LOL - we'll see if a new blog title comes to me by the end of this entry!
We had a pretty good weekend here. The kids and I drove B. crazy with our indecisiveness on Saturday. The weather was nice, and he was really trying to get us moving, but we refused to be moved. Or more accurately - we refused to agree on a place we wanted to be moved to, and ended up piddling around the house. Eventually B. snapped and went off on his own to regain his sanity.
Sunday it rained most of the day, and foiled our bbq plans, but I got to go to the mall and shop all by myself for four whole hours! Bliss. I only spent $37, but I took away so much more than a bag full of new clothes, LOL!
Monday I vowed to make it a better day for the hubby, but then I got involved in doing some homeschool lesson planning (I get organized once in a while), and the kids were doing their thing, so I shooed B. out the door for a "real" bike ride. He got about 14 miles in, came home, and then we rounded up the troops for a family ride. N. rides her own bike, and A. rides on a trail-a-bike. He was pretty cute - kept standing on his pedals as he pedaled, and was feeling like BMOC. We headed to Marymoor park, played on the playground, zipped around the velodrome, and scaled the climbing wall (okay, half the wall), and then jetted back to the van. From there we made a stop at the yummiest ice cream place, Theno's Dairy, which serves Vivian's Pride Ice Cream. Did I say "yum" already?
Today N. had drama, where they are practicing for their performance of the book Farmer Duck. Afterwards, we went home to pack up a lunch and *gasp* swimsuits for parkday with our homeschool group. It's really starting to feel like summer around here! This evening N. took me for a nature walk around the backyard, pointing out all the highlights. When we stopped to check on the strawberry plants, I noticed spittlebug froth, and went to scrape it off with a stick. It wasn't just one little bug - it was 4! And there were more, all of over my precious strawberry plants!!! This meant war, especially because I had found one on one of my new blueberry bushes in the front yard just yesterday. I shall prevail!!!! bwaa ha ha ha....
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Free of Gluten-free
I suppose that an update is in order on the whole gluten-free thing. The results were inconclusive. A. seemed to be doing better after a week of being GF, but then completely relapsed with the eczema a couple days after that. We stuck with it for the remainder of two weeks, but still he had the rash. It was worth a shot. We keep going back and forth with the hydrocortizone, which at least seems to alleviate some of the itching, but is not a perfect solution. However, he may be turning a corner on the withholding/encopresis! Right now he is the most regular he's been in years, and this is on a daily dose of both miralax and senekot. Theoretically, kids with chronic withholding are supposed to remain on their functioning dose of meds until they have been regular for as long as they were irregular (in order to make sure the colon has a chance to return to a normal size). I've jumped the gun and cut his meds back before with pretty disastrous consequences, so I'm leery of making changes too soon this time. It would be great to get this all worked out while he's still young - many families are dealing with these issues with much older kids. We were very lucky to have a ped. who took us seriously back at his 2yr. check-up. Most parents are told they need to wait until their kids are 4 or 5 before they'll pursue any drug or therapy interventions. Anyway, I'm sure I'll update again at some point on how things are going.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Happy Saturday!
Long time, no blogging. Oops!
We've been getting into letterboxing a bit. Some friends of ours invited us along on a letterboxing expedition when we met up at a park to play a couple of weeks ago. I think we may be hooked, expecially N. We found 3 in just over a week, and have many more clues printed out and ready to be discovered! To learn more about letterboxing, check out http://www.letterboxing.org
Last weekend N. and I had the opportunity to participate in our first Brownie science workshop through Totem Council. A friend of a friend is a troop leader, and a few of her girls couldn't go at the last minute, so she contacted me to see if we were interested in going. I'm so glad we went. It was up in Bellingham, at Western Washington University, and one of the speakers was "Pinky" Nelson, a retired astronaut for NASA who flew on the space shuttle Discovery (there's an interview with him posted on Education World). He was great with the girls, and really captured their attention. After the workshop, N. and I took the opportunity to walk around the campus, go to the bookstore, and check out their outdoor sculptures. I have to say, being able to stay behind and spend that time with N., rather than having to rush back to meet parents back at home like the other troops, was really nice. I keep finding more and more perks to being a Juliette.
Then today, N. and I got together with three other Brownies at Build-a-bear. One of the other little girls (a younger sister of one of the others) had just bridged to Brownies, and to celebrate we were there to stuff a creature and pick out a Girl Scout uniform for it. We got there right after they opened, and had the place to ourselves as the girls picked out their new buddies, got them stuffed, dressed, and accessorized. If we'd had six girls or more, we could have had an actual party, but I think this worked out just fine. All four kids are Juliettes, and it's nice to be able to get together with others to do fun stuff like this. What's a Juliette? A Juliette is an individually registered Girl Scout who does not belong to a troop, but participates in activities just like any other girl scout. They are named after Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of the USA.
Also last weekend, we went for a really nice hike over near North Bend. We headed out on a forest service road to check out a campground I was curious about. When we got there, we learned that the campground was not yet open for the season, but a half mile back down the road there was a trailhead for the Middle Fork Trail on the Snoqualmie River. We decided to give it a go (after having just driven 12 miles of forest service road, most of which was gravel), rather than heading back to the freeway for our original hiking destination. Definitely a smart move - the scenery along the trail was phenomenal, and the trail itself not too busy on a drizzly day. Afterwards, we found a CCC trail that led into the backside of the campground, so we went in and scoped out the layout there. We hope to get some camping in this summer - it's been too long since B. and I have gone out and done that, and the kids are plenty old enough to be enjoying some simple car camping.
Please keep my friend in your thoughts and prayers. She found out that she's going to be needing chemo, followed by radiation. She's going to be part of a clinical trial for a more aggressive form of chemo that's not supposed have any more side effects than regular chemo. She said this inspires her and makes her feel she can contribute something to her daughters' generation. She's a homeschooling mom of three sweet kiddos, and wife to one amazing guy. If anyone can get through this, it's them.
And lastly, kudos to my awesome friend L. down in CA. She took the qualifier last week to become an official black belt candidate at the old studio we trained at together. I would have been right there with her this fall, so it's a bit bittersweet for me. I'm living vicariously through her experience. She's making me proud!
We've been getting into letterboxing a bit. Some friends of ours invited us along on a letterboxing expedition when we met up at a park to play a couple of weeks ago. I think we may be hooked, expecially N. We found 3 in just over a week, and have many more clues printed out and ready to be discovered! To learn more about letterboxing, check out http://www.letterboxing.org
Last weekend N. and I had the opportunity to participate in our first Brownie science workshop through Totem Council. A friend of a friend is a troop leader, and a few of her girls couldn't go at the last minute, so she contacted me to see if we were interested in going. I'm so glad we went. It was up in Bellingham, at Western Washington University, and one of the speakers was "Pinky" Nelson, a retired astronaut for NASA who flew on the space shuttle Discovery (there's an interview with him posted on Education World). He was great with the girls, and really captured their attention. After the workshop, N. and I took the opportunity to walk around the campus, go to the bookstore, and check out their outdoor sculptures. I have to say, being able to stay behind and spend that time with N., rather than having to rush back to meet parents back at home like the other troops, was really nice. I keep finding more and more perks to being a Juliette.
Then today, N. and I got together with three other Brownies at Build-a-bear. One of the other little girls (a younger sister of one of the others) had just bridged to Brownies, and to celebrate we were there to stuff a creature and pick out a Girl Scout uniform for it. We got there right after they opened, and had the place to ourselves as the girls picked out their new buddies, got them stuffed, dressed, and accessorized. If we'd had six girls or more, we could have had an actual party, but I think this worked out just fine. All four kids are Juliettes, and it's nice to be able to get together with others to do fun stuff like this. What's a Juliette? A Juliette is an individually registered Girl Scout who does not belong to a troop, but participates in activities just like any other girl scout. They are named after Juliette Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of the USA.
Also last weekend, we went for a really nice hike over near North Bend. We headed out on a forest service road to check out a campground I was curious about. When we got there, we learned that the campground was not yet open for the season, but a half mile back down the road there was a trailhead for the Middle Fork Trail on the Snoqualmie River. We decided to give it a go (after having just driven 12 miles of forest service road, most of which was gravel), rather than heading back to the freeway for our original hiking destination. Definitely a smart move - the scenery along the trail was phenomenal, and the trail itself not too busy on a drizzly day. Afterwards, we found a CCC trail that led into the backside of the campground, so we went in and scoped out the layout there. We hope to get some camping in this summer - it's been too long since B. and I have gone out and done that, and the kids are plenty old enough to be enjoying some simple car camping.
Please keep my friend in your thoughts and prayers. She found out that she's going to be needing chemo, followed by radiation. She's going to be part of a clinical trial for a more aggressive form of chemo that's not supposed have any more side effects than regular chemo. She said this inspires her and makes her feel she can contribute something to her daughters' generation. She's a homeschooling mom of three sweet kiddos, and wife to one amazing guy. If anyone can get through this, it's them.
And lastly, kudos to my awesome friend L. down in CA. She took the qualifier last week to become an official black belt candidate at the old studio we trained at together. I would have been right there with her this fall, so it's a bit bittersweet for me. I'm living vicariously through her experience. She's making me proud!
Monday, May 7, 2007
For my friend...
A dear friend of mine is having surgery today to remove a tumor from her breast. She is 50 years old, and her lump was found by routine mammogram. She has three adorable kids at home, and is a fellow homeschooling mom. C, I wish I could be there for you, but please know that you are in my thoughts today.
LK
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