4 eyes...

After 6 weeks of daily headaches it was determined that I needed glasses. Once it was mentioned it became so obvious to me. I picked up my glasses today and I love them! I can't wait for the headaches to clear up and of course to see clearly without eye strain. The vision in my right eye was about 10 times worse than my left. I felt like a dork not realizing it sooner. Oh well. So I have astigmatism and I am farsighted. My 10 year old daughter has worn glasses since she was 2. She was so excited that her mom was going to get glasses and be like her. My eyes are still adjusting but I am noticing an improvement. Yay!

"New" vehicle

I never thought we'd be getting a "new" vehicle this year. It's just one of those things that presented itself. It seems that there were a few people around us getting into new vehicles recently. The thought was nice, but we can't afford NEW.  We certainly couldn't afford another payment. However, we were stuck in a truck that we were still making payments on and it was getting more miles on it, and it was costing us a good amount in repairs/maintenance. Did I mention we were still paying on it? Did I mention we owed more than it was worth? We needed to get out of it. I decided to do some research. I can be a good little researcher, and do well when I've done my research.   :)

I had looked up all of our vehicle's values awhile back. (1997 Aerostar with 165,000 miles, 1995 Explorer with 199,600 miles and 2001 Sport Trac with 131,000 miles) I didn't have much to work with, not to mention the whole upside down on the Sport Trac thing. But I had to do something. We searched and test drove and haggled.

We went to one place and found this lovely red F-150. We got in to test drive it. I glanced around and noticed a red stain on the ceiling. "Oh look, blood splatter", I joked to my husband. It had a lovely lemony smell and we noticed an air freshener, we also noticed a rock chip in the windshield. If we were to get it, they'd have to fix those things. We decided maybe we'd test it overnight. We had done that before. We agreed that we'd come pick it up the next day. However, that night I couldn't sleep and for some reason I thought... what if that really was blood splatter? What if the rock chip was a bullet hole? Or some sort of "trauma" hole? What if the air freshener was covering up some awful smell??? Well really I was joking around.. but what if?

My husband called me the next day from work and said he just didn't feel good about that truck.. I told him my thoughts. We laughed. Later we went to check out a lot I had been to before. It had 2 F150's I was interested in. They were both the supercrew cab which I had been having a hard time finding.  They were in our price range, etc.  Well we went home that night with a LOVELY gray/silver 2004 F150 with 90,000 miles on it. I am loving that truck!!! It's our "family vehicle" but it can do everything John wants it to do as well. We were able to get what we owed for the Sport Trac and a fair amount for my Explorer. We even decided to keep the van. Our payment is just a little more than what we were paying, but we have a newer vehicle with less miles. We also have one less vehicle to maintain, register, etc. every year.  I am happy! I will post pics soon. I don't know why we haven't taken pictures of it yet. I'd do it now, but hubby has it at work, cuz I'm nice to share...
oh and because he's the one that makes the money.

There's always a reason

My life wouldn't be my life without little situations that have meaning. Sometimes I think of a situation and think, wow what a waste of time that was. Other times I find out there was a reason for that situation. Sometimes I find out years later, sometimes right away.

We're all connected, there's guidance from above, and I'm all kinds of emotional just thinking about it.

Yesterday, for a second I had a moment that I thought was a waste of my time.

I will share my story from an e-mail I just sent my dad....

First off, we've been looking to upgrade our vehicles. The cars are getting older with more and more miles on them, so we've been looking around. I've been wanting an F150 ever since we got one as a rental awhile back. So yesterday I was at Ken Garff Ford in American Fork.





It ended up being an interesting situation. I didn't really see anything in our price range or more like in our price range that we wanted, but this lady was determined for me to come in and see if they could do anything for us. Well they couldn't. Unless I wanted to accept $500 for the Explorer and van. (each) And if I wanted a Fusion. Actually I don't even know if that was 100% in our price range.





While this guy was running around checking on things, this lady sat and chatted with me and Jeremy. She was asking him if he was going to be in the Navy like his dad. He told her that he used to want to be in the Army, but now he's thinking it would be fun to work with Grandpa Don at the Book Bindery. After a few minutes, she said she used to work at a Bindery for 20 years. She asked the name of the Bindery (Utah Book Binding Company) and said it sounded familiar. (it is now Family Heritage Publishers) Well she had worked at Hiller Book Binding Company which sounded familiar to me. I guess her uncle started that company. I told her that my grandpa might have worked with her uncle. I told her she should ask him if he knew Glenn Hancock. She said, he had died but her aunt would know.





So this morning I looked in the book about Grandma and Grandpa, and sure enough it was Hiller Bookbinding Company. How crazy is that? Well it got me thinking that we need to go and visit Grandma and Grandpa soon. Would you want to go with us on Sunday? We have a gift for Kathie for her birthday, so either way we'd like to get together if you're not busy.





I'm taking the kids to the downtown library today, so e-mail or call and let me know.


Love,


Jill


Life is too short, we don't see my grandparents often enough. Maybe once every 2 years. This lady came into my life at this point and time for a reason. I'm not sure what it is beyond the fact that I need to visit my grandparents!  I'm so grateful that my grandparents made a book about their lives. It helps me to know and understand who I am. Just flipping through the pages and seeing my grandparents and great grandparents has made me cry for the last 20 minutes. I can't explain it, but I'm overcome with emotions.

It's that time again...

Some would say I'm officially crazy. I have told the Surrogacy Agency I last worked with that I am ready to start looking again.
Some will say, Oh but you just had twins not that long ago. True and yet not. The twins will be 1 next month. I know people who don't even wait a year in between their own pregnancies. I believe that your body heals twice as fast, twice as well when you don't have a baby or babies to take care of after the delivery.

Am I wrong? Am I crazy? It doesn't matter, I'm ready. By the way, I must not be crazy or I would have no chance as a surrogate, certainly not an experienced surrogate. Although some (crazy surrogates) do slip through.

So now what?

Well, there's the fun matter of health insurance. What I have now already sucks, and what makes it suck even more is that it does NOT cover surrogacy. Although they don't clearly say that. They say something to the point of "We don't cover anything that isn't medically necessary".  I was told that surrogacy falls into that category. Oh ok, so regardless of HOW a woman gets pregnant, it isn't medically necessary to treat her? I think it's just plain stupid! If I'm the one who is pregnant, I should be covered. If a woman decides to give her baby up for adoption, she'd be covered, if a woman had an affiair and got pregnant, she'd be covered. But if I willingly get pregnant to help someone else, I'm screwed?
 ( I know I could be opening a huge debate on this)

So that's where I am at this stage in the process, looking for maternity coverage in Utah with no exclusions. Kind of bummed to be stuck, but looking forward to finding a solution and moving on to the next phase...

Hooray for contests and Free Baby Magazine (help me out, hook me up!)

So I was kind of excited to get an e-mail about the Free Baby Magazine: Top Blogger 2010 Contest.

I am not an affiliate, I don't make any money from this. But they are having a great contest for


whoever can refer the most readers! There is a great prize in it for me and some great prizes

for you too! For following them on Twitter, Facebook and their Blog you will be entered into a

drawing for some AWESOME, Hand-Made hair-bows from Bowtique Mama. Each "Follow" counts as

an entry and a drawing will be held for each category (Twitter, Facebook and Blog).
 

You want me to win, right??  Well then, if you're on Twitter, follow them here: 

@freebabymag http://www.twitter.com/freebabymag

Facebook?


Free Baby Magazine on Facebook
 
You should totally check them out and follow their blog! Go Now  :)