Category: Shopping

I haven’t updated in forever, I know. I must update on Jaylen & Justin’s birthdays/Easter, Alaethia’s first sleepover and both girls’ first play date (not including family), Disney on Ice, Jaylen’s band concert, the girls’ Field Day and Mother’s Day, which was this past weekend. But that requires a few hours, some silence and some coffee ^_^.

For now, I have to update on my very frugal, very successful shopping spree. Mom gave me cash as a gift for Mother’s Day and, as Mom’s usually do, I put it towards bills initially, heh.

I heard there was a sale going on at Old Navy so, since I wanted a navy blue cardigan (I recently realized I have tons of navy blue clothes O_o), I decided to stop by Wednesday after work to check it out.

I had some rewards coupons and after the sale prices I ended up paying $16 for a blouse, some sweat pants and 2 cardigans!

A super cute store opened on Main St. a while back called Vintage on Main and we had a Cash Mob at work, where we invite the community to take $20 cash to shop at a local business. How awesome is it that we can shop with permission during work ours hehe.

They had such great prices and everything was so whimsical and cute.

I found a black chiffon blouse there with gold dots and an antique-bronze owl necklace. Total cost: $9!

I went back to Old Navy today after work and found a few more things :).

A tee, a blouse, a cropped navy blue cardi, jeans and olive corduroy skinny pants for $23! The olive pants were ridiculously priced for $1.37! I’m already on Pinterest getting outfit ideas :P.

The even more amazing part is I still have some cash left over! I love me a bargain :).

And now I shall get back to Sons of Anarchy. Jorge and I are obsessed with the show. As soon as we do our mom and dad routine and put the girls to bed we turn on Netflix, grab a blanket and cuddle with Mabs and watch our show. It’s taken over my evenings and sabotaged my nightly run. We only have 1 1/2 more seasons to go and I can return to my regularly scheduled life :P.

You know how I mentioned that the kids and I didn’t have to go anywhere on Monday since they had Spring Break and I had gotten 2 days off?

Yeah. That didn’t happen.

Jorge has the house automated, which is a beautiful thing when I have to wake up at 6am every morning. The accent lighting under the bed turns on, the air conditioning turns off (since I absolutely despise feeling cold in the morning), the lights slowly turn on (from 20% to 50% in 10 minutes), as does music over the speakers. Meanwhile the TV turns on to channel 5 news in the bathroom. It’s perfect.

But I didn’t have to wake up at 6am Monday morning, so I had to wake up and turn everything off from my phone. No biggie. Then Jorge’s alarm for work goes off at 7:00. Then 7:15. Then 7:30. I crash out when I make sure he’s awake and getting ready and am briefly awakened when he kisses me before he leaves.

Then my boss calls at 8:15am to ask where some documents are. Then John texts me at 8:30 about going car shopping (his car’s transmission had died on him the week before). Then Gerry begins to text about some linens I had in my car that needed to be taken to the cleaners and could I go drop them off? FML.

We’d stayed up late with the kids the night before and I figured they’d sleep late anyway so I, somewhat reluctantly, decided I’d just get up and get ready to pick John up and go to the place Briana had just bought her car at last Saturday.

But first: he treated me to breakfast!

All was forgiven!

(Not really, but it subdued my morning “Snickers Moment” ^_^.)

So we went on to the place Briana went, and to make a long story short: John has no credit. 0 And because of this, he was presented with a 2004 who-knows-what, with peeling leather seats and dents all over the place. Oh yes, and they wanted $3,000 down. WTF.

So we scratched that and John immediately shut down and wanted to forget the whole thing. I told him Jorge’s friends, the ones who hooked us up with our vehicles, could help. I asked Jorge to call them and he did. They told us to go right over but John was unsure. So while he debated I stopped by Hidden Treasures, hehe.

Minnie, the owner, and I reminisced about the kids and how long I’ve been stopping by her store. I don’t stop by as often as I’d like, but I do at least twice a year. And I also snapped this pic:

How true is that? I picked up a Strawberry Shortcake rag doll (even though I already have one, heh) but you couldn’t beat the price. I also found a $2 Glow Worm that still had the battery compartment. Jorge IMMEDIATELY claimed it as his that evening ^_^.

We went home to make sure the kids were fed and so I could snuggle the girls for a while. They weren’t falling apart without me, though. They were having fun on their iPads and sprawled all over the living room. We chilled out for a while until John FINALLY made up his mind. We ate lunch, and I once again unwillingly got ready to go. I half-jokingly jabbed at John that he was ruining my day off.

We dropped the stupid linens off at my work and then we left to the dealership. We got to Weslaco, in the ugly, drizzly rain. To make another long story short (a story about 4+ hours long), John saw some cars, we spoke to RG and Ringo, they ran some numbers, we sat for a long time, John almost lost his shit because he was second-guessing EVERYTHING, I almost lost my shit because John was losing his shit, they got him the car he wanted, he was on the phone with insurance companies forever and FINALLY: he drove off in his new Dart. He kept it in the Dodge family LOL.

After dinner, the girls had a tea party:

Jorge, Justin, Jaylen and Eenan were in the background ^_^. Jorgie snuck in and I snapped a pic. Justin got away LOL

Jorge and Jorgie, Jaylen and Justin went to pick up a game at midnight at Game Stop, while Eenan played on his computer and the girls and I lazied around on the couch. I love how he’s all into these things with the kids :).

I spent the next day at home, at least, but I spent a lot of it cleaning and doing everything I didn’t do during the weekend, like laundry (grr).

I spent time playing Candy Land with the girls, then Jenga and then they got bored and abandoned me LOL. Later on I got the kids in on cleaning. Jorge was impressed when he got home :).

The weather was better so I planned to take the kiddos to the park, but there was 6 of them and one of me and the last thing I needed was an accident to happen *shudder*. Hate the thought. It’s not like the boys wanted to move anyway: they were too enthralled in their new game.

I taught Eenan how to use the skillet to make over-easy eggs and I made lunch for everyone else:

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out. It was back to work for me the next day and the kids would be leaving with Mario for the rest of the week after we got out of work. We split their “holiday” like we usually do. I just wish I’d gotten to spend more time with them =\.

It was a day of “catch up” for me at work. I had tons of bills to process and turn in for my department and they were due that day. Thankfully I’d already gotten everything started on Friday before I left. I got to meet my love for lunch at Tacos Kissi (LOVE that place! Became one of my faves!) and Marco and Jessica joined us. I ran some errands for work and the day went by pretty fast. I rushed home so I could get see the kids and make sure they had their things ready. Mary was already here waiting, grr.

So I made dinner for Jorge, Mom and I, which was garlic parmesan chicken, roasted broccoli and some guac. Javi and Eric stopped by with a gift for Jorge and I:

It was great! The pickles, candy and drink itself were so good. I didn’t eat the shrimpies (watching the cholesterol still), but it had TONS of shrimpies.

The guys hung out a while and they had dinner. They were already planning to go get tacos, but I guilt-tripped them into eating the plates I’d saved for them since they kept complaining they were hungry LOL. They cleaned their plates ^_^.

My boss was out on Thursday and it was sort of a slow day. I ran some errands for our bossboss and then it was time for lunch with my love. We went to Roosevelt’s this time. We finally made a date to go there! I haven’t had many opportunities to hang out with my love for lunch since I pick up my Emmos, so it’s really nice when we can go :).

I probably shouldn’t have had this meal, but it’s one of my faves. And I didn’t feel like having salmon or grilled chicken again =\.

Went back to work and cleaned my desk and some files. That took quite a while since I’d been sort of ignoring my mess, heh. My love wanted to look for some shoes for work and I wanted to get a price adjustment on 2 pairs of pants I’d bought for work at Old Navy, so I picked him up and we went. I got a whopping $30 back from my price adjustment, which was awesome. Jorge was impressed and so was the cashier, who had no idea LOL. I remember from my Old Navy days from 2000-2001 heh.

We went to Macy’s and my love had no luck finding shoes. They had a very small selection. So we picked up Jorge’s car and we came home. He and the boys had food I couldn’t eat for dinner, so I was satisfied with some multi-grain Cheerios. And then I passed out LOL.

I picked up some coffee and oatmeal for myself at McDonald’s the next morning since I was in a hurry to get to work. Laura, Ms. Thelma and I were going shopping for materials at Hobby Lobby for Latina.Hope. I was super excited. We got to go shopping and not spend our own money, woo!

Well. I still bought some crocheted lace for some straps I need to replace on a sundress and a display for my bracelets. (I had to put it in my closet ’cause Kika and Ruffles would knock it into the sink with my luck.)

I spent the rest of the morning organizing my charm bracelet supplies, typing up a tutorial and then it was lunch time. As much as my job stresses me out sometimes, some days are just AWESOME.

I met my love at Espi’s this time, where I had some chalupas. Probably could have done without the tortilla, but I’ve been doing alright.

I headed over to the antique shop next door where the owner and I got into a long-winded conversation about 80s toys and so on. He has my contact info just in case he gets anything in, woo!

I went grocery shopping after work (ugh) but it had to be done. I served Jorge and Justin some dinner when I got home and we chit chatted about their day before their mom got there. Jorge was home before she got here (of course) so he at least got to see the boys for a while.

We freshened up, as we actually made plans to do something on a Friday night, heh. Junior called us right before we left and asked us to go over since he had a surprise for us. We had no idea what he was talking about, but we’d be there right after dinner.

We met Esmer and Robert at Beef’s. It was nice catching up and talking about everything with them. They reminisced about their times at work together and then we got into how our past marriages exploded in our face and how Jorge and I ended up together. We’ve hung out many times before, but we’d never really gotten into talking about WHY it all happened. It was…therapeutic to vent about it all. I need actual therapy to forgive and forget I think, LOL.

So we ate (I had blackened fish, broccoli and rice and I have to say it was great!) and then we said our ‘see you laters’. We went to Tony’s afterwards. Our surprise was Rick!! We hadn’t seen him since he left back in 2011! The old Shack-mates (except for Billy and Roly) were back together again. We had another reminisce-fest and just had a great time singing, laughing, dancing and taking photos. Rick told us tons of times how glad he was that we ended up together and that we’re perfect for each other and compliment each other. I got teary several times, heh. I love those people!

Javi joined us later. It was the latest we’ve stayed out in probably 3 years LOL. It was so much fun!

Poor Jorge had to work in the morning but he was so tired he called his guys and pushed their schedule to 10am LOL. I’m glad he can do that. I made sure he woke up and then I passed out till…noon. I know. I NEVER sleep that late!!

I ate some cereal and chit-chatted with Mom. I went to my room to have my coffee and lazy in my PJ’s. Of course I started cleaning and forgot about my coffee for a while. I did some minor sprucing up to my 80’s page and I realized I wasted about 2 hours doing that LOL. I was inspired after receiving 2 packages:

I’m still missing 2 Fluppy Puppies (I had no idea until recently!) and these Nosy Bears are 2 of the rarer ones that I got for a bargain.

I got dressed and Mom and I visited Gramma for a while. She’s doing good, thank goodness. I love that little lady. I seriously need to make more time to see her. I feel crappy that I don’t sometimes :*(.

I got home and made some amazing fish tacos, if I do say so myself ^_^. I tried a new avocado-cabbage slaw. Both Mom and Jorge loved them.

We had told the guys we were going to go out to Hillbilly’s tonight, but Rick was recovering, Jorge took a nap, Javi’s out at a fight, Jr. is out with friends and so on. I spoke with the kiddos and since then I’ve been typing this up, watched and won an auction for Lisa on eBay, watched shows on DIY Network and once Jorge woke up we watched cat videos, more home improvement shows and have been on our respective electronics. And we’re ok with that, hehe. It’s been a pretty darn good week. Can’t wait to see my babies!

November 26th – I picked the boys up that afternoon and Eenan makes my day by showing me this story he wrote about me:

He made me all teary. I asked him, “Why’d you keep saying you give me a hard time? You don’t!” He shrugs and says, “I dunno.” He’s such a teenager LOL. My big boy :*).

The girls had a Girl Scout meeting and we were using the board room at work so leave it to me to go into work on my day off, heh. I said hi to the girls and ran upstairs with my girls and Jaylen to reply to some e-mails. Ran downstairs and had our hour-and-a-half long meeting. I was exhausted by the time we got home so my love ordered us some Domino’s. Pizza Day is usually Friday, but it felt like a Friday so *hmph*. We watched Cloud Atlas. Well, Eenan was the only kid that watched it with us and I made him close his eyes in the more “mature” parts.

November 27th – Briana, Dina and the kids were on their way to spend Thanksgiving with us and I still had grocery shopping and cleaning to do so I was panicking. Grocery shopping took an eternity since everyone else had the sense to wait till the day before Thanksgiving, like me, to shop. Got home and made Texas toast French Toast for the kids. It was SO GOOD.

Mom had an appointment at her audiologist and that place takes FOREVER. The kids were, understandably, bored. Jorge jumped into hero-mode and picked the kids up and took them back to his office/store so the kids could watch a 3D movie in one of the theaters hehe. When Mom was done and I picked them up they were disappointed LOL.

I ran an errand for Jorge…just to get to the place and find that they’re closed. Super frustrating. Those types of things only happen to me LOL.

The kids wanted snacks so we stopped at Mr. Fast for some sushi and nachos. Yes, there is a restaurant in a convenience store/gas station that sells cheap, albeit delicious, sushi and other snacks. They didn’t have nachos, so we went across town to La Hormiga to get some for Emily. Their dad picked them up that evening since they were spending Thanksgiving lunch with his family.

John came over with his homemade cinnamon buns. We laughed and caught up and I told him about my dramas with Mother. I miss that crazy dude. I remember when we’d hang out all the time and eat sushi 3x a week LOL.

Dina, Briana and the kids got here around 10pm. We sat outside on the porch talking till almost 1am. Needless to say, we got up late-ish.

November 28th – The next day we made a quick trip to Walgreens for a few things and found some amazing sales. We got the girls those pink kitty Seat Pet things and lots of stuff for Julien. Finished about 40% of the shopping in 1 visit.

Dina was in a frenzy getting everything ready. I felt almost guilty ’cause she was a whirlwind in the kitchen. All I really took care of on my own was the mashed potatoes (and that’s ’cause she started peeling them until I took them away LOL).

Half-way through I picked up my kiddos :). Missed them tons, even though they were only gone less than a day.

Jorge’s boys arrived and we got ready for the feast:

It was just so great being together and laughing. We were just missing John and Javi.

All the other photos of the boys were dark or blurry or Eenan would duck and blur out of the photo. Grrr.

Ah, the teenage thing again LOL.

We chilled out and watched a movie with the kids after dinner.

We put the kids to bed and discussed Black Friday (Thursday?) and whether we should even bother. We hadn’t thought about it at all until that moment, so we looked up ads and went to each of their rooms to confirm Christmas lists with the kids and then decided that yeah, we’d try it. Dina said she’d stay with the kids. We risked not actually finding any deals since most of the deals had already started since 6pm. I mean, really? That’s ridiculous. That’s the time we ate dinner!

Jorge and I went to Target and Walmart and found a few things for the girls. Jorge went crazy at Walmart with the Barbie things. I turned around at one point and he had his arms piled high with pink things and an excited twinkle in his eye LOL. You really couldn’t beat the prices.

November 29th – We didn’t end up going to sleep till almost 2am and I set my alarm for 5am to make it to the HEB Plus sale. I’m insane, I know. I wanted to get some T-Fal pans sets for myself and Dina, a coffee pot, an Android kid’s tablet for Julien, and some video games for the boys. I get there and the line is around the store like last year, but I’m glad that the whole event was smooth and people were polite. I didn’t get the T-Fal pots (I swear they only had like 5 in stock, ’cause I went straight for those), but I got everything else ^_^. Between the Walgreen’s shopping and the Black-Friday shopping, we got 80% of our Christmas shopping done!

Dina and Briana had family to visit so they did that. John visited and we watched stupid, funny videos with the boys. The little ones became extremely hyper after lunch and the boys were getting cabin fever so they went outside. Julien was sick with some kind of stomach bug since he’d arrived and he’d just eaten, so I stayed in with him. Emily was getting moody and stubbornly insisted I go outside with her. I distracted the girls by playing Candyland with them and Julien calmed down too. All the calm is over when Justin, Jaylen and Nick come in and Justin’s got his hand over his mouth. The geniuses got the idea to play Hide and Clap with a beanie over their heads and he ran into a mesquite tree. Sweet Jesus. I helped him clean out his mouth for at least 30 minutes. And they didn’t learn. Apparently they were doing it again when they went home later >_<. We spent the post-Thanksgiving days with the kiddos, lazying around and enjoying our time together. Jorge and I took a very late-night trip to Walmart to find one of Emily's gifts...to no avail :(. The rain and cold had calmed down a bit so we took them to the park on Saturday. [caption id="attachment_1992" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Aly and Jaylen[/caption]

Alaethia was a little upset because we went to a different park this time. We came home to get a few kids to use the bathroom and then it started raining, so we couldn’t go back to Daffodil park, the one she likes to go to. So we promised her we’d go the next day.

December 1st – We went to Daffodil park first this time and we told the boys we’d go to McAuliff park afterwards so they could play basketball.

We went back to the house, again for bathroom breaks and to pick up Alaethia’s bike and the basketball. We stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up snacks for the kids and headed to McAuliff Park.

The girls rode the bike around and were tired so we sat and they had their snacks. The boys and Jorge headed to the basketball court and played. Then we see Jorge and all 3 boys (Eenan stayed at home, again) coming back to us, with Justin looking upset. He was innocently elbowed in the face by Jorgie, in the same spot he’d run into the tree on Friday. The already-healing cut opened up and was bleeding. His face was swollen so we rushed the kids home, and instructed Mom to give them dinner because we were off to the ER clinic.

He was nervous, but we joked around and after a few hours and some X-rays, they prescribed a cream and an anti-inflammatory. His doctor was really nice and gave him an encouraging speech. It was out of left field, but it was really sweet :).

We got home, got the kids who hadn’t showered into the shower and into bed. We finished laundry and got ready for the week. It’s never a dull moment in our household!