Random Insanity

Why can't insurance companies and doctors be on the same freaking pages?

I'm so tired of trying to find a doctor for the kids. They tell you to look online at their list of doctors that accept the insurance. So you do all that, find a doctor near you, go to make the appoint only to find out they don't accept that insurance. The fuck?

It's twice as bad now that we're on Medicaid. The way it works in Washington is you go on Medicaid (or Apple Health or whatever they want to call it) but it's administered through an insurance company--in our case United Healthcare (which is what we had before). It's a special plan for Medicaid recepients and isn't that different than the regular plan.

The doctor they originally listed for the kids on their cards doesn't fucking work in Vancouver. Her office address is in Spokane, which for those that don't know is on the complete other side of the state over the mountains. And the phone # they have listed on the card is a Seattle one (that's 3 hours away). For fuck's sake.

So I spend days trying to figure out how to change this--had to go to the United Healthcare site to search for a doctor that accepts the community plan. Did that, found a few not far from here and chose one of the closer ones. I finally convince Patrick to make the call to UHC (because you can't do it online and I can't making phone calls) to change the doctor on the card. That goes nice and easy, new cards will come in 10 days, but we can print new ones sometime tomorrow. He even backdated it so any services we get this month will be covered. Terrific.

We call the doctor to make an appointment only to find out they don't fucking accept Apple Health. *headdesk*

And actually we called UHC a couple weeks ago about wanting to change doctors for the kids because the one they gave us doesn't work here and all they did was give us a list of doctors, including the one I chose. And as I recall now, they told us to figure out which ones actually accept the insurance. What is the point of providor lists that don't list doctors that accept the insurance and have doctors that don't work in the area? There are only like 8 doctors on the list to be begin with, with one that doesn't work here and another that doesn't take the insurance, that leaves like 6 to choose from.

I have a feeling we'll have to drive 40 minutes through traffic to go to some clinic on the other side of town because no real doctor offices will accept Medicaid.

What really pisses me off is that a few years ago I took Jack to the doctor before he had insurance and told the Dr. we were going to have to get him on Apple Kids. She said that was fine and that they accepted that, but when I finally got him on it, the Vancouver Clinic (which is just a large chain of offices all over the city, including on in our town) is not listed as accepting it from any of the insurance companies we were offered. Although the Apple Health site says they should accept it.

Oh, not to mention the Apple Health/Medicaid website is completely useless. It has almost no actual information, half of it is outdated, and half the links don't work.

Brenna needs a shot to stay in school. It's our final notice and if we don't get it done they're kicking her out. Jack still has not had any shots (except the 3 he got that one time). He's four and has to have all his shots before next year so he can start school. I thought once we got on Medicaid and everything settled we'd get it all done, but no--it can't be that simple.

Now I'll probably have to take Brenna to the free clinic and wait in line with a bunch of sick people for four hours to get one fucking shot. And they only do shots on the first 3 Wednesday evenings of the month (I think) and the clinic is across town somewhere. What's the point of insurance if no one accepts it and we have to use the free clinic?

I just want to cry.

Which reminds me I need to go pick up my prescription. I forgot all about it over the weekend and realized last night that I hadn't taken my pills that morning because I didn't have any! Which meant I couldn't take them last night or this morning. I can already feel myself slipping. Ugh.

Another year down. This one was easy, though. I forgot in 2009 that only Nora and Brenna dressed up. Owen ended up getting the flu (the one and only time any of my kids have had the flu) and spent all weekend in bed. Poor kid. I actually got a call on Friday (the day before Halloween) to come get Owen because he was dizzy and pale. He didn't even make it to the costume parade. Meagan flat out refused to dress up and didn't go trick-or-treating with us.

Brenna was almost 7 and Nora was 3 1/2. The clown costume I made for Brenna when she was 4 (2006).

Continuing on the theme of Halloween, I bring you 2011.



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I haven't scrapbooked since 2010. I used to do it all the time. I made these 4x6 pages from last Halloween. I plan to do simple designs for the rest of the Halloweens and put them in a small album.

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After we went to the redwoods we headed home but detoured off the interstate to go visit Crater Lake in Oregon. It was our first time going there although my parents went there in '98 so I've seen pictures.

It was beautiful but what a drive up through the mountains. There was still snow up there. But man was it beautiful. We were too exhausted to really explore the area so we just took pictures and then headed home.

I looked at the forecast and it's only supposed to be 60F in Seaside tomorrow and rainy. That won't be much fun. So I scoured the map looking for parks in the Columbia River Gorge we could go to because it's supposed to be in the high 80s there. I've settled on Columbia Hills State Park (in Washington). It has hiking, picnicking, pretty scenery, swimming... everything I was looking for (except pretty sandy beaches). Oh well.

Today has been a long day. Meagan woke me up early to show me she did all her homework so she could go to the dance after school. Which gave me a migraine (lovely). After the kids left for school, me, Patrick and Jack went to breakfast at the diner then hit Target to finish up the summer clothes shopping. Since I'm hoping to get family pictures tomorrow I looked for some coordinating outfits for us all. Which is harder than it sounds when there are 7 people in the family. Luckily I found this cute skirt for Brenna that has light and dark pink and light and dark teal. I figured the girls could wear shades of pink and the boys could have shades of teal. I couldn't find anything in pink for me so I got a light teal tank top. I want to do individuals of all the kids, then all 5 of them together, then just the boys and just the girls. And finally all 7 of us, probably just me and Patrick, too. This is a monumental logistical nightmare. I'll be lucky to get a few candid shots probably. Last time I tried to get a shot of the kids together (June 2012) we were at the beach and Meagan threw a huge tantrum and wanted to know why she had to be in the family because we obviously all hated her and blah, blah, blah. Patrick had to physically drag her over to the other kids and she refused to smile. She just pouted and Jack was tired and crying, trying to get away. It was a disaster. (See icon above.)

After we went to Target we got gas at Costco then drove all the way to my doctor's office because I couldn't find my prescription that I got on Monday. Before I could even tell the girl at the counter what was wrong she was like, "you left your prescription on the bus." It still amazes me that she remembers me by name (she remembers Meagan's name, too). We called the bus people and I have to go pick it up at the Mall (which is blocks from the doctor's office but we didn't call until later, d'oh) on Monday. Luckily I have enough pills at home to last me at least a month.

Then we drove into Portland and went to Sports Authority because Patrick needed shoes. So did Owen. I had to buy him a size 8! He officially wears a bigger size than me and he's not even 12 yet. I have a feeling he's going to be really tall (he's already 5' and at least an inch, not really sure). We have a feeling he's going to have a growth spurt this summer.

After that we stopped at the Verizon store to look at the phones. Patrick wants the new Galaxy S4 coming out later this month. The S III is perfectly fine for me.

Then we drove back to Vancouver and went to Costco to stock up on food (filled our new deep freeze with frozen veggies and a few other items) and pick up steaks for Mother's Day. Guess who gets to cook them and everything else that day. I did get a new printer that will work with our new Windows 8 computers, some extra ink cartridges and some new storage containers for the kitchen.

Since we got home it's been non-stop screaming from the kids about picking up then constant questions about the trip tomorrow, and of course, complaining about having to go at all. Happy Mother's Day to me. Now I have to get everything packed and I was supposed to treat Meagan's hair for lice so she doesn't give it to her sisters again

By now (if you've followed my journal for awhile) you're probably wondering where we got all this money for all this stuff. Well, we were so broke at the end of last month we decided to take out a loan against Patrick's 401k. We did this in 2011 and got $6800 (the most we could take). They took $125 out of each paycheck (that's $250/month) and we paid like half of it back then paid off the rest with our income taxes. So he checked to see how much we could take out and found our max was $10,000. So guess how much money we have. It's slightly more out of each paycheck ($145 I think) but we survived on about that for 2 years. Yeah, we had some tough times but we got through them.

So far we've bought a bunch of summer clothes for the kids who desperately needed them (the bulk of their summer attire is 3-4 years old and way beyond too small). The boys (including Patrick) all got shoes. Then we spent a ton at Costco but it was mostly food to freeze and other stuff we needed. We're also going to buy new tires for the truck (they were pretty bad and we've afraid of blowing one out while on the interstate), pay off some old hospital bills, maybe get a new dryer and put some in the savings. Oh, Patrick wants to get those damn expensive phones. We were able to keep our unlimited data plan when Verizon switched to the metered system but to stay on it we have to pay full price for our phones. The S4 is like $700! We have to wait and see how much the S III goes down in price after it's released. Maybe I'll be able to get it for like $400 or something (it's $600 right now). His phone is all screwed up so he needs to get a new one.

So, yeah, we suck at budgeting, my kids hate me, I hate Mother's Day (I wish my mom were still here), family pictures will be a disaster, I have a bunch of lj idol entries to still read and I need to do my writing.

No rest for the wicked.

But, hey, I'm updating again. That's something, right?

It's been dry all week and then last night it decided to rain. Along with freezing temps and this killer wind we had the last few days. So, this morning the roads up in the hills (where it's colder) were all iced up.

Which meant they canceled school today. UGH.

It's so crazy in this town because where we are at sea level there is no ice (just frost mostly). All but 2 of the schools are down here. But the two that are in the hills get snowed in or get a ton of ice and since they can't get the buses to the area to pick up students the have to cancel classes for that school. But there's some regulation in the state that says if one school in a district closes then all the schools have to close. There have been times the kids have had late starts and no school for days in a row and it's been a normal 40F down here. But up in the hills they'll have 8 inches of snow and a layer of ice on top of it. Like I said: crazy.

But now the kids are home and driving me nuts. I had so many errands to run today: Walgreens to get prescriptions for Patrick, library, Walmart, Vision Works (Owen broke his glasses) or the eye doctor to get him an appt because he needs one, Michael's for a knitting needle I need, and the clinic so I can get some blood work done. I was hoping we could start the day with breakfast out for me, Patrick and Jack. But instead the kids are around making noise and wrecking the house.

After 2 weeks of Christmas vacation they went back for 2 days and now have a long weekend. Also, Meagan and Brenna are still grounded for their first trimester grades. Meagan failed 2 classes and Brenna had a note on her report card that she had only turned in 40% of her assignments on time. The rest were late or never turned in. What is it with 4th grade that all kids think they can stop doing homework? Meagan and Owen did the same thing. They're grounded now until... I see that they are doing their homework, turning it in and keeping their grades up. I let them off after Christmas until school started as part of their Christmas present. So far they've been pretty good about it.

I was sitting here working on the computer and I hear the drawer from the desk in the "art room" (aka the dining room) open.  I glance over and see Jack digging in the drawer.  This drawer is where most of the construction paper is kept.  Apparently Meagan showed him because she was working on a project.

A little while later I hear markers popping open.  Oh, boy.  Markers have almost become contraband in this house.  Actually they were banned for a long time when the older kids were little because they wrote on everything and left the tops off (wasting money).  But I see Jack is sitting on the floor opening, using and closing markers then putting them back in the container so I don't do anything.


A while after that I get up to use the bathroom and when I walk through the dining room there is nothing on the floor.  Did I imagine it?  No, he actually CLEANED UP AFTER HIMSELF!  Two years old and he closed the drawer, put all the markers in the container and put it back on the desk and put his drawings next to them.  So I asked him if he drew these awesome pictures and he gets this big smile on his face and tells me, "train tracks."  He was very excited about this.  I guess in his mind the multicolored scribbles were train tracks going everywhere (he has a bit of an obsession with trains).

He was so proud of himself that I couldn't help but jot down the title, his name and age and pin them to the wall (where the other kids keep their school artwork).  That made him even more excited.  He was finally on the wall.

I love this age.  Jack is just so adorable (although quite ornery in the morning and more than a little spoiled by his father and siblings).

And I'm still kind of shocked he cleaned up after himself since none of the other kids ever do.  They would have just left the markers rolling all over the floor and paper thrown everywhere.

*wipes away tears of pride*