Category: Weight/Exercise

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’ve been trying to type up this exact sentence for the past 8 days and it just never happened. I thought blogging was hard to find time for before, when I didn’t work, and it’s proving to be even more so now that I am working. Duh, right?

So the first three days were absolute murder on my body. I lost two pounds last week, let’s just say that LOL. The first day was spent taking books out of boxes and re-shelving by the Dewey Decimal System, which I hear isn’t mandatory at all schools. I stayed an extra hour that day to make up for the hours I thought I wasn’t getting that morning since I went in at 11:48.

The next day I got a tour of the school, since I spent most of the day transporting books to teachers just to get them out of the library since it looked like a warehouse. Not sure if I mentioned it, but we’re stationed at an old (OLD!) school while the new one is being built. It’ll supposedly be done by the end of September, but lots of people have been saying “yeah right”. Most of the books are boxed up, waiting to be shipped to the new school. The whole place looked like a disaster. Anyway, we were trying to get everything out of there, and me being the assistant was the lucky one who got to, at first, carry the books to the teachers until we found an abandoned cart in a hallway. Then I had the privilege of wheeling 20-30 monstrous dictionaries and encyclopedias all over the school, which is a whole bunch of separate buildings that have been added to the original school. I was eternally grateful for the elevator staff’s allowed to use. I was beginning to feel like Andrea from The Devil Wears Prada, except Mrs. V. isn’t that impossible. It was such a relief when I got back to shelving books, though. I think that was also the afternoon that our parent volunteer began to help us, bless her. She’s become a good friend of mine :).

I was SO stressed out and sore and just overwhelmed that afternoon. That was the last afternoon I stayed an hour after work to make up my hours since they said I didn’t have to do that. Darnit.

It was so nice to get home and hold Alaethia while we sat outside with Mom as we waited for the boys to get home from school. They were too excited to go on the bus. Eenan’s only been wanting to go on the bus since he was in Pre-K and would always ask, “Mom, why don’t we get to go on the bus?” He was thrilled when he’d go on the bus to his UIL meets, even though it wasn’t even a 10 minute ride. They got home and ran straight to their bedroom. Jaylen’d been falling asleep while they were waiting, my poor baby. They weren’t getting home till 4:30, and that’s because they get out at 3:15! I was already thinking of picking them all up myself, but if/when we do move to the new school I won’t make it to their school on time and they’ll just have to get used to taking the bus again. So, I decided it was best to have them come home on the bus.

Even though the boys love the bus, I felt awful that they were wasting so much time waiting at school and then on the bus. I was exhausted from going to bed at 11pm and waking up at 5:30am. I was in pain from the soreness of pushing carts around. I was overwhelmed because I never imagined getting used to being a working mom while still having time for the kids, a husband, cooking, and cleaning my house. Not to mention grocery shopping and paying the bills. I don’t know if it was nerves or a bug I caught but I felt awful that night. I kept having to run to the bathroom because I felt like I was going to hack but nothing happened. I had chills and was trembling; it was terrible. I even had to call Mario when he was on his way home from work to bring me a Sprite to settle my stomach. Mom’s like, “You know she’s sick when she’s asking for Sprite” LOL.

Mario and I had a little pep-talk that night and I felt a teensy bit better. I was so used to everyone depending on me I felt that if I wasn’t around, the world couldn’t go on. Thanks to Mom, it has. She’s been such a tremendous help; I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay her for giving me the opportunity to work and for keeping me sane. She’s here at 6am and stays till around 8pm after I’ve finally had a shower. The amount we’re going to pay her for babysitting is nothing compared to all the work she does.

What also made me feel a little better was the “presents” I received that morning. A huge coffee cup filled with pens, dry-erase markers, pencils and an awesome gel pen and another lunch bag filled with a stapler, staples, a tape dispenser and tape, a sharpener and a few other things I can’t remember at the moment. I love school supplies.

It’s so weird not helping the boys get ready in the morning, but at least I’m here when they get home and I get to spend some time with them. Holding Alaethia feels like such a relief at the end of the day. I try and carry her around as much as I can when I’m here.

Wednesday was spent shelving and dropping off a few more dictionaries. I let Mrs. V. know just how horrible I felt the night before and I don’t know if that had anything to do with it but I didn’t have to push around such heavy things anymore. She had me take some TVs and VCR/DVD players to classrooms, but that time I asked for the help of Mrs. G., our parent volunteer. I felt much better that day, but I had this nagging feeling about something I’d heard the day before from John and Mario. One of the buses in our school district had left a small boy 4 miles away from his house! I kept imagining something awful like that happening to the boys, but pushed it out of my head.

That afternoon Mom and I wait at Mary’s house where we can see the road and the bus approaching. We’d been chilling out on the porch the days before but Alaethia’s eczema acts up like crazy because of the heat. 3:45 comes around and we see the boys’ bus coming. We see all the little neighbors filing out of the bus and my heart sinks when I see the bus driver closing the doors and Eenan, Jaylen nor Brandon had gotten down. Haley, one of the neighbors, tells me Brandon went on another bus and the boys followed. Great. I ask the bus driver what happened and he said they were on another bus; the assistant principal had made them get on it. I asked him to be sure and he called another driver on the radio, who confirmed that the boys were on his bus and he’d be dropping them off soon. I call the school to tell someone off, because 15 minutes had already passed and why on earth would you put my kids on another bus?! Of course all the women were blaming each other. One even said she SAW them get on the right bus, so they should be at my house. I told her, “Well, they’re obviously not, so WHERE ARE MY KIDS!” Eventually they figured out that they were on the bus the bus driver told me about and she kind of laughed it off telling me they called the wrong Brandon. The Brandon they were looking for lived on the other side of the street on the East, so it was a misunderstanding. Naturally we’ve told all the kids to stick together, so my boys followed Brandon. I’m just glad they were all together. They weren’t phased by it at all, thank God. They actually had a nice ride since that other bus was air conditioned.

Thursday was a much better day for me. Mrs. V. taught me how to get into the systems at school and I learned how to make labels for the books. We (Mrs. G. and I) spent a lot of time doing that. Nice break from having to move stuff or shelve books!

I decided to start eating lunch soley at work, since the 30 minutes they give us is too little to be driving to and from my house. I did that on Monday and Wednesday, just so I could rush home and see Aly and give Mom a little break, but it only allowed me about 10 minutes to actually eat. The rest of the time was spent driving to and from work. I’m learning to Hoover my food; I’ve always been a slow eater.

John went with me to pick up some black Mudd maryjanes I’d ordered at JC Penny, then we went to set an appointment for a new cell phone for him since he drowned his other one, and then we picked up a pizza for dinner. I’m a working woman now, so not having a home cooked meal on the table is completely excusable now, and I LOVE IT!

Friday was even more awesome than Thursday. Not only did we spend most of the day on the computer searching for books to make labels for (and then came the fun part of placing the labels on the books — I LOVE stickers), but it was FRIDAY and the start of a 3-day weekend! That day went by so fast. I had stayed 10 minutes later on Thursday, so I was let out 10 minutes early on Friday! At the end of the day Mrs. V. gave both Mrs. G. and I a strawberry sundae and she gave me a huge hug. I felt so appreciated :).

I went with John to Sprint, then Academy for Mario and then Walmart. We were in line behind my principal, which was pretty funny LOL. Well, not really. He had school supplies to buy (2 cart-fulls to be exact) so we were in line for half an hour =\.

I spent Saturday cleaning the house. I did something else, but can’t remember. It was pretty low-key, which I’m so glad for. Sunday, I woke up late-ish and helped Mary and Big Mario clean outside. We were supposed to have a practice for Yazmin’s quinceañera but the damn choreographer was an hour late before Mary got pissed and called her to forget it. I had tons of crap to do so I was pretty pissed I waited all day for nothing. It was 3pm before we left. We visited Gramma, put a big chunk of cash towards my laptop payment at Circuit City, (finally) bought Norton Antivirus/Confidential(?) for $20 at Best Buy, then went grocery shopping. I hate how long that takes. We went to Yadira’s afterwards for a bar-b-q. I was so glad I had the next day off.

We didn’t do much Monday, except for going to Dollar General to get some house stuff, like a welcome mat and a mat for the kitchen.

Yesterday was great at work. I spent a lot of the day making copies, putting folders together for the meeting we were having today, and sticking labels on to books.

Today was the Refresher meeting for all the teachers. I made copies all morning, helped with stickers, showed our kid volunteers how to shelve books, then I enrolled kids into classes for about an hour at the end of the day. Mrs. G. and I had lunch in the teacher’s lounge and talked about the possible fight that happened in the bathroom in our building. I was actually on the toilet when I heard 6 or 7 extremely loud thuds on the wall behind me. Supposedly all the boys coming out of there said they were using it because the 8th grade bathrooms weren’t working, and then, coincidentally, a boy comes out with a nosebleed. MMhmm.

The meeting went pretty good. I met lots of teachers I hadn’t met yet and Mrs. V. introduced me and said nice things. We squealed with excitment right before we left to the staff meeting because I’d already inputed all the 8th grade students into the system. She said, “You’re fast!”

I got home, spent time with Aly, got the boys into the house, helped Jaylen with his homework (and scolded Eenan for forgetting his. Oh, but he doesn’t forget about video games!), then went with John to the salon to cut my hair. I chopped it all off. It was almost to my waist and now it’s above my shoulders. I felt the difference right away. My neck was feeling really tense and it felt 10 times better after all the hair was gone. I did everything I had to do tonight pretty early since Mario called to tell me he was staying a bit late so not to worry about dinner. The boys and I had sandwiches. Mario ended up getting out earlier than he thought, so he’s picking himself up some Taco Bell. I would like Taco Bell…but it’s too late :(.

It’s been pretty awesome, I have to admit. One of the perks of the job is getting dibs on the books! I already assigned myself a number and checked out I Love Saturdays, y Domingos! for the boys. I love it!

I’m getting used to the routine — and as long as I establish a routine, it’s all good.

Now, if I could only put Alaethia to sleep at about 9:30, that would be AWESOME.

We all slept in yesterday and around 11am. Mom came over shortly after that and we all wished her a happy birthday. 58 years young!

After I’d finished my breakfast I started checking the Sunday ads to see if there were any deals on Norton (our current antivirus, McAfee, which came bundled with our laptop, already ended and we’re desperate to download new music but are afraid to get viruses so we NEED NORTON. I don’t like McAfee anyway…). I checked Target out, just for the hell of it, then went to Circuit City. I flipped idly through pages, looking for a yellow box with “sale” or “mail-in rebate” printed near it but I stopped dead when I saw the Wii console with all its accessories floating around it. Mario calls me right that second and tells me to make him breakfast (he was outside with his uncles). I’m excited and I ask him, “What do you want? Eggs?” and he says, “Yeah, whatever,” and hangs up. Didn’t give me a chance to tell him about the Wii. I call back and he’s all moody: “Just leave it, then. I’ll make something myself,” and hangs up on me again. I call and tell him, “Quit being an asshole. I’m calling because there’s Wii’s in the Circuit City ad.” He grunts and says, “Just because they’re in the ad doesn’t mean they have them.” I call and check and they tell me yes, they have 10 in stock. Woo! We’ve been wanting one of those damn things since they came out but they’re ALWAYS sold out over here. I call him back and say, “They have 10,” and he says, “Get ready. We’re leaving.”

John comes over when I’m blasting out of the bathroom looking for my shoes and I tell him about the Wii. He says, “Let’s go!” and Mom said to hurry up, she’d stay with the kids LOL.

We arrive and are panicking because there’s TONS of people from Mexico in the store, as usual. It’s still tax-free weekend and they’ve got some serious shopping to do. All the good stuff’s usually gone by the time we get there on Sundays since we wake up late and live pretty far from it. But thank goodness, I get a ticket for one of them! We get extra controllers and a battery charger dock and take forever deciding on a game. Mario wanted Transformers, but John said it sucks so we got Wario Smooth Moves instead.

We pay (thank God for Target Visas!) and hurry home as quickly as possible. Aunt Nora stopped by to wish Mom a happy birthday and she was head over heels for Alaethia :). We talked for a while, which was nice because we hadn’t seen her, though we have talked on the phone.

Aunt Nora left and then we rearranged the living room to have enough space to play and start messing with the system. It’s AWESOME. We start by playing the sports games it comes with for a good hour before we even touch Wario Smooth Moves. I was so excited to play tennis again, even though it’s not actual tennis and it pissed me off because it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to and John and Mario beat me every time, but I loved it. I kicked their butts at boxing though ;).

I am SO SORE this morning. I can’t wait till the Fitness game comes out!

We play till around 4:30, when we start preparing everything for Mom’s birthday dinner. We were just having a little dinner for her, just us and Mario’s parents here at home. I didn’t want a disappointing repeat of last year when everyone either got here super late or didn’t come at all, so we decided it would just be us.

Mario prepped the fish (cilantro, seasonings, and some butter), I made the salsa (and I actually got it right!), I made cornbread and then Mario popped the fish in the oven. While they baked I made brownie batter and put the pan in to bake when the fish was done. Everything was done quickly, I had all the dishes washed and then we took everything over to Mary’s so we could all eat. Everything was delicious and pretty healthy (besides the brownies, of course). We chatted with Mario’s parents for a while and Mary told us about her trip to the casino and we came back. Mario left for a “drive” which ended up being a good hour. He called after 20 minutes of being gone to tell me Chris and Nancy were coming over. Thank God I was in the middle of cleaning.

They get here and the men automatically start playing games on the Wii. It was hilarious watching them box and play baseball (I don’t like that one…I can’t ever hit the ball!). I put the boys to bed at 9:30 (though Eenan didn’t actually fall asleep till almost 11 because he kept waking up to “drink water” or “go to the bathroom” which meant he was stalling). Nancy and I chatted and watched them play. She held Alaethia for a good, long time. Alaethia didn’t even scream, but that was probably because Nancy gave her a sip of her tea LOL. You feed that child and she’ll love you forever.

Mario and Chris went to McDonald’s for some late-night snacking. I surprised myself by declining a delicious $1 double cheeseburger (those things are so unhealthy but man, they taste good) and instead got a tiny fruit and walnut salad.

We ate, Mario left with Chris and Nancy, and I stayed here with Aly. It took forever to put her to sleep and I was pretty frazzled and deranged by the time she did fall asleep.

Before I fell asleep, I remembered to document what I’d eaten for the past two days, because that’s Step 1 in French Women Don’t Get Fat: document what you eat — every-single-thing — for 3 weeks. Maybe I’ll make a page here just for that, because I think that others seeing what I’m eating will help me not be so gluttonous. If I’d started earlier than two days ago you’d be surprised at how much junk food I’d consume. That, my friends, is why my scale at home — which usually shows that I weigh less than I actually do — says I weigh 125. 125!!! Which is probably more. That’s the most I’ve ever weighed in my life while not being pregnant. (Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m only 4′ 11″, so every pound shows!) So, I’ve decided that I’m going to change the way I eat, for real this time. I already ate the last bits of my S’mores ice cream, heh, and until I can start controlling myself around junk food I will not be purchasing any at all. The only junk food I bought this last time I went to the groceries were Cheetos Puffs for the kids and some Koolaid juices I got for free. Mario and I also decided we won’t be purchasing any more sodas, not even for him to take for lunch.

I was astonished when I came across a picture Mario’d taken of Alaethia and me. She was sprawled on my lap but I wasn’t looking at how cute she looked, I was staring at the huge tire that spread disgustingly around my waist. I’ve never looked like that before and I’ll be damned if I continue to!

Now, if I can only convince John to run with me at the park, I’ll be on the right track.