Summer is approaching quickly (less than 2 weeks of school left)! I am excited to have a nice relaxing summer after last year's bathroom remodeling that kept us tied up at home all summer.

We have booked our trip to the Oregon coast which will be fun.  I hope the weather is a bit warmer there than last year! This is a photo of me from last year:

Yes, I really was wearing a knit hat (and two hoodies)! Brrrr! It was cold!

I bought a piece of artwork from Etsy that matches the kitchen colours perfectly. The seller actually did not have this piece in this colour scheme but she had another where the wood slats were vertical but I liked the horizontal look better so had this one custom made. I love it and it ties everything together.

I have been working out regularly since January and I feel pretty good. I am sleeping better, I am stronger, I have lost some weight, etc.  I still do not like going to classes but once I am there I enjoy them and feel very accomplished afterwards since they are not easy classes.

One of my goals for 2014 was to build up strength again in my upper body.  Since I had shoulder issues and went to PT 1.5 years ago, I had basically done absolutely NO upper body work.  And I was so weak. I am still not that strong but I have reached my goal of being able to do 10 push-ups (from the knees). In January I could not do one.  I can also do 2 regular push-ups and my new goal is to be able to do 10.

Go me!

We took down our climber today.  Stephen assembled it the first weekend of May in 2004. It was a kit from Co$tco and he spent the whole weekend putting it together.  We had a small section of our backyard at the old house where we thought it would fit but once we had it we realized that if we put it together the way it was supposed to go, it would not fit! So we had to change the position of the slide with the climbing "wall" and voila!

 

This photo was taken the day it was completed.

 

 

When we moved, the lady who bought our house had two big dogs so she did not want the climber.  We decided we'd move it but that was a complete hassle.  In the end we hired a kid who was our realtor's neighbour to disassemble it and truck it the 1/3 mile down the hill to our new house.  Then he and his friends put it back together.  That was 6.5 years ago. 

 

Jax and Dex quickly outgrew the climber but Cars still loved it and used it all.the.time until this past winter when the swings snapped when he and a friend were playing on it.  So many of the boards were rotting (we replaced many of them over the years) so we decided that it was time to get rid of it. Stephen and the boys started disassembling it just before noon today. 

 

Cars got bored and after 2pm went in search of some friends.  Jax and Dex worked with Stephen until 5:30 and the climber is now disassembled and awaiting a trip to the dump.

 

Cars returned for the final photo op.

 

 

What a difference a decade makes, eh?

 

Long Time No See...

The past two months have flown by.  Here's a recap...

My 49th birthday was at the end of March. I am *concerned* about turning 50. It sounds so damn old.  I had no problems turning 40.  Forty was fun and I still felt so young.  But 40 was nearly a decade ago.  When my dad turned 50 (and I was a smart-mouthed teenager), I kept reminding him over and over again that he was "Half a hundred!". He really did not like to hear it and now that I am pushing 50 I can see why!

I had a hard time turning 25 - thought it was so old.  Stephen and I had recently broken up and I was single but always thought I would be married by the time I was 25.  And here I am, staring at 50 and while I am not concerned about getting married, I feel like maybe I haven't hit some major markers or milestones and won't by the time I hit that big 5-0.  Yikes!

A few days after my b-day we left for a visit to Toronto.  Toronto in April is never ideal but Toronto in April during a Polar Vortex winter/spring sucks!  Actually, just the first few days were cold but there was still so much snow piled up in places.  The quadrangle of the hotel that we stayed in still had snow.  The 401 had those icky black ice banks that accumulate along the sides of the road and the parking lots had big, gross, black piles of snow in the corners of them.

But, it was good to see my mom.  She was doing so much better than she had been just a few weeks before. This illness has taken a lot out of her - she has aged incredibly.

Jax turned 16 the day after we got back and we have scheduled his test for his license for May 4th. I am excited and scared for that.  The cost of his insurance will be astronomical and Stephen has spent every waking moment for the past 10 days trying to find a good used car for Jax.  It is getting tiresome.  We are not really in a rush to buy a 3rd car - we just need one by September.  Also, a friend who has a friend in the auto industry said that this is the worst time to buy a car because everyone has their tax $$ back and wants to buy a car so inventory is down (new and used) and prices are up.  I think we should cool our heels until the end of June.

And I cannot believe that we are buying a car for my 16 year old.  To be clear, it won't be *his* car but it will be for him to drive.  Living the OC life here in Washington state. ;)

Feeling down today.  I had written a big long post about why but decided not to publish it.  Just feeling rejected by a family member today and it smarts.

I know that I have to accept that there is most likely some kind of mental illness involved (not on my part ;) but that doesn't make it hurt less.

Ok, off to dream about chocolate to make myself feel better.

My mom has been sick for a couple of months. Several pain and aches and numb hands. She was finally diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rheumatica and is now on prednisone (and apparently she has been told she will be on it for the rest of her life).  This condition explains the severe pain she had been experiencing  but not the numb hands so today she is headed to a neurologist to try to find out why she also is experiencing that.

My mom is 78 (she turns 79 in May). She is on so many medications that it is a little alarming. She has metformin for diabetes, thyroid medication, a statin for high cholesterol, a blood pressure pill to protect her kidneys from complications of diabetes, lorazepam as a sleep aid when needed, Cymbalta for pain from her new condition as well as prednisone. I think that is all of them but what a list!  Oh, I think she takes a few supplements like calcium, Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 as well.

I worry about how all of these medications mix together and how they might cause other health problems. I read just this past weekend that some people on statins end up with an irreversible autoimmune disease that attacks and breaks down your muscles.

The mom of a friend of mine was having issues with potassium levels (the doctors canceled two surgeries because of it) and it turns out it was all chemically induced by a wrong combination or amounts of her medications.

I hope after today's doctor appointments (my mom is also seeing her rheumatologist), that my mom has no more medications prescribed and that perhaps they can take her off one or two of them - like perhaps Cymbalta - although to be fair I think that Cymbalta has helped with her mood but that could also be because she is not in chronic pain anymore.

And, it is my goal to keep diabetes at bay for myself (it runs in the family - one of my brothers, my mom, my grandmother) as well as to ensure that my cholesterol levels stay low, blood pressure stays low and hopefully the 45% of my thyroid that I have remaining keeps functioning for a good number of years to come.

Finally Finished!

Finally!

 

No more renovations for a long, long time.

Happy New Year

Here we are.  Nine days into the New Year and no word on my tile. I was hoping we would have the tile installation scheduled already.  My hope is that I hear from my designer today or tomorrow that the tile is in at the distribution center so I can go pick it up and have the tile installation scheduled starting on Monday.  Wouldn't that be sweet?

I received the bill from the designer for her services from October through December 20th (geez, I wish she would bill me monthly because it would be easier to write several smaller cheques than one big one - easier psychologically, I mean).  Anyway, she did not list any extra hours for managing the floor screw up and fewer hours for the painting screw up than she actually managed so I do appreciate that.  She also ate the cost of the extra paint ($60/gallon + tax) and paid the painters an extra $200 herself.  That is something that I did not wish that I knew because it made me feel guilty a bit but really the fact that the cupboard doors and draw fronts got screwed up because the painters brought them back too soon had nothing to do with me.

Hoping to post an updated, completed kitchen photo soon.

Well, this is it for far.  Still need to tile backsplash. So many issues with the remodel that I am not even excited about it at all.  How sad it that?

So where are we?  Ah, yes. Kitchen remodel.

Not much progress. Last week if anyone asked I told them that I could not talk about it.  Since then though I suppose we have a had a little progress so I should not say no progress.

• floor guy did the best he could do without refinishing floor.  Floor will be refinished in January. Carpenter is not happy with my decision but I am not happy that he brought someone in who wrecked my floor.  The difference in price between what I held back and what will be charged is about $200 (including tax) so if the carpenter does not reimburse me that $200, I can eat it but I am sure my designer will pay if carpenter does not
• painters took doors away last Friday and will return them tomorrow or perhaps Monday. No rush. I do  not want them damaged during transportation again.  Designer paid for the additional gallon of paint required. However, I paid her more than 3x that to manage this fuck up so...
• lights went in on Tuesday. electrician moved outlets and sockets. Dimmer control to kitchen is running hot so I have to replace it. Why is nothing straightforward and simple?

Isn't this attractive?

I am very disappointed in our kitchen.  Cabinet doors came back but so many got banged up on the voyage home that the painters will need to come BACK and take them out again to repaint them. I am sure they are not happy either.  There are at least 12 that need to be redone (12 of 25!).

My floor is still gouged. Second attempt to fix did not work.  Floor guy needs to come back again. I am not sure if he is working in trade with the carpenter but he is not right on top of things here in terms of replying to my texts and letting me know exactly when he will be here.  Super frustrating.

I am disappointed that the tile will not be here until January. The blue glass knobs for the cupboards above the sink will be another week as will the pendant lights.

Christmas is coming and I am so ill-prepared.

Our Christmas tree is being delivered on the 4th and I have no room to put it.

Dex has a staph infection on his foot.

A crown on my molar broke off while I was eating a steak bowl from Chipotle on Saturday night.

I took a Xanax to get through yesterday.

Here we are so far.  Cabinet boxes painted. Waiting for painters to return doors and drawers which carpenter will install in 3 days.  Pendant lights ordered.  Tile ordered. Door/drawer hardware purchased/ordered.

Still living out of boxes in the dining room.


Love the colours so far.  Cannot wait to see it all pulled together.

Driving me Crazy

Kitchen stuff is coming along. We had a busy weekend and were out of the house for much of it which was good.  Carson's game was in Everett yesterday so we all trekked up there for an afternoon game.  Then we drove to Bellevue to go see "Thor".  Stephen slept through out. 

Today this was my day:
9:40am leave house drive to Kingsgate arena in Kirkland
11:15am leave Kingsgate arena and drive to Chipotle in Redmond
12:30pm Leave Chipotle in Redmond and drive to Safeway Gas bar in Renton
1:15pm leave Safeway gas in Renton and drive to Castle Ice Arena in Renton
2:00pm leave Castle Ice Arena and drive to Crossroads
3:10pm leave Crossroads mall and drive to pediatrician's office in Bellevue
3:50pm leave pediatrician's office in Bellevue and drive home
5:45pm leave home and drive to Mod Pizza
5:50pm leave Mod pizza because there are 40 million people in line and drive to McD's
6:00pm leave McD's and drive home
6:20pm leave home and drive Dex to church for youth group
6:29pm leave church and drive home
7:51pm leave home and drive to church
8:01pm leave church and drive home

And that was just me. Stephen left the house 30 minutes before me to go take Jax to his game and Cars, Dex and I followed.  Then we divided and conquered again while I took J and D, Stephen took Cars and had him running around to his things and they did not arrive home until about 8:15pm.  What a day.

And we have no kitchen.

Sneak peak:

 

 

Ok. Kitchen cabinets are emptied.  New doors are off. Drawers are out. New countertops are IN (white quartz on perimeter and black honed granite on island). New crown moulding installed.  Painters are to clean and prep cabinets then primer and spray.  Fingers crossed that it all goes well and looks good!

 

Kitchen

The kitchen renovations are coming along.  The new cupboard doors are up and drawer fronts are on.  Well except for the one that literally fell off because the cabinet side cracked.  Hopefully the carpenter will be able to repair it when the comes tomorrow to put up crown moulding since the painters are coming to start prep in two days.

The carpenter brought a buddy to help out last week and buddy dented my hardwood floors. I am pretty upset about it. I told our designer I would not accept anything but a complete fix on it.  Carpenter brought a flooring guy the other day who tried one thing that did not really work but he should be back tomorrow to try something else. I am so torn too because the carpenter is a really nice guy and while his buddy will be the one paying for it, I will not pay the carpenter until the floor is fixed.  Ugh - I hate this. Why can't things just be easy  and straightforward with no problems?

As I said, the painters are coming on Tuesday so we will be without access to our kitchen for about a week. I haven't finished packing everything up just yet either. I had planned to do it tonight but will do it tomorrow afternoon, after the carpenter leaves.

I love my new countertop and am so glad that the ceramic tile counter with the impossible to clean wide grout lines is gone!

Stephen has been having some throat issues and went to see the ENT who performed surgery on his a number of years ago.  The doctor told him he would have to put a scope up his nose and down his throat to see what was going on. As Stephen was being scoped, the ENT commented that it was tough getting around his deviated septum.  Stephen looked him in the eye and said "You mean the deviated septum that you repaired when you operated on me?"

The doctor explained that yes he did operate on it but it was so bad it could not be completely fixed.  Hmm...

Anyway, Stephen loves this doctor because the doctor has no bedside manner.  He is very matter-of-fact and blunt. Stephen says you can tell the guy is a total asshole.  I would totally hate to have this guy as a doctor.  Stephen hates our dentist because she is chipper and cheerful and talkative.  He does not want that - just the facts. I like doctors who are confident but also who also take the time to know me.

At the dentist yesterday they asked about the kids (even though a bad experience with Jax lead me to take them to a new dentist this year). I like that.  My primary care provider (whom I rarely see herself - usually just her nurse practioners) is also a rheumatologist and they spend lots of time with you when you go in and always ask how things are (personally).  Again, I love that!  Stephen just wants to be all business and be quick about it.

Math Woes

We got the email from the Algebra teacher suggesting that Dex step down to grade 8 math because he did not have a B in the class after the first unit test. Man, that is not what we wanted to hear. It had seemed that Dex finally had a handle on Algebra and the work load but he bombed the test because he forgot to label his graphs.  So the details, right?  Anyway we had so many questions, like if we transferred him to grade 8 math would he go in with the same grade (a D+!) or start from scratch.  Would he be expected to make up all of the work that he had missed and since he was planning to do a make up test to increase his grade (the teacher would take the average of both tests), would him scoring higher on the test make a difference?  I sent an email to the teacher and counselor asking these questions.

The school counselor said that he would not be expected to make up the work in grade 8 math and he would go in with a clean slate and no grade. Also, his schedule would not change as there was a grade 8 math class at the same time.  The teacher said virtually nothing about what would happen if he got a better grade but said ultimately that decision was up to us if we wanted to leave him in Algebra or not. Hmmm, that is not what the first letter seemed to indicate.

Stephen was angry at the school for the whole thing. We purposefully chose not to have our kids tested into Algebra during 6th grade because we did not think that they needed to jump ahead like that.  We both have our reasons for believing that kids need to work at their grade level (unless of course they are 'gifted' which our children are not - they are very smart, intelligent and hard working but not gifted). One of the other reasons is that the test was 2 or 3 hours on a Saturday morning and we just thought that would just make them resentful and they probably would not do well on the test.  We are happy with them progressing at grade level through math. Jax is doing nicely in Geometry in Grade 10.

However, last year, the school decided to test EVERYONE for Algebra placement (and they did it during the school day). Dex did extremely well on that test, he earned an A in grade 7 math and then scored high again on the state testing in math so they automatically put him in Algebra this year. The school put him in the class and now they want him OUT of the class because he did not have a B after the first unit test.  Stephen is pissed because Dex wants to STAY in Algebra because somehow the school had convinced him that by being "ahead" in math and able to take calculus in grade 12 he will get into a better university.

Dex got an A on the make up test because he labeled his graphs this time.

So, since the teacher said it was ultimately up to us, we decided to leave Dex in Algebra knowing that he probably won't get an overall A in the class or perhaps even a B.  But he thinks he will be happier in there so...

If, when the time comes, and Cars is placed into Algebra before his time (meaning before high school), we will immediately take him out and keep him in his proper grade's math. Of course, I really do not think that will happen with Cars (Dex does have more of a mathematical mind than my other two kids).

Jax's 504 Plan review meeting went well.  He grudgingly accepted that it was good for him after all.  Then a few days later we received a letter in the mail about the free practice SAT test that the school was going to be offering to all sophomores during school time.  The letter apologized and said that they were not able to accommodate students who had 504 Plans issued under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Jax freaked out and said "What?!  I am considered DISABLED because of that?!".  "That" being the 504 Plan. 

I tried to explain he is only considered eligible because he has a condition that could affect a major life function (breathing if he has an anaphylactic reaction).  And of course he does not need any accommodations for taking tests so I told him it was just a form letter sent to every family and student with a 504 Plan.  He is still fuming about it because he is embarrassed.  :\

I feel a little defeated at the moment.  I set up Jax's 504 Plan review for this year and told him about it when he got home from school. He asked me if every kid with a peanut allergy has a 504 Plan.  I replied (jokingly, of course) that no, it was just that I loved him more than other parents loved their children.  He told me that he did not need it anymore and it was overkill.  I asked if he felt that it made him stand out and he said yes! 

The thing is, we never have to even deal with the 504 Plan except for the annual reviews now because there have been no issues. But his 504 Plan stopped his 5th grade teacher from using peanut butter in a science lesson.  And his 504 Plan allowed him to have a separate desk in 5th grade so he did not have to sit at the shared desk beside the kid who brought in peanut butter for lunch every.single.day.

I feel a little sad about him saying this.  I know he is speaking only as a teenager who only sees that it makes him "different" (except that no one even knows except his teachers unless Jax tells them!).  All of the fighting that we had to do with the school district to get this 504 plan in place - from the school nurse, school psychologist, principal to the nursing supervisor and risk management lawyers).  It was a huge fight - a battle!  And it was all for Jax and it feels like he just does not even care about all of that - just how it affects him now.

And logically I know he is a self-centered teenager who does not want to stand out and does not want to seem different.  It is bad enough that he has this allergy let alone having a plan at school that labels him as having a "disability".  He does not realize all of the acrimony and nasty comments from that friggin school nurse that we had to endure.  He does not know all of the hours of research done to prepare for his eligibility meeting. He knows he is a teenager who does not want to be the center of attention.

So I am trying to get over my hurt feelings. And we will go to the meeting and he will sit sullenly and act all embarrassed that I am there but I will know that his teachers will have reviewed his 504 Plan and he will be safe at school.