Consult #1

We had such a busy weekend. I am happier when we are really busy! Brian and Jack went to soccer on Saturday morning and then we spent the rest of the day getting ready for a small good-bye party for our dear friends, Pete and Ann. They are moving to North Carolina. We have been great friends with Pete and Ann since I met Brian in 1998. We've been through many great parties: my notorious 30th birthday party where we all drank tequila out of a sippy bowl, the birth of the Beer Wench, the public spectacle of Rubbermaid, weddings (and making obscene models of body parts out of food--Berly knows what I'm talking about there) and finally having kids. It's been hard to get together as much with the kids but the friendship still endures. We will miss them terribly. Pete and Ann came over with their kids, plus we had a couple other families there. The house was chaos with 7 kids but we had a great time. I am not sure what people do without swimming pools in their backyard. They come in handy when you have a bunch of kids over.

By the time everyone left and Jack was put to bed, it was 9 PM. My mom's club was doing mom's night out and had started at 7 PM so I took a chance that they would still be out and I met up with them at the ice cream shop by the Ahwatukee 24 theaters. We noticed everyone at the coffee shop next door smoking their hookahs. I don't really get this but I also have never successfully smoked a cigarette so maybe I missing out on something.

On Sunday I met the girls for breakfast. I can't think of anything more luxurious than meeting a bunch of girlfriends for breakfast. I just love that. Lots of fun chitchat. In the afternoon we went to Jill and Gert's. The food and company was great. Jack was so-so. He peed on the floor and then proceeded to throw himself (and the residual pee) on their nice ottoman. He really embarrasses me sometimes. Fortunately, Jill and Gert have a boy who is 5 months younger than Jack and a newborn so they have seen a lot. I now believe that the 3's may be worse for boys than the 2's. At least that is the way it's looking with Jack. Ugh. I always said I couldn't spank him but we are threatening him with spankings some now. I realize parents do this because the child is too defiant at that moment to do anything and you have to get their attention somehow. I find this very distressing because hitting my child is not something that I really want to do.

OK, so I had my first consult with doctor #1 yesterday. They had a cancellation so I went by myself because Brian had to take Ty to the doctor. My appointment was at 2:30 PM and I got there 15 minutes early to fill out the forms. There is also a $75 fee for a consult with this particular doctor. Yikes. I sat in the waiting room until 3:30 PM. I then went into the exam room and waited until 4 PM to see the physician's assistant. Then the doctor finally came in around 4:15. It will be interesting to see how the other consults go because nothing ticks me off more than waiting 2 hours to see a doctor. I see an endocrinologist and there are very few endocrinologists in the valley. It takes months to get into see these doctors and since you HAVE to see an endocrinologist, you know you may have to wait a while at the doctor's office. Sometimes you wait a long time to see your ob/gyn because they are off delivering babies during the day. But for an elective procedure that a ton of doctors perform and charge a lot of money for--I think the consults should be on time. ESPECIALLY IF THEY CHARGING FOR THE CONSULTS. So I was really grumpy. But I liked the doctor OK. So then they tell me that I really need a lift. I really, really didn't think that I would need one so that made me even grumpier. It's an extra $2000 plus it requires an incision that I would rather not have. And then they gave me the cost estimate. Let's just say that the $4K that they say it costs (not including the lift), is actually only the surgeon's fees. Don't forget about the surgery center, anesthesia and implant warranty, plus a myriad of other things. So I left in a pretty foul mood because I was faced with southbound 101 traffic at 4:40. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I'm really questioning as to whether this is something that I really want to do....