Weekly house project update

Currently I sit in a house with no gas and no roof but one that has a freshly painted closet and freshly painted carpet.

Good times.

The gas was turned off last Wednesday and on Thursday we had a monsoon (okay, not really and I probably shouldn't even joke like that after the tsunami and tornado warnings we've had lately) so Mark was unable to actually replace the rusted out pipe. After much conversing with a few people who seemed to have a clue, a patch idea was figured out so we could get gas back into the house for such things as heat. He applied that and we got the gas back on. Now that the weather is gorgeous and he's off work for a few days to get things done around here, he's shut the gas off again and removed that section of pipe so it will be fixed correctly and we can keep our gas on through the next storm I'm sure is coming soon.

On the roof front, well things just couldn't be easy with anything as we are finding out. The company that built this house (*cough* Silvercrest *cough*) went way cheap and glued the plywood down rather than nailing it and then used staples to put the shingles on instead of roofing nails. What does this mean an uninformed person like myself asks? Well, it means that when they rip up the shingles, instead of the nails coming with them, the shingles rip through the nails leaving them in the plywood so all several thousand staples have to be removed by hand. On the plywood side, it means that where we have to remove and replace sheets of plywood due to their shoddy construction and things like lack of venting of the boys' bathroom, it's a much more difficult process that can lead to more even more repair as frame work ends up being destroyed at the same time. When it's done, it will be done correctly but man it's a pita for the guys up there doing the work. I'd also like to note that if you are having your roof replaced, the smart thing is to leave the house until they are done with the removal. I keep expecting someone to crash through the ceiling at any moment and the banging has me jumping out of my skin constantly.

To top off all the fun, when picking up the living room last night Jonathan picked up one of the cans of paint from it's safe little corner and balanced it precariously on a stack of tipsy boxes. Matthew went walking past not paying attention and the next thing we know, there is a gallon of Cocoa Puff paint all over the carpet. This at 9p when Mark was about to start working on dinner. Good times!

But in good news, the closet of the master bedroom is finally patched and painted. Still need to do the baseboards but we plan on replacing most of those in there so we'll buy new, paint, and then install after the carpeting goes in. What it means tho is that as soon as the touch-up stuff dries, I can start moving stuff back in there and hopefully get this huge pile of crap at the foot of my bed dealt with and either in the closet or packed up to the storage locker (or Goodwill).

In other good news, our neighbor whose house burned down 5mos again just had his new house delivered. It will make it easier to sell our place with a nice, new home next door rather than a vacant lot or his old ratty place.

104:28 Our Town by Thornton Wilder

A play in 3 acts. It takes us back in time to 1901 in a small town in New Hampshire. It's a simple play designed to show how simple life can be and at the end, that it's wasted on the living who spend too much time running around and not taking the time to appreciate everything around them.

Page count: 98p/8,325p ytd

104:27 The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer

What is a poor Jew to do when stuck in a world filled with imaginary creatures when they are hungry and need to eat? Pull out this handy guide and check to see what's kosher! Containing a description and the dialogues between Ann (a much sought after Bar/Bat Mitvah teacher) and Evil Monkey (Jeff's evil alter ego). A humorous look at what makes animals kosher, it's a must read for the Jew in your life.

Page count: 92p/8,227p ytd

104:26 River Marked by Patricia Briggs

The 6th book in the Mercy Thompson series. Mercy and Adam have gotten married and Uncle Mike has loaned them a trailer for their honeymoon while they have been graciously invited to stay at a campsite owned by another fae. Well, you know what they say about accepting gifts from the fae. It's never safe. Turns out the river near their campsite has a monster in it and when rescuing someone from it, Mercy gets marked by the creature. She and Adam team up with some local Native Americans to try to stop it but how to stop a creature that lives in both the spiritual and the physical realm?

Fast paced and a fun read, my only complaint is that there was no overarching story to this one. It could have almost as easily been a stand alone book as there is very little reference to the past and doesn't look to have much consequences for the future.

Page count: 326p/8,135p ytd

104:25 Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire

The 4th book in the Toby Daye series. Lily of the Tea Garden is sick, likely dying, and her subjects go to Toby to ask for help. As Toby is searching for answers about Lily's mysterious illness (Undine's can't get sick), Luna of Shadowed Hills falls ill. Next Tybalt's subjects are poisoned. All those that Toby cares about and counts among her friend's are apparently being poisoned and Toby keeps smelling Oleander around. But when Lily dies, can Toby prove her innocence to the Queen or have her enemies done too good a job with their set-up?

This was such a fast paced novel that I couldn't put it down once I started. It just ran from one thing to the next with no break in between and you could only sit there, mouth agape, as Toby tried to figure out what was going on. Fabulous read and I'm bummed that I have to wait for several months for the next one.

Page count: 384p/7,809p ytd

104:24 Growing up on the Spectrum by Koegal, PhD, & LaZebnik

"A guide to Life, Love, and Learning for Teens and Young Adults with Autism and Asperger's"

Boy does that ever sum it up well. LaZebnik is a mother of a teenage son with Autism whom from what I could gather was non-verbal and completely withdrawn at one point. Koegal, PhD, is the clinical director of the Koegal Autism Center and director of the Broad Center for Asperger Research at UCSB.

Having a child on the spectrum, even mildly, presents challenges that baffle parents (I mean even more than the normal childhood stuff). Get them in the teenage years and it's enough to turn you grey before you rip your hair out. My son is not a worst case scenario by any means for someone on the spectrum but there are definitely ways that once you know what to look for, he marks his spot on it firmly. So much of what we deal with are social cognitive deficits which have been a challenge to teach. We've done okay with a lot of effort but there is always room for improvement. Recently we've been dealing with behavior issues and I pretty much snapped up every book on Autism/Asperger's and Adolescence I could find and it's been decided that he, my husband, and I will read them and swap them and discuss them as we try to find ways to make things work more smoothly. He choose this one to be my first read since "it was the longest and I want to be annoying" (yes, those were his exact words).

You know what tho, he was right! So many of the little things that we are working on are covered in here. Much of what I read showed that we were doing the right things and for the right reasons. But there were a lot of subtle things that we can work on adding in to make it more effective. Certain things to talk with him about. Certain things to watch for (I mean above and beyond normal teen stuff) simply because of he won't see them for himself. The book covered making friends and keeping them, how to deal with dating & sex, how to get them out the house looking decent (huge area here!), what to do when they leave home for college. There were even sections on how to make sure adult children are taken care of when they aren't able to be independent (thankfully not something we'll have to deal with but I know many people need to).

I liked the format as well. A basic question asked that you could see any parent asking. LaZebnik would answer from her point of view as a mother with an autistic teenager and then Koegel would give her clinical answer based on years of research and working with autistic children, teens, and adults. There were even essays from LaZebnik's son and others on the spectrum as they related to the topics. You really got good feedback from every area: parent, doctor, and someone who's on the spectrum.

Honestly if you have a child or are involved in the live of a child on the spectrum of any age, go get this and read it. Simple, straightforward, and well worth the time. It breaks my heart how many of these wonderful teens and young adults are left to fend for themselves rather than getting the help they need simply because their parents didn't know how to get it for them.

Page count: 370p/7,425p ytd

104:23 Changes by Jim Butcher

The 12th book in the Dresden Files. What can you say about a book where the opening line is from the main character's ex-girlfriend telling him that they've kidnapped "our daughter" when he didn't know he even had a child? Yeah, this one just kind of grabs you with that and runs off with it. If you've been reading the previous books at all (and if you haven't, why are you starting with this one, put it down and get the older stuff and catch up) you know that there is no way that Harry is going to let this stand. He pulls out every stop he can think of, calls everyone he knows for information and help of any kind, and goes in to rescue his child from the Red Court. He could care less if he gets out alive so long as his child is saved although he would rather not have all his friends taken down in the process.

There are a few slow parts in the middle but for the most part, this one is one heck of a page turner and probably my favorite by far. There is so much more I could say but can't. Spoilers!

Page count: 546p/7,055p ytd

So much going on here

I've been meaning to post about so much but the days have been so crazy and then half the time I end up falling asleep on the couch in the evenings. I mean, I still need to write up Nico's birthday blog and it's been over a month since he turned 5! Yep, total slacker blogger mom here. *sigh*

So looking back to my previous entry over a month ago, I guess it's time to recap where things are at here.

The house situation. Ugh pretty much sums it up. It's moving along but with everything else that has to be done just for our daily lives (therapy for Jon, activities for all the kids, various other things) things have been going very, very slowly. There is progress to report tho. We have our permits in order for all the work to be done and will hopefully start the roofing process next week. There is no more dry rot in the boys' bathroom. We finally got the cabinet layout correct so we can start figuring out dates on when that will come in and we can install the cabinets and get dates for the counter installation. Once we have those dates, we can start scheduling someone to come out and move the 220 line into the kitchen for the new stove and to install the microwave hood. We have paint in the house for the entire painting job and are trying to chose between two palettes for the exterior so we can get those approved. The carpet has been delivered to the installers but we are hung up on that because the rooms to be carpeted are nowhere near ready yet. Part of that hinges on Mark getting his home office cleaned out which hasn't happened yet (and has been put on hold yet again due to sh*t hitting the fan at work). However the master closet has been totally cleaned out and walls scrubbed and I'm starting to prep it for painting. Hoping to get to that tomorrow. I'm also working on getting things prepped in the master bathroom for the walls. Once those are done, I can at least do the closet in the office since that has gotten cleaned out which will let us start moving a few things around. Sooooo much to be done! And there is still more packing and decluttering. I'm sure I sound like a broken record but I keep reminding everyone that I've been saying for years that we should be doing the decluttering part of it to make this part easier. Oh well.

Too add to the fun in all this, a gas leak was discovered in the line that goes from the meter to our house today so we are now currently without gas to the house so no hot water and no stove/oven. Can we say Chinese take-out for dinner? Yeah, thought so! I'm looking at it as a glimpse of what my life will be like during the kitchen remodel.

So that's all the news with the house. I'm going to start taking before pictures soon (now that we've gotten at least some of the stuff out of the house LOL) and will do some during and of course, after.

When I last left off blogging I had just found out from the dentist that on top of all the bad teeth I have, my gums now require care as well. Since then I've gone in for a full consult based on the examination to get my treatment plan and estimate of costs. After being told by numerous dentists they didn't even know how to fix some of my teeth (yeah, I wonder how those people got out of dental school too) and then being told by our prior dentist that I was looking at either crowns or bridges for all of my teeth I'm sure you can imagine the kind of bill I was expecting to see. One that had lots and lots of zeros and likely cost more than my current house is valued at.

I couldn't have been more surprised or more wrong. Apparently I'm working with a real dentist who has not only a heart but a clue as well. I wasn't aware there was such a thing but by chance we found one. I got the bill and took a brief look at it and saw that the total was about $7K after insurance. I figured it was only for the first stage of treatment since he had discussed doing things in stages. I started talking to the booking manager and my jaw dropped. She was pointing to teeth on the treatment sheet that I had been told had to be removed and bridged previously. I shook myself and tried to wrap my head around what she was saying but I wasn't totally coherent. I kept hearing talk of "fillings" while she was pointing to those teeth. I think I grunted something barely coherent about not being sure what she was talking about since those needed to be bridged. Then she went over the treatment plan more slowly with me.

There wasn't a single crown or bridge on the entire sheet.

Yeah, go back and read that again. I had to have her repeat it several times myself.

No crowns.

No bridges.

All teeth except the four broken ones fixed with fillings.

Say what?!

I was torn between being speechless and crying. I seriously could not believe it. This dentist believes in doing what is best for the patient's oral health, not what is easiest for him or makes him the most amount of money. We are talking about having my entire mouth healthy sometime next year at the latest. The only bridge or implant work I'll need is to replace two faulty crowns and two broken teeth. That's it. Can I just say that I'm totally thrilled with our new dentist! If you are in the HMB area and looking for a new dentist, Dr. Ollerton is the man to go to.

Mark and I have been promoted in KSW a few times since my last post. At this point we are now Dahn Bon Nims which means "black belt candidates". We no longer have monthly colored belt testing but instead will be testing every 3mos starting in May. It will take about 2yrs of consistent training and testing to achieve 1st degree black belt but it's a challenge we are both looking forward to.

Christopher is continuing to do well at CSM apparently pulling A's and B's in his classes. He's also been developing more of a social life as well. He's gotten involved with the competitive gamer's group at CSM and has regular study groups for 2 of his classes as well. We recently found out that one of our KSW instructors (and the daughter of the owner of our dojang) is a big gamer and has a weekly gaming group late Friday nights so he's going to that as well now. I frequently here about what some of the other kids at school are thinking and doing and hear about "I need to txt Shane" or "Jessica said". So great that his being young is not causing problems for him there but on the contrary he seems to be doing better at starting to make friends there with kids just a little older than him than he has been in places with kids his age. We are still working on his attitude around the house but we know that's going to be a work in progress for a while. At least there is progress being made even if it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back. In time we'll get there.

Matthew is working hard to get ready for the state Algebra test so that has meant an almost cessation of his other subjects for the next two weeks. I was able to sit in on his guitar lesson for the first time this week. He has come so far in the last year and a half. His instructor was saying that he's really gotten over the first major hurdle in playing with his last song (Birthday by The Beatles) and was impressed because he had figured out the ending on his own (M said it was easy because it was just a slightly different order and timing but still). The song he is choosing next (Behind Blue Eyes by The Who) will have him doing several things he hasn't done before and the instructor said it would definitely push him to the limits but in a good way and that he would learn a lot with it.

Jonathan is getting very excited about his upcoming birthday (go figure). Now that we have changed up his lang arts and gotten him some help in his writing we are seeing lots of improvement which is great. He finished up 4th grade math last month and is already about 1/2 way through 5th grade math. He's very likely to have that finished by the end of the school year which also thrills him no end. We have a new deal where he is the head chef on Tuesday nights (most weeks at least) and I am his sous chef. He comes up with the menu and I do the shopping and then he has to do the majority of the work in preparing it. He is continuing to love cooking and looks for every opportunity to do so. Today he baked cookies from scratch completely by himself. He ran into a little problem because the butter had been frozen instead of room temperature but he figured out a solution to the problem and the cookies came out wonderfully! He also has a new friend, one of his swim classmates and the son of his instructor. They can talk for ages about games and Jon had a sleepover at his house earlier this month which went really well. They are just a few months apart in age and both homeschooled. I'm so thankful that he's making some more friends his age locally.

Nicholas is growing by leaps and bounds lately and I really wish he would stop or at least slow it down a bit. I know it won't happen so instead I'm just very thankful that he continues to love to cuddle up on my lap and tells me that he'll be mine until he's a daddy. LOL He has really gotten into kite flying lately thanks to his friends Greer and Adam. They are in the clay class before Jon and Matt and Adam's older brother is in their clay class so we all hang out and generally walk at the beach while the older ones are in class. He's also made a wonderful new friend Max. Max is in Little Ninjas and also his swim class. In fact, when the swim schedules got switched around instead of going and swimming with Jon at the same time (you know, to make MY life easier), we are now there for an hour so he can swim Max the class before Jon. *sigh* I'd complain but he's so happy and let's face it, it's not like I can get my kids to do any schoolwork or useful production out of them before we go anyway. LOL Max also lives close to KSW so we've been having regular playdates at their house after Little Ninjas while Jon is in class. Makes for a much nicer way to pass the time than inventing errands to run. (Ok and it helps that I like Max's mom too LOL).

So I think that pretty much catches things up around here (except for Nico's bday post which will be coming soon). Posts will still likely be few and far between for a bit but hopefully with lots of pictures of the changes going on here!

104:22 Something from the Nightside by Simon R. Green

The first book in the Nightside series. John Taylor left the Nightside, the secret city within London where you can find anything you might want, 5yrs ago and swore never to return but when Joanna walks into his office with plenty of money looking for her teenage daughter who has runaway and appears to be in the Nightside...well, he just couldn't refuse. Their journey opens Joanna's eyes (and the readers) to some of the players and ins-n-outs of the Nightside. What they find is more than anyone, even John Taylor who thought he had seen it all, could have imagined.

The writing really reminds me of the whole film noir genre in it's pacing, tone, and verbiage. It was obviously meant as the starter of a series as it's very much about building the world, John Taylor's character, and the players involved in the Nightside while the plot was fairly basic. In all, it was a fun read when you want to turn the brain off and fans of the Dresden files and those of that ilk would probably enjoy it.

Page count: 230p/6,509p ytd

104:21 The European World by Barbara A. Hanawalt

Middle school history. This covers the basics of what was happening in Europe between 400-1450CE. While there were a few interesting tidbits of political and religious points that affected things that I learned, the rest was a decent covering of the era without any new major insight although I think that is due in part because it's an era of history I actually enjoy studying. Thankfully Matthew enjoyed it and learned lots and that is what really matters.

Page count: 173p/6,279p ytd

104:20 Turn Coat by Jim Butcher

The 11th book in the Dresden Files. Warden Morgan is on the run for the crime of killing one of the Senior Council. He was caught with the knife in his hands and blood all over him but he swears his innocence. So where does he turn? To Harry Dresden, the wizard he hounded for years trying to catch him slipping up in any fashion so he could execute him. Now Harry may be his only hope of survival and catching the true murderer who is operating behind the scenes and putting the pieces in place to tear down the White Council completely. This time tho, Harry is against forces more powerful than any he has faced before (yeah, pretty typical) and if he can't prove Morgan's innocence, he may just face the same fate of losing his head.

I liked this one for all the intrigue. Some of the Black Council have finally slipped up and their motives are starting to become clearer. Again, it was a fun read until about 100p from the end when it hits page-turner status. I'm finally caught up with the paperback versions so at this point, I'll have to wait to see what happens.

Page count: 545p/6,106p ytd

104:19 The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

This one sees the Ingalls move back into town after hearing that the winter will be harsh. Little did anyone know exactly how harsh it would end up being and how lucky they would all be to survive. 7 months of blizzards ended up completely stopping the supply trains and leaving almost the entire town on the brink of starvation. But it also shows the determination and fortitude of the pioneers that they not only managed to find ways to survive and grow stronger from it but they continually tried to do so with a positive attitude. Such amazing people.

Page count: 334p/5,5,61p ytd

104:18 The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The second Sherlock Holmes book. This one flowed much better than the first. We were able to follow Holmes through the investigation and hear his deductions very closely on which meshed better with the clues that we were given. None of the "ah ha, I just solved this based on information the reader wasn't given". It also was about 75% of the way through that the criminal was apprehended and then he told his story so it didn't feel so disjointed and his history took up much less of the story than in The Study in Scarlet. Overall, much more the Holmes I remember reading a bit of growing up and I look forward to reading more of in the future.

Page count: 86p/5,227p ytd