"Did you see this?" my dad asked pointing to a picture of Paula Deen on the cover of People magazine.

"Yeah," I said. "I wish she wasn't getting so much flak."

If you haven't met Paula Deen, she's a colorful character on the Food Network. She speaks with a thick Southern accent and says "y'all" more times than you can count. Her dishes are rooted in the South and are definitely fat-laden. These are not the types of dishes you want to build your meal plan around. These are not the types of dishes you want to eat at every meal. Geez, people should get that. Everything in moderation.

This topic came up in one of the diabetes forums that I'm a member of. Someone wanted to know what we thought about the whole situation.

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"How was the lesson?" The Mr. asked when No. 2 and I returned from her guitar lesson this afternoon.

"It was embarassing."

Last Christmas No. 2 got a guitar and we promised her lessons. Six months later we finally fulfilled that promise. I found a guitar teacher near us who taught out of his home. He had several jazz albums to his name and scores of good references on his web site.

I have had countless discussions with No. 2 about her behavior during her lessons. It's difficult to describe, but she just isn't herself. Her voice is different, she often talks too much, and doesn't play when the teacher very clearly wants her to. In fact, there are several times when he says "Go ahead and play that song" and she doesn't hop to it.

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Last night just as I was about to go to bed, I reached onto the top shelf of my bedroom closet and pulled down an old photo album. I had been thinking all day about looking at old pictures of the kids. Not sure why. Maybe it was thinking about how No. 1 will be in junior high next year and feeling a little nostalgic.

The album I thumbed through was mostly of No. 1. I laughed and smiled thinking about all those times. And thinking about how I used to practically wear my camera all the time. (The Mr. used to tease me that I should just put it around my neck as soon as I woke up in the morning.) There were so, so many pictures of No. 1 and No. 2. Which got me thinking about how really the only pictures I take of them anymore are when I’m trying to get a “nice” picture of them or the family.

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There's a song or a saying that says something along the lines of parents feeling the lives of their children go by so fast, while children feel their lives go so slow. They can't wait to be at different milestones and time just seems to crawl. I remember that. 16, 18, 21 were huge milestones. High school graduation, college, marriage and I couldn't wait to have babies. Now, birthdays are no big deal to me.

Life is going so fast for my children. I got an email today that a representative from the junior high came to talk to all the sixth graders about registering for next year. JUNIOR HIGH people! My baby -- No. 1 -- is growing so fast. And junior high is only two years. In a blink he'll be in high school.

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No. 1 got braces earlier this week. He's doing mostly fine, though there have been a couple breakdowns mainly due to figuring out what to eat.

But this post is about insurance.

I was pleased late last year to hear that we had a new dental company that included a $1,500 orthodontic benefit, which was higher than the previous company. I got a cost from the orthodontist if the amount was paid in installments and a cost if paid in full (a $400 discount!). I was fortunate to talk to someone at the orthodontist one day while asking about the costs who told me about a $500 coupon in one of the local newspapers. (Score!)

So I figured out what my cost would be after my orthodontic benefit, the paid-in-full discount and the coupon. According to my calculations, I was only paying for half. (Woot!) I factored that amount into what I put in my flexible spending account for 2012. (READ MORE)

A faithful friend and I discussed several times the concept of praying for signs. For example, "If this, please show me a purple flower." or "If that, please show me a yellow ribbon." I liked this concept and have used it several times.

Recently I've been losing my confidence when it comes to my photography. It's likely that part of the reason is because I haven't been shooting much lately. (I should stick to two of my favorite quotes: "I'm nowhere near where I want to be, but I'm a whole lot closer than I'd be if I hadn't kept going." and "Continue to push yourself until there is a decent possibility you might fail.")

I keep tossing around the idea of doing more advertising on Craigslist (that's how I got a number of clients in the past; it's free and easy and I'm all about free stuff). But I'm nervous.

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