Now We Are Six (Really)

Wow, it's been a while since I've had a chance to post. With school and birthday madness, I feel like I haven't had a moment to spare. So, Em's finally six, and has informed us that we can no longer call her a "little" kid. We are free to call her a kid, just not a "little" kid. I don't think she's been a "little" kid since she learned how to talk. Sometimes I feel like I'm living with a short 25 year old.

So Kris called (hi Kris!) and left a message on the answering machine. She said something like - since you're not home, you must be out celebrating your birthdays in some grand and exciting way. Of course. I was at Chuck E. Cheese's. I detest Chuck E. Cheese's. Now I like flashing disco lights, bad pizza and unattended, sugar-intoxicated kids as much as the next girl, it's just that when you add the never ending, ear splitting noise I feel like I've wandered into a modern Salvador Dali painting. Emily loves it though, so to the mouse hole we go. If I were of a suspicious mindset, I'd think she was doing it just to bug me...hmmm.

Tomorrow is Another Day

It's been such a busy week! We tried to re-deck the attic. We had used some of the decking to put over the windows during Katrina and we could never decide whether we wanted to put it back or not. I decided to Scarlett O'Hara it (you know, "think about it tomorrow") and put the decking back up there because we needed the room. Our garage (as I may have mentioned) is being taken over. And really, winter is the only time anyone is willing to go up there. It's probably a brisk 70 degrees or so (I'm kidding, but not by much). In the summer, it's unbearable up there. And every time we put something up there I'm reminded of how many times Joel has said, "We're never moving, because I'm never taking all this back down". There's plenty of interesting stuff up there, but I agreed to NOT organize, just deck. Otherwise, I'd have spent 3 hours color-coding the old baby clothes and it still would be a disaster.

Joel and I have learned to work well together. (It was a learned skill). He's the big picture guy, I want a separate bin for every little thing. His way gets things done - mine, not so much. I must admit though, that when I see something like this -





I get all happy inside!

Where my mom lives in Colorado they actually have a store called "The Container Store". I can't even begin to imagine such a wonderful, magical place. Children may dream of a shopping spree at Toys R Us, but as for me, I cannot imagine a better place than "The Container Store".

I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere about buying stuff to hold onto stuff that you use so infrequently that you need to buy special stuff to store your stuff in. But I'll think about that tomorrow. :)

I Should Have Been A Dentist

Yesterday was just one of those days. Joel stayed home so we could take all 3 kids to the dentist (see previous post about not having a second car right now) and with gas prices being what they are, it was just easier for him to stay and take them with me than for me to take him all the way to work, come home, go to the dentist, come home, go back to his work and get him and come home again. Plus, we were waiting to hear from the mechanic, so he just took the morning off and took the kids. As we're about to leave we get a phone call from the mechanic - Old Faithful is fixable - and, according to him, worth fixing because of the type of car it is. He quoted us a price (gulp) and we decided we'll do it, but not right at this moment. We have other things coming up first and then we'll handle that. So, feeling both discouraged and encouraged (I was hoping for a repair cost of about $29.95 but expecting one of about $2995.00 and it was no where near either) we headed off to our dentist.

I was pretty excited about the dentist (weird, I know, but I really like this dentist) because he's a pediatric dentist, he's great with the kids and we finally have dental insurance (yeah!). I even called the dental insurance company to make sure that I had all my ducks in a row first. The only thing they told me that was a little strange was that I had to give the dentist's office my health insurance card as well. (Our health insurance has a very tiny dental benefit accepted by a few dentists - not the one I was going to - and so I guess the health insurance has to turn it down first before the dental insurance picks it up. All new information to me, by the way) This dentist is a participating provider with my new dental insurance, so I thought no more about it. When we got there, the receptionist was on the phone so she just asked our name and said "ok" and we sat to wait. When she finally was off the phone I asked if she needed to get my insurance card, she said "no - we already have all your information from when you called". I told her that the insurance told me to make sure that they had both cards and she said, "Oh, we just file that through the Air Force". I'm thinking, "OK, fine". When the kids were finished we went the little payment office and I handed the office manager both cards and she gets this real funny look on her face and starts asking me if the health insurance was my "primary". Now, I have no idea. There's not really any dental insurance for this office on this card, so I'm thinking "How can that be the primary anything when they aren't going to give you a dime?". In case you ever need to know - primary means the one that has to be filed first (again - newly acquired knowledge for me). So, I'm still thinking, "fine file that one first, whatever you want to call it. You get paid no matter what." I'm still not really sure what the problem is until she says the magic words, "So, you're a cash pay patient then." At which point I'm thinking "Nuh Uhh" (I know it's lame, but that's what was going through my head). She had to have seen the look on my face because then she tells me that I'm going to be even more upset because the total due that day was $902.00. Yup, you read that right. That was for cleanings and x-rays for all three kids, and one had sealants. (At that point I was wondering if the sealants were golden or something). I told here "But we have insurance - that you take - that covers all this." "We don't file secondary insurance" she replied. OK, that's where I started getting irritated. I think the whole thing is ridiculous beyond belief and makes no sense whatsoever. She called my dental insurance to explain it to me (I didn't need them to explain it - I needed her to explain what the big deal was with filing a claim with my actual dental insurance - which she never did). My dental insurance was really nice, but basically it all boils down to the dentist's office policy. I have to pay first, then I get reimbursed. Well, I was--um--firm in the office because we hadn't been told any of that. She went back and talked to the dentist and he said they'd file them both because we hadn't been told before hand. I'm still irritated ... and confused. I cannot for the life of me understand what the big deal is about filing the actual dental insurance. At least the kids had no cavities and they have nice, shiny teeth now. We did tease the kids on the way home about leaving one of them there for payment.

Now We Are ... Eating a Lukewarm Dinner?

Well, we started back to school today. Emily was thrilled, Alex was resigned and Caleb looked for a way to blend chameleon-like into the walls. First day back is always a long day because not only do we have to go back to what we were doing when we left; we actually have to retrace back a little to make sure everyone is up to speed, including me! I love the reading part - Emily and I were reading poems from "Now We Are Six" by A.A. Milne ("But I'm not six yet" she tells me - I don't know if she thinks the book police are going to come and get her or what) and I was helping Alex with a report on Mississippi. I've only lived here just shy of a dozen years, it may be about time I learned a tad bit about it.

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So, tonight, I have dinner in the oven, Joel's called to tell me he was stopping on the way home to get gas. Schoolwork was done and put away. It looks like smooth sailing now. (Never, ever say that. Don't even think that.) Then he calls when there's something like 5 minutes left on my oven timer to tell me that Old Faithful has died. I really don't know why I was surprised. It's just that we really hoped to pass the 200,000 mile mark. (It's at something like 199,192 right now). It could be something minor (snort). Last time he had trouble, he just needed new spark plugs. This time, though, he said it went "snap" and stopped. I'm just thinking the "snap" or "bang" or "clunk" or whatever it was, probably isn't a great sign. (There's a whole other story about how we got the old girl from where she was to where she is now by using the van as a sort of automobile-plow, but perhaps the less said about that the better.) He'll call our old mechanic tomorrow and talk to him and -- we'll see. Of course the kids have a dentist appointment Wednesday morning and Emily has ballet Thursday afternoon, so scheduling will be fun, but it will all work out. And we'll be down to a one car family again, at least for a while. Plus, we're both really wishing he hadn't put the gas in first.

A "New" Thing.

So, now's the time for "resolutions". Time to try something new. I was reading a conversation about Christmas a week or so ago - that Jesus probably wasn't born in December, but sometime in the spring and that Christmas replaced some pagan holiday. I pondered on that a bit, and it occurred to me how perfect that was. It's exactly what Jesus does. He changes the old to the new. He perfects. He did it when He changed water into wine (John 2); He did it when He changed a blind man to a seeing man (John 9); when He changed the demon possessed man into a sane man (Mark 5 - I personally like the idea of the guy sitting there "fully clothed and in his right mind" There certainly are days I need that kind of intervention!). Jesus changed Saul and Simon so much He changed even their names! Then of course, there's Lazarus. Bringing the dead to life is the ultimate "new". It just made me think about all the different things I do to try to improve myself and in truth the One who can make all things new is right here willing and able to work through me! So, my own personal New Year's Resolution - Get closer to the One who makes all things "new"!

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An update on the doorknob - Joel came home from work with a shiny, brand spankin new doorknob and we installed it. It's amazing how easy those things are to install when the lock isn't stuck shut. No power tools required! Of course it was still really cold, but at least if someone makes it through the obstacle course that is our garage, they will find a locked door.

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Here's more video of Emily doing one of her Christmas songs. It's a shame she's so camera shy.

Happy New Year! (Let us in! Let us in!; Let us out! Let us out!)

Okay, so now it's 2008. I didn't make it up until 12:00. (I think I'm still recovering from Christmas - yeah that's it). Alex didn't either. Of course, Alex goes to bed at the same time every night, no matter what. Neither rain, nor sleet nor dark nor dark of night can keep Alex awake at bedtime. So it was Joel, Emily and Caleb -who was at a Youth thing at church until 1:00. I can't even stay awake longer than my kids. When I start falling asleep earlier than Alex, I'm really going to start feeling old!

We went and saw Enchanted (cute movie). By the way, it gets more and more difficult to see a family movie when the kids ages range from 5 to 14. One side wanted Water Horse the other would have been more than happy to see National Treasure Book of Secrets. We checked out pluggedinonline.com and then compromised.

Joel watched Illinois get pummeled by USC in the Rose Bowl while I took a nap, and then Emily just had to have a calendar for the New Year (Don't ask me why - I do not know. She certainly didn't get that particular interest from me. I don't usually know what day of the week it is even with a calendar). So, we went to Wal-Mart (sigh). We had a little bit of trouble getting out of the front door. We couldn't unlock the front door. It was very cold (ok, well cold for us - like 42 at that point). S o, we fiddled with it for a bit and then we figured we'd pick up some WD-40 and oil the lock when we got home and of course - voila - it would work like a charm. So we all tromped out the back door, made the pilgrimage to Wal-Mart and back bring the calendar and the WD-40. We sprayed it in the lock and ... nothing happened.

We spent the next hour and a half dis-assembling the doorknob - because we decided we'd just trade the front for the garage door (same key). Not nearly as easy as it looked. The whole thing ended up involving power tools. We had to cut the interior workings out of the front door and replace it with the garage door knob. By this time the temperature had dropped to 36 (and I don't care where you're from - that's cold!) and we've got the front door and the garage door open. Joel keeps saying "Any other night of the year, this wouldn't be so bad". So now we have a front door that's normal, but we had to block the doorknob hole in the garage (I wasn't worried - anyone who tried to get into the house through the garage would break a leg just trying to get to the door) and Joel has to pick up a new doorknob after work to replace the one we pilfered from the garage.

What a way to begin the New Year!