I’m happy to announce that summer is hanging on strong this year. Mid-September and we’re still enjoying days at the lake. Unfortunately, it may be one of those days at the lake that caused a terrible infection in Mae’s ear, complete with swollen ear drum, throat, inner nose and fever. I hate to see her in so much pain, but it did lead to us spending an entire day watching old movies that we love and I sure can’t complain about that!
Work is going good. I got hired on as a permanent, full-time employee. The best part of that statement is that “full-time” is really just part-time hours with really good (FREE) benefits. I don’t get them yet, but in seven short months, I will no longer have to explain that we are, “in between insurances right now, so self-pay.” However, I would like to take this opportunity to show you some numbers:
Amount I paid for health insurance at LPS: $520.00/month
In the four months since I left, we have taken each child to the doctor once, which is about average. We paid $129.00 per visit, then $10.00 for Kyler’s prescription and $45.00 for Mae’s, totaling $313.00. See where I’m going with this? If you take the $520 x 4 months and subtract what we’ve self-paid, we have actually saved $1767.00. And when we did go the the doctor with insurance, they paid out only $11.00 towards our visit. ELEVEN DOLLARS. If you ever want me to get really, really angry, just ask me how I feel about health insurance. It sounds way nicer typed out than I would explain it in person.
So where was I? Oh yeah. Work is good but I do have one problem. I haven’t yet found a spokesperson. Most of you don’t need one, but I do. Since the day I began talking, nobody could hear me. As a toddler, I would quietly mumble, “isweepyneedcawwiedbed” and one of my sisters would find the nearest adult and promptly announce, “Mo’s tired. She wants carried to bed.” Since my sister’s were always around, I never felt the need to speak loudly and therefore, never got the proper practice. I usually work a couple weeks at a job, quietly mumbling to myself, until someone comes along and hears me. And then they talk to me. And then they talk for me. It’s always a glorious day for me. But I have been at UPS for two months now and I’m worried I won’t find this person. I work at the end of the line all by myself. The closest person to me is...dare I say it? Quieter than me. I don’t even know what his voice sounds like. I’m not even one hundred percent sure that I’m calling him by the correct name. And it’s so loud in there that everyone else has to yell to be heard but I physically can’t do that. My voice does not get louder than it is, even if I’m really mad or actually dying. So I guess I’ll just keep on keepin’ on. My boss loves me because I never complain. (I do complain; he just can’t hear me). And my co-workers think I’m pretty great because I show up on time, work hard and then go home. The whole time expressing all of my concerns about the dangers of this job and things that need to be immediately fixed...but never heard. At least I don’t have to be quietly angry over the health insurance plan anymore.
Kenny is one good digging day away from being done with the tornado shelter foundation. We took a time-out last Saturday to do all the yard work that we have been neglecting in exchange for digging time. 4 Bigley’s x 3 hours = damn, woodja’ look at that yard? We even cleared out the fire pit, gathered some wood, invited brother and his wifey over and had some s’mores and beers around the fire.
As we all headed indoors at the end of the night, happy, full and maybe a little drunk (except the kids), we had to take a moment to appreciate all we have. There is still no back porch. We don’t live in a mansion. Our neighbor is clinically insane. But we’ve got a happy family, lots of laughter, a piece of land to build our dreams (though, very slowly) on and gosh darn it, I wouldn’t wanna be anybody else.
