It was expen$ive to fix the side mirror but I took the opportunity to get an oil change, replace the burned out fog lights and for them to fix the light over the license plate. There are still scratch marks in the paint on the side of the car and the plastic along the window is dinged up but not worth fixing, IMO. If it were Stephen's new car, we definitely would have gone through insurance to have the car brought back to like-new condition.

I was trying to figure out what kind of owl hit us. I am still not quite sure but apparently owls being hit by cars on a highway is much more common that one might imagine. Whoo knew?

Here is a quick run-down of our trip to Vancouver:

1) While driving along I-5, not far from the border, an owl smashed into the side of our car and broke the side mirror. It scared the crap out of all of us and Cars is still traumatized
2) My sister's boyfriend got sick so they did not make the long drive from Edmonton to Alberta
3) Stephen and I were watching election coverage on CNN. Dex later told us that he used to like Obama but doesn't want him to win because the tv said he used to be a terrorist. Yikes! I see how an 8 yr old might draw that conclusing based on what he saw but it makes me sick that adults believe it!
4) I had a Thanksgiving turkey dinner at White Spot. The dressing ROCKED.
5) Lola is so funny! Dex and Cars were falling all over each other trying to make her laugh.
6) My mom and I get along a lot better when we are not sleeping under the same roof.

That's it. I need to call a dealership tomorrow to see about getting a new side mirror.

Blogger ate my post. It was witty and smart and it is all gone.

Acutally, it was probably a bit dull anyway so Blogger did me a favour by "editing" it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian readers (both of you!).

Happy weekend to the rest of you! I hope you three enjoy your weekend. ;)

Book Club is tonight. The book is called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Unfortunately, I was only able to get through June before the book had to go back to the library. The book club also marks the "official" return of a former member whom we voted back in. I organized the anonymous poll on freeonlinesurveys.com. I would be interested to know who voted Yes and who voted No. And one person abstained from voting. I know who it was. She felt that she could not vote one way or the other because she did not want to hurt anyone's feelings.

December will be the start of our 5th year of book club. I really love going and for the most part, have always finished the books. It is unfortunate that I had to return this one on Tuesday else I would have completed it. I will probably borrow someone's copy and finish it at another time. Anyway, we have one member who almost NEVER reads the book. Sometimes she has not even picked it up. And mostly she has read just a few chapters of it. Another member has missed about half the meetings since she started (she was not an original member). That bugs me! And often her reasons are things like "we have birthdays next week and I have to prepare" as if the three hours at book club will this week be the make or break it for her party prep. Now, if it were a one time thing, sure I could see that. But it is often.

Back to this current book - it is about eating only locally-grown (as in what this family grows) foods for one year. They can buy or trade with local farmers and friends but that is it. It is an interesting concept. So no strawberries in October. Of course it totally made me think twice about what I was going to take tonight. Lately, I had been taking veggie trays. But looking through Safeway today, I noticed the red peppers that are on sale are from Mexico. And I am sure that celery is not "in season" in WA either. In the end, I made meringue cookies (hopefully the eggs are not from too far away) with organic chocolate chips (not local and hopefully "fair trade" chocolate. Plus they were on sale ;)

Ok, off to make dinner for my family then get ready for book club. Looking forward to the sparks flying (there will be no avoiding political talk with the impending election).

It was down to 64 degrees in my house today so I went out to buy a new furnace filter and installed it. I waited until this evening to turn the furnace on. I have switched it the thermostat to the "ON" position but it has not kicked on yet. Hmmm...I hope it isn't broken.

Ok, I went and checked. The circuit breaker in the garage had flipped. It is working! Heat!

When I said I went to check, there was a lot that really happened.

I walked to the thermostat and turned the heat up to 73 degrees, waiting to hear the heat go on. It did not. I told Stephen that the heat did not go on said that I wondered if the furnace was working. I walked to the furnace/laundry/mud room and I took the front off the furnace to check to see if the pilot light was lit (no it was not). I read the directions quickly - it says pilot light will light when there is a call for heat. I told Stephen's my concern that the furnace did not turn on. He gave me an exasperated sigh and got up to come check it out.

We both went to look at the furnace and noticed an electrical switch on the side of the furnace. Stephen flipped it on and off a couple of times. Nothing happened. Then he went to the garage to get his flashlight, came back in and peered in the furnace. He read the same directions and said "Maybe it is not cold enough". I said I had the heat turned on to 73 degrees. I then decided I will call the furnace guy tomorrow if the heat does not come on by the morning. Stephen said the furnace cannot be broken because it was fine last year and we don't need a new one because our house inspector said our (23 yr old!) furnace seemed to be in fine shape.

Stephen walked back out to the garage to return the flashlight and I ask him to check the circuit breaker. He said he is sure it is not the circuit breaker but I ask him to double check. He ~rolled~ his eyes at me and walked over to the circuit breaker and yanked open the front panel. He noticed that one breaker is flipped and then he reads the panel. It says FURNACE.

I must also say that I made Stephen admit that I was right and that getting all pissy about checking the circuit breakers was not necessary. He claimed that he was not pissy because I was right but that I did not check the circuit breaker myself because I am afraid there might be spiders out there. This is partially true. But, I am more afraid of being electrocuted by a loose wire on the electrical panel. Of course, there isn't one but in my worst-case-scenario mind, you never know...

So when I say "Ok, I went and checked. The circuit breaker in the garage had flipped. It is working! Heat!" there really was a lot more to it, wasn't there?

And, now the house is heating up nicely. :)

I took Cars for his 5 year wellness check appointment today (the one I forgot to schedule in August!). He is at the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. Right on the path he has been on pretty much since birth. The doctor asked about his speech as she mentioned that he was not sounding his R's correctly. We've decided to wait to see if he gets them. The S's and Th's will have to wait until he is 8 before we do something about it.

During the appointment, Cars was asked to copy some shapes and then write his name and draw a self-portrait. The doctor said he did a good job then she pulled out Jax and Dex's same eval they had at his age and let me tell you - Cars' did rock! He was spot on with the shapes and his self-portrait had so much detail!

Now, the differences could be attributed to the fact that he is actually 5 yrs and 2 months old (vs the other two who saw the doctor within a couple of weeks of their 5th birthdays). Also, Cars is already in kindergarten and I that could be it too. Or he could be just that much more brilliant than his brothers.

Quick, what was that number for the Quest program contact again? ;)

Ok, so you've seen pictures of Jax and his hair. You know that hair. That coarse, thick, wavy, way-too-long hair. He loves it! Loves it! He thinks it looks great!

Jax uses a 2-in-1 shampoo AND an additional conditioner yet his hair still looks like he stuck his finger in the socket most days. I have used the hair dryer to blow it dry and "style" it some days and it does look a little better (far less coarse, and there is even some SHINE to his locks) but he hates the dryer and complains so much that it is not something I can do everyday (or even more than one or twice a month). I am hoping that puberty is kind to him and his hair either straightens out or gets curlier. It has got to get better, right?

Here is a photo of him on the first day of school and he thought his hair rocked.


Look at that hair! I often joke with him about buzzing all of his hair off while he sleeps and that day was no exception. All the way to school and while we were standing outside of his class I told him that he was going to wake up in the morning looking like Charlie Brown.

Then, this kid came up and got in line.



OMG! Here I was, teasing Jax about his crazy hair but at least he BRUSHES it! Anyway, Jax told me I could never, ever complain about his hair again because at least it did not look like that kid's! And I did not complain. For about a week.

Anyway, this coming Tuesday is Picture Day at school so in an attempt to have his hair look a little tamer for the pictures, I took the kids to SuperCuts for haircuts. Or "trims" because they all refused to go for "haircuts". The stylist told me that if she cuts it any shorter (without going short) it was just going to POUF out so she recommended "taming" it with some hair wax. We've tried hair gel and tons of leave-in conditioner in the past but not wax so I said "sure". She she cut his hair and applied wax and it looked almost good so I said "We'll take some!".

She walked over to the shelves of hair product and pulled down the jar. It was called "ShortSEXYhair". OMG! What kind of product is that to use on a 10 year old boy?!

I bought it and he grinned all the way home. It just totally reinforced the his idea that his hair looks GOOD!

Twenty-two years ago today Stephen and I had our first date. We went to dinner at The Keg then went to see a movie at the Cineplex.

Wow! That was more than half my life ago.

How sad is this? I made dinner for the second time this week (rather than just "assembling" dinner) and Stephen is making a big deal about it. It is actually a little embarrassing how rarely I make a "real" dinner. I made souvlaki on Monday(with homemade tzatziki!) and tonight it was chicken with broccoli pasta (broccoli, garlic, butter, onions, pasta and parmesan cheese).

I rarely make nice dinners for a number of reasons. First, the kids won't eat them. Cars and Dex were fake gagging when they tasted the pork souvlaki the other night. For tonight's dinner, I kept some broccoli and some pasta out of the sauce because I knew they would complain. Dex actually ate some of the pasta with the sauce so I do appreciate that. Then they complained that I did not keep enough broccoli out of the garlic sauce (yes, my kids all love broccoli!). I cannot win.

Secondly, with Jax's appointment on Tuesdays, there is just no time to make dinner. So Jax and I get dinner together and then take the long drive to his appointment. Stephen takes Cars and Dex out to dinner those nights. They definitely win as Jax and I are limited to either eating something really quick or something that is portable.

Wednesday nights, Stephen works late and is not home for dinner. So, I am not going to waste my time making something special that all of the kids will not eat. So Wednesday nights we usually have tacos, pasta and (frozen) meatballs (no tomato or marinara sauce because the kids won't eat it), or Kraft Dinner. All meals that are pretty much just heating and assembling.

Friday is always pizza night.

And Stephen always cooks on Saturday and Sunday nights because he likes to do it and he is a much better at cooking than me (or is it I?).

Anyway, after not really cooking all summer long, and with the kids at school all day, one of my goals is now to have yummier dinners on Mondays and Thursdays. I may even try for Wednesdays if I make them kid-friendly. Let's see how I do.

Today was probably the last nice warm day that we will have for a while. I picked the kids up from school and they played at the park for an hour before we headed to swimming lessons.

While we were at the park, I noticed an eagle circling overhead. Then there were five eagles circling around and around. As Spy and I watched them, more and more eagles joined them until there were *25* eagles circling in the sky. It was an amazing sight! Then they all flew off together. Wow!

Cars and I swam while Jax and Dex were in the other pool for their lesson. And I took the circuit training class earlier in the day so I am completely exhausted. I hope I do not fall asleep during Project Runway.

Ok, it looks like my volunteering plan is coming together. I work in Jax's class doing "production" work for his teacher once a month from 8:20-10:30. Every Tuesday, I am in Cars' class helping out with the Literacy Group and I am planning to teach art on Dex's class on Tuesday afternoons once each month. I say planning because I am meeting with the teacher tomorrow to discuss dates. The kids have nothing specialties on Tuesdays (no gym, library, music) so that would be a nice break for them.

So, now that everything is set, I can go about enjoying my "vacation" year. Guitar lessons, working out, shopping (gotta stop that), etc. Now I need to figure out how to fit housework into the schedule. ;)

The third week of school, we had Curriculum Night where parents met with the teachers to understand what is expected of their children this year, the curriculum for each class and any other information. Because we have three kids in the school, we got to be there for all three sessions (from 6pm-8:40pm). I signed up for volunteering (it all has to happen on either Tuesday or Thursday afternoon because I am being selfish with my time!).

Anyway, the last session we went to was for Cars' kindergarten class. The teacher went through her packet of information and opened the floor up to questions.

Parent A: My daughter went to a Montessori preschool and she learned to write in CURSIVE. Must she go back to PRINTING?
Teacher: Yes, we teach D'Nealian Handwriting and expect the children to become proficient at it.

Parent B: I want information about any "Highly Capable Program" so we can look into getting our daughter into the program.
Teacher: The program starts in First Grade and is called "Quest". Testing takes place in the New Year. I will give you the number of the program contact at the school district.
Most Parents: [waiting with poised pencils]

Parent C: Our child is reading already. Is she going to be dragged down by the other children in the class who aren't?
Teacher: Children will be working at their own levels once we test them all individually. We assess their reading levels using the "DIBELS" assessment which is also used as the determining criteria for Quest testing.
Parent C: Who is the contact for the highly capable program again?

Stephen: Cars is still asking for help in the bathroom at home. Can you tell me if he is wiping his own bum at school?
Teacher: Did you really think he was ready for kindergarten?

Ok, Stephen did not really ask that question but those other questions were asked. Apparently most parents in the class thinks that their child is gifted. This is a completely different attitude than we encountered in half-day kindergarten (although there were a few parents like that there too).

Also, I feel like I am at a bit of a disadvantage about getting to know the kids and parents too since Cars takes the bus to school. With Jax and Dex, most of the parents stood around outside of the kindergarten classrooms waiting for the kids to be dismissed so we would get to talking and get to know one another. However, I don't have that with Cars because of the bus. I have been picking him up on Wednesdays but mostly I was intercepting him at the bus but now I've set it up to make it official that I get him over by the kindergarten gate. Maybe I'll get to know the parents a little better and try to figure out which child is the cursive writer and figure out who all of the gifted kids are too. ;)

There is not much going on. Today it is warm so we worked in the garden and yard. My neighbour had a huge pile of mulch sitting on the road in front of her house since the beginning of July. She has been digging away at it all summer but there was a lot still left over. She told me I could take the rest. I filled up the wheelbarrow 8 times and only managed to fill in half of this little "island" that is in my front yard. But, the road is now cleaned up and I got a good work out. Next year we'll really need to do a lot of work in the yard and garden to get a handle on it all.

My vegetable garden was a bust this year. I got six measly carrots out of it, three snow peas. My tomato plants finally sprouted some tomatoes but they are still green. Not one of my pumpkin plants have sprouted fruit (although they did all flower). Next year, I will plant the seeds much earlier or only put in plants rather than seeds in May.

Here are a few pictures:

Green Tomatoes

Pumpkinless Pumpkin patch


Six carrots


Need more mulch

One nice thing is my yard is my hydrangea bush which is very happy living next to the hot tub.

My very happy Hydrangeas

Are You Doing It?

I went for my annual mammogram today. I love the centre that I go to. They hire the warmest, friendliest women who are kind and caring and make a huge effort to make one feel comfortable and relaxed during a rather uncomfortable procedure.

Our centre recently moved to digital mammography so I had the "benefit" of being able to get some extra images taken. The tech explained to me that in the past, when film was so expensive, they just took 4 standard images. Based on what she saw (nothing serious, just fibrous tissue), she knew she would need to take additional images whereas in the past, I would have had to wait for a radiologist to review the films then call me back in to have images taken at different angles.

She also showed me where I have a little marker in my right breast from my past stereotactic breast biopsy. Cool but weird at the same time.

All this and it took less than 15 minutes.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Remember that early detection is the key to surviving breast cancer. Ladies, if you are over 20, do a breast self-exam every month. Have your doctor do a breast check at your annual pap check (you are getting that done too, right?!). If you are 40, schedule a baseline mammogram (or at age 35 if your insurance pays for it*). Go for an annual mammogram. Do it!

Great information can be found at:
Feel Your Boobies
Susan G. Komen
National Breast Cancer Foundation

* I had a baseline mammogram at age 36 and a half (I was pregnant and nursing at age 35+). When I had a follow-up mammogram at age 40, they were able to see a clear difference between my baseline and the new images. Follow-up images and a stereotactic breast biopsy ensued. Fortunately, it was "almost certainly" not cancer. These teeny, tiny calcifications would never have been felt with a breast self-exam.

Cars' homework last night was to put something "brown" in a paper bag and then at school today, he would give hints to the class and they would try to guess his brown item.

Now, my children are notorious for getting the most obscure item, giving the lamest hints, then getting upset when no one guesses what they have (Jax and Dex have had similar homework). So, I tried to steer Cars towards some really obvious brown items such as pine cones, some dirt, a twig, a plastic horse that was brown, etc. Cars would have none of it. Jax tried to convince him to put a brown paper bag in the brown paper bag (apparently this is very funny to 10 year old boys). Nope, Cars did not like that idea either.

When Cars finally decided on his brown item, I groaned. He wanted a piece of cardboard because "cardboard is brown". Ugh.

"What hint will you give?", I asked him.

"It comes from trees", he said.

Well, yes but that makes it sound like it is a pine cone or an acorn. I tried coaching him. "It is made from ground up trees" and "Boxes are made from it". He was so dismissive when he said "I don't want to say that".

So, I cut a piece of cardboard off a box. Then I tried coaching him again "It is very stiff paper". All he wanted to say was "It is squiggly in middle", which is true but too vague.

Anyway, off to school he went with his square of cardboard box in his bag. After school I asked him about his project and he said in disbelief "Nobody even guessed what it was!" He had apparently told them the "It comes from trees" line and he was indignant when someone guessed "pine cone".

Hopefully his next oral assignment will go a little better. In the meantime, he wants to keep his little piece of cardboard because it was his "homework" and he was proud of coming up with the idea all on his own.

I made the call and canceled my surgery. Even though I had already decided not to go ahead with it, just making the telephone call to the doctor's office was an even bigger relief. Whew! Well, I just left a message for the doctor's nurse.

Today I also had to go out and buy my annual pink bra for my mammogram which is scheduled for Thursday. I stopped by Nordstrom's first to see if they had any pink bras in my size on their clearance racks but no luck so it was off to Victoria's Secret. It was so dead at the mall today so I cannot believe the service I got at VS. Made me feel a little special (when really, I think they were all just bored). Anyway, I used my $10 off coupons that they seem to send me every other month so it was a good deal.

So, I left VS feeling special with my pretty pink bra (and free panties!) and thought I would treat myself to a hazelnut creme truffle at Godiva. When I walked in the store I noticed a few customers hanging around the counter but no salesperson. I walked over and spied the yummy one that I wanted and I waited and waited and waited and waited for a salesperson. No salesperson materialized. One of the people waiting at the counter walked out and another drifted away to look at something else. Still I waited. Finally, I heard a voice from the back say "Oh, do you want something?" and I said "Yes, I want to buy something" and she said "I'll be out in a minute. I am just doing something for a customer who called in". And I replied "Well, I am a customer and I am right here waiting to pay". One of the others who had been waiting snickered. But the salesperson did not come out so I said "Well, I was a customer but now I am leaving your store". and I skipped out of the store. Drats, no chocolate! But, I had some smug satisfaction of saying what was on my mind. I laughed out loud as I walked back through the mall.

I did not really need that chocolate anyway.

I have several email addresses but one of them is my favourite. It is justmyname@#####.com. Yes, just my first name! How lucky is that? No weird characters or spelling or random digits at the end of my name. I signed up for it years ago but I did not use it regularly until about two years ago. Now it is almost my main email address.

The problem is that other people out there with my name seem to think it is THEIR account. I get shipping confirmation emails from potterybarn.com, amazon.com, requests for renting the same dub equipment that is used on The Hills (?), etc. Someone even tried to reset my password since they could not "remember" it. Um, you cannot remember it because it is my account!

So what happens to your information/emails/stuff when you can not remember your password (or perhaps even email account)? I heard an interesting program on NPR last month about computing "in the cloud" which is what it is called when you work and store documents, emails, files, pictures on the internet. Problems can start when you forget your password and cannot get it reset. How do you access your information? What rights to you have to that information or those files? Ever read the user agreement? Probably not (who does?!) so you'd be surprised by the answer!

Anyway, if you are interested in reading (or hearing the article, you can find it here.

And all of you who think you own the account that is mine? Hands off!

A little less crazy

I am feeling a little more in control of my emotions today. I have decided NOT to have the surgery next month. I am just not ready to die. ;) Seriously, I am worried about recovery time and this time of the year is just too busy. I'll wait until January. I need to call the GYN's office tomorrow to let them know.

Just making this decision has been a huge relief. I am getting some control back. I think that is part of it. I am a control freak and when things are out of control, I do not handle it well at all. My time was not my own last week plus I made a mistake scheduling the garage sale for this time of the year. Next time (if there is a next time), we do it in the spring.

I also need to get back to exercising. The week before last I did some long walks (and one trip to the gym) but nothing last week. I need that exercise to keep me sane.

Oh, and chocolate has been helping too.

Today it pissed rain so our garage sale was not as successful as I thought it would be. I did sell the dinosaur bedding from Cars' crib, along with the custom pillows that I made out of an extra crib bumper, the curtains I customized with blue trim and the two dino paintings I painted for the room for a good price. I loved that bedding so much and wished that I had purchased the twin-sized quilts too (of course, that never would have happened because I think that PB is expen$ive and I bought the crib quilt and bumpers on clearance and they were already out of the twin-sized quilts).

I have a lot of things to take the Goodwill on Monday (the Goodwill trailer behind Safeway fills up on the weekend so I will just wait until Monday when they bring a new trailer). Our garage will look more like a garage than a storage unit.

As I mentioned, the rain is back. It has been pouring all day long and it is cold. I think we'll have to turn on the furnace in a few days as the temperatures are supposed to keep dropping. Brrrr!

I just re-read my post from yesterday and I have a typo (not should read now) plus an unfinished sentence. Man, it was just a bad day.

Today was day 1 of the garage sale. I am STUNNED that people dicker over stuff that costs 25 cents. Seriously, T and I price our stuff very inexpensively (we've been told our prices are too low) and yet people still ask for free stuff (or to knock money off). I can understand bartering for things that cost more than a few dollars or if you buy many things that comes to $5.50 and asking if you can get it for $5 (sure!). But to want to buy three 25 cent items for only 25 cents. C'mon!

I managed to get rid of two old dressers that would otherwise have meant a trip to the dump. T sold a lot of her furniture that she brought over plus a lot of kids' clothes. She was re-folding an old skirt of her dd's and felt a lump in the pocket. She reached in and found $16! Good thing she had not yet sold the skirt. Also, in a bag of "old toys", she found a brand-new Webkinz of her dd's. She figures her dd was playing with it in the basement and left it there then it was shoved in a bag with the old toys. Boy, someone really could have scored at our sale!

Day 2 tomorrow.