Category: Weather

I think we’ve successfully gotten into somewhat of a routine now that school’s started. Unfortunately, that means waking up at 5am every. single. day for me. And being exhausted by 8pm. And passing out on the couch. And forgetting to wash my face at night. And starting the cycle again.

BUT!! The girls are doing well in the morning. We had a couple of days when Emily cried and didn’t want to stay at school, and a couple of other times when she got in a bad mood before leaving the house, but she’s doing so much better, thank goodness. Waking up at 5am and waking the girls up by 6:30am means that we leave the house by 7:35am and Emily gets to test her book. It annoys me that–even though I wake up at 5am–I’m still arriving at work at 8:15 >_<. I'm just glad my bosses don't mind. That first week was crucial to the girls (especially Emily) getting accustomed to attending school again, so it was crucial that I drop them off in the morning, but a group from Irapuato had scheduled a visit for the end of that same week and I had to be at work super early Thursday and Friday. Ugh. It's always fun taking the groups on tours, don't get me wrong, but I just wish it had been a different week. I worked late Wednesday to meet the group at the airport with my boss, and when they took too long to show up I left to a training Michelle, EZ, Wally, Maritza and I had. We all passed! We started the tour Thursday morning with breakfast at Cracker Barrel: [caption id="attachment_2424" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A somewhat healthy meal from Cracker Barrel[/caption]

We finished up there and continued with our tour for the entire day; a lot of it being outdoors in the heat, and later: humidity >_<. It was a late night for us. We didn't end up eating dinner till 10pm and left Republic of the Rio Grande at 11pm. (My first time there, ever.) Needless to say, I was beat. The girls were already in bed thanks to Mom so I re-tucked them in and kissed their foreheads =\. I had an early morning. Michelle met me at the office to help me pack up my truck with all the stuff we'd need for the El Salvador Consulate Ribbon Cutting. Thank God that went without a hitch; though the building was teeny tiny and hot. Bob and EZ helped us take all the equipment and stuff back to the office and then my boss and I were picked up by the limo where we met the group at the Library. We went on our way for the rest of the tour and it was supposed to be another late night, but I got out of going to the going-away party. It had been raining all day, I was tired and wanted to go home to the kiddos <3. It was a mix of bubbles and painting and the boys being silly, like always. I cleaned and was literally in the kitchen most of the day so I gave myself a break to re-pot some of my succulents. I love them, but sometimes they stress me out! I just want them to LIVE. I don't know what got into me, but I saw my plain clay pots and decided to draw and paint them. I didn't really even measure, so it was a bit crooked, but I think it came out alright: [caption id="attachment_2407" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My first painted sugar skull pot[/caption]

I had to come in to make dinner, but I couldn’t wait to make more. I got a lot of compliments on it :).

We had movie night with them on the porch, which we hadn’t done in a while. We got snacks together and watched “Blended”. It was SUCH a good movie!!

The next morning (the 31st), I had the itch to make a good breakfast. I had been wanting biscuits forever and decided to make some from scratch! They were a hit (thank goodness hehe)!

The girls had a playdate with their BFF’s later that day. They’re not in their classes together, so Jenny and I agreed that we needed to have a playdate every once in a while so they could spend time together.

We started the date off at Ben & Jerry’s then went a few doors down to Barnes & Noble.

They spent a lot of time, running through the isles and giggling. We were surprised nobody kicked us out or “ssshhhh!!”‘d us heh.

They had a short playdate back at Jenny’s and they were so disappointed when it was time to go, but I had laundry to do and dinner to make and they only had a couple hours before they needed to get in bed.

It was Dad’s 1-year-anniversary since his passing. I’d been thinking about him a lot; regretting, still, not taking that final photo at the hospital. Not having that last bar-b-q :'(.

Woke up early again on Labor Day to drop the boys off at school. There was tons of traffic, so for the 3rd morning in a row, Jorge dropped the girls off. I spent the day cleaning, visited Gramma with Mom, ran errands and cleaned some more. I at least got to paint one of my pots :).

It was back to the grind on Tuesday. That was the morning Emily had her first meltdown, which I should have seen coming when I went into their room at 6:30am to snuggle them awake. As I lay there next to her she softly says, “I don’t want to go to school today, Mama.” She was fine until we got into the cafeteria. She cried and wouldn’t let me leave and then Alaethia became sentimental for her sis and started crying, too. A counselor had to intervene and held her back. I hate when they do that, but I know I have to let her be strong and leave. It’s just heartbreaking to look back and see the counselor holding her and Emily pulling forward with her arms outstretched for me :(. Alaethia calmed down, too, but not before saying, “Why can’t you just take her home, Mama??”

I didn’t make it on time to my morning meeting, and my boss asked me about my absence at the end of the day. I apologized and explained about the girls and he listened and empathized. Thank GOD.

Jaylen’s Meet the Teacher night was that evening and of course, his teachers had nothing but nice things to say about him. He’s such a good boy :). His football coach also said, “He’s doing well. I put him up against some big guys and he took some pretty good hits.” Oh, my little guy!!

I went back to Mario’s to see Eenan and the boys and I took a selfie:

I love my guys!

Emily did a little better the next morning. There were still a few tears, but nothing like the day before. Alaethia was alright, too. It was pouring, so they were grateful I still took them all the way into the school. I was drenched :(. I headed straight to the place of one of the events I help coordinate. We had a great turnout, despite the pouring rain. Dania, one of our local artists, made a wonderful, inspiring presentation. Her story really hit home and I felt motivated. Jorge kept saying how good I was at painting my sugar skull pots and I decided that I may just start selling them :).

I got home that evening and the girls were inspired, too. They asked to paint some pots, so I let them while I made dinner :).

Eenan’s Meet the Teacher Night was Thursday evening. Again, good things from his teachers, of course. He DID get his phone taken away during his World History class that day, and the teacher held on to it to give it to us that evening, but he wasn’t angry about it. He said he wanted to hold it hostage so we’d show up for sure, hehe.

He’s doing PE this year and he runs and works out every day. He’s sore all the time, just like the other 3 boys who are in football LOL. I’m glad they’re all getting physical activity this year!

I worked for only half a day on Friday, which was awesome. I met Jessica at Cheddar’s and we celebrated her birthday almost a month late, heh. We caught up on all the gossip and life in general. It was good seeing her :).

I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few supplies for my pots. I love that place! I could spent hours (and tons of cash, heh) there! But instead of doing that, I scurried out of there. It’s dangerous!

I was bored all evening without my love and the kids, who were at the other parents’ homes for the weekend. Jorge was driving back from working at the Island. I’d wanted to go to the Music After Hours-Craft Fair, but I had already gotten into PJ’s and felt lazy, heh. When he got home we sat at our kitchen nook while he played his Clash of Clans and I painted :).

The one on the far right is one I’ll have up for sale. I was pretty amped up about starting this :).

We made ourselves go to bed since Jorgie, Justin and Jaylen were all having games the next morning.

We were so proud of those boys :). Mary had Emily and Alaethia with her and we all sat together and cheered Jaylen on. I was crossing my fingers that he’d get some play time, so I was thrilled when he went into the field every single time :)!!

And they won!!!

I stayed at home mostly that day, paid bills online and painted another pot. A black one this time. I got a lot of good feedback for that one!

When Jorge got home that evening, he asked what I wanted to do after all. We had discussed the night before that we were totally going to go out, maybe to a bar…but we decided on Kumori, heh. In our defense, we did have a cucumber Martini! It was great just talking and spending time together, just us two :).

We debated doing something after dinner…but decided we would just go home. And we were both okay with that :).

I started painting another pot as we sat at our usual spot in the house. This time the pot was for Dina :). Briana was in town so I wanted to send it back with her when we saw her the next morning :).

I sent her a photo and she liked it :).

Jorge and I woke up the next morning and got ready to go to Peñitas to meet Briana and the kids. We had breakfast from Subway (been wanting one of those breakfast sandwiches for ever!) and then were on our way. We tidied up the house a bit, caught up, I brought back a few wild succulents and then we said our goodbyes and Jorge and I ran some errands at Walmart. We dropped the stuff off with Mom and then met Jr. at his apartment so we could go hunting with him. It was hot, but it was fun :).

My love did pretty good, although he lost a few birds in the field. Jr. and I just lounged around watching, and we can’t forget the amazing bar-b-q Jr.’s Dad’s friends had made!

We cleaned up and I was relieved ’cause I REALLY needed to pee. The guys kept telling me to “pop a squat” but I just got the heebie jeebies thinking about it. *shudder* I was grateful to arrive at Jr.’s, where we hung out with Rudy and then came home :).

It was back to the grind the next day. It was such a good, productive week, and I’m grateful :). I’m hoping we can do really great with these events. I just have a feeling they’ll be great. I hope I can continue to be excited and motivated about it and not feel overwhelmed and stressed *crosses fingers*.

I made a Halloween wreath on Wednesday night after I spoke to my boys. It’s always good getting an update from them, though they were somewhat distracted this week, with their games. Eenan did let me know he’s been reading my blog. I still don’t know how I feel about that LOL.

Emily has done so much better all week, I’m so proud of her :).

Thursday morning was a bit hectic and it seemed to continue all day. I picked the boys up in the evening after work and Jorge picked up his. My boys and I had all different sorts of conversations. I’m glad we can be so open in our talks :). We got home and I made dinner and then we put all the kiddos to bed.

Took the boys to school the next day. We didn’t converse as much as usual because Jaylen was reading his book. The day was already so much better than Thursday. Something happened that bothered me, but I eventually shook it off after I had lunch with Jorge. We went to Mom’s Smokehouse and we had this:

Yes, you read that correctly: Cheezepotle Elote and Shrimp Ceviche Tostadas. Since I was already in a crappy mood I was annoyed that there wasn’t any “green” in my tostada (some avocado or lettuce, c’mon!) but it was just amazing!! I could go for one of those elotes again!!

I picked up my kiddos after work (the girls included, since Mario took them with him when he picked them up). It started pouring as soon as we got to Dollar General. I needed detergent and of course they had a garden sale so I got a bird feeder and a bathmat for the boys’ bathroom and a few other things. It took us a while to get home since it was pouring. We had pizza night when we got home and just relaxed the rest of the evening since our 3 football players had games very early today.

Thunder woke me up around 3am and when we woke up at 5am it was still going. We knew there was no way they’d play in this weather, but we got no warning from anyone. The kids ate, got ready and Jorge took his boys to their school and I took Jaylen to his. We could hardly see in front of our windshield, the rain was SO BAD. I was going 30-40 miles per hour on the expressway, sometimes even less, hydroplaning all over the place. When we finally arrive at the school, all the parents and kids are still in their cars, in the darkness and only the headlights showing how hard the rain was coming down. A few brave kids got down to ask if they were playing and the nice boy in the car next to us signaled a “no”. The other kids signaled everyone else and little by little everyone left. Jaylen said, “I hope they don’t make those who left do Lombardi’s!” LOL

So we made the trek back in the scary rain again. It was worse for poor Jorge, who drove all the way to Palmview and they said the game was still on, so he drove back to McAllen, where the game was being held, just to get a call when he’s almost there to go back to Palmview ’cause they cancelled the game. Eff our lives!!!

Poor Jorge had to go back to work, but I threw myself on the sofa where I eventually passed out and kept waking up ’cause the boys were playing Destiny. I asked Emmos to take a nap with me, but she wanted to play instead hehe. I got to rest just a bit before hanging out with the kids, picking up McDonald’s for the boys and getting the girls ready for Jessica’s little baby’s party. It’s POURING again by now and we park at the party place. We try 2 unsuccessful times to get out of the car and into the building, but the rain is just awful and the parking lot was flooded. Jessica and I are going back and forth on text and Facebook and after the girls and I have been trapped in the car for over an hour she calls to ask if I can see the empty parking space. Then she says, “Can you see the Boot Jack?” and then I feel like a complete moron because we’re at a completely different party place!! My poor girls were looking forward to it and I didn’t pay attention so they didn’t get to have fun. Ugh. We tried making it the last 30 minutes of the party, but the rain was so bad down Dove Ave. that I didn’t want to risk driving with the girls anymore so we picked up Burger King and headed home. They didn’t seem to mind, thank goodness!

So here we are, lazy and home and I’m so glad. Poor Jorge was stuck in Brownsville for a while and he said the road was completely flooded, even on the Expressway. We ordered pizza and I’m hoping to finally, finally sleep in till at least 7 tomorrow, heh.

And I hope our pond dries up a bit >_<. [caption id="attachment_2421" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The backyard![/caption]

Monday – I dropped the boys off on that very foggy morning.

Like always, they made me crack up laughing with their jokes and teenage meanderings. Eenan was telling me about his video games and said, “And then the DS got YouTube and it was like Jesus kissed my forehead.” Buahaha!

Then Jaylen let me know he can finally snap his fingers, and snaps to prove it. I snap mine and Eenan says, “I’m the only one who can’t do that. I can never be sassy. On my grave it will read ‘The Only Boy Who Had No Sass”.

And the last one: “I’m not a social butterfly. I’m more of an anti-social moth…”

HOW does this boy come up with those things?? LOL

The consequences of taking a week off (i.e.: being slammed with work when I got back) caught up with me that Monday. I have 3 events coming up, 2 in January and 1 in February. My 3 BIG events of the year, and I swear there aren’t enough hours in the day. Add to that the other tasks I have, like Certificate processing, committee meetings, reception duty and rushing everyday to pick Emily up at 11:30am–and it gets a little crazy. And it just so happened that that day, during the Monday morning meeting, that we had a reception for a Mayor to start organizing. In 10 days. Sweet Jesus.

The good thing is that the day goes by SUPER FAST.

After grocery shopping (it feels like I’m at H-E-B at least 5x a week), I got home, made dinner and then Jorge and I relaxed with the girls after their baths and watched “The Santa Clause”. Emily had never watched it before and she loved it. It was my favorite Christmas movie for a long time ^_^.

Tuesday – I helped Jessica set up for an event she was having that evening at the Incubator, after one of my committee meetings. I finalized all the details for the reception, like catering and set-up. I’d be doing the centerpieces so I placed an order for Birds of Paradise with H-E-B. I wanted something Christmas-y, but my boss wanted a more masculine-looking arrangement so I had some work to do =\.

After helping the girls with homework and getting them ready for the next day, Jorge and I sat with them and got more ideas for Christmas from them. We watched as they circled things in the Target gift book.

We looked for a gift Emily wanted online. I was panicking because we couldn’t find it anywhere. I even sent out a plea on Facebook and Carmen came through, ordering this gift online at her local Walmart in Louisiana and then we’d work out shipping it to me later. I was thrilled.

Wednesday – Mom had yet another appointment, so I was taking half a day from work, which meant I was running like a chicken with my head cut off to accomplish everything on my to-do list for the day. I’m so glad I have such understanding bosses, seriously.

I picked up Emmos, and then we went to Mom’s appointment while John waited at the house for Aly to get home. I receive a text from Walmart stating that the item I’d ordered was out of stock and so my order was cancelled. I couldn’t believe it. Then came the 2 hours of run-around telephone calls with the Walmart in Louisiana. I was in such a bad mood that I was a rude bitch to the Wal-mart manager I was on the phone with and thereafter, every clinic employee we came in contact with, especially after they told me we had to go to yet another clinic and it still would be about 3 months plus before they could help my Mother with what she needed.

I used 3 vacation days in 2 1/2 weeks to take Mom to appointments, just to have them tell us, “She needs to come back in a week” at every single place. It’s so annoying.

Sally and I had a conversation about our short fuses lately and we’ve both realized we’ve become snappier and take-no-shit-from-people. I don’t know if it’s that we’re more confident and mature…or just getting old and cranky buahaha.

We hung out with John and I vented about all the drama with Mom’s appointments. We ate dinner, Emily worked on her little diamond ornament and I got the girls ready for bed, and when my love got home we put up the Christmas decorations ^_^.

Thursday – I dropped the girls off at school and smooched and hugged them since their dad would pick them up for the weekend.

This was a busy day at work. 2 events in one day. First was the Good Day Luncheon, where Laura, Rosie and I took an intermission when we were done with our duties (my boss and I were in charge of the Santa photos) to take photos around the Country Club.

Then Michelle and I helped Gerry prepare for the All About Women Christmas Affair. Poor Bob fell and hurt himself that night. Michelle and I were in charge of the wine and dessert section. My vices LOL.

There were TONS of ladies at this event. The night didn’t go without incident though; a poor lady fainted and I was left in charge of her vendor booth.

I was exhausted by the end of the night. When I got home, my wonderful love had already wrapped most of the gifts we’d bought the kids. He’s so awesome ^_^.

Friday – I did as much as I could that morning at work before we made it out to Oh Kay’s (a store) for the Cash Mob event. Everything was so expensive, so we were all kind of tip-toeing around, trying to keep from breaking all the beautiful, sparkly things and finding something that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, heh.

I went straight to pick up Emmo’s since her other family couldn’t that day. I was glad to see my little lady ^_^. I ate lunch with her and then headed back to work to finish up the tons of e-mails I was still trying to catch up on. Most are regarding the Mexican Artisan Expo, and it takes me an eternity to complete an e-mail that’s entirely in Spanish LOL. I’m much better than I was 3 years ago, for sure! I ended up working till almost 5:30pm, then headed to Payless where Kristina had called an order of boots in for me. It was FREEZING out and the next day was the Candlelight Posada and I had no black boots. She found them for me and I got a great deal with her coupon ^_^.

My love got home from work that night and we went to Old Navy so I could find a black undershirt to wear under my Posada T-shirt. I found a black blouse, and a chiffon shirt for work. Since I had a coupon it cost us a total of $0.80 hehe.

We were starving so we went to Chili’s for dinner. I had the spiciest darn tilapia, ever >_<. My love was sweet and let me have half his steak since I couldn't eat my darn food. We got back home and changed into some warm PJ's and sat out on the porch, reminiscing about our high school days. We always go back to that, and playfully argue about me breaking up with him and him letting me, heh. Neither one of us thinks the other has the original story right about why or how we broke up. We know WHO the two people were who encouraged us to, but I stick to my story about why and he sticks to his about why. I couldn't remember where we met, which isn't like me because I remember the smallest details about just about everything (well, he'd argue that I don't remember about why we broke up LOL). I thought the first time we met was at Alma's house, but he said the first time he ever saw me was at that arcade place at the mall, which was turned into a clothing store that had a lounge upstairs with black-lighting and teens would just hang out there. I, for the life of me, can't remember that, but I do remember we'd frequent that place. We talked about everything--all the years in between and how much it bothered him being the "good friend" all the time, convincing my ex-husband to stay with his family, not to cheat, that his life didn't suck, etc. But we each made our lives work, each made our friends and family believe we were happy where we were. Made ourselves believe it, too. We played our parts really well, even till the end with the other people we were married to, even when they destroyed our marriages, cheating on us with other people and then conveniently turning the blame to us. And us, being the ones who keep our business to ourselves, never put on blast why our relationships ended, or how long those other people were "unhappy" with us. Oh, but they did. And they made things up and ruined our reputations. But we attribute all that happened in our lives to be something that had to happen; it was part of our history and part of the way that paved the road to each other. Jorge always says that we needed to go through all that to grow and learn, so that when fate brought us together we’d be ready for each other :*).

But, I digress!

Saturday – I woke up and made my coffee, then bundled up and got dressed. For the first time, ever, I wore leggings under my jeans, 2 socks, my boots, 2 shirts, a scarf, my jacket and a beanie. It was cold as balls outside, 34 degrees and I was scheduled to work outside from 9:30am till 11pm.

Ivan and I were in charge of the Marketplace. It went a little better than I thought, although there were a couple of feisty vendors. It always happens though.

I got to hang out with my BFF, Sally:

We took a little break and got some hot chocolate from her department and some sausage on a stick and brisket tacos from mine, heh. Gerry, Bob, my boss, Wally and Steve were at the food booth, and although the grill was warm, they were still out there in the biting cold. Ivan and I were in the biting cold period, and kept taking turns to go inside to get warm or to the grill LOL.

When we were done with most of the work, Steve told Michelle and I to take a couple-hour break, but we thought it would be silly to come all the way home, and then go back so we just clocked out for a bit and hung out inside. Then it was time to clock back in at 4:30 and I was assigned to the gazebo for Santa pics with Sally, woo! It was insanely cold up there. I didn’t even tell Mario to take the kids this year, because it was just so gosh-darn cold. Jorge showed up with Jorgie and Justin (who were dropped off by their mother while she shopped) for a little bit, but of course they didn’t have thick jackets (but I bet someone else did!) so they went home.

We got to see Kristina and her little boy and an old classmate and her family, Sylvia. Our shift was over around 9:30pm, and then it was clean-up time. We were given the green-light to leave and I came home. I was tired, but since we were kidless (the boys had been picked up by their mother) and Junior invited us over, we went.

I was starving, and realized I really hadn’t had food since that sausage on a stick and a crappy hot chocolate from earlier. We looked for a drive-thru that had nachos and Michelada’s, and it took a while, but we found one.

We hung out and talked about the Keto diet, all while consuming carbs, hehe.

Sunday – We got to sleep in, yay! We watched the Patriots win, woo, and then we got ready to go to the mall. My love was insistent that we go. He reminded me that I needed pants, and wanted to look at Pandora charms for me. I wasn’t too into spending on Pandora charms, but I did need pants. All my size 4’s are pinned and the pins really scratch my back LOL. I wasn’t even sure HOW I had started to fit into size 2’s again, what with all the junk-food eating, but I wasn’t complaining, heh.

I got a huge, unexpected surprise that day, but I’ll have to save that for a later post ^_^.

The beginning of the week (March 26-30) was quite…uneventful at work. I kept trying to find stuff to stay busy. I was thrilled when a certificate would come in, heh. I was giddy with suppressed laughter at the following pins:

Source: shibleysmiles.com via Yajaira on Pinterest

Source: static.someecards.com via Yajaira on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Yajaira on Pinterest

On Monday, the 26th, I’d made baked fish and green beans and it was SO GOOD. Since Mom got a scolding at the doc’s and since the rest of us really need to make an effort to eat well again, I wanted to start making healthy meals. Mom’s done good, though, and sometimes doesn’t even wait for me to make dinner like she used to; she’ll just make herself something healthy and she’ll retire to her room.

Jorge vacuumed my van that night, without being asked, heh ♥. He’s awesome. I put the girls in the bath and had them bathed before 9, woo! We asked Mom to keep an eye on them while we went to get a Redbox movie. We finally watched Contaigon; it was an awesome movie! Now Jorge knows why I wash/germ-x my hands all the time; you never know!!

The boys were all STAAR testing the next day; I’m confident they aced it and scored well in the writing part :).

We went to have dinner with the girls at Chili’s on the 28th; I had a coupon, which was a plus, heh.

I’m glad I took this photo of them before we left the house; those pine trees don’t look like that anymore (you’ll read why later). They look grumpy in the pic because this was about the 5th one because they kept moving and getting blurry. By this pic they yelled, “Let’s just go eat already!” LOL

They had a great time :). I tried eating “healthy” but you really can’t eat healthy when you go to Chili’s LOL. I had a shitton of chips and salsa and ordered the Cajun chicken Alfredo =\. I had a lot leftover tho, hehe.

The next day was the All About Women event. Michelle and I spent the afternoon running errands for Gerry. We got back to the office, helped set up here and there and then I excused myself to pick up my boys ♥. I picked them up and we went back to the office. We got there just in time for dinner; Costa Messa was catering :).

We finished up and got home. Mom had already made dinner for herself and the girls and Jorge ate lightly when he got home. Freddy came to visit and we all sat in the garage chatting. We started noticing the sky was quickly becoming dark and it got windy. I’d seen a FB update from the news that they expected thunderstorms here and there and possible hail. I figured it was one of those types of “storms” where it drizzles and goes away.

We had just set up Monopoly and Puss and Boots to watch with the kids when it started thundering. From one second to the next, it was hailing!! All the kids huddled in the living room with Mom while Jorge and I tried to clear the garage as quickly as possible to get my van and his work truck in. Only the front of his work truck fit since the lawn mower was in there; but at least the windows would be ok.

When the rain and wind had just started, the van was moving back with every gust of wind! Winds were about 75MPH that night. I’d never heard anything like this. It was the loudest, quickest storm I’ve ever experienced in my life! I can only describe the sound as a machine gun in an action movie; it was scary.

As Jorge was moving his work truck he got clocked in the head with a huge hail ball! I’m so glad he was swift and quick-thinking and moved the vehicles when he did. We were worried about his truck, which he’d left at work.

We took pics as much as we could, calmed the kids as much as we could. Eenan–who has feared storms since he was a toddler–wasn’t very happy, but he prayed and tried keeping as calm as possible.

We called everyone and told them to stay home/go home/put your cars away! And at some point we came inside and Jorge checked on the bedroom. Our window was completely broken and there was about an inch of water on the floor and glass everywhere; it even hit the other side of the wall!

We started cleaning up as quickly as possible and put a fan on to dry the room and cardboard to keep the water out. It was the best we could do with what we had at the moment. I’m so glad nobody was in that bedroom when the window literally exploded.

The girls’ room window broke, too, but only the outer panel, so their stuff didn’t get wet, thank God. I’m glad none of the other windows broke; I seriously thought the octagon-shaped window in our master bath didn’t break.

It looked like it had snowed outside, but it was about 6 inches of ice balls. It was the craziest sight I’d ever seen in March.

There were tornado watches and flooding all over the place. We heard the BMW dealership had tons of cars wrecked by the hail. We turned the news off and the kids finally calmed down and went to sleep around 11pm. Eenan stayed up later because he was nervous. Jorge and I went for a drive to check things out and we realized we were practically on an island; some places, like Shary Rd. had up to 2 feet of flooding. Damage to schools and the roads was bad enough to close them down. I ended up staying home and cleaning up; it looked like a disaster area outside. The trees were all bald; our flower bed was completely destroyed, my bougainvillea was bald :(. It was really sad.

Those who showed up to work were sent home in 2 hours due to lack of power. I hadn’t gone out to drive around, but Jorge called that 10th and Nolana was wrecked. His truck, by some miracle, had 0 damage!

Jorge and I were on our way to Walmart on Sunday to buy a push-broom and another rake. We took a detour instead to 10th and Nolana. The damage was crazy. Some places looked abandoned. We stopped by Starbucks and were taken aback at the sight:

We got home and started cleaning up outside. The boys had been playing games all day so we sent them all outside to help us. We had an ice cream break when the ice cream truck passed by and we cleaned some more. We made a game out of it and took turns holding bags open, raking and shoveling. We finished up in an hour and a half. We filled up about 25 bags! I thought we’d never get it done!

I’m glad there weren’t any casualties that night. I’m glad everyone was safe. It was a wake-up call though; heaven forbid we have a hurricane that hits us directly. I’d hate to know the type of damage that would happen then!