Tindra says

After blowing her nose for the first time this week (btw do you know how hard it is to try to teach someone to blow their nose?) 'Wow I'm a big girl this week. I figured out how to unbuckle my car seat and now I can blow my nose. Guess I'm big enough for a boyfriend' 

That time we got stranded in a blizzard

Last Monday we got the sad new that Drew's grandmother had passed away. It was noon when Drew called me and had just started to snow.

As he was looking at the forecast while on the phone with me he decided we basically needed to leave right away to get to Lincoln for the visitation/ funeral because the snow we were getting (12-18 inches) was heading to Nebraska next. 

He rushed home and started packing, I threw together things for me and the kids and we picked Jasper up at 3:30 when school got out and got on the road. 

First hour or two where fine, snowing, but still good visibility and the roads were fine. 

Then we stopped after 2.5 hours for me to feed Soren and get gas and food. When we got back on the road 30 minutes later we were all of a sudden driving in a real blizzard. With basically no visibility, down to one lane because the other side of the high way had major drifting, and it was only going to get worse. 

After driving in that for a while I convinced Drew we Needed to stop. This was like 7:30 only and the storm was only going to get worse after midnight. I was honestly terrified we were going to end up in a ditch somewhere. Drew was confident in our suburban and his driving to keep going but his brother and sister in law who were behind us were stopping so he was finally convinced.

We ended up in a little hotel in Ogallala, Nebraska with a pool, my only requirement in case we got stuck there a while. 

Drew's brother/sil were only 30 or so miles behind us, but after we pulled over it got even worse and it took them almost 2 hours to catch up! Absolutely horrible driving conditions. 

The next day while we were waiting to hear how the roads were (we had heard there were some closures) the kids swam and had a blast. 

Finally we decided to check out and get on the road even though they weren't amazing, but much better during day time. We got like 60 miles...and then the high way was just closed down. Police blocking the road saying we needed to exit- and all on ramps blocked. I seriously didn't know this was a thing, that they could just literally shut down the roads. Well, in Nebraska they do. 

So once again we were stranded, but in a slightly bigger town with a much newer/nicer hotel. Drew even managed to get us upgraded to the family suite, so the big kids slept in bunk beds in their own room.

The kids swam some more, and then the next day we waited around for the  interstate to open up. When we realized it wasn't going to, Drew found a bunch of back roads to get us to Lincoln. That trip should have been about 3 hours and instead it took almost 7. Finally, more than 50 hours after we left Denver we made it to Lincoln, normally a 7 hour drive.

Probably the most eventful road trip we've ever done (though sadly not the first time I've been stranded in Nebraska due to a storm) Thank God for amazing little travelers! 

I knew when I saw this sunset last night as we were driving through Nebraska that it was a sign.. 

 That our Broncos were going to win the Superbowl!! 

That time I cried at the Doctors office.

Yeah that happened. 

We had this big insurance mess, long story short- our health care plan that we have had 4 years through Cigna apparently wasn't Obamacare compliant and as of Jan 1st was no longer valid. How did we find this out? While at Walgreens picking up Jaspers $350 medicine that we had to pay out of pocket for since our insurance got canceled. Awesome right? 

So fast forward a week, we have health insurance again but we had to switch to Kaiser...Not happy about that at all. I've heard mostly negative things. But it is what it is. Can't be that bad right? 

So I made Drew and Jasper appointments for Thursday, back to back appointments. During the day leading up to the appointments I get FOUR phone calls from Kaiser, moving Jasper's appointment around so he could see a pediatrician because first they hadn't scheduled him with a ped. Great. Thanks Kaiser! We get to the appointment at the new time (30 minutes later than first appointment was schedule) and they tell me I missed our appointment and they have no record showing that he was switched over. They tell me now he has to see a nurse, who can't actually do what we needed done at the appointment. And won't be able to get him his meds. 

This went back and forth for probably 10 minutes with the front desk lady telling me I was wrong, no one changed chis appointment blah blah blah. At this point I'm so mad/annoyed/frustrated that he's not going to get seen and get his medicine that the tears well up.. I HATE THIS. Anytime I get super mad, the tears come. And there's nothing I can do about it. Finally the Other front desk lady (the nice one) goes back to talk to the doctor/his nurse. The nurse comes out, super duper friendly and apologetic and explained that the pediatrician moved Jasper over to his service himself, and someone else moved him back, and that he was going to see Jasper. Big sigh of relief. 

We saw the pediatrician and I really liked him. Thank god. Because the rest of the Kaiser system? Not impressed so far. 

After being seen we head upstairs to pick up his meds. They have a pharmacy right inside to make things super easy! Perfect. Except, not when they screw up his prescription and we have to wait OVER AN HOUR, with three kids in the waiting room. So our 20 minute appointment ended up being over 2 hours and Jasper missed his basketball practice. Fun. And I cried. In front of a waiting room full of people. They probably thought I had a super sick kid or something and felt bad for me. 

Anyone have any POSITIVE Kaiser experiences? Does it get better. I sure hope so, otherwise apparently there will be a lot of tears at the Doctors office for at least the next year. 

Top 5 Signs I Don't Have My Life Together

Ive gotten comments on here, IG, even in emails that ask how I manage to 'do it all'. Those comments seriously make me laugh. If you saw the state of my house 75% of the time you sure as hell wouldn't be asking that. Seriously. My shit isn't together. And here's just a few signs of that if you needed 'proof'.

1. My Laundry room. At Any given time i Have at least 5 loads of clean laundry to fold and put away and another 5 loads to wash. And I mean at ANY given time. I remember once for like an hour a year ago when all the laundry was done. It was glorious. It hasn't happened since. And probably won't happen till my kids are all off to college. And then they will probably pull a college Darlene and come home with 8 loads of laundry to do over the weekend but will be too busy to Actually do it and mom will. Because moms are awesome like that. 

2. My bedroom/closet. EVEN if by some miracle (or the day after the cleaning lady is here) the rest o the house is super clean, those two are almost always a disaster. We currently share a room with Soren, and the only time I can clean is when he's sleeping, and when he's sleeping he's in our room...see the problem? Haven't quite figured out a solution to that one yet so, basically always a disaster. 

3.We still have our Christmas tree up..it's January 18th.

4. Jasper informed me this morning that he has no clean socks. Thanks for the heads up dude. Luckily his feet are almost my size so he borrowed a pair of mine. So yeah, my shit is clearly not together. 

5. We had take out Friday, Saturday AND Sunday night.  This is partly Drew's fault. I cook (mostly) healthy all week so when the weekend rolls around, I'm over cooking. And I need to meal plan and grocery shop again, and when Drew's all "hey lets order Pizza" I can easily be convinced.

This list could go on and on. And I could show you my hair, which hasn't been washed in 3 or 4 days (can't even remember at this point) but all to say, my life isn't all together. And that's OKAY. I read a quote once that went something like "Don't compare how you feel inside to someone else's outside" and I feel like that applies here. Don't for a second think that because I happened to instagram 3 healthy meals in a row, or posted a picture of my clean child playing happily in a clean room that my shit is together. Because the day after those healthy home cooked meals we probably had pizza delivered and just because my living room looks nice and tidy doesn't meant my toilets have been scrubbed in 2016. 

Questions?

Haven't done one of these in a long time! If you have any questions about life, anything specific you want answered, leave your questions below and I'll do a separate Q & A Post. Feel free to ask anonymously- unless it's to leave comments about my weight (ouch) I don't mind at all! Or you can leave a comment about you want to see more/less of on the blog! 

Have a great Sunday! We are headed to Jaspers indoor soccer game and then watching the play offs- Go Broncos! 

And a picture because this post felt too bare without one! 

Anyone else feel like they always seem to get kicked when they are down? I guess thats life. 

Last week when we went to go fill a prescription we found out that apparently the insurance we have had for the past 4 years doesn't comply w Obamacare regulations. So they canceled it December 31st. Our insurance claims they sent a letter, but we never got it. So that's wonderful. $350 later for Jasper prescription and we thought we were good to go and would just quickly re enroll in a plan. Nope. That apparently can't happen till Feb. 1st. Woooonderful. 

Then I get staph infection. Again. I got it really bad my freshman year of college, so 11 years ago. But of COURSE it has decided to come back now during the month we aren't covered. I'm cringing at the thought of how much all of this is going to cost. And also hoping I don't wake up one of these mornings looking like I snorted a golf ball. Which is what happened in college. Freaked my room the f*** out. Myself as well. 

I'm just venting. And I'm tired. Because I'm Always tired. Because I haven't slept for more than 3-4 hours in a row in 10 months. And lets face is, I slept like shit my entire pregnancy as well so really we are going on 18 months without a good night sleep. It's starting to wear me down. Which is probably why the staph infection decided it was the perfect time to rear its ugly little head. 

But the rest of the family is healthy. And these are certainly minor problems compared to many. But sometimes it just feels good to vent. And write.