Can't remember

I know there were things I wanted to write about this week, but I don't remember much of what they were.

Yep, I'm still averaging 6 hours sleep per night.

Bob had a beginners photography class in our home on Tuesday. His cousin's wife and her sister came, and two ladies from the Mennonite church.  The cousin's daughter was supposed to come, but couldn't make it, as were another cousin (whose husband got sick), and the cousin's wife's boss (who got a migraine).  Anyrate, it went pretty well and I think they all learned something.  He wants to try a more in-depth series of classes in October.

That morning, Bob was standing on a chair to dust something, and somehow he lost his balance and fell.  Instinctively (he didn't even know he'd done it) he reached out for support, and managed to pull the display cabinet over, too.  It made a big crashing sound, and we just knew all our valuables we shattered. In fact, I was holding my breath expecting the glass cabinet doors to shatter all over Bob and the living room.  The children screamed or cried. Bob rolled away from the (surprising lack of) carnage and demonstrated that he wasn't damaged.  I calmed the little ones down a bit, got Elijah to bed for his nap, and came back to the findings that nothing seemed to be broken, but we didn't have the key to the cabinet.  Bob and Taryn tried several things, and finally managed to pick the lock so we could take all the stuff out, clean the cabinet, and put everything back. Turns out one of the legs was broken off, so we just took off the other legs, too, making the cabinet shorter but more stable.

Daniel weighed in on the Wii on his 1 month birthday at 10.5 pounds. That makes him more or less equivalent to Elijah at birth. Daniel is more stout through the chest, but less fat on the chin and legs.  He hasn't been letting Bob hold him much, but otherwise isn't hard to please.

I was reminded (by a "friend" on Facebook) about the T-Tapp exercise program.  I've had it bookmarked for a couple of years on my laptop; I looked at it some more and made an order. She's supposed to cure knee and back pain as well as help tone and all the other things that exercise will do.  Anyway, it arrived yesterday, and this morning I checked out some of the routines. Looks promising; the hard part of course is actually doing it.

I also made my first ever order from Walmart.com; found it very easy to navigate the site, and appreciate the 97 cent shipping and the ability to pay with Paypal.

We are planning a little trip on our anniversary, which should be a lot of fun if we aren't rained out (planning to camp).

That's all I've got.

Oh, yeah, also a little gripe:
Don't misunderstand me, I am grateful for the military benefits that we enjoy every day. Bob's retirement and disability are enough to keep him at home where he can rest when he needs to.  He's going to school for free, with the occasional bonus pay (I could gripe about the way the pay is handled, but that's not my point today).  We might have been able to scrape together for a community college class, but there's no way we could every pay for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh on our income without the Post 9/11 G I Bill.  There are occasional benefits, like getting to stay on base when we travel (nice apartment for the same price as a cheap hotel), and some people consider the BX and the commissary as benefits, though last time we checked, prices weren't better and convenience was worse there.
Then there's the insurance. Again, I am grateful for the rates (our annual enrollment is lower than some families' monthly premium), and I'm usually very satisfied with the coverage. We've never had a bill rejected by Tricare, or a referral or prescription refused. So it's really a tiny gripe.  When Daniel was born he had a certain amount of a "grace period" that wasn't specified, but I assume is 10 days. So, within a week of his birth, Bob and I drove down to south of Fayetteville to a little National Guard outpost in order to register Daniel on DEERS (Defense something something system) - so the military knows that he is Bob's dependent.  But the office was closed for a week (told you it was a little outpost).  So we came back the day they reopened and had no hassle getting him enrolled in DEERS, in spite of not having his birth certificate back yet (here you have to send off for one in the mail, and wait 4-6 weeks to get it). Then we could sign him up for the insurance. So I dug up the proper forms from the website, printed them, filled them out, and mailed them off (can't enroll online). THEN they sent me a blank form (page 3 of 7) saying I hadn't done that one the first time. So I filled it out again, used another stamp, and waited some more. THEN we finally got his enrollment letter in the mail, with a start date of 1 OCTOBER. Hello?? Don't most doctors require visits at 2 weeks, (some at 1 month) and again at 2 months? He'll be 2 months plus a week before he can go for his first checkup!  If we were doing vaccines his schedule would be all messed up. Never mind if he gets sick! I guess if we were worried about him we could cover an office visit ($150 or so?), but a lot of people can't. We happen to be situated to suffer very little from this stupidity, but it shouldn't be like that to enroll an newborn, and wasn't when we were active duty. So that's my rant for the day. And thank God Daniel is healthy.