I dropped the kids off at the usual time this morning. My UIL Boy, Eenan, happily went into his class, although he complains about having to go to school every morning because he says his teacher’s too mean. I call him my UIL Boy because he auditioned to be in UIL yesterday afternoon for storytelling (first time he stays after school, ever!) and he made it in! 9 kids out of 2nd and 3rd grade were chosen and Eenan was one of them. When I picked him up from auditioning yesterday he beamed while I talked to the teacher. She had nothing but good things to say about him. She gushed, “Oh my gosh, he’s going to do great! And that voice? He’s going to melt the judges!”

I dropped Jaylen off at his class next and his teacher calls me. She told me about how middle school kids go to their class to read to them and help them with work and that Jaylen and Brianna were chosen to go on a field trip to the movies and for pizza. She mentioned they’d leave on a bus and get dropped off at school and Jaylen starts freaking out about how he doesn’t want to go on a bus and wants me to go with him. He’s traumatized from the time they almost forced him into one the first week of school. He’s warming up to the idea though. I’m proud of him :). I’m a little nervous about him going on a bus myself, especially with middle school kids (though I’m sure adults will accompany them) because these days you just can’t trust anybody but I’ll make sure to talk to him about strangers, not letting anyone touch you in the bathing suit areas and staying with his group at all times. Yes, I’m addressing the 2nd one already. I’ve heard too many horror stories on the news lately.

I got home extra late this morning since Jaylen was nervous about the whole field trip thing and wanted me to stick around a little longer. I came home to wake up Mario and then left to my doctor’s appointment.

They gave me my sugary, coma-inducing, orange Fanta-like drink to check my glucose. My nurse, Laura, told me it’s the equivalent of 2 1/2 Snickers bars and that one lady actually had to eat the bars instead of taking the drink since she puked. It felt horrible going down my throat, but I drank the whole thing (about 4 ounces). I had to wait an hour and then they’d draw my blood.

They took my vitals next. Weight was at 130.5 lbs. and my blood pressure was fine. Good. Then I gave my urine sample.

They called me into a room at 9:30 and the nurse tells me there’s good news and bad news.

Great. My first thought: The bad news is that telling only from my urine I’ve got diabetes. But the good news is that I don’t need insulin.

She says, “The bad news is Dr. C. isn’t here today. He has 5 patients in L&D. The good news is his assistant is here. Would you like her to see you?”

Relieved I say, “Yes!”

The Dr. comes in, Edith I think, and she asks me questions while Laura checks the baby’s heartbeat with a Dopplar. Her heartrate is at 154, aww :). I love that sound.

My due date is officially set for February 2nd instead of January 28th. She checks my ears, nose and mouth and asks if I have any questions or concerns. I tell her how I’ve been feeling a tightening around my abdomen that makes it hard to breathe sometimes and wanted to know if those were Braxton Hicks contractions. She says I shouldn’t be having them yet, it’s too soon. She asks how much water I drink; I say approximately 3 liters a day. She rules out dehydration and asks if I have a history of preterm labor. I tell her my experience with Jaylen’s pregnancy and says she’s going to give me another appointment for next week so that Dr. C can further evaluate me. I asked what was the most I was allowed to carry now, because I’m taking care of a baby, plus another cousin and my own two kids. She says she’ll allow 15 lbs., but that’s pushing it; she only recommends carrying 10 lbs. at most. She asks how much the baby weighs and I tell her 20 something pounds. She says, “Oh no, that’s too much. That’s probably also why you’re feeling this pressure in your stomach. It’s your body’s way of letting you know you’re overdoing it. It’s not good that you’re also watching two more kids than your own; I know how stressful two alone can be. I suggest you start making other arrangements as soon as possible.”

I already let everyone know that this week will be the last week I’ll be babysitting. It broke my heart to tell Yadira, especially since she’s got so many things weighing on her shoulders right now, but I had to. Now I just need to take it easy and worry about not stressing out with my two boys. I hope this isn’t the beginnings of preterm labor. It’s got to be stress or something. One thing’s for sure though: I need to pay very close attention to Alaethia’s kicks and do Kick Counts every night, just in case.

I have the rest of the day free. It feels kinda good :). I need to pick up Eenan and Brandon in half an hour and the rest of the day is mine to clean and spend time with my kiddos. Yay :).

[edit] I just won tickets from Hot Kiss 106.3 (while waiting for the kids after school) to the Scream Factor X Haunted House! I’ve never won anything from a radio station in my life. I’ve had it on that station all day, just because, and when they announced the number I said, “Eh, what the hell, I’ll give it a try.” I was even all confident to John to leave it on that station because I was going to win. I was caller number 3 first, and then number 10! *squeal*

I was reading the rules, and it says not recommended for pregnant women but we’re going on Family Night so I should be alright. If the kids get scared all they have to say is ‘Monster Be Good!’ and instead of being scary the monster will turn funny. I’ve wanted to go to this place since I first heard about it years ago. I’m so excited! [\edit]

I can’t get the horrible taste of my orange-flavored chewable prenatal vitamins out of my mouth. The strawberries I just had made it worse :(. Last time I take them while not eating. Yuck.

As for my weekend update, there really isn’t much to say at all about Friday. Friday sucked. We were home, kids were at school, little ones got picked up, Mario made burgers on the George Foreman, picked up older kids and were bored for the remainder of the day. It was terrible. Mario and I sat on the couch most of the day just staring at boring crap on the TV. NEVER have we been THAT BORED in our LIVES.

I cleaned a bit on Saturday morning and Mom watched Eenan while Jaylen, Mary, Yazmin and I went to one of Mary’s co-worker’s daughter-in-law’s baby showers. We first went to the new Target on Shary Road, where I desperately needed to purchase The Little Mermaid before it became a ridiculous $29.99 (I got it for $15.99). I got it with my credit card of course, because we’re so incredibly broke right now (Walmart had it for $14.86, but I don’t have a Walmart card).

Not only is the new Target closer to home, it’s so pretty and there’s a Starbuck’s in it! Yazmin wanted to order something so I went with her and ended up ordering my favorite: a Caramel Frappuccino. OMG, I love those things. Jaylen even got a few sips, though I was careful because the last thing I needed was for him to be jumping off the walls at the shower. I got him Play-doh (it’s Tuesday and they haven’t let it dry up yet!) and Mary got him a coloring book and Crayolas so he was actually very well behaved.

Except for three little outbursts he had.

1.) After being at the shower for an hour and a half he suddenly freaked out and yelled, “This isn’t a baby SHOWER! It’s a house! THERE’S NO SHOWER!”. It took a good 5 minutes to explain to him what a baby shower was (for the second time) and that sadly, no, he wouldn’t be able to take a shower there.

2.) He asked, “Do all these people live here?”

3.) And the cherry on top… There was a gift for the mom-to-be and baby from a couple named Tanya and Louie. Jaylen jumps up happily from his seat and yells, “Louie!? Louie the dog? Louie’s a dog’s name!” He yelled “Louie’s a dog’s name” about 10 times while I tried shushing him and even directed a shout to the girlfriend when she asked her friend, “What did he say?”. That’s why I don’t like naming pets people names LOL.

But he did really good. And I even won a game! Nobody could tell what baby food was in the Guess the Baby Food game and I answered 2 of the answers right, but in the wrong place LOL. So they gave the gift to me for being close. Yazmin won the Punch in the Baby Bottle game and won dish towels so she gave them to me LOL.

We got home and watched The Little Mermaid while I made dinner. That’s my favorite Disney Princess movie of all time and I have the whole thing memorized. So of course, I was quoting like, the whole movie when I finished cooking and sat down on the couch. Jaylen got annoyed and ended up putting his hand on my mouth to shut me up LOL.

Knowing very well that I had an early day the next day Mario and I stayed up late. It sucked so bad having to wake up the next morning, but I got up because we were going to the Christmas House in Falfurrias! I hadn’t gone in over a year. We had to drop Eenan off at CFF class and I gave John instructions on picking him up (he wasn’t working and was watching the boys for me since Mario had to work) and then we left. It’s a two-hour drive but we (Mary, Mom, Sonia, Yazmin, Angela and I) spent it talking; mostly about weight loss and the news. We got to Whataburger around 12 and ate lunch and then we left for the Xmas House.

The Christmas House is a place where it’s Christmas year round. Three sisters, Janie, Esther and Dorothy, own the home and land they live on and started doing this 20-some years ago. People from all over go to the Christmas House to see what theme they’re doing each year and how they’ve decorated their lovely home and the story and history behind each “room”. At the end of the tour we go to the gift shop, which is called Santa’s Texas Workshop and everything’s just so pretty (and expensive!).

This year, their theme was “Christmas Then and Christmas Now”. All the decorations were things that were popular back then and again now. It was really nice. They have the best decorations and the songs they sing and book they read are so cute. I can’t wait till the kids are old enough to go (8 years and above only).

This is a picture of one of my favorite things, one of the Victorian theme’s displays:

We stopped by Don Pedro Jaramillo Shrine on the way home, where people go and ask for him to heal them or someone they know and light candles. There were so many pictures and wishes stapled and pinned to the walls. I even read one where a woman was asking for help with infertility and there were so many asking to keep soldiers safe while at war.

We went outside when we were done looking around and there was an adorable, screamy, black and white kitten outside. I pet (petted?) him for a while and then we left. He was so cute. He mustn’t have lived far (or lived there at the shrine) because he happily stayed behind and played in the grass :).

I’ve tried adding as many pics as I can to my Flickr account, but of course I haven’t upgraded so not many fit. I have put my most favorite up, though. That’s one thing on my Xmas list though, going Pro! I’d buy it for myself but I have to save up for Mario’s b-day present :).

Yesterday was just as laid back as I thought it would be. The kids didn’t have school and I didn’t have to babysit anyone so I cleaned in the morning, spent some time fixing my site in the afternoon (darn thing) and then went grocery shopping with Mom. She was generous enough to offer to get us a few things, so that helped out a lot since we’re on an extreme budget.

And today, we’re back to the usual. I’m so not looking foward to watching Matthew tomorrow…I can hear him screaming already. Mary ended up taking today off of work to watch him since there was no way in hell I’d be watching him 3 whole days this week, uh uh. I was going to drop off a package for her at the post office before picking up Jaylen and Brianna and in the 3 seconds she was gone he started to pitch a fit. A loud one. And that’s because Mom and I were standing right there! If he weren’t so difficult it wouldn’t be as painful as it is to take care of him =\.

The end of November can’t come fast enough. But soon. Soon everything will be okay.