Today was Dex's 10th birthday. Wow - where has the decade gone? I realize that I am no longer a mom of little kids. Even Cars will be 7 in a couple of months - that is not a little kid!

Anyway, Dex had a fun day today. It was pissing rain (as it has been every day since we returned last week from Toronto) so we just hung out at home and had a lazy day all together. Later, we went to Red Robin for dinner then back home for some cake with homemade chocolate icing. We'll do Dex's b-day party after school lets out (and after baseball season ends).

Miss me? It has been a while...

We just go back last night from a 10 day trip to Toronto for my mom's 75th birthday. The party was on the 22nd and all of my siblings and all of my nieces and nephews were there (as well as all of my immediate family). My mom had such a wonderful time and she was oh so happy to have us all there.

Here is a photo of my mom and her grandchildren:



We had also hired a professional photographer to take tons of photos and I cannot wait to see those pictures.

While we were in Toronto, we took the kids to the Hockey Hall of Fame, a MLB game (Jays v Twins), Stephen took the older two to shoot paint ball, we stayed in a hotel that had a waterslide by the pool. The kids went on a two hour hike with one of our neighbours and they loved seeing their cousins, especially the boys. The kids were sick of us pointing out the sights to them (that's the school I went to, that's the church we were married in, that's where dad played hockey, that's where my dad grew up, etc). We took them to the wood lot that is named in honour of my dad as well as showing them a boardroom in the hotel we were staying at named for my dad.



It was a good trip for the most part. Some small issues and a day I swore I'd never return to Toronto. But I got over it and I will go back one day.

Teleflora = Hell-no-flora

I ordered flowers to be delivered to my mom and MIL for Mother's Day. When I placed my order, Saturday, May 8th was not a delivery option - probably because it was the busiest day of the year for florists, so I chose Friday, May 7th. I used teleflora.com because I found a coupon code for 15% off flower arrangements. Sweet!

Friday came and went and I did not receive a call from either my mom or MIL. I figured that perhaps the flowers were delivered late so they would call the next day. On Saturday, we had our usual busy running around with baseball games and then Stephen ran the kids out to get Mother's Day gifts for me. I went bathing suit shopping (OMG, I felt like Cathy, trying to stuff myself into bathing suit after bathing suit), so it was not until I got home at 5pm that I noticed an email from teleflora.com that was sent at 1:40pm (that is 4:40PM ET in Toronto) telling me that they are sorry but the flowers were not delivered "today". Um, today? They were to be delivered YESTERDAY!

I called them to complain and they offered me 20% off for not delivering the flowers on Saturday. I explained that they were to be delivered on FRIDAY so the upped the discount to 40% off and promised the flowers would be delivered on Monday.

Well, guess what happened on Monday? No flower deliver AND no email from teleflora.com telling me this.

I called them back to complain and they said "sorry" and now offered 50% off and delivery on Tuesday. I accepted the offer but was still mad and embarrassed because we had assured my mom and MIL that something would be delivered on Monday. I asked for assurances that I would be notified if the flowers could not be delivered on Tuesday and they promised me that I would get an email. In the meantime though, I used twitter to voice my frustration: Once again the flowers were not delivered - 3 days (not counting Sunday) & counting. I am telling everyone I know never to use #teleflora.

Lo and behold, within 10 minutes, Teleflora was following me on twitter.

@Teleflora tweeted to me to send the order numbers and they would help me. I sent a message telling them I was told that the flowers would be delivered on Tuesday according to their customer service. BTW, my tweets automatically update my facebook status so while I do not have a lot of twitter followers, I do have a lot of fb friends - who incidentally all had good things to say about proflowers.com so I will give them a try next time.

Tuesday came and went and guess what? No flowers delivered. No notification from teleflora.com. I called to cancel the order. The customer service agent could not have cared less which irritated me to no end. Immediately thereafter, I sent @Teleflora another twitter message asking why did they bother asking for my order numbers if they were not going to do anything about it? Petty, perhaps, but I felt good sending that note. This was at 2pm PT (5pm ET - the timezone where the flowers were to be delivered). I also called AMEX to dispute the charges on my credit card.

Four hours later, my phone rang and it was Cassandra from Teleflora calling me to apologize for the whole mess. I told her I was mad and embarrassed that they flowers were not delivered but most angry because I was not notified any day other than Saturday that the flowers were not delivered, even though I was promised that I would be told on Tuesday. "Blah blah blah some complaint was left open so no automatic email could be generated" and we are so sorry. She said they would still like to send the flowers and upgrade the product and send chocolates and a letter of apology to the recipients, etc. I told her that I did not actually believe they would send anything and if I did so, how much would they charge me. She said it would be free of charge. Hmmm... I explained that I did not want any upgrades. I did not want any boxes of chocolates. I just wanted the flower arrangements that I ordered to be delivered to my mom and my MIL. Cassandra assured me that they would be delivered on Tuesday along with an apology from Teleflora to my mom and MIL for the delay in delivery.

So, here is it, Wednesday. No flowers yet but it is still morning here (and in Toronto - late morning there). We'll see what happens. If they do get delivered, I will be happy to tweet that Teleflora made things right. If not, I will tweet about Teleflora's broken promises and poor customer service probably many, many more times.

edited to say my mom called at 2:30PM ET to let me know her flowers arrived and they were lovely. Not long after there was a message from teleflora apologizing for my MIL's flowers not arriving yet but promising that they would be delivered. My MIL called later that evening to let us know that her flowers arrived. I am now in Toronto on vacation and I have seen both bouquets. They are nice arrangements. Will post photos later.

May is the busiest month of the year and every May I tell myself "Next year I am not going to do blah or blah" in order to make the month less busy for myself. And every year I forget that I promised myself not to take on too much.

This year, we are going away again (however, unlike last year when we went to Maui, we are only going to Toronto). Also, we had to squeeze in that trip to Great Wolf Lodge. There is no school on Friday so we are having Jax's belated birthday party. And now I am starting to fret about Dex's birthday because it always get lost in this crazy month. Never mind that Mother's Day is this weekend and have I sent cards? Um, no.

And my mom's birthday (we are going to Toronto for her 75th birthday party). And baseball, baseball and more baseball. And friends' birthdays and parties and teacher appreciation and end-of-year wrapping up of things, etc.

Also added this year is the good-bye gift for the principal. She has been at the school 7 years and this year's 6th graders were her first kindergartners at the school. So, I had this bright idea that, at the 6th grade promotion meeting, instead of flowers, that the class presents her with a fingerprint bead necklace. So, I have had the lovely task of making 180 little balls of polymer clay, piercing them with very sharp wire, meeting with the 6th graders to have them press their fingerprints into the beads, baking the beads while keeping track of whose bead is whose, Modge-podging the beads and winding the little wires into loops. I have one more class to go tomorrow. And after all that, I have to somehow design a necklace with 90 beads (the rest will go to make necklaces for the 6th grade teachers).

I really love these necklaces because I think they are special for the teachers but they are indeed a lot of work. I have one mom helping me herd the 6th graders while we make the fingerprints but all of the work before and after I have not delegated (control freak).

And before we go away, I need to get Jax a new pair of shoes, he needs clothes and and and and ... it just won't stop raining and hailing and being cold and I wish we were going to Maui instead.

We took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge on Sunday and came home yesterday. As if my kids are not going to be missing enough school this month! Anyway, we had a great time. It was nice to be the yesterday because it was not crowded at all. Guess that happens when most kids are in school!

I did get a scrape on my knee from the wave pool that is still weeping today. It smarts! And I was going to go for a pedicure before we went but my scraped toenails are glad that they just had my slap-dash polish application on them.

Cars was sleepwalking or something on Sunday night and at 12:30AM tried to get out of our hotel room! It was freaky because Stephen kept asking him what he was doing and why he was trying to open the door and Cars replied first that he was hungry. Then he said he had to go to the bathroom and thought that was the door. Then he said something about buying something. Stephen was freaked out because he could tell Cars was not really awake even though he was talking. I think this really is the first time that one of our kids had been sleep walking. Weird!

Stephen forgot his license (we realized when we got there and they asked to see his ID when we checked in) so I had to drive both ways. I was miffed because we had arranged in advance that I would drive there and Stephen played his gameboy. I had big plans to read the paper on the way home but instead I had to drive. It was just under 2 hours to get home. Man, I hate driving through Tacoma. What other city has a major interstate running through it and PERMANENT signs warning of slow traffic. It is maddening driving so sloooow through there. I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it! Aargh!

How is it that Stephen and I can submit our passport applications the same day (our appointments were 45 minutes apart) yet his is processed and arrives 5 days before mine?

Well, it has been about four months so I think I can officially say that I am now at my pre-pregnancy weight. Only took 12 years. And of course my pre-pregnancy weight is still 15 more than my wedding weight. Which, by the way, was which was 5 pounds over my "normal" weight at the time - who on earth GAINS weight before their wedding?! Aren't a brides' nerves supposed to make them lose a little bit of weight?? Anyway, there is no way I'll ever see that engagement weight again or even wedding weight. I am content where I am but still wish I were thinner. Wishing is not what it takes to get there, however.

I am working on taking a bit better care of myself too. Like taking a daily multi-vitamin. And allergy medication. It is inevitable every year around this time I start to feel like crap and my eyes water and my nose runs and I do not do anything about it (like take Claritin or that even that evil Zyrtec). And my ears get clogged and hurt and I sneeze like crazy and my head is stuffy and then I think "I should take some allergy medication" and I never do. Then I get a headache and go to bed after popping a couple of Excedrin. So, along with the multi-vitamin that I have been taking I have been taking Claritin (well, actually the Co$tco generic of it since it is sooooo much cheaper).

Also, I have started taking fish oil. This is a huge step for me because I tend to think that "supplements" are a bunch of hooey but I have read for years about how fish oil helps the brain and and heart and perhaps prevent cancer. Not sure I believe the cancer bit but I decided I should take it for the brain and heart benefits. I have tried to get Dex to take some too but the capsules are 1/2" long and he baulked at the thought of trying to swallow it. Now I am on the hunt for smaller capsules for him. At least I say I am on the hunt but always manage to forget while I am out. Hmmm....perhaps I need to up my intake?

I have a few other things floating around my head about what I will do to take better care of myself but I realize that with me, it is best to do small changes at a time because otherwise I get overwhelmed, imagine that I will fail and so I stop doing the all of the good things for me. So for now, these small changes are enough to make me feel like I can be successful at taking care of me. :)

MailOrder Pharmacy Bites

When I took the kids to the allergist a couple of weeks ago, the doctor faxed in the prescriptions for the epi pens to our mail-order prescription company. I hate that company (Med_co). They delayed Cars' epi pen because he moved from an epi pen jr to epi pen and they would not fill it until they confirmed his weight (he is nearly 60 pounds, the weight to switch). Anyway, I received this ominous voicemail from them that they were going to cancel the order until they could talk to the doctor. I called the allergist in a tizzy and they told me that the doctor has spoken to them three times and "has finally gotten the pharmacist to understand". The allergist's office hates them too.

Then I sent in the prescription for Dex's flovent and I received a call that they have delayed filling the prescription because it was not written for "the maximum supply allowed by your insurance company". So basically, because the doctor did not write it for a year's worth (so like 12 flovent disks), they won't fill it. The thing is, Dex does not need it every day and only when he has a cough that does not clear up. In the meantime, Med_co is calling the allergist to extend the prescription and will send us a year's worth at once and we will end up throwing it out when it expires.

This has happened often in the past with Albuterol for Jax when he was wheezy after a cold and only had to use an inhaler for a month. In the past when Zyrtec was Rx, they would send us literally LITRES of the stuff but my kids only needed to be on it during grass season.

And I am just waiting for my Rx for migraine meds to be denied because the prescription was written in February but I did not send it in until last week. They'll probably tell me that I don't need it.

I am not quite sure how Big Software Company thinks they are saving money by using this company to fill the prescriptions. Especially since Med_co appears to be making money hand over fist. Another thing, they stopped mailing the epi pens via FedEx in a cooler. Both Jax and Cars' arrived via regular mail. I guess that is helping them make more $$ too...

I cannot recall if I have written before about Dex and the lack of control he has over his emotions. I guess I should clarify because clearly he can control his emotions when he is very happy or very angry. But when he is sad or upset he is an emotional wreck! And he gets upset over some things that just.do.not.matter. Or, I guess they do matter to him but they should not.

A few months ago, at bed time, he started sobbing because the year before, I had a garage sale and sold the Hot Wheels T-Wrecks and he missed it. Never mind that for well over a year before I sold it - no, MORE than a year - it sat in a box in his closet. Visible but not set up. He told me he did not want it anymore and I had his permission to sell it at the garage sale. I gave him the $$ I got for it. But a year later, it became an issue.

When he does something wrong and he gets scolded, he gets weepy. When he thinks about having too much homework, he gets weepy. When he forgets to do something, then remembers or is reminded, he gets weepy. You get the idea.

Lately, it has been especially weepy at baseball. If he strikes out, he gets weepy. If he misses a play, he gets weepy. If he gets thrown out at first (even if his hit is an RBI!), he gets weepy. It is ridiculous!

I know I sound like a mean mom and I am very empathic to him because I know it is hard for him to keep his emotions in check but my empathy only goes so far. I am at my wit's end! I had gotten to a point that if I say anything to him that he takes as the least bit critical, he weeps. So we cannot talk about his baseball games afterwards because me might remember that he struck out one of his times at bat. Or that he overthrew the ball. Never mind the great hits or great plays that he made.

On top of this, his tics are back with a vengence and he has multiple tics (head shaking, throat clearing and a cough - although the cough may also be a result of allergies, according to the allergist, and we are working on clearing that up right now).

So, we've decided that we need to do something about his lack of control over his emotions. I am going to call his pediatrician to talk about it and see if she thinks can help. I think I see counselling in Dex's future. He just needs to learn to control his emotions when he is upset. I know that part of this is anxiety and it kills me that he too is having anxiety issues like Jax had. But, with Jax, his not eating was really a huge issue that had to be dealt with right away. With Dex, I kept thinking he would outgrow it but he hasn't. He gets embarrassed a bit too but not enough to rein it in and keep his emotions in check. I hope things change soon.

Today I took Cars to the eye doctor for a check-up. He went two years ago when he was complaining about not being able to read an EXIT sign at the end of the hall. Anyway, he was totally cracking me (and the eye doctor) up! He was a Chatty Cathy and spent a lot of time making faces in the mirror in the office. He was making jokes but kept fretting about when he would get the eye drops. Anyway, his appointment went fine but she said there is a chance that he would need glasses in the future (she said that about Jax too) and she wants to monitor the cup in his optical disk (same with Dex and my eye doctor does the same for me).

Dex's baseball game was cancelled due to rain (the field was too wet to play on) so we now have two games that need to be made up. I haven't told the coach yet that Dex will miss a few games when we go on vacation.

I cannot believe that it is the 21st of April already. Time is speeding up and I am losing track of it! We have so many things going on in the next few weeks. It will be summer before I know it!

We had a nice quick visit with my mom. She headed back this afternoon. Marilyn is still stranded in Europe. She has a flight scheduled for the weekend but planes are not yet flying so who knows what will happen. This is crazy!

Here are a few photos from this past week:

Jax's 12th Birthday

Brotherly Love

Granny and her boys

Me and My Mom (she is not that much shorter than me, our driveway is slanted). Oh and yes, my hair is darker because I added low lights again last month.

Jax turned 12 years old two days ago. I cannot believe that it has been 12 years yet at the same time I can barely remember life without him. He is 5'1" and weighs 98 pounds. I know this because on his birthday I had made an appointment for he and his brothers to see the allergist because she was booked the rest of the month! Anyway, it was just an allergy check-in and update prescription appointment. Next year we'll consider giving him a skin test for peanuts to see how things look. Anyway, even the allergist got a little verklempt when she realized that she had been seeing him for over 10 years. Jax was a little uncomfortable seeing both his mom and his allergist with tears glistening in their eyes.

My mom is arriving this afternoon for what was to be a 5 day visit but it has been shortened to two. She was in Vancouver helping my brother watch his daughter while my SIL was away in Europe for work and was due to come home today. However, the volcano eruption in Iceland has halted flights in Europe so she cannot get home until possibly Sunday. So my mom is coming today until Sunday then will go back to Vancouver to help my brother out (he leaves for work before the nanny gets there). Hopefully my SIL will not have to stay in Europe too much longer. She is fortunate that it seems a friend of hers has an apartment where she can stay and if it is for an extended time, she can take the train to Switzerland and stay with her sister.

In the meantime, the kids will enjoy their quick visit with their Granny.

I have been such a lame blogger lately. I haven't updated my PEZSHESEZ blog in 2 or 3 weeks. I feel so meh about it too. Hopefully I will snap out of it soon. I will blame the unseasonably cold weather we've had. Brrr!!!

Art Gallery Night is tomorrow and I am excited about the work that both Dex and Cars' classes made. I will post some photos of the work. Another parent did the art in Jax's class so I don't know what it will be but I will post photos of that work too.

Happy Birthday to me. I turned 45 years old today. Last night, Spy and Ash took me to dinner at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar in Bellevue and the waitress carded me! Hee! Stephen said to me that it was nice that the restaurant hired handicapped people. And Jax told me that the waitress must not have been very smart. Nice. ;)

The kids are on spring break so we just hung out today, played a board game (Rumoli), we started working on a puzzle and we played Rock Band: The Beatles. Stephen baked me a cake and I received some very nice gifts from my family (including a pair of blue topaz earrings).

I cannot believe I am 45. It sounds so old and so close to 50! I feel 25 most days. Aging is so strange.

I met with Music Teacher yesterday morning. He showed me Jax's opera mask which was not nearly as bad as he made it seem. I told Music Teacher that Jax had asked him if he could colour it that way and Music Teacher replied "Be creative!" but then he told me that is not what he meant by "Be creative". He meant to draw little curlie-cues or triangles or circles within the mask. So why didn't he just say that?

And the schizophrenic comment? He explained that he really should have known better because he has a family member who is schizophrenic. I agreed again that the comment was really over the top.

Music Teacher said he will apologize to Jax in front of the whole class and initially, that is what I thought that I wanted. However, I started thinking that really I don't trust this guy and who knows exactly what he would say or how he would say it. I am sure he would qualify the apology so I told him that we'd prefer that he apologize privately to Jax.

I am just so thankful that next week is spring break then there are just 10 1/2 weeks of school (and one of those weeks we will be on vacation - more on that another time). After that time, Jax will not have to have anything else to do with this teacher. And this whole schizophrenic thing would not have been an issue if the peanut butter issue had not happened two years ago. At least, Music Teacher would not have made a huge deal about it.

Tomorrow is Friday and Jax comes home from camp. It has been a quiet week without him.

I met with the principal yesterday about the music teacher. She already knew what had happened because he had gone to see her and said "You will never believe what I just said...". She told him to call me immediately to tell me but he had seen me in the school so he found me and you know the rest.

Anyway, I told the principal that I just wanted him to stop saying stupid shit to Jax. Ok, I said inappropriate comments. And I want him to apologize to Jax in front of the whole class. She suggested that I speak to him so I am meeting with him on Thursday morning.

Jax is away this week at outdoor education camp so it is nice to give us this time to work things out because if he had to go to music before we had this all worked out I would be super mad.

And of course all of this emotion had made the rosacea on my face flare up. Ugh!

I taught Art today in Dex's class. The class is working on "Assemblage Art". I got the idea from DickBlick Art Materials. Today the kids assembled and glued their projects. Next week they will paint it with gesso.

While I was in Dex's class, Music Teacher came in and started looking at the kids' art work and he chatted for a minute with Dex's teacher then he came over to me and said that he needed to speak to me when I had a minute. I really did not want to talk to him after school so I said if it would just take a minute we could go into the pod outside of the classroom.

Now, before I go on, let me remind you that Music Teacher is the one who bullied Jax when Jax was in 4th grade. And the letter Jax wrote to him as well as my .

In the pod, Music Teacher starts by telling me about some masks they are making in music class (Opera masks) and how Jax made his 1/2 evil and 1/2 good and Music Teacher did not think that was the right way to make it and he told Jax that it made him look schizophrenic. Then Music Teacher said that Jax got really quiet and he thought he might be tearing up and he realized that calling Jax schizophrenic was probably not the best choice of words. He said he apologized and was going to look up Opera Masks to see if sometimes they are indeed painted that way... All of this was just gushing out of him. Then he said that because of their history, he thinks that Jax is a little sensitive about the things he says and he just wanted to be sure that we know he really did not think that Jax was schizophrenic and if he finds out about the masks he will be sure to tell the whole class blah blah blah.

I just kept looking at him wondering how he knew I was in Dex's class and once he said the thing about the history, I realized that he was just trying to cover his ass. I thanked him for telling me and said I would talk to Jax.

After school, when I asked Jax about it, he said that he was upset that he might have to redo all of the hard work he had done on his mask. I think the schizophrenic comment went right over his head but the fact that Music Teacher made a big deal about it in front of the class did not.

And I am still wondering how Music Teacher knew I was in Dex's class. He had not tried calling me at home or on my cell phone. I had signed into the school in the office before going to Dex's class but I don't imagine Music Teacher would have just looked through the log in the event that I might be there. I did see the principal when I was in the office so maybe he did go to her and she told him I was in the school somewhere. Curious...

And here's the 4th Grader's Art Work so far...remember, it will all be white-washed with gesso...



I'll post more after they are white-washed!

Tonight, we ordered two pizzas online from Dominos.com to pick up on the way home from church. I ordered online for them to be picked up at 6:15pm. When I arrived, they told me the pizzas were not ready and that "the system" said they were to be ready at 7:15". I showed them my confirmation that I ordered them for 6:15 and the girl behind the counter said "Well, that's not OUR fault that the online system gave us the wrong time". Blink. Blink. Blink. So I said "It is not MY fault either". Blink. Blink. Blink. She then told me it would take 20 minutes to make the pizzas for me. I said "Great, please deliver them to my house in 20 minutes!". She told me she could not do that unless I paid for delivery "because of insurance purposes". I looked at her and said "Are you the manager?" and she said with a heavy sigh (and an eye roll) "No".

The manager came over and apologized and said he'd make the pizzas right away (the girl told me she would put the in the queue which is why they would take 20 minutes instead of the approximate 8 minutes that it actually takes to make and bake them). He also refunded my money (reversed the charges to my credit card). Meanwhile, the girl is blinking away and rolling her eyes at me. I didn't dare leave the store less she spit on my pizza.

Next week we are going back to Papa John's.

I am now an American Citizen. Time to register to vote!

I went back to the eye doctor today and she tweaked my prescription and will remake my glasses (I am assuming on her dime). It is just the right eye. She lowered the astygmatism number back to what my current one is. She had me try on these horrible glasses with my prescription (and the changes) and walk around her office. I was so embarrassed. One lady laughed and said to the doctor "I am glad you like ME!" Anyway, I should finally get the non-barf-and non-headache inducing glasses within a week.

I also had a dentist appointment today. Once again they told me that I need replace my silver fillings with porcelain onlay$. $eriou$ly?! *After* insurance (which pays 50%), it would be $487.50 out of my pocket. I think I can live with my silver fillings. And I have 4 that they want to replace. I am sorry but I just do not have $2000 laying around to make my molars look prettier. Besides, I am saving up to buy me some Shania teeth.