I think health insurance is a scam. Seriously, we pour money in each month and then when it’s their turn to pay up, they come up with all these reasons why it’s still our responsibility. Why is it that we need it again? I know, I know, I hear the “but what if there was some big catastrophic event like cancer then you wouldn’t be put out on the streets with hospital bills” line. Or would we? I’m not buying into that excuse anymore.

We’ve been trying to figure out our insurance plans for Kingston for a couple months now. I don’t know about you, but the task overwhelms me and I often get frustrated trying to decipher all the plans and their “options”. What also doesn’t help is the incompetent sales reps. For example, I recently called to find out if something was covered under my plan and was informed that it was. I then called back a few weeks later to ask a follow up question and was informed that my plan doesn’t cover that. When I explained I had called and checked a few weeks ago and was told it was, it was explained that I was misinformed and the person I talked to didn’t really look at my plan. @#$@%  If you don’t know what is covered under my plan, how do I have any hope of understanding? I called a third time and got the same answer. Frustrating.

Here’s the real point of my venting. My current plan with work has a high deductible which has to be met before they cover any medical expenses. We delayed a few tests (like the gender ultrasound, etc) so that they could help us meet the deductible and not be out so much for the birth bills, we hit that number in late March. I found out this week that our plans are changing as of June 1st and our CYD will increase. What this means is, that if Kingston is a day late, we will have to meet the new deductible before they cover any of the birth expenses and basically we will have paid for all the pregnancy expenses out of our pocket + money for useless insurance. You can imagine my excitement to learn this after just spending 3k at the ER and another 4.5K on an A/C unit.

So Kingston, we love you dearly, and it’s very important you listen to Mommy and come before May 29th so the repoman doesn’t come take you from us when we can’t pay our birth bills.

At 3 p.m. yesterday, my boss poked his head in my office and said “we’re having a quick meeting downstairs”. As I walked around my desk I turned to my office mate, Sharda, and said “I hope this doesn’t take long, I’ll probably have to pee soon”. She laughed at me and we continued to talk as we made our way downstairs. As we walked into the showroom everyone yelled “Surprise!”. Having no idea what was going on, I started looking around trying to figure out why everyone was yelling surprise. Who is this surprise for? Why didn’t they tell me this was a surprise for someone? I don’t remember anyone having an April birthday. And then my eyes landed on the conference table, and I saw the blue and green cupcakes with zoo animals on top, the gifts wrapped in baby paper, and the It’s a Boy balloon. This is a surprise for me!

I was completely shocked! I did not pick up on a single clue that this was going to happen. I honestly wasn’t expecting anything except probably a gift from the office when Kingston arrived. I’m the first one to ever be pregnant there, but they’ve never thrown showers for others getting married so I thought this would fit in the same boat. I didn’t think anything of questions earlier in the week about registries and bedroom decor or what items we already had (which until yesterday included a crib, a dresser, some bottles, and a tub) because we get those all the time. I noticed Sarah carrying plastic cups earlier on her way to “a meeting” and then heard her say something about cupcakes to someone in the hall, but again, didn’t put any of it together that it could possibly be for me. And I’m glad I didn’t, because I love a good surprise! (Even though I did get a little embarrassed as I sat down in my chair and everyone was staring at me.)

After partaking in a green cupcake (the only one with a lion on it), it was down to business as everyone crowded around to watch me unwrap the gifts. Beth, so kindly documented the whole shower (I wish someone would have warned me to put on some lip gloss ; ) so I was able to share the pictures with Jeremy when I got home (and you now). I rarely leave the office for lunch, so as I would find out later, they weren’t sure how they were going to get the gifts inside without risking being caught. Lucky for them, Josh was in town and he and Jeremy picked me for lunch. As soon as Debbie noticed I had left for lunch they made a mad dash out to their cars to gather the gifts and hide them inside before I returned. Apparently it was two mad dashes because the first time they still saw my car in the parking lot and ran back inside in confusion until it was explained I had been picked up. Haha, I’m sure that was entertaining to watch.

I am so appreciative of everything we received. I was feeling pretty down last week as we continue to watch large chunks of money leave our bank account that are out of our control, but it was a wonderful pick me up as we headed into the weekend and totally made me feel special. Just what we needed. They even gave me a little cake to bring home to Jeremy.

Thanks EOI for the spirit lifter and the the new goodies for Kingston!

A new person started today so a group of us went out to lunch to welcome her. She has two kids, so the conversation eventually turned into baby discussions which led my boss to start suggesting that Jeremy and I should be next, since we’re now the longest married couple that doesn’t have kids (at work). I tried the whatever excuse and the Ron and his wife are having a baby in January excuse, but he wouldn’t let up. I eventually blurted out “you would think you would be the person trying to convince me not to have kids”. He gave me a quizzically look and I finished by saying “since it means I’m going to have to leave, take maternity leave”. His response was “We’ll let you have a week off”. And then he dropped the topic. In just a couple short weeks I’ll be able to tell him that he can now rest easy, cause Jeremy and I are going to be parents come May (but probably June ; ).

In January of this year we completely rebuilt everything in the software program we use at work. It was a HUGE undertaking, at our busiest time of year, and took a couple months to get completely up and running like normal. I didn’t even have to do the majority of it and it was still super time consuming.

Yesterday it was announced that we will be switching software programs completely. At first I went into slight panic mode, oh no not again, not so soon. And then they said it would happen around June - September of 2010. And I smiled to myself. Then I joked, “I’m calling in sick for the second part of the year”. But really I was serious. If my calculations are right, Baby Kakes will be making his appearance in June, just in time for me to miss the mayhem. It’s really perfect timing : )

Call for Desperate Measures.

I started sharing my office with a new person on Monday who has been hacking all over the place. Adding to that, my other co-worker just found out her daughter came in contact with the swine flu and could now have it. So as a joke (but really I was contemplating actually wearing it the rest of the week) I brought in Jeremy’s respirator that he uses when he paints. Don’t these people know that now is not the time for me to be surrounded by sickos! No, they don’t, which brings me to my next topic…

We’ve decided to keep Baby Kakes our little secret until Thanksgiving, when our hope is that we will be able to tell both our families together (still working on the details there). Plus, it’s kind of fun to have a little secret that no one else knows but us. But it’s proving to be a more difficult to keep our mouths (or maybe just mine) from spilling the details. Case in point, last night we were celebrating our good friend Kristy’s 30th Birthday, when I had to catch myself. Here’s 3 examples of how I almost let the cat out of the bag (where does that expression come from anyway?).

1. I’m talking to Kaci about my recent traumatic experience having my blood taken for a life insurance exam. Having blood taken is always traumatic for me (fainting, dizziness, the cold sweats) but on Wednesday one of the vials was broken and so it was more painfully and took way longer than it should have. Yea. To which Kaci says to me “What are you going to do when you get pregnant?” Me, “I … I don’t know”. Guess we’ll find out pretty soon. Why haven’t they figured out a way to knock you out during delivery yet?

2. Kaci is talking about her sister in law, Lizzy, who is due this month. Apparently she never weighs herself and doesn’t care to know how much she’s gained. To which I had to stop myself from responding, “Jeremy asked me if I wanted to buy a scale, I told him no way, I’d find out each month at the doctor’s”.

3. Jeni is 4 months pregnant so I asked her if she had morning sickness. She says “Yes, but mine was in the afternoon from week 9 to 14. I would come home and just lay there, not do the dishes or anything. I was just so tired, you just can’t understand until you go through it.” To which I wanted to say, “I totally understand!”. I literally walk in the door every night and collapse on the couch in a half coma, pretty much only moving to eat dinner and take a shower. Thankfully, Jeremy’s been great, making dinner and cleaning up and keeping things in order because I’ve been downright useless.

I’m assuming my morning sickness, which is really all day sickness in my case, started earlier because of my misformed stomach. And I’m wondering if that is going to mean it last longer too. Right now week 14 seems so far away.

No one warned me about dizziness!

I was sitting in a meeting in my boss’ office this afternoon when things started spinning. I tried to close and open my eyes a couple times and refocus but it didn’t help. Finally as I felt my eyes rolling back, I closed my eyes and interrupted him to tell him that I was sorry, but I suddenly was dizzy and needed a second. He asked if I was okay and needed anything, then told me he saw my eyes do something funny, but he thought it was just my contact doing something weird (which has happened before). After a minute the room stopped spinning, but I still felt a little lightheaded, and even now still feel a little off. Geez, I didn’t see that coming.

In a related topic, I think my brain has left the building. Yesterday we met with our CPA for the first time (Thanks Anna & fam for the reference, we think she’s going to be just perfect for us). As we were discussing different items I said, “Under different circumcision, circum, circum… what is the word I’m trying to say here?!” Circumstances! Circumstances is what I was trying to say but just couldn’t get out. What a way to introduce myself to someone new. At least we all got a good laugh out of it : )

Side note: Jeremy is ticklish, something I absolutely love (and take advantage of). I, however, am not ticklish, which of course drives him nuts. So as we are talking at dinner tonight about my new symptoms he says to me, “I hope that you get ticklish as a side effect of pregnancy”. That made me laugh. It’s a tough call, be ticklish or be dizzy, hmmm, I might just go with ticklish.