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!

OMG! I just saw a commercial for The Mist. It was always one of my favourite Stephen King stories and I used to shudder from fear imagining spiders the size of puppies coming out of the mist. I cannot wait to see this movie (and I don't like scary movies!).

See the trailer here.

Not much to blog about. Still unpacking (trying to figure out where the rest of the stuff will go now so things have slowed down). I went to The Container Store today and bought some items to help organize the soace in my kitchen. Then this afternoon we had Cosmo Friday at my house. Life is good.

At book club, the subject of membership came up and Laurie proposed that we have an anonymous poll to say Yes or No to increase back up to 12. I had full intentions of voting NO but in the end I voted Yes because I did not want to hurt M's feelings if there were too many NO votes (she was the one asking if we could go back to 12 and so she could bring her sister). So, of the 10 voting members (one was away), it was 6-4 for the Yeses. So, if I had voted NO, it would have been a tie vote.

Our next book club meeting will be a Christmas dinner then in January, our new member will join us. I hope she's a good fit!

Book club is tomorrow night but I have not yet finished the book. We are reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. The book is divided into three sections and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the "Eat" part but am having a tough time continuing on. I don't imagine I will finish by tomorrow night. That will make two months in a row that I've gone to book club without finishing the book first (I did finish last month's book a few days after the book club meeting).

One of our members moved away in August so now we are back down to 11. Now someone has asked if her sister could join but there has been a lot of grumbling that 12 is too many. I don't think we even had one meeting where everyone was there yet people still think it is too many people. Laurie suggests a secret vote - YES or NO - as to whether or not to expand. We'll see what others think tomorrow.

The next hot topic for book club is where to hold our December meeting. There is one restaurant that several people want to try but to hold a reservation (and we are a big group) we must all ensure that we order entrees and one person in particular does not want to do that. Trying to please 11 women is hard! Perhaps we do need to reconsider downsizing our group!

More of the same today although I did manage to spend 30 minutes chatting online with "Richard" from Comcast.

The climber/swingset is up and level and the kids can swing on it. I will never, ever, ever, ever move one of those things again!

I am exhausted and tired. I need to finish this post before Blogger's scheduled outage.

Does this even count as a post?!

Well, it is done. The old house has been sold and it is no longer ours. ~sniff~ I did not even get to say a proper goodbye because I stopped by to ensure the Maid Brigade had been and cleaned (they did an an awesome job!) then my realtor came by to get the keys and we started chatting then I realized it was 3 minutes until my appointment with Jax's doctor. So I dashed out the door while the realtor locked up and that was that. Bye-bye house.

Anyway, I met with Jax's doctor and she thinks that he should see someone who specializes in anxiety and OCD. She gave me a few names but the two whom she would recommend first are not close at all. And not only are they not close but they are not close as in it is awkward to get to them. Anyway, I have the names and now I need to approach Jax about going to see one of them. Stephen still is playing ostrich and thinks the anxiety will all disappear and if we lecture Jax enough he will stop fretting about his peanut allergy (and the lead paint of all things!). So, I will talk to Jax and see where we go from here.

My mom leaves in the morning and Stephen goes back to work. So, I will be alone unpacking. Well, Cars will be here with me too. The boys are still loving our new place. Stephen was able to get the lights working (he had to replace the light switches and voila!). Tomorrow, I hope to reassemble the PEZ cabinet, put away all of the pots and pans and vacuum. For now it is off to bed for me.

We emptied the storage unit today. We rented a U-Haul from the storage place across the street from where we had rented a unit. We put 1 mile on the truck and the total rental was $22.58 ($19.95 and $0.79 for 1 mile plus tax).

I am physically exhausted. Stephen has tomorrow off too and we will just continue to unpack and organize. I need to finish cleaning the old house and tomorrow is the closing date.

I promise I will eventually write about more than just moving. Soon.

Drat!

Missed a day of blogging...but I will carry on.

The move went fairly smoothly. Stephen ran a lot of the little things down early in the day before the movers came (good thing we are moved not far). The movers arrived about 9 and were done right around 4pm. They filled their van twice (why did they not send a bigger truck?).

Anyway, tomorrow we are going to get the rest of our stuff out of storage and spend the next days or week unpacking and trying to find a home for all of our stuff. The house seems so roomy but I am definitely missing some of the storage in the old house (especially all of the drawers in the vanities in the bathrooms). The kids love their rooms and all of the extra space. Dex still had a big of a hard time last night because "I have only ever lived in the other house and I am not sure I will like living in a new one!".

*big sigh*

Comcast arrived this morning and our cable, internet, and the cable phone are working. One problem that I did not anticipate is that my email address has to change because the account was originally in Stephen's name and now it is in mine so I cannot keep any of the email addresses connected to that account. What a PITA. Oh well, could be worse, right? I might not have any time to transition it over. As it is, I have 30 days.

Oh, and we apparently have a mole in our backyard. I guess when old owner's dog kept it away because we never saw any evidence of any mole hills the several times we were here. Now we have 6 holes (one more shows up each morning).

And Stephen managed to blow up the kitchen lights. He is off to Lowes or Home Depot to buy a new light to see if he replaces it if it will get the rest of the kitchen lights back working. Otherwise, looks like we are calling an electrician. :\

Ok, back to unpacking...

Ooh, blogging twice in one day. Will that cover me in case I cannot blog tomorrow because COMCAST CUT OFF OUR CABLE SERVICE TWO DAYS EARLY?!???!! We have an appointment for someone to come out to the new house on the 3rd to install everything and "yes it is our mistake and we will give you a credit" does not make up for the lack of internet service and I am going to miss "Grey's Anatomy" tonight! Wah!

Currently, I am at the library using their WiFi. I had to check that comcast did not delete my userid (they did not!).

Anyway, tomorrow I will hope back down here and make a very quick blog entry. In the meanwhile, I will be up most of the night to finish packing. See you on the other side!

Yeah! The house is ours. My mom and I went last night and we took over my two remaining houseplants. And I turned the heat up because it was set to 56 degrees!

Today, Stephen and I will take some things over throughout the day and I will clean the inside of all of the cabinets and the fridge.

Tomorrow's the big day! Hurray!

My moods are swinging between panic and calm. One moment I think I have a handle on everything (the move, my son's anxiety, friggin Halloween) and the next I feel as though everything is about the come crumbling down on top of me.

I sent out an email to about 50 people to let them know we were moving and what our new address will be. I wrote "effecting November 1" instead of "effective November 1" which is a very stupid mistake. But then to top it off, I typed the wrong telephone number. DOH!

And I forgot to call back the handyman who we arranged to move the climber this weekend to let him know that we hired someone else to do it yesterday and today. And he showed up at the new house today because he is repairing some nail pops in the ceiling that the roofer did not fix.

I feel like I am missing some HUGE part of this move. I have arranged for all of the utilities to be transferred yet I still have this nagging feeling that I have forgotten something. I guess I will find out soon enough.

Coming down to the wire. Tomorrow evening we get possession of the new house. Finally!

My mom arrived late last night. She did not sleep last night because she says she felt tremendously guilty about not being able to drive to get Cars from school tomorrow. I did finally find a friend who will pick him up so my mom should sleep well tonight.

And I will sleep well because our climber is down and will be reassembled tomorrow at the new house. All for a reasonable about of money. Actually, the guy doing it is only 19 and he works for my realtor's neighbour who is a contractor. I think he did not ask for enough money to move the thing but if it gets put back up right and on time I will give him a huge bonus because now I have one less thing to worry about!

Jax decided tonight (TONIGHT!) that he did not want to wear his costume to school because he is not allowed to wear a "scary" mask so his costume would then be lame. So I spent an hour my evening making a clone trooper mask out of cardboard for him. He LOVES it. Dex cannot wear his scary mask either (Dementor) so he has kind of a smilie-face mask to wear with it. He is too funny.

Still more packing to be done but I am feeling less stressed. I figured that I am paying the movers by the hour so we will concentrate on having them take the heavy, awkward or bulky items and we'll move as many of the boxes ourselves on Thursday. And also if things do not get moved until Saturday it is ok (well, I am thinking of bikes and nets and Christmas decorations). We can easily pack those in the van or our neighbour's pickup truck. One less thing to worry about.

Ok, off to watch "Boston Legal" then to bed. Long days ahead...

My maple trees (and bush) are in full fall colour and look beautiful. I took some pictures of them but I seem to have misplaced (perhaps packed?) my cable so I cannot download them to show off these pictures. I will miss these trees (and the japanese maple bush). Last spring, Costco had the bushes for $59.99. If they have them again this spring I am going to buy one to plant at the new house. No maples of any sort there.

Each of my children have all had a little crying time about leaving this house. Cars' was short-lived. Dex seems to be having the hardest time. Jax has had his moments too but he seems the most eager to move. He is really looking forward to skateboarding in the cul-de-sac. I am happy that we will be moving to one for them to play in. Especially since our road is so busy at certain times of the day (when school lets out and between 5-6pm and cars are ~speeding~ by).

Our house is mostly packed up now. What's left is the kitchen (about 1/2 packed), the bathrooms and I need to remove the clothes from Jax and Dex's dressers since they are just pressboard IKEA dressers and the mover said they would not withstand the move if they were filled with clothes. The other dressers are fine because they are real wood. :)

We had the walk-through for the house today and it went well. It needs to be cleaned but apparently a cleaning service was going through later in the afternoon. There have been a lot of people through the house since the owners moved out (Home Depot to install a garage door opener, someone to repair the hot water tank, the roofer to fix nail pops, and a painter to cover the nail pop repairs so there are a lot of leaves and debris in the house. I guess the cleaners would take care of it all this afternoon.

We went to Costco today to get another moving pack of boxes but they were out! Stephen is going to drive to the Seattle Costco tomorrow to get another pack (it includes 30 boxes, bubble wrap, tape, markers and the little foam stuff that you put between glass dishes for $47.99! That is a great deal considering the boxes are $2 each at Home Depot.

Ok, I am worried about my committment to NaBloPoMo. I hope I can post everyday!!

Moving our climber/swing set is becoming a problem. I am trying to stay positive about this move but it is getting hard to do so. I think my optimism has disappear with the recurrence of my neck pain. *pout*

One of my friends came to help me pack today and we did a good job working on stuff in the garage. We have a lot of junk to go to the dump but I will most likely call 1-800-GOT-JUNK again because it is easier and at this point all we want is easier.

I have scheduled an appointment to talk to Jax's ped. about Jax's anxiety over his peanut allergy. Of course, today my anxiety was heightened after I read this article Dead in 20 minutes from hidden peanuts. The video was sad too. :'(

Mindless ramblings...

My neck is still hurting but not as much as it was on Monday. I think I need to go to a massage therapist and get that knot worked out.

It was supposed to be rainy with sunny breaks today. So far we have had torrential downpour with rainy breaks.

I need to step away from the halloween candy.

I made sure that Cars' class halloween party did not include parents before I committed to the time for Jax's (11:30-noon). I found out today that because of the party in Cars' class on halloween, they are canceling "lunch bunch" so I need to pick him up at 11:45am. Aargh! Of course my mother is going to be here that day and if she weren't such a wuss, she could drive over and get him. But she is afraid to drive "down your mountain" and so I am scrambling trying to figure out what to do. Cars' one good friend from preschool is away that day so I cannot ask his mom to bring him home. The rest of my friends will be attending their children's halloween parties themselves at the same time so no help there. F*ckity-f*ck-f*ck!

I am never going through the moving process again.

I have somehow managed to hurt my back/neck and so I am off to bed with a muscle relaxant and my book. I hope to be feeling better in the morning. ~pout~

My online chat with Comcast support stemming from the lovely Red X's you have been seeing on my blog for the past week or so:

Pez: I cannot access my files on my personal webpages and my hosted files are not showing
Comcast: I apologize for any inconvenience this issue has caused you
Comcast: The personal web pages is currently not available because of some upgrades to it as well as the migration that is happening to the new Comcast site.
Pez: how long will they be unavailable?
Comcast: Once it is available, Comcast will notify you through email.
Comcast: We do not know when will it becomes available but you will be notified by Comcast once is it up and running (I am thinking here Nice grammar/language!)
Pez: so a week? a day? a month? no one knows?
Pez: that seems unreasonable to me that "we do not know..."
Pez: it is most inconvenient that i cannot access my files nor upload new files and some photos are fine (with one id) whereas the photos on the others are not showing
Comcast: A week. We have many customers reporting said issue too
Pez: ok, a week gives me an expectation
Comcast: I have already escalated and reported this issue
Comcast: Your reference number is a eleventy billion
Comcast: Thank you for choosing Comcast. It has been a pleasure assisting you today!

:\ I wonder if I am making a mistake continuing with Comcast when we move AND giving them my home phone service too.

Against my better judgement, I have signed up to do NaBloPoMo. If I can manage to post the first couple of days, I will be just fine. I might have to take my laptop to Starbucks to get internet access during the move but I will try.

And you can too!

Comcast is bugging the crap out of me again today. Where are my pictures?! I just signed up for their cable phone service (when we move). I hope I haven't made a mistake.

Our power went out this morning for about 20 minutes. The kids were delighted because they were thinking they would not have to go to school. Fortunately for my sanity, the power was back shortly after 7am so school was ON!

Today was the last Cosmo Friday at my house. ~sniff~ I am going to miss it here (but of course I am looking forward to my new house). Ash was not here today because she had surgery to fix a torn cartiledge in her knee - the same knee where she had the ACL surgery a few months ago. The doctor was able to take out the HUGE screw that was in her shin this time. It is HUGE. Anyway, she is doing well but will be on crutches for 12 weeks. She has had rock star parking (or wheelchair or handicapped - insert you own term here) parking since February and will have it another 3-5 months depending on her recovery.

This weekend we will be figuring out how to move the swingset/climber and also taking down mirrors and paintings from the walls and patching holes. Oh, and packing. Always packing.

The wind storm has hit. A tree branch hit a transformer near the school just as the kids were getting out. Fire ensued and we had to take a long, long way home (about a 3 mile detour). The lights are flickering and the kids are excited that we might be without power.

Later...the power did go out for only for a very short while here but some of my friends have been without power for hours. I hope the next wind storm does not happen until after we move.

My email has been down for over 2 hours and it is bugging me! Aargh! Comcast has been doing some upgrades lately and my hosted pictures keep disappearing too. Mostly I want to send this particular email and it won't go. Well, at least I still have a connection to the internet.

My mother is coming to stay with us during the move. She is going to help out with the kids, getting them to school and getting breakfast for them each morning and whatever else. It will be a big help.

There is a big wind storm in the forecast for tomorrow evening. They say that even though it will not be as big as the big blow out in December, it has the potential to be destructive because of the trees that are already weakened from that storm.

Hmmm...that reminds me that when I went to see a psychic in August while I was in Toronto, she said something about a tree. I wonder if she meant a tree here or at the new house will fall? There is one tree close to the front door at the new house and another near the garage. Here, we have a lot of smaller trees but none that can cause damage to the house. Guess I will have to wait to find out. In the meantime, I am off to Safeway shortly to buy some groceries and stock up just a little bit in case we are out of power for any length of time.

Cars has his 4 yr appointment (only 2 months late!) tomorrow so I will ask the pediatrician about scheduling some time with her to discuss Jax's anxiety issues. Another friend of mine who was a psychologist told me that 9 year olds often are anxious because they are coming to realize more about bad things that could happen so part of his problem is probably developmental but she also said it would not hurt to talk to his ped. I feel a little better today once I made this decision because we do need to handle it. I will let Stephen know after I talk to the ped about it.

A long-lost friend and former co-worker contacted me via facebook (I am up to 37 friends!) a couple of weeks ago. She is now living in Bermuda with her dh and two kids. She called me today and we had a chat - it was so fun. She is funny and interesting and it was so good to catch up.

So, if you are thinking about looking up an old friend, do it! I am sure they would love to hear from you!

Jax had some issues today at a birthday party regarding peanuts - well,there were not actually any peanuts there but he refused to eat the pizza then was freaking out when people were eating the birthday cake around him. I think I need to get him some help but Stephen is against it for the moment. He thinks we can handle it but I am not so sure. I feel like such a failure as a parent that I cannot ease Jax's worry, anxiety and pain. It was so sad to see him at the party when I went to pick him up. He was sitting there with a blank face and cringing slightly when anyone came near him in case they touched him because they ate a cake that was "manufactured on the same line as peanuts". It really breaks my heart. Frig, I hate this!

This week we had three agents tell ours that they were interested in our house (one was ready to put in a back-up offer today) but of course it went "subject to inspection" on Tuesday evening. Our agent called the buyer's agent to let her know and to make sure they considered this and the difference between the asking and selling price when they came back with their inspection information.

So, the inspection was today and the buyer came back with accepting the house as it is. So, it is SOLD!!!! I can finally get excited about this whole thing. Yeah!

We are now "subject to inspection". The inspection is on Saturday morning. I am excited and scared and a little overwhelmed. So much to do!

Cars has his speech evaluation with the school district today. Actually, they called it an "assessment" rather than evaluation. Anyway, they told me that he did not meet their criteria to qualify with them for speech. However, they said that I "might have heard that the school district bar is pretty high for qualifying" so I might want to contact Cars' ped and get a referral for private speech. So what are they saying? He has a problem but not bad enough that they want to pay for it and I should get him speech therapy in a private setting?! What? Does he need it or doesn't he? So frustrating!

Jax had a good day today. He did not exhibit any peanut-related anxiety and he told me that he felt better about it today too. We'll see how things go.

I am irritated with comcast because all of my pictures are showing red x's. I received a message saying they were updating things but it should be done by now. Hrmph!

And I will whisper the next part:

We have an offer on the house. We have sent back our counter-offer. Keep your fingers crossed for us that it all works out. Thanks!

My son is having a hard time managing his anxiety around his peanut allergies. I am just sick for him because he is now making up stuff to worry about. Today, he was wondering if he should not eat his lunch because he touched the hand of someone who had eaten peanut butter for breakfast. Both Jax and the other kid had washed their hands (the boy before he even touched Jax) but Jax still could not shake the idea that he might have peanut protein on his hands. The teacher finally convinced him to eat his lunch by holding his bagel with a napkin and eating his grapes and carrots with a fork. He even brought home his Smarties because he could not figure out a way to eat them without touching them. *sigh*

I have some ideas about how to work with him to try to overcome this and also to alleviate his fears. I pray it does not get worse. It breaks my heart to know he is so worried about it.

Still no offers! *pout*

Today there was an open house and 9 couples came through (three with agents). Our realtor said that was a lot and two seemed ~very~ interested. We'll see. We also have two more people scheduled to come tomorrow morning then there is another open house in the afternoon. Please let someone love my house enough to buy it!

Today we bought Halloween costumes for the boys. Cars is going to be Jango Fett, Dex will be a Dementor and Jax will re-use this costume from a couple of years ago but we bought him a double-sided axe to carry around.

Tomorrow is the first day of R.E. classes for the boys for this year. Funny enough, the other Dex is in Dex's class. They moved a few miles away so that Dex no longer goes to the same elementary school as my Dex so they never did get to be in the same class.

I am hoping that Cars stays in his Sunday School class. I guess it will depend on who is teaching. Fortunately, it will no be in the same class as his preschool class because I think that is what really caused the problem last year (that and the mean Sunday school teacher!).

Ok, off to bed. It is late and I must be up early to get the house ready for someone to fall in love with it!

No offers yet!

On Wednesday, I was to take snack in for Cars' class. I totally and completely forgot. I did not even realize until I picked him up and there was a little note "You were supposed to bring in snack today". Aargh! Fortunately, they have a little stash of snacks so the kids had something to eat. Today, I took in some apple juice and cheez-its to replenish their stash.

I also nearly forgot to pick up Jax and Dex on time on Wednesday. School is dismissed 1.5 hours early every Wednesday. After I picked Cars up (and was feeling abashed for forgetting snack), I decided to head off to run some errands. I was sitting at the red light and saw a parade of school buses coming from the area of the middle school and I thought "Wow, must have been some big field trip". The light turned green and I drove off and then realized that it was Wednesday and early dismissal. I still had a few moments before they got out so I had plenty of time to get there, but I realized that if I had not noticed the school buses, I would be off shopping at Target when I was supposed to be picking them up. And, no one could get a hold of me because my stupid cell phone service sucks. Anyway, I did realize on time and the crisis was averted.

A lot of my problem stems from the fact that I had to take down my calendar for the "staging" to make the house less personal (and to keep nosy people out of my business). I live by my calendar. I have used the same kind for about about 5 years now. The squares are big so lots of room to write on it. And I colour-code the kids activities. And I am lost without it! :(

Ok, I am just waiting to see our listing on the MLS before I go to bed tonight. Tomorrow, Cars and I are going to do something fun for a couple of hours (well, after we return items to Fred Meyer and Home Depot) since he is clearly acting up from lack of attention. The other kids will have to wait to have some attention. This weekend...

I think I forgot to mention that the new house has a hot tub! It needs a new cover and the timer is broken (we have asked for the repairs or $$ in lieu). I hope it does not end up being a PITA.

House is almost market-ready. Carpet cleaning guy is coming tomorrow morning then we have the final "staging" and the sign will go up tomorrow afternoon. The house will be listed on the MLS on Tuesday. Our agent will have a broker open house Tuesday afternoon and on Wednesday when the local paper arrives, our house will be one of the ones featured in the real estate broker's full-page colour ad on the back of the paper.

All of the work we have been doing has been hard on the kids because Stephen and I have been virtually ignoring them. I hope to take them to the club to go swimming on Wednesday afternoon.

I also have been ignoring paperwork from the school so I went through it tonight. Let's see, a guilt trip because I chose not to get a paper-less version of the PTSA newsletter ("over 579 students chose to read us online!). That means they are printing about 50 newsletters. I had to write 4 cheques (lunch acct, picture day for Jax and Dex and a field trip for Dex). The total came to almost $100! So that completely put me off for signing up for the fundraiser. We are doing a thing called "Pace" (Parents for Community Education) where you register your credit card and everytime you use it at a participating restaurant or retailer, you get a discount (mailed back to you via check). Anyway, it costs $25 to sign up and the school gets $10 of that $25. But, they will have to wait another couple of days after I disremember writing tonight's cheques.

For the first time in several days, I am actually excited about our move. We had some seemingly huge problem with this house that needs to be addressed but we had a good long talk with our real estate agent and the broker for whom she works and it seems like a workable solution. So, I was actually able to sleep last night and I no longer feel like the world is collapsing on us. Also, we had a much more reasonable estimate for the work (we have been quoted anything from $500-$15000!). Friggin riggin briggin!

Anyway, I have been thinking of the new house for much of today and I am excited to get in there and make it my own. I am most excited with the little room off the garage. Technically it is a utility room because the furnace and hot water tank are in there, but there is room for a desk and I picture it my craft area. Also, it is the pass-through to the garage so I am envisioning a little mud-room right by the door to the garage. No more shoes and coats and back packs at my front door! Hurray! I want to buy or build little lockers for the boys to hang their coats and back packs in with a little bin at the bottom for their shoes. Ah, dreaming.

I am also excited at the prospect of having a dining room again. I mean, technically we do have a dining room but the table is pushed to the side, there is another dining table with the legs cut down for the kids to play Lego and also a toy box in there. No more! The kids will be able to keep their toys in their rooms and in a small area in the family room. That's it! We have too many toys anyway...we never get rid of any when they get new ones for birthdays and Christmas. No more! Out with the old and in with the new!

Our new house also has a wood burning stove in the family room. For some reason I this is going to be so exciting! We'll be prepared if we ever had another huge wind storm and power outage then we'd keep toasty warm by the stove.

And we are on a cul-de-sac so the kids can play outside without worry of getting run down by the teens and other idiots who speed up and down our street. And the backyard is big so lots of room to play. No huge trees to fall on our house during a windstorm either, so that is good too.

Ok, my time for dreaming and calm is over. Back to the grind of getting the house ready for market.

We have had the worse luck with our house lately (this house, not the one we are buying). Yesterday, we realized that the pressure relief valve on the hot water heater was bad and water was leaking from the valve into the garage. Fortunately, we were able to turn the hot water off but that meant no hot water this morning for a shower (Stephen showered at work and I went to the club after I took Cars to school). We replaced the valve tonight and so far it looks like everything is working fine. ~whew~

Also, the ice dispenser on the fridge broke last night. Geez! I am *not* paying for a repair for it and I will not give anyone any $$ back on closing on this house for it so I told our realtor that we were taking it with us. She talked me down and said that we will just disclose that it is broken and will not be repaired.

Still packing and cleaning. I need to call a carpet cleaning company and a windows guy. Must do it tomorrow. Oh, and movers. And the insurance company. And...and...and...

I had my hair cut today and it is pretty short. I was a little distracted while she was cutting and she did say she was going to take it a little shorter in the back but I did not really pay attention. Anyway, it does look good, I think. I had to rush to swimming lessons after the cut so there was no time to style it nicely. We
will see how it looks tomorrow.

I am planning to hit the gym for the first time in months tomorrow. I need a stress releaser so off I go after Cars is dropped off at school. He is staying for lunch bunch which means I get an extra 45 minutes (for only $3.50!).

My kids keep waking up in the middle of the night for various reasons. Last night, Dex had a runny nose so I had to round up a box of kleenex for him to keep next to his bed. The night before, Cars said he had a night mare. Two nights before that, both Cars AND Dex had nightmares. First Dex who slept with Stephen and I for an hour then Cars awoke so I sent Dex to go sleep with Jax. Musical beds! Anyway, I am not sleeping well and it is definitely affecting my decision-maiing skills and my mood. And here it is 12:04am and I am still awake. WTF am I thinking?

I received a call today from the school saying that Jax was in the health room and that his tongue felt "funny" after he ate some Oreos. My mind started racing - Oreos?! I did not send him to school with Oreos. So I asked where he got them and I heard him say "I don't know". Cars and I jumped in the car with a box of Perfect Measure Benadryl. I arrived just as the secretary was about to open Jax's box of Benadryl. I squirted three tsp into his mouth and watched him. He looked fine but scared.

After a moment or two I was able to surmise from him that the teacher gave all of the kids Oreos because they had been good last week and had earned enough points for a party. She had asked me at curriculum night if Oreos were ok and I had said yes but I did not realize that the party was today. Anyway, he also is coming down with a cold, I think, so the "funny" tongue was actually a "funny" mouth and throat (sore!). I decided to take him home anyway because with that much Benadryl in him, there was no way he was going to be able to stay awake! I've sent a note to the teacher telling her that Jax will just eat from his safe snack box for the time being for any class celebrations.

We had the inspection on the house today and it was great. Of course it was though because the relocation company had already done one and we were given a copy of it. The only (major) problems are that the skylights are not screwed down (the roof was replaced this week and the roofers missed doing this), nail pops on the ceiling from the new roof (standard with roof replacements and roofers usually fix them) and there is a new garage door that is not attached to the garage door opener. The others are not major and are all things that we can deal with, including replacinig bathroom fans, dealing with an old furnace and a broken shower divertor.

I have rented a storage unit at the local storage place and so far I have put in a table, bench, desk, foot stool and 20 boxes (three trips there today). Next is another table, more boxes and I need to put two arm chairs in. The PEZ cabinet has been emptied and we are just going to move it into the garage and cover it with a sheet because I worry about breaking the glass in it if we have to move it to the storage place.

I am still decluttering and the next phase is deep cleaning. We hope to get the house on the market within a week! Ambitious!

Ok, so we have the house but we don't officially have the house or the purchase agreement. It is very confusing and more than a little stressful. So, the plan is to move forward now but each day that it is not signed, pushes the move date out for us which is good (gives us time to sell).

I had two friends come by and they helped me pack 9 boxes in a little over an hour! The problem is that I am running out of room in the garage.

Tonight was curriculum night at the school. We went a few minutes early to Jax's class and told the teacher that we'd like to put a hand out on each desk. She said sure. We handed it out and after the parents all came in the room she pointed it out and asked the parents to read it and gave us a couple of minutes to speak at the end of her presentation. Then she told the parents after Stephen asked that people consider the peanut allergy (even though we know it is inconvenient for them) that she discovered sunflower seed butter that is sold at Trader Joes (and other places) and she even had a jar to show the parents and let them taste/smell it if they wanted. I am so impressed with her! Yeah!

I quit.

I did it. I resigned from my crafts leader position at my mom's club. Well, I just sent off an email to the leader a few moments ago. The night before our first meeting. I definitely will go tomorrow to make sure everything is fine but I just cannot live through this move with this crafts thing hanging over me.

We had verbal agreement that we have the house today...but then they realized that the relocation company did not sign some form themselves so they will receive it tomorrow and sign and so the days start counting on Friday. We have 7 days to get an inspection and return to them with our requirements, 3 days to have a lawyer review it. In the meanwhile, I am still getting all the stuff out of my house. A stager came by today and told me all the furniture that I need to put away - 2 chairs in the living room, an antique desk in the living room, the kids' lego table and toy box, the kids' homework table in the family room, remove the leaf from my kitchen table, etc. Friday morning I will go and rent a storage unit and then haul things over there on the weekend. Well, after the inspection on Saturday.

Still no word about the house. Maddening.

Box count - 15 boxes packed to date.

Our neighbour's house sold today - less than a week on the market and with that crappy description. There's hope for our house yet! It also means we can increase the price on our house a tiny bit.

Jax's teacher said that they were trying to figure out the logistics of the lunch swap thing but for today Jax would eat at his desk and his table mates would sit there too while the rest of the class got to swap around. Um...how not fun for that table and are they going to blame Jax?! I told the teacher I was not comfortable with that. After today, the teachers scrapped the idea of the kids moving around the classrooms at lunch.

I am so upset about the craft for my mom's club on Thursday. I ordered 35 special paint pens to work on porcelain and they sent 11. Hardly enough to share amongst 55 moms. So I am totally freaking out and need to hurry and figure out what to do about the craft on Thursday. And yes, I should have ordered the materials earlier. That is the most maddening part about this. It is all.my.fault.

BTW, the company I ordered from has just about the most indifferent people working there. I called the person answering the phone says "Hang on, *heavy sigh*" rather than "Just a moment please". How rude! They are going to call me back tomorrow to arrange to cancel the rest of my order. :\

Jax told me tonight just before bed that his teacher was not going to be around at lunch tomorrow and his class was to eat in another classroom. The teacher told him that she had not quite yet figured out what to do with him though. Um, his health plan/504 plan only specifies that he eats at his desk in his classroom during lunch. I sent her an email (it was 9:30pm at this point though) so I am not sure when I will hear back from her. Am I going to have to go to school and take Jax out tomorrow? Aargh!!!

My oldest brother is so mean and sent me this article entitled "The War Over Going Gray". :\

No house talk except that we needed to sign more forms today. I will not be excited about this until they hand me the house keys.

Ok, so now you will have to hear boring moving stories for the next two months! Bear with me (or move along). :)

I packed 10 boxes today. I hope I won't need any of the stuff between now and then. Several of the boxes were board games and puzzles but I did also pack all of my craft supplies (with the exception of my beading supplies). No doubt the boys will come home with a "family project" to be completed and that will entail creating something with pipe cleaners, felt, construction paper, wood pieces, foam bits and glue - all of which I have packed up. Perhaps I was a bit too hasty?

Stephen has decided that we do need to repaint (rather than touch up) walls in the house. So I guess next weekend he will be painting. Fortunately, we still have gobs of wall paint left over (Benjamin Moore Bronzed beige) from when we had the house painted 5 years ago (or was it six?). It is really due for repainting anyway but it was just not something we were anticipating doing in the immediate future.

My neighbour's house is up for sale. The description for her house is so lame!

"Nicely maintained two story in award winning School district. Bright home with sunken living room, vaulted ceiling & skylight. 40 yr. roof, carpets & vinyls are 2yrs. new. Oak kitchen with center island & hardwoods, cozy family room with brick fireplace & a large private fully fenced back yard. Designer colors throughout. See it & you will love it. "

I don't think I would be interested in it if I read that! Anyway, I made our realtor promise that she will write something much more interesting. Anyway, they have had at least one family go through it so hopefully our house will generate interest when it goes on the market.

And if you are interested, photos of the house we are buying can be found here (there are about 13 pictures).

Of course this could not be an easy process.

There is a relocation company involved with this house sale and they have a rider attached to the offer. We asked to have an attorney review it. She called today and spoke to Stephen at length. We need clarification on a few items now. *sigh*

Tomorrow I start decluttering/packing things to go into storage. I hope to have our house on the market in 10 days.

We have a new house! Well, one more thing to await (approval from the seller's relocation company). And if that goes well it is ours!

Now, time to get this house in shape for moving. Yikes!!

The offer has been faxed. We should know within 22 hours if they have accepted our offer. ~fingers crossed~

Now, where is the bulldozer to clear out my house?

Ok, for the second time this year are looking at a new home. This one (like all homes we have ever looked at) is in our neighbourhood. We've gone further than the others so far in that we've talked to a mortgage broker and are considering putting in an offer very soon. Wish us luck!

My stomach is in knots. Very stressful! How will I ever get my home ready to sell?!

Facebook?

Do you Facebook? Ramona invited me to join a couple of months ago. I signed up but then worried about how I was going to add friends to my Facebook! I had an automatic friend (Ramona). That's 1! Then I added my friend Alicia (she was already on as Ramona's friend) so that was 2. Next, I sent a friend request to Alicia's sister (now I was up to 3 friends!). Whoo-hoo! I started searching around and found my oldest brother's two dd's (I now had *5* friends!). The next week, I found out that one of my high school teachers had an account on Facebook so I added him and quickly found three more former classmates through his profile. Look at me! I had friends on Facebook!

I kept checking though and all of my friends had way more friends than I did. Especially my nieces although it appeared that they had just about everyone person they had ever met listed as friends. Everyone in their high school it seemed, plus friends from the high school they used to attend. I still only had 9 friends. I was looking up everyone I could think of but was a little shy about asking them to be my friend. What if they said NO? Fortunately, I had two more friends to add - two of my brothers. I was up to 11.

About that time, I noticed that my nieces now had an application on their Facebook that listed their "top friends". I also noticed that I was not a "top friend". Hrmph!

My BIL's dd was on Facebook so I added her (12!). Then she posted some photos of she and her friends "pretending" to drink so I had Stephen check it out. He decided to ask her about them so he joined Facebook (13!). His niece denied the drinking and after he told his brother about it, she deleted Stephen and I as friends (back to 12).

I had another friend from high school and my best friend in college add me (14!). It was great to hear from them both. A friend of that high school friend added me because he recognized my name although he did not remember me (he probably just knew my dad's name) but hey, I'll take it (15!!). Then a guy I kind of remembered from high school (he was cute but apparently gay) added me after I joined my high school group on Facebook (16!).

Sixteen friends on Facebook! Ok, it was nowhere near the 248 that my niece, D, had, but I was getting there.

I have since added a few more friends (I'm up to 27!). I also have Robin as a friend. And another online friend, Kris. And just the other day a friend whom I had met when I had gone to community college (I once had ambitions to work in the hotel industry and entered a community college program before quitting and going back to grade 13 so I could go to university) added me as a friend. She and I had been inseparable for those 3 months I attended. We lost touch and I often wondered what had become of her. She has written me several long notes to update me on her life. Things are good with her for the most part and that is wonderful. Funny enough, she did recognize one of my other friends (neither of us knew that the other knew her - I've known this friend from high school and she used to work with her about 10 years ago).

Anyway, I am enjoying the little game of adding friends on Facebook. Facebook also have a lot of silly little apps (like being able to send a hatching egg or a growing plant or buying drinks for your Facebook friends). I play a Facebook version of scrabble with my brother and I poke some friends incessantly (not all because I don't want them to delete me!). My current favourite app is "More Cow Bell!" Check it out!

I hate when the weekend comes because Stephen decides that weekends are for taking care of business. This weekend it was mowing the lawn, reorganizing the garage, washing the kitchen floor, etc. The problem is that it makes me feel incredibly guilty (well, the kitchen floor thing). I do not know how to use the lawn mower. When I was growing up, our mower was electric so you plugged it in and turned it on. This one is gas and you have to add oil and then there is the whole starting it thing. I have asked Stephen several times to show me how to use it but he seems to think it is his job to mow so he won't show me. I guess if I *really* wanted to learn how to use it, I could. So, I let him mow on weekends.

The kitchen floor is all his thing. He does not go to church with us on Sunday so to appease his Catholic guilt, he cleans on Sunday mornings. Which is great the days when the kids and I are at church but we have been a little lax in going lately (well, all summer) so we are definitely in Stephen's way when he is cleaning and it irritates him.

The garage thing bugged me because it really did not need to be done and Jax wanted to go to the skate park and by the time all was said and done yesterday, it was too late to go. And today Stephen announced that we were going swimming so before I had gathered my gear - bathing suit, brush, comb, ponytail holder, hair clip, moisturizer, mascara (geez, am I high maintenance?) the kids were already waiting in the car and Stephen was tapping his foot at the front door. Literally, he was tapping his foot. Never mind that the tv was still on, the back door was wide open and every friggin light in the house needed to be turned off because apparently on bright summer days you need lights on everywhere!

Ok, I hate being rushed. Hate it! I am a huge planner and I always allow myself plenty of time to get ready and to get somewhere so that I am not rushed. Rushing and being late stress me out and I do not handle stress very well. Which is why I plan, give myself plenty of time... *deep breath* So the foot tapping pushed me over the edge and I told him to take them without me so off they went.

Why could he not have said "Let's leave for swimming in 20 minutes" or even 10 minutes would have given me time to get my shit together and then turn off the tv (which is just on one of the digital music channels but still on!), the lights, lock the back door, close the ground-floor windows, etc. Hell, why don't these things ever even occur to him? Oh, he nearly left without Cars' float belt too because I had not had time to fish it out before he was gone.

Can you tell I am not wearing my complaint-free world bracelet at the moment?

And since I am not wearing it I will also complain about my brother telling me today to tell me that he saw photos from our Toronto trip and that I really, really need to colour my hair because I am too young to have grey hair. Apparently I am not since I *have* grey hair. He said he will send me a gift certificate to have it done at Christmas. Grrrr! Hey! I wonder if he is going to dye his hair and that's why he thinks that hsi younger sister should should not yet be grey. I'll have to ask him.

Ok, off to do something productive with my time. And no more complaining. For today anyway.

It was a rough day for me emotionally. I realized today that we are starting the allergy-thing all over again with Cars. Funny, I thought since I had BTDT it would be so much easier and I would handle everything with a lot more grace. Apparently not. Also, I just may be bowing out of my moms' club over this issue. We'll see how things pan out.

So, at the end of the day, a much needed and welcomed Cosmo Friday with my two very good friends, Lau and Ash.

And, taking a cue from my friend, Tracy, (aka Pley, I would like to thank all of my blahg readers and blahg friends. I had a few new people comment on my blahg lately and I am delighted to know that people read and care. Thank you!

P.S. No, I am not tipsy from Cosmo Friday and this is not the on-line equivalent of a drunken midnight call. Besides, it is only 8:20pm. ;)

Cars spent most of the time at swimming lessons today goofing off and laughing. Remember when he used to cry and I had to bribe him?! What a difference! I think a big part of it right now is that his friend is in his class so they are showing off for each other. That's ok if it gets them both swimming, right?

I am working on my laptop using a new battery that was delivered today. My battery died and if you can believe it, with less than 2 weeks before the 1 year warranty expired so I received a replacement for free! When does this EVER happen? Usually they die two weeks AFTER the warranty expires. What luck! Perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket?

The kids walked to school today. Cars and I walked with them about 2/3 of the way (I did not want to walk down the big hill when I knew I would be dragging Cars back up it!). There were about 9 kids in all and another one will be joining them tomorrow (I's dh called me today to ask if their son could walk with my kids - not sure why it was not arranged earlier since he walked with the others last year. Perhaps he did not want to assume anything?).

Dex told me that his teacher asked if anyone in the class had a peanut allergy and two kids put up their hand (well, three if you count Dex who put up his hand and said that his brother did so he supports him by not eating peanuts - which I thought was so sweet and I laughed when he told me but he thought I was making fun of him and he started to cry!). Anyway, I thought it was weird that the teacher asked out right like that when in Jax's class, do to "student confidentiality", the note that went home said he/she so that no one would know if it were a boy or girl (although most know it is Jax).

Today was also an open house at Cars' school so we dropped off his Epi Pen and Benadryl to his teacher. And I got roped into being co-room parent. Ugh. Why do I do this? I hope it really is as easy as the teacher promised. I hope to teach Art again in Dex's class (and perhaps Jax's) but we'll see. Can't committ to too much!

First Day of School

The plan for the kids to walk to school fell flat today as we awoke to rain. Not just rain but a torrential downpour. It is raining like it rains in November. Unbelievable!

So, I drove the kids in then took their big school supplies to their classes then stood outside in the rain with them waiting for class to begin. I forgot to take photos of them before we left but a friend of mine snapped one of each of them at school and she will email them to me.

The back-to-school coffee/tea for parents was poorly attended because of the rain (it is held outside, under the awning at the front of the school) and of course none of the baked goods were safe for Cars so I just grabbed a cuppa tea and chatted for a moment then headed home. Cars and I are completely soaked.

Cars has swimming lessons this afternoon which will be just miserable for me if the rain does not ease up. Nothing like swimming lessons in the pouring rain! Hopefully there won't be any thunder though. I heard we are going to get more thunder today. We had a fantastic thunderstorm last night. Lightning and thunderstorms are actually a rare event here so last night's storm, which lasted about 20 minutes, was exciting. Of course I was the only one in the family awake to enjoy it.

Ok, off for my second cuppa tea and to get some laundry done.

Ugh - I hate this weather. It is humid today which of course means that I have a migraine. Completely sucks. It is 72 degrees outside but feels like about 92 because of the humidity. Blech.

Tomorrow is our 14th anniversary so Stephen made a wonderful meal for me tonight - ribeye steaks, baked potatoes and grilled veggies. Unfortunately, since I have a migraine I did not enjoy it as much as I should have.

Tomorrow is also the first day of school. Jax and Dex will walk in their new shoes and I will drive to the school with the huge pile of school supplies. I should have had my act together a little more last week and I could have dropped off the 5 reams of paper, 3 boxes of kleenex and 1 box of baby wipes. I cannot expect them to lug them to school tomorrow, along with the rest of their supplies (hell, *I* can barely carry all that). Oh, I just remembered that I need to put a roll of wet wipes (not baby wipes) in Jax's supplies to keep in his desk to clean his desk when he feels he needs to do so.

Ok, time to tuck the kids into bed. Then it will be my turn to get into bed to sleep off this migraine.

Shoe shopping for three boys is PAINFUL! Excruciatingly painful. Well, perhaps I should say it is painful shoe shopping for a 9 year old boy when I have his two brothers in tow. Shopping for the other two was a dream!

All three boys needed new shoes. I wanted to buy them each two pair. One pair of runners and one pair of shoes for everything else (skate shoes I thought would fit the bill). We headed to Nordstroms today to get them sized (Jax is a 5, Dex is a 2 and Cars is 11). Jax saw nothing "cool" at Nordstroms (just as well since they had virtually NO shoes on sale). I did get a pair for Dex and Cars there but we were in and out quickly because they actually have people working there who WANT to help you. That in itself is almost worth the cost of the shoes. Jax saw nothing that he liked so off we went into four shoes stores in the mall, plus Macy's (they don't carry kids shoes, btw) and JCPenney. In JCPenney, Jax found one pair of shoes that he said were "ok" but they did not have his size, of course. Apparently, size 5 is a very popular size.

We left the mall and headed to Shoe Pavilion (huge store with not as big of a selection of kids shoes as one might expect them to have). No luck. Next, Sears... Sears had a great shoe sale going on and some shoes that Jax actually liked. But virtually no sales people (not unlike JCPenney) and no size 5 running shoes to be found anywhere in the store (save for the girl's section). The one sales clerk who I actually managed to track down admonished me for waiting until the weekend before school to buy back-to-school shoes. If my poor crest-fallen size 5 son had not been standing beside me at that instant, I might have put my size 9's on that sales clerks' sizable behind.

We ended up at Fred Meyer where Stephen had wanted to shop in the first place. They had a sale plus in-store coupons for $10 off skate and athletic shoes. Jax finally found a pair of runners that he really liked but of course there were no 5's to be found anywhere (nor sales help!). I started searching the shelves again and realized that there were another row of shoes behind the boxes that were facing out so we started digging. After 5 minutes, Dex found the elusive size 5's for Jax. They fit and he really liked them. Success!! Well, near success. The runners were purchased but now we needed skate shoes!

(just to clarify here, I told Jax that we would not consider any other shoes until the runners were purchased)

We started checking that hidden back row again and Stephen found two pairs of size 5's but not the exact skate shoe that Jax wanted. After a few heavy sighs, Jax agreed that one of those two pairs were "cool" too. We bought the second-favourite size 5's after Stephen promised to stop at yet another Fred Meyer on the way home to double check to see if they had the ones Jax really, really, really wanted. If so, we'd return the second-favourite pair for the fav ones. Meanwhile, Dex easily found a pair of skate shoes in size 2.

We arrived at the next Fred Meyer. This one is different than the others. The clothes and shoes are on a second floor (the other stores are all one floor). BTW, Fred Meyer is like a Super Target so a grocery store and discount department store all-in-one. Anyway, since Fred Meyer was having this huge Labour Day weekend sales EVENT, they had brought down shoes and clothes from the second floor to the first. So, not only did we have to check in three different locations on the second floor for the elusive size 5 shoes for Jax, but there were three areas of the main floor where they had shoes too. I said FORGET IT! but Stephen *insisted* that we check every shoe area for NSS Green/black/white skate shoes in size 5. No luck. And in the end, Jax was just as happy to have the other shoes so we could have saved ourselves a good 30 minutes of rummaging through boxes, under tables and behind shelves.

So, my children are all now well shod to go back-to-school. And I hope not to have to do that again for at least six months. By then, no doubt, size 6 will be the popular size and we shall have to go through it all again.

The last weekend of the summer. Last night was Cosmo Friday then we had a bbq at Ash's. Today, we took the kids to Family Fun Center then we stopped at the skateboard park on the way home. Stephen really wants the summer to end on a very high note for the kids. Not sure what's up for tomorrow and Monday.

Summer o'Fun Day 2007 Day 48

Dex and Jax met their teachers today. Dex got one of the two 2nd grade teachers that I wanted for him. Yeah! Jax's teacher seems very nice. I have heard a lot of good things about her and only one person who knew of her did not like her (funny enough, it was the same person who told me that she did not like the teacher whom Dex had last year, who turned out to be the perfect 1st grade teacher for him! So I need to take the comment about Jax's teacher with a grain of salt). Anyway, in Jax's class, I was happy to see a little sign that said "Peanut Allergy Present - please be considerate". It was better than nothing.

All of my friends with 4th graders managed to avoid the one mean teacher, except for L's dd. However, L's dd is a very good student and a great kid so I am sure she will do fine in that class.

Now that the boys are older, I have arranged with two other moms for our kids to walk to school together. Jan's kids live in the cul-de-sac behind us so they will meet my kids at the corner and they will walk around to the water tower to meet A's kids (and possibly's I.'s son. Then they will all finish walking to school together. I will walk with them the first few days (or at least part of the way) to ensure that they keep up the right pace to get to school on time. It will make it so much easier on all of us to have them walk. I have ordered a new rain coat for Jax (Dex will get Jax's old one). I need to get them some all-weather mocs and they will be all set for the rainy season!

Is Summer over yet?

Well, I did not meet with Jax's teacher and the nurse yesterday. We are meeting on Friday (the day after the Meet'n'Greet which irritates me to no end but I am going to stay open-minded about it and trust that all will work out and that on the first day of school no one will bring peanut butter or peanuts. Of course the classroom will not be peanut-free but hopefully at the Meet'n'Greet, the other kids and parents will realize that Jax is in the classroom and not send in those items. ~hoping~

I know who Jax's teacher's name but I don't know her. She taught 2nd grade last year and apparently had a kid with food allergies in her class last year (don't know if it were a peanut allergy or not). At least I know she is trained to use Epi Pens.

Dex was upset that he did not find out early who his teacher is. Poor middle child. ;)

The book I am reading for book club is very interesting (The Book of Joby). It is very long though - 638 pages! The woman who picked it knows the author and he might come to our meeting in September. That would be cool...well, as long as everyone loves it and doesn't trash the book! Anyway, I am enjoying the book. Read the publisher description here.

Summer o'Fun Day 45

Well, the last week of summer. Nanny came this morning while I ran out and bought some back-to-school clothes for the boys. Well, mostly for Jax. Dex is between sizes so I need to take him out with me to buy him some pants. Cars has enough clothes already with some hand-me-downs and some long-sleeved t's I bought on clearance at Old Navy back in the spring. All of the boys need shoes but we'll probably do that on Friday or Saturday.

Tomorrow I am hoping to meet with the school nurse and Jax's new teacher to hand over the Epi Pen and discuss the health plan/504 plan. The nurse told me that she will not be at our school this year but will be there tomorrow to hand over stuff to the new school nurse. Jax is praying that he does not get one particular teacher who seems like a real bitch (my words, not his). If he gets her we will just have to deal with it but I hope that I worded his placement form in such a way that he will get one of the other teachers. They also have to add another 4th grade teacher and I have heard it maybe that a teacher from another grade moved up. We'll see...

Ash is taking her kids to the river tomorrow to swim and float with tubes. I have qualms about my kids swimming in the river - probably because I worry about the current and I am not a strong swimmer. Anyway, we'll bow out tomorrow but it will be HOT on Wednesday so we'll head to the beach that day. Cars received a "Pirates of the Caribbean" sprinkler for his birthday so the kids can splash in that. Whoo-hoo.

We were in Target a few weeks ago looking to buy a high-back booster seat for Carson because I did not want to lug his huge car seat with us when we went to Toronto. Anyway, Stephen and I were discussing the Graco Turbo Booster (we have one that used to be a high back but we threw out the high back a couple of years ago and now we use it as a regular ol' booster). A woman walked up to me and interrupted us to tell us that we should unequivocally consider another brand because Graco booster seats suck. You see, she dropped hers and it broke and Graco refused to replace it for her. She apparently believes that dropping a car seat is not the same as a collision so it should not have broken. It took everything I could muster NOT to roll my eyes at her.

Anyway, I was just thinking of this little interchange today as I buckled Carson into his Graco Turbo Booster (high back) and I had a little chuckle.

As I was writing this, I started to wonder how many cars seats/booster seats I have purchased over the years. Let's see...hmmm....I think 8. I bought an infant car seat that both Jax and Dex used. A convertible car seat that they both used. A convertible car seat/booster seat for Jax which totally sucked because the strap adjustments were BEHIND the seat. That one did not last long. Then we bought a high back booster that converts to low back (and up to 100 pounds). We are still using that one - it is the spare booster in Stephen's car.

When Cars was born, I borrowed an infant carrier car seat because I did not want to spend another $100+ on a seat that he would use for five months, max (my kids always outgrew their infant car seats early because they were so long/tall). I borrowed it from a friend who is about the most safety-conscious person I know so I had no worries about it having been in an accident (she later used it for her baby who was born a year after Cars).

I then purchased a convertible car seat for him and now he is in a high back booster (that will convert to backless). Somewhere along the line we also purchased two more backless boosters. So that makes a grand total of 8 car seats/booster seats purchased. I think we are good to go until Cars will be tall enough (4'9") to be able to be buckled in without a booster. Right now, they are all still in boosters. Jax has another inch or so to go until he is 4'9". Our state's law is 8 years OR 4'9" AND 80 pounds.

Yeah! A hot summer day! The kids and I ran a couple of errands then headed to the beach at the lake for the afternoon. It was crowded! Everyone was taking advantage of one of the last summer days.

Afterwards, we headed to Laurie's for Cosmo Friday. :)

This weekend the kids have birthday parties to attend and I think we'll go to the club too.

Summer O'Fun 2007 Day ??

I took the kids to the locks today. It is a summer tradition to go there, eat a picnic lunch on the grass and then watch the boats going through the locks. Today, it was especially exciting because they moved a car ferry through the locks. It had to be pulled by a tug boat into the locks while another tug boat "pushed" from behind. The ferry was so big it seemed to barely fit! I know that I was much more excited about it than the boys were.

After a quick trip to check out the salmon, we then drove to Archie McPhee's so the boys could buy some fun stuff. A back scratcher, oversized feet, Star Wars bandaids, pirate figures, plastic bowling set, and a devil duck - all things we need in the house. ;)

Summer O'Fun 2007 Day xx

Cars' b-day party at Build-A-Bear Workshop today was great. Cars had such a fun time.

The kids got to pick out their bears and they played games while they took turns stuffing them. Then the kids all made a wish on a heart for Cars and all of the hearts went into his bear. The kids picked the clothes and the BaB people helped the kids dress their bears.

When the kids were all done, they took a photo with all of the kids and their bears. Cars also received an extra little bear that each child can sign for him - a birthday keepsake. I was really impressed with it and Cars loved it! Ok, so I don't feel so bad about not having a grand b-day party at our house like I have always done for the older boys when they were Cars' age.

Oh, and Jax was fever-free when he woke up this morning. His fever/illness lasted exactly the same length of time that Cars' did - 2.5 days.

Summer O'Fun 2007 Day ?

Jax is still sick. I hope his fever breaks by tomorrow morning because Cars' b-day party is in the early afternoon and Stephen has a physical at the same time so he cannot change it at this late date or we'll be charged for a missed appointment.

Good news though is that the sun is supposed to come back. We've been home for 3 days and it has been pouring rain most of that time.

I am still trying to get used to being back on West Coast time.

Today was the golf tournament and Dex and Jax were signed up to play. However, Jax still has a fever and is achy and sore so only Dex participated. He did not do well at all but he had a really good time anyway.

Tomorrow I have to finish putting away all the vacation stuff we dragged home and get ready for Cars' b-day party on Wednesday. We are going to Build-a-Bear workshop then back here for cake. I promise to give him a good party next year. I swear!

edited to add Photos

Overall, we tried to make our trip to Toronto a VACATION. For any of you who go "home" for a "visit", you will know there is a distinct difference between a trip and a vacation. We really made sure that we made it fun for the boys. It was also nice to go to Toronto as a tourist and do things that we might not do if we lived there.

Thursday - Travel (long detail below if you aren't bored yet*)
Friday - trip to the Dollar Store to buy toys for the boys. Dinner at The Keg with my mom and Stephen's parents. This is the same restaurant that Stephen and I went on our first day - nearly 21 years ago.
Saturday - My aunt's 70th birthday party at my mom's house. All three of her children came and it is the first time in over 5 years that her sons have seen each other because they have been fighting. I was happy for her, even if they boys did not talk to each other (when I say boys I mean men in their mid-40's).
Sunday - dinner at Stephen's parent's house with his uncle and aunt and one brother and his family. The other brother's family were away at a soccer tournament for their dd.
Monday - Visited the street named after my dad. Visited Ramona and Greg and saw their new house (it's wonderful!), stopped at the cemetery to see my dad's grave (Cars told my MIL "We went to visit Papa, who is dead and in the ground, to say hi. He did not say hi back to us because he is dead and in the ground".)
Tuesday - Niagara Falls. A nearly *4* hour road trip (it should not have taken more than 2). Apparently a billion people decided to go to Niagara Falls that day or cross the Rainbow Bridge into Niagara Falls, NY that day which backed up all traffic trying to get to the Falls. The kids had a great time on the "Journey Behind the Falls" and on the "Maid of the Mist" (click here for details on both).
Wednesday - I was sick part of this day. Mostly because I had eaten non-stop since arriving in Toronto. So Stephen took the boys downtown Toronto to see the CN Tower. Long lines meant they did not get to go up the skypod but they really enjoyed the glass floor on the observation deck. Wednesday evening I went to dinner with Ramona, Alicia and Sharon. I will write more about this another day, I think.
Thursday - Denine's break-down day. I am still not quite sure what happened but I know the trigger was the garbage situation in Toronto. It is so stressful trying to figure out just what garbage can do where. Anyway, I think mostly it had to do with my mom getting older and also feeling as though we were disappointing people again even though we spent a lot of money and time on our visit. Saying NO has always been hard for me and always comes with guilt about disappointing others or feeling selfish for not doing what they want. Sorry that you filled your fridge with food and we did not eat it all. Sorry that you wanted to cook us a turkey or prime rib dinner and we did not have time to be at two different houses for two different feasts the same night. Sorry that we did not get to see your new house/new car/new dog/new whatever whomever you are. Sorry I cannot have dinner/coffee/tea/lunch with you during our very limited time home. And it was not just about the people we were visiting either. Stephen and I were at odds about going to take the kids the next day for a "big" end to the vacation.
Friday - The Ex. I always had great memories of the big end to summer was a visit to the CNE/Ex. It was the first day so we were expecting it to be just packed but it seemed like there was no one there! No waiting for any of the rides on the midway so the kids went on the same rides 4, 5 and 6 times in a row if they loved it. We definitely got our money's worth for the all-you-can-ride passes. Of course the carnies short-changed us *4* times at the games and seemed genuinely "surprised" at their mistakes. Yeah, right).
Saturday - travel day home.

Whew! That was long. I was going to post a little bit everyday for the next few days but then I felt that I just needed to get it off my chest so I can move on. BTW, Cars' fever broke the morning we left so he was fine to travel. Now, tonight, it seems that Jax has what Cars had. His fever has not gone over 101.5 and I don't think it will go up as high as Cars' did. We'll see.

Anyway, if you haven't yet fallen asleep wading through this, you can keep reading about...

*Details from our day of travel to Toronto:
Flight to Toronto via Vancouver. We had a 2 hour layover (which really turned into 1 hour and 40 minutes after you take into account that the plane needed to taxi to the terminal and we needed to deplane). That ~should~ have been plenty of time to get through Canadian Immigration and Customs, pick up our luggage, put our luggage through to our next flight, get from the international terminal to the domestic terminal, buy some water for our next flight. It wasn't. It took just over an hour to go through Immigration/Customs (apparently a lot of international flights landed at the same time). We hired a red cap who helped us bi-pass two other lines (exit customs and the line to put luggage through to next flight). We somehow ended up at the wrong gate for our connecting flight and it was 20 minutes before it was to leave. I asked a very kind Air Canada gate agent (isn't that an oxymoron?!) and found out that we needed to be on the other side of the terminal. She said "YOU WILL NEED TO RUN!". I ran over to Stephen and the boys and said "WE NEED TO RUN!". The Air Canada agent then ran over to us and said "YOU HAVE NO TIME! I WILL HAVE TO DRIVE YOU!" and she made us hop into one of those carts.

Now, have you seen Austin Powers? You know where he is stuck in that cart trying to turn around? Back and forth and back and forth? Well, that was this woman trying to get the cart into position so she could drive forward. Then she had to maneuver through a doorway and was shouting at people to get out of the way. She then got us into a restricted area that leads to every gate (I have only ever seen this restricted areas at the Toronto and Vancouver airports) and sped along and got us to our gate in less than 5 minutes. ~whew~ I wish I had my wits about me to have asked for her name so I could write to Air Canada to let them know that she rocked!

And this was really the icing on the disaster that was the trip TO Toronto. From long lines and stress at security (unpacking very carefully packed backpacks for 5 people), printing off the wrong number of baggage tags, nearly having to throw out 2 bottles of duty-free booze (the red cap was able to stuff them in our bags for us). As I mentioned before, Stephen says we will only ever fly DIRECTLY to Toronto again. Seems like a good idea to me too.

We are home.

More later.

But I will add that Stephen says it does not matter the cost, we are never, ever, ever, ever, ever taking a connecting flight to Toronto again. Too painful to rehash at the moment even though it happened at the beginning of our trip. Let's just say that you know when you see the airport personnel on those golf-card things, speeding through the airport with a family of tourists onboard? Well, we were that family. :\

Summer o'Fun

We are on vacation. There has been some sunshine and warmth so it really does feel like summer. The kids are enjoying themselves so that is wonderful.

I am wearing my complaint-free world bracelet so that is all I can say at this point. ;)

Summer O'Fun 2007 Day 32

Cars still has a fever but it is not as high as yesterday. He sits on the couch under a blanket bossing us all around. It is quite comical but won't be in a couple of days when he is better and we stop doing his bidding.

Jax and Dex are dragging. I think the shitty summer weather is wearing us all down. Yesterday on tv, the news teaser was "October weather in August!". It is horrid. At golf on Monday, I was speaking to someone who moved here in September and she was wondering if summers were always like this. It completely sucks!

It reminds me of one summer in Toronto where it rained both Saturday and Sunday on 14 of the 16 weekends in the summer. And on those other two weekends, it rained one of the two days. At least there was sun and warmth during the week though. We don't even have that really.

So, here I am complaining while wearing my Complaint Free World bracelet that arrived in the mail (4 months after I ordered it! Oops! Complaining again! Time to change the bracelet to my other wrist.

Summer O'Fun 2007 Day 31

Not much fun around here again. Well, Stephen took Jax and Dex to buy some books for our trip. He also bought they both new golf bags for them.

Cars was very lethargic today and very hot so I finally took his temperature. The readings I got scared me - 104.9, 105.1, 106.9! I thought for sure my thermometer was broken but it took my temperature just fine. Cars would not take any Advil because he was sure it was going to make him barf, like it did the night before (he barfed up the o.j. right after I gave him Advil). I called the nurse line and they told me to get him to a doctor. I was able to get an appointment at the ped's office. His temperature had dropped a few degrees by the time we got there but the doctor told me that no air travel for him if he keeps spiking a fever. Also, we need to take him back if he is still spiking a fever on Thursday. So, I need to call the airline tomorrow to see what we can do about our flights. I will send Stephen, Dex and Jax and then Cars and I will go when he is better. But, that is only if his temperature does not break.

Summer O'Fun 2007 Day 30

Today was the last day of golf lessons for the boys. They will play in a tournament in a couple of weeks.

Jax says he does not like golf lessons. I think it is because he does not have a golf bag with the backpack-like straps. Seriously. Something as simple as that can make or break his good time. Dex likes it and is excited to play in the tournament.

We spent much of the day doing laundry and putting the camping gear away. Cars received some b-day presents and was happy to play with them. Late in the afternoon he became moody and he fell asleep just before dinner. He woke up around 8pm with a fever and he was hungry. He decided he was really just thirsty and wanted some orange juice so I gave it to him. Big mistake. He puked it up all over the carpet. Stephen steam cleaned it but I think we will still be able to see it when it dries. Yikes!

Here are some photos from the past week:

We are back from our camping weekend. Lots to write about but I am tired so I'll do a quick recap and perhaps post in more detail later.

- cold and rain in the forecast does not mean it will rain or be cold
- Stephen is proud of our new tent and loved the tent-envy
- Do not stay on the beach until high tide and then try to drive out in the soft sand. You will get stuck. And when your friends stop to help you they will get stuck too. And the other friends who do not get stuck because their SUV can fly over sand dunes will rescue your dh left behind
- driving on the beach during high tide causes marital strife (proven true for four out of five couples)
- I am Killjoy for all of the children who want to walk into the woods with burning sticks
- my children were ridiculed by others because "you always listen to your parents!"
- Do not spend the 3-hour drive home from camping daydreaming about a hot shower because when you get home your hot water tank will not be working

And finally...

- do not blink or your baby will turn *4* years old while you are camping

Happy birthday, Baby Cars!

Summer

I am still in shock about the 35W bridge. I cannot imagine all those poor people who were on the bridge when it fell. One good thing of all of this, a former co-worker with whom I had lost touch email me (she lives in Florida) then we spoke briefly on the telephone. Last time she called me out of the blue was when she saw me on Oprah. Anyway, we both had tried to reach our former manager but we no longer have email address for him (our company - a financial planning division of a credit card company - changed their name a couple of years ago so all of the email addresses changed and apparently they did not transition over so pez.me@oldcompanyname.com did not become pez.me@newcompanyname.com).

Anyway, I will just keep my fingers crosses that he and the others we used to work with are ok. I am sure they are. Though it was at 6:05pm, that is actually the equivalent of 7:05pm else where. Minnesota is in the Central time zone but businesses still keep Eastern Time hours. So many people started work at 7 or 7:30am and were out by 3:30 or 4pm. We at least that was the case in the companies I worked for at the time.

For some summer fun, I took the kids to the beach for a couple of hours. Then I spent the rest of the day preparing for camping. This is just our second camping trip ever. It is a whole lot of work for such a short time.

Well, I cannot call today a Summer o'Fun day because of what has happened in Minneapolis. Friggin 35W bridge collapsed! The bridge that carries the interstate highway over the Mississippi River collapsed! Nevermind my bridge thing. I used to live right beside this bridge.

See that building in the background? That is where we lived! Funny enough, I never, ever had a problem with that bridge. I think probably my fear of bridges came along the same time my ppd did.

This is just insane! How does this happen?