Friday 5 for August 8: I Saw It At The Movies (done on Aug 10)

In Citizen Kane, the main character’s last word before dying is “Rosebud,” which is discovered later to be the name of a favorite childhood sled. The idea is that this rich, powerful, hated man, in his last moment, finds himself thinking of happy, innocent times. If the film were about your life, what word might you utter in similar sentiment? Zippy (a capucian sp? monkey that lived a few doors up the street from me.) OR UltraMan.

In Groundhog Day, the main character is forced to live the same day again and again until he has learned to love others and to love himself. If you found yourself in an endless loop, living one day repeatedly until you learned the lesson that was holding you back, what would that lesson be? finding a good balance between being a doormat and being overbearing.

In Freaky Friday, a mother and daughter who have difficulty understanding each other find themselves each living the other’s life (occupying the other’s body and everything!). If this were to happen to you for similar reasons, whose body would you wake up in? my MIL. I TOTALLY do not understand her craziness.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has to jump into an underground room filmed with the one thing that freaks him out: snakes. “Why did it have to be snakes?” he asks. If the movie were about you, what would you see in the underground room? spiders, snakes, and my Ex

In Sideways, the main character is asked to explain his love for wine made from a certain grape. As he describes the grape, we realizes he is also describing himself, saying that it must be carefully tended and that it is easily damaged. If the film were about you, what passion (hobby, food, collectible, or activity, for example) would you describe and how would you describe it so that you were also describing yourself? Star Wars. In order of production: It starts with a farm boy from a podunk planet that finds a greater purpose, faces an awful truth, overcomes impossible odds and saves the universe. Then a slave boy is taken from his sad life and liberated to become so much more. He still makes mistakes but his children end up being the best thing he could have ever given the galaxy.

some new pix

Dance class

Look! A new post!

Day 2 of the creeping crud and I'm now running the fever. Stef's fevers have been low grade all afternoon. She's sitting next to me "sewing". I got her a lace up felt dinosaur puppet kit for her bday. She told me I am an amazing sewer. LOL. She's not doing half bad considering it says ages 5 - 9 on the box. Unfortunately, MIL dropped the rest of the yarn pieces in the trash can Stef had been using for a puking basin. Luckily, we have lots of other yarns around here.

I'm thinking I'll be back to work tomorrow. Then it's back to studying for the stinkin Series 7 again. I'm on Module 3, Government Bonds. I swear it's like reading a foreign language. Blech.

Sarah

HersheyPark Christmas Candyland

Christmas pix 07

Crazy man

Yesterday at work, we had a lunch meeting. The food was set up in the conference room like usual. One of the brokers was fixing his plate when he noticed a homeless man staring at him thru the huge picture window. Feeling uncomfortable, the broker gave the man a nervous little wave. Apparently the man took that gesture as an invitation because he then came inside, fixed himself a plate and left. I have to add at this point, that this all happened while I was at lunch.

So, okay, we did a nice thing by accident. About 20 minutes after I came back from lunch, this same man came back for 2nds. He just walked right past my window making a beeline for the food. I stopped him though.

"Sir, can I help you?"

"No. You can't help me. I just walked in"

"Sir, you need to just walk right back out"

He meandered and dawdled in the general direction of the exit. Then he started heading towards the back of the office.

"Sir, you need to leave the office. You need to leave now." He finally complied.

Later in the afternoon, one of the girls that sits in the back of the office asked me if the man had come back a 3rd time because he was standing outside the picture windows back there, staring in. That creeped me out a little.

November 2nd

Today is the 20th anniversary of my enlistment in the Air Force!! If I'd stayed in (which there's no way I could've with my back and my asthma), I could be retiring today.

It's also my step-son, Tony's birthday. I never met him, but I remember his birthday. I think it's funny, in a Karma kind of way, my ex was an extreme homo-phobe and Tony is gay! He doesn't want anything to do with his dad anyway. Last I heard from my step-daughter and BIL, Tony was moving to CA to be an actor. I often wonder about him and how he's doing now. I haven't talked to my step-daughter in about 10 yrs now either. I think they're both relationships best left alone.

Sorry

I just haven't been feeling like blogging lately. I think I'm a bit depressed because a thread on BBC made me realize I've been TTC #2 for almost 3 yrs now, which is nothing compared to some friends I know, but it is still a long time to not get results.

My SHG test Friday showed that my uterus is still normal.

HersheyPark Happy! HersheyPark Glad!

So many things to see and do. Good times to be had.

We had a really great time at Hershey! I'll get the pix up soon. They have REALLY expanded since we were there last. Now that Stef is a Hershey Kiss (rather than a Hershey Miniature like last time), there were a ton more rides for her to go on. She LOVED the log flume again. And begged to get on the Trail Blazer again. That's a smallish rollercoaster that goes more around than up and down. She was fascinated by the Big Bear (big rollercoaster). I think she has to be a Jolly Rancher before she can ride that, and it will have to be with her daddy because I just don't do big roller coasters.

She's awake now. BBL with the pix.

It's a firm date!!

This Saturday at high noon is the official move in date/time for Von & Shawn's girls!!!!! I can't even begin to express how thrilled I am!!!

Nuttin Honey

There's not much going on with me lately. Stef is great. Steve is great. MIL is still a PITA. Mom is still a PITA. Von & Shawn are still doing weekend visits with the girls waiting for a permanent date.

Next Saturday MIL is taking us to HersheyPark for the day. I hope it's hot enough outside to take Stef to the waterpark area. This is part of a County Employee's picnic thing and since MIL retired from the county Office of the Aging, she's in on it. The tix were dirt cheap and there's an all you can eat buffet that lasts most of the afternoon. It'll be fun.

That next week, I'm on vacation. No big plans except to maybe knock a few more things off my list-o-stuff-to-do.

The Saturday after that is Strasburg RR Day with Thomas thing. I think Stef (and Maura and Logan and any others....hint hint) will really enjoy that.

Request for prayers

I got this email from Shawn:

please pray today that God pulls a miracle today. The system is very frustrating at times, cause we had to take the girls back to their foster homes last night. The Lehigh case worker was sick yesterday and unavailable to approve of us keeping them. All this after such a great weekend with them, and yesterday hearing from the older two that they want to stay here and be a "forever family" with us. After many tears and explaining that we love them so much, and will be coming back for them, little Ni-Ni looked up to vonne and said "don't you want us?" i'm crying so hard right now i can hardly type..... thinking of those big brown eyes with a look of rejection... lots of sadness after such joy.... i'm literally shaking thinking she is waking up wondering where she is once again i her short life.
we need a miracle to expedite this process. i've sent this to you because i know you will pray. thank-you. shawn.

I will try to get an update of this wonderful past weekend typed up today and posted tonight or tomorrow.

Live journal

Now I'm blocked from Jeni's blog too. ACK! What could be next? Wait. I take back the question. I don't want to know. I don't want anything else to be next.

Vacation day

I spent my entire vacation day cleaning this house. I even dusted and de-cluttered my bedroom. The first dog that pees or pukes on the clean carpets is getting her little black furry butt KICKED! The first husband that overfills his coffee cup and spills it allover the clean carpets is getting CUT OFF!

I'm so proud of myself.


ps - our microwave is dead. It would cost $228 to repair it so we'll just be buying a new one soon. Meanwhile, we have the old countertop version to use.

Insurance companies suck

I’m still fighting with the insurance company about last cycle’s PGD. They’re saying $350 is the max allowable and have applied that to my deductible. Umm exsqueeze me, but last cycle they paid $1665: $350 towards deductible, $394.50 towards co-insurance (my 20%), and $920.50 paid to me. I asked to have it sent back for review and got the same answer. I asked again to have it sent back for review and reference the claim from December. It’s still in review.

I was finally able to get into the BCBS site and they are indeed submitted with different procedure codes. It looks like I will have to 1) look at what I submitted 2) wait til this claim comes out of review and 3) ask the RE to give me a billing with the original procedure code so I can resubmit and get paid. $900 is a good chunk towards the $3300 we need to come up with out of pocket for the next cycle.

I’m not sure I’d announced it anywhere, but we’re waiting til the November IVF cycle. There’s just too much going on in September. I will actually start injections in October so it’s not really waiting much longer.

Steve woke up this morning with crusty pink eyes. My ear and throat hurt like crazy and my voice (my boys lol) failed me for awhile this morning. Steve had laryngitis from Wed or Thurs last week til Sun or Mon. His ear hurt a few days ago. I guess I'm following in his germy footsteps and he's following (at least partially) in Stef's. We left a message for the CRNP yesterday. We'll see what she says after he talks to her sometime today.

Krista and Angela - It looks like the weather is going to be perfect for you Friday.

I'm trying...

I've been trying to get on the computer at home more often, but it just doesn't always work that way. I've started carrying a floppy disk with me so I can type up blog entries at work then C&P them once I get home. Friday was a horrendously busy day, so I didn't get anything typed up.

Anyway, the weekend was busy. We went to swim school, got there late because of Stef's dawdling, then she didn't want to swim anyway. Hmmm, there might be a connection there. Then we went to the Rag Shop one last time looking for parts of her Bumble Bee Halloween costume. We got the yellow bodice fabric and the black stripes. Next we went to FIL's so he could take us to the Reading Fair. It was fun, mostly. Stef started being uncooperative and having mini-meltdowns so we left before FIL was really ready to, but she just couldn't take anymore so ohwell.

Sunday was a quiet kind of a day...laundry and grocery shopping. And I seem to have lost my cell phone. I already called the grocery store, no luck. I did stop at JoAnn's to get the Tulle for Stef's bumblebee. I have to wait til they open. If they don't have it I'll have to report it as lost to Cingular. :( I tried calling it and can't hear my Cantina Band song playing in the Vue or in the house. If it were turned off or had a dead battery, it would go straight to voicemail, which it doesn't.

Anyway, in case any of you in my phone book gets a call from a stranger or you try calling me, now you know why I am not on the other end of the call.