tables

office / crafting den
We have been buying tables galore here at CdT. More specifically  I have been buying them. And I've only bought two, so I'm not sure galore applies. But I bought them within days of each other for the same room, so that seems a bit galorish to me. Plus, I facilitated in Mom buying a new kitchen table.

First, I bought a table that I thought I could use as my sewing table. I measured my space and the table before I bought it, but what I didn't think of was the weight the extending table arms would bear on a constant basis. Both sides of the table can be lowered, making it a compact cabinet should I ever choose to go that route. The sides can definitely bear the weight of the machines for a period of time (weeks, months), but were they to be the permanent home for my sewing machine and serger, there would start to be sagging/problems. So it's now where I keep my paper cutter. I use the large paper cutter (thank you Dag & Rosie!) surprisingly often. Up until now I haven't had a flat surface on which to store it permanently, so it's been stored against the wall in various locations. I also use the surface when I'm doing a project to lay out my bits to be assembled. It's working very nicely.

And since, when I'm actually sewing, I like having the machine out and easily available, I needed some sort of table for them. So I looked on Craig's List and found this craft table. It's made of melamine, so it's very sturdy and well made. D was horrified as he thinks it's really ugly, but I'm all about functionality. So far it's working very nicely, though I haven't actually sewn* at it yet. I have used it to do some paper crafting and it works very nicely. The stools below also work quite well. The space on the left is Avery's desk in my office so she has a place to do her stuff when I'm in here.

The slots below the table will eventually house some wooden crates I bought. I measured the space and came up with the following dimensions as an ideal container: 11" x 10.5" x 2.75". I thought there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to find anything close to that size. I entered the size into Google and hoped for the best. I found the EXACT measurements I was looking for. Exact. I was just hoping to find some cardboard boxes I could cut down and re-cover, but wooden crates are even better. And the right size. Be still my beating heart.

I also got around to storing my fabric in a way that will allow me to see what I have more easily. I blogged about this method back when I bought the scanner that allowed me to go paperless. It's embarrassing the amount of fabric I have given the small number of projects I've actually done. Also, don't look closely at the fabric since most of it is quite hideous. Some was picked by Avery, some was bought because it was on sale, and some I have no idea how I ended up with it.

* It's been a long time since I've done any sewing. I find I really enjoy it when I do it, but I have trouble starting new projects.

thanksgiving
Mom joined the three of us for Thanksgiving this year. It was a really good Thanksgiving. D volunteered to cook, so he did the bulk of the cooking work. I did the stuffing-substitute and the clean-up. Mom cooked the pie and cheesecake, helped with clean-up, and took Avery out for a nice, long walk whilst D and I napped after eating. Pretty much a darn near perfect Thanksgiving in my book.

For the stuffing-substitute, I decided to go with risotto. That sounds really weird until you eat risotto with turkey and discover that it has the same comforting effect that stuffing does. So we had baked risotto (sooooo much easier than making it the usual way) with our turkey. I do miss real stuffing, but what can I do?

Mom made a gluten-free apple pie. I greatly appreciate it since the GF dough is a pain in the butt for Mom to work with. It's apparently just harder to manipulate. However, both D and I prefer the GF crust to a regular crust, so it works out nicely for us. Thanks, Mom!

ranking
I asked Avery to rank her current four activities in order of preference. I explained that I would try to schedule as many activities as I could, but that sometimes the class times conflict with each other or other activities, so I needed her ranking. Her results:

1. ballet (no surprise there)
2. kung fu (I was surprised this was #2)
3. soccer (I was shocked this was #3 - I expected it to be last)
4. gymnastics (I expected this to be #2)

I'm glad she's enjoying kung fu so much. 

fawkes

guy fawkes
Tomorrow is our annual Guy Fawkes party for D's office. This will be the last year of hosting at our house since we're already going to be bursting at the seams, depending upon how many people come.

I scheduled the cleaners to come today so the house will be clean for tomorrow night. And RHG just canceled their date night, so I won't have to clean up after the kids tonight - woohoo! Avery will be at the G's house for an overnight tomorrow night during the party. I heart the Gs.

nyc
We're still scheduled to go to NYC. D and I wondered via email a few days ago whether we (Avery and I) should still go, but we haven't had time since them to discuss in person. I lean strongly towards going even if it's not quite as smooth as it would have been had Sandy not hit. I'm assuming, of course, that all power will have been restored by this weekend so things will be fairly on-track by the time we get there late next week.

avery & fits
She's been doing really, really well lately regarding fits. She has been able to get upset within what I'd consider an acceptable range and deal with whatever was upsetting her. Massive improvement. I'm so pleased. One of the moments she had particular trouble dealing with before was when I'd get angry with the way she was speaking to me. I never yelled at her, but even just looking at her with a stern face would make her start crying and moving toward fit mode. This morning, she was able to take a moment then say she was sorry and we moved on. Massive improvement.

halloween
Avery dressed as Merida (from Brave) for her school Halloween parade, but chose to go as Jessie (from Toy Story) for the evening trick-or-treating. I'm not sure why she made that choice. I wasn't really up for trick-or-treating that night, so I asked D to go with her. He went around with Lily & Grace and their parents for 45 minutes or so of trick-or-treating. Avery came home with a perfectly reasonable amount of candy. It's funny because I don't think she even knows that other kids might eat more than one piece of candy that night. She asked to eat one then she asked to go to bed and it was an evening like any other. I stashed away all that candy in the treat drawer and she gets to pick one a day for lunches.

While Avery was totally reasonable and balanced in her consumption of Halloween candy, I was less than stellar. I at least had the good sense to buy mostly Kit Kats as the type for us to give out. Since I can't eat Kit Kats, those are still in plentiful supply. I also bought York Peppermint Patties, which I will eat once in a while, but would never eat more than one and can easily avoid them for months. Unfortunately, I also bought a bag of miniature peanut butter cups. I took the whole bag upstairs before bed and ate about half of it. I left the other half sitting on my nightstand. The next morning, Avery found the peanut butter cups on my nightstand. She said, "Mommy, if you eat all these at once, you'll get a stomach ache. I'll take them downstairs." I said, "Oh, you're right, Avery. Thank you." She was so very grown up about it. Thankfully, not grown up enough to look in the trash can and see what I inhaled the night before. She has always believed us that she'll get a stomach ache if she eats too much candy. I wonder when she'll finally test this theory, or bug us to let her test it. Soon no doubt. (Oh and yes, I did eat the other half yesterday while she was in school.)

avery & sleeping
Since we've returned from England, Avery has been going to sleep early and amazingly fast. We've been laying with her in bed until she falls asleep because we did it the first few nights we were back and it is working great, so why not. She falls asleep within 5 minutes of us saying "time to go to sleep." She's also been asking to go up to bed earlier than we were going up before England. Clearly, I love my daughter's non-resistance of bedtime. More often than not, she's the one who says she's ready for bed.

She's also, for the past couple of months, been coming into our bed in the middle of the night about 50% of the time. I actually rather like it, so I don't feel compelled to do anything about it. She's quiet (usually) when she comes in. Typically brings her blanket so she doesn't get under our blanket and just snuggles in between us. D may have a different version of this story, but for me, it's nice.

refugee family sponsorship
Amber, Christie, Stacey and I are sponsoring a couple of refugee families for Christmas again this year. This year one family is Bhutanese and one is Somalian. All members of both families need winter coats. Several bikes were requested. Then there are various items requested within the household. The list provided is just a wish list and we are in no way obligated to get all things on the list, but I would love to get each item. We'll see what we can do.

mom's back
My mom is back from her visit to Colorado and Wyoming. It's nice to have her home. She came inside for just a bit after I picked her up for the airport (her car was parked here while she was away, and Barkley was here, too). While she was in the bathroom, Avery asked if she could share her Halloween candy with Nain. She gave Nain a Kit Kat (from her stash, not from the stuff we have left) and had a bag of Skittles for herself. It was so grown up the way she shared. Melted my (so non-sentimental) heart.

finger

ouch
Avery got her ring and pinky fingers of her left hand stuck in a very heavy steal door on Wednesday afternoon at a community center. She was with Rachele (who feels horribly, but whom I don't blame in the least) and RHG said that when she eventually got Avery's finger out, it was totally flat and gray. She also said it was one of the heaviest doors she's ever seen. Poor Avery. I'm not sure for how long, but Avery was standing there for more than just a few seconds with it stuck, so it was pretty traumatic at the time. Once RHG was able to free her, she called me and told me to start driving to the urgent care, then rushed Avery there. They x-rayed her hand which revealed that nothing was broken or fractured. They put on a splint - which looked more like a cast - and sent us home. While Avery cried a bunch (as well she should have) when it happened and at the urgent care, but since the splint's been on, she hasn't complained once. After the fact, she's always a trooper.

We went in for a follow-up appointment with a specialist. There was no need to x-ray it again. He removed the splint and Avery said it didn't hurt. She said it felt like a rubber band. She favored it a bit for the rest of the day, but Saturday she was using it almost normally.

I found it interesting that both the nurse and the specialist asked questions in such a way that, upon reflection, they were looking for any signs of child abuse. Of course, I'm thankful that do that because I want them to identify any child abuse going on with children, but it was a bit odd to realize that is what was happening.

apple picking
Avery & I, Mom, and Christie & Henry all went apple picking at Kiyokawa Family Orchards on Thursday. Avery stopped by school to have her picture taken with the class, then we drove to pick up Christie & Henry and head up. It was during this drive that I realized my sweet ride (and all other minivans) are missing one key feature: the window partition - you know, like limos have. It would be so nice to just to lock out any bickering between kids. I swear that Avery and Henry bickered more during that drive than they did the whole time we were in Mexico together.

Mom made me a gluten-free apple pie with some of the apples we picked. I just ate two pieces for lunch. I like Mom's gluten-free crust better than her non-GF crust! Mmmmm. Pie.

Mom's birthday
Yesterday was Mom's birthday. I underestimated how Avery would react when I explained that Mom and I were going out to celebrate Nain's BD. That is, she was upset. So, I quickly threw together a lunch celebration wherein Avery and D baked Mom a cake whilst I cooked lunch and bought Mom's gift (a bird bath). Avery was all over it. She insisted that we each lunch in the dining room, not the kitchen. Then she set the table all by herself. She also chose where everyone would sit. Needless to say, Avery sat at the head of the table. Finally, she insisted that we put candles on Nain's cake. We put 7 on to represent each decade.

Nain and Avery on Nain's BD.

For our daughter-mom celebration, I took Nain to dinner and a foot massage. We didn't hit the afternoon movie as planned because I was exhausted and napped all afternoon - bad daughter!

scanned out
I have scanned almost everything in the house. I now wander aimlessly looking for what other paper I can get rid of (this is only partially a joke). I think a lot of the appeal to me is that it's something where I can make fast, visible, tangible progress ... unlike parenting where results of hard work aren't as easy to correlate to said hard work.

I am proud that I managed to NOT scan all past receipts. I decided that would be just an activity of scanning for the sake of scanning. The likelihood I would ever need to reference those receipts is pretty close to nil. So I bundled up the receipts and will put them out of sight until such time as I am ready to recycle them. From here on out, I'll scan in any receipts for products I might have a need to return (meaning, I won't scan in grocery receipts, but would a receipt for a birdbath or stuff like that).

If any friends need any scanning done ... :)

art

Pumpkin Patch
Yesterday we (Mom, D and I) went to the pumpkin patch with Avery. It was a bit early for such an activity, but it was a company event with D's office, so off we went. She had a good time going down the slides and running all over. She also got her face painted for the first time.

A side benefit to have a child's face painted: when she starts to cry (later in the day) which in turns makes the paint run, she will stop crying almost immediately upon realizing this. Woohoo.

I've got to say, I'm not a big fan of pumpkin patches. I just don't get them. But, Avery seems to like them quite a bit so there you go.

iPhone debacle
Following the pumpkin patch, we went to the store to have Mom's phone switched for D's old iPhone. Well, that turned out not to work too well. Long story short, when they repaired the water damage, the speakers still worked. However, some connections were lost and the end result is that while you can make and receive calls, the ringer won't actually ring when a call is coming in. So unless you're just sitting there staring at the screen, you won't know a call is coming in.

Today I'll take Mom's phones back to the store, have the sim cards switched back. Then, when D's iPhone 5 arrives, we'll give Mom my old iPhone (which is the one D is using now since he broke his phone). Whew.

G date night = art buying for us
Odd as it sounds, D and I ended up buying three oil paintings from a woman going door-to-door selling art work done by Israeli art students last night. I said no at first, but this girl was a GOOD saleswoman. Anyway, we ended up with paintings for my office, the dining room, and our bedroom. I have to get them stretched to hang still, but I have appointment for that on Friday. Of course, she could have been selling oil painting done by whomever, but it doesn't really matter who actually did the work since the point is we like the art work. I lean strongly towards believing her, but it's always questionable when you buy things that way. So I guess the art of door-to-door sales is not dead.

The whole experience reminded me of what D and I refer to as our "sucker rug" which we bought on our honeymoon. We were in Istanbul touring the Blue Mosque. There was a young guy (early 20's) who approached us about a rug before we went into the mosque. We resisted, but then he met us on the other side when we came out. D and I are both prone to be impressed by good salesmen who have perfected their art. We ended up visiting the rug store he was employed by and yes, we ended up walking out with a Turkish rug.

The thing is, while I always feel like a sucker when we do these things, I rarely regret it. I love that we have that rug to remember our honeymoon. Loreto Bay was another example of a great sales process that sucked us in (though we were pretty much going to buy a casa without such a great sales process) and I don't regret that at all. So I hope these paintings produce fond memories as well.

I'll post pictures when they're hung (if I ever get around to taking pictures).

Mom's BD
Mom's BD is this Saturday. Since none of the activities are a surprise for her, I'll share our plans. I'll pick Mom up on Saturday afternoon. We'll hit a movie of her choice downtown, then kill some time shopping/walking around before dinner. Dinner will be out Southpark since Mom requested fish. Following that, we'll be hitting Barefoot Sage for a foot and leg massage. I hadn't heard of Barefoot Sage before RHG mentioned she and Jay were going there after Jay's BD dinner. I decided it would be perfect for Mom's BD, too. Jay and RHG's reviews of it were excellent, so I'm very much looking forward to that.

There is a Timbers game that night, so D will be going to that. The Gs will, of course, be sitting Avery. Thank you as always Gs.

Summary

• Avery is taking a nap right now. Because she asked for one. She decided to curl up on the couch to do it. Last time she did this, she woke up with a fever. I think this time she was just bored, so a napped seemed as good a thing to do as anything else. 
• I'm making Mom some change of address cards right now. I do love anytime I can use my Silhouette. 
• I made a couple of towel bibs using just my serger. The first one I made was too fussy because it required buttons. The next one was a much better design, but alignment was wrong. The third one I made is better, but the tension was set wrong on my serger, so I'm worried the threads will snag and make the whole thing fall apart. Hopefully the fourth time is a charm. Yes, I could have made the towel bibs using just my sewing machine, but it's much faster to use the serger. Plus, I'm looking for / developing easy project to do so I can get familiar with my serger. 
• We leave for Vegas on Friday - woohoo! Avery will be staying with my mom since the Gs are in Hawaii. 
• I had a hair appointment scheduled for today at 12:15. I made the appointment online about a week ago, making sure it was next to another appointment I had to maximize time, then arranged for Avery to be at Nain's house. I got a call from the salon at 11:30 saying there was a "scheduling conflict" and that "no one would be there during that time." The girl on the VM was about as competent (or incompetent) as you'd expect a millennial who works at a hair salon making appointments to be. She didn't apologize. She just said they could have me come in tonight or tomorrow. I called back and said that I'd arranged my whole day around this appointment (true) and that no, I would not be rescheduling. Then I booked my highlighting and cut at a salon in Vegas. I simply can't abide spending my money at an establishment that treats customers with such disregard - I don't care if he does know how to cut hair really well! So now I'll have to find a new place in Portland.
• We moved our couch back a bit (closer to the kitchen) because we discovered we could hear the sound better from the overhead speakers. As a result, we have a weird gap of space between the end of the couch (the part under the window that faces the front of the house) and the entertainment center. We could put a table there, but it will just gather dust. There is absolutely no need, ever, for a table there. So the only thing to do is to buy an armless single seater to add to the sectional. We called Ethan Allen and they just discontinued our sectional. They increased the width or depth or something by 1", so the overall look is still sold, but the exact specifications are not available. This leaves three options if we want a chair there: 1. Get Ethan Allen corporate to agree to make us the one-off chair since it was so recently discontinued (this is the preferable and cheapest route). 2. Buy just the chair from the floor model, recover it in our fabric, refinish the wood on the bottom to match our current sectional (this option is the most expensive and is out in my mind). 3. Sell our sectional back to Ethan Allen at a discounted price & buy the new sectional with the additional chair (doable).
• We had to buy a new washing machine last week. While I know that it's probably the modern appliance I couldn't live without (imagine washing clothes by hand!), it's just a boring new item to have to buy. I'd so much rather buy fun gadgets with that money (who wouldn't?) I have yet to test out the new washer since I managed to get most loads done before the other one went completely kaput.  

Flying

Flying - time!
Since I last posted, some highlights:

• I finished up all of the wedding-related stuff I was doing for the teacher at Avery's school. She got married on Saturday. I couldn't attend because we were out of town for the weekend. I was up until 2:30 AM on Wednesday night doing to place cards for the tables, but it was worth it. I was very pleased with how those turned out.  And I'm now a total expert at using many types of pens with my Silhouette. You need place cards or the like, I'm your woman. During this process, I also discovered that it's cheaper and better to buy large sheets of high quality paper at Blick (or another art supply store) rather than using cardstock or scrapbooking paper. It takes the ink better and gives you more flexibility ... you know, in case you were wondering. 
• We had a visit with some of Avery's birthfamily! It went very well. Nikki (birthmother), Grandma J (maternal grandmother), Grandpa Paul (maternal grandstepfather), and Garrett (brother) were all there for the BBQ at Grandma J's house.
• We had another visit with the grandmother we hadn't yet met, Grammie Tina. She is Mike's mom. It was great to finally meet her. The visit was a good one. Avery took no time whatsoever to warm up to Grammie Tina. She commenced trying to impress her immediately. The two of them made bead bracelets together. 
• D and I attended his office's annual company trip. This year it was held on the coast at Salishan Lodge. I remembered to bring gluten-free graham "style" crackers for the beach party where s'mores were the dessert. While D went kayaking, I hit the spa to enjoy a scrub. 
• Mom and I painted ... and repainted. Fortunately, I actually enjoy painting for the most part. Mom wanted a smokey blue for her room. We picked out a blue, painted her whole bedroom (the largest room we were painting ourselves), then decided it wouldn't work. So we repainted it and it looks much better. She and I also painted her office and the guest room. The professionals came in and painted the dining room, living room, kitchen, and hallways, as well as all the ceilings. Mom and I will still need to paint the two bathrooms, but we can do that after she's settled in a bit. 
• MOM MOVED! She moved on Tuesday with the movers doing all the heavy lifting. I've been over to her place to help out everyday except yesterday. She's making great progress. The kitchen is unpacked, the living room is done, the office is nearing completion. Her couches fit perfectly in the living room, and they are much more attractive in this house than they were in her CO house. 

Flying - Avery's schedule
I've been flying* through Avery's fall scheduling, arranging and scheduling and registering for Avery's fall classes. So far, I think we can manage gymnastics**, dance***  and swimming****. Whether theater***** can be added into the mix remains to be seen. Swimming and theater conflict. When asked to choose between them, Avery chose swimming.

* Yes, I'm stretching the use of the "flying" theme here.

** Gymnastics, for us, is dependent upon two spots being open for Avery and Elise. We're out of district for THPRD. I suppose if we can't get into gymnastics there, I'll check if Avery wants to do gymnastics without Elise. If she still does, then I can look outside of the parks & rec program (probably go to the place where Teacher Jackie is teaching).

*** I was very happy to learn that the studio I found for Avery has both online registration and the ability for me to schedule particular days during a session. This means I don't have to pay for those days we'll miss due to vacations, etc.

**** Swimming is dependent upon being able to find an agreeable time that Henry can do semi-private lessons with Avery, as well as SWCC having a semi-private slot open during our requested time(s). So many dependencies.

***** I decided to just sign Avery up for theater on the off chance that things will work out exactly the way I need them to for this class to happen. If they do, great! If not, then I will lose my $25 deposit for that class.

Flying - travel 

I have been missing Mexico. I also realized this is my last school year where I can just do as I please with Avery's schedule. As such, I decided to see if Christie & Henry would be up for a trip down to Mexico in September. As I was proposing this idea, I realized that we have to connect through LA and what's near LA? Disneyland! After some back and forth with Christie regarding dates that would work, we scheduled a trip. We'll be hitting Disneyland for two full days and we'll be in Mexico for 5 full days (7 if you count travel days). I'm very much looking forward to this. And D will be able to join us for one full day in Disneyland.

Christie is opting not to tell Henry for fear that he'll ask everyday for a month if it's time to go yet. I did not take this route with Avery and told her almost immediately. Today we had the following conversation:
A: "Am I going to school today?"
M: "No, it's Sunday."
A: [pause] "Disneyland?"
M: "No."
A: "Mexico?"
M: "No."

At least she asked about school first?

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.

Supermodel

Dentist
I went to the dentist today. For me, going to the dentist is like what supermodels must feel like during a photoshoot. It's non-stop praise about my gums, my homecare, the state of my teeth, etc. It happens every time. Both the dentist and the cleaner made separate jokes about scheduling me all day everyday so I can just be their one patient. They mean it, of this I'm sure. I've decided that I should just schedule an appointment with the dentist whenever I'm feeling down. It's awesome.

Mom's (most likely) townhome
Tomorrow is the inspection for the townhome on which my mom has put an offer. It'll be interesting to see the space without stuff in it. The previous owners* have moved out, so all of their stuff will be gone. Other than the inspection, we'll also measure all of the rooms to get an idea of what Mom will put where. All fun stuff, of course,

The walls are all white right now, so we're planning to paint all the rooms after she closes, but before she moves in. Anyone here in PDX want to help out with picking colors or painting? :)

* Technically, they were renters, not owners. The townhome is held in a trust. Not sure of the correct wording to describe this. Basically, family friends of the deceased owner were living in it.

Avery and friends
Avery's been spending more time with Lily. It's nice to have a friend for casual playdates in the neighborhood. I also think the two of them, who are very alike and therefore can butt heads a bit, are learning to solve their differences on their own. Last time Lily came over for a playdate, I didn't see them the whole time. It looked like a hurricane had hit the upstairs, but I'll take a hurricane over bickering any day.

I babysat the G kids (with Mom's help - because she offered and I say don't offer if you don't want to help because I will take you up on it!) on Sunday morning while the G's went to brunch. The plan was that I'd then leave Avery there for the afternoon and evening since D and I had our date night on Sunday night. However, Avery was In A Mood when the G's got back. She snatched something from Nolan and wouldn't apologize. I said apologize or we go home. She chose to go home, which in turn upset Elise who was looking forward to a playdate with Avery. So that is how Elise came to spend the afternoon at our house playing with Avery and Nain. All kids who come to the house immediately ask where Nain is and if they can visit her. Man am I going to miss her when she moves out.

We haven't seen much of Henry or Josie lately, but this Thursday will rectify that. Yipee!

Movies
D and I saw both Magic Mike and Ted this weekend (one date night courtesy of Mom, the other of the Gs). Both movies are very funny. I enjoyed both thoroughly. Ted is raunchy and oh-so-wrong in spots, but that's what makes it hilarious. Magic Mike had slightly more of a plot than I was expecting, however, not so much that it takes itself more seriously than a male stripper movie ever should.

Spanish speaker
After RHG's comment regarding hosting a student to get a native speaker around us (versus an au pair we don't need), I did some investigation. I found a program that looks like it'll work, however, there are no students from Latin America or South America, so the student would come from Spain. I did research on Castilian Spanish versus Latin American Spanish. Basically, it's like the difference between American English and British English - same language, but different nuances.

I emailed the program, but haven't heard back from them yet. I'll call them in a week or so if there's still no response.

Pee

Pee emergency!
The other day Mom's Realtor was showing us some houses. Before we left the house to meet him, I noticed that Avery's tummy was huge. This happens when she drinks a ton of liquids and hasn't yet gone potty. Yes, she can hold so much urine in her that you can physically see that she needs to pee. My daughter truly amazes me in this way. Anyway, she replied no, which I clearly knew to be false. Nonetheless, since she's always been self-managed with regards to when she goes, I let it go.

We got in the car and drove the first house. We were a bit early, so the Realtor wasn't there yet. Avery suddenly, yet not surprisingly, says she has to go pee "really bad." When I can physically see that she needs to go AND she says so, then it's urgent. She's never had an accident, but I don't really want an accident to happen with that amount of urine. I put my thinking cap on and decided our best course of action was to have her pee in something in the car. I looked around and decided the best thing would be one of the plastic cereal containers I use for holding composting, recycling, and garbage. (BTW, lesson one when having your child pee in a container is to remove the contents of said container BEFORE allowing him/her to pee - yeah, I didn't do that.) Avery filled that thing half full. Mom's face was a sight to behold when she saw the volume. I then had to deal with the contents. I decided to dump it onto some ground across the street. Of course, I had to keep the solid contents (the trash) in the container while dumping the pee. It was less than pleasant, but very amusing.

Townhome
Mom has put a townhome under contract!  The quality of the home itself and the community is, we believe, very good value for the money. It's a leisurely 10 minute drive from our place. That's with traffic. If there's no traffic it's probably more like 8.

What else? The community has a pool, so I know someone who will be wanting to visit Nain a lot during the warm summer months. It has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, so plenty big enough for Mom to have guests stay at her house. It's got a small outdoor space out back for Barkley.

Assuming everything goes well with the inspection, etc, she should close on July 13th.

Movie Saturday
Saturday was a movie day for us. Mom, Damian, Avery and I went to see Brave in the afternoon. I really enjoyed it, despite the princess theme. Why must all girl stuff be related to princesses?

Since it was our date night, we also got to see a movie that night. Mom, Damian and I went to see Safety Not Guaranteed, which I loved. It was the perfect length. This type of movie usually results in me waiting and waiting for the end. Not once was I anxious for the end, but when it came it was perfectly done.

Mexico

Walking
My weight remains stubbornly high. However, I can tell shapes are a changin', things are shifting about, and my arm fat and belly fat are lessening, so I'm happy (enough). I seriously doubt I have any chance of hitting my goal of a 20 lb loss and giving myself that little reward I had in mind, but that's OK. I'm happy I'm being active and motivated to be healthy. I feel much better, so even if that number doesn't change as much as I'd like, I'm OK.

On today's walk, I ran portions of it and that felt good. I have no plans to eventually make my daily walk a daily run. I can see myself walking and tossing some running in there when I feel like it, but a successful walk will be just that: a walk. I think my pace, distance, the terrain combined are aggressive enough for me to consider it a good daily workout.

Packing and Mexico
I just finished most of my packing for Mexico since we leave tomorrow. Each time we leave, I'm convinced this will be the last visit of lugging down a bunch of stuff to leave at the casa, but that's yet to be true. At least this time we have packed in such a way that we'll be able to do carry-on only on the way back.

I incorrectly thought that the flight schedule was the same as the February one. I was wrong. It's the 6:55 am flight out of Portland. Then, on the way back, we have a 5 hours layover in LA. Ah well, one should not complain about bad connections when going on a vacation. Plus I'm just grateful I've figured out that it makes absolutely no difference whether I try to go to bed early or go to bed late the night before an early flight. It sucks royally either way, so I might as well just do whatever I feel like.

Mom's back!
I picked Mom up from the airport on Thursday night. Then I treated her to a lovely dinner at ... wait for it ... IKEA! Because that's the kind of stellar daughter I am. I think she had a lovely time in Colorado, but I guess she'll blog about it eventually. *Ahem!*

Barkley is happy she's back and I'm happy to no longer be walking Barkley. Which is funny because Barkley is WAY easier to walk than were Turtle and Eddie, at least when I walked the two of them together. One of the reasons Barkley is easy to walk is that he walks at a leisurely(ish) pace, so there's (usually) no pulling on the leash. The problem with this, for me, is that I then start to slow my pace and that's not as good of a workout for me. Barkley also likes to stop and smell the roses. I'm not a stop and smell the roses kind of person. I'm a run past those suckers and get back onto the couch where I belong kind of person. The fact that he likes to stop meant that I would break concentration when walking and then it was just harder for me mentally. Hmmm, this is all taking me back to my dog walk hey days where I'd do a big ass post about walking the dogs and think that was totally normal for this to be my entire world. I am one to document the small details of life.

It's also nice that Mom will be here while we're gone. It makes it easier knowing the house is in good hands. Not that it was difficult leaving the house before, but it's a level of comfort knowing she'll be here.

Cross(not so)fit

The health and "fitness" section
I tried a Crossfit class on Tuesday. I liked it. However, I did way too many squats and have been hobbling around for two full days now. Going down the stairs is the worst. Before you say that I should take things slowly, I thought I was taking things slowly. When everyone else was using actual weight bars and weights to do their squat and thrust thingys, I stuck to the PVC pipe. When everyone else did real pull ups, I used a rubberband thingy to spring me up to the bar. But alas, I'm in not good shape and now I'm paying the price for it. I missed today's class, but I'm still going to sign up for the classes. Oddly, they're at the same gym where Avery does her Kung Fu ... and with the same instructor. That's all this gym does: Kung Fu and Crossfit. And it's only open for those class times. Odd.

All this soreness meant that I couldn't walk yesterday or today. I'm hoping I can at least stroll tomorrow because while I did fairly well eating yesterday, I did very bad today. Whether I walk is directly related to how I eat.

The upcoming events section
Next week, I bought us tickets to see Compagnie Käfig, advertised as "Europe's Most Acclaimed Hip-Hop Company." I was drawn to it because it features 11 dancers from Brazil and that just looked interesting. Plus Avery likes to watch all types of dance so I bought the four of us tickets. It's an evening performance, so I'm hoping I can get Avery to take a nap that day. I'm thinking I'll drive around in the car about 4:30 and that should do it. She hardly ever takes naps anymore, but a car ride around 4:30 should seal the deal.

Mom and I are also going to see This American Life at the movie theater. It's being filmed live and then broadcast in movie theaters throughout the country. Mom and I both love TAL, so it seemed like a good activity for us.

This weekend, Avery will get to join Josie in watching her sister, also named Avery, dancing. She'll also get to go to Josie's BD party on Saturday. It's a Wagner weekend!

Due to D's busy schedule, we have no date night scheduled this weekend. Of all weekends! The opening weekend for Marvel's The Avengers. Damn it!

On Friday of next week, Mom leaves for Colorado for two weeks. This means I'll be on Barkley duty. Which basically just entails: one, taking him for a walk (easy peasy since I'm doing that anyway) and two, stepping over him as he naps all day (which I do anyway). However, it does mean I'll have to empty the dishwasher. I have emptied the dishwasher maybe twice since Mom moved in. She likes to empty the dishwasher!

The crafty stuff section
I'll post the picture of Elise's BD card even though RHG posted on FB. The text was all done using a gel ink pen and my Cameo. I'm particularly pleased with that because I had to rig up pens - using duct tape and cutting pen tubes and all kinds of crazy shit - to get it to the point where I was pleased with it.  The only part I'm unhappy with the is placement of the "messy" warning. Why I didn't shift it up higher I don't know. Then the paintbrush wouldn't be at such an odd angle. Oh well. Live and learn.

I'm now working on a couple of graduation cards for Mom. One of the cards is for a former student of Mom's* who is graduating from the Air Force Academy. Actually, that's the reason Mom is going to Colorado. This student was able to choose three teachers to invite to the ceremony and she chose her 4th grade teacher! Seriously, how big of an honor is that for my mom? I am so proud. The frosting on the cake is that President Obama will be giving the commencement speech. Anyway, in making this card, I wanted to make it a bit Air Force Academy specific, so I searched online and found a picture with a good angle of the Cadet Chapel. Then I converted that image to a .bmp and imported it into my Cameo software. Then I used the trace functionality, made a few edits and used a black pen to draw the picture below. I am damn impressed with it.

Close up of the drawing

Picture of the (unfinished) front of card

* I was editing this post and thought maybe the apostrophe was wrong, but then it seemed like it wasn't. If I typed "Mom's former student" it would have a possessive apostrophe, right? But as "student of Mom's" it seems somewhat wrong, but without the apostrophe it would be like saying the student of multiple moms. I'm leaving it the way it is. Stacey & Christie & Vy and all you other grammar experts can enlighten me.

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.

Barkster

Makin' copies with Barkminster Fuller
Since Mom is visiting her brother in eastern Oregon for a few days, I'm in charge of walking Barkley while she's gone. He's a piece of cake to walk compared to Turtle and Eddie. No pulling, no fear of trucks or other loud noises, minimally excited at the site of other dogs. This was my first time walking him. I tried to take him for a walk by myself the other day, but it turns out that if Mom is in the house, Barkley has no interest in going on a walk with me. He got only so far down the sidewalk, then sat down and refused to go. He just kept looking back at the house, presumably waiting for Mom to join us on the walk. However, today without Mom around, he trotted happily beside me without issue.

Barkley's an interesting dog. In many ways, he's my ideal dog. He's more like a cat in that he pretty much just lays around all day. There's no pestering for attention. Also, once he's comfortable around whomever is in the house, he doesn't constantly leap up to greet you when you come in the room.  It often means Avery has to walk around him laying in the middle of the floor, but I much prefer that to a dog who moves every time you approach.

For whatever reason, he's the type of dog that I give constant nicknames to. I am starting to remind myself of Rob Schneider in that SNL skit where he sits next to the copy machine. Barkster! Barkalicious! Barkminster Fuller (from the Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome) Barnacle. Barky Bark and the Funky Bunch. I could go on and on ...

Routines 
After so many routine disruptions in March, then Spring Break for Avery, things are finally starting to click back in place for me. I can tell when that happens because I start thinking about new craft projects I can undertake.  And I'm finally back to logging my food and to do a daily walk, so that's good.

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.

Bullets

I seem to have a harder time blogging with Mom here. Maybe I've been subconsciously blogging to keep her informed of my life and now that she's here, I struggle with it more? When out of ideas, there are always bullet points with random stuff.

• Mom took Barkley to the groomer this morning. He looks good, but it cost double (!) they amount they quoted on the phone, so we're still in search of a good groomer if anyone knows of one. 
• The knobs have been installed on the living room cabinetry.  It's basically done, though we still have to one door put back on after a hinge mishap. Now I need to focus on getting the visible shelves filled with "decor." That'll take me about 3 years to do, I'm sure. 
• Barkley is making small progress with walking on the wood floors. Very small, but progress nonetheless. 
• Remember when I said I was going to have a controlled fall about 1.5 months ago? Just to be completely open: there was nothing controlled about it. I've been awful about logging food, about what I'm eating, and about keeping up with walking. Not exactly shocking, I know. 
• Mom and I spent a lot of the day getting her gadgets and technical needs figured out. We got her new GPS working, saved addresses in the GPS, mapped out dog parks close(ish) to us for her to try out with Barkley, got her account set up so she can view my calendar, and got her DVR set up properly so she can watch the tube of boobs in her quarters. 
• We're all (D, me, Avery, and Mom) to the Timbers game on Saturday night.  That's right, I'm giving it another whirl. I'm not overly optimistic that I'll enjoy the game, but perhaps I'll enjoy watching the people watching the game. 
• There's a new competition-based reality show about tattooing called Best Ink. While I would never get a tattoo, I have reached a point where I can appreciate the artform of tattooing as craft or an art. 

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.

Tuesday

Tantrum

I thought the tantrum days were behind us. At least the really big tantrums. I was wrong. Avery was so difficult yesterday. I supposed compared with the height of her tantrums, it was nothing. However, I'm not used to her being like this, so it took the wind out of me. She was difficult in the morning, pouting and throwing mini-fits when I said no to several things. She was fairly good, but still a bit sensitive, while we were at Christie's decorating cookies and playing in the park. Then we got in the car to go home. I realized we needed dinner ingredients, so we stopped at the New Seasons in Sellwood. I had her wait in the car with Mom. She cried and wailed the entire time I was in the store, then on the whole ride home, then for about 15 minutes when we got home. When she finally calmed down enough to be able to talk, she and I talked about it for a bit, then we both fell asleep for at least 2 hours (probably more - I don't remember when we actually fell asleep). 

The good news is that she seems herself today. Hopefully yesterday was belated punishment for me being gone so much in March, rather than the start of a new phase for her. 

Parking, Garage and the Movers

The movers are arriving today with Mom's stuff.  We have the garage all ready with spaces marked for ideal locations. Ideal means that D will be able to continue to park his car in the garage with the stuff. I don't think that's going to happen. Mom has more stuff than I estimated (which, in fairness to Mom, she told me repeatedly that she had a lot of stuff and I dismissed it), so I believe it'll take up two of the three parking spaces in our garage. D graciously offered to park his car outside so I could have the inside spot.  That is so nice because it's much easier to get Avery loaded into the car in the morning when I can just open the garage door and tell her to get herself buckled into her car seat. Plus, I make a lot of trips in and out of the house every time I leave the house. I'd have to be a lot more organized without the convenience of parking in the garage. 

Mom and I have a plan as to what is going where in the house and garage. Most of her stuff is being stored in the garage, but there are a few things that'll go into her quarters and out on her deck (i.e. the cement patio outside her door). 

Avery is here the whole time because I didn't make an effort to find alternative plans for her today. I figure the worst case scenario is that I have her watch a lot of TV/movies. She's typically good at staying out of the way, but we'll see how that goes. 

Mom Living Here

We received various reactions from people when we mentioned Mom would be living with us for a while before she moves into her own place. Most people thought it was great. Some people thought we were crazy. One thought D specifically was crazy: "You're OK with your mother-in-law living with you?!"  Yep, he's just fine with it. Truth be told, I've been more worried about Mom's ability to handle living with me than the opposite. 

My biggest challenge is getting used to having a dog in the house again. The only adjustment, really, is that he's a dog and he comes with dirt, but I knew that would be the case. I just have to re-adjust to that reality. Barkley, despite being a huge dog, is pretty easy to have around. And he's good with Avery. And he's is not needy. Oh how I love a not-needy dog. 

I think Mom's biggest challenge has got to be trying to learn to read my moods (D said, "How can you NOT read them?!") I acknowledge that I am not easy to live with (hats off to D for putting up with me). Mom said she has learned I don't like questions during dinner time preparation. That is true. I do not enjoy dinner preparation or cooking, so I'm not relaxed during that time.

Anyway, status = so far, so good!

Arrival

Mom's an Oregonian!
I may come back later to provide more insight into the craziness of the past week or two, but for now, I'm just going to resume blogging as if major life changes happen all the time and should be treated to minor mentions in a random blog post.

Major life change = Mom moving to Portland from Colorado. She's settling into her quarters quite nicely from what I can tell. We arrived yesterday afternoon after an easy two day drive. This morning I cleared out space in the kitchen cupboards for her, as well as a drawer in our main floor closet. I also got her Google Voice number configured such that, when it's dialed, it rings her cell phone and our landline at the same time. It's nice because when the landline rings, it says "Call for Penny" as the caller ID name. This way we know the call is for Mom and can avoid answering it.

Barkley is having a bit of trouble with the adjustment. He won't walk (very far) on the wood floors, so he's self confined to the the backyard, Mom's quarters, and the living room. And the trip to the living room is fraught with danger as it requires a trek over about 5' of hardwood floors for Barkley.

Cabinets
The final touches are still ongoing for the living room cabinetry. The hinges for the doors that slide back into the cabinet (for the desk) are still not right, so they're working on those today. And the pull-out shelf holding the receiver, DVD, etc isn't working properly, so it'll need to be adjusted. Plus, I haven't picked out hardware for the knobs yet. But, the important thing is that I'll be able to start loading it up with stuff tonight. I made D promise that he wouldn't put anything in the cabinets while I was gone.

Catch up
I've spent my entire evening catching up on email, scheduling of Avery activities, and other misc administrative stuff. I'm in an administrative/configuration mood, so I'm going to take my new iPad (new to me - it's D's old one since he bought himself the new iPad) upstairs and get it all set up the way I want it. Then I'm going to read. Lovely. All is just lovely.