Category: MLV

Must Be the Weather

I did not want to get up in the morning. I lay in bed after the alarm went off and then I threw myself on the couch and vegged out there for a while. I was dragging. I even made some coffee that morning. At least breakfast was already ready: barbacoa left over from the breakfast Mom treated us to the day before. I miraculously got into my truck right on time, at least.

I get to work and realize I’m still wearing my stinky, dirty house flip-flops. OMG! My first thought is that Mrs. V’s going to send me home to change. When we were still located at Nellie I’d done the same thing and she’d sent me home (not meanly) to change without clocking out since I lived so nearby. Not this time though!

As I’m walking my pants are rolling under my belly uncomfortably because either my belly’s shrinking or my Belly Band stretched out (I was wearing my pre-pregnancy pants). At least I managed to clock in on time.

I walk into the library, turn to my left to turn on the lights and…the air conditioning’s not working–again. IT literally feels like a sauna. Ugh.

Three of my students came in and helped me take the chairs off the tables (since they weigh about 50 lbs. each and are too heavy for me to lift). I tell them its okay, to stop because it’s super hot in there. One of them already had drops of sweat on his forehead. They said they were fine. I seriously felt like I’d pass out. I decided that if the air wasn’t fixed by 10:30 (our half-day) I was going home.

I tried not to move at all. The boys that were helping me had propped the doors open with chairs, so it started to get a tad cooler. I read for a little bit and just monitored the kids who were checking out. The air was fixed by 9:22. And it was raining out (the hallway was beginning to flood—eek) and we had a slight cold front. It instantly put me in a better mood. I mostly checked out dictionaries to the ELA teachers and thankfully some substitutes helped me wheel them out. The day went by very quickly thankfully.

Mario got home late and told me parts of his day were pretty shitty, too. I think it was the weather.

I went to sleep feeling an uncomfortable pain in my lower abdomen. I knew it wasn’t round ligament pain because I know what that feels like, and this was nothing like it. It was sharp, burning and sort of in my bladder area and I had this incredible urge to pee every 5 minutes…but it would only trickle out. I had a darn UTI, I knew it. Sorry if that’s TMI.

Hearts In Eyes

Mario and I were debating for a while whether we should fix up our old e-machines desktop computer and that day we finally decided to buy the hard drive it needed to work again. The moms stayed with the kiddos while we went to Office Max, where we saw a 500g ATA hard drive on sale for $99 in the ads. We got the hard drive and Norton. Turned out we got the wrong hard drive. We were starving, so we decided to exchange it after we ate. Mario asked where I wanted to go and I hinted Kumori, but I knew he wouldn’t want to go. But then he starts turning into the lane and he stops at Kumori! I was thrilled. It was turning out to be such a great day. The weather was nice and overcast and I just love days like that.

We ordered some spicy calamari and Mario got some Yakimeshi Beef (fried rice with beef and veggies). He loved it. I joked that I’d probably starve if I had to eat rice with chopsticks all the time; my rice kept falling all over the place.

I ordered my usual rolls, the Fiesta Rolls. Mario couldn’t decide what he wanted. He said he liked the rolls I took him a while back, the Earth Rolls, which consist of fried rice, spicy shrimp, veggies and cream cheese but he hates cream cheese. I told him he could just order without it. That’s what I do—order my Fiesta Rolls without the fried salmon skin, yuck. We had a really nice time, just us in the quiet, dark restaurant enjoying the rain that had just started pouring. I couldn’t stop grinning at him across the table. I was still in complete disbelief that we’d spent three whole days together (well, half of Friday since I was working). But still, it was fantastic!

We went back to exchange the hard drive but ended up returning altogether because they didn’t have the one we needed. It was quickly starting to flood; one thing I don’t miss about living in McAllen. Adan told us to go to Comp USA because they most likely carried the ATA hard drive we needed. I hadn’t been to Comp USA at all since they relocated. The store’s HUGE. We found a 400gig for $79! I was in love.

We went to Walmart to get another DVD shelf to match the nice one we bought a few months ago. The old one we had was rickety and I was terrified that it would fall on top of Alaethia, since she has this obsession with ruining my DVDs at the moment. We got a few more things we needed and then went to H-E-B for groceries. We got home, I cleaned up, did laundry, dishes, and all the other housework. Got the kids in the shower and didn’t even iron. I packed myself some Hot Pockets for work, which I was craving. They’re livesavers. Adan and Mario were chilling outside with Jorge and Jose by the time we went to bed. Aly wouldn’t go to sleep at all; Mom let her sleep while we were in town. We were up till 1am! Then she woke me up at 3:30 for a glass of milk. I couldn’t fall back to sleep and just tossed and turned. I hate that! Needless to say I was exhausted in the morning!

August 18th – August 28th

Mon. 18th – the 20th – That week at work was spent adding the newcoming 6th graders into our database and the beginning of adding them to our Reading Renaissance database because our lovely coordinator deleted everyone from the database. We had this false sense of security that this year we were just going to add the 6th graders and voila! we’d be done! But no. So I had the pleasure of adding all the kids. One by one, I added them.

Tues. 19th – Mom’s 59th birthday. I rushed home and started on the enchiladas and rice I was making her for dinner. John wanted to get her a cake, which was better for me—one less thing to do, so we drove to H-E-B and got an Oreo cake for her. Got back and the food was ready. My dad-in-law was sick and sleeping, Mario was still at work so it was just John, Mom, Mary, the kids and I. I didn’t invite anyone else since in the past, when I have, no one makes it.

Thurs. 21st – My fingers were on fire as I added students to the database. At one point Mrs. V. passes by and says, “I’m really gonna miss you,” and smiles warmly. I told her, “Aww, I’m going to miss you, too!”
I made sure to clock out right on time, since we were still getting out at 5pm that week and I had to rush home, get the boys to the salon to cut their hair because they hadn’t had one since Natalie’s Quinceanera in June! And then we had Meet the Teacher night at their school. At the salon I’m relieved to find out Meet the Teacher night would be ending at 8 instead of 7:00, so I had plenty of time.

Jaylen got Eenan’s 1st grade teacher this year, which is great ’cause she’s awesome. And Eenan’s teacher is one I’d seen around before and I hear she’s great, too. She asked him questions and was really nice to him right off the bat. When we’d walked in she said excitedly, “Yay! I got Eenan!!” like he’s a prize LOL. She’s also going to be his UIL coach this year, which is cool. Eenan was a little disappointed to find out, though, that he wouldn’t be in the same class with his two best buds, Abraham and Rolando.

Fri. 22nd – Friday was our huge district meeting at the Dodge Arena. The girls from work and I decided to carpool, so we all met at the school at 6:45am, which seemed really early considering we’d been going in at 8 every morning. Well, it was something we had to get used to since we’d be going in at 6:30 again on Monday.

We went in Amaveli’s Tahoe and it’s always a laugh with those girls. I was so relieved they invited me to go along with them since I’d never been to one of those events before. I felt overwhelmed just thinking about it!
We got there right on time, waved to everyone we knew from other schools or departments (I saw my dad-in-law and Ricky there!), and laughed our butts off at our really funny, enthusiastic motivational speaker (who just happened to be nicknamed “Mr. Enthusiasm” LOL). We all agreed he reminded us of Mr. D.!

We went to eat at House of China for lunch. I was disappointed that they didn’t have the crab & cream cheese thingies I like and the green beans were crappy. Those were my favorite to have there when I was pregnant with Aly and was looking forward to both this time around. After we ate we went to Palms Crossing and visited the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, where I bought a sal-y-limon & chile candy apple. If you haven’t had one, you must!! You don’t know what you’re missing. They’re SO GOOD. (Man, now I really want one…)

Mario had his Physical for Border Patrol that Friday. I was so nervous for him, but I knew he’d do well. He texted me to call him after work, so I did—and he passed!! He said he thought he’d done a little mistake during the stepping part (kind of like when you step up and down in aerobics?), but the instructor didn’t say anything so whew!

I got home and Mario, my dad-in-law and Mom were outside chilling out while the kids all sloshed around in the kiddie pool. It was a nice day. Alaethia was having a blast. Jaylen needed a nap so he quickly became moody =\.

Sat. 23rd – I think this was the day the two moms, my kiddos and I all crammed ourselves into my Equinox and went to town. We had bills to pay and then we met Mario for lunch at Jesse’s. I love that place. I had enchiladas as usual.

Sun. 24th – We lazied around all morning and around noon, when businesses open on Sunday, we went to Conn’s to dispute the extra $65 I’d noticed they’d charged us on our 47″ TV. We only had about $78 to go and once they credited that extra $65, we’d only owe $8!! We talked to the guy who’d originally started our account and he swore up and down he’d fix it. He told me to call on Wednesday to follow up.

Can’t remember much else from that day; I know for sure I did laundry and cleaned and got the boys’ backpacks and clothes for their first day of school ready the next morning (eek!).

Mon. 25th – I was so sad I wouldn’t be there to see them off since I’m taking off to work about 30 minutes before they even wake up, but Mario dropped them off. He said they did really well and took tons of pictures (which I still need to add to Flickr!). They both loved their teachers; Jaylen was especially excited. They high-fived each other when Jaylen told Eenan how much fun he had in the class with his (Eenan’s) former teacher. It was too cute :). Eenan was a little sad, however, because Rolando and Abraham weren’t in his class, but he said on the plus side he’d behave better this year without the distractions, aww. We later found out that Rolando hadn’t showed up to school all week!

Tues. 26th – Can’t remember much from that day…I think I mainly stuck to doing stuff to the database: adding students to the checkout system and continued adding them to Reading Renaissance. Mrs. V. said I could start on the classes that were going to attend the Star Testing first and the teachers could help me with the rest. I completely intended on finishing it on my own before Friday. A pounding sinus headache hit me around noontime. I felt awful.

Wed. 27th – I had a doctor’s appointment at 4pm. I picked up the boys, took quick shower , and rushed over there. Made it right on time. I weighed 130 (!!) already. My glucose and blood pressure were fine. Still no pap smear, though I’m not complaining. I told the doctor about the sharp pain in my right side behind my ribs; he said it may be my gallbladder. He freaked me out saying they’d operate after delivery if they had to — what? I didn’t think it was my gallbladder, but he told me to do some detective work and check if I got the pain after I ate anything spicy or greasy. I got an appointment for the Friday after that week, but cancelled it at the last minute because I suddenly stopped getting the pain right after that appointment O_o.

I asked for something for the horrible sinus headaches I’d been having. He gave me two bottles that had only 4 tiny pills in them. He said be careful when you take them, I’m much bigger than you and they knocked me out.

When he began doing the ultrasound and saw the baby sort of hiccup as soon as the doctor put the monitor to my belly. I think it was asleep :). It moved its little hands and kicked its little legs. He checked the baby’s gender; I told him I had a feeling it’s a girl, because my symptoms and everything else were so similar to Alaethia’s. As he slid the monitor around my belly he said, “I think so, too.” And then I see it! What looks like a tiny “peach”! But then he says, “No, no! Aha! It’s a boy!!” I sort of saw what he was talking about; a tiny little orb between the little legs. I feel awful saying this, but I felt a little disappointed. I kind of had these visions of having two boys and two girls. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for either a boy or a girl–too many things went wrong with Jaylen’s pregnancy and I learned not to take anything for granted. I just want a healthy baby. But the weird thing is: I still feel in my heart of hearts that it’s a girl! We’ll see what turns up in 3 weeks on Sept. 17th!

I told Mom and Big Mario about my appointment and when they told me to go rest I excused myself, took a pill and got comfy on the couch for when this deep sleep should hit me. I even did some boring check-balancing to bore myself into oblivion…but nothing happened. I stayed awake till 9:15pm–when Alaethia and I both crashed out on the couch. Everyone just left us alone and let us sleep. I woke up at 10:30 and moved both of us to the bedroom. Mario had already kindly made me some Jalapeno Tuna for work the next day.

Thurs. 28th – I woke up the next morning hoping I’d slept off the headache, but nope, it was in full swing. I decided I’d call in for the morning and go in in the afternoon to finish up the copies that awaited me. I slept that whole morning and when I woke up at 9am I still felt a little groggy and the back of my eyes still hurt, but I felt much better than the days before.

I got to the library at 10:30 and started working. I was sure I’d finish with everything I needed to do by the next day.