Thank you so much to my Qbee Secret Santas for the extremely adorable gifts! I LOVE all of them!!
Well we didn’t go to the wedding afterall. I was a bit disappointed because we haven’t really gone to any weddings or special occassions where you have to get “dressed up”, and I was really looking foward to wearing that darn dress!
I picked John up on Friday. Actually, he was halfway here by the time I picked him up. I didn’t want to go too early because I didn’t want to wait long, and then I went late. Oops! Aunt Nora had called me earlier during the day and told me I should have a talk with John. She said she was worried about him because Mom was worried about him and she didn’t want anything bad happening to either one of them. That meaning, she didn’t want Mom’s blood pressure or diabetes to go berzerk since she was constantly worrying, and she didn’t want John to “hurt” himself if he really was that depressed. Depression (bi-polarism, whatever) runs in our family (my Mom’s side) and Aunt Nora really does think John’s suffering from it. I was worried he was too…especially with everything changing for him so quickly (moving over there, etc.). I even heard Aunt Nora cry for the first time in the 22 years I’ve known her. Not just over Mom and John, but because my cousin is depressed too. My heart broke in half. I didn’t even know what to say. 
So that night, I kept wondering how I’d bring it up and eventually just came right out and asked him what was wrong the past week. He opened up a lot. I had a lump in my throat the whole time. I wish he didn’t feel the way he does. We talked about everything really…I even told him he needs to be nicer to Mom…he doesn’t talk to her the way she’d like him to. He needs to understand she may not always be here and we have to make the most of the time we all have together. I hope I got through to him, and I hope he’ll feel better. He wanted to stay with us starting from this weekend, but I told him Mom might freak out since he was already planning on staying with us the almost-3 weeks of vacation.
Saturday, we all packed into Mary’s van (Mary, Sonia, Yazmin, John, the boys and me) and prepared for the chaos that is Christmas shopping. I got a Christmas present each for the boys, Christmas cards, mini cupcake cups and mini cupcake pan, the wireless controller for PS2 we’re getting John, and stuff from the dollar section. OMG…I am so in love with all the dollar items they have! I got Choco Cat some catnip-filled mice toys and some balls with bells in them. She LOVES them, especially the mouse one. Catnip’s like…crack for kittens!
I also got the $2 gift for Eenan’s gift exchange and a few stocking stuffers for them. I’d LIVE at Target if I could 
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We still need to go back and get the rest of the presents. I don’t even remember how (gotta check my receipts!), but I spent $100+ on the few things I bought. I will be getting about $6 back from a price adjustment I’ll be getting. The two things I bought for the boys went on sale today–just my luck 
. Mario gets paid on Christmas Eve, so that’s when we’ll be going back to get the presents. I cringe at the thought of traffic and people congestion on that day. Yesterday alone was pure madness…and some people are so rude!
Mario didn’t end up getting the day off today. Last night the boss asked him if he could go in, and of course Mario said yes because if the employees say they have something to do and can’t come in, the tells them, “Oh…then go ahead and take a few days off.” Scary. So yeah, Mario wasn’t too happy about it (because he’s had 1 day off in a month, almost). He was really upset when he got home and kinda got depressed. While I was washing dishes and he was sitting at the computer, idly surfing the net he says, “I’m sorry I’m never home.” I turn around, walk to him and say, “What?? It’s not like it’s your fault. I’m sorry I act like a pain because you’re not here. I know you have to work…and I’m sorry I can’t take some of the burden and help you with the bills.” He says, “It’s my job to take care of you guys.” As always, I feel a pang of guilt in the pit of my stomach and say, “I’m sorry”. He quickly turns his face and says, “You shouldn’t be sorry….I want to be good at what I do.” I wrap my arm around him and say, “You’re getting there. You’re doing really good so far, and you’re only learning and getting better. I’m so proud of you…and so are the boys.” And they are. Jaylen’s still little so he doesn’t know too much about jobs and stuff, but Eenan does and everytime their commercial airs on TV he yells, “That’s where Daddy works!!!” I’m so proud of my husband…more than he could ever know 
After Mario and I talked, I started on the peanut butter cookies I promised Annie. They came out even better than they did the first time 
! Mario couldn’t stop talking about how good they were. He told me that the first time I made them and he took some to work, the guys all thought they were really good and that he kept bragging about how I made them from scratch. He said he told them, “Dude, she had a jar of peanut butter and a stick of butter on the table. And then she had cookies. She made them from scratch!” LOL…slight exaggeration on his part, but he’s too cute LOL. I have so much more baking to do in the next week. I usually help Mary bake on Christmas, since she gives little tins away with all the goodies. I need to make more peanut butter cookies and snickerdoodles (my favorite!). And of course the cupcakes I’m making for Eenan’s class. I LOVE baking. Although I do like EATING what I bake even more LOL.
So today we went to Catherine’s birthday party at Gorilla George’s. The boys had so much fun, even more than all the other times we’ve gone there. They got on the rides at least 5 times each. I was so sad that Mario wasn’t there with us, but John was there so it wasn’t totally boring. He’d keep an eye on one of the kids for me if they were on seperate rides, or if Yazmin was on a different ride than the boys. Jaylen was too cute on the “sleigh” type ride…it goes really fast in foward motion, then really fast backwards. He kept seeing Isiah raise his arms, and Eenan too on occassion, so he tried it once. He raised his hands about 2 inches above the bar in front of him and quickly clutched back onto it LOL. Poor Eenan hit his head on the headrest of the bumper cars he and Angela were on. Neither of them really know how to maneuver the car, so while they were quietly figuring it out in a corner away from all the other kids, a little boy found them an easy target and smashed right into them. Angela hurt her back and Eenan hurt his little head. The attendant had to stop the ride because she saw what happened and was worried herself. She rubbed his head (I couldn’t get in there yet) and she told me he wanted to stay in, so he did. He’s okay, thank goodness.
Catherine’s theme was Dora the Explorer. I’d never seen so many Dora the Explorer things. She got a bedroom full of stuff…she was so happy . I can’t believe she’s already 4! Damn, I’m getting old!
When we got home, Mario was already here. I’d brought him pizza, pasta and salad from the party so I didn’t have to cook dinner…yay! After he ate, he installed the speakers he bought his dad for his birthday and I made his lunch for tomorrow–lasagna. He called Albert right away to let him know I was making some, since Albert wanted some after tasting it the last time I made it. Hiram isn’t working tomorrow, but he told Mario to take him some on Tuesday LOL. Mario wants me to make a whole pan one of these days since some of the guys get “jealous” that Mario didn’t take them any. God LOL.
So that’s my update. Thank you all for the comments the past few days . I promise I’ll get back to you soon. Thank you Gonzo for the very generous gift you sent me …you’re a gem! And thank you to those who’ve sent me X-mas cards/gifts…I’ll post them up soon if I haven’t already! xoxo
I at least got to upload my new winter skin! Click on ‘Skin 5’ on the side links if you’re still seeing the old ones…that’s if you’d like to see the new one 
. Oh well…I’m in a really good mood right now. Whatever’s in that white cheese popcorn, I’ve got to have more often!
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Isn’t my 
! I had to give John some money, since he helped me out and because we owed him $10. 
. Then we went to pick Mary up at the airport (she was coming back from staying a week in Arizona). The boys were so excited to see her 
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Dammit. I salvaged as much as I could, because I just used up the last of the rice I had, and got to adding spices and boiling it. I was making Mole, and preparing the sauce and boiling the chicken and making sure the chicken was cooked correctly because I’m deathly afraid of poisoning my family with Salmonella…and I let the damn rice burn again. While it was boiling *slaps forehead*. Oh well. Needless to say, the husband had no rice for his Mole…but the Mole tasted pretty damn good when I was done. I had a pile of dishes to wash to top it off…didn’t get to bed last night till 1am. Thank goodness Mario didn’t go in till 12 today.