Thanksgiving Week In Wichita

DAY ONE

The boys and I went down to Wichita on Tuesday. My bestie was already in town, and I was SO anxious to see her and her sisters, that we left as soon as Riley got out of school. When we got to Wichita, I unloaded the car and zoomed over to Andrea's Dad's house, and we just hung out and chatted. Of course, I'm the worst friend and forgot my camera, so I have no proof that we actually did hang out... Bad Jacque!!!

DAY TWO

Andrea's entire family went to the Zoo, so we tagged along. It was pretty cold, but the kids didn't really mind, and they had fun getting to know each other.

Riley, Reece, Landon & Ava

This is Madi, NOT wanting her picture taken.
Landon's face was just too cute!!

Reece really enjoyed pretending to milk the cow...

Riley and Reece.

This Camel was actually sculpted by my 2nd grade Science teacher, Sherry Hoffman, then donated.

Riley was all about reading the Zoo maps. He did great!
I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Alex. I was so sure I had gotten a picture of all the kids. Guess Shenna will have to come back soon!

After the Zoo, Andrea held a jewelry party at her Dad's, and then my sisters, her sisters and some friends all went to see "New Moon." I really enjoyed it! Andrea did not. I found it 100x better than "Twilight." I'm just so glad I didn't wait for it to come out on video.

DAY THREE

Happy Thanksgiving!! I think my Mom and Dad had an all time low at their house. I think we just had 22 people for dinner. We also took time out to celebrate 4th quarter birthdays!

Reece is less than 2 weeks from turning the BIG 5!!!

Hannah turned 8.
Britton turned 8.
Jack turned 5.

Ariana is 5 this Tuesday.

Reece will be 5 a week after that!

Happy Birthday Kiddos!!

DAY FOUR

(take one)

The day after Thanksgiving we always go to our family~in~law's Christmas Tree Farm and pick out a tree. Unfortunately, Jake had to come back home early, to go back to work. Aunt Jaime came along with us, and our goal was to get some amazing pictures to make a holiday card. The boys had other plans. They did NOT want pictures taken, and they did NOT enjoy much of our time at the farm.

Santa Claus was escorted in by a bag pipe line.

Santa arrives!!!

This is an example of how they did NOT want pictures taken. It only went downhill from here...

Me, "cutting" down our tree. Okay, I was really just tagging a pre-cut tree. My muscles went back home to work in KC.

Aunt Jaime!!

The beautiful barn, that my sister, Jody, decorates personally. She's so talented!!!

The boys told Santa they wanted "Mario Galaxy" for Christmas.

This will be 1 of 2 pictures in our Christmas card.

DAY FIVE

(take two)

Saturday morning, the boys and I got moving early. We went back to the farm before it opened, and tried a second round of pictures. Day 2 was successful.

This will be 2 of 2 in the Christmas card.

DAY SIX

We woke up, slowly packed up, and came back home. It's always so nice to be home after a long trip. All I really wanted to do, was curl up and nap, but we had a tree to get up and decorated. Unpacking came next, followed by laundry and then blogging.

This was Riley, shortly after decorating. All I know is, I'm not ready for school to start or to go back to work. Thank goodness Christmas break is a couple weeks away...

Just Not Right...

This is another boring blog, but the following has been on our mind lately.

As everyone knows, we (Jake) has been a regular at KUMed for the past 3+ years. Well, one of our wonderful perks for being a regular, is having the joys of paying medical bills, regularly. Jake sees his neurosurgeon two times a year, and has all of his procedures(MRI's/surgeries etc.) done there, two times a year. Well, you would think we could just pay ONE bill to the hospital for its services. Of course not! We have one bill that comes for just the physicians that Jake sees, then the other is for procedures that we pay the hospital. We do understand why they are separate, but don't understand why you just can't consolidate all of them. Billing just doesn't work that way.

The latest frustration is this...

We just had our last checkup in September. Everything has finally come back from insurance, and the hospital never automatically merges the new charges with old charges. They just continue to make new accounts for Jake. Every time Jake has to call and request them to be consolidated. Jake had finally paid the Doctor portion, but not the procedure portion, before our checkup. So, we obviously had a new doctor account, but have two procedure accounts. Jake does what he always does, and called to get the two procedure bills together. The lady tells him, if she does this, he would have to pay a higher minimum. Sorry lady, he's already paying more than he can afford to you, and you will not get any more of his money. Well, the lady can't help and won't consolidate. Jake asked if there was any assistance he could get. Since Jake has a job and insurance, she can't help him. She goes on to tell Jake, he should let his original account go delinquent and then they would be able to consolidate with a lower payment. WHAT!!?? We should quit paying our bills to get help? Cheat the system?

Finally, Jake points out that we have been paying them for over 3 years straight. Never missed a payment. Why should we be punished for having a job and insurance? Nothing makes sense!! Something is so wrong with all of this. By the end of the phone call, the lady spoke with her supervisor and we did get the bills consolidated. So we are down to the Doctor and procedure bills, and Jake doesn't have to change what he's been paying. We are, however, considering going to annual checkups, instead of semi-annual checkups. Things have been going well with Jake's health, and our out of pocket is just too much. Each MRI adds over $1200 to the procedure bill, and over $500 to the Doctor's bill. In a perfect world, this wouldn't be so bad, but these bills have been a huge burden for over 3 years, and unfortunately, we will always have these haunting us, because Jake will always need to be monitored. Why doesn't any of this make sense? It's just not right...

Dinostars!!!

Riley's 2nd grade musical was last night. Dinostars!!
Here is the famous costume that gave me a headache.
Not impressive, but I tried really hard.
Here is Riley posing as a scary dinosaur, before we went to the show.































































Riley dancing on stage.

This is the famous ALAINA!!!

Isn't she a cutie!?!?

Riley's speaking part:

"Wear a seatbelt in a car, and a helmet on a bike.

Don't watch too much T.V, better go on a hike."

(Follow these rules and you won't go extinct, like a dinosaur)

This was the funniest thing. The musical was set up like "American Idol." Well, in this scene, the "Raptors" performed a musical number. "We're Raptors, YO! YO! We're Raptors"
2nd graders acting like little gangsters are hilarious! If you watch closely, you'll see the dancers doing a great "worm" along with some pretty good break dancing. I was impressed.

Thanks Aunt Jaime, for coming and bringing your camera, that is WAY better than ours!!!

FYI...

Reece and I, have made nice. We are getting along great! He has been so much fun, and he is always saying how much he loves me! I'm still in a rut, but doing so much better. It's amazing how intuitive kids are. It seems as though every time Reece and I hit a rough patch, something will suddenly click, and he turns into the sweetest, most amazing kid ever. This seems to be an annual thing around here. It was last year, that I was telling ALL of my friends that Reece hated me. How I felt that a girl will come along one day, and he would be gone. He would still be my son, just move on to her world, and never look back. It wasn't long after that, Reece started loving me again. He would tell me how much he loved me, everyday, all day!!! I LOVE Reece. He really is a sweet kid, but I know we will clash many more times in the future. We will get over those humps too!

On The Way Home

REECE: Hey, Mom? Did you know it is okay to eat snow AND snowflakes.
ME: Really?
REECE: Yeah. But not the snow that has potty from dogs and cats. Or grass. Just fresh snow.

Go Riley!

Football season is over for 2009!

We had a banquet, where Riley and his team got new medals and trophies!!

Way to go Pirates!! You had an awesome year!!!

Happy 8th Birthday Britton!!

Have a great day Britton! Can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving!

Britton is Phil's oldest.

Reece's Preschool Pictures

I need your help!! These are Reece's pictures, and even though I know how cute Reece is, these are not his best pictures. Unfortunately, no retakes in preschool. SO, which picture is your favorite??

#1

#2
#3

Thanks for your help! Thankfully, Riley does get retakes, and we will be doing that. He looks like he wasn't told to smile. In a digital world, how does anyone come home with a bad picture? Just saying...

Flag Football Pictures

Blah!!!

So, this is the first time in the year that I've been blogging, that I'm not really feeling it. Typically, I've been on top of things, and I've always been eager to update immediately. I'm just in a FuNk!!! Honestly, there is just so much going on in my head, that thinking about anything else, causes a HUGE panic attack. I don't want to go into specifics, because down the road I have no desire to have the details documented to look back upon. We'll just say it ALL has to do with work. I'm in a horrid situation suddenly, and I feel trapped. I've looked at going back to school, but Jake technically makes too much money to where I wouldn't be able to go to school without working. This would be so hard, because I would feel like I'm neglecting my kids at such an important time in there life. I'm just scrambling to try to get myself in a better environment, and SOON! This stress has truly affected me in every aspect of my everyday life. I'm down, I have no energy, it takes everything I have just to make it to work so I still have a paycheck coming my way, and I haven't been treating Reece very nicely. Reece has always been my challenging child, and it has taken every ounce of energy to have survived with him for almost 5 years now. Please don't get me wrong. I LOVE REECE!! He is just the complete opposite of me, and our personalities don't mesh all the time. I think it's great that he is so different from me, because I see so much potential in him. He just demands a lot of attention and drains a lot from me physically and emotionally. I'm usually great with him, just in this funk, I'm struggling!!!!!!! I really do LOVE Reece, and wouldn't trade him for anything!! So, if you don't see me on here updating, this would be why.

On a more positive note, a few things are happening that have made my days a little brighter. Jake is being terrific! It is in a man's blood to avoid stressful situations, and just go straight to fixing them. Unfortunately, he can't just fix this. Only time can do that. He's been SO understanding! I know he hates that I'm not cleaning up the house regularly, or keeping up with laundry, or doing the dishes as often as he does. He knows I'm down, and he is stepping it up. I'm so lucky!!!
My bestie, Andrea, is coming back to KS for Thanksgiving! I'm SUPER excited! I don't only get to see her and her kids, but all of her family will be back, and she is being SO sweet, and hosting jewelry party for me! I can't wait to see her!!
I have a job interview next week. It is with the school district. I truly think being on the same schedule as the boys, would be a perfect fit! I'm excited, but don't want to get my hopes up prematurely, either. So just pray for me!!! If it doesn't work out, it just wasn't meant to be.
And finally, basketball season is under way!! I have so many days that, just knowing I get to go home and enjoy college (KU) basketball, really helps get me through my day. Rock Chalk!!