Anaphylaxis

Anaphylazis is a severe, multi-system allergic reaction that can happen right away, or up to 2 hours after a person is exposed to an allergen. This is a word that I have heard so many times, and yet never fully understood. I know it is life threatening. Many of my friends and relatives have had to deal with it. And I have always been so grateful that my own allergies and those of my daughters have never been that bad... then life changes.

Rebekah is allergic to eggs. I found out after she turned one and I fed her some scrambled eggs. About an hour of two later she puked all over our car. We had her tested to confirm the allergy and have avoided eggs ever since. I just had her retested on Tuesday to see if her allergy is the same or had gotten better. It was the same, a 4+ on a scale of 1-4.

Last night, while at a party Rebekah got a hold of something that had eggs in it. As a result, she projectile vomited all over Clay. Well, now that it was out of her system we thought she would be fine. On a whim, I gave her some Benadryl before I put her in bed, just to be safe (I am so grateful for inspiration!!!). Around 1:00 in the morning I went in to check on her before I went to bed. She had thrown up again. Sadly, I woke her up so I could get her cleaned up and change her bedding. As I took off her PJ's I noticed red marks all over her body.


This was right when I woke her up. You can see some spots on her torso, neck, face, and especially on her left thigh. After her bath, they seemed to get worse. So much so that her entire scalp, ears and neck were solid red, and itchy. So at 1:30 in the morning Clay took her to the ER. They immediately gave her epinephrine. Then she got an IV and some prednisolone and was watched closely by the doctor. Clay and Rebekah finally returned home just before 7:00 am. The doctor said that the Benedryl I had given her probably kept her from going into Anaphylactic shock.

Rebekah is doing fine now. You wouldn't even know she had been sick to look at her. She was happy and playful all evening. But life has changed a little for us. I now join the ranks of so many of my friends who carry an EpiPen where ever we go, and pray that we never have to use it.

Into the woods...

Tonight while reading stories to the girls, we heard an owl. I opened up the back door so we could hear it better. This is what we heard:

http://home.centurytel.net/bobowlcalls/recordings2/GHO%202006-09-10%2003_51_18%2013_08%202%20m%2011025.wav

It was a Great Horned Owl. It is so cool to just be sitting at home and hear things like the owls.

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

Today Rebekah turns 2 years old. Happy Birthday cutie pie!!

My life in the funny pages

Nap time

After reading my friend's blog, I feel inspired to post my own nap-time photos. Rebekah has stopped taking her naps. Mostly due to the fact that she can climb out of her crib and it is more fun to destroy her room than actually sleep. On occasion, if I leave her up there long enough, she will finally fall asleep....

Tap class

This is a video from Emma's last tap class. I have spent the last several weeks sitting in the hall keeping Rebekah entertained to the sound of tap-tap-tapping. Finally, during the last class, the parents are invited to see what they have learned. Emma is the one in purple.

Cupcake Wars

The Washington Post has been running a series rating cupcakes in the Metro area. Melinda invited us to go out on the town and taste the top five, and then dinner at a fun little restaurant. I was getting a bit of a sugar rush by the time we got to dinner, but they were good cupcakes. Here we with our favorite cupcake. Betsy, Melinda, Nancy, and Heidi.

Happy Halloween!

If elementary kids voted for President...

Tonight at dinner I happened to mention something about Emma not having school on Tuesday because of the Elections. She asked me what elections are. I told her that's when we go vote. Well, she still didn't understand. So I explained that this year we are going to vote for a new President of the United States. Emma then asked me who it was. I tried to explain that it hasn't been decided because we haven't voted yet. Well, typical of most 6-year-olds, she asked several more times who it was. Finally, I told her that John McCain and Barack Obama were running. Emma immediately shouted out "That's who I voted for!!!" What? She said they voted at school and she voted for "Barakugan."

It all makes sense now. Maybe that's why he's ahead in the polls.

It's beginning to look a lot like ...

Fall! One of my favorite times of year. And out here it is even better. The colors are just starting to change, the evenings are cool and crisp. We ate dinner out on the deck so we could enjoy it all.

Saturday is a special day...

We spent most of the day working in the yard. I was digging out the "mulch volcanoes" around our trees. I got a nice spider bite from it too. Perhaps I killed it's mother earlier this week...

Clay spent most of the morning digging out a rock that was causing a dead spot on our lawn. We soon realized we needed to enlist some additional muscle. Our wonderful neighbor, Dwayne, come to the rescue (though he refused to be in the photo). He and Clay finally got this +150 pound rock out of the ground and rolled it off into the woods.

The einsy weensy spider...

Okay, there is nothing einsy weensy about this spider!! I guess it comes from living right next to the woods. I walked out our door this afternoon to meet Emma after school. I walked right through a web. Yuck! I turned around to see if I could find the culprit and this is what I found!

Not only is that the second largest spider I have ever seen (tarantulas not included), but she was guarding a sack of eggs. Well no longer! I promptly got out the bug spray.



..It gets better...



I decided to do a thorough job of spraying the entire porch. As I did, six or seven more spiders came crawling down the walls towards me!! I screamed and ran!

New Church Building

When we moved out here, over 6 years ago, there has been talk about a new church building for us. The land had been purchased, but city building permits have delayed it. The new church location played a key factor in our choice of where to buy our house earlier this year. Our new home is 0.6 miles from the location for the new building.

I was so excited today when I drove by and saw the framework going up! I can't wait for it to be finished. We have been promised it will be completed late spring, and the church has given them extra incentives to complete it early.

If a tree falls in the woods...

We had a very tall dead tree on the edge of the woods, just beyond our property line. We called the park service and ask them to take it down b/c we didn't want it landing on our house during a winter storm. They told us it would be taken care of while we were on vacation. Today, they finally came to cut it down.

Here you can see the indent it made on our lawn when it fell and all the logs they cut and rolled into the woods.

Rebekah and I were sitting on the couch watching them work. I realized it was about to come down, so I ran to get the camera so I could shoot a video of it. I couldn't find the camera. When I finally did, I heard the creaking of the tree and the thud before I could get back to our viewing spot.

Rebekah saw the whole thing. She was terrified. As soon as I sat down she buried her head in my lap. For the rest of the day (week actually), to everyone we met, she signed "tree", "ouch", "helicopter" (for the sound of the chain saw). Check out the look on her face as she signs "ouch"!

Conference Weekend

I love General Conference weekend! We get the opportunity twice a year to hear from our prophet and other church leaders. They speak to us today on the things that we should be working on. There are two 2-hour sessions on Saturday and on Sunday. Now that we have cable, we can watch it at home on TV.

Another great thing about being on the East Coast is that General Conference doesn't start until noon. We spent the morning organizing our basement and food storage organized.

While we worked on that, the girls were marching to the beat of their own kazoo!

We got the girls to sit and listen to conference by feeding them POPCORN!! We also had some other activities for them to do while we listened, but I loved this picture of them sitting together on their couch just happy for the special treat!

Emma

Emma shared her talent in primary today. She played 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' on the piano. All the kids started singing along. It was very cute.

After church she wanted me to take a picture of her with all her Barbie dolls and friends.

Touring the State Capital

Since we were already down at the State Fair, we stayed the night so we could check out the town.

Our first stop was the Capitol building. And in case you are wondering ...Occasionally, capital and capitol are used interchangeably to refer to the "seat of government," but "capitol" more properly refers to the actual building in which the government meets, while "capital" is the geographic region (city) where government is seated.

Inside was this statue of George Washington that was made when he was still alive.

Here are the kids on the Robert E. Lee statue. Georgia, Rebekah, Emma, Spencer.

Here we are: Heidi, Rebekah, Melinda, Hallie, and Jeremy in the back.

Cool foot bridge to an island on the river.

Our Family.

State Fair

We skipped out on school and work to go to the State Fair. It was a raining a little bit, but not enough to ruin the fun. We met up with the Rosenlunds at the fair. Melinda is an excellent cook. I know because we get invited over frequently. She entered some of the baking competitions and won (duh- they're really good).
3rd place -brownies
2nd place -decorated cake
2nd place -coconut cake
1st place -oatmeal cookies

Her daughter, Georgia (8) also entered their decorated sugar cookies. She won 1st place and BEST IN SHOW!

Emma and Georgia love to play together! They had tons of fun going on all the rides.

So do Evan and Rebekah!

I took a picture of the beautiful silk embroidery picture. This is done on silk fabric with silk thread. It was beautiful. The photo doesn't do it justice. I only wished I had $1200 to bring it home.

The best/worst thing about a fair is fair food. You can find some neat treats, and some really gross stuff. This was truly a reminder to me that we do indeed live in the South.

Do you see anything wrong with this picture??

How does fried Mac & Cheese sound? No? Well, then try the Pork Parfait! Pulled pork, mashed potatoes and BBQ sauce all in a handy cup! Mmmm-boy!

Beautiful day for a wedding

Clay's coworker, Josh, got married today. We drove just over 3 hours to the wedding. Stayed about 4 hours and then drove over 3 hours back home. Very long day, but we were happy to celebrate with the happy couple. It was also a great excuse to dress up the girls!

Bad hair day

If you are anything like me, you dread getting your hair cut. We have lived here for over 6 years and I still have not found anyone that I like/trust to cut my hair. Trying to find a good hair dresser is so hard!!!

Once I went to a Hair Cuttery grand opening near me. The gal who did my hair was a total disaster! The ends were all zig-zag and the layers were...I can't think of the right word, but it was bad. Then she wanted to blow-dry my hair. I reminded her that I have curly hair, so she said she would just do it straight. I ended up with hair sticking out about 4 to 5 inches from my face, kind of like a triangular afro. I looked at her through the mirror and she suggested using a flat iron to make it "shiny" for an extra $10. To which I promptly agreed since I was not walking outside with my triafro. When I got home you could see the gagged ends all over.

I returned 2 days later for a redo with someone else. Jackie, the assistant manager, remembered me and begged to let her fix my hair. She did a wonderful job. She cut my hair the same way as my $60 Los Angeles stylist did. I was so happy! Jackie cut my hair again 2-3 months later. Then when I called for my 3rd haircut she was gone!!! She was just barely 20 and decided to go back to school. I was heartbroken! Finally a good stylist and she was gone.

Finally, two of my friends recommended a stylist in town. I went in June and just had her give me a trim and blend in long layers. That is my standard initial hair cut when trying someone new. She did a good job, but it was a very basic cut.

Today I decided I needed my hair cut again. My hair is too long and has gotten out of control. I have a wedding tomorrow and up-coming family portraits around Thanksgiving. So I figured, get it cut now, then if it is not quite perfect I still have a while to fix it before Thanksgiving. I decided I wanted my hair at my shoulders like I had it on my mission.

I went back to the stylist in town and brought in 5 or 6 different photos of myself in the haircut I wanted. She looked at them and then started to cut. And cut. And cut. And then cut some more. All my hair was gone. Instead of being at my shoulders it just barely frames my face. There is no length to it at all. And the best part it she styled it like old lady helmet head hair. (Why I let people dry and style my hair, I really don't know. It always turns out bad.) As soon as I got in the car I put my baseball cap back on and cried.

Well the good news it that hair does grow back. But who knows what it will look like for our family portraits.

New Phone

As some of you know, I am not too big in the cell phone world. Clay bought me one a few years back and it has served me just fine. I don't use it much. I have a few people I call on my cell phone, like my mom, my best friend, and my husband. I always had it on when Emma was in preschool -just in case. Most of the time I keep in on so that Clay can tell me if I forgot something on my list of errands.

I needed to do a late Saturday night run to the grocery store. I grabbed my things and threw them in a cart and began my shopping. I soon realized that I had a faulty cart. So I grabbed my stuff and threw it into a new cart. By the time I got around to the meat section I heard a cell phone that sounded just like mine. I looked in my cart and in my purse but couldn't find my phone. I must have left it in the car, but I thought I remembered turning it on as I walked into the store.

The phone was still ringing. I glanced around and it seemed to be coming from 3 teenage girls sharing a cart behind me. I kept looking at them like "aren't you going to answer your phone!" They obviously were too involved in their conversation to be bothered by their phones. I quickly moved on to the cereal aisle.

After checking out I went back, loaded the groceries, and went to call Clay to let him know I was on my way. No Phone!! I ALWAYS leave my phone in my car. I only use it when I am not home, so that is where I leave it. Then it begins to dawn on me. That WAS my phone ringing in the meat aisle. I had left it in the faulty cart. Those girls must have picked the faulty cart and were now no where to be found. I brought the food home and returned with Clay's cell phone so I could track mine down. But the battery was so low on my phone that it must have turned off -it went directly to voice mail. And no one has turned in my phone. I scoured every aisle and every cart (looking for that darn faulty one) but it wasn't there. Neither was the cart. The girls must have taken the cart back to their place (happens a lot at this particular grocery store).

Meanwhile, my dear sweet thoughtful husband, had gone to the virgin mobile website. You see, my phone is a pay-as-you-go phone. So if anyone finds it and starts using it, it will cost a lot of money. He went on-line to stop the automatic top-off and then ordered me a replacement phone. It only cost $12 for shipping and the replacement was free.

My new phone just arrived! and I get to keep my phone number!
Thank you Virgin Mobile!

'Bye and See You Later

Rebekah is a girly-girl. She loves to carry my purse. She loves her baby dolls, and pushing them in the stroller. She loves to play on the toy kitchen downstairs and in the church nursery. And she loves to dress up in jewelry and shoes.

Too cute! Here is a video I got of her. She is also carrying Emma's bag of rocks and a toy kitty. Oh, and she is going out towards the garage.

Kiss, Kiss, I got it, gonna' go now, 'Bye, C 'Ya later

Our first home improvement project

When we came home from vacation, we found a surprise in our pantry. Very stinky spoiled potatoes. We tried cleaning it, but just could not get rid of the smell. Finally, we took everything out of the pantry and knocked out the shelf. A friend in our ward helped cut a new piece of wood to right size. Then Clay nailed it into place and caulked around it. Then I spent most of the morning painting the entire pantry. We rewarded ourselves with a babysitter and dinner at The Dock.

Can you tell which shelf it was?? Yes, it is a VERY small pantry. I can fit about 5 or 6 cereal boxes across the top shelf before we run into the air vent.

First Day of School

Today is Emma's first day of school. She is in First grade and at a new school this year. We walked down the street and saw the ENTIRE neighborhood also walking their kids down for the first day. It was a funny scene to see this mass of people crossing the street with the crossing guards.

Emma was very nervous today, but was finally comfortable enough to let me go home. She was crying in her sleep all last night, poor thing. So worried about not waking up in time, not finding her class, forgetting how to get there...

She came home so happy today. She really enjoyed the first day.

While the Cat's away, the mouse will play...in sister's jewelry drawer!!