Life on the Road

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I am so very, very tired of being sick…

And I NEED to SEW, since Mr. Grow-Like-a-Weed no longer fits well in Medium diapers and I have barely anything to put on his booty.

 Okay, I’m done whining.  Thanks for listening.  It’s tough being in a new town with no friends and family to whine to…

Hard to believe, isn’t it?  And I’m still just trying to catch up!

I went to the ER Thursday, April 24th when I woke up with chlls and fever (over 102) and an inflamed and swolen breast.  Yowch!  (This on top of the ongoing kidney/UTI situation).

I ended up being admitted to the hosptial, and stayed until Monday evening (who knew they would discharge someone after 7pm!). 

The whole thing was a nightmare of conflicting opinions, fighting for the right to nurse my baby, and uncommunicative doctors.  I think “An Open Letter to Homestead Hospital” will be appearing here soon…  It was really so frustrating that I’ve sort of tried not to think about about it.  But on the other hand, it’s just not going away.

I called my PCP for a follow-up appointment, and was told that I couldn’t get an appointment for months, but that I could come in as a walk-in.  She suggested coming on a Wed or Thurs, and coming early in the morning.  Great.

So I went in that Thursday, and was standing outside at 8:45 am (they open at 9).  That made me #4 in the walk-in line.  Which meant I got to see the doctor…  at 1 pm!  (Not, of course, that they told us that right away so we could go do something in the meantime.)

I got a referral to a Urologist, but just got the run-around from them regarding a referral for a lactation consultant, as well as getting the insurance to cover my medications. 

When I got hold of the Urologist they gave me, it turned out that they were pediatric only.  So I called the PCP back and got another name (after a big hassle).  When I got hold of that office, they said that they no longer take my insurance.  I called th PCP back (grrr!), and they said they would call the insurance for a current provider list and call me back.  Excuse me if I don’t hold my breath.

Frustrated (happens a lot lately, doesn’t it?), I called my insurance company.  They said that I could self-refer to a Urologist, and didn’t need a referral at all! 

So I started calling down the list of Urologists from the insurance company’s website, which they said was the most current list.  Pediatric only.  Doesn’t take that insurance any more.  We can see you at the end of June (that’s 2 months away at the time!).  Doesn’t take that insurance.  We can see you next year(!).  Phone disconnected.  And on and on…

After calling a dozen doctors (I kid you not), I found someone who could see me in two weeks, who was an hour’s drive from my house.  Not ideal, but sounded pretty good after I’d been worn down by all the others!

The insurance has a transportation benefit, so I figured I’d let them pay the gas to drive all the way up there.  Well, it turns out that they will drive the patient and one “escort” person.  If I bring the baby (which I obviously have to, for a trip that will easily be three hours), I then have to bring Nick or Wolf to hold R.T. while I’m with the doctor.  But they won’t allow 2 people to come… 

So we ended up driving after all.

At least we all really liked Dr. J.  He’s built like a football player, shaved bald head, and wore motorcycle boots under his scrubs!  And he was very nice and seemed very competent.

It seems that although the kidney stones aren’t causing any of ther own kinds of problems, they probably are responsible for the recurring UTIs.  As foreign bodies, they make a place where things can hide and grow in there…  Eeew!

So we scheduled an outpatient surgery for Lithotripsy - the ultrasound breaking up of kidney stones.  They can only do so much at a time (since it’s also hard on your surrounding healthy tissue), so he said we might need as many as three sessions to get the three stones taken care of.

We also scheduled another in-office procedure for further diagnosis, as well as treatment, of the recurring UTIs and the constant, but perhaps at this point self-perpetuating, symptoms.

Whew!

Obviously, there’s pelnty more to tell…  

During the Knaus Berry Farm season, I’m making dough for cinnamon rolls, cookies, brownies and bread all day long. Then I smell the fresh baked goodness fill the air as they are baking … Yes, I break down and eat some almost every day. Especially when we try a new item.

We spent several weeks working on a new recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies.

We would make some and I would bring them home for the whole family to critique.  We reworked the recipe twice, so we had three different varieties of the cookie, and, of course, I had to bring some home every time.

As we were tasting the product everyone would comment on the cookies having this taste or that taste. It came to our attention that we don’t usually sit and make comments and comparisons about everything else we eat. That’s when we decided we should compare and critique other foods.

I decided to start with chocolate chip cookies.

We went to the grocery store and picked three name brand cookies (Famous Amos, Keebler, and Nabisco) and the store generic. I reminded everyone what flavor we were trying to pick out: a little vanilla, chocolate chips, and lots of sugar.

The family was pretty well in agreement, so I’m just going to share my ratings on a scale of 1 to 5:

Store generic - (0)  Cookie was floury and not very sweet, not many chips and not really good chocolate flavor. Oh, yea, and the cookie was a little over done.  Jewel wouldn’t eat these after a taste.

Famous Amos - (.5)  Not a very sweet cookie, the chips were better, but not enough.  Jewel wouldn’t eat these either.

Keebler - (1)  A little better cookie and good chips.  Jewel ate these, although she clearly preferred…

Nabisco (”Chips Ahoy”) - (4.5)  You could smell the difference when you opened the bag. Very good cookie and chocolatey chocolate chips.  Jewel really enjoyed these.

I really didn’t expect that big of a difference in the name brand products.

…And I have to add that the Knaus Berry Farm cookies have them all beat hands down - even if I do say so myself! 

God bless you all …

Wolf

Last night we FINALLY had Jewel’s birthday party - I caved and did Chuck E.Cheese, since the weather is either too hot to bear and/or thunderstorms all the time. 

I hate that place - so noisy, so overpriced, bleah!  And the kids all go running off to play, so Jewel didn’t really spend time with them - although SHE was perfectly happy with it, as she also went running off to play (with Papa in tow).

We did a “Super Hero” theme (to include the boys), since Jewel is such a Wonder Woman fan.

The stars of the show were Jewel (in her “everyday” version of her WW costume), and the Wonder Woman cake we made for her:

I saw this cake pan on Kristin’s Etsy site, Ropa Vieja, and knew we had to have it.  Later, in looking for decorating details from Wilton, I discovered that it originally came with a plastic face!  Off I went to eBay, and hunted one down with the face and original instruction booklet. 

Anyone want to buy an extra Wonder Woman cake pan?

So I got the pan, accumulated all the decorating equipment we needed, and laid all the plans.  But in the end, between R.T. and not feeling well, it was Wolf who stepped up and made her lovely.  What a guy!

This morning Jewel’s enjoying playing with her Play Doh birthday gifts … who knew a 3 year-old could spend 5 hours doing something?!

I just watched the neatest video on YouTube, and I had to share it.

 No, it’s not the latest music video….  Or stupid pet tricks…  Or …  

 Actually, it was made by a governmental agency in India, with help from UNICEF and the WHO.  I’m a lot of fun at a party, eh? 

It’s really, really amazing how God made us!

My philosophizing about why so few people would imagine that’s possible will have to wait for another day…

With a new baby in the house, and having been quite ill lately, I haven’t been able to do anything with my home businesses.  I’ll go inactive with Tupperware at the end of this week if I don’t get $250 worth of orders in.

Would you consider helping?  There are lots of great sales and promotions going on…  Check it out at:  Tupperware Blitz (a company site - orders are shipped direct to your door!).

As a thank you for helping me out, anyone who orders before 12 noon on Friday, May 30th will be entered in a drawing for a terrific F.R.E.E. Tupperware package

And anyone who orders $25 worth or more will receive a F.R.E.E. gift directly from me!

Thank you!!

- Tiffany
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Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
                      - I Corinthians 10:31. NKJV

Thanks to all of you who have expressed your concern…  and yes, they are pretty close. 

At present we are in no danger, and do not expect to be. 

There is so much smoke in the air, though, that they are actually recommending staying home if you can to avoid being out in it!  In the house with everything closed and the a/c running it smells awful and is making our eyes burn…  Yuck!

I have two friends that live between us and the fire, as well, and both are families with small children, so please include them in your prayers.  Our church is also closer to the fire, so it is not yet clear whether there will be services tomorrow.

Again, please pray - but don’t worry!! 

Hi, all!

I haven’t posted for a while because I either didn’t have anything to post about, or something happened and someone else posted it. Now, I have decided to write reviews on video games because no one else in the family is a serious gamer so they won’t steal my posts. 

Rock Band was made by Harmonix, who also made Guitar Hero I, II, and III. I also own GH3 and might write a review on it later, but this review is on Rock Band. In Rock Band, 1-4 people can play: one person can go on a solo tour or get together with friends or even people on Xbox Live to do a band tour.

There a 4 positions on the band: guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. The game box, however, only comes with one guitar controller. Because I own GH3 I can just use the guitar that came with it as my bass, so that works out well.

The drums are my personal favorite. They consist of four drum pads and  a foot pedal, all supported on a metal and plastic frame that you have to assemble, but don’t worry. It comes with directions and is easy to assemble without them. They also come with to real drumsticks that would be just as good on a real drum as in this game.

The guitar that came with Rock Band is very cool. It has fret buttons on the neck, and a strum bar on the body, which you strum as you press the frets. The GH3 controller strum bar made a slight clicking noise every time you strummed, but the Rock Band strum bar is silent. There is also the whammy bar, which bends the sound of your notes making them really cool.

The mic is, well, a mic. You have to have a normal Xbox 360 controller to use the mic, which, in some songs, is also used as a cowbell or tambourine.

The game is, if possible, cooler than the equipment. If you make a band, each person chooses the gender, height, weight, face style, hair style, hair color, eye color, skin color, attitude, name, and hometown. Then you choose the band’s name and starting city. The first time I played I was the drummer, and I maxed out the height and weight (which makes him buff, not chubby), gave him white skin and hair, red eyes, and dressed him only in black, preferably leather, accented with chain armbands and spikes and the like, and gave him a heavy metal attitude. He is awesome.

When you play a  gig, notes (or words, with vocal) start coming down the track to the target bar. Guitars have to press the correct color fret button, then hit the strum bar when the note reaches the target bar. Drums just whack the right color pad, and vocals have to sing at the right pitch, but don’t have to get the words right.

After each song, you earn stars, between one and five. As you get more stars, you unlock new songs, places and things. You also get money, which can be used to get tatoos, clothes, and instruments.  You will often be challenged for things like a van, a tour bus, roadies, and people to lug all your gear around, and that’s not all!

All in all it is a great game that I would recommend to anyone. Rock on!

RME (Revolution Money Exchange) is the new kid on the block, trying to compete with PayPal.

People say their fees are less, too.  (Given what’s been going on in our house, I haven’t had time to research that part of it thoroughly).

But until May 15th, you get $25 FREE just for registering.  (I did it, it worked).

And if you click through here, I get a little something for the referral, too, which will help with the medical bills.  <sigh>

Enjoy!