The kitchen

The before pictures. Don't mind the mess.  Some is from packing stuff up and some is typical mess.

Looking into the kitchen from the living room. Sort of a galley kitchen, but with cabinets only on one side. Floor with be replaced with wood-laminate planks in a grey-gold colour

Built-in corner desk.  To be replaced with a non built in large desk.  The shelves behind will be going away, but I think new shelves on the wall behind the computer are being added

Old stove.  There will be a new stove with a microwave hood added.

Icky tile is being replaced with white/light coloured quartz (I think) and a thin-grouted tile back splash.  

Cabinets are going to be replaced with new shaker cabinets in grey (on the bottom) and white or light grey on the uppers (I can't remember).

Ginormous grout.  Why was this ever popular?  (The counters at my dad's house are similar, but with thinner, white grout).

There will be cabinets added on the other side of the fridge for a built in pantry.  We'll also be getting a farmhouse sink.

That cabinet will be going away, replaced with a built-in

The rolling cart the microwave will be going away, and a low counter will be put there, mostly as prep space or baking space.  It will butt up to the non-built-in (built-out?) desk.

I'm not sure what colour the walls will be yet.  Maybe white, or very pale grey.  They are "yellow" currently.  But it's such a pale yellow it's more off-white.

 If I can get the mock-up from my MiL I'll post the pictures of that too.

New kitchen

 Surprisingly, we're getting a new kitchen. Cabinets, counter, desk, microwave and stove, lights and flooring. Our dishwasher and fridge are newer, so they stay. 

Our kitchen is in the neighbourhood of 50 years old. Dark wood cabinets, whitish-yellowish tile counters with HUGE grout lines, and lights that look like they're from an office (those long fluorescent ones in a body case).

We originally mentioned to the landlords/Aaron's parents we were thinking of painting the cabinets, and maybe trying to find an overlay for the terrible counter. Then they start talking about real upgrades. I sort of blew it off, because they'd talked about it before, and nothing happened. But, lo and behold, contractors came, money was paid (not by us), and a date is set. We have to have everything out of it by Saturday. We've started, but it is a much more daunting task than I realized.

The current plan is to move the fridge and microwave into the living room, and make a small make shift kitchen in there. We have the garage for storage, but the main way in is through the kitchen; which might be difficult based on the stage of the remodel. 

It's giving me a lot of anxiety. And Bertram is dead set against it, because change.

I was going to add pictures, but I'm typing from my phone, and they option  doesn't see to be there. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Day 198 or Misadventures in flu shots

 On Labour Day, we drove to get flu shots from the drive thru flu clinic at Kaiser. But it was closed.  Aaron can't get a flu shot yet, as he is in a Covid study. Today (because Bertram is on Fall break) the two kids  and I went to get flu shots this morning.  They were both unhappy, of course.  Bert more so, Bron just whined "I don't want a shot".  So we drove down, and got in the very long line that looped back and forth in the parking lot.  After about 20 minutes, I needed to pee.  At 30 minutes I was feeling desperate.  I was lamenting this to my sister, and she suggested using a diaper.  I thought that might work.  So, I clandestinely arranged the diaper in my pants (while in the car, in the line), but I couldn't do it.  Have to ever tried to wet your pants?  As much as I had to go, I couldn't.  Then, around the 40 minute mark (we were probably still 15-20 minutes away from getting shots) Bertram declared that he needed to pee, real bad, and couldn't wait.  I offered him the diaper, but he refused (as I assumed her would).  So when we could reach an exit (as we were trapped in the middle of parking lot rows most of the time), I drove out.  I wanted to cry, but I didn't.  It was very frustrating to wait that long with nothing to show. We drove across the street and used Rite-Aid's bathroom.   (And then bought something, because it's the right thing to do).

Day 192

 Bertram had an IEP addendum meeting a couple weeks ago.  He can now "leave" school at 11:45, which helps some.  I think if I had realized in the summer how this was all going to pan out, I probably would have looked seriously into home-schooling or independent study.  Like all kids, especially ASD kids, it's hard.  It's far from optimal.  And since he has ABA (or speech) after school he's just go, go, go.  We may still change ABA to a shorter schedule.   Yesterday he had a great day "at" school, and he did the best he's done in a really long time with ABA, and he did his short day.  I don't want him skipping social studies/science everyday, but if that improves his behaviour that much it may be worth it.  The district has been perhaps hinting about changing up the day with less online instruction, but nothing has come, as of yet.

Bronwyn had the first half of her ASD assessment on Monday.  Nothing to report as of yet, not until we complete the second half in a couple weeks.  She's still reading a lot.  I have a running shirt with a turtle that says "Slow AF".  I asked her to read it, which she read as slow af (the af sound).  I was surprised that she did the phonic

Aaron got into a covid vaccine study, and got his first shot last week.  I think since his arm wasn't sore he  got the placebo,  but we'll find out at some point in the future.  

I've been working on my giant t-shirt quilt.  I have all the large panel's done, and I've started working on the sashing to even out the sides.  My yard project it currently at homeostasis.  It looks great, and there isn't a ton more work, except watering, and occasionally adding a few more seeds.  The actual quilting will be a large undertaking; due to the size and heft of the thing, most of it will have to be hand quilted.  I'm not sure why I quilt.  I don't particularly enjoy it.  I just enjoy the end result... which I guess is enough?

Day 171

 So. Many. Days.

If Covid isolation were a pregnancy, it would be 24 weeks along.  🙈

Last week, we broke out to Half Moon Bay for a little bit.  We would normally go to Santa Cruz, but the fires were still bad over there.

It was cold there.  Or rather, typical of a Northern California beach.  (Air and water temp both 58ish).

Family selfies

Bertram instantly made a friend with a 7 year old named Zoey.

I have no idea why this picture is so grainy.

We took the long way back home, up 1 towards San Francisco, then back down 101.  It was a nice day.

I signed Aaron, Bertram and myself up for two 5k's, because we need something to do.  One is a pumpkin/Halloween "race", the other is a Turkey Trot.  They are both virtual, so we actually made a team with my mom and sister for the Turkey Trot.   ;/'  

Day 162

 School started a week and a half ago.  It's gone... ok.  There is a lot of waiting around, for other kids to finish.  And writing is still challenging.  (Not like letters, like sentences.)  I have inquired to his IEP head about independent study.  As it seems like that may be a better fit for not being in the classroom.  But we'll see.  He has had some breakdowns, and anger fits, which I suppose it's abnormal, but doing it on camera (thankfully muted) is not great.

The state is on fire.  There was a dry lightning storm last Sunday.  It sparked wild fires all over the state.  Close to us is the CZU lightning complex fire (Santa Cruz Mountains highway 9 all the way down to hwy 1.  Ben Lomond, and Bonny Dune, as well as Big Basin state park are gone), The SCU Lightning complex fire, (This one is the closest to us: Behind and around lick observatory/Mt Hamilton, stretching up to the outskirts of Milpitas and Fremont, and East down the other side of the mountain.)  There is one down past Gilroy, and another up near Napa.  Plus further north, and down to just south of LA.  So it's not hyperbole to say the state is on fire.  We have started putting together an emergency tote, I don't anticipate needed it for this particular disaster, but it's good to be ready.  Also, my "favourite" is that trump said it's because we didn't rake the forests enough.  FFS.

Between the fires, heatwave and Covid, we have been stuck inside a lot.  We're watching a good amount of movies.  I've gotten a little outside time, but not enough.  I'm going a little more crazy than usual.

The Buspar didn't last long, I got headaches a lot.  I just started Abilify, hopefully it will be a good match.

Kitties are doing well.  They have free run of the house, although, they are door darters.  But they run all around, which is cute.  They are about twice as big as when we got them (Weight wise, but probably close on height/length).  Oona is a loud purr-er.  Shy Guy is not too shy.

I don't think there is too much else to talk about.  As nothing is really happening.  

Day 135

We moved into the next phase of reopening for a whopping 2 days before everything closed again.  Not sure why the powers that be thought reopening as the numbers rose would be a good idea.  So things are continuing in the same direction.  Numbers keep going up.

School is going to be completely online through (at least) 2 August.  They are expected to be available/on the computer (?) from 8-2.  I was hoping it would be a little more open form like the end of last year.  I'm not sure how it will go, I guess it's supposed to be a mix of online class, individual teacher time, and possibly small groups (online).  (Though there has been some talk about doing small pods in addition to this, but we'll see how it all shakes out).  So, due to this new schedule we needed to change Bertram's time and day for speech.  And his time for ABA will change, and he will likely have to get a new tech, which sucks.  But to keep the same one we'd have to do 5:30-8:30, which is too late (as bedtime is 8).  But maybe the school schedule won't be so rigid, but it's all in flux.  We don't have his class assignment yet, and thus haven't heard from the teacher about her plan.  It's all stressing me out.  And I know this is going to be difficult for Bertram too. 

I stopped taking Remeron. It wasn't helping, and it made me hungry all the time.  I will be trying BuSpar. We'll see how that goes.  I kind of feel like I want to switch the Wellbutrin+Zoloft combo, but the shrink seems to be hesitant to do that.  I feel like I'm in a bad head space.  Like having a base level of anxiety all the time.  Plus, I feel like I'm failing at everything.  And I'm just on edge all the time. 

We adopted two kittens that we abandoned, and malnourished.  (Aaron's cousin's neighbour found them under her deck).  Originally I just wanted the girl, since we've had issues with boy cats spraying.  But they were bonded, so we took them both.  They were born at the beginning of June, so they're about 8 weeks old.  Bertram named the boy Shy-Guy (which is a character in Mario), and Aaron and I named the girl Oona.

Oona

Shy-Guy

They're been confined to our bedroom and bathroom.  They are super friendly and very playful.

Our washer died today, which a barrel full of water and wet clothes.  It was 14 years old. Fortunately, we're in a position that replacing it wasn't a huge burden.  Really more of an annoyance than anything.  But we got a nice LG washer.

We've (Aaron, Bertram and I) have been learning to play pokemon cards.  It's pretty fun.  Bertram keeps trying to cheat, which is weird because he doesn't actually care about winning.

Bronwyn's birthday was a couple weeks ago.  My baby is 3.  We didn't do much for her in terms of a party.  I made a cake, and we gathered on grandma and grandpa's lawn.