I’d been doing a little better at updating and there I went and let tons of days pass by again. Grr.

So Mario ended up working on Friday, since he had Christmas Day off and was going to have Monday off, too. It was a pretty darn boring day; I spent most of it freaking out over how fast January’s going to go by.

Saturday – Woke up with a sore throat because I brilliantly had the fan on when it was in the 40’s during the night. (My hot flashes could care less how cold it really is outside.) We spent the day chilling out and I felt great until around 2pm. Out of nowhere I started getting horrible pains in my lower abdomen that were coming every 3-5 minutes apart. John was freaking out; he could tell just how uncomfortable I was. He told me to call Mario but I told him no, I didn’t want to bother him when it was probably just Braxton Hicks contractions and I need to drink more water since I was probably dehydrated. John said the baby was probably thinking, “This place is getting really small…the water’s getting really low…I’m starting to see a light…” and that maybe I REALLY SHOULD call Mario.

Mary invited us to the movies. I almost didn’t want to go, but I took a shower hoping I’d feel better. I still felt uncomfortable, but went to movies anyway.

We watched Night at the Museum. It was really cute; totally going to buy it on DVD when it comes out. Eenan said it was “Hilarious!” and both boys laughed the whole time. Halfway through the movie, my belly didn’t hurt anymore, even after eating pickle, dipping popcorn into nacho cheese and drinking a small Coke.

Almost immediately after I got up from my seat when the movie was over, I got a horrible, stabbing pain in my back. It felt like a pinched nerve and felt terrible with every step I took. I could barely walk to the car.

Mary decided to pick up pizzas for dinner from Pizza hut. Since Jose and Elda were picking up pizzas from the same place and were already done when we got there, Mary suggested I come home with them, Jorge, Sammy, Brandon and Angela to rest for a little bit. Jaylen and Eenan stayed with Mary, Noelia and Yazmin. (Mary later told me Jaylen said, “Take care of yourself and Alaethia, Mom!” Aww!)

After laying on the couch for a while (and feeling insanely bored and alone), I went to Mary’s to eat some pizza. I didn’t have much of an appetite. Mario got here a little later and we all sat around and talked since everyone was here for dinner.

Eenan had four loose teeth. The bottom adult teeth already came in behind his baby ones and the top ones started doing the same thing. Their dentist told me the bottom ones were fine; they’d eventually be pushed out, but if the top ones did that they’d have to remove them. Of course I was praying his teeth would fall out soon.

I got my wish that night. The kids were all playing in the living room and Eenan somehow got a tooth knocked out by accident. After cleaning him up and lecturing him about how they all shouldn’t be so rough, he went back to play and got the other one loosened, too! I got his little “Tooth Fairy Pillow”, which you can hang from a doorknob or bed post and has a pocket just for the tooth out of my closet. Noelia bought him that little pillow when he was around 1 or 2 :). He was sleeping over at Mary’s so he was a little nervous that the Tooth Fairy wouldn’t find him, but we reassured him that all teeth have little invisible tracking devices and the Tooth Fairy would certainly find him ;). I also told him that I was going to leave a note for the Tooth Fairy asking to leave me a “copy” of his tooth, since I wanted to keep a memory of it :).

He was really happy that the Tooth Fairy gave him $5. I think it would have been $10, except the Tooth Fairy didn’t have any change, heh.

Mario and I stayed up watching The Devil Wears Prada. It was 1am by the time we went to sleep.

Sunday – The boys stayed with mom the next afternoon while Noelia, Mary and I went to get ribbon, candles and stuff for my babyshower and some stuff for Noelia’s wedding. We came home, worked on invitations, then went back to Wal-Mart a few hours later for ribbon and shrimp cocktail stuff, since that’s what we were having for dinner. We made a stop at H-E-B for Clamato, one of the ingredients, since Wal-Mart was completely out. We picked up Bonnie and got home around 6. Mario was already here when we arrived since he was let out 15 minutes early. His tummy was upset so he chilled out at our house for a while.

Jose, Elda and Mary made shrimp cocktail and I made cheese dip (ground beef, Rotel, Velveeta all melted and delicious together). Everything was yummy. We went out at 9pm to pop fireworks. Mario and Jose popped the big, dangerous ones and Brandon, Sammy, Eenan and Jaylen watched and enjoyed sparklers and poppers. Mary came out for a few moments since she was watching Bonnie but Elda, Mom and I stayed out the whole time and took pictures. I won’t even bother posting them to Flickr since they suck ’cause it was dark.

It was freezing outside. My nose started running and I got worse by the hour. Everyone cleaned up (except me. I can’t bend anymore!) and we came back inside to chill for a while. We went back out at 11:55 to see all the huge fireworks the neighbors like to get and hug eachother and call people (which didn’t work out for most of us since the phone lines were backed up). We had to quickly go back inside since crazy people started shooting their guns. We do live in the boonies, afterall.

Monday – I had a horrible night’s sleep. Peed like, 5 times, and the other times I woke up I was coughing because of my itchy throat. Since Mario wasn’t working, we thought, “Yes, at least we can sleep in!” but that didn’t happen. We woke up at 9am to Big Mario blasting rancheras and Tejano music from his radio in his carport/workshop, which just so happens to be a few feet away from our bedroom. We laid there, wide-eyed and annoyed. Mario kept talking about how he couldn’t wait to start building a house–he was in a terrible mood. He told the boys and me to have breakfast and get ready so we could leave somewhere, anywhere. He got impatient and left on a drive somewhere. We were ready by 11:30, which is when he got back and says, “You know, I don’t feel like going anywhere anymore.” Grr. I hate when he does that.

We chilled out at Mary’s with everyone. Mario pissed me off during lunchtime because he didn’t give me shrimp cocktail. He had a HUGE bowl that I new he wasn’t going to finish (and didn’t) and drowned it in hotsauce after I told him I couldn’t eat it that way. He insisted I could and said he’d get me a bowl, but I told him no thanks. Later on I found out there was more and he knew about it, but he still didn’t give me any. I decided to suck it up and just ate deer soup my dad-in-law had made. It was pretty good anyway. *hiss*

We’d made plans to go to the movies at 4:55, but since nobody else never confirmed plans and my mom-in-law got busy we decided to go for the 7:15 showing instead.

Since nobody was sure they were going to even go, we decided to go to a taqueria called “El Primito” we like to go to. Eenan didn’t want to go, which kind of upset me but, fine, we let him stay. Jaylen went with us. We get there, and they’re closed. Talk about nothing going our way. We quickly start getting annoyed.

We can’t decide where to eat; Mario doesn’t like my suggestions but won’t make any suggestions himself. Everyone decided to go to the movies after all, so as a last resort we decided we’d go, too. Finally, something would go right. We went to check out the movies but Mario had a fit since they didn’t have a poster for The Marine and he didn’t want to watch anything else. He starts driving back home.

On the way, he makes me even more upset about something stupid like not thinking of a restaurant to go to, so I bawl my eyes out since I’m so darn emotional after all the little things that go to me throughout the day. We get home and I sit here, trying to stop feeling like crap. After 20 minutes he asks Jaylen if he wants something from Star’s. Jaylen says yes, corndogs. He asks me if I want anything. I hate Star’s right now since everything they make gives me heartburn, but I decide on a burrito supreme and some munchers. He gets back and we’re quiet, but peaceful. We eventually started making small talk and then he started playing around with me, which is his usually way of appologizing.

I got a text message from Sally and called her right back. My phone’s a PDA and does almost everything but the damn thing doesn’t allow me to text message, piece of crap. We decide to get together the next day for lunch. It would totally do me some good to chat with a friend and I’m super excited to get out of the house since Mario usually has the truck now that the kids are at home and John borrows the Sentra for work.

I was too emotionally and physically tired to clean that night, or even take a shower, so I leave it for the next morning.

Tuesday – I get Mario up and ready for work then haul ass cleaning like never before. Where I got all that energy from is beyond me. I washed the pile of dishes that had shamefully accumulated since Friday since we’re always at Mary’s since family’s over almost every night. It took half an hour to wash a sink-ful of dishes, and that’s a record. I’m a total snail when it comes to washing dishes.

I thought Sally would get here at 10am, but she was running late and would get here at 12 instead. I was sort of relieved that she’d get here a little later–it would give me time to finish up and shower!

Eenan vacummed and Jaylen took toys they’d left in the living room to their bedroom. I cleaned the turtle tank while Mom swept for me. I got the tank clean and turtles fed and mom refilled the tank with water while I quickly took a shower. Didn’t have a chance to blowdry or flat-iron my hair, but at least I was clean :). Thank God for the extra help!

Sally gets here and she talks and catches up a bit with my mom and the boys. Mom watches them while we go to Chilli’s. We spoke about every single subject we could think of.

That’s what I’ve always loved about that girl: we can be apart for years but when we meet up again it’s like we’d been talking the whole time. We had some great food (which she refused to let me help pay for!) and even better talk. Our old friend Magda married another childhood friend of ours, Steve, which I find totally adorable and just…wow! I love to hear about stuff like that. Like when I heard about Johanna and Ralph? Totally unexpected! They knew eachother since they were little and ended up married. That’s just so awesome!

Sally vented to me about her current situation and then she listened to me vent about ours; my thoughts of the future and so on. Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately. We talked about Vero, too. I wish I could see her and catch up. And with everyone else, too!

I’m hoping, hoping, hoping we can meet up again next week. It was great catching up. I’m definitely going to need my friends after I have Alaethia, especially if it’s going to be like the last two times when I had mild Post Partum Depression. Only it was really crappy after having Jaylen since I really didn’t talk to any of my friends anymore. That’s one of my New Years Resolutions for this year: make more time for my friends!

Later in the evening, Mom, Jaylen and I stopped by Stripes (formerly Circle K) and got Mario an orange juice (his throat’s botherin him now, too) and some donuts and a Yoohoo, Kool-aide drink and donuts for Jaylen and I. We dropped them off to Mario and then went to Target, where Mom wanted to get Alaethia some things off of my Registry.

Not only was traffic total hell, but just about every-single-thing I put on my Registry is on clearance! It totally sucks. I’m probably not even going to get her the Womb Sounds Bear since they totally ran out at that Target. It’s listed at $4.98!! It used to be $19.99. I’d LOVE IT if I could find it for that price at another Target. Too bad Mario has the truck :(.

It took about an hour or so to find everything she wanted to get, plus marking everything on the list so the cashier could “remove” them from the Registry. Since they added that stupid median on McColl and there’s no way to easily get to the other shopping center, I had to go all around the damn block to get to Pet Smart. I had a horrible, throbbing pain in my back when we got in the truck, probably for standing and walking so long. I could barely move!

Jaylen remembered we promised him a Beta but I told him we’d wait till Friday, so we could get everything his fish would need since we were in a hurry. Mom offered to buy him the fish, so he got a blue Beta. They were sold out of Beta tanks completely since Christmas but the girl said we could keep him in the little cup we bought him in for a while since it’s all the space he needs. The girl cleaned out his little “tank” and told us which food and water conditioner to get him and we were set. We got baby crickets, since they were sold out of large ones if you can believe that, and finally came home.

Jaylen was infatuated with his fish and was showing him off to everyone. He was so happy and proud he quickly came to find the perfect spot for him. He decided Blastoise would be his name and he would reside on his desk. Aww :).

We ate lasagna at Mary’s and Mario got home a while after. We chilled out with everyone and then came home to bathe the boys. Eenan wanted to sleep over at Mary’s and was excited that the Tooth Fairy would be visiting him again. Earlier during the day before Sally came over, he somehow turned the loose tooth backwards. I told him to let me gently pull it, but he said he’d rather the doctor do it. After telling him the doctor would charge us $200 just to pull the tooth away from the tiny bit of gum that was stuck to it, he let me do it. It came off right away and he started making plans to buy a game, or a toy LOL.

Mario and I stayed up watching The Family Stone, which could easily be one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. Both of us got teary-eyed near the end and just sat there with my head on his shoulder and his head on mine. We went to sleep when the movie was done and I told him how lucky I was to have him and he said the same about me. I told him my concerns about the future; what I want and how maybe I shouldn’t be in such a hurry for Alaethia to grow up so I can work since I’ll definitely regret it once she does start growing up, just like I mourn the kids’ babyhood.

This will be a good year, I just know it. It will be if we make it one.

(Alaethia’s got hiccups again :).)

So now that I’m 35 weeks 3 days along in my pregnancy, it’s occured to me that we have a month and a few days before Alaethia’s born, if she decides to be born “on time”.

It struck me a while ago, BOOM, just like that. I’m going to bring another baby into this world. My, how life will change.

Mary was talking with everyone about my baby shower yesterday. She called this morning and told me she’s scheduled it for the 14th of January at a hotel. It’s official. She’s created the invitations and everything. OMG!

I still have a list of things to do before she gets here. I’ve only crossed off about 2, maybe 3 things. Now that there’s approximately 4 weeks left, I feel anxious and in a rush. I know we’ll get everything on time, I just want everything bought and here already because I’m impatient like that.

I can’t lay on my right side anymore because Alaethia’s bootie or knees are always in that area. It’s weird and slightly uncomfortable since I’m so used to her being on my left side. In the past week I’ve felt a significant difference; she barely has room in there to move around. You can clearly see her moving her legs back and forth.

I felt hot last night so I had my t-shirt pulled up over my belly while Mario and I were watching The Devil Wears Prada in bed. He kept seeing my stomach move in the corner of his eye and kept rubbing his hand over my belly. I look over to him and tell him, “One more month, Babe, can you believe it?” He sighs and half-smiles and says, “I know!”

I’m nervous! And I’m just hoping she’ll stay in there till my baby shower LOL. I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like this time; I’m hoping I can stay calm enough like I did while I was in labor with Jaylen.

I just noticed there’s 5 weeks in January. She can come out anytime after the third week of January, when I’m 38 weeks. Everyone’s kind of hoping she’ll be here soon, but I’d feel so much better if she developed completely and I didn’t need extra help, like steroid shots for her lungs.

I just can’t wait. I need to use the next month wisely and get everything done that needs to be done. I want everything to be perfect for when she decides she’s ready to meet us :).

Mario stayed out with Chris that night, celebrating Christmas till around 2am. I’d been having a tough time sleeping that night; not only because Mario wasn’t there, but because I just couldn’t get comfortable. I’d eaten kind of late, so it was probably that. And that Alaethia was thrashing around having her own little Christmas party in there :). I woke up when Mario got here, and then again at 2:45, when his cellphone was ringing. I tried waking him up, but we were both so tired we fell asleep again.

We were told to wake up at 7am so that Eenan, Jaylen, Sammy and Brandon could open up their presents. I stayed in bed 24 minutes after the alarm went off, but I figured it was okay since no one had called yet or anything. I finally got up at 7:30 to wake Jaylen up. He wouldn’t budge, and neither would Mario. Eenan had slept over at Mary’s (to hear when Santa got there) and most-likely he wasn’t awake either.

I went over to Mary’s to ask if Eenan was up and just as she was about to say no, he emerged from the hallway, tousle-haired and ready to open presents. As I’m walking out the door Mary says, “Oh, Tommy’s dad passed away last night. Well, this morning, around 2:30…”

My heart sank. That’s why the phone was ringing at 2:45. It was Chris calling Mario to let him know. Suddenly Christmas didn’t feel as cheery as it had. I went over to our bedroom, to wake Mario up (he’d been throwing fits about waking up too early before I left to Mary’s) but he got up anyway when I told him the sad news. Jaylen got up as well and we went over to Mary’s.

We wished everyone there (mom, Mary, Jorge) a Merry Christmas and then the kids jumped on top of Jorge, who was still half-asleep and laying on the couch. Once everyone was settled on the couch the boys started to open presents. Mary and I separated presents while the kids opened and I took pictures. They opened their presents from Santa (a Robo-Raptor and Star Wars Transformers thing for Eenan and a Fisher Price Digital Camera and Darth Vader ship for Jaylen). The kids got tons of awesome stuff this year–yay for starting Xmas shopping in early November :). They got board games from Mary, DVDs from Mary and us, video games from Mom, Mary and us and tons of other things like Doodle Monsters for both boys, an iDog for Eenan and a mini Robo Sapien for Jaylen. They’ve been busy since Christmas :P.

Mario was next and loved all his DVDs (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest; You, Me, and Dupree, Accepted, World Trade Center). He was surprised when he opened a box from the boys and me and found DVDs (Man on Fire, X III the Last Stand, Dazed and Confused, The Da Vinci Code, and Waiting) and the Gerber pocket knife he wanted. I felt so bad that I couldn’t find his corded Dremel he’d been asking for but figured I’d surprise him later.

I got DVDs (Devil Wears Prada, Wizard of Oz, Edward Scissorhands, Grey’s Anatomy Season 1), a beautiful bracelet and $30 Target gift card from Mary, a cute pink jewelry set from Elda, and a beautiful personalized jewelry box from Mom. Mario also surprised me and got me a wallet besides the camera he’d already given me. Annie was my gift-exchange person and she got me a purse. It was kind of small so she said she’d bring the receipt (my huge wallet didn’t fit in it at all LOL).

And Alaethia, who’s still in the womb, received gifts as well! Andy had his mom (bless them!) crochet a pink and white blanket for Alaethia and Yadira gave her some crocheted Amy Coe mary-jane booties :). Mom’s also in the process of finishing up the pastel blanket she’s crocheting for her as well!

We had biscuits that Mom made for breakfast and later on we all got together for Christmas lunch (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn and broccoli rice). We all sat around for the rest of the day and just chatted. Christmas was certainly bittersweet, what with Tommy’s dad’s passing. Although everyone tried to be in cheery moods, I’m pretty sure we were all thinking of Tommy’s dad and family :(.

Mario took a nap while I tried cleaning up the piles and piles of toys and DVDs the kids received. I went back over to Mary’s and everyone was still sitting around, talking and eating sweets. Big Mario finally opened his presents so I took pictures since Mario would be upset if I didn’t (yet he wouldn’t want to be woken up, either O_o).

We had leftovers for dinner and I watched Elda and Jorge/Eenan play Battleship (one of the games the kids got) then Mario and I played (and I lost :(). We stayed up playing games and finally the boys and I came home. Mario and Jorge went to the store to buy beers and hear their Cantina (bar) music LOL. Besides the sad news of Tommy’s dad’s passing, it was a great day.

Though I didn’t want to go anywhere the next day, I had to go since we were completely out of groceries. Like, I had nothing to cook or make, not even sandwiches. John said he needed to go to, and I figured he’d get out at 12 so I waited for him. He didn’t get out till 3, which meant we left at 3:30 and traffic was terrible. Didn’t help that the shelves in Target were practically empty. I went there to exchange and buy stuff for Mary (and since she was going to Beall’s she took an outfit Cat and Annie gave Jaylen to be exchanged for one size bigger) and a few things for myself, but there was hardly anything left. I’d gone specifically for this hobo bag that was mostly white with little flowers on it but they had none of the bags left, not even the ones I didn’t like. I did however, go a little crazy with scrapbooking stuff in the Dollar Spot and I also found a tiny t-shirt for Alaethia. It’s 9-12 months, but knowing my kids she’ll fit into it by the time she’s 6 months LOL.

Bo, one of Big Mario and Mario’s friends, had come by on Christmas and left the boys $40. I went on a search for Kirby Squeak Squad and had no luck at any of the stores I called. I did however, find the corded Dremel Mario wanted. I hid it under the blanket on his side of the bed to surprise him. When he got here, I told him, “Go look at what your children did under your side of the blanket. Don’t get mad, don’t say anything, just go look.”

He rolls his eyes expecting the worst, like our sheets being destroyed by markers. I sneak a peek at the door and as he lifts up the sheet to reveal the box he gets a huge smile on his face and says, “Babe! You got it?!” and hugged me. Still doesn’t compare to my wonderful camera he bought me, but he was happy with it :).

We went to Wal-Mart next, where we got “house stuff”, like toilet paper, paper towels, Mario’s shaving cream and so on. It took forever there. By the time I looked at the clock, it was 6pm; we’d been in line for 20 minutes. I wanted to quit and just go home but I still had to stop by H-E-B to get the actual groceries. Took another hour or so there. We didn’t get home till 8 and it took me half an hour to put everything away. I was exhausted! There was a Rosary (wake) for Tommy’s dad that night, but it was short notice and nobody let us know ahead of time so we didn’t make it. The funeral would be the next day, Wednesday at 2pm. Mario was asked to be a Pall Bearer but he had to decline unfortunately since he couldn’t get out of work early enough.

I got all our stuff ready the next afternoon and started making lunch. I got to feed the kids, but Mario and I were starving since the food finished cooking about 2 minutes before we had to leave. He was falling asleep in church and later on told me, “See, that’s why I don’t go. I get bored!” This was quickly followed by, “Yes, I know I’m going to hell.” LOL

I held up pretty well and so did Mario. It wasn’t till we went up and paid our respects that I got a knot in my throat and then started bawling. I felt so bad for Tommy, Chris, their MOM and the rest of their family. Eddie couldn’t even be there because he’s in the hospital himself. I hugged Tommy first, then Chris who put his hand on my belly and said, “You know, it’s kind of funny: one life is leaving this world and another is coming in…” That made me cry even more and I hugged him again and said I was so sorry. Their poor mom was all cried out and so were Yadira, Angela and Yazmin. It hurt to see little Angela crying so hard :(.

We came home after that and ate lunch (the chilli I made and enchiladas Mary made–heartburn galore!) and then we got dressed to leave to town. We didn’t feel like being home so we left to Best Buy in the hopes of finding the Kirby game for the kids. We had no luck of course. I called to Wal-Marts that I hadn’t called yet and lo-and-behold, they had one Kirby game at the one on Conway. We lectured the kids about how they’d have to share till the stores got more in. We got the game, a Rubbermad bread box, batteries for all their new stuff and I can’t remember what else. We decided we wanted something simple for dinner, so we stopped at Dollar General to pick up a can of tomato soup (to go along with Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches) and talked to Maggie for a bit. I also got some wrapping paper for half off, which is one of the things I intended to do at Target but forgot =\.

I did hardly anything today. I think I’m coming down with a cold on top of feeling fatigued all the time. I have an awful sore throat that I got for brilliantly sleeping with the fan on. I can’t stand the hot flashes I get at night and even though it was about 40° outside yesterday, I felt sweaty. Mario did too, so I know I’m not going completely insane.

Welp, I should start making dinner. I have no idea what to make. I still have laundry to fold and hang and I can’t find the battery to my vacuum. The floor looks hideous :(.