Category: Photos

Hope everyone had a great (and safe) 4th of July.

We woke up late; Mario around 11:30 (and the boys, too) and Alaethia and I around 12. I did everything I needed to do the night before (tacos for dinner, dishes, sweeping, and I even made a batch and a half of banana bread!) and had another late night with Alaethia. So we thought it a really good idea to sleep in. We got ready at our leisure, packed everything up that we needed then all of us, and Mom, went to visit Gramma and wish her a happy birthday.

She was happily sitting in her wheelchair, and she told us Aunt Nora had just stopped by to visit her, too. Mom gave her the gift she bought her (we’re giving her ours this Saturday) and I wrote her name and her room number on her clothes. That’s also why I carry a sharpie with me everywhere I go; just in case we stop by Gramma’s and she needs her things labeled.

We fixed her closet, took many pictures with her and talked for a good while. Then we went to Home Depot, where Mario got some tools he needed and I got a nice Stanley level and a few supplies to finish up the walls in the bathroom. I’m doing it. If I don’t, then it’ll stay that way for another year.

We came home and chilled out at Mary’s before everyone got here. Noelia had arrived with the souvenirs she and Andy’d gotten everyone at Disneyworld. They got Mary and I charm bracelets; mine had a diamond-ish encrusted Mickey head and Tinkerbelle on it. I love them. I shall go crazy ordering charms and have the noisiest, charmiest charm bracelet evar.

They got Mario a really cute (and tall) shot glass from the Jurassic Park ride at Universal (I have fond memories of getting the crap scared out of me in that one) and got the boys a Pirates of the Caribbean skull full of Pirate Booty for the boys. It was one price for as much as they could stuff into the skull. I thought it was really sweet that Andy stood there picking out two of each item so the boys wouldn’t fight. That’s why they’ve always been in love with their new uncle!

We had burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (my absolute favorite; to celebrate Natalie’s birthday) and apple pie a la mode. There sadly weren’t enough burgers, which made me feel bad, and momentarily caused me to get in a bad mood since Mario sacrificed his burger and gave it to me and I wanted HIM to have it. I know how much he likes his burgers.

Everything was delicious. All the women sat around the table, as is our custom, talking and laughing while the men were outside doing their man things, like drinking beer. The kids were all at our house next door in the boys’ room playing video games (supervised by the older cousins). When it was 9pm, we all went out to watch the kids pop their fireworks. There were mosquitoes all over the place so, humid as it was, I wrapped Alaethia up in a receiving blanket to avoid them eating her up. She still ended up with a huge bite on her cheek, but what can you do?

(This part was continued on Friday, July 6th.)

Eenan, Angela, Noelia and Andy were all playing War with poppers. Jaylen was following Mario around, assisting with (picking out) the fireworks. I think Mario had more fun than the kids did. First he lit a whole two packs of Morning Glories and just held them in his hands, all happy.

It looked impressive, but I’m just so glad he’s still got both hands.

And this is what, mmm, about 8 boxes of Sparklers look like when lit all at once. I’m so glad he decided NOT TO HOLD THESE!

Crazy. The whole cone burst into flames shortly after.

It was a fun night. We let the kids all finish off their fireworks before everyone went home. Then each of the kids took a shower, because they were so disgustingly sweaty. Alaethia felt so good after her bath that she fell right to sleep, so I put her in her crib and took the fastest shower in history. I got the boys into bed and as I’m walking out to close the door, Eenan starts screaming bloody murder. About a second later, Jaylen joins in because Eenan freaked him out. I’d forgotten to turn on their night light and instead of reaching up (it’s right above Eenan’s bed) and flipping it on, they ran through the dark hallway after me, thus waking up Alaethia. I finally had her asleep early and was going to fall asleep myself, but nope, didn’t happen. She didn’t fall asleep, again, till 2:30am.

Not much happened yesterday except that John got hired at a second job like he wanted. (And I had yet another dream that his car had gotten broken into…weird.) It was cool that they actually went to him and asked him if he’d like to work there still. He said, “Sure!” and immediately got hired. And he said that would never happen to him!

I was halfway done with this blog last night when I was going to finish up with laundry and call it a day. Well, I’d washed four loads of laundry and the 2nd one never dried. The first one was Alaethia’s and that one dried fine. The 2nd one was the darks and I thought maybe they just weren’t drying because I overstuffed it. I took some out, let it dry another half hour and nothing. Mario suggested, at 12:30am, that I should go and dry everything next door at my mom’s house. Sure, buddy. And stay awake till 3am waiting? No thanks. Alaethia already keeps me up till 2:30. So I made a makeshift line (an electrical cord stretched between two kitchen chairs — L33t) and just hung everything on hangers to dry. And of course, Aly stayed awake till 2:30 as I expected. And I tossed and turned most of the night because they’d turned the air off at Mary’s (the houses are connected and so’s the darn central air…grr) and once they turned it on at 5am, I kept tossing and turning because I was freezing. Grr.

I thought I was going to have to drop Mario off this morning, since we’re going to the movies and didn’t want to have to take two cars, but I’m just going to pick him up then go get his truck afterwards. He’s working half a day today and then we’re going to watch Transformers. Oh yeah, baby! I have a feeling today’s going to be AWESOME.

Seems like forever, again, since I last updated with an actual “update”. The last time I made a decent post was last Wednesday, over a week ago. I mentioned that September would be around the time we wouldn’t have anything to worry about…I was wrong. That’s the month of Yazmin’s Quinceañera! Thank God we don’t have as much to do in it as we did with the wedding. All I have to worry about is buying a cute, inexpensive dress.

Anyway, the boys had their dentist appointments that afternoon (no cavities! And they did really well!) and then I went to pick up my dress for the wedding at the alterations place. I was really happy with how it came out. Everything I wanted the lady to do for me, she did well.

I don’t remember much from Thursday. It wasn’t until Friday that we were running around doing, literally, the last-minute things. We all went (including Mom) to pick up the tuxes. All my boys looked so handsome. After that we ate at Burger King, because we’d promised the boys then went to get everyone’s haircuts. Except mine. Mine I was keeping long for the wedding.

Mayra did a great job on the kids; Jaylen wanted his hair spiky so spiky he got it. It stayed really nice. Eenan got his usual “mushroom cut” and Mario just got a trim since he’d forgotten about the wedding and had shaved his head a few weeks ago. Mayra did a GREAT job on Mom’s hair. I called it Superstar hair, it looked so nice. And me, for the first time ever, I got waxing done. I thought it was going to hurt like hell, because that’s what everyone always tells me, but it wasn’t bad at all.

We went home and then just chilled out over at Mary’s. They were filling the mint baggies and little hexagon-shaped boxes with peanuts. I looked at the clock and remembered I hadn’t bought any jewelry to go with my dress. I didn’t want to go, but I really had nothing to wear. We had two hours to get to the mall (we live half an hour away) and Mario decided to throw a fit about watching Alaethia. They’d already stuffed my Equinox full of junk for the wedding, so there was no way I’d be able to take Alaethia in her car seat if I tried. So I left her, to his great displeasure, but I didn’t care. She’s his daughter, too, dammit.

John accompanied Mom and I. We got the jewelry we needed, which was fake and still cost $14.50, dammit. Add to that the eyeshadow I bought and it came out to over $20. Not cool. We walked around a bit more, then went home.

I had so much crap to do that night I was as stressed out as Noelia was, and let me tell you: she was STRESSED. At 11:30pm I was raising the hem on a pair of Noelia’s new jeans she was taking with her to her honeymoon. After everything else I had to do I didn’t fall asleep till 2am.

And then I had to be up by 8:30 the next morning since our hair appointments were at 9. Didn’t start out as a good day. First, they gave me the wrong directions to the salon, which stressed me the hell out since I hadn’t bothered to stop for gas because I thought I was going to go straight there and I was going to put gas after. I thought I was going to stay stranded. But no, I eventually found it.

I ask them to let me see books for ideas on hairdo’s and a woman points me to a large stack of magazines. Regular magazines. She expected me to flip through each one and somehow magically find a hair style I liked. Didn’t happen. After pouting and feeling like I was on the verge of tears I finally decided to just do one of the hair styles Mary had printed out.

Noelia, on the other hand, was stressing and crying because the darn women never hurried up. They’d given 6 other women appointments at 9am, too, which equaled to 9 of us. That was pretty damn stupid since there was only 3 cosmetologists there in all. They didn’t let Noelia up there till 10:20, Mary at 10:25 and me at 10:30. Thankfully the woman doing my hair did a really good job, or else I think I would have dropped out of the wedding, I was that pissed already. She added some little jewels to my hair (which cost me $1.50 each and there was 6) and doused me in glitter. I was pretty thrilled with the results and saw it as a good omen for the rest of the day.

This picture was taken at 2am, right before I took out all the pins holding it together. It was much less frizzy than that and much more glittery.

I stopped to get gas after my hair was done then stopped by dollar general to get a spray bottle (I still had to do Mom’s hair) and some hair spray for Jaylen’s spikes. I got home, bathed Alaethia, did Mom’s hair, Mario helped get the boys ready, I got my makeup done and helped Noelia with hers, got my clothes on, helped Mario with his bow tie, got Aly ready and after standing around taking in how awesome everyone looked we left to the church.

Everything came to a halt at the church. The Deacon that was doing the wedding messed everything up and was completely rude. He was trying to change the chart they’d originally given Noelia when we were practicing on Tuesday. There were things here and there that were changed as well, like when Mario and I were supposed to go up to do the readings. We were supposed to go after they sang a certain song. Well, there came a point where everyone was hissing and whispering to us that it was our turn, so there we go and read. We did really well, then went back to sit. AND THEN they started singing the song. Darnit.

The boys did really good when walking down the isle; Eenan held onto the little ring pillow and did really good when he was walking up to give them the rings and Jaylen did a great job ringing the bell before Noelia walked. There was a part where the Deacon was saying a really nice story about two little birds he’d seen the night before and how to him they represented Noelia and Andy but he kept saying TUNDER instead of Thunder, so everyone was snickering and suppressing laughs. Mario looked at me when I was standing with Aly in the isle near a window (she’d begun to shriek) and made me laugh, then mouthed, “STOP IT!” as if I was the one who started it!

When it was over we all walked out and gave our congrats to Andy and Noelia and then it began to drizzle so we hurried up and got in the car. We stopped by the house to pick something up, I changed Aly’s diaper because she pooped and then we left to the reception.

We sort of just chilled out and I took my camera with me but I regretfully didn’t get too many pictures since there was so much going on. I got complimented on my dress and hair several times, which was a nice boost of confidence. I was, however, incredibly uncomfortable. Since I carried Alaethia around most of the night, she kept shifting my dress and I felt like my boobs were going to fall out every few seconds. I didn’t get one picture of the 5 of us together, which was really depressing, so I can’t wait to get the photo from their photographer. The boys kept throwing fits every few minutes because they took those darn DS’s with them so they got confiscated about an hour into the reception. We chilled out with Mayra and Manny, Maggie and Jorge, and an old friend of Mario’s, Patty and her husband, Eric.

I was ready to call it a night by 12. I hadn’t slept well in 2 weeks, since the kids had been sick, so as I expected my fatigue caught up with me that night. Alaethia hadn’t been able to sleep that whole night because of the music so she was moody and the boys were ready to hit the sack, too. I said goodbye to everyone and got ready to leave, but Mary asked me to wait for them to put stuff in my truck. I grudgingly obliged and put Pokemon DVDs on, a gift from Andy to the boys for being Junior Groomsmen, to keep them occupied. When Alaethia’s lungs sounded like they’d absolutely explode from crying so much, I called Mario (who was sticking around to drink with friends and relatives) and asked him what was going on; why were we still waiting half an hour later. He came out with boxes and told me his Mom forgot I was waiting. Grr. I leave, and when we’re halfway home I get a call telling me to go back to the ballroom because Yazmin had left Mary’s keys to her car in my purse. Lovely. I was not in a good mood, was falling asleep on the way home and still had to get all the crap out of my hair and wash it. Poor Alaethia fell asleep as soon as I laid her on the couch and the boys fell asleep not long after. Needless to say, I didn’t fall asleep till 3am that night.

We woke up nice and late the next morning and had lunch at Denny’s. It was the first day of Mario’s vacation and we decided, since we were broke and weren’t having much of a vacation this summer, that we’d at least have one day of fun. We had a delicious breakfast/lunch then went home. We waited around a bit and then met everyone at the theatre to watch Fantastic 4 Rise of the Silver Surfer. I’m not a HUGE fan of Fantastic 4, and I thought Jessica Alba looked extremely different in this movie, but it was good. The boys had a blast and Mario did, too, since Jessica Alba’s in it.

We didn’t do much the rest of the week. Jorge invited us to lunch at Taqueria el Molcajete in Mission on Monday, before he left back to Arizona on Tuesday to check on his house to get ready to sell it. We went grocery shopping that day, and Mario was amazed by my budgeting skillz. I went with John to Target on Wednesday, where I bought diapers and a few things for Alaethia (with my Target Visa, which we didn’t want to have to do, since by this time we were already broke).

Yesterday in the evening I met the girls, Sally, Kristina, Karina, and Carmen, for coffee at Moonbeans. It was great hanging out with them and having some laughs. Even Pete stopped by really quick since he works in the same building.

We caught up with what we’ve been doing lately and discussed people we knew in middle school/high school and what they’re doing, who they married, etc. We met at 6pm and I didn’t end up coming home till 10, which surprised Mario LOL. He kept calling me, not to check up but to see if I’d make it to a bar-b-q at Chris’.

We even had a bit of an adventure. Men kept walking up to our table; first one asked if we’d like to buy official Jerseys, the other asked if we had a dollar for gas O_o. The next one was packed with luggage and asked if we’d give him a ride to the airport. We all kinda looked around and pretended we couldn’t hear him. Then he said that if he didn’t make his flight to Mexico, he wouldn’t see his daughter graduate from Kindergarten. Aww. So we all went together (in my truck since I thought it was the biggest but Karina said it was the same size as her car) and hauled ass to get him to the airport in 15 minutes. We were all really nervous, as we were giving this strange man a ride. At one point I see him reaching for his back pocket and my heart sank. I couldn’t help but laugh when I look in the rear view mirror and see Sally with her purse strap, ready to strangle if need be, and Karina with her cell phone in the air, in case she needed to knock him out LOL. He was reaching to get a $20 he’d promised for driving him (which is a lifesaver because I can’t tell you just how broke we are). We made it with, like, 3 minutes to spare, if even that. We stopped by the mall after that for a pee stop then went back to Moonbeans, where we chatted some more and inhaled the weird popcorn smell that was in the air. I think a building was burning, or something–there were cops and fire trucks about a block down from where we were.

It was great. Hope to do it again. I’m so glad that after all these years, I can get together with those crazy girls and still laugh and talk like we used to in middle school (and in the case of Sally and Kristina, since elementary!). I was a little annoyed as I kept being referred to as “Mother Teresa” since apparently I’m still thought of as the sweet, goody-two-shoes I was back then, but other than that, I had a blast :).

As for today, we chilled out watching Little Man and eating half a bag of Reese’s mini cups. We didn’t even do any of the work we were going to do on the bathroom and it’s the last day of Mario’s vacation. I think we’ll just return all the stuff, because, knowing us, we won’t ever do it!

Going to take mom to the store real quick. This woman’s still having problems with all the pills she has to take. And Alaethia is happily rolling towards me in her walker. She’s so big already *sniff*. 5 whole months and she’s already drinking for sippy cups and is trying to crawl!

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!