Friday, February 29, 2008

Doctor Mama

I love co-pays. Don't you? It's just so much fun to wake up in the morning and think to myself, "I wonder how many co-pays I can pay today?" And then I call the doctor's office to see if they can work us in just so I can pay my co-pay. I'm kidding. Joking. Ha ha, funny funny. Co-pays really are a blessing in that I don't have to pay the entire doctor's bill, but it still is a hefty little chunk of money that I would rather spend on ice cream, or donuts, or shoes, or something important like that. There have even been a couple of times I've refused to go to the doctor just because they were going to charge me a co-pay. Like when Eli needed his stitches taken out. Most doctor's offices take stitches out free of charge, since you already had to pay to get them put in. But not my doctor's office. They like to charge for that service. So I enlisted Grandpa Nurse to take them out - it took all of five minutes and Eli was very happy to even get a sucker out of the deal. He still remembers that. And then there was the time the doctor wanted me to bring Seth in 3 months from then to weigh him to make sure he was gaining enough weight. Note that the doctor was not going to see him; it was merely an appointment to walk to their scale, plunk Seth down, and see how much he weighed. That's it. You better believe they wanted their co-pay. I decided my scale at home works the same as the doctor's office scale.
But when the kids are really sick, I'm willing to do whatever it takes for them to get some help. Like today, when little Eli was wheezing so much and coughing his head off (not literally, Mom). The nebulizer just wasn't doing the trick, and there wasn't anything else I could do. I was on the phone to the nurse and into the doctor's office in less than 45 minutes. We were supposed to be worked into the schedule and the front desk lady told me we might have to wait 2 hours before we could be seen. But she didn't know she was talking to a Mama bear. Heh, heh. And we were talking to the actual doctor in 15 minutes. Score for the Mommy bear!
Now we have some prescription medicine for Eli to help with his asthma, and we have an inhaler that we can use whenever we're out and about (so we don't have to lug the big nebulizer around in the backpack). His asthma attack was most likely triggered by a cold. Savannah has a cold, too, and actually lost her voice today. For a talker, that's a hard thing to lose. But she made the best of it, and croaked out all kinds of stories today. I even caught her trying to sing to her Polly Pockets. Somehow, my explanation of not talking to help her voice get better didn't connect. Maybe I'm the one with no voice...

I pray that in all respects we may prosper and be in good health, just as our soul prospers (3 John 2).

Monday, February 25, 2008

Upward Basketball


Tonight was the awards ceremony for Jacob's basketball team. From December through last week, every Thursday night was basketball practice, and almost every Saturday was a basketball game. And I've got to tell you, Jacob L-O-V-E-S basketball. He even mentioned to me a few weeks ago that "Maybe God made me tall because it's His plan for me to be a basketball player when I grow up". This from the kid who since he could talk has been planning to be a sheriff (so that he can be a police man and cowboy at the same time). I had to agree with Jacob - Yes, God made you tall, and yes, maybe it is part of God's plan for you to play basketball. In my biased opinion, Jacob was the most improved player on his team. When he started in December, he didn't know how to dribble. But now, he can dribble all the way down the court and shoot the ball at the basket (albeit very slow and deliberately)! And he is a great defender. Jacob's coach was great; every kid on the team had equal playing time in the games, and the boys who didn't have as much experience with handling the ball were the ones who got to take the ball down the court! So Jake got lots of ball time as well as lots of playing time!
At the awards ceremony tonight, the special speaker was Frank Reich - a college football star, and former NFL quarterback. (He played for the Buffalo Bills and has the record for the biggest comeback in an NFL game - they were down by 32 at halftime, and he led his team to victory). He also was the quarterback in the SuperBowl that we (Dallas Cowboys) won against 52-17. But I won't mention that. Frank Reich shared several stories about his sports past and then challenged the kids to make sure they were "shooting at the right goal" with their lives by giving their lives to Jesus. He also gave each kid an autographed football card. Jacob was thrilled, and has now started a new hobby - collecting football cards! Jacob also got a big trophy and a basketball.
This experience has been so good for Jake. The basketball league he was playing in is Upward Basketball. This is a sports ministry outreach through a local church. Chris and I were very impressed by the quality of program and volunteers. And Jacob had a wonderful experience with his first organized sports team.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Beautiful Me!

Here's a fun link. Create a work of art based on your personality...
Here's mine:


Click here to create your own painting.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Silverware Drawer

Right now at my house, the laundry pile has been waging war with me, and I am clearly losing in the battle. I have done innumerable loads this week, and the pile has only climbed higher. I know, statistically speaking, if you take clothes off a laundry pile (to wash them) the pile should get smaller, but that does not take into account the amount of clothes and linens that 4 children can go through in a single day. All this to say that, though there are various piles of clothes scattered around the house in different stages of the laundry process, there may not be too much selection in the individual drawers of a certain little boy named Eli.
This morning, after Eli had his shower, I helped him get some underwear from the basket of clean unfolded laundry in my room. "Now, Eli, go get a shirt and some pants from your dresser." And off he ran, only to return moments later, with a very distressed look. He had his elephant shirt in hand..."But Mommy, there's only silverware in my pants drawer", he wailed.
Silverware? How can this be? Then a dawning of understanding... Elijah has forgotten the word for "overalls". And he does not want to wear overalls with the elephant shirt. That clearly contradicts the 3 year old's fashion sense.

*Eli does have to wear the silverware overalls, but he wears a different shirt under them. That makes everything better.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Announcing the Lucky Duck

We have a Duck! Just Another Crazy Family is the lucky duck who gets the packet of coupons! Congratulations, and thank you so much to everyone who participated in this giveaway and made my husband think that I truly am (at least in our family) the blog queen! (Ha, ha - just think, I didn't tell him I was jumping in the fun at Bloggy Giveaways, and he checks my blog, which typically has 0 - 1 comments, and there's 40 at the time of his checking; it blew his mind!) Just to roll the credits on the coupons, as well, I don't buy a Sunday paper. But a good friend from church does, and she saves all her coupon inserts for me. Isn't she generous?! And also, I sign up for lots of free samples online and when the free samples come, there's usually coupons that come with them. As far as organizing my coupons goes, my coupon organizer that I got from the Dollar Tree five years ago just fell apart. But I saw a lady at the grocery store who had the coolest coupon organizer: it was a fat 3-ring binder with baseball card page protectors that she had all her coupons sorted into, with page dividers separating all the categories. She just had the thing propped open on the kiddy seat of the cart, and voila! So that's what I want to do... sort all my coupons - sounds like just the thing for me! (If you don't get this joke, please refer to the post "Sort Of" a couple of posts down.)