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Boos

• dental assistants who don’t like kids
• ants invading the house, and it’s not even hot outside
• crazy drivers
• back problems

Yays

• being able to calm Ana down after she started panicking in the dentist’s chair
• writing buddies!
• Disneyland! annual passes even!
• the latest sneak peeks at Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• the ***AMAZING*** mattresses at Disney’s Grand California Hotel
• High School Musical 3 dance along for the Wii

Categories: entertainment, games, harry potter, kids and parenting, toys, travel
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My to-do list is a mile long, but I can’t cross anything off it. Whenever Angie isn’t crying for my attention, she’s doing something else to make me regret turning my back, even for a second. Today she drew all over her arms and legs with dry-erase markers. Then she spilled a bottle of milk on the kitchen floor and sat down in the middle of the giant puddle. ARGH!!!

At least she didn’t spill the bottle on the nice new flooring in the living room that Kevin spent the past week installing. No more awful, allergy-inducing, 30+year-old carpet, finally! I’ll leave the details for Kevin to blog about.

Last week Kevin and I went to the final show of 311‘s summer tour. I had a great time. Once in a while, when I’m inhaling second-hand pot smoke and surrounded by sweaty, half-dressed bodies, I wonder if I’m getting too old for this, but the thought is always promptly pushed out of my mind by the sight of fellow concert-goers who are my parents’ age, rocking out and having a great time. Life is much too short to worry about appearing dignified.

Last week I also finally underwent Lasik surgery. This is something I’ve been planning for years. I have nothing to complain about; it all went very smoothly. But for the morbidly curious, here are the few bumps along the way:

• I was given a Xanax to help calm me down during the surgery. I was also given numbing drops in my eyes. Neither worked as well as I would have liked. While the procedure did not hurt, I did feel the instruments touching my eyeballs. UGH!!!!! The only reason I didn’t panic was because over the past couple of decades I’ve developed some excellent coping skills for dealing with crazy anxiety-inducing situations just like this one, and they worked perfectly.
• Afterwards it felt as if there was something in my eyes that I couldn’t flush out. This continued for 24 hours. The various medicinal eyedrops I was prescribed helped eased the discomfort a little, but the only thing that really helped was sleep, which I got plenty of when the Xanax finally kicked in after the surgery was all over
• The surgery is really, really expensive. The place I chose charged me a month’s salary. Add to that the cost of all the different eyedrops, and I feel positively poor.

But was it all worth it? Oh heck yeah! I can see! I CAN SEE!!! XD

Another highly anticipated event in my little life was the new film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that opened July 15. Last Friday, Kevin and I took Alex to see it in the theater. We had a great time!

If all goes well with the construction of the Harry Potter theme park in Florida, that’s where we’ll be going for our next family vacation. According to the latest news, it’s going to have some cool rides and at least one awesome eatery. I can’t wait!

While cleaning the kids’ room I found a little black rubber ball under one of their beds. Alex said it reminded him of what the Earth would look like if we continued to misuse our natural resources. I promptly promised to start composting the next day. So far I haven’t lived up to my promise, mainly because Angie keeps doing things like pouring entire bottles of milk on the kitchen floor.

Speaking of weird environmental things, did you hear the news about the big mysterious blob floating in the ocean off the coast of Alaska? Watch the video here!

Categories: allergies, angie, environment, harry potter, home improvement, music
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So far this summer, I have done the following:

• Invited friends over for a High School Musical movie marathon!
• Invited friends over to gab and watch our kids play together
• Attended a retirement reception for an ex-coworker.
• Cleaned the house. This is the best it’s looked in MONTHS.
• Packed up most of the stuff in the living room in preparation for flooring installation. Can’t wait to be done with this!
• Conducted science experiments with the kids using a Harry Potter potions kit. Major Mom Win.
• Re-read about half of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince so far in anticipation of watching the movie next week.
• Gone to the beach for the first time in YEARS.
• Eaten a lot of oatmeal. I’m strangely proud of myself about this.
• Wrote a big progress report for a committee I’m chairing. Our work doesn’t halt over the summer, unfortunately.
• Wrote various other reports for work. Still have a few more to write. Blah.
• Made the decision to go back to school. Nervous but SO EXCITED.
• Turned one year older. And wiser.

Categories: food, harry potter, home improvement, kids and parenting, movies, work-life balance
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I’ve finally emerged from my Thanksgiving food coma. We had a wonderful feast at our house Thursday. Everyone contributed a dish or two (or three). I’m very thankful for all the great cooks in my family!

Favorite Thanksgiving food: impossible! I can’t pick one!
Favorite snow activity: skiing
Favorite Christmas song: Jingle Bell Rock
Favorite holiday: I like them all, but I really like the Halloween / Thanksgiving / Christmas triumvirate.
Favorite Christmas movie: I like the Christmas scene in the fifth Harry Potter movie where all the Weasleys toast Harry for saving their father’s life. I also like all the weird knitted things Mrs. Weasley gives each of her seven kids every year. It makes me want to learn how to knit.
Name a Christmas decoration: tree
Favorite thing about the Christmas season: crisp air

Favorite Christmas treat: I’m not usually a big fan of chocolate, but this season makes me crave chocolate.
Favorite pie: pecan
Name a reindeer: Dancer
Name something you wear to go sledding: knit cap
One thing you do on Christmas Eve: put presents under the tree
What month do you start shopping for Christmas? I buy year-round.
Popular Christmas TV special: Charlie Brown Christmas
What other holiday might the Grinch want to steal? Valentine’s Day
Name something given in the 12 days of Christmas song: “Eight maids-a-milking…” This song is so weird.
Another name for Santa Claus: Père Noël
Name something at the North pole: stars
One thing you do on New Years Eve: watch the countdown on TV

PS: Guess what? Alex has a blog!

Categories: food, harry potter, memes
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