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102. Simply Pray by Erik Walker Wikstrom
Former UU parish minister and currently works for UUA. AWESOME book. Delves into the question of why pray in the first place and answers it pretty across the board faith wise. Second part delves into prayer formation by analyzing several well known prayers from different faiths to help reader create their own prayers. (Our Father and Thomas Merton's prayer were among those analyzed.)

103. Awakening: A Sufi Experience by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
Lovely book. A look at the Western Sufi spiritual practice. Sufism is supposed to be the esoteric branch of Islam. It appears that the author of this book comes from an Order that takes a more...ecumenical approach to Sufism. If you've read anything by Stiner you might enjoy book. A lot of the concepts are familiar, BUT, unlike Anthroposophy God is the focus (and then again I may be missing something in my reading of Anthroposophy) or at the very least this brand of Sufism isn't shy at putting God at the center of the practice. I enjoyed this one very much.

104. The Art of the Storyteller by Marie L. Shedlock
Originally published in 1915 and re-published in the '50's by ALA on recommendation by the Out-of-Print committee. Interesting book. Goes into why tell stories in the classroom (!) instead of reading stories, the pitfalls of storytelling, things to remember, and a FAQ. And several of the stories in the back were one's I'd not heard of before. Lots of good stuff in this book for anyone who wants to tell stories or wants to improve their storytelling skills.

What a difference a setting makes

I describe my current weight situation as "I gained all my baby weight back and it brought a few more with it to keep it company."

I haven't been sleeping as well as I could be. I thought maybe it was teething baby. But when I'm sleeping 8 hours a night and still feeling like crap and taking 3 hour naps when I can manage it...something's not right. I know weight changes can affect the pressure needed on one's CPAP. I called Kaiser and set up an appt to get a smart CPAP to see if I needed a new pressure.

Last week I got the machine and 3 new masks to try out. (I'd been complaining of pressure leaks). I returned them and got the results this morning.
My machine was set at 11.5, now its set for 15. And after thinking about it, I've been sleeping less the last few days, but I haven't been feeling sleep deprived.

So not only do I have a new setting, I've got a new mask, and I've got to phone the pediatrician, they want to see Ike and the girls in the sleep clinic. The pediatrician needs to make the referral, but the sleep clinic wants to make sure that, even though Ike got his tonsils removed in December, they want to make sure he's still suffering sleep apnea. Why the girls? Well Gwen needs to have her tonsils out because I KNOW she stops breathing, but if they can fit her with a CPAP and can avoid surgery...I'm all for it. I don't want to have to go through what I did with Ike again.

Meme!

Or a proto meme. allanh  mentioned that people have been memeing "What would you do if you won the lottery?" question.

I like this day dream, so what the hell, I'll write it down.

1. Pay off house.
2. Buy Joe new car.
3. Fully fund retirement funds for us, kids, parents.
4. Throw party.
6. Plan year long trip around the world
7. Live comfortably on rest
8. Give lots of it away.

Note I did not say "College fund". Why? I believe that children only value the things they have to work for. Whether or not we ever hit the lottery, the only thing of my childrens college education that I plan on paying for is their room and board. They will have to come up with reg fees, book money, beer money, etc. Maybe its harsh. But I saw too many people in college pissing their opportunity away 'cause Mommy and Daddy were paying for everything. Those of us who had to scramble took it seriously and got good grades. And for the most part succeeded.