Flowers

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ood thing I still have a just a few more photographs from vacation to post. At the moment I’m completely bed bound. I threw my back out on Friday, it was just about tolerable until last night (Saturday). I didn’t sleep well, was in pain for most of the night that just got worse and worse. Thankfully there’s an “After Hours” doctor office nearby, so even though it was a Sunday morning, I was able to get in and seen by a doctor (or at least a nurse practitioner as the case may be). Lots of anti-inflamatory meds, pain meds, and muscle relaxers, and my back is again just tolerable on pain. I’m not quite sure how I’ll survive tomorrow. I still have tons of work piled up from vacation, so it’s not like I can just dose up on pain meds and be all set. They totally knocked me out today. But even just sitting doesn’t ease the back pain.

Another reason for my weight gain from our vacation

Could you make Oreos even more unhealthy??!!

Simply… Go-Gurt Review and Giveaway

Wanything healthy. One thing both of them really like are the Simply… Go-Gurt yogurt tubes. These snacks are low fat, a good source of calcium and contain no high fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors. They come in two flavors: Strawberry and Mixed Berry.

The fact that the yogurt comes in tubes is especially convenient because my kids never seem to sit down to do anything. Even when they eat. They take a bite, run around the room. Take another bite. Snacks that can be taken on the go are snacks that are more likely to be finished!

We received a “Simplify Your Life” prize pack from Yoplait through MyBlogSpark. It included a coupon for a free sample of Simply… Go-Gurt, a pocket Etch a Sketch, weekly planner and a seat back organizer. Well, I picked up our Simply… Go-Gurt sample on Friday morning and it barely made it through the weekend. The kids devour this stuff. (To be honest, we normally buy this stuff in bulk from Costco! LOL!)

So, I have a few things to offer you. First, at the bottom of this post, you’ll see a graphic. The first 30 people to click on the “Try it Free” tab will receive a coupon for a free package of Simply… Go-Gurt. (After the 30 coupons are claimed – there will be a coupon for $1.10 off coupon). On the “Weigh In” tab, you can read what other people are saying about Simply… Go-Gurt and give your thoughts. Or spread the coupon love and click the “Spread the savings” to include a coupon on your site or tell others about the coupon.

HOW TO ENTER THE “SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE” PRIZE PACK GIVEAWAY

1) To enter the contest for the “Simplify Your Life” prize pack giveaway, please leave a comment on this post and share a wholesome snacking tip that works with your kids. (Required. Value: 1 entry.)

Extra Optional Entries
2) Tweet about this post. (and leave a comment here telling me you did). Click here to tweet about the post now. (Optional. Value: 1 entry.)

3) If you have a blog or website, link to this post. (and leave a comment here telling me you did) (Optional. Value: 2 entries.)

Contest ends April 21st, 2010 at 10pm MST. There is no purchase necessary to enter the contest. I will be using random.org to choose the winner. I’ll contact the winner via email, and he/she will have 48 hours to respond. After 48 hours, if I don’t receive a response, another winner will be chosen.

*Disclosure note: The coupon, prize pack, and giveaway have all been provided by Yoplait through MyBlogSpark.

Healthcare Confusion

Sam’s company recently switched up their health insurance offerings. Previously, we’ve stuck with the same plan or something similar for the last 5+ years. It was pretty straightforward, easy to understand. I was never happy with the insurance company itself, though. They seemed to reject claims on a regular basis without cause, you’d call them up and then they’d “realize their mistake” and pay for the claim. For the number of times this happened, I really became suspicious that they were just hoping you’d give up and pay the claim yourself rather than following up with them every single time. Sometimes it became tempting to do so, but I just couldn’t on principle – figuring that’s probably exactly what they wanted.

In any case, that plan is not even being offered anymore. The two choices we were given were another plan similar to what we had – but with a higher premium (and a smaller selection of doctors to chose from!) or one of these “Health Savings Account” (HSA). My first instinct was to turn down the HSA. I just couldn’t imagine how that could ever be better than the standard plan we were used to going with. But his company gave two key incentives: they gave you a credit in the HSA and the premium was quite a bit cheaper than the other plan. As well, the selection of doctors from the HSA was much wider.

So I figured, the best thing to do would be to run the numbers. First we calculated out how much it would cost if we went to the doctor’s 10x a year and then 20x a year. And in both cases the HSA was less expensive. So then I downloaded our actual claims for the past year. Figuring that we would probably be about the same. Meticulously combed through each claim and sorted them for how we would have been charged if we had been under each of the new plans. Again, the HSA ended up being cheaper. In truth – the difference between the two almost always equaled the delta of lower premium and that HSA credit the company gives. If it wasn’t for that – the two plans would have been almost neck in neck.

But it’s crazy how confusing this all is. I wonder how many people spend that many days agonizing over the decision, and then actually creating a spreadsheet of claims from the previous year – recalculating the charge on each one based on what would be charged under the new plans just to see what the difference would have been.

I really hate how difficult that needs to be, and even more than that, I hate that in this country employers are the ones that decide on the fate of your health care. I doubt his company has our family’s health interest in mind when they make these decisions. They’re going to do what makes the most business sense. It doesn’t belong in their hands.