Dominican Republic!

It's been decided!
The plane tickets are already booked!

Jeff, Caitlin, and I will be vacationing in the Dominican Republic this Fall!

Visitors and Caitlin's first big adventure!

Wow!  What a week!
Last week, Bruce, Kathi, and Yao stayed over at our house and we all had so much fun and got so much done!

What did we (ok, I didn't really help much with the home improvement but I'm still going to say "we") do?


Installed a screen door over our front door!
Horray!  The screen door blocks out flies and mosquitoes and does not look crazy ghetto like those black security doors.

Threw a 4th of July BBQ that I didn't even know we were going to have!
So months ago, we threw around ideas of throwing a 4th of July BBQ for the left coast cousins.  However, everyone said that they couldn't make it, so we figured we weren't doing a bbq.  Two days before 4th of July, Jeff announces that we are having friends over for our bbq.
What?  What bbq?
We head over to Costco that day to pick up food for our bbq.
The follownig day, we have more guests invited to our bbq!  Hmm, I hope we have enoughf ood.
The day of the bbq, we learn that 2 more people were joining our bbq. -_-'  I head out to the grocery store to pick up more food.  Thank goodness grocery stores are open on 4th of July!


Cleaned out and organized the garage.
Looks much better now!
Is anyone interested in buying our chandeliers?  $100 or best offer =)

Cut our old front door and used it to level out the guinea's cage.
Guineas got an upgrade!


CAITLIN'S FIRST BIG ADVENTURE
With so many visitors, it made sense to all make a trip down to visit Connie and her family!  (afterall, her daughter is Caitlin's bff. hehe).
I was a bit nervous about this trip because Caitlin always cries during car rides (yes, even when the car is moving), and the trip down to Irvine is 1 hour one-way.
On top of that, Caitlin is already a grumpy baby.  When she is out is about, she rarely naps, and when she doesn't nap, she is even grumpier.

Overall, Caitlin did pretty well.  Much better than I expected!
On the drive down, Caitlin did not cry until we were almost there! Wow!  We kept all the windows down and that seemed to prevent her from crying.  in the middle of the afternoon, after I fed her, Caitlin took a 45 minute nap at Connie's house!  I was so impressed because usually she is a light sleeper, but she slept through everyone's talking. She must have been exhausted from the drive down. =)
We went out to Fashion Island for dinner and took pictures at the Koi pond, and Caitlin napped for maybe 15 minutes during dinner time (not bad not bad.. I'll take what I can get). 

This is a re-enactment of some photo these 3 took years ago. I have yet to see this photo.

Olivia + Caitlin = BFFs 4 ever

Family!

Then we went to 85C for dessert.  (I got 30 dollars worth of pastries.  Mmmmm.)
We headed back to Connie's house after 85C, and what did Caitlin do?  She did quiet-alert! Wow!  It was already past 9pm, and she had a big day, but instead of being grumpy, she laid around playing with Olivia's toys and she even laughed a bit too.  =)
Sadly, Caitlin cried the entire hour on the drive back home.  We skipped Caitlin's nightly bath and put her straight to bed at around 11:15.  Caitlin fell asleep quiet easily and slept for 8 hours before her first feeding.
I love it when Caitlin sleeps so well!  We need to go on adventures more often! hehe

The not-so-neighborly neighbor

I have been living in my house for 3 years and I have never met my next door neighbor!
Of course, this is no biggie. I am told that he works night shifts so he is never up and about during the daytime. Ok, that is understandable.

Earlier this week, I had Caitlin strapped to my torso and we were going for a walk around the neighborhood. On my way back home, I passed by my next door neighbor's driveway and saw that my neighbor was in the driveway!  It appeared that maybe he just got home and decided to stop and pull a few weeds from his driveway before heading indoors.

In my head, I thought "Oh good!  I finally have the opportunity to introduce myself and Caitlin to the neighbor".  I stopped on the sidewalk at the end of his driveway and said "Hi!!".
The neighbor stopped pulling weeds, stood up, looked at me, crouched back down, and resumed plucking at his weeds.
I spoke a little louder "Hello??".
No response.
I resumed walking and went home.

Wow.
I don't think anyone has ever been so rude to me.
It's one thing to ignore a person trying to strike up a conversation, but how in the world can a someone ignore a person wearing a tiny baby in a cute pink hat trying to strike up a conversation?  And if you are going to ignore a person, then just pretend that you didn't hear them!  Don't stand up, look the person in the eye, and then ignore them!!

I think now I know why I have never met my next door neighbor in the 3 years that I have lived here.  And it's NOT because he works night shifts.

Want to see how big I got during my pregnancy?

When I was pregnant, I donned the same gray dress every month, stood in the same pose every month, and had Jeff take a couple of pictures of me.
What for?
So I can see how much my belly grew every month!

I put all the pictures onto one sheet so you can compare side by side. hehe

I would have really preferred the lighting to be the same in all the shots but I'm not that talented.


I gained a total of 25 pounds during my pregnancy, which is actually the amount I was supposed to gain for someone my size (I didn't go under or over the recommended amount). 

Despite gaining the optimal amount of weight, Caitlin's birth weight was 6 pounds 1oz, which is considered very small compared to the average birth weight in America (which is 8 pounds).
I think that goes to show how big (*ahem* fat) the average American person is, and people are gaining WAY too much weight during their pregnancy.

Brand new heating, a/c, and ducts!

We finally did it! After 2 years of no heat and no a/c in this house, we finally got brand new heat and air conditioning units and ducts.  It made sense to change all 3 since the central heat and air were so old, it made no sense to repair them, and the ducts were so old and torn that they had to be changed as well.

I was reluctant to get our central heat/air fixed since it is just so expensive!
Shortly after the central heat broke, we had a HVAC guy come see if he could repair it. He had some guesses on why it was broken but nothing concrete.  And he said that if he were to replace the entire heating unit, it would be $9,000.  He did not provide an estimate for a new a/c and ducts.

Last summer, after the gawd awful back and forth with Sears Outlet regarding our broken refrigerator, they offered to send out an HVAC guy to our house for free heat/ac consultation and 20% off the purchase, as a consolation.  The quote that Sears Outlet gave us for just the central heat was also around $9,000.  And if we also wanted new a/c and ducts, the grand total would be $15,000 for all 3 and they would take 20% off the price if we booked that same day. 

That seemed way to expensive so we decided to stick with no central heat and air, and the poor guineas endured through another warm summer and poor Jeff endured through another cold winter (me? I think West LA weather is awesome year round!!).

Spring of this year, Jeff decided that we should fix the central heat and air anyways since it would make the house difficult to sell.  And if we have to fix the heat and air before we sell the house, might as well do it now so we can enjoy it too.  I reluctantly agreed, mentally preparing myself for a gaping $15K hole in our bank account.

Jeff pulled up 5 HVAC places on Yelp with glowing reviews, and booked free consultations with 3 of the 5 places (the other 2 charged for the consultations! ridiculous!). 

The first guy came and said that it would cost $8,600 for the heat, a/c, and ducts.
My jaw dropped.  That is way less than $15K!

The second guy came and seemed more professional than the first guy, and kept talking about how their company's focus is on quality.  The thought that crossed my mind was "Quality? hmm... sounds expensive...".  His quote for new heat, a/c, and ducts? $8,750!
Wow!  That's not much more than the first guy AND you get quality.

The third guy forgot he had an appointment with us so we had to reschedule.  Hmm.. not very professional already... He did not wear booties upon entering our house (while guy #1 and guy #2 did)... Hmm, not very considerate either.  However, this guy was running his own mom & pop business and seemed like a honest and friendly guy.  +1 there. 
After he did a quick look around our house, his quote for new heat, a/c, and ducts was $4,975!

Whoa!
For ~$3,600 cheaper than the other folks, I don't care how dirty he gets the place!  Hire some cleaners and there will still be extra money in our pocket!
We booked him the same day and scheduled for the install the next day.

It was estimated to take 2 days to get the work done but it ended up taking 3 because the workers were 2-3 hours late every.single.day.  Being punctual is apparently not their thing.  This also meant 3 days of loud noises and banging around the attic, which meant 3 days that Caitlin couldn't get any rest.  And at the end of the 3 days, the house was indeed, very filthy.

But we now have brand new ducts and working central heat and air for 1/3 the cost that we would have paid 1 year ago (the benefits of a crappy economy? good timing? who knows...)! 
We also have additional vents cuts into the ceiling of some rooms for more effective cooling.  How lovely!

Happy 3rd Year House Anniversary

Today is the 3rd year anniversary of the day we got the keys to our house!

Ok.  It seriously feels like just the day before yesterday, I was reluctantly house hunting.  And it feels like just yesterday that I was blogging that it was the 2nd year house anniversary, complaining that it felt like just yesterday I was blogging about our 1st year house anniversary.

When we bought our house in 2009 , we qualified for the First Time Home Buyer Tax Rebate (I think it was $7K), but the catch was that we had to live in the house to for 3 years.  Glad to know that as of today, that $7K is officially ours to keep.  =D

We haven't done much to the house this year since I spent about half of 2011 being pregnant.  But also, since we got a lot of major work done on the house the first 2 years, it's smooth sailing from here on out!

Family photo in front of our house!
(Caitlin was 7 weeks old here)

What kind of stuff have we done to the house within the last year?
Well..

1. Put up dry wall in the garage.
2. Leveled out the grassy area in the backyard.  Previously, if you were frolicking in the grass in our backyard, a sprained ankle was guaranteed.  (We didn't buy the house like this.  When we hired some guys to run the electrical wiring underground in our backyard, those idiots failed to put back all the soil that they dug up!  Then grass grew over the trenches...) .
3. Got a new front door.

What changes do I foresee for this upcoming year?

1. Get a screen door for our front door, so mosquitoes and flies don't get into the house!
2. Get brand new heating and air conditioning unit installed.  (We have HVAC guys coming over tomorrow for a consultation!).

Health insurance is a pain in the butt!

As we all probably already know, the health insurance system in the U.S is pretty broken!  I have once tried to explain the concept of health insurance to my friends in the Philippines and they couldn't even wrap their head around how it works.

During my pregnancy, I had switched health insurance several times and it was all pretty annoying, ultimately ending in my health insurance refusing to pay for my 9 months of prenatal care!  Luckily, it is all squared away now, but it was all very frustrating!

It all started last summer when I was pregnant and needed an ob-gyn for my prenatal care.
At that time, I was on Jeff's insurance policy, which was with United Healthcare. 
We were on an HMO plan so I had to go to my primary care physician to "confirm" that I am pregnant, then get a referral to an ob-gym from her.  This meant that, the ob I was referred to is the one I was stuck with (oh the beauty of HMOs....) and I was referred to Plaza Towers Ob, which is a medical group, rather than 1 ob-gyn.  I ended up seeing 6 different obs during my entire pregnancy, and not 1 ob even bothered to remember my name.

Oh well, that part is not so bad, I already knew what I was getting into since we have an HMO.

In the Fall of 2010, Jeff switched jobs and the health insurance at his new company was Anthem Blue Cross.  When Anthem Blue Cross issued us our health insurance cards, I was not on the policy and all the information on the health insurance card was incorrect (such as, it said the co-pay was $15 even though it should have been $5).
After calling Anthem, it turns out that Anthem was confused because Jeff used to be an Anthem policyholder back in 2008 at his last job.  So when Jeff joined his new job and was back on Anthem again, they used his 2008 information, and that was also why I was not on the policy (I was not on Jeff's health insurance back in 2008 since we were not married yet).

Finally, we got every thing clarified with Anthem, but during that process, I had to delay my prenatal appointments with my ob-gyn, *AND* get another referral from my primary care physician to the ob-gyn.

On March 1, 2011, Jeff's company switched health insurance and automatically moved us from Anthem to Cigna.  Keep in mind I was 8.5 months pregnant at this time and I delivered 14 days later! With our Cigna insurance, it is an "open hmo" plan, meanng, we can just show up at our specialist's office without getting a referral from our primary physician.  And from what I recall, we were told that our ob-gyn (Plaza Towers ob) was in-network
Oh how perfect!
Or so we thought...

1 week after Caitlin was born, I got a call from Plaza Towers Ob saying that Cigna was refusing to cover the cost of my prenatal care, and possibly also not covering the cost of the delivery either, since they were considered "out-of network".  And I had to call  my insurance to appeal the decision.  Now, the cost of prenatal care was $6,300 and the cost of the delivery at the hospital was $14,700", so this was a lot of money we are dealing with!

That is so frustrating and it did not help that I had to deal with this so soon after delivering a baby!
I had to call Cigna and appeal their coverage denial.  I figured, worst case, if they still don't budge, then I am forking over the $20K bill over to Jeff's employer since they switched health insurance companies on us so late in my pregnancy!  We really didn't have much of a choice.

I called Cigna and drafted a letter of appeal with the rep on the phone.  My letter of appeal included arguments such as:

• I have been using this ob-gyn for the entire duration of my pregnancy
• The employer changed health insurance on me so late in my pregnancy
• We were told that our ob-gym was in-network
• My ob-gyn was actually "in-network" with Cigna until January 31, 2011, which was only 1.5 months before I delivered

The letter was submitted and would take up to 5 weeks for review.  The rep on the phone also informed me that the hospital we delivered at (St Johns Health Center) was indeed an in-network facility, so the coverage that was denied was only for my prenatal care.  That's great news!

A couple of weeks later, I got a letter in the mail from Cigna stating that after reviewing my letter of appeal, they decided to cover my prenatal care!
Horray!

I'm glad that was all taken care of.  That was a big headache.

The Loquat Heist

Loquats are underrated.
Hell, I bet you don't even know what a loquat is.
Even blogger is putting a red squiggly line under the word "loquat", thinking I misspelled "loquacity".

Well, loquats are one of my favorite fruits, up there with watermelons.  It kills me that it's impossible to buy these sweet, juicy, fruits at the super market or farmers market. 
I have to resort to stealing.

I found a loquat tree during one of my late afternoon walks around town and I noticed that all the fruits were ripe and falling to the ground!  Apparently whoever owned the house next to this tree was not taking advantage of the fruit it was bearing!
I'm too shy to go knock on the door and ask if I could harvest their fruit and I was even too shy to pluck 1 fruit off that tree in broad daylight.

There was only 1 option left...
I had to pull a loquat heist.

Last Sunday night, after Caitlin was put to bed, I grabbed a plastic bag and a pair of scissors and strolled back to where the loquat tree was located.
After plucking a few that were within reach, I realized that I had a pretty full bag!  That was fast!
If you look at the tree though, you can't even tell I plucked any!

I have been merrily eating these fruits these last few days.  I just hate that they are very tedious to eat (you have to remove the peel, which requires 2 hands!  When you are holding a crying baby in one arm, it's close to impossible to do!).

I think for my next house, it is a requirement to have a loquat tree in the yard.
And a third arm/hand would be good too.

Ruby chirping like a bird

Many people don't know that guinea pigs can actually chirp like a bird!  Yes, this is different from their typical "wheeking" sound.
Not many people have witnessed their guinea pigs chirp either.

Luckily, I have witnessed Ruby chirp on a few occasions (Marbles have never chirped), and I was able to capture it on video today!

Newborn Photo Session

Remember when I was 35 weeks pregnant, I did a maternity photo session with Nicole Loggins Photography?  Well, that was a 2-parter, since we also were booked to do a newborn photo session with her once Caitlin was born.

The day I gave birth to Caitlin, I messaged Nicole and let her know that Caitlin has arrived and to pick a date to do the newborn photo session (ideally, within the baby's first 7 days).  We decided to do the photo session on Tuesday, March 20, making Caitlin 6 days old that day.

Because Nicole requested for Caitlin to be naked for the photo session (since clothing can look bulky on tiny newborns), we heated up the room to an uncomfortable 88 degrees!  After feeding Caitlin, she fell asleep for the entire duration of the photo session, making the session very easy!  Typically, a newborn photo session takes 6 hours because the baby will wake up, cry, want to eat... etc.  But because Caitlin slept the entire time, we were able to finish the session in 2 hours!

Caitlin was placed in all sorts of cute poses and dressed in plenty of pretty head bands.
I discreetly snapped some behind-the-scenes shots of the photo session.

Caitlin doing one of the poses

 

Jeff lending a helping hand, blowing bubbles

We have Caitlin's newborn photoshoot photos uploaded to our Picasa:

Caitlin Photoshoot