Prompt

I'm in a blog funk. I feel like a big complainer, so I don't write. So instead, I'm going to use a blog prompt tonight. If it leads to complaining... well then it's justified. :)

Right now, I feel....

Unsettled. You all know that we moved 1100 miles from Texas to North Caroline back in late July. And I haven't yet felt settled in here. I like it well enough, but it's just not home. And I don't know if it will be. We had already been in a place that didn't feel like home for about 16 months before the big move, so that's quite a while to be experiencing this feeling.

Of course, we've still got the monster house in Texas on the market. The mortgage + rent payment will always make you feel like you've got a monkey on your back. So we're renting to keep our living expenses down. The last time I lived in a rental was back in 200-2001, and it was for a finite amount of time (while we had a new house built) - so I'm not even sure that counts. If you go back to the time before that, it was 1997 and I was pregnant with Cameron when we last rented. I haven't put much on the walls or hung any curtains in our townhouse. I don't feel like taking pictures of it to show to anybody. It's just not ours. Not that we're itching to buy here - because it doesn't feel like home yet.

Then there's the school issue. The kids have already switched schools twice - from Austin to Rockwall and from Rockwall to Cary. They have really done well with it, but that doesn't mean that I'm ready to do it again. But there is a new school board in place, and they are going to make some significant changes - and that's going to mean that Logan and Luke will almost certainly go to a different school next year, even if we stay in the townhouse. And that school will most likely be a year-round school. Blech. So we can stay here for the different school, or we can look into moving again to keep them in the same place. I'll take neither, please.

So I'm pretty bummed and feeling uncertain about a lot. But I've got some things that I can look forward to (trip to London, 20th reunion), and that's getting me through each day.

Coming soon

More stamps!

Cass and I are going to London over Thanksgiving weekend to go to a wedding. A guy that Cass used to work with at nVidia is marrying his longtime girlfriend/fiance, so we are both headed over there for some fun and celebration. At first because of the timing and other factors, we planned for just Cass to go. But then my parents offered to fly out here to NC and stay with the kids and let me go with him. Woo hoo!

We'll get there early Thursday morning, the wedding is on Saturday, and we're returning on Sunday. I'm very excited for our friends. They're fantastic people.

iPhone costs

I get asked a lot about how much iPhone services are for us - and usually I can't answer. I don't get a paper bill, and I almost never look at my bill online. But I was perusing my bill for the first time in ages, and I decided to put it out there for the curious. Keep in mind, we got our iPhones when the phones were expensive and the AT&T charges were cheaper than they are now. Now the phones are cheap, and AT&T has gone up on their monthly charges.

my phone + phone services $60
data plan for my phone (I think it includes only 200 texts) $20
Cass's phone added on $10
Cass's data plan + 1500 texts $30

So the total for 2 old iPhones is $120 per month. Add on the taxes and fees, and it's closer to $130 a month. And of course, last month it was $147 because *someone* added on a charge for Horoscope Alerts. I just got off the phone getting that taken off. FYI, charges like that can be added without any sort of password or confirmation. You have to call AT&T and get them to add the block feature, which will require a PIN to make such ridiculous purchases.

Best I can tell, when I have to renew my contract in December and pay the new prices, here's what it will be (family plan prices).

2 lines phone + phone services (700 minutes w/ rollover) $70
my data plan (no texts included) $30
Cass's phone added $10
Cass's data plan $30
200 texts $5 or 1500 texts $15

Our bill will be from $145-155 per month, plus taxes and fees - for 2 iPhones on the Family Talk plan. That will give us 700 minutes per month (w/rollover), unlimited data usage, and 200 or 1500 text to share per month. Each additional line (kids) will be $10 per month, plus $30 per month for data, and whatever text charge we pick. But we're not looking to add lines any time soon!

Braces break

We went to see a new orthodontist after we got moved. He decided that Cameron's got 4 premolars that aren't ready to come out, and they probably won't come out for at least a year or more - so he suggested that we take off her brackets and let her have a break for a while.

Today was the day. She had molds done last week for making the retainer, and today she got the rest of the stuff on her top teeth off. She's supposed to wear a retainer after school/at night until those 4 premolars are gone. She's still got a lingual arch on the bottom teeth to hold the space down there.

Before

During

After

Kid update

I've had to go to the school for parent-teacher conferences recently, so I thought I'd update. I get so wrapped up in the day-to-day stress with the kids, that I forget to step back and see what terrific kids they really are.

Luke is having the BEST year! He loves his teacher, and she loves him. He's in the highest level reading group in his class and comes home with a sticker for good behavior every day. That's right, every single day since school started. I took him to the pediatrician for a checkup yesterday, and he got a chicken pox shot and flu mist vaccination. He didn't even flinch for the shot (and I took him for a chocolate milkshake afterwards!). He's on the small side - 3rd percentile for both weight and height. But he's been consistently on the small side, so it's nothing to worry about. He eats well, sleeps well, and behaves well. Last year was very hard on us, so I'm very pleased at how things are going now.

I met with Logan's teachers today, and they couldn't say enough good stuff about her. They say that she's eager, always raises her hand first, loves to contribute - and that they'd never have known that she was new to the school, she fits in so well. She's got a friend Michelle who lives on our circle. They're not in the same class, but they see each other at lunch and recess.

Cameron is doing well in middle school, I guess. She doesn't say much about it other than everything's OK. Her grades are good - all As so far. She's taking Intro to Theater as her elective. She's also in Advanced Math and Advanced Language Arts.

We're in a townhouse rental until the end of next summer. If our house in TX has sold, we will be able to look at buying a house. If not, I don't know what we'll do. The kids are likely to be reassigned to different schools next year anyway. From what I can gather, NC is bad about reassigning every 2 years or so as it is. But they had a school board election this week that may change the direction of the way they do things. Right now, they go by a diversity policy that involves busing kids from all over to balance out the percentage of kids receiving free&reduced (F&R) lunch - so you don't necessarily go to the closest school. With the new school board, they are likely to change over to the neighborhood school system (which is what they had in TX). It's far more complicated than it should be - but I'm pretty sure that the kids will be reassigned even if we stay in the same place. That might open us up to look in a wider area if we are house hunting by then.

Death by ear infection

So last year, Luke had this best friend named Elliott. They were quite a pair and had many school adventures together. Elliott was a big fan of Star Wars, so naturally Luke became a big fan of Star Wars. Not that he had to have much encouragement - we joke that Luke is named after Luke Skywalker.

Well, Elliott (to Luke) is the authority on everything. :) It's really cute - if Elliot said it, then it is so. So Elliott tells Luke that in the Star Wars saga.... Luke Skywalker died from an ear infection.

There is no convincing Luke otherwise. Elliott said it, it is so.


So today I'm taking Luke to the pediatrician. He's had a respiratory virus this week, and he's gotten an ear infection as a result. We're driving down the road, and I'm explaining to Luke how you get an ear infection and how the medicine will help get rid of it.

Luke says, "Good. I don't want to die like Luke Skywalker did."

.

Long time no post

I've gotten to where I don't post much. Not that I don't have anything to say - but most of it would be one big complaint. Nobody wants to read that, so I ascribe to 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.'

Here are some photos instead:


This was Luke's 7th birthday celebration. We had movers booked to be in our house on his actual birthday, so we celebrated a few days before. He is obsessed with Star Wars, so this is Mace Windu's lightsaber. It's purple - which is the best apparently.



First day of school here in North Carolina. We were actually still staying in the apartment that morning. We took Cameron to her school first (starts at 7:30am), then went to meet the moving truck at our townhouse. Luke and Logan's school starts at 9:00am.

Logan is obsessed with neon.

Cameron is getting her braces off next week. She's got a few baby teeth left to lose, and they're not coming out for a while - so the new ortho is going to give her a break. She gets a retainer to wear.

I think Luke has caught the H1N1 flu. No formal diagnosis, but he's got classic symptoms.