Category: Photos

I just finished reading The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, and although it was a sudden ending (I want MORE, DARNIT!), I really loved the book. Now I can start on Shopaholic and Baby!

I have to run a few errands but I figured it’s a good a time as any to start this post — because I will post it today! Alaethia’s still asleep because she kept me up till 1am last night. She was literally tossing and turning and rubbing her face between the pillows until I was so exhausted that I put her in her crib. Then she fell asleep with no problem. Figures.

Okay, I left off on Saturday, Dec. 15th previously. I forgot to mention, Rolando, Eenan’s best friend, had slept over Friday, the night of my Christmas party, because they had a UIL meet the next morning. Mom babysat all of them for us and said they were very well behaved. I was still very tired since I didn’t get to sleep much, but I got them ready and dropped them off. I picked them, and Angela, up at noon. For some reason, Eenan didn’t get to participate in one of the categories but got 4th place in the other.

As the kids are piling into the car I smell something. Alaethia had poopie. I get to changing her and am horrified to see that she’s got diarrhea. She’d just had a diaper change before we’d left home, yet she’d already developed an awful diaper rash. Her first severe diaper rash, ever.

We rush to drop Rolando off, and of course I get distracted talking to his mom, Maxine, and catching up on things. We all rush to Catherine’s birthday party, which is all the way in Mission. As we’re arriving I notice that Alaethia’s gone to the bathroom again. It was awful. I’d never heard such blood-curdling screams while changing her diaper. It was heartbreaking.

The boys had fun at the party and I ran into Art and his little boy. He’s so big already!

After the party we went home and just chilled out the rest of the day. Poor Alaethia was not up for anything else. She was sick for about 4 days, poor thing.

With a pang of guilt I realize it must have been the queso fresco we’d eaten the night before that might of gotten her sick. Hypchondriac, paranoid mother that I am, I start panicking that she’s got some kind of weird bacterial or viral disease because I fed her bad cheese. But no. A visit to the doctor let’s us know otherwise: she’s got a virus. Although I feel horrible for her I’m glad it wasn’t me that caused her to get sick. Now I know: no more queso freso for her!

On Dec. 20th we drove through the Festival of Lights on Ware Road, at the park. It was nice. We bought some kettle corn and switched the car radio to the station that had accompanying Christmas music.

Friday, Dec. 21st – We picked up Noelia and went to Wal-mart, Long John Silver’s, and the mall. Aly got a Care Bear that she picked out herself at K-B Toys.

Sat, Dec. 22nd – We visited Gramma at the nursing home. Her hair was done in braids. We delivered her Christmas gifts. Of course she says, “Why did you bother?” as always.

Sun, Dec. 23rd – We celebrated Andy’s birthday at Mary’s. Andy and Noelia were leaving early, so the kids, Mom and I visited Pete and Sally and Quentin. We took over some cookies I’d made and the boys had some that Pete and Sally gave to us. The boys behaved a little wildly, which was kind of embarrassing. Alaethia was a good girl. She even let Pete carry her for a few seconds LOL. Sally’s done wonderful things with their house. I loved the color of their kitchen! It was teal.

Mon, Dec. 24th – Aly was shaking her bootie! Like, really shaking it. It was the cutest thing :).

The women did some last minute baking and wrapping, as always. Angela and Eenan were very busy getting everything ready for Santa that night. Angela was in charge of the stockings and Eenan made a sign for Santa so he’d find his cookies.

Tues, Dec. 25th – We woke the kids up early, though not as early as all the other years because everyone else doesn’t get here till around 8:30. So we woke them up at 8. We had to put the monitor on for Alaethia because she was being a lazy bump and wouldn’t get up.

The boys opened up all their gifts, and loved their “main” one, the limited edition Zelda DS.

Jaylen, as you can see, looks very sleepy still LOL.

Alaethia had a great time during her first Christmas. She was more interested in ripping off wrapping paper than her actual toys and clothes, but she had fun.

Wed, Dec. 26th – We stayed home and enjoyed the mess and new stuff. The kids were all so excited with their new gadgets and games. Alaethia especially loved one of her gifts from Mary, which was a Laugh and Learn table. She shook her bootie to the songs like there was no tomorrow!

Thurs, Dec. 28th – We celebrated Grandpa D’s birthday here at Mary’s.

Fri, Dec. 30th – We went to the movies…though at this point, many months later, I can’t remember what we watched.

Sat, Dec. 31st – New Year’s Eve! Always fun. I think we went to the movies. We bought fireworks. It was cold outside, but we popped fireworks anyway. Just covered Alaethia up really well so she’d be warm. The boys had fun. Mario was letting them pop fireworks on their own, which made me really uneasy, but he was watching them. Alaethia looked so cute. Yadira, Noelia and I put 4 pig tails on Alaethia and she looked too cute!

1-4 – We visited Gramma. Aly was hugging and snuggling with her. Gramma couldn’t stop laughing, because Alaethia was doing her burrowing thing when she was snuggling up with her. Gramma had a nice, soft blanket, which drives Alaethia crazy. She loves soft blankets!

1-5 – We went to Mexico to get candies for Alaethia’s party. We were wary because of the frequent recalls of Mexican candies due to lead poisoning. It’s mostly tamarindo/chile candies that have lead though, so we steered clear of most of them.

We got almost everything we needed. We got some centerpiece plushes, Strawberry Shortcake, of course. And some Strawberry Shortcake tin boxes for the candies. We got a bottle of Buchanans and a case of cigs for Mario. And when we were back here we went downtown to see everything for Natalie’s 15th. Got home, unloaded and went back to town with mom and the kids. I bought some lilac paint from Walmart that was on sale. I’d get to painting the bathroom sometime.

1-6 – I spent the last day of my vacation painting the bathroom the lovely shade of lilac I’d bought at Wal-Mart. I went with Mario to the hardware store to get supplies (his dad needed some for a project, too) and Dollar General. I did the texture first and after it dried I painted. It actually dried a few shades darker than than the paint chip, but oh well. I finished by the end of the day. I was exhausted and SO not looking forward to waking up at 5:20am for work the next morning.

1-7 – Tired. Arrived to work…to an empty parking lot! Grr. Then it dawns on me–it’s a Workday which means no students. Which means we go in at 8am!! I could have been sleeping! As I’m frantically searching the website on my Centro a counselor arrives. At least I wasn’t the only one! We discussed what we should do. She said the custodian had just arrived, so she was going to stay. Like hell I was going to stay all alone doing nothing. I hadn’t even brought my book with me! I thought of the gas I was going to waste, but I went home and slept…for about 10 minutes. Blah.

I left the house at 7:40 and got to work just in time. My boss got there late and I’d already started working on a few things. She reminded me about a meeting and breakfast being served at the cafeteria, so I went along. Mrs. V., a few other teachers and myself chilled out till around 9:30.

1-10 Alaethia is obsessed with deer jerky. So am I.

1-11 – I got my Christmas bonus! Well, it’s not exactly a bonus since we “save” $58 from our paycheck every month. I’d been wondering when we’d get it.

We started getting the final things ready for our students to start circulating again. I came home and we bar-b-q’d. I played outside with the kids. Mario took our bedroom TV outside and we watched movies out there. When we go in to eat at Mary’s a Lack’s business card floated to the floor when I opened the door. Hmm.

1-12 – I dropped Mario off at work, late, and he was pissy. He knows he’s going to leave the house late when I drop him off. I don’t know why he expects any different.

We went to Goodwill. I only had Jaylen and Aly and Mom went, too of course. We got lots of bargains!

We picked up Taco Bell and visited Gramma. She caught me completely off guard and asked when she was going home :(. I felt so horrible. I didn’t know what to say. I told her we didn’t have the resources to care for her the way they can at the nursing home. She was teary-eyed and everything. It was heart breaking :(.

I know, I know — I still haven’t updated with Part 2 of my previous blog, but I will soon, hopefully, now that I’m on Christmas vacation (2 weeks, baby!). I was checking my e-mail and just *had* to post forward Yadira sent me for one and all to see:

My dear friends,

Awaiting your response. It’s crucial that I get the right size for each one of you.

LOVE IT!

We all slept in yesterday and around 11am. Mom came over shortly after that and we all wished her a happy birthday. 58 years young!

After I’d finished my breakfast I started checking the Sunday ads to see if there were any deals on Norton (our current antivirus, McAfee, which came bundled with our laptop, already ended and we’re desperate to download new music but are afraid to get viruses so we NEED NORTON. I don’t like McAfee anyway…). I checked Target out, just for the hell of it, then went to Circuit City. I flipped idly through pages, looking for a yellow box with “sale” or “mail-in rebate” printed near it but I stopped dead when I saw the Wii console with all its accessories floating around it. Mario calls me right that second and tells me to make him breakfast (he was outside with his uncles). I’m excited and I ask him, “What do you want? Eggs?” and he says, “Yeah, whatever,” and hangs up. Didn’t give me a chance to tell him about the Wii. I call back and he’s all moody: “Just leave it, then. I’ll make something myself,” and hangs up on me again. I call and tell him, “Quit being an asshole. I’m calling because there’s Wii’s in the Circuit City ad.” He grunts and says, “Just because they’re in the ad doesn’t mean they have them.” I call and check and they tell me yes, they have 10 in stock. Woo! We’ve been wanting one of those damn things since they came out but they’re ALWAYS sold out over here. I call him back and say, “They have 10,” and he says, “Get ready. We’re leaving.”

John comes over when I’m blasting out of the bathroom looking for my shoes and I tell him about the Wii. He says, “Let’s go!” and Mom said to hurry up, she’d stay with the kids LOL.

We arrive and are panicking because there’s TONS of people from Mexico in the store, as usual. It’s still tax-free weekend and they’ve got some serious shopping to do. All the good stuff’s usually gone by the time we get there on Sundays since we wake up late and live pretty far from it. But thank goodness, I get a ticket for one of them! We get extra controllers and a battery charger dock and take forever deciding on a game. Mario wanted Transformers, but John said it sucks so we got Wario Smooth Moves instead.

We pay (thank God for Target Visas!) and hurry home as quickly as possible. Aunt Nora stopped by to wish Mom a happy birthday and she was head over heels for Alaethia :). We talked for a while, which was nice because we hadn’t seen her, though we have talked on the phone.

Aunt Nora left and then we rearranged the living room to have enough space to play and start messing with the system. It’s AWESOME. We start by playing the sports games it comes with for a good hour before we even touch Wario Smooth Moves. I was so excited to play tennis again, even though it’s not actual tennis and it pissed me off because it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to and John and Mario beat me every time, but I loved it. I kicked their butts at boxing though ;).

I am SO SORE this morning. I can’t wait till the Fitness game comes out!

We play till around 4:30, when we start preparing everything for Mom’s birthday dinner. We were just having a little dinner for her, just us and Mario’s parents here at home. I didn’t want a disappointing repeat of last year when everyone either got here super late or didn’t come at all, so we decided it would just be us.

Mario prepped the fish (cilantro, seasonings, and some butter), I made the salsa (and I actually got it right!), I made cornbread and then Mario popped the fish in the oven. While they baked I made brownie batter and put the pan in to bake when the fish was done. Everything was done quickly, I had all the dishes washed and then we took everything over to Mary’s so we could all eat. Everything was delicious and pretty healthy (besides the brownies, of course). We chatted with Mario’s parents for a while and Mary told us about her trip to the casino and we came back. Mario left for a “drive” which ended up being a good hour. He called after 20 minutes of being gone to tell me Chris and Nancy were coming over. Thank God I was in the middle of cleaning.

They get here and the men automatically start playing games on the Wii. It was hilarious watching them box and play baseball (I don’t like that one…I can’t ever hit the ball!). I put the boys to bed at 9:30 (though Eenan didn’t actually fall asleep till almost 11 because he kept waking up to “drink water” or “go to the bathroom” which meant he was stalling). Nancy and I chatted and watched them play. She held Alaethia for a good, long time. Alaethia didn’t even scream, but that was probably because Nancy gave her a sip of her tea LOL. You feed that child and she’ll love you forever.

Mario and Chris went to McDonald’s for some late-night snacking. I surprised myself by declining a delicious $1 double cheeseburger (those things are so unhealthy but man, they taste good) and instead got a tiny fruit and walnut salad.

We ate, Mario left with Chris and Nancy, and I stayed here with Aly. It took forever to put her to sleep and I was pretty frazzled and deranged by the time she did fall asleep.

Before I fell asleep, I remembered to document what I’d eaten for the past two days, because that’s Step 1 in French Women Don’t Get Fat: document what you eat — every-single-thing — for 3 weeks. Maybe I’ll make a page here just for that, because I think that others seeing what I’m eating will help me not be so gluttonous. If I’d started earlier than two days ago you’d be surprised at how much junk food I’d consume. That, my friends, is why my scale at home — which usually shows that I weigh less than I actually do — says I weigh 125. 125!!! Which is probably more. That’s the most I’ve ever weighed in my life while not being pregnant. (Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m only 4′ 11″, so every pound shows!) So, I’ve decided that I’m going to change the way I eat, for real this time. I already ate the last bits of my S’mores ice cream, heh, and until I can start controlling myself around junk food I will not be purchasing any at all. The only junk food I bought this last time I went to the groceries were Cheetos Puffs for the kids and some Koolaid juices I got for free. Mario and I also decided we won’t be purchasing any more sodas, not even for him to take for lunch.

I was astonished when I came across a picture Mario’d taken of Alaethia and me. She was sprawled on my lap but I wasn’t looking at how cute she looked, I was staring at the huge tire that spread disgustingly around my waist. I’ve never looked like that before and I’ll be damned if I continue to!

Now, if I can only convince John to run with me at the park, I’ll be on the right track.