Category: Yay!

I’ve been trying to type up this exact sentence for the past 8 days and it just never happened. I thought blogging was hard to find time for before, when I didn’t work, and it’s proving to be even more so now that I am working. Duh, right?

So the first three days were absolute murder on my body. I lost two pounds last week, let’s just say that LOL. The first day was spent taking books out of boxes and re-shelving by the Dewey Decimal System, which I hear isn’t mandatory at all schools. I stayed an extra hour that day to make up for the hours I thought I wasn’t getting that morning since I went in at 11:48.

The next day I got a tour of the school, since I spent most of the day transporting books to teachers just to get them out of the library since it looked like a warehouse. Not sure if I mentioned it, but we’re stationed at an old (OLD!) school while the new one is being built. It’ll supposedly be done by the end of September, but lots of people have been saying “yeah right”. Most of the books are boxed up, waiting to be shipped to the new school. The whole place looked like a disaster. Anyway, we were trying to get everything out of there, and me being the assistant was the lucky one who got to, at first, carry the books to the teachers until we found an abandoned cart in a hallway. Then I had the privilege of wheeling 20-30 monstrous dictionaries and encyclopedias all over the school, which is a whole bunch of separate buildings that have been added to the original school. I was eternally grateful for the elevator staff’s allowed to use. I was beginning to feel like Andrea from The Devil Wears Prada, except Mrs. V. isn’t that impossible. It was such a relief when I got back to shelving books, though. I think that was also the afternoon that our parent volunteer began to help us, bless her. She’s become a good friend of mine :).

I was SO stressed out and sore and just overwhelmed that afternoon. That was the last afternoon I stayed an hour after work to make up my hours since they said I didn’t have to do that. Darnit.

It was so nice to get home and hold Alaethia while we sat outside with Mom as we waited for the boys to get home from school. They were too excited to go on the bus. Eenan’s only been wanting to go on the bus since he was in Pre-K and would always ask, “Mom, why don’t we get to go on the bus?” He was thrilled when he’d go on the bus to his UIL meets, even though it wasn’t even a 10 minute ride. They got home and ran straight to their bedroom. Jaylen’d been falling asleep while they were waiting, my poor baby. They weren’t getting home till 4:30, and that’s because they get out at 3:15! I was already thinking of picking them all up myself, but if/when we do move to the new school I won’t make it to their school on time and they’ll just have to get used to taking the bus again. So, I decided it was best to have them come home on the bus.

Even though the boys love the bus, I felt awful that they were wasting so much time waiting at school and then on the bus. I was exhausted from going to bed at 11pm and waking up at 5:30am. I was in pain from the soreness of pushing carts around. I was overwhelmed because I never imagined getting used to being a working mom while still having time for the kids, a husband, cooking, and cleaning my house. Not to mention grocery shopping and paying the bills. I don’t know if it was nerves or a bug I caught but I felt awful that night. I kept having to run to the bathroom because I felt like I was going to hack but nothing happened. I had chills and was trembling; it was terrible. I even had to call Mario when he was on his way home from work to bring me a Sprite to settle my stomach. Mom’s like, “You know she’s sick when she’s asking for Sprite” LOL.

Mario and I had a little pep-talk that night and I felt a teensy bit better. I was so used to everyone depending on me I felt that if I wasn’t around, the world couldn’t go on. Thanks to Mom, it has. She’s been such a tremendous help; I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay her for giving me the opportunity to work and for keeping me sane. She’s here at 6am and stays till around 8pm after I’ve finally had a shower. The amount we’re going to pay her for babysitting is nothing compared to all the work she does.

What also made me feel a little better was the “presents” I received that morning. A huge coffee cup filled with pens, dry-erase markers, pencils and an awesome gel pen and another lunch bag filled with a stapler, staples, a tape dispenser and tape, a sharpener and a few other things I can’t remember at the moment. I love school supplies.

It’s so weird not helping the boys get ready in the morning, but at least I’m here when they get home and I get to spend some time with them. Holding Alaethia feels like such a relief at the end of the day. I try and carry her around as much as I can when I’m here.

Wednesday was spent shelving and dropping off a few more dictionaries. I let Mrs. V. know just how horrible I felt the night before and I don’t know if that had anything to do with it but I didn’t have to push around such heavy things anymore. She had me take some TVs and VCR/DVD players to classrooms, but that time I asked for the help of Mrs. G., our parent volunteer. I felt much better that day, but I had this nagging feeling about something I’d heard the day before from John and Mario. One of the buses in our school district had left a small boy 4 miles away from his house! I kept imagining something awful like that happening to the boys, but pushed it out of my head.

That afternoon Mom and I wait at Mary’s house where we can see the road and the bus approaching. We’d been chilling out on the porch the days before but Alaethia’s eczema acts up like crazy because of the heat. 3:45 comes around and we see the boys’ bus coming. We see all the little neighbors filing out of the bus and my heart sinks when I see the bus driver closing the doors and Eenan, Jaylen nor Brandon had gotten down. Haley, one of the neighbors, tells me Brandon went on another bus and the boys followed. Great. I ask the bus driver what happened and he said they were on another bus; the assistant principal had made them get on it. I asked him to be sure and he called another driver on the radio, who confirmed that the boys were on his bus and he’d be dropping them off soon. I call the school to tell someone off, because 15 minutes had already passed and why on earth would you put my kids on another bus?! Of course all the women were blaming each other. One even said she SAW them get on the right bus, so they should be at my house. I told her, “Well, they’re obviously not, so WHERE ARE MY KIDS!” Eventually they figured out that they were on the bus the bus driver told me about and she kind of laughed it off telling me they called the wrong Brandon. The Brandon they were looking for lived on the other side of the street on the East, so it was a misunderstanding. Naturally we’ve told all the kids to stick together, so my boys followed Brandon. I’m just glad they were all together. They weren’t phased by it at all, thank God. They actually had a nice ride since that other bus was air conditioned.

Thursday was a much better day for me. Mrs. V. taught me how to get into the systems at school and I learned how to make labels for the books. We (Mrs. G. and I) spent a lot of time doing that. Nice break from having to move stuff or shelve books!

I decided to start eating lunch soley at work, since the 30 minutes they give us is too little to be driving to and from my house. I did that on Monday and Wednesday, just so I could rush home and see Aly and give Mom a little break, but it only allowed me about 10 minutes to actually eat. The rest of the time was spent driving to and from work. I’m learning to Hoover my food; I’ve always been a slow eater.

John went with me to pick up some black Mudd maryjanes I’d ordered at JC Penny, then we went to set an appointment for a new cell phone for him since he drowned his other one, and then we picked up a pizza for dinner. I’m a working woman now, so not having a home cooked meal on the table is completely excusable now, and I LOVE IT!

Friday was even more awesome than Thursday. Not only did we spend most of the day on the computer searching for books to make labels for (and then came the fun part of placing the labels on the books — I LOVE stickers), but it was FRIDAY and the start of a 3-day weekend! That day went by so fast. I had stayed 10 minutes later on Thursday, so I was let out 10 minutes early on Friday! At the end of the day Mrs. V. gave both Mrs. G. and I a strawberry sundae and she gave me a huge hug. I felt so appreciated :).

I went with John to Sprint, then Academy for Mario and then Walmart. We were in line behind my principal, which was pretty funny LOL. Well, not really. He had school supplies to buy (2 cart-fulls to be exact) so we were in line for half an hour =\.

I spent Saturday cleaning the house. I did something else, but can’t remember. It was pretty low-key, which I’m so glad for. Sunday, I woke up late-ish and helped Mary and Big Mario clean outside. We were supposed to have a practice for Yazmin’s quinceañera but the damn choreographer was an hour late before Mary got pissed and called her to forget it. I had tons of crap to do so I was pretty pissed I waited all day for nothing. It was 3pm before we left. We visited Gramma, put a big chunk of cash towards my laptop payment at Circuit City, (finally) bought Norton Antivirus/Confidential(?) for $20 at Best Buy, then went grocery shopping. I hate how long that takes. We went to Yadira’s afterwards for a bar-b-q. I was so glad I had the next day off.

We didn’t do much Monday, except for going to Dollar General to get some house stuff, like a welcome mat and a mat for the kitchen.

Yesterday was great at work. I spent a lot of the day making copies, putting folders together for the meeting we were having today, and sticking labels on to books.

Today was the Refresher meeting for all the teachers. I made copies all morning, helped with stickers, showed our kid volunteers how to shelve books, then I enrolled kids into classes for about an hour at the end of the day. Mrs. G. and I had lunch in the teacher’s lounge and talked about the possible fight that happened in the bathroom in our building. I was actually on the toilet when I heard 6 or 7 extremely loud thuds on the wall behind me. Supposedly all the boys coming out of there said they were using it because the 8th grade bathrooms weren’t working, and then, coincidentally, a boy comes out with a nosebleed. MMhmm.

The meeting went pretty good. I met lots of teachers I hadn’t met yet and Mrs. V. introduced me and said nice things. We squealed with excitment right before we left to the staff meeting because I’d already inputed all the 8th grade students into the system. She said, “You’re fast!”

I got home, spent time with Aly, got the boys into the house, helped Jaylen with his homework (and scolded Eenan for forgetting his. Oh, but he doesn’t forget about video games!), then went with John to the salon to cut my hair. I chopped it all off. It was almost to my waist and now it’s above my shoulders. I felt the difference right away. My neck was feeling really tense and it felt 10 times better after all the hair was gone. I did everything I had to do tonight pretty early since Mario called to tell me he was staying a bit late so not to worry about dinner. The boys and I had sandwiches. Mario ended up getting out earlier than he thought, so he’s picking himself up some Taco Bell. I would like Taco Bell…but it’s too late :(.

It’s been pretty awesome, I have to admit. One of the perks of the job is getting dibs on the books! I already assigned myself a number and checked out I Love Saturdays, y Domingos! for the boys. I love it!

I’m getting used to the routine — and as long as I establish a routine, it’s all good.

Now, if I could only put Alaethia to sleep at about 9:30, that would be AWESOME.

Chris and Nancy came over again last night to play Wii Sports. We played for a while (I’m currently a *Pro* at bowling and Nancy’s reigning queen of boxing) and the men left on a beer run, as always. We were SO sore after we played. I wonder how Nancy feels today?

Nancy and I talked about babies and how I was stilling hanging on to a dingleberry of hope that I’d gotten the job since I’d called to HR yesterday morning and they told me they’d submitted the recommendation, but the board hadn’t approved anyone yet. So I still had a chance.

We stayed up talking till 12am, then Mario and I didn’t go to sleep till 1:30. Alaethia started stirring around 4:30am so I prepared a bottle, but she ended up staying asleep. She didn’t wake up till 6 for one and the alarm went off at 7:45 for Mario. I turned over to shut it off…and went back to sleep. I hear Alaethia crying so I get up in a panic. I look at the clock and it’s 8:11. 4 minutes till Mario needs to LEAVE to work. If it weren’t illegal he probably would have strangled me by now.

I went back to bed with Alaethia and was jolted awake by the phone. I look at the caller ID and it’s from the school district! I pretend I wasn’t asleep at all and clear my throat and then I hear the words: “You were approved by the board! Congratulations!” I couldn’t hide my excitement and I think I even squealed. The lady speaking to me sounded just as excited as I did. She told me the librarian wanted to speak to me, so to call her, and then she said, “Hello, I’ll just transfer you!”

I told her the good news and after she gives me details about what I need to do next she says, “I hope you’re excited because I am so excited!” I laugh and say, “Oh yes! I’m so very excited!” I couldn’t stop giggling LOL.

Eenan was sitting next to me when I hung up the phone. I turn to him and scream, “I got the job, Nano!!” and he gets this priceless grin on his face and says, “Oh yay, you got it!!”

Jaylen already has my paychecks planned out LOL. And of course I called Mario and Mary and then told Mom, John, Jorge and Big Mario when they came over.

I call to HR and ask what the next step is, but the girl tells me the woman I need to speak to is out to lunch and that they’re closing the office from 11am to 2pm. Grr. I decide I should really do everything I was putting off for the weekend, like getting the boys’ haircuts, the rest of their school supplies and timing myself from here to work (I didn’t want to get my hopes up so I never went and took that drive!). John wants to go to the mall, and I do need to get a few work outfits, but I didn’t think we’d have time so we postponed that for tomorrow.

The boys unwillingly get ready and we get their hair cut. We get to the salon and I suddenly remember that Mario took my cash from my wallet, so we leave the salon and go to Aziz real quick to get cash at the ATM. We go back, the lady and I talk about work and school and her daughter and her kids and my kids while she cuts the boys’ hair. They look great. We get home, they bathe, I make lunch (grilled cheese and soup) and I call HR again. I’m going to need to go in for a TB test and have to wait till I get the results to go in to fill out the paperwork, which will probably be Thursday. I immediately call the doctor’s office; $25 for the test and however much it’ll be for Eenan’s physical and vaccine. I was going to take him this week anyway, so it worked out.

I get weighed (124.1, oy) and then they check Eenan out and do all the stuff for the physical. He’s being wild and crazy, as usual. Erica, one of the nurses, asks me “how I do it” LOL. After they’re done with Eenan’s hearing test and eye test, they do the TB test on me. To my complete elation (because we’re quite broke right now after buying the rest of the school clothes) Eenan’s physical and vaccine (which we have to go back on Thursday for because they ran out) were FREE. I didn’t know CHIPs did that. Now that I’m remembering…all the years they’ve been on CHIPs I clearly remember paying their co-pay for each one. Not sure about the vaccine’s though O_o.

I was going to go with Eenan straight to Walmart after the doctor’s, but decided against it once I saw how dusty and ugly the sky was becoming. The wind and dust were blowing so harshly that I figured I’d just go to Dollar General. Little did I know I’d find most of the stuff Jaylen still needed, and for really cheap! Now, all they need are their Kleenex, Ziploc bags and Jaylen needs jumbo pencils, which I’ll probably find at H-E-B like last year.

I call Mrs. V., the librarian, because she wanted me to update her since she wanted me to start sooner than later. I told her I might make it in Friday, since I’d be getting my results on Thursday and going in for the paperwork that day, too. She said it would be cool if I at least got to go in on Friday, just to get a feel of it before school starts on Monday.

And there was my day. I’m going to miss my Aly Rose (and sleeping) but it’s worth it. At least I’ll get to spend my evenings with her :). I had no idea when I woke up this morning I’d be running around like crazy getting things done because of my JOB. I’m so excited, and just so, so happy :). All my friends and family were all so positive I got it, even when I started to lose faith.

I feel so lucky!

We all slept in yesterday and around 11am. Mom came over shortly after that and we all wished her a happy birthday. 58 years young!

After I’d finished my breakfast I started checking the Sunday ads to see if there were any deals on Norton (our current antivirus, McAfee, which came bundled with our laptop, already ended and we’re desperate to download new music but are afraid to get viruses so we NEED NORTON. I don’t like McAfee anyway…). I checked Target out, just for the hell of it, then went to Circuit City. I flipped idly through pages, looking for a yellow box with “sale” or “mail-in rebate” printed near it but I stopped dead when I saw the Wii console with all its accessories floating around it. Mario calls me right that second and tells me to make him breakfast (he was outside with his uncles). I’m excited and I ask him, “What do you want? Eggs?” and he says, “Yeah, whatever,” and hangs up. Didn’t give me a chance to tell him about the Wii. I call back and he’s all moody: “Just leave it, then. I’ll make something myself,” and hangs up on me again. I call and tell him, “Quit being an asshole. I’m calling because there’s Wii’s in the Circuit City ad.” He grunts and says, “Just because they’re in the ad doesn’t mean they have them.” I call and check and they tell me yes, they have 10 in stock. Woo! We’ve been wanting one of those damn things since they came out but they’re ALWAYS sold out over here. I call him back and say, “They have 10,” and he says, “Get ready. We’re leaving.”

John comes over when I’m blasting out of the bathroom looking for my shoes and I tell him about the Wii. He says, “Let’s go!” and Mom said to hurry up, she’d stay with the kids LOL.

We arrive and are panicking because there’s TONS of people from Mexico in the store, as usual. It’s still tax-free weekend and they’ve got some serious shopping to do. All the good stuff’s usually gone by the time we get there on Sundays since we wake up late and live pretty far from it. But thank goodness, I get a ticket for one of them! We get extra controllers and a battery charger dock and take forever deciding on a game. Mario wanted Transformers, but John said it sucks so we got Wario Smooth Moves instead.

We pay (thank God for Target Visas!) and hurry home as quickly as possible. Aunt Nora stopped by to wish Mom a happy birthday and she was head over heels for Alaethia :). We talked for a while, which was nice because we hadn’t seen her, though we have talked on the phone.

Aunt Nora left and then we rearranged the living room to have enough space to play and start messing with the system. It’s AWESOME. We start by playing the sports games it comes with for a good hour before we even touch Wario Smooth Moves. I was so excited to play tennis again, even though it’s not actual tennis and it pissed me off because it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to and John and Mario beat me every time, but I loved it. I kicked their butts at boxing though ;).

I am SO SORE this morning. I can’t wait till the Fitness game comes out!

We play till around 4:30, when we start preparing everything for Mom’s birthday dinner. We were just having a little dinner for her, just us and Mario’s parents here at home. I didn’t want a disappointing repeat of last year when everyone either got here super late or didn’t come at all, so we decided it would just be us.

Mario prepped the fish (cilantro, seasonings, and some butter), I made the salsa (and I actually got it right!), I made cornbread and then Mario popped the fish in the oven. While they baked I made brownie batter and put the pan in to bake when the fish was done. Everything was done quickly, I had all the dishes washed and then we took everything over to Mary’s so we could all eat. Everything was delicious and pretty healthy (besides the brownies, of course). We chatted with Mario’s parents for a while and Mary told us about her trip to the casino and we came back. Mario left for a “drive” which ended up being a good hour. He called after 20 minutes of being gone to tell me Chris and Nancy were coming over. Thank God I was in the middle of cleaning.

They get here and the men automatically start playing games on the Wii. It was hilarious watching them box and play baseball (I don’t like that one…I can’t ever hit the ball!). I put the boys to bed at 9:30 (though Eenan didn’t actually fall asleep till almost 11 because he kept waking up to “drink water” or “go to the bathroom” which meant he was stalling). Nancy and I chatted and watched them play. She held Alaethia for a good, long time. Alaethia didn’t even scream, but that was probably because Nancy gave her a sip of her tea LOL. You feed that child and she’ll love you forever.

Mario and Chris went to McDonald’s for some late-night snacking. I surprised myself by declining a delicious $1 double cheeseburger (those things are so unhealthy but man, they taste good) and instead got a tiny fruit and walnut salad.

We ate, Mario left with Chris and Nancy, and I stayed here with Aly. It took forever to put her to sleep and I was pretty frazzled and deranged by the time she did fall asleep.

Before I fell asleep, I remembered to document what I’d eaten for the past two days, because that’s Step 1 in French Women Don’t Get Fat: document what you eat — every-single-thing — for 3 weeks. Maybe I’ll make a page here just for that, because I think that others seeing what I’m eating will help me not be so gluttonous. If I’d started earlier than two days ago you’d be surprised at how much junk food I’d consume. That, my friends, is why my scale at home — which usually shows that I weigh less than I actually do — says I weigh 125. 125!!! Which is probably more. That’s the most I’ve ever weighed in my life while not being pregnant. (Like I’ve mentioned before, I’m only 4′ 11″, so every pound shows!) So, I’ve decided that I’m going to change the way I eat, for real this time. I already ate the last bits of my S’mores ice cream, heh, and until I can start controlling myself around junk food I will not be purchasing any at all. The only junk food I bought this last time I went to the groceries were Cheetos Puffs for the kids and some Koolaid juices I got for free. Mario and I also decided we won’t be purchasing any more sodas, not even for him to take for lunch.

I was astonished when I came across a picture Mario’d taken of Alaethia and me. She was sprawled on my lap but I wasn’t looking at how cute she looked, I was staring at the huge tire that spread disgustingly around my waist. I’ve never looked like that before and I’ll be damned if I continue to!

Now, if I can only convince John to run with me at the park, I’ll be on the right track.