Greetings from San Clemente!

Just a quick update-

We arrived to San Clemente yesterday morning and had a wonderful "Christmas" with James' family. We are pretty exhausted from all our traveling the past weeks, but seeing everyone was well worth it. Christmas was really nice with my family since everyone was able to be there this year. We had yummy dinner and fellowship. We had a chance to see Grandma Taylor and all the cousins as well as alllll of James' families.

More about the holidays later.

May peace be with you and Happy New Year!

To Grandmother's House We Go

Thankful Thursday is coming to an end. Today I am thankful for my job, again. This time I am thankful that I have two weeks off to go spend with old friends and family.

In the week we are in Michigan we will have the following events:
12/17 Counseller walk through, Lansing
12/18 Edgerle holiday get together, Grand Rapids
Spend time with James' brother, Kent, Stanton
12/21 Visit with Leigha, Lansing
12/23 Get together with high school friends, Grand Rapids
12/24 Christmas Eve with the Cullimore aunts and uncles, Perry and Weigel's, Lansing
12/25 Christmas with my immediate family, Spring Lake. Christmas with James' dad?
12/26 Christmas with grandma Taylor etc, Grand Rapids
          drive back to Chicago
12/27 Fly to California!!
          Visit with Kathleen, Alex and Ashleigh, John, friends and James' family. We have a whole long list of 
          places to eat while we're there too. Maybe that will be my next post!

Intermixed in there will be me printing and sending resumes for my internship next fall, Christmas shopping, and just hanging with my sister's kids, Heather, Tina, Diane, and Kim.

I can't wait to be home for a while and really relax, although, it doesn't look like there will be much of that. Pretty soon we are going to work on prioritizing and saying "no". How do you do it all when you really want to? Although I sound very overwhelmed, I truly am thankful we both have so much time off to spend with loved ones.

Blog Spotlight

I have been so busy at the store and at school (work school, not graduate school) that I haven't had much time to think of things to write about, let alone, sit down and blog. It has been a crazy few weeks. A friend from California is in town on business for a few days so we took our first trip down to Little Italy for dinner. Unfortunately, it was not great. His work friends picked it and now I know I'll have to be more assertive!

So in attempts to blog more I thought I would start to highlight some of the blogs I really love to read. Tonight I present to you, "The Bag Snob: Reviews of  Designer Handbags, Authentic Designer Purses, and Leather Bags". I love this blog because I enjoy seeing the trends in fashion and also who is carrying what. It is also fun to see some of the vintage bags still current.

www.bagsnob.com

Christmas is a Feeling

Tonight Kim, a friend from school, and I went to Christmas at DePaul, a free event with a narrator retelling the Christmas story accompanied by a huge choir and orchestra playing Christmas hymns. Last year Kim and I went with her in-laws and it was very beautiful. We both agreed this year's was even better! It was so fun watching the children's chorus signing, moving, and feeling the songs. The church is beautiful, the conductor was fascinating to watch, the atmosphere was so warm and peaceful.

I am thankful that I am a member of the DePaul Community. The University really provides a huge assortment of opportunities for the students and community. This week alone I have been to two events I learned of through DePaul. On Tuesday a different friend and I went to see a screening of the new documentary Race to Nowhere. This movie was pretty interesting, especially for a future counselor, parents, and educators. While the movie definitely has an agenda, and I may not agree with everything, it really makes some valid points.

I need to find more time to blog

TGIF!

Today I am thankful for Friday. This Friday the kids are not in class and the teachers have professional development. Unfortunately, I don't get to go learn about RtI, instead I will be filing in the records room. I love the kids, but I have been super tired this week. Too many evening activities. Monday was Monday Night Football with the gang, Tuesday I worked at Sur La Table, Wednesday Kim came over and made soup and then we went to kettelbells class with Sara and Kristen. Either the class was really hard, or I just haven't worked out in about a year. I think it was probably a combination of both. Regardless, going up and down the stairs today at work was killer. So was chaperoning the 7th and 8th grade dance! Those things always start off so awkward and end up being stinky. Hello! Hot, sweaty, pubescent 13 and 14 year olds. Gross!

So today, I am thankful that I get to sit in the records room tomorrow and also that those awkward days are over. I guess vodka helps the awkward, self-conscious dancing too! So thanks vodka!

I almost forgot, Friday is pay day! I am sure my mom and James will be thankful for that too, because I owe them money.  :)

Bamboozled by Health Care

Bamboozled:  
–verb (used with object) 1. to deceive or get the better of (someone) by trickery, flattery, or the like; humbug; hoodwink (often fol. by into)
—Synonyms
1.  gyp, dupe, trick, cheat, swindle.  
 
It's so easy for all you people out there with good jobs and cheap health insurance to hate on the idea of universal health care. Well let me tell you, have a little empathy!

We don't have employee health insurance so we pay almost $500 each a quarter for Aetna Student health. Since I finally paid for it I thought it was far time to have a physical. I just got a "this is not a bill" bill that says I owe almost $400!!! Excuse me? Apparently there is a $300 deductible and routine tests, immunizations or exams are not covered. Why the beep do I have this insurance then?

What really gets me is that doctors never give you an itemized list of what they're going to do to you and how much it is going to cost with your health insurance before they do it. If they told me getting blood drawn and lab work was going to be $150 out of pocket would I have stuck my arm out for them to put a needle in me? Heck no!

How is the medical field the one place where it is acceptable to deliver services to someone without telling them how much it is going to cost and giving the choice to opt out? How is that ok? How is there not legislation about that? When you go out to eat you order off a menu and can see the price and pick accordingly. At the end they don't bring you a bill for $150 for the bread and water they assumed you wanted and put on the table without asking.

I was trying to do the right thing by buying the student health insurance instead of going to a community health clinic and leaching off social services. I am pretty sure I could have gotten a physical and pap smear at a women health clinic for less than $900!!!! I am pretty highly educated compared to the rest of the US population. If I can't navigate insurance, doctors, bills, etc. how can those with a middle school education? How can those who aren't employed, have families, and poor health access health care? If they don't have the personal resources to receive proper care until it's an emergency how can we blame them for driving up the cost of health care for everyone. Why isn't preventative care covered by my $1,800/year policy?!

I'm not asking for anything for free. I'm not saying poor people should have free health care. I do think that health care should be transparent. Health care should be accessible. The system should not be so confusing, frustrating, such a hostile place that even a person with a near masters degree feels completely bamboozled. 

To top off the whole thing, I was told I needed a physical for the new job and when I went to have my paperwork processed I didn't need it after all. Now I have real health insurance and won't need another physical til next year, right about when I'm not working for CPS anymore and will be right back in the same place. One thing is for sure, I will not be purchasing the worthless Aetna Student Health. You can find me at Chicago Women's Health Center.

If, heaven forbid, I lose rolling the dice and get deathly ill, let me die and when I die put this blog post in the paper instead of an obituary.

Turkey Dance

Last night we went bowling with friends and were hoping to do the turkey dance. When we bowl, if you get a turkey you have to do a celebratory turkey dance, you can imagine for yourself what this looks like.

After my first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I think a celebratory turkey dance was in order because it went surprisingly well! We had turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, stove top stuffing, cressent rolls, cranberry jello stuff, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and homemade whipped cream. Pam brought the pies and made the sweet potato casserole. She also helped with the turkey and gravy. Everything was delicious and came out at the same time. It was perfect! Of course, there were a few things I would change, but oh well! The turkey finished in 3 hours and was beautifully brown and moist. I am not sure if its success can be attributed to the recipe or the brined TJ's turkey, so I'll just take all the credit myself!

We used my grandmother's china for the first time in the year and a half we've had it. There never seems to be a special enough time to get it down from the top shelf in the pantry. I am going to print and send a picture to her so she can see it's being used and appreciated.

Picture recap:

The bird

Table set and ready for the food!

Ready to dig in

Ready to eat! Yum!