Hillarious.

When asked why a Jeep...I often say we might need to drive on flooded roads.  Haha.

My first Jeep Cherokee was bought when we lived on Riverbottom.  Winterland.  We had more snow, horrible hills and it lasted longer.  I LOVED my Jeep and the second one, the Grand Cherokee was even better.  Admittedly the Commander although really good in the snow hasn't had the same challenging terrain here in the city.  Oscar is the only one that could actually do ok in the water.  

Time to get off the phone and feed the family before the party.

Ready

We haven't hosted a party since before covid.  Finn isn't going to do so great in the people chaos with a bunch of dogs all at once. So we settled him into the pink room this morning so he'd have time to adjust while the house was still quietish and I was around to check on him.  Like every five minutes.  Haha.  For real.  

He explored his set up for an hour before finally slowing down and settling into his little house.  We just got back from grocery shopping and he's got kibble everywhere.  He must have worked super hard dispersing so much around the room.  He's in his house again.  I've come to sit for a few minutes and he doesn't want to come out and see me.  

We made a meal plan for the next five days.  It took two stores but we got everything on our list.  We could potentially stay home for the next five days.  I say that like it's a good thing.  We all know it will be me that goes stir crazy first.  But at least we won't need to go grocery shopping.

A guest room!

Lili is officially moved out of her old room and it is now a guest room.  Yay us.  

She is done with her suite in Nanaimo, all clean and keys turned in.  

Oliver and I aren't very close.  He tries but he has purposefully peed on me twice now so I avoid him but he was looming pretty sweet last night.

The Panorama is back in her port in Long Beach.

My cuties.  I started rewatching Downton Abby yesterday and they kept me company.  Then Eric got hooked in.  So, I guess that's our new binge.  

Memories

Some stories don't get told here.  Actually, most don't.  But this one is particularly funny.  

Jia has an online friend from the Caribbean that she games with. She is born female but has a very deep voice.  I have asked Jia about the man before.  She assures me it's a girl.  She's in University so older than Jia.  Anyways, they've been gaming for two plus years.  Eric heard her use questionable words the other night and comes and tells me about what he heard a man say to Jia.  

He had it a bit wrong in his telling to me.  So I of course leap up and storm in on Jia demanding she hand her phone over and put her friend on video so I can talk to 'him'.  She tried telling me what 'she' said but I bull headedly insist on talking to her and seeing a video proving it's a girl.  

To which her friend objects but grudgingly accepts because I'm yelling and Jia is telling her they won't be able to play again if she doesn't talk to me.  And, yes, she is a gorgeous young woman not a creepy man.  I even insisted she talk to me so I could see her and know it wasn't a video.  

Jia left the room laughing with her friend.  I refuse to apologize but did tell Jia to tell her friend that she is beautiful and I'm glad we got to meet.  Her friend says that was in her top 10 most embarrassing moments.  She is sorry she spoke the foul words.  

Anyways...it's unlikely Jia will forget the time Mom stormed the kitchen like a rabid bear insisting her friend talk on video right now.

Later I asked Fei if a filter would have shown me a girl and she said yes.  So, even checking isn't much of a safeguard.  What a crazy world we live in.  

Advent Calendars

I thought the kids were old enough to skip this tradition.  The 3 younger ones thought not.  I tried to do something more exciting like the lego, slime or dinosaur ones.  Nope.  They wanted the same old cheap ones.  With the tiny chocolate squares that taste like cardboard.

This morning Luk got his and I realized I haven't done Kai's with him for a couple days and I was doing dishes so I asked Luk to do it for him.  Haha.  Kai had already done it.  Apparently it's the 23rd today ;) 

February Reading Break

This is Kai living his best life.  In his favorite position, in his favorite spot.  Kitty scarf, Pikachu and Lambie in his arms and watching YouTube.  

Lili has been back and forth from Nanaimo for a few days.  She culled her room upstairs and has moved everything downstairs.  Today Eric has taken the van to pick up her stuff.  Her 8th university move.  

At the same time we did some more work in Jia's room and sorted the rest of her boxes.  Her furniture was moved and room cleaned.  It's getting there.  We still have to sort her shelves and go through her desk drawers.  We can see the end in sight.  Getting her to keep things tidy is a whole other thing.  She is just so damn busy.  She said yesterday the only way for her to keep it tidy is to just not even open a drawer.  So we talked about closing drawers as a kindergarten skill.  Montessori style, every task followed through to the end.  She of course tuned me out ;) 

We did get Jia to her last class of the year.  There was a lot of negotiations about why she has to go to school.  She brings up lots of good arguments and I come back with zingers like "ya, I'm bigger than you"  and "it's the law that you go to school".  This kid is not interested in following the crowd.  

Between the two girls a lot of donation bags have left the house.  A lot.  Sigh.  Poor Eric has to find somewhere willing to take a whole van load of stuff.  

The good news for me is that the guest room can be a guest room again!  In time for Jessica to pet sit next month.  

Our regular routine on Tuesday is to drop Jia at school, go to the bakery for a sausage roll and do the thrift store before school pick up.  We discussed doing more useful things but opted to stick with what we enjoy instead of being productive.  The bakery was out of sausage rolls.  So we went to the thrift store and I found another Boyds Bear!!  $2.  So fun.  Dawn-Marie found us in there, she saw Oscar parked :) So we scored a bonus lunch out with her and Al before racing off for school pick up.  

When we got home I asked Eric to come to the pink room while I wrap presents.  This is normally done by the end of Nov.  I did it in a couple hours.  Nothing fancy.  I even pre stuffed the stockings.  Now, aside from food.  We're ready.  I did ask Eric why it falls to me and asked him if he wanted to take over.  He did not.  Haha.  I should probably add that never once when Eric has to do a chore he doesn't like has he ever asked me to come keep him company.  Also, I could have listened to my book, or a pod cast, or Christmas music but I asked him so I got to listen to his choice. Two hours about how to upgrade your Rubicons gear ratio to match your new 37 tire size.  The final answer was that 4.88 gearing is likely the best bet.  Two hours.  Two.  And we don't have 37's and are extremely unlikely to get 37's.  Sheesh.  

Oh ya, and Lili has offered to watch the kids for reading break again.  Which has sent me down the rabbit hole of get away planning again!  It's a GREAT problem to have of course.  And we're super grateful.  But, where the heck do we go.  We will only be home two weeks from the cruise before its time to go again.  I want Disney, Eric wants Las Vegas.  We both would like to camp and hike in Arizona.  So, so many options.  

Lights

We made it out.  The drive was nice.  We had Christmas music on.  We were warm :)

I had my first donut in many months.  Toasted coconut on a chocolate donut.  The guilt was big but it was good.  I brought a sugar free hot chocolate packet and ordered a hot water.