Rumours abound that Big Software Company is going to announce layoffs next week when they release their earnings. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we are good here.

Our electric/gas bill came today and OMG. It is $100 than last January's bill AND we used less gas. I think I need to get a job!

Well, I managed to yet again mangle another dinner. Here it is, 6:30 and dinner is still cooking (we normally eat at 6pm). Let's see...the London Broil is what is holding us up. The recipe I followed said 10 mins per side on the grill. Did that and the internal temperature was only 113F (Mooo!). The roasted carrots are now cold and the peas are mushy. The Lazy Daisy cake I made is lopsided (guess I did not mix the ingredients enough?).

So, I am having a glass of wine on a Thursday night while I wait for the meat to cook. Of course the rest of the family is taking advantage of this time by playing xBox and no doubt there will be tears when bath and bedtime come immediately after dinner.

I should have let my vacation day extend beyond 3pm.

Tomorrow I have NOTHING on my schedule. No Mom's club, no guitar lesson (it was moved to Tuesday of this week). No volunteering at the school. Nothing!

I think I will take a vacation day and catch up on a couple of TV shows (Weeds Season 1 and Intervention, start reading my next book club book (it finally arrived today - Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama) and maybe take a trip over to Starbucks and treat myself to a cranberry-orange scone and a grande Earl Grey tea with 1 tea bag.

Of course what I should be doing is planning meals for the next few days and getting some groceries, cleaning the house, changing sheets, vacuuming, tidying up the laundry/mud/junk room and of course there is the ever present laundry to tackle.

But no, I am taking a vacation day. At least between the hours of 8am and 3pm. If only it were paid vacation time then I would go shopping for new shoes.

I ordered some things from Crate & Barrel and for some reason they were shipped separately via UPS (well, it looks like one of the items is even on back order). Anyway, two items were shipped the same day. One arrived yesterday and it looks the the other will arrive today. However, if you look at the UPS tracking, it seems they may have both been on the same truck that arrived at the UPS sorting center in Redmond yet one was delayed a day due to "Adverse Weather Conditions". Huh?! It was barely raining yesterday. The roads from here to UPS are clear. The centre is about 6 miles from my house. No flooding on the roads between here and there. I find it so bizarre especially since both packages arrived at UPS (one minute apart) on January 11th.

My $21 hamburger

I went to Fatburger last month and had one of their Fatburger (on Tuesday evenings, their Fatburger are only $2.49 (a $1.20 savings!) and a big blob of grease and ketchup dripped off the bun and onto the front of my relatively new top. Of course, this was just before Jax's appointment and I did not notice that it happened until after we met with Jax's counselor and it was right in the middle of my shirt. Doh!

When I got home, the shirt went right into the wash after I sprayed it with Zout. But the grease stain was still there! I washed it again after scrubbing it with a Tide To Go pen but it did not wash out. Then I tried Spray'n'Wash and the stain STILL did not come out. Then for good measure I washed it again with no stain remover but of course the stain is still there.

I am so upset! It is (was) a great top from Lands' End (mine was green though). I loved it because the sleeves were long. And I don't just mean long-sleeved but they were LONG and fell about 1.5" below my wrist bone (I have long arms so sleeves are always too short). I loved that top! Especially since Lands' End sizes are slightly larger than other manufacturers so I fit nicely into a "M".

So that really juicy and tasty $2.49 burger ruined my $18.50 top. Next time, I'll wear a not-so-new shirt. Or a bib.

We went skating again today but this time we rented hockey skates for Jax and Dex (they normally give out skates that have a TOE PICK!). Jax did well with the change but Dex had to re-learn to skate and he was frustrated.

We left the arena just before 4pm and I have been chilled to the bone since! I hope I am not coming down with anything.

The kids' swimming lessons moved to Saturday so Stephen took them to the pool while I worked out in the fitness centre. I really did not have time for a full workout but I did get some cardio and ab work in which is better than nothing.

We then went to Old Navy because all of the boys were in need of some jeans. Cars busted out the knees on two pairs over the past couple of weeks. Then we went to Sports Authority and Stephen just *had to buy street hockey sticks for the boys. We took his car today so the boys had to carry the sticks across their laps on the way home because they would not fit in the (tiny) trunk.

I have a renewed my pledge to practice the guitar everyday. I let it slide during the last few weeks before Christmas and I was kicking myself because I would go to my lesson and basically I was paying them to practice. I am also determined to start learning chords soon too so I want to zip through "Guitar Method Book 1.

Ok, off to practice.

It seems I made a subconscious New Year's resolution to eat as much food as humanly possible. I cannot stop eating! But I keep telling myself I am just eating vegetables but then I dip them in some very fattening french onion dip. OMG, it is soooo good.

Anyway, time to get back to eating more healthy fair and stop buying Hershey's Kisses that are on sale half-price because they are wrapped in Christmas foil.

I took Jax, Dex and Cars to the Lego Store so they could spend some of their Christmas money. Now that the new shelves are up downstairs, we need to fill them up, right? Anyway, Jax and Dex both bought the same one. Dex wanted a new pirate Lego which they did not have in stock. What is nice about the Lego store is if they do not have it in stock, you can order it and they will ship it to you for free. So Dex has to wait about a week for his.

My kids love Lego so much and while I do bitch and moan about all of the Lego in the house, I am happy that they are so happy playing with and collecting it.

Do my glasses hide my crow's feet?

I volunteered in Cars' classroom today. I arrived as the kids were coming in from morning recess. One very observant boy said "Hi Cars' Mom! Where are your glasses?" I said "I am wearing my contact lenses today". "Oh", he replied and looked at me thoughtfully. Then he added "You look almost OLD!".

Gotta love 5 year old honesty, right?

Whew! The kids went back to school today! It poured rain through the night so most of the snow was gone by morning. Regardless of what Jax says, I think all three of them were happy to go back too.

I was very happy to be able to go to the club to work out. It was hard and I am going to be sore tomorrow but I loved it. I think I love the really long, hot showers afterwards as much as the work out. No way I'd ever have such long showers at home. :)

Book Club is at my house later this week so I have quite a job of getting the Christmas stuff put away. The tree has been stripped (Stephen had chopped it up and put in the yard waste bin) but now I need to get all of the ornaments wrapped and back into boxes. The decorations and ornaments always seem so tired and sad after Christmas.

OMG, it is snowing again! I tried to get my car out of the garage but it got stuck on the driveway then slid and I almost hit Stephen's car! I was able to manoeuvre the car back down the driveway and into the garage. Unless it starts raining tonight, I am not going anywhere tomorrow (I so totally need to work out, not just for my physical well-being but for my mental health!).

And if tomorrow is another snow day my kids will be going to school into July!

So we never did buy a new bed back in November when we went looking at Co$tco Home because they ALL had pillow tops and Stephen says never again! I had completely tuned out his complaints about how uncomfortable our bed is for quite a few weeks now but yesterday I lay on his side of the bed and the friggin bed is broken! Seriously, there is no support near the edge about in the middle of of the bed on his side. No wonder he hates the so-called "Heavenly" bed.

I called today and they will ship us a new mattress as soon as I mail the "DO NOT REMOVE BY PENALTY OF LAW" tag to them.

Welcome 2009!

Happy New Year!

We welcomed the new year in with too much fun at Ash's house. The highlight (?) of the party may have been the towel that caught fire in the bathroom from a candle. Cars walked up to Ash and very calmly said "Excuse me, Ash. There is kind of like a fire in the bathroom". Wow! Lucky that he happened by at that moment because it could have been so much worse! The only casualty was the towel.

My cold is worse so we did not do much today. The boys did not mind because we are letting them play a lot of video games. They really do not get a chance to play often during the week (maybe 3 hours per week) so they are totally eating this up. Stephen was not feeling well today but his was from a little bit too much celebrating the New Year but nothing that some ibuprofen did not help.

We were going to take the kids tubing at Snoqualmie Pass tomorrow but the pass is closed due to avalanche maintenance and tons more snow falling so it looks like we'll have to try another day. More snow is expected to fall here too but I hope it is just rain. We'll have to find something else to do - perhaps a movie? Dex wants to see Tale of Despereaux".

What I am most excited about for tomorrow is garbage pickup! How pathetic is that, eh? But we have not had our garbage picked up since December 11th! Both the garbage bin and the recycle bin are completely jammed-packed (96 gallon bins that have been sitting at the end of the driveway for three weeks!). Plus we also have all of this to go out too:


The recycling of course is the worst with Christmas presents arriving in boxes, being packaged in boxes and all of the Christmas wrapping! I am worried that they won't take it all and we'll be left to deal with a wet soggy mess of cardboard boxes at the side of the road. And, with snow in the forecast for overnight, I will be so disappointed if the trucks do not come tomorrow. How sad is it that I am looking forward to Garbage Day?!

Update Friday morning: It did snow overnight but the garbage truck still came by (I heard it at 6:30am!). Hurray! Let's hope the recycling truck comes too.

I spent a good chunk of the day today going through receipts to ensure that I have spent enough money for reimbursement for our Flexible Spending Account. This is the first year we have actually participated in it. Anyway, my new crown and my glasses pretty much used up most of the funds that we decided to put in it but I was still about $100 short. I found receipts for crap-loads of Benadryl, Zyrtec (before we determined it was evil) and Children's Motrin that we've purchased through the year and those purchases more than cover that balance. Now I just have to submit the receipts.

We are off to Ash's house for her annual NYE party. I have a cold (runny nose, sore throat and body aches) so I don't imagine we'll stay much past midnight. My kids are napping right now so they'll be good to go right to the end of 2008.

I am looking forward to 2009 and all the good things that it will bring.

Happy New Year!

I know you missed me yesterday. Our cable went out before 9pm and was not back until this morning. Of course this meant that the cable, Internet AND phone was out. I swore I would not renew our "triple play" with Comcast because of all of the phone outages but it saves us about $50 per month so I stuck with it. But now my new cell phone service (AT&T) works in our house (so there, T-Mobile!) so we can keep the spotty cable telephone service too.

I finally made it back to the gym to work out today. I barely made it through the class. Hopefully I will be back on track by next week (me an thousands of others who are making New Year's resolutions to get back to the gym). Later, we took the kids ice skating today (back in the old country I would just say "skating" but living here I feel that I need to add the "ice". Like when I order tea in restaurants I have to say "hot tea" so I am not brought a big jug of overly sweet icky iced tea). Anyway, it was Jax and Cars' first time skating and Dex's second time. They all did really well. We took Ash's kids as our Christmas gift to them. I think Kins enjoyed it more than Gav but they both did well too. Amazing to see how quickly everyone caught on! We also rented a "walker" to help the younger kids learn to skate. It helped them learn to balance a bit. I think they need larger ones for bigger kids though.

Spy's dh and her sons were there too practicing hockey on the little mini-rink they have their. Cars was so pleased to see Col and not long before we were ready to go, Col came out on the regular ice to skate and Cars told me to let go of his hand because he did not want Col to see that he needed help skating! It was so funny to see my 5 yr old trying to look cool and tough for his 4 yr old friend! Stephen took Jax for his appointment today - for the first time since Jax started going just over a year ago. Just a few more to go and Jax will be done. I am so happy and proud of him.

Ok, off to get ready for bed. I think I am coming down with a cold and I need to rest up for the annual New Year's Eve party at Ash's house.

We went to The Container Store to buy more $helving for the Lego Room because of all of the new Lego. Stephen will probably put it up tomorrow or the next day. Afterwards, we bowled at Lucky Strike Lanes which apparently is the most expen$ive bowling alley around (it was upstairs from The Container Store). The kids had a really great time though so that was fun.

After dinner, I decided it was time to clean our oven because Stephen accidentally dripped some grease in there on Christmas when he took the roast out of the oven. The self-cleaning stopped abruptly and the display screen is flashing F9 at me. I looked it up online and it looks as though our oven is now broken. Aargh! The door is still locked (presumably due to the heat from self-cleaning) but apparently this is a common problem with these types of ovens and the fix is expen$ive. Merry Chri$tmas!

Looks like it was our day to $pend a lot of ca$h.

Hurray! I got out of the house today and went somewhere other than Safeway! I vroomed Stephen's 4-wheel drive car up the driveway and sloshed and slid down the street to the main road which was bare and off I went to the mall.

Of course the mall was packed and it took me 20 minutes to find a parking spot. The stores had good sales and the selection was really good but the lines in all of the stores were horrible. Long, long, long lines. Anyway, I did get a few things that I needed (b-day present for Ash and a black belt for me. Ok, and a pair of black patent pumps). I also treated myself to an Orange Julius. I don't think I had had one in about 10 years. It was so refreshing and just what I needed because the mall was about 80 degrees. I actually left two stores (The Children's Place and Illuminations) because the stores were so hot and I felt as though I were going to faint. The clerks in The Children's Place were complaining to each other about the heat so I know it was not just me.

I have to say I wonder who all of the people were in Nordstroms who were swarming the designer shoe sales rack. Shoes on sale 50% off for $200-$500! Wow! And I felt so extravagant buying myself that pair of patent leather pumps at Macy's for $50.

In the hours (and hours) that I was at the mall, it rained and warmed up so much that our street was a breeze driving along when I arrived home. I am sure by the end of tomorrow or the day after there will be no more snow on the road. We'll be back to our normal rainy winter. I am so looking forward to it.

Happy Boxing Day! I hope everyone had a happy Christmas.

We had several people (18 including us) over for dinner and a few more (6) for drinks/playing after dinner. I had a great time and I think that our guests enjoyed themselves too.

The kids and I bought Stephen a Wii for Christmas and they are just setting it up now because typically we reserve Boxing Day for Lego Building. And boy did they build Lego.


It has been snowing all day (although it has actually stopped for the moment). It was a snow/rain mix for a while so it is really yucky outside. I am about to venture up the driveway to see if I can cram anymore garbage in our bin which has been sitting out for 9 days now. Today was supposed to be garbage pick up but looks like we'll have to wait until next week so that will be 3 weeks worth of garbage at once. The no-stinky garbage (Christmas wrapping, etc) is sitting in the garage with the recycling that cannot fit in the recycle bin. What a mess!

Whomever is dreaming of a White Christmas...

please stop!

Photos from today (December 24)




And of course it would not be Christmas Eve without a photo of my boys in front of the tree wearing their Christmas Jammies.



Merry Christmas everyone!