We always knew that we were blessed with our 5 healthy babies, but the reality of how blessed we really were is beginning to sink in.  Our first 4 children were very easy, content, healthy babies, so our 5th child, Luke, has rocked our world a little bit.  He has always been an intense baby; very energetic, playful, sleepless, alert and specific about his wants and needs.  But during the past few months, he’s been sick as well, so the poor little guy is having  trouble being comforted.  We’ve taken him to the doctor a few times, and he’s been diagnosed with bronchitis and an ear infection.  As if these illnesses were not enough, his chest x-rays show he has an enlarged heart.  We are currently praying that this is not a symptom of something seriously wrong with little Luke’s health.  My husband made me promise not to google it since we’ve made a few medical scares in our family worse by scaring ourselves with random internet information.  We are currently waiting for our appointment with the pediatric cardiologist.  Scary stuff.

I will continue to update when I can.  In the meantime, prayers for Luke would be wonderful 🙂

For the second time in 3 weeks my back decided to go out on me. The first time was just getting out of bed. The second time was while trying to clean up after the dog. Nothing very strenuous, I just happened to move the wrong way. The second time only allowed me to sit for 15 minutes or so at a time. I must find everywhere I sit that promotes bad posture and get rid of it. I’m thinking the first place is my chair at work. I spend a majority of my time in that chair and I think it may be part of my current back situation. Now all I have to do is find a good office chair.

Any suggestions?

I’ve had it with my sleep problems!  I don’t usually have trouble falling asleep, but that’s probably because I don’t even start trying until midnight or later.  Sometimes I do have trouble falling asleep, and even if I can fall asleep easily, I usually do not stay asleep all night.  Not that I remember any of the several or many times I wake up each night; I’m usually in a stupor where I’ll say things that don’t make sense or say not-so-nice things to the dog or anyone else who happens to be in my way.  The main problem is that I wake up in the morning feeling terribly under-rested, never ready to start the day, and the problem has been getting steadily worse in recent weeks.  I rarely get headaches, but because of the stress of my horrible week compounded by the not sleeping, my head has been throbbing all week (the extremely loud live band at youth group did NOT help!).  I’ve tried going to bed earlier, I’ve tried limiting my food and drink intake at night, I’ve tried taking naps when time allows (which is rare), and I’ve tried taking melatonin (an herb found naturally in the body that helps promote sleep), but nothing is helping.  I just can’t take it anymore; it’s impossible to make my long busy days of caring for 4 small children enjoyable when I feel so tired all the time.  My husband stayed awake for a little bit and listened to me sleep last night, and he said that there were times when I stopped breathing, which is a symptom of sleep apnea.  So, as much as I hate to  do it and don’t even really have the time for it, I’ve made an appointment with the local sleep specialist who just happens to be our childrens’ pediatrician.  We’ll see what he says next week, but chances are that I’ll get sent over to the sleep center for a sleep study – YUCK.  Just what I want to be: a lab rat; the subject of a study who has to find a way to fall asleep in a room with a bunch of people watching and while hooked up to all kinds of machines.  This is just about one of the last things I want to do, but it shows how incredibly desperate I am to finally get a good night’s rest.  If they can actually help me, feeling well-rested is going to be an amazing yet totally foreign feeling!  If it doesn’t help me, I’m back where I  started but with one less option AND having missed out on a fun night with my family 🙁

It’s official – there is a flu wreaking havoc in our house.  I don’t know if it’s H1N1, but all the signs are there.  Our middle-schooler came down with it Friday night, and she’s been in bed ever since.  She had to miss a birthday party and church this weekend, and she won’t be going to school tomorrow.  Today our 5-year-old and 1-year-old starting showing symptoms, and tonight our 3-year-old looks like she might be starting to get it.  And oh yeah – why would you think this one skipped Hubby, who  gets EVERYTHING that comes around?  Looks like it’s making an appearance in him tonight.  As usual, (except for the flu season when I was pregnant and was sick from Thanksgiving until Christmas – one bug after another) I remain the last one standing, as yet untouched by the virus (crossing fingers, knocking wood…)

So up goes this post, and down goes our family – I think a flu outbreak is a good reason to go to bed at 10, don’t you?  Here’s hoping and praying that it doesn’t hit us too hard and also that I  may stay well enough to care for my family.  We are going to have to quarantine ourselves this week, which is a shame since we had plans for every single night.  Tomorrow will see a slew of phone calls made and emails sent to cancel everything.  Health comes first, of course.
Best wishes to readers for staying healthy!!!

Recently I purchased a pedometer. According to a large amount of literature, a person should try to walk 10,000 steps per day to stay healthy. That is roughly 5 miles per day. Now I thought I walked a lot every day, but apparently I’m not reaching my 10,000 steps.

If I attach the pedometer first thing in the morning, I will have 300+ steps by the time I reach my desk at work. I could try to add to that by parking farther from the door, but our parking lot is only so big. By going to get coffee, or walking to someones desk instead of e-mailing or using the phone, I can have 1,000+ steps by lunch time. That will give me around 3,000 steps when I head to my car in the evening. Only 7,000 steps to go….

I’ve been walking at lunch for about 20-30 minutes and that adds about 2,000 to 2,500 steps to my daily count. So only 4,500 steps left. On most days, this is almost all the steps that get counted. Even roaming through the Walmart store, or other shopping that I do, only add about 1,000 steps. Making dinner, catching up with the things I have to do at home maybe 1,000 more. So I’ve usually been 2,000+ steps shy of 10,000 every evening. I guess I could do less internet surfing and reading during the evening hours, but that is how I relax after the day. I’m not big on doing the exercise bit, never have been, and even though I know it would be good for me, I resist. I guess I will have to see how many steps I get when I do things like cut wood this winter. I always thought that was good exercise when I did it, but I never knew how much I walked to get the wood back to the house. I will find out soon enough….

Today there are no worries about getting my 10,000 steps in. I almost accomplished that at work today. In our work move, some of the extra furniture was stored in two meeting rooms. Today was the day to get 1 of those rooms in order. So, by moving stuff from one place to another I managed to hit 7,000 steps by 12:00 pm today. With all of the other walking I did, I only have 500 to hit the magic 10,000 mark. And since I’m in a play, I guess I will be adding some daily pacing to my other walking activities.

Oh well, I need to be off to pick up my youngest. A few more steps out to the truck…

Under the concerns of my eye doctor, my fifty+ year old eyes are now under constant supervision for the possibility of glaucoma. Now it seems that it there are new tests that help determine if a person has glaucoma. Under tests done just 5 years ago, any eye doctor would never have noticed a problem with my eyes. Now, new tests can measure parts of the eye that were only accessible in surgery or an autopsy. Is it my luck that I am now taking these new tests, or because nothing else indicates glaucoma, are these test just a wast of my time and money? I really like to think that I’m a little lucky. If all goes well, I will never have to worry about my eyesight and glaucoma.

Of course I went through the same thing a few years ago when the scale for high and low chlorolesteral was modified. I’ve had the same levels for years, but now it is high, 20 years ago it was good, 15 years ago it was moderate. So I take medication that I would not have taken 15 years ago. Hmmm. The older I get, the more I fall apart….

To butcher a line from a Weird Al song about Yoda (which parodied a song called Lola), but if it fits…  This was my fate Thursday when I accepted a PE job at a middle school.  This was every bit as unexciting as it sounds.  There was a yoga instructor two double-classes of eighth grade with myself and at least one other teacher standing bored while the kids went through a yoga routine.  When I first found out about the yoga my spiritual sensors perked up as yoga can be taught from a spiritual point of view.  Hey, if Christianity isn’t allowed in the public schools neither is Eastern Pantheism; i.e. new age religion.  Fortunately they left this part out, and I did pay close attention to make sure of it.  I have read too many stories of kids being taught the experience of other religions, and not just about them to just sit back.  In any event, as I said, all was well.  They mostly did relaxation exercises and positions, with no explanation of those positions, at least on that day.

You might have noticed I mentioned eighth grade with the yoga.  What about 6th and 7th grades?  After all this is PE we’re talking about.  Well, those grades did yoga too, or fitness, depending on the class.  However, the teacher I was subbing for had four periods of health and just two of PE.  6th grade had a video to watch.  It was a video that was shown on prime time TV around 1990.  It was a “test” about how much we know about handling emergencies, and was hosted by the late John Ritter.  It also had several other stars of the day including Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Landon, Julia Child, and the one that played the geeky character in The Wonder Years.  I tried to look up this video on IMDB but it never got entered in as none of the actors I looked up had any reference to it listed.  Essentially it was a 45-minute multiple choice/true-false test (with at least one other type of question thrown in).  Of course we didn’t finish it, but a couple students asked if they would finish it tomorrow which means it interested them.

The 7th grade classes also involved videos.  They were making videos with iMovie, using the built-in webcams on their iBooks.  This got interesting watching them finish them, playing the parts of police officers, drunks, homeless people, announcers, and whatnot.  Many were editing though so I didn’t get to see everyone act.

Wednesday was really nothing special, just an easy day with 3rd grade.  Easy particularly because they had a half-hour of gym in the morning, an hour of art in the afternoon, and twenty minutes of filling out a “wish list” for the book fairs.  These Scholastic book fairs are really for the benefit of Scholastic and the schools, which receive commissions in books for the books sold.  As for the consumer, the parent, it’s just an opportunity to pay full cover price for some books and software.  I guess since it does benefit the schools I really can’t complain.

This brings us to today.  I was in the rival school to the one I was at Thursday.  The subject: one of the five foreign languages taught at this school.  In fact, for 6th graders they have to take every one of them during the year.  They all have one period divided into quarters for the year and one period in sixths.  These “hex-mesters” are a short six weeks, so needless to say they don’t learn the languages as much as explore them.  7th and 8th graders are treated to a full year in one language for the learning purpose.  I would suppose they get to choose which language they want to take.  Which one did I sub for (don’t even think I taught this class…)?  Just call me Herr Teacher instead of Mr. Teacher.  Actually, don’t because I don’t like the sound of it. 🙂  These kids just made word searches all day with a particular set of deutsch (German) words each grade had been learning.  Well, they can’t all be fun days. 😐

From Tuesday to Thursday, I guess it could be said that I went from 8th to 8 and back again… 😀  Eighth grade to 8 years old, like C & L’s eldest, back to 8th.  Well 6th and 7th grades were involved too, but still…  8)

Well, I joined the local YMCA recently (they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse…), and I’m really wondering if it will be good for me. Extra exercise is appreciated, but have you ever really looked at some of the exercise equipment they have now.

My guess is that if you put that stuff in a dungeon in the middle ages, the people would look at it as they would any other ‘equipment’ they had. They have things that contort your body into weird shapes just to exercise certain muscle groups. (or so they say) Done another way, these devices could really hurt someone.

I am glad that they are willing to give all members a summary of all the weight equipment. I hadn’t worked on anything like that since college. They machines have changed a bit since the early 80’s. They still do the same things, but it looks like they’ve isolated the muscle groups more than they did before. I’m sure that they are safer than the ones I worked on too.

I’ll write more on my experience with the weight machines when I use them for more than 5 minutes. I don’t see myself getting overly fond of any of them…

I was going to put a link in for torture devices, but I found them to be too disturbing. I guess the exercise equipment doesn’t look that bad now….. So here is a link to one of the pieces of equipment I used…
Leg Press

Yes, death is an interest of mine. Years ago, when I got married, there were many deaths among family and friends. There were so many deaths, my wife and I joked about our marriage ending the same way. Unfortunately, we were correct. Many deaths in a few short years, with hers as the final death in the line. So yes, I have a morbid interest in death.

My interest this evening is Cryonics or the freezing of human or animal bodies with the “possibility” of bringing them back to life.

Why? Currently there is no known reversal method, so why do it now. It costs a lot of money to keep a body/head in a ‘suspended’ state, and there is no and may never be a reversal method. Sound like someone is playing with the emotions of people near death, or their families.

Even if there ever is a reversal process in the next 50 to 100 years, why would anyone want to revive the “dead” people? There are complaints of over population now, do we really want to have an alternative way to put more bodies on the planet. We do well enough now with the usual approach (having babies — explanation for those who weren’t sure what method is used). I can’t see that happening, unless they want something.

How will you fit in? The future will be different than life now, how will you cope? 25 years ago, personal computers were in their infancy. Now just about everyone has one. What changes will occur in the next 25 years? Next 50? Next 100? 200? If you are having trouble with text messaging on a cell phone, or wonder about all these people with things hanging out of their ears, will you be able to cope with things going on around you in the future?

And the real thing I wonder about is what is the ego of a person who wants to be frozen and thawed later. I’m not saying anything about family decisions (later…), but about a persons desire to put off death to be cured at a later date. Is anyone really that important?

And about a family that decides to keep one of their relatives, do they love/need the person so much to try to keep them around, or is it a comfort that just maybe? I could never see doing this for myself or for someone I care about. I think there would be too much anguish on both sides if and/or when the body can be thawed.

And I haven’t even touched on any religious aspects of this. I think that may be the start of a different post. Many things I would have to wrap my mind around for that…

I am very tired so I will make this one quick.  Besides, it was PE again, at the same school as Friday, so there isn’t much to say about it.  Kickball again.  The only real difference was I had 8th grade health instead of 6th, so I had the 6th graders for PE instead of the 8th graders.  I had to show a video in health class about abstinence.  They did some good object lessons on the video involving cups of water contaminated with spit and food and then sharing the cups.  Also, using clear packing tape as a lesson by sticking it first to one person’s arm, then another, and another, then finally sticking two of these together and comparing it to two pieces of tape never used stuck together.  I actually had to show this for only one class as there was an assembly during the other one.  Outside.  But that was okay even if the temperature was in the mid 50s.  It wasn’t all that bad.  It was about a new solar panel that was installed at the school that they said could provide energy to light one of the rooms 24/7 I think they said.  Not much, but apparently worth it.  Our village president was there along with the superintendent and even our local US House representative.  Each of them, along with a student and the principal, gave a little speech about it.  My role?  Not much since the entire school was out there which of course included all the regular teachers to keep the kids in line.

Well I’m going to leave the post with that.  Hopefully I will be less tired tomorrow when it comes time to blog.