Driving home from the club this morning, I had on either JackFM or the local oldies station on the radio and I heard the song "Sweet City Woman". OMG! I don't think I had heard that song in over 20 years. I don't understand why not - I mean how many great songs prominently feature the banjo? I belted it out and was wracking my brain trying to remember who sang it. I decided it must have been a Canadian band since I had not heard it in recent memory (I've lived in the States nearly 15 years). When I got home I looked it up and found out that it was indeed a Canadian band - The Stampeders. And that automatically made me think of one of their other "famous" songs - Ramona since it is also the name of my bff. Anyway, I had a blast watching videos of them singing their songs on YouTube. And if you are so inclined, here is "Sweet City Woman" and "Ramona". BTW, The Stampeders also sang "Hit the Road Jack", "Carry Me" and "Wild Eyes". Surely one of those songs must have been a hit in the States.

One of the things is that Canada has "Canadian Content Rules" for radio (and TV). I forget the exact percentage but it is something like 50% of all music played had to be "Canadian Content". As a result, we heard the same songs over and over again. And Canadian bands are sometimes HUGE in Canada and barely known outside of the country. An example of this was back in the early 90's the Barenaked Ladies were so popular in Canada. On tour they were selling out entire stadiums. However, in 1995 they were touring the States and we had tickets to see them at the Minnesota Zoo. A venue that maybe holds maybe 800 people. That day there were about 300 people there but the concert was called due to a tornado! We did get a chance to chat with Ed Robertson as he noticed us holding signs that said "I went to your high school" (I did but graduated the year before he and Steven Page started).

Stephen went to a conference once in Nashville and he found out one night that Blue Rodeo was playing at a local club. He convinced everyone that they had to get their early

Here are some hits by other Canadian bands/singers. Do you recognize any of them?

Chilliwack: My Girl
Anne Murray: You Needed Me
Barenaked Ladies: If I Had a $1000000
Triumph: When the Lights Go Down
Rush: Tom Sawyer
Max Webster: Paradise Skies
Rough Trade: High School Confidential
Teenage Head: Some Kinda Fun
Kim Mitchell: All We Are
Alannah Miles: Black Velvet
kd lang: Constant Craving
Leonard Cohen: First We Take Manhattan
Blue Rodeo: Til I Am Myself Again
The Pursuit of Happiness: I'm an Adult Now
Tragically Hip: Courage
The Guess Who: American Woman
Burton Cummings: Break It To Them Gently
Dan Hill: Sometimes When We Touch
Trooper: Raise A Little Hell
Bryan Adams: Run to You
April Wine: Just Between You and Me
Sweeney Todd: Roxy Roller
Celine Dion: Where Does My Heart Beat Now
Sheriff: When I'm With You


Ok, I guess I could go on and on. I just had a fun um, hour and half looking up songs on YouTube.

Nothing much happening. Dex's service project on Saturday (assembling boxes for the homeless living in Tent City). Today I went to IKEA looking for ideas to create a "mudroom". Our entrance from the garage into house is a wreck! I have a plastic bin filled with hats/mitts, a 15 hole shoe holder (does not fit 15 pairs!), two racks of hooks for coats and backpacks. We have way more shoes than fit in that space. I want to create a really nice mudroom area without spending a fortune. I was looking at the lockers from LLBean but I think they would be quickly outgrown. I would love something like this or this. If Stephen were handier, he could make them. Well, I guess if he really had the desire he would make them too but that desire is not there so I will have to figure out what to do and buy what I need. He'll install pre-assembled stuff (or easy-to-assemble things like I might buy from IKEA).

edited to add this link. I cut this article out of the paper the weekend we moved. This is my ~dream~ mudroom.

Other news this weekend is that my ATM card was canceled because someone attached a skimming device to our bank's ATM machine. I almost NEVER use the ATM machine (I prefer to get my cash from Safeway using the cash-back option when I purchase something) but once back in October, we were near the bank and we needed money for the weekend so I ran into the bank. Just recently people have noticed money disappearing from their accounts (several people with whom Stephen works were hit as this ATM machine is near their company and the bank caters to Hi-Tech employees). Anyway, I received a letter in the mail on Friday stating that my card would be canceled effective Friday and a new card would arrive in 10 business days. That is a long time to be without an ATM card. I had to buy groceries today and charge my AMEX card (though I guess I could have written a check - never thought of that since I have used an ATM card for groceries for the past 12 years!). Anyway, we've checked our account and it does not seem that we have any fraudulant transactions. I hope my new PIN is easy to remember (and I shall now always cover the keypad when I use one - I used to think only whacks did that but apparently if they were whacks, they were security-conscious whacks!).

Friday Friday

Once again it is the weekend. Kicked off nicely with Cosmo Friday. Tomorrow Dex has to do his service project for his 1st Reconcilliation. I need to make it to The Container Store sometime this weekend too. And we are thinking about the summer and if we are going to take a vacation. We have a couple of places in mind so all we need to do it figure out where to go and start planning!

Very Random Thoughts

Just a bunch of random thoughts...

- Art Start tomorrow in Dex's class and the kids will be making fingerprint beads necklaces for Art Gallery Night. The kids will just have three fingerprint beads on their necklaces then we will string them on black plastic lacing. We will make a full necklace for the teacher (end-of-year gift) with one fingerprint from each child

- I am also in charge of Art Gallery night for Jax's class. We are scheduled to to the project next Friday and I have absolutely NO IDEA whatsoever about what to make. Help!

- I have been trying to ease a toxic friend out of my life but sometimes it feels like she is trying to hang on like a dog with a bone. I wish I were the type who could come right out and say it. However, if she weren't so toxic I would not feel the need to do this. And why do I feel guilty about this?

- I have given up candy and cookies for Lent (but chocolate is exempt since it is the definite cure for PMS)

- I did not get what I wanted for Christmas and I feel so selfish and greedy for pouting about it. Yes, I did get a lovely camera but it was not what I wanted

- we bought a lithograph in the summer and the artist died last month. I keep wondering if the print is now worth more

- this spring will mark the 9th anniversary of me being a SAHM. I often wonder where I'd be if we had not made that decision

- I wonder how long spell check on blogger will be broken (it has been over a week now)

- Why can't I find regular cinnamon-flavoured Trident gum anywhere? I don't care much for the chiclets-type Trident

- I am dying to know what colour rhodies I have at our new house. I asked the neighbour but she claims they have never bloomed because the previous owner was such a crappy gardener

- The new owner of our old house wants to meet me. I am nervous. She wants to talk art (she apparently liked my paintings and she is an artist)

A day and a half in bed and I am mostly all better. I probably should have spent all day in bed yesterday but we had a Super Bowl party to go to. What an exciting game!

We had a good time at the party but the real excitment for me was that Jax ate food there! L talked to him about all of the food and reminded him that it is mostly all things he had had before. Foods he was unfamiliar with were still all peanut-free. Last week Jax told me that he would eat a couple Glutin breadsticks because they are peanut-free. L made sure she had some (she is allergic to wheat so we often have these sticks at Cosmo Friday both here and at her house). So, Jax had some of those, one Dare chocolate creme cookie, some carrots, one pig-in-a-blanket and some pretzels. TOUCHDOWN! That is the most he has eaten at anyone else's house since Thanksgiving. He is working so hard at overcoming this. I am so proud of him!

On the mend

I am feeling a bit better today although my ears are plugged so my balance is a little off. We are still planning to go to the Super Bowl party today but probably will not stay until the end. Go whichever team wins!

Stephen is still sick but the fever is gone so of course he went to work.

And because it is the weekend, I am allowed to be sick. I have a sore throat, sinus congestion and an achy body. I am off to bed as soon as the boys are home from school.

Stephen went away for three days to a retreat/team building thing for work. When he arrived home Tuesday night, he was sick. He was in bed when we arrived home from Jax's appointment and it is now 3:30pm Thursday and he is still there. He has a fever, head ache, back ache, sore throat, nasal congestion and today we added dizziness to that litany of symptoms.

Now, I am the first to admit that I am a horrible nurse. I hate it when people are sick because I feel so useless when I cannot make them better. I have been giving him Theraflu every 4 hours and fresh glasses of water every few hours. I have heated up chicken soup for him and kept the kids away so he can sleep (and so they will not get sick too). I do not have a lot of patience though and when he tried to get up out of bed on Wednesday afternoon, I told him that he was useless to me if he remained sick so he must stay in bed and get better. He said "Thanks for the sympathy".

I did feel a little guilty and I apologized to him. I fluffed his pillows and made some oooh and aaah sympathy sounds. When this morning came around and he was still sick I made sure I did not give the impression that I was sick of him being sick.

Then, at lunch time we had this exchange:

Me: Here is your soup. Do you want some crackers?
Him: No thanks, this is good.
Me: Ok, let me know if you want anything else.
Him: Thanks for taking care of me.
Me: No problem. I know you would do the same for me.
Him: Sure, if you were sick on a weekend.

Aaargh! Isn't that the truth! When I am sick, I would not be afforded the luxury of lying in bed until it is over. Ok, so if I were as sick as he is, I would probably not make dinner and would order in a pizza or have Stephen bring something home. He would probably make lunches for the kids and get Jax and Dex to the bus, but I would still have to drive Cars to/from preschool or swimming lessons, or soccer or whatever. After school, I would still have to ensure that they got their homework done and if I had to be lying down in bed, they would be in the room a gazillion times asking me a million questions!

Oh, and now he is using the intercom on our telephone to page me. Off to check what the patient needs.

Serenity now.

Co$tco

I spent a fortune at Costco today and I did not even buy anything! Well, of course I bought some things but when I look at it, how the hell did I spend $193.45 on a few items!

Ok, looking at my bill, I do see that I spent $32.99 on Zyrtec. It went OTC this month so I can no longer order it via mail-order prescription service. Jax and Dex take a tablet everyday. So it works out to about 44 cents per tablet (vs 66 cents per tablet if I bought it at Fred Meyer). But, since we had a no co-pay on Zyrtec when it was a prescription medication, $32.99 every 5 weeks is going to bug me!

I also had to buy a new pair of winter ski gloves since Dex lost one earlier this week at school - $11.99.

And I did splurge and buy a 2 pound brick of Dubliner cheddar. Oh, and I did buy a new swimsuit since I don't want to ruin my tankini in the hot tub (yes, I am too much of a prude to go in au naturel). Oh, and that 50 yard roll of grosgrain ribbon! So pretty and what a bargain!

Pork chops, deli roast beef, frozen corn, celery, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, red peppers, bacon, napkins, Bounce dryer sheets and Eggos round up the list. Nearly $200 and I totally did not even look at the middle section of Costco (books, clothing, furniture). Perhaps next time I should take a calculator with me and keep a running total. No more surprises at the register!

So at Jax's appointment tonight, we talked a lot about how he will not eat at other people's homes. He just kept saying he was uncomfortable and eventually admitted to being afraid that the food might have peanuts in it. The psychologist was great and talked about what being brave meant (doing something even though you are scared) and we have a plan for Jax to be brave and to try to eat some food this weekend when we go to a Super Bowl party.

We also talked about buying lunch at school and Jax said that he would like to buy lunch again but he was too afraid. (I send a tetra pack of organic chocolate milk with him).

And this is how he described why he did not want to buy milk:

"I think that they might have somehow made peanuts into a liquid and then injected it into the milk but it is so small it is invisible so I cannot see it then if I drink it I will have an allergic reaction".

*sigh*

The psychologist explained to him that no, there were rules about what is in milk (ingredients: milk) and they would never put peanuts in it. So, we've come up with a plan. For every 5 days that he buys milk, he "earns" a day which is also equivalent to him not asking more than 5 "worry thought" questions. After so many days he will earn (yet another) Lego. He is very motivated because he really, really, really wants that Lego (Indiana Jones Lego). He has done so well with recognizing and not asking those worry thought questions. I hope the milk-buying works for him too. And, that he will be brave enough eat at the Super Bowl party.

I am very close to changing my blog template to something new. I cannot add new photos to the sidebars without screwing up the format. I have no idea why it will no longer work for me so I may just change to one of the plain blogger templates. It is a little scary though because I love the style of this blog and none of their templates have two side bars. I suppose if I became more proficient at html I could design my own template but alas...no time and honestly, no real desire. So, don't be shocked if you see a change in the coming weeks.

Make it work!

Stop the snow, stop the snow, stop the snow

Snow day today. We just hung out until mid-afternoon when the roads were clearer. I took Jax to a friend's house and then we went to the drugstore after I gassed up the car. More snow is in the forecast for tonight/tomorrow morning so we might be looking at another snow day tomorrow or at the very least, a snow delay.

I still cannot believe how much snow we've had this winter. I know I keep saying that but it is really surprising.

We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks today. There really was not another kids' movie playing other than Veggies Tales pirate movie. I was expecting Alvin and the Chipmunks to suck but it was actually funny. The tween girls behind us loved it too - I don't think I have heard kids laugh so hard. Jax, Dex and Cars really liked it and Cars kept saying afterwards "I can't believe how FUNNY that movie was!". So cute!

Jax said that he had a stomach ache and did not want any popcorn but I know it was really because he is very uncomfortable eating outside of the house. I mean what kid turns down popcorn and skittles?! He has lost a lot of weight and Dex is now less than 5 pounds lighter than him now. :\

It isn't easy being green

Pretty green, eh? And by pretty I mean very, not beautiful.


And this is what is left of the snow fort taken 11 days after it was created.

Pretty amazing to have snow around for so long. And more snow is in the forecast for the next several days. Even if it does not actually snow, the temperature is still cold enough that those chunks of (now) ice will be here until at least the middle of next week!

I feel like I have deja vu. I taught the same art lesson today to Dex's class as I did almost exactly two years ago to Jax's class. The difference is that Dex's class were CRAZY and the kids wiping the charcoal all over their hands and then wiping it on their desks. Another mom and I were teaching and I could not believe how out-of-control they were. The class also has 6 more kids than Jax's class (that's one more table group!) and a lot more boys in the class so that could be it. At least Dex drew a portrait of me and not an action shot of me parachuting between two mountains as Jax did back then.

Also, I do not have PMS as I have already fallen off the roof and I am in such a crabby mood. At least Ding Dong girl was pleasant to me when I saw her at the park after school (I am driving the kids to/from school for most of this week as the bus driver is out and transportation cannot guarantee that the substitute drivers have had epi pen training). And, I made an appointment with the gynecologist to discuss incisional endometriosis again. I keep putting off the inevitable, I guess.

For My Dorky Brothers

If you click on the links below they get more inhabitants in their fake cities (I don't get SIMS sh*t). But anyway if you are so inclined, please click.

Thanks!

http://knarf.myminicity.com/ <--This is Fiona and Tara's Dad
http://lecnac.myminicity.com/ <--This is Lola's Dad

Dorky brother #3 (or #1 I guess) is stuck in Facebook and cannot get out.

I've started a few new blahg posts in the past few days but in the end none of them seemed...interesting. So I did not post them.

Nothing is going on short of the day-to-day stuff. It has been cold and we still have a snow fort (not much of it left but there nonetheless) on our front lawn. This is the longest I have ever seen snow stick around here in the 9 winters we've lived here. Seriously. Three days was the longest before.

One nice thing about the cold weather is that the sun has been shining brightly for a few days in a row. A rare treat in the winter here. It has also given me an idea about just how hot this house will get in the summer time with the afternoon sun burning down on us. I will need to buy some blinds or shades for the kitchen window.

Also, having clear skies during a full moon in the winter is cool. The moon was low in the sky last night and I could see it shining through the trees as we drove up to Jax's appt. On the way home, with far fewer cars on the road, I could see a billion stars too. So pretty!

Almost done. Stephen just has a one foot strip of the second coat to finish. "Botanical" (aka Lego Green and the darkest colour), "Elm Valley" (bright green) and the ceiling is "Verndale". Garish!

I'll post another photo once the paint is dry and the furniture is back in place.

And since I am posting photos, here are a couple from the snow earlier in the week.


Boys walking to the bus stop


Backyard

Front yard

Since we moved in, we have been promising Jax that we would paint his room which was a bright yellow (ceiling too!). Well, this weekend Stephen decided was the weekend. Earlier in the week, I went to the local paint store and picked a great green colour (Jax's colour of choice). Jax hated it and insisted that he be the one to pick the paint and of course Stephen AGREED! Yikes!

So off we went to Ace Hardware and Jackson took a green Lego brick with him to "match" colours. O.M.G.! Stephen said that was ok and I am of course freaking out because 1) Jax's room does not get a lot of sun and it is dark anyway 2) One must walk past Jax's bedroom to use the main bathroom in our house so every guest we have will walk up the stairs and past the Lego Green room to the bathroom and 3) It is Lego Green!

In the end we compromised and said we would paint 2 walls Lego Green and the other two walls a lighter green (but still bright). It is still pretty brash because any sage green-type colour really clashed with the Lego Green. I gave Stephen instructions to purchase a whitish colour for the ceiling and the kids and I left Ace to go to the Lego(!) store.

Well, Ace Hardware Guy and Stephen, both clearly interior designers, decided that the contrast between Lego Green, bright green with a white ceiling would be too much (never mind that the baseboards, closet doors and blinds are white) so they decided that the ceiling should be painted the same bright green as the walls. BRIGHT GREEN! OMG. Fortunately, we arrived home just as the primer had dried and Stephen was just about to pour the bright green into the paint tray. I ran back out to Ace and bought a much lighter green (on the same paint chip strip) for the ceiling. It will still be a very GREEN room but much less so than if the ceiling were painted BRIGHT GREEN! Jax had better love it. And if it looks cruddy, then his door will be permanently closed whenever we are expecting company.

Imagine!

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) North Central What people call the "Minnesota accent." Sounds almost Canadian. You may have even been asked if you were from Canada before.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

This has been a busy week, especially with the snow and all. It has still not all melted and we have a huge snow fort in our front yard. The kids have had a blast playing in the snow so I won't complain about it.

Tomorrow's Cosmo Friday is at my house. I will have to put away all of the Lego tomorrow because Jax freaks out when it gets broken (which of course it is designed to do and go back together). Honestly, it gets broken usually when some of the other kids who come over have a Lego-throwing fight. They throw the ships (usually the lego is built into ships) at each other or across the room. So, we are not going to let that happen anymore so I just have to put it away high up in the closet and ask them not to take it out. I will have to figure out something to keep them occupied for the 2 hours that they are here. I may have to resort to xbox and Guitar Hero. We'll see...

The new hot tub cover arrived today (and the hauled away the old one). It looks good. I chose a brown colour that is almost the same colour of the deck. I hope that wasn't a mistake in case in the dark someone thinks it is part of the deck and walks on it. The old cover was grey. Icky grey. The cover arrived without the solar blanket so the delivery guy said he will be back up this way next week and will bring it up then. I will have Stephen follow up with that.

We are still awaiting the new timer for the hot tub. The gas/electric bill arrived yesterday but I am afraid to open it so I will let Stephen do it this weekend. I am beginning to wonder if there is also something wrong with the furnace because sometimes I hear it trying to light and it does not. Hmmm...$$$$ Speaking of furnaces, I drove by our old house on Monday on the way home from correcting spelling in Dex's class and there was a heating and cooling truck in the driveway. Yikes! I have convinced myself that she is having air conditioning installed rather than imagining that there is something wrong with the furnace (which was old but in working condition when we sold the house). Oh God! Am I going to fret everytime I hear about something wrong with that house?! Perhaps we should have moved further away!

Dex and Jax had their first private swim lessons at the club (well, semi-private since they are taking them at the same time). The swim instructor is young and kind and encouraging unlike the lessons that Cars goes to (not young, kind of a hardass but she gets results!). I scheduled them just for two weeks to see how it would go and I think it will work out so I will schedule out another couple of weeks. My kids are never going to be Olympic swimmers but I just need them to swim and not sink in the water.

Cars and I watched from the sidelines and it was HOT in there. It did not help that I was wearing winter boots and an acrylic (eek!) sweater which of course made me sweat like a pig. It was the first acrylic sweater that I purchased in 22 years. I bought it in Toronto last summer and I love the style of it (long tunic-length cabled hoodie in charcoal grey). The problem of course is that it is acrylic which means it does not "breathe" so I only wear it on the coldest days now. And today was cold but not in the pool area. The temperature of the teaching pool is warmer than the recreation and lap pools and I am certain that the instructors have also cranked up the heat in that pool area. It must have been over 80 in there! Sweat, sweat, sweat.

Now, if I were ambitious, I would knit myself that same sweater in wool or a wool blend and I would be so much more comfortable. Ok, who is kidding who, I will not knit myself a sweater. A scarf perhaps, but not a sweater. But considering that I have not picked up any knitting needles in well over a year, I don't imagine I would even be able to knit myself that!

We've got snow again! Not sure if there will be school tomorrow or not. Stephen's car is stuck in the driveway and no doubt my van will not be able to get out tomorrow either (icy snow). And our babysitter stopped by an hour ago because her car was stuck in the snow on the hill and her cell phone was dead so she needed to warm up and call her parents for help. As long as our power doesn't go out that will be ok. Ash's power went out an hour ago. I told her to come here if it gets too cold in their house and if our power goes out, we'll all head to Laurie's since her dh bought a generator after last year's storm.

I took Cars to soccer today and he had a blast! Afterwards he said "Mom, I LOVE soccer!". He is so funny.

Ok, off to check to see if the school district has yet called for a snow delay tomorrow.

Monday, Monday

Well, today is off to a great start. The bus is supposed to come at 7:51am but it always arrives at 7:58am. Today, I purposefully left the house at 7:51 rather than the regular 7:45 but of course today was the day the that bus was "early" (still not 7:51). The bus drives up the road, stops at the corner of our cul de sac and the kids get on. then the bus drives up the street (hill) about 1 bus length, then backs up into our cul de sac before driving back down the street from which it came. So, my kids ran and were able to catch the bus as she was backing into our cul de sac. Then the bus was about to drive off when another little kid came running down the hill for it. So, we were not the only ones who had gotten used to the 7:58 pick-up time!

I am taking Cars to "L'il Kickers" today which is indoor soccer for l'il kids. I told him last week that I was signing him up for it and he had a complete and utter FIT. "I HATE SOCCER!" (He has never played) and "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME GO" (wanna bet?). I made the mistake of telling him on the way to school last Wednesday and he was miserable at school for the first part of the morning but apparently cheered up. Then when I picked him up he announced that I was the meanest mom and he was not going to soccer. So, I have not mentioned it again and it will be a nice surprise for him when I take him directly from preschool today. Wish me luck!

Stephen and I went to his work holiday party (MLK day perhaps? ;) on Saturday night. It was held downtown Seattle a conference center. They had rooms set up with pool tables, a casino area (black jack, craps, roulette, texas hold'em), a room with "dueling pianos", a dj and dance floor and some museum exhibits. We just wandered around most of the night, talking to people Stephen knew.

He had just told me about the party the previous Monday. I was irritated because he said he did not want to go. We rarely go out alone, especially to somewhere where we need to get dressed up. So, I told him that we were going and he had to arrange for the babysitter. Once he had one arranged, I went out shopping for a dress to wear.

Anyway, he did get a babysitter and I bought a dress and off we went. Here is a picture of us.



edited to add that I just found my dress at macys.com and it is more than double what I paid for it! I bought it at Macy's in Bellevue Square! Yikes! I think I got a bargain on that dress.

The kids got home about 10 minutes later than usual because the school went into lock-down just before 3pm because there was a bobcat on the school grounds. Animal Control showed up but it ran into the woods beside the school (the same woods a bear ran into a couple of years ago).

But they are now home safely and we are off to Ash's house for Cosmo Friday! :)

Tonight's book club was spent mostly talking about all of the issues we have with our children. Problems range from OCD, food allergies, speech issues, ADD and ADHD to anxiety and sensory issues. All nine of us present had at least one child with a "problem" that needs to be addressed. Hmmm...perhaps problem is the wrong word. Maybe "issue" is better? Anyway, it was eye-opening.

I really did not want to talk about Jax's issues but someone asked me in front of everyone else "Speaking of OCD, how is Jax doing with his counseling?". *sigh*

Then I arrived home to an email from Dex's Religion teacher that on Sunday, as part of a community service project, their class would be making peanut butter and jam sandwiches to take to the food bank. First off - ick! Who wants a sandwich made by 7 year old hands? I hope they use gloves. And secondly, a group of 7 year olds and jars of peanut butter just does not sit well with me so I sent a note saying the Dex needed to be excused from class due to life threatening food allergies in the family and I copied the Children's ministry leader.

Stephen worked late tonight and Ash's dh is away so we arranged to meet at McD's for dinner. This is one of the very few places where Jax feels safe eating. The kids, while all getting really big, can still play in the playground after they eat. Anyway, as I picked the kids up at the bus, I explained to them all that we were going to McD's and they had to be on their best behaviour all afternoon. Oh, let me interject that Wednesdays are "Early Dismissal" so the kids get out 1.5 hours early. It makes for a very looooong afternoon on Wednesdays.

Anyway, right after homework was done Jax was miserable to his brothers. He would not let them play with his new lego (to be fair, he did just get it yesterday but he was pretty snotty to them about it). Then at one point he shoved Dex. Uh-oh. I had him go into the kitchen and pack himself a sandwich to take to McD's rather than getting a Big Kid Happy Meal. I think he thought that I would not follow through with this but when it was time to leave, I reminded him to get his sandwich out of the fridge.

Also throughout the afternoon Dex had been making this "OOP-OOP" noise. It was driving me crazy as he "OOP-OOP'd", through the house. I asked him to stop once. He did for a few minutes. Then he started again. I sent him to his room for a time out. He "OOP-OOP'd" again just after the time out was over. OMG! The "OOP-OOP" was like a thousand daggers digging into my brain. Seriously, I just about lost it. I gave him one more warning and just as we were about to walk out the door to get in the car he "OOP-OOP'd" again. Uh-oh. I told the kids to get in the car and I raced up the stairs and made him a sandwich too.

We filed into McD's, Jax and Dex with long faces and Cars excited because he is getting some french fries. Ash and her kids were already there, just waiting for their food. Ash looked over at us and tried to hide her laughter. I just shrugged then I noticed that her dd was holding a sandwich. Apparently her dd had a bad afternoon too. LOL Great minds think alike...

Now, just so you don't think I am a completely mean mom, I did buy Jax and Dex a chocolate milk each and I gave them 10 french fries. I even let Dex get some ketchup. :)

Jax had his third appointment with the psychologist today. It was a little eye-opening for me. Jax apparently writes down questions at school to ask me when he gets home. I always wondered why he was asking so many darn questions when he arrived home from school. These are questions like "My sleeve touched my desk and once a boy sat at my desk and he might have had peanuts for breakfast and since my sleeve touched it and then the sleeve accidentally touched my Lego, will I be ok?" and "My shoe touched something at school that might have been a peanut and then I wiped my shoes on the carpet at school under my desk is that ok?" He bombards me with questions like that when he gets home. And it continues until he goes to bed at night (but then the night questions start = "I am trying to sleep but then I sneezed and it got on my hand and I washed my hand but then forgot to put cream on it is that ok?"). It is very frustrating and I try to be patient and understanding because I know he cannot help these "worry thoughts" as the psychologist calls them.

Anyway, besides that writing down of the questions, Jax also said that he did not want to eat outside of the house because he worries that if, on the way home in the car, he has an allergic reaction we are in traffic and cannot pull over to administer the epi pen. I had no idea that was why he was not eating when we were out. At least now I can help reassure him. And also I will insist that he wear his new ebelt when we go out so he will feel reassured and not worry that his epi pen is all the way in the front seat in my purse.

One thing that made me smile today though was that Jax asked if Autism were contagious because someone with Autism was talking to him today and "he spit when he was talking to me and some felt like it got on my lip and if it got on my lip and I accidentally swallowed that spit will I get Autism too?" Shows Jax's obsessive worrying and his innocence about what Autism really is.

Another weekend has passed by in the blink of an eye. I really did not do much other than de-Christmas the house, and clean some. I have put a tablecloth on my dining room table and I vow not to turn it into a dumping ground like it was in the old house (I have a room for that now! ;) The biggest thing I need to do is stop working (working - ha!) on my laptop at that table. That way no piles of paper will accumulate nearby.

It did snow for a short time today (there is still a bit in the backyard). Then the sun came out and we all walked to the store to buy a loaf of crusty bread for dinner.

Now I am sitting in the living room (see, not at the dining room table!) with a glass of red wine listening to Van Morrison. What a great way to end the weekend. Cheers!

I had planned to take the Christmas tree down tomorrow but after I arrived home from picking Cars up from preschool, the tree had toppled over into the living room. Fortunately it seems that only 1 ornament got smashed. Stephen hauled the tree out after dinner (it was tall and very heavy and I could not lift it). I have all of my ornaments piled on the dining room table right now and we'll get the boxes down tomorrow morning from the garage attic and put them all away.

No Cosmo Friday today due to some scheduling conflicts and miscommunication. So, we'll reconvene next Friday. Just as well because I usually eat way too much then come home and have one or two big slices of pizza.

I've got nothing to share today. Oh, here is a photo that I took today of my PEZ collection:



(please ignore the Lego blocks on the corner of the hearth - they are from the Lego Advent calendar and have not yet made it down to the playroom)

I am figuring out my new camera and here are a few photos I took yesterday.

Jax at the skateboard park


Dex at the skateboard park


Cars chosing to play Star Wars rather than skateboard at the skateboard park


A blue heron that I saw fly into my neighbour's tree. It sat there for hours. I wish I had been able to capture a photo of it flying.

Welcome 2008!

I have stayed up way too late the last three nights watching Season 6, Part 2 of "The Sopranos". Fade to black indeed!

I spent the afternoon at the mall looking for a birthday present for a friend. I had no good ideas about what to get her. In the end, after I bought myself a pair of pants, a pair of socks and a Godiva chocolate (yum), I bought her a very nice smelling candle from Illuminations. I also went back to Godiva and bought her some chocolates. I hope that is enough. I am debating whether it is a lame gift or not... *sigh*

My new camera is a Nikon D40x. I am very intimidated by this camera. I have been trying all of the settings but all of the menus and screens scare me. Nikon offers classes on how to use their cameras so I may have to take one (there is one offered in Seattle in Jan).

We bought Cars a bow and arrow for Christmas. I found one at a little toy store for $7.99. He was delighted.

Today we have a hot tub guy coming out to show us how to take care of the hot tub. We also need his advice about getting the timer fixed so we do not get another OUTRAGEOUS ga$ bill. That was such a very big expen$e right before Christmas.

Ok, off to start the day...

We had a wonderful Christmas. Santa was good to the kids and I think we now have enough Lego that if we laid the pieces end to end, it would reach halfway around the world. Today, as always, is reserved as a Lego-building day. My friend with whom I usually shop on the day after Christmas is driving to California with her family so I just stayed home and napped, read and tried to find out all about my new digital SLR camera. Santa was good to me too. :)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Peace be with you.

I am still not done with my Christmas shopping. We realized that we were a gift short for Cars (the big one from us) so we have been frantically trying to figure out what to get him. His list consisted of Star Wars Lego, Star Wars Lego, Star Wars Lego and Star Wars Lego. I have been trying to get more out of him but he keeps telling me "it's a secret". I finally found out that he wants an archery set that we saw months ago at www.hearthsong.com but it is kind of late for that. I cannot believe we screwed up like this! Poor last child!

I totally pooped out this year and bought all of the kids who are coming over for dinner gift cards to Target. So, yes they can go buy what they want but the poor parents who will have to sit patiently (impatiently or is that just me?) while the kids pore over every single item in their price range over and over again until they decide what is the best use of their money. Or is that just something that Jax does. It is agonizing! I hope he doesn't get any gift cards. ;)

Dear Tabitha,

Thank you very much. It is one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received. I hope in time it will come to look like this ->

I am looking forward to planting it and need to find the exact right spot. I hope to plant it in the backyard where I can see it from the living room and kitchen windows.

Thank you. You rock!

Kindest Regards,
Pez

Meme

A meme posted to me at myspace. Post in the comments the link to your blog if you play along:

1. is your handwriting big or small?
Big

2. are you left handed or right handed?
Right

3. can you drive?
Of course!

4. where were you before now?
Earlier today I ran some errands with the kids.

5. what color are the things your wearing?
black, purple, grey

6.what's one odd thing you do in the shower?
Shave my legs everyday (apparently my friends think this is weird)

7. what movie did you last watch?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

8. what did you eat last?
Lay's Ketchup Chips

9. what was your favorite subject in school?
Art

10. what color is your bra(if your wearing one)?
Black

11.what brand is your computer mouse?
Microsoft

12. whats your favorite type of Popsicle?
Orange

13. what class year are you?
82

14. what color is your shower curtain?
No shower curtain - only glass shower doors

15. what color pen do you prefer to use?
Blue

16. do you own a green ipod?
I don't own an ipod

17. do you have a bank account?
Yes

18. do you like ribbons?
Yes, I collect spools and spools of them

19. wide ruled or college ruled?
College ruled

20. do you keep receipts?
Yes but I can never find the ones I need.

21. who's the worst teacher you've ever had?
My grade 12 math teacher

22. do you own work out videos?
Nope

23. do you play soccer?
No

24. are you a cheerleader?
No

25. are you smarter then a 5th grader?
I'd like to think so!

26. do you like soap operas?
Not anymore

27. do you have wood flooring in your house?
Yes, in the front entry and kitchen

28. name a good candy:
PEZ

29. whats your favorite number and why?
3 - it's a magic number

30. what are the brand of pants your wearing?
Banana Republic (love those clearance racks)

Today was Cars' Christmas party at school. They class sang some songs then we ate a potluck lunch. Cars usually just stands there with stage fright but he did actually sing this time. When it was time to eat, Jax decided nothing was safe for him until I reminded him that I brought the bananas and satsumas. He had 4 satsumas for lunch. :\

Later in the day, I took Cars to Pump It Up for a B-day party. The party was only 1.5 hours long - too short to drive back home so Jax, Dex and I sat in the car for that time. I read a book and they played with the Nintendo DS. I rock as a mom. ~eye roll~ BTW, Cars had a great time at the party even though all of the other little boys spoke Japanese to each other.

I had a bath for the first time in almost a year. I had to have it in the boys' bathroom since ours only has a shower stall and the plug is broken in the tub in the downstairs bathroom. It was great except I used a Lush bath bomb and forgot to put it in a nylon and all of the little bits of seaweed went everywhere. I had to skim it all out with a sieve before I drained the tub.

I often wish I could write blahg posts that had a theme throughout the post and were not mere ramblings of my day-to-day activities.

For the second time in two weeks, I have managed to lose a book that I am reading. This is so frustrating! I finally found the first book in one of the moving boxes (I remember putting it down on the box but how it got into the box and another box on top is still a mystery). Today, I took a book with me when I went to the school, thinking I would have a few moments to read it before the kids got out (Dex was going directly to a b-day party so I had the gift for him to take and I brought his backpack home). Anyway, I remember picking the book up from the car when we got home...hang on...ok just checked Dex's backpack and it is not in there. Anyway, it is not in my purse, it is not in the bin where I keep my gloves, it is not on my dining room table or my craft table (all places where I might normally put something down then forget about it). The book is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I guess most everyone else in book club read the book in school. I thought I had read it before but nothing seems familiar to me yet so perhaps not.

Anyway, this is very frustrating and it makes me feel very old and forgetful. Plus I do not have a book to read when I got to bed tonight. *pout*

I found 4 Christmas cards which are to go overseas that were hidden under the photo envelope from Snapfish so those cards will obviously be late arriving. Shoot!

Jax and Dex spent a good part of today making a Lego movie. I downloaded the pictures to laptop and noticed that they are all out of focus. I don't know why Jax did not notice as he was going along. So we have 400 pictures of blurry Lego Jedi knights and some bad guys. They are going to be so disappointed when they realize.

We are having 18 people here for Christmas dinner. I am trying to figure out the logistics of seating everyone. We only have 15 chairs (well, 13 chairs and a bench that will seat 2) so I will have to see if one of our guests can bring three folding chairs. I also do not have enough cloth napkins. I was out today but was too frugal to spend $15 on 4 napkins. So, looks like I will be buying some Christmas paper napkins for $4. A much better deal.

I have mentioned before that my kids have made Lego animation movies (Legomation) and they are always looking for inspiration. We found two really great ones on YouTube lately. This one entitled "Lego Music Video" and also "Lego Indiana Jones". Enjoy!

I finally finished my Christmas cards. Well, actually there will be a few stragglers here and there I am sure but I got the majority signed, sealed and hopefully the postal service will deliver them promptly. I had to buy a ton of 69 cent stamps (for cards to Canada) plus mail five packages. Cars was sick today (bad cough) so the post office was out. Later in the day he was feeling better so as soon as I picked the boys up from the bus we drove to the local Mail Post. I was able to mail the packages and buy $tamp$ for oh, about a 12% premium. Ok, the cheapskate in my was DYING to spend that extra money but we were in and out within 15 minutes and if I had decided to go to the post office, I would have still been driving there at that time. So, I have been able to convince myself that it was the right decision.

Tonight, Nanny babysat the kids and Stephen and I went shopping for Christmas gifts. He needed new shoes and the only way to get him to buy them was to say they were for Christmas. We also bought a few things for Dex and strategized (Pley is that a word? It is coming up as a typo) for the rest of the Christmas shopping.

BTW, no Cosmo Friday today. I just had too much to do (Mail post).

Tomorrow, I am sleeping in! w00t!

My book club rocks! We had our annual Christmas dinner out at Spazzo Italian Grill. What a great group of women! Made me forget all about my crappy week of sick kids (Jax was home sick today), friggin FedEx delivering packages to the wrong house and tardiness getting Christmas gifts in the mail (hopefully tomorrow).

Christmas card update - up to 42! But, they are not yet sealed or stamped. Just keep swimming...

Dex is better today and he went to school. I thought Cars was better (fever was gone, he seemed to be acting more like himself) but then right after breakfast he jumped over the back of the couch (grrrr!), hit his stomach and barfed up his Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds all over the couch. I am sure it is just because he hit his stomach but just in case, I did not send him to school.

Jax's appt last night went well. It was a get-to-know you meeting and the psychologist asked Jax a lot of questions then told Jax that his kids had food allergies so he completely knows all about food allergies. That made Jax feel a little better. Keeping my fingers crossed that this helps.

Today, I have two sick children at home. Cars awoke about 5am with a croup cough so we sat in the bathroom with the shower going for a bit. I noticed he had a bit of a fever too. He went back to bed about 6am. When I got up at 6:45 to take a shower, he threw up on the carpet in my bedroom. He was coming to tell me that he was going to throw up.

Dex awoke with a headache, slight fever and achy legs. He had a flu shot yesterday so it might just be a mild reaction to that (or he might have what Cars has - fortunately no vomitting on the carpet from him!). Luckily, the tooth fairy came last night (she forgot to come last month during a previous tooth-loss night).

Jax decided that his stomach was a little sore too but I think he was just nervous to take the bus to school himself. So I walked him down there (yes, I left 2 kids at home alone for 5 minutes!). I did not wait until the bus came but my neighbour was there to keep an eye on him.

So, because I am forced to stay home today, I am taking the time to write some Christmas cards. I have completed 20 so far! Go me!

I have been busy doing stuff around the house that I have sort of failed to notice that Christmas is in two weeks. As a result, I now have a day and a half to get my shopping done, parceled up and shipped off to Canada. Eeek! What have I done? Or rather, what haven't I done?!

Anyway, looks like everyone will just have to settle for late Christmas gifts. Sorry! I haven't even started on my Christmas cards. I almost feel like saying forget it this year but I will be overcome with guilt so I cannot do that. Chop-chop, time to get going!

We bought our Christmas tree today at our regular place (Home Depot). You cannot beat their prices. Anyway, the tree is huge. It is sitting in the stand while the branches fall a bit before I string the lights. Tomorrow we will put on the ornaments. I hope I have enough ornaments for this massive tree! I did buy a new topper (a lighted star!) so I hope that looks nice all lit up.

Stephen hung the outside lights today too. We had a record number of burnt-out bulbs (20!). We went to Ace Hardware to get more plus another strand then Stephen shorted one out so the rest of the lights will have to wait until tomorrow when we goes to the store to buy another fuse for the lights.

Ash had invited our family to join theirs for dinner last night at a local restaurant but I declined because Jax's anxiety. He asked me 15 times at Laurie's yesterday about the food and in the end only ate two oreos and a gogurt. Even today at Home Depot, they were handing out small bags of popcorn. Stephen asked the man about the oil and he showed Stephen the container (soybean of course) but Jax still was not comfortable. In fact, he told me he was nervous and worried because Stephen and Dex and Cars ate some. I am looking forward to Tuesday when Jax has his first meeting with the psychologist. I am not expecting a miracle cure after the first meeting but I will be honest and admit that I am hoping for one!

I want to get started on my Christmas cards but our printer is out of ink and I cannot print the labels. I know I ~could~ write on the inside but I really do not want to do that until I have the labels printed.

This weekend is Get-Ready-For-Christmas weekend. We are going to get our tree and get the lights up. I have already started receiving Christmas cards so I need to get my Christmas card display up (which really just consists of wire, red ribbon and split rings). I had the perfect spot in the old house but need to find out where to display them in this one.

I went to a jewelry party yesterday and bought a pair of earrings. I am also inspired to start making jewelry again. Hopefully in the New Year!

Today, I met Heidi for coffee/tea at Starbucks in Bothell. It was great to see her.

The last time we met was shortly before she moved to Alaska. Geez, I forget how long ago that was now. You know some people are just so comfortable to be around? That is Heidi. Anyway, we had a very nice chat and we've promised to see more of each other. My camera has been acting up a bit so it seems that this photo is slightly out of focus. And as you can see, I finally found the cord to my camera!

After we met, I went to see Jax's psych for the initial consultation. After reviewing everything he said that he has some ideas to help Jax and I do feel really positive about it. One thing that I do like is that he also has children with food allergies so as a parent, he definitely gets where I am coming from and hopefully he has had experience with his own children and has been able to help them. I did not think to ask him that.

Anyway, I feel more positive that we can help Jax.

Today was a "woe is me" day. I was still beating myself up for missing the appointment for flu shots yesterday. Then I was very impatient with Jax over his obsessive behaviour about his allergy. Next, I spent a very frustrating 24 minutes on telephone with the mail-order Rx drug company only to have the doctor's office call me a few minutes later asking me why the drug company faxed them. They apparently sent a fax requesting renewal of Rx's but did not say which ones or for which children. I despise dealing with them.

I was able to get Cars in for his flu shot today. They said nothing about the missed appointment so I guess I will get the bill in the mail.

Shoot! I was supposed to take Dex and Cars to the doctor today for flu shots and I totally forgot! Now I guess we will get charged for a missed appointment (appointments?!). They did not call on Friday to remind us. But, it was written on my calendar and I just plain forgot. I think I need to move my calendar to a different location where I can look at it more. Remember the day I almost forgot the dentist appointments! Shoot!

We had torrential rains today. There is flooding all over Western WA, roads washed away, etc. I was in Joann Fabrics and Linens'N'Things today and both stores had streams of water leaking from their ceilings. When I picked Cars up school, there was water leaking through the walls of the church. What a mess!

On a positive note, I had to keep shopping to stay out of the rain ;) so I went to the newly opened Kohl's and bought myself a new sweater. It will be a Christmas present from my mom. And unlike the tablecloth she bought me, I won't use it before Christmas. :)

Shoot! I cannot stop thinking about the missed flu shot appointments.

edited to add that I am supposed to meet with Jax's psych on Wednesday but much of the city where the office is located is under water and the mayor has declared an emergency. And one of the highways is closed there too. I am also supposed to meet Heidi that day too. More rain forecasted for tomorrow so who knows if the roads will be open again by then. Crazy weather!!

Lola with her Mommy in her First Snowfall

First Snowfall of Season

We have snow! Well, we had snow and then it melted then we got a lot more snow and now it is raining so we have a lot of slush outside. It made for great fun for the boys and not so much for for Jean-Paul, Marilyn and Lola as they drove back to Vancouver today.

It was a nice visit although we were mostly house-bound because of the snow. Lola is so cute! She is verbalizing and I loved listening to her babble. I did go to Safeway to get steaks for dinner and it was packed! It took me 20 minutes to check out. I guess everyone was stocking up for the storm.

We lit our wood stove and I just burned one log to see what kind of heat it would give off should the power go out. We definitely need to stock up on kindling because it was tough lighthing it with just newspaper.

I found my camera cord so I will try to get some photos back up on my boring ol' blog very soon.

Oops!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hope her dh takes the job here!

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

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

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

Black Friday

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

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

Anyway, off track there...

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

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

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

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

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

Love this house!

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

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

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

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

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

Suburban VS Rural

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Testing (i will delete this)

ABC's of Me

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

1. A is for age:
42

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

3. C is for career right now:
SAHP

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

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

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

7. G is for favorite game:
Scrabble

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

9. I is for instruments you play?
Nothing really

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

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

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

13. M is for marriage:
Huh? Sure.

14. N is for your full name:
Denine Pez

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

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

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

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

19. S is for status:
Resident Alien

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

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

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

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

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

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

26. Z is for the zodiac sign:
Aries

Friggin Comcast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!