Not Our Month

March has not been our month.

First there was the massive flu bug that left us all puking and 2 of the 3 of us in the hospital. (We are now getting all those bills thankyouverymuch.)

Now, we have a $600 plus repair bill for Mr. Bean's lemon car.

We can't wait until April!

Healthy!

All of String Bean's tests came back normal and we have been puke-free for more than 48 hours. I feel like we can finally start catching up with all the things that piled up while we were sick.

I can't wait to open my mailbox and find the bills from the hospital, doctors, and labs. I got my bill for my first physical therapy session today. It came in at just over $300! I sure hope that they were future-billing for dates instead of that being the cost per session although I am not holding my breath. I told Mr. Bean that we will definitely be hitting our max out-of-pocket with our insurance company this year.

What would we do without medical insurance?

Text to 85944 for Samaritan's Purse!

Photo from the Samaritan's Purse Facebook fan page

Samaritan's Purse has just joined the texting revolution! You can now text to 85944 to make a $10 gift to Samaritan's Purse which will be charged to your cell phone bill. Of course we have the link to the left you can contribute that way as well.

I've never done the text-giving before. Have you? Did you enjoy the experience? How does that work for tax purposes? (No, I am not text-savvy.)

Thumbs Up for Peanut

I just read an article in Parents magazine (February 2009 issue) about weird things toddlers do. I want to publicly affirm Amy that Peanut putting a green bean up his nose was a completely normal toddler thing to do. The human body is simply amazing and Peanut was just acknowledging that by exploring the innermost parts of is nose with that bean. So, instead of looking at it as a moment of embarrassment for mom and dad or another big doctor bill to pay, write it in Peanut's baby book as the day he discovered that God's creation was amazing.

My favorite quote from this article? "Toddlers tend to do weird things simply because they can." I think those toddler years are going to be fun with String Bean! Apparently I have fascination of nakedness to look forward to? This could get interesting...

Unexpected Bills

Don't forget to sign up for our giveaway which ends Monday, December 8 at noon!

I was showering on Tuesday morning and all was fine until about halfway through my shower when I realized I was standing in about 3 inches of water. It all happened quite suddenly. The shower was draining fine at first then it was not draining anymore. I turned off the water and watched the tub drain ever so slowly. I mentioned it to Mr. Bean and he shrugged it off.

The next morning, Mr. Bean got up to shower only to find "black stuff" that he had to scrub off his tub before showering. Then he showered and had a very similar experience to mine the day before.

This morning we both showered and again had the backed up tub that didn't drain. Cue plumber.

We live in a condo, so every time we've called the plumber, the problem has been in a shared line and the plumber has been paid for by the homeowners association. The joys of living on the first floor is that your sink/tub gets backed up with everyone else's gunk when the shared pipe gets clogged. Oh, yes, it is fun.

The plumber was at my house for a long time (says my mother-in-law who was babysitting String Bean when he arrived) and found "hair and wax" in the pipe in the wall between our bathrooms. Our regular maintenance person is on vacation so her substitute was handling the whole thing and isn't sure just yet if the bill belongs to us or the association.

$363. Ouch.

Things on My To-Do List

I'm going to cross these off the list as I accomplish them!

Today:

• Eat lunch (If I don't add this to the list, I snack all day long)
• Empty dishwasher
• Check e-mail
  
• Call everyone who signed up church directory photos tomorrow and remind them.
• Update Facebook status
• Check e-mail
  
• Feed String Bean
• Pick up Mail
• Call attorney about updating wills
  
• Daydream
• Nap, if I can fit it in
  
• Go to worship team rehearsal
• Check e-mail
• Send final appointment list for church directory photos to Bill
  

Later:

• Sleep in past 7 am
  
• Finish planning String Bean's first birthday party
• Clean the house thoroughly
• Laundry
• Pay bills
• Finish Christmas shopping (yes, I've already started!)
• Get String Bean's flu shot
• Get my allergy shot
• Find a new address for that wedding card that was returned to sender
• Blog
• Think about whether to decorate for Thanksgiving or just skip right over to Christmas
• Get rings inspected
• Get assets turned over to a Living Trust
  

That about does it.