http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama recent pleonast.com entries by user mountainmama en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=601348 I got confirmation yesterday that the US Postal Service is not so much good at the service part. Every box we get from them is severely damaged. It is either crushed or has holes punched in it. Luckily we have only received one package with damaged contents, but the boxes should still arrive intact, in my opinion. So, yesterday I went in person (after Aaron called in his get things done voice) and took them our latest mangled box. The guy told me how he thinks they're getting crushed, and then proceeded to tell me that I should just encourage everyone to upgrade the shipping and insure everything. :P :::::: Obviously UPS is the way to go if I want to make sure something fragile arrives undamaged. So, for all of you who keep getting boxes that are looking rather sad, please feel free to chew out your local post office. Maybe they will eventually improve their "service". This morning, Google let me pick a pretty theme for my Gmail. It's pink and has cherry blossoms o... 2008-11-20 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=593718 Tomorrow night before I go to bed, I get to set my clock back one hour. I love "Fall Back". I think it's wonderful. Too bad we can't do it more often. Not much going on here. I've been washing baby clothes, blankets, etc. all week. Now I just have to get them all put away. It seems everyone at worship services is sick. I know that some people have a death bed policy about attending services. If they aren't absolutely dying, they come. I think that is a bad idea. If you're contagious, don't come! You get everybody else sick! End rant. It's strange not to be making travel plans. These coming months are always the time of year when we hop around the country to visit family. It's kind of nice. We actually get to have our own tree with lights. I wonder what the cat will think. This year, people get to come see us. Well, they're actually coming to see the baby, but we get to see them too. That's nice. Aaron grilled us some steak last night. It was good. Some... 2008-10-31 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=584033 2008-10-06 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=570511 This past weekend was a lot of fun. It was Aaron's Friday off, so we had a lovely 4-day weekend together. We got to go shopping for a birthday gift at the Mall of America. We even started on our christmas shopping. It's a good year to get it all done way ahead of time. Saturday, he took me to a pick-your-own apple orchard. We got to pick some raspberries (it's the end of that season) and some apples (the very beginning of apple season). We brought home 2 pints of raspberries and 10 pounds of Zestar apples. It's a new kind developed by the University of Minnesota, and they are wonderful. I intend to make a pie and a crisp, if we don't eat them all first. Aaron also showed me how yummy apples are when you slice them really thin. I am normally allergic to apples, but pregnancy does weird things to allergies, and so now, at least for a few months, I can eat apples. This makes me very happy since they are one of my very favorite fruits, and I haven't really been able to eat them... 2008-09-02 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=565922 Mr. FedEx just delivered the crib, mattress, and changing table for the baby. He even brought them inside and leaned them against the wall in the baby's room so that I wouldn't injure myself. It's nice that I didn't have to wait all day for the delivery. I hate it when that happens. For you Dave Ramsey fans, he is having a $10 sale that starts today and ends on September 2nd. If you've been waiting to buy books because they were too expensive, now is your opportunity. If you've never heard of him, it's a great time to introduce yourself. www.daveramsey.com Aaron and I are going up to Duluth this evening to spend the weekend with my parents. We get to celebrate one 50th birthday, which will be fun. Not much else going on. Have a great weekend! ~ Hilary 2008-08-22 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=564681 In May, the same week we were trying to move to our new apartment, I had to have a boat-load of tests done so that it could be determined that I have migraines brought on by this pregnancy. The same week, Health Partners (our insurance company) sent us a survey asking what kinds of other insurance we have. However, since we were moving, it got forwarded and we didn't receive it in time to complete and return it by the 15 days allotted by them. So, I just didn't fill it out, thinking it was optional. It turns out it was not optional. They promptly rejected the claims from the testing that I had done, and I was billed $7,000. I called them up and took the survey over the phone, and everything was fine. They said that the claims would be re-processed and I wouldn't have to pay $7,000. Today I received a bill from the people who did the blood work, saying that I had a 30 day over due balance of $3,500 to pay them. I called the insurance company, who promptly did a conference call ... 2008-08-19 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=563579 I've been bad about updating lately. Every time I think about it, my brain gets all mushy and I have nothing to say. I figured I'd just update anyway, and if it's incoherent, please forgive me. The baby is waving at you right now. He must approve of Pleonast. Last week I saw a flock of geese flying South for the winter. I think they should give it a few more weeks before they give up on warm weather. This summer hasn't been around all that long yet, so I'm hoping we don't have another early winter. I've been walking most mornings, and enjoying it very much. This week I ordered the Fuzzi Bunz for the boy, since they were super on sale. They shipped out this morning, so I hope to get them next week. :) We also ordered our crib, so the room will look more like a baby room and less like a office/guest room/storage area. Aaron took me to a Babies R Us yesterday. I had never been to one before. It was very impressive. Now I'm excited about registering. I've been working a lo... 2008-08-16 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=552985 I got a call from the leasing office this morning. They put the wrong date on the flyer they sent out, and they'll be power washing our building today. A guy just walked past my window. I'm on the 2nd floor. Weird. The cat is intrigued. A man that we worship with was talking to me last week. He said that I should babysit his child so that I could see what a mistake I'm making in having one of my own. I am sad that he thinks his child was a mistake, but I definitely do not feel the same way about my tiny boy. What an awful thing to say! I just got home from getting a haircut. I have 2 moles along my hairline. I guess that is unusual. The lady got a little over zealous with the comb. I came away bleeding. I cleaned it up the best I could, but one can't really put a band aid in such an awkward spot. I'm hungry. Lunch time! ~ Hilary 2008-07-21 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=546966 Riboflavin doesn't know what to think about fireworks. He didn't mind so much at first, but when they started getting loud, I got a few "Hey, what do you think you guys are doing out there!?" kicks. Little boy enjoys doing somersaults. So cute. Happy 4th! ~ Hilary 2008-07-05 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mountainmama?l=5&entryID=545130 This morning, Aaron got to go with me to downtown St. Paul to have our baby's picture taken. It was a lot of fun. The tech said it's a boy, and we got to see the legs, feet, arms, hands, nose, lips, heart, kidneys, brain, spine, etc. Now we get to start working on the room. :) Yay for little boys! ~ Hilary 2008-06-30