Author: Yajaira

Thank you all for Eenan’s well-wishes . He stayed home from school on Thursday because he couldn’t stop coughing the night before and his fever would come and go. He felt much better Friday so he went. Sunday, he spent laying on the couch all day, except to eat or go to the bathroom. He was completely lethargic, so I kept him home on Monday, too. Monday morning, around 6am, was also when Jaylen’s flu started…he had a fever of 101.6 and was coughing badly. Eenan went to school today; I hope he’s doing alright. I gave him his medicines right before I dropped him off, so he should be alright till he gets home.

Jose, Elda and the kids all left on Saturday afternoon. Elda didn’t want to leave and that’s because she was having a hard time with the fact that they’re moving over here during summer. That’ll be cool. Then all we’ll need is for Jorge to move over here from California and all of Mario’s side of the family will be in the Valley.

I can’t believe all the stuff that’s been on the news. First, the inhumane way Terri Schiavo died, then the Pope’s passing and then yesterday while watching the news at 5 I heard about an 8th grader at a school in McAllen had stabbed another 8th grader in the back with a pocket knife. The victim lived and is back at school and is okay, thank goodness. I can’t believe that happened over here. I tend to stay away from the news because I’m afraid of what the hell I’m gonna see. I’ve said it a million times: I fear for when my own kids are in middle/high school. Some kids are terrible these days. Then I heard about how a Judge (who’d served the county for 10 years) resigned, then I watched the news again at 6 and they had breaking news about how they found him dead at his home with a gun shot wound to the head. I know he’d been under investigation by the FBI due to allegations he was accepting bribes, but why would he leave a wife and 5 boys behind? It’s sad.

My birthday’s in 9 days and it doesn’t even feel like it. I’ve been too busy thinking about Jaylen’s birthday party which is coming up on the 17th (his birthday’s on the 18th). We haven’t even discussed what we’re getting him for his birthday. We still haven’t even gotten the ceramic Ninja Turtle piggy banks (which will be the centerpieces), or the candy (which we mostly get in Mexico), or the party favors and goodie bags. I have a feeling the next two weekends will be madness.

Oooh…forgot to mention. Saturday night we’d gone to Wal-Mart and Eenan had $.50, so he got two goldfish; Goldie #2 and Indigo and I bought a little Ghost Shrimp–cutest little thing. Well, we got home, I arranged the tank–even got them a portable filter/pump this time and the damn fish ended up dying before we went to bed. My shrimp was okay–till the next day. He died too. I did some research online and found out that if there’s even one sick fish in the tank the rest will get sick–and most likely–will die too. We went back to Wal-Mart to look for a filter for the turtles’ tank and looked at the tanks where we’d gotten our fish and there were at least 4 floating at the top. I wonder how many people have bought fish there that have died already. How crappy. Poor fish .

That night Yadira called us and asked if we wanted to adopt Squirt, Angela’s turtle. They had two, but Shelly had passed away that day and she didn’t want the other one to die so they gave him to us. So now we have three happy little turtles . They’re so fun to watch…I need to make a page for them soon and show off their cuteness. I think Mario and I get a kick out of them more than the boys do!

Mario got out of work Sunday and we went shopping for a few things. John actually came by this weekend (only because he missed his bus Friday after school ) and stayed with the boys while we went since they were sick. We went to Target and got Eenan a Gamecube game and a CD player for Jaylen since he didn’t have one yet. We were looking around for a new shelf or something for DVD’s and while looking at the furniture I fell in love with this tiny table and chairs that would fit perfectly in the kitchen. I want it so badly. The table we have right now a foldable one borrowed from Mary, since our wooden one was wayyy too huge for our space and our chairs are old, ugly chairs we used to use outside. My table and chairs embarrass me. One of the reasons I don’t like having company over…really.

After we went to Target, we got some drinks at Starbucks. I finally went to a real Starbucks and man was my Caramel thingy good! Usually, we’d only buy the Frappuccinos from Wal-Mart or H-E-B…the ones in the little milk bottles? But yum…I can’t wait to go back.

We went to Wal-Mart after that to get house necessities and found a new DVD rack. It wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, and it’s not black, but it fit all our DVD’s. Now Smokey, the gerbil, is tucked nicely in one of the shelves in the entertainment center and I still have to move all the electronic junk (Xbox, Dish Network receiver, Game Cube, VCR, DVD player, and the surround sound thing) around to make it look neater and utilize the empty shelves. I wish I was craftier and more creative so I could figure out how to make things fit nicely in this small place. I realized something while watching HGTV though…you need $$ to be organized, and sadly, I don’t have any extra $$ right now .

Okay, I’ve blabbed enough. Gotta finish with laundry *yawn* and help Eenan with his homework (Sonia just picked him up for me since I didn’t have a car today). Then I gotta try and catch up with online stuff. My inbox is ripping at the seams .

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I just finished watching American Idol…that was some Bull. Shit. I cannot believe Jessica Sierra was voted off! She had one of the best voices. If people voted according to last night’s performances, then I would have either voted off Anthony Federov or Scott Savol or Constantine Marouglis (don’t remember how to spell his name at the moment). She was a really, really good singer .

Damn. I really need to cut my claws nails. It took me forever to type that paragraph since my long ass nails keep poking the wrong keys and I keep having to go back to delete/fix .

I went with Mary, Jose, Elda and all the boys to see Ricky’s brother’s new house. They’re currently building it, but from what’s ready so far, it’s a beautiful house. I loved the color of the walls and the rooms and light fixtures…just everything. The whole time I felt like I was floating through the house, day dreaming about one day walking through my own house, admiring it’s craftsmanship. That day cannot come soon enough. I just can’t wait. It’ll be at least 2 more years till we can buy a house and man, I just can’t wait. It makes me all giddy thinking about how I’ll be picking my (granite) counter tops, the paint, the brick, picking out the floor plans, the furniture! I just can’t wait. I’m envious of Jose and Elda, who are in the process of picking out floor plans for their house. They’ll start building in the summer I think.

I was looking around for a recipe for the TGIFridays mashed potatoes and I went through all these clam chowder and shrimp recipes and it made me want to visit California *swoons*. Monterrey Bay and San Fransisco to be exact. Two of my favorite places. We haven’t gone to Cali in a few years…it would be nice to go this summer. And then we could hit the flea markets and maybe find a few 80’s things too . I’ve actually behaved myself and haven’t bought anything from flea markets, garage sales, eBay, or anywhere else. I’ve been more into getting house stuff. I want to decorate a bit. But I so miss getting toys. But then my bedroom’s too damn full of stuff. Decisions, decisions .

Eenan may have caught that damn virus . He had a fever of 100.6 earlier and has a slight cough. I’m so not prepared for this…we don’t even have his cough medicine…those little Triaminic tongue tapes. Only thing he’ll take for coughs. I think the water’s ready…gonna go put him in the bath and get him ready for bed. Pray for my little guy, please .

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Hope everyone (who celebrates) had a Happy Easter :).

As for our weekend (man I really need to update more frequently!)…on Friday, while getting ready for when everyone got here (Jose, Elda and the kids were arriving that day), the mail got here and Sonia presented me with a package from Vic! I was so excited…my initial thought was, “I thought she was sending a thank-you card?” LOL. I frantically opened it and was so surprised to see 2 10″ Care Bears and 3 10″ Care Bear Cousins, Hello Kitty stickers, a cute bag that says ‘Visit España’ on it, a Rainbow Brite ‘Star Sprinkles DVD, cute pencils, some little parachute guys and little goodies for the kids, some Strawberry Gum Tape, a teeny Hello Kitty Plush, Rose Petal Palace rings, and finally, a letter . All that for helping her with Greymatter. She’s so sweet. I feel guilty for not sending anything to her when she hosted me, or helped me get my domain and all the other awesome stuff she’s done for me. Gotta send her a *cough* thank-you card, too .

I finished getting ready and a few seconds later, everyone got here. We went in and said hello and gathered around and talked. Noelia had come home the day before and had a bad, bad virus, probably the flu. Poor Angela caught it that Friday, so she was miserable all day. Then Saturday, poor Sammy ended up catching it. I’ve been Lysoling everything like crazy–I’m so scared the kids will get it. The fever accompanied by that flu, or whatever it is, gets really high and they can’t keep anything down, not even medicine.

All the kids naturally gravitate towards our bedroom since there’s a plethora of toys…so you can imagine the condition of the room. I left for about 20 minutes, and when I came back, the room was turned completely upside down. Natalie ended up getting stuck in the rungs of the bunk beds–which have no mattresses on them because we’re going to disassemble it and put/give it away. Jaylen’s little tool shed thing was completely taken apart…and I have no idea how they did that since you need to UNSCREW everything. Mary got them all to clean since I was about to lose it (I’d just cleaned earlier that day LOL). As for outside…the canopy of the swing is torn in half and the slide was separated from the rest of the swing set. 9 kids=madness!

We went to Yadira’s that night and just talked and laughed. Noelia invited Andy over so he could meet everyone and everybody liked him. I’m so happy for her . He treats her so well and she’s just really happy. It’s about time she found someone who suits her.

Mario got there from work that night and while everyone was in the breakfast nook I helped Yadira wash dishes and then I made some break-apart Easter cookies. It was a nice night. Oh yeah, and Eenan punched Jaylen in the face…but other than that, it was a nice night…

At the moment, I can’t remember much from Saturday but I doubt we (the kids and I) went anywhere. Oh yeah, no we didn’t go anywhere. Yazmin spent the night with us so we were here all day…she on the computer and I was cleaning and then making two pans of flan the rest of the day. We had a birthday party for Albert to go to and I was taking flan. The one I made for the party ended up breaking apart completely when I flipped it because I didn’t have my flan-pan (it’s at Maggie’s). I didn’t even bother flipping the one for “here” for Easter because I was afraid it would break too. I got ready and felt uncomfortable and “rolly” in everything I had so I just wore a Strawberry Shortcake t-shirt and jeans. I knew everyone would be all “fancy” but I was frustrated and couldn’t have cared less. On the way to the place we took a sharp turn and the cajeta split all over my leg. Niiiice! I was so embarrassed, but when we got there Mario said we took a sharp turn and it spilt on me, and not only that but he blamed the broken flan on the turn. I looked at him with an extremely thankful look on my face and he stayed outside with some of the guys and their wives and I stayed inside with Albert’s sister and wife. I drank a yummy wine cooler and then we went outside and joined the husbands. We all got our plates when the food was done and as soon as we sat back down, it started pouring. We ran inside and ate there. It turned out to be a nice night aside from the rain.

We got home at around 12-1am that night, so we were super tired Easter morning. We had our 6th Anniversary cuddle time and then I took a shower while he went out to get the fire ready for the bar-be-cue. We had a whole bunch of dyed eggs that needed stuffing and covering, so after I got out of the shower I took everything to Mary’s and got started. I only got to finish about 1 1/2 dozens, and the rest stayed without stuffing since we ran out of confetti. Sonia, Jaylen and I went to the Dollar General and Family Dollar stores and they were closed. H-E-B was closed for sure and so was Wal-Mart, so we didn’t even bother going. Andy’d come over to spend Easter with Noey and said that on his way over he saw people coming out of the other Family Dollar store, so Elda, Yazmin, Sonia and I went. Either they’d been open and we’d gotten there too late, or people were just stopping by and checking if it was open. We went to Joy Dollar, which was the only place open and found a whole bunch of cute, cheap stuff Elda needed for baskets and prizes for the egg hunt. I found confetti and some jumbo crayons and a coloring book since Jaylen’s basket didn’t have one and we came home.

When the food was finally done, we all ate then went outside to do the egg hunt and crack the eggs. Eenan started crying because he didn’t find an egg with a number on it (which means you get a prize) and Brandon gave him one since he found two…awww . There were prizes left, so even Jaylen got one. They had so much fun with the egg hunt and even more fun cracking the eggs on everyone. After that, we got all the kids in line to hit the egg-shaped pinata Annie brought. I quickly ran in to empty my other memory card and the darn thing wouldn’t erase the pictures because it was supposedly write-protected. Took forever, but I got it to work and I hear Mario yell, “Kids…get in line from smallest to tallest…Yajaira, you first.” The short jokes will never get old…

The kids opened their Easter baskets and were in love with everything in them. The main gift in Eenan’s basket was a Bionicle DVD and Jaylen got the Spongebob Squarepants movie. The boys got a basket from each of their Ninos (Godparents) and one from us. Since Jaylen has two sets of Ninos he got three baskets in total…so he had fun LOL. It was a really nice day. I loved that we all got to be together. I didn’t get to see Mom, John and Gramma though, so that was really depressing for me, but I got to talk to Mom and we’ll hopefully see Gramma on Thursday. Poor Mom had to work from 3-9 that day . Mario watched the Bionicle movie with the kids while I helped clean the mess outside. When I came in, he took a nap and the kids happily played with their toys. I don’t remember much from that night. I know we got together to have dinner, but I don’t remember what we ate, or who was here or what we did .

The next day the kids and I just spent the day here and I tried cleaning as much as I could. I tried spending as much time with everyone as I could, but since Eenan had school the next day I had to get him ready and I also had to make Mario’s lunch for work. The hectic-ness starts again!

Jaylen woke me up Monday night (early Tuesday morning) at around 2am asking for some milk. So I gave him a cup and straw and he finished it, then started rolling around in his bed groaning that his tummy hurt. I was so scared he caught the virus I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid he’d throw up. Then MY stomach started hurting. Needless to say, I didn’t fall asleep till almost 4am. After dropping Eenan off at school and making Mario breakfast and seeing him off to work, I took a nice, long nap with Jaylen. Then I cleaned. Mary called and said she was going grocery shopping and asked if I’d like to go along and I needed to so I said yes. Noelia would pick Eenan up. We came home and I helped Eenan with his homework, then everyone got together and we ate dinner. Andy came over and brought his little red-eared turtles with him (I think that’s what they’re called?). So now we have two little turtles named Jackie and Daniel…aww . Mario said he was going to kick my ass for taking more animals in but I told him he doesn’t take care of the other animals anyway (I DO) so I’d take care of them and he didn’t have to worry about it. The kids are excited…maybe it’ll heal the pain of losing their dear Goldie. Yes, I forgot to mention it above, but Goldie died on Friday, I think. I was going to change out his (her?) water and when Eenan passed by the tank, he yelled “Oh NO! Goldie’s DEAD!!” I ran over, and sure enough, he was floating sideways in the tank . He had been totally fine in the morning when Eenan fed him. His water wasn’t even cloudy. I think it’s because he needed a filter and stuff…and the man at Wal-Mart said all he needed was purified water. Grr. So anyway, I grabbed a little cardboard box and stuck him in it so we could bury him next to Hamtaro’s grave and Jaylen went crazy. After I taped up the box, he grabbed it away from me and just wailed that he wanted me to open the box and put Fishy back in his tank. He kept screaming, “Open it, Mama, open it!” I felt so bad and swallowed the lump creeping up my throat and told him we’d bury him and then he could visit him whenever he wants and take him flowers like they do to Hamtaro. That made him feel a little better so we went out there, buried him and they brought him little weeds and flowers LOL.

When I dropped Eenan off at school today he remembered it was Pet Day so I had to come back and get the turtles and gerbil and take them to his class. Jaylen woke up to help me LOL. Hopefully the animals are okay and not poked and prodded too much. I don’t think Ms. O. would let them mess with them too much anyway.

There were two other pets there: a teeny goldfish (with very cloudy water ) and an adorable Siberian hammy like Pecan. I would have taken Pecan but man, he’s a meanie! He’ll bite the kids for sure if they stick their fingers into the cage. I can barely feed the lil’ fucker without him trying to attack my hand .

Welp, gonna hang/fold clothes and then change out the animals’ sheddings. Then I’m going to watch Medium .

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