Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Fathers and Sons

Cayden and Chad had the opportunity to go camping last weekend on Fathers and Sons. I had almost a 24 hours period without Cayden - it was so nice, but I missed him and was glad when they came back. They seemed to have a lot of fun and came back absolutely filthy!

"Helping" set up camp.

They were on some private property and a bunch of horses came through. Cayden was naturally in heaven. If you listen carefully you'll hear several excited 'nees' - I think it is so cute! ('Nee' by the way is how Cayden says horse.) Oh, you can also hear Chad huffing and puffing. Lol.



Falling down. :)

Playing in the trailer.

Picture with daddy. Love my two boys!

The Things We Do

Nothing too exciting to report; just regular, everyday life, but I thought I'd post a couple pictures for Grandma's sake. :)

Cayden likes to think he is a big boy and eat whole apples. (Though he usually gives up after about 5-6 bites and asks me to cut it up for him.)

Cayden likes to build his own "forts" and read books in them.

Cayden and daddy both got haircuts from Grandma H. Cayden only fussed a little at the beginning... success!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

So Proud!

Sorry about that last post. I was having one of those days where nothing seems to go right. Things always seem to work out when they need to; I just need to get better at having faith and being patient. :)

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During the previous semester at school Chad was able to become Green Belt Six Sigma Certified! (I have no idea what that means, so don't ask me.) I'm so proud of him and all his hard work. Only one semester left until he is done with his Bachelors! Yay!

Cayden had to get in the picture with daddy.

Monday, May 16, 2011

WANTED: A Magician

When it rains, it pours. Isn't that how the saying goes?

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Let me start off by saying that I am completely aware that things can always be worse and that there are in fact many people in a much worse situation than I am. However, I am feeling a little frustrated and really need to vent.

I have been feeling very overwhelmed lately with two things... actually, I guess it all really boils down to one thing... MONEY. I hate money. I wish I felt like it didn't control my life. Yet sadly, it does. It is always there in the back of my mind and it never goes away.

Cayden has seasonal allergies that he typically gets in the Spring and Fall (though Spring is always, always much worse). It usually comes and goes and isn't that big of a deal. Two weeks ago Cayden had your typical runny nose and cough that accompany allergies. He was doing fine and didn't seem bothered. Not this past Saturday, but the one before that, Cayden woke up in the morning and was having very labored breathing. I monitored him throughout the day and finally decided to take him to Urgent Care around 6pm Saturday evening due to the fact that he was very pale (I swear his lips were somewhat blue) and his breathing was getting worse. After a nebulizer treatment and a lot of screaming, the Dr couldn't quite nail down what was wrong (he said it was either bronchitis or pneumonia, but he couldn't tell because of how hard Cayden was screaming). He put Cayden on an antibiotic and told us to continue to monitor his breathing.

Bright and early the following Monday morning we found ourselves in the hospital for chest x-rays because Cayden's breathing had gotten slowly worse throughout the weekend. If you've ever had your child get a chest x-ray you'll know what I mean when I say 'torture chamber.'


Cayden was put in a contraption just like this and screamed. The whole time. Later that afternoon we had yet another Dr appointment to go over the x-rays and discovered (thankfully!) that Cayden did not have pneumonia, but bronchitis. We also got a prescription in the hopes of preventing a yeast infection as every time Cayden is on an antibiotic he gets a yeast infection... joy.

Over the course of two days... two Dr's visits and two prescriptions. Yuck.

Fast forward a week. Today I called the Dr and told them that the prescription we have been using for Cayden's yeast infection hasn't been working. Like at all. They said to start alternating between the prescription and Neosporin with every diaper change as Cayden might actually have an infection (other than a yeast infection) down there as well. If it hasn't cleared up by Friday we get to go in again! *crossing fingers that everything clears up*

What does this have to do with money? There was a $30 copay for each Dr visit as well as the cost of the two prescriptions. And then there are the x-rays at the hospital. Our insurance won't cover a cent on that so we get to pay 100% of the x-rays. Yay. Oh yeah, and if we have to go back in on Friday that will be another $30, plus whatever new prescription they give us. (I think I'm going to go throw up.)

Why is everything so dang expensive?! We already have a very tight budget as Chad is in school and we're still waiting on a real job (he is currently on his last semester!), but gas prices keep going up as does the cost of food. I find myself pinching pennies everywhere and we're about to the point where you can't cut anymore out. We don't live an extravagant life. There's not much more we can get rid of. Things keep getting more expensive and Chad's salary stays the same.

We just got our benefits enrollment information for the following year and discovered that our bi-weekly rate went up $25. That's $50 that is going to have to come out of our budget somewhere. There are also a lot of plan changes that I don't understand and can't call to get clarification on until next week when it is our "call-in" period.

***

Back to my post title... WANTED: A Magician

I need someone magic to make all my problems go away.