**Sick of Doctor visits and prescriptions. Oy vey! 2010 feels like: Doctor, prescription, rinse, repeat! Not dh, just everyone. I am over it! (Glad nothing serious, but a total PITA all the same. We generally never go to the doctor).

Oh, since dh's skin infection, the kids have respiratory infections. Doctor appointment would be a waste, otherwise (BM was like 100% by the time we got in), but he was prescribed an inhaler. (More useful for next time. Though, this bad is only once every year or 2).

Of course, we had to get out the inhaler for LM, last night. Now he's got it. Any big virus really hits their airways. Though LM has "asthma" and BM "doesn't," I am not quite clear what the difference is. Except for BM, it is ONLY when he is sick. But I have heard asthma can take that form. LM is kind of the same way, but it will last more than 5 minutes, with him.

Anyway, last night was the first time we REALLY needed the inhaler since LM's was prescribed. What a relief. to have it. In a year or 2, I may feel that relief when BM has another "attack."

I am not sure where we are in "deductible/out-of-pocket HMO" land. Our doctor visits are apparently all "free" now, MRI was a small co-pay, and prescription was insanely expensive compared to last year (not sure if it is our status, or reduced benefits for 2010).

I'd presume, regardless, we hit our $3k deductible with surgery. But, I thought we would have medium/large co-pays until we hit our out-of-pocket. Which scares me - maybe we hit it already. (On the flip side, lord knows when they will bother to bill me or fill me in. Not like I will take a hit to cash any time soon).

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Ugh.

Everything else seems to be going rather well. Knock on wood!

Dh is doing pretty good. He is volunteering today, which makes me nervous. Seemed a little worn out yesterday.

I have been taking BM to before-school daycare. Until we run through our deposit, OR work gets too crazy. WIll probably put dh back on morning duty, soon. At least part-time. Work is definitely crazy.

He was going to do a big grocery shopping run, but that has been put off another day or 2. I am thinking we should just all go together tomorrow. Thus, if it is too much, he can go sit in the car or something.

We heated up our last frozen meal yesterday. So, my last grocery run got us a little over 2 weeks of home cooking.

My mom left us some potatoes (don't remember why she had so many extras). We haven't really used them. Don't cook with potatos much at all, though I love them. I think just different territory, for the both of us.

SO, I decided to print out some potato recipes, to try. Was thinking hash brown (to utilize our new food processor - has a shredder and all). BUT, instead, just found a simple recipe for frying up some potatoes. I also dug up a potato salad recipe. Not sure when I will make it. But plenty of use for all the potatoes...

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**Got an interesting credit card offer. 2% rewards - Fidelity - sweeps into your IRA.

I usually just rip those offers to shreds, manually. We have a shredder, but it can't handle all the credit card offers! Anyway, so my instinct was to just rip it up. During the process I did stop and think, "well that looked kind of interesting." So, I looked it up online and it looked promising. I would consider it if Chase stops our 3% Freedom Rewards.

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**My parents have some "hoity toity" friends. You know, they live in a Mansion, and cringe at the thought of public school. Stuff like that.

So my mom tells, me, can I believe it, that they want to buy a new car. So they decided to RENT the model for a week or something, to try it out.

Honestly, I thought it wasn't a bad idea! At first I was like, "That sounds like a great idea!" She's just like, "Can you believe those people?" LOL.

It seems to me every time I have gotten another car, there were little things that just bugged me for a while. Like, when I bought my Mustang, I didn't notice it had NO cup holders. So next time, cup holders is top of the list, but then you don't notice x,y, z.

PLUS, since when was renting a car that expensive? (Weekday rental, not in a touristy destination? Car rentals are cheap, here, anyway).

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**Got my gas bill. Our usage was 20% lower than last year. All I could figure was the weather. It was mild for a spell (no heat for a week or 2?)

Interestingly, we will probably be eligible for another 20% rebate on our Jan/Feb bills, BUT I did read that the calculation was "weather-adjusted." Interesting.

We got a leg up in January though, since we were gone a week for dh's surgery. A COLD week. (Left the heat on at 55 or something, so the cat didn't freeze).

So I wouldn't be surprised if we get $20 or so, back, on our next bill.

We are only paying $14/month, balanced billing. BUT, I think that is taking into account that we got a $25-ish rebate, last year.

The whole time MIL was here, we just flipped the heat on to 68, during the day. She has made strange comments to relatives (not us) about how insane our heating/cooling bills must be (because our house is large). YEs, all $14 of it! SO, I honestly expected her to get on our case about being more energy efficient, or something. Instead she seemed all uber impressed when she stayed with us. She told me one day it was good we kept our house "cold." Um, okay then. LOL. What did she think, we ran the heat 75 degrees, 24/7? We actually kept the house a little more comfortable, for guests and all.

I do know we have decreased our usage a little bit, with just adjusting to another degree colder, every year or so. So, I know it's not 100% weather. But, I think the weather gets most the credit, this year.

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In other news, looks like we are going to Hawaii for our anniversary, this fall. Kauai!

Ironically, I think Alaska was starting to look more exciting. Maybe because it is somewhere dh and I have both never been to. & I have been to Hawaii, so Alaska seems a little more adventurous, on some level.

The prices are reasonable, but the taxes are insane! (Alaskan cruises).

MIL now insists they have enough timeshare points/airline miles to give us the Kauai trip. Not sure how true this is, and we made a last ditch effort to do Alaska, ourselves. We could maybe swing the cruise in a few months, but not the taxes.

SO, decided to go with it. Dh seems open to flying again, so, phew. This was MY dream vacation and I feel super spoiled!

Especially if we can swing Alaska in a year or 2.

I've been wanting to go to Kauai, since like forever.