Want Refreshing?

Delicious?

     Insanely Sweet?

          All Natural?

               A soon-to-be family favorite???

So what the heck could that be?

I'll tell you!! Its a favorite of mine on a warm summer day, but since I'm sick and in need of all things healthy and good -- I made one TODAY!

~ Mint Basil Watermelon Juice ~

 

Here are the 5 things you need:

1. Blender
2. Fine, mesh strainer/sieve
3. Watermelon {Duh! Of Course! Chilled & seedless is the best!}
4. Fresh Mint
5. Fresh Basil

{Strainer not present}

Now what's to follow, is super challenging.

 

          Ha! NOT!

 

Cut up as much watermelon as you want and shove it into the blender, since its just me, I cut up half the melon {and it still made LOTS!}.

{1/2 my watermelon filled this twice}

Blend on high and do not add anything to this -- just simply blend the watermelon for 10-20 seconds.

Once blended, strain through the sieve. You don't have to do this, but it makes the juice super smooth, clear & bright pink! It doesn't take long at all either.

{If straining slows down, use a spoon to get all the liquid through}

YOU'RE ALMOST DONE!!

The last thing you do is grab a glass, pull off a several basil and mint leaves, drop them into the cup and then pour in your watermelon juice!!

{So simple -- SO DELICIOUS!}

You will NOT regret making this!! :)

{Yum! Wish there was a better pic but uh, I'm sick, so this is the best ya get! :P}

If you have others around, and you make this, they will love you forever!!! Your taste buds and body can thank me later haha

Quality Time

These days, everyone is over worked, extremely busy and have schedules that are jammed packed nearly everyday, all day.

Sometimes its just nice to stop, take a breather and enjoy one another.
          Have no agenda, no goals
                    ... just simply BE TOGETHER and spend good QUALITY TIME with one another!!

Jocie has been sick since Friday. I'm not sure if its simply a rough case of allergies, or down right sick seeing how she has spent a few days in a new environment (ie preschool) and lots of those kids seem to cough, sniffle and sneeze a lot. I'm sure my facial expressions when I saw them spreading their germies so freely was pretty apparent haha!

I can't help it, I've never been a good poker player.

Anyways, with Jocie having a hard time breathing, producing more snot than any little human should and hacking a lung; we've been taking it pretty easy this weekend.

The weather around here has been off and on sunny and warm, to cool and cloudy ... it changes within minutes so we all stay surprised.

We decided to go outside to get some fresh air and continue my challenge of getting Jocie over some of her sensory issues. Among the things she doesn't like, grass is one of them. I sat her down in it, and she actually didn't cry. Her face showed obvious disapproval, but she didn't cry or scream.

{Maybe if our grass were more luscious & less patchy, she wouldn't mind so much? haha}

She didn't want to sit in the grass long, so I was prepared with a blanket.

It was a perfect afternoon to slow down, lay on a blanket, enjoy the cool spring breeze, sing songs, talk and have some quality time together.

          We've been in our PJ's ALL.DAY.LONG!! :)

After about 30 minutes or so, Jocelyn really started to quiet down and seemed so sleepy. Problem with not being able to breath? You also don't sleep well which she already has a problem with.

I scooped her up, snuggled her close and off to sleep she drifted. It was almost instantaneous.

Even warrior princess' need their beauty sleep!

Car Wreck

Over a week ago on Friday, April 29th {which was 'Good Friday' of course}, Jocie and I got into a wreck as we were on our way to her physical therapy appointment in Topeka.

There we were, driving South bound on Gage Blvd like we do several times a week, when out of nowhere a gold, 4-door car comes barreling out of the Day Light Donuts parking lot making a left-hand turn into my lane. I assume he/she didn't want to get stuck behind all the cars that I could see in my rear-view mirror ... in fact, I'm about 100% positive that was the reason this car was trying to bolt in front of me.

This careless donut-eating phen nearly T-boned us, on Jocie's side of the van no less, and to prevent that from happening, I slammed on my breaks and then had to swerve a little bit into the lane beside me. I saw the car coming up fast on my right but either way, someone was getting hit and I was hoping the car on my right would slam on their breaks too to prevent us from colliding, but no such luck.

So although I prevented the gold car from hitting us and having a major wreck, I still ended up in a fender-bender with an entirely different car.

It was such a lose-lose situation!
          FRUSTRATING!!!

Regardless, it was my fault because I can't prevent a car wreck only to cause another one, but I'll be damned if I was going to let Jocelyn get hit if it were at all avoidable!!
     
Really, the whole incident was far more scary and nerve wrecking than the actual damage that occurred to both cars.

Here was the damage to our van.

Not so bad!

Could've been much worse, and it would have been if I didn't swerve and end up in the other lane. The other lady's car had about the same amount of damage, but to her driver-side front panel. We took pictures of her car as well, but those are on Justin's cell phone.

Right after the wreck, I called Justin and he was so sweet to come from work and make sure his girls were okay. It was nice having him there with me while we waited for the police and to get everything settled -- he's such a phenomenal man!

Even though the accident didn't look too bad, the damage was still estimated at over $2000 worth of repairs, a $500 deductible on our end and about $40 in rental van fees. Still, I'm thankful it wasn't much worse, that everyone involved were safe and it didn't cost a fortunate to fix.

I was a little bit worried about the other driver at first, she was a Hispanic lady named Mary, but I was worried because once I figured her age, I felt terrible. After talking with her a bit, I found out that her "babies" were 42 and 44 years-old!! So she had to be at least in her 60's!!

She was a pretty sweet lady hugging me when we met and then said "That little fucker came out of nowhere!!" After I stopped laughing, I was relieved that she saw the other car too. That gold car that I mentioned above totally took off and didn't even stop to see if any of us were okay even though he/she was the one that caused everything in the first place! Jerk! And another positive thing was that since we both had the same story, I didn't get a ticket/traffic violation!! Whew!

Mary was on her way to get her hair done and of course this put a damper on everything that morning. She told me "Don't think I'm not still going!" haha She was kind of funny. She did freak me out a little bit because she started talking about how sore she was, how her left knee was hurting pretty bad and I couldn't help but think "Please God! Don't let this woman sue me for something. We have enough to deal with right now."

I didn't say much too her other than things like "I'm so glad we're all ok" and "our cars are still drivable, so that's wonderful" in the attempts that she wouldn't go down that slippery slope of "I'm hurt and going to sue you" path. I was achy pretty quickly afterwards too though and part of that I think happens when the adrenaline wears off and your body's going "What the hell?!"

She told me several times how her car had been the "best car I've ever owned" and how wonderful it did on fuel {I already felt bad enough and yep, she was making it worse}. Even though her car was a 1997 old and rusted Honda Accord, it didn't matter. It was a reliable car for her, did what it needed to do and she valued it. I've been there - where people look at your car and think "Geesh, that's a piece of junk" for you to only feel like you need to defend how much you need and love your vehicle.

Either way, whether she took the money or got her car fixed, it didn't have to come out of her pocket and for that, I'm REALLY thankful for the heap of insurance we pay.

Justin was wonderful in ensuring so many of the "to-do's" were completed before he left -- God love him -- He set everything up with the body shop and with Enterprise without complaining a bit. He got our van into the body shop by Tuesday and done by Friday morning.
         
          Impressive right? He aims to please!

Not only that, but on Tuesday, Justin left the house early to take the van to the body shop, switched out the car-seat to the rental van, drove the rental back home so we could get to preschool that day, went to work; and then did it all over again come Friday. Sometimes he really truly is my knight-n-shining armor!!

All-in-all, everything turned out okay in the end. It might have been rattling getting into a wreck with having Jocie in the car with me, a bit of a headache jumping through all the hoops and juggling everything, but I am finding myself endlessly thankful in the end for so many reasons!!

MIA

So much has been going on these last few weeks, and blogging has simply NOT been at the top at the list ... even with how much I love to do it!

Sorry for being MIA lately.

Between celebrating Jocelyn's third birthday, starting preschool {we have 4 days, so 2 weeks, under our belt -- and there's enough that has went on with this newest escapade for an entire blog -- but more on that later}, getting into a car wreck, starting our garden, business stuff, working out, breathing, living and getting Justin ready to leave for a few months -- I've just been tapped out each day!

We ended up celebrating Jocelyn's birthday on Saturday March 23rd and we had a WHOLE HOUSE FULL!! I really didn't think very many people would be able to come, but thank goodness we've got a big living room/house!

I totally was NOT on top of my game, so the day before the party, I had EVERYTHING to do. I had to get the stuff to make Jocelyn's cake, the ingredients for the sweet treats and the meal, things to decorate with, etc etc...

.

.. a tiny bit of PRE-PLANNING would've served me well!!!

No matter, thankfully there are things like Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart!

About the only thing I did in advance, was make the party invitations/thank you cards, and order Jocie's cake pan which took FOREVER to actually get here.

{For making the invites myself, they turned out pretty cute! I blurred out our addy & personal info for blog purposes. I don't want my personal info out there for everyone to see! Since blogs are public, its fair game for whoever, can't be too careful!}

And the thank you cards weren't too bad to make either. Now cutting and gluing the front & back together, and having the edges match up? Not my favorite part!! Maybe next time I'll order them! haha

Here is what the cake pan/decorations were intended to look like, but we had other plans. Since Jocie likes Special Agent Oso, we decided to try and make that with this cake pan.

{I was shocked how EASY making the cake was! It turned out well! I thought I'd have to make it several times over, but I got it right the 1st try!! That never happens! Of course I had to make a confetti cake because that was always my favorite as a kid!}

After I made the cake, it took forever to cool. And yes, I waited to make it the night before {genius idea ... I know!}, so I was being sort of impatient because of the time crunch. When I went to transfer the cake to a cooler area, I about damn near ripped its head off! Seriously, I would've cried on the spot I think hahaha.

While the future OSO cake cooled, I jumped on making a few extra treats ... mini cupcakes! The problem with these? They are entirely too easy to eat!! I made much more than this, but Justin and I couldn't get our grubby hands away from them!

Once I was finished making the mini cupcakes, I was able to finally get to crackin' on decorating the teddy bear cake. Now listen, this was my VERY FIRST ATTEMPT at decorating ANY kind of cake! I wanted to do something special for Jocelyn just from mama {even if she doesn't really eat food by mouth}, and I was determined to give it my best. I would officially like to say, someone should have told me that this would take 4 plus hours to do!!! I had NO IDEA how long it took to mix icing to the correct color, pour into bags, pipe it "just right" and so on. And to top things off, I only had ONE size 18 cake decorator thingy {I can't remember what those tip things are called} but yea, if you are piping stars with 6+ colors, you want more than one icing tip!!!!! What a nightmare! I was so tired by the end!

Justin kept tell me, "It's okay, this first one can be practice." I'm sorry ... "This first one" ... "practice?" Yea, this coming from someone who was NOT helping and instead watching Duck Dynasty or something on the History Channel. NO WAY was I going to bake another cake and do all this over again. Come hell or high water, I was going to make this thing work, and if for some reason it didn't? OH WELL!!! haha

I have to say, after all that hard work, I was really pleased with the end result!

{I was SO THRILLED that I got the colors pretty spot on & that it didn't turn out to be a big hot mess of a cake! I actually did the red gel part first and then went from there. I love the contrast & shiny part of his vest, but when I first did it, I wasn't too happy & almost scraped it off. After everything was said and done, I looked at the finished product & thought about how I should've covered the cake with icing as a base coat first, how the smile is crooked, how the white part of the eyes should be more circular, etc but you know what? It was a cake of love & all the imperfections make it ... well, PERFECT!}

Here's proof that I ate ENTIRELY too many cupcakes and frosting in general! How else was I suppose to stay awake until mid-night to finished this? 9pm is my preferred bedtime!!

For one reason or another, Jocie is terrified of group singing. Poor girl! And yes, she cries even when its just two people singing -- so sad!

Between Justin and I, we got everything baked and decorated. He was mainly on decorating duty. His tactics proved ... uhm, interesting?!? He "creatively" put streamers on the door frames ensuring that every "design" was different. :) It was daddy lovely and "unique" to say the least hahaha. He also aired up several balloons and put them on Jocie's desk, the stair banister, etc. And keeping Jocelyn's impaired vision in mind, we made sure they were LED birthday balloons! :)

While Justin decorated, I made Jocelyn her birthday shirt. It was super simple and a play off of being Irish and the whole St. Patty's month. Iron-on's are my friend!! BUT, take note, its important to actually do it on an ironing board (which I do have), but to get it done more "quickly" (yea, right), I just thought "Hey, I'll just use the kitchen table." Wrong, wrong, wrong idea!! Now my table permanently shows the imprint of Jocie's bday shirt. Oh well!

Here was J's shirt:

In the mean time, I also made pounds and pounds of homemade lasagna with garlic bread. I made one with 2lbs of sausage and one with 2lbs of hamburger, but both with rotel sauce ... so so good! No one should've left hungry, that's for sure! After I made those and had them in the oven, it was time to get cleaned up and be ready to have some fun with the family.

All three sets of grandparents came, Jocie's uncle Kevin and a friend of his (all the way from Indiana!) and our friend Brian, Dani and their daughter Kailee. Others were going to come, but keeping true to Kansas weather, a big snow storm was rolling in mid-afternoon.

I'm so disappointed in myself because I didn't even get my camera out. All the pictures taken above were with my phone and I only got one with Jocie (and she wasn't the happiest little camper either), and one with my mom. :( Later that night I talked to Justin about how we didn't get pictures of everyone at the party, with Jocelyn or anything.

Total Bummer!

I'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen next time!!!

Here are the only two pics I got, which are also really poor quality. :(

{Yes, I had to wear green to match Jocie! haha}

{I'm glad I got this one with my mom -- we don't take enough of them together!}

For days after Jocelyn's birthday and birthday party, I kept thinking how lucky we are to have her in our lives, all that we've been through and continue to embark on, and how much everyone loves us. SO MANY people wished Jocelyn a happy birthday, texted me, sent cards, a gift, came to her party, etc. There is no way to express how much everything from everyone meant to me ... to us!

Being loved is the best thing in the world and that we are ... SO LOVED!!

Thank you everyone for making Jocelyn's birthday so special and memorable!!!

Berryton Visit

Last week ... Wednesday to be exact ... Jocelyn and I went to visit her preschool. It actually made it the THIRD time we've "visited," but we spent over an hour in the classroom with all the other kids, the teacher and the two paras.

We arrived to the classroom between 8:45-9am, and of course we were the first ones there. I again wheeled Jocelyn around the room to see everything and to start getting familiar with a new environment.

She was a pretty happy camper right away.

{She looks mischievous to me here -- like, oh yea, this is MY classroom! haha}

Even though no one was there, no matter, we made ourselves at home and found some toys to play with. Sometimes its the simplest of things! :)

 

I of course had to take pictures of her classroom -- for memory sake I tell ya!!

{The colorful number/letter rug is a play area, the colored discs in a 1/2 circle is where they do "circle-time," the tables are where they do crafts/activities and then of course they have their own cute little locker/cubbies for all their stuff. Its a pretty big classroom for the most part, and that's a good thing because Jocie's wheelchair/equipment can take up some space!}

Even though they try to be tidy and organized, MANY parts of a classroom is simply not CVI (Cerebral Vision Impairment) friendly. :(

{So much clutter & overwhelming to me & I can see just fine!}

The Staff in the Class?

          Teacher: Lisa Baker

          Paras: Michele & Shelia

 

Number of Kids? 8 ... Boogs will make 9! :)

 

The Therapist that will work with Jocelyn?

          PT: David Fath

          OT: Shelle Werner

          SLP: Sarah Khan

 

Other Specialists?

          Nurse: Lorraine

          Vision: Phyllis Schmidt

          Hearing: Anne

 

That's A LOT of people huh? Yeah, I know.

 

The plan is for us to attend Tuesday's and Thursdays from 9am-11:45am for the remainder of the year. We only have about 1 1/2 months, or 14 total days {who's counting right?!}, but basically we will be simply getting our feet wet, getting to know the staff & kids, and for everyone to become acquainted and comfortable with Jocelyn.

 

Truth be told, I'm not even sure we will last the whole 2 1/2 hours each day. We are going to try, but with Jocelyn not EVER sleeping at night and her wanting to take her naps between 9-11am, it will be a challenge. This is a little off subject, but we will be visiting a sleep clinic on May 6th to see what we can do to help ALL of us get a better night's sleep.

 

I'm not living in a dream world - we are ALL nervous -- both staff and I! The staff has not had a kiddo with Jocelyn's needs in quite some time. Jocelyn is going to change the dynamics of the entire classroom and that's okay. It will be good for everyone, but it will definitely be an adjustment.

 

Jocelyn will receive 20mins of each therapy (ie PT/OT/SLP) during her preschool time. I know that doesn't seem like much, but we are only there for two days and for basically a total of 5-5 1/2 hours. Really, that's not very much when you count in a total of 1 hour of therapies, recess time, playing with the other kids {hopefully...she wasn't really "included" in the last preschool we tried}, learning, etc. And in case your wondering, yes, we will still continue our outside therapies (ie PT, speech, hippotherapy & aquatic therapy).

 

I am trying my best to be as optimistic as I possibly can. I think the staff, as well as myself, are all relieved that I will be in the classroom with Jocelyn. I'm not sure if I will be there for the rest of the school year or not ... maybe ... maybe not?!

 

Hopefully I will feel comfortable, encouraged and like Jocelyn is safe, learning and loving it!

 

That's my hope anyways.

 

Our Immediate Goals with Preschool for Jocelyn?

1. To have fun & enjoy herself
2. To be excited for school and comfortable with her new surroundings
3. A chance for everyone to get to know her
4. For her to get accustom to everyone, the noise level, commotion & environment
5. Begin learning, interacting & communicating with others

***We feel like we have to establish these basic goals, so that Jocelyn then has the opportunity for growth, development and learning OUTSIDE the home. So, we aim for these goals, and the rest will fall into place.

 

Jocelyn's three now, she's a big girl -- and mama knows she needs to give her new opportunities. I will be able to tell if this is the right path, but I have to allow people the chance to make a difference and also give them an appropriate amount of time.

 

I'm not gonna lie, I'm nervous and scared!! I don't want Jocelyn to be scared, I don't want her to get hurt with someone else lifting/handling her, I don't want the other kids to be mean to her, I don't want her to be ignored or people get frustrated with her, I don't want her to not be given opportunities just because she can't do something like everyone else ... I want to see her succeed, learn and flourish!!

 

We start on Tuesday -- any and all prayers are appreciated!!



THREE

Our BIG, BRAVE, BOLD & BEAUTIFUL

Baby girl is THREE!!!

 

{I didn't think it was possible - but we love you more & more EVERY YEAR!!!}

Happiest of birthday's sweet princess of ours! I wish there was some way you could TRULY know how much we love you, how thankful and happy that you are HERE with us, how we would do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING for you ... I would give you the world if possible!!

 

You have grown and changed so much over the past three years ... you CONSTANTLY surprise us and so many others. I don't think anyone should EVER doubt your will, your strength, your determination ... just all of your complete amazingness!

I will NEVER forget people telling us to "let you go." I know its been a long, hard road for you sweet girl & us as a family/couple ... but I look at you, your life, your love, your energy ... and you ARE MEANT TO BE HERE!!!

I look at the day you were born, and then I look into those sparkling big brown eyes that are so full of life and love, and I'm ALWAYS brought to tears! You are my hero Boogie -- my EVERYTHING!

 

I can't WAIT to celebrate you today, tomorrow with our family and always!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS!

INFURIATED!!!

YES! I AM BEYOND INFURIATED!!!

... If that is at all possible!

 

I will try to only give you the basics but I'm still so mad, I have to write about it to not only make myself feel better -- relinquish the anger -- but hopefully ensure that this doesn't happen to someone else!

 

Back in November ... November 9th, 2012 to be exact ... Jocelyn's shunt failed for the 4th time. You can read the story {HERE}! Well, of course something like this costs A LOT -- no big surprise. However, thankfully because we are military {which comes at a huge price in regards to our family mind you} but that said, we fortunately have pretty good insurance. And don't think for one second that we haven't paid our dues or haven't earned having this insurance!

 

Lots of medical supply companies, industries, hospitals, clinics, etc don't particularly like Tricare because they don't pay the bazillion dollars that they ask for. That's fine ... that's okay! But don't think you can sign a contract accepting Tricare's terms & conditions, and then think you can do whatever you want. YOU as the company, made a conscious decision to be in participation with Tricare! And on a side note, I do think Tricare is pretty fair in what they pay, but they are not going to pay over and beyond just so these places can attempt to recoup what they lose from other people.

 

So with that said, the company called American Medical Response (also know as Medevac Mid-America) has billed us thousands of dollars for transporting Jocelyn from our house to a local hospital. We wouldn't have even used an ambulance, but we couldn't get the seizures to stop. But that's neither here nor there.

 

The hospital we were transported to was not equipped to help us (we already knew that but KS City was a long drive while Jocelyn was unstable) but then, we had to be transported from the hospital to children's mercy which is about an hours drive.

 

Anyways, they have submitted both ambulance trips to our insurance and then accepted Tricare's payment to them. They didn't like what Tricare was willing to pay, so they again sent us bills in January. I called the company and Tricare, had everything resubmitted, etc and thought that was all taken care of.

 

WRONG!

 

Again, we got more bills for several hundred dollars and this is when the fun began today.

 

I ended up calling both American Medical Response (AMR) three times and Tricare three times.

From Tricare - I talked to Sherri, Sherry & Barb

From AMR - I talked to Maria, a girl that made me so mad I forgot to write her name & Ashley

 

***Write names, times & dates -- very important lesson that I learned when I was young and worked for Great Plains Inspection & Butterfly Supply when I first started college! Thank you for the lesson Gary Burke.

 

Come to find out, Tricare wanted AMR to contact them & AMR wanted Tricare to contact them. I found myself as the middle-man.

 

I don't do the middle-man thing.

This is YOUR job -- I'm not getting paid -- YOU figure it out!!!

 

The first lady, Maria, from AMR said it was not their company's responsibility to ensure things got paid and that it was both mine and our insurance. The second lady, who was straight up an idiot, said they filed an appeal to Tricare on 1/18/13 (because Tricare paid too little in their opinion) and have never received a response since that appeal. I asked her "Well who is responsible for doing a follow-up ... perhaps they didn't get the appeal?" She literally told me "Of course they did ... why wouldn't they ... we did our part & I don't know what else you want." This would be where this mama started to get REALLY PISSED OFF!! This second girl refused to transfer me to a manager or anyone else (only further fueling my anger) and we finished the conversation with me telling her that she can go ahead and write in her notes that I'm not going to pay this damn bill because I know my insurance, I know what is covered, I know that I have no responsibility and what they were doing was AGAINST THE LAW and I wouldn't stand for it!!!

 

So in between talking to the 2 ladies from AMR, I talked to the ladies from Tricare. Come to find out, Tricare DID receive the appeal, and paid AMR even MORE money upon re-evaluation!

 

For everyone keeping score -- what was AMR doing? I'll tell you ...

 

It's called "BALANCE BILLING!"

          What does this mean?

                    It means, AMR is trying to recoup even more money from people like me who may not know the difference. I mean afterall, you don't want a bill going to a collection agency right? So you might be aped to pay the bill and then "figure things out later."

 

I could give two shits because I WILL NOT BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF!! And I won't be held responsible for a company that is literally breaking the law.

 

This bill they sent has an invoice date of 2/19/13 and you know what I found out through my investigation? After Tricare received the appeal from AMR, they cut a check for a few hundred dollars, thus paying them even more (so their appeal efforts actually did get them more in the end ... great for them!). Anyways, Tricare cut that check on 2/7/13 and it was mailed 2/8/13. AMR ended up CASHING the damn thing on 2/15/13 and then they had the nerve to bill me AGAIN come 2/19/13 just to see if they can get the rest??

 

YOU CAN KISS MY ASS!

 

Once a company decides to accept an "assignment of benefit" then they are required, by law, to write off the remaining balance thus leaving a ZERO balance to the consumer!!

 

It is against the law!

Period!

After talking to the 3rd girl from AMR, Ashley, she told me "Oh yea, after looking through things I see where they did pay more. I will put in here that the responsibility will be taken off the patient for now as its being reviewed by our company. If you don't receive another bill, then great! But if you do, or you are curious, just call back for a status update in about a week."

People -- I'm glad I got through ONE of their thick skulls, but I'm telling you, that last little bit from her? I could've exploded!

So after over an hour of non-stop calling between the two companies, a million questions asked, doing some basic investigation, getting down right ugly about things, holding people by the hand to guide them through a computer and documents like a small child ... what ended up happening?

We currently have no bill -- I think?

And all this will be submitted to Tricare's grievance department because I know for a fact I am not the only one they are trying to pull this bullshit on and I feel bad for all the other family's that have fallen for this.

The Lesson Learned?

Be prepared.

Don't quit after one try.

Don't take no for answer.

Demand explanations.

Stand your ground.

Exercise your knowledge.

Don't allow someone to take advantage of you.

and flipping your "bitch switch" has a place!