Livescience.com is reporting about a study that showed that boys with unpopular names, regardless of race, are more likely to break the law. Uh oh!
Cord is in trouble:
the apple thief on Christmas morning 
Bye bye yoga January 29, 2009
Looks like my days in yoga are over for a little while. During my second physical therapy session, I had a lot of work done so that my back, tailbone, spine,etc would go back into place and stop hurting. The PT said I should feel sore the day after and maybe a little worse on day #2 after therapy. The first day after therapy I was pretty sore, but the second day I was a mess. I was having a hard time between sitting and standing, putting the babies in the crib, sitting for any period of time, or lying down . Things got better on day #3 and day #4. So I tried yoga on day #5. I was hoping to stretch my back and hip, but I could only do about half of the class. I had therapy that afternoon and the PT told me I should have called earlier- that kind of pain was not what they meant. She worked on lots of places, and it hurt! But as she continued, it would begin to feel so much better! By the end, I was in much better shape. She gave me exercises to do to strengthen my stomach muscles (which are non-existent) and showed me how to sleep with lots of pillows.
I tried the sleeping last night and it felt great. The only problem is the getting into and out of all the pillows. Last night three of the four kids cried out for lots of different reasons. I would be a real mess without Eric who deals with all the interruptions that he can. But the few that I did involved me unwrapping myself from the cocoon of pillows and dealing with the situation and then attempting to redo all the pillows when I got back in bed. Frustrating but worth it. How grateful I am for my husband and for the techniques that she gave me.
So until this back, hip, and tailbone stabilize I will be swimming instead. I bet if I get to go back to yoga in the future, I will be back at square one- no balance and no flexibility 
Copay kind of day January 23, 2009
Today was one of those days where the debit card got a workout at the doctors’ offices. I had my second day of physical therapy. I was a little more nervous this time since I had a better idea of what they would be doing to me. This time the PT had me lie on my back and she pressed into my left side of my stomach. All of a sudden- ouch. She says that is my spine. Way over there? She moves a little down and presses again- ouch! Again my spine. It is not a good sign when you hear the people that are working on you say things like ” That’s not good” or “wow, what a mess.” After lots of pressure and leg lifts, much of the pain was relieved. Then she did lots of work on my back and tailbone. She ended by hooking me up to some machine while I laid down on an ice pack. She covered me with a fleece blanket, and I wondered if she would find me asleep when she got back. Lying still in the middle of the day induces sleep in my house.
The other copay came because we were able to get a GI appointment for Lucy. I have worried about her since she was born because she rarely has gone to the bathroom by herself. We have tried lots of techniques to help her go, but nothing seems to fix the problem. I asked severeal ladies at biblestudy to hold me accountable to get that baby looked at by a pediatric GI. When I called for an appointment, the receptionist said I needed a referral. ( no small task) After securing one of those, the receptionist called and said she made an appointment for March 5th! By then Lucy will be 9 months old. I called one more time to see about her appointment and the receptionist said she had a cancellation for the next day! I am so happy. We went today and started her on a prescription stool softener that will help her feel so much better. We have a follow up in 6 weeks. Yea!
now I can’t afford for anyone else to need a doctor until at least next pay period
Physical Therapy January 21, 2009
Today I had my first appointment with a physical therapist. I have had lower back trouble since I had Olivia 6 1/2 years ago. It gets worse as the baby gets older and heavier. It can be very intense, but can fluctuate and the pain returns after the birth of each child. I’ve taken anti inflammatories, done yoga (which helps alot), and tried to rest from holding babies (nearly impossible!). Well, today was an exciting day!
The physical therapist asked lots of questions, took measurements, watched me walk, performed several tests and determined it was my tailbone! As soon as she said,”I think it is your tailbone” I laughed. I forgot to tell her I broke my tailbone on my 21st birthday. How you might ask? Not what you may think. I was rollerskating with Eric and our Project Uplift kids (like big brother/big sister program). One of the children was not the best skater and as he fell, he took me with him. “Important Information!” the P. T. said.
She is very optimisitc that I will be able to feel much better soon. The first bit of therapy certainly wasn’t comfortable, but I am so excited that there is an answer and it is not surgery or needles! Physical therapists are amazing!
Book Study January 17, 2009
Last night was our monthly book study- we are studying Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins. The back of the book cover starts with this quote,”Have Christians become so preoccupied with the major sins of our society that we have lost sight of our need to deal with our own more subtle sins?” Bridges looks at those “subtle” sins that we tolerate in ourselves and challenges us to take them seriously.
This month’s chapters included pride, selfishness, and lack of self-control. Ouch! Within pride, he discussed our pride in our moral self-righteousness, our pride of correct doctrine, our pride of achievement and our pride in our independent spirit. The applications were endless to me. He challenges the reader, but is always gracious in his tone and points us to Christ who is our example and our Savior.
Within selfishness, Bridges looks at selfishness in our interests, our time, and our finances and then challenges us too about being inconsiderate. Some of the application questions were,”Ask yourself how much time you spend talking about your interests compared to listening to the other person.” “Do you tend to guard your own time for your own ends?” “Are you relatively indifferent to the physical and material needs of people less fortunate than you?” ” Do you think about the impact of your actions on others- how do you treat the waitress or the store clerk that you come in contact with?” At the close of the chapter he challenges us to ask a family member ( you know, the ones we are most real with) to point out any tendencies toward selfishness he or she sees in us. He says,” we should do this without becoming defensive or retaliating” by bringing up the other person’s selfishness. And then we should genuinely repent and pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to begin to deal with those things we have learned.
I am so thankful for my husband who I know will be gracious to me as he lovingly shares those things with me. That still doesn’t make it any easier to ask It’s great to read a book that deals so honestly with who we are and yet doesn’t leave us hopeless!
Next month: impatience, irritability, anger. Again Wow!
The laundry room January 14, 2009
Why didn’t I take before shots? These are the new cabinets in the laundry room:
The washer and dryer have had the same two boxes of books sitting on them since we moved in. Those have been put away! The other major fix relates to the security system that was in our house when we bought it. Our first month in the house, our family was on the way out for evening worship at which Eric was preaching. As we opened the door to leave for worship, the alarm went off. We had not ordered the service and the previous owner had not left a password. When Brinks called to check, we did not know the password, so they would not turn it off. It just kept ringing and ringing. Finally Eric had to yank it out of the wall which left wires and a hole in our laundry room.
Kurt and Eric patched it up and hung the new cabinets. I had never used the pull out drawers under my washer and dryer, but Leslie filled them up with light bulbs and craft stuff. She was able to put our laundry in the closet and open up all the floor space in the laundry room. We have to walk this way to get to the garage, so I have loved being able to go through with the baby seat and Cord and diaper bags and my purse without tripping over clothes on the floor! Yea!
Toy closet January 14, 2009
Here is the first area that got a make over this week:
This closet was impossible to get to. It had a long book shelf along the right wall and the kids were constantly pulling stuff off the shelf and leaving it on the floor. Their backpacks were left on the door handles in the den and our coats were just wherever we could find a place to hang them. The diapers for the littlest two hid under a chair in our den. But now! Leslie put in this cabinet that holds 9 baskets. Now our crafts, trains, musical instruments, and games are put away out of sight. Kurt hung 2 coat racks that we had and Leslie organized the diaper basket. YEA!
Organizing life. January 12, 2009
What a day yesterday was. My inlaws came to Huntsville- all of them! Eric’s brother, Kurt, and his wife, Leslie, worked so hard in our home. Kurt hung cabinets in our laundry room and shelving in our garage. It looks like a completely different place. Leslie worked on every closet that we have, making use of lots of unused spaces. The most amazing is our toy closet. It now has a place for all the toys and hooks for all the backpacks and coats. There is even a diaper basket stocked for both babies.
She’s tough She made me go through all of our things and throw out what we weren’t using. For a saver like me, yesterday was filled with me saying all the reasons I should keep something, and Leslie asking if I had used it this year? Does it have all the parts? Are you really going to store that until Lucy is able to use it? She won most of the time!
The funniest part of the night was when she went for the pantry. She threw out tons of outdated food and made the pantry look like the movie Sleeping With the Enemy (julia roberts). The best was a seasoning for potatoes that was from 1995! That means it was bought in Homewood, packed and lived through St Louis, and packed and moved to Huntsville. Those two did more in 12 hours than we could have done the entire time we will live in this house. I will post pictures soon
Many thanks too to my mother in law and father in law who contained all 6 children while the work was done. I am so grateful!
Disney, here we come! January 8, 2009
I am so excited! We have been working on this all fall. After several ideas fell through, we decided to go on Emma’s 5th birthday. Eric’s parents are keeping Cord, and the rest of us are heading to Orlando. We haven’t told the girls yet. I got the cutest Christmas card from a Kirby, a friend from St Louis, and they had been to Disney this year. The kids each had on a t shirt with his or her name on it and mickey or minnie. I googled and found a store on ebay that carried something very similar. As soon as the t shirts come in, we are wrapping them up and letting the girls open them to tell them. Here is what it looks like:
Too Cute!
A shiner January 8, 2009
Christmas morning, our kids woke up late (total surprise to us!). I made monkey bread for breakfast and slowly, one by one, the kids started walking downstairs or calling out from their cribs. The girls loved finding out what was in their stockings. Santa always leaves an apple and orange in the bottom of all of our stockings. Cord noticed that Olivia was pulling hers out and he took it!
He would not look and see that he had a stocking too- so I gave olivia his fruit, while he snuck off to eat his apple.
Later as he was on the steps, he fell. This is our first big fall on the steps. He went from the top to the bottom and ended up with a shiner.
We had a great morning inspite of our little injury
