Why I Hate Wells Fargo

When we sold our old house in 2007, we needed a bridge loan for 7 days to cover the days between the closing of this house and our old house. Through a mortgage broker, we arranged for a line of credit against the equity in our house and we got the line of credit through Wells Fargo.  The line of credit was to be closed when we closed on the house.  Well, the line of credit was opened up but never closed.  And, on top of that, they also opened a line of credit on our new house (we did not need or want).

We wanted to close these lines of credit since they were not needed but found out that there would be a $500 charge (EACH!) to close them if they were opened for less than two years.  Screw that!  And on top of that, there was a $75 annual fee on these lines of credit (again, each!).  So we decided to wait 2 years to close the line of credits and pay a total of $300. 

Meanwhile, we refinanced our new mortgage in '09 through the mortgage broker and fortunately our mortgage was sold to Bank of America instead of WF.  We paid to close the lines of credit at the same time (and lift the lien on this house).

Even though we closed the lines of credit, Wells Fargo still had a lien in our name against our old house and we found out when the new owner tried to sell it in the summer of 2011. Yes, they filed the lien on the house a week after the house was sold by us to the new owner!  So we no longer owned the house or had the line of credit but the lien was still in place, applied after we had sold the house.  As a result, we had to send a letter to WF, requesting that they close it immediately and then we had to pay some Wells Fargo some fees for faxing information to the title company and processing.  We were charged another $50 to be rid of this damn thing!

WTF - Wells Fargo kept costing us money!

Mortgage interest rates dropped again so we refinanced our mortgage in March of 2012.  Our first payment was due in April. The mortgage was sold part way through March and we found out late in March that Wells Fargo bought it (damn!).  By this time, it was getting close to April 1st so I mailed WF a check with our payment since we had not received an official mortgage statement from them. I then called and arranged for automatic payments of mortgage to come out starting in May.

Stephen was paying bills on Friday night and noticed that our May mortgage payment had not come out. I called Wells Fargo and they said that we two months behind in our payments! But they cashed our check in April (March 30th actually)! How could we be 2 months behind? It seems that WF had taken the April payment and applied it to the principle instead of applying it as a mortgage payment. Then, since there was no April payment on record, the automatic payment scheduled for May was automatically canceled.  Just like that! Oh, but WF did not inform us of this.  That would be too easy. 

So, on Saturday morning, I made the May payment over the telephone and they made arrangements to back out April's payment and reapply it as a mortgage payment. Then I again had to arrange for automatic withdrawals of our monthly mortgage payment.  Oh,  all of this would take up to five days to correct. Aargh!

I have felt sick about this for days even though it was their error. They told me "you are lucky it is a new loan because new loan missed payments do not get reported to the credit bureau for 90 days". Fuck! It was their fault for applying the April payment incorrectly!  I did get a cursory"sorry for the mistake" over the phone. 

I called once more today to ensure that all looked ok with it (it does).

Stephen and I are both educated people and Wells Fargo has completely hosed us over twice! I get so upset thinking of people who are not as educated who are getting royally screwed by companies like Wells Fargo over these kind of mistakes. Wells Fargo has not yet sent us any information that we were late on our mortgage payment although they told me over the telephone that these letters are generated automatically and had been mailed out.  And I am awaiting the confirmation letter that the June payment (and further payments).  Also, waiting to ensure that the June payment actually does come out.

So by refinancing to save ourselves a few thousand dollars a year in interest payments, we really just created a huge headache (and stomach ache!) for ourselves.  I hate Wells Fargo and hope that my mortgage gets sold to someone else.  Soon.

Editing this on June 7 to say that our mortgage did not come out automatically on the day we had set it up for, and had received a letter stating it would be taken out on that day and the same day every month thereafter.  The payment came out the FOLLOWING day.  Great.  So now we will have be on top of this every.single.month to ensure that the payment actually comes out.  This is so frustrating!

We are enjoying our fourth weekend in a row of sunshine!  I feel so spoilt.  And this weekend it is HOT (well, hot for here).  Today it was in the high 70s and it will be again tomorrow and I think Monday too.  So lovely.

Dex had a basketball game today. Two minutes before the start of the game they only had 4 players and the other team had 10 and they looked all intimidating practicing while our kids stood around wondering where everyone else was.  The 5th player arrived just as the buzzer rang to start the game.  Then 5 minutes into the game, two more kids showed up so they at least were able to get some rotation and were not exhausted by the end of the game.  They played well and they won!  Hurray Blue Skulls!

Cars had a baseball game this afternoon and it was very warm sitting in the sun watching it.  His team played well although at Cars' 6th time up to bat his hit a line drive and one of his best friends caught it!  That kid's dad said it made up for the first inning when Cars his a ball right over his friend's head for a double.  ;)

I walked home from the game (Stephen walked there while I drove then he took the car home and I walked).  I am trying to make sure I get some exercise in before the 1/2 marathon next month.  Hopefully I will be more prepared than last year when I basically woke up one day and walked 13.1 miles.  My poor feet still haven't forgiven me.

This month is Skin Cancer Awareness Month. Check your skin. Wear your sunscreen.

Today's headline was "Adam 'MCA' Yauch of the Beastie Boys dies at 47" and my first thought was "Wow, 47 is not old".  It is so funny how our perception of age changes the older we get.  If I read that headline when I was in my 20s or 30s I would be thinking that he had had a good run, especially for someone in the music business.  However, now that *I* am 47, I think "Gone too young". 

R.I.P.

Today was a blustery spring day.  From time to time I would look out the window and it would look like snow as the cherry blossoms would fly from the tree in our backyard.  The sun is trying to shine right now but overall it was the perfect day to cuddle up with a book and a cup of tea and that is what I did. 

Forget Me NOT!

I have been a little worried about my memory in the past few months.  I have forgotten appointments, my address, and my pin number.  And a lot of other little things.  I forgot that Jax had an eye appointment on Wednesday.  It has been rescheduled from earlier in the month when I had forgotten that both he and Dex had an appointment but the doctor's office happened to call to see if we could come in earlier and it was just enough time to get there for the current appointment time.  Jax was at a classmate's house working on a project, Cars had a playdate here with Spy's youngest and Dex was at Spy's house with her other son.  I changed the appointment to Cars and Dex (Cars' was scheduled for the following week) then packed the kids up, traded off kids and got there just in time.  Meanwhile, when they released the time of Cars' appointment to put Jax's name in there, the slot was taken so we were rescheduled for this week (which I forgot).  Now we are going at the end of next month.  I have put two reminders on my calendar on my phone so hopefully I will not forget.

I have also forgotten about appointments scheduled the same day for my kids. 

The address thing was freaky.  I happened to be going to the doctor the next day and I mentioned it (along with the pin thing which had happened the week before) and she said if it happened again she wanted me to go see a neurologist.  I don't know if the forgotten appointments will count.  I have a physical scheduled for the beginning of June so I will just mention it then.

It freaks me out because of the person I know who had Pick's Disease.  And having recently read "Still Alice"...Now after writing this it seems familiar.  Have I forgotten that I've already written about this??

My mom was here for a week and we had a very nice visit.  Of course she drove me nuts by telling me constantly to go to bed, asking me if I really need that (when making not wise food choices), and a few other things.  Mostly I let it roll off my back (getting easier to ignore it as we both age).  Overall it was a lovely visit as my kids had a blast with her and she so loves them and enjoyed spending time with them.

My inlaws are planning a visit this summer and they should be booking their trip soon.  Initially I thought "how nice" because that meant that we would not have go to Toronto during the summer for a visit.  However, my BIL called to remind Stephen that this summer will mark his parents' 50th so now Stephen is thinking that we might go to Toronto anyway.  This would be on top of our trip to the Oregon coast (which we are planning, nothing firm yet).

And speaking of summer. we had lovely summer-like weather last weekend and I am praying that we have an actual summer this year and not just a few warm days like last year.  We deserve it!

Four weeks ago we went to the fundraiser auction for our kids' hockey association. I ran to the local nail place to get a pedicure the day of the event and they talked me into a manicure.  Up to that point, I had only had 2 or 3 manicures in my life.  I opted for the new shellac polish and my nails looked pretty good albeit short because I always keep my nails short (because I could never make them look nice and also out of habit for playing the guitar which I have not done in MONTHS).  Anyway, the shellac polish lasted two weeks and then I went to another salon and had another shellac manicure so my nails would look for Disneyland (why did I think that was important??).

Anyway, here we are, almost another two weeks later and my nails are LONG and they still look nice.  Although the polish is growing out, it hasn't chipped.  Both times I had a pale pink put on (though this second application was a pearly pale pink).  And since my nails are a little longer I don't look like I have man hands!  Now I am trying to figure out when I will go back for another manicure!  So impractical since it is hard to do wood carving with long nails and they were filthy after I re-potted some plants in the garden on Sunday.

Am I turning into a girlie girl at the ripe old age of 47?

Wow - has it really been over a month since I posted on my blahg?  Sorry, faithful reader.

This past month has been a bit busy.  We took a trip to Victoria, BC for Cars' hockey team (won one game and lost three).  The weather was so beautiful.  We took the ferry over from the Vancouver area but the Washington State ferry back to Anacortes, WA.  Besides the hockey games, we walked around a bit, I took Carson to a zipline place where he refused to participate, and then we went to the Bug Zoo where this happened:

Yes, that is me holding a tarantula!  A big frigging spider!  Me! Holding a spider.  My heart was beating very fast and I felt a little queasy bit I felt so brave to be able to do that!  The thing was huge, like a small puppy.  Funny thing is I was still more frightened of the giant house spider that was behind glass than I was of this thing.  I am definitely not over my arachaphobia but I am much better when I see spiders.  No panic attacks! 

My 47th birthday also passed last month.  I cannot believe I am so close to being half a hundred!  I can remember teasing my dad about turning 50 and that doesn't even seem so long ago (of course it has actually been 31 years).  Stephen took me, Spy and her dh and Ash and her dh out for dinner to celebrate.  Our meals were all so yummy.  Then we went to a karaoke bar and I sang "Brown Eyed Girl".  So much fun!

Last week it was spring break and we took a family vacation to Disneyland/California Adventure  Before we left, only Cars was super excited about going.  I think that Jax thought it would be lame and Dex was just ambivalent.  However, we all had a lot of fun.  It was even fun making a game of getting Fast Passes and seeing just how long the lines really were.  I was not going to go on the big roller coaster that takes you upsidedown (California Screamin') but in the end I went and just closed my eyes when we went upsidedown.  I was absolutely terrified on the Mickey Fun Wheel, which actually sounds like a lot of fun. But the car we were in slide back and forth on rails and rocked and rocked while we went around.  I was trembling and I think my reaction scared Jax and Cars.  Dex was cool as a cucumber which is funny because he was so scared going on every other ride (until he was actually on them and he had fun). 

Anyway, I think we went to Disneyland while the kids were great ages.  They could all ride all of the rides, keep up with all of the walking and we could skip all of the kiddie rides.  :)

The boys went back to school yesterday after spring break.  There are just 12 weeks left of school.  My life is whizzing by!

I finally finished my wood carving!  I really enjoyed making it and I think it is so beautiful.  It is the first piece that the instructor always makes his new students do.  One of the women in my class has made two of them (which I did think about doing) but I have decided to make a different project. My next one is a whale but instead of being just a relief carving, it will be a little more 3-dimensional. 

I have been spending all of my free time lately on two things.  The first is Pinterest.  I have spent hours and hours pouring over all of the cool (and not so cool) things that people pin there.  It has made me a bit better cook even!  DH is happy with me trying new recipes (the kids are not).  Pinterest is fun but definitely a time suck.

The second is the Game of Thrones book series.  I just finished the third book (A Storm of Swords) and I am DYING because I do not yet have the 4th book.  I do not have it because I have a book club book to read and if I had A Feast for Crows there is no way I would touch the book club book.  Not that it isn't interesting but I am so wrapped up in the stories and characters in the GOT series that I just cannot put the books down.  And never mind that each book is hundreds and hundreds of pages long.  But they are so good. I highly recommend them.

So, these things, along with hockey and basketball games and practices, have kept me from doing things like cleaning my house, updating my blahg and exercising.  Yeah, Pinterest and books are to blame for my potato-shaped body.  Totally.

My dear poor neglected blahg.  I have said this many times yet I continue to turn my back on you.  Please forgive me.

This past month has been a busy one.  The kids missed 3 days of school for snow days one week although it seemed like more because the Monday there was no school for MLK Jr. Day and then Tuesday was a late start because of the snow and then we received messages from the school district to pick up the kids early for a snow emergency so that day they were only in school 3 hours, of which 1 hour was lunch and recess!

The snow days were also ice days and the region was hit hard with an unforecasted ice storm.  So the day they promised warm weather we got an ice storm which knocked out power all over.  We lost it for "only" 22 hours.  That is a long time when it is cold out.  We had a generator but dolts like us forgot to buy gas.  And of course the nearest gas station had no power and the roads were too tretcherous to drive.  Our very kind and helpful neighbour helped us syphon gas so we were able to get the generator working to power up the fridge, freezer and a lamp.  Later, we unplugged the freezer (it was packed FULL and in the garage so nothing was going to defrost) so we could watch a dvd on tv.  Our wood stove helped keep the family room warm and we slept fine until 3am when it got a little chilly after the fire went out.  I restarted it and at 5am we awoke to the sound of the computers powering back up.  Hurray!

Then we had a week of catch-up since so many things were canceled due to the storms.  And hockey, hockey and more hockey, of course.  Plus Dex started playing basketball at the Boys and Girls Club so that has made our Saturdays a bit hectic.

I finished my first wood carving session and start up again next week.  I finished carving my piece but now I have to paint it which I hope to complete shortly after our first class.  Then on to my next carving which, at this point, I have no idea what to carve.  Lots of thinking to be done in the next week.

Book Club is this week and I am way behind on my reading.  The book has finally piqued my interest so hopefully I will find some time to plough through it in the next two days.

And now it is time to make dinner.  Dear Blahg, I will write again soon.  I promise.

2011 Book List

I had a goal of reading two books per month last year and while I did not actually read two books EACH month, I did read 24 books during the year.  One thing that made it easier was that I used the iBooks and Kindle apps on my iPad.  I would browse some free books and download them or when I was finished with a book and needed a new one, I could easily buy it and be good to go.  I do prefer hardcopy books still though.

The other thing that made it easy to read that many books was that I read some awesome books, including "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series and the first book in the "Game of Thrones" series.  Great reads!

What great books did you read this year?

Pez's 2011 Book List 

1. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein, 336 p *also read previously
2. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, 576 p
3. Rough Country, John Sandford. 400 p
4. Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss, 672 p *also read previously
5. Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss, 1008 p
6. Little Bee:  A Novel, Chris Cleave, 304 p
7. The People Code, Taylor Hartman, 336 p
8. Middlesex, Jeffery Eugenides, 554 p
9. Miss Bossypants, Tina Fey, 288 p
10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
11. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley, 416 p
12. Replay, Ken Grimwood, 320 p
13. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 600 p
14. The Girl who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 630 p
15. The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest, Stieg Larsson, 563pp
16. Marley and Me, Grogan, 320pp
17. The Lion’s Game, Nelson DeMille, 448pp
18. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. 192pp
19. Plum Island, Nelson DeMille, 704pp
20. Room, Emma Donoghue, 321 pp
21. Shanghai Girls:  A Novel, Lisa See, 336pp
22. Bad Blood, John Sanford, 432 pp
23. Still Alice, Lisa Genova, 320 pp
24. Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin, 864 pp

To Dye For Saga

For the past several years I have had someone come to my house to cut my hair and also to do foils (low lights).  My grey hair saga through the years had led me not to do all over colour on my hair because it is just too grey and I just cannot keep up with it.  But under A's urging that I decided a couple of years ago to start doing low lights to make me not look quite so old.  A used to work in a fancy salon but stopped when she had to get a job that provided benefits.  She'd come to my house usually on a Thursday or Friday (her "weekend").  It was very convenient and a very good deal for me.  A few months ago A's work changed so she had the "real" weekend off so she'd come on a Saturday or Sunday. Stephen did not like her coming to the house when he was home.  He told me he wanted me to go get a "real" haircut, meaning in a salon.

A few weeks ago I tried setting up an appointment with A but we just could not get our schedules to align with hockey games and her kids' things.  So I decided to do what Stephen had been telling me to do for ages and I made an appointment at a fancy salon/spa for a "real" haircut.  I made it at this particular salon because I had gift card for $100 that Stephen had given me two years before for a massage (but I never went!).  In spite of the gift card, it was still going to be pricey but that is the price of beauty, right?  I made the appointment was for 1:30 and I figured I would be there until 3pm.  Stephen had the day off and would be with the kids.

When I arrived at the fancy salon, a fountain was gurgling and soft music was playing.  I was offered a nice cold glass of lemon water and then I met the stylist.  She was very friendly and easy to talk to and we chatted about colour and she decided to do two colours in my hair - dark brown to match what little natural colour I have left and a caramel to match the faded brown low lights that were already there.  And then she got to work.  Now, she did warn me that because my hair was so thick she would have to use extra product and there would be a charge for that (I figured that already so I agreed).  She got to work putting in the foils and it a long time!  She ran out of product and got more and kept going and going and going. Shoot!  She ran out of colour again and had to yet again go get more.  This was taking forever!

She checked the colour as it developed a few times and then it was time to wash it out.  Nothing seemed amiss.  She mentioned the curl in my hair and suggested that I wear it curly and she cut it so it would curl up more.  At this point we had of course run well over the one and a half hour allotted time and since I was going to wear my hair curly, she "styled" it and put me under a heat lamp to dry.  Finally it was dry enough for me to leave.  I liked how curly it was but thought that my part looked a little funky - kinda a zig-zag part that is not really in style anymore.  At this point I'd been there 3 hours and wanted to go because I still had Christmas shopping to do.  I paid (and extra $50 in product!!!) and left.  Holy crap I could not believe how expensive it was - the foils, the cut, the extra product and the tip was close to $300!  Thank goodness for that gift card - but still!

After I arrived home from shopping it was late.  Stephen said he liked my hair and was glad that I got a "real" haircut and colour.  I was in my bathroom and decided to fix that stupid part she put in my hair but when I did I freaked out!  OMG I had a diagonal strip across my head right where my part was!  It looked like someone had taken a brown sharpie and drew an angled line on my hair! 

The photos are a little over exposed so it is hard to see the diagonal stripe just to the side of my part - actually on my left side but on the right in the photo

I called the salon first thing the next morning and said I needed it fixed and made an appointment to go back in. Then I thought I will just part my hair on the other side so camouflage the brown line.

Again, hard to see the line in the photos but it goes diagonally across my head

Holy crap!  I have ANOTHER brown line across (not down like the foils were supposed to do) my head!!  On closer examination, there were *4* lines like this running across my head!

The stylist apologized to me and said she had noticed some "bleed through" when she had done it.  Then why the h*ll didn't she tell me at the time?!  Anyway, I was whisked into the "private room" for the "colour correction".

Sitting in fancy salon's private room which is actually usually used for Muslim women who cannot uncover their hair in the presence of men

Ok, so I had no idea what they were going to do with the colour correction.  More foils evidently but I guess also some "colour lifting".  A quick shampoo afterwards and guess what...

Hrmpf!

The friggin' brown line is still there!!!!!  Aargh!  I was not happy (as you can probably tell from my face).  So she says let's try it again.

Third time's the charm?

Nope, still here

I am mad

Ok so now I am really, really pissed off but I held my temper.  I made it perfectly clear that this was not acceptable and it needed to be FIXED.  I was assured they could fix it but now here it is, nearly two hours of this second fancy salon visit and my hair is just as bad it it was when I walked in. The stylist said to me that she is so sorry and she will have a senior stylist come in to consult.

And I told her no that I needed to speak to a manager before I spoke to anyone else.  The senior stylist came in anyway and was trying to reassure me that she could correct it and I said "I am sorry.  I am sure you are very experienced and very nice but I cannot talk to you until I speak to a manager"

The manager came in and I explained that I had no more time to work on this today as I had Christmas shopping to complete.  But, I needed this fixed!  And OMG, I had a Christmas party to go to with brown stripes across my head!

So it was agreed that I would come in the next morning to see the senior stylist (8am on Christmas Eve).  After the appointment was made I said "I will be getting my money back for this".  I decided not to demand the money back for the haircut (it was a good cut) but I did get the money back for the foils, the extra product and for good measure, I even took all of the tip back.  I know accidents can happen but she ~knew~ there was bleed through and she did not utter one word about it to me!

Anyway, the next morning I was up and back at the salon.  The senior stylist thanked me for being so accommodating.  I was thinking "what the else am I going to do?  I need this fixed by someone who is not going to be passive aggressive and burn off all of my hair!".  The correction ended up being putting MORE foils and colour in my hair since the colour lifting had not worked the day before.  I was disappointed because I get foils to avoid the dreaded skunk line that I get from all over colour.  I did tip this one because I think she did a good job and she had really been reassuring to me that my hair was not going to break off.  The salon gave me this uber expen$ive conditioner to use on my hair. 

Here was the final result.  Seven hours in the salon and?  Not perfect but much better. 

Happy that my hair hasn't fallen out from being over processed!  Hurray!

And in the end, I blame Stephen for insisting that I get a "real" haircut.  I am looking forward to having A come over again to cut and foil my hair.  In my kitchen.  On the weekend.  With Stephen home.

My goodness I have been neglecting my blahg!  I hope I still have my handful of readers (hey Mar!). 

It has been a wicked few weeks and the stress finally got to me and I broke down on Sunday.  The tipping point was on Saturday night I noticed something in Cars' hair.  Turned out to be NITS so I ran to the drugstore before they closed and treated him and it was so gross pulling out dead LICE!  I also took him in to a professional nit picker first thing on Monday morning.  I had them check Jax, Dex and me for lice and nits too (we were clean).  We go back again in a couple of days to make sure Cars did not get re-infested.  I washed all Saturday night and all day Sunday and Monday after we got home.  Everything was washed on HOT and things that could not be washed went into the dryer on HIGH heat for 30 minutes.  Cannot wait to see our next utility bill.

I also had purchased a new vacuum on Friday so I used it heavily on Saturday night and Sunday but I noticed that the power brush head did not always go on then on Sunday night it would not go on at ALL.  I swore up a storm and Stephen talked me down and he took the vacuum back to be exchanged on Monday.  Then I was freaking out that they might not take it back and if they did maybe they would not honour the 20% off discount that I had received on it.  (I got 20% off at Bed Bath and Beyond because it seemed that one coupon mistakenly had omitted Dyson in the exclusions because every other BBB coupon I had said Dyson was not eligible for the discount). Anyway, I fretted all day long until Stephen came waltzing in with the new one. 

On Saturday, Cars had a hockey party after his 8am game.  There was a "secret Santa" and they passed out all of the gifts but there was no gift for Cars!  Turns out one family did not bring a gift (but were happy to take one  - asshats!).  Cars was looking around wondering where his gift was and fighting back tears.  The team manager, who is a wonderful person, ran to the snack bar and grabbed a bunch of safe snacks for Cars and wrapped them up in a table cloth with some balloons.  She totally saved the day.

After the party, we bought a Christmas tree and went home to put it up. Stephen and I had a fight about the lights on the tree and after we each had a hissy fit, we were able to get the lights on.  The kids and I decorated the tree Sunday morning, with Jax standing as far away from Cars as possible so he would not catch lice.  *sigh*

And of course Christmas is coming and I am getting fat.  I am stressed because once again I am not organized and have so much left to do.  Why oh why can I not start shopping/baking/decorating early?

Holiday stress at its finest.

Now that I have long hair for the first time in years, I have been trying to figure out different ways to wear it other than just long and straight (normal is long and frizzy).  I was looking at some youtube videos and I did try to make sock bun curls (  Sock Bun Tutorial ) but my hair was too thick and coarse to properly roll up into a sock bun.  Then I saw this video (Vintage curls ) so I thought I would give it a try a couple of nights ago. 

As instructed, I dampened my hair and used a stretchy elastic headband as instructed.  I slept on it and in the morning I pulled my hair out and what a disaster!  My hair looked like I was a mid-70's disco queen!  Huge puffy curly hair!  The method worked but it did not look attractive (at least on me).  I quickly tried to brush it out but that did not work.  I plugged in the flat iron but that made my hair look puffy and frizzy so I had to wash my hair to get the curl out.

I had a bright red straight line across my forehead from the hairband and I figured it would eventually disappear (like pillow-lines).  But two hours after I took the hairband out, I still had a bright red mark across my forehead.  I had to use concealer on it but it was still noticeable. 

Throughout the day I kept glancing in the mirror and the mark was still there and just as red!  It wasn't until late afternoon that I realized that it wasn't a pillow-line like mark but it was now raised and bumpy.  Doh!  It was a reaction to the latex in the hairband! 

I had mentioned before that I have developed a latex sensitivity.  I cannot wear latex gloves or be in a small room around latex balloons.  And apparently I cannot wear a hairband with latex for elasticity on my skin for 7 hours!  This morning is has faded some but it still there and has developed some bumps in it like an allergic reaction (which of course is what it is).  I will put some Benadryl cream on it to see if that helps. 

Anyway, so a hair disaster has turned into a skin disaster.  Maybe I should just keep my hair long and lose and straight.

The other day I bought a pound of almonds in the shell. They reminded me of Christmas when my mom used to buy a big bag of mixed nuts in the shell and over the holidays we'd eat them. It was so fun cracking the nuts and extracting a whole nut from the shell.  The exception of course were the Brazil nuts which stubbornly held onto the nut and we'd always have to pick it out of the cracked shell.

Anyway, almonds is one nut that is "safe" for us so I brought the bag home, hoping to share the nut cracking tradition with my kids.  One problem...no nut cracker.  So today I bought a nut cracker and I could not wait to finally crack those almond shells and eat the raw nut.  However, cracking nuts has been harder than I remember!  First I could not get the cracker to get a good grip on the nut.  Then when I finally cracked it, the cracker went right through and broke the almond meat inside into a million little pieces!  Noooo!  I tried again and the same thing happened.  I have not cracked 20 of them and have yet to get a whole almond out of the shell.  Just itty bitty little pieces that I have to pick out of the cracked shells.  Not fun!

Clearly my fond memories of how fun cracking nuts can be are false memories!  I just showed Cars and Dex how to do it and they were like "meh"  and asked me why I didn't just buy a can of already shelled almonds.  Goodness knows it would have been cheaper.  The almonds were $3.99 and the nut cracker was $4.99 and a can of dry roasted almonds is $3.69 (or less if on sale!).  *sigh*

Cars had his last "expander" appointment at the orthodontist today.  He will keep the expander in as a "retainer" and we'll go back in three months to see if his lateral incisors have grown in by then.  The baby ones were knocked out in May 2010 and the orthodontist says there is a chance the adult teeth are impacted.  Hopefully not because I don't want him to have to have oral surgery!

After the ortho appointment, I took all three kids for their flu shots.  Dex said he would go first then got all teary-eyed because he was scared.  I think in the end he was rather shocked that the shot did not hurt much.  Jax said it did not hurt at all but later complained that his arm was tired.  Cars freaked a bit too and cried.

But I took them to the frozen yogurt place (which is awesomely allergy-friendly!!).  All is good.

Quiet weekend. Lots of rest for everyone. I think the early hockey Saturdays are wearing us out.

Book List 2011

To date I have read 23 books this year which is much better than last year (I think I only read 18).  Many of the books I read this year were long too (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series).  I also downloaded some books onto my iPad this year for the first time (using eBooks and the Kindle app for iPad).  While I do enjoy the electronic format, nothing beats the smell of the paper when you have your nose in a book.

Here is my list for 2011:

1. The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein, 336 p *also read previously
2. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, 576 p
3. Rough Country, John Sandford. 400 p
4. Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss, 672 p *also read previously
5. Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss, 1008 p
6. Little Bee:  A Novel, Chris Cleave, 304 p
7. The People Code, Taylor Hartman, 336 p
8. Middlesex, Jeffery Eugenides, 554 p
9. Miss Bossypants, Tina Fey, 288 p
10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
11. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley, 416 p
12. Replay, Ken Grimwood, 320 p
13. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson, 600 p
14. The Girl who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson, 630 p
15. The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest, Stieg Larsson, 563pp
16. Marley and Me, Grogan, 320pp
17. The Lion’s Game, Nelson DeMille, 448pp
18. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. 192pp
19. Plum Island, Nelson DeMille, 704pp
20.  Room, Emma Donoghue, 321 pp
21. Shanghai Girls:  A Novel, Lisa See, 336pp
22. Bad Blood, John Sanford, 432 pp
23.  Still Alice, Lisa Genova, 320 pp

My 24th book is "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World" by Joanna Weaver.  I am reading this book with my Ministry of Mothers Sharing group but I am not sure we'll be done by the end of the year.

When I was sick last week, I completely blanked on all of my to-dos for the day.  I did call the school and tell them I could not do either of my volunteer stints.  And I did let my book club know that I would not make that night (although it was a shame because I really was looking forward to the discussion (Still Alice by Lisa Genova).  But I totally blanked on Jax's guitar lesson (only our 3rd week of it so easy enough to do, I guess) and also on the flu shot appointments I had made for Jax, Dex and Cars.  And those I just realized yesterday!  Thankfully I was able to get new appointments for them for next week (and am assuming I will not be charged for missed appointments since it is only with a nurse and not a doctor?!).

Anyway, I have written the new flu shot appointments in very large letters on my calendar, have put it in my cell phone appointment calendar with a 15 minute reminder.  In fact, I think I will put the reminder on every appointment I schedule into my phone calendar from now on.  Getting old and forgetful stinks!

Ok, I watched what I ate today ( even though it wasn't all exactly as planned - I really did not need that rice crispie square).

Shamefaced I will admit that I did not exercise. No excuses. Just laziness. Better luck tomorrow.

Well, I somehow managed to lose a very lengthy post where I admonished myself for carb-loading and not exercising.  Suffice to say I shan't recreate it but when I return tomorrow to post I shall have exercised and recorded what I have eaten.  Baby steps back to good health...

Darn, missed blahgging yesterday!  What a day it was.  The kids had the day off school so we decided to have Cars' birthday party that day (3 months after the fact).

I made just about the worst cake every (well, last year's was worse because the icing melted in the heat and the top layer of the cake slid off the bottom layer as we drove to the venue).  Cars loved the cake but I was a bit embarrassed about it and glad that no other adults saw the cake. 

We had a video game truck come for the party so all of the kids went inside and played video games.  I did say that they could let the kids play Halo (since there is no blood or gore like in Call of Duty and others) but the rest of the games were rated T or E.




It had been a rainy day but during the party we had a torrential downpour which changed to hail and sleet! When the parents came to pick up the kids everyone got soaked, even with umbrellas. And the temperature dropped so quickly that even this morning there is still frozen hail on the lawn and deck.

Woe is Me

I have contracted some sort of stomach bug and spent the day not far from the bathroom.  Totally blew away my plans for the day.  And I could not even go to Book Club!  Also, tomorrow is Cars' birthday party and I do not have all of the things I need for it so I will get up at the crack of dawn to run errands before Stephen leaves for work.  Hopefully my stomach will cooperate. Else I just might need to make the drugstore my first stop.

Time Change

We "fell back" last weekend and am still struggling with the dark evenings and feeling like I am going to fall asleep in my chair at 9:30pm (until my second wind kicks in).

I really hate driving the boys to hockey in the dark. I don't like when we are sitting down to dinner in the dark.

I do like that it is lighter in the morning ( at least for now). I am never comfortable with Jax standing in the dark waiting for the bus. Soon though, it will be plenty dark in the morning and he will be schlepping a flashlight with him.

And I am sitting here yawning as my second wind has died off. And it is gold in the house (did I reset the time in the thermostat??). Time for bed.

This is Jax being inducted into the National Junior Honor Society (wearing his new clothes). 

I am so proud of him.  Of course the ceremony took a while because there were like 200 other kids (the school has 1100+ students).  Hardly an exclusive club but I am very proud of how hard he works at school.  He is a great kid and I love him so.

Jax has been invited to join the National Junior Honor Society.  I don't know anything about it other than he has to be a good student and do some volunteer work throughout the year.  I have been asking him for weeks to find out more about it, including the induction ceremony which is tomorrow night.  He keeps saying that there is nothing going on.

Then today I asked him AGAIN and he said that they said something on the announcements today about it but "I missed it", meaning he did not listen to the announcements.  I looked on the school's website and see that the ceremony is "formal" which means he has to dress up!  Eek!  He has NO dress clothes or dress shoes.  And tonight I had to take Cars to hockey then Dex to guitar while Stephen took Jax to hockey.  Now they have to stop at Fred Meyer after hockey practice (the store is thankfully is open until 11pm) to find Jax some clothes to wear tomorrow evening.

Anyway, I hope they easily find clothes tonight!

Thanksgiving

Stephen and I are trying to decide what we are going to do for Thanksgiving this year. Our tradition was to go to our friends' home for dinner. But last year we went to Minnesota. Then this summer our friends moved to Minnesota. What shall we do?

I guess we could make a big turkey dinner. It has been a long time since we've attempted one. I think the last time was before Carson was born! And it was horrible. We brined the turkey using a recipe from from our newspaper's weekend magazine. The turkey, gravy and stuffing were all inedible because of the amount of salt. Here's the letter to the editor: Salty Turkey

Anyway, it is probably a good thing that we don't cook turkey. :)

Weekend

I packed up the Halloween decorations and now just need Stephen to put them away in the garage attic. I do not have any thanksgiving or fall decorations to put up other than the pumpkin I grew in my garden and did not carve up.

So I spent a great deal of time today looking on Pinterest for the ultimate gal wreath to make. The one I liked the best was made with wine corks. I need to drink A LOT more wine to have enough to make the wreath. Glug glug glug...

Today I went to the Nordstrom sale.  I met Ash there and I told her that whatever I said or did, she must NOT let me buy any shoes or boots.  None!  I have more shoes and boots than I need and while I am not yet to be called Imelda, for someone who is a stay at home mom, I do not need more.  Well, that is not entirely true because I need (or rather needed) new running shoes.  Yes!  I caved!!  I bought a pair of running shoes that were on sale.  I really did need them and I was sooo good and I did not look at boots or casual shoes or dressy shoes (although I really wanted to try to find a pair of nude pumps because I love how they look but I have no where to wear them) or fancy shoes or sneakers (not the same as runners).

Poor Ash did not even have a chance.  I waited until she was busy trying on a gorgeous pair of grey boots (which she too bought - they were fabulous and ON SALE!) then I snuck over to the athletic shoe department to browse then I tried on and purchased the running shoes.  They are utilitarian and grey and pink although I wish they were grey and blue. 

Anyway, I am proud of my restraint at the Nordstrom sale because I did look at a lot of things.  And I was a little bowled over by the $450 child's sweater by Burberry.  Wow!  I rarely spend one TENTH of that on clothing for myself (which I hopefully will not outgrow in a couple of months).  In fact, I was mulling over a $25 sweater and decided against it since I had already purchased the running shoes.  Frugal me is proud!

Test Post

I keep getting errors trying to post to my Blahg on my iPad so I have downloaded the blogger app to see if it works. It is nearing midnight and I really don't want to get out of bed to update my Blahg at my pc to ensure I meet the NaBloPoMo deadline. Sorry for the lame post.

Ack!  My post disappeared when I tried to publish it. Trying to re-write it and publish before the end od the day for NaBloPoMo.

We had a positively gorgeous autumn day. It was cold and crisp in the morning with patchy fog. Driving down the hill from the school into a patch of fog that was glowing as the sun was rising behind it took my breath away. The trees are the most vibrant colors they have been in years. Gold, orange and red trees abound!

Of course tonight the wind and rain moved in. Back to our regularly scheduled November rain.

I Retain the Meanest Mom Title

So, yesterday was Halloween and Cars also had an orthodontist appointment at 3:00pm, which is the time he is normally dismissed from school.  I had to go pick him up early and I did not even THINK when I scheduled the appointment that it would be during his class' halloween party.  *doh* 

Who remembers that I did this to Dex three years ago - dragged him crying from his Halloween party to go to the neurologist?  And embarrassingly enough, it is the SAME TEACHER!  She must think I am so cruel to my children.

Why I hate Peanut Butter

Jax's 504 Plan accommodations came in handy today when he excused himself from homeroom while the rest of the class had a party and ate peanut butter cups. While I am pissed about the peanut butter cups and him being excluded, he has matured enough to not feel like he is missing out - he cared more about his well-being. Of course it meant that he sit in the office for an hour reading but better than choking to death from the aroma of peanut butter while 30 other kids ate them around him.

I hate peanut butter. Even if it were just shelled peanuts, there would be no smears of peanut butter around. :\

Ok, off to email the guidance counselor to suggest that his homeroom class might need to have the desks washed.

I received a Bounce Dryer bar to try (gotta love free samples!). I use Bounce sheets in the dryer so I thought the Bounce bar would be good to try. I had seen it advertised in the past but did not quite know how it "worked".

I put the Bounce bar in the dryer and for the first load I of course reached over and threw in a Bounce dryer sheet (old habits die hard). I had to fish it out and put it back in the box the started up the dryer. Easy-peasy! Except for the next two loads I automatically reached over and got the dryer sheet again and threw it in. I even wondered two of those times why the sheet was not neatly in the box. The next load I reached over but caught myself before I threw in the sheet. Then I smarted up and turned the Bounce box around so even if I do reach over I will touch cardboard rather than the sheets.

Anyway, the first few loads looked fine. No static. Fluffy towels. Seemed to be working. But on a load of darks, the Bounce bar left these white chalky-like marks on my son's jeans. I only noticed them because the jeans are brand new and a very dark blue. I looked in the dryer and the Bounce bar looks like this:

Oops, that is sideways.

Anyway, you can see that the Bounce bar has dark marks on it (like from jeans??). I will give it another few loads to make sure that it doesn't happen again and if it does I will pry it off my dryer (although it seems to be stuck on there really well - hope it doesn't leave an adhesive mark when it comes off!).

Anyone else have the same experience with a Bounce dryer bar?

Crafty

I mentioned last month that I am addicted to Pinterest. There are so many cool and exciting crafts, DIY things as well as neat ideas, beautiful homes, etc posted on there. I saw a really cool wreath craft posted on there so I had to make one for myself. And here it is:

I made it last month for Spy's birthday and had a bright pink ribbon on it and a sign that said OVER THE HILL. Then for Halloween, I just changed out the ribbon and added the orange spider. I am making a Halloween costume inspired by something I found on Pinterest as well. I will post a photo (if it turns out!). Love being crafty!!

I took Stephen's car into the dealership today because he got a flat tire last night.  He *insisted* that only tires from the dealership were good enough for his baby.  And not only that, they had to be identical to what was already on the car.  Unfortunately, since the car is an AWD and the tires were 3+ years old, we had to buy 4 new tires!  And as I said, he wanted them to be the same kind that were already on the car so those tires cost $400 MORE than a cheaper brand. Ouch!  And to top it off, he said his brakes were squeaking so I had the dealership look at them and the back brakes needed to be replaced!  Another small fortune because no cheap brakes for this car because, as the service guy told me, "this *is* a sports car".

I am feeling very fortunate that Stephen has a job and we can afford these repairs!

This and that

This week, my elementary school-aged kids had 1/2 days on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and an early dismissal on Wednesday and no school today (Friday).  Nice.  The junior high just had today off.  I woke up with a migraine and wished so much that they were in school today.

Anyway, I took them to an indoor trampoline jump place.  It was $11 for an hour of jumping on trampolines, into foam pits and playing dodgeball.  I left with a carload of very sweaty, smelly boys. P.U.!  They love that place.  I did buy a groupon for it recently but it can only be used Monday through Thursday.  I hope I remember to use it before it expires.  Maybe we'll use it during the time off at Christmas?

Afterwards, we left the trampoline place, we stopped at a halloween store that had recently opened up (it is a chain that opens up in empty store fronts for 6 weeks or so before halloween).  The kids chased each other around the store with fake chain saws and Cars begged me to buy him a mace for his halloween costume (which will consist of a black t-shirt, black shorts, his hat on backwards, a scary mask and a mace <--huh?  What is that supposed to be?).  I said no.  Put a little more effort into than that...and you don't need a weapon.

Now I sit and watch the clock until bedtime for me (probably before the kids).  Hockey games start tomorrow so up at the crack of dawn on Saturdays for the next few months for Cars' games.  Jax's games are all over the place time-wise.  Should be a fun season.  Go Mite Green!  Go Bantam Grey! 

For some reason the formatting on my blahg is not right.  I am sorry, dear readers, for what looks like one giant paragraph.  I don't know how to fix it.  Well, two of my posts were created using the old publisher and this one is with a new so we'll see if it is any different.

I went away for a 4-day weekend with a friend of mine.  We drove to Anacortes, WA and took a car ferry to Sidney, BC, Canada then drove down to Victoria.  We walked around the downtown Victoria area, toured the BC Parliament building, stayed overnight then went to Buchart Gardens .  It was lovely!  Then we took another ferry across to mainland, British Columbia and drove up to Vancouver where we stayed over for two more nights.  We walked Robson Street, shopped, went out for dinner, walked some more and took a water taxi over to Granville Island where we met my brother and niece for a lovely lunch.  It was a very fun weekend.  I especially enjoyed the ferry rides.  It was exciting to think that these HUGE ships could carry all of these cars, trucks and people across the expanses of water.

The weather was surprisingly nice (well, overcast but no rain!) and I really, really enjoyed Buchart Gardens.  I know I could never, ever get my kids to walk through them or Stephen for that matter.

I did miss my family though and wish that we did more sightseeing trips.  Our trips to Vancouver usually consist of hotel, hotel pool, Costco, grocery store, Whitespot, the Hockey Shoppe and home.  Not that thrilling. I am going to think about where I'd like to go and make it happen!

I had decided that this was the year that I was going to scale back on the volunteering at school. I was there so much last year and I really started to resent the time I spent there. So cutting back I felt was the way to go. Besides, our school now has 700 kids at it (probably designed for 500) so there are lots of other parents who can volunteer, right?

This year, to save on paper costs, the PTSA did not send home volunteer forms but just instructions on how to go online and print off the required forms (stating what you are interested in helping out with as well as the official volunteer background check that goes to the school district). Well, guess what? They had hardly anyone return the forms. So all of the things that are staffed by PTSA volunteers have virtually NO volunteers (I don't think classroom volunteers really are because parents always want to be in their kids classes helping out, especially in the younger grades).

Our fundraising walk-a-thon is on Friday - initially not enough volunteers but because it is after school hours, junior high and high school kids can work it to get their volunteer hours in. The Scholastic Books Book Fair next week had just ONE volunteer for 3 hours (they need at least 3 people to staff it for the 22 hours it is slated to be open through the week). The Vision and Hearing screening needs 21 people to help out from 8am-2:20pm and they have just 13 so far. The Health Room has 10 two-hour shifts each week and they are having trouble getting people to fill the slots. See a pattern? And the people who ARE volunteering are the same people so we are looking at a future burn outof these volunteers.

Yesterday, an email went out with "A Cry for Help" as the title, in which they are trying to get more people to help out with the book fair and Vision/Hearing screening because those are the most pressing volunteer positions right now. And I just deleted the email.

I feel so guilty! But I just cannot take on any more volunteering. But, I had already signed up to do the Hearing/Vision screening, and I help out in the health room. And I volunteer once a week in the computer lab for Carson's class. And I will be teaching Art Start in Carson's class as well as Declan's class. And I have volunteered for Reading Naturally program for Carson's class. And in Declan's class for inventorying the science kits for the year. So much for my 'taking time off from volunteering' year. Oh, I just remembered that I have signed up to help out with the 6th grade promotion but none of that work will need to be started before February, I think.

And at the next PTSA meeting, I am going to ask about sending the forms home hard copy to see if they get more responses. And also the schools need to figure out how to get things done without volunteers, I think. It seems to be a sign of the times.

Well, I got my ads back and my sitemeter but I have lost my blahg format and all of the comments for the past 7 years. Heavy sigh. Comments can now be made in the blogger comment section (had always had that turned off).

I feel really blue today and I am not sure why. I had some disturbing dreams last night and that might be part of it. And the new facebook format sucks so I feel that I have lost the ability to keep in touch with some friends because I just do not want to go there. I have disliked a lot of the changes they've made over the years but this one takes the cake. It feels a lot like about.com changed their format and I lost touch with a lot of friends from the stay-at-home parents forum. Sure, a lot of them were on other forums on delphiforums but there was not one place where everyone was an active member.

Ok, the younger kids get out of school in 1.5 hours. Time to stop sulking and get on with the day.

Darn! I tried to edit something on my blahg but blogger had changed the interface and now I have lost my original blahg template. No time right now to try to get it back, including customizations like my ads! Aargh!

School is back in session and while I thought I would have a lot of time to do stuff like working out, cleaning, running errands, etc but it seems that my time is being Words with Friends and Pinterest. At any given time I have about 10 WWF's games on the go (denines is my user name if you care to start a game!!).

And Pinterest - omg...hours have been frittered away as I drool over images of cool furniture, mouth-drooling food and crafts. Oh, the crafts! I have been liking and repinning tons of cool crafts and sewing projects. I have so many wonderful ideas for Christmas gifts, crafts, decorating thoughts for just about every holiday and am feeling ambitious enough to alter some clothing. Love it! I have plans to make this

Source: dana-made-it.com via Denine on Pinterest

and this

Source: obsessivelystitching.blogspot.com via Denine on Pinterest

and this

Source: connectthedotsons.blogspot.com via Denine on Pinterest

All cool and things that I can do!

But in reality, until I actually do any of them, Pinterest is just this:

Source: lemontreecreations.blogspot.com via Denine on Pinterest

Sad news this morning. I just found out that Nanny died suddenly this weekend. She had fallen and had torn a ligament in her knee last week so she was bedridden. Her daughter and her daughter's family came down for the long weekend to visit and help out but early Sunday morning Nanny died from a blood clot in her heart/lung area. It is very shocking and terribly sad. Nanny was just 10 years older than me.

I think back when I was at my craziest, I left my not quite 4 month old, my 3 year old and my 5 year old with a virtual stranger for half a day each week so I could get out of the house. The second time she was there I remember driving along the street thinking "I CANNOT STOP I CANNOT STOP" because I knew that I could stop driving my car if I hit a red light and thanking God that my kids were at home with that stranger.

Over the months (then years) I got to know Nanny quite well. She loved to talk and sometimes I would get mad at myself for spending 45 minutes of the time she was there just chatting with her when I should be out and about getting groceries or whatever. But I enjoyed chatting with her. She was interesting, was a good story teller. And most importantly of all, I knew that she both liked and loved my children. She shared a common interest of Harry Potter and Lego with the kids so they thought she was great. She would often bring over books that she knew would interest them, movies, toys and crafts. Once she brought four huge sheets of cardboard (the sheets that were used between the stacks of toilet paper at Co$tco) and crafted a play structure for the kids - a cardboard castle.

After it was time for her to move on to a new family (both her M-Th family and us, her Friday family were ready to move on) she struggled at for a while with finding a family that was the right fit. Then she started working with a family who were treated her very well and had the resources to do things for her like take her away on vacation with them. She was very happy working for that family. She was also less available for babysit for us in the evenings or on the weekends but I was happy for her.

The last time we saw each other was just before we went to San Diego. The kids and I ran into her at Co$tco one evening. She was originally from San Diego and suggested a few places for us to visit. After that, I did not see her again although we did exchange emails every few months.

And now she has suddenly passed away. I think it was a blessing that her family was visiting her when it happened. There will be a memorial service for her at her M-Th family's home next weekend. I will be glad to see her daughter and grandson again and tell them I am so sorry for their loss.

School starts in 10 days! Time to finish cramming in as much Summer O'Fun as we can! This will include a camping trip. We are hauling a jet ski for some friends (we are all camping together) and get to enjoy the use of their jet ski. The weather will be HOT on the other side of the mountains. We are all looking forward to it!

Jax and Cars has hockey camp this past week (well, just 3 of the days). Yesterday, Jax also had a birthday party to attend so he was out of hockey camp a couple of hours early. I had so much running around to do that day that I put 105 miles on my car! Just running errands and shuttling kids! Wow.

Dex went to a sleepover on Tuesday night and managed to lose the stuff sack for the sleeping bag. Lost in this kid's house! And the thing is, this is the SECOND time he has lost a stuff sack in someones house. Last time was early in the summer. So now we have two puffy sleeping bags that would pack much more conveniently in the car if they were nice and compactly stuffed in a little bag. Aargh!

If we ever go camping again, we are buying or renting a trailer to haul all of our stuff. Or maybe I could leave half of the kitchen at home? ;)

Three weeks ago, my friend took her kids and my kids to the lake for some afternoon fun. On the way home, they were rear-ended! Both cars were drivable although my friend's car needed a new bumper, back gate, side panel and apparently the floor was cracked. She is still driving a rental car. Two of my three kids initially complained of some neck and back pain but I shrugged it off. Mostly because one is highly susceptible to the power of suggestion and the other tends to obsess over aches and pains. Well, three weeks later, the power of suggestion kid has made no mention of any aches but my other son begged me to take him to the doctor. He was sitting in the third row on the passenger side of a small SUV, right at the point of impact.

The doctor took copious notes (for insurance purposes??) and gave my son a page of exercises to do. We are to call back in a week if things are still the same. I hope that the reassurance from the doctor that all is well will be enough to make him realize that he is ok. And if in a week he is not, we'll be going to some physical therapy to help make his back stronger and (it is his upper and lower back that hurt) hope that these issues do not follow him throughout his life. In the meantime, I have tons of paperwork to fill out and need to call the main office of the pediatric clinic tomorrow to work out the billing for this visit.

I know this accident could have been a lot worse. And it is funny but I have never had any misgivings or second thoughts about letting a friend drive my kids before but now I do think twice before I say OK.

Oh, and the rest of the passengers? They were all ok with the exception of my friend, the driver. She has put off going to the doctor for neck and back pain too because she does not have insurance. Yes, the auto insurance will cover but I think the paper work involved is overwhelming to her too.

When I was growing up this was never a problem because we rarely drove in other's cars (no one had 7 or 8 passenger vehicles) and we'd just take public transit (the TTC) where ever we went. I wish we had that option here.

Summer o'fun 2011 continues...

It has been three weeks since I last posted! Shameful!!

The summer finally kicked in (weather-wise and activities-wise). Cars did a two-week intensive swim lesson session at the club. He did ok but not well enough to move up to the next level. I *promise* not to go so long without him swimming again so he doesn't lose all of his swimming know-how again.

On the 8th, we went on vacation to Pacific City, Oregon. We had so much fun! We went with Spy and her family (they go there every year). We rented a house just up the street from where they rented a house so it was perfect for the kids to ride their bikes or scooters to each house. We were 4 blocks from the beach. We'd pack up the cooler then Stephen would drive it down to the beach (you can park on the beach there) and I'd walk down. The ocean was COLD so we rented wet suits for the kids so they could boogie board. There was a huge SAND mountain that we could climb up (a lot of hard work). We rented sand boards one afternoon too so the kids could sand board down the hill. We hiked and we biked. Stephen and Spy's dh took the kids crabbing too. It was really an awesome vacation with lots of downtime to relax. Stephen and I have both said that we'd love to go again sometime.

We were back for three days then we headed to Vancouver for the weekend. We used our Nexus passes for the first time and it was fantastic just driving past the long line of cars in the Nexus only lane. I waved my cards at the scanner then drove up to the border guard. She asked me how many in our party (5!) then she said "Thank you" and handed our cards back to us and away we went! Awesome!! We drove the the Vancouver airport next so we could get our irises scanned so we can use the Nexus passes when we fly to/from Toronto.

While in Vancouver, we went to see the Zombie Walk which was a lot of fun as there were so many zombies and some people's costumes were awesome! The best zombie was an older man who was missing his left arm but he had tied a fake bloody bone to his shoulder so it looked as though his arm had been bitten off. Gruesome but hilarious! My kids were a little freaked out by him and some of the other very realistic zombies but overall they loved it. Before we had quite made it to where the Zombie Walk was starting, my 4 year old niece saw a clearly drunk scruffy-looking man staggering down the street and screeched "Look! A zombie!!".

So the summer activities are clearly getting better for my kids. We still have hockey camp and camping to do (as well as finishing buying school supplies as well as clothes for back-to-school).

This is indeed a summer o'fun!

Back in October when I went to help my mom pack before she moved, she gave me about 100 35mm slides of the family because she could not throw them out. She had already thrown out hundreds of others of my dad's political life, their vacations to Greece and many other things that were not "personal". I looked through the slides (by holding them up to the window) and they really are treasures.

My brother was visiting this weekend and so I asked him if he had access at his work (he works at a university with access to many media products) to a machine that could easily transfer slides to digital prints, otherwise I would buy a 35mm slide image scanner. Fortunately, he has access to professional products so I very warily and reluctantly gave him the slides to copy for me and my siblings and my mom. I hope he is able to get it done by Christmas because I think it would be great to give copies to my mom and sister and other brothers then. I hope it gets done!

Some of the photos are real gems! A Christmas when our family lived in Ottawa (we lived there for just 2 years after my dad lost an election and became an aide to a member of parliament so we rented out our house and moved). Photos of our family with the family up the street at our rented twin cottages. We just rented them for two or three summers in a row and I was very, very young but I still have such distinct and wonderful memories of those times.

The thing about slides is that they were never made to hard copy prints. My dad would occasionally set up the projector, take the painting off the dining room wall and we'd sit and look at the slides. It was fun and interesting as long as it were photos of us that we were viewing.

The worst slide shows were of the trips to Greece that my mom and dad made in the 80s. Literally HUNDREDS of photos of the Greek country side in Florina (the sister city to my hometown). Zzzzz We used to joke all of the time about my dad and his slides. When Stephen and I were first dating my dad pulled out the slides and Stephen sat very politely through them. I think my dad loved him just because he had a captive audience and Stephen made all of the correct nods and asked just enough questions to make him seem interested. Oh those slides!

I am not sure why my dad loved slides so much. He was an amateur photographer and he probably thought that slides were superior to negatives/film. So many of our family photos were on slides (and lost somewhere in moves). Or if he did use film, he'd have them developed onto contact paper rather than in regular sized photographs and the negatives long gone. (No doubt my mom threw them out at some point as she often called my dad a pack rat and when he wasn't looking she would throw out boxes and boxes of his papers that he had stored in the crawlspace. Just an aside but after my dad died my mom dumped so much crap only to find out later that my dad had been hiding gold coins that he had been collecting in them. Who knows how much gold is now in the Toronto garbage landfills?!).

Anyway, the slides are a real treasure and I hope it isn't too long before I have digital copies of them. I would also like to have the actual slides back but Stephen may accuse me of being a pack rat like my dad! Unfortunately, I have no gold to stash with them though. :)

All about Cars

Cars starts swimming lessons tomorrow. He is mad that I signed him up but really he cannot swim! I mean he can kind of swim but since we had NO summer last year and we spent the winter in the hockey arena instead of pool, he seems to have forgotten how to swim. When he last finished lessons, he "graduated" to youth 4 but when I signed him up for these lessons I put him back in youth 3. Anyway, it is a 2 week intensive course so hopefully he will pick it back up quickly.

He also learned to ride his bike finally. For shame on me that it is less than two weeks until his 8th birthday and he could not ride a bike. Well, to be fair, he had no incentive to do so. He is a stubborn little Leo and while he can balance and we did take the training wheels off his bike a year to two ago, he just doesn't ride. "It's too haaaard!" he'd complain. So, I had to figure out what his currency was to learn because we are going on vacation in a few weeks and we are taking bikes. Enter Pokémon. He is obsessed with Pokémon and I told him I would buy him 5 packs of Pokémon cards (he is now claiming that I said 6 but whatever) if he could ride from our house to the end of the street and back. Sounds easy but the road has a slight hump in it so on both ends so it really is uphill both ways. :) Hopefully by the end of this week we'll be at the drug store buying him those cards.

And today he went to a birthday party that had a video game theme. There was a truck with 4 50" tvs and 4 xboxs, 4 Wiis and the kids can play video games together for 2 hours. Cars knows that I do not allow him to play Halo and so he did not play because he knew he wasn't supposed to play. I could totally see Dex playing anyway and saying "well everyone else was playing". I am pretty proud of Cars for doing that.

Summer O'Fun 2011 Day 20

I took Jax and Dex to see the final Harry Potter movie tonight. We tried to go see it in 3D IMAX but traffic was bumper to bumper along 520 so we got off, turned back around and went to a small cinema to watch it. We still saw it in 3D but just not IMAX.

I did not take Cars with me for a few reasons. First, I knew the movie would be a little dark and he is not quite 8 years old so I thought it be best to let him see it at home. Also, whenever we go to the movies he has to peed like 2 or 3 times and I have to take him and I really did not want to miss any of this movie. So Jax, Dex and I left as soon as Stephen got home from work. I also did not mind saving about $15 on the cost of a ticket and snacks for him (sorry, Cars).

* * * * * SPOILER ALERT BELOW * * * * * *

Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie. I have enjoyed all of them as well as the books too. I recently finished reading the 7th book for the 3rd time and I can say that this is the first time where I felt Harry's compassion for Snape. Before that I was just still pissed that he killed Dumbledore and while he was a pathetic character and I felt for him, it did not seem believable to me that Harry would name his son after Snape. However, this third time through I could see that Harry is far more compassionate that I ever could be. Also, and it showed Harry's maturity and understanding.

I feel a little sad at the end of this series. I remember reading the first three books back to back just after Dex was born and I could not wait until book 4 and of course the movies! When book 7 was released I took Jax and Dex to the midnight release party at our local Borders store. (a sad note too that Borders is going out of business this week). I have read all of the books at least twice (and some of them three times). I've seen all but this last movie 3 or 4 times. My kids have had Harry Potter birthday parties, we have tons of Harry Potter lego (in fact, Jax's first Lego set was Hogwart's Castle).

I wonder if there will be another series like this that captures so many hearts and imaginations. I hope so!

Breaking Through the Hoard

For months Stephen has been saying that he wanted to buy a mini-fridge" to put downstairs so we could keep beer and pop cold without crowding our main fridge. He finally bit the bullet and purchased one last month and I was sweating, wondering where the heck he was going to put it. We could make room in the garage but not easily. Even worse was trying to make room in the laundry room with all of the crap I have in there. Anyway, the fridge came (and it is far from being "mini" fridge. I think it is called a compact rather than a mini as it is 5.7cu ft. The first one was damaged so we just took it right back and had to wait a week for the next one and it arrived on July 1st which was too close to our party date to do anything other than make room in the kitchen and plug it in there (the fridge fit nicely in the space where the garbage can was but the garbage can fit not well in the middle of the kitchen).

Anyway, today, two weeks after we got the fridge, Stephen announced that we were moving it and we had to find a spot for it. WHAT?! I started to panic a bit because all my stuff was in the laundry room and what was I going to do with it?? Breathe! Breathe!

I told Stephen that I needed help to make room and he was very patient with me while we made room for it. We did have to move my craft table (which was really nothing more than a flat surface to put unfinished crafts, empty bags and anything else that did not have a home. I filled three garbage bags of stuff for Goodwill (many of them craft stuffs) and two garbage bags (did I really need 15 empty tie-dye bottles? Yes people, it was that bad).

We cleared out room for the fridge, moved some things into the garage and now the laundry room looks much better. My next project is to go through all of my craft containers and drawers to really get rid of the things I will not use. And it would be good to consolidate everything so, for example, my beading tools and supplies are not in 8 different containers.

Babysteps. Flylady would be proud.

Summer O'Fun 2011 Days 8-17

It has been a good summer so far! We have had much nicer weather that we had all of last summer (although the past couple of days have been cool, overcast and a bit wet). Our 4th of July party was a lot of fun! We are still recovering (well, in the sense that the keg still needs to be returned to the brewery and we have a little fridge in our kitchen that needs to be moved to the laundry room).

I took the kids to the beach last week and they had a grand time although Dex insisted that he could apply his own sunscreen and ended up with a bad burn on his shoulders where he completely missed applying it. Ouch!

Dex has also started back at counseling because he had a bad few weeks. His anxiety levels were ok but it seems to be depression that is kicking his ass right now. It breaks my heart to see him so sad at times. I am sure he'll have to be on medication in the coming years. :(

Yesterday our Summer O'Fun included a 7:15am appointment with the orthodontist. The good news is that Dex does not need a palate expander after all though both he and Jax will probably need braces by next summer. The bad news is that Cars needed to start his treatment now and he'll get a palate expander later this month to help fix his cross-bite. He also has a severe overbite and needs braces now (as well as later) but his lateral incisors have not yet grown in so there is nothing to attach the wire to. In fact, the incisors have not moved at all since last year and the orthodontist things there is a change that they are impacted (maybe from the trauma of them being knocked out a year ago May?). Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed that they will eventually erupt on their own.

Today I took the kids to Seattle to Archie McPhee's. They had a good time poking through everything. In the end, Jax and Dex bought some "handerpants" and Cars bought a huge box of Kraft Dinner (empty box probably used as a promotional item). Whatever.

Summer O'Fun Day 7 (2011)

I had to stay indoors today as my face heals from the photodynamic therapy so I hired Babysitter to come and take the kids for the day. She is a wonderful babysitter. She first started helping out when we moved into our old house up the hill and she was 9 years old. She LOVED Jax (he was 15 months old). She would come over and play with him as often as she could. When Dex was born the following May, I hired her in the summer for $1/hour to be a mother's helper (her parents would not let me pay her more and I had to *insist* to them that I needed her to take the money).

Anyway, she babysat for us whenever we wanted to go out (which really wasn't that often). It was a sad day three years ago when she moved away to go to college. She is planning to become a teacher and she will be an excellent one!

Today she took the kids to see a movie, then out to lunch and then to the skate park while I huddled indoors and read, baked cookies and did laundry. It is a shame that I could not go out because it really was a lovely day - sunny and low 70s.

The redness and swelling in my face is nearly gone and it definitely does not hurt anymore. I have the ok to go outdoors in the morning. I get to repeat this again next month and in August. I still keep using the ointment on my face for 5 more months though and we'll see if it brings any more pre-cancerous cells to the surface.

Wear sunscreen!