Category: Photos

Okay, either I’m hallucinating because of all the sugar in my coffee or I actually heard them say on Today that J.K. Rowling named her 7th book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow” or “Hollow”? Okay, maybe I was hearing things, because the dude (the one with the salt-n-pepper hair) said the name of the book then said, “But first…” and went on to something else and they haven’t mentioned it. Now they have Anita Baker singing. Grr.

Okay, just checked on Mugglenet.com and yes, it’s called, “Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows.” Now that I know this new bit of information, I feel just a tad bit more impatient. I want the book finished already! The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie isn’t coming out till July 13, 2007–I don’t think I can stand waiting for the book even longer than that (like I have a choice, right?).

Anyway, I’m so sorry if I scared some of you since I haven’t updated in a few days. I’m fine, baby’s fine and she’s still happily using my insides as a kickboxing bag. I’ve just been super busy since it was the boys’ last week of school before vacation began. Thank you so much for your concern though, it means a lot to me :). I promise, if something big does happen, like going into labor, I will somehow get to a computer and inform you guys (I’d do it through my PDA but it hates me and WordPress).

So the Saturday after I last posted started off as a calm and relaxing one. We’d be attending Catherine’s birthday party in the afternoon, which, according to my mother, was at 3pm. I took my sweet time washing my towering pile of dishes, bathed the boys and let them run around in their underwear for a while and started sewing a little camera bag for my new camera. Mario keeps telling me, “Why won’t you just buy one?” I don’t like the big, black, bulky bags for my camera. I like carrying it in my purse and one of those bags just won’t fit with all the other crap I have in there.

Well, after about an hour of fighting with the satiny fabric and having a fit because I’d have to sew some of it by hand I ended up with this:

(Holy Moly, I just saw Salma Hayek and Ellen eat crickets! Eww!)

It did not fit my new camera! It did, however, fit my old one, but that kinda sucks anyway since I don’t use my old camera anymore! I ended up using it as a little make-up bag till I can get some fabric and a zipper to make a new one.

While I’m finishing up the little bag, Mary calls and tells me that they’re ready (her and Noelia); to let her know when I’m ready. I look at the clock and it’s 1pm. I ask, “What time are we leaving?”

“Mmm…around 1:15?”

I panic and yell, “What?! But it doesn’t start till 3! I was barely going to take a shower!”

It actually started at 2, but my mother was misinformed. I don’t know why I didn’t bother looking at my own darn invitation. I had half an hour to dress the boys, take a quick shower (which sucked since the water pressure was SUPER LOW and I was about an inch away from the wall of the shower stall), iron my and Mario’s clothes (for Noelia’s graduation later that night) and get myself dressed and hair done. I hate being in a rush, just hate it. I was so frustrated by the time we left, but I sucked it up and tried to be in a good mood for the kids. We picked up Sonia and arrived at the party.

We should have just left late; the food wasn’t served till 3 and I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, which was around 9am. My sugar was dropping quickly and I was starting to shake badly. Thankfully, Elda had a 3 Musketeers in her purse which I quickly gobbled down. I felt better almost instantly and then finally, the food came. The kids inhaled their pizzas and punch and continued to play and enjoy themselves. They always have fun at that place but I wouldn’t have their parties there; it would probably cost me one of them to pay for it.

We left the party early since we’d have to drop Mom off at home with the boys. Noelia’s graduation was at 6:30pm, but we had to be there super early to get seats and before they closed the doors on us. Mario called while he was on his way home from work and asked me to pick up a plate for him from Long John Silvers since he got out early and didn’t have lunch. We get home and he’s frantically getting ready and starts stuffing his mouth with food simultaneously.

Noelia had left the party with Andy and went straight to UTPA. Big Mario, Mary, Mario and I left in our truck and Elda and Jose followed. We met Tommy, Yadira and the kids there and found Noelia, who instructed us on where to go.

I knew the ceremony was being held in the gym, but I had no idea we’d be seated in the bleachers. Normally, I’m not afraid of heights–not at all. But since I’m pregnant and my center of balance is way off at 8 months, I felt incredibly nervous going up the bleachers. My heart sank and I felt even worse when we got to the row we were going to sit in; we were high up and there was a 5, maybe 6 inch strip of wood we could walk on. I kind of froze at the beginning of the row and just stood there looking down. Is that what being afraid of heights feels like? I’d never felt that way before in my life. I must have looked like a loon, but I squatted down a little and held on to the bench while I slowly inched my way to Mario. He was looking at me like I was insane LOL.

I thought I’d lost my camera for a few (horrifying) minutes, but I’d left it in the car. We tried focusing the camera as best as we could but none of the settings would get a clear picture; we were really far. The ceremony was long and boring and then a man who sounded exactly like the one from the Visine commercials (…For red, dry eyes…) starts calling out names of honors students. I had absentmindedly started slumping on Mario’s shoulder and was falling asleep by the time they started giving out the “diplomas”. When they were done, we met Noelia outside and took pictures then everyone went their seperate ways. Big Mario, Mary, and I were hungry (Mario still wasn’t) so we stopped at Wendy’s. I had some chicken nuggets and a very cheesy baked potato with sour cream and chives. We had a good time. Our last stop was Wal-Mart and then home. I was exhausted.

We had plans to go to Target to start on my registry and then to our storage unit and get stuff out for the Garcia Family but we only got a chance to do the latter. Our unit was an eyesore of a mess, so we spent a good half hour organizing it. Jorge, Mario’s godfather, has a bunch of his stuff in there, too, so he put his stuff on one side and ours on another. Now we can actually walk in there.

I took the opportunity to get the boys’ baby clothes boxes out and check what I’ll be keeping as a memory of them, using for Alaethia (like white onesies and gowns), and giving to charity. I need to buy some Dreft soap, so I haven’t even tackled the boxes yet.

We dropped the stuff off at home, ate a quick lunch of sandwiches and chips and all of us piled in the truck again since we were going to the Motorcross Park and the Mud Pits with some of Mario’s friends. Out of all the guys that were going (like 4 or 5), only one went: Manny and his family. We chilled out with them for a few good hours. The kids were being absolute brats at first and I was quickly getting frustrated since Mario was having the time of his life on the ATVs, but after we gave the boys a talking-to they calmed down. I enjoyed the rest of the night after that. I was terrified of the boys being taken around in the ATVs, especially after it got dark but they followed instructions well and Manny and Mario took good care of them. We came home super late for a school night, so we fed the boys a quick meal of corn dogs, gave them 5-minute showers each and put them to bed. Mario was making some baked fish for us and it wasn’t done till around 10, but it was delicious.

Mario was off work the next day so after we picked Jaylen up from school Mario, Jaylen, John and I went to Target and I started on my Registry. (I really dislike that the only way you can view it is by using our first and last names :(!) It took all of 35 minutes to scan everything we liked/needed. We let Jaylen join in so he wouldn’t feel left out; I’d bring him the items and he’d scan them for me. I feel pretty good about the list. I left out the Graco Mikhala stroller set since Mario’s getting it, and we left out the bouncer since Yadira wants to give us hers. We also left out things she’ll be using much later on, like a playpen and highchair. I’m so excited. I thought it was so cute how Mario scanned some pink booties and a pink and yellow cap :).

I had every intention of starting on my baking that day, but it didn’t happen. John and I went to Dollar General to get some ingredients I needed (sugar, flour, crushed pineapple, etc.) and some nice baskets for the cookies. That would be the kids’ gifts to their teachers: a pretty basket full of homemade cookies.

For the first time ever, my little brother had to bail me out of something. I’d put gas in the truck earlier that day and left my debit card in my back pocket. It fell out of my pants when we’d gotten home and I didn’t notice. I had to change into decent clothes again when we went to the store, and totally forgot about the debit card. Well, I’m getting ready to pay for my stuff ($18-something) and realize I’m missing my card. I couldn’t even remember if I’d put it in my pocket at the gas station; I imagined everyone getting free gas with my card. John pays for my stuff with his debit card and gloats about it for the rest of the day. I told him I’d pay him back but he said since he owes me a Christmas present I can use the money to buy it for myself. How sweet LOL.

I was put in a worse mood when we got home after the ordeal at the store and Mary reminded us that there was a birthday party we’d made plans to attend. Great. No baking for me, which meant being in a hurry the next day, and possibly night like every other year.

The kids had fun at the party and we got to see Venessa’s newborn twins. They’re two months old, but since they were born a month early they’re actually 1 month old. They were so cute and tiny :).

I had a foot-in-mouth moment when Mario’s cousin Betty was asking me when I was due. Then I asked her when she was due (which was a few days before Christmas) and she half-laughs, “I had him last Saturday! He’s a week old.” I felt so embarrassed that I further shoved my foot in my mouth when I said, “I thought you looked smaller!” Lord, help me.

Mario already wasn’t happy that we were going to the party and became even more frustrated when Mary and I took half an hour at H-E-B after the party. We needed to get a few more ingredients they didn’t have at Dollar General and of course with people traffic and the lines it took forever. When we got home, Mario had a total fit and made a mess in the kitchen. He made me feel like crap right away and I told him so. We didn’t talk the rest of the night; I took a shower and went straight to bed without saying a word to him. I woke up in the middle of the night to find his arm around my belly. I took that as his way of feeling sorry and guilty, even though I probably wasn’t supposed to “know” he was holding me.

The greatest thing just happened! Itzel, my former instructor (Mrs. C-R), just called to say hello and wish us a Merry Christmas. Her little girl just turned 3 months old on the 19th! I need to stop by school and visit her and have some lunch or something to catch up :).

As I was saying before, I spent the next day, Tuesday, making the batter for Snickerdoodles, picking up the boys and making cookies all in between everything else. I made Snickerdoodles of course, and some cookies called Butter Spritz Cookies I found in a stack of recipes Mom’d given me last year. NEVER AGAIN will I make those pieces of crap. I followed the directions step-by-step and they didn’t taste at all the way the description said they would. Dumb things. Didn’t help that the cookie press I’d borrowed from Mary (which she’d never used before herself) wasn’t working. I had to use cookie cutters. Even if the cookie press did work, I doubt they would have tasted any better >_<. Mary made Pan De Polvo and Pineapple bars and told me to use some of those, too. Lifesaver! It was 9:30 by the time I finished with the last cookie sheet and was about to start on chocolate chip cookies but took Mary's advice and just used the four sweets we already had. I had a hell of a time with the plastic wrap I was putting around the baskets but they turned out really nice. The kids each took the baskets that were for their teachers on their lap yesterday morning. Eenan handed his to Mrs. R., who said she loves Snickerdoodles, especially those that are homemade :). Jaylen carried a basket in each hand and gave them to Mrs. T. and Mrs. S., who hugged him and said he was a "handsome boy". I came home and quickly made Mario some breakfast. I scarfed down my food since my doctor's appointment was at 9. There's never any point to going early anyway, since they don't see you for at least an hour and a half after your appointment. Yesterday was no different. They called me in at 10:30 and took my vitals. I didn't gain any weight in the past 3 weeks. In fact, I lost 5 oz., which is surprising considering how much I eat. Laura, my nurse, said everything went straight to my belly because it's definitely bigger than last time. I told her about my constant aching feet and how they've been swelling at night lately. My urinalysis was perfect and so was my sugar, after they pricked my finger to check my glucose since I had glucose in my pee once again (Mario warns me not to put so much sugar in my coffee!). They took me into the Sono room and the doctor came in about 10 minutes later. He checked my feet and said I looked fine and my blood pressure was fine, too, so the swelling might be because I'm on my feet a lot and my belly growing isn't helping. So, I just gotta keep my feet elevated sometimes. He gave me an ultrasound to check the baby's measurements and he said she's weighing about 4 lbs. 6 oz. :). I saw her legs, big belly, her huge head (which is nicely wedged in my pelvis which is why I've been feeling those annoying I-desperately-need-to-pee pains lately), and her little privates, which still show she's a girl :). The only thing that I found a bit strange was he said I was 32 weeks, which is NOT TRUE! I'm 34 weeks and some days. He told the nurse to schedule my next appointment for 35 weeks, which according to him is January 10th! I'm supposed to be 35 weeks next Tuesday, so I don't know what the deal is. All I know is when I go back on the 10th, it starts the beginning of my pelvic exams and some swab that tests for some bacteria or something that causes premature labor. How lovely. Since the doctor moved my due date even further, I'm now supposedly due Feb. 8th. *bangs head* I picked Jaylen up at noon, and he was happily lugging a huge red truck he got in the gift exchange around and his backpack was full of goodies and glitter from art projects he was bringing home. We came home and chilled out till it was time to pick up Eenan, who had a huge gift bag and even more glittery projects with him. He made Mario this adorable basket, full of copper glitter and foam stickers. He was so proud of his basket. When he got home he quickly took all of Mario's keys off the key rings on the wall and put them in the basket :P. John and I left the kids with Mom and then headed for McAllen to drop off the bag of clothes, toys and a brand-new Scooby blanket for the Garcia family. I stop by Mario's work first, just to chat and as I'm leaving one of his co-workers tells me to go the other way, since something's going on at the Chase Bank Tower. I go the way he instructed me to and sure enough, when passing the bank we see a whole bunch of people standing outside the bank, looking up. There's cops and firemen everywhere. We try our hardest to find the building, but with all the one-way streets over there it was kind of difficult. I call the number in the newspaper and the lady says they're located right behind Chase Bank, but they're being evacuated so she was on her way home. I ask what happened and she said there was a bomb threat and everyone was told to leave. She told me I could drop them off today. Just my luck. I want to do something nice and it's the day the whole damn place is evacuated! I had Mario take the bag with him today to drop it off for me, since I didn't want to drive all the way over there for nothing again. I hope he got it to them okay. Mom's behind me, crocheting a blanket for Alaethia. She'd been wanting to start crocheting again, but after not crocheting for almost 30 years she'd forgotten how. She didn't stop trying till she "got it" again yesterday and now she's about a fourth of the way through with the blanket. It's all cute and pastel-ly :). I'm so glad she's got a hobby again; she's thrilled about it. Now she can teach me how! I've always wanted to learn but my brain turns to mush when I try to learn from tutorials online. It's taken me half the day, literally, to type this out while doing everything else I need to do. I have to stop slacking and start cleaning this place up since Jorge, Mario's godfather, will arrive here from California sometime tomorrow and I don't want him seeing this mess. Tomorrow's also the day that I'm PRAYING we finish with our Christmas shopping. I do not want to be in town on the 23rd and 24th--it's way too dangerous. I still need gift ideas for some people, too. Which reminds me: I need to e-mail Noelia to send me a copy of her List. The hard one's going to be Mario's dad. We still owe him a birthday present from the beginning of December! We can never find his sizes or the stuff he wants :(. Okay, that's it. I'm going to start from the kitchen and work my way to the bathroom and living room. THEN I'll tackle the bedrooms.

I just spent about 15 minutes typing writing up an entry on my PDA and when I pressed “publish” the piece of crap got a 410 error, which is like a 404 Not Found. Argh!! I was testing it, since I probably won’t have a laptop by the time I’m ready to have Alaethia and I’d love to have updates while I’m in the hospital, but it sucks with WordPress. It worked perfectly with Greymatter. You’re letting me down WP :(.

I seriously thought I was going to be updating from the hospital yesterday. A while after I posted my last entry I started feeling really crappy. My stomach was cramping; I had no idea whether it was contractions or an upset stomach. I went searching on Google for ‘signs of labor’ and I checked off every single symptom except for my water breaking. I was freaking out, especially since I’m only 33 1/2 weeks along! It ended up being some kind of half-day stomach bug, though, which made me feel miserable anyway but I was thankful that it wasn’t labor.

Since I felt sick, I didn’t get to wrap many presents but I at least got the kids’ gift-exchange ones done and packed to take with us today. I ended up eating strawberry oatmeal for dinner at around 10:30pm since that’s when my stomach settled a little and I stopped feeling nauseous. Mario and I cuddled and I had a better night’s sleep than I though I would, thank goodness.

I woke up feeling pretty good, and so far, I’m fine. I’ve been spending my free time uploading old pictures (’03-’04ish) to my Flickr account. So far, I’ve got Jaylen’s Baptism, Janaury 2004 (still adding to that one though), Christmas 2004 (which has 150-some pictures!), and I’m slowly adding to my 80s Set. Makes me miss my collections terribly *wipes tear*.

So, I’ll leave you with those. Enjoy! But be warned, again, my camera at the time (Samsung Digimax 101) was crappy and really blurry :(.

First, I’d like to thank you all for the comments on my previous entry. Mario switched days off with a co-worker (per his co-worker’s request) and will have Monday off next week, so that’s when we plan to go through our closet and storage unit and find things for the family :).

Now for a much lighter entry. Mario was snappy last night, we made me get snappy. I took a shower, did laundry, and went to bed to read without saying a word to him at all. I was in bed reading for about 20 minutes when he jumps on the bed and puts his arm around my belly, chin on my shoulder and just lays there. Scared me half to death. That’s his way of saying “Sorry, let’s not argue anymore.”

I set the alarm for 12:30am, which I did not want to do, but I had to turn off the slow cooker (made ribs) and put laundry to dry. Add two more wake-up calls from the bladder; I couldn’t wake up this morning. I had every intention of crawling back into bed once John, the boys and Mario were out of the house, but I had some caffeinated coffee with Mario along with breakfast and now I’m completely awake. I’m going to regret this around 2pm. *eye twitches*

Remember what I said on my December 9th entry? That I had to go shopping and I just know one of the kids was going to act up? I was totally right. They were both good at the beginning. First stop was Gramma’s and they behaved pretty well. Next stop was Target. Something possessed Jaylen (a little demon I suspect) and he started throwing a fit as soon as we walked into the store and grabbed a cart. The carts were all wet since it’d been raining and he insisted on getting in one. After hearing a minute straight of his ear-piercing screams (and being started at my other customers) I told John to just put in in a cart, wet or not. He continued to scream over Heaven-knows-what and I started to feel really overwhelmed. John got what he went for (a hoodie sweatshirt) and he paid and I stormed to the front of the store as fast as I could. Eenan was being really good. He saw how stressed I was and just walked quietly beside me the whole time.

Jaylen, on the other hand, continued to scream all the way to the truck. Everyone got in the car and I calmly told him he was grounded, which set him off again. I lost it and yelled, “SHUT UP!!!” and started bawling my eyes out. I surprised Mom and John and the kids. Shoot, I surprised myself! Talk about hormones gone wild. I sat there, silently sobbing for a little while with my hands cupped over my eyes until I could get myself to calm down. I hate crying in front of people. And, hello? I don’t want people to know my kids can get to me that way. First thing I told mom and John was, “No one will know about this.”

And Jaylen? He didn’t even stay awake long enough to feel guilty for making his emotionally unstable mother cry. The boy fell asleep as soon as he heard my first sob.

I still had two stops to make, Kmart and Wal-Mart, but opted to go only to Kmart since the thing I needed to buy there was on sale and since it was Saturday, it wouldn’t be on sale the next day. There was no way I was going to Wal-Mart.

Mom stayed in the car with the boys. Jaylen was still sleeping and Eenan was being extremely good. I wiped my eyes one more time and John and I went into the store.

(Babe, you better NOT be reading this! Close the window right now!)

We went straight into the sporting goods department, because that’s where the knife Mario wanted was. We found it very quickly: A white and red ticket was taped to the display that said $17.99 on it, just like Mario described. We waited for a cashier and waited, and waited. Finally, after 10 minutes, I saw an employee pass by and I flagged him down. He sent the girl from that department over.

I tell her which one I want and she says. “Oh…” I feel my heart sink, shoot a look at John and ask her, “What happened?” She says, “This price is for an old Ad. It’s actually $31.99….”

She trails off and starts ripping off stickers from other items that are old and turns to me and says, “But, we have to give it to you for that price since the sticker was there.”

I felt so relieved and wanted to hug her. When we were walking to electronics, where we were going to pay, I whisper to John, “I’m so glad they’re giving it to me for that price. Otherwise, this would have been the–”

“–worst day of your life?”

“No, not the worst, but close. Top 10. No, top 5, at least.”

We browsed around a little after I paid and then we went to the truck. Jaylen was still sleeping and for a second I considered going to Wal-Mart but quickly snapped out of it after remembering just how horrible his mood is when he’s abruptly awaken.

I don’t know if it was pure coincidence, or if the dramatics with Jaylen set it off, but I started feeling really tired and breathless the next couple of days. If I did normal things, like walking around the house putting laundry away or sweeping or standing for long periods of time washing dishes, I’d get short of breath, my palpitations would start up and I’d feel light-headed. I was attentive to everything I was feeling though, and kept feeling for Alaethia’s movements, which were frequent, just in case.

Went to eat at Jesse’s on Sunday afternoon. Poor Mario had wanted to go there since his birthday and we finally had a chance. Mary went along with us. We ordered a delicious Seafood Platter and there was plenty of fish, shrimp, fried oysters (ew), stuffed crabs and frog legs (double ew) to go around. Mario specifically got that platter because he wanted to try the frog legs. He kept offering me some but I passed.

After lunch, we had two stops to make, the first of which I can’t remember for the life of me and the other to Wal-Mart. Mary offered to stay in the car with the boys since she was reading the newspaper so we were grateful for that. They’d been pretty good, but we didn’t want to risk it. I’m hoping this is just a phase Jaylen’s going through because it would really suck to have to leave them behind everytime I had errands to run :(.

As soon as we went into the store, I started feeling really sweaty and lightheaded. It was weird since I’d just eaten, so I knew it wasn’t that my sugar was low. We got everything we needed quickly and went home.

We got home and Mary took off again to buy a Christmas tree at H-E-B. Yadira, Tommy, and the kids came over to help decorate the tree. I’m usually up there, dizzy with Noelia after wrapping lights around the tree a few times, but I still felt too weak to help this year. Instead I took many pictures :).

We went to Elda’s after the tree-decorating to check out the chairs she upholstered. They looked so nice. Which reminds me, I need to upholster my hideous kitchen chairs, too. We’ve only had our table and chairs for a year (this Christmas) and the boys already destroyed the fabric. I’m going to upholster them with nice fabric covered in clear plastic. Hopefully they won’t end up stabbing the plastic, though.

Mario made burgers on the George Foreman that night, so I was plenty grateful for that. My feet wouldn’t have been able to take standing in front of the darn stove.

Mario and I had a talk on Monday or Tuesday after he got home from work. I don’t even know how it came up, I think it was something we saw on TV where a girl started crying or something and he asked, “Why are women like that? I mean, I don’t get it. How can you all just cry like that?” I laugh and say, “Hey, in my case it’s my hormones, darnit. I can’t help it at all. Trust me, I’d love it if I didn’t have to bawl all the time.” And the conversation went on from there.

We talked about the baby, our lives together, the boys, what we want in the future, and other stuff I can’t remember. I told him how I really wanted to help out with the bills and how I also wanted a house in at least a year, badly, and he told me not to rush. He said he found it strange how I kept saying I was “only spending a few months with the baby”. I felt like I had to rush. He never says anything about me not working, but I want to work. I cried a little when I told him I was going to miss a lot of her milestones when I started working, and he said, “You don’t have to miss anything, nobody told you you had to work!” Still, I’d love to work, but if I find it to hard to leave her I’m listening to Mario and staying home a little longer. The best of both worlds would be to work from home, but there aren’t very many opportunities like that where I live.

I’ll change the subject now. Thinking of all that stuff stresses me out, and she’s not even born yet!

Wow, my back hurts. My feet are feeling pretty good, but only because I constantly have them propped up when I get a chance to sit down. They’re not swollen or anything, which is weird, but they hurt so bad. Maybe it’s because I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been right now and my body’s not used to it? I wake up 3-4 times a night to pee and when I step down off the bed I get a stabbing pain in my feet. I finally stopped procrastinating and bought some soft flip-flop style slippers yesterday. My feet felt much better last night (I usually walk around barefoot, which hurts my feet even more). And speaking of night time, turning from one side to the other is the worst pain I’ve felt so far. I’ve heard a crack a few times when I’m slowly trying to turn.

The kids had a dentist appointment yesterday. I got Eenan out of school early, which I wasn’t too happy about since they have Benchmark tests and 6 Weeks tests going on. He should be alright though. Both of them did really good, although Eenan was hyper as always. Eenan got a filling re-done with minimal screaming. He just needed to hold my hand while Dr. Canales drilled. Jaylen loved his teeth cleaning and has absolutely no cavities :).

OMG, and did anyone watch the Biggest Loser yesterday?! Can you believe how thin the final four (and even some of the ones kicked off early and the ones excersizing at home) got? I would love to know what exercises they do. I need to find episodes on Youtube or something and save them so I can get inspired when I’m ready to work off this baby weight!

It occured to me that I’ve got a month and a week or so to go and I still have tons of stuff that need to be done around the house. I’ve already made a to-do list on Word and I’m praying we’ll get every single last thing crossed off that list!

My computer’s slowly dying. We’ve had it for 3 years already. I say ‘already’ because the last one we had gave out in 3 years also. It shuts down when making DVDs or when the kids are playing games on the Disney or Cartoon Network sites. I thought it was a virus or something at first, but Norton and all the other programs we have don’t alert us to anything. A while back, the computer diagnosed itself with either bad RAM, power supply, fan or harddrive. NICE. That’ll be easy to figure out *sarcasm*.

Before the computer dies, I need to back everything up (let’s see HOW I can do it since I can’t exactly burn much) and get all my old entries on WordPress. Thankfully, most of my important files are on my external harddrive. I need to go through my old pictures, which are on CDs, and add them (even though my camera from 2003–a Samsung Digimax 101–was crappy but at the time I thought it was amazing LOL) to Flickr. I also want to scan some old pics, like my baby pictures and pictures of Gramma, and add them, too.

I’ve also go to start wrapping presents. I’m the type of person that waits till Christmas Eve and stays up making cookies and wrapping presents till 1 or 2am because I’ve procrastinated all month. Not everything that’s in my closet is mine (Mary’s stashed some stuff in there, too) and I’ve got stuff at Mary’s and Mom’s:

Oh yeah, and I have to clean up the living room and kitchen. I don’t like that part.