Category: Daily

I can usually deal with stress pretty well; heck, I’ll even be annoyingly optimistic. People have even complimented me about it. But lately, I’ve got to admit: it’s tough.

I managed to get my 2nd cold of the year (a month apart) last Sunday. I felt awful at work on Monday but had a lot to do, and I almost went to work Tuesday because I was afraid of getting behind, but I told myself I needed to start taking care of myself. I keep thinking of my friend that had a stroke that was probably due to high stress. So I decided that work could wait. I took Tuesday off to go to the doctor and recover at home. I hadn’t slept very much Monday night due to the coughing, ear pain and not being able to breathe, so I kept passing out once I picked up my medication from the pharmacy. I’m still not 100% better; I keep waking up with a pain in my ear, even though I’m over everything else. Missing Tuesday did cause me to get behind at work, but I knew if I scheduled my day accordingly, I could catch up.

I was in charge of an event for our “Boss Boss”, and I was already nervous about screwing it up. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to drop off 4 kids at 2 different locations in 2 different cities and get to work by 7:30am in a totally different city (those are my Fridays and Mondays). Mario, thankfully, helped me out. I’d be missing Alaethia’s field trip, just like I missed Emily’s 🙁 , since I had an event that day, too, but Mario would accompany her.

I had a good count for my Boss’s event, got everything ready and then…I’m about 20 people short the count that I originally had as everyone started showing up. Thanks, people >_< . My Boss did tell me, “Good job,” at the end of the event, so that made me feel better.

Lunch time rolls around and I’m giddy as I make my way to my car, relieved that the event is over and done with. I was meeting Alaethia, her class and the moms at Mr. Gatti’s for Alaethia’s last part of the field trip. I relieve Mario and he hands me Alaethia’s stuff as the girls continue to play and the moms catch up while we eat lunch together. (I’m convinced the girls like us to go with them so they can hit us up for money!) We spent a few minutes with the kids and see them off on the bus. I get back to work and jot down my to-do list in the hopes of getting as much done by 5pm so I wouldn’t be swamped on Monday and could take the next Tuesday off with the kids. Next week is Spring Break, but we aren’t doing much. Still, I wanted to at least take a few days off to take the kids out for ice cream and the park, etc. Unfortunately, I had forgotten it was Spring Break during the week and had already made 2 appointments for Monday that I can’t miss. And then we have the food festival coming up, and I feel like we’re SO BEHIND. FAK. 🙁 So I figured I’d take Tuesday off only. So I got to work, and was on a roll…until Jorge called with an emergency.

I couldn’t believe what happened and I’m thankful things weren’t much, much worse. But I just feel like we can’t catch a break 😥 . 1 step forward, 2 steps back. I was angry at Jorge. I was angry at myself, too, for not taking care of things I should have, but I’m just so focused on work and it takes up so much time that I can’t take care of personal things that need to get done. And it shouldn’t be that way.

The girls had a sleepover at Jenny’s and when I went to pick them up, we had a nice impromptu therapy session with all 4 of them. I’m glad that they can openly talk with us about what’s going on with their friends. Apparently lots of drama is going on, but we explained to them that they’re wayyy too young for so much tension at school and that everyone can get along, even if they’re not BFFs. Now I need to have an uncomfortable conversation with another mom, and apologize for my little Emmos 😳 .

Jorge and I had a talk last night, and I felt better. Until something ELSE happened today. Ugh. I’m going to try and have a nonchalant, happy-go-lucky, carefree, fk-it attitude this week. I’ve got a lot on my plate at work, and may not be able to take a day off at all with the kids (especially because of this event, and my boss is off since Wednesday when we have shit to take care of!), but I’m not going to stress. I’m not.

Well. That’s easier said than done, but I’ve got to promise myself to take it easy. Or I’m going to lose my shit.

We’re pretty saturated with birthdays during the months of January and February, heh. Jorgie and Emily’s birthdays are the last 2 for February.

Jorgie usually gives us a list of stuff he wants, even though–out of all the boys–he asks for the least amount of stuff, and usually pretty affordable stuff, too. This year, he didn’t ask for a thing, except cash. When I texted him again a few days before his birthday for ideas, he replied with, “Why don’t we all go to Cracker Barrel?” Such a good kid!

Emily, on the other hand, wanted to do Sky Park (we had a Groupon, woooo!) and she had a small wish list of stuff like Squishies, Chubby Puppies and Shopkins. At the bottom of the list it said, “But I’ll be grateful for anything!” I gotta brag: do we have great kiddos or what??

I met Mary, Emily and Alaethia at Toys R Us the weekend before their birthdays. It was their weekend with the kids but the girls wanted me to tag along, so I obliged of course. Emily chose all her birthday presents and their both made out like bandits.

The day of Jorgie’s birthday (Thursday the 23rd), Jorge and I sit for lunch at Republic of the Rio Grande and he breaks it to me that Jorgie wanted to save his money because he was dating a girl and things were getting serious and he wanted to talk to us. I was shocked, and all these thoughts started spinning in my head. What does he mean “serious”? I had Eenan when I turned 17, so that was the first thought that was swirling in my mind. Jorge assured me it wasn’t anything like that, so that was a relief!

We picked up kiddos all over the place that evening and then picked Mom up and headed to Cracker Barrel. 

We ordered our food after the kids took their “usual” seats.

Then Jorgie pulled Jorge aside and he explained about his girlfriend while they played checkers. Jorge comes back and whispers what happened, and that he wanted to have a talk with me as well. Oh boy.

We eat once allll our food gets there. We had the best service that evening! 

We finish up and Jorge takes Mom and all the other kids home while I take Jaylen and Jorgie with me to the mall. Jaylen had a presentation the next day and needed a full outfit. We had only a few minutes to make it to the mall, but it felt like I coasted over there on autopilot as Jorgie told us about how he feels about this girl…and how he wants to use some of his birthday money to get her a necklace he’d seen. He put his feelings out there and I was proud and relieved that he trusts us enough to pull us aside and talk to us about this. And of course, I gently, but sternly, explained that he may feel like he loves her, but she may not be his last girlfriend, she better not hurt him and vice versa, she needs to be a good girl, about protection (we’d already had that talk several times), and we went on and on. Jaylen and Jorgie got measured for shirts by Mr. Shapiro, whom I’d already met at work. He’s such a sweet, patient man, and helped us even when the doors were closed and the lights were dimmed signalling that the store was about to close the registers. He called in that he still had customers and continued to help us. The boys were happy with their stuff (Jorgie got lucky since it was buy one, get one for a penny) and I couldn’t stop thanking Mr. Shapiro.

We talked again all the way home, and Jaylen was sworn to secrecy. Jorgie continued with trying to convince us to help him purchase this necklace.

Emily’s birthday was Friday the 24th so after a crazy day at work, I escaped for a bit to pick up Emily’s cupcakes and met Mario at her school to have her little cupcake party with her classmates.

Her dad gets to have the kids for 2 hours on their birthday, and she chose to go to the Food Park 😀 . I just so happened to have Karaoke Night that night, so it worked out! Mario arrived with the kids and Jorge arrived with our other kids. And it wasn’t awkward, thank goodness! Emily got to spend time with her friend Danica, who is my co-worker, Ryan’s, little cousin :).

It was a great night, and Emily said it was the best birthday, ever!

We did some things around the house on Saturday, including some errands, like groceries, which Jorgie happily offered to help with. Then we made some dinner and headed to Sky Park. I made the mistake of taking most photos with Snapchat…and my phone was running out of storage space so it didn’t let me save them 🙁 .

That’s all I got! The next day we cleaned and ran more errands and headed to the mall for that necklace. The conditions: he will pay off the remainder by washing the cars…and happily posing for all the photos I deem necessary 🙂 !

I had a long, busy day on Saturday, the 11th of February, what with shopping, Audrey’s birthday party and Rejeana’s baby shower (yes, baby shower! She’s having a baby in March!). 

The girls, of course, didn’t want to leave Audrey’s party (it was quite dramatic. Alaethia quietly went to the bathroom to shed some tears and Emily and all their friends followed to check up on her.  So cute!). Jenny (saint that she is!) offered to keep the girls and take them home with her so I could pick them up later. I thanked her profusely and took Jules with me to the baby shower. He had fun digging into all the snacks Rejeana had available at the party. We stuck around for a bit, even helped tidy up the hall at the end of it, and then we went grocery shopping. Once we were done, I dropped Jules and the groceries off, picked up the girls and headed to Target to get a few more things for Jules’ birthday. *whew*

He had made up his mind: he wanted to go to the zoo for his birthday this year. The big brothers–or should I say, the Meany Bullies–tried convincing the poor thing to ask to go to Cracker Barrel instead, because they didn’t want to walk in the heat the next day. He stuck to his guns and said no: zoo. They even went as far as threatening to kick him out of the room! So when Jules came back and sadly said he wanted to go to Cracker Barrel, Jorge pulled him aside and he said he wanted to go to the zoo, but the boys wouldn’t let him in, so Jorge told them all off 😆 . AND they alllll had to go to the zoo and I told them they had to do it with a happy face for being mean to their little brother!

The house stayed a mess, since I was out and about all day, and Jorge didn’t let me finish the day without hearing it 😡 . Ohhh, no he did not. I made sure to let him know I was not ok with that 👿 .

So we got over it by the morning, had breakfast and packed ourselves into our 2 vehicles (Mom was tagging along, so we *had* to use 2 cars!).

We got a group rate (woo!) and wandered throughout the zoo. It was such a beautiful day!

The petting zoo! The part that makes a the walking worth it!

We stopped at Mcdonald’s for lunch (my, how teenage boys eat!) and then we headed home, where Jules opened his gifts. He asked for Hotwheels and dinos, so we complied 🙂 .

Then it was time to make dinner. Jorgie, Emmos and Justin helped with the lasagna.

And finally, we all gathered around to watch The Walking Dead. Love our family time together!!