Tonight is Jax's birthday party (a sleepover). The kids are watching "Spiderman 2". I think this will be the last party that is so big (well, 8 kids including my 3). We have a personality conflict with a couple of the kids, I think so while they all get along great with Jax on a one-on-one basis, as a group it just isn't working out. The group basically divided in two and they've been apart most of the evening. Jax doesn't seem to notice (or mind) so I guess that's ok.

Dex is conflicted still about whether to have a sleepover party or an ice skating party. I am leaning towards the skating party then he can invite his friend, C, for a sleepover that night. Dex has been distraught trying to figure out what is best for him and he was even in tears about it last week. Oh geez...

I am testing mobile blogging using my iPhone. Stephen said I was no allowed to take my laptop on vacation with me. I hope this works.

Oh, nuts!

When I went to the school to pick up Dex and Cars for their allergist appointment, imagine my surprise to find them both already in the office. Turns out that Cars was hit in the mouth with a frisbee at recess and Dex had taken him to the office to be checked out. What a great big brother he is!

Anyway, I signed them out of school and off we headed to the allergist. I asked when I arrived how long the "two kid max" limit on appointments had been in place and the receptionist said always but that I could discuss it with the allergist. So, I did.

I asked her about it at the end of the appointment and she said was wondering why I did not have all three with me this time. She said that some children were just so out of control that she cannot (and will not) deal with more than two at a time. Then she told me that I was welcome to bring all three of mine in anytime and just to tell them when I made the appointment that she has ok'd it. Ah, my kids are well-behaved! (I rock as a mom! ;)

So, the appointment was interesting. Because Dex had been diagnosed with reactive airway by the pediatrician, the allergist now treats him as though he has asthma and he had to do some puffer test. And she prescribed Flovent to him to take everyday for the next two weeks. Also, I need to start him back on Flonase as well.

Then onto Cars. We discussed different nuts that he can eat (pistachios which he loves and almonds which he doesn't) then I asked her about macadamia nuts and she suggested that we test him for those and for cashews. She said she was certain he would be fine with cashews since he can eat pistachios (they are "related"). Two minutes into the test he had a small but very distinct wheal under the macadamia nut! Noooo!

That was disappointing but we can deal with it. It is not as though we ate macadamia nuts regularly (or at all!). Just no macadamia nuts in Hawaii for him.

Just re-read my post from yesterday and when I wrote "I hope the kids in his class appreciate it.", I meant appreciate the sense of humour, not in the "they are ingrates" way.

Anyway, Jax took in the cheese sticks and he said everyone thought it was funny. When they sang Happy Birthday to him he conducted them with one of the cheese sticks. He thinks he is such a card.

Jax enjoyed his very yummy dinner and cake. He got some nice loot too and is so happy. It was a successful birthday for him!

My mood is better now. Well, it was HORRIBLE this morning but 80 minutes of OnDemand exercise helped. My mood was so bad that I did not want to go to the gym and expose anyone else to it! But, as I said, exercise helped a lot. And I really limited my carbs and sugar (good-bye chocolate) which helped, I think.

I made a Co$tco run today. One of the things I wanted to get were cheese sticks for Jax to take to school tomorrow for his birthday treat. Most kids bring in cupcakes or cookies or donuts. He wants to bring in cheese. I hope the kids in his class appreciate it. He talks all.the.time about cheese (because he thinks it is funny) which is why he wanted to bring it in.

Yeah, so Jax will be 11 tomorrow. I thought that 10 was big (and I guess it is!) but 11 seems soooo much older. I let him stay home by himself from time-to-time (like if I have to run to the store or drop Dex off at baseball practice). He walks to the library himself and he wants to go to Safeway by himself but I am not ready for that yet. He read his first "Adult Fiction" book last week (Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton).

He has even chosen a "grown up" meal for his birthday. No Red Robin for him. He wants steak, roasted potatoes and mushrooms for dinner! Geez, even my birthday dinner was not that nice.

So, tomorrow Jax will be 11. Wow!

The last few days I feel as though there is a big black cloud hanging over my head. Well, figuratively as there has quite literally been one - all this stupid rain! I have been self-medicating with chocolate.

It might just be PMS but I am feeling very down. I am not evening feeling the slightest bit up when I think about our trip to Hawaii. I must snap out of it. And I also must get rid of all of the chocolate in our house. It seems to be the answer to the doom and gloom that I am feeling but my jeans are complaining as they are stretched to their very limits now.

My face is totally broken out too (hello again, chocolate?) so that is not helping my mood at all.

Woe is me!

Seriously, I think I probably just need more exercise. I think I'll skip that dance class tomorrow and stick to the regular circuit training. I don't want to spend money to feel like a clod with my two left feet trying to Zumba.

I am also feeling a little stressed because Jax has an allergist appointment (along with Dex) later in the week BUT it is also WASL (Standardized testing) time and don't ya know that the appointment interferes with the testing. After a flurry of emails to the teachers (Dex is ok because they just test in the morning) we've now received special permission from the principal for Jax to start the WASL testing at 8:30AM in the library rather than 10:40AM in his classroom so he can make that appointment. Oh, and here is the thing...the test is scheduled from 10:40 to 12:15 BUT if kids are not done, they are welcome to keep writing it for the rest of the day! Also, the principal is concerned that Jax would feel rushed and not complete it in order to be done by 2pm when I would need to take him out for the appointment and being rushed might negatively affect his score (and her job rating no doubt).

Then, I found out there is no testing the following week on the date of Cars' allergist appointment (remember how mad I was three months ago when I made the appointments and they would not allow me to bring all three kids in on the same day?) so I will call the allergist's office to see if I can switch Jax and Cars' appointments.

Just one more thing bringing me down. Quick, where's the chocolate?

Dex and Cars had baseball/t-ball games today. I am chilled to the bone and I cannot get warmed! Brrr!

My brother, sister-in-law and one of my nieces from Minnesota are coming to visit us next month. I am very excited! This is to make up for the weekend that my SIL could not come back in March when my mom was here. My other niece has a job interview coming up and if she gets the job she will have to work that weekend but if not, perhaps she will come too.

Now, I need to convince Jean-Paul, Marilyn and Lola to come down that weekend too so we can all hang out together on Saturday night. It would be great fun!

Book Club

I am off to book club shortly with a plate of chalk cookies (chocolate chip meringues - Stephen says they taste like chalk but everyone seems to like them). I think I read up to page 30 of the book. It was just so difficult to read. Book club will just be 6 members tonight (or maybe just 5).

Let's see, one cannot come because she is in Utah picking out dresses with her sister who is getting married (these two are Spy's SIL's), another is on spring break and going away, I think. A third is not coming because her dh had surgery. A fourth is not coming because she is coming down with a cold and Ash is not coming because her dh has to work late BUT really she does not want to go.

So, that leaves 6 of 11. And, one of those 6 might not be there because I know she is on spring break for work but her kids had spring break last week (she works for a different school district than the one her kids go to). And another of the 6 always shows up about 9 or so and rarely finishes (or reads!) the book. I guess I am one to talk since I barely started this one.

And I wonder if I did this because it was the woman who made the comment about cancer, attitude and my dad last month. She has been a thorn in the side for a few members and I had started to write about it quite a few times here but then thought better of it (who knows who reads here, right Spy? ;) Spy knows what she is like but she is much more tolerant of her than some of the rest of us.

Oh and there goes the timer so time to get my chalk cookies out of the oven.

Dex has an ear infection in both ears. OMG! I am so sick of this poor child being sick. The doctor gave him a strong antibiotic to hopefully kill off every bit of infection in his body and start to get him well again. Oh, he also got a huge scrape on his arm at the park before we went to the doctor so she said that the antibiotic will keep that from getting infected too!

Stephen went back to work today but he still is not 100%.

Tomorrow night is book club and I am on page 23 of a 400-page book. I hate it and just cannot get into it. I will go for the food though. :)

I haven't much to say these days. We've had beautiful weather these past couple of days. Stephen has been home sick for two days now and I hope he is feeling better tomorrow. I tried a new class on Monday and I realize that I am really, really uncoordinated and cannot dance.

My neighbour gave me some plant (I forget the name) that deer HATE so I planted it right next to the hostas and I hope it works! They've eaten the crocus, the tulips and the hyacinth so far. And I have deer prints through the garden where they trample it to get to what they want! It is so frustrating.

Jax has made his list for his birthday. The item he wants most - a computer for his room. Um, no. Next...item is a digital camera to make "Legomation" movies. He uses my old camera so I really do not think we need to spend the money on another one.

His next item is a flat screen tv. ~eye roll~

What is on his list that we might do is money to join the "builder's club" at an online site he likes to visit. It is called Roblox - a virtual world where you build Lego-like worlds. We might get him a six-month subscription.

He also wants the Jurassic Park movies on DVD. I just ordered them from Amazon.com.

Jax also wants Lego too but I am wondering if he is getting too old for that. Or, since that is what he wants and not what I want to buy him, am I trying to force him to "grow up"? Hmmm...

I went for a pedicure today with some women from my MOPS group. Afterwards, we went to Starbucks for tea/coffee. It was a lot of fun! We called it "Flip-Flop into Spring". Stephen took the boys to the first session of summer hockey. Later, we went through our taxes and filed them. I get so stressed out about doing taxes in case we do it wrong.

It was a lovely day weather-wise and the boys played outside a lot of the afternoon. It was not until later that I thought I probably should have put some sunscreen on them. I don't think they got burned and they all wore baseball caps to shade their eyes from the strange-looking yellow ball in the sky.

Tomorrow is Passion Sunday but Stephen thinks the boys need to go to hockey again rather than church and religion class. He just told me he is going to ask them what they want to do in the morning. Of course they are going to pick hockey! Aaargh! This is really not fair. I can only hope that he was joking.

Blah Blah Blah

I took my engagement ring to the jewelers to be repaired. The prongs are worn down and are in danger of breaking off and I don't want to lose my diamond. I always wear my rings (wedding band, anniversary band and engagement ring) so my finger feels weird without the engagement ring. I have a huge callus built up on the underside of my finger from where the skin rubs against the rings and a permanent indentation in my fingers from the rings. I think if I ever stopped wearing these rings it would take ages for my finger to go back to "normal".

Stephen took the day off and went out to breakfast with the boys while I slept it. I am going to have a difficult time getting up next week when we return to our normal schedule because I have slept in nearly every day. I haven't slept in too late but at least an hour or more than usual.

After they came home from breakfast, Stephen went out again on an insane quest for a Lego that Jax wanted for his birthday. Fred Meyer has the Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego on sale (must be clearing it out) so Stephen went to three FM's to find the one that Jax wanted. I really don't think we need more Lego in the house and have been trying to steer the kids towards other birthday ideas but with no luck.

I received two birthday presents in the mail today so I was happy to extend my birthday "season". :) Ramona sent me a box of goodies which included 4 full-sized Mars bars (yum!), some Swiss Chalet dipping sauce packets and some other fun things. My friend, DeniSe, sent me some cool books, including Book Lust which is a book I have looked at many times but have not purchased. The author, Nancy Pearl, is a librarian at Seattle Public Library and a regular guest on a local NPR radio program. I am excited to go through it!

And now I am off to eat a Mars bar and watch the kids play video games while Stephen frets over our taxes.

Well, Cars' cough is getting better but Dex's is worse. So bad that I felt that I had to take Dex to the doctor today (last night he also had a fever and was very lethargic). I was worried that he had pneumonia again. But, it is just a virus. His fever is now gone but the cough remains.

He was well enough for me to take the kids swimming today so at least this school break has not been all spent hanging around the house. I also took the kids for haircuts. Cars' is really short because he wanted it spiky. Jax's is thinned out a lot and looks much better (still crazy though). Dex wants to grow his so he just got a trim to neaten it up.

Tomorrow if everyone is healthy enough they will go to an ice skating b-day party. Oh, please let them all be healthy!

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I had such a great day today. First off, I replied to every single person on Facebook so I am sure that my news feed caused more than a few people to click "LESS ABOUT PEZ" today.

We had planned a hike but we had torrential rains this morning (and hail!) so we had to cancel. Around lunchtime it had cleared up a bit so I took the kids to the mall and got some free Lego (a small box that came with the Advent calendar that we could fill with loose Lego between Jan 1 and Mar 31), a free Godiva chocolate bar and a free pair of underwear and $10 any purchase at Victoria Secret (I bought two more pairs of undies that were on sale).

Afterwards, while the sun shone, we went for a walk along the river. We then had dinner and cake and played Rummoli. I had such a great day!

Saturday night we went to Ash's to celebrate her dh's 40th birthday. It was fun!

Sunday, Spy and Ash took me to dinner and a movie to celebrate my birthday. We saw "Sunshine Cleaning". I really enjoyed it and had a great time.

Today, Stephen took the day off work and we went to GameWorks in Seattle. That place is soooo icky but the kids love playing all of the video games and the "ticket" games.

My birthday is tomorrow and I believe I am getting "Twilight" on dvd. I say this because Cars keeps asking me if "Twilight" is one of my favourite movies or if I like "Twilight" more than "Monsters vs Aliens" (which I have not seen but Stephen took the kids to see it yesterday).

Cars has had his "croup-like" cough for a couple of days and he had fever yesterday. The cough got really bad this afternoon so I took him to the doctor who of course said "yes, he has a croup-like cough". No stidor or wheezing though so we just have to wait it out. Dex has started coughing again too so I made him use his inhaler tonight. I just hope that Jax does not start coughing too!

I made my birthday cake tonight and the icing did not turn out! I followed the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" frosting recipe on the tin of cocoa but it ended up with little lumps of cocoa. Oh well, it still tasted good enough and if no one else likes it, more for me!

Last night was Art Gallery night at the school. Since I am the art docent for Dex's class, I had to come up with an art project to display. I decided on Cave drawings based on the cave drawings of Lascaux. I had the kids draw on sandpaper with oil pastels. I thought they really looked great! The kids did a fabulous job.


While I ran the "friendship bracelet" activity (I just had to get pony beads and pipe cleaners), Stephen took the kids around. He took photos of them next to their works of art. Jax's class made and glazed some clay pots and Cars' class painted some terra cotta pots.

Here are some photos:


Oh, and notice the white eye in Jax's left eye again? Weird, eh?

The Fifth Graders also put on a drum concert which I missed because of the friendship bracelet thing. I also forgot to look at the Reflections contest entries (Dex submitted his blue ice photo). Hmmm...next year I think I will volunteer to be a "floater" so I can wander around and not miss anything.

Ha, the blogger dashboard says "Scheduled outage at 4:00PM PDT on Thursday (3/25). Learn more". Too bad 3/25 is WEDNESDAY, not Thursday.

Anyway...

I worked out today for the first time in a week and I feel so much better mentally. Of course now that my mom has left, that might have helped too. I feel like a big baby for complaining about her visit but yesterday was so emotionally draining. I wonder if we fight towards the end of her visits because it will make it easier to say good-bye? Maybe I need to go back to my Crazy Doctor to figure it out? Hmmm...

Stephen asked me to make a list of things that I wanted for my birthday so I went to amazon.com to get the link for a book that I wanted only to see it was no longer listed when I knew for sure there was an April 2009 release date listed last year. The book is the second in the series after The Name of the Wind: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One by Patrick Rothfuss. What happened to the second book and the April release date? I had to go to Patrick's blog to find out. Oh, I can call him Patrick because he friended me on Facebook last year after I wrote a review of his book on Facebook's Visual Bookshelf. Anyway, Patrick explains what happened to the release date for the next book in this blog post. Aargh! It isn't even finished yet. I was sure that I read last year that it was already written. Anyway, I guess I will just have to be patient. Maybe (hopefully) it will be out soon.

So, I was debating whether or not to add Twilight to my list. I enjoyed the books, liked the movie but is it something that I need to own. Will I watch it over and over again? Probably not. I would like to see it again but I guess I can just rent it through NetFlix.

I think I would like a pair of silver hoop earrings. And some new sports socks. And that is about all I can think of offhand. Well, I would like some work-out clothes but I cannot find any that make me look fit. ;)

My mom is leaving early in the morning for Vancouver. We had a huge fight today. I am a little embarrassed about it because it stems from her always treating me like a child and when I try to take control and call her on her comments or actions, she tells me I am just "too sensitive". When she acts ridiculous and I tell her so, she tells me I am being a bully.

Anyway, we've made up. Next time she comes I am going to make sure I have projects for her to do so she won't have time to focus on what I am not doing (imagine me not wanting to start dinner at 2:30 in the afternoon!). And I am going to insist she comes when the weather is nicer so she can go out for walks.

I do love her and I even like her a lot. But I love her best 4000km away.

And please no comments about how I will miss her when she is gone. You haven't been with her constantly for the past several days.

My mom brought the boys Leafs' sweaters: