Water

Labor Day Leak

I went downstairs this morning to change our furnace filter and noticed the floor made a funny sound when I walked on it.  Upon further inspection, I noticed that the carpeted floor was went.  Upon even further inspection, I notice the molding along the bottom of the floor is warped and there is small amount of standing water in the furnace room.  Great.  It feels like everything is falling apart.

We called in a guy to look at the furnace. Basically, the AC is somehow causing the leak.  If we don't run the AC, then the water leak stops.  That's the good news.  The bad news is the guy couldn't figure out how to make the leak stop on its own.  We'll have to have the entire furnace moved away from the wall and basically have everything reinstalled somehow.  I might be getting this wrong since D was the one speaking with the guy.  The damage to the carpet seems minimal.  I think we'll be able to salvage it, but who knows.  

A Weekend Visit From Denver Friends

Our friends from Denver came for a visit this weekend.  They arrived on Friday night.  We met up with the Gs for breakfast on Saturday morning, then Terry & Claudia borrowed our minivan to hit wine country for the day.  D dropped me off at home because I was sick; he took Avery to the mall to get a second pair of glasses (so cute!) for Avery. I then spent the day in bed sick as all heck.  I was so sick I couldn't even join everyone for dinner that night AND we kept the babysitter coming to the house because I couldn't deal with Avery.  D said that Le Pigeon was much better this time around, so I'm still a bit bummed I missed it.

Sunday I felt better, though not great.  We dropped Avery off for the day with the Wagners (thanks, Amber!)  Avery couldn't have been happier with this.  She turned and waved goodbye to us without hesitation and off we drove.  We hit several wineries, the best of which was Bergstrom.  Even I liked the wine there.  We (and by we I mean D) purchased several bottles of wine, including a magnum of a great 2007 wine that we can "lay down" (a term I have never used, but that was used repeatedly by our wine-loving friends and D) to give to Avery on her 18th birthday.

Once home, we all took a quick nap then headed out for dinner at Tabla.  Dinner was excellent.  Avery had a very long day, so she was a bit antsy, but all things considered, she did very well at the restaurant.

Today, after dealing with the leak and then several misfires on lunch places (they were closed due to the holiday) we headed to Andina for lunch, then wandered around the Pearl District before dropping Terry & Claudia at the airport.  

Babysitter

Avery absolutely loves the babysitter.  She lives right next door, so it's very convenient for us.  It also means her parents are right next door if she has any problems come up.  However, I'm not at all worried about her.  From the moment she walked in the house on Friday to get to know Avery, I was totally confident I would feel comfortable leaving Avery with her.  Avery warmed up immediately and talked Melanie's ear off. Melanie was very engaging with Avery and dived right into playing and reading to Avery. 

This means we'll be able to do our weekly date night even on weeks the Gs are on vacation (the nerve!)  Sweet!   It's amazing how getting someone lined up to be able to call makes everything so much easier.  The Gs are our primary sitters,  as we are for them, but it feels great to have an easy sitter lined up when scheduling doesn't work out with the Gs.  Plus, to schedule with her, I get to text her versus having to call.  Awesome. 

Dog Run

Our dog run is working out wonderfully.  I'm now so regretful we didn't do this long ago.  I have to be diligent about picking up the poop every other day (my goal is everyday) because it's in such a small area.  But that's easy enough to do since it's not so challenging to pick up the poop.  I'm pleased as punch with that.  

Diet

My elimination diet starts tomorrow.  Egads.  I don't feel prepared, but I can spend a lot of tomorrow figuring out what I need to plan ahead for, etc.  I'm actually looking forward to it after spending the weekend sick.  I lost my voice, I have been coughing, then I drank way too much wine on Sunday night and was sick this morning.  So not good.  Anyway, I hope it feels great to cleanse my body and figure out what is making me so tired all the time. 

Update

Nain

My mom is here for a visit.  She is here until Thursday of next week.  D and I took Avery to meet her at the airport when she arrived Tuesday night.  Avery and I decided to head inside to meet her, but Mom didn't see us when she was coming down the escalator, so I encouraged Avery to run up to Nain and say hi.  Avery thought this was hilarious and spent the whole time giggling while trailing Nain as she was walking.  Finally, Mom turned around smiled at Avery, took a few seconds, then realized it was Avery and broke into a huge smile. 

Mom brought Avery a cute little princess dress which just made Avery's day this morning.  And, of course, she brought apple cookies. 

Avery has been thrilled to show Nain how she puts on her jammies all by herself, as well as walks up and down the stairs by herself.  She's been physically capable for doing this for well over a year, but she still wants us to carry her down the stairs most of the time, so I've been telling her how proud Nain will be to see how she can go down the stairs all by herself.  So now she says to me each time she goes down the stairs, "Nain's going to be so proud of me!"

Painting

Well, the painters are out front painting.  Things are off to a slow start, but I guess it's better a thorough job than a rushed one.  They seem to be still doing what I'd consider prep work: priming some areas, caulking windows and door frames, etc.  At least we have forward momentum.

I wrote that a couple of days ago.  We are still sitting in a thoroughly unpainted house.  I'm about to explode, but we'll see what tomorrow brings.  I think I used my all my patience during that five month wait.  Argh!

Date nights

RHG and I decided to schedule our date nights through the end of the year.  We, of course, have the understanding that either party can cancel any due to other things that may come up for those who are wondering how we can know we won't have a holiday party on a particular Saturday in December.  RHG joked she was going to put a screen shot of her inbox on FB.  I actually took a screen shot when all of her invites and accepts came into my inbox. 

FB Exchange

I posted this as my status today: I'm going to be abrasive: if you are actually stupid enough or uninformed enough to believe that Obama is a Muslim, please unfriend me. I have no desire to be Facebook friends with you. How is it possible that people think that just because a lie is repeated over and over, it becomes the truth?

Of course, I knew it would draw ire from one ultra conservative FB friend in particular.  Exchanges have been going back and forth.  Those exchanges themselves don't make me mad, but they're a reminder as to why I avoid most news and political talk nowadays.  

Block

Blogger's Block?

I think I have blogger's block.  I can think of a ton of things I want to blog about at any point other than when I'm sitting in front of the computer.  Makes for difficult blogging. 

Toilet

Avery is great about going potty on her own.  She'll even pause the TV, go potty, empty the contents, flush, wash her hands (which I have to remind her to do more often than not), then return to watching TV without any assistance from me.  I am hoping the next step in this independence will be her using the real toilet versus her floor potties. 

On Saturday night, Elise and Nolan were over.  Elise said she needed to go potty and headed into the bathroom.  When one toddler needs to go, so does the other toddler, so Avery followed Elise in.  I finally came over about two minutes after I'd heard the initial, "I have to go potty," declaration.  There's Elise sitting on the floor potty.  Avery, not being able to go at the same time, found the insert for the big potty, put it on, somehow got herself up onto the toilet and went on the toilet.  Woohoo!  She never objects if you put her on a big toilet - it's just that she's doing it on her own.  I made a huge deal of it and then she did it again tonight all on her own.  It was awesome.

Dad Visit

My dad was visiting for the past several days.  He left this morning.  It was a nice visit without a lot of rushing around visiting various places.  Avery loved having him read bed time books to her.  She was also very concerned when Pop Pop didn't join us for D's company picnic on Saturday afternoon.  She insisted on coming to drop Dad off at the bus station.  So cute!

Jamison Square

This afternoon, D and I headed to Jamison Square with Avery.  On the way, I took a shot in the dark and texted a few people to let them know we were going in case they happened to be able to join us.  I figured our odds were not good.  Well, who walked up but the woman with three kids.  They were out at lunch where Josie just happened to be wearing her swimsuit and figured they'd swing by.  Woohoo!  This meant that Avery (not mine) played with Avery (mine) and Josie (also not mine, but you should know that) in the water while D and I chatted with Amber and Andrew.  A lovely impromptu playdate. 

Monday

School

Today is Avery's first day back at school after our 3 week break.  She was so happy to be back.  I was a bit worried that she'd have trouble going into the new teacher's room (we switched teachers so she could be in the same class as her friend Lily, and secondarily because it's cheaper).  I explained that because she's getting bigger, she's going into a new classroom with Teacher Mary.  She thought about it a while, then repeated it several times on the way to school that she was getting bigger so she goes into Teacher Mary's room.  I was very thankful that she was so happy to be there and didn't have any transition issues.  She also didn't freak out when I told her Nain was going home today.  I feared she'd want to go to the airport with us since the airport is her absolute favorite place to go. 

Saturday Market & Fair

Mom and I went to the Saturday Market on Saturday (that's not obvious since the Saturday Market is also open on Sundays). I bought a few gifts, as well a piece of framed art for myself.  I love it.  It's sitting on my desk and makes me happy each time I glance at it.

While Mom and I were shopping, D took Avery on some rides at the fair nearby.  She was technically too short to go on the rides, but D was able to sneak her onto some of the rides.  Mom and I caught a glimpse of Avery riding around a little track of water in a tiny boat.  It was the cutest thing.  She looked so grown up sitting there all by herself.

Heathens' Brunch

Yesterday was the Heathens' Brunch and it was quite tasty.  Christie took pictures as usual, so I'll send you over there took take a look. 

Movies and Books

D and I got to go on an extra date night this week since Mom is here!  She stayed with Avery last night while we went to see Get Him to The Greek.  There were some definite laugh-out-loud parts to it, but it was also a bit uneven and strange at times.  On Friday night, after dinner at the G's, Mom, D, and I went to see Exit Through the Gift Shop.  It was a very interesting movie for anyone looking for something different.

I'm only 60% of the way through my latest book, Island Beneath the Sea.  The book is good enough to finish, but it's at about 3 stars out of 5 for me right now, so I'm not reading very quickly.  That I don't have as much free time as I did in Mexico is surely affecting things as well.

Departure

Christie & Henry Leave

We dropped Christie and Henry at the airport this afternoon after a lazy morning in the casa.  Before their flight, we hit a nice restaurant for lunch in town after finding the place I intended to take them is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Avery has asked several times where Henry and Christie are.  Upon getting home from an afternoon walk with Nain, she said, "Christie's still sleeping?" (an odd statement since Christie, to my knowledge, didn't nap much/at all?)  I explained that Christie and Henry have gone home to Oregon, but I'm not sure that has fully sunk in yet.  

Books

I finished the book I started yesterday, The Girl Who Fell From the Sky.  It was intensely readable, but I'm finding the more I think about it, the less solid the story feels.  I find that, oftentimes, I feel differently about a book or a movie after I've thought about it for a while after reading/seeing it.  Regardless, I enjoyed reading it. 

I downloaded a sample of The Glass Castle, so that could well be next on my list.

D is coming!

D decided to come down for a visit.  He arrives on Friday, but doesn't leave until Thursday since the flight out on Tuesday (no flight on Wednesday) is booked.  That means he'll have two days down here without us.  It'll be a nice break for him despite the fact that he'll work those days.

We actually chose to schedule the trip over Memorial Day weekend just in case he decided to come down.  I'm so happy he's coming.  We're not telling Avery that he's coming so it'll be a surprise.  She's now asking for him often.  This morning I freaked out when there was a tiny caterpillar-like bug in the casa. Mom threw it out at my urging, then Avery got very upset because she wanted to see the bug (more than she already had).  Anyway, as she was crying, she was asking for her daddy.  I emailed D and he called a bit later so they could chat. If I could get the stupid microphone on the laptop working, that would be so much better, but I'm thankful Avery can see D via Google Chat.

Dichotomy

Medication

I had my visit with the PMHNP on Friday. It wasn't nearly as bad as the thought of it.  So now I'm newly medicated.  Here's to this round's worst anxiety symptom (constant jaw clenching going on about 2 months now) stopping so my teeth can stop aching.  Stupid anxiety.  Stupid depression.  Stupid chemical imbalance.  The only side effect from the medication so far is the one I always get: the urge to throw up when I yawn. 

Shooting

So that police shooting that happened a few days ago happened just outside the apartment building D and I lived in when we first moved to Portland.  I don't watch local news, but I played the video some woman took of the shooting and noticed it looked really familiar, so I looked up the address.  I'm more fascinated that I recognized the location from a grainy video than that it happened near where we lived.

Weekend Goings On

Mom landed here on Saturday.  We've been going non-stop since she got here.  On Saturday, we came home, then headed out shortly after that for our date night.  We dropped Avery off at the G's, then headed to Wildwood for dinner, then to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo at a theater on NW 21st.  I expected the theater to be uncomfortable since it's one of those single screen older theaters, but it was just fine.  The movie was also very good. 

Today, we walked the dogs this morning, then Mom and I headed out to lunch at Native Bowl.  Following a quick stop at Flavourspot Waffles for a dessert waffle, we went to get Mom's haircut by the guy who cuts mine.  I think the new style is really cute, though she might need to get the front trimmed a bit more for her tastes.  We'll see how it comes out tomorrow.

This afternoon, we went to Elise's 3rd birthday party, which was a smashing success with tricycling, scootering, bubbles, and a playground.  Getting there, however, was not so easy.  See next topic.

The Avery Dichotomy

Avery seems to have two modes: stellar and awful.  To provide some balance, I'm going to note her two modes from this weekend. Here's the email RHG sent me on Saturday night regarding Avery's behavior that evening:

Avery was stellar tonight.  Sat and ate very nicely (when all the other kids were tearing around the house screaming), played nicely with everyone, said thank you at the right times, etc.  You would have been so proud.  All the parents were amazed she's only 2.5yo and said she's very mature for her age.

My rules to them tonight were: no kicking, no screaming, no jumping.  As soon as I left the room Elise started to kick and Avery said "hey Friend Elise, no kicking."  :)

Now that you know we have such a stellar and wonderful daughter, I shall go on to describe this afternoon.  D told Avery no to a cookie.  1.5 hours later, we finally managed to get some shorts on the girl and go to Elise's BD party.  She had what I think must be the longest and most massive fit to date.  The cookie set her off, but I know this situation well enough by now that it could have been anything.  I really can't do the tantrum justice in describing it.  It was just that massive.  I have tried all sorts of methods of trying to snap her out of the tantrum, but the one that I'm employing at the moment is sitting with her in the room while she has the tantrum, not saying anything, not moving, and just letting her go to town.  When it seems like she's winding down, then I attempt to engage her with a question.  If she answers it, showing her mind has switched back to its usual mode, then I know we're on our way to wrapping that sucker up.  If she screams, "No!" then I know we're getting ready for another cycle.  In these situations, she most definitely does not like to be touched.  She also doesn't like for me to talk or move around. Those offenses result in penalization of another 15 minutes of tantrum.

One of the more interesting things to come out of this particular tantrum was my observation of what she does when she's asking for something, then decides she doesn't want it.  Once in full-on tantrum mode, she'll start screaming she wants something or someone: "I want my ducky towel! I want my ducky towel! I want my ducky towel!"  This scream is yelled at the top of her lungs, veins in her neck bulging, face turning red, limbs completely taut, and legs kicking the floor.  For the record, it makes no difference to the tantrum if I get her what she's asking for.  After asking for said item for 2-3 minutes, she will then start saying, "I don't want my ducky towel! I don't want my ducky towel!"  Again, this is all at the top of her lungs and is irrelevant as to whether she's given the item she's been requesting.  Here's the interesting part: when she's yelling she DOESN'T want something, she folds herself in half, then scoots backwards.  If she is yelling she DOES want something, then she kicks in a motion as it going forward.  She did this with about ten different things and it was the same pattern with each item.

So, yeah, there you have it. 

Birthday

Today is my 31st birthday. Man, that sounds much older than 30. It's been a good haul for me today. D ordered me a gift thinking it was being shipped from SF and would get here on time with regular ground shipping; unfortunately, it is being shipped from Wisconsin and the tracking showed it wouldn't arrive on time. So, despite the fact I told him that was just fine (and it really was just fine with me) he went out and bought me an additional gift. Woohoo! I now own a new PowerShot SD 600 Digital Elph camera - 6 mega pixels. We actually found the battery to the old digital that I was using to take many of my blog pictures, but I commented offhand to D (and I wasn't even hinting) that I was going to have a hard time going back to that one after using his camera and its much higher resolution. The resolution on this one isn't quite as good as his, but it's a much smaller camera and 6 mega pixels is pretty good. My other gift that should arrive in a few days is the Nature Mill's Indoor Trash Composter that I mentioned about a month or so ago. I'm hoping that once we have this running and have mastered using it, I will be able to reduce the size of our garbage pickup each week.

From both D's dad and my dad, I got a gift certificate and money to be used for facials at my spa. Perfect!

From Jeremy, I got a beautiful orchid that I'm going to do my best to keep alive! I'll post a picture of that in a post later this week.

Mom, of course, got me the AeroGarden which is fast producing our salad greens. Quite fascinating to watch it grow.

Speaking of Mom, we just dropped her off at the airport. It was a great visit and I'm so happy she agreed to fly out here for Christmas - thanks, Mom! Here we are before we left for the airport.



Dinner last night was very good. We actually had a beef rib roast that we'd received as a gift last year which had been in our freezer all year. We decided to use that for Christmas dinner since it was a very good quality piece of meat and figured the quality would make up for the longer-than-usual time in the freezer. It really did. It was absolutely delicious. D did the roast and the roasted vegetables (two kinds of potatoes, parsnips, onions, and butternut squash); Mom did the carrots; I did the brussel sprouts (with garlic, breadcrumbs, and lemon). It was absolutely delicious - D did a terrific job with the meat and vegetables. I didn't take a picture, but you all will have to take my word for it.

Eddie has gone back to normal immediately after Mom's departure. From the moment she arrived to the moment she left, he has been very needy. He would follow me or D around constantly. He would crawl under my desk while I was typing, or would follow me around the kitchen. It was very weird. It's not like he's afraid of my mom (for those of you who don't know her, it is completely ridiculous to think that dogs wouldn't like my mom, they LOVE her, she loves them) - he would go up to her and ask for snuggles. D's theory is that he thought that we were replacing him with my mom. Who knows. However, the difference was immediate when we returned home after dropping Mom at the airport: he's not following either one of us around now. He's such a sensitive dog.



I'm off to walk the dogs. They don't seem to remember that it's my birthday and I should get the day off from walking them! Silly dogs. Here's a picture Mom took on yesterday's dog walk. Turtle is looking pretty chunky, but told me to tell everyone the camera adds 10 lbs! Ditto from me (as I sit here with my pants unbuttoned after days of indulging myself way too much).



Edit: I didn't have my camera on high resolution when we took the photos with me and my mom, so it's not too impressive when you click on them to make them bigger. Here's a shot of Turtle (after cropping) with the higher resolution: