Category: Crafts

Test Time

At school updating again. Kind of funny I update more at school than I do at home, heh. We’ve got 10 minutes before Mrs. C-R picks up the rest of the study guides from the rest of the class. It was hard. We started it yesterday and I finished the rest of it at home…took me a pitiful hour and a half! When we came back today though, I was relieved to find out I’m not the only one having trouble with it. I wonder how many I missed?

Since I got done with the study guide at home, I sat with Mrs. C-R at her desk and she gave me a little tutorial on a graphics program (that came with Word and I don’t remember). She made such awesome stuff and gave me the names of some sites to get nice backgrounds off of. I can’t wait to get started. I want to make some really nice pictures to hang up on our walls. Cuate and Mario moved the weight bench out yesterday so now we actually have some empty space in the living room (yep, it was in the living room; total eyesore!). Since the weight bench isn’t there, now that huge, unfinshed closet isn’t as masked as it used to be…so I really need to buy some nice fabric to make a long, long curtain. I hope I can find something with squares in the colors navy blue, baby blue, orange and green. Those colors really look nice together. Mario didn’t believe me until I showed him .

Speaking of Cuate, Mario had him do this HUGE tattoo on his back. I’ll try and get some pictures up. It’s a tat of a cross in memory of Anthony, his cousin who passed away when he was 13 from cancer.

Just got done with Chapter 10’s key terms. Our last chapter, eek! We have our exam on Tuesday. I’m SO glad it isn’t set for Monday since that’s when Eenan starts school and I have no idea how that’s gonna go. I think I’ll wake him up whenever I wake up (which’ll now have to be 6 and not 6:20 ) and get us both ready. Hopefully,we’ll be ready by 7:15 so I can drop him off, meet with the teacher and so forth, then leave for school and hopefully not be late.

We have so much to do this weekend. Eenan and I need haircuts, we need to exchange the clothes that fit him too big (of course, he’s short like his mama). We need to get him a few more pairs of clothes and I forget what else.

I volunteered John to babysit during the wedding, which he doesn’t mind since we’ll be paying him for. I can’t imagine being out with the kids at a formal occassion like that for a few hours–they’ll go stir crazy and I can already see them running amuck around the hall, and I can see Jaylen screaming his head off and hiding under the table . It’s getting harder and harder to go out in public with them–sad to say, but it’s true. I had a horrible time on Tuesday when I took John to his follow-up appointment at the doctor’s. And I thought they’d get better as they got older. Boy was I wrong .

Oh gosh, I totally forgot to call the doctor’s office to set up an appointment for Eenan’s 6 year physical…brb.

K…it’s set for 6:30. Gotta get his vaccines, if he needs them, before they don’t let him into school.

Alrighty, done babbling. I’m on my last break and I don’t think we’re gonna get to finish this chapter and our test’s on Tuesday!!

(more…)

3 Day Weekend

I had a great day on Thursday. Maybe it was just that I was uberly excited about having a 3-day weekend, but that day was radiating with goodness.

I had an assload of trouble with my assignment that day–which sucked, because I HATE having a hard time with anything. Usually, everyone’s asking help from me, but that day I was asking help from Romeo and Kimberly, who are sweeties and helped me figure everything out (and then I helped everyone else figure it out LOL). I now understand fill-in fields and Ref Fields in Word. I thought I understood them when we were doing the tutorial with Mrs. C-R, but I was obviously wrong! But other than that, my day was awesome.

I took my tower in and Mrs. C-R installed Word 2003 for me. How freaking awesome is that?? I was so happy about it, since I had ancient Word 1997 on my computer. I love Word Bookworm. You can do so many things with this version. I went crazy yesterday saving all the bookmarked pages of my favorite Crafts to Word, for easy viewing. Before, if I saved any, I’d save only the text in Notepad, which sucks because you usually need a visual reference. I just love it .

Ricci treated me to Stars after school and then we chilled out at my house for a while. Mario had the day off and was being a total…prick is the best word I can think of at the moment. I finally snapped at him after I’d had enough (and had been embarrassed enough) and he behaved himself .

I wire-tied the computer wires together and made the back of the desk all nice. Before, if we dropped something back there we’d find it easily since it always landed in the nest of wires. Now, something will definitely break if it falls back there since the wires are nice and tidy.

Hamster That night, I went around feeding all of my pets and found it a bit strange that Pecan didn’t start furiously munching on his cage when he heard me rustling through the bags of food. I got a handful of Hamster food, opened his cage and he still didn’t run up and try to bite my hand off. After searching around his cage, I found him in the corner, dead . My poor little old guy. We’ve had him for over 2 years, and the life span of a Siberian Hamster is only 3 years . I scooped him into my hand and sadly stroked his fur. I sorrowfully tell John, who was in shock that Pecan died, “Well, at least I can touch him now.”

John dramatically yelled at the ceiling, “Why him?? Why not me???” He sure knows how to make light of a situation LOL.

I felt so bad; I even cried a little. I’d just been telling Ricci earlier that day about Pecan, my peace offering from Mario. I’ll miss the little, evil guy . I’m never, ever getting a Siberian Hamster, as cute as they are, again. They just don’t live long enough *cries*.

I went down Main Street in McAllen with Noelia and the boys on Friday. She was looking for some white shoes and she wanted to get some nice shirts for the boys, since we’re trying to convince Mario to take a family portrait. The boys are getting older and we don’t have one family portrait.

Anyway, I saw so many nice things in the little shops. There are some really cute beaded shoes I want to go back for and a whole bunch of cute shirts. Noelia even bought some backpacks for the boys: a Spongebob one for Jaylen for $2.99 and a Yu-gi-oh one for Eenan for $1.99!

After we got home I started writing Eenan’s name on all his school supplies and then at 6:30 we went to the Watermelon Feed at Eenan’s school. I found out who is new teacher is and they were passing out supply lists (which I already had—we’re almost done with buying his supplies!). We had a few watermelon slices and Eenan had a blast playing with Sammy, Brandon and Jaylen on the playground. We saw Ms. Ortiz, Eenan’s kinder teacher and her new baby, who has the most gorgeous blue eyes, ever!

I went to JCPenny with Mary yesterday. She took Eenan shopping for some school clothes. The Arizona brand was having a sale where you buy something at regular price (which, in some cases, were already on sale) and you got a 2nd at a dollar. She got him two nice dressy shirts, 3 cute T-shirts, 2 pairs of jeans and a pair of shorts. She also got Jaylen two dinosaur T-shirts and spent $104! I think that’s pretty darn good. We just need to get Eenan his shoes, a few more shirts and some more jeans (he’s still got lots of good shorts for last year) and he’ll be all set for 1st grade .

Later that day we went to visit Mario’s grandma and then went to a party at the “new” Gorilla George’s. It’s now called Jagz, and it now SUCKS. Before, you’d pay for each pizza, and depending on which package you ordered, you’d get so many bracelets for the kids to ride the rides all day. Now, they have to pay up to $1.50 PER RIDE. It’s like Mr. Gatti’s, where you put X amount of money on a card and they swipe it at each ride. What parent wants to go to a party and spend y’know? They also individually count each adult and child, which means you’re paying even more. THEN, the darn rides eat up double the money it costs to ride, which is completely unfair. There’s workers floating about, but they’re wearing civilian clothing, not a uniform, so you can’t tell them apart and ask them to check the machines and give you your money back. I think it’s really crappy. It’s safe to say we won’t ever have a party there for the kids scared the crap out of me because Jorge and Hiram were acting weird when she asked about a new girl at work? Well, there definitely is a new cashier and we just find it strange and unsettling that they were acting so nervous when she asked. She asked how things were going for me at school and after telling her how great it’s been she got really excited and said she’d love to go. For some reason though, Jorge doesn’t want her to go. He says the tuition, which is $11,850 for 9 months (and isn’t bad because it’s a private college), is the same as “a car”, and didn’t even want to hear about it when she started telling him. I wish she could go. God knows he makes enough money to afford the monthly tuition charge. But I don’t know; I feel so bad for her. I’m just glad Mario’s so supportive.

Plans for today include wasting away in front of the computer for a few hours, making 2 CDs Mario wants, making a copy of my ROM’s for my friend Joe, then laundry, mopping, and trying to put together Eenan’s darn portable closet, which took a crap for the 4th time .

Aw. I’m listening to “I’ll Be” by Edwin McCain and I miss Mario terribly. It’s going to be one of Chris and Nancy’s wedding songs. They get married next Saturday. How exciting! I need to get my hair did .

(more…)

Father’s Day ’05 & Impatience

I’m so bad at updating sometimes. I get so lazy and have no desire to be online. Which can be good, I guess, but then I get pissed at myself because I have so much to write about and I just *have* to write about everything don’tcha know? Anyway…

Mario worked Thursday and got Friday off instead. We spent a day in town. I felt awful that I had no $$ to get Mario a gift for Father’s Day . We went to JCPenny to get his dad some gifts from us and Mom and he got himself some shorts and a shirt, which he said was the Father’s Day gift from me, but it’s NOT. That’s one of the reasons I’m in a hurry to go to school and get a job–so I can buy him stuff myself. That’s what I loved about working…it was so nice having money and buying him stuff whenever I wanted. It was nice surprising him and not having to ask for money when a holiday or special occassion comes around and I want to get him a gift .

I got a cute, teal blouse when we were there. I wore it the next day when Mary, Noelia and I went to Noelia’s friend, Vinny’s, baby shower. She’s having a boy and just looks so cute all pregnant . It seemed like almost every woman there was pregnant or had a newborn in her arms. My biological clock sensed that and automatically screamed, “You must have a baby soooon!” Even Mary told me, “Andale, Yajaira!” (C’mon, Yajaira!) and then later Vinny’s aunt said it, too. But I need to keep pressing “snooze” on that darn clock and make myself wait till I get my license, go to school, get a job and then get our house. Once we get our house, then and only then will we try.

I felt a little uncomfortable in my clothes since I hadn’t worn a skirt in forever. I was also afraid the tire around my waist was going to pop out when I sat down . It boosted my confidence when a girl Mary was talking to said, “She doesn’t look like she has kids!?”, when Mary brought up that I was her daughter-in-law and that she had two grandsons. I needed to hear that LOL. That’s another thing, before I even think of having another kid I need to get in shape. The last thing I need is to get pregnant and gain even MORE weight and have a harder time losing it. Ugh, I don’t even want to think about that LOL.

Father’s Day was alright. The kids made a little trinket-box-type thing and a key rack for Mario and Big Mario. It was Mary’s idea . The kids painted them and they looked really cute. I cleaned up that morning and then later we went to Yadira’s where we were going to have lunch. Mary made everything, as usual. I felt horrible later that afternoon because she felt bad. She’d done so much for everyone, cooked all the food on her own, and a few people were a bit unappreciative .

That morning we thought Daniel (the turtle) had become a father LOL. I thought, ‘How appropriate; on Father’s Day!’. We found these little white balls that were in clusters in the water and we automatically thought they were eggs. I got some info online and could find NO pictures of Red-eared slider eggs so I followed the incubation instructions and incubated them. Later, I did find some info and pictures on the eggs and realized they were too small to be eggs. I think I may have been incubating semen .

Since we have the 20 gallon tank now and are still turtle-sitting Sammy and Brandon’s turtles, Jackie and Daniel couldn’t bask properly. The big turtles kept knocking them off or, more annoyingly, shifting all the stacked up lava rocks and spreading them across the tank. Mario got some plexi glass and glued it to the tank to make a sort of ‘dam’. We filled up the seperated part with rocks (I even found some really pretty ones at Family Dollar!) and then put lava rocks on top for them to bask. I went to Big Mario’s stash of bricks and rocks and found even more lava rocks–heavier and hello, they were FREE! We spent $10 for a bag of lava rocks at Pet Smart, and they’re really light so the turtles can easily push them. After boiling all the rocks and stones, I stacked them up like stairs so the turtles could get to the dam easily.

Basking turtles

It took them a while to get used to it, especially Jackie. She kept biting at the rocks LOL.

Went to visit Mom last night with John and the boys. Didn’t go as expected. There was arguing–as usual. Will probably vent about it privately later on. Gah.

I should get back to cleaning. I’m getting junk together to have yet another garage sale. I REALLY need to go through my drawers and closets and I’m dreading that . I also need to get more info online about the schools I’m thinking of going to. I think I already know where I want to go. John may go to the same one and we can go together. We’re either going July 25 or September 6. I really hope everything goes as planned. I’m becoming impatient–it feels as though I’ve put life on hold. Truth of the matter is, I couldn’t fathom anyone else raising my kids, which is WHY I actually HAVE put life on hold. But it’s time to get it back on track again. I KNOW I can do this.

[edit] 3:08pm. I can’t find my diploma ANYWHERE!!! I was about to cry and hyperventilate earlier. I don’t know what happened to it. I had it on the very top shelf with my Salutatorian plaque and all the school info and my scholarship (gotta call and check if that’s still good) and it’s not there . I was frantically looking for it and John says, “Aww, bless your little determined heart.” Grr. . I need to call the school like, 5 minutes ago, and ask if I can get a new one. I can’t believe it’s lost!! [/edit]

[edit again] 3:48pm. Just called my old school. I can either get a copy for free or a new one for $8 and I’m probably going to just get the new one. I hope they have a new style for it, too. The old one looked FAKE…it had a pinkish little owl printed on it (which was our mascot–don’t laugh!). I remember I took it with me for a job I was after a few years ago and the lady looked at me like, “You’re kidding, right?” when I presented the diploma LOL. The lady said she’d look me up and see if she can find my file. That scares me a little…”if” she can find it?? Anyway, hopefully all will be well. I also called to the College itself and got the info for admissions and financial aide. I feel so nervous. I have so much to do in the next few weeks: get my license, replace my diploma, set up an appointment with the school for both John and I to check if we qualify for financial aide, not go insane!! I’ve been out of school for way too long; this seems so overwhelming!! [/edit]

(more…)