Happy Halloween!

I am sure all those with the little ones are going to be out trick or treating tonight. Jack is soooo excited. It is fun to watch because he totally gets it this year. He is even practicing his "Trick or Treat" speech he is going to make at every door tonight. And he is absolutely pumped to be batman and keeps singing the batman song and yelling "Batman" through the house. Ahhh this is such a fun age.

When I picked him up from school today, the boy was absolutely crazy with a sugar high from all the snacks at the halloween party at his school. Although they are not allowed to wear costumes, they did have a party and from the look on his face, it was pretty fun. He also got to bring home the pumpkin that he painted all green.

While I was at the school there was a bit of excitement from having four police officers in the office. After a few minutes, one of them walked out a teenage boy in handcuffs. I guess he did something that he shouldn't have done. Now mind you, this is a small christian private school and this kind of thing doesn't happen that often, not like the big public high schools anyway. So now I am waiting for Jim to get up and find out what that kid did. Inquiring minds want to know ya'll!

After school, I took Jack to chick-fil-a to burn off some of that sugar high. It has the best playland and is nice for the parents to just sit back and watch their child in the enclosed area run around like crazy people. As for those other parents, I am just shocked that some of them even have kids. I feel sorry for their kids. I overheard one mother talking to another mother while I was pretending to read the newspaper. Mother A was talking about Halloween and how she hated the holiday and she saw no reason for it and she was not going to let her precious child out tonight to go "beg for candy"! At this point I snuck a glance at Mother B who was trying very hard to NOT tell this woman off. She actually handled it very well and tactful by saying "well MY child is going to grow up normal with all the tradition of begging for candy" and let it be at that. Phew glad that I didn't have to deal with THAT mother from hell.

But I do have to admit that I am another kind of mother that I did not think I was going to be. When we got home, I was going through the mail and was reading the November newsletter from Jack's school. It listed the "students of the month". They give out three every month. One for the preschool (K3 - K5), one for 1st - 5th grade, and one for the middle and high school students through 12th grade. Well the one for the preschool was a little girl in Jack's class and for a split second (alright for about 10 seconds), I felt jealousy because I wanna see my baby's name as student of the month! Waaahhhh. I also want the cool bumper sticker that says "My child is a student of the month at X school." Yeah I am so that mother.

Bleh

I have not been feeling myself the last few days. Feeling bleh is a good description. I think Jack's week of sick threw me off kilter and I still have not climbed back to being on kilter. Being financially strapped right now does not help one bit, although we did get some news today that should help in that matter. I am hoping to be back on track by the end of the year - hopefully.

I have been walking at our local school track. I was doing it really faithfully before Jack got sick, but yesterday was the first day back to walking in two weeks. Jim and I did two miles together and then this morning I did another 3.5 miles. I do feel better with that.

I am also down to one day a week taking care of Baby Andrew. I told his parents that I just couldn't do the three days a week they were doing earlier. It was killing me. So now the one day a week is much more doable. In fact, he is here today and is napping very nicely.

We had a big and busy weekend. We went to the Spookfest that was held on the Navy base. Our neighbor told us about it and we decided to go. Jack was dressed in his batman costume and it was pretty fun. They had a haunted trail, but the first part was not really that scary (but freaked Jack out enough) and had the option to not do the second really scary part. We opted out of the really scary part. There were about a million kids there running around everywhere.

Another big highlight for me is Jack's first field trip ever! His class is going to the pumpkin patch/corn maze and I am chaperoning! It should be fun and how is it my baby is big enough to be going on field trips? Sigh.

The Tradition Continues

I remember watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and just knowing that the best part of the year was coming: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and especially Christmas. The show was like the start of the great season for me and I am sure for a lot in my generation. So it is with great joy to know that at this very moment, Jack is watching The Great Pumpkin absolutely mesmerized. In fact, when Jim went to leave for work tonight, Jack was so engrossed in the show that he didn't even acknowledge Jim yelling at him "goodbye!". Yep, the Charlie Brown torch has been passed. Of course, we are going to have dig out the Thanksgiving and Christmas Charlie Brown dvds also.

Back to School!

Yay! It was back to school today for the boy. I can tell you this has been one long week. I know he has felt really bad, and to be honest, he still isn't 100% today, but I pretty much forced him out the door because today was picture day at school. I know that was pretty selfish on my part, but I wanted those pictures! The pink eye is pretty much gone thanks to the second round of eye drops and he hasn't been complaining about his ear hurting, so the antibiotics must be helping the ear infection. However, he still has a pretty nasty cough that kept both him and I up last night. I got up three times last night to get him something for the cough. Poor thing.

The weather may just have something to do with the sickies also. It is hard to believe that just on Saturday it was warm enough to go swimming. In fact, I got a little sunburn on my face when we were at our neighborhood block party. And yesterday and today it has only been in the mid 50's. I guess summer is really officially over. And wow is Halloween really only a week away? Geesh. I hope that it isn't so cold that night because Jack's batman costume is kinda tight (even though I got the one size up). He is going as batman and Alison, the little neighbor girl is going as batgirl. Should be over-the-top in the cuteness factor.

Updates and Prayers

I am glad that we took Jack to the doctor today. I really had some misgivings as to whether he really needed to go about two hours before we went. He was looking like he felt fine and was sitting on the floor playing with his cars. But he started to go downhill shortly after that and after hearing what the doctor said, I was glad that I didn't listen to myself on this one.

Turns out that his pink eye is not getting any better with the current eye drops. In fact he has some long name that I don't even remember nor would know how to spell to google such a thing. But it is in his left eye, which was very pink, red, and puffy with goop oozing from it when we were there. And the pink eye has caused an ear infection in his left ear also. So if you combine the pink eye, ear infection, cough, and icky cold, the kid is just basically miserable. He came home and laid on the couch sleeping and whimpering for about two hours after I gave him the newly prescribed eye drops and the bubble gum flavored antibiotics. I love the smell of the antibiotics, by the way, it so takes me back to fourth grade when I had pneumonia and was on the very same stuff. Ahhh Memories.

I have also been glued to the tv for the past two days watching the fires in California. I keep thinking about our friends back there and hope and pray that they are alright. The fires haven't hit where we used to live yet (knocking on wood and praying) so most of our friends are safe. However, they are close. In fact, they have evacuated the entire town about 20 miles south of where we were and from what I hear hundreds of homes in that town were burnt down. I had friends in my old playgroup who live in that town and it hits kind of close. The town that my old boss lives in also was hard hit and again I hope he and his family are alright. It really is quite tragic. I remember four years ago this month, there were a lot of fires around us and just seeing that orange sky and all the smoke sure was not a good feeling. I was pregnant at the time and the thought of having to run for your life was so scary and what exactly would I put in the car to leave. Very scary. My thoughts and prayers are with all my old friends and everybody else in California tonight.

Biblical Proportions

It was quite a day here yesterday. I am surprised that we are not floating down the street by now. It rained hard all day long and then last night, it even rained harder. We lost power a few times last night and had the candles out burning just in case. According to the news New Orleans got 8 inches, but of course I can't find anything about how much we got. It figures since New Orleans is so much more important than the MS Gulf Coast (whatever). But anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if we got somewhere near that figure. It was quite impressive and another day of that and I would have been making plans to build an ark!

In the Jackaroo news, yes he is still sick. He did not go to school again today. The pink eye seems to be resisting the eye drops because it keeps clearing up, only to come back a few hours later. The cold has turned into an ugly thing with an ugly cough and now he is complaining about his ears hurting. Oh joy. So we are off to go to the doctor this afternoon to see whats up. This doctor is very anti-antibiotics, which is a good thing in my opinion, but that means these doctor visits usually end up with him just looking at him and sending us home saying "yep he's sick just wait it out". But with the ear thing going on, I figure I should take him in. Ya never know.

And all this Jackaroo sickness has made me stir crazy and feeling blah. I haven't been outside of this house since Saturday and it is driving me crazy. Jim is home today and I am thinking that I need to just get out to go and get some milk at the very least. It is the simple things in life that make ya happy - milk shopping. :)

Rainy Sick Day

It is a very rainy day here. The forecast calls for 2-6 inches of rain today and it is doing its job getting that done right now. Also Jack is home sick today. His first sick day this year. I think we have the pink eye under control at the moment. But let me tell you, giving eye drops to a squirming three-year-old is not fun nor easy. But the eyes look much much better. Now he is fighting some kind crud and has been up two nights in a row now coughing. It is a very deep kind of cough where he just about gags when he is having the fits. He isn't feverish, but I can tell he's pretty much miserable at the moment. So it is just us staying inside armed with the Disney channel and lots of movies today.

I am kind of bummed about the rain. I have been trying to walk between 10-12 miles a week at the local school track and have not been able to get out walking since last Tuesday. I was all set to go this morning, but alas I am not that dedicated to walk in hot humid rain downpour. Yuck. I guess there is always tomorrow.

If this isn't proof...

Whoever said that cold and cough medicine doesn't work in children under 6, should come to my house to witness the miraculous transformation in my child. This morning at 4 am, he was coughing and pretty much miserable. However, after giving him children's Vicks (and a dosage of eye drops for the pink eye), he is now running back and forth in my house like a caged animal, proclaiming that he is "not sick anymore Mom"! All this energy and I can't take him anywhere because he is contagious and since I think I got about 3 hours of sleep, I now feel like crud. Not fair!

I think we just maybe going to that soccer game this afternoon after all to get rid of this energy!

The First Case

It is official. Jack has his first case of pink eye. He woke up yesterday morning with some goopy stuff in his eye, but I didn't think anything of it. We went out running errands for a couple of hours and then came home to go to our annual neighborhood block party. It was really fun with the police department bringing this little train and giving train rides through the neighborhood for the kids. There was supposed to be a big jumpy thing, but somehow it never showed up. But it was fun and it was even warm enough for the kids to go swimming in the pool, which Jack did. He was not complaining of anything at this time, so I let him get in the pool.

So there I was talking to the lady at the police department who organizes all these events and up walks Jack and I had to look at him all of 2 seconds to know that he had pink eye. His eye was literally dripping the goopy stuff and it was pinker than pink. How in the span of three hours had that happened? And of course, being Saturday, his doctor was closed.

I packed us up and walked home with Jack complaining and crying the entire half mile walk home. I woke Jim up who was sleeping from working the night before and told him what was going on and that we were off to Urgent Care because there was no way I was going to wait until Monday. And the official diagnosis - pink eye. This was after the doctor put the glowing drops in his eye and shined the light showing all the bacteria - totally cool by the way. Now we are armed with the eye drops and instructions not to go anywhere for the next 24 hours, which means no church and no soccer game this afternoon. I haven't told him that we are not going to the soccer game yet, hoping that he is too miserable to remember he had one today. But the doctor said he could go back to school on Monday.

I also had to make about four phone calls because we were at our small group at church on Friday night with about 8 other kids. I figured it was the right fellow-parent thing to do by warning all the other parents about the possible pink eye breakout.

I let him sleep with me last night (and yes I plan on changing all the pillow cases) and it was plain miserable. He now has a nasty cold with a cough, which combined with the icky eye, kept both of us awake all night long. I finally called it quits at 3:30 and got us up to put him on the couch to watch Thomas videos. Oh and yeah, I am pretty sure, my right eye is now infected too. Nice little benefit of having kids with the infectious bacteria.

But I have to thank God because I know it could be worse. Like being the parent of the little 11-year-old girl who died locally last week with the staph virus. Makes ya want to keep your kids in a bubble I tell ya.

On a happier note, we want to wish Grammy A. a Happy Birthday! It is her last year of a decade. Hope you have a great day Grammy A.!!!

I need daycare ya'll

Jack's school has a cool little convenience attached to it. They provide after school daycare. You can pay the monthly fee for those working parents, but also you can pay $2.50 an hour to leave your kid there as long as you want. Well, providing you pick them up by 6pm. I just found this out and I must say that every day this week has been a huge temptation for me to use this little convenience. I know for a fact that I will be using this tomorrow because I scheduled a southern living at home party for tomorrow night. I scheduled it on a night that I thought Jim was going to be home and he would help me watch the boy. However, planning in this house doesn't help, as he has training tomorrow from 8 - 5. (Who knew that it takes 9 hours to learn how not to get bit?)

So anyway, I have planned to make a pumpkin cheese cake, some fancy brie cheese thing, some fancy cracker layout thing, and some fancy drink thing. And on top of all that making of stuff, I need to clean my house big time. And that includes giving my couches a shampoo because seriously, they are disgusting and embarrasing to have people sit on them. Yuck. I just don't have time to have the boy underfoot while I am doing all that. I was thinking that not that many people are coming, but no such luck, it looks like a houseful with at least 12 people.

Ya'll wanna come over also? The fancy brie cheese thing is supposed to be good. :)

My Own Personal Cop Service

I was sitting in my family room drinking coffee just a few minutes ago when I heard a key being used to open the front door. I figured it was Jim coming home a few minutes early and just wasn't using the garage door like he usually does. He opens the door and yells out "Dawn are you alright?" and I see him round the corner with his gun drawn ready to shoot! I guess dispatch said that there was an alarm going off in our house and he was responding. Nope no alarm here. Turns out the alarm was next door and it was a false alarm and dispatch just told him that it was at his house. I walk outside and I see two cop cars out there and our cop friend Todd made a beeline here also to see what was going on at "Jimbo's house".

Yeah I feel safe now. I have my very own personal police service :).

And Another Installment of Unbelievable Insurance Company

So let me see, since I last posted about my horrible-no-good-insurance-company, a few things have happened. I got yet another bill that they of course denied. This one was the office visit to the doctor for a routine physical. Not even the Gyn doctor, just the family care physician that I found off their list of approved doctors online.

I called yet again and yet again they wanted to put me through to too-perky-Tasha. I complained about her and what do you know this time I actually talked to her perkiness (which turned very sour when she heard it was me on the other end.). And the same old excuse was used as to why this bill was denied - possible pre-existing condition! What?!? For a routine physical? What a piece of crock!

So with Jim on one phone calling the insurance rep at his work and me on the other phone calling doctors, hospitals, radiologists and oh yes lovely insurance companies, we went to work fighting this. Well after talking to the doctor's office, I finally understood where they are getting this "Possible Pre-exisiting condition" crap from. It seems that all the doctor's offices put on their paperwork to the insurance was stating that I had family history of breast cancer (my mother) and heart problems (my father) and the insurance company took that to mean that I could have a "possible pre-exisitng condition" and flat out denied my claims. Again WHAT THE *(@$ !!!!!!!!!!!! How is it that just because my family had these conditions, that I am penalized with a crapload of medical bills???? Oh and the tests turned out that I am healthy! I have NO pre-exisitng anything.

Again, I totally and completely hate insurance companies and yes, we are fighting these bills. My credit maybe ruined because the first round are now going to collection, but I don't care. This is not right!!!!! And I just want to say that health insurance companies are detrimental to your health. My blood pressure was in danger zones yesterday I am sure!

A Perfect Fall Day of Soccer and The Farm

We started our morning out bright and early again with Jack's 8 am soccer game. Not to brag or anything, but I just have to say that Jack's team is awesome! Actually it is a little bit embarassing just how good they are. The other team scored only one goal today and our team scored about 20 or so. Seriously, it got so we were not even cheering after like the 15th goal or so. Just a weak Yay go team. I felt bad for the other team. But Jack's team is really that good and I am really impressed at how well Jack is playing. It is worth getting up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday, I guess.

After the soccer game, we headed over to Alabama to the corn maze. This place was really amazing and we plan to make it our fall tradition to go here every year. And since it decided to finally cool off to the 70's today, it was a perfect day to spend outside going through big corn fields.

Jack trying to milk the fake cow. He actually looked like he knew what he was doing. Go figure.

Going down the bumpy slide. You can only do that when you are young. All I could think about was my aching back when I saw that.

Feeding the baby piggies.

I tried to capture one of the hundreds of butterflies flying around the wild flowers.

Jack and Daddy on the "cow train" pulled by a John Deere of course.

My little corn stalk.

Jack inside the corn maze showing off the corn. Actually the corn maze was pretty neat and Jack thought it was really fun when we were letting him make the decisions of which path to go down. It took us about 10 or 15 minutes to get through only the first part of the maze. It was quite elaborate and pretty fun.

My Good Boy

Today after the news from my "lovely" insurance company (see previous post), I just sat in the kitchen feeling totally defeated. The past couple of months have beaten us up financially. I can't even begin to fathom the bills that have come our way, almost to the point of being ridiculous. Yeah there was the planned ones like insurance and whatnot, but the unplanned ones like stupid insurance companies not paying for what they should, just knocks ya for a loop.

And that is how I was feeling when all of a sudden, I just started to cry. I haven't done that in so long, probably since Jack's infant days. But I just felt so beaten down. It has been so bad financially, that every last dollar we are spending lately, I have scrutinized. And I was just feeling good in the fact that the last big bill was paid yesterday and we could maybe start to breathe just a little again come next payday. And then wham, I am hit with $386 worth of mamogram expenses.

So there I was crying in the kitchen and Jack comes into the room. He looks at me with a really worried look, probably because I don't think he has ever seen me quite like that before. He asked me if I was sad and I told him that I was a little sad. And then he asked me a question that just about broke my heart and made me realize how personal kids take everything. He asked me if I was mad at him. Which of course made me want to cry even harder for making him think that. I gave him a huge hug and told him that I was so not mad at him and in fact, he is the one that makes me very happy. And then he told me that he wanted me to be happy and I said I was because I had him for a little boy and that made me the luckiest Mama in the world. And the big hug he gave me was worth every penny that lousy insurance company is taking away from me.

Then I decided to take Jack to the Discovery Center, where Bob the Builder was visiting for the next three days. He was beyond excited and we had a great time there and it was wonderful to just watch my little boy sing and dance and have a great time. I realized that is why we are struggling financially, so that I can be home and take him to these things and just be there for him. We will make it and it is worth it. I just needed to be reminded of that fact again.

A Huge Huge Rant

Alright I just want to start off by saying that I HATE insurance companies. I had the two mamograms back a few months. The first one because I am now 40 and that is what you do when you get to this advanced age. The second one because they found a suspicious area in the left breast that needed further review. Thank goodness everything turned out fine.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been getting bills left and right for these two mamograms. The hospital bill, the radiologist bill, the doctor bill, and oh yeah the bill for the actual mamograms. Our lovely insurance company did not pay for one red cent of these bills.

So on Monday I started to call our lovely insurance company. I kept getting passed through to a voice mail of a too-perky-person named Tasha. I would give my info and number to call back. Nothing. Too-perky Tasha would not return my phone calls. Finally today, I got mad and demanded to talk to somebody. And boy oh boy did I get even madder.

Turns out that they are refusing my mamograms because of a "possible pre-existing condition" and we have only been on this insurance since January. It doesn't matter that the "possible pre-existing condition" is a NON-CONDITION! No, just the fact that it may have found that I did indeed have breast cancer and it meant that it was there BEFORE January, then they are refusing to pay. So I asked what do I do. And the woman said that I could get in touch with my previous insurance company and get them to write a letter to my "lovely" insurance company proving that I was covered by insurance, then they would switch it to the "wellness" status and cover it under my "wellness" policy. Fine. Just one problem, it seems that they only cover $200 of wellness care and it also seems that the doctor visit with the pap and all that fun stuff was a total of $195. So even if I went through all the hoops they want to me go through, they would only pay $5 of the more than $350 bills!!!!!!!!!! Oh and we have the luxury of paying over $300/month for this piece of crap insurance.

So now - I am SCREWED! I HATE insurance companies!

The Big First Game

Jack's first soccer game was on Saturday morning bright and early at 8 am. Geesh they expect a lot out of us parents! Anyway, Jim came home from work and came with us, so he could see Jack's first game. A lot of coffee was consumed by all.

I have to say that it is absolutely adorable watching these little ones play. It is hilarious to see such concentration as they are trying to listen to Coach Mike about what to do and then after the kick off, to see the ball just sail by them with them just standing there. It takes a full five seconds for them to realize that they have to run after the ball. Too funny and too cute.

Jack actually did pretty good and I was amazed that he was one of the few on both teams that did NOT cry. I am sure his time will be coming. I don't think you can get out of soccer without crying at the age of three.

And being the type of mother that I am, I just have to go buy Jack some black shorts and the sock type shin guards to match with his team mates. I know I know it is shallow of me, but I want him to be like the others hehe.

I also think that Jack has the best soccer coach in all the Y soccer league. He is awesome and even has bought the team soccer patches for their shirts out of his own money. Which reminds me I need to put them on Jack's shirt before his practice on Tuesday. Yeah I could get into this soccer Mom thing.

Short video of the game. Click the > button. (This new blogger feature of adding video is pretty neat I must say)

We're Back!

We are back from our trip to Michigan. Jack and I had a good time. I took him to my high school's homecoming game. He was pretty enthralled with the whole thing and was so cute when he shouted "Go Pennfield!". He thought the coolest thing was the Corvettes that drove the homecoming court onto the football field. And when the football players ran right by us at halftime, he told me that he wanted to be just like them. Yeah I can see my future Friday nights sitting on bleachers. It was good to see the old school and yet surreal at the same time. I am sure that there were people there that I knew, but ya know 20+ years changes people and the only person that I knew I recognized was Steve G. who now is a coach for Pennfield. And poor Pennfield lost really bad - something like 42-12. Ouchie.



The rest of the time we spent with Grammy and Papa. We went for a hike in the woods across the street from my parents. It is kind of sad that the pristine 300 acres of woods that I remember are going to be developed in the very near future. Hopefully they keep the natural beauty that is there. We took this one last chance to hike back in there for a couple of miles. Jack of course loved every minute of it and tried to carry out half the rocks. Every pocket was filled with rocks by the time we were done.



It was good to get back to Michigan. Jack was spoiled of course by Grammy and Papa.

Michigan Pictures

Grammy and Jack

Jack and Papa

Papa and Jack walking.

The pretty backyard at Grammy and Papa's.

Jack and Papa out for a walk.

Me trying to be all fancy with my camera. I thought this turned out pretty good. One of the flowers in my Dad's garden.

Papa and Jack on the hike in the woods. I love this picture.

Jack and Papa inspecting a hole in the tree. I think Jack was expecting to see Chip and Dale in there.

Picture of a fallen tree in the woods.

Picture of Deep Lake in the woods.

Picture of Goose Lake in the woods. If you walk up a hill you can see both lakes at the same time on both sides of the hill. Very beautiful.

Jack in the woods.

Jack inspecting something in the woods.

Jack and Grammy walking up the driveway.

Jack, Grammy and Papa swinging at the park.

Jack on the scary steep stairs to the twisty slide.

Grammy and Jack at the Bridge Park. Cute picture.

Jack at the Bridge Park.

Papa and Jack at the Bridge Park.

Grammy and Jack on the bridge at the Bridge Park.

Throwing sticks into the river.

Jack plays with the blocks that Papa made for him.