Category: Shopping

Mario stayed out with Chris that night, celebrating Christmas till around 2am. I’d been having a tough time sleeping that night; not only because Mario wasn’t there, but because I just couldn’t get comfortable. I’d eaten kind of late, so it was probably that. And that Alaethia was thrashing around having her own little Christmas party in there :). I woke up when Mario got here, and then again at 2:45, when his cellphone was ringing. I tried waking him up, but we were both so tired we fell asleep again.

We were told to wake up at 7am so that Eenan, Jaylen, Sammy and Brandon could open up their presents. I stayed in bed 24 minutes after the alarm went off, but I figured it was okay since no one had called yet or anything. I finally got up at 7:30 to wake Jaylen up. He wouldn’t budge, and neither would Mario. Eenan had slept over at Mary’s (to hear when Santa got there) and most-likely he wasn’t awake either.

I went over to Mary’s to ask if Eenan was up and just as she was about to say no, he emerged from the hallway, tousle-haired and ready to open presents. As I’m walking out the door Mary says, “Oh, Tommy’s dad passed away last night. Well, this morning, around 2:30…”

My heart sank. That’s why the phone was ringing at 2:45. It was Chris calling Mario to let him know. Suddenly Christmas didn’t feel as cheery as it had. I went over to our bedroom, to wake Mario up (he’d been throwing fits about waking up too early before I left to Mary’s) but he got up anyway when I told him the sad news. Jaylen got up as well and we went over to Mary’s.

We wished everyone there (mom, Mary, Jorge) a Merry Christmas and then the kids jumped on top of Jorge, who was still half-asleep and laying on the couch. Once everyone was settled on the couch the boys started to open presents. Mary and I separated presents while the kids opened and I took pictures. They opened their presents from Santa (a Robo-Raptor and Star Wars Transformers thing for Eenan and a Fisher Price Digital Camera and Darth Vader ship for Jaylen). The kids got tons of awesome stuff this year–yay for starting Xmas shopping in early November :). They got board games from Mary, DVDs from Mary and us, video games from Mom, Mary and us and tons of other things like Doodle Monsters for both boys, an iDog for Eenan and a mini Robo Sapien for Jaylen. They’ve been busy since Christmas :P.

Mario was next and loved all his DVDs (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest; You, Me, and Dupree, Accepted, World Trade Center). He was surprised when he opened a box from the boys and me and found DVDs (Man on Fire, X III the Last Stand, Dazed and Confused, The Da Vinci Code, and Waiting) and the Gerber pocket knife he wanted. I felt so bad that I couldn’t find his corded Dremel he’d been asking for but figured I’d surprise him later.

I got DVDs (Devil Wears Prada, Wizard of Oz, Edward Scissorhands, Grey’s Anatomy Season 1), a beautiful bracelet and $30 Target gift card from Mary, a cute pink jewelry set from Elda, and a beautiful personalized jewelry box from Mom. Mario also surprised me and got me a wallet besides the camera he’d already given me. Annie was my gift-exchange person and she got me a purse. It was kind of small so she said she’d bring the receipt (my huge wallet didn’t fit in it at all LOL).

And Alaethia, who’s still in the womb, received gifts as well! Andy had his mom (bless them!) crochet a pink and white blanket for Alaethia and Yadira gave her some crocheted Amy Coe mary-jane booties :). Mom’s also in the process of finishing up the pastel blanket she’s crocheting for her as well!

We had biscuits that Mom made for breakfast and later on we all got together for Christmas lunch (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn and broccoli rice). We all sat around for the rest of the day and just chatted. Christmas was certainly bittersweet, what with Tommy’s dad’s passing. Although everyone tried to be in cheery moods, I’m pretty sure we were all thinking of Tommy’s dad and family :(.

Mario took a nap while I tried cleaning up the piles and piles of toys and DVDs the kids received. I went back over to Mary’s and everyone was still sitting around, talking and eating sweets. Big Mario finally opened his presents so I took pictures since Mario would be upset if I didn’t (yet he wouldn’t want to be woken up, either O_o).

We had leftovers for dinner and I watched Elda and Jorge/Eenan play Battleship (one of the games the kids got) then Mario and I played (and I lost :(). We stayed up playing games and finally the boys and I came home. Mario and Jorge went to the store to buy beers and hear their Cantina (bar) music LOL. Besides the sad news of Tommy’s dad’s passing, it was a great day.

Though I didn’t want to go anywhere the next day, I had to go since we were completely out of groceries. Like, I had nothing to cook or make, not even sandwiches. John said he needed to go to, and I figured he’d get out at 12 so I waited for him. He didn’t get out till 3, which meant we left at 3:30 and traffic was terrible. Didn’t help that the shelves in Target were practically empty. I went there to exchange and buy stuff for Mary (and since she was going to Beall’s she took an outfit Cat and Annie gave Jaylen to be exchanged for one size bigger) and a few things for myself, but there was hardly anything left. I’d gone specifically for this hobo bag that was mostly white with little flowers on it but they had none of the bags left, not even the ones I didn’t like. I did however, go a little crazy with scrapbooking stuff in the Dollar Spot and I also found a tiny t-shirt for Alaethia. It’s 9-12 months, but knowing my kids she’ll fit into it by the time she’s 6 months LOL.

Bo, one of Big Mario and Mario’s friends, had come by on Christmas and left the boys $40. I went on a search for Kirby Squeak Squad and had no luck at any of the stores I called. I did however, find the corded Dremel Mario wanted. I hid it under the blanket on his side of the bed to surprise him. When he got here, I told him, “Go look at what your children did under your side of the blanket. Don’t get mad, don’t say anything, just go look.”

He rolls his eyes expecting the worst, like our sheets being destroyed by markers. I sneak a peek at the door and as he lifts up the sheet to reveal the box he gets a huge smile on his face and says, “Babe! You got it?!” and hugged me. Still doesn’t compare to my wonderful camera he bought me, but he was happy with it :).

We went to Wal-Mart next, where we got “house stuff”, like toilet paper, paper towels, Mario’s shaving cream and so on. It took forever there. By the time I looked at the clock, it was 6pm; we’d been in line for 20 minutes. I wanted to quit and just go home but I still had to stop by H-E-B to get the actual groceries. Took another hour or so there. We didn’t get home till 8 and it took me half an hour to put everything away. I was exhausted! There was a Rosary (wake) for Tommy’s dad that night, but it was short notice and nobody let us know ahead of time so we didn’t make it. The funeral would be the next day, Wednesday at 2pm. Mario was asked to be a Pall Bearer but he had to decline unfortunately since he couldn’t get out of work early enough.

I got all our stuff ready the next afternoon and started making lunch. I got to feed the kids, but Mario and I were starving since the food finished cooking about 2 minutes before we had to leave. He was falling asleep in church and later on told me, “See, that’s why I don’t go. I get bored!” This was quickly followed by, “Yes, I know I’m going to hell.” LOL

I held up pretty well and so did Mario. It wasn’t till we went up and paid our respects that I got a knot in my throat and then started bawling. I felt so bad for Tommy, Chris, their MOM and the rest of their family. Eddie couldn’t even be there because he’s in the hospital himself. I hugged Tommy first, then Chris who put his hand on my belly and said, “You know, it’s kind of funny: one life is leaving this world and another is coming in…” That made me cry even more and I hugged him again and said I was so sorry. Their poor mom was all cried out and so were Yadira, Angela and Yazmin. It hurt to see little Angela crying so hard :(.

We came home after that and ate lunch (the chilli I made and enchiladas Mary made–heartburn galore!) and then we got dressed to leave to town. We didn’t feel like being home so we left to Best Buy in the hopes of finding the Kirby game for the kids. We had no luck of course. I called to Wal-Marts that I hadn’t called yet and lo-and-behold, they had one Kirby game at the one on Conway. We lectured the kids about how they’d have to share till the stores got more in. We got the game, a Rubbermad bread box, batteries for all their new stuff and I can’t remember what else. We decided we wanted something simple for dinner, so we stopped at Dollar General to pick up a can of tomato soup (to go along with Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches) and talked to Maggie for a bit. I also got some wrapping paper for half off, which is one of the things I intended to do at Target but forgot =\.

I did hardly anything today. I think I’m coming down with a cold on top of feeling fatigued all the time. I have an awful sore throat that I got for brilliantly sleeping with the fan on. I can’t stand the hot flashes I get at night and even though it was about 40° outside yesterday, I felt sweaty. Mario did too, so I know I’m not going completely insane.

Welp, I should start making dinner. I have no idea what to make. I still have laundry to fold and hang and I can’t find the battery to my vacuum. The floor looks hideous :(.

Like I wasn’t feeling moody enough already, stupid, unreliable Internet Explorer + my ailing computer decide to get an error and shut the darn browser down halfway through my darn entry. Today has not been a nice day.

I didn’t go to sleep till 2am last night because I was wrapping the last of the presents and then remembered to send out the Paypal payment for the keyboard I won on Ebay for my cellphone (SPH-i500). (That’s my present from John, BTW.) I had to be up at 7:30 to wake Mario up for work and iron his clothes, make breakfast, etc. I figured I’d get a good 5 hours of sleep at least, but nope. John’s stupid boss calls at 7am on the dot to call him in. I call him and tell him about it, but he fails to call me back and tell me he told her he wasn’t going in till his scheduled time, which was 10. I stupidly stayed awake waiting for his ass to appear at the door so I could drop him off, but that never happened. It was 7:45 by the time I called him and asked him if he was ready. When he said no I told him he better get ready and then I dropped him off. Didn’t even have time to make Mario breakfast or coffee before he had to leave.

So after having breakfast with Jaylen (Eenan slept over at Mary’s and then went with her to town this morning) I decided I’d take a little nap. Mom showed up just as I was clearing our dishes and she said she’d watch Jaylen while I napped. Awesome, I thought. It was 9, so I set the alarm for 11; plenty of time to shower and get ready if John was let out at 12 so we could visit Gramma around 12:30.

I sleep for a good hour and hear my door open and then close. Must have been Jaylen checking on me. I squint at the clock and realize I slept for a good, uninterrupted hour. I’ve got one more to go.

10 minutes later though, I’m awaken by the bastardly sound of the phone. It’s Elda, wondering if Mom would go with her to Target. I stay awake after that, because with my luck, if I tried going back to sleep John would call 10 minutes later so I could pick him up from work. So far, it’s almost 12 and he still hasn’t called. The vein in my forehead is throbbing so hard it’s impairing my vision.

I have no desire to clean whatever I didn’t get to clean yesterday. Jaylen is hopefully taking a nap right now because he was as moody as I am for waking up early. If he’s not, I fear for my sanity; he’s not pleasant at all when he hasn’t had a nap. Kind of like me.

The one good thing about today: I don’t have to be in traffic with all the crazies who are doing their last-minute shopping! I’m so glad we finished yesterday night. Jorge arrived yesterday, about half an hour later than planned because he had an incident with his dog. Killer, a very hyper, skinny Doberman Pincher, pooped in the truck on their way over here. Jorge stopped on the side of the road to clean up the mess and hit what he thought was the unlock button. It wasn’t. He’d hit the lock button and had locked his keys, tools, dog and cellphone in the truck. He waited around for 45 minutes, hoping a State Trooper would pass by and help him out, but no such luck. He ended up finding a rock and breaking one of his back windows. That’s where Mary, Eenan and Jorge are now–getting the window fixed.

When he’d arrived here yesterday, we ate Menudo, which Mary usually makes when he’s coming over. Mom watched the boys, since we still had some shopping to do for them, and Jorge, Mario and I left to town. Picked up Mario’s check, went to Academy, Target, JC Penny and then Toy’s R Us. I was quickly becoming frustrated since I felt rushed. They kept asking when we were going home, so I didn’t get to look around as good as I wanted to. I didn’t feel any better when we realized all of Mexico had already taken all the video games that were on sale in the ads. So now we had to figure out what we’d buy the kids instead.

We took Jorge home and had lunch with Mary, Jose, Jorge and Noelia. We still had to deposit at the bank, so I was getting ready to leave when Mario said he’d go with me. I told him he didn’t have to and he said, “Yeah, right. So you can be mad at me later?”

I say, “It’s not like I don’t go into town on my own all the time. Granted, all the other times it’s not dangerous and I don’t fear for my life…”

Yes, it’s that bad. I hate holiday traffic.

We go to the bank first, then to Target in Sharyland. I called all the other Targets and none of them had the gift we needed to get for Jaylen. We ended up going to another Target on Nolana and finding something else there. I just hope he likes it =\.

We got the rest of the gifts we needed, plus the kids’ stocking stuffers and a DVD player for them since we stole theirs from their room :P. The one we had in our room doesn’t have a working remote, which can ruin a whole movie for Mario. We got some Caramel Fraps from Starbucks (no whipped cream for Mario) and went home.

We got home late and the boys hadn’t eaten dinner (darnit, Mother) so we fed them and I sat with Jaylen on the couch while we ate Jelly Bellys and watched What Not To Wear. Mario went over to Noelia’s to fix someone’s computer and to drop Eenan off since he wanted to sleep over at Mary’s again.

We finally started wrapping around 9:30, which is the reason why we were up so darn late. Mario went to Whataburger to get us some dinner, since we didn’t eat when the boys did. We ate, then wrapped. Well, I wrapped; Mario cut pieces of tape for me. He kept complaining that I’d use too much tape.

“You use so much tape. My mom uses, like, 3 for the whole gift.”

“I know this. Please stop comparing me to your mother.”

Not only do I hate wrapping, but I’m so anal-retentive about everything every single piece of paper needs to be creased, folded and smoothed out perfectly, hence the need for lots of tape. Mom always tells me I should work as a gift wrapper at a store, but I tell her I’d get fired for cussing and taking too damn long.

I just picked John up from work and Mother’s not here yet. I wanted to leave as soon as possible. I hope Elda goes ONLY to Target and brings mother home already. I’m on a time limit here.

I need to put on some Christmas music, get cheerful mood and try to ignore that it’s been raining all morning. It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow and I shouldn’t be grumpy.

First, I’d like to thank you all for the comments on my previous entry. Mario switched days off with a co-worker (per his co-worker’s request) and will have Monday off next week, so that’s when we plan to go through our closet and storage unit and find things for the family :).

Now for a much lighter entry. Mario was snappy last night, we made me get snappy. I took a shower, did laundry, and went to bed to read without saying a word to him at all. I was in bed reading for about 20 minutes when he jumps on the bed and puts his arm around my belly, chin on my shoulder and just lays there. Scared me half to death. That’s his way of saying “Sorry, let’s not argue anymore.”

I set the alarm for 12:30am, which I did not want to do, but I had to turn off the slow cooker (made ribs) and put laundry to dry. Add two more wake-up calls from the bladder; I couldn’t wake up this morning. I had every intention of crawling back into bed once John, the boys and Mario were out of the house, but I had some caffeinated coffee with Mario along with breakfast and now I’m completely awake. I’m going to regret this around 2pm. *eye twitches*

Remember what I said on my December 9th entry? That I had to go shopping and I just know one of the kids was going to act up? I was totally right. They were both good at the beginning. First stop was Gramma’s and they behaved pretty well. Next stop was Target. Something possessed Jaylen (a little demon I suspect) and he started throwing a fit as soon as we walked into the store and grabbed a cart. The carts were all wet since it’d been raining and he insisted on getting in one. After hearing a minute straight of his ear-piercing screams (and being started at my other customers) I told John to just put in in a cart, wet or not. He continued to scream over Heaven-knows-what and I started to feel really overwhelmed. John got what he went for (a hoodie sweatshirt) and he paid and I stormed to the front of the store as fast as I could. Eenan was being really good. He saw how stressed I was and just walked quietly beside me the whole time.

Jaylen, on the other hand, continued to scream all the way to the truck. Everyone got in the car and I calmly told him he was grounded, which set him off again. I lost it and yelled, “SHUT UP!!!” and started bawling my eyes out. I surprised Mom and John and the kids. Shoot, I surprised myself! Talk about hormones gone wild. I sat there, silently sobbing for a little while with my hands cupped over my eyes until I could get myself to calm down. I hate crying in front of people. And, hello? I don’t want people to know my kids can get to me that way. First thing I told mom and John was, “No one will know about this.”

And Jaylen? He didn’t even stay awake long enough to feel guilty for making his emotionally unstable mother cry. The boy fell asleep as soon as he heard my first sob.

I still had two stops to make, Kmart and Wal-Mart, but opted to go only to Kmart since the thing I needed to buy there was on sale and since it was Saturday, it wouldn’t be on sale the next day. There was no way I was going to Wal-Mart.

Mom stayed in the car with the boys. Jaylen was still sleeping and Eenan was being extremely good. I wiped my eyes one more time and John and I went into the store.

(Babe, you better NOT be reading this! Close the window right now!)

We went straight into the sporting goods department, because that’s where the knife Mario wanted was. We found it very quickly: A white and red ticket was taped to the display that said $17.99 on it, just like Mario described. We waited for a cashier and waited, and waited. Finally, after 10 minutes, I saw an employee pass by and I flagged him down. He sent the girl from that department over.

I tell her which one I want and she says. “Oh…” I feel my heart sink, shoot a look at John and ask her, “What happened?” She says, “This price is for an old Ad. It’s actually $31.99….”

She trails off and starts ripping off stickers from other items that are old and turns to me and says, “But, we have to give it to you for that price since the sticker was there.”

I felt so relieved and wanted to hug her. When we were walking to electronics, where we were going to pay, I whisper to John, “I’m so glad they’re giving it to me for that price. Otherwise, this would have been the–”

“–worst day of your life?”

“No, not the worst, but close. Top 10. No, top 5, at least.”

We browsed around a little after I paid and then we went to the truck. Jaylen was still sleeping and for a second I considered going to Wal-Mart but quickly snapped out of it after remembering just how horrible his mood is when he’s abruptly awaken.

I don’t know if it was pure coincidence, or if the dramatics with Jaylen set it off, but I started feeling really tired and breathless the next couple of days. If I did normal things, like walking around the house putting laundry away or sweeping or standing for long periods of time washing dishes, I’d get short of breath, my palpitations would start up and I’d feel light-headed. I was attentive to everything I was feeling though, and kept feeling for Alaethia’s movements, which were frequent, just in case.

Went to eat at Jesse’s on Sunday afternoon. Poor Mario had wanted to go there since his birthday and we finally had a chance. Mary went along with us. We ordered a delicious Seafood Platter and there was plenty of fish, shrimp, fried oysters (ew), stuffed crabs and frog legs (double ew) to go around. Mario specifically got that platter because he wanted to try the frog legs. He kept offering me some but I passed.

After lunch, we had two stops to make, the first of which I can’t remember for the life of me and the other to Wal-Mart. Mary offered to stay in the car with the boys since she was reading the newspaper so we were grateful for that. They’d been pretty good, but we didn’t want to risk it. I’m hoping this is just a phase Jaylen’s going through because it would really suck to have to leave them behind everytime I had errands to run :(.

As soon as we went into the store, I started feeling really sweaty and lightheaded. It was weird since I’d just eaten, so I knew it wasn’t that my sugar was low. We got everything we needed quickly and went home.

We got home and Mary took off again to buy a Christmas tree at H-E-B. Yadira, Tommy, and the kids came over to help decorate the tree. I’m usually up there, dizzy with Noelia after wrapping lights around the tree a few times, but I still felt too weak to help this year. Instead I took many pictures :).

We went to Elda’s after the tree-decorating to check out the chairs she upholstered. They looked so nice. Which reminds me, I need to upholster my hideous kitchen chairs, too. We’ve only had our table and chairs for a year (this Christmas) and the boys already destroyed the fabric. I’m going to upholster them with nice fabric covered in clear plastic. Hopefully they won’t end up stabbing the plastic, though.

Mario made burgers on the George Foreman that night, so I was plenty grateful for that. My feet wouldn’t have been able to take standing in front of the darn stove.

Mario and I had a talk on Monday or Tuesday after he got home from work. I don’t even know how it came up, I think it was something we saw on TV where a girl started crying or something and he asked, “Why are women like that? I mean, I don’t get it. How can you all just cry like that?” I laugh and say, “Hey, in my case it’s my hormones, darnit. I can’t help it at all. Trust me, I’d love it if I didn’t have to bawl all the time.” And the conversation went on from there.

We talked about the baby, our lives together, the boys, what we want in the future, and other stuff I can’t remember. I told him how I really wanted to help out with the bills and how I also wanted a house in at least a year, badly, and he told me not to rush. He said he found it strange how I kept saying I was “only spending a few months with the baby”. I felt like I had to rush. He never says anything about me not working, but I want to work. I cried a little when I told him I was going to miss a lot of her milestones when I started working, and he said, “You don’t have to miss anything, nobody told you you had to work!” Still, I’d love to work, but if I find it to hard to leave her I’m listening to Mario and staying home a little longer. The best of both worlds would be to work from home, but there aren’t very many opportunities like that where I live.

I’ll change the subject now. Thinking of all that stuff stresses me out, and she’s not even born yet!

Wow, my back hurts. My feet are feeling pretty good, but only because I constantly have them propped up when I get a chance to sit down. They’re not swollen or anything, which is weird, but they hurt so bad. Maybe it’s because I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been right now and my body’s not used to it? I wake up 3-4 times a night to pee and when I step down off the bed I get a stabbing pain in my feet. I finally stopped procrastinating and bought some soft flip-flop style slippers yesterday. My feet felt much better last night (I usually walk around barefoot, which hurts my feet even more). And speaking of night time, turning from one side to the other is the worst pain I’ve felt so far. I’ve heard a crack a few times when I’m slowly trying to turn.

The kids had a dentist appointment yesterday. I got Eenan out of school early, which I wasn’t too happy about since they have Benchmark tests and 6 Weeks tests going on. He should be alright though. Both of them did really good, although Eenan was hyper as always. Eenan got a filling re-done with minimal screaming. He just needed to hold my hand while Dr. Canales drilled. Jaylen loved his teeth cleaning and has absolutely no cavities :).

OMG, and did anyone watch the Biggest Loser yesterday?! Can you believe how thin the final four (and even some of the ones kicked off early and the ones excersizing at home) got? I would love to know what exercises they do. I need to find episodes on Youtube or something and save them so I can get inspired when I’m ready to work off this baby weight!

It occured to me that I’ve got a month and a week or so to go and I still have tons of stuff that need to be done around the house. I’ve already made a to-do list on Word and I’m praying we’ll get every single last thing crossed off that list!

My computer’s slowly dying. We’ve had it for 3 years already. I say ‘already’ because the last one we had gave out in 3 years also. It shuts down when making DVDs or when the kids are playing games on the Disney or Cartoon Network sites. I thought it was a virus or something at first, but Norton and all the other programs we have don’t alert us to anything. A while back, the computer diagnosed itself with either bad RAM, power supply, fan or harddrive. NICE. That’ll be easy to figure out *sarcasm*.

Before the computer dies, I need to back everything up (let’s see HOW I can do it since I can’t exactly burn much) and get all my old entries on WordPress. Thankfully, most of my important files are on my external harddrive. I need to go through my old pictures, which are on CDs, and add them (even though my camera from 2003–a Samsung Digimax 101–was crappy but at the time I thought it was amazing LOL) to Flickr. I also want to scan some old pics, like my baby pictures and pictures of Gramma, and add them, too.

I’ve also go to start wrapping presents. I’m the type of person that waits till Christmas Eve and stays up making cookies and wrapping presents till 1 or 2am because I’ve procrastinated all month. Not everything that’s in my closet is mine (Mary’s stashed some stuff in there, too) and I’ve got stuff at Mary’s and Mom’s:

Oh yeah, and I have to clean up the living room and kitchen. I don’t like that part.