I Am My Mother's Child

I'm a hoarder. Nothing in my life has caused me to live a fear-based hoarding life, but I hoard. So does my mother. I learned it from her. We talk on a regular basis about how we re-arrange the canned goods in the pantry because you can't find anything.


I shared with my Mom this week how I panicked after a news story on hoarders --- real hoarders with basements and storerooms full of food in the case of an economic meltdown. The reporter came back to tell viewers that while the people featured were extreme all families should have at least THREE....and I start to panic. Three weeks of food? I don't know if I have three weeks of powdered milk. I know we could live for three weeks, but would I have all the food groups covered?.....DAYS worth of food, water, and medications. I sighed. I have enough food and water in the back of my car for three days. Because I hoard.

After the news story, I took stock of my cabinets, fridge, freezer, and medicine cabinet. Honestly, outside of clean unbottled water (we could always bucket the pool for flushing) I think we have enough supplies to go three months. Maybe more. Sure, we would eat dry cereal and beans without bacon (oh, wait, I have a jar of bacon fat in the fridge for flavor), but we could survive - and pretty easily.

Even Claire would be in diapers. Take a look at her closet:
That is 8 (yes, eight) boxes of diapers in her current and future size, plus 5 plastic "jumbo" packs. There are even two small boxes of swim diapers if we got really desperate or the emergency was of an arc nature. The plastic tub on bottom is her entire spring/summer 2010 wardrobe bought off the dollar rack at Walmart when it clearanced out in the past weeks.

The primary reason I stock pile is I buy a LOT when I get things cheap. My mom has approximately 12 jugs of Gain detergent in her garage. We call it the "Gain Army" because they look like little soldiers lined up. She got it when it was on sale and had coupons. My diaper closet was stocked by a walmart sale, plus grandma discount, plus coupons. Those boxes were around $10 each. Seriously? I have 6 boxes of Electrosol (now Finish) dish tabs because they were free after coupons. How can you not store them when they are free? I have 5 boxes of Kashi cereal because I got them for $0.33 a box. They don't expire until Aug. 2010, so if there is an Apocalypse, we will have organic breakfast cereal as the world crashes in around us.

Neurotic? Yes. Practical? Mostly. Cost efficient? Definitely.

The Star Telegram Saved me $200 today!

Beanie's allergies are acting up. I don't know what is going to happen first - I'm going to drive her crazy, or she is going to drive me crazy.

It has been a fun weekend none the less. I got my hair cut (nothing new) and we hung out at the house Saturday watching the rain and playing with Beanie. Toward the end of the day, Brad went upstairs to take a bath. Men aren't *supposed* to take baths, but he regularly soaks his sore muscles. He's not painting his nails, waxing his chest, or looking for men on Craigslist, so I think it is perfeclty manly for him to enjoy our big garden tub.

I went up this morning to clean the tub and couldn't:

"I (heart) Beanie & Mommy & MoMo & Batman" written in bubble letters using Claire's bath crayons. It was so cute and so hilarious, I had to leave the bathtub cleaning for another day.

After Claire woke from that nap, she and I went to Target to get Brad's migraine medicine. Brad lost his insurance coverage at the begining of the month and we were worried about how to pay for this medicine. Brad looked into a program at CareNow which for $20 a month, you get discounted CareNow services including a discount drug program. Sure, it isn't insurance, but it is better than nothing. While he was investigating the possible savings, I walked in and recognized the website. Thinking I'd been there before I checked the Fort Worth Star-Telegrams subscriber reward's program, PressPass, and there it was! We already got a drug discount for subscribing to the paper (a luxury for us).

Excited, I went to Target to pick up Brad's meds. They had originally rung up his 9 pills off-insurance and our price was $217. Ouch. I gave them the discount card, they re-rang it, and the new total was only $36. Score! This is only a few bucks more than when we were paying with insurance.

Additionally, I used the Target ad and a few coupons to get the following items for only $4.31.

5 Kashi Cereal - $2.88/bx (reg price $4.39)

used 5 $1.50 Honey Sunshine coupons (from VocalPoint)

got $5 Target card for buying 5 Kashi products

2 Goldfish Crackers - $1.88/bag

used 1 $1/2 peelie

1 Johnson's Buddy Bar - $.99

used $1/1 from 8/13 coupon inserts

I'm really excited about the Kashi cereal. It is full of fiber, low sugar, and Brad and Claire love it.

Now I need to keep Napless the Wonder Child happy until bedtime.

Let me explain the menstrual cycle to you...

It has been a while since I blogged. A loooong while. I update my Facebook status in small increments and it keeps my creative outlet open, but isn't nearly as satisfying as a good blog. Cathartic.

So today I had to explain how the menstrual cycle works to an employee of Blue Cross Blue Shield. I'm on The Pill and my insurance allows me to refill prescription every 30 days. However, the female cycle, like the moon, phases every 28 days. Meaning, if you wait until the last minute to pick up your pills at Target two months in a row, they aren't ready for you. I needed to start a new pill pack on Sunday, BCBS wouldn't authorize a new scrip until Tuesday.

I called BCBS and told them I needed my prescription covered because my menstrual cycle is 28 days and I'm not on the bureaucrat schedule. Paul didn't get my humor and I was a little feisty today, so I continued. Once I explained to Paul how birth control pills work, he told me to hold while he talked to his superior. His supervisor gave me the protocol to request an "override". I have to detail my request, in writing, with my doctor's instructions and fax it to some number. Then my request would be reviewed and a decision given within 10 business days. I continued my sass in poor paper-pushing Paul.

"GREAT Paul! Thanks for you help. One more question...Do you realize that a pregnancy and delivery will cost your company tens of THOUSANDS of dollars because you don't want to cover the extra $9 for my generic birth control pills?"

He didn't have anything to say.

On the plus side, the Pills are just a back-up for my neurosis. We've had a full vasectomy back in early June (that "we" being the same "we" that delivered a baby last August). Nothing is working up in there, but still, I can't quiet give up the security blanket of my little nightly pill. Maybe I need the hormones. Actually, after my lack-of-hormone filled call to Paul, I think the poor guy might actually pay for my hormones out of pocket -- possibly to keep me from breeding anyone else who could call him again and talk about their period.