Sweet Home Alabama errrr Colorado

We were actually considering a move to Alabama. I know - I cannot believe it either. That said, do you realize I built a snowman in October and could have built another one in May? That means that there are four months of the year in which I couldn't build a snowman. That would be great if snowman building were my passion, however, it's not. I like swimming & water skiing and camping. Joe & Quinn bought these seed starter kits. You plant the seeds in the house and then when they get to a certain height, you plant them outside in the ground. Like any normal person, we began this a few weeks ago. Now the plants (especially the beans) are about 2 feet tall. They have one stalk each and they are flopping over. The dirt in the little containers is getting moldy and I am guessing if we don't plant them outside very soon, they will die before we get them in the ground outside. I guess we could put them outside and then let them die of natural causes (freezing) rather than killing them slowly while waiting for spring.

My friend, Laurel and I were having a garage sale this weekend. I was hanging up the signs in 27 degree weather! Yes - 27 degrees. I sat in my garage freezing my buns off with a winter coat on while the die hard garage salers trickled in. That very same day, my mom told me it was 80 degrees in Alabama.

We had begun to look at houses on the Internet. Though prices aren't what they once were in AL, you can still get a pretty nice house for a reasonable amount of money. Some of them have pools in the yard. My dad often reminds me that I said I wasn't going to have kids, I was going to have a swimming pool (he always followed it up by saying "that's going to be hard to pass - as in delivery"). Anyway, we could then venture out into lake properties. AL actually has many beautiful lakes (CO has reservoirs filled with snow-melt). AL always struck me as sort of a "nothing" state. I mean, who says, "Hey let's plan a family trip to Alabama"? I cannot think of anyone. On the other hand, we had tons of visitors when we were in CA & CO is a nice tourist (guest) state too. CT probably was but we weren't there long enough to find out plus I was busy with a new job, having a baby & dealing with post-partum depression. No one would really have wanted to visit (at least not if they were smart). Anyway, back to AL. It's actually got some very pretty areas & some nice qualities. The most important being my parents & my Aunt & Uncle & cousins. I think that my mom would be such a big help. I may be delusional because some of my friends have parents that help all of the time. They take the kids to plays & out to lunch, etc. They pick them up from school and help out when they are sick. The mom & dad actually go on dates!! Then...I have other friends who complain because their parents live close by but don't seem to care too much about seeing the kids & are so busy that they don't help out as much as the kids would like/need.

Well, none of this really matters because last week I called the organization that provides services for disabled children in other states. The woman has three disabled children of her own. She was adamant about our family staying in Colorado. She said she would trade us places in a heart beat. She is under the impression that CO & FL have the best services around. She said AL services are terrible. you have to fight for everything, Chloe would likely go uninsured unless we had group health as Medicaid doesn't help too many kids there, the schools are horrible, etc. She went on and on and on. If she didn't have three kids of her own - I might have disregarded what she said but she seemed to know the innerworkings of the system. I am going to have to talk to at least a couple more people but my first impression is that we will be building snowmen 8 months out of the year. The schools have always worried me but now I cannot imagine going from CO to AL & losing services for Coco. Things have gone so smoothly for us in terms of getting the therapies we need. That said, how do you weigh services vs. family? I am sure my friends with disabled children probably weigh them differently than the average family might. It's a whole new world when you have to consider "Can my daughter get medicaid if I move?" or "What if she cannot get enough schooling or the therapies she needs?"

On a side note (I probably mentioned this in an earlier blog), it is still a little hard for me to accept that Chloe has Medicaid. I always thought Medicaid was for the poor, people who couldn't afford to get insurance or didn't work. Geez, we work our butts off & our child is on Medicaid. I think mentioned that we cannot get insurance for Chloe because we are self-employed. Before they knew what was wrong with Chloe (especially before they knew), no company would insure Chloe. Given our rates without her, we wouldn't be able to afford insurance even in they said they would insure her. Thank God she qualified for Medicaid. I don't mind paying my taxes nearly as much as I used to!