My left leg is shorter than my right leg!

... and I thought it all ended with the kissing knees! The latest and greatest in the news about my strange body is that my left leg is shorter than my right. According to my physical therapist, Cristina, I am only this way because of this gigantic knot in the lower left of my back. The muscles are really tight there, and this has contributed greatly to the pain my right knee. I can only conclude that the left back/hip area and right knee work together cross-laterally.

So, after two days of therapy (with at least 4 more to go), I've learned a few things I need to change. I have a few bad habits that have to be worked on:

1) No more sleeping in the lower "h" position. Up until now, I routinely slept on my right side with my left leg bent, crossed over my straightened right leg, with my left knee resting on the bed. Now, I have to sleep with my legs straight or slightly bent, with a pillow between my knees.

2) No more hunching over. I have horrible posture, and sitting up straight is exactly what I need to do to get rid of this pain in my back, which is causing the pain in my knee.

3) No more bending at the waist. I have to do more squatting to get things out of the dishwasher, car, or anything low.

I'm looking forward to going for my remaining PT sessions. Hopefully we'll get this problem fixed before it gets worse!

We give thanks to God always for all of you...

God surely has blessed Richard and I! He has surrounded us with good people we can call our friends. Not a day goes by that we don't thank the Lord for our good Christian friends. We are strengthened and encouraged when we spend time together with them. It's easier to do what is right.

As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "We give thanks to God always for all of you.."

Thank you for your constant uplifting, the spiritual talk, and just altogether fun! We love you all.

Pay it Forward

First of all, I'm pretty proud that I was able to copy BOTH of these videos onto our blog in the first place... those high school html coding classes sure paid off (and they were FREE)! :)

Second, I'd like to share a short story about how Richard and I were told to "pay it forward".  If you've not heard the phrase before, I believe it comes from a movie called "Pay it Forward" (watch the first video and it will explain it a bit better).  It's the idea that you help someone else out and instead of asking for payment in return, just tell them to help someone else by "paying it forward".  The second video just shows a Liberty Mutual bank commercial that goes along with the idea of the movie.

Anyway... we went to a local ice cream joint we hadn't been to before last night.  We ordered our ice cream, and I got out my debit card to pay for it.  The girl frowned and said, "We only take cash."  (This is the second time in 2 days that we've had issues paying for food!) We offered to give the ice cream back, but she told us we could eat the ice cream, then go get the money and bring it back by 10pm, when they closed.  We sat down to eat our ice cream in an area near another couple and Richard went to check for money in the car.  He found $2.00 in change.  We needed $4.00.  As we sat discussing how we were going to pay for the ice cream, the couple finished theirs and left.  

Shortly afterward, a car pulled up close to where we were sitting and the woman of the couple walked over to us.  She said, "I heard you saying you needed $2.00.  Here you go," and handed us $2.00 in quarters.  I said, "Oh, no no no... You don't need to do that.  We were going to run to the bank or back home."  She responded, "Oh, don't worry about it.  Just pay it forward."  We both were surprised by the generosity of this complete stranger, and inspired.  It's a shame most people are so focused on themselves that we're surprised when people actually do nice things.  So, I'm going to find at least one other person to do something for in the next few days and just tell them to "pay it forward".  You should do the same.

Here's my debit card... want the pin number too?

We went to Shane's Rib Shack for dinner with a few friends tonight. The line was moving a little slow, and Amy said the credit card machine wasn't working. She said the lady was writing down people's credit card information to use later. This made both of us uncomfortable, so we were trying to come up with a way we could avoid it. I don't especially like strangers having my debit card information sitting around. Since I only ever use my debit card for purchases, I didn't happen to have any cash on me. Richard suggested writing a check.

When it was my turn to order, I asked the cashier if they took checks. She looked puzzled. "Ummm... that's a good question. I'm not sure. Let me ask," she replied, somewhat haltingly. She knocked on a small door between the cash register and the kitchen and a man's head appeared shortly thereafter. "Do we take checks?" she asked him. He looked at her and then at me, with the most perplexed expression on his face. "Do we take checks?... Ummmmm... I don't see... why not?" was his response.

I was glad I wasn't going to have to set myself up for a potential identity theft, and wrote the check. The total was $13.45 and I had no trouble writing out the dollar amount in number form. It was the written out form that caused me some trouble. I hastily wrote the check, feeling pressure to move quickly as the line was growing behind me. On the line I wrote, "Thirteen forty-five and..." OOPS! I crossed out the forty-five, initialed it, and wrote "45/100". Since I only ever use checks for church contributions and VOIDing to give bank routing information for automatic deposits and withdrawals, I was sadly unprepared for this moment... not to mention, slightly embarrassed.

I am grateful that I am of the credit card generation, but sad to say that my check writing skills are slowly waning. With internet, credit cards, and cell phones, our children will probably be very limited in their hand writing and grammar skills! They'll laugh when I say we once wrote with pencil and paper, rather than typing everything out. Writing fine motor skills are bound to vanish completely! What is our world coming to?

Cupcakes and Baking

For my birthday, Richard got me this AMAZING book of cupcake creations. It's chock full of neat off-the-wall ideas for making cupcakes that will wow everyone. They truly are works of art. Richard referred to this gift as the "least exciting" of my birthday gifts. However, I spent 15-20 minutes poring over the pages and saying, "WOW!" every few seconds. Needless to say... it was the perfect gift! I bought a bunch of sprinkles, cupcake liners, cake mix and icing recently. If I create anything worth showing, I'll be sure to take pictures and post them.

I also just discovered that they have their own website and a BLOG where other cupcake fanatics can post their creations! This is definitely now a favorite!

They have an American Flag cupcake arrangement, but it requires 96 total cupcakes and a lot of candies to make. I'm considering making this for July 4th, instead. I love Kraftfoods.com and use many of the recipes, so I'm sure it won't disappoint. I don't think we have any plans for the 4th, so maybe I'll just make this and enjoy eating it while waving sparklers left over from our wedding in the air. Who knows?