Category: Job Hunt/Work

I don’t remember much of what we did throughout the day on Sunday since I didn’t leave a note for myself like I usually do. We might have gone to Target and Walmart. I think this is the day we bought Alaethia’s bedroom rug from Walmart. It looks so girlie now, with just that change. I think it was also the day I went through a box of my 80’s sheets and found some Care Bear curtains I’d completely forgotten about. Her room looks almost complete :).

I do remember clearly that I picked the wrong time to start trying to wean Alaethia from her ½ milk, ½ water cups at night. She still wakes up at least once a night, especially now that she’s sleeping in our bed with us since we moved her crib/daybed into her own room. When the crib was in our bedroom she’d sleep in it all night. Well, when she does wake up she only wants milk. So I water it down because I fear for her teeth. She’ll inspect the cup and shake it because she knows what I’m up to. She stares at it to check if it’s white and will drink it if she sees that it is. If it’s too watered down she’ll throw it at us, literally.

So this would be the first night in a while that I’d try only water. We were in bed by 10:30 but I stayed up with her till 12am. She woke up again at 2:30 for a cup and screamed her head off until I gave in and gave her the half-and-half. I didn’t go back to sleep till 4:20 and the alarm went off an hour later. I still tried getting up and getting ready but nope, I couldn’t do it. I decided I wouldn’t torture myself that day. I needed to use up my sick days anyway.

Man, I’ve got my work cut out for me. I need to wean her off her sippy cup at night, convince her to start sleeping through the night in her bedroom, and DUN DUN DUN: potty training! All before Emily gets here. Omg.

I used my extra “day off” wisely. I caught up on some cleaning and finished up with laundry. Aside from being a packrat with papers it takes me forever to put my laundry away because it’s so much and Alaethia’s stuck to me like a leech right now. Mario and I really have to do some Spring Cleaning and go through our closet to get rid of clothes we don’t wear. I’m kind of hoping to do this after I have Emily so I can see what fits and what doesn’t. Getting rid of all my maternity clothes will create extra space on “my side”, too.

After I picked the boys up I left the kiddos with Mom while I went to meet Mary in downtown McAllen to start buying stuff for Alaethia’s party. I found light blue table cloths, Care Bear pencils, and Care Bear cake plates. All for about $6. Mary contributed some cute beaded necklaces for the girl bags and some little wind-up cars for the boy ones. We looked around some more and Mary found some cute little lilac glass jars and resin ballerina babies for my baby shower centerpieces. We went across the street and I found Care Bear plushes I wanted to use for centerpieces at Alaethia’s party. I actually bought four 12″ Care Bears that I thought of using as centerpieces but putting a tag on that said those were for Alaethia, but I thought that would be tacky. I kept those for Alaethia as a gift instead and bought 4 smaller Care Bear cubs for the centerpieces. They were only $4 each. As I was driving off I instantly regretted not getting more of the cubs. Oh well, I’d just come back later.

I rushed straight home and started getting ready for the next day. Ugh. It’s back to work tomorrow.

I knew I was going to be alone again at work when the announcements went on and it wasn’t Mrs. V. saying them. She gave me a call about 30 minutes later and gave me instructions for the day. I had to cancel an ice cream party, finish the bulletin boards (I don’t know why they’re so important), and download and work with two separate diagnostics for the movie party and the kids who’re at risk. I got absolutely everything done that I usually have to, and then everything else. I took my pin-drive to add to the tasks manual the boss asked me to type up but I had so much to do I never got a chance to sit and do it.

I was so glad it was Friday. My feet actually weren’t killing me for once because I wore my Adidas. If they matched my whole maternity wardrobe I’d wear them all the time.

I can’t remember what we did that evening, if we did anything at all. The boys cooped themselves up at Mary’s and played with their toys and games and Alaethia just stuck around with me. She’s becoming really attached to me, which only makes me believe I’m that much closer to having Emily.

I was all on my own that day and it went surprisingly well. Well, except for the internet already being excruciatingly slow on the actual first day back. I had to use my psuedo manual check out worksheet on Excel, which meant that later, before I could do anything else, I had to add them into the system manually. I shelved all the books that I’d checked in and started checking in the huge stacks of dictionaries and thesauruses they’d brought to me the day before. Mr. Murphy helped a bit, even though he left half the books I gave him to shelve because he likes to talk about world events (the depressing ones), but he did push the cart of dictionaries for me to the shelf so I could put up. He had to leave so I couldn’t get him to help with that.

We had a meeting in the library that lasted about an hour, so I had to enter some stuff manually again. One of the top things on my to-do list was getting another bulletin board up and ready. We I have a total of 4 that we’re I’m in charge of. During the meeting Robert, Juan and Rudy showed up. I put them to work after they got permission from their teacher. They helped me staple most of the star border, which I’m grateful for because everyone kept scolding me the day before when I’d been reaching up to staple the letters on the other board. I asked why, what would happen? And the response I got was that the baby would wrap her umbilical cord around her neck if I stretched. What? First time I’d ever heard of that one!

I couldn’t get my darn letter of resignation printed out because the version of Word I’d used to type it up was different from the one at work. All I had to do was install the compatibility patch but of course we don’t have authorization to install anything. I e-mailed and asked Mary if she could print it for me and she did one better: sent it as a .PDF file so I printed a few copies out right away.

I went to lunch and a sub was sent in right when I was coming back. She was a lot of help. I found it the perfect opportunity to turn in my resignation. I was so nervous. I had to control my shaking limbs before I got up to go to Vero’s office to borrow an envelope and turn it in. I spoke to Vero, who was sad that I’m actually going to leave and then I went in to talk to the principal.

He was walking out as I was walking in. I felt my face flushing as I handed him the letter. He looks down at me with a curious expression and asks, “What’s this?” I’m following him into his office as he’s unfolding the sheet and watch as his face turns from a smile into a look of shock. He said it was coming completely left field, which I found weird because I could have sworn I was present when Mrs. V. had mentioned it and I know she’d mentioned it other times. He shakes the letter and with a smile on his face says, “You don’t have to do this!”

He asked if she’d tried to convince me to stay and I said yes, she did since the beginning but eventually she conceded. I said something like, “I don’t want to, but I have to,” and he held the letter in both hands and said, “I can still tear this up!” I almost ran forward and said, “No, no! I’ve made my decision. And I thank you for allowing me to work with you and all the wonderful people here. It’s been a great experience.” That seemed to calm him down and we started walking out of the office. I shook his hand and he says, “You still have 10 days to change your mind.”

I was so proud of myself. I did it without crying!

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. And because I turned it in that day it was exactly a two-week notice. I picked the boys up and had them start working on their homework. I cuddled with Alaethia and as we were watching Noggin’ Sally called asking if Mario and I would like to join them for dinner to celebrate their anniversary since I was there for their very first date. How sweet of them to remember me :). I’m still so thrilled I got to be a part of the birth of their relationship. I quickly got ready, left the kiddos with Mom and the in-laws, who were already outside getting ready to bar-b-q, and picked Mario up (late-ish) from work. We were meeting Pete and Sally about an hour later so we went to Barnes and Noble to kill time. I wanted so many books, but I only walked away with the Lolcats one. Now I can look at it and feel happy instantly :P.

We had a great dinner. I ordered my usual spinach and artichoke dip and had the Shrimp Alfredo. Yum. As we were getting comfortable and had ordered our food, I told them, “You know what guys? It’s funny: I was pregnant exactly two years ago with Alaethia when you guys first got together and now on your 2nd anniversary I’m pregnant again!” Hilarious.

We had some laughs and I love our marriage talks LOL. We told them about Alaethia’s poop story and they couldn’t stop laughing. Sally says, “So that’s what we have to look forward to!”

I don’t remember what we were talking about—probably about how Mario’s out all night while I’m asleep—but Mario said he was thrilled when I called and asked if he wanted to go to Chili’s with Pete and Sally. He says that’s one thing he’s looking forward to when I stop working: spending more time together.

I can’t wait to get together with them again. I love our conversations!