Finally, After a Month!

Wow. I didn’t think I’d taken this long to make a proper update! It’s been exactly a month, isn’t that insane? I keep telling myself I need to update at least during the weekend but my gosh, I just don’t have time for anything these days! But there’s only one week left till Christmas vacation and that’s going to ROCK. I probably won’t update as often as I used to, but I’m hoping to at least update a little bit.

There’s been so much going on I hope I can recapture at least half of all the good stuff (and well, not-so-good stuff) that’s been happening. Since I’d been slowly updating back in November, around the 12th to the 15th, it’s a little more detailed at the beginning.

Sunday, Nov. 11th – I got up early to make lasagna for Mario’s birthday get-together. Mary made his birthday cake and tea. It was a
big success and I’m so glad everyone came over and just made it a special day for Mario. He deserves it. Family came over and although we invited a few other friends, only Pete and Sally came over. Couldn’t have asked for better company. She looked so round and cute. We chilled out and talked and had a great time. I remembered to give her the bag of stuff from Target. We chilled out a bit then went to the Killer Bees hockey game with Andy and Noey — their birthday present to Mario, and they treated me, too. It was SO FUN. I’d always wanted to go to a hockey game. There were pucks flying, they were giving out prizes, FIGHTS between the teams, and even a Kiss Cam, where they focus the camera on a couple and they *have* to kiss. It was great, even though the Bees lost. We went to Target afterwards to pick up diapers and a few other things and we sawJason, Mireya and Brianna. When we got home it was straight to bed. Thank God Mary’d already bathed the kids for us.

Monday, Nov. 12th – It was Mario’s actual birthday that day. 26-years-old. I started doing regular work that day. A little bit of boxing up books in the milk crates that we got permission from Hygeia to borrow. I worked on a few quizzes, which means I read a short story that’s online and then typed up 5 questions for each one with alternate answers. I noticed we had a broken window, which we figured happened over the weekend during a football game. I had a follow-up appointment at the doctor regarding my injured wrist. Turns out I my sprained wrist was doing better, but I have a bad Ganglion Cyst. I already had a slight bump before the injury, but it became much worse after the “trauma” to my wrist. I later received a letter from Workman’s Comp that a Ganglion Cyst is a “natural life” type of injury so they won’t cover anything having to do with it. Lovely. We went to see Gramma that night since we hadn’t seen her in 2 weeks and I’m so glad we did. She sadly only had two teeth left and one of them was giving her such grief and pain that she wasn’t eating at all and constantly asking for Tylenol. The nurses told us they were concerned since, at her age, she may damage her liver because of excess medication. We asked them to set up an appointment for her with a dentist for later on during the week and they said they’d do what they could. Only problem: she doesn’t have any type of dental insurance so it would cost a pretty penny.

Tuesday, Nov. 13th – I don’t remember much from work — I think it was the day of the Robot Competition, which was really awesome. My boss’ son ended up winning 1st place for his Lego truck with music and lights. Or it could have been the day of the Science Bowl? We packed a little more and I got to work on a few more quizzes. The nursing home set up an appointment for Gramma. I had 1 day to figure out what to do about money, how to get Mom to the nursing home to accompany Gramma (who, naturally, didn’t want to go alone), and who was going to babysit Alaethia while Mom was gone.

I helped out here and there with the Science Bowl. I was in charge of taking pictures and burning them onto CDs once the memory cards filled up. We tried packing a little more. After work I had to go to the bank. John went along with me and couldn’t help making fun of my Ganglion Cyst. He kept saying things like, “Gang-li-ON – apply directly to the ganglion!” and ” Well, you always wanted a cyst-er!” I continued worrying about what to do about Gramma. The cost of her appointment would be $100, which I thought was pretty cheap for a tooth extraction, but I didn’t have any money other than gas money after paying all the bills. I called up Aunt Nora and she said to go over, she had the money (duh). It was nice seeing her after so long even though I was so tired of driving. Aunt Nora was in love with Alaethia, who was being a charmer with her funny laugh and curly hair. We caught up a bit and Aunt Nora showed us her awesome bedroom. I will always love how that lady decorates her house. She’s got a gift. Once Mom was inside the truck with the kids Aunt Nora and I talked about my Grandfather and her dad and how they suck as human beings (only Jaylen and Aly were with us. Eenan was with — you guessed it — his Nana.). Although we’d figured out the money situation, I had no idea how I’d get Mom to Gramma’s and had no idea who’d take care of Alaethia. There was no way I could miss work what with packing and everything going on at work. I was close to tears when I expressed my dilemma to Mary. She had a plan: she’d wake up a little earlier and drop Mom off at the nursing home, then she’d drop off Alaethia with Noelia, who’d babysit her till Mom got back to the nursing home. The only problem was that Mom absolutely had to be back at the nursing home by at least 12:30 so Noelia could drop Aly off to her (and then Mary would pick them both up after work and bring them home) and then make it on time to college. We were hoping for the best. I felt so relieved. Thank God for family! I have to say I have the best you could ask for.

Wednesday, Nov. 14th – We packed a little more. We also heard a rumor about the new school we were waiting for not actually belonging to the community and the students. Something about it becoming a new high school and our middle school moving into the old high school. I thought that was totally messed up. My boss was really ticked, especially since she’s a parent and she did pay taxes for that school. Everything with Gramma worked out incredibly. She felt fine after having both her teeth extracted (now she needs dentures, but we’ll have to save up a lot of money for that :\). Noelia had a great day with Aly, thank goodness, and she even got to pick Mom and Aly up and take them home with plenty of time to get home. I owe her, big time. I picked up the kids from school and then I took Aly to the doctor. Noelia discovered a blister on her thigh and it freaked me out when I saw it. Turns out Aly had an allergic reaction to an insect bite. I picked up and dropped off Rolando after their UIL practice.

Thursday, Nov. 15th – We were having Lights Out Day at the library to celebrate Children’s Book Week, where the kids would bring a flashlight to check out books. None of the kids brought flashlights and we hardly had any books to check out since we were about 75% packed. The window cracked a little more that day, so we weren’t really allowing any kids in by the end of the day. We had an early lunch and then I had a slice of pizza since the science department was having a party in celebration of a great science week. I was supposed to be working on quizzes but there was so much noise I couldn’t concentrate. Mrs. Ruiz and Mrs. Garcia and I talked and then I talked with Mrs. R., Mrs. M. and my Boss. Such a funny convo. On the way to my truck after work I saw a beautiful red bird laying on the concrete. Poor thing had no head. I had a weird feeling, almost like it was a bad omen. I shouldn’t have thought of that because I had it in my head the rest of the day and I think that’s why we had such bad luck that afternoon. John and I went to Capital One to give his car payment. As we’re arriving it suddenly dawns on me that I don’t quite remember grabbing my purse from the kitchen table before we left. Sure enough, I forgot it — along with John’s car payment. Poor John had to withdraw more money to make the payment. And since I forgot my money as well, he lent me some cash so I could buy my groceries and some supplies for the Thanksgiving basket Mrs. V., Mrs. Ruiz, Mrs. Garcia and I were making. We also stopped by Game Stop where John bought tons of PSP games.

Friday, Nov. 16th – I was alone most of the day since Mrs. V. didn’t go in. I had a productive day anyway. I had a chat with the Speech teacher and right after she left the broken window was fixed. Mario stopped by to pick up the sofa receipts and left in a huff because I didn’t have them with me. He refused to look for it at home and didn’t pick up the sofas. Everyone at the front office thought he was student LOL. Mrs. Ruiz and Mrs. Garcia and I got the baskets ready. Since I’d gone over my “time” twice in the week and accumulated 30 minutes I had an hour lunch. The girls and I went to Burger King. When we got back to work we were about to go collect more milk crates from the cafeteria when I was stopped by one of the assistant principals and got scolded about using my bad wrist. I assured her I was fine, but she took me to her office and showed me the fax that they’d barely sent that day about how I wasn’t allowed to use my wrist at all, plus a list of restrictions–a week later. So I was put on light duty again and was given a copy of the paper to give to Mrs. V. Mrs. V. showed up to work at the end of the day to fix the extra basket she made. I told her about my scolding and she seemed to be okay with it. I picked up the kids and we chilled out till I picked up Rolando later on for a last-minute sleepover. Eenan started freaking out because they had a UIL meet the next morning and they hadn’t planned to sleepover at all. They like to go together. I spent the evening cleaning and moving furniture around to figure out how to make sofas fit. I didn’t feel like having to spend more money just to move the wall 3 inches. The kids played and Adan, Aide and baby Belle visited. I got the kids in bed, which isn’t an easy task since they’re so excited to be having a sleepover. I finally threatened to separate Eenan and Rolando (Jaylen was asleep on the futon for the very last time!) and they finally fell asleep.

Saturday, Nov. 17th – I woke up at 6:30, fed the boys, got then ready and dropped them off. I got no additional sleep. Got Mario’s stuff ready, had a quick breakfast and cleaned and cleaned before and after Aly woke up and had breakfast. The cleaning was long overdue and I now only have the weekends to get things done, even though most of the time I don’t get everything done. It’s so overwhelming. Mom stayed with Alaethia and Jaylen while I went to pick up Eenan and Rolando. Eenan was, as always, the last one to compete, so we had to wait for him. I sat in the hallway with Eenan, Lauren and Rolando while we waited for them to call Eenan in for his Storytelling. After he was done, we waited for the results. We saw Mrs. V. there. Her daughter was competing as well and she, too, was waiting for the results. The kids were running rampant. After almost an hour of waiting they finally posted the results: Eenan got 1st place in Storytelling and 2nd place in Oral Reading!! I was so excited I screamed and picked up my 55 pound 8 year old and hugged him to bits. I came back home after dropping off Rolando and cleaned some more. When Mario got home I took a shower and then we went over to Jason and Adan’s. Mario’s cousin, DJ, whom we hadn’t seen in a long time, was there. All the girls and DJ chatted and it was pretty cool. Alaethia was such a doll. It was a bit nervewracking watching Adan get plastered, but it was fun nonetheless. We got home at 12:30 and by the time we washed up and got Alaethia ready for bed it was well passed 1:30. I was so exhausted.

Sunday, Nov. 18th – We didn’t wake up till 11am. I had a quick breakfast, then started getting crap out of the futon pockets, like magazines and Pokemon cards. Mario and Jorge picked up the sofas and had to take the door down to bring them in. When all three couches and entertainment center were Tetris-ed into our tiny living room we left to the movies to watch Mr. Magorian’s Wonder Imporium. I didn’t think I’d like it but it was such a cute movie. It even had some sad parts. I cried, as usual. Dustin Hoffman was awesome and so was Natalie Portman. We came home and I got the boys ready for school and did everything else I usually have to do at night. I was exhausted once again.

Monday, Nov. 19th – We brought in more milk crates and packed as many books as we could fit. I felt really bad that day because my boss sort of snapped at me and it’s not like her to do so. I reminded her about my wrist and how the office people kept getting after me for using it after she asked me to pick up cardboard boxes on a rolling cart and I guess she didn’t like that. She didn’t really talk to me much that day. Although I took it easy because I was being watched I still accomplished a lot. After work we had our Thanksgiving lunch. I was getting increasingly nervous since it was sort of long and I had to pick up the kids, but it was really fun. We did a “What Was Popular When You Were In 7th Grade?” game. The 90’s middle school group was the biggest LOL. The food was great.

Tuesday, Nov. 20th – It was a productive day and my boss was in a much better mood. I still felt a little uncomfortable, but I eventually got over it. I spent about 15 minutes making copies for our new reading folders for the classes and then another 2 hours laminating folders — which was my own fault since it was my brilliant idea. I was starving by lunch time. I went to buy my lunch first before clocking out and to my horror they ran out of EVERYTHING. I went to the lounge anyway so I could buy something from the vending machine and my heart sinks when I open up my wallet and realize Mario’d stolen my dollar bills. Grr. Thank God Gemima brought a dairy queen ice cream cake — my favorite! — to celebrate out last day before Thanksgiving break. After that I had a cream cheese danish. Talk about a sugar rush. I checked in the few books that had been turned in and spent the rest of the afternoon trimming the laminated folders. I had to clock out about 20 minutes early and my boss gave me an apple pie, how nice :). I picked up the kids and they did their homework. Sally and I’d made plans to meet at Olive Garden. They’d invited me to go with them the Friday before but I had company and was rearranging the furniture so I didn’t get to go. Pete met us about 20 minutes later. It was so much fun being with two of my best friends in the world. The waiter was kinda cute and kept flirting. Pete said he was going to call Mario LOL. After we ate (I had the endless soup and salad/breadsticks–SO GOOD. I’d been wanting it forever!) We had a great chat about life and our high school days, back before Sally even knew Pete liked her. We sat around and talked a while then we departed. I met Mario at his work and we drove to Walmart (in separate cars), each got gas, then went to Target. Mario and I are similar in the fact that we have very short attention spans. We were supposedly in a hurry and were stopping only for what we needed but we somehow ended up at the birthday cards and laughed our asses off at some of them. We got home and I got my stuff ready for my training the next day. Although it was my first official day of vacation, I didn’t mind having to attend a training because we got to go in at 7:30 and got out at 1:30. Sure beats waking up at 5:40!

Wednesday, November 21st – Mom woke me up 45 minutes earlier than I was supposed to wake up. Oh well. The training was alright. A girl and I started talking right away and we sat together through most of the training. I was a bit peeved at this one annoying fellow clerk — she kept talking about herself and how awesome she thinks she is that they completely overlooked me and didn’t even ask me to introduce myself! It happened twice. Every time they started introducing themselves, she’d start talking about herself and everyone would have to stop and then start over. So they overlooked me. It was sort of dumb to feel offended about that, but I was. I ran into one of Mario’s old friends, Ralph. He was actually the one training us on the AV equipment. I’d already done AV set-ups — I’d actually just been thrown into doing it LOL — but I learned a little more. After that we had training with the actual librarian, who showed us how to access the websites (again, something I’d already done) and we got a list of all the passwords to the databases, so that was pretty cool. We were given donuts, cookies and water so it was easy to make it to 1:30. I got home and just CHILLED OUT, because I was so darn tired. I spent time with the kiddos and then started on my Death By Chocolate dessert that I was contributing to our Thanksgiving feast.

Okay, well, I thought I’d be able to finish this up, but there’s no way. Alaethia’s up from her first “round” of sleeping and I’m pretty sleepy so this’ll be all for now. I shall continue with Thanksgiving day up until now tomorrow. Good night, everyone!