Category: Shopping

I was an emotional wreck four weeks ago.

The last time I updated Mario and I had a little argument (“little” being an understatement). I didn’t talk to him till the next day, partly because I didn’t see him till the next day. As always, he acted like nothing happened. He called in the afternoon on Saturday (March 1st) to invite me to dinner at Chili’s to “make up for yesterday.” I spent the morning at home and paid off our Volkswagon credit card and over half of Home Depot. Then I made Mario’s truck payment and yelled for everyone to get in the Equinox. All my kiddos, Mom, Mary and I were going to town. We went to all our banks, Mary paid a bill, the boys got games at Gamestop (with their own saved allowance), Eenan got a Halo toy and Digimon toys at Wal-mart, we went to see Mario so he could fix my signal lights, we bought chips at Stripes to hold off the boys till we met Mario for lunch, bought a cute chest (that we’re using for video game paraphernalia) at Big Lots, and made my Circuit City payment. I learned my lesson last month; they made me overdraft because I’d made the payment at the beginning of the month and it didn’t go through till the end before we got paid again since I only ever deposit enough for the online bills we have. We ate at Taco Bell with Mario, which was nice and we were civil. We went to see Gramma afterwards and then went to Target. We got home and I put the chest together. Then I waited for Mario to call and give me the okay to meet him at Chili’s. When I was giving Eenan a hug before we left I noticed he felt a little warmer than usual. He said he felt fine; that it was probably because he was covered with my comforter.

Mario and I got to Chili’s (seperately) at 10pm and stayed for about an hour and a half. I had my usual frozen strawberry Margarita and we ordered the Tripple Dipper (spinach and artichoke dip, boneless wings and fried cheese), and my favorite: shrimp Alfredo. There must be a shortage of shrimp somewhere because they only served me four miniscule shrimp. Grr.

Mario and I talked about different things: work, life, the kids and then something that’d being weighing on our minds for a week and a half: the possibility of me being pregnant.

I’d had the bright idea what seemed like 5 short weeks before to stop taking my pill to see if it would help with my weight-loss. In the meantime, I was looking for alternatives and we were being “careful”. Well, Elvira (Mrs. R. from work) and I usually “start” around the same time. Actually, she’s starting when I’m finishing. When I started panicking I asked her if she’d started already and she already knew why I was asking. She said no when I asked. But a day later, Friday, she called after work and asked if I’d gotten mine because she got hers. I was almost in tears. For those two weeks I kept thinking, “This can’t be happening! Alaethia’s too small to have a new sibling! I can’t be pregnant while doing my job and I like my job! Mario barely sees the other 3 kids. I’m barely getting 5 straight hours of sleep! I can’t go through this again! OMG I’m going to get fatter! OMG another college fund! 4 weddings!” And-so-on-and-so-forth.

It didn’t help that Mario wasn’t supportive at all. He was freaking out as much –if not worse– than I was. I had a little cry sitting there across the booth from him at Chili’s. He told me something that night that made me resent him a little; something I never thought I’d hear him utter from his own mouth. It may have just been because he was worried, but still, it’s unforgivable. And no, I’m not being overdramatic.

We woke up the next morning (Sunday, March 2nd) and just chilled out. We weren’t going to get to do much since we had a meeting from 2:30 to 4pm for Eenan’s First Communion class. My Equinox needed an oil change and we needed a few groceries so we figured we’d go to Walmart. Well, the lines at the auto place were super long so we just got a few things. We went home and then sat, rather confusedly, through the Communion class. It had absolutely nothing to do with Communion. They were chanting and screaming and then did some play where I know there was a lesson in there somewhere but man, I was confused. We all were. Mario up and left outside with Jorge and Yazmin. When we were done we packed up Alaethia and her things, left the boys with Mom and then went to Comp USA since Mario wanted to get memory and a harddrive for the ol’ E-Machines so he could rebuild it for himself. It was closed. We went to Circuit City to look for the stuff there and I asked about the laptop on sale in the ads. We’re still joking about it now: Mario says he has no idea how it happened, but he nodded yes and all of a sudden I own a new 15″ Toshiba laptop, heh. Problem solved. He wanted his own computer and I wanted a smaller one. We’d end up spending the same amount for everything he wanted to get to rebuild the desktop, so it worked out. He kept my “old” 17″ Toshiba and I kept the smaller new one. I got my anniversary gift early :).

When we got home I checked on the boys and was startled when I gave Eenan a hug and he was burning up. Paul had just gotten here so Mario could do some work on his van’s system, so I gathered all my stuff, left Aly and Jaylen with Mom, while Mary called around to check which pediatrician’s were open on a Sunday night.

She found a place in Mission that had just opened and we left. They were pretty fast there. I gave Eenan a pep talk and warned him that they were going to do a swab test in his throat to check for Strep, because I could bet a thousand bucks that’s what was ailing him. He acted like he was brave and ready, but when the nurse walked in with a lancet to poke his finger (to check his blood for infection) and the long q-tip, he freaked out and started screaming. He HATES getting his throat swabbed. It took two nurses and myself to hold him down and it still didn’t work. Then one of the nurses–I don’t know how she did it–coaxed him into giving in and he got swabbed. Results came in: positive Strep.

He was prescribed antibiotics and Motrin for fever. No school on Monday. We had to go to McAllen to Lee’s Pharmacy because it was the only thing open that late on a Sunday. Since his insurance didn’t cover Motrin, I bought it over-the-counter. Then we headed home. I was freaking out because their very important state test, TAKS, was on Wednesday. The doctor had assured me, though, that he’d be fine by then. I could only pray.

My boss and I spent Monday and Tuesday running reports and checking to see which kids were going to qualify for the field trip to Fantasyland Skate Center that Friday.

I sent Eenan to school on Tuesday (the 4th) because he hadn’t had a fever since around 2am that morning. I get a call on my cell (while the assistant principal was in the library, thankyouverymuch! It never gets signal at any other time!) and it’s the school nurse telling me that she couldn’t give Eenan the Motrin because it didn’t have a prescription label on it. My blood starts to boil (because how dare you deny my son medication he needs when he’s got a written note from his mother granting you permission to do so!) and I calmly tell her that I followed procedure and sent a note. How did she expect it to have a label if his insurance doesn’t cover it and I got it over-the-counter. After we exchanged words for a few minutes she asks if it’s okay to give him Tylenol, because that’s the only other option. I tell her that’s fine, but Tylenol does NOT have any effect on him at all and he would be getting his fever back. She doesn’t pick up on the sarcasm and tells me that she’d be sending a note from the code of conduct book with proper procedures to follow about medication. Patronizing cow.

We were having a pep-rally for the 7th and 8th graders since they were having the TAKS test the next day. First pep-rally at our brand-new gym! As everything’s starting and we were locking up the library Estella, one of the secretaries, waves me down and starts running towards me. My heart sinks and the first thought that comes to me is “Eenan”. Sure enough, the nurse had called and couldn’t get ahold of me. I called back. She said his fever was at 102 and that he seemed really sad. I felt like laughing and screaming at her at the same time. OF COURSE, LADY! DIDN’T I TELL YOU TYLENOL WOULDN’T WORK!!! I made sure to rub it in. Idiot woman. So now she wanted me to get out of work and pick him up. If I left at that time (1:30) it was 1 1/2 hours till I got out of work but I’d end up losing a whole half-day. I made some calls and Mary said she’d pick him up. Thank God.

After I’d gotten that taken care of I called the school to ask about the TAKS. They transferred me to the test coordinator and I asked her what options we had if he was too sick to attend school on Wednesday. She told me if he went to school on Wednesday and began the test and then felt too ill to continue, he’d get all the questions he didn’t get to answer wrong and most likely he’d fail. She said our best bet would be to keep him home that day and send him to school on Thursday, because it was the make-up day and the last day they’d be able to take it. Eenan’s friend, Patrick’s, mom is the nurse assistant and I spoke to her when I called back and she gave the phone to Eenan. He’d been crying because he was so sad and scared that he’d miss the TAKS and stay in 3rd grade. Man, they really strike fear in their hearts with that darn test!

When I got home that day I told Eenan I should take him to the doctor, his actual doctor, to check on his medication and follow up because he was still getting fevers once the medicine started to wear off. He said he felt fine. I insisted, he refused. Fine.

Oh, and that letter the nurse sent with the list of “procedures”…? It stated right on the letter that over-the-counter medications that were non-prescription were to be sent with a note from the parent granting permission to administer the medicine. Mmhmm.

So now I had that weighing on my mind. And as the days seemed to stretch on with no period in sight, I started to convince myself that we’d be okay with 4 kids. That even if the whole world turned their noses up at me because I was 25 (or 26) with 4 kids I would be happy and I’d love them all the same.

Then Wednesday rolls around and THERE IT IS! I never thought I’d feel that thrilled to be on the rag. The cramps and back pain felt beautiful. I guess it was a combination of stress and my new work-out routine that caused the delay. You can bet that right after it was over I started a new pack of pills. I don’t care how fat I stay (okay, YES I DO): I don’t want to go through that ever again! I’m perfectly fine being a mother of three at the moment :).

It was TAKS day and miracle of miracles, I wasn’t a hall or bathroom monitor this time. So Mrs. V. and I caught up on some things and I worked on inventory while she ran more reports. Mary called and told me Eenan started to burn up again but she’d given him his next dose of Motrin and Tylenol. I made plans to work only a half-day so I could take him to the doctor. Now I was really nervous. Last day of TAKS was the next day and he HAD to feel better.

My boss and I had an awesome talk about UIL and other things and then I came home to pick Eenan up. I took him straight to the doctor, which took forever, but I was grateful that they saw us in the first place–we arrived 10 minutes late. The string of Strep that Eenan had was resistant to the amoxcillin the other pediatrician had prescribed. So they prescribed Zithromax, the generic brand, which tastes like earwax. We made a quick trip to Family Dollar after the pharmacy to pick up chocolate pudding to hide the Zithromax in. It worked pretty well, even though he took about half an hour to eat it.

Mario called after work that night to drop off his credit card so he could buy himself the AR-15 he wanted for our 9-year anniversary this month (the 27th). That was my gift to him.

Thankfully Eenan felt much better the next day and when I called to ask how he was doing during lunch they told me he’d finished his test way before lunchtime and he was feeling alright. I’m so glad!

I spent most of Thursday doing inventory again in my boss’s office since they were testing kids in the library and they needed silence. We were closed most of that day. When I got home I cleaned up, did everything that needed to be done and Mom, the kids and I all went to town to run errands. I needed to buy some rollerblades for our trip the next day, because I didn’t want to wear the stinky, super-sharp ones you rent from the rink. It took forever to find rollerblades without a black brake (they’re not allowed at the rink) and it took two trips to Target and one from Academy to find them (at Target). I got a few scrapbooking supplies, too (everything was on clearance!).

We gathered all the kids the next day, gave them the rules and all the teachers/sponsors took their groups (I was in charge of 7th grade, which was a small group of kids I’ve developed friendships with). It was so fun. I couldn’t wear my brand-new rollerblades because they were just too slippery. I felt like my legs were going to give out under me every time I got on the rink. So I ended up renting some anyway. I spent most of my time helping students skate. Time flew by and a few minutes before we left one of the 8th graders I’d been personally helping reach his goal started a fight. I felt so disappointed. He’d been doing so well and it took one wrong look to revert back to his old ways. He was even rude to my boss, which he’d never done before.

We got back to the school and had lunch in the cafeteria. We had a few kids that were injured so my boss was with them at the nurse’s office and I was alone in the dark library scanning the few books we had so I’d leave for Spring Break with no work to come back to. I didn’t get to do much since our internet’s still super slow. It’s like being on dial up! But I didn’t let it get to me because I was officially on vacation!

Rolando, Eenan’s best friend, spent the night. We had the whole family over and everyone chipped in time and ingredients to have shrimp cocktail since it was a Friday. I love those nights :). Eenan kept abandoning Rolando, but Jaylen would step in gladly and entertain him.

We got up the next morning, late, and made plans to go to town. We all sardined ourselves in my Equinox (Mary, Mom, all the kids and me) and we stopped by Goodwill, which was really disappointing. I hardly found anything good, but I found some brand-new Pokemon toys for the boys. Mom wanted to treat all three boys to the carnival, so there we went. I didn’t get any pictures except for my cellphone because I forgot my camera. Grr. It was the boys’ first time at the carnival after 3 years and Alaethia’s first time, ever. The boys had so much fun and so did Alaethia since she was in her beloved stroller. The boys got on a kiddie rollercoaster about 20 times, the gravatron (which made poor Rolando feel dizzy so he sat out for about 20 minutes), the house of mirrors, this other really cool walk-through thing with sliding steps and tunnels, bumper cars, air planes, my gosh–they had tons of fun. Us adults had fun watching them!

We spent a good three hours there and since it was already 4pm by the time we left and hadn’t had lunch, we stopped by Little Caesar’s to buy some pizzas. We came home, ate, the boys got on the trampoline and then Rolando went home. He’d invited Eenan to a party (with pony rides!) but we had to go to church since Mary wouldn’t be able to go the next morning due to some meetings she had to attend. So Eenan and I went that night. Mario got home and we just chilled out. We’d made plans to go practice shooting the next day at the shooting range with Jason. He called Jason to confirm plans, but Jason said he wouldn’t be able to go till 1pm. That wouldn’t do since I had Carmen’s babyshower to go to at 3 the next day and since it was in Weslaco, I’d have to be back home by at least 12 to start getting ready, stop at Target to pick up a gift card, and make it on time. He tells me that we’d go to his Grandpa’s property in Los Ebanos instead and we’d practice there. I had this weird feeling in my gut, but I swallowed it down and said okay.

Couldn’t find a more perfect title for my entry. Rushing. It’s how I live my life these days. I rush to work in the morning. I rush around getting everything done that I need to get done at work, I rush at the end of the day so that I’ll get out on time — at 3 — and I rush all the way down that long, empty road to the boys’ school to pick them up. I get home and I rush around running errands, helping with homework, spending time with them, spending time with friends and/or family, making dinner, working out (yes, I’m REALLY working out!), getting everyone bathed, into bed, spending time with Mario and rushing into the shower myself, ironing and rushing to get into bed by 10:30 so I’ll at least get 7 hours of sleep — which usually doesn’t happen. And in the morning…I do it all over again.

I have to admit, it beats being bored like I sometimes was when I was a stay-at-home mom, but I also have to admit that after all these months of working: I’m still not used to it!

The last time I wrote I was weaning Alaethia off the bottle. I’m proud to say that that last time I updated was the last “bad” night we had while weaning. So, in total, it took 2 days to wean her off. Record! It took 3 days each with the boys. One of my proud moments as a mother, if I do say so myself!

The zoo was awesome! Mario didn’t get to go because we went on a Saturday and he works on Saturdays. But he didn’t want to go anyway. He’s been a sport in the past but he doesn’t very much enjoy himself LOL. Anyway, it was a cool day and Alaethia was dressed in fresh capris and floppy hat and the boys wore caps and jeans since it was cool in the morning. The aviary was closed but they had this cool new addition where we feed parakeets and cockatiels! That was probably the kids’ (including Alaethia) favorite part of the whole visit. I took some pretty awesome pictures; first time at the zoo with my Kodak Z650.

I didn’t take as many pictures of the boys with Alaethia as I wanted. Our traditional picture with the large, metal (?) alligator had two takes…the second one with a crying Eenan because he didn’t want to take the picture. I only got one with the turtle at the Reptile Room of Jaylen and Alaethia…and it was blurry. We didn’t even get one with the lion statue. Oh! And speaking of lions: all the animals were in heat! I took an awesome picture of the lioness on her back, roaring like there was no tomorrow. At first we thought it was a fake roar being emitted from some type of huge speaker. But nope, it was a real-life lion looking for her man…who was lazily licking himself feet away from her in a corner. Typical!

The boys got to pet a snake but I didn’t even get pictures of that. Or of them lovingly stroking a Silky Chicken…the fluffiest damn chicken I’ve ever seen! He was so cute and so tame. He’d let everyone pick him up and he’d just hang there, all limp LOL. I didn’t get pictures of the camel licking Alaethia, just on my cell camera. My camera and batteries aren’t used to me taking THAT many pictures in a few hours. It just died on me.

We bought souvenirs ($40 worth — EEK!) then ate at the mall in Brownsville. When we were getting back into the Equinox Eenan and Jaylen climbed in and I began to fasten Alaethia into her new big-girl car seat. It always happens: Mom doesn’t check to see if any of the kids are leaning on the door and the boys always lean on the door. You can imagine what happened next. Mom opened the door and out flies Eenan, back-first onto the sharp, bumpy pavement. It happened so fast I didn’t even have a chance to react, and even if I did, I had Alaethia in my arms and I was on the other side of the vehicle. I’d never heard Eenan utter such an earsplitting scream, and he screams a lot. A huge bump quickly formed where he hit himself. We held cold bottles and cold, wet napkins to his head since the ice in the ice chest had already melted by then. We kept him awake for 3 hours and he never showed signs of losing consciousness or slurred language so we didn’t rush to the hospital. We went to church that night and I prayed and prayed that he’d be alright and that the bump would go away. I prepared him for a visit to the doctor on Monday if the bump still hadn’t gone away.

We attended Mario’s cousin, Amy’s, baby shower on Sunday the 10th. It was at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. She looked too cute. She’s small-framed and even though this is her second baby, she’s still tiny.

I took Eenan to the doctor after school and work Monday afternoon. His bump had mostly gone down but I was taking him in anyway, as a precaution. Turns out it had been a Hematoma but since nothing odd or scary happened during the first 24 hours, he was absolutely fine. THANK GOD.

I spent Tuesday night finishing up my darn sewing project, the bag. I attended my last sewing class on Wednesday the 13th. We finished up our bag and then got a quick lesson on using patterns. We prepared pajama bottoms; all we had to do was sew them up at home. I still haven’t finished them!

Wednesday was such a stressful day at work. I spent the morning creating and sending out purchase orders, which is a new chore I’ve recently inherited. It’s such a pain do to those things. Plus the program wasn’t working on my computer so I had to keep bothering the ladies in the office for one of their computers. They didn’t mind, but I still felt like I was intruding. When I got back to the library I was in shock to find it completely full of kids. It was loud and my headache got worse. Then this kid made it worse by just being completely rude. I sent him back to his class and told him to come back when he felt like being respectful.

Valentine’s Day, well, it sucked. We were broke so I already knew we weren’t doing anything special. Mario didn’t get home early at all, either. And I don’t know what caused it, but we had one of our “talks” that we’ve been having quite often lately and he ended up leaving to Adan’s (his cousin) a street away instead of kissing and making up or something. Well, it’s not like it would have been much kissing since I had to go to sleep for work the next morning. Mary even offered to watch the kids during the weekend so we could get away alone together, but they’re having this huge sale at his work for the next two months and they’re not getting any days off. Yippy.

We had our first school dance at the new campus, the Favorites. We closed the library down since my boss was one of the coordinators and I was helping with the sashes and photos. Mrs. G. visited us and updated us on her life. Us being Mrs. R. and me. It was a nice afternoon. I had to rush home and get Aly and the boys ready so we could go pay bills. Mom tagged along. I was in such a rush, it was awful. I also had to buy an outfit for that night, since it was my company V-Day party. It took me forever, of course. Almost halfway home I realize I didn’t pay my Conn’s payment. I almost wanted to wait, but there was no way. It would ruin my no-interest, no-payment for 12 months!

I got ready in a record half-hour and still left a little late to pick Mario up from work. I was picking him up and he was leaving his truck in the garage at work. He changed and then we got to the restaurant. A new Mexican restaurant called Juancho’s. A whole lot of co-workers made it this time and we had a really nice time. My strawberry Margarita was delicious and the food was awesome. And Mario and I spent time together and laughed like the day before had never happened. After we’d had our fill of talk and food, we went over to Adan and Jason’s. We stayed there till 1am and then I got home and crashed the hell out!

I dropped Mario off at work the next day and rushed home to pick everyone else up. I shopped a little at Target, which was my Valentine’s Day present from Mario: shopping. I bought some really cute shoes and some blouses. Which was awesome because I’d be able to wear them with jeans the next week since we were having a fundraiser the whole week of the 18th to the 22nd. Mary’d gone with us that day. We paid bills, saw Gramma for a while, ate at The House of China (yum!), went to the movies to watch The Spiderwick Chronicles (which was an awesome and super cute movie! Now I want to read the books!) and then we topped it off by going to Walmart. I was SO TIRED.

We had another baby shower to go to, this time Cindy, another cousin of Mario’s. They had such cute decorations and even chocolate-covered strawberries! Alaethia started walking a lot more after that day. I think it was because everyone kept asking if she was walking yet and we’d say, “Well, sort of. Not really. Sometimes.” She’s doing pretty well taking steps on her own, but she’s not completely walking on her own yet. She is, however, dancing like there’s no tomorrow! And she “sings” which is really just humming. As soon as she hears music, she starts shaking her little hips and waves her arms up and down. She’s got excellent balance when she dances, too! And she’s still got her little “fangs” on her upper gums, but her two middle ones are coming in, too. Gotta get a good picture of the fangs. She’s just darling. And she’s only waking up once at night, thank goodness!

Oh, I forgot to mention: when I’d taken Eenan to the doctor the Monday before, I weighed myself and OMG, I weigh 127.5 lbs!! That’s seriously the most I’ve ever weighed while NOT pregnant! The most I should weigh for my height is 125, so I’ve got a slight problem here. Mary and I decided we were going to start working out. So we work out 3 times a week (it would be more if we had time!) for half an hour to 45 minutes. We worked out Wednesday and Thursday and stopped from Friday to Sunday. I’ve been trying my hardest to eat a little healthier, but my gosh, with my schedule at work I’m always starving and when I get home I pig out. And here I thought working would keep me from snacking. I weighed less when I was at home all the time!

Thursday was Eenan’s GT Parent Night. It was nice. There were several schools there and his class sang a song and they had this awesome display where they made sea animals with clay. He made this awesome barracuda! We had snacks at the cafeteria and then we bought chicken from Church’s. Totally defeated the purpose of working out, but we ate first and worked out afterwards. Yadira worked out with us that night. It was fun!

Not too sure what I did Friday…oh yes! The whole family was here and we all helped out dicing and slicing stuff up for the shrimp cocktail we were having that night. Eenan’s friend Pat came over for a while and his mom and I had a chat outside for a while. I had no idea his mom was the school nurse!

I cleaned house most of Saturday morning and we left to town about 4pm. The boys stayed with Mary, thank goodness, because I was going to Ross and they HATE Ross. I bought a few house things there: a lilac bath rug, some floating shelves for the living room and a huge pillow because I needed a new one. We went to see Gramma after that and then we came home. Then Mario and I and the kids (minus Eenan) went to Jorge and Maggie’s. I hadn’t seen her in a month and she’s been working! A pretty good job, too! We chatted and then I painted Alaethia’s toenails for the first time ever and then we came home.

It was Jorgie’s 7th birthday party the next day. Mario and I picked up some brisket plates I’d bought from a co-worker and then we had a mini shopping spree at Target. Gosh, I love Target.

The kids had a blast on the Moon Jump, including Alaethia. Maggie out-did herself with the food, as always. I got to see Jorge’s Mom, sister and cousin. I hadn’t seen them in forever!

Mario had the brilliant idea to pick up his dad’s screen, projector and the 360. Let me just say my 8 and 5-year-olds kicked 20-something-year-olds’ butts!! They came in second each time. They were only beat because Jorge or Mario would win at the last minute LOL.

Mario ended up staying there and I came home with the kids since I had to get ready for Monday. I was a bit upset about that. Even moreso when he never got home and then ended up sleeping at Adan’s because he didn’t have a key to get in the house, the moron LOL. He SAYS he knocked on the window so I’d let him in and he did text me, but I guess I was dead asleep. Oh well.

Monday was like every other Monday, including running around paying bills. Tuesday was SUCH stressful day at work. First, the internet was down most of the day and so I ended up with a huge pile of books that didn’t get checked in. Then at the last minute I’m asked to set up a projector, digital document camera and a laptop (and a screen, which I had to track down the janitors to put up) when I had 10 minutes left before I had to clock out. I ended up staying 20 extra minutes, which made me super late picking up the kids. At least I had dinner with Jessica to look forward to! I hadn’t seen her in forever! 5 years in fact! It was so fun. We went to Dustee’s Accessory shop and then ate at Chili’s. We ran into another classmate’s hubby and we spoke to him for a while and then when he left we gossiped and just had a great time. I don’t want to lose touch with her again! She’s one of my very best friends. I still need to meet up with Karina, Sally and Carmen sometime this week, I hope. I’m glad to be at a point in life where I’ve “found” a lot of my long-time best friends. My life seriously didn’t feel complete without them!

Today was a much easier and low-key. We had faculty meetings in the library all day so it was closed to the students. I had a chance to catch up on checking in books, shelving books (and Mrs. R. came in today and she’s LOADS of help!), chatted with my boss and then helped one of our best helpers reach his reading goal so that he can go with us to the field trip to Fantasyland Skate Center next Friday. He’s already half way there!

So there we go. Whoo! I made dinner tonight and worked out and got my blog typed up and finished for once! I didn’t finish up laundry, nor did I finish hanging up the laundry I did yesterday, but that’s okay. I deserve some time for myself, I think.

It’s been in the upper 30s and 40s since yesterday. It finally feels like winter. I realized today that I loved winter a lot more when I was a stay-at-home mom and didn’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn in the freezing cold to go to work. It was much nicer when I could just snuggle in bed with the kids all morning =\.

I’d also enjoy the cold a lot more if it weren’t the same temperature inside my workplace as it is outside. Seriously. It’s like 40-50 degrees in the library. We’d spent all last week with sweat trickling down our backs and they finally fixed and set the air conditioning at 65° — a day before the “cold front” made its way down here. And since the air’s constant, it doesn’t turn off when it’s cold out or anything. We have no control over it and it’s awful! My boss was wearing her husband’s thick hunting jacking and I was wearing a thick cable-knit hoodie sweater AND my big poofy coat. It’s been cold and unbearable the past few days. I was actually pretty comfortable today though, except for my hands, which felt like they’d crack from frostbite.

So much has happened since I last updated, and yes, I realize I still haven’t updated with the second half of that entry. I just never have time for anything other than work, the kids and maybe squeezing some alone time with Mario, if we’re lucky. (Either that, or it just so happens that I finally have the computer on my lap, ready to type up an entry or something, and Mario suddenly “needs” to use it, too.) I’ve learned to balance my time much more effectively than when I first started working though, so that’s good. I just wish I had a bit more time for myself (at least half an hour!) and at least 2 more hours of sleep per night. But other than that, I’m pretty satisfied with life at the moment.

Work is great. We’re finally having this semester’s orientation and have officially opened the library. All the books are on the shelves (I had lots of help, but I busted my ass getting those darn books up!) and everything’s being set up little by little. We still don’t have electrical drops or phone jacks, therefore we still don’t have our computers set up and we’re working from laptops but we’re managing. Mrs. V. and I used to joke around when we first moved in that it was like we were our very own little third world country, but it’s gotten much better since then. What a difference two weeks make!

The boys are doing magnificently in school. They’re both great readers and are doing well in practically all subjects and I’ve gotten back into the habit of having them read 30 minutes before running off outside or playing their 30 minutes of video games. I had a chance to get some free books from work, so the kids can’t say they don’t have any new books to read, heh. I’m glad they don’t give me trouble about reading and I hope to maintain that routine till they’re in middle school, at least. I see some of our middle schoolers and how nobody encourages them or cares if they read and these kids are at 1st-3rd grade reading levels. It’s sad!

Alaethia’s just a joy. She’ll be a year old (eek!) on the 24th and I’m in the middle of planning her party. It won’t be anything extravagant at all, just close family and friends. We figured we wouldn’t go all out this year since she doesn’t even know what’s going on. Maybe when she’s 3. I just really can’t believe how fast this year’s gone by. We’re already mid-January…before you know it it’ll be Valentine’s day and then I’ll be planning Jaylen’s 6th birthday party. Then Eenan’s 9th. Holy cow, I’m going to have a nine-year-old!

Alaethia’s learning more words every day. She says mama, dada, pamper (pamp-oh), papa (which means “food” in Spanish slang), hi, by, yay, and other stuff I can’t remember at the moment. She’s still not walking completely on her own; she still needs help from people or furniture, but she’s getting there. Her favorite snacks are those little Gerber puffs and she finally learned to drink from a straw — at Taco Bell LOL. Oh yeah, and she shakes her bootie. Like, literally shakes it and moves her little hips and everything. When she started doing this I asked Mom, “What do you teach her while I’m at work, woman!?”

Aww, Eddie and Sylvia’s baby was born today! About a week early (he was due on Aly’s birthday, actually). How cute!

We spent tonight at home. Mary picked up Chick-fil-A for dinner and then Chris and Mario took the TV over to Mary’s house and we all watched Resident Evil 3 over there (which Alaethia and Matthew caused mischief and tried beating each other up). It was a nice night :).

I think that’ll be all for now. I’m going to have some nice hot chocolate and watch some HGTV. I’ve been really into decorating and color schemes lately. I actually painted my bathroom (lilac) 2 weeks ago, the Sunday before I went back to work. It looks pretty cool. Took some getting used to after having stark-white walls for 8 years but it’s growing on me. Now I just need a nice new shower curtain and a bath rug. I kind of wanted to go to Ross and check out what they have, but it’s too cold and rainy to drive. Actually, I’m going to have to pick Mom up from an appointment tomorrow morning and then go to a birthday party in the afternoon. Man. I’d really like to just stay in one of these weekends, especially when it’s cold and dreary like this. Mario just bought a new Wii controller off of Eddie’s friend (Angela had accidentally flung our second one through a frame a while back so we were left with only one) and it would be nice to play Cooking Mama (one of my Christmas gifts from Mario) or Super Mario Galaxy with the boys tomorrow. On our new 47″ TV Mario just *had* to get this past Tuesday (and so I missed American Idol–grr!). That thing is massive. It looks like a 60″ in my tiny living room!

Okay, I was going to save and publish but the internet’s down. My luck, right?