Category: Work

Ever since my “big” events finished and all we had to worry about for the week was entertaining a delegation from Irapuato, I’ve been feeling a little more at ease, a little less stressed-out, thank goodness. It was about time, heh.

That’s given me more time to browse through eBay after I’ve tended to the girls and put them to bed. I recently got lucky on a few auctions. I get the “collecting” bug about once a year, and this is about the time it happened last year, too :P.

I was stalking a seller from California, who seemed to be selling her entire collection of 80’s plushes. She had all the UK Care Bears and the rare UK Popples. I scored the Chef Popple, which I’ve wanted for YEARS, and my very first UK Care Bear: Sea Friend Bear ^_^, both for amazing prices!

I also scored a few Yum Yums. I hardly collected these since they’re always so expensive. I bought the bunny around 2003 or so, then found Peppermint Kitty around 2008ish and hadn’t bought them since. I still kick myself in the butt for not taking the chance to buy Chuckle Chip Bear back during the All-City Garage Sale days, for $4. I didn’t buy him because he was kind of floppy and dirty, but now that I only see him for $40+, I regret not getting him =\. I am thrilled, however, that I found Lucky Lemon Lion and Goody Gumdrops Mouse for under $20 each! I also finally made my Yum Yums their own page after all these years!

I also got some Fluppy Dog hats. I think they’re the Fluppy Puppy hats. I’m confused as to whether those are the hats they came with or you had to buy them separately back then? Who knows. I only got them because they were a steal, heh.

Anyway, I spent time with the girls as much as I could Monday and Tuesday, because Wednesday and Thursday I knew I’d be working late. It isn’t often that I do work late, but the girls fall apart when I do have to, no joke. They did much better this time, but I still can’t help but feel guilty =\.

Alaethia, Emily and Jaylen had Open House at their schools on Tuesday evening. Their dad joined us. First to the girls’ school, where they had great things to say about both. It was a quick visit with Emily’s teacher. We reminisced about how fast time flies since it’s been 2 years since he was Alaethia’s teacher, too.

We went to Jay’s school next and his teachers all had great things to say about him, too. Well, I can’t say “all” because there were a couple we didn’t see. I got to see Norma and we chit-chatted a bit. She told me Jaylen’s math teacher is a little on the mean side and we figured that was why he was having trouble asking about this darn science project he has in his Pre-AP class. But when we started talking with the teacher we joked around with him and got all the info we needed about the project. We did some already, now that he’s on Spring Break, so I’m hoping his father will help with the last few things he’s missing. He says he forgot that part at the house, so we’ll see.

The delegation had 2 gentlemen that had joined us before back in 2012. We took them on the tour back then, too. 3 new gentlemen joined this time.

We had breakfast at the Country Club the first morning (yellow-egg ham & cheese omelets–which I shouldn’t have had =\), where I had to leave abruptly and join Laura at Latina Hope, the program we’re spearheading, along with Eduardo. We were teaching a jewelry-making class and Mrs. Thelma was teaching wreath-making. We joined her class the first session and I have to say, I am in love. Like I need another hobby!

I made this burlap wreath for Dina :). I had originally wanted to make it in the shape of an actual sunflower, but I couldn’t find yellow mesh at all when I went. Must be because of Easter.

I met the group back at the Rotary Club, where there was a very informative presentation about Quinta Mazatlan. We had lunch, then headed to the school district’s Central Office where we had another informative meeting. I love being “in the loop” heh.

We had dinner at House.Wine. after that. I had THEE BEST salmon pasta with garlic caper sauce. I wish I had that recipe!

(I just got hungry again.)

It was a fantastic evening. The live music was great and the men kept us laughing all night with their jokes. They’re so down to earth!

The next morning Jessica helped me get ready for a breakfast I had put together at the Incubator. Koko’s was catering, there was Shipley’s coffee and the breakfast was in the gallery with a few of the artists, the delegation and some of the committee. I’m glad Jessica was there to help me and eat breakfast with me. (Also: hardly anything I ate those 2 days were things on my low-cholesterol menu. Oops.)

We had a tour at the STC medical building, lunch at the Spanish Room with Eduardo, and then a meeting at MEDC. And then we said our goodbyes and my boss and I headed to the office where he needed to finalize some things for a trip they were having the next day and I had work bills to pay. I also had to turn in my absence sheet because I promised the girls I’d take some days off to spend with them during Spring Break. I had been feeling really overwhelmed and stressed about work, I really couldn’t even tell you why, but I really do enjoy what I do ^_^.

We went to Eenan’s Open House next. He was extremely nervous about it, as he ended up with a 33 in his Spanish class. Yes. A 33. I was upset at first, but I kept calm and didn’t explode, especially because I could see just how afraid he was. I also couldn’t be too mad about it because his core-subject teachers spoke the world about him and he had great grades. I applaud him considering he’s also in Pre-AP classes. So we spoke to the Spanish teacher, and him, and hopefully he’ll do better this semester. I’m sure he will :).

We went to his counselor’s office to get access to his grades from home. On the way back home we had a deep conversation about religion and beliefs. About how his dad is an atheist (he has been since we met in high school, although around 2010 when he served me with divorce papers and wanted people’s attention and pity, he was as holy and Catholic as they come, posting verses and whatnot on Facebook, grrr) and it bothers Eenan that he insults people’s beliefs. We talked about our own beliefs. Then we got further into religion and…hypocrites. I’m glad I can have these conversations with them. I hope they can always talk with me freely about anything that’s on their minds.

Jessica and I went to the City Health Fair on Friday morning, after we were done with all our morning work. I wanted a second opinion, I guess you can say, about my cholesterol, but considering my diet the 2 previous days, I don’t think it’ll make much of a difference :(. I did get my BMI done and it says I have 6 lbs. to lose to be at my ideal weight for my height. I’ll take it, ’cause I seriously thought it was more >_<. Dina, Briana and the kids came down to visit starting Friday evening, which means we went into turbo-cleaning mode, heh, and we put up some wall decor we'd been putting off. (And by "we", I mean Jorge :p). [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Wall stuffs ^_^"][/caption]

Javi came over, too, and we all sat around with the kids and spent time together and laughed and used our electronics. It’s always great having them over.

Dina took the boys to the movies on Saturday morning. Of course my teenager chose to stay home LOL. While they were out, Emily and I went to get groceries and then all us girls went to Fantasyland Skate Center for a party Briana had invited us to. Needless to say, the girls were all terrified, poor things. They only went around the rink once and said NO MORE.

We had a good time anyway.

We chilled out the rest of the evening. Once the kiddos had all passed out we enjoyed some wine my love bought for us. It’s some Diva brand, I think, and it was a pineapple-coconut moscato. OMG. It was heaven.

I woke up and made wheat pancakes for everyone.

They were so tasty. I’m so glad there are some leftover, heh.

We spent the day lazying around with the kids and then Dina, Briana and the kids left. We lazied some more and it’s such a relief to know neither the kids nor I have to go anywhere tomorrow. Unfortunately my love works tomorrow :(, but I plan to be a good girl and clean the house and spend time with the kiddos. I’ve been waiting for this downtime all year! 😀

Monday – We started our Monday off by having breakfast at Denny’s, courtesy of our boss ^_^. By the time we got back to work, I had about an hour and a half to do a few last-minute things, like confirm attendance from VIP’s and pick up the Birds of Paradise, for the reception the next day before I had to pick Emmos up from school. My luck would have it that they didn’t have the Birds of Paradise in yet; not till 1pm .

I picked up Emily from school, had a quick lunch at home, and went straight Downtown to get supplies for the centerpieces. Again, my luck–they didn’t take American Express, so I had to go back to the office and find a Visa or Mastercard. Got that, went back and collected all my supplies. Made a few more calls, guided the men who were dropping off my linens, bar and cocktail tables, then started on my centerpieces. I have to say, they came out cute ^_^:

I talked to my boys when I got home, made dinner (shrimp, cheddar and jalapeño stuffed mushrooms), spent time with my little ladies and then put them to bed. My love and I were naughty and enjoyed some RGV Cupcake Factory cupcakes that Jessica and her hubby got us :).

Tuesday – The next day was a whirlwind. First, our Temp. employee didn’t show up, so we had nobody to set-up the event that was happening that morning. Thankfully, EZ was there and was a total hero, setting everything up and icing down the drinks and wine along with Wally. They and Michelle stuck around in the evening for the event. I was glad to have moral support LOL. Everything went off without a hitch, even though Corner Stone was a bit late. I can’t be mad at them though, they always help us out and I LOVE their food. We had a great turn-out and we got to bring leftovers home, woo!

Alaethia got to enjoy some fruit while she played on the laptop (Mom had already made the girls dinner) and Jorge had leftovers. Sometimes it’s nice not having to cook, heh.

Wednesday – Since I mostly had e-mails to reply to at work (98% of them in Spanish, FML), I took Emily with me in the afternoon and Mario picked her up on his way to pick up Alaethia from school. She always enjoys going to work with me ^_^. She enjoys it too much sometimes, I think, because she’ll become mopey and upset when I won’t let her go with me. She was a total angel, though, coloring Hello Kitty pages with my highlighters ^_^.

I got home and spent time with the girls and John, who usually visits on Wednesdays. We were entertained by Ruffles, who always manages to stuff his enormous self into a small box or shopping bag :3.

Thursday – The next day was cleaning day at work, so we got to wear jeans! I coasted throughout the morning since I finished cleaning pretty fast. I concentrated more on answering a few e-mails, then went to pick Emily up. I was running late, so I didn’t even really have a chance to eat. Luckily, Anabel had an event and Koko’s was catering so we got to have some of the best fajitas and guac :).

When I got back upstairs, I had a nice pile of STUFF that needed to be filed/put in storage, courtesy of my boss, heh. When he peeked his head around the wall to check if I’d noticed the pile I gave him a look like, You’re kidding right?

But he wasn’t! He said it wouldn’t take long; just to stuff the things in the cabinets, but I spent the next 3 hours tossing things out, some that didn’t even belong in our cabinets and organizing by event. You can’t ask someone who is self-diagnosed OCD to “organize” things.

Picked up my boys in the evening and they suffered for about an hour and a half while I looked for a blouse for my Christmas party outfit. I couldn’t find anything in gold, grrr.

Got home, made dinner quickly, snuggled the girls awhile and put everyone to bed.

As I’m cleaning up the dining room I found this letter from Alaethia to Santa:

Isn’t she the most adorable, innocent thing??

Friday – Early morning for the boys and myself. Got to work and ran a few errands, including picking up the cake for our Business and Tamales event and the cupcakes for our staff Christmas party in the evening. Got back, dropped them off and picked up Emily. I got back to work, helped serve our members and then I got to eat some tamales. There were some leftover, so they gave us some to bring home. I was thrilled to have dinner “ready” for mom and the kids, since Jorge and I were going to slip out for 2 hours to attend the party.

I picked the boys up, got home, changed, Jorge changed and we were out the door.

We had such a great time :). I’m seriously a lucky girl to work with such fun, great people ^_^. The white elephant game was hilarious; about 80% of our “gifts” were wine or liquor and those were the ones people were “stealing” LOL. And of course the food was delish: Corner Stone Grill was catering again, woo!

When the party was over, everyone broke up into groups and went off to their after parties. Michelle wanted us to join them, but we wanted to get back home to the kids. And we did, and watched movies and relaxed :).

Saturday – All the kids and Mom and myself piled into the car and ran errands: mom had a bill to pay, I did some shopping for Briana and Dina at this cute boutique we discovered Downtown and then took the kids to Game Stop. Got home, made lunch and then the girls and I did some shopping at Target while Mom stayed with the boys.

Jorge was BBQ’ing for us that night (which everyone was glad about–the boys love BBQ’ing). Mom and Julien played with a tiny soccer ball, Julien rode a bike around and then he and Mom went inside since a cold front was coming in. I assisted with the cooking and we brought all the food in since it was chilly by the time it was ready. Eenan and I had about 5 quesadillas each that night. Lawd.

Sunday – We lazied around on Sunday, watching football and doing chores. The kids wanted to watch one of the Walking Dead episodes, and although I told the girls they’d be scared later they piled into our room with the boys. It was hilarious when Jorgie yelled, “Ok, everybody scootsies!!!” LOL

Eenan WAS going to watch the TV with the other kids, until I busted out my phone to snap a pic and he bailed LOL. I miss the days when I would force him to take a photo *sigh*. They grow so fast!

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 ^_^.