Author: Yajaira

Ever since my “big” events finished and all we had to worry about for the week was entertaining a delegation from Irapuato, I’ve been feeling a little more at ease, a little less stressed-out, thank goodness. It was about time, heh.

That’s given me more time to browse through eBay after I’ve tended to the girls and put them to bed. I recently got lucky on a few auctions. I get the “collecting” bug about once a year, and this is about the time it happened last year, too :P.

I was stalking a seller from California, who seemed to be selling her entire collection of 80’s plushes. She had all the UK Care Bears and the rare UK Popples. I scored the Chef Popple, which I’ve wanted for YEARS, and my very first UK Care Bear: Sea Friend Bear ^_^, both for amazing prices!

I also scored a few Yum Yums. I hardly collected these since they’re always so expensive. I bought the bunny around 2003 or so, then found Peppermint Kitty around 2008ish and hadn’t bought them since. I still kick myself in the butt for not taking the chance to buy Chuckle Chip Bear back during the All-City Garage Sale days, for $4. I didn’t buy him because he was kind of floppy and dirty, but now that I only see him for $40+, I regret not getting him =\. I am thrilled, however, that I found Lucky Lemon Lion and Goody Gumdrops Mouse for under $20 each! I also finally made my Yum Yums their own page after all these years!

I also got some Fluppy Dog hats. I think they’re the Fluppy Puppy hats. I’m confused as to whether those are the hats they came with or you had to buy them separately back then? Who knows. I only got them because they were a steal, heh.

Anyway, I spent time with the girls as much as I could Monday and Tuesday, because Wednesday and Thursday I knew I’d be working late. It isn’t often that I do work late, but the girls fall apart when I do have to, no joke. They did much better this time, but I still can’t help but feel guilty =\.

Alaethia, Emily and Jaylen had Open House at their schools on Tuesday evening. Their dad joined us. First to the girls’ school, where they had great things to say about both. It was a quick visit with Emily’s teacher. We reminisced about how fast time flies since it’s been 2 years since he was Alaethia’s teacher, too.

We went to Jay’s school next and his teachers all had great things to say about him, too. Well, I can’t say “all” because there were a couple we didn’t see. I got to see Norma and we chit-chatted a bit. She told me Jaylen’s math teacher is a little on the mean side and we figured that was why he was having trouble asking about this darn science project he has in his Pre-AP class. But when we started talking with the teacher we joked around with him and got all the info we needed about the project. We did some already, now that he’s on Spring Break, so I’m hoping his father will help with the last few things he’s missing. He says he forgot that part at the house, so we’ll see.

The delegation had 2 gentlemen that had joined us before back in 2012. We took them on the tour back then, too. 3 new gentlemen joined this time.

We had breakfast at the Country Club the first morning (yellow-egg ham & cheese omelets–which I shouldn’t have had =\), where I had to leave abruptly and join Laura at Latina Hope, the program we’re spearheading, along with Eduardo. We were teaching a jewelry-making class and Mrs. Thelma was teaching wreath-making. We joined her class the first session and I have to say, I am in love. Like I need another hobby!

I made this burlap wreath for Dina :). I had originally wanted to make it in the shape of an actual sunflower, but I couldn’t find yellow mesh at all when I went. Must be because of Easter.

I met the group back at the Rotary Club, where there was a very informative presentation about Quinta Mazatlan. We had lunch, then headed to the school district’s Central Office where we had another informative meeting. I love being “in the loop” heh.

We had dinner at House.Wine. after that. I had THEE BEST salmon pasta with garlic caper sauce. I wish I had that recipe!

(I just got hungry again.)

It was a fantastic evening. The live music was great and the men kept us laughing all night with their jokes. They’re so down to earth!

The next morning Jessica helped me get ready for a breakfast I had put together at the Incubator. Koko’s was catering, there was Shipley’s coffee and the breakfast was in the gallery with a few of the artists, the delegation and some of the committee. I’m glad Jessica was there to help me and eat breakfast with me. (Also: hardly anything I ate those 2 days were things on my low-cholesterol menu. Oops.)

We had a tour at the STC medical building, lunch at the Spanish Room with Eduardo, and then a meeting at MEDC. And then we said our goodbyes and my boss and I headed to the office where he needed to finalize some things for a trip they were having the next day and I had work bills to pay. I also had to turn in my absence sheet because I promised the girls I’d take some days off to spend with them during Spring Break. I had been feeling really overwhelmed and stressed about work, I really couldn’t even tell you why, but I really do enjoy what I do ^_^.

We went to Eenan’s Open House next. He was extremely nervous about it, as he ended up with a 33 in his Spanish class. Yes. A 33. I was upset at first, but I kept calm and didn’t explode, especially because I could see just how afraid he was. I also couldn’t be too mad about it because his core-subject teachers spoke the world about him and he had great grades. I applaud him considering he’s also in Pre-AP classes. So we spoke to the Spanish teacher, and him, and hopefully he’ll do better this semester. I’m sure he will :).

We went to his counselor’s office to get access to his grades from home. On the way back home we had a deep conversation about religion and beliefs. About how his dad is an atheist (he has been since we met in high school, although around 2010 when he served me with divorce papers and wanted people’s attention and pity, he was as holy and Catholic as they come, posting verses and whatnot on Facebook, grrr) and it bothers Eenan that he insults people’s beliefs. We talked about our own beliefs. Then we got further into religion and…hypocrites. I’m glad I can have these conversations with them. I hope they can always talk with me freely about anything that’s on their minds.

Jessica and I went to the City Health Fair on Friday morning, after we were done with all our morning work. I wanted a second opinion, I guess you can say, about my cholesterol, but considering my diet the 2 previous days, I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference :(. I did get my BMI done and it says I have 6 lbs. to lose to be at my ideal weight for my height. I’ll take it, ’cause I seriously thought it was more >_<. Dina, Briana and the kids came down to visit starting Friday evening, which means we went into turbo-cleaning mode, heh, and we put up some wall decor we'd been putting off. (And by "we", I mean Jorge :p). [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Wall stuffs ^_^"][/caption]

Javi came over, too, and we all sat around with the kids and spent time together and laughed and used our electronics. It’s always great having them over.

Dina took the boys to the movies on Saturday morning. Of course my teenager chose to stay home LOL. While they were out, Emily and I went to get groceries and then all us girls went to Fantasyland Skate Center for a party Briana had invited us to. Needless to say, the girls were all terrified, poor things. They only went around the rink once and said NO MORE.

We had a good time anyway.

We chilled out the rest of the evening. Once the kiddos had all passed out we enjoyed some wine my love bought for us. It’s some Diva brand, I think, and it was a pineapple-coconut moscato. OMG. It was heaven.

I woke up and made wheat pancakes for everyone.

They were so tasty. I’m so glad there are some leftover, heh.

We spent the day lazying around with the kids and then Dina, Briana and the kids left. We lazied some more and it’s such a relief to know neither the kids nor I have to go anywhere tomorrow. Unfortunately my love works tomorrow :(, but I plan to be a good girl and clean the house and spend time with the kiddos. I’ve been waiting for this downtime all year! 😀

I’ve been telling myself for months that I need to start eating better.

There was always an excuse though: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, my events being back-to-back at work and not having time to eat better, selling (and eating) Girl Scout cookies. I vowed to myself that after the whole Girl Scout cookie thing and after February 16th, the date of my last major event, I would start eating better and jogging again. But February 16th and then the 17th came and I continued to eat crappily.

The girls were sick the week of February 7th so I took them in to the doctor. I was already there, so I figured I’d go in to get help with my acne again.

That’s a whole other story, but to summarize: I was on birth control since I was 17 years old, after having Eenan. I got my tubes tied after I had Emily on February 2009 at the age of 27. About 6 months later, after not being on any kind of birth control, I started getting acne and about 2010 (combined with the stress of the divorce and fighting for my kids) my face erupted like never before. It was awful. So in 2011 when I couldn’t take it anymore my doctor put me on Minocycline, an oral antibiotic, plus pledgets and a topical antibiotic. My face cleared up a lot, thank God, but in 2013 I must have become immune because it stopped working. So I changed my eating habits, drank more water, etc. and nothing seemed to help.

So I went in with the girls that day and my doc went ahead and did my yearly physical while I was there, plus blood work. When I had picked the girls up I’d had 4 Thin Mints with Emily (grrr), so I reminded the girls at the office that my sugar might be a little higher due to that, and being checked after lunch. Dr. Guzman prescribed birth control to help with my acne, and we went on our way.

Fast forward to 1 1/2 weeks later and Laura calls me on the 19th at 3pm that they need me to go in. That always means that something came back abnormal on the results. She tells me that my cholesterol is super high and they need to see me. So in I go. My cholesterol total was at almost 400 and my “bad” cholesterol was at 300. Not good. I even reminded all the girls that I’d had those Thin Mints that day before my blood work was taken but Dr. Guzman somberly said no, this was something that was developing for a while. She said I was thin, healthy overall so she was blaming my crappy genetics. (My first thought was Damn you, Mother!!)

She put me on a strict diet and basically told me to stick to the produce section of HEB, fish and chicken. That’s it. She also gave me a list of names that were a creative cover-up for high cholesterol on “Fat Free” or “No Trans Fat” packages. The first thing I thought was, “OMG. No cheese. No cookies. No butter. No BACON!”

Oh yeah, and she also prescribed Lipitor. Yup. I tried getting out of it by telling her I would cure myself by eating better and exercising (like I did back in 2008 with the diabetes) but she said no way; it was too high and I needed to take the pill. It really sucks. I had a bit of a hard time dealing with it for a few days.

It’s a pretty known fact that I love food. My Facebook and Instagram streams are probably 70% pics of food that I make, or food that I’m eating at restaurants. I just love food. The expression “sad” is an understatement for how I feel about having to make grand changes in the way I eat.

There’s no better way to kick your ass into gear than being told you have extremely high cholesterol. So my meals went from:

(FYI, Mambo Seafood’s service SUCKS. Jessica and I were 30 minutes late to work and I never got my cocktail sauce!!)

To this:

I got that hummus recipe from Pinterest, but instead of using white beans used the traditional chick peas and OMG. Seriously the BEST hummus I’ve ever had! I just wish I could find a good, healthy, low-cholesterol store-bought pita bread or a recipe for a good one. It wasn’t bad with celery at all. Jorge wasn’t too fond of it. He did the whole *aherk* thing, so boo LOL. More for me!

So it’s not too bad, but man I miss my cheese. And bacon. And beer brats. Waah.

I’ll get over it, and maybe, hopefully used to it. I thought of food all the time before, and now it’s even worse. Before I eat anything I research it. I research my recipes for the day. I have so much to re-learn. And it sucks to be surrounded by food at work (donuts, chocolate chip cookies from Jason’s Deli, grapefruits that I can’t have because it clashes with my medication, etc.). I seriously felt like this on Friday:

I almost resent and detest people as I see them stuffing delicious food in their mouth, but I have to pep-talk myself into not cursing them 🙁 . Jorge is certain that my test results were wonky and incorrect, but I don’t know. I was eating badly. And then I was doing the Keto diet and stopped suddenly and started stuffing my face with carbs, so maybe that had something to do with it? It’s been almost a year since I’d started Keto. I started after my birthday in April and stopped around July 4th. So who knows. I wasn’t going hardcore or anything with the red meats and say, Bulletproof (butter in my) coffee. I’ll have to ask next month when I go in for a follow-up.

Wish me luck on this new journey!! I kind of feel like I’m damned, but by golly, I WILL get over this darn thing! I will get off the pill!

It’s 1:40am…and I have to work tomorrow. We’ve had events back-to-back and I’m just so beat. I had these visions of sleeping in Saturday morning and just lazy around for once because I deserve it dammit, but I have to work.

I was supposed to meet all the co-workers at Cheddar’s for a reunion with Jeramie and I didn’t get out early enough so I missed it :(. Which is why I wanted to stay and work yesterday but we didn’t. I actually felt like being social for once and the kids are at their other parents’ houses so I wouldn’t feel guilty about it either. I just feel mopey and wanted to whine.

Jorge has heard it all already =/. He’s been supportive and sweet; served me a glass of wine and ordered our favorite flatbread pizza and put a movie on. “Wolf of Wall Street” or whatever it”s called.

But then, as I shoved pizza in my mouth and there was a gangly, tall, naked woman every 5 seconds on the screen I was reminded about how pudgy I feel after eating Girl Scout cookies and other various carbs non-stop the last 2 days. Bleh. I guess I better quit stalling and go to sleep.

I can’t wait till this Wednesday 🙁