My Week: Hobbies, Work, & Family!

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! 😀