Today has been a deluge of Biblical proportions, which is nice if you don't have to go anywhere. I like sitting here in a quiet house, listening to the rain fall outside. And since it's dark, I don't have to look at the back yard and see the puddles turning into lakes! Here are a few random thoughts from the past week:
1. We had all sorts of technical difficulties getting ready for science on Tuesday. I was doing a demonstration of anaerobic respiration with yeast, involving a bottle, 2-hole stopper, thermometer, and glass tube. Monday night I tried to put the thermometer and the glass tube in the stopper--no way, even with copious lubrication. I asked Bob for help after I snapped a glass tube. After suggesting we drill the holes wider (which I shot down right away), he struggled manfully until he broke a thermometer. Sooo . . . before we broke anything else, he drilled the holes bigger on the second stopper, and I decided we would not have any control bottle. That worked fine.
Today I finally got around to emailing Home Science Tools, which is where I ordered all my stuff, and I asked them what they thought the problem could possibly be, since I didn't think my technique was wrong, and I had never had any problems inserting tubes into stoppers in all my previous lab experience (*massive run-on sentence alert*). Well, a very nice lady called this afternoon, and she told me that after she read my email, she had grabbed several stopper and measured the holes--they were all almost 2 mm too small (they should all be 5mm)! So they are going to talk to their supplier to correct this, but in the meantime, she was refunding what I paid for the stoppers, as well as sending me a new thermometer and glass tube! I was so excited! I had heard that this company had good customer service, but now I really believe it! I was also just glad to know that I wasn't crazy, LOL. There really WAS a problem!
2. After Tuesday, my left foot has been really hurting. I couldn't figure out what I possibly did to it, but today I wore my good running shoes to exercise, and after that, my foot felt better. But when I put my old tennis shoes back on to run to the post office and library . . . my foot started hurting again. Hmmm, might be time for new shoes. I remembered I had posted about buying this pair of shoes back in November 2007, and I said there that I usually wear shoes for 2-3 years. It'll be 3 years in November . . . call me Nostradamus!
3. Anna has been bugging me to paint her toenails for quite awhile, so tonight we had a little party up in my bathroom, and I painted hers, Grace's, and mine. Faith was quite upset about being left out of this girly fest, even after my explanation of, "You just have to get potty-trained and start wearing big-girl panties!" The funny thing is that this afternoon Luke took it upon himself to put her on the little potty several times, and she did indeed produce pee (she was very proud of herself and we all celebrated with M&Ms, as usual). But she is nowhere near being ready to potty-train. Maybe next summer, I am thinking. Seems like she will be motivated, though!
Hmmm, I thought there was more I was going to mention, but I can't remember. My brain is such a sieve these days! We have been enjoying the break in football practices with all the rain. Otherwise, we are just busy doing school, laundry, trying to keep the house from becoming a disaster area, and the other usual stuff. I am actually putting off reading through the next science chapter by doing all this blogging. I guess I should at least skim it before turning in!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Company!
We are having such a fun time with our company! We first met Ted and Beverly when we were all stationed together in Ohio, and we were all attending the same church. They had a daughter and were expecting their second child, while I was expecting our third. After we moved to VA, they moved to MD for a year, and we did get together once. Since then they have moved to Las Vegas and then back to Ohio. We kept up originally by Christmas cards, but now we can stay in touch much better with the great convenience of Facebook!
Now Ted and Beverly have 5 kids--2 girls and 3 boys. Their oldest daughter, Charis, doesn't have any girls here her age (and so has had to content herself with books from our bookshelf), but their next 2 are boys Caleb and Jonathan's age. All the boys have been having fun playing outside as well as playing many games of Stratego. They also have a girl, Kenna, who is the same age as Grace. She, Grace, and Anna have been having a ball dressing up as many variations of princesses and playing all sorts of girly games involving lots of giggling. So cute! Faith either tags along with them, or plays with Ted and Beverly's youngest, a boy named Lucan, who is about 6 weeks younger than her. She calls him "Baby" however, since he is soooo much younger than her, LOL. Sometimes she calls him "Theodore", which is the name of Ed and Elizabeth's baby, and that seems to be the name she thinks all babies are technically called by. Anyhow, she and Lucan are getting along well. Sometimes they play Duplos together, and they enjoy chasing each other up and down the stairs.
They are all actually here to sightsee, this being a big "American history vacation". They went to Monticello, then to Williamsburg for homeschool days, and now 4 days in D.C. They will continue on to Philadelphia for 2 days before heading home. That's a nice little history vacation! Right now Ted, Beverly, and the older 3 kids are on a night-time bike tour of the monuments. It was raining this morning when we all went to church, but we prayed the rain would go away, and the Lord answered! It seems like it should be a lovely niight for a bike ride, with nice, cool weather. I'm eager to get the report when they return!
Ted made us whole wheat pancakes for breakfast this morning, with fresh strawberries for topping. YUM! The recipe was his parents' (grandparents too maybe?), and it uses fresh ground wheat berries that you grind in the blender. I'm definitely going to have to get that recipe! We all ate several pancakes this morning and noticed how full we felt all through church!
Well, I am supposed to be working some more on my science lesson for Tuesday, but I am clearly procrastinating by blogging, LOL. I must get back to work . . .
Now Ted and Beverly have 5 kids--2 girls and 3 boys. Their oldest daughter, Charis, doesn't have any girls here her age (and so has had to content herself with books from our bookshelf), but their next 2 are boys Caleb and Jonathan's age. All the boys have been having fun playing outside as well as playing many games of Stratego. They also have a girl, Kenna, who is the same age as Grace. She, Grace, and Anna have been having a ball dressing up as many variations of princesses and playing all sorts of girly games involving lots of giggling. So cute! Faith either tags along with them, or plays with Ted and Beverly's youngest, a boy named Lucan, who is about 6 weeks younger than her. She calls him "Baby" however, since he is soooo much younger than her, LOL. Sometimes she calls him "Theodore", which is the name of Ed and Elizabeth's baby, and that seems to be the name she thinks all babies are technically called by. Anyhow, she and Lucan are getting along well. Sometimes they play Duplos together, and they enjoy chasing each other up and down the stairs.
They are all actually here to sightsee, this being a big "American history vacation". They went to Monticello, then to Williamsburg for homeschool days, and now 4 days in D.C. They will continue on to Philadelphia for 2 days before heading home. That's a nice little history vacation! Right now Ted, Beverly, and the older 3 kids are on a night-time bike tour of the monuments. It was raining this morning when we all went to church, but we prayed the rain would go away, and the Lord answered! It seems like it should be a lovely niight for a bike ride, with nice, cool weather. I'm eager to get the report when they return!
Ted made us whole wheat pancakes for breakfast this morning, with fresh strawberries for topping. YUM! The recipe was his parents' (grandparents too maybe?), and it uses fresh ground wheat berries that you grind in the blender. I'm definitely going to have to get that recipe! We all ate several pancakes this morning and noticed how full we felt all through church!
Well, I am supposed to be working some more on my science lesson for Tuesday, but I am clearly procrastinating by blogging, LOL. I must get back to work . . .
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Done!
I'm done teaching at the morning elementary co-op!! I got my two weeks of teaching out of the way early this year, and I am so glad! The unit was chemistry, and I taught the 5th and 6th graders. I can't believe Luke is in 6th grade this year!
The first week we talked about the periodic table--who is creditied with discovering it, how you read it, what all the numbers mean, what the different families mean--and also atomic structure. Then this week we made models of sodium and chlorine on paper using red and blue hole punches for protons and electrons, by way of reviewing what we learned last week. That led into talk about bonding, with those two elements representing ionic bonding, so they could really see the outer shells electrons. I told "The Love Story of the Two Ions", just like Mr. Belue told us in 8th grade! We also talked about covalent bonding and modeled water as an example. At the very end I passed out some "edible electrons" (M&Ms) for a little treat. That went over well!
I know the kids probably would have preferred some showy and cool experiment, but I think it's time for them to be introduced to some of the principles behind why things react like they do. And for the next 2 weeks the teacher will be doing some labs, where they have to write up lab sheets and everything, so that will be good experience for them, and fun.
It has been kind of hard to switch gears in the afternoon and go straight over to Rivendell, where I'm teaching life science! This week we talked about parts of cells, and we did a lot of introductory microscope work for the lab. That was fun. Last night I made some fresh slides to go along with the prepared ones I have. I did a geranium leaf cross-section (yes, Elizabeth, your plant donated one small leaf to the cause of science! Thank you!!), and a section of onion skin, which I stained with methylene blue. The onion skin turned out great, but I had quite a hard time with the leaf cross-section. I needed to go find Bob's box cutters. My scalpel was just not sharp enough. But you could see the chloroplasts and some other things. The hairs on the outside of the leaf looked like huge spikes! I'm hoping my slide-making skills improve over the course of the year. Plenty of room for improvement, LOL.
So now you know what has been keeping me too busy to post since last Wednesday! Well, all that science, plus Bible study, football (Nathan's team won on Saturday!!), church and small, group, and other sundry things! Tomorrow I'm heading to the commissary because we're having company this weekend! I can't wait to see Beverly and her family!
The first week we talked about the periodic table--who is creditied with discovering it, how you read it, what all the numbers mean, what the different families mean--and also atomic structure. Then this week we made models of sodium and chlorine on paper using red and blue hole punches for protons and electrons, by way of reviewing what we learned last week. That led into talk about bonding, with those two elements representing ionic bonding, so they could really see the outer shells electrons. I told "The Love Story of the Two Ions", just like Mr. Belue told us in 8th grade! We also talked about covalent bonding and modeled water as an example. At the very end I passed out some "edible electrons" (M&Ms) for a little treat. That went over well!
I know the kids probably would have preferred some showy and cool experiment, but I think it's time for them to be introduced to some of the principles behind why things react like they do. And for the next 2 weeks the teacher will be doing some labs, where they have to write up lab sheets and everything, so that will be good experience for them, and fun.
It has been kind of hard to switch gears in the afternoon and go straight over to Rivendell, where I'm teaching life science! This week we talked about parts of cells, and we did a lot of introductory microscope work for the lab. That was fun. Last night I made some fresh slides to go along with the prepared ones I have. I did a geranium leaf cross-section (yes, Elizabeth, your plant donated one small leaf to the cause of science! Thank you!!), and a section of onion skin, which I stained with methylene blue. The onion skin turned out great, but I had quite a hard time with the leaf cross-section. I needed to go find Bob's box cutters. My scalpel was just not sharp enough. But you could see the chloroplasts and some other things. The hairs on the outside of the leaf looked like huge spikes! I'm hoping my slide-making skills improve over the course of the year. Plenty of room for improvement, LOL.
So now you know what has been keeping me too busy to post since last Wednesday! Well, all that science, plus Bible study, football (Nathan's team won on Saturday!!), church and small, group, and other sundry things! Tomorrow I'm heading to the commissary because we're having company this weekend! I can't wait to see Beverly and her family!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
A Few Random Pictures
Here is a picture of Nathan in his football uniform. After being demolished in their first game by a team that was much larger and more experienced than they (Nathan's team is a new expansion team this year), they had another game tonight. This one went much better, and the teams were much more evenly matched! Nathan's team lost 27-19, but it was obviously a much closer and more exciting game! His team played well, and they scored 3 times!
Here is Bob with a relic from the past--something archeologists call a "typewriter". You can see the interest it has aroused from curious onlookers! Bob was filling out a job application, but the file was a read-only one. So he printed it out, and we commenced a grand search for the typewriter we knew we once had. I was quite worried that it had not survived the "Guam purging" last year when we thought we were moving there. But no worries--it was down at the very bottom of the same box it inhabited when it moved here to VA 6 years ago, LOL. We do not, however, have any White-Out. 
This rag-tag bunch of insects were all collected by us over the summer so the jr. high boys could work on classifying insects according to order for science. I just wanted to have a record of them, LOL. I should have put something beside them so you could get a better idea of size. The big bugs on the left are cicadas, and they are actually on the larger side--2 inches from nose to tip of wings. The big brown grasshopper is about that same size. Jonathan also found a very impressive black beetle, which you can see up in the top right corner. I got quite a few bugs from the L's deck and kiddie swimming pool when we were taking care of Ned this summer. The others were found mainly by the boys around the yard or at my parents' house. I did have to make a "killing jar", which was very galling for me. In a tupperware container we cut a cardboard circle and put cotton balls soaked in rubbing alcohol on the bottom, underneath the cardboard circle. Theoretically the bug would stay neatly on the top of the carboard circle, but that didn't always happen, unless it was one of the big bugs. I will say that we only had to use the jar a few times. Most of our specimens we found dead. Phew! I am really not the insect-collecting kind.
And last but not least, here is a picture of one of my maps that I got laminated for the co-op. It turned out pretty well, I thought! It has a fairly wide range so that we can see the extent of all the ancient empires, as well as where the Germanic tribes came from who ended up conquering Rome. Since it's laminated, I can just draw each week's stuff on there! It's not really to scale at all, so don't look too closely. I just winged it as far as the drawing went!
And last but not least, here is a picture of one of my maps that I got laminated for the co-op. It turned out pretty well, I thought! It has a fairly wide range so that we can see the extent of all the ancient empires, as well as where the Germanic tribes came from who ended up conquering Rome. Since it's laminated, I can just draw each week's stuff on there! It's not really to scale at all, so don't look too closely. I just winged it as far as the drawing went!Look at That Smile!
Luke had an orthodontist appointment this morning. The doctor said he didn't have to wear his headgear any more! Luke was really crushed to hear this, but I managed to console him. Then the doctor started talking about phase 2 . . .I had been quite happy with Luke's smile, especially considering where he was when we started! But it turns out the the $1300 we spent was only on the TOP part of Luke's mouth. His lower jaw is also narrow. And there are 2 teeth fully formed and waiting to emerge--with absolutely no room for them to do so. You can clearly see them on x-rays! If you don't know they are lurking down there, then his bottom teeth look great too--all nice and lined up!
So phase 2 of the operation involves braces to move the bottom teeth out of the way to let these 2 teeth come up in peace. I don't recall mention of another expander, but I could be wrong. Otherwise, the danger is that they will become impacted and require surgery. Without taking any off for insurance, this will cost another $3700. Sooooo . . . now Bob just has to find a job with good dental insurance, LOL. Actually, even if he had stayed active duty, since the military dental insurance also paid $1300 for the first phase (1/2 of it), then they would only have paid $200 for this. Each person only gets $1500 total for orthodontic care under the United Concordia dental plan. No real loss there!
And once again, Nathan's need for an expander and braces because of a crossbite moves down to the bottom of the priority pile. His mouth just doesn't seem too bad! Nice, wide jaw--plenty of room for teeth!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Minivan
We have several little chairs. We got the blue one free from someone who was giving it away at our co-op. The two white ones we picked up from someone's trash pile on a walk through our neighborhood one morning several years ago. And the brown one was given to us by our good frined neighbors down the street after their kids got a little too big and old for it. Unfortunately, these chairs don't stay lined up by the wall . . .
Usually they are arranged in a "minivan" formation, smack-dab in the middle of some room. In this case, they are in the middle of the entry way, effectively blocking traffic both in front and in back.
The driver steers with a genuine "Tonka Joe" dashboard that came with a really cool "Tonka Joe" computer game my brother gave the boys many, many years ago. All 4 boys thoroughly enjoyed driving the big dump truck, bulldozer, crane, etc., but we don't anymore have anyone who fits the game's target audience. Not to worry! Anna has discovered you can pilot an imaginary minivan just as effectively as an imaginary big rig with this steering wheel, complete with horn you "honk" by pulling down on.
There's always a row of "carseats" for the babies. Where do they get these ideas? LOL--looks like our vans! We don't have quite enough small chairs, as it turns out, so strollers have to be pressed into service. I'm sure they're very secure and safe, LOL.
There are various and assorted passengers riding along with whatever actual little girls are in the minivan. Today's passengers include this bear from Aunt Rose, dressed up in princess dress-up clothes, also from Aunt Rose. Anna hit upon the idea of dressing up this big bear just last week, and we were all pretty impressed that she made it work! Princess Bear lends a touch of elegance to the backseat of the van, don't you think?
I actually cleaned up the entry way and playroom this morning, while the girls were outside, but I thought I should memorialize one of Anna's minivan arrangements before I destroyed it. Even though all the chairs and toys have been moved back into the playroom, I'm sure they will make their way out into some other inconvenient place as a new minivan soon!Wednesday, September 08, 2010
First OB Appointment!
This afternoon I had my first OB appointment with this pregnancy. I got to see one of the midwives there at Bethesda, and she was so very nice. She told me she would refer me for a level 2 ultrasound, since I am over 35 (of course, I was over 35 with Faith too, and I don't recall anyone even mentioning a level 2 ultrasound!). She said I could also have genetic counseling with that ultrasound, which I declined. At the OB orientation I was alarmed when the lady leading it said that to be referred to your regular 20 week ultrasound, you now had to take this mandatory 1 hour genetic counseling class. What in the world?! I absolutely do not want to waste an afternoon listening to someone blather on about stuff I either already know or could certainly read up on my own! So I asked the midwife about this mandatory class, and she said, "Oh, I really don't think anyone is going to make YOU take that class! It's mainly for first-time moms with lots of questions." Whew! It did seem like the powers-that-be wanted people getting the level 2 ultrasound to have had the genetic counseling though. The midwife asked if I had any counseling with Faith, but I did not. So then she said, "Well, if anyone asks, I'll just say you were over 35 when you had your last baby, and you delivered here . . . I don't think anyone will ask any more questions . . ."
She did a dating ultrasound, and each picture showed the baby measuring 9 weeks, 2 days, instead of the 10 weeks, 4 days just going by my LMP date. But I have longer cycles usually, so I am sure that is right. That gestational age moves my due date back a week, to April 11. I would much rather have an accurate due date, especially if I have gestational diabetes again and feel pressured to deliver before 40 weeks, when they will induce! Jonathan was 2 weeks overdue, but I think his due date was off. He did not look like a very post-term baby when he came out. Also, he was the last baby I had the triple screen done, and that number came back very low (so we worried until the ultrasound, which didn't show any problems). But one reason the number could be low is if the baby is not as old as they think he is!
The baby looked like a little teddy graham in there, and the little heart was beating away. I love seeing that beating heart! I definitely don't take that for granted.
I do have to take a one hour glucose tolerance test before 20 weeks. I'm not looking forward to that, but I'm not surprised either. I have another appointment on Oct. 12 (maybe--I'm not looking at my calendar), so I'm hoping to do it before or after that appointment. I had a fasting blood sugar draw the end of August, and that was fine.
She did a dating ultrasound, and each picture showed the baby measuring 9 weeks, 2 days, instead of the 10 weeks, 4 days just going by my LMP date. But I have longer cycles usually, so I am sure that is right. That gestational age moves my due date back a week, to April 11. I would much rather have an accurate due date, especially if I have gestational diabetes again and feel pressured to deliver before 40 weeks, when they will induce! Jonathan was 2 weeks overdue, but I think his due date was off. He did not look like a very post-term baby when he came out. Also, he was the last baby I had the triple screen done, and that number came back very low (so we worried until the ultrasound, which didn't show any problems). But one reason the number could be low is if the baby is not as old as they think he is!
The baby looked like a little teddy graham in there, and the little heart was beating away. I love seeing that beating heart! I definitely don't take that for granted.
I do have to take a one hour glucose tolerance test before 20 weeks. I'm not looking forward to that, but I'm not surprised either. I have another appointment on Oct. 12 (maybe--I'm not looking at my calendar), so I'm hoping to do it before or after that appointment. I had a fasting blood sugar draw the end of August, and that was fine.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Nathan's Very Large Water Bottle
Nathan has his first football tonight at 5:15, and I wanted to post a picture of this enormous water bottle his coach provided for everyone on the team. They use it for exercises, like squats. Almost like a kettlebell or something! There's a line on the front so we can see how high to fill it each night. And it's motivation to drink the water during practice! They have really long bendy straws that fit down inside the bottles to make it easier to drink from. Even during all the really hot practices, I never had to worry that Nathan wouldn't have enough water available, LOL. He brings 2 1/2 gallons! You can also see his "leadership stickers" there on the front. I just want to comment again on how organized his coach is, and what a great motivator he is! We are so blessed to have Nathan be on his team for his first year of football!Thursday, September 02, 2010
A Good Day
It's late and I should be in bed, but I figured I'd take advantage of the quiet house and blog really quickly! Nothing red-letter is happening, but today was a good day, so I thought I'd write about it.
1. A friend of ours from way back stopped by with 4 garbage bags of hand-me-downs this morning! It's been like Christmas here, as the girls especially have excitedly pulled out dresses and other clothes to try on! Mark and Lori have 6 kids, and their youngest is a girl a year older than Anna. So the sizes are perfect, the clothes are cute, and the girls were in heaven! There were shoes too . . . too much excitement! There were boys' clothes too, but somehow the boys just weren't as excited, LOL. I am always so thankful for clothes we can use! What a huge savings!
2. Nathan just missed one on his first life science test! He's got this really great teacher, you see . . . LOL! No, the material is not that difficult so far. But I'm glad he is remembering it!
3. Caleb drew this really great map of the the world (well, technically it was yesterday), with all the continents and everything labeled. I know that was a result of the time last year in Classical Conversations, so I am glad to see fruit from that! Then he made up his own continent, divided it up into countries, made a flag for one country, and stationed armies in various places in it, LOL.
4. I got my maps laminated today! I spent a good deal of time drawing 2 maps for the memory work/mapwork part of Rivendell. One covered the Mediterranean area all the way over to India. On the back of it, I drew a close-up of Israel. I put all the cities, mountains, and rivers that we'll be learning on the maps. I also already had a map I drew of Greece (for the Greece unit in the other co-op several years ago, when I was pregnant with Grace), and on the other side of that is a slightly closer view of the Mediterranean area. I added cities and features to both those maps, and then I started asking around for places to laminate them. I made a big map of Africa and the Mediterranean last year for CC, and I never laminated it, and by the end of the year, that poor map was looking a bit wilted! People on my homeschool email loop recommended Staples, Office Depot, and a teacher store about 20 minutes away. Staples quoted me $20 EACH, Office Depot said $1.99/sq. foot (each sheet of poster board was less than 2'x3'), and the teacher store said $1.oo per sq. ft. Clear winner there, so I drove out there this afternoon. The girl at the counter told me she couldn't work the laminator, so they'd have to take my maps and call me when they were done. Ack! I need one Tuesday, and I really hadn't planned on driving back out to the store to pick up the things! But what could I do, so I left them. I went outside and called Bob to relate my tale of misery. As we were talking, he told me the store was calling our home phone, which for some reason was the number I had given them. I ran back inside, since I had never left the parking lot, and there were my maps, all done! I'm so glad I took my time leaving! And the grand total was only $5.25! I'm not sure exactly how they calculate the square footage, but I'll take it! They look great! (Well, as great as hand-drawn maps can look, LOL.)
5. Tonight Nathan's team got their jerseys. Well, they aren't really the permanent jerseys. Because his team is an expansion team, they get new jerseys, and apparently the jerseys are journeying here from the factory by mule train, because the coach thought we'd have them by last Monday. The first game is Saturday, so they are using some other team's old jerseys (Steeler colors, woo hoo!). Nathan got to pick his number first because he had the most "leadership points". These came from times when he led exercises and what not. Sometimes the coaches picked him to lead, and sometimes the other team members picked him. That was really cool! He picked #7, which is Ben Rothlisberger's number, LOL.
6. I got to talk to Amy tonight! It's been several weeks, but that always makes a nice end to a day! It was great catching up with her!
So that's where we are. Still no job for Bob, so keep praying! And now I really must get to bed, or I will REALLY be sorry in the morning!
1. A friend of ours from way back stopped by with 4 garbage bags of hand-me-downs this morning! It's been like Christmas here, as the girls especially have excitedly pulled out dresses and other clothes to try on! Mark and Lori have 6 kids, and their youngest is a girl a year older than Anna. So the sizes are perfect, the clothes are cute, and the girls were in heaven! There were shoes too . . . too much excitement! There were boys' clothes too, but somehow the boys just weren't as excited, LOL. I am always so thankful for clothes we can use! What a huge savings!
2. Nathan just missed one on his first life science test! He's got this really great teacher, you see . . . LOL! No, the material is not that difficult so far. But I'm glad he is remembering it!
3. Caleb drew this really great map of the the world (well, technically it was yesterday), with all the continents and everything labeled. I know that was a result of the time last year in Classical Conversations, so I am glad to see fruit from that! Then he made up his own continent, divided it up into countries, made a flag for one country, and stationed armies in various places in it, LOL.
4. I got my maps laminated today! I spent a good deal of time drawing 2 maps for the memory work/mapwork part of Rivendell. One covered the Mediterranean area all the way over to India. On the back of it, I drew a close-up of Israel. I put all the cities, mountains, and rivers that we'll be learning on the maps. I also already had a map I drew of Greece (for the Greece unit in the other co-op several years ago, when I was pregnant with Grace), and on the other side of that is a slightly closer view of the Mediterranean area. I added cities and features to both those maps, and then I started asking around for places to laminate them. I made a big map of Africa and the Mediterranean last year for CC, and I never laminated it, and by the end of the year, that poor map was looking a bit wilted! People on my homeschool email loop recommended Staples, Office Depot, and a teacher store about 20 minutes away. Staples quoted me $20 EACH, Office Depot said $1.99/sq. foot (each sheet of poster board was less than 2'x3'), and the teacher store said $1.oo per sq. ft. Clear winner there, so I drove out there this afternoon. The girl at the counter told me she couldn't work the laminator, so they'd have to take my maps and call me when they were done. Ack! I need one Tuesday, and I really hadn't planned on driving back out to the store to pick up the things! But what could I do, so I left them. I went outside and called Bob to relate my tale of misery. As we were talking, he told me the store was calling our home phone, which for some reason was the number I had given them. I ran back inside, since I had never left the parking lot, and there were my maps, all done! I'm so glad I took my time leaving! And the grand total was only $5.25! I'm not sure exactly how they calculate the square footage, but I'll take it! They look great! (Well, as great as hand-drawn maps can look, LOL.)
5. Tonight Nathan's team got their jerseys. Well, they aren't really the permanent jerseys. Because his team is an expansion team, they get new jerseys, and apparently the jerseys are journeying here from the factory by mule train, because the coach thought we'd have them by last Monday. The first game is Saturday, so they are using some other team's old jerseys (Steeler colors, woo hoo!). Nathan got to pick his number first because he had the most "leadership points". These came from times when he led exercises and what not. Sometimes the coaches picked him to lead, and sometimes the other team members picked him. That was really cool! He picked #7, which is Ben Rothlisberger's number, LOL.
6. I got to talk to Amy tonight! It's been several weeks, but that always makes a nice end to a day! It was great catching up with her!
So that's where we are. Still no job for Bob, so keep praying! And now I really must get to bed, or I will REALLY be sorry in the morning!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
First Day
Today was the first day of our new junior high co-op, Rivendell. I was up late last night making sure I had everything, and I worried about how I was going to forget something important, since I feel like my brain is so mushy these days. As it turned out, we did forget Nathan's Spanish book and his vocab book, but since Faith took her Bear (what she sleeps with) out of the laundry basket I had everything packed in for the day, I ended up having to run back to the house during the first hour. I got Bear, and the 2 books, so it was just fine! And I didn't forget anything else!
We left the house at 8:45 to get to the church at 9:00. Normally the older boys will start literature/writing at 9:20. Those of us with younger kids will drop the older ones off first, then run the younger ones a mile down the road to the church where our other co-op meets, the one we've done all these years. But the other co-op doesn't start until the day after Labor Day, so all the younger kids were with us the whole day. They played outside in the morning, but it was roasting hot, so they eventually came in and played board games until lunch.
After literature/writing, I start teaching life science at 10:30. We go until 12:30, with the last hour being lab time. This week we covered the first chapter, which everyone had already read and answered questions about, so they were ready for discussion. It was an introduction to science, the scientific method (I got to trot out my old 8th grade science fair project for an example!), worldviews, presuppositions, and how they all relate to life science. We had good discussion! Then we did 2 short labs, one on the potential for inaccuracy of measuring (each boy had to measure my hieght with a yard stick, weigh 5 T of sand, count tree rings in a tree cross-section which I had thanks to Ed L., and measure a piece of yarn with a ruler). All the numbers were different, of course. The second one involved demonstrating the scientific method, and we used 3 different colors of popcorn (which I was able to find, thanks to Amy P.!). The boys made hypotheses about whether the corn color related to the popped corn color, and then popped individual kernals of different colors. The red and purple corn popped up white, but the yellow corn was actually more yellow. Still, if you had a big bowl of yellow popcorn, you would probably think of it was white. Anyhow, kernal color only partially related to popped color. Another interesting thing is that the yellow popcorn popped MUCH fluffier! Now we know why most stores only sell it! No taste difference that we could tell.
We all ate lunch after science, which was a nice break. Normally we would be picking up the younger kids at 12:30, and they would have a little bit of time to run around. At 1:30, the jr. high boys do Spanish, the 5th/6th graders do writing with the same mom who taught the older boys in the morning, and the 3rd/4th graders do writing with Christine. The kids who are little will be with me, and I'll read aloud to them for half an hour or so, so they can have some downtime after the busy morning at co-op. Then at 2:30 the jr. high boys do history with Christine, and all the other kids do memory work with me. That was really fun today, and I think they enjoyed it too! We did some geography, Heb. 11:1-2, the first point of our timeline ("Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by Pharaoh Menes, 3100 BC"), the 6 steps of the scientific method, and the first stanza of "The Owl and the Pussycat", complete with motions and much drama. We were done at 4:00, and we cleaned up until 4:30. Then we rushed home so Nathan could grab a protein shake and change into his football gear for practice! he left at 5:30. Whew! We all ate, and now I am so tired--I don't want to get up again tonight!
Everyone had really positive things to say about the day in the car on the way home, so I am encouraged! I think the boys, esp. the jr. high boys, are really going to enjoy discussing things, esp. in history. Today they talked about such things as how the plagues were direct attacks against the Egyptian gods, what things countries need to be stable, like Egypt was for thousands of years, and . . . other things I can't remember, LOL. Too bad Nathan is at practice, or I could ask him! So it was a successful first day, and I am so excited about working with these ladies for a year! We are all definitely on the same page academically, and in other areas as well. And I found the preparation was less stresssful than it was last year for Classical Conversations because I am just more comfortable with and excited about the science material!
We left the house at 8:45 to get to the church at 9:00. Normally the older boys will start literature/writing at 9:20. Those of us with younger kids will drop the older ones off first, then run the younger ones a mile down the road to the church where our other co-op meets, the one we've done all these years. But the other co-op doesn't start until the day after Labor Day, so all the younger kids were with us the whole day. They played outside in the morning, but it was roasting hot, so they eventually came in and played board games until lunch.
After literature/writing, I start teaching life science at 10:30. We go until 12:30, with the last hour being lab time. This week we covered the first chapter, which everyone had already read and answered questions about, so they were ready for discussion. It was an introduction to science, the scientific method (I got to trot out my old 8th grade science fair project for an example!), worldviews, presuppositions, and how they all relate to life science. We had good discussion! Then we did 2 short labs, one on the potential for inaccuracy of measuring (each boy had to measure my hieght with a yard stick, weigh 5 T of sand, count tree rings in a tree cross-section which I had thanks to Ed L., and measure a piece of yarn with a ruler). All the numbers were different, of course. The second one involved demonstrating the scientific method, and we used 3 different colors of popcorn (which I was able to find, thanks to Amy P.!). The boys made hypotheses about whether the corn color related to the popped corn color, and then popped individual kernals of different colors. The red and purple corn popped up white, but the yellow corn was actually more yellow. Still, if you had a big bowl of yellow popcorn, you would probably think of it was white. Anyhow, kernal color only partially related to popped color. Another interesting thing is that the yellow popcorn popped MUCH fluffier! Now we know why most stores only sell it! No taste difference that we could tell.
We all ate lunch after science, which was a nice break. Normally we would be picking up the younger kids at 12:30, and they would have a little bit of time to run around. At 1:30, the jr. high boys do Spanish, the 5th/6th graders do writing with the same mom who taught the older boys in the morning, and the 3rd/4th graders do writing with Christine. The kids who are little will be with me, and I'll read aloud to them for half an hour or so, so they can have some downtime after the busy morning at co-op. Then at 2:30 the jr. high boys do history with Christine, and all the other kids do memory work with me. That was really fun today, and I think they enjoyed it too! We did some geography, Heb. 11:1-2, the first point of our timeline ("Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by Pharaoh Menes, 3100 BC"), the 6 steps of the scientific method, and the first stanza of "The Owl and the Pussycat", complete with motions and much drama. We were done at 4:00, and we cleaned up until 4:30. Then we rushed home so Nathan could grab a protein shake and change into his football gear for practice! he left at 5:30. Whew! We all ate, and now I am so tired--I don't want to get up again tonight!
Everyone had really positive things to say about the day in the car on the way home, so I am encouraged! I think the boys, esp. the jr. high boys, are really going to enjoy discussing things, esp. in history. Today they talked about such things as how the plagues were direct attacks against the Egyptian gods, what things countries need to be stable, like Egypt was for thousands of years, and . . . other things I can't remember, LOL. Too bad Nathan is at practice, or I could ask him! So it was a successful first day, and I am so excited about working with these ladies for a year! We are all definitely on the same page academically, and in other areas as well. And I found the preparation was less stresssful than it was last year for Classical Conversations because I am just more comfortable with and excited about the science material!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Huge News!
Caleb PASSED his milk challenge today!!! How exciting!!
So we got up bright and early, leaving our house at 6:15. We could have left at least 20 minutes later because we got there to Walter Reed by 7:15--there was absolutely no traffic! But you never know-the traffic reports I heard while driving said there had been accidents on the BW Parkway as well 270 that tied things up, so that could have happened on 495 as well. Better early than stuck! Once we parked in the garage, I laid back and closed my eyes for 20 minutes while Caleb chattered on about every single thing that passed through his brain, LOL. Oh well, it was somewhat restful!
We got into the clinic, and he received his first "dose" of milk, just 10 cc, at 8:15. I brought chocolate milk, thinking that he might like the taste of that better than regular milk, which he has never had. He squirted the first dose in from a syringe, and nothing happened. He got a progressivly larger amount every 15 minutes until he had 5 doses (a total of about 8 ounces). Before each dose the doctor and the resident who was with her would check his vitals, skin, and mucous membranes. Everything kept looking good! Caleb did his schoolwork in between doses, and I talked with the doctor and resident, who stuck around the whole time, or read.
Finally, 15 minutes after the last dose, we went out to the waiting room, where we had to sit for 2 hours to make sure no late reaction developed. The whole time Caleb had been sneezy and snuffly, but he was like that when we started. It's the crazy ragweed! He and Nathan have been having a hard time with it, for Caleb mainly because he's been unable to take his Zyrtec for the past week as he prepared for this challenge. I and the doctor also were a little apprehensive that his sneezing would mask a true reaction, but he never got worse or seemed to sneeze more or anything. Several people had asked me why I didn't move the trial until after ragweed season was over. I figured that if he passed now, then we could truly know that he had outgrown the allergy. Any other time, and I would have wondered. His seasonal allergies have always tended to make him more sensitive to his food allergy triggers, so I didn't want him to pass in, say, November, but then have problems in March with milk when the pollen count started to rise!
Waiting the 2 hours was the hardest thing for Caleb! Once he finished his schoolwork, he was fidgety and not really interested in reading. We had a snack, but I was ready to go home too, LOL. Eventually we were cleared to go, and Caleb was cleared to have milk! We finally got home around 12:30, so it was definitely a long day.
I still am having a hard time grasping his being free to have milk! Dealing with his food allergies has been a way of life since he was 7 months old. I remember coming home crying from his first allergy appointment, where he had tested positive to wheat, eggs, milk, and peanuts--everything they tested him for except soy--and thinking, "No one will marry him!" He never really reacted to wheat, so we added that back in first, at about 18 months. By 3 he had outgrown his egg allergy, and I thought that really made life easier! But when he hadn't outgrown any of the nut allergies or even shown any signs of outgrowing the milk one by 5, I had pretty much assumed they was there for life. I really never dreamed it was possible that he would outgrow the milk allergy! He's 8 1/2!
I think it will be a big adjustment for him too. When you have never at all eaten anything remotely cheesy, and in fact you know that it (used to) make you very sick and wheezy, then . . . it is a little bit hard to want to try these formerly forbidden foods. He was okay with the milk, but I think it was because it was almost like taking medicine--all measured out in a syringe or medicine cup. I offered him an M&M from my trail mix (only almonds, no peanuts!), and he was quite hesitant to try it. Finally, in the car when we were almost home he decided to try it. I asked him why he was so hesitant, and he said, "I'm just really afraid I'll react." I told him that he had already had WAY more milk than was in an M&M, but he was not totally convinced, LOL. He eventually did eat it, but he was not all that impressed. "I like Skittles a lot better." LOL!
Also, he's grown up only eating soy substitutes for things--like soy ice cream and soy yogurt. I am not a huge fan of either (well, especially soy yogurt), but he loves them! It's all he's every known! And they taste NOTHING like stuff made with milk! So I think it will be a challenge for him to get used to eating cheesy/milky stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if I don't have to separate stuff out for himstill, at least for a little while, as he makes the transition. Actually we really don't eat all that much stuff with dairy in it anymore, so it will be more the odd soup and casserole recipe that I still use. Wow, I will be able to look at cookbooks with a fresh eye! Going out will be where it is the nicest. Not having to worry about where milk is hidden is going to be huge. Like I said, I still can't wrap my mind around it! I'm sure I'll still be saying, "You can't have that, Caleb" just out of habit!
After our big and early morning, I came home and collapsed in bed for a nap! I was so exhausted! I think it will be an early night for Caleb too. He kept waking up in the middle of the night. I remember him coming into our room at 4:00 and me telling him to go back to bed, that I had my alarm set! He was a little anxious for the whole thing to be over and done with!
The reason I am having all this time to type out this long post is that Bob took all 7 kids to Nathan's football practice, and I am alone in the house! Yes, he is a saint. I love the sound of silence. But instead of screwing around on the computer, I should be doing something productive . . .
So we got up bright and early, leaving our house at 6:15. We could have left at least 20 minutes later because we got there to Walter Reed by 7:15--there was absolutely no traffic! But you never know-the traffic reports I heard while driving said there had been accidents on the BW Parkway as well 270 that tied things up, so that could have happened on 495 as well. Better early than stuck! Once we parked in the garage, I laid back and closed my eyes for 20 minutes while Caleb chattered on about every single thing that passed through his brain, LOL. Oh well, it was somewhat restful!
We got into the clinic, and he received his first "dose" of milk, just 10 cc, at 8:15. I brought chocolate milk, thinking that he might like the taste of that better than regular milk, which he has never had. He squirted the first dose in from a syringe, and nothing happened. He got a progressivly larger amount every 15 minutes until he had 5 doses (a total of about 8 ounces). Before each dose the doctor and the resident who was with her would check his vitals, skin, and mucous membranes. Everything kept looking good! Caleb did his schoolwork in between doses, and I talked with the doctor and resident, who stuck around the whole time, or read.
Finally, 15 minutes after the last dose, we went out to the waiting room, where we had to sit for 2 hours to make sure no late reaction developed. The whole time Caleb had been sneezy and snuffly, but he was like that when we started. It's the crazy ragweed! He and Nathan have been having a hard time with it, for Caleb mainly because he's been unable to take his Zyrtec for the past week as he prepared for this challenge. I and the doctor also were a little apprehensive that his sneezing would mask a true reaction, but he never got worse or seemed to sneeze more or anything. Several people had asked me why I didn't move the trial until after ragweed season was over. I figured that if he passed now, then we could truly know that he had outgrown the allergy. Any other time, and I would have wondered. His seasonal allergies have always tended to make him more sensitive to his food allergy triggers, so I didn't want him to pass in, say, November, but then have problems in March with milk when the pollen count started to rise!
Waiting the 2 hours was the hardest thing for Caleb! Once he finished his schoolwork, he was fidgety and not really interested in reading. We had a snack, but I was ready to go home too, LOL. Eventually we were cleared to go, and Caleb was cleared to have milk! We finally got home around 12:30, so it was definitely a long day.
I still am having a hard time grasping his being free to have milk! Dealing with his food allergies has been a way of life since he was 7 months old. I remember coming home crying from his first allergy appointment, where he had tested positive to wheat, eggs, milk, and peanuts--everything they tested him for except soy--and thinking, "No one will marry him!" He never really reacted to wheat, so we added that back in first, at about 18 months. By 3 he had outgrown his egg allergy, and I thought that really made life easier! But when he hadn't outgrown any of the nut allergies or even shown any signs of outgrowing the milk one by 5, I had pretty much assumed they was there for life. I really never dreamed it was possible that he would outgrow the milk allergy! He's 8 1/2!
I think it will be a big adjustment for him too. When you have never at all eaten anything remotely cheesy, and in fact you know that it (used to) make you very sick and wheezy, then . . . it is a little bit hard to want to try these formerly forbidden foods. He was okay with the milk, but I think it was because it was almost like taking medicine--all measured out in a syringe or medicine cup. I offered him an M&M from my trail mix (only almonds, no peanuts!), and he was quite hesitant to try it. Finally, in the car when we were almost home he decided to try it. I asked him why he was so hesitant, and he said, "I'm just really afraid I'll react." I told him that he had already had WAY more milk than was in an M&M, but he was not totally convinced, LOL. He eventually did eat it, but he was not all that impressed. "I like Skittles a lot better." LOL!
Also, he's grown up only eating soy substitutes for things--like soy ice cream and soy yogurt. I am not a huge fan of either (well, especially soy yogurt), but he loves them! It's all he's every known! And they taste NOTHING like stuff made with milk! So I think it will be a challenge for him to get used to eating cheesy/milky stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if I don't have to separate stuff out for himstill, at least for a little while, as he makes the transition. Actually we really don't eat all that much stuff with dairy in it anymore, so it will be more the odd soup and casserole recipe that I still use. Wow, I will be able to look at cookbooks with a fresh eye! Going out will be where it is the nicest. Not having to worry about where milk is hidden is going to be huge. Like I said, I still can't wrap my mind around it! I'm sure I'll still be saying, "You can't have that, Caleb" just out of habit!
After our big and early morning, I came home and collapsed in bed for a nap! I was so exhausted! I think it will be an early night for Caleb too. He kept waking up in the middle of the night. I remember him coming into our room at 4:00 and me telling him to go back to bed, that I had my alarm set! He was a little anxious for the whole thing to be over and done with!
The reason I am having all this time to type out this long post is that Bob took all 7 kids to Nathan's football practice, and I am alone in the house! Yes, he is a saint. I love the sound of silence. But instead of screwing around on the computer, I should be doing something productive . . .
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Quick Update
I'm stealing the idea from my friend Beverly and doing a quick "Seven on Sunday" update.
1. Nathan's bites are almost all gone, for all who have been asking! We'll just write this episode off as another one of his crazy skin reactions, and I'm glad we didn't bother taking him in!
2. Caleb and Jonathan are back home! I wrote a long, informative blog post about their time in Ohio and drive back with the L's in my mind last night before falling to sleep, but we'll see if that ever actually get's translated to real live typing, LOL. My brain is just so darn mushy lately, and I can't remember anything!
3. I gave all the kids haircuts last night. Nathan has needed one for a long time, as his cowlick in the back had become quicky spiky. With football every night, however, I never could fit one in. I seized the day yesterday! I gave the girls cuts as well, but that was a bridge too far, LOL. I was too tired! I told them that in the future I will have to have haircut night for boys and a different night for girls. I am still not very satisfied with Anna's hair. Grrr.
4. We had a wonderful day today! Suzanne, a good friend from way back (she and her husband actually met when they were both living with my family in our big old house in Ohio back in 1987!), was in MD visiting her family with 5 of her 7 kids. They drove down from MD to go to church with us, and then we all headed over to the L's house (also friends of Lee and Suzanne from way back!) for lunch and visiting. It was so fun to catch up!
5. We're starting back to school tomorrow. I've gotten the school books organized, so hopefully everything will go smoothly! Our jr. high co-op (Rivendell)starts next Tuesday, and our other co-op, for the younger kids, starts back up after Labor Day, so we have a week to ease back into things. I've finished my first 2 lessons for life science (in Rivendell), and I want to finish the next 2 as well. That 3rd and 4th week of Rivendell are when I am teaching chemistry in the other co-op to the 5th and 6th graders, so I need to finish getting those lessons together. I'll be glad when September is over!
6. Caleb has his milk challenge Wednesday morning at 8:00. He is off his antihistimines this week, since last Wednesday, actually, and he is really starting to suffer! He is also very allergic to ragweed, which is in its prime right now. His eyes are getting all itchy and puffy, and there's not a thing we can do except put cold compresses on them! Poor Nathan is also really suffering this year. He has been a snuffly, sneezy mess for the past 2 weeks. I am thinking I might make an appointment for him this week so he can at least get his own allergy med prescriptions.
7. Hmmm, what else. Faith is developing keen interest in shoes, like her big sister Anna. She is always trying on their shoes (and anyone elses!). She is wearing a size 4, but I got down the size 5 pair of pink crocs (knock-offs of course, LOL) the other girls wore. She LOVES them! They're a little big, but she thinks she is hot stuff in them! She wants them on all the time!
Well, that's an update on us. Now Bob and I are going to take a quick walk before it gets too dark!
1. Nathan's bites are almost all gone, for all who have been asking! We'll just write this episode off as another one of his crazy skin reactions, and I'm glad we didn't bother taking him in!
2. Caleb and Jonathan are back home! I wrote a long, informative blog post about their time in Ohio and drive back with the L's in my mind last night before falling to sleep, but we'll see if that ever actually get's translated to real live typing, LOL. My brain is just so darn mushy lately, and I can't remember anything!
3. I gave all the kids haircuts last night. Nathan has needed one for a long time, as his cowlick in the back had become quicky spiky. With football every night, however, I never could fit one in. I seized the day yesterday! I gave the girls cuts as well, but that was a bridge too far, LOL. I was too tired! I told them that in the future I will have to have haircut night for boys and a different night for girls. I am still not very satisfied with Anna's hair. Grrr.
4. We had a wonderful day today! Suzanne, a good friend from way back (she and her husband actually met when they were both living with my family in our big old house in Ohio back in 1987!), was in MD visiting her family with 5 of her 7 kids. They drove down from MD to go to church with us, and then we all headed over to the L's house (also friends of Lee and Suzanne from way back!) for lunch and visiting. It was so fun to catch up!
5. We're starting back to school tomorrow. I've gotten the school books organized, so hopefully everything will go smoothly! Our jr. high co-op (Rivendell)starts next Tuesday, and our other co-op, for the younger kids, starts back up after Labor Day, so we have a week to ease back into things. I've finished my first 2 lessons for life science (in Rivendell), and I want to finish the next 2 as well. That 3rd and 4th week of Rivendell are when I am teaching chemistry in the other co-op to the 5th and 6th graders, so I need to finish getting those lessons together. I'll be glad when September is over!
6. Caleb has his milk challenge Wednesday morning at 8:00. He is off his antihistimines this week, since last Wednesday, actually, and he is really starting to suffer! He is also very allergic to ragweed, which is in its prime right now. His eyes are getting all itchy and puffy, and there's not a thing we can do except put cold compresses on them! Poor Nathan is also really suffering this year. He has been a snuffly, sneezy mess for the past 2 weeks. I am thinking I might make an appointment for him this week so he can at least get his own allergy med prescriptions.
7. Hmmm, what else. Faith is developing keen interest in shoes, like her big sister Anna. She is always trying on their shoes (and anyone elses!). She is wearing a size 4, but I got down the size 5 pair of pink crocs (knock-offs of course, LOL) the other girls wore. She LOVES them! They're a little big, but she thinks she is hot stuff in them! She wants them on all the time!
Well, that's an update on us. Now Bob and I are going to take a quick walk before it gets too dark!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Nathan's Bites
**Update below**
Nathan and Luke went to a birthday party Saturday afternoon, and they had a tremendously fun time. They ran around outside and had a huge water gun fight, then they ate dinner and watched a Star Wars video.
Sunday afternoon Nathan mentioned that he must have gotten bit by something, as he had this spot on his belly that was red and itchy. It had these black marks in the middle, which made out pastor's wife ask if he had written on himself with pen.
This is actually a bit of an improvement, in that the skin around the original bite area had been really quite hard, but it is softer again. As to why there is now a spreading rash--who knows?! We're thinking about taking him in to the doctor, but I just don't know that they would be able to do anything other than what we've been doing. It's not infected or anything, and it's not making him feel sick or anything. Just itchy! This is where having a doctor nearby might be nice, LOL, as opposed to 40 minutes away on the Beltway. You definitely can't accuse us of leaping off to the doctor's office at every little twinge!
This has not affected Nathan's ability to play football this week (first week of contact!) or to watch marathon hours of "Lord of the Rings", which we are borrowing from the L's to watch while Caleb and Jonathan are not home. So I would have to say his quality of life has not been suffering too much, LOL. As a side note, does it seem like Nathan is the only one who these sorts of things happen to? Does anyone else remember Nathan's amazing technicolor Christmas rash back in December 2007? What is up with that boy and mysterious skin rections?!
Nathan and Luke went to a birthday party Saturday afternoon, and they had a tremendously fun time. They ran around outside and had a huge water gun fight, then they ate dinner and watched a Star Wars video.
Sunday afternoon Nathan mentioned that he must have gotten bit by something, as he had this spot on his belly that was red and itchy. It had these black marks in the middle, which made out pastor's wife ask if he had written on himself with pen.
In this picture above, he has scratched off the black parts, so they are just redder and more bloody. They were definite puncture marks, though.
We had him put antibiotic ointment on the bites, as well as anti-itch cream. Sometimes Nathan would put ice on it, and he has also been taking Benedryl. Here's what it looks like today.
This is actually a bit of an improvement, in that the skin around the original bite area had been really quite hard, but it is softer again. As to why there is now a spreading rash--who knows?! We're thinking about taking him in to the doctor, but I just don't know that they would be able to do anything other than what we've been doing. It's not infected or anything, and it's not making him feel sick or anything. Just itchy! This is where having a doctor nearby might be nice, LOL, as opposed to 40 minutes away on the Beltway. You definitely can't accuse us of leaping off to the doctor's office at every little twinge!This has not affected Nathan's ability to play football this week (first week of contact!) or to watch marathon hours of "Lord of the Rings", which we are borrowing from the L's to watch while Caleb and Jonathan are not home. So I would have to say his quality of life has not been suffering too much, LOL. As a side note, does it seem like Nathan is the only one who these sorts of things happen to? Does anyone else remember Nathan's amazing technicolor Christmas rash back in December 2007? What is up with that boy and mysterious skin rections?!
**Update** We did not take him today, but I would say that his belly is finally looking a bit better. It's not as red and swollen. The rash spread all the way around his right side, but I don't think it is spreading any more. I think the bumps of the rash are becoming a bit more separated, as opposed to one big red blotch! Tonight we stayed up late and watched "The Blindside", and again, his belly rash did not hinder his enjoyment, LOL.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Football
Nathan has finished up his first week of football practice. He is tired and sore, but he is really enjoying it! Just to recap, this year would be the last year Nathan is eligible to play in our county league. He's wanted to play for years, so we finally decided he could try it this year. After talking extensively to another mom (and dad) in our co-op whose kids are all incredibly gifted in sports and who have played in this league many years, I felt like we knew a little bit of what to expect. I also started praying for whoever would be Nathan's coach.
The league had their draft on July 31, while we were out of town. I was very anxious the whole next week, since we never heard anything on our cells. I figured we would have a ton of messages on our answering machine (which we who are not very technologically astute could not access), and I knew from talking with Christine (whose oldest 2 boys are also playing for the first time this year) that they were having team meetings and equipment distributions. I hate feeling behind and out of the loop, so this was worrying to me--more to me than to Nathan, LOL.
When we got home Sunday night, we did indeed have several messages on our machine from the coach's wife. I immediately called her to explain, and she was so very nice. I told Nathan that if his coach was half as nice as she was, we'd be in great shape! I was a little concerned, however, because Nathan had been drafted by an "expansion team"--so all the players were new. For the other teams, if a player had been on a team the year before and was still in the right age range, than he would just stay on that same team. Also, their team name was a college football team name, as opposed to a pro team, like all the other teams in the entire league (3 age divisions)! So that was a bit odd. I told Nathan they very likely could never win a game, but hopefully he'd have a fun team and really learn a lot and have a good experience.
Nathan was able to pick up his equipment the next day before the first practice, so we really didn't miss anything. Another answer to prayer, at least for the McC's, was that although Nathan and Isaac weren't on the same team, they were practicing at the same middle school (the only 2 teams!), so Bob has been able to take and bring home Isaac, so Craig only has to worry about getting Caleb to and from practices. We were glad to be able to help!
Nathan and Bob both came home from the first practice raving about how amazingly well-organized this coach was. Nathan received 2 practice t-shirts, one dark and one light, as well as a huge (2 1/2 gallon) water jug with a big handle on it. They actually use this in practice as a sort of kettle bell, swinging it around and in front and so on. Of course, the more they drink, the lighter it is, so that is a good incentive to keep hydrated in all the heat! The coach also handed out playbooks for them to study, and often the assistant coaches will put new plays in there. The head coach is also very encouraging and just seems to be a really great guy.
Back in the beginning of June, this other mom and I had been talking about football, and she told me about this really outstanding coach that her youngest son had a few years ago. The coach took a few years off, but she had heard a rumor that the coach might be coming back this year and coaching in the division for oldest kids. The mom was trying to decide if they were going to put their kids in this league or possibly a different one, but she said if she could guarantee that he son would get this coach, she would definitely choose this league. Well--that turned out to be the coach Nathan got! So I really feel like God answered that prayer for a good coach. Nathan is definitely learning a ton already, and he really is enjoying it. We'll see what the season holds, but I think it will be a good experience. Actually, we'll see what next week holds--the first week of contact practice, LOL. That should be an experience!
The league had their draft on July 31, while we were out of town. I was very anxious the whole next week, since we never heard anything on our cells. I figured we would have a ton of messages on our answering machine (which we who are not very technologically astute could not access), and I knew from talking with Christine (whose oldest 2 boys are also playing for the first time this year) that they were having team meetings and equipment distributions. I hate feeling behind and out of the loop, so this was worrying to me--more to me than to Nathan, LOL.
When we got home Sunday night, we did indeed have several messages on our machine from the coach's wife. I immediately called her to explain, and she was so very nice. I told Nathan that if his coach was half as nice as she was, we'd be in great shape! I was a little concerned, however, because Nathan had been drafted by an "expansion team"--so all the players were new. For the other teams, if a player had been on a team the year before and was still in the right age range, than he would just stay on that same team. Also, their team name was a college football team name, as opposed to a pro team, like all the other teams in the entire league (3 age divisions)! So that was a bit odd. I told Nathan they very likely could never win a game, but hopefully he'd have a fun team and really learn a lot and have a good experience.
Nathan was able to pick up his equipment the next day before the first practice, so we really didn't miss anything. Another answer to prayer, at least for the McC's, was that although Nathan and Isaac weren't on the same team, they were practicing at the same middle school (the only 2 teams!), so Bob has been able to take and bring home Isaac, so Craig only has to worry about getting Caleb to and from practices. We were glad to be able to help!
Nathan and Bob both came home from the first practice raving about how amazingly well-organized this coach was. Nathan received 2 practice t-shirts, one dark and one light, as well as a huge (2 1/2 gallon) water jug with a big handle on it. They actually use this in practice as a sort of kettle bell, swinging it around and in front and so on. Of course, the more they drink, the lighter it is, so that is a good incentive to keep hydrated in all the heat! The coach also handed out playbooks for them to study, and often the assistant coaches will put new plays in there. The head coach is also very encouraging and just seems to be a really great guy.
Back in the beginning of June, this other mom and I had been talking about football, and she told me about this really outstanding coach that her youngest son had a few years ago. The coach took a few years off, but she had heard a rumor that the coach might be coming back this year and coaching in the division for oldest kids. The mom was trying to decide if they were going to put their kids in this league or possibly a different one, but she said if she could guarantee that he son would get this coach, she would definitely choose this league. Well--that turned out to be the coach Nathan got! So I really feel like God answered that prayer for a good coach. Nathan is definitely learning a ton already, and he really is enjoying it. We'll see what the season holds, but I think it will be a good experience. Actually, we'll see what next week holds--the first week of contact practice, LOL. That should be an experience!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Potentially Exciting News on the Allergy Front
Caleb had an allergy appointment on July 27 where he had a skin test, as well as a blood RAST test. Although he was still very sensitive to the tree nuts (esp. walnuts) and peanuts, he hardly reacted at all to the milk. So we were waiting for the results of his bloodwork. The doctor called, and his levels have dropped from Jan. 08, when he was last tested! His milk RAST score was 1.27 back then, and only 0.54 in July! Since it has dropped and is fairly low (lower than <.35 would be best, though) and since he hardly reacted to the skin test, we are going to do a milk challenge! That's where we bring in a serving of milk to the clinic, he drinks a tiny amount, he is observed, he drinks some more 15 minutes later, he is observed, he drinks some more . . . you get the picture. After he drinks 5 doses of milk (providing he hasn't reacted to any of them), then he is watched for another 2 hours just to make sure he doesn't react later. If not . . . then he passes, and he is considered to have outgrown his allergy!
Now I know he still has a really good chance of reacting--about 50/50 with that RAST score, the doctor said. Frankly, I can't really wrap my mind around the possibility of Caleb not being allergic to milk. That has driven my cooking for 8 years now! With him gone this week, we are having a real "Dairy Fest", making all the recipes I used to make but haven't made in years. I can't imagine being able to cook whatever I want and not having to worry about adapting recipes for him, or taking stuff out, or whatever. If he has outgrown the allergy, he probably still won't like cheese and milk, LOL. Oh well. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, if we need to.
The more immediate bridge to cross is: how on earth are we going to get to Walter Reed at 8:00 in the morning on Aug. 25?!?! That just seems like an absolute impossibility! Caleb and I will have to leave by 6:00, I think.
So the possibility is there for exciting news. Actually, it is exciting to realize that Caleb's milk allergy has decreased enough that we are even trying this! I'm not sure how his other numbers compare to his previous test, but I don't think they are getting much lower. For the record, this time his walnut number was 10.3, his pecan number was 8.79, and his peanut number was 6.37. That pretty much matches the size of the wheals for his skin test too, as far as comparing the 3 allergies. I'll let you know what happens! Pray for no accidents or bad weather on the morning of Aug. 25!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
How I'm feeling
I've had several people ask how I am feeling, and the answer is . . . just fine! I really don't have many first trimester maladies. I've been somewhat nauseous in other pregnancies (Grace's is the one I think of first), but I haven't even had that this time. Every so often my stomach might turn at a smell or something, but that's about it. It makes me VERY glad that I am not mummifying any chickens this year, however. Talk about your bad, stomach-turning smells . . .
What made me suspect pregnancy was having to get up and pee in the middle of the night, and that is continuing. Last night I had some weird dreams, and TWICE I woke up having to pee and I didn't know where I was! I would say the disorientation is more a function of traveling too much this summer, though, LOL. Any other symptoms, like breast tenderness, were easily explained away by me (I had just nursed Faith for the last time July 27, so I assumed that was the reason I was a little sore, even though she was only nursing once a day in the mornings).
I would say the most annoying thing for me is the feeling that my brain is just not quite there. In fact, I did a TERRIBLE job packing for our last trip to Ohio. We travel a lot, and packing is pretty second nature to me. I can't think of the last time I have forgotten some normal item! But this time, for example, I forgot to get a church dress for Faith, even though I got ones for Anna and Grace, and I forgot Jonathan's flip flops, even though I got everyone elses. Not big deals, but just annoying and highly uncharacteristic! I was thankful that Amy's son Jacob is the same size as Jonathan and could lend him flip flops, since Jonathan is staying out there for 2 more weeks and is planning on doing more swimming! It's so nice to have friends to cover for you when you are being ditzy!
I've been a little more tired too. Each evening I have planned on getting stuff done after the girls go down . . and it hasn't happened yet, LOL. I poop out and go to bed. Oh well. Who needs a clean, organized house before starting back to school? Wait--that would actually be very nice. Ah well, it hasn't happened any other year. Why should this one be the first?!
What made me suspect pregnancy was having to get up and pee in the middle of the night, and that is continuing. Last night I had some weird dreams, and TWICE I woke up having to pee and I didn't know where I was! I would say the disorientation is more a function of traveling too much this summer, though, LOL. Any other symptoms, like breast tenderness, were easily explained away by me (I had just nursed Faith for the last time July 27, so I assumed that was the reason I was a little sore, even though she was only nursing once a day in the mornings).
I would say the most annoying thing for me is the feeling that my brain is just not quite there. In fact, I did a TERRIBLE job packing for our last trip to Ohio. We travel a lot, and packing is pretty second nature to me. I can't think of the last time I have forgotten some normal item! But this time, for example, I forgot to get a church dress for Faith, even though I got ones for Anna and Grace, and I forgot Jonathan's flip flops, even though I got everyone elses. Not big deals, but just annoying and highly uncharacteristic! I was thankful that Amy's son Jacob is the same size as Jonathan and could lend him flip flops, since Jonathan is staying out there for 2 more weeks and is planning on doing more swimming! It's so nice to have friends to cover for you when you are being ditzy!
I've been a little more tired too. Each evening I have planned on getting stuff done after the girls go down . . and it hasn't happened yet, LOL. I poop out and go to bed. Oh well. Who needs a clean, organized house before starting back to school? Wait--that would actually be very nice. Ah well, it hasn't happened any other year. Why should this one be the first?!
Monday, August 09, 2010
Highways and Byways
We're back home in VA! We spent one last night at Amy's house and left from there, bright and early Sunday morning. It was so wonderful to spend so much time with Amy this trip! We never ran out of things to talk about either . . . I actually was blessed by being able to spend time with several good friends this trip, like Beverly and Anja, as well as the international wives, and of course, my Aunt Claire! I'm so glad it worked out that she came while we were out in Ohio!
We had to be at White Sulphur Springs between 3:30 and 4:00 to drop Luke off for his week at Camp Caleb. We didn't even take the Turnpike, choosing instead Rt. 31, which was a beautiful drive. We still made it to WSS by 2:30, so we hung out at the playground for awhile. We did find out that no one there found Nathan's swimsuit and towel, which he left draped over a rafter of his cabin. Grrr. But I digress. Luke was nervous, mainly because he realized while still at Grandma and Grandpa's house that he had left his Bible here in VA. I told him that was easily remedied, but he said that if he left that, what else might he have left? I totally and completely understand that thought, since that is exactly how I think! He was glad to be dropped off and to have the whole thing actually start.
As we started down towards home, Bob already knew there was bad construction on I-70, and he knew right where to pop off the highway and take another road to avoid it! And then as we got into MD on I-70, it always clogs up, which is the most depressing thing ever! We're always tired by that time, and seeing lines of brakes lights out in the middle of nowhere just brings to the fore all we don't like about Northern VA and makes us want to turn back around and head west! So the last several trips we have experimented with getting off I-70 at various points before Hagerstown and taking small back roads. For us, there's really no downside. I'm sure it is farther, distance-wise, but it is visually so much more appealing to drive on back roads through cute towns and farmland. Plus, if we keep moving, Faith stays asleep, LOL. Bob and I have always enjoyed looking at old houses, as well as old buildings in towns. There are a bunch of neat towns in western MD, like Boonsboro and Middletown! I don't think the kids appreciate the unique buildings as much as we do, but then again, they're not driving either, LOL.
I never thought I'd be the kind of person who would prefer to get off the highway and drive on small roads because I've always been a "get there as soon as possible" kind of person. I guess I've mellowed in my advanced maternal age, LOL.
So now we're back home, and it's very quiet! We actually left Caleb and Jonathan back at my parents' house for 2 weeks of "Grandma/Grandpa Camp". They were tremendously excited by the prospect of having Grandma and Grandpa to themselves for awhile, as well as Aunt Claire, who is there for a few more days! Many fun things have been planned . . . And of course we dropped Luke off at Camp Caleb, so until Friday, it's just Nathan and the 3 girls here with us! Wow! Nathan said he felt like an only child, LOL. He is the only boy, and the only "older kid", so he's got a point! He started football practice tonight, though, so he will have plenty to take his mind off his loneliness! I have a long to-do list I am hoping to accomplish with no school and not as many kids around. We'll see how successful I am. Faith is teething her eye teeth, so she has been a real bear the past week. I need a camp to send crabby teething 18 month olds to, LOL.
We had to be at White Sulphur Springs between 3:30 and 4:00 to drop Luke off for his week at Camp Caleb. We didn't even take the Turnpike, choosing instead Rt. 31, which was a beautiful drive. We still made it to WSS by 2:30, so we hung out at the playground for awhile. We did find out that no one there found Nathan's swimsuit and towel, which he left draped over a rafter of his cabin. Grrr. But I digress. Luke was nervous, mainly because he realized while still at Grandma and Grandpa's house that he had left his Bible here in VA. I told him that was easily remedied, but he said that if he left that, what else might he have left? I totally and completely understand that thought, since that is exactly how I think! He was glad to be dropped off and to have the whole thing actually start.
As we started down towards home, Bob already knew there was bad construction on I-70, and he knew right where to pop off the highway and take another road to avoid it! And then as we got into MD on I-70, it always clogs up, which is the most depressing thing ever! We're always tired by that time, and seeing lines of brakes lights out in the middle of nowhere just brings to the fore all we don't like about Northern VA and makes us want to turn back around and head west! So the last several trips we have experimented with getting off I-70 at various points before Hagerstown and taking small back roads. For us, there's really no downside. I'm sure it is farther, distance-wise, but it is visually so much more appealing to drive on back roads through cute towns and farmland. Plus, if we keep moving, Faith stays asleep, LOL. Bob and I have always enjoyed looking at old houses, as well as old buildings in towns. There are a bunch of neat towns in western MD, like Boonsboro and Middletown! I don't think the kids appreciate the unique buildings as much as we do, but then again, they're not driving either, LOL.
I never thought I'd be the kind of person who would prefer to get off the highway and drive on small roads because I've always been a "get there as soon as possible" kind of person. I guess I've mellowed in my advanced maternal age, LOL.
So now we're back home, and it's very quiet! We actually left Caleb and Jonathan back at my parents' house for 2 weeks of "Grandma/Grandpa Camp". They were tremendously excited by the prospect of having Grandma and Grandpa to themselves for awhile, as well as Aunt Claire, who is there for a few more days! Many fun things have been planned . . . And of course we dropped Luke off at Camp Caleb, so until Friday, it's just Nathan and the 3 girls here with us! Wow! Nathan said he felt like an only child, LOL. He is the only boy, and the only "older kid", so he's got a point! He started football practice tonight, though, so he will have plenty to take his mind off his loneliness! I have a long to-do list I am hoping to accomplish with no school and not as many kids around. We'll see how successful I am. Faith is teething her eye teeth, so she has been a real bear the past week. I need a camp to send crabby teething 18 month olds to, LOL.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Great Get-Away
I am feeling so refreshed right now! Amy came by yesterday and picked me up, and we drove down to Cincinnati for a moms' get-away! First we stopped by Hobby Lobby, a wonderful store that is not close to us here or back in VA. I got a few stickers, plus some new toys to replenish my stash of gifts for kids who have birthday parties.
After wandering around in there for awhile (and how nice was it to not feel hurried, like you had to get back and take care of someone?!), we decided it was time to look for something to eat. We looked at choices on Amy's GPS, but nothing really inspired us. We were by a mall, but we were expecting more "nice" restaurants, along the lines of a Cheesecake Factory or something. There really wasn't too much--in fact, there were a LOT of empty shops and buildings. You could definitely tell the economy was down.
So we drove around a little but still didn't find anything, so we decided to drive to the hotel and check in. At the counter, we asked the girl checking us in (who was a very nice, but very ditsy girl), if the hotel had a list of local restaurants we could have.
"Local, as in just in Fairfield?" the girl asked. Umm, no, just restaurants around here! We don't care if they are chains or not! So she proceeded to haul this huge binder out onto the counter and start flipping through it. It had pages of mapquest directions to various attractions, like Kings Island, but evidently there was no list of restaurants. I ask about Mexican restaurants, since Amy and I had agreed that might be nice, and she brightened immediately. "Oh yes, Acapulcos is right around the corner, and they have margaritas the size of fish bowls!" Amy commented later that anything would probably taste fine after that much margarita, LOL. So the girl said she would print out mapquest directions for us. After much confusion, struggle, and help from the other check-in lady, the girl presented us proudly with a paper of directions. Amy and I took it and walked to the elevator. There we noticed that the address said "Lawrenceburg, IN". ??? And the total mileage was 34 miles away! LOL! Good thing we didn't just blindly start out following the directions!
We went out to the car and put it in Amy's GPS. The restaurant was literally across the street at the next light! We had a delicious meal--chimichangas for me, and enchiladas for Amy. By this time we were starved!
We went back to the hotel and scrapbooked for awhile. We had decided to go swimming later on, after we lost the natural light. Amy got up to stretch and happened to look out the window. A huge tour bus was pulling up, loaded to the gills with teenagers and luggage! We made the wise decision to swim immediately, before the hordes descended on the pool, LOL. We had a lovely time, finishing up with a few minutes in the hot tub. As soon as we sat down in there, the door flung open, and tons of teenagers came swarming in! The atmosphere was no longer so peaceful and quiet, LOL. As an aside, we were amazed at how many girls had skimpy bikinis on. Really?! On an overnight trip in a hotel with lots of boys?! Where are the fathers for these girls?! Good grief!
Then we scrapbooked, talked, and snacked for awhile more. We never run out of stuff to talk about! One point of conversation was the positive pregnancy test I had taken that morning! Yes, #8 is on the way, probably due around the beginning of April! Another reason for no huge margaritas or long hot tub soaks! We wrapped it up and went to bed around 12:00 and then talked until 1:00. We both slept well--I was surprised at how comfortable the mattress and pillows were! It was a Holiday Inn Express, but they were really nice!
We got up, ate breakfast, scrapped a little more, then headed home. Mom had her group of international wives over this afternoon, and I didn't want to miss visiting with those lovely ladies! So it was such a fun time away, and of course it went way too fast! I am so thankful for a husband who thinks it is important for me to get away without kids to recharge!
After wandering around in there for awhile (and how nice was it to not feel hurried, like you had to get back and take care of someone?!), we decided it was time to look for something to eat. We looked at choices on Amy's GPS, but nothing really inspired us. We were by a mall, but we were expecting more "nice" restaurants, along the lines of a Cheesecake Factory or something. There really wasn't too much--in fact, there were a LOT of empty shops and buildings. You could definitely tell the economy was down.
So we drove around a little but still didn't find anything, so we decided to drive to the hotel and check in. At the counter, we asked the girl checking us in (who was a very nice, but very ditsy girl), if the hotel had a list of local restaurants we could have.
"Local, as in just in Fairfield?" the girl asked. Umm, no, just restaurants around here! We don't care if they are chains or not! So she proceeded to haul this huge binder out onto the counter and start flipping through it. It had pages of mapquest directions to various attractions, like Kings Island, but evidently there was no list of restaurants. I ask about Mexican restaurants, since Amy and I had agreed that might be nice, and she brightened immediately. "Oh yes, Acapulcos is right around the corner, and they have margaritas the size of fish bowls!" Amy commented later that anything would probably taste fine after that much margarita, LOL. So the girl said she would print out mapquest directions for us. After much confusion, struggle, and help from the other check-in lady, the girl presented us proudly with a paper of directions. Amy and I took it and walked to the elevator. There we noticed that the address said "Lawrenceburg, IN". ??? And the total mileage was 34 miles away! LOL! Good thing we didn't just blindly start out following the directions!
We went out to the car and put it in Amy's GPS. The restaurant was literally across the street at the next light! We had a delicious meal--chimichangas for me, and enchiladas for Amy. By this time we were starved!
We went back to the hotel and scrapbooked for awhile. We had decided to go swimming later on, after we lost the natural light. Amy got up to stretch and happened to look out the window. A huge tour bus was pulling up, loaded to the gills with teenagers and luggage! We made the wise decision to swim immediately, before the hordes descended on the pool, LOL. We had a lovely time, finishing up with a few minutes in the hot tub. As soon as we sat down in there, the door flung open, and tons of teenagers came swarming in! The atmosphere was no longer so peaceful and quiet, LOL. As an aside, we were amazed at how many girls had skimpy bikinis on. Really?! On an overnight trip in a hotel with lots of boys?! Where are the fathers for these girls?! Good grief!
Then we scrapbooked, talked, and snacked for awhile more. We never run out of stuff to talk about! One point of conversation was the positive pregnancy test I had taken that morning! Yes, #8 is on the way, probably due around the beginning of April! Another reason for no huge margaritas or long hot tub soaks! We wrapped it up and went to bed around 12:00 and then talked until 1:00. We both slept well--I was surprised at how comfortable the mattress and pillows were! It was a Holiday Inn Express, but they were really nice!
We got up, ate breakfast, scrapped a little more, then headed home. Mom had her group of international wives over this afternoon, and I didn't want to miss visiting with those lovely ladies! So it was such a fun time away, and of course it went way too fast! I am so thankful for a husband who thinks it is important for me to get away without kids to recharge!
Sunday, August 01, 2010
One Last Vacation
We're here in Ohio again for one last week of vacation before getting back into the daily grind of school again! We got up early and left to pick Nathan up at Camp Caleb Friday morning. We were OUT THE DOOR by 8:15--a TOTAL record for our family, LOL. This is especially impressive since we had to be packed for a week in Ohio as well. I don't know if this feat will ever be replicated however--it was not easy!
Nathan had a wonderful time, as usual, at Camp Caleb. I think what I am most impressed about is always the quality of the counselors. Nathan could not decide on his favorite activity, but he finally said it might have been the whole day of Tuesday, when he went on 2 hikes, did some rapelling, and camped out. Unfortunately, he left his swimsuit and towel drying over the rafter in his cabin, so we are hoping we can get that back when we drop Luke off on Sunday. In the meantime, I guess he'll be swimming in his shorts.
We had a picnic lunch up at the pond at White Sulphur Springs before heading west. We had a horrific drive filled with construction once we got into West Virginia, so we didn't get here until after 7:00. It was a long day, but we were listening to Redwall on CD. That is a very long book (9 CDs!) and a very exciting, fast-moving one, so we were all entertained. Well, not Faith so much. But she survived!
The past 2 days we have just hung out and relaxed! The weather was so amazingly pleasant yesterday--mid-70s and not humid--so we went for a walk to the park after dinner. The kids had a ball, and it was so nice not to be dripping with sweat!
We were supposed to pick my dad up at the airport at 11:30 last night. He was getting back from 2 weeks in China where he taught English to some 5th grade kids. Unfortunately his flight from O'Hare was delayed and then eventually cancelled, so he didn't actually get in until this morning. My mom went to get him, so we decided we would try Amy and Jason's church. They weren't there this morning, but we had a great time! Everyone was very friendly, even though they had to bring out another row of chairs for us all to be able to sit together, LOL.
I am REALLY looking forward to this next week! Tomorrow we're going to Amy's house after lunch to play and spend the night! Tuesday morning my Aunt Claire is flying in from Utah for a visit! Wednesday morning, a friend is coming over with her 2 little girls for a play date and to talk! Wednesday evening Amy and I are getting away for a night to scrapbook at a hotel! Thursday afternoon the Mom's group of international wives is coming over, and Friday Mom, Aunt Claire, and I are hoping to have lunch with Amy and her mom! Wow--what a week! I am not going to be ready to come back to the real world, LOL.
Nathan had a wonderful time, as usual, at Camp Caleb. I think what I am most impressed about is always the quality of the counselors. Nathan could not decide on his favorite activity, but he finally said it might have been the whole day of Tuesday, when he went on 2 hikes, did some rapelling, and camped out. Unfortunately, he left his swimsuit and towel drying over the rafter in his cabin, so we are hoping we can get that back when we drop Luke off on Sunday. In the meantime, I guess he'll be swimming in his shorts.
We had a picnic lunch up at the pond at White Sulphur Springs before heading west. We had a horrific drive filled with construction once we got into West Virginia, so we didn't get here until after 7:00. It was a long day, but we were listening to Redwall on CD. That is a very long book (9 CDs!) and a very exciting, fast-moving one, so we were all entertained. Well, not Faith so much. But she survived!
The past 2 days we have just hung out and relaxed! The weather was so amazingly pleasant yesterday--mid-70s and not humid--so we went for a walk to the park after dinner. The kids had a ball, and it was so nice not to be dripping with sweat!
We were supposed to pick my dad up at the airport at 11:30 last night. He was getting back from 2 weeks in China where he taught English to some 5th grade kids. Unfortunately his flight from O'Hare was delayed and then eventually cancelled, so he didn't actually get in until this morning. My mom went to get him, so we decided we would try Amy and Jason's church. They weren't there this morning, but we had a great time! Everyone was very friendly, even though they had to bring out another row of chairs for us all to be able to sit together, LOL.
I am REALLY looking forward to this next week! Tomorrow we're going to Amy's house after lunch to play and spend the night! Tuesday morning my Aunt Claire is flying in from Utah for a visit! Wednesday morning, a friend is coming over with her 2 little girls for a play date and to talk! Wednesday evening Amy and I are getting away for a night to scrapbook at a hotel! Thursday afternoon the Mom's group of international wives is coming over, and Friday Mom, Aunt Claire, and I are hoping to have lunch with Amy and her mom! Wow--what a week! I am not going to be ready to come back to the real world, LOL.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Allergy Appointment
Caleb had an allergy appointment this afternoon. Just to refresh everyone's memory, Caleb hit the allergy jackpot in our family. He started having terrible eczema when he was just 4 months old, he had his first allergic reaction to food when he was about 6 months old, when his face broke out in hives after chewing on my fork after I had eaten some coffee cake at my parents' house (coffee cake had both milk and walnuts). When he was 8 months old, he tested positive for allergies to milk, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, and eggs--everything they tested him for except soy! Fortunately he never reacted to wheat, so we started giving him that again at 18 months, and he outgrew his egg allergy by 3 (whew!). But everything else has stayed. The only tree nuts he is allergic to are pecans and walnuts. He can have pistachios, almonds, and cashews. He's never had hazelnuts or been tested for them. His last skin testing was done . . . several years ago. I actually just spent much fruitless time going back through old blog posts trying to figure out when it was, but I never could find anything about it. Hmmmm. Anyhow, he was still very allergic to all his food triggers, as well as about every tree but cedar, and also grasses, dust mites, and cats.
Caleb's eczema has thankfully pretty much gone away, but he does still have seasonal allergies. As I posted here, his asthma is doing much better as well. I feel like we are really regulating it well, but also that his body is sort of maturing out of it. So all in all, Caleb's allergies and issues are not taking up so much of our time and energy anymore!
But I have been wondering about his food allergies, and where exactly he stood on those. I had asked for an allergy referral last June, but the doctor (who we had never seen before and haven't seen since!) said Caleb didn't need to see one, so he wasn't going to give the referral. Grrr. I was going to make an appointment with a different doctor, but then we thought we were moving, and I ended up doing nothing. But thepulmonary lady gave us a referral, although I had to schedule the appointment at Walter Reed, which is quite a hike in for us.
Caleb has had 2 incidents lately. One was actually a non-incident. After Bible study one Friday several weeks (months?) ago, Caleb wanted to eat some caramel popcorn balls someone else had brought. My caramel popcorn recipe doesn't use milk, so I told him to go ahead, and I'd make sure it was okay. I never did ask (whoops!), but the lady later told me how easy it was to make these delicious caramel balls. You melt caramels--which I know have milk in them! But Caleb NEVER had any sort of reaction! Wow!
The other thing happened last weekend when we were in PA for the family reunion. Sunday afternoon when we were over at Bob's parents' house, Bob's mom offered me a "pecan cookie" They were in a tub from a grocery store, and they looked a lot like little star sugar cookies with icing. I ate one, and then she took them outside, where the menfolk were all playing cards. I hollered out the door, "Caleb can't have those!" but as it turns out no one heard me. A little while later Caleb appears inside, pale and looking sick. He had eaten a cookie (does no one but me READ the labels?!?!), and his tongue was all tingly. I quickly gave him a benedryl, but he had eaten a whole (bite-size) cookie, so I wasn't sure that would be enough. Obviously we have epi-pens, so I was ready, but thankfully he was just really nauseous. He never did throw up, however. I did have to give him one more benedryl though. So really it was a much more mild reaction to pecans then he has had in the past.
I related all this to the allergist, and we also discussed his seasonal allergies. Although he is suffering a lot less, he takes Zyrtec year-round. The doctor was encouraging us to try allergy shots for his allergies. That sounded worth pursuing at some point, but Caleb is in no way, shape, or form ready for 22 weeks of weekly shots, and then monthly shots for 3-5 years. And I am not ready to drive to Bethesda for them!
The doctor just did a small panel of skin tests on his arm--milk, pecan, walnut, and peanut. Caleb was not stoic, to make an understatement. He quivered and moaned and had big tears rolling down his cheeks--before the tech even touched his arm! Then while we were waiting the 15 minutes to interpret the results, he really carried on in the hallway, with more moaning, groaning, and tears. Good grief. I really don't have a lot of sympathy for him, esp. in a hospital where there are many, many wounded veterans facing much more serious pain and problems. So I told him to suck it up, and eventually he did calm down a bit--after drawing tons of attention from other random patients waiting!
So the results were: walnut had a huge wheal--several cms. Peanut was the next largest, but I think it was smaller than it was last time. Pecan had a medium-sized wheal--which made me glad it was a pecan cookie he ingested, as opposed to a walnut one! But the big surprise was that milk was a very, very small wheal! The doctor sent us off for a blood test (you can imagine how thrilled Caleb was at that, but he managed to get through that as well), so we should have those results in 2-3 weeks. If his blood levels are lower than they were in Jan. 08, which is when he last had those tested, then the doctor was going to recommend bringing him in for a milk challenge. I am just not sure he has outgrown this allergy, so I'm not getting my hopes up. But he is obviously a whole lot less senstivie, and that is wonderful news!
Caleb's eczema has thankfully pretty much gone away, but he does still have seasonal allergies. As I posted here, his asthma is doing much better as well. I feel like we are really regulating it well, but also that his body is sort of maturing out of it. So all in all, Caleb's allergies and issues are not taking up so much of our time and energy anymore!
But I have been wondering about his food allergies, and where exactly he stood on those. I had asked for an allergy referral last June, but the doctor (who we had never seen before and haven't seen since!) said Caleb didn't need to see one, so he wasn't going to give the referral. Grrr. I was going to make an appointment with a different doctor, but then we thought we were moving, and I ended up doing nothing. But thepulmonary lady gave us a referral, although I had to schedule the appointment at Walter Reed, which is quite a hike in for us.
Caleb has had 2 incidents lately. One was actually a non-incident. After Bible study one Friday several weeks (months?) ago, Caleb wanted to eat some caramel popcorn balls someone else had brought. My caramel popcorn recipe doesn't use milk, so I told him to go ahead, and I'd make sure it was okay. I never did ask (whoops!), but the lady later told me how easy it was to make these delicious caramel balls. You melt caramels--which I know have milk in them! But Caleb NEVER had any sort of reaction! Wow!
The other thing happened last weekend when we were in PA for the family reunion. Sunday afternoon when we were over at Bob's parents' house, Bob's mom offered me a "pecan cookie" They were in a tub from a grocery store, and they looked a lot like little star sugar cookies with icing. I ate one, and then she took them outside, where the menfolk were all playing cards. I hollered out the door, "Caleb can't have those!" but as it turns out no one heard me. A little while later Caleb appears inside, pale and looking sick. He had eaten a cookie (does no one but me READ the labels?!?!), and his tongue was all tingly. I quickly gave him a benedryl, but he had eaten a whole (bite-size) cookie, so I wasn't sure that would be enough. Obviously we have epi-pens, so I was ready, but thankfully he was just really nauseous. He never did throw up, however. I did have to give him one more benedryl though. So really it was a much more mild reaction to pecans then he has had in the past.
I related all this to the allergist, and we also discussed his seasonal allergies. Although he is suffering a lot less, he takes Zyrtec year-round. The doctor was encouraging us to try allergy shots for his allergies. That sounded worth pursuing at some point, but Caleb is in no way, shape, or form ready for 22 weeks of weekly shots, and then monthly shots for 3-5 years. And I am not ready to drive to Bethesda for them!
The doctor just did a small panel of skin tests on his arm--milk, pecan, walnut, and peanut. Caleb was not stoic, to make an understatement. He quivered and moaned and had big tears rolling down his cheeks--before the tech even touched his arm! Then while we were waiting the 15 minutes to interpret the results, he really carried on in the hallway, with more moaning, groaning, and tears. Good grief. I really don't have a lot of sympathy for him, esp. in a hospital where there are many, many wounded veterans facing much more serious pain and problems. So I told him to suck it up, and eventually he did calm down a bit--after drawing tons of attention from other random patients waiting!
So the results were: walnut had a huge wheal--several cms. Peanut was the next largest, but I think it was smaller than it was last time. Pecan had a medium-sized wheal--which made me glad it was a pecan cookie he ingested, as opposed to a walnut one! But the big surprise was that milk was a very, very small wheal! The doctor sent us off for a blood test (you can imagine how thrilled Caleb was at that, but he managed to get through that as well), so we should have those results in 2-3 weeks. If his blood levels are lower than they were in Jan. 08, which is when he last had those tested, then the doctor was going to recommend bringing him in for a milk challenge. I am just not sure he has outgrown this allergy, so I'm not getting my hopes up. But he is obviously a whole lot less senstivie, and that is wonderful news!
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