Category: School

Today’s been pretty low key. Aside from being called into the Financial Aid office (who sent a “Friendly Reminder” that I hadn’t yet paid them their money, which I’d already gone in to work out with them), today’s been pretty easy. Ricci and I listened to the compliation CD I made last night of my High School Soundtrack. I’m not entirely sure she likes most of the music, though .

Chicken Little was pretty cute. It was overly silly and had obvious humor, but the kids (Sammy, Brandon, Eenan and Jaylen) all loved it. They could not stop laughing!

We waited for Mario to get home (who was extremely tired and sleepy as he only got 4 hours of sleep) and then went with John to pick up the rest of Mom’s stuff. We still need to bring her mattress, 3 boxes of her movies, a huge mirror and a few other things later this week.

I need, need to remember to cash one of Mario’s paychecks and pay Mom’s loan for her. Gotta pick up Eenan (and I have no books to read!) and then Mom will probably want to go to Wal-Mart to get some groceries and curtains and things she needs.

Maybe it will end up being Manic Monday after all…

(more…)

Things have really turned around, and not just for me, for just about everyone I know.

I kept meaning to update my previous entry but never got the chance to do so. I didn’t mention that Noelia and Andy are engaged (as of October 30th) and Yadira found out she’s having a baby boy!!

I’m so happy for Noelia and Andy. When Noelia came to tell us, Mario hugged her and when he pulled away I noticed he was teary eyed. I couldn’t help but get teary eyed after seeing him get like that. I hope they’ll be so happy together. Noelia couldn’t have found a better future hubby .

Yadira and the girls are thrilled over this little guy. I hope everything goes smoothly with this pregnancy for Yadira. She really wants a little boy!

As for my presentation–I got a HUNDRED on it!! It was the only, ONLY presentation I got a hundred on. I was so happy when Mrs. C-R handed me my little pile of critique sheets and saw a hundred and a blue smiley face. She said I had the whole class paying attention. I didn’t get a single rude or “how boring” comment . My average for the whole class is a 98…so far that’s the grade I’ve gotten for all my classes!

Ricci has met the man of her dreams. Two weeks ago she was upset and just had this melancholy vibe about her, and this week she’s been nothing but smiles. I’m so glad things are going right for her.

Mayra and her hubby got another car, so that’s a huge weight off her shoulders. She can come and go as she pleases and she was just beaming on Friday.

As for Lucy, she seemed a little upset on Friday, but I hope something really wonderful happens for her. She deserves it.

We all went to eat on Friday at Taco Bell again and just had a great time eating and laughing. Everywhere we go we’re usually The Loud Group of Girls. You can’t keep us quiet when we’re together. It’s so nice to text message Mario and tell him, “Going out 2 eat with the girls!” I’ve never had “girls” before. Well, not since high school anyway. We were all talking about how we have to find jobs at the same place, so we don’t lose touch .

Mom quit her job on Friday and all day yesterday was spent moving her stuff out of storage and into the apartment. She won’t get electricity till at least Wednesday and she still needs some furniture. Slowly but surely, we’re getting everything done. We’ll probably go to Aunt Nora’s again tonight to pick up the rest of Mom’s stuff. It’s so rude. They were already remodeling! Mom’s closet had been completely ripped apart. Grr.

I’m so excited that she’s moving back (and that we’ll finally get our living room back since John will be moving back in with Mom–no offense, Jinis). (Ha. He just said he’s like Ronald McDonald on those benches. He’s always sitting on the couch, but we can sit around him, he said. Then he said, “You don’t just tell Ronald McDonald to go away.” And I said, “But…you’re not Ronald McDonald.”) Mom was always so upset because Aunt Nora was getting after her for something. Granted, she’ll have to put up with my bad moods sometimes, but I surely won’t smash her spirit.

My back is killing me. I hope there won’t be anymore heavy lifing we’ll have to do. Every inch of me is sore. Doesn’t help that Ricci and I were reliving our teenage years and doing cartwheels (“just to see if we could do them”) when she and Goyo (her boyfriend) came over on Friday night. We watched videos online and were up till 12:30 just talking. Goyo remembers Mario from high school and Mario remembers Ricci’s brother, Frankie. Small world!

Mario didn’t get home from work till 6am. Yes, 6 AM!! I went to sleep really early since I was aching all over and was beginning to get a sore throat (probably from all the dust I inhaled). I woke up at 2:30am and noticed Mario still wasn’t home. I called him and he told me they were still working on a car for a guy who insisted that they work on it. Woke up at 5am and he still wasn’t here so I called again. He said they were on their way back from dropping off the car and the guy tipped them $50 each. So that’s cool. When he got home and we were talking before we went to sleep, he was saying the guys were teasing him because I was the only wife who was calling and wasn’t accusing him of cheating or being at a strip club LOL. He said Jannette kept calling Albert (when they got back together, I have no idea) and she even asked to talk to Mario to prove that Albert was working . When we got really quiet and were about to fall asleep I yell, “Aha! I know what you were doing! You were whoring yourself on 10th street, weren’t you?! THAT’S how you got $50!” And without missing a beat he snaps his fingers and says, “Dammit! How did you know?!”

(John just added that Mario should have said, “Now I have to return this pretty dress.”)

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday. I already knew what was gonig to happen at the end (Sonia accidently let it out), but actually reading it made me get teary eyed. I wonder what’s going to happen next. Now that I finished the book, what am I going to read when I get bored or wait for Eenan to get out of school??

I should get ready. I think we’re going to the movies to watch Chicken Little. And I’ve got to clean. Blah.

(more…)

Thank you to all who gave me suggestions for presentations; I really appreciated the comments .

I decided on doing my presentation on MRSA (or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus), which is the bacterial infection Jaylen had gotten around the time he was 2. I didn’t have a chance to work on my PowerPoint at all during the weekend, but I got it started on Monday at school and finished by the first hour on Tuesday. I really wasn’t nervous about presenting since I had everything memorized. What I was nervous about were the people Mrs. C-R was going to bring in to critique us.

I went to bed super early on Friday night. I was exhausted. Mario got home really late since he was working with his friend so I didn’t even get to see him.

Saturday morning was spent helping Elda and Mary get the “haunted house” ready for that night. After a few hours of hot-gluing spiders and bugs to plastic champagne glasses and passing hanging bats and spiders to Elda, who was nailing them to the ceiling, we left for town. Mom got me a costume (“Moonlight Fairy”) at Party Universe and Mary picked up a few more decorations there. We went to Mom’s storage unit to look for her witch costume but only found her broom and hat. I felt miserable that she’d bought me a costume and she wasn’t going to wear one, so I fixed up a hooded black gown that Elda had brought for me to borrow. I cut the hood off, sewed some spider web printed lace onto the collar and added a few wisps of hanging tulle to match her hat. I was relieved when I showed it to her and she loved it .

We stopped by H-E-B and picked up some baking supplies and headed home. At 5 p.m. I started getting my boys into their costumes for the Jamaica (fall festival) they were having at Eenan’s school. I got Angela’s face paint done (she was a dead cheerleader) and after Jaylen threw a fit that he didn’t want to be in his Ninja Turtle costume, we (Mom, Brandon, Eenan, Jaylen, Angela and I) left at almost 6:30.

That’s Jaylen (without his costume) and eating his nachos. Eenan and Brandon won a 3-liter and 1-liter soda (respectively) when they played a ring toss game. We got all the kids nachos and raspas and that’s basically all we did. We got home at 7:30, dropped the kids off, picked Ricci and her girls up (her cousin, Alex, and new boyfriend, Goyo, brought her sister and cousin), and when we got home I was greeted by everyone rushing me to get ready since they were ready to let the kids into the haunted house. I didn’t get to take a shower, shave my legs (and boy did they need shaving!), curl my hair, put makeup or my glitter on—nothing! All I did was put my dress and wings on and that’s it.

Ricci’s costume was cute. (Gotta remember to ask for permission to post the pic I took of her). She was dressed as a Mexican character named Chupitos, which was hobo-like. She had a bottle of Presidente and everything . She dressed Rashelle as Chucky and Belinda as a little bumble bee.

We went around the haunted house and everything was just really fun. The kids had a blast. I think I saw them about 5 times the whole night since they were too busy playing with their cousins.

Mario got here after work and we all chilled out with the rest of the family. He was a bit upset he couldn’t be there since the beginning, but thankfully almost everyone stayed a little later just to chat with him for a while.

After I dropped Ricci and the girls off at home, Mario and I picked up some McDonald’s and stayed up talking with Jose, Elda, and Chris. We didn’t go to bed till 2am! Latest I’ve gone to sleep since I started school.

We slept in pretty late since Mario doesn’t go in till 12 on the Sundays he works. Too bad I sent my poor husband off an hour earlier than I should have. That’s right, I forgot to change the clock back an hour .

Mary, Mom and I went to Mexico to get candies and medications. After that we went to Joy Dollar real quick, and then to the mall’s food court to grab some lunch. When we were done eating, we got up and started walking towards JCPenny and I saw a familiar face. I met Johanna! I’d never met anyone I knew online so it was pretty cool. Her little boy is adorable !

We went to JCPenny where I took about an hour and a half to find my “professional” outfit. I ended up having to chop off and sew about 5 inches off the darn pants, but I did a pretty good job. I’d post the pic I took up, but a lot of my classmates are in it and I’m not sure how they’d feel about me posting it on the ‘net .

We went to El Centro Mall where we were meeting Elda and Brandon. There, I found a really cool and inexpensive shoe store and bought the cutest shoes for my outfit. We went to the movies to watch The Brothers Grimm, or whatever it’s called for the second time. I wasn’t paying much attention to the movie and all I could think about was how the boys were at home with John and I’d been out all day and really missed them. Funny how you desperately want a break and all you can think about is them when you finally get one.

Monday and Tuesday were spent worrying about our presentations. Monday’s also the day mom went home *sniff*. Ricci came over and worked on hers both days. Elda and I took the boys trick-or-treating (all except Jaylen, who fell asleep while he was in his costume and didn’t go ). We took them to the Police Department, the Leo’s store and a whole bunch of houses, including Elda’s grandmother’s. That lady’s house is immaculate! The neighborhoods over there were all nicely decorated and almost every single house was giving out candy. Our neighborhood? Almost everyone turns their lights off. Rudeness!

We got home, and we had Brains, which were red Jello in the champagne glasses we’d decorated. Jaylen didn’t get to go trick-or-treating, but Eenan split a little of his candy treasure with him . John also dressed up for the occasion. He was half Freddy Crouger (sp?), half werewolf.

Eenan wanted to sleep over at Mary’s that night and then we dropped Ricci off and the rest of us (Jaylen, Mario and I) went to Jorge and Maggie’s. On the way over there it stormed horribly. I kept closing my eyes in the passenger seat since I was terrified. Jaylen on the other hand was having a blast looking at the blinding lightning. .

We got there and ate some of the bar-be-que Jorge and Hiram got to cook before the storm came. We talked with the men out in the garage and then Maggie and I went in to talk chisme (gossip). I was really, really shocked by what she told me. I never expected that. I won’t go into it because it’s not my place but…she never should have allowed that. That’s all I’m going to say.

As for today: the presentations were all really cool. The girls told me I was one of the calmest and did a good job. They all did really well, too. We didn’t even have “people we didn’t know” in the class. I just hope we get really good grades. This is the first class I haven’t gotten a single 100 in! I love PowerPoint, but I’m just glad it’s all over. To celebrate, Mayra, Ricci and I ate at Taco Bell. Wish Lucy’d gone with us!

Ahh…I should start on dinner. I’ve really got to start updating more often.

A convo with John:

John: My poor car! It’s going to be winter and it’s going to be more fucked up! And YOU PEOPLE never looked at it.

Me: You people? I’m not a mechanic.

John: *pokes me in the back as I’m passing by* You look at it! You can fix computers, a car isn’t far from it! YOU FIX IT! FIX IT!!

(He really is that crazy.)

(more…)