School starts next week and I am a little out of sorts.  I thought I had everything in place but I found out that Cars does NOT have school on the first day of school.  School that day is for incoming freshmen/sophomores at the high school, 6th & 7th graders at the middle school (converted from junior high) and kindergartners.  Why is it the first day of school then?!  This not-the-first day first day has screwed up my schedule because I was to start my woodcarving class that day and Cars is still too young to stay home alone. 

Also, even though Dex DOES have school that day (7th grade), he does not start school at regular time that day but 3.5 hours later than usual.  It is not really clear how he will get to school - is there a bus at that weird time?  When will it pick him up?

The insurance company sent me a robocall last night that they have issued me a check for the damage (less deductible) of my car (ok, I guess I did not post about this but I hit a parked car in the parking lot of the orthodontist when I took Jax in to get his braces last week.  I had not entirely decided I was going to go through insurance rather just pay it myself to keep my premiums from going up (or just not repair it at all - just a (not small) scratch).  Now Stephen is concerned that our premiums will skyrocket.  It is not as though I was caught drunk driving or texting and caused a major accident! 

And the wood floors we had installed need to be fixed a bit tomorrow (cracked boards and missed stain in a couple of places) so we need to stay out of our house overnight.  More $$ that we had not anticipated paying.  Part of the rush to get it done when we did was that we were on holidays and did not have to incur extra costs of staying overnight for a few days due to the fumes from the finish.

I guess it is just a busy time.  We've had a (mostly) relaxing, laid-back summer so getting back on a schedule and having a lot of things going on a once seems daunting.  Time to reframe my outlook and get it done.  Things could be worse.  We could be in New Orleans dealing with a hurricane...

I've just found out that a boy from Jax's grade committed suicide.  He was 14 years old.  I have no details and he was not a friend of Jax's (although Jax did know him) and the thought of it is so scary to me that I want to throw up.  His poor parents.  And poor soul for being so distraught that he thought that suicide was the answer to his problems.

I remember being so distraught over boys when I was Jax's age that I wanted "to kill myself" or so I wrote in my diary at the time.  Of course me saying those and going through the actual actions of doing so were miles apart.  There was one girl in school who tried to kill herself because she was gay.  This was in 1980.  So different from today, at least I hope so.  Of course I have no idea why this boy killed himself.  I pray for his soul and for peace and understanding for his parents.

Jax got braces on his teeth the other day.  He is still in a bit of pain but overall it will be worth it. He has spacing issues and an overbite but overall his teeth were not ~that~ bad I guess.  I think if he had my parents he would not have gotten braces.  None of us had braces. None of us had perfect teeth - mostly all had spacing issues and I have an overbite.  Actually, I think my youngest brother has a bit of a cross bite too but not severe enough to correct.  The other thing it that my parents did not have the money to pay for braces.  I guess they would have found them if we had had severe dental issues. 

DH, on the other hand, had braces as did both of his brothers.  DH's teeth are now very crooked from his wisdom teeth that came in a year or so after we got married.  Well, the wisdom teeth ~tried~ to come in but just really pushed the other teeth around so it was off to the U of MN dental school to have surgery to remove them.  Gah, we were so broke then.  We paid a couple hundred dollars then had to pay in installments for the next 6 or 8 months to pay off the rest.  Thank goodness we had that option!  I'd like DH to consider getting invisilign or something to re-straighten his teeth but he is appalled when I bring it up.  He'd rather get lasik for his eyes, I think (also a good idea as he cannot see worth a darn without his glasses).

Cars goes back to the orthodontist in October to check on the status of his lateral incisors.  One is in but one stubborn one will not move.  I wonder if we will find out that it is impacted.  Time will tell...

School will be starting in less than 2 weeks and I thought I was so on top of things in the allergy department.  I took the forms to the allergist early (the school emailed the forms at the end of the school year rather than snail mail paper forms so I printed them at my expense ;).  I called the mail-order prescription drug service that we have to use and had new epi pens sent to us.  I just need to pick up new packages of Benadryl.  But when going through the cupboard I realized that I do not have any epi pens for use at home!  Well, there are two in my purse but I like to have one or two in the kitchen, you know, where we eat!  And I have no "extras".  So I will have to wait another month before I can order another set for the boys. 

Now, I know I am lucky that I have a prescription drug plan and can afford to have "extras" hanging around.  I sometimes worry about when my boys are older and if they do not have a job with drug benefits and they may not have the option to have more than one epi pen if they cannot afford it.  Oh, I hope that never happens.  In fact, I hope they find a "cure" for food allergies so they would not even have to worry about an anaphylactic reaction.  Dreaming, I guess...

Doing some "minor" renovations in the house (install hardwood floor, refinish existing hardwood, painting living/dining/hallway/kitchen) but it seems like it is so much more!  There is so much to do and we've hired out all of the labour!  Picking paint colours, stain colours, moving EVERYTHING out of the living/dining/hallway/kitchen and trying to find temporary homes for them.  I will be so happy when it is all done!  I will post before and after photos.  :)

Summer o'Fun day???

This summer has been very low-key.  My in-laws came for a visit and were here for our 4th of July party.  We showed them how Americans party!  Then we took them to Victoria BC for a couple of days as they had never been there. We walked along the inner harbour and toured The Buchart Gardens.  I think they really had a good time.  My FIL drives me crazy sometimes and I will admit that I did have a couple of hissy fits which was not becoming.

Cars went to Harry Potter day camp through the Boys and Girls Club with our neighbour and he had a great time!  He is totally into HP which is awesome since the older two have no interest in it anymore.  They did not even appreciate it yesterday when I reminded them that it was Harry Potter's birthday!  ;)

Dex spent a weekend with Spy and her dh and their oldest son sailing in the San Juan Islands.  He had a fabulous time.  He and C really get along well.  I hope their close friendship continues into middle school.

I took the kids to the dentist last week (Summer o'fun activity!) and Jax has sealants put on his new molars.  Some of the etching compound that they put on the teeth to prep it for the sealants leaked out and gave him a chemical burn on his face.  The dentist's office first denied it but then I took him back in again today to see the dentist who owns the practice and she admitted that is what it was (after I showed her the photo that I had taken of his face last week and after he told her exactly when it started to hurt).  I think they were worried we would sue or something but I just wanted to know what the hell happened to him (at first I thought it was an allergy to latex but they are latex-free in there).  The hygenist swore up and down that she did not do it and the dentist who was in the office that day said it looked like a scrape when clearly it was a burn.  Anyway, we are still switching dentists.  That was the final straw (other things like one of the other dentists being mean to Cars, sending my kids home with 3 tubes each of "free" (insurance-paid) $11/tube toothpaste).

Oh and I guess I should give an update on dh.  He had 2 xrays, 1 MRI and 2 CT scans to determine that his back was fractured a long time ago and while that is not causing his pain right now, they could not let him start PT until they were assured that it had not broken during his fall down the stairs.  So, he will start PT next week (he is "too busy", he says, until then).
I took the kids to Archie McPhee's for their annual trip.  Normally we go to the locks too but I wasn't feeling it this year so we did not go.  I'd like to go later in the month when there are lots of salmon in the salmon ladder.

Hope to update this blahg more. I spend too much time sharing too much on Facebook.  Yes, I am one of ~those~ people.  ;)