Category: Shopping

I had a morning of broken sleep yesterday, and it wasn’t because of Alaethia. It was because of that damn phone. I leave it on in case of emergencies but I’m seriously going to start disconnecting it until I’m ready to wake up. I gave up on sleeping after the third call and made Alaethia a bottle since I heard her stirring in her crib. I get a call 10 minutes later from Maggie. She’s in the area and stopping by. Mario was already up and gone by the time I got up. He arrived a few seconds before Maggie did with McDonald’s — lovely breakfast of cheeseburgers.

(Okay, I’m watching Scarred Trauma Live on MTV and they just showed this guy named Kenny Hughes trying to grind down a rail and ripped his butthole up and had to get stitches between his butt cheeks. Seriously. That’s just wrong. This show makes me PRAY that my sons never take up skateboarding. I actually had half of this whole entry written and I got so grossed out with this other guy who totally cracked his CALF BONES in two that I pressed something and it wiped my entry clean.)

Anyway, Maggie and I searched for jobs online and then we just chilled out. Mom got home from her doctor’s appointment in time to make it to the movie, so we got ready an extra hour early (not counting the other hour we were keeping open to get good seats) to get extra tickets for Maggie and John. And by “got ready” I mean getting everyone dressed, getting Alaethia’s diaper bag ready with her things plus stuffing two Hi-Cs for the boys inconspicuously under an extra onesie and her formula; and stuffing a few candies in my bag. The men left in the Equinox, the women (and Eenan) in Maggie’s car. We got the tickets and still had about an hour and a half to waste so we went to Home Depot since Mario needed to get some tools. Maggie and I oohed and ahhed over stuff and discussed painting. Mario got what he needed and we got a rug for the boys’ room, finally. Thank goodness for our HD credit card.

We went back to the theatre and bought popcorn and drinks for the adults. The boys play at the arcade for a while and when they start seating for Order of the Phoenix, we get in line to get our tickets checked. My worst theatre nightmare began to unfold in front of my eyes. Mom, Maggie and the kids get through, I pass, and then they hold John and Mario back. Mario’s holding the diaper bag. I’m assuming it looked suspicious (A MAN holding a diaper bag? What?) because they tell him they need to check the bag. He looks up at me, startled, and I stare back, wide-eyed. I’m thinking, I’m not going to get to watch Harry Potter because I sneaked Hi-Cs into the movies. NO…I’m not ever going to be allowed back into the theatre, ever!

I could hear my heart thumping in my ears. Maggie turns her back to us and says, “I can’t look!” They zipped open the bag, in slow motion, and gave Mario a nod to go ahead. WHEW! I asked him, — when we were a good distance away — “Did they see the drinks?” He looks totally in awe and said, “No. I guess they were really hidden!” He told me later during the movie that his heart sank when they stopped him LOL.

All in all, the movie was awesome. It’s Harry Potter, what can I say. Alaethia slept the entire time, except for the last 10 minutes. The boys were great — well, Jaylen fell asleep for a little bit. Eenan came to sit with Mario when the action started and he only got mildly teary-eyed. I won’t give my opinions out in the open because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but if you’d like to read what I thought scroll down to the “more” section.

(I think I might pee myself or vomit if I keep watching Scarred. This guy just tore open his NUTS. But I can’t turn away!)

We went to Mario’s work so he could pick something up and then we just chilled out at home. Mario left (or escaped, like John says) and I had break from the boys since they went over to Mary’s. They came back and we had a simple dinner of sandwiches. I fed Alaethia and bathed her. The boys ended up sleeping over at Mary’s and Mario and I had a lovely evening of surfing the web, playing with Alaethia and eating ice cream while watching Talladega Nights. Intimacy? What’s that?

As for today, I would have liked to stay home and thoroughly clean this place, but I wanted to go to Target to get the boys the Transformers bedding sets since it was the last day they’d be on sale. We got two sets of sheets and only one comforter at the first Target we went to, plus two tank tops for me (I only like the Mossimo ones from there and they were on clearance!), a cereal storage container, and a game that the kids bought with their combined money. Mom got Eenan his birthday gift, too. We ended up having to go to another Target in McAllen, since that was the only one that had comforters in twin-size. target is going to raise my credit limit on my card up to $10,000–we’re such good customers.

We got a bit lost on the way there since I took the “back road”, thanks to Mario’s shoddy directions. I eventually found the place. We got what we needed then had lunch at Chick-fil-A. Yum. I’d been wanting to eat there since forever. Mom’s treat :). Alaethia was such a good girl, even though she had me carrying her the whole time we were there. She’s been such a good girl in general lately, though. I love her to bits!

We visited Gramma for a while, where Alaethia was having a blast playing hide-and-seek with Gramma. Gramma was laying down and I was sitting at the foot of her bed with Aly on my lap and Jaylen next to me, shielding Aly’s view of Gramma. Aly kept leaning back to catch a glimpse of Gramma and when Gramma would talk to her Aly would hide in my neck and giggle. She did this about 20 times till she got bored and made me stand up. We came home, I made dinner, we chilled out at Mary’s, I got Jaylen’s bed ready with his new sheets (I didn’t do Eenan’s yet since he’s sleeping over at Mary’s, again, and Aly quickly got bored with her toys in her crib), and now I’m here updating with a sleeping Aly at my side. I’m hoping I’ve gotten her to start sleeping a bit earlier. That would make life even SWEETER.

(more…)

I’m getting a few minutes to blog while Alaethia’s in her between-asleep-and-awake-state and the boys are watching Power Rangers. They need to go to bed soon, so I need to keep an eye on the clock.

I thought I was going to have to go into town yesterday to leave Mario’s truck payment, but I ended up setting up an online account right on time and deposited at the bank right on time. God, I love technology. We pay just about every payment we have online and that ROCKS.

I spoke to Paul for a while (wait no, that was on Tuesday, now that I remember). They’re having a really hard time right now and immediately felt incredibly humbled for complaining about my mediocre problems. I got to speak to Mayra, too, which is always awesome. We had lots of catching up to do. She’s having a hard time right now as well. Really, everyone I know isn’t having an easy time right now. Must be something in the darn water =\.

I made dinner yesterday evening (meatloaf — totally have to add that recipe — and mashed potatoes) and we all got ready to go to Jorge and Maggie’s right after Mario got home. All of us except Eenan, who had already made plans to sleep over at Mary’s, as usual. It’s like that kid isn’t even ours anymore =\.

We got there and Mario stayed outside with the men while Aly, Jaylen and I went inside with Maggie. She wasn’t feeling too good since she’d overdone it with mixed drinks the night before, so we decided to go for a walk. I took Alaethia, Jaylen stayed with Jorgie and Justin who were being supervised by the men.

It was a nice night out, if you don’t count the humidity, but it wasn’t boiling hot like it usually is and there weren’t any mosquitoes. We had some catching up to do so we spent the whole walk talking. Alaethia loved it. She was quiet and really cheerful the whole time. My arms didn’t get tired at all (we forgot her stroller), surprisingly. It didn’t even feel like a long walk, and it was. That’s what I need, to have someone to walk with so it doesn’t seem like “work”. Anyway, we checked out a few of the new two-story houses that are being built in their neighborhood and some of them actually have really nice floorplans. If we could afford it I’d totally want to snatch up one of the few lots that are available in their area. They’re going REALLY fast!

We went to the store and got some junk food and caught up some more. We sat outside with the men for a while after Alaethia fell asleep. She woke up pretty quickly and after she had a giggling fit with Miller, their cat, we came home. I’d finally gotten her to fall asleep “early” the night before, at 12:45 (and then she woke up at 5am for a bottle) so I didn’t want to ruin it but we didn’t end up getting home till 1:20am or so. Jaylen was already asleep and Alaethia fell asleep shortly after. Since she’d fallen asleep a little later last night she didn’t wake up for her first bottle till 8am. I would have had a lovely night’s sleep except that Mom’s transportation service to her doctor’s appointments called at 4am and then at 5:30. The nerve! What are they doing awake so darn early?!

Mario left to work and I tried napping but that was quite unsuccessful. I gave up and made some coffee and once Mom got here from her appointment I bathed Alaethia and then took a shower myself. I’d thought of going over to Maggie’s since she’s at home now, but I couldn’t get ahold of her. Instead John and I went to the salon so I could get “waxed”. I admit it. I get my upper lip waxed. It’s not like I have a handlebar mustache or anything, but I did have some peach fuzz that I’ve always hated. It’s the second time I do it (first time was for Noelia’s wedding; I got brave after everyone else did it LOL) and I should have just gone back with my friend Mayra H. instead of this place (which was the same place that took forever when I got my hair done for Noelia’s wedding).

The lady put scalding hot wax on my skin 3 different times and it hurt like hell. Doesn’t help that my skin’s extremely sensitive. John was laughing his ass off, reveling in the fact that my eyes were watering involuntarily and that I was suffering. We’d gotten this idea to record our conversations in the car with my digital camera but left it off when we went into the salon. I regret not keeping it on. John said the lady was reusing my “scraps” of wax and started creeping me out saying they probably reuse the scraps for everyone. I still don’t want to believe him. My face could have been exposed to other women’s facial (and GOD, OTHER) hair. That’s just wrong!

We turned the camera back on and had some interesting/retarded conversations. The camera was focused on my radio and center console the whole time. The videos are pretty dumb. We’re still debating whether we should put them on Youtube.

We went to Mario’s work to drop his wallet off to him. Then he sent us to Stripes to get him a drink and then John insisted that I empty my 1 Gig SD card so he could record some more. Good thing I had my laptop with me. It’s so awesome having this machine. How I wish we had it during our vacation at Disneyworld in 2004 :(. I would have had so many more pictures from that time!

(Aww, Alaethia’s cracking up. Jaylen’s rubbing his hair on her hand and she loves that. OH! And she’s been trying to crawl! She’d been getting on all fours since she was at least 4 1/2 months old, but now she’s rocking back and forth and kind of pulls herself on her belly when she’s trying to reach something. She’s growing so quickly. And she just strides along in her walker. I can’t believe she does so well for 5 months, 2 weeks!)

I wanted to go get John a ticket for Order of the Phoenix tomorrow but he’s counting on Mom not getting here on time from her doctor’s appointment (yes, another one). I told him she’s definitely going to be back on time and he’s going to miss out, but he didn’t want to go. We went to H-E-B to get a few things we each needed and then came home. And I’ve been here pulling my hair out because of my sons ever since. These boys are constantly fighting but as soon as I separate them they end up right back together again. And the mess! They leave toys strewn all over the place. I have them clean up and it ends up the same in another area 5 minutes later. I’ve given up for today. Why do I bother cleaning, again?

And also, I’ve decided I need to go on a diet. Not a diet diet, I just need to start eating less junk food and start jogging or at least doing exercises that I can include Alaethia in. I’m 3 lbs. heavier than I was AFTER I’d lost the weight 4 days after I had Alaethia and that’s NOT cool. I need to give up sodas (which just eff up my whole digestive system whenever I drink one…as delicious as Cherry Pepsi is…). I need to do this. I’m going to start…

Right after I finish that last tub of Smores ice cream…

I’m finally able to just sit. That damn chicken. I’m never making it again. I used this McCormick packet for chicken and veggies — same one I used last time — and the darn chicken cooked for almost 2 hours because it wouldn’t cook all the way through. I hate making chicken to begin with because I’m deathly afraid of poisoning my family with Salmonella. Never again!

Anyhoo, I slept a little after Mario left to work and I’d given the boys breakfast. I didn’t let Alaethia sleep more than 15 minutes 2 different times all day yesterday (I’m trying to train her to sleep earlier) and she still didn’t go to sleep till 1:50am. At least it’s progress. At least it’s not 2:30. Mario and I were ready to go to bed by 12 (after we’d watched TV while eating popcorn and Tostitos cheese in bed), but Aly had other plans.

(Mario just told me he envisions me as Sam’s mom, from Transformers, when we get older LOL.)

After I slept for a little bit I got up, made some coffee and started making lists. Of groceries, house supplies, and toiletries with the price of each next to it so I could tally everything up and come up with a budget. Then I added up the last three bills we needed to pay (it wasn’t much, just $36), cost of movie tickets and snacks (most of which I bought at H-E-B. I’m boycotting the expensive ass candies they sell at the theatre), and gas and extra money for Mario. I waited for John to get out of work because he needed to go buy groceries too, and then we left to the bank while Mom babysat the kiddos.

The plan was to get money out of my Target Visa. No such luck. They didn’t have a cash advance machine and I couldn’t just go to an ATM since I barely ordered my PIN number. John agreed to lend me the money and I’d pay him back when the PIN came in. Awesome. I went to an office to drop off copies of my diploma and transcript for some jobs I applied to, put some gas, then off we went.

I stayed within my budget at Walmart ($10 less, even) and within my $100 budget for two weeks of groceries at H-E-B (I was actually $4 under). L33t. I was wondering about this when I was idly scanning the isles while shopping: how much do you spend on groceries a week/every two weeks? Do you shop only for a few days at a time or do you shop for a long span of time, like I do? I buy enough for two weeks for the 4 of us (I don’t count Aly since she doesn’t eat our food yet) and try to stay under $115.

I feel so much better about everything. Bills are paid off and we won’t starve. Thank God for my little brother. It works out even better for us since Mario was going to sell John a brand-new amplifier for $100 and he said to knock it off the money we owe him. Awesome.

AND we’re going to the movies on Friday after all on top of everything else. I’m so excited! Mom’s going with us, so we’ll be taking Aly. This shall be interesting. Mom offered to stay but I told her, “Oh, yeah right! You have to go!” I’m gonna need an isle seat, though. If the last few times we’d taken Aly to the movies are any indication, I’m going to be on my feet for the duration of the movie. Must remember to wear comfortable shoes!

Yup…she did it again. I put her in her crib when she fell asleep at 11:45 and now, at 12:11, she’s awake again. Little booger! I should have Eenan make her crack up laughing like he was doing earlier to tire her out. It was the cutest thing hearing her expel these huge belly laughs.

This is all for tonight. Let me try this again…