Category: Photos

Let me start by saying that Bush is a damn idiot. How the hell do you go off planning to spend all these millions of dollars on illegal immigrants’ hospital bills when you don’t even HELP THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUAL CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY!! This country is going to shit. And fast.

I also can’t believe the little girls that were murdered in Illinois, may have been murdered by one of the little girls’ own father. How could someone do that to their own flesh and blood, their baby? It’s just so horrible. They were only 8 & 9 years old . Hence the reason I won’t let Eenan go on playdates yet–he’s already begged and begged. You just never know these days and that saddens me.

*composes self* Anyway, hope all the Moms out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I didn’t get a chance to finish visiting all my mom friends on the ‘net and personally wishing them a Happy Mother’s Day, and I feel very guilty for it, but I do hope their day was grand .

We started the day by all getting together at Mary’s and exchanging presents and having breakfast. Mario made me some eggs and bacon and handed me my plate and gave me a kiss. Everyone “Awww’d”. Later he tells me he was making himself breakfast, but after Annie said to Cata, “Aww, see Babe, [Mario’s nickname here]’s making Yajaira breakfast!”, so he gave me the plate. I said, “You know, I could have gone the day without knowing that,” and glared at him. Then he said he was kidding. I’m still trying to figure out if he WAS kidding or not .

This year, I got beautiful hand/homemade gifts (the best kind!). Mary and Noelia printed pictures of the boys and put them in the center of a plate. They helped the boys paint little hearts and stars around the plate with gold paint–they turned out so nice! Mary gave me a little angel salt-shaker, which she made herself, that had cherries on it to match my kitchen theme. She gave Annie one with sunflowers and Yadira one with cows . She also gave me a frame with a picture of the boys and a poem called, “Walk With Us Mommy”. I couldn’t even finish reading it that day because I was still PMS’ing and immediately began to get teary eyed LOL.

The boys gave Mary her gift, which was a jewelry box with a picture of them in the frame on the lid. I’d painted it white and the boys painted little stars and hearts and then we glued them on the box. She loved it. They made one for Mom, too. Mario and I gave her her gift, which was some DVD’s that she’d picked out herself LOL.

After breakfast, we drove over to the cemetary to visit and leave flowers for Mario’s Grandma, Great-Grandma and visited with Mario’s sister for a little bit, too. I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned it in the years I’ve been blogging, but Mario had an older sister (about 3 years older than Noelia) who passed away when she was only 3 days old due to being born with only 2 heart chambers .

We came back and chilled out for a while and then left to the movies. Mario’d been trying to convince me to watch that dreaded Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I’d watch it on DVD, but I wouldn’t spend almost $8 to suffer watch it at the movies. We compromised and watched Kingdom of Heaven instead. I can’t say I was thrilled about it .

We went to eat at the House of China on North 10th in McAllen. I so love the one on South 10th…this one didn’t have the crab thingys covered in the fried…thing? I forget what they’re called at the moment, heh.

It was nice though. The boys behaved for the most part and Yadira and I shared our labor stories with everyone LOL. We ended up helping Mary pay for the bill and now we are b-r-o-k-e. Thank goodness Mario gets paid this weekend!

After lunch, we went to visit Gramma at the nursing home and took her our gift. We stayed and talked for a while and then we left to visit Mom. I gave her and Aunt Nora their gifts, which they loved . I talked with Mom for a while and talked to John who’d been laying in bed practically the whole day. I told him to come with us, so he could drive a bit and of course he refused. I don’t know how he can complain about not having a license when he won’t even make the effort to learn or take the car out for a spin on his own. Hell, that’s the only way I started driving. I got a few lessons here and there from Mary and Mario and then I was on my own. Had I not started driving Eenan around on my own and taking the initiative to get over my fear, I still wouldn’t be driving.

We came home and Mario was tired so he was going to take a nap. I laid down with him to cuddle for a little bit and ended up falling asleep for about 45 minutes . I really need to start going to sleep earlier. I went to Mary’s and joined everyone after I woke up and started on a scrapbook embellishment: popcorn! I had little carnival theme embellishments (Sandylion brand) and it was missing a box of popcorn so I thought I’d make one. It turned out really cute. I want to make some candy apple ones but I’m not sure how to go about it. I have these clear sheets of plastic–the ones the stickers come on–and I’m thinking of putting those on some red apple-shaped cardstock to make it look “glazed” and adding a little stick. Hmm…

I scared Mario last night. I wish I had the camera with me to capture his expression–it was priceless! I was washing dishes in the kitchen and he comes up behind me, playfully smacks me on the butt and then gives me a kiss. I step away from him while holding his hands and tell him, very seriously, “I need to tell you something.”

He gets this OMG look on his face, kind of smiling, kind of freaked out, kind of about to PASS OUT and he says, “WHAT?”

“You know how your mom accidentally got me the wrong pack of birth control pills?”

At that point I didn’t know if he was going to cry or scream…or both. I start laughing uncontrollably and say, “No, you weirdo, I’m not pregnant! I’m just saying, she got me the wrong ones. I can’t take these because I’m supposed to take them the first day I “start” and well, I’m about to finish so I can’t take them. I’m afraid I’ll become incredibly naseous or that they’ll ruin my cycle. I’m telling you this because I “want some” after I’m done with this thing so you need to buy condoms.”

He look so relieved and then whined, “Condoms, hell no.”

I rolled my eyes. Though it would be weird going back to condoms after all these years, I don’t think he wants me to utter the words, “I need to tell you something” for at least 3 more years LOL.

Which brings me to the talk we had Saturday night. We decided we’d live here for at least 2 more years. We’re in no hurry to buy a house, though it would be nice–really nice. This lil’ apartment was built just for us, so we decided not to take it for granted, save, I’m going to go to school and then hopefully get a job after Jaylen starts school next year, and then we can buy a house. We could go and apply for a loan right now, but we could only get a small house. Once I start working (hopefully) we can get a bigger loan which means bigger house, which is what we both want. 4 bedrooms–no less, two living rooms, big kitchen, etc. We’ll have either red brick with white trim or cream colored brick. Yup, I’ve got it all planned out LOL.

I forgot to mention. A few days ago I uploaded my Lil’ Mama Clique index to this site. What a mess that was. If it weren’t for Jessica I never would have noticed! Well, not until I updated LOL. Thanks, Jessica :).

Well, I guess this’ll be all. I should get all this laundry hung up and folded. Then I have to clean the bathroom. Fun, fun . THEN, I’ll hopefully get a chance to upload my simple little scrapbooking pages to show y’all.

(more…)

I’m watching American Idol right now…everyone was sucking until Bo Bice started belting out “Stand By Me”. Not only do I love this song because it reminds me of when I was little and would listen to oldies with my Mom, but he’s got such a nice voice *swoon*. (OOoh he also sang “How Far Is Heaven”…loved it!) I still can’t believe Constantine got voted off before Anthony Federov and Scott Savol (but I like how he sings, sometimes). I can’t believe Paula CRIED! Oooh now Carrie’s on…she’s my favorite.

Eenan’s graduation was today . He looked so handsome in his shirt, tie and slacks.

Mary went with me to drop him off and we spoke to Ms. O., who looked so cute in her maternity clothes . She took all their gowns to iron them at home, herself. I stopped by the classroom before Eenan got out of school yesterday so that I could pick up the gown to iron but she said she’d do it. I kept asking her, “Are you sure??”, but she insisted.

When we got back from dropping him off I frantically ironed all our clothes, and flat-ironed my hair, got all the cameras together and whatever else that needed to be done. I would have done everything last night except Mary and I went to Wal-Mart to get “surprises” for Eenan to give him after his graduation. After 30 minutes of rummaging through the piles of stuffed animals stuffed in the shelves she found a graduation bear and I got him a Glow in the Dark Do-Your-Best Bear from Mario and I. Needless to say, I was dead tired when we got home.

We got to the Performing Arts Center at the high school at around 8:35-8:40 and didn’t get seated till at least 9:15! The graduation was set to start at 9am and they didn’t start till 10 something. It was all made up for when they showed a video Mr. Z., the music teacher, had put together. It was mostly pictures of the kids all doing their work in their classes. When I see them flash a picture of Eenan up there I started bawling. They were also playing Leann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance” in the background, so that hit me and I couldn’t get the tears to stop LOL. I love that song!

He looked so cute going up there and getting his “diploma” (which was a fake rolled up piece of paper they took away LOL). He looked over to us when he went up the steps, kind of posing for us to take a picture. When all the kids got their “diplomas” we all walked out and met the kids in the main lobby(?) and took pictures of them, etc. I took a picture of Eenan, the pimp, with his arms around two of his (girl) friends. Too cute! We met the kids back at school and checked Eenan out for the rest of the day. He took a few pictures with friends, Ms. O., us and a group picture. He had so much fun and was beaming with pride since he’s going to 1st grade next year, “like Angela”.

Since the graduation took so long, and Mario had to leave to work by 12:20 and Mary had to go to work too, we just stopped by McDonald’s (since it’s the closest, fastest thing). We’ve been chilling out at home since. He’s so happy he’s “un-grounded” now LOL. He was grounded most of the weekend because he got a referral for sticking gum in a little boy’s hair during graduation practice last Wednesday .

As for the weekend, it was spent in town buying Mother’s Day gifts, getting John’s graduation stuff, and buying last minute stuff for Eenan’s graduation. We got:

1. Mary – 2 DVDs
2. Mom – shoes she wanted and gold/cubic zirconia earrings
3. Gramma – a nightgown and some chocolates
4. Aunt Nora – cubic zirconia earrings

We went to the circus Saturday night (Mary, Sonia, Yadira, the girls, Andy, Noelia, and the boys and I). It was nice…I was STILL expecting elephants and tigers and they didn’t have them, but it was still cool. The kids loved it. Jaylen was going psycho clapping because he was that excited.

The next day we dropped John off at home and Mom gave me my super wonderful Mom’s Day gift…the It Signature collection Bucket Bag. The first Dooney I laid eyes on back in the day and wanted:

It’s so awesome. It’s smaller than my Raspberry barrel, but still oh-so-cute .

I’m also getting back into scrapbooking. I’m slowly buying supplies, and cute embellishments and papers. I made my first page in years yesterday and it came out really nice, if I do say so myself . Noey went through a bunch of papers and cut-outs and she gave me some really cute ones (Halloween, Road Trip, Birthday themes) I want to use ASAP. She wants me to help her with hers when she’s done with her class. It shall be fun!

Okay, I should really get to vacuumming and making Mario’s lunch for tomorrow. I don’t know what to make for this man anymore!

(more…)

Been trying to update all day and of course, never got a chance. Oh, what I’d give for wireless internet and a damn laptop. I’m gonna start saving for one, dammit (a laptop).

Anyway, my birthday was lovely . Thank you all who wished me a Happy Birthday…I’ll get back to you all individually soon!

My birthday was so totally not what I expected for some reason…and that’s good. I didn’t think we’d do anything to begin with, but we did, and on my actual birthday, not on the weekend like I initially thought.

I woke up and got Eenan ready for school then dropped him off. The first thing he said when he woke up was “Happy Birthday, Mama!!” Then, when I left him at his class his teacher wished me a happy birthday too. I thanked her and asked how she knew and she said, “He’s been talking about it non-stop since Monday”. My baby! *tear* When I got back I just sat on the couch and idly watched TV. Mario woke up, wished me a happy birthday and then asked me what I wanted for breakfast. I was craving an omelette and so he made me one. It was the cheesiest, tastiest omelette with ham, jalapenos, and cilantro I’ve ever eaten and although I may have gained 5 lbs. that morning, OMG it was SO worth it!

We plopped ourselves on the couch after our gluttonous breakfast and after flipping through channels, Mario decided to cancel the Starz package and got Showtime. After a few seconds of flipping again, I found one of my favorite 80’s movies, For Keeps?. Mario, being the wonderful husband that he is, sat through it and toughed it out to make me happy .

We picked Eenan up from school and I see him bringing a cupcake with him. Ms. O. told Mario (since he’s the one who got off the car to get him) that a little boy had a birthday party and Eenan refused to eat the cupcake…he said he was keeping it for me since it was my birthday . How freaking sweet is THAT? He even brought me a party hat…aww!

I took my time getting ready when we got home. We’d be meeting at Yadira’s for my birthday. We had lasagna, spaghetti and salad and everything was delicious. Bless Mary’s heart for cooking everything . They also surprised me with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen! I’d told Mario I’d love to have one and they got me one! It was delicious. Mario ended up having two slices LOL.

After cake, I opened my gifts. Mary and Big Mario got me a gorgeous heart-shaped ruby necklace (that I’m dying to wear somewhere!) and Cata, Annie and the kids got me two cute T’s–one with Tinkerbell and one with the Pink Panther. Yazmin wrote me a letter on a Hello Kitty card and gave me two Hello Kitty Uno cards with a 2 and a 3 on them…too sweet . I was a happy, happy girl.

My nose was red-raw because I was constantly blowing it. Egh! I’m just glad I wasn’t as sick as I thought I was going to be. I think *knocks on wood* that I may have actually skipped the cough part of this thing!

The next day was the usual. Jaylen and I just chilled out here. I had cleaning to do, so I was kind of relieved that Sonia would be picking Eenan up for me. John came over since he’d be spending the weekend here for Jaylen’s party. Mario got out of work a little early and took me out to a movie for my birthday. We watched Beauty Shop. Mario was cringing at the thought of watching a “girlie movie” but he actually enjoyed it. My favorite line in that movie’s got to be “It’s hotter than a jalapeno’s coochie out there.” That’s how I’d describe a south Texas afternoon . The only thing I didn’t like was that we once again sat in front of a bunch of annoying little kids who were constantly kicking our seats. I refrained from smacking the little girl behind Mario and instead yelled at her to quit her shit. What is it with these morons? I don’t pay almost $8 to have my damn seat kicked .

After the movie, we went next door to Wal-Mart and Mario bought me two DVD’s I wanted, 50 First Dates and 13 Going on 30–both make me cry like a baby at the end . We tried looking for Independence Day for him, but had no luck.

The next day after we ate breakfast and Mario left to work I got ready and went to town with Mary to run errands. Eenan stayed with John. First thing we did was pay bills. I paid all of them and it felt so nice getting everything out of the way. Then we went to Target where I bought a cute brown shirt with embroidered flowers on it and my favorite bras which were on sale. We went to Pet Smart for rat food and I saw some red eared sliders–they were HUGE. My babies are going to (hopefully) get that big one day .

We went to the new Wal-Mart, which was extremely crowded, to get a few things we needed for the goodie bags for Jaylen’s party. I also found Pocky sticks! I’ve never seen them at the other Wal-Mart, or anywhere else for that matter.

When we were on our way home there was this green truck in front of us. It suddenly stopped in front of the drive thru shaped like a 6 pack of Cokes so we stopped too, naturally. Then we felt this huge smack that jerked us foward. Someone hit us. Since Jaylen had been moody, I’d reluctantly sat him on my lap and he fell asleep. I’m so, so grateful that nothing worse happened. I couldn’t sleep that night thinking, “What if he’d taken his seat belt off if he was in his seat?”, “What if it would have been much worse and he was on my lap? What if he flew out the windshield?!” “We were in the van, what if we were in one of the smaller cars?” I’m extremely anal about them being in their seat belts and I couldn’t believe we get hit when he’s not in it. Instinctively I wrapped myself around him when I felt the van jerk foward and immediately afterwards I felt my back start throbbing. When we were getting off to check the van, I hear Mary say, “Oh my God, he’s leaving!” Asshole . I asked the men that were standing nearby if they saw where he went. He’d reversed and then made a U-turn and sped off and according to the men, his whole bumper was hanging off. There was glass everywhere and it wasn’t from the van. All that happened to the van was a piece of plastic fell off of something, the bumper got scratched and the license plate fell off. May karma strike that man and his car .

After calming down and shaking it off, we came home. Mary made broccoli rice for Mario’s Grandpa Leo’s birthday party and I cleaned up and then bathed the kids. I took an Advil after bending over the tub to wash them because my back was killing me. We left to pick Mom up from work–she’d be spending the night also for Jaylen’s party. We went to the other Wal-Mart afterwards to pick up a few more things they didn’t have at the other Wal-Mart and to exchange a gift Mom bought Jaylen since Andy bought him the same one. THEN we went to Grandpa Leonel’s party. The food was awesome and they even sang Happy Birthday to me LOL. The kids had fun running around with the puppies and all their cousins. On the way home, Mom gave me my birthday present from her–a beautiful silver heart-shaped necklace with lots of little pink and white stones on it .

When we got home I fed everyone and then we worked on the rest of the Ninja Turtle centerpieces–just touch ups here and there. I got everything ready for the next day and finally finished around 12am.

The next day we all got ready, had breakfast and then got ready to leave to town since we had lots of stuff to do before the party. Mom and Eenan would go with Mary and John and Jaylen would go with us. We went to JCPenny to leave a payment and get Jaylen some new shoes and a shirt for Mario. Then to Payless to exchange some shoes Mom had given me…I got some cute, brown Airwalk flip flops to match my blouse. Then we went to Pet Smart to get the filter for the turtles’ tank, some crickets for them, water conditioner and some new, bigger pebbles for their tank since we removed the gravel ones (they might think they’re food and eat them). I still want to get them a background for their tank and a cute ceramic/resin? palm tree they had there .

We went to Wal-Mart again to get Jaylen a new gift from Mom and John needed some stuff so he got them. Then we went to Best Buy to get Independence Day for Mario and then to Home Depot for heaven-knows-what that he needed and then to Dairy Queen, which was right across from the party, to get Mario some food since he was “starving” and said the pizza wouldn’t fill him up. I got a yummy caramel Moolate *swoon*.

When we got to the place, Eenan was already playing and Jaylen quickly joined him. John watched them for us while we got stuff ready at the tables.

Aunt Nora and Tio Arturo were some of the first to get there. We mingled while we were waiting for them to bring out the pizzas. Albert’s wife, Jannette, got there with her two nieces and her baby, Alan. I sat with her for a good while and we ate and talked. She’s nice . Jaylen had a blast. We brought everyone together to sing to him while he and Eenan poked at the cake as usual LOL.

After we ate cake, it was time for him to open his gifts. I think he needed a nap by then because he was quickly becoming irritated. He was grunting when I’d ask him to take pictures with his gifts.

He opened a few presents and then got to Andy’s, which was the Rafael (or Rafayeld, as Jaylen calls him) set with the bandana, sai (?), belt, and elbow/knee pads. He didn’t want to open anything else after that. Then Eenan wanted to play with it so all hell broke loose LOL.

They played a little more and then the party was over. We thanked everyone for coming and then dun*dun*dun…it was time to pay. We were SO surprised to find out it was only $281 this time. We’d given $100, and Mom had given $100 for the deposit, and Mary put in the $81. I’m so glad they help us out each year and I’m so glad it wasn’t so pricey this time (there’s usually a whole lot more people). One year it came out to $725…yeah, heart attack .

We dropped Mom off at home and she noticed she didn’t have her shoes–she’d left them at our house so I said I’d go drop them off. I cleaned up while Mario set up the new stuff in the tank for the turtles. Then John, Jaylen and I left to Mom’s. I wasn’t too nervous driving all the way over there, which surprised me since it was my first time driving all the way over there without Mario instructing what to do and where to go. The off-ramp made me nervous, but I did okay, and when we passed by the big Coke drive-thru I got nervous too, because I remembered when that idiot hit us. Other than that I did good. I sat and had a chat with Mom and Aunt Nora for a good hour and then we left.

John stayed over again that night since he didn’t have to go into school till noon on Monday. I cut his hair that morning after dropping Eenan off and then helped Jaylen open the rest of his presents, when he finally remembered there were some (he was still clutching on to his sai sword thingy Andy got him though!). I cleaned the house most of Monday…it was chaotic. Sonia picked Eenan up again for me that day since I wasn’t going to use Noelia’s car. I went to the Dollar General with Mary for a few odds and ends and got some scrapbooking stuff. I want to start scrapbooking so badly, but need more supplies first. I’ve got so many ideas! When we got home, I started on Jaylen’s cake. Since the 18th was his actual birthday, I was baking him a cake to celebrate. He wanted green frosting, so I used up 1/4 of a bottle of green food coloring to do it. Then I drew Rafael on it LOL. He liked it. He blew out his candles, then we ate cake and he opened his presents. Later Yadira stopped by with the girls and they had some cake too. Yadira said she didn’t like yellow cake (all we had) but she tried it and ate it all. She said, “And I really don’t like this. Dammit, Yajaira!” I guess it was good cake !

We talked about the kids’ first days of school and then she mentioned maybe putting him in Head Start next year, since he’s already 3 and is potty trained. I’m not sure if we’ll qualify, or if I even want him to go there (she took Angela out since the teachers or whatever they are were being sort of negligent). But then I really want to start school and get a job and all that jazz…so ugh, we’ll see.

After everyone left, we came back here and Mario got home. He ordered Flight of the Phoenix…very good movie.

As for today, it was spent cleaning once again. After picking Eenan up from school we went to the Family Dollar where I bought 3 stacking shelf things for them to put their toys in. Jaylen’s Ninja Turtle box became too small after all the Ninja Turtle gifts he got this weekend and their Dinosaur boxes are overflowing. I got them to help me clean the room because it was a disaster and I painstakingly scrubbed crayon off the floor since Jaylen decided to scribble all over . I got all my chores done early and still got to enjoy American Idol and I Want a Famous Face, or whatever it’s called. It’s already 12:23 though, which sucks because I actually thought I was going to get to sleep early. I forgot to wash Mario’s work clothes during the day and had to stay up for that . I’m ready to crash right now.

(more…)