The 5-letter word that saved me $1150

When Brad's brother had a heart attack in March, we hopped in the car to go visit. Along the 11 hour drive we realized Camille had fever and was very restless, so we went to an emergency clinic as soon as we arrived in Houston. We first confirmed that they "took" our insurance, showed up, got her tested for strep (positive), gave her a shot, and left about 45 minutes later.

Imagine my surprise when we get our bill for almost $1200 in May. It all shows up as "out of network" deductible applied, so it was really a bill meant to be paid by us. I procrastinated calling about it, or paying it for a couple of weeks. When I finally did, I was calling about a double charge (of $175) for shot injection. Camille only got one shot. They agreed to remove that. Then, out of the blue, I just asked a general question about how we should word the "do you 'take' our insurance" question next time to avoid this out-of-network mess.

Kim (who is pretty much a saint in my book), explained to me that in Texas all clinics like this have to handle emergency visits as "in network", and non-emergency can be out of network. It turns out that someone didn't code FEVER as the reason for the visit. FEVER is an emergency, STREPTOCOCCUS that causes fever is not an emergency. So Kim is going to resubmit as a FEVER visit and we should be about $1150 better off. Crazy.

I could have paid this entire amount, and no one would have ever noticed or cared. I've never been so happy remembering that one of our kids had F-E-V-E-R before....

Child's play, the James way

Here are just a few of the things I find our kids playing with this summer.

Bug catcher and observation thingy - he's really good at this.

Wooden dolls and dollhouse

Soft little bunnies

Glow sticks

* p.s. not good if you are trying to get them to sleep at a decent time. This caused big excitement at 9:30 pm (when it finally got dark), leading to wide-awake kiddos, but fun none-the-less.

Fairies + mushroom house + Ariel + Littlest pet shop fish = fun game that keeps Lucy busy for hours upon hours.

Butterfly net, also known as a moth net at night

Of course I wouldn't leave Pippin out. He really thinks unwinding Scotch tape is fun.

Also, they all three love to play in our little backyard pool. I'll post a picture of that after I get photoshop and figure out how to "add" some clothes for my middle child because she loves being without a swimsuit (or anything for that matter). I've pretty much given up that fight for this summer. What is the cut-off for that being acceptable?? Are we past it yet??

She even stripped down when the water softener guys were here. That night after bath, she ran into her closet and closed the door saying "Mom, I don't want you to look because I need some "promicy" (privacy). Really?? Interesting.

Lucy's diet tips

Lucy before lunch today: I'm all full. I'm going to be full at lunch and dinner. But I'm going to be hungry at snack.

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Lucy after we come in from a walk yesterday: Wow - my tummy is grumbling...for some gum.

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Unrelated, but something I don't want to forget. Camille has been correctly answering how old she is (when it was "one") for the last couple of months. However, after her birthday party she now answers the "How old are you?" questions with a smile and word "...cake".

My girls really know how to prioritize things when it comes to food!

Camille is 2!

Definitely two, definitely not terrible (not even a little bit). Thank you for all the hugs, kisses and fun you bring to our family.

Happy 2nd birthday, sweet Camille.

We love you.

AHS bound

I'm thinking about joining the American Horticulture Society now that I have something as pretty as these in my yard. If you know us, you know we aren't very good at keeping grass soft and green, not to mention anything with flowers alive.

What a nice surprise when these popped up after some much needed rain around here. We didn't do anything at all, we are renting right now, so I should thank the home owners for these miracles that greet me in the morning. They are right outside the master bedroom window, right by my side of the bed. I see them when I open my eyes in the morning...well, that is if Lucy's crazy bedhead isn't in the way when she comes in to wake me up by announcing that it has been a long time since she's had anything sweet.

The "WHOOP" heard around the world!!

Good morning from the space shuttle Discovery!!

In case you haven't seen this clip, I thought I would share. It is Mike Fossum's morning wake-up call on day 10 of the shuttle. Gig'Em!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItS6Ly210sk

Tooth Talk

When our church's "Bible-fest" started on Monday night, Kilian had been out of school for 2 1/2 weeks. The first people we saw were some friends that have a daughter, *B*, the same age as Kilian. Wow, *B* and Kilian were so happy to see each other! Kilian ran across the room to say hi. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were both pointing to their teeth and then looking in each other's mouths. *B* had just lost two teeth in the last couple of days, and had another loose one. Kilian had a very loose top tooth. You can see it below, where his is showing off his play-doh art.

When Kilian's tooth finally came out last night, the first words out of his mouth were "oooh, I want to keep the tooth and show *B*!" They really are good friends, but *B*'s mom and I find it interesting that *B* made a point to pick out her best clothes, wash her face and put on lotion because she was going to see Kilian that first night. Kilian was also volunteered to wear a collared shirt (rare) and wanted to make sure it looked ok with his shorts before seeing her.

It's so hot

that when Camille went missing this other day, this is what I found her doing...

Extra clean

Lucy tells Camille to do lots of things on any given day. I wish Camille would have ignored this particular request. The one to get back into the water... after she was diapered and lotioned and dressed.

I think I figured it out

The only way I will be able to keep our house neat and clean is if I invite people to come visit us. often. I'm thinking I'll need to schedule someone for 10 am, noon, 3 pm, 6 pm, and 9 pm everyday. Anyone want to sign up??

I just don't seem to be motivated otherwise. This dawned on me the other day when my parents called to ask if they could bring their frozen food over because their electricity was out (on a very hot afternoon). We all 5 quickly "picked up" around here and had it looking ok. Then my mom called and told Brad that the electricity was back up and they didn't need to come over. Brad said, "but we already cleaned the house!!".

I'm going to have to find a system that works for us. Probably one besides the above one. I've heard good things about FlyLady. Maybe I'll give that a try....next week:)