Bullet Dodged?

On Monday, we received an email from the Toyota dealership telling us that they had received dealer delivery date (well, date range) from Toyota. Our new vehicle was going to be delivered between February 9th and February 16th. FINALLY! I was a little bit excited but then I thought "I'll believe it when it is sitting in my driveway". And sure enough...the vehicle is recalled and all sales of the vehicle are stopped AND they have stopped production of the vehicle until further notice.

*sigh*

The car broker called us and said she would contact the dealer and find out what that means about our car but no response yet. Stephen told her that it seem we are getting lots of negative mojo around this whole deal.

Or, maybe all of these road blocks were to ensure that by the time we did get the car, it would be SAFE (and not have the faulty accelerator)?

In any event, we'll wait to find out if/when the problem will be fixed. In the meantime, I've spent a lot of today on consumerreports.org, MSN Autos and edmunds.com looking at other cars.

Friggin' Toyota.

Well Eye'll Be Darned

I had an eye doctor appointment today because it has been almost two years since I last went plus I have several new "floaters" and I read once that you were to see a doctor if that happened. Turns out the floaters that I do have is nothing to be alarmed about but are just a sign of "aging". *sigh*

An interesting thing too is that vision in my left eye has improved. Of course the disposal contacts that I wear (I wear them just 1-2x/week and my glasses the rest of the time) do not come in such a slight prescription so now I will only have to wear a contact lens in my right eye. That will save me about $10/month. My right eye has gotten slightly worse. I was bummed because I have two boxes of those lenses left (had to use up all of my vision benefits) but the eye doctor's office will take back the unopened boxes and exchange them for the new prescription - whoo-hoo!

I am also thinking of getting new glasses. They are going to order in a pair for me:

They ordered this colour and also a red/dark grey colour. I might just get new lenses in my current glasses because I still really like them too.

I do have to go back next week for a visual field testing to check for glaucoma. I am sure I do not have it but the doctor has always been concerned about the size of my cup-to-disc ratio in my eyes and she said with my age a baseline visual field test would be good. I am not alarmed because my kids also have big disc cups so I know it is probably just something that is hereditary and does not necessarily mean glaucoma.

The best news though is that despite my age, I have excellent near vision so no need for bifocals. Not even close! I could read the very teeniest of print on the card.

I was looking through some files on the computer and I came across this one:



I thought it was pretty cute and wanted to share. Pre-Cars so it probably was December '02.

Go Leafs!

He Shoots! He Scores!

Today, Cars' team (and the other Mite-Minor team in the league) were filmed for "Evening Magazine" which is a pseudo-news program on King5 here in Seattle. They do little "feel good" stories. They wanted to tape some young kids playing hockey and they will feature the story during the Olympics (King5 is our local NBC station).

Anyway, as part of the story, it was arranged for one of the dads on the blue team, who used to be an NHL goalie, to suit up and let the kids have a shoot out. It was so cute seeing the kids skate down the ice and shoot the puck. Of course the goalie was such a good sport and made a big show of trying to stop the pucks but most did end up in the net. Each kid got to do it twice and Cars was so excited that he scored both times.

This and That and This

Today, Cars asked Dex if he knew the song "Fuzzy Wuzzy". I told him *I* knew the words but not the tune (who turned it into a song?). Cars, as always, was AMAZED that I knew something that he learned in school. Usually it is songs that he has learned in Music. As though these are kids' song so why on earth would an adult (other than a teacher) know them?

I dropped Dex off at his guitar lesson today and I noticed another store has closed in the retail complex there. There is a video game store, the music store, a hair salon, Cold Stone Creamery, a Mongolian Grill and a bike shop left. The Mexican restaurant, a gift store, something else I forget now and today they are clearing out a framing shop. I am most devastated about the Mexican restaurant because it was good and a step between fast food and a real sit-down restaurant. The owners of the music store told me they closed due to mis-management rather than the economy. The framing shop I am sure closed due to lack of business. Funny, just last week I was thinking "Wow, I cannot believe they are still here" and look what happened!

I took Jax to an open house at one of the Choice Schools offered by our school district. It is a junior high school where the focus is on "Arts and Reasoning". Admittance is based on a lottery so we have to finish filling out the application and mail it in. The school only has 90 students (30 per grade). There were probably well over 200 6th graders at the open house last night so I am not holding my breath that Jax will go but I am very hopeful that he gets accepted in the lottery. Keep your fingers crossed for him!

We spent the weekend de-cluttering and some other small home improvement projects. Stephen repaired the drywall in the laundry room ceiling where they had to cut to run new pipes for the furnace. Of course he pulled out the 5 gallon can of paint that said "Laundry Room" and slapped it up over the patch jobs and of course it is so totally the wrong colour so now we'll have to paint the whole ceiling.

I also kept "Hoarders" in mind and was able to toss out tons of stuff that I had been holding on to and filled up five huge shopping bags full of stuff. My goal is to have that laundry/mud/crap room completely cleared out and organized by the end of February. I hope I do it.

On Facebook, there is a meme going around asking people to post old photos of themselves. I chose this one. I was in 5th grade and I was 9 years old. Look at those snaggly teeth! My left front tooth was crooked because it grew in over my baby tooth. Both of my front teeth grew in at different times so I had one big one and one little one and my older brothers used to call me "Fang". The gap between my front teeth was so large that I used to be stick a wooden ruler between them. My mom was worried that I would need braces (money was very tight in our family when I was growing up) but the dentist told her to wait and see what would happen when my eye teeth came in. Guess what? The eye teeth grew in and pushed my teeth all together and they are straight. I have a 40% overbite (I guess "ideal" is less than 30%) but otherwise, straight teeth.

I have mentioned before that my children need orthodontics. Stephen took the boys to the dentist before Christmas and again it was brought up that they *really* need work done. Stephen had totally spaced and had forgotten that they had gone so he came home with a referral for Jax to go ASAP (not sure why the dentist did not have the info about the previous referral).

Here is a recent photo:


See, he has a gap between his front teeth but it is way smaller than mine was at that age. And so far, his teeth are really, really straight.

So why is the dentist so hot to get Jax in braces? I mean, she is not the orthodontist. Does she get a kick-back for every referral that results in braces? I have no delusions that Dex and Cars won't need them but wonder if Jax really will. It seems young to me if it is just for teeth straightening. And the gap will surely disappear when his eye teeth come in, right?

Anyway, it has just been something I have been thinking about since they went to see the dentist a few weeks ago and with the start of the New Year and how we will spend the money in our Flexible Spending Account this year.

Come Out, Come Out, Where Ever You Are!

Hey Faithful Readers,

National Delurking Day is this week (either yesterday or tomorrow, I cannot ascertain). Anyway, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for people who read my blahg to leave a comment to delurk and say "HEY". I do know many of you out there reading (I can tell by your locations listed on the sitemeter) so thank you for visiting and reading. I appreciate it and will do so more if I ever get enough visits to my blahg to generate any sort of income from my sidebar Blogher ads. ;)

Please leave delurk and leave a comment. Thanks!! (yes, that includes you, Amy, in FL).

Kindest Regards,
Pez

I am glad the weekend is over. I could use a do-over but instead I'll just look forward to a new day tomorrow.

Today was one of the worst parenting days ever. We left one of our children behind at the hockey arena and did not realize for about an hour.

We had driven in separate cars and left the arena at separate times. We met back up at Co$tco and it took a few minutes for me to realize that Dex wasn't with Stephen and Stephen to realize that Dex wasn't with me. Stephen is the one who realized first what had happened and he RAN to his car as I finally I caught on. Jax, Cars and I sat dumbfounded watching Stephen run off.

I finally came to my senses and called the hockey arena in a panic then I called Spy for her dh's cell number because I knew he was headed back to the arena around that time for Cam's practice. When Spy's dh answered the phone, I heard Cam say Dex's name in the background so I knew that everything was ok. Spy's dh told me that he had just spoken with Stephen (he had Stephen's cell number) as Stephen was racing back to the arena (it is about a 15 minute drive from Co$tco).

Once I knew that Dex was ok I started to cry. Poor Jax and Cars were so silent and worried. Then Cars kept saying over and over again "This is just like 'Home Alone'!".

Dex, of course, was very upset once he realized about 20 minutes after Stephen left that he had missed him and he was left behind. He started to cry and one of Cam's teammates recognized Dex as Cam's friend and came over to ask him what was wrong. Then he told a coach who asked Dex to sit with them. One of the parents let Dex use his cell phone to call us but Dex only knows our home phone number* and of course we were not home. Then a while later Spy's dh and Cam (and Col) came back to the arena for Cam's practice and you know the rest.

So, talk about feeling like a horrible parent. I guess I can very thankful that it happened at a hockey arena and not a gas station or somewhere else. And I am so thankful for Spy's dh and for Cam's teammates.

And, hopefully Dex is not scarred for life. I think Stephen and I are.

*I have been stressing for ages to all three of my kids that they must memorize my cell phone number but they keep saying they don't really ~need~ to so even though I drill it over and over to them, they had not memorized it. Jax always smugly says "It is programmed in the phone" referring to the phone that he and Dex use when they go to the store or the library but neither of them had that phone with them today. Anyway, after today's drilling, I think that Jax finally has it memorized and Cars and Dex are ~almost~ there. Then we'll start working on Stephen's number.

I spent 3 HOURS cutting out circles for a 5th grade teacher today (I don't even have a child in 5th grade!). I am beginning to regret signing up to be a production volunteer at the school every other Thursday. While I hate photocopying because it is mindless and b-o-r-i-n-g, it at least does not cause me physical pain like cutting out 120 circles did (they had to be on tag board, not construction paper which is much easier to cut). My thumb has a little numb spot - do you think it is nerve damage?!?!).

There was not even any interesting conversations going on in the production room that I could dip in on. Spy was in there the other day and she learned that the music teacher is in his late 40's (he looks 10-15 yrs younger), and in November, I got to listen to one parent's opinion of several teachers (it was very interesting although I wish she had lowered her voice a bit).

Let's hope that next time I am there I don't have to do any more cutting. I won't complain when I have to copy reams and reams of paper. Really, I won't.

Cars finally learned to tie his shoes. Finally! He had absolutely no interest in learning because there was no motivation thanks to shoes with Velcro and elastic laces. I had tried for ages to cajole him into learning but he was not interested. What did it was the music teacher at school taught the kids a little ditty and she had little shoes for them all to practice on and voilà! Cars can tie shoes!

Funny what kids will do for people other than their parents.

I had huge plans for the kids' first day back to school. I was going to rush to the club and work out and then soak in the whirlpool there before having a nice hot shower and taking my time getting ready. But, it was a complete downpour this morning so after I drove the kids to the bus stop (4 houses away - actually just 3!!), I drove back home, did a few exercises and read my book most of the day between loads of laundry.

I am thoroughly enjoying my book (for book club - "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell). I was worried about getting through it before next week's meeting but I won't have any trouble finishing it. I need to set my reading goals for the year. Each year the goal has gone down. :( I think I need to say 25 books which is one more than two per month. I can do it!

Thank Yous

The kids wrote all of their Christmas Thank Yous today. My favourite was Dex's to the Reads. He wrote:

Thank you so much for the new wallet. My old one was getting pretty full.

Love it! He became very upset with me for laughing out loud. I told him I was laughing because it was sweet and funny. I tried to explain that it sounded as though his old wallet was stuffed full of money (rather than old gift cards and receipts which he could just throw away but hasn't).

And Cars wanted to write To LastName's no matter whom the thank you was for. "Don't use Granny's last name.", I would tell him, "Write 'Dear Granny'". "I don't want to" he'd reply and then "What's Auntie Ev's last name?". And "Geez, there are an awful lot of people with the same last name as us!". *sigh*

Happy New Year!

Well, I am well on my way with my resolutions! IKEA delivered the "lockers" and our Christmas tree fell down in the night so I had to clean up the broken decorations and clean up the rest. While I was putting the decorations and ornaments in boxes, I sorted out some that I really no longer wanted or used. Yes, I am working on that hoarding! ;)

I have also started a blog where I will post a PEZ a day. I hope I can remember to blog every.single.day all year long! PEZ She Sez

Resolute Resolutions

I think it is time that I made some New Year's resolutions. In no particular order they are...

1) Meal Planning: I suck at this and too often dinner is thrown together or I will decide at 3pm that I want Grilled Chicken Caesar salad and then I have to run to the store for most of the ingredients. Also, with our schedule busier than before, a little planning would mean less fast food for us.

2) Lose Weight: To go along with the meal planning, I am hoping that I will lose weight. I have made this resolution every year since I was 15 years old. Gah! How I wish I could go back and smack the 15-28 year old me. While I will say that I have indeed lost weight this year, I am certainly not at my goal weight. Also, I do need to reconcile the fact that the goal weight will not bring back the body I had pre-children and pre-marriage (put on that freshman 15 when I got married and I am right about my pre-pregnancy weight but clearly not my pre-pregnancy looks).

3) Career Goal: Yes, I am putting this out there. I think I am ready to start a new career. I have really enjoyed and been blessed to have been a stay-at-home mom for the past 10+ years but now it is time to get back to work. I am not even sure if it is a "career" that I am looking for. Perhaps just my only goal will be to write/update a resume. Yes, that sounds good.

4) Organization: Remember my hoarding and more hoarding tendencies and the shame that is my laundry/mud/utility/crap room? Well, we made a step towards organizing it today by purchasing some IKEA hall units that we will install to wrangle the coats and back-packs and hopefully shoe issues we have. A good first step!

5) Spend less money: Well, funny to put this here right after I wrote that I bought some stuff at IKEA. But really my goals to lose weight, meal plan and organize my life should all result in me spending less money. We are not in debt or anything but it is just that I know that I sometimes shop for recreation. It used to be at Michael's and Joann's but I honestly have nipped that habit. Now it is just making sure that what I buy matters. We have more expenses coming up (we'll have to start paying for Dex at the club starting in Jan, Dex started bass guitar lessons, we are getting a new vehicle, etc) so spending less in other places will help our overall bottom line.

6) Friendships: I have had a few friendship crises this year. Some people taking me for granted and I have done the same to others. I have lost touch with some people who have been very important in my life and I would like to reconnect.

7) Church: Going to Mass has not been a priority in my life this past year. I think having issues and questions of my faith were behind it and now I am wondering if I don't just GO that these issues will resolve themselves. Either way, I won't know unless I go. I thought it would be a good idea to have the kids take religion classes on Sunday afternoon but that has just made a convenient excuse for us not to get up Sunday morning to go to Mass. So, we are going to try to go on Saturday evening Mass and then have pizza/movie night since that too has slipped since Jax has hockey practice on Friday evenings.

I guess that is it. My next step is to take each of these goals and figure out exactly what I need to do to accomplish the goals. Seems simple and very logical but this is where I always get stuck. It seems overwhelming but I think baby steps are the way to do it. And, these are my goals so really I can work at them at my pace, right?

I let my hair dry naturally today. It has a lot of bend in it (not even nice enough to call wave). Cars asked me why my hair was so messy today. I told him it was because I did not blow dry it straight like I normally do. He looked me in the eye and said "You really need to blow dry your hair straight. All the time, Mom."

Today was our annual lazy day after Christmas. The kids did not get out of their jammies and they built Lego sets, played video games and watched movies. Stephen spent the day mostly playing his new "Legend of Zelda" game and I watched HP6 (although I did fall asleep not long after it started and I missed most of the first 45 minutes of it). Oh, I also ate my way through the day. It is dangerous to have leftover yorkshire pudding and gravy, and Nanaimo Bars and chocolate and sugar cookies hanging around. Good thing I took care of them today.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Blast from the Past

For Christmas, I received a package from Ramona with a little photo album. Inside was a card that said "To be opened in a Private Place Dec 23'09 Merry Christmas!". Of course, I peeked inside the card and found an envelope which read "Denine's Dec. 1999 Diary Entry to Ramona's Diary *Not to be opened until Dec., 1999" and on the back it was dated 12/23/89 with my signature written across the seal of the envelope (a trick I learned while working in the bank).

I completely remembered writing this letter! We were exchanging Christmas gifts at Ramona's new condo and we each wrote a letter. Ramona was the holder of the letter (since we had written them to her diary) but over the years she had thought she had lost them, along with her diaries, but they were in storage at her parents' cottage.

So today, Leah Ann, Ramona and I had a conference call and we read our letters to each other. What fun it was! Leah Ann really enjoyed it which is good because I can remember not long after we wrote them, she wanted hers back to tear it up. She had written that she'd marry Dave but three weeks after we wrote the letters, she met Roman and a few weeks after that, she and Dave were kaput. Three months later, they moved in together (she had been dating Dave for well over 8 years when they broke up).

This is what I wrote on December 23, 1989 at 12:20AM ET:


Dear Ramona's Diary,

These are my predictions for what I think I will be doing in 1999.

I will be married with at least 2 children
I will be living (FAR) outside of Toronto (therefore I will be visiting while this is being read)
Career wise I am not sure as I am currently working at IBM Lab. It would be nice to think that I will NOT (underlined) be still working there as I am (at this time) not too contented with it.
I willl mention Stephen PEZ as I love him now and think that perhaps we will get married...if not, I hope no one becomes offended by this...
I hope that perhaps I would have gone back to school in some capacity. I would like another degree or diploma, perhaps in FRENCH.
- still c. 140lbs (chubbs!) OMG, to be 140 again

These are my predictions for Ramona (underlined):
- still a nurse but maybe -> probably not a ward nurse -> actually maybe a social worker or councellor (sic)
- have travelled LOTS
- married (whirlwind romance!)(1 kid) - maybe but LOTS of pets
- still living in Toronto area (but NOT (underlined 3 times) Scarborough Ramona not now only lives in Scarborough but she is only 5 miles away from her mom's house and 0.65 miles from Leah Ann's! LOL
- exclusive/exquisite house and home

Predictions for Leah Ann = Mrs. Leah Ann Dave'sLastName
- 1 kid, daughter
- NOT (underlined) at Big Phone Company She has been there for over 20 years and is highly respected and successful manager
- living close to her mom (she is 4.5 miles from her mom)
- diabetes still in control but with some complications (20 years by now!) (30 by the time we actually read the note)

(turn page over)
On the whole my predictions are pretty boring. They are what I really expect but not what I really want. I would love to say that I would be a successful mgr at IBM but I don't know I was so sure in 1979 that I would be well married by 1989 Gawd, I'm an OLD BAG... Anyway, here's to 1999 and the end of the decade, era, century, millenium.

Love Denine M. MaidenPezName

P.S. To be totally HONEST, I think that I will be dead by 1999 (underlined 3 times). I don't think that I was meant to live a long time... we'll see. Until then, Best of luck to all of us!!



What fun we had reading these letters over the phone and laughing together over this! We have each sworn to write another letter and Ramona will keep them all again until December 23, 2019 (no one trusts that Leah Ann won't read them beforehand and of course I will probably lose them).

Now, I must think about my predictions for the next decade of my life.