3 Cheers for Tyler!

Hip Hip Hooray!
For Tyler taking his last final and finishing his bachelor's degree!

Hip Hip Hooray!
For Tyler taking the GMAT and doing well!

Hip Hip HOORAY!
For Tyler having a great job lead in Texas!

Here's a picture of his last day of school, meant to be reminiscent of the "first day of school" pictures we all took part in as children.

Happy 2 to my Baby!

There's so much to discover and explore when you're only 1!

January: Snow

February: Dogs

March: Books

April: Dirt and Garbage?

May: Hideouts

June: The Beach

July: Patriotism ;)

August: Lawns and more Dogs

August: Sandboxes and Cousins

September: Harvesting Apples

October: Story Time

November: Walks

December: Mom and Dad's Big Bed

It's been a busy year!
Happy 2nd Birthday Cameron! I love you so much!
Mommy

When Plans Change from Day to Day

Miami Shores FL, Whittier CA, Redmond WA: No, nope, sorry. "We did some reorganizing," "We chose someone who interned in California," "We hired a guy who had been doing this line of work for 34 years." That's what it's like job hunting nowadays with a saturated job market market. So Tyler and I are still job-less. I guess you can say we're now part of the quoted statistic of unemployed/underemployed Americans. And because Christmas is getting so close we figure a job won't come until at least after the holidays. So our plans? We've petitioned our complex to stay at least another month or two (rules are such that once you are graduated, they kick you out, but we petitioned to be exceptions) and Tyler will keep his current job which he can work full time for at most 6 more months. So thankfully money is not an issue. Funny story: the physically disabled full time MTC missionaries Tyler works with told him, "We keep praying that you'll stay here with us!" Oh! No wonder we aren't leaving! Quit that praying you guys! ;) And believe it or not, since we made this current buy-more-time plan, which is better than having NO plan, the stress has gone down tremendously. Now we can enjoy the holidays.

We have great faith we'll eventually find the door and path that is meant for us. In the mean time we'll just keep looking and knocking. Newest prospects on the horizon: Maryland, Washington DC, North Carolina. The job hunt continues! *sigh*

Sometimes It's Hard to be a Parent

Like when you come out of the bathroom after a shower and wonder what is all over the floor and then realize to your dismay it is your laptop's keys and parts. *sigh* Luckily (you may call me amazing) I got all the parts put back in their place. In fact I am blogging on this laptop now. The only casualties is a missing Alt button (but when do you hardly use that?) and a g and h button that easily falls out of place because of some small pieces being broken in the attack. This laptop is on it's second hard drive, slow, has no battery left, and now has slide-y/missing keys. It is quickly becoming the epitome of "fix it up, wear it out" etc.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas

No disrespect to those who feel that way, but I'm not one who has to wait until Thanksgiving is over before I decorate for Christmas. I thought 5 weeks of Christmas in my house would be perfect, so I decorated last weekend. Since I couldn't expect Cameron to stay away from a decorated tree, and also since we will be moving the 22nd, I did things a bit different this year.

(That's a bird above. Tyler says it looks like a mouse.)

And what did Cameron decide to do while I was distracted and taking these pictures?

He thought he was so funny and was so delighted. Silly boy!

First Haircut

I put it off as long as possible because I loved Cameron's curly red hair! I would snip here and there to ward off a mullet but it was clear he was just looking more like a scrap than anything else. Tyler had been wanting to cut it for some time and I finally consented.

Here's a few before shots. Cute!

Getting him to hold still and allowing us to cut it was the real trick. We gave him a sucker ("Cameron's Kryptonite"), sat him on mommy's lap, and played a movie pretty loudly. We also let him get to know the hair clippers to help break the ice. He did surprisingly well, better than expected.

The result: a more clean cut and older looking Cameron. And an emotional mommy to see his baby red hair gone."Now go play and eat that sucker! You deserve it!"

Halloween

It's late, but Cameron looked so funny at our ward Halloween party that I had to show! We borrowed a cousin's too-cute pirate costume complete with eye patch, bandanna, and shoulder parrot. I had no illusions that he would wear the eye patch or bandanna but it was the shoulder parrot he surprisingly hated. He pulled at it and would not be distracted from it. Not wanting to rip a borrowed costume, we just used a different shirt, a Halloween shirt at least! But with the whole ensemble, he kinda resembled more of a teenage punk than anything else.

Definitely more sugar in one day than Cameron has ever had!

Cameron's first Trick or Treat. I think he sort of got it. What's not to get about everyone handing you candy, right?

There ended up being only four kids to Trick or Treat around the room so handfuls were passed out. Clearly, he made out like a bandit. Obviously inexperienced with candy and sort of like a goat, he sometimes didn't realize the wrapper wasn't part of the treat.

Funny and sadly true

I can only imagine...

H1N1

Today Cameron and I were driving to a park. Along the way I had the idea to stop by Cameron's pediatrician office to see if they had the swine flu vaccine. They did and Cameron got a poke instead of a playground. Tough luck for him I suppose. But after hearing about all the long lines people have had to wait in, I was happy to get to walk right in and get him what he needed. I was ready to pay only to be told my insurance likely covered it 100%. Even better.

Since I was on a roll, I called my doctor's office to see if I could come in and get the vaccine since I thought I might be pregnant. We drove 15 minutes to get to the clinic, ran a pregnancy test that came back negative. (Negative, huh? Then how do you explain the recent sensitive and eruptious state of the "ladies?") They told me they were only allowed to give the vaccine to people who fit inside the CDC "at risk" criteria. So I left without the vaccine but with a referral for a pregnancy blood test since it would be more definitive at such an early stage. (Yes I am admitting I could be very early pregnant but it's because I want to illustrate a point. Read on.)

I stopped at the lab in the student health center since it is so close to my house. I asked how much the test would be. I decided I would wait and try my luck again in a few weeks with a free urine test at my doctor's when I heard it would be $42. I'm not ready to pay that much for something I can wait out.

This experience brought home to me a few points about our health care system that I want to share:
-In only a little over an hour I was able to visit 3 very nice, clean health care institutions where I was helped without any delay. I received one vaccination for Cameron and a pregnancy test without paying a thing (well, except health insurance premiums of course). I got exactly what I wanted very quickly at a good price. From where I sit, I think we must have the best health care system in the world. It's not perfect but it's pretty dang good.

-I have heard one reason health care is getting so expensive is because there are always third party payers, making people too distant from the true cost of their health care. I have heard it argued that when people have only catastrophic health insurance plans that they are more judicious in their health spending and the procedures, extra or not, they have done. Here was a perfect example. Since the student health care didn't bill insurance my test would be $42. I could have gone to a lab that would bill my insurance and probably gotten it for free but why can't I just wait a few weeks to find out if I'm pregnant the old fashioned way?

-My doctor's office denied me the H1N1 vaccine because they could not give them to people who didn't fit the CDC "at risk" group, which I wasn't. Is this fishy to anyone else? If I can pay for the vaccine (only for myself, not to horde the supply), took the trouble to go see my doctor and want the vaccine, why can't I have it? Because the CDC says I can't. The government says I can't. Even if I begged and said I have previous history of a very weak immune system and am very worried (I don't and I'm not) they could not give it to me. Because I don't fit inside a government table. It also wouldn't even matter that I will most likely be pregnant soon and am only 26 (the cutoff is 24): the lines are black and white. Everyone, this is what would happen when the government is in charge of your health care. Think about it. They would have charts and tables and "at risk" groups for every type of treatment you can imagine and only those who fit could be treated, no matter how much you begged, cried, or offered to pay. If you didn't fit the chart you couldn't have the treatment, you and your doctor's opinion be damned.

Well, you may say "But the vaccine is limited." But whose fault is that? Really? I'll give you one guess: it's not the company who makes the vaccine, it's the idiots that contracted with that terrible company that can't deliver. Seriously. With the government in charge, everything will be limited, that's the point! Not just because they are mostly corrupt, but because they aren't health care administrators! They're politicians!

Hopefully we will not have to see how much such a system sucks, how much it will suck to clean up the mess afterward when we realize it doesn't work, and how much it will suck to see the best and brightest leave the medical field/stop entering it. I hope everyone is doing their part to make sure our health care system remains great and improves.

Read My New Sidebar

I wrote a new sidebar article. Have a look!

Hermanas and Halloween

What does it look (and sound) like when Neal girls get together? Read on. No one can say we don't have a blast together!

Heidi flew here to see us Utah dwellers. Nat and I (and Cam too) whisked up to Holly's house for two days full of laughing, talking, dancing, and lots and lots of music. Basically a non stop party (well, almost non stop). While I didn't get all the best photos of the times we had, suffice it to say these videos are pretty representational.



The highlight of the weekend was Holly's grown ups only costume party on Saturday night. Awesome! We had lots of food, guests, music, and activities. It was so fun! Grown ups scarcely ever have anything cool to do on Halloween and Holly wanted to change that. She's going to make it an annual tradition.

Catwoman and Mother Nature. (Holly and James were a Roman Goddess and Caesar but I didn't get a good picture of them together. You can see the back of them above. They were my favorite couple ensemble.)

By the way, Tyler couldn't have planned his costume better. Cameron wouldn't go near him and I was the one that had to keep taking him back upstairs and comforting him during the party.
Ambiance. Holly and I worked on the party for a whole month and it definitely paid off. The ambiance was amazing and everyone loved it!

There were four blacklights in the ceiling cans and we decided last minute to put these spooky pictures over their family photos. The blacklights were an awesome touch!
After everyone left, we relaxed a bit but kept the Halloween playlist playin' on.

The men: pooped out from partying. They basically sat and chatted the whole time we continued partying. James and Tyler have become very good buds and both now know how to keep themselves happy while their wives are busy being crazy with sisters.
We decided to be "scientists" and used the rest of the dry ice to play with and do our favorite thing: take pictures.


(Notice the really cool flickering lightbulbs in the chandelier behind us.)

Ah, it's so nice to have good quality girl time. And I seriously don't know anyone more fun that my sisters. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for sisters!

Grandma

Thanks Grandma for being so sweet to me! Love, Cameron