Snow Baby!

This past Sunday it dropped a few inches of snow on us in surprising fashion.  No one knew it was coming.  We went to sleep Saturday night and Sunday, boom.  Snow.  So, we decided to take Elise out for her first play in the snow.  Here are some pictures and a couple of videos!

Picture with Santa 2013

It looks like she's just interested in Santa but it's kind of like I tell our youth group when talking about Bible passages..it's all about context.  This picture was snapped in the midst of the fit she was throwing to get down and run and play.  Luckily Santa played along and we have a usable picture.  The rest of the pictures have Kim's head in the background or me trying to move Elise's legs.  Good times...I have to say this is exactly what we expected though so no surprises :)

Smiles From the Heart

It's interesting watching Elise get older.  At her age it seems that's she pretty wide open with the way she feels.  Today, I was sitting with her upstairs on her couch reading while she watched tv.  I got up because I had to use the bathroom and she stayed on the couch content to continue watching tv.  I opened the door to the bathroom and stood there for a minute.  Usually, she likes to come in the bathroom with us when we go in there and she likes to go in the shower and play.  She never tears anything up so we always let her.  I was sure she would want in this time like usual, but she didn't..she just sat there on the couch.  I looked at her to see if she was coming and she was slouched a little more but still in the same spot.  When I was sitting with her before that I had my arm behind her so she slid down a little when I got up.  Then, I made eye contact with her and smiled.  She smiled back.

It may seem kind of over-emotional, but it was a great moment.  Just for a second, it was a great moment shared with my daughter.  And it's not that Elise doesn't smile or laugh often.  Quite the contrary actually.  She laughs all the time.  But, this just seemed a little more close and a little more undeserved.  Almost as if I want to ask God what I've done to deserve a daughter this amazing. 

It made me think too about how many times I smile and it's not geared through true joy.  Elise is pretty pure and honest about her smiles.  If she's happy, she'll smile.  If not..she won't.  And that's not to advocate that we put on a frown until we're ready to smile.  Because I think sometimes we need to smile to strengthen and encourage others or to give joy to someone else.  But, as a follower of God, I want to be honest and genuine too.  I hope that smiles come from me because I am joyful and thankful and content.  And when things don't go my way, I hope I can be honest about my hurts, downfalls, or fears and be encouraged back to joy by someone doing better than me.

Anyways, I feel like my thoughts with this are a little random but I hope it makes sense somewhat.

     After all the talk on smiling this is this is the look she gave for the photo

It's (Going to be) a Boy!

What up now, estrogen house??  It's official that the new baby is a boy.  Kim called it this time.  I knew Elise would be a girl and Kim knew this baby would be a boy.  We're going to name him Liam Brandon McKendree.  Not that we named him after the actor, but it would be awesome if one day he could destroy people like Liam Neeson in Taken.  A son any dad could be proud of :)

On a serious note, just as with Elise, I hope Liam grows up to do great things.  And not necessarily on a success scale as we might normally view it (although I hope they do achieve greatness in that aspect) but on a deeper level.  I hope they love people with unconditional love.  I hope they realize much younger than I did that the church isn't just a building or an institution, but a group of people reaching out to God and others.  I hope they bring joy to people's lives because they were kind, funny, or knew how to make someone feel good.  I hope they bring joy to people who are suffering because they want to extend the love of Jesus.  I hope they stand up for the weak and choose justice over popularity and reputation.  

I'm looking forward to seeing him and can't wait for a lot of things.  I can't wait to shoot basketball with him.  I can't wait to play video games with him.  I can't wait to take him fishing (even though I'm not much a fisherman myself).  I can't wait to have another male in the house that I can blame messy bathrooms and open toilet seats on.  It's going to be great.

Insurance!! Arrrrrggghhhh!!

I hope you enjoyed my pirate sound in the title...I'm a little irritated to say the least. I've been on the phone with Anthem for 48 minutes and counting over one single issue of a prescription reimbursement. It's been extremely difficult to not take my rage out on the lady on the phone because I realize none of this is her fault. Here's the scoop..When Kim was first pregnant, she was constantly sick to her stomach. So, he doctor prescribed her a generic form of Zofran..to take every 4 hours..and gave her 20 pills. 20 pills...20. To take every 4 hours for a month. Do some simple math and you'll realize that if you took even just 2 pills every day, that would still only last 10 days. And our insurance company, like many, will only cover prescription refills every 30 days. So, we called the doctor and she prescribed a pill count of 120. But, it needed to have a prior authorization which then went before Anthem's medical review board.

 In the meantime, Kim was still sick. So, Anthem, remember this, ANTHEM themselves, advised us to pay out of pocket for the prescription ($117) to hold us over and if the prescription was approved by the medical review board then we could get reimbursed. So, Mark and Sharon were nice enough to help us out and we got the prescription. More than a month later we received a letter stating that they had approved Kim's prescription that she no longer needed. So, I set out on the adventure of reimbursement. Three, count em', three, phone transfers (full of holds) and 30 minutes later I was taken to the right place: a lady telling me that she would send a reimbursement form. As Kimmie would say, "Well, glory."

I Received the form, filled it out, took it to Rite Aid and had the pharmacy manager print out the appropriate documents and sign the form, and faxed it over...only to receive a response that our claim was denied because, "The claim is for an amount or dosage that exceeds your plan's limits." You don't say??? Of course it is. That's why we needed a prior authorization. Anyways, the lady is talking to her manager about it and we've talked here and there through the holds and despite my frustration, she is being very nice and helpful and giving her best effort. So, I have to be thankful for that. It's just one of those things that makes you want to pull your hair out even though it's not any one person's fault. I'm at 1 hour 6 minutes on the phone now. Here are some pictures of the process along the way.

I looked in to see how Kim was doing and saw she got a little sleepy holding Elise so I snapped a picture

Sammie likes to sit on my lap when I'm at the PC.  Aside from her wicked typing skills, she helps tons by guarding the computer.

Elise got down to get a swig of milk and went back up to her mom.  A minute later and she is chugging and Kim is sleeping :)