Category: Outings

If I remember correctly we chilled out at home most of the morning while Mario was out helping his Nino or someone do stuff. I’d been telling him about Roxanne’s little boy’s party at the new Chuck E. Cheese for a week so he wouldn’t say I’m telling him at the last minute. He gets home and he’s raving on and on about how sleepy he is. I’m getting all the kids ready and 10 minutes before it’s time to leave he conveniently falls asleep on his mom’s sofa in the living room. Grr! I was so pissed. He never goes with us anywhere. I was about to leave when Mom asks if she can go so she can help with the kids. I say fine, but she needed to promise she’d behave herself and not start fighting over centerpieces or anything embarrassing like that (yes, my mother’s one of THOSE ladies *hangs head*). She said she’d behave.

I stopped by Dollar General for a card because I didn’t have one, nor did I have time to make one so we’re already running late. It took forever to find a parking space and once I did I had to change Alaethia’s diaper. As we’re walking around the building to get to the front we’re shocked by the huge line trailing out of Chuck E. Cheese. I said aloud, “Please don’t tell me we have to get in line just to get into the party?” Everyone standing in line looked completely bewildered, but I had no patience so I walked to the beginning of the line and asked one of the hostesses if we had to wait like everyone else, or just go into the party? She said the line was for people who just wanted to eat dinner (WTF?) not for parties. We could go in and are stamped with a fluorescent stamp and I feel a little overwhelmed at how crowded the place is. I don’t know how it is at other Chuck E. Cheeses—obviously I’m a noob because this is the first Chuck E. Cheese in the Valley—but I did not expect it to be that insane. I quickly decided we would go ahead and just have Alaethia’s birthday party at Peter Piper.

We found the party and I tried to make my way into the narrow aisles with my big belly. There wasn’t anywhere to sit to begin with and especially not 5 seats together. I sat Aly with me and the boys shared a chair and Mom got her own of course. Poor Roxanne already looked frustrated. I don’t blame her. I took Jaylen and Alaethia to play while Eenan stayed with Mom at the table playing his DS. What was really cool about the games and rides at the place was that they were all only 1 token to play. We ran out of tokens so I went to the machine to find some and it was a 10 minute wait before they filled them up again. I was so frustrated and getting hot flashes while I waited. When the kids were done I went back to the tables and my heart sank when I saw that Eenan wasn’t sitting with Mom. I ask her what happened and she nonchalantly said, “Oh, he went to play.” I could have yelled at her. Did she not see how crowded it was? She did the same thing at Jaylen’s 4th birthday party at Mr. Gatti’s one time.

This time, she was too busy holding onto this plastic football-shaped gumball machine and making sure nobody “stole” it from her that she wasn’t watching my kid. I knew she’d do that. Jaylen offered to go out there and find him but I said no; all I needed was to be missing two kids in that ocean of bobbing heads. I was relieved when I finally saw a little boy in a red hoodie rising up towards the ceiling on a ride and it was Eenan. I waved at him and gestured for him to sit with us when he was done.

I was starving because I hadn’t had lunch and was so relieved when the pizza finally came. I missed the first pizza when I was out with the kiddos. Eenan had already eaten. A lot of my co-workers showed up so it was nice seeing everyone. The hostesses started to literally rush everyone out so that was my cue to get up and leave. As I was saying goodbye to everyone I was oblivious to Mom going around the tables and collecting knick-knacks and putting them in her pocket. I’d made her leave the gumball machine (which she was mad about) because, hello? She can’t even fill it with anything because she’s diabetic. She was annoyed when Mr. Salas told me to go ahead and take a popcorn tin. I didn’t want it, but she, of course, grabbed it for me.

I needed to go to Walmart and Target, but decided I’d just wait to go shopping till later. It took about 15 minutes to leave the darn place because they have to run your hand under a black light to check for the florescent light. The crowds and heat had helped Alaethia get into a horrible mood, so straight home it was.

We got home and I just glared at Mario the whole time. He was being really nice because he knew how angry I was. I told him that he was most definitely going with us to the next party we got invited to.

As I’m cleaning up the kitchen table and immediately transferring all the candy into ziplocs and hiding them in the cabinet, Mom pulls a Cowboys helmet out of her jacket and gives it to Jaylen. Then she pulls a metal football player out of her other pocket and gives it to Alaethia. I snatch it away because she could hurt herself with it and just shake my head at Mom. And she wonders why I don’t invite her to parties. I can’t ever take her anywhere.

I was all on my own that day and it went surprisingly well. Well, except for the internet already being excruciatingly slow on the actual first day back. I had to use my psuedo manual check out worksheet on Excel, which meant that later, before I could do anything else, I had to add them into the system manually. I shelved all the books that I’d checked in and started checking in the huge stacks of dictionaries and thesauruses they’d brought to me the day before. Mr. Murphy helped a bit, even though he left half the books I gave him to shelve because he likes to talk about world events (the depressing ones), but he did push the cart of dictionaries for me to the shelf so I could put up. He had to leave so I couldn’t get him to help with that.

We had a meeting in the library that lasted about an hour, so I had to enter some stuff manually again. One of the top things on my to-do list was getting another bulletin board up and ready. We I have a total of 4 that we’re I’m in charge of. During the meeting Robert, Juan and Rudy showed up. I put them to work after they got permission from their teacher. They helped me staple most of the star border, which I’m grateful for because everyone kept scolding me the day before when I’d been reaching up to staple the letters on the other board. I asked why, what would happen? And the response I got was that the baby would wrap her umbilical cord around her neck if I stretched. What? First time I’d ever heard of that one!

I couldn’t get my darn letter of resignation printed out because the version of Word I’d used to type it up was different from the one at work. All I had to do was install the compatibility patch but of course we don’t have authorization to install anything. I e-mailed and asked Mary if she could print it for me and she did one better: sent it as a .PDF file so I printed a few copies out right away.

I went to lunch and a sub was sent in right when I was coming back. She was a lot of help. I found it the perfect opportunity to turn in my resignation. I was so nervous. I had to control my shaking limbs before I got up to go to Vero’s office to borrow an envelope and turn it in. I spoke to Vero, who was sad that I’m actually going to leave and then I went in to talk to the principal.

He was walking out as I was walking in. I felt my face flushing as I handed him the letter. He looks down at me with a curious expression and asks, “What’s this?” I’m following him into his office as he’s unfolding the sheet and watch as his face turns from a smile into a look of shock. He said it was coming completely left field, which I found weird because I could have sworn I was present when Mrs. V. had mentioned it and I know she’d mentioned it other times. He shakes the letter and with a smile on his face says, “You don’t have to do this!”

He asked if she’d tried to convince me to stay and I said yes, she did since the beginning but eventually she conceded. I said something like, “I don’t want to, but I have to,” and he held the letter in both hands and said, “I can still tear this up!” I almost ran forward and said, “No, no! I’ve made my decision. And I thank you for allowing me to work with you and all the wonderful people here. It’s been a great experience.” That seemed to calm him down and we started walking out of the office. I shook his hand and he says, “You still have 10 days to change your mind.”

I was so proud of myself. I did it without crying!

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. And because I turned it in that day it was exactly a two-week notice. I picked the boys up and had them start working on their homework. I cuddled with Alaethia and as we were watching Noggin’ Sally called asking if Mario and I would like to join them for dinner to celebrate their anniversary since I was there for their very first date. How sweet of them to remember me :). I’m still so thrilled I got to be a part of the birth of their relationship. I quickly got ready, left the kiddos with Mom and the in-laws, who were already outside getting ready to bar-b-q, and picked Mario up (late-ish) from work. We were meeting Pete and Sally about an hour later so we went to Barnes and Noble to kill time. I wanted so many books, but I only walked away with the Lolcats one. Now I can look at it and feel happy instantly :P.

We had a great dinner. I ordered my usual spinach and artichoke dip and had the Shrimp Alfredo. Yum. As we were getting comfortable and had ordered our food, I told them, “You know what guys? It’s funny: I was pregnant exactly two years ago with Alaethia when you guys first got together and now on your 2nd anniversary I’m pregnant again!” Hilarious.

We had some laughs and I love our marriage talks LOL. We told them about Alaethia’s poop story and they couldn’t stop laughing. Sally says, “So that’s what we have to look forward to!”

I don’t remember what we were talking about—probably about how Mario’s out all night while I’m asleep—but Mario said he was thrilled when I called and asked if he wanted to go to Chili’s with Pete and Sally. He says that’s one thing he’s looking forward to when I stop working: spending more time together.

I can’t wait to get together with them again. I love our conversations!

It’s so sad that it’s my last day of vacation today. I’m so not looking forward to going back to work; not because I feel lazy but because I just don’t see how I’ll make it through the day since I’m exhausted by the end of the day and that’s because right now I’m at home! Granted, I’ve been sort of overdoing the housework and am constantly on my feet, but I’ll probably be on my feet and running errands all over the place at work, too. We’ll see. I just have to keep telling myself it’s only 4 days this week, then 3 weeks and that’s it!

I didn’t want to go anywhere today but, like I mentioned in my previous blog, I have to visit Gramma, have to deposit at the bank for my online bills, have to get milk and a few other things like trash bags, and as for home: I still need to do laundry, sew the valance (at least) for the kitchen window, and mop. Although I didn’t get to paint Alaethia’s room pink like I’d wanted to, I can always get that done during the almost-month that I’m going to be off before I have the baby. I’m hoping to finish painting the trim (white) for the kitchen and all the doors. I feel pretty darn good about everything I managed to accomplish in the last week.

Later…we visited Gramma and she’s doing just fine. She was laughing with the kids and we even talked about Aunt Sylvia and some stuff Aunt Nora told her about when she visited. Mom had seen me searching for sometime a few days before and I got the guts to tell her I’d been doing research and found out what her father’s name is and I was going to get in contact (again—she doesn’t know about the first time). She told me no, that I had the wrong name, but when we were at Gramma’s she asked her and Gramma gave me a knowing look. I nodded inconspicuously and she told her the real name. And Mom took it well!

We stopped at H-E-B for a few groceries and then I rushed home.

When we got home I left all the kids with the in-laws and then rushed to the salon to get my hair cut. It was down to my waist and the pregnancy hot flashes were becoming unbearable—I HAD to get it cut. They let me in even though it was late and I asked the lady to hack my hair up to my shoulders. It’s still a little longer than I wanted, but it’ll do.

I had so much to do before I went to work the next day and I was so tired. I still had to shower and straighten my hair and Mario decided that he was going to go to sleep early. How convenient. I hate when he does that. He fell asleep on the sofa and Alaethia sat on the other sofa watching Noggin’. I asked her if she was okay and she said yes. I told her to pound on her daddy’s head if she needed something. I took the quickest shower in history and when I was done I peeked my head out the door and told her I was almost out. She said okay and turned back to Wa-Wa-Wubzy. She starts knocking on the door while I’m drying myself and I ask her to please hold on. She knocks two more times and tells me something about her diaper. I’m thinking the worst. She starts jiggling the door handle and I finish putting on my clothes. I come out and look down at her and she gives me that sweet smile that only means she’s up to no good. I lift her pajama top and sure enough: she’s naked…and the most putrid smell starts wafting in the air. I scream, “OH MY GOD!!!” and Mario, of course, is woken from his sleep. But does he move? No. I’m running around cleaning her up (hands, feet, butt) and realize the offending diaper’s nowhere to be found. I ask her, “Where did you take your diaper off? In the living room?”

She tilts her head to one side and says, “I dunno….um, yes!”

I ask again, “Or did you take it off in the kitchen?”

She smiles again and says a happy, “Yes!”

Gosh. I had no idea where it was. There wasn’t anything on the floor in the living room, but once I’m in the kitchen I see little toeprints of poop. Lovely. I lug my tub of Lysol wipes around with me and clean up the whole floor. There’s a trail all the way to the trashcan. Thank goodness, the diaper’s in there, but it’s empty. Upon further inspection I notice that she’d shaken her poop into the trash can and managed to drop some on the floor and scooped it back into the trash. I re-washed her hands for good measure and remembered that she’d been messing with the door handle so I wiped that and re-washed my hands as well. It was now 10:30pm. I was so angry. And Mario just sat there all drowsy looking not saying a word!

He got up and took a huge drink of water. I wanted to hit him, but quietly blow-dried and flat-ironed my hair. What a night!