Oops!

Forgot to post again yesterday. So I have missed 3 days total of NaBloPoMo. Rats! Last year I believe I hit everyday.

My brother, SIL and niece (Lola!) are coming for a visit today. They are staying the weekend. I am excited to see them all.

Christmas is coming and I am getting FAT. Need to make some time to get back to the gym. It has been AGES. I took the kids swimming a couple of weeks ago but that hardly counts.

Off to take the kids to the bus. It is FROSTY so I need to dig out hats for everyone.

I forgot to post yesterday. I was going to do so after I watched a couple of tv shows that I had dvr'd but then I fell asleep on the couch. When I awoke it was after midnight. Drats!

I was able to make an appointment for Jax to see someone. The guy has two kids with food allergies so that will be helpful. Unfortunately, the only time he has open is at 7pm which is late because Jax's bedtime is 8pm and the place is not close but hey, we do what we have to do.

It is going to be quite frosty here on the weekend. JP and Marilyn and Lola are coming to visit. I cannot wait to see Lola again!

Nothing much going on here. Today, I did my spelling gig in Dex's class and tomorrow I am teaching Art Start. There is no one in charge of Art Start this year so of course there were no supplies ordered so I had to go to Michael's this afternoon to buy tempera paint. I guess I can be reimbursed but what a PITA.

I finally bit the bullet and called a psychiatrist for Jax. The one the ped highly recommended only has available times during the mornings which does not work because of school. She asked me for more details and then gave me two names whom she would recommend based on what I told her of Jax's problem. And she asked me to call her back if those two doctors did not work out. I really appreciate her time. Anyway, I have a call in to one of the doctors and will call the other if that one does not work out. I am feeling much more confident that Jax will be ok once he has some idea how to deal with his anxiety and stress.

Ok, off to bed to finish my book (Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer). I wish I could put the photo of it on my blahg but...I can't.

Perhaps after NaBloPoMo and probably after Christmas, I will update this blog with a new template. Yes, that sounds like a good idea. And I will find another site to host my files.

Today, I heard from a friend whom I had not spoken to in many, many years. Since before Dex was born! She and her husband (and kids) may be moving to Seattle and she wanted my take on some neighbourhoods. While we are not actually in Seattle and I do not know that much about it, I was able to get some info from some friends who grew up there. It would be great if this old friend moved here because it would be like having family around. Her family lived 4 doors up the street from mine. They had 5 kids and we had 5 kids. I have known her since she was born. I still see her mom every time I am in Toronto and while my friend and I haven't spoken in years, we of course know what is going on with each other because our mothers are best friends.

I hope her dh takes the job here!

It was a crappy day here today. Not weather-wise...just everyone seemed to be in a bad mood. And, it did not help that Dex was looking for his bike helmet and opened the back of the van and lo and behold all of the Christmas presents that Stephen purchased yesterday were sitting there still (normally he hides them right away so I have NO IDEA wtf he was thinking not putting them away yesterday). So, at least Dex fessed up and we did not ruin the Santa Claus thing come Christmas morning.

Stephen totally over does Christmas but that is ok because it is his "thing". He loves to do it. He wants the kids to have the happiest memories ever of each Christmas morning. So this was devastating to him (and he did have a bit of a temper tantrum because of it).

Anyway, to blow off steam he spent the day installing the garage door opener (it took like 5 hours - not sure if that is because it was him or if it just takes that long for everyone (take down the old and install the new). It was fine for us to let him be. Hope he is in a better mood tomorrow.

Black Friday

Stephen was up at 4am and at Kohl's today at 4:30am but he did not stay because the lines to check out were huge. He also went to Toys'R'Us, the Lego Store at the mall, Best Buy, Lowes and some secret store that he won't tell me (but I can guess but I'll wait until Christmas in case I am wrong (initials are GC)).

The kids and I walked to the store to get the stuff for Dex's pumpkin pie. It was nice to walk and think that it is not such a burden because of the huge hill is no longer a factor. It was great. We also stopped at Starbucks for hot chocolate (love their peppermint hot chocolate available at this time of the year). Jax suddenly decided that he was "not comfortable" having hot chocolate at Starbucks even though at this point we had harassed the barista who had pulled out a package of chocolate from the back to read ingredients (peanut-free!). Anyway, I ended up buying him a bottle of IZZE sparkling juice and he read and re-read the ingredients to ensure it was "safe". He was visibly nervous and it really broke my heart. His anxiety is way out of control and I need to call the specialist the pediatrician has referred us to. Stephen is so not supportive which is why I have put this off.

Anyway, off track there...

Stephen did buy us a new phone "system" which consists of 4 cordless telephones and you can use an intercomm to contact each phone which is nice because there is a lot of yelling up and down the stairs. I am looking forward to using it!

Edited to add a link to this classic "How I Met Your Mother" clip: Robin Sparkles "Let's Go to the Mall" (full version) (someone posted today on IOW and I laughed so hard - had forgotten about it!).

We went to E & T's for Thanksgiving dinner today. It was a fun time. Until it was time to go and Dex realized that he had not had a piece of pumpkin pie. He cried the whole way home. So, tomorrow we will go to Safeway and get all of the necessary ingredients to make a pumpkin pie for our family. You can't have a good Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie!

I am still in love with this house (despite the slow flushing toilets which we have yet to fix - perhaps this weekend). Anyway, one thing I love about it the number of electrical outlets in the kitchen. We have 8 (and a 9th is not in the kitchen but on the wall just inside the dining room in which my laptop is currently plugged). In our old house, we had just 4 outlets. Three along the counter top (which we used to plug in the toaster, kettle, coffee maker, microwave and telephone. The under counter lights and the kitchenaid mixer shared the last empty plug. There was no outlet on the kitchen island (well, under the sink but the garberator and the dishwasher were were plugged into that one). The island in this kitchen has a plug! Stephen used it last weekend just because he could. The lack of an outlet on the island was always one of his pet peeves too.

We also have a lot of outlets in all of the bedrooms, in the living, dining and family rooms. I have noticed now that we have like 6 extension cords stored in the utility room (and these do not include the outside extension cords). I supposed in the summer we will make use of some of them again when we haul out the fans but for now, we don't need 'em because we have a plethora of outlets!

Love this house!

Nothing going on. Kids had another 1/2 day of school. I did some online Christmas shopping. I need a crown on a tooth. I need to find my night guard before I need crown on any other teeth. I need to bake three pies for Thanksgiving day and also buy a b-day present tomorrow morning. I need to thank Snapper for some advice and make a rosary bracelet. And check out http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com to come up with a game plan for Friday.

I wanted to share something about my new neighbour but I don't think I can because someone in my city is reading my blog regularly and I have no idea who it is - might even be my new neighbour for all I know.

Today the kids had a 1/2 day of school. This totally conflicted with Cars' Thanksgiving Day feast at preschool so Stephen went to that while I met the older boys at the bus at 11:30. My friend watched my kids last week while we went to conferences so I watched her dd after school for about 1/2 hour (she took the bus home with Jax and Dex). Anyway, when my friend showed up about 12:15 to get her dd, she had her oldest son with her who is the same age as Dex and Dex asked if C could stay for a playdate. I really had no plans other than doing some cooking and baking today so I said sure. My friend and her dd left and I started lunch for the boys.

They sat down to eat about 12:45 and at 12:52 I heard C say "Hey, on your calendar it says you have dentist appointments at 1 o'clock". WHAT?! OMG! My boys had dentist appointments in 8 minutes and I had completely forgotten! I told Jax and Dex to drop their lunches and run up and brush their teeth (Cars had his appt last week). I packed up C and Cars' lunches in tupperware and we ran out the door to the car. As I was pulling out of the garage I realized I had cookies baking in the oven so I ran back into the house and pulled them out. I raced to the dentist and made it at 12:59 (the office is just 1/4 mile from our house). We were in and out in less than an hour but this poor kid, who saved me from paying $50 per child in missed appointment fees, had to spend his playdate time sitting in our dentist's office. He was happy though because as a reward, I let him play video games when we got back to our house (he has no video games at his house).

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow at 7am. I hope I don't forget about that one too!

Suburban VS Rural

A few years ago, I had ordered a Christmas present that was being shipped to me via FedEx Ground (I then had to repackage and ship it to a friend in time for Christmas). I waited and waited and waited for the shipment but it was taking forever. I called FedEx to find out WTF was taking so long. They told me that they only deliver to my area three times each week because we were a "rural" area. Rural? Us?! No, we are a suburb of Seattle. We are not a rural area. Sure, Carnation or Duvall or North Bend are rural. Our city is not!

We have a lot of farms and acreages in our city but certainly that does not make us rural. In fact, our city was recently voted a top suburb to do business. They certainly would not have voted us that if we were a "rural" area!

So, since we are a suburb, can someone please tell the wildlife that? This morning I was awakened (or is it awokened - help me here Pley - which one is it?) at 5:30AM by the howling of a pack of coyotes. They howled on and on for about 5 minutes! It is funny, I never, ever heard coyotes when we lived up the hill (but I saw one not far from my house) but now that we live just 0.5 miles from the shopping area and one of the main intersections in the city, I live nearer to a pack of coyotes! What's next? Bears in my yard or a cougar on my porch? I hope not!

We took a family outing today the the WA State Driver Licensing Office. According to the website, I figured that changing ones address would fall under the "Renewal Licensing" wait time listed on the website which I checked just before we left (at that time it said 6 minutes). Apparently changing ones address must fall under the "First Time Licensing" which listed a 1.5 hour wait on the website. But we lucked out because it only took us 1 hour. Exactly, 1 hour. In that hour, I had to explain to Jax and Dex what METH was (a big PSA poster with "Faces of Meth" on it. Then we discussed why one automatically loses their license for DUI when they are under 21 but not over 21 (another poster prompted that discussion). As I stood for an hour due to lack of free seats, I was complaining to myself about all of the people who brought their whole families along when they went to get their license before it dawned on me that I was completely guilty of the same thing (though most of my family were under 10 and not other adults).

Anyway, after that lovely outing, we next went to Fred Meyer to purchase a lot of groceries so we could qualify for our free turkey. I was worried that we might be close to being under that $100 mark so I was very purposeful with my coupons. The turkey one would be first, then the frequent shopper reward coupons ($7.50!), then the loss leaders. If I planned it correctly, it would work out. Just before we got into line though, I was still worried so I grabbed a three boxes of Christmas cards (B2G1 Free!). I figured I should be over the $100 limit now. Um, how did I miss that $30 worth of flat iron steaks that Stephen threw in the cart. I also forgot to add the basketball that we picked up for the Giving Tree. And Stephen said the pack of light bulbs - well flood lights - that he put in the cart was about $5 (try $15!). So, I really did not need those Christmas cards (well, I do need them, but I just did not need them today). YIKES! The groceries were well over $100, even after all of my coupons ($44.95!).

So, a family day spent in the Licensing office then grocery shopping at Fred Meyer. What a fun day for my kids! Well, I guess they did get to look at some toys in FM so the day was not a total loss. Oh, and they did get to learn all about Meth. So the day was educational too. I am such a great mom!

The boys' report cards came home yesterday and today was parent/teacher conferences. Jax apparently is not listening in class and often asks the teacher to repeat her question when she calls on him. :\ Other than that he is doing well. Dex is being too silly in class after he completes his work and he needs to do more quiet activities when he is done. He told me that he likes to be funny and sometimes he just cannot help it but he needs to share funny things with the class. Oh dear. Besides his "silliness", he was is doing well too.

I am glad that the weekend is here. Tomorrow I plan to sleep in. Well, if Stephen doesn't, I will. :)

Two of the toilets in our new house flush very slowly. Very slowly. And (TMI) they easily get clogged. I first thought that it was just being on septic meant slow toilets but the third toilet is fine. So, there must be something icky in the works that is causing the slow flushing (and clogs). The question is, how can I convince Stephen to take the toilets off to take a look?! He can easily do it. In fact, just before we moved the toilet in the boys' bathroom started leaking and he had to take the toilet off and replace the wax ring. But leaking clean water and trying to find out the source of a clog/sluggish toilet are two totally different things. My friend had this problem a few months ago and it turned out to be a comb that had been flushed down her toilet and was stuck. I can only hope that ours is caused by a comb!

Testing (i will delete this)

ABC's of Me

Swiped this from a friend (you know who you are).

1. A is for age:
42

2. B is for beer of choice:
Molson Canadian, of course. I Friggin Rock!

3. C is for career right now:
SAHP

4. D is for your dog's name:
Cars' stuffed Boxer is named "My Sophie" and we treat her as though she were real

5. E is for essential item you use everyday:
Eye Glasses

6. F is for favorite TV show at the moment:
Boston Legal

7. G is for favorite game:
Scrabble

8. H is for Home town:
Scarborough (now called Toronto).

9. I is for instruments you play?
Nothing really

10. J is for favorite juice:
Cranberry juice in a Cosmo

11. K is for whose ass you'd like to kick:
Anyone who messes with my kids and their food allergies

12. L is for last place you ate:
Kitchen (or Chili's if you want a restaurant)

13. M is for marriage:
Huh? Sure.

14. N is for your full name:
Denine Pez

15. O is for overnight hospital stays:
5 - tonsils, 3 c-sections and partial thyroidectomy

16. P is for people you were with today?
lots! My family in the morning, people at the bus stop, I had two friends over for tea, kids played at the park after school and I chatted with several people. Do they all count?

17. Q is for quote:
"True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joy of others" Andre Gide (1869-1951)
or
"I Friggin' Rock" Molson Canadian Beer Bottle

18. R is for Biggest Regret:
Not buying that Rooster Pez at the antique store in Red Wing, MN in 1997 ;)

19. S is for status:
Resident Alien

20. T is for time you woke up today:
6:20am

21. U is for underwear you have on now:
My mammogram bra and VS undies

22. V is for vegetable you love:
turnip or rutabaga

23. W is for worst habit:
eating Halloween candy out of my kids' buckets

24. X is for x-rays you've had:
Too many to count - mostly on my teeth and my head

25. Y is for yummy food you ate today:
Jalapeno Artichoke Dip with Black Pepper Crackers!
(and also banana-flavoured Laffy Taffy - see W above)

26. Z is for the zodiac sign:
Aries

Friggin Comcast

If Stephen were not so in love with his HDTV and I were not so in love with the Internet, we would divorce Comcast.

They keep sending me notices saying I owe them eleventy billion dollars for "unrecovered equipment" from our service (which they canceled 2 days early, btw!). They then arrived at our new home and hooked up that "unrecovered equipment" and we are paying them lot$ of money for their que$tionable "$ervice" (see, still no pictures on my blahg - it is a "personal web pages" problem).

It is maddening that I have spent time and time again calling them to get this cleared up. And each time they tell me to ignore the notices. Ignoring the notices has only resulted in more notices, prepaid fedex stickers and a bill for eleventy billion dollars. Ok, not eleventy billion dollars but seemingly close - $561.00. Conveniently, the one month credit for service for cutting us off early was applied to that bill - initially we "owed" $615.36. So, I called again today and was told ignore that bill - "just throw it in the fireplace!". Um, no. I still want that fifty-one dollar credit on my NEW account. So, after a lot of futzing about, they agreed to apply $50 (see how the amount got smaller?!) to the new account. Oh, and Stephen's bill for high-speed Internet - "just ignore that one too!". I have documented the calls and will be so pissed if these bills are sent out for collection.

Now, when do you think they will get back to me about my personal web pages problem?

Posting early today because we are due to have a wind storm and who knows if the power will go out or not. I've mentioned this before but we are prepared with our wood burning stove! Now I just need to find the box with the candles in it.

The wind picked up last night and this morning I noticed that 4 ornamental post caps are missing from the deck. I can see one of them and I hope the rest just fell down on the ground. When the rain lets up a little I will go outside to see if I can find the others. EDITED TO ADD: By the time the storm ended, we had lost 9 of them! I can only find 5. I am sure the rest will turn up somewhere in the yard. :(

I will probably take the kids swimming today - me and the other billion parents whose children are off today for Veteran's Day Observance.

And, in honour of Remembrance Day (which was yesterday) and in honour of everyone who has served his or her country:

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I found the one worst place to go besides Costco the day before Thanksgiving. IKEA on the weekend. Oh.My.God. I had to park in the third outer parking lot - I swear it was a 10 minute walk to the store. Once inside it was a zoo! I was able to get through the store in 1.5 hours though (I was blissfully alone). I bought a night table for Jax, a plastic bag holder, three toilet brushes, a new wall clock, two night lights, two rolls of wrapping paper, a waste paper basket, a medicine cabinet and a floor lamp. I was also looking for an entryway table (I am excited to have room for one now!) and a dresser for Cars (I wanted one that matched Dex's but they no longer carry that one).

Anyway, I got all that stuff for less than $150! Gotta love IKEA.

I keep starting to blahg about something then change my mind because I am worried that it would be too boring. For instance, first I was going to write about how many boxes I unpacked today (15) but decided that I had blahgged too much about the move already (although I did reassemble my PEZ cabinet as part of that unpacking today and it took over 2 hours but I cannot take a picture because I cannot find my damn cable!).

Then I started to write about the lack of trees on our property but the huge number of leaves. This would have segued into a discussion of my new neighbours but I am not ready to go there yet.

Next, I was going to blahg about how I cry when I watch tv shows (I watched 2 episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" but decided that would make me look like a complete weirdo.

I have another complaint about Comcast but again, like the move, btdt. (Notice the lack of ALL pictures on my blahg, sans the one from NaBloPoMo?!).

So, in the end I have blahgged about not blahgging. Hrmpf!