Camping Labor Day part 1...

Oh wait...we weren't even camping by Labor Day because of the RAIN!!!

For those who don't live in the northwest, you might think that we just have to live with the fact that the weather can spoil our outdoor fun. However, it's a pretty safe bet that if you drive 2-3 hours east, you'll be rain free. Eastern Washington has an entirely different climate than Western Washington.

So our annual campout with our life long friends was intentionally planned East of the mountains so that rain could not inhibit our plans. We were going to swim in the Columbia River, soak in the sun, play cards, eat good food and enjoy quality time together...

...or just go bowling...make a tent city...run to walmart from dry clothing...go home early...lose sleep...

Missing tooth...

Finally, my Ruby who is going to be seven years old next month LOST HER FIRST TOOTH!! She lost one off the bottom, and the other one will follow any day now. The new teeth are already coming in where the first one fell out, so we are hoping that they straighten out and that the stubborn baby teeth get out of the way fast enough. It's stressful now thinking that whatever happens to her teeth in the next few years will determine if she needs braces, etc. AND, once she gets the real ones in, she will have those teeth until she moves on to dentures...what responsibility!

So I was out with my girlfriends, and Chris started working on Ruby to let him wiggle her super loose tooth. Finally, he just took a car key and pulled the tooth forward and it was out. Ruby was freaking out because she saw some blood, but quickly calmed down and was really happy. She asked him, "Daddy, is this a dream?"

The tooth fairy brought her 4 quarters (though she only saw three...who knows where the 4th was) and some gum that claims, "cleans teeth". She was in heaven and awe and it was a fun time for the tooth fairies as well.

Photography Contest...

In getting my website content written, I came across a little photography contest. It isn't for money or anything, it was pretty simple and will just feature winning photos on their website, but it only took a second to apply, so I did. I have one more photo to email over, so I'll add that (maybe) when I do. You can enter five images.

Forgiven...

In this economy, it really surprised me today to get a letter from Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority forgiving the balance of my student loan! This wasn't solicited by me. I just opened the letter today and was told that based on my diligent payment history, the remaining $600 was forgiven. How great is that?

I was lucky to finish school with only $5,000 in debt. My parents were great support, and I took it slow toward the end when I needed to work full time to pay for my life and school. Then I fell in love with Chris and didn't want to spread out my last fifteen credits over two semesters, so I applied for my first loan and have been paying the payment the past 8 years.

Chris and I haven't ever bothered to pay the loan off because the interest rate was only 3% and there has always been better places to put our money.

Anyway, what a great surprise!

Wicked...

I love Wicked. I saw it last year with my old friend Kelly Keim and we loved it. This year, I bought with a big group and wound up taking Ruby too when a friend had to cancel. I am so glad that Ruby got to go. I hesitate so much as a parent to give her everything fast, you know? I knew she'd love it. She is a little performer and she knows all the music and has watched countless clips on youtube, but I couldn't help but think that a 6 year old should have to wait for this kind of a night. Anyway, I still kind of think that, but since a ticket came up, I snagged it for her and I'm glad I did.
Pictured left to right...Mimi, Jen, Monica, Sarah, ???, ???, Laurie, Suzanne, Anna, Tasha, Miriam, Tess and me and Ruby in the front.

Going private...

I have heard too much lately about information, images and video from blogs being used by sickos of the world to exploit and abuse children. This is not a small issue, I personally know someone who had a video of her one year old taken by a pervert from her personal blog and posted on child porn websites for gross people to view. Can you imagine how powerless she is in that situation? Her baby in a bath (no privates showing) on porn websites for viewing. I am cautious about posting pics of my kids' skin, but that might not be enough. I don't really feel comfortable posting some things that I'd like to document knowing that people could misuse the info, so I am going private.

The change will happen in a month or so. Please email me at rebeccapierce2001@hotmail.com if you wish to subscribe to my private blog.

My girls...

We finally did a real photo shoot for my girls! It was fun. We went to a neighboring town and found some decent places to shoot. It's always fun to find some new places to take pictures. They were pretty cooperative and I got some decent pics. Here's my favorite so far, though I haven't worked on very many at this point.

Since I've really decreased my blogging time, I have to indulge in a post about both of our girls. They are growing before my eyes on a daily basis, people at church are commenting on how old they look all of the sudden. We have a Peter Pan syndrome at our house that discourages all "getting bigger." Tonight the girls and I were having a picnic at the school across the street, and I told Ruby she was just looking so old to me all of the sudden. She said, "Don't tell Dad!" Alice has asked for permission to get bigger only until she learns how to swim by herself, and we were okay with that. Swimming is important. Even for a teeny, tiny baby like Alice.

RUBY...

Ruby has a LOOSE tooth. Her FIRST loose tooth, at almost seven years old! She is excited and scared. I took her to Wicked the other night and she loved it. It was so fun on our way home afterward because she talked the whole way home. Here are some samplings from our conversation...

Ru: Mom, can I tell you something?

Me: (nervous) Sure, what?

Ru: I can see air.

Me. Really? You mean when it's cold?

Ru: No, all the time. I can see air right now. (11:00 PM)

Me. Oh, what does it look like?

Ru: It looks like white stuff all over the place.

Me: Sounds like maybe you need glasses!

Ru: Some people wear ugly glasses.

Me: Well if you need glasses, we could pick some out that you like.

Ru: You know, some people wear big, round glasses like grandpa Pierce. (ouch).

Me: Yes, older people sometimes don't like the new styles.

Ru: Well, I think I'd want some that were flatter, you know like ovals or rectangles. More stylish, like Uncle Matt's.

Ru: I don't know why, but when I say, "hello," all I can think of is "yellow!"

Me: Interesting.

Ru: When I say "popular" all I can think of is "popcorn!"

I love talking to my girl. The other day, Alice fell asleep and so we got to spend some time together alone. She was like, "remember when Alice used to take two naps and we were always alone together? That was awesome." I couldn't help but say, "But she's super fun to have around, I'm so glad she's part of our family." Ruby's reply? "No mom, she's all bad news." So not true!!!

Today, she decided after wiggling her loose tooth, that her nose was also loose. Chris of course fed right into it, and pretended to wiggle his nose while she wiggled hers...only he didn't move his at all. So he agreed with her, it was loose and was definitely falling off. She was super worried. Later, she started wiggling her ear and again was convinced it was falling off. It just wiggles so much! Thank goodness they are still young inside, even when they start to feel so old!

Alice...
Alice is our second born. She is pretty much the opposite of her sister. We love her. She's very curious about everything. I can hardly move a muscle with out her wanting to do it for me. She wants to hook my bra, put the detergent in the washing machine, break the eggs into the frying pan...nothing is ever accomplished with out her involvement. Alice hogs all the puzzle pieces, when told not to do something, she'll always do it immediately a second time to see what the response will be, and she likes to avoid consequences by telling us whatever we want to hear. She's a hands on kind of gal.Alice loves to wear skirts and dresses. She rips through her own snarled hair and actually gets all the knots out! She loves to stress out the simple past tense angels. She's known to say "watched-ed", "goed-did" and other overly conjugated verbs. In spite of the fact that Alice wanted a little sister, she had a dream that our baby will be a boy baby, and she is 100% adamant about that fact. She tells everyone.

Alice laughs so much, with such abandon, I can't think of anything I'd rather hear than her laugh. It is infectious.

July Camping...

We've gone group camping every year with a bunch of friends from the Puyallup area. This year, we went in July and it was a nice, relaxing weekend with great company, food and fun at the beach. I didn't take my camera to the beach, so I took almost zero pictures. Thanks Mimi for letting me snap away with your camera AND then for getting around to sharing the album with me!

I didn't get any pictures of the sand dollars, but there were THOUSANDS of sand dollars at low tide, in knee-deep water. The kids were so entertained by them, picking them up in piles. Did you know that sand dollars are almost black when they are alive? It was really neat to find some sea creatures, enjoy the sun, the WARM Puget Sound water and a sandy beach.

I highly recommend Penrose State Park for Washington camping. We were at the group site, so I can't speak for the other sites, but we really enjoyed the experience there!

Alice confided in Ruby that she wants to marry her friend Braden. Ruby confided in me and I'm not telling anyone. Lol. They are the same age and are such fun little playmates! It amazed all of us that the whole weekend, these two kids wandered around all over together and were found many times just sitting next to each other on a log or something chatting up a storm.

Ruby, Wyatt and Kiley have been friends since babyhood. It is so nice (and maybe fleeting) that they can still play at age 6.5 together so well. They, and a lot of the time, Wy's sister Kesley spent a lot of time playing together around camp.

Wow...I really went a whole month between posts.

I used to blog an average of maybe 25 times per month. Now I blog maybe a handful of times per month OR LESS. What am I up to?

• Working. My photography business has sort of overwhelmed my life and I sit at my laptop way too much working, so the computer has kind of lost it's recreational appeal.
• Facebooking. It is so worthless. I literally deleted like a dozen friends a few weeks ago to get below 600 friends on facebook, and I think at least a dozen more have added since. Important people...old roommates, missionaries who are now home who lived with us, old people like aunts and uncles who are just getting with it...still, my awareness that the girl from my choir in high school is visiting her sister in NYC couldn't be less interesting than reading 30 blogs of closer friends and family members, could it? NO! I am wasting any time I spend on facebook, and it has to stop. I'd rather blog. I think it is just easier to post a one liner than a whole blog post, so it tends to take over.
• McCall-ing. I have been at the cabin for 20 days the past two months, and there's no internet there. Just a deck of cards, good company, the sun and a refreshing lake with a sandy beach. Who needs anything more than that?
• Baby making. Sorry if that terminology threw you...but my body is busy making a baby. It's tiring business!

So why two posts in ten minutes? I'm sick. I can't sleep, so I decided to blog.

Irony...(a post probably no one will muscle through)

The first three paragraphs are for those of you who are paying way to much for health care. The irony follows my preface...

So with the economic downturn, I've resumed some of my original responsibilities to my husband's business...in this case, shopping for competitive insurance benefits. It is a lot to sort through, but I am very interested in quality, affordable (what?) health care and so I trudged through. In the past two years, I spent $24,000 on a health care plan for Ruby, Alice and I (Chris is free, paid by company) that I maybe used 4 times (were were on a plan that didn't cover my doctor of choice, so we paid OUT OF POCKET for most office visits, and my kids didn't get their annual physicals), and only for simple office visits maybe $800 in lab work. I also used my every six months dentist exams and they may have paid a few dollars here or there for their portion of a super cheap generic prescription or two. I rely primarily on naturopathics, so we are talking really recent, like three months or so of thyroid meds.

Anyway, my investigation led me to an extra $700 a month and a plan that will cover my preferred doctor for 6 office visits a year (per person) without meeting the deductible for a $30 co-pay. I stayed on the company dental plan, which went DOWN in cost, I went vision free, as both Chris and I have 20/2o vision and the insurance guy said that with affordable eye care at Costco and Walmart, vision insurance usually isn't worth the money for the average vision needs. I also went prescription free since I literally fill maybe one prescription every two years total for my whole family (until my recent thyroid thing which only costs $15 out of pocket), and they are almost always generic and you can get generic drugs at Walmart for $5, right?

So...we are now on a "catastrophic plan" that covers 6 office visits and pregnancy (after I meet the deductible of $1,000 it is covered at 70% with a max. out of pocket of $5,000--but remember, it only costs me $4,300 to have a baby (assuming all goes as planned, and of course that is a big "if", hence our need for insurance that covers pregnancy complications) because I am planning a home birth with a midwife.

So in the past two years, outside of my recent thyroid journey, I have seen a doctor probably twice for annual exams. So I go on the above explained "catastrophic insurance plan" on August 1st, and on August 26th, I am on vacation with the most severe pain in my inner and outer ear, that I can't chew food, hear or touch my left ear. BAD, BAD PAIN. So I go to the doctor. I was a mess. I had been dealing with it on my own for five days and I wanted relief. The doctor said she's never seen an adult ear so angry. I had an inner ear infection that wound up rupturing (which actually felt good) along with swimmer's ear (outer ear infection), a horrible head cold and chest congestion with a pesky cough that has gotten worst by the day. I wasted no time taking the only thing they could give me due to my pregnant state...amoxicillin. I kind of bent the rules and took two doses in 8 hours instead of 2 doses in 12 hours. After three days or so, my ear was noticeably on the mend.

So I have been coughing non-stop for about three days now. I can't sleep and I have a headache from the noise. At night, I can't ignore the high pitched wheezing coming from inside of my chest WHILE MY MOUTH IS CLOSED, it keeps me awake...I have dreams of children shrieking by my bedside, but it is only me...breathing.

I went to Rite Aid tonight and sat on the floor of their cough medicine section for 45 minutes while friends were googling active ingredients to tell me if I could or could not take the medicines in question. Literally, the store manager was called when I asked the clerk if I could leave my purchases at the register and use their bathroom. I was escorted to the bathroom, she unlocked it and waited. Whew...no huffing or downing a bottle Robitussin in the stall for me!

Thankfully, Sommer called her OB/GYN dad and got the for sure green light for Tussin DM, which is alcohol free and safe for pregnancy.

The irony? Well, I think I'm going to see the doctor this morning to make sure I don't have pneumonia or something. I hugged a friend tonight and she said I felt hot, and I did feel fevery...and I've been coughing almost two weeks now, and it is getting worse...so I think it's time to see the doctor to be sure nothing more is developing. I think the antibiotic might be hindering some potential symptoms, so it's hard to say really how I am feeling, and I think I should be sure I don't ignore the cough too long.

AND, I have an appointment on Tuesday with my preferred doctor to re-establish myself as a patient, as I haven't seen her for myself (only paid for the kids out of pocket while we were on that plan that didn't cover her, of course I neglected myself) for two years.

So...in my first 40 days on my "catastrophic plan" I will see the doctor THREE TIMES. Ironic, see?