Medical Expense Tracking

My sister-in-law posted yesterday on her blog about all the paperwork associated with medical insurance claims.   There are statements, bills, receipts, informational pamphlets, and other papery things that come with medical care.  

Those things need to be filed somewhere so in the case they're needed in the future, you can go back in medical time and find the date on which you had the appendectomy or cesarean section or flu.  Then you can do whatever it is you need to do with that information, like confirm that you were prescribed antibiotic X and that you remember it helped your situation.

I don't generally have to go back through my medical paperwork, but once a year I go through the papers and get all the bills I've paid so that I know my total un-reimbursed medical expenses for the year for tax purposes. 

It was this year when I was piling through everything, making a spreadsheet and hoping to remember everything (when I knew darn well I wouldn't) that I had an idea.   Why not track all costs as I incur them throughout the year.   When I get a bill, pay it and enter the amount in my medical costs 2014 spreadsheet.   When I come home with a prescription, enter the date, amount and prescription name in the spreadsheet.  

Also, to make it easier, create a new folder that is only bills or costs paid.  Prior to now I've only had one medical folder.  I don't have that much medical paperwork in a year so one folder usually does it for me.   Even so, piling through it at the end of the year is still a pain.  

So far, it's been working well.  I have everything documented up to now and I'm not forgetting any costs that I might not remember come March of next year.  

The Big Boy Update:   Poke-a-pots.   He said there were some of those on his cinnamon toast this morning.   Ah, polka dots?  Well, I didn't see them, but apparently they were delicious polka dots because he ate both his and his sister's breakfast. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  During breakfast this morning my daughter was drinking her milk and a few droplets dropped onto the table.  She looked down and exclaimed, "It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!"   I looked over at the overlapping droplets and I had to agree with her, that's what it looked like.

Weekend Wrapup

Too many blog topics, too few days...

The Normal Guy's Perspective and the beach-less bikini:  This is from when we were in Las Vegas.  We started seeing people in bikinis or bikini-like clothing at all hours of the day.  There were far more people in very skimpy pool clothing with little or no cover-ups on even during evening hours.   Was it a new fad?   The guy at the hotel shop told me when I asked on the first day, "you have no idea".  He was right, I stopped counting after awhile the number of outrageous outfits. 

The Christopher Walken Wall:  Walking through Aria in Las Vegas we happened upon a wall in a walkway that was covered with large pictures of Christopher Walken.  They were distressed and looked like badly worn old photos, blown up on a grand scale.  I have no idea what the message is, but I liked walking by that crazy set of pictures every day.

The Sock Sensation:  There is a new style, mis-matched socks.  Very colorful, crazy, mis-matched socks.  At the Bat Mitzva last night the young girls were all wearing beautiful dresses.  They had on nice dress shoes too, but shortly after arriving, they all kicked off their shoes and got socks out of a supplied basket.   It was strange watching them dance around all night in cocktail dresses and neon non-matching socks.

No longer a slave to the alarm:  I used to dread the alarm.  I'm still not a huge fan of the early morning beep beeping, but I don't hate it like I used to.  If I'm not getting up early to work out, I don't even set an alarm; usually I wake up before it would go off anyway.  I used to hate the alarm, now it just seems like a helpful tool to me.

The Light Bulb Calculation:  We have a total light bulb count in the house.  It's over three-hundred.  That includes all the little lights in the under-cabinet area, all occasional lamps we don't really turn on, the chandeliers with their many-bulbed limbs and all the outdoor lights.   We've already gotten some of the bulbs switched to LEDs and we're working on a few more each week.   With over three-hundred bulbs though, it's going to take a while.

Car Nails:  I like selecting a dark blue for my fingernails and/or toenails.   I've liked dark blue for a long time and it seems I'm more likely to pick that color over any other.   Just last week I realized the color I had was very like the color of my current as well as prior car.   Have I been matching my nails to my car all this time without knowing it or did I pick a car color to match my nails?

The Cleaning Lady Cost Comparison:  Whenever I hear how much something costs, I do a mental cost comparison on value.   We love the person who cleans our home.  She's been with me since 1997 and she is very much like family.  I could get someone for less money to clean our home, but she is excellent at what she does and she is flexible with anything we need.  In short, I believe what we pay her is a good value for our family.   Whenever I'm comparing any other hourly cost for a service, I always mentally weigh the value for that price in comparison to how much we pay our cleaning lady and determine if I think it's, "too much" or "a good value".

The Big Boy Update:  The ketchup block construction.  My son "needed" the unopened ketchup bottle from the pantry today for some work he was doing in the basement.   I came down later to find this: 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  So sleepy.  My daughter partied hard at the Bat Mitzvah last night.  She danced with the big kids and ran around until she tried to sleep on the floor of the airport terminal.  This morning my son slept until 8:30AM, an unheard of late hour for either of them.  She finally got up at 9:45AM when I work her up.

Bat Mitzvah

Our neighbor, Shane, is now a Bat Mitzvah.  Today was the service at her temple in which she becomes a Bat Mitzvah.  We were invited and we watched the whole ceremony.  Shane led most of the service, including singing/chanting prayers, giving a lesson (similar to a story / sermon) and did so looking at ease and confident. 

For someone who's not quite thirteen, it must have been daunting.  She has been going to Hebrew school each week for close to a year now to prepare for this day.   She is now recognized as an adult member of the Jewish community.

I thought the entire service was lovely.  It was a friendly crowd, the two rabbi's were helpful and encouraging and her family and friends help at different parts of the service with specific tasks.  

There was a guitar player/singer who stood up front the whole time and added tremendously to the ambience of the entire service.  Her Hebrew pronunciation was excellent, as was her singing voice.  

We are so proud of Shane,   In just a few hours we're going to go celebrate with her and her family at her party, which is at the airport private terminal, which they've rented out for the event!

The Big Boy Update:  My son was eating edamame beans and one of the outer membranes came off a bean.  It looked like a hollow bean with a gaping hole.  He told my husband, "it looks like a frog mouth."  Then, he decided it looked like a lizard mouth and finally he said it was a turtle mouth.  All green things that that little pod shell looked like to him.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asks for something to eat from time to time.  It's hard to understand which item she wants so we ask her to clarify, "do you want cereal or celery?"   She replies "I want some cel-er-a-ree-al."

The Nineteen Chip Count

I've been doing a statistical study for the past year.  It's been very scientific.  I've documented my results and I plan on publishing them in short order.   Well, maybe not so much.  Still, I have been paying attention.  

What I've been doing is eating cookies.  Specifically, chocolate chip cookies.  More specifically, frozen, uncooked chocolate chip cookies.   The way I see it, it takes only two bites to eat a fully cooked, hot, ooey gooey chocolate chip cookie, but if you take the time to eat around all the chips in a frozen version of that same cookie, it takes you upwards of twenty bites.   Also, I love frozen cookie dough.

So about the chips--I've been counting them.   I've mostly been not eating them as well.  I like the cookie dough more than the chocolate chips, so I don't eat them and at the end of the cookie, I count them.

Initially, the count from this specific frozen cookie brand was somewhere between sixteen and twenty-two.  However, over time the variance became less and within the past several batches, the only number I've been coming up with is nineteen. 

Is this some statistical anomaly, or is there some proportion portioning going on at the factory that's determined the optimal number of chips in a cookie of size X is nineteen?   I'll let you know when I publish my report in Scientific American.   Serious stuff, this chip counting.

The Big Boy Update:  Tongue bite.   My son bit his tongue badly at school today after running into the play structure with his chin.  There was discussion about it being, "all the way through".  I have my doubts on that front.  He was fine by the time we picked him up, smoothie in hand.  After drinking that he ate an entire lunch without flinching.   His tongue is definitely bitten, but it appears to be healing well so far.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Hair bow approval.  I've got a new type of hair bow she doesn't seem to be balking at.   We've been successful at keeping her hair out of her eyes for two days.  I'm hoping the trend continues.  Also, she was tired this evening before bed and when she went out front to go play with friends, she lay down in the middle of the street and tried to go to sleep.  Strange how easily she gets comfortable.

Solicitations

I did my first, "hard" solicitation tonight. It was to a family I barely knew, although we had a connection through our children at school.   I would have been very nervous, mostly because we were asking for a lot of money for our school.  However, the co-solicitor I had was excellent.  I had confidence in us as a team. 

We presented our case well.   That's not hard, because we have a true need and the fundraising goal is both reasonable and exciting in what we'll accomplish with the money.   Overall, the entire meeting went very well.  We'll find out soon if the family decides to contribute to the school project. 

The Big Boy Update:  Did I mention we've been encouraging my son to pee standing up?  Did I tell you about the, "wee wee bushes"?  The plan is working; he's peeing standing up more.  This afternoon I told him and his sister if they needed to pee, to not forget the wee wee bushes.  I then walked to the front of the house to talk to a neighbor.  I came back to see my son with his pants down.  I arrived to find a large deposit in the bushes.   I yelled for backup from my husband, who threw down a bag and some wipes.   I told my son we only pee on the wee wee bushes, to which he told me, "no, bushes love poop."  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Oompa Loompa hair.  She messes with her hair and takes anything you put in it out.  Then, she can't see because the hair gets in her eyes.  And yes, I know we could cut it, but it doesn't grow to be long hair if you cut it and that's the goal.  So we're still dealing with bothersome hair.   I grabbed a bit at the front and put it in a little elastic band this afternoon.  It was right at the front of her head and looked just like an Oompa Loompa curl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Pool Paddlin'

My children aren't afraid of the water at the pool this year.  They're not total daredevils and they do like their inner tubes, but they'll jump in, splash around and have a good time for hours.

The inner tubes are fun and give them mobility.  They give them the ability to move all around the pool, but they're not tied to them like they would be with a life vest type device.   They take them on and off, throw them into the middle of the pool and then have to wait for them to make it to the other side to get them back. 

They also like to swim with their crocs on.  I don't know why, they don't help in the paddling, but it seems to be fun for a while.  My son likes to put on these mini-flippers that someone left in the "shared toys" box at the pool.  He likes to kick around in them and he likes to run in them on the pool deck.  I don't like it when he does the latter.  Shouts of, "walking feet!" can be heard coming from me whenever he does this. 

It's a nice time for me because I don't have to hold them in the water every minute and I have reasonable confidence they're not about to sink underwater at any moment.  In a few weeks we're going to start swim lessons.  That should give them even more freedom in the water.

The Big Boy Update:  "I want you to keep it on."  My son was getting in the car at pickup today when he turned to the administrative assistant, Corley, and said, "your dress has polka dots".   She said, "yes, it does".  He said, "I want you to keep it on".   Coming from anyone other than a toddler, that comment might have been an insult, but from him, it was a compliment.  I don't remember him ever complimenting someone on their dress before.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Reverse birthmark.  We're using sunscreen, but some tanning still occurs.  My daughter has on the back of her leg a reverse-birthmark that doesn't show up until she has a bit of a tan.  I had forgotten all about it until today when I saw the spot (about a quarter in diameter) that just doesn't tan.

Teamwork

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Teamwork Tale:

My children are working together more and more of late.  Today they decided they wanted to get coins out of the slot machine.   Mind you that there were at least fifty coins out already.  Consider that the machine wasn't on and couldn't be played.  Don't forget they don't know what money is or that the coins in the machine are tokens instead of spendable cash.  None of that mattered, they were on a mission. 

The coins they were trying to get were in the center of the machine and to most people, unreachable because if we could just reach into a machine and take out money, we'd all be winners.   They discovered there was access through the back of the machine to the internal coin hopper.  They didn't discover this so much as they watched an older child pull out handfuls of coins and learned the secret.  Usually, slot machines are mounted or protected in such a way that we can't just reach around to the back but this old wall-mounted model has an exposed back because when installed, it would be behind a wall.

First my children dragged a chair over to the machine.  Then, my daughter got on the chair and started telling my son what to do.   I couldn't see my son from my office desk chair, but I could tell he was behind the table the slot machine sits on and he was doing something that was producing a banging/scraping sound. 

I heard my daughter say, "Greyson, could you reach them?" to which my son replied, "yeah, I could with my hook."  So now I'm curious and I get up to find out what's happening.

My daughter is standing on the stool, giving him more directions and asking follow-up questions.  My son is standing on the floor, trying to get his plastic golf club into the hole in the back.  The angle was wrong, the size of the plastic club head was too large and he wasn't going to "hook" a single token with his current plan.   But they didn't know that.

They worked on for another few minutes when suddenly my daughter discovered there were coins in the pay-out try all along.  Mission accomplished?   I'm not sure, but they were both happy about it.