Stupid Health Insurance Company

Today we received the final bill for Zachary's hospitalization in Dec. $15,079.56. Guess what? Our health insurance company doesn't want to pay it. Why? Because they don't know if we had health insurance for 12 months PRIOR to it. WHAT?????? What the hell difference does it make whether or not we had insurance BEFORE this? We had it, paid in full on the day he went in to the day he got out. Just to be clear..... We have never NOT had health insurance. From the moment Mike has ever worked, or for that matter, that we have ever been ALIVE, we have had health insurance. Zachary has been covered by one health insurance or another since the day he was conceived. The day Mikes employment started with this new company was the day they started covering him, and all of us. That was the day we canceled our policy with United HealthCare. We made sure of it before we canceled United. But what I don't get is WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE???? Preexisting conditions? Does that mean that if he was ever treated for something that the new insurances are able to deny us coverage if he needs to be treated for it again? What happens if Mikes employer changes insurance companies? If Zachary has another asthma attack they wont pay? We are supposed to choose between going broke or our health? What is the country coming to? Thank God it was only 15 thousand +. We could somehow cover it, but what if it was 150,000? We could lose everything. But the point is we have insurance for a reason. To cover us if we become sick. We pay our premium every paycheck. What good does that do if they aren't going to cover things at their own whim? Mike was on the phone yesterday for HOURS trying to get down to the bottom of it. (that in itself is a freaking joke. How come nobody has LIVE people to talk too?) It seems like it has come down to us needing to show PROOF that we had coverage for 12 months prior to this. OK, so we finally got someone to fax us a HIPA report. That is basically a letter from United Healthcare to our current provider stating that he/we had health insurance for 12 months before. We are just waiting for the next excuse to arrive. "Sorry your sons hair was too blond, so we cant pay your bill". This is truly a sad sad thing happening in our country. I'm sure for every family like ours, there are thousands and thousands getting the same run around.

Zachary PT meeting

We had the parent meeting with Zachary's teacher today. Before I get started on that... she showed me she received the Osunas and Rivers Stanley letters. She was very excited to hear that Gramma and Grumpas Stanley letter is on its way also. She will be reading Rivers and Osuna girls Stanley letters today in class. Stanley is currently on his way to Leonard and Michelles. Thank you for the quick returns! Rivers was the first letter received! Yeah Kevin and Kim!!! Zachary's goal is to have Stanley travel the furthest and the most! Leonard and Michelle, you can send him to any of our family members next. Also, on the return address on the envelope you mail to the school, please clearly print your address so that the class (or her?) can write you back. OK, so here's what she had to say about Zachary: Zachary is reading on a DRA Level 8 which is below the level expected for this time of year. He can read the words on DRA Level 8 with 99% accuracy, but read word by word with some short phrases. He also did not detect his miscue which changed the meaning of the end of the story. He also had a lot of difficulty retelling the story - often saying he did not know or telling me general statements instead of details. In the Harcourt reading series, he is asking for less help on the end of story quizzes. Zachary is very inconsistent with comprehension of other stories. Zachary is very inconsistent with improving his writing skills. He is now more able to put his thoughts down on paper. He writes one long sentence - not putting punctuation or capitals. In math he seems to understand most new concepts with just a little extra help. Zachary works well with others and always tries his best. She also admitted that if he was in any other school district in Florida, he would be right where they would want him. But Seminole County literally teaches at a grade and a half higher than any other Florida schools. I am sure that AZ schools don't teach at this level either. I know for a fact Christina wasn't reading at the level that Zachary is now until about the start of 3rd grade. Here is an example in his homework that they expect them to complete by themselves: Add an ending to the base word to complete the sentence. Meg is __________ than Jay. Tall The rock is _________than the soap. Hard The horse is __________of the three Fast The top fish is__________. Long Ice is_________ than water. Cold Write the correct answer: There are ______ kinds of houses around the world. Moved Different Together Her cat is four ____ old. Kind Years Tall One kind of shelter is a ______. Chick House Friend Many people can live together in _______. One room Apartment houses A tent A house on stilts keeps the house ______. In the ice On the sand Above water Of course these seem obvious to us, but to a kid who is still struggling with reading 3 and 4 letter words, this is hard. If I read him the questions he knows the answer. But he cannot do it on his own. They also have to read a book by themselves, then cut out 20 different sentences and place them in the correct order of the story. Math he is ok, with a bit of help. They are working on Groups of Hundreds, Tens and Ones. Also find the pattern and write the missing numbers. 20 23 __ 29 32 __ 38 __ 44. If stories are read to him 3 or more times he can understand it and follow the directions to get an 80%. But on his own, he scores 40% and under. So what does this mean? It means we will probably keep him back. She said he is right at the 70% level. Yes, we COULD put him in 2nd grade, but she said in 2nd grade they expect the student to work independently and they go at an even faster pace. She really feels he will just fall further and further behind. He tries sooo hard, I would hate to see him struggling even harder next year. They hold FCATs (Florida's academic testing) in 3rd grade and she said if he were to fail any of it, that no matter what, he would be held back. I know their FCATs are difficult. At least once a month there is someone complaining in the news about the difficulty of it. Mike and I helped Christina with hers online recently and it was HARD! They purposely put in sentences to confuse and trick the reader. They want you to see that and figure it out. Its not as simple as 2+2=4. We are starting tutoring again April 15. He will go an hour before school 2 days a week. They also have summer school. But if we hold him back I am not going to make him go thru that. Besides we have a lot of things planned for the summer. I want to go with Mike to work as much as possible to see this beautiful state. So what are your thoughts on this? I'd love some feedback. I think its best to keep him back so he can catch up. I don't want him to feel stupid. And who knows, we may move out of this elementary school area, in 2 years, so he'd go to a different elementary, so socially no one would know that he was held back. (unless we move to an entirely different part of the state...Miami.. we would stay in Seminole County. I really like it here.) We are putting Caleb in their VPK. Voluntary Pre Kindergarten in the fall. I hope that it helps him get started early with their standards. Certainly wont hurt!!! I have started a new blog for my recipes. http://myfamilysfavoriterecipes.blogspot.com/ I am posting my families favorite recipes and if there are any others that you enjoy, you can comment them. We are always looking to try new things!! Also be sure that EVERYTIME you read my blog click on the advertisement boxes. Thats all you have to do is click on it, not buy or search the ad. I get paid for every click! Woohoo! This one doesn't have any ads yet, but the recipe one does. I want this site to have them too, but only 1 account per household can get paid. Caleb is on the other computer looking a funny baby videos, and he keeps saying "Look at this cute baby. I miss Elektra. When do I get to see Elektra again?" How sweet.

Easter Weekend

Yeah!! I'm going to be an aunt again!! My brother Leonard and his wife Michelle are expecting baby #2 around the first of Nov. We got a letter in the mail from them a few days before Easter with the explicit instructions NOT TO OPEN TILL EASTER. So Easter morning I opened the card. (yes I waited!!) Inside was a puzzle. Hard to see, but it says Baby #2!! Yeah! The rest of the AZ families also got puzzles. They put them together at my grammas Easter Brunch. Congrats Leonard and Michelle!!!

We had a fun weekend. Thursday night we colored Easter eggs. Zachary is a pro at coloring eggs. This was the first year we let Caleb color his own. He did good. After they were dry then we painted them with acrylic paint. Look at Zachary's tongue!! Even Christina had fun painting the eggs. She made a Chinese face (below), a chick and a few others.

Caleb painted one egg.

Then he discovered that painting his plate was more fun.

Notice the tongue?! They get that from me. Mike is always teasing me about sticking out my tongue when I concentrate. I think Mike got his holidays mixed up. Its not Halloween!! Its Easter!!! Like father like son. This is Mikes Mickey Mouse Egg. Poor Mickey. He's pretty scary looking. Zachary put his ears on that he made in Kindergarten. This is my bunny egg. Friday morning we got up early and drove to Boca Raton. Its just north of Fort Lauderdale. Mike had to work in Boynton Beach. He had 20 minutes worth of work. When he was done we did some sight seeing down to Fort Lauderdale. It is amazing the houses down there on the ocean. They are HUGE!! What do people do to be able to afford all that? Big houses, yachts, fancy cars. Sheesh. And there are SO MANY of them! We found a spot on the beach that had a playground next to it.

Zachary is getting really good at swinging. Caleb is starting to figure it out. But he doesn't go to high yet. Zachary loves to jump out of the swing. I remember I LOVED doing that as a child, but as a parent I was telling him, "Don't jump when you are so high, why do you have to jump? Cant you just slow down and get off?" You can see he listened to me. NOT!! It was a beautiful day, about 84. Water temp is 74. Nice!!! We let Christina bring her boyfriend. But we got a hotel room with a suite so Robby slept on the couch pull out and she slept with me. Mike and the boys shared the other bed. We got back late Saturday afternoon. Just in time to get things ready for the Easter Bunny. The boys were up at 8am and very excited to hunt for eggs that the Easter Bunny Man left them. (I don't know why they call him the Easter Bunny Man!) The Easter Bunny Man hid eggs all over the house. Living room, family room, kitchen, den, boys bedroom and out back. I don't know how he made it to any other house. We must of had 100 plastic eggs!! Of course it was a race to see who got the most. Caleb really held his own this year. They were almost exactly tied! The only reason Caleb was a few eggs behind was he kept stopping to open them and eat a piece of candy.

After they got full of candy, they needed to get some energy out, so out back they went. Caleb got a hold of the water sprayer and had fun chasing Zachary around the yard with it. Zachary loved every minute, yelling "Get me over here, I'm not wet enough yet!"

However, when Zachary got the hose and sprayed Caleb, he cried. He can dish it out but he can't take it!We had a nice Easter even if it was nothing like any of our past ones. I made a ham with apricot glaze and some veggies and bread. Mike and I didn't get out of our jammies all day!!!

Today is clean house day. Blah. Better go get to it!