Category: Domestic-ness

Well Alaethia decided she didn’t feel like sleeping till almost 1am again. I was so exhausted by 11pm I could barely keep my eyes open. Thank God Mario was here and would check up on us in the bedroom every-so-often or else I think I would have completely fallen asleep with her wide awake at my side.

Then she woke up at 6:15am — 30 minutes before I had to wake up to get the boys ready for school — to drink a bottle. It sucks when she wakes up at that time because that’s it, that’s the final moment I get to sleep. Didn’t help that both the boys were in terrible moods this morning and I had to threaten a spanking so early in the day *twitch*. Usually, after the boys and Mario are gone, I can try and sleep with her till I have to pick Jaylen up from school, but today I have the pleasure of waiting up for the cable guy.

Starz and Encore haven’t been working and I stupidly agreed to wait for him. Coffee is NOT working and I feel sore all over since I woke up and was greeted by dear Aunt Flo. Grr.

I was planning on not leaving the house at all today, but I have to go buy feminine products and Dawn foam. I feel so slothy that I don’t want to go anywhere. I just want to lay on the couch with Alaethia cooing next to me and read. I’m so thrilled to almost be done with Shopaholic Takes Manhattan! I think, if I am able to finish it today, I’ll go to the library and look for the next book. I don’t think I can wait till I buy it or find it at a thrift shop LOL.

Did anyone watch American Idol? I didn’t get to watch it Tuesday but I did last night. And I bawled like a baby while I was making dinner. All those poor people. I even made Eenan sit down and watch for a little while since he’d been literally crying earlier during the day that he desperately needed a new video game LIKE NOW. I told him he’s so lucky to have all that he does because these people may not have shelter, food, family, or even their health. He needs to learn to be grateful. I hope he got the point.

If I weren’t so broke right now I would have loved to donate to the Idol Fund they had going on :(.

I was tagged by Melissa! I already had my answer typed up, but felt like my blog last night was long enough already so I decided to wait till today to post it.

The question was “Why do I blog?”

I guess you can say that I blog out of habit.

Ever since I was in elementary school — I can’t remember if it was 3rd or 5th grade — I started writing in a diary. I LOVED to buy cheesy-cute diaries with fluffy puppies or kitties on the cover and just write. I loved to write about my day, my current crush, how shitty it was that mom and dad were having problems–anything and everything.

Then, in 1998, I was introduced to the world wide web and angelfire.com and a new obsession began. I still kept a paper journal, but when I’d add something new to my website, I’d add a little update about my actual life. I remember I was pregnant with Eenan at the time, so I’d write little things here and there about my pregnancy, then later about how I couldn’t sleep because I had a newborn. The only sad thing was, with every new layout, I’d wipe my main page of “updates” clean and start all over. I don’t have any archives of the first few years I “blogged” — and back then, the term “blog” didn’t even exist.

I much preferred journaling on my website than on paper because it was MUCH quicker. From my little angelfire site I moved on to scribble.nu which was quite the big thing, then later on to envy.nu, then I was hosted by my friend Vic, and then she helped me get my own website (pixydust.net) in 2001 because I had no credit cards at the time LOL. I unfortunately lost all my archives from 2000-2001 in a harddrive crash, so that was pretty sad for me.

Then later of course came Greymatter which made updating even easier, and now, even though I upgraded much later than others since I’m quite afraid of change — I’m using the wonderful WordPress. I love documenting my life. I love going back and having “tangible” memories. And the cool part is, if I ever need to remember facts about something that happened a few years ago, I can just search for it on my site and voila! I remember :).

Another big thing, like Melissa mentioned, is the contact you have with people and ability to meet others from all around the world. I never would have met many of the great friends I know online if it weren’t for my blog.

I often wonder if I’ll keep blogging into the years that my children have their own blogs. My whole family’s so used to my blogging that it’s sort of become a little joke between my brother and hubby and me. When someone says something funny we automatically say, “That’s one for the blog”. Someone says something offensive? “I’m telling the internetz.” Someone says something completely genius? “That should be your blog title.” I think it would be a bit weird for me not to blog since I’m so used to it. I know all the times I’ve wanted to just quit the whole internet scene the one thing that’s stopped me is my blog. And the great people I’ve met through it, of course.

— Thank you, Melissa! I never know who to tag with these things, so whoever wants to do it should do it! And then let me know if you did it so I can read your answer :).

Okay, the cable guy came and went and will have to come back since he doesn’t have the filters our system requires. We’re on an ancient system, it seems.

Alaethia will be up any minute. I just walked into the bedroom and she kept stretching, curling into a little ball and then falling back to sleep. I love how she protrudes her little chin when she’s stretching. And her baby-soft skin’s mostly back! She spent month 2 feeling scaly and rough due to whatever skin condition she had, but she feels much better now. Her face is still dry and rashy sometimes, but it’s nothing some Eucerin can’t fix.

I’m talking about updating. I was totally going to update on my crazy weekend but I think I’ll leave that for tomorrow. Alaethia finally fell asleep early (for the 2nd day in a row) and I fully intend on taking advantage since the 4-5 hours of sleep (or lack thereof) I’ve been getting a night is really catching up with me.

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, either on here, myspace or through e-mail. I really appreciate being remembered :). This year, I had to tell myself that’s what counts. That’s what it’s about.

Jaylen’s little party was this weekend. Totally have some rants about that, but again, I’ll leave that for tomorrow.

I also got to see my fabulous friends basically the whole weekend, so that was a huge plus. These people have such a positive effect on my life, they don’t even know.

I’ve got lots of cleaning to do as my storage unit place pissed me off (I think I wrote about that already) and I’m getting my crap out of there by the end of the month. They will take my money no longer. I just gotta figure out how to get everything out since I’m embarrassed to ask for help . . .

So yeah, that’s it for me for now. I’m so tired but I’m feeling pretty awesome as I got the last of my retail therapy/birthday shopping done. Good night, everyone :).

I took care of Saturday in the previous entry so now I’ll catch up from Sunday-today. I wish I did One Photo An Hour all the time so that I can remember everything, heh.

Sunday, Apr. 8th – Mario was off on Sunday, Easter, and since we stayed up so late the night before, we slept in a tad Easter morning. I woke up around 9:45am, got myself and the kiddos ready and we went over to Mary’s. We basically chilled out all day while the men were outside bar-b-q’ing. When the food was done we ate. And boy did we eat! I had bar-b-q’d fajitas and pork ribs, broccoli rice, beans, potato salad and I can’t even remember what else. It was all so delicious. We sat around and talked some more and then devoured the desserts. I had some blackberry pie Elda made and some cherry and pineapple Dump Cake Mary made. It was SO sweet, but incredibly delicious.

The kiddos all opened their baskets around 4pm. There was lots of hustle and bustle around since everyone was packed in Mary’s living room.

After they’d all spent about an hour with their new goodies, we went outside to crack the piñata Mom had bought for the kids. It was cold outside, but we braved it since the kids were excited. This was around the time Mario started to feel tired and went to sleep. I wish I could just up and go to sleep whenever I felt a little tired. I’d be sleeping all day!

Since it was so cold and muddy from the rain the day before, we decided not to crack the eggs. For the second year in a row. Last year, we opted out of cracking eggs since it was in the 100’s and was extremely hot. Who’da thought it would be in the 50’s this year?!

So, we’ve got lots of eggs, once again, for next year.

Since we were stuffed from lunch still, I made sandwiches for all of us and Mario and I sat on the futon to watch Desperate Housewives. He commented, “The highlight of our lives, huh?” LOL

Monday, Apr. 9th – The kids had the day off the next day, so after Mario left to work I got them ready and we went to Joy Dollar. I needed to ask Ricci about a car charger for my phone, so I stopped by and talked to her for a while. They didn’t have any and another customer walked in so I said by and wandered off to get batteries and some new flip flops. I got two, black and pink ones, for $1 each. And some batteries. Yay for cheap purchases! I keep telling everyone not to step on me though. You never know if the straps will unravel LOL.

I had a few groceries to get, but I didn’t feel like driving all the way to H-E-B so we went to Dollar General. After Mom and I got everything we needed we came back home to put the perishable foods away and then went to the new beauty salon. NEVER AGAIN! The darn woman totally ruined my boys’ hair! I had to keep telling the nit-wit to fix this or that on Jaylen and she kept cutting Eenan’s hair crooked so she ended up cutting it super short. Then she has the gall to tell me that if the hair looks uneven, I need to find exactly where the “part” is so that it’ll look right. WTF? No other beautician’s ever told me I have to find the part to make it look right. When we got home and Eenan shook his hair out after his shower we noticed it was 2 inches longer on the left side than the right. I had to fix it myself!

And don’t even get me started on Mom’s hair. She kept insisting that she get highlights and kept telling her she’d leave them for a lower price if she got them that minute! She left her hair all uneven in the front, too!

I’d been avoiding going to McAllen all day so that I wouldn’t spend any money, but then Mario called and asked me to drop the camera off to him since he was doing a custom job on a car. So there John and I go, to drop it off. We left the kiddos at home with Mom so that we could stop by the storage unit to get more of my boxes out since they’re closing on the 25th. (Bastards.)

We drop the camera off and then John asks to stop by the mall, so we go. First stop was Hot Topic, where he found the Skelanimals blanket he’d been wanting to get Alaethia since she was born.

He looked around at a game store and then we left. I stopped by the H-E-B at Shary Crossing to get gas since it was cheapest there: $2.49 at the time. My gas tank’s on the right, and it’s so annoying to find a gas pump that’s empty where I can just squeeze in and it was no different that day. All the people were going in the opposite direction of how I was driving in so I went around. My luck would have it that suddenly everyone was turning the opposite direction again when I reached the other side! There was an old lady in front of me, at the diesel pump so I knew I was going to have trouble getting out. Turns out she was paying, but for my pump, not the one she was at. She starts telling me I need to move, and this is after I’ve already paid my money for my gas. The attendant calls me on the speaker to wait so she can reset it since the old woman had already paid. Total chaos. Everyone was staring right at me — so embarrassing! To top it off, the lady had blocked me in, so I had to ask the guy in the white Mustang behind me to please scoot back a bit so I can back out. Thank God he was nice about it and didn’t give me any problems or ugly faces.

We go to the storage unit next, where I’m kind of hoping the manager is present so that I can yell at him and release my anger. He’s not there. Poo. I wanted to ask him for half the month’s rent back since they were basically kicking us all out and I was planning to be out within the week. I spoke to him later on and he acted like a complete idiot. Supposedly didn’t know anything about the storage units and when they’re closing or anything. The only thing he did know was that he couldn’t give me my money back. How convenient!

Mario got home late that night since he was working on that car. Around 8pm I notice that Alaethia feels really hot, which isn’t unlike her; she’s a sweaty baby. Still, I got her pacifier thermometer and to my surprise it read 101.1. Not good. I gave her some Tylenol and her fever was gone within half an hour and didn’t get one the rest of the night. She didn’t fall asleep till at least 1am because of her cold and stuffy nose. She woke up at 3 and then again at 5, so I knew she was feeling worse and decided to take her to the doctor the next day.

Tuesday, Apr. 10th – The boys went back to school and I was exhausted from getting a crappy night’s rest. Alaethia was asleep after the kids went to school and stayed asleep even after Mario left to work so I decided I’d leave the doctor’s visit till after I picked Jaylen up. I took a nap with her until it was time to pick Jaylen up.

John had the day off, so he accompanied us to the doctor’s office. Mom was at her own appointment, or else she would have probably gone with us, too. It didn’t take long to get in, thank goodness. She weighed 10.10 lbs. and was either 22 1/2 or 23 1/2 inches long. I can’t remember now =\. The doctor checked her up and down and nothing. No infections anywhere. He gave her some Tylenol just in case and prescribed some more cold medicine (like the one she had last time) and some new nose drops.

While we were there, I weighed myself and to my absolute horror, realized I’m back at 122. Not cool! I have no one to blame but myself, however. Eating burgers at 12am and stuffing myself silly with ice cream will surely pack on the pounds. But it’s so delicious :(.

Later on, after I’d already picked up Eenan, Mom, Alaethia and I went to drop off the prescriptions. It would be a two-hour wait. I figured we could walk around and buy a few things, but nope, we were done after half an hour. I got some more Special K cereal in chocolate for my “diet” (they actually had it, Mayra!). So far, I don’t think it’s working! I have been eating only a bowl for breakfast, lunch and having a well-portioned dinner. We’ll see if anything happens.

I made meatloaf for dinner that night, mostly because Mario’s co-worker wanted some. He told Mario he loved how the meatloaf smelled when he’d microwave it when he’d take it for lunch. Mario took him some and he said he loved it. Yay :). I didn’t have as much as I usually do and I was starving later on but I didn’t let myself break and have say, one of those delicious chocolate Pop Tarts that are in the cabinet *cries*.

Wednesday, Apr. 11th – Alaethia slept much better the night before — all through the night actually. She didn’t wake up till 6:40am, which is when I wake the boys up to get ready for school. After the boys left to school and Mario left to work, Aly and I slept in a little more till it was time to pick up her brother.

Mom, Alaethia and I picked Jaylen up and then we went thrifting! Too bad it was an incredibly disappointing day. I saw “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” at both stores we went to, but I thought, “Eh, what do I get it for now?” So I just left it.

We stopped by H-E-B to pick up the prescriptions we’d left the night before and Mom got down to get some groceries. I stayed in the car with the kiddos and read “Shopaholic Takes Manhattan” while we waited. Those are really the only moments I actually get a chance to read.

We got home, I ate my Special K and then picked up Eenan. I decided I’d stay away from the computer if I wanted to get anything done around the house. It looks like a tornado crashed through the place now that I have garage sale bags and Sterilite Tote boxes littered everywhere till Mario can remove the shelves from the living room closet. Mary had called and asked for a number she’d e-mailed to me, so I had no choice by to plop myself on my computer chair and check my mail. And Myspace. I had a comment from Karina and it said that she, Carmen and Sally were having dinner that night so to let them know if I wanted to go. I look at the time: she’d sent it since 10am!

I look at the clock. 5:15. I call Sally up quick, praying that there was still time for me to get ready (I really needed a shower!) and thank God, they were meeting at 6. I had 15 minutes to shower and get ready since it takes 30 minutes to get to McAllen. I got ready as fast as I could, bathed the boys, gave Mom instructions on what to give them for dinner if I was too late getting back, made sure Alaethia’s stuff was within reach and kissed them all goodbye and left.

I left the house at 5:50. I had the cruise control set at 70; fast enough to get there quick, but slow enough to keep from getting pulled over. I made it there at 6:10, woo! It was so great walking into Chilli’s and seeing the girls together. It felt just like old times. We all hugged and had a great chat, mostly updating eachother on our lives. I threw my diet out the window just for that night, and my jog, too, as I was supposed to start walking/jogging again that night. But flabby legs and tummy? Friends? Friends totally win!

I had some nachos, as I didn’t want to eat a huge plate of food as I usually do and just enjoyed the atmosphere and the laughter. We made plans to meet for Sally’s birthday on Friday night and then, as we were getting ready to leave since Carment was already 20 minutes late to work (she was on her lunch break! The rebel!), Sally shares some incredibly awesome news with us! I won’t mention it here, as I don’t have her blessing yet, but OMG, I’m THRILLED for her and Pete! I need to get more details. I tried calling her tonight but got her voicemail. I can’t wait to see her again :). I’m counting the minutes till we all have dinner tomorrow :)!

Thursday, Apr. 12th – Today was a pretty low-key day. The morning was normal and I got to nap again with Alaethia in the morning. I’m taking advantage as much as I can, because I hate feeling like I’m dragging in the afternoon. Mom kept nudging me to go thrifting again, but I didn’t have cash and they don’t take Debit so I declined. I also was still disappointed that I didn’t find anything at all yesterday. I cleaned up a little bit, then had a quick chat with everyone at Mary’s and a bit of food she made, then I came over here and made Mario some dinner: pork chops and cheesey broccoli rice. Too bad he’d already eaten at work since one of the reps treated them to pizza. Grr!

I got the boys bathed and ready for school tomorrow. They’re totally into “The Tall Book of Nursery Tales,” which Jaylen found at Goodwill a week ago or so. I just found out yesterday that it’s vintage: from 1944! The pictures are lovely and the pages are immaculate. It doesn’t even look like it belonged to anyone!

Ok. I wanted to get this entry up and I did it! And Alaethia just fell asleep so it’s time for me to hit the sack as well. Goodnight!