We've had a nice, quiet Memorial Day weekend which is nice because starting next Saturday, our house will be torn apart for two weeks while the two big bathrooms are remodeled.

I will take before/after shots and post them.  Wish me luck!

Have you heard of Greentoe.com?  It is this site where you can shop for items like electronics, appliances and baby gear but the neat thing about it is that you can submit the price you want to pay for an item and then see if someone accepts it.  Kind of like priceline for stuff! 

One of the cool things about the site is that there is a little meter when you submit your price and it tells you what the chances of getting the item for the price you are willing to pay.  So if you submit a really low-ball offer, it will tell you right away so you can up it and try again. 

Another cool thing is that tax and shipping are included in the price so there are no surprises if you submit an offer on an item and it is accepted.  That price is the price you pay and no more.

There is a video on their home page that explains it much better than I have. Check it out! :)

Blogher and Greentoe are offering discounts if you would like to give it a try.  They have given me my own special discount code to pass onto you so here it is:

pez25 ($25 off)

pez50 ($50 off purchase of $300 or more)

 

So check out the site - www.greentoe.com and if you see something you want to buy, use the codes provided! 

Got back from my trip to Toronto for my high school's 50th anniversary (the school is 50, I did not graduate 50 years ago). ;)  I had a really good time seeing some old friends and visiting the school which I do not think I have stepped in since I left in 1982! 

Friday night was a social at a golf and curling club.  Saturday there were lots of things going on at the school and Saturday night was the big Gala at the Ontario Science Centre.  The organizers posted a note on Thursday that there was going to be a HUGE surprise on Friday night at the social and that it would mean a lot to some of the people who went to the school during a certain decade.  Well, everyone was posting that they were sure that it was going to be the Barenaked Ladies playing (Ed Roberston and Steven Page (former member) went to my high school).  Boy, we were all so disappointed when it turned out to be a bass player who was in Alice Cooper's band (and who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)  - Prakash John and The Lincolns.  Clearly not on the same scale as the BNL but still famous(ish). Anyway, there were a lot of disappointed people there.  :D

Anyway, here are some photos from the weekend. I tried to take some photos for my friend Diane who decided at the last minute not to go.  I would have loved to have seen her. And for Peter - my soul blahg reader.  :)  Click here -> My pictures

So in my last blahg post I mentioned that I was taking Cars in for the status of his incisors and to find out when he gets braces, right?  Well we arrived bright and early at the orthodontist (appointment was at 7:50am) and they call Cars back almost immediately. 

So I wait and I wait and look around and notice that the office was really crowded.  And I wait and I wait and I wait and I see one dad get up and go and ask what is taking so long for his son to come back out. Turns out that there was some issue with his son's braces and teeth and the orthodontist had to do more work than he was expecting so I figure that orthodontist is now behind because of that problem.  And I wait and I wait, wondering what is taking so long for them to look at Cars' teeth and decide if he is ready for braces or not.  And I wait and I wait. 

Finally, 40 minutes later Cars comes walking out WITH BRACES ON HIS TEETH!  WTF!

I guess he was ready.

But I was not!  I thought this appointment was to evaluate but apparently it was we will evaluate and if he is ready we will put them on!  He just has them on the 4 upper front teeth and will get more on a little later.  And I had already paid for this round of braces (and expander) way back in August '11 so the cost was not an issue.  The issue was that I was a terrible mom and did not KNOW he would be getting them and did not prepare him for them!  With the other two I dosed them up on ibuprofen before hand and we discussed how they would feel, blah blah blah and poor Cars walks in and is surprised with them.  Aargh!

Anyway, so I now have 3 kids in brace$ at the same time.

There are still 10 days left of this month but already I am thinking about the busiest time of the year - May!  What is it about that month that makes it so crazy every year?!  I have way backed off of my volunteering at school but it is still a busy month this year.

At the beginning of the month I am going home for a visit. Just me.  I will stay with my mom and she is very excited to be able to show me her apartment.  It will be the first visit home where I won't be staying in my childhood home and that makes me a little sad but knowing that my mom was more than ready to sell and move into an apartment does make me feel better.

She will fly home with me after a few days (it is my high school's 50th anniversary so I am going to the big party on the Saturday night.  Of my four siblings, only my oldest is going.  Looking forward to seeing old friends too) and stay here for about a week then I will drive her up to Vancouver where she will continue her annual "West Coast Tour" before heading to Edmonton to see my sister then head on home.

May also brings us lots of sports!  Dex is playing basketball at the club but also said that he wanted to do track at middle school so that is 4x/week with Monday being the busiest day because I have to pick him up and then take him directly to the club for basketball.  No idea when his meets are yet. 

Jax is doing track in high school and it started over a month ago and he practices 6 days each week.  I am not exactly sure when it ends but it is sometime in May.  Oh, he and Dex are still doing guitar lessons one evening a week too.

Cars is playing on a tournament hockey team so he has practice and then the tournament later in May in Canada.  He will miss 2 days of school.  Oops! 

With all of these after school activities, I am behind on getting the kids in for their annual allergist appointments and eye appointments!  We are still on track for the orthodontist though.  Dex just got his braces on a couple of days ago and I take Cars this week for the status of his lateral incisors so we can get those first set of braces on for him (I paid for this over a year and half ago - it was supposed to be expander and braces but those darn teeth never grew in!).  Jax is transitioning to get his off already! I told the orthodontist that I felt that I was not getting my money's worth with Jax (kinda half joking) but was told that Dex would wear his for nearly 2 years so I will get my money's worth there.

We are enjoying the changes we made to the house last summer and now are considering updating more things.  Namely, the main bathroom.  We do not have a power room on the main floor (that is the problem with side splits, or back splits - no room!) so guests use the main bathroom which is also the "kids" bathroom.  It has never been updated except for the new faucet and lighting fixtures we put in a couple of years ago.  The tub, toilet and sink are beige and I want white.  Also, it has shower doors which trap all sorts of ickyness and are hard to keep clean.

I had a designer come by this past week and she will get back to me with a plan for the bathroom.  While I do want to upgrade the vinyl floor to tile and the acrylic tub surround to tile as well, I do not want to go broke doing it.  We really are not DIY-ers so we will be paying for the labour.

Looking forward to having a nice sparkly bath up there.  And one day we will work on the master bath/walk-in closet/dressing area.  One day...

Book List 2012

I swear I have read more books this year than this but I did not do a good job of keeping track:

1. Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin, pp 784
2. Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin, pp 1216
3. The Thirteen Tale, Diane Setterfield, pp 416
4. Beneath a Marble Sky, John Shors, pp 344
5. What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty, pp 423
6. Sing You Home, Jodi Picoult, pp 496
7. A Feast for Crows, George R. R. Martin, pp 784
8. The Rock Star’s Daughter, Caitlyn Duffy, pp 318
9. 50 Shades of Grey, EL James, pp 528
10. 50 Shades Darker, EL James, pp 546
11. 50 Shades Freed, EL James, pp 592
12.  On the Island, Tracey Garvis Graves, pp 336
13. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
14.  Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, pp 432
15. Good Squad, Jennifer Egan pp 352
16. Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail), Cheryl Strayed, pp
17. On the Island, Tracey Garvis-Graves

Jax was having problems with his math homework today and asked me for help.  I completely BAULKED because I do not remember any math beyond very simple algebra (Dex's grade 7 math is getting difficult for me).  However, we had a busy night planned and Stephen was going to be getting home late so I decided that I would turn to the internet for help so I could help Jax.

I went to www.khanacademy.org which is a great site for math. They offer FREE lessons on just about anything and their goal is "changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere".  I first heard about the site from Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html) and thought it sounded like a good idea.  I had Dex logging on from time to time to do some extra math work but then he got busy with REAL homework.  And I wanted Cars to do some too but he has required math homework on IXL.com and his time and results are sent to his teacher.

Anyway, so tonight I went to www.khanacademy.org to learn (or relearn) how to do The Substitution Method so I could teach Jax how to do it  so he could do his homework and study for his quiz tomorrow.  I am not sure why he did not understand it during math class today but after watching the videos with me and practicing, he is completely understanding it.  I even had Stephen watch the video so he could help Jax while I went out to take Dex to his bass lesson. 

It is a wonderful resource and I highly recommend that you check it out.  Especially if you have a high school student who needs help with math.

More Resolutions

Another resolution that I have is to be more creative again.  While I am doing woodcarving, I still feel as though I haven't been creative in a long time.  I have been considering picking up the paints again as I have a couple of ideas for some paintings.  And I have even thought about knitting again.  It really has been years!

Happy New Year

My New Year's Resolutions

1. Regain an active lifestyle.  I have become quiet sedentary over the past year and half and it is showing on my body and my attitude of life in general.  Time to step to it!
2. Stop procrastinating.  I realize know that at least 50% of the anxiety I feel at any given time is due to me putting off things that I am either afraid to do, don't want to do or cannot be bothered to do when it should be done. 
3. File important items away NOW (see above)
4. Realize that it is ok to not be friends with everyone or friends forever.  I had a friend who moved away a few years ago (not too far) and we have stayed in contact via facebook but before she moved I realized she was a toxic person so it was a relief when she moved, quite honestly.  A few months ago she called me and wanted to stop by because she was in town.  She came for tea and I realized that I did not enjoy her company at all.  I do not need to stay friends with people just because we have a history.
5. Cut carbs.  I feel so much better when I stay away from bread and pasta.
6. Do one fun family activity each month.  I realize that my kids are not young anymore and soon they will not want to be doing family activities so I want to make sure that we make some more great memories before they up and move away. That time is rapidly approaching!

A good start, I think. 

The kids are out on Christmas vacation.  Today we did our annual "day of giving".  We took tons of clothing and household items to Goodwill.  We donated 101 pounds of food to the food bank and Stephen gave blood.  :)  I do not give blood because I did it twice in my life and I fainted once and nearly fainted the second time.

I had a goal to be finished Christmas shopping by the 5th of December (some random date that I have no idea how I came up with) and I failed miserably.  Most of it is done and there has not been a lot of scrambling around to get it done.  I just have a few more stocking stuffers for Stephen and to get something for the mail lady.  Stephen always takes care of the kids because he loves rushing around the last week and getting it all.  And he loves to spoil the kids so I let him do it.

We won't be having anyone over for Christmas dinner for the first time in 10 years or so.  So it will be a nice, quiet day with no mad dash to stash the opened boxes and get all of the wrapping in the recycle bin immediately.  I am looking forward to having a quiet day.

O Tannenbaum

Christmas trees in our house always manage to be quite an ordeal. We always seem to have issues with stands and I cannot tell you the number of Christmas tree stands we have purchased in the past 10 years.

A few years ago, after our Christmas tree had fallen down, we bought one of those swivel stands which we thought was pretty great but the next year out Christmas tree was too big (the trunk was thick!) to fit in the stand so we had to buy another stand. Of course the tree fell down again that year too! I think we have had trees fall 4 or 5 times in the past 8 years!

This year we managed to have to go buy yet another stand after buying what we thought was an awesome tree. It was tall and very full with branches that swept right to the ground. Of course the trunk was thick and there was a knot in it so it did not fit in either of the two stands that we had so I ran out to buy yet another stand. We struggled and strained to get the tree up (it is 8 and a half feet tall and very heavy). Stephen kept askin if I were sure that it was straight (he was under the tree tightening the screws on the stand ) and I was staring at the top of the tree which was perfectly straight. Then it was a up - voila!

Stephen then trimmed off some of the bottom branches an I put on the tree topper the sat down on the couch to admire our lovely tree.

Then I saw it. Can you see it?

 

Our tree has scoliosis! OMG how could we not have seen this?  Of course we had not seen it - the branches went straight to the ground and all we did was admire the height and fullness of the tree.  So, this tree is balancing precaiously in the new stand.  It managed to stay standing while I strung lights and while the kids and I hung the ornaments.  I guess those are good signs.   We hope that it does not fall over sometime over the next two weeks. Mostly I am worried about any water ruining the new wood floors but of course I am concerned about broken ornaments. 

 

And for Christmas I have added this tree stand to my Christmas list.  I hope it is the last one I will ever have to buy:

 

http://www.premierchristmastreestand.com/

 

 

The Reveal

Here is a photo of our newly redone living room. We had the walls painted, the fireplace painted, hardwood floors installed, bought a new floor lamp, couch and chair. We also had shelving installed on either side of the fireplace. Oh and a new area rug. I am very pleased with it!

We also had a console and shelf custom made for the front hall/foyer. This hallway and the kitchen already had hardwood floors so we just had them stripped, stained and finished.

Winner!

One year ago this month I started taking a wood carving class.  We carve in the "Northwest Native Style".  I enjoy it although I am pretty slow at it because the perfectionist in me is so afraid of making a mistake.  So I do not carve at all outside of class.

I finished my first project. A relief carving of an eagle (stained and painted as well).

Then I had to think about my second project.  I loved the signs up at our city hall and I asked my instructor if he knew who had carved this great sign:

 And it turns out that it was my instructor!  He lives in the city too and he teaches the classes in his workshop at his home.  So, I decided to carve it but instead of being a relief carving, I made it three dimensional.

It might be hard to tell in this photo but the orca's tale flips up a little bit. This piece took me 4 months to shape, carve and paint.  But it was worth it because I entered it in the Northwest Wood Carvers Association show that was held last weekend and look!

I won!  First Place for beginner, Best of Beginner and Best of Division!  And I also won $100!  What a delightful surprise!
It was nice that I won because it made me double down on the piece I am working on now. I  am not in love with it so I haven't been working that diligently on it.  Now I want to hurry and get it finished so I can work on my next piece. 

It is great to be creating again.

Thank God that we have excellent health insurance.  Of course it is changing in January (not quite so excellent but still very good).  I had to go to the ER two weeks ago and my 2.5 hour visit was billed to our insurance company in the amount of $10477.00.  Of that, after the insurance company's "adjustments", they amount paid to the hospital was $2361.35.  Quite a difference.  Fifty-five percent of the bill was for a CT scan!

The ER visit was during a lull in the illness that swept through the family.  Dex and Cars had the fever/sore throat/cough and the day Dex was better and I sent him the school was when I got violently ill with a raging bacterial infection resulting in an inflamed colon (and and blood loss).  The ER doc got excited that I might be patient 1 of a new E. coli outbreak but no pathogens were found and a huge dose of antibiotics and three days of bedrest had me good to go.  Of course on the 3rd day of bedrest, DH came down with the same sickness that Dex and Cars had and he was out of commission for three days (two of them work days!!).

The month of October was a write-off and while I was happy to have lost 10 pounds in 3 days, I have gained back 5 of them already.  I am fortunate that neither Jax nor I did not get the high fever illness.  So far November has been a healthy month for us!

One funny thing about the whole situation was that when I got to the ER they said I was in their system but no information on why.  The ER doctor was puzzled and said "I see that you are in here and it says I treated you in the ER in 2010 but there is no information".  I reminded him that I was the "bat family" that had come in two years before and were sent to the regional trauma hospital for "treatment" since the rabies vaccine was only available there.  We had a bit of a chuckle then he told me that they county had changed things and this hospital now had the vaccine (not that we will ever have a need for it).  Anyway, you can read the post here (I wrote it but never published it until tonight:  http://pezblahg.blogspot.com/2012/11/if-you-find-dying-bat.html)

If you find a dying bat...

***this was originally written in October 2010 but never published until November 2012 ***

...in your bathtub, you might want to get it out. You'll probably get a ziploc container to slide it into and stick it out on the porch. You'll probably look up how to dispose of the bat and will find information on your country's animal control site. The animal control site will tell you to call the county's public health department. You'll call the public health department who will be closed but will give an after hours number. If you call the after hours number, they will tell you that they only deal with bats from emergency rooms after hours. You will ask for clarification and be told that you should go to the emergency room in case the bat had rabies. If you are told that you will quickly google information about bats in houses and see that it is recommended to go to the emergency room. You will think this is over kill so you will call the nurseline provided by your insurance company.

If you call the nurseline, they will call you back after contacting a doctor. When you get a call back you will be told to go to the emergency room because they have a zero tolerance when it comes to dealing with bats and they assume they all have rabies. You will probably have to get the nurse to repeat this information to your husband who is skeptical and things you are blowing things out of proportion.

Once your husband is told by the nurse in no uncertain terms to go to emergency, you will probably have to call your friend's house to arrange to pick up your son who is planning to have a sleepover there (long overdue and emotionally charged which is another long story). You will get the rest of your family in the car and pick up said son.

You will probably drive to the closest emergency room. Once there you will have your whole family registered and be thankful that it is early on a Friday night and that this emergency room is small and in a suburban area, not the big city. Once you are checked in and triaged, a doctor will come in and explain that before we go any further, the county has taken all rabies vaccines OUT of emergency rooms with the exception of the trauma centre in downtown Seattle. He will tell you that you need to proceed to this trauma centre for treatment and promise that you will not incur any emergency bills from this ER department since they had no way of treating you.

At this point, your husband will be PISSED but you will all get back into the car and travel downtown Seattle on a Friday night. Your children will also be confused and have asked several times what they are going to do to us. You calmly tell them you don't know as this has never happened to you before (but know that vaccines are a very real possibility but do not say this so they do not freak out).

After sometime in the ER, the doctor will come up to you and explain that after consulting with several people at the health department, they think it is worth the risk that you do not get innoculated for rabies and your husband will have the health department repeat this to YOU over the telephone (since he is still pissed that you had the nurse repeat it to him to go to the ER a few hours before). 

You will probably go home with the bat in the container and instructions to freeze it the FedEx it the next day (overnight!) to Oregon for rabies testing  which you will have to pay for and the total for that will be about $120.  A week later you will probably find out that the bat does not have rabies which is a good thing becaues if it did and you had been exposed and waited a week there is a good chance that you would have acute encephalitis by this point if you had been infected.

Then, when Halloween came around you would make yourself a bat costume and have a good laugh at it while your husband is still pissed off and won't find humour in the situation for a long time (if ever).**this last line added in November 2012

Cars' fever finally went away Thursday afternoon but he was too weak from not eating all week to go to school on Friday.  And now Dex has a fever and sore throat.  Here we go again...

Our living room is just about finished being redecorated. It has taken positively AGES.  I got the call today that our area rug will be delivered the week after next.  And then the console and shelves should be installed around the same time.  I will finally be able to share photos!  Now, what project is next?

So yeah, stress does suck.  I do not handle things well when I am stressed out. I become paralyzed and I do not function.  Then I get more stressed because I haven't done what I need to do.  Procrastination feeds my stress.  Stress paralyzes me and I procrastinate.  And so on and so on without end.

The thing is, it isn't just one particular thing that has led to this particular stressful time.  It is everything.  And when I sit down to write about them they seem so petty and trivial and "first world problem"-atic that I then get embarrassed that I am even stressed about them.  We have food.  We have shelter.  My family is (relatively) healthy. I do not ~have~ to work outside of the home.  So what the fuck am I so stressed about?  Why do I let things get to me?

Waaaay back when I worked at Big Computer Company, I took a class where you assess what kind of person you are.  I remember the RED was for attention to detail and I scored a big fat 0 on that.  I am not a detail person.  And right now I am doing two big projects that require me to pay a lot of attention to detail and I SUCK at it.  I have had sleepless nights.  I have been comforting myself with food and I have been thinking of hitting the bottle of Xanax (and I do not want to touch it!).  I hate this.

And the things that would make this better (eating healthier, exercise, sleep, NOT procrastinating) are not even on my radar. 

And, right now when things are so overwhelming, my baby has been sick for going on 5 days (and in the morning I will call the school to let them know he will miss the 4th day of school in a row).  Fever, malaise, vomiting, cough, congestion, losing his voice, etc.  I missed a PT appt today and was made to feel guilty because I asked my dh to stay home this morning so I could go to my annual mammogram.  Nice.

Ok, off to bed.  I know I won't sleep but at least I can pretend that I might.

Stress sucks.

Today we are celebrating Cars' birthday with a party at a bowling alley.  Yes, his birthday was in August.  Yes, this is the second year in a row that he is having a really late birthday.  The kids are off school today and everyone he wanted to invite (but one) lives in our school district so it was a good day to have it.  About the other kid?  I just told Cars that it was too bad he had to go to school or else we could have invited him.  Fortunately, it is not a super close friend.  :)

I have been going to PT because I have bursitis and tendonitis in my shoulders again but this time they are also working on the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.  Perhaps it is all connected anyway?  The exercises are killer because I have done virtually NO arm/shoulder exercises/stretches in months and month and months due to the pain.  Hopefully I will be healed soon.  I have been very good about doing my PT homework.

We have had three months of almost no rain.  While it has been enjoyable, I am starting to lose shrubs and even a couple of small trees.  I haven't been able to keep up with the watering.  Well, I could but I cannot imagine the water bills!  Hopefully the rain will return soon.  I need to transplant some trees to replace the plum trees I had to take out this summer.