More to be Thankful for

So much has been on my mind lately. So much talk on the news of changing health plans and interviews with Sarah Palin. They keep repeatedly asking her about her choice to keep her baby at her age even though she knew he'd have Down Syndrome.
With Thanksgiving this week and thinking of all the things that I have to be thankful for there is one most important thing in my life................which is simply my life.
My parents were 41 years old when I was born. They gave me life. They didn't know what my health would be. In the 1950's there were no sonograms or tests to see if I'd have Down Syndrome. They had no idea what sex I would be. They simply knew that they were going to have a baby. They barely had enough money to get by and support the children they had. I don't even know if they had any health insurance.
But I am positive that it never came to their minds that there might be a choice. They gave me life.
I am thankful that my parents gave me a loving home. I am thankful that my older brother and two sisters love me.
Yes, I have much to be thankful for............

I have much to be thankful for

Memories of Thanksgivings past are full of family fun, laughter and warm hellos with hugs.

Present days there are more of the family to fill the home with even more fun, laughter and warmth.

I am thankful for all the blessings that God has filled my life with.

I am even more thankful for all the joys and blessings that are to come into the future.

BE THANKFUL!

Just another day at Grandma's

Conner fell asleep after eating a big lunch..........(which is why I have time to post these!)

Kyle is watching a Godzilla movie............

Over the weekend Kyle, Conner and their two other cousins had too much fun with red permanent markers, this is Conner's back which says "I am Crazy "...

Papa is playing trains with Conner..............

and Pepper decided to lie down next to the baby doll and take a nap! .....

Did any of you watch the CBS 60 minute show on Sunday night? http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/12/60minutes/main5629962.shtml

I will not look at a chicken in the same way again. I hadn't thought of the similarities until now.

How about some hot dinosaur wings for an appetizer? Or dinosaur drumsticks for lunch?

If you didn't see the show let me tell you I thought it a little creepy when they showed the microscopic slides of the inside of a dinosaur bone and found blood veins and vessels that appeared to still be active.

I would like to ask those scientists exactly HOW do they determine that anything is 80 million years old? How do you even begin to figure that out?
Those of us who are Christians know this is not possible , but even putting that aside I just do not understand it.
Where do they start? Trees have circles to count. What does dirt have? What do rocks have? What in the heck does anything have that could possibly PROVE it could be that old? Aren't scientists all about the proof?

And then there is this crazy man who wants to "make" a dinosaur! He says he can take a chicken and make it into a dinosaur..............AH, WHY?
Why do we need to have dinosaurs here and now?
But then why do we need to have cloned sheep?

So what about turkeys?
Enjoy your dinosaur meal this Thanksgiving!

Dazed, Crazed, and Confused

So if your ready for a long story of my adventures with Kaiser today read on.........

I needed to get some routine blood tests done for my cholesterol. I'm not looking forward to the results but it needs to be done. I had made an appointment to get the test done at 8:20am. I go up the elevator to the second floor.
I get there and there is a long line. I am checked in at 8:24am. She tells me there is no "work up" on the computer. I show her the letter I had received telling me I was due. She then suddenly finds it in her computer.
They were very confused this morning. They have a number system for those who don't make appts. They were giving those checking in numbers such as #12 and yet on the screen they were calling for #14.
They call me in for my blood tests and I sat there wondering if she was going to poke me in the right place because it was as if I was invisible as she and the other nurses were all talking about some friend of theirs.

I leave the lab and go down elevator to the 1st floor and check in at the optometrist office. I am called into my check up appointment at 9:15am. It was my first visit with this eye doctor and she was very nice. She confirmed that I do need to use Restasis for my chronic dry eyes.
I explain to her that the last time I had it refilled was in April by my family physician when our insurance changed over to Kaiser. I was now COMPLETELY out of the eye drops and need a new prescription ASAP.
She starts to tell me that she will forward the prescription by her computer to the pharmacy within the Kaiser building.
I explain to her that with our retirement insurance we CANNOT get our prescriptions at Kaiser without paying full price for them. That I NEED a WRITTEN prescription that I mail to Prescription Solutions and then I only pay $10.oo for a three month supply.
SHE TELLS ME SHE CANNOT WRITE OUT A PRESCRIPTION THAT ALL OPTOMETRY PRESCRIPTIONS MUST GO THROUGH THE COMPUTER.

Now this sounds a little weird to me but what do I know.
She suggest that I ask my physician to give me another written prescription. So I tell her to send the prescription over to the pharmacy and I'll pay for it this one time because I'm completely out and my eyes need them. In the meantime I'll ask my physician for a written one to mail in. Good plan right!
WRONG

So I walk across the hall to the pharmacy.
I go the line to "check in"and wait behind four other people.
I check in and they tell me to sit and wait for my name to show up on the screen and then go to the center line.
so I sit,,,,,, and sit,,,,,,, and sit..............................
20 minutes later I see my name-- whooo whoo!
I go to the center line and wait behind three other people.
I then get up to the counter and he tells me they are completely out of this type of eye drops and cannot fill the prescription. They will have to order it........................

I stand there dumbfounded for a minute. The fact that I've been fasting since 7pm last night for the blood work to be done and now it's after 10:00am and I'm still in this crazy building full of idiots is starting to give me a headache!

So I go back UP the elevator to the 2nd floor to the office of my physician. I can just get a written prescription from her right!
I have to wait in the line to "check in" and I wait behind five other people..........
I get to the counter.
She is asking me why I'm there..........?? why am I here??
I try my best to explain this STUPID situation.
She tells me to go knock on the door with 2B on it and ask to speak to my physicians nurse......I go........I knock.
A nurse opens the door and wonders why I'm there............?? why am I??? oh geezzee.....I have to explain this again........I'm trying to explain and she's looking at me like I've grown green and purple warts all over my face........

She tells me to go to the counter.....I go and there is another woman...........and I have to try to explain this ALL OVER AGAIN.
SHE tells me that she has to send my doctor a message. Now I know that my doctor is only a few feet away in one of those rooms with a patient but I need to keep myself contained or they will be mopping up the itty bitty pieces of me that have exploded all over their office.
So I am told that a "message" will be sent to my physician to approve the written prescription and they will call me when it's ready to be picked up. Minutes? Hours? Days?..........?????

It's now somewhere around 11:00am. My head is throbbing and my stomach is growling.
Jim has been following me around as my support to keep me from loosing ground.

We leave and drive to a cafe to get food. As I'm looking at the menu my cell phone rings. I'm thinking---- yeah, the prescription will be ready to pick up after we eat................wrong.
The person is telling me that my physician cannot write out a prescription for eye drops that is diagnosed by an optometrist........HUH?. I tell her that she has already done this last April . She tells me that she only did that because I was a new patient.
I think my tongue is swollen now because I cannot speak.

She tells me that they have called the Optometrist and that "she will be taking care of it"...........WHAT IN THE HECK IS THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN?

I eat. I go home. I call the Optometrist office. They tell me that they received the message and will be calling me back.............................

At 12:30pm my cell phone rings........miracles have happened and somehow she was able to WRITE out a prescription for my eye drops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So for over THREE HOURS I walked in circles and rode the elevator up and down and drove across town twice just to end up back in the same office to get my written prescription!!!
It is already in the mail. I will just have to go a week without drops and live with dry eyes.

Oh , and the best part of all.......I get home after picking up the prescription and get my mail. There is a letter from Kaiser telling us they've raised the payment for our monthly insurance another $62 !!!

Camping out at grandma's

Kyle, almost 8yrs old and Conner 3yrs old. Camping out at our home tonight so that mom & dad can have a night out at the movies.

I told Kyle that as long as he behaved he could stay up as late as he wanted to and we'd eat popcorn and watch movies...........he was sound asleep at 8:30pm! lol

Conner, well he ate the popcorn and watched the entire Monsters, Inc. movie and four Little Bear episodes before he fell asleep beside his brother at 10:15pm!

Papa's been in bed for over an hour now and it's time this ol grandma lays herself down on the couch and camps out also! :)

baseball

Does baseball season ever end?..........not in my house!

I am blessed to have a husband who doesn't drink, doesn't play around, doesn't spend an excess of money, doesn't abuse me, and loves me dearly.

However he also loves baseball :)

Let me just say that he didn't even know I took this photo of him. He's busy watching the World Series game. I could probably stand on my head in the corner with a yellow glowing bikini on and he'd not notice!

Who's his favorite team??? All of them! He is in a Strat-o-Matic baseball league. One might ask what that is............well, to explain it simply it's a baseball game like a board game without the board. What? You don't understand?

Ok. He and several other men belong in this group of strat-o-matic baseball. They all love the game. They buy cards that have all the stats of all----ALL the baseball players. They have drafts to form teams. Each man is the "manager" of the team they have drafted. So during the baseball "season" they roll dice and follow the stats on the card to see if they got a home run or base hit. simple right. They get together and play these games and have a lot of fun. They even have their own "world series" games. They , as managers of their teams, make player trades.

It all involves a lot of numbers and stats and knowing what all the various baseball players are doing in the real games.................therefore he must watch ALL the real games! Of course since he LOVES the game this is not a chore for him!

You might say that it's great and fun for him during the baseball season..............season?..........so right now the World Series is playing. The regular baseball season is technically over. However, come December these guys need to order their new stratomatic cards for the next season to come. They need to schedule their draft which they usually do in February. Then they get their teams ready and get ready to start playing and start scheduling their dates to get together to play. It just continues!

Yes, I'm blessed to have a husband who loves baseball.