Category: Jorge

Communication is Key

Today was one of those typical Mondays: rushing around in the morning to get out and get to work on time, Monday morning meeting, and catching up with weekend gossip. Of course that meant retelling the story of the Ghetto Cat Fight to my nearest and dearest. Sent out email invites for my upcoming event (upcoming as in November; have to prepare months ahead) and by the time we knew it, it was lunch time.

My stomach was feeling weird; I didn’t even have an appetite in the morning and I felt simultaneously queasy and hungry, but I got to meet up with my babe which always makes my day better :). On the drive to Subway we talked about some things. I moped because some things weren’t what I wanted to hear and we somehow ended up in an argument. An argument that made me lose the little appetite I had and caused him to lose it, too. It was just a horrible situation. We gathered our things as the waterworks started (and a lightbulb just went off RIGHTNOW. It’s the week before Mother Nature makes her visit. Now my moods make sense!).

I was so upset I couldn’t make myself go back to work. Not to mention my stomach felt even worse. My hours are still being cut this week at work and I’d asked my boss if I could just take Friday off (which I was taking off anyway because it’s the start of my vacation) and use those hours during that day instead of leaving early/coming in late. But I used 4 of those hours today. I came home and tried to just sleep off my mood and my tummy ache. My babe began texting me and we talked about what happened and then he called and we talked some more until we cleared everything up. I’m so glad. I hate fighting, arguing. We agreed since the beginning that we wouldn’t turn into THAT COUPLE.

Once we made up and were fine, I passed out completely till 5:20 when my babe called that he was on his way home. I was thrilled. It was the perfect day for him to get home early. We snacked on our leftover Subway and then I started actual dinner since the girls and Mom hadn’t eaten. We ate a little bit of that, too (my stomach was still bothering me but I’m fine now, thank GOD) and then we sat in the garage enjoying the surprisingly not-boiling evening while we waited for Mario to drop off the kids. Of course he wouldn’t remind the boys to bring their things (they were even barefoot) so they visited for a while and then they left with him and the girls stayed with us. They watched movies with Mom and had popcorn and shakes and we’ve been in the living room watching TV (I just remembered I have more laundry to do!) and just having a really low-key, normal night. All is right again and I’m so glad!

Ah, Life!!

(This was started on Friday night and I didn’t finish updating and then I started back on it Saturday morning *sigh*)

(Friday) Ahhh…one of the best things about making Tortilla Soup is that you have enough caldito left to poach some more chicken the next day :). Did that, chopped up and baked some tortillas, cubed an avocado and voila!, dinner!

(May I also add that one of the best things about finally upgrading my WP is that I forgot about my laptop after dinner last night and it shut down to install updates, but it thankfully saved my draft, *whew*!)

I’m waiting for my babe to get back from dropping off his boys. Mine were picked up earlier by Mary. Mario supposedly caught the kids’ virus and was home so he couldn’t come. Mary had to come early since she had a Rosary to attend. Another one of their aunts passed away =\.

(Saturday) The house is utterly quiet, except for the Mexican soap opera Mom’s watching in another room. Between having my kids a few days here and a few days there and my babe’s for over a week straight, it was pretty routine coming home and being greeted by tons of little voices excited to tell you what they did throughout the day. Ok. I’ll stop. I’m just going to depress myself. They’ll be back soon :).

Ok, so let’s see. It’s been extremely hot (103-105, not including the “heat index” blah) and Mom was awesome and bought the kids a pool. (Which I heard caused a certain someone to spaz out and start talking smack about how we’re “buying” our children off with material things. Is he serious? Says the one whose mommy buys them everything they want the second they ask for it. Moron.) Anyway, the pool is nothing huge, which was a relief once we put Emily and Alaethia in there. The boys play around and knock them over accidentally and OMG–I go into panic-mode. I just CANNOT STAND the idea of a kid drowning, not even feeling that awful choking/burning in the back of your throat and nostrils. It’s the worst thing. So I make sure to go in there with them and I’m glad that the rare times the boys do push them over, they can get right back up.

My babe went to a training on the 14th in Houston. I had the girls till the evening the first night. We got in the pool and they kept me pretty distracted, but they ended up leaving with Mario and I was quickly becoming lonely and depressed. I would have been fine if my babe could just text with me all day and night, but he couldn’t, heh. Michelle and Rosie invited me to walk the trail with them near their house both nights, so that kept me nice and busy. I wish there was a walking trail at the park that’s 2 blocks down but there’s only playground equipment =\. I came home and actually did Ab Ripper–OMG, the pain! Too bad I only kept up with it for 3 days =\.

I finally took the kiddos to the library last weekend. The library I spent many summers at :). Only Eenan, Alaethia and Emily wanted to go at the last minute; the rest of the boys were into a video game and refused to move >_<. But, Eenan had fun and my poor Alaethia (who'd caught the stomach virus that the kids are taking turns passing around) enjoyed the puzzles and games, as did Emily :).

At the library

At the Library

We gathered a few books, I changed Emily’s diaper (she’s regressing with the potty training from when she had the darn virus. And I’m sure that other family isn’t helping much, grr) and Alaethia had to go to the bathroom so we got all that done. That was my cue to leave before Aly’s stomach really started to bother her. So, I braced myself for the wails when I announced it was time to go. And sure enough. Emily screamed. Loudly. Everyone thought she was the most adorable thing in the world, so they didn’t seem bothered, thank God LOL. I checked out the books. Chased her a little bit and then we walked out. She began to drag herself as soon as we walked outside but she became momentarily distracted when Eenan pointed out a little dead chick that had fallen out of a tree. Eenan, Alaethia and I hovered over it and began to analyze what may have happened, when all of a sudden a little 2-year-old foot comes out of nowhere and not only STOMPS, bug DRAGS across the pavement, squishing the already demised birdie :(. It was a bit traumatizing and I was so shocked I tried not to laugh. Eenan thought it was the craziest thing and was openly giggling. I gave Emily a scolding about how mean it was and she was silent on the way home. Kids!

We got home and I started on dinner: spaghetti and meatballs, one of my poor Alaethia’s favorites. She hardly ate because she was so out of it from that darn virus (she sure did enjoy it the next day, though!). Emily had a blast with it. She even took her fork back to me as I was serving the other kids and said, “Here. I don’t need this.” She had spaghetti EVERYWHERE.

My babe and I got into a 5-minute argument about something I can’t even remember now and we sat outside on the bed of the truck and talked about it. I love that about us. We don’t stay mad long because one of us always gives in and either apologizes or explains why we’re upset ♥.

We lazied around the house the rest of the evening. We watched TV. I read my book while the girls slept. The boys played Xbox and then acted like total boys; roughhousing, climbing all over my babe, SPINNING! It was crazy and they had a BLAST! Jorge spun all of them from their LEGS and they loved it LOL. All 4 boys even dragged me over to my babe and he attempted to spin me but I was terrified LOL.

We woke up the next morning, Father’s Day, and I made my babe his favorite, an omelet with the works :).

First thing on the agenda was relocating the pool. It was beginning to sag on one side where the ground was unleveled. My babe emptied it out and then I helped him smooth it out and refill it on the driveway. It was the most level ground we could find. The kids were sitting in the garage just watching us. They had popsicles and drinks while they waited. I found it kinda odd that Mario nor Mary had called to ask to pick up the kids since it was Father’s Day, but around 1:30 Mary called and asked if I could take them over sooner than 6. I told her about them waiting for the pool and they’d be over at 4.

We all go in the pool and had an awesome time. It was so hot that the water was a wonderful relief.

Me with the Kiddos :)

We stayed in there a good hour and a half. I was almost sunburned and my babe was most definitely sunburned for being out so long. It was already 5 so we all hustled to get changed so I could drop the kids off with Mario. While I changed Alaethia, Emily and my babe fell asleep. It was the cutest thing LOL.

So I got back from the long drive and we started with the BBQing. I really wish my kiddos had been there, but I tried to be understanding and giving Mario time with them, too. The food was great and it was really nice sitting outside and chatting :).

Foooood!!

(It’s now Sunday night and I’m STILL trying to finish this post! I’m so bad at this!)

Let’s see. We chilled out with my babe’s boys Tuesday night. We were watching TV and then got bored and came outside to sit on the porch. The boys started blowing bubbles and one of them was kinda crappy so I searched Google for homemade bubbles. We went inside and mixed some water, dish soap and Karo syrup together and they were AWESOME! The boys had so much fun ^_^!

We had an emergency with the pool; a neighborhood kitty seems to have clawed it so we tried our hardest to patch it up but it didn’t work. We made a trip to Walmart to hopefully find a repair kit but ended up with ice cream instead since there were no repair kits, heh. I finally found Dreyers Brownie Fudge and Justin and I picked that one :).

It FINALLY rained on Wednesday, just like the forecast predicted! It was wonderful! I love love love overcast skies and rain!

My babe and I hardly meet for lunch anymore (one, because he’s usually far away with work and two, because we’re cutting back on extra things) so we thought we’d have lunch at El Terco Seafood that day. It was SO GOOD.

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They postponed one of my events 🙁 so the rest of the day at work was pretty laid back for me. I got home and made dinner for all of us and then my babe and I went grocery shopping. We ended up with this:

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We sat outside on the porch watching TV, eating our cheesecakes and I had a glass of wine. It was a great, great night :).

The next day it was nice and overcast and the forecast didn’t disappoint. It rained again after lunch. I had to walk barefoot to my van, which I’d parked across the street because the parking lot directly across was blocked off!

Overcast

I prayed on the way to pick up the kids. It’s a 35 minute drive on a good day and the rain was coming down hard so it took about 15 extra minutes to get there. Thankfully, by the time I picked them up and was on my way back with them, the rain had stopped.

This was the night I originally made tortilla soup. I fed everyone (got great reviews, including from Emily, heh) and then we spent the rest of the night chilling out and watching TV, or being out on the porch. It’s so awesome when we’re all together. We literally feel complete :).

So this brings us back to Friday evening after the kids were picked up/dropped off. We ate dinner quietly, which was really weird. No crazy, funny stories. It was just QUIET. You usually crave a second of silence when all 6 kids are screaming but it’s just awful when you don’t hear ANYTHING :(.

We finished dinner at chatted at the table and decided to go to Red Mango for some yogurt (buy one get one free, baby!) before heading to the Duckie Park (as Alaethia calls it) and eat our yogurt there.

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We sat at a covered bench and ate our yogurt, people watched and just talked. I enjoy my little dates with my babe. It’s so comfortable and we can be quiet or sharing stories or laughing and it’s always NICE. I love it. I told him about how I always feel guilty when the kids aren’t here. Like, it’s…wrong…to have fun or a good time if they’re not around. He told me he felt that way too sometimes but it was ok for us to have fun once in a while when we’re alone. So I gave myself a break that night and enjoyed myself :).

I was told the exact same thing by Pete and Sally later that night, when we visited them in their new house :). It’s GORGEOUS! They gave us the grand tour and then we sat in their living room and caught up. I love them, love our conversations. We each shared cute anecdotes about our relationships (how Sally and I both follow the guys around the house switching off lights, heh) and we discussed our kiddos. It’s always great meeting up with them!

My babe worked the next day and I spent the day lazying around the house. I wanted to do absolutely nothing. John came over and we chit chatted and laughed at everything like always. I typed up this entry, uploading pics to Flickr, commented on Facebook and I had this crushing feeling in my chest telling me to Get up! Quit wasting time! Quit being lazy and clean the house!! Go buy groceries! Visit your Gramma!!!

So I eventually gave in (around 3pm) and Mom and I visited Gramma. I wanted to make sushi for dinner but we didn’t have rice, so I went to HEB Plus in Shary instead of the HEB down the road. Who in the world do I run into but my babe’s psycho ex. I saw Justin and he lit up when he realized it was me. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him with her. She had her 20-some-year-old niece and her son with her. I told Mom, “Just wait. There’s gonna be drama.”

Sure enough. She came into the “Asian isle” and proceeded to cause a scene. She went on and on about how he still sleeps with her and so forth (which is funny considering that WE’RE ALWAYS TOGETHER) and was just EMBARRASSING. She event\ went as far as tapping an innocent customer on the shoulder to get her involved in her psycho babble. She pushed me once and I told her, “I’m not doing this here with you, and definitely not in front of Justin.” Of course she goes into *snap*snap* mode and says, “So what? I wait for you outside, or what?” So completely childish and ghetto!

I called my babe to let him know there was most likely going to be a show later on. I said, “I wouldn’t doubt she leaves her cart somewhere and goes straight outside to wait for me behind my van.”

I should be a psychic! I got to my van with a cart-full of groceries and there was the silver car she was in, parked directly behind my van. She gets down and I go on about my business, putting groceries away. She yells God knows what to me and my mom tells her, “Just leave her alone. Go away.” And when she got in front of my Mom’s face and yelled at her I snapped, “Don’t yell at my mother that way!”

She yelled in all her ghetto glory, “I don’t give a FUCK about your mom!” and pushed me. I’m not sure what she grabbed first, but she pulled my hair, tried ripping my (brand new!) tank top repeatedly (’cause she’s a perv like that) & flailed her arms in pathetic attempts to punch me. I had my stupid bag on my shoulder, open as always and I did NOT want to let it go. I was afraid her niece would grab it and run. But her niece was too busy holding my left arm away from her lovely aunt. I had managed to grab her stupid face since she first attacked me and I did NOT let go. The other hand was wrapped around a chunk of her hair, too. I couldn’t get out of the knot of arms and I saw her legs spread open so I kicked her square in her ghetto balls. She moved back and started with her made up sob stories so the lovely crowd that had assembled around us could hear. And the entire time Justin and the other little boy were watching from inside. She’s seriously something else. What exactly did she accomplish? What was she trying to change? I’m not leaving him, he’s not leaving me, so…? Well, Karma’s a bitch, though, just wait and see.

Last night was, needless to say, a total flop. But today completely made up for it :). My babe and I slept in, I made crab & avocado omelets and then we showered and got ready for the day.

Crab & avocado omelet

We stopped by Red Mango (it’s an addiction, I tell ya!) and got our usual yogurts. That was our lunch. I beat my babe at the Slug Bug game hehe. I sold Emily’s old crib, so John finally got that out of his apartment :P. We went to my babe’s sis’ house to get more of his things and tell her about my adventure yesterday, heh. We got home and unloaded his stuff and went to Walmart for a few things I’d forgotten yesterday. We had some popcorn when we got home and then we went outside to clean the pool. My babe’s friend came over for a bit and then we relaxed in the pool for a good while. We hadn’t noticed just how many different types of birds fly around our house. I finally saw two little hummingbirds here!

We washed up and I made us some awesome sushi :).

Sushiii!

And now we’re sitting outside on the back porch. We’re so not gonna want to get ready for work in the morning. Why must the weekend be so short!

First Summer Weekend

Argh. Just found out my hours are being cut at work. Not good AT ALL!! I’m trying to avoid going into panic mode, so I figured I’d update while it is still lunchtime.

(I’m typing this on the iPad…so don’t be surprised if you find weird typos, heh. I wanted to remove the auto-correct deal but my babe finds it useful >_>.)

I can’t remember many of the details from Friday during work (what is happening to me?!) but I went straight to pick up Eenan and we stopped by John’s apartment so that I could throw out his old fridge food and clean up a bit. When we were done, Eenan and I got home and I started on dinner. They all settled down and watched TV and my babe had his friend over. Not exactly what I had in mind for my Friday night, but I gave him his guy time and watched TV with the kids.

I lazied around in the morning, fed the kiddos and just kinda slothed around all day, except for getting a few things at Target, dropping stuff off for Gramma, and stopping for burritos for lunch, a request from the boys of course, hehe.

I was feeling a little down–could have been the Girl Sickness or just the stress of bills–so I snuggled on the Cuddle Chair with Emily and watched Lifetime movies. There was one that got all 6 kids’ attention (about a psycho nanny) and they watched it with me. Emmy was with me, 2 boys sprawled on the rug, and 2 boys flanking Alaethia on the big ottoman. We’d get into discussions about it during commercials and then they’d all shush each other and their undivided attention was on the movie. It was really cute.

All the kiddos played together; tv, wrestling, chasing Ruffles, all simultaneously quieting down and playing on some sort of handheld device. It was wonderful :).

My tiny girl playing Angry Birds :).

My babe got home from work and I grocery shopped. An easy dinner of hotdogs :). We sat outside on the back patio, talking :). I love those nights. All our kiddos fell asleep in the boys’ room…until Emmos woke up of course and we took her to our bedroom :). She has the habit of wanting us to drag her toddler bed mattress to our room and she sleeps there. She says, “I pwomise I’ll go to sleep.” Aww! Who can resist that?

I woke up the next day and made pancakes for all the kiddos while they bathed. We ate, got ready, and then my babe dropped off his boys as my kiddos and I went to church. We went to Sacred Heart, my childhood church, and it was so nice to be back. It is just as I remembered it :). Eenan said he loved the church, Jaylen said he loved that it went by fast (LOL), I loved that the Priest’s readings involved the kids and they all loved being in the Cry Room upstairs, overlooking everything :).

My Chulos after church :)

We got back home and my babe was napping so I took the kiddos out to the patio, where they blew bubbles. I’d bought them some green Crayola ones and OMG, those things are messy! I put them away pretty quickly heh.

I made lunch and later we went outside to just chill out (well, my babe raked up the backyard and I watched, heh). He filled up the kickboxing target and then we played frisbee with the kids. It was so much fun! Even the baby girls got into it. And it was so hot that we turned on the water hose and had a water fight :). Gotta do that again!

I asked Mario to let me keep the kids again but he wanted to see them so I took them back :(. My babe rented a movie and I stopped for Red Mango on the way home from dropping them off and we had a great movie night :). It was “The Mechanic”. I TRIED staying up with all my might, but I crashed out at the end. My babe’s so sweet and just lets me fall asleep with my head on his shoulder till the movie is done. It happens quite often hehe.

Gosh, that was just such a great weekend. I’m so, so grateful for everything in my life :).

Ok, that took much longer than a lunch break! Typed up parts here and there throughout the day. Time to go!