Well, techinically it's on Vision, but that falls in the medical category to me.

I took the kids to the eye doctor and they both got glasses, the younger one for the first time, so anyway...the costs of that were:

$204.97 glasses and frames for kid 1
$279.97 glasses and frames for kid 2
--------
$484.94 subtotal for glasses
$103.00 doctor fee kid 1
$103.00 doctor fee kid 2
--------
$690.94 total vision expense

I paid cash. The majority of this should be reimbursed by insurance in about 2 or 3 months time. I need to go soon. My glasses are about 3 years old the prescription isn't good anymore, so hopefully I can get in soon. I'll keep my own frames. I like them and they are in good shape still.

If my daughter's head had not gotten so much bigger that she'd outgrown her old frames I would have made her keep them another year. Both kids are really happy with their glasses.

Rose went into the hospital last night with a fever of 104.1 and they couldn't get it to go down. Her pulse was really fast and her blood pressure was too low. Scared the living daylights out of us. They gave her a narcotic, Ibuprofen AND Tylenol, and an antibiotic for a severe bacterial infection. Not pneumonia and not strep, but they couldn't give us a name for it. Finally, after a couple of hours it started going down but it was scary while it lasted.

She's home now and safely asleep in bed and I'm wired on too much caffeine to sleep. And now that the danger has passed my mind automatically ticks over to thinking about the insurance deductible, the hospital and doctor's fees and the cost of a chest x-ray. Well, that's what my safety net is for. The small touchable part of my EF that is used for small emergencies. If I can't scrape enough out of the regular medical portion of the budget I'll have it covered with the safety net.

I am grateful we have the money there if we need it. That I didn't have to be one of those people debating whether or not to take my kid to the ER because we couldn't afford it. That we do have insuarnce that will cover part of this. But mostly that my daughter is going to be okay after some further treatment with medication.

Well, really I still am sick. Really sick. Just this side of pneumonia sick. One big plus of this is that I have not been spending much in the way of money, because I haven't gone out any more than I've had to.

For some reason life just seems to carry right on whether I feel like getting out of bed or not. I'll have to spend tomorrow because I'll be out of cold medicine and needing a refill on my prescription by the afternoon. And well, DH comes home so I'll have to drive in to town to pick him up, too. Then he can drive for the rest of my life as far as I'm concerned. Or at least until it doesn't feel as if my entire head is made up of gunk.

I didn't even bother to do any surveys for like two weeks now, I didn't transfer money to ING last week so I'll wait until tomorrow and do both Thursday deposits then.

Basketball sign up happened yesterday so I did write a $25 check for that. One of the cheapest sports available, soccer is like $70 now but they aren't playing that anymore apparently.

I feel like I've been living on caffeine and cold pills, not a very good combination at all, but what else can you do? Moms don't really get to be sick, we just blunder on.

Anyway, I really need to do better on keeping up with my blog. My focus is way off on financial stuff lately and I'm pretty sure that's from not writing on here. Let's hope I can get my act together again, 'cause I sorely need to.

I made it to the new Trader Joe's yesterday. It was nice to have so many choices in healthier foods, though I was kind of surprised how much they had in the way of junk food. So many cookies and candies and chocolate covered nuts, and candied dried fruit dipped in sugar. Organic junk food is still junk food and at least it wasn't made with corn syrup.

Still I managed to find $55.61 worth of stuff that we could eat. I tried their store brand milk and it's decent tasting, though I will probably stick with Organic Valley and buying it from Fred Meyer since its a dollar cheaper there.

Never made it to Costco, just didn't feel good enough. Mom took the kids for the weekend, I get them back Sunday noontime. I am spending a lot of time sleeping and a lot of time reading over at Teaspoon and writing some. I've told myself that if I write a chapter on something over there, I've got to come and write at least one blog entry on that same day.

Yesterday was payday so I sent $100 to ING. That brings my EF to $2004.87 and my goal of $2000 is now achieved. I need $600 more to meet my goal of 2 weeks wages. That will take a couple of months.

I've been ignoring my surveys lately, just haven't felt in the mood to answer a bunch of repetive questions. I suppose I should get back to it, as it does help the EF to grow bit by bit. Just kind of apathetic about it.

Part of the apathy has been being sick and part of it has been the onset of SADS with the fall overcast. Time to dig out my light box and start light therapy again. It always hits me very hard in the fall, but it seems like it always a couple weeks in before the light bulb clicks on and I realize what it is I need. I think there was a bad pun in there somewhere.

I need to sit down and do bills still today. I am just in a lazy lay around do absolutely nothing physical mood today. Other than emptying the dishwasher and doing a load of towels, that is. I suppose I ought to do more. The laundry won't take care of itself no matter how hard I wish for it.

I'm doing pretty good for the month of September so far. That makes 3 no spend days.

I used the pre-paid cash card to buy gas today, but that was paid for last week so I don't count that. as spending. Filled up the tank for just under $40. Costco gas is still at $2.559 a gallon while everyone else but one ARCO is upwards of $2.799. I know Costco can buy wholesale and get a better deal, but that much better just seems suspicious to me. The other places have to be doing some gouging.

The wait in line for gas today was ridiculous, though. I didn't even go at a busy time. I suppose it was the after holiday fill up.

School went great for the kids today. I am always happy to hear that. They also did tae kwon do class today. Tuesdays aren't a normal class day for us but the dojang was closed yesterday so we made up that class today. Rose doesn't want to do tae kwon do on Tuesdays and Thursdays because she has 72 minute long P.E. classes those days. Can't say I blame her!

We came home to another crockpot beef roast, tender and delicous. Both kids were whining about wanting nuggets on the way home. Tough. I'm not taking them out to eat for a good while, and especially not when there is a meal waiting for them at home.

Tomorrow will be a spend day as I have a 1.5 hour physical therapy appointment. $75 for that. My hip is pretty much back to normal so this will most likely be my last visit. I'll see what the girl has to say, but I think she'll agree with me.

My appointment is at 10:30 and the school bus leaves at 8:46, which means I could get to Curves by 9:00, workout, and still get to my appointment on time. I think my hip is well enough now to do that. Though maybe I should wait until I see what the girl says about it. Oh, who knows?

Mom gave me 20 pounds of red potatoes from her garden so I'm going to have to start working those into meal plans along with all the green beans and blueberries. They are a very good tasting potato so it shouldn't be a problem.

Added 70 cents to the change jar today. I spent $4.31, but they gave me back the extra penny's worth, since they were low on pennies.

I plan to spend $10 at the cherry stand this afternoon, maybe more if they have any Raniers.

I'll have a $15 co-pay for my doctor's appointment today. It's just a blood pressure check. I'll also get written prescriptions to send into the mail order place for the two new meds he put me on 3 months ago, one for thyroid and one was a lower dose bp med. It's too expensive month to month to keep doing it that way now that I know they work.

No eating out today and I don't think there will be anything else to buy, either.

As much as it pained me to do it, I transferred the $700 of vacation money out of ING and back to my CU. It will arrive on Thursday and we leave on Friday so that works out well. I left it in until the last possible minute so that I could earn as much interest as possible on it.

I spent $60 on prescriptions today and $22 on pizza dinner for the three of us. I'm trying not to cook too much before we leave as the fridge is pretty empty and I don't want to fill it with leftovers we won't eat before we leave.

I've got to get caught up on laundry so I can start packing for everyone. Why is it the mom/wife always ends up doing all the packing? How come everyone else seems to get all clueless when it comes time to nicely roll up their clothes and stick them in a suitcase but instead fill them up with dolls or trains?

Oh, well, I'll survive. I always do.

We spent a lot of money today. Well, for us its a lot of money. We bought a new desktop computer with flat panel monitor for $745. We'll get back a rebate of $150 on the computer and $50 on the monitor. So all told it will come out to $545.

There was no real fix to the old one. We could have replaced the power supply thingy that was fried and the motherboard that went with it for about half the cost we paid for the new one. We decided we'd just rather put that money into a new one instead. But the hard drive is okay and DH will be able to hook it up to the new one so we can retrieve all of our photos and the few documents and spreadsheets that were stored there.

I have been looking for awhile but was hoping to put it off longer, but then the PC went belly up and it really couldn't be postponed too much longer. And DH really wanted to just go ahead and get a new one and not try to fix or replace bits anymore on the old one.

So I decided not to stress about it and I'm happy with the result and so is DH and so will the kids be when we pick them up tomorrow night from my mother's house.

I got the final bill (at least I hope it is the final bill) from my surgery in May and I owe $1187.60 now that insurance has paid its portion. I'll call them on Monday and see if I can set up a payment plan of $200 a month. Or even $250. I wish it didn't have to be so darn expensive to have medically necessary services in this country. But that's another rant for a different day.

DH and I are going down to Burlington tomorrow to buy shoes for Mr. Bigfoot. He's a size 16 and it is hard to find them in our county, but there is an outlet mall that has a Van's store in Burlington that carries 16's.

We are also going to see a movie (Silver Surfer) and have a little date. We only see 2 to 3 movies a year in the theater, ususally some kind of sci-fi thing because they're always better on the big screen. Our other two movies this year will be Transformers and Harry Potter. DH really wants to see Transformers on the big screen. I wasn't that keen on it until I saw Josh Duhamel was in it, then I was okay. I did watch the cartoon as a child, but still...

But I really like Josh Duhamel. I was in the audience of a talk show when he visited the PNW a few years ago, back when he was still on All My Children, which I didn't watch, but I was really impressed with his manners and how respectful he was to the hosts and to the fans afterwards. So I followed his career after that and its nice to see him in a big movie. Plus, eye candy.

On the gardening front, I've got two heads of broccoli that are close to ready to harvest. I can't wait. There's nothing like going from garden to pot to table in less than an hour.

Today was payday, but I'm not going to get around to doing bills until Sunday I don't think. And that's about it from my little corner of the universe.

I decided to make a proper entry in answer to some comments left on my last post about my medical debt, because it just got too long to be a comment.

No, the hospital will not negotiate any further. As it is, my parents put their house up for collateral against this debt because mine wasn't worth that amount of money. If I fail to pay on the debt my parents would have to so it is something I have to be very conscientious about.

I have never been one to walk away from my debt, no matter how tempting or how much easier it would have made my life to do so. And it will get paid, either over the course of the next twenty odd years or when my parents die and I inherit the house and sell it. Even if the house is sold for medical care the mortgage would be paid off first as the oldest debt and then I'd just pay back the surviving parent free of interest. It is more likely they will die before I can pay it off since Dad is 72 or 73 (can't ever remember if he's 5.5 years older than Mom or 4.5) and Mom is nearly 68. But that's obviously not the option I prefer! I want my folks around as long as possible.

My parents wanted to cash out their IRA and pay it and just have me pay them $1000 a month interest free until the remainder of the debt was paid down, since they have enough in CD's to live off the interest plus the thousand, but since their IRA was made from a never taxed pension the penalty would have been enormous. So that didn't happen.

Mom says that when Dad dies she can then cash out the IRA without penalty and pay it off and then me pay her the rest of what is owed interest free. Another route I don't really want to go.

Well, it'll get paid and I'm feeling better today about it. Yesterday was just really hard.

I received the statement for my medical debt balance today. I am now at $146,322.80 left to pay off from a beginning balance of $155,000. Out of the last payment $702.13 went to interest and $208.24 went to principal. Well, at least principal has finally hit the $200 point. It seemed like that day would never come. I am grateful this debt is at 5.75% and that at least progress is being made now, no matter how little. Of course, when I see that YTD interest has been $4227.57 it makes me feel awful.

I know this debt was a necessary debt. I know that I am lucky to be alive today. I am grateful that the insurance did cover some of the three and a half year ordeal and that the hospital cut the remaining $310,000 in half. But some days when I see that balance and how much is wasted on interest it makes me want to cry. It is hard. I get so angry at my body for betraying me the way it did, for not staying healthy and strong.

It is overwhelming. It makes me want to scream. Or punch my hand through the wall. Or some other destructive thing like go on a shopping spree with a credit card. I won't do that. But the fact that I want to is a major red flag.

I try very hard to maintain a positive outlook in my life. Some days it is obviously easier to do so. This isn't one of them.

Well, so far so good. I have managed to use up two boxes of fish, one filets and one sticks and one box of chicken nuggets from the freezer. They were all taking up a lot of space and were only partial boxes. Now lest you think my shopping habits have been really bad, these were all homemade versions of fast food items that were in big Tupperware freezer containers.

I have also managed to use up half a head of cabbage close to the edge and a head of lettuce rapidly approaching the point of no return. I didn't make it to the farm today to buy the strawberries but I will have to buy milk and bread tomorrow so will buy the flat of berries then. I think I have enough eggs to make it to next Friday as well without buying anymore from the farm.

Oh, wait, you know I am getting lazy again and forgetting. I am going to start a loaf of bread going in the bread machine tomorrow before I head to town. I don't need to buy bread, I have just gotten into that mindset again.

I will be helping my mother out a bit. She still has walking pnuemonia and needs me to go grocery shopping for her, otherwise I wouldn't be going to town. And since I will be in town I will gas up at Costco, pick up my refill on my thyroid medication, and purchase my monthly CD. No not that kind of CD, I wish! That would be my monthly music CD. Rose has put in a request for something by Rihanna, so I'll get the one with Unfaithful on it. That song is so pretty even if it is pretty sad. I think it has S.O.S on it, too, which is quite upbeat.

I don't care that much this month, but next month, July's purchase will be one I've been waiting for, the new Kelly Clarkson. Yes, I am hopelessly a pop junkie. But I watched her new single Never Again on youtube and she is just getting better and better. The trick is going to be waiting until July 1st when she comes out the last week of June. But my limit is one CD a month., so I'll do it. That's my piddly small allowance, but its what I want and does not take up a ton of room so that's okay.

A bit of money out this weekend. On Friday we had the oil change for 47.56, plus a few other minor maintenance jobbies thrown in. Got an estimate on what needs to be done before we go to Victoria at the end of July and it will cost $246 or so. Oh, joy.

I had a P.T. appointment for my shoulder and that was $50 out of pocket with another appointment scheduled for next Wednesday.

And the jamboree for the t-ball season was also Friday, and it went pretty well. Tobias started batting left 3 games ago and he could really whack it out of there. We never thought to check him for batting left. Rose bats better left, too, but it just never occurred. Neither child has a dominant left hand, they both write naturally with their right hands, but my dad's a lefty and I do a ton of stuff with my left hand even though I write with my right. I always have done so much with the left. I always thought it was my strings training that made it so dextrous, but its genetic as well.

Yesterday was more cleaning and organizing and sorting and storing and on and on ad infinitum. Or so it seems. You can definitely tell stuff is gone now. Whole rooms look almost sparse and I am liking it. The recycle guys are going to love us come Tuesday morning.

Today has been yard work on top of yard work on top of yard work and it isn't done. So I suppose I should get back off the computer and back to work.

So, I was supposed to have a dentist's appointment on Tuesday but they cancelled it. Only they didn't call to cancel it until after I'd already left for town. Ten dollars down the drain in gas. Never let them give you an appointment following a major spring holiday or long weekend. Apparently there are a lot of idiots out there who lose teeth on long weekends and must come in for emergency repairs. I wasn't happy but I made the best of it and did some grocery shopping since I was in town and without DH and the kids who tend to make the spending go up.

When I got home the cable people had finished and gone and we now have cable internet, TV again, and a digital phone with free long distance, all for the cost of the internet and digital phone. I like cable internet. I'm going to come down firmly on the side of saying that. 56K is becoming a fading memory.

Of course, I wasted a ton of time on Tuesday afternoon and evening and yesterday, finding places online to watch the first seven episodes plus the Christmas special of series 3 of Doctor Who, which doesn't start airing in America until July and hasn't even finished airing in the UK yet. That was fun. Also found the first episode of Torchwood, which is definitely not for children! Even if it is a Doctor Who spin-off. I am impatiently waiting for the next episode of DW to go up as it aired last week. My little obsession.

But hey, I wasn't out spending money. Anywho, today was my rescheduled dentist appointment was today. My jaw still aches. Top eight words I do not want to hear from my dentist. Go on now, take a guess. Okay, I'll tell you. "I think we can do this without anesthetic." Oh, really? Do I get an opinion on that?

Turns out I didn't need it, though so that is less money out. I had ground down the area around a couple of fillings and they had to build it up and sand and resurface and fix a small chip. But still, not words I ever like to hear. I don't like going to the dentist, it always makes me quite tense. And my jaw just aches from being open for two hours. But it could be worse. It could always be worse.

After the dentist I stopped at WalMart to get engine oil and some more Rubbermaid bins to put more stuff in to take to storage so spent about $40.

Tomorrow will be a spend day as well. We are getting the oil changed in the Crown Vic and then I will be seeing the P.T. for my shoulder, which got wrenched. Old injuries reasserting themselves. I dislike when that happens. But its not horrible and Ibuprofen cuts it down to bearable levels.

It has been wicked hot here this week. To make up for it, they claim it will rain all next week. I'm not against that at this point. But I'm not sure I believe it, either. I'd like some days were it just sits at 70 with a light breeze so I can get the yard and garden back in order. Here's hoping.

I sent the $10 weekly deposit off to ING today, making the amount in there a whopping $72.58. Well, slow and steady.

All right, I better go and fold the mountain of clean laundry I've been ignoring since coming home.

I forgot to post yesterday that we spent $55 on Chinese food. Part of that was two gallons of egg flower soup, for the two of us who cannot keep much down but soup. We like the egg flower soup because it is high in protein without being chewy soup, and also because this restaurant uses no MSG. Most store bought soups use MSG and we are allergic, it causes extreme stomach problems and when you are already having extreme stomach problems from a virus, MSG is not your friend. Not that MSG is ever your friend.

There was also other food bought so there will be leftovers for a couple of days. So DH doesn't have to cook much. I decided not to cook until this virus is gone as I am afraid I will pass it on to DH if I do. It's highly contagious. Tobias had it first.

I also wrote a $30 check to fund Tobias' hot lunch account at school yesterday. This should be the last one of the school year.

This morning DH took Tobias to the chiropractor before school and bought him a McDonald's breakfast. I'm not sure how much was spent but I gave him a $10 so it was under that. The rest of us went after picking DH up from the airport while T was in school. Since he had a t-ball game last night and has another one tonight, going in right after school didn't work and he hadn't been in since before my surgery.

We have the kids seen regularly as both DH and myself have mild forms of scoliosis. Mine has been corrected by chiropractic treatments. DH's is a little worse and his family has the the tendancy to go towards the hunchback osteoporosis hump. His grandmother had it horribly and his mother is starting. DH seems to have corrected against it since he's been seen for years, but we won't know until he's older. He has a high calcium intake as well, so the doc thinks he may not have this problem.

Tomorrow I go the surgeon for my follow-up appointment. I am not sure if that will be a co-pay or not, since surgery appointments are different from diagnostic appointments. It may be part of the surgery package. If it is not it will be a $15 co-pay. I will also be paying a $107 bill there, my share of the diagnostic appointments after insurance. I have not been billed for surgery yet. Tomorrow is payday as well, so there will be other bills and the mortgage stuff paid then, too. Lot of money going out tomorrow.

Okay, I think I am just going to stop eating until this thing passes. At the rate I'm going there isn't much point to putting food in my stomach because it won't stay there. Yuck. It's not even that I'm hungry, I just get the "think I should eat" thing going on because its that time of day. But maybe I'll just ignore it until this goes away. On the bright side, I've lost a pound today.

I hate wasting food anyway. Wasting food is wasting money. Barfing isn't frugal! Plus, I think I've gone through 1/4 of a bottle of Rolaids. That's kinda pricey.

I spent $6.46 to buy more electrolyte solution and a gallon of milk. Still feeling a little disconnected. Rose did decide to share her virus. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately considering what she's been going through, mine is at the throwing up end of things. I hate not keeping my food down. Right now I'm sipping on organic chicken boullion. After what happened to breakfast this morning, this seems like my best option for lunch.

Well, I have to say being sick like this definitely reconnects me to my life. Ugh.

My surgery this morning went really well. I'm not in any pain and its been six hours since I took pain meds, so yay! I like this minimally invasive stuff soooooo much better than the "gut you like a fish and then staplegun you shut" type of surgery.

I can't drive until tomorrow but I should be able to resume most normal activities by Sunday, like cooking, dishes, laundry, and even pulling weeds if I get motivated. But only easy to pull weeds. Anything tougher than a dandelion can stay in, like burdock root. No lawn mowing or weed whacking though. Which is why I got that done the last three days. I should be able to do those by next weekend, though.

I did get my red cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli planted in the brassica bed (which I rotate each year) and my French Crisp leaf lettuce planted in a ten gallon tub yesterday afternoon. I still have peas, kohlrabi, summer squash and green beans to plant. I need to find some cucumber starts and some well grown tomato plants. Though I don't know why I bother with tomatoes...they are cheap here and don't like mountain growing seasons.

My asparagus is showing, the most advanced is about 4 inches above the surface so should be ready to cut by Monday or Tuesday. My cherry bushes have bloomed, my strawberries are just starting to flower and I've got a bunch of new raspberry canes coming up where I transplanted them to last year. Also, I have a bunch in the original position that I think I will try to move to the better location. If they do, its no big deal as the other ones are thriving and will take over the new area soon enough.

Today is a spend day. I had to get a broad spectrum antibiotic, $10, that should have been called in last night with the pain pills but wasn't. Last night's med was also $10, plus I had to renew my potassium prescription at $10, too. Glad it wasn't $40 like my BP med earlier this week!

Oh, the doc was able to do the surgery with a sedative and local anesthetic instead of putting me under general anesthetic. I was still asleep. I don't like not being under local if I'm awake, but thankfully I was out cold. That will be much cheaper, not only in the cost of the drug but in the cost of the time the anesthesiologist had to sit with me. Not as long in the recovery area either as I woke up much faster.

That about wraps it up for me for today.

Today started off with a visit to the physical therapist, so that was $50 right out of the gate. After that I picked up DH from the airport and then we went to get gas at $3.10 a gallon. The other stations are at $3.25. We filled it up but we used the Costco cash card so I'm not sure how much it was off of that. Probably $45 as its an 18 gallon tank and only had 1.5 gallons in it at fill-up time.

Then we went to LensCrafters to pick up my year supply of contact lenses and to have both my regular glasses and my prescription sunglasses adjusted. No money out there as I'd already paid for the contacts.

After that we went to WalMart and bought more Rubbermaid tubs for moving stuff to storage and also items I'll need for my trip. I got a small First Aid Kit, bottle of Rolaids, nasal spray, sunblock, and vitamin C. I tried on swimsuits but none of them provided enough support on top, or enough material for that matter. When did one piece bathing suits get so low cut? If I wanted a flimsy bikini top I wouldn't be looking at a one piece to begin with. Sigh.

Then we went to Arby's for lunch. Just too much money out today, but I guess all of it but Arby's was necessary spending.

I wanted to take the car to the car wash but it is still closed. I am hoping it will reopen soon. My punch card is full and they owe me a free wash and wax and I'm getting annoyed waiting. I hope they aren't broken down. I know there are other carwashes in town but I've got a free one coming and I want it by golly!

I've been eating so much bad food lately, most of it not of my own cooking. I have to say I have really gotten lazy this month and also have gained about 5 pounds. This is really, really bad. Not only healthwise, but medically and financially.

I have to be very, very careful with what I eat to keep my symptoms in check and I haven't been. My biggest excuse is lack of time. The thing that sends me off the most is skipping breakfast, but I don't like taking time to make breakfast in the morning after having made it for the kids. It's not like I can just eat the standard and not to mention carboriffic fare of toastor cereal or waffles either.

Anyway, today I decided to make up some breakfast TV dinners for the freezer. I now have 2 weeks worth of breakfasts in there. I have:

6 servings of omlettes (turkey ham, scallion, bell pepper, x-tra sharp cheddar, tomato)
6 servings egg scrambles with homemade sausage which will be accompanied by fresh cucumber slices
2 egg scrambles with sugar-free bacon and daikon home fries

This also accomplished using up some stuff that would have gone off in another couple of days.

If I make it to the store on Tuesday they should have some ground lamb marked down and I will make up some lamb de provence with lavander patties (just one pound ground lamb with 2 tbsp herbes de provence with lavander seasoning) and some ground pork for making more homemade sausage. I also would like to make up some salmon patties (egg, parmesan, garlic, salmon) to freeze for lunches. I can make the salmon patties whether I make it to the store. I've got some canned salmon that is getting close to the use by date. May make some tuna patties, also.

Dinners tend to be much easier for me to cook without planning ahead or even with planning ahead. I'm hoping starting my day with a good brekkie and not ignoring my health and dietary requirements will make this urge to eat out and eat junky go away.

This has been a rough week for getting on the computer and blogging. Rose is badly sick again for one. I thought it was pneumonia for awhile because of the depth of her coughing and the fact that she was getting dizzy.

But when I took her to the doctor her lungs and bronchials are clear. She has a severe sinus infection though and a chest cold. Lovely. $15 co-pay. So we got two prescriptions, generic zithromax and flonase. $20 total co-pay. I'm not sending her back to school until Monday.

Tobias had his first t-ball game and goodness its going to be boring. Two games a week that last far too long. We're definitely going back to soccer next year. This is too tedious and unenjoyable to watch and T says he was bored during the game. It was also very cold there. It isn't right on the river, the river is across the road and down in the gulley, but its close enough that it makes it quite cold. So blankets are going along for tonight's game. Rose will be staying home. I don't want her out in the cold. The neighbor girl will keep tabs on her.

I also spent $20.00 this week to fund T's hot lunch account.

I ordered my parkhopper for Disneyland which should arrive on the 25th. $189. I think that covers what has been spent this week, then.

And I've managed to write 9 pages this week. Not great but something.

About 3 a.m. last night the sky split open and we got walloped with one heck of a thunder lightning rain storm. Guess I was right about the source of the migraine. Fortunately it did not last long and I was able to get back to sleep. This morning I just needed a butal to function instead of Imetrix. I had a lot to do today so I'm glad its down to a quiet roar in my head.

First thing was to take the kids into my mother's house. She is keeping them for the rest of spring break. I pick them back up on Sunday just in time to take them to the open house for MIL and FIL's 40th wedding anniversary.

After dumping them off I went for my cranial sacral therapy and that made a big difference in the reduction of pain in my head, also. Then I had made an appointment a few days ago to get my hair cut, so I went to Regis for that. I only go twice a year to get my hair cut so I figure I don't mind shelling out a bit more when I go. Most of the time I cut my own bangs and not worry about it, but twice a year it needs an overhaul.

It was about 18 inches long and getting heavy, and I am so tired of blowing it out straight, which I have to do when its all one length, so I had layers put in to take off the weight and took about an inch off the ends and got my bangs back above my eyebrows. With all the weight off my hair does what it always does and went bouncy and curly.

Anyway, it was $38 and I left a $5 tip. I was very pleased with the cut and will go back to this girl again. Just not for another six months.

I had lunch at the mall while I was there, not good for me food at all, which was probably stupid considering I'm just getting over a migraine, but I did. $3.02 for a small strawberry Julius, $2.75 for a prezel with mustard, and $1.09 for a double cheese from Mickey D's.

After that I went down to Lane Bryant. I don't normally shop there but they were having a sale on unmentionables, and since I needed new unmentionables, I decided to see what they had. They had a very large selection of the appropriate size of unmentionables in an attractive array of colors. Each unmentionable normally costs $28 but the sale was buy one at regular price, get the second one at $9.99. Which is a very good price considering the product is of very high quality. So I got four, and I had a coupon for $15 off any purchase of $15 or more. So ended up paying $65 for $122 worth of unmentionables (that is including tax on both amounts).

Then I bought two pairs of running shoes. They were on sale 2 for $89.99 (which is pricey) and I have such a difficult time finding a shoe that fits my foot right, let alone running shoes, so I got two, one white pair and one black pair of the exact same shoes, and one will go in my closet until the other wears out. I also bought 2 pairs of the reinforced heel and ball off foot socks for running/walking for my trip to Disney for $10. The socks help not to get blisters, and the properly fitted well supported running shoe should help as well. I'll be using my white pair on the treadmill to get them broken in. It's only 17 days until I go so I do need to get them broken in. Shouldn't be a problem. Anyway with tax it all added up to $112. But I shan't need to make anymore purchases like that for a good bit.

Went to the chiropractor, put $10 in the gas tank, then came home, took a nap, shook off the majority of the headache hangover and spent the next 3 hours answering the phone before I decided to just let the machine get it. That's of course when people stopped calling.

My mood is much improved today, so it was definitely migraine related. It is good to be back to my happy self with a cheerful outlook on life.

I almost never get migraines anymore but I've definitely got the onset of one. I haven't eaten any triggers, which makes me think its pressure changes. When the barometric pressure rises or drops dramatically and at a very fast clip, its been known to trigger one. I really ought to get a barometer. But I can tell my hunch is correct. I went outside and felt the air and smelled the air and I know there is a storm coming on that will hit tonight or early tomorrow. That air just feels too heavy.

I took my medication and I'm going to bed early tonight. I am in a very foul mood. I woke up fine but about five it went downhill and that is when I felt the pressure changes. Nasty mood out of nowhere is usually another sign of a migraine coming on.

Okay, I'm off to go curl up in a small, dark, soundles cave and hope things shift by morning.

Today is my blogoversary. I had written this wonderful wildly witty entry and it disappeared into the ether, and I don't have the energy, the memory, or the desire to recreate it, but you all would have been very entertained and it would have offered you a life changing moment. No, not a life changing moment in your life, just one in mine.

Which is what this year has been like for me, one life changing moment after the other. Some were so little I barely noticed them until they built upon each other and suddenly I had some really big things going on in my life. The biggest one of all? Living within our means. Where did that come from? How did we do that? Where did this amazing thing come from? It would have been a thrill ride to read about it. But oops, its gone. So...that was our big life changing moment. Hope you were along to see it as it happened and if not, go back and see how it did. I think there's a time machine around here somewhere...

I guess I'll just write about my day today instead. I went to the doctor, my blood pressure is happy on the cut from 40mg to 20mg on my meds for the last two weeks, so I get to continue on that for a while and come back in July for another check. One more step in my plan to get off it for good.

I also got my flu shot booster and don't need to worry about that again until October. Thyroid meds are doing a good job so I'll stay on that as well.

Other things done today, a trip to storage, a visit to the chiropractor, and driving DH to the airport. Then a wedding shower. It went okay. I had very mixed feelings about going to it. I'm happy for the people getting married, they are both great people.

But the husband is, or rather was, the spouse of a very close friend who died way too young and way too unexpectedly and it feels wrong to think of him as married (or about to be) to another woman. My friend's twin daughters were there and they are very happy and get along well with what will be their new siblings. I was very happy for everyone, but looking at the girls was eerie. They look so much like my friend did as a girl. Still, the two merging families are all so overjoyed. It has been good on both sides for everyone.

I think mostly it just has made me miss my friend. I will visit her grave tomorrow and then I think I will be okay about everything. She was the kind of person who would want everyone to be happy after she was gone and going there and reminding myself of that will help me to stop being a silly goose about it.

Anyway, that was my day.

Went to the chiropractor this morning, paid $175 for the family monthly unlimited plan this time. I managed to tweak out my hip again, big time.

I also had cranial sacral therapy, which helped some with the hip as well.

We filled up the car at Costco, $39 and something. It's up to $2.959 per gallon, everywhere else is at least $3.05 and most are higher. I have $16 and some odd change left on the cash card there.

DH and I went out to lunch at Hungry Bear. We spent $36, including tip. We ate at two and I doubt I will eat another meal today, it was very filling. The food is always good there, the best of the best of diner food.

So quite a bit of money out the door today.

Bills paid so far today:

$400.00 MC credit card
$400.00 House mortgage
$ 93.00 Power bill
$ 72.00 Cell phone
--------
$965.00 total

I still have to round up some other bills and deduct the upcoming auto payments for Life Insurance and the security system.

Not really much to talk of today. The doctor did start me on thyroid medication, so we'll see how that goes for the next six weeks. Well, I hope. I'm tired of being exhausted so much of the time. That was $21.99 for the new prescription.

Sigh. Well, I had my little outpatient procedure today and darn it all but I am going to have to have another surgery. I am so not a happy camper. I guess I can count myself as fortunate it will be a minimally invasive operation instead of the gut you like a fish kind the docs seem so prone to want to do with me. But still no sign of tumors of any kind, so I rejoice in that fact. It will be done inhouse in the office which has two surgery rooms, I will be knocked out, but it won't cost as much as going to hospital or the surgery center. So again, I will count myself as fortunate

It'll knock me down for about a week, but he said after 24 hours I can resume light duties or whatever. I assume that means dishes and laundry but I will do my best to make sure that is all out of the way ahead of time. And I may be unfrugal and just spring for microwave save paper plates and bowls, some plasticware and a bunch of napkins or paper towels to get through the week with. Maybe make up some dinners ahead of time for the freezer, or really be unfrugal and just stock up on Marie Calendar TV dinners.

I'm waiting to see what dates are available. If I can get it done on the 13th or 15th, I'll do it before I go to Disneyland so I'll have 2 full weeks to recover. If not, than I will wait until I come back and do it second week of May.

I will try hard to keep a positive spin on this, but I so hate having surgery. And I'm a bit annoyed at my body for being so useless at times. But it could be so much worse, it really could, has been in the past, this is just a minor repair jobby.

I guess DH's promotion and accompanying raise will have gone into effect just in time to pay for this when we are billed. Another thing I can feel fortunate about. Never having to put a surgery on a credit card again. That is something I wouldn't have been able to say a year ago. But I can say it now.

Okay, so $15 co-pay for the doctor and my blood pressure is down to 114/80, so he decided to reduce my dosage from 40 MG to 20 MG, but make it one with a diuretic because I still seem to be swelling up way too much. And he gave me six weeks worth of samples. And a flu shot. My doctor gives flu shots in the spring and then again in the fall. He says they only really last 6 months without the booster. And he gives them in 2 doses, so I will get the booster dose in 2 weeks when I go back for the blood pressure check. He is good about combining appointments so that I don't have to make a seperate visit for every little thing.

He also sent me to the vampires, I mean the phlebotomist, for a blood draw to see if my throid might be underachieving. We do the test every couple of years because every single female in my family has an underactive thyroid. I have always been borderline normal. So that was another $15 co-pay.

I couldn't find any tops I liked or the CD I wanted so I decided to go to the bookstore. Like I'd find tops or CDs there, right? $61.82 later I decided I really should stay out of bookstores. I forget after about six months go by. But I'll have plenty of reading material to read on the plane for my trip. And at least I paid for them in cash.

So one of the new books I started reading today. I'm already 9 chapters in. Which isn't as much as it seems because the chapters are short and I'm only on page 49. So far so good, but a little weird. "It's called The Wave by Walter Mosley and I found it in the sci-fi section but it seems more like a supernatural fantasy to me. Maybe it was mishelved, or maybe because it didn't have a unicorn, a dragon or a vampire on the cover they assumed it was sci-fi.

Tomorrow I go in for another kidney test. I hope this will be the end of it. My kidneys haven't bothered me at all in two weeks, so I think it was just a long-term infection or I'd still be in pain. But everyone just wants to be sure. At least there are no tumors this time, so big yay in that department.

My goal for the month of April and these last few days of March is to get myself completely healthy for my vacation. I've done Disney sick and no thanks on that score. It ruins half the fun. So, I have to make sure I take my vitamins, do my one hour on the treadmill every other day and try to drag my sorry self back in to Curves. I always feel better when I exercise but its the starting it up again that is so hard to do. It also means not staying up past midnight writing, which is pretty hard sometimes when I get in the groove.

Today is a gorgeous sunny day. The creeks flooded 2 days ago after the deluge and there is still standing water everywhere. The main creeks is five feet across and normally it is down at least a foot from the bridge that goes over it. Now it is running with maybe an inch or two between the top of the water and the bottom of the bridge. And on either side of the creek there is water for a good 50 yards. I have never seen the creek flood this badly before, usually its maybe 20 feet on either side.

There is one house a mile down the road that has its driveway underwater and huge ponds on either side. Now the front part of their property tends to fill up but again, I have never seen it this bad. There were geese in it! Not just ducks. Really weird to see.

As far as I know, the river did not flood this time. Of course it may have further down up by Ferndale or Lynden when all the branches and tributaries have joined up on the last leg out to the bay. I know they were on flood watch. But I didn't see anything about it in the paper, so it may have just been the huge amount of runoff from the foothills as the snow melted and the rain hit hard.

I guess that about covers it for today. Or at least for this afternoon.

I am going to the doctor this morning for a blood pressure check, so that will $15 out for a co-pay. He may or may not change my medication and if he does, he may or may not give me samples to try it first. If not, that will be a prescription co-pay.

I am also going to buy a couple of shirts today if I can find some that I like, so I can retire some old ones that have seen much better days. And one CD that I have been saving up for with the recyling money. I think that will be about $30 dollars between the shirts and the CD.

I hope to make it over to the storage place to rent a unit but that may not happen until Wednesday when DH is home.

And I need to buy gas but that's on the pre-paid Costco cash card that I loaded, so no money out there.

I also need to pay the medical mortgage, the phone bill, and the water delivery bill. So that'll be about $1100.

I was thinking about dropping the water delivery again but we had a test result come through on the tap water reservoir Saturday with e.coli again, so nope. I'd rather pay out for it than risk our health.

Today was the day of the survey apparently. I completed surveys from Lightspeed, NDR, GlobalTest Market, Zoomerang, and my very first PineCone survey.

Zoomerang seems to be going very well. I have not reached a point level with them yet to cash out for anything, but it was one of the sites recommended in a book I read months ago, I think it was called The Mom's Guide to Making Money on the Internet, or something like that. Anyway, when I do my first cash out with them I'll blog on it.

Not much else going on, really. I'm watching season 3 of Red Dwarf and working my way through my MyPoints backlog (still). Tomorrow I have cranial sacral therapy, and I'm sending Rose back to school. Her fever broke and her strep test was negative and she's well enough to whine about being bored. If you're well enough to whine, you're well enough to go to school in my book. She won't be able to sing in the concert tomorrow. She hasn't gotten her voice back enough. I think half her probelm is pollen. I know its mine.

Oh, $15 co-pay for doctor's visit today.

Well, today was Tobais' first day of T-ball practice and he did pretty good. I'm not sure the coach knows what he is doing, he's never coached before, but he seems to have a good raport with the kids, which is really the most important thing.

T had a good time and his little friend from down the road is on his team so he's happy about that. Of course, that means he has a bit of a penchant for goofing off. I think he's going to be the class clown type.

Spent a little money today at the convenience store, got some soup and some diet lemon/lime soda for Rose. I think she may have strep throat. Its got that smell to it, so I think we'll be going to the doctor tomorrow, which will be a $15 co-pay. She's had a fever for two days and can barely talk. She's going to miss her singing concert this week, which is too bad as we were both really looking forward to it.

I've been getting a ton of writing done. I've hit my goal for the year of 365 pages so I've stopped counting pages. It really helped me to get in the habit of writing daily. Now if I skip a day it seems wrong.

DH emailed me today and they're putting up the JVA at work this week for the new position. Which means they've got funding, so it should just be a matter of waiting a little bit longer now. I hope so. I've spent the last six months doing nothing but waiting or so it seems. I'm so tired of that.