Friday, September 28, 2007

It's A...

No, just kidding! I did have my 12 week OB appointment today but it is still way too early to find out the sex of the baby. Everything looked good...I'll go back in two weeks for some more tests - the doctor is watching me very closely which in itself won't necessarily keep things from going wrong, but it does keep me from worrying about it as much.

Bryn has a friend spending the night tonight. We went to the high school football game - it was homecoming so there were lots of people there. The bright side was the concessions were cheap so we got to eat lots of junk food without spending much -not something that usually happens at sporting events!

We actually have a pretty quiet weekend coming up and we are looking forward to relaxing a bit. I plan on taking a nap or two and catching up on some of those DVR'ed shows!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Everyday stuff...

Mom made it home after a bit of an overnight delay in Chicago...gotta love the joys of air travel!

My saga with Lab One and the insurance company continues...Let's just say I was a little less than pleased when I got a call from a collection agency on Tuesday. The poor girl at Lab One got an earful...after faxing the info they needed twice and sending it once and being notified back in May that it had been received, I told her I wasn't really sure what else I could do. As she assured me she did not have the information, she leafed through my file and what do you know?!?! She found it! Gee, I'm utterly shocked! You had it there the whole time but couldn't manage to file a new claim or keep me out of collections - thanks for that. O.K. enough of my ranting, I suppose, because in the end she and her supervisor did agree to call of the collection agency and write off the balance of the bill since it was their mistake. We'll see if that all comes to pass, but I would be thrilled to have them out of my life after a year of going round and round about this charge!

Aaron is busy desperately trying to create a lawn out of a tangled mess of weeds in the backyard. It will be kind of nice when fall really rolls in and it just all up and dies for the winter so he can get a break!

I am so excited that all of the TV shows are starting their new seasons. My DVR is working overtime and it is great to have some mind numbing programming to enjoy! I can't even say what show I am enjoying most at the moment - I'm just kind of like a kid in a candy store!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Fun with Grammy...

We have had a nice weekend hanging out with Grammy. We went to T-Rex Cafe yesterday (always more fun for Bryn than the rest of the group!)and to a local farm where we picked some green beans and bought a couple of mums and pumpkins. Today was Grandparent's Day and it sounds like everyone had fun. Grammy got to hang out with Bryn in her classroom and eat lunch with her and do whatever it is that kindergartner's normally do (I wouldn't know - my kid surely isn't going to tell me!).

The twilight tour at the zoo was pretty neat although Bryn started complaining about halfway through that she was tired and wanted to be carried...sigh. Sometimes it would be nice to get through an activity that we plan for her without her complaining about it...

On a Bryn bright note, she did stay in her own bed all night last night and only woke me up once. I didn't even actually mind since when I got to her room her hands were on the floor and her legs were on the bed and she was quite stuck! It's hard to get too upset when your kid manages to fall only halfway out of bed.

On Saturday we went to a Homemade gourmet party - we brought different meat and $25 and prepared meals for the freezer. The spices and a couple of additional ingredients were provided and since we have a small family, I ended up with 8 meals. Kinda cool...

The last bit of excitement was that the bug man showed up today to spray and set out some spider traps...he wasn't supposed to be here until Wednesday, but since he was originally scheduled for last Friday and I totally forgot and wasn't home, I figured I didn't have much of a leg to stand on as far as protesting appointment times!

We're off to the park this afternoon and then will be painting the pumpkins we got yesterday...too much excitement around here!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Issue resolved...

Our backyard is looking better...the holes are filled and the cross bar thingies for the fence are up. Hopefully it will be all done by tomorrow. Then Bryn's begging for a dog can begin! Actually I think she will be O.K. waiting until after Christmas like we had originally planned...we'll be gone for a couple of weeks over the holidays and would hate to leave a new puppy at the kennel. I know that Christmas will roll around before I know it, anyways!

Had a day in my jammies today, mostly planning menus and cleaning. I am having coffee and breakfast here tomorrow (see, I do only clean when we're having company!) - some of my mom friends are getting together every couple of weeks and it is my turn to host.

We have an exciting weekend coming up. Tomorrow night we are going on a twilight tour at the zoo and Saturday my mom is coming in to visit and to go to Grandparents Day at Bryn's school. I'm even going all out for mom's visit and putting up some temporary shades in the guest bedroom! I just can't seem to get around to getting the windows done...fortunately the fence will let me putt off covering the windows in the back of the house even longer!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Holes

Not the great young adult book by Louis Sachar. Instead it would be the two huge holes in our yard...

And don't worry, they look even better today with the nice orange temporary fencing around them!
Our neighbors have evidently not had phone service for two days as the fence guys hit the phone line in at least two places when they set our posts. Great. I called the fence guy to let him know I was a little less than thrilled with the situation (and could you please keep your guys from throwing Dr. Pepper cans all over our yard while you're chastising them for not hand digging the holes in the back to avoid this mess in the first place) and although he was apologetic, he seems to disagree with the evaluation that it was his fault rather than the line marking guys fault. Whatever - all I know is that we have two huge hole in our yard and some neighbors who I suspect are a little less than thrilled with us. Not to mention the fact that poor Aaron has been seeding the yard like a crazy man trying to get some decent grass to grow. All of the trucks through the yard and holes are not helping his cause much...

I went to the cardiologist yesterday to have the heart stuff checked out and everything looks fine. I haven't had any skipped beats since Monday - I am beginning to wonder if that Diet Barq's Root Beer I splurged with on Sunday night may have some caffeine in it despite the no caffeine label...

Sunday, September 16, 2007

We survived the weekend!

It was crazy, but we made it through! And the house looks great because we moved all of the boxes - isn't it great how having some people over will motivate you to do things that will otherwise never get done?!?

We went to Aaron's work picnic yesterday and it was nice. Neither one of us was much up for introducing ourselves to a bunch of people, but I did meet a few people so I can put some faces with some names. Bryn had a great time climbing trees with the other kids (fortunately none of them were very tall trees, so there were no major catastrophes!).

I am feeling good and have even stopped the incessant nose dripping - only a little stuffy now. The not so bright side is that I had a couple of heart flutters tonight - a bummer since I haven't had any in months. I am hoping it was something I ate or drank as opposed to pregnancy hormones causing them. I know they are "normal" and know tons of people that have them, but it is still freaky to feel like your heart is skipping a beat. Fortunately I am tired enough to not have much energy left to worry!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Off to the races

Figuratively, of course. My life is not so exciting that it is filled with actual races of any kind!

My races will be more of the chicken-with-its-head-cut-off variety with me leading the pack. I have once again over scheduled and under-prepared...















The space is for the to do list and calendar that I almost subjected you all to and then deleted...just suffice it to say there will be more to do than there is time. Anyone want to come dig me out of the hole I have jumped into?!?!

On the bright side, I felt great today...no nausea! On the not so bright side, my nose is literally dripping like a faucet from whatever blooming things have decided to get going now that we had a couple of cool days. Ah well...you can't have everything, I suppose!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Family time and birthday celebration

We had a nice weekend starting with Aaron's brother, Bryan (hi Bryan!), coming in to the Kansas City airport and staying with us Friday night. We had dinner at Jazz, a new cajun restaurant close by, and had some good food. Bryn ate fried alligator (and lots of it) - go figure. I can't get her to eat a ham sandwich or a hamburger, but she'll eat alligator. Gotta love it.

Our neighbor cut down a couple of scrawny trees in our backyard and a huge overhanging limb for us on Saturday morning, so we are now officially ready for our fence. Our neighbor then proceeded to cut the grass seed into our yard and water for us when we were gone on Sunday - can't beat that for good neighbors, can you?!?

We headed to Manhattan for Grandmother's party and had a nice time catching up with Kristen and Adam (Aaron's cousins), Uncle Don and Aunt Shirley and Aaron's parents. Grandmother's bash was on Sunday afternoon and over 100 people came. We were all pretty tired by the time it was over, but it was a nice celebration of 90 years of life of an amazing woman. I must admit it was bittersweet for me as it was the first time I saw Grandmother's new room and finally had to realize that she just isn't able to do all the things she used to do due to her lack of short term memory. She is exactly where she needs to be, but after volunteering at nursing facilities a lot in college I just am having a hard time picturing such a vibrant and wonderful woman in the same space with all of the other people I used to visit. She is well taken care of and still is her agreeable self, but I would be lying if I said it doesn't make me a little sad to not see her in her apartment with her pile of knitting close by.

Friday, September 7, 2007

On the road again...

We're taking off tomorrow morning to attend Grandmother's 90th birthday party, so I thought I'd check in before I am MIA for a couple of days. I will likely spend the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out a birthday present for her - I am considering just doing a photo album of pics form the party and giving it to her later. We'll see...

Aaron's brother, Bryan, is coming in tonight and will be staying at our house overnight. The guest room is still is some disarray, but at least there is a nice big bed to sleep in (now I just have to get some sheets on it!).

My little rant for today is about health insurance...aaaargh! I had some lab work done in May 2006 (yes, over a year ago) that was never paid for by the insurance company due to lack of information on why the tests needed to be run. O.K., no problem, I know how this works after working in insurance for a while...step 1: obtain records from doctor's office; step 2: send records to the insurance company; step 3: wait for them to deny the claim and fight with them some more.

The first headache was getting my records. The office sends the file to another company to copy the records who then waits until I have paid the $15 fee before they send them. So in the past there hasn't been such a long process, but I can deal and now have records in hand.

I fax them to BCBS and wait. Then I get another nasty gram from the lab company, who then calls BCBS, who then claims they never got the records. After spending many moons on the phone with BCBS, I find out I cannot send the records - they have to be sent with the claim from the lab company. So I fax the records to my new best friend at Lab One and she calls to tell me she has received them and is sending the claim.

Now three months later, I get yet another bill from Lab One. I call them and ask to speak to my Lab One buddy who of course no longer works there. My new not-so-good friend then proceeds to tell me they never received the records and I need to refax them...sigh. Now if I could only unearth them - I have no clue where they ended up during the move. Maybe if I'm really lucky I'll get to pay for another copy...

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Linking

Thanks for the linking info dawn! I think I have actually figured it out!

Shopping and hanging out

I spent the morning shopping for a few clothes and books...it was nice to hang out at the mall by myself without a munchkin complaining about being tired of walking! I picked some lunch up at Panera for Stephanie's birthday and we had a nice afternoon chatting and peeking at her birthday presents.

I also finally called the fence guy to get a quote. Now we just have to figure out what we want and where our property line is. We think part of the neighbors brick-edged flowerbed is on our property, but I am all about moving our fence a foot or so in and letting hime mow that part of our yard! we also have to decide to back right up to our neighbors chain link fence or leave some space in between (that we would then have to mow). Decisions, decisions!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Learning to link

O.K. blogging pros...tell me the easiest way to set up links to your wonderful blogs within my posts. I know it's not rocket science, but do I really have to type in all of the URLs?

Follow the yellow brick road...

Or various highways...at any rate, they led us back to Kansas! And we now have a king size bed for guests, so we're ready for anyone to drop in anytime (actually give me a little time to clean and try to unpack some more boxes before you come!).

We had a quick but nice visit in Memphis. We saw Mema and she is recovering from the radiation and chemo. It will be a while before she has the scans to see what has actually happened with the cancer, but hopefully it was wiped out.

Bryn and I visited Nikki and she seems to be doing pretty well after calling off the wedding and moving back home. I have four bridesmaids dresses to try to sell on Ebay...let me know if anyone needs some formalwear!

Bryn brought home a school fundraiser form today...yipee! I can't even begin to tell you how much I loathe school fundraisers - I know they need the money, but aaargh! I hate selling trash bags and magazines and cookie dough! You know where to come if you are in dire need of some trash bags...we'll have quite a stockpile here!

Ohterwise, it's back to the daily grind...Walmart, groceries, emptying the dishwasher, packing lunches, napping. Can't beat that!