Wee Bit Wednesday

  {one} how tall are you?5'3".  I'm short, and I like it mostly.
{two} besides bills, what do you spend most of your money on?Skyline and books.  It's a sad life, but someone's gotta do it. {three} what are your three favorite websites?Blogger, Yahoo, and probably www.ana-white.com which is this ultimately awesome do-it-yourself furniture building site. {four} what brand of tennis shoes do you prefer?I don't have one, but Reeboks and Sketchers are pretty nice. {five} what food can you absolutely not stand to eat?Anything spicy.  No way.
{six} How many pairs of jeans do you own?4- 3 that fit and look nice, and 1 that look horrible but are covered in paint and count as my "work jeans" {seven} if you could have any job, what would it be?If I could have any job I would stay at home and not have any to be honest. {eight} have you ever ridden in an ambulance?My dad was an EMT, so riding to school in an ambulance was common.  I also got hit in the face with a baseball bat once.  Knocked out, placed on a backboard, rode in an ambulance, the works. {nine} how many pillows do you sleep with?2- Mine and Mike's.  He works nights, people.  No, I don't take it from him! {ten} on a scale of 1-5, how organized are you?5.  I love organization. And since I forgot to post last week's- {one} name one thing you worry about running out of.Gas.  I push it to the last minute because I hate taking the time to pump gas.


{two} what is your favorite pizza topping?Ham and Pineapple


{three} what is your favorite harrison ford movie?6 Days, 7 Nights or maybe Sabrina.  Air Force One was pretty good too.


{four} apple juice or orange juice?orange juice.


{five} what’s your favorite thing to do on a sunday afternoon?Read.


{six} what is the wallpaper on your cellphone of?A piece of sheet metal with a heart on it


{seven} do you have a favorite tv commercial?No.  They are all pretty dumb.


{eight} what is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?I don't eat weird things.  Although some would consider deer meat, squirrel, or frog legs to be weird I guess.  It's all part of living on a farm.


{nine} what is one piece of clothing you can’t live without?Jeans.  Gotta have my jeans.


{ten} if you were a character from “lost”, who would you be?I don't watch Lost.

Out with the Old?

I'm not really sure where to begin with this.  How about a quick "about me".

I grew up on a farm in a small town.  We had maybe 2,000 residents.  My high school might have had 400 kids in it.  My graduating class would have been around 95, maybe.  Now, not to be overly critical, but my education while in this small town left something to be desired.  I was at the head of my class (I would have been valedictorian), but when I moved to a bigger city school, with lots more kids and programs and opportunities, I found that I was majorly behind.

Enter facebook.  While most of my friends on facebook are from more recent encounters, such as college and beyond, I still keep in touch with high school friends.

Unfortunately, some of them aren't what I'd call "friends" any more.  There have been things done and said in the past, and honestly I'm a little surprised THEY haven't gotten rid of me because of, heaven forbid, my inter-racial marriage.  (I do in fact know at least 2 or 3 of them are absolutely 100% against this).  Anywho.  Friends who aren't friends.  Yeah, but we were at one time, right?

But now that we're adults things are different.  We disagree.  Mainly on politics. I KNOW!  You don't have to tell me "you should just not discuss politics" or "Well, they are entitled to their opinions".  I understand.  I'm friends with a lot of people who disagree with me on politics, actually.  Including one of my closest friends.  We either agree to disagree and not discuss it at all, or we choose to have a wonderful, respectful debate.  It's quite fun, actually, and it keeps me up-to-date.

But other friends, specifically those who are less educated and from my old town, are less than nice.  They post things that are actually insulting to me, claim things like "Liberals don't support the military".  They call names and spread hate.  And as much as I would like to argue with them, you just can't argue with people who just refuse to accept even basic fact.  They hear things, but don't check the facts.  Then they are disgusted with something taken so out of context it's unbelievable.  These are the types of things I see.

Now, please don't think I'm being judgmental.  I'm really not.  I've tried.  I've tried reasoning, and even ignoring.  But I find that every day they find ways to bother me.  And I'm not judging their lack of education.  I do see it as a reason, though, and I think it's really sad.  But what can I do?

I want to know about their babies (3 on the way, with others growing up).  I want to hear about their family (2 of them are in Afghanistan).  I want to stay in touch.  But I just can't take it. 

So what would you do?  Do you remove the old and move on?  Do you say something?  Even though they have the right to say whatever they want (and I don't think it would go over well)?  Or do you just grit your teeth and deal with it.  I just can't decide.  I love these people, and it breaks my heart that they can be so negative without knowing the facts or even trying to know the facts (seriously... facts.  Not opinions or even projections or estimates.  Plain and simple, proven facts.)

Advice requested.  Please.

Parenthood and my liberal "young parent" ideas

The title is my own.  No one has criticized my ideas.  Mainly because I'm not a parent yet.

I love love love the show Parenthood.  It's a lot of drama, but it's the drama of real life situations, I think.  It's interesting.

So the show has a website (of course) and on that website each week it posts a poll of "hot topics" from the show (because of course... no one agrees on how to parent appropriately).

I have found that I disagree with the majority of viewers on a very very regular basis.

I'm a little surprised by that.  Mainly because of lying, it seems.  Is it ok to lie to your child (who is autistic, but doesn't know it) about going to a support group for parents of autistic children?  Yes.  I think so.  He doesn't realize he's different.  Why point it out when the doctor said he's not ready to know?

The world disagrees with me.

Is it ok to lie to the principal of a nice elementary school (tell him you, the parents, are married when, in fact, you are not) in order to get in?  No.  I don't think so.  Besides, he'd probably find out the truth later anyways.

The world disagrees with me again.

Should you steal Halloween candy from your child?  Yeah.  They don't need all that sugar.  Neither do you, though.  And I'm not talking "gobble it all up" stealing.  I'm talking a piece or two here or there.

Again, the world disagrees with me.

Do you watch the show?  I'm so curious to see what you think of it, and of the hot topics!

Health Insurance Dilemma Solved

To see part 1 of this post, simply go here.

So where were we?  Oh yes.

The dilemma was the group plans at work don't match our needs or financial means.  BUT we can't switch to an individual plan because what if our situation were to change in 9 months (because it seriously most likely... will)?

Then my mother, the genius, had one of her brilliant ideas that for some reason I didn't think of.  Not sure why, because once I saw it, it made perfect sense!

I will get a plan for myself through work.  And only for myself.  It's HSA eligible, so I can start that up as well.  And then, for Mike, we will get him his very own individual plan (because obviously he won't be getting pregnant).  And sadly, Mike's plan is better than mine (by a lot.  His deductible is half of mine with all the other benefits remaining the same) and it's only $3 more per month than what I will pay for mine.

So problem solved.  We don't have a crazy $6,000 deductible and we are only spending $3 more per month.  And, since I'm not changing plans, there is no worry about a "what if" situation- it's covered.  Plus, since Mike's plan is HSA eligible too (Health Savings Account for those who aren't up on those things), we can both use my HSA.  Simple.  Affordable.  Nicely covered.

Yay.  Now we can go hurt ourselves without the worry of not knowing what's covered/what's not.  And if YOU have any questions, by all means.  I can answer them.  I probably know health insurance policies better than some who sell them.  No joke. 

**Insert "I can't wait for the Healthcare Reform Act to fully come into play" statement.  Pregnancy as a pre-existing condition?  That's just shitty. (And we'd qualify for a credit (I think)!)"

The big fat stinking thing called Health

Insurance...


Health insurance.  Stinks.  Hard.  Core.


So my company's open enrollment for health insurance is going on, and our plans start Feb 1.  


Do you remember the dreaded first for us?  Or maybe the awful summer we had?  Yeah we have learned a LOT about health insurance in the last 8 months ish.


So I found out, after learning the hard way, that the insurance plan I picked (I had 3 choices) really did not match our needs.  AT ALL.  It was bad.  Real bad.


And it was so sad, because I think if I put a little more thought into it, and had taken it seriously, I could have figured this out when I chose the insurance... And we wouldn't have had to face the financial repercussions that we unfortunately had to deal with.


We survived, by the way.  But think of all the things we could have done with the extra money we would have saved!


Anyways.  So we are in open enrollment, and Mike and I have decided we HAVE to switch insurance.  But there's a glitch.  There is a really nice HSA choice.  If you're an individual.  For a family, it's cheap, but it would really hurt you financially if you have medical needs up around 5,000 to 6,000.  


So I was frustrated, and I was a little unsure of what to do.  We had looked at individual plans outside of what my job offers.  But the maternity clauses wouldn't go into effect for 9 months.  What if... ya know?


To be continued...