OMG if i eat another piece of halloween candy I am going to burst! I MUST get this overeating. My weight is creepy up FAST.

The kids had fun trick'r'treating. For the first time we went to more than 7 houses. Also, they insisted that I take them out rather than Stephen so it was fun to be out and instead of home with easy access to the candy.

Stephen and I have had some long chats about the nut thing at school and he is composing a letter to send to the teacher, insisting that she inform us every time there is an incident like last week. I am also going to ask her if she would like to show the class the "Alexander the Elephant" video.

I have been working on the Christmas ornaments for the SAHP swap. I have a feeling I might need to switch ideas...again lol

I am in a pissy mood. I have been all day. I think it might be PMS but I am not sure. Grumble grumble.

We did not go to the MS family Halloween party at Stephen's work because it started at 3 and Dex was in class until 3:30. By the time we drove over and tried to find a parking spot it would probably be over. Besides, Jax cannot eat most of the food offered. So we just had regular old movie night and the kids watched a new Scooby-Doo Movie on Cartoon Network.

Stephen told me that I was harsh the other night when I told his parents we were never, ever going to Toronto for Christmas again. I asked him if he thought I were rude and needed to apologize to them. He said no but I could have sugar-coated it. I think that he just doesn't like to disappoint people and didn't want them to be upset that we would not be there. I remember back in '96 when they came to visit and Stephen told them we would not be home for Christmas that year his mom started to cry. That was the first Christmas we did not go to Toronto (we were strapped for cash because we had bought our condo). We did not go again in '97 (I was preggo) but we went in '98 and '00. We have not been since then.

And my mother has been nagging me for two weeks for a Christmas list. IT IS STILL OCTOBER! Stephen told me to tell her to shut up. I think I will and see if she still thinks he is so wonderful. ;)

They left this morning - yeehaw!

The last day was ok. We drove them up to see Mount Si and then to Snoqualmie Falls which was just awesome with the leaves turning colours.

Stephen took them out to run errands the rest of the day. They then left this morning right after I took Jax to school. It was so pleasant to have my house to myself again.

The peanut issue at school thing is still bothering me. The teacher told me that the kids had been very, very good about not bringing in nuts and peanut products and that it was just the first time. Also, she said that the kids were very "sensitive to Jackson's needs". I don't know what to do next, really. Stephen says that the school is doing everything they should be doing and he doesn't want to pursue it further. He thinks that it would be like crying wolf. :
Speaking of wolf - well wildlife (nice segue ;) - a neighbour sent an email about a bobcat in her backyard. She has lived here for 15 years and has never seen one up here. Lots of other things (racoon, coyote, deer, opposum) but never a bobcat. Scary!

My sister apparently needs a full hysterectomy. Even her ovaries (according to my mom because J of course will not answer the phone when I call her). She did tell my mom that she would not be opposed to answering the phone if I called her again (I tried to get a hold of her last week). So I called again this morning and no answer. I will try again on Saturday.

Nothing to report so just some random thoughts today:

- One would think that after 5 years one would have memorized a telephone number of a family member
- It is more economical to fill a sink with soap and water and wash the dishes at one time rather than running the water for 10 minutes
- Hand washing dishes is no benefit if it then means you have to run a not-full dishwasher later in the day
- Four adults do not fit in my kitchen between the sink and the stove so SIT DOWN
- I don't care to hear about how fat everyone has become
- My family is all doing well, thanks for asking. Oh right. You didn't.
- Yes, I really have had goose for dinner at your house one time. Yes, I know you haven't had it in 15 years but it *is* possible. Remember, your son and I started dating 18 years ago.

Ok, can you tell I have some issues and bitterness?

Today was Cars' baptism. His soul is now saved. :) Mass was late because someone thought they smelled a gas leak. So a few minutes after I dropped Jax off at his religion class, they evacuated the church. I came back 45 minutes later with the rest of the family and there were 5 fire trucks and yellow tape everywhere. Jax at the rest of the kids in the RE programs spent all that time outside (most were not wearing coats and while it was not raining it was only about 50F). I gathered him and then we all stood around outside for 45 minutes waiting for the all clear to go back into the church (there was no gas leak). During Mass Cars was restless because he was tired and hungry and by the time it came to baptize him it was the time when Mass is usually ending. He hollered and yelled while other baby being baptized - the cute pretty little baby in the lovely baptism gown - was quiet and calm. A friend of mine took photos so I don't have any yet (she is going to burn them to a cd for me). I hope Cars looked cuter than he sounded.

Oh, and JP and Marilyn drove down from Vancouver for the baptism which was a nice surprise!

I have had very limited computer time over the last few days and I am surly. I miss the forums and IM'ing my friends. Just 4 more days.

Edited to add photo:

JP sent me a photo. They are all out of focus though because he didn't think he was allowed to use the flash in the church. This is the best he had. Anyway, Stephen, Dex, Jax, Me, Cars and the outlaws

36 hours...

So far I have survived.

I took Terry to tea at a teahouse today and it was so lovely! It was nice to have some time for ME without feeling rushed. Anyway, we are supposed to meet she and her dh for dinner tomorrow night (it is a surprise for her) but I don't think Stephen has asked his parents to babysit yet. So I am getting pissed off.

Stephen and his mom have been arguing about Americans for the past hour. This is after his mom telling him how heartbroken she is that he moved to the States and will become an American when he is able to do so. Then they drank another bottle of wine and it went downhill from there. She called him an Enigma asking why he could possibly consider becoming American. Then she turned and pointed to me "And you are even a BIGGER Enigma! Your father, being such a huge CANADIAN politican! You! Becoming American!" Hmmm....

Inlaws arrived today. They brought a loot of Smarties and Coffee Crisps. Jax is elated.

Still haven't heard back from Judi. I didn't talk to mom today either. Still praying hard that it is a "mild" case.

I am going out to tea with Terry tomorrow - her 40th birthday. Stephen is taking the next few days off work so I will leave Dex and Cars at home with him and his parents and I will enjoy a couple of hours with a girlfriend. I am looking forward to it.

Cars was up from midnight to 3:30am yesterday so I am very tired. But look at the time - 11:26pm. Why didn't I go to bed earlier!?

Third blahg entry today.

Mom called this evening to tell me that Judi, my sister, has cervical cancer. Hopefully they caught it early. She had not been to the doctor in years and years (well for anything other than Rx for anti-depressants). She finally went because her arms kept feeling numb and she thought she was going to have a stroke (she is a heavy smoker). Anyway, good thoughts and prayers for her would be most welcome!

Ok, no strep for me. Just a rotten virus.

Hmmm - my blahg will not display but I can edit it. Weird.

Still waiting to hear back from the doctor's office about my strep test. My throat doesn't feel any worse so perhaps I just have some virus/cold. We'll see.

I went to bed at 7pm last night. Then I got up for a short while about 9 then back to bed. I needed the sleep, I guess. But my back is killing me for being stationary for so long.

Cars is really fighting the weaning thing. It has gotten to the point that if I hold him at all he will try to pull my shirt up to nurse. Poor boy.

Well off to find out why my blahg will not display...

Oh, I feel a fever coming on. I went to my doctor to have myself tested for strep. She doesn't have the fancy 5 minute machine to I will have to wait until tomorrow for the results.

One dose of antibiotics and Dex is finally feeling better. Of course he has been talking in a whiny voice for the past two hours and I want him to be quiet! Three more hours until Stephen is home and I can go to bed.

Dex is sick. He has a high fever and he says his throat hurts. I wonder if he has strep too. Off to the doctor in the morning.

The weaning is not going so well. Cars can break my resolve with his screaming. *sigh*

I bought the boys matching sweaters for Christmas. I am going to do so as long as I can get them! lol Now I just need to arrange a date for photos at Sears. Maybe the first week of November. Better call soon. BTW, the sweaters are cute and much cheaper than the ones from Gymboree that I had been looking at.

I finished knitting the scarf with Berroco Optik. It really does not look that nice. It must be my knitting though because the one in the fabric store looked lovely. ANyway, I will keep this one for myself. Now I am knitting one for DeniSe with Patons Allure in Amethyst. It is lovely! I will make a matching one for her dd. I am almost getting inspired enough to try something harder, like a hat or a sweater!

The outlaws arrive in four days. I am still sitting on the right side of sanity so I don't think their visit will push me over the edge like last year. I have decided to keep my (next) Monday appt with the psychologist and just tell the outlaws I have an appointment and they can babysit for me.

OMG, I gave Dex some Advil for his fever about 40 minutes ago and he is WIRED now. At least he isn't weepy like he was before the Advil. Now, how do I get him to bed? lol

If you give poison control a call, they'll want to ask you your name and address.
If you give them your name and address, they'll want to send you some Mr. Yuk stickers.
If they send you some Mr. Yuk stickers, you're kids are going to want to stick them on the window.
If they stick them on the window, you'll have to use Un-Du to get the stickers off.
If you use Un-Du, chances are you're going to get distracted and leave the Un-du out.
If you leave the Un-Du out, your toddler is going to get a hold of it.
If he gets a hold of it, he'll probably put it in his mouth.
If he puts it in his mouth, you'll have to call poison control.

As promised, a photo of Cars with his haircut (Mar, please ignore his dirty face! ;)



I have tried for days to take a nice photo of him but he keeps making faces. Or doing things like this:



T-minus 8 days until the outlaws arrive. One good thing about their visit is that they will help replenish our Smarties supply.

Last night I went out to dinner with my playgroup friends. I miss them so much since we no longer meet. I think we are going to get all of the kids together on November 11th since most people have that day off school/preschool/etc.

Stephen told me he'd be "a couple of minutes late tonight". I asked him for his definition of "a couple of minutes" and he replied two hours. Oh brother. I am glad that I asked him. Now, off to clean up from dinner, fold the laundry, bathe the kids and put the garbage (and recycling and yard waste) out. I cannot imagine how others do it all when their dh's work away from home week after week.

A glorious day today! I love warm fall days like this.

Ok, I've cut out one nursing session for Cars. I'll wait a few more days and cut out another.

Horrible mom report:

After school at the park, as we were getting ready to leave Jax said he had to go to the bathroom so I let him go to the mens room alone. I was maybe 50 feet away. I figured I had a couple of minutes so I knit a row (16 stitches). Jax was not back yet so I knit another row. As I was getting to the end of the second row, I thought I heard some banging. I put my knitting away and started walking towards the bathrooms. The banging became louder and then I could hear a muffled frantic "MOMMY!". I broke into a run and as I approached the door to the mens room I could see these little finger waving out under the door. The door was STUCK shut and poor Jax had been trying to get out. I called to him to step back then I had to throw my weight against the door to get it open. He was sweaty and dirty from lying on the ground trying to get my attention. He had also been crying. Poor boy! I felt horrible! Why was the door sticking like that? What if there had been a pervert in the bathroom with him? What if the sticking door had been a trap?! I called the city to report the problem but I still cannot get this out of my mind. Why did I have to knit a row...two rows?! Sh!t!

Costumes are set. Jax will be Unknown Phantom and Dex will be Frodo. Of course this Frodo will also have green vampire teeth (don't ask!). I still need to see if the Skeleton costume I made for Jax way back will fit Cars. Dex wore it too.

I finally was able to get a haircut. It looks nice, I think. I went back to the old place I used to go to but not to the stylist I went to for 3 years because she does not work on Sundays and I needed a cut NOW! Anyway, I am still growing it out but is now has a little more shape to it and the bangs are not in my eyes anymore.

Tonight was Jax's turn in the Celebration Chair because he lost his first tooth! The tooth fairy left $5 for this first tooth (the tooth fairy's wife wanted only to leave $3 but lost that arguement). Subsequent teeth will only be worth $1.

Stephen spent the day touching up the walls in the kitchen and family room with spackle and then paint. What a huge difference not to have a dozen or so knicks in the yellow and red painted walls. Now, what to do about the clutter before the outlaws arrive. Stephen has a Honey-Do list that he plans on completing when his father is here. I am not sure why he thinks it would be a good idea to ask his father to help. It is bugging me already because I know his dad will go home and tell everyone that he came here and fixed up our house. Even if that means he just held the drill. Why do I care?!

I have almost finished Terry's scarf. I just need to cast off. It is shorter than the other two I made and I cannot decide if I should make it another 4" longer so that is why I am not completely done with it.

OMG - I just heard that Christopher Reeve died. I cannot find anything on the internet yet though. Hmmm... John Kerry just spoke about him at the debate the other night. Speaking about embryonic stem cell research and how it could help Christopher Reeve walk again.

Ok, I need to go to bed. I am a walking zombie these days...zzzzzzz

Jax was home from school today. Strep throat. I wonder who will get it next - Dex, Cars, me or Stephen.

Jax and Dex lost the priviledge of movie night tonight. I think Stephen was upset for me for taking it away from them but too bad! They were both rude to me about dinner and my feelings were a little hurt too. Let's hope tomorrow they are better...

It is nearly 11 pm and I am baking a cake so Jax can take a piece to a birthday party tomorrow since the place told the b-day kid's mom that they could not guarantee a peanut-free cake. A lady in Michael's overheard me talking to Jax about his peanut allergy and she told me she was allergic too and suggest that we join the Seattle Food Allergy group. The she told me about Pcc's Vegan Chocolate Cake. I was skeptical about the cake because it has Red Wine Vinegar but I tasted the batter and it was good and the cake smells sooooo yummy.

I bought myself some gorgeous yarn to make ME a scarf. I figure I am worth it, right? :) Let's see if I can finish Terry's first!

The Other

I drove Jax to the park behind the school and he walked from there so he could get his prize (A pencil that says "I WALKED TO SCHOOL TODAY"). Not really cheating...

I remembered to take Dex to school today. Good thing because it was PICTURE DAY. After school he said "I smiled like this" and gave me the cheesiest grin. Can't wait to see those pictures. Jax's picture day is tomorrow. His loose tooth is hanging on by a thread of flesh so when he smiles it sticks straight forward. Another lovely photo to look forward to.

Cars got a haircut today. He cried through most of it and I had to hold him so I was covered with hair. He looks like a little boy. He is also 14 months old now. Blink and tomorrow he will be two.

After I picked Jax up from school at the park, I told him he had 10 minutes to play before we had to pick up Declan. This man looked over at me and said "Did you say 'Declan'?" and I said yes and he said "I have a Declan too". We both laughed because we knew instantly...that we were both the parents "the other Declan". His Declan was born 3 weeks before my Declan at the same hospital. I had run into his FIL in Safeway 4 years ago (he overheard me saying Declan's name) and since then people here and there have been asking us if we knew "the other Declan". Apparently people had been asking him too! lol He told me his name was Mike and he really wanted to ensure his kids had unique names and here he named his son Declan and it will turn out that both Declans will be in the same grade/school as each other once they start Kindergarten. Anyway, I hope I run into him again sometime because I want to see what "the other Declan" looks like (he was at preschool too and his dad was at the park with "the other Declan"'s sister).

My MIL called today and asked if they should stay in a hotel while they were here. That was my perfect opportunity to say "Yes please!" and you know what I said? "Oh, we have plenty of room. You can stay here. It is not a problem." Erp

Cars is allergic to milk and eggs. He reacted strongly to milk even though it was diluted 1/100. The tests for peanuts and soy were negative. Of course as far as I know he has never ever ever been exposed to peanuts. Anyway, I need to get to the drug store to fill the Epi-Pen prescription. Oh, and he is allergic to eggs too.

I hope I remember to take Dex to school tomorrow. It is picture day.

Jax's tooth is hanging by a thin thread of skin. I wonder if it will fall out before his picture day on Thursday.

This week is "Walk to School Week" and tomorrow is "Walk to School Day". We walked Jax to school on Monday morning which was a glorious morning with sun, fog, mist, changing leaves. Tomorrow it is going to pour rain. Tomorrow, the kids who walk to school get prizes. Jax has been talking about the prize he is going to get for walking to school tomorrow. Ugh - why didn't they give the prizes out on Monday??!. So I think I will drive and park around the corner from the school and walk the rest of the way. I do not want to walk in the pissing rain.

I finished reading The Da Vinci Code. I enjoyed it but it did not make me think twice about religion or the Church. It made me want to learn a little more about Art history and cryptography.

Now that I have finished reading it I can get back to my knitting.

Random thoughts today...

Eighteen years ago today Stephen and I had our first date.

I forgot to take Dex to school today - how did I manage that?

Cars is going to see the allergist tomorrow so we can verify once and for all if he is indeed allergic to dairy. I need to find out why he keeps getting hives.

I fell off the roof today too so I am feeling extremely icky.

Dex gets to sit in the CELEBRATION CHAIR today because he had ALL of his teeth cleaned at the dentist for the first time (usually they can only get 4 or 6 before he flips out).

Kraft Caramels are yummy.

Sponge Bob Squarepants is a retarded concept.

I am lazy and I hate exercising.

One of my rhodies are blooming - only 5 months late!

If I had another baby boy I would name him Michael.

Jax wants to be a grim reaper for Halloween.

Dex wants to be Frodo.

Cars can talk. A little. He calls Stephen "Ya-Ya" which is hilarious. "Hi Ya-Ya!" when Stephen comes home from work. Sooooo cute.

Cars is also cutting more teeth. Last time he let me check he had 10. He has been miserable! Neither he nor I slept much last night.

Dex has been a real pip lately. He rambles on and on going from one thought to the next without a breath! Also, today he and Jax were playing "Star Wars" and he was Darth Vader "I'm your dad" he says in a monotone to Jax. Jax of course says "No! You say 'Luke, I am your father'". Dex sighs heavily and repeats "I'm your father" in that monotone. Hilarious!

Jax loves showing off his reading skills. He lectures Dex day in and day out about what sounds certain combination of words make. Tonight it was "ING". Jax was also delighted that today when he ate his apple at lunch his loose tooth became looser. Now he says he will eat an apple everyday until his tooth falls out.

I signed on to volunteer to be a "material/supply person" for Dex's Sunday School class. What a mistake! OMG the commitment is way more than I was lead to believe. Plus I also have to volunteer one day during the class AND sub as a teacher if one of the teachers are sick. UGH!

One volunteer thing I am really looking forward to doing is working at Jax's school on the reading program. I go in once each month (I'd like to go in more often but cannot guarantee I can get someone to watch the Dex and Cars!). Right now I am assuming that Nanny will be there on those days. If not, I am sure I can get Ash to watch them for that hour.

I did not knit one stitch today. Maybe I'll pick it up tomorrow...