Top 80 or so Moments From Our 2013 Big Midwest Adventure

I haven't even gotten to the pictures on my phone yet, but here are just a few (okay a LOT) of the greatest moments of our eleven day girl's adventure to Chicago to visit our family there, and many stops along the way, both planned and unplanned.

Matchy matchy!

My little nephews, all grown up.

Yummy yummy dinner at a great little place in downtown Chicago.  This should look a little familiar to Alisa

Picasso!

And a show downtown at the Cadillac Palace

Chicago Botanic Gardens

Water Taxi! 

and then

Navy Pier!

Milennium Park and the Bean

Josh and Becca

The Featherstone Family Traveling Circus takes over local deli

Josh and James

Saying goodbye after a wonderful week.

Carthage

Mississippi River, along the Great River Road

Grandma and Livvi finding shells

Nauvoo

Along Parley Street, which is the road you walk down to get to the Mississippi where the pioneers crossed on their way out of Navuoo, they have these quotes to read all along the way.  It is called the Trail of Hope.  This was by far my favorite quote.

One of our unplanned stops was at the American Gothic house- the real house that was the model for the painting.  If only we had gone to the Art Institute in Chicago, we could have seen the original.  We just happened to stumble on to this little place, and it was so cool!

A sunset on the prairie, somewhere in Iowa

Olivia called these Toy Story Clouds.  They were so pretty.

North Platte, NE.  Almost home

Our last hotel in Ogallala, NE.  Audrey finally smiled for a picture.

We have the BEST family in the world.  It was such a sweet time to spend with my folks and Mark and Lisa.  The cousins had a blast, too.   They are growing up so fast, and it makes me realize how important it is to get together as often as possible.  Hope we get to see them again real soon.

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.