Category: Photos

Father’s Day ’05 & Impatience

I’m so bad at updating sometimes. I get so lazy and have no desire to be online. Which can be good, I guess, but then I get pissed at myself because I have so much to write about and I just *have* to write about everything don’tcha know? Anyway…

Mario worked Thursday and got Friday off instead. We spent a day in town. I felt awful that I had no $$ to get Mario a gift for Father’s Day . We went to JCPenny to get his dad some gifts from us and Mom and he got himself some shorts and a shirt, which he said was the Father’s Day gift from me, but it’s NOT. That’s one of the reasons I’m in a hurry to go to school and get a job–so I can buy him stuff myself. That’s what I loved about working…it was so nice having money and buying him stuff whenever I wanted. It was nice surprising him and not having to ask for money when a holiday or special occassion comes around and I want to get him a gift .

I got a cute, teal blouse when we were there. I wore it the next day when Mary, Noelia and I went to Noelia’s friend, Vinny’s, baby shower. She’s having a boy and just looks so cute all pregnant . It seemed like almost every woman there was pregnant or had a newborn in her arms. My biological clock sensed that and automatically screamed, “You must have a baby soooon!” Even Mary told me, “Andale, Yajaira!” (C’mon, Yajaira!) and then later Vinny’s aunt said it, too. But I need to keep pressing “snooze” on that darn clock and make myself wait till I get my license, go to school, get a job and then get our house. Once we get our house, then and only then will we try.

I felt a little uncomfortable in my clothes since I hadn’t worn a skirt in forever. I was also afraid the tire around my waist was going to pop out when I sat down . It boosted my confidence when a girl Mary was talking to said, “She doesn’t look like she has kids!?”, when Mary brought up that I was her daughter-in-law and that she had two grandsons. I needed to hear that LOL. That’s another thing, before I even think of having another kid I need to get in shape. The last thing I need is to get pregnant and gain even MORE weight and have a harder time losing it. Ugh, I don’t even want to think about that LOL.

Father’s Day was alright. The kids made a little trinket-box-type thing and a key rack for Mario and Big Mario. It was Mary’s idea . The kids painted them and they looked really cute. I cleaned up that morning and then later we went to Yadira’s where we were going to have lunch. Mary made everything, as usual. I felt horrible later that afternoon because she felt bad. She’d done so much for everyone, cooked all the food on her own, and a few people were a bit unappreciative .

That morning we thought Daniel (the turtle) had become a father LOL. I thought, ‘How appropriate; on Father’s Day!’. We found these little white balls that were in clusters in the water and we automatically thought they were eggs. I got some info online and could find NO pictures of Red-eared slider eggs so I followed the incubation instructions and incubated them. Later, I did find some info and pictures on the eggs and realized they were too small to be eggs. I think I may have been incubating semen .

Since we have the 20 gallon tank now and are still turtle-sitting Sammy and Brandon’s turtles, Jackie and Daniel couldn’t bask properly. The big turtles kept knocking them off or, more annoyingly, shifting all the stacked up lava rocks and spreading them across the tank. Mario got some plexi glass and glued it to the tank to make a sort of ‘dam’. We filled up the seperated part with rocks (I even found some really pretty ones at Family Dollar!) and then put lava rocks on top for them to bask. I went to Big Mario’s stash of bricks and rocks and found even more lava rocks–heavier and hello, they were FREE! We spent $10 for a bag of lava rocks at Pet Smart, and they’re really light so the turtles can easily push them. After boiling all the rocks and stones, I stacked them up like stairs so the turtles could get to the dam easily.

Basking turtles

It took them a while to get used to it, especially Jackie. She kept biting at the rocks LOL.

Went to visit Mom last night with John and the boys. Didn’t go as expected. There was arguing–as usual. Will probably vent about it privately later on. Gah.

I should get back to cleaning. I’m getting junk together to have yet another garage sale. I REALLY need to go through my drawers and closets and I’m dreading that . I also need to get more info online about the schools I’m thinking of going to. I think I already know where I want to go. John may go to the same one and we can go together. We’re either going July 25 or September 6. I really hope everything goes as planned. I’m becoming impatient–it feels as though I’ve put life on hold. Truth of the matter is, I couldn’t fathom anyone else raising my kids, which is WHY I actually HAVE put life on hold. But it’s time to get it back on track again. I KNOW I can do this.

[edit] 3:08pm. I can’t find my diploma ANYWHERE!!! I was about to cry and hyperventilate earlier. I don’t know what happened to it. I had it on the very top shelf with my Salutatorian plaque and all the school info and my scholarship (gotta call and check if that’s still good) and it’s not there . I was frantically looking for it and John says, “Aww, bless your little determined heart.” Grr. . I need to call the school like, 5 minutes ago, and ask if I can get a new one. I can’t believe it’s lost!! [/edit]

[edit again] 3:48pm. Just called my old school. I can either get a copy for free or a new one for $8 and I’m probably going to just get the new one. I hope they have a new style for it, too. The old one looked FAKE…it had a pinkish little owl printed on it (which was our mascot–don’t laugh!). I remember I took it with me for a job I was after a few years ago and the lady looked at me like, “You’re kidding, right?” when I presented the diploma LOL. The lady said she’d look me up and see if she can find my file. That scares me a little…”if” she can find it?? Anyway, hopefully all will be well. I also called to the College itself and got the info for admissions and financial aide. I feel so nervous. I have so much to do in the next few weeks: get my license, replace my diploma, set up an appointment with the school for both John and I to check if we qualify for financial aide, not go insane!! I’ve been out of school for way too long; this seems so overwhelming!! [/edit]

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Busy-ness & the Bottomless Pit

The boys dropped out. They don’t want to go to the Reading Program anymore, so we didn’t go today. It’s not that they don’t like reading; they just don’t want to do the reports that are “required”. I don’t blame them. I’m not going to force them to do something they don’t want. I have to turn in 3 of their library books. They still have one left to read. I do need to go back to get their pictures for the Fingerprints Kit. I paid $10 for those and I bet thier quality’s going to be craptastic, too. Grr.

Yesterday was a bustling whirlwind. I woke up late…about 10:30 or so, I think? Since I kept waking up from the thunderstorm that rolled in about 2am. I didn’t wake up because of the thunder–I woke up because the electricity went out and I was HOT. I hate feeling sweaty when I’m sleeping !

Anyway, Mario was helping Tommy with something, then he, Jose and Tommy worked on Big Mario’s indisposed truck. I ran around feeding the children, myself, the turtles, cleaning up here and there, and by the time I knew it, it was lunchtime. I made carne guisada and rice for them to eat, took John to get some applications for a job, got the kids ready and headed out to the library.

They were having Story Time and were going to learn about spiders. The librarian read them a book, then they brought a basket of pipe-cleaners, styrofoam balls, tissue paper and googly eyes so the kids could create their own spiders.

Jaylen's spider. The little growth on his forehead is tissue-paper-hair!

The kids had a few conniptions because “the paper isn’t sticking!” and “I need gluuuuue!” and “MOOO-OOOM! I can’t get the legs in!”, but after helping them glue, and cut and stab the ball, they were happy with their little spiders .

Eenan played Sorry! with two little boys and then we came home. I can’t stand how hot it is outside at that time (2-3pm). The boys hate putting on their seat belts because, “IT BURNS US!”, as Eenan says.

Mario and Jaylen took a nap and when they woke up it was time for their swimming lessons. They had a blast, as usual, but this time, Jaylen didn’t want to jump off the diving board. He’d done so well before–he was more willing than Eenan!–but not yesterday . They got little certificates for completing Session 1 . They’ll start Session 2 on Monday.

Eenan about to dive into his coach's arms, and Jaylen on the edge with his coach squeezing into a lifesaver.

Mario smoked a cigarrette at the park under a little pavillion, while I got the boys dried and dressed. When we get home, he says he can’t find one of the $20’s he had in his pocket. He was a bit upset and asked if, on the way to Mom’s (John and I were going to drop off some stuff), I could stop by the pool and ask if anyone found a 20. I tell him that, sadly, no one’s going to be that honest and return a $20 bill…not around here anyway. BUT, I went and checked at the park anyway.

I looked around the table he’d been sitting on and then scanned the grass. Sure enough, the bill was securely attatched to a weed, still nicely folded into fours. It obviously fell out when he took the keys out of his pocket. Thank you, God, for letting me find that money or else the husband would have been quite moody.

We left to Mom’s, talked for a bit with her and then Aunt Nora, then came home. Got here, then I went with Mario and Jaylen (Eenan was too busy having fun with the cousins) to Wal-Mart to find a 20-25 gallon aquarium for the turtles to have more room to swim in. (Had I mentioned we’re turtle-sitting Sammy and Brandon’s huge sliders? Well, we are. And they’re huge!) No luck. The only thing they had were 20 gallon tank kits–for fish, and they were upwards of about $75. No thanks.

A turtley conga line!

Since the kids didn’t have to go to the library and they don’t have swimming classes tonight I’m incredibly bored. Boredom leads to eating. I’ve eaten so much junk food I probably gained the weight I’ve lost in the span of a few hours. Bad Yajaira. Bad.

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Some Silence After a Busy Day

We were bored out of our minds (which meant the boys were quickly becoming fussy) so I took them to the library. They picked out a few cute books (Eenan: The Very Hungry Caterpillar & The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle — LOVE his books! Jaylen: Calico Cat’s Exercise Book by Donald Charles and Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs! by Sandra Boynton. Since there were many kids at the time and they were all coloring and playing games, Jaylen and Eenan sat down and started coloring pieces of construction paper while I was getting our library cards. Later, a librarian tells me about how they’re having a Summer Reading Club and it’s barely the 2nd day so if we’d like to join we were more than welcome to. I say sure, and fill out their forms. So now, after the kids read their books, they either draw a picture or write a short summary (“book report”) of what they read and they turn it in the next day. The club runs from yesterday LOL till July 1st. On the first, they’ll have a party if they had good attendance (we go each day from 2-3…didn’t ask about weekends though…). The kids think it’s pretty good. They already love to read and now hopefully Jaylen can start feeling more comfortable around other kids and won’t be so scared when he starts school. Which will be in 2 more damn years!! I hadn’t bitched about that yet, have I? Well, let me begin…

Most of the (retarded) cities around our area aren’t allowing 4 year olds to attend school (Pre-K) unless they’re dirt poor and speak only Spanish. The rest of the kids have to wait to attend their first year of school in Kinder, when they’re 5-6!! What kind of crap is that?? I think it’s great they’re taking the initiative to help Spanish as a Primary Language students, but what about the other kids? Is MY kid going to stay behind because he actually speaks English?? So when the Spanish-speaking kids learn English and the alphabet, and math and to write, MY KID is going to be left behind barely learning those things? I mean, c’mon! When Eenan was in Kinder this year, they were reading 2nd grade-level books! How’s Jaylen going to be able to do that if he doesn’t know the basics first?! I think it’s just ludicrous.

Anyway, after the kids had their fun and checked out their books, we came home and I cut John’s hair, then Jaylen’s, gave him a quick shower since he’d already had a bath, did a bit of laundry, then got the boys ready for their swimming classes. They had so much fun and I was having a heart attack! Jorge, Eenan’s coach, took him to the 13 foot pool. Then Michael, Jaylen’s coach, took him…and let him get on the diving board! Jaylen isn’t scared of anything. He nonchalantly sauntered across the plank and fearlessly jumped into Michael’s open arms. My eyes were about to pop out of my head and my mouth dropped to the floor. Eenan went too, but he was a little more hesitant, but carefully made his way across anyway–and loved it! I was terrified, but Mary assured me it was okay. I know the guys are good coaches, but these are my babies!!

Yadira, the girls, Elda and the boys all went to see Eenan and Jaylen practice today. They played in the park for a few minutes after the boys were done, while the adults talked on the sidewalk. Then we came home. Everyone went to Yadira’s to eat pizza and John went out with his friends. I started on dinner and Jaylen was fussy and ended up falling asleep, so now I’m here, in an unusually quiet house and it’s just weird LOL. I guess I’ll have some dinner:

…and then I’ll finish up with laundry and snuggle up on the couch, watch TV and eat some ice cream with caramel topping . I actually lost a few lbs. because I’ve been limiting my food intake and not chowing down all the junk food in sight. I’m down to 115 . (For new readers: Don’t freak out. My goal weight is 105 because I’m only 4 ft. 11in. tall!)

Okay, food smells good. Really hungry. Gonna eat.

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