Category: Shopping

I’m taking a break. My feet and back are killing me for standing and walking around the past 2 hours. Not to mention the heaviness I feel carrying around this big belly. I woke up at 8, got Mario’s lunch packed and he left to work. Alaethia was already awake and had some milk and watched Noggin while I made eggs. She’d fallen asleep around 9:30 last night, but she didn’t stay in her room all night. She called for her Daddy-O around 11:30pm and came to our room. I laid her down and she was out like a light again. I supposed I could have just taken her to her room again, but we’ll try that again tonight. Even though she kicks and uncovers me and wakes me up around 5 times a night, I will miss sleeping beside her. She’s so loveable :).

We ate and were interrupted by Elda’s mom and sister-in-law who were looking for my mother. They said her door was locked. Not to be rude, but I was like, Um…and? I guess they all do it, including my mom, just walking up into people’s houses. I’m sorry, but I don’t like that. Like I told Mom once: what if Mario and I are doing the deed and she just walks in??

Anyway, I started cleaning up the kitchen table (our dumping ground, unfortunately) and ran back and forth changing DVDs for my indecisive daughter from Strawberry Shortcake to “Terabithium”. Then I started washing dishes. That’s what took 2 hours. Bless Mom. I ask her—daily–not to wash dishes because 1) she doesn’t watch Alaethia very well when she’s occupied with something else, 2) she just piles them and piles them up and it becomes overwhelming having to put them away, and 3) I end up washing half of them over again anyway because she doesn’t wear her glasses and leaves dried up food or grease on them. So it took me a while to put them all away (especially since my belly doesn’t exactly let me reach the cabinets anymore) and then I washed the dishes and cleaned up the counter, because Mario likes to dump all his electronics and tools there. Now it looks much, much better. Alaethia asked to color, so I strapped her into her high chair and gave her some crayons and her Little Mermaid coloring book. When I was almost done she asked for strawberries (or apples as she calls them LOL) and she ate them all, about 6. Then she asked for grapes. I’m amazed at how well she’s eating today. She ate all her eggs, had a little bit of milk, and then the fruit. I feel like the sky was split open by rays of sun and angels are signing “Hallelujah!” down to me. I hope she continues to eat well.

(Hours later…) Well, I spoke too soon. She didn’t eat lunch very well, but she did stuff herself with all that fruit. She poked at her macaroni and fish a little bit, but didn’t even eat half. I got ready around 2:30 and dropped a package off for Mario at the Post Office and then picked up the boys. I decided we should go see Gramma today just in case we get busy like we usually do during the weekend. So the boys unwillingly put their clothes back on (they strip down to their undies once they step over the threshold). Alaethia was happy to get ready. She looks forward to going places.

Gramma’s doing very well, thank goodness. Mom unloaded the goodies she’d bought for Gramma while the kids got comfy on her bed and watched TV. They were doing well for the most part, until Eenan started putting his feet in Jaylen’s way and was blocking the TV—then it got nasty. They started smacking each other and almost knocked Alaethia off the bed until I told them to stop or they were grounded indefinitely. That stopped them right away…until they started again a few minutes later. After talking with Gramma and her telling me the name she liked for the baby (Julissa, but I told her my half-brother’s daughter’s named Julissa), I gathered my children and we said our goodbyes.

Our next stop was Target where I needed to find little pails in the Dollar Spot for the Care Bear centerpieces for Aly’s party next weekend. I usually find them but had no luck this time. I found some cute Valentine-y felt bags and bought 6 of those hoping they’d look okay with the bears.

The boys did well for the beginning of the shopping trip, but they both got really antsy towards the end. Eenan almost knocked over a whole rack of clothes when Mom was picking two dresses as Alaethia’s gift. She got her the dress she’ll be wearing the day of her party and the shoes she’ll be wearing. They are too cute.

I got Alaethia a potty chair and psyched her up a bit. It’s got lights, it talks to her and it dispenses stickers! I hope she’ll get excited and want to use it. I’ll be starting the potty training next Sunday! Eek!

I was so tired on the way home. Mario was barely on his way also since he’d bought a Treo off his boss since his Razr died on him and had been activating it. He was quite moody when we finally got home because he couldn’t get the MiniTones program working and my phone wouldn’t beam to his. But I found the USB wire and everything worked and he was happy. One of the highlights of the evening was that it was leftover night, so I didn’t have to cook, thank God.

I’ve been trying to finish updating my backed up entries and resting on the sofa since Alaethia fell asleep. Emily’s been squirming around like crazy (I can literally see and feel my stomach being lunged from side to side!) and I can feel her tiny feet pressing against my skin. I’ve been getting these weird little shocks of pain on the right side of my belly right above my leg. Feels like a pinching almost. I hope it’s not that I’m dehydrated or anything.

Okay. I have to go to bed. It’s 1:34am and Mario, of course, is still outside drinking with Jose. We supposedly didn’t do anything tonight because he was SO sleepy and tired. Uh huh. Sure.

I don’t remember much of what we did throughout the day on Sunday since I didn’t leave a note for myself like I usually do. We might have gone to Target and Walmart. I think this is the day we bought Alaethia’s bedroom rug from Walmart. It looks so girlie now, with just that change. I think it was also the day I went through a box of my 80’s sheets and found some Care Bear curtains I’d completely forgotten about. Her room looks almost complete :).

I do remember clearly that I picked the wrong time to start trying to wean Alaethia from her ½ milk, ½ water cups at night. She still wakes up at least once a night, especially now that she’s sleeping in our bed with us since we moved her crib/daybed into her own room. When the crib was in our bedroom she’d sleep in it all night. Well, when she does wake up she only wants milk. So I water it down because I fear for her teeth. She’ll inspect the cup and shake it because she knows what I’m up to. She stares at it to check if it’s white and will drink it if she sees that it is. If it’s too watered down she’ll throw it at us, literally.

So this would be the first night in a while that I’d try only water. We were in bed by 10:30 but I stayed up with her till 12am. She woke up again at 2:30 for a cup and screamed her head off until I gave in and gave her the half-and-half. I didn’t go back to sleep till 4:20 and the alarm went off an hour later. I still tried getting up and getting ready but nope, I couldn’t do it. I decided I wouldn’t torture myself that day. I needed to use up my sick days anyway.

Man, I’ve got my work cut out for me. I need to wean her off her sippy cup at night, convince her to start sleeping through the night in her bedroom, and DUN DUN DUN: potty training! All before Emily gets here. Omg.

I used my extra “day off” wisely. I caught up on some cleaning and finished up with laundry. Aside from being a packrat with papers it takes me forever to put my laundry away because it’s so much and Alaethia’s stuck to me like a leech right now. Mario and I really have to do some Spring Cleaning and go through our closet to get rid of clothes we don’t wear. I’m kind of hoping to do this after I have Emily so I can see what fits and what doesn’t. Getting rid of all my maternity clothes will create extra space on “my side”, too.

After I picked the boys up I left the kiddos with Mom while I went to meet Mary in downtown McAllen to start buying stuff for Alaethia’s party. I found light blue table cloths, Care Bear pencils, and Care Bear cake plates. All for about $6. Mary contributed some cute beaded necklaces for the girl bags and some little wind-up cars for the boy ones. We looked around some more and Mary found some cute little lilac glass jars and resin ballerina babies for my baby shower centerpieces. We went across the street and I found Care Bear plushes I wanted to use for centerpieces at Alaethia’s party. I actually bought four 12″ Care Bears that I thought of using as centerpieces but putting a tag on that said those were for Alaethia, but I thought that would be tacky. I kept those for Alaethia as a gift instead and bought 4 smaller Care Bear cubs for the centerpieces. They were only $4 each. As I was driving off I instantly regretted not getting more of the cubs. Oh well, I’d just come back later.

I rushed straight home and started getting ready for the next day. Ugh. It’s back to work tomorrow.

I was all on my own that day and it went surprisingly well. Well, except for the internet already being excruciatingly slow on the actual first day back. I had to use my psuedo manual check out worksheet on Excel, which meant that later, before I could do anything else, I had to add them into the system manually. I shelved all the books that I’d checked in and started checking in the huge stacks of dictionaries and thesauruses they’d brought to me the day before. Mr. Murphy helped a bit, even though he left half the books I gave him to shelve because he likes to talk about world events (the depressing ones), but he did push the cart of dictionaries for me to the shelf so I could put up. He had to leave so I couldn’t get him to help with that.

We had a meeting in the library that lasted about an hour, so I had to enter some stuff manually again. One of the top things on my to-do list was getting another bulletin board up and ready. We I have a total of 4 that we’re I’m in charge of. During the meeting Robert, Juan and Rudy showed up. I put them to work after they got permission from their teacher. They helped me staple most of the star border, which I’m grateful for because everyone kept scolding me the day before when I’d been reaching up to staple the letters on the other board. I asked why, what would happen? And the response I got was that the baby would wrap her umbilical cord around her neck if I stretched. What? First time I’d ever heard of that one!

I couldn’t get my darn letter of resignation printed out because the version of Word I’d used to type it up was different from the one at work. All I had to do was install the compatibility patch but of course we don’t have authorization to install anything. I e-mailed and asked Mary if she could print it for me and she did one better: sent it as a .PDF file so I printed a few copies out right away.

I went to lunch and a sub was sent in right when I was coming back. She was a lot of help. I found it the perfect opportunity to turn in my resignation. I was so nervous. I had to control my shaking limbs before I got up to go to Vero’s office to borrow an envelope and turn it in. I spoke to Vero, who was sad that I’m actually going to leave and then I went in to talk to the principal.

He was walking out as I was walking in. I felt my face flushing as I handed him the letter. He looks down at me with a curious expression and asks, “What’s this?” I’m following him into his office as he’s unfolding the sheet and watch as his face turns from a smile into a look of shock. He said it was coming completely left field, which I found weird because I could have sworn I was present when Mrs. V. had mentioned it and I know she’d mentioned it other times. He shakes the letter and with a smile on his face says, “You don’t have to do this!”

He asked if she’d tried to convince me to stay and I said yes, she did since the beginning but eventually she conceded. I said something like, “I don’t want to, but I have to,” and he held the letter in both hands and said, “I can still tear this up!” I almost ran forward and said, “No, no! I’ve made my decision. And I thank you for allowing me to work with you and all the wonderful people here. It’s been a great experience.” That seemed to calm him down and we started walking out of the office. I shook his hand and he says, “You still have 10 days to change your mind.”

I was so proud of myself. I did it without crying!

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. And because I turned it in that day it was exactly a two-week notice. I picked the boys up and had them start working on their homework. I cuddled with Alaethia and as we were watching Noggin’ Sally called asking if Mario and I would like to join them for dinner to celebrate their anniversary since I was there for their very first date. How sweet of them to remember me :). I’m still so thrilled I got to be a part of the birth of their relationship. I quickly got ready, left the kiddos with Mom and the in-laws, who were already outside getting ready to bar-b-q, and picked Mario up (late-ish) from work. We were meeting Pete and Sally about an hour later so we went to Barnes and Noble to kill time. I wanted so many books, but I only walked away with the Lolcats one. Now I can look at it and feel happy instantly :P.

We had a great dinner. I ordered my usual spinach and artichoke dip and had the Shrimp Alfredo. Yum. As we were getting comfortable and had ordered our food, I told them, “You know what guys? It’s funny: I was pregnant exactly two years ago with Alaethia when you guys first got together and now on your 2nd anniversary I’m pregnant again!” Hilarious.

We had some laughs and I love our marriage talks LOL. We told them about Alaethia’s poop story and they couldn’t stop laughing. Sally says, “So that’s what we have to look forward to!”

I don’t remember what we were talking about—probably about how Mario’s out all night while I’m asleep—but Mario said he was thrilled when I called and asked if he wanted to go to Chili’s with Pete and Sally. He says that’s one thing he’s looking forward to when I stop working: spending more time together.

I can’t wait to get together with them again. I love our conversations!