2009 Christmas Letter

This is my first post in awhile, but I will post this and try to get another post up again soon with more details regarding my hospital stay and my car accident.

Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year!

Greetings from the frozen Wisconsin North Woods!

This past year has been full of blessings, surprises & answered prayers for us as we near our 2^nd anniversary.

Let’s do a rewind of 2009 for the Kern’s! Our year passed by quickly as it does every year. Not a whole lot of excitement came our way until about mid-summer…

At the end of July I headed to the emergency room with what felt like a horrible knot in my neck that was getting so bad that it was painful to breathe. Upon a chest CT scan, it was found that I had countless blood clots in my lungs that apparently had been developing over the course of the past several months. I spent a week in the hospital hooked up to IV blood thinners and begging the doctors to let me go home. Every doctor that I have seen thus far is shocked that I am even alive. They say that I am lucky, I say that I am blessed! After a few months of tests and taking blood thinners on a daily basis, it was discovered that I have a blood clotting disorder called, Factor V Leiden, that when coupled with certain medications, pregnancy, or surgery, will put me at high risk for blood clots. I may go the rest of my life and never have a clot again, so I have been taken off the blood thinners for now. We thank God every day that I am alive and still around!

Mid-November we headed out to Hinkley, MN for a country concert that I had won tickets to on the radio. On our way back, it was a beautiful 50 degrees and I was driving so Tyler could rest up for hunting bright and early the next morning. I set my cruise control on to 55 mph and headed on my way. About halfway back with our 75 mile trip, I hit a patch of black ice and lost control of our truck. The limited slip had kicked in and swung the box around on me causing me to hit a tree head on, which totaled out our truck. We walked away pretty bruised and with some whiplash, but ok!! God had once again been faithful and kept us safe from being more injured!

This year was pretty slim pickings for the deer hunting. No one in Tyler’s hunting party came back with a deer, so deer tag soup it is! I guess we will have to work harder at ice fishing for food then! J We were craving venison too!

Tyler continues to work at Tjader & Highstrom, which is based out of New Richmond, WI from March to December each year. He has been there nearly ten years now! He works on the road each week away from home on various “jobs” throughout Wisconsin. He is now laid off for the winter, so I am enjoying the treat of coming home each evening to a smiling husband!

I have just completed my first year of working for United Healthcare in Duluth as a medical claims processor. I enjoy my job, but sitting at a computer all day causes me to become very restless! I have been working all kinds of overtime lately as we wrap up 2009, which is helpful during these months that Tyler is laid off. The drive to Duluth and back gets long during the winter months, but during this day in age, having a job is something to be thankful for! I am looking forward to working from the comfort of my own home by the middle of this coming year! YAY!!!

Right now, my weekdays are spent working while Tyler spends his weekdays working on vehicles, snow plowing for the neighbors, relaxing and ice fishing with his friends. Ty has been a marvelous help to me with keeping up on the housework while I am at work. I am slowly training him to start dinner for me before I get home in the evenings. It’s such a treat! J We spend our weekends staying in and enjoying watching movies and sipping the cocoa. We get out on the lake for ice fishing when we can to add some fish to our typical venison diets!

We got two male kittens this past spring and they are now part of our little family. Tigger and Duke are their names. They are little stinkers, but they are nice to have around when Tyler is gone during the majority of the year! They are my cuddlers.

We pray that you are all doing well and may God bless you all this coming year!

Tyler & Ana

Sick and Tired

Well, I haven't posted in awhile and for that, I apologize. I am thinking that I don't have many avid readers anyways! :P

Since I last posted, Tyler and I have celebrated our first anniversary (March 1st). That day went alright. After church that day, we relaxed for awhile and then visited Ty's dad for a bit. My car slid backwards trying to get out of the driveway into a snow bank. We had to tow it with Tyler's truck up the steep driveway. We raced up town and barely made it to the movie that we had planned to get to. Then, after the movie, headed to a nice restaurant, Le Bistro in Superior for a nice dinner, only to find out that they were closed Sundays. :( Oops. We turned around and went BACK to Duluth to go to Timberlodge instead. Oh well. We still had a good time and we made it a year without killing each other!

Work is going good. I am only a couple-three weeks from finishing training. Monday we start proficiency. They take 5 claims randomly per day that we have paid to audit. We need a 99% accuracy on the claims that they pull. They do this every day for 2 weeks. I hope to pass the audit with flying colors but you never know. It's very mentally draining, but it's nice to be processing claims all day now instead of just in the mornings with more learning in the afternoons! That made me tired like I was in class in college! UGH!

Today, I sit at home while Tyler is on a 4-wheeler ride with his friends. I was supposed to work at the Moose today helping Angie, but I have had the flu since the middle of the night on Thursday. UGH. I am starting to feel a little better, but I am still very drained! I hope to have energy tomorrow to celebrate Tyler's birthday. It's not til Monday, but I work all day and he is at a safety meeting the entire day down in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Sunday works best for us to celebrate.

Life is crazy right now. I work all day, then in the evenings, I try to spend time with Tyler before I pass out from exhaustion. I am feeling quite lonely these days. I love spending time with Tyler, but I don't feel like I have the girlfriends like I did back in the Cities. The time for Tyler to get back to work all week is nearing and the closer that it gets, the sadder that I get. :-( I wish that Cera was here. My sister, Julia, being here would be nice as well. It would be nice to have family closer to spend time with. I miss that, a lot!

I don't have a ton to write about. My mind is foggy with being so tired and sick. I am signing off for now, hopefully to post something more exciting that this in the days to come.

PS. Horray for it getting warmer and the snow melting!!!!!!!!!!

To blog or not to blog ...

I start out this morning at 7am when I could be sleeping in on this morbidly cold morning, but my body thinks I work today, so it got my up! Argh!

There is nothing much to post about, but to appease Meghan, I must blog about something. So, my rambling will now take place! :)

Over the past month or so since I have last posted, I have not had too much go on in my life.

Not long after my last post, I went into Benna Ford in Superior and told them to take my piece of junk Focus back. The Focuses have this problem with their rear alignment, that wears the tires bald starting from the outside in within weeks of putting new tires on them. The manufacturer has conveniently changed their warranty knowing about this problem to no longer cover alignments and definitely not new tires. I had put new tires on, got an alignment and a few weeks later, have my tires wearing badly. The dealership was having an employee pricing sale and I also get a Ford discount from my job. So, I convinced them to take my Focus and I drove away in a brand new Ford Fusion. I love my new car and it doesn't have those problems, thank God! My insurance went DOWN due to a safer car and this car is much for "family friendly" for when we plan on having children in the future. I know that getting another new car seems ridiculous, but I got an excellent deal due to friends at that dealership and I am paying about the same as a payment with lower rate than last time!

The end of December brought a week of vacation where I went with my hubby to spend a few days at my parent's house for Christmas. It was nice to get home, but sad to leave. I wish that I had the opportunity to see them more often!! :(

New Year's, well, not much to say, we went over to a friend's house and played games for several hours to bring in the new year. It was fun. I think my ambition for that night gets less and less every year!

Right now, I am now about 1/2 way through training at United Health Care. I pay claims all morning and do more of the training in the afternoons. I am learning how to process harder claims as more training takes place. It's stressful some days and I look to the end of my training kind of nervously. Right now, we have people who audit what we do every day to make sure there are no mistakes, if there are, they perform a "same day void" for us to reprocess it the next day and fix our mistakes. We won't have that after training and so many mistakes means job termination. I am hoping to get all of this down VERY well to not have to worry so much about screwing up. And then, I get to work from home!!! They say it takes about a year to gain complete confidence in our jobs, but I want to be confident now! Argh! Oh well, at least I have a job in this current economy. Cigna Health insurance just let go of over a 1000 people and we didn't let anyone go! So, I am happy to say that at least I have a job. No complaints worth mentioning right now with that scenario!

I can't believe that it's almost February in a couple short days. I have about 34 days until my first anniversary. That fact just blows my mind! The year has passed by so fast! Then again, I didn't get to move up to Wisconsin until we were married about 4 months and Tyler worked all week away from home until about December 1st. We have an interesting setup, but coming home to my hubby each evening is always nice! :)

I just find myself wishing that I had friends closer to hang out with. I feel so lonely in this small, clicky town. I miss a lot of people from the Cities that I hung out with whenever I could. I need my sister, Julia, from the Cities, to move closer to me. That would help, but honestly, who wants to live in podunk! :P or BFE in Meghan's world! :)

This morning is SO cold and I haven't left the house since I got home from work on Friday. It's so much colder here than Minneapolis! :( Going to work in Duluth, even further north and up on a hill, the windchill and snow is always worse! I think about green grass, windows down when driving, and NO SNOW. Spring needs to come!!!

For now, this is all that I have to rant about, but I will try to blog more about my ever so fascinating life. Remind me, Meghan!

-Ana

A very belated good news posting ...

Ok, so I have a job now. If you didn't know that, I am sorry. I keep forgetting to post and tell everyone that I got a job!

I am working at United Health Care in Duluth. I am in a 16 week training class for claims processing. I am learning the in's and out's of health insurance right now. This is challenging, but enjoyable at the same time. I just finished my first 2 weeks of training and I can't imagine what else they have in store for me to learn!

The drive to Duluth takes me about 50 minutes in good weather and who knows how many when it's doing what it is doing right now outside my window! I talk to my friend Kasey on the way to work every day since she works at UHC (United Health Care) as well at the other location. It's nice to have someone to keep me awake on my way to work!

So, needless to say, I am already missing my time off that I had while looking for a job. My wonderful hubby is now on layoff and enjoying his time making his mark on our couch! :) He is helping out so very much with helping to keep our house clean, laundry going, and even getting some dinner that I pre-made into the oven for me! Wonderful man! :)

Now for the REALLY good news about this job, I get to come home in a year to work! They provide the desk, chair, computer and whatever else that I need to get my job done. Apparently a good chunk of the employees from UHC work from home already. So, if I can meet my quota per hour/day that I need to do without making lots of mistakes, I can come on home! WHOO HOO!!!!! When we finish remodeling that back spare bedroom, this room will also function as my office! I am happy! I can now be like my sister-in-law, Stef, whom I teased for sitting in her bed working all day from home! Now, all I need to do is work myself up to HER salary! TEE HEE!

That's all that I have for now on the work matter, but I am happy to at least have a job! God is good! Oh on that God note... I told Tyler that God has a sense of humor and that I will probably won't find a job until the day he is laid off. I got the call the morning that he got laid off, the day before Thanksgiving. Yup, God is an awesome God! :)

Oh and to just add, I have to get up at 530am now to get to work in time and I go to bed around 930pm every night. Yeah, I am not enjoying that, but oh well, what can I do?? :P

Tagged !!!

Ok, so Meghan is trying to consume her time before she goes into labor and is filling goofy things like this out.

So, here it goes ...

Tagged

Rules:
1. People who are tagged need to post these rules, and 8 random habits/facts/quirks about themselves.
2. At the end of the post you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.



8 Random Ana Facts/Quirks/Habits


1) I love flip flops. I wear them all year, no matter what the season. They are cheap at Old Navy for 2 for $5, they come in every color of the rainbow, and they are easy to put on/take off!

2) I have very muscular arms and have been known to beat several guys that I know at arm wrestling :P

3) I would rather spend my day hanging with the guys ice fishing than spending the day with a bunch of girls shopping.

4) When I turn the volume up or down in the car, TV, etc, I have to either find an even number or I have to make sure the lines are all even, and not like a bunch of lines with a half line. OCD coming out I think :P

5) I love to quote movies with certain friends, or even use quotes as part of conversations. For example "Silence! I kill you" OR "Look Mom, I'm road kill!" OR random ones like that. Cera knows that I am talking about :P

6) I've got to have milk with probably every meal that I have. A huge glass. I prob drink 1-2 gallons per week. It's a sickness I tell ya! But my bones are good and healthy!! :)

7) Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a naturally loud person. I recall my father calling me a foghorn when I was a kid.

8) Most people don't know this, but I really don't care for candy, cookies or chocolate. I know, there is something wrong with me!


TAGGED PEOPLES

JULIA
MICHELE
CERA
MANDA
SCOOTER
ERIN
JUSTIN
AMELIA

Two months since the last post ....

and there is still nothing to post about!!!!

My weekdays are spent hanging out with Angie and her kids. They are so cute. I enjoy hanging out with her and helping out with the kids. It gives me something to do and since our husbands work together on the road, we have something in common!







The rest of my weekdays are spent interviewing for jobs. UGH! I am so sick of the interview stage of the job hunting. I just want a job so badly! Tyler is getting laid off very soon and we have no money to make it through the winter. Unemployment isn't enough!!!!!!




Cold weather is settling into the north country and propane is really high this year! We are looking into alternative methods of heating our home, like the Heat'n'Pure or some other form of electric heat.










We have recently listed our truck on Craig's List and CarSoup.com to sell it. We need to get out of our payment since we can no longer afford it! :( Tyler is bummed, but he rarely uses his truck anymore.











So, this morning, I sit and watch T.V. in my very chilly house. I spent the past couple weekends holding a garage sale. It was so nice every weekend outside, that I thought a garage sale would work. Of course, it was cold both weekends. I made about $250 the first weekend, but this past weekend, maybe $40 bucks. Oh well. It helped with some grocery shopping! Ebay and Paypal have such high fees, so it's frustrating to list anything on there!



I got my haircut a couple weeks ago for a change. They screwed it up, but it is growing on me.












Well, that's all I feel like posting for now. I have no life! lol

-Ana

My Funk ...

So, I have been in a kind of a funk lately, this being for a few reasons:

1) My hubby has been in a funk: we are both worried about money and how we are going to make it through the winter since i don' have a job yet ...

2) Adapting to small town life is hard, it seems that everyone talks about everyone all the time. If you aren't spreading the rumor, then it's typically about you. There are a few people in this town who don't know me and yet are running my name through the mud. WHY???? :( What did I ever do to them? :(

3) Partly covered in 1), but no job, why can't I find a job? I don't know! I have put application upon application in and I either never hear back, I interview and never hear back, or I interview and get the infamous rejection letter (as already discussed in a previous post). Frustrating! Why can't I just find a job? :( I even applied at Wal-Mart in Superior and they haven't called me back !!! :(

4) Tyler is gone during the week. He is gone from 3am Monday to Thursday or Friday. It's what we have to do for him to get a decent income for us. It saddens me to be a newlywed and not have him home, but distance I suppose makes the heart grow fonder.

5) Last but not least, boredom/not many friends. Being in a small town, there are clicks, and I am the new "guy" in town. Therefore, I don't really have any friends to talk to. I find some solace in Vanna in the Cities, but she is there and I am here. At least I can talk to her about my problems and vice versa.

Right now, I am sitting on my patio, relaxing, monkeying around on my computer. It's a gorgeous day that the Lord has made, so I am enjoying it. I spent the majority of the day at Lucius Woods, which is a block away. There is a nice beach there. I was there with a couple gals and their kids. It was nice and relaxing. I have nothing else to do for the rest of the day, but I am going to decidedly enjoy the outdoors for the rest of the evening I think. I need a hammock!!! Or at least a lounge chair!!!

That's all for now. Feel free to write comments of encouragement or laughter! :)

-Ana