Summer O'Fun 2009 Day 6 & 7

The boys started the golf program yesterday. I signed them up for five weeks (Mondays only). This year they are doing more than just the basic instruction so it sounds like it will be good for them. We are going to miss one week (camping) but they can do a make-up session the following Friday evening (just hitting a bucket of balls at the driving range). I was happy to hear that they enjoyed it yesterday. Jax usually complains that he doesn't have fun but both he and Dex are in the same group this year so now he had someone to talk to.

Today, I let Jax and Dex stay home for a couple of hours (don't call CPS!) and I checked Cars into the daycare center at the gym and I took the circuit training class. It was tough (hadn't been in 3 weeks) and it totally lifted my mood. I think I will do this every week.

Later, I took the kids to the skateboard park and was so surprised at the number of kids about 10-12 years old NOT wearing helmets! Do their mothers know?! Yikes!

Summer O'Fun 2009 Day 6

Jax, Dex and Cars started the summer golf program today. I just signed them up fit five weeks but after that we can pay weekly thru the summer. They all seemed to enjoy it for a change which is nice. Last test, Jax compleined all of the time because he knew no one in HUD age group. This year the 9-11 year old are combined so Jax is happy that he and Dex are together.

I am having a few issues with our 4th of July party and invitees and those not invited. *sigh*. You cannot please everyone.

So, we decided we were ready to buy a new car because last year's models are on clearance with great financing but they do not have any available except for white ones. No thanks. And we thought about this year's (2010) model but *all* they have available are top-of-the-line models. WTF! I don't want the dvd enterainment system (standard) or the special radar that automatically slows your car down when it is on cruise control or the air-conditioned seats. And, we want the middle row bench seat which is not available on this model.

Why is it so hard to buy a new car? Is it time to go back to the drawing board and chose a different car?

Summer O'Fun 2009 Day 5

Jax went to a hockey clinic for the day (he has to learn to body check). Dex, Cars and I went to a few stores and I bought Dex his sandals for the summer (thankfully he is not in mens sizes!).

This week really flew by. I hope the whole summer doesn't!

Summer O'Fun 2009 Day 4

The kids and I went to the beach to check out the tide pools during low tide. Sadly, the park we normally go to is under construction (the pedestrian bridge over the train tracks that lead to the bridge) so we went to a different beach and there were not as many nooks and crannies for the sea life so we did not see any cool things like star fish or sea cucumbers. I am kind of bummed. We did still see moon snails and their egg casings, tons'o'crabs (alive and dead), eels and geoducks (pronounced gooey-ducks). The kids had a blast. I have decided to try another low tide at the other park (it just won't be super low tide like this week) on a weekend this summer (the bridge is open after 3pm and on weekends).

Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died today. Farrah's death was not unexpected and I did feel sorry because she was so ill. A couple of months ago, I watched the documentary that she made about her illness and it was very touching and also somewhat desperate. I felt sorry for her. Especially when her son, who is in jail on drug-related offences, came to visit her in leg irons. How sad to die knowing your son is in jail.

Michael Jackson's death is a shock because it was sudden. I feel only a little sad because I know he had a sad childhood and made him into the man he was. I believe he was a sick man who took advantage of children. Ok, yes, ALLEGEDLY took advantage. I feel badly for his children because he died owing people millions and who knows what kind of crazy he passed onto them. They have only ever been seen outside with masks or blankets over their faces.

Ed McMahon also died this week so no doubt the "things happen in threes" people are satisfied.

And yes, I am in a bad mood. I need to exercise. And I am irritated that the car we want to buy is not available in the colour choice we want or the seat configuration. Why say it is available in this configuration or that colour when really you cannot buy it that way?! Yes, really I want a bench seat in the middle row. Yes, I realize that most people do not. And no, I don't want a white car. Time to look for another type of vehicle, I think.

Summer O'Fun 2009 Day 3

Jax had a birthday party to go to today so we headed to the Lego store to buy a gift card (and pick up two more gifts for parties that Cars is going to this weekend). The kid whose birthday it is also loves Lego. I am glad that at age 11 they aren't too old for a toy. :)

Cars also had a playdate late in the afternoon which left Dex home alone with me. I asked him if he would like to invite someone over tomorrow to make up for the b-day party and playdate that his brothers were on but he said no, he just wanted to spend time with his brothers tomorrow. I wasn't sure if I felt sad or happy about that. Sometimes I think I have made them a little too reliant on each other.

I have a wicked migraine and I want to go to bed so badly but Stephen is still at work and I am waiting for Jackson to come home from the party. The mom called a short time ago and said they were just packing up (it was a beach party) and they'd drop Jax off as soon as they could. Stephen said he would try to be home at 9 since I had a migraine. Dex and Cars are already in bed so I just need one either Stephen or Jax to get home so I can go to bed too.

Summer O'Fun 2009 Day 1 & 2

We started off Summer vacation with a trip to the dentist. Dex and Cars both have cavitites (no fluouride in our water). They used some handy-dandy laser thing on Dex's teeth and determined that the cavities were not that big so they are just treating them by putting new sealants on them. Cars' is between his teeth so drill-vill for him. :\

I also have a referral for all three to go see the orthodontist. Jax has a bit of an overbite, Cars has a bigger overbite and crowding. Cars has the biggest problem - cross-bite. We are going in two weeks so we'll see just how expen$ive this will be.

Today, we had some friends over and we tie-dyed shirts. It is always a surprise how they will turn out. Right now they are still soaking and I will rinse them either late tonight or tomorrow morning then wash them.

Later, the kids and I played Snorta.

Now I am scrambling to figure out what to do about dinner. I need to plan my days better!

Tomorrow is the first weekday of summer vacation. I hope the kids sleep in. First Summer'o'Fun activity - dentist appointments at noon! How lucky for them! Especially Dex because he has some cavities that need filling. Not sure if we can get them done tomorrow but I definitely will schedule the appointment.

One fun thing for Summer'o'Fun tomorrow will be to continue to work building the new Lego that the boys got from the geekdad.com contest that we won. Two of the three Legos arrived on Friday (we are expecting the third to arrive tomorrow). What's cool is that they will not available in stores until August.

My dad passed away 10 years ago today. I miss him. I wish he had gotten to know my kids - that saddens me the most.

School's out for summer! And what a day...rain - finally! And it is quite cool. But the rain honestly is refreshing.

My kids' reports were good so I took the boys out to lunch at Red Robin. I really liked all of their teachers this year and the teachers were all a good fit for them. I hope we as much luck next year.

This evening, Stephen and I went to test drive a Sequoia. Geez, I love that car/truck/suv. It is so nice (but oh so big!).

Brrr...I think I have to close the windows in the house for the first time in a month. The rain has really cooled things down.

The end-of-year stuff continues. Cars' class party was a lot of fun. The mom organizing it got McD's to donate chicken nuggets for lunch which rocked. Each kid got 4 nuggets. The kids also made fruit kabobs and they ate the cookies I made.

Today was the last day of any alone time I will have for a couple of months so I went shopping (bought the teachers gift cards and a scarf on clearance at Macy's). Then I went for a pedicure. I had planned to work out but blew it off. Later, while reading People Magazine during the pedicure, I felt so guilty about blowing off the workout while reading about how fat Kirstie Alley is again and that she blames butter and lack of exercise. Yikes!

I have gained 5 pounds and already I see myself getting as big as she is in no time! I need to figure out how I can get to the gym during the summer. Cars can still go in the childcare centre but Dex and Jax are too old. Jax can be left at home alone or work out with me (he is a member at the gym - they have to join the year following turning 9 yrs of age) but Dex is not.

Our babysitter is home for the summer from college (in fact, she is watching the boys tomorrow night) and we are trying to work out when she can watch the kids for me in the afternoons. She has a summer job but some days she might get off at 2pm. If that's the case, I will have her watch them once a week and I'll try to make it to the 4:30pm circuit training class. It will suck that I will have to drive home during rush hour but if that's what I have to do, I'll do it.

I am still trying to plan Summer'o'Fun 2009 activities as well. Stay tuned!

End-of-year ramble...

The kids are enjoying their last week of school. Dex had his class party yesterday. Today was field day for the whole school. Tomorrow is Cars' class party and Jax's class is having a surprise b-day party for the teacher. The kids in that class have planned all of their own parties this year. It is hard when they get to this age and do not need (want) help from parents. I am sure it only get worse as they go along.

Thursday is the last full day of school and they kids get out on Friday (half-day only).

I made some fish cookies for Cars' class party. It is a luau theme and I could not find a coconut/palm tree cookie cutter anywhere so I went with tropical fish. I am not super happy with them and haven't yet decided if the blue fish will make it into the school or not.

I am also in charge of the craft (I just ordered this craft from orientaltrading.com ), the leis and bringing in a stick for the limbo. Finally the bamboo growing in my yard has been useful!

On Thursday, I am not sure what is going on in the classrooms but I know Jax has been instructed not to bring a backpack (his desk gets packed up tomorrow) and a completely disposable lunch only. No word about Dex or Cars' bringing home all of their stuff from school.

I have not yet bought end-of-year teacher gifts. I also want to buy small gifts for the school office staff (secretaries and office manager) and for the bus driver. I will probably just end up with Starbucks' gift cards for everyone since that is what is easiest.

Anyway, here are the cookies. They do taste great (Best-rolled sugar cookie recipe).


Clown Fish


Blue Tang


Extra cookies for the boys to eat later. They look like the Pepperidge Farms fish crackers!

Baseball is all over for the season. Dex had two games this morning. One of the first coaches of the first teeam we played went off on the ump (who happened to be the dad of one of our players) for calling a ball a foul. It was ridiculous! Parents from our side were shouting "Children present!" The thing is too, this is not for a championship nor do we even keep score! At least we aren't supposed to. Apparently their team was because the coach kept saying "we are ahead" to his team.
The second game was much better (sportsmanship-wise).

Our weekends are down to just hockey now. Oh, and church (although I must admit that we haven't been much lately - crisis of faith on my part).

Let's Go to the Mall, today!*

Today was at the mall (I had to get a gift card for Dex's teacher's b-day from the class) and I went into Macy's and they were having (surprise!) a sale. Ok, really, when are they NOT having a sale. Anyway, I found two pair of sandals that I liked and they were "buy two get 20% off" then I noticed a sign that stated if you use your Macy's card you get 20% off. The salesman told me that the offers could not be combined but when it looked like I might change my mind, he gave me both offers. :) Score!

Afterwards, I was in Nordstroms and walked by the M.A.C. counter. I was looking around and a semi-transgender salesperson approached me. Next thing I knew, I was seated in a chair getting make-up lessons! It was an amusing 30 minutes. No sales on make-up but I was happy to buy eyeshadow and eyeliner after such fun.

Then I stopped and had a huge Greek salad for dinner. Yum!

*reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdD0j6wmMNc

One more week of school! This week there was a bbq at the school and today, the kindergarten classes had a little music program. It was so cute to see all 80 kids up there singing their little hearts out. Cars was rather reserved with his hand-actions but he did sing all of the songs. When he was in preschool, he would just stand up there and stare.

Tonight is Dex's sleepover birthday party. It is midnight and they are still going strong. Well, except for Cars who fell asleep about 10:30. One kid went home at 10:00 with a bellyache. I felt badly for him although I am hoping it was just from too much food and that he is not sick! And Stephen is hoping he did not go home because he put that kid in a time-out for a minute for pulling another kid down the stairs! Oops! I think it was a genuine bellyache.

According to pmsbuddy.com, I about to start PMSing. Thanks.

When the kids got off the bus today I was in a glorious mood. The sun was shining and I had a fantastic day. Jax told me that his teacher showed his Legomation movie to the whole class and he was just beaming. Dex was excited to talk about his upcoming birthday party and Cars was just being his happy 5 yr old self. However, by the time we got home, Cars had slugged Jax and Jax was picking Cars up and shaking him. Dex blah-blah-blah-blah'd me all the way home without taking a breath(can you believe that once-upon-a-time this kid had an expressive speech delay?! I can't!).

So, in the door we went and Jax and Cars went to their bedrooms. A little while later, after the time out, Jax had to do some research on the computer. Stephen had upped the parental controls in April so searching can take a long time as it checks the sites before returning the results. Jax was sulking that it was taking a long time and demanded that I "fix" it. I said he needed to be patient and that it was something that I could not fix. He then said something like I just don't want to fix it and I told him that I could not fix and and perhaps he needed to walk away for a bit and come back. He turned to me in the snottiest tone "Did something happen today? Is that why you are in a bad mood?"

O.M.G.

I lost it. I walked over to him and said "Yes, something happened today. The sun was shining and I was having a great day! My kids were happy when they got off the bus then the next thing I know, my 11 yr old and my 5 yr old were physically fighting. So yes, that is what happened! Know anything about it?!" Then I sent him to his room for being snarky. He at least had the decency to act chagrined. And he later apologized.

But, I think the thing that really happened is that pmsbuddy.com sent me a reminder notice that I clearly paid no heed too. I should have self-medicated with chocolate and spared my children all of those time outs. *sigh*

My allergies are kicking my ass today. Well, I assume it is allergies and not a cold. I hope it rains again soon to get some of the pollen out of the air.

My brother who lives in the Toronto-area was sent home from work today. Thirty people on his floor called in sick today. One said she tested positive for swine flu (H1N1) so they sent home everyone who had any kind of sickness (my brother has a cough and cold) and they are not allowed back to work until they can prove that they do not have swine flu. Both of his daughters were home sick today (his MIL had to pick them up at the babysitter after my SIL dropped them off this morning) so the three of them went to the doctor this afternoon and were swabbed and they should get the results in a few days.

My mother is going to FREAK when she hears about this. She is convinced that the next cold she gets is going to kill her. She keeps canceling plans to go to my brothers' because someone there always seems to have the sniffles. If my mom and I had a better rapport at the moment (not quite repaired since our fight when she was here in March), I would just call her "George" which was her father's name. She used to always say that he was such a hypochondriac (and she used to call me George whenever I complained of headaches until I was officially diagnosed with migraines at age 15). :\

Race for the Cure today was awesome! It was wonderful to see so many people out there supporting this cause and to see so many breast cancer survivors! Wow!

Stephen, the boys and I spent the afternoon driving around checking out cars (more specifically, SUVs). The dealerships all seemed motivated. We'll see once we narrow it down and start to negotiate. I will say that I am in love with the Toyota Sequoia which is a behemoth and if I would buy it this instant at full sticker price if it meant I could drive it home tomorrow. Love it! It does, however, cost the same as our first home (ok, it was a condo but still!).

I am pooped so I am off to try to read the book for book club ("The Witches of Eastwick" by John Updike).

Tomorrow I am going to "Race for the Cure" in Seattle. I am going with a group of woman whom I do not know nor have ever met save fir one - Shannon - the whom we are walking to support. Shannon was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in February. She just finished her third of four chemo treatments. I know Shannon through my mom's club and church.

We are just doing the 5K walk, not run. Wish us luck!

Cars' last t-ball game was today. Of course after something like 16 days of sunshine it had to rain. It wasn't hard but hard enough that we had to move our planned after game bbq to a park with a covered picnic area. Cars really enjoyed his season. I know he will play again next year.

Stephen filled our soft-sided cooler with ice and pop and brought it to the game. It leaked water all over the trunk of his car and he had a hissy fit. It is only water! Nevermind that a can of Fresca exploded in the van! Now that is way worse than water in the truck.

Dex has his final regular game tonight and next weekend is the Jamboree where his team is scheduled to play 4 games. He will just attend 3 of them as the 9AM game on Saturday conflicts with his sleepover birthday party. Oops!

Ok, off to change into pants before I head to Dex's game. It has gotten pretty chilly today!

It was another hot day. I was a chaperone on the kindergarten field trip to the zoo. It was hot and very crowded. The kids were all wearing two shirts - the ones they wore to school and the ones they made for the trip. I don't know why the teachers did not have them all change. Maybe it was a logistical problem? I also had a child who kept wandering off and it was stressing me out. By the time we left the zoo I was so done with him.

Tonight it has cooled off quite a bit and the wind has picked up. The blinds are all banging against the windows and Jax got scared and has now shut his window even though it is probably 85 degrees in his bedroom. He started thinking about "Tales from the Crypt" that was shown at a sleepover he was at last week and now he cannot sleep. I am not impressed that they showed that movie. I was told they would be watching the original of "The Blob" which is not scary at all. Now I have to deal with this. *sigh*

We are on day 13 or 14 of no rain and unseasonably warm temperatures. I am not complaining after the friggin cold winter with all that snow but I will say that I would not mind if we had a little rain so I don't need to water the lawn and garden. :)

After my brothers' visit, I was thinking how grey we all looked so I decided to do something about it and I had lowlights put in my hair again. She put way more in than last time but I guess it was still a subtle change because no one has noticed except for me. I'll see what the regrowth is like this time before I decide what to do next.

I took Jax and Cars to buy sandal/shoes today and was aghast that Jax is in mens' sizes (sometimes 7s are youth and sometimes mens). The sandal/shoes I wanted to get him were double the price of the kids' shoes - that unfortunately only go to size 6. And one of Jax's feet is a size 6 (but the other is a 7) which makes it that much more frustrating. Anyway, he is not getting those shoes. I will have to find something else for him. Oh, and for Dex. He had a playdate after school else he would have come with us. He's only a size 3. ~whew~

Cars is having a problem with a girl in his class. She pinches him frequently when he does not do what she wants. He has been telling me about it for weeks and I haven't done anything other than coach him how to tell her to stop and then to tell the teacher if she does not stop.

He told me the other day that she pinched him and I asked if he told the teacher but he said no because he did not want to "tattle" on her. Apparently there is a lot of tattling going on in class and the teacher has said that she did not want to hear any more tattling.

I explained to him that if someone was hurting him then telling the teacher or other adult is not tattling. He was skeptical so I finally emailed the teacher on Friday after school to tell her what was going on and that he was hestitant to let her know because of the "tattling" thing.

Now, I must interject here that this little girl has had some behavioural problems and I know that the vice-principal has been working with her on improving her behaviour.

Anyway, today the teacher spoke to Cars to tell him that he needs to tell her so she can help him. She also told this girl to stop and informated the VP. Then, during lunch recess, she pinched him again. I am very proud of him because he told the teacher right away.

I am tired of this girl pinching him. Things have increased a bit too since they were moved to the same table a couple of weeks ago. I feel badly that I did not contact the teacher sooner but do I feel strongly that my kids need to try to handle things like this themselves first before I get involved. I did not know about the whole tattling thing though until Friday when I finally was able to get it out of Cars that he was concerned about being a tattler.

Hopefully the pinching will stop now. And hopefully this girl will not be in his class next year to lessen her opportunity to pinch him.