More prodding about my giveaway, and Letters of Intent

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My First Giveaway!!!!

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Feel Good Friday!!!
Go ahead and link up! It's fun!

1. I think there's a pretty good chance I'm pregnant this month (Which, if I'm wrong may be a source of 'feel bads' instead of 'feel goods' by next Friday, but hey- what the heck. For now I'm optimistic.)

2. At bedtime, I surprised my kids with big fat glow sticks (Magic wands according to them) and it was really fun to see them so excited.

3. Book club is coming up! I am SO excited to discuss one of my favorite books EVER on March 1st! The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw. It's an easy read, you and your children will LOVE it, and there is still time! Please come and join me!

4. I am also SO excited for my very first giveaway! (See above.) I really am. I am so excited to get to make a new pair of wings and send it off to one of my deserving readers. I think I like this so much, I will be doing a giveaway each month!

5. The Military finally paid us. You really don't know how happy this makes me. (But you WILL when you read my letters of intent.)

As always ;) click the button for more wonderful and insightful Letters of Intent!!)

Dear Doctor's Office,

I don't want to beat around the bush since because of you, I have much less time on my hands and much more work to do. So I will get straight to the point.

Do you NOT understand that "going paperless" does NOT mean what it implies? Just because all of your info is now on computers and you now are able to do all your work on computers does not in any way mean that it is okay for you to skip out on making hard copies.

When we returned to Utah, having been all over the country, I brought all three of my children in for their visits and promptly handed you their hard copies of their medical records from their ENTIRE LIVES (and believe me, just because they're little doesn't mean there is any lack in doctors visits. You're a doctor's office. You MUST know how many times a child is required to visit the doctor in the first year of their life, and that's JUST the well child checks!)

Maybe 6 months ago, I received a call from you. It seems that your "Paperless" computer system had crashed and you no longer had any records for my children. Or any of the other children you treat for that matter. Did I have any I could fax you?

Um....no....because I GAVE them to you near 2 years ago!!! Okay, okay. I do have records. I'm smart that way. I kept hard copies for myself. (It's a good thing too. We were at 2 military bases, plus the one here in Utah for our immediate appointments upon arrival. Do you have ANY idea how hard it would be for me to call them all? To be able to track down what YOU lost because you think that a computer system is so reliable that you don't need paper copies? Or at the very least a BACKUP????? Oh, wait, i DO know, because I have to DO it. Wait for it... I'm getting there.)

Okay, medical records check. Shot records? Um...what? No go.

I had all 3 of my children while my husband was Active in the United States Air Force. I don't know how it is done everywhere else, but my children's shot records were in the computer, and each time they got their shots, I got an updated printout. The shots were administered in a completely different appointment than the doctors appointments, and for some reason the military did not see fit to include the shot records when they gave us our medical history when we separated.

No, I do not have a yellow card with signatures and shot records on it. Nor have I ever been given one. Can YOU give me one? Oh, that's RIGHT!!! I waited 45 minutes and 3 reminders for a nurse to come back with one for each of my children the day I BROUGHT you the records, but had to leave after that because my daughter puked on my lap because she'd eaten 6 bags of gummies while I was trying to keep her quiet due to the dirty looks from your desk attendant. So when you call and ask if I have any shot records for them, my answer is NO. YOU should have them. YOU are the doctor's office that is supposed to protect and keep our information.

Furthermore, I am appalled that you will not fax, mail, forward, whatever, all of our family's records to our new doctor (not only because you're idiots, but because we now live an hour away from you, and let's face it, that's just not economical in this economy.) who is just down the street from us, and might I add, phenomenal.

When i called and asked for you to send my children's records to the Doctor's office that week before my daughter was seen for her Kindergarten check, I was told that I would have to come in and sign some paperwork. And pay a minimal fee. A FEE?

Really? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm so happy that you are protecting my privacy, but when it comes down to it, what is the possibility that I am changing doctors because I have moved? Well, as stated above, that is one big reason. Also, what is the possibility that I might be in a different state where I could not just saunter in and sign what you want me to? I do not want to drive for an hour just so I can prove to you that I want a different doctor. I can verify anything on the phone- addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, social security numbers, birth marks, hair color, etc. I mean, really. I'm not even asking you to send it to ME, I'm asking you to send it to my children's DOCTOR, who also requested our info via fax and got a negative.

Before I continue, can I just ask: What is WRONG with you?

So, my daughter has to register for school with an incomplete shot record, even though i know she is up to date because you people are beyond inept. I will have to spend a small eternity calling three different military medical clinics to try and collect my children's shot records so that they do not have to get them AGAIN (because, yes, I DO believe whole heartedly in Vaccinations, and am not going to take the easy way out and tell the school we've decided not to vax.) It might not seem to be a big deal to you to make a phone call, but I was a military wife for 4 years and I can guarantee that they will make it even more difficult to get our records than you can even imagine. In fact, they will probably want me to meander my way to their clinics in Alabama and New Jersey and pick them up in person too. Hill AFB has already said they don't have the records, even though it's all said to be an inter web between all military clinics. So, that signifies to me that there is the possibility that we will not be able to get them at all.

Please shape it up. I'm tired of fixing other people's mistakes.

Signed

I Hope You're Happy.

**********************************************************************

(Photo courtesy of Google Images)

Dear Uncle Sam,

Okay, I don't really hate you per-se, we had a good 4 year round, and I didn't wholly hate it. (I hated Alabama, but that's beside the point.)

However, even though we are no longer part of your active duty group, we are facing some serious turbulence caused in large part by you.

First off, we spent four years letting you own my husband. He missed the birth of his first child. He was away on TDYs several times, which, admittedly is a thousand times better than a deployment, but it doesn't make him any less gone from our lives. We have paid our dues.

In return, we are granted the GI bill, which is the reason we enlisted in the first place. So, essentially, that money is OUR money. Not yours. And you don't have the right to screw with it.

So, considering the last comment, can you please answer a question for me? Maybe a few?

WHY do we have to call and harass you each month before we get the money we are entitled to? Are you hoping that somehow we'll forget that we earned it? Why, when the money is SUPPOSED to be automatically deposited in our account by midnight on the first day of each month are we left, literally penniless and unable to pay our bills (like our mortgage, which is covered by the GI bill as a housing allowance. It's part of the deal.)

Yes, Brandon has a job. It's a decent job too. But we don't make enough from it to live on it. That's the whole REASON he's going to college! (And THUS the whole reason he joined the military so that he could get the GI bill and we wouldn't have to deal with crap like this! Apparently we were mistaken.) And let me tell you- we do NOT live extravagantly.

My point is, Uncle Sam, did you ever stop to think that MAYBE the reason people do their time so they can HAVE the GI bill is because they are LIVING on it? That they DEPEND on it? Yeah. Well, I guarantee you that I'm not the only person who is sincerely pissed off because you took a MONTH to get us our money, and caused us to be late on several bills. Why is it that outside of the military, legally, employers HAVE to pay their employees ON TIME or there can be repercussions, but you are above it? What kind of a world is it coming to where the government thinks that they don't have to adhere to the same rules as everyone else?

Now, I'm warning you. Just because you didn't pay us until the 23rd of February does NOT mean that it's okay for you to delay our March payment until the 23rd too. We have a mortgage payment due in one week, and just because you dropped the ball does not mean that you can play catch up with all these lives that are in your hands and wait until time has elapsed. That's OUR money. And I don't like what you're doing with it.

Further more, and on to a new topic, why in the world would you choose to only give us selected medical records when we left you for greener pastures? For example, we have a whole bunch of medical records for Lilly, some from New Jersey where we started out, and some from Alabama, where we finished our prison sentance. Since there are some from New Jersey, I KNOW you must have had them transfered, in whole would be my guess, to our new station in Alabama. HOWEVER, these records from New Jersey start in July of 2006. My daughter was born in April 2005 and received ALL her well child checkups on a military base. So there's a whole year and a half missing! Where are our records?

In addition to my irritation about only receiving SOME of their medical records, I am also really ticked off that you did not see fit to include any of my three children's shot records along with the official medical records. Seriously? I mean, really. Seriously? I'm actually asking.

You will be receiving several calls from us (likely my husband, not me, which is in your favor because he is infinately more patient than I am, and also because in my experience with you and your medical system, I am essentially ignored, blocked, tagged, and hung up on since I am not the beneficiary. I didn't spend time in a uniform, so, it seems, to you, that makes me invisible. Thanks. Thanks SO MUCH for taking my husband away from us for just that much longer. Military: The gift that just keeps on giving- loads of crap.)

Signed

I Wish I Could Threaten You, But You're So High And Mighty, I'd Probably Just Go To Jail.

(For the record, I also usually participate in Feed Me Books Friday, but due to my long and involved Letters of Intent, I have to pass on this one. Back next week with more books!!!)