Wed. 17th – Work was so hectic that day. We had several classes in the library and at the same time we were having advisory students checking out books. It was insane. It was the first full week we were checking out books and I got a taste of what it would be like in the weeks to come. The training of students, re-training, checking-in and shelving of books was never-ending. I felt very stressed out.

Things were much better at home: I didn’t have to make dinner! My dad-in-law bar-b-q’d so we just sat around talking and relaxing. I packed myself some Hot Pockets for lunch the next day and since Mario’s not taking lunch for work anymore (not by choice; they don’t have a fridge) I didn’t have to worry about that. Mary’d stayed home from work because she’d caught Jaylen’s 24-hour bug, but she chilled out with us for a bit while Jorge came over. By the time we were ready for bed (at 9:30) I had the beginning signs of a sinus headache. Great! And to make it worse, it took Aly 30 minutes to fall asleep.

Thurs. 18th – Work was much, much better! God sent over a few substitute teachers who helped out with the re-shelving, so getting the rest of my work done went much smoother. We don’t get many that help out—most of them hide, believe it or not–so I was really grateful to the ones that came.

Friday -19th – Mrs. V. didn’t go to work that day. She had tons of stuff to do to prepare for her daughter’s quinceanera the next day. She left me a to-do list and I finished everything in an hour. I’d taken my laptop, just in case I got some free time, and although I did, I busied myself by pulling all the unlabeled books from the shelves. I need a batch of 30 to make the Reading Renaissance labels and I had two batches, plus one of about half that I didn’t get to finish at the end of the day.

The students had their first dance of the year. After Mrs. Ruiz and I went to lunch we saved some room for some nachos. I got some nachos and some corn-in-a-cup. Everything was so good.

I got home and we made plans to visit Gramma that night, since we didn’t get a chance to go the week before and wouldn’t be able to visit her on the weekends now.

Alaethia was being silly and laughing with Gramma. The boys were surprisingly well-behaved. When we got home we went over to Mary’s. I was startled when I felt a sort of fluttering in my belly! When we were here at home and Mario, Aly and I were sitting in the living room I felt it again, but only for a second. I had a good day, I have to admit. Poor Mario didn’t have a good evening at all, though. We’d decided to have movie night with the kids, but he changed plans to work late so they’d finish that job and he wouldn’t have to go in the next day. Well, it turned out that the job was finished, but there was one measly thing wrong…and Mario was the only one who was appointed to go in the next day. I had a few opinions to express but decided to keep my mouth shut since Mario felt angry about it enough already.

Sat. 20th – Mario finished what he had to do in 2½ hours. He got home and we went to McAllen. We went to Conn’s to ask about our (47″ LCD TV) payoff. They’d already credited our account the $65 they owed us from charging us property insurance when we didn’t order it, but the girl I spoke to on the phone confused me about my payoff date. We spoke to our sales guy and he said we definitely didn’t need to make any payment till December 2009 because we were so far ahead on our payments, but our “no interest” deal would end January 2009. Cool. I told him we’d pay the rest off in a week.

Mario and I were both hungry so we ate at Joe’s Crab Shack. It was my first time there, ever. I know one of us had the Fisherman’s Platter and the other had the Shrimp Platter. Yum. I could eat seafood all day. Except that I got really nauseous after eating about 3 calamari rings for some reason. I usually love calamari!

We stopped by Mario’s old workplace to buy some RCAs since Mario was going to mount the LCD—finally, after 8 months of having it. He kept being swept away by crowds of his old co-workers so I just stayed at the front with the girls. When he was finally done socializing we went Downtown to find my dress for my boss’s daughter’s Quinceanera that night. Mario complained the whole time and even threatened to leave me behind if I took more than thirty minutes. I rolled my eyes and walked into the first store I saw that carried maternity wear. I walked straight to the back, found a dress, some earrings and a bracelet—all for $19! That showed Mario ;).

We got home and Mario called Jose right away since he said he’d help him mount the TV. And they got to work. There were wires everywhere, but they did such a great job. Alaethia doesn’t smack her head when she passes too close to it like she would when it was on the entertainment center.

I got ready, Mario got ready in about 5 minutes and we left the kiddos with the grandmas. We couldn’t find the ballroom and finally called Tommy to get directions. We got there a half hour late, but at least we got there. Everything–the ceremony, presentation, Noelle’s dress, etc.–was beautiful. Mrs. V. really outdid herself. When we went up to congratulate Noelle, I introduced Mario to Mrs. V. I almost cried when she told him she thought I was awesome and that staying at home after the baby’s born is the best thing we could do for our kids. I couldn’t help rushing forward and giving her a huge hug. She really is the best boss ever.

When Mario and I were sitting at the table talking to Mr. Dennett, his wife, and Mr. Rios, I felt fluttering in my belly again. I kind of sat there quietly waiting for another one, but nothing happened. We ended up leaving the Quince at 9:40 since we were going over to Yazmin’s to celebrate her birthday, which was the day before. We stayed till almost 11. I was beat.

Sun. 21st – Mario was in a hurry to get the living room looking its best and decided we needed a new, thin audio pier. So we sat in bed, Alaethia rolling around between us and a laptop on each of our laps and searched online for an audio pier that was nice but not too expensive. We found one online at Walmart that they also sold at the store. We still checked Big Lots when we went to town and they didn’t have anything at all. Walmart had tons of audio piers, but not the one we wanted. Finally we went to Target and found the perfect one, even cheaper than the one we were going to get at Walmart!

Ah yes, I forgot. This was the day Mario threw a fit because of Whataburger. The one here messed up his order—actually, they gave him a completely different order so he asked for his money back. The one in Mission had a huge line. When we were on our way home, we picked up Whataburger at the Palmview one the way home and they messed up too, but he called the guy back and he fixed it. I do hate when Mario gets like that, but it’s a pet peeve of his to have his orders severely messed up. He puts up with my pet peeves, so I guess.

Mon. 22nd – Mrs. V. didn’t go to work that day because she was busy returning stuff from the party. I finished labeling the books I had left over from Friday and stayed busy throughout the day. It was nice and relaxing. When I picked the kids up from school all is well until we get home. Eenan’s forgotten his homework, again. I got after him and he threw a fit, as usual. I really don’t know what’s wrong with him this year. His teacher had already told me he was talking so much that he wouldn’t even get his work started. Then another teacher told me he still wasn’t turning in his work. I’d already told him to write a note to himself with the day’s work and to put his worksheets into this binder immediately after receiving them. But he doesn’t pay attention. I don’t know how to help him with that! Or how to help him at home. He explodes with attitude about every half hour on some days. I need a Supernanny.

Alaethia woke me up at 3:30am for some milk and I couldn’t sleep from the horrible stinging pain in my lower abdomen. I had an immense urge to pee and still, nothing. I didn’t fall asleep till around 4:30. I felt like death warmed over at 5:20 when my alarm went off. I was going to try and tough it out till today, the day of my actual prenatal appointment but no…I felt awful and called in. I couldn’t get any actual sleep since I had to wait till 6am to call Mrs. V. about my absence and then wait till 6:30am to report my absence.

Jaylen woke up before I even went in there to wake him up. He had diarrhea. He said he was too sick to go to school and had stomach cramps…then asked if he could play video games. Um, no. I told him he could stay, but no games since he was to use that time to recover from illness. At the last minute he decides he wants to go to school, so fine. I told him to call if he still felt ill. Mary took them to school and I got to sleep for 30 minutes before Alaethia woke up. Good thing she was in a good mood.

I made chorizo and egg tacos for breakfast and coffee. I woke Mario up, who freaked out because I was still there (he thought I was waking him up at 6 LOL). I got dressed and ate and left to the doctor after Mario left to work.

When I was signing up and saying hello to everyone I asked if I could have my prenatal appointment that day since I was to have it today anyway. They said sure.

Took an hour and a half for them to call me in, but I didn’t mind too much since I was reading. I had to squeeze my legs together from the pain though; I still felt as bad as the night before.

They called me in and I got weighed (133.4 *gulp*) and gave them a urine sample. When the doctor came in to see me he said I must barely be getting the infection because hardly anything came up in the specimen! Shoot, if that’s how it feels when it’s barely starting out, I don’t even want to know what a full-blown UTI feels like! I only ever get them when I’m pregnant, and never have they felt like this!

I took out my camera to take video of the ultrasound—because today was the day I’d find out the gender!! The doctor starts rolling the wand around my belly, taking measurements, showing me the beautiful heartbeat and showing me various parts of the little body. And yes! He starts looking for the privates; every which way he’d move the wand, trying to get a view from every angle. But Baby wouldn’t let us see! Dr. C. even went as far as jiggling my stomach back and forth with the wand to wake up the baby, but nope, nothing worked! He said we’d check again in two weeks when they do the AFP.

They gave me my antibiotic prescription and let me know they were moving offices by my next appointment…to MISSION!!! Not cool. I hate driving all the way over there and it’s going to be so inconvenient; I’m going to have to call in half a day for every appointment! I’m going to test it out my next appointment and see if I get there on time (by 4:00) after picking the boys up at 3:20. It takes about 20 minutes to drive over there…no, maybe around 25. I might just make it.

On the way to the pharmacy I call Mario and let him know how his baby wants to keep us in suspense. I call Mary to tell her the same (I didn’t call Mom because she won’t hear me over the phone; would rather tell her in person). 5 minutes into our conversation she asks if Jaylen’s called. I tell her no, he hasn’t, and then the other line beeps. It’s Jaylen’s school nurse; she’s got him in the office because he feels sick again. I told her I’d be right there.

After I pick Jaylen up and we park in the drive way I get a phone call. It says District of Colombia. WTF? I answer and it’s the Border Patrol investigator trying to get ahold of Mario. I give him Mario’s cell number.

I’d spoken to Sally the day before and we’d made plans so that she could come over and pick up Bobo, Jose’s goose who will now be Sally’s, and we made a date to meet at Olive Garden. Mario promptly calls me back after speaking to the investigator asking for a favor: ironed clothes dropped off at his job site because he was meeting with him in person. I ironed his clothes, quickly ate lunch, and unfortunately had to cancel plans with Sally since I was going to be driving back and forth all over the place. We decided Sunday would probably be better.

Jaylen went along with me and he fell asleep on the way. I think that’s why he likes to be in the car…it helps him sleep. We dropped Mario’s stuff off and he and Jorge showed us the massive house that’s their current project: a 5 bedroom house on two lots in a fancy subdivision. I’d love to see it complete! We went back home and chilled out for a little bit and then picked up Eenan.

I didn’t get to rest at all, but I was feeling much better by the end of the day. Poor Mom and Mary had both caught Jaylen’s 24-hour bug, so they weren’t doing too good. When Mario got home he told me how the investigator said it’ll be another 5 days of the background check and then a month or less till they call him to the Academy. I’m so nervous!!

I did not want to get up in the morning. I lay in bed after the alarm went off and then I threw myself on the couch and vegged out there for a while. I was dragging. I even made some coffee that morning. At least breakfast was already ready: barbacoa left over from the breakfast Mom treated us to the day before. I miraculously got into my truck right on time, at least.

I get to work and realize I’m still wearing my stinky, dirty house flip-flops. OMG! My first thought is that Mrs. V’s going to send me home to change. When we were still located at Nellie I’d done the same thing and she’d sent me home (not meanly) to change without clocking out since I lived so nearby. Not this time though!

As I’m walking my pants are rolling under my belly uncomfortably because either my belly’s shrinking or my Belly Band stretched out (I was wearing my pre-pregnancy pants). At least I managed to clock in on time.

I walk into the library, turn to my left to turn on the lights and…the air conditioning’s not working–again. IT literally feels like a sauna. Ugh.

Three of my students came in and helped me take the chairs off the tables (since they weigh about 50 lbs. each and are too heavy for me to lift). I tell them its okay, to stop because it’s super hot in there. One of them already had drops of sweat on his forehead. They said they were fine. I seriously felt like I’d pass out. I decided that if the air wasn’t fixed by 10:30 (our half-day) I was going home.

I tried not to move at all. The boys that were helping me had propped the doors open with chairs, so it started to get a tad cooler. I read for a little bit and just monitored the kids who were checking out. The air was fixed by 9:22. And it was raining out (the hallway was beginning to flood—eek) and we had a slight cold front. It instantly put me in a better mood. I mostly checked out dictionaries to the ELA teachers and thankfully some substitutes helped me wheel them out. The day went by very quickly thankfully.

Mario got home late and told me parts of his day were pretty shitty, too. I think it was the weather.

I went to sleep feeling an uncomfortable pain in my lower abdomen. I knew it wasn’t round ligament pain because I know what that feels like, and this was nothing like it. It was sharp, burning and sort of in my bladder area and I had this incredible urge to pee every 5 minutes…but it would only trickle out. I had a darn UTI, I knew it. Sorry if that’s TMI.