Lemons

"Uncle Hal" brought us a bagful of lemons from California and Ella spent a good portion of the day playing with them yesterday.

Texas Whirlwind

Ella and I took a 9 day trip to Dallas to hang out with my family. My brother Scott and his family were visiting from the Dominican Republic so it was the first time Ella got to meet her cousins and aunt and uncle. It was a really busy trip but a lot of fun.

Ella and I caught a cold on the way home and have been lazing around together. We missed out on Thanksgiving with friends but Brad was nice enough to cook us some ham and Debbie sent us a whole Thanksgiving spread via Chad and Nicki.

Here's a random pictures of Ella after her bath.


All the Geer grandkids together


My beautiful niece Adeline


And my adorable nephew Darton


My grandma knitted Ella a beautiful dress


My brother, his kids and our grandparents


Ella had a nice nap with grandpa before church


Ella and I were bored in the Denver airport and I snapped a couple pictures


Ella with my aunts Shareen and Nessy

A Christmas Halloween

According to Brad, Saturday was better than Christmas. He went to bed early Friday night so Saturday morning would come quicker. We started the day out by going to Spokane for an errand and then went to the Whetsel's to try out Brad's new chainsaw. Brad, Jess and Hal had a lot of fun sawing trees and chopping wood. Marsha, Ella and I stayed inside and baked desserts for our little party today. Some people came over to help celebrate the birth of Kiera Kral:



Here's the oldest Kral, Selah


Marsha with baby Kiera


Taryn with Kiera


Ayden with Kiera


The beautiful Sarah Klynstra


Selah and Ben


Sarah and Kiera


Sarah and Ella

Trucks, Family and Potatoes

When Brad's family came up last month they brought with them his Grandpa's 1987 Custom Deluxe long bed pickup. I feel more American just saying the name. It's 4x4 so it should be nice to have around this winter. The first time I drove it I felt like the queen of the road with windows big enough to need curtains. Who knows, maybe it will be Ella's first car in twenty years :)



Two weeks ago Brad's sister Elizabeth came for a week to help watch Ella and hang out. She crocheted Ella a nice hat while she was here. I love her expression in this picture.




We took a nice trip to see Char Falls on Saturday


I decided to dig up my garden and see if there were any potatoes there. I was pleasantly surprised since the deer ate all the leaves off the plants. Brad made a delicious dish out of all the potatoes.


Finally, Ella got her first tooth last week. I was wondering why she was so cranky and kept waking up at night. I think another is coming because she's doing it again.

The Screamer

Last month Ella learned how to scream with all her might. At first it was cute because she tried so hard and put her whole body into it. Now it's annoying because it's her only way to communicate that she wants something. As a solution we're working on sign language, but I'm pretty sure her first word is going to be "No". I took this video of the scream back when it was cute (Brad still laughs uncontrollably everytime he watches it).


Life has returned to normal again although we had quite an adventure this week. If you'd like to hear about it just shoot me an email.

Family Time

Brad's family made the long drive up from Tucson and hung out with us for about two weeks. His brother, Steve also flew up from Dallas for about a week. Ella enjoyed having plenty of people around to grant her every wish. It was nice having all the help!

We rented a boat one day and explored the lake (we're down to owning only one non-working boat now).


We also spent a nice Sunday afternoon at Springy Point and Ella got her first taste of sand (literally).




Brad's distant relative, Dave and his wife Kathy had us over for dinner in Coeur D' Alene. They had a door stop that kept Ella entertained for almost an hour. Every time she'd try and peel herself away, she'd turn back around and start hitting it again.


I've been busy this weekend making apple sauce and freezing apple slices. I didn't realize how easy apple sauce is to make. All I did was slice the apples in half and put them in the crock pot with a little water, cinnamon and nutmeg. I left it over night on low and the next morning worked everything through a strainer and out came applesauce.

I also ordered some baby sign language DVDs and we're working on teaching her "eat". It will be exciting if she ever does it. Right now she pulls herself up on everything. That's the only reason she crawls, is to get somewhere and pull herself up. The problem is once she's up she can't get back down and gets really frustrated until you come rescue her. I'm sure figure it out eventually.

Why I Had a Kid

This is why Claire and I shouldn't be left alone with a baby. We met for dinner in Phoenix and couldn't resist introducing Ella to lemons. This face makes it look like we were torchering her, but the video is proof she actually really liked it. I must admit that in a "twisted" way the lemon face is one of my favorite.





Ella changed a lot while she and I were in Phoenix for the past two weeks. It was a crazy time. We stayed 7 different places and I commuted from Tucson to Phoenix for 3 days. Brad's family took good care of Ella and she is now crawling everywhere and starting to stand up and hold on to things. She also learned to drive...


Here's Ella with our friends Jean and Ryan



She had a good time playing with Great Grandpa McChulloch

Health Care Reform

OK, I figured I'd throw my non-politically correct 2 cents into the ring. Note, my thoughts are my own and do not reflect the opinion of my employer.

1) Problem - Lack of portability. It doesn't seem right that people who loose their employer sponsored insurance may not qualify for an affordable individual plan. Or that people who buy individual insurance and then develop a condition cannot shop around because they can't pass underwriting. I would change the law so that all insurers who offer individual plans would have to accept any person who had any type of medical insurance coverage in the past 60 days (similar to current HIPAA rules, but expanded to individual coverage and at rate levels the rest of the market pays).

This would have the effect of encouraging people to stay in the insurance market and would reward them for doing so by giving them freedom of choice in return. I estimate (very loosely) that this would add about 10%-15% to current individual market rates.

2) Problem - Individual rates are high (plus I just added 10%-15%). I have several ideas in this realm:
a) Simplify the individual insurance market. Idea #1 goes a long way toward simplification. I think some of the things the government has done in the Medicare Supplement Market make it a very simple market for people to understand. Maybe have a set of standardized plans that all carriers have to offer (but they are not limited to). I would also keep the plans simple. Something like deductible, coinsurance. Period. This would enable easy comparison of plans.
b) Eliminate broker fees on individual plans(or at least put severe limits on them, and require them to disclose what they are being paid). I guess brokers provide a small service to members who can't figure out the Internet and they help people navigate the confusing world of individual insurance. But...if my simplification plan were in place, we really wouldn't need them. Eliminating broker fees would save 5%-10% depending on the company. Some companies run promotions like, sell 30 contracts in a specified period and get a $10,000 bonus! This is not a joke, do you really think a broker with that kind of incentive is going to be unbiased? What a waste of money!
c) Start charging rates based on lifestyle. 90% of health care costs are caused by preventable illnesses. Why should the people who work out, eat healthy and don't smoke pay for the costs of those who chose to live other wise? This is America, you're free to live however you want, but you should have to pay for it. Higher rates might give people an incentive to change.
d) Turn health insurance back into insurance instead of health care. High deductibles designed to protect from large financial loss. The problem with this is many American's can't save enough money to take the risk of a $100 Dr visit.
e) Increase cost and quality transparency so that patients can be turned into consumers.

3) Problem - The 18% of Americans that are currently uninsured. I think the uninsured fall in to several categories:
a) Uninsurable - those who are too sick to qualify for coverage. All states should have high risk pools for these people that have slightly higher premiums than the individual market and are subsidised by a tax on insurers or hospitals. Most states already have one. They could also be used for the high risk people in #1 in order to spread the risk over all carriers selling in a state.
b) Can't Afford - Have community based care centers to provide care. I agree that in America we can afford to provide basic medical care for the people in our communities. I would not call health care a right though. It's a privilege that we enjoy in our rich nation. I wouldn't mind chipping in to help out others in my community, but it should be kept at the local or state level.
c) Won't Afford - If they want to take the risk of not having insurance then they should face the risk of bankruptcy when something happens.

OK, so maybe this is more like a random collection of rants, but this is where I would start...

Friends

Ella and I have been enjoying the summer hanging out with lots of friends. Last week we went over to the Klynstra's and Brayn's just to hang out. Debbie snapped this picture so I could see what I look like with 5 kids.


Last friday night Ricky Skaggs was playing a free concert in Bonner's Ferry. So, you know me, mention the word free and I'm there. I really do like bluegrass though so we went with Ella's uncle Mike and the Bryan family. It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed playing with Ella and dancing to the music.

Kaylee and Trevor


What a good big brother Trevor would make :)


And Kaylee too!


Brad and I had a nice relaxing weekend. We accomplished absolutely nothing, laid around and ate.


Ella was in a hyper mood tonight, talking up a storm and happy as can be.

Happy Birt

Ella is 1/2 a year old today. I borrowed a friend's camera and snapped some pictures of her this weekend in some outfits my mom made her. The quilt in the pictures was made by my Aunt Shareen. I am totally in love with the Nikon D200 I borrowed. No offense to anyone who uses this camera, but a blind person could take good pictures with it (no offense to blind people either). Anyway, Brad if you ever read this you could get it for my next five birthdays, Christmases and Valentine's Days (I'm not willing to give up Monther's Days and Anniversaries).

Anyway, here she is (no outfits were harmed in the shooting of these pictures, Mom):


My favorites:

Bargains, Sickness and Family

Yesterday, I woke up at 5:30am and joined my brother-in-law Mike at the anual VFW rummage sale. I found some great deals and it put me in such a good mood the rest of the day. Here's a summary of my haul:
- Working TI83 calculator (which I gave to Mike)
- 2 nice bedside tables
- Barely used humidifier
- New ceiling fan (for Ella's room)
- Hardshell Samsonite suitcase (for our trip to the Dominican Republic)

Total cost, $25
This led me to an epiphany, my hobby is saving money (I also like spending it, which is a little confusing). I never know what to say when people ask me what I like to do, but however lame it is, now I have an interst. I think I like it because I can run around all day and do math in my head calculating all my savings. In addition to the rummage sale I also have spent the weekend steaming and pureeing 200oz of yellow squash for Ella. I calculated that if I do it myself it costs $0.04/oz and it would cost $0.25/oz if I bought it. From now until she's 1 that should save about $200. Okay, so I'm not going to save the bank, but it's better than nothing and it's probably healthier. The only problem is, what if she doesn't like squash? Something tells me she'll learn to like it. Poor baby.

Over the past few weeks we've given Ella a little food here and there to start getting her used to the texture. She finds most of it discusting, but she's a good sport. Here she is eating avacado:


My brother Ethan came up to visit for a little over a week and he was a lot of fun to have around! He watched Ella and was a good sport doing mom things with me. We went to the top of Schweitzer mountain and hiked down:




My dad and brother, Caleb also spent a couple days here on their camping trip around the western U.S. It was hard to see them leave.


A couple weeks ago we went to the Sandpoint Fly-in and saw the new purple Kodiak:


Here's a random picture of Ella passed out in her swing


Poor Ella has been sick the past week. She was so stopped up she had to choose between eating and breathing. She also had a high fever which we took her to the Dr. for, but it was just a cold. She's feeling better now, but still has a runny nose.

Goofball

Ella's favorite toy over the last couple weeks has been a sealed plastic bag with a USB cord in it. She's been chewing on it every day ingesting all sorts of BPA. Yesterday, I noticed she got kind of quiet and when I looked down she had managed to chew/gum her way through the plastic and realized she then had two toys, the plastic and the USB cord!

(I eventually took the plastic bag away since it's probably a choking hazard now)

The other night she was quite the ham and entertained us by making goofy faces. She thought it was great when we'd laugh at her and would do it some more.


She's still working on crawling. Usually she just goes backwards away from what she's trying to grab which makes her really mad.

(sorry the videos are so long, I need to figure out some good editing software)