February, Week 2

Monday, February 12th

With Carlos being gone, I knew this week was going to be somewhat hard and that we would miss him. I had no idea what I was in for! To start out, I had training that day. I was hoping it would not be too hard to find someone to watch Ian and David, but the plans were not all straightened out until 10 pm the night before. Cornia (our aunt) was going to be watching David until 11 when she had to leave for work and I had Carlitos excused from school at that time so that he could pick David up from Corina’s. Jeff, my mom’s boyfriend agreed to have Ian with him for the day. When I dropped David with Corina, she had to run some errands. I went to put him in her car and he cried and screamed and grabbed on to my clothes. I felt horrible leaving him that way and also for having Corina have to deal with him when she has things to do. I left her house in tears, dropped the girls off at school and headed to my mom’s to drop off Ian. Ian did not want to go in either. I actually had to stand behind him and gently push him into the house. He was making the noise that he makes when he is nervous / scared. I cried the rest of the way to the training site. I am thankful that I am able to be a stay-at home mom, and days like these make me even more thankful for it. Not to mention that I felt guilty about having Carlitos miss half a day of school too.

The day went on, and things were ok. I knew they would be, but it is just hard to leave your kids feeling like that, and not knowing how their day went until you get home. That evening, the girls and I finished up their valentine’s. They always get so excited over those little cards. I remember feeling that way when I was a kid too.

Something exciting happened to Emily right before I came home. She lost a tooth! This was the 4th tooth that she has lost. If you can see, it was one of her top teeth. The other three teeth that she has lost have been on the bottom. I can’t wait for Carlos to come home and be able to see her precious smile!

Tuesday, February 13th

Today was my last day of training, until April. I was glad to be done for a while, but I know that when I go back I will be with a group of different HCA’s and I had become comfortable with the HCA’s that I was with. I almost felt like I should just finish up the training this month, but I knew it would just be too hard finding people to watch Ian and David for another 5 days. Today, both Ian and David went to Corina’s and Jose was excused from school at 11 to pick them up.

That night after dinner, Carlitos stayed home with everyone while Jose and I went to the store to do a little Valentine’s shopping. This is what he picked out for Tauni.

Wednesday, February 14th ~ Valentine’s Day

It was so nice to be able to not have to be rushing around this morning, trying to get everybody ready, so that I could get to my training. Four years ago I started doing Ashley’s hair with this little pull-through twisty heart style for Valentine’s Day, and now it has become a tradition. The girls reminded me to do it again this year. I was able to snag a couple quick pics of Emily. (Ashley was already headed out to the car with Ian.) You can see Emily’s smile where, the missing tooth is. I just love those smiles, they melt me!

While the kids were at school, I went ahead and put together some Valentine’s gifts for them. These were the gifts I put together for the boys. They both love Reese’s. I used these wooden crate-like baskets and added a giant Reese’s heart, a package of smaller Reese’s hearts and bad of Reese’s pieces tied with a bow. Oh, and I also folded two $10 bills in the shape of a heart and put one in each basket. What teenager wouldn’t like chocolate and money for Valentine’s Day, right?

The finished product! I also made a little sign for each one and taped it to the front. The sign said, “I love you to pieces!!!”

Carlos posted this picture today. I was happy to finally see a picture from his trip to Mexico. He is in the middle with his brother Martin on the left and his brother Abel on the right. I like how Carlos wore a red shirt on Valentine’s Day! 😉

When the kids came home from school, they called me out to the living room and presented me with these! They all gave me hugs and told me they were from dad. It was sweet of Carlos to think of a way to be able to still make me feel special on Valentine’s Day, even though he is 2,829.8 miles away! It is also very sweet of our boys to keep it a secret all week and go to the store and pick these up. It was a gift from all of them. 🙂

With that said, I went ahead and gave the kids their Valentine’s gifts. I wanted them to feel a little extra special since their dad was gone for Valentine’s Day. I’ve made it a tradition to get David a book every year for Valentine’s Day, that has to do with love….of course. This year it was, You Are My I Love You. Also it the bag were some chocolates and a pair of p.j.’s.The Reese’s gifts were a hit with the boys.

Ian loved his chocolate. I gave the girls some coloring books,stickers, chocolate and sweetarts. Later that evening we went to dinner at Pizza Hut. The girls had book-it coupons to redeem for doing all their reading in January, so they were able to get their own personal pan pizzas. Afterwards, Carlitos & Ashley went off to church activities and the rest of us came home.

David fell asleep on the way home, which was perfect time since it was about 7pm. Emily and I were able to spend some time together coloring and reading. I love my beautiful little girl.

The night ended with Jose and I having a long talk about what had unfortunately happen at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, earlier this day. We talked about it a little bit after school, but once all the younger kids were in bed we were able to talk more about it. Jose came into my room and talked with me about and showed me some images and video clips from the school shooting. Then we read some of the news articles together. That is so scary, it is hard to imagine. We talked about what the staff protocol was like when I used to work for a school district etc. We talked about how this is absolutely not ok for anyone to do, no matter their circumstances. We also talked about the signs to look for in the people around them and the importance of telling someone. Jose went to bed. I kept thinking about that tragedy, from the stand point of a student, an educator and a parent. Why was this affecting me more than other school shootings? Was it because sadly, school shootings are beginning to happen more frequently? Maybe it was the video footage? I wanted to talk to Carlos about it, as I was sure he may not have heard about what happened, but I couldn’t call him. So, I went upstairs and hugged my teenagers. I told them that I loved them and made sure that they know (again) that is behavior is not ok.

Friday, February 16th ~ Happy birthday Carlitos!

This post was getting pretty long, so I made another post about Carlos birthday. Click 18th birthday to read about it. I will just add that with Carlitos’ birthday festivities going, I was still awake at midnight, because I remember wishing him, “happy last-minute of your birthday!” Shortly after, I went to bed.

Saturday, February 17th

Little did I know, I would not be going to sleep. Around 12:15 am, I received a call from Carlos. I will spare you all the details, as this weekly post is already really long The end result of a nightmare is that he was robbed / carjacked on his way to the airport. (Wallet and cell phone were the 2 most important things that were taken) Luckily, he is safe and for that I am very, very thankful. Unfortunately, he was not able to fly home, because his green card was in his wallet. Now, we are waiting for after the President’s Day holiday to see what we can do to get him a form of I.D. In my last post, I said that I could not wait until I heard tales from Carlos’ trip. This was a tale that I was not expecting to hear. I’m glad that he is safe now, but I wish that I could just zap him home in an instant. I have faith that everything will turn out ok, it is difficult and very emotional waiting this out though.