Mexico(12)

Disneyland(2)*
This trip started off a little rocky for me. We landed in LA on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, we hit California Adventure Land (right across from Disneyland - you get access to both parks if you buy the parkhopper pass, which we did). It was hot. I drank a lot. I was vigilant about making sure I didn't get hungry. Nonetheless, about 3:00 I started to feel the signs of a headache coming on. By 4:00 I was back at the hotel napping. I thought that would take care of things. However, I woke up at 6:00 with my headache being very bad. D left for the airport about then. I decided that I needed to get Avery and me some food right away, so we hopped over to a restaurant near the hotel and ordered food to go. As I'm waiting for it, the headache is getting worse and worse. I'm getting nauseous and starting to feel hot. I take Avery with me in the bathroom and vomit (sidenote: it does not alarm Avery to hear me vomit). It took a while for our food to be done. During that period, my head went from really bad to even worse. It felt like my brain was swelling and pushing against my skull. We get back to the hotel room where  vomit some more. I text Christie and ask her to bring water and milk (the latter being for Avery) on her way back to the room. I figured if I got a lot of water into me, that would fix things. I suspected I was "just" dehydrated. Of course, drinking water only resulted in me throwing it up. This went on ALL night. It was awful. I finally fell asleep about 3 or 4 AM. I woke up and my headache was still there and my stomach was still iffy. Thank goodness for Christie. That woman took both children to Disneyland and had them on 20 different attractions/rides before I was finally able to join them at 4:30 that afternoon. Maybe if you haven't done Disneyland, 20 doesn't seem like an impressive number, but trust me, it's unreal to me. If our situation was reversed, I have no doubt that number would not have exceeded 5 in that time. Seriously. I have no idea where Christie gets her stamina, but I want me some of that.

The afternoon/evening after I joined them was great. The park was cooler, a bit less crowded (though still very busy), and I was doing my best to relax as we walked around. We did the roller coaster in Toonland (RHG - this is the one we did with Jay and your kids last time) twice, then headed over to CA Adventureland to go on Soarin' Over California. That ride was awesome. It was one of my two favorites. My other favorite was Radiator Springs Racers. I didn't think I'd like either as much as I did.

Mexico(12) ... Avery(9) Megan(12)
Airport checkin for our Mexico flight was a bit frustrating, but after that it was smooth sailing. Easy plane ride, fastest time yet through immigration, bags came out immediately, both Christie & I got green lights at customs (you press a button and it randomly gives you a red or a green; green you go on, red they search a bag). We immediately located the shuttle people. The guy said it was the same price if they left with us immediately as if we waited to see if there were others on our flight going to Loreto Bay, so off we went. It was, by far, the easiest trip to the casa yet.

The great room of the casa had the air conditioning turned on (thanks to our property manager Jenny who turns it on prior to our arrival), but the bedrooms were roasting hot. It is HOT here in September. And humid. But I like it that way.

The swimming pool is like a bathtub it's so warm. Again, I love it. There's not even a momentary chill when getting in. In fact, at one point I had to get out of the pool to cool off. Awesome. It wouldn't be awesome if we were using the pool for exercise, but we are using it for fun.

Avery is truly swimming. She still hasn't gotten side breathing down, but she can roll to her back and do a float to get air, then start swimming again. She can hold her breath for a long time. She loves to jump in the pool. She loves to thrown in the pool. She is able to do flips into the pool (going from a ledge already within the pool since that seems safter to me).

Avery and Henry are getting along superbly. There has been very little bickering at all. Mostly they run around and play with caterpillars or look at snails when we're at the casa. The swimming pool is all fun, all the time.

Yesterday afternoon, after our nap, Avery and I wandered out to the beach to join Henry and Christie. Unfortunately  Avery cut her foot on a sharp rock in the sea, so we had to turn back. Fortunately, it wasn't a deep cut and stopped bleeding quickly. I sanitized it, applied Neosporin, put on a bandage and she's just fine.

We've decided to make due with just buying stuff from the nearby little store rather than go into town at all. We do have the number for a cab driver should we wish to head into town, but I'm quite content to just hang out here.

* The headings - Megan(12) or Avery(9) - represent the number of trips. Since this is my blog, Mexico(12) means I've made 12 trips to Mexico (well, to Loreto. I've been to one other place in Mexico, but I'm not counting that one). Avery's been here 9 times. We've been to Disneyland twice. 

Closet

Paint!Today is the first day Mom and I will be painting in her new house*. We have thrown up some paint samples, but haven't painted anything for good yet. Today we're going to paint a closet. We move slowly but surely. 

For a housewarming gift, D and I are giving Mom professional painting. So those painters will do the main parts of the house and all ceilings next week. Mom and I will take care of painting the bedrooms upstairs, as well as the bathroom walls. I'm actually looking forward to painting since it's been a long time since I've painted. I gained a lot of experience that time RHG made me paint her new kitchen in Denver, not once, but twice.

I think Mom has decided on her bedroom and office colors. She's still thinking through the guest bedroom and is very close to deciding the kitchen color. It's all very exciting and a bit exhausting.

*It's a townhome, not a stand-alone house, but I'm going to call it a house from here on out because it's easier to type. 

Shooting
When I heard about the shooting at the theater in Colorado, I heard it was in Aurora, but for some reason placed Aurora in Arvada (another suburb) in my mind. Later that day I realized that the shooting happened at the same theater D and I frequented twice a week for a couple of years.

There's really not much to say about something so senseless and horrific, so I'll leave commentary to those more articulate about such matters.

Partiamo
D's annual company getaway is called Partiamo (the same name every year, regardless of the theme). Last year the theme was hipsters. This year it's the 20's. I ordered my dress, via Etsy, the other day. We'll see how it fits. Please let it be more flattering than last year's horror. At least out of last year's dress, Avery got a great dress for playing dress-up.

Anyway, here's the dress I bought. Fingers crossed that it'll look OK.

Dress up
Avery's interest in my high heels is at a peak at the moment. She found the pair I wore to RHG's wedding and is currently clunking around the house in those. They remind me of my childhood because my best friend had a pair the exact same shape and height, only hers were covered in a horrible blue floral print whereas mine are just cork.

Nap

Reason #31,897,328 I love my daughter
On the way home from summer camp this afternoon, Avery asked me, "Can I take a little nap on the couch when I get home?" I, of course, said yes ... you know, because I'm not crazy. Then, SHE DID IT. She's still asleep now. I love that she knows when she needs sleep and is willing to give that sleep to herself.

Swimming
Avery's enjoying her swimming lessons, however, I think the semi-private lessons are key until the kids can really swim on their own while instructors are helping other kids. When they need to be spotted/helped when swimming, it means that they spend much of their time on the wall practicing kicking. There is no one there to correct their form most of the time - since the instructor is working one-on-one with one particular child while this wall time is going on - so, to me, it's rather pointless. So back to semi-private we'll go in the fall.

Speaking of swimming, we need to get a move on to get there soon.

Spanish

Español
My interest in learning to speak Spanish is still high. As any reader of this blog knows, I'm a hot or cold kind of person. I'm either SUPER EXCITED! about something or I am simply not. My interest in things ebbs and flows. I have very few things I'm consistently into at all times. It's not a trait that I love about myself, but I must accept it because it's just how I am. I'm still motivated to learn and I feel like I'm progressing, at least in my understanding of what has been presented to me so far. I seriously doubt I could understand someone speaking to me in Spanish - even about what I've learned so far - without visual prompts. That said, I do feel like more is sinking in than has during any of my previous attempts to learn Spanish.

Avery is also very interested in learning Spanish. I have to figure out how we're going to make that happen. Suggestions anyone? We're not going to enroll her in a Spanish immersion school, so it has to be something else. Rosetta Stone works somewhat for her, but it's really designed for those who are old enough to read and understand the software is using social interactions to teach language. I'm not sure she'd comprehend the second part just yet.

One thing we have thought* about is getting a Spanish-speaking au pair with the hopes that having a native speaker live with us as a family will get us all moving on learning Spanish. This, of course, seems like overkill since we don't have need for an au pair from a childcare perspective. It would be cheaper to hire a tutor. However, whenever I ask people how they learned another language, almost all say you have to be immersed in the language for a period of time. Well, having someone in the house who speaks Spanish will immerse us a bit more than a tutor. Plus, being in Mexico for a week or two at a time will do the same. Maybe the combination of the two will get us to simple conversational Spanish? The other factor is that D simply doesn't have the time to commit to either a tutor or Rosetta Stone. When I bought our year-long subscription to Rosetta Stone, I figured we could all do it. However, it does take a lot of time to just get through the exercises, even if you're faster to comprehend that I am.

*thought about = one non-serious conversation

Avery activities
Avery seems to have enjoyed her camp this week. I thought it would have more circus-related activities in it, but it seems that the "Join the Circus!" aspect of the camp was a loose theme. Fortunately, Avery doesn't seem to care about that at all. She's had a good time everyday and eagerly runs to sign in each day.

This week, before the afternoon camp from 1-5, she did a 45 minute sports mania class. That was useless. The instructors were poor and it was disorganized. The class didn't cost that much, so I'm only upset about it because it was a logistical challenge to make that class happen, get Avery lunch in between, then get her to camp. I definitely would not have signed her up for it had I known how pathetic it was going to be.

Next week we have no classes or camps planned. It's Avery's one week off this summer! She does have kung fu, but that's only 1/2 hour one day.

Health and Fitness
While my interest in learning Spanish is high, my interest and motivation to Be Healthy is so very low. I've not been able to get back in a rhythm logistically or mentally since coming back from Mexico. The only reason I've been continuing with Crossfit is because I feel pressure to not look like a quitter. I do actually like Crossfit when I'm there, but before every class I try to think of reasons I shouldn't go. It's ridiculous.

I haven't walked in weeks. I have no desire to walk. I have no desire to workout. I have little desire to eat better. Sigh.

Tulips

Tulip Festival
This morning Mom and I met up with Christie & Henry to carpool down to the tulip festival. Sara and her three kids managed to meet us there with only a couple of hours notice. The kids all had a great time. It was sunny and a bit on the hot side, but overall, still very nice. And considering the lateness of the season, the tulips still looked relatively good.

Of course, for Avery the festival is more about what rides she gets to go on rather than about looking at pretty flowers. This time around those rides/activities were: bouncy house with slide (which was supposed to have a 5 minute time limit, but the kids stayed in for about 25-30 minutes); strap supported trampoline jumping; cow train. There were pretty pictures taken of tulips by others, but I just aimed to capture a few on my phone.

Avery loving the strap-supported trampoline

Nain waiting with the four kids to get on the cow-train ride. 

Nain and Avery, who is most excited, before the departed on the cow train ride around the tulip fields. 

Garden 
Mom took Avery with her to get a few flowers for our back deck on Saturday morning. When they got back, Mom set about planting with Avery helping out. They not only bought flowers, but a strawberry plant and a snap pea plant. Avery woke up the next morning excited that her pea plant might have grown. Her enthusiasm is enough for me to consider putting in a container garden and putting Mom to work on it. She's got to earn her keep somehow, right?

Avery doesn't get not choosing a winter hat for the summer. A hat's a hat, right?

Kung Fu
After the tulip festival trip, we were home for about an hour, then headed back out to go to Avery's first solo kung fu class. I knew she'd be a bit shy since she didn't have Elise there to conquer the boys with her. It took me encouraging her for about 5-10 minutes at the beginning of class to convince her to join the boys on the floor. Once she started in on it, she loved it, but she wasn't keen on the idea of being the only girl. I was so proud to see her go out there are (fully) participate despite her nervousness. She even raised her hand to get up in front of the other kids to demonstrate some moves. Granted her moves looked more like dance moves than kung fu moves, but I'll take it!

We are committed to at least 2 months of the classes, then we can cancel anytime with 30 days notice. Hopefully it doesn't take her 5 minutes of convincing her to get out on the floor each time. The woman sitting next to me said it took her son six weeks of watching before he'd even go out onto the mat, so I guess if I have to prod for 5 minutes each time, it's not bad.

Timbers

Timbers!

The four of us went to the Timbers game last night. It was the first time in a long time that I've enjoyed a sporting event.

Avery & Nain before the game

Megan & Avery self portrait

Everyone in a picture taken by the dude behind us

Dresser
When my mom moved, she asked if I wanted a dresser that belonged to my (paternal) great grandfather. At first I said no. After I thought about it more, I decided why not? So now that dresser is being put to good use in our bedroom. We had our television on a TV stand of normal TV-stand height. However, since we watch that TV from our bed, it was too low. It was a "problem" that we weren't going to spend any money to fix, but one that I'm pleased has been fixed by our inherited furniture!  Our TiVo is located on the floor behind the dresser. We had to buy an IR repeater to get it working that way.

If you look in the right corner of the picture, you'll see our old TV stand. It's been placed in that corner as the future home of a doll house that Avery will be getting from Pop Pop Joy. Her father built it for her and she's passing it along to Avery. I want to keep it out of the playroom and Avery's room because that will ensure it doesn't get demolished.

This picture makes me realize how tan our room is. We need some color in there!

TiVo
Speaking of TiVo (at least I did a few sentences ago) ... Mom has the Comcast/Xfinity DVR in her quarters. Until now I've always wondered if my loyalty to TiVo was somewhat misplaced or excessive or pointless or whatever. Well, after using her DVR for a bit, I no longer wonder. TiVo is so much better (to me) than a plain DVR. So much easier to use with a much better interface. When you love TV as much as I do, that's important in a luxury product!


Crafty
I've been in a crafty-ish mood lately. On Friday, I made a prototype for Elise's BD invitations. I also sewed five towel bibs for my friend, Vic. Having my sewing machine in the desk in the living room is working out great. It makes it so much easier to clean up when I'm done (close doors, done!) Yesterday I made a baby card. Earlier in the week, Mom and I made Easter cards for Avery and Dylan. Today I'm thinking I'll make skirt for Avery. We'll see.

Playdates

Spring Break = Playdates Galore
Avery first of playdate with a boy from her school is ongoing. I could immediately see why she likes Lennon so much. He's very nice, very mature*, but also very silly. The two of them were so cute as they were explaining to me why the toy car they wanted to play with needed batteries. It was like two grownups explaining it to me, but in the body of 4yos.

Later this afternoon, after Lennon leaves, Lily will come over for a playdate. Given Lennon and Avery are playing cars right now, I expect that playdate will be very different. Avery and Lily love to play dress up in their princess clothes.

Tomorrow is Avery's playdate with Eamon. Avery and Eamon are described as "two peas in a pod" by her teachers.

Yesterday I watched Avery, Elise, and Nolan at RHG's house while RHG had her car serviced. Then I left Avery with RHG while I took my car to be serviced. It worked out quite nicely. And the kids all got along very well.

* Ah. He's actually a year older than Avery. He'll be going to kindergarten in the fall. That explains it.

The Quarters & The Stuff & The Mom
Mom seems to be settling into her quarters nicely. She had towels on the floor to protect the rug from all the mulch Barkley brings in on his paws. However, since we didn't like the color of the rug (well, we liked the color, but it didn't really go with the decor in the living room) we bought for the living room, we decided to just move that rug downstairs. It works very nicely down there. Plus, Barkley seems to like the rug because it's very plush and soft.

The movers were actually able to fit all of Mom's stuff in the third parking space in our garage, so both D and I will continue parking our cars in the garage. I had taped out the area where we hoped to cram all of Mom's stuff. The movers dutifully stacked and crammed and damned if that stuff didn't fit in there as if we'd done precise measurements.

Mom has been busy getting all of her stuff sorted and making lists of things she needs, etc. I think today will be her first adventure out into the wilds of Portland, all on her own. She's going to the QFC down the road.

She's also making plans to go visit her brother in just a week or two. My uncle and aunt live in eastern Oregon, so it's a drive, but the point is it's drivable. She'll get to see them more now that she lives in Oregon.

Hungry

Hunger Games!
Mom, D & I are going to see Hunger Games tonight. After a search far and wide - i.e. waiting for babysitter #2* to text back - we located a sitter for tonight. I'm quite excited, mostly because it feels like a bonus date night since we expected not to have a date night this week due to the move (hence the reason there was no pre-arranged swap with the Gs).
New Subheadings


* I want to note that she's only our second choice babysitter because of our loyalty to the first neighborhood sitter we use. Avery also prefers our first choice because "she wears sparkly earrings."

Spring Break
Avery's on Spring Break next week. I'm rather pleased with myself as I have activities schedule for all days but Tuesday. Tuesday is when Mom's moving truck is scheduled to arrive, so I need to be here to help with that effort. I'm also rather pleased with myself for getting not one, but two playdates scheduled with kids (both who happen to be boys) from school with whom we've not had playdates before. I asked Avery if she'd like me to schedule playdates with any of the kids from school during Spring Break. She immediately replied Lennon and Eamon. The teachers have told me several times that Avery and Eamon are like two peas in a pod, so that wasn't surprising. And Avery talks about Lennon a lot. She thinks he's very funny.

Playroom
I schedule the handyman to come yesterday because I needed some shelving reconfigured and moved in the garage to prepare for the arrival of Mom's stuff. I arranged it on Friday afternoon. I realized it would be nice to have him assemble and install the storage for Avery's playroom while he was here. So off to IKEA Mom, Avery and I went on Saturday morning.  Went went as soon as they opened, zoomed through and were in and out within 20 minutes or so.

After brainstorming lots of potential creative ideas for playroom storage and its configuration, I decided that the smartest thing was the simple, large Expedit cube storage from IKEA.

I have also decided to hold off on making it look all pretty with matching storage cubes or bins. The playroom is all about function for me. I want to have a place to put the toys, but I also don't want to feel guilty if I haven't gone and restored it to perfect organization. Here's what it looks like now:

It's certainly not a picture I'm going to put on Pinterest. And that's what I've realized. If I make it a room worthy of Pinterest, then I'll be more obsessed with making sure the kids "play right" in it. I'll care when Avery decides she wants to rearrange things herself. I know myself well enough to know that if I want to let Avery have this room to be creative and play in, then I need to not get obsessed with the aesthetics of it now. So there you go. That's how I'm justifying this not-so-beautiful, but oh-so-functional playroom organization.

FYI on the other side of the room is the crib (with the front removed) where Nolan sleeps on date nights, along with some pillows. There's a good chunk of floor space between that is clear for any sort of play the kids may come up with.  Oh, and the closet is stuffed with Avery's princess dresses.

Neutrals

More Tile Stuff
When I brought home the tile I liked, neither D nor I liked it in our living room. It too dark and too blue. I want to bring some blue into the room, but the Charcoal tile color was too overpowering. So back to the tile store I went today. I brought home another sample in a different shade of the same tile. I like it much better. Now we need to decide upon a configuration for the tiles. Originally I was set on the 2"x2" alternating tiles. Now I'm wondering if the 1"x4" will work better for that space. I did a mockup (using my Silhouette software, of course). I'm strongly leaning toward the 1"x4". We'll see what D thinks when he gets home.

I did pick out a tile I love for the hearth. It's a shade of warm gray similar to the color of our couch. I'm confident with that tile. I am starting to wonder if we shouldn't just do the whole fireplace in that tile. Can you tell I'm a bit indecisive about this?

Fabric (from left to right): red = pillow; warm grey/brown = sectional; striped = pillow; red & cream = chairs
Tile = larger square grey tiles = for hearth (but hearth tiles won't be square, they'll be 3" x 6" or maybe 3" x 12"; striped creamish tile is the tile for the fireplace surround. 

I love both tiles and I think they go well with the fabric. My wavering is that it is more neutral, overall, than I'd like. I'm kind of sick of neutrals, but D and I both gravitate to neutral colors.

Things are on track for our cabinetry. We've selected the molding style and door style and the tile is moving along. There's not much else for me to do other than come back from Mexico and see that most of the project is done at that point.

The Mexico!
I just sent out items for my fellow travelers to buy (I'll pay you all back!) and then cart down to Mexico for our trip coming up in three weeks.

I am so excited for this trip. I'm also excited because following the trip, March is jam packed with trips and things I'm looking forward to, which means it'll fly by and Mom will be here before I know it!

Adding to my Mexico excitement are the 2-3 projects we've had done since our last trip: a sun shade for the interior courtyard and a shelving unit so we actually have a place to put things. Plus, we rearranged the living room space right before we left so I am looking forward to enjoying the extra space in our formerly crapped corridors.

Avery & Swimming
Avery has made great progress with her swimming during this session, as has Henry. Henry, who was slightly behind Avery going into this round of sessions, has now passed Avery's level and is able to propel himself forward. Avery has the side breathing down very good, but actually propelling herself forward isn't quite where it should be. However, I have no complaints! I'm so happy that she's very happy to play in the water, she's confident enough that she doesn't need prodding to try things, but also seems to know her limits. And she and Henry have a great time in the pool together. This bodes well for the trip, or at least for the pool visit part of the trip.

Cards

Crafting - Attendance Cards
Christie and Henry came by today so the adults could do some crafting the kids could drive us bonkers while we do so. Christie knitted some items for her FB homemade 2011 exchange. I worked on my first assignment for Avery's preschool.  These are a single card. The red side is for when the child is at home; the white side is for when she/he is at school. I glued the cards together, then glued on the cutouts for the house and school house, then laminated the card, then cut out the names in vinyl, then applied the names to the card.  I figure when the year is done, the vinyl names can be easily removed and then the teacher can reuse the cards in the coming years by just writing the students' names on the laminated card.

Thanksgiving
We're heading to the house of a friend and co-worker of Damian's.  Actually, it's a friend of that guy, but we've met and hung out with this group before, so it's not that distant of a connection. We're supposed to bring a side and a dessert and wine. D is in charge of the side. He's making two: toad in the hole (using chicken sausage) and shredded Brussels sprouts with pine nuts & turkey bacon. I'm making the dessert, which will be lighter-than-air chocolate cake (which is gluten free).

Avery's BD Cake
So last year Avery asked for "flowers and ornaments" on her cake. It was an odd looking cake, but it was delicious. This year, I decided we'd just get a cake from Safeway and call it good. I let Avery pick out her cake. She chose a cupcake cake. It's a wedding cupcake cake. I shouldn't be surprised since she is obsessed with weddings and getting married right now. We don't talk about marriage much, nor does she watch TV shows that talk about it. The best theory I have is that we don't have a lot of pictures displayed on the walls and in frames within our house. There are several of them from our wedding.  Anyway, this is why there will be a wedding cake this year at Avery's BD party. One of these years, we'll get a normal cake ... maybe.

Handmade

Handmade 2011
I'm in the process of making gifts for three people I owe gifts to for the FB Handmade 2011 challenge.  That leaves me with one person (hi Dad!) for whom I need to make a gift. But at least I'll have 4 out of the 5 done.

I'm, of course, using my Silhouette for these gifts. Often, I have excess paper left over, so what I've been doing is putting in butterflies and flowers and hearts and birthday cakes when I have excess space.  Avery loves to get these little cut outs and glue them to things.  She also, unfortunately, likes using them as a taunting object with Elise. Yesterday Elise came upstairs in tears because Avery wouldn't share the butterfly cut outs with her. I had a talk with Avery, so sharing ended up happening.

Fireplaces and Duct Cleaning
I've scheduled a service call to get both of our gas fireplaces serviced and properly sealed. In addition, I'm having a blower installed on the one in the living room so we can better use it as a source of heat. We wanted to have one put on the one upstairs, too, but that particular unit doesn't have a blower available for it.

I also finally scheduled an appointment to have our ducts cleaned. In yet another item in a long list, this is something I didn't know is supposed to be done each year. We've never had our ducts cleaned. I'm rather dreading seeing what is inside those suckers after five plus years of dog hair and dirt. Egads.

Pinaklicious and High Tea
We have tickets to see Pinkalicious on Sunday afternoon. I made a reservation at the Heathman to enjoy high tea before the show. Lily will be joining us. Avery and Lily are supposed to wear their pinkest outfits. Daddy will wear his pink tie. I have to figure out what I have that is pink and dressy. I'm not sure I have anything fitting that bill. I know Avery will be disappointed if I don't wear pink, so perhaps I'll buy a pink sweater or something to wear with a skirt.

No school - what to do?!
Avery has the day off tomorrow due to Veterans Day. Since she has a newly heightened excitement for crafts and for writing and coloring*, I think we'll spend the morning crafting. In the afternoon she has gymnastics, then will head to the G's house for our date night.

* Her excitement is still well below that of other kids I've seen who really enjoy crafty stuff or coloring. 

Chugging

Things are chugging along nicely down here.  I was sick for the first few days, but felt great all day yesterday and today.  I'm really focused on not eating anything questionable (for me). No chocolate, no sweets, no egg creams (god I love egg creams), etc.

This afternoon Avery was playing in the courtyard.  I asked if she was ready for quiet time yet.  She said yes.  I got her milk while she headed into the bedroom.  When I arrived with her milk, she'd taken her glasses off, turned on the air conditioning, snuggled under the sheet and was awaiting her milk.  Seriously, how awesome is my kid?!

This morning Avery rode her bike to the pool while I walked.  It worked out wonderfully.  She did fall twice, but she amazingly didn't get a single scratch either time.  The first time she took a corner too fast.  The next time she didn't avoid the uneven surface. After I explained to her about uneven surfaces making her less stable, she started to point out "uneven surface!" as we'd bike/walk by and would dutifully go around them.

Tonight we have Chef Felipe coming over to cook since we're having the C's over for dinner. Tomorrow we've book a boat trip out to Carmen Island to do some snorkeling and sightseeing. We did it with a traditional tourist company, versus with the fisherman friend of our property manager who usually takes us out to Coronado Island.

Girls' weekend ladies: I saw the waiter again!  La Cava has closed down, but the little restaurant on the corner next to it is still open.  He's working there now.  We stopped for dinner, so he was our waiter once again.

Two things I like much better in Mexico: tomatoes and brown rice.  I don't know what makes their brown rice different, but it's so good.  Their tomatoes are delicious.  And this is coming from someone who doesn't really like tomatoes.

When we go to the pool, Avery has a donut shaped floaty thing.  She can use it to swim all over the pool.  We're nearby, but she hasn't slipped a single time and we both feel confident of her ability on the floaty thing.  It means that D and I can both read while Avery plays in the shallow end of the pool or swims around.  When she's swimming around one of us has to be more in charge of keeping an eye on her than reading, but it works out well as long as we communicate who's on duty.

Houses

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Activities of the last week

• Driving - Mom landed last Wednesday, so she's been here almost a week.  It's hard to believe.  In that time, I think we've driven 1,000 miles in that time.  Between all the driving I do to get Avery to her various activities, extra driving done to move G kids around (which isn't all that much, but has been a little), and looking at houses for Mom, we have had our butts in the car much of her time here. 
• Crafting - sort of.  I have finished part of my fabric boxes.  I have more to do, but they're looking decent so far.  I also made Avery a Tiana blanket (in other words, I hemmed some flannel fabric) and I altered the 80's prom dress I wore for the hispter dress up so that Avery can wear it around the house.  I'm going to make a few more changes, but I am very impressed with myself.  Avery LOVES it.  She thinks it's the most beautiful dress ever.  Mom said she calls it her wedding dress.  

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Houses


We continue to look at potential houses for Mom when she moves here.  The nice part is that since she's not moving out for another six months, we aren't under any pressure to get something.  And we're still not under pressure if she sells her house in Colorado before moving out because she can always live with us for an open-ended period of time.

Many continue to ask me what is going on with the short sale house.  The answer is the same as always: nothing.  We are one of four offers, including an offer made by the former tenant (who moved out a few days ago). The house was not pre-approved as a short sale by the bank when the seller put it on the market, so the ball is now in the bank's court where it's been for the past four months.  So there you go.  In the meantime, we're looking at other houses in the same neighborhood, as well as other areas.  I have a pretty good idea of what Mom likes and doesn't like, and what she wants and needs, even though some of those aren't what I would want or need in her situation.

We've looked at two houses that I absolutely loved.  One house was utterly ridiculous.  It would have a terrible time with resale, it was small and oddly laid out, it was not in an ideal location, it was a true one bedroom ... and I loved it!  Know why I loved it?  Because it had an oversized mouse hole between the living room and the bedroom.  Remember the mouse hole in Tom & Jerry?  That shape?  Well, make that big enough for a cat to get through, then carve it into a wall between two rooms and this is what was there!  On purpose!  I was obsessed with it.  Clearly this is no reason to buy a house.  In fact, it's probably a reason to not buy a house, but all I could think about was how fun it would be to drive a remote control car between the two rooms!  I could sense the moment we walked in the house that Mom was not digging the space.  The other house that I really loved was one Mom also loved.  The problem is that it's tiny and overpriced, but it's the cutest, most adorable house I've ever seen.  And it was built in 1899, but is so level and fixed up that you can't tell.  I seriously couldn't find a crack or anything broken or slightly askew.

Today we'll look at a few houses in a neighborhood we've not explored yet, so that will be interesting.  Since D is joining us, we'll also go back to the three houses that are on the 'yes' list, though one of those is the adorable, overpriced tiny house, and the other is the short sale we have an offer in on already.

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Hood to Coast

Mom and I volunteered for Hood to Coast on Friday.  D's team had to provide three volunteers.  Mom and I were two of them.  It was a hot, hot day for the run.  Mom and I got so very lucky to be posted where we were.  There was shade the entire shift, it was quiet, and we could easily take turns sitting on the one chair we brought without a problem.  Overall, it was a boring stint.  I think it would have been a lot more interesting if we'd been there during a different time, but the teams going through the point were all walking teams at that point.  Our job was to direct the runners and vans down the correct road.  Encouraging the walkers and runners seemed a natural offshoot of that.  Well, if you start clapping for a walker too early, you clap a looooonnnng time.  Plus, there's that awkward moment after you yell out good job!  If it's a runner, they're off and running and it's not awkward.  If it's a walker, they're still there.  It's simply fraught with awkwardness.

D was in a world of hurt when he got home on Saturday night, but so was everyone else in his van.  He said they felt a little better when they went to Dairy Queen after the race and saw a team sponsored by Nike there.  This team was clearly very fit.  Every one of them groaned when walking down the steps, too.  So I guess the race takes a toll on you regardless of how fit you are.

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Dogsitting

Kerry (mother of Lily, neighbor, friend) asked me to watch her dog, Princess, while they're on vacation next week.  I, of course, said sure!  I'm quite excited because Princess is a little dog.  I've never watched a little dog.  I've never been around a little dog for any extended period of time.  It'll be a good test as to whether it's still like having a dog, or if it's more like a cat to me.

Avery's not a big fan of Princess because Princess sometimes jumps on her.  However, overall, Princess is very well behaved and does not have a Napoleon complex as many small dogs do.

Mimi

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Mini Mimi & Related Babysitting Adventures

That's what I've decided to call RHG's new, huge (10 lb 4 oz!) daughter: Mini Mimi.  Isn't that just clever.  I didn't ask RHG's permission before assigning this nickname to her already nicknamed daughter (real name Miriam, nickname Mimi), but I liked it too much to ask permission. Due to Mini Mimi's arrival, we had the G kids from Sunday afternoon through this morning.  All things considered, it was quite easy.  The G kids were easy; it's more a matter of how Avery's going to handle the additional beings in the house.  She was just off a weekend without us, so this go around was a bit tougher than usual for Avery. All in all, I survived in one piece and have energy to spare.  Always a good thing.  Monday was my crowning achievement since I was on my own for a vast majority of the day with the three kids. I managed to:

1.  Get the kids to preschool orientation on-time (and we didn't even need to be on-time - damn it! wasted effort!) with D's help
2. Take the kids to the mall to get Avery's glasses adjusted
3. Take the kids to the grocery store to get food.  This was when I discovered they don't really make carts to carry three kids.  My original thought was to have the girls ride in the back of the cart together and have Nolan ride in the front, however, then where would I put the actual food?  So then I had the girls ride in the race car shopping cart and I had Nolan help me push the cart.  This actually worked fairly well.  
4. Take the kids home and get all three down for a quiet time simultaneously.
5. Take Elise & Nolan to the hospital - Elise for big sister time and Nolan to go home with his grandpa.  Then I took Avery to her first private swimming lesson. 
6. After swimming, I picked up Nolan from his grandpa's house, drove to the hospital, took Nolan and Avery up to see RHG, Jay and Mimi, then left with the three kids to go home. 
7. Cooked and served dinner to the kids.
8. Put all three kids to bed before 7:30 and before D got home. 

All this is a great reminder as to why I love, oh so love, to have just one child! 

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New iMac

This is the first moment I've had to really play around with my new computer. There's not a whole lot new to play with since it's just a newer, better version of my old computer, but it's fun to get things organized nonetheless.

I just discovered the new text replacement/substitution feature with Lion (the latest Mac operating system).  It basically replaces my need for the TextExpander application that I bought a few years ago, but not completely since I can't seem to get it to work with Firefox.  Annoying.  Might be user error, but still annoying.

I'm trying to make the conversion to Google Chrome as my browser rather than Safari.  So far, it's not too painful.  I found that Blogger still doesn't work the way I want it to in Chrome. Oh the irony.  (Google owns Chrome and Google owns Blogger, but Blogger works better in Firefox for me).  Normally I could let this go, but it's too annoying, so that's why I'm using Firefox for the sole purpose of blogging. This is all very fascinating, isn't it?  I do have my reasons for documenting this stuff in my blog, but I will spare you the details. Right now I'm discovering something is seriously messed up with Blogger, at least the way I typically use it.  My formatting is all jacked up.  Will have to change formats I think.

D didn't know that I use the number pad and the page down and page up buttons a lot, so he opted for the smaller keyboard for the computer.  This is making things a bit more challenging.  I didn't realize how often I used those things.  I also have only the backspace button, rather than delete and backspace.  This is my biggest stumble at the moment.

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Mom

My mom arrives for a 2-week visit tomorrow!  Avery is quite excited.  I haven't actually talked about this visit much, so when I told her today that Nain was coming she about flipped out.  Tonight as I was putting her to bed, she explained what tomorrow would be like.  It involved a lot of Nain playing with her: "And then Nain will play with me in my room, and then Nain will play with me and my cash register ..."

We are planning to look at the house we have a bid on that is still dragging on and on, but we're also looking at a number of other houses in various neighborhoods.  I'm glad Mom will be able to see the house we put the bid on before it goes forward (if we even get it), but I'm also glad she didn't fly out to see it originally.  I would have been so annoyed if she'd paid the money for a flight to see it and then to have it still sitting here undecided when she was scheduled to come for a visit anyway!  

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Crafty

I have grand plans, grand plans I say!, for some fabric boxes for a new table I bought for our great room (kitchen/living room).  I bought fabric.  I bought the boxes.  Now I just need to do something with it.  I have energy and I have motivation, but I'm lacking a bit in time right now.  This is a new feeling for me since usually it's the exact opposite for me.

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Swimming, Gymnastics, Dance, and Soccer

At the moment, I'm at risk of being one of those over-scheduling parents.  Not because I believe I need to keep Avery busy, but because, well, it just sort of happened.  I'm working on getting all of Avery's activities for the fall lined up and ready to go.

She's all set for dance classes through the end of the year.

She's taking private swimming classes for the next two weeks. I'm going to see if I can get her signed up for semi-private lessons when we return from Mexico in late October.  The swimming lessons are less for her enjoyment and more because I really want her to learn to swim.  It'll just make Mexico trips easier.

She's signed up for soccer on Monday mornings before school starts for the day.  This one was a bonus.  I had been looking for a soccer class for her to take once school starts, but I couldn't find one that worked with our schedule.  When we went to preschool orientation, we found there's a program that comes to the school on Monday mornings to do soccer with the 3-5 yo kids who are interested in it. It's an additional fee to the soccer program, but I'm happy to pay that as it's reasonable and another opportunity for her to get some exercise. 

Finally, I'm registering Avery for a session of gymnastics at a new dance & gym center opened recently.  The gymnastics teacher is the same one who started out with Avery and Elise in their current class at the community center.  There was some sort of falling out and Teacher Jackie is no longer with the community center (there's a new community center director and a lot of the staff has left as a result, so it's not just Teacher Jackie who had been there for 29 YEARS!)  I love Teacher Jackie as does Avery, so since Teacher Jackie will be at this new center, we're going to head on over there to give classes a whirl.  Technically, the class is for 4-6yos, but Avery has permission to give the class a try for a few weeks on a trial basis.

It also occurred to me today that Avery might really enjoy karate or tae-kwon-do or one of those types of things.  She likes to kick and talk about fighting and loves to watch pirate shows. Right now, she has two days with no activities other than school, but I've not yet scheduled swimming.  I will keep at least one day open for rest and playdates, so maybe this is a potential 2012 activity. 

Skater

Ice Skating

Avery and I went ice skating on Monday afternoon.  Upon entering the mall, where the indoor ice rink is located, Avery was thoroughly excited.  She was still excited when she saw the rink and the kids on the rink.  She was still excited as we laced up the skates.  She was still excited when she walked on the skates to the rink.  This is where she lost her enthusiasm.  She put one foot on the ice, felt it was slippery and spent the next 15-20 minutes clinging to the railing while standing just off the edge of the ice.  There was about an hour left of open skate time, so I decided mentally that I wasn't going to force her to do it, but I was going to spend that entire time attempting to convince her to at least try it.

Finally, when I saw she was wearing down a little bit, I offered some ice cream as a treat for trying it and that broke her.  We got on the ice and skated an entire lap.  I held both of her hands the whole time.  She would have fallen several times had I not been holding on, but she also faked a few of those falls once she realized that I would catch her.

I was so very proud that she made her way onto the ice despite her obvious fear.  I was also proud that I hung in there in convincing her to try it because after we left the rink, all she could talk about was how brave she was to try it and how proud she was that she did it "all by myself!"  I corrected her and said it wasn't all by herself since she was holding my hands, but I did tell her she was very brave indeed.

She says she wants to go again, but I suspect that enthusiasm is much the same as her initial enthusiasm and would once again wane the moment we got near the ice.  I think I'll give it 3-4 months, or until she specifically brings up the activity.

Movie recap

• Crazy, Stupid, Love = loved it
• Project Nim = an excellent documentary even though I sobbed, like openly sobbed, for about a minute in the middle of it.  After the movie ended, I had to wipe off the mascara that ran down my face.  Fuckin' humans. 
• The Perfect Host = strange, but kept my attention.  Until Christie and I saw the trailer for this movie at the beginning of another movie, I'd never heard of it, made in 2010 and starring David Hyde Pierce of Frasier fame. For whatever reason, I decided I wanted to actually rent it.  We were able to get it via Video on Demand from Amazon.  Very strange.  There's not much else to say about it. 
• Conan O'Brien Can't Stop = pretty funny and pretty good.  More so than the comedy or the story, I liked that Conan was willing to let all sides of his personality be shown, including parts that might be seen as less than likable.
• Winnie the Pooh = it was a good movie for kids.  Probably a great one.  Avery seemed to really like it.  However, it was oh-so-age-appropriate for a 3yo.  I was bored stiff.  Not only did D fall asleep and I spent ½ the movie reading news on my phone, so did one of the dads behind me.  I know because I wanted to make sure my phone reading wouldn't bother anyone behind me, but turned around only to discover many sleeping parents.

Memories

When I was a kid, I used to help my mom prepare her room each year for school.  I'd help put up bulletin boards, or cut out borders, or arrange desks, or collate writing-practice sheets, laminate things, etc.  I loved to do all that stuff.  Yet, I do not remember it ever crossing my mind that I might become a teacher.  Because the only thing I wanted to do was help to prepare the room, not to actually teach or do any actual work involved in teaching.

I'd kind of forgotten about this part of my life - and it was a pretty significant chunk of my summers from 5th grade through my HS years - until someone at the company party we hosted the other day saying to me, "You must be a teacher."  This was the comment after observing all the little labels and signs I have around the house.  Avery's sleeping chart, reward tickets & certificates, the recycling labeling, etc.  Man, if I'd had a Silhouette when Mom was teaching, it would have been a whole different ball game. 

Obsession

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Silhouette Obsession

I have been obsessed with achieving a particular design for my Silhouette.  I know exactly what I want to do, but for the life of me, I can't get the software to do it.  Friday I emailed support and they emailed back.  However, their instructions weren't complete since it still didn't do what I wanted.  I had to bide my time all.weekend.long before I could call support today.  They just called back.  The support guy didn't know how to do what I wanted, but we both fiddled around with it on the phone and finally got it.  While it's great that the company has a support line that can be emailed or called, the tech was not the best I've ever had.  He clearly was working on a PC, but didn't ask if I was working on a PC or a Mac.  I knew to translate his PC instructions to the equivalent instructions for a Mac, but I'm guessing the average user would have been very confused.  Nonetheless, I'm very pleased. My obsession with this is ridiculous, but I really, really wanted to do it!  It's part of a handmade gift for one of the FB-handmade-exchange project. 

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Avery fun

Yesterday morning, Avery and I went to play a round of miniature golf.  She's very good about not getting frustrated and not picking up the ball and just throwing it in the hole.  She just keeps trying, which is such an awesome trait/skill/desire.  We also rode on the bumper boats, but that came to an end when our bumper boat lost power and stranded us by the water fall thereby getting us a bit wet.  Avery didn't like that at all. 

Yesterday afternoon we're went to Director Park to watch the Oregon Ballet rehearse The Nutcracker. Avery had a great time playing with Josie (Amber and her gang were able to meet us there) in the fountain, despite the fact the fountain wasn't on.  When Josie left, Avery attached herself to a small group of girls and put on a ballet show with them. 

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RHG's shower

Christie and I hosted a baby shower for RHG and little g3 on Sunday.  I was running a bit behind (shocker), so it was good that Christie and Amber showed up early.  I quickly put both to work and we managed to pull off lunch without too much going wrong.  Always a good thing.

I made some pathetic bibs for RHG.  Actually, I think they're quite functional, but aesthetically pleasing?  Not at all. 

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Workout Snag

I hit a snag in my workout plan last week.  You see, my goal was to go workout three times, each time after dropping Avery off at school.  That doesn't work so well when you only have one pair of workout shorts.  So for this week, I bought two more pairs of shorts so I only have to do laundry once a week. 

This morning's workout was good.  I'm increasing my time each week by just a few minutes so I don't notice it as much.  It's not so much physical stamina as mental stamina.  I have to ease myself into these things. 

By the time September rolls around, I hope to have a good habit formed so I can then start going five times a week.

Pink

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Fountain

For lunch today, Avery and I met up with Henry & Josie (and their respective mothers and siblings) at the fountain across from D's office building.  We picked up food from the nearby food carts, texted D to join us, then enjoyed the fountain.  It wasn't the best weather since it was a bit chilly, but that didn't deter Avery from running through the fountain with Henry and Josie.  It was an easy, fun park date.  I love Portland park fountains.  They're the perfect playdate location on sunny summer days. 

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Dentist

Following the fountain, Avery had a dentist appointment.  All went very well.  Avery's teeth look great and we're just supposed to keep doing what we're doing.  Avery was a bit apprehensive, but didn't take any coaxing from me to do as the dentist asked.  She relaxed a lot once they gave her a mirror to hold up so she could see what they were doing in her mouth.  

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Sleep

Avery's sleep routine has now changed.  Right after I posted that I was quite happy with Avery in coming into our bed at night, D said he does not sleep well at all when she's in the bed with us.  As a result, when we got back from Colorado, I took Avery to the hardware store where we picked out another night light.  We then hooked that nightlight up to a timer.  I told Avery that as long as the light is on, she has to stay in her bed or on her picnic blanket.  I just explained it once that night, fully expecting I'd have to remind her to go back to her room at some point in the night. To my delight, it worked perfectly and she stayed in her bed all night and slept until about 7:30.  Since then, she's only come into our bed once.

With this change, we also restarted the sleeping chart.  Avery earns a sticker flower as long as she stays in her room until the light turns off.  Last night she cried (for 30 seconds) for me to come into her room, so today I said that she also has to not wake me up to come into her room to earn future flowers.  We'll see how that works.

She's already redeemed two sleeping rewards.  She's been obsessed with going in this pink jewelry store we often pass on the way home. 

I said she could pick out two items from it as long as each was under $5.  She beelined it for the $20 tiaras.  At first I said she'd have to save up two more sleeping rewards to get it, then I realized they had smaller $10 ones.  So she has yet another tiara that she will never wear.  She loves tiaras, but finds them extremely uncomfortable to wear.  Who am I to judge?  I love crafting supplies, yet don't particularly like the resulting crafty items. 

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Awake

I'm still wide awake now due to a tactical error on my part.  When Avery and I got home from our day out, it was 3:30.  I was quite tired, so I gave Avery some milk and told her it was time for Quiet Time.  She headed upstairs and I laid down on the chair in the living room for what I thought would be a brief cat nap.  After all, how was I to know Avery would actually nap during QT?  I woke up at 6 PM when D called to tell me he was on his way home.  Then I woke Avery up.  It's amazing she went to sleep at 9:30 (ish) after 1.5 hours of playing nicely in her room.

Leather

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Strawberry picking

Avery and I joined Christie and Henry for some strawberry picking this morning.  It was a lovely morning and we easily filled up a large box with red strawberries.  Most of them even hulled themselves since they were at the perfect moment of ripeness.  My only plan for these strawberries is to make fruit leather.  I've never made fruit leather, but I got it in my mind a while ago that I should (I like from a post or a share done by Lori).  So off I went to pick a box of berries.  I got home, took a nap with Avery, then went about washing and sorting the berries.  By the time that process was done, I realized I would only be able to do part of the fruit leather process (date night tonight).  I learned a few things during this process.  Shall I share?  Yes?  OK.

1. I don't like making fruit leather.  It's much easier to buy a box and unwrap the nicely packaged and perfectly prepared rolls. 
2. When a pot of strawberries and water is put on the stove to simmer, covered, and left unattended, it will boil over and make the range look like a bloody crime was committed above it.
3. When strawberry puree is put into a blender, holding the lid down tightly is key if you want to avoid strawberries all over the wall and cabinets and your shirt. 
4. Walls and cabinets clean up fairly easily; shirts, not so much. 
5. 12 cups of strawberries yields three cookie sheets of fruit leather. 
6. I picked about 36-48 cups of strawberries.  
7. This fruit leather better be light years better than the boxed kind or I'm gonna be pissed.

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Movies and Books

I'm still reading the Ender's Game series of books.  I'm on book three now, Xenocide: Volume Three of the Ender Quartet. If you'd told me even a few months ago that I'd be working my way through a sci-fi series, or that D and I would be reading them at the same time, I'd have thought you were crazy.

I wanted a way to rate the movies I see, then post them to FB the same way the Goodreads site does for books. That is how I stumbled upon criticker.com.  It's a cool site that creates a PSI - probability score indicator - for a movie based on your previous ratings.  Basically, after you've rated x movies, it compares those ratings to other users who also rated those movies.  Using aggregated data from all users, it can then create a PSI for each movie you have not rated, which tells you what you will likely rate that movie.  After I entered about 100 movies, I started to pay attention to the PSI it predicted for me before I ranked a movie.  It was surprisingly accurate, I must say.  Especially because it's on a scale of 0 to 100.  They seem to have gotten around the obvious problem of comparing one user to another user (that being what one user considers to be a score of 90 might be another user's 80) by essentially comparing movies based on a curve.  It categorizes the movies you've rated into tiers, then compares tiers to tiers.  Clever.

It was that obsessive rating that resulted in my 1:30 am bedtime last night this morning. I regretted it in the morning, but I do feel like I accomplished yet another meaningless data task and those are my favorite types of meaningless tasks. 

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Weekend plans

Saturday morning we're planning to go miniature golfing.  Sort of an early father's day celebration.  Saturday afternoon we're heading to a neighbor's house for a BBQ/play date with the families of two neighborhood kids Avery currently goes to school with.

Sunday I'm quite sure I'll spend packing for my flight later in the day.  Since they changed the time of the Timbers game, D will be able to drop Avery and me at the airport.  Avery and I are quite excited to see our CO/WY/CA relatives who will be at Dylan's (my nephew) 3rd birthday celebration.

Picnic

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Weekend Update

Saturday was a very good day.  Avery spent the morning with the Gs since she slept there last night.  She was very excited because that meant she got to have pancakes with the Gs.  After D and I picked up Avery, we headed to a grocery store to purchase items for a picnic with Christie, Darren and Henry.  We, along with Turtle and Beauty, had a nice picnic in the park.  It was especially nice because it was so very easy to "plan."  Two emails, each with about 3 sentences max, and we'd decided on the location, time, and who would do dessert and would bring entrees and boom!  We're set for a picnic. 

Upon coming home, D and I read for a bit while Avery played.  By the time the G kids arrived for the night, Avery was very ready for some playmates.  The G kids spent the night with us. 

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Condos

We are, once again, considering moving.  It hit me a few weeks ago that several of our needs and desires have changed since the last time we pondered this idea.  First, we have only one dog now.  And as much as I love dogs, I have no intention of getting another dog for quite some time after Turtle leaves us.  Second, we have definitively settled on just one kid, so there is no need to think about an additional room for a #2.  Third, having a separate guest space for visitors staying longer than a few days is less necessary now.  My mom is the only guest who stays for more than 3-4 days.  Since she's moving to Portland soon(ish), having that space is no longer a priority for me.  For other guests, I have a tentative plan in my mind that Avery's room can convert to a guest room and she can bunk in our room. Anyway, all this puts us at 2 bedrooms and very condo friendly.  Turtle's size (over 35 lb) still puts us at odds for a lot of condos, but that's the last thing I'm going to worry about in this scenario.  There are too many other hurdles to overcome before worrying about this one. 

The idea that we want to be in a smaller place, preferably a condo or town home, is something I'm very confident of.  Were it not for the difficulty of selling this place, finding a new one, etc, we'd have done it this weekend, I think.

We looked at places on Sunday, just for the purpose of being in a space about the size we're targeting.  I wanted to see if it totally freaked me when I actually saw how much (or how little) space we'd have.  It didn't.  Nor did it freak out D. 

I haven't blogged about this condo thing only because it's been a thought swimming around in my head and the reality of it happening seems too far fetched. It's still something I can't see happening in the next six months or even in the next year, unfortunately.  I would love for it to happen.  I'm grateful for what we have, truly.  However, when I fantasize about what we would do if we won a lot of money, part of that fantasy is always moving to a condo.  It's never buying a bigger house or a nicer house.  It's moving to a smaller place and moving out of suburbia.  So there you go. 

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Zoo

Avery and I spent 3 h 45 m at the zoo today.  It was a long visit.  Fortunately, Christie & Henry and Amber & Josie were with us to keep us occupied.  We tried to go through the dinosaur exhibit, but Avery was scared at the first dinosaur and insisted she and I turn around.  Thankfully, the zoo happily refunds your money in this situation.  She has never been afraid of the dinosaurs before, but someone on FB, whose son is now afraid of this when he wasn't before, said perhaps their self-preservation instincts are kicking in.  Makes sense to me.

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Grocery shopping isn't necessary ...

For the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking, "I don't need to go grocery shopping for dinners.  We're going to Vegas in x weeks."  Huh?  I seem to be convinced that since D and I will be out of town for a whopping four days that we wouldn't want to have any food in our fridge that might spoil.  Basically, I've just hit the time of year when I have less than zero desire to cook or prepare meals in any way.  In case you're wondering, the other common theme of all huge-money-windfall fantasies is a chef/shopper to take care of all food needs.

Tickets

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Tickets

I have implemented a new system for Avery and TV.  So far, it's working very well.  She gets one ½-hour of TV in the morning as a freebie. After that, she has to earn three tickets to watch one ½-hour show.  She earns tickets by doing chores around the house.  At first I was going to have her earn tickets for small things she was doing right, like if she put her shoes on immediately after I asked her to do so vs. forcing me to ask her 20 times to do it.  Then I thought about it and decided that I don't want to provide rewards for doing things she needs to be doing anyway.  Instead, I've been asking, "Do you want to earn a ticket?" When she says yes, which she always does, I come up with a small chore to do, like tidying up her room, tidying up the living room, or feeding the dogs. 

So far, she likes to do the chores, but better, she understands that if she doesn't have enough tickets, it won't do any good to keep asking to watch TV.  She asks once, I ask if she has three tickets, she says no, I ask if she wants to earn, then she does a chore.  It also worked very well with Elise and Nolan here this weekend.  The girls could pool their tickets and could earn them together.  Most of the time, they got so distracted doing the chore that they'd forget the goal was to earn a ticket. 

I'm sure this, like all other little programs implemented, will lose its novelty in due time, but for now, woohoo!

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Household maintenance season has begun 

This season always reinforces what D and I have always known: we are not meant to live in a house.  We are meant to live in a condo or townhome with very little exterior maintenance.  That at least cuts back on all the crap you have to do. 

This morning the guy is here servicing our A/C unit.  I have been informed that we need to build a little wall around the A/C unit to keep the mud from washing into it when it rains really hard.  This should be common sense, I know.  However, I never go out there to even look at the darn thing, so how was I to know that mud was washing into it?  Do other people constantly walk around their property looking for this stuff?  The only outdoor space we truly use is our deck, so I am not surprised I didn't notice mud washing into our A/C unit.

We are also going to have our lights ripped out of the front yard.  First, they look horrible.  Second, while our lawn service guy was here getting our sprinkler system turned on, we discovered that our system out front is all screwed up.  Partially because they didn't change very much when switching from grass to landscaping last year; and partially because it was messed up from the beginning.  We have one sprinkler head that pops up and then sprays water directly onto a rock ... and nothing else.  Another one has a head designed to spray 15' in either direction when it only needs to go 3' in one and maybe 4' in the other.  And that's pushing it.  The lights are also placed in such a manner that they're blocking sprinkler heads.  Not to mention, they will always be a huge maintenance factor, which is something we weren't told.  Argh.  All I wanted was a few spotlights on trees!  It just got blown out of proportion because they guy who did it was so bad at communication and didn't tell us what he was doing.  I didn't care to follow up since the thing was dragging on so long.

Tomorrow, we have mulch being blown into the yard.  That should be fairly easy since they do it all, but it seems something always comes to our attention about things that need to be done that we have failed to do. 

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Swimming with goggles

Today is Avery's first swim class with goggles.  I'm curious to see how, or if, it changes things. She fully participates in classes, but she doesn't particularly like to get her head wet on command.  I suspect it has more to do with her eyes than hesitation to go under water since she's always been very bold in that capacity.  We'll see.