Moving and Grooving: Now with 97% Less Grooving

Well, y'all, we are officially moved in. My folks did two Murano loads (well, just dad did the second) bless them!! So now we have all of our stuff here in 1,000 square feet. Whew! We've got a little storage deal off our balcony, so that helps with random things like our camping tub and sleeping bags. My mom was kind enough to chase Gage around for a few hours, feed him, AND give him a nice, long bath while Brian and I toiled away unpacking the kitchen. If you've ever moved, you know the kitchen is easily the bulk of the putting away, and also the first room you tackle. So while the counter tops are still covered in random items that are, as yet, homeless, the majority of our kitchen wares are placed. Not to say there won't be a massive kitchen reorganization in a month. Because there will be. I love reorganizing a kitchen, especially when I know for a fact it's imperfect. And let me tell you, mine is imperfect.

I also got the bulk of the master bathroom unpacked while my parents spirited away my son on a little walk. It was nice to see the countertops in the bathroom, and be able to wash my hands at that sink instead of the guest bath sink. I got about half of my shoes put away on my new shoe racks that may just save my marriage. No, my marriage is not in danger. However, Brian really hates the tangle of shoes that usually is the floor of my side of the closet. So hopefully neat and tidy shoe racks are the answer!

And once we unpack the master bedroom boxes, of which there are roughly six, the nightmare begins. The nightmare I refer to has gathered in Gage's bedroom. Because he still sleeps with us and we have yet to start the necessary sleep training with him, his bedroom became storage for practical purposes. At least until the main rooms of the house are unpacked, his room collected all of the boxes of random things that have been sitting in our storage unit while we stayed with my folks.

Now, I am fighting what I know is a totally irrational urge to just take those unopened boxes straight to the dumpster and pitch 'em in. I know that in reality, I'm just tired and a little punchy from three straight days of Moving Madness. But I keep thinking to myself, "I haven't even seen, let alone needed, any of those things for SIX months! Do I need them now?!" But then I wonder how I would feel a few months down the road when I started looking for things that I probably threw away in a fit of insanity. So, no unopened boxes will be sacrificed.

But don't you just love that feeling in a freshly unpacked house when everything is fresh and clean, nothing is out of place, and everything is safe and secure in it's new home? The desire to reach that feeling is keeping me going.

I think we might even be halfway there.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

Gage Loves Mandarin Oranges!

And because we're moving and I don't have time for a REAL post, this adorable picture of our son eating oranges in his high chair in the living room is the best you get for today!

The move is going fairly smoothly, although we have mountains of unpacking to accomplish today. 99% of our things are here in our apartment with the other 1% being brought by my parents today, in their awesome Murano. Hey, they offered! Can't wait for the house to start being put together... living amongst the boxes is anything but fun!

Rocky Mountain Health Plan... Defrauding Honest Coloradoans

About 2 months ago, Brian and I started the process of trying to get Gage and the two of us insurance while we await Brian's coverage start date of mid-March (Autonation has their employees wait 6 months. Auto industry has high turnover rates!) We did quotes through multiple companies, and Rocky Mountain Health Plan had the best rates. So we started the process of trying to get coverage.

They had an exhaustive application online; it took me three days to complete. And then, after a couple weeks, they started demanding exhaustive medical records. At first we complied, until we got to the point where every time we sent in the last thing they needed, they needed something more. They told us it would cost $149 to insure just Gage, so we jumped on that, deciding that Brian and I would be ok until his coverage went into effect. We agreed that Gage would be covered with RMHP from Feb. 1-Mar. 31. We got his card in the mail, and set his well child check up with his new pediatrician for Feb. 2. I checked to be sure she would be covered under both plans so I wouldn't have to switch him.

Today, I go to the credit union to get cashier's checks for our apartment. As I'm signing the paperwork, I notice that our account balance is DRASTICALLY less than it should be after taking out the apartment money. When I got to the car, I pulled up our account on my phone, and found our checking balance to be $1.00 and savings as low as they'd said. Heart pounding, I pulled up our history and found that our checking had syphoned money from savings to cover the RMHP premium... which was $401 MORE than they'd quoted me!!!!!! FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS more they pulled out.

Furious, I called customer service. I figured maybe they had just charged the premium for all of us even though we weren't all covered. Nope, that wasn't it. They told me that was the cost to insure just a dependant under the age of 2. PER MONTH. $549 and change to cover ONE baby for ONE month. I told the guy that wasn't ok, that we were quoted by email $150, roughly. In his smarmy you're-wrong-and-I'm-right tone, he informed me that I needed to find that email because no one would have told me that and they have to disclose their rates before signing anyone up.

Fuming, I got home and pulled up the email, verified, and called them back. They verified, and the woman says, "Well. What do you want us to do?" I said, "give me back the premium that is above what you quoted!" She put me on hold, consulted with her manager, and told me they'll cancel Gage and refund our premium. Great! So we get our money back but Gage goes back to uninsured til Brian's benes take effect.

Oh well. We'll take it. Bottom line?! Stay away from RMHP at ALL costs. Wonder how many others they pull this scam on who don't watch their accounts so closely? All I have to say it, they better consider themselves darn lucky we had enough in savings to cover their mess AND our apartment fees. Because if this had effected us getting our apartment, I would be talking to an attorney right now!

Gonna Go Scrape Your Car...

... Be Right Back! He has been on the move with this snow scraper all morning. He grabbed it and now has declared it his. Wish he would go scrape my car! Got a foot of snow and still falling.

I Was Gonna Tell You About the House... but Life Happened! So Here Goes.

As you know, our house in Albuquerque is going through short sale. We've been waiting to see what would happen for close to a year (I think we put it on the market the first time in June.) So we have received word that the bank selected the offer they wanted to start with, the highest and best. I believe we had 4 offers in. We signed off on it, then it goes to the bank to be reworked; i.e. they will basically turn it into a counteroffer if there are things requested that they won't pay for. They're the bank so it'll probably get reworked.

Anyway, after they counter, the buyer can either accept the bank's offer, counter again, or just back out. If they accept the offer, the buyer can move forward into securing financing. This takes us to the point where the house is ALMOST sold, because once they've got financing, a closing date can be set and then the house is gone after closing! If they choose to counter the banks's offer, it'll needlessly drag the process on - because the bank won't budge once they've given their offer. And if, of course, they back out of the deal, we're back to where we were a couple weeks ago, with our realtor pulling our NEXT highest and best, contacting them, sending us the offer to sign, and then presenting that to that bank. This has been SUCH a hassle!

But at least we're in the downswing. Hopefully within a month or so we'll be out from under that house!! We sure miss our neighbors from that house, though. We were lucky enough to get good neighbors at both residences we lived at in Albuquerque! Having fun neighbors means having friends next door or across the street. You can walk to their house! So I just hope maybe we'll make some nice neighbor friends at the apartment complex.

That's the house update. I can't wait til it's sold because it makes me sad that OUR house that we picked everything in and thought would be our perfect home, is just sitting there vacant and sad.

Chili's is the Carl's Jr. of Family Dining Establishments

It's true. You know how if you're going to eat fast food, you know there are fast food establishments that aren't AS bad for you (Chick-Fil-a) and then there is the worst of the worst for you... Carl's Jr. Chili's is so bad for you yet their food is pretty tasty with all that fat. We went to Chili's last night for Brian's birthday. We had so much fun, it was just the three of us.

Brian got a buffalo chicken sandwich and I got the Shiner Bock BBQ burger. We split an order of queso. Just so you have something to reference, I am alloted 31 points per day on Weight Watchers. Now, I didn't think my burger was going to be a healthy choice by any stretch; I figured 20-25 points for the burger and a few fries. I figured 10 for half the queso. You get extra points each week on WW so you can enjoy a splurge now and then. So I knew I would go over for the day, but figured I would fall well short of the weekly points allotment. Boy was I wrong.

My burger, as served, with fries (I ate less than half but still) was 41 points. The queso, as served, was also 41 points, so 20.5 per person for those of us splitting. I counted my burger and fries as 31 since I didn't eat all of my fries, or even half. I counted half the queso. I ate 51.5 points for dinner alone!!! Ugh!!

I didn't regret it. We had fun and enjoyed our dinners. It made me thankful though, for Weight Watchers and tracking. I'll need to have a low-points, healthy-eating, exercise-packed week from now until Sunday! The old, fat thinking me would have chowed that meal (including ALL of the fries), and never thought twice about it. Now I know that what I ate was unhealthy, and I can correct for it.

Did you know that Chili's Chipotle Chicken Crispers are one of the worst restaurant foods in America? It's true. Thanks, Chili's, the Carl's Jr. of family dining, for doing your part to add to America's obesity problem.
Thank you to Brian for this topic. He said last night after we figured points for my dinner, "Chili's is like Carl's Jr.!" And this topic was born. :) I have such a terrific, witty husband. I love you, Brian. I hope you had a fun birthday!

This and That...

Let's see... I've wanted to do a meaningful update for a few days now but it hasn't exactly been good time. First of all, a couple things about my aunt, just to get it out there. She was a good lady, and she'll be missed. She had some health problems that sometimes made it harder to interact with family, so we weren't as close as we could've been. I hold nothing against her in that regard though. She was a mom and a grandma, a wife and a sister. She'll be missed, and your thoughts and prayers for the family she left behind are appreciated. She didn't get to see my grandma before my grandma passed last summer, but I know they're reunited now.

I've totally fallen off the wagon with both Weight Watchers and my sugar challenge. It's been a few weeks since I've tracked and the scale shows it with nothing lost, nothing gained. So this week, I recommit to Weight Watchers, exercise, and a healthy happy lifestyle. I've come too far to be derailed now... and I still have too far to go! Brian's b-day is tomorrow, and in my family's case, just won't be right without cake. So I will recommit to the sugar challenge, starting fresh, on Monday of next week. I know that's usually a cop-out, but it's just easier for me to start on a fresh week. I'll update as I get going again.

Cloth diapering is still going great. I'm really happy with the decision to switch. Gage's delicate skin is, too. The exceptions have been when we've gone outside today. I didn't want any chance of cold wetness or leaks, so we did 'sposies to go outside. It worked fine but caused a bit of irritation. All I can think is that his nether-regions were accustomed to the chemicals in disposables but aren't any longer. That's a GOOD thing to not be accustomed to!

Speaking of going outside, you've probably noticed we're in a cold snap. It was -2 today at the warmest. That is colder than even I'm used to, and I'm from this state. I do not like it when it's so cold you could have frostbite in under 30 minutes. I do not like feeling like Alaskans are laughing at us as they enjoy a balmy 15° day. Anyway. Be careful. This is cold that can do damage. The phone says it's -9° now, and the low tonight is some ridiculous number like -21°. Gage has his well baby check tomorrow (no shots) so we'll have to venture into the cold. High of 3° tomorrow. Ugh.

I love our little Subaru. That car rocks this weather. It warms up fast and the heater is strong, it hardly slips, and save two minor incidents (one where a Dodge Ram narrowly missed us as we slid into his path and one where we narrowly missed a Tacoma, a curb, and a Kia, in that order,) the ABS does a decent job stopping it. I feel like it's sad and neglected though. I finally got the Subaru Badge of Ownership on it. If you own a Subaru, you can visit the Subaru Badge of Ownership website and request a complimentary one. It says how many Subies you've owned and has little badges to show what you're into. I was all excited about it, then it sat in the envelope for 3 months. So I could put it on in the dead of winter. Go figure. Kind of a cool deal, but I've seen a total of zero other Subies with them so I guess it hasn't quite caught on. I'm on my third Sube, by the way. I haven't, however, had the time or motivation to give the car love via touch up paint. As most used cars, it has some paint dings, and I pride myself in being a pretty decent touch up artist. Usually I take care of dings within the first month of purchase. We bought the car in September. It is now February. Sad! One of these days, I'll get it touched up!

As I typed about the Subaru, I thought of something Brian and I have discussed. I call/think of our Maxima as "the Maxima" or just "the Max," but never "the Nissan." I think of the Subaru as "the Subaru," "the Sube," the Subie," or even "the Subarachi"... (never mind that last one.) But I never think of it as the Impreza, the Outback, or the Impreza Outback. Weird! Wonder how many of you I bored there? Anyway. I'm not much of a car namer, so that's the best I've got. My Forester was named Forest Whittaker by folks on the RCPM discussion board. It stuck. Brian's old Max was named Maxine, and my old blue Max was called Subtle Hustle, after a Clutch song. Neither current car has a name. So why is one the make and one the model? Oh well. There sure is a lot of punctuation in this paragraph. So here is a bit more... with an emoticon! :)

I think that's about all I've got for now. If you're reading me (and I don't think anyone does) tell me your car's name... or at least what you refer to it as. Tomorrow I'll give you an update on the house debacle.