Lens Crafters, You So Crazy!

My optometrist's office is located inside a Lens Crafters in the mall. They are not affiliated with each other, they just kinda help each other out.  Lens Crafters, I assume, hopes that the doctor's patients will just buy their glasses there after their appointments.

Yesterday, as we're waiting for my daughter's eyes to finish dilating, I decide to get some pricing. They are one of the approved eye wear companies on my insurance company's provider list.

After picking a pair and running the numbers, the LC sales person comes at me with $223.00.  This is MY cost AFTER INSURANCE.  I said "Are you kidding me?  That's crazy! $223 and I have insurance? I don't think so."  He then proceeded to "run numbers" by removing the fancy-schmancy lenses (who even told him I wanted that?) and brought me down to $163.  Again I said "No. I can do better somewhere else."  We got up and went back to the doctor's waiting area, waiting for her eyes to be checked after dilation.  The LC sales person comes back to me and says "My manager approved another discount. We can get it down to like $145."  I replied "Ok, thanks." and continued reading what I was reading.

Today, we headed to Sam's Club Optical.  We have gotten several glasses there when our insurance has reset (we only get frames every two years; lenses every year.)  When I don't have insurance coverage available for frames, I use Zenni Optical online.  When I do have insurance, I use it locally.)  I KNOW Sam's can do better, and get this;  Sam's is NOT an Approved Insurance Provider under my policy.

We walk in, Isabel tries one pair on, I show her an adorable second pair, she loves them, we sit down with the Sam's Club Optician, hand him our prescription, etc. etc.  Now, I have to pay this out of pocket and then submit and Out-of-Network claim, so I'll only get a portion of my allowance back, via a check in the mail.

Sam's Club total?  $118.00.

Lens Crafters wanted $223, then $163, then $145.  AFTER insurance.

Sam's wanted $118, and then I get to submit a claim and get back like $75 because they are out-of-network.  I will pay $43 out of pocket.

People, run your options.  Even out-of-network can be way better than an overpriced mall store.  Yes, Lens Crafters gets them to you that day.  We can wait 5-7 days for them to arrive back at Sam's.  It's totally worth the $180.00 difference!

So I got this letter from the State of Florida..

About three weeks ago, I received this letter from the State of Florida.

And I said WHAT. EVER. My ever-skeptical and pessimistic side yelled "SCAM."

I almost threw it away.  I'm glad I did not.  My curious side decided NOT to go to the website listed.  I mean www.FLTreasureHunt.org?  Are you kidding me?  I went instead straight to the Florida Department of Financial Service's Site, and there on the front page was a section titled "Unclaimed Property"Division, which led to....www.FLTreasureHunt.org.

Ok then.  I entered the account number on the letter and there it was.  Florida Hospital got overpaid by me and my insurance back in 2004; my daughter's birth year!  It then asked me VERY DETAILED QUESTIONS.  They have to know you are YOU.  They ask for private information and that scared me a bit, but again, how can I prove I am me?  After entering some details, it gave me three questions with multiple choice answers. One of the answers is correct the others are not.  Like, who did I buy house # 1 from 17 years ago! Holy COW! Thank goodness I. keep. everything.  I found the sales documents and there was there seller's name on the screen.

There was an over-payment and the hospital only had my old address  and old phone number on file from 12 years ago, so they turned it over to the State of Florida for them to find me.

Anyway, after answering these detailed questions, they verified who I was, told me how much it was, and said I would be getting a check in 90 days.

Fifteen days later, 15, I have a check in my hands for overpaying on a medical bill!

The moral of the story is, if you get this letter, it is not a scam.  If you want to search to see if maybe there's an off chance that some hospital or bank that you thought you closed accounts with still has your money, you can do a search and see.

EDITED:  Debbie reminded me of something in the comments!!

A few days after claiming it for myself, I received a letter from some company/law firm saying they would help me claim this money! The money I claimed for FREE they would do it for me for just 11%.  HA HA HA! Do not fall for this!  You do it on your own and it does not cost you a dime!!

Thanking a Mentor

My husband & I are taking a financial planning class at church. We're enjoying it very much and have realized we're kind-of ahead of the curve. We're ahead of where the class says we should be and in this I thank two people, my mom and my former manager Jeff Cole.  Mom for being a hard-working woman who showed us girls that no one owed us a darned thing and if you wanted something, you worked for it.  Jeff for putting me into action.

I've been with my company 20 years.   When I started, I was still married to my ex and our finances were in shambles.  It was about bankruptcy, bounced checks, and constantly getting fired (not me.)  After the divorce, I was a single mom with a pretty decent job, but if I balanced my checkbook and had $10 left after paying bills and buying food, I was doing the happy dance.

In came Jeff Cole.  Jeff had been with our company a while, but had been promoted to a regional management position, which meant he was our new regional manager.  Immediately, IMMEDIATELY, Jeff would speak to all of us about investing in ourselves.  Paying ourselves first by putting money into our savings accounts via direct deposit, investing at least 10% pre-tax in our 401k, having life insurance, etc. etc.  

Over & over, every visit, Jeff would ask if we'd set up the direct deposit, if we'd started 401k. Here I was, 26 years old or so with a kid, ZERO child support,  and not 2 nickles to rub together and this guy wants me to save?  Is he crazy?

He decided to go into business on his own.  Before he left, he had a meeting with me and told me I was getting a substantial raise BUT it came with a caveat; the raise money would be used to fund my savings and 401k.  Basically, I would not feel the raise. The difference would be going into savings and a 401k.  I agreed.  I started saving, investing in our 401k and got myself a life insurance policy with both work and an independent insurance agency and prepaid my son's college in 5 years.

Here I am, 15 years from that conversation, and to this day, I credit him and my mom's common sense inherent in me for not having credit card debt (we have one card debt that we're working down with this class' help - I tend to have $$ and not want to give it up. We also have an old school loan of my husband's and one car payment we're working to eradicate ), for having a 401k in the six digits, for making my husband prove to me 8 years ago when all the real estate craziness was happening that we could make the new house payments on paper and actually getting it done,  for being the one who says "No, we are NOT charging that, we don't need it," for paying for all the furniture in our house with cash, and for taking vacations in cash. (Colorado vacation? Paid for in cash.  We enjoyed ourselves and aren't paying interest months later on it.)

We're not rich.  I had someone tell me years ago  "That's cause you're rich!," a bit snidely I might add.  Combined, we do not make six digits, people.   We  just know how to work with what we've got. We are not slaves to the lenders.  We don't pay interest.  We don't have the money? Guess what, we're not buying it.

I want so much to tell younger people to please invest. Please pay cash, don't charge things, Sacrifice.   Please don't buy a new car and make payments.  Save and buy a used one now, so you can save, trade that in and buy a better one later.  

I blinked and I'm 45.  You'll be here so quickly. 

Thank you Jeff.  Thank you for making a 20-something gal just give up already and invest so you'd stop bugging her already.  My future is here and I'm so grateful.

Spring Break 2014: Friday & Saturday

Friday, Isabel and I drove down to Orlando to go to the cake supply shop. Daddy was working in the morning this time.

Sadly, we don't have a cake supply store anywhere in our county or the next closest county. I have to drive 40 minutes to the nearest cake supply store.  I don't go to Michael's when I need to get fondant.  The only brand they carry is Wilton. GROSS.

We ate lunch at Chipotle and came back to relax/nap before we headed off to dinner at one of our Grow Group family's home.  It's a church thing. We're in small groups to get to know each other better. I really like our Grow Group and can't wait until David has a Friday night off when he can go. We meet every other Friday at someone's house, eat, have Bible study and talk time, while all the kids play. Just great fun.

Saturday, Isabel left around noon to go play at her best friend Lisa's house. They have a pool.  Enough said.

David was off the ENTIRE WEEKEND. You have no idea how rare this is.  We decided to air out our tent, as we have a church camp-out coming in April and we have not used the tent in...oh...about 9 years or so.  This lead to David and I (mostly David) clearing the heck out of one part of the garage.  I'd say he cleared/swept/rearranged about 1/5 of the garage.  He got a lot of work done.

We set up the tent first.

Roomy.

Hello there.

While the tent aired out, we consolidated boxes, cleaned doors, swept and re-swept the floor, washed camping dishes, pots and pans, and threw out a bunch of stuff.  Sadly, like I said, we only hit 1/5 of the mess in there.

Five hours after she left, Lisa's mom brought Isabel home. She was so excited to see the tent. She's been begging us to go camping for over a year.

Daddy sneaks a picture of me and my gal in the tent.

After taking the tent down and packing it away, David grilled some bratwurst and we dinner and YUMMY drinks.

Then, we watched "Frozen" again, this time with David.

Tree

Well, a jewelry  tree.  Just got it last week for $10, to hold all the random stuff that has been lying in a drawer in a mess.

Love it!

The Week My Body Went Whackadoo, Part 1

It was last Friday; an uneventful day.  Went to work. We got pizza in for lunch.  Met David at the local 7-Eleven to do the "Isabel-Swap." While waiting for him, I bought a pack of Starburst to share with Is.  She & I went home, I watched her play outside for a bit, had more pizza for dinner (leftovers from the previous night; I'm so very "pizza'd" out.) and settled in for the night.

Around 7:30 p.m. or so, I started getting itchy in my thighs.  I'm scratching through my jeans.  I finally say "I need to take a shower. I feel itchy."  The thighs continue to itch all night.

I wake up Saturday morning.

Now, here's what I look like on a really good day. I was having a good hair day, my makeup was on and I felt  pretty good.

Saturday morning?

I was having a SEVERE allergic reaction to who-knows-what.  Isabel cried when she saw me.

Really, no clue. I've been over it a dozen times.  Nothing out of the ordinary. No bug bites, no change in chemicals at work or at home, no weird food..except the Starburst candy.  

EVERYTHING ITCHED.  My hands, my feet, my sides, my thighs, the worst was the back of my neck. I took Benadryl, I covered myself in calamine, I took oatmeal baths. What the heck?

Sunday, and I was still bad, but now my wrists hurt, my ankles and knees.  The weirdest?  The soles of my feet were so swollen that I could not walk without being in severe pain.

By 3 p.m. Sunday, I could not wait anymore. I went to a local walk-in clinic. 

Now....I am not a fan of these places.  I have a prejudice against them. I feel like they don't care for their patients at all. I feel like their doctors are not the best ones.  Why? I worked at one in my 20's.  I saw behind-the-scenes and was not impressed.  Also, most, not all, but most of my previous experiences in these places have affirmed this bias I have.  I was trying very hard to wait until Monday, when I could see my regular doctor.  I just couldn't.

I was seen & prescribed both an antibiotic for a sore throat and a steroid treatment for the rash and was told they would call me during the week to schedule an appointment for allergy testing.

Monday I worked from home, keeping my feet in socks, so I would not scratch the skin off them.  Benadryl was only working for like an hour and a half at a time, and I could not take it but every 4-6 hours, which left me miserable the rest of the time. 

Tuesday, I drove to work.

Pretty, huh?  Still taking the steroid treatment, still itching all over the place.

To be continued.

Fourth Ornament of the 2013 Buffyfest Whedonverse Ornament Swap

Heh heh heh!  Thanks Spy Kitten!

More Christmas Nails

Tree Nails.  They lasted a long time.

Snowman nails. They lasted not so much.

Random design. Snow falling and a tree on my ring finger.
All nails except ring finger have a matte coat on them.

Mustache tree nails

I offered to do some nails for my co-workers' wives before our company Christmas party.  Only one lady took me up on the offer and she drove from FAR away (at least an hour) on a Friday with her 5 year old daughter to my house to have pizza, salad an get her nails done.

We had a really nice time and I even did her daughter and Isabel's nails a-la Mincecraft

My co-worker's wife's nails

Isabel's Minecraft nails

.  

Gobble Gobble

I hope you all had a great Thankgiving! We certainly did.

Wednesday night, Brenda drove up after work. We hung out with two dozen Dunkin Donuts she brought up.  She started marinating and prepping the pork loin for the following day's feast.  She had also brought with her an early Christmas present for our daughter. She, my dad, my mom and my grandpa all pitched in to get Isabel a GINORMOUS dollhouse. Jake and she snuck it into the house and upstairs while she was sleeping that night. Then Brenda and I finally got around to putting it together....at four in the morning.  We never slept.  We were done with it around...7:30 a.m. and then we went downstairs to start the prep work for the day's feast.

When dad arrived, they presented Isabel with the house.

I ran upstairs to get a hair rubber band. When I came back down to prep the turkey, this is what I found.

We hadn't slept.  This is what Brenda does when she's loopy.

Dad arrived, soon followed by little sis Vicky, her husband Damian and their daughter Ava.

We ate and ate and ate, so then we decided to go for a walk. Dad left for home.

My dad and my kids

Dad, big sis Brenda, niece Ava and her mommy, my little sister Vicky.

The Walking Gluttons

Jake took some videos for Vine.  This first one is because we keep saying "Ew" like Jimmy Fallon's "ew!" skits.

It's muted, so you'll need to unmute.  You can also click on it to stop it.






When we came back, we hung out. David and Damian watched "Man of Steel" while Jacob, Brenda, Vicky and I played "Apples to Apples."  While this was going on, this happened.

Unmute it.  Click to stop.



They left Saturday morning.  It was a good time.

The Ten Year Blanket

Once upon a time, David and I got pregnant. We decided that as a couple, we would cross-stitch an amazing afghan for our daughter. Yes, my husband cross stitches too. We're meant to be.

We decided on a Precious Moments book with lots of patterns and chose one with a baby, an angel and animals in the middle, and the entire alphabet around the afghan.  Our deal was, I did the middle, he did the name and date in the middle and then we would split the alphabet going around.

Thinking that there was NO WAY this girl was going to be anything but dark like Jacob was, I did this:

I made her dark.  We continued doing the work, little by little. I finished all my letters and my middle section.  David was still working away on his section.

Then, she was born.

I proceeded to remove the dark hair and make her a blonde, while I waited for David to finish his letters.

We moved. The blanket was packed away. We forgot about it until this 2009 or so, when I grabbed the bag it was in and asked David if he was going to finish it. Fast forward four more years.  Still not done.

 She will be TEN in March of 2014!  So this year, I finished all of the letters he did not do.

*feet sold separately

Ta Daaaaa! Isabel's baby blanket.

Ten Years in the Making!

Halloween!

It's Halloween!!

We've been preparing!

We carved pumpkins.

Psycho Bubbles by Isabel

Nightmare Before Christmas' Sally (by me)

Dexter by David

I painted my nails!

I MADE. MUMMY. MEATLOAF!!

Before

After!  YEAH!

and Isabel had a My Little Pony Friendship is Magic costume homemade by her aunt Jennifer.

Um..

BRING IT ON HALLOWEEN!!  and by that, I mean chocolate.  Thanks.

Fairy-God-Person Strikes Again!

My Fairy-God-Person is not a patient person.  FGP knows my birthday is in late September.  FGP also knew my 18th work anniversary was in early August.  Not being able to contain themselves, FGP went ahead and got me a work/birthday present early.

I. LOVE. IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David was a little skeptical, until he realized FGP also got us a reusable filter pack where we can put our own coffee, without having to spend so much $$ on the pods.  We can buy a brick of coffee and use the filter pack over and over and over.

DAVID. LOVES. IT!!!!!

Thanks Fairy-God Person!

Painting My Nails

I never paint my nails. I think it's because I can never grow my nails long enough.  Also, it's a laziness thing, but I have a lot of nail polish. A lot. I have no idea why I have so much.  I've gotten gift sets from mom & my sisters, I suppose.  I decided, what the hey, let's get a little creative with the nail polish. Maybe that'll be fun.

Now, I do believe it's best left up to professionals, but I did think that about cakes too,  :)  I had some nice blues and yellows and decided to mess around.

Polka dots are *not* my thing, apparently.

Then, while looking up nail art pictures on the web, I came across something called Water Marble Nail Art.  Crazy way to color your nails using a cut of water with nail polish dropped into it.  Whhaaaaaat?  You have room-temperature water, drop several layers of nail polish, use a stick to make a design and then you dunk your nail into it.  Here's someone I was checking out on YouTube.

Of COURSE I am going to try it, cause I'm adventurous like that!  And what else? I'm gonna take  a VIDEO of it too!





Here's the right one.  I wish my nails were longer.  Also, I was not really doing it right. I needed to lay my nail bed flat on top of the water, not dunk it straight up & down.  Still, I like how this came out.

For the final thing I did, I decided on making a minion on my pinky.

CUTENESS!