Tracking Walter.

 

Lili bought a collar to hold an Apple Tag.  Walter didn't mind the collar going on this evening.

Cool info.  Are we supposed to go get him now?  This will be interesting to see how many houses he has.

Tonight's project, tackling the bed for Onyx again.  Cardboard templates, lots of debate and foam cutting.

My job, to hold it down.  Haha.

Dark came way too fast, so the project will continue in the morning.

I did say to Eric "you realize you are building a bed so that I can escape you".  

Medically overwhelmed.

 

A calm moment between running errands today.

My computer died through the night.  It started turning itself off and on non stop.  We had to unplug it.  We took it in to the guy who built it 12 years ago.  He fixed it.  The power converter went.  Phew.  No files were lost.

There's just not enough fun stuff happening right now.  There are WAY too many appointments and meetings happening.

 I just found out my root canal and crown that cost 5000 has to be surgically removed for 1000 and then an implant and crown for another 5000.  Owe.  I'm waiting for a surgery date.

The eye specialist is saying it's time for my cataract eye surgery within a year.  Omg.  Pure torture.  I made the mistake of going to Dr. Google. The glaucoma is holding though.

I have been waiting around four years for a surgical consult for a fistula. I just got an appointment for the end of Sept.  

So, I'm feeling sorry for myself.  Mouth, eyes and butt pain coming up.

Eric goes in a week for three biopsies on his back.  

I had an appointment today with Kai's pediatric Endocrinologist.  Big things.  He isn't doing great metibolicly.  He's in a world data base for his syndrome.  We just found out that somewhere in the world, someone has created a medicine specifically for his syndrome.  He qualifies for it.  There is paperwork involved and it won't happen overnight.  I'm not sure who funds it, but not us. It's not in pharmacies and would be sent directly to us.  It's very exciting. And overwhelming.  I know very little ;)  More learning curve for all of us.  Biedl Bardet is incredibly rare so this news is definitely surprising.

There is a lot of divide and conquer going on.  It's crazy how many times we leave the driveway some days.  I feel like we're behind in all areas.  I check my calendar a few times a day because I constantly feel like we're going to miss something.

Eric is making great progress on the closet.

Mom is going to attempt car camping in her car with me this weekend.  So that's a fun distraction.  The kids have no interest in coming.

I have an appointment with my Endocrinologist tomorrow, which I always dread.  It's just a matter of time before she moves me onto insulin and I'm really, really, really dreading that too.  There isn't a good scenario here, it all just sucks.  Diabetes sucks. Update, all numbers were improved again.  No insulin quite yet. Yay Ozempic.

Silence

 

Yesterday Eric asked what I was doing.  I told him I was contemplating going to Port Alberni to look at/buy a JL shelf for Onyx.  I've been wanting one.  With a soft top there is nothing secure.  This would allow me to put things in the back, out of sight and locked.  Plus a great shelf for car camping.  He thought he'd come.  But Jia worked.  So we ended up both deciding to stay home.  Huh.  That backfired.  Gramma to the rescue.  She took Jia to work and we skedaddled.

We looked at a couple cars for Jia.  Can ya'll believe Jia will be 16 in Dec. We got the shelf and it's perfect.  We got pizza.  We went to the craft market at the Quay and then headed home.

I ate one piece, two for Eric.

The rest home for the kids.

The tray.

The closet is taking shape.

Eric is back at it today.  After taking a drive to Lake Cowichan this morning with me to buy a tri-fold mattress for Onyx.  Plan 12ish or so on figuring things out.  The mattress needs cutting.  Eric gave up for today.  

Jia's 1st day of school.  Fei too.  No pictures from either.  

After we pick up the boys and drop them off Eric and I are off to Nanaimo to look at two different cars.  Shopping in the 1st car (cheap) market is different, they sell super fast.  Fingers crossed on one of them.

I have the house to myself right now.  Very, very odd.  Unsettling.  Eric is at least making big sounds outside.  

Onyx Camping Part 2

 

We found a site.  Right beside Lili's friends. We settled in.  Had snacks. Lili worked.  I listened to my book.  Had a nap.  We cooked dinner.  All was good in our world. Just as we were done eating a car pulled up and they sat staring at us. Uh oh.

They said they had the site reserved.  In hindsight I should have asked to see their reservation.  I suggested they go look at the first come first serve sites.  They said NO.  I suggested they call the park ranger.  They said NO.  So Lili called.  No answer.  Leave a message.  They then pulled their car into the site.  Uh.  Really?!  

I drove off to look for a ranger or an empty fcfs site.  I didn't find either.  I went back and Lili was standing there watching them put up their tent in our site.  I surprisingly kept my calm.

We packed up in silence in a mere two minutes.  Lili was in the front seat with our dirty dishes on her lap.

The family, man, woman and child were incredibly awful. Angry.  When we drove out their 10ish years old son was having a screaming meltdown.  They didn't look at us.  It was a totally wild experience. I'm grateful today that I'm not those people.

We drove to the entrance and found the park ranger driving in.  We flagged him down.

Turns out the site WAS AVAILABLE.  They were supposed to check in the day before and your reservation is canceled at 11 the next day.  Vindicated.  But now had no site.

I asked if we should have stayed put, he said yes.  They had the problem, not us.  We shouldn't have moved.  He said he would talk to them.  He also found us a site.  So we settled in.  Had snacks and a walk and then Lili went to hang with her friends.  I went to bed and listened to my book and played games.  The second site was nicer.  The 1st one smelled of outhouse.  

Site number 2.

Set up went much faster.  A system was already established.  

We tried a tik tok camping hack today.

Omelets cooked in ziplocs.

They worked great!

Super easy.  No clean up and the hot water was used for doing dishes.

Over all I'd say Onyx camping went well.  I'm hoping to find more days to get away this fall. 

Once again, I came home to a surprise!

The closet project is under construction.

Holey Cow.

Lili is horrified we aren't making this another deck.  Haha.  No way.  We've talked about this closet plan for 20 years.  I do think we might have to rethink the layout though.  Perhaps a giant window like the pink room would be a good thing.

Onyx camping.

 

I finally packed my door bags.

All the gear is loaded.  I'm ready to roll.

The bed looks wonky.  Because it is!  All Wranglers are not alike apparently.  Eric put Oscar's bed in and then had to modify it to fit.  The next new plan is to build Onyx her own bed.  In Oscar there was room to have storage underneath.  It's clear that I would do better with lower so it's easier to get in and out.  We can sit up in Oscar.  Not so much in Onyx.  Well, I can and Lili will be able to but Eric couldn't.  Lower will be better.

Lili is coming with me today.  She will be hanging with friends but eating and sleeping with me.  If we get a site.  If not, then we really don't know exactly what plan b will turn into.

So not quite solo camping ;)

We're just doing one night.  I did sleep in Onyx last night in the driveway.  It was comfy but cold.  I added a blankie today and I'll dress warmer. I stayed until 1st bathroom break.  When I went in our room Eric just held up the blanket for me to crawl in.  Haha.  He was waiting for me.

Diabetic friendly cake for Kai's school bday celebration today.  So far the school is working with us.  Kai has settled in ok and is finding some fun in his days.  He's still VERY ready to get home though ;)

Luk has been walking to school, getting a ride home.  He is taking care of all the details of school.  I'm loving how independent he is this year.

Jia had a meeting at school yesterday.  I dreaded this in the biggest way possible.  I honestly figured I'd be there on my own.  I kept telling Jia how much time we had then sat in the car on my phone.  To my utter surprise Jia hopped in right on time.  We were there to discuss which pod of teachers, what is next and a school plan and life plan.  It all went amazingly great.  Her new teacher is wonderful.  Jia was feeling good about the meeting and was chatting happily afterwards.  Big sigh of relief. Day by day here.

Shannon sent this blast from the past.

Cutie patooties.

This is not Onyx.

I've shown this to Eric.  The ideas are happening.  I can see Onyx dressed as Minnie for the Halloween parade this year.  That is just a little bit insane.  

Elephants

 

I'm stuck on hold with the visa fraud department again.  The new number that I don't know and haven't received yet showed up today on the account with another expense.  Arg.

The musac while on hold is atrociously bad.  It's making me mad and it's been over an hour.  Double arg.

On top of a day filled with things I don't want to be doing.

A wee bit of distraction, we did a thing yesterday.  The seats of the chairs at the big table are pleather and they are disintegrating.  We have been to the fabric store before but didn't settle.  Yesterday we were more determined.  We found some fabric that was very mature.  It matched.  It was boring.  I kept going back to the jungle animals.  We finally took both to the counter and the staff were all on my si de.  ;)  We got the animals.

We all agreed it feels vintage.  It wasn't Eric's choice but he likes to see me happy.

Kai's 14th Birthday

 

He loves the new jammies.  He wants to wear them as his Halloween costume.  Win win.  They are on edge for fitting, this will be a short window for Cookie Monster.

Poppy was intrigued with the roaring and lights of the new dinosaur pet.

Wearing new jammies, holding his new pet dinosaur, watching YouTube and waiting for dessert.  It's all good in Kai's world today.

14.

Grade 9 for the boys.

 

Luk walked with friends.  He was up early and out the door before I was even downstairs.  I had to hollar down to Eric to get his picture

The day went well for both of them.  

The news that Kai can't eat all the treats in the classroom was accepted in the morning.  At the end of the day we were asked to send treats or a list they could buy.  While they were handing out jumbo freezies this afternoon he was sad.  I have a bag of low calorie and sugar free snacks to send tomorrow plus sugar free freezies.  They are serving cupcakes on Friday for Birthdays.  Eric and I got ingredients to make a low calorie, low fat, low sugar fridge cake to send in.  The program is very treat centric, thankfully Kai likes feeling special so I think he will be ok with his special treat bag.  

Visa Fraud

 Again. Second time.  Arg.  I got a bunch of pings this morning.  They woke me up.  Texts and emails.  So, I got up this morning to deal.  Someone is using a Google device with my number using Google Pay.  Their phone is attached to my bank account.  So the card is cancelled and their device is cancelled and I now have to update in all the places I use it.  This is a bigger job than it should be.  It takes so much time.  I despise having to do this.  I just did it with the new card to update the new dates.  This time I will make a detailed list of places to update it.  Since this clearly is the new way of things.

The Osborn Bay weekend was fun.  We did a pub night and a ton of relaxing and chatting.  I unfortunately got embroiled and dragged into kid drama and ended up having to sleep at home on Saturday and Sunday night.  So it was a bit of driving back and forth for me.  Thankfully we're so close to the campsite.

Lightening and thunder.

The men folk keeping an eye on the sky.

I bought blow up couches for the big girls when they were young.  This was Fei's.  She never used it.  When she threw it in the donate pile I grabbed it and put it in Onyx.  Eric set it up for me.  It was comfy but slowly leaked.  So it was only comfy for a short while.

This was so worth the laugh of watching him figure it out.

It was a nice way to end the camping season with the boys.  

If we head out during fall we will use Cheese, not the Falcon.  The boys are ready to be home on the weekends while they're in school.

Today is our last day of summer holidays.  None of us are looking forward to school starting tomorrow.

Kai has been pre-diabetic since we got him.  He is tested every six months.  Everyone with his syndrome is highly susceptible to diabetes. We have always known this day was coming. His Endocrinologist is ready now to put him on medication.  We allowed the school to feed him in his class last year.  This was a mistake.  I DREAD having to tell them they need to only allow him the food we send this year.  Kai knows.  He is not happy about this.  There are almost daily treats in his class.  Day one is jumbo hotdogs, not the calorie conscious kind.  I will send in low calorie whole grain wraps with 80 calorie chicken weiners with mustard and relish so Kai still gets hot dogs.  This is not going to be easy.  His resource room is very treat/goal oriented.