"Why do these things always happen to me?" :)

I was getting ready to go sub early this morning and Jason had just dragged himself out of bed. The first thing he did was get on the computer to check his email. As I'm getting ready I hear "Uh-oh."
So I peek in the living room to see what happened. He looks up at me and says:
"I think I just did something bad."
I give him a puzzling look.
"I accidentally bought a wii." he continued
"You accidentally did what??" I'm confused. I didn't know it was possible to buy something on accident.
"Bought a wii."
"How?"
"I placed a bid on ebay, it was low enough I thought I would get outbid."
I was shocked. I knew Jason really wanted a wii, but we had decided that we would wait until he had a good job first. We do have some money saved up, but since we don't know what the future holds, we wanted to make sure that we knew where our next paycheck was coming from before we spent money on things we didn't need.
"Are you being serious?"
"Yes," pause "Why do these things always happen to me?"
"Why do what things always happen to you? You mean things like you placing a bid on things and being surprised when you bought it?"
"Yes."
"You poor thing."
So now we have a wii. At least we got a good deal on it (it's brand new) because it was a low enough price Jason thought it would never be the highest bid (if he didn't want to buy it, I don't know why he was bidding on it in the first place). We actually haven't decided if we are going to keep it or sell it back. The other positive thing: Jason can't get mad at me for all the cameras we've had to buy in the past.

Oh and good thing it wasn't a van. Jason has been wanting to buy a van lately and has been looking at them on ebay. At least I HOPE it's just looking!

Thank you Jason

This is a continuation of the story/events that I mentioned in my previous post:

Jason first called my doctor back in Manhattan, KS and she called the doctor's office here in KC to figure out why they wouldn't see me. The office in Manhattan didn't understand why they would do this.

Jason then went to his favorite website ever: gopowercat.com to post the situation in a message board to see if anyone knew if we had any legal rights in the matter. Yes, I know it is a sport website, but in case you didn't know, Jason is a boy, and that's where he does his "gossip" (or whatever you call it.) A doctor in the Kansas City area who read his post actually called the doctor's office to find out why they wouldn't see me.

Finally Jason called the office himself. He got their voicemail and so he left a message that he would keep calling them back until they got the situation resolved.

So either they got sick of all these people calling, or they realized they should have handled this differently in the first place, but the office manager called Jason back and apologized. She said this never should have happened and scheduled me an appointment with a different doctor. So now I only have to wait until Thursday to find out how I'm progressing.

Disappointment

I've been waiting very patiently for my doctor's appointment. Well, maybe the right word is anxiously, but the big day was finally supposed to be here today.

When we first moved to Missouri, I had to cancel my Kansas health insurance and apply for insurance in Missouri. Right away, I also called a doctor's clinic nearby to find a doctor who would see me for the remainder of the pregnancy. They said they could not see me until I had my new insurance card, and they told me which kind of insurance to get for their clinic. The insurance company approved me for insurance, but for some reason coverage wouldn't start until February 17th, which at the time was a couple of weeks away. So I called the doctor's office back to set up an appointment. They sent me paperwork to fill out and told me to bring in my paperwork from my doctor's office in Manhattan who was previously seeing me. When they made the appointment, it was a couple of weeks away because they had to wait until the date would be covered by my insurance.

So I filled out all their paperwork and waited.

Finally the big day was here! I woke up today really excited to see if the baby was in the right position, if I was dilated... all those things that you want to find out when you are 38 weeks pregnant.

However, when I got to the doctor's office, they immediately pulled me aside and said that they couldn't see me... because I was too far along. They said I was a liability and that I would just have to wait until I went in labor and go to the hospital. I was so confused, they had made the appointment with me and they had asked at the time when my due date was. Why were they telling me this now? Why didn't they even bother to call me before my appointment and tell me I would need to find somewhere else to go? I was practically in tears, but they were heartless about it.

So, I've called other doctors around and no one has any openings before my due date. Wouldn't it have been nice to have known about this earlier? I am so upset that they waited up until I came in to their office for my appointment to tell me this. Another reason some places can't see is because they accept a different insurance and I had to pick a specific insurance plan, so of course I picked the one that is accepted at the doctor's office I THOUGHT I would be going to. I finally found a doctor's office that will see me... the DAY before my due date. So if I haven't had the baby by then, I will go to that appointment.

So now, the waiting game begins again. This time I'm hoping for labor to happen before my appointment. I just swallowed a bunch of Tabasco sauce hoping it might cause something to happen. It's too bad I love spicy food and it doesn't have a big effect on my body, so I doubt it works.

Playtime in KC

We've had a good time exploring around our new home lately. It's been a lot of fun to go to the park as a family. We haven't found "our" park yet, and Kylie isn't old enough to tell us where she wants to go, so we've been experiencing with different places. Here are the places we've tried so far and the pros and cons of each one:

PARK # 1: NAME UNKNOWN, IT'S THE PARK RIGHT BY THE GROCERY STORE UP THE STREET

PROS: It's very close, and it's right by the grocery store. One day, Jason went in to get groceries while I played outside with Kylie, and that worked out well. It has a wobbly bridge on the playset, which is Kylie's favorite thing.

CONS: The area around the park is really trashy. I've had to throw away beer cans, there are cigarette butts all over and since it's by a shopping area, there are fast food bags around. Of course these are the things that Kylie wants to pick up... gross. Also there are no baby swings, and although she loves the slides, she might not be old enough for this park yet.

PARK #2: PENGUIN PARK

PROS: Amazing park! It has toys and play areas for all ages, there are even little short slides that Kylie can climb up by herself. She LOVES the little walk through bridge (see photo) that is ground level so we don't have to climb way up into a playarea to get to. However, that's all she wants to do is walk on that bridge over and over and it's very wobbly even for us (I think that's the point of it though). There is also a lake that we can walk to that is right by that has good walking trails around it.

CONS: It can get so busy that the parking lot is completely full and people are waiting out on the street to pull in and grab a spot. It's a really great spot, so as long is its a quiet time during the week, when it's not so busy, it's a great park to go to.

PARK # 3: NAME UNKNOWN, PARK RIGHT BY OUR CHURCH

PROS: The area is mostly enclosed, so it's a good place for Kylie to run around. There is a wobbly bridge on the big playpen, so that makes Kylie happy. There are quite a few toys, although not nearly as many as penguin park. There is also a sand pit, which the other parks didn't have.

CONS: There aren't that many things for Kylie to do on her own, the toys might be a little too old for her. But overall, she has fun on all the ones we tried. There are some schools really close, so it might get really busy and it's not that big. Although when we went it wasn't that busy... so I can't saw if it gets too crowded or not.

She doesn't like this toy for some reason :(. I think she feels trapped.

PARK # 4: NOT REALLY A PARK, BUT THE LITTLE PLAY AREA/EXHIBITION IN THE CROWN CENTER

PROS: It's nice to go here when it's cold outside since it's all indoors. They have different little exhibitions throughout the year, right now it's the Wizard of Oz. It's wonderful for Kylie to run around in because it's an enclosed room just made for little ones to explore. And afterwards, Jason and I can go buy a chocolate covered cheesecake at the chocolate store in the crown center... yum!

CONS: If it's nice out, I'd much rather Kylie play outside.

PARK #5: GOLDEN OAKS

PROS: Lots of room for Kylie to run around, which she usually prefers over the toys anyways.

CONS: There is no wobbly bridge. Also the bathroom is really scary looking, Jason dared me to go inside, that's how scary looking it is. You can see by the picture that someone graffitied "Death Wish" on the door. So obviously I choose NOT to do the dare and stayed outside where it was safe.

Kylie loves trees. She calls them "threes" but that's ok.

And the only downside of visiting all these parks is...

Now Kylie expects to go outside after naptime. Here she is waiting outside the door with her sippy cup full of water ready to go. The problem was it was cold outside that day and we didn't go anywhere. How do you explain that to a 14 month old?

A big answer to prayers...

All my paperwork finally went through, soooo... I finally start subbing next week! The first job I accepted is an all week job in a special ed highschool classroom. Since Monday is a holiday, I start Tuesday! I have no idea if I'm prepared or not to do this, but I hope that my experience as a highschool para will help. School starts at 7:25, at which time I am normally still fast asleep. Plus I have to drive 25 minutes to get there and I'm expected to be there by 7. I know I can do this, I've just been spoiled with lots of sleep lately. But it's going to be so worth it to be able to work again.

Jason finds out Tuesday if he has a second interview at the mission, so that's another reason to look forward to Tuesday.

70 Degrees in February!

It was such a nice today. It's days like this that help me keep my sanity in the Winter. I don't like staying inside all the time, but it beats going outside when it's cold. The best thing about today was being able to play with my new camera! So I'll recap the days events through pictures:

"Mommy has a new camera!!! I really want it!!"

"If she won't let me have her camera, I'll just keep running away from her so she can't take a picture!"


"First thing to do in the morning: make the biggest mess possible in the living room. I know Daddy just cleaned and vacuumed yesterday, but that's what makes it so fun!"

Time to read and relax a little after destroying the room.

Stealing mommy's phone... hello?

Playing with the farm animals (her favorite toy right now)

Feeding her baby crackers (notice all the crumbs on the couch)

Then it's time to cuddle

We gave Kylie her first ponytail!

It's Kylie Princess Warrior!! (This is our little enclosed patio)

She likes to pull in the rocks. (It's funny, because after playing with them, she'll sometimes put them back).

Running away with rocks!

Brushing her hair

Trying to escape. Actually, she DID figure out how to get through the bars! I was very impressed, but then I had to jump over the bars to get her.

During her great escape, she found dogs looking out the neighbor's window.

Daddy had to carry her back home, because she refused to walk in that direction.



As you can see, it was a very enventful day.

Oh, and I guess I should mention the REAL eventful thing of the day: Jason took his social working test. He said there were a lot of people there taking the test at the same time. He should hear back in 2-3 weeks (yikes!) if they want to do an interview. He also talked to the mission where he previously applied to be a volunteer coordinator and they are looking at applications now, so he might hear back this week for that job. I'm hoping something falls in place soon. Jason has been working really hard at trying to find a job. He thought if all else failed, he'd be able to get a retail job with all the experience he's had. However, no one is hiring right now for retail jobs, most of those employers are having to lay people off right now. So just pray right now that we have patience, but I guess there's no other option but to wait.