Last Minute Vacation

On my way to San Antonio with Mary and my kiddos (and the rest of the clan) – minus my hubby :(. I am so sad about this, you have no idea. I had no intention of coming at all – one: we have no money and the extra money we do have is all being used to pay off our debt, and two: Mario hadn’t gotten his vacation request in on time (and even if he did, I found out later, he wouldn’t have gotten it for this week anyway because another guy who has seniority over him wanted this week first).

So we both decided we’d be staying home with Alaethia; the boys would go with Mary. Well, he’d be working and I’d be at home on my own little vacation, because just being at home and not working is vacation enough for me. But Mary offered to take us – the five of us – to Sea World and Fiesta, all expenses paid at the last minute. We hoped upon hope that Mario would be able to get the days off, but he couldn’t. So again, I decided I’d be staying behind too, as nervous as I was about the boys leaving with Mary. They are quite a handful.

The time comes yesterday when I’m packing the boys’ stuff, and it finally hit me: they were leaving for 4 days…longest I’d ever been away from them. The only other time was when Eenan stayed with Mary for 2 days while I gave birth to Jaylen and the next time was 1 ½ days when I left them both with Mary while I was in the hospital giving birth to Alaethia. I tried not showing my apprehensiveness in front of them because they were upset enough as it was that I wasn’t going. Jaylen even tried backing out of going a few times, but we convinced him otherwise.

Mario kept telling me over the days, “I still think you should go. You should at least get to do something this summer,” but I kept telling him, “No way. I’m not going if you’re not going.” I mean, the last time I went on vacation without him was back in 2001 when I went to California with Mary and the family and since I was still fairly new as a family member I felt really uncomfortable. I felt like Mario’s uncles were picking on me constantly, but unbeknownst to me that’s just how they play around. I now get along with them wonderfully, thank goodness. But, at the time, I felt awful and promised myself I’d never go anywhere without him again.

We got together for Father’s Day yesterday. Mario enjoyed getting familiar with his new camera, a 10mp Samsung, and loved his new Stainless Steel cross and chain. Elda made pozole for everyone and we sat around and chatted. Mario decides to take a nap on the couch. 8 o’clock rolls around and I’m suddenly surrounded by everyone and they’re trying to convince me to go on the trip. I start bawling, I’m not sure why…I felt confused, upset because Mario wouldn’t be going, because I could imagine him lonely and bored, and if I did go I hadn’t finished with laundry, washed dishes, ironed, or made him meals while I was away. I relayed my concern and Elda offered to bring hot wings for a meal and Yadira offered some taquitos LOL. Mario wakes up while I’m crying and tells me, “GO BABE. I’ll be fine. Really.”

So everyone starts shooing me out and Noelia goes to the house with me to start packing. Mary’s in the kitchen at her house making Mario meals for the next 4 days. The whole time I’m packing I’m thinking, “What am I doing?” Every time I think about leaving Mario alone my lip starts trembling and I start bawling all over again. Mom feels a little sad too because I’m leaving and starts to make me feel guilty for not finishing the CD she wanted me to compile for her. I’m doing laundry in a hurry and trying to get all of the clean laundry that’s already done folded and hung. Mario went out to the car and washed, vacuumed and cleaned out my mess for me, so we’d have a nice, clean car to go in.

I hugged Mario in the kitchen for a long time and got his blessing one more time to go ahead and go. I was so close to changing my mind so many times. It was hard leaving him this morning. But it’s only three days. Three and a half, actually.

At least we have our cell phones and Myspace to keep in contact with, though!

9:20am
We had a bathroom break at a rest stop back in Brooks County somewhere and just finished having breakfast at McDonald’s in Falfurrias. My batteries are charging, the kids are being occupied by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Aly’s got her blankie and sippy and is ready to nap. I’m about to finish this entry and start on my new book, And Then He Stole My Boy Entrancers by Louise Rennison. Let’s see how many chapters I can read in 2 ½ hours (and while Aly’s in moods). I’m going to be alright, and so’s Mario. I’m really going to try and enjoy myself.

6:10pm
We’re at the hotel right now. I think I only got to chapter 2 or 3 on the road. We got to San Antonio and went straight to the Alamo. It was nice taking the kids around and introducing them to a little bit of history. They actually enjoyed it. We took lots of pictures outside, and even a few inside that I took without knowing they didn’t allow. Oops!

We got back to the car and followed behind Jose’s rental, which was behind Tommy’s car, to go eat at Las Palapas restaurant. I remember eating at one of those the last time we were in San Antonio, which was in 2003. Let me tell you, it SUCKS being last in the caravan. You have to swerve and switch lanes at the last minute. We almost died at least 3 times trying to get into another lane. 2 of those 3 times were due to yellow taxi vans swerving into our lane or not letting us pass. I was quite glad to finally get to the restaurant that started our long journey in the first place.

Alaethia was mostly well behaved. She started off with coloring “circles” on her menu with crayons and when she got bored of that she entertained herself with my tea. I held it while she drank and then she started splashing me with the straw. Once I took that away she was playing with her Gerber star puffs and when she threatened to throw her container all over the floor, the food came and all she wanted to eat was “Matoes” (tomatoes). Gosh, I hope these weren’t some of tainted tomatoes…

The boys were so full of energy that they hardly ate. Eenan made a mess of his enchiladas but Jaylen brought his chicken strips with him. Our next stop was checking into the hotel. Jaylen ate his chicken strips since it was a little quieter. I just about had a coronary when I called to the front desk and they told me they don’t have high-speed internet, but they do have dial-up and we’re supposed to bring our own “equipment”. Grr. I’d spoken to Mario just before that and he’d asked for me to upload pictures to Flickr so he could see. Poo. And we’d made plans to Myspace each other and now we can’t! I’m so sad.

After everyone had had a bathroom break Jorge stayed with the boys while Mary, Aly and I went to H-E-B with Tommy, Yadira, Yazmin and Angela.

Jorge succeeded in scaring the crap out of me, as always, though this time it wasn’t his plan. He was half-asleep when we left and we’re a few miles away from the hotel when he calls in a panic and asks if Jaylen’s with us. I laugh and tell him, “Uh, no. He stayed with you and Eenan,” because he’s always doing that to me–trying to trick me and make me worry. He says, “No really, he’s with you, right?” I said, “NO JORGE! He’s not with us! I left him with you!” I can hear him shuffling around and then he gives a big sigh of relief. He says, “Cabron, he was in the bathroom.” He muffles the phone and he tells Jaylen, “Why didn’t you tell me where you were going.” Jaylen just shrugged LOL.

We got a few things we needed from H-E-B (including two more rechargeable batteries, because I’ll just die if a really awesome photo op comes about and I miss it!). And now we’re here, resting. And I’m cold. And the kids (especially Alaethia) are running amuck. I’ll just read and maybe take a nap.