Category: Decorating

We had a very eventful day on Friday. We all got ready (including John) and left to visit Isaac at the hospital. John stayed with the boys in the truck while we went up to see Isaac.

He was doing great that day. Natalie, Isiah, their mother and another little girl was there with him. We didn’t even say hi to his mom–we were a bit disgusted by her behavior, which I won’t mention here, but we opted to ignore her. We ended up talking to her by the end since she wouldn’t stop talking while we were trying to talk to Isaac.

We talked to Isaac about everything. He told us his diabetes was at 400-some when he got to the hospital and he lost 30-some pounds in a month. He looks really fit, but it’s unfortunate that he lost all that weight because of his sickness.

I was standing near the wall across from Isaac and Mario was right next to me. When we were all talking about diabetes and how he needs to be careful I got this horrible ringing in my ears and started feeling really dizzy. I felt really hot and sweaty and then the room started turning blue and white as I tried to focus on something. I softly told Mario, “I don’t feel well,” and Isaac’s mom overheard and had me sit down. My heart was racing and I fanned myself with my hand to calm down. When I finally felt better we got up and excused ourselves since it was time for Isaac to eat. I still felt really hot and I felt that my blouse was completely soaked in sweat. I didn’t know what was going on; I’d never felt so bad.

They released Isaac later on that day. Thankfully, his mom agreed to let him go back home with Cat and Annie.

We went to pick up Mario’s check after that and were relieved that it was indeed a nice check. He was afraid (as always) that since it’s been slow, he wasn’t going to make enough. Thankfully he did–we had to put aside for Eenan’s party, pay bills, buy the supplies for remodeling, pay my dad-in-law back for the money he’d lent Mario the week before and buy groceries and stuff for the house. Thankfully we had enough to do everything we needed to do.

We got some lunch at Burger King (stupid Luca Pizza in McAllen was still being worked on). After the kids played in the indoor playground for a little while we went and got the tickets for Monster House before they sold out. John was going to watch Clerks but it ended an hour after ours did so he got tickets to Monster House instead.

We had about 45 minutes before the movie started so we stopped by the Home Depot nearby to get a few things we needed for the bedrooms (plugs, coaxial cables, speaker wire, etc.). We went to Wal-Mart after that to get the rest of the stuff we needed.

Since we’d just eaten we stopped by a gas station and just got candies to snack on (which cost about $2 less than buying them at the theatre!). The kids were exceptionally well-behaved and were content with their Life Savers Gummies. It was a pretty good cartoon. Very funny and it kept you entertained (Jaylen didn’t even fall asleep this time!). Gotta buy that one on DVD :).

We picked up some yummy pizzas from the Luca in Mission. Mario had to go back since they jipped him out of $10. He kept counting and recounting the money and told me to count it. I told him, “We’re missing $10”. When he got the money back he said, “The guy was new. Apparently he’s not good with math. And since I’m not good with math I thought I’d check with you since something seemed off.” LOL

We ate in a hurry and Mario started working on the cabling. He had to go up into the hot attic to run stuff to the new bedrooms and he came back down looking like he’d spent a week in a cave. He had cobwebs all over himself and was dripping in sweat.

Later on (Mario was still working on all the cabling) my dad-in-law came over and they started working on the new door to the hallway, which used to be the door directly to our huge bedroom we shared with the kiddos. Since they added the new walk-in closet to our bedroom they had to move the doorway 3 feet to the right to coincide better with the hallway. After lots of sawing and hammering (and a layer of dust in the living room) this was what we were staring at from the living room:

Scary. The entryway into the hallway’s going to have a nice angled arch to match the arch that divides the kitchen and living room. I can’t wait till it’s all done!

I spent the rest of the evening sweeping up drywall dust and fetching anything Mario needed for what he was doing. It was 1am by the time he finished. In the end the speaker wire wasn’t run correctly because the wall’s shaped funny and the cable in the living room didn’t work, probably due to an old plug that was already installed there. He ended up having to run the cable that was hanging out of the wall back out just so we could at least have TV in the living room.

I don’t remember much from Saturday except feeling more tired than usual and still feeling short of breath. I went to the doctor first thing in the morning only to be there for 1 hour and not get seen. People that were there way before me were finally being seen by the time I got annoyed and left. I was annoyed because I was there so long and because on one side of me there was this horrible mother yelling at her daughter and on the other side there was a kid who’s dad was in a daze and couldn’t hear him shaking a tin can full of coins. Who carries a tin can with coins in a diaper bag??

Once I got home and felt better I dragged John with me to reserve Eenan’s party and then we went to H-E-B so I could get groceries. (I kept becoming short of breath and started suspecting that my heart murmur was back.) I got a pretty good amount of food for $75–very proud of myself. When we got back home my dad-in-law arrived with the rest of the supplies we’d ordered: sheetrock, joint compound, electrical boxes and other stuff. Ricky’s brother hooked us up and we got the sheetrock for $4 a sheet. The catch is, the corners are slightly damaged, but hey, for $4, Mario and his dad had no problem trimming the sheets. They sell at Home Depot and Lowe’s for about $8 a sheet.

We went to sleep early since we were to wake up early on Sunday. Mario and Big Mario were going to start working on the room. They put up most of the drywall and I’m so proud of my Babe–he did most of it himself and didn’t mess up one sheet! Drywall used to be his least favorite thing about construction because it never failed that he’d get a measurement wrong and he’d have to start all over. But he did SO good this time.

Elda’s birthday was Sunday so we went over to Mary’s to celebrate. They had shrimp cocktail and OMG it was good. We talked for a while with the family and then I came back over here to see what Mario and his dad were doing. I’m so, so thrilled with the way everything’s coming out. I can’t wait till it’s all done. Big Mario even approved of the colors I want to paint the rooms (we can do what we want, but have to get it approved with the landlord, heh).

Everything’s mostly done–Mario was so tired (poor thing) that he left a few small areas without sheetrock but he can do that in a snap when he’s got the time. Other than that, everything electrical needs to be done and then the taping/floating/sanding and the texture and painting. I CAN’T WAIT!!!

John went with me to Wal-Mart to get the rest of the stuff I needed and then Mario had me stop by Video Plus to rent some movies. We didn’t get around to watching them last night (you know you’re parents when your kids are watching the Disney Channel and you’re watching it along with them!).

I got up, saw Mario off to work and then ate breakfast. Then I got to sweeping all the rooms since everything was covered in sheetrock dust. I got tired after sweeping only my kitchen and living room–which aren’t big at all. Tried taking a nap, but of course THAT didn’t happen. Got up and swore not to stop until I finished sweeping and mopping. After 3 water/apple cleaner changes, the floor was back to normal.

I had my appointment today to see what was up with the episode I had on Friday. Again, I waited for over an hour. I had an appointment at 2:30 and they didn’t see me till 3:40. All that waiting just to find out that I definitely had the heart murmur again and everything I was experiencing is normal. While I laid on the table and he ran the ultrasound wand over my belly I could see the baby moving around. She/he was so active today! Dr. C had me hold the wand while he went out to get something. A book. He explained a little more about the heart murmur and how 90% of women get them during pregnancy. While he read I ran the wand over and over myself and saw the baby turn back and forth, pick up it’s little legs then stretch out–how cute is that?? I got a look at her/his perfect little hands–all 5 fingers were present :). I can’t WAIT to find out what this baby is so I can start buying little clothes! I can’t wait to HOLD this little one :).

Ack, it’s 7pm and I haven’t even started thinking of what to make for dinner. Toodles!

I can’t remember much from Wednesday except that I flossed the kids’ teeth at night and while I was flossing Eenan’s I noticed he had two new teeth! Problem is: his baby teeth (the two bottom front ones) haven’t fallen out yet but he has his two adult teeth growing behind them. When I told Mary she told me what I feared: Mario had the same problem. He had really bad teeth as a child, which is why he wore braces when I met him. I wonder how much it would be to take him to the dentist? His CHIPs insurance only covers a certain amount and he already went to the dentist in March. And will they pull his baby teeth out? What if they don’t get pulled out? Will his teeth be crooked? Oy.

Mom’s new glasses came in the next day so we went to pick them up (only took a few minutes, thank GOD) then went to visit Gramma for a little bit since we were already in town. We joked around with Gramma and then started telling Mom how we were going to put her in the same nursing home Gramma’s in and they can be roomates. Mom was not amused.

I was invited over to Mary’s to try the mole Elda and Jose made. I got a little to taste and when I was going to sit, I got that sharp pain in my lower abdomen. The round ligament pain is happening more and more often. Yadira reminisced about her pain and we all talked about how large I’m getting and then I came back home to make dinner.

I made steak and steak fries for dinner. The kids loved the fries (they had hotdogs instead of steak) and Mario was in heaven. He said, “I’m so glad I have a wife that knows how to cook.” It gives me such an ego boost when he talks nicely about my cooking :D.

After we ate dinner, Mario presented me with our new pet: a lizard. She’s so pretty (well, for a lizard) and spiny. At first he thought it was some kind of horny toad, but upon closer inspection we noticed her scales are much shorter and she’s a totally different color.

As we’re walking towards the desk to get some info on her I notice the computer’s acting funny; the right-click menu keeps popping up, the Start menu keeps sliding out, windows are being minimized and opened. I freak out and whisper, “Babe, look at the computer!” as if the hacker’s going to hear us. Mario runs over to the computer chair and just watches what’s happening. He starts closing everything, because we’ve heard about these types of hackers that use Spyware to mess with your computer this way, and then I notice Jaylen’s sitting on our wireless keyboard and his butt’s been pressing the buttons. Talk about paranoid!

We couldn’t find any info on our new lizard. I stayed up till 1am looking for something, anything! But no such luck.

After Mario ran a few errands the next morning, we left for town. Since we’d made plans to go watch The Omen at the Dollar Movies, we left the kids with Mom and the in-laws. First we stopped by Mary’s office to drop some money off for Norma C. All the ladies were really surprised by how big my tummy was. While Norma D. picked up my blouse and examined my belly, everyone else gasped and said, “Oh, you’re definitely having a girl!” They all asked me to call the office as soon as I get the sono confirming the baby’s gender. I promised I would and left since Mario was probably asleep in the car because I was taking so long.

Speaking of the pregnancy, I made a page for my Pregnancy Timeline. You can see just how huge I am for barely hitting the 3 month mark.

We stopped by Pet Smart next. We needed to ask someone for help on what to feed Dragon (Jaylen picked the name). A sales associate told us it was called a Pink Bellied Swift and it was a desert lizard as we thought. She mostly eats crickets and worms, so we decided we’d come back later because we didn’t want them to die in the heat.

We picked Jorge up from work so we could have lunch. We went to New Wave Chinese Buffet–it was delicious. With this pregnancy, I’ve really been on a fruit and veggie kick and that day was no exception. I had two full plates of long green beans–they’re just SO good. I especially love how Chinese buffets prepare them for some reason

We went back to Pet Smart to pick up the crickets, a water bowl and sand for the tank then to Wal-Mart to find a lid for the tank we had in storage since Pet Smart didn’t have them. We left the remote start on while we were at Wal-Mart so the crickets would stay cool.

Since the movie wasn’t until 5 and Jose and Elda had invited us to their bar-b-q at that time we decided to skip the movie. We still had two more stops: Mary’s storage unit and then ours and then we went home. To our surprise, the tank in storage already had a lid. Grr.

We got home and fixed Dragon’s tank. I looked up info on a Pink Bellied Swift and upon looking at pictures of it I found out it was actually a Texas Spiny Swift and because of the lizard’s color realized Dragon was actually a girl, so we named her Liz/Lizzie. Only one website actually had info on her and it was a pet speciality store. Most of the only places I found pictures of her were specialty stores (where lizards like Liz ran for $14.99).

We were at Mary’s the rest of the afternoon and had talks about babies and other women things. When we came back home, Mario had a craving for a Slush from Stars so we went.

We got some Slushies (only for Mario and Jaylen. Eenan was sleeping over at Mary’s and the ice hurts my teeth) and then rented some movies at Video Plus. We watched the rest of Failure to Launch that night, which I thought was really funny.

The next morning I cleaned, bathes and got dressed, then took Mom to the bank. At around 12:30 the beautiful sisters, Mayra and Erica, picked me up so we could go to the movies. We’d be watching The Devil Wears Prada–we’d all been wanting to see that movie since it first came out. It was a REALLY good movie–much better than I thought it would be. Not to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but it’s TOTALLY different from the book. I actually liked how the movie ended rather than the book.

We went to eat at King’s Chinese Buffet (because you can neve have too much Chinese) and had great conversation and great food. It was sad to leave them after not seeing Mayra for so long. I really wish we could get together much more often.

Mario got home early that night and he was in an outdoor mood. We took the dog out (who is STILL not potty trained properly, by the way) then he and his dad got to chopping down a tree. The mosquitoes were running rampant that night so I came home and started making dinner. After that, we watched The Hills Have Eyes and oh my gosh, I couldn’t sleep for an hour after watching it. I love scary movies, and this one was just creepy and one of my favorites because the “monsters” in it were something that could possibly be real because of everything that happened back in the 50s. AND another favorite? NO BOOBS! All the other horror movies have to throw in a tit or 10 and it makes the movie tacky.

We woke up semi-early Sunday morning, since Mario and his dad were going to start the construction on our bedrooms! After we ate pancakes (that Mario made!) they got started. They had the studs that would split the room up in half an hour and then I left with Mary to Target and Wal-Mart to get some school supplies that were in the ads. I can’t believe how early people get there and how much people buy. There was hardly anything left! We did get all the things on the kids’ lists, but it would have been nice to get a few extras =\.

Mary stopped by Luby’s to pick up some food for my dad-in-law and then we stopped at a raspa stand to get some Elote en Vaso (corn in a cup) for Mario and I. Never again will I go to that place–a medium, which was the size of a small, was $2.50! The size of the cup I got usually cost $1!

When we got home they had most of the studs up. All they were working on was the kids’ closet and then they were done. Everything looks really good–I can’t wait till everything’s done! My closet is going to be awesome.

I need to get the rest of my 80s stuff out of the room :(. I can keep a few things, but there isn’t room for everything else. That huge 8 foot shelf I have is going to have to go, which sucks because I love it and everything on it. Here’s all I have left in my room, plus a few other things that aren’t pictured:

I’m so sad. I don’t want to have to put everything in storage, but I really don’t have a choice. Mario’s talking about possibly staying with this house (because his parents want us to have it), but there isn’t enough room! I need to have a room especially for my babies :(.

I have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do today. Mom’s already asking me to take her all over the place but I’m waiting to do that till I have to drive her to her appointment on Thursday. Oh and Lizzie doesn’t have any food. The genius at Pet Smart who gave us the crickets in a plastic bag failed to tell us crickets have teeth and can escape from the bag. Yeah, they escaped. We’ve only found 4. The other two are hiding inside the house.

And speaking of bugs, Jaylen said the cutest thing this morning. Eenan was frantically calling for me to kill a bug in the bathroom. I go in and notice it’s a tiny water beetle, but squash it anyway (I’m horrible, I know). Jaylen says, “Mama! It was harmless! It was looking for its Mama. Next time don’t kill it, okay?” This coming from my little 4 year old. He said it in the cutest, most innocent way. I wish I had a recorder with me all the time. I never want to forget their baby voices :(.

We have a new member in the family. What happened was, Mario wanted a dog. Yazmin just so happened to get a puppy from a lady that works with Yadira. She didn’t want him anymore, and since Mario had asked if the lady had any more, she gave it to us. So now, I’m caring for a pee-happy puppy. This is what usually happens when Mario wants a dog–I end up doing all the work. Grr. Brings back memories of being 9 months pregnant with Jaylen and picking up Killer’s poop. He is cute though.

His name’s Louie by the way (Yazmin named him that after Louie Vouitton, or however the hell you spell his name), and he’s a Cocker Spaniel/Terrier mix. It sucks I had to roll up my pretty new rug just in case he’d pee/poop on it though.

Other than wasting rolls of toilet paper picking up pee and poop, I started on my sewing project before I never got it done. I’d already bought the fabric for that long curtain I wanted to make for the closet in the living room. Since they never finished the trim and doors for that closet and it was such an eyesore, I figured I’d make my own door. My dad-in-law came in today saying they’d work on it (and the rooms, yes!) next week. Woo hoo! Even if they don’t work on the closet, I’d love for them to do the trim of the walkway that separates the kitchen and living room. That’s more important to me.

So yeah, I started on it yesterday and it took a few hours to complete. When I went up on the ladder (Mom was having a fit–she was sure I’d fall), installed the curtain rod and put the curtain on the rod I realized it was about 9 inches too short. I had to go back and cut another 13 inches of fabric (4 extra to allow for the hem) and sew that piece to the curtain. It looks pretty awesome, except for the fact that the right side looks 3 inches shorter than the left, but oh well. It’ll give myself credit, especially since it’s about 9 feet of fabric I had to cut evenly with only a tiny table to work on. You can see a picture of it here.

I have two birthday parties to go to tomorrow. One of Paul’s daughter’s (I’m not sure which one since he wasn’t sure!), and Mrs. C-R’s little boy’s. I’m going to be out of the house from about 1-8pm! I need to leave early to pick up their gifts at Target. I hope I can contain myself from buying the adorable baby clothes Target always has!

Man, I wish I had extra, extra spending money. There’s so much decorating I’d love to do around here. I need a job, but I won’t settle for anything that’s super far away. It looks like that’s all I’ll be able to get though–something in McAllen. I’ve been scrounging around the internet and the paper looking for jobs close by, but there’s NOTHING. I just sent in another application to another bank. This one actually asked for a resume so we’ll see. I won’t hold my breath though *emo-ness*.

Ok, I’m 30 minutes late on starting dinner. God, I have no idea what to make anymore! I feel like I make the same things over and over again. Mmm…I could sure go for some of those tacos I made yesterday…avocado and sour cream…so bad, but oh so good :(.

I wish I could just make a casserole or something–something I don’t have to actually be standing over the stove for. I have a question for my visitors: what are some quick, easy meals you know? And if possible, could you direct me to some recipe’s or a website?