What a week!!

What a crazy week it's been. On Monday, my youngest nephew, Nathan, was born. He weighs in at 7 lbs 15 ounces and is healthy. They're already home and I haven't had a chance to meet him yet. I've had a cold and really don't want to expose the little guy to it. Nathan and my sil, Carol are both doing well.

On Tuesday, my dad was admitted to the hospital. He's been having problems since around Christmas. I'm not sure if they're all related or not, though. This time, he's got a perforation in his large interesting that melded itself to his bladder wall and made a hole in his bladder wall at the site. You can imagine how painful it's been for him lately. He's home now, but will have to undergo surgery in April to repair the problem. They're waiting that long in order to try and clear up some infections.

Wednesday morning, our cat, Miss Cuddles had a seizure. I spent the day taking her to the vet and trying to figure out what's going on. She seems just fine now, but it sure did put a scare into me. The vet is doing a full blood workup, but says that most likely there will be nothing there. If that's the case, we just wait to see if she has another one. If they become a somewhat regular thing, we can start her on anti-seizure meds.

The boys have been home all week for spring break. We had 3 days of constant heavy rain and now we're really paying the price. The area around us is flooding like crazy. The meramec river was at 36 feet a little before 7 pm, it's flood stage is 16 feet. They're talking that it might hit 40 to 45 feet before it crests. This is an amazing flood. I'm putting in some pics - these are all within a mile of my house. If you click on any of the pics, you'll see a larger version. If you look at the larger roadway, they're predicting that the water will probably reach the top of that bridge to the left in the picture.

The pics of the smaller roadway are of the street that leads to our subdivision. They're saying that the intersection of that and our subdivision entrance will flood tonight and there will be no way to drive out at that point. The road out goes past that barn you see in the one picture. I'd say that the water at the barn is about 5 or 6 feet deep by the barn. This was taken at around 6 this evening.

However, don't worry about our safety - we're high up on a ridge and we'd be needing Noah's ark if our house flooded. We'll be dry, but might be stuck in the subdivision for a few days.

The last two pictures are to give you an idea of how fast everything is rising. I took the picture of the boys on the storm sewer lid around noon. The picture showing the same lid sticking out of the water was taken at around 6. It's an amazing sight and sure makes you realize that we have very little control over mother nature.

Insurance companies...

...SUCK!! I've been going round and round with our new insurance company trying to get insurance cards and nothing seems to be working.

First, we found out last week that although our coverage was effective March 1, our information was still sitting in their fax machine on March 6. Now, they're telling me that it will take 7 to 10 business days to get my insurance cards. The problem is that I had to take Adam to the doctor last week and they need his insurance card in order to do the billing. If they don't have it by then, they're going to bill me directly as if I had no insurance coverage. Then, it will take me months to get the bill straightened out because they amount billed will be different because of negotiated contracts and all that wonderful stuff.

I tried to get a temporary card online, but for whatever reason, it's not available. I tried to e-mail them from their site and apparently, my member ID doesn't have enough digits, so it won't even go through. Then I tried to call them, and their offices are closed. I'm ready to scream!!! I swear that they're doing this to postpone benefits to new members. Statistically, a certain percentage of people would just drop the claim and pay it out of pocket, so they benefit from it. I'm so mad, I'm tempted to have an attorney contact them.

Here's what I've noticed this winter...

I've noticed that the birds flock to my bird feeders en masse right before a big storm, or at the beginning of one. We had a beautiful weekend - upper 50s or lower 60's on Saturday and then mid 70s yesterday. We went hiking on Saturday at a state park. It's a really neat park, but the trails were really muddy and treacherous. I'll post a pic tonight if I get back on the computer.

Today, the temps have been falling all day. We started with rain, changed to sleet and about half an hour ago it was snowing. They're forecasting a big snowstorm to come through tomorrow. Last night, they said that it could be 6 to 10 inches of snow! I'm hoping that they at least hold classes in the morning - I've got some things that I'd like to get done without having to referee the boys.

The birds have been at my bird feeders all day. At one point in time, I counted 5 pairs, yes pairs, of cardinals. I thing it's really neat that the cardinals tend to come to the feeder in pairs. They're one of the birds I know of that mate for life, so I guess one keeps watch while the other feeds and then they switch. In addition to the cardinals, I've had lots of other types of birds at the feeder at the same time. It was just unusual to see that many cardinals at once - I usually see 2 pairs at most.

Anyway, off to make dinner and then to tae kwon do. Matt got his orange first belt last friday night. Some of the moves he does are quite complicated - I wonder if I'd be able to do them, lol! He's grown so much this year that he's going to need a new uniform before next fall - it's getting too short for him. It was too long when we got it last september...

Also, I know I've been tagged - twice for that matter, lol! I'm going to post something soon, but I'd like to have a bit of uninterrupted time to post. :-)