A Letter from the President

A few months ago Isabella began a letter writing campaign. It started with the Lego company. She had lots of model ideas to send them! She got a nice response from them which was personalized. You could tell they took the time to read her letter and respond to her drawings and ideas. 

That kind of got her on a roll and next she wrote Papa John. He lives only about 15 miles from us so Isabella insisted on finding his home address online and sending her letter to his home instead of to the corporate headquarters. Just a few days later he replied with a handwritten post card and a ticket for a free pizza! It was really nice. 

Next she decided to get more organized so she wrote a list of all of the people she admired and wanted to write letters to. 

It was really interesting to see the wide variety of people she chose without anyone's influence. She developed this list all on her own. It consisted of authors,  pop stars, actors, businessmen, an athlete,  coaches, a politician, and even her former school principal. 

Today she got her first response from her 2nd wave of letters. A large envelope from the White House! All of the kids were super excited! Vincent declared "maybe Obama is real!!!"  

Inside was a nice letter from the president, a map of the White House, a signed photo of President Obama, some stickers about healthy eating and exercise, and a booklet about art in the White House. Isabella was really proud! It has been a fun project so far! It's very cool to see what she writes to her admirers and exciting for all of us when she gets something in the mail. Will keep the blog posted on her next package! 

Inspiring letter! 

 Papa john and Obama 

Her letter:

1000 books before Kindergarten

Last week our local public library started a new program which encourages people to read to their young children. It's called 1000 books before kindergarten

Kyle picked up 2 booklets for the little ones and we calculated how many books we would have to read before Vincent becomes a kinder in 6 short months. It averages out to be about 5 per day. 

So we have started off our journey pretty well! Olivia LOVES to read!  I think she has learned that she gets my undivided attention! But Vincent is more of a doer, a player or a boy on the move. We are making the time now and hopefully it will help him with those early reading skills. 

We have already surpassed 25 books and I believe they get a sticker or small prize every time that they hit a milestone of 100 books!  

It will be a fun journey and a huge accomplishment! Only 974 to go! 

Filing a Humana appeal and grievance...

The best news of the week came in the mail on Monday! Maybe the best news of 2014 so far! Humana accepted our appeal for a little ER visit with zach.

I won't go into the long story..but on a Sunday back in September he suffered from a horribly painful episode of abdominal pain (which turned out to be constipation). After several OTC medications failed and lots of screaming ensued we decided to take him to the er. 

About 2 months later we get a nice bill for $500 and upon follow up with Humana, I realize there was another $1500 one on the way.  

Unfortunately when it comes to talking with Humana representatives I can't keep myself together no matter how many deep breaths I take. Just when I think "I can do this!", I totally lose it. And my last phone call ended with a click on the other end. I wouldn't have been so upset if:

1. I didn't owe $2000 dollars

2. They hadn't transferred me 3 times and I was on hold for 30 minutes

3. They hadn't lost all of my paperwork and claimed to have no knowledge of the fax number I sent the paperwork too. To make it worse I read the fax number off of humanas own website as I was on the phone with them! 

4. I'm imagining $600 per month disappearing from my paycheck only to be denied medical coverage. 

So I just gave up and told Kyle I could no longer deal with them from them on the phone. Thankfully I had already done all of the paper work and had saved a copy of everything. I just wasn't planning on ever calling them again! 

So, what to so when you are denied??  I went to the internet for help and found a great website with advice on how to file an appeal. 

http://www.patientadvocate.org/resources.php?p=36

Here's what I did...although hopefully I won't ever have to do this again.

1. I wrote a 2 page letter detailing everything that happened that day, why we went to the ER instead of the pediatrician (they were closed) and why we thought it was potentially a life-threatening condition

2. I got his pediatrician to write a letter, which actually ended up being just a statement saying he was a patient and had gone to the ER on that date. Even though I'm not sure it was very helpful, at least it showed that I was making an effort. 

3. I printed out medical info from a reputable medical website, which documented a serious life-threatening condition (obstructed bowel syndrome) that had the exact same symptoms that zach had that day. I highlighted those symptoms and was sure to note that we didn't know the cause of his pain. 

It was an ordeal but we were so relieved that they ruled in our favor!! I couldn't be happier!!  Now..as somebody at work teased me...what I am going to do with the $2000 I just earned? Nothing too fun I'm sure!! 

curbing the pet population!

An frigid early morning run in 30 mph gusts (polar vortex part II), an 8 hour work day, hair appointment, dance and a pet neutering were all on today's plate! 

My friend at work did my hair today at her cute little salon on Baxter ave. The girl chat was fun & getting my hair done was relaxing. However it's a total change and it's going to take me a long while to get accustomed to!  but it's only hair! It will grow back and out! Yikes! 

And Cat news...

Our little ferrel cat turned out to be a boy. He has been named "Extra" by Kyle for extra cat! Last year on January 1st we adopted a working cat named "Kyoti" from the humane society. She was a sweeti but has since abandoned us! It all started when this little ferrel kitten showed up. Kyoti was annoyed with it from the beginning but as it grew larger her intolerance soared! Before the first polar vortex hit, she took off. We haven't seen her in about a month or more. Now little tag-a-long "extra" rules the front porch. He's not been as welcomed by the family since he is frequently tripped over and has gotten a bad rap for running off Kyoti. :( 

Nonetheless, we had to get him fixed. So we turned to a local agency called alley cat advocates. It took 4 trips to the west end of town, but we had him fixed, de-infested, ear tipped and vaccinated for next to nothing thanks to a bunch of volunteers who are committed to curbing the cat population! 

Extra being annoying! 

Extra being cute! 

http://alleycatadvocates.org

Nothing much else happened today...but I must congratulate myself for being a better blogger. (Even if our boring day to day stuff is not all that interesting!) 

Until next time! :)

Here today gone tomorrow

Yesterday left us with a beautiful snow only to be melted away 24 hours later when 45 degree temps returned. The snow reminded me of the beach.  There was a bright warm sun and snow. We dug, shoveled and sculpted for over 3 hours. I shoveled 3 sidewalks, an entire driveway to the back yard and eventually the street! Needless to say, after today's 16 mile marathon training run, I can barely move now!!

The girls built a great fort in ms marylins yard (our neighbor), while across the street the boys just stockpiled snow for snow ball wars. It was at least two hours of building and shouting "ready??" While the other group responded "no!!"  

Finally the show down started and the girls were ultimately more prepared. They took shelter in their fort and threw snowballs across the street. I'm not sure if a winner was ever declared! 

Because it was so nice out, I stayed out with the kids all morning. A neighbor and I kept an eye on each other building snowmen from down the street. Both of us continuing to add to ours, as neither of us wanted to be outdone! 

It was a great day! To complete the day, I was blessed to become the godmother of the most adorable baby boy, Matthew Charles.  He is the son of our own children's godfather! It was a beautiful service and little Matthew is such precious baby. It was so cool to be a witness to his baptism, which was total immersion...a bit scary for a little baby and for all of us too!! But It felt very special to be a part of his ceremony. Matthew did a great job and it brought back great memories of baptizing my own children. It's funny how when I was a kid, I would be so disappointed to see a church baptism. It added at least 10 minutes to the service!! But now, I look forward to every part of it, even when I don't even know the child. It's such a beautiful thing to watch and we all can feel a spiritual part of that child as he/she becomes part of the church community. Afterwards we all had a fun time catching up with everyone at Macs party! Hopefully I can include a picture of him sometime soon!

More snow pics...

School delays & Quick recall

Let's see...today was a great start to the day! An extra hour to sleep and a 2 hour delay meant our students were pretty low key! In the education field & working with kids, usually anything out of the ordinary creates crazy but luckily not today! The cold temps and delay meant attendance was down and thank goodness so was drama!  There had been a shooting over the weekend involving one of our students & I was kind of dreading returning to school after the break, but everything was pretty smooth given the circumstances. 

After a pretty easy day I picked up the kiddos and found out zach was having his first quick recall match! We seemed to be the only parents unaware of the schedule...poor zach & one of the challenges of being a fairly gifted kid is his totally lack of organization! However he made up for it at the match. During the whole first round he sat out...reading a book no less instead of paying attention to the match and questions. I have yet to give him the business about that! When it was his turn to go in they were down by 11 points. The other team only needed 3 more to win. That's when zach started firing them off! They caught up & before we knew it, tied up the match. They went into overtime and the opposite team was declared the winner but before we left, there were some challenges and we didn't hear the final outcome. It all came down to a question that zach got wrong when he identified the word "bicycle" as a noun. According to the question booklet it was a "direct object" and then there was a showdown between moms, teachers, coaches and judges at the end! We just left as we didn't need to see an argument and regardless of the outcome they did great! I was super proud of Zachary! 

My only pic of the day..not so classy! 

Frosty got disrespected by the neighbors dog.  We caught him making a great escape from our yard.  I took this picture as a joke for my brother...his reply was "he only has one eye..he didn't even see it coming!"  Poor guy! I guess his day wasn't so great! 

2 hour delay again tomorrow! -15 degree windchill expected. Ready for spring! 

50 to 5...the Ohio River Valley swing

2 days in a row! Yesterday was 50 degrees and sunny. 24 hours later it is 5 degrees and snowy!  However enjoy what comes because today was a super snow day! A beautiful wet snow & started off the am with a nice 8 mile run since we had a little extra time! Running in the snow is a somewhat magical experience. Sort of feels like you should be in a movie, as it's very 3D and somewhat disorienting! 

After the run, we made French toast, sipped some coffee, watched the movie Brave and laughed at the accents! Isabella and I built a snowman in the am before lunch & The hortons also came by for a snowed in play day. 

Post lunch we played with neighborhood kids outside, did a few magic schoolbus science kit experiments, and relaxed with some good reads! Otto book! Not a bad day! 

We are all excited about a 2hr delay tomorrow! A great excuse to call off our morning run and sleep in! Thursday is supposed to be brutal though with -20 wind chills again! 

As for today's wrap up here are the pics of our lovely Longboat key inspired frosty! 

Christmas story?? Takes 30 minutes to get 4 kids stuffed in 3 layers of winter garb! 

Grand Snow angels with Otto

Frosty the snowman

Hot cocoa and Science experiments...making slime and bouncy balls after the snow 

Nice 4 day weekend...now back to the real world!! :)