Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Medical Billing Wears Me Out ... or, Porn for Housewives

I couldn't decide on a title, so I put two. Kind of a risque, naughty title, but the pic I shot today reminds me of a book I saw at the library that makes me laugh. Okay, let's start with the time log here.

Time Log -
**Note - Foofie, with her stuffy nose (we've all got it), woke up about 2:30 am, crying because she was miserable. I was afraid we were going to go another round with ear infection, but after lots of snuggling, and a nose-cleaning with the bulb syringe that makes her feel like she's going through an alien abduction probing, she finally calmed down, and I got back to bed after three. Being sick, too, I slept in.
8:45 am - Foofie woke up, so I got up. I put her on the floor with a bottle in front of my desk, and started shredding the junk mail in my nightgown (which I wore almost all day.) Then I spent the morning doing bills, going through a pile of mail, more shredding, and balancing the checkbook. In the middle of this, Zen got sick of my shreddies everywhere, which a crawling baby was helping spread, so he graciously got out the vacuum and did the whole upstairs. Check this out:
Look at My Man, cleaning the house. It's like a book I saw at the Library Porn for New Moms. It's not what you think. It's a spoof on real porn, and shows men doing things women really wish guys would do - wash dishes, fold laundry, clean out the car, etc. Very funny.

Another sleeping baby moment on the floor. I love those, makes me feel like my house is peaceful. She ripped apart the videos, as usual, then went to sleep in the aftermath. But I was not bugged about the mess, she was so cute.

Back to the Log-
I probably had that wrapped up around 12:30 or so, then I started in on the medical bills. Uuughhh. It is such a mess! Billing for six people, and all of Connor's surgery. Now, I'm totally into paperwork, filing, organizing, and data entry, kind of suited to the anal part of my brain, but even medical billing hurts my brain. There's the stuff from the insurance company, the original bill, then there's the adjusted bill, and you have to make sure all the numbers coordinate, otherwise you'll overpay, and there are sneaky outfits who try to bill you for stuff they shouldn't and even the insurance company messes things up, so you have to double-check everything. After all that, I cleaned up my mess on the table and the floor. I didn't want to put away my beads, because I wanted to get those earrings done, but I didn't need the temptation either, for me or for Connor (stinker!)
2:30 pm - went downstairs and answered some eBay email, then got ready to exercise
3:10 pm - exercised on my Gazelle for 30 min., kept adjusting my foot position so it wouldn't kill me, did okay, then I made an order for my Pazzles stock, which I had run out of a few things, and answered some more eBay mail. Then, I showered & dressed.
5:30 ? - sometime after five I came upstairs, ate the last of the blueberry scones from Smith's, did some dishes, fed Emma, cooked dinner (linguine alfredo), and decided to make scones for the first time. I overcooked the bottoms, but they were awesome! It's the English tea scone variety, that is like a sweet biscuit, not the fried kind. I made cranberry orange, one of my favorite flavors of baked foods ever. Recipe:
4 C. flour
1 C. (2 sticks) butter
with two forks, or a pastry blender, cut the flour & butter together until it is crumbly
5 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/3 C. sugar
cut in the baking powder, salt, & sugar
1 egg
1-1/3 C. milk
the zest & juice of one orange
3/4 C. dried cranberries
melted butter & extra sugar
Make a little well in the dry ingredients, then pour in the milk, mix the egg into that puddle, then mix in the zest & juice. Pour in the cranberries, and with a fork stir everything together until it forms a moist ball. Don't overwork the dough. Split this mixture into quarters. Generously flour the surface of your counter. The dough will be very sticky. Just spoon it out onto the counter and flour your hands. Form each quarter into a ball, and then flatten into a thick circle, about 3/4" to 1" thick. Cut each circle into quarters, and place the pieces on a greased baking sheet, about 1" apart. Brush the tops with melted butter & sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 for 12 to 15 min. Keep an eye on them, so the bottoms are a light golden brown. Enjoy!

7:15 pm - sat down to eat, and watched a little American Idol. That Danny Gurkey guy is my favorite, much like a Michael MacDonald, bluesy rough tone, and an extremely good performer. Some of the girls are really good, too.
8:00 pm - decided to start working on my blog post, maybe I could go to bed earlier, but I checked my email, and had to go problem-solve an invoice for a customer. It took me until 9:15pm just to finish chatting online with an eBay tech.
9:15 pm - read scriptures with fam, then go back downstairs to send invoice to customer, then work on blog post
10:55 pm - I'm about done, and now I'll go to bed. Still didn't get to the family blogs or to my website today. Aarrghh!! But tomorrow, tomorrow...

End Post #28, 2009

2 comments:

Sue said...

Porn for housewives...I wonder if I could talk Dan into letting me take his picture in nothing but his chaps, washing the dishes.

We must be on the same wavelength. I spent a huge part of the day yesterday going through medical bills and trying to figure out who we owed what, and how late the payments were. We're almost done paying for Dan's chainsaw injury, but the bills for Mackay's birth are pouring in. With no maternity coverage, it's about to give me an ulcer! Now I have to fill out the big hairy financial assistance application to see if we can get a bunch of it written off.

Maybe my Becky package will arrive today and cheer me up!

The Donnells said...

How do you get your kid to fall asleep on the floor like that? Mine will just keep playing and playing until she is so tired she just yells at me.