Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Bre tries her hand at yard work. {G}



Stacia pulled the stepping stool over, climbed it and reached the keyboard;all while I looked on in hysterics.
Doctors, Floods, Long Distance, Babies and New Friends

I’m finding it very hard to be motivated. I’m not sure why – I simply want to laze around. That being said:

Lying in bed last night I realized I’d broken my cardinal rule. I’d allowed myself to be talked into thinking that I had no options. I have options. A person always has options. This whole tri-care thing: I didn’t HAVE to accept their lame answer that Krista couldn’t be seen while living here. If she couldn’t be seen on base – I would take her off base. I called the walk-in clinic that they send us to if we get sick on off duty hours. They wanted $125 - $350 for an appointment. I called the clinic a mile down the road by the grocery store. Their walk in appointments would be $50. I took Krista in. In less than an hour we had driven over there, been seen, gotten a prescription that has enough refills to last a year and we were out of there. I told Krista, “See, this is what civilian medicine is like. An appointment within the day, 5 min wait in the office and no hassle”. We headed to Walgreens. They assured us that she can pick up refills in WA. However – it was $80 for meds today because none of it is covered by Tri-care – but we had OPTIONS. I am going to try on FRIDAY to call Fairchild for an appointment so that she can get refills covered by Tri-care. I’m also going to write a nice letter to Tri-care national, the local tri-care service center, our patient advocate and the commander of the med group. The brochure they gave us yesterday said college students CAN be seen at school or home….so why the hassle. The doc said that I should have just made the appointment, taken her in, shown her ID card and not even mentioned where she was enrolled. Hmmm….

I came home to discover that my living room was flooding. A bit of investigating led me to discover a surprise. Mike had told two of the kids (nameless to protect their reputations) to defrost the freezer for me. I always boil water and “pester it” and Mike’s theory is “unplug it and let it defrost”. Well they did. And the water ran across the garage and seeped under the baseboards into the living room. LOL BUT the freezer looks great and I do appreciate that.

Bre called Verizon and found out that the $15 plan I added for unlimited long distance when they left home…covers GUAM. This means she can call Amanda, her best friend, at no cost. She is excited. I’m excited to get my $15 worth out of Verizon. :::snort:::

I’ve been thinking of Babies all day…praying for Becky to have her baby and for Cecile as she is on bed rest.

Bre MOWED THE LAWN TODAY…this was amazing to see. It’s a first for her.

I baked bread and Jamin baked soft pretzels….

Tonight I went to meet an online friend who’s dh has just moved her and family here to be the newest chaplain on base. They have 4 children. The poor man has to hit the ground running as Mike leaves on Tuesday and needs to brief him before he leaves….then he’ll be taking over a service next Sunday because that chaplain is going to school…..never dull around here.

That’s it for today…
PRAY - NOW - this is from Becky (Our Family Fun) - a local friend who comments on here from time to time. Because of Tri-care (and I won't go into that) but Becky needs to have this baby by Saturday or Tri-care won't pay. We've been praying. She has had two c-sections and one vbac at home and is laboring at home. BTW my phone is busy because I'm exploring options to Tri-care. :::snort:::

Hi DeEtta. I went into labor last night. Typical for me I went extremely slowly from 0 to 3. I'm now at 3 and my water hasn't broken which is a miracle. Anyway, I was up all night with very strong contractions, but I was exhausted and fell asleep around 6:00 this morning. Since then, my contractions have kinda petered out getting shorter and weaker. I'm pretty thin and effaced; Asher is engaged and facing the right direction. I've had quite a bit of bloody show and lost my plug. Everything looks like it's ready, but I've stalled. Please pray that we have baby Asher today- we are praying he'll be born before sundown. Ian and I are both tired, and Carol (my midwife) has another patient overdue, so she may not be able to stay with us.Please pass this along to anyone who prays.I tried to call, but your phone is busy.
(OK - I'll have to get better at this photo program before I ruin all the promotion pictures from tomorrow LOL).

Here Mike demos an auto-injector while Stacia tries to help.


Can you see the "newsies" hat? The cross is the most important "rank" on the uniform...

But...I'd be fudging if I didn't admit that we were all a bit excited to see that new rank on the newly issued uniform. {G}

Thanks to Jared for taking the photos. Others will have to wait until I learn how to blur without creating yellow blobs on the photos. LOL

TUESDAY EVENING

In addition to our family meeting (where we discussed the post below and TRIED to explain to little ones how long 6 -8 months is and that the girls would be leaving too)......

We examined Mike's bag of deployment meds. The young boys thought it was cool to hear what each one was for - I wasn't so thrilled with this recitation. {sigh} In the process we noticed that some serum seems to have expired in 2000. :::snort:::

Mike also received FOUR desert BDU's yesterday. He modeled for us. One of our quick witted daughters remarked that it made him look like an old fashioned newspaper boy. I think she meant the cut of the hat....it is sort of vintage.

At the conclusion of all our attempts to explain time and family leaving but coming back etc. Zander concluded, "Let's go buy the airplane". In his mind if we bought the airplane - no one would be able to leave.

We decided the night demanded us to lighten up by splurging and having ice cream more than once this week. :::snort:::

If I can figure out how to blur the name on the uniform, I'll upload a picture or two.
If it's Worth Living For - or Current Events

Current events (Fox journalists captured and released after converting to Islam) have led to interesting discussions in our home. I told Mike that if I did not have a vital relationship with Jesus, I may well have "converted" to avoid death. It is not my intent to criticize the choice made by captives....however, I do cringe when I think that the gihadists may now think all Americans will convert if given the right motivation. I suppose being raised as a missionary kid where we knew that if captured we would not be ransomed...sort of colors my view of these events. If we had been ransomed it would have been "open season on American missionaries". Most mission agencies had policies stating they would not pay ransom for their missionaries. My parents signed a statement to that affect before going overseas.

Mike discussed with the children that our society has become one where we live for TODAY and we don't think much about the future or eternity. 9-11 brought us face to face with a culture that doesn't give much thought to today but lives for the future and eternity. This leads to inshallah (it is written).....we don't get too upset about today because "ah well - it's meant to be". If I kill 3000 innoncent civilians well - inshallah. If I torture an innocent relief worker on video - inshallah.

We have discussed that God calls us, as his children and passionate followers of Christ, to live in today but to LIVE FOR the future and eternity. We discussed that Jesus has each of us in His care. We can trust and rest in His care.

In short, if something is worth living for it should also be worth dying for. Evaluating life, relationships and circumstances in that light tends to quickly weed out what is truly worth living for. We have a list....Christ, family, freedom, country...