Insurance

Boy what a day yesterday! We had to make the decision as to what we were going to do for medical insurance over the next couple to few months by midnight last night.

It probably would have been a no brainer except that over last weekend, we noticed that Natalie seems to be having some trouble with her right thumb. We knew she was diagnosed with trigger finger but it looked like it was developing into something more. I had to get her in somewhere yesterday to get an idea as to whether she was going to need surgery and we should keep the better coverage, or no surgery and we could get the lower premium/coverage plan.

What a headache. I couldn't get her in anywhere that would help me in this decision. All day I had been praying that we would find out enough about it that we could make an educated decision. I decided to take her to insta care at least to get it x rayed so I would know what was going on. At first they didn't seem to want to help me. But when I explained my plight about being laid off and the insurance situation, the doc really bent over backwards to get me some answers!

It turns out that the lump is not bone, the x ray showed a normal thumb. But there is a lump which could be anything. But the chance of surgery dropped drastically with that knowledge! If it's a cyst then it's not something that has to be taken care of right away. It can wait until we have a new job and new insurance.

So with that information, we felt more comfortable choosing the lower coverage. But wow, what a roller coaster yesterday, trying to get things figured out. I was surprised at how everyone, when they knew our situation, were trying to help. If it would have come back as being something wrong with the bone, the insta care doc was ready to make up a story to get the ortho doc on call at Primary Children's Hospital to read the x ray over the computer and give us a diagnosis that day, so we could make our decision by the deadline. He did get the radiologist to read the x ray! I don't know what he made up!!

I think I will keep our orthopedic appointment on Monday just to see what they say!

I am grateful to Heavenly Father for answering my prayers so quickly!! Hopefully, He'll answer the job prayers quickly too!!! :)

I think I'm still in shock!!

If you live around here, and you watched the news on Tuesday, you probably saw that Beneficial Life is no longer selling new policies. Which means they laid off about 150 employees!

How is that significant, well, we are one of those 150 employees!

I'm not sure how to feel about all of it. Doug's last day is July 15th.

The last time this happened was almost 14 years ago. That was such a blessing, I can't even tell you. He was in a dead end job. It was what he really needed to get looking for something better. It turned out to be so much better, better atmosphere, more money (lots more money). How often do you go to a work party that opens and closes with prayer? We have had several wonderful dinners with the whole first presidency of the church and all 12 apostles and their wives! Not to mention really awesome medical, dental, vision and life insurance benefits. They even sent us to Guatemala on a Humanitarian Service Expedition last year.

We're not really sure why they are doing this. It is all based on future predictions. There was a mistake in investments a couple years ago and they were hit hard. They are not bankrupt or anything, they are still a profitable company. But because they aren't making as much as they have been, and the way the economy is going, they predict not to be able to keep up in the future.

They actually are giving us a great severance package, which really helps, but will he find another job before it runs out?? What will the benefits be like?? We have been so fortunate for the last almost 14 years. I can't imagine going up from here.

I guess we need to have faith that this too, will be for our good.

Painting

I took a chance and took advantage of the one day in two weeks that we were supposed to have sunshine! I broke out the top coat and painted the base of the tree house yesterday. I am so glad we spent the extra money on a good exterior top coat, it was a dream to use! Jon and I had just about got it all painted when Ben came out and finished the poles. (He was a good boy to finish all his inside chores before coming out!) He's doing awesome by the way!!


Doug said I need to get some pictures of the joists in the middle. So please forgive the angle I had to hold the camera over my head and guess at what I was taking a picture of because I am so short!! As you can see they are close together, We barely fit inbetween, so even though we tried to be careful, yes, I painted my back and hair!

Anyway, we were just about done when I noticed that the sun wasn't shining anymore and clouds had rolled in, WHAT??? I called Doug, didn't you say the forecast said sunshine all day? He said oh well, let's just see how it goes. Sure enough it started to sprinkle. I was sick. I so didn't want it to ruin what we had just done. Fortunately, it only was a light sprinkle and it didn't last very long.

We tried to figure out a way to tarp it, but really didn't have enough tarps to do much, so we decided to take Doug's advice and don't worry about it. I took all the paint stuff back into the garage and started on the boards that go on top.

I decided to let the little kids do some of the painting. So they all came out and took turns painting the boards. I think they really enjoyed it and one at a time wasn't stressful at all.

I really like the color they chose, "rich chocolate". It looks like 5 gallons of rich velvety chocoate!

Now we have to wait for the rain to go away so we can move on with the project! It doesn't look like that will happen until next week. We just have to be patient!! That's sometimes really hard to do!

Rain, Rain, Go Away & Wisdom Teeth

I know weird title, but I just had to say we haven't been able to much of anything with the tree house because of all the rain we are getting. We did get the primer on it on Monday to protect it from all the rain I knew we were getting. But we have been waiting to get the top coat on so we can move on to the next thing.

It's forecasted to rain for another week. How sad that the whole first month of our summer vacation we are mostly indoors due to rain! I guess we need to look on the bright side...at least we are not dieing of heat!!!

We are just excited to get more done and get it to where the kids can actually play on it and enjoy it! I just might be able to paint later this morning, we'll see if the sun will stay shining long enough!!

Oh another bright side, with all this rain we are having some great rainbows. We saw the most awesome one last night. The first was a full arch and so vibrant it felt like we could just reach out and touch it. There were two others that were faint, but there. The middle one was going a different direction than the other two. It was cool, we tried to take a picture but it was too close to get it all, and it was fading as we were trying to.

On another note, Ben had his wisdom teeth out on Monday. He is doing awesome! He had one that had come through on it's own but was totally not functional because the other 3 weren't going to make it. So we decided to have it pulled with the other 3 because it would just be a cavity collector due to being so hard to keep clean. He was a bit swollen, but not in very much discomfort! I'm so glad it's done and over with and just in time, too. Our insurance changes on July 1st!

Tree House!!?? This is only the Beginning!

For a few years now the kids have talked about building a tree house in the trees of our back yard. Well, this year they got serious!! They made some plans, drew them up, went to the library and got some books and presented their "plans" to their dad. They even did some price matching to get an idea of what things would cost.

Look what happened...

After some consideration, some donations from the kids (makes it more affordable), they started phase one of the project!

This is turning into a HUGE project that will take a few years to get it to where the kids want it. They want it to encompass at least 5 trees! They worked pretty much all day on Saturday and this is how far they got...

This deck is about 12 feet by 16 feet! The slide is not attached yet, they still have to put the floor on the deck. I just wanted the littler kids to be able to get an idea of what we are doing. It really doesn't look like a tree house yet. The tree house will sit in the back corner, under the trees. They are hoping to get that in as well as an upper deck into the front two trees with a tire swing underneath this year.

They plan to have the slide, a climbing cargo rope on this same side, a trap door underneath into the house. It is amazing at how this project keeps growing and growing! Everyone is pretty excited about it. It is definitely more than just a tree house, it will be a huge playground! They eventually will have lookouts and swings and another bigger slide. I guess this is way more constructive than playing video games!!

Jon is Home!

We have such mixed feelings about it. We so hoped this job would really help him to get out of debt and be financially prepared for his mission in the fall. But I guess, it just wasn't meant to be. He was making the sales, but the people were failing the credit checks, so he just wasn't making any money.

Anyway, we are happy to have him home. We just hope he can get a couple of jobs to get the money situation under control.

Welcome Home, Jon! We Love You!!

Last Day of School!

We finally made it! The last day of school came and went!

The kids had so much fun the last week, party after party, swimming, games, movies! Why did we go to school??? Oh well, it was fun. Aaron told me he does like school after all. Who wouldn't after a week like that!!

Here are their last day of school pics with their teachers...

After school, we had a party of our own. We bought pizza and watched a movie, Forever Strong. Then we went to a park and played for a bit, we came home and played some more while we ate popcorn and ice cream. We finally went to bed around midnight!!

I'm hoping to find a nice balance of work and play this summer!

Summer Here We Come!!

It So Fits!

Ben came in the door yesterday with this Tshirt on!

I just had to laugh right out loud, because it so fits Ben! He loves to play any kind of video games, any and every chance he gets. We often have to tell him there's more to life than video games, I'm sure he's thinking "yeah, but not much!" I really shouldn't complain too much, he does get good grades in school, with out me nagging him and he does go to work, but still!!!

This would be a good shirt for Steven and Aaron too!