Category: MLV

I didn’t take my morning nap again today because of the cold front we’re waiting for. Mom just came over and she’s wearing a jacket, so maybe it’s already here. It was nice and sunny at 7:30 when I was dropping John and the kids off and when I went out at 9:20 after Mario left to work it was getting dark and windy. Thank God I packed them all (Mario and the boys) with jackets and jeans. It’s snowing in the Panhandle. I want snow…darnit.

Anyway, I had my 31 week appointment yesterday morning. I was prepared to be completely bored since they take so long so I took my Parenting magazine with me. I didn’t even need it. I sat down after I signed in, then moved because the air conditioner was pointing right where I sat and it was freezing. I sat in the bench seats next to this older couple and the lady quickly asked how far along I was. I told her 8 months next week and we proceeded to have a conversation about my pregnancy, previous pregnancies, her family, her children and how twins run in her family. It’s always nice to meet a total stranger and just talk like you’ve been friends forever. This has happened at that same office with three other girls I’ve met.

I was called in pretty quickly, if you consider an hour quick. I weighed 133.6 which means I’ve put on 2 1/2 lbs. in the last three weeks. I asked my nurse if that was okay and she said yes. So, so far I’ve gained 12 1/2 lbs. this pregnancy. I think I’m doing pretty good, considering just how much I really eat LOL. I walk a lot, so that may be “helping”.

Dr. C. joked around with me while I whipped out my camera. I planned on recording my sonogram the last time I went — had my memory card empty and everything — and totally forgot to do it. Not this time; this time I remembered. Good thing, too! I got to see just how big her head is, her face (which resembles Eenan’s sono at 8 months A LOT), her arms, legs, how she almost pulled on the umbilical cord (which I learned is what she’s doing when I feel those hard tugs), and her little private part! I finally have a picture of her little peach. So this is the 4th confirmation I have that she’s a girl :). You can see a few pictures I screen capped from the video in my Pregnancy Timeline page. I can’t tell you just how excited I am to meet her. The boys are, too; they’re constantly asking “how much longer till she comes out”.

She was measuring at 30 weeks 5 days yesterday and I’m 31 weeks 2 days. I hope this doesn’t mean it’s going to take her even longer to come out!

I’ll have another sono to make sure she’s doing alright at my 34 week appointment. I wonder what they’ll tell me. It kind of makes me uneasy that they haven’t strapped me onto the fetal monitor at all yet, but then again this is a different doctor. I’m just glad everything’s going smoothly :).

As I was walking out, I ran into a girl I met there. She had her baby last week on the 21st. He was so adorable; so small and his hair was stick-straight and he looked so new :). I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait. I’m excited about everything: going into labor, where will I be when it happens, the delivery and finally holding her in my arms. I can’t wait to see the expression on Mario’s face and how the boys will take care of her and protect her. I know they’re going to be excellent big brothers. They’re so ready for her. We all are :).

I forgot to mention in my previous entry that on one of our many Target runs, I bought Alaethia her first outfit from me. She already has two from my mom and two from my mom-in-law. This was my first one. I *had* to get it since the blouse was on sale and the jeans were just too cute! There’s so many other things I want to get her, now that I know for *sure* she’s going to be a girl!

I already asked Mario if we could start setting up the crib, so I can see how much clearance there is between the trundle and the bottom of the crib. I want to get baskets to organize her sheets, diapers and all that stuff. I have so much to dooo!

I shall start with boxing up the rest of the crap I have in a corner of my room. I have to get that done today, no question. I already told Mario we’re taking it to storage on Friday when he’s off, so it needs to be done.

I also have to clean the whole house! Dad, my half-brother, his wife and little boy will be coming over on Sunday. I have a nephew–it’s weird to say it! And a neice on the way who will be here around the same time Alaethia will :).

Gotta pick up Jaylen!

[edit] Just got back from picking Jaylen up. I stopped by at Family Dollar to buy some slippers (that they, of course, didn’t have) and found Megaman action figures for the kids! Stocking stuffers — although I already gave them one each since Eenan got straight A’s and was student of the week and Jaylen is the best-behaved in class, the teacher’s new helper and always behaves well. And they only cost $2 each! This is an awesome day :).

The past few days have been…insane. I’ve been up and about since 3am Friday and my feet hate me for it. They’re thankfully not swollen, they just feel like I’m walking on glass or something.

Thanksgiving went without a hitch. Mario woke up at 6:45am to help Mary put the turkeys into the oven since one of them would have to be hauled to our house since we were having 2 turkeys, as usual. He totally let me sleep in; I didn’t wake up till 9am. By the time I showered and made myself presentable, it was 10am. I woke Mario up, who’d fallen back to sleep, and got the kiddos ready and we went over to Mary’s. The food was delicious as always. We had turkey, of course, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, broccoli rice, green bean casserole and probably more that I can’t remember at the moment. I lost my ravenous appetite half-way through my meal since Jaylen had been playing in their clubhouse and lost his footing at the bottom of the steps. He scraped his back on the last two steps and naturally screamed his head off. Since Mario was playing pool (since he’d already finished eating), he sends Jaylen in so that *I* can take care of him. After cleaning him up with peroxide, q-tipping some Neosporin on the scrape and covering it with a bandaid, I didn’t feel as hungry anymore. I put my plate away and about half an hour later, joined everyone who was eating dessert. I’ve craved pumpkin pie with Cool Whip so much during this pregnancy! Thank God I’m pregnant during the Fall/Winter months LOL.

Dad called and said he unfortunately couldn’t make it. I sort of figured he couldn’t come since his car isn’t working but I was hopeful. We agreed to make plans to get together later though.

We chilled out the rest of the day and later on when Andy and Noelia arrived (she was meeting some of Andy’s relatives she hadn’t met before) we started to browse through the Black Friday ads. All who were going sat around the kitchen table and discussed our game plan: who was going with who, what each person was in charge of getting and where we would meet in each store. At first John was hyped about going, but ended up changing his mind. Mario thought he was going to have the day off, but was called in, which really sucked. Andy would be at Best Buy; Mary, Sonia, Yadira, Tommy, Noelia, Yazmin and I would be at Wal-Mart (eek!) and would split up there. After that, we’d go to Target.

We left the house by 3am. Mario would stay with the boys till 8am, which is when he’d leave to work and Mom would take over. Mary, Noelia and I left in my truck, then we dropped Mary off at Yadira’s.

I won’t go into detail because so much went on, but I’ll say this: people were trampled, we heard a woman scream in pain, a man punched another man (probably because of the portable DVD players that were on sale for $50) so Mission P.D. was called (there were 5 cars outside the store), a fight broke out in electronics over some cameras, and I heard a woman crying in the bathroom when I went to pee before we left. DRA-MA. It was terrible. When Noelia and I were together at the beginning, we got the present Eenan wanted, which was on sale for $28 (down from $38) and some game boards. My job later on was to find some DVDs that were on sale for $3.88 and then get 2 hand mixers that were on sale for $4 for Mary. I did both without getting hurt. A nice family let me scoot in with them before the caution tape was cut to get to the isles with sale items. Everyone was really cautious because of my big, protruding belly :P.

Poor Mary had trouble finding the iDogs she was looking for. When a nice lady she’d met had held one for her, this bitchwoman who looked like a bulldog told the lady she was with Mary and that she’d take the iDog for her. We got there right when they were making the exchange. I tell Mary, “Tell her it’s for you!” and the bitchwoman says, “Too bad. She gave it to me.” Grr. We saw her later when we arrived at Target and I silently hoped that I could somehow curse her causing her not to find anything she wanted LOL.

The line at Target was insane. We were somewhere in the middle but people’d been camping there since the day before. Weirdos. I don’t know what they’d be there so early for. I was there for DVDs, I found the toy we got Eenan at Wal-Mart for $15 so we exchanged the other one later, Game Cube games, a crock pot and I can’t even remember what else. It was much more civilized and controlled at Target. People who were trying to cut in line or wait at the front of the parking lot to run in with the rest of us who’d been in line were quickly sent to the end of the line by the employees. And there was plenty of merchandise to go around.

Andy met us there. Poor thing didn’t get the computer he wanted from Best Buy, but that’s only because psycho people were waiting there since 4pm the day before O_o. I could never do that. I’m crazy enough to wake up at 3am, but not actually SLEEP there.

Andy did, however, get Eenan’s main present for us on sale (almost $100-150 off!), so that was much appreciated.

We had breakfast at Burger King and a few more stops, like K-Mart (which didn’t have much on sale and not much left of what was actually good), Academy and another 2 stops at Target and Walmart to return stuff. We had a very successful shopping day. My legs hurt SO BAD after we were done shopping–I couldn’t even climb into my truck to drive home!

I know 3 things that I’m getting for Christmas, buahaha! Edward Scissorhands and Season 1 of Grey’s Anatomy from Mary and a Flickr account from Mom–woo!

Mario got out of work later than he thought he would, and because of a misunderstanding he didn’t get his paycheck cashed before the banks closed. Totally sucked. I was hoping we’d make it out to KB Toys to get Jaylen’s main present, but I sucked it up as best as I could and we just chilled out here.

I left to town with Mary the next morning while Mom watched the boys. We went to pick up Mario’s check at work, came back half-way and cashed it, then went back to town. We went to Best Buy, where I got 4 awesome DVDs for $20 (as you’ve probably noticed, I’m not mentioning much of what I got just in case I get some snoopy readers ;)! *cough*family*cough*) We went to Target again and then had lunch with Mario at El Pato. We dropped him off and finished our shopping (I’m so out of it I can barely remember where we went!) and we finally came home. I ended up finding Jaylen’s main gift at Target–the LAST ONE LEFT. I was so happy I almost cried. I was certain I wouldn’t be able to find it anymore and was kicking myself for not getting it the day before, but yay, we found one :). And cheaper than KB’s or anywhere else for that matter.

My feet were on fire that day.

I got the kids ready in their costumes for Brandon’s birthday party when we got home while they watched Ice Age the Meltdown. I *had* to get it; the cheapest I found it was $14.99 at one of the Targets in McAllen. All the other ones had it for $19.99, which I found really weird.

Elda had decorated the carport in a Haunted House theme and the kids were wearing their Halloween costumes. They had a moon jump and musical chairs and the food for the adults was menudo (the kids had hot dogs). It was really good and the desserts were cute. Elda borrowed my Betty Crocker Bake-n-Fill cake pans and made a spider cake with chocolate Twizzler legs.

John and I were going to go to Target after the party, but I could hardly keep my eyes open and my legs still hurt really bad, so Mary and Noelia offered to join us. Mom stayed with the boys while they watched Ice Age the Meltdown. John ended up buying an iPod after being annoyingly undecisive for half an hour. I got a gift for Catherine’s birthday, which isn’t till December 13th but I was getting such a deal I couldn’t pass it up. Mario had called while we were there and asked me to buy him a long-sleeved shirt since it was cold and he wanted Mary to drop me off at Jorge’s for a party they were having for Manny, their neighbor.

Mary drops me off, but we ended up coming home since Maggie was just home from work and in the shower and Mario wanted to rent movies anyway. We stop at Video Plus and rent some movies and get some ice creams. We get home, get in our PJs and about 15 minutes into the movie (You, Me and Dupree) decide we’re too darn sleepy to watch it LOL.

I dropped Mario off the next day since he wanted me to pick him up and go grocery shopping. I woke up that morning to Mary washing my mountain of dishes that were left in the sink from the past 3 days since I had hardly been home (and when I was, I was resting my poor feet!). I felt so embarrassed and kept telling her she shouldn’t have. I cleaned for a while and then John came over and watched the boys (I don’t want to leave them, they just hate going on any kind of shopping trips because ‘Mama takes too long’) while Mary, Mom and I went to Target yet again since Mom needed to get some Christmas gifts that were on sale. We’d done our gift exchange the night before and I had two boys I needed to get games for and they just so happened to be the exact amount of money I needed to spend on each gift, so I got them. I also got a gift for Mario’s godfather which I got for a pretty damn good deal. We’re thankfully almost done with Christmas shopping! We only need a few more small gifts for the kiddos and about 6 more gifts for the family and a birthday present for my dad-in-law. I’m so happy :).

We stopped to see Gramma for a while and put up her Christmas decorations per her request. She’d also asked me to make her a Christmas CD so I obliged and we were listening to it while we put her tree up. I miss my Grimmy and wish she could be here for Christmas :(.

We picked Mario up when it was time to do so and we went grocery shopping. I love when he’s there–it’s so much easier to pick stuff to cook during the week when he makes suggestions.

I was on a cleaning frenzy yesterday and sat like, 2 times during the whole day. Mario even had me drive over to his work during lunch to drop off some stuff and pick up a pizza for him. I had to get more cough medicines for the kids since Eenan’s teacher was complaining that he’d gotten the whole class sick which is a bunch of bull. She told the nurse I should have kept him home, but hello? He coughed maybe 3 times all day long–how could I keep him home for a cough?!

I actually got to take my morning nap today (didn’t fall asleep till 1:30am yesterday) and then cleaned, sewed curtains for Mary, and cooked. I had everything done by 8:30pm, which is why I actually have a chance to update. The kiddos are actually sleeping pretty well during the night which I’m so grateful for. I haven’t heard one cough. Thank God for Triaminic, Vicks Vaporub and humidifiers!

I have my 31 week doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I’m so excited. I’m actually getting really nervous and anxious now since there are only 9 weeks left! I have so much to do before she’s born. Mario and I decided we should get my registry done as soon as possible, while I can still walk. John and Mario are always teasing me about how big my belly is and how it seems to grow every few minutes LOL.

Oh wow, the weather should be nice and cold by Thursday. I can’t wait!

I shall shower now. I plan on sleeping early tonight, no matter how late Mario gets here (it’s Tuesday–they have beers on Tuesday).

It’s so nice out right now. I’d lost faith in our local meteorologists since the past few “Cold Fronts” we’ve had have been nothing but 2-3 degrees less scalding than usual. Last night though, it started to get really nice and cool outside (albeit windy) and this morning it was a crisp 45°! Love, love, love this weather. It officially feels like the Holidays. I still can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week. I knew once Halloween passed the rest of the holidays would zoom by, and it certainly feels that way. By the time I know it, it’ll be Christmas, then New Years and then Alaethia will be here! Ahhh!

Mario’s birthday was Sunday. We slept in and he got up to take a shower. He couldn’t find a shirt to wear so I presented him with the squirrel one I got him the day before. He loved it :).

We had plans to go eat at Jesse’s Mexican Food, one of his favorite restaurants, and then catch a movie. He checked out movie times online and was disappointed with his choices. He decided we’d go watch something for the kids, like Flushed Away.

We went over to Mary’s to see if everyone was ready to go. Noelia and Andy were there and so was Mary. The day started to crumble when we told them we were going to eat first, then catch a movie. Well, since Noelia and Andy had already eaten, they wanted to catch a movie first. We’d had breakfast too, but were willing to eat lunch right away. I was especially willing since it was Mario’s birthday and of course it was his choice what he wanted to do. Noelia and Andy decided to go to the movies alone and then Mary said she didn’t think she’d go anywhere with us. Talk about upsetting. Mario was quickly getting in a bad mood.

We started piling into the car and Mary said she changed her mind, she’d go with us but she’d meet us there. Cool.

We were barely out of our town and going into the next one when the kids started a fight over one of their game boys. Mario gave them two chances to calm down and when they didn’t he turned the car around and we came home. I thought he was being too impatient, but I didn’t dare say anything since I knew he was upset his day wasn’t going at all how he planned.

We got home and he locked himself in our room and watched Mallrats, which was one of the DVDs his mom gave him. I didn’t get near the room till I got some kind of sign that he’d calmed down. I know how he is already. His parents don’t apparently since they both came over and knocked on the door till he peeked his head out. First his mom, then his dad. Once his dad left he came out of the room and said, “No one leaves me alone!” and left to drive around. I figured he’d meet up with Chris and vent. When he was gone for an hour I called him to his cell and he didn’t answer. Another 30 minutes passed so I called again and he didn’t answer. I started feeling really bad, since I didn’t do anything to him. He got home just a few minutes later and went back to the bedroom. I snuck over there and tested the waters. He was fine. I laid in bed with him and the boys, who’d been grounded in their room for misbehaving, came over hopped on the bed to watch the Star Wars marathon on HBO. We ended up taking naps and once I’d slept enough, I got up and made dinner. The rest of the night was like every other Sunday. I watched Desperate Housewives while Mario went to Jorge’s. I got really upset at first because I thought, ‘How dare you throw a fit and have a miserable birthday while moping around the house and once nighttime comes around you happily run off to Jorge’s?!’ but he only went to pick up the pool balls since we’d forgotten them on Friday.

We uncovered and dusted off the pool table and got it as leveled as we could. We played about 4 games, two if which I actually won :), probably because the table wasn’t as leveled as it should be and the balls were rolling around everywhere, helping me get the balls into the pockets, buahaha. We had fun and ate peanuts (he had salty, I had honey roasted). We got tired around 12am and went to bed. While we cuddled I told him I’d make it up to him and he told me it wasn’t my fault, I didn’t have to. I want to though. I just need to figure out how.

Mario felt really shitty the next day, so he stayed home from work. I napped after dropping the kids off at school and figured he would too, but couldn’t sleep after he called in to work. Our stupid toilet had died on us again during the weekend, so we’d been having to use the bathroom at my mom-in-law’s. I woke up that morning to the toilet completely overflowed all over everything. I tried sopping up what I could, which was totally disgusting, and left it alone.

When I wake up Mario’s laying on the couch watching TV. He tells me, “Go look at how horrible the bathroom looks!” I brace myself and with one eye open, peer inside the bathroom. Everything’s sparkling white and the water’s at a good level again. I ask him, “Does it work?” and he says, “Flush it.” It works flawlessly. I have a great, handy husband. Instead of sleeping he spent the two hours I was sleeping fixing the toilet. Now that’s love :).

Nothing exciting happened during the week. I went to Muffins for Mom at the kids’ school on Monday morning. I read to them for half an hour in the library while we ate muffins and drank punch. They were so excited since they were having a Reading is Fundamental distribution, where they give all the kids a cute book of their choice.

Mario and I went grocery shopping that night, which is always nice because I hate to go alone. We always end up spending twice what I budget when we’re together though, which isn’t always a good thing LOL.

John didn’t work on Thursday and he asked me to accompany him to the National Lube Express to get a radiator flush on his car. I kept saying, “I think I should follow you in my truck,” but at the last minute I changed my mind and just left with John. When we got to the light at the end of the road I had this bad feeling in my chest and I told him, “Why do I get the feeling I should have followed you?” It was, after all, 1pm…I had to be back home and ready to pick up Eenan from school at 3. The car overheated and then started smoking after we left the place the first time, when he got an oil change done. Since he was getting the radiator flushed, we figured we’d be fine and done with plenty of time.

We spent about half an hour there trying to figure out if someone was in the bathroom because the light was on and the door was locked. I needed to pee really bad since I’d downed a Pepsi right before we got there. We kept making jokes about a person being in there and me being all rude, saying stuff like, “How long does it take to use the restroom?” I finally just asked the guy if I could borrow the key and prayed that nobody was in there when I opened the door. No one was in there. I suffered for 30 minutes for nothing.

The guys get to work on John’s car and call us over. They ask if we’ve been having trouble keeping the car on. We look at each other and say, “No?” We tell them it sometimes acts up when he first turns it on in the morning, but other than that it’s fine. He asks if it’s been smoking, which was a yes. We tell him about the fan behind the radiator that doesn’t move. He says it can be fixed. He says he can’t do the flush because the car needs to stay on to do it. Darn. They check the oil and to our absolute horror the liquid on the end of the dipstick is WHITE. They tell us there’s water in the oil, which is probably being pumped back from the radiator due to a cracked head in the engine. Lovely. The guy is nice enough not to charge John anything. We try to leave and it won’t turn on. It turns on and when we’re getting ready to leave we notice a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust and 3 of the guys are waving their arms around to stop. I get off the car and get splashed with warm water. The exhaust is SPEWING water out like crazy. I realize I don’t have my cellphone. The guy lets me borrow the office phone. We decide to call Noelia to pick us up. I’m freaking out because it’s already 2:20 and I need to pick Eenan up at 3!! We can’t get ahold of her, so we call Mary, who thankfully gets ahold of her and she comes for us. Thank God she was home!

So yeah, John was pretty upset about that. I’ll be dropping him off now and he’ll be borrowing the car on Fridays when Mario doesn’t work till he figures out what he’s going to do with the Death Mobile. He figured he’d sell it for parts since he doesn’t want to waste any more money on it.

The kids had Pajama Day today. It was too cold out for them to wear their pajama tops and bottoms, so they just put their pajama tops on and some jeans plus their jackets. I saw lots of kids and teachers in their slippers, so tomorrow the boys will wear another pajama top plus their slippers (Jaylen has Hot Wheels, Eenan has Pikachu). Why didn’t we get to do cool stuff like that when we were in school?!

Both the kids are sick with colds again. Eenan’s getting worse and worse. I hope he can get some rest tonight. He had UIL practice today and his coach told me his cough wouldn’t let him hear anything. She’s afraid the same thing will happen Saturday, which is when his 2nd meet is, if his cough doesn’t get better. I don’t know what to do anymore. December can’t come fast enough. I NEED their damn insurance! I’m just praying they don’t come up with some bullshit when I try to use it. Supposedly I can use their confirmation letter as proof that they have coverage even before I get their new cards. We’ll see. Keep your fingers crossed and pray Eenan’s sickness doesn’t turn into Bronchitis or Pneumonia :(.

I hope I can get some sleep tonight. I have a terrible headache, partly because I didn’t get to take my nap this morning. I had to buy and drop off crimpers for Mario at work and John and I took Mom’s ridiculously long grocery list and bought everything she needed. Grr. My back hurts, my neck hurts, Alaethia’s trying to rip a hole in my right side (which I’m grateful for because at least I know she’s moving in there), and I wake up to pee 5 times a night now. I pee at least every 45 minutes to an hour, if not less. And the gas and constipation? Not cool.

I’m going to cuddle with Mario now. Maybe I can get him to give me a massage :).