Insurance, anyone?

There are all kinds of insurance.  There’s health (don’t get me started), auto (2 male teenaged drivers – don’t get me started), home, life, I bet these days I could insure my insurance.
 
I do not understand the whole concept of insurance in its current form.   We voluntarily give money to a business.  Under certain circumstances of their choosing, when we are at our most vulnerable, they do us the kindness of allowing us to ask for some of our money back.  Here’s the thing though, they get to decide whether or not they give us any.  Are we nuts?
 
I will never forget how much time I spent trying to get my health insurance company to pay for my pregnancy test.  I had been through IVF, In-vitro fertilization (see Lightning Strikes).   IVF costs tens of thousands of dollars per try and insurance paid for none of it.  To add insult to injury, they were denying my pregnancy test.  “You’re infertile”, they kept telling me,“we will not pay for a pregnancy test for someone who is infertile”.  “But you don’t understand, it’s positive, I’m pregnant”, I kept saying.  Insurance companies do not listen.  They don’t have to.  My entire pregnancy and delivery was covered (apparently they pay pregnancy and delivery costs for infertile people), but they never, ever paid for that pregnancy test.
 
I once made the mistake of trying to reason with our homeowner’s insurance company.  I know, how naive. They wouldn’t pay for water damage done by a toilet.  As soon as we saw water damage and realized we had a problem, we immediately stopped using it, called a plumber and got it fixed.  Insurance wouldn’t pay for damages to our house because it takes more than one use for water damage to be noticeable, and they only pay a claim if it's “resolved expeditiously.”  Their stance was that we had to have had it fixed before we could ever possibly have known it was broken.  No consolation prize, no “thanks for playing”, nothing.
 

Consolation prize sweatshirt?

 
One of the most difficult parts of having older children is that, depending on their age and maturity level, you are somewhere in the process of backing off, of letting go.  You want them to start making their own choices and in some cases their own mistakes.  I don’t know how we keep from going insane when we are advocating for one course of action but know that our kids are going to take another.
 
I took the boys to the bank and signed them up for checking accounts with debit cards, and for savings accounts.  We had lengthy discussions about smart use of money and about the need to save.  One child spends all his money as soon as he gets it.  He doesn’t think, if he wants it he buys it.  I meet the UPS guy at the door daily.  He knows my name.  I’m thinking of baking him a cake.
 

Icebox Cake

 

At my other son’s request, I had purchased him a gym membership.  Along with the membership you get 2 free consultations with a trainer.  I highly recommended taking advantage of this option.  A trainer can help you to target whatever areas you want to work on.  It is essential that he help you to be sure you are using the equipment safely and properly.  I made my case more than once.  He chose to do his own thing.  One day he called me to come pick him up at the gym.  He “heard something pop” and was, shall we say, in some discomfort.  After some necessary time off, he went back to the gym.  He still hasn’t met with a trainer.
 
So despite all the insurance I pay for, and the absurd, mind boggling and frustrating calls I have made thinking I could get coverage when I need it, I would volunteer to pay for another policy.  I need “young adult’s questionable choices” insurance.  Any entrepreneurs out there?

Icebox Cake

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Printable Recipe


Ingredients:
3 cups heavy cream
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
1 ½ boxes (64 cookies) Nabisco Chocolate Wafer cookies
Chocolate syrup
 
Directions:
*Beat the cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
*Take a little of the whipped cream out and mix with enough chocolate syrup to give you a medium brown color.  Put into piping bag and into refrigerator until ready to serve (this is for decorating the top).
*Put a small amount of whipped cream onto plate. This will hold the first layer of cookies in place.
*Form a circle of 8 cookies (touching) and put one cookie in the center.
*Carefully spread with a layer of whipped cream (approx. 1/8 of what you have as there will be 8 layers).
*Repeat these layers 7 more times.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight so the whipped cream softens the cookies.
*When ready to serve, pipe the chocolate whipped cream onto the top of the cake.
 
*NOTE: Icebox Cake adapted from smittenkitchen.com (adapted from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook)
If you can’t find the Nabisco Chocolate wafers, you can make your own:
Chocolate Wafer recipe available on smittenkitchen.com (adapted from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert)