Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, exciting news :-) Our floor battle is over. Nine months later we have won. We lawyered up. (Thank you, Aunt Linda!) And that got everything moving much more quickly. Amazing what a little piece of paper can do if sent by the right person. We gave the flooring company the option of replacing the floor themselves with numerous detailed stipulations or giving us the money equivalent (plus the lawyer fees) and sever the relationship.

::Drum roll please:: They are giving us the money equivalent and we can pursue a different company to lay our next floor! Yay! This is so great. An answered prayer. A dream come true. 2011 IS looking so much better like I thought it would. I just had a feeling it would turn out okay but seriously, for a while there, I wanted to scream. . . a lot. . . all the time. They were AWFUL trying to make it seem like it was our fault. That there was something wrong with our plumbing, something wrong with our foundation. No, no. You just installed it wrong. The guy who changed it all for us was from the national flooring association and he did his examination of the floor and found several things wrong with how it was installed. That was in October. Well, at least it got taken care of eventually. I just feel like we can finally MOVE ON. We can make the house a home. I know we'll be doing our bedroom this year, too. Maybe next year, the kitchen. It will all come together eventually. All we have is time. :-)


Well, I was going to end there but then remembered you want to hear about other things like my birthday and our anniversary :-). Let me just start off by saying that my mom is awesome. How do I say this? She has really gone above and beyond the call of grandma. I had no idea she would be this way. She's pretty much stayed at our beck and call coming out to Dallas whenever we ask her to. She gets excited to and if we haven't called her in a few days, she calls asking how Emma's doing and if we need her to come out. Seriously? This is my mom? I'll take it!

For my birthday, we went to our at-the-moment-favorite-restaurant Kenny's on Beltline. Very unassuming from the outside, DELICIOUS on the inside. Then, we went to a movie. We haven't been to a movie (I went to see Harry Potter but that doesn't count) . . . I can't remember the last movie Adam and I went to together. That's insane. We are crazy movie people. Before baby, we used to have "two-fer" Saturdays where we would pay for one movie and then when it was over, sneak into the next movie. This is very easy to do at the parks mall theater because they have the massive bathroom in the middle and you can just walk into it after the movie like "oh, I just have to use the restroom before we go" and then walk out to the other side, meet up and voila. Next movie. We would find the two movies that synched up perfectly for this. It was fun. But now the baby kind of throws a wrench into everything. :-) We love our muffin.

Anywho, we went to go see The King's Speech. I loved it. I knew I would. The hard part was getting Adam to go see it. He usually complains about the things I suggest but then ends up loving them. Go figure!!

For our anniversary, we were originally not going to do anything because we've been doing a lot lately. We saw the movie, and had a ridiculous night out when Adam's bosses were in town and ate the most ridiculous meal at a restaurant in uptown where our bill was over $2000 (9 people). That was the night that I drank way too much wine because when you order it by the bottle, the little waiters make sure your glass stays full! We also went to see Dane Cook when he was here at the american airlines center. Another fun night.

Okay, so our anniversary. We went to a quick dinner at Mi Cocina and then went to Ovo, Cirque Du Soleil in Frisco. Some of my coworkers had been and said it was great and we've never been to a show before, so I bought some tickets (at 40% off, nice!) and off we went. This is another one of those things I had to convince Adam was going to be fun and he ended up enjoying. haha. Boys, boys, boys. Anyway, I thought the show was good but it was so cramped! We were packed like sardines. I'm sure I would like it in Vegas in a more formal setting and not in a traveling tent. I'm glad we went, though. Some of the things they do are just breathtaking.

I blame Obama

I hope this comes across clearly. There is a new addendum to making claims on your insurance, specifically your FSA- flexible spending account. Even though it's your money being taken out of your paychecks into this account, it is pre-taxed money and I guess that's why they are putting a constraint on the claims. You now have to have a doctor's note or prescription if you want to claim anything from over the counter medicine to let's say. . . a breastpump.

I followed the rules. I submitted the paperwork and got a letter from my doctor saying that purchasing the breastpump was "medically necessary." That is what I was told to have the letter say. I got a letter in the mail back from Aetna saying that there has to be a written diagnosis in the letter. Mother of pearl. That is ridiculous. I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to get MY money back. ::take a breath, Courtney:: Okay, so I called and spoke with the rudest operator I could possibly conjure up. I asked him to steer me in the right direction of what Aetna wants to hear in a letter; what will satisfy them. He says the following, "the word you're looking for is natural. Why did you not naturally breastfeed your child??" Okay. So this statement is so wrong on so many levels. How dare you judge me or any woman on how she decides to go about this decision. Lucky for me, I was able to do both. Lucky for me, Emma was early and I can claim prematurity as the reason for needing a breastpump. But what if I wasn't lucky!! What if I was like thousands of women who have to make the choice to pump over naturally feeding their child?? What are they to do? This shouldn't even be a question. The fact that you want to pump and give your child breastmilk as opposed to formula is reason enough!! Forgive me for believing that breastmilk is better than formula and keeps your child healthier thus reducing my need to visit the doctor and claim a doctor's bill that in the long run saves Aetna some money. GEEZ, I'M SO SORRY!

We had to call my doctor's office again and the operator spoke with the claims secretary and when it was all over, I called my doctor's office back just to freaking apologize for the operator who was so rude. The secretary's response? "Yeah, I don't really care for him at all!" It's not just me! I was not reading too much in to it. It makes me so mad that this is not more simple. I'm not trying to claim money that isn't mine. I'm not trying to rip anyone off. I am trying to get back our own money.

Lesson learned. If you do not use your FSA money by the end of the year, which is your earned money, you lose it. We lose $1100 this year because we put more into it thinking Emma would be more expensive than she was. Silly us for trying to prepare. Where does my money go, you ask? Back to your place of business. Just kill me now.

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, I'll update

I don't have anything to write about. It's same old, same old here. Let's see. . .

I get to send out the bachelorette party invitations for Candice's shin-dig in March. P.S. Sharon if you're having Grace's birthday party on Saturday March 19th, I can come! I took off work for Candice's party the night before. I miss all my Hedgies. Working weekends sucks! . . . but it's the best thing for the fam right now.

Probably shouldn't talk about the floors, but things are coming along. 2011 looks like it will be a good year.

I think it's very possible that Emma's runny nose was just a reaction/corn allergy. It was never anything more than clear mucous and she wheezed a little after eating corn on two occasions. Yes, Courtney the nurse put her stethoscope up to her baby. lol. I'm so excited to take her to her 9 month appt to see where she is on the growth charts! Standing on the scale with her, she is 20 pounds!! She had a massive growth spurt in January! We switched her over from her carseat carrier to a regular stay in the car carseat, which means it will be just a little more difficult to run in and out of places. Ah well. We love our growing girl.

I finally gave up the battle and am fully okay with getting a minivan. ::sigh:: Now, here me out even though you'll hate this: When you have kids, you'll understand. Minivans are freaking awesome!! lol! They're so spacious and roomy and can carry all your crap! If we find an SUV that's cool and just as roomy then by all means, we'll get that one. But, yeah. It's fine. I don't care anymore. I won't feel like a nerdy mom. I'll feel like a "heck yeah, I've got all this space!" mom. :-D

Seems like a good place to end the post.