Today...

Jack had a dental appointment and he said it "hurt sooooooo bad".  He's still not done with the dental work from his BMX accident, which was two years ago tomorrow.

That was one of those days I want a do-over on.  I would change that day by saying "No, Jack, you may not go to the skate park and knock your front tooth out and chip most of the other permanent teeth in the front of your mouth and then have expensive and painful dental procedures done for the next 5 years."  That is verbatim what I would say.

Then we came home and made 5 half pints of the bestest blueberry jam I have ever had.  No lie.  I was not aware I was an awesome canner until just this month.  I canned 8 jars of super delicious strawberry jam a couple weeks ago and now I am obsessed with thinking about some delicious combinations of fruits to make into jam.  Strawberry rhubarb is next, which I obviously did not think up myself.

Speaking of food, I started a three day green juice cleanse fast today.  So far I'm not hungry, although I did augment with a bit of watermelon.  I do not have a juicer and didn't really want to invest in a piece of kitchen equipment I may never use again.  So I'm using Naked Truth Green Machine and Odwalla Original Superfood.  They are so much better tasting than they look.  They would have to be because they look like algae sludge.  They are thick enough to make me feel not starving, so that's good.  I've been gastronomically BAD for a while now, I'm hoping to knock off a bit of the bloat before heading to Cannon Beach next week.  We are staying at the RV Resort for the week of the Fourth.  I'm excited...the weather is supposed to be lovely so I'll keep my fingers crossed.  I love Cannon Beach, literally, I Love Cannon Beach.  It's enough like a California Beach to make me feel a little bit homesick.  Yay for vacations!

Bah Humbug

Seattle did finally thaw out.  It's been a beautiful sunny, cold weekend and yesterday was a perfect day to head to the tree farm for our annual Christmas tree hunt.  We found a lovely one, had some hot chocolate and headed back to the homestead for some decoratin'. 



Live Tree



Dead, but lovely, tree.



Grace and I decided to have a little sleepover down in Liv's room to check it out.  She is correct in stating that her bed is very comfy and I slept like a log.  I thought it might be a little creepy in the basement but it really wasn't, it was cozy and warm and the big window is so pretty in the morning.  Only 8 more days until Liv is home again.

Our day started out a little scary, Elke got out of the yard yesterday morning and we didn't find her for 3 hours.  She has been getting out and I warned Mike not to let her out unattended until he fixed the fence.  I awoke to hear him calling her and knew immediately that he probably hadn't heard me (again) and hoped that he hadn't removed her collar like he usually does (she jingles and wakes us up in the morning).  Unfortunately, he had...insert signing sound.   I was trying not to imagine her lifeless body lying in the road and what that would do to my children.  Turns out a good Samaritan found her and took her to the vet to scan her microchip.  I was introduced to a NE Seattle Moms group page and was so grateful to find that this network of mom's led Elke right back to our door, neighbors I don't even know.  It was heartening to see that our neighborhood is a lot more neighborly than I knew.  Today Mike is fixing the fence, it's only taken him five years and a giant scare but he is getting it done.

I'm immersed in Christmas shopping and taking my Ativan so that I can sleep through the stress of it all, and trying not to gain my usually holiday 5 pounds...I think it might be too late for that. 

We are all trying to recover from nasty colds, me, Liv, Sam, Jack and Drew all got walloped but I think the worst is over.  Back to the grind, I can't wait for January so I can start my official countdown to May and camping season.  I don't have a good attitude about January, February, March, or April.

Wine Cellar?

Spent the day painting the downstairs basement bedroom.  I'll post before and after pictures when it's done.  Liv will be down there for at least three months and then...it's mine.  I've had an extra bedroom at my disposal before.  Way back when Samantha was a baby and we lived in a three bedroom house.  I used it as my sewing and ironing room, back in the day when I made sofa pillows covered with geese-adorned and gingham fabric and always made all of Sam's dresses.  Now, I'll use it as an extra room for when Darcy or Olivia comes home and a place to sleep when Mike's snoring drives me out...which is getting more frequent as he gets older and I get grouchier.  A place to read in peace, I'll put my sewing machine down there to taunt me into making more bunting and maybe some geese-free pillows.  I'm going to get to that slipcover for that ottoman soon, probably not.  I'm imagining myself sneaking down there to hide from the noise when another migraine lurks.  It's gonna be sahweet. 

But, I'm thinking it will be a short lived slice of heaven as my always sweet Jack is on the verge of being a typical, sulking, sighing, eye-rolling, annoying teenager and won't want to live upstairs with Grace for much longer.  Sad.  I can't even think about it.  He's entertaining himself by making Grace scream, even as I write.  Maybe I'll turn that extra room into a wine cellar?

Busy, busy, busy...

I haven't added a post for a long time, not because nothing is happening but for the opposite reason.  We got up on that roof at our first sunny opportunity and got 'er done.  Almost.  The outside is patched and a new roof is protecting us from the northwest elements.  We haven't got to the new sheetrocking on the inside yet as that's going to be a little more invasive.  It will involve covering everything up so that the insidious drywall dust doesn't permeate our living space.  We were so proud of ourselves that we promptly took off for Cannon Beach for the weekend.

It was mostly lovely, only one afternoon was too stormy to enjoy the beach.  The kids and Elke love the beach more than anything in the world and I love to watch them have that much fun without the help of any technological devices.  Just sand, shells, and surf.  It's amazing how long that can be entertaining.



Unmitigated Joy

Mike likes the beach too, as long as he can bring his coffee and Blackberry.  He can't do without the technology as long as the kids can...

Argh, nice pirate boots

Other big news this week.  Olivia is calling it quits.  No more ASU after this semester.  She isn't going back.  She's been so miserable and so unhappy.  It's just a little more than a northwest girl can take to be out in that hot, dusty dirt.  She did her best and I'm just happy to have her back.  She and Taylor are applying to Western for the spring quarter and will be attending Shoreline C.C. for the winter quarter.  The downstairs basement room that Sam just vacated will be quickly taken over by Liv and that's what I'm doing this weekend.  Cleaning and painting and preparing.  Liv was worried that we would be put out my having her move back in.  Silly girl.  She's only 18, she's still a baby and I am thrilled to be able to cook for someone who I know appreciates it.  If she were 30 it would be a different story.

Halloween was a success.  Thank Gawd the candy is finally gone.  I picked a bad time to start the Atkins Diet again, it took all my strength.

Jack o' Lanterns

The only thing I like less than carving pumpkins is dying Easter eggs.  Although, this year was less awful than most.  The pumpkins seemed to have less guts than usual, and more seeds? 

Obviously, Jack and Grace are a little too young to handle the butcher knife part of the event, so I end with the job.  Mike was texting Gawd knows who and watching baseball all evening, so...of no help whatsoever.



   

     We ended up with these beauties

Another view...

And with dog... 



I forgot my camera...again.

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin farm.  I determined that this was my 22nd annual visit to a pumpkin farm as a mom.  I don't think we ever went as children but I also don't think that pumpkin farming was a thing in So. Cal.  We got our pumpkins at the grocery store, same place we got our Christmas Trees.  My kids would pass out at the mere suggestion.  I do love our traditions, I'm not complaining, it's just a lot of pumpkin farming.  We went to a huge farm in Clearview called "Bob's Corn".  The pumpkins were not stellar, not enough sunshine this year, they were all a little green and some had already passed over to the other side.  Our rule is that the little ones (Jack and Grace) can not get a pumpkin any bigger than they can carry around.  Jack really pushed that rule this year, I thought the poor guy was going to pop a hemi, lots of straining and groaning.  He finally ended up rolling his pumpkin down the hill on the way to the parking lot, I overlooked the fact that he was cheating because caring would take effort and some sort of action on my part.  I forgot my camera, bummer because Jack looked hysterical.  We actually did get lost in a corn maze.  And we paid $20 to do so.  We ended up getting out of there less $50. and up two large squash.  Tradition, ahhh.  The slaughter commences tonight and I will try to get some pics.



Speaking of squash, tonight I'm making baby back ribs and butternut squash risotto.  A perfect fall dinner.  On Monday I'm going to start of little pre-Halloween diet and then I'll start my pre-Thanksgiving diet the day after Halloween.  Another tradition.