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A Renaissance Woman

8/31/09

Health Insurance - The Vicious Cycle

Over the last two weeks we have spent several days in either the doctor's office, an emergency room or a hospital. Each time I'm thankful that we have health insurance to help with the cost of all these tests, procedures and the emergency care that we have needed for our children.
The other evening while trying to decompress I was flipping through my television channels and I caught a few specials that were featuring President Obama promising that we the people would get to keep our doctors. I haven't really paid much attention to what is going on with our health care system and maybe I should. I can't imagine not being able to go to the doctors and specialists that we have needed to go to.
This is my hubs and I have featured him today because he and I have been going through a rough couple of days. Oh and this photo was taken by our toddler (I have to give him photo credit). Today I felt my hubs going through the agony of needing to be at work but needing to be with his family too for the follow up visit with our sons pediatrician after our emergency room visit yesterday. I needed him there. Our baby girl is now mobile and it's hard to have a conversation with a doctor with her wanting to scream out randomly and move about. Not to mention these breathing treatments make our toddler bounce OFF the walls. What do you do? He has to work and with the job comes the insurance. He's already missed a lot just trying to keep appointments for himself and our kids. It's almost that double edged sword. It's hard to be in two places at once but we always have to make a choice. It's just a matter of which choice that will be. It took me back to the days of being a single mom. I needed to be with my sick daughter and take her to the doctor and at the same time I felt guilty for not being at work. It was as though I were going to be in trouble. I never was but I always felt guilty about it. I saw that in my husband today and it was tough. He may not feel guilty at all but he did feel like he should have been at work this morning.
At this point in our economy we are thankful that he has a job and I can stay here with the kids. Many people do not have that option. The health care system makes me want to make several appointments for myself just to make sure I'm ok while we have health insurance. Do you find yourself making more appointments lately just to make sure you have a clean bill of health while you still have insurance? I wonder if there are other dads that struggle with the same kind of thing as my husband did this morning.

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17 Again - Movie Review

 
                                                                  photograph courtesy of iwatchstuff.com
Before the drama of my own life took hold this weekend I was able to catch this flick from my On Demand channel from Comcast. Predictable? A little, but who cares! I needed a good laugh and it fit the bill. The side story of Ned and the principal cracked me up! I don't want to spoil it for you but I will say this is a worthy movie rental. Then again I'm one of those people that use to dream of having a do over, now I know better. Maybe that just comes with age.
The following summary is provided by Netflix.com.

On the brink of a midlife crisis, 30-something Mike O'Donnell (Matthew Perry) wishes he could have a "do-over." And that's exactly what he gets when he wakes up one morning to find he's 17 years old again. With his adult mind stuck inside the body of a teenager (Zac Efron), Mike actually has the chance to reverse some decisions he wishes he'd never made. But maybe they weren't so bad after all. Leslie Mann and Michelle Trachtenberg co-star.
Rated PG-13 For language, some sexual material and teen partying
Age12Iffy for 12+ (more)
Length:
102 minutes
Director:
Burr Steers
Cast:
Matthew Perry Zac Efron
Leslie Mann Thomas Lennon
Michelle Trachtenberg Allison Miller
Tyler Steelman Katerina Graham
Sterling Knight Melora Hardin
Hunter Parrish Melissa Ordway

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Kenmore Progressive 35922 Upright Vacuum - It's almost been a year.

When I first bought my vacuum I was so happy! It was like the honeymoon period. Here is the original post. After a few short months the motor burned out and it had to be replaced. Thankfully we did purchase the extended warranty and changing it out was a breeze. About 2 months ago the attachments started to break down on me. The hand held accessory that I use to removed dog hair from my couch no longer spins. I'm no longer happy with my Kenmoore purchase. After spending over $200.00 changing it out, attachments breaking down all under a year I'm thinking I should have gone for the Dyson!

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8/30/09

Asthma? Seriously?

We decided to finish out the last game today at the tournament. I'm glad we did or there would not have been enough players. Next time we might want to talk with our coach and let him know if we have conflicting plans. While we are there our little guy who is recovering from an ear infection started throwing up, on me of course. After the game he threw up some more in the car. Thank goodness for the Sunday paper! I know that isn't what it is used for but it came in handy.

After we got home I noticed the little guy breathing really hard. I told my husband and he said, "We should take him to the doctor for shortness of breath?" I felt kind of silly so I just watched him. Meanwhile my hubby started Googling his symptoms. We thought maybe he was having an allergic reaction to his antibiotic. He didn't have a fever. Maybe he just got over heated from being outside. He had an empty stomach, the whole thing was weird.

Finally he passed out on the floor but I was scared for him to go to sleep. I just watched over him and noticed his breathing, it was not calming down. Time to go to the ER. Thank goodness we did. His heart rate was 160 and his pulsox was 92. All that means is his heart was working over time and he was not getting enough oxygen. They started breathing treatments. Then they tried UNSUCCESSFULLY (as we all held him down) to put an IV in because of dehydration. They gave him some liquid steroids and then took some blood (NOT pleasant!). Finally they sent us home and he threw up again on the way home. He's still having problems but not like before.

He is now lucky enough to have these breathing treatments. That mask is a duck! We bribed him with watching Transformers on You Tube. It worked. Tomorrow we take him to his pediatrician and tell him of our saga again. The ER folks say it was an asthma attack even though he has no history of asthma. Maybe it was a fluke? I have no idea but geez, couldn't the peanuts and eggs be enough to worry about? Thank goodness my mother and grandmother live close. They were able to meet us at the ER and pick up our baby girl and keep her while we had the pleasure of today's saga. I'm so tired. I'm keeping the little guy with us tonight. I'm way too freaked out to let him sleep alone.

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8/29/09

The Tournament Has Begun

We spent a lot of time at the soccer field today! He had two games today and geez was it HOT! They lost both games but he had the cutest cheerleader on his side. Heads turned and smiles were upon many faces. She was all the buzz on the field.
One more game tomorrow but it's the same time as church. We would like to attend church since we just made it official last Sunday but we also committed our son to a team. What to do, what to do!

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8/28/09

Freebie Friday - Week 22


Are you hosting a #contest? Great! Post it here on Freebie Friday. What better time to search and enter contests than on the weekend? Sign in so that others can find your giveaway. I will be hosting Freebie Friday each week from now on so be sure to drop back by. Now go grab your tasty beverage, sit back and relax and contest hop with me!

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MckLinky Blog Hop

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Aloha Friday #58 - Got Back Packs?

Kailani at An Island Life has created this really fun idea. If you are interested in joining in, please visit her site for more details.

Today's question is:
It's back to school time and we have so many backpacks at our house! It's bananas. Let me first find out how many we have
Hubby - 1 he got it from giving blood
Me - 1 a purple one when I went to school
dlk - He has 2 (one for soccer and one for school
rjk - He has 2 (the one we bought for school is too small so I had to get a bigger one)
pmk - She has a backpack/diaper bag which are very cool by the way
That is a grand total of 7 backpacks!

What about your household? How many backpacks do you have?


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Flash Back Friday #58 - Smiles Everyone!


Today while I was doing the laundry and dishes for the millionth time I was flashing back to the television show Fantasy Island. All I could hear was Ricardo Montalban saying "Smiles everyone, smiles!" Then I had images of Tatoo bouncing in my head. Who wouldn't want to go to Fantasy Island? Do you remember this show?
http://christis-blahblahblog.blogspot.com

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8/27/09

Thursday Thirteen #79 - Pros & Cons of Changing Your Blog


It's been a week or so since I have moved to Bloggywood. You know the place where bloggers go when they get a blog lift and change their name? There's some pros and cons to this kind of change. Here's a quick list of mine.
1.) Pro - new blogger template with a fun design that is a complete upgrade.
2.) Con - Installing all the side bar html codes and replacing all the widgets.
3.) Con - Loss of traffic! It's like starting from scratch. I hosted a blog for two years and then moved all the posts here but it takes a while for everyone to move with you.
4.) Pro - You're not alone because lots of bloggers have made this very change and are very helpful when it comes to reconnecting.
5.) Pro - You get to weed out all those codes that no longer apply to you or maybe you don't want them any more within your template. Maybe you don't need 3 different stat counters for example.
6.) Con - Loss in page rank. This is a tough one because it takes time to build your Google page rank or Alexa ranking.
7.) Pro - You get to reconnect with a lot of bloggers that you might not have visited in a while.
8.) Con - You have to start your Google reader over (if you changed your email address too like I did).
9.) Pro - New header and badge! Thanks to Matthew Johnson.
10.) Pro - My url makes more sense than it did before and I no longer worry about redirecting urls.
11.) Pro - My blog name now fits better than before.
12.) Pro - I finally got to add one of those cool Google forms for my contact page. I really like that system.
13.) Pro - I feel more confident in my own skin as a blogger now. It's just easier to know me by name.

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8/26/09

1st Day of Preschool

I love the one of him hanging for dear life to my leg. He can be so shy sometimes. Once he warms up to you though he will talk your ears off. He's just precious. I had that oh my goodness my baby is going to school even though it's preschool moment. My hope is that he doesn't pretend to shoot at the other children. He and his brother play Transformers a lot and we try to correct him but you never know! Also, I worry about his food allergies. I'm not sure when I won't worry about that. Maybe when he is old enough to understand it himself? I hope so.

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Wordless Wednesday - Happy 3rd Birthday!




Almost wordless - It was his 3rd birthday Sunday. No I didn't plan their birthdays to be 4 days apart. Who plans like that? lol

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8/25/09

What Would You Do?




You're taking a class to become a better parent. After all no child comes with a manual so any tips or new ideas to add to your skill set is welcome. Your teacher hands you a sheet of paper titled - Being the Parent You Want to Be. The instructions say to use the numbers 1 to 10, with 1 being the most important to you, put these traits in order. You can take any of the traits off of the list, and replace traits with other traits that you feel is more appropriate.

___Affirming
___Patient
___Celebratory
___Visionary
___Prayerful
___Authentic
___Connected
___Attentive
___Comforting
___Insightful
What Would You Do? Which traits would be most important on your sheet of paper?
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Tip The Scale Tuesday - Week 18



Oh yea baby! I've got a 2 pound loss this week. What's my secret? Apparently it is the birthday cake diet. You see my children had 2 birthdays four days a part. What does that mean? 2 birthday cakes (don't forget the ice cream) Yes, I'm on of those crazy moms that believes each child should have their special day. That's how I roll. Seriously, if I had kept my food journal this week it would look like this...

birthday cake
big red
ice cream
more birthday cake
big red

Day 2
birthday cake
steak, green beans
big red
birthday cake

Day 3
sick of birthday cake - ate a piece anyway
big red
dinner of some sort

Day 4
New birthday cake to eat

You get the idea. I didn't exercise hardly at all. We went to the doctors for hearing tests, hospital for ear tubes to be put in, have birthday party, meet the teacher, go to soccer practice and on and on and on. I'm not sure if I could be more stressed out this week. Either way I'm taking the 2 pound loss and sticking to it. Here's to next week and more effort on ME. If you want to join Angie and I on our weight loss journey's PLEASE click the little banner above and link up! We can't possibly be the only two people in the blogosphere trying to lose weight.

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8/24/09

Staying Connected

One of the hardest parts of moving my blog is trying to stay connected. The last meme which was Aloha Friday I really tried to look at each blog and be sure to link up! If you have a following for Google I added myself. If you are on Facebook and Twitter then you might have noticed me as a new follower or added to your Networked Blog or any of the other services that I belong too.

I am looking at your page to see how I can connect with you! Maybe we share the same communities or social nings. Many of you do not have your url set to open another page. If you do then I don't have to leave your blog which is a plus for anyone trying to connect with you. It does become a hassle to click, add myself and then arrow back and try to get to your page again. If you will add for example the highlighted yellow part of this code: a href="http://bloggingacrosstexas.ning.com/profile/PamelaKramer" target="_blank"
That will open up a new page for me and anyone else who clicks that link! PERFECT we never have to leave your blog. (there should be a space in front of the word target)

Making sure that you are linked takes a lot longer than just leaving a comment and moving on. It seems to me that if you're going to add yourself to all of these social sites then you might want to be prepared to link up. Right? I've had to contact my pals and request they change my banner and change my url. After all once you put the word out that you have moved that's the end but they might catch a request in their email. Wish me luck as I take the extra time to reconnect with all those fellow bloggers that I've been connected with over the last two years. That's a lot of connecting!

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8/23/09

A Day In The Life of My Wittle Family

Sunday wasn't just like any other Sunday it seems our news of the day was all caught on video. I've added these to You Tube to share with my readers.
1st we have our final decision to join the church we have been visiting for most of the year. We took care of that this morning!


2nd up Our "Tornado Toddler" turned 3 today. We had his party after church. Poor little guy was so patient.



3rd Silly finally walks a few steps by herself and my mom was lucky enough to catch it on her camera.




I'm so wiped out!

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8/22/09

Seems Like Old Times

The four of us grew up on the same street. We met when we were all five years old. We played together and were at each others houses and were Girl Scouts. We went to the same elementary and intermediate schools. Carrie moved away after her parent's divorced. That was a really hard time in our lives to be separated after spending so much time together and being apart of each others families. We saw her off and on over the years but it was tough to stay in touch. The last time we saw her was at my wedding nearly 12 years ago.
Thanks to Facebook, Em found her online and reconnected. After weeks of chatting and planning we finally all made it to lunch together. It's impossible to catch up in three hours what has happened in 12 years. Hopefully it's the start of staying connected. If nothing else we can all keep in touch on Facebook. That's a cool feeling.

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8/21/09

Freebie Friday - Week 21


Are you hosting a #contest? Great! Post it here on Freebie Friday. What better time to search and enter contests than on the weekend? Sign in so that others can find your giveaway. I will be hosting Freebie Friday each week from now on so be sure to drop back by. Now go grab your tasty beverage, sit back and relax and contest hop with me!

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Aloha Friday #57 - What Would You Do?

Kailani at An Island Life has created this really fun idea. If you are interested in joining in, please visit her site for more details.

Today's question is:
Normally I would post this under my What Would You Do label but I'm a little late so I'm going to drop it here for Aloha Friday. Let me set the scene for you.
You're at a sports practice with your child. The coach divides them into two teams with team captains. Your child is the last one to be chosen. When your child comes off the field they are obviously very hurt and upset. What Would You Do?


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Flash Back Friday #57 - Mother's Day


Today I'm flashing back to Mother's Day! This has to be one of my all time favorite videos on You Tube. It's impossible to watch without laughing. While I was redesigning my blog there was a box for favorite video and this is the first one I thought of and I hope you get a giggle out of it.
http://christis-blahblahblog.blogspot.com

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8/20/09

A Chance Meeting with Dr. Bloss

Today our eldest son had to have surgery to put tubes in his ears again. Among the chaos of trying to get him there on time, picking up my grandma to help watch the little ones and then checking him I was a bundle of nerves. I gave my son a hug and kiss and told him I loved him before he walked through those doors escorted by the team of doctors who were performing the procedure. The doors opened again and there standing across the way was Dr. Bloss. I was instantly overwhelmed with waves of emotion. I called him over and said, "Dr. Bloss! You operated on my baby nearly 3 years ago." He smiled and said "Well how is he?" "Why is here?" I explained that he was in the waiting room waiting on his brother. I couldn't say thank you enough and before I knew it I was hugging this doctor in a way that I've never hugged before. After all what is the protocol on how to thank a doctor that saved your baby's life? I don't think there is one. We parted ways and I went back to the waiting room. A little while later he came looking for his little patient from three years ago. My little guy was not nearly as happy as I was that Dr. Bloss came looking for him. I'm not sure how many doctors get to see some of the lives that they save but today was one of those days. In the many years that I have been on the planet never have I felt as much fear as I did that day handing over my two month old baby to nurses, anesthesiologists and a surgeon. I'm overwhelmed right now just thinking about it. Even though these folks do this job every day, a mother doesn't hand over her baby to be put to sleep, cut upon, opened, fixed and closed again every day. The outcome is completely out of your hands. I feel blessed every single day that this loud toddler is full of life, whine, laughter and continues to thrive.

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Baby's First Birthday Video Footage


I recorded this from my digital camera. My video camera has issues. She had three cakes for her birthday. Why? I was going to get her the free square cake that comes with the 1/4 sheet cake. When my hubby got a look of this plain square cake he came to her rescue. He opted for the little puppy cake. There you have it three cakes and it's a good thing none of us are on diets because we will all be eating cake again on Sunday when our toddler turns the big three. Geez he had a rough day to day. He told everyone his birthday was today. When I would explain that his birthday was not until Sunday well, let's just say he didn't agree. lol

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8/19/09

Wordless Wednesday - Happy 1st Birthday!


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Mostly Wordless - Today is our baby girl's very first birthday. Yesterday she took six whole steps by herself. She hasn't done it since and my mom was not happy I didn't have the video camera in hand but what can you do? lol - Maybe she will do it again today. I'm so excited about celebrating her big day. What till you see the cake her daddy picked out for her. Photos coming later...

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Tip The Scale Tuesday - Week 17



I'm here Angie. The food journal has been on the back burner for a while. My life just become more complicated than usual. We have so many doctor visits and kid issues it's hard to keep up. That didn't stop me from going to Bloggywood but we all have our vices. This week resulted in a zero gain, zero loss. I have no idea how that happened but considering I have exercised very little and engaged in stress snacking this week I'm going to take it! There is one more week until school starts and I have high hopes for serious work outs. Until next week...

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8/18/09

If You Give a Toddler a Camera...

He's going to take some funny pictures. My little guy is sure to become a photographer or at least have it as a hobby. He is constantly snagging my digital camera and snapping photos. He knows how to turn it on, focus and push the button.

Em don't get mad because you know I had to post these. This is my friend Emily who is 5 months pregnant with her first baby. Our little guy had to get a photo of the baby. He got as close as he could.
Then he moved on to her toes. I'm not sure why, maybe he liked them because they are painted? I don't know but we got a good laugh out of it.







Finally he moved up to her face! We had to treat her to a Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie blizzard from Dairy Queen. If you haven't had one and you have a DQ in your neck of the woods you have to try it. It's break your diet worthy! rofl...



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8/16/09

Baby's First Day at The Beach

This was our baby girl's first trip to the beach. She LOVED it. She was all over that beach and completely fearless. Our boys had a great time too. I'm not a fan of the beach because the water here is icky and I don't like the sand getting all stuck in my nooks and crannies. This weekend was the only time we made it to the beach this entire summer. Maybe next year we can make more of an effort to get to one with nicer water.

Do you like the scrap book? I'm enjoying my week of trying new things. I've never played around with digital scrap booking before. I like packages that are user friendly. Enjoy.





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Testing 1, 2, 3...

This new template is soooooooooooooooooo not user friendly. I'm having one heck of a time tweaking things.

8/18/09 - I changed the template 3 more times until I found something more user friendly. I like this one even better. I'll get back to posting ASAP.

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8/15/09

Today's Quote

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.

- Mortimer J. Adler

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8/14/09

Seventh.ink - Back To School Giveaway

(Sticky Post - scroll down)
Remember one my favorite graphic designers Matthew Johnson from Seventh.ink? My daughter tested out his lift off design in this product review here. He's offering up some back to school goodies to three lucky winners. Here is Matthew modeling his latest design "Guitar Quadruple Threat" in New York city. How cool is that? Are you looking for shirts with fury? Great! Here is what is up for grabs for the lucky three.

1st Place (choose Guys or Girls versions):
Guitar Quadruple Threat Shirt
$5 Gift Certificate

2nd Place (choose Guys or Girls versions):
With Love Shirt
$5 Gift Certificate

3rd Place:
$5 Gift Certificate

I know, I know - now that you have seen all the cool t-shirts you want to know how to enter. Matthew and I have made this easy peasy for you. You must comment for each entry that you submit, that's really important. Contest is open to U.S. shipping only. Now show Seventh.ink some love and enter to win! - OVER HERE -




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MckLinky Blog Hop

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Aloha Friday #56 - If You Could Teach...

Kailani at An Island Life has created this really fun idea. If you are interested in joining in, please visit her site for more details.

Today's question is:
I just finished a post about an exercise class called Zumba. I love it and if I could teach any fitness class it would be Zumba. What about you? If you could teach any fitness class (step, spin, Zumba, water aerobics, yoga, etc.,) what would it be?

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Freebie Friday - Week 20


Are you hosting a #contest? Great! Post it here on Freebie Friday. What better time to search and enter contests than on the weekend? Sign in so that others can find your giveaway. I will be hosting Freebie Friday each week from now on so be sure to drop back by. Now go grab your tasty beverage, sit back and relax and contest hop with me!

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