April 16th – I packed my bag for work and attended our meeting. I expected to go to the Golf Tournament around 11am, but they asked me to change so we could leave around 9 or so. I changed (into jeans, yay!), made a few calls & replied to emails I had pending, we loaded everyone’s vehicles and got to the Country Club. It was a fresh and overcast day, but it was swarming with mosquitoes 
We started off slow, then it got crazy and then we got to have lunch! The morning went by fast. Wally was grilling burgers for us–which I was dreading since I’d been eating so well. And Palenque Chicken was catering that night so…that would be interesting!
We were in the dining hall. Everyone went to their posts. I stayed in the hall with Maritza, Gerry & Blanca until my boss was ready to be relieved from his post. There was junkfood everywhere and I did pretty well until Maritza busted out a Moonpie. OMG. I used to consume at least 2 of those every day for like…a month about 4 years ago. Terrible. Highly caloric. We really wanted one, though, so we decided to split one LOL.
My boss and I switched places as spotters for the Hole-in-one. I’d made sure my phone was charged so I could finish reading my eBook. Wally & Michelle dropped me off and I told them to PLEASE return for me if it started to rain. Thunder had been rumbling softly all day. During our department’s tournament last October I got drenched when I was driving back in a golf cart a little too late from my post. This year, our tournament shirt was white and my hair was straightened–two things I definitely didn’t want to wet!
I sat at the post and enjoyed the breeze. I sat out there a total of 20 minutes until it started to drizzle. Wally and Maritza were already driving around the corner to come get me, whew!!
We spent the rest of the day in the pool house watching it rain.
Then we started getting reports of hail in places and severe weather. Luckily nothing happened in our area. The teams played only the holes they had already played and we got ready for dinner. I wish I could have enjoyed it a bit more; I took over for one of the girls, picking the numbers for the door prizes. The door prizes were called out, then the auction was done and voila! It was over!
I got home and my babe was already home. Mom had made dinner for the girls already, so we sat around watching their shows on Disney. We did our nightly routine: bath, hair detangling, teeth brushing, read a story, gave kisses and hugs three times and then I joined my love in the living room. We watched one of our shows and then headed to bed. We are SO BEHIND on all our shows. But we’re always so tired. Most of the time I’m the one who passes out on the sofa 
. Then he gently rouses me from sleep and leads me to the bedroom and tucks me in 
.
April 17th – The next day was a normal day at work. I picked up Alaethia from school, I ate with the girls and then went back to work.
The Conn’s guys called that our fridge and freezer were out for delivery. Mom called around 3pm that they’d just finished installing them. She said the girls couldn’t open the doors, buahaha. (That didn’t last long, though…)
It’s beautiful!! It even made our more, er, vintage cabinets look nice, heh. I want to change those old handles to stainless steel ones. And eventually a stainless steel microwave, but that’s later, later.
Our old co-worker Jesse, invited us to his birthday party. We had our birthday party together last year at Zushi and this year he was starting his birth week on his actual birthday at Russo’s. My love was going to try to make it, but wasn’t sure; he was swamped with work. I got the girls ready and off we went.
The girls behaved wonderfully; even when the pizza took “too long to come out” as they said LOL. I was surprised with how much Alaethia ate! She had 2 1/2 slices. She really liked it. We chit-chatted, sang “Happy Birthday”, had cake and then I excused myself. We picked up some Whataburger for my love, who was on his way home.
I gave the girls a quick bath, tucked them into bed and they were out like lights!!
April 18th – Jaylen’s 10th birthday!! My littlest boy, already TEN!! I tried calling him that morning to wish him a happy birthday, but his phone was off and his dad didn’t answer his phone. It made me feel an immense sadness inside, not being able to physically be there in the morning and giving him a huge hug and wishing him a good day (I’m tearing up as I write this); even moreso knowing that I was going to court that day and agreeing to keeping the custody terms as they are; Mario keeps the boys, I keep the girls. The weeks we each have all 4 kids we’ll have them from Thursday evening to Monday morning, which is what we’ve been doing since February 8th. Everyone told me to keep things as they are if things were working out, but I want my boys. Unfortunately, attorneys work by the hour. I wish I had a million dollars to go all the way with this thing :'(. More than anything, I wish I did.
The boys were both stressed out about it (Jaylen’s a little more reserved about his feelings, but Eenan himself had told me he couldn’t concentrate at school because he was only thinking about what was going to happen; who was he going to end up with) and I didn’t want this whole thing to interfere with their state tests that were coming up. Eenan is 12 and can choose whom he wants to live with. I know how attached he is to that woman, but I’m hoping he’ll come with me one day soon 
. And Jaylen said where Eenan goes, he goes.
I was nice and let the charges against his mother be dropped for what she did. I hope they understand the severity of what they did at the end of February and this was a lesson learned. You never know with them, though. I still have my guard up with them.
The morning went by slowly. We got to witness other hearings before ours. Then we were up. I got my spare keys to my van back, finally. I wouldn’t doubt he made a copy since he had it for almost 2 years. But I’m glad to have it back. I should have thrown out there that his mother still owes on my account for her furniture after 4 years. And a few other things but wasn’t thinking. It took a lot of inner strength to not crumble into a million pieces; I couldn’t stop thinking of the boys. My mind kept going back to that August. September. October. HOW they gained custody of the kids. As we’d sat there listening to everyone else’s hearings I blocked it all out and went back to August and how stupid I was for listening to them, to that woman, coaxing me in her fake-sugary voice that I should leave the kids there because of school not stressing them out and blah, blah, blah. I regret more than anything listening to those people. Believing them. Believing her every single time she’d say she wasn’t going to take them from me–sometimes without me even asking, which should have told me a lot. But this past February proved what I knew would happen: even if I had taken the boys with me that very minute like I did the girls, even if I’d withdrawn them from their current schools and moved them to the schools near John’s apartment where I’d been staying, his mother would have just gone right over there and stolen them from the school…and then proceeded with the very thought-out plan as they did in actuality.
Ugh, anyway. So that was that. I called Mario right after court and asked him if he’d told the boys anything. Even though the boys will eventually know what day we officially divorced on, I didn’t want them knowing it was that day that we went to court and agreed to it. I didn’t want Jaylen knowing it was on his birthday. I know how Mario likes to give them more information that they should, and he likes to have everything out there right away (i.e. him telling them we were divorcing as soon as we signed the papers, etc.). Sure enough, he said he didn’t tell Jaylen but he told Eenan since he was older. Oh yes, like he isn’t going to run and tell his brother. *sigh*
I picked up my Aly from school, dropped her off with Mom and Emmos and went back to work. My co-workers are awesome and stepped in for me while I was absent that morning and helped me out with one of my luncheons. I got there, updated everyone, even though it wasn’t the big celebration that I’d liked. It would have been a grand one if I’d actually had my boys :'(. (I shouldn’t be writing this right now. I’m hormonal and a total wreck.)
Whoooo. Ok.
Laura and I ate at the luncheon, I took over reception and then the rest of the day was as they usually go.
I spoke to Jaylen later that afternoon. They were taking him out for his birthday and I let them pick up the girls so they can spend the night, on the condition that they’d bring Jaylen and Eenan over so I could see them. We chit-chatted a little bit and Mom and I gave him his birthday money :). I swear Jaylen grew another inch since a few days before that. They’re growing so quickly :(.
They left and I changed into jeans and sandals. Jessica invited me to a Rainbow Room benefit, which is an organization against child abuse. We met at Alhambra and went in. The point was to support the event, have a few appetizers and catch up some more, but we couldn’t get out of work-mode heh. We chatted with one of my old exhibitors from the Health Fair; James, Alhambra’s chef and the photographer from one of the events. Even though we didn’t get to chat much, it was fun. And I won a door prize! A Honey basket, which had 4 bottles of organic honey and 2 cinnamon honey butter spread, which were made in McAllen :). (I have no pictures…must email Laura from the magazine to send me some LOL.)
My love had gotten home and he was bored LOL. Since we didn’t have much time to chat, Jessica suggested we have dinner at Bayou Grill. We’d never been there; I’d met the chef, but had never actually eaten there. I told Jorge to get ready and I told Jess we’d meet her and her friend Joe there.
We wanted to go “light” lol, so we had some stuffed mushrooms to start and shared a chicken and shrimp plate–which I was really glad for since, as we expected, it was a huge plate!
And I had a Midouri Sour, which I hadn’t had in about 2 years!
I love that photo, hehe.
We caught up and ate. It was really nice to get out and be social, heh. They wanted us to follow them to Rings and Wings, but man, we’re getting old and we were sleepy :P.
April 19 – I honestly can’t remember much from this day, for some reason, heh. Pretty normal day at work. Picked up Aly from school like usual, ate with the girls. I remember being really sleepy around 3pm and hoping and praying I’d be sent on some errand at work so I could stop by a Starbucks LOL. But no, I ended up getting busier towards the end of the day and then I went to pick up the boys. We talked and caught up on the way home. I missed them!! We got home, I made dinner and we chilled out the rest of the evening, all sprawled out in the living room. Then of course came the bathing and the putting to bed. Both girls had begun showing signs of a cold so I’d be taking them to the doctor in the morning.
April 20 – I took the girls to the doctor and got there about 10 minutes after they opened. I expected it to be fast, since it usually is, but I was sadly mistaken. We were there for about 2 hours and then had to wait longer for their prescriptions. The doctor had left to deliver a baby, hence the wait. I was glad to get it all done, though, so they wouldn’t have to suffer through the weekend.
I got to work about noontime. The afternoon went by quickly. My boss tells me we’re going to go to an Expo around 3pm to recruit for our Expo in January, hehe. We chit-chatted with a few of our old wonderful exhibitors. I “posed” in one of the hammocks one of the exhibitors had and gave me a little outdoor decorative turtle. She now resides with my bougainvillea, heh. I ended up walking away with 2 bags of discounted or free items from different people. One of the perks of my job 
.
As my boss and I drove back to the office we started hearing severe thunderstorm and hail warnings. I was hoping it was a false alarm; I had to pick up the boys, pick up Jaylen’s and Justin’s birthday cake and then we were taking them all out to eat. But as we drove, the reports were more frequent and the sky was becoming darker. We got to work, I turned off my computer and rushed to clock out. I decided I should go for the cake first and then to pick up the boys. I was hoping I could avoid the storm, but nope. I got to Sweet and Tasty, picked up the kids’ almond creme cake and as soon as I walked out little ice pebbles started falling on the clear plastic cover of the cake. I ran to the car as fast as I could and called Jorge. I told him I was on north 10th St. and OH MY GOD, WHAT DO I DO?!?!
He told me to go to a bank or car wash and park in their lanes under a roof. Every single gas station, car wash and bank was taken! Finally, after what seemed like forever, I got to his office’s parking lot and parked next to the building. A tree was somewhat breaking the fall of the golf ball to baseball-sized hail. I called Mario to let him know I’d be late for the boys and he should be lucky I called to warn him because he got to move his Mom’s van just in time. I called Mom and she said it was hailing very little, thank goodness, and the girls were fine. Jorge was at a project site and was driving back to the store already. He uploaded this to Facebook:
All the while I was waiting for him, HUGE hail balls were hitting the van. I knew for sure I had at least 5 huge dents (and I later confirmed that I did ). He got to the store, jumped in his truck and we drove to Palmview. On our way there we only slightly missed crashing twice; people are terrible at driving in wet weather here 
. I don’t know how I did it, but both times I swore I was going to slam into him and I was about 1/2 an inch away from his bumper both times.
We left his truck in Palmview so he could go with me in case the weather was bad, went for my babies (while eating those peanut butter chocolate drizzle cookies from Sweet & Tasty, mmmmm!), went back to his truck and he went for his boys. The weather was clearing up on the way back, thank God. We were celebrating Jaylen and Justin’s birthdays that night and I prayed the weather wouldn’t become ugly again so we could take them to dinner.
They both wanted House of China, so there we went. It was a nice night :). There wasn’t a huge crowd, the kids were all wonderful, they enjoyed their food and Jorge and I behaved pretty well, too. We tried not being too gluttonous!
We got home and watched some TV with the kids. None of them even asked about the cake, since we were sorta grateful for because it was after 9pm and they certainly didn’t need to be hopped up on sugar LOL. The girls fell asleep and we moved them to their beds and the boys played for a little bit. We chilled out in the garage and we each had a drink and talked about everything. I love nights like that: when everything important to me is under one roof .
