Back to "Normal"

I havn't posted in over a week, but I assure you that I do have an excellent excuse, several to be exact. But who cares, I'm blogging today and today is a new day. As I sit at the computer and type this it is 8:30 am and I am enjoying the wonderful sunshine that is coming into my FROG window. Today looks like it is going to be a nice, sunny, beautiful day. Last night was real stormy, I do not like stormy weather and living here we will have lots of stormy weather and will probably most likely have lots of tornado warnings too.......my most scarey thing to me in the whole world! Last night, in fact for the past two nights, our dog has been right in the middle of the Hubby and I in bed, she too is scared of thunderstorms and it was stormy the past two nights!

So, I can say that today is finally a "normal" day in our home. I say this because we weren't home this past weekend. We went to see the Hubby's parents who live about 6 hours away from us. It really isn't a long, bad drive to where they live, it was nice to make a road trip and to get out of our town for a view days. We had a nice visit with them and we were able to enjoy some nice quality time with them. The Princess and the Bookworm had a wonderful time as well. They loved going bowling with Granma and Granpa. We ALL bowled and had a fun time. We also went to a Colonial House not too far from their home. It was a wonderful thing to see, and we enjoyed a great tour that one of the lady's gave us at the Colonial home. The kids also enjoyed it. The Bookworm had just finished studying the time period in school/homeschool, so he was so amazed at actually being able to see pieces that he had just studied. For instance he had just learned about indigo and hornbooks, and he got to see both of them firsthand! Thanks Granma and Granpa for a fun weekend!

We were back home on Sunday evening due to the fact that the kids had to go to school on Monday. They were suppose to have Monday off, but since it snowed a few weeks ago and they got a snow day, they had to make it up! URG, thanks school board! The next time the kids get a vacation will be for Spring Break, and unfortunately the Hubby doesn't get off then! Anyway, we get home and the Princess starts to get a temp on Sunday evening and her throat begins to hurt. Monday morning she is a high temp girl, 101.6 and so she stays home from school. Tuesday, I call the Family Care Center on Post to get an appt. to take her in and guess what, they are booked(whats new!). So I have to take her in to the UCC(Urgent Care Center) on Post, for those that think oh well, military you get free health care, wait a minute, there is a price that we have to pay and here it is..........We waited 2 and 1/2 hours before we saw a doctor and even then he was a doctor, he was a PA, he looked at the Princess for less than 3 mintues and that was it. Diagnosis tonsilitesis(but I already knew this because I looked at her throat with a flashlight at home) yeah, the PA asked me how I knew this and I told him that I looked in her throat at home with a flashlight! DUH! I am not stupid, I do have a medical background also! Anyway, getting a school excuse was an act of congress, and lets just say my fuse shot that day with him and the nurse and the LT(lieutenant) that was "in Charge". So out of there we left, and I will never be going back to the UCC unless someone has a broken limb! Then it was on to the pharmacy!

The pharmacy, hummmmm, when it comes to Army Posts here in the states and their Pharmacies I can get on my soap box really fast! Lets just say that we waited another hour and a 1/2 to get all four of the Princess's prescripions! That's right! Here is my thing with this Post Pharmacy stuff. They have a supposed "system". You walk in and you have three choices to choose from, 1 being active duty(the Hubby), 2 being dependent(me and kids) and retiree, and 3 being outside prescription from another doctor. Here goes the kicker! Active duty soldiers can ONLY pick up their own medicince, they CAN NOT pick up their dependents medicince, dependents and retirees are on the same level along with outside prescriptions. And Active duty always go ahead of everyone else. So from what I observed on Tuesday is: that you can literally sit in the Pharmacy on Post ALL day long waiting for your number to get called in order for you to get your prescripion. Why, because as long as an Active Duty person comes in, you get bumped lower and lower in the system. I really do not think that it is fair how they have this system laid out. Plus you get the retirees that come in and they have like a years worth of medicine that they are there picking up, and what about the ones that have little kids or kids in general, how do you entertain kids for that amount of time?! My solution: they have 8 pharmacy windows(not all are open), split them between Active, Dependents and Retirees and yes, in that order. Have so many windows for each group. I believe that this would eliminate the wait time. I know that there are some who are saying, well, Active Duty should go first they are the most important. Let me just say that I do not disagree with you, I agree, but the Military has got to wake-up and realize that most Active Duty have families and that families need to start getting better care and stop being treated like we are just a number. Do you know how many times we will probably get to see our supposedly PCM(primary care manager) you know our, "doctor" probably none! Why, because they always give other people appts. with them who don't have them as their PCM! I could go on and on but I want! And yes, I did put in a comment card into the ICE box on Tuesday, one for the Pharmacy and one for the UCC.

So yesterday the Princess was still home from school(day3), she was better with her temp, but had to have the antibiotics in her for a full 24 hours before she could go back. I could tell that she was starting to feel better yesterday, she wanted to practice her flute. She loves her flute, and when she doesn't practice, you know that she isn't well! She did take a long nap yesterday afternoon, which she NEVER does, not since she was 3 or 4 years old. Yesterday marked 11 years since she had her open-heart surgery. She was only 18 months old when she had her surgery. Time has really flown by.

So today, today the Princess was ready to go back to school, with her excuse in her hand! I am sure that she will come home with mounds of make-up work and she already knows that she has a Science test tomorrow. But for me and my home, it's finally back to "normal"!