Category: Decorating

I’m so sad. I was surfing through Pink is the New Blog and found out that Rev Run and his wife, Justine’s, newborn babygirl died shortly after birth via C-section. She came early and apparently suffered from omphalocele, a condition where the organs are outside of the body :(.

This is just devastating! Their whole new season was documenting the pregnancy of this baby; what will happen now? The cameras were there when they found out she had this defect and later died. I just can’t believe this happened :*(. Shouldn’t an AFP, amniocentesis or Ultrasound detect this type of defect????

Now I’m paranoid. I know I shouldn’t be worrying myself sick for nothing, but the maternal alarms go off at the drop of a dime when I hear about things like this. I’m especially paranoid because of my pregnancy with Jaylen but I’m so glad this pregnancy has been okay so far. I’m praying it stays that way.

Changing the subject, the Republicans are doing a great job with the gas prices–you know, for exchange of votes to stay in charge. We’re seeing gas prices anywhere from $2.09 to $2.12–and if you get gas at Circle K (Citgo) with their prepaid card, you get 3 cents off each gallon! How nice of those bastards (Reps) to conveniently knock down prices by .65 cents in two weeks. Weren’t we just in some kind of gas slump a while ago? Hmm…

Let’s see…as for this past week, because once again it’s been exactly a week since I’ve updated, lots has happened. I’ll try to turbo-summarize, although you know how hard it is for me to do so.

We got together for Isaiah’s birthday on Sunday. We had pizza and salad. We all sat around chatting for a while and then I moped around because I had to go to Target to get a few things and I didn’t want to drive (like a shower curtain rod since our other one wasn’t a curtain rod but a PVC Pipe–ghetto, yes and we never bothered to change it until it almost fell on me).

I ended up getting the curtain rod and 5-shelf bookcase for the kids that was on sale for $26. I still had all their books in boxes in our bedroom and it was quite unsightly. Mario needed a light for work, I needed refils for my Schick razor and the kids needed more cough medicine (Triaminic tongue strips)–so yeah, I spent more than I initially thought I would.

On the way home from Target, I get a call from Mario that he and Eenan were at Chris and Nancy’s, so for Jaylen and I to stop by after we dropped the moms and purchases off at home.

The kids were so well behaved that night; I was so proud. They did have a few moments where Nancy and I were talking and we’d hear a screech once in a while, but they’d quickly quiet down when told to do so. They were in her bedroom (where Nancy let them watch TV) and Zeus, their Chihuahua, was in there so they were really happy.

We ate (the men were bar-b-q’ing outside) and then watched Desperate Housewives. God, I love that show! Too bad I have to wait a whole week before another episode!

Mother had one of her dreaded 3-hour appointments at the Endochrinologist on Monday morning. I dropped the kids off, made Mario breakfast and saw him off to work, and then Matthew got here just in time for us to leave. It was super hot inside the office and Matthew hates feeling sweaty so I took him outside where it was actually nice and cool due to the rain and cool front that had rolled in overnight. All the benches that were available were sunny, so I asked a girl if I could share her seat and she said yes. Turned out that she was a girl I new who also has her kids in the same school Eenan & Jaylen go to. I would see her around and never thought I’d have anything in common with her–we were too different. She was the type of young mom who looked like she was a princess at home–nicely dressed from A.M. to P.M. and didn’t seem like she would do much at home just from her appearance. I’ve always had that bad habit, where I judge people by their looks; something I hate myself for. I sadly get this horrible trait from my mother.

As I spoke to the girl I realized we had so much in common, from the ages of our kids, to our ages, to things we liked. We even lived next door to each other for 3 years and didn’t even know it. And she’s a great mom–when Matthew started fussing she asked to hold him and put him to sleep in less than a minute. That’ll teach me to judge a book by it’s cover. That’s one of my New Year’s Resolutions for ’07–to stop judging people. It doesn’t hurt to start your resolutions early.

Mary had to do me the favor of calling Sonia for me that day to pick the kids up. There was no way I was going to make it home on time to pick them up. Thankfully John was awake so she left them with him. By the time we got home they were both done with their homework.

Monday was a stressful day for me, especially since I started getting sick (sore throat) and had all the kids to take care of that day.

I didn’t have Matthew on Tuesday, but I did have Brianna. At least she was on her best behavior. I had a chance to finish putting stuff away in the living room closet and freed up a lot of space around here. I was washing dishes around 7pm when Jason finally decided to pick up Brianna. I noticed he was in his regular clothes so I made a sarcastic remark about how late they let them out of work and it turns out he was off but had Seth (his nephew) with him all day. Um, hello? And you couldn’t pick up Brianna? I would have been in a much worse mood but like I said before, Brianna was behaving so I wasn’t in a hurry to push her out the door.

Wednesday was a pretty normal day, except that my cold was getting worse and I felt so tired. I left a note on my door (Sleeping: come back at 11:00), because if I didn’t mother would be knocking till someone opened the door. Yes, that’s one of the bad things about living next door to your mother and in-laws. My in-laws at least get the point; Mom, on the other hand, does not.

I had a hard time sleeping that night due to my horrible sore throat, so I felt really tired when I woke up on Thursday morning. I dropped the kids off and then ate breakfast so I could be ready for when Matthew got here. That child was fussy all day and does NOT like to be left sitting or laying down–he MUST be carried! I told him I was sorry, but in my house we don’t have babies stuck to our hip. I let him cry it out a few times (because I did have to pee a few times during the day) and he finally fell asleep once. Brianna was a little bad-behaved that day and kept bothering Matthew, even while he was sleeping. She was picked up on time that day, earlier even, so I was glad for that.

Big Mario bar-b-q’d that day so I wouldn’t have to cook–yay! We had pork ribs, though half the people eating thought it was beef, but I didn’t have the packaging anymore so I had no idea what it was, I just knew it was meat LOL. Mario got home really early that day so we ate and then stayed up watching TV. I recorded Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty–gotta watch those soon!

I dropped the kids off extra early on Friday, since they had a Jamaica (Fall Festival) that day. They treat the kids who’ve been well behaved all 6 weeks, and both my boys were attending :). I gave them $1.50 each for snacks that they’d announced they were going to sell. I’ve learned not to give them any more, especially Eenan who’s easily conned out of his money. They were both excited to go, especially Jaylen. For the first time ever he was jumping around in class. Both his teachers were surprised and said, “What a miracle!” because he’s usually so quiet LOL.

I came back home and napped with Mario till I felt him get up at 10:30. I tossed and turned for a while longer and then got up. He was nowhere to be found. At exactly 11:00 he knocks on the door. Apparently he was going to surprise me with a cinnamon roll from Whataburger but as soon as he locked the door he realized he’d forgotten his keys and didn’t want to wake me so he waited…aww :). Since they weren’t serving breakfast anywhere anymore we stopped by McDonalds’s (yes, unfortunately we don’t have much of a choice–I can’t wait till Burger King’s finished being built!) and got cheeseburgers and fries. Then we picked up the kiddos and went to Mario’s work to pick up his paycheck. It’s been so slow at work, like there’s no work whatsoever, that he got one of the smallest paychecks so far this year. And we had our darn car payment! After paying all the bills, getting the windshield sticker for the truck, picking up a pizza for the kids (it’s tradition to go out to eat when he gets paid) and renting just one movie we’re left with almost nothing. It’s depressing. Thankfully we filled up both vehicles with gas and have a good amount of groceries. We just gotta pinch pennies when it comes to everything else. *cries*

We sat outside in the cool air (doused in Off since there’s mosquitoes galore!) and watched our turtles get some exercise in the kiddie pool while the cats tried batting at them with their paws. So cute! Mario left to Chris’ for a while and the kids watched Cartoon Network (they get so excited on Fridays) so I watched America’s Next Top Model while eating a slice of heaven Hershey’s Sundae Pie. Mario got back in an hour and we put the kids’ bookcase together. Okay, he put it together, I just made sure nothing fell apart on top of him.

He got us cinnamon rolls from Whataburger (it was only $3.00–we’re obsessed) and we watched Stick It, which was a pretty cute movie. Too bad I couldn’t enjoy my roll since my cough was coming on full-force and I felt nauseous because of my sore throat. I desperately searched for the print-out of safe medicines to take during pregnancy that the doctor gave me. Thankfully, the cough medicine I got for the kids (Dimetapp DM) was on the list so I had some of that and slept wonderfully. I’m not feeling too shitty today, thank goodness, since we have a baby shower to go to.

Then I plan to veg out on the couch, get better and watch all the shows my DVDr’s recorded for me.

First things first: I wanted to ask you guys, my readers, if adding an e-mail notification script for comments and e-mail subscription for when I actually update my blog would come in handy for you? I don’t want to go through the trouble if nobody’s going to use it, or worse yet, if you do and it annoys you LOL. Let me know, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Man, Channel 4 wasn’t lying when they said there’d be thunderstorms all night. Mario and I fell asleep around 11:30 pm, only after joking around, being annoying to eachother and joking about how our apartment was going to end up like the Winchester House since we have windows all over the house, but they’re all covered up because of construction and remodeling. He was also half-joking that I didn’t care about his well-being since he has a sore throat and I refused to sleep without the fan. I wasn’t going to suffer like the night before–I ended up having to sleep in the living room with the fan on full blast since I was sweating up a storm (and yes, the central air was on). It’s just my pregnancy making me get hot flashes.

Anyway, I fell asleep feeling cool and relaxed (I’m not a bitch I swear, I pointed the fan to my feet so Mario wouldn’t feel it on his face) and woke up in a startled jolt around 2:15 to crashing thunder. Since I’m a very light sleeper, every single thunder would wake me up and it didn’t help that my eyelids must be paper thin since I could see the lightning with my eyes closed O_o. I kept an ear out for the kids since I knew at least one of them would wake up scared half to death from the thunder. Sure enough around 3am Eenan tip-toed into the room and whispered, “Mama, I can’t sleep because of the thunder,” and proceeds to climb over me to sleep between Mario and me. We hardly had any space to move around, but I felt so bad for him I let him stay. He’s always been terrified of thunder. Jaylen on the other hand is such a heavy sleeper he slept through the whole thing! Thank goodness, too. I didn’t know where he’d fit on the bed!

As for the weekend, Mario and I spent all of Friday running errands like crazy. Elda watches Matthew on Fridays so I only had Brianna, but Mom watched her while we did everything we needed to do.

We had to rush to Home Depot, again, before we picked up Jaylen and Brianna to get some trim for the doors, 1/6 planks for the frames of the hallway entrance and the kids’ closets, paint, nail-gun nails, another door-knob, and I forget what other miscellaneous things we needed. Total cost: $260. Ho-lee-shit. Needless to say, we won’t be using that credit card anymore, no matter how much we “have left” on it.

Mario was a total turd to me that day. He was annoyed from the minute he woke up and kept taking it out on me, especially at Home Depot. He kept rushing me about adding measurements faster for the wood and kept stomping and huffing and being a big baby.

We got home on time to pick up the kids and left Brianna with my mom while Jaylen, Mario and I went to Target to get the games we’d promised the kids for good behavior. Jaylen picked out his, we got the one Eenan wanted and I whined about how I wasn’t going to be able to buy the amazing $104 4-in-1 crib I wanted from Target. I was going to use the credit card, but I restrained myself and we just left (we’re trying to get our credit cards paid off). Mario promised we’d get all the stuff we needed, no matter how much it cost. It just pained me that I could have saved $30 on it!

We picked up Eenan and Brandon, where Mario finally got on my nerves and I cried and told him off. I felt so embarrassed crying at school (hopefully nobody noticed) but I was so fed up and frustrated. He finally got the point and shut up.

Mom stayed with Eenan and the other kids while we deposited money at the bank, picked up a Miter Saw my dad-in-law was borrowing from his friend Ricky, bought some pork ribs for Mario and his dad to bar-b-q, then stopped by at Stars where I picked up a burger since I hadn’t eaten since 10am and was starving. When we get home Mario made himself some Jalapeño Tuna and said he didn’t get a burger since he didn’t want to waste money. I rolled my eyes, since he constantly buys cigarettes and buys beer every-so-often. He did every little thing he could that day to upset me and it didn’t stop later on while we were outside with our parents during the bar-b-q. I could have rung his neck.

He was finally in a good mood later that night while we were watching Take the Lead. He noticed I had my hand on my belly feeling the baby kick so he put his hand in place of where mine was. He finally felt the baby kick! I’ve been feeling her for awhile now, about a week and a half, but he hadn’t. His eyes widened when he felt her. He probably realized, as I did when I first felt her, that this is for real!

My dad-in-law worked on the trim and doors for our rooms and hallway all of Saturday morning. Everything looks SO NICE. I especially love the hallway entrance. All we need to do is buy more joint compound to fill in the nail holes and finish painting. Woo!

Mary got home from work (she actually had to go in on Saturday morning!) she called me over to her car so I could check out some baby things Norma C. had sent over in case I wanted them. I found that kind of strange, but went out anyway. I was so shocked to see my dream crib in her car! She’d told Mario not to let me buy it, to try anything he could because she wanted to get it for me :). How freaking sweet! I can’t wait till Mario puts it together!

Mom and I went grocery shopping at around noon, where I only spent $70 on a whole bunch of groceries and Mom bought me a whole bunch of things I’d been craving. She’s really into the superstition that a pregnant woman should always get a taste of something she craves, and hell, I’m not complaining LOL.

We rushed home and put everything away since I needed to meet Mary and the boys on time to go to the movies to watch Everyone’s Hero. It was a really cute movie. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it, but I honestly did. Next, the kids want to watch How to Eat Fried Worms. 😛

I don’t remember much from yesterday, except that we were lazy till 11am and actually got to sleep in (Mary had the boys). We went to Leo’s to get some tacos and muffins and just enjoyed our ridiculously fatty breakfast. At around 1pm everyone got here for Jose’s (belated) birthday celebration. Elda made Posole and it was good. Annie didn’t come over because she was hurt about something that happened last weekend. Always some kind of drama.

We stayed over there talking till around 4pm, and then Mario and I went to rent more movies and make a payment. We didn’t end up watching anything, but at least that gives us something to do when he gets home from work and we’re kid-free. I didn’t have to watch Matthew this morning so instead of sleeping, I swept and mopped. I need to eat lunch right now and then I’m organizing my bedroom. I’ve been so caught up with the kids’ room I’ve totally neglected ours.

It feels so fresh in the house (as opposed to how hot it feels even with the air on) and it feels great outside. I love rainy days :).

You know, if I were on The Price is Right I would have totally won about 25 cars/vans/trucks, 10 cruises, and lots of other junk I wouldn’t need in my house; like cat litter and CLR. Some of these people–you’d think they never get out of the house or see the ads in the Sunday newspaper. A guy once bid 72,000 on a Ford Focus. Dur.

Anyway, it’s actually raining today. I had to use an umbrella and dress the boys in jeans for once. I’m just afraid to see how bad the mosquitos are going to get. We already have a tick problem, for Chrissakes.

I’m officially 5 months pregnant. According to my LMP I was 5 months along on Sunday, but according to the baby’s size I’m 5 months today. And boy can you tell! I wore my crinkly, white maternity top from Target with a jean maternity skirt today and I looked “especially pregnant”, as John likes to say. While Mario was getting ready for work I admired my swollen belly on our floor-lenth mirror and asked him, “Do I look pregnant or like I’m just really fat with a huge gut?” He turns to look at me, eyes widen and says, “No, you definitely look pregnant!”

I’ve been noticing since last week that I just keep getting bigger and bigger, little by little. Mary felt my stomach a few days ago and said, “This is going to be a big baby!” It sort of worries me–just a little though–that Alaethia’ll be as big as Eenan, or bigger. The reason my former doctor induced me with Jaylen is supposedly because he didn’t want me to have complications with Jaylen, who was predicted to be bigger than Eenan. He was delivered at 38 weeks exactly and weighed a healthy 6 lbs. 4 oz. Imagine if I’d waited till he decided to come out on his own–he would have literally ripped me apart (sorry, TMI), like Eenan did.

Anyway, Mario has further put us into dept and gotten us a Home Depot card. I wasn’t too upset, since it does come in handy with all the renovations we’re doing. We decided to take a trip over there on Sunday morning before Mary’s birthday get-together started. So we went.

We stopped at Burger King really quick to get some of those $0.50 sausage biscuits; because we were starving and were low on cash. Ate in the parking lot, laughed and talked about our first years together and got our (very long) list out to start shopping.

The first thing was a bit of an indulgence for him, but something he needed for work anyway: a new toolbox. What is it with men and toolboxes? He’s got, like, 10 already.

We got the doorknobs for all the doors, some door pulls and some hinges for the kids’ closet doors. We checked out the bedroom doors–the ones that already come prepared and hinged and all of a sudden it dawns on me that I didn’t write down the measurements for our closet door. Oh well. Then it dawns on Mario that he forgot his wallet. WHAT?

We go to Services and ask if we can use our temporary print out, but one little thing, we forgot his ID? And they said no. One guy really tried helping us out, but nothing could be done. We ask them if they can hold our merchandise and they say, “No. We don’t hold items. If you want you can leave your basket there, but it might not be here when you get back.” How sweet.

Came all the way back home and got the darn ID. I made sure to be very sweet and not mention anything about the incident to keep all hell from breaking loose. We go back.

We get there, and Mario quickly adds me as an authorized user, just in case. To our relief (and sanity) our basket’s still there with all our items. Mario went to find one of those rollers that carries wood, while I waited in the door department. This perv of a guy comes right up to me and asks if I need help, all the while staring at my boobs. I’m thinking, “Don’t you see I’m pregnant, you ass?” but most men don’t care about little things like that. Ew.

Mario arrives and the guy quickly scurries away. We get the two 36″ doors for the bedrooms and the two 24″ doors we need for the kids’ closet. When Mario’s inspecting the doors since most of them were cracked he moved one and about 10 of them started falling foward, in slow motion, I swear. I yell at Mario, “Babe, watch out!” and he just stares at them. Instead of moving out of the way he stupidly held his hands up, as if he were going to be able to hold the doors up. Thankfully the tiny edge of the shelf they were on held them up. I can’t believe he didn’t move out of the way! We all, including himself, made fun of him at home.

We get to the register and pay. We get to the van (the stuff wouldn’t have fit in our truck) and Mario starts loading everything. I notice that one of the 36″ doors has a crack, so we leave it on the roller to take it back. Something makes me look at my list and I notice it says, 2 32″ doors. I gulp and tell Mario and brace myself for the bitching that was going to take place. As I assumed, he threw a fit and I quickly got fed up. Halfway back into the store I yell, “Um, at least I noticed MY mistake HERE. YOU left your ID at home and we had to go BACK!”

On the way to the Returns register, I show him a rug I liked for the kids’ room. He responds with something like, “I don’t give a shit,” so I toss it back into the box it was in and bit my lip. We didn’t speak to eachother after that, probably because we were smartly holding our tongues. I got our money back, then went to find what we needed.

I guess he had some time to think while I was in line and realized he was being an ass because he said, “We’ll get the doors and then you can pick out the rug you like.” I told him no, I changed my mind and he said, “Really, you should get it.” I wasn’t being stubborn, I just didn’t like that the rug was black. We made peace after that and just laughed at all our damn bad luck that morning.

We get home and everyone was already there. We tell everyone about our adventure and eat. The whole day was pleasant, except for a little tiff I had with one of Mario’s aunts, but whatever. I spoke my mind.

Oh, and I also basically got volunteered to watch Mario’s aunt’s baby, Matthew. Yup. Now I’m babysitting two kids. I felt super overwhelmed, but they’ve been doing alright (except that Matthew’s REALLY fussy today!), Noelia will be babysitting him two days out of the week and Elda would get the other two days. I decided I’m only doing this till Christmas break and that’s it. I want to enjoy my last month of pregnancy and there’s no way I’ll be able to watch my kids plus everyone else’s and a newborn.

On top of watching all the kids I got some news that my kids might just not have health insurance anymore. GREAT. One more thing to worry about.

Peanut, Noelia’s 10 1/2 year old chihuahua was knocked up a few months ago by Noelia’s 11 month old chihuahua, Gizmo. Everyone was terrified of the day she’d go into labor because we didn’t know if the puppies would make it, or worse, if she’d even make it.

Yesterday, Isaac (Mario’s cousin who is staying with Yadira) called me over to Noelia’s room in a slight panic. Peanut had a water bag hanging out and we had no idea what to do. I was volunteered (as always) to help with the labor but I’ve only helped cats give birth. The water bag emerged around 2pm…she didn’t have her one and only puppy, whom I affectionately call “Little Cow”, till 11:30pm. Noelia had to intervene because the puppy wasn’t breathing very well but he’s doing wonderfully now. I thought for sure Peanut would have more because of how round she was, as did everyone else, but she only had her one puppy. I’m so glad they’re both okay :).

Okay, I’m going to check on Peanut and Little Cow now and try and figure out what’s bugging Matthew (Mom and John are entertaining him but it’s not working anymore LOL).