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Friday, January 23, 2009

VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



My beautiful friend Tara blogged about her "Word-for-the-Year" a few weeks back. This word is to be sort of your "Focus" for the year. I told Tara that my word for the year was going to be "FIGHT".  It seems to be all I do anymore with regard to Mason's Autism.

Fight - noun; a battle or combat.

We have been trying to get Mason some MUCH needed speech therapy for nearly a year now. Our insurance company (Cigna) has continually denied benefits. We have taken it to State level arguing that a Colorado state mandate rules that Autistic children under the age of five are legally entitled to speech therapy (up to 60 visits per year). Come to find out, OUR policy isn't subject to state mandates because of the way they are contracted with Gregg's employer. Well, back in Sept. I went to Gregg's employer (Big Ol' Hospital) and told them that their policy is not in state compliance and that my son is suffering for it. They agreed to change their policy beginning in 2009 so that Mason could get the speech therapy  he needs. We thought that was fair and went ahead and footed the extraordinary bill for therapy from Sept - Dec.  The first of January we put through the referrals for Mason to get speech therapy using this "new plan". We were DENIED stating the same reasons as before. Our plan had in fact NOT changed! I was unbelievably PISSED OFF at having been lied to by my husband's employers. I called said Big Hospital Employer and left a "Mommy Freak-Out" message on the head honcho's voice mail. At that point, I didn't care if Gregg got in trouble or faced reprocussions  for my tyrade. They LIED to me and my son was going to suffer even LONGER for it!

Well, today I got a phone call from a big-wig at Cigna stating that our insurance policy has been changed and that Mason will be covered not ONLY for UNLIMITED visits of speech therapy but for ANY AND ALL AUTISM RELATED TREATMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is unheard of in the state of Colorado. No insurance company in Colorado (to my knowledge) covers any autism related treatment because it's EXPENSIVE and you need a LOT of it. Some states require coverage for autism treatments, Colorado is not one of them.

The woman (big wig at the insurance company) told me that if ANYONE gave me any grief at all over billing, or benefits for ANY autism related treatments that I should call her directly and SHE would take care of it personally."Mason WILL be taken care of," she told me.  She was so sweet, and so understanding and she was my saviour today. THANK YOU DORRIS!

This is the biggest, hugest most mind blowing "WIN" I could have imagined! I was fighting to get him speech therapy and we got him total autism coverage! We got him what THOUSANDS of children in this area and hundreds of thousands throughout the country are being denied. We can now get mason the help he needs, and the insurance is going to pay for it! (Well, most of it anyway!)

I have been floating on cloud nine all day, you could not possibly wipe this smile off of my face. A weight has been lifted and now I know that I AM doing all I possibly can for Mason and it feels DAMN GOOD!


Thanks for letting a proud mom gloat!




Monday, January 19, 2009

Uhmmm ... OoooooooooKay?!


*Takes a swig of beer*

So, wanna hear about my night? Well, i'm gonna tell you because I'm pumped full of adrenoline and have nothing better to do. I was sitting on my couch watching a Bruce Willis flick at about 10 pm. Kids are sleeping, Gregg is working. Just me and the dogs....  When the doorbell rings. Nobody EVER rings my doorbell this time of night. I walk slowly out of the living room and look in the direction of the door. Next to my door is a full length window with a sheer curtain over it. My porch light is on, but I can't see anything through the sheer curtains. I decide it's in my best interest (since I am alone) to NOT answer the door regardless of how frantically my dogs are barking.  The bell rings again. I was thinking, WHO IS AT MY DOOR? Could it be Stacey? Or maybe my sister-in-law Karin? Well, it COULD be but they are both the type of people who call before coming over...  The bell rings AGAIN. At this point I figure I better go see who it is before my kids wake up and REALLY Piss me off! I grab my phone and head for the door. I pull back my sheer curtain just enough to peek out onto the patio. What is staring back at me??  GAHEAD.. GUESS!




























  A bloody man!

Yep. You read that right. There is a young man standing on my patio COVERED In blood. wearing black thermal underwear and wearing a t-shirt wrapped around his hand! I'm like.. uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh whaaaaaaaaaat????????? At this point, the sheer curtain fell right out of the window and landed on the floor exposing the young man to Codi, my rottweiler who promptly went ape-shit upon seeing this bloody person. I asked him through the window if I could help him, to which he replied, "Please call my mom." I had the phone in my hand and asked him for the number and dialed. There was no answer. I asked him if he wanted me to call the police and he said NO. I told him I would be right back (with the phone still to my ear) and to not move. I went up to my room and called the police. I told them that there was a bloody man on my patio, what had transpired up to this point and to get somebody here.. FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
    I went back downstairs where I could get the boy back into my line of sight, and I found him slumped over on the patio. It looked as if he had collapsed. I let Matani the wonder spaz out of his kennel, dawned a little self-protection and went out onto the patio to see what was going on. He was still conscious and told me that he had been approached by a group of people who asked him for a smoke then beat him up. At that point I called his mom again and this time she answered. I confirmed with the woman on the phone that she had a son by the name he gave me. She said she was his mom and I gave him the phone. He started whimpering telling his mom that he had been beat up. I gave his mom the address to my house and informed her that the police were on their way. I asked if I could give her son some advil and she said okay.  I went into the house, grabbed him some advil, a pepsi and a bag of ice (after telling him not to open my door or Matani would eat him). When I came back out and gave him the items the police showed up. Two cars at first, followed by about 6 more cars, a fire truck and an ambulance!!!!!  

 Can you say "WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD!"

I told the primary officer (we'll call him "Officer Hot-pants" for now ) what the boy had told me, then I went into the house while the police questioned him. I am still not sure what the extent of his injuries were. I do believe he had the hell beat out of him, and more than likely had been cut with a knife as he had some very deep gashes in his hand. His neck and pants had been cut, and there was blood all over his face. He seemed very scared, very weak and very lethargic. He was also freezing. The paramedics put him into the van and began trying to warm him up. 

Officer Hot-Pants beckoned me back outside to tell me what he had discovered. Apparently this young man was 16 years old. He told the police that he had gotten into a vehicle with some people he did not know to smoke some pot and they hurt him. The police had received a call before I had called about a young man standing in the middle of an intersection near my home trying to wave cars down. The kid had told me that this incident happened about 10 minutes away, and he had walked to my neighborhood. Officer yumminess... errr Hot-Pants said that the kid WAS very hurt, but was also very stoned, and judging by the way he was dressed he was probably up to no good. I asked the officer if there had been any burglaries in my neighborhood and he said no. He proudly reported that this is 'HIS' neighborhood and he wouldn't tolerate that kind of stuff in 'HIS' neighborhood. Had there been any wrong-doing in this neighborhood, he would have let me know. Then he told me his exact schedule, what days he works and that he's always very near by in case anything were to happen again. (Because bloody people show up on my doorstep a lot??...) The caring officer did thank me for what I had done for the child, but reinforced that when bloody people show up on my doorstep I should only speak to them through the window and not open the door. That's what HE'S for.  He could see my killer attack dogs, but I didn't think it proper to tell him about my personal protection. I understand what he was saying. In retrospect, I should not have opened the door as I didn't know what was beyond the porch. I'm sure the cutie pie was just extremely concerned about my personal safety *laugh*

            We chatted for a bit about the neighborhood and the kid and then I went back in the house because.. well... it was very cold outside.  Not too many minutes later (maybe 15) there was another knock at the door. I opened it and there stood the boys mom, wanting to know where her son was. I walked out onto the patio and saw that the barrage of emergency vehicles that had blocked off my street about 5 minutes before had all packed it in and left. I told this poor woman what I knew about her son, how he looked and acted while he was here, the story he told me and that he had told the police something else, though I did not tell her what her son had told Officer Hot Pants, let them break her heart.. I didn't want to do it, it wasn't my place.  I told her they were planning on taking him to the near-by hospital. I wished her luck, and that I hoped her boy was okay. She thanked me and left.

These things just happen to me. Weird shit just ALWAYS happens to me!  I do hope the kid is okay, and that maybe he learned a valuable lesson tonight. I am glad that I was able to help him to get the help he needed tonight so he didn't continue to run around lost, bleeding and cold. I hope the punks who did this to him get caught...

Ahhhh Monday night excitement!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

There is something WRONG with me...


Today, not only did I lock my keys (and that damn phone) in the car, but I also locked my two-year-old son in the car too.  How? I have NO flippin' idea. At this point, I am convinced that my car is doing this on purpose.  Again, I called Onstar (after borrowing an SUV - yes, SUV that had onstar) and then a cell phone because the SUV's Onstar service wasn't working. And started ranting into the phone something about a car, a baby and UNLOCK IT NOW!

He did.. I drove away wondering if perhaps I was just born without the gene that keeps me from doing this.... repeatedly.

GOOD LORD!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Sooooooooo Monday was Ashlis  bestest friend Calista's birthday.

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY CALISTI SWEETIE!!!!!!!!!!!

What do three gorgeous littles do for a birthday? Skating? No, too much work. Party? No, too old fashioned. Sleepover? No, not yet. Zoo? No, too much poop. No, these little divas packed it up and headed off to the SPA. Yeah, you don't need to go back and read that again, I said "SPA".  Stacey found a great little place near our houses that is a spa, for kiddos. MAN this place rocks! Calista, Tori and Ashli all went in and had the works! There were peppermint pedicures, facials, glittery lotion rubs,  manicures, glittery make-up, princess (and punk rock) hair doos,with sparkly hairspray,  lolly-pops, jewelry, webkins, cameras, flashes, mama and paprazzis going ape nuts and two very tired (yet thoroughly amused) beauticians! We ended our 2.5 hour spa day with many walks and runs down the modeling cat-walk in the spa with the girls (Ashli) singing "Jingle Bells"  (of course) LOL!

To say the girls had a good time would be a devastating understatement. 
To say that the moms were a teeny bit jealous? Well... it took every bit of self control we had to keep our feet out of those "Toe Baths" as Ashli so eloquently described them!

Thanks for inviting us Stacey, we had a BLAST!


The girls kicking back with their feet in the peppermint "toe baths" while watching Kung-fu Panda. (Notice the facials?) Gah! I've NEVAH had a facial! I'm dripping with envy!


Calista's facial.. CUTE CUTE CUTE!!!  I think it was a white chocolate facial? Not sure.


This is Ashli after she had her hair and makeup done. She had a BEAUTIFUL princess hairdo, it pained me to take it out that night!!



Three little ladies lined up for their manicures... LOL!  Too precious eh?


Everything PURPLE! Fingers, Toes towels, rings, toe ring.. you name it~



Ashli's hair and makeup again  (sigh, i wish I could make it look like that!)



This is Ashli cracking everyone up while she was getting her hair done. She had everyone in stitches the WHOLE time!


Lovin it, and she's totally a natural. That's scary.





Sorry for the crappy photos. I was shooting raw indoors with no external flash and almost ALL of my photos came out blurry! I have got to get this fine-tuned!


Just testing.. and teasing =o)






Can anyone build a kick - butt blinkie? Man, I suck! LOL~