Monday, October 27th – I had a long to-do list that needed to be accomplished before 4pm. Alaethia’s 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Hammond, had approached me about encouraging her to join UIL Creative Writing. So I did, and she accepted and she gets out of practice at 4pm on Mondays and Tuesdays. I was glad to pick her up and find that she really enjoyed herself :). When I’d brought it up to her the day before, she was nervous and got teary about it. She had flashbacks from last year, when she tried out for Chess Club and she was left in the cafeteria with the bus kids, they tried putting her on a bus and she didn’t even get to try out till Mario got there and couldn’t find her. So, I got where she was coming from, what with being traumatized and all. But, Mrs. Hammond walked her to the pick up area so she could become familiar with the routine, so that was great :).

Got home and talked to the boys, then helped Jaylen re-do his Powerpoint presentation that we’d worked on over the weekend. Helped the girls with homework, made Frito-pie chili (awful, you don’t have to tell me!!) and then watched “Guardians of the Galaxy” with them and Jorgie and Justin. Of course I missed the entire thing ’cause I fell asleep, heh.

Tuesday, October 28th – Tuesday was another day spent going non-stop at work; calling potential exhibitors for the upcoming Expo and working on January’s 1st Expo. It was another day I had to get my to-do list done before 4pm. Although it felt amazing to get 30 extra minutes at home with the girls, I helped Alaethia with her math till 7pm. The way they teach that math, OMG, it’s ridiculous. Completely different from the way I learned math, but well, that was decades ago!

Once the girls had finished up homework, eaten dinner, showed me videos on Youtube and were put into bed, Jorge, John and I watched Sons of Anarchy. My favorite part of Tuesday :).

Wednesday, October 29th – I got the girls ready to go right on time and dropped them off (in the drop-off area–such big girls!) and then I made my way to United Way to meet the girls for a Forum we were invited to. It was very informational and we got to have some snacks. Ms. Thelma outdid herself with the decorations, like always :).

I arrived to the office and ran to the kitchen/conference room to help serve fajitas for the luncheon at work. We had so many people arrive, which is good, but out of 200, only 100 RSVP’d =\. We almost ran out of food; the staff got to scrounge around for bits hehe. Still, I was grateful for my awesome taco and then went to the front desk for reception duty. I wore heels that day for the first time in months…and realized right away just WHY I never wear them anymore. Grr. My feet haven’t been the same since, I think. #oldfart

Thursday, October 30th – Got to work after dropping the girls off and my boss and I started the day by scouting new exhibitors. We actually got one to sign up on the spot! It’s amazing how many new health-related businesses there are since February!

Got back and got ready for a lunch meeting regarding that same Expo. We’ve been having weekly meetings since it’s so close. I’ve never had so much Jason’s Deli in my life hehe.

Since Mario had already taken the girls (his weekend), Rosie and I took a stroll through a nearby thrift shop to find something 60’s-esque for the Annual Banquet. Michelle, Rosie and I had realized with a jolt of shock that the Annual Banquet was in a week…and we had no costumes yet.

So we looked around and found a few things and laughed at a few other ensembles but didn’t find anything we actually liked once we tried them on. We decided to check out Amazon with Michelle the next day.

Friday, October 31st – Halloween! This would be the first Halloween in 3 years we don’t have my kiddos. I’d gotten away with having them so far, even when it was their Dad’s weekend, but he asked to have them this year =\.

We had cake from Maritza and those delicious cookies Trisha brings from Sweet N Tasty every year. I got ready for our Food Festival meeting and once we finished up with that, met Valerie at her workplace. She’d invited us a couple of weeks before to try out their amazing burgers and visit the facility since we’d never been.

It was a great visit; they were having their Halloween costume contest and pumpkin-decorating contest, so that was fun to watch/judge.

And the burgers…oh my gosh, the burgers. They really were amazing!!

We headed to make more visits for the Expo. Got back to the office and checked out costumes with Michelle and Rosie. We ordered some and crossed our fingers. Then I made some calls and took some payments and made my way home.

I was feeling a little lonely since the kids weren’t home. We’d been invited to Jim and Joyce’s yearly Halloween party but I wasn’t feeling much up to going. Jorge got home and at the last minute, we decided hey, we’re kid-less, why not go out and enjoy ourselves?

I found my bag of Halloween makeup (bought tons last year on clearance) and made a quick zombie costume. Jorge got out of work a bit later than he planned, so he didn’t dress up. We waited for my kids to arrive (their Dad was nice enough to bring them over) and we had Krispy Kreme donuts I’d bought from a fundraiser and had a quick visit.

Those two!! Hilarious!

My kiddos left and then Jorge and I took off to Jim’s. Jim and Joyce were dressed as hippies (doubled as their costume for the Annual Banquet–smart!!), Thelma and her hubby were a cloud and a person struck by lightning, Michelle was a Christmas “HoHoHo” 😛 and EZ was a priest. We had fun chatting and eating little snacks.

Jim and Joyce always out-do themselves! It wasn’t a very long visit, but we were proud of ourselves for leaving the house for once hehe. All-in-all it was a great Halloween!

Saturday, November 1st – Jorge went to work and I stayed in bed, covers over my head. He kissed me goodbye and told me to sleep. And I did: till 8:30am. And it was AMAZEBALLS!! It was the first weekend in a few months that I didn’t need to be up at 5 or 6am!

I made myself some breakfast and coffee and ate outside on the porch while I read my book, all huddled up in my hoodie and sweatpants.

My happy place <3[/caption] It was 75 degrees outside and such a beautiful day. I put my phone down (where I was reading my eBook) and admired the birdies perched on the branches and flying around. I eventually got sleepy and curled up on the sofa to allow myself to pass out. Then I remembered I had to withdraw money to pay bills and I got over the sleepiness right away. But oh well; duty calls. I even did grocery shopping, cleaning and visited Gramma with Mom :). Evening came and I spoke to my kiddos to see how their day went. Then Jorge and I went over to Noni's for a BBQ. The food was awesome and so were the Peach Belini's and hanging out with Lisa and Joyce is always fun. There were technical difficulties with the movie we were trying to watch outside, but they changed it over to a game and we enjoyed conversation instead. We had officially gone "out" 2 nights in a row! I sat there, taking it all in (TWSS), and thought, Wow. 4 years later and here we are. 4 years ago was a crazy time for us, but we pulled through and here we are together :’).

October 17th – It was a busy Friday, just like every Friday lately. It’s going to be busy from now till at least March, actually. I had 2 meetings–one that ran through lunch–then I had to run to the Incubator for a video and then I picked up Michelle, we picked up cupcakes, set them up at Quinta Mazatlan for the Wine Classic, back to work to drop off Michelle and gather some items, go back to QM and then I finally came home. I wasn’t working the Classic this year because we were going to have the boys, but to our surprise, their mother actually came for them. In our usual fashion, Jorge and I just chilled out here at home catching up on our shows :).

October 18th – Jorge and I lazied around the next morning but I had to hustle and get to Jaylen’s game. They were doing insanely good…and at the last minute the other team beat them =\. Still, Jaylen played the entire game and did what he was supposed to do and he did it well :). Proud of my guy!

If I remember correctly, I took the girls to find the Littlest Petshop “blind bags” they like and then I went to see Eenan after the game, since they were all at their dad’s for the weekend.

I did some grocery shopping later and Mom and I went to see Gramma. The entire day I’d told myself I was going to chill out and scrapbook, or read, or BLOG but duty calls.

Jorge got home and we ate dinner, then watched “Brick Mansions” starring Paul Walker :(. It was a good movie, but if you know me, you know I fell asleep at least 3 times throughout it ^_^.

October 19th – Woke up the next morning, lazied around as you should on a Sunday, and I made myself and Jorge some coffee and omelets. Been a while since I’d made some!

The boys wanted to come over to watch the Patriots game, so before we picked them up, we went on a search for tacos on 5-mile line. They’re 1) not as cheap as I remember them being and 2) delicious!

We watched the game and I sneaked away several times in spite of Jorge’s protests for me to “Sit down already!” But I knew if I didn’t do my housework at that moment I wouldn’t have time to get it done the rest of the week. And that isn’t good for anybody!

I also sneaked out long enough to go for a run.

Hadn’t ran since that previous Thursday and wanted to get out there. I should have ignored my desire for 5-mile line tacos because OMG…I felt like crap and kept burping acidy, heartburny meat *aherk*. And I only ran 2 miles instead of 3.

Got home, had a salad and watched The Walking Dead with the guys. And then it was time to start another hectic week.

October 20th – I’m happy to say I rocked my Monday. Got a lot accomplished, including adding stuff to Etsy for one of my program’s stores. We also celebrated Rosie’s birthday and had cake :).

Went to HEB, which I loathe. Even more-so when it’s drizzling, and it was. But I got everything done, made dinner at home, spent time with the Chicklets, called the boys and then made dinner for everyone. Then came the part I look forward to all day: when I get to sit on the couch with my Love and my Mabs and watch “Marry Me”. John and I talked about the shows and how we’ll never get over the “Committed” thing, which was this show that aired on NBC back in 2005 or even before and it was so hilarious and just GOOD and it was CANCELLED. We’re so afraid of the same thing happening to “Selfie”, “Marry Me” and “Manhattan Love Story.” (So far, it’s happened to “Selfie” and “Manhattan Love Story” waaahhh!)

October 21st – Rosie’s son got sick so she and Michelle and her dad left to San Antonio to visit him at the hospital. Poor thing needed surgery. All the girls took turns with reception duty. I tried catching up on finding exhibitors for the Health Expo. I swear, this event will be the death of me :(. It’s so stressful!

Did my afternoon duties and then put the girls to bed and watched our shows. I stayed up a little late with Jorge since I didn’t have to go in to work the next day.

October 22nd – I was taking time off due to the insane hours from the week before and took advantage since Mom had a doctor’s appointment. Dropped the girls off, then came home, made breakfast and read while I ate. Then I took Mom to the appointment. It took so long that I had to leave her there and John had to pick her up.

I worked the afternoon and tried getting as much done as I possibly could, especially since I had reception duty as soon as I got to the office.

John offered to get us some Ben & Jerry’s that evening, so he and I went after we put the girls and boys to bed. We had a little talk on the way there, about some things that were happening. I have to admit that it stung a little, but maybe he had a point.

October 23rd – I get to work the next morning and my boss let’s me know we have a surprise Ribbon Cutting we need to be in charge of since the girls were busy with another event at the same time. It was for a new Poncho’s restaurant at the mall, which took over the old Subway. So I tried not getting anxiety about the whole thing, especially because I had a lunch meeting, calls to make, reception duty and then the Ribbon Cutting. Luckily, my lunch meeting was cancelled so I got to see my love for lunch at Johnny Rockets :).

The event didn’t start till 45 minutes later, and it was warm, but at least I had some awesome food, took some pretty good photos and didn’t feel too awkward.

I stupidly parked at the other side of the mall, so I took off as quickly as I could without being rude. I rushed to work since I had a few things to do before I left to pick Jaylen up at football practice. Of course my boss gives me a list of things to do, but I (amazingly) accomplished everything in 20 minutes! Woo!

Picked up Jaylen and got a rundown of his day, then we picked up Eenan. We chatted about their day all the way home :). I honestly can’t even remember what I made for dinner, but we put all the kids to bed and Jorge and I went to Walmart to buy supplies to start revamping the bathroom. Yes, only we have those types of ideas at 8pm. We had the entire family coming over on Saturday for Mia’s birthday party and we’d pretty much ignored that bathroom. Nothing had been done to it since the house was built and it was in rough shape. So…we had 2 evenings to bring it into this century. No days off, just 2 evenings.

We’d never really made-over an entire room. We’d painted the trim of the kitchen about a year or 2 ago, but that was it when it came to re-doing a room. I was afraid of how our sanity would hold up; we’re so alike when it comes to our mood and attitudes hehe. We’d already gotten into an argument before even leaving the house, then we simmered down and agreed on pretty much all the paint colors and decor. We’re pretty similar in that aspect too: hardly ever do we disagree on home decor. We’ve pretty much decided how to decorate each room together.

Still, we got into another argument on the way home and became civil when we saw how much work we had to do. He calmed me down with leftover Ben & Jerry’s ^_^. The man knows the way to my heart hehe.

We removed everything off the surfaces, scrubbed everything down, spackled the years of screw/nail holes and began painting. Just the paint color made such a difference!

We stayed up till 1:30am and decided we should head to bed since I had to be up by 5am, like usual, to drop the boys off.

October 24th Needless to say, we were running late the next morning. I didn’t even have time to get some coffee, but the boys kept me awake with our morning conversations. After I dropped them both off I stopped for a latte at McDonald’s. Where I saw a roach crawling on the buns…ugh.

I got as much accomplished as I could at work and headed out at 11am to meet Ms. Thelma downtown and then Michael’s to get supplies for the program. The ladies would be making mesh wreaths this next time so that’s what were were on our way to get. It’s always a blast with Ms. Thelma! We have so much in common and talking about crafts is always so fun with her :). We had a great time looking through the 75% off Halloween stuff at Michael’s :).

I got to work and had lunch, finished up my day and picked up the boys. Dina, Briana and the kids had already arrived and so had Jorge. When we got here, they were all outside in the backyard. Jorge was installing our solar fairy lights he’d purchased about a year ago but hadn’t had a chance to install :P. I couldn’t wait to see what they looked like!

We stood outside watching Jorge work the last few lights into the mesquite tree and the kids run around playing tag or football. The breeze was just so nice, the grass was freshly cut and it was just so great standing out there with Mom, Dina, Briana all the kids and Jorge.

Us girls and the 3 little girls all went to HEB to get groceries and stuff for the party the next day. We got back and Jorge had already started painting the 2nd coat on the walls and had begun to remove the hardware and cabinet doors from the vanity and linen closet in the bathroom. I made dinner (creamy enchiladas) while he did this. As soon as I was done and the kids were all occupied, I began sanding down the cabinet doors with Dina’s help. We were about 90% done that night; we ended around 2am and only had a few things missing: a few hinges and handles and a towel ring, which Jorge said he’d go look for the next day. I still wanted to paint something for the wall but I wasn’t sure if we’d have time. All-in-all we loved the outcome:

The whole makeover just gave it such a fresh look. And it wasn’t even very costly! We were pretty proud of our work and I don’t hate passing by that bathroom anymore, hehe. Now I want to makeover the kitchen and our bathroom!

October 25th – Even though we had a late night, we had Justin and Jaylen’s last football games to go to so we were up early. I got the girls and Jaylen up and off we went to drop him off and pick up a few things at Walmart. Jaylen did great and the team was smokin’ their opponent…until the last quarter, no joke. Never had I seen so many penalties called on a middle school team. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say the ref was bought! /end hysterical moment.

Another hysterical moment was when flying ants attacked us. Luckily Mary had Germ-X and scared them off, but I was too busy slathering it on the girls that they had a good chance to bite me at least 8 times :(.

I got to take Jaylen home right away since it was his last game, which was great because Jorge and I had a trip to Home Depot. I managed to clean the entire house and we got done with everything just in time. I was still in the shower by the time the guests arrived, but got outside just in time for the festivities.

All the children were fed and they played, broke the piñata, had cake, and just had a great time. Briana outdid herself with the party.

It got dark and the kids continued to play. We cleaned up and while I came inside to put some food away, Katie calls me letting me know Alaethia twisted her ankle in a squirrel hole. We ice her up and she’s ok, but we’re all exhausted so I say my goodbyes and pass out on the sofa with the girls.

October 26th – We unfortunately say bye to Dina, Briana and the girls. We lazy around the rest of the day and eventually go to the pumpkin patch for our annual photo:

This is the first year we get to have Julien in the photo ^_^.

Of course, later that evening we watched The Walking Dead and got everyone in bed and ready for a new week ^_^.

I’m happy to announce that the event I had going on yesterday morning went well. Not completely without a hitch (I forgot to have the ladies introduce themselves at the beginning but it allowed the projects to be completed. And I got one of the presenter’s names wrong) , but  almost. And I did an interview for the 2nd time this week and didn’t complain about it ^_^. And I posted the photos to the Facebook page, too, in real time. Woo!

I came home for lunch (because I was nearby and the meeting ran till noon! ) and ate some clam chowder while I watched DVR’d “Selfie”. I love that show!

I hauled butt at work trying to get my to-do list done and completed it. I was on a roll! It always feels awesome to accomplish what I need to at work.

Got home, made linguini and helped the girls with homework. Explaining 2nd grade math homework gives me a headache. Poor Alaethia was having trouble understanding and I was having trouble explaining and keeping my patience :(. I don’t remember being so impatient with the boys =/.

I spoke to Jaylen a while and Eenan didn’t charge his phone so he didn’t call me *sobs*. But he did send me a message on Facebook at 11pm :). I crashed out by 10:30

But not before the girls and I chilled with Mabby.

I put the girls to bed, re-watched The Voice with John, Jorgie and Justin and then watched “Manhattan Love Story” (love that one, too!).Then John and I smacked each other with pillows from across the sofa and joked around with the boys. John’s such a bad influence. He wanted Church’s poppers or Jack-in-the-box poppers at 10pm. The boys encouraged him and volunteered to accompany him lol. I didn’t cave and we stayed home hehe.

Woke up with the same attitude as I have since the beginning of the week: I’m going to kick today’s ass!

My hair has behaved itself since the weather has been beautiful. Dropped my girlies off and started my day at work. Accomplished everything including a lunch meeting. One of our committee members told us about her 1-year weightloss surgery anniversary  (I never would have guessed!) and how she ran her 1st half-marathon. Just hearing her gush about it made me want to get out there. I vowed I would today. All week, as I’m driving home, I pass by McAuliffe Park and see people running. The weather’s been so fresh and amazing that I could just imagine how wonderful it felt.

I got home and helped Emmos with her homework while I simultaneously fed everyone.

We gathered their things since Mario was picking them up, I walked them out and got Jaylen’s football pics ^_^.

I told myself to step away from Mabby and the sofa and put on my running clothes. I haven’t run in 3 months…I couldn’t even find my shoes hehe. It was easy to “escape” since Jorge and the boys were occupied by the Patriots game.

I walked the first mile while I talked to the boys on the phone and then I ran 2 miles. I’m so out of practice I started Mapmyrun late and didn’t turn on my monitor till I started running.

It was as awesome as I imagined it would be. The wind was fresh on my neck, I had an amazing view and those deep breaths of air were the best!

I got home and immediately put ice packs on my shins.

I could feel prickles on my shins already and I don’t want to be sore tomorrow. I hope I can motivate myself enough to get out there again ^_^.

I’m making good time, too. Already showered and snacked on popcorn while we watched the game (lucky Patriots!!). I have 2 meetings tomorrow so I’m going to watch Sons of Anarchy with my love and head to bed :).