Category: Shopping

(For those of you subscribed to updates: yes, you did just receive a notification that I just updated an entry from January 2008! It’s one of the last entries I had pending and I finally added it. Now I just have to add the one of Alaethia’s birthday and I’ll be all set…or so…I think I will?)

Is it completely coincidental that I was searching for TEP-time trainings on the ERO website and one of the digital photography trainings I came across is being presented by a man by my grandfather’s name? Too bad there are no openings. There never is on those things. I’m curious to see who this man is (although I have no idea what my grandfather looks like to begin with). I bet he resembles Mom, because Mom and Gramma don’t really look alike. Or what if it’s his son? My uncle?! I put myself on the waiting list, just in case!

Anyway. It’s going to be a bummer getting up to go to the training tomorrow. Especially because it’s a complete repeat of one I already took last year in November. Boo. The new one I was going to take on Wednesday was canceled, probably due to Tropical Storm Dolly making it’s way over here.

These past few weeks have been pretty awesome. I’m loving this summer. I’m clutching onto it with my claws, like it’s going to be ripped away from me any second! I still have so much I want to do (like paint my kitchen, all the trim & mouldings need a retouch of white, I haven’t scrap booked, my kitchen needs to be cleaned and wiped out, and my closet and bedroom need to be reorganized, BAD!).

Rewinding a little bit: the 8th, after I found out I was pregnant, I went over to Maggie’s–well, Judith’s actually–and picked them up, to get my mind off everything. Maggie was going to get her eyebrows tattooed, but I found out she didn’t even have an appointment and the lady wasn’t taking any more walk-ins. We drove over there for nothing! My gas, people! So they wanted to go to Anna’s Linens instead. Maggie got tons of nice stuff to start redecorating her house. Then we went to eat at Chick-fil-a and went to Wal-Mart, where lucky Maggie found a gallon of yellow paint in the perfect shade to paint her kitchen! I’m debating whether to paint the kitchen yellow or light lime green (very light).

I went to the doctor on the 11th, just to get a proper pregnancy test done. All the girls were congratulating me and poking fun at me LOL. Laura, one of the nurses whom I get along really well with, said from now on I was just going to walk in, take my own urine sample, strap myself onto the ultrasound machine and do everything on my own since I’m so familiar with everything now LOL. I’m not kidding; I had that sheet in my hands with big, bold POSITIVE typed out on it and it still didn’t feel real!

If I remember correctly we went to watch Hellboy II on Friday, the 11th. It was actually much better than I thought it would be. Jaylen went with us (Eenan went along with Mary and Noelia to watch Journey to the Center of the Earth) and he was terrified the whole time! He even fell asleep through one part so he wouldn’t have to endure anymore LOL!

We went to visit Gramma on the 12th (and actually went to Goodwill for once, but it was quite disappointing =\). Then we had lunch with Mario at Taco Bell, yum.

Can’t remember much from Sunday…what is happening to my mind lately? I used to be able to remember things I did MONTHS ago!

I had an appointment on Monday, to get additional help with my insurance from work and I qualified! YES! John and I went to eat at Kumori (this time the one on Ridge Rd., which wasn’t very impressive–the Spicy Calamari sucked). I love my Fiesta Rolls. I plan on craving them muchly this pregnancy ;).

We went to the mall afterward, where we bought stupid things at Hot Topic LOL. We had some good exercise walking around. I’ve got to admit, the outings with my lil’ bro are always a laugh. He says some crazy shit LOL.

I had my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. That day I was 5 weeks along, gestationally, and 7 weeks along as per my LMP. I weighed in at 126 (eek!), but am doing fine with my weight gain (I’ve gained about 4 lbs. since the beginning). They didn’t even mention anything about my sugar, which is awesome. I hope it stays that way.

There wasn’t a heartbeat, yet. That always makes me nervous. I have another appointment on the 6th of August, so I hope to hear it then. That heartbeat’s what confirms the whole thing. I think it won’t feel completely “real” until I hear that beautiful sound.

Dr. C. gave me a sono pic of the baby. He/she is incredibly tiny! The amniotic sac looked like a bean, and the baby looked like a spec in the bean. The boys turned to mush and “awwwed” when I showed it to them LOL.

I went with Mary to Mexico that night to get some pills for my dad-in-law, ’cause he’d run out. I got a few chips (yum!) and we came home. Then we went to Walmart and got a few things. Mary shared some stories with me about her first few years with my dad-in-law. I love those kinds of stories :).

Thursday was the night (I think?) that Maggie invited us over for dinner. Eenan stayed with Mary of course, but we took the two younger ones with us. Jaylen loves to play with the boys–although that night they were extremely hyper which caused them all to get in trouble quite often. Alaethia was busy exploring her new surroundings and was being a good girl. Maggie did a great job painting the house. The kitchen are a combination of yellow and red walls, and as you walk in to the house you see green and blue walls. Her kitchen looked totally different and new from just adding new seat cushions to her chairs and a painting!

I think it was Friday that John and I went to Kumori again. I love that place. I ordered for Mario and as I was dropping it off to him he was already getting ready to come home–at 4pm! I wish it was always that way. Friday’s are usually his day off, but since they’re having an inventory sale he had to work. Grr.

We called Mary and made plans to go to the movies to watch The Dark Knight. Oh my gosh, it was awesome! I knew it was going to be good, but it exceeded my expectations. I couldn’t help but be sad over Heath Ledger’s death. He was amazing. So talented :(.

Jaylen, Aly, Mom and I went to pick up Mario’s paycheck the next morning (Eenan went with Mary to watch Hellboy II) and then I got to paying bills. We’re trying to pay off all our credit cards so we can be a little free once the baby arrives. It’s stressful and we’re having to pinch pennies, but it’ll be worth it.

I had to come all the way back home to cash the check, though, because they were giving me trouble at the bank in McAllen. I stopped at Stripes to get gas and a Mario wanted cigarettes, and I made the mistake and letting Jaylen get down with me. I spent $8 on chips and drinks. I took Mario some and boy was he grateful. He loves when we take him little snacks out of the blue :).

We visited Gramma and went to Target, where I bought 2 maternity blouses, a pair of maternity capris, and another blouse that looks maternity-ish, but isn’t. This pregnancy’s finally starting to feel real, especially because I can’t stop peeing and my boobs feel like they’re on fire at the slightest touch (getting into the shower feels like someone’s shooting at me with a million bb guns!).

I left my keys behind at the counter when I was making a payment, so I lost my mind for a minute, but I went back and the girl had them.

It was Annie’s birthday that day and we had to be at her house (well, the pool anyway) by 4, so we tried doing everything as quickly as possible. We left the house at 5, though, since they’d asked Mary to make some potato salad at the last minute.

The kids took their swimming gear (and I stupidly forgot their new boogie boards and goggles in the truck!) and had a blast. I was feeling dizzy since I hadn’t eaten all afternoon so I didn’t get in, but Yazmin and Angela took Alaethia in for me. Angela’s been Alaethia’s favorite lately. As soon as she sees her she climbs into her arms and won’t leave her alone LOL.

Yesterday I lazied around and did some laundry and then I got to making the white rice I was contributing for a little celebration we were throwing for Annie (the party from Saturday was from Cat). We got all the kiddos ready and went to Annie’s. They weren’t home so we took the party to Yadira’s LOL. Elda made her famous chicken enchiladas–gosh they were good. I’d learn how to make them if making the salsa for them and frying them wasn’t so much hard work!

I started reading The Tale of Despereaux to the kids (and Mario LOL) last night. It’s such a cute story. They all listened attentively while I read, even Mario. We only got to chapter 8, but I’m planning to read them the whole thing before school starts. Our goal is in 1 week.

That’s what I love about this summer. We’ve been having movie nights, reading, ah…it’s just so awesome. Alaethia’s so talkative and brilliant. I want to soak up as much of her as I can, especially with the new baby coming. Eenan and Jaylen are almost 3 years apart and I sometimes confuse their stories because they were so close in age. Now imagine these two! So I’m trying to take as many pictures, video and document everything she does and says. My favorite sentences right now? When she gets annoyed with my mom she says, “Awwww! Mudduh! I told juuu!” which means, “Awww! Mother! I told you!” I wonder where she gets that one?!

The other one is when she gets upset with someone, especially when the boys are trying to take something from her. She’ll say, “No, don’t touch it!” or “No, don’t take it!” She’s so hilarious! And so girlie! She walks around with a purse most of the time, filled with little bracelets and toys. It’s the cutest thing, ever!

As for today…I woke up and got a huge shock: Tropical Storm Dolly’s heading our way! So I called John up after I stopped feeling too sleepy and asked him to go with me to stock up on canned goods and batteries. I couldn’t sleep all night. I keep wondering how exactly I’m going to break it to my boss that I’m expecting and that I might not go back after a) the 2nd semester or b) after my maternity leave–both of which I know she won’t be too happy with :(. I hate abandoning her, as I love my job and think she’s awesome, but I just can’t imagine Mom trying to take care of both my kiddos :(. I really can’t. But more on that later.

We’re all stocked up. Mary got tons of canned goods too, and snacks! We picked up dinner at Whataburger for the adults and McDonald’s for the kids, which is awesome because I have this training tomorrow and I was already feeling tired and lazy. Speaking of, it’s already really late and Alaethia’s been asleep for about 45 minutes so I should join her. Poor thing gave herself and everyone else a scare…I ran to tell the boys to brush their teeth and go to bed in the next room and she managed to fall off my bed. I’m going to sneak her into her crib right now ’cause she kicks like crazy. Maybe that’s another reason I kept waking up last night.

(Mon. June 30th) – Spent most of the day lazying around with the kids. Andy and Noelia invited us to their house for a bar-b-q. We ate (and I had this awesome Jack Daniel’s pink lemonade drink) and just hung out the rest of the night with them. Mary and Jorge were leaving and, since Mario was going to install Noelia’s radio into the Sentra, the kids left with them.

The men stayed outside and Noelia and I went inside to look at her photo book and got on Ancestry.com to look at Noelia’s family tree. Very interesting! I need to start updating mine.

(Tue. July 1st) – Can’t remember much of what we did during the day (man, my brain’s really turned to mush lately! I can’t remember anything!) It was Maggie’s birthday that day. She’d told us the Friday before that she wanted us all to go over, so I got ready. I caller her up to see if we were still on but she told me her mom was unfortunately at the hospital. We already had sitters (Mom had Alaethia, Mary had the boys) so we called up Adan to go to Whiskey’s. We get there and Mario had forgotten his ID at home so we go back to get it.

There’s hardly anyone there and there’s no kareoke going on. Phooey. I’d been craving a Piña Colada so I got one. It was alright. The best Piña Colada I’ve had so far has been from the Blue Shell restaurant, hands down. But it was good. Mario and Adan played pool most of the night and although they asked me to play a few times, I felt really tired and sleepy but didn’t want to ruin their fun so I just sat at the table surfing the web on my phone. I caught up on reading some blogs, so I can’t say I had a horrible time LOL.

(Wed. July 2nd) – We met Mary at the Carmike theatre and watched Wall-E. I am so in love with that movie! It was the sweetest, ever. I hope they make Wall-E and Eve plushes…I’m totally getting them!

We went to Wal-Mart in the evening to get a few things and print out some pictures for Dad from the Kodak kiosk. Of course we get there right at 8pm and they turned off the machines because the photo place is closed. Grr. We drive over to Target and get them there. 28 pictures for almost $7 isn’t bad, but I would have much rather ordered them on Winkflash.com if I’d had more time.

(Thurs. July 3) – We left around 12pm to visit Dad. Mom went with us again, even against our protests. We told her not to because she was rude the last time but she insisted on going. Fine, whatever. We stayed for a few hours talking about the big Digital TV thing next February, the kids, stories from when I was a baby, and I even got some info about his side of the family for my family tree. We ordered pizza for lunch. And he loved the pictures we printed for him.

We stopped by Mr. G’s Fireworks warehouse in Alamo and got $45 worth of fireworks. Mom got another $30. The kids were set. Maggie calls just as we’re leaving and invites me to go to Mexico with her and Judith; they wanted to buy bottles. I say sure, I can get a few packs of birth control while I’m there, since I didn’t get to buy them before Natalie’s Quinceañera since they didn’t end up going to Mexico. Mario drops me off. We stop at ATM’s to get money and go. They get three bottles to celebrate Maggie’s birthday and I get the birth control and some cigarettes for Mario, since they’re $2.50 over there.

Once you buy the bottles the cashier gives you a slip of paper and a delivery guy takes the bottles to you by bike to the bridge (I’m still not sure why they do that). Well, we had some trouble getting ahold of the bottles. We had to go back to the store to ask what was going on. We finally get the bottles and make the semi-confusing trip around the bridge back to the US. While we’re waiting in line Judith quickly tells me to switch places because she can’t drive (for a reason) and so we switch. I feel weird when I first drive others’ vehicles, but I drove all the way home.

I stayed with Judith at her apartment where she got ready and Maggie went home to shower. I felt so uncomfortable and sweaty LOL.

As I was waiting for Judith I noticed the Mission yearbooks were stacked on one of her shelves so I flipped through the 10th grade one. I was in there, but thankfully I didn’t look that bad LOL. As I was going through the pictures I realized I hardly remember anyone. It’s kind of sad, really, but I was so consumed with my relationship with Mario that I didn’t care if I had friends back then. Especially because the friends I had made at the time had all either backstabbed me or just disappeared. So I learned to keep my distance.

We went to Maggie’s and Mario was already there. Us girls went to Wal-Mart to get a few things (like chips, dips and stuff to make Margaritas with) and got some McDonald’s to eat. We ate at Maggie’s and just when Mario had finally come in and was about to sit and eat his dad calls him and asks if he can pick him up and take him home. He does that, then finally goes back and eats. We hung out till pretty late just talking outside. The girls shared with each other how we’re all “late” and how we’re freaking out.

On the way home Mario tells me he’s had a great time his whole vacation. I tell him I have, too, because it’s great having him home and spending so much time together, like the good ol’ days when I was a housewife. He asks, “Hey, did you ever get your…you know?” I had already mentally tracked my cycle while the girls and I were talking about it and there was no way. I figured I was just late for some reason, probably because I’d stopped taking the pills so abruptly since I ran out. We were both a little more at ease.

(Fri. July 4th!) – We wake up the morning of 4th of July and it’s POURING. So much so that these little guys made an appearance:

The first thing I think is So much for the fireworks! We didn’t let it dampen our festivities, though. We had to get creative, like rolling the grill under the side porch, but we made it work for the most part. The boys put on their water shoes and ran all over the driveway in the rain and even had a mud fight (which I had no idea was going on or else I’d put a stop to it!). Alaethia was loving the water and being carried around by her Bimpa. Mom, Mary, Jorge, Mario and I were all sitting around chatting. I’d been wanting a Chelada for a while, so Mario prepared one for me. It was so good!

The girls were all inside, nice and dry, and the guys were outside chilling out and making the food. Well, Mario was. He’s always appointed the cook because he’s so good at it.

It was Gramma’s birthday, but the weather was so bad and we had no idea how bad it was in McAllen, so we didn’t go visit her. I felt horrible all day, but I made a vow to see her the next day.

It was also Natalie’s birthday, so we celebrated with cake after the bar-b-q. We sat around talking for the remainder of the day, since it never stopped raining. We thought for sure we wouldn’t be able to pop any fireworks, but there was this nice gap when it was only drizzling and the kids started popping them. Alaethia was terrified at first and was clinging onto me, then to Mary, then to Big Mario and then to Elda.

By the end of the night she was perfectly fine and clapping.

Once we were done sweeping up we left Aly with Mom, Eenan with Mary and took Jaylen with us to Jorge and Maggie’s. They invited us over for burgers. The burgers were delicious! We sat around a while and Judith asked me to go with her to her apartment to get a bottle and the stuff for the Margaritas. She made some AWESOME Margaritas. It was like eating a raspa. We sat outside and talked and then Judith’s friend stopped by so we went inside. They’d been friends since high school and were telling us about all the crazy things they’d done as teens up to now. I was slurping down my Margarita like crazy, until my lips felt like I’d eaten a pound of sunflower seeds. I had to stop!

As we’re getting into bed we realize that it’s Mario’s official last night off. Back to work the next day. I was so sad. I wish we were millionaires and we could just stay home with our kids and enjoy each other and spend our days together. We totally needed this vacation. It reminded me just how wonderful it is to be married to him :).

Been a while since I’ve updated, as usual, but I’m being lazy and sitting around and figured I’d update a little. There’s no way I’ll be able to remember everything since I last updated, but I’ll try and remember the important parts.

My Mother’s Day weekend was awesome. Hope all the Mama’s out there had a wonderful day :). I started my mother’s day since Saturday. Mary, Mom the kiddos, and I all packed into the Equinox and ran some errands then had lunch with Mario at Jesse’s, one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. I had some crab enchiladas, which were really, really good and my sugar was okay when I checked it later :). Mario left and we went off to Conn’s to hand over our TV payment and then to Target where I couldn’t resist and bought Alaethia some cute outfits even though I was supposed to be shopping for myself. Mario said, “Get yourself something since I won’t be able to surprise you this time.” He’s excused since he outdid himself for my birthday, heh.

I got myself a blouse at Target, but had no luck finding anything else. We ran a few more errands and then went to Edinburg to the Scholastic warehouse. They have this huge 30-80% off sale at the end of May and I didn’t want to miss it. Jaylen picked two books, I got Eenan a few chapter books to keep him busy during summer (the Animorphs books were $1-3 each!), I got them the 365 Disney Stories for bedtime, and got myself a few books, too. I spent $50 and Mom got me My Sister’s Keeper by Jody Picoult for Mother’s Day. Mary bought a whole bunch of books, too. We had a great time, except for the smoldering heat in that mostly-metal warehouse.

We had a book fair going on at work (which went fairly smoothly if you ask me, and I was in charge of it) and my boss told me to take the kids over to pick some stuff since I was having a hard time choosing (I wanted everything!). I should have just left them at home; they ended up spending another $40 and before the book fair was gone I spent another $35!! My bookcase is ripping at the seams! One thing’s for sure, though, I definitely won’t run out of reading material during summer!

On Sunday, Mother’s Day, Andy and Noelia brought over a botana for lunch and treated Mary, Mom and me. How sweet of them ^_^. They brought us gifts: Noelia knits these wonderful blankets and knitted me a pink/green/brown one! They also gave me a scrapbooking tote. Loved, loved, loved my gifts :). Had a great day chilling out with my kiddos. We took Alaethia outside and she had a great time collecting petals.

I’m totally printing this out as an 8×10!

John’s birthday was Friday, the 24th, so we took him (and the family) to eat at Kumori. We invited Sally and she was so sweet and took a cake. I was so upset with John that night…he was being such a bad sport! He wouldn’t take pictures, wouldn’t say thank you, and didn’t even want to cut the cake. Grr. I get angry thinking about it. But at least I got to eat sushi, watch the boys and Alaethia have fun eating their rice with chopsticks, and spend time with Mario.

Jaylen graduated from Kinder on Wednesday the 28th. I thought it was going to be fancy and at the Fine Arts center but it was in their cafeteria and had an underwater theme. It was so hard to take pictures since it was so crowded, but everyone made the best of it. They performed to such cute songs and then once they got their “diplomas” and walked back to class we signed him out and brought him home.

The boys had their End of Year awards assemblies on the 3rd and 4th of June. I had to miss work both mornings, but my boss is the best; she had no problem at all with me being out each morning. It’s not like we had a lot to do anyway. The most we were doing was collecting payments for books or taking in books people were finding while cleaning the classrooms out. Jaylen got tons of certificates, but since he’s in Kinder and they only give trophies and a gift (this year they were giving away stereos) to kids with perfect attendance (and he’d missed a few days due to Strep each time) he didn’t get a trophy. He got tons of certificates, but hello? What kid doesn’t want a trophy. When I took a picture of him with his thick folder of certificates I told him how proud I was of him and that he did GREAT this year. His eyes got watery and he blinked away tears and said, “Then why didn’t I get one of those?” You don’t know how awful I felt. He is such a smart kid, top in almost everything, but the lack of a trophy made him feel like he wasn’t good enough.

When I was at work I told my boss about Jaylen’s assembly and how sad he was and how awful I felt that he felt that way. She said, “Hold on, we had an extra trophy!” So she finds it and gives it to me to give to Jaylen. How nice is that?! I’m telling you, this lady’s wonderful!

I gave it to Jaylen after school and he loved it. He proudly displayed it on top of his TV and showed it to everyone :).

Eenan got TONS of trophies and ribbons and even got a bike. I had to rush around signing them out to take them home, driving around with Alaethia to pick up the bike and get the huge box out of the car to get to work.

The last days of work were spent sorting/organizing our storage room. We had the help of a few kids and in the end a few things were missing, but they solved that problem. Well, part of it. It’s so disappointing, but that’s what we get for trusting too much. I’m glad the room’s ready for next year, though. It was about time!

We had an awards assembly for the top readers and had a raffle as well. It was so nice watching the kids faces light up when their name was called. One of our readers got about 7 prizes…she practically got a whole entertainment room’s worth of stuff! See, it pays to read ;).

We had a Librarian’s meeting during our last week of work (where they gave us each an Eric Carle mug!). It was one of my first times drinking/eating something really sweet (mango tea and cream pie) and my sugar didn’t go up at all!