Stranger Danger!

My friend posted a link to this article, "Tricky People are the New Strangers" on Pinterest just the other day.  Sometimes there is a fine line when teaching our kids about "stranger danger".  We want to teach them wisdom, but not instill fear into their hearts.  I thought this was a great article, and something new and different.  Hope you enjoy!

Only Two Wheels!!!

This past weekend after a short bike ride/walk, Tim decided to let Colin try riding his bike without any training wheels.  We had talked about it a bit, just hadn't gotten around to it yet. 

Colin is 3, almost 4, and for a while now we have noticed that his coordination and his balance are much better at his age than Ryan's was at that age.  Ryan got his first try with no training wheels right before he turned 5, and only recently has he been able to completely "master" the starting by himself and stopping normally.  We were still a bit suprised with how good Colin did for his first time!

A Project of Epic Proportions {Supplies Re-do}

Sorry I'm a little late on my post this week!  Even with taking this project one category, one week at a time, I'm still getting behind some.  I'm really praying that I'll get that 2nd Trimester boost of energy in about two more weeks, and can maybe accomplish more than one thing a day!! :)

If you are needing to catch up to this "Project of Epic Proportions" you can catch my previous posts via The Challenge, The Supplies, Contacts, Medical, Account Info, Calendar, Budget and Bills, Resources for Roles, and Important Docs.

So back when I started this project I had it in my mind exactly what I wanted, and I searched out the products, ordered them, received them, in my excitement opened them all up....only to find that they didn't work, and then couldn't return them.  (Half of them.)  UGH! 

I had ordered the nice, sturdy plastic re-writable dividers for my main categories, and other white dividers for my sub categories.  As soon as I started putting my stuff together, I realized that the sheet protectors are wider than the dividers and you couldn't see any of the labels.  Seriously?!!!  That does me NO good!

New solution...I bought these Index Tabs from our PX.  I don't like using the paper inserts cause they always fall out, so I'm just using my label maker and sticking it right on the tab.

And then I got some of these for my sub-categories.

The index tabs aren't really large enough to write anything but one letter/number on, so I made a "Title Page" for each category.  The colored index tabs are attached to it's own sheet protector with the Title Page.  It has the name of the category and then underneath it a list of the sub-categories.  IE:

CONTACTS

A.  Emergency Information

B.  Local Phone Numbers/Phone Book

C.  Address Book

Then on each of the small white index tabs, all I have to write is A, B, or C for it's corresponding category, and attach it to the first page in that section.

I can actually find what I'm looking for now!!!  It's amazing!!

Really wish I would have gone this route the first time around.  (It's much cheaper too!)  I'm praying that with school being right around the corner that I can try and sell some of my dividers on our local "swapping" site.

My Frustration Update

I know a lot of you have been praying for me, so I figured I'd go ahead and post an update concerning my back.

Since my last post I continued to search out various options on what to do for my back pain.  I had stopped doing the stretches the Physical Therapy guy gave me and it seemed to help some, but I was still having pains in my left leg and I even started to limp.  The following Monday I went for my first OB appointment hoping that she could maybe refer me to someone.  According to her, the pains in my leg were due to the fact that my pelvic muscles aren't strong enough.  Uhhhh.......ok.  She gave me an unofficial referral to another physical therapist.  I would of taken on unofficial referral to a chiropractor, but why pay for a physical therapist when the one on post was free and didn't seem to be helping.?.  Another dead end.

I went ahead and set up another appointment with the Physical Therapist on Post that I had been seeing.  I went in at 3 PM on Wednesday afternoon.  He gave me a different stretch to do, and I did probably about 15 repetitions of it in his office.  He agreed that there was probably a pinched nerve, but according to him..nothing he could do about it.  About 15/20 minutes after I left his office, I could tell that my leg was getting worse.  After dinner, I pretty much went back in my room and laid on my bed.  My 9 PM I couldn't put any pressure on my left leg and couldn't walk on my own.  (I can't tell you how grateful I am that my husband is home!)

The following three days were ROUGH!  The mornings were always better, but by lunch I was normally in a lot of pain and just plain tired.  I was still having trouble walking.  Usually once I got up and going I could do it on my own, just with a limp.  Ryan was a great help during the day when Tim was at work to help get me across the living room until I could get to a wall to help support myself.

In the meantime, I had also contacted the local Yoga instructor hearing great things about her and hoping that she could help in some way.  It looked promising at first, but then I told her I was pregnant and again...I got a no.  Another dead end.  She currently does not have her pre-natal yoga training and didn't feel comfortable coming up with a specialized treatment for me.

On Thursday morning, I was able to have a German spouse come over and help me make some phone calls to a few chiropractors.  The first one, and the closest (about 40 minutes away) was on vacation till August 14th.  We called the 2nd closest, in Munich, which is about 2 hours and 15 minutes away.  I made an appointment for the following Tuesday.

On Sunday, I was also finally able to talk to my sister.  My sister is gifted in the medical field and I can't keep track of what she's trained in or how many degrees she has...but she has done Sports Medicine for years, and is EMT certified...about the only two I can remember.  After about 5 minutes of me explaining my pain to her...over the phone...she knew exactly what the problem was (later confirmed by the chiropractor), and in about 10 minutes gave me about 5 exercises to do that should help release some of the pressure on my pinched nerve.  LOVE HER!!  (Makes me less fond of the Physical Therapy guy here.)

Spare you some of the other details in between...a friend and I drove down to Munich on Tuesday and let me just say....I LOVE CHIROPRACTORS!!!!  She wasn't able to give me a full adjustment since I'm pregnant but whatever she did do made a HUGE difference.  It wasn't an immediate fix since I still limped out of the office.  I felt sore that night so I made sure to ice when I got home, but I felt 10x's better on Wednesday, and by Thursday "practically" normal!!!  Best part; I haven't limped since Tuesday! 

I don't plan on going back unless it's gets unbearable again, but I'm so glad to know where they are and to be done with the search of having to locate one.  I'm praying that by sticking with the exercises my sister gave me, and scheduling a daily walk back into my day, it will help to keep the problem at it's minimum.  I really do appreciate all your prayers!  As a celebration of feeling better, we cleaned the house this weekend!  (Something that hasn't been done in a few weeks!)

Baxter Family Live..continued!

Tim decided to pick up the skillet off the stove and give it a little "flip of the wrist".  Little did he know that I had already put oil in the pan in preparations for dinner.  :)

(Doesn't he look good in uniform?!! hehe.)

Every kid hates water in their face during bath/shower time, right?  Tim and I have two different approaches.  I have the boys put their head back and I shield their face with my hand; it works wonderfully!  Tim has taught the boys to spit.  It works as well, but this particular day Tim actually had Colin facing him so he could see his face and this is what it looks like!

 

Just one more!  Ryan entertaining Blaine for a bit while the rest of us were finishing dinner.

Baxter Family Live!

I finally got our Video Camera program downloaded after I had to wipe my computer over a month ago!  We've had a few cute videos lately and wanted to share a few.

In this first video, Ryan and Colin were playing the Track and Field on the Kinect.  The boys of course wanted to take their shirts off.  Blaine was feeling left out and wanted his shirt off and he did his best to "play" as well.

In this one, for whatever reason, Blaine didn't want down and then decided to be a diva about it.  :)

I'm so grateful that we are able to record some of these moments!  We always enjoy going back and watching them.  More to come!!!

A Project of Epic Proportions {Important Docs}

If you are wondering what this "Project of Epic Proportions" is all about you can catch my previous posts via  The Challenge, The Supplies, Contacts, Medical, Account Info, Calendar,  Budget and Bills, Resources for Roles.

My Important Document section will include Car Titles, our Marriage License, Birth Certificates, Passports, Tim's Orders, POA, Will, and a few other forms we were told to have just in case of evacuation.

Whether you are choosing to put your Important Docs in a binder or to leave them in your filing cabinet/box, or wherever it is that you might keep them...this would be the week to organize them!  Again, one of my biggest reasons for putting these into a binder is for some crazy emergency purpose only.  If for whatever reason, we have to evacuate quickly, I can grab this binder and know that all of the documents that we might need are there.

Not a whole lot to this week; just making sure that your paperwork is organized and you know where to find it.  Happy Organizing!!