Mom Life in the PNW

6 Tips on How to Save Money When Buying Gifts

Shopping online is now widely considered to be the best way to do your shopping – whether buying household items, clothes or even groceries, more people every day are choosing to go online.

And it’s really not the least bit surprising – online shopping saves you time, energy and can help you save a lot of money as well.

However, there are mistakes that are often made when shopping online that can cost you
money and even get you swindled out of your hard-earned money.

Whenever going online to shop, you should always be aware of a few important things to help you have a pleasant shopping experience.

  1. Overlooking Shipping Prices

When you find a great offer that seems to be cheaper than other sellers, don’t rush off to the checkout just yet. You may find that the price is much bigger when you add up the shipping fees.

Some sellers do this on purpose – they’ll reduce the prices of the items, but raise the shipping fees, so even though it may look like you’re buying cheaper, you end up paying the same, if not more.

Shipping prices may also be influenced by how far from the seller you live, so consider that too when ordering.

  1. Wiring Payments Instead of Using Paypal or a Credit Card

When you finally decide to buy something, check what the paying options are. If the seller only accepts a wire transfer, you’ll probably end up paying a lot of additional fees for the money transfer that can significantly increase your total.

If possible, look for sellers that have the option to pay with Paypal or a credit card – this way you’ll be paying for the item and the additional payments, if any, will not be as significant.

Additionally, there is no customer protection when paying with a wire transfer, which means, that if you wire the money, there’s probably no way to get it back, in case you get swindled.

  1. Not Reading the Return Policy

Whatever you might be buying, always check the sellers’ return policy. You never know what might happen – you can receive something that is damaged or something that just doesn’t fit you.

It pays to know if your seller accepts returns, does he offer free returns, can you get a full refund or exchange the item.

If a seller does not have a return policy, you should strongly consider finding another one, because otherwise, you’ll have no options if you receive an item that you’re not satisfied with.

  1. Missing Out On Coupons

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not to take advantage of the many coupons that are available for almost any seller online.

If you take just a little time to look around the internet for various coupons on the item you’re looking for, you’re almost certain to find a deal that will let you get a much better deal than you originally had.

It’s as simple as this – you’re almost definitely paying more than you could if you don’t use the various promotions that are available every day.

  1. Too Good to Be True?

When browsing the net for offers, sometimes you’ll come across deals that are not simply good, but just flat out amazing.

And that’s not always a good thing. If you catch yourself thinking that it just sounds too good to be true, it probably is. When an offer is simply unrealistic, it probably means that the seller is trying to scam you out of your money.

Always buy from sellers that are trustworthy – have a reputation, a solid website and content, have easily findable contact information and can be reached with it.

Use common sense when choosing a place to buy online, because there are instances where you should pay a little more, but be sure that you’ll get what you want.

Whether you’re an experienced online buyer or are just thinking of trying it, know that it can be a great way of shopping, if you remember the important things to consider.

The next time you log on to your computer to do some shopping, remember these tips – they will save you a lot of money and trouble.

Backpacking, drinking, and staples, oh my!

My husband had planned a backpacking trip for the memorial day weekend since he had Monday off. It was pretty craptacular weather this weekend with bursts of rain randomly throughout. Everyone else that had planned on going decided not to go because of the rain. Backpacking in the rain is not very fun, especially for our slacker friends who are too cheap to buy proper clothing attire that’s quick wicking. I found my quick-drying Columbia pants on Amazon for only $18, that was practically a steal since REI charges an arm and a leg for theirs. Just got to know how to find the deals.

Since everyone else pooped out like I had mentioned, I wasn’t going to let my husband go alone, so I went with. As soon as we get on the trail with our 30+ pound backpacks, it starts pouring, go figure! Wasn’t fun, but at least we had the proper gear to withstand it. The trail was about 2.8 miles to our camp spot, so it wasn’t that long, but long enough that my Gregory Deva 70 pack was starting to hurt my shoulders. I should probably go get it properly measured to my body since it feels like all the weight is on my shoulders rather than my hips. Maybe I just need bigger straps or something.

So we finally reach our camp spot at Gillette Lake, but camping spots are limited. There were no other hikers, but there were other campers who drove in, damn them! They got the nice spot by the water and all the dry wood. We were stuck with a crappy spot where someone demolished the fire pit, so I had to rebuild it with rocks. Then the hard part was trying to find wood. None to really be found except this one that looked like a pole of some sort with bolts sticking out of it. Hubby brought his saw, so he cut it up. We gathered various kindling to try and get the fire started with petroleum and cotton balls. Those took fire of course, then eventually the kindling started. It finally got hot enough to attempt to start a fire with bigger stuff, but it just wouldn’t catch cause it was too wet. We finally gave up and kept the wood near the hot coals so it would possibly dry out by morning.

We head to our tent since we’re cold and have no fire, so we open up the booze. You may be thinking you carried in booze in your packs, you’re crazy! No, not really. We usually bring in plastic containers rather than glass to cut down on the weight. Then we grab a container of country time lemonade and we’re good to go. We ended up playing some cards and I brought in my nexus to play some apps while the hubby read, then we passed out.

I awake to my husband getting in and out of the tent about 4 times throughout the night. Him and his small damn bladder when drinking! I didn’t get up once since I went right before bed. I knew I was plenty good and didn’t really drink too much anyways cause I knew I’d probably have to get up a lot and I hate getting comfortably warm and then go outside to freeze my ass off. I think I need to also invest in a shewee since the pee stream has a mind of its own. Sometimes it’s straight, sometimes its to the left heading towards your pant leg or foot, then you have to attempt to do the splits so it doesn’t reach, which makes you fall over. It’s just a mess!

The next day, we wake up to our friends walking in. We didn’t think that they would do it with the rain, but they were down for doing table mountain. I knew I probably wouldn’t do it because I don’t have the stamina to do something that steep and difficult and I figured they probably wouldn’t either. I went along anyways just to see it, so I get about a mile in, and then turn around because I was just slowing them down and it’s pretty much a 6 hour to and back hike. I wanted them to just hurry up and get it over with. I drop off my water bladder to the hubby, give him some beef jerky and trail mix and head back to camp. I crawl back in the tent and into my sleeping bag and pass out for about a half an hour to an hour since I slept like poo the night before. The next thing I know, I wake up to the sound of my husbands voice off in the distance. About 10 minutes go by and still no show. I’m thinking hmm I guess they didn’t make it either. They finally show up to the camp site with jello shots in hand and then our friends say they almost killed my husband. I’m like what…

They’re normally sarcastic, so I assumed they were joking. Then my husband turns the side of his head and I see a bloody mess and then I’m like WTF! I put my shoes on and crawl out of the tent and look at his head and see a chunk of meat sticking up on top. My first thought is he needs stitches or staples, but they’re like oh he’s okay. My husband wasn’t wanting to leave or even go to the hospital for that matter since they were telling him it wasn’t that bad. I think he should trust my instinct though. I took a picture to try to show him, but it was so covered in blood it was hard to tell. The friends hiked out to go grab our car and bring it around to the road so that he wouldn’t have to hike out. I started packing up our crap while our friends wife doctored it up a little bit with some antiseptic. She worked in a veterinary hospital before so I trust she knows something, even if she was only working the receptionist desk.

Apparently the story of what happened was my husband was taking his long johns off from underneath his pants. He had one pant leg and shoe off and one on, then the 2 friends get the bright idea to mess with a tree to try and knock it over. The tree didn’t fall over, but a branch did from 60 feet up which hit him directly on the head and split him open. I swear, our friends are like 12. Who in their right mind thinks knocking over a tree is a good idea, especially when someone is sitting there not able to run and move because their shit is off their legs. Not knowing which way a tree could fall. /Shakes head. I know they felt bad, but damn that was stupid!

They finally arrive back with the cars, so we head out and to the friends house since he lives like 2 minutes away. He goes and takes a shower to try and get all the blood off his face and head, but it was pretty dried on. He ends up touching the spot with his fingers and realizes oh shit, there is a big piece sticking out of my head and finally wants to go to urgent care. We get into town and head to urgent care and they need to give him staples. I knew he needed something, he should just listen to me! LOL

They cleaned it up, numbed him and proceeded to give him 8 staples through his head. He can’t do any strenuous activities and gets them out in the next week. I hear the head heals pretty fast, so that’s great, but now they say to wear a hat for at least 4-6 months to prevent skin cancer since scar tissue is more susceptible.

This is not stopping him from wanting to get back out on the dusty, muddy trail since they didn’t even get to the base of table mountain. He’s wanting to go back out this weekend, but that’s just too soon. He’s a crazy man for sure!

5 Ways To Speed Up Your Beauty Routine

 

You’ve done it again!  You’ve hit the snooze button once too often and now run the risk of being late to work.  Often times, women hit the floor running early in the morning, and are making that mad dash for work.  You hardly have time to get dressed and put on your make-up, let alone have breakfast.  Luckily, there are several easy beauty tips that can simplify your morning, and may even leave a little extra time for breakfast.

Problem:  Your multistep skin prep takes way too long.

Solution:  Be sure to cleanse your face, and quickly dot on a good moisturizer containing at least an SPF of 15.  Moisturizer helps rejuvenate the skin from the long night of sleep.  Save the toner and other facial care items until later that night.  Skin cleansing cloths are a great alternative to washing your face.  They work quickly to remove dirt and oil, leaving your skin feeling fresh and clean in half of the time.

Problem:  Digging through your cosmetic brushes is a waste of time.

Solution:  You don’t need to use all of your cosmetic brushes when you’re in a hurry.  Simply apply your foundation with a wedge sponge.  Use your blush brush to dust on powder, blush, and bronzer.  Skip your lipstick brush and apply a thin layer of gloss.  Comb your eyebrows and your through with your brushes.  Try keeping your brushes organized in a bag for easy access.  You can also take them with you in the car for quick touch-ups at work.

Problem:  You’ve got too many products in your cosmetic bag.

Solution:  Many innovative facial products now combine separate products, making it simpler to apply.  Here are a few time saving cosmetic combination ideas:

  • Foundation + Sunscreen
  • Moisturizer + Sunscreen + Tint
  • Concealer + Wrinkle Smoother
  • Toothpaste + Whitener + Breath Freshener
  • Make sure that you go through your cosmetic bag regularly and get rid of old, unused cosmetics.  Keeping your bag clean and organized can help cut down on time spent rummaging around in your cosmetic bag.

Problem:  Your products seem to wear off too easily.

Solution:  Try applying a facial primer before using your foundation.  This will help your cosmetics adhere better to your skin.  A lip primer also works well to keep your lip color in place all day.  After washing and moisturizing your skin, allow you face to dry for a few minutes.  Use this time to brush your teeth or style your hair.  Then apply a thin coat of primer to your entire face, including your eyelids and lips.  Continue applying your cosmetic products as usual.  You’ll be amazed at how long your products will stay looking wonderful.

Problem:  You don’t have time to do your hair.

Solution:  Try using dry shampoo.  Once restricted to bed-ridden individuals, many reputable manufacturers have come out with their take on this simple product.  Not only does it make your hair smell good, but it adds body and volume as well.  Although stylists recommend avoiding daily use, dry shampoo is the perfect way to speed up your hair styling process.  Stick your hair in a cute bun, and you’re ready to face the day.

If you are running late to work, it doesn’t mean that you can’t look beautiful.  Use these simple tips to speed up your normal beauty routine, and you’ll be on your way in no time.

Stay Away From Nuance Medical Transcription!

Stay Away From Nuance Medical Transcription!

As you probably already know from previous posts, I am a recent graduate of the Medical Transcription course at Everett Community College here in Washington. I finished up the course in 1 year 3 months since I hit a few speed bumps along the way that prevented me from finishing up in the allotted time of 9 months. Regardless of how long it took, I did it, and that is a huge accomplishment for me.

After graduating, I immediately set out the hunt for jobs who hired beginners in the Medical Language Specialist field, and Nuance happened to be the easiest to get the foot in the door with so to speak. They required me to agree to work full-time for the first year since I was entry level and I needed to have a 99.5% accuracy at all times, but they would be lenient with me to allow me to get up to speed since I am a beginner. Since I would be hired as an employee, I qualified for benefits after 90 days too. Everything sounded good and I started training for the work at home MLS position on February 4th, a few weeks before my Vegas vacation. The training was extensive video watching, probably a little too much to consume, which left me confused about the platform I would be working on. I did have live training a couple times, but they basically went over the same thing that we watched in the video and it helped some, but of course, you’re not going to remember everything that you had gone over previously, especially since they didn’t want me to start until after my vacation. So 2 weeks go by, then I have my vacation and start my official start date on March 6th at noon. I did not have any idea I would be starting that day since my supervisor decided to say just jump right in after our phone meeting. That was fine, but I didn’t get much done because I was trying to familiarize myself with the platform, account specifics that doctors require from you and a bunch of other stuff.

The first week was rough, as to be expected. My supervisor requires a weekly phone meeting to see where I am at. She recognized my errors immediately and told me I needed to improve these. For those that don’t know anything about medical transcription/editing, you’re basically listening to a crappy recording of a doctor who talks like an auctioneer or a foreigner or someone sucking on a cough drop or whatever the case may be, and you need to transcribe exactly verbatim. That means if you miss or add any of these when they are not said, “the, an, a, and, etc.” you will get marked off for it, and believe me, it affects your accuracy rating. I had a lot of them because the recordings for the most part sound so garbled, or doctors wouldn’t enunciate correctly, so even though there was a “the” in there for “the patient”, they would say it so close together that you thought they were only saying, patient. I have even added a the in there to make it “the patient” when there wasn’t because I figured that it was more grammatically correct. Don’t ask me why you get dinged for these nonsensical errors because I don’t have a clue. Now don’t get me wrong, I had a few critical errors for not seeing that the patient’s age was incorrect. You would think that the doctor should be penalized for this since he’s the one that spoke the wrong age, but nope, it’s our ass if it’s wrong because we are the ones that have to fix their reports. Critical errors are the highest errors possible, which is a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ) error. We could be sued for these errors. Now do I think that an incorrect age is going to put the patient’s life in jeopardy? Not really. My errors were not huge errors to where the age was a child, but put as an adult; nothing like that that I can see affecting the patient’s outcome with possible medication and whatnot.

Week 2 went by and I still had errors as to be expected because no one is perfect, not even the men and women who have been doing this for 20+ years.

Week 3, my errors were still there but slowly and surely improving from the previous 2 weeks. My supervisor scheduled a meeting with me and HR, more than likely to scare me into trying to do better since she’s evil like that. On the phone meeting, they made an agreement, not me, “THEY”, that I need to have half the errors of week 3 for the next 2 weeks. This means I have very little leeway, even though I am still new at this. Three and a half weeks is not enough time to be perfect at the platform when you have to pend to hospitals, search patient information to make sure it’s correct, make sure the work-type is correct (which I think should be the doctors responsibility), the correct date of service (again, doctors should input this information before they upload it to us, the client) They’re getting paid to see patient’s for like 20 minutes, yet make you wait in the waiting room, and again in the exam room for hours while they come out and speak their reports for us. You wonder what they’re doing, this is what they’re doing, along with visiting with their peers. You hear so much stuff on the recordings that it’s quite humorous. You may be thinking I am a bitter doctor hater, but I assure you I appreciate everything they do for us, I just don’t like how they get ridiculous amounts of money when we’re the ones doing their paperwork for pennies. This job position used to make $20+ an hour, but ever since outsourcing became the norm, they make everyone work for pennies or in my case $9.19 an hour which is the minimum wage in my state. (if I wasn’t an actual employee, I would have only been making $5.40 an hour which is ridiculous.) This is a lot more than some places, so I was grateful for that, but for the amount of work you do, it’s a complete joke. So, half the errors for the next 2 weeks did not seem possible to me. Not to be negative, but I knew that goal was way out of reach with this being my first MLS job.

Week 4 was much better. I had half the errors as the previous weeks, but my supervisor didn’t care because I already failed her 2-week requirement. Our phone meeting consisted of her being quite angry about FIESA not working correctly so she could check QC’s grades for me. I mentioned that one QC person, in particular, kept dinging me for the same thing over and over and there were about 10 in that report. She immediately fixed those once she saw them, but that still didn’t give me any leeway for the job as she said it’s up to HR if I get to stick around or not, which was a new phone meeting scheduled for next week.

Week 5, I am doing markedly better and had half the errors of week 4. My accuracy was even 98.6%. But, since I failed their goal, it didn’t matter. They didn’t see me as improving up to their speeds or standards. I was improving slowly but surely each week and they didn’t give me a chance. My supervisor complained to HR, otherwise, none of this would have taken place because they’re all scatterbrained for the most part anyways. Most people don’t even clock in on days they’re supposed to and HR/payroll doesn’t care. So basically this goes to show that my words stand correct.

HR was on the conference call and told me sorry, they had to let me go because my errors were consistent. My supervisor was lying to her saying I had more errors than what FIESA was stating, but I wasn’t going to sit there and argue with them because I want a company who is actually willing to work with their employees and give them all the possible help they need in order to succeed.

Had I known that this job would not be a place that I could learn to grow, I probably wouldn’t have wasted my time. Hell, I wasn’t even given a 90 day probation period to get up to speed; whereas if I was given one, I feel like I would have been way more familiar with everything and could have improved drastically.

…you live and you learn I guess.

For anyone trying to do Medical Transcription as a career, I honestly hope reading this makes you avoid it like the plague. Each company outsources to other countries because they work for less. Big dogs are being let go because they make too much money, and they over hire new graduates because they know they probably won’t last long enough to make it anyways. So let this be a warning to you. I wished I had someone telling me that this was a dying field before I went to school for it. BTW, if you’re currently in school, don’t bother listening to them say that you SHOULD or NEED to get certified or registered. This is just a ploy to give money to AHDI, the people who started the certification process. No MT job asks for it or makes it a requirement according to numerous people on the MTStars forum board, so don’t waste your hundreds of dollars testing for it!

Hospitals are letting go of their MLS workers and being bought out by bigwig companies like Nuance and M*Modal. Just know, that if you do decide to work for any of these companies, you will not be able to financially support yourself on your own. If you’re a supplemental income and you don’t mind working for minimum wage, then go for it. You might have better luck than I since there are millions of different accounts to work on and different supervisors to work for!

I just wish you good luck, because you’re going to need it.

PIN IT:

Vegas: Day 3 – Moving to Mandalay Bay!

As most of you know, if you follow my blog, I got the 2 night stay in a great room suite at Mandalay Bay for free by participating in the MyVegas Facebook App. I was kind of dreading check in because I heard of other people being charged the resort fee even though it’s supposed to be entirely comped. I waited in line, with 2 suitcases, 1 bag and extra crap that we had our booze and mixers in since my husband had to go find a bathroom. It was actually annoying to move all of them as the line would move every 10 seconds when a person would go up to the many counter options. Thankfully, this nice guy behind me would help me each time so I didn’t have to grab everything every time. LOL

Finally, it was our turn and the check-in process couldn’t have been any smoother. No resort fee, 100% comped. When she asked us if we wanted a room near the elevator or at the end of the hall, I wasn’t thinking about how long of a walk it would be from the elevator or how others not near the elevator were probably fuddyduddys, but decided to choose away from the elevator, which ended up being a huge mistake!! We were at the very end, and I mean the very end of this mile-long hallway of rooms. At least we know we’re burning off calories just to get back to our room to get necessities like booze, but it was painstaking every time. We got all situated, and I was actually contemplating asking for another room closer to the elevator but didn’t want to go downstairs and wait in that long ass line again for another 15 minutes so we decided to suck it up since it was what we initially agreed on. Never again though, that’s for sure!!

We then decided to make ourselves a drink since it was about 4 pm and then made our way to the tram to Luxor so that we could go pick up our free carrot top tickets for this evenings show that I also got from MyVegas. Another painless process, except he couldn’t find me in their computer system at first and asked if I had a confirmation slip. As soon as I start pulling up my email, he says oh here it is, then asked how I got front row. Well, sir, it’s because I booked it months in advance. Said my thank you’s and walked away, which was just at the right time because a couple of our other friends just got out of the bodies exhibit right across the way. They were headed to Walmart to get booze though, so we didn’t hang out for too long.

After that, we just walk around and then eventually head to New York New York to use up my $75 credit to one of their restaurants and decided upon Chin Chin for some Chinese food. The food was decent, but they didn’t give you much on a family-style platter for the price. Also, do not order drinks here. They are like $13 a piece for one of those small, slender style glasses that they usually serve you when you’re walking around the casino. I about shit my pants when I saw it. I should have said something but I didn’t want them to spit on my food. You couldn’t even taste the booze either, I mean how could any booze fit in it when its topped with ice and mixer? Stupid Vegas, stop ripping people off with your ridiculous prices on booze and your tiny ass glasses. Now you understand why we go to Walmart to get stocked up all the time. But, since I had the credit, I had to spend it on something.

After we were all nice and full, we ran back to our room to drop off a few leftovers we had and grab a drink since it was almost time for Carrot Top. They actually allow you to bring in your own drinks and I thought that was cool since most of the shows don’t. Now if you haven’t seen Carrot Top and you plan to, I won’t ruin his skits for you, although I’m pretty sure he changes it up quite often, so people will continue to come back. When you walk in the venue, you pretty much see animals getting it on on the screen inside. So if you find that offensive, you probably shouldn’t be going to see him anyways. My husband was getting a little buzzed and usually, that means he’s loud. He kept drawing attention to himself but Carrot Top was probably like ignore the drunk, obnoxious guy. But when Carrot Top asked if there were any fellow redheads in the audience, of course, my husband raises my hand for me and then his immediate focus is on me and so is everyone else in the audience. Good thing I couldn’t see them since I was in the front row, but the people next to me were all staring so I knew everyone else probably was too. If you know me, you know I hate being the center of attention. Anyways he asked me a question about if I knew redheads were a dying race. I knew, but I acted confused. lol

About mid-show, he gets out his crown royal and plastic cups and starts pouring and giving to random people. I think he avoided us because my husband was already feeling good. You drunk dick, thanks! 

After the show, Carrot Top came up to the front row and shook everyone’s hand. He told me he liked my top, probably because I had cleavage going on. Why else would a man say he liked my shirt, hmm?

A friend of mine mentioned how gross he was and to avoid the roid juice he squirts from his nips, but actually, I think he toned the roids down a bit since he wasn’t so abnormally bulky in weird sections of his body anymore. He looked completely normal, besides the facelift and plastic surgery. He denies it, but I know it’s been done.

So now we started heading downstairs to get back on the tram but stumble upon a karaoke bar in the Luxor. I figured we might as well use our CT tickets to get a buy one get one free drink since it mentioned that inside of the venue. We did that, and the drinks were exceptionally well, and 2 for $11 is not bad considering all of the other places we’ve been ripped off by at this point.

My husband is a karaoke freak and likes to make a fool of himself, especially when he’s drunk. I, even when drunk, like to sit back and laugh at him and not get up there because one, I know I can’t sing, and two, I don’t like being the center of attention as previously mentioned. He always begs me to sing love shack with him, but that song is like the most played out song at a karaoke bar. I tell him, I’ll sing with him at home. Sometimes, I wish I would just let go and be outgoing but it’s kind of hard. Anyways, he’s having trouble finding a song, so I pick something that I know he’ll be good at with his personality. He loves Billy Idol, and he can do him decently, I think anyway, and so he chose “Dancing With Myself”. I got out the video camera when he did it just so he can see and hear what he sounds like. He got so embarrassed and told me I am not to post that on Facebook. I so desperately wanted to since he was grabbing his body like he was making out with himself. He’s a funny fella. So we text our friends to come on down and join in the fun, they do, but after Don’s done singing, we all move along back to our room. We started heading towards the tram and they shut it down at 11 pm. This is Vegas people, why is it shut down at 11? JEEZ!!! So now we have to walk all the way through the Luxor, through the Mandalay Bay Shoppes and finally an hour later get to our room.

We start pouring drinks for everyone, which is 10 people in our Great Room Suite. Remember when I said we chose the end of the hallway? Yeah, well about an hour after being in the room and listening to some 2pac on their iPod docking station, we get a knock on the door. It’s security telling us they got noise complaints, which I didn’t think we were being very loud, but I guess when you have 10 people talking it may seem that way. We were dancing, drinking, playing poker and listening to some music. Didn’t think that would have alarmed anyone. But, I think the convention people were right next to us like I said, so they complained. The security guy told us this was our first warning, if we get 2 more, we’re getting kicked out. So obviously we didn’t want to get kicked out, so we headed out of the room and downstairs and to Excalibur. Six of them randomly disappeared, so now it was 4 of us left. We played some slots a little bit then decided to call it a night too. After all, it was probably pushing 4-5 a.m and we needed some sleep.

Until next time.