Summer Plans!

I have been missing my USB cable for two weeks now - can't find the dang thing which is why I haven't posted. I have some great photos from Sarah's birthday on the 13th just staring up at me from my camera, but I can't get them out! Very frustrating. Need to find the cable.

But until then, let me quick update you on our plans for the summer...

Andy and I have been trying to figure out where we should have this baby that is due in August. We've been unable to get insurance here for the kids and I and have been getting estimates of $8,000-20,000 for a "normal" birth. We've talked about a home birth, but I turn 40 this July and we are a good 30 minutes to the closest hospital, so that makes us a bit nervous in case something should go wrong.

To top it all off, we just got Andy's bill for his gallbladder surgery - $22,000! It was outpatient surgery and he was only there about 5 hours -that's $4,400 per hour! They actually charged him $150 for a warm blanket. Man, I picked the wrong field to go into! Luckily, Andy's insurance will pay 80% of it and we're grateful for that - but it also showed us how quickly medical bills can get out of hand.

SO, after much discussion, number crunching and prayer, we've decided to move back to New Hampshire - at least for the summer.

Andy, the kids and I will all arrive in NH on June 17th. He'll stay through the weekend to help us get settled, then fly back on Monday to get back to work. He's looking for work in NH and northern Mass. and will move out with our "stuff" as soon as he finds a job. We are moving out of the house we've been renting and will store everything at Andy's sister's house where he'll stay too for the summer.

The kids and I, meanwhile, will "camp out" in our house which we still own in NH. We plan to spend our days playing with friends and swimming in NH's fabulous lakes - especially our favorite one, Highland Lake in Andover. We'll be able to get health insurance in NH for not only myself, but all the kids too. We've already made doctor, dentist and eye appointments for the summer; very exciting stuff.

Andy will move down as soon as he finds a job and will be with us for the last two weeks of August for the birth of our baby. After that, we'll see what happens. We want to keep the separation to a minimum, so if he can't find a job, we'll return to Alaska in September and figure out plan b. But hopefully he'll find a job this summer and we can complete our heart-felt desire to move back to New Hampshire.

So, that's our plan for the summer. What's yours?