlic asparagus. I really need to update the recipes page. But, well. I can hardly find time to BLOG, let alone add recipes *sigh*.

I’m proud of the fact that I made a meal plan and stuck to it; we didn’t go out to eat or order food for dinner all week (well, with the exception of yesterday. I made dinner, but we stopped by Jack-in-the-Box for some mango tea…and some jalapeño poppers *sigh*). We can’t help lunch sometimes, but I made all our dinners *beams*. I’m still trying to get Alaethia to eat, say, Green Chicken Curry Salad. She’s still my picky one. Emily will eat everything :).

Anyway, it’s been a long, tiring week. We have an event coming up (which we lost 2 months of organizing due to the date we chose for it and it’s been nerve-wracking) and the 2 weeks prior are the busiest and most stressful. I was feeling kind of mediocre and unprepared at the beginning of the week. I almost wanted to just call in and hide under my blanket and sleep all day with Emmos on Tuesday, but I didn’t.

My darn van had left me stranded last week and we’ve yet to get it fixed. Jorge laughs at me because he says I’m the only person in the world that complains about driving a BMW, heh. It’s just so stressful; I’m always afraid someone’s going to dent it with their door or that I’m going to scratch the leather =\. I’ll never hear the end of it, heh!

My mood didn’t get any better when I was browsing through Facebook and read that a teenager that attended Eenan’s school had been hit by a car and killed walking to school in the morning. I know Mario or his mother drop the boys off, but an irrational part of my brain panicked and called Mario to make sure all was well with the boys. It was, of course, but Eenan and all his friends had grown up with the boy :(. I spoke to Eenan when I got out of work and he sounded ok. He explained he was never particularly close with him, and he was a troubled kid, but he said everyone was quiet around school, taking in the news. I can imagine what that did to their brain, their emotions. I’ll never forget the 1st time someone I knew–someone young–died. I was in 5th grade and it was a classmate’s little sister. Died in a tragic accident at the Livestock Show monster truck show. I learned at the time that life could change/end in a second.

I wanted to just come home and hug my babies, I wanted to just be with all 4 of them :(. I spoke to the boys for a long time that night. I miss them :(.

The news of the little boy’s passing was terrible. But it made me realize just how lucky I am to HAVE my babies regardless of the distance, to have a job even though I get stressed, to have at least one working car, to have a roof over our heads, to have Jorge, who busts his butt on the daily to make sure we have everything we need; to have all my loved ones alive and well, to have food in the fridge and in our tummies even though I complain about feeling fat all day long =\, to be happy with what we DO have, even though sometimes I complain about how unfair it is that undeserving people get way more help than they ever should.

I’ve been repeating this to myself when I’ve felt a little overwhelmed throughout the day. The positive attitude resonated in all areas of my life: my event started picking up, I accomplished my tasks at work so far, and then yesterday Jorge and I got some great news! I’m just so incredibly thankful for everything :*).

Oh, man. I made the mistake of buying a Ben & Jerry’s pint of Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream from the corner store and I managed to scarf down HALF so now I’m having a sugar crash. Poo. I’ll try and update some more tomorrow. My brunch date with Sally fell through for Saturday and I’m kidless so my new plans for this weekend include sleeping in, spending lots of time on my site, Facebook and Pinterest; cleaning a little, maybe buy some pants somewhere (I’ve received TONS of great coupons lately!) and perhaps–if I’m lucky–scrapbook before my super duper busy weekend next week. I’m going to take it a day at a time and ENJOY IT.

I’ll leave you with a few pics from the week. (Most you’ve seen on Facebook or Instagram already, heh.)

Kika, who snuck into the girls’ room and snuggled with Alaethia:

My love and our huge snuggly kitty:

Emily and her duckies:

At the Corner Bakery Cafe ribbon cutting. I can see this becoming a place Sally and I can frequent for brunch :). The artwork on the walls are snapshots of sights around the city!

Me, in JAYLEN’S shirt. Accidentally threw it on and it instantly confused me. I was thrilled because I was having a pretty shitty I-feel-fat day =\ and my 10-yr-old’s shirt fit! But then I was a bit sad because that’s it: my boys’ clothes fit me. That means they’ve grown and will continue to grow :*(.

The Jr. Roll at Yoko’s Sushi. Was fortunate enough to have lunch with my love and Sally today :)!

Cute pumpkins, painted pink for Cancer awareness, at Texas Oncology:

And that’s it! Goodnight :).