Matthew got his braces off today!

 So it's a big day for Matthew.  He was supposed to have them on for 15-18mos and it's been just barely 12mos and his braces are off.  Here you can see his last picture with his braces on and then his beautiful new smile!

For contrast the top picture here was take today and shows his new straight teeth, the bottom was taken just before treatment began.  I looked back through a few years worth of photos and could not find any good ones of him smiling before the braces.  He smiled more with them on than he did before because his smile bothered him because of his teeth sticking out at all sorts of wacky angles including one tooth that jutted out at an almost 90 degree angle from the rest.

Thank you Alborzi Orthodontics for letting us show Matthew's wonderful smile to the world!

Jon's First Swim Meet

I know I need to work on updating here more but things have definitely been crazy since the move.  However, Jon just participating in his first ever swim meet last Sunday and a friend was kind enough to video some of his races.  He was competing against others who had not competed in that particular event.  He did the 100 IM, 50 Freestyle, 50 Breaststroke, and 50 Butterfly.  I had to work on taxes that day so was only able to see (and photograph which will be being added soon to this post) the 100 IM and the 50 Butterfly.  He placed 2nd of 3 in the IM, 4th of 5 in Butterfly, 5th of 5 in Breaststroke, and 1st of 5 in Freestyle.  Watching him do his first race was amazing.  He has worked so hard and I'm so proud of him.  That first race, he really had no idea what to expect or how things went.  He got up there and was looking around figuring it all out.  The race started and he just went all out.  He was neck and neck with the first place boy for the first two laps (butterfly and backstroke) but then really slowed down during the third lap which was breaststroke (his hardest stroke).  The third place boy was able to overtake him during that and started his freestyle (final lap) ahead of him but Jon did a great flipturn and put on the jets and finished a few seconds ahead to take 2nd place.  He came out with the biggest smile on his face and had so much more confidence the rest of the day.  He had a great time and it was a truly wonderful experience for all of us.

Our backyard neighbors

 We have some beautiful new neighbors in our backyard although to be fair, I'm not sure if they live there or elsewhere and just hang out here for the cool trees.

 There are a pair of these Jays that I caught a few days ago.  The one above is different from the one to the right.  Yes, they are brazen as you would expect but it's such a treat to watch them zooming around the yard from the dining room.

 I had originally grabbed my camera last week to try and get pictures of the Jays but by the time I got outside, the Jays were gone and this pair of doves were hanging out instead.  To the left is in one of the smaller trees towards the back of our property.

This one to the right is a different dove (I do think they are mates tho) and was taken with my zoom as he is sitting in the branches of a very tall cypress on the west side of the yard.  I was so pleased to get this shot tho.  Thankfully these guys are not nearly as loud as the pair that hung out in the pine trees behind the old house so they are welcome to chill out here any time.

A House Full of Music

My grandparents bought a piano for my mother to learn to play back in 1960.  She eventually had it moved into her house in San Jose after she married and when I was a teenager and taking choir, she gave me a few tips and I started teaching myself to play.

 After my mother no longer had room for it in her house, it went back to my grandmother's where she started taking lessons.  After her strokes, she could no longer play and when she was moved into an assisted living facility before her death, I said I wanted to give the piano a good home.

When we bought this house that dream came true.  It was set up in the dining room with my grandmother's dining set and many pieces of art from her home.  It was tuned in December and last Friday, the fourth generation of our family started taking lessons.  Both Matthew and Nick are currently learning with me listening in and trying to learn proper technique now.

Wednesday will be the death of me

I think it was two years that I was pretty sure Tuesday was out to kill me.  Now I know that Tuesday was really just softening me up for Wednesday's death blow.  I'm not sure how the schedule became as insane as it has and I guess all I can do is be thankful that Jon's swim team time moved so late that it now interferes with YAW so it had to be moved to Thursdays.  So here's the current schedule:

9:15a  Leave for speech
9:30a Speech for Jon and Nick
10:10a    Resource Therapy for Jon (this takes place at a coffee shop near speech speech and I work with Nick)
11:30a   Get home
3:30p    Leave to drop off  Nick at YAW
3:55p    Return home and start working on dinner
4:30p    Leave to pick-up Nick and drop off Jon at YAW
5:30p    Return home after Nick has had playtime with his best friend
5:50p    Leave to go pick up Jon
6:10p    Return home and drop off Jon, pick up Matt and drive him to class at Skyline


Not sure how things are going to go after the drop-off part.  His class technically gets out at 10p but last night was the first one and they were out at 8:30p.  I was running errands so it was no big deal this time but should it be a habit, Mark will end up doing pick-up when he's home and I think I'll be taking kids out to dinner during that time when he's in NY.   It makes zero sense to come home if he'll be out in 90min considering it's a 30min drive each way.  In what little time I'm home and awake I need to keep things running and do school with the other kiddos.  I seriously don't think I've ever had such a crazy schedule and it's certainly not one I would choose but things aligned this way and thankfully it's only for a few months and then we'll get the summer off to try and figure out a better schedule.  Unfortunately Matt will likely still have a class at Skyline because CSM has stopped carrying ASL and he needs two semesters but it's a total pain because the bus system is horrendous to try and get there from here.  I had no idea it was that bad when Matt signed up for the class and had figured he'd be able to at least get himself there.  *sigh*  Oh, well, now we know and after he's done with ASL, I'll definitely be trying to keep classes for non-drivers at CSM.

Survived the first week back

First week back after break is always hard and this week has been no exception.  Kids don't want to get up in the morning (heck, neither do I).  They don't want to do their work.  They move slowly through everything.  I don't want to spend hours and hours and hours in the car so I'm grumbling through all their activities.  Yeah, it's just hard and sucky and a whole lot of no fun.  Top it all off that Mark was in NY this week so I was single-parenting the whole time too and well, Oscar had nothing on me.

But we have survived and things are starting to smooth out again.  I'm just about caught up on all the school paperwork including a lot of the stuff from this week so I'm pretty confident that I'll be entirely caught up with everything including this week's stuff except Jon's science by the end of the weekend which will be fantastic! Then comes the next project of dealing with the checkbook and bills.  Even more fun comes after that as I go through the multiple boxes of paperwork that just got shoved in boxes as we were dealing with showings and I haven't seen in ages which now need to be sorted and dealt with appropriately (filed, recycled, or shredded).  It's a process and at least it's moving in the right direction.

There had been talk about a multi-family garage sale here for this weekend but it looks like that is not happening now.  As nice as it would have been to get a bunch of this stuff gone, I'm just as glad as we aren't really organized enough to do it properly so this will give us some time to take care of that.  I'm hoping to deal with more paperwork and have Mark help get a bunch of the artwork hung and get a bunch of boxes out of the garage and then maybe we can actually get things organized in there.  I really need that since I'm continuing to have problems with my feet so training for my half-marathon needs to involve something other than a lot of walking/jogging so I'm going to work on biking a lot with the occasional walk/jog figuring the biking will work the legs and cardio system without putting as much strain on the feet.  It still puts some strain on but not as much.  It's better than sitting on my butt feeling sorry for myself and eating Holland Mints all day (although truthfully, that has it's own appeal).

Fun tidbits for the day

Yeah, I put this stuff down on FB as well but I want it someplace I can find it easily and FB just isn't that place.  First, today was a pretty awesome day.  Jon and Nick had speech this morning and then came home and just pretty much got right into their schoolwork.  There was no arguing or the usual crap they do that drive me nuts.  As a result, Nick was done with his school before 3p with plenty of break time between things and Jon was pretty close to done for the day when his resource therapist showed up.  Makes for such a nicer time when we can just knock things out and then spend time chilling.

Today's funniest moment had to come while doing math with Nick.  He had to make up some word problems of his own.  Some of them had numbers and function to use and others just gave a function.  Here are some of the more *ahem* creative ones he came up with:

* Nick had 243 cookies.  He ate 74 of them.  How many did he have left?
169 and he puked a lot!

* Nick had eight clips for his nerf gun.  Each clip held 7 darts.  How many darts can he shoot at his brothers?
56

* Nick had 375 heads in his closet.  He ate 142 of them?  How many does he have left?
233

Gotta love the way the boy's brain works.  Either that or go running away screaming.  LOL

Then Jon comes home from Young Actors and tells me that he will be playing a robot named "Domo".  I looked at him and asked if that was what I thought and he grinned and said "Yep!  Domo arigato Mr. Roboto!"  Yeah, that was a proud parenting moment!

Ok, I won't walk and read at the same time!

It's so fun to watch kids as they grow and learn and then get excited about things.  I'm a huge reader (as anyone who has paid any attention knows) and I have always hoped that even with all the technological toys around that my children would at least know what a book is other than as a torture device used by schools to deprive them of video game time.  Chris is an avid reader.  Matt is more reluctant but if you can find something that snags his interest, he will easily devour it.  Jon had the hardest time of all of them learning to read and is a slower reader but has really been coming into his own this school year, reading the Narnia books for school but enjoying them and now reading the HP books on his own time for pleasure.  Truly a beautiful thing for me to see!

Now there is Nick.  I got him a book for Hanukkah that has been THE THING that got him reading.  He is a strong reader anyway but naturally would prefer shooting people with nerf weapons or bugging his brothers to reading a book.  That changed with Underworlds: The Battle Begins by Tony Abbott.  He devoured the first book in the series in under a week, almost completely on his own.  Jon bought him the next two in the series and he is close to finishing up the second one, again on his own.  He refuses to wait to read to me and just plows ahead.  Then I have to read it on my own time so we can discuss it.  He thinks that's hilarious all on it's own.  Today, he came up to the office to read because I was on the computer there and I asked him to come downstairs with me and he just got up and kept reading as he walked.  I told him no reading while walking down the stairs so this was his answers.  Sit down and slide while continuing to read.  At least he listened to me!  Can I just say I love watching my kids get this into their books!

They just keep growing

I mean, yeah, you know that on an intellectual level but it's weird when your oldest son at 18 has still never had to shave....and then you look at your 14yr old and realize that not only are the sideburns growing in but the hair from the back of his neck is now joining up and there are longer blonde hairs on his chin with the occasional dark one thrown in.  That's when you realize that it's time for their dad to perform one of his fatherly duties and teach the boy how to shave.  I really should have tried to get a close-up before picture and used my good camera for any of these but he was already threatening me with death for just having the camera phone out so I didn't want to push my luck.

Prepping his face

Actually shaving with a standard disposable razor

 All done and not too happy with me about preserving these memories in photos

I iz Zombie

I started training for my half-marathon yesterday (HM is May 5).  Managed to do a jog/walk interval that had me averaging 4mph and I did almost 4mi so it was good.  I managed to get some other projects done yesterday that had been clammoring for my attention as well so it was a good day.

Then Nick woke up at 3am this morning and settle back down until about 8a at which point I was up for the day.  Then it was the lovely fun of getting a crown at the dentist.  I will say it didn't take as long as even they had anticipated and it was nice going in with a broken tooth and coming out with the entire process done.  Never done that before but no temporary is a good thing in my book as it means less time at the dentists.  However now I am home and my brain is completely non-functional.  I know I have a lot to do but I'm thinking a nap may be a bigger priority.   It's a really good thing he's almost as cute as he thinks he is because his constant messing with my sleep does not make mommy a happy camper.

Hello 2013!

Ok, totally disappeared off this blog last year.  So much going on and I got so very overwhelmed between the regular stuff (kids, school, general house stuff) and then adding in the vacation, buying a house (with a nightmare loan process) and actually moving.  This year I'm hoping that the major stuff is done and I can concentrate more on the day-to-day stuff, enjoying my kids, and not always feeling like I'm running at Warp 11.

So what did I accomplish this past year:

• Graduated my oldest from high school and am trying to continue helping him navigate the community college arena.
• Planned, packed for, and then took an amazing family vacation!
• Put our house up for sale (although it's still not sold...if you know anyone who's looking please send them my way)
• Packed up and moved to our fabulous new house!
• Got us unpacked enough in less than two weeks to host Thanksgiving without having boxes everywhere and have continued unpacking to get us to the mostly settled stage.  There is still tons to be unpacked tho.
• Completed two 5ks and two 10ks.
• Got New Years cards done!  (haven't done holiday cards in a few years now so that was good to do again)

I've discovered I'm not a big one for "resolutions" for the new year but instead, here are some goals that I'm going to work towards:

• My health - with all the major stressors in the last several months I've stopped doing the things I know I need to do for my health.  This is not about losing weight (although that generally happens) but more about watching my diet to keep my bp and cholesterol under control without meds and exercising to feel better.  Continuing to have problems with my feet which is something I think I need to bring up to the doctor again as nothing I've been trying has been helping.
• Unpacking - I'd really like to not have boxes of "misc" stuff still in the garage or stashed in weird places around the house in 10yrs.  I'm going to try really hard to have things settled enough that Mark can park his Firebird in the garage before summer.
• My photography - this is something that really slipped this year and I miss it.  Not sure I'm going to strive for a picture a day but I do think I'm going to strive for bringing my camera with me more and just shooting for fun.  Maybe this year I can even get some photo editing software again so I can play with the pictures I take.
• Blogging - Not sure I can do daily but I definitely want to get back to a couple of times a week.  I miss it and I know there are so many funny things the kids do and say that I will forget as they grow older and I want to be able to remember them
• Reading - Ok, this one always kind of goes without saying.
• Finding Peace - No, this isn't about having an always quiet house but more about finding inner peace and harmony in my life.  I've been getting better about it but this year definitely pushed me again and there were too many times when I found myself not handling things the way I would like.  One of my biggest fauts is I tend to be a yeller when I get stressed and especially when the kids have pushed me and I want to try and get away from that more.  This is definitely one of those things where it's going to be a long work in progress.
• Complete a half-marathon - I've signed up for one in early May with a 3.5hr time limit.  It means I have to average 4mph for that time to complete it under the time limit and I haven't started training yet.  Tough?  Oh yeah!  But something I'm really looking forward to doing just to push myself and be able to say I've done it.
• Promotion to 1st Degree Black Belt - It sucks that right now we are looking at having to take a break from KSW due to financial hardship from not having sold the other house but I will be continuing to hope that we sell that soon and can get back there in time to be promoted this year.  Another one of those things where it's been hard work for the last several years but so wonderful to push myself and do something so many have not.

So that's it really.  Nothing grand, no "lose 50lbs" or any of that such thing but just some things that I want to work on for myself this year.  Wishng everyone a Happy and Healthy 2013!

Thankful: Day 4

Today I'm thankful for my inlaws.  Yes, I sometimes complain and my MIL especially can be good at driving me batty at times but the reality is I'm very lucky and I know it.  They love us and they are generally supportive of the way we choose to live our lives and raise our children and they are always willing to help in a pinch.  They have helped make it possible for us to get into our new house financially and today my FIL helped us getting our entire storage shed moved into our new garage.  MIL is helping get the boys to their activities this week to give me more time to pack and deal with things at the new place.

Now to remember this the next time she wants to give one of my children some vastly inappropriate gift.  LOL

Thankfulness: Day 3

Today I'm thankful for new keys....

 A garage door opener...

 New doors...

 Lots of closets...

 Stairs...

 And a beautiful view

Thankfulness: Day 2

Today I'm thankful for Fusion IO.  Yes, they put us through hell with the way they treated Mark and his horrid travel schedule at the end but thanks to their actually doing an IPO, we have the money for our new house and we had a marvelous vacation.

Thankfulness - Day 1

Not sure if I'm going to make it but I'm going to try to blog daily this month and really focus on being thankful.  These past several months have been incredibly stressful and I know I've been cranky so I'm trying to refocus and I want this to be part of it.

Right now, I'm thankful that despite all the frustrations, heart attacks, ulcers, and other stress that this home buying process has given us and the fact that right now we don't have a firm close date, things are moving forward and we should be able to close next week.  Also that things have been worked out to allow us to rent the house for the few days between when escrow should have closed (tomorrow) and when it actually does so we can start getting the house fixed the way we want it before moving next weekend as we had originally planned.    I'm incredibly thankful for our Realtors and Loan Broker who have worked tirelessly to make this happen.

A Moment of Silence

It's a sad day here.  After 3y8m3d, a trip to India and another one on a ship to Mexico, and spending almost it's entire life in my hands or my purse....my Kindle has died.  It didn't deserve it's death.  I loaned it to Matthew so he could do some school reading and he didn't make sure it was all the way on his desk when he jumped up to answer the phone and it fell screen first on to the floor.  The screen is completely busted and at this point, there is nothing anyone can do to bring it back.

The only good news from this tragedy is that I called Amazon just to see what would happen and I was offered a new one at a discounted price plus a credit to help with accessories (cover, screen protector, etc). I'm getting the Kindle Touch I've been coveting but unwilling to replace a perfectly good working Kindle with.  Same screen size but so much smaller than mine.

And Matthew is not getting near it for a looooooong time to come.



As for the rest of life, I haven't been updating because this whole buying/selling a house thing is sooooo much more stressful than I could have imagined.  To make a long story short, we are supposed to close escrow on Friday but we have yet to sign loan docs because they keep coming up with more paperwork to ask for and we are now down to the wire.  It's a truly stupid process because every time they find one thing that they need verified or more documentation on or whatever, they kick it back to the loan broker and stop the entire process.  Then you go to the bottom of the queue once you turn that in.  Then they find something else that needs more documentation and the entire process if halted again and kicked back to the loan broker.  This has been going on 45 days now.   I'm nauseous and stressed out after dealing with all of this and sick to think that they may kick it back to us yet again for some other stupid piddly thing which will mean we won't be able to make our escrow close date.  Even after we sign the loan docs, there will be more of this crap before they will actually fund the loan which needs to take place the day before escrow closes.  That would be Thursday, you know 4 days away.  Yeah, it's been a whole lot of fun with all this and to top it off, we still don't even have a solid offer on our current place.  I think it will sell faster once we are out and it looks more spacious without what 6 people need to survive comfortable but it's yet another stress at this point.

It's Official!!!

Ok, I've been meaning to update for ages first with pictures and a diary of our trip and then just general stuff but the last few months have been crazy trying to get ready for the school year (which started Aug 13 and I still have yet to actually take First Day of School pictures) and trying to keep up with our house trying to get it sold and researching and looking at houses for sale trying to find one we liked and could actually get into.

Well, it's been crazy but I can announce that we just signed the last of the paperwork to buy our new house! No, this one hasn't sold yet but hopefully it will soon since there isn't much in the area and I do think it might sell faster when we aren't living here.  I keep cleaning but unfortunately, there are these children who keep messing.

But back to the whole new house thing.  It's amazing.  5 bedrooms!  Oldest two plan on sharing which is great since we need one for an office but the younger two can be separated which will do wonders for everyone's sanity.  3 bathrooms!  Maybe now we can eliminate the potty lines!  A HUGE yard!  Seriously, it's amazingly huge and so wonderful for Nick to have running room!  We'll be able to really take a stab at growing our own fruits and vegetables.  Jon is really keen to have an apple tree so that's a definite.  There's room for chickens too which is another thing the kids have been wanting and I can finally have a big dog like I've been wanting!

So now the countdown is officially on.  This is Day 0 and on Day 60 we get the keys to our new home!

(Oh yeah, and because we're crazy, Mark starts his new job on the 17th.  He's been miserable so it's a good thing but this new job also requires monthly travel to NY or China...Good times!)

Crazy Storage Locker Happenings

Ok, I was going to start doing posts about our vacation but last night's craziness was just too much not to get down for all time.  It started innocently enough, as these things usually do, at around 8p.  I had just served dinner when my friend called to say she was on her way over to grab our extra food processor after she grabbed a bite and I told her to just come over as I had plenty leftover.  As I went to sit down I figured, hey, why not head over to the storage locker and grab the food processor so we don't have to do that when she's here.  Save some time, right?

Or not.

I got there and now I admit, I can never remember if we are unit 5 or 6 so I usually look at the locks.  Well, huh, neither one looks right.  The one on 6 is the big round one they sell here which I didn't buy and the one on 5 is covered in black rubber and I'm pretty sure that ours was just straight metal.  Well, I'll go try the key on 5 since maybe I'm just misremembering.  Nope, doesn't work.  I try a few more times. Still doesn't work.  I call Mark to check with him and get told that yep, it's unit 5 and no our lock is not covered in black rubber.

WTF?!?!?!  Someone has broken our lock off and replaced it!  This is not the lock the storage company uses when you are in default, nor the way they put it on, plus we are totally current in our payments and the only letter I've had from them in ages is telling me that the rent goes up next month.

Ok, I'm totally freaking out at this point.  Since we are in the process of showing our house the vast majority of our possessions are in that locker including baby clothes and blankets knit by my late grandmother, baby pictures, all our artwork, my books.  None of it is really worth much to anyone else but it's our world and someone else has access to it and I don't!

I called the storage locker company and got the answering machine as I expected.  I called my friend and begged her to pick up another lock so I could double-lock it at least so the other people couldn't easily get back in. She was almost to my house but like a true friend turned around and headed back into town to grab one for me and her only question was "combo or key".  She was here with me when the Sheriff arrived.  He listened to my incoherent story and confirmed that I had the legal right to cut that lock off since I pay the rent for the locker and the storage facility didn't put the lock on it.  He offered to be there when we cut it off if we could find a pair of bolt cutters.

Then began the search for bolt cutters.  My friend's parents had some so we went there first and searched the garage but to no avail.  Then it was time for me, her, and her parents to start calling people we knew who might possibly have such a thing.  It took some time but finally my friend remembered one friend who was close enough that might have access to a pair and we hit paydirt.  In the meantime, another friend with a hacksaw had stopped by the house, grabbed Matt, and was waiting at the storage locker for us as well.

I called the Sheriff back and about 30min later he finally joined us and we all went in.  He was asking if I was sure this was the right locker since, oh, boy would that be the biggest joke on us all if I was wrong.  I assured him I was right and my friend cut the lock.  I was terrified of what I might find but thankfully it opened up to all our stuff right there filled almost to the brim.  I admit I haven't been there lately but it sure didn't look like it had been picked over.  I was almost ready to collapse from relief at that point as I'd been a complete nervous wreck.

Oh, and the food processor was right there in the front where it should be and I was able to give it to my friend so all's well that ends well but tomorrow I'm going to the storage company and getting one of their big, uncuttable locks because I never want to go through that again.

Ummmm...Whoops?!

Yeah, wow, um almost 7mos since I last posted.  I kept meaning to and really, I have no good reason why not except I just didn't and I'm ending it now with a recap of what has happened since my last post:

• I managed an incredible sprain of my left ankle in the beginning of Dec which had me first in a roboboot (which we decorated for the holiday season) and eventually in a cast (my first ever and just in time for Easter).  It's still not 100% healed and I'm still cranky about it (which may or may not have something to do with my long absence here).
• We finally put our house on the market.  Things were slow at first but we had a couple of showings while we were on vacation a few weeks ago and another 2 last week right after we got back.  Hoping that this means moving is in our future.
• Christopher graduated high school, Matt graduated 8th grade, Jon graduated 5th, and Nick graduated K!  Hard to believe I now have one in college (full time), one in high school, one in junior high, one in elementary and no more babies!  
• Mark got a promotion at work but so far all that has meant is more work and no raise, no one listening any better to him, and more frustration.  We are both hoping that things start changing around soon.
• We went on an extreme vacation!  A 7-day Disney Cruise through the Western Caribbean and then a week in Orlando.  Lots of rain but lots of fun and I will be doing longer posts about that with some pictures in the coming days.
• Matthew was promoted to 1st Degree Black Belt in Kuk Sool Won back in February.
• I chopped off my hair and donated it to Locks of Love.

I think that's the main stuff that went down.  It wasn't super busy, we were just going along living life and I forgot to write any of it down.  I really want to have this record tho so I'm committing to posting here 3xs a week so if anyone is still reading this, you've been warned.  LOL

Matthew Jamming

Yeah, I totally need to find some time to catch up on life here but in the meantime, here's a video of Matthew playing the song he's working on writing.