So what’s new with you guys?

So I look up and it’s been three weeks since I posted. Surely I’ve had a few interesting things happen since then!

Let’s see – I had a photo shoot. It turned out great, and the client (a repeat client!) wants to buy a CD just as soon as she gets the money together.

Daisy turned 20 months old (gaaaaahhhh!).

My brother moved to L.A. He’s really close to Venice Beach, and he seems to be enjoying it there. He’s planning on (hopefully) being back home by the time Christmas gets here. Last year he was gone for Thanksgiving and Christmas, not to mention New Year’s and Easter, so it will be nice if he can wraps things up there by then.

We’re supposed to be going back to Texas to visit Nick’s sister and her family in August. I’m not sure if we’ll be driving or flying (depends entirely on whether or not they book us plane tickets like they did last year lol), but either way it’s going to be an, um, active trip with a 22 month old!

Tonight I made this pie. It’s called Danger Pie, for two very good reasons. First of all because there really is an element of danger in the prep work if you do it wrong – but only if you’re careless with it. It calls for the magic of boiling an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for 2 1/2 hours, then opening it (after cooling!) to find it astonishingly full of ooey-gooey caramel. This really, really does work, but you have to keep a close eye on the water level and add more as needed to keep the can submersed – otherwise it will explode (thus the danger). The second reason it’s called Danger Pie is of course that you may very well face the danger of locking yourself in the bathroom and eating the whole thing yourself. It is THAT GOOD.

Morgan is away at church camp this week. It’s her very first time going, and her first time being away from home this long. (Well, she stayed with my parents while we were in Hawaii a couple of years ago, but that doesn’t really count since she was with her grandparents and even got to take Pancho with her.) Anyway, she was super nervous about going, but being the pushy awesome parents we are, we insisted, and of course she’s having a blast!

Nick finally got his Fairlane running! Yay for him not being in a bad mood about it anymore!

Anything else? Oh yeah – I’m pregnant. What?

Yep, I was about a week late, so Monday after taking Morgan to camp, I went to Wal-mart and picked up a couple of tests. Honestly though, I was a little stunned when they came back positive. And the teensiest bit panicked. Uh, we don’t have health insurance. The health insurance through Nick’s job is – get ready for this – $1500.00 a month! That $18,000.00 a year! There’s just no way on earth we can afford that, so we’ve just gone without since mine ran out after Daisy was born. I’ve been taking Daisy to the Health Department for immunizations, and we found a health department referral clinic willing to take payments so I could take her in for a check-up about a month ago. Fortunately Morgan hasn’t been sick.

BUT, God has already begun providing for us with this baby. Me getting pregnant makes us a family of five and qualifies me for maternity benefits through a program in our state. When it was just four of us, Nick made too much money for us to be eligible. I had checked into it before because I was trying to get coverage for the kids as part of the same program, but no dice. Now, not only do I qualify, but Morgan and Daisy do as well, so they’ll have insurance again – yay! And actually it’s much better insurance than we would have had through Nick’s job anyway. This program pays 100% with no premiums, I’ll have one $15 co-pay on my first doctor’s visit, one $100 co-pay for the hospital stay (can I just say that we still owe almost $1000 on Daisy?), it will cover the baby for a year, and me for 60 days after delivery. Another awesome thing God has done: I called my OB-GYN to tell them I had a positive test and explained that I needed a statement from them saying I was pregnant so I could apply for the insurance. They let me come in and do the bare minimum (a simple blood test to confirm the pregnancy and check my levels), and the lab is going to let me make payments. Unfortunately my progesterone came back very low, so they needed to put me on medication immediately to raise it. Now this happened with Morgan (and very well may have happened with Daisy, but since I was 3 months along before I knew I was pregnant I have no way of knowing), so I’ve dealt with it before, but still, it’s pretty critical to not delay treatment. Unfortunately, this is a pretty expensive medication. Even with a discounted cash-pay (no insurance) price, every pharmacy I called was charging $5 a pill, and I need two a day. $70 a week is just not within our means right now. BUT, my friend Elizabeth is also pregnant right now. AND she’s been on the same medication for low progesterone. AND they’re taking her off of it today, but she has two refills left! She called in the refill and let me pick it up, and for $40 I was able to get 30 pills, enough to do me for 15 days, by which time the insurance should kick in!

Anyway, please be in prayer that a) the baby will be okay and my progesterone will come up and b) that there won’t be any snags with getting approval for the insurance. Oh, and if you’re my friend on FB, my in-laws are out of town and don’t know yet, so please don’t say anything about it on there. Thanks!

So anyway, what’s up with you?