Perspective

Jesus. I get SO BORED when the girls leave to Mario’s house for the weekend (our “weekends” start on Thursday). I’ve texted Jorge at least 5 times asking if he’s on his way home yet, heh.

I really should have started blogging as soon as they left instead of idly browsing through Facebook. I’m actually quite surprised I didn’t bust out the tortilla chips and Pace salsa while I waited for Jorge to get here. I’ve had an insatiable hunger these days, probably due to the fact that I’m Pre-PMS’ing :D. Yay!!

Work has been HECTIC, but as exhausted as I’ve been I was a good girl and made my love his caldo de mariscos (seafood soup). I forgot to take a photo, can you believe it?? I also made some garlic asparagus. I really need to update the recipes page. But, well. I can hardly find time to BLOG, let alone add recipes *sigh*.

I’m proud of the fact that I made a meal plan and stuck to it; we didn’t go out to eat or order food for dinner all week (well, with the exception of yesterday. I made dinner, but we stopped by Jack-in-the-Box for some mango tea…and some jalapeño poppers *sigh*). We can’t help lunch sometimes, but I made all our dinners *beams*. I’m still trying to get Alaethia to eat, say, Green Chicken Curry Salad. She’s still my picky one. Emily will eat everything :).

Anyway, it’s been a long, tiring week. We have an event coming up (which we lost 2 months of organizing due to the date we chose for it and it’s been nerve-wracking) and the 2 weeks prior are the busiest and most stressful. I was feeling kind of mediocre and unprepared at the beginning of the week. I almost wanted to just call in and hide under my blanket and sleep all day with Emmos on Tuesday, but I didn’t.

My darn van had left me stranded last week and we’ve yet to get it fixed. Jorge laughs at me because he says I’m the only person in the world that complains about driving a BMW, heh. It’s just so stressful; I’m always afraid someone’s going to dent it with their door or that I’m going to scratch the leather =\. I’ll never hear the end of it, heh!

My mood didn’t get any better when I was browsing through Facebook and read that a teenager that attended Eenan’s school had been hit by a car and killed walking to school in the morning. I know Mario or his mother drop the boys off, but an irrational part of my brain panicked and called Mario to make sure all was well with the boys. It was, of course, but Eenan and all his friends had grown up with the boy :(. I spoke to Eenan when I got out of work and he sounded ok. He explained he was never particularly close with him, and he was a troubled kid, but he said everyone was quiet around school, taking in the news. I can imagine what that did to their brain, their emotions. I’ll never forget the 1st time someone I knew–someone young–died. I was in 5th grade and it was a classmate’s little sister. Died in a tragic accident at the Livestock Show monster truck show. I learned at the time that life could change/end in a second.

I wanted to just come home and hug my babies, I wanted to just be with all 4 of them :(. I spoke to the boys for a long time that night. I miss them :(.

The news of the little boy’s passing was terrible. But it made me realize just how lucky I am to HAVE my babies regardless of the distance, to have a job even though I get stressed, to have at least one working car, to have a roof over our heads, to have Jorge, who busts his butt on the daily to make sure we have everything we need; to have all my loved ones alive and well, to have food in the fridge and in our tummies even though I complain about feeling fat all day long =\, to be happy with what we DO have, even though sometimes I complain about how unfair it is that undeserving people get way more help than they ever should.

I’ve been repeating this to myself when I’ve felt a little overwhelmed throughout the day. The positive attitude resonated in all areas of my life: my event started picking up, I accomplished my tasks at work so far, and then yesterday Jorge and I got some great news! I’m just so incredibly thankful for everything :*).

Oh, man. I made the mistake of buying a Ben & Jerry’s pint of Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream from the corner store and I managed to scarf down HALF so now I’m having a sugar crash. Poo. I’ll try and update some more tomorrow. My brunch date with Sally fell through for Saturday and I’m kidless so my new plans for this weekend include sleeping in, spending lots of time on my site, Facebook and Pinterest; cleaning a little, maybe buy some pants somewhere (I’ve received TONS of great coupons lately!) and perhaps–if I’m lucky–scrapbook before my super duper busy weekend next week. I’m going to take it a day at a time and ENJOY IT.

I’ll leave you with a few pics from the week. (Most you’ve seen on Facebook or Instagram already, heh.)

Kika, who snuck into the girls’ room and snuggled with Alaethia:

Busted, Kika!!

My love and our huge snuggly kitty:

I want to compare this to when we first got him :)

Emily and her duckies:

Emily and her duckies :)

At the Corner Bakery Cafe ribbon cutting. I can see this becoming a place Sally and I can frequent for brunch :). The artwork on the walls are snapshots of sights around the city!

Corner Bakery Cafe ribbon cutting

Me, in JAYLEN’S shirt. Accidentally threw it on and it instantly confused me. I was thrilled because I was having a pretty shitty I-feel-fat day =\ and my 10-yr-old’s shirt fit! But then I was a bit sad because that’s it: my boys’ clothes fit me. That means they’ve grown and will continue to grow :*(.

Put on my son's shirt by mistake. Not sure if I should be thrilled that I actually fit in it or depressed that they're growing so fast :(

The Jr. Roll at Yoko’s Sushi. Was fortunate enough to have lunch with my love and Sally today :)!

Jr. Roll @ Yoko's

Cute pumpkins, painted pink for Cancer awareness, at Texas Oncology:

At Texas Oncology

And that’s it! Goodnight :).

Impromptu Layout Change

My site was temporarily shut down due to it being potentially hacked a few days ago. Of course, I wouldn’t notice till today, heh. But this prompted me to find a new theme, since the one I was using was old. There’s still a few things I need to work out (heck, I’m surprised I still know how to do some of these things!), but it’ll get there.

Right now I’m sitting on the back porch with my love, talking about everything: the kids, the yard and how it needs trimming, our early grocery shopping trip in the morning, and taking the kids to the pumpkin patch for their 2nd annual photo :).

I was up early, grocery shopped for a few breakfast things and got home and served all the kids. Briana had dropped Nick and Mia off since she worked today. I made sure the kiddos all had something to do and made myself breakfast:

Breakfast :). Took tomato seeds out so it wouldn't sog up my muffins.

I found the recipe on Pinterest, but instead of using bagels, I used English muffins. And some cream cheese, fresh tomatoes and salt and pepper. And some Hazelnut coffee, of course.

I tidied up, paid bills, then Emily and I picked up Jorge from work while Mom bravely stayed with the other 7 kids, heh. Jorge actually got to take half a day off!

We went to the bank, got home and I started making pigs in a blanket for the kids. I swear, it feels like I’m in the kitchen all day during the weekend, heh. I also made some spiffy ones for the adults 🙂

Reduced-fat crescents, cream cheese, chili garlic sauce and chives :). Super fast lunch!

I used:

reduced-fat crescent rolls
cream cheese (I prefer regular)
chili garlic sauce
chives
Oscar Mayer bacon pieces

I baked according to the roll instructions. Those Oscar Mayer bacon pieces ARE MY LIFE. I buy the baggies and keep them on hand for recipes every time I buy groceries.

The kids played, Briana got here and we chit-chatted while we ate lunch. The rest of the day was a lazy day. My love took a nap and I paid bills online while keeping the kiddos at bay. There were minimal arguments about turns on the Xbox and the girls have been really pleasant, just being girls and playing teacher while carrying around purses full of books and wearing tons of bracelets :).

We went to pay a bill, with my little clone, Emily. We got home and I started feeling really tired. Jorge said, “I don’t want you falling asleep at 9am on a Saturday. Take a nap with Emily.” I thought it was going to be an epic fail, but I humored him and snuggled up with Emily.

He woke us up 2 1/2 hours later! I haven’t napped in a LONG time! I felt refreshed and ready to start on dinner, which was broccoli soup, pork chops and rice :). The kids loved it and so did my love, so I’m glad. Especially since it was something I threw together on a whim since I hadn’t done proper grocery shopping :P.

Eenan is currently intrigued by The Walking Dead and shared parts of the game with us throughout the night. He was comparing between the game and the show and comic. Emily and Alaethia played on the porch while we relaxed and the rest of the boys were watching TV. It’s been a great day. We have a lot to do tomorrow, and hopefully I can figure out the rest of this theme. I’m so glad it’s the weekend! Lord knows it was a long week!

Pep-talk to Myself

Geez. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I really want to get back into the habit of updating but I never seem to have time! We didn’t even have kiddos with us this weekend (they were with the other parents) and we were so busy cleaning the house (the laundry was never-ending) that it never even crossed my mind to update. Poo.

I’m feeling rather Girl Sick today, if you know what I mean. I’m glad I glammed myself up for work, ’cause I’d hate to feel this crampy and blue AND feel frumpy or have a bad hair day lol.

I’ve got deadlines coming up for several events and I feel a tad overwhelmed. I may work this weekend and they JUST decided to give us a not-definite answer. Always happens.

It didn’t help that I brought lunch from home because for the past 3 weeks Jorge and I’d been eating at restraunts almost every day and I could feel it in my clothes (and I JUST bought new dresses!) and I miss him a lot :'(. I just wanna cuddle with him and the girls on the sofa and watch The Voice. And eat Triple minty Oreos and milk and have him rub my back. I can’t wait to be home!

But I just remembered Mom wants to go shopping. Lordy. Maybe she’ll buy me something (and not just the girls lol).

But, I need to be positive to get out of my mood. My girls are home today, the weather is lovely (yay for October!), I love my dress, our bills are paid, and most of all: we’re alive and well! So many wonderful people I know have passed recently or have had someone close to them pass. We just attended 2 funerals in 2 weeks =\. So, I’m thankful for these cramps and deadlines. It could be worse.