Black Friday

In all the busyness of the past couple of weeks, I didn't get a chance to post about shopping on Black Friday. I typically do not shop on Black Friday, because I don't want to fight the crowds. However my older sister usually does the crowd fighting and I was caved when I thought of how many people Justin and I need to buy Christmas presents for.

If you weren't aware, Kohl's opened at 4am on Black Friday. Sherry and I got there a few minutes after 4 and ended up almost as far from Kohl's as we could have been and still be considered in the Kohl's parking lot. It was madness in the store. We waited in line for over an hour before we paid. During that time they didn't even have all the registers open at first. I made a comment to the people around us that they were probably were even letting people open credit card accounts at the registers as well. Turns out - I was right! When you open an account, you are given a certificate to save an extra 15% on your purchases for a day, so many people were taking them up on their offer to open an account. This means much more time in line. Kohl's is going to hear something from me about that.

After leaving Kohl's, we headed to Target. Luckily we weren't buying toys or fighting over the LCD monitors that they had. And we didn't have to wait in line there at all. From Target, we headed to Michael's. From Michael's we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and from there we went to Joann's. We were back at my parents around 9am and ready for a nap!

I'm not sure if I will be out on Black Friday in the future, but it is nice to know that our Christmas shopping is almost done.

So much going on!!!

Not that we have meant to ignore our blog, but we have just been super busy!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we headed up to the Dallas area to my (Julie's) parents' house. On the way we stopped at Justin's aunt and uncle's to see some of his dad's family and have a bite to eat. As much as Colby likes to chase after his cousin Baxter (who is half his size), he did not enjoy being chased by the Great Danes that his aunt and uncle have. I guess it serves him right, but by the next morning when he saw Baxter, he had completely forgotten how much he disliked being chased by a dog bigger than him and harrassed Baxter for 2 days.

Thanksgiving day it actually snowed!!! Of course the ground was far too warm for any accumulation, but it was the first time that I have seen snow on Thanksgiving day (even though I was at BYU for 4 years) and Justin hadn't seen snow on Thanksgiving day since his family lived in Idaho when he was a kid. Some of the flakes were super big, and Justin tried to get a picture for the blog, but I guess we needed a better camera than the ones he has on his phone or Blackberry if we had wanted to be able to see the flakes.

After Thanksgiving

We left to head back home on Saturday with plans to pull out the Christmas decorations. It rained the entire drive back and that meant no putting up Christmas lights that day. Plus I had exams to grade and Justin was busy working on something (probably Blackberry related). We did go out and get a tree though and it is still sitting undecorated in our living room. :(

Not that I hadn't been working on cards for the past couple of months, but with Thanksgiving weekend over, it meant the craft fair that my sisters and I were selling cards at was in less than a week, so I was super-busy working on cards for most of last week. Then we headed to Austin on Friday.

The Craft Fair

The weather for the fair was not good, however there were plenty of people that went to the Downtown Georgetown Christmas Stroll. It would have been nice if these people had gone to buy crafts. It was a very depressing day where we sold only about 2% of the cards we had made (not even enough to cover our booth fee). Not that we are happy for the other vendors, but it did make us feel tons better to find out that many of the other vendors were experiencing the same thing. It seems that people do not come to this for the craft fair (although they like to look at the crafts and not buy any), they come for all the free family activities. One thing that is most upsetting is that a couple different people walked past our booth, and then took pictures of our card displays! A few others came by, looked through our cards, told us how cute they were and then thanked us for the ideas before walking off.

Although we didn't sell much, we did have quite a few people pick up business cards, so we are hoping that we will unload more of this inventory that we have.

Everything else

Justin and I actually left the fair early to head back to Houston for PWC's Annual Holiday party at River Oaks Country Club. It was nice to get dressed up (in my new dress) and meet more of the people that Justin works with. But meeting everyone at once means that I won't remember or recognize any of them again and will have to be re-introduced next year.

We are hoping to get our house decorated for the holidays in the next few days, but since it gets dark so early lately, the outside lights will most likely have to wait until Saturday. I am in charge of the Enrichment Dinner at church tomorrow night (for those of you non-LDS, it just means for all the ladies at church), so that is my high-stress thing for the moment. Not to mention that I am trying to get my finals written since next week is finals week.

We are eager for 5pm or 6pm on December 21st, because it means that Justin will be off work until January 7th. Just a couple more weeks and then it is all about relaxing and getting things done around the house!

Ending the week with a bang

I think that most people know that I am a bum and do not have a full-time job. And since the classes that I was scheduled to teach this semester are afternoon classes, I sleep in practically everyday. Justin always leaves very early (usually between 5:30 and 6) and gives me a kiss when he is leaving (typically I am awake enough to remember this). Then he gives me a wakeup call somewhere around 7:30 just to insure that I don't sleep too late (this is at my request - I like to sleep in but I don't want to sleep that much).

Yesterday morning I was a bit surprised when he called me around 6:45am and even more so to let me know he had just been in a fender-bender on the tollway. Luckily neither he nor the other guy involved was hurt, just some damage done to their cars. And since Justin was at fault we have our fingers crossed that our insurance rates don't go up that much.

Both Justin and the other guy decided that their cars were drivable. I'm not sure about the other guy, but Justin's car just looked like someone rubbed some sandpaper over parts of his car (mainly the front). He drove on to his meeting in the Galleria area, after that on to downtown and then home at the end of the day. After speaking to the insurance claims people last night they recommended that he go ahead and bring his car in to a body shop first thing this morning before driving it to make sure it really was drivable.

Good thing - check out this picture he sent me of the rear driver's side tire! Clearly very dangerous since it is now slanted!



Good thing we have rental car coverage with our policy because it is no fun to be a one-car couple.

The Vacuum Fairy

As opposed to other types of fairies, a vacuum fairy does not leave something behind after they take what you leave them. Last night Julie and I decided to take our old vacuum cleaner out to the curb with the rest of the garbage, now that we have our nice Dyson vacuum cleaner (see earlier post). We thought that someone might take it away before the sanitary engineers arrived this morning. Or, one of them might take it to use elsewhere. Anyway, when I left the house this morning, approximately 5:30am, the vacuum was gone! The Vacuum Fairy had come in the night! We were thinking it would have disappeared closer to 8am.

If only the fairy would have left us some money. :)
(We're just glad it is out of our house, and in the hands of someone who thinks they can put it to good use.)

Pet insurance vs People insurance

When we adopted Colby back in April we signed up for pet insurance. Now - I know that people without pets probably don't understand, but if you have pets you do. Your pet is part of your family. Don't get me wrong, I know that Colby is not my child. Besides dressing him up for Halloween (but how could we not?), we don't dress him up or take him everywhere we go. But because Colby is part of our family, we insured him. Our purpose in doing this was "in case".

In case of what?, you might ask. Well - in case of anything. What if Colby ate something he wasn't supposed to? What if he got hit by a car? There are any number of things that could happen to him that would cause vet bills out the window. Anyway - we signed up for insurance that costs us $27 a month. There is a complicated schedule of how much they will reimburse us for various things. We actually picked a more expensive plan because it reimburses part of what we pay for vaccinations (dogs need them every 6 months or year for their entire lives - not like people), heartworm medication and flea prevention.

Now - hopefully most people reading this have health insurance. For people, it is cheaper to have health insurance than not to. The reason why is that if you visit the doctor without health insurance your doctor visit could cost you anywhere from $100-$400 just for the visit depending on what type of doctor and all that. But if you have health insurance you get a discount at the doctor just for having insurance. This is regardless of whether you have an HMO, PPO or some other type of plan. So with health insurance that $150 visit doesn't really cost $150, depending on the type of contract your insurance carrier has with the doctor it is less than that - maybe the visit is really only $70 because you have health insurance. Then depending on your plan you may pay only a co-pay of that amount. But really this is a win-win situation. The discount you get for having insurance is typically more than what you pay to be insured. Of course, if you never go to the doctor or hospital for anything at all (unless you were dying) then it may be cheaper for you to not have any coverage.

We have learned that pet insurance doesn't work this way. Although the specific company we have insurance through is advertised at our vet's office, there is no discount for having insurance. Instead, you pay the bill when you are leaving and send in a claim form to the insurance company and hope that they will reimburse you for a good chunk of what you paid. We have learned with this company that we have - most likely they will not.

Case in point - I took Colby in a month ago for some vaccines and to get more heartworm/flea medication. While there he was diagnosed with a hereditary disease called mange which makes his hair fall out more than it should. Treatments are to be done every 10-14 days until he is cured (he has had 3 treatments, but this could take another month or so until we are done). After the one visit a month ago the bill I paid at the vet was over $200. Ouch. At least we have pet insurance right?

Wrong. We faxed in the claim form and got only about $28 back. Yes you read that right - only about 10% of the vet bill and just about the same amount we pay every month to have him insured. It turns out that this skin condition he has is not covered by the insurance and therefore none of the tests or treatments for it are reimbursable. That was only the first visit over the last month. Remember I said that he has had 3 treatments so far. Now, I know that it isn't just the condition that we have paid for on these vet visits - there have been vaccines and the cost for seeing the vet and all that too. But we have now spent $400 in the past month alone and out of that only $28 have we gotten back or will get back.

What is the point of having insurance if it works this way? I understand that (just like people insurance) some things aren't covered, but out of that $400 only $175 of it was for this condition that is not covered. How come out of the remaining $225 we have spent we only get $28 back? We would be better off to not pay for insurance at all and save that $27 a month to help cover the vet bills for when we do take him in.

I guess I don't have someone to tutor anymore

I put my name on the school district's tutor list as a tutor for AP Statistics. Last year I tutored a kid from March through May and his mother told me that no one on the tutor list for the district was willing to tutor AP Stats, so I decided that it might be lucrative. I can charge between $25 and $30 an hour without debate.

I knew that it might take a couple months or so to get any clients - the students need time to realize that they are lost. Anyway - about a month ago I got a call from a lady in my neighborhood. Her daughter is taking Algebra 2 and even though it isn't statistics she thought it best to see someone in the neighborhood. So I agreed and met with the girl the next day. She is a sweet girl and catches on really fast - she just needs a little personal attention with her work that she doesn't get in school.

The last time I saw her was 2 weeks ago. I tutored her on Tuesday at 4pm and she said she had an exam in 2 days. When she left she said that she would see me the next Tuesday. I have to admit - I was a little surprised that she didn't show last week. But I was even more surprised that she didn't show up this week either - especially since she told me she has an exam every 2 weeks.

Hmmm - I guess I shouldn't make any extra effort to be here at 4pm next Tuesday.

Our weekend Part II (the bad part)

So, in the midst of preparing lots of food for our Halloween party, I wasn't feeling very well. Last year I came down with a cold the day before the party, this year I wasn't quite sure what was wrong. It put me behind schedule a bit in preparing the food.

Friday night I had a lot of pain in my lower abdominal and lower back. I finally fell asleep around 1:45am and then woke up in pain again at 6 Saturday morning. When I woke again I realized that I had felt this pain before just over a year ago. It felt the same as when I was diagnosed with a kidney stone. That's right - the stone that I was told would probably just sit in my kidney for the rest of my life and not bother me again.

Luckily I didn't have much pain on Saturday and was fine Saturday night until everyone left. Then I started to hurt just a little bit. But I woke up Sunday morning in intense pain and for about an hour, thought I could deal with it before breaking down and telling Justin that I needed to go to the ER.

Luckily for us, we went at just the right time because no one else was there. We didn't have to wait at all once we filled out an admittance form. They got me hooked up to an IV pretty fast and soon I was given a couple pain killers and an anti-nausea medication. Ah - pain killers are a good thing.

Last year when I had the kidney stone problem, Justin was out of town for work. I woke in the middle of the night and drove myself to the hospital. I had to wait for almost an hour before they finally called me back and got me some pain killers, but then they stuck me in a hallway where I would be "out of the way" and it seemed that everyone forgot about me. About an hour and a half later I had to ask someone walking by if I was ever going to see a doctor. The doctor came by, told me I had a kidney stone, gave me a prescription for pain killers and discharged me. No one actually checked me out or did any type of X-ray or scan to make sure that was what the problem was.

This time I got a lot of attention. They checked to make sure that I didn't have a ruptured cyst and then sent me for a CAT scan to see if it was a stone and if so where it was. It seems that the pain was from the stone moving from my kidney to my bladder. And lucky for me that Justin was home because the pain this time was far more intense than last time. It made me sick to my stomach and there was no way I could have driven myself.

Today I am home, taking pain killers and trying to stay very hydrated. Justin stayed home today too in case I need him (because he is so wonderful). My classes today were canceled and I don't teach on Tuesday so I have a couple more days to rest and (hopefully) pass the stone this time.

We are very glad that the pain didn't really hit too hard until after our Halloween party was over.

Our Weekend Part 1 (the good part)

Since this weekend was the weekend before Halloween, we had our 2nd annual Halloween party. Although I think that I did a better job planning the amount of food I always seem to make too much (better too much than not enough, though).

This year there were about 16 adults that came to our party and 11 kids so we had a good turnout. I think a party is all about good food and socializing, so I hope that people were happy with the food part. I made marinated wings (which were a big hit last year, but not quite such a big hit this year), pepperoni pizza twist (definitely a favorite - there was none leftover), graveyard veggie pizza, a cheese ball decorated to look like a face (it kind of looked like a face), and then sandwiches - PB and jelly, ham & swiss, and turkey with colby-jack and of course these were not normal sandwiches because I used cookies cutters to cut out the bread so they were shaped like witch hats, pumpkins and ghosts. There was also a plate that had the leftover cold cuts from making the sandwiches and slices of cheese.

For dessert, we had peanut butter eyeballs, nutter butter ghosts, a red velvet ghost cake and chocolate cupcakes that looked like spiders. We also set up a table downstairs with Halloween-shaped sugar cookies, frosting, sprinkles, and assorted candies to decorate the cookies with. The cookies were definitely a hit with the kids - more so than the cupcakes (we have a dozen leftover even after sending cupcakes home with a few different people).

For the second year in a row, I have learned quite a bit about throwing the Halloween party. What did I learn this year? That I don't think that I want to do all the food again. I started preparing food on Thursday for a party that was on Saturday night. In fact - I am already thinking that next year if we have a Halloween party it might be fun to do a potluck dinner where everyone brings something. Much less stressful for me.

The costumes were great for the 2nd year in a row. We had all the adults vote for the best costume. Colby got a vote for his "spider dog" costume and Justin and I even got a couple votes each for the frog and lady bug costumes we were wearing. But the runner-up was a dead-on-her-feet mom and the winner was a dead Chicago marathon runner.

Anyway - here are some pics from the party - looks like we didn't get any pictures of the food once it was all set up and uncovered. Oh well!

Spider-Dog

Looks like Colby is ready for Halloween. Last night we went to PetSmart and then Target looking for a costume for him. There wasn't much selection at PetSmart, so we headed on to Target. It was hard to decide which costume to pick. We didn't want to get him something that would be bothering him a lot (where he'd have something on his head). As I am a Spider-man fan, I like this costume a lot.



We tried it on him today, and surprisingly he didn't fuss at it too much. So, I hope he'll be able to keep it on all night this Saturday at our Halloween party. I guess we'll see.

what a way to make my day

On Fridays I only teach one class - my statistics class. It is a little difficult to go up there in the afternoons for just this one class, but since I am quite a fan of stats, I don't mind it so much.

Today was like most Fridays, meaning that it seemed like most of my students didn't want to be there either. I kept asking them questions about stuff we had already learned and was greeted by blank stares. No one would answer the questions, so I continued and answered my own questions. Toward the end of class I told them that I'm not sure what to do when everyone just stares at me like that - does it mean that they are bored with it all, or so lost that they just don't know what to say? No one responded so I said, I have to assume that everyone is just bored. When I got home from class, I had this email:

Hello,

I just wanted to write you to let you know that I really enjoy your class. You are probably my favorite professor, and I've taken a couple classes...or more. Some days in class I wonder if the room full of blank stares ever aggravates you. I hope not as your enthusiasm and energy help to liven up what could easily be an unending sea of boredom amidst the empty stares.

I decided to write in anonymity so as not to appear to be a brown noser.

Neal

PS--my real name is obviously not Neal N. Void

And yes - the email came from an email account belonging to Neal N. Void.