4.25.2008

Say What?!?!?!

As I have said in the past, Justin and I don't have television, so when this news story came to my attention, even though it happened about a month ago (I think), I was blindsided. Apparently, a woman who worked for Walmart got into a very serious car accident and was mental handicapped by said accident. After a lengthy court battle, she was awarded $470,000 ($417,000 after legal fees) that was put into a trust to pay for her medical expenses for the rest of her life. Well, when she signed up for Walmart's health plan, she didn't read in the fine print that if the plan put out any money for medical expenses (which it did to the amount of $470,000), then they are legally allowed to be "reimbursed" if there is damages are awarded. And they did indeed take the $417,000 from the trust fund so that the program would be fair to all of its employees.
Now, I understand that what they did was well with in their rights, but was it very ethical? This is the question I'm posing to you all. Remember, Walmart pulls in $9 billion a quarter, not a year, a quarter, so they definitely didn't need the money. But the other thing that I found irritating is that with all these problems that his client is facing, the attorney that represents this woman is NOT being asked to return his legal fees and do the case pro-bono. He gets on his soap box and rails how Walmart is being unfair in taking the money, but shows no sign of relinquishing his 11%. Now, I know, he worked for it and he probably worked very hard, and the 11% is far below the usual 1/3 that many attorneys take, but this whole story just reeks, to me, of unjustness.
I have included the link to the story here www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/25/walmart.insurance.battle/index.html
in case anyone wants to read it. I know that it is on the CNN website, so I have taken it with the usual grain of salt, but even a blind squirrel gets a nut sometimes...

4.23.2008

Adventures in Babysitting...

On April 12th, Justin and I watched Kevin and Sara's kids for the day while they went to a sealing. The kids were really, really good! We had so much fun together jumping on the trampoline, going for walks, and, as the picture depicts, going behind the pasture to the river. The water was still really cold and KayDee really didn't want to get her feet wet, but Sam and Derrick had a blast! Hub (K & S's dog) came with us. He's part lab... for anyone who has ever been around a lab, that is all I have to say. For those of you that have never been around a lab, lets just say that lab's love water. Needless to say, we all smelled like wet dog for a little while...

4.09.2008

Dark Side of the Moon

I took this cool picture of the moon the other night. I set up my tripod, set the two second timer to prevent my unsteady hand from blurring the picture and let it go. This is what I got. Who says you can't see the dark side of the moon...

4.07.2008

Feelin' a Little Trunky...

Yesterday, while at Justin's parents' house, I mentioned that my brother, Christopher will be coming home from his mission in six weeks. Emily put it best when she exclaimed, "Didn't he just leave?" Indeed, it does feel like time has flown by. Justin says that between me and my mother, he doesn't know who is the more trunky. As for me, even though I'm excited to see my brother again after two whole years, I think that my mom far surpasses my trunkiness. Just this morning he wrote to me, as today is the day we usually get e-mails from him and mentioned that he only has six weeks left! Only six more e-mails, one more phone call, and he is on his last transfer this week. He is excited to come home, yet sad to leave. Well, only two more years and we can experience this all over again when Alex goes...

4.04.2008

Further Concerning Jude...

We decided not to keep Jude. He was only with us for three days as a trial run and, though he is a very good dog, he is way higher maintenance and needed far more attention than Justin and I could provide. Plus the Rueschs (es?) missed him. Oh well, Justin wants to save up and buy a beagle...

4.01.2008

Hey Jude...

We kind of got a new dog yesterday. Ma Ruesch (our friend Randy's mom) had an extra dog she wanted to give away. His name is Jude and he likes to run and jump fences (don't worry, he always comes back). He also likes to sleep in Hub's (Sara and Kevin's dog) dog house. But I guess all is fair because Hub likes to scarf down all of Jude's food. We feed him inside now...
We're not sure that we will keep him for sure yet; it all depends on how he interacts with Kevin and Sara's kids. Here's a couple of pictures for you to look at. Tell us what you think!

Just chillin' on the driveway

Smokin' Jude (at least he's on filters...;)