Category: Decorating

(Started on 11-5-07 after work.) It’s been tons of weeks between an entry again. *sigh* I’ve actually been jotting down important little details on sticky-notes all over the place, just so I’ll remember when I finally do get to blog.

So this entry will be like most of the others, where I summarize by dates and is so darn long you probably won’t bother reading it. But that’s okay. I need it for my own reference because I’m neurotic that way.

Sun. Oct. 14th – Pete and Sally’s co-ed baby shower was that Sunday. Mom, Mary, the kiddos and I were all at Target the day before (I think?) going crazy, buying baby things. I love baby showers. I LOVE buying baby stuff, even if it’s not for me and my babies. I actually convinced Mario to go with us! I first accompanied Mary to church (which I really need to start attending more often) at noon, then went to the cemetery with the whole family to place flowers on Mario’s Grandma’s grave since it was her birthday.

We went home, got ready, the boys stayed with Isaac, Sammy and Brandon, and were later watched by Jose and Elda, and then we made our way to Weslaco, where the baby shower was being held in a hotel. I visited the room with Pete and Sally last January, when I was still pregnant and they had just become a couple. They invited me to lunch at an ajoining restaurant to tell me the good news, actually. They had a safari theme going on (went great with the Wild Room theme) and everything was really fun. The men mostly played the games (Mario was a good sport and played the Beer in a Baby Bottle race) and Mom won the nursery rhyme game. We got to see Veronica for a few moments. I was so surprised! She’s pregnant with her 3rd child, another girl. She was supposedly going to pick up her husband and kids because she didn’t know it was for everyone, but she never returned. I was disappointed. I had this naive little glimmer of hope in my chest that now that she’d finally come out of hiding, the three of us — Sally, Vero and me — would be best girlfriends like we used to be and take all our babies out to play together and have tea or frappuccinos. But, oh well.

Kristina was there and a few of Sally’s friends I met during her birthday.

(11-6-07 – I’m at work right now continuing the entry since it’s a bit slow this morning. Well, thankfully it usually is on Tuesdays.)

Sally and Pete received lots of awesome stuff. They still don’t know what they’re having (they don’t want to find out till the baby’s born), so they’re going pretty neutral. I went ahead and got Sally some extra stuff I didn’t see on her registry but I’ve yet to drop them off to her. Sucks not having any extra time!

As we were leaving the party, a security guard tells us that a gray truck has a bad flat tire. Sure enough, it was us. Mario fixed it and then finally, after what seemed like forever, we left home.

Mon. Oct. 15th – It was Jorge’s birthday so we all got together at Yadira’s to celebrate.

Sat. Oct. 20th – We got together at Yadira’s again, this time for Tommy’s birthday. After we ate and had cake Mom, the boys, Aly and I went to visit Gramma and then rushed back home since we had to be at a party for one of Mary’s co-worker’s grandson’s first birthday. It was at Peter Piper Pizza and a Transformers theme. It got me thinking about Alaethia’s first birthday. I have no idea what I want to do as the theme, where I want to have it, ect. And I’ve got less than 3 months to plan it!

Sun. Oct. 21st – Like most Sundays, I spent the morning cleaning until Alaethia woke up. Mario had the day off so he just played Halo 3 for a while and then we decided to look through the Furniture Row ads online. We decided, after 4 years of having a futon as our main (and only) seating area in our tiny living room, it was time we get new furniture. It’s our last big-spending hoorah since we’re planning on paying off all the debt we’ve collected and cutting up our credit cards. We royally messed up about 2 months ago when we went crazy putting stuff on our Target card. Two big purchases were ones we didn’t have to make at all, but the rest were for groceries or things that we actually needed when we were really low on cash. So we, for the 2nd time, have fallen hard into debt and will no longer be opening credit card accounts or anything like that. This totally messed up our future plans, but oh well. Live and learn.

But anyway, Mom stayed with the boys (because are you kidding—I can totally see them jumping on the couches) and Mario, Aly and I went to Furniture Row, mainly the Sofa Mart. As soon as we walked in I started scanning the sofas. After 8 ½ years of marriage, Mario and I have never properly picked out and purchased a living room set before, so I was quite excited. I wanted something that was easy to clean and then we spotted them: some sage couches in easy-to-clean suede. We fell in love immediately, called up Big Mario to please take measurements to make sure they’d all fit, and we went straight to the credit department. We passed for a pretty good amount, no interest or payments for 18 months. Woo! I still wish we’d just gone ahead and gotten new mattresses (because we really need new ones after having these since we got married), but Mario gently told me we should finish paying the couches off first.

They only had the loveseat available and were allowed to take it home that day. Stupidly we’d taken the Equinox with us, so we had to go back home to get Mario’s Silverado and leave Aly with Mom. Went back, got the couch, get home and Jorge and my dad-in-law helped Mario get it off the truck. Luck would have it that the couch didn’t fit in the nook we wanted it in by one inch. The fluff of the arms were too thick to push it in. We eventually conceded that yes, we’d have to “move the wall over” 3 inches, which means knocking it down, which means dust and drywall everywhere like the last time we had a big home improvement project.

We were supposed to go to Pete and Sally’s that night but they’re doing home improvement stuff too and Pete hurt his back. So we just chilled out the rest of the day.

Mon. Oct. 22nd – My boss was out most of the week due to Star testing kids in the labs. It was really quiet most of the week and I handled the library pretty well, with the help of Mrs. Ruiz in the afternoons. It was so quiet, in fact, that I had the chance to move shelves around and fix things here and there.

I think this was the day Eenan’s filling fell out.

Tues. Oct 23rd – I was busy eating pecan sandies while I was helping Jaylen with his homework when my molar broke. I don’t know when it broke — I probably swallowed the piece of tooth. All I know was I could feel something sharp scraping against my tongue. It was awful!

Wed. Oct. 24th – (The last time I blogged.) I picked Rolando and Eenan up from UIL practice and they played for a while before I dropped him off. That kid is awesome. I’d totally adopt him if his parents ever wanted me to LOL. Mario’d been off that day and invited everyone over for an impromptu bar-b-q. Everyone being Adan, Aide, little Belle, Jennifer, Sethie, Jason, Mireya and Brianna. It was great eating and talking with everyone. Don’t get much adult conversation during the week unless it’s Mom or my in-laws. The men were outside under the carport playing Halo 3 on the projector. Mary arrived around that time with a bag from the Disney Store. She’d gotten Alaethia her first costume: a Tinkerbelle costume! It was the last one in her size! I either wanted her to be Snow White or Tinkerbelle so it’s awesome Mary got the last costume! We tried it on her straight away and it was perfect! It was a great night, but by the time everyone left, I was rushing around getting all the kids into the shower, ironing, and preparing lunch for Mario and I for the next day.

Thurs. Oct. 25th – Eenan’s loose top tooth fell out sometime during this week and he had his appointment to fix his missing filling after lunch. Jorge did me the huge favor of taking him and then dropped him off at home. Since it’s the same filling that keeps falling out, they didn’t charge anything, so that was cool. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have paid the last time it fell out!

I called Elda after work while I was in line waiting for the other two boys and she told me she could get me an appointment for myself that afternoon. Luckily it was payday for me, so I said fine. I was nervous about the cost, but she said they could give me an estimate before I went ahead with anything. According to the dentist I’d been seeing in Mexico (the one that messed up my teeth in the first place), I was going to need a root canal and I knew another filling had fallen out for sure. I wasn’t looking forward to finding out how much it was going to cost.

Jose picked the boys up and took them home and then I went in. They took xrays and surprisingly they didn’t say anything about my impacted wisdom teeth. After cleaning my teeth and checking everything out the dentist told me I needed my broken molar fixed, which could easily be done with a filling (NOT a root canal!), another filling needed to be filled and a cavity I already had filled was getting worse. Not bad. I even apologized to the guy who was cleaning my teeth, because I was so embarrassed about my messed up teeth, but he said, “Oh, you’re fine. They’re not that bad.” WOW. If my teeth aren’t that bad I don’t even want to imagine what “bad” teeth look like!

I only opted to get the broken tooth fixed so it came out to $105. I could deal with that. I need to get the other two done, which’ll probably come out to around the same thing.

I was really nervous the whole time. I mean nervous. Mostly because of the shots they poked me with. That’s that part I hate the most, but at least I didn’t feel anything. My mouth hurt like crazy after a few hours but I was so glad my tooth was fixed!

Fri. Oct. 26th – It was a slow day at work. There was a dance in the afternoon so all the kids were preparing for that. I had an extra 30 minutes of lunch “voucher” I received for having perfect attendance the month of September, so the girls (Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Ruiz) and I went to a restaurant we’d never been to, El Meson de Pancho Villa. Funny name, but the food was delicious. I induldged and had the $9.99 shrimp buffet LOL.

Rolando’s mom and I had talked earlier in the week and decided that Rolando would sleep over on Friday night so that he and Eenan could leave to their UIL meet together. I had to go straight to Target after I picked the boys up after work that day since I needed to get the boys their Halloween costumes. Leave it to us to wait till the last minute. Jaylen decided on his costume right away – a grim reaper with a visible, blood-pumping chest. Eenan, of course, took forever picking something. He finally decided on a Dark Knight costume.

I rushed home as safely as I could since I needed to pick Rolando up to sleep over. His mom was awesome and had a pizza for us so I wouldn’t have to cook. We stood on the sidewalk and chatted for a good while and made sure he was all packed and ready to go (he’d actually been packed since the day before LOL). It was already 7:30 by the time we got home so the kids didn’t have much time to play, but they did enjoy a little Xbox 360 and some ice cream before they had to shower and go to bed. Just as I knew it would happen, Eenan had the hardest time falling asleep. They kept giggling because they were so excited to finally be having a sleepover (first for both of them!) and because they were going to ride the bus together to the meet.

Sat. Oct. 27th – I woke them up at 6:30 the next morning so they’d eat breakfast (which neither of them did – thankfully they were serving breakfast at the meet) and then I dropped them off at 7.

I went back home and got Mario’s things ready for work, fed Alaethia when she woke up, ate some breakfast and once Mario had left to work I went back to sleep with Alaethia. That’s what I miss about being a stay-at-home mom: if you didn’t get to sleep much the night before, you could catch up during the day.

Mom, Jaylen, Aly and I all went over to the meet at 11:30. Rolando’s parents had already picked him up. Eenan, to everyone’s surprise, didn’t place in Storytelling this time, but he did go to the finals in Oral Reading (the first time participating) and he either placed 3rd or 8th, we’re not sure. I’m so proud of him. Especially after his little fiasco – when he was in the semi-finals and was about to read his poem, he opened up his binder, and to his horror, the poem had slipped out! He was in tears when he went up to his coach, but thankfully she had an extra one in her bag. If he did place eighth, I think he would have done much better had that incident not occurred =\.

After we picked Eenan up we went straight home where a birthday get-together was going on for Sonia’s birthday. After everyone left, we chilled out for a while with Andy and Noelia before getting the kids into their costumes for a birthday party for Mario’s cousin Venessa’s, twin boys. The kids all looked great and we packed everything up into Mary’s car to get going. Mom’s got Alaethia and I’m lugging her car seat in my arms, which is full of our bags, when I hear Eenan screaming, “Jaylen can’t breathe! He can’t breathe!”

I toss the car seat aside and my heart sinks even further down as I see Jaylen flailing his legs and arms around. He looks as though he’s really having trouble. I grab him, rip off his mask…and he looks up at me innocently, like he has no idea what’s going on. I could have strangled him! Eenan was as terrified as I was. I almost started bawling out of simultaneous relief and anger but I just leaned against the car and quietly tried to catch my breath. And then I began lecturing them on how awful it is to play jokes on people, especially those kinds of jokes, and especially on their mother.

The kids had fun at the party. They played games, jumped on the Moon Jump, busted open the piñata and ate. We only stayed for a little while since we had the Jamaica (the church’s annual fall festival) to go to. Jaylen was the only one to get out of his costume since the chest plate was bothering him. This was the only Jamaica that we’ve ever gone to that the kids aren’t begging to leave. Eenan gave the rock wall a try, which Jason was in charge of, but is still too terrified of heights to go all the way up. Okay, so he barely even gave it a try, but he did hang on the rope for a little while.

They went on the train ride a few times and then they found this rubber ducky game where you choose 3 ducks and add up the numbers they have on their underside, if any. They give you that amount of tickets and you get to go to this little shop and buy toys. They had a blast! Not that we need any more toys, but most were cute, like hockey pucks and puzzles. We also ran into Rolando and his family and the boys all played together at the ducky game for a while. Rolando also won a cake at the cake walk. When Eenan and Jaylen gave it a try they’d run out of cakes, but were giving away plants. Neither of them won. They desperately wanted plants for some reason, so they kept trying but no luck LOL.

Alaethia was such a doll that night. It was a cool night and she was all cozy in her little Tinkerbelle costume, hoodie sweater and since she wasn’t wearing tights, I cocooned her up in her blanket. She enjoyed being in her stroller – while we were moving. Whenever we’d stop, she’d start squealing.

We didn’t feel like cooking so we bought turkey legs, menudo, and mom got tacos. The boys were incredibly well-behaved after that, playing with their puzzles and Frisbees and new stuff they got. Mario got home shortly after. The boys were sleeping over at Mary’s house and Mom said she’d stay with Alaethia if we needed to go anywhere so we figured we’d go to Wal-mart and grocery shop while we had the chance. I loathe doing all the house/grocery shopping alone with the kids because more often than not, one of them throws the Fit of All Fits.

We left around 10pm and got back home at 12:30. It’s about 20 minutes to and from. I can’t wait for the new Wal-mart to be completed. They’re moving pretty fast, but I heard it won’t open till March 2008. It’ll be SO much closer. 6 minutes instead of 20.

Anyway, it was nice shopping around with Mario, just the two of us, laughing and joking around. We don’t get time to even talk anymore, let alone shop. Much like when I was going to school, we’ve begun communicating by Post-its.

Tues. Oct. 30th – Since Jaylen couldn’t wear his scary Grim Reaper costume to school, we spent a good chunk of the night looking for their old costumes. Ever since we remodeled last summer, we have no idea where anything is since everything that was stored in the living room closet is now in boxes. We couldn’t find their old Darth Vader or Ninja costume anywhere. Luckily I remembered their cute Aladar costume from the Dinosaur movie was stuffed in my closet. I showed it to Jaylen and he was thrilled. He even got in front of the long bathroom mirror and wagged his tail from side to side.

Wed. Oct. 31st – I didn’t go to work dressed up in my costume (my fairy one from 2 years ago) because I’d feel silly if I was the only one. I told myself that if I saw one other staff member with a costume on, I’d put mine on. As soon as I’m nearing the time clock I see a teacher dressed up in Roman robes. Cool. I’m walking to the library building and am greeted by the same group of kids that usually already waiting for me each morning. They all ask me to put it on, so I oblige. It’s only wings and a dress, so I put the dress over my blouse and slacks. I would have been freezing had I only worn the dress. We keep the library at 65-68°. I put my wings on and voila! Instant costume. Whenever the kids would ask who I was I’d say The Library Fairy.

I got a call from Mary around 7:15 that they were having trouble with Jaylen. He was refusing to put on the Aladar costume. He was in hysterics asking for the ninja one. He ended up leaving in tears, sweat pants, a red shirt and the old ninja mask, which is all we found of the costume. I felt awful, especially because I was stuck at work and couldn’t help him. I could imagine him looking sadly at all the other kids and wishing he had a costume.

Mary called around noon that she’d bought him the exact same ninja costume from last year and Noelia took it to him and was changing him into it at school. You’ve gotta love that woman. It’s in her blood to keep everyone happy. I told her she didn’t have to do that at all, but she insisted.

I didn’t get to take many pictures of the staff members who were dressed up because I was really busy most of the day, but I did get like, 3 at least. I didn’t get the girls at the office who looked so cute dressed up as Geishas. I might go for that next year. Maybe.

I got home that day and just sat on the couch and rested. Eenan didn’t have UIL practice, so that was cool; we wouldn’t have to rush. I started getting the kids back into their costumes around 5:30 since I promised I’d take them to the haunted house at the city hall. Elda was dressing up, too, and we were really surprised to see her look almost identical to Jack Sparrow! It was an awesome costume.

We all met at the city hall. I was becoming increasingly nervous because mothers kept exiting the haunted house with screaming babies and toddlers. Mom was about to stay in the truck with her (because she admitted she was a bit nervous about getting too frightened LOL) but we all just went in. We bumped into Ricci momentarily. Eenan’s actually the one that screamed, “Mom, Ricci’s here!”

All her girls are so big. We didn’t get to talk much but I’m assuming she’s doing well. I haven’t spoken to her since last month when we kept trying to make plans to get together but it never happened. I just don’t have time, and that sucks. She’d also invited me to one of her daughter’s birthday parties (Belinda’s, if I remember correctly) but I got the message a day late =\.

The haunted house wasn’t all that scary, and I’m grateful since I had little Alaethia in my arms. I had her little head pressed against my shoulder because I was trying to cover her ears. She was listening intently, very quietly. But she didn’t cry or get scared once. The boys would yell every-so-often, but they weren’t terrified. Mom was okay, too.

We followed Elda to her Grandma’s house. I love going over there because most of the houses actually give out candy and we know a lot of the people there. We had a 10-house limit, since Mary’d stayed by herself at the house waiting for trick-or-treaters. The boys had a blast going up to everyone and yelling “trick-or-treat”. Most of the houses in that neighborhood usually decorate so all three of them had fun looking at everything. We saw two teachers that work at the boys’ school; one was a witch and the other was Velma from Scooby!

Alaethia was awesome. She was quiet just taking in all the kids running everywhere and lights and sounds. She only got feisty about two minutes before we got to the car because she was sleepy.

It’d already been an hour since we’d left the house, so Mary’d been alone for that long. I needed to stop by and put gas in the truck and I get a call from Mario saying he needed to do the same thing. He’d just stopped by Aziz and all the pumps were shut down, so we met at Leo’s and put gas there. Good thing, too! I’d left my debit card at home and had only taken $9 with me, just in case!

Mario took the boys with him to Chris’ house and Aly, Mom and I went straight home. We went straight to Mary’s and she said not one trick-or-treater had stopped by! I don’t know if it’s because everyone in the neighborhood was trick-or-treating elsewhere or just not giving candy, but the only house that had a light on outside was Mary’s. No wonder the kids are terrified of going into our neighborhood. We got about 3 truck-fulls of kids (yes, TRUCK-FULLS) and a family here and there, but that was it. Mom, Mary and I dumped our candy into two huge bowls and we had one bowl left untouched. We need to start putting on scary music and strobes and stuff to get kids’ attention next year. And maybe the rest of the neighborhood will hopefully follow suit.

I took a few pictures before we went inside. I stupidly didn’t get ONE picture of all three kids together. I got some of Aly alone, and the boys together, but not all of them.

Jaylen fell asleep in his costume and Eenan happily nestled next to him since they were sleeping over at Mary’s again. I’m so glad they had fun.

Fri. Nov. 2nd – I don’t know what was wrong with me that Friday, but I had the worst luck all day. I can’t exactly remember right now what had me so worked up, but I just wanted to go home and hide that day. It was Mario’s day off so of course he was going to bar-b-q. He didn’t tell me the whole family was coming over, I thought it was just the men, so Mom, Aly and I went to the mall where I was going to use up some coupons at JC Penny.

Well, my bad luck didn’t end at work. All I wanted to do was buy some new jeans, because I only actually wear 3 of the 10 that I own and my two favorite ones are literally ripping at the seams. Well, apparently none of the three coupons I had could be used because everything was on sale. So after throwing a little fit and calling Mario to whine, I ended up using my credit card, which I DID NOT want to do, because Mario told me to just quit it and use it. Fine. I did. He also bitched a little about how the whole family was there, basically making me think that they were waiting for me and was trying to make me feel guilty. I got here, spent a little time with everyone and everyone ended up leaving anyway.

Sat. Nov. 3rd – I didn’t sleep in, of course, but I did try cleaning up a little before John and I had lunch at Kumori. Our broke asses put our $15 together and had our usual California (John) and Fiesta (mine) rolls, miso soup, lemonade, Spicy Fried Calamari, and this time added some little mozzarella cubes (which are like mozzarella sticks). I’d been craving sushi for so long and it’d been over a month since we’d gone.

We picked up Mario’s birthday gift from Mom (a drill-bit set) and dropped it off to him, picked some stuff up at Big Lots, stopped by Circuit City but didn’t buy anything, and then went home.

Mary invited us to the movies to watch Bee Movie. It was actually much funnier than I thought it would be, though it’s not one of my favorites. The kids loved it though. Alaethia was screaming at the beginning, so I went down to the little hallway where I could easily run off if she started screaming again. She eventually focused on a light and fell asleep as I rocked her. She stayed asleep the whole movie. Hopefully she’ll be like Jaylen, who was an excellent baby at the movies because he’d always fall asleep 10 minutes into them. He didn’t stop doing that till he was 4 LOL.

I’m not sure exactly when it was last week, but we discovered that Alaethia sprouted a tooth! And not on the bottom like most babies; it was a canine, or however you spell it, on top! She’s been teething like crazy and has been moodier than usual, but she’s getting better. The tooth that we thought would have broken through by now on the bottom still hasn’t. I’m sure that one’s coming soon.

She’s also been standing alone for a few seconds before she panics and falls to the floor. It sucks that we hardly have any room in the living room to let her walk around and explore.

We didn’t do much this past Sunday besides going to H-E-B and then cleaning up at home. Mario and I got off on the wrong foot since he woke up, so we unfortunately spent it pissed at each other most of the day. My dad-in-law came to us with an idea Sunday night after Mario bar-b-q’d (and played Halo all day with Jason and then stayed outside all night with Adan) about expanding our house/apartment and building us a new, bigger living room. They have it all planned out. He said it would be our Christmas present from him. I couldn’t think of anything better, especially with the new furniture we bought! It was really unexpected, but welcome and much appreciated news!

My boss was absent Monday and Tuesday but I did pretty good on my own. I even had a little bit of time to read (and typed up a bit of this blog!). Alaethia let me sleep 6 hours straight Sunday and Monday night, but I didn’t get lucky again last night. Hopefully she’ll nap right now so she’ll let me fall asleep at 11 and sleep through till at least 5 like before.

I’m going to shower now. And iron, and probably figure out what the heck I’m taking for lunch tomorrow since Mom bought Church’s for everyone for dinner. I’m becoming very spoiled. Mary bought us all dinner last night. I had Rolando and his little sister over today, since Eenan made them miss the bus. But they were really well behaved. Jaylen and Ali (Rolando’s sister) played so well together. They played with puzzles, clay, stickers — it was really cute. Then when their dad came to pick them up he took the boys with them for another hour. I’m so glad the kids have friends they can play with :).

Okay, I’m really going. Alaethia’s becoming really moody and poor Mom’s been here long enough already. Goodnight!

I finally have time to blog and whaddya know, I can’t! I’m currently typing this in Word (9:00am).

I hate the cable guy right now. Namely, the cable guy who came over yesterday to fix the few channels that weren’t showing from our box and ruined everything. My channels are now working correctly, but for some reason he ran a new line to the pole and totally effed up Mary’s cable at her house—the box in Noelia’s room and the regular cable in her bedroom. Oh yeah, and the Roadrunner as well.

Alaethia decided that last night was the perfect time to fall asleep at 2am. Grr. She always does things like that when I absolutely have to stay awake the next morning after Mario and the boys are gone. I feel so darn sleepy right now.

So, I guess I can update a bit since I haven’t really since last Saturday. Lord knows I have the time right now. The Little Miss won’t be awake for at least 15 more minutes.

Sunday, the 6th – Mario and I spent all of last Sunday morning and afternoon putting together our new TV table for the living room. We cleaned up a tangle of wires and several piles of dust bunnies from behind and under the old entertainment center. Everything looks much neater now and there’s a lot less free surface on the TV table to leave junk on. That’s always a plus. We also freed up at least 10 cubic feet of space since getting rid of the old entertainment center.

We went to Home Depot (accompanied by John—Mom stayed with all the kiddos) to buy the stuff for The Bathroom Floor Makeover. Some 16×16 ceramic tile, adhesive, grout, a step ladder (yay, now I can finally reach the highest cupboards in the kitchen!), and a few other things equaled to $125. Our bathroom is kind of small, so that seemed like quite a lot but what can you do?

We went to an impromptu party on the way back home. It was a Communion party for one of Mario’s co-worker’s little girls. We had some posole and John and I talked about the fight from the night before and how I was more like Oscar de la Hoya (hitting and going crazy) and he was more like Mayweather (running around like a sissy after getting a little punch in) LOL. It was John’s analogy, not mine!

I tried not to leave the house unless I absolutely needed to the rest of the week. 1) because of gas prices (going to and from town will guzzle up a quarter of a tank) and 2) because I had a lot to do around the house and leaving would only prolong housecleaning. I did, however, go to Goodwill on Monday with John to drop off all the dishes, breakables and trinkets that didn’t sell at the yard sale.

Remember how I said I shouldn’t take my junk to a thrift shop I frequent because I’d buy it back? I almost did just that! I told John, “Let’s look around real quick,” after getting the stuff off the car. I ended up finding a really cute Fondue set, which I’ve always wanted for $5. Can’t WAIT to use it! I also got the boys a brand-new Golden Book of Poems for $1.

One of the items I’d donated was a ceramic Care Bear. I’d glued it back together after it came crashing down on the floor once. Since Noelia gave me another Funshine Bear exactly like the one I’d glued back together I took that one to Goodwill. As we were walking out I noticed they were bringing a shopping cart out from the back. That only means that they’re bringing out “new” merchandise. I scuttle over to the cart and tell John, “Oh, look! This Care Bear looks just like mine!” As I get closer I notice IT IS MINE. The one I’d just donated LOL. Told you I’d end up doing that!

I spent most of last week trying to gather all the junk leftover from the yard sale and what I didn’t take to Goodwill to distribute it wherever it needed to go. Didn’t help that once again the darn news didn’t tell us that it was going to rain so a lot of the stuff got wet. I had to let a lot of the clothes air-dry and some of the toys, too. I was trying to find a place to take the clothes to where they just give them to the needy and I had no luck until I remembered Norma C., one of Mary’s co-workers. Her church gives the clothes, toys, anything to needy people. So Mary took all the clothes and small toys. In all she took a good 10-15 bags of toys and clothes combined.

I still have a few things left to take to Goodwill that I didn’t notice the last time I went, so I’ll save that trip for this weekend.

(Grr. It’s already 10am and the darn cable guy STILL hasn’t gotten here. Alaethia already woke up and had a bottle and went back to sleep. I could have spent all this time sleeping! I KNEW Time Warner would do this to me!)

Mario had his day off on Friday, of course, so after picking Jaylen up we went straight to pick up Mario’s paycheck. It was pretty depressing. He made a pretty good amount this time but most of it went towards the bills. I was so hysterical over how we’d make ends meet that I was already talking about trading in my Equinox for a smaller, less expensive car. But Mario talked sense into me and told me, with the size of our family, the truck was the most practical vehicle we could have. And, as always, he was supportive and made me feel so much better about being poor LOL. He also took us to the Taco Bell/Long John Silvers restaurant, which was really sweet of him since I know he doesn’t really like either one and both are my favorites :P.

(Mother’s such a bad influence! We’re watching the DIY channel and they’re showing how to make really cute things out of polymer clay. Well, she wants to go to Michael’s—which’ll use up that quarter of a tank I was talking about—to go buy some. And some paints. Lately she’s been the one nudging me to go places when all I want to do is stay home and save gas!)

We bar-b-q’d that night (it was Jorge’s idea), which I didn’t mind at all since it saved me from cooking! I tried going to sleep early that night but of course Alaethia had other plans. I didn’t take a shower till really late and had to wake up the next morning to go run errands.

I deposited money at the bank to pay bills (damn bills!) and then I drove Mom around all over the place to get a check and then find a bank that would cash it. We ended up going to her own bank, which she was positive wasn’t going to cash it *scowl*. We went to JC Penny next, where I was going to buy myself some capri pants from Mario for Mother’s Day and got Mom some Capri pants for herself. I bought two blouses with $20 Mom gave me for Mother’s Day. I didn’t try them on at the store since there was a line a mile long for the fitting room, so unfortunately when I got home and finally tried them on I didn’t like how they fit.

We bought Gramma an outfit and some snacks for the kids and then went to see her. We spent some time with her and fixed her closet a bit and then went to have lunch again at the Taco Bell/Long John Silver’s restaurant. (And then I wonder why I don’t lose weight!)

Mario, bless him, tried to surprise me for Mother’s Day and got me a PSP. He’d overheard me saying how cool John’s was, so he thought I wanted one for myself and got me one. He told me he was going to Sears with his co-worker, Ricky, since Ricky was buying one for his son. He kept going on and on about it and said he wanted to get one. Since I thought he was talking about getting one for himself I told him John said he didn’t really like how you browsed with it online and then he said, “Well, darnit, I got you one for Mother’s Day.” Aww. I told him to keep it, since he never gets anything like that for himself. He tried. He really did try to love it and use it but he got bored really quick. That’s why the boys have the Xbox in their bedroom—Mario got bored of it REAL QUICK. He’s currently getting offers from guys at work (I think he’s selling the PSP + game and all the accessories for $250?).

We stayed home Saturday night and watched Spiderman 3 (shh!) with the kids. We had some brownies and ice cream and just sat on the couch together. It was great—we hadn’t had a night like that in quite some time!

I woke up around 10:30am Sunday morning, Mother’s Day. I noticed Mario disappeared for a while but thought nothing of it. When I got out of the shower he tells me breakfast is on the table. He’d gone over to his Mom’s to surprise me with an omelet he’d made and fruit—my favorite breakfast!

John, Mario, Mom and Alaethia stayed at the house while the rest of us went to church. It was a lovely service—long, but nice. They even sang “Las Mañanitas” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.” All around us people were crying silently and sniffing. I was emotional but held it in and was proud of myself for not bawling. Eenan had been acting up, so I told him to sit down and listen to the words of the song and after a few minutes he turns around, tears in his eyes, and wraps his arms around my waist and says, “I LOVE YOU, MOM!” I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing after that LOL.

We came back after church and this time Mom and John stayed with all the kids while Mario and I went with Mary and everyone to the cemetery to visit Mario’s maternal grandmother. We visited Grandma Ofelia, his paternal grandmother, next. She immediately told us to leave upon noticing that we didn’t have Alaethia with us LOL.

After visiting for a while, we came back home and chilled out for a bit. Noelia invited us to the Olive Garden and Mario quickly started making excuses about not going. He’s the only person on Earth that I know that doesn’t like Olive Garden. He said to take Mom with me and it can be a Mom’s night out. Plus Andy LOL. I, of course, took Aly with me since Mario was already becoming panic-stricken about looking after her. The boys are no problem since, you know, they can basically look after themselves.

It was a 2-hour wait at Olive Garden. I had to have Alaethia in my arms since it was hot and steamy with all the people that were clogging up the waiting area. We eventually made it in to the benches inside with the cool air, after we’d been waiting about 45 minutes. It was actually an hour wait, so it wasn’t that bad.

I ordered the Seafood Alfredo, which is one of my favorites. It was a really nice meal and a nice evening altogether. It would have been much more enjoyable had Mario been there, but I’m not going to force him to eat something he doesn’t want to eat.

Alaethia spent the whole time, since we left the house, sucking on her bottle and didn’t finish one ounce. It was like she was just sucking on it for comfort. I really do think she’s teething. When she became inconsolable in the car I gave her her pacifier, even though she doesn’t use it. Well, to everyone’s surprise she used it for a good 15 minutes until she fell asleep.

I half-jokingly told her, “You’re finally, at 3 months, using your chupy! You do know I’m going to take it away from you in three months, right?”

We got home later that I thought we would. We stopped by Subway to get Mario and John some meatball subs and then at Noelia’s friends’ house to drop off Noelia’s wedding invitation. By the time we got here I was exhausted and had a huge pile of dishes that had slowly accumulated throughout the week (please tell me I’m not the only one who puts off chores like that!). Since it was Mother’s Day I thought, “I’m not doing dishes today!”

The boys had Monday off from school. Inservice day. After Mario left to work and giving the boys breakfast, I cuddled up with Aly for a nap. Until around 10am when I heard Jaylen yelling at Eenan. At least I got about an hour’s worth of a nap.

I had lots of places to go that day, like Target. I knew though, that if I went without John I wouldn’t hear the end of it, so I waited for him. Then I remembered that the stupid cable guy was supposed to come by and fix my nonworking channels and I had to wait for him from 1-5pm. Greaaaat. I spent the whole afternoon washing all the darn dishes (I made a vow not to let that happen again!) and did laundry, too.

4:30 rolled around and John had already gotten home from work. Mom told us to go ahead and go, she’d watch the boys. I didn’t want to get home super late, and I knew I was, so we went. We got Alaethia in the car and left.

Post office first, forgot Mario’s PSP so we went back home, then went to the Mall to return my blouses, couldn’t find a white long-sleeved shirt for Jaylen’s field trip, John went to a few stores, then we went to Target. Our last stop was H-E-B to get groceries since we were low on everything. We got home at 8:30pm. I’d bought a ready-made lasagna since I wasn’t going to have time to get dinner ready but Mario didn’t get home till 11:30pm anyway. Hate when he does that. He could at least call and let me know he’s going to be late!

Which brings us to now, 12:12pm and still no signs of the damn cable guy. They called Jorge, to let him know they were coming to Elda’s to fix her problem but they haven’t called us. What fuckers!

(3:03pm) I got Roadrunner back up. All it took was a call to reset the IP address. The cable, however, is still not fixed. We’re still waiting for the cable guy. So yes, I stayed awake and I’m dead sleepy right now for absolutely nothing. They supposedly didn’t have a work order for our address at all. GRR.

Darn Internet Explorer. I was just writing about how lazy and unmotivated I’ve felt to blog or be online in general and it goes and dies on me when I’m halfway done with a post. That doesn’t exactly make me want to update more, now does it, Internet Explorer?

Not only have I felt lazy, but having a 1 month old baby doesn’t really give me time to update or read my favorite blogs, either. I’m only doing so now because Mom’s feeding her at the moment.

I guess I’ll rewind to Saturday, when Alaethia turned 1 month old :). We had a horrible night that night and the morning wasn’t any better. It was awful and I’ll never forget it. The only thing that made it better was hearing the little, high-pitched tired wail she gives when she’s tired of crying. It’s the cutest sound ever, and no matter how sleepy and frustrated I am from lack of sleep it always makes Mario and I laugh.

We luckily got to sleep in a little late once all the drama was over, since it was Saturday after all, and Mario had gotten the day off for the funeral. We got up around 11am and I took a shower while Mario rushed to JC Penny to buy a new black dress-shirt and belt. I ironed everything, left my hair curly since I didn’t have time to flat-iron it, and once Mario was done we left with Noelia to the funeral home. I was going to take Alaethia with me, but since it was already in the high 80s by noon I figured I’d leave her with Mom and the boys.

We didn’t make it to Tia Alicia’s final viewing but at least we made it extra early for the Mass. It was so depressing and sad, as funerals usually are, but Mario at least got to see relatives he hadn’t seen at all while they’ve been here. The procession made its way to the cemetary and we stayed briefly since it was too hot for the rest of the kiddos.

We came home and Mario and Noelia went to Star’s and ordered for everyone. We ate and then went to Tio Tavo and Tia Gloria’s house, where all the relatives were meeting. We chatted with everyone and I was complimented several times how nice I looked for Alaethia being one month old. Most, like Lisa, Tia Aurora and the group that was sitting at the kitchen table with Jennifer said it didn’t even look like I just had a baby. It’s nice to get compliments like that, especially since I was already starting to feel flubbery. I get no time to exercise and I haven’t exactly been watching what I eat so I need to get on the ball. I’ve only got 3 months till I have to pick out my Matron of Honor dress for Noelia and Andy’s wedding. I don’t want to look like a badly-packed sausage :(.

Mario was planning to stay behind with Jorge and Annie for a while longer but I needed to leave since I was already late to Ricci’s party. I gathered the kiddos and picked Mom up when I get a call from him that he’s on his way and he’ll be accompanying us. Awesome! I didn’t expect him to go at all.

I’m so glad he went, since Ricci lives pretty far and I can’t see down that road at night since I’m still adjusting to these darn glasses. We arrive and there’s already people there. Ricci brings us probably the best Frijoles a la Charra (aside from Taqueria El Molcajete) that I’ve ever eaten. They had little chunks of bacon, or fat, whatever you want to call it LOL. She served us huge plates of food and the kids had a blast running around the house looking at the goats, chickens, turkey, piglets, cows and whatever other animals were behind the house. Alaethia was an angel the whole time we were there and only fussed for a few seconds while I prepared her bottle when it was time for her to eat.

Rachelle looked like a little princess in her dress. I can’t believe I only haven’t seen her in a little under a year and she’s grown so much! After all the kids had broken the piñata, gotten candy bags and had cake the boys needed to go to the bathroom so I took them. When we came out all hell had broken loose. Goyo’s sister had picked up Kylie, Ricci’s 6 month old daughter with Goyo, because she was sick and they were going to either take her to the doctor or buy her medicines. Well, it had been hours so Ricci was getting worried and called to see what was going on. Apparently Goyo was saying he wasn’t going to take her back so of course Ricci was livid. She was still distraught when we were leaving so I wished her the best, but he did end up returning her and she was fine. Grr. They do that crap just to see how much drama they can stir up. To see how pissed or scared they can make Ricci.

We got home and Mario spent some time with Jorge before he left in the morning. I put the kiddos to bed and we decided to watch Friends with Money when he came back inside. I don’t like how the movie ended (I hate cliffhangers. I need to know exactly what happens!), but it was a great movie overall. There was a part in the movie where a couple are writing a book together and I tell Mario, “You know, it’s silly, but…nah, nevermind.” He pauses the movie and asks, “No, tell me. What?” I prop myself up with my elbow and face him and say, “I’ve always wanted to write a book. Or a story, doesn’t matter. I’ve got some ideas, but I’m not exactly very eloquent with words. I wouldn’t know how to start or how to make the story flow, y’know what I mean?”

He says, “That’s a great idea, Babe. I never knew that. I think you should. If anything, I could help you. What are some ideas.”

So I tell him of two I’ve had for years and he says they’re both good, although one sounds like something too commonly written about. I told him I’d like to write maybe an autobiography, or a story about our lives and he says, “I’ve always thought you’d do that.” Aww. He’s so supportive I could smooch him. I did, actually. On the forehead.

Sunday night with Alaethia was a little better and we got to sleep in late again. I woke up to an empty house: Eenan was at Mary’s and Jaylen and Mario had gone to McDonald’s for breakfast. When they got back we got ready to leave to town.

We went to Target where the boys took forever picking out a toy each, Mario got something for his Boost phone, we went to Circuit City to buy DVD+Rs and then went to get some meat to Bar-b-q.

We got home and Mario got the fire started while Mom and I went to Dollar General for some chips and salsa. It was such a nice day out for a bar-b-q, warm and breezy.

I think I spent most of Monday trying to clean and organize. I also cleaned the DVDs off my computer. I had, like, 30 movies on there, 15 on each harddrive and my harddrives were full. I braved it and started recording them and it actually worked! It didn’t shut down once in the two days it took me to get them all recorded. I wonder what the heck the problem was before then? The kids have been playing games online and the computer’s been fine, when before it would shut down after 10 minutes of game play. *shrug*

After both the kids had come home from school on Tuesday and had gotten their homework done, John and I left the kids with Mom while we made a quick stop at the tile store to buy some 1 inch tiles I need for the bathroom. Well, it was supposed to be a quick stop. We went to Ferro Block where I found some cute clear frosty tiles. When I asked about them they told me they had no 1 inch tiles at all and those frosted ones I liked? They weren’t working with that company anymore. Great.

We passed by Tile City, which was closed and then went to Lowe’s. They had nothing. I called to Home Depot so we wouldn’t have to make a trip there and they had nothing as well. We tried Michael’s last, where they had some 1 inch tiles but they were dark blue and I want something light. I considered getting the 1 inch mosaic tiles but I figured it wouldn’t be a good idea since the area gets really wet all the time and I don’t know if the mosaics would be good for the bathroom. I’ll have to read up on it. Needless to say, I was really disappointed and wasted 2 hours of my life. And gas, too. Thankfully, I got home with enough time to make dinner and bathe the boys.

Off topic: My God. I’m watching Maury and holy cow! New York’s (Flavor of Love, I Love New York) done bought herself some new boobies O_O. Those things did not look like that on her show!

Anyway, I had my 1 month postpartum check-up yesterday. I’m still at 119 lbs., got the OK to get on birth control, got the OK to be intimate with the hubs (woo hoo!), and got some new meds prescribed; new cold medicine and antibiotics for the horrible toothache my darn wisdom tooth’s brought on. I NEED to go get them all ripped out, even if I have to go to Mexico again :(.

I took Alaethia in, too, since she ended up catching my cold. She now weighs 8 lbs. 11 oz. and is 20 1/2 inches long–she grew half an inch since the last time, aww. Laura, our nurse, said she’s gonna be little like her mom LOL.

We got our prescriptions and headed to H-E-B. I refused to go back to the Saenz Pharmacy since they take about an hour to fill 1 darn prescription. I take the prescriptions to the pharmacy and they tell me it’s a ONE HOUR WAIT. Darnit. Mom and I both needed to get a few groceries anyway, so we shopped around while we waited for the medications. Jaylen, whom I’ve been having a bit of trouble with lately, was an absolute horror the whole time we were there so that helped us waste some time, too. After an hour of walking around we paid and went back to the pharmacy. They weren’t ready. They needed another 20 minutes. Grr. I sit there, waiting, looking deranged since Jaylen was still having his fits in the cart. After a while though, he kept himself busy with a little book he found and we waited some more. We waited for ANOTHER HOUR and when the guy calls me over he says one of mine wasn’t available. I could have slugged him. It took that long to get two prescriptions filled. I understand that they need to count and make sure everything’s right, but my God, two hours?!

We’re on our way home and I get a call from Noelia around 2:30. She says our door was wide open and that she closed it for us! I’m so glad she was home–who knows if some stranger would have, for some reason, come around my apartment and seen the door open! I don’t know how long it was open though, so I could imagine the flies and bugs that probably flew in, ick.

I eat a quick lunch because I was starving, feed Alaethia and then Mom stayed with the kids while I picked up Eenan and Brandon. While I was waiting for them I get a call from Ricci. She says she’d stopped by to see me but we weren’t home and that my door was wide open. This was around 1:30! She says she used my bathroom, and I go on and on expressing how worried I was about how long the door’d been open. I ask her how she’s doing and my heart sinks when I hear her sobbing. She’d stopped by her Grandmother’s after she’d left my house and they all treated her badly. They laughed at her. She said she needed to talk but she was on her neighbor’s phone since hers is still not working so I offered to go over.

I made sure Eenan did his homework because he’d forgotten it the previous day. He’d forgotten it 3 times last 6 weeks and finally got his act together when it came to his compositions and made All A Honor Roll again, yay :). We couldn’t find Brushka’s kittens all morning and while I was talking to Mario on the phone I swore I heard a meow. I looked in the closet in the living room but found nothing. A few minutes later I heard another meow so I reached my arm as far back into the closet as I could and felt my fingers brush something soft. I grab it, and it’s a gray kitten LOL. Brushka must have taken the opportunity to bring them all in while the door was open! All of the kittens were in there. The last one I got out was the white one, the one who’s father is most definitely Artemis. He’s fluffy and looks like a huge bear LOL.

I packed Alaethia’s things up and we get ready to leave. The boys, of course, didn’t want to go with me and I figured if I wanted to have a quiet talk I should leave them with Mom. Mom tells me to have a good time and drive safely.

I get to Ricci’s and we have a good, long talk. She gives me more of a backstory on everything that happened between her and Goyo and goes into detail about what happened at her Grandma’s. She’s upset and crying and asks, “Why are they like that? Why do they have to be that way?” and I tell her, “There’s just evil people in this world, unfortunately. That’s what they are, Ricci. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. It’s not anything you did.” She realizes that hey, maybe I’m right. Maybe they are just like that. I tell her I want to see her succeed and rub it in all their faces and that she better not ever take that dumbass back. I hope she can get the job she wants. I hope she can better her life for her and her girls. And I hope, that no matter what happens between Goyo and Ricci’s aunt (the one he left her for), no matter if he goes crawling back that she refuses to take him back. He’s the damn reason she changed last year. He’s the reason I had to be the one worried about her missing school and driving her around–because he could have given two shits about all that.

I got home and we had a quick dinner of sandwiches. Mom had already set the shower for the boys so they were nice and clean by the time I got home. Mario got home and watched the George Lopez comedy thing after the boys were in bed. Alaethia had gone to sleep too, so we found it the perfect opportunity to spend some alone time together ;). I was so giddy–I felt like a teenager all over again LOL.

As for today, I’m feeling really…blah. I had about four hours sleep last night due to Alaethia’s screaming. I did get her to sleep in the crib, but it was for a very short hour and a half =\. I was too exhausted the rest of the night to bother putting her in it. I swear it’s like she’s 5 months old already. She spends all day awake and still doesn’t sleep for long at night. How do other mothers do it?! I’ve had what seems like 5 month old newborns with all my kids!

I’ve felt the same laziness with my Spring Cleaning (and basic, every day cleaning) as I’ve had with blogging. I’ve completely lost the motiviation to continue with my decorating and organizing. I have all these ideas, all these things I want to do and I’ve done zip since Monday. I went through most of the stuff in my closet and although I did get rid of a lot of stuff, all the stuff I decided to keep that goes on shelves is strewn all over my bedroom floor. As much as I don’t want to, I need to get to that today. When Ricci’d told me she came in to use the bathroom I instantly felt so embarrassed–I have clean laundry that needs to be put away draped all over the back of the futon >_<. Other than that, the house is clean, but still, clothes everywhere makes any place look messy. I should eat some lunch since I have to pick Eenan up from school in a bit. See how lazy I feel? I don't even want to make myself anything!