Some Recent Pictures

Just some recent photos that I thought were either funny or cute.

Jackson just REALLY likes to torture sit on Dalton!

And he likes to do pretty much anything that Dalton does…brush his teeth, play on the Smart Cycle (even though he’s not tall enough to actually get on the seat OR pedal…)

 

And just a good family photo of the Bane side of the family…

It’s Never Ending

Being busy. It never ends! We’ve been working on so many home projects, and had family here, and had Dalton’s birthday…whew!

Chris’s dad and step-mom were here last weekend for Dalton’s 5th birthday…well, technically, they were here for his party. His actual birthday was Thursday.

We had his party at Jump Zone this year, and it was a blast! Here are the majority of kids that came, minus the babies…

Jackson enjoying himself! He had a blast!

 

Dalton and Davis.

This is, perhaps, my favorite picture. There’s this HUGE ship with an octopus on it, and it’s a big giant slide. It goes almost all the way to the ceiling. So Grandpa and Dalton come down…Dalton’s face says “Cool, let’s do it again!” and I think Grandpa’s face says something to the effect of, “Oh, crap!”

Big D’s cake.

Dalton and Taya.

Opening his presents in his King’s chair. :)

Playing with a new toy with Grandpa. He’s so much fun! 

Playing Wii with Grandpa!

AND he got a scooter from Grandpa and Grandma Bane! Super cool!

It snowed a foot the weekend they were here…no, I’m not kidding. First day of spring and it snows a foot! But it was mostly all gone within 24 hours.

We’ve been working on a lot of home projects, too. We’ve replaced all the interior doors in the house, and with that goes new hardware…doorknobs and hinges. We added insulation to the attic. We replaced all the door bottoms on exterior doors, and replaced the weather stripping. We replaced the kitchen faucet, put in our vegetable garden (although haven’t planted our seeds yet), painted the accent walls in the dining room and our bedroom, and painted all the trim in the house. (My sister Julie has done most of this stuff!!) A week from Monday, we’re getting the carpet torn out and wood floors installed! YAY! So this weekend, I’ve been packing. The floor company will move all the furniture, but we have to move all the stuff off the bookshelves, off the computer desk, the TV equipment, the toys, anything on the floor, etc, so I packed up about 6 or 7 boxes today. And in one month, we’ll be getting our new windows installed! It’s sure been busy!

To top it off, Jackson has a nasty cold, and now I’ve got it too, plus a ripe sinus infection. Bleh. But we’re slowly getting things done around here, and I must say, it feels great!! 

SO Busy

We got our camera back. Can you tell?

It's been SO busy the last couple of weeks. Dalton has been to two birthday parties...one swimming party at the Jone's Center for Families for Madeleine's birthday.

And a bowling party for Taya's birthday.

Jackson, meanwhile, is getting onto (and into) everything. He's on the couch, he's up on chairs, he's up on the dining room table (yes, you heard correctly, HE'S ON THE TABLE!). There's no stopping him.

And when the boys get up in the morning and at nap time, if Dalton hears ONE LITTLE PEEP out of Jackson, he runs into his room for play time! This is what I found the other day after nap time...

And no, J does NOT sleep with all that stuff in his crib! It took Dalton all of two seconds to throw all that in there. We've had several play dates recently. And Aunt Julie has been here all week long working on home projects for us. She started with helping Chris add insulation to the attic. Then she moved on to repainting the accent walls in our bedroom and dining room. She has replaced all the weather stripping and door bottoms on all the exterior doors. We have purchased all new doors for the interior, including closet doors, so Julie has been working on cutting knob holes, adding hinges, painting, etc. I'll post pictures of all the updates when complete.

I think the best news this week, though, is that the judge has finally signed off on our settlement! So we'll be able to move forward with all the bigger house projects on our plate...new windows, fireplace insert, etc. We've got our work cut out for us!

I'm Going To Be Rich Someday

Why will you be rich...I bet that's what you're asking.

Well, a while back I was on 7 or 8 different prescriptions for different ailments, and since I was on so many rx's at once, I got really paranoid about reading the patient information leaflets that came with the drugs. They're those printouts you get with your meds that list the drug name, the ailments that are treated, the side effects, etc. I'm not on all those meds anymore, but I am still a big stickler about reading those leaflets when I get them because I'm just crazy like that.

So tonight I went to the pharmacy to get my migraine meds and an anti-inflammatory for my foot problem, and I was reading both of the leaflets when I noticed (and I've noticed it before) that they always say a side effect could be caused, and that's exactly what you're treating for. Does that make sense? I'll explain in a minute if you don't get what I'm saying.

So I'm going to write my own patient education leaflet, and I'm going to copyright it, and it will be ONE leaflet good for any/all medications prescribed. And every time a pharmacy gives it out, they can pay me a penny each time. Even at only a penny, I'll be super rich, because it'll be one penny for every single rx for every person that gets one, at any pharmacy.

So, here's my patient ed sheet, and mind you, I have ALL rights to this, and if someone steals it, I'll sue you.

DRUG NAME: whatever
TREATMENT FOR: whatever
SIDE EFFECTS: If you are taking this medication for nausea/vomiting, this medication will make you nauseous/vomit. If you are taking this medication for diarrhea, it will cause diarrhea. If you are taking it for headaches, it will cause headaches. If you taking it for pain, it will cause pain. If you are taking it for inflammation, it will cause inflammation. If you are taking it for depression, it will cause more depression and you may have suicidal thoughts. If you are taking it for a cold, it will cause shortness of breath. If you are taking it for allergies, you will have additional and more severe allergic symptoms. If you are taking it for vision problems, it will cause you to go blind. If you are taking it for gastrointestinal problems, it will cause your bowel to fall out. If you are taking it to thin your blood, it will cause your blood to seep from every orifice in your body. If you are taking it for urinary infections, it will cause your penis to fall off, or your vagina to fall out, or your kidneys to evaporate. If you are taking it for mood swings, it will cause you to get the crazies. If you are taking it to prevent pregnancies, you will become pregnant with octuplets. If you are taking it to increase your sex drive, it will cause you to be attracted to members of the same sex. If you are taking it for a fungal infection, it will cause mold to replace your skin. If you are taking it for swelling, you will soon be the size of a house. If you are taking it for acne, soon your face will just be one giant zit. If you are taking it for any reason not listed above, it will cause the exact opposite effect on you.

I think that just about covers it.

Infinite Words of Wisdom

Well, frankly, I haven't posted for a while because I didn't want to be charged with murder after boring everyone to death. We just haven't had much going on here lately. Nada. Zilch. I also loaned our camera out to a friend, and so I haven't taken any new pictures for almost two weeks (YIKES!), and it really bugs me to post with no pictures.

So today you get Dalton's Infinite Words of Wisdom.

Driving in the car:
D: "Are we going in circles? We're in the middle of nowhere..." (In fact, we were right off the town square.)

Dalton asked if he could climb into the cabinet of Jackson's changing table, because "I just want to be in there for science".

I had asked D to clean his room, and he says, "But remember? You love me!"

I asked him not to take one of J's books into his own room, and he says "But I like it in my room for imagination." Um, what?

"I don't feel right. I think a cookie would make it feel better."

Dalton wanted to go out with me to get the mail. I said "But you don't have shoes on." and then HE says "No, but I do have a hole in my sock!"

Talking about our foster dogs finding a forever home, D says "The dogs have a home... OUR home."

"My tummy is starving for food." (I don't know why I thought that one was so cute, but I did.)

And I've saved the best for last...we were at good old Wal-Mart (is there really any other place to be?) and I was on the ice cream/breakfast aisle to get waffles. Dalton sees the ice cream and asked if we could get some, so I said yes. So we're standing in front of the cheapie stuff, and I said "Do you want vanilla? Chocolate? Strawberry? One with all three?" And his eyes get all big and he says "Is that ice cream...with cookies in it?" And I tell him yes. And he says "SHUT....UP. Ice cream? With cookies in it?!?" HA HA HA! I really wanted to get on to him for telling me to shut up but I was too busy laughing/choking. :)

Debbie Downer

Well, folks, I hate to be Debbie Downer, but I really just feel the need to vent.

We've been dealing with the auto insurance company regarding my wreck back in October 2008 (the reason Jackson was born prematurely) for sixteen months. SIXTEEN MONTHS. We finally got a settlement offer a month or so ago, which I turned down, because over half of it was going to be paid back to the health insurance company. I'm not going to talk about specific numbers, but I wasn't asking for pain and suffering. I wasn't asking for money to get rich on. I only wanted enough money to cover the additional expenses that were a result of Jackson being premature. I didn't want the entire birth covered. I wanted the money that we had to pay for 2 weeks in the NICU. The money needed to pay the neonatologist. The six months of RSV shots. Six months of lost income because Jackson couldn't go to daycare so I had to quit my job.

So we were offered a settlement. And the auto insurance claims rep said that he was going to contact our health insurance company to see if they would lower the amount of money they would take. Which supposedly he did in January. But then I called our benefits team (health insurance) to get an update on where we were at, and they told me (and sent me an email so that I had it in writing) that the auto insurance company paid our health insurance back, six months ago!

So I call the auto insurance company back (very irritated) and the guy handling the settlement tells me that it was OUR OWN policy that paid the health insurance back, so any settlement we get would possibly then need to pay back OUR policy for paying the medical.

Then he tells me that if we do accept the settlement, since it involved a minor, it would have to be approved through the court system before they could actually pay us. So what do I do? (I mean, what do I do, besides having a mental breakdown and crying for an hour, which I've already done, because I'm SO ready to be done with all of this!). We can't afford to get an attorney.

How is it that supposedly they can't give us a settlement because they are working on settlement issues with health insurance, yet health insurance says they got paid six months ago and the claim is closed? Are they (auto) just trying to draw this out so that we hit the statute of limitations and can't sue them? Not that we can do that anyway, because we can't afford an attorney. Do they (auto) not realize that we had to drop to one income because Jackson couldn't go to daycare and I had to quit my job? Do they not realize that we had to pay all Jackson's medical and my medical out of pocket up front? Do they not realize that there are weeks when Chris gets paid, we pay our bills, and we then only have $4.00 left to last us another two weeks until he gets paid again? Do they not realize that I've had medical problems, too, and to pay for them we put it on a credit card and then get hit with 200% interest? Do they not realize this, or do they not care? My guess is that they don't care.

I am so ready to be done with all of this. I am so tired of the phone calls, and faxing junk to ten thousand offices, and worrying about money. I'm just so tired. Period.

Hello From the J-Man!

Eh-low, guvnuh! Jackson here!! I've hijacked mommy's blog for the night to let you know just what I've been up to. Mom says I'm into everything. She says I'm getting too tall because I reach things if they are hanging over the edge of the counter. She also says that she hates it when she tells me no, because my face crumples up and I start to scream. But, seriously, wouldn't you hate it if that's all anyone ever seems to say to you? She's all "No, you can't play with scissors. No, you can't throw the remote in the cat litter box. No, you can't put a plastic bag over your head." I mean, really, what does a kid need to do to have a little fun?!?

I just love to be ON my toys. Standing on them, sitting on them, whatever! And mom said that I might have fallen over after this picture, and might have smacked my head, but she can't rightly say.
I do like to sit on Dalton's Little People Zoo. It's so pesky to have to put the animals directly on the corresponding letters. If I sit on it, then my booty makes the animals all make their sounds at once, and that's pretty cool!

I also like to sit on Dalton. Man, most of the time, he's just the best big brother ever!! Sometimes he yells at me, mostly when he's trying to play and has set up his whole train set, or some other toy that took hours (whatever that means) to set up, and then I come along and just trash it. And mom hears Dalton yell "Jackson!! Get away from me and out of my room!" And mom says that it's only gonna' get worse from here on out. I don't really know what she means by that.

I really like to tickle Dalton's feet, too. He starts to laugh, and then that makes me laugh, and it's just so much fun. I love Dalton!!

Pretty much, I'll do anything with Dalton. I mean, hey, mom got out the "big boy car seat" (again, whatever...) and washed them and all, so that I don't have to scrunch up my legs to sit in the infant carrier anymore (and let's face it, I'm not a baby! I'm a big boy! I need a big boy seat!) and Dalton and I had a blast with them in the living room. And yes, below I am carrying around a tube of diaper rash cream. Mom was pretty mad at that one too, because I get into my changing table storage area, and drag out all the diaper gear, and trail it all over the house.

And then one day, mom had just fed us lunch, and of course I was carrying on, because if I'm in my high chair and I'm done, dang it, I AM DONE! So she put me down and went to go potty. She says she can't even go to the bathroom anymore, because something like this happens.

Dalton said he was done with his bar-b-que sauce, so doesn't that mean that I can have it? I don't know why mom was so bent out of shape about it, because Dalton was sharing with me. And I was nice and let Dalton finish before I took it. It's sharing, mom, you should try it!!

Well, it sure was fun taking over for mom for the night. I'll try to check in more often with you, but Mom says that maybe Dalton should get a turn next time. Whatever. We shared the bbq sauce, do we really need to share this, too?