Category: Gadgets

Tues., May 5th – I got the boys ready for school and stayed awake to search online for the perfect new upgrade to my Kodak Z650. Mario had been trying since Christmas to get me to find myself a new camera but I just felt way too guilty. Since Mother’s Day was coming up he told me, again, to pick out a camera for him to buy me. He said this time he wasn’t going to stop bugging until I got one so I said fine, if you insist, heh.

I originally wanted a 12MP Kodak with 15x zoom like Noelia and Andy’s (I forget what the actual name was), but I found an even more awesome one searching through Walmart.com! The Kodak Easyshare Z980. I fell in love. 12MP with 24x optical zoom?? Heaven!

Even though I shouldn’t have, I applied for the Walmart credit card because I’d feel better (i.e. not guilty for buying myself something so extravagant) giving monthly payments on it (with no interest!) than just slapping $400 on the counter in the store. Mario pushed me to get next-day shipping, which added $14 to the final purchase of $400.16. I loved the reviews I read all over the web about this camera; people compared it to Nikons and Canons that cost $1,000 more!

Emily was kind of grouchy that day and wouldn’t stay with Mom for anything. I don’t know what it is about Mom, or if it’s just that she is that attached to me, but she just doesn’t like Mom sometimes LOL.

Since it was Mario’s day off I went with him to Home Depot to get a few more “final” things for the living room; this time the materials for the doors. How many times have I said that already; that we’re getting the final things? LOL It’s never-ending with home improvement projects. Anyway, Mario was having a fit because he couldn’t find the proper door jambs and thresholds we needed for the doors. His way to do things is: if you can’t do/find something, you give up and stop/leave. That’s not how I roll. I searched and searched until I found the right parts, even though he kept threatening to leave me. Grr.

As for the potty training, Alaethia did somewhat okay. I feared leaving her behind with Mom while we went to Home Depot because I was afraid Mom would be too busy with Emily and Alaethia would have an accident. I sort of banned her from the living room because I was afraid she pee/poop on the sofa or rug LOL. She did have a few accidents, about 2 while we were at Home Depot and 1 poo accident. She left a nice dollop next to her potty chair. Lovely.

I spent that night updating my entries from the first week of April (right now, it’s July 9th and I’m barely updating for May, ha!) so I went to sleep pretty late. It was becoming the norm to sleep late, though. I’m just glad the girls are on my schedule and that Emily’s a pretty darn good sleeper for being 2 1/2 months!

Wed., May 6th – At this point I don’t even remember if I even got up to make Mario breakfast before he left to work that morning, but I do know for sure that I slept in till around 11am. I only woke up at that time because Elvira, my old co-worker and good friend, called my cell telling me she was driving around La Joya looking for my house. I literally sprang out of bed and washed up, brushed my teeth and hair, put on some decent clothes and frantically picked up toys and clothes and flung them into my bedroom. My dishes from the night before were in the sink and the floor wasn’t mopped. Why do I always get company when the house looks like hell, yet when I clean no one bothers to come over?!

Anyway, I apologized for my mess and was so glad for her company. We caught up on goings-on at work, I told her about labor/delivery and how wonderful Emily is and she told me about her daughter’s appointment in Houston about her seizures. Unfortunately the news wasn’t what they’d hoped for, so Sabrina would have to continue with her meds, which Elvira wasn’t happy about giving her since there are so many. I have to say, I admire Elvira; she has so much on her plate yet she’s always doing for everyone else and is always cheerful.

Elvira visited for 2 hours and left back to work so she could pick up Sabrina on time. Alaethia was well-behaved during the visit and even hammed it up and took pictures with Elvira and Emily.

She had two pee-pee accidents that morning. I didn’t know what to do to get her to stop peeing everywhere. I even went so far as to read back my old entries from when I was potty-training Eenan and Jaylen to see if I could get any ideas! I tried being patient with her, but oh my gosh, I was boiling inside. I didn’t know what to do!

As I was checking my e-mail I heard something on Headline News about Jon & Kate. I turned up the volume and couldn’t believe what I heard: he really was cheating! I followed this show from the first episode–no, from the first special they had about the sextuplets. I never really get into celebrity news, but I just love this show because it was sweet and it showed them doing regular family stuff and discipline (her kids actually stay in time out, what?!) so I was really heartbroken when I realized their marriage might just not make it with all the tabloid fodder and Jon’s behavior in general. See what I mean about getting into it? LOL

Anyway, upon checking my e-mail I noticed my camera would arrive sometime that afternoon! Woo! I took Emily with me to Mary’s house since I’d see the UPS truck better from over there and waited. Alaethia stayed here at home with Mom since her potty chair was in her room since she wasn’t making it all the way to the bathroom when it was in there. I was at Mary’s for about half an hour when I asked Mom to come over and wait with the girls (and the potty chair, heh) at Mary’s for the UPS guy because I had to pick up the boys. I asked Mom how Alaethia was doing and she said she’d gone in the potty each time she needed to pee and even pooped once! I guess she just needed a break from my “OH MY GOD!’s” when I’d find her drenched in her pee. Mom’s got a more gentle approach LOL.

I spent 2 hours perched on Mary’s sofa waiting for my package. I’d just tweeted at 5:59 about how impatient I was becoming and how I had to get dinner started when the UPS truck drove up at 6:01. I was so excited! My baby was here!

I couldn’t even walk the few feet it would take to get to my house; I opened everything up right then and there at Mary’s. Of course immediately after I stuffed everything back in the box and went straight to my room to start trying out the settings. This was shot from across my room, no joke. Look at how clear it looks!

The macro feature was amazing, and even more-so because it’s got a macro x2 feature! And the video! It’s HD quality and you can zoom in and out WHILE filming!

OK, enough of that, heh.

I’d taken Alaethia’s potty chair into the bathroom to get her used to going in there. She’d been doing great that whole day, ever since she was with Mom in the afternoon. She got a little excited though and kept asking to go pee because she was liking flushing the toilet LOL.

We got some awesome news that night. Chris and Nancy, after 4 years of marriage and trying those 4 years, finally conceived!! I’m so so happy for them and wish them all the best. It’s going to be so cute when Nancy finally shows because she’s super tiny! She’s even shorter than I am and much thinner!

Before I went to bed that night I ordered more Re-Ment sets! My Mother’s Day gift from Mom. And of course she ordered some for herself LOL. I ordered the Strawberry Picnic set, Strawberry Breakfast set, Antique Japanese set and the Old Fashioned Tableware set. I can’t wait to get them!

Thrus., May 7th – I heard a noise in the middle of the night (well, around 4am, really) and saw Alaethia get up and very sleepily used her potty. I took the potty chair into my bedroom just in case, and thank God I did. She was so cute; she kinda swayed back and forth with her eyes closed while she sat on the toilet, did her business and stumbled back into bed. It was the cutest thing ever!

Who knows if I woke up and turned off the alarm and went back to bed or if it didn’t go off at all, but I woke Mario up late for work. I hate when that happens because he’s running around muttering under his breath and I just feel all guilty and uncomfortable. Then I’m worried that he’s going to speed to get to work on time and get into a wreck or something, God forbid. When I called him later, though, he said he was a minute late but nothing dramatic happened.

Alaethia woke up nice and dry, I’m so proud of her. She’s got the general idea of potty training already, which means that it only took her 3 days to become potty trained! Keep in mind that this was the third time teaching her, though LOL.

I picked the boys up from school and they gave me their handmade gifts :). Jaylen gave me a cute tea pot card with a Lipton tea packet (aw!) and this cute card:

And Eenan gave me a poem with magnets on the back to put on the fridge and this awesome canvas painting!!

I need to find a nice frame for it and display it in the kitchen!

While I had all the kiddos there (the boys are hard to catch with the girls because they’re always outside playing) and took this picture with my new camera:

I can’t even articulate how absolutely blessed I feel. I love my babies! And my husband! And just everyone!

Just as I suspected, when I uploaded pictures to Flickr, it took an eternity! I can only download 10 or so pictures at a time at 12MP compared to around 50 6MP from my old Z650 camera.

One of the times Alaethia had to go to the bathroom she opened up the vanity doors and started messing with stuff under there. Gotta remember to get some cabinet locks. She started screaming when I took my nail polish bag away from her. She crossed her arms and yelled, “I’m running away!” I watched her to see what she would do and she did indeed run away…to my in-laws’ next door just like Eenan did when he was almost 3 LOL. Hilarious.

I spent the rest of the night cleaning up my desk. It’s insane how much crap I have.

Thurs., Apr. 23rd – I woke up in the morning and told myself Today is the day! You’re going to watch what you eat and get healthy again! I went into my school-supply stash and pulled out a spiffy new notebook to document what I was eating, kind of like Weight Watchers. Actually, I even pulled out my Weight Watchers booklet, and tried remembering little meal plans from my semi-diabetic days, because back then–when I was really watching what I ate–was when I started losing weight.

But that only lasted about 3 days.

Until I can get my sleeping schedule to one of normalcy (which means sleeping early and waking up before 11a.m.), there’s no way I’ll be able to “eat right”. I get so busy during the day with the girls and now with remodeling and cleaning all the time that I even forget to eat lunch sometimes. If it’s before dinner and I remember that I’m hungry I’ll pop a Ramen into the microwave or
I’ll reach for the nearest junkfood. This is reminding me of my days working in the library and skipping meals/eating too much junkfood. If I don’t watch myself I’m going to end up diabetic again!

Anyway, the boys had Report Card Night that evening so I left Alaethia with Mom and took Emily with me. I expected to be there at least 2 1/2 hours like we usually are but it went much faster that night. I had yet another conversation with Eenan’s teacher about his “bully”. He’d punched Eenan in the back this time. I told her that the counselor still hadn’t spoken to them like I’d requested over a month ago so Eenan had every right to defend himself and he better not get in trouble for it since obviously nobody’s doing anything about it during recess and P.E. She’s already done all she can and can’t really discipline him since it doesn’t happen in the classroom. She said to go straight to the principal. I don’t really feel like talking to the principal since the last time I had that little spat with her over the kids’ perfect attendance, but I really have no choice.

I finally saw who the bully’s mo is, and–sorry to say–I’m not surprised the kid’s a bully. She’s one of those parents who doesn’t care what goes on in school. And I’m not just making assumptions, I’ve heard from teachers themselves.

It took forever waiting in line to speak with Jaylen’s teacher, as usual. Jaylen started playing with his friend and his friend’s little sister shook Emily’s rattle for her and talked to me. She spoke beautiful, fluent Spanish and took me by surprise when she asked me in English that was just as fluent, “Do you speak English?” I told her, “Yes, I do. And you speak English very well, too.” She nodded and said, “My mom only speaks Spanish.” I smiled at her and said, “You can teach her!”

That’s one of the reasons I think it’s awesome that one parent’s primary language is Spanish: their kids speak it fluently and then pick up English from another parent or in school. Everyone here at home speak English primarily, so the kids don’t understand a lick of Spanish! I used to be fluent in Spanish as a kid also, when Dad lived with us. Once he moved out though, I slowly began to forget words and now I have a lot of trouble trying to articulate my thoughts in Spanish. I really need to look up ways to teach the kids while they can still absorb info like sponges.

Anyway, the boys are both doing great in school. Perfect attendance, all A Honor Roll. Eenan still rushes through his work, but his teacher always brags about how smart he is and how she expects nothing less than a 90, especially in math. Jaylen’s doing brilliantly and is in charge of Row Call in the morning and is reading and RR Testing at a 3rd grade level (he’s in 1st grade). His teacher says she knows he’s capable of even 4th grade, but doesn’t want to push it yet. I couldn’t even get some of my 8th graders (when I was working) to read 3rd grade level! I got a little lump in my throat when she sighed and said, “I don’t think I’ll ever have another student quite like Jaylen.” Aww *sniff*.

We went over to Mary’s when we got home, ate, and then started working on Eenan’s Castle in the Attic castle model again. We got pretty far on it. I hot-glued the “carpet” in the Great Hall and the “grass” in the courtyard, which were pieces of fabric we bought from Walmart. It’s turning out pretty good!

I spent the rest of the night just chilling out. Mario was outside with the guys while I held Emily and uploaded pictures to Flickr and made a wallpaper of the girls at 2 months. I never realized just how much they look alike! Even Mario had mistaken one of Alaethia’s pictures for Emily LOL.

Fri., Apr. 24th – Emily turned two months old!

And Alaethia turned 2 years, 3 months old! It was time for Emily’s 2 month vaccines so, as much as I was dreading it, I had to get ready to pick up the boys, drop them off with Mom and endure a 2-3 hour wait at the doctor’s office. I arrived at the doctor’s office…and it’s closed. I’d called to ask earlier if it was open and they said yes…and then I realized they were talking about the Mission office. The calls must have been forwarded over there. Gah.

I was smart this time and took my book, remembered my Centro, took only my important stuff in the diaper bag and took my Hugamonkey sling to carry Emily in. When I got off the car and walked through the lobby to sign her in, everyone just stared at me. Half of the people probably thought I was weird and the other half’s expressions showed that they thought it was the most genius thing ever, which it is. Emily slept the entire time in the sling and I got to read and finish Eclipse.

They took us in and weighed her. 9 lbs. 12 oz. All the girls took turns carrying her and saying how cute she was and making a big fuss about my sling.

And then they gave her the shots. It broke my heart to hear her scream that way but she thankfully calmed down quickly. I gave her Tylenol as soon as we got home and she was fine for a while. It wasn’t till night time that she became fussy.

I rocked her while I browsed through Ebay. It’d been a while since I’d actually searched for stuff on it. I bought myself some Macro lenses for my Kodak Z650 and I also bought a new Re-ment set and the 7th book in the Georgia Nicholson series with the cash my dad-in-law gave me for my birthday. I got a familiar giddy feeling thinking of the packages I was going to receive. Too bad it would take the lenses a while to get here since they were coming from Hong Kong with free shipping :(.

We stayed in that night and watched My Best Friend’s Girl, which I liked much better than I thought I would. Adan came over and watched the movies with us. When we left, Mario and I started watching Marley and Me, but we only watched half before we got tired and went to bed.

Sat., Apr. 25th – I was going to have tons of stuff to do that day and I was not looking forward to it. I woke up to make Mario’s breakfast and was going to set the coffee pot, but decided against it. I went back to bed for a while. By the time the girls and I woke up it was 10:30 and I still didn’t feel like getting up and going. We got ready, slowly, and left the house around 1:30. There was no way I’d have time to go to Walmart and grocery shop. We only had a chance to go visit Gramma for a while.

I rushed home, dropped the boys off with Mom, then Mary, the girls (who wore matching dresses) and I picked up Noelia. She looked so pretty in the dress she wore. She’s been feeling much better from the U.C. and is much happier now, too. It’s good to see her like that.

We got to Darla’s bridal shower early. It was being held at Macarena and Gordo’s house, Mario’s cousins, not far from where Noelia and Andy live. The house is beautiful. I fell in love with their outdoor kitchen. It was small, but what I imagine a future outdoor grill looking like at our home. We’ve already got the party porch ;). I wanted to take a picture of it but felt embarrassed.

I didn’t win any of the games, not even the purse scavenger hunt which I usually win because I’d just cleaned out my bag. Darn.

We didn’t stay long since we had Vicky’s 1st birthday party to go to also. Both parties were at the exact same time. So we said our goodbyes to the relatives, dropped Noelia off and drove across The Valley to get to the party.

Mom and the boys had ridden along with Elda. They fought the entire time we were there, mostly over their video games. Emily was passed around and Alaethia was busy playing with Matthew and Angela, so it was nice to get a little time to myself, even if it was for 15 minutes.

We’d arrived when the kids had already hit the piñata so the kids were happily bombarded with candies. We ate, then went inside to sing “Happy Birthday” to Vicky and had some cake.

We helped clean up a little and then we came home. Mario was just arriving when we got here. He did a few things outside–can’t remember if it was directly related to the new living room or not–and then Nancy and Chris came over to visit. I was washing dishes so Mom was watching Emily. She was crying inconsolably and Mom couldn’t figure out how to calm her. Nancy asked her if she could hold her (she works at a daycare) and as Mom passed her into Nancy’s arms Emily just magically stopped crying, just like that! I couldn’t help but think what an awesome mom Nancy would be. She’s so patient. But she and Chris have been trying all these years and still haven’t conceived.

We talked and caught up while she held a happy Emily and I washed dishes in the kitchen. Again, like she always did with Alaethia, Nancy told me to call her up if I ever needed help with the baby. I’m blessed to have so many awesome ladies willing to watch my adorable girls…but I still feel guilty and never call them up LOL.

After Chris and Nancy left we got in bed. We had to be up early the next morning. Mary was going to be at a Confirmation retreat with Yazmin at the church, so I had to be up early to pick up and drop the boys off at CFF. Mario was also planning to go to Home Depot so we could get more stuff for the new living room. I can’t wait till this whole project is finished!

I woke up several times throughout the night and then the morning. I stayed up till 2:30am reading. I finished Twilight a few days ago (finally) and started on New Moon yesterday. I’m thinking it’ll take me about 2 months to finish this one LOL.

I was sweating up a storm most of the night and it didn’t help that Alaethia was tossing and turning because she was hot, too. I kept thinking how wonderful it’ll be when her toddler bed finally comes in.

Sally called around 9:30 to let me know she was making the banana pancakes she had when she’d come over last month. We chatted a bit and agreed to meet sometime today. She said she didn’t want me to have the baby and not give me my baby shower gift yet LOL.

I tried sleeping more and then when I finally woke up, started making banana pancakes, too. We had 5 bananas that desperately needed to be eaten so I used one and saved 4 for some banana bread later.

I checked my e-mail while I was cooking and got the notification about Alaethia’s toddler bed coming in to Walmart. Sweet. Mario woke up around an hour later after I told him to get up (he’d been outside drinking beers with Adan till 4am!). Mary invited us to go watch Coraline. I so wanted to watch that movie so I got ready, Mary got Alaethia ready and Mario got ready. We learned about some drama going on in the family, so we stood around talking about that for a while.

The movie was SO darn cute! Alaethia made it a little difficult to watch, since for most of the movie she refused to sit down. She spent the rest of the time jumping from lap to lap declaring loudly that she wanted to go to the car. She was really scared at the end. I was too far from Eenan to see how he was reacting, but during a sad part towards the end Jaylen lifted his 3-d glasses and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. My poor dude!

It was such a good movie that even Mario enjoyed it. I could have watched it all day. I love that type of Intru 3-D.

Mary took all the kids with her and we went to meet Sally at Las Tiendas. I set up my e-mail properly on my Centro finally, while we waited. We stood around talking for a while and she gave me her and Pete’s gift: one of those shopping cart/high chair covers. Too cool. They didn’t even have those around when Jaylen and Eenan were babies and we didn’t get one for Alaethia, though I really wanted to. I’d told her about how cool those were when we had breakfast with her and Pete at Le Peep a while back and she said not to let anyone get it for me ’cause that would be her gift to me, and it was!

We talked a while more about house renovations she and Pete are making and told her to get a hold of us if they need help again. That type of stuff comes second nature to Mario and his dad; they hadn’t remembered and poor things forked out a lot of money.

After we met with Sally, we went straight to Walmart. On the way there I figured out how to upload pictures from my Centro to my Flickr account! I’m hoping I can upload a pic of Emily from the hospital, if I have the strength and time, of course.

We picked up some pillows Jorge asked us to and picked up Alaethia’s bed. It’s so cute.

I dropped Mario off at Jorge’s since he had some stuff to help him with and I came straight home to make dinner. I’d been wanting chicken chalupas for a while so I began to make them. Mario texted me to go to Yadira’s, where everyone was, and I told him I’d just started making dinner so I’d be there soon. He came over to pick up his beer an hour later and that’s when I was finally done. I made him eat–because he hadn’t eaten all day–and I ate and so did the kids. Mary stayed with the boys and Mom stayed with Aly while I went over.

The girls sat around the table, as usual, and we shared gossip and were all just stunned with the news we’d heard about earlier during the day. Yazmin asked to see my belly, as in bare belly, so I lifted my blouse and showed them my beautifully round, stretch-marked belly. Everyone came over and rubbed it LOL. I need to take pictures of my bare belly, stretchmarks or not. I need to chronicle everything I can since this’ll be our last lil’ one.

After everyone started slowly leaving, Mario and I hung out with Yadira, Tommy and the kids. I forget why our initial visit to Yadira’s closet happened, but we were looking through her things and she showed me her box of Hannah’s tiny baby things she’d saved from when she was born/passed away. I still don’t know how you word that. I felt a little…apprehensive, I guess, while she was taking each tiny thing out and describing it. I was afraid it would be too hard for her to talk about it but she seemed fine. I think it was a bit therapeutic for her.

Mario and I left around 10:30 and had a conversation on the way home. We were talking about the girls’ room and the toddler bed and sleeping arrangements for the girls and me and my hormones started getting the best of me. I felt like he was telling me I basically sucked at training the kids with sleeping but he wasn’t. He was just trying to tell me both the girls would end up sleeping in our room like the boys did for a really long time. Then the conversation steered into one about our relationship and how we’ve really come a long way. I’m glad :). It’ll be 10 years next month!

So now I’m here, blogging with a tiny, curly-haired girl climbing all over me. She hasn’t had a nap all day and still isn’t even nodding her head. I told Mario I need to get the rocking chair back from Mom and get her on a schedule.

And tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the day I get all the final baby things ready. I told Mario earlier, imagine how funny it would be if I go into labor tomorrow after being at Yadira’s today. When I went into labor with Alaethia 2 years ago we’d been at Tommy and Yadira’s the night before for Angela’s birthday. I really hope she waits till Friday, though–if today’s even the week it’ll happen. That way Mario doesn’t have to miss work!