2014 – A Year in Review

Not much happened in January

February was a roller coaster of emotions month because Nougat died but we got Marshmallow. We also visited the Chicago Auto Show, and Joe put together the sweetest scavenger hunt for Valentine’s Day.

Hershey passed away in March. A trip to the Shedd Aquarium later that month convinced me that it will be several years before we return to that overpriced place again.

In April we adopted Doug & Steve. We also went on day trips to Rockford and Elmhurst which were fun.

In May we hosted a very fun game night with a few friends. The month also included a trip to Lilacia Park to check out their beautiful lilacs and tulips. Oh, and we bought our first ever toaster!

We visited Omaha, Nebraska and Des Moines, Iowa in June. We also adopted Milo.

We enjoyed a weeklong Staycation in July that included trips to Indiana Beach and Whiting’s annual Pierogi Fest.

August was a pretty low-key month other than adopting Gizmo.

For the majority of September I obsessed over the new iPhone 6 which I purchased. I also successfully sold my old iPhone 4S for a great price. There’s too many entries to link here, so just check that month if you’re interested.

October included tests and doctor visits to address my equilibrium issues, my uncle died, and we visited Racine & Kenosha, Wisconsin. I also got screamed at by a lady in a McDonald’s drive-thru!

My Betta fish, Sebastian, died in November. I also got to spend some quality time with my cousin and her boyfriend as well as Brother #2 and his girlfriend.

December included normal holiday stuff. In addition, my car decided to start leaking and my aunt passed away the day after Christmas.

What a year! I didn’t think much happened until I started going through all my entries to put this list together. Here’s to hoping for a great 2015!

Christmas Cleanup, Car Troubles, and My Aunt

The Christmas decorations have been taken down and packed away. Most of them, anyway. Joe has been working on my car since 10 am so the tree itself is still up, as are two things that too high up for me to reach. Once he’s done with the car he’ll be taking that stuff down so I can put everything away and we can go back to having a non-cluttered house.

We also have some errands to run but at this rate I’m guessing they will have to be put off for another day. We need to pick up some sweaters we dropped off at a local tailor to sew, get gas for my car, and visit the library. I’ll probably be hitting up the library tomorrow since it closes in less than an hour and Joe is just now finishing up my car. I’m sure he’d like a shower and something to eat; I know I would!

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day too because I need to swing by the sleep center to pick up the sleep study equipment (assuming my doctor’s office faxed over the info and the center is able to get insurance approval quickly). Plus, once Joe gets home from work we have to head out to Bridgeview to attend my aunt’s wake. Apparently she had been in the hospital for awhile but no one had informed my dad so neither of us knew. She passed away the day after Christmas. It’s sad to think she died all alone without any family around. She’s the only aunt on my dad’s side that I kept in touch with.

Edited to Add – It turns out my aunt wasn’t sick in the hospital, my dad just didn’t relay the information accurately. She actually spent time with family every weekend, and the day after Christmas she collapsed, was rushed to the hospital, and couldn’t be revived.

Christmas Part Deux

Yesterday was our Christmas with E. He seemed to enjoy all his presents: baseball cards, a White Sox collectors coin, candy, Dunkin Donuts gift card, McDonald’s gift card, Google Play store gift card, and $100 in cash (because he didn’t really give us any ideas for presents and we eventually ran out). Not surprising, to me at least, was how much he liked the oversized ceramic Pikachu bank we got him. He sure loves Pokemon!

Pikachu Bank

The only thing he wasn’t keen on was the Skullcandy bluetooth wireless speaker we got him. We had seen it at Target for 50% off so we took a gamble knowing he might already have one at home (he does). So I gave him $20 for it and I’m debating whether to keep it or take it back. I already have a wireless speaker but this new one has twice the battery life so it’s tempting to hang onto it but I’m not sure if I really need it.

We ran out to Target for a little bit in the early afternoon and E decided to use some of his money to buy some more baseball cards. I showed him how they were 30% off in the Target Cartwheel app and when we got home he had downloaded it and signed up since he goes to Target sometimes. I’m happy to be a role model for him on how to save a couple of bucks.

I made a delicious Cook’s shank ham that we got at Meijer. I used to get a spiral ham at Target but found that the shank ham comes out much more moist. The regular sides we have every year were included – green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, crescent rolls, corn, mashed potatos, gravy, stuffing, and macaroni and cheese, except the latter was my homemade version instead of boxed.

We spent the day watching movies and just relaxing. It was nice.

Annoyed

Today has not gone at all as planned. I had trouble falling back to sleep after Joe’s alarm went off, but after taking a Xanax I was able to get almost two more hours of sleep. Once I got up I did a little decluttering and then called my old college buddy as we planned to catch up. Except she didn’t answer even though she asked me to call at that time. So I decided I’d do some deep cleaning in the kitchen in order to “earn” the ability to spend the rest of the day being lazy and streaming Hot Wives of Orlando (a funny Hulu original series) on Hulu Plus (turns out we get a free two-month subscription for buying the Google Chromecast).

But before that, I called the sleep clinic I’ve been working with to schedule an at-home sleep study to find out whether I have sleep apnea. Except they can’t schedule it until my doctor’s office sends them the information we’ve both been asking them to send since LAST Saturday.

Basically, my doctor initially gave me the order for a facility that kept putting me off and putting me off. I gave them all my info on December 2nd and scheduled an in-facility sleep study for December 18th. I explained to them I wanted to know what my out of pocket cost would be and they told me they’d know once I had my insurance info. So when I dropped it off I asked them again and was told they’d need to call the insurance and get back to me. But they didn’t. So I called the next week and they claimed, again, they’d get back to me. But they didn’t. So I called the Monday before my scheduled sleep study and was told the same thing once more. Finally I got pissed off and asked them exactly when they were planning to call me seeing as how my appointment was mere days away. They said the day before. Except when I called them that mourning they still couldn’t help me.

It wasn’t until 3 o’clock that afternoon they called me and guess what? They told me my insurance denied an in-facility study and I’d have to come down and pick up some equipment and do an at-home study.

At this point I was so annoyed that they took three weeks to figure this out that I decided to do the study through the facility tied to the hospital I see my physician through. I don’t even know why she tried sending me to the other place to begin with.

I spoke with the second facility on Friday December 19th and they told me what they needed from my doctor in ordrer to proceed. Since my doctor doesn’t have hours on Fridays, I sent them a fax explaining how I didn’t want to deal with the other place because they were less than helpful, and to please fax an at-home study order to the new facility along with the physical they were requesting. I called my doctor on Saturday to make sure they got my fax and they said yes.

On Monday I called the facility to see if they got everything, and they told me the doctor hadn’t faxed them anything. So I called my doctor and they claimed they did fax it but would do it again. In the meantime I received a call from the first facility because the idiot doctor sent them my fax where I basically said I didn’t like them; they wanted to know what was going on. So I just told them the other facility is easier to get to for me. I was so mad that my doctor would do something so stupid.

On Tuesday I called back the second facility and asked if they’ve gotten the info from my doctor yet, and they told me just the order, but not the physical. So they faxed my doctor asking for the physical.

As of this morning the doctor hasn’t sent it to them and I’m running out of time to get this done for only $50 as opposed to $300+ (thanks to Joe’s kids always going to the doctor the family deductible has been met this year and I’d only have to pay 15% of the cost whereas if I wait to have the study done next year I will have to pay for it out of pocket in full).

I’ve spent so much time on the phone going back and forth with this that I’m at the point I am going to be screaming at my doctor’s office tomorrow morning when they are back in. I don’t usually get like this but I’ve had it with the office manager (which happens to be my doctor’s husband). This isn’t the first time he has made things difficult for me. I guess I’m going to have to switch doctors after having the same one for over a decade because I’m ready to strangle this guy!

On top of that, I just had the worst experience with Petco. A friend alerted me to a deal they had online where for every $25 eGift card you buy, you get a bonus $5 eGift card. I figured I’d get $50 and a $10 bonus since I buy the rats’ litter from Petco, except when I placed my order I never got the bonus eGift card. When I called I was told that promotion expired at 3 am this morning even though it’s still appearing on their site. When I pointed this out, the guy said he could transfer me to customer service so they could do something to accommodate me, except the guy I spoke to was a total moron. He kept talking over me and not understanding anything I was trying to tell him. I will admit, I lost my patience at one point and yelled, “well maybe if you stopped interrupting me you’d get the confirmation #!” LOL But seriously, WTF? I spent a half hour on the phone with him and received no resolution. He claims someone has to call me back in 24-48 hours but I’m not holding my breath. If they weren’t so incompetent I’d just cancel the order, but I’m afraid they’d deactivate the gift card code but not refund my money. It has really left a sour taste in my mouth in regards to that place, though. Honestly, I’m a bigger fan of Petsmart, but the Petco brand paper paper litter has the best smell, texture, and price compared to Yesterday’s News so I always buy it.

Now I’m just so annoyed I can’t concentrate on the Hot Wives show so I guess I’ll go take a shower since I hadn’t gotten around to that yet today.

Christmas

Since we got to bed so late last night (1:30 am) we slept in this morning. Once we made it downstairs we exchanged gifts. I got Joe some candy, a work light and hunting knife he had asked for, a Quirky extension cord, and a Flip Belt for when he gets back to running.

Joe got me what you see below.

Nicole's Gifts

I asked for the Jasmine essential oil, nail strengthener, and facial brush. I also pretty much told Joe he had to get me the chocolate covered potato chips (sadly, they aren’t that impressive) and pretzels as stocking stuffers when I spotted them at Target last month. The Chromecast and webcam were complete surprises, though.

I’ve been talking about wanting to try the Chromecast lately because I love the idea of being able to stream YouTube videos on the TV, plus in March we will no longer be getting the incredible deal we have on our cable services anymore. Joe was let go from the company earlier this year when they decided to outsource his department (the outsourcer ended up hiring him so he does the same thing but for a different company) and part of the deal was to allow us to retain the heavily discounted services through March 2015. Once that time comes around the bill will probably quadruple (if not more), so we’ve been thinking of alternatives. Right now we have home phone, security, the fastest internet package, and every cable channel possible and we only pay $50 a month and that’s mostly for rental fees (for two DVRs & the cable modem) as well as $10 per month for the security system (the employee discount was very generous). So once that goes to regular customer prices it’s going to be outrageous. We plan to keep the internet and security and drop the cable and phone services so the bill will be closer to double what we pay now. Joe started an Amazon Prime trial and I signed up for free trials of Hulu Plus and Epix so we can get an idea of what shows we can watch without cable. So far it seems pretty promising. I’m pretty sure Joe already regrets getting me the Chromecast, however, since I spent like four hours playing YouTube videos and Hulu Plus content on the TV today.

As for the webcam, he got me that because I had mentioned awhile back that it would be cool to set up a camera in the rat room so I can keep an eye on my babies when I’m at work. So we’ll be hooking that up this weekend to test it out. I’m pretty excited because I miss them during the day!

Since E won’t be back until Saturday we are waiting to make our ham then, so we made some steak for dinner tonight. Now we’re just relaxing watching TV. Joe has to work tomorrow so I’ll probably be spending the day watching more YouTube videos on the TV, haha! My life is so hard right now. ;)