Category: Weather

OPAH, DITL 4-07-07

I’m finally getting around to posting this — incredibly late, but posting.

I slept in Saturday morning since Mario was home so I started at 10am again, just like the last time.

OPAH - Photo Project 10:00am

10:00am – I’d just finished feeding Alaethia and it was time for a diaper change.

OPAH - Photo Project 11:00am

11:00am – Mario and I had Menudo at Mary’s house then got ready super quick to go to a Liquidation Sale at Greg’s Ballroom. It was incredibly disappointing. I wasn’t too happy with the $6 entrance fee for each person, either!

OPAH - Photo Project 12:00pm

12:00pm – On the way back home from Greg’s Ballroom. Mario ended up buying a Lock-Out set and that’s it. The morning was chilly and gloomy and it was quickly becoming colder and rainy.

(no picture)

1:00pm – I completely forgot to take a picture for 1pm since I was holding Alaethia and was watching Mary, Sonia and Noelia put the kids’ Easter baskets together. All I ended up helping with this year was curling the ribbons LOL.

OPAH - Photo Project 2:00pm

2:00pm – Mom and I had plans to go thrift shopping that morning, but since we were waiting for Jorge and Vito to get here we didn’t go anywhere. We found out there were still a few hours before they got here so we went. The weather was awful by this time. The boys stayed with Mario and Alaethia went with us.

OPAH - Photo Project 3:00pm

3:00pm – My scrapbooking booty! I was so disappointed the first half our we were thrifting since I couldn’t find anything. All I had was an olive-colored pillow that matched the ones I bought a while back at Target and some cute, stripey placemats (also from Target). Just as I was giving up and was getting ready to pay they bring out a huge shopping cart full of Marcella K scrapbooking stuff, still brand-new in package! I got a whole bunch of stuff and paid only $5 for everything since they were 50% off! I could have easily spent $60 at Target for that stuff. In all, I spent $13!

OPAH - Photo Project 4:00pm

4:00pm – We carefully made our way to Gramma’s nursing home since it was raining hard. She was doing much, much better than she had been when I visited her on Wednesday. She was cheerful and kept laughing at our jokes.

OPAH - Photo Project 5:00pm

5:00pm – Back at home and spending time with the family. Everyone was passing around some photo albums and my new batch of Winkflash pictures I’d brought over. Love when family gets together like this.

OPAH - Photo Project 6:00pm

6:00pm – We got hungry for snacks and pigged out on the ice cream Mario and I brought over: Dreyer’s Butterfinger and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

OPAH - Photo Project 7:00pm

7:00pm – Time to feed Alaethia. She’d been up for a good while, mingling with everyone, so she was starving by this time.

OPAH - Photo Project 8:00pm

8:00pm – Finishing up making invitations for a small party we’re having for Jaylen’s 5th birthday. Lots of stuff piled up on us this month, and for the next few months, so we’re having a small, modest party at a pizza place.

OPAH - Photo Project 9:00pm

9:00pm – Jorge, Mario, Mary, Noelia and I made a quick spur-of-the-moment run to Wal-Mart (Mom stayed with my kiddos). We hadn’t had dinner so I munched on Combos while Mario and Jorge munched on teriyaki beef jerky.

OPAH - Photo Project 10:00pm

10:00pm – I got into the shower after cleaning up when we got home from Wal-Mart.

OPAH - Photo Project 11:00pm

11:00pm – Watching George Lopez’s new comedy on HBO while we were in bed (and while Alaethia was having a bottle). This was also around the time Mario went to Whataburger and picked up a sinful dinner for burgers for us. We planned to just not eat dinner, but we were starving and too lazy to make something at home. And then I wonder how I gained 2 pounds!

We stayed up for another 2 hours since Alaethia refused to go to sleep, and to let the food “go down” of course!

It’s Like Dawn of the Dead, But With Old People

Not that I have anything against old people, not at all. I’ve been driving around like a mad woman since last week and the handful of old people who should not be allowed a license all happen to be on the road at the same time as I am. John said that phrase this afternoon and I thought it was hilarious (and so true. I even said, “That’s SO going to be my blog entry title!” I was supposed to change the title on my entry about Anna Nicole to “The Day John’s Penis Died” but I never did LOL.) We were on a McDonald’s run when TWO cars full of Winter Texans almost slammed into us from each side. That’s been the norm since last Thursday it seems.

I’m at my desktop computer in the living room right now, with Alaethia’s bassinet at my side just in case she spits up like she did a few hours ago. Scared the crap out of me. Thank goodness I was passing right by her bassinet when she started screaming.

I didn’t get to enjoy the fruits of my laptop and wireless internet for too long since Mario got tired of how slow the laptop was and sold it today to one of his co-workers. So now we’re saving the $600 we bought and sold it for until we can save a little more to buy a better laptop. I had no problem with it; I loved it. Mario, on the other hand, is impatient and the poor little processor in the laptop was too slow for him. He also likes to mess around with the inards of operating systems and hates that Windows Vista doesn’t really let him get into all the folders and such. I just want to update from my bed again :(.

Anyway, I didn’t drop Noelia off at work on Thursday. It was nice to get some extra sleep in the morning. After I picked Jaylen up from school, Jaylen, Mom, Alaethia and I headed to the hospital to get Alaethia’s PKU done. It thankfully didn’t take super long to get called in since we had to make it back on time to pick Sammy (Yazmin was admitted into the hospital since she had a bad throat infection that needed intravenous antibiotics to clear it and nobody was around to pick up Sammy) and Eenan and Brandon up from school.

I braced myself for some tears (not just hers, but my own as well) when I put Alaethia up on the table and removed her sock. The nurse pricked her heel and it took her about 5 seconds to realize what had happened and she screamed her little Kitty scream. I picked her up and consoled her and she calmed down. Poor baby. I only got a little teary eyed this time, but I’m nervous about her immunizations next month!

We looked around the gift shop for a little bit, where mom got me a cute, soft little teddy bear that has “Special Daughter” embroidered on the tummy, aww :). We made it back with more than enough time to pick Sammy up, so we wasted some time at Joy Dollar. Jaylen of course went straight to the toys and picked out some swords with shields for him and Eenan. Can’t beat quieting the children down for $1! Well, quieting them down while we’re at the store. Once they have those swords out at home and are dueling with eachother, that’s another story.

Everything went pretty smoothly that night until it was time to make dinner. I decided on spaghetti and meatballs since I had a brain fart and thought, “It’s easy to make and I don’t really have to do much.” Right. Completely flew over my head that I actually have to prepare the meatballs. Alaethia started crying unconsolably just as I was defrosting the ground beef and would not let me put her down. Luckily, I still got it: I made meatballs with ONE HAND. Mashed all the ingredients and made perfect little balls and everything. *pops collar*

I finally gave her her first “full bath” that night. Her belly button stump had fallen off at the beginning of the week, but she still had a huge scab across her belly button and it was a little red and would bleed a little on her diaper. I was concerned, but they’d told me at her doctor’s appointment that she was healing well. I still couldn’t wet it though. I got tired of mopping her down with damp washcloths so I gave her a bath as carefully as I could without getting her bellybutton wet. It was a success and of course we took pictures :).

So Fresh and So Clean

John and I went to Target earlier that day to see if they had the stuff he wanted and we made a quick stop at Michael’s, where I bought $3 worth of scrapbooking papers (they were on sale for a quarter each) and some embellishments. I bought one of the papers especially for documenting her first bath :).

Scrapbooking Papers

Embellishments

I had to drop Noelia off on Friday morning and Mario had to work so I had to rush and get the kids to school then get Noelia to work on time. I got everything ready as quickly as I could that morning and then Noelia, Mom, Alaethia and I got into the truck. Got her to work with a few minutes to spare.

On the way back home Mom and I are looking for an old thrift store we used to go to. I’m so intently paying attention to all the shops on each side of us and trying not to get into a car accident that I’m stunned when I see something fly across the windshield and CRACK!! I frantically look around to see what happened and notice a circular crack on the top right side of my windshield. Looks like a baseball hit it. A darn trailer that was going in the opposite direction somehow managed to toss a huge rock at my window diagonally. How the hell does that happen?!

I call Mario to let him know what happened. We already had 3 small “stars”, one that had been repaired and now that huge one. I was pissed. Mario was annoyed. I called Mary and she tells me to put in a claim and get it taken care of with the insurance. So I do that as soon as I get home. I speak to a guy from the claims department at the company I’m getting the windshield repaired at. I ask him about the crack: it’s 2-2 1/2 inches long, can it be repaired? He says yes, as long as it’s less than 6 inches long it can be fixed. Awesome. I give him all my details and he says he’ll call the insurance company. I have an appointment at 9:30 at the windshield/glass place on Saturday morning. Lovely.

After picking Jaylen up I start getting ready to leave to my optometrist appointment. It’s about damn time I get new glasses; the ones I currently have I’ve had for 6 years. I’ve had the exact same frames two different times but the lenses have been the same for 6 years. I’m beginning to have problems seeing letters from far away again and have so much trouble seeing at night so I’m way overdue. I leave the house with enough time to find the place; I wanted to be early since I had to be there 5 minutes earlier than my appointment at 1.

I’m driving down the street looking for the place. It just so happens to be on the same street Mario works on. After frantically looking for it and pissing everyone around me off for driving 15 MPH, I decide to stop at Mario’s and ask him where the darn office is. We can’t find a phonebook anywhere and when we finally do, I’m already 5 minutes late, which means I’m 10 minutes late if you count the 5 minutes I was supposed to be there early. Turns out they moved the one that was near Mario’s work and it’s all the way on the other side of the expressway. Nice.

I finally get there and customer service SUCKS. One guy finally pays attention to me and directs me to the back of the place, which is so odd because nobody really knows they’re allowed to go back there O_o. Once they call me in it’s cake; everything was done really quickly. I’m only slightly more blind than I was before, so I guess that’s good. I got some brownish frames this time, sort of square and they’re Transitions lenses with anti-glare, which I’ve always wanted. Came out to $135. I almost died, but the lady who was attending me painted such a pretty picture, and after telling her how long I had my current frames she said I deserved some spiffy new glasses. I told myself, “You know what? You DO deserve some new glasses!” so I got just about everything they “recommended” I get. Mario was a little upset with how much I spent, but like I told him: this is the first time I go all out with my glasses and I’ll probably keep them for another 6 years. Not like him, who spent $170 on Tommy Hilfiger glasses that broke in a few months. Grr.

I picked up some McDonald’s for the both of us and I dropped it off to him. I was starving. All the weight I lost is going to come right back if McDonald’s keeps taunting me with it’s big golden arches :(. They’re everywhere! And I don’t usually like McDonald’s!

Mario got out early but I didn’t see much of him anyway. He was outside bonding with his dad by the fire of the bar-b-q. I left them alone and chilled out inside with my little lady and my littlest man (Eenan was sleeping over at Mary’s), since the day’s beautiful weather was quickly turning chilly and damp.

I actually got online to check my Myspace that night and to my surprise I had a friend request from an old friend from Middle School: Carmen! When I first saw her name I thought, “Could it be? No…” But it was! We exchanged messages for a while then had a nice, long talk on the phone catching up on eachother’s lives. We made plans to meet the next day for lunch somewhere.

In the time I’d left Alaethia with Mom for the few hours that I was at my eye appointment and then picked up the kids, she managed to screw up her routine. She gave me so much trouble that afternoon; she’d cry and cry, drink about an ounce of milk, go to sleep, wake up screaming and would drink another ounce. It took a few hours to get her back on track and I was fearful that she wouldn’t let me sleep that night and that her almost perfect patterns were gone for good. Although Alaethia did pretty good that night, and did pretty good every other night before, I felt so exhausted on Saturday morning. I overslept by a few minutes and it threw off my whole morning. I didn’t even get a chance to iron Mario’s clothes. I ate some breakfast real quick and got all of Alaethia’s stuff together. I was taking her with me; there was NO WAY I was leaving her with Mom again for that long! The boys, on the other hand, weren’t making much of an effort to get ready and since I was already running late I left them with Mother.

I was nervous driving to the glass place that morning since it was cold and rainy. She did great on the way over there and was an angel the entire time we were there. It took a while to get done this time and I was starting to get worried. It didn’t take but half an hour the first time we went there to get a chip fixed. The receptionist was just appologizing for how long it was taking when one of the installers came in to tell her it was done being replaced. I laugh and say, “Oh, you mean repaired.” The guy chuckles and says, “No, it was replaced.” My heart starts racing and I slap my hands over my eyes. I say, “It wasn’t supposed to be replaced! It was only a crack!” He says he looked over the work order and it was put down as a replacement; there’s no way they’d be able to repair that type of crack. I tell him I specifically asked the guy if a crack of that size could be fixed and that he’d said as long as it was under 6 inches, it could be. We stand around pondering what to do and then the guys tell me not to worry about it, to go home. I say, “What? I just…leave? Just like that? What happens then?” The same guy chuckles and says, “We just won’t get paid our comission.” Just dig the dagger deeper in why don’t you? Like I didn’t feel guilty about everything that was happening already, and that’s because I didn’t even do anything wrong! So we decide I’d just leave and we’d resolve it on Monday. Yippee.

I drove to Mario’s to show him our new windshield and told him the horror story behind it. He sort of just laughed it off, which annoyed me a little. I parked and called Carmen up to get my mind off the darn thing. We made plans to meet at the mall and have lunch there. She was going to have her kiddos with her and I had Alaethia.

It was so good seeing her! We held eachother in a hug for a few minutes when we first saw eachother. I remember that at the end of 8th grade we weren’t as close as we were in 7th. You know how all that middle/high school drama goes. Sadly I can’t even remember what happened that came between our friendship. She moved away after 8th grade and we lost touch completely, but I’m so glad that it’s like we never stopped talking!

Her kids went to this little mall event they were having for the kids’ club. I signed up for Sephora.com and got some free makeup, yay! We walked around and just chattered on and on and then we had lunch at the food court. I had spinach and mushroom stuffed pizza from Villa Pizza. *drool* That was delicious and oh, so sinful.

We peeked into a few of our favorite stores. She has a wedding to go to, so we went into Macy’s to look for dresses. I saw red clearance flags in this one section of the store, and I quickly skidadled over there. I found a cute tee (Just Jimmy’s one of my current favorite brands) for $4.99. I just noticed how much the shirts actually cost. I’ve got 5 of them and I’ve never paid full price for them. I usually get them at ross for under $7. That’s why I LOVE Ross!

John called telling me he wanted to go to the mall, too, so as soon as Carmen and I were done walking around the mall I went home and we made plans to go right back. The boys didn’t want to go, again, so it would just be John, Alaethia and me. Well, Alaethia decides she needs a bottle at the last minute (and she’d just eaten right when we got home) and then Mary asks us to drop her off at Noelia’s work. Everything took an additional hour and 15 minutes to get done, so we didn’t end up going to the mall. John wanted to get Alaethia a cute blanket from Hot Topic. I hope there’ll still be some left for when we finally decide to go back.

I started feeling sick with a sore throat that morning so after stopping by Game Stop, where John bought some game thing, we went to H-E-B to get medications, honey and chamomille tea, cereal and ice cream :P.

Mario was home on Sunday and since Target was finally going to have some DS’s in stock John asked if we’d be kind enough to do him the favor of getting up at the crack of dawn and getting one for him. We left the house at 9 and we expected them to be sold out. We get to Target and there’s 6 whole shoppers in the entire store. Better for us. I’m so glad we have a Target “over here”. The ones in McAllen are always sold out of the good stuff because of the people who come shopping over here from Mexico.

We had some breakfast afterwards at Burger King and then Paul called us to go over to his house so we could work on networking their computers. I just sat with Alaethia on their bed and talked with Norma while Mario figured out the computer stuff (with Paul watching LOL). It was nice seeing them after so long. Their kiddos are all so big!

Mario dropped Noelia off at work today, so I got the kids to school extra early and got home with enough time to do everything I needed to do. I tried taking a nap with Alaethia after everyone left, but everybody and their mama kept calling. Including the lady from the glass place. After a whole bunch of BS, I still won’t find out what happens for another week. My deductible is $100 now, but they were saying it was still $500, which isn’t true. If they do accept it as $100, I won’t have to pay anything at all. It better happen that way; I don’t plan to pay anything since it wasn’t my mistake.

I got a call from a guy at I.R.R.A. asking me to pick up my darn high school diploma (that I’d ordered since 2005) already, so after I picked Jaylen up from school John and I went to Edinburg to pick up the darn thing. It looks nice and un-cheap, unlike my first diploma. I called Sally while we were over there and we made plans to meet after 3:30 at my house.

We met Mario for lunch (after we’d picked up the McDonald’s I mentioned at the beginning of the entry) and ate at the park we’d eaten at on Thursday. It was so nice out today. I wish I could see my Babe more often, but I guess since I don’t get to it makes the time we do spend together more special :).

I was to help Sally figure out what to make for dinner and then we’d go buy the groceries we needed. So fun! We wrote down recipes and talked for a good while and when we were about to leave she realizes she doesn’t have her wallet. She calls Pete and they realize they threw her wallet in the trash at the park they were having lunch at this afternoon by accident! Thankfully, Pete goes and checks and to everyone’s relief the wallet was still in the trash! Sally’s going on a hiking/road trip this weekend, which I’m so jealous of! Hopefully, after she comes back all the girls will be able to get together like the old days :). I can’t wait!

So I guess you can say I’ve had a pretty awesome, albeit hectic, week. I’m on Cloud 9 in life right now. I’m so grateful to be surrounded by loving family who’s more than willing to help me out when I need it and friends who I can count on and distract myself with. I was so afraid I’d have Post Partum Depression again for the 3rd time, but I’m so incredibly thrilled to say I don’t feel the baby blues at all!

(Edit @ 12:35pm) Just went through this entry and realized the insane amount of typos and things I left out since I was writing this with one eye open last night. I was that sleepy. I also realized just how long this entry is. I salute you if you actually read through the whole thing! (End Edit)

38 Week Appointment and Nesting!

It’s taken me yesterday and today to upload the baby shower pics to Flickr. I’ve been uploading in little spurts here and there between laundry, organizing, packing and going a little nuts.

Friday
Since I’d been feeling really sore and tired (and we were all trying to keep Alaethia in there till the day of the baby shower, at least) Mario was kind enough to drop the kids off for me in the morning, pick Jaylen up and even made me lunch! Ricky’d come over for lunch and came over to chit-chat. Mario said something like, “Look, she’s even got me making her lunch,” and Ricky replied, “Good! She should be pampered!” Alright Ricky!

Saturday
This was the day that I was almost certain I’d be going into labor by nighttime. I could barely walk, I felt an immense pressure in my pelvis and I was sure she was going to fall out. Everyone was worried and had me resting. Although I was in my Nesting stage and had these crazy bursts of energy, I still washed dishes, but Mom did my laundry and I didn’t have to cook. I felt spoiled, but in a way I also felt a little frustrated because I’m so used to doing everything on my own!

I stayed up with Yadira, Elda, and Mary and the kiddos while they got everything ready for the baby shower. They didn’t let me help with that, either!

Sunday
I spent the morning getting ready and then we went over to Mary’s around noon to help with sandwiches. Actually, Mario went in to help, I wasn’t allowed. I’d woken up that night with my wedding rings cutting the circulation from my fingers and I was swollen the rest of the day, so I was taking it easy. Mario dubbed himself the Sandwich Samurai, since, according to him, nobody else could prepare and cut a sandwich as fast as he. I totally wanted to post a picture of him in all his Sandwich Glory but he threatened to empty my whole memory card when he got his hands on it so I changed my mind :P.

We arrived an hour early at the hotel my baby shower was being held at so we could set everything up. Little did we know that we really had to set everything up ourselves–they didn’t even set up the tables or anything for us! Poor Mom and Mary moved everything on their own, and these were tables with granite (I think?) table tops!

People started arriving and we had a good time just chatting and then playing games. Like I mentioned in my last post, we didn’t get to play a few games because we forgot the pads of paper and pencils (and most of the games required things being written down!). It also got a bit crowded, as the hotel failed to mention that they only had 32 seats, and not the 50 they promised Mary. What idiots!

The little sandwiches and veggies were great, although I hardly got a chance to eat well since I was too busy mingling and posing for pictures. Finally, I finally have pictures of a lot of my relatives and friends. Some didn’t make it, but I’ll hopefully catch them later during another get together. I got to see Sally and Mayra, which is always great. I wish there were more visits :(. Pete was also kind enough to send his gift with Sally. How sweet is he?!

The boys were great. They behaved pretty well up until about half an hour before we left. They were becoming antsy since the adults were all sitting around talking so they started running around like they’d lost their minds.

All in all, it was a big success and we received so many nice things for Alaethia :). We have every single thing we need for her arrival and I just feel so overwhelmed with gratefulness for our family and friends :).

2nd Cake Pose

John and I went to Target on Monday evening after I’d picked the boys up from school. Mom stayed with them and John and I braved the slippery roads to find, most importantly, the Graco Mikayla stroller and carset Mario and I’d wanted since I first found out I was pregnant. The Target we went to didn’t “carry it” anymore, and two of the other Targets I called didn’t either. I couldn’t believe my luck. I shopped around and got a yellow crib sheet that was on clearance, some cute, girly headbands for Alaethia, a Boppy slipcover (also on clearance), a bottle/ baby food jar warmer and Newborn diapers. I finally decided to call the other Target and I couldn’t get through. When I finally did get through I spoke to a nice guy named Eddie, who told me they didn’t carry the Mikayla anymore, but they did have one extremely similar to it called the Alano. I wanted to take Eddie out to dinner. He put it on hold for me and we hurried over there.

Tuesday
It was super cold on Tuesday (but it didn’t sleet like they said it would) and the buttholes Mario works with all took the spaces up inside the installation bays (garages) so my poor husband was left outside in the cold, literally. He called around noon and asked me to take him a pair of his insulated pants so I obliged. Then Mom, Jaylen and I made a quick run to Target.

Other Stuff We Needed

That night, Mario and I put the cribset together and after a quiet moment of tying the crib bumper all around the slats he tells me, “It’s going to be hard.”

Thinking he’s talking about being parents to three I tell him, “We’ll be fine. I know we will.”

He says, “No, it’s going to be hard being in love with two beautiful women.”

You can imagine how big I’m smiling and tell him, “Aww, that’s so sweet, Babe!”

And Mario, being Mario, ruins it all and says, “Oh, and Alaethia, too.”

Dork.

I think that was also the night that he dedicated “She’s Everything” by Brad Paisley to me. A combination of that, the songs he dedicated to our kids and my hormones made me bawl my eyes out. I love this man *sigh*.

My stomach was bothering me a lot that night and was cursing myself for not doing her laundry that day or packing my bag for that matter!

Wednesday
I woke up and quickly did a load of Alaethia’s laundry. After dropping the kids off at school, I came home, made Mario breakfast, we picked up his car (John takes it to work and then we pick it up and Mario goes to work) and then I went to my 38 week appointment. Well, Dr. C. has me down as 37 weeks in his notes, but I’m 38 weeks, darnit. Anyway, my appointment was kind of late, so it took forever for them to call me in. I was worried I wouldn’t pick up Jaylen on time. When they did call me in, they freaked out that my blood pressure was high the first time they took it. They took it again and I was fine. I weighed 134.8 this time, which means I lost about a pound. Weird. My sugar was also all over the place; there were 500 somethings (I don’t even know what the name is!) of glucose in my urine, but when they checked my finger it was fine, at 91. Also weird.

Dr. C. did a sonogram and I took video. She’s got such a big head in the sonogram–I wonder if it’ll be the same when she *gulp* comes out?!

She’s very low and upon doing the pelvic exam (ew) he said I was still at 2 centimeters. He said I could go into labor anytime now since I’m 38 weeks, but if I don’t go into labor by next Wednesday, he might consider inducing labor. I’m so anxious to find out if I’ll go into labor on my own or if I’m going to be induced like the other two times. At least we have everything we need now!

I spent the whole day after that packing my bag, doing Alaethia’s laundry, cleaning up, organizing her cart, and made dinner while boiling her bottles and pacifiers. Later, when Mario got home, he put her carseat and stroller together.

Baby Laundry

Munchkin Baby Cart

Graco Alano Travel System

Like the Catalog!

Bottles and Chupys

I’m so ready! C’MON, ALAETHIA!

I’ve also been messing around with WordPress (and so far, I think everything’s working correctly *knocks on wood*) and downloaded a few plugins like Post Views, Recent Posts, Subscribe to Comments and E-mail Subscription, so you can get notified when I post a new entry if you’d like (the last 3 mentioned are in the side bar). I wanted to get a new theme going, so the stuff in the sidebar can be more organized, but that’s probably going to have to wait. That, and I still, after all these months, have layout block. Sad, isn’t it?

Well, I should get going. I’m about an hour late on starting dinner so I should get to that. Damn me for not buying microwaveable foods, like Hot Pockets. That would SO come in handy right now!