November

 

Look what we got done this past weekend!  Yay.  As always we wish Kai could enjoy photo time. 

We were all home this weekend. So rare. Mom came for pictures and to help me wrap presents. 

I'm trying to get a jump on Christmas so Dec can be more relaxing. Relieving the mental load.

It sure went a lot faster than usual!

Thanks for the help Mom.

Four more sleeps until we leave.  Are we ready?  Sort of.  We personally are.  The Commander was ready then Eric took it to the dealership to have the new key programmed.  We brought it home and it quickly went into limp mode.  Arg.  Way too coincidental for us.  So now it's back to our mechanic today to check things out. We'll see.  We were excited about taking a comfy automatic suv for the long drive but either Wrangler will do.  It's just a lot of gearing through Seattle, Sacramento and L.A.  

Then our washing machine puked a whole lot of what looked like vomit into a load.  ?  Wild.  So there was a scramble to figure that out.  Luk has been doing laundry but gets settings wrong so we're unsure if the dryer is occasionally not drying the load or if it's a user issue.  Then our hot water tank quit heating on Saturday.  Oy.

Eric got new thermostat and elements for the hot water tank and then it wasn't heating fast enough so he was calling plumbers.  They are mostly unavailable on the weekend and the one he found wanted double time.  So I said it could wait until Monday.  We can boil water and there is a shower in the trailer.  And then hours later it was discovered that we did indeed have hot water again after all.  Eric was just impatient.  I've been complaining about the amount and temperature of the hot water for ages and ages so I'm thrilled to have scalding water again.  I gave Eric permission this morning to go ahead and empty the hot tub any time now so it's done before Thursday.

The logistics of the calendar is a bit nuts for Mom, Fei and Gramma.  I wrote out a day by day of who needs to be where and when. Fei has the roughest day of running around on the first day.  She'll get to experience the back and forth across town we have to do occasionally.  It was unfortunate that we just couldn't cancel the appointment midday that screws that day all up.

Today I wrote out a grocery list of simple meals for Lili to cook.  Mom is doing four dinners, Lili is doing five. 

Lili is off today to Vancouver with a friend to see Sabrina Carpenter.  Their Hullo ferry was canceled and they rebooked an earlier one.  They got there to find it canceled as well.  So they've raced to Departure Bay and made it on a ferry with 8 minutes to spare.  The storm is brewing here now too.  Fingers crossed they're able to come home tonight as planned. The suckiest part of living on an island for sure. I just updated Eric on the ferry sitch and he said "sucks living on an island".  Haha.  Yup.  

Halloween

 

Happy Halloween.

Things are sure changing around here with teens and adults.

It's not quite the event it used to be.

Yesteryear.

When things were a tad easier.

Luk went to a friend's to hang out.

Fei worked.

Lili went to the VIU pub with friends and said it just wasn't the same without the big group and then a few of them went to the same haunted house we took Jia and Luk to but Lili hates haunted houses.

Kai and I hid at home as he prefers.

Lastly Eric took Jia to Nanaimo to trick or treat with May but Jia doesn't eat candy or chocolate.  Except Aero bars and he traded for a bunch of those.  Haha.  Not a favorite of anyone else's and Jia will never eat more than a couple.

My kids have never done this sorting and counting thing so it's funny to us to see Jia do it at May's.  

There wasn't even a bunch of picture taking.  Jia sent me these four.

Death the Kid.

Yoshida.

Yoshida for school Death the Kid for T and T.  Only a cosplay Kid would require costume changes ;)

Jia's school is 2 hours and 20 minutes. For Halloween if they wore a costume they got to go to 7-11 and get a free slurpee.  So, not a lot of school work getting done yesterday. 

Kai did wear his pizza costume at school.  He did cry but Eric reminded him he likes pizza and he said "ya, you're sure right about that Dad".  Luk wore an orange t-shirt with a carved pumpkin face on it.  

We leave on our road trip in a week.

Eric has the car and trailer in top condition and ready to go.  The Commander has never felt so much love.  The parenting challenges are a bit too high these days so as excited as we are to be escaping it also feels like it's not a great time to leave. 

Halloween Parade

 

Drivers meeting.  My first ;)

So funny thing.  We arrived.  Parked.  Eric took off immediately to chat.  I was struggling to attach the wings and there was a couple women at the Jeep very excitedly telling me "oh my gawd, I heard about this Jeep with the dragon scales!".  Haha.  Local Jeep famous?  Mom and Lili were as surprised as I was.  I'm guessing Shannon talked to her at the trunk or treat show the day before.  Hillarious none the less.

People were loving the eyes and touching.  Massive NO NO at any car show.  Now one lense is lifting.  Arg.  We don't have a solution/fix yet.  Aside from the touching part it was fun.  We met some other 642 Jeep peeps.  There were 7 Jeeps representing.  We even managed to get 6 of us in the parade together.  Lots of folks showed up, very festive.

If we go next year I'll stick closer to Onyx and smack the touching hands.  Yeesh.

Photo from Light em up TV.

Photo from Light em up TV.

Motorcross Day

 

They left at 6:30am and home at 1:30am.  Phew. Such a long day.

Sounds like they had a good time overall.  Some boring parts of the day.  Comical moments on the Hullo.  Good food was found. Including a feast at the bakery in Chinatown that we visited a while back. The enjoyed the World Championship event.  Eric clocked 28000 steps for the day.  Luk managed.  

Picture takers they are not.  Haha.  This was all that they sent me.

Fake an injury day.

 

Kai's class is doing a theme week.  Today was fake an injury day.

Kai did NOT want to do this.  He doesn't like Halloween or pretend play in general.  We went through a bunch of options.  He agreed to a pretend snake bite that was bandaged.  This morning Eric doctored him up.  By the time I saw him he was silent, sullen, sulky and refusing to talk.  Hmmm.  Then Eric reported that as soon as he got to school he wanted the bandage off.  Eric asked him to keep it on to show everyone and he could remove it later.  Then he tried again because he showed one other person and it was later by a minute.

Eyes!!!!!!

 

Eric applied her eyes today!

She's alive.

I'm in love.  I like it even more than I was anticipating.

I was deep in the details at wireless wave upgrading phones today when this picture came it.  I squealed out loud and then like the total freak I am, I promptly showed our sales guy.  Who took a long look and declared it pretty cool.  Yep.

Angle shot to show eyes and scales at the same time.

Eric had turned her around so I'd see her as soon as we came in the driveway.

Luk got a nice upgrade.  He's thrilled.  His plan moved to include data. He was easy, I called and asked if he cared which phone I picked.  He did not.  

We're with Bell and our new plans have 250 data and unlimited phone and text to Canada, USA and Mexico.  Eric and the kids have never had this before so it's pretty exciting overall.  Luk has always had to use wifi, he's 13 so it was time to add data.  Now, Kai could also use data but we don't want him to have the phone part.  So we're still trying to figure things out for him.

Jia also upgraded his phone.  I suspect getting a picture is unlikely.  He moved to Apple and I wasn't paying for the phone part so he agreed to paying monthly for his phone.  I added an otterbox cover and wireless ear buds as his Birthday gift.  A couple months early.  So two kids are happy today.

Lili and Fei are still ruminating but Lili is narrowing in, picked her phone out but not the plan quite yet.

Phone plans are confusing.

Eric and I stupidly leased our phones two years ago.  They have to be turned in now.  What a pain.  Eric wants a bigger phone, mine gets pretty warm so was happy to switch. Turning in the lease means you don't have the old phone home with you while you adjust and get everything working. Already tonight I've come up to a few things that need to be reset, signed into and password issues like crazy.  It's just too hard to remember all of the details.  It took hours today for three phone upgrades.

We're heading back Tues to do Eric, Lili and Mom.  Phew.  

Lili and I went to see this movie today.  I can't say enough good things about it.  Wow.  As an adoptive Mom this movie was perfect for me.  I ugly cried in the theater a few times.  

Scales!!

 

In all her glory.

I love it.

The color is more orange/red than I was expecting.  I was hoping for a better match to the Rubicon red but I'm ok with this color.  

We need to get the fenders back to black.

We went to a Halloween event, we walked their lame spooky forest and then skipped the haunted school basement. 

Then we went to Ping's for dinner but they no longer have dining after four, take out only.  Eric took Jia and Luk into a haunted house near Ping's.  The line up looked tiny but they waited over an hour.  They reported it was well done and definitely scary.  Kai and I were waiting in the car and very bored.  

We went straight home after and Eric made us some mac and cheese.  Then Dawn-Marie and Al came for an evening visit which was nice.

Someone was in a bit of a sulk because I wasn't sitting in my usual position while we had company.  

The rain has started.  Fingers crossed the wind holds off so Eric and Luk can do their motorcross event tomorrow.

EEEKKK!!!

 

Onyx is getting a custom vinyl installation tomorrow!!

I'm a little too excited about this.

This is basically a digital idea board.

This is Brandon, he was amazing working with my ideas and making it happen.  He had IA create red dragon scales for me, or I mean for Onyx.  Haha.  Matching the red of the lettering already on her.  Adding details and texture. Changing the shape of the scales.  No detail was too small for him and at no point did he try to take over.  I was nervous to let anyone into my crazy but he totally just went with it.  The creating was actually fun.

I was thinking of wings down the side but what I really, really wanted was the big chunky stripes from the 70's.  Like the Barbie Jeep I had as a kid.  Retro stripes.  So, we went with it but the stripes will be scaled just like the vent.  

We're dropping her off tomorrow morning.  I can't wait to see the end result. Eric gave Onyx a wash so she's ready for her transformation.

I just had house keys cut for Jia and Luk.  Today at school pick up Jia wanted to walk from the boys school to 7-11 and then home.  We said he could if Luk went with.  Safety in numbers.  I handed over the new key and my debit card and they took off.  Then we circled around to go take their picture.  I know, totally cringy, stalkerish all the way.  But...this was a milestone for these two.  

They were chatting the whole way.

We took this opportunity to go to the sign place and work on the Onyx dragon project. Kai came with us.  He thought it was all pretty cool for about six minutes then he sat on the floor playing games on Eric's phone.

Up Front Kids donated some tickets to the Spina Bifida Association.  I applied for tickets last week for Luk and Eric.  We just found out today that they're going.  This Saturday.  Seats are scarce on Hullo so they're heading over early and coming back late but they're going!  So that's fun.  Luk is excited.  

Not much to post.

Facebook memories.

This one just never gets old.

Shannon sent me her Facebook Memory from the same trio.  So fun.

So my spa pump had a recall.  Fire hazard.  To get a new pump mailed we had to cut the wire and send a picture in to qualify for a

 replacement.  We had no idea how long this would take.

So crazy man rewired the pump and set it up on the cement patio away from the house.  I only had to do without for a couple of days while we waited for the temperature to get up again. The new pump was approved and has shipped.

Now, the debate is on.  It's kind of nice over on the other patio.  Very private.  It makes the deck feel huge without it by the door.  Although no where near as convenient as slipping out the back door and right back in again before I'm freezing cold.  Eric is already making plans to roof over the other area so the steps and area from his garage to the upper deck would be covered too.  It's an interesting idea.  We have the supplies here to do it. So no cost, just time.  That we don't have.

Lazy weekend around here.

Walter is here daily again.

Since Izzy has been gone the racoons have moved in.  Eek.  Lewis has had a fight with someone, possibly the damn racoon. He had a huge abcess on his neck/face.  Our vet wouldn't see him because he's ferral (on file as ferral) and they will only take him in a proper trap.  We can borrow one from Cowichan Cat Rescue. I tried capturing him.  It didn't go well.  He got away.  I was hurt.  

So, our only option was to leave him be and hope for the best.  I HATE this.  A lot. Vet care just sucks around here.  

I'll spare ya'll the photos.  He burst. Fei woke me up by flashing a flashlight on me. Scary. Fei and I decided trying to help him would be super stressful for him, possibly make things worse and possibly add germs to his situation.  Poor wee boi.  So hard.  Shockingly he's come around daily.  He let's me see.  He is healing so far.  He is eating and drinking and he looks way better today than he did Thursday.  I have contacted the mobile vet that helped Izzy pass and a two week antiobiotic shot through her is possible if he needs it.  It's been stressful for sure. 

We get TONS of pears every year that are woody and hard.  This year for the first time in 20 years they're edible.  Ugly but juicy and so good.  The apples are continuing.  It really was a great growing year.

Sue has been away and work has been a bit busier.  So I've been busier.  

Eric and I got to slip out yesterday and eat a late lunch out with Nicole and Steve.  It was nice to catch up. We went to Kim Wahs that is in the old Rock Cod.  Food was ok.  The restaurant looks the same.  The staff are so happy with their new digs.

Our middle kid is struggling.  Super stressful these days navigating mental health.  Teen years are rough.  It's hard to remember this is a phase while in the thick of it. When Lili and Fei were little I carried a note in my wallet and I pulled it out often.  Might be time to get the mantra out again.  My child is not giving me a hard time, my child is having a hard time.

In other more frivolous news.

Mom and I made it in to get our toes done.  I picked a dusky purple to go with the sage green Lion King t-shirts Eric and I are wearing in DL. For day two he has a Yoda shirt and I'm borrowing Kai's Grogu shirt.  So silly.  Eric is being a good sport.  I wonder if making him wear mouse ears when we're there is pushing him too far?  Haha.

Kai has been coding at school and his teacher was thrilled about how well he was doing with it.  They're letting him have extra time to work on it.  All of our other four kids hate coding and declare it boring.  Kai loves it.  

I have the the first two nights of our road trip booked at strangers houses from the boondocking membership.  Third night booked at a natural hotspring in Pasa Robles, Ca.  Their mineral water comes underground  from Yellowstone and comes up at 300f, the pool is at 100f which is cooler than our spa.  If you camp at the site you get to use the pools/tubs through the night.  Then we'll do three nights at an Anaheim RV park.  The three nights on the way home we have no plan.  We haven't even decided on a direction yet.  

Shannon just texted me this morning that the tickets for the Excaliber Tournament of Kings tickets had opened up and she got our tickets for her 50th Birthday celebration.  

Clinging to all the joy and fun we can as we navigate this phase of parenting and life.

Eric has attempted twice to install trailer lights and electric trailer brakes on the Commander and has now taken it all out twice.  He just can't quite figure it out. He's annoyed of course.  We're running out of time so it's booked in with his mechanic for tomorrow morning.  We could take Oscar but we'd need to swap for Onyx's tires.  We could take Onyx but Eric just doesn't like the electronic clutch. At all.  I think that would make for a long unpleasant drive for him.  Although the creature comforts would be nice.  So many options.

Today's quandary, trying to get Eric's Commander key replaced.  The buttons don't work on the fob for the locks.  Have you all priced fobs?!  I just ordered one from Amazon for $19.  Eric thinks he can go on Youtube and figure out getting it to work.  Because he watched a fellow at Ford program one for the Navigator once upon a time.

And lastly.  I miss Isabel like crazy.

Thanksgiving

 

Eric worked all day making a traditional feast for us.  Amazing.

Zoey giving Jerry some love.

These two together.  So fun.

It was fun having friends over to share the day.

Fei works tomorrow, Lili is off with friends.  Eric and I have no plans yet.  I'm guessing the teens won't want to leave the house.  So, we'll see.  After two days at home, I'm definitely ready to get out of here.