747 New Laws for Twenty Twelve

I've been hearing about the 747 new laws now in effect in the year 2012 for the state of California. CA state residents (and visitors) take note; the rest of you's, laugh away.

While not all laws are laugh-worthy, the sheer number of new laws and the difficulty in finding them all spelled out in one website location has made this a frustrating transition.

Some of the laws I've heard through word of mouth include:

- putting on lipstick while operating a vehicle can get you a ticket (I wonder if applying mascara is okay?)

- eating a hamburger while driving can also get you in trouble with the law (I can't seem to find documentation of this either but I wonder if it is inclusive of cheeseburgers, bunless burgers, or simply applies to just Carl's Jr. burgers since they are hands down the messiest burgers of all)

Actual verified new automobile/traffic laws include:
- Children under the age of 8 OR under the height of 4'9" (whew! I barely made it!) are required to be in a car seat or booster seat. Should you decide to "chance it," first offense can get you a ticket of at least $446 and a second offense can get you a ticket of over $1,000. My quick math calculations show it may be "slightly" cheaper to just shell out for a booster seat.

- Beginning in July 1, 2012, vehicle registration fees will rise from $31 to $43 a year.

- One cannot cross double solid white parallel lines while driving. (Hmm....I thought this was already the case...? or did the old law apply only to double solid YELLOW parallel lines?) I hope this law stops those carpool lane jumpers from careening into fast-moving traffic the moment they see red tail-light action!

For more new traffic laws, you can check out CHP's press release. Still couldn't find the hamburger and lipstick law though . . . .

By the way, in case you were going to drink (soup) and drive, it is now illegal to sell and consume shark fin products. No more shark fin soup for you Chinese food aficionados!

Perhaps you're more resourceful than I or know of a better place to find these new 2012 laws. Feel free to comment and post a link and help us all be law abiding citizens! Thanks!

Surprise Boston Visit

We did it!!! With the help of my sister and her husband, Air Boss and I (along with the kids) were able to surprise my parents in Boston with an unannounced trip. Just a week after Thanksgiving, we boarded the plane and took our homeschool on the road (or in the air) for the first time.

In a series of elaborate surprises (more elaborate in the planning than the execution), the four of us surprised 'Shroom and Lolli's younger cousin as he came off the kindergarten bus. We quickly piled into my sister's minivan to skirt two towns over to surprise my parents in their new condo. After loud and repeated "I don't believe it!!!!" and "How did you get here?!?" exclaimations, we all hugged, high-fived each other (that would be my sis and me for not spilling the beans), and grabbed some lunch before we all boarded the surprise-mobile (a.k.a. the minivan) and drove to my older nephew's school and surprised him at the end of his school day.

'Shroom and Lolli were so pleased to have this "extra bonus" cousin hang-out time.

They exchanged Christmas presents early, decorated a gingerbread house, had a sleep over, visited the nearby LEGO store and made a take-home toy soldier, and 'Shroom even donned his Cub Scouts uniform and joined his cousin on his monthly Cub Scout pack meeting.

Homeschooling became "clubhouse-schooling" as each morning the kids and I would bring our books to the clubhouse floor of my parents' condo. We took over a 12-seat conference room each day and packed in a lot of learning (I think I may have worked them harder than our usual school day). I've discovered that the kids were quite adaptable in their schooling environments and even the bustle of Christmas shoppers didn't distract our ADD 'Shroom!

Our last day in Boston, we worked in a field trip and walked a bit of the historic Freedom Trail. We had lunch in Quincy Market where Lolli got to eat one of her favorite foods - chicken pot pie. Apparently she enjoyed it quite thoroughly as I heard her say on the way home, "Wow - that pot pie was really good! I just burped pot pie and it still tasted good!"

Well, it was a great feeling to be back in Boston in the chillier season (no, we didn't see any of that white stuff). And I'm surprised that we were able to truly surprise my family. It's not easy planning surprises these days!

Past the halfway mark (barely)

Today marks Day 16 (of 31) of my family being dairy-, egg-, nut-, and gluten-free. The first week was totally rough as it seemed like there was nothing in the house we could eat except the drywall and hardwood floors. The second week was a little bit better as we even ventured out to some local "restaurants" (okay, I know some of us consider El Pollo Loco a fine dining establishment). Now that we're just beginning our third week, it's just plain torture.

How Are We Feeling?

Towards the end of last week--just as we were beginning our second week into this diet--I began noticing some changes in 'Shroom. I was cautiously optimistic about making some correlations but I was oh so hopeful. His spelling seemed to have improved. Instead of getting more word incorrect than correct, he had one spelling test where ALL the words were correct! Woo hoo! On top of that, he was cranking with his school work. Last Thursday and Friday, we managed to complete our usual six hours of homeschooling in about 4.5 hours. Was this the turning point?!?! Did this mean that we wouldn't have to medicate him in order to get him to focus and concentrate?!?!

When I complimented 'Shroom for his great work and his perfect spelling test, my just-too-bright-for-her-own-good Lolli shrieked at lunchtime, "No, no, no! 'Shroom, you have to do a horrible job! Otherwise we'll be on this diet FOREVER!!!"

What Went Wrong Over the Weekend?!
Well, that feeling of turning a corner in this whole process was short-lived. Air Boss took 'Shroom camping with his Cub Scouts pack and while they had to drive off the campsite for their meals, something must have changed. By Monday, school productivity and 'Shroom's spelling score were at an all-time low. Even Lolli was acting rather antsy and it took her more than half an hour to finish two pages of (rather easy) math. Yesterday was the worst day in homeschool history for us. When I had mentioned this to Air Boss and the supporting details, I teased him about not being too disappointed (lack of academic improvement --> lack of need for diet). I think abstaining from wheat has been the hardest for him. Lack of "results" in the attention span department only meant that come November 12, we'll all be back on a normal diet.

The Real Question
Okay, so I know you're all concerned and deeply interested in how my kids and husband are doing, but I know your real burning questions is, how am I doing? =) In a nutshell, I think I've become crabbier and nastier. Really.

One morning this week, I got a late start in cooking breakfast. Since we've been eating steel cut oatmeal, I've been cooking it on the stove top. And since I was behind on the morning routine, I had the heat on high. As I was dicing apples with my back to the stove, the pot of oatmeal bubbled over and made a huge mess. Lolli had been patiently waiting for her breakfast up until this moment. When I had to drop everything to clean up the mess, she commented, "If only I could just eat a piece of bread!" It was an innocent remark and she really wasn't asking for much - just a piece of bread and some water for breakfast - something simple and something fast.

Well, I flipped. As in flipped out.

"What are you complaining about?!?" I yelled. "At least you're not cooking!!!!"

Whoa. I realized then that this DF/GF/EF/NF/ABC/XYZ diet thing was really getting to me. The poor kid didn't deserve that. I guess the stress of planning special meals, shopping at special markets, and cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for my ENTIRE family (remember, we homeschool and Air Boss works from home) each day was beginning to get old. And if cooking hot meals wasn't enough, our dishwasher is broken so now I spend an additional half hour hand-washing all the pots, pans and dishes.

Yeah, diet schmiet. I am so ready for this thing to be over. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that there isn't any noticeable improvement in 'Shroom's attention span.