Fall 2009

The holiday's have come and gone already!! I have so much to update!

First of all, depositions are over! Thank goodness. I was really stressed out, but I did my research, went over some common depo questions, and asked Trav to quiz me over the accident, and some details and timelines over the past several years. They weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be, and they were over in about an hour and a half. And part of that was the guy who hit me talking! My lawyer said I got an A. Arbitration had been set up even before depositions were scheduled, but Patrick said they would probably settle before arbitration.

They didn't. Dec 21st kept inching closer and closer and we never heard a peep out of them! So we met with the lawyer on Dec 18 to go over what arbitration would be like. Nerves all over again! Before the meeting, Trav took me to get a dilly bar since we were a little early. I love stuff like that. I miss that from when we were younger. We had so much more time to just wander around town and do whatever we wanted. And Trav always had such good ideas! After the meeting Trav took me through the Pepsi lights. That was a lot of fun too. Anyway, at the meeting we went over that it would be in a small conference room with the judge, Patrick, me, Trav (our witness to how the collision has affected me), and the defense lawyer who had questioned me at depositions. He was really nice during depositions, so I wasn't expecting it to be too bad. All we could tell them was the truth. I haven't lied at all. Still, we were nervous! It's just nerve racking being on the spot and being asked questions in front of people! Especially with my horrible memory!

Arbitration was AWFUL. First my lawyer asked me questions about the accident and how it's affected me. And he asked Trav if he's ovserved that I do anything differently now than I did before the accident. That wasn't bad. But then the defense attorney got to ask me questions and the nice guy I'd talked to at depo's was no where to be found. I bet thats part of his strategy! Ugh. He made me look like a liar because he asked if I'd complained of headaches to any of my doctors before my accident and I said I didn't remember. I see doctors a lot and I talk to them about lots of things. I've never specifically gone to the doctor about having headaches, but I have had headaches before so it's possible it's come up at an appointment. Anyway, he asked me and I said I didn't remember. Then he found everytime I've ever talked to a doctor about a headache. Ever! He quoted what was in the doctors notes and then would say :do you remember that? DUH, obviously I don't remember or I would have said I did earlier! Then he asked me if I have any specific problems with my memory. He was such a douche. I hope someday I'm in control of something HE'S doing! I know it's thier job to act like that, but sheesh. And I will be the first to admit, I don't have a good memory! And with how much I've been to the doctor in the last 5 - 10 years, there is no WAY I can remember everything I've talked to them about.

Anyway, his argument was that I obviously had frequent headaches before the accident, so they shouldn't have to pay any of my medical bills. Hello....what about my back and neck problems? He had nothing to say about those.

It was very unpleasant. I totally didn't expect that. I didn't know I had forgotten so much. I felt embarrassed and that I was made out to look like a liar!

Afterwards, my lawyer said that was pretty normal, and not to worry about it. Yeah right! I was worried about even getting my 4k in medical bills paid for now!

About a week later, we got a letter from the judge. He is offering $2700 (app) for the medical, and $7000, non-econamical (pain and suffering). So almost 10k. My lawyer had said during the arbitration closing statements that he'd like to see a settlement in the high teen's. And we originally asked for 46k! Ha. We knew we wouldn't get that! 10k would be great if we got to keep it all. Of course the medical bills have to come out of it, and then 40% of whatever is left goes to the lawyer. There is almost 1k in lawyer fees that the other side is supposed to pay. They can appeal it though and we could end up having to pay some or all of it. My lawyer is also going to write a letter to my doctors and tell them we only recieved 70% of the medical in the case, and ask them if they will take 70% of what we owe them. I hope that at least Dr. Brown does that. He's already gotten over 8k from my insurance in this case!

Anyway, best case scinario, we'll end up with $4k in our pockets and all the medical bills paid, and worst case we'll end up with around $2k in our pockets and all the medical bills paid. I am REALLY glad to at least have the medical bills paid. That was stressing me out. I'd been hoping to get between 5 - 10k to put in the bank for future problems from the accident. Hopefully we'll at least be close to 5k. Only time will tell! Of course the other side can still appeal this settlement if they think it's too high, and make this go to jury trial. Which would be completely redicious! I can't see them doing that over 10k, but crazier things have happened! We have to wait 10 days into Jan for the settlement by the judge to be recorded in court, and then the other side still have 20 days to appeal it. So we probably won't even know if this is for sure what we're getting until the end of January! THEN my lawyer will write the letter to my medical providers, so we'll have to wait to hear back from them. And who know how long it takes to actually get a check from the insurance. It will probably be almost 3 years since the accident by the time this is totally done! And I STILL have back problems and headaches. You just can't put a price on what it's like going through this whole process. It's terrible. And on top of still being in pain....it's just not right. I NEVER ever want to get in an accident again. Mainly because I don't want to have to deal with the insurance!

On the positive side....as long as the other side doesn't appeal, at least this is OVER! I am very happy about that. I'd like to just move on! Hopefully the medical providers will take 70%, and the other side will pay their lawyer fees so we'll get the best settlement we can out of it.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had it at mom and dad's house. We had Grandma, Uncle Bob, Sara, and Air join Mom, Dad, Joel, Trav and I. It was a lot of fun. Mom and I bought all the ingredients together. It's expensive getting everything for a thanksgiving dinner!!! And I'm a thrifty shopper! It was almost $80 for all the ingredients! For one dinner. It was so good though, and so much fun! Air and I went through the Black Friday ads and got a list together of everywhere we wanted to go.

I tried to go to bed early, but I didn't fall asleep until almost 11, and Air was at the house at 3:30am! I was running on about half the sleep I normally get! We shopped until we dropped. We didn't get home until 4:30 in the afternoon!! I was delerious around 8. I usually make it until noon before I get delirious! But I got my second wind around 10 and I went strong until about 4! We got LOTS of good deals, and I got most of Trav and I's Christmas shopping done.

We went and got our Christmas Tree on Saturday. We found Volstadt Farms in N Albany last year, and we really liked it so we went back. They had a BEAUTIFUL Nordmann Fir. It has the stiff thick branches and pine needles, and they are deep forest green on the top, but underneath they are blue, so the tree looks frosted if you see it in the right light. It was a little more, but it was just too cool. Trav and I got our first really nice tree! Of course we had fun picking it out and cutting it down, and enjoyed some wassil before leaving. When we got home we decorated. Trav put the lights up outside while I decorated inside, and then we decorated the tree together.

We had Christmas with the Clark's on Saturday the 18th because Robert and Kathy were leaving Christmas Eve to spend Christmas with her family in Eagle Point. We went to Jason and Amber's this year and had Thai food. It was a fun day. Trav and I made some of our gifts this year, and we made hot chocolate for everyone there. We LOVE hot chocolate, and pretty much everyone knows it, so we thought it would be appropriate! Plus, who doesn't like hot cocoa?? :) We put it with little marshmallows and wrapped a bow around the jar. I also made them each a plate with homemade cookies that we made and Rachelle's Christmas Cookie Party. Mmmmm they were so yummy! And we got them each a little something else. We were supposed to do homemade and/or small gifts this year. We got Coraline an Elmo pillow and stuffed animal. She's really into elmo right now, so that was fun! She was very excited. Amber and Jason got us some cool souvieners from Thailand and they knit me some slippers like Travs that they knit him last year. Robert and Kathy made us a family calendar with family photos in it. It's very special. They also made us a HUGE jar of homemade pickles. They are so good! We've already eaten at least half of them!

After we did Christmas we figured since we were in Portland we should go to the Portland Zoo lights. I'd heard they were really cool. The line was outrageous! It took about 15 - 20 minutes just to get into the zoo! It was SO pretty! Everything was lit up amazingly! Everyone said taking the train was a must to see the lights, so we went to get into line for the train. It was over an hour long line!! The train ride was fun, but it was only about 5 minutes and Trav and I said next time we go, we're going to walk it!! I've never been on the train though, so that was pretty fun! Not worth an hour long wait though!

Trav and I had from the 24th - 30th off work, then we worked the 30th and 31st, and were off again from the 1 - 4th! Christmas Eve we slept in, and then went to meet at my parents house. We went to the Christmas Eve service at Morning Star in Salem. Afterwards we went to look at lights around Salem, and we finished up by getting a pizza from figaro's to take home and bake! We did Christmas with Sara since she was leaving that night to go spend Christmas with her mom. And we did our Christmas Eve gifts! It was really fun! Sara did a GREAT job on gifts. She got me hot chocolate and candles....can't go wrong!! She got Trav beef jerky and authentic rice crackers (which he has been really into lately), She got my dad coffee, and my mom a mug gift set that was purple and had a bible verse on it! All her gifts were super thoughtful! Mom got us all Christmas Eve jammies as always! Mine are snoopy and super soft!! Trav's are awesome too. They are like a scrubs material but they look have a flannel print. He loves them.

That evening Trav and I actually went home. We have Emma-Roo now, so we have to come home to take care of her! We gave her the stuffed duck toy that Sara got her and she loved it. She had it torn to shreds in about 5 minutes, but she had so much fun doing it.

We woke up nice and early Christmas morning, left our Christmas jammies on, and headed to mom and dad's for the tree. We got spoiled as always. It was a lot of fun! It took over 2 hours to open all our gifts. Trav and I both got each other OSU shirts for our gift. Great minds. :) We rushed home at 11 to get the prime rib roast in the oven for lunch at 2!

Mom, Dad, and Joel came over at noon and mom helped me get dinner ready while the guys chatted. Grandma Collins came to dinner too. She had a lot of fun with Emma. Right when dinner was ready, my cousin Kimmy and Kevin, and Aunt Mel called because they were in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by. They came by with Kevins 3 daughters and it was so much fun catching up. After they left we got dinner on the table and the prime rib was de.lic.ious!!!!

We had a great time socializing with family. After dinner we watched "The Proposal" because mom had been wanting to see it! Such a funny movie. That evening Lacee, Hunter, and Ryder came to visit. He is such a cutie. We all took turns holding him and loving on him. Emma LOVED him and wanted to play so badly. It was really cute.

We finished out the night rocking out on guitar hero, talking, drinking wine, and catching up.

That Sunday was Air and I's Annual Friends Christmas Dinner. It is growing! Last year we had 9 people come, and this year we had 15. It was so much fun. We had it at Air's this year, since it was at my house last year. We set up tables across her living room. They took up the whole thing! It was awesome. We got the biggest turkey we could find, a 22 pounder!! We got all the fixins and started early Sunday preparing! Dinner was a little late, but really when isn't a turkey dinner a little late? :) It was a really fun time with our friends! And I must say, the food was delicious! I think we're going to have to rent a place next year to fit everyone! :)

Early Monday morning, Lacee and Hunter brought Ryder over for Trav and I to watch him overnight. They were going to Seaside to celebrate thier anniversary. They brought him over at 7, and of course Trav and I were sleepy so we put him right back to bed and he slept until 9! Nice. Then when he woke up, we got up with him. Poor little guy had a pretty bad cold. In the first hour of him being awake, he spit up on me at least 5 times, and Travis - none! Of course.

Trav and I had all these things we were thinking of doing. They left us the stroller and car seat so we were going to go shopping! We still needed to get our Christmas gifts for each other. Well, it's a lot more work to get out the door with a baby! We got him all ready and right before we left, he spit up on me. So we changed him and me and got all ready again, and Bam, poopy diaper! At this point we'd been trying to leave for about an hour, so when poopy diaper hit, we just decided to stay in for the evening instead. :) So we played at home. Emma LOVED Ryder. She was instantly protective of him too. It was really sweet.

Poor Ryder was having trouble breathing beacuse of his cold, so we woke up several times during the night. Or I guess I should say, we woke up several times. We was coughing and coughing one time so we got up and he was still fast asleep, just coughing right through it.

Tuesday Trav and I were determined to go shopping! So we tried again, and we actually made it out the door this time. Ryder fell alseep in the car seat and he slept the WHOLE time we were out shopping. We went to Old Navy and tried on tons of clothes (and got our Christmas presents there....they had so many good deals!), we went to the mall and Target and he slept right through the whole trip. He slept on the way home, and he slept when we got him home. Lacee called me as we were getting home at 5. I expected her call because I knew they were heading home at 2, so they were due back around 5. Well, she called to say they were stuck in the snow and still in Cannon Beach. Traffic had just been crawling and stopped the whole 3 hours. What a nightmare. We didn't mind watching Ryder at all though! Lacee and Hunter didn't make it back until almost 11pm! It took 9 hours for a normally 3 hour drive!

We had a great time seeing and watching Ryder. He is a happy baby. I like happy babies! And I learned something about myself....I think I will spend a lot more time at home with my baby than I ever thought!! :) I don't think we'll be going out much. Especially if Travis isn't there to help me! :) I'm sure it'll get easier with experience though.

Travis woke up with a sore throat on New Years Eve. Poor guy. He was feeling pretty awful after work. So, we had a very chill NYE party. We toasted at midnight with water in our martini glasses.

Now, it's 2010. Where have the last 10 years gone? I remember 2000 like it was yesterday! This year will be my 10 year high school reunion! What the heck! Here we go......