benefit 4,928,761,350 of being unemployed & living with your folks

it's really handy when you do something tremendously stupid to not have to worry about mundane stuff. like work. or carrying your child around. or how to feed yourself when your room is on the first floor but the kitchen is on the the second.

thursday night i was cold. i've been cold at bedtime for the last week or so, primarily because our bed is located directly below the only window in our room. that means that even though the window is completely closed, when it's say 20 degrees outside (which it has been at night for the last week or so) that even if you have the heat on in the room, there's still a cold spot right where you put your head down when it's time for bed. i don't know about you, but if ANY part of me is too hot or too cold when it's time for bed? i can't sleep.

so i decided i was going to get the nice, fluffy, warm uw huskies blanket that i got for christmas two years back down from out of the closet to put over the comforter on the bed. vrock is a furnace so i'm not allowed to have an electric blanket on the bed. that means that if i'm cold, i have to pile blankets onto my side of the bed. fine. i can do that. i pulled the office chair over to the closet, braced it against the dresser, and climbed up. there was a little wobble, but no big deal. i've done this a million times. up, grab the item in question, and down with no problems. not so much this time.

when my parents built the garage (where the 5 of us are currently living) they put an apartment over the garage and a bedroom with a bathroom downstairs. they also made 9 foot ceilings, so you HAVE to climb onto something to get anything out of the closet downstairs. ideally that something would be, i don't know, a STEP LADDER, but i digress. the basket that the blanket was in is VERY light. 2 blankets, a pair of slippers, a pair of gloves, and i think a scarf is all that is in the basket. so i knew that it would be no biggie to grab the blanket.

EXCEPT.

i didn't know that vrock had also put an armband for his ipod in the basket. this wouldn't be a big deal except that he just kind of tossed it into the basket, meaning that it landed on top of the blanket. again, not really a big deal. except. when i pulled the basket down towards me to grab the blanket out, the ipod thing fell out. and startled the shit out of me. which caused me to lose my balance and fall.

luckily i didn't bang my head on the crib or the bookshelf that is right next to it. unluckily, i heard a distinct SNAP as i landed on my foot. i was sure that once we went to the er and got x-rays that there would be a break somewhere. luckily i was wrong and it's just very badly sprained. but man. it HURTS! i spent all of friday, saturday, and most of sunday in bed with my foot propped up and icing it off and on. and today it's STILL all kinds of lovely shades of purple and yellow.

the er doc didn't give me enough pain meds to last me to my follow up tomorrow with my regular doc, so i'm raiding dad's pain meds from his surgery last month. (only after checking with the pharmacist that they're safe to take while breastfeeding.) they make me sleepy though, which is great for at night but not so much for during the day. today i finally ventured upstairs, but had to have my mom bring the baby up since i don't trust my balance enough to carry him yet.

what a great way to spend a weekend, huh? on the plus side......it's not broken. and? vrock has been pretty awesome through the whole ordeal. after 4 days of being an invalid though, i'm ready for it to heal and to be able to walk on it without pain. we'll see what the doc says tomorrow about the timeline for that.

i know this though........i'll never use a chair to get something out of the closet again!

i swear i haven't fallen off the face of the earth....at least not yet

i believe i owe you a post about the trip.



the trip was fantastic. it was the first time in TWENTY (count them!) years that my entire immediate family (all 4 of us. LOL) were in hawaii at the same time. both my brother & i have managed to go see our grandparents while our parents have been there over the last 20 years, but this was the first time we'd all managed to be there together. and it was awesome.

between vrock totally loving my grandparents (they love him too!), asking my grandpa for his blessing to name the baby after him (of course, he's THRILLED!), and talking about my brother & his fiancee's wedding next year, PLUS celebrating my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary AND mother's day, it was just an AWESOME trip.

it was a little too warm for me, what with the humidity and the whole "i'm growing a person so my internal thermometer is all out of whack", but vrock loved the weather, even the humidity! we didn't "do" a lot while we were there, until my brother got there. most of our days were fairly lazy, with the most strenous things we did being walking downtown throughout the shops and eventually going to the beach. (my bro & his fiancee' ended up coming in later than planned because her grandmother died a week or so before the trip. that was a major bummer, but i'm really glad that they decided to come anyways. i think it was therapeutic for her.)

the highlights of the trip were these gems:

• vrock, my bro, dad, & grandpa having daily "cocktail hours" starting around 3:30pm complete with each one smoking a cigar. (vrock & my brother do not normally smoke AT ALL and dad only smokes pipes/cigars every once in awhile.) grandpa was definitely in his element as he held court with the boys.
• everyone hanging out in the pool room at my grandparents playing pool and just enjoying the family time.
• my brother & his iFlip getting some of the best sound bites EVER from grandpa!
• and of course, seeing grandpa's reaction when we asked for his blessing to name the baby after him. it was priceless and something i'll never forget.

vrock is ALREADY talking about next years trip. he wants to make sure that they get to see the baby in person. i love my husband!

all you get is a few photos from the trip because blogger is pissing me off!

and then there were 6

it's a very freeing feeling to know when your job is going to end. you can plan for things. you have the chance to make sure that all of your "loose ends" are cleared up. as much as being laid off sucks (cobra, unemployment, etc.) it's a good thing to KNOW it's coming. (unlike my friend who walked into her office one day in dec & was escorted out of the building a mere 90 minutes later.)

that being said, in a sick way i'm LOOKING FORWARD to not working. granted, i'll still have my school work to do and all that, and as long as i continue to pass all of my lessons on the first try, i'll be done mid june. that will hopefully translate into a gig working from home transcribing, which means that when this little boy makes his debut sometime in august, i'll have a paying gig. (not sure how the whole "i'm having a baby" thing will translate to the job, but the benefits to the employer are not that many "sick" days since i'm already home.) from what i've been told, around the middle of this part of the class (18 chapters & lessons) i'll be getting a call from the school to set up phone interviews, etc. if all goes the way it should, that should be happening around the end of the month. with the way the grading is timed out (once i turn in something, they have 4 business days to get the graded lesson back to me) i'll only have to worry about 1 chapter while we're on vacation, which is a good thing.

vrock's mom & sister are moving into a different house next month & they want him to come out and help them move. if he's still not working, that's not a huge deal, as they'll pay for his plane ticket. since i won't be working either, we've been debating the idea of me going with him, since after the baby is born i won't want to go ANYWHERE, much less to texas. so we'll see what happens. i can take all my school stuff with me, it'll just depend on how much i'm getting from unemployment & how much/if he's still getting unemployment. not to mention, our childbirth class starts on 5/5 (we'll be in hawaii) and runs every tues night. i don't want to miss any more than the one we have to miss since we'll be gone. so there's that to consider too.

a lot going on in the next couple of weeks but it's all good. and i feel calm. which is always a good thing.

news & other assorted tidbits

all kinds of things happened over the weekend & the early part of this week. and most of them were squarely in the "good" column. woot!

1. we found a crib. well, technically we were only really "browsing" for a crib, knowing full well that we can't afford to buy one unless we got a totally screaming deal. and then we found one. we didn't buy it though because we found out from my brother in law that we could use theirs. (and most likely we'll get to keep it since their youngest is almost 8 and they have no plans to have any more.) they apparently got a screaming deal on this crib (i've yet to see it, although vrock is going over there this weekend and he's going to take pictures for me.) and paid around $200 for a $600 crib in cherry wood. and it's a convertible, which is what i wanted. so, score!
2. my dad officially got the position that he applied for within his company, so he will NOT be laid of mid-april as we had originally anticipated. woot! granted, dad is 61 and had thoughts of taking early retirement if this job didn't pan out. for my mom's sake, i'm glad it did. with vrock still not working (more on that shortly) and me likely being out of a job next month (more on THAT shortly) i don't think mom could have handled it if ALL of us were home all of the time.
3. we got the ruling on vrock's unemployment mess. not sure if i detailed that fight here, but here's the short version: due to his surgery in oct, he had to "quit" his job. (he didn't really quit, they just told him to call back after he was released to duty and they'd put him back on the schedule. he'd only worked there like a week & a half.) he called after surgery & nobody ever called him back. then? they challenged his unemployment and he hasn't gotten paid since christmas week. he appealed and his hearing was last week. the old job didn't bother to call in. judge heard the complaint anyway and ruled in OUR FAVOR! woot! so we're looking at 10 weeks of pay that they owe us.
4. we DID get a deposit yesterday, but it wasn't for the full amount, so vrock is calling today to find out wtf is going on. since the judge ruled in our favor, they are supposed to pay the whole amount due. keep your fingers crossed on that.
5. vrock's been applying for EVERYTHING, but sadly there's no "new job" news there. there hasn't been a lot in the paper/online lately, but he's trying to stay positive.
6. i had gotten a call last week from one of the temp agencies that i'm hooked up with. there was a permanent full time position available & they wanted to send my resume. the place wants someone to start on 3/13. i haven't heard back from anyone about an interview, so i guess they passed on me. which frankly? i'm ok with. initially i was torn. yes, it's a job with more money & benefits and all that. but? i'm kinda looking forward to working from home as a transcriptionist and being able to be around for the baby. not to mention that the job was a little bit further away than where i'm working now and it would take FOREVER to get there on the bus. so there's that.
7. there's also the slim chance that i'll just be able to stay at my job. things with the industry have gotten interesting. my boss is still trying to see if he can keep me, but i'm not planning on that. it would be nice. but we'll just have to see what happens with that.

so there's the big news from around here. add to that finishing up the first half of the transcription course (i'll be taking my final either tomorrow or saturday) and trying to think of what i do and DO NOT want for my baby shower. things have been keeping me busy, to say the least. and all in all, that's a good thing. although, i have to admit that i'm kinda looking forward to the end of april when i don't have to get up at 7am to get ready to go to work and can instead work from home in my jammies. :)

bean spillage

so for the limited numbers of you that actually read this, this may or may not be news.......

we're knocked up.

due date is roughly 8/11, which is my grandfather's birthday, so that would be kinda cool. we're very excited and of course, a little scared. we plan to find out the sex only because i think the suspense would kill me to not know. lol

so we have a lot going on these days. gearing up for our move this weekend, preparing for a baby, etc.

life is good.

one armed paper hanger

have you heard that expression? "i'm busier than a one armed paper hanger"? well that's been me the last week or so.

between helping more people at work, spending the weekends at my folks to help them make room for us to move back in and packing up our stuff? i'm fried. (then of course, there's also the finding stuff to post on craigslist that we don't want/need anymore!)

i'm not sure where i find the time to do anything that's not move related. oh wait. i DON'T.

luckily that will come to an end next week. (and i don't even have to do any heavy lifting! bonus!)

in other news, one of my "band kids" that i haven't seen since at least '94 (if not longer) is in seattle this week with his wife & son and we're going to attempt to meet up this afternoon for a quick catch up over coffee. (but only because he's willing to come to my office. LOL)

hopefully we'll be able to connect. with my 20 year reunion coming up this year (for both high schools i attended) AND one of my best friends' son being 18 already (seriously. who told him he could grow up??) i've been feeling a lot nostalgic these days and a little old. go figure. LOL having a 20 year reunion will do that to you, i suppose. then again, so will staring 38 in the face. at least i have 2+ years to face down 40. no such luck for vrock. that milestone hits this year.

35 days

i don't know if i should be stunned that christmas is a mere 35 days away or amazed that vrock & i have survived this year with all of its ups and downs.

regardless, i feel somewhat accomplished today.

with everything that happened this year, christmas is going to be much smaller than it usually is. (read: done on the cheap) my family isn't huge and his isn't really until you start counting the nieces & nephew. all in all, with the select few friends i also exchange with, we're talking 18 total people including vrock. (let's face it, i buy the majority of the gifts. he buys for me and has input for everyone else.)

that's a lot of people when you're trying to keep costs down. (and i cut out 2 people last year.) i used to try to spend around $100 each on my parents & brother & vrock. that's just not possible this year. it's so hard to buy for most people these days that i'm trying to figure out what to do.

for his mom & sis, he wants to do food items, which should be easy enough and shouldn't cost too terribly much. i was able to get a bunch of gift certificates for really cheap a month or so ago, so some will be receiving those. (lifesavers i tell you!) and i think we're getting omaha steaks for my grandparents & his brother & sister-in-law.

but i did score today. i was able to get all of vrock's gifts (all 2 of them) online today. and on sale. woot! shipping was free and all told, i spent $108 and change. i know he'll love what i got and i'm just relieved to be done with at least one person.

i'm almost done with a few others that will be getting the aforementioned gift certificates. all i need to do with those is to bake the pumpkin bread that i'm going to send along with those. but i can't bake them too soon or they'll go bad. we don't have the room to freeze them, so those will be a weekend before christmas type of thing.

but at least i've started. back in the day i would have been completely done shopping by now.

i miss those days.

angels

we have some good news. (no, i don't know about my job status yet. i will hopefully know something later today.)

1. vrock started his contract gig today. woot!
2. we received a completely unexpected check in the mail yesterday that was enough money that IF i don't end up getting this position at work? we will NOT have to move.

grandparents are special angels and God DOES provide.

now, hopefully he'll provide a win for Obama.....

after all, tomorrow is another day

in the good news department: vrock will FINALLY be starting his contract gig tomorrow.

(as you may or may not recall, he was due to start it last week when he was felled by a combo cold/post op infection. the rest of the week he struggled to get SOMEONE to call him back to let him know when to come in.)

it happened, as it always does that he was preparing to go apply somewhere else when he got the call saying they wanted him to start tomorrow. he still applied at the other place as it was for a full time, permanent position AND it pays $5 an hour more than the contract position. we'll keep our fingers crossed and keep saying copious prayers and hope it all works out in the end.

on my end of the job saga, i may know something tomorrow.

my boss has a call with HR scheduled for noon tomorrow. i'm staying positive and proactive. as much as i want this job and to stay with my company, i'm not naive and i know there's a very real chance that i could be one of the odd women out here. with that in mind i've spend the last few days polishing my resume and getting it out to anyone and everyone i can think of.

there will be more crossing of appendages and a plethora of prayers to that end.

is it friday yet?

is it? i so need it to be.

i need it for various reasons:

1. vrock will be getting a call today from the contract gig people to let him know when to come to work
2. if it's friday, i get to sleep in the next day
3. if it's friday, i get paid
4. did i mention the one about getting to sleep in the next day?

i don't know what it is this week (maybe vrock's post op mishap that caused him to miss his start date at the contract gig, maybe listening to bob "big game hunter" cry and cry yesterday as i took him to the groomer) but this week has totally sapped me of energy.

all i want to do is go home, put on my sweats and curl up on the couch and totally veg out. and if i'm really lucky, vrock will go over to his brother's place on saturday and i can do that without feeling like i should be using my time for good. or, at least, you know. getting some shit done around the house.

(not that i WANT my husband to go away, because i don't. i just don't want to feel guilty for not doing anything!)

and we have relapse

vrock has a post op infection.

FUCK!

the last 14 months have been a trying time for us. some very good things have happened and some very bad things have happened.

good:

• we had our first anniversary and went to vegas
• we returned to vegas and got married
• we got our first apartment together
• we celebrated 6 months of wedded bliss yesterday
• i got a job in my industry again after almost a year out of it

bad:

• i got laid off
• i couldn't find a job in my industry, so i applied for & got a job as a 911 operator
• between moving, getting married & starting a new job i was sufficiently stressed to the point of being sick for 4 weeks.
• i ended up quitting the 911 gig because of the stress/illness
• within 3 weeks of getting married & returning home, we both lost our jobs (his permanent, mine temp)
• he's had a hell of a time finding a job that pays decent money
• he had sinus surgery & a wrist injury

he was to have started his new contract gig this morning. "was to" being the operative words there. due to his infection, the fact that he can't see the doc until tomorrow & the fact that since he can barely breathe he didn't get more than 30 minutes of sleep last night, he didn't.

luckily for us, the company he'll be contracting for is AWESOME and when he called his liasion this morning, he was told to go to his appointment tomorrow and come in on wednesday to start instead. THANK GOD! i was REALLY freaking this morning (and maybe not overly the caring wife i normally am) because we really need that money that he'll be bringing in & i was afraid that they'd just replace him for not coming in today.

can you say WHEW?!?!

catching up

has it been a week already? wow.

last weekend was VERY low key what with vrock having surgery on wednesday. we ran some errands, did some shopping & watched some football.

then i was sick on monday. (no fun AT ALL) and the rest of the week i've been busy with work.

so that brings us to today. i've done most of my work already and it's not even noon yet. (makes for a long day.)

this weekend is the big notre dame vs. univeristy of washington game that vrock & i have been waiting for since his birthday. i hope we have a good day for it. it's an evening game, so we'll need to be prepared to freeze our butts off.

vrock got a contract gig with a MAJOR corporation that we're hoping could become permanent down the road AND the other job he was working before his surgery & wrist ailment? they want him to come back too! it's only a part time job, but the hours he'll be working at the new place are such that he'd be able to do BOTH jobs, should he choose to do so. he's leaning towards doing that, which would be a MAJOR help to our finances. he's just going to wait a few more weeks before he tries to go back to the part time job to make sure that he's recovered enough.

i'm cautiously optimistic that things are looking up for us.

now, if only i could get knocked up.....

aftermath

vrock's surgery went very well yesterday. so well, in fact, that he's not even taking his pain medication. his only complaint (other than a faint headache), so far, is that the rinsing agent he has to squirt up his nose forever (ok, only 4 times a day for 3 weeks!) kinda burns his nasal passages. so far, no black eyes.

update

i'm in a better place this week than i was last week at this time. which is good.

here's what's on tap for this week:

• vrock is having his surgery tomorrow. while he's doing that, i'll be having my own doctor's appointment. might as well kill two birds with one stone.
• tomorrow, i'll be nurse/taxi driver/wife to vrock's patient/husband/crankypants
• i'll try to catch up on tivoed shows tomorrow while he's resting
• work

that's about it. i've been reading up on the recovery and it doesn't sound like fun AT ALL. i hope that the surgery goes well and that it takes care of all of vrock's sinus issues.

keep your fingers crossed, k? thanks!

and the hits just keep on coming

how do you know if you're passing the tests that God gives you?

is it if you DON'T break down and cry (& scream & throw things) that you know you're going to be ok?

because i REALLY think i'm being tested.

and i don't know if i studied hard enough.

i feel 300 pounds lighter

ok, maybe not 300 pounds lighter. but definitely lighter.


yesterday i started to write a post about how frustrated i was with the people at the doctor's office. the doctor that is doing vrock's surgery next week. i was so angry i was on the verge of tears all afternoon.


our insurance kicked in on 9/1 and knowing that, we didn't go to the doctor until after that. we have a $3000 deductible and a health reimbursement account of $750 from my work. basically that means the hra pays the first $750 and we pay the remainder. after that everything is covered at 80%. because our insurance didn't start until 9/1 though, both amounts were prorated for the rest of the year. (at $1000 and $250) vrock had to have a ct before we could officially determine he needed surgery. then he had to go see the surgeon so he could look at the scan. neither item has been billed to our insurance yet.

that being said, when the surgeon's office called the insurance they were told that we have a $1000 deductible and a $250 hra account. so what does the surgeon's office do? they called vrock yesterday and basically said "you need to bring in your deductible amount before surgery so that you can have your surgery." excuse the fuck out of me! so he called me and told me and i went ballistic. i called the office and our exchange went a little something like this:

me: this is vrock's wife. i understand that you called my husband & told him that we had to bring $1000 in to your office before he could have surgery.

snotty bitch at surgeon's: that's not exactly what i said. i called your insurance company and they stated that your deductible has not been met. with a high deductible, the doctor requires that it be met prior to surgery.

me: wtf?!?!? look. yes, we have a deductible of $1000. we also have a hra which is $250 so that our portion is only $750. on top of that, vrock has had a ct scan on 9/15 AND been to see you last week on 9/30. NEITHER of those have been billed to my insurance yet, but i KNOW they will run close to the $750 that we are responsible for.

sb: oh. well, let me look and see what the allowable amounts are for those and i'll call you back tomorrow to let you know what i find out.

that was the MUCH abriged version of that conversation. i've never heard of a doctor's office requiring your deductible to be met before they'll perform surgery. that's just ridiculous. i called my insurance company and they verified that it does happen, although they ask the doctors to not do that. it's all turned out fine (we don't have to pay anything up front) but i was SO upset yesterday that i gave myself a headache.

it's funny to write this now after all the angst of yesterday. it's almost anticlimactic in a way. (that's probably because i'm not feeling homicidal at all anymore.) i did talk to the office this morning and they pulled their heads out of their asses and figured out what the allowable billing amounts were for the 2 visits he's already had and how much of that would translate to our deductible. when they did that our responsibilty comes to $330 which, since it falls UNDER the $500 mark, they don't collect up front.

and the verdict is in

and that verdict is:

SURGERY

ugh. even though we were 99% sure that was what the doctor was going to say, it's never what you want to hear.

so it's scheduled for the 15th. which means that i get a day off in the middle of the week (yay!) but it also means that my husband is going under general anesthesia for the surgery (boo!).

keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and that this will resolve his sinus problems.

big game hunter

this is bob. he is the absolute sweetest cat i think i've ever owned. he's big (15 pounds) but he's not fat at all and he always wants to play. he can be needy (especially if his "person" vrock isn't home) but over all he's a great cat. as a rule we do not let him or his sister gabby outside.

once we moved to the apartment, vrock started leaving the back door open to the patio when he was outside to see if bob would come outside. he now goes outside only if one of us is on the patio. (we have quite a few dogs in our apartment complex, so i am adamant about not letting the cat out if we're not out there to keep an eye on him.)since he's sort of gotten used to going outside he'll now sit at the back door and really look out. he doesn't really try to go out often.

well, last night my sweet boy wanted to go outside. BADLY. i was in on the computer and since vrock had been sent home from work because he was sick, he was sitting in the living room watching the football game. he called me over to look at our cat. he was pacing back and forth and trying to get outside. (the glass sliding door was open but the screen was closed.) it was obvious he wanted to get outside. and at first we couldn't figure out why. then we saw it: a little white mouse was on the patio. and bob could see it. and he wanted to get to it. i don't think he wanted to kill it. the cat has ALWAYS been an indoor cat and as such does not have ANY experience with anything other than bugs & spiders. i think he was just interested in it because it was moving and it didn't seem to care AT ALL that this big furry 15 pound cat wanted to get at it.

and THAT was the funniest part about the whole thing. here bob is running back and forth between our bedroom and the back door (our window sills in the bedrooms are very low to the ground to where bob can sit on them and look at the patio) so he could "track" the mouse's movement. vrock was just about in hysterics and kept asking me if he should let bob out. um, negative ghost writer.

that's all i need. for my "big game hunter" of a cat to take off after this mouse once it does start running. no thanks!

now i ask you, does this look like a "big game hunter" to you? me neither.

today's the day

vrock finally gets to go see the specialist today about his chronic sinus infections. i'm at work, so i won't be going with him to ask all the questions i want answers to. damn. i did talk to vrock last night about the main things i wanted answered, so hopefully he remembers to ask those, at least.

we're both figuring that he's going to have to have surgery. what we don't know is the following:

1. will he have to be put completely under? if so, will he need me to stay home that day to "watch" him for the first 24 hours after surgery?

2. how long will he HAVE to be out from work? he just started this job last week and they sent him home last night because on top of all his sinus issues, we think he's getting a cold too.

3. when can he have the surgery? if he hadn't already promised his brother that he'd feed their damn dogs from the 3rd to the 13th, he could do it this friday without too much disruption of our lives. as it is, he did promise so it would be a major hassle to try to do it this weekend. then, next friday, my brother & his girlfriend are coming up for the weekend from california. THEN, on the 25th we have the uw vs. notre dame football game. so, you see the dilemma. right now the IDEAL weekend would be the 17th. hopefully that's an option because we don't want to push it too far out. and if he is getting a cold, they probably won't want to operate until that passes.

his appointment is at 1:15 and it's only 9:37 here. so i'll have to hang out all day and wait to hear from him, hopefully around 2 about what the verdict is.

have i mentioned that patience is NOT my strong suit?? ugh!