Category: Friendship

I dropped Mario off at work on Saturday (the 5th), deposited his paycheck, and went directly across the parking lot to Big Lots. I still needed to get a gift for Gramma for her birthday (which was the day before on the 4th) and she had already told us before that she didn’t want anymore clothes because they didn’t fit in her wardrobe nor did she want anymore trinkets. I had the perfect solution: some plastic Sterilite drawers for inside her wardrobe since the nurses just toss all her stuff down there and it’s a mess.

Jaylen was throwing a spectacular fit because he work up too early. He’s already 6 and still throws these fits. He wouldn’t put on his shoes and then he’d open the car door and shut it again. It took all the strength I had not to drag him out across the parking lot into the store. I couldn’t anyway because I was carrying Alaethia. He finally decided to come out through Alaethia’s side and climbed into a cart.

We took about an hour in there. The plan was no more than 15 minutes since we already knew what we were buying. Well, Mom hung around with me and didn’t look for anything till the last minute and Alaethia and Jaylen kept changing their mind about what to buy. And then of course my body wandered off into the scrapbooking section so I ended up with two packs of cute ribbon. So we spent an hour in there.

We get in line and I look out the window. It’s pouring outside. We pay and I tell Mom to stay with the kids while I run and get the car so they won’t get wet. I can’t believe my eyes as I’m approaching the Equinox. The door behind the driver’s side is wide open…and the seat’s soaked. The first thing I think is that someone broke in, but the TVs, kids’ stuff, everything was still in there. And then I remember….Jaylen’s fit. He didn’t close the door right!

Had it not been raining I don’t think I would have had a car when I went back out. Especially on that side of town where car theft is quite common. God was on my side, definitely.

I made two payments and then we visited Gramma. The first thing she says when we show her her gifts is, “Why did you bother? I don’t need anything!” But when I finish organizing her wardrobe she’s extremely happy. We realize she’s missing some sets of clothes and a blanket Aunt Nora gave her but we figure every thing’s in the laundry.

We rush home because we have a party to attend with Mary for Noelia’s friend’s son. It’s still pouring, but we make the trip anyway. The kids having fun running all over the place playing games and getting on rides. Alaethia’s satisfied with the mess she’s made with her food. It was Carb City and I must admit I was naughty, especially with the spinach pizza and Parmesan oil pasta.

Andy and Noelia met us there and they told us how they’d gone to the outlets in Mercedes and there were tons of sales. We were going to go straight over there from the party but we had the kids with us and Jaylen was still in his mood. So we drop them off with Mom and were going to meet Andy and Noelia in the parking lot of Pier 1. I’d never actually gone in there since it’s so darn expensive but they were having a sale! I was looking for something small and green, a figure, to go on my black shelves, since all I had on them were pictures. I found this cute, chubby green bird and it was the exact same shade as my sofas. I need to go back and get ideas for my kitchen; I’ve still got the cherry theme going on and am ready for a change. But I need a fabric as my inspiration since I need to re-cover my chairs.

Our first stop when we get to the outlets is the Children’s Place. They’re having this huge sale: most of the toddler clothing was $1.99! Mary got her a few things and we found some awesome sales for the boys, too. Most of their shirts were from $2.99-6.99. Now they just need pants!

We figured Mario wouldn’t be out till 8pm, but at 6:30 he calls that he’s out already. Great! Poor Andy goes all the way to Mario’s work to pick him up and goes back since we were in 1 car. Mario got some new Sketchers for work at the Sketcher’s outlet. I’m totally going back for the boys’ shoes there! They love Sketchers.

Mario was in a hurry because the UFC fight was on that night and we were going to meet Jorge, Maggie and the gang at Fanatics to watch it, so he was rushing us of course. We get home around 8:30 (the first fight started at 9pm) so Mario’s annoyed. We get dressed really quickly, kiss the kids and go.

Maggie had given us the wrong street so it took us a while to find it. Mario was livid. But I knew he wouldn’t turn back and go back home because 1) we’d come too far, 2) think of he gas!, and 3) he didn’t want to miss this fight.

We sit with everyone and I make a few bathroom runs with Judith and Maggie. I don’t know who brings it up, but we realize that none of us have gotten our periods yet. Argh. I don’t want to think about it. Neither does Maggie. Judith does, she’d like another little one.

Sally calls a few minutes before the main fight starts. She’s going to join us, yay! Maggie and I’d ordered panchos since we’d first gotten there and they were barely bringing them to us. Grr. Sally gets there and we get up to order some drinks. I get a frozen strawberry Margarita that’s incredibly watered down. Bleh.

I don’t remember much of the fight since we were all talking, but we had a great night. Sally was going home and Jorge and Maggie were going home so we went home, too. Mario ended up staying at Chris’ with his Nino and I came home. All the nights of staying up late were catching up with me.

Mario worked on Sunday, which sucked. We stayed home all day while I cleaned and uploaded pictures to Flickr at the same time. It was about damn time, too. I’ve been, as you’ve probably noticed, editing/uploading old entries that I started and never published. For dinner that night Mom ordered a botana from El Pato. Mario and I stayed up watching movies; Aly fell asleep. I started feeling really ill, like my stomach was upset. Stupid food. I’d been wanting Flamin’ Hot Fries all day but I didn’t let the stomach ache stop me. I felt fine a few minutes later, thank goodness.

I dreaded the next day. I was going to have to do everything I didn’t do Sunday, like grocery shopping >_<.

We woke up near noontime the Friday after we got back from San Antonio. It was perfect timing because Mario’s off on Fridays. We chilled out, sorted through our luggage (I gave him the cap and T-shirt we brought him–he loved them!), watched the end of Enchanted because the kids and I didn’t get to finish watching it the night before while on the way home and then Mom sent us to get chicken for the family. She and my in-laws were going to watch the kids while Mario and I went on a date.

We drove around in circles for what felt like forever and finally decided to try BJ’s Brewhouse, a new-ish restaurant. We were originally going to go to Chili’s, one of my faves, but we wanted to try something new so we went there.

It’s a gorgeous place; kind of an upscale sports bar. Mario falls in love immediately when he realizes they specialize in beer LOL. As I’m flipping through the menu I’m sort of freaking out…the prices are insane! Almost every dish is $20. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good meal, but man, that’s just a little exaggerated!

Mario gets his beer and I get a Strawberry Daiquiri. We decide to get a spinach and artichoke pizza. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. That pizza was SO WORTH the price!! I want some right now…

We picked Mario’s paycheck up after dinner and went to Walmart to cash it since all the banks were closed by then. We shopped around a bit and then I think we went home.

If I remember correctly I paid bills the next morning, went to see Gramma, and then Mom, the kiddos and I met Mario and his friend Manny (who was visiting) at Burger King for lunch. He told us all about his job; which he made sound peachy and all but I still wouldn’t be okay with Mario being away for so long. Mario was actually thinking for some time about going with Manny, but we talked about it and decided it wasn’t in the best interest of our family, regardless of how much money he’d be making.

I can’t remember much from Sunday. I think this is the day I decided to stay home and clean.

Monday (June 23rd) was spent lazying around most of the morning and then John took me to Kumori while Mom watched the kiddos. It was delicious as always. We joked around and enjoyed our food (neither of us had had sushi in quite a while) and then we went to the mall for a stroll. We were browsing around in Game Stop when mom called on my cell. She asks if we’re on our way yet–Alaethia’s been throwing up non-stop. Oh gosh. My poor baby. Her first encounter with vomit, ever. We weren’t sure if it was a stomach virus or if she’d caught Matthew’s Strep. One of the first symptoms he’d had was vomiting. We rush home as soon as I hang up with Mom.

I get home and sure enough, the unmistakable stench of vomit seems as though it’s penetrated the walls. Alaethia’s seems to be in good spirits, though. I get to washing everything, because Mom of course just tossed everything into a lovely, smelly pile. I’m gagging the whole time, because as I’ve mentioned tons of times on this site, vomit is not my forte as a parent.

I ask Mom if Alaethia puked on my sofas, because I notice the throw blanket that she loves to snuggle with was covered in puke. She says no. Once I’m done getting everything into the laundry I scoop Alaethia up in my arms and fall into the sofa with her. And just as we hit the sofa the nasty smell of vomit poofs up into the air. Alaethia had indeed vomited on most of the sofa but Mom didn’t want to tell me. She didn’t have to, I smelled it! It took tons of the cleaner they gave us at Furniture Row and about half a bottle of Febreeze to make the smell come out!

It’s later in the evening and Alaethia starts getting warm. Mary’s holding her while I administer the Motrin. She hated it but took it anyway. Mary’s still holding her while she, Mario and I are talking in the kitchen and Alaethia starts vomiting violently. I feel so bad for her; she’s so helpless and little and all the while Mary’s leaning her over the trash can, Alaethia’s desperately reaching for me. My poor girl.

I took her to the doctor the next morning and her Strep culture’s negative so it’s most likely a virus. They prescribed the usual: Pedialyte and Motrin and just wait it out. I don’t even get the Pedialyte at the pharmacy because they don’t have the non-flavored one (to mix with juice) and buying the flavored ones they do have is a waste of money. She never drinks them. So we give her Gatorade (which was hard enough to give her, much less the crackers and soup) and when she became really desperate, watered-down milk.

She didn’t throw up anymore but she had constant diarrhea. We’d never gone through so many diapers.

Mario gets home from work and we’re talking when Jaylen rushes to the bathroom because he’s got a tummy ache. Sure enough he missed the toilet by an inch and threw up all over the bathroom mat and anything in a three-foot radius. We get him cleaned up and into bed and put a wastebasket near his bed just in case. I disinfect everything with Lysol and throw out the rug completely.

As we’re getting into bed we hear Jaylen throwing up violently, again. We rush to his bedroom and once again he didn’t even have time to lean over towards the wastebasket; he threw up all over his Transformers comforter. We clean him up, roll everything up, throw it into the washer and get him new sheets. I’m trying to be extremely careful and try not to breathe in anything or touch anything without washing my hands. I spray everything down with Lysol again and as I’m changing the trash bag inside the wastebasket I see Mario leaning in to give Jaylen a kiss on the cheek. Uh oh.

I’ve got Eenan keeping himself separate from the other kids and it’s extremely hard for him since he wants to be with Alaethia all the time. Alaethia’s still got diarrhea but her appetite’s getting a little better. I feel so bad for Jaylen. He asks if he can play Game Cube and I say of course. I get him the controller and he props himself up and starts to play. I went into the room to check on him about 10 minutes later and he was asleep with the controller in his hands. Poor baby.

Mario calls around 12 noon and tells me he’s caught the bug; he’d already thrown up three times. He was on his way home.

He quarantined himself in our bedroom and I spent most of the day tending to my sickies and cleaning up. I don’t think I’d done more laundry or used up more Lysol and Clorox cleaning wipes in my life! Jaylen threw up at least 3 more times that day and he got diarrhea. I’d noticed that with this virus, once you got diarrhea the vomiting was over.

Mario’s such a big kid; if I went 10 minutes without checking on him, and if he was awake, he’d moan, “Ohhh…no one cares about me…” LOL

Mario’s week of vacation was supposed to start the next day, Thursday, but we laugh that he began half a day early. Certainly not the way he wanted to, though.

I kept wondering when the bug was going to hit me, since I was the one who’d had contact with everyone. I was sort of hoping that if I was going to get sick for the brunt of it to be that Wednesday and wear off for Thursday, because I had a dinner date with the girls and wasn’t going to miss it for the world. I don’t know how I dodged the bullet (obsessive hand-washing, perhaps?) but I didn’t get sick at all. Neither did Eenan.

Mario felt much better Thursday and so did Jaylen, thank goodness. Alaethia still had mild diarrhea but at least her appetite was back. Mario wouldn’t watch them alone, my mom and in-laws were there to help. So I left to meet the girls at night feeling okay; not as guilty as I thought I would.

My first stop before meeting the girls at Olive Garden was at Conn’s, where I would pay for a third of what I got Mario’s camera for. Turns out I had to re-sign and do the contract all over again since the guy who originally worked on my account wasn’t there anymore. So I couldn’t give them a payment on that day, or for another two weeks.

Karina was already at Olive Garden so we ordered our drinks (I got a Strawberry Mango margarita) and just had a good time chatting. Carmen got there next and then Sally did. We ordered our food and ate and had great conversation. It’s great getting together with them. It doesn’t happen often so when we do get a chance to meet up we’re bursting with stuff to talk about. Sometimes I feel like we don’t get to talk enough! There are only so many hours that a restaurant stays open, for example. Olive Garden closes at 10…we were still there at 10:30! Our waiters were nice and patient and even took photos for us.

I can’t stress enough how awesome it is to have these girls back in my life. And I’ve got Myspace to thank for it!

Yes. Just one more day till the weekend! I really can’t wait. Alaethia refused to go to sleep till 12:30 last night, woke up for a bottle at 3am and I could barely get up at 5:20, my usual time. I let myself “sleep in” 10 more minutes, but that just made things worse since I got a headache.

Today was SO hectic at work. The kids (and some teachers) are running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to meet the criteria to attend the field trip next Friday. (Which reminds me: I need to go and buy my own rollerblades. The ones at the skate center smell like rotten cheese.) I had kids going in all day asking me to check their goals. It’s so heartbreaking to have to turn them away because no matter how hard they try, they’re just not going to make it. I really don’t know why teachers don’t push reading until there’s a reward of some sort. Had the students been encouraged to read all year the majority would be going.

I had a little…talk with that kid that was rude to me last Wednesday. He was rude again today and I wasn’t having that crap. I don’t lose my patience very often, but this kid is just something else. Not even the rudest kids I’ve had the pleasure of encountering so far have been as rude as this one. But I think the talk might have worked, we’ll see. If there’s another little problem, I’m definitely issuing out a referral!

Things at home were much better. The boys were well behaved and Alaethia was cute, as always. She’s dancing to the little iPhone tune right now; shaking her bootie back and forth. Now she’s trying to change the channel on the TV. And is doing squats and clapping LOL.

I got to surf for a while, spoke to Sally on the phone and hung up most of the clean laundry that was laying on one of my sofas for a week. I’m terrible about putting laundry away, but I’m happy to know that my boss is also bad with it, so I’m not the only one. I made dinner (sandwiches, anyone?) and then worked out with Mary. I really don’t feel like it’s making a difference at all, but at least I’m doing something and making my heart work. I still need to work on my portion sizes and need to cut down immensely on my sweets-snacking if I want to see some kind of difference. I might go weigh myself at the nurse’s office tomorrow.

Anyway.

*sigh* I’m feeling stressed about certain things, but I won’t write about it now. Maybe I never will. I just want to document this so that I can look back and feel relieved that I made it through this and things got better.