Friday, October 31, 2008

10/31/08

A typical day for me: Got up and had some SoBe while I read the news on Google & read my mail, switched over to NetNewsWire and caught up on some blogs I follow & read the news over there. Checked LampworkEtc. & caught up over there.

Mixed up the milk replacer for the calves (I do like my KitchenAid, sure beats a wire wisk) and went out and fed them, and then tried to keep them from sucking on each other while trying to stuff feed into their mouths. After a few minutes of chewing on the feed they started to settle down, so I took them out to the big pen and tried to keep them from trying to suck on the horses. Sally (the cow) let Shake suck on her a few minutes before she kicked him away. Took a bit longer to make sure they were settling down, then got the wood cart & filled it up & took it into the house & got the stove going to warm the living room up before Lukas gets up. Washed up the milk bottles and did a load of dishes. I can see my countertop!!

Had David call Kemper to see if the insurance OK'd the vacation refill for Lukas' med (which is what the insurance company suggested trying to do yesterday when I called them). It was denied. So I called the insurance company & explained what was going on. She said to call the doctor and have him call their pharmacy department to authorize an over-ride on the refill (I'm trying to get his medication refilled early so I can very gradually switch him over to the generic). So then I called the neurologist's office to leave a message explaining the above, and am still waiting for them to get back to me.

Now after reading a thread on Lampworketc. about ideas to save money, someone suggested making your own laundry soap. I've been meaning to try it, and I had all the ingredients I needed (fels naptha soap, washing soda and borax), so I mixed up a batch. I'm washing a load of rugs right now.

Made a batch of bread and it's in the oven now raising. Made a loaf of Italian bread and I'm trying to make a flat bread with parsley, garlic powder and Parmesan cheese. I should crumble up some dried tomatoes and put them on too.

Cleaned up a dog puddle and pile. I KNEW I should have let her out!

Have to get out yet and get a couple of packages of pink tulips planted, but first I'm going to do my Bible study.

That's it so far...

An Update:
Got the tulips planted. Made grape jelly. That was a long process, and if I do it next year, I'll make sure I do it as soon as I pick the grapes. I ran out of energy after picking them, so they've sat in a bucket out in the garage for the past week, and they got mushed and some got moldy. So it was going through handful by handful and washing and picking out the good ones. So now I have 10 jelly jars of Concord Grape Jelly cooling on my counter, and I'm sipping on the leftover juice. Pucker power!

Got all the dishes washed, again, and now it's back to mixing up milk replacer and get out and feed the calves and do chores, and if I have the energy, make some beads (after washing the bottles and pans, again). I got some new glass today, with a lot of new CIM colors and a new Double Helix color.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

10/28/08

Well, I found out why Lukas' prescription went from a co-pay of $69 to over $150. Being that his seizure medication now has a generic available, they took the Lamictal off their approved drug list. Why don't I just go with the generic? Because when the generic came out, pharmacies were being told to switch to the generics, without even telling people. And the results was people having break-through seizures. Generic drugs do NOT have to be the exact formulation. They just have to be kind of close (like 20% deviation).

This just SUCKS!!!! I am so angry at the medical community! $1,341 a month for medical insurance, and we still end up paying thousands a year for medical care. And Lukas wouldn't have to have seizure medication if the doctor wouldn't have screwed up when he was born. I HATE the medical community!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

10/26/08

The boys came up today and did some stuff around the house. They worked on my studio. It's gradually taking shape, and the floor is gradually getting finished. I REALLY like the part that's done. So much easier to keep clean.

We moved Lukas' computer out of his bedroom and into the living room now that that's all tiled. He wanted the stuff out of his bedroom, and it will certainly be warmer in the living room now with the wood stove going. The only problem is, he likes to talk, and talk, and talk, and I have to respond. Right now I'm trying to watch the history channel, and he's sitting over there burping and watching wrestling. Oh well, at least he's polite about it and excuses himself.

Got some new photos. The first one is Whiskers beating up on Bandit. Whiskers just had surgery on his ear. He had a hematoma and the ear flap was filled with blood, so the vet had to drain and stitch it. We had him fixed while he was there, too. $300 later...

Then there's Squeak protecting Lukas from Pip. Not very comfortable for Lukas, though.


OK, Elaine, here's photos of my flower garden. This is a picture of the pink hollyhock.

Now here are a couple of photos of what I thought was hollyhocks, but notice the different seed pods on the swcond photo.