2 down!

So yeah, a thing happened last night and it was kind of big.  We attended Matthew's high school graduation ceremony from Ocean Grove.  I started homeschooling Matthew halfway through K when we had issues with a student at the private school he was attending.  We put in what was supposed to be a really good program in our local public school for 1st grade but that didn't work out either so we pulled him out in March after having pulled Chris out in Nov and started using CAVA.

While CAVA was wonderful for Christopher, it was never the right fit for Matthew and we struggled.  Oh god, how we struggled.  There were tears.  There were fights. There were threats of sending him back to public school. He is stubborn despite his generally easy going nature and it took me time to realize that what he needed was a different curriculum that took his interests much more into account.  That's when we went to OG in his 5th grade year.  

Things did improve but that's not to say that there were never fights to get him to do his schoolwork.  He isn't nicknamed Slothboy for no reason.  Inertia is ever a problem with him.  He's freaking smart but he is also lazy and I admit to being distracted by a child who has learning disabilities and another one who has more energy than a nuclear reactor.  So, it's been a long, hard road to get to this point in his life.

But get here we did and tonight was a celebration of a lot of years of very hard work on both our parts.  I demanded (and I think got) his best work.  I was not an easy teacher because I knew how much he was capable of and I wanted to see that with each and every lesson.  It paid off with his being on the school Honor Roll and also being accepted into the National Honor Society. 

I can see the payoff in his college classes to.  When he took his college placement tests as a high school junior, he placed into English 100 (college English).  He has been attending college classes since he was a high school fresheman and currently has a 3.84gpa there. While I frequently have to be a nag to get work from him for his high school classes with me, he is also organized and completely on top of his college classes so the lessons have sunk in.

Now a new chapter is about to begin.  While I love Matthew as a human and my son because he is truly a wonderful human being, incredibly caring and giving, smart, gifted, funny, and I could go on, he has not been an easy student for me.  I'm thankful I had the opportunity to homeschool him because I truly believe it was the best thing for him but it was also a challenge to be his teacher and not destroy our parent/child relationship sometimes.

But we did it!  We have just over a week left in this, our last school year together as teacher and student, and he still sits on my lap and comes to me for hugs and advice.  So yeah, I think we will be ok. 

 And now I just have two more to get through this but after Matthew, I know I can do it.

The 'N' Avenger

You'd think I was a parent of 4 boys or something because dang, even though they are getting bigger and older it seems like I just keep getting busier and busier.  I have so many things that I want to blog about but today, the big one I don't want to lose is the story of the 'N' Avenger.  The background is that I ask Matthew to text me when he leaves or arrives at destinations he is driving to unless I am physically present at that time.  Being Matthew, he rarely sends plain boring "arrived safely" type of texts.  Instead I got the Adventures of the 'N' Avenger for about a month:

Feb 18: If you hear anything about a masked vigilante in a red suit causing havoc on the highway, I want to say it isn't me, I'm at "school".

Feb 18: Made it. Now the naked avenger can strike again!

Feb 19: The named avenger is on his way home, now that he has fulfilled his duty to the city.

Feb 22: The Narrower Avenger is on his way out now.

Feb 22: The Navigation Avenger has arrived at his avenging destination in order to avenge some thing or other.

Feb 22: The Numerator Avenger, having again finish his duties of avenging numbers above the divider in fractions, is on his way to return to home base.

Feb 24: The Notorious Avenger is about to start a day full of avenging while being filmed by the media.

Feb 24: The Negotiating Avenger having avenged both sides to remain even in the situation, is heading home now.

Feb 24: Actually, the Nutritional Avenger wonders what we need from GNC.

No, the Net Neutrality Avenger sent his OMWHN text early like he said he would. He hasn't moved yet.  That is to say, he is still at school, sitting in the parking lot.

Having now collected his groceries in quantities suitable as to not require restocking too soon, the Non-Dairy Avenger now properly makes his way home.

Feb 25: The Nipple Clip Avenger probably shouldn't take his father's suggestions for names.

Feb 25: The Non-Euclidean Geometry Avenger, after having proven that you can make a triangle with three ninety degree angles, will be home shortly.

Feb 28: The Nagging Avenger requests your presence in the second floor battle room! Please!

Feb 29: The Nuisance Avenger wishes to know where he is to meet Kerri.

Mar 7: The nonsensical Avenger is meeting you at the roundabout, yes?

The Non-Newtonian Fluid Avenger would appreciate a slice of combo Costco pizza, please.

The New Age Music Avenger will be waiting at the extraction point, though he is taking heavy fire from the Hipster Resistance.

Mar 9: The Neanderthal Avenger is very glad he recently invented the sweatshirt to keep him warm in the water-fall.

Mar 9: The Nebulous Avenger has orbited over to Piazza's for lunch.

Mar 9: The Nitwit Avenger also needs to fix his pin so he can stop putting lunch on the + card.

Mar 11: The New Drive Avenger would like to inform you about Progressive's New Driver Discount.

Mar 11: The Nitrogen Avenger would like to note that he's about to increase the amount of nitrogen in your local atmosphere by about one percent.

Mar 14: The Ni Avenger is on his way out ni! Er...now, rather.

Mar 14: The Nitrate Avenger isn't entirely certain how to avenge a chemical compound. Um...Carefully?

Mar 14: The Avenger News Reporter, coming to you live from downtown San Mateo, where it appears a man going by the Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Avenger is beating up mimes under the pretense that they are escaped convicts.

Mar 16: The Nirvana Avenger smells both Teen Spirit and JUSTICE!

Mar 16: The Narnia Avenger may have hit a wardrobe on the way over...Whoops!

Mar 16: The Newt Avenger got better! And now is on his way home.

Mar 17: The Nigerian Prince Avenger needs your help smuggling money into your country!


That's where those adventures end but knowing Matthew, there will likely be another post like this at some point when he comes up with something new (or starts spending more time with a dictionary).

Time just keeps on flying by

So I had every intention of at least blogging once a week but after the deaths of Bowie and Rickman, well, my heart just wasn't into it.  We ended up having a movie marathon with Labyrinth, Galaxy Quest, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that weekend in remembrance.

Spending a few days in disbelief put a few things behind a little bit, most especially school and book club reading so I've spent the last week trying to get caught up with those things.  I almost had the book club book done before heading there on Monday night. I did finish it up the next day and I'm getting closer to catching up the rest of the school reading and the other day to day stuff is getting pretty close.

Of course, life goes on and there has been swim team, and acting, and soccer registration days, and swim meets.  We've made no-sew blankets and graded papers, worked on my knitting projects and reading Elfquest (new goal for the year is to get completely caught up with that!), walked many miles and signed up for several virtual races (really really pretty medals!).

Jon made his BB time in the 50Free at the meet earlier this month which meant he was eligible for Zones which is a big deal for a swim meet.  It was his first time going and he improved his time a bit more in the few weeks between the events.  We are super proud of all his hard-work and dedication and knowing it paid off is wonderful. We ended up ordering him the Mavericks team swim parka for all his hard work and part birthday present.

Speaking of birthdays, since it's almost the end of January that means we'v been starting to get ready for Nick's birthday party.  How in the world can my "baby" be two short weeks away from hitting double-digits?  Honestly, that just shouldn't be possible.

Broken things

Well, it's been a week but one that I'm happy is coming to a successful close.  Mark left for NY Sunday morning and apparently that was the universe's wake up call that stuff needed to break around the house.  Monday wasn't so bad. Matthew has his pre-op appointment which ran a little late but then we had to pick up his prescriptions then because he had to start taking the antibiotics the day before his surgery and I didn't want to try to find time for a third trip over the hill this week.  Turns out, that was a good call on my part even if  it almost (but not quite) made us late to swim team.  A HUGE thank you goes out to my friend Cecilia for having Nick over for a playdate while I was with Matthew.

Tuesday the rains hit.  Now don't get me wrong, I love the rain. I love the sound and the smell and what it does for my yard.  What I don't love is our drainage issues.  Our first month in this house we ended up with a lake under the house from the rains when our sump pump went out.  I believe it was a year ago that we bought a new sump pump because the one that came with the house died. Well, that one died on Tuesday. I went outside to check things and found it not working and things obviously needing to be pumped so I called Mark and he talked me through a few repair things that I hadn't already thought of to no avail so Jon and I went out in the rain and figured out a way to assemble the pipe that was out there to allow the backup pump we have to drain into the ditch outside out house.  It wasn't pretty but it got the job done even if it did mean that we had to go out on a regular basis to plug or unplug the pump since it doesn't have an autoswitch.  Now that Mark is home, he took the dead one apart and it's toast so we are buying two new ones so that there is a real back-up to the main one that can easily be swapped in when this happens again and no building drainage in my yard.  LOL

Back on Monday I had seen a message on Freecycle that someone had a lot of free wood to give away.  Considering that our house is all electric with room heaters, we use our woodstove in the living room as our main source of heat during the winter so long as it's not a spare the air day.  This was a great haul and I was happy to get it.  I finally got a hold of the guy and made arrangements to get the wood Wednesday after I dropped kids off at swim team.  However, when I went to start the suburban so I could haul wood it refused to turn over.  Huh, that's weird. Seems like a dead battery. So I tried to jump it with the Cruiser but to no avail. It at least started ticking a bit but it wasn't acting like it was going to start easily so I threw kids in the Cruiser and went. I ended up taking Chris with me and loading up the Cruiser with as much as it would take (Cruiser deserves major kudos for hauling this load around!), came home, threw the wood over the fence and then went to the Homeschool Game Night.  I was transporting extra kids there which ended up working out better than I could have imagined because it meant dropping off the older ones who ordered dinner so everything was out by the time I got back from picking up 4 hungry boys from swim team.  Bonus!  On top of all this, Mark's flight was delayed by several hours so I'm so very, very thankful that I had said I couldn't pick him and my friend Linda had volunteered and was still willing even when his plane didn't get in until 1:30a.  Seriously, I have some of the best friends in the world and I'm not sure I would have gotten through this week with what little sanity I still possess without them.  Thankfully, Mark was able to get the truck started today although it's still not sounding super happy but hopefully whatever is still making it cranky will be a less expensive thing to fix.  Because he is also super wonderful, he took Jon to swim and filled the boot of the suburban with more wood from that pile.  Apparently there is still lots left so I'll be doing the same thing tomorrow.  I'm guessing at some point we will need to actually stack it somehow in our yard rather than just throwing it over the fence but you know, it worked and it was pretty fun to do! LOL

And then there was today.  Up at 5:30a so I could be out of the house by 7a to get Matthew to the oral surgeon.  His orthodontist said he needed all his wisdom teeth out before they erupted and after seeing on the xrays were impacted and there was no room for the others to come in nicely either, I can't argue.  Today was the day and now Matthew may not be broken but I'm guessing he is not exactly going to be my sweet happy boy when he finally awakes from his slumber.  Thankfully they put him completely under for the surgery (although Sleeping Beauty took 2+hrs to wake up after they were done because it's Matthew) so I spent 4 hours sitting in a waiting room trying not to fall asleep.  Once I got him home, he drank a little protein shake, took pain meds and antibiotics, and promptly fell asleep.  Doctor says surgery went well and he should recover nicely so the big thing for the next few days will be keeping him as comfortable as possible.  

So yeah, that's been the week so far.  I have spent the rest of the day mostly chilling because I'm exhausted although I did find the energy to rearrange a few things in the upstairs closets for ease of use that I've been meaning to do for a while.  Also, despite all this stuff going on I've been continuing to track my food and keep the carbs down (nothing short of a miracle considering the serious lack of sleep I've had the past few nights) and been hitting my step goal every day.  Not sure I'm going to hit it today but I'm going to try.  I'm also going to try and get a lot of sleep tonight.  Lots and lots of sleep.  

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

2016 Goals

So I've decided I'm not one for resolutions and I really hate having to decide on them on a specific date so I've been thinking and considering and deciding on my personal goals for this year.  I'm not resolving to do anything but rather putting out my intentions that these are the things that I want to achieve for myself for various reasons.  I also decided I want a written record and since one of them has to do with this blog I will put them here.  So here goes, in no particular order:

• Blog more - I find that I really miss writing my thoughts down so I want to start working to make that more of a habit.  Not trying for daily or anything like that, just simply more than I have the past couple of years (which really, isn't saying a whole lot).
• Reading goals - 120 books, 40 new authors, 40,000 pages.  I have put these on my other blog (which gets way more attention than this one) but I want them here as well. I've been hitting my books read no problem most years, and the same with the new authors (though I spaced and only got 39 last year) but the pages, oh, man, the pages one kills me almost every year.  Going to keep trying though.
• Organization - This is more of an ongoing thing.  I've gotten my desk mostly under control (and even when it's not, it can be again quickly) so finances are also now under control. I'm good with Nick's schoolwork but not as good about Jon and Matt and that is something I really want to change.  Also there are some trouble spots in the house that I would like to focus some attention on and find better ways of dealing with.
• Decluttering - Now that we have been here 3 years, we are finding out more and more what works here and what doesn't.  There are also boxes of things that have still never seen the light of day.  I want to at least go through those boxes and figure out if it's stuff that can stay and where it should live or if it can go.  I also have some boxes of stuff that needs to go on eBay and I'd like to at least start getting that stuff listed and out of the house.
• Movement - Yeah, the dreaded exercise one.  I need to do it and I do for a while and then I fall off again.  I've been pretty good about doing a lot of walking when the weather is good but it's harder when it's not and I can't get out when the kids are at swim.  I'm debating about a gym membership for that but haven't decided fully.  Right now, the task is to find 30min a day (so really an hour with getting ready, doing it, and then showering and such after) of purposeful movement 5 days a week and at least 8,000 total steps/daily.  My two end of year goals are to hit 10,000 daily steps on a regular basis by the end of the year and to do at least 2 planned races of any length (although I'm eyeing doing a 5k and a 10k but we will see which ones catch my eye).  I still would like to do a 1/2 marathon at some point but that's not this year and I'm okay with that.
• Health - Nope, this one is not about losing weight. It's not that I don't know I should or anything like that but rather I don't want that to be my focus.  My focus is on my carb addiction.  That has continued to be my biggest problem area and that is the one I am going to focus on.  I can't go without them, that is simply just not possible.  Nor am I interested in some super restrictive thing like Atkins.  I find that to be unrealistic long-term and more likely to trigger month long binges than anything else.  My goal is to monitor my carb intake through tracking my food on SP, paying less attention to calories consumed and more attention to carbs, fiber, and balance of fats/carbs/protein.  Also, lots and lots of water.  My problem with that has not been drinking sodas (thankfully) but rather just not drinking enough liquid period so I'm tracking that too just to make sure I'm getting enough.
• Being Positive - I feel like I'm generally happy but realistic but I know that I also tend to be anxious and allow certain things to bug me.  I did a #100HappyDays thing on FB last year which I'm still doing 363 days later.  I figured I'd go til I hit a year but now that it's coming up, I haven't decided if I'm going to stop or not.  I kind of like doing it.  All I do know for certain is I want to continue to keep finding positives in each and every day and continue to be grateful for all that I have.  It's too easy to get caught up in all the crazy day to day stuff.
• Crafting - It's hard to get a lot of crafting done while trying to teach kiddos, transport kiddos, read, and everything else but I really enjoy it so my big goal here is to just try and make more time for it.  I've finally finished my cross-stitch that I was working on for years and the Doctor Who scarf that I started in '09, then ripped out and restarted in '13.  Now I've got a movie-accurate Slytherin scarf I've started (I'm taking bets on how long before I switch to size 4 needles from the recommended 2s, and how long to go to garter stitch from the rib) and a hat for Nick with yarn he picked out many, many years ago (and then finding the yarn to make a coordinating scarf).  It's my first hat and I'm only two rows in but the goal is to at least finish the hat this year.  I'm also getting ready to start a new cross-stitch project that is actually for me and not someone else.  Plus I'm working with the boys to do no-sew blankets.

So those are my goals. I'm using Habitica to try and track my to-do lists which it's not fabulous for but also habits that I'm trying to cultivate and daily things which it's definitely better for and it's fun. If you join, let me know so we can defeat monsters together.  I've also got a FitBit now which I'm pretty happy with so if you have one, friend me so we can support each other.

2016?! Seriously?!

I knew I'd sort of abandoned this blog so I decided to check on it and realize that the last time I posted was in Aug 2014.Um, yeah, wow.  Never meant to go that long without posting.  It's not super important or crazy things have been happening around here but still, I do enjoy putting my thoughts down and I'm a bit sad that I let this slide for so long but it's a new day (and a new year) and I'm trying to get a bit more organized and I want to start making this more of a habit again.

So with that, where are we right now:

Nick is now 9 (almost 10) and in 4th grade. He is in swim team and has just been bumped up to Bronze Level from Club. He still plays soccer and roller hockey, is involved with YAW, and is continuing with his piano lessons. He loves hanging out and playing with his brothers and friends and it's a rare break that we don't have extra kids in the house.  He also continues to have more energy than a nuclear reactor and keeps us in a perpetual state of exhaustion.

Jon is now 14 and has spent the last 6+mos telling me how he'll be 15 this year and gets to start learning how to drive. I've spent the same amount of time sticking my fingers in my ears and saying "lalalalalala" really loud to try and ignore this fact.  I have a few more months of that and then I'm pretty sure reality may intervene.  I can't say I'm looking forward to it.  When he isn't reminding me of that, he is usually to be found in the pool as he swims with his team 4xs/wk. He is also enjoying YAW and declares that his freshman year of high school has been waaaaay easier in terms of schoolwork than middle school. We'll see how long he continues to think that high school is a piece of cake. Although, since he is taking Home Ec every year and gets to bake a lot, he may not change his mind.

Matthew is a senior in high school this year and enjoying a slightly easier class load with robotics and digital photography as extra electives to help round out his mandatory English, Econ, and Govt classes that he needs for graduation. He continues to maintain a high gpa in his JC classes as well which helps me to know that he can do the work for others even if I have to struggle constantly to get basic things done for his classes with me.  He loves his music and is still taking piano and guitar lessons which have been going great. He has been doing a lot more creatively with his guitar and writing his own songs for it which has been marvelous.

Christopher completed his AS studies in Accounting and took some extra Accounting courses at the JC. He is now working on becoming a Certified Public Bookkeeper while he is still working at the local UPS store.  He has been there for about 16mos now and has learned a lot. In his spare time, he lives in front of his computer playing lots of video games or is at the blood donation center so we can sell his blood for movie tickets. It's a good trade-off.

Mark is still with Yingli Americas.  There has been some turmoil with the company so we are not sure what this year will bring in terms of his job situation but at this point we are almost out of debt other than the house and a little credit card with plenty of advance warning so it's a much better situation than we have been in previously.  When not at work, he is either researching political stuff, playing Puzzles & Dragons (an addiction we all share although his is by far the worst), or brewing beer.  That last has continued to make messes in the garage and take up tons of space but it keeps him happy. LOL

As for me, life has been going along.  Lots of cleaning, lots of teaching, LOTS of driving kids to activities. I seriously spend an insane amount of time either in the car or sitting around waiting while they do their stuff.  I read a lot and actually managed to finish up Nick's birth announcement that I started back when he was 2 or 3 (I think) and the Doctor Who scarf I started first back in '09 and then ripped out and restarted 3 years ago so those were great accomplishments this last year.  I am also still volunteering with our local AYSO as registrar because I'm apparently still too dumb to say no to friends.

So there's a brief catch-up. Now to keep writing!

A fully licensed driver in the house???

So hard to believe yet it's not.  Exactly 6 months to the day that he took his written test and earned his Driving Permit, he took his behind the wheel test and passed with flying colors.  This is a first for us and a huge step for him as well.

Now how to put him to good use to account for the huge hit my bank account is going to take with the increase in insurance premiums???  LOL

Field Trip - Exploratorium

Our friends choose to have a meet-up at the Exploratorium today for their little guy's birthday.  We are always up for going there and add in cupcakes and it's pretty much a no brainer.  Mark and I have only been to the new location once and the boys hadn't been at all so looking at the cost of everything, we grabbed the mega-family pass and headed off.

It was fabulous and even being there for several hours there is still a ton of stuff I didn't get to do but hey, that's why we have passes.  I can't tell you what any of my kids did while they were there as the oldest three all took off on their own and I managed to hand Nick off to daddy so I could go off with my friend.  This NEVER happens so I took complete advantage of it to go enjoy what I wanted to do.  The nice thing is that with the pass, Mark can go there during his lunch time since it's not far from his work and even bring friends with him so he'll have time to explore and next time I go, I know I'll be on Nick duty again.  One of these days tho, I really want to go into the tactile dome.  It looks so cool and all the kids are now old enough to go into it so it's actually a possibility.

Ok, and seriously, how cool is this?!  A vending machine with stuff to tinker with rather than junk food.  Small LEDs, wires, clips, etc.  I think every school should have vending machines like this. 

Nick on piano

Nick has now been playing piano for over a year.  He's not sure he wants to do an actual recital but I did manage to convince him to let me video a few of his pieces today.

Star Wars Main Theme is one of his favorite pieces.  Unfortunately, he usually plays it at lightspeed so I feel really lucky that here I was able to convince him to slow down to something close to tempo:




This is a piece called The Cuckoo Clock where there is a slight shift in hand position which you can see as he pauses briefly to get set:

Happy 8th Birthday, Nick!

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

It's so hard to believe that you are 8 years old today!  8 years ago, I held you for the first time and my life has never been the same.   You are my wild and crazy child one minute and then my snugglebunny the next.

 This morning you started with the snuggles and then when I wanted a picture of my birthday boy, you grabbed my phone and started taking selfies which ended up with you cracking yourself up to no end.  Your laugh is so infectious that you soon had everyone in the room joining in.

You have grown so much this year and learned how to do so many things.  It's hard to remember when you couldn't do things those things. When you decide you want to do something, you don't let anything stop you. I hope that is something that you never lose.

 Your relationship with your brothers has a lot of ups and downs, especially with Jon but Matthew continues to be your brother of choice.  You love hugging him and whatever he likes to play, you enthusiastically take up as well just so you can play with him.  You annoy him and flatter him all at the same time and while I know it seems like he tells you to go away all the time, there are a lot of moments like this when the two of you start goofing off and the sound of your laughter fills the house.

 It's not often that we catch you being still because you are almost always in motion but we appreciate the small bits of time when you do slow down.  More often, we are yet again after you to stop running in the house so you don't get hurt.  Is it any surprise you love playing sports like soccer and hockey?  Or that while your piano teacher is constantly working with Matthew to come up to tempo, she and I are both constantly trying to get you to slow down and play at the right speed?  I love your enthusiasm and the way you are always racing to get the most of out of life but there are times when I really hope you will some day learn how to slow down and enjoy things those things that only happen when you are still and quiet.

School is something that you alternately love and hate.  You like learning new stuff, especially in math and science, but trying to get you to do any of the paper stuff is a mixed bag.  You have really gotten into reading this past year and will easily spend an hour just curled up reading.  You love to declare that it's "reading party time!" where we should all curl up on the couch or in my bed with a book and just read.  Pretty awesome idea and one I'm always happy to oblige you with.

Of course, you have made it abundantly clear that you have your own way you think things should be done and it's not easy to convince you otherwise.  Is it chilly in the house?  Then we can be sure to find you behind my chair and next to the heater doing your schoolwork.  Don't want to do your schoolwork?  Just hide it under the sideboard because of course we won't look there even when it's where you always put it.   We are still trying to find a balance with you of giving you ways to assert your independence without completely ruling the house or driving us out of our minds.  Some days we think we have found it and the next day you make sure to prove just how silly we were to ever think that.

We took you to see snow for the first time this year and you couldn't get enough of it.  You would go outside until you were frozen and then come in just long enough to thaw out and then want to go back outside again.  Snowballs, skiing, sledding, snow angels....you wanted all of it and all the time.  

In short, you are nothing but an amazing, silly, smart, wild, reckless, caring, thoughtful, crazy, goofball child.  You are a bundle of contradictions and keep us on our toes at all times and as crazy as you drive me on a daily basis, I wouldn't change you for the world.

  I love you to infinity and beyond!

Drawback of the new house...

It's funny the things you don't even think about when you are looking at potential homes or how you view them when you are looking at them and then how you view them later in life.  

Like living here, we are walking distance to the Sheriff's substation and the only ER on the coast and the fire department isn't too far away either.  Normally this seems like a good thing since you know that any emergency service you will ever need can get to you quickly.

Until the day your child is going out for his first ever driving lesson and it's raining so of course there are accidents happening and you get to keep hearing the sirens of emergency vehicles going off on a regular basis and every time you heart stops because what if it's your baby???

Hard to see with the glare and rain on the window but that's Matthew behind the wheel of a car for the first time ever sticking his tongue out at me because, well, it's Matt.  He did fine.  Instructor never had to use his emergency brake and no vehicles, people, or other property was damaged during the lesson.  He even did so well that the instructor had him drive over Devil's Slide to the Taco Bell and then practice over in that area for a while before letting him drive back over Devil's Slide to get home.  I didn't even drive that road until I'd had my license for a few years!  Well done kiddo!

But no, I'm still not ready to get into the car with you behind the wheel.

Matthew jamming

It's pretty rare that Matthew lets me film him messing around on his guitar but I was allowed to last night after he and I spent some time talking about not only the songs he has been working on in his lessons but the different techniques that he has to learn for those songs.  He decided to mess around for a bit and show me a bunch of different things with some of his favorite chords and actually allow me the privilege of recording it to share with others.  Enjoy!

It just had to happen....

Matthew's first mugshot

Ok, maybe not an actual "mugshot" but it certainly looks like it should be one but really, what can you expect from the DMV when it seems like whoever is trained to take photos is also trained on how to make you look as horrid as possible.

Oh, yeah, did I mention, this is on his Learner's Permit?  Yeah, that's right, the state of CA and the DMV have given him permission to get behind the wheel of a vehicle provided he has a licensed driver over the age of 25 with him.  Seriously?  Without one of those fancy driving school, emergency brake things I'm pretty sure that's not actually safe for anyone.

Of course, he can't actually drive yet but his first lesson with the driving school will be on Friday so anyone living in HMB, this is my official apology and also, my warning to you to stay inside and off the sidewalks that day.

Gorillas, tigers, and komodo dragons....oh my!

The kids have been asking when we could go to the zoo and see the new komodo dragon there as well as check out the new playground.  Not truly thinking things through, I thought today would be a great day to do that since we had no school, no therapy, and would only need to skip out on swim team.  We went with some friends but so did everyone else and their cousin as we ended up parking on the sand across the street and our friends parked in Timbuktu.

 Even with everyone being there we were still able to see the animals we really wanted to see like the 6mo old gorilla baby, Kabibe, and the 2.5yr old komodo dragon:

And of course no trip to the zoo would ever be complete with oohing and ahhing over the beautiful peacocks, especially since they are Nick's favorite animal:

And really, who can blame him?  They are just gorgeous!  It's also completely necessary to go see the tiger cub, Jillian:

 The best thing about having the membership is we were able to go and enjoy seeing the couple of animals we wanted and spend as long as we liked admiring them without trying to see everything and then having a nice liesurely lunch before hitting the playground for a bit.  The new playground is wonderful and the younger boys definitely gave it two thumbs up.

And of course, no zoo trip would be complete without Matthew ending up with a new penguin.  Meet Edgar!

Playing hooky!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here and while yes, I realize that it's not a good thing and we are looking at drought conditions for the year from the lack of rain, still, it's January and it's in the 70s and we live near the beach that is always cold and fogged over during the summer.

I've decided that this means it's time to play hooky and head to beach with my boys and just enjoy the peace of the waves lapping up and the warmth of the sunshine while my kids boogie board and play in the ocean and sand.

This is exactly what I needed right now.  This week has been insane and it's so easy to lose myself in doing what I feel HAS to be done but then I miss out on the great opportunities to just enjoy life and my children.  I'm working hard to change that and to be open to them when they come up.  This one was a compromise where they wanted to go a few days ago but with a combination of already scheduled appointments, I cringed at it but I told them we would check the weather reports and today looked equally nice with the bonus of not having a lot going on so sneaking away for a few hours worked just fine.  

You would think I'd learn by now

But no.  I don't stop and think about how crazy the first couple of weeks back to school are after any prolonged break and somehow this time, I managed to schedule even more craziness for myself in the first two weeks coming back from winter break this time than ever before.

Orthodontist appointment in San Mateo on the only free day in the first week?
Sure!

Oh, hey, while we are there and they tell me that he needs to have several of his brackets moved and that needs to be done ASAP and we have an appointment next Tuesday which is the same day as your chiropractic appointment, another kid has a swim lesson and then a dental cleaning in Pacifica, and same kid for ortho work has acting that evening?

Of course!

AYSO Board meeting while we are getting things set up for the Spring Season on Monday?
Check!

IEP meeting for Nick on Wednesday now that I finally got them to agree to an OT evaluation?
No problem!

Don't forget to throw in an ES meeting on Friday to round things off!
Absolutely!

It's at times like this tho that I'm thankful for my friends.  Jon's swim team has switched times around so that he will get out at the same time Nick gets out of his advanced swim class.  Thankfully his best friend is there at the same time and they live next to Nick's class so they can pick him up and bring him back to their house and he can walk over to meet me.

I also got the very rude shock that SamTrans has changed all the bus routes and times that my older two were depending on to get them to and from their college classes this semester since neither of them drive and that this was going to wreck all kinds of havoc on our schedules but thankfully one of their friends will be there at the times they will really need a ride.

So yeah, life is super crazy but we can all get by with a little help from our friends.

It's Never Easy...

 Going back to school after the winter break.  Two weeks just isn't quite long enough, especially with all the visiting and parties and presents and general holiday craziness that takes over that two weeks.  You just barely are coming down off that when you get thrown back into the craziness of the school schedule but now you don't have that big break coming any time soon.  It's months with the occasional day off here and there and it just seems a grind at this point.

Yeah, can you tell I'm no more excited than the kids?  Maybe it's the nasty cough keeping me awake half the night so I'm not sleeping but man, I really want another week or even two of not dealing with all the craziness.  But since I'm not getting that, I decided to do some science experiments with Nick today to try and get him back into the swing of things so we did an experiment to see how much salt we would have to add to this glass of water to make the egg float (the answer was it started floating at 5tsp but was awesome at 6-7) and now the same egg is sitting in an identical glass filled with vinegar to have it's shell eaten away so we can study the parts of it while it's still in raw in the membrane.

(for the record, it didn't work, he was a total pitb about working most of the day but at least we had a few good moments)

But at the end of the day, we were able to chill and have fun and then the kids decided to all pile on mom's lap (well, except the oldest who had already vanished back up to his boy cave) and I guess that's what's really important

Well, that and breathing which I was able to do once they all vacated my lap.  LOL

2014?! How did that happen?!

Looking back on on 2013 I realize that I pretty much fell off the map in a lot of ways.  Getting settled took a lot of work and then trying to get us through the rest of the school year was more.  By the time we hit summer, I was cooked/fried/toasted/you name it.  I went on a ton of field trips with the kids and got them to their activities but other than that, I pretty much vegged and let my brain become a vegetable.  After the previous two years of going non-stop with the remodel, buying a new home, moving, and then finally selling our old home I think I was due.  As we got ready to enter the new school year, I was hopeful about getting onto a better schedule and setting time aside for things like blogging and getting back to doing the things that refresh my mind when I was hit with the news that one of my brothers had chosen to take his own life.  While we weren't particularly close, the news was still a shock and is something that I've had a hard time wrapping my head around.  I sank into myself and pretty much did only what needed doing for several months as I dealt with the emotional turmoil.  It was sometime in November that I started working to come back to the real world but of course, that meant dealing with the holidays and all that entails plus trying to deal with the backlog of stuff that wasn't being dealt with during my break from reality.  I still have a lot of stuff that needs dealing with but I'm slowly working my way through it all.

As for how I did with my goals last year, well, I'm sure anyone reading this can pretty much guess that I didn't do much with any of them.  Ok, I lie.  I did pretty good with my reading goal and finding peace within myself.  I call that a win.  Something I had no idea was going to happen was a resurgence of something resembling a social life.  I joined my friend's book club which gets me out of the house once a month for some adult time, I've ended up on the AYSO board again, and this month some friends have decided to start up a craft club which I'm part of.  I've also just been getting out with friends.

This year, is going to be about more self-care.  I really do want to eat better as I do feel sluggish and am not having as much energy as I would like.  I also want to get back to working out, again because I feel better doing it and I do want to finally complete a half-marathon.  It didn't happen last year due to injuries but this year I'm more hopeful.  The black belt is on hold for now due to finances and Jon's swim team schedule but I hope to one day complete it and I will continue to practice on my own until I can get back to class.

My photography is something I want to do in combination with getting outside more.  I'm also really hoping that this year we can do more work in the yard and maybe even get the vegetable garden going and I can start playing in the dirt with some flowers too but it's been a really dry year so I'm not sure if that will happen or not.

While I've gotten a ton of unpacking done, there are still boxes to sort through and areas to reorganize.  I don't know that it will all get done this year but I do want to continue making progress with it although I don't know if Mark will ever be able to park a car in the garage.  His beer making stuff is kind of taking over that space.  Well, that and the kids fooseball table.   Why else have a garage tho?  LOL

While last year ended with a month where I was barely home, this year is starting off much quieter and I've only left the house one day so far.  It won't last but I'm enjoying the quiet time while I can, working on dealing with stuff to try and make the start of the next semester go smoothly.  We'll see how it works out.

The one thing I do really want to work on is blogging more and if nothing else, I want to make that a priority.  The kids are growing up so fast and there are so many fun things that they do or say that I know I won't remember years from now and I want to be able to capture at least some of it.

And now for a word from the wise...

I wish I had through to get some video of Chris this morning.  The dentist gave him valium to take last night for his extraction today and oh man was that child loopy!!!  LOL   Every thing was HILARIOUS to him and he was falling down laughing constantly.  And then the extraction actually took place...

Yeah, Chris isn't looking too thrilled with life.  Apparently the happy drugs wore off.  He got the wisdom teeth on the left side extracted because the lower one was impacted and as a result the top one was growing down too far and impacting his bite.  So out they came.  At least school doesn't start til Monday honey...

Swelling Faces, Insurance Woes, and Tether Ball...Oh My!

 Life is just never dull around here.  There are days when I try to have a down day to see what it might be like and then I wake up and find that my kid's right cheek and neck are swollen and we have no idea why and neither do the advice nurse or doctor she talks to at Kaiser and they insist we come in.

That was yesterday morning.

We got there right on time for his appointment to be told that it was $135 to be seen because he was no longer covered.

Um, excuse me?!?!?!  I just paid a good chunk of money to our COBRA company for all of us to be covered and my older two boys just got shots last week and this was not mentioned so what are you talking about?

Cue hysterics on my part and total freak out.

Ok, calming down....slightly.

They do a lot of checking and basically it comes back that the rest of us are covered but Jon was terminated 10/1/12...or in other words, his COBRA coverage never went through.  I had Mark call COBRA and they said that they are showing that he is covered so there is some screw-up between the systems which they are supposed to sort out but which will inevitably require several phone calls, faxes, and emails on my part to make sure it is actually taken care of properly.  In the meantime, the poor office lady who is dealing with me agrees to bill the $135 so hopefully things will be sorted out before we get that bill and it will just be for our co-pay.

Now we can actually go see the doctor.

He examines Jon and thinks there is either a small calcium stone blocking the saliva duct or an infection in the saliva gland itself.  Either way, antibiotics and he should suck on sour citrus candy to increase saliva production.  He's pretty happy with this news.  I'm not when we go to the pharmacy and find out that since he is currently listed as not being covered it's $153 for his antibiotics but once we get things straightened out, I can go through a huge hassle to try and get refunded.

Gee thanks.


At this point, I just want to get out of there and get on with my day which includes a shopping trip at Costco and then a run into Safeway (I know, exciting right?).  It is worth mentioning that you should never, ever, EVER go shopping at either of these places when tired, stressed, and cranky.  You spend waaaaaay more than you have budgeted.

But you also get your kids a tether ball and become the world's best mommy when you set it up the next day so I suppose it's all worth it in the end.