what a rip off!

We have been wanting to try to get Riley on Social Security ever since he was diagnosed. The cost of taking care of him is so outragious that we really needed some additional support. We have not been able to apply because our income is 'too high' to qualify so we didn't even bother filling out the paperwork because it's quite the project. With Marc currently not working I felt that it was time to try. Not that I want to abuse the system, but given our circumstances I felt that it was deserved. So I spent about 3 days filling out the paper work; finding addresses, phone numbers and exact dates of hospital admissions and diagnosis. I went through the phone interview and signed all the paperwork. The normal approval process usually takes 180 days but since Riley's condition is terminal they are able to pay benefits during the approval process, but they have to determine whether his diagnosis fits into one of the terminal catagories. What ever! It's been about a month and I haven't heard anything about our case when to my surprise a check arrives on Monday from the United States Treasury Department of Social Security. Excitedly I open the envelope when I was shocked to read the amount of $39! That's right folks with our income cut in half trying to provide for a family of three with a terminally ill child the government feels that $39 will be plenty to house, feed, clothe and provide medical care for Riley! Thanks a lot!

Mall Ratz

Yesterday I took my 10 year old niece to the mall to just hang out for a while.  She picked out a bright green t-shirt with a sparkly penguin on it. Despite my efforts to persuade her into something much more calm she insisted on her choice.  I asked her what she wanted to do next and with out hesitation wanted to go to Claire's. We spent half hour trying on head bands and glitter bracelets. I found myself saying things like "when I was your age this was totally cool!" It was fun to see her excitement over plastic bracelets and ridiculous ear rings.  And yes, I thought all that stuff was so cool! I would save up babysitting money to go spend hours at the mall with friends buying that same bright green t-shirts and those same ridiculous ear rings to match. I would fret over which best friends necklace to buy and who I was going to give the other half to. It was fun to be 10 years old again...well for a half hour at least.

Pain in the Neck

I'm up in the night because my head really hurts from our car accident last night. Yes, that's right we were in an accident.  We were on our way to my mom's to drop Marc and Riley off on my way to work for a NCAA finals boys night out but we never made it. We were stopped at a light at Bangeter when a BMW SUV going about 60 mph hit a Ford F150 who then hit us. Riley was histarical in the back seat and because of his condition the paramedics took him to Primary Children's just to be safe. He looked pretty shaken up but calmed down by the time we got to the hospital.  They took an x-ray of his neck and that looked fine and since he was talking and smiling at the doctor she figured his head must be ok too. With the adrenaline running and being nervous for Riley Marc and I just felt minor aches but now we are really feeling it and probably should go get checked out too just to be safe. I'm shocked that the driver of the BMW walked away with no injuries because the whole front end of his car was totaled. We were lucky that the truck was behind us to kind of cushion the blow otherwise things could have been much worse. They are going to have to replace pretty much the whole back end of our car including the hatch. This means we are going to be driving a rental for a while. When it's all said and done I'm just glad that no one was seriously hurt.