This weekend was interesting. A combination of fun and painful. How weird, huh?!
On Friday, I began to feel the onset of a bladder infection. Before I had Andrew (5 1/2 years ago), I would get bladder infections once a month. So, needless to say, I know the symptoms even though I've only had 1 bad infection since Andrew's been born.
It got pretty bad Friday night while Jeremy and I were grocery shopping. I had read online about some natural cures for bladder infections so I was picking up some cranberry juice, grape juice, Vitamin C and AZO Standard (that numbs the pain). I kept reading about a natural supplement called D-Mannose so we were looking for that, too. Apparently this is a natural cure for bladder infections. It is the stuff that is in cranberry juice that washes out the bacteria. I couldn't find it at any of the 4 stores we looked. Luckily, chugging cranberry juice and taking the AZO & Vitamin C got me through that night.
Jeremy played basketball the following morning in Coolidge so he drove to Casa Grande to check out the health food stores. He found D-Mannose and he found it cheaper than what everyone online was saying it costs. Whew!
So, I began taking that, too, while chugging the juices and water. I felt pretty good Saturday.
This is were the fun begins: Since I didn't have any plans for the day, I decided to scrapbook. I also invited some girlfriends over to scrapbook with me. April, Mindy, and Melissa came over and hung out. Their husbands hung out with Jeremy and the kids ran wild! We had a GREAT time, I got quite a few pages completed and I didn't get to bed until 1 am!
I woke up for church Sunday surprisingly easy considering my late night. I began drinking water and took more D-Mannose right away. My bladder was fine... Until about noon.
(Now we're back to the pain): Bladder infections for me feel like you have to go pee really bad, but when you try to go nothing comes out. So, I've been drinking water all morning and I can't get anything to come out. My bladder really felt like it was going to burst. I don't know what changed, why suddenly it got bad like that after a day and a half of feeling better.
Well, that's not the worst part. The next time I tried to go, I see blood! That has never happened to me in all of my previous bladder infections. Now, I'm bummed. We don't have insurance and I know that I have to go to Urgent Care. Ugh! So much for natural remedies.
Fortunately, the Urgent Care was not busy and I was in and out quickly. Same with Walgreen's; they weren't busy either, so I had my prescription in my hand within 15 minutes. Also, it cost us only $80.00 more for the Urgent Care visit, the urine culture, and the prescription that it would have with our previous health insurance plan. That's it! We were paying $660.00/month for health insurance and never going to the doctor. I have maybe one urgent care visit per year, I would have one well check-up/exam, and Andrew would have one well check-up on average ever year (and we were paying $660.00/month for a long time). What a waste.
Now, don't freak out, we have a high deductible plan in case anything big happens that we would need to be admitted to the hospital for and we are in the process of opening up an HSA account through our bank. We will have money taken out (pre-taxed) from Jeremy's checks for the HSA account. We would still be cash patients, but we will use the HSA account for any health issues/doctor visits/prescriptions. That money will continue to grow in the account month after month, year after year, and hopefully grow quite large in case I ever get pregnant again or we have a major medical issue.
Anyway, back to my weekend. Here's the fun part again: I have my medicine and realize my bladder feels better when I lay down. So, I got a two hour nap on a Sunday afternoon! Now, that's FUN! However, it was sad because we missed eating lunch with everyone from church at my favorite pizza place. =(
I woke up just in time to go to a church in Casa Grande where Mindy's dad was preaching a Revival! I've known for a couple weeks now that I had to go. Of course, I wasn't sure why I had to go, but I was expecting God to do something great. And He did, of course! It was great to finally meet Mindy's dad and we got to go out to eat with them after the service and get to know him a little. Good times!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
This Cow is Transferring Ranges
In the words of my co-worker's text, "we have all been sold like a bunch of cattle."
My boss has sold our management division to another management company. He is looking to expand our landscape division and he felt he was unable to do that with our management division attached to the company's name. A lot of the landscape division's business is maintaining HOA's common area landscaping. So, he wouldn't be asked to bid on some HOA jobs because the management company asking him to bid saw us as competition and feared that the board would end up firing them as their management company and hiring us as their management company. They had reason to fear, because it had happened more than once before. Hey, we can't help it if we are a great landscape company AND a great management company! Well, now it will be just a great landscape company.
So, next week will be my last week at my current job here in Gilbert. All of the property managers and all of us accounting gals will be moving offices next Friday afternoon. We will have a new boss, new coworkers, but we will still have each other! So far the plan is for each of us to keep our current position, pay, and benefits. After 3 months of doing everything we do here, we will come together with our new company and figure out what we do best and what they do best and merge together to be one great super company. This is the part of the transition that I think layoffs may be made, but we'll see. That bridge will be crossed when we come to it.
A great thing about the new company is it's in Mesa and 18 miles closer (round trip) to my house. I will be saving a gallon of gas each day that I work. That's 3 gallons saved a week! Yay!
My new accounting boss seems really nice and open to suggestions. He seems to really strive on finding the quickest, most efficient way to do things and that's always been my philosophy! He seems genuinely happy to have me come aboard, too. It's nice to feel welcomed. Hopefully the co-workers I will be working with will feel the same way as the boss does.
Well, I'm excited for the change. I've always been a fan of change - getting out of the dullness of repetition. Sometimes I will randomly drive a different route to work just to see new scenery. I don't even care if it takes longer (unless I'm running late). And sometimes I will randomly get off of the subject while I'm blogging and that doesn't bother me either - how 'bout you?
My boss has sold our management division to another management company. He is looking to expand our landscape division and he felt he was unable to do that with our management division attached to the company's name. A lot of the landscape division's business is maintaining HOA's common area landscaping. So, he wouldn't be asked to bid on some HOA jobs because the management company asking him to bid saw us as competition and feared that the board would end up firing them as their management company and hiring us as their management company. They had reason to fear, because it had happened more than once before. Hey, we can't help it if we are a great landscape company AND a great management company! Well, now it will be just a great landscape company.
So, next week will be my last week at my current job here in Gilbert. All of the property managers and all of us accounting gals will be moving offices next Friday afternoon. We will have a new boss, new coworkers, but we will still have each other! So far the plan is for each of us to keep our current position, pay, and benefits. After 3 months of doing everything we do here, we will come together with our new company and figure out what we do best and what they do best and merge together to be one great super company. This is the part of the transition that I think layoffs may be made, but we'll see. That bridge will be crossed when we come to it.
A great thing about the new company is it's in Mesa and 18 miles closer (round trip) to my house. I will be saving a gallon of gas each day that I work. That's 3 gallons saved a week! Yay!
My new accounting boss seems really nice and open to suggestions. He seems to really strive on finding the quickest, most efficient way to do things and that's always been my philosophy! He seems genuinely happy to have me come aboard, too. It's nice to feel welcomed. Hopefully the co-workers I will be working with will feel the same way as the boss does.
Well, I'm excited for the change. I've always been a fan of change - getting out of the dullness of repetition. Sometimes I will randomly drive a different route to work just to see new scenery. I don't even care if it takes longer (unless I'm running late). And sometimes I will randomly get off of the subject while I'm blogging and that doesn't bother me either - how 'bout you?
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Wisconsin/Chicago 2009
Our annual vacation to Wisconsin was a lot of fun again this year! How can it not be? We all look forward to our vacation and start counting down the days pretty much as soon as Christmas is over. Andrew has remembered a lot over the years and he starts asking me when we are going back the day after we come back home to Arizona. 
One night we at in Madison at Essen Haus and afterward we stopped for ice cream at Ella's Deli. Andrew rode the carousel outside and I had to take a picture of his horse decked out in U of W decorations! Go Badgers!
One night we went to a Brewers vs. Padres game. The Brewers did not do so well, but we still had a lot of fun! Our group took up 1 1/2 rows and not everyone came to the game.
This is my son, Shaggy! =)
Bored while the Brewers got their butts kicked, we decided to take our own picture.
We were in the upper level of Miller Park, but the view was pretty good!
We spent every morning/afternoon at the Lake. Andrew loves to hang out at the beach area because of the sand. Jeremy decided to bury Andrew. Andrew loved it!
One morning we went kayaking. We do this once or twice a year and it's always fun!
We flew in to Chicago again this year. When we left our cottage in Wisconsin on Saturday, we drove back to Chicago and spent the afternoon at Navy Pier on Lake Michigan.
We went on the Ferris Wheel and I snapped some crummy photos of the city and us from my cell phone.
One night we at in Madison at Essen Haus and afterward we stopped for ice cream at Ella's Deli. Andrew rode the carousel outside and I had to take a picture of his horse decked out in U of W decorations! Go Badgers!
One night we went to a Brewers vs. Padres game. The Brewers did not do so well, but we still had a lot of fun! Our group took up 1 1/2 rows and not everyone came to the game.
This is my son, Shaggy! =)
Bored while the Brewers got their butts kicked, we decided to take our own picture.
We were in the upper level of Miller Park, but the view was pretty good!
We spent every morning/afternoon at the Lake. Andrew loves to hang out at the beach area because of the sand. Jeremy decided to bury Andrew. Andrew loved it!
One morning we went kayaking. We do this once or twice a year and it's always fun!
We flew in to Chicago again this year. When we left our cottage in Wisconsin on Saturday, we drove back to Chicago and spent the afternoon at Navy Pier on Lake Michigan.
We went on the Ferris Wheel and I snapped some crummy photos of the city and us from my cell phone.
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