Doing some "minor" renovations in the house (install hardwood floor, refinish existing hardwood, painting living/dining/hallway/kitchen) but it seems like it is so much more!  There is so much to do and we've hired out all of the labour!  Picking paint colours, stain colours, moving EVERYTHING out of the living/dining/hallway/kitchen and trying to find temporary homes for them.  I will be so happy when it is all done!  I will post before and after photos.  :)

Summer o'Fun day???

This summer has been very low-key.  My in-laws came for a visit and were here for our 4th of July party.  We showed them how Americans party!  Then we took them to Victoria BC for a couple of days as they had never been there. We walked along the inner harbour and toured The Buchart Gardens.  I think they really had a good time.  My FIL drives me crazy sometimes and I will admit that I did have a couple of hissy fits which was not becoming.

Cars went to Harry Potter day camp through the Boys and Girls Club with our neighbour and he had a great time!  He is totally into HP which is awesome since the older two have no interest in it anymore.  They did not even appreciate it yesterday when I reminded them that it was Harry Potter's birthday!  ;)

Dex spent a weekend with Spy and her dh and their oldest son sailing in the San Juan Islands.  He had a fabulous time.  He and C really get along well.  I hope their close friendship continues into middle school.

I took the kids to the dentist last week (Summer o'fun activity!) and Jax has sealants put on his new molars.  Some of the etching compound that they put on the teeth to prep it for the sealants leaked out and gave him a chemical burn on his face.  The dentist's office first denied it but then I took him back in again today to see the dentist who owns the practice and she admitted that is what it was (after I showed her the photo that I had taken of his face last week and after he told her exactly when it started to hurt).  I think they were worried we would sue or something but I just wanted to know what the hell happened to him (at first I thought it was an allergy to latex but they are latex-free in there).  The hygenist swore up and down that she did not do it and the dentist who was in the office that day said it looked like a scrape when clearly it was a burn.  Anyway, we are still switching dentists.  That was the final straw (other things like one of the other dentists being mean to Cars, sending my kids home with 3 tubes each of "free" (insurance-paid) $11/tube toothpaste).

Oh and I guess I should give an update on dh.  He had 2 xrays, 1 MRI and 2 CT scans to determine that his back was fractured a long time ago and while that is not causing his pain right now, they could not let him start PT until they were assured that it had not broken during his fall down the stairs.  So, he will start PT next week (he is "too busy", he says, until then).
I took the kids to Archie McPhee's for their annual trip.  Normally we go to the locks too but I wasn't feeling it this year so we did not go.  I'd like to go later in the month when there are lots of salmon in the salmon ladder.

Hope to update this blahg more. I spend too much time sharing too much on Facebook.  Yes, I am one of ~those~ people.  ;)

When DH fell down the stairs and broke his hand, he also hurt his back.  His hand was hurting so much more so he thought was all that he hurt.  However, over the weeks, his back started hurting more and more so he went to see a back specialist. (his hand btw, is nearly healed now).  He is in horrible pain when he stands and walks but is ok sitting or lying down. 

Anyway, they took xrays and found out that his spine has jammed into his hip and now the muscle is tight and won't release.  So he needs PT.  However, they also saw something weird so he had to go for an MRI and then go back.  The MRI turnedout to be inconclusive so he has to have a CT scan now.  One of the little pointy things on one of his vertabrae is broken off but they cannot tell if it is something that happened when he fell or, more likely, was an injury at birth or even a birth defect. In the meantime they won't start PT until they decide when it happened.  So he has been living on ibuprofen for weeks.  He finally asked for some pain killers and was prescribed some muscle relaxants and was fitted for a back brace.  We are going to Victoria very soon and all of the walking is going to kill him!  The doctor told him the muscle relaxants will probably make him just want to sleep so they will probably be no good to us while we are gone.

So, for pain, Stephen has been chowing down on ibuprofen.  And shortly thereafter his hands started getting really flaky and blistery.  He often gets this in the winter when he wears gloves a lot but his hands were so bad and he thought back to when it started and it was when he started taking ibuprofen.  Doh!  He was having an allergic reaction to it!  So now he won't take anything for the pain (and he needs to let his doctor know about this reaction).

I am leaning towards canceling our Victoria trip until he is better but he doesn't want to.  Misery, here we come!  Wish me luck that I survive the upcoming weeks until his back is better!

Summer'o'Fun Day 3

The first day of summer vacation we held Dex's 12th birthday party at a local climbing gym. Wow - the kids had such a great time and so much fun!  Even Cars, who is a big chicken, climbed up the ropes.  And all was well until he climbed a bit without the ropes and fell off and hurt his foot.  He is still limping around but claims it does not hurt much so I did not take him to the doctor.  I will if it is still hurting him after the weekend.

The second day of summer vacation was just spent doing work around the yard, Jax went to the skatepark and then to the beach (it got above 70 degrees!) and Dex walked around with some friends and hung out (read loitered) at the nearby plaza.  I love that Cars has the kids next door to play with but their summer camps will start soon so the build-in playmates will end.

Today we are going to Ash's house a little later to do tie dye.  Normally, I have big party and invite quite a few people over to do it but I was just not feeling it this year.  We were just going to do it alone until Ash invited us over and we talked about doing it together. 

I am in a bit of a funk.  The weather is a HUGE part of it.  Record cool temperatures this spring and while we did have a few nice weekends in a row, the cool temperatures and rain after that have depressed me.  While I complain a lot about the weather, I am at a point where I would love to move away from here to actually experience a real summer.  And I would not even care about snow because no doubt we'd move to a place that is prepared to deal with snow.  Anyway, just something to think about.

I am also in a funk about my friend's passing.  Yes, she had a chronic illness but not that you imagine you would die from.  If she had cancer, this would be more expected, I think.  And even though I knew she was having a flare up from Crohns and I knew she was scared, and I even *knew* she was scared of dying and I thought she might be dying, it was still a shock.  Lynn is was 3 weeks older than I am.  Maybe it is also my own mortality that is coming into play here.  It is all a bit frightening.

Ok, off to enjoy a bit of this sunshine before it disappears behind the clouds.  Maybe it will lift my spirits as well.

Rest In Peace, Lynn

DURHAM: Lynn Parks lost her long time battle with Crohn’s disease at UNC Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill on June 25th, 2012. Lynn was born on March 6, 1965 in Roanoke Rapids, NC. She grew up in Seaboard, NC, and had been a resident of Durham for many years.

Left to cherish her memory are her husband, Andy and son, Adam of the home. She is also survived by her mother, Claire, her sister, Sheri,  a sister in law, Dawn; brother in law, Julian of New York; nieces, Allison , Michelle and Hannah ; a nephew, Ben ; and many aunts and uncles and cousins and dear friends.

It has been a rough week.  Lynn was in the hospital for a week before she passed away so the emotional rollercoaster to waiting to hear information on her condition and then, when finding out that she would not get better, waiting to hear of her passing, certainly took an emotional toll on so many of Lynn's dear friends. 

I am having a hard time even expressing my thoughts and feelings in words.  All I can say is that I am sorry and I will miss her.

Today, both Jax and Dex stayed home from school because they were sick.  Dex actually missed yesterday too but hopefully he'll be going back tomorrow.  They both have (had) fevers and Jax woke up this morning and started vomitting.  Ugh.  This is the first day of school that Jax has missed in nearly 2 years!  Anyway, we'll see how he feels tomorrow and if he can go back to school.

I will be taking them out of class early tomorrow anyway so if he misses it is ok (with me).  I have to take them to have their passports renewed and the children and both parents must be present so we are heading to City Hall to submit the passports.  By the time we are done, no doubt it will be just about time for them to leave school (early dismissal Wednesday).

They still have another 9 days left of school.  Well, the 9th is the last day and it is a 1/2 day so Jax gets out at 10:30 and the other two get out at 11:30.  Also, Dex gets to take a day off next week to go to a water park with the safety patrol team and there is field day and then 6th grade promotion so really they are just passing the time until they hit 180 days of school.  Kind of a waste of time it seems to me.  No more homework for the rest of the year for any of them either.

And one more thing to complain about...

The school is rearranging all of the classrooms to try to get all of the classes together (all of the 2nd, 3rds, etc).  Because of this, they need to paint every classroom back to neutral colours (each teacher had personalized their classrooms).  So the teachers took down all of the art work, posters, notices, etc and bunched all of the desks into the middle of the room and they've been painting the classrooms during the past two weeks while the kids are in class!!  WTF?!  Nevermind the huge distraction but my kids are in there inhailing paint fumes?  You know what the principal said when a parent contacted her to complain?  "Thanks for your input".  I really dislike that woman!

Misery Loves Company

This has been one crappy week.  Everyone is miserable and taking it out on each other. 

Last Sunday, Stephen fell down the stairs while carrying the vacuum and he hurt his hand.  Badly.  I insisted that he go to urgent care but he refused and even got quite irate with me about it.  He said if he could move his fingers his hand was ok, just bruised.  He would not even take any Advil for the pain and swelling which then pissed me off because he was feeling badly and taking it out on us with his crappy attitude.

On Monday his hand was no better and I suggested that he call the doctor.  Nope.  On Tuesday - call the doctor.  Nope.  Tuesday night, however, he said he needed to go to urgent care because his hand had become too painful.  In the end, he held out until the morning and went to his doctor.  An x-ray showed a broken bone and he left with a brace and a referral to a hand surgeon.  He now has a funky brace on his hand that looks like a combination scrub brush handle and vice grip!  He has to wear it for 5 weeks but goes back in 2 weeks for another x-ray to see how it is healing.  Hopefully no surgery to fix it!

In the meantime, he refused pain meds (that's ok) but he also has not been taking even some Advil and he is in pain and is a miserable ....  I am so sick of it!  I laid down the law last night and told him that he HAD to take Advil every 8 hours because I was done dealing with his miserable attitude and he was making the whole family miserable.  He agreed that he'd do it (although I am pretty sure he did not take any this afternoon). 

Dex turns 12 tomorrow and his brain has become a teenage brain and therefore he has lost all sensibility.  We went for a "family walk" on the weekend and he chose to wear his big high-top shoes without the laces tied and scuffed his feet for the first 1/2 mile until I bent down and tied his shoes.  He forgot to turn in a permission form for a field trip and just about lost it when he realized he was past the due date on it.  Of course the teacher accepted it the next morning but he was a mess the whole night and barely slept.  Today he had basketball practice and ran off with his high-tops instead of his runners.  Just to note, the high-tops are not basketball high-tops but the skater dude high tops.  I had to drive over to the elementary school where they were practicing after Stephen called me and asked me to bring him proper shoes.

Dex also lost his cell phone yesterday.  He swore he had it on the bus on the way home from school but then it disappeared.  We spent almost an hour scouring the street and the yard for the phone.  He claims he walked around the whole house dialing his cell phone (which was on vibrate) but to no avail.  Tears, despair, angry, more tears and another sleepless night.  Then this afternoon, while moving the computer chair to get to the printer, I found his phone on the floor.   OMG!  What has happened to him?

I have been pushing Jax to be more proactive with finding other friends at school because this summer, his bff is going to be at camps or on vacation most of the summer and it will be a long lonely summer for Jax if he doesn't connect with others.  He has been hanging around with this one boy and a girl a few times.  Today, after walking home from school with them and hanging out for about an hour, he came home and told me that the girl's dad was in jail for stabbing someone and he'd be in jail for another couple of years.  Apparently her grandfather also stabbed someone but that person died so he was in jail for life!  Blink Blink Blink  Maybe I need to sign Jax up for some camps?

And Cars has become quite forgetful.  I have thought in the past that he might have ADD but when I asked his 1st grade teachers about it they said no.  It has presented itself more this year (claims he is always distracted by others when he cannot complete his work in class).  Whatever the issue, his grades are suffering a bit because of it.  He is still doing ok but just ok. 

Now I have thoroughly complained about my family.  I think the next post I will tell you something wonderful about all of them.

I just realized that my old blahg formatting is gone so my blahg roll and other info is gone too.  Wah!

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.