A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

I read this book for book club and loved it. It's not a fast moving book and actually took me about three weeks to finish, but you'll appreciate your life a little more with all the luxuries we take for granted. It's a story of a young girl, Francie Nolan, who grows up during the early 1900s in Brooklyn, New York, who often goes hungry, who has a drunkard for a father but who loves her very much. It's a story of survival, of valuing education, of working hard. It was such a real life book and reminded me a lot of The Glass Castle, another story of working your way out of the slums. Definitely a classic to be read.

This post is dedicated to Gwen

Last night we had a ladies night out with Sara Lynes, Kami Porter, and my sister-in-law Gwen Ruebush. We attended a Healthy Woman seminar at the clubhouse devoted to promoting healthy eating in your family. On the way home Sara asked why she could not get into my blog. I was a caught off guard a little not knowing how she could possibly know I kept an online blog. Here's the gist of the conversation (definitely not word for word since my brain doesn't function that quickly):

Gwen: You have a blog?

Me: Ya, it's private.

Sara: Oooh. I wonder what she says about Gwen.

Me: No, I haven't said anything. I mean private in that that whole world can't read it. I'd have to invite you.

Gwen: Uh, uh.

Me: I'll send you an invite so you can see I haven't written anything bad about you

So here's what I like about Gwen:

• she's a lot like me and who wouldn't like me (just kidding, I'm not that egotistical, BUT she really is a lot like me)
• she's organized
• she gets things accomplished (has organized a triathlon for the past 2 years)
  
• she's a self-starter
• she makes very good bread
• she's friendly
• she enjoys learning and will devote time to learn all she can about a subject
• she's willing to watch my kids
• she has a genuine smile
• she likes to get your opinion on something instead of pretending to know it all
• she likes to keep fit and active and eat healthy

For clarification: Sara was referring to my website and the photos we have password protected. I really haven't told anyone about my blog other than my sisters, mom, and Tyler. And now Sara, Kami, and Gwen know. Tyler's been after me to tell the family about it, but how do you do that? "Hey, everyone. I have this blog like 10,000 other people and would really like you to take time out of your very busy lives to read about me, Me, ME." No, this blog isn't really for anyone but myself. BUT, I don't mind if other people want to read it. It's just easier if someone else promotes it (I really dislike self-promoters).

I Am a Child of God

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED . . . Our Primary program was a success today!

This time of the year is always so chaotic and maybe I bring more on myself by the way I do it.
...I like to hand out speaking assignments and have the children write their own parts. But it never fails; I am always waiting for 1 or 2 parents to get the parts back to me. That causes me some stress.
...I also do the actual program and this year it took me over an hour and using Ty's computer and printer to get it to print right (not to mention hours putting it together with every child's picture on the front).
...I gave up trying to find parts for everyone and we ended right on time this year. I hope no one was too sad.
...I like to put together program binders for the teachers with a copy of the program, speaking parts for children in their class, and a seating chart to help situate everyone in the right spots.

Despite the countless hours putting it all together so it flows smoothly and the many bike trips around the ward handing out parts and reminders, and a lot of grumbling and complaining and wishing I didn't have to do it, I love the feeling I get at the end. And the compliments I receive for a job well done. It never ceases to amaze me how well it goes when we actually perform in Sacrament. Those kids sing with all their hearts and today was no exception. At several points in the program when they began singing, I got goosebumps, my heart swelled within me, and I got a little teary-eyed as I listened to their angelic voices. IT MAKES IT ALL WORTH IT and I vow to not complain and grumble next year.

Remember President's Hinckley's Book of Mormon challenge?

Well,
WE FINISHED!
Three years later.
But we did it. We were obedient to a commandment. And my kids were so excited as we read that last page.

I offer a challenge to members of the Church throughout the world and to our friends everywhere to read or reread the Book of Mormon. If you will read a bit more than one and one-half chapters a day, you will be able to finish the book before the end of this year. Very near the end of its 239 chapters, you will find a challenge issued by the prophet Moroni as he completed his record nearly 16 centuries ago. Said he:
"And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust? . . .
"And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true" (Moroni 10:27, 29).
Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.

Insurance/Billing Office Frustrations

I need to vent. Actually I really needed to vent this morning. Sorry to Tyler for getting the brunt of it all.

STORY: I took Ashlyn to the eye doctor (Dr. Dries) at Primary Children's for her neuroblastoma checkup A YEAR AND A HALF AGO. I received the statement from them that said pay this amount by such and such a date and the amount was $0.00, insurance pending. So I didn't think much. Just figured we were waiting for the insurance. A couple of months later I received another statement with the exact same thing. I still didn't think much about it. A year later I finally called the insurance AND THEY HAD NEVER RECEIVED ANYTHING. So I made a phone call to the billing department and they had the wrong insurance on file. Now I still don't understand that since we had been in several times before and our insurance had never changed. The lady I talked to was very nice and said she would submit it again but the insurance might reject it since it wasn't filed in a timely manner. I asked her if I would be responsible for whatever the insurance didn't pay. She said they would probably just end up writing it off. Sure enough, the insurance denied it and I get another bill showing $0.00 that I owe.

TODAY: I was sure I would have received bills for the rest of my life, so I decided to call the billing department about it. I explained the situation on the phone to the girl and she immediately made it clear that it was my responsibility to pay the bill, even though it was clearly their fault for not submitting the correct insurance information. She was a little snippy with me, asked me why I didn't call our insurance earlier, and told me submitting information to the insurance was a service they did for me. I became very upset and told her I refused to pay it. If they wanted me to pay for it, WHY DIDN'T THEY BILL ME CORRECTLY INSTEAD OF SENDING BILLS WITH ZERO AMOUNT and telling me INSURANCE PENDING? There is so much about insurance I don't understand, but was she basically telling me that I should call my insurance after every doctor's visit to make sure everything's been paid? The funny thing is she asked me how I liked my service. Well, we've been very happy with Dr. Dries and I told her so. But if she expected me to CONTRIBUTE the amount owed because I liked the service, she was mistaken.

I don't think I've ever been that upset, nor have I ever been treated that way. I finally yelled at her that I wanted to talk to her manager. She eventually came back to the phone to tell me he was in a meeting, that they would write it off, and then she hung up on me. I felt badly about how I handled the situation. She caught me off guard, and I'm sure I could've done better.

I HATE DEALING WITH INSURANCE ISSUES!

Summer Reads

Ah, you've got to love summer reading. Our days have been a little less busy and a little more relaxed.

Okay, I wrote that last sentence at the beginning of the summer and now that we've come to the end, it was anything but relaxing. I'm beginning to suspect that all my summers will be more than a little crazy the older my kids get. I certainly didn't read like I wanted to even though I had good intentions. But here's a synopsis of what I did read.

The Book Thief. This will go down as one of my favorites. Truly a book about love and friendship and survival, it is set in Germany during WWII as a young girl Liesel Meminger and her foster family hide a Jew in their basement.

"When the elderly Jew climbed to his feet for the last time and continued on, he looked briefly back. he took a last sad glance at the man who was kneeling now himself, whose back was burning with four lines of fire, whose knees were aching on the road. If nothing else, the old man would die like a human. Or at least with the thought that he was a human."

Ella Minnow Pea. A delightfully entertaining book. The setting for this book was based on the fictitious island off the Carolina coast called Nollop, home to Nevin Nollop, the supposed creator of the sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." The residents reverence this man by posting the sentence on his statue. Eventually the tiled letters begin to fall, and as they fall the town council believes it is Nollop speaking from his grave that those particular letters are not to be used again, thereby banning their use in written or oral form. For the first offense a warning is given, the second is a lashing or stocks, and the third is banishment from the island. By the end of the book nearly everyone has been banished or left of their own accord. The book is made up of correspondence sent between various characters and as the book progresses to the end, the author chooses to leave the banned letters out making the book harder phonetically to read and and more challenging to decipher the creative spelling. The council eventually decides to allow the remaining residents to create their own pangram that is shorter than Nollop's and still uses all 26 letters in the alphabet, which they do thus restoring all 26 letters.

1776. A historical book that left me in awe that America won the Revolutionary War.

"Especially for those who had been with Washington and who knew what a close call it was at the beginning -- how often circumstance, storms, contrary winds, the oddities or strengths of individual character had made the difference -- the outcome seemed little short of a miracle."

And, after reading this book, IT DID seem little short of miracle. General George Washington's volunteer army was nothing more than your untrained, everyday farmer -- many who were too sick to fight or those who simply went home when their enlistment was up. The British landed in New York with a "well-armed, well-equipped, trained force" of 32,000 men, "more numerous than the entire population of New York or even Philadelphia." In one particular battle, the Americans needed to make a quick retreat across the East River and the decision was made to do this in the middle of the night and catch the British by surprise. Due to heavy mud, the exodus was not moving quickly enough and time was running out.

"Incredibly, yet again, circumstances -- fate, luck, Providence, the hand of God, as would be said so often -- intervened. Just at daybreak a heavy fog settled in over the whole of Brooklyn, concealing everything no less than had the nigh. It was a fog so thick, remembered one soldier, that one 'could scarcely discern a man at six yard distance.' Even with the sun up, the fog remained as dense as ever, while over on the New York side of the river there was no fog at all. . . In a single night, 9,000 troops had escaped across the river. Not a life was lost."

This country should in all respects be under British rule. They were bigger, stronger, had more resources, more money, more power. BUT this is one nation UNDER GOD and He clearly had a hand in every American's independence.

Well, that was my summer reading. I wish it were more, but I sure enjoyed the books I did read.