I finally was able to get a hold of the swim teacher so I've added six more entries to my March calendar (swimming lessons 2x/week for Cars). The calendar is even more colourful now.

It rained most of the day and was muchcooler than yesterday but the skies are blue now. I hope it is nice tomorrow. Several of my trees have blossomed overnight! The grass needs mowing although the backyard bog will not allow for it for at least another month when it dries up some more.

I just baked some Butter Tarts because I have a hankering for something sweet but I am not eating chocolate. They are still cooling but I tried a couple while they were warm. Not as good as the ones I remember from the bakeries back home but still very good. Mmmmm. I just used a store-bought pie crust so perhaps that is the problem. I have never made pastry from scratch - it scares me!

Stephen is at the cooking class that I purchased for him for Christmas (a one-on-one session with a professional chef). I hope he has a good time.

I finished our book club selection for this month - "Ender's Game". I was a little disappointed with the end but I wonder if it is just because I was rushing through it to make sure I finished. Several people in book club have hated this book so far and one has already stated that she will not read it so discussion tomorrow night should be interesting.

Ok, after swearing to myself I would not do it again, I signed up to do creative activities/crafts for my mom's club for next year. Why oh why? Because I felt guilty because no one else had stepped forward. I did say that I would not do it alone next year then someone else in the steering committee meeting said she would do it with me but she did not want to do it alone either so at least there is someone else to do half of it. Another person offered to do prep work so it will be much easier next year. And I have several ideas for crafts for next year so it will be a breeze, right?

Today was a gloriously warm day. It was 70F! After school, the kids played at the park for 1.5 hours. Hard to believe that we had SNOW only 5 days ago.

Marching Onward

I spent this morning updating my March calendar with all the baseball practices and games so I thought I make take Katie's idea and post our March calendar here:

Blue highlighted days = no school (although note that March 2nd day off was canceled to make up the snow days this year)
Green = Jax activities (mostly baseball this month)
Orange = Dex activities (mostly baseball this month)
Yellow = Cars
Pink = Moi (although not all of my stuff is highlighted)

Also on the calendar are birthdays (including mine!), scheduled meals to deliver, doctor appointment, out-of-the-ordinary picking up/dropping off kids, BFF arrival date(3/28!), School Science Fair, sticky note of questions about swimming lessons, etc...

Not on calendar: RE classes (every Sunday after Mass), book club (second Thursday of every month), my regularly scheduled work outs (Mon/Sat), anything of Stephen's (he does not use this calendar).

I guess it is not that bad. Just the end of every week with baseball practices then baseball games AND practices towards the end of the month. Jax and Dex's practices are on the same day (diff times) until the end of the month then they are are the same time but different fields about 1 mile apart.

Thank God Cars isn't playing baseball yet!

edited to add that I use a calendar by MoreTimeMoms. It is called the Family Organizer. I have purchased this organizer for the past 4 years and I love it! Big squares to write a lot of activities. They are a Canadian company but ship to the States too.

Stephen broke my grandmother's sugar bowl today. I was so upset. He did not do it on purpose but he was not nearly as gentle as he should have been with something that is 80 years old OR that is breakable. He's glued it together but you can still see the crack. I want to cry again just thinking about it!

Anyway, after that I just left the house and went to Costco myself. Not a good time to go (Saturday around lunchtime when everyone is there to fill up on the free food samples). But I was able to look at what I wanted and not be rushed.

I skipped working out today and had a nap this afternoon instead. Not quite an even trade.

Now I am off to bed to try to get a handle on this book club book (Ender's Game).

TGIF

I am so glad that this week has come to an end.

We had snow yesterday so the boy's school start time was delayed a couple of hours. Cars' preschool was canceled. The nearly 3 hours I spent preparing the craft for my mom's class was all for naught because MOPS was canceled (not sure if we will be able to do this craft at some other time or not...).

Yesterday, I woke up with a migraine and had to take some meds which of course helped but not without the side effects (tightness in throat and chest) and then later I had a migraine "hangover".

I was on hold with the mail-order prescription company for over 30 minutes because they said they could not put prescription labels on the individual epi pens, only the boxes. They can do it and they have done it in the past but you have to ask them to put in a "manual" renew rather than an "automatic" one but I have to explain this to them every.single.time.

Anyway, today will be better...

I have to drop off a package at the school with an emergency kit for Jax for emergency preparedness. The kit consists of an epi pen, Benadryl and some peanut-free nutrition bars. Then off to the mall to pick up my new wallet (the one that Stephen bought me for Christmas is defective so I had to order a new one. The style of the one I had has been discontinued (problems with the beads falling off perhaps?!) so I had to order a different one. Then perhaps to Victoria Secret to use the gift card I received for Christmas (plus I have a coupon).

Then, I will take Cars to the Lego store to look around. Then back here to pick up the kids and go to Laurie's for our LAST Cosmo Friday. Yes, LAST! Boo-hoo! Dex's baseball practices start next week and they are on Fridays at 4:30pm (Laurie's son is on the same team)! So Cosmo Fridays will be on hiatus until mid-June when baseball ends. Wah!

And tomorrow is Saturday. No lunches to pack. No rushing kids out the door. No homework to do (although we do need to start on science fair projects). I can sleep in until 7:30!

TGIF

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Your Dominant Intelligence is Spatial Intelligence

You've got a good sense of space and how the world around you looks. You can close your eyes and "see" images. You have innate artistic talent. An eye for color and shapes, you're also a natural designer. Since you think in pictures, visual aids and demonstartions help you learn best. You would make a good navigator, sculptor, visual artist, inventor, architect, interior designer, or engineer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Rest assured, I am in a much better mood today. I decided to forgo the bath and went to bed with the heating pad. And when Cars awoke in the night I let Stephen get up with him.

This morning as the kids were getting ready for school, it started to SNOW! Hellooo? What is that all about? It is almost March 1st and not only have my crocus bloomed but the tulips and irises are coming up and then we get SNOW. Way too much snow this year for my liking. Does Global Warming mean Pacific Northwest Freezing? Anyway, I was just about to report that the snow turned to rain but as I type this, the rain has turned back to snow. Fortunately, the ground is not cold enough for it to stick.

Before I went to bed last night, I read an article stating that many parents are afraid to use epi pens on their children. I can totally relate. When Cars had that allergic reaction to walnuts in early January, I should have used an epi pen on him but did not because he had not been diagnosed with a tree nut allergy. If Jax had presented the same symptoms, I would not have hesitated but I guess I was in denial (and shock!). I now know better.

Crabby

I fell off the roof.
I want chocolate.
I am ornery, peevish and irritable.
I am fat.
I am on the verge of a migraine.
I had a fight with Stephen last night that was all my fault.
I am contrary.
I need to fold 3 loads of laundry.
I am tired because I stay up too late at night.
I am sending my children to bed 30 minutes early.
I am mad that Stephen is working late.

I AM CRABBY!

So, as soon as the kids are off to bed, I am going to draw a hot bath, pick up my book (which sucks but it is a book club book...) and have a little ME time. I would love to indulge in some chocolate too but I gave it up for Lent. *pout*

"Guacamole" has become a word synonymous with "Aloha" to my kids. They say it to their friends when they greet them or when they leave. The love to yell it too. And now their friends say it too. Apparently whenever Ash drives her kids by our house, her kids will shout "Guacamole" out the window.

Another word they love to say is "Nacho". Especially Cars. He drags out the "o" sound at the end and it almost always turns into a laugh for him - "Nachooooo-o-o-o!" I guess if you say it like he does it can be fun to say.

So, people will say "Hello" to my children and they will respond with "Guacamole" or "Nacho". It is rather embarrassing unless they are greeting Ash's kids.

During Mass yesterday, right after I had to separate Jax and Dex because they were thumb wrestling, we were giving each other a sign of Peace ("Peace be with you"), Cars started shaking hands and saying "Pizza Nacho!" in his not-so-little-voice. Of course, Jax and Dex thought this was funny and snickered which only encouraged Cars to say it louder with each hand he shook. People who were sitting not-so-close to us were turning to see what was going on. I tried to shush him but he just turned away from me to wish someone else "Pizza Nacho!".

I am beginning to think he could have toughed it out for the remainder of the year in that Sunday school class.

Grey

Yes, this is yet another post about grey hair. I am still obsessed with my decision to grow out my grey hair and I probably will be obsessing about it until I am old and...well, you know).

Have you seen the new Dove commercial (that they cannot show on tv? - link here). Dove has come out with a line of "Pro-Age" (vs Anti-Age) products, including a line of hair-care products for grey hair. Good for them!

I am not sure what it is but suddenly there is a surge of articles about aging and accepting your grey hair. Where was all the grey hair stuff a year and a half ago when I was looking for it for help - and acceptance - for growing in the grey? Every time I googled "growing in grey/gray hair" I could only find articles about how to hide grey hair, how to cover grey hair, how to prevent grey hair, how to stop grey hair or even how to REVERSE grey hair (by drinking cabbage juice or some other equally revolting thing). Where were the articles about going grey gracefully?!

I found articles which stated it was acceptable for men to be grey (think Anderson Cooper) but not for women. I only found one helpful article which suggested using low-lights to help with the transition. Just one!

Anyway, this all-of-a-sudden interest in grey hair makes me wonder if we'll see any female celebrities deciding to buck the trend and let their grey hair show. Will my other friends with premature grey (because that is what we have right? I mean, I am not OLD!) also give up their hair colourists or boxes of L'Oreal and go with the salt and pepper look too? I hope so. I hope so.

I don't want to be the only old-looking mom on the playground.

Proverbs 16:31
Gray hair is a crown of glory;
it is attained by a righteous life.

Ash had surgery today to repair the torn ligament that stablizes her knee. She'll be off her feet for about six weeks. No Cosmo Friday for her tomorrow but she has her own drug cocktail going at the moment so I don't think she'll mind that Laurie and I will Cosmo without her.

I gave up chocolate for Lent so of course the Girl Scout cookies that I ordered arrived today. I have put two boxes away in the freezer and will let the kids work on the Thin Mints tomorrow.

JP and Marilyn are coming tomorrow evening and will be staying overnight. They're currently taking a driving vacation in Oregon. I went through the last couple of bins of baby stuff that I have and I am going to give them half of the receiving blankets I have and the last baby nightgowns (I love those things!). Look at me getting rid of stuff! Slowly but surely.

Stephen bought me a webcam with a microphone yesterday. It is great! Of course the only other people I know with webcams and microphones are my brothers so I think they are getting sick of me talking to them. I want my mom to get one so she can talk to and see the kids. Oh, and Ramona. Ramona needs one too.

Well, I've survived the kids' mid-winter vacation. Back to school tomorrow for Jax and Dex (although Cars does have the whole week off). Today, after Ash Wednesday mass this morning, we picked up Gav and he spend the day with us since it was Kins' girlie b-day party.

Yesterday, Dex had a b-day party to go to - right around the same time (and very close in location to where I was going to visit my OB/GYN). Ash was to watch Jax and Cars but again, Cars has been a little tyrant so I had to take him with me as punishment to him (he really, really, really wanted to go to Ash's). Now, who is it really punishment for when a 3.5 yr old tags along to his mother's annual pap?

Fortunately(?), the doctor was called out just as I arrived to assist in the labour of a "complicated birth" so my appointment was canceled. A reprieve for both Cars and I.

New Pez!

Last week I saw these Pez dispensers at the grocery store so I bought them for my collection:
.
They are for a yet-to-be-released Disney movie (click on the picture for details).

Today, I decided to go out to www.pez.com and I started shaking when I saw some NEW PEZ!! These ones ROCK!






and the pièce de résistance:



I.MUST.HAVE.THEM!

I emailed Stephen to tell him I want them for my birthday (in March) but I really don't think I can wait! I may just have to order them online today. I am sure that as soon as I do I will see them at the drugstore or grocery store or Target but I cannot take that chance so they will have to be ordered online. Soon. Now!

Where the Devil Are Jax and Dex?

My kids are obsessed with WhereTheHellIsMatt.com. Of course I will not let them say hell so they say "devil" (Jax decided that). Anyway, they want to make a video like Matt. We started today at the Museum of Flight. They danced in front of a fighter jet and then on a retired Air Force One. Unfortunately, dolt that I am - I deleted the video of them on Air Force One. The zoom on my camera is not working and I got flustered and then deleted the video.>:(

Anyway, we'll continue to make videos of them at different places and hopefully have the video together by the end of the summer.

Cars was a complete pill at church. He was climbing under the pews, then on the pews, talking (not whispering), flirting with the people behind us, hiding under his coat, lying on the pew, demanding that he and Dex change places, laughing very loud then shouting out "I WANT TO LAUGH!". It was the longest 75 minutes of my life. I was horrified by his behaviour. Laurie was sitting behind us and whispered to me that I was probably sorry that he wasn't in that Sunday school class anymore! Hmmm - keep him in the class with the teacher who was mean or have him embarrass me in church. Tough call.

This afternoon, Stephen took the boys to the sports store to buy Jax a bat. They ran into Dex's coach from last year. He said that he has requested all of the same kids as last year but Dex was not on his team. Stephen said something like "well, I don't know how it works" and the coach said something along the lines that he DID know how it worked. Not sure if he meant that he knew we had asked that he not be Dex's coach or that the league is screwed up (he made many comments about that last year). Either way, I think the point is moot because I believe he is coaching AA ball and Dex had to say at A ball because of the newly enforced age cut-off rules.

Baseball season is right around the corner. Jax's practices are on Friday night and Sunday morning which totally encroach on "Movie Night" and Religion class. We'll move "Movie Night" to Saturday nights until baseball is over and he'll just have to be late to practice until mid-May when Religion is over.

Dex found out today that he is on the A-ball Cubs. Thank God they honoured my request and did not place him back with his coach from last year. Although, most of that team were older than him so they have probably all moved up to AA-ball this year. L's son is on Dex's team this year but she is upset because she wanted him moved up to AA-ball but there was a new cut-off date for age (April 30) and he has a May b-day. Gav is in the same boat and had to stay at AA-ball while Jax moved up to AAA.

We bought Jax new pants today (he needs black - he's on the Marlins), a helmet and a black undershirt. Dex is fine with what we have (Jax was a Cub last year so we have the belt and undershirt already). Oh and an equipment bag. He'll need to carry his own epi-pen this year and I just cannot stay the whole time at the practices this year (2/week - 1.5 hrs each). The coach is great and wants me to train him to use an epi-pen and make sure he knows exactly where it will be located during practices. Thank God for kind and caring people. Seriously. Thank God.

TGI(Cosmo)F!

This week was a little stressful because I was so busy with sick kids, Jax's V-day party, prep'ing the MOPS craft (ribbon key fob), working on the art auction project, Cars' Valentine's Day party (had to bring a veggie tray so I was up yesterday morning at 6am chopping veggies). Today, I had to run to the school to pick up the auction project (need to put some polyurathane or whatever on it), and get stuff ready for Cosmo Friday. I made a kick-ass artichoke dip and a veggie tray.

With all my busy-ness, I am afraid that Cars has been sorely neglected this week and has watched way too much television. We'll make up for it next week because it is mid-winter break (3 days for Jax and Dex, the whole week for Cars). We'll do some fun stuff. Monday, I might take them to the Museum of Flight where Stephen's work party was a couple of weeks ago.

Ok, back to Movie Night (except that I forgot to return the movies to Netflix so we are just watching Nickelodeon tonight). :(

Ow

Migraine came on a little while ago. I am just waiting for Stephen to come home then I will go to bed. Oh wait, I cannot. Baseball team meeting is tonight. I know he won't like it but Stephen will have to go. Off to dig out the Relpax since I cannot go to bed until is home from the meeting. :(

A Valentine's Day Confession

Valentine's Day today. So many people want to know other people's Valentine's Day plans as if it were such a huge holiday. I mean, it is a HUGE Hallmark day I suppose but why do people act like it is the only day when you show the ones you love just how much you love them?

I have always maintained that I think V-day is overrated. Not quite "bah-humbug" towards it but close. I don't necessarily boycott the holiday but I don't "celebrate" it. Sure, I buy my kids a box of Conversation Hearts (the ones without the peanut warning) and I give them a card. I hang strings of hearts from the kitchen window (but not this year). The kids bring home chocolates and candies, many of which they cannot eat due to allergies. If I think of it, I buy Stephen a can of Smokehouse Almonds (peanut-free but "may contain other tree nuts" so I felt guilty buying them this year so this pseudo-tradition may come to an end now that Cars is allergic to walnuts/pecans). And that's it. Stephen is lucky if I get him a card (I did this year).

The truth about why I think V-day is overrated is that Stephen and I broke up on Valentine's Day one year (1990). He dumped me after we went out to dinner. He dumped me because he had been flirting with a red-headed vegetarian at school/work. I was working full-time and he was still in school to get an honours BA. He was working at "The Pub" which was the pub at our campus of UofT (Toronto). It turns out that he and his friend B had been seriously flirting with two girls and they spent a lot of time together day and night at the U. I guess I was fortunate in that Stephen dumped me before he actually cheated on me. Whereas B's girlfriend was not that lucky and he did not dump her until well after he had begun "dating" E (E, who really is a lovely person. They eventually married a few years after Stephen and I).

Anyway, I was dumped on Valentine's Day. Dumped! Cupid could take his friggin' bow and arrow and stick it!

By the time the next Valentine's Day rolled around, I was still single. Stephen and I had recently begun speaking to each other again (long sordid details here with him stringing me along after the red-headed vegetarian dumped him, then me telling him to FOAD and then him mooning over me, much to the disgust of his family <- so yes, sordid). However, he was away at grad school in Indiana. We were not "together" on V-day but by May, we were officially a couple again (and I had phone bills in the hundred$ of dollar$ to prove it).

The following year, although we were back together, he was still away at school. The year after that? He was living in Minneapolis. The next? We were newlyweds, I was not working and we were flat broke. By Valentine's Day 1995, it was a tradition to do nothing on Valentine's day. Then pressure from everyone and their questions "So, what are you doing for Valentine's Day?" was unbearable so I mumbled "Valentine's Day is not a big deal to us" and that was that.

Secretly though, I would love for him to make a big deal about Valentine's Day. I would love it! Buy me flowers, chocolates (although this really is impossible with the nut/peanut allergies in the house), arrange for a babysitter, take me to dinner, buy me some jewerly. But that will never happen. We don't celebrate it. We don't buy each other gifts for Valentine's Day (ok, there was the coffee table he bought me 2 yrs ago for Valentine's Day but really it was on sale and he just happened to buy it on Valentine's Day, I think.

Since this will never happen, I will continue to say that we don't celebrate Valentine's Day. That it is not a big deal to me. And I will continue to buy the kids Conversation Hearts. And I will make a regular dinner and I will watch whatever is on tv that night.

And wish that I had big romantic plans.

Cars has an ear infection and sinus infection. Dex has a virus that is going around that can cause a fever for up to 7 days! Yikes! He was fever-free today (he just felt like crap and looked horrible with puffy eyes) but he can go back to school tomorrow in time for his Valentine's Day party.

Tomorrow and Thursday are busy days for me. I am looking forward to Friday.

Dex is still sick today but his fever is not as high as it was. No school (or lego animation class) for him. He told me a few minutes ago that his throat hurts and I took a look and I think he has strep throat. Cars' throat is really red too and he has a fever. I called the doctor's office and they are "booked solid" through tonight and so they suggested I go to one of their other offices. They put me on hold then told me that the other closest office is booked solid too and that I could go to their newest office which is 10 miles away. Um, no. Now we have an appointment for both of them at 8:40am tomorrow which means another missed day of school for them both.

I have errands to run for Jax's class Valentine's Day party on Wednesday so I'll have to do them tonight rather than work out. *ugh*

We did not make it to church today. Cars had a bad night (croup!) so we were up often through the night and outside for a while trying to get the coughing to stop. Then he ended up in our bed. He has a cold and has been miserable all day. Dex is feeling better today. He was so upset that he might miss school tomorrow that I think he willed himself well! For some reason it is important to him not to miss a day of school this year. Anyway, if he is better in the morning I will send him to school because and Jax are also starting their after school animation class.

I spent much of today getting things ready for Jax's class party for Valentine's Day. Tying ribbons around pencils and little packettes of Hershey's Kissables (a safe, peanut-free chocolate treat!), making paper hearts with Valentine's Day jokes on them (What did the farmer give his wife for Valentine's Day? Hogs and Kisses!). The boys also wrote their Valentine's for their classes (I wrote Carson's but he doodled on them) and we taped mini-tootsie pops to the cards. I have not decorated the house at all this year for Valentine's Day. I don't usually do much but I do something! Welcome, Mommy Guilt.

I was in Dex's class yesterday teaching Art Start (we studied "People, and Dogs with Sun" by Joan Miro). Almost half of the class were out with the flu! We've been lucky that we have not had it yet this year (both Stephen and I had a flu shot) but I guess it is just a matter of time before Dex gets sick and then the rest of us do. In fact, today at Costco, Dex insisted in sitting in the cart (big part)and he fell asleep. He feels a little warm now and is lying down. :\

This morning I volunteered at the church for the youth group's "spa day". It was so fun seeing these teenage (and tween!) girls coming in and being all teenage girly and silly and having them oooh and aaah over the make up and spa stuff. And then - this is silly too - I got all choked up because I won't be able to do that kind of stuff with my daughter because clearly I don't have one. I cannot believe the feeling of sadness that came over me. The only other time I felt this way was when I had an ultrasound when I was pregnant with Dex and I knew that the baby was a girl and I felt a genuine sense of loss when they said "there's a penis!". I never had the same feelings of loss when I found out that Cars was a boy (perhaps I was just expecting that news by then?).

Anyway, I know I'll have these feelings again and I'll get over them. I was just so surprised at the sense of loss. Silly, isn't it? Especially when I have three lovely and healthy boys.

Book Club is tonight. I am feeling a little strange because of what happened last time. I am a little uncomfortable around her now.

Tonight is also the first Book Club with our newly expanded membership (adding two new members). Let's hope all goes well. One of our current members made it known to all that she did not like one of the newbies (everyone agreed to expand to 12 people then when asked who they were, that woman sneered when I mentioned the name of one of the newbies - again - IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!).

*sigh* A and I have talked about splintering off into a new group then we realized we had already with Cosmo Friday. And hey, no reading necessary! ;)

I think I have lost my Canadian accent. I guess it has been happening for a while. No one every asks me anymore if I am from Canada. Funny enough, they will ask about Stephen - seems he has kept his. And I just caught myself saying "Bahb" instead of "Bob" (Cars is watching SpongeBahb Squarepants). I actually even cringed a little when I realized I said it. I know it is pronounced Bob, not Bahb so I have no idea why it came out that way. I managed to pick up the Minnesotan way of saying "five" when I lived there too.

One word that I most definitely have not Americanized is "Mom". Now, I know I spell it Mom but it is pronounced Mum.

A couple of people tell me that they can peg me for a Canadian when I say out and about. I most definitely do not pronounce them oot and aboot as many Americans think Canadians do. I think that Canadians just clip the sound and do not stretch those words out as Americans do.

One thing I just cannot Americanize though is my spelling. It's colour, honour, neighbour, odour and centre (ok, that one I will change occasionally). I distinctly remember being lectured in Grade 3 that COLOUR is not to be spelt COLOR and that we were not Americans so we could not spell it COLOR. Of course there is an exception. When I email the teachers, I Americanize my spelling. I don't want them to think I am dumb! ;)

BNL Rock!

I love this Youtube video!

Had to take the Saab in for muffler work at Midas today. Of course they then give us the litany of things wrong with the car (nothing unsafe, just stuff that needs fixing - and fortunately they do not have the tools to run full diagnostics on the car like the dealership does. We figure we need it to last another year then we can look into replacing it. Anyway, at least now nobody turns around to look to see what's coming when we drive up.

Tonight was Stephen's work belated holiday party (basically no one had their act together in December). It was held at the Museum of Flight. I had never been there and it is so cool. All of these old airplanes suspended from the ceiling or parked on the ground and the history of these planes. They even have a Blackbird which is the fastest piloted airplane. They also currently have a Da Vinci exhibit which was very interesting too. I would love to take the kids to see the airplanes. I hope they get as big a kick out of it as I did!

I was at Macy's today buying nylons and the Estee Lauder counter was doing free make up so I had my make up done (but of course also had to buy some). I had a very good hair day too so overall I looked smashing with my make up done and in my new (old) dress.

Jax did ok at his tryouts today. It started pouring rain just before it was his time slot and it was cold so by the time he made it through the six stations, he was soaked and his poor hands were red from the cold. We'll see what team he ends up on...

Tomorrow is a busy day for us. Church then RE classes for the boys (and a MOPS Steering committee mtg for me), birthday party then Super Bowl Party. Our weekend had been just PACKED which is pretty unusual for us.

I went up to read with the boys last night and fell asleep along side of them. I slept from 8:30 until six this morning! I feel like I could do it again tonight.

I had the kids in Dex's class paint the little wooden hands for the class auction project. They look great and will look fantastic once we glue them to the toy box. I hope someone bids on the item! The auction is next month and the theme is "Denim and Diamonds". So one can wear their bling with their jeans. I might buy a Bedazzler and Bedazzle an old pair of jeans to wear.

Cosmo Friday was at Laurie's today but we had to cut it short because both Jax and Laurie's dd had playdates and had to be picked up at 5pm. Imagine our kids' social lives interfering with Momtini time. ;)

I've been busy doing nothing! Just the day-to-day stuff that gets in the way of my blogging and forum time. ;)

Today it was a warm day for January so after school (early dismissal Wednesdays) the kids and I did some baseball practice at the park for two hours. I also baked chocolate chip meringues (yum!), had my hair cut and Cars had a playdate here in the morning.

Yesterday, I sewed two baby blankets and some burp cloths and cleaned the house.

This weekend is a party for Stephen's work. It is semi-formal and I had nothing to wear until Ash lent (well gave) me a dress that she bought a few years ago (before she lost the baby weight - I've lost mine and it fits me fine! lol). Anyway, it is a lovely dress but the hem needs to be tacked up again. I took it to the cleaners today to have them clean the dress and have the hem repaired but they said it would not be ready until Saturday after 4 so I just had them clean it (ready tomorrow after 4pm). I'll have to sew up the hem myself (or perhaps I will just use Stitch Witchery).

Tonight after the kids are in bed, I need to spray paint 25 wooden hands for the Auction Art Project. Then on Friday, I will be going to Dex's class to have the kids paint them.

And this week was looking so relaxing with my Monday nap. Guess I am just making up for it now...

I had a cup of tea last night at 9:30. I was awake until 3:30 in the morning! I cannot believe that the caffeine affected me that much. I didn't think it really ever affected me but apparently I was wrong.

One good thing is that I nearly finished my Book Club book. Although I thought it was a tear-jerker so I spent the wee hours of the morning wiping tears from my eyes.

I was able to get a nap this afternoon. Cars and I went up to my bedroom to watch a movie and we both slept for about an hour and a half. I don't think I could have made it through the day without the nap.

Cars' preschool has their Valentine's Day party for family on February 15th at 11am. Stephen has an all-day meeting that day so he cannot go. At 11am, I will be directing MOPS craft! It is a little tricky too. The person who usually helps me with crafts also has a child in the same preschool (it is at the same location as our MOPS meetings) so she won't be able to take over for me). I hope I can recruit a couple of people to help out because I would hate for Cars to be all alone at his party! :(

Here She Is!

Here's Tara!



I think she looks so very much like Wally (they have matching haircuts although his is mostly grey). I think she looks a lot like my dad too - especially around the mouth.

Little League season starts soon. Next weekend, Jax has to go to the high school's football field to be evaluated. This is the first year that his skills will be evaluated before he is placed on a team. I am nervous for him. He was voted "most improved player" on his team last year so that gives you some idea of what his skill level is. Anyway, he will play at this level for the next two years and I imagine that will be the end of his baseball career. We'll see.

Dex is still at the level where he is placed on a team. I requested that he not have the same coach as last year so he'll start on a team where he doesn't know anyone. :\

Naughty Mommies

Apparently our Cosmo Fridays are very naughty.

The Momtini and the video from The Today Show: Today's Woman.

Fifty-seven percent of women polled on ivillage.com felt it was not acceptable to have cocktails at a playdate. Well, bully for them!

Now I am off to chill the vodka and get the snacks ready for today's Cosmo Friday.

Bottoms up!

It's a GIRL!

My brother Michael (Wally) and Andrea had their baby about 22 minutes ago (2am EST on 1/26) AT HOME! Andrea's contractions started coming quickly so they called the midwife to come check her. When the midwife arrived she said the baby's head was RIGHT THERE and Andrea said she could not make it to the hospital. So the baby (her name is Tara) was delivered at home! How exciting!

Anyway, they baby has yet to be weighed and measured. Both grandmothers were present (my mom was there to watch Fiona since they thought they were heading to the hospital) and Andrea's mom was on the way to meet them at the hospital but had to make a detour to home when it became apparent they were not going to make it. Big sister Fiona awoke to the baby's cries shortly after she was born.

Cars went to school for the first time in over two weeks. They are working at trying to make up some dates for all the missed school (because God forbid they actually REFUND any of our cash!).

Tomorrow night begins the husband's answer to Cosmo Friday. They decided they will start "Wing Club". Tomorrow is the inaugural meeting. Laurie declared that Fridays will not do though since that encroaches on Cosmo Friday so they will have to change it to the third Thursday of the month or something. Cosmos trump wings! ;)

Mystery Box Mystery Solved!

Canadian Favourites called last night to let me know that it was indeed DeniSe who sent me the box of goodies. They apologized for omitting to enclose a card.

Now my kids can safely eat that food without concern that it was sent by a stalker. ;)

Oh, nuts!

Cars is allergic to walnuts, pecans and Brazil nuts. :\ I will just say all tree nuts to make things easier because there is always risk of cross-contamination and then people trying to remember those three of the, what, nine or ten common tree nuts is just too risky.

We were late to the doctor's appointment today and that completely stressed me out! Mapquest said it would take 30 minutes which I knew we could only get there in that time if it were the middle of the night. So I gave myself an hour and it took an hour and 10 minutes! I was freaking out! It took over 30 minutes for me just to get to the highway (6 miles away). Traffic and a little bit of construction suck! Then, traffic was backed off at the exit where I needed to get off the highway (first one after crossing the bridge).

After the skin test, we were sent to Children's Hospital for blood work. I was feeling a little bummed out about the allergy test results. However, while waiting outside of the lab for Cars' blood draw, I saw so many children with severe disabilities and medical conditions, I completely snapped out of my woe-is-us attitude and kept thanking God that a life threatening food allergy is the worse of our worries.

Mystery Box

Today, Purolator delivered a package to us from Canadian Favourites. That site sells food items from Canada that are not widely available in the USA. Inside the box were all sorts of goodies! Dare Fruit Gummies, (peanut-free)Quaker Chewy Granola bars, Tim Hortons Coffee, Tim Horton's tea, a package of playing cards with Canadian facts on it.

The problem is, I have absolutely NO IDEA who sent this to us. The outside of the box only had the waybill with Canadian Favourites as the sender. And there was nothing else inside (other than the goodies packed in bubble wrap). I thought perhaps it was from Ramona so I called her but she said no. Hmmm...

Perhaps it might be from my friend, DeniSe. She sent me an email before Christmas saying that something was on its way to us (if it has not yet already arrived). Well, nothing came from her. I did email her the week after Christmas to let her know. So perhaps this is it. I called Canadian Favourites but they are based in Toronto and were closed by the time the box arrived here. I will call them again tomorrow before I contact DeniSe (just in case it was not from her).

And to add to the mystery, there was number on my caller id this tonight from the Ottawa-area but no phone message was left. They must have called just before Stephen and the boys got home (I was working out). Maybe it is from someone in Ottawa? Or maybe it was just a wrong number and it is just a coincidence that it is from Canada? Curiouser and Curiouser.

Meanwhile, the kids cannot eat anything until I know it is not from a stalker. ;)

Lazy Day

We are having a lazy day. I did not sleep well last night. Actually, I slept fine until my cellphone started beeping shortly after 4am because the battery was low. I could not get back to sleep until after 5:30am! Then I was up at 6:30.

Today was Cars' last day at Sunday school because I decided to pull him from the program. I think I mentioned that he cries every week because it is held in the same room as his regular preschool class and the first week of Sunday school he was so upset because his regular preschool teachers were not there. Cars also did not like the teachers - one seems a little stern. Today she yelled when one of the kids bolted out of the class rather than just go after him. It was like "OMG! J has run out again! Quick! GO AFTER HIM!" to the other teacher. All of the kids jumped and then wanted to know what was going on. I am glad I made the decision to pull him out. We only went today because I was on the schedule to be the parent helper and I did not want to leave them short-handed.

*yawn* I need a nap. I think I shall declare a mandatory quiet time this afternoon.

A Very Happy Friday

Listen! Do you hear that? It is the sweet sound of rain! Pouring rain! Oh, yes - it is raining!! No more snow! Most of the snow has already melted. Who knew I would be so happy to welcome the winter rain?

Yesterday I signed Jax's 504 Plan at school and it is official. Well, except that the 504 coordinator for the school did not actually show up at the meeting and it will not be totally official until her signature is on the plan. I could tell that the principal and school psychologist were not very happy about that. Anyway, they will send me one more copy of the plan once it has the coordinator's (she is the whack school counselor) signature. After the formalities were complete, the principal asked me if she could refer other parents to me who were interested in going through the same process. WHAT?! Does this mean that the school district has had a change of policy and they will be writing up 504 Plans?! It felt so weird because of the tension filled meetings we have had in the past.

No Cosmo Friday today because Ash's dd is sick and Laurie cannot make it either. So instead of Cosmos, I shall imbibe in chocolate. More satisfyinig anyway. ;)

Now, I am off to Costco to buy TurboTax ($15 coupon in the Costco wallet savings booklet) and pork chops (coupon there too). And to get some veggies. Generators are $200 off this week too. Hmmm...

No school for Cars yet again today. The school was on a delayed start today so no preschool. No delays or cancelations for Jax and Dex. The snow is melting and hopefully will be all gone by the end of the weekend.

The allergist's office called this morning to say that the doctor wanted to know if I wanted to get Cars in earlier to see her. Of course I do! The appointment we had was for the end of February - that is longer than most new patients have to wait! So he has an appointment for next week but we have to take him to the Seattle office. I have never been to that office before and already my stomach is fluttering when I think about driving across the bridge.

Tomorrow's Cosmo Friday is at my house. Not sure if Ash will make it because her dd is sick. I need to get more wheat-free crackers for Laurie.

Edited to add a link to The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network's statement regarding the "Boston Legal" episode which I wrote about on Tuesday.
FAAN Press Release - Boston Legal: It’s not about who is liable

Squee!

My bff is coming to visit me for my birthday!

Game On!

Hurray! School is on today with a 1 hour delayed start (it is also an early release day though).

On last night's Boston Legal, there was a story about a teacher being sued because a child in her class died from a peanut anaphylaxis. The teacher was on the telephone when it happened so there was a delay before she administered the epi pen. The parents were suing her to make sure that she and others would "take care". Ok, so since the teacher was a client of Crane Poole & Schmidt, I knew that she would prevail (why do they never lose a case on that show?!).

Anyway, in the end, they blamed the parents for not hiring a "shadow nurse" to follow the boy around school. Or for not sending him to a private school where the student/teacher ratio is lower. I was so pissed off at that because what about the parents who could not afford to do that? While the teacher was not completely to blame (a child sneaked in a candy bar with peanuts), turning around and blaming the parents is ridiculous. Now, I know that it was just a fictional show, but many people will take away from it that the parents were to be blamed. It is just a sad situation and I can see why in their grief they would want someone held responsible.

It reminded me of one person on a forum I used to frequent who would always tell me that if her child had a peanut allergy, she would *never* send them to school but would homeschool them. Well good for her but that is not a practical situation for everyone. Not everyone has the resources or ability to homeschool. And really, my child is required to go to school so the schools should be required to ensure he is safe while in their care. And sadly, it sometimes does take lawsuits or threats of losing federal funds for the schools to be responsive and responsible. Why not just do the right thing in the first place?

No school yet again today thanks to a new round of snow.

I can't believe this. Seriously. I can't.

I had good intentions. Terry could not meet me tonight but I was determined to go work out anyway. I got changed. I strapped on my heart rate monitor, put my shoes on and coat but as I was driving, Joann Fabrics was calling. I stopped at the one that was (sort of) on the way because but it was closed due to "power outage". So, I decided I would make a quick stop at the one that was a little out of the way to the club. But, it was their MLK day sale and so I had to look at EVERYTHING. Before I knew it, it was 8:55 and they were announcing that the store was closing! Yikes! Where did the time go?

But, chenille was on sale for $4.99/yard (regularly $12.99!). I really have no idea what I am going to do with the chenille but who can pass it up at that price? I browsed up and down nearly every aisle in the store (except the wedding supplies and picture frames).

Anyway, so I did not work out. I feel quite guilty now. But, I did get some good deals. :) I will definitely have to work out sometime during the week to make up for tonight. Definitely.

We did not do much this weekend. It is still cold and it snowed again yesterday. This is getting ridiculous!

No school for the boys tomorrow (MLK Jr. Day). We are invited to a birthday party (Ding-Dong girl's brother turns 4). I will need to run out in the morning to buy him a gift and to go to Michaels and Joann's to get supplies for Thursday's MOPS meeting. Thursday will also be our table's day for bringing food so I will take a breakfast casserole and some juice. BTW, OJ has not been a good price since the beginning of the year. What is that all about? Everyone trying to get healthy with their New Year's resolutions so the stores do not have to put OJ on sale? Normally, I would just not buy it until it was on sale but Cars drinks calcium-fortified OJ at lunch and dinner since he cannot drink milk (for breakfast he gets apple juice and 2 calcium supplements).

I was supposed to teach Art Start in Dex's class on Friday. I don't imagine it will get rescheduled this month because I don't really have the time. I'll see if one of the other moms can do it. Also, I am working with someone to do that class' auction project. No idea what we are doing, when it is due or anything. Well, I know it is due before the auction which is in mid-March. Now we have to come up with a great idea for a project that people will want to bid on and that will not cost the classroom parents a lot of money. I saw these ideas and thought they were neat and could be done for under $100 (or less than $5/per child):

= a chess set made from an IKEA table ($15) and the chessmen will be made by screwing different shaped wood pieces together. The kids will paint the pieces and we'll put a picture of each child on one of the light coloured squares on the table
= a collage of sun print paper - each child will make one sun print and we'll frame them in white. I think it would look pretty
= mosaic bird bath (I stole this idea from here: http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/alki/auction2005/studentart.htm
= celebration chair (this one is done all the time though)

I am meeting with another mom this week and hopefully we can decide what we are going to do and get cracking on it!

I took the kids sledding at Ash's again this afternoon. Boy, they had a blast. The snow would not nearly be so bad if they had the trucks to plough the damn roads! Anyway, this time when it was time to go it was the back hatch door that was frozen solid. Two more days until it starts to warm up.

A weird thing happened at Book Club last night. Just as we were beginning the discussion of the book ("The Myth of You and Me: A Novel" by Leah Stewart), P. blurted out that she was jealous of the friendship that Ash and I had and that she wanted to be Ash's best friend. Then she said that she knows that Ash and I had known each other longer (this was not true and everyone knows that they have known each other a little longer) so she understands but it still makes her sad. HUH? It was weird and uncomfortable and not something that you expect a 38 year old woman to say. The she said that perhaps she is just not a good friend which of course everyone had to say "Oh, you are a great friend". It was more than a little uncomfortable, and I felt that I should say something but in the end I just lifted my glass and took a big swig of wine. I really like P. but I don't understand her motive for saying it, especially at Book Club.

The ladies from Book Club left about 30 minutes ago. It was a fun time tonight. I was worried that everyone would cancel due to the icy roads but everyone carpooled and trucked on over in their 4x4's.

The roads are very icy. The temperatures dropped very quickly about 4pm and everything froze solid. We went sledding in Ash's backyard but when it was time to go home at 4:15, the sliding doors to my van were frozen and would not open. I had all of the kids climb in through the trunk then I had to climb in from the front seat to buckle Cars in his carseat. One of the doors is still slightly open and it will neither open nor close. I'll run the car for a while tomorrow to see if I can warm up the car enough to de-ice the door.

And speaking of tomorrow, no school. So, that is the 4th snow day for the year (and 5th day if you count the power outage day). The school has not built in these snow days so there are so many theories about how they are going to make it up. The most recent one is that the governor of the state is going to decree a one-time only deal where it is ok that the kids miss so many hours of school this year because of all of the weather-related missed days. Also, our kids get out early on Wednesdays so there is talk of extending the days on some Wednesdays to make up the hours. It will be interesting to see what they decide.

Stephen went to work for a couple of hours today. He drove with Ash's dh to go and rescue their stranded car then he and Gar drove to work together. They just stayed about 3 hours then headed home once the temperatures dropped. Gar dropped Stephen off at the church and Stephen was able to get his car up our hill to home. We'll see how the roads are tomorrow. Temperatures are not expected to go until Sunday or Monday.

Ok, off to bed. I hope the kids sleep in since there is no school in the morning!

More Snow!

We awoke to a smattering of snow. Then a huge storm hit just before the evening rush hour. Stephen had planned to work late to get some project finished but then decided at 6pm that he should leave. He stayed an extra 20 minutes and then got on the road. After 2 hours he had made it about 3 miles. He stopped at the Redmond Town Center to see if he could get a room at the Marriott but they were booked solid! He now has decided to go get some dinner and will try again to head home.

It took Ash's dh 3 hours to get home. One hour of it was walking though because he finally had to abandon his car about 2 miles (and three huge hills) from home. He has graciously offered to take their truck out with chains on to get Stephen. I haven't heard back yet from anyone to see if Stephen has taken him up on that offer.

The biggest problem is that the temperatures are dropping so the slick roads are going to turn icy. I hope he gets home tonight!

Good News!

Some good news for a change! The school called today and they have decided that Jax is eligible for a 504 plan. I am going in on January 18th to sign it to make it official. All this discord and it is over like that! What a relief though.

The wind storm came and went. It did not last long. The temperature is dropping and it is raining so perhaps we'll wake up to snow in the morning.

Cars has an appointment with the allergist next month (nice of them to get us in so quickly). Cars keeps asking me if food is peanut-free before he eats it. I have to keep reminding him it is walnuts we are concerned about right now.

Yet another wind storm is headed our way. As well as very cold temperatures and perhaps some snow. I am off to Costco tomorrow so I will be sure to stock up on some things to carry us through another power outage if need be (and don't think I haven't thought about picking up a generator!). Also, Book Club is meeting here on Thursday nigth so I need to get some yummy food to serve. I shall have to stop at Trader Joe's or PCC to get some wheat-free crackers for Laurie too.

Kris mentioned in the comments yesterday that 2007 is not off to a good start for me. Indeed! Today, Cars had an allergic reaction to walnuts. Swollen lips, hives and a cough which fortunately Benadryl took care of. Tomorrow I shall be calling the allergist to have him tested for all tree nuts.

Not Letting Go

Ok, Ed from Dell called me this morning at 6:27am. Can you believe it?!

The call went like this:

Me: {groggy} Hello
Ed: Hello, this is Ed from Dell calling for DeniSe.
Me: *sigh* Ed, do you realize that it is 6:27 in the morning?!
Ed: I am sorry but this case was flagged as an urgent call back so I was calling to see if you had received the software we sent to you.
Me: Call back some other time, please!

So, now I just cannot drop it and boy is Ed going to get an earful. I have his callback number (he left it for me the other day). I wonder if this was flagged as urgent because he promised to call me back in three days and today is actually the 4th day.

And WTF is up with not checking the time in the time zone you are calling?! I realize that Ed is in India but certainly they must have something to tell them what time it is on WA state.

It reminds me of when Verizon called me at 6:42 one morning to thank me for switching over to Verizon DSL. When I called them back to complain about the call, the woman told me that they *never* call customers before 9am. So I told her that I had a call register over my Verizon phone line on my Verizon caller ID box that Verizon called me at 6:42 in the morning so don't tell me that Versizon does not call before 9am, TYVM. Then I canceled the DSL, refused the package when UPS delivered it and whenever Verizon calls to ask me if I want DSL, I tell them exactly why I will not.

I have my laptop up and running although it is not exactly set up like it was and I have lost some things. I am not happy about it and I intend to let Dell know exactly what I think although Stephen says I should just let it go. But I cannot! I can't let it go! Just like last week when I bought dinner at KFC and the guy rang it up wrong (overcharged me) and the girl who came over to help him was snotty to me ("this would not be so hard if it weren't paid with VISA"). I told her I wanted my money back and to cancel my order and just why did she think it was ok for her to speak to me that way? Her jaw dropped to the floor and she got all flustered then the manager came over. I pointed out to him that his employee seemed to think it was a problem that they accept VISA at their restaurant. Really, I should have just let it go but I could not! I really just wanted to leave with a refund and my dignity but Stephen had his heart set on KFC and if I came home without it he would be so disappointed. And I really don't want to think about what the girl did to my meal while the manager spoke to me.

So, I really should just let it go. But I couldn't. Just like I cannot let this Dell problem go. Perhaps after I write them a letter I will feel better. I probably don't even need to send it. My Crazy Doctor used to suggest things like that to me (writing unsent letters). Perhaps I just might do that.

TGI(C)F

Thank Gawd it's Cosmo Friday!

It has been hard getting back to our normal schedule this week. Especially since things were not exactly normal for a couple of days. The park was closed (I mentioned that), my laptop is not back up and running (I mentioned that too), and it was only a 4 day week. Next week will be better.

We are having another windstorm and yet another one is due tomorrow night. I can hear the furniture blowing off the deck (no, we did not put away all of our plastic deck furniture!). I had Stephen pick up some more Duraflame logs on the way home, just in case the power goes out and we use the fireplace again for heat.

I found out this past week too that Duraflame uses "ground nut shells" in their products. I emailed them to ask exactly what kind of nut shells they use. They use ground walnut and almond shells. And, the product is 35% ground nut shells! Yikes!

I am over my Dell rant. I am still ticked about the whole situation and figure that I probably will not get my disks until Monday. I don't like it but I will deal with it.

The woman I know with that dementia stopped by today to ask me if I wanted to take her to Tully's. She had been out walking with her FIL - who has moved here with MIL to help take care of her and the family. He was standing on the sidewalk shaking his head for me to say NO. She has deteriorated terribly in the last few months. Her family is thinking about moving her into a home because she keeps running away. The problem is that she is only 47 and they are having a hard time finding a home that will take someone that young. It is so very sad.

So, my problem with my laptop has been properly put into perspective.

Friggin' Dell

My hard drive failed and the right button on the palm rest broke so they sent a hardware guy out to replace them. The problem is that the hard drive is brand new and of course there is nothing loaded on it. No operating system, no software that I had already paid for when I bought the laptop. I am mad! The hardware guy says that these hard drives rarely fail (hmmm, I did not get that impression reading the forums on the Dell website) so they do not send the OS or drivers Cd's automatically anymore and it saves Dell money.

So, I call Dell and am on hold off and on for an hour while "Ed" tries to figure out what disks I need. He finally narrows it down to 5 and tells me I should receive them in 3-5 business days. I asked him to expedite it and he says he cannot because they only expedite if they do not ship in a timely manner (HUH?!). I asked to speak to his supervisor and Ed tells me that the manager will say the same thing. I told him that they did not ship in a timely manner because the guy I originally communicated with on December 30th should have had the disks sent out with the hard drive and palm rest. "Oh, I had not thought of that. I see what you are saying" and he puts me on hold again for 10 minutes as I wait for the manager. He comes on the phone and apologizes for the problem and says they will send the disks expedited but they will not go out until tomorrow because we missed the day's mail cut off - by 10 minutes! Aargh!

Now, I have to wait until I receive the disks, reload all of the software myself, then load the other programs I had installed, reconfigure my mail program and wireless network and hopefully get back to where I was before. And, on top of it all, I forgot to delete all my old files and cookies off the old hard drive so I need to change all of my passwords on all of my accounts!

Dude, don't get a Dell!

The Christmas tree is down and out the door. Stephen cut it into pieces and it is now in the yard recycling bin. I do not have the energy to put the PEZ cabinet back where it belongs so for now I am going to keep it where it stands and hope we do not have an earthquake (it is normally strapped to the wall).

I am thinking of bringing down the other big armchair from the boys old room to put in the nook where the tree was. Then I will put the reading lamp beside it and have a nice little reading corner. We'll see how that works.

We had another windstorm today and the lights flickered on and off several times. I think I would have been disheartened if the power went out. When I went to the park to pick the kids up from school, more than half of the parking lot (about 30 parking spaces and about 15 feet high) was covered with debris/fallen trees from the big wind storm that the city cleaned up from the park. It was amazing to see.

The National Weather Service is holding a contest to name that storm. Some of the suggestions so far are "Typhoon Merry", "The Big Blow" and "Seattle Unplugged". Suggestions can be sent to namethewindstorm@noaa.gov until Thursday of this week.

2007!

Happy New Year!

We had a great time last night, ringing in the New Year with some good friends and good food.

I looked back at my goals/resolutions for last year and realized that I did not accomplish any of them! Doh! So no resolutions other than the one to de-clutter my house and get rid of items that we no longer need or use. I think I can accomplish that one.

Our vacuum which was on its last legs (er, wheels) stopped sucking the other day. I had really, really, really wanted a Dyson but after checking out Consumer Reports and seeing that a Kenmore, for half the price, did a better job, I headed out to Sears yesterday and now we are the proud new owners of a Kenmore Progressive Upright Vacuum with Inteli-Clean System. The Inteli-Clean system is a bunch of lights which show green (low dirt), amber (more dirt) and red (tons-o-dirt). Embarrassingly enough, it glowed RED the whole time I was vacuuming. Apparently, our old one really hadn't been working well for some time.

Blah blah blah...

Yesterday, was Ash's 40th birthday. Her dh arranged for Nanny to babysit the kids (they all came here) and four couples went out to dinner. It was a fun time. I passed the 40th Birthday Tiara onto Ash to wear. It was a lot of fun and I think she had a great birthday celebration.

We still have snow on the grass. This must be some kind of record - 4 days after the snowfall! It is like now ice but still hanging around. Weird weather.

The right button on my laptop's touchpad stopped working just before Christmas. I finally ran diagnostics on it today then contacted Dell. Turns out the whole "palm rest" needs replacing. Then I happened to mention that I also had another error message when running diagnostics...now I need a new hard drive! Good quality product I have here. :\

Tomorrow night we are going to Ash's for New Year's Eve celebration. No doubt fireworks will go off at midnight. I think we were very lucky on the 4th of July not to be cited for fireworks so I wonder if we might just pushing our luck now.

I am have a good start on my goal to get rid of some of the stuff in my house! Today, I gave away some baby stuff to my SIL while she and my brother came by for a short overnight visit. Whoo-hooo!

Today was a very cold winter day (for here). We had snow again yesterday (what is up with this winter?!) and it became all crunchy today. The sky was so blue so we decided to go tubing in the mountains. However, when we arrived there were about 400 people in line in front of us to pay for the session so we turned around and stopped in this little area down the street and just went tobogganing. It was such a blast! Jax is such a kamikaze!

Edited to add some photos from yesterday (click for larger if you like):

 
Dex sliding down a mini-hill sans sled

Cars kicking back enjoying the snow

Jax racing down the hill

Stephen making a snowball (Look at that blue sky! 
A rarity for me to see in the winter!)

Enjoying hot chocolate after sledding

Christmas rocked! The kids were delighted with their Christmas gifts, especially Jax We told the kids it was our "tradition" not to build Lego on Christmas day so they have been working them this morning. Stephen is building Cars' Lego.

We had two families come over for dinner and everyone had a grand time. I was only really stressed when I realized that dinner was going to be about 30 minutes later than I had planned because our friend's son, who has Asperger's Syndrome, started saying he was ready to go home before dinner and I really thought they would pack up and go then (they would have in the past) but they were able to encourage him to find something to do and he was fine.

Stephen spoiled me rotten of course. He totally surprised me and bought me a gorgeous purse and matching wristlet/wallet. I am so impressed! This is the man who in the past has surprised me a 19" monitor for the computer for Christmas (that one went back).

T and I braved the mall today. She bought a ton of stuff but I just bought a bunch of candles on clearance at Pottery Barn to replace all of the candles we burned during the power outage.

Ash's 40th birthday is this week. I am not sure what to get her. I did buy her some hand and foot cream from Arbonne (I signed up to be a consultant but that is really just to get the discount on the products - I love their face creams!). Not sure what else to get her.

JP and Marilyn are arriving tomorrow for an overnight stay. Gotta get the guest room cleaned out because it became our dumping ground for all the stuff we needed to move out of the way to set up two tables for Christmas dinner. We were going to take the kids tubing at the pass but the weather will be bad tomorrow and we do not have chains to be driving around in that snow. Perhaps we will go Thursday.

Oh and for Christmas, Dex made me a painted ceramic plaque at school. It is of the family and I love it. I opened it up and told him how great it was, that he got everyone's eye colour correct and I loved the detail. He said it was not that accurate and he was sorry because "I didn't paint you with the grey in your hair". LOL

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. Here is one of my favourite quotes from a Christmas show:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'".

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

P.S. Peace on Earth

Stuff

In my quest to get my house in shape for Christmas, I have decided that I have too much stuff. Way too much. All of my cupboards and closets are busting at the seams. I could not find a place to put away some votive candle holders that I took out during the storm (I cannot for the life of me remember where I found them but there is definitely NO place to put them back). I have two wicker baskets of stuff sitting in my bedroom with things I need to hang on to until a later date (most of it is MOPS crafts crap and the other is an Art Start project that I sometime need to deal with for an end-of-year gift for the teacher).

We do not park out cars in the garage so that is filled up with stuff. Granted, right now some of it are the Christmas boxes down from the loft in the garage but the other things like skateboards, helmets, traffic cones, bikes, an easel, ladders (3!), garbage pails, recycle bins, lawn mower, gas trimmer, paint cans, ETC have taken over. Never mind the shelves with SpongeBob Squarepants shaved ice makers, pasta drying racks, party supplies, and so on. Seriously, too much stuff!

And now Christmas is in a few short days so we will be adding MORE stuff to the mix!

So, my NEW YEAR'S resolution is go to through each and every room, closet, cupboard, shelf in the house and garage and get rid of at least 25% of everything. At least 25%! That would include my size 10 purple wool skirt that I purchased in 1989 (which btw, is probably considered a size 6 these days), two bridesmaid dresses (both of which are from weddings in 1992 and which are identical except one is red the other is royal blue), the Spongebob shaved ice maker, a dozen sippy cups, a breast pump (!), Jesse Ventura Governor of Minnesota doll (don't ask!), mason jars, a hot diggity dogger (a Christmas gift from the IL's the first year we were married).

So much stuff that will be gone from my house. Gone! And there will be room to move around and put things away without jamming things into cupboards. I must do this as I fear I will turn into a compulsive hoarder.

Dear Santa

Jax's Christmas list to Santa included:

1) Jango Fett Slave I lego set
2) "Superball Shoes"
3) Yu-Gi-Oh cards

#1 is taken care of and my brother got him #3. Now, about #2...I explained to him today one could not really bounce as high as the kids in the Superball Shoes commercial without help. He immediately wanted to email Santa and this is what he wrote:

Dear Santa Claus,

When I asked you for SuperBall Shoes ( Bouncy shoes with balls in them,) I thought you could bounce really high in them like in the commercial. Then I discovered that on the commercial, they probably were bouncing on a trampoline. I just wanted you to know I don’t want them any more.

Instead, I would like a Pirates of the Caribbean Electronic Black Pearl Ship Playset.

I hope what my friends say about you not existing doesn’t offend you. I know you exist though. (*Sigh*,) to bad they don’t know about you.

I’ve been trying to be the best I can around these times in December.

Sincerely,

Jax Ourlastname

OMG, I had tears in my eyes after I read it. This certainly is the last year that he will believe in Santa so spending that outrageou$ amount on that one gift might be worth it after all (ok, I am trying to justify it here).

And for the record, he is not getting a Pirates of the Caribbean Electronic Black Pearl Ship Playset.

Oh Sh*t

Oh Sh*t #1:

Our very full upright freezer that survived the 55 hour power outage (due to being jammed packed and the fact that we only opened the door two times), did not survive Jax's leaving the door ajar last night when he helped himself to a frozen Go-gurt. We tossed out half of the freezer. Again, thanks to the two frozen turkeys, we did not lose the expensive meat but all of the processed foods (why did they defrost so quickly?!) and all leftovers. I will be cooking up ground sausage and bacon later today.

Oh Sh*t #2:

I bought the WRONG friggin' Lego off ebay! It is the wrong one! Aargh! We just realized last night. Stephen said to me last night that Jax is going to be so happy because the Lego has "rare figures" and he keeps talking about it. I thought that the figures were not so rare because we already had one of each (Boba Fett and Han Solo in Cabonite). Then we both realized that we bought a Boba Fett and not a Jango Fett Lego (ok, tell me that you understand the difference here). And WTH would Lego have a billion different versions of "Slave I"?

I figured that we could just buy something else off the list to Santa but that would not do for Stephen. So this morning we started checking ebay again and there was no way we were going to be able to outbid these people AND get the Lego here by Christmas. Much to Stephen's chagrin, I searched FROOGLE ("Why don't you use BigSoftwareCompany LIVE?") and found the one we need at an exorbitant price but we could buy it right away and have it sent Expre$$ $hipping to have it here by Christmas. I feel just sick about the cost of it. Stephen says we learned our lesson today - If you throw enough money at it, you can save Christmas. :\

Tick-Tock

The clock is ticking and Christmas is coming! I feel as though I still have so much to do although in reality, much of it is already done. That storm and subsequent power outage has thrown everyone off and into Christmas panic mode.

Tomorrow, Stephen is taking the day to finish up his shopping. He has taken upon himself to do the stocking stuffers for the boys each year. He will also finish buying the gifts for the kids from the grandparents.

I haven't worked out in ages. The club does not have power completely restored to all of their facilities and apparently there are long waits to use the one cardio room that is open (with a 20 minute work-out limit). Hopefully by Thursday or Friday I will be able to get back to it. I am feeling like goo.

For the first time since Wednesday night, I slept in a warm bed last night and it was wonderful!

I have to make one last trip to the post office today to mail my nieces' gifts to them. The package should arrive by Wednesday or Thursday as I will send it priority. We need to get out in shifts today to finish Christmas shopping too. And find a store with milk to get us through the day (the milk man should be delivering tomorrow morning). The city to the south of us was still mainly without power yesterday so I will not be heading that way to do shopping. So that leaves the shopping areas in the city to the north/west will be just packed. What's the Christmas season without some hustle and bustle and crowds?

The Big Blow Out

Whew! The windstorm brought damaging winds that completely devastated our power lines. Trees were down EVERYWHERE and we were without power at our house from 8pm Thursday to 11am Sunday.

After I picked the kids up from school on Thursday, I filled the car with gas and bought some extra D batteries. I also bought a few snacks for the kids. We were fine with food. I thought about buying some Duraflame logs but we have not used out fireplace since 1999 so I decided against it.

We had driving rain and the wind started to pick up. Our book club decided to still go out for our Christmas dinner celebration even though the winds were high. The big storm wasn't due to hit until after 10pm so we figured we would be home safely by then.

While I was gone, the power went off at our house so Stephen let the kids sleep in the living room. About 10:30pm, the gate and one section of our fence blew down and hit the side window to the living room but fortunately did not break the window (you can see where the screen was damaged by the fence in the picture):



Of course there was no school (or work) on Friday morning because more than a million homes were without power. We decided to take a look around and this is what we saw:



This tree was well over 100 feet tall and very thick. My friend lives directly to the right of the house where the tree stood. She did not allow her kids to sleep in their bedroom that night because she was worried about this tree. It fell the other way though. These people decided to sleep in their downstairs (on the other side of the house) that night. The tree fell at 1:30am, crushing their bed and crashing straight through to the garage.



This house is across the street from the park which backs onto the school yard. It was hit by 4 trees. You can see the blue tarp on the roof. Their car was also crushed and had just been towed down the street so that crews could get to the power lines and trees. The log in the lower right of the picture was a utility pole that had toppled but was already chopped up into three sections.



This is just one of many streets where the power lines were down and laying across the roads. This street runs perpendicular to the park. A person I know told me that earlier in the morning you could not even look down the street because of all of the trees.

By Saturday morning it was 57 degrees in the house. I took the kids to Safeway in the early afternoon (they had generators to power their cash registers but no lights in the store and they were not selling meat, dairy or frozen foods).

The rest of the day we just hung out, cooked meals on the grill and the power outage was seeming a little "old". Ash and Gar packed it in and decided to drive to visit his sister in Portland. They left us some duraflame logs and the propane tank to their grill since ours was running low. By early evening, the house was 51 degrees. We started burning the duraflame logs, hoping that we would not have a chimney fire because we do not use our fireplace at all. At 6:30pm, our neighbour across the street told us to come over because he bought a generator and had light and heat (space heaters). We went over and watched a dvd. We got home, bundled up and slept in front of the fireplace (which really did not give up much heat).

This morning it was 47 degrees in the house. On the way to church, I noticed that the Shell station had power (and 20 cars in line for gas). Some of the traffic lights were running on the main street. No power in church though. The power came back on about an hour after I arrived home from church.

Now, this week I will be finishing up my Christmas shopping and also re-stocking our emergency supplies. And calling a chimney guy to check out our fireplace and chimney to ensure it really is safe to burn logs. BTW, the wind-up radio I bought after 9/11 worked really well but I am going to buy one that lasts more than 15 minutes on a charge. I already had this one on my Christmas list, which I am sure now Stephen will consider buying me (before the power outage, he told me we did not need another one). :)

Yet Another Winter Storm

A huge windstorm is on its way. The schools have canceled all after-school activities which includes Dex's 1st Grade Holiday Performance tonight. Gav's school has been without power since lunchtime. Tree branches are down all over the place. We are supposed to have our book club's Christmas celebration at a restaurant tonight but now some people are worried about driving along the parkway with all the tall trees dropping branches (or falling down).

Anyway, we'll see how the weather changes in the next four hours before I decide if I will venture out. And I suppose I should go and pick up some extra batteries after I get Jax and Dex from school.

Did you know

...that it is next to impossible to find a Harry Potter toy in stores when the movie is not in the theatres or newly available on dvd?

...that when you pick a tag off the Giving Tree you should consider that kind of thing?

...that dragging three children to 5 stores looking for out-of-date, impossible to find toys makes for three very grumpy children?

...that the duplicate Harry Potter toys that ones child received at a birthday three years before can come in very handy if you keep forgetting to sell them at your garage sale or putting them in the Goodwill box?

We had our meeting with the school this morning. They did not say that Jax was not eligible for a 504. They said that the health plan provides the same protections as a 504 so a 504 was not needed. "The school district views the health plan and a 504 plan as the same thing" was repeated over and over again. The problem is that they are not the same thing and they do not provide the same protections.

In any event, rather than go ahead with the 504 evaluation, they have insisted that we now speak to someone from the school district's Special Services area. If they were so sure that Jax was not eligible, they would go ahead with the evaluation and deem him ineligible. Now it is apparent that they just do not want a 504 plan for him for other reasons. I think that their push to keep from evaluating Jax proves that he is indeed eligible.

This stress has given me yet another migraine. I will wait until the kids are home from school before I take some meds (Replax - similar to Imitrex) and then have a quick nap before dinner.

I spent much of today writing Christmas cards after promising myself that I was going to make Stephen do his share of them this year. I have left him about a dozen (his aunts and some high school friends). Hell, I will probably end up doing them tomorrow while he is at work so they will get done and mailed "on time". To be fair, he has decided to put together a dvd with photos from the past year and he has spent the last three nights working on it (you know you have to get those picture fades and transitions just right to go along with the music - or so he claims).

I had planned to go out Christmas shopping today but it was a torrential downpour most of the day and I really did not want to drag Cars around in that. So now I am down to one day to get the last few items that need to be mailed to Canada. Yikes!

We finished putting the tinsel on the Christmas tree tonight so I was able to take a picture (click each photo for larger images).

First, here are the boys decorating the tree:


Here it is with the lights on and after we put the tinsel on. Dex had a heyday with it (notice the globs here and there):


And here is the Pez Cabinet after I moved it to the other side of the living room:

I almost lost my purse tonight. I left it in the bathroom in a store. Thank God it was still there. I was mostly concerned about losing my Green Card (I have to carry it with me at all times) but I also had money in my purse (I usually carry less than $20 and just use my debit card). I am so lucky.

Yesterday when Jax unpacked his backpack, there was a letter from the principal addressed to the parents of the students in Jax's class. The letter states that one of the students has a "severe nut allergy that can be life threatening if he/she is exposed to any form of nut products".

WTF?! He is allergic to PEANUTS, not "nuts" and any form of "nut products" will not do it, only PEANUTS will. I cannot believe this shit - she has just made things worse! There goes all credibility because now the letter is just plain inaccurate and therefore looks stupid.

The timing is suspect of course too. I have been pushing for this damn letter since August and now suddenly, on the Friday before Tuesday's meeting she sends this letter. The main point of contention over this whole ordeal has been that his health plan states that a letter will go home stating that he has a life-threatening peanut allergy and no such letter had been sent (until this piece of crap that came home yesterday). Aargh!

Cosmo Moms

Last month I read this article about Cosmopolitan Moms who get together Friday afternoons for a drink after a hard week of taking care of the kids. ;) Ash, Laurie and I decided that we just needed to do this too so last Friday we met at Laurie's after school and had a glass of wine and some munchies and chatted while the kids watched a movie. We had so much fun that we decided to do it again today but this time we actually did drink Cosmopolitans. Yum! It was so fun and we have decided that it will be our Friday drink of choice.

Last book club, Laurie showed us so photos of her old boyfriends so Ash and I did the same today. It was a hoot. I found out that Ash had been engaged to a different guy before too! Oh my, the things you learn while sipping Cosmos. ;)

I finally have a handle on my Christmas shopping (thanks to online shopping). I still have a few gifts to buy and mail to Canada but these should fit in envelopes so no huge rush to get them in the mail by today (which I thought was the deadline but it is actually on the 13th).

This and That

Killjoy is just that.

It's a girl! (my brother and sister-in-law's baby-to-be).

Christmas is coming way too fast.

Now, I am off to bed with a wicked migraine. I hope the boys do not kill each other before Stephen gets home from work in an hour.

Aaargh!

After careful consideration, I created a great list of things for Jax, Dex and Cars for Christmas for his aunts/uncles to buy for them. There were things like board games, books, cd's etc - all reasonably priced. Stephen decided today that he is going to buy an xbox 360 so he emailed his brothers and asked if they would like to buy things like xbox 360 controllers and games for the boys and they said YES. It irritates me because now Christmas is going to be about a friggin video game system. I am MAD.

I don't care that he is buying an xbox 360. He says that is what he wants for Christmas (and he can get it with a small discount from work) but I don't want my children's christmas to be an xbox 360 christmas. It would be different if they were older and other toys did not interest them. I had some cool ideas like Stare! Junior, some Star Wars chapter books, blocks for Cars, Make Your Own Rootbeer for Dex, etc. All fun, non-tv screen/computer screen activities. I limit them playing time so what fun is it for them to get a xbox controller for Christmas when they are only allowed to play for 2x/week for an hour?

Anyway, I need to cool down, review my Christmas master list. Looks like the budget has been blown.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

After looking at the rainy forecast for the next week, we decided to go ahead and get our tree yesterday. It is definitely no fun looking for a tree in the pissing rain.

We decided on an 8' tree this year so I had to put it against the wall where the PEZ cabinet stands. Which meant emptying the 300+ PEZ, moving the cabinet to a temporary location on the other side of the living room, and setting up the 300+ PEZ again. As you can imagine, this took quite a bit of time. I actually was not so smart when moving them and placed them all in two wicker laundry baskets so I had to re-sort them all again before putting them back. Next time, I will sort they by shelf.

Anyway, the tree looks great up against the that wall although my red tree topper blends into the red wall. I have been on the look-out for the perfect lighted star for the top of the tree. I haven't found it yet.

I put the lights up last night and today after school, the kids will put the ornaments up. I love the mish-mash look that the tree has after the kids have put like 5 purple glass balls side-by-side. I'll post a picture of the tree once the decorations and gobs of tinsel are up.

NaBloPoMo

We have started getting ready for Christmas. Stephen hung the outdoor lights today with help from Jax and Dex. I rearranged some furniture in the living room to make room for the tree that we will probably get next weekend. We should probably have gone today since it is not raining. We usually just get our tree from Home Depot.

Today the PTSA sponsored a "Christmas Shoppe" at the school where kids can go into the gym without their parents and buy gifts for them and have them wrapped. It is run by volunteers and proceeds go to the PTSA. Items ranged in price from 50 cents to $20.00. Jax decided that he did not want to do it but Dex did so we headed over after lunch. He had a budget of $5 for a gift for Stephen. There was nothing left besides some $3.50 candles and a $15 fake diamond necklace. He was crushed that he did not get a gift for his dad. I will have to take him out shopping next week to buy Stephen something.

There were also some teachers and parents in the library selling their tupperware, necklaces, knitted scarves and make-up stuff. Dex's teacher from last year has taken this year off work to help grow her Arbonne skin care business. She convinced me to take home samples and use it on my skin for a couple of days. She would not tell me the prices of the items until after I try them so no doubt they are expen$ive. But I am sure my skin will look great for the next three days.

One of Jax's teachers from last year and Dex's teacher from THIS year were selling scarves that they had knitted. Lots of pretty ones but overpriced IMO. Maybe I think that because I can knit and kept thinking that I could make those scarves for a lot less than they were charging.

Anyway, Jax's old teacher commented to me that she heard that Jax was having a great year at school this year. It seemed to me that she was very surprised by this. She is the one with whom he seemed to have a personality conflict with last year. He only ever got in trouble on the days that she was working and he used to come home a write little notes like "Mrs. XX is the worst teacher in the world!". She was also the one who told me that he did not speak to her in a respectful manner. He told me it was because she was mean and didn't like him. I used to scoff at that idea but later in the year I was not so sure. He definitely was not one of her favourites. At the end of the year he didn't want to give her a teacher's gift and very grudgingly signed his name to the card. I gushed to her that Jax was doing fantastic this year, and thanks for noticing. heh

Ok, time to get back to preparing for Christmas!

December already!

Yesterday, Cars and I went out and purchased a couple of Christmas presents so I can check a couple of things off my list. I stopped at an art supply store and picked up two "how to draw cartoons" books for Jax and Dex. Cars, who is usually so oblivious to what I am buying unless it is Pirate Booty or "Cars Yogurt" (soy yogurt), was very interested in what I was buying and who it was for. I told him it was going to be for his brothers but it was a surprise so don't tell them. The minute Jax got in the car after school, Cars blurts out "Mommy bought you a present of some kind of book and crayons but it is a surprise!". So, no more Christmas shopping with Cars.

And that Lego that Jax wanted for Christmas that is no longer available? Stephen insisted that we buy it off ebay anyway because this is probably the last year he will believe in Santa Claus so Stephen wants to make it special for Jax. I was able to find it for a somewhat more reasonable price (reasonable being subjective) and it arrived yesterday. It will be fun for Jax when he opens it on Christmas morning so that justifies the exorbitant price, right?

I finished my swap ornaments and have placed them in mailing envelopes but I cannot for the life of me find the stash of Christmas cards. I hate that! I was up in the garage rafters yesterday, teetering on the 8' ladder while peeking in all of the Christmas decorations/wrap boxes but still they eluded me. Looks like I will be heading out today to buy more because these are supposed to be mailed by today.

My parents were married 50 years ago today. I wish my dad were still here to celebrate it with my mom.