Category: Shopping

So, yeah—this has taken forever. I’m so tired of my entries being squished into one huge post. Not only is it inconvenient for me when I’m looking for something, but it must be boring as hell to read as a whole!

I’m taking a break from all house duties (since I did them over the weekend anyway), making something quick for dinner and watching Alaethia playing with her Magna Doodle while just so I can update for once. [edit: only got to finish up to October 7th…will update with more HOPEFULLY later.]

Sun., Sept. 28th – We woke up late, which we usually do on Sundays, and went over to Mary’s to eat Barbacoa that Mom had treated us all to. My dad-in-law added a few extra feet of cement under the new carport he made especially for me and the kids (I’m so spoiled :P), which is awesome ’cause now they have even more space to run around and play. He and Mary started talking about landscaping and she and Mario decided to go to the flea market and buy sod. Super last minute decision! They got home with Mario’s trunk bed piled high with sod. Big Mario and Mario quickly got to work and laid the sod down in about an hour and a half. Mario finished just in time to quickly shower and we left to the movies. Mary, the kiddos (except Aly—she stayed with Mom) and I watched Eagle Eye–OMG awesome movie! My hormonal self was crying at the end, of course.

Mary had a Rosary to attend so she took Mario’s truck and we took her car to Target and then Walmart. We got home and I only had enough time to put groceries away before Adan, Aide and Belle came over. I love having company but not when the house is a mess—and boy was it! I contemplated staying home from work the next day just to clean the house but thought better of it.

Mon., Sept. 29th – I put up posters at work that day. I was worried about being asked to glue the posters on the walls since I was afraid Mrs. V. would ask me to put some up that were to high, hence needed to stand on a ladder or something, but thankfully she didn’t. Things got really hectic that day; our stupid check-out system is super slow still. There’s no change since last year. I was having to do tons of things at once and didn’t really have much time to shelve the books that I’d checked in. Mrs. Ruiz got there around 11am and helped me, thank god. She’s my guardian angel, I’m telling you.

Mario was disappointed when he received a letter from Border Patrol letting him know that as of that moment, he was “not medically cleared” because he basically flunked his eye exam. It was so discouraging to know that he aced everything else, but his vision was holding him back. He was either going to have to try to get a new prescription for glasses…or get Lasik.

Tues., Sept. 30th – The kids were having their 1st 6 weeks reviews and tests beginning that day so it was much calmer. 2nd period was still crazy, but I had it under control for the most part.

Tues. 23rd — Mrs. V. was back at work, which meant I’d have lots of stuff to do. There’s really never any down time. I felt really overwhelmed and sad at the end of the day and I didn’t even know why. Mrs. V., Mrs. Ruiz and I stood by my desk and talked about the quinceanera, and life in general. We started talking about some students we know, which somehow led to talking about Eenan’s behavior and I got so emotional about it that I started bawling; for the 2nd time in front of Mrs. V., first time in front of Mrs. Ruiz. I was so embarrassed. I couldn’t stop! Mrs. V. assured me that I’m doing a great job with the kids and that I’m an excellent mom, which made me cry even more LOL. A sub walked in at that time so I forced myself to stop crying. As I’m shelving the last few books of the day I notice the books the sub’s been putting away are in the wrong place. He says, “Uh oh! I messed up,” –which is not what I wanted to hear! I found out later on that he’d been putting all the books he’d worked on since his conference period in the wrong place. Bleh. More work for me!

Mario got home early that night. He got ready for bed around 8:30 and I hadn’t even taken a shower. The only time he has to “watch” the kids really (and it’s usually just Alaethia because the boys are in bed already) is the 30 minutes or less I spend in the shower. He didn’t care. He just cacooned himself in our comforter and began to fall asleep, Alaethia crying at the foot of the bed. I scooped her up and muttered “worthless piece of crap”, but the meaner version, which I shouldn’t have, but I was so frustrated. Why does he get to just do as he pleases and I can’t? He goes on without a worry except for whatever happens at work and I have the brunt of everything! Which is usually the case; the mom being the backbone. I wish there was more teamwork!

Needles s to say, he got up and left. That’s another thing. I know I insulted him and hurt his feelings, but I can’t just up and leave when he hurts mine.

Well, I had to shower regardless of whether I had someone to watch Aly or not, so I tried bathing with her sitting on the foot stool in the bathroom. No can do. She kept opening the cabinets and drawers and ripping the shower curtain open, which wet the floor. I asked her if she wanted a bath and she quickly ripped off her diaper. She was so well behaved; didn’t try splashing water outside or anything! First time I’d ever bathed with one of the kids. Never the boys, because they were boys and I felt uncomfortable and although Alaethia’s a girl I just feel really weird because, hello? I’m naked.

Wed. 24th – I woke up feeling really guilty about my argument with Mario. It was raining—no, pouring–and I was nervous about driving in the rain, especially because it’s so dark down the road I take.

As I was driving west on the Expressway I see the flashes of ambulance and police lights. It looked like a huge accident; the whole right lane (going East) was closed. As I get closer and am about to turn I slow down to see what it is: a huge semi trailer on its side. My heart flipped. It was all very scary. I prayed all the way to work and gave thanks to God for another day with my family. I decided to text Mario an apology as soon as I got to work. It made me realize life’s too short to be angry/upset over petty things like a shower.

We had grade level meetings that day, which means I can’t scan any books in because of the “beep” the scanner emanates. The system was excruciatingly slow so we resorted to checking out by an Excel document, like last year, which meant I’d have to manually check out these books to the kids by entering every student’s ID plus their book barcodes into the system. Since I couldn’t scan or shelve books, I busied myself alphabetizing and filing agreement documents and when I had nothing else to do I scanned books in…by hand. I typed in all barcodes. And then I was volunteered to substitute for 1 hour! I was horrified, as I’d never substituted before and was expecting the worst. I was going to get a taste of what poor Noelia has to go through every day. And these were 6th graders!

It went much better than I thought it would. The first class was really well behaved. The second class had 3 rowdy boys, but once I wrote their names down and redirected their behavior all was well.

I went back and rearranged classes for the teachers in Reading Renaissance. I went to lunch with Mrs. Ruiz and had 10 lovely extra minutes because I clocked out late the day before.

Mario got home and we watched movies, or tried to anyway. We got to watch all of Made of Honor, which was really cute. Even he enjoyed it. We tried watching Definitely, Maybe but Alaethia was becoming moody because she was sleepy so I just got in the shower and then bathed her and went to bed.

Thurs. 25th – I can’t remember much from that day (I blame my Pregnancy Brain), but I know it was pretty normal: hectic in the morning at work, low-key in the afternoon. I got home and since it was payday for me, I started paying my bills and then working out my new bill-paying schedule since Mario’s getting paid every week at his new job. It was such a headache—I’ve been paying our bills and buying groceries every two weeks since we got married 9 ½ years ago, so it’s taking some getting used to.

Fri. – 26th – Friday!! The day I look forward to all week. It was jean and Spirit shirt day so I was in a good mood. It was another normal day (hectic) and we had an overload of books to shelve at the end of the day, but Mrs. Ruiz, my guardian angel, helped me out so much. I left work to pick up the kids in such a good mood. Mario texted me and told me he’d have to work the next day, which kind of bummed me out, but oh well, what can you do.

We didn’t go visit Gramma that day since I figured we’d just go Saturday since Mario was working anyway. We chilled out outside with the in-laws and got the kids some ice creams and elote. Mario got home and told me we were invited to his boss’s house again for another bar-b-q. I didn’t bother getting all prettied up this time; just changed my blouse and shoes and we left. We chilled out with Maggie and the boss’s wife and then we joined the men outside and ate and talked and joked around. There was a point where I got a little riled up when some stupid things were brought up, and then my hormonal pregnant self bawled on the way home, but Mario was being really nice about everything.

Sat. 27th – Mario got his stuff ready on his own the next morning. I was so exhausted I couldn’t get out of bed. Aly and I woke up at the same time and we had breakfast and just lazied around. Mom kept rushing me and the boys to get ready so we could leave to town, but I was just too tired. The boys ended up leaving to town with Mary, Natalie and Catharine instead. I finally took a shower and we left around noon. Mario had called just before I’d gotten into the shower to tell me he was on his way home from work already. I thought, “Yay, he’ll get to go with us!” But no. He said since I wasn’t expecting him to go in the first place, wouldn’t I rather he stay home and do laundry instead? I walked him through the sorting and gave him instructions and we took off.

My first stop was Conn’s, where I paid the last $74 on our 47″ TV!! Yay, one less bill to worry about ^_^. It felt SO GOOD to pay it off. I was starving so we stopped at Taco Bell to have lunch. It took forever; Alaethia was too busy smearing her taco meat on the window (I cleaned it up, don’t worry) and only wanted to drink Cherry Pepsi. She refused to go in a high chair, but I eventually put her in one anyway. She thankfully didn’t throw a fit and finished eating her food just fine. It took us about 45 minutes just to eat lunch.

I stopped for gas and on the way to Gramma’s I decided to stop by the thrift shop, just in case I found any books, since I won’t have them as easily accessible once I stop working. My plans went out the window when Alaethia kept screaming every time she saw a “baby” (stuffed animal) and would ask for a book and give it right back to me just to ask for another one again. They also did some inconvenient rearranging of furniture so I couldn’t get the shopping cart in the aisles. I decided we’d wasted enough time and went straight to Gramma’s.

She’s doing well, except for a slight cough she’s getting. I hope they keep an eye on her; she always ends up with pneumonia. She laughed at the silly things Alaethia was saying and Alaethia kept running into the hallway. It was hilarious when someone scared her and all you saw was a flash of pink run back into the room. Gramma couldn’t stop laughing.

I started feeling really ill while we were there. I called Mario right away and asked him if he was feeling ill, because we always get sick at the same time. He said no, he felt fine. I decided to skip Walmart and Target that day and go the next. I hate having to do grocery shopping on Sundays, but oh well.

We get home and I just collapse on the couch. It isn’t long before Mario says, “Uh oh. Now I’m feeling gross.” We narrowed it down and figured it might be the type of meat his boss buys for the bar-b-q’s, because the last time we got sick (we thought it was the 24-hour bug) we’d eaten at his boss’s house the night before, too. Weird.

Mary and the boys went straight to church, Mom went home and Mario and Alaethia fell asleep. I was all alone so I decided to finish up with laundry and clean up.

A few hours later, when we’re both feeling much better, Mario and I pick up some pizzas at Peter Piper for the whole family for dinner. I love to cook, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy not being on my feet. When the boys went to sleep over at Mary’s, Mario and I (and Alaethia) watched Definitely, Maybe…and I bawled like a baby at the end. Mario kept laughing at me but I couldn’t help it. Darn hormones!

Mon. 18th – the 20th – That week at work was spent adding the newcoming 6th graders into our database and the beginning of adding them to our Reading Renaissance database because our lovely coordinator deleted everyone from the database. We had this false sense of security that this year we were just going to add the 6th graders and voila! we’d be done! But no. So I had the pleasure of adding all the kids. One by one, I added them.

Tues. 19th – Mom’s 59th birthday. I rushed home and started on the enchiladas and rice I was making her for dinner. John wanted to get her a cake, which was better for me—one less thing to do, so we drove to H-E-B and got an Oreo cake for her. Got back and the food was ready. My dad-in-law was sick and sleeping, Mario was still at work so it was just John, Mom, Mary, the kids and I. I didn’t invite anyone else since in the past, when I have, no one makes it.

Thurs. 21st – My fingers were on fire as I added students to the database. At one point Mrs. V. passes by and says, “I’m really gonna miss you,” and smiles warmly. I told her, “Aww, I’m going to miss you, too!”
I made sure to clock out right on time, since we were still getting out at 5pm that week and I had to rush home, get the boys to the salon to cut their hair because they hadn’t had one since Natalie’s Quinceanera in June! And then we had Meet the Teacher night at their school. At the salon I’m relieved to find out Meet the Teacher night would be ending at 8 instead of 7:00, so I had plenty of time.

Jaylen got Eenan’s 1st grade teacher this year, which is great ’cause she’s awesome. And Eenan’s teacher is one I’d seen around before and I hear she’s great, too. She asked him questions and was really nice to him right off the bat. When we’d walked in she said excitedly, “Yay! I got Eenan!!” like he’s a prize LOL. She’s also going to be his UIL coach this year, which is cool. Eenan was a little disappointed to find out, though, that he wouldn’t be in the same class with his two best buds, Abraham and Rolando.

Fri. 22nd – Friday was our huge district meeting at the Dodge Arena. The girls from work and I decided to carpool, so we all met at the school at 6:45am, which seemed really early considering we’d been going in at 8 every morning. Well, it was something we had to get used to since we’d be going in at 6:30 again on Monday.

We went in Amaveli’s Tahoe and it’s always a laugh with those girls. I was so relieved they invited me to go along with them since I’d never been to one of those events before. I felt overwhelmed just thinking about it!
We got there right on time, waved to everyone we knew from other schools or departments (I saw my dad-in-law and Ricky there!), and laughed our butts off at our really funny, enthusiastic motivational speaker (who just happened to be nicknamed “Mr. Enthusiasm” LOL). We all agreed he reminded us of Mr. D.!

We went to eat at House of China for lunch. I was disappointed that they didn’t have the crab & cream cheese thingies I like and the green beans were crappy. Those were my favorite to have there when I was pregnant with Aly and was looking forward to both this time around. After we ate we went to Palms Crossing and visited the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, where I bought a sal-y-limon & chile candy apple. If you haven’t had one, you must!! You don’t know what you’re missing. They’re SO GOOD. (Man, now I really want one…)

Mario had his Physical for Border Patrol that Friday. I was so nervous for him, but I knew he’d do well. He texted me to call him after work, so I did—and he passed!! He said he thought he’d done a little mistake during the stepping part (kind of like when you step up and down in aerobics?), but the instructor didn’t say anything so whew!

I got home and Mario, my dad-in-law and Mom were outside chilling out while the kids all sloshed around in the kiddie pool. It was a nice day. Alaethia was having a blast. Jaylen needed a nap so he quickly became moody =\.

Sat. 23rd – I think this was the day the two moms, my kiddos and I all crammed ourselves into my Equinox and went to town. We had bills to pay and then we met Mario for lunch at Jesse’s. I love that place. I had enchiladas as usual.

Sun. 24th – We lazied around all morning and around noon, when businesses open on Sunday, we went to Conn’s to dispute the extra $65 I’d noticed they’d charged us on our 47″ TV. We only had about $78 to go and once they credited that extra $65, we’d only owe $8!! We talked to the guy who’d originally started our account and he swore up and down he’d fix it. He told me to call on Wednesday to follow up.

Can’t remember much else from that day; I know for sure I did laundry and cleaned and got the boys’ backpacks and clothes for their first day of school ready the next morning (eek!).

Mon. 25th – I was so sad I wouldn’t be there to see them off since I’m taking off to work about 30 minutes before they even wake up, but Mario dropped them off. He said they did really well and took tons of pictures (which I still need to add to Flickr!). They both loved their teachers; Jaylen was especially excited. They high-fived each other when Jaylen told Eenan how much fun he had in the class with his (Eenan’s) former teacher. It was too cute :). Eenan was a little sad, however, because Rolando and Abraham weren’t in his class, but he said on the plus side he’d behave better this year without the distractions, aww. We later found out that Rolando hadn’t showed up to school all week!

Tues. 26th – Can’t remember much from that day…I think I mainly stuck to doing stuff to the database: adding students to the checkout system and continued adding them to Reading Renaissance. Mrs. V. said I could start on the classes that were going to attend the Star Testing first and the teachers could help me with the rest. I completely intended on finishing it on my own before Friday. A pounding sinus headache hit me around noontime. I felt awful.

Wed. 27th – I had a doctor’s appointment at 4pm. I picked up the boys, took quick shower , and rushed over there. Made it right on time. I weighed 130 (!!) already. My glucose and blood pressure were fine. Still no pap smear, though I’m not complaining. I told the doctor about the sharp pain in my right side behind my ribs; he said it may be my gallbladder. He freaked me out saying they’d operate after delivery if they had to — what? I didn’t think it was my gallbladder, but he told me to do some detective work and check if I got the pain after I ate anything spicy or greasy. I got an appointment for the Friday after that week, but cancelled it at the last minute because I suddenly stopped getting the pain right after that appointment O_o.

I asked for something for the horrible sinus headaches I’d been having. He gave me two bottles that had only 4 tiny pills in them. He said be careful when you take them, I’m much bigger than you and they knocked me out.

When he began doing the ultrasound and saw the baby sort of hiccup as soon as the doctor put the monitor to my belly. I think it was asleep :). It moved its little hands and kicked its little legs. He checked the baby’s gender; I told him I had a feeling it’s a girl, because my symptoms and everything else were so similar to Alaethia’s. As he slid the monitor around my belly he said, “I think so, too.” And then I see it! What looks like a tiny “peach”! But then he says, “No, no! Aha! It’s a boy!!” I sort of saw what he was talking about; a tiny little orb between the little legs. I feel awful saying this, but I felt a little disappointed. I kind of had these visions of having two boys and two girls. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for either a boy or a girl–too many things went wrong with Jaylen’s pregnancy and I learned not to take anything for granted. I just want a healthy baby. But the weird thing is: I still feel in my heart of hearts that it’s a girl! We’ll see what turns up in 3 weeks on Sept. 17th!

I told Mom and Big Mario about my appointment and when they told me to go rest I excused myself, took a pill and got comfy on the couch for when this deep sleep should hit me. I even did some boring check-balancing to bore myself into oblivion…but nothing happened. I stayed awake till 9:15pm–when Alaethia and I both crashed out on the couch. Everyone just left us alone and let us sleep. I woke up at 10:30 and moved both of us to the bedroom. Mario had already kindly made me some Jalapeno Tuna for work the next day.

Thurs. 28th – I woke up the next morning hoping I’d slept off the headache, but nope, it was in full swing. I decided I’d call in for the morning and go in in the afternoon to finish up the copies that awaited me. I slept that whole morning and when I woke up at 9am I still felt a little groggy and the back of my eyes still hurt, but I felt much better than the days before.

I got to the library at 10:30 and started working. I was sure I’d finish with everything I needed to do by the next day.