I’m a hormonal, emotional mess right now. I had the worst, most stressful day in a long time yesterday and at the end of the day it just got worse. It even happened to spill into today. I don’t even want to talk about it; it’s that pathetic. I just feel so sad. I hate feeling this way. I always have to jinx everything. I hate this.

The only positive thing about today is that John got a job :).

I think part of the problem with me trying to update daily is that I can’t think of anything interesting to write. I sit here for 10 minutes with WordPress open and the pregnancy-induced ADD strikes and I start surfing other websites. By the time I know it, I’ve got something to do and I never got a chance to blog.

I figured I’d just start typing before Matthew wakes up. He’s been a good little booger this morning, lookin’ all adorable with his new haircut. He doesn’t have his wild little fly-aways curling all around his head anymore. Aww :).

The baby shower we attended on Saturday afternoon was short and sweet, just like I like ’em. We actually got there kind of late, so we missed all the games. Mary has this luck though–there was one game left, which was one where they draw something under a plate and whoever has it gets a prize. Of course, Mary won LOL.

We chit-chatted with relatives for a while. Baby update: Vanessa’s having twin boys and she’s due for a C-section after Thanksgiving. She’s actually been having a lot of trouble with this pregnancy, so she quit working a while back and should mostly be on bedrest. Betty is having a girl and is due a few days before Christmas. Her youngest son, Lazaro, was born on December 22. I’m thinking they’ll be having some joint birthdays :).

We came home right after that and I cleaned a bit. Mom, who was watching the boys, had just served them dinner as I walked through the door. Dora was in charge of the baby shower and insisted that we take some food, so I cheated and brought some for Mario’s dinner. Yay for no-cooking nights!

We cuddled and watched The Covenant. It was okay; not something I’d bother watching again.

I can’t remember exactly when it happened during the day, but Jaylen was sitting in front of me, my belly touching his back when Alaethia gave a huge kick that Jaylen felt. He turned to me, startled, and smiled when I told him his sister felt he was there and wanted to say hi. He’s so in love with this baby :).

Eenan finally felt her kick also. Jaylen’s always the first to come running when they see me with my hand on my belly, so by the time Eenan gets a chance she stops moving. Eenan was sitting with me watching the news once and he finally got his chance.

Mary had taken both the boys on Sunday morning, so Mario and I got to sleep in, which was so nice. I woke up with his hand on my belly, feeling Alaethia kick. Since he had to go to work yesterday we dragged ourselves out of bed and I got his clothes ready while he ran around getting this things together. He left and I quickly got to washing dishes (I wouldn’t have had so many to wash had I not left the pots and pans there from Saturday) and then started on laundry. I cringe at the thought of how much laundry there’ll be when Alaethia’s born! I remember washing clothes every 3 days when Eenan and Jaylen were born! It’ll be worth it though, and I can’t wait to see all those little pink outfits in the hamper :).

I helped the boys clean their room and organize their closets again, then I cleaned my closet and room a little, too. I found a bag of stuff we didn’t use from Home Depot so I figured I’d go return that stuff for a little extra cash–which we need. No use in keeping it if we’re not going to use it.

By the time I was done with chores it was lunchtime, so I fed the kids and then myself (I was craving Jalapeño Tuna) and watched America’s Next Top Model, Episode 2. I really don’t like that Monique girl. She’s such a bitch to everyone!

Mom came over to stay with the boys while John and I ran a few errands. First was Home Depot, where I got almost $14 bucks back for 3 L brackets for the closet and 4 outlet plugs.

Next stop was H-E-B, which took forever because I couldn’t find a few things and then I messed up when I didn’t give the cashier John’s coupons for his Meal Deal thing. We dropped off a movie at Video Plus (I really need to get Net Flix!) and then went home.

I quickly started on dinner and Mario got home just in time. While we waited for the food to cool we watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, where there was a mother of 6 who’s husband died. They had dreams of owning their own home and they bought a little house. Her husband worked day and night trying to fix it up. One night he got home with cold-like symptoms and later that night he had a seizure and passed away. The culprit? Toxic mold from the house that he worked so hard to fix for his family. I can’t even imagine what the mother and her kids must have gone through. I’m so happy they made them their own home, with mementos of her husband all around the house. Mario and I were teary eyed the whole time. I couldn’t stand losing Mario, or any of my kids for that matter. The sheer thought of it makes me feel like I’m choking, like I’m about to be sick.

We ate dinner with the kids and then watched Desperate Housewives while eating Hershey’s Sundae Pie. Mario was surprised that “we still have this thing” since he figured I would have eaten it all by now. *scowl*

He gave me the most wonderful backrub while we were watching TV. I almost turned to jelly and had goosebumps the whole time–it was that good!

We put the kids to bed and then watched Jackass: Number Two. Most of it was hilarious (those guys are going to, God forbid, kill themselves one of these days!) and some was downright disgusting. I had to shield my eyes a few times when I felt I was about to puke. Mario kept patting me on the back, probably nervous that I would blow chunks any minute LOL.

We cuddled and finally went to sleep around 1a.m. I knew I shouldn’t have stayed up that late since I feel so tired today, but I love spending time with him :). How could I possibly need sleep more than cuddling with the hubby?

I’m so sad. I was surfing through Pink is the New Blog and found out that Rev Run and his wife, Justine’s, newborn babygirl died shortly after birth via C-section. She came early and apparently suffered from omphalocele, a condition where the organs are outside of the body :(.

This is just devastating! Their whole new season was documenting the pregnancy of this baby; what will happen now? The cameras were there when they found out she had this defect and later died. I just can’t believe this happened :*(. Shouldn’t an AFP, amniocentesis or Ultrasound detect this type of defect????

Now I’m paranoid. I know I shouldn’t be worrying myself sick for nothing, but the maternal alarms go off at the drop of a dime when I hear about things like this. I’m especially paranoid because of my pregnancy with Jaylen but I’m so glad this pregnancy has been okay so far. I’m praying it stays that way.

Changing the subject, the Republicans are doing a great job with the gas prices–you know, for exchange of votes to stay in charge. We’re seeing gas prices anywhere from $2.09 to $2.12–and if you get gas at Circle K (Citgo) with their prepaid card, you get 3 cents off each gallon! How nice of those bastards (Reps) to conveniently knock down prices by .65 cents in two weeks. Weren’t we just in some kind of gas slump a while ago? Hmm…

Let’s see…as for this past week, because once again it’s been exactly a week since I’ve updated, lots has happened. I’ll try to turbo-summarize, although you know how hard it is for me to do so.

We got together for Isaiah’s birthday on Sunday. We had pizza and salad. We all sat around chatting for a while and then I moped around because I had to go to Target to get a few things and I didn’t want to drive (like a shower curtain rod since our other one wasn’t a curtain rod but a PVC Pipe–ghetto, yes and we never bothered to change it until it almost fell on me).

I ended up getting the curtain rod and 5-shelf bookcase for the kids that was on sale for $26. I still had all their books in boxes in our bedroom and it was quite unsightly. Mario needed a light for work, I needed refils for my Schick razor and the kids needed more cough medicine (Triaminic tongue strips)–so yeah, I spent more than I initially thought I would.

On the way home from Target, I get a call from Mario that he and Eenan were at Chris and Nancy’s, so for Jaylen and I to stop by after we dropped the moms and purchases off at home.

The kids were so well behaved that night; I was so proud. They did have a few moments where Nancy and I were talking and we’d hear a screech once in a while, but they’d quickly quiet down when told to do so. They were in her bedroom (where Nancy let them watch TV) and Zeus, their Chihuahua, was in there so they were really happy.

We ate (the men were bar-b-q’ing outside) and then watched Desperate Housewives. God, I love that show! Too bad I have to wait a whole week before another episode!

Mother had one of her dreaded 3-hour appointments at the Endochrinologist on Monday morning. I dropped the kids off, made Mario breakfast and saw him off to work, and then Matthew got here just in time for us to leave. It was super hot inside the office and Matthew hates feeling sweaty so I took him outside where it was actually nice and cool due to the rain and cool front that had rolled in overnight. All the benches that were available were sunny, so I asked a girl if I could share her seat and she said yes. Turned out that she was a girl I new who also has her kids in the same school Eenan & Jaylen go to. I would see her around and never thought I’d have anything in common with her–we were too different. She was the type of young mom who looked like she was a princess at home–nicely dressed from A.M. to P.M. and didn’t seem like she would do much at home just from her appearance. I’ve always had that bad habit, where I judge people by their looks; something I hate myself for. I sadly get this horrible trait from my mother.

As I spoke to the girl I realized we had so much in common, from the ages of our kids, to our ages, to things we liked. We even lived next door to each other for 3 years and didn’t even know it. And she’s a great mom–when Matthew started fussing she asked to hold him and put him to sleep in less than a minute. That’ll teach me to judge a book by it’s cover. That’s one of my New Year’s Resolutions for ’07–to stop judging people. It doesn’t hurt to start your resolutions early.

Mary had to do me the favor of calling Sonia for me that day to pick the kids up. There was no way I was going to make it home on time to pick them up. Thankfully John was awake so she left them with him. By the time we got home they were both done with their homework.

Monday was a stressful day for me, especially since I started getting sick (sore throat) and had all the kids to take care of that day.

I didn’t have Matthew on Tuesday, but I did have Brianna. At least she was on her best behavior. I had a chance to finish putting stuff away in the living room closet and freed up a lot of space around here. I was washing dishes around 7pm when Jason finally decided to pick up Brianna. I noticed he was in his regular clothes so I made a sarcastic remark about how late they let them out of work and it turns out he was off but had Seth (his nephew) with him all day. Um, hello? And you couldn’t pick up Brianna? I would have been in a much worse mood but like I said before, Brianna was behaving so I wasn’t in a hurry to push her out the door.

Wednesday was a pretty normal day, except that my cold was getting worse and I felt so tired. I left a note on my door (Sleeping: come back at 11:00), because if I didn’t mother would be knocking till someone opened the door. Yes, that’s one of the bad things about living next door to your mother and in-laws. My in-laws at least get the point; Mom, on the other hand, does not.

I had a hard time sleeping that night due to my horrible sore throat, so I felt really tired when I woke up on Thursday morning. I dropped the kids off and then ate breakfast so I could be ready for when Matthew got here. That child was fussy all day and does NOT like to be left sitting or laying down–he MUST be carried! I told him I was sorry, but in my house we don’t have babies stuck to our hip. I let him cry it out a few times (because I did have to pee a few times during the day) and he finally fell asleep once. Brianna was a little bad-behaved that day and kept bothering Matthew, even while he was sleeping. She was picked up on time that day, earlier even, so I was glad for that.

Big Mario bar-b-q’d that day so I wouldn’t have to cook–yay! We had pork ribs, though half the people eating thought it was beef, but I didn’t have the packaging anymore so I had no idea what it was, I just knew it was meat LOL. Mario got home really early that day so we ate and then stayed up watching TV. I recorded Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty–gotta watch those soon!

I dropped the kids off extra early on Friday, since they had a Jamaica (Fall Festival) that day. They treat the kids who’ve been well behaved all 6 weeks, and both my boys were attending :). I gave them $1.50 each for snacks that they’d announced they were going to sell. I’ve learned not to give them any more, especially Eenan who’s easily conned out of his money. They were both excited to go, especially Jaylen. For the first time ever he was jumping around in class. Both his teachers were surprised and said, “What a miracle!” because he’s usually so quiet LOL.

I came back home and napped with Mario till I felt him get up at 10:30. I tossed and turned for a while longer and then got up. He was nowhere to be found. At exactly 11:00 he knocks on the door. Apparently he was going to surprise me with a cinnamon roll from Whataburger but as soon as he locked the door he realized he’d forgotten his keys and didn’t want to wake me so he waited…aww :). Since they weren’t serving breakfast anywhere anymore we stopped by McDonalds’s (yes, unfortunately we don’t have much of a choice–I can’t wait till Burger King’s finished being built!) and got cheeseburgers and fries. Then we picked up the kiddos and went to Mario’s work to pick up his paycheck. It’s been so slow at work, like there’s no work whatsoever, that he got one of the smallest paychecks so far this year. And we had our darn car payment! After paying all the bills, getting the windshield sticker for the truck, picking up a pizza for the kids (it’s tradition to go out to eat when he gets paid) and renting just one movie we’re left with almost nothing. It’s depressing. Thankfully we filled up both vehicles with gas and have a good amount of groceries. We just gotta pinch pennies when it comes to everything else. *cries*

We sat outside in the cool air (doused in Off since there’s mosquitoes galore!) and watched our turtles get some exercise in the kiddie pool while the cats tried batting at them with their paws. So cute! Mario left to Chris’ for a while and the kids watched Cartoon Network (they get so excited on Fridays) so I watched America’s Next Top Model while eating a slice of heaven Hershey’s Sundae Pie. Mario got back in an hour and we put the kids’ bookcase together. Okay, he put it together, I just made sure nothing fell apart on top of him.

He got us cinnamon rolls from Whataburger (it was only $3.00–we’re obsessed) and we watched Stick It, which was a pretty cute movie. Too bad I couldn’t enjoy my roll since my cough was coming on full-force and I felt nauseous because of my sore throat. I desperately searched for the print-out of safe medicines to take during pregnancy that the doctor gave me. Thankfully, the cough medicine I got for the kids (Dimetapp DM) was on the list so I had some of that and slept wonderfully. I’m not feeling too shitty today, thank goodness, since we have a baby shower to go to.

Then I plan to veg out on the couch, get better and watch all the shows my DVDr’s recorded for me.