Category: MLV

Just updating really quick since I actually got everything done before 9pm and got into bed at 9:30. I’ve been surfing the ‘net a little and decided to blog. Man, I miss this thing. I think I was a lot more sane when I’d write down everything that was bothering me or making me happy every day. I’m still working on slowly publishing my Spring Break draft, but I’ll do that later on (yeah, right…I still haven’t posted the Christmas/Aly’s 1st birthday ones!).

Work’s been….something else the past two days, to say the least. My boss has been home sick and certain students are reveling at the opportunity to act up. It’s been insane. I’m eternally grateful to Elvira for being with me these past two days or else I don’t know what I would have done. Today was definitely better than yesterday, definitely. And it beats Tuesday, too.

Tuesday was a pretty great day, until I got in my truck and noticed a huge crack going in three separate directions and it was spreading fast. Then, when I get to the boys’ school, I get down to talk to the principal and wasn’t surprised to learn that nothing had been done–not even addressed–to her about Jaylen’s missing fundraiser money they told me they lost last week. The whole meeting was for nothing; they basically told me there’s nothing they can do because nobody has it. Grr.

I get home and instead of breathing in nice, cool central air, I breathed in steamy heat and a smoky smell. Stupid air conditioner unit died on us. They didn’t fix it till 9:45. I’d already stated my protest: I wouldn’t go to work if I was sticky from sweating over night. But thank God, we were okay.

We had a Lockdown at work today. A real one. Second one, actually. Considering the area we’re in, I have a feeling we’re going to have many more.

Poor Mario’s having issues at work, too. I don’t even know what to tell him about it. I just want to yell, “TELL THEM TO SHOVE IT ALEADY!” But he won’t.

Dang, I’m tired! I’m actually dozing off and Alaethia just passed out so I think I will, too. My new mattresses are so comfy (we just bought them last week as an anniversary present to ourselves :D) and the air feels so fresh — perfect time for sleeping :).

Mario and I went to sleep pretty late Saturday night (the 8th). I didn’t feel like waking up the next morning and because I still had that strange feeling about going to Mario’s Grandpa’s property I wondered if I should wake Mario up at all and just forget the whole thing. But no. I knew if I did that he’d be upset. So I got up at 9am and woke him up at 9:30. Mom stayed with the kids and we were out the door with ammunition and weapons in tow by 10:30.

We took the scenic route in Mario’s truck and saw an array of birds, like cranes and parrots. It was such a nice day, sunny and breezy. All the way over there I questioned Mario and nagged about this being a bad idea. I clearly remember his words: “When I start to worry, then you can worry, okay?” Besides, his uncles would practice there all the time.

I was nervous, but I believed Mario and started to calm down. I took pictures of the beautiful scenery before me: Mario’s grandfather’s property is right on the Rio Grande River border with Mexico. The property’s on a cliff and you can see the river below and the brushy fields of Mexico just on the other side. There’s about 10-15 feet of space between the fence of the property and the edge of the cliff.

I actually got kind of excited watching Mario shoot his handgun at the paper target he placed on the large mound of dirt, or berm. I wanted to try. He reloaded it and let me try. It was an unexpected jolt, that first shot, so I closed my eyes and Mario corrected me and told me to aim as best as I could. So I did better. We took pictures of each other and then Mario started shooting with the AR-15. It looked so awesome. Mario reloaded and handed me the rifle. It felt sort of uncomfortable and I kept changing my mind because I thought I’d dislocate my shoulder or something if the gun kicked back too hard, but I did even better with the rifle than I did with the handgun. I even hit a few targets!

Mario was on his way to reload the Glock when we see a Sullivan City police cruiser drive up in the tiny space between the fence and the cliff. My heart sinks and I shoot a look at Mario that says, “TOLD YOU SO!” He hands me the Glock and I put it on the bed of the truck. Mario was already at the fence speaking to the officers by the time I got enough courage to walk over there myself. They asked if we knew it was illegal to be shooting there. Mario said, “No, sir, I didn’t.” The first cop, who was being really aggressive, told Mario, “Oh, c’mon! You know you can’t be shooting here.” He immediately gets on his phone and we turn our attention to the other cop. He was an old co-worker of Mario’s back from his hospital days. They started catching up and then he updates Mario on what’s going on and why they’re there. Turns out they got a call from someone reporting that people were shooting into the Rio Grande River, which is illegal. Then they heard that people were exchanging fire between Mexico and the U.S. Then they heard that someone had gotten shot in the arm and was being transported to a hospital in somewhere called Santander. It was all too much to take in. They didn’t have a straight story, but what alarmed me was that someone might possibly be hurt. We were just there to practice and all of a sudden one of us may have shot someone, more than likely ME because I missed a shot. Just one freaking shot.

When the cops had walked away I whispered to Mario, “Are you worried yet?” He squeezes my shoulder and says, “No, I’m not.” I asked him what they said before I got to the fence and he said they asked if we’d heard any screaming. I thought, “WHAT? How terrible!”

They told us they’d have to hold us there for questioning and filing statements; something I never thought I’d have to do in my life. My head was spinning. I just wanted to know if I did shoot someone. Border Patrol showed up with their own AR-15’s to “back-up” the cops because they, too, were told that there was an exchange of fire. By now I was bawling and all these thoughts were going through my head like, “How much will we be fined for shooting here illegally? Did I hurt someone? What if the bullet had gone just a few inches to the right or left–I could have killed someone! Will I go to jail? Will I see my kids again?”

The cops noticed I was inconsolable and the aggressive one softened up. The one that new Mario walked up to me and said, “Ma’am, don’t get that way. You didn’t do anything wrong. It was an accident. Don’t get sad.” But still, no matter what anyone said, I couldn’t help but feel a ball of guilt in my chest.

Border Patrol left because they figured out they had nothing to do there. Everyone was getting frustrated because stories were being criss-crossed here and there and they weren’t getting anywhere. The cops were communicating with someone on the other side of the river; shouting responses and gesturing with their hands. This was around the time Jorge, Jose and Isiah got there. I turned to Mario when I heard feet crunching on branches behind me and said, “Oh no.” The last thing I needed was to be made fun of or be scolded. Neither of which ever happened. Jorge saw me crying and said, “Don’t cry, you didn’t do anything wrong. It was an accident.” Mario was being great and held me and said everything he needed to say to keep me from hyperventilating and passing out. Mario called his mom during this time to let her know what was going on. She rushed over there between one of her meetings stayed with us for moral support. Jose crossed over the fence to see what was going on and talk with the cops. We couldn’t see what was going on over the cliff, but he said they’d been shouting and gesturing to a group of men on the other side; men who were supposedly working in the fields, which later raised questions because only two of the men had hoes and the fields hadn’t been worked on in 10 years. They’re still not sure if they’re the ones who called, because whoever called, called the Sullivan City police and it wasn’t a hospital or any type of institution. Jorge and Jose were convinced that these guys were ready to cross.

About half an hour later the Sheriffs show up. We give them our details and he asks Mario, “Is she your girlfriend? Wife?” and Mario says, “Wife. 9 years.” The sherriff chuckles and says,”Happy couple? You’ve got to be after 9 years! Only a happy couple would shoot together and not at each other!” LOL. We apologized for shooting in the property. The officer said, “Who said you couldn’t shot here?” and Mario replied, “Well, the cops from Sullivan did.” The sheriff shakes his head and says, “This isn’t part of the city. This is County. You have every right to shoot here as long as you’re following the rules — which you were by shooting at the berm — and as long as you’re not shooting into the river, across the river, or towards houses.” I shook my head and tell him, “I don’t understand how I can’t hit a bull’s eye on the paper target, but I shoot the only Mexican standing on the other side of the river.” I didn’t mean it to be funny at the time, but he laughed LOL.

So we weren’t going to be fined. Now it was a matter of finding out if this guy was okay. Sobbing, I asked the sheriff if they knew if “he” was okay; that we’d even take care of hospital bills, I just wanted to know if he was okay. He, like everyone else, tells me not to cry and that so far they couldn’t identify anyone and now they’re wondering if anyone got shot at all.

We were there another hour before they heard anything else. Mary had left to her other meeting and Jorge, Jose and Isiah stayed with us. I told them they should go; it was hot and we were going to be there a while and they shouldn’t have to suffer for my mistake. They said we’re family and we stick together. Aww :*). I’m so glad they were there. They helped us relax a little and they’d joke around and we even went to the fence of the ranch next door to feed mesquite tree greens to the goats. I kept thinking about Carmen’s babyshower and how I was going to miss it. I texted her to let her know I wouldn’t be making it.

Meanwhile, the sherriffs had been making calls to every hospital in the area in Mexico and nobody had any info on anyone who’d been shot in the arm, or taken in for being shot anywhere on their body. They also started questioning the path of the bullet; it was windy, which wouldn’t affect it’s direction too much, but the area where the man was supposedly shot and the area where we were standing and shooting on the property weren’t adding up. We got cards from the sherriffs in case we needed to speak to them and the older of the two men told me again that I hadn’t done anything wrong and we could continue to practice if we liked. The younger one even told us how to create a higher, less-penetrable berm.

They stayed with us till the crime scene investigator showed up a while later. He took our info, our statements, took pictures of the crime scene (my gosh, I never thought I’d be saying that either) which was just pictures of the berm, the targets, and the casings that were littered on the ground; all the while joking with us and trying to keep us calm. He also told us we weren’t doing anything wrong and that, so far, it didn’t seem like anyone did get shot. He said I would have had to be standing on the edge of the cliff, shooting down in order to have hit anyone on the other side. He said, “This guy would have had to be the unluckiest guy in the world to get hit with a stray, one-in-a-million bullet, and I doubt yours was the millionth one.”

So I felt much better after that. They held our weapons just in case someone who’d gotten shot came forward; then they’d have to run ballistics. It’s been two weeks and we haven’t gotten them back, so I’m assuming that no news is good news.

We all went to eat at El Pato after that. We were starving. Mario and I hadn’t even had breakfast that morning and it was now 4:30pm. Now we were alright and somewhat in the clear and everyone took the opportunity to joke around. Jorge started calling me Annie Oakley, and now everyone calls me that LOL. We get home and Andy and Noelia are on their way to visit and Andy’s dubbed me Killer! By the time we’d made it home both sides of the family had somehow gotten word about our fiasco and were calling to make sure we were alright. Word really travels fast!

I was an emotional wreck four weeks ago.

The last time I updated Mario and I had a little argument (“little” being an understatement). I didn’t talk to him till the next day, partly because I didn’t see him till the next day. As always, he acted like nothing happened. He called in the afternoon on Saturday (March 1st) to invite me to dinner at Chili’s to “make up for yesterday.” I spent the morning at home and paid off our Volkswagon credit card and over half of Home Depot. Then I made Mario’s truck payment and yelled for everyone to get in the Equinox. All my kiddos, Mom, Mary and I were going to town. We went to all our banks, Mary paid a bill, the boys got games at Gamestop (with their own saved allowance), Eenan got a Halo toy and Digimon toys at Wal-mart, we went to see Mario so he could fix my signal lights, we bought chips at Stripes to hold off the boys till we met Mario for lunch, bought a cute chest (that we’re using for video game paraphernalia) at Big Lots, and made my Circuit City payment. I learned my lesson last month; they made me overdraft because I’d made the payment at the beginning of the month and it didn’t go through till the end before we got paid again since I only ever deposit enough for the online bills we have. We ate at Taco Bell with Mario, which was nice and we were civil. We went to see Gramma afterwards and then went to Target. We got home and I put the chest together. Then I waited for Mario to call and give me the okay to meet him at Chili’s. When I was giving Eenan a hug before we left I noticed he felt a little warmer than usual. He said he felt fine; that it was probably because he was covered with my comforter.

Mario and I got to Chili’s (seperately) at 10pm and stayed for about an hour and a half. I had my usual frozen strawberry Margarita and we ordered the Tripple Dipper (spinach and artichoke dip, boneless wings and fried cheese), and my favorite: shrimp Alfredo. There must be a shortage of shrimp somewhere because they only served me four miniscule shrimp. Grr.

Mario and I talked about different things: work, life, the kids and then something that’d being weighing on our minds for a week and a half: the possibility of me being pregnant.

I’d had the bright idea what seemed like 5 short weeks before to stop taking my pill to see if it would help with my weight-loss. In the meantime, I was looking for alternatives and we were being “careful”. Well, Elvira (Mrs. R. from work) and I usually “start” around the same time. Actually, she’s starting when I’m finishing. When I started panicking I asked her if she’d started already and she already knew why I was asking. She said no when I asked. But a day later, Friday, she called after work and asked if I’d gotten mine because she got hers. I was almost in tears. For those two weeks I kept thinking, “This can’t be happening! Alaethia’s too small to have a new sibling! I can’t be pregnant while doing my job and I like my job! Mario barely sees the other 3 kids. I’m barely getting 5 straight hours of sleep! I can’t go through this again! OMG I’m going to get fatter! OMG another college fund! 4 weddings!” And-so-on-and-so-forth.

It didn’t help that Mario wasn’t supportive at all. He was freaking out as much –if not worse– than I was. I had a little cry sitting there across the booth from him at Chili’s. He told me something that night that made me resent him a little; something I never thought I’d hear him utter from his own mouth. It may have just been because he was worried, but still, it’s unforgivable. And no, I’m not being overdramatic.

We woke up the next morning (Sunday, March 2nd) and just chilled out. We weren’t going to get to do much since we had a meeting from 2:30 to 4pm for Eenan’s First Communion class. My Equinox needed an oil change and we needed a few groceries so we figured we’d go to Walmart. Well, the lines at the auto place were super long so we just got a few things. We went home and then sat, rather confusedly, through the Communion class. It had absolutely nothing to do with Communion. They were chanting and screaming and then did some play where I know there was a lesson in there somewhere but man, I was confused. We all were. Mario up and left outside with Jorge and Yazmin. When we were done we packed up Alaethia and her things, left the boys with Mom and then went to Comp USA since Mario wanted to get memory and a harddrive for the ol’ E-Machines so he could rebuild it for himself. It was closed. We went to Circuit City to look for the stuff there and I asked about the laptop on sale in the ads. We’re still joking about it now: Mario says he has no idea how it happened, but he nodded yes and all of a sudden I own a new 15″ Toshiba laptop, heh. Problem solved. He wanted his own computer and I wanted a smaller one. We’d end up spending the same amount for everything he wanted to get to rebuild the desktop, so it worked out. He kept my “old” 17″ Toshiba and I kept the smaller new one. I got my anniversary gift early :).

When we got home I checked on the boys and was startled when I gave Eenan a hug and he was burning up. Paul had just gotten here so Mario could do some work on his van’s system, so I gathered all my stuff, left Aly and Jaylen with Mom, while Mary called around to check which pediatrician’s were open on a Sunday night.

She found a place in Mission that had just opened and we left. They were pretty fast there. I gave Eenan a pep talk and warned him that they were going to do a swab test in his throat to check for Strep, because I could bet a thousand bucks that’s what was ailing him. He acted like he was brave and ready, but when the nurse walked in with a lancet to poke his finger (to check his blood for infection) and the long q-tip, he freaked out and started screaming. He HATES getting his throat swabbed. It took two nurses and myself to hold him down and it still didn’t work. Then one of the nurses–I don’t know how she did it–coaxed him into giving in and he got swabbed. Results came in: positive Strep.

He was prescribed antibiotics and Motrin for fever. No school on Monday. We had to go to McAllen to Lee’s Pharmacy because it was the only thing open that late on a Sunday. Since his insurance didn’t cover Motrin, I bought it over-the-counter. Then we headed home. I was freaking out because their very important state test, TAKS, was on Wednesday. The doctor had assured me, though, that he’d be fine by then. I could only pray.

My boss and I spent Monday and Tuesday running reports and checking to see which kids were going to qualify for the field trip to Fantasyland Skate Center that Friday.

I sent Eenan to school on Tuesday (the 4th) because he hadn’t had a fever since around 2am that morning. I get a call on my cell (while the assistant principal was in the library, thankyouverymuch! It never gets signal at any other time!) and it’s the school nurse telling me that she couldn’t give Eenan the Motrin because it didn’t have a prescription label on it. My blood starts to boil (because how dare you deny my son medication he needs when he’s got a written note from his mother granting you permission to do so!) and I calmly tell her that I followed procedure and sent a note. How did she expect it to have a label if his insurance doesn’t cover it and I got it over-the-counter. After we exchanged words for a few minutes she asks if it’s okay to give him Tylenol, because that’s the only other option. I tell her that’s fine, but Tylenol does NOT have any effect on him at all and he would be getting his fever back. She doesn’t pick up on the sarcasm and tells me that she’d be sending a note from the code of conduct book with proper procedures to follow about medication. Patronizing cow.

We were having a pep-rally for the 7th and 8th graders since they were having the TAKS test the next day. First pep-rally at our brand-new gym! As everything’s starting and we were locking up the library Estella, one of the secretaries, waves me down and starts running towards me. My heart sinks and the first thought that comes to me is “Eenan”. Sure enough, the nurse had called and couldn’t get ahold of me. I called back. She said his fever was at 102 and that he seemed really sad. I felt like laughing and screaming at her at the same time. OF COURSE, LADY! DIDN’T I TELL YOU TYLENOL WOULDN’T WORK!!! I made sure to rub it in. Idiot woman. So now she wanted me to get out of work and pick him up. If I left at that time (1:30) it was 1 1/2 hours till I got out of work but I’d end up losing a whole half-day. I made some calls and Mary said she’d pick him up. Thank God.

After I’d gotten that taken care of I called the school to ask about the TAKS. They transferred me to the test coordinator and I asked her what options we had if he was too sick to attend school on Wednesday. She told me if he went to school on Wednesday and began the test and then felt too ill to continue, he’d get all the questions he didn’t get to answer wrong and most likely he’d fail. She said our best bet would be to keep him home that day and send him to school on Thursday, because it was the make-up day and the last day they’d be able to take it. Eenan’s friend, Patrick’s, mom is the nurse assistant and I spoke to her when I called back and she gave the phone to Eenan. He’d been crying because he was so sad and scared that he’d miss the TAKS and stay in 3rd grade. Man, they really strike fear in their hearts with that darn test!

When I got home that day I told Eenan I should take him to the doctor, his actual doctor, to check on his medication and follow up because he was still getting fevers once the medicine started to wear off. He said he felt fine. I insisted, he refused. Fine.

Oh, and that letter the nurse sent with the list of “procedures”…? It stated right on the letter that over-the-counter medications that were non-prescription were to be sent with a note from the parent granting permission to administer the medicine. Mmhmm.

So now I had that weighing on my mind. And as the days seemed to stretch on with no period in sight, I started to convince myself that we’d be okay with 4 kids. That even if the whole world turned their noses up at me because I was 25 (or 26) with 4 kids I would be happy and I’d love them all the same.

Then Wednesday rolls around and THERE IT IS! I never thought I’d feel that thrilled to be on the rag. The cramps and back pain felt beautiful. I guess it was a combination of stress and my new work-out routine that caused the delay. You can bet that right after it was over I started a new pack of pills. I don’t care how fat I stay (okay, YES I DO): I don’t want to go through that ever again! I’m perfectly fine being a mother of three at the moment :).

It was TAKS day and miracle of miracles, I wasn’t a hall or bathroom monitor this time. So Mrs. V. and I caught up on some things and I worked on inventory while she ran more reports. Mary called and told me Eenan started to burn up again but she’d given him his next dose of Motrin and Tylenol. I made plans to work only a half-day so I could take him to the doctor. Now I was really nervous. Last day of TAKS was the next day and he HAD to feel better.

My boss and I had an awesome talk about UIL and other things and then I came home to pick Eenan up. I took him straight to the doctor, which took forever, but I was grateful that they saw us in the first place–we arrived 10 minutes late. The string of Strep that Eenan had was resistant to the amoxcillin the other pediatrician had prescribed. So they prescribed Zithromax, the generic brand, which tastes like earwax. We made a quick trip to Family Dollar after the pharmacy to pick up chocolate pudding to hide the Zithromax in. It worked pretty well, even though he took about half an hour to eat it.

Mario called after work that night to drop off his credit card so he could buy himself the AR-15 he wanted for our 9-year anniversary this month (the 27th). That was my gift to him.

Thankfully Eenan felt much better the next day and when I called to ask how he was doing during lunch they told me he’d finished his test way before lunchtime and he was feeling alright. I’m so glad!

I spent most of Thursday doing inventory again in my boss’s office since they were testing kids in the library and they needed silence. We were closed most of that day. When I got home I cleaned up, did everything that needed to be done and Mom, the kids and I all went to town to run errands. I needed to buy some rollerblades for our trip the next day, because I didn’t want to wear the stinky, super-sharp ones you rent from the rink. It took forever to find rollerblades without a black brake (they’re not allowed at the rink) and it took two trips to Target and one from Academy to find them (at Target). I got a few scrapbooking supplies, too (everything was on clearance!).

We gathered all the kids the next day, gave them the rules and all the teachers/sponsors took their groups (I was in charge of 7th grade, which was a small group of kids I’ve developed friendships with). It was so fun. I couldn’t wear my brand-new rollerblades because they were just too slippery. I felt like my legs were going to give out under me every time I got on the rink. So I ended up renting some anyway. I spent most of my time helping students skate. Time flew by and a few minutes before we left one of the 8th graders I’d been personally helping reach his goal started a fight. I felt so disappointed. He’d been doing so well and it took one wrong look to revert back to his old ways. He was even rude to my boss, which he’d never done before.

We got back to the school and had lunch in the cafeteria. We had a few kids that were injured so my boss was with them at the nurse’s office and I was alone in the dark library scanning the few books we had so I’d leave for Spring Break with no work to come back to. I didn’t get to do much since our internet’s still super slow. It’s like being on dial up! But I didn’t let it get to me because I was officially on vacation!

Rolando, Eenan’s best friend, spent the night. We had the whole family over and everyone chipped in time and ingredients to have shrimp cocktail since it was a Friday. I love those nights :). Eenan kept abandoning Rolando, but Jaylen would step in gladly and entertain him.

We got up the next morning, late, and made plans to go to town. We all sardined ourselves in my Equinox (Mary, Mom, all the kids and me) and we stopped by Goodwill, which was really disappointing. I hardly found anything good, but I found some brand-new Pokemon toys for the boys. Mom wanted to treat all three boys to the carnival, so there we went. I didn’t get any pictures except for my cellphone because I forgot my camera. Grr. It was the boys’ first time at the carnival after 3 years and Alaethia’s first time, ever. The boys had so much fun and so did Alaethia since she was in her beloved stroller. The boys got on a kiddie rollercoaster about 20 times, the gravatron (which made poor Rolando feel dizzy so he sat out for about 20 minutes), the house of mirrors, this other really cool walk-through thing with sliding steps and tunnels, bumper cars, air planes, my gosh–they had tons of fun. Us adults had fun watching them!

We spent a good three hours there and since it was already 4pm by the time we left and hadn’t had lunch, we stopped by Little Caesar’s to buy some pizzas. We came home, ate, the boys got on the trampoline and then Rolando went home. He’d invited Eenan to a party (with pony rides!) but we had to go to church since Mary wouldn’t be able to go the next morning due to some meetings she had to attend. So Eenan and I went that night. Mario got home and we just chilled out. We’d made plans to go practice shooting the next day at the shooting range with Jason. He called Jason to confirm plans, but Jason said he wouldn’t be able to go till 1pm. That wouldn’t do since I had Carmen’s babyshower to go to at 3 the next day and since it was in Weslaco, I’d have to be back home by at least 12 to start getting ready, stop at Target to pick up a gift card, and make it on time. He tells me that we’d go to his Grandpa’s property in Los Ebanos instead and we’d practice there. I had this weird feeling in my gut, but I swallowed it down and said okay.