Happy Birthday Ginger!

Ginger turned 3 on the 22nd! It was a sad sweet day for me. We were in Idaho for her big day and we planned a huge party at a local park where everyone can come and see us for a bit. Ginger had a blast. She knew it was her party to. All her cousins were there and she couldn't of been happier. She was so much fun to watch the whole time. When the cake arrived she wanted to eat it right away, it had spongebob on it. Her favorite. She couldn't wait to open her birthday cards, that's right cards. She has a thing for cards. She got one in the mail from toys r us and she slept with thing. And when Zoey got a hold of it and it ripped in half she cried. Watching her opening her presents was pure joy. Her expressions were priceless. She loved practically everything. Although her favorite was her Little Mermaid birthday card that played a song that opened up. Too cute. I also decided to take a page out of Aunt Lauri's book and ask people what they loved about Ginger. So without further Ado...

Norman: Her blonde hair and the way she gives kisses

Mom AKA Grammy: Her personality and the way she has "say so's" (that's what she calls her dresses, don't know why) mom thinks its cuz' she says so.

Erin: Her tantrums and how they work, and how she puts her older cousins in their place!

Josh: How she loves me and how she does silly new stuff

Zoey: Pftttttt (she just blew a raspberry at me)

Alex: Ginger (just kept saying her name), because. On a side note when Alex came home with Erin for the weekend we weren't at the house and that's where they went first and Alex went through the whole house calling for her. They're pretty good friends.

Austin: Her mischevious personality

Colette: Her "Perfct" hair

Matt: Her curls, her cheeks and her smile

Desi: Her laugh (in case no one knew Matt and Desi are expecting their first baby together!!)

Kaitlyn: Her curls

Kadin: I don't know, fun to play with

Cathy AKA Nana (Josh's mom): Her beautiful hair, her blue eyes everything about her

Venessa (Josh's sister): How pretty she is, her blonde hair, her blue eyes, her big lips and how she freaks out when she sees me

Kat (Colette's daughter): Ginger plays with me

Madison: Because she acts like me, and she gives her daddy the "look" (don't know what that look is)

Jessica: Funny, so cute, lovable no matter what you do she just loves you

Dad AKA Papa: She's a wild child who acts like her mother, reminds me of her mom

Whew!!

After 10 days of being back home in Idaho, we're back in Virginia. I'm exhausted, it was the most busiest vacation EVER. Josh had a schedule all planned out and everything. It was pretty great. I miss everyone already terriblly and we probably won't go back home for a long while. I'll be posting more blogs soon. Just gonna chillax for now. Feels good to be in my own home, in my bed.

To my Horror...

I had just got out of the shower, and was quietly getting my clothes (Josh is on nights so I have to creep around my room) and I hear Zoey crying, not just any cry, her "Help Ginger is picking on me" cry. I can now tell apart that cry from all the others. So sad. So I rush out of my room to see what's going and to my horror, there is Ginger lying next to Zoey on the floor, she had put her blankie over her and then had Zoey in a headlock! punching her head!!! Oh my! I nearly lost it on Ginger. To be fair she wasn't punching her real hard, more like bumping her hand. But still Zoey was not a happy girl. Some days I just don't know what to do. I get tired of yelling at Ginger to leave Zoey alone. But she continues anyway. It's like Gingers new fun thing for her to do, picking on Zoey. Couple days ago me and Ginger came back from checking the mail, she went right up Zoey and kicked her in the head. Oh MY!! Zoey is going to be one tough cookie. Ginger also enjoys shoving her finger down Zoeys throat just to hear her gag. When they're supposed to be sleeping we'll hear a *giggle* and then a *gag* a *giggle* then a *gag*. Man. And Zoey just LOOOVES Ginger, she can't wait to play with her. She no loner needs me now, she's all about Ginger, I'm just the food source. :( Ginger really does love and like Zoey, I know this post makes it sound like she doesn't, but she does. She likes to play with Zoey and they'll do the tummy crawl around the house together. Ginger will cheer her on when gets to a new place. And she enjoys sharing a room with her, and not just for the gag and giggle. Ginger calls Zoey her friend. I was putting Zoey down for her nap and Ginger kept saying (more like yelling) 'Zo Zo my friend, Zo Zo my friend' (she wanted to play with her).

Insurance

SO I've been having to deal with a whole bunch of crap with insurances cuz' of changing them so often. Well back in december I had to go to the hospital while I was pregnant with Zoey, no big deal. Non-stress test, ultrasound. Well come to find MONTHS later and after I've already paid the bill, the hospital didn't file the whole thing they left out $276 saying that my insurance didn't cover it, well how would they know if they didn't file that claim? So since I've discovered that I've been trying to get the hospital to re-file the whole amount. So far no luck. I've had to talk to Blue Cross often now and they have just been wonderful. They take everything so calmly, even when I talk to them like they're slow (I just wanted to make sure that we were clear on everything). It's been over 2 months and the hospital STILL hasn't sent in the proper claim. But now I'm going to do myself. I thought it was okay if I could do that. The Blue Cross guy (Peter) told me that as a patient it's within my right to send in a claim that I feel should be. And its my responsibility to make sure a claim is filed. Everytime I'm done talking with someone at Blue Cross I feel so relieved, like a weight has been taken off my shoulders. My new insurance (Dakotacare) isn't like that at all.

Virginia Beach- Again

I love this pic of Ginger, you can tell she's happy, just by the way she's bouncing

So we LOVE virginia beach, we went again last monday except this time we camped instead of getting a motel room. Way cheaper that way. It was a lot of fun. We swam in the Chesapeke bay we could see the chesapeke bay bridge tunnel from the shore (the worlds longest 17 miles), First Landing State Park (where we camped) had some pretty neat programs while we were there, like 'what's in the nets' they'd cast out nets and bring it up and show us what was in it, but the kids were asleep so we missed it. But then they had crabbing so we went to that and the nice rangers helped us out and Josh had a blast, he loved it. Even more than regular fishing. He didn't get one, almost got one, but it go away. That was just the first day. The next day we went to the aquarium, that was awesome, there was alot of neat fishes to see. Before you even go into the place they have harbor seals right out front (in there own exhibit) Ginger loved to watch them swim. There was sooooo much to see there, it was so much fun. We saw sharks and sea turtles and seahorses and crabs and stingrays (Ginger would NOT touch one) and tons of fish and frogs... just so much. Afterwards we packed up our campsite and then headed to the beach to boogie board!! Who doesn't love to boogie? I love it. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. It was Josh's first time ever doing it. So that was way fun to watch. It's amazing to me to see how Ginger can make friends EVERY time we go somewhere. Seriously. The next beach we go to this summer is going to be Ocean City, Maryland.

My B-Day!

My cake and Ice Cream

Ginger's already liking her lips

My birthday present!!! I've been wanting this perfume since I was 19!! And my hubby got me the big bottle!! It was pretty good day!

4th of July

For the 4th we went to DC. We just had to go there once while we lived here for the 4th and we knew that it would be crazy and loud and filled with tons of people and getting back home would be long, but we just had to. We took the metro and got there early and walked around some. We found this beautiful old church and Fords theater, that was closed so we couldn't take a tour, and the Petersen house where Lincoln died, it was open so we were able to walk through it, it was amazing and weird to stand in the same room where he took his last breath. After some more walking and getting lost we finally got to the Washington monument and met up with Brent and Dani, that wasn't previously planned but turned out wonderful. We sat with them and visited and Ginger had a blast playing with girls trying to catch fireflys and run around. The fireworks were beautiful, kind short (like 10 mins) but beautiful espcially with them bursting behind the monument. Afterwards we just hung around cuz' a HUGE crowd had formed around the nearest metro and so we say with Brent and Dani and the kids and had strawberry shortcake (thank you Dani for sharing with us) and then we decided that we were going to walk to the next metro. So off we went. We saw the other side of the white house which was gorgeous all lit up. The ride home wasn't bad a little crowded and some standing in lines but we were in good spirits we finally arrived home around 12:30am, that's not to bad. Poor Dani and Brent arrived home 1:30-2am.