Working Through It, Part 2

Tues. 23rd — Mrs. V. was back at work, which meant I’d have lots of stuff to do. There’s really never any down time. I felt really overwhelmed and sad at the end of the day and I didn’t even know why. Mrs. V., Mrs. Ruiz and I stood by my desk and talked about the quinceanera, and life in general. We started talking about some students we know, which somehow led to talking about Eenan’s behavior and I got so emotional about it that I started bawling; for the 2nd time in front of Mrs. V., first time in front of Mrs. Ruiz. I was so embarrassed. I couldn’t stop! Mrs. V. assured me that I’m doing a great job with the kids and that I’m an excellent mom, which made me cry even more LOL. A sub walked in at that time so I forced myself to stop crying. As I’m shelving the last few books of the day I notice the books the sub’s been putting away are in the wrong place. He says, “Uh oh! I messed up,” –which is not what I wanted to hear! I found out later on that he’d been putting all the books he’d worked on since his conference period in the wrong place. Bleh. More work for me!

Mario got home early that night. He got ready for bed around 8:30 and I hadn’t even taken a shower. The only time he has to “watch” the kids really (and it’s usually just Alaethia because the boys are in bed already) is the 30 minutes or less I spend in the shower. He didn’t care. He just cacooned himself in our comforter and began to fall asleep, Alaethia crying at the foot of the bed. I scooped her up and muttered “worthless piece of crap”, but the meaner version, which I shouldn’t have, but I was so frustrated. Why does he get to just do as he pleases and I can’t? He goes on without a worry except for whatever happens at work and I have the brunt of everything! Which is usually the case; the mom being the backbone. I wish there was more teamwork!

Needles s to say, he got up and left. That’s another thing. I know I insulted him and hurt his feelings, but I can’t just up and leave when he hurts mine.

Well, I had to shower regardless of whether I had someone to watch Aly or not, so I tried bathing with her sitting on the foot stool in the bathroom. No can do. She kept opening the cabinets and drawers and ripping the shower curtain open, which wet the floor. I asked her if she wanted a bath and she quickly ripped off her diaper. She was so well behaved; didn’t try splashing water outside or anything! First time I’d ever bathed with one of the kids. Never the boys, because they were boys and I felt uncomfortable and although Alaethia’s a girl I just feel really weird because, hello? I’m naked.

Wed. 24th – I woke up feeling really guilty about my argument with Mario. It was raining—no, pouring–and I was nervous about driving in the rain, especially because it’s so dark down the road I take.

As I was driving west on the Expressway I see the flashes of ambulance and police lights. It looked like a huge accident; the whole right lane (going East) was closed. As I get closer and am about to turn I slow down to see what it is: a huge semi trailer on its side. My heart flipped. It was all very scary. I prayed all the way to work and gave thanks to God for another day with my family. I decided to text Mario an apology as soon as I got to work. It made me realize life’s too short to be angry/upset over petty things like a shower.

We had grade level meetings that day, which means I can’t scan any books in because of the “beep” the scanner emanates. The system was excruciatingly slow so we resorted to checking out by an Excel document, like last year, which meant I’d have to manually check out these books to the kids by entering every student’s ID plus their book barcodes into the system. Since I couldn’t scan or shelve books, I busied myself alphabetizing and filing agreement documents and when I had nothing else to do I scanned books in…by hand. I typed in all barcodes. And then I was volunteered to substitute for 1 hour! I was horrified, as I’d never substituted before and was expecting the worst. I was going to get a taste of what poor Noelia has to go through every day. And these were 6th graders!

It went much better than I thought it would. The first class was really well behaved. The second class had 3 rowdy boys, but once I wrote their names down and redirected their behavior all was well.

I went back and rearranged classes for the teachers in Reading Renaissance. I went to lunch with Mrs. Ruiz and had 10 lovely extra minutes because I clocked out late the day before.

Mario got home and we watched movies, or tried to anyway. We got to watch all of Made of Honor, which was really cute. Even he enjoyed it. We tried watching Definitely, Maybe but Alaethia was becoming moody because she was sleepy so I just got in the shower and then bathed her and went to bed.

Thurs. 25th – I can’t remember much from that day (I blame my Pregnancy Brain), but I know it was pretty normal: hectic in the morning at work, low-key in the afternoon. I got home and since it was payday for me, I started paying my bills and then working out my new bill-paying schedule since Mario’s getting paid every week at his new job. It was such a headache—I’ve been paying our bills and buying groceries every two weeks since we got married 9 ½ years ago, so it’s taking some getting used to.

Fri. – 26th – Friday!! The day I look forward to all week. It was jean and Spirit shirt day so I was in a good mood. It was another normal day (hectic) and we had an overload of books to shelve at the end of the day, but Mrs. Ruiz, my guardian angel, helped me out so much. I left work to pick up the kids in such a good mood. Mario texted me and told me he’d have to work the next day, which kind of bummed me out, but oh well, what can you do.

We didn’t go visit Gramma that day since I figured we’d just go Saturday since Mario was working anyway. We chilled out outside with the in-laws and got the kids some ice creams and elote. Mario got home and told me we were invited to his boss’s house again for another bar-b-q. I didn’t bother getting all prettied up this time; just changed my blouse and shoes and we left. We chilled out with Maggie and the boss’s wife and then we joined the men outside and ate and talked and joked around. There was a point where I got a little riled up when some stupid things were brought up, and then my hormonal pregnant self bawled on the way home, but Mario was being really nice about everything.

Sat. 27th – Mario got his stuff ready on his own the next morning. I was so exhausted I couldn’t get out of bed. Aly and I woke up at the same time and we had breakfast and just lazied around. Mom kept rushing me and the boys to get ready so we could leave to town, but I was just too tired. The boys ended up leaving to town with Mary, Natalie and Catharine instead. I finally took a shower and we left around noon. Mario had called just before I’d gotten into the shower to tell me he was on his way home from work already. I thought, “Yay, he’ll get to go with us!” But no. He said since I wasn’t expecting him to go in the first place, wouldn’t I rather he stay home and do laundry instead? I walked him through the sorting and gave him instructions and we took off.

My first stop was Conn’s, where I paid the last $74 on our 47″ TV!! Yay, one less bill to worry about ^_^. It felt SO GOOD to pay it off. I was starving so we stopped at Taco Bell to have lunch. It took forever; Alaethia was too busy smearing her taco meat on the window (I cleaned it up, don’t worry) and only wanted to drink Cherry Pepsi. She refused to go in a high chair, but I eventually put her in one anyway. She thankfully didn’t throw a fit and finished eating her food just fine. It took us about 45 minutes just to eat lunch.

I stopped for gas and on the way to Gramma’s I decided to stop by the thrift shop, just in case I found any books, since I won’t have them as easily accessible once I stop working. My plans went out the window when Alaethia kept screaming every time she saw a “baby” (stuffed animal) and would ask for a book and give it right back to me just to ask for another one again. They also did some inconvenient rearranging of furniture so I couldn’t get the shopping cart in the aisles. I decided we’d wasted enough time and went straight to Gramma’s.

She’s doing well, except for a slight cough she’s getting. I hope they keep an eye on her; she always ends up with pneumonia. She laughed at the silly things Alaethia was saying and Alaethia kept running into the hallway. It was hilarious when someone scared her and all you saw was a flash of pink run back into the room. Gramma couldn’t stop laughing.

I started feeling really ill while we were there. I called Mario right away and asked him if he was feeling ill, because we always get sick at the same time. He said no, he felt fine. I decided to skip Walmart and Target that day and go the next. I hate having to do grocery shopping on Sundays, but oh well.

We get home and I just collapse on the couch. It isn’t long before Mario says, “Uh oh. Now I’m feeling gross.” We narrowed it down and figured it might be the type of meat his boss buys for the bar-b-q’s, because the last time we got sick (we thought it was the 24-hour bug) we’d eaten at his boss’s house the night before, too. Weird.

Mary and the boys went straight to church, Mom went home and Mario and Alaethia fell asleep. I was all alone so I decided to finish up with laundry and clean up.

A few hours later, when we’re both feeling much better, Mario and I pick up some pizzas at Peter Piper for the whole family for dinner. I love to cook, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy not being on my feet. When the boys went to sleep over at Mary’s, Mario and I (and Alaethia) watched Definitely, Maybe…and I bawled like a baby at the end. Mario kept laughing at me but I couldn’t help it. Darn hormones!