No more Mr. Nice Guy

Or would that be Mrs. Nice Gal??? Anyway, there's a big long saga of trying to get Ryen into this inpatient feeding program. The latest is that the insurance company denied the authorization to have him re-evaluated. The dr who reviewed the case feels that Ryen is basically in the same position he was back in August and it wouldn't be worth it to re-evaluate him and possibly end up getting turned down again. So, while its kinda annoying, I totally agree with that. So, I wrote this email to the woman in charge of the program. Its totally pissy sounding, but I really didn't care. I've been yearning to give this woman a piece of my mind but I've held back and been the sweet, non-confrontational person that I am. But, no more! There's a long story as to why I dislike this woman so much which I won't explain, but she makes me want to hurl things at her head. So here's the email, think it was too much?? Maybe it was, but I wanted it to be, maybe that'll finally light a fire under her ass!! I took out the names to protect the innocent (that would be the 2 other ladies I referenced, not her!)

R,

I'm sure you've probably heard by now that the insurance denied the authorization for Ryen to be re-evaluated by the feeding team. Quite honestly I agree with the reason's that the doctor turned it down. Other than his weight, which you know he has the ability to gain, I don't think you are going to see anything different from him in a new evaluation. And like the doctor's opinion, I do not want to go through another evaluation only to have you turn Ryen down again. You said the last time we saw you that your concerns were put to rest, so I don't see why there would be a problem letting him in. S told me that you asked her if you thought he would succeed in the program. Well here's my opinion on that...I don't believe Ryen is the perfect child, which is from what I've gathered what you require for admission into the program. If he was perfect he wouldn't need the program. So if you want a perfect child then we should probably just stop pursuing this. But if you want a child who needs help and would benefit from it, then there's probably not many better candidates than Ryen. I'm not looking for 100% success. Even as much as 50% would be amazing to me. I know 50% doesn't look good for you, and I don't mean to sound snarky here, but how good you look isn't really a concern to me...helping my child is. If you are in this to help kids then it shouldn't matter how likely it is he's going to succeed if we're willing to put in the effort to do it.

So, what I need to know is how can we get Ryen into the program? What exactly do we need to accomplish in order for him to meet your high standards? And if we can't do it without the re-eval then I need to know how we can do the program on an outpatient basis. You told me at his first evalutation that it could be done outpatient, but you have provided NO information whatsoever about what the program is so that we can do that. I feel like we've been wasting our time for the past 5 months waiting for you to tell us something, and Ryen isn't getting any younger, I don't think we have that kind of time to waste. I have plenty of other things to spend my time and energy on, I don't want to continue to pursue this for nothing. If you have some sort of problem with S that is keeping you from giving her information then give it to me, or give M the information. We're not therapists, but at least it would be something.

I'll let you know what kind of response I get, LOL!

I need a huge kick in the ass

I've totally been sucking at my attempt to eat healthy and exercise. I lost some of the baby weight initially, but I've gained some back...only I can't call it baby weight now can I?? Ugh. I know, I know...she's only 3 months old I shouldn't be so hard on myself, right? Wrong, I can't use that as an excuse anymore. I'm sick of myself. So, I don't even know how many people will read this, but knowing its in a place available for the public to read is good enough for me.

Someone on one of the boards I post on heard about something called the "Public Humiliation Diet" where there was this group of people who if they didn't lose weight in a certain time period they would have a picture of them in a bathing suit put up on a big screen at like a sports arena for everyone there to see. Now yes that is horrible, but I'm thinking of doing a modified version. If I don't stick to my goal of 5 lbs a month for the next few months I will at the end of June put a picture of myself here on my blog of me in a bathing suit. Trust me, NO ONE wants to see that! So, please join in giving me a big old cyber kick in the ass!

I haven't weighed myself in a while, but I'm certain I haven't lost 5 lbs this month. Who knows if I've even lost anything with all the crap I've been eating. I'm sure its the breastfeeding that is contributing to my never-ending appetite and sugar addiction, but I sure as heck can't live on chocolate and ice cream for the next year or so.

So, every Friday I'm going to post my weight for the week and how often I exercised. If I can't get my act together I'm going to start posting each and every bad thing I've eaten so all the world can see how much of a pig I am, talk about "public humiliation", LOL!

It never ceases to amaze me...

It isn't very often that our living room is clean. 99.9% of the time there is so much crap laying around that you can't take a step without doing some sort of evasive maneuver to keep from landing on your ass on top of a toy airplane or something. But on those rare occasions when you can actually see the color of the carpet this amazing thing happens to Ethan and Ryen. They'll run and run around like they've never been allowed to move in an area bigger than a square foot before. They go nuts, its quite hilarious at first. And then they start body slamming each other and someone gets hurt or they pick on the dog, etc., etc., etc. and my amazement of it all wears off rather quickly.

Today happens to be one of those amazing days. But something about today made it even more amazing...they HELPED me clean it up!! And they even did it without whining, yelling, or having me repeat myself 15 times for each thing I ask them to pick up. I'm marking this day on the calendar.

Joining the ranks of "soccer moms" everywhere

Today we bought a mini-van. Yes I now own a dreaded mom-mobile. Luckily for me vans nowadays are pretty darn cool. Our new ride is a 2003 Honda Odyssey, its a deep blue color and light grey on the inside. Its decked out with leather seats, power sliding doors, a dvd player, cd player, less than 40,000 miles, and we can afford it (which is a great plus!) What really sold me was the beeping sound it makes if you open the door while the lights are still on. My CRV did not do that, I can't tell you how many times we ran the battery down in that bad boy.

We really didn't mean to buy a van today. We went to pick up some strollers a mom of a boy in Ethan's class offered to me and we peeked at their van. They mentioned their lease was up soon and they were probably going to buy it and then turn around and sell it. So, we left their house and went about our day. As we were driving past a Honda dealership Clint asked if I wanted to stop and look at vans, I said, "why not, its freezing, so probably not the best day to look though."

We looked around and found a couple that were what we were looking for, I instantly liked the one we chose better than the others though even though its a year or two older. Had make a pitstop back at our old car to change a nasty, nasty blowout, that was fun. Luckily I had extra clothes with me today. No socks though, poor Katelyn's feet were like icebergs. They crunched some numbers, offered to pay off our CRV and even with no money down (cuz we're totally poor) we were able to afford the payments (thanks to Clint's newly paid off car, woo hoo!!) Waited around for a gazillion hours for all the paperwork to be done, and drove off the lot with our new car. I know, I know...many will say you should never do that, but really everything fell into place so easily that it seemed like it was just meant to be.

Its best to begin at the beginning.

I tried this whole blogging thing in the past but never had anything interesting enough to say. I still don't, but I'm a sucker for peer pressure and it seems that everywhere I go all I hear about is other people's blogs...so I'm trying it again. Here's to new beginnings!

Like I said, I don't have much interesting to say, so my first post in my blog is going to be about poop. Seriously my life has been about a LOT of poop, not only from my own 3 children, but I've spend most of my life around young children, and I was a toddler teacher prior to having my own kids. I have a memory scorched into my brain of a kid who...honestly, you really don't want to know, its THAT gross.

So, anyway, back to the topic at hand...my baby has an ear infection and has been on antibiotics, as a result I've been drowning in a sea of poop all week. Who knew such a little thing could poop SO much! Seriously, where does it all come from??? And not only is there a lot of it, but its been everywhere. I've changed her clothes more times this week than I probably did her entire first month of life. Of course, she is blissfully unaware of my plight, as long as I don't put her in the carseat with a poopy diaper she could care less. Then there's Ryen. For some reason all week he's been pooping a little in his pants before he goes to the bathroom. I'm SO over the poop in the underwear thing, there's practically nothing I despise more.

Cross your fingers that next week will be better, I'd at least like my house to smell a bit nicer.