Survival of the Fittest

I don't want to make this blog a negative, ranting, dark corner of the internet. I really don't. But I have to. Because I just got my bill in the mail for the delivery of my second born son, and they got the insurance wrong. Again. I registered online (why do they even have you do this? it cuts out absolutely no time when you get to the hospital) and provided my insurance information before I even went into labor. Right after I registered I received a phone call. They had the wrong insurance information. We corrected it. When I got to the hospital they had the wrong insurance information. We corrected it. After I delivered, a woman came to my room to get me to pay before I left. We went over the insurance information and corrected it (good thing I didn't give her my payment information, because they would've overcharged me and I still wouldn't have gotten a refund). Once home I got a series of bills from the hospital, all with the wrong insurance information. This is the eighth time. I am calling them on Monday, giving them the correct information, writing a check for the amount I actually do owe, and then I'm ignoring whatever happens from that point on.

I wish, oh I wish that this was like the wonderful, wild outdoors, where incompetency gets its own reward--only instead of death, it would be an erasure of their "accounts due" database, obviously.

Ian's Big #2

Ian is now officially a two year old (and beginning to master the fine art of the tantrum). We celebrated his birthday on Sunday evening. Haley spent hours making Ian a firetruck cake -- firetrucks being one of the things that fills his little life with glee. (And where we live firetrucks and police cars scream by all day...and all night.) Unfortunately we ran out of red food coloring so it turned out to be a MaryKay firetruck. Ian loved it all the same.

Okay, this is Haley: That cake is hideous, and if anyone respects my pride, they won't enlarge the picture. Trust me, the cake is best viewed from a great distance.



The good thing about birthdays when they're this young is that you don't have to wrap the presents, really.


Ian was VERY excited about his presents. Part of that reason was because he got a trike and cars, both of which he loves, but also part of that reason--a very big part--was that he was allowed to indulge in cake-eating, which is a rare treat.

A Picture Story

We started out in New Hampshire.

Grandpa George coaxed Ian out on the boogieboard:

Here Ian saw a motorcycle. He was so excited he couldn't even say "motorcycle" before it had disappeared around the corner.



We went to the Independence Festival in historic Exeter. For some odd reason there were more women dressed up as soldiers than as...well, women.

We watched old guys shooting off cannons:

Grandparents, George and Janice:

Then we went to Vermont to see Jesse's cousins, aunts, uncle, grandparents, and mom, and nephew:


Church Street, Burlington, VT:

Ian LOVES tractors and his cousin Tyler:

And Great Grandma Watson loves holding Kellan:

This is what the whole week was like for Ian, entertained by one cousin or another:

Okay, check out Kellan spitting all over my face:

At least he thought it was funny:


Jesse's grandparent's 60th anniversary:


Someday Grandma Karen will get a granddaughter. Probably not from Jesse and I, though. Jens and Audree, I guess it's up to you two!

Night time exposure across Lake Champlain:

Diana is going to move to America (she's from Spain) and be our nanny, because she was so good with the kids. Right, Diana?


Her brother Daniel also was really good with the kids:


Jesse's cousins are ALL tall. This is the best picture I had to illustrate it, but I came up to his three guy cousins' mid-arms. I don't know how tall Diana's brother, Daniel is, but Sam and Patrick (brothers) are both 6'7", and Daniel is right up there with them. Here I am walking next to Sam.

And then we went back to NH:

This was just before Ian realized that he didn't have the means to stop a wagon from rolling down the hill on top of him...Luckily Dad was there to save him:

Oh, and we stopped by the Joseph Smith Birthplace on the way home in Sharon, VT.



Remember the story about how Joseph and Emma's twins died, and John Murdock and his wife had twins at the same time, and his wife died, so John asked Joseph and Emma to adopt his twins? Yeah, I'm a direct descendant of John Murdock. I just thought you would like to know.

At the Independence Festival, I decided that I should make us all period costumes for our Halloweens. Wouldn't that be cool? I could get the fabric and patterns on sale (maybe after this Halloween), have a craft project to work on all year, and then finally have a costume to wear on Halloween, instead of some stupid last-minute thing. And that way I could buff up my apparel sewing skills. What period should I do first?

In sum, it was a great trip.

Reading List

This is what I'm working on:

How to Teach Your Baby to Read by Glenn Doman and Janet Doman

Toilet Training In Less Than A Day by Nathan H. Azrin and Richard M. Fox

The Federalist Papers by all those Federalist guys

Somehow I don't think The Federalist Papers was a good choice considering the other two picks, but I haven't used my brain in so long I figured I'd at least try.

I need to post about our NH/VT trip, but we took over 1100 pictures, so I'm procrastinating picking out which ones to post.