Displays of Excellence

Alright, enough opinions.
Here's our old girl.

Here's our big tree changing colors.

Here's our baby politely refusing carrot-baby food.

Addendum: We've decided as a family to see how ignoring the computer for a month will affect our lives. We both realized that at times, we were shooing the children away or sitting them down in front of the TV so that we could check blogs or make pithy remarks on Facebook or surf.
So for October, if you want to get hold of us, we'll still be answering our phones. I imagine our next post will be post Halloween.
Tolmanitude out.

My Diabetic Pre-existence

I usually try to keep the family blog away from politics or culture or other things that might estrange our friends, but sometimes politics and culture walk up and slap our family in the face.
As some of you may recall, I lost my job couple months ago. At that time, I also lost my family's health insurance. It didn't take me too terribly long to find another job with benefits.
Well, I went to my endocrinologist a couple weeks ago for a check-up regarding my type I diabetes, a condition I've had since childhood. I submitted all my new insurance information and paid my $35 co-pay. Yesterday, I got a letter from FMH CoreSource (my benefits company) stating that my health care plan contains a pre-existing conditions clause, and if I don't provide proof that my gap in coverage was less than 63 days, my claim will be denied.
Fortunately, I don't think my gap in coverage was more than 63 days. What really kills me is that CoreSource and Lifetime Benefits (my old insurance) are BOTH subsidiaries of Aetna. So even though I've been funneling quite a few bucks to them out of my paycheck over the last 3 years, they try to deny coverage at the first opportunity.
I asked the gal at CoreSource when the new laws would go into effect that made this kind of thing illegal. She said, "Oh, we won't have to worry about that for a couple more years."
Now, I know that a majority of our friends would place themselves in the reddish region of the political spectrum, and some of them have even done some marching and holding signs as they express themselves. To them, I would say this:
Before you start picketing in support of some of these guys that are promising to repeal the health care reform bill, please just ask those guys which part of the bill is the part that needs to go. I certainly don't understand everything in that legislation, but I know that it's designed to make it more difficult for insurance companies to screw over a middle-class, diabetic dad who is trying to stay alive with his pre-existing conditions while he supports a family of five (By the way, even though I'm still with Aetna, my deductible started over, so I got to pay almost $200 for a 3-month supply of insulin and testing supplies).
If the Republicans want to get into power and make their own improvements, great. Tort reform? Fantastic. Go for it. Interstate insurance commerce? Fabulous. But don't take a giant step backwards just so you can say you were the only ones who made a difference. That's stupid.
That's all.

Angel Poop

We had a pretty good hail storm a few days ago. Actually, we were up in Liberty at the time, but came home to some fairly impressive results. We didn't sustain any roof damage, as far as I can tell, but I know that there were people in the area who lost windshields. How could Obama let this happen???
There's a tall tree with big, broad leaves next to our garage. You see that some of the leaves took a pretty good beating.
Maybe if have a few more storms like that, we can get all the leave raking out of the way now, before it gets too cold.

This is a mitochondrion.

Stools and Schools

Now, I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that our youngest daughter is more awesome than she really is. We haven't actually made any deposits into the pink plastic portal. But she IS clutching herself and saying "PEE PEE" whenever she's gone in her diaper. So this post isn't to announce any early milestones, it's really just to make Aunt Chrissy jealous.

And Lucy had her first day of preschool. It's surprisingly cheap, despite the high teacher-to-kid ratio. Plus, the teacher sent a good page-long individualized email telling all about Lucy's day.

Nose Hair and Heroism

You know, there comes a time in a man's life when he has to take a minute and really think about things. He has to wonder about the direction his life has taken. He has to wonder what brought him to the point where his wife would go to Big Lots and purchase a nose/ear hair trimmer and present it to him with a sheepish look that says, "Hey, you really actually need this. Sorry, buddy."

Dora. Dora the Explorer. Dora, we a-dora thee. Dora the Explora, command us what to Do-ra.

The only way your kids could be cooler is if they actually fly.

Cocoon

A couple posts ago, we told you few folks that still visit that we had captured a cocoon and were hoping for a more positive outcome that our last butterfly hatching. Well, lo and feakin' behold.

We didn't notice that the critter had emerged until it had already dropped down and moved over to a plastic bag on the counter. The kitchen looks the way it does because Becky decided to paint the walls.....again.

We moved it outside pretty quick. I figure that if the oil-based paint fumes were burning MY eyes, it must have been even more uncomfortable for a newborn who breathes through its skin.

Learned Child of Mine

Our oldest child joined the ranks of the publicly educated this week. She even rode the bus to school. I will now narrate her thoughts during her arrival back to the house on Thursday.

"I may seem small compared to the vehicle on which I traveled, but I will soon have the power to destroy objects many times that size with a single, focused thought."

"Hello, youngest sister. I'm back from a day of intellectual growth and socialization. I'm sorry you had to deal with Lucy all by yourself, but I think my absence will ultimately lead to a closer bond between the two of you."
"Hello, Lucy. I'm sorry you had to deal with that screaming baby all by yourself today. Don't worry. I'm home now and you and I can immediately start giggling about the cute boys in my class. Most of them look and smell like hemorrhoids."

"The square of the hypotenuse of any right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the two remaining sides."

Squash and Metamorphasis

We had to figure out what to do with the one, enormous pumpkin that ripened in our garden two months early. It's too early for jack-o-lanterns, so we decided to make pumpkin-bean-chicken soup and a jack-o-lantern. We're not really doing the creativity thing.
We found a cocoon clinging to the drive gate. I believe it's the same species as the one we captivated two years ago. Hopefully, we'll have a more positive outcome than the last time we tried it.

Craftiness

We got a package in the mail the other day from my sister, Allison. She has four children, who have been making crafts indoors because the weather in Austin has been almost as miserable as the weather in Kansas City. They had apparently run out of things to make for themselves so they turned their attention on our girls, since they're small and cute like dolls.

Nora was not outwardly happy, but she looked very frilly.

Sam is planning on wearing her outfit to school in a couple weeks. You can't see the shoes very well, but there are little cube-beads that say IAM on one shoe and SAM on the other.

Becky has also been crafty. She made this cake here. The stuff under Barbie's skirt was surprisingly tasty.

We've had a number of zucchini's picked too late. Jon had to figure out something to do with the behemoth squash.

Vualah. Lucy used ionized particles trapped in her hair to craft a portal onto a beach in 1923, where she instigated a fight between two wet women

Seen here:

And this is an obligatory baby falling asleep video. Mommy had just finished reading to her out of the Ensign.

Bath time is fun time

If you're not LDS, this won't be as funny to you, but nonetheless, this is what I just overheard from Samantha while she was bathing with Lucy:

"Brothers and Sisters.

"Ladies and Gentlemen.

"I would like to excuse the shower curtain for being in the way.

"I would also like to announce that bath time is fun time."