am i wrong??

The other day I received a bill from Eva's cardiologist (yeah...remember THAT fiasco?) for $300 bucks. (yes...this is AFTER the insurance. they took care of $7 bless their generous little hearts) Honestly thinking they must have sent this by mistake I calmly call they next day and tell them they sent me a bill. Yeah..they know. They tell me that if the doctor was IN the room I have to pay it. Regardless of the fact that he nor the nurse could even get near her with a stethoscope, much less take a good look at her heart. (The doctor himself sent a letter to her pediatrician that says "the evaluation was impossible") Now I'll admit...it's because she was being a pill...but come on....so anyway, I asked what the protocol for appealing this would be and they said I could send a letter, but being that the doc was in the room at one point they're just going to discard it. So I guess I'm in need of some straight forward honesty and advice. Am I in the wrong? I mean..we DID use up this guys time, but I kinda figured that's why we forked over the $40 co-pay. Or am I right and I should fight this? Honestly now...I'd hate to get all worked up when I really owe these people money. YUCK. Now I feel all depressed. I'm going to go make some of Amy's Oreo balls to make myself feel better. (recipe follows) Afterall..there's nothing like 10 extra pounds to remind you of the Happy Holidays. :)

Oreo balls, a little bit of heaven, or oreo "truffles" depending on what you feel like calling them:

1 (18 oz) package Oreo's, finely crushed, divided
8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese, softened (1/3 less fat works great)
2 (8 oz) packages semisweet baking chocolate, melted
toothpicks

• Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.
• Mix 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 1 inch balls. Insert a toothpick into each ball.
• Dip balls in melted chocolate; place on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.
• Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in a tightly covered container in the fridge.

Amy: I'm sure I botched this recipe! I think you used almond bark, but I couldn't find any. : /

Food Co-Op

Today I picked up my first "basket" of produce in a food co-op i'm trying out. IT WAS AWESOME! I came across the website (www.bountifulbaskets.org) and after researching a little I thought I'd give it a try. It basically is a bunch of people that pool their money ($15 per "basket" distributed every 2 weeks) to have some heftier buying power so they can buy from the same sources that grocery stores and restraunts buy from, for cheap. It's fun because you get different stuff every time, so you get to try new things. This particular website is only for Arizona but I know that there are similar things elsewhere. I was worried it was going to be crappy stuff, but I'm pleased to announce that all the fruits and veggies are perfect. Anyway, here's what I got:

9 bananas
6 grapefruit
6 oranges
11 lemons
8 apples (Janagold i think?)
3 lbs pears
6 large yellow onions
2 lbs carrots
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch radishes
1 eggplant
1 head green leaf lettuce

They advertise that you're supposed to get $50 worth of produce, which it looks like to me, but I'll have to go jot down some prices to verify that. The best and worst part is that it is purely volunteer run, so they LIKE for you to volunteer to come sort the produce before distribution. But hey...it keeps the cost lower and they let volunteers have extra!

Groceries

What with all the economic crisis mess going on I thought I'd share my grocery secrets. (I know..you're all quivering with delight!) But seriously, I've cut my grocery bill in half, from around $500 per month to $200 per month, PLUS I'm getting a good stockpile. I only have maybe 2-3 months of food sitting around here, but considering I'm in a 900 square foot apartment, I don't think that's too shabby. When/If we ever get the camera fixed I may take a pic of my overflowing food closets.

My Mom got me hooked on a website called "The Grocery Game" (www.thegrocerygame.com) Basically they do all the work of correlating the sales going on at your store with the coupons taken out of the Sunday paper. Everything is color coded by how great of a sale it is: black = only buy if you need it, blue = a good sale, buy what you can and green =free. Green is most definitely my fave. :) It does take about 3 months to have a good enough stockpile to really start cutting your grocery bill, AND it does take time. I have to spend about an hour cutting out coupons, planning the meals for the week and putting my list together, plus another hour to shop, but I figure I make pretty good money with my 2 hours per week. AND it does cost money, $10 a month for the first store and $5 for each additional store, plus the cost of the paper. Anyway, IF anyone is interested you can get a 4 week trial for $1!

My receipt for this week. I saved 68 % which is pretty normal. My all time high is 77%.

PLEASE tell me that didn't just happen.

Don't ask me why, but for some reason Eva thinks it's funny when you pretend to smell her feet and act like they're stinky. (I don't even remember why this got started. Maybe to get her to hold still while I changed her diaper?) Anyway at church yesterday she got annoyed with our lack of entertainment and started booking it down the aisle looking for an escape. So this guy sticks his leg out to stop her and what does she do? SHE GRABS HIS FOOT AND SMELLS IT! I thought I was going to die of embarrassment. I have no idea if the guy even noticed since I just grabbed her and left the room. Lets hope not or he's surely going to have a complex about his feet.

cute story and random pics

I was making a cake yesterday (happy birthday jared!) and I needed to cut the top off of one the rounds so they would stack better. So I figured I'd let Eva have a taste before I threw it away. Eva takes a taste and then runs out of the kitchen. I start cramming these leftover pieces down the sink when she comes running in, both hands clutching her bib. (She knows she can't eat unless she has her bib on) She sees what I'm doing and just slumps to the ground holding her bib and crying. I felt so bad! But she got me back when we went out to eat that night by smearing BBQ sauce all over my handwash only shirt and eating all my dinner and otherwise acting like a nutcase.

For Halloween we borrowed a witch costume that my mom had made for Kelli as a baby. I kept telling her she was soo cool for having a vintage costume! I was worried because we practiced for weeks trying to get her to wear the hat and she refused until we got to our trunk or treat and then I guess she was so weirded out by all the strange sights and sounds that she left it alone. Her favorite part of Halloween was running rampant through the crowds in the church parking lot while Jared and I chased her.

This pic is her wearing Jared's socks. She went running into the bedroom and then came running back out wearing them! (i STILL can't figure out how she got them on.)

It's your birthday.... we gonna party like it's your birthday

Profile of a one year old sweet heart:

height: 30 inches

weight: 19.5 lbs

eyes: blue

hair: brown? maybe?

teeth: 6

Likes: Dogs, stuffed animals, screaming, elmo, dancing, cheese, any rude body noise, digging in the dirt, medicine, making people laugh, baths, giving daddy kisses, vacuuming and dusting.

dislikes: doctors, applesauce, having her diaper changed, getting her nose wiped, baby safety locks, long car rides, naps, bows and dresses.

Sunday we celebrated Eva's FIRST birthday! I can't get over how much she's changed in a year! Tim, Megan and Shaun David were in town while Tim was interviewing with a medical school and were nice enough to stay an extra day to celebrate with us. It was a blast for Eva, although I doubt Shaun David appreciated it much. She'll start petting his head all nice and pretty soon they turn into hard WHACKS. poor kid. oh well he'll probably be beating up on her soon enough. Anyway, it was pretty much just the normal 1st birthday. She opened presents, ate cake and ice cream and then puked since she ate so much. Happy birthday pumpkin! Dad and Mom love you to pieces!you can almost see all of her teeth in this picture!

opening her present from Tim and Megan...

She loves her new kissing elmo toy. :)


the first taste...



I think she liked it ok.... :)

We went to go pick out a pumpkin the day before her birthday. She was being such a ham!

Texting all her friends.

loving on her elmo...

random stories.

I realize i haven't blogged in pretty much forever so I'm warning you now...it's probably going to be pretty long!

A couple of weekends ago we went on a ward camp out, which was fun. I tend to be an overprotective mom so I was trying really hard not to be on this campout. We kept waiting and waiting for the ward production they were putting on, but it got to be 9 and they hadn't started so we decided to put Eva down and then go watch the ward thing. So we did but when we showed up a lady asked me "where's your baby?" so i told her she was alseep at which point she looked at me like i was nuts and said "aren't you worried a bobcat will get her?". needless to say i then felt like a crappy mom and so i just went back to the tent and went to sleep. We're camping AGAIN this weekend so i really should be packing, but i figured the lack of posting was getting to be a bit ridiculous.

Eva taking a bath in a rubbermaid bin


It was chilly!

Anyway, another Eva-related story (yes i am aware that 99 % of my posts revolve around her). I had to take her to the cardiologist the other day to do some tests (her pediatrician thought her heart rate was too fast). You have to understand something about Eva...she's what you might call...an excitable child. She REALLY hates if you try to put something on her that she can't take off (she won't wear socks or shoes without acting like i'm beating her senseless) or if you won't move away from her when she says. so basically she thinks doctors are bad bad people. anyway, we go in and they want to do an EKG. I tried to talk them out of it since we already had one done a few months ago and it was an awful experience but they insisted. So the guy starts putting these stickers all over her bare little chest and belly. she tries to brush them off, and when she can't she FLIPS. she starts screaming bloody murder and ripping them off. so i have to restrain her which makes her even angrier so she starts kicking and trying to BITE the nurse when he gets near her with a sticker. so finally he gives up and calls the dr in. The first thing the dr. does is try to listen to her heartbeat, which is innocent enough i suppose but eva wants none of it. she screams and screams (if she knew any profanities believe me she would have been using them), kicks, spits and bites (don't ask me where she learns this stuff). so he tries to hand her the stethoscope so she can get used to it ... she promptly throws it across the room. a few more tries and the dr literally stands up, leaves the room and said "THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!". i thought i would DIE from embarrasment. anyway, i paid $40 for a diagnosis of "i think dr's make her nervous." oh yeah and to be humiliated for an hour. its a good thing she's such a cute little booger. is it possible for kids under one to be true brats?

It was an EXHAUSTING day. this is her hair post-pigtails.

on to other random news.... I GOT A BOSCH MIXER! i'm so stoked. i'd post a picture but eva busted the camera today. (she didn't like me trying to take close-ups and threw it across the living room) i felt like a little kid buying my first bike or something. the only thing i was missing the the piggy bank being shaken out over the counter. i literally kept giggling while we were checking out. soo embarrasing. we made pizza dough in it today and let me tell you that is one heavy duty beast! i also made mayo in the blender portion just for the heck of it. if i could figure out how to make "light" mayo i would never have to buy it again. it was stupid easy let me tell you.

and finally....

i gave eva a pedicure today. she sat amazingly still for it, which makes me think i should try that for the next doctor visit.