Category: Outings

I spent the whole morning cleaning, filing and throwing away papers (what do other people do with their statements and kids art and stuff?!) and desperately looking for my truck’s new license plate stickers. I’d bought them the very last day of August, when they expired, and kept asking Mario to please stick them on my window for me. I’d of done it myself, except Mario makes it seem all difficult; he breaks out the Windex and a razor. Anyway, I was near tears when Mario runs into our bedroom waving the papers. I was so relieved. I felt so guilty thinking I’d lost $75. Mario said he found it in my center console. And guess who put it there? HE DID!! He says he remembers me telling him to put them on my window and when he couldn’t find his razor he left them in the console. I could have strangled him.

I watched the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie with Alaethia during loads of laundry. She was quiet, observing, and then grinned when she saw the chipmunks singing. It amazes me that she likes movies rather than cartoons. She has her favorites, like Little Bill and Blues Clues, but she can actually make it through a whole movie, too. I don’t think the boys had the attention span for movies till they were around 3.

I checked my e-mail pretty late, around 5pm, and when I was going through the Sunday ads I noticed they had the Playstation 3 for the same price, but with a $40 gift card. I told Mario about it and he said, “Let’s go, then!”

We went to the store and got a $3 refund for some reason and the $40 gift card. It took a while, because the girl didn’t know how to do the return, but we got it nonetheless. Mario bought himself Iron Man for $19 and he bought me this cute, pink polka-dotted robe I’d wanted, aww. I finally have a decent short robe! All my other ones have been down to my ankles and/or fleece!

We got home and I took a shower. Elda had Alaethia with her for a while, because Alaethia loves to visit (probably because Jose buys her love with candies), and she brought her back and I bathed her. She fell asleep at 9:30, which normally I’d love but I was waiting for laundry. I hate that. It always works that way. When she actually falls asleep early, I’ve got stuff to do.

She was so cute lying on the couch with her babies. Babies being her plushies like her white seal (which she calls “Fishie”), her brown furry bear (named “Bunny”), her Doggie and several of the same bunny plush in different colors. She swaddles her babies in dish towels she finds in the kitchen, pillowcases or whatever small rag she comes across. I remember the boys were into stuffed animals, but not like her. She seriously takes care of them and needs to have at least two with her when she’s napping, sleeping in her crib or out somewhere.

She also loves human babies. She points them out in stores and has a fit if I don’t let her pat their hand (with their mommy’s permission) or wave at them. She’ll say, “Look at the baby, Mom!” She doesn’t think she’s a baby at all. I’m hoping this’ll make it easier on her when her baby sister arrives. We’ve told her about the new baby (who’s still nameless!) and she seems pretty excited. I’m praying I can give them both the attention they need as baby and toddler, and my growing boys, too.

I watched “The 1000 Pound Mom” or something like that, on TLC while I was waiting for the laundry. It was about this morbidly obese woman and how she was going to go through the weight loss surgery as her last resort, to live for her two daughters. She had complications and died. How very sad. I was in tears at the end when her older girl was crying. She was so young. I noticed she was always on Myspace, so I looked her up and it was sad to see that she’d actually signed on March 4th, which is the day she passed.

When I finally got the last load of laundry into the dryer I got into bed. It felt SO GOOD to just lay there. Alaethia woke up as soon as I was about to drift into sleep and was energized and ready to play. This was around 11pm. She stayed up till 1am, flailing her arms and squealing. Finally, I could sleep.

Only to be woken up by Mario–bless him—snoring like a dying rhinoceros at 4am. I tried ignoring it, pushing my pillow as far into my ears as it would go and eventually I even shook him so he’d turn over to a more comfortable, less snore-inducing position and NOTHING.

Alaethia even woke up and told him, “Be quiet, Daddy-O!”

Yes: Daddy-O. The boys jokingly call him that so she picked it up. She rarely calls him Daddy; it’s either Daddy-O, or Babe LOL.

I looked at the clock and it glowed 4:50. There was no way I was going to make it through that day.

Wed., Nov. 12th – Mario’s birthday! I got to sleep 2 hours more than usual because I’d already reported my absence to everyone who needed to know a day early. I woke up, took a shower, and made Mario breakfast. I couldn’t eat, of course, because I had to fast for the glucose screening. I woke him up to eat and get ready to go to my appointment. I was so excited that he was actually going to get to go with me to an appointment. This was the first time he’d gotten to go with me this whole pregnancy.

We get to the office and I sign in. I explain to Mario what the appointment is about and tells me he’s going to go home to get our books. While he’s gone they give me the drink to take. Bleh. I’ve never liked that thing, especially because I feel nauseous after a while and then get heartburn.

We read our books and when he’s not reading he’s complaining that he doesn’t want to be there that long and I should have warned him–which I had, but he was playing Mobsters and wasn’t listening. Both times I told him. And I can’t ask him when he’s not playing Mobsters because he’s always playing Mobsters, or else he’s not here or asleep.

Anyway, although he annoyed me he made the time pass more quickly than if I’d been there alone.

They called us to the vitals room. I’m happy to report I hardly gained anything in the 3 weeks since my last appointment. I was 137 last time and 137.8 this time, woo! It was really surprising, though, since I’m visibly bigger than I was 3 weeks ago.

An hour passes and they come and prick my finger to check my blood for the glucose and anemia. Dr. C. comes in about 15 minutes later with a grim look on his face as he’s leafing through my chart. He says I failed the screening by 9 points. I should have been at 140 but was at 149. He said he’d work out a deal with me: would I want to take the 3-hour test or be monitored? I chose monitoring. I already felt really nauseous and hungry; there was no way I’d survive another 3 hours.

So the deal is I’m going to have to start monitoring my sugars again and they’re going to be seeing me every 2 weeks instead of 3. I really hate pricking my finger.

I got an ultrasound done after that and we watched our little one move around and we saw her profile. And yes, she’s most definitely still a girl LOL. I ask them to check to be sure every single time. I’ll still probably be in disbelief until they place her on my chest when she’s born and I get to SEE that she’s a girl LOL. It’s too awesome and I can’t get over it: two boys and two girls!

We came home and Mario got on Mobsters (of course) while I looked through my Baby Name Book. I found nothing. I’m starting all over from “A” and I hope we really find a name before she’s born. All my other kiddos had their names by now!

Eenan called us around 12:30 and wanted us to pick him up and bring him home. I was a little alarmed and asked him why; he was adamant on coming home. Later that night he asked again if we could pick him up after they take attendance and I asked why. He confessed that a boy is bothering him at school. I’ve never had to deal with kids bullying mine before and vowed to speak to his teacher about it.

I was sleepy and nodding off (even after getting 7 straight hours of sleep + an extra one) so Mom offered to watch Alaethia (and John was on stand-by while he was on the internet LOL) while Mario and I napped. It didn’t take long for me to pass out at all and I woke up with 5 minutes to spare at 3 so I could pick up the boys at 3:10.

When everyone got home that night we all got in the vehicles and left to Chili’s, where we were celebrating Mario’s birthday. I was glad that John was actually joining us for once. Poor Mario was not in a good mood, especially because they didn’t save enough seats like we asked for and they took unusually long with the food; there were at least 5 other birthday boys and girls there, too. And of course, as if just knowing Mario’s in a bad mood isn’t nerve wracking to begin with, they bring his food last. Grrr.

Alaethia ate really well for once. She had a little bit of everything, but mostly had the Spinach and Artichoke Dip, my favorite. The boys sat with Angela, Andy and Noelia at a bench behind us, so we didn’t really get to talk to any of them much. I was so upset at how well the Chili’s people took direction that night; why else would you call and make “reservations”!

Mario opened his gifts when everyone was done eating. He’d opened his Blu-ray movie from Sonia (Hellboy II)—and he eyed me suspiciously. Mary had sneaked off to get the Playstation from all of us while he opened another gift from Mary: 2 shirts (which he already had =\) and 2 DVDs. He got a DVD and shaving kit from Noey and Andy. He opened a CD from us, the new AC/DC one. He got a laptop cooler from Mom, which he really, really needed. His face was priceless when he saw Mary bring his gifts to the table. He was thrilled.

The staff from him a complimentary chocolate cake (that sort of, in a small way, made up for the whole lack of seating fiasco) and everyone sang Happy Birthday. On the way home he said it was one of the best birthdays he’s had in a long time. I’m so glad. He always surprises me somehow, and I’m so glad I finally got the opportunity to do the same for him.

We stopped by Target to buy Alaethia a cute, soft, HUGE Care Bear for $9. We looked around quickly, since John and Mom were in the car with Alaethia, and came home. We unpacked and went next door to say hello to my father-in-law. He was thrilled because he shot a deer.

I checked my sugar before going to bed, and after eating all that stuff for dinner my sugar was at 141–dammit. It should be at 120!

Thurs., Nov. 13th – Back to work. At least it was one day of work and the next day: Fantasyland Skate Center! I tried getting everything done as it came, like shelving, so that I wouldn’t have anything to do the next day since I didn’t feel like shelving when we got back from the field trip. I just wanted to relax after we got back.

When Mrs. Ruiz got there that day she was packed with a huge bag from Mervyn’s. She’d bought me two sweaters for Christmas (’cause she said I was growing out of my other ones LOL), with the excuse that Mervyn’s was going out of business. That woman spoils me, seriously!

I think this is the day that Jaylen confessed something to me. I picked them up from school and on the way home he tells me, “Mom, guess what?”

“What?”

“I have a girlfriend!”

I’m taken aback and hide my grin. “A girlfriend? What’s her name?”

“Jazmin.”

“Really? Is she in your class?”

“No. She’s a third grader.” He’s smiling, quite satisfied with himself.

Eenan and I stare at each other and try not to look too surprised. I ask him, “Where’d you meet this older woman?”

“During lunch.”

“And you asked her to be your girlfriend?”

He says, very matter-of-factly, “No. I didn’t have to.”

Well, excuse me!

Eenan tells him, “You have to know a girl at least two years to be her boyfriend. I’ve known Lauren since 1st grade.”

I look over at Eenan (because I don’t expect them to have a “real” girlfriend yet) and ask him, “You already asked Lauren to be your girlfriend?”

He says, “No. I’m not in middle school yet.”

I’ve taught him well! Now if the Birds and the Bees talk works out this well, we’ll be all set!

Fri., Nov. 14th – The day of our field trip to Fantasyland. I got to the library and shelved the few books that were left from the day before. I knew we were going to be closed during the day while we were gone, but I wasn’t sure about 1st period and there were still kids coming in and checking in/out books. I quickly accumulated a nice pile until Mrs. V. noticed and told me to lock the doors LOL.

My group was the 6th and 7th graders and 2 other teachers, plus the nurse. The kids were actually really well-behaved on the bus and at the rink. And that’s because we had a lot of the, how do you say it–troublemakers–go along with us. But really, they were great. The kids all wanted me to skate with them. One of my girls even said she’d take care of me, but when I looked for her she was having such a hard time keeping her balance LOL. I was okay watching from the sidelines. Roxanne went with her whole class and she got on the floor for a while. And then we sat and talked about diabetes…and munched on nachos and chocolate chip cookies!

When it was all over we took the kids next door to Pizza Hut to get their personal pan pizzas and we got 4 extras for the adults. I scored one for myself, but when we got back to school I ended up giving half to one of the kids because I was full. We got the lunch from school, too, so it was a lot of food. We had a designated table where all the kids who didn’t want their food would leave the tray there, and others who wanted to trade something could—with me supervising of course. There ended up being so much food left over that once the kids were dismissed to their last period, Mrs. V. and I ended up taking a heaping tray full each. The lunch ladies would have thrown it out anyway, so that would have been a shame.

We went to the teacher’s lounge after that where we met everyone else who’d gone with us. I hadn’t expected to see Mrs. Ruiz that day but she at the lounge. We sat and talked and then went to the library when everyone else was done. We shelved a few books and just chilled out the rest of the day. Well, until one of our adopted students stopped by like he does every day, every last period when his teacher gets “tired” of him and kicks him out. No, really. But yeah, he was on a mission to drive us nuts and it worked for the 10 minutes he was there before the bell rang LOL.

I can’t remember much from after school, at home. I think we watched movies all night, Hell Boy probably. And me, being the pregnant, old-lady that I am like Mario calls me, fell asleep.

Sat., Nov. 15th – I woke up early to get ready since Mary invited us to have breakfast and then a movie. I’d just gotten dried and dressed when I hear a knock on the door. I figure its Mom because it sort of sounds like “her” knock, but when I open the door Dad’s the one to greet me. I had no idea he’d be visiting! My hair wasn’t brushed, I was in a tank top and jeans and the house was in shambles. But he didn’t mind at all.

He told me he’d told Mom he was coming over Saturday morning, but what Mom heard was that he’d call to make plans to see each other. Never leave messages with Mother.

We sat and talked about everything, including his best friend, Sally’s dad. He took a TV of my father-in-law’s and said he’d fix it for us (that’s been Dad’s job, self-employed, for as long as I can remember. I still remember the smell of all the equipment in that brown, rusty toolbox of his). He showed us his new car and we said our see-you-laters. I really need to call him up and invite him over for Thanksgiving.

We finished getting ready to go to breakfast at Denny’s. I had chocolate milk with one of those Create Your Own Grand Slam meals. It was soo good and Alaethia actually ate some egg. We went to the movies to watch Madagascar 2, and Alaethia actually paid attention! We even forgot her sippy in the car and she didn’t make a big deal about it till the movie was almost over. The movie was hilarious!

We came straight home after the movie and had about 20 minutes to chill out before Mary, the kids and myself went to one of Mary’s co-worker’s parties for her daughter at Peter Piper. We got there early so the kids could play and not be moody by the time the people and the food got there. Alaethia had fun on the little rides and the boys played their games for tickets. We came home and then watched movies the rest of the night. I was so exhausted by the end of that day. But I guess those are the good days, right?

Sun, Nov. 9th – We woke up with a cold and soggy bed. Alaethia slept most of the night (in our bed obviously) which meant I slept most of the night and I didn’t change her diaper. Just the push I needed to start laundry early.

We had breakfast at Mary’s, as we usually do on Sunday. I spent the whole day cleaning. The house was in desperate need of it; let’s just say I hadn’t had a chance to mop in about two weeks. Bless Mario—he tried watching the kids but he was also outside and playing on his laptop so, um, I could have used more help, heh.

Mario was going to bar-b-q for lunch, but since it was going to take a while I made hamburger helper and brownies. John came over and made me laugh for a while then Jennifer, Aide, Adan and Belle came over. I was washing the pile of dishes that had accumulated since the day before and although I felt awkward cleaning I had to. My feet were killing me. I timed everything so that I’d be done with most of the cleaning by 8’oclock. You don’t bother me at 8 o’clock on Sundays—Desperate Housewives is on. Mario lay on the couch with me and though I told him I still needed to bathe he walked to the bedroom, got nice and comfy and fell asleep. I was so pissed. I woke him and he reluctantly go up at 9 to watch Alaethia while I showered.

Mon., Nov. 10th – I had the mini vomits all. day. long. I’d started having never-ending heartburn the week before: even cantaloupe gives me heartburn!

I started going to lunch earlier, at 11:30, like I’d planned to. Going to lunch from 1-1:30pm (I have breakfast at 6am) just wasn’t cutting it anymore. It was cool going to lunch so late before, because then it felt like the rest of the day just whizzed by and by the time I knew it, it was 3:00.

Sometimes I wouldn’t even have a chance to have a snack at 9:30, so I’d be shaking and starving by the time Mrs. V. got back from her lunch. That’s what caused me to develop diabetes in May to begin with–totally not what I need right now during this pregnancy.

I had everything done around the house since the day before, so I got to chill out and upload pics to my Flickr. Well, I did have a bit of laundry to do, but that was it.

Mom and the in-laws bar-b-q’d outside, so I didn’t even have to make dinner. We got the final details down for Mario’s birthday on Wednesday, the 12th. I had the perfect idea for his present, and it was such a great deal at Walmart! Even better: Mary said we’d go halfers on it! I was going to call in on Wednesday since I had my glucose screening and it was going to take forever, so I could go shopping right after the appointment.

Tues., Nov. 11th – I had another one of those ugly, vivid dreams Monday night—only this time it was about Alaethia. It was a really long dream but the short version is:

We were at my school, which was some kind of dorm. We had a suite and the boys were already asleep, Mario was out and I already had the baby, who looked exactly like Alaethia only smaller. I was having trouble putting Alaethia to sleep (just like I was in real life that night) and when she finally went to sleep I sneaked off to pee. I washed my face and when I opened my eyes and looked in the mirror I saw something rush behind me in the reflection. I turn around and some brown, slimy lizard creature lunged at me and tried attacking me with these tiny, razor-sharp teeth. I was terrified and tried choking it but when it refused to give up I started banging its spine against the corner of the sink. When I felt it go limp I looked at it…and it was Alaethia, only much smaller and the same brown, speckled color as the lizard creature. I screamed in horror as I see her little head bob to one side and her arms hang limp. I kept telling myself in the dream that no, this creature was trying to trick me and make me believe it was Alaethia, but it wasn’t. As hard as it was for me to do I lay the Alaethia clone on the floor and scream for help. Someone was in the hallway and I asked them to please check if Alaethia was asleep in bed, it was an emergency. I kept watch on the creature, sobbing because I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I’d never forgive myself if this really was Alaethia. The woman helping me ran and checked and when she came back she was panting and said, “She’s not in bed! That’s her! Don’t hurt her!”

I turned and looked at the creature on the ground and my heart banged in my ears. I woke up after that and couldn’t sleep at all. It should be illegal to have dreams like that. I prayed and prayed to God to let me sleep and erase that dream from my memory. But when I finally did fall asleep I had another horrible dream, this time about some hollow, dying dogs that Jorge, Mario’s friend, had given us. That one was terrible, too, but nothing’s more awful than bad dreams about my kids.

I thought about the dream all day and almost started bawling when I told Mrs. V., and later Mrs. Ruiz about it. I texted Mario in the morning and told him about how awful the dreams were and what a crappy day I felt I was going to have. I even forgot to put on deodorant!

The day would have gone even worse had Mrs. V. not returned when she did from running errands around the school…I didn’t leave for lunch till 11:37. I was so glad she got back and once I actually had lunch, the day became a little brighter.

I got home and just wanted to chill out and relax, but I get a text from Mario letting me know he’s got his birthday off! There was no way I’d have a chance to buy his gift the next day and surprise him so I had no choice but to go to Walmart that same evening. I go online to check the prices one more time and realize I’ve made a huge boo-boo: the Playstation 3 bundle I wanted to buy him was only sold online. It wouldn’t get here till November 27th! I called around looking for other specials or bundles but had no luck. I was lucky Target had some available.

It took some convincing, but I finally got the boys in the Equinox. They hate going anywhere, especially to town, during the week after school. Reminds me of their father, heh. They were looking forward to spending the money they’d saved up. Eenan had $13 because he got $10 from the Tooth Fairy and I knew Jaylen had been saving money, but I had no idea how much. I took his word when he told me he also had $13.

We got to Target and I got Mario the console, the cooling bundle with remote, a Blu-Ray movie: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and the 3-yr warranty. That’s really why Mario’s always wanted the PS3: for the Blu-Ray player.

The boys wanted to stop by Game Stop since they didn’t find anything at Target. Eenan bought himself a game for his DS and Jaylen got one for his beloved Game Cube. He passes me his little Transformers wallet and I unzip it. With our Game Stop discount his game came out to $9.50. I thought Cool, he’ll even have some left over. I look into the wallet and I don’t know whether to laugh or scream: there’s two dollar bills and the rest are pennies and quarters, mostly pennies. I glare at him and pull a $10 out of my wallet. He smiles.

I’m raising a con artist.