(Fri. 15th) Just as I suspected, I didn’t have any free time Friday afternoon. I set up about 4 more carts, checked who had what laptops, and renamed the barcodes to the new format we’re supposed to follow. Got home and had some cucumbers with lime, Tajin chile and Louisiana Hot Sauce since I was starving already. Spent some time with Mom, the in-laws and the kids. Mario calls and asks if someone can drop me off so we can cash his paycheck (at Walmart since the banks would be closed) and go shopping. So Mary drops me off and the moms take care of the kiddos. I leave with Mario and we go to Walmart and once he cashes his paycheck we decide not to shop for anything after all. As we’re walking back to the car we notice I’m waddling. I tell him, “Wait…let me try to walk normally.” So I kind of strut, like I’m walking on a runway and I sort of look like I’m not wadding anymore. Only my buttcheeks start to burn so I figure I’d rather just waddle.

We decide to go to Chili’s for dinner. He ordered a steak, I ordered a triple dipper (with two sides being spinach & artichoke dip–yum!). We talk about everything under the sun and it’s so nice spending time with him; just us for once. We discuss him leaving to the Border Patrol academy; we have no idea when they’ll decide to call him up. We talk about the baby and how we’d like a girl so we’ll be an even ratio of boys to girls. We talk about the kids; about Eenan and Jaylen starting school on Monday and how cute and brilliant Alaethia is. I tell him how I don’t want to feel “rushed” this time around with this baby like I did with Alaethia. Not that anyone rushed me–I did it to myself. I told him I was going to promise myself I’m not going to allow myself to feel like a failure just because I’m at home; I’m going to enjoy the kids and being a mom, because right now, aside from being a library clerk, motherhood’s my profession, and that’s okay.

We went to Adan’s afterwards and just chilled out talking with him and Aide and later on Tommy, Jorge and Angela stopped by. I was having a great time but sleep took over and I asked Mario to bring me home.

(Sat. 16th) I slept in as much as I could the next morning. I had the brilliant idea to have my leftovers from dinner for breakfast. I had the most awesome coffee. I never get to drink it anymore since I’m working again, so I quite enjoyed it.

I regretted my breakfast immediately; I got nauseous from the spices in the Southwest Eggrolls. Since I had bills to pay I took a shower and then got the kids ready. We left around 11:30. Went to the banks, Ross to exchange a blouse (I got bath rug instead since I either couldn’t find anything that I didn’t already have or everything was too big), and then we met Mario for lunch. We decided on Taqueria el Zarape. We each ordered a huge torta, which is like a sub-type thing with shredded meat. After only a few bites I felt nauseous again. Bummer. I should have just ordered the bistek tacos I usually do.

Once we dropped Mario off we went to Target, where I returned some pants and the boys got some Legos, their current obsession. They’d already gotten a small Lego set each from Mary, so I told them they wouldn’t be getting anything else for the next two weeks.

I went to pay our Conn’s account and wasn’t pleased to see that our “payoff” was 12 more than it should be. We’re on the “no interest” plan and didn’t order anything else, so I had no idea what was going on. I wanted to go and argue about it but Mom was waiting in the car with the kids so I didn’t. We went to see Gramma next where the boys put their Legos together.

(Sun. 17th) I wanted to stay home all day Sunday and get everything ready for the boys for their first day of school the next day but Mario was off work and wanted to go to Conn’s and ask what was up. I’d done the math and realized they were charging anywhere from $10-20 extra a month. This last payment was supposed to be our last one (which we’re paying off way before the 1-year-no-interest thing is over) and was supposed to be around $73, not $137, as stated in the statement. So they charged us $65. Once they credited that back to our account, we’d only owe around $8!! So we talked to the guy who was in charge of our account and he said he’d get it all settled. I can’t wait to get that payment out of the way. We’re trying to get all our little credit card bills out of the way by the time I stop working in Dec./Jan.

We drove around the Ware Road shopping center (forget the name) and went to Ben & Jerry’s. I had the best fudge brownie ice cream (in a sprinkle waffle cone :D). I wish we had the kids with us–they would have loved it! Next time.

Mario was craving a certain type of fajita so we searched all over town for them and finally found something similar at a meat market we’d never been to. We went to Dollar General to pick up a few things and went home and had a little bar-b-q with the family.

(to be continued…)

I could get used to this hour-lunch deal. Well, not really because then I’d have to get out at 4 and who’ll pick the boys up from school when it starts? But anyway, I’m enjoying it while I can. I have about 12 more minutes left of lunch. I already finished my book Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella and had an excellent lunch. A few coworkers brought a potluck of food…it was delicious. There was even a chocolately desert that I adore. I’m so full right now. My boss will be out part of this afternoon so I’ve got a few things to do and hopefully I can get a chance to just tidy up and maybe read a little, but I highly doubt that. We’ve done some excellent work getting the A/V equipment ready…I just wish we knew where the rest of the carts were! How can you lose a huge metal cart?

Anyway, I’m so glad it’s Friday. Not that I’ll get to relax much since I have to go grocery shopping and get the boys’ backpacks and so on. But I’ll get to sleep in a little, yay!

My feet are killing me. I wasn’t in the office today since the other girl started her contract today. We finally got to work on what we needed to do–track down carts and set up the AV equipment–and we got pretty far. There’s a few carts missing from each grade level so we’re hoping to track those down tomorrow and finish by Wednesday, which is when the teachers need to take their equipment. Thankfully I won’t have to be delivering them this year–or so, I hope not anyway.

I spent most of the day barefoot, as did Mrs. V. Our feet were killing us, but we carried on setting up and talking about everything under the sun.

I had an hour lunch today and I’m so used to gobbling up my food in half an hour that I had a whole half hour to read. It was nice and relaxing. Too bad we don’t have a sofa in the lounge.

It was thundering all afternoon and it started to rain when I was driving home. It was so nice. I got home and Mario and everyone were outside, chilling out. Mario surprised me with a Minute Maid orange juice (I’d been wanting one last night and he forgot to pick one up when he went to the store), which was really sweet. They’d started a fire in the pit and we got some burger patties out and had an impromptu bar-b-q again. I read for a while and then we ate. Adan, Aide and Belle came by later on and I sat and talked with Aide for a while and then came over to take a shower. It starts. My nights of having no life past 8pm!

So now I’m here, waiting for the fideo I’m making to finish cooking for Mario’s and my lunch tomorrow. I’m so sleepy. And so’s Alaethia…she’s been throwing a fit for the past hour. I hope she sleeps through the night again.