Third year Day 176 - Saturday June 7, 2014

This morning Bridgett said, was it Sally Delby or Sally Conrad that we took Irish Dance lessons from? First of all, she only took lessons for two months!  Anyway, I said, actually it was both!  She was Sally Delby when you started taking lessons.  Towards the end of the girls taking lessons, she got divorced, and went back to her maiden name, Sally Conrad.  So, both names are correct!  It was another one of those random memories! 

Third year Day 175 - Friday June 6, 2014

Today is Stephany's 18th birthday!  Wow!  Our baby is now an adult!  We only have adult children now! We celebrated with the family in the morning, because Mark had to leave to Utah by noon.  He had political meetings last night, so we couldn't celebrate early.  So, we had breakfast together and sang, did presents, and blew out the candles; no one wanted cake in the morning:)  It was a nice relaxing morning and we all had fun.  Stephany still isn't feeling well enough to do much.  Arrianne offered to take her to a movie, but that's too long for her.  But, we had hamburgers for dinner (gluten free buns).  It was a splurge, because Stephany and Bridgett are both allergic to beef, but I said for your birthday it won't hurt just this once.  Also we had potato salad, watermelon and corn on the cob.  This is really Stephany's traditional birthday dinner.  I good old summer time meal!  Mark made it to Utah safely.  He has a reunion tomorrow morning, in Goshen.  He will stay at the new place and then plan to visit Scott and Jenn before coming home.  Neither of them will be able to attend the reunion.  Mark took down some beds for the place so when Bridgett and I go down next month we will be set up to stay there.  At the last minute, Arrianne reminded him to take a fan.  He said that when he got there it was 77 in the house, so he was really glad he had the fan to cool him off until the air conditioning could catch up.  We had left everything turned off, including the air conditioning, of course. 

Third year Day 174 - Thursday June 5, 2014

Today I woke up and remembered that during the night I had awakened with an idea.  I will call to the Pulmonary Doctors and talk to an administrator.  Maybe they can get it removed from collection from their end.  Then of course, I remembered that their office is so hard to get a hold of!  The phone number on the statement is for the billing office only, and they almost never answer their phone.  You just get a recording.  Twice before I had to call the hospital to get a phone number, and then you get a menu to choose from and the only extension that ever answers is the gal that schedule appointments, and she mostly doesn't answer either!  I figure they mostly work with people in the hospital, so they don't really have to answer any of the phones!  Whatever!  So, anyway, I called around and finally got a schedule person to answer.  She put me in touch with Teri, who supposedly is the office manager.  I spoke to her and explained the situation.  She looked in the computer and said that she could see that we paid that amount back in 2012, but that the payment wasn't applied to those invoices.  In fact, she couldn't figure out if it had been applied to any invoices.  She said that she would check it out and then get back to me.  I held off on mailing the certified letter, hoping that we just get it worked out from this end and removed from collection.  We'll see! 

Third year Day 173 - Wednesday June 4, 2014

Well, you'll never believe it, but I received a collection letter from the Utah Pulmonary Doctors!  I mean, it was May of 2013 when I received their last bill, and finally got all of the kinks worked out so that would be paid. They had been sending those last three invoices with some of the information missing, but finally did it correctly and the insurance company paid them.  I have EOB's showing the checks they received. Now, they have picked out two little invoices, totaling $234.00, which were paid back in 2012 personally by me, and they have sent those to collection.  They seriously have mayhem in their billing department!! I called the collection agency and tried to explain, offering to fax proof or email it, but they don't accept faxes or emails!  Can you believe that!  Also, they said that I had like less than 20 days to prove to them that I paid the invoices or Bridgett will be sent to collection.  They expect me to send them a detailed letter, along with photocopies to substantiate it.  I said, it's taken over 10 days for me to get your letter. You mean if you don't get this exactly in time, you will send it anyway?  Can't you make a note and give it a few extra days?  There answer was a not friendly NO.  GRRRRR!  It gets so frustrating dealing with these things!  And, I finally thought it was all paid and DONE!  Well, I got the letter written and photocopied up the proof, and now I will have Mark take it and mail it certified tomorrow.  Brother!

Third year Day 172 - Tuesday June 3, 2014

So we got Stephany's heavy metal test back.  One of the practioners thought she might have mercury poisoning, so we did this test.  Actually, her mercury level was fine, but we did find out that she had high levels of lead and cesium.  I've never even heard of cesium!  So, now that we had already had the water tested for mercury and a bunch of other things, we need to test again for these specific metals.  It's all a big puzzle and we are trying to figure it all out!  Today I went online and helped Bridgett apply for the Pathways program in Orem.  Now we will wait and see what happens, but we are excited about it.  Orem is a new location and they don't have an assigned missionary couple yet, so now I am left wondering if they will have enough people sign up and if they will be able to have the program there for sure.  Otherwise, we'd have to pick another location and hope there is room there still.  Well, no sense in worrying.  I'm sure it will all work out.

Third year Day 171 - Monday June 2, 2014

We continue to watch hummingbirds out the large dining room windows.  I'm just loving it, and surprisingly, so is everyone else (even those who didn't like the idea at first).  When I was young and lived in College Station, Texas, we had lots of big windows.  We lived in a beautiful neighborhood, and our place was a block long.  There was a stream flowing through the back edge of the property and there were hundreds of birds daily.  Each morning and evening we could sit and listen to the birds and watch them.  We even had male cardinals (so pretty) and that was so fun to see.  Mom had a big birding book, and we would identify birds.  I really loved that and I have missed seeing so many birds. 

Third year Day 170 - Sunday June 1, 2014

This morning before church, I talked to Bridgett about something a therapist told me long ago regarding TBI.  She said, Bridgett still has all of the information in her brain that she used to have, she just can't access it well.  She said to think back to the old library card catalog drawers.  If someone dumped them all out on the ground (there'd be LOTS of them), and then asked you to find a certain card, would it be hard to do?  Yes, and that is a somewhat simplified explanation of what has happened to Bridgett's brain (and everyone else whose had a severe TBI).  So, she is in the process of reorganizing all of those cards, to get them back in a place where she can find them again.  This takes time.  So, Bridgett and I talked about this.  She understand the concept, although I'm not sure if she can picture the card catalog boxes:)  We went to church today and had an amazing day.  Today was fast Sunday, and right away Bridgett turned to me and asked if she could go up and bear her testimony.  I told her to ask her dad (she was sitting between us).  I wanted to make sure that he approved so he wouldn't say later, why did you let her do that!  Anyway, he said that would be nice and then I panicked and thought, I will just lose it and sob while on the stand with her, so I told her to ask Mark to go up with her, which he did.  When it was her turn, she got up very composedly and greeted everyone and then bore her testimony.  It was amazing!  I was so happy and I was trying very hard not to sob out loud so that everyone would hear me (including Bridgett).  She looked beautiful up there and my heart was so full!  Afterwards, Mark bore his testimony and then they both came back.  My heart had been racing and I had been crying, but I hugged her and I was so proud of her.  Later on I got up as well, after I was more composed.  After the meeting Bridgett wanted to speak to Alicia Stanfill.  Actually during the meeting she said to me, see that women in a red jacket?  That's Sister Stanfill, I can tell from the back.  Sister Stanfill was Bridgett's seminary teacher for two years.  Anyway, Bridgett feels a special closeness with her.  They spoke for a few minutes, and then Bridgett said, I'll see you next week.  Alicia said, oh Bridgett, next week Vern and I will be in Billings (he's an area rep now), but let's do this.  I will think about you and you think about me on next Sunday, OK?  Bridgett was excited and said OK.  We told Mark and the kids later that day.  Bridgett was really excited about it.