Category: Recipes/Cooking

My stove is fixed! In a little over 24 hours the problem was resolved, thank God.

Thank my Dad-in-law actually, who, along with his friend Ricky, took apart the back of my beautiful stove and figured out that the prongs of the electrical plug weren’t correctly coiled around this connector thing which burned and caused a short. It burned.

One of the things I fear most is a fire; a fire while I’m home alone and especially a fire during the night, where we, God forbid, might not hear the smoke detector going off. To think that the wires that burned could have sparked the wall and caused a huge fire scares the hell out of me. Thankfully it contained itself, probably because of the metal cover.

They assessed the damage last night while the boys and I ate at Mary’s and was kind enough to send over a plate of dinner for Mario, too. We’d need a new plug and that connector. Mary brought them over today after work and I was dreading to know how much it all cost. To my relief everything came out to $17. Praise the Lord.

Tomorrow, all will hopefully be back to normal. I’ll still be very cautious and keep an ear out, just in case though. I really want some lasagna, so I might just whip some up tomorrow while Mayra visits :). I can’t wait to catch up on the happenings of the last few weeks.

I should shower and get to bed. My back is aching. I did the rest of the housework I didn’t get to yesterday, so that might be why I feel so tired. I’m feeling sloth-like lately.

P.S. I made time to vote today, which was an adventure all on it’s own. Mom didn’t get to vote, which totally sucked. John didn’t want to go so if Republicans stay in charge I’m blaming him. I keed, I keed. Only because he bought me a cinnamon roll at his work :).

P.P.S. We totally have to go to Donna’s Corn Maze! I’ve wanted to do this since last year, when I first heard about it. It sounds like so much fun. Plus free roasted sweet corn and s’mores? AWESOME.

One of the worst things that could possibly happen in this household has happened.

Our electric ceramic-top stove has died!

Mario wanted a potato and egg taco for breakfast (he requested it around 1am last night when I felt him slide into bed) so I got started on it after I got home from dropping the kids off. I turned the right front burner on to heat the pan while I washed and peeled the potato. I noticed that around every 8 seconds I’d hear a ticking sound. I got closer and noticed the tick was coming from either the top of the stove where the knobs are, or from the front burner itself (the one I use the most). The potatoes finished cooking, I drained the olive oil that was left and added the egg, pepper and garlic powder. I took the pan off the burner when it was done and placed another pan on top of it to heat up the tortillas while I went to wake up Mario.

He gets up, I go back to the kitchen. I notice the red light that indicates that theres a “Hot Surface” isn’t on at all, yet I’ve had the stove on for a while on ‘6’. I switch to another burner, the left back one, put it on ‘9’ and nothing. I freak out and run into the bathroom where Mario’s taking a shower and yell, “OHMYGODTHESTOVEISN’TWORKING!” I explain about the ticking and how it was probably telling me it was dying and he says he’ll check it out when he gets out.

Not much he could do…he’d have to take the whole darn stove apart just to check the stove top and he still had to eat breakfast and get his stuff together for work. And I was finally going to make lasanga tonight, darnit! How the heck are we supposed to eat? I don’t buy microwavable food! Even the stuff that can be “heated up”, like pot pies and pizza, require an oven to cook them. The oven isn’t working either *pulls out hair*.

I wish I knew what caused it to just take a crap like that. We’ve only had it since February 2003, which is 3, almost 4 years. I can’t find any of the pamphlets and god only knows where I left the receipt for it. I know for a fact that we were idiots back then and wouldn’t register anything, so we probably don’t have any type of warranty. We paid cash for it at Sears, so they most likely didn’t take our info down, I think? Argh! I told Mario, “Dina’s (Jorge’s mom) had her flat top for years; how come hers hasn’t died?”

He smirks and says, “Because she probably doesn’t use it as much as you do.”

“… Great. I killed it. For cooking too much.”

I don’t know what we’re going to do, where I’m going to cook (I really don’t want to be cooking at my mom-in-laws then lugging everything back here), and who will fix it. Mary’s calling around and I need to ask my dad-in-law if he knows anyone who’ll fix electric ceramic tops, so we’ll see. Appliances and cars have great timing. Here we were excited about buying baby things and Christmas presents and now we have to fix a stove. Lovely!

Upon entering the bathroom to inspect Jaylen’s bootie (he asks me to, to make sure he’s wiped well) he says, “This is the best day!” I ask him why, expecting him to say because it’s Halloween or because of all the candy he received at school but he says, “Because I did Regular Poop!”

He got better about 20 minutes after the cool bath I gave him on Friday night and he promptly fell asleep (this, of course, was after Over the Hedge had already finished). I instinctively woke up every hour-hour and a half to check up on him and thankfully he was fine.

He was so cute though. He was slumped over next to me on the couch while we were watching the movie when I started coughing hysterically. He reaches over and pats me on the leg to calm me down. I tell him, “Aww baby, you’re so sick and here you are worried about me.” He says in his crackly voice, “I’m worried about you and my sister.” How sweet is that?!

The Mucinex I gave him, however, totally messed up his stomach. He woke up Saturday morning with terrible diarreah. I felt so bad for him. He went through his whole drawer of underwear almost.

I felt bad leaving him, but I had the baby shower to attend and although he wanted to go, it was at a fancy place and there was no way I was going to take him. (Though I’m sure he would have behaved better than Eenan would at an event that would take that long.) He and Eenan stayed with Mom, who’d be giving Jaylen his medicine (not the Mucinex, never again!) and giving them lunch shortly after I left.

I was going to the shower, which was for Mario’s cousin Betty, with Mary and Noelia. We stopped by Target first to get Mario a jacket he wanted that was on sale. Noelia thankfully found the only one in his size tossed off to the side so I grabbed it and we dropped it off to him. It was the second day of the sale at Mario’s work and man were they busy!

Mary needed to get some Amoxcil for Angela (who’s insurance sadly doesn’t go into effect till December just like my boys’) so we went to Mexico to pick some up.

We were going to a pharmacy that’s right across the street from the bridge. Thank God, because I didn’t know how far I could walk! The horrible pains I was having before had gone away, but I was afraid they’d come back from walking too much. Anyway, we got to the pharmacy and while Mary paid for the meds, I looked around at the junk food and got some chips (Tostitos?) that we used to eat back in school and some sugary things like Gansitos, which Mario loves (I don’t). I felt nauseous the whole night before and barely ate breakfast, but I opened up the bag of chips when we were on our way to the baby shower and ate the whole thing. I hate feeling nauseous. Thankfully I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been nauseous this pregnancy *knocks on wood, just in case*.

The baby shower was really nice. They decorated everything simply but it looked so nice. They had a rubber ducky theme going on since Betty’s having another boy (her 3rd baby as well). They’d told her up until two weeks ago that she’d be having a girl, so of course she was thrilled. Well, she goes for her 8 month appointment and they tell her she’s having a boy after all. I heard the aunts saying she’s going to try for a girl, because she was really upset that she wasn’t having one this time. This is the reason I’m still waiting to buy all the adorable pink things I’ve seen; I want to be absolutely sure that I’m having a girl. I have a feeling I am, and have had a feeling this whole pregnancy that she’s a girl, plus two positive sonos that showed she was a girl but I haven’t been given a sono of her privates! If only I had that picture in my hands and I could “see” for myself, I’d feel more at ease. Betty’s the 4th woman I know this year who’s been told she’s having this baby and ends up with the opposite gender.

I won the first two games of the baby shower: a nursery rhyme fill-in-the-blanks and a Purse Scavenger Hunt. Since I won two at Venessa’s the week before all the aunts kept saying stuff like, “Why should I even bother when Yajaira’s going to win?” and other stuff like that LOL. I decided to just not give it my all on the third game since I was sure they’d never invite me back to another shower :P. It was fun. I came home with a Bath and Body Works lotion, sponge and shower gel and two foot creams/sprays. Yay!

As soon as we got home I got the kids dressed up in their costumes for the Jamaica. Jaylen hadn’t gone to the bathroom for about two hours, so that was a relief since I wasn’t sure there were bathrooms at the place. The boys were all thrilled; Eenan in his Shadow Ninja costume and Jaylen in his Darth Vader one. Mom came along, and Mary was babysitting Matthew and Angela so they came along too.

There weren’t many games to play so we just got some waters, nachos, a turkey leg for Mario, and a fruit cup. The kids went on a train ride where Mary gave them half a pickle each. It didn’t occur to me at all that it would mess up Jaylen’s stomach, again, until they were around the corner. By the time they got back, he’d finished the whole thing.

The kids were moody since there was nowhere to sit and it was still light out so it was getting hot fast. We said hi to Yadira, one of her co-workers and Jaylen’s teacher, who were all volunteering at booths and then we left. Mary stayed behind with Angela and Matthew and I brought the boys home. We had just gotten to the driveway (we went walking, it was less than a block away) when Eenan freaked out over some bees and knocked Jaylen over. Poor Jaylen went skidding on his wrists since he was holding onto his water and a bag of candy they’d given him. I bandaged him up when we got inside and he just rested on the couch. He was still doing good diarreah-wise, but still looked down.

Eenan went to church with Mary while Angela stayed with me till Tommy picked her up. The poor thing had a fever, so I gave her Tylenol right before Tommy got here. Poor kiddos :(.

Mario got home later and we watched The Neverending Story, which the kids hadn’t ever seen. Eenan left half-way to Mary’s to sleep over and Jaylen stayed up for the whole thing. He ended up falling asleep on the couch so Mario moved him to his bed and we watched TV a little longer till we started to get sleepy. I went to bed first, and as soon as I felt Mario get into bed I hear Jaylen call us. He said he’d check what happened. The poor thing had an accident in his bed; the diarreah was back full-force thanks to the darn pickle I stupidly let him eat. We changed his sheets and put the dirty ones in the wash, wiped down his (plastic-covered) bed with Clorox Anywhere spray (love that stuff), gave him a quick wash down in the shower and put him to bed. He was fine the rest of the night but I still woke up every two hours to check on him.

I woke up to Jaylen looking really sad and telling me he was running out of undies again :(. I felt so bad. I made pancakes that morning hoping the bread wouldn’t mess up his stomach too much but the syrup must have made it worse. I had some errands to run and groceries to get, so Mom watched the boys while John and I went to McAllen.

We picked up John’s guitar first then stopped by Circle K (or Stripes, whatever) to get something for Mario to drink and snack on at work. They were super busy again so he appreciated the gesture since he didn’t even have a chance to get anything and they don’t usually go out for lunch at all on Sundays.

We went to Target next, where I got the boys a pair of jeans each (can you believe they grew out of all their jeans already!?) and I got a 20″ TV for our bedroom that was on sale for $89.97 (put it on my credit card, eek!). We went to Ross next, which John loathes, but I love. Everyone talks shit about it but I love buying nice clothes for half the price they usually go for (I owe my huge collection of cute T’s to that place–they usually have the exact same ones places like Wet Seal have for half the price!). I do hate that the damn store’s been turned upside down and it takes forever to pay for the stuff though.

I went with the intention to buy a huge bolster pillow to make sleeping easier but I only found one and it was torn. I figured I could sew it, wash it and make covers for it but only if they’d give me a good discount. While John goofed off and took pictures of ridiculous things I found two cute maternity blouses (one in black and one in pink) and a pair of khaki cargos with pink stitching. It came out to $28, which I was super ok with. They wanted to sell me the pillow for $9, even with the tear so I said nah. I’ll go back and check again later.

My feet were killing me, but I still had to get groceries so we went to Wal-Mart first for house supplies and toiletries and then to H-E-B for the actual food. I remembered to get Jaylen his Gatorade and soups and my pumpkin pie. Dumbass that I am I totally forgot the Whipped Cream! You can’t have pumpkin pie without whipped cream! I also bought all the stuff I’d need to make Dirt Cups for the kids’ classes, which are cups full of pudding, crushed Oreo’s and a worm on top :).

Mom had made burritos so I didn’t even have to make dinner–yay! After giving Jaylen his Gatorade and soup, he was doing much, much better and I prayed for the best since he had school the next day. He hates to miss and I like that he’s gotten perfect attendance so far, but I wasn’t going to allow him to go if he kept having accidents.

Thankfully he did just fine at school the next day. I told his teachers about it and they told me they’d call if they needed me to pick him up. I asked how many kids were in each class and there were 20 in each including the teachers. Crappy thing: they weren’t allowing anything like cupcakes or anything homemade, but were allowing bags of candy. Grr. I understand they’re doing it to be safe, but I would not poison my child or his classmates AND I’d already made the expense for the Dirt Cups and would have to make an additional expense since they wanted candy instead. They’d also stated they were only allowing children to dress up in Fairytale costumes but c’mon, who was going to dress their kid up as Peter Pan, or a Prince or something? I figured I’d send the boys off in their costumes and if they didn’t like it, I’d happily take them a change of clothes.

I picked Jaylen up after school and we made our way to the Dollar General, where I was hoping I’d find cheap, good candy. WRONG. I spent $13 just on 3 bags of candy that I was praying would be enough for both classes. As soon as we got home I started seperating the candy and putting it into the candy bags (thank God I still had unopened bags from last year that I didn’t use). After stressing out and getting exactly 20 of each candy for each class, I had just enough for 40 bags.

I picked Eenan up and we chilled out at home for a while till John got here. Jaylen’s tummy was doing great and Eenan was thrilled that his new DS had come in. Mary’d sent his old greenish one to get repaired and instead they sent us a brand-new red one since they didn’t have the green one. He didn’t care–I think he likes this one even more. Mom watched the boys while John and I went to the bank so we could both deposit. He wanted to go to Target, so we went really quick where he got some stuff for his guitar and bought us both some Starbucks. My little brother has his own money and is buying me Starbucks–he’s growing up *tear*.

I started on dinner when we got home: chilli. I’d been craving some good chilli and found a seasoning packet for some. It was delicious!

Mario got out of work late since it was so busy and ended up staying even later since the guys were having some beers. I got everything ready for the next day, even though my feet were killing me. They don’t swell up, but they just ache really bad at the end of the day. I took a shower and went to bed while watching TV. I love that there’s a TV in our bedroom now; I need the white noise to fall asleep when Mario’s not home.

I need to have some lunch (leftover chilli!) and then start on those Dirt Cups. Since I didn’t make them for the kids’ class I’m going to make them for us here at home. Hope everyone has a great night of Trick-or-Treating!

[edit @ 2:36pm] Alaethia’s got the hiccups! [\edit]