Day 10

No new photos as there was not a lot of action done today.  Some tiles had to be taken out and refitted because they had slipped in the thin set (mostly the glass tile in the backsplash downstairs).  Also, the replacement vanity/sink arrived and I freaked out because the box was damaged and attached was a HUGE PINK NOTICE that said that the shipper was not responsible for any damage.  I made the delivery guy sit and wait while I opened the box and checked over very slowly and carefully.  I figured this was fair since was (once again) 1.5 hours late past the delivery window of 11am-3pm (it was the same late delivery truck driver as two weeks ago!).  Anyway, it all looked fine as far as I could tell.

So tomorrow morning the tile that was fixed will get regrouted.  The sink will be installed upstairs.  The drywall guy will come in the evening to texture all of the places that need texturing.  Hopefully the painters will come by to give us a bid.

After the painting is done (hopefully by Tuesday), the guys will come and install the medicine cabinets, the storage cabinet, the towel bars, toilet roll holders.  Another week after that the glass shower doors will be installed upstairs  (we'll just use a tension rod with a shower curtain in the meantime).

And now it is on to plan for the next project.  Gas cooktop and gas fireplace.  I think the cooktop will happen first although I have been talking about the gas fireplace for ages.  We'll have the gas lines plumbed for both at the same time though.

Ok, more pictures tomorrow!

Day 9

We have progress!  We have toilets!  Showers/tub too but the tile is not yet sealed so we have to wait a couple if days to use them. No sink in the upstairs bath yet. The replacement will arrive tomorrow and be installed on Wednesday.

Upstairs bathroom with no sink/countertop

Downstairs vanity/sink.  Drawers are very difficult to reinstall (they had to be removed to hook up plumbing).  A couple of the glass tiles slipped while they were setting so they have to be removed and reset.  Then grouted.

Downstairs shower and look!  A toilet!  Still thinking about that paint colour on the wall...

Day 8

Slow tiler came back in the morning. We chatted for a moment and then I ignored him. I know he was trying to make eye contact whenever he came downstairs but I was having none of that. Then I took Cars out to the club for a swim so I did not have to hear about how slow tiler was missing his son's last soccer game (he had mentioned to me several times on Saturday that he was missing time with *his* family to tile my place. (Emphasis his!). Whatever!  Don't take the job next time.

Anyway, the tile looks really beautiful though. 

I am looking forward to this being done so I can be less crabby!  ;)  I am really not a crabby person so when I get this was it makes me crabbier because I feel crappy about myself. Carb loading!

Day 7

Problems...

A broken floor tile left us short a tile in the upstairs bathroom. So we decided to tile the closet with the wall tile rather than the floor tile. No one will notice unless they are rooting around in the closet and move the Costco sizes toilet paper packages. Otherwise we would not have the replacement time until Monday sometime. Too late!

Slow tile guy finished the floor that and then buggered off for 3 hours. I was out and he told Stephen he'd be back in an hour and 2 hours later I was calling our designer to track him down.  He showed up another hour later.   Needless to say the tile did not get grouted. Then he said he would be back sometime tomorrow after his son's 1pm soccer game. I think not!  If the game was at 1pm he would show up at 3 or 4pm and he said he had 3 hours of grouting to do which means he would be here until like 10pm (remember he is so slow!).

I pitched a fit with our designer and said he would either be here tomorrow morning and be done by mid-afternoon or he can come Monday afternoon and she can reschedule the plumbers, the carpenters, the drywall guy and the painters.  At this point I don't care how quickly it gets done. I just do not need people in my house for 12+ hours a day who are not accomplishing their tasks.

Needless to say, she scrambled and called the other tile guy who will come at 8am tomorrow.  We will see what happens in the A.M.  

But, the tile looks so beautiful. 

Downstairs bathroom

Upstairs bathroom (not grouted!) Grrr!

Mismatched tile in the closet.  It is back far enough past the doorjam that it will be ok, right?

Day 6

Someone needs to take chatty tile guy's cellphone away from him. 

He promised that he would start

Laying the floor by noon or 1pm. He started after 5pm!  We are so behind!!

Downstairs bath is on schedule. This tile guy works with noise canceling headphones and works quick!

Day 5

Upstairs bathroom. No floor laid yet. 

Downstairs bath. Floor is laid and grouted. 

Remodeling is a huge PITA. Downstairs bath is coming along. Upstairs is behind schedule. No point stressing as it is what it is.

Day 4

No problems today - just a lot of work. Two tile guys came in and one was able to get the floor of the downstairs bathroom laid (he had mostly prepped the day before). Drywall guy came back this evening and will come back on Friday to finish the job. Things are starting to take shape. 

Upstairs bathroom

 

Downstairs bathroom - drywall repair on ceiling

Downstairs bathroom - tile floor has been laid

Day 3

Where do I begin?  The carpenters came to install the floating vanity but here were ever so many problems. First, while we ordered a 48" vanity to replace the old 48" vanity they are not equal. This new one has drawers that are flush with the very sides of the vanity whereas the old ones drawers were inset a bit towards the middle. So, that allowed for those old drawers to open without hitting the door jam!!  Also, where this vanity has special cleats on which to mount the vanity on the wall, the carpenter said there was no way he would mount them right into drywall and the while thing needed to be mounted into the studs for support. Makes sense but that means the vanity has to be offset an inch that will leave an inch gap between the vanity and the wall. Not the look I was wanting.

Then we looked at the vanity top with integrated sink and noticed there was a big chip out of the corner of the top. It is supposed to be installed today I shouted in my head!  So, the designer got on the phone and  by the afternoon we had confirmation that they were sending a new vanity too that should arrive on Monday!  Aargh!

Then, because of course there's more,  the tubs would not fit. Fortunately, I was not home when they realized this as I am sure I would have stroked out. And our designed [who is fabulous] worked with the plumbers to get it in, which meant  cutting some of the framing. Now because of this issue, the general contractor guy had to come in and repair the cut framing. Of course he is not very happy about this because he was expected to come in and start tiling.  In fact, he was supposed to start early at 7:30am but because of the plumbing issues,  he didn't get around starting until 3pm. 

So, we are a couple of days behind Schedule but hoping to make up that time on the weekend. How will I survive?

Bathroom remodel day 2

Technically this is the third day since the bathrooms were ripped out 2 days ago but there was no action yesterday.

Today we have major drywall ripping out which was not expected so a drywall expert is coming TONIGHT so we can get back in track tomorrow. Plumbers have been here for 4.5 hour$ so far and the tubs still are not in place which they need to be before the carpenter comes in to install the cabinets. And until the upstairs bath cabinet is in, the tile guy cannot start. I wonder when we will really be done.

One good thing about the plumber being here is that he noticed a problem on our hot water tank and he will fix it before he goes.  Some copper line droops down rather than go straight across and it should have been caught when the house was inspected.  :\

Bathroom Remodel

Today was day 1 of the bathroom renovations. Kids complained bitterly that they could not sleep in. Contractor showed up and tore the two bathrooms apart. Good news is that there were no surprises (ie mould or termites. Don't ask me why I was imagining that there would be. I guess because I am a worst case scenario type person).   Well there was one surprise...  No insulation in the exterior walls of either bathroom!  Nice. So Stephen picked up a couple of rolls f insulation and the contractor installed it before he left for the day.

Next up is the plumber and carpenter due in Monday. 

We've had a nice, quiet Memorial Day weekend which is nice because starting next Saturday, our house will be torn apart for two weeks while the two big bathrooms are remodeled.

I will take before/after shots and post them.  Wish me luck!

Have you heard of Greentoe.com?  It is this site where you can shop for items like electronics, appliances and baby gear but the neat thing about it is that you can submit the price you want to pay for an item and then see if someone accepts it.  Kind of like priceline for stuff! 

One of the cool things about the site is that there is a little meter when you submit your price and it tells you what the chances of getting the item for the price you are willing to pay.  So if you submit a really low-ball offer, it will tell you right away so you can up it and try again. 

Another cool thing is that tax and shipping are included in the price so there are no surprises if you submit an offer on an item and it is accepted.  That price is the price you pay and no more.

There is a video on their home page that explains it much better than I have. Check it out! :)

Blogher and Greentoe are offering discounts if you would like to give it a try.  They have given me my own special discount code to pass onto you so here it is:

pez25 ($25 off)

pez50 ($50 off purchase of $300 or more)

 

So check out the site - www.greentoe.com and if you see something you want to buy, use the codes provided! 

Got back from my trip to Toronto for my high school's 50th anniversary (the school is 50, I did not graduate 50 years ago). ;)  I had a really good time seeing some old friends and visiting the school which I do not think I have stepped in since I left in 1982! 

Friday night was a social at a golf and curling club.  Saturday there were lots of things going on at the school and Saturday night was the big Gala at the Ontario Science Centre.  The organizers posted a note on Thursday that there was going to be a HUGE surprise on Friday night at the social and that it would mean a lot to some of the people who went to the school during a certain decade.  Well, everyone was posting that they were sure that it was going to be the Barenaked Ladies playing (Ed Roberston and Steven Page (former member) went to my high school).  Boy, we were all so disappointed when it turned out to be a bass player who was in Alice Cooper's band (and who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)  - Prakash John and The Lincolns.  Clearly not on the same scale as the BNL but still famous(ish). Anyway, there were a lot of disappointed people there.  :D

Anyway, here are some photos from the weekend. I tried to take some photos for my friend Diane who decided at the last minute not to go.  I would have loved to have seen her. And for Peter - my soul blahg reader.  :)  Click here -> My pictures

So in my last blahg post I mentioned that I was taking Cars in for the status of his incisors and to find out when he gets braces, right?  Well we arrived bright and early at the orthodontist (appointment was at 7:50am) and they call Cars back almost immediately. 

So I wait and I wait and look around and notice that the office was really crowded.  And I wait and I wait and I wait and I see one dad get up and go and ask what is taking so long for his son to come back out. Turns out that there was some issue with his son's braces and teeth and the orthodontist had to do more work than he was expecting so I figure that orthodontist is now behind because of that problem.  And I wait and I wait, wondering what is taking so long for them to look at Cars' teeth and decide if he is ready for braces or not.  And I wait and I wait. 

Finally, 40 minutes later Cars comes walking out WITH BRACES ON HIS TEETH!  WTF!

I guess he was ready.

But I was not!  I thought this appointment was to evaluate but apparently it was we will evaluate and if he is ready we will put them on!  He just has them on the 4 upper front teeth and will get more on a little later.  And I had already paid for this round of braces (and expander) way back in August '11 so the cost was not an issue.  The issue was that I was a terrible mom and did not KNOW he would be getting them and did not prepare him for them!  With the other two I dosed them up on ibuprofen before hand and we discussed how they would feel, blah blah blah and poor Cars walks in and is surprised with them.  Aargh!

Anyway, so I now have 3 kids in brace$ at the same time.

There are still 10 days left of this month but already I am thinking about the busiest time of the year - May!  What is it about that month that makes it so crazy every year?!  I have way backed off of my volunteering at school but it is still a busy month this year.

At the beginning of the month I am going home for a visit. Just me.  I will stay with my mom and she is very excited to be able to show me her apartment.  It will be the first visit home where I won't be staying in my childhood home and that makes me a little sad but knowing that my mom was more than ready to sell and move into an apartment does make me feel better.

She will fly home with me after a few days (it is my high school's 50th anniversary so I am going to the big party on the Saturday night.  Of my four siblings, only my oldest is going.  Looking forward to seeing old friends too) and stay here for about a week then I will drive her up to Vancouver where she will continue her annual "West Coast Tour" before heading to Edmonton to see my sister then head on home.

May also brings us lots of sports!  Dex is playing basketball at the club but also said that he wanted to do track at middle school so that is 4x/week with Monday being the busiest day because I have to pick him up and then take him directly to the club for basketball.  No idea when his meets are yet. 

Jax is doing track in high school and it started over a month ago and he practices 6 days each week.  I am not exactly sure when it ends but it is sometime in May.  Oh, he and Dex are still doing guitar lessons one evening a week too.

Cars is playing on a tournament hockey team so he has practice and then the tournament later in May in Canada.  He will miss 2 days of school.  Oops! 

With all of these after school activities, I am behind on getting the kids in for their annual allergist appointments and eye appointments!  We are still on track for the orthodontist though.  Dex just got his braces on a couple of days ago and I take Cars this week for the status of his lateral incisors so we can get those first set of braces on for him (I paid for this over a year and half ago - it was supposed to be expander and braces but those darn teeth never grew in!).  Jax is transitioning to get his off already! I told the orthodontist that I felt that I was not getting my money's worth with Jax (kinda half joking) but was told that Dex would wear his for nearly 2 years so I will get my money's worth there.

We are enjoying the changes we made to the house last summer and now are considering updating more things.  Namely, the main bathroom.  We do not have a power room on the main floor (that is the problem with side splits, or back splits - no room!) so guests use the main bathroom which is also the "kids" bathroom.  It has never been updated except for the new faucet and lighting fixtures we put in a couple of years ago.  The tub, toilet and sink are beige and I want white.  Also, it has shower doors which trap all sorts of ickyness and are hard to keep clean.

I had a designer come by this past week and she will get back to me with a plan for the bathroom.  While I do want to upgrade the vinyl floor to tile and the acrylic tub surround to tile as well, I do not want to go broke doing it.  We really are not DIY-ers so we will be paying for the labour.

Looking forward to having a nice sparkly bath up there.  And one day we will work on the master bath/walk-in closet/dressing area.  One day...

Book List 2012

I swear I have read more books this year than this but I did not do a good job of keeping track:

1. Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin, pp 784
2. Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin, pp 1216
3. The Thirteen Tale, Diane Setterfield, pp 416
4. Beneath a Marble Sky, John Shors, pp 344
5. What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty, pp 423
6. Sing You Home, Jodi Picoult, pp 496
7. A Feast for Crows, George R. R. Martin, pp 784
8. The Rock Star’s Daughter, Caitlyn Duffy, pp 318
9. 50 Shades of Grey, EL James, pp 528
10. 50 Shades Darker, EL James, pp 546
11. 50 Shades Freed, EL James, pp 592
12.  On the Island, Tracey Garvis Graves, pp 336
13. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
14.  Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, pp 432
15. Good Squad, Jennifer Egan pp 352
16. Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail), Cheryl Strayed, pp
17. On the Island, Tracey Garvis-Graves

Jax was having problems with his math homework today and asked me for help.  I completely BAULKED because I do not remember any math beyond very simple algebra (Dex's grade 7 math is getting difficult for me).  However, we had a busy night planned and Stephen was going to be getting home late so I decided that I would turn to the internet for help so I could help Jax.

I went to www.khanacademy.org which is a great site for math. They offer FREE lessons on just about anything and their goal is "changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere".  I first heard about the site from Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html) and thought it sounded like a good idea.  I had Dex logging on from time to time to do some extra math work but then he got busy with REAL homework.  And I wanted Cars to do some too but he has required math homework on IXL.com and his time and results are sent to his teacher.

Anyway, so tonight I went to www.khanacademy.org to learn (or relearn) how to do The Substitution Method so I could teach Jax how to do it  so he could do his homework and study for his quiz tomorrow.  I am not sure why he did not understand it during math class today but after watching the videos with me and practicing, he is completely understanding it.  I even had Stephen watch the video so he could help Jax while I went out to take Dex to his bass lesson. 

It is a wonderful resource and I highly recommend that you check it out.  Especially if you have a high school student who needs help with math.

More Resolutions

Another resolution that I have is to be more creative again.  While I am doing woodcarving, I still feel as though I haven't been creative in a long time.  I have been considering picking up the paints again as I have a couple of ideas for some paintings.  And I have even thought about knitting again.  It really has been years!

Happy New Year

My New Year's Resolutions

1. Regain an active lifestyle.  I have become quiet sedentary over the past year and half and it is showing on my body and my attitude of life in general.  Time to step to it!
2. Stop procrastinating.  I realize know that at least 50% of the anxiety I feel at any given time is due to me putting off things that I am either afraid to do, don't want to do or cannot be bothered to do when it should be done. 
3. File important items away NOW (see above)
4. Realize that it is ok to not be friends with everyone or friends forever.  I had a friend who moved away a few years ago (not too far) and we have stayed in contact via facebook but before she moved I realized she was a toxic person so it was a relief when she moved, quite honestly.  A few months ago she called me and wanted to stop by because she was in town.  She came for tea and I realized that I did not enjoy her company at all.  I do not need to stay friends with people just because we have a history.
5. Cut carbs.  I feel so much better when I stay away from bread and pasta.
6. Do one fun family activity each month.  I realize that my kids are not young anymore and soon they will not want to be doing family activities so I want to make sure that we make some more great memories before they up and move away. That time is rapidly approaching!

A good start, I think. 

The kids are out on Christmas vacation.  Today we did our annual "day of giving".  We took tons of clothing and household items to Goodwill.  We donated 101 pounds of food to the food bank and Stephen gave blood.  :)  I do not give blood because I did it twice in my life and I fainted once and nearly fainted the second time.

I had a goal to be finished Christmas shopping by the 5th of December (some random date that I have no idea how I came up with) and I failed miserably.  Most of it is done and there has not been a lot of scrambling around to get it done.  I just have a few more stocking stuffers for Stephen and to get something for the mail lady.  Stephen always takes care of the kids because he loves rushing around the last week and getting it all.  And he loves to spoil the kids so I let him do it.

We won't be having anyone over for Christmas dinner for the first time in 10 years or so.  So it will be a nice, quiet day with no mad dash to stash the opened boxes and get all of the wrapping in the recycle bin immediately.  I am looking forward to having a quiet day.

O Tannenbaum

Christmas trees in our house always manage to be quite an ordeal. We always seem to have issues with stands and I cannot tell you the number of Christmas tree stands we have purchased in the past 10 years.

A few years ago, after our Christmas tree had fallen down, we bought one of those swivel stands which we thought was pretty great but the next year out Christmas tree was too big (the trunk was thick!) to fit in the stand so we had to buy another stand. Of course the tree fell down again that year too! I think we have had trees fall 4 or 5 times in the past 8 years!

This year we managed to have to go buy yet another stand after buying what we thought was an awesome tree. It was tall and very full with branches that swept right to the ground. Of course the trunk was thick and there was a knot in it so it did not fit in either of the two stands that we had so I ran out to buy yet another stand. We struggled and strained to get the tree up (it is 8 and a half feet tall and very heavy). Stephen kept askin if I were sure that it was straight (he was under the tree tightening the screws on the stand ) and I was staring at the top of the tree which was perfectly straight. Then it was a up - voila!

Stephen then trimmed off some of the bottom branches an I put on the tree topper the sat down on the couch to admire our lovely tree.

Then I saw it. Can you see it?

 

Our tree has scoliosis! OMG how could we not have seen this?  Of course we had not seen it - the branches went straight to the ground and all we did was admire the height and fullness of the tree.  So, this tree is balancing precaiously in the new stand.  It managed to stay standing while I strung lights and while the kids and I hung the ornaments.  I guess those are good signs.   We hope that it does not fall over sometime over the next two weeks. Mostly I am worried about any water ruining the new wood floors but of course I am concerned about broken ornaments. 

 

And for Christmas I have added this tree stand to my Christmas list.  I hope it is the last one I will ever have to buy:

 

http://www.premierchristmastreestand.com/

 

 

The Reveal

Here is a photo of our newly redone living room. We had the walls painted, the fireplace painted, hardwood floors installed, bought a new floor lamp, couch and chair. We also had shelving installed on either side of the fireplace. Oh and a new area rug. I am very pleased with it!

We also had a console and shelf custom made for the front hall/foyer. This hallway and the kitchen already had hardwood floors so we just had them stripped, stained and finished.

Winner!

One year ago this month I started taking a wood carving class.  We carve in the "Northwest Native Style".  I enjoy it although I am pretty slow at it because the perfectionist in me is so afraid of making a mistake.  So I do not carve at all outside of class.

I finished my first project. A relief carving of an eagle (stained and painted as well).

Then I had to think about my second project.  I loved the signs up at our city hall and I asked my instructor if he knew who had carved this great sign:

 And it turns out that it was my instructor!  He lives in the city too and he teaches the classes in his workshop at his home.  So, I decided to carve it but instead of being a relief carving, I made it three dimensional.

It might be hard to tell in this photo but the orca's tale flips up a little bit. This piece took me 4 months to shape, carve and paint.  But it was worth it because I entered it in the Northwest Wood Carvers Association show that was held last weekend and look!

I won!  First Place for beginner, Best of Beginner and Best of Division!  And I also won $100!  What a delightful surprise!
It was nice that I won because it made me double down on the piece I am working on now. I  am not in love with it so I haven't been working that diligently on it.  Now I want to hurry and get it finished so I can work on my next piece. 

It is great to be creating again.

Thank God that we have excellent health insurance.  Of course it is changing in January (not quite so excellent but still very good).  I had to go to the ER two weeks ago and my 2.5 hour visit was billed to our insurance company in the amount of $10477.00.  Of that, after the insurance company's "adjustments", they amount paid to the hospital was $2361.35.  Quite a difference.  Fifty-five percent of the bill was for a CT scan!

The ER visit was during a lull in the illness that swept through the family.  Dex and Cars had the fever/sore throat/cough and the day Dex was better and I sent him the school was when I got violently ill with a raging bacterial infection resulting in an inflamed colon (and and blood loss).  The ER doc got excited that I might be patient 1 of a new E. coli outbreak but no pathogens were found and a huge dose of antibiotics and three days of bedrest had me good to go.  Of course on the 3rd day of bedrest, DH came down with the same sickness that Dex and Cars had and he was out of commission for three days (two of them work days!!).

The month of October was a write-off and while I was happy to have lost 10 pounds in 3 days, I have gained back 5 of them already.  I am fortunate that neither Jax nor I did not get the high fever illness.  So far November has been a healthy month for us!

One funny thing about the whole situation was that when I got to the ER they said I was in their system but no information on why.  The ER doctor was puzzled and said "I see that you are in here and it says I treated you in the ER in 2010 but there is no information".  I reminded him that I was the "bat family" that had come in two years before and were sent to the regional trauma hospital for "treatment" since the rabies vaccine was only available there.  We had a bit of a chuckle then he told me that they county had changed things and this hospital now had the vaccine (not that we will ever have a need for it).  Anyway, you can read the post here (I wrote it but never published it until tonight:  http://pezblahg.blogspot.com/2012/11/if-you-find-dying-bat.html)

If you find a dying bat...

***this was originally written in October 2010 but never published until November 2012 ***

...in your bathtub, you might want to get it out. You'll probably get a ziploc container to slide it into and stick it out on the porch. You'll probably look up how to dispose of the bat and will find information on your country's animal control site. The animal control site will tell you to call the county's public health department. You'll call the public health department who will be closed but will give an after hours number. If you call the after hours number, they will tell you that they only deal with bats from emergency rooms after hours. You will ask for clarification and be told that you should go to the emergency room in case the bat had rabies. If you are told that you will quickly google information about bats in houses and see that it is recommended to go to the emergency room. You will think this is over kill so you will call the nurseline provided by your insurance company.

If you call the nurseline, they will call you back after contacting a doctor. When you get a call back you will be told to go to the emergency room because they have a zero tolerance when it comes to dealing with bats and they assume they all have rabies. You will probably have to get the nurse to repeat this information to your husband who is skeptical and things you are blowing things out of proportion.

Once your husband is told by the nurse in no uncertain terms to go to emergency, you will probably have to call your friend's house to arrange to pick up your son who is planning to have a sleepover there (long overdue and emotionally charged which is another long story). You will get the rest of your family in the car and pick up said son.

You will probably drive to the closest emergency room. Once there you will have your whole family registered and be thankful that it is early on a Friday night and that this emergency room is small and in a suburban area, not the big city. Once you are checked in and triaged, a doctor will come in and explain that before we go any further, the county has taken all rabies vaccines OUT of emergency rooms with the exception of the trauma centre in downtown Seattle. He will tell you that you need to proceed to this trauma centre for treatment and promise that you will not incur any emergency bills from this ER department since they had no way of treating you.

At this point, your husband will be PISSED but you will all get back into the car and travel downtown Seattle on a Friday night. Your children will also be confused and have asked several times what they are going to do to us. You calmly tell them you don't know as this has never happened to you before (but know that vaccines are a very real possibility but do not say this so they do not freak out).

After sometime in the ER, the doctor will come up to you and explain that after consulting with several people at the health department, they think it is worth the risk that you do not get innoculated for rabies and your husband will have the health department repeat this to YOU over the telephone (since he is still pissed that you had the nurse repeat it to him to go to the ER a few hours before). 

You will probably go home with the bat in the container and instructions to freeze it the FedEx it the next day (overnight!) to Oregon for rabies testing  which you will have to pay for and the total for that will be about $120.  A week later you will probably find out that the bat does not have rabies which is a good thing becaues if it did and you had been exposed and waited a week there is a good chance that you would have acute encephalitis by this point if you had been infected.

Then, when Halloween came around you would make yourself a bat costume and have a good laugh at it while your husband is still pissed off and won't find humour in the situation for a long time (if ever).**this last line added in November 2012

Cars' fever finally went away Thursday afternoon but he was too weak from not eating all week to go to school on Friday.  And now Dex has a fever and sore throat.  Here we go again...

Our living room is just about finished being redecorated. It has taken positively AGES.  I got the call today that our area rug will be delivered the week after next.  And then the console and shelves should be installed around the same time.  I will finally be able to share photos!  Now, what project is next?

So yeah, stress does suck.  I do not handle things well when I am stressed out. I become paralyzed and I do not function.  Then I get more stressed because I haven't done what I need to do.  Procrastination feeds my stress.  Stress paralyzes me and I procrastinate.  And so on and so on without end.

The thing is, it isn't just one particular thing that has led to this particular stressful time.  It is everything.  And when I sit down to write about them they seem so petty and trivial and "first world problem"-atic that I then get embarrassed that I am even stressed about them.  We have food.  We have shelter.  My family is (relatively) healthy. I do not ~have~ to work outside of the home.  So what the fuck am I so stressed about?  Why do I let things get to me?

Waaaay back when I worked at Big Computer Company, I took a class where you assess what kind of person you are.  I remember the RED was for attention to detail and I scored a big fat 0 on that.  I am not a detail person.  And right now I am doing two big projects that require me to pay a lot of attention to detail and I SUCK at it.  I have had sleepless nights.  I have been comforting myself with food and I have been thinking of hitting the bottle of Xanax (and I do not want to touch it!).  I hate this.

And the things that would make this better (eating healthier, exercise, sleep, NOT procrastinating) are not even on my radar. 

And, right now when things are so overwhelming, my baby has been sick for going on 5 days (and in the morning I will call the school to let them know he will miss the 4th day of school in a row).  Fever, malaise, vomiting, cough, congestion, losing his voice, etc.  I missed a PT appt today and was made to feel guilty because I asked my dh to stay home this morning so I could go to my annual mammogram.  Nice.

Ok, off to bed.  I know I won't sleep but at least I can pretend that I might.

Stress sucks.

Today we are celebrating Cars' birthday with a party at a bowling alley.  Yes, his birthday was in August.  Yes, this is the second year in a row that he is having a really late birthday.  The kids are off school today and everyone he wanted to invite (but one) lives in our school district so it was a good day to have it.  About the other kid?  I just told Cars that it was too bad he had to go to school or else we could have invited him.  Fortunately, it is not a super close friend.  :)

I have been going to PT because I have bursitis and tendonitis in my shoulders again but this time they are also working on the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.  Perhaps it is all connected anyway?  The exercises are killer because I have done virtually NO arm/shoulder exercises/stretches in months and month and months due to the pain.  Hopefully I will be healed soon.  I have been very good about doing my PT homework.

We have had three months of almost no rain.  While it has been enjoyable, I am starting to lose shrubs and even a couple of small trees.  I haven't been able to keep up with the watering.  Well, I could but I cannot imagine the water bills!  Hopefully the rain will return soon.  I need to transplant some trees to replace the plum trees I had to take out this summer.

School starts next week and I am a little out of sorts.  I thought I had everything in place but I found out that Cars does NOT have school on the first day of school.  School that day is for incoming freshmen/sophomores at the high school, 6th & 7th graders at the middle school (converted from junior high) and kindergartners.  Why is it the first day of school then?!  This not-the-first day first day has screwed up my schedule because I was to start my woodcarving class that day and Cars is still too young to stay home alone. 

Also, even though Dex DOES have school that day (7th grade), he does not start school at regular time that day but 3.5 hours later than usual.  It is not really clear how he will get to school - is there a bus at that weird time?  When will it pick him up?

The insurance company sent me a robocall last night that they have issued me a check for the damage (less deductible) of my car (ok, I guess I did not post about this but I hit a parked car in the parking lot of the orthodontist when I took Jax in to get his braces last week.  I had not entirely decided I was going to go through insurance rather just pay it myself to keep my premiums from going up (or just not repair it at all - just a (not small) scratch).  Now Stephen is concerned that our premiums will skyrocket.  It is not as though I was caught drunk driving or texting and caused a major accident! 

And the wood floors we had installed need to be fixed a bit tomorrow (cracked boards and missed stain in a couple of places) so we need to stay out of our house overnight.  More $$ that we had not anticipated paying.  Part of the rush to get it done when we did was that we were on holidays and did not have to incur extra costs of staying overnight for a few days due to the fumes from the finish.

I guess it is just a busy time.  We've had a (mostly) relaxing, laid-back summer so getting back on a schedule and having a lot of things going on a once seems daunting.  Time to reframe my outlook and get it done.  Things could be worse.  We could be in New Orleans dealing with a hurricane...

I've just found out that a boy from Jax's grade committed suicide.  He was 14 years old.  I have no details and he was not a friend of Jax's (although Jax did know him) and the thought of it is so scary to me that I want to throw up.  His poor parents.  And poor soul for being so distraught that he thought that suicide was the answer to his problems.

I remember being so distraught over boys when I was Jax's age that I wanted "to kill myself" or so I wrote in my diary at the time.  Of course me saying those and going through the actual actions of doing so were miles apart.  There was one girl in school who tried to kill herself because she was gay.  This was in 1980.  So different from today, at least I hope so.  Of course I have no idea why this boy killed himself.  I pray for his soul and for peace and understanding for his parents.

Jax got braces on his teeth the other day.  He is still in a bit of pain but overall it will be worth it. He has spacing issues and an overbite but overall his teeth were not ~that~ bad I guess.  I think if he had my parents he would not have gotten braces.  None of us had braces. None of us had perfect teeth - mostly all had spacing issues and I have an overbite.  Actually, I think my youngest brother has a bit of a cross bite too but not severe enough to correct.  The other thing it that my parents did not have the money to pay for braces.  I guess they would have found them if we had had severe dental issues. 

DH, on the other hand, had braces as did both of his brothers.  DH's teeth are now very crooked from his wisdom teeth that came in a year or so after we got married.  Well, the wisdom teeth ~tried~ to come in but just really pushed the other teeth around so it was off to the U of MN dental school to have surgery to remove them.  Gah, we were so broke then.  We paid a couple hundred dollars then had to pay in installments for the next 6 or 8 months to pay off the rest.  Thank goodness we had that option!  I'd like DH to consider getting invisilign or something to re-straighten his teeth but he is appalled when I bring it up.  He'd rather get lasik for his eyes, I think (also a good idea as he cannot see worth a darn without his glasses).

Cars goes back to the orthodontist in October to check on the status of his lateral incisors.  One is in but one stubborn one will not move.  I wonder if we will find out that it is impacted.  Time will tell...

School will be starting in less than 2 weeks and I thought I was so on top of things in the allergy department.  I took the forms to the allergist early (the school emailed the forms at the end of the school year rather than snail mail paper forms so I printed them at my expense ;).  I called the mail-order prescription drug service that we have to use and had new epi pens sent to us.  I just need to pick up new packages of Benadryl.  But when going through the cupboard I realized that I do not have any epi pens for use at home!  Well, there are two in my purse but I like to have one or two in the kitchen, you know, where we eat!  And I have no "extras".  So I will have to wait another month before I can order another set for the boys. 

Now, I know I am lucky that I have a prescription drug plan and can afford to have "extras" hanging around.  I sometimes worry about when my boys are older and if they do not have a job with drug benefits and they may not have the option to have more than one epi pen if they cannot afford it.  Oh, I hope that never happens.  In fact, I hope they find a "cure" for food allergies so they would not even have to worry about an anaphylactic reaction.  Dreaming, I guess...

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!