Maybe I've already won

Today was the big day. I'm surprised you don't know what I'm talking about. Today was the day I was supposed to win $5,000 a week for LIFE from the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. Instead this teacher in New Jersey won. I'm sure she needed it more than me : (. I did my hair and make-up this morning and practiced surprise reactions in the mirror, but they didn't come to my door. I was talking to my mom this afternoon about how I have had this feeling I am going to win something and she suggested maybe I already won a prize. True- saving a few hundred dollars a month on rent could seem like a prize . . . .
Then one of my girlfriends dropped something off and insisted she take the girls home with her so I could pack. Minutes after she left with them in tow, another girlfriend called and asked if she could take them for the afternoon for me. "How lucky am I?" I thought. My friends are SO NICE! So many have offered help and food during this move of ours.

Then the crowning moment- I had 2 pieces of mail. One was from the "Reward Center". Turned out to be the $250 in rewards from our credit card. yippeeee! The second was ANOTHER bill from Odessa's constipation-inspired trip to the ER. FOR 260 DOLLARS OF COURSE. Well, we may not have won $5,000 a week for life, and I may have to use all of that $250 and then some for our needless ER bill, but I'm too thankful for 2 special friends today to be disappointed about it.

Laughter is the best medicine

Ok, so I'm putting off packing, so sue me. I was talking to my mom on the phone yesterday. She told me she and my dad were reading my Haz-mat Team post about the girls throwing up everywhere in Vancouver and were going to post a comment, but then they were laughing so hard that they forgot. That's great, THANKS MOM. Just kidding. Stephen thinks parents probably get a lot of amusement from watching their kids deal with all the foibles of raising their own children. My dad had surgery recently and is home recouping, so anything to help speed the recovery process is a good thing. I tell you what- the afternoon that Stephen and I were both miserable from the stomach flu, we found all these You-tube clips of the comedian Brian Regan at clubs, etc (thanks for the tip-off Danica). He was so funny, and we were both laughing so hard at his clips, our stomachs were aching from more than just throwing up. It felt really good and I immediately thought it was true that laughter really is the best medicine. So go have yourself a belly laugh. Look up Brian Regan if you have to- it worked for us.

Location, Location, Location (oh, and money)

a few pictures of our trip are posted on the Picasa web album site. They were taken with a disposable film camera, so they aren't high quality. For some reason my computer is not communicating with the blog.spot site and I can't post pics. don't ask me, I'm not tech savvy enough to figure it out. I think our computer has some viruses or cookies or something. I wish it would give me one- cookie, not virus.

As for the title of the post: well, we are moving. There has been an internal debate going on in this household since about . . . . . June over moving from here. What's that you say? You say "didn't you just move there in June?". Oh yes, that's right- I have pretty much been lobbying to move off and on since we moved in. Don't get me into the details, we love Queen Anne and this apartment, there were just lots of reasons. Well, over the last month the search has gotten intense. The prices of apartments have dropped incredibly around here. We are on a month-to-month lease here, so there was no time restraint about leaving, we just had to find the perfect place. Well, last Wednesday that place popped up. Ok, so it's not perfect. It's actually a tad smaller than our current location (this astounds some people- why would I consider something SMALLER?) Well, 3 moves ago we lived in a spacious farmhouse, then a large duplex, now a roomy 2 bedroom 2 bath and next weekend it will be a tighter 2 bed/1 bath. I figure next move will be a 1 room cottage and then a cardboard box. But I digress. This move was primarily about MONEY. We felt we were wasting a lot of it in this apt. The apartment we are moving to is much, much cheaper and then there is the LOCATION. One block from church, 1/2 block from the gym I go to, across the street from a great park with playground, the Elementary School (with another playground), the community center, the community pool, Albertsons, the library and 2 blocks from the "village" with shops, restaurants, post office, etc. (did I mention all this is a FLAT walk? instead of the rock climbing we do around here to get to a park or the grocery store). It was all too much- small disadvantages about the apartment were overlooked each time we looked at the numbers and the map. So- we are out of here in a week and as you know, that will create a bit of a blogging hiatus. How come when I move 3 miles away I can save all my frozen food by taking it from one freezer and throwing it into another and yet it will probably take days for internet to be up and running? sheesh- technology.

O, Canada

When I was younger, we took a couple of family trips to British Columbia and Alberta. I loved them, they were some of my favorite family vacation memories. Butchart Gardens where I saw a periwinkle rose "Blue Girl" for the first time and SWORE I would have them at my wedding (ha). The Empress Hotel in Victoria, a small rodeo in Calgary where I made friends with Ben (dreamy) and got to ride his Paint horse, the beautiful woods in Banff and the moose that wandered through town (for real). So we have been excited to be so close to the border and Stephen has been itching to visit Vancouver ever since we moved here.
So for Presidents Day weekend (Friday was also a day off) we went up. We forgot the digital camera and took pics with a disposable one, but blog.spot is not allowing me to upload pics right now- oh well.
Our border crossings were identical, and kind of funny. I had to give my drivers license and birth certificate since my passport has my maiden name.
Guard: "where do you live?"
Stephen: "Seattle"
pause . . .
Guard: "Why do you have Illinois plates, an Idaho drivers license and live in Seattle?"
Stephen: thinking "because we are lazy" aloud: "Well, we're from Idaho, we were just going to school in Illinois and moved to Seattle for a job about 6 months ago."
pause . . . sweating bullets
Guard: "Ok, have a nice day".
Vancouver is about the same size as Seattle, population wise- but incredibly international. I kept hearing all these different languages all around us and it reminded me of the Wal-Mart in Chicago : ). We stayed in the West End close to Stanley Park which is a fabulous place to explore. It was also a couple blocks from the beach and a trail to the water taxis that would take you to Granville Island- a super fun place to shop and explore as well. We took a really long drive on Sunday while the girls napped after church through Stanley park and over the Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver, then back through downtown, Chinatown and Gas Town, a very cute part of the East end.
The street our hotel was on (Denman) was incredible. There were so many places to eat, we could never decide! The Ukranian restaurant was close to the African restaurant, which was flanked by Mexican, Thai and Chinese retaurants. There was Greek and Middle Eastern, hamburger joints and fish houses and a just dessert restaurant and a cream puff shop and cupcake shop and gelato shop and chocolate bar . . . oh the list went on and on. It was incredible- all we wanted to do was eat, but we still weren't feeling 100% from being sick the days before and of course the girls didn't get to try most of the food we got- too spicy or rich (see previous post).
Before we left, Odessa saw us packing her swimsuit and got so excited that we were going swimming. She insisted on holding her swimsuit the whole trip up to Vancouver. We wondered what the border crossing guard thought of our 3 yr old in the back seat waving her swimsuit at him "see?! It's got a fish on it!!" But when we got to the hotel, there was a form letter in our room saying the pool would be closed for remodeling Feb 2nd through the 16th (the day were were leaving). Oh man, so bummed. Well, it reopened that Monday morning, so before we checked out we went for a swim. The girls were pretty funny about it all. Ada would only really sit on a step in the water and run back and forth between the hot tub and pool. Odessa took whale rides on the back of Dad as he cruised around.
After leaving Vancouver, we headed 30 miles east to the Greater Vancouver area Zoo which was ok, not stellar by zoo standards. But the girls loved it, so that was good. We got to see almost everything because the animals were out and about- I hate being disappointed when they are inside sleeping or something.
Traveling with kids is a whole different ball of wax. They are big enough now that we have to generally gear our activities around what will be enjoyable for them. No art museum and dinner at an intimate Italian restaurant, you just can't do that with kids. The result is that as we drove away from Vancouver, Stephen said "well, Vancouver, we'll have to come back". There were so many things left to see and do. Highly recommended to everyone- regardless if you are close to the border or not.

Haz-Mat Team

Warning, this post is not for the faint in heart or weak stomached. If you currently have no children, this post may put that final nail in your not-wanting-kids coffin.

I have always wondered how I would handle my kids throwing up and how much Stephen would help out . . . . well now I know.
It all started last Tuesday . . . . Ada got the stomach flu that night that has been ravaging the Seattle area. The next morning she seemed a lot better (she ate 6 bowls of Rice Krispies), but I still had to cancel my plans to the Children's museum with Mom's Group and the 3 hrs work and babysitter I had scheduled. Wow, now I know what it's like to say "I can't come to work, my kid is sick and I can't ask someone else to watch her." That bites (especially when you work 3 times a MONTH).
Good thing I canceled because right when I would have been working, I started throwing up. And then the other stuff started too . . . . and it was all continuous until about 11pm that night. I threw up 7 times that night. I thought I was going to die. I listened to Ada throw up again at the dinner table, same as the night before and Stephen handle it all by himself this time.
The next day Stephen stayed home from work and Odessa started throwing up every 30 minutes for a while that morning. Problem with 20 month and 3 yr olds- they don't get the toilet or bowl thing very well. Stephen followed her around holding a bowl since mostly I laid around moaning.
By that afternoon she seemed better and Stephen went to his Dentist appt. Of course that was when she actually ate some food and threw up big time- into the fridge. Yes, that's right. She threw up into the fridge, hitting most of the shelves and vegetable bins with amazing accuracy. As I threw her into the bath tub and tried to clean the fridge, I had to make a sprint to the bathroom myself. Odessa sat in her bathwater and watched me, saying "Oh mommy, you're not feeling too good, you need to go lie down." Yah, thanks Odie.
At this point it was Thursday night and we had to decide if we were going to try and go on our long-planned trip to Vancouver BC that weekend. Stephen had Friday and Monday off and so we had made a lot of plans and paid for hotel reservations through Hotwire.
Stephen got sick himself that evening after his appointment and it was his turn to lie around moaning. He didn't get it as bad as the rest of us, thank goodness. Even though he was sick, he still insisted it was too depressing to stay home moping another day and that we ought to try and go. Since the girls had stopped throwing up during the day and I was better, it seemed like an ok thing. For some reason, they would still wake up in the middle of the night and throw up. This was a huge mess, as you can imagine. Often it meant a bath and washing out sheets, stuffed animals, making a pile of laundry for the morning. We prayed they would stop doing this on the trip.

We took a long time Friday getting out of town, making sure everyone was feeling better. We brought a bowl and towels in the car just in case. We got to Vancouver around 7pm or so. Ada had eaten a lot of PB&J in the car, and once we got to the hotel room, she launched it forth. Sheesh. We cleaned it up pretty easily and went out to find some dinner. Here is the strange thing- the girls would act basically normal before and after throwing up. There was no good warning, and no good reason to sit around, because they immediately wanted to eat and be (fairly) active afterwards. It was so strange. They were definitely not their usual selves, but so almost normal, it kept deceiving us.
The place that worked best was a Pizza joint with rows of seats by the windows that made personal pizzas. I ordered something blandish for the girls. We watched streams of people pass by the windows as we waited for the pizza. It arrived with Sprite for the girls. Ada took one sip and threw up on me and her (she was sitting on my lap). Stephen immediately slid their pizza onto one of our boxes and held the box in front of her (he had been imaging the night before how to avoid a big mess at a restaurant, so he was ready with ideas). She proceeded to put on a show for the passersby by throwing up into the pizza box 2 more times. It was horrible, horrible, horrible. We giggled for 10 minutes about it in bed that night, such horrible advertising we did for their pizza! They didn't have a bathroom and all the staff spoke different languages- they did not get what we needed at all. It was such a fiasco. Between wet napkins and wipes from the diaper bag, we got cleaned up. Poor Ada had to wear a smelly damp shirt the whole way back to the hotel. Odessa ate well, so we figured she was feeling ok.
Maybe I had better try to shorten this story up. 3:30am- Odessa throws up. We spend an hour cleaning her and the bed up (I refuse to make a pile of sheets and blankets filled with throw-up for the housecleaning crew). The next morning, we have the BEST housekeeper ever come in- she makes such a non-issue out of it that we feel like we can stay another night and I tip her the only money in my wallet ($5 US Dollars) which I have never done before in my whole life. She is so reassuring and leaves us extra sheets, pillows, towels (the BIG ones! tip= big hotel towels).
We eat all our meals in our room- one of us goes and gets take out from one of the many restaurants in the area or we eat groceries out of our mini fridge. That night for dinner we only let the girls have bland things like crackers, applesauce and yogurt. We line Odessa's bed with towels that night. It's Valentines and we decide to rent a movie on the TV and Stephen runs and gets us gelato. We are 10 minutes into the movie and our gelato and Odessa wakes up and throws up again. Valentine night ruined. Again, we debate for the nth time if we should go home early. Ada remains throw-up free for the second day in a row. Sunday night we are tired of eating in and decide to eat the one nice meal of the trip at an expensive restaurant. The girls seem good, eating their veggie plates before their real food arrives. Suddenly Odessa erupts and I realize we've ruined several people's nice evening, including our own. Stephen takes her to the bathroom himself and cleans her up, bringing her back in just her tights and parka, her dress in a plastic bag. We take our meals to go and eat another luke-warm meal in our room with plastic utensils. Another nice evening, ruined.
That night I wake at 3am and hover over the girls for an hour, listening to their stomachs rumble, their breathing get faster or slower and I just know I will be right there with the plastic lined wastebasket in time to catch the mess before it turns into a huge problem. I lay down 5 times, only to leap up again each time one of them mumbles or sighs loudly. I drive Stephen crazy, making him switch sides of the bed with me so I will be closer to the girls. I finally fall asleep, convinced my paranoia is ruining me.
Yesterday was nice, we swam in the pool and then got some lunch on our way out of town. Odessa didn't want to eat lunch and all of sudden she gagged- Stephen was whip-like fast with the bowl and our one in-car mess was no mess at all. Whew. I can't imagine a car seat clean up. We went to the Vanouver Zoo and were home in Seattle by 6:30pm. Last night we slept like babies, not really caring wether the girls made a mess or not- at least we were home! Of course they didn't. It looks like this haz-mat team can hang their hard hats up for a little while.
We did have a lot of fun in Vancouver, despite the craziness. All the real trip details to come . . . .

Le Ballet

For Valentines Day, we got tickets to the ballet performance of the Jewels last Friday night. You have to agree that it is just fun to say "we're going to the ballet". We got le cheapo tickets ala nosebleed section, but it was still nice. This ballet was originally put together in 1967 for the New York City ballet. Each part of the ballet is set to a different piece of music. There is Emerald, Rubies and Diamonds. Emerald is classic romantic ballet, rubies was jazzy and diamonds was like Russian ballet (I got all this from the reviews). Although ala noosebleed section gives you a bit of a scewed view of the dancers and their arrangements, I give the dancers the full benefit of the doubt that they were lined up and more precise than our view made them look. The best part of the evening was when Stephen actually ran home during a 25 minute intermission to get the binoculars. I had laid them on the bed so we wouldn't forget them and while I went and got the babysitter, he so helpfully put them away and so we forgot them. I wanted to turn to the woman next to me and say "isn't that romantic, my husband ran home and got these?" while pointing to my panting, slightly sweaty husband, but I just let it go. For one thing, I was a little embarrassed that they are giganto hunting binoculars compared to the dainty pairs others were holding around me. Ahhh, I just love trying to be cultured on a budget.

Thy Hands Stinketh

Have you noticed the smells that cling to your hands? I mean, some are much more pronounced than others, don't you think? There's garlic and onion, obviously. I learned the hard way to cover my hands when cutting a jalapeno. I hate how long Desitin makes my hands smell, even after washing well. I also hate eating a hamburger or sub sandwich and having my hands smell like pickles and mustard forever. Stephen does not like the smell of bleach and I have to hide my hands from him if I have been cleaning with it. But the reason I am posting this is becuase I found a nice smell. Lately the California strawberries have been on sale and I LOVE how my hands smell like strawberries for awhile afterwards. Has anyone else noticed this? Ahhhh, life's little pleasures.

Confessions

I love to cook and Stephen likes taking leftovers to work, so we have a symbiotic relationship. It's also helpful that the dietitian in me says at times "are you sure you need a third serving, or would you like to take that to work tomorrow?". I realized after we got married that Stephen was often alone in taking dinner leftovers to work. This actually surprised me- several eat the same thing EVERYDAY. His co-workers quickly honed in on the fact that he always had something homemade for lunch. He started telling me about their comments at home and I confess, I started enjoying it. With each move, it has been the same. A couple of months go by and people start noticing and expressing their lunch envy. In Chicago he had several Pakistani and Indian coworkers/co-students and I was going through my Indian cooking phase and so there were often tastings to ascertain authenticity held in the lunchroom. Here in Seattle, I have made a few thin crust pizzas and coworkers asked Stephen if he had gotten pizza from such-and-such pizzeria? After the Chinese meal Saturday, he took stir fry, fried rice and egg rolls for lunch. A coworker saw his plate and said "Oh, it's so nice to see you get take out sometimes too" and proceeded to go into a discourse about how hard it is sometimes to know what to make for dinner at 5:30. Stephen didn't have the heart to say "Actually, Tara made this too" so he just kept his mouth shut. He confessed later that the omission of truth started spinning a web of lies as she asked him what he did that weekend and he had to make a conscious effort not to tell her about our Chinese dinner with friends. I told him it serves him right, letting her think my egg rolls were take-out- hee hee!

Chinese New Year, take 2

After the abysmal dinner Monday night, we decided to host our own Chinese dinner on Saturday. Chinatown was having their celebration that day, so we thought it was fitting. We rode the bus down to the festivities. What fun! Dragons and drumming and dancers. I loved it. The dragons moved all over Chinatown with us people en masse following. One time they crossed the street, heading right for me- but alas, my camera was on fireworks setting and only caught a blur of white.For dinner we had homemade egg rolls, won tons, pork and broccoli stir fry with rice and fried rice. Kristyn brought that yummy Asian cabbage salad and Lauren brought fruit for dessert since us party poopers are on that challenge where we can't eat sweets. We did have some authentic bubble teas (herbal) that were interesting, but not as tasty as when you buy them out and about. They must put more cream and sugar in theirs! It was fun to make the tapioca pearl (bubbles) and watch the kids chew on them. Hee hee.
Although I missed taking a picture of our feast, we did take one of the kids. Aiden loves his cowboy boots and we discovered just how cute Odessa and him were with hers on too! Ada had to join in with rain boots. She adores Aiden. What a fun and memorable evening.

First Attempt at Chinese New Year and a Pony Ride!

Monday, Jan 26th 2009
11:35am Run down to Valley and Roy to catch the #16 bus (we've never taken it before!)
11:43am Bus arrives before I have emptied and folded up the stroller. Everyone waits impatiently for me while I fumble with the bus fare and Odessa bolts to the back of the bus.
11:55am Odessa introduces herself to 3 complete strangers who look to have varying degrees mental ability and economic status "hi, I'm Odessa Lou! I have a pound puppy at home."
12:06pm I buy our Ferry tickets to Bainbridge
12:50pm Our friend Corey picks us up at the Bainbridge ferry terminal.
1:10pm Put Ada down for a nap at Corey's parent's house
1:33pm Corey, the horsewoman, and her son Hyrum take Odessa and I out to the horse pasture to meet Ben, her big horse and Jenna, the cute little pony.
1:47pm Hyrum and Odessa brush Jenna
2:23pm Odessa takes her turn riding Jenna around the woods surrounding the house (beautiful!)
4:40pm After a fun day of playing with the Goff boys and admiring and riding Jenna, the girls and I catch the ferry back to Seattle.
4:55pm Ada spills the very last drink of her chocolate milk all down the front of herself.
5:30pm Odessa starts to get too tired to walk anymore. She rides on my back while I push Ada in the stroller and we pass the Mission with a lot of homeless people watching us with interest.
5:45pm We finally make it to dad's office!
6:00pm The lights go out in Stephen's office building- a forced "Go home!" signal, a few hidden people emerge from cubicles like bears being roused from their caves.
6:15pm I'm embarrassed to meet Stephen's boss (tucked back in a well-lit corner office) towing 2 very noisy toddlers on each hand.
7:00pm We meet the Bores at the China Gate, an editorial pick for best Chinese food in Chinatown.
7:15pm We realize that the editor must have been paid off to pick this place!
8:00pm We try to explain to the waiter why we don't want to box up the awful house lo mein.
8:35pm Stephen, carrying Odessa, almost gets hit by a SUV turning left through our crosswalk. I scream at the car, as if my scream will stop the car from coming any faster.
8:40pm I decide we have run into every strung out person on the streets and on the bus that night. Eventually, sometime after 9pm the girls get to bed, exhausted.