The eve of

my great adventure. I leave in the morning for Salt Lake City. I'm very antsy. I've been postponing several things, but can't postpone some of them any longer. Like pre-registering at St. Mark's Hospital. I don't know who, if any one, reads my blog, but I've set up a private page on Facebook for Don to post updates. The insurance company authorized a 3-day stay. The letter said 5/27 which is Sunday.

The beginning

One of my favorite movies is The Sound of Music. Maria begins teaching the children to sing & finally starts singing:

Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with A-B-C
When you sing you begin with do-re-mi

Five years after my breast cancer diagnosis, we were finally getting out from under the financial burden (I thought), only to trudge back into the tunnel, still with thousands of dollars of bills outstanding. I haven't had a mammogram for almost 2 years.We have to spend $3,500 per person or $8,000 per family before our insurance kicks in to pay anything. Cache Valley Specialty Hospital is still pursuing us. I have 4 new summons from a law firm in Cache County.

I have been bleeding vaginally since before Christmas. I waited for the new plan year to start on January 1 & then waited another 4 weeks to make an appointment.for Jan. 29 with my nurse practitioner (Nurse Practitioners of Preston or NPP) for a physical.

To be continued...

End of November?

It's the end of November already. I've kind of fallen behind on the Attitude of Gratitude. I've got today & tomorrow before Mother's open enrollment on her insurance closes. I'm not quite sure what to do. She also needs to have her meds ordered. I'm feeling quite overwhelmed. It doesn't seem like the foreclosure is going anywhere fast. The sale date is the first part of January. And Christmas ... Ack!

I'm thankful Christmas only comes once a year.

Forgetfulness

I keep forgetting to look for our marriage certificate for the insurance. So many things get forgotten that I have to write a list, then I forget the list!!!

One thing I don't forget, though, is to check my "baby blogs," Jonah & Gwendolyn.

I've been doing some reading again. I read Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber. All this years I have pronounced it Ma-com-ber. I ordered some Debbie Macomber books for Mother from the Idaho State Library for the Blind & she got A Cedar Cove Christmas today in the mail. I took it over to her & sat with her through the first chapter. I don't like the lady that reads it. I understand now how the reader can make or break a book. Anyway, the reader read through the Library of Congress information & the flap on the cover. She pronounces the author's name May-cumber, like cucumber only May instead of Ma

I left, went to the grocery store, bought groceries for tonight's supper & then, after Don cooked it, took some over to Mother.

When I got back there with supper, she had listened to the first side of the tape. There are 4 sides to listen to. It sounds like it is one I'll have to see if the library has & then I can read it silently.

One more day

I found my cool stainless steel water bottle, under some clothes in the front room. So, I'll wash it out & start on my water habit 6 weeks late.

Also, I found the money order for the audiologist. It was not made out, so since Mother paid that bill, I'll make it out to her & deposit it in her account.

Now, I need to find our marriage certificate, so Don's insurance won't drop me.

Swishing & swiping is coming along very good. It happens almost every day. Maybe by the time the end of the month comes, the toilet will be sparkling clean. Basin still needs a new finish. It is still hard to swipe that up, when it doesn't even look like it's been cleaned.

Tiffany did the dishes on Sunday, did I already mention this? The sink was sparkling clean & the dish drainer was empty!! Wow! I could've cried. She even got Eddie & Nick to help. I'm sure I already blogged about this, but it was just so amazing. Today is the first day the sinks are even filled up & it's FRIDAY!!!

I went to bed at 9:30 last night & slept til 9:30 this morning. Fitfully, but still slept. I didn't feel much better when I got up this morning that I did when I went to bed, sigh. I was going to go to bed early tonight too, because the headache is still with me.

Moving in May, 5/28

I can hardly believe tomorrow is the last business day of the month. That means I have to pull out some money from my savings account to pay the law office for Cache Valley Specialty Hospital. I had to go for blood work there yesterday. I simply hate to go CVSH. They've already sued us once for the breast surgeries in 2007 & I'm still paying for them. I get multiple calls from them for the 2008 bills. Franklin County Medical Center has sued us once also. I don't make enough to pay all of my medical bills, whine, whine.

Mother & I had lunch with a lady in the ward today, a widow. She was depressed & had decided to eat at Arctic Circle. When I picked Mother up from her hair appt., she wanted to go out to Burger King for a sandwich. She hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch & it was after 4. She felt terrible when I picked her up for her hair appt at 1:20. But it was too late to take her to get something to eat because her appt was at 1:30. I suggested Arctic Circle, some place quiet.

Anyway, I haven't seen this lady for months. The last time I saw her was at a Relief Society luncheon. She sat at the table I was at. She & some other ladies were telling me I should have had both breasts taken off instead of just a partial mastectomy. I invited our ward member to sit with us as she was alone. We talked & laughed. Mother felt much better after eating & visiting.

I found out during lunch that this lady has a $5,000 deductible & pays over $500 a month for medical insurance, plus her medications. I feel bad complaining about our situation. After all, we only have a $3,500 deductible for both Don & I.

Mother got her hair cut & permed today & it looked really nice. It had taken 2 and half hours to get it done though. I don't know why it took so long, but it was well worth it.

No formal walk today, I still felt kind of puny after yesterday. I fed the dog & planted my onions. I sat out on the porch in the swing. It's so nice to have it there, just outside the door.

Fourth Sunday in March

Not sure which Sunday in Lent this is, 4th or 5th, but I know it's the fourth Sunday in March. It was my turn to cook Sunday dinner & Don's week to teach the Elder's Quorum lesson.

The fourth Sunday lesson in our ward was on Celestial Marriage, a talk given by Elder Russell M. Nelson, an LDS apostle, in October's (2008) General Conference. I'm in the library, so don't get to hear these lessons, but Don & I discuss them. It was an interesting lesson. I wish I'd been in Relief Society to hear Shannon Knapp teach it.

We have a couple of nieces that have live-in boyfriends & another niece lived with her husband before they got married. It makes me sad. Elder Nelson likens marriage to shopping. He called cheating shoplifting. In talking about cohabiting, I said it's more like renting, than shoplifting. The couple is not ready to take on ownership.

Spent a long time getting to sleep last night. It was a hard night. Another work day tomorrow. Don says it's supposed to snow tonight.

It rained in the night. I washed my car yesterday because I park under a couple of trees & my car is always covered with bird poop. This morning, it didn't even look like it had been washed. I knew it had because I got a new crack in the windshield yesterday in the car wash. A rock chip spread on the passenger side. On the driver's side a crack that has been slowly inching out into my line of vision, took a turn & is now spreading up. Our deductible is so high, that I just need to save money to pay to have it replaced.

Our health insurance deductible is $4,000 per year. At least the car insurance deductible isn't that high.

No insurance???

Today Don-Mike & I went in to the Verizon store here in town. They must not do a lot of business. The girl was on a personal phone call & took her time getting off. She then informed me that I had to have a password to access the account. OOOOO-kkkk, I couldn't remember the password.

Don called after work & I told him that Don-Mike was planning on meeting him to go to the Verizon store so they could file a claim on his phone. Don-Mike, of course, doesn't have a cell phone anymore to call his dad. Don called Mother & found out that Don-Mike had to work - unload flour.

Don called me from the Verizon parking lot & said there is no insurance on Don-Mike's phone. He gave me the password - again. I wrote it down again.

I had just mailed the Verizon mail-in rebates on Tuesday & happened to know where the invoices for the phones were. I dug them out, called Verizon Customer Service & the lady told me that I had declined the insurance. I literally saw red!!! I could feel anger just boil up in me. I told her that I had not declined insurance, but had specifically requested insurance on that particular line because the user was very hard on phones. She put me on hold. Are they trained to put angry customers on hold???

By putting me on hold I was able to calm down a little & look at the receipt. I could see that I had been charged for insurance, but had declined insurance on Don's phone. Nick also found the statement that I had in front of me when I ordered the phones, with all my notes & the password written in 2 or 3 places. I told both boys the password. Maybe we'll all remember it this time or maybe I'd better write it down in my trusty little notebook.

The good news is that they put insurance on Don-Mike's phone because I had proof. We have to pay a $50 deductible on the phone (which was not explained to me at the time of purchase), plus insurance premiums for the past 2 months. The insurance is only on that line. Which, of course, is the only line I wanted it on. We should have put insurance on Nick's phone. The representative told me if we have problems with the phone not holding a charge, that is mechanical & is covered by the warranty on the phone, not insurance.

More good news. We found out now! Not a year into the contract.