Thursday, September 29, 2011

Anger Management

My weekend that started out so good, ended so badly that I am still recovering.  My cousin got married on Saturday and everything was beautiful.  The day was perfect, the location was unique, and the flower girl only slightly cranky.  Saturday morning Ashley was up early so we went to go and visit Alberto at jail.  We talked about nothing in particular and ended with the agreement that I would try this method I devised for Alberto to be able to call Mexico and talk to his family there.  After leaving the jail, we got home for breakfast and then left immediately for Ashley to get a haircut.  Since I’m useless when it comes to styling, I had Fantastic Sam’s create an up do for Ashley and so discovered they had a portable DVD player on hand with Dora movies.  Perfect!  About 45 minutes later we were on our way home again.  I had enough time to get dressed then get Ashley dressed before we had to leave for pictures before the ceremony.  After the ceremony I bought ice cream which was a shameless bribe to keep my 3 year old happy for another round of pictures and poses.  We arrived home and spent 20 minutes doing nothing before we left for the reception.  I made a call to the babysitter’s house to make sure she remembered that I was going to pick her up around 9; there was no answer so I left a voicemail.  I called several times before 9:30 without an answer or a call back from my messages, I even called her mother’s cell phone without any luck.  Ashley had already been asleep about 30 minutes and we were passing her around like a sack of potatoes.  Luckily my cousin agreed to babysit for me since she was able to dance due to a knee injury, and I took them to the house to get settled.  My cousin was asleep when I came home at 11 pm, and I promptly went to bed myself after seeing her off with her mother.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Waiting My Turn

Hello again dear readers.  I must apologize for letting so much time pass between posts, but nothing super exciting or stressful is happening at this time.  I feel a little freedom in being able to say that nothing super stressful is happening, but I also know that in a matter of days (24 to be exact) our world will change yet again.  I am counting the days until the trial takes place knowing that this could be the beginning or it could be the end of everything we have been fighting for.  I imagine this is why I haven’t been sleeping well lately.  Not to say that I have been productive during the time sleep eludes me, I’m simply not motivated to do a damn thing.  I have a bedroom to clean, spiders to slay, and several projects that I have halfway completed.

Ashley is going on her fourth week of Preschool and she loves every minute of it.  The program she is going to is run by the YMCA, and the teachers are absolutely wonderful.  The problem is that she is attending a 3 day per week program because of availability and affordability issues, so the two days of the week she goes to my mother-in-law’s house are pure torture for me.  Just this morning she latched onto my leg crying, “¡Mamí no! ¡Quiero ir a la escuela! ¡Mamí no me dejes!  So right now I am trying to work some financial wizardry to figure out how I can afford 5 days per week at Preschool.  I am already on a financial scholarship offered to families in need by the Y, but my weekly fee would go from $67.20 to $109.20 which is outside of my price point.  If there is availability, I may take the time to speak with the Director of the childcare programs to see if there is any way I can get additional assistance.  I would like to take a moment to ask everyone out there to donate to organizations like the YMCA which are devoted to strengthening communities.  You can donate to the YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities at this link (https://www.ymcatwincities.org/donate/).  Another wonderful organization that does an enormous amount of good locally is the Greater Twin Cities United Way and you can make a donation at this link (https://www.unitedwaytwincities.org/give/).

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Potty-trained Preschooler on the loose

We managed to get Ashley potty-trained just in time for her to start going to Preschool this Wednesday.  She is enjoying it from what I can tell, and the teachers have mostly good things to say about her.  She loves to help clean up, but she has trouble keeping quiet during ‘rest time’.  She hasn’t had any accidents and doesn’t seem to be scrapping with any of the kids in her class.  This may be just the thing to help Ashley move onto the next step communication wise.  It would be nice if she started using full sentences to tell us what she needs or wants.  I just feel bad that I don’t get off early enough in the day to go and pick her up myself.  Mondays will be different though, if we continue going to visit Alberto as we have in the past.  I really don’t know how this is going to work out though, what I do know is that I’m going to have to think extra hard about where I need to go after work every day.

I received a letter in the mail on Friday from Alberto.  I love it when I get mail from Alberto because I know when he wrote that letter he was thinking of me.  I was just thinking the other day that I should get a nice box to put the letters in so I can keep them safe, although to be honest with myself they end up staying in my purse anyhow.  Alberto is miffed at me because I was supposed to call my mother-in-law this weekend to find out who is going with me to visit on Monday and I forgot as usual.  I happen to forget things all the damn time, usually if it involves something I don’t particularly want to do like call my mother-in-law.  I bet at this very moment I am forgetting something that I was supposed to do which will cause Alberto to become exasperated.  I do remember, since he reminded me tonight, that he requested that I find him a prayer book.  I found what I hope he was looking for on Amazon.com, and I’m somewhat irritated that shipping cost more than the book itself.  I think I’ll keep that little nugget to myself, Lord knows I don’t need to give Alberto any reasons to get annoyed with me since he’s proficient at that all by himself.  I’m also supposed to come up with song lyrics for him, but one of the bands he’s listed doesn’t appear to exist.  We’re already discussed this particular song and band, and he’s stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that he has the name misspelled.