Category: Friendship

I’d been doing a little better at updating and there I went and let tons of days pass by again. Grr.

So Mario ended up working on Friday, since he had Christmas Day off and was going to have Monday off, too. It was a pretty darn boring day; I spent most of it freaking out over how fast January’s going to go by.

Saturday – Woke up with a sore throat because I brilliantly had the fan on when it was in the 40’s during the night. (My hot flashes could care less how cold it really is outside.) We spent the day chilling out and I felt great until around 2pm. Out of nowhere I started getting horrible pains in my lower abdomen that were coming every 3-5 minutes apart. John was freaking out; he could tell just how uncomfortable I was. He told me to call Mario but I told him no, I didn’t want to bother him when it was probably just Braxton Hicks contractions and I need to drink more water since I was probably dehydrated. John said the baby was probably thinking, “This place is getting really small…the water’s getting really low…I’m starting to see a light…” and that maybe I REALLY SHOULD call Mario.

Mary invited us to the movies. I almost didn’t want to go, but I took a shower hoping I’d feel better. I still felt uncomfortable, but went to movies anyway.

We watched Night at the Museum. It was really cute; totally going to buy it on DVD when it comes out. Eenan said it was “Hilarious!” and both boys laughed the whole time. Halfway through the movie, my belly didn’t hurt anymore, even after eating pickle, dipping popcorn into nacho cheese and drinking a small Coke.

Almost immediately after I got up from my seat when the movie was over, I got a horrible, stabbing pain in my back. It felt like a pinched nerve and felt terrible with every step I took. I could barely walk to the car.

Mary decided to pick up pizzas for dinner from Pizza hut. Since Jose and Elda were picking up pizzas from the same place and were already done when we got there, Mary suggested I come home with them, Jorge, Sammy, Brandon and Angela to rest for a little bit. Jaylen and Eenan stayed with Mary, Noelia and Yazmin. (Mary later told me Jaylen said, “Take care of yourself and Alaethia, Mom!” Aww!)

After laying on the couch for a while (and feeling insanely bored and alone), I went to Mary’s to eat some pizza. I didn’t have much of an appetite. Mario got here a little later and we all sat around and talked since everyone was here for dinner.

Eenan had four loose teeth. The bottom adult teeth already came in behind his baby ones and the top ones started doing the same thing. Their dentist told me the bottom ones were fine; they’d eventually be pushed out, but if the top ones did that they’d have to remove them. Of course I was praying his teeth would fall out soon.

I got my wish that night. The kids were all playing in the living room and Eenan somehow got a tooth knocked out by accident. After cleaning him up and lecturing him about how they all shouldn’t be so rough, he went back to play and got the other one loosened, too! I got his little “Tooth Fairy Pillow”, which you can hang from a doorknob or bed post and has a pocket just for the tooth out of my closet. Noelia bought him that little pillow when he was around 1 or 2 :). He was sleeping over at Mary’s so he was a little nervous that the Tooth Fairy wouldn’t find him, but we reassured him that all teeth have little invisible tracking devices and the Tooth Fairy would certainly find him ;). I also told him that I was going to leave a note for the Tooth Fairy asking to leave me a “copy” of his tooth, since I wanted to keep a memory of it :).

He was really happy that the Tooth Fairy gave him $5. I think it would have been $10, except the Tooth Fairy didn’t have any change, heh.

Mario and I stayed up watching The Devil Wears Prada. It was 1am by the time we went to sleep.

Sunday – The boys stayed with mom the next afternoon while Noelia, Mary and I went to get ribbon, candles and stuff for my babyshower and some stuff for Noelia’s wedding. We came home, worked on invitations, then went back to Wal-Mart a few hours later for ribbon and shrimp cocktail stuff, since that’s what we were having for dinner. We made a stop at H-E-B for Clamato, one of the ingredients, since Wal-Mart was completely out. We picked up Bonnie and got home around 6. Mario was already here when we arrived since he was let out 15 minutes early. His tummy was upset so he chilled out at our house for a while.

Jose, Elda and Mary made shrimp cocktail and I made cheese dip (ground beef, Rotel, Velveeta all melted and delicious together). Everything was yummy. We went out at 9pm to pop fireworks. Mario and Jose popped the big, dangerous ones and Brandon, Sammy, Eenan and Jaylen watched and enjoyed sparklers and poppers. Mary came out for a few moments since she was watching Bonnie but Elda, Mom and I stayed out the whole time and took pictures. I won’t even bother posting them to Flickr since they suck ’cause it was dark.

It was freezing outside. My nose started running and I got worse by the hour. Everyone cleaned up (except me. I can’t bend anymore!) and we came back inside to chill for a while. We went back out at 11:55 to see all the huge fireworks the neighbors like to get and hug eachother and call people (which didn’t work out for most of us since the phone lines were backed up). We had to quickly go back inside since crazy people started shooting their guns. We do live in the boonies, afterall.

Monday – I had a horrible night’s sleep. Peed like, 5 times, and the other times I woke up I was coughing because of my itchy throat. Since Mario wasn’t working, we thought, “Yes, at least we can sleep in!” but that didn’t happen. We woke up at 9am to Big Mario blasting rancheras and Tejano music from his radio in his carport/workshop, which just so happens to be a few feet away from our bedroom. We laid there, wide-eyed and annoyed. Mario kept talking about how he couldn’t wait to start building a house–he was in a terrible mood. He told the boys and me to have breakfast and get ready so we could leave somewhere, anywhere. He got impatient and left on a drive somewhere. We were ready by 11:30, which is when he got back and says, “You know, I don’t feel like going anywhere anymore.” Grr. I hate when he does that.

We chilled out at Mary’s with everyone. Mario pissed me off during lunchtime because he didn’t give me shrimp cocktail. He had a HUGE bowl that I new he wasn’t going to finish (and didn’t) and drowned it in hotsauce after I told him I couldn’t eat it that way. He insisted I could and said he’d get me a bowl, but I told him no thanks. Later on I found out there was more and he knew about it, but he still didn’t give me any. I decided to suck it up and just ate deer soup my dad-in-law had made. It was pretty good anyway. *hiss*

We’d made plans to go to the movies at 4:55, but since nobody else never confirmed plans and my mom-in-law got busy we decided to go for the 7:15 showing instead.

Since nobody was sure they were going to even go, we decided to go to a taqueria called “El Primito” we like to go to. Eenan didn’t want to go, which kind of upset me but, fine, we let him stay. Jaylen went with us. We get there, and they’re closed. Talk about nothing going our way. We quickly start getting annoyed.

We can’t decide where to eat; Mario doesn’t like my suggestions but won’t make any suggestions himself. Everyone decided to go to the movies after all, so as a last resort we decided we’d go, too. Finally, something would go right. We went to check out the movies but Mario had a fit since they didn’t have a poster for The Marine and he didn’t want to watch anything else. He starts driving back home.

On the way, he makes me even more upset about something stupid like not thinking of a restaurant to go to, so I bawl my eyes out since I’m so darn emotional after all the little things that go to me throughout the day. We get home and I sit here, trying to stop feeling like crap. After 20 minutes he asks Jaylen if he wants something from Star’s. Jaylen says yes, corndogs. He asks me if I want anything. I hate Star’s right now since everything they make gives me heartburn, but I decide on a burrito supreme and some munchers. He gets back and we’re quiet, but peaceful. We eventually started making small talk and then he started playing around with me, which is his usually way of appologizing.

I got a text message from Sally and called her right back. My phone’s a PDA and does almost everything but the damn thing doesn’t allow me to text message, piece of crap. We decide to get together the next day for lunch. It would totally do me some good to chat with a friend and I’m super excited to get out of the house since Mario usually has the truck now that the kids are at home and John borrows the Sentra for work.

I was too emotionally and physically tired to clean that night, or even take a shower, so I leave it for the next morning.

Tuesday – I get Mario up and ready for work then haul ass cleaning like never before. Where I got all that energy from is beyond me. I washed the pile of dishes that had shamefully accumulated since Friday since we’re always at Mary’s since family’s over almost every night. It took half an hour to wash a sink-ful of dishes, and that’s a record. I’m a total snail when it comes to washing dishes.

I thought Sally would get here at 10am, but she was running late and would get here at 12 instead. I was sort of relieved that she’d get here a little later–it would give me time to finish up and shower!

Eenan vacummed and Jaylen took toys they’d left in the living room to their bedroom. I cleaned the turtle tank while Mom swept for me. I got the tank clean and turtles fed and mom refilled the tank with water while I quickly took a shower. Didn’t have a chance to blowdry or flat-iron my hair, but at least I was clean :). Thank God for the extra help!

Sally gets here and she talks and catches up a bit with my mom and the boys. Mom watches them while we go to Chilli’s. We spoke about every single subject we could think of.

That’s what I’ve always loved about that girl: we can be apart for years but when we meet up again it’s like we’d been talking the whole time. We had some great food (which she refused to let me help pay for!) and even better talk. Our old friend Magda married another childhood friend of ours, Steve, which I find totally adorable and just…wow! I love to hear about stuff like that. Like when I heard about Johanna and Ralph? Totally unexpected! They knew eachother since they were little and ended up married. That’s just so awesome!

Sally vented to me about her current situation and then she listened to me vent about ours; my thoughts of the future and so on. Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately. We talked about Vero, too. I wish I could see her and catch up. And with everyone else, too!

I’m hoping, hoping, hoping we can meet up again next week. It was great catching up. I’m definitely going to need my friends after I have Alaethia, especially if it’s going to be like the last two times when I had mild Post Partum Depression. Only it was really crappy after having Jaylen since I really didn’t talk to any of my friends anymore. That’s one of my New Years Resolutions for this year: make more time for my friends!

Later in the evening, Mom, Jaylen and I stopped by Stripes (formerly Circle K) and got Mario an orange juice (his throat’s botherin him now, too) and some donuts and a Yoohoo, Kool-aide drink and donuts for Jaylen and I. We dropped them off to Mario and then went to Target, where Mom wanted to get Alaethia some things off of my Registry.

Not only was traffic total hell, but just about every-single-thing I put on my Registry is on clearance! It totally sucks. I’m probably not even going to get her the Womb Sounds Bear since they totally ran out at that Target. It’s listed at $4.98!! It used to be $19.99. I’d LOVE IT if I could find it for that price at another Target. Too bad Mario has the truck :(.

It took about an hour or so to find everything she wanted to get, plus marking everything on the list so the cashier could “remove” them from the Registry. Since they added that stupid median on McColl and there’s no way to easily get to the other shopping center, I had to go all around the damn block to get to Pet Smart. I had a horrible, throbbing pain in my back when we got in the truck, probably for standing and walking so long. I could barely move!

Jaylen remembered we promised him a Beta but I told him we’d wait till Friday, so we could get everything his fish would need since we were in a hurry. Mom offered to buy him the fish, so he got a blue Beta. They were sold out of Beta tanks completely since Christmas but the girl said we could keep him in the little cup we bought him in for a while since it’s all the space he needs. The girl cleaned out his little “tank” and told us which food and water conditioner to get him and we were set. We got baby crickets, since they were sold out of large ones if you can believe that, and finally came home.

Jaylen was infatuated with his fish and was showing him off to everyone. He was so happy and proud he quickly came to find the perfect spot for him. He decided Blastoise would be his name and he would reside on his desk. Aww :).

We ate lasagna at Mary’s and Mario got home a while after. We chilled out with everyone and then came home to bathe the boys. Eenan wanted to sleep over at Mary’s and was excited that the Tooth Fairy would be visiting him again. Earlier during the day before Sally came over, he somehow turned the loose tooth backwards. I told him to let me gently pull it, but he said he’d rather the doctor do it. After telling him the doctor would charge us $200 just to pull the tooth away from the tiny bit of gum that was stuck to it, he let me do it. It came off right away and he started making plans to buy a game, or a toy LOL.

Mario and I stayed up watching The Family Stone, which could easily be one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. Both of us got teary-eyed near the end and just sat there with my head on his shoulder and his head on mine. We went to sleep when the movie was done and I told him how lucky I was to have him and he said the same about me. I told him my concerns about the future; what I want and how maybe I shouldn’t be in such a hurry for Alaethia to grow up so I can work since I’ll definitely regret it once she does start growing up, just like I mourn the kids’ babyhood.

This will be a good year, I just know it. It will be if we make it one.

(Alaethia’s got hiccups again :).)

Okay, either I’m hallucinating because of all the sugar in my coffee or I actually heard them say on Today that J.K. Rowling named her 7th book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow” or “Hollow”? Okay, maybe I was hearing things, because the dude (the one with the salt-n-pepper hair) said the name of the book then said, “But first…” and went on to something else and they haven’t mentioned it. Now they have Anita Baker singing. Grr.

Okay, just checked on Mugglenet.com and yes, it’s called, “Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows.” Now that I know this new bit of information, I feel just a tad bit more impatient. I want the book finished already! The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie isn’t coming out till July 13, 2007–I don’t think I can stand waiting for the book even longer than that (like I have a choice, right?).

Anyway, I’m so sorry if I scared some of you since I haven’t updated in a few days. I’m fine, baby’s fine and she’s still happily using my insides as a kickboxing bag. I’ve just been super busy since it was the boys’ last week of school before vacation began. Thank you so much for your concern though, it means a lot to me :). I promise, if something big does happen, like going into labor, I will somehow get to a computer and inform you guys (I’d do it through my PDA but it hates me and WordPress).

So the Saturday after I last posted started off as a calm and relaxing one. We’d be attending Catherine’s birthday party in the afternoon, which, according to my mother, was at 3pm. I took my sweet time washing my towering pile of dishes, bathed the boys and let them run around in their underwear for a while and started sewing a little camera bag for my new camera. Mario keeps telling me, “Why won’t you just buy one?” I don’t like the big, black, bulky bags for my camera. I like carrying it in my purse and one of those bags just won’t fit with all the other crap I have in there.

Well, after about an hour of fighting with the satiny fabric and having a fit because I’d have to sew some of it by hand I ended up with this:

(Holy Moly, I just saw Salma Hayek and Ellen eat crickets! Eww!)

It did not fit my new camera! It did, however, fit my old one, but that kinda sucks anyway since I don’t use my old camera anymore! I ended up using it as a little make-up bag till I can get some fabric and a zipper to make a new one.

While I’m finishing up the little bag, Mary calls and tells me that they’re ready (her and Noelia); to let her know when I’m ready. I look at the clock and it’s 1pm. I ask, “What time are we leaving?”

“Mmm…around 1:15?”

I panic and yell, “What?! But it doesn’t start till 3! I was barely going to take a shower!”

It actually started at 2, but my mother was misinformed. I don’t know why I didn’t bother looking at my own darn invitation. I had half an hour to dress the boys, take a quick shower (which sucked since the water pressure was SUPER LOW and I was about an inch away from the wall of the shower stall), iron my and Mario’s clothes (for Noelia’s graduation later that night) and get myself dressed and hair done. I hate being in a rush, just hate it. I was so frustrated by the time we left, but I sucked it up and tried to be in a good mood for the kids. We picked up Sonia and arrived at the party.

We should have just left late; the food wasn’t served till 3 and I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, which was around 9am. My sugar was dropping quickly and I was starting to shake badly. Thankfully, Elda had a 3 Musketeers in her purse which I quickly gobbled down. I felt better almost instantly and then finally, the food came. The kids inhaled their pizzas and punch and continued to play and enjoy themselves. They always have fun at that place but I wouldn’t have their parties there; it would probably cost me one of them to pay for it.

We left the party early since we’d have to drop Mom off at home with the boys. Noelia’s graduation was at 6:30pm, but we had to be there super early to get seats and before they closed the doors on us. Mario called while he was on his way home from work and asked me to pick up a plate for him from Long John Silvers since he got out early and didn’t have lunch. We get home and he’s frantically getting ready and starts stuffing his mouth with food simultaneously.

Noelia had left the party with Andy and went straight to UTPA. Big Mario, Mary, Mario and I left in our truck and Elda and Jose followed. We met Tommy, Yadira and the kids there and found Noelia, who instructed us on where to go.

I knew the ceremony was being held in the gym, but I had no idea we’d be seated in the bleachers. Normally, I’m not afraid of heights–not at all. But since I’m pregnant and my center of balance is way off at 8 months, I felt incredibly nervous going up the bleachers. My heart sank and I felt even worse when we got to the row we were going to sit in; we were high up and there was a 5, maybe 6 inch strip of wood we could walk on. I kind of froze at the beginning of the row and just stood there looking down. Is that what being afraid of heights feels like? I’d never felt that way before in my life. I must have looked like a loon, but I squatted down a little and held on to the bench while I slowly inched my way to Mario. He was looking at me like I was insane LOL.

I thought I’d lost my camera for a few (horrifying) minutes, but I’d left it in the car. We tried focusing the camera as best as we could but none of the settings would get a clear picture; we were really far. The ceremony was long and boring and then a man who sounded exactly like the one from the Visine commercials (…For red, dry eyes…) starts calling out names of honors students. I had absentmindedly started slumping on Mario’s shoulder and was falling asleep by the time they started giving out the “diplomas”. When they were done, we met Noelia outside and took pictures then everyone went their seperate ways. Big Mario, Mary, and I were hungry (Mario still wasn’t) so we stopped at Wendy’s. I had some chicken nuggets and a very cheesy baked potato with sour cream and chives. We had a good time. Our last stop was Wal-Mart and then home. I was exhausted.

We had plans to go to Target to start on my registry and then to our storage unit and get stuff out for the Garcia Family but we only got a chance to do the latter. Our unit was an eyesore of a mess, so we spent a good half hour organizing it. Jorge, Mario’s godfather, has a bunch of his stuff in there, too, so he put his stuff on one side and ours on another. Now we can actually walk in there.

I took the opportunity to get the boys’ baby clothes boxes out and check what I’ll be keeping as a memory of them, using for Alaethia (like white onesies and gowns), and giving to charity. I need to buy some Dreft soap, so I haven’t even tackled the boxes yet.

We dropped the stuff off at home, ate a quick lunch of sandwiches and chips and all of us piled in the truck again since we were going to the Motorcross Park and the Mud Pits with some of Mario’s friends. Out of all the guys that were going (like 4 or 5), only one went: Manny and his family. We chilled out with them for a few good hours. The kids were being absolute brats at first and I was quickly getting frustrated since Mario was having the time of his life on the ATVs, but after we gave the boys a talking-to they calmed down. I enjoyed the rest of the night after that. I was terrified of the boys being taken around in the ATVs, especially after it got dark but they followed instructions well and Manny and Mario took good care of them. We came home super late for a school night, so we fed the boys a quick meal of corn dogs, gave them 5-minute showers each and put them to bed. Mario was making some baked fish for us and it wasn’t done till around 10, but it was delicious.

Mario was off work the next day so after we picked Jaylen up from school Mario, Jaylen, John and I went to Target and I started on my Registry. (I really dislike that the only way you can view it is by using our first and last names :(!) It took all of 35 minutes to scan everything we liked/needed. We let Jaylen join in so he wouldn’t feel left out; I’d bring him the items and he’d scan them for me. I feel pretty good about the list. I left out the Graco Mikhala stroller set since Mario’s getting it, and we left out the bouncer since Yadira wants to give us hers. We also left out things she’ll be using much later on, like a playpen and highchair. I’m so excited. I thought it was so cute how Mario scanned some pink booties and a pink and yellow cap :).

I had every intention of starting on my baking that day, but it didn’t happen. John and I went to Dollar General to get some ingredients I needed (sugar, flour, crushed pineapple, etc.) and some nice baskets for the cookies. That would be the kids’ gifts to their teachers: a pretty basket full of homemade cookies.

For the first time ever, my little brother had to bail me out of something. I’d put gas in the truck earlier that day and left my debit card in my back pocket. It fell out of my pants when we’d gotten home and I didn’t notice. I had to change into decent clothes again when we went to the store, and totally forgot about the debit card. Well, I’m getting ready to pay for my stuff ($18-something) and realize I’m missing my card. I couldn’t even remember if I’d put it in my pocket at the gas station; I imagined everyone getting free gas with my card. John pays for my stuff with his debit card and gloats about it for the rest of the day. I told him I’d pay him back but he said since he owes me a Christmas present I can use the money to buy it for myself. How sweet LOL.

I was put in a worse mood when we got home after the ordeal at the store and Mary reminded us that there was a birthday party we’d made plans to attend. Great. No baking for me, which meant being in a hurry the next day, and possibly night like every other year.

The kids had fun at the party and we got to see Venessa’s newborn twins. They’re two months old, but since they were born a month early they’re actually 1 month old. They were so cute and tiny :).

I had a foot-in-mouth moment when Mario’s cousin Betty was asking me when I was due. Then I asked her when she was due (which was a few days before Christmas) and she half-laughs, “I had him last Saturday! He’s a week old.” I felt so embarrassed that I further shoved my foot in my mouth when I said, “I thought you looked smaller!” Lord, help me.

Mario already wasn’t happy that we were going to the party and became even more frustrated when Mary and I took half an hour at H-E-B after the party. We needed to get a few more ingredients they didn’t have at Dollar General and of course with people traffic and the lines it took forever. When we got home, Mario had a total fit and made a mess in the kitchen. He made me feel like crap right away and I told him so. We didn’t talk the rest of the night; I took a shower and went straight to bed without saying a word to him. I woke up in the middle of the night to find his arm around my belly. I took that as his way of feeling sorry and guilty, even though I probably wasn’t supposed to “know” he was holding me.

The greatest thing just happened! Itzel, my former instructor (Mrs. C-R), just called to say hello and wish us a Merry Christmas. Her little girl just turned 3 months old on the 19th! I need to stop by school and visit her and have some lunch or something to catch up :).

As I was saying before, I spent the next day, Tuesday, making the batter for Snickerdoodles, picking up the boys and making cookies all in between everything else. I made Snickerdoodles of course, and some cookies called Butter Spritz Cookies I found in a stack of recipes Mom’d given me last year. NEVER AGAIN will I make those pieces of crap. I followed the directions step-by-step and they didn’t taste at all the way the description said they would. Dumb things. Didn’t help that the cookie press I’d borrowed from Mary (which she’d never used before herself) wasn’t working. I had to use cookie cutters. Even if the cookie press did work, I doubt they would have tasted any better >_<. Mary made Pan De Polvo and Pineapple bars and told me to use some of those, too. Lifesaver! It was 9:30 by the time I finished with the last cookie sheet and was about to start on chocolate chip cookies but took Mary's advice and just used the four sweets we already had. I had a hell of a time with the plastic wrap I was putting around the baskets but they turned out really nice. The kids each took the baskets that were for their teachers on their lap yesterday morning. Eenan handed his to Mrs. R., who said she loves Snickerdoodles, especially those that are homemade :). Jaylen carried a basket in each hand and gave them to Mrs. T. and Mrs. S., who hugged him and said he was a "handsome boy". I came home and quickly made Mario some breakfast. I scarfed down my food since my doctor's appointment was at 9. There's never any point to going early anyway, since they don't see you for at least an hour and a half after your appointment. Yesterday was no different. They called me in at 10:30 and took my vitals. I didn't gain any weight in the past 3 weeks. In fact, I lost 5 oz., which is surprising considering how much I eat. Laura, my nurse, said everything went straight to my belly because it's definitely bigger than last time. I told her about my constant aching feet and how they've been swelling at night lately. My urinalysis was perfect and so was my sugar, after they pricked my finger to check my glucose since I had glucose in my pee once again (Mario warns me not to put so much sugar in my coffee!). They took me into the Sono room and the doctor came in about 10 minutes later. He checked my feet and said I looked fine and my blood pressure was fine, too, so the swelling might be because I'm on my feet a lot and my belly growing isn't helping. So, I just gotta keep my feet elevated sometimes. He gave me an ultrasound to check the baby's measurements and he said she's weighing about 4 lbs. 6 oz. :). I saw her legs, big belly, her huge head (which is nicely wedged in my pelvis which is why I've been feeling those annoying I-desperately-need-to-pee pains lately), and her little privates, which still show she's a girl :). The only thing that I found a bit strange was he said I was 32 weeks, which is NOT TRUE! I'm 34 weeks and some days. He told the nurse to schedule my next appointment for 35 weeks, which according to him is January 10th! I'm supposed to be 35 weeks next Tuesday, so I don't know what the deal is. All I know is when I go back on the 10th, it starts the beginning of my pelvic exams and some swab that tests for some bacteria or something that causes premature labor. How lovely. Since the doctor moved my due date even further, I'm now supposedly due Feb. 8th. *bangs head* I picked Jaylen up at noon, and he was happily lugging a huge red truck he got in the gift exchange around and his backpack was full of goodies and glitter from art projects he was bringing home. We came home and chilled out till it was time to pick up Eenan, who had a huge gift bag and even more glittery projects with him. He made Mario this adorable basket, full of copper glitter and foam stickers. He was so proud of his basket. When he got home he quickly took all of Mario's keys off the key rings on the wall and put them in the basket :P. John and I left the kids with Mom and then headed for McAllen to drop off the bag of clothes, toys and a brand-new Scooby blanket for the Garcia family. I stop by Mario's work first, just to chat and as I'm leaving one of his co-workers tells me to go the other way, since something's going on at the Chase Bank Tower. I go the way he instructed me to and sure enough, when passing the bank we see a whole bunch of people standing outside the bank, looking up. There's cops and firemen everywhere. We try our hardest to find the building, but with all the one-way streets over there it was kind of difficult. I call the number in the newspaper and the lady says they're located right behind Chase Bank, but they're being evacuated so she was on her way home. I ask what happened and she said there was a bomb threat and everyone was told to leave. She told me I could drop them off today. Just my luck. I want to do something nice and it's the day the whole damn place is evacuated! I had Mario take the bag with him today to drop it off for me, since I didn't want to drive all the way over there for nothing again. I hope he got it to them okay. Mom's behind me, crocheting a blanket for Alaethia. She'd been wanting to start crocheting again, but after not crocheting for almost 30 years she'd forgotten how. She didn't stop trying till she "got it" again yesterday and now she's about a fourth of the way through with the blanket. It's all cute and pastel-ly :). I'm so glad she's got a hobby again; she's thrilled about it. Now she can teach me how! I've always wanted to learn but my brain turns to mush when I try to learn from tutorials online. It's taken me half the day, literally, to type this out while doing everything else I need to do. I have to stop slacking and start cleaning this place up since Jorge, Mario's godfather, will arrive here from California sometime tomorrow and I don't want him seeing this mess. Tomorrow's also the day that I'm PRAYING we finish with our Christmas shopping. I do not want to be in town on the 23rd and 24th--it's way too dangerous. I still need gift ideas for some people, too. Which reminds me: I need to e-mail Noelia to send me a copy of her List. The hard one's going to be Mario's dad. We still owe him a birthday present from the beginning of December! We can never find his sizes or the stuff he wants :(. Okay, that's it. I'm going to start from the kitchen and work my way to the bathroom and living room. THEN I'll tackle the bedrooms.

It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged, as usual. I hate when I do this, especially when interesting things happen like they did the past few days and then I can’t remember anything. Damn this Pregnancy Amnesia.

We got Jaylen out of school half an hour early (right before lunch, which is his last “class”) so we could eat lunch with both of them in the cafeteria since Eenan had been wanting us to do that since school began. We came back home to waste time, then went to Burger King to get our meals and went to the cafeteria to meet Eenan. We were 10 minutes late, thanks to the new girls at the drive-thru window, and I was sure Eenan was freaking out because we never got there. He notices us right away and screams, “Mom! Dad!” and runs towards us with his tray full of untouched pizza. We sit at the Parent Table and he says, “I thought you weren’t coming!” We ate, finished, and threw our stuff out. Since it was the last day of the Six Weeks and they didn’t have any tests or anything new to do, we signed Eenan out and brought him with us. We had tons of stuff to do, like pay our car note, and pay all our other bills (which we’d brilliantly thought to save money for the last time Mario got paid and thankfully most get paid online). One of the only bills we have to pay at the store is our Personal Plan from JC Penny. We made the payment and I noticed they were having a huge sale on pants and jackets, so we checked them out. Both my boys had a growth spurt after we bought them jeans for school, so although we can pass Eenan’s over to Jaylen, Eenan is left without. We found some cute green Camo ones and some dark jeans. They’ve both been so into Camouflage lately. I also can’t help but buy them the same clothes all the darn time. I don’t do it on purpose, but if I find a deal I’ll get them the same thing, in their sizes, of course. To tell you the truth, almost all the clothes they own are matching. And yes, I admit it; I dress them alike. They haven’t complained about it yet, heh.

We checked out the jackets and coats and they were still super expensive for being 50% off and of course the ones we liked were out of Eenan’s size. Jaylen still has his (reversible) jacket from last year but Eenan lost his good jacket this year so he absolutely needed one. We decided to give up and went to Target, where we bought Cars and Walmart to get pool cues and chalks.

My dad-in-law acquired a FREE 9 ft. pool table from a friend the day before. It didn’t have anything at all–no balls, triangle, cues, nothing–but hey, it was a free table and blue! Mario had borrowed $5 from his dad the day before and he said as payment he’d buy all the billiards supplies. I love pool. I admit, I’m the crappiest pool player, but I still love it.

We didn’t find the triangle at Wal-Mart, so we decided to check the other one later. Mario had spoken to Jorge earlier in the day and he said he had a whole set of pool balls and he could have them. Cool. Free balls!

We all got our hair cut after that at Mario’s friend, Manny’s wife’s salon. The kids and Mario desperately needed cuts and Mayra did a great job on them. Jaylen left his a little long because he wanted a Faux Hawk, but he’s yet to let me smush gel in his hair =\.

I got a haircut too, since the last one I got about a month ago was a total hack job. The lady supposedly cut my hair so it’ll look nice when it’s curly, but she failed to tell me she left it totally uneven and you could tell when it was flat ironed. I just had Mayra cut it straight across with whisps at the front. Lovin’ it.

We took showers when we got home, then went to Jorge’s, who got a pool table for pretty cheap as well. Maggie was working, so I spent a few hours watching the guys just play pool, which I didn’t mind since I had a bag of Fritos, bean dip and a bottle of Nestea :). Jaylen went along with us, but fell asleep as soon as we got there. He woke up later though and played with Jorgie and Justin. Eenan was spending the night at Mary’s, as usual, so he didn’t go.

I had a good time. I hadn’t seen Maggie in forever and it was nice catching up. They also played this trick on Mario with some online Ouija board and he totally bought it, my poor Love LOL. Maggie had already told me about it and told me not to say anything. It was almost painful watching Mario get all excited and freaked out about it :P.

I don’t remember much from Saturday morning. I started paying all our bills online sometime around 3pm, which was also around the time Big Mario arrived from the ranch with a BABY Texas Spiny Swift, just like Liz.

I decided to sign up for an online Home Depot account. I figured since we didn’t have to make the payment till the 19th, I’d just set it up and pay it later so I could leave to town before it got too late. Well, I sign up and for some reason it moves my payment date from the 19th to the 12th, which is the next day and is a Sunday! Payments don’t go through on Sunday, so I got all my junk together, John went with me while Mom watched the boys and we left to town.

I paid Home Depot first and then we went to Target. I needed to get some Play-Doh stuff and Magna Doodles that were on sale for the boys for Christmas. The deals were too goo to pass up and it was the last day they were on sale. I also got Mario a t-shirt with a squirrel in front holding up two nuts and under it it says, “Bigger than Yours”. He loves shirts like that :).

We went to Ross next, where John wanted to strangle me because he loathes Ross, but I wanted to check if they had any nice jackets for less than $30. I found a few in Eenan’s size, and then happened upon a black/gray/white Camo one in the size I needed and it was only $11.99! We checked it out, because you never know with Ross, and it was fine so we got in line, which was surprisingly not 100 ft. long like it usually is. We hurried out of there and got some crickets for our lizards at Pet Smart and hurried home.

We were having a get-together for Mario’s birthday at Chris’ that night, so Chris came over to pick up some cash to buy the stuff we’d need that night. Mario got out of work, came home and we went over to Chris’. Eenan, once again, didn’t go because he was spending the night at Mary’s. That boy doesn’t go anywhere with us unless he’s threatened.

It was nice and chilly that night. The girls and children were inside the house while the men chit-chatted outside. It was only Nancy and Jorge’s wife (I, for the life of me, can’t remember her name right now!) and me and we had a pretty good time talking about pregnancies, weight gain/loss, our husbands and other girl stuff. We didn’t leave till around 1am that night so I was super sleepy. It didn’t even feel like it was that late though since I’m sleepy all the time now!