3 Months as a Homeowner

We’ve been living in our house for three months now, and we finally feel as though we’ve settled in.

Last weekend we had to buy our first lawnmower. We opted for the lower priced, manual lawnmower, which cost us $99. For almost three months, our backyard consistently looked like dead, brown patches of grass. Then suddenly, within the last several weeks, everything turned green and all manners of weeds sprouted up from nowhere. The two trees that we have on our front lawn, which Christy that for sure were dead, also suddenly sprouted leaves. So…much of our weekend was spent mowing the lawn and digging up weeds. Just another adventure you get to have once you become a homeowner.

I was a little concerned about skyrocketing utility bills, but our electricity bill has been around the $100 level. This is without having to use any heat or A/C. In retrospect, I guess it was good that we bought a smaller house, as opposed to all the fancy, two-story homes we had looked at previously. Some of my colleagues here at work, who have much bigger homes than me, pay about $300 a month for their electricity. Our water bill is about $70. Again, much higher than I used to pay, but not shockingly high, considering we use the washing machine and dishwasher frequently.

I guess my biggest shock is when I get my mortgage bill every month and I see that only about $150 of my payment is going to the principal on our house. The rest is going to interest and escrow. No wonder it takes so freakin’ long to pay off a mortgage. I was told that once you buy a house, you normally spend your first few years paying off the interest, but this is ridiculous.

(Picture: our once brown backyard, now green and full of weeds)

Kyle's 3rd Birthday

Kyle turns 3 years old today. Unlike Sara's big, 5th birthday party, we decided to do something smaller for Kyle, and just have a small, family party.

Unfortunately, now that Kyle is 3 years old, he can't get into places for free anymore. So, maybe instead of having family outings to Disneyland or Six Flags or Sea World, we'll have more outings in our backyard. :)

The Art of Phlebotomy

So last weekend I took a crash course in "Basic Phlebotomy Skills" and by the end of the weekend, I became certified.

What is Phlebotomy? Basically, it's drawing blood from patients in a laboratory. I have to be honest, though, I had never even heard the word "phlebotomy" until recently.

The hospital where I work sent out an email offering free classes at Austin Community College, so I took them up on their offer. I figured, why not? Working in the lab would probably be better than what I'm doing now, and it pays more too.

For a good portion of the class, we had to practice on fake arms filled with red dye. Then at the end of the class, we were practicing on each other. That was fun. I thought I'd be a little nervous sticking someone with a needle, but I had no problem when my time came around. It was easy.

So when I came back to work I emailed my supervisor, telling her that I'm ready to start "sticking" people. She then goes on to tell me that to be certified with the hospital, I have to schedule time in the lab (during my time off), and perform 20 "sticks" while under the supervision of a lab tech. Wow, I was kind of surprised. It seemed as though she was trying to put up some road blocks for me to achieve the certification that the company was providing us.

"It's so obvious what they're doing." said a coworker. "They think that all of us will quit our current jobs and get lab jobs."

Yeah, she's right. That's exactly what I would do.

The Re-Birth of Healthcare Reform

"If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to save people."
-Tony Benn, British Labour Politician

....And with that, healthcare reform begins.

Wow, it was exactly a month ago when I was lamenting on the fact that healthcare reform was probably dead. But...like a Taiwanese in-law, it's back again!

Like I had said before, it's not a perfect fix, but it's a start. What's amazing to me is how many people believe all the misinformation that's been going around. Some of my "friends" on Facebook are shouting things like "SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR FREEDOM!" or "THIS IS HOW SOCIALISM STARTS!" (FYI - these people aren't really my friends, but people I might have known 20 years ago that decided they wanted to add me on Facebook....just wait till they read my blog, then maybe they'll delete me. hehe)

Just exactly how are we losing our freedom? Here is FACT #1, from the "Politifact Website":

1. The plan is not a government takeover of health care like in Canada or Britain. The government will not take over hospitals or other privately run health care businesses. Doctors will not become government employees, like in Britain. And the U.S. government intends to help people buy insurance from private insurance companies, not pay all the bills like the single-payer system in Canada. The key parts of the current U.S. system -- employer-provided insurance, Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor -- would stay in place. The government would create health insurance exchanges for people who have to buy insurance on their own, so they could more easily compare plans and prices.

Does this sound like a government takeover? Hardly. If anything, it's going to give people MORE freedom to choose.

Now, FACT #2 is one of my personal favorites:

2. Insurance companies will be regulated more heavily. They will be told the minimum services they must cover, including preventive care. They will have to pay out a certain percentage of premiums for patient care. By 2014, when the exchanges open, insurers won't be able to deny customers for pre-existing conditions

Regulation is exactly what the insurance industry needs. Oh man, do they need regulation. Insurance companies are evil, greedy bastards who will figure out any loophole to keep from paying your claims. I wish this regulation started right now.

Now, someone like me, who's not dirt poor, but not wealthy either, my insurance will probably stay about the same. My premiums might actually go up a little bit, but with that increase will come better coverage. If me or someone in my family gets sick, maybe I won't have to worry about losing our house to pay our medical bill. My only concern is if the premiums skyrocket, but from what I'm hearing, there will be a cap on premiums, depending on your income.

The Republican politicians hate this bill. Absolutely loathe it. If they didn't have to resort to racial slurs outside the Capitol building, and shouting "Baby killer!" inside, maybe they'd get a little more respect from me. Their pockets are lined so deep with insurance company cash that they can't see the big picture. The money that is being spent is for a common good. It's not being spent to attack sovereign nations or bomb wedding parties in distant countries. It's not being spent to build weapons. It's not being spent to build an empire in the middle east. It's being spent right here on the citizens of the USA, to give people healthcare who wouldn't have it otherwise.

Speaking of the "baby killer" remark. I was really, really hoping that the person who shouted that wasn't a senator from Texas. But...guess what...it was! Another embarrassing moment for Texas, I'm afraid. I'm a reluctant Texan, but I've made it my home, so I really hope that someday we can get out of this stigma of being labeled a state full of uneducated hicks. Watching Bill Maher last Friday night, he made this joke about Texans wanting to change school textbooks:

"The only use that Texans have for textbooks is to stand on them to watch football games."

Of course, after bashing Texas, he went on to say he would be appearing live in El Paso on April 3rd. Still, is Texas always going to be the butt of jokes? I hope one day it's not.

So...there are my thoughts on the current state of healthcare reform. I know of at least one person who will benefit greatly from this bill. My ex-mother-in-law. She's been denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Now she'll be able to get insurance.

Good job dems. Now start working on a public option, create more jobs, and start reigning in the banking industry.

(...and to Sara and Kyle, the country just became a slightly better place for you to live in.)

Video - Sara's 5th Birthday

(Sara blows out the candle during her 5th Birthday Party. At around 27 seconds, you can hear Kyle say "It looks like Team Umi Zoomi", referencing a popular kids show)

Sara Celebrates Her 5th Birthday

This year, for Sara's 5th birthday, we decided to give her a big party. We considered going to Chuck E. Cheese, but it seemed a bit expensive at the time. However, the money we spent on this party was probably equal to what we would have spent at Chuck E. Cheese. Maybe even more. Regardless, it's not something we'd want to do again anytime soon.

Sara had a lot of fun, and she got to see her friends from both her new school and her old school.

Democrats VS. Republicans: Round 101

It's kind of funny reading all the comments lately regarding Obama's health care reform bill. Every story I read on Yahoo! ends with literally thousands of comments of mostly very angry people.

One can speculate whether or not the "majority" of the American people are for the bill, or against it. The Democrats will say the majority is for it. The Republicans will say they're against it. Who knows what the actual reality is?

Personally, I think the Democrats have fumbled the ball for the past year that Obama has been in office. Obama had been trying much too hard to reach out to the Republicans for their support, when in fact, he didn't really need it. He won the election by a landslide. The country was ready for the changes he was promising, and to this date he hasn't really delivered on them.

The Democrats have also shown very little backbone this past year. I remember when the Republicans were in office, Dick Cheney was being interviewed by Charles Gibson:

Gibson: Recent polls show that 2/3 of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it.
Cheney: So?
Gibson: You don't care what the American people think?
Cheney: You can't be blown off course by polls.

Now there you go. That's backbone. As bad as the Bush/Cheney administration was, at least they stood by their (bad) beliefs and accomplished whatever they wanted, regardless of what anyone else had to say.

The Democrats, on the other hand, might take a lesson from the Republicans. But no, they have to be so accommodating about everything.

What happened to the public option? Gone.
Universal healthcare in the US? Probably not in my lifetime.
Why haven't the regulations been put back into the banks and financial industries? So far, there hasn't been a single one.

The health care reform that they're trying to push through right now is something of a start, but seriously lacking in a lot of areas. Ok, there are a few good things on the bill: children with pre-existing conditions will now be covered. Insurance companies cannot just drop coverage on someone who gets sick. No more lifetime limits on coverage. More emphasis on preventative care. This is all good. But again...some of it is lacking. People shouldn't be forced to buy into health insurance if they don't want it. If people enjoy paying hundreds of dollars to go to the ER, that's their business. But you don't need to fine them. And, when it comes to fines, why are insurance companies only fined $100 per day for not covering someone with a life threatening condition? I can predict that these greedy companies will just wait it out until the patient dies, since that kind of money is just pennies to them.

I really hope the Democrats can get their act back together. This week, for the first time ever, I seriously started looking into joining a different political party. No, not the Republicans. I learned a long time ago that the Republican party primarily caters to the wealthy, not the (lower) middle class that I currently find myself in. I've been doing a little research on the Libertarians, the Green Party, and the American Independent Party. If I don't see at least some of those promises kept before 2012, I'm jumping ship.