toxid-lotus

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

It's bright and sunny and warm. So nice. We need to mow our lawn soon. It's... a little tall. It must be like a jungle to Fumiko. :sprout: Who is currently asleep on my lap. She's getting her back teeth in, which has been very interesting. She has days full of pain and frustration and other days where she's happy as a lark. Today is a happy day. Thank goodness. She's been having trouble with her ears off and on since her back teeth started coming in. She's also been having issues with fevers off and on. Poor thing. At least the top right one is almost in, and the top left one is about half way in. I haven't seen any on the bottom yet. Hopefully they either come in soon, or they give her some time before they start coming in.

She's learning very well. She's too smart. When it's time go pick Kai up from work, I tell her it's time to go get daddy, so she runs over and turns the tv off and grabs her hello kitty bunny or her other bunny and waits for me at the stairs. The other night I jokingly told her to go get me a diaper... she went over to the diapers and got one. She didn't bring it to me, but she got one. She also loves salad. I mean loves salad. She'd rather eat salad over anything else. She picks all the veggies out of anything she's eating and either eats them first or only eats them. Now if only I could get Sascha to do that... He's doing better though. I didn't have to bug him about eating his salad the other day. Which is a huge improvement to only getting him to eat the lettuce and tomato in my home made taco's. Hopefully Fumiko is rubbing off on his eating habits at least.

Sascha's losing all of his teeth and getting in new teeth that he's very proud of. He's also starting to grow up and become self conscious. Which is slightly amusing. Recently he came out of the bathroom with no towel after a bath. He completely freaked out when Fumiko saw him. He started crying and yelling and telling her not to look at him. I think that's the first time I've ever seen him embarrassed. I've noticed he's stopped coming out of the bathroom after a bath/shower undressed. He's getting dressed in the bathroom or wrapping the towel around him to go to his room. He's also leaving his pants on more. I'm constantly having to tell him to put his pants back on. He's starting to grow up! Kai's been riding his bike with him, which he's thoroughly enjoying. He's started the "I don't want to go to school because I'm bored in class" thing already. Which is just as well I guess. We're going to be putting him in homeschooling for the next year. We can't afford to keep him in the Portland Waldorf School. We're so far behind it's not funny. They've been gracious enough to keep him in school even though we can't pay.

They understand our situation and are working with us. Honestly they've helped Sascha so much. I'm really grateful for his teachers there. Because of them he adjusted so well to school. Though because they teach so differently from regular schools we've decided it's in Sascha's best interest to at least home school him for a year to catch him up to normal standards, and then decide if we want to put him in a local public school or continue homeschooling him. I wonder if Sascha is going to be one of those kids who prefers doing school at home so he can get his studies done and then do whatever he enjoys, or if he's going to want to go back to a school and be around other kids. We shall see. I've noticed that he's completely stopped playing with the little boy things he's been playing with and is only interested in what we are doing, or what "teenagers" are doing. I seriously wonder if he's going to go through puberty early?

He recently punched his sister. :frust: My dad and step mom sent him those hulk gloves. The ones where when you hit something they make noises. Well up until recently he was doing fine with them. We'd remind him every so often not to hit anyone with them and he didn't. However last week-ish he out of no where hauled off and punched his sister in the face with them. It wasn't a light hit either. He used all of his body weight and knocked her over. I'm not sure who was more shocked... Fumiko or us. Kai took the gloves away and immediately trashed them sent Sascha to his room. I grabbed Fumiko who was hysterical and her face was all swollen. Kai went and talked to Sascha who didn't feel bad at all. He said he was just playing with her. It still hasn't registered. Even with the bruise he left on her face. I don't know. But I told my parents not to buy him anymore toys like that because he's obviously not old enough for self control yet. After that happened he decided he wasn't going to mind us anymore. So he started completely ignoring us when we told him to do something. So I sent him to my moms for a few days. Which actually helped all of us. Fumiko settled down, Sascha settled down and I got a tiny break.

When they are together they amp each other up. When one screams the other screams, they end up chasing each other around the house getting louder and louder. When they are separate they are both pretty calm. They can sit down and play by themselves or sit and watch a show on tv. They don't scream aren't that loud and they're just calm and relaxed. But together they are like a thunder storm. :wtf: I wish they could fnd a happy medium. lol or I'm going to have to start sending Sascha to his room and Fumiko to hers so I can settle down.

Kai and I are good. We're just doing whatever it is we do. Kai lost an employee at work, so it's just him and one other person for the moment. So his schedule is slightly messed up. I have been helping my mom out when I can. She had a heart attack not too long ago and her health hasn't been getting much better. Her husband has been going in for tests and such for his dementia. That is what it is. It's not easy on either of them but they are at least trying to work through it instead of my mom just running away because she can't deal with it. It's been very peaceful here(outside of the children) with her staying with her husband again. So there's much less turmoil between Kai and I. Since most of the fights we had were involving my mom. :angry: So yes we have been doing well. :)

We are both really looking forward to hopefully being able to move to California. We'll see how things work out. We really don't know what to do. I keep bugging Kai to talk to his grandfather, and mom. :P But he's stubborn. There's no way we'd be able to rent without a cosigner. So we need to find another way. At the moment though we are doing good just paying our monthly bills. We ended up owing more than we are getting back on taxes. So we are currently waiting for our tax refund so we can pay our taxes. Ugghh. But things will work out. They always do. We just have to be patient. My step mom is also having health issues. :( They think she may have cancer. I actually need to call her later today to see what she found out. I hope it's not cancer. I hope they actually found out what is wrong this time. I have to get ready to go get Kai from work soon. And need to stop off some where and get Fumiko some straw cups. Last few times I've tried to get her one they were out. Boo.

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

Sheesh. No sooner did I start feeling better when Sascha and Fumiko got sick. :( Sascha has been back and forth, but at least he is no longer throwing everything up. Fumiko however is not feeling well. She's had a high fever and been refusing to eat/drink off and on. She has been nursing non stop. Finally later today she started drinking some watered down apple juice and ate some grapes. Sascha is staying with my mom tonight. Hopefully he's still feeling better. Sleep tonight would be nice. Fumiko nursed all night last night so I didn't get much sleep.

I have a root canal in the morning. :angry: Joy. I'm not looking forward to it. My tooth is very sensitive and hurt very bad despite the shot they gave me when they drilled it to see how deep the cavity was. Ugh. Despite brushing 2-3 times a day and using mouthwash, I still got a cavity. Braces suck. We just switched over to this natural tooth powder made with himalayan salt, xylitol and some essential oils. It's really not as bad as we thought it would be. A little salty. But it really makes your mouth feel clean. We'll see how we do on it.

Life has been about the same. Watching the babies grow up, worrying about finances, taking more photos(or at least trying), helping my mom when I can. Oh our vacuum is broke. Not sure what is wrong. It won't turn on at all. I emailed a vacuum cleaner place, they said to bring it in any time for a free estimate. So we're going to try to do that soon. Not tomorrow, I have the dental appointment and then from there we have a chiropractor appointment then back home so Sascha and Fumiko can rest. But hopefully next week on Kai's day off we can get it in.

I need to update flickr badly. Ugh. I should get that done this week hopefully. Also we still have to get the Durango fixed from the accident in December. >_> We just haven't had the money. Because of the comprehensive and collision coverage my mom and Gerry have we only have to pay $500, but that's more than we have. It'll happen eventually. Hopefully this year. We may be taking the Durango when we move to California. So hopefully it is fixed by then.

It's late and I can't sleep, and I really should before Fumiko wakes up. Ugghhh. Halp.

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

Barely... Haha. It seems I am allergic to penicillin. At least that's what we think. My dentist gave me some because I need to get a root canal and they thought there might be some infection. I've been horribly sick since I started taking it. I'm starting to feel better, but not by much. It seems to vary. Here's to hoping I feel better soon.

My mom had a heart attack recently. She was in the hospital for a few days. She's recovering. Slowly, but recovering. They found out that her heart is severely enlarged, and so thick they're surprised she hasn't had a stroke yet. This is where the "I told you so!" comes in. I've been telling her for a couple of years now to take better care of herself and take her supplements. I hope now she will.

Here comes the biggie.

We've decided to move to California. Yes that's right. Us moving depends on several factors. Mostly a place to live. Since Kai has no credit and I have bad credit(Thanks Mom) we're waiting/hoping his Grandfather will have a place we can rent. He currently doesn't have anything available. But we're hoping. We wanted to move this summer, for various reasons I won't go into now. But I don't think that will be possible. So we're hoping for next summer. Kai also has to find out if he can transfer to a GNC in/near Vallejo. He wants to wait until we know we have a place to live though. He's going to start looking at other jobs beforehand as well to try to have something lined up in case things with GNC don't work out. We both think it would be better for us and our kids to be by Kai's family. We want them to know what it's like to grow up with a close family which I've never had. He tells me it's great. :P Over all it's gonna be a huge change. We'd just gotten used to living here. We were also hoping to use our tax return for the move, however it looks like we'll be owing more than we get back. :/ We need to take our taxes into someone to see if we did something wrong.

Overall, we're okay, minor bumps along the road right now, but we're okay. We're going to be taking Sascha out of the Portland Waldorf School. We just can't afford to pay his tuition. It breaks my heart, even Kai is not happy about it. But there isn't anything we can do. We just can't afford it. We'll put him in home schooling for a year longer if needed. Until we know he's ready to go to a regular school. Then we'll see what happens. Hopefully in the future we can afford to send him back to a Waldorf school. It's been so amazing for him.

A side note, we had to take out coffee table out to the garage... o_O A little f=Fumi-kitty jumped off of it... When Kai's mom visited Fumiko discovered she could climb up on the couch. Well now she can climb up on anything. She's fast too. Hai paranoia.

Anyways. I hope to start updating more frequently. Besides the fact that I need to start doing paid posts again I do miss blogging.

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

So we had a wonderful time with my dad and step mom. We really enjoyed and appreciated them. They ended up staying until Wednesday morning, so we got an extra day with them. :) They arrived Saturday evening around 6pm. When we got back to the house we had the roast and veggies I had cooked in the crock pot. It was yummy. Sunday we did all of our running around. We went to the pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island and got some goodies(pickled okra/habanero garlic/pumpkin butter/pickled beets) and pumpkins. Sascha and Fumiko both picked out their own pumpkins. It took Sascha forever to find one he liked, and it only took Fumiko a minute. :) When we were done there we headed over to Uwajimaya and got some groceries/meat/fish. From there we headed to Sushi & Maki and had dinner. They loved everything. Gosh we got some baby octopus balls, steamed gyoza, wakame salad, my special roll, indiana roll, massachusettes roll, georgia roll and another one. We also got the green tea and red bean tempura ice cream. It was soo good. :) From there we went to New Seasons and got some ribs/andouille sausages and other things for the barbecue, and some of the yummy salami. They both loved the salami. Monday I took Sascha to school came home and spent time with them. My dad and I picked Sascha up from school went to New Seasons again and bought the last of their salami. Then we went home and had yummy food. Kai did his barbecue ribs which they loved. :)

That night since Jeannie and I were still stuffed I made some miso soup and rice, which they loved so much they want the recipe! Yay I'm really happy that they liked our food. Tuesday we had teriyaki salmon from the columbia river, tonkatsu, and roast chicken. My dad wanted to show me how to use the rotisserie they got us for Christmas, so he had me season the chicken and he put it on the roast. It was pretty simple. I've never had so much food in my life. Ugh. I'm still stuffed. lol

They brought us up a giant basket of fruits and one of cookies/muffins/goodies. They also brought up a motorized scooter for Sascha and Kai, a huge big screen tv, and a 12 in 1 game table for Sascha. While here they purchased us a new washing machine to replace the one that Kai broke, a freezer, and the dinner table set Kai and I have been drooling over for a couple of years now. They also bought a bunch of groceries for us. They got Sascha a nerf gun and Fumiko this sweet little bunny that she loves. In fact Sascha liked it so much they bought him the Puppy one. Which he's been taking everywhere. It was awesome to have them here. We missed them so much. I wish they could have stayed up here. Fumiko did so well with them. Saturday she wanted nothing to do with them, but Sunday she was totally different. She let them hold her and touch her and she had fun with them. Monday and Tuesday she even let Jeannie watch her all by herself. She also let her change her diapers and give her a bath. :) And now we finally have a real dinner table! Now we don't have to use the bar and bar stools all the time. :D I only have a few pictures of their visit because I spent a lot of time doing stuff with them instead of just photographing it. But I do have a few pictures I really like.

We miss them so much though. They miss the babies too. They called twice yesterday and twice the day before. I hope they can come up again, or we can at least go see them. Jeannie said she was going to pay for us to come down for a visit. So I hope Kai gets some paid time off soon. :)

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

Ahh Autumn is officially here. It's rainy, cloudy, cool, wonderful weather. I so love autumn. It just feels right. I love the rain and the sound that puddles on the road make when cars drive through them. It's lovely. My dad and step mom are arriving this weekend. Possibly tonight or tomorrow night! I can't wait. This will be their first time seeing Miss Fumi-Kitty and the 3rd time they've seen Sascha. They have a lot of catching up to do in three days. :) They are doing "Christmas" when they come up, since we haven't been able to spend a Christmas with them yet. They're getting us a freezer for the garage, and a new washing machine since Kai broke ours(I'll tell that story later), $200 for groceries/meat/fish for the freezer, as well as shopping for Sascha/Fumiko and they're bringing up two smoked turkeys. lol We're going to take them to the pumpkin patch with us and to Sushi & Maki. They want to take a day and treat us to our favourite restaurants. :) They also want me to cook our "normal" stuff for them. They can't wait to try my miso soup! I don't think it will be filling enough for them given the way they normally eat, so I'm going to make tonkatsu, miso soup and my ginger dressing/salad for them. That should hopefully be filling. They're meat & potato peoples.

Oh they're also bringing up their old giant screen tv, and a motorized scooter for Sascha and Kai. So Sascha is super excited. He's already thinking of what he wants when they take him shopping. He keeps bringing up the commercial about the remote control helicopters, so I'm thinking he's gonna try to wrangle one out of them. :) Oh Sascha also lost his second tooth! He's losing them fast now, and they're coming in just as fast. :) I'll have to take a picture. I have so many photos to resize and upload. Ahh.

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

I'm so happy that Autumn is finally here. It's my favourite time of year. The leaves are finally starting to change, it's so lovely. The air smells crisp and wonderful and it's cool! Yesterday was supposed to be Sascha's school picture day. It got rescheduled however because the forecast said there was supposed to be a storm. It didn't storm. It did sprinkle a bit. But no storm. So it will be next Tuesday.

I picked up some yard the other day to make Fumiko a hat and scarf. :) We'll see how that goes. I still can't figure out the round crochet things Jamie gave me. Even after reading several tutorials online. Oh well. I'll have to wait until one of us visits so she can show me. Cause I fail. S I'm just going to knit it with the circular needles I used for Sascha.

I managed to find my old kodak camera, however I'm thinking I want a newer one. One with better movie capabilities, and one that is less bulky. I was thinking of the Canon Powershot or a Nikon Coolpix. I really like Nikon so I may stick with them. Either way I have plenty of time to decide. :)

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

I've been bad at blogging. I just haven't been too interested in it. I've been posting over at boardx and playing WoW with Kai off and on when he's home. Still doing the normal take Sascha to school then Kai to work then go to work then pick Sascha up from school head home and clean/cook/etc. Corralling Fumiko has been much fun. She has her new wheely bug and has been pushing it all over. :) Kai's new pay finally kicked in a few days ago. Sadly he can't get back pay for his commissions. -.- Thanks Mr. Jerkface boss dude. *sigh* His pay should have been effective from the 31st when he took over the store. But oh well. At least his hourly pay will be retroactive. Thank goodness.

Man Fumiko really loves blackberries. o_O We just went out and I picked like 20 berries for her and she gobbled them down. She literally stuffed her little face with them. They're almost gone. I need to find some from the store. Kai just realized that when he handed in his work flash drive to Circuit City he handed in the wrong one. He gave them his personal one instead of the work one. He just found what he thought was his personal one. When he checked it he found all the work programs. :lol: So Circuit City has a flash drive with WoW movies and junk on it. :P

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

So I took Sascha to school this morning, got coffee for my migraine and on the way to taking Kai to work we drive by the shop. Kai says "Does your mom have an appointment this morning?". I glance over to see someone parked in front of the shop. Just last night my mom said she was gonna stay home in the morning because she didn't have any appointments. So I say no and take Kai to work. I get back to see one of my moms bible study friends sitting outside the shop. lol Oops. Apparently last week they changed their bible study from 12 noon to 9:30am. So I called my mom and was like "So uh did you have a meeting this morning because your bible study ladies are here?" She totally forgot. So everyone is here but her and Dawn. Dawn probably forgot as well because it was on my moms calendar as 12noon. I called Dawn but got her voice mail. My mom should be on her way.

I need to learn how to make wakame salad. I crave it sooo bad. It's so good. I need to go in and ask Sushi & Maki how they make theirs. I love it. Also has anyone noticed all the signs up for sales jobs? I've seen several in shop windows today. Normally I don't even notice. Anyways. Back to work. I need to file the daily reports. Much fun.

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

So the other day I found a natural organic white miso paste that is incredibly freaking yummy. I also managed to find locally made tofu! Which is surprisingly tasty. Even Kai liked it. :) It's super firm and doesn't fall apart and was just well good. I made miso soup with the new miso and tofu, and some shiitake mushrooms, green onion. It was SO good. Kai even said it was almost on par with his grandma's miso soup. Yay! I also bought a dragon fruit and some fresh trout from Uwajimaya yesterday. I've never actually cooked trout, but it looked too good to pass up and was local. I'm thinking we'll grill it. I just have to figure out what to put on it. Any ideas? We've been wanting to try dragon fruit for a long time now. It's the first time I've seen it anywhere. I shall take pictures before we try it. :)

I'm making chili today! mmmm. I'm using steak instead of ground beef since it wreaks havoc on my stomach. And will probably just use chickpeas instead of regular beans. It's the only "bean" we all like. I'm at the shop right now, waiting for my mom to get back so I can go get stuff for chili, and waiting for Kai to get off at 6:30pm. We've had people in today asking for energy pills. Which is unusual for us. I wonder if there's some new commercials on tv or something.

Also our shower is apparently leaking. When we first moved into the house we noticed some old water stains on the ceiling in the garage. Well 3 days ago my mom noticed that one of them was dripping water after we took a shower. -.- Ugh. The water is leaking from a nail and it looks like mold is growing up there on the water stain now. I checked both bathrooms. Sascha's floor by the tub is warped and bubbled up, and some of the tile near the floor are pushed up. We checked out shower and the ceiling downstairs leaks when we run water in it at all. But not from it leaking onto the floor, I think the leak is underneath connected to the pipes or something. So we have to have that looked at soon. $_$ It's going to be so expensive especially if Sascha's floor is damaged as well! Ugh ugh ugh!

For the love of all that is good, Join BoardX! Seriously it's a wonderful community. There is NO drama. :) People are respectful and friendly there. I've known a lot of the people for several years. I've known the owner for gosh, I don't even remember how long. There are really great people there who are helpful and funny and nice! It's safe to talk about anything! We have all sorts of sections, I'm sure anyone can find something to talk about there. :) The only reason the boards were ever closed was because there was an issue with the host. So it had to start over. :) But really! Go Join! You'll love us!

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

So the other day I found a natural organic white miso paste that is incredibly freaking yummy. I also managed to find locally made tofu! Which is surprisingly tasty. Even Kai liked it. :) It's super firm and doesn't fall apart and was just well good. I made miso soup with the new miso and tofu, and some shiitake mushrooms, green onion. It was SO good. Kai even said it was almost on par with his grandma's miso soup. Yay! I also bought a dragon fruit and some fresh trout from Uwajimaya yesterday. I've never actually cooked trout, but it looked too good to pass up and was local. I'm thinking we'll grill it. I just have to figure out what to put on it. Any ideas? We've been wanting to try dragon fruit for a long time now. It's the first time I've seen it anywhere. I shall take pictures before we try it. :)

I'm making chili today! mmmm. I'm using steak instead of ground beef since it wreaks havoc on my stomach. And will probably just use chickpeas instead of regular beans. It's the only "bean" we all like. I'm at the shop right now, waiting for my mom to get back so I can go get stuff for chili, and waiting for Kai to get off at 6:30pm. We've had people in today asking for energy pills. Which is unusual for us. I wonder if there's some new commercials on tv or something.

Also our shower is apparently leaking. When we first moved into the house we noticed some old water stains on the ceiling in the garage. Well 3 days ago my mom noticed that one of them was dripping water after we took a shower. -.- Ugh. The water is leaking from a nail and it looks like mold is growing up there on the water stain now. I checked both bathrooms. Sascha's floor by the tub is warped and bubbled up, and some of the tile near the floor are pushed up. We checked out shower and the ceiling downstairs leaks when we run water in it at all. But not from it leaking onto the floor, I think the leak is underneath connected to the pipes or something. So we have to have that looked at soon. $_$ It's going to be so expensive especially if Sascha's floor is damaged as well! Ugh ugh ugh!

Also:

For the love of all that is good, Join BoardX! Seriously it's a wonderful community. There is NO drama. :) People are respectful and friendly there. I've known a lot of the people for several years. I've known the owner for gosh, I don't even remember how long. There are really great people there who are helpful and funny and nice! It's safe to talk about anything! We have all sorts of sections, I'm sure anyone can find something to talk about there. :) The only reason the boards were ever closed was because there was an issue with the host. So it had to start over. :) But really! Go Join! You'll love us!