REST IN PEACE

I received the saddest news yesterday. My highschool softball coach passed away. He was such a good man and an awesome coach. I loved his civics class as well. He has been sick for some time and my thoughts and prayers have been with his family.

It is such a sad loss. I have nothing but the fondest memories of that man. He was an amazing coach. His attitude was always, I don't care if you win or lose, but if you lose, you better go down fighting. As long as you gave 100% he was okay. I try to have that attitude with my girls. Sometimes I don't, but for the most part, I try. ;)

R.I.P. Coach Mike Kitchens. You will forever be missed and for me personally, softball would never have been same without you.

Just call me Dr.Mom / Mama Bear

Okay, so I am THAT mom. I am the mom that will not tolerate someone telling me how to raise my children. I am the mom that cries when her kids potty train because that is one less thing they need me for. I am the mom that will not think twice about raising nine kinds of hell at the doctor's office for making my child suffer unnecessarily. I am not proud of that really, but at the same time I kinda am. It is my job to make sure my children are taken care of. No matter what. I am a believer that at this stage in their lives, it is okay for them to believe in fairy tales and think Harry Potter is real and Cinderella is too (which they both know they aren't, but you get the idea). Well, the momma bear came out in me last week.


My son has asthma. It only causes problems in the fall and winter months when it is cooler outside at night. Its usually about 3:00 a.m. when he wakes up unable to breathe. He's been like this his entire life. He requires three medications during the fall/winter. Every year I take him to the doctor in the fall and get the refills for his medications. Never a problem. Well, this year, we are at a new doctors office for my children. I send my father in law with the list of his medications in an effort to make it easier for my doctor to know what we are asking for. Well, my husband arrives and the doctor has him call me and ask "how many mg is the singulair"...how do I know that? Just look in the chart. So he gets the RX's and takes them to the pharmacy. WEll, since Derek lost his job and we lost our insurance the kids are now on ARKids insurance, which is the state insurance for low income families that don't have insurance otherwise available to them. So, I go to the medicines and am told that ARKids won't cover them and its $360.00 for all three for one month. SERIOUSLY!?!?! These aren't narcotics, its asthma medication. Why would they not be covered? I about had a panic attack.


So I call ARKids first thing the next morning...on hold for over 30 minutes....finally get a human, and am told that all three are covered but the doctors have to get prior approval before ARKids will pay for them. So I immediately call the doctors office. They require a form from the pharmacy first. So I call my pharmacy. They are very kind and said they would take care of that first thing. So, I go on about my chaotic day at the office. About 4:45 p.m. it dawns on me that I never followed up. So I call the pharmacy and have them run the prescriptions for me. I'm told ARKids does not cover those prescriptions. So I ask if they have faxed the paperwork to my doctor. They said that they had. I called my doctors office, who of course said they were still waiting on the pharmacy. Well, I got VERY huffy with the doctors office. And I informed them that I would be heading to the pharmacy immediately to make sure that the fax was sent. They call me again at 5 till 5:00 and say that can't even find my son in their computers!! I went off again, they also said they still had not received anything from the pharmacy. I am fuming at this point.



Well, I get to the pharmacy forty-five minutes later (more than AN HOUR after the State closes - so no authorizations can be obtained) and the pharmacy miraculously has received the authorization and everything is taken care of. interesting huh? I still have half a mind to CHEW some doctors office out!!! gggggrrrrrrr.............

I had a blast this weekend

This weekend was awesome. I don't know why, but I loved it. It was perfect. Despite the constant cloud cover, sometimes drizzle and all that of course.

First, Friday I got my new phone!! Love it!! Its a Samsung Rogue and I am in love with it. Although I loved my old phone and was pretty bummed it was shutting down on me, I am very happy with its replacement :)

Saturday, our girls had their first fall ball games. We played three games. Our head coach was out so it was me, the other assistant coach and a parent. and we only six girls for the first game and seven for the last two. But guess what, our girls played their hearts out. I could not have been more happy. These girls played with everything they had and it was amazing to witness. We won the first two games and lost the third. The two teams we beat had nearly double the girls and they were teams that beat us in the Spring which made these victories much sweeter. I am pumped to continue watching these girls grow. What makes this team even better is that not only do the girls that I had show up Saturday absolutely love softball, but their parents encourage it and support it. These girls are only going to get better and they showed every one out there Saturday that even with the odds stacked wwwwaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy against them, they are still a force to be reckoned with. Its pretty awesome to be a part of that.

Yesterday, wasn't a lot going on. Just pretty lazy day. I had a board of directors meeting at the ball park. I really enjoy being involved there and I am excited for the things that we have coming up. Other than that, me and the hubs simply lounged around and did nothing. Which I always enjoy :)

My internet is D.O.W.N.

Girls, the technology in my life is driving me BATTY. completely insane. First, my cell phone is basically shot. No good. and so off to the phone store I go Saturday (in between picking my daughter up from the ballpark and working on the wedding) to get a new one. Since Alltell is now Verizon, everyone is basically up for an early upgrade so they can "get you in a verizon phone" - sounds like a car salesman huh? So, I go in. I ask up front to make sure nothing is changed. My alltel plan is still good and I can charge the phone to my next bill. Great. So all the phones are like $200.00 with some sort of rebate. I think the cheapest was $150.00. Well, the one I FELL IN LOVE WITH was the Samsung Rouge. I am a texter. I text ALOT. and I want a touch screen I think so I love this phone. And I want it soooooooooo badly. I spent an hour in the store and I fell so deeply in love with the phone. I was so excited. Then I get up there and they tell me all of the sudden I can't charge it. That PISSED me off. My phone was down again and I am in the middle of wedding planning and they told me I could then told me I couldn't. So I am patiently saving up the money I need to get the phone and then its on. Since I don't usually carry $200 in extra cash and even though I desperately need a new phone, I can't justify pulling it from any savings or anything. Mine works when it wants to...... :)

Then for the last TWO days my internet at home has not worked. Talk about LIVID. I have things to do. Farms to plow on facebook, blogs to read, email to check, tv shows to watch (don't get me started on the tv issue at my house) and I HAVE TO HAVE MY INTERNET.

So, for now, I have no connections with the outside world and I feel so lost.....

Wedding #3

I love doing weddings. I have been bombarded by "you need to pursue this" "you should be charging for this" and so forth lately. I love doing weddings. Of course, all the weddings I have done have been family and a friend. Like I would charge them for that! Ha!!

I will post pics later (I know I constantly promise that, but I will make good) of the wedding I am doing this weekend. I am currently taking a break from doing the arch. Its extremely hard. I thought this would be easy cause there wasn't alot of flowers, etc...but I was wrong. Very hard.

And I have exactly 24 hours till the wedding and I have got TONS to do.......so I better get busy.

Just wanted to let you know I wasn't ignoring the blogger world, just been super busy.

I got it!! yay!!

Well, I got my picture!! It is so beautiful and I am so excited. My camera is dead so I will have to take a pic of it later. I am going to clean clean clean today and organize tomorrow so I will likely just take pics of my house and post those.

Hubby brought my fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving box down from storage last night. I am so excited. I love to decorate for this time of year. Its so much fun!

Yesterday afternoon, Derek just had to go to Academy. We are wanting to get our light switches and outlet covers for the living room and kitchen (I want Mossy Oak covers - well actually Real Tree Hardwood Green but they are all the same.) So off we went. In my search for the outlet covers, I found something spectacular!! I found a REAL TREE CUTTING BOARD! It is absolutely darlin. So I bought it, took to my mommy, she paid me back and she is holding it till my birthday. I don't know if can stand to wait that long though! My birthday is in late November. Mom and I have a pretty cool relationship. I dont like for her to spend alot of money on me for holidays cause I know she's not got an endless supply of pictures of dead presidents so I prefer that she use her money elsewhere, so if I find something I have to have, I can call her and tell her and that is what she will get. But since neither of us go to Academy very often, I went ahead and just bought it and took it to her. I know it was the easiest birthday shopping ever for her! ha ha ha ... but I can't wait!!


Oh, and another totally awesome find at Academy that my hubby bought me....some camoflauge croc flip flops. They are so comfy and I love them. So that was my day of being spoiled :) Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!!

OMG SO EXCITED!!!

Okay, so if you haven't figured it out by reading my blog...there are two things (among a million others) that I absolutely LOVE. Bargains and trees. Today, my friends, two of my fave things combine!

A few weeks ago I found the most beautiful picture at Kirklands. It has a pond, and an old plank bridge out onto the water and its surrounded by trees. Its like a brown and white pic and I FELL IN LOVE. I had been emailed a coupon for $5 for Kirklands and I got all excited. The picture was normally $100.00. however it was marked down to $59.99 and I had a coupon!! So I made plans that Friday to go school shopping for the kids clothes and then to Kirklands to get my picture. Then Derek called me at 2:00 p.m. that Friday and told me he had just been layed off. When I realized I couldn't get my picture, I almost cried. I was so upset. I was so excited to get my picture. So, I have dreamed about my picture and been so bummed.

Well, as you know, Derek is back at work! YaY!! Monday, I went to play bunko with my mother in law. She ended up winning a nightlight from Kirklands that she didn't want. So she gave it to me. It was purple and matched NOTHING in my house so I took it back and got store credit. $8. Then, yesterday, I was emailed a coupon for $10 for Kirklands. So I made Derek take me back to Kirkland's to see if they had my picture still on sale....THEY DO!! YAY!!!! So, I get my $100 picture for roughly $40 today if he ever makes it back!! I have been so excited I can't stand it!!

My daughter has a friend staying the night tonight so I have to wait on him to get home so I can go. I can't wait!!!! I will take a pic of my picture later and post it to show the wonderfulness of my painting!! :)

Happy Friday!!!

DARK + SILENCE + COOL AIR = PERFECTION.

The weather in Arkansas this week has been so fabulous. I just want to jump on a fourwheeler and ride off. Its so cool and crisp and clear, the suns not been out too much and its just got that fall feel to it. Last night I was sitting on my porch and it was chilly out and I just loved it. It doesn't get better than that. It made me remember some times in high school. My mom had an early 90's model caravan and when I needed to chill out and relax and sort of refocus and clear my head, I would make a mug of hot spearmint tea, climb up onto the top of mom's van (obviously I was tiny and didn't break anything by doing this) and would sip my tea and breathe the cool night air and then when I finished my tea, I would lay on the top of the van and stare at the stars. I would sit out there for hours. Once or twice I fell asleep out there and the only reason I woke up was because Mom would come out side and hollar my name and it would wake me up. :) I apparently got too relaxed some days. I miss those times. I loved it. She thought I was a nut, hell, everyone that knew I did that thought I was a nut, but it was so peaceful. I just remember thinking that how could anyone look at that sky and not believe in God? Its just not possible. That kind of beauty just doesn't create itself. And it never looked exactly the same night after night. Some stars were brighter, some dimmer, some would shimmer one night and not the next and it just was calming. Some days, when it was a really rough day, I would go outside and talk to my (biological) dad. Being outside at night and staring at the sky would just make it seem that he was so much closer. I usually felt better after I did. Now, I have lost so many people that I love that its hard to decide who to talk to, so instead I just remember and pray. Since I don't have mom's big ole van, I lay outside on my picnic table and stare at the stars. I don't have as much sky to look at because I am surrounded by trees instead of a big open field like at our old house, but its still the same. and just as relaxing. Oh, and I traded my tried and true spearmint tea for something better. Vanilla Caramel. Its so yummy and just wonderful. I love it the most at Christmas time. Its like the Christmas cookie scented candles and when you wrap in a warm blanket and sit in a solid dark house with nothing but the twinkling white lights of my christmas tree...its just perfect. :) I think I have just convinced myself to go outside and enjoy the cool air for a bit before heading to the bed. Sounds just perfect right about now. Nighty night!!

Its September!! Almost the best time of year! My fave month is October. I love it!!! :) I can't wait for the holidays to start!!! It puts me in the best mood. and I love to decorate! Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and then New Years and then Valentines and then Easter and then you get a break!! :)

I have big plans for the holiday weekend - I am going to organize my house! I dread it but it desperately needs to be done. So, whats everyone elses plans for the long holiday weekend?