Category: Work

April 16th – I packed my bag for work and attended our meeting. I expected to go to the Golf Tournament around 11am, but they asked me to change so we could leave around 9 or so. I changed (into jeans, yay!), made a few calls & replied to emails I had pending, we loaded everyone’s vehicles and got to the Country Club. It was a fresh and overcast day, but it was swarming with mosquitoes

We started off slow, then it got crazy and then we got to have lunch! The morning went by fast. Wally was grilling burgers for us–which I was dreading since I’d been eating so well. And Palenque Chicken was catering that night so…that would be interesting!

We were in the dining hall. Everyone went to their posts. I stayed in the hall with Maritza, Gerry & Blanca until my boss was ready to be relieved from his post. There was junkfood everywhere and I did pretty well until Maritza busted out a Moonpie. OMG. I used to consume at least 2 of those every day for like…a month about 4 years ago. Terrible. Highly caloric. We really wanted one, though, so we decided to split one LOL.

My boss and I switched places as spotters for the Hole-in-one. I’d made sure my phone was charged so I could finish reading my eBook. Wally & Michelle dropped me off and I told them to PLEASE return for me if it started to rain. Thunder had been rumbling softly all day. During our department’s tournament last October I got drenched when I was driving back in a golf cart a little too late from my post. This year, our tournament shirt was white and my hair was straightened–two things I definitely didn’t want to wet!

I sat at the post and enjoyed the breeze. I sat out there a total of 20 minutes until it started to drizzle. Wally and Maritza were already driving around the corner to come get me, whew!!

We spent the rest of the day in the pool house watching it rain.

Then we started getting reports of hail in places and severe weather. Luckily nothing happened in our area. The teams played only the holes they had already played and we got ready for dinner. I wish I could have enjoyed it a bit more; I took over for one of the girls, picking the numbers for the door prizes. The door prizes were called out, then the auction was done and voila! It was over!

I got home and my babe was already home. Mom had made dinner for the girls already, so we sat around watching their shows on Disney. We did our nightly routine: bath, hair detangling, teeth brushing, read a story, gave kisses and hugs three times and then I joined my love in the living room. We watched one of our shows and then headed to bed. We are SO BEHIND on all our shows. But we’re always so tired. Most of the time I’m the one who passes out on the sofa . Then he gently rouses me from sleep and leads me to the bedroom and tucks me in .

April 17th – The next day was a normal day at work. I picked up Alaethia from school, I ate with the girls and then went back to work.

The Conn’s guys called that our fridge and freezer were out for delivery. Mom called around 3pm that they’d just finished installing them. She said the girls couldn’t open the doors, buahaha. (That didn’t last long, though…)

It’s beautiful!! It even made our more, er, vintage cabinets look nice, heh. I want to change those old handles to stainless steel ones. And eventually a stainless steel microwave, but that’s later, later.

Our old co-worker Jesse, invited us to his birthday party. We had our birthday party together last year at Zushi and this year he was starting his birth week on his actual birthday at Russo’s. My love was going to try to make it, but wasn’t sure; he was swamped with work. I got the girls ready and off we went.

The girls behaved wonderfully; even when the pizza took “too long to come out” as they said LOL. I was surprised with how much Alaethia ate! She had 2 1/2 slices. She really liked it. We chit-chatted, sang “Happy Birthday”, had cake and then I excused myself. We picked up some Whataburger for my love, who was on his way home.

I gave the girls a quick bath, tucked them into bed and they were out like lights!!

April 18th – Jaylen’s 10th birthday!! My littlest boy, already TEN!! I tried calling him that morning to wish him a happy birthday, but his phone was off and his dad didn’t answer his phone. It made me feel an immense sadness inside, not being able to physically be there in the morning and giving him a huge hug and wishing him a good day (I’m tearing up as I write this); even moreso knowing that I was going to court that day and agreeing to keeping the custody terms as they are; Mario keeps the boys, I keep the girls. The weeks we each have all 4 kids we’ll have them from Thursday evening to Monday morning, which is what we’ve been doing since February 8th. Everyone told me to keep things as they are if things were working out, but I want my boys. Unfortunately, attorneys work by the hour. I wish I had a million dollars to go all the way with this thing :'(. More than anything, I wish I did.

The boys were both stressed out about it (Jaylen’s a little more reserved about his feelings, but Eenan himself had told me he couldn’t concentrate at school because he was only thinking about what was going to happen; who was he going to end up with) and I didn’t want this whole thing to interfere with their state tests that were coming up. Eenan is 12 and can choose whom he wants to live with. I know how attached he is to that woman, but I’m hoping he’ll come with me one day soon . And Jaylen said where Eenan goes, he goes.

I was nice and let the charges against his mother be dropped for what she did. I hope they understand the severity of what they did at the end of February and this was a lesson learned. You never know with them, though. I still have my guard up with them.

The morning went by slowly. We got to witness other hearings before ours. Then we were up. I got my spare keys to my van back, finally. I wouldn’t doubt he made a copy since he had it for almost 2 years. But I’m glad to have it back. I should have thrown out there that his mother still owes on my account for her furniture after 4 years. And a few other things but wasn’t thinking. It took a lot of inner strength to not crumble into a million pieces; I couldn’t stop thinking of the boys. My mind kept going back to that August. September. October. HOW they gained custody of the kids. As we’d sat there listening to everyone else’s hearings I blocked it all out and went back to August and how stupid I was for listening to them, to that woman, coaxing me in her fake-sugary voice that I should leave the kids there because of school not stressing them out and blah, blah, blah. I regret more than anything listening to those people. Believing them. Believing her every single time she’d say she wasn’t going to take them from me–sometimes without me even asking, which should have told me a lot. But this past February proved what I knew would happen: even if I had taken the boys with me that very minute like I did the girls, even if I’d withdrawn them from their current schools and moved them to the schools near John’s apartment where I’d been staying, his mother would have just gone right over there and stolen them from the school…and then proceeded with the very thought-out plan as they did in actuality.

Ugh, anyway. So that was that. I called Mario right after court and asked him if he’d told the boys anything. Even though the boys will eventually know what day we officially divorced on, I didn’t want them knowing it was that day that we went to court and agreed to it. I didn’t want Jaylen knowing it was on his birthday. I know how Mario likes to give them more information that they should, and he likes to have everything out there right away (i.e. him telling them we were divorcing as soon as we signed the papers, etc.). Sure enough, he said he didn’t tell Jaylen but he told Eenan since he was older. Oh yes, like he isn’t going to run and tell his brother. *sigh*

I picked up my Aly from school, dropped her off with Mom and Emmos and went back to work. My co-workers are awesome and stepped in for me while I was absent that morning and helped me out with one of my luncheons. I got there, updated everyone, even though it wasn’t the big celebration that I’d liked. It would have been a grand one if I’d actually had my boys :'(. (I shouldn’t be writing this right now. I’m hormonal and a total wreck.)

Whoooo. Ok.

Laura and I ate at the luncheon, I took over reception and then the rest of the day was as they usually go.

I spoke to Jaylen later that afternoon. They were taking him out for his birthday and I let them pick up the girls so they can spend the night, on the condition that they’d bring Jaylen and Eenan over so I could see them. We chit-chatted a little bit and Mom and I gave him his birthday money :). I swear Jaylen grew another inch since a few days before that. They’re growing so quickly :(.

They left and I changed into jeans and sandals. Jessica invited me to a Rainbow Room benefit, which is an organization against child abuse. We met at Alhambra and went in. The point was to support the event, have a few appetizers and catch up some more, but we couldn’t get out of work-mode heh. We chatted with one of my old exhibitors from the Health Fair; James, Alhambra’s chef and the photographer from one of the events. Even though we didn’t get to chat much, it was fun. And I won a door prize! A Honey basket, which had 4 bottles of organic honey and 2 cinnamon honey butter spread, which were made in McAllen :). (I have no pictures…must email Laura from the magazine to send me some LOL.)

My love had gotten home and he was bored LOL. Since we didn’t have much time to chat, Jessica suggested we have dinner at Bayou Grill. We’d never been there; I’d met the chef, but had never actually eaten there. I told Jorge to get ready and I told Jess we’d meet her and her friend Joe there.

We wanted to go “light” lol, so we had some stuffed mushrooms to start and shared a chicken and shrimp plate–which I was really glad for since, as we expected, it was a huge plate!

And I had a Midouri Sour, which I hadn’t had in about 2 years!

I love that photo, hehe.

We caught up and ate. It was really nice to get out and be social, heh. They wanted us to follow them to Rings and Wings, but man, we’re getting old and we were sleepy :P.

April 19 – I honestly can’t remember much from this day, for some reason, heh. Pretty normal day at work. Picked up Aly from school like usual, ate with the girls. I remember being really sleepy around 3pm and hoping and praying I’d be sent on some errand at work so I could stop by a Starbucks LOL. But no, I ended up getting busier towards the end of the day and then I went to pick up the boys. We talked and caught up on the way home. I missed them!! We got home, I made dinner and we chilled out the rest of the evening, all sprawled out in the living room. Then of course came the bathing and the putting to bed. Both girls had begun showing signs of a cold so I’d be taking them to the doctor in the morning.

April 20 – I took the girls to the doctor and got there about 10 minutes after they opened. I expected it to be fast, since it usually is, but I was sadly mistaken. We were there for about 2 hours and then had to wait longer for their prescriptions. The doctor had left to deliver a baby, hence the wait. I was glad to get it all done, though, so they wouldn’t have to suffer through the weekend.

I got to work about noontime. The afternoon went by quickly. My boss tells me we’re going to go to an Expo around 3pm to recruit for our Expo in January, hehe. We chit-chatted with a few of our old wonderful exhibitors. I “posed” in one of the hammocks one of the exhibitors had and gave me a little outdoor decorative turtle. She now resides with my bougainvillea, heh. I ended up walking away with 2 bags of discounted or free items from different people. One of the perks of my job .

As my boss and I drove back to the office we started hearing severe thunderstorm and hail warnings. I was hoping it was a false alarm; I had to pick up the boys, pick up Jaylen’s and Justin’s birthday cake and then we were taking them all out to eat. But as we drove, the reports were more frequent and the sky was becoming darker. We got to work, I turned off my computer and rushed to clock out. I decided I should go for the cake first and then to pick up the boys. I was hoping I could avoid the storm, but nope. I got to Sweet and Tasty, picked up the kids’ almond creme cake and as soon as I walked out little ice pebbles started falling on the clear plastic cover of the cake. I ran to the car as fast as I could and called Jorge. I told him I was on north 10th St. and OH MY GOD, WHAT DO I DO?!?!

He told me to go to a bank or car wash and park in their lanes under a roof. Every single gas station, car wash and bank was taken! Finally, after what seemed like forever, I got to his office’s parking lot and parked next to the building. A tree was somewhat breaking the fall of the golf ball to baseball-sized hail. I called Mario to let him know I’d be late for the boys and he should be lucky I called to warn him because he got to move his Mom’s van just in time. I called Mom and she said it was hailing very little, thank goodness, and the girls were fine. Jorge was at a project site and was driving back to the store already. He uploaded this to Facebook:

All the while I was waiting for him, HUGE hail balls were hitting the van. I knew for sure I had at least 5 huge dents (and I later confirmed that I did ). He got to the store, jumped in his truck and we drove to Palmview. On our way there we only slightly missed crashing twice; people are terrible at driving in wet weather here . I don’t know how I did it, but both times I swore I was going to slam into him and I was about 1/2 an inch away from his bumper both times.

We left his truck in Palmview so he could go with me in case the weather was bad, went for my babies (while eating those peanut butter chocolate drizzle cookies from Sweet & Tasty, mmmmm!), went back to his truck and he went for his boys. The weather was clearing up on the way back, thank God. We were celebrating Jaylen and Justin’s birthdays that night and I prayed the weather wouldn’t become ugly again so we could take them to dinner.

They both wanted House of China, so there we went. It was a nice night :). There wasn’t a huge crowd, the kids were all wonderful, they enjoyed their food and Jorge and I behaved pretty well, too. We tried not being too gluttonous!

We got home and watched some TV with the kids. None of them even asked about the cake, since we were sorta grateful for because it was after 9pm and they certainly didn’t need to be hopped up on sugar LOL. The girls fell asleep and we moved them to their beds and the boys played for a little bit. We chilled out in the garage and we each had a drink and talked about everything. I love nights like that: when everything important to me is under one roof .

April 9th – Started the week like I usually do: with a Monday morning meeting at work. Everyone goes around taking turns, talking about what’s coming up in the week for them. As I jotted down event after upcoming event, I started feeling a little apprehensive. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a worst-case-scenario-type person and my nerves quietly festered into fear. I vented to Jorge about this later and he told me no problem, don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. He said he’d schedule his work near Aly’s school and he’d pick her up. That was what concerned me the most. He’s so wonderful !

April 10th – The girls and I planned another little reunion. It was kind of an impromptu thing, with ideas thrown here and there and we finally agreed to do it at our place. OMG! I felt great about it and then I started feeling nervous, like, what if I couldn’t get the house spotless?! Or what if we couldn’t fit all these people on the porch?! Or what if work didn’t let me borrow tables and chairs?!

I got home from work and tidied up, watched TV with the girlies, and made dinner for all of us:

Then I bathed the girls, read their stories and they were out for the count. Mom said she’d watch the kiddos for us while we went out, so we decided yes, we would for once. We went to Chili’s and just chilled out. I was SO tempted to have my absolute favorite, Spinach and Artichoke Dip, but I woke up and weighed this in the morning:

…and I didn’t want to ruin it! I had a drink (ok, 2!) and we chit-chatted and played on our phones :). I told Jorge, “People are probably looking at us and thinking, ‘Man they’re in trouble. They won’t even put their phones down.’” He laughed. Little do they know we were playing Words by Post with each other LOL.

We were home by 11:45pm :). We got ready for bed, snuggled up and crashed out, heh.

April 11th – The day was a usual work day. It ended as a day where I involve myself in activities I probably shouldn’t, and by that I mean a cupcake bake-off LOL. I don’t know what I was thinking. EZ called asking me to participate, because he knows I like to bake and cook, but I told him Yes, I like to, but I’m not ready for a bake-off!.

I finally agreed to do it if Michelle agreed to do it with me. She said ok. So there we go, right after work, to HEB to buy our ingredients. We decided we’d be doing Rainbow Cupcakes. I’d never attempted these before, but I’d always wanted to and it seemed easy enough…

We got back and I started on the batter. I dyed it with food coloring and then the girls helped us mix. Then Michelle and I got started on layering. I took a picture of her because she said, “No one’s ever going to believe that I’m baking!” And they didn’t LOL!

Michelle thought it was the cutest thing that they pull the stools up to the counter and quietly watch me work. She asked, “Do they always do that?” And I said, “Oh, yes, every day.”

She asked Emily, “You like to watch Mama cook?”

Emily (who was being shyer than usual) nodded a timid Yes.

Michelle asked her, “You want to cook like mama?” and Emily nodded yes again, with a little smile this time. Aww

The inside:

We were proud of our cupcakes :). I thought they were super cute; something I’d definitely have to make for the kiddos, but in cake-form next time!

April 12th – We were excited about the bake-off. Everyone wanted to see our entries. We had to provide 3 for the tasting and 9 for the guests/donations.

I picked up Alaethia after school and had lunch with her and Emily, like usual. I was going to miss my little ladies. It was Mario’s weekend and I wouldn’t be seeing the girls right after work since Michelle and I would be heading to the bake-off right afterwards.

We submitted our entries, got a tour of the place, ate a teensy bit and waited. When all was finished Michelle and I didn’t win, but our cupcakes were the 2nd to go. It was a little upsetting that the winners were 2 of the people who work at the organization =\. And there was only one People’s Choice category and it went to a professional bakery. BUT, it was fun and a great experience. I’d never been a part of something like that and it was awesome :)!

Got home and called all the kiddos and spent time with my love :). He had some news for me: he wasn’t able to get the full day off on Saturday so we couldn’t go celebrate Sally’s birthday like we wanted to . I felt awful that I wouldn’t be there. I had to figure out how to work up the courage to give the news to Tina.

April 13th – I eventually told Tina before noontime that we wouldn’t be able to attend. She even tried accommodating us the best way possible but even then, he would get out too late Friday and we wouldn’t make it. I was so sad that I wouldn’t be able to spend our 30th together :(.

I tried inviting Sally to lunch, but she was with QC and said we’d leave it for another time. Jorge said we’d have lunch at Kumori, so I met him and his new employee there. I hope we didn’t freak him out with our jokes and constant “that’s what she said!” innuendos LOL.

My day got instantly better spending a little time with my babe :). Too bad I started feeling sick about an hour after lunch! I almost thought I had food poisoning, but I was just really queasy. I thought, “Not before the reunion!!”

I got home from work and Mom and I rushed to get some stuff for the party the next day and a few little decorations from Ross. I didn’t want to spend too much, but we got a few new rugs for the bathrooms, Mom got me Margarita glasses for my birthday LOL, new soap dispensers from Target and a few other things. I got home and started cleaning while the boys played in their room.

Jorge and I went to pick up the tables and chairs from work and came home and put them in the garage. Jorge wanted to take me to dinner: our traditional birthday dinner at Pappadeaux, but I was skeptical. I hadn’t eaten since lunch; I’d only had a sip of his Sprite and I felt nauseous all over again. I didn’t want to puke 🙁 LOL. But we went anyway and I’m so glad I felt ok enough to eat.

Everything was so delicious. I ate so much during the appetizers that I couldn’t finish my food OR my free birthday cheesecake!

I had my poor babe on an emotional roller coaster. I’d feel fine and then I’d feel ill, so I’d laugh and then I’d kind of mope and try and calm my nausea. He dealt with it all really well though ♥!

We got home, earlyish, and I made myself some manzania tea to settle my stomach before we sat down to watch DVR’d American Idol. I was kind of regretting stuffing myself with appetizers, but I’m glad I was only nauseous and not full-blown sick. I snuggled up next to Jorge on the sofa, with my hot tea and my favorite blanket and he took the words right out of my mouth when he said, “I love this. I love when we get to just relax together.” Me too :).

April 14th I woke up to “Happy Birthday, Baby!!” He snuggled me for a while and gave me a kiss on the forehead. He walked to the door and said, “Sleep in, Baby, it’s your birthday,” and sleep in I did! For the first time in a LONG time I allowed myself to sleep in till 10:30am LOL. Mom had already served the boys breakfast. I told them to get ready while I got ready. We were picking up my kiddos and having lunch at Peter Piper Pizza. I’d asked Mario earlier in the week if I could “borrow” them, since it was his weekend and he’d agreed. I thank him for that. It made my day to see my kiddos on my birthday :*)!

Mom, the boys and I picked my kiddos up and I was greeted by 4 Happy Birthdays ♥! We got to PPP, ordered our food and I got a bajillion tokens. They played to their hearts’ content and then we ate. Emily threw one little tantrum, because Alaethia had gotten a prize and she didn’t, so we went and got her some tickets and the guy gave her 3 of the prize she wanted :).

We ran into Salvador, one of our old classmates at Tae Kwon Do. He’s already a black-belt! It made me a little sad; I was hoping to be the first “family” of black-belts to graduate together at our school . But oh well, things happen.

I let the kids play another long while. They were reluctant to leave even when I gave them an extra 20 minutes. We took pictures; Mom didn’t do to well with my phone…she cut half the kids’ heads off LOL. So Jorgie took the pic of my kiddos and me :).

Of course it was dark because my phone ran out of battery and Emily is forever turning when the picture’s shot LOL.

I dropped my babies off :(, and then we stopped by HEB to get some food and stuff we’d need for the reunion. It was fast with Jorgie and Justin ticking things off the list.

I got home and cleaned in a frenzy. I didn’t have much to do, the house is usually tidy, but the bathrooms got a good scrubbing, I cleaned behind and under the fridge (which was acting up ever since they fixed the freezer), and I hung up all the laundry. Jorge got home and swept/washed the porch and cleaned up the pit. I vacuumed the living room and dusted and took a shower and got ready. Felipe and Freddy had come over and helped him put the tables and chairs up.

He showered and got ready and we made a quick run to Feldman’s. We got back and the girls slowly started arriving. It was great seeing everyone and chismiando :). Jorge ended up calling Freddy to come back because none of the guys who’d RSVP’d came LOL.

My Love was so wonderful. He did all the cooking and made us Margaritas and was just such a great host. When we were inside together once I apologized that he ended up doing everything on his own. He said, “I want to, Babe. Anything for you, Love. It’s your birthday.” All the girls kept telling me how lucky I am. How very right they are :*)!!

They sang Happy Birthday to me and we had 2 different cakes :). Daisy brought a Better-than-sex one and Mom had bought me a brownie ice cream cake. Justin was so sweet; he got all involved with the cake and candles and serving :).

I had such a great, great birthday! It was honestly one of the best in YEARS. I felt…special :)!

We had the boys get in bed and I finished catching up. The last of the girls, Jessica and Daisy, ended up leaving around 1am. I need to make more time for my friends. I had no idea how much some of them were going through right now. I need to be a better friend!

I stayed up with my Love and Freddy till I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore LOL. I actually went to bed around 3am for once!

Freddy kept telling us how lucky we are to have each other. I couldn’t agree more ♥!

April 15th We woke up early considering how late we fell asleep. I got up and made us breakfast: omelets of course, per my Baby’s request, heh. We ate leftover cake as we watched Jerry Maguire–well, sort of, until we realized that the weird smell our fridge was emitting was becoming annoying and really nauseating. We decided we’d go look at fridge’s, just in case. If they were too expensive then forget it.

We went to Conn’s and found the fridge he’d been looking at online and it was a great price! We were approved for it right away and the paperwork as done, just like that! THAT’S the type of stuff I’m used to, not the being denied just about everything a year ago when I was barely salvaging my credit after SOMEBODY ruined it .

We stopped at Target afterwards…for who knows what LOL. I can’t remember. And we had some nachos and Icee’s. I weighed 115 on my birthday–my short-term goal!–and I was sure I’d gained it back in those 1 and a half days!

We did our Sunday routine when we got back. The Golf Tournament was the next day and I was SO GLAD to be wearing jeans to work, hehe. We relaxed and caught up on our shows. I’m so thrilled and humbled and GRATEFUL for all the wonderful people in my life, my kids and Jorge and family above all :*). My next 30 years are going to be GREAT!

There goes my neighbor; showing off on his riding lawn mower, manicuring his green yard. I’m sitting at the dining room table, scowling at him between the open spaces of the window blind, and staring down at my already-feral looking yard that needs a trim badly and is slowly becoming yellow ! We must call the lawn guy soon, before we get a scolding that we waited too long and the grass can ruin the lawn mower belt like last time, LOL.

Also, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not much of a gardener. I guess it’s a learning process, but I did a few things wrong when we planted our little flower bed. I didn’t keep the little card thingies that have the name of the flower and the info. *facepalm* I know what the Petunias are, and I know that they do well in sunlight and should be watered every 2-3 days. When I was watering them every day they were wilting. I didn’t know that Impatiens, one of the other flowers we planted, were supposed to be watered daily and should be in shade most of the day. And the other plant, that has already fully wilted *cries*, well–I don’t even know the name of the poor thing to try and look up info on it to save it !!

I’m going to have to remove the flowers that don’t belong. Maybe I can salvage the unknown pink/white flower if I put it in a little, cute pot and move the Impatiens to a more shady area and just plant more Petunias in their place? It makes me annoyed because the Convention Center has Impatiens and they’re in a sunny area all day and theirs look nice!!

ANYWAY. It’s so quiet this morning. The kiddos are with Mario. I miss the usual sounds of “Good Luck Charlie” and giggling and “Mama, can you get me some milk?”

We watched “Cats and Dogs” Wednesday night before I bathed them and put them to bed for school the next day. I miss my cutie pies :)! And I miss the boys, whom I haven’t seen since last Thursday . I shouldn’t be the parent who has “weekend” visitation and it makes me sad and angry.

Blah. Anyhoot. The work-week was still a bit slow. And I stopped feeling like I should FIND something to do when I found out just how many events we have coming up. April and May will be a whirlwind, but it starts slowing down again in June.

Mario picked up the girls Thursday evening. Sorry, his mom did LOL. Again it was a weird, quiet hour where I just sat and attempted to watch the news. Jorge had some great news for me, and asked if I wanted to celebrate with dinner at Chili’s. Of course I did! I’d been behaving myself all week, watching what I ate, so I think we deserved it ;).

I had a coupon for free queso, chips and salsa and we ordered Spicy Spinach Artichoke dip, which came with more chips and salsa, so we had an abundance.

By the time our food came out, we were so full of Mango tea and chips and dips that we hardly ate. Which was a good thing considering that my Shrimp Alfredo noodles were hard and rubbery :(. So I only ate the 6 shrimp that came with it.

We felt full, and I felt nauseous, so we went to Target to walk it off. We got our curtain rods (finally) and a soap dispenser I’ve been wanting since around 2007. I’m not exaggerating, either LOL.

So now that we have our curtain rods and drapes, all we need is a painting for that northside wall above the sectional. And then the living room will finally, after almost a year, be complete :)!

We came home to drop everything off and then met Rudy and Jr. at Cigar Bar to chill out. We realized that night, as we’ve been unfortunately realizing more and more, that we’re just not into the whole going out thing. It’s nice, for a little while, maybe an hour–but I really don’t know how people can spend HOURS clubbing or drinking, especially if you have to wake up to work the next morning. We only stayed out till midnight because we had to work the next day, but I’d had enough after just an hour. Didn’t help that the early-20’s crowd next to us was loud and obnoxious. And the drinks were pretty lame, too. I think they changed bartenders or something :(. We used to enjoy going there a lot more a few months ago.

Yesterday I met my love for lunch :). We wanted to go to El Terco, but it was insanely packed. That place got way too popular way too fast and they need to figure something out to expedite the coming-and-going of the lunch crowd. The lines to wait and pay were horribly long. We ended up at Palenque Chicken again across the street. I finished my entire bowl of food and felt horrible afterwards. I’m getting used to eating small portions, so when I stuff my face like I did at Chili’s and then at Palenque I feel terrible :(.

I got out of work early to take Mom to the doctor for her follow-up. Again, this woman got scolded. So now she’s on a health kick. Let’s see how long this lasts, shall we?

I tried busying myself when I got home. Michelle and I were going to go to the ribbon cutting for Legends, but we got lazy and didn’t go, heh. I was going to take a nap, but I felt guilty (STILL can’t change that) and I got up and went outside to water the lawn and give my flowers a pep-talk so they can LIVE.

I came inside and swept while I watched the news. I cleaned up the bathroom, did some laundry and tidied up here and there. I love when the house is clean and spotless :).

Jorge got home from work late and we sat and talked with Freddy outside for about an hour or so. Jorge and I were starving, so we decided to have an impromptu date and went to Kumori. The wait was long and I couldn’t get ahold of the manager so we had to wait like everyone else, grr :P.

We finally got seated at almost 9:30 and we had a cucumber martini and our usual jalapeno firecrackers, spicy calamari and our rolls. As we were leaving Jorge ran into one of his customers and he just so happened to be best friends with one of my ex-co-worker’s wives! She works at Eenan’s school now. It was nice having a brief catch-up. Jorge and I couldn’t get over what a small world this really is! It made me so happy when he said, “It made me feel good that you were with me and I got to introduce you to all those people.” He’s wonderful !

We came home and I changed into a t-shirt while he made me a mango Margarita. We sat outside catching up on American Idol and having our drink. We sat in our chairs, hand-in-hand and he turned to me and said, “I love this time that we spend together. It’s like a breath of fresh air.” I gave his hand a squeeze and told him, “I was seriously thinking the same thing to myself just now.”

I started nodding off right after the last American Idol. He joked that I was going to stay out there with him, even if he had to bring me a blanket LOL. So I told him to bring me one and I snuggled up in the chair. I told him he needs to get me a lounge chair or outdoor chaise for times such as that, heh.

Alrighty. I have a to-do list I’d like to get accomplished today, while I’m kidless. Like possibly buying Petunias, grocery shopping, cleaning the shower stall, laundry and cleaning my incredibly messy car. Possibly vacuuming it, too. We’re gonna visit Gramma, also. And I have to pay the online bills. –Did that one already ;). I better get on with it. I’ve got about 6 hours!