It's Just Zyrtec

I just finished picking out my anniversary award for five years at my job.  I had a hard time choosing between steak knives and a silver bracelet.  The practical side of me was screaming for steak knives.  We have needed new steak knives for years, but that's one of those things you never think about buying until you are home with the barbeque and in desperate need of a sharp edge to cut your steak.  But the bracelet won out eventually. Since I am the one who has to show up to work every day, I figured  I'd be selfish and get something personal. Because it IS all about me.  And we don't eat that much steak. Anyway, the best part about having reached my five year mark is that I get an extra week of vacation now- woo hoo!! Boy do I need it.

But speaking of WORK, yes, as a matter of fact, I do fight off the Lortab crowd every day.  It's not as bad as it was where I used to work, but still, nearly every day I am the mean lady who tells that poor sickly person that they can't get their Lortab until tomorrow, even if they are going out of town, and they are out because the doctor told them to take more because that infection got worse  AND they broke their arm, AND they just had a root canal. I tell you, my job has made me heartless.  And jaded. I do not believe anything that anybody tells me anymore.

What I do  believe is that stupid people outnumber smart people two to one, at least among the pharmacy crowd. 

Yesterday, somebody came to get a prescription for their kid.  I asked them the name on it, and they said "John Doe".  So I check the computer, and we have one, but for a John Smith.  I ask them the birthday, and they tell me, and the birthdays match up.  But because of stupid HIPAA, I can't just tell them the last name on the prescription in my computer.  So I say, is there any other last name it could be under?  The parents look at me weird, and say no. I ask them the doctor they saw, and its the same doc I've got on the scrip.  I KNOW its the same patient, and that somebody somewhere has messed up, so I am just about to call the doctor to figure it out, when I just decide to cave, and tell them the last name that I have.  So I say, well we have a scrip for a John with that birthday, but the last name I have is Smith.  And the dad goes yeah, thats the last name.  Oh, I say, I thought you said the last name was Doe.  Yeah, says dad, his name is John Doe Smith.  Oh, thanks for that,  I think, because I love guessing games.

And the day before that, grandma shows up with grandson and says, "I need to pick up some Zyrtec for my grandson."
 "Okay",  I say, "does he have a prescription, or do you just need to buy some over the counter?"
" It's a prescription", says Grandma.
 "What's the name on it?" I ask. 
"There is no name on it.  It's just Zyrtec", repeats Grandma, in a put out sort of tone.
" I mean the name of your grandson", I say.
 "Why would his name be on it?"  says Grandma, now even more perturbed.  "It's just Zyrtec."
 "Did you say you had a prescription for it?" I ask.
 "NO." says Grandma."I just want to buy some over the counter".  At which point I turn around and slam my head into the wall in frustration.  Not really, but I wanted to. 

Then there is this classic.  The phone rings.   I answer.
 "Hi,  I need to refill my prescription."
"Okay. Do you have the prescription number?"
"Uh, no."  Of course you don't.
"No problem.  What name is it under?" 
"Ambien."  they say.  Well gee, that's helpful, because YOU are the ONLY person at this pharmacy that fills Ambien! 
"Okay.  And what is YOUR name?"
 "Chris."
 Well hey there, Chris on Ambien!   How the heck are you?? Nice to talk to you!  And as forthcoming as you have been, I STILL don't have enough info to help you. What I am looking for here is YOUR FULL NAME.  Difficult concept I know.

How about just one more?  Phone rings.  I answer. 

" Hey, I need you to fill my prescription."
"Do you have the number on it?"
"No."
I ask for their name and they actually give me their full name with no further prompting.   We are off to a rollicking start.  Things are looking good. I pull up their profile, and there are 26 things they fill with us every month.
 "Okay, what was it you need filled?"
"Oh, I can't remember the name."
"What is it for?"
"I don't know.  I threw the bottle away,  But I'm out and I need some more."
"When did you fill it last?"
"I don't know. It's been a while."
"Which doctor prescribed it?"
"Oh, I don't know.  It's the round blue pill. Can't you see it on my record?"

No.  I do not know off the top of my head which one of your 26 meds is blue. Or pink. Or what color your eyes are.  Or what color the sky is where you live.  Do you live in a pink house? Do you own steak knives? Can I borrow them?  Do you want to come to my barbeque?  Bring your Lortab, okay?  And bring Chris on Ambien.  It'll be great, and I'll show you all my new bracelet.

In my next rant, we will delve into the many joys of insurance, and people who don't know if they have any, but think that I should know.

Here's to another five years!

Just An Old Nag

Life has been blissfully dull around here lately.  Well, as blissfully dull as it can get when you are going on six months of unemployment.  Actually, I take that back.  There is absolutely nothing that is either blissful or dull about life around here at the moment. It's been a scary roller coaster ride for too long and we can't seem to find our way off the ride.  I've noticed it goes in a cycle-  bunches of phone calls and interviews come all at once, our hopes get high for a few days, and then nothing.  Just a nauseating, nagging,  up and down sensation that is going on all the time, in the background of everything else that daily life throws at us.

What I really meant to say was that it has been nice to not have a million events going on this week.  Some of us have even been able to have a few nights at home this week, to do thrilling things like catch up on laundry and pay bills.   The kids have slid nicely into the summer routine of doing pretty much nothing.   I keep thinking that needs to change, but lucky for them, I'm not home enough to do anything about it, and when I am home, I mostly don't care.  So it works out pretty good for them.  Although I'm pretty good about finding things other than household chores to nag them about.

I keep nagging Will about getting his learner's permit.  As in learning to drive.  Zoinks.  We haven't had to worry about a teenage driver in a while.  But he is 15 1/2 so as soon as he can pass the written test, he can start learning to drive. He also better start looking for a job, because when he starts driving, he is going to have some hefty insurance bills to pay.

I keep nagging Olivia to read.  She really doesn't see the point.  Why read when she has such great stories going on in that little  head of hers all day long?  She seriously lives in a world of her own imagination.  Pulling her out of it long enough to do something as mundane as reading a book is not something she sees much need for.  But third grade is staring us in the face, and it is giving me the heebie jeebies.  Something about making the switch from learning to read to reading to learn keeps knocking around in my brain, and she has not made that switch yet.  Not even close.

I don't nag Duncan  much because I know it does me no good.  He got a card last night for his Nintendo system that gives him credits for games or something, and he was so excited to use it that when he went to scratch the silver stuff off the back of it to get to the code, he pushed way too hard and scratched all the numbers off right along with the silver stuff.  He and Dan sat up into the wee hours of the morning trying to decipher the code so that he could use it.  I think they finally gave up and just got another card.  I think he learned how NOT to scratch off that silver stuff though.

 I am not nagging Audrey  this week either, because she has a job, watering flowers and feeding bunnies for our neighbors while they are out of town.   I did have to nag her a lot to get down to their house before they left so they could show her what they needed done.  She made it though, and so at least for this week, there is one more gainfully employed person in the house.  She is still working on her book too, last I heard.  Maybe she could hurry it along and turn it into a best seller.

Mitch is getting ready to take off to Fort Knox for a month.  He leaves June 24.  He is doing some kind of training for ROTC.  He has been working on getting into ROTC for at least six months now.  It is a long slow process and every time he thinks he is almost there, they tell him they want him to see one more doctor.  It's been frustrating.  I hope it works out for him, and I hope this Fort Knox thing is good for him too.   We sure will miss him, even though we don't see him that often.  I'm sure a month will fly by though.

And finally, what I hear from Alisa is that she is off to Spain this weekend, and then to Portugal.  Ah, to have a boyfriend with European connections....

Near Duck Experience

Our second Monday night summer picnic of the year was marred by violence.

It started out so nicely, with our little meal of sandwiches and chips, shared by two brave ducks who ate out of our hands, and a seagull.    It was all nice and peaceful.   Little baby ducks swimming in the pond with their mamas. And then, a commotion.  We walked down to see what was going on, and there were two big white ducks, holding another smaller white duck under the water and pecking at him.  He was fighting and struggling to get away, and they were on top of him and actually holding his head under the water like they were trying to drown him.  It went on for a few minutes, and they were not letting him up. I was sure they were going to drown him.  So we did what any red blooded American duck lover would do.  We pelted the bully ducks with rocks til they swam away.   Little white duck struggled out of the water and ran up on shore.  He waddled around for a while, in a bit of a daze.  The back of his head was all red and bloody where the bullies were picking on him.  A group of friendly brown ducks ran up to him and kind of surrounded him and walked with him til he finally got back in the water.

Poor duck.  Why did they choose him to pick on?  Did he steal their bread or kill one of their babies?  He looked like a pretty nice duck to me, but what do I know?  Maybe he deserved it.

Anyhow, we learned something new tonight.  We never knew that ducks could be homicidal.

In spite of the near death experience, the Monday night picnics are one of the best ideas we ever had.  Rejuvenating and relaxing and a great way to spend the first night of the week.

Sunday School Walk

After dinner tonight, we headed out on a walk over to the kids' schools to get some pictures of them. I missed out on getting the traditional last day of school pictures, so two days late is the best we can do.

We did get a shot of Audrey's sidewalk art, a little smudged, which she was mad about, and refused to be in the picture, but you can still tell that it was totally awesome.

The first day of seventh and ninth grade, September 2012

The end of seventh grade. 

In case you are wondering, she is holding up seven fingers for seventh grade.

And same for Will.  End of ninth grade. He is so outta here, and on to the big time at Clearfield High School 

Then Audrey decided to lay down on the sidewalk.  It was really hot outside, and she was really tired, but I'm not so sure that laying down on the sidewalk is the cure for heat.

Then she tried the softer ground over at the playground.  At least here she was in the shade.

It was too hot to actually play much on the playground. They resorted to the shade of the sand.

And Duncan had the right idea and waitied patiently for us at the covered tables.

Then it was on to the elementary school, to get a shot of our once-second grader.

First day of second grade, September 2012

And the end of second grade.

And Audrey had to try out the grass

There's those two fingers for second grade.  Peace out.

And my sweet neighbor who carpools with us was thoughtful enough to get a picture of Olivia and her teacher on the last day of school, since I had to work and couldn't be there.

And just for the fun of it, even though we didn't make it over to the high school to get a picture of Duncan, here is one from the first day of his senior year:

Okay, two.

Sigh. Before I know it, we will snapping pictures of the next first day of school for all of them.

Olivia was the only one among us who was smart enough to bring sunglasses.  She got these from Alisa for her birthday.  Turns out everybody in the family was fighting over them.  We all look pretty rad in them, no?

On the way home, half our neighborhood was standing outside the bishops house, chatting away, so we stopped and had a popsicle with them, and caught up on all the latest neighborhood gossip.  We live in a pretty boring spot with not a lot of drama beyond which teacher your kid got at school, and who all is going to girls camp.  It was still fun to catch up though.  And when we got home, somebody had delivered cupcakes to us.  Duncan was the only one home, and he wasn't sure who it was, so we are sending out our good Karma vibes to the anonymous cupcake donors.  They were delicious, and may you ever have a cupcake when you need one.

All in all, a very nice Sunday to start out summer break.

One in Four Hundred Seventy Five

Tonight, to celebrate Duncan's graduation from high school yesterday,

we are going to see the new Star Trek movie.  We were going to go last night, but things got complicated, and we had to postpone for a night.

Duncan graduated from high school in a mushroom.  Or maybe it was a giant alien spaceship.

I had never been to the Dee Events Center before yesterday.  I did not know it was shaped like a mushroom.  One of those buildings that makes you think that everybody really was on drugs for most of the seventies.

Duncan had to be there about an hour before the program started, so Dan took him up early, and me, my parents and the kids drove up later.  We made it just in time, walked into the front doors, and prepared to bust our way into the arena, only to be stopped by two of Duncan's favorite teachers, and probably the only two teachers in the whole school who would recognize me as Duncan's mom,  asking for our tickets.

Tickets? We need tickets to get into a high school graduation?  Really?  Well, says one teacher, you should have four tickets.  Duncan was given four tickets for his family and after those four, everybody else would need to buy a ticket.

Yeah, that was the first I heard anything about tickets.   In true Duncan form, he had neglected to mention, or to bring, his four tickets with him. Not shockingly, Duncan still claims he was never given any tickets. It was a good thing that we had just happened to come in the doors where Duncan's teachers happened to be standing.   They were not the least bit surprised that Duncan would have not been clued in to the whole ticket thing.  And they let four of us in without tickets.  Grandma and Grandpa still had to buy them, but they were good sports about it.

Graduation was nice, uneventful and quite predictable, other than the older lady from the Board of Education who spoke and kept calling them the Class of 2003.  I'm sure she was wondering for a while why everyone was snickering.  She did finally catch on, and had a great laugh at her own expense about it.  Oh, and I made it all the way through without shedding a single tear. It was just a cheerful, rowdy good time.

After listening to 475 names being read, and watching 475 kids walk across the stage,

 we went outside and snapped a few pictures before rushing off to Golden Corral for a very crowded dinner.



 

 

 Duncan was so happy after it was over. He kept hugging everyone.  Even Will. Even Olivia.  It was a little bit of an obligatory hug, but at least it was voluntary.

 




 


 I didn't think Golden Corral would be a real popular spot for post-graduation celebrations, but I was mistaken.  It was packed.   But the pot roast was delicious.

It was a nice day for Duncan, having all of his grandparents show up in support, and feeling the accomplishment of finishing something.  Now we just have to get serious about what comes next.

And just like that, our Month of Events is over.  It feels like everything noteworthy in our family happened in the space of four weeks.  Now, we can get back to some semblance of normalcy maybe, and start looking forward to Alisa coming home. No wait, when Alisa comes home, it will be the end of summer, and I refuse to look forward to that.

One More Day

Honors Assembly:                            Check
Alisa Bon Voyaged:                           Check
Graduation Announcements Sent:   Check
Choir Concert:                                  Check
Orchestra Concert:                           Check
Baptism Planned and Carried Out:  Check
Seminary Graduation:                       Check
Yearbooks Purchased:                       Check
Fees Paid:                                           Check
Cap and Gown in Hand:                     Check

All of those exhausting things we had to do over the last month are just about done.   Today was Duncan's last official day of high school.  Tomorrow is yearbook day, and the day after that, he graduates.  After graduation, at Duncan's request, we are going to Golden Corral.  Considering all the entertaining we have done at our house lately, that is just fine with me.

The other kiddos will all be done on Friday and then we will kiss another school year goodbye.  It's been the fastest one yet, and I'm already sad thinking about how fast this summer will disappear. Other years, we have made a bucket list of things we wanted to do over the summer.  This summer, my bucket list only has one thing on it, and that is to spend as much time as possible laying on a blanket under a tree, alternating good books with good naps.  Oh yeah, and there is one other item, which we decided last night, namely that every Monday night is picnic in the park night.  We had a spur of the moment picnic last night, and it was so enjoyable, we decided it needs to happen on a regular basis.  Oh, and one more thing.  Summer mornings, as many as possible, need to be spent on our front porch, watching the sun come up and the birds sing. 

So, we survive one more day, and summer can be all ours.

Fresh and Clean

This sweet girl was baptized on this perfectly beautiful first day of June.

She was really nervous about it.  She isn't much for being the center of attention, and wasn't too hip on having a bunch of people watching her.  She was very brave though, and after a talk by Audrey, a violin solo by Will, and a talk by Mom, she was ready to go. 

Olivia did fine, but her dad nearly fell into the font.  All I heard was a bunch of splashing and thumping, and then Dan came into view, flailing around and trying to stay upright.  He managed to save himself before he got dunked all the way, but we came close to having a double baptism, one on purpose and one on accident.

Here is our newly baptized girl, still sopping wet.

And all dried off and ready to start a new life!

This was the crazy family that showed up to support her.  I can't help it. I love these nut jobs.

Audrey, Olivia, and I had fun making this cupcake version of her baptism dress on Friday night. 

And here is the real thing.

A girl and her grandpa

After our lunch and party, when everyone had gone home, Olivia got another special treat.  She got to go to the automatic car wash with Mom and Dad!  It's one of her favorite places.

Fresh clean girl, and fresh clean car, somehow it seemed fitting:)