Old stomping grounds

For the last few years, every time Ken sees a pond in someone's yard, he says "I miss my pond", which is quickly followed by, "I wonder what it looks like now." Four years ago, Ken sold his house with his beloved pond when we got married. I have promised Ken that someday, we'll have another pond - we just need land to put it on. Now that Ken is in Portland on his internship, I told him he should drive by his old house and peak in the backyard to check out the pond that he spent so many hours digging, planting, and maintaining. Tonight, Ken and I decided to drive by his old house and take a peek.

The new owner of the house was outside with her daughter, so Ken introduced ourselves and told her why we were there. Amazingly, not only did the lady chat with us, but she also invited us in to check out the house and backyard. I thought that was way above and beyond politeness. I wondered if I would be willing to do the same. The house has been well maintained, but the pond - well - it could use some tender loving care. It wasn't bad, but it did need some attention. Admittedly, the lady who bought the house, is a single-mother, with a now 5 year old daughter, so I'm sure taking care of a pond is probably fairly low on her list of priorities. I think Ken took it fairly well, but I wonder if I would do so well seeing something I had created looking a little worse for wear.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone for their comments about "Labor and Delivery". There is obviously lots to think about and consider, and your comments made me aware of different things I need to ask and think about. Thank goodness time is on my side :)

Labor and Delivery

I got a question for y'all, but let me set up the situation first. I have health insurance, but I have a $5000 deductible (horrible, huh?). And I find out that baby delivery, hospital stay, etc. is not covered initially, but is covered once the deductible is met. My Dr. told us that here in Flagstaff, the average cost of delivery is about $6600, which means I have to pay all of the deductible before anything else is paid. Ken and I thought we'd talk to the billing dept. here and offer to pay cash up front if we could get a discount, but our Dr. told us they probably wouldn't help us, seeing that they are the only hospital around for miles, and can charge whatever rate they want. My Dr's suggestion: Have the baby in Phoenix. There are plenty of hospitals there, and she was certain we could cut a deal at at least one of them. The only problem - Phoenix is 2 hours away, on a good traffic day. She says - that's no problem for the first baby. But I'm not so sure.

I'm not looking for scary stories, but practical comments. Is it feasible to drive 2 hours to have the baby in Phoenix? How soon would you want to drive back to Flagstaff after having the baby? Is it worth it to save a few thousand dollars?

Neighbors

I've always wanted to be the type of neighbor that welcomes move-ins into the neighborhood with a fresh batch of cookies . . . but, alas, I am not that type of neighbor. The condos around us are finally starting to sell, and we've had quite a few neighbors move in. I made Ken come with me to meet the first set - Jon and Ann ( I can never get their names straight though - I always call them Jan and Bob - but at least we don't see them often enough for me to make this mistake to them in person.)

Then we had neighbors move in next door - but I had just started getting sick, and I barely felt inclined to talk to people I knew, let alone be overly-friendly and meet the new neighbors next door. So instead of meeting the neighbors, Ken and I sit at home and try to figure out their story. What do they do for work? Who REALLY lives in the condo? It's taken us a few months, but we have guessed that our next door neighbor works nights, presumably at the hospital, and lives by herself, but frequently has friends over. Now that I think about it, it's probably pretty creepy that we have "guessed" that much about her, without meeting her. I'd really like to formally meet her, but how do you introduce yourself to someone you've seen come/go for 3 months? Any ideas?

We have other neighbors too. There is the family in the next building over that has matching cars - not just the same make, but same model AND same color - weird! Then there is the "group" of people in the 3-bedroom condo on the other side of us. I have yet to figure out who REALLY lives there, but at least one of the "visitors" is a police officer on the K-9 unit (unless he got the shirt at Goodwill or something). Ya know, I think Ken and I might be disappointed when we actually "meet" our neighbors, because then we won't be able to make up stories about them anymore. I wonder what kind of stories they've concocted about Ken and I? Or maybe we're the only ones that "play" this game?

The Sound of Silence

Ken left last Thurs. for an 8-week internship in Portland. That leaves me home by myself. Unlike some people, I hate being home alone. I get bored with no one to talk to, and I really dislike the sound of silence. One thing I've found to avoid the sound of silence is to play music often. Ken has a huge collection of cd's. Around the beginning of the year, give or take a month, I suggested to Ken that we should listen to all of our cd's - from A (ABBA) - Y (Yoakam). We agreed that if we had more than 1 cd of an artist, that we would only listen to one of them, so as to not bore or irritate the other, if said artist was not our favorite. We did pretty good for awhile, but Ken soon tired of this method - sometimes the artist/ cd we were on, just wasn't the style he was in the mood to listen to. I, however, found it very interesting to listen to groups that I had never heard before. With Ken being gone, I decided to start where we had left off - with the "H's". Some cds I have started, and couldn't finish; some I haven't even put in the cd player, based on the cd cover; and others I have completely enjoyed. He's been gone 6 days now, and I am currently on the "J's". Who knows where I'll be in 8 weeks, but at least it won't be silent.

When Ken left, he took our laptop, and left me with the desktop computer. The desktop computer is hit and miss (mostly miss) when connecting to the internet, which is very frustrating to someone like me - an internet junkie. I need my daily dose of e-mail, Facebook, and reading blogs. The day Ken left, I spent 45 min. just trying to get the Yahoo home page to load, without success. I was also without a cellphone that day, which combined with the lack of internet, left me feeling a bit pioneer-ish. I felt so isolated and silenced by the lack of technology. I finally found success by moving the computer onto the floor, in front of the sliding glass door, facing the wireless antenna outside. It's not pretty, but it works.

And then there is the lack of silence around my home. We live in a condo, otherwise known as a renovated apartment complex. Most of the time, it's not too bad, but occasionally there are occurrences that really get me irritated, ie. no bikes on our patio. We have a neighbor upstairs - Larry. Nice guy, lives by himself, doesn't make much noise, except for when one of his favorite classic rock songs is on the radio/ cd, and then he plays it so loudly, I don't need my radio on. Since this is a fairly random occurrence, I've never complained - at least not to him :) However, he also has friends that drop by to visit him, and their lack of silence drives me crazy. Apparently they are incredibly lazy, lack phones, and common courtesy. When they come to visit, they don't call or go up to his door and knock; no, they yell from the sidewalk, or even worse, from their car parked out front. Seriously? I've never seen such behavior before. I have yet to challenge their lack of silence, but I'm mentally preparing myself for an encounter in the future.

Photo Shoot

Yesterday Ken and I went to Phoenix to see our baby. 3-D ultrasounds are awesome. The baby is only 2 1/2 inches long, but it was amazing to see so much detail. What a relief to find out that the baby is growing and developing normally.

Limericks

My dad loves limericks. At one time, my dad worked as a Safety Hazard Analysist. He discovered a hazard at work, regarding a vacuum cleaner and made up this limerick to warn others of the hazard.

There was a technician named Bill

Who sucked up a flammable spill.

The static excited,

The vapor ignited,

and Bill is now in the hill.

My friends Kathryn and Mike used to leave "Deep Thoughts" on our message board at our house when they came to visit. So my dad made up a limerick about deep thoughts.

There was a man of deep thought.

The cells of his brain he wrought.

So deep did he think,

His brain did shrink,

So what he thought he forgot.

And my dad has passed on his love of limericks to me and my siblings. One year when most of us were home for Christmas, we came up with a new message for our parent's answering machine.

The Thornleys can't come to the phone.

Perhaps they're not at home.

They wish to receive,

The message you leave,

So start speaking right after the tone.

The other day I decided to try my hand at writing a limerick, and this is what I came up with.

There once was a town in A-Z,

Where living was quaint and easy.

Ken is almost through school,

Sharon has a job - and that's cool,

And now they're expecting a baby*.

*Editor's note - The baby is due Mar. 2