Alpenrose Dairy and some Peach Pickin' Time

For a couple days Super-Hero has been bugging me about what to do this weekend. Frankly, I didn't want to do anything! He offered the beach. And you say to yourself "Are you crazy? He's willing to take you to the beach and you don't want to go?" And my answer, this time, is no. Because it's all about the packing. You see, we wouldn't go to the beach and stay the night. We would leave early morning (after I've fixed breakfast for everyone) and head off to the beach. The kids would play, we might fly a kite, dig some holes to China and then eat the lunch I had to bring for all five of us. And not forget that 90% of what I would bring would not be gluten free for Holland. Then we'd get wet, have no place dry to go change and then we would leave and maybe get taken to McDonald's on our way out of town.

Normally, I wouldn't mind doing that, but Friday when the idea was put on the table, I just couldn't wrap my tired little brain around more planning and fidgeting with food that would have to be properly stored while traveling. It just did not appeal to me. My kind of trip to the beach would be one small night spent somewhere, getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise. Sitting on the beach late at night knowing you have a warm room to go back to and could tuck the kids into bed and read a book and be refreshed for the drive home. When we get to the beach for the day, I end up driving most of the way because super hero here can't stay awake for more than 45 minutes while he's driving. I pack those No-Doze pills in our glove compartment, but he'd rather slap himself on the cheeks to keep awake. Or roll down the window for some fresh air. Or let me drive. Which wouldn't be bad, except 5 minutes after I've taken the wheel, two things have happened: 1 - he's fallen asleep. 2- someone is arguing with someone else in the back seat. Or touched someone or looked at someone sideways. So now I'm trying to drive and tell everyone they need to shush because I'm distracted and don't want to crash.

So, that's why I'm not in the mood for the beach. But I was in the mood to go check out a fundraiser at Alpenrose Dairy in Portland. I had never been up there, but Super-Hero had played Little League baseball up there a couple times. There were cute kid's activities (face painting, a real live camel, tossing games for prizes, catching rubber ducks, pitching contest, a bouncy house and of course food.) All the food was free. And after you filled your tummy with a delicious burger and ice cold coke, you could wait in line for free ice cream! It doesn't get much better than that.

What gets better now is that I'm talking to my mom asking if she made it to the rummage sale (she's the one who told me about it). We had a good laugh. She, my dad and sister's family all came up and we were all there about the same time, just never ran into each other. I found out they were heading towards Hillsboro to pick peaches. I missed peaches last year due to husband interference :-) He just doesn't understand that it's something I've done for years; something that makes me feel good and productive; saves us money by canning; and gives the kids a wonderful memory of picking peaches in an orchard. I convince him to go. In his mind "it's sooooo far!" Well, we're more than half way there right now! Let's do it. The peaches weren't completely ripe which is good and bad. They shouldn't bruise as easily as ripened peaches and we wouldn't have to come straight home to can peaches that could spoil in a day or two.

Now I just have to figure out how I'm going to can with a missing part of my canning paraphanalia. It seems Holland has absconded with the metal insert for lifting the cans out and keeping them directly off the heat while bathing. He seems to be doing a lot of this lately (gosh, big surprise there!) I was talking with my sister on the phone tonight and my cordless went dead. I ran over to the only phone with a cord in the house and picked it up. No dial tone. I looked to make sure the curly cord was pushed in all the way and waited for it to click. Nothing. Then I noticed that the phone jack is completely empty and there is no phone jack cord anywhere around. Another experiment somewhere in the house is enjoying the use of that phone cord.

A Good Laugh

I found the funniest blog. It must have been because I can get so annoyed at my super-hero husband and needed a good laugh. What amazed me is this blogger has only been blogging since July 30th of this year and already has 14,000 hits! What?!? I've been blogging over a year and really, nobody is interested in my boring life? She and her husband are newlyweds. Maybe that's why it's so funny. She's already annoyed and they've only been married since March. But go check out her blog. It's called "My Husband is Annoying." Pretty fitting, huh? I thought blogging about all the crazy things my kids do would keep people coming back for more, but apparently I need a husband that speaks in an Irish brogue and wears the same sweater over and over. Just 5 minutes ago I realized the mouse I was using on my computer was not the mouse that was there yesterday. Holland has been in the garage reorganizing boxes and he actually set up our old computer, booted it up (where is there an outlet in that place?) and had done a switch-a-roo with my mouse. He gave me the old decrepid mouse with the roller ball that doesn't work. I made him switch it back because I didn't know how.

Oh, I wanted to add, while I was writing this, the blog hits on "my husband is annoying" went up by a thousand. My hero.

Here's To Your Health

My favorite speaker at the Camp JAM was the Naturopath doctor from Portland. He had a really cool name, too. Tyler Keliiheleua. He talked about how diet can affect a child with an autoimmune disease and since I have two kids that fit that bill, I perked right up.

Here are some common inflammatory foods to avoid: refind sugar; refined wheat; pasteurized dairy; grain fed animal meat; vegetable oil. Some of these are obvious to avoid for just being unhealthy, but I never thought of foods being a cause of inflammation. He also said chew your food 32 times! Yes, that's right. It should basically be liquid by the time you swallow it. I've tried this and it's weird to chew that long. But it also aids in digestion because your stomach acids don't have to work as hard to break down foods. You're also supposed to drink less (or not at all) during dinner. This also hampers the acids from breaking down food and keeps it in your system too long. He suggested drinking a glass of water with 1/4 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar (which I ran and bought at Trader Joe's today) 5-10 minutes before your biggest meal. People with autoimmune diseases have trouble breaking down proteins especially and the cider vinegar is supposed to get those juices flowing.

Some common foods that reduce inflammation are: wild cold water fish; organic spices like ginger and turmeric; leafy greens; Extra Virgin Olive Oil; lemon; cilantro and parsley; garlic; water; dark berries; herbal tea; flax seed/oil; and walnut (and walnut oil). He said he would email out some smoothie recipes that used some of these things. I'm curious how he's gonna make a leafy green smoothie that my kid will drink.

The healthy oils are: walnut oil; flaxseed; coconut; grape seed; extra virgin olive oil. He listed the bad oils and I asked about Canola. He said he didn't include it because it falls somewhere in the middle. You don't have to cut it out entirely, but the good oils should be used more often anyway.

The last thing he mentioned that I found interesting were Probiotics. I've been giving Holland that in a pill form, but he was talking about something that was a live culture and had to be kept in the fridge, so that's something I'm going to have to investigate more.

So there are my tips on how to have a healthy gastrointestinal system. Don't forget your fiber!

Camp JAM

We got back from Camp JAM (Juvenile Arthritis Matters) yesterday and I'm still downloading pictures to share from our amazing time there. The time and effort (and volunteer hours!) that went into planning this is mind-boggling. When we arrived, they had our main meeting room decked out in a Hawaiian theme. We got our cabin keys, a map and "treasure hunt" and had our picture taken and each child got to pick out a brand new backpack. After having a little snack, we used our treasure hunt clues to find different areas of the camp. At several stops the kids got to pick out a treat. At one stop we got new water bottles; at another they got Leis. It was a great way to find our way around. After unloading everything (we had to use a wheelbarrow to get our things to the cabin) we met back in the dining room for dinner. Hamburgers, potato salad, fresh veggies. Our first meeting was at 7 and all the counselors, staff and volunteers were introduced.

Then the most amazing thing happened. They introduced an older couple who had donated money to make this camp possible. They had all the kids affected with JRA come up to the stage and as each one walked across, they handed the woman a flower. After all the kids were on the stage, each child was presented with a gift bag filled with a handmade quilt that ONE WOMAN made! I think half the moms were crying or ready to cry! Each quilt was different. Each quilt suited the child's age and gender. I was so amazed. I'll have to get a good picture of the quilt and post it. All the pictures I took were indoors and it was dark, so not very good focus.

On Saturday the kids were grouped by age/grade and went with counselors while the parents were in meetings. Our morning session was "okay" because I spent most of it interpreting for super-hero. I didn't think that our sessions would be that involved. This one was on stress and the one on Sunday was so much better. They brought in a naturopath doctor and he talked about anti-inflammatory foods and what foods are best for people with autoimmune disease (which actually benefits 2 of my children!) Saturday afternoon we got family free time and the boys got to go fishing; did archery; rockclimbing; had sno cones; watched part of a movie and Romania played shuffleboard! While super-hero did that with the boys, I went with Egypt to a bouncy house then took her swimming and we met up for the sno cones. The day was jam packed with fun. After dinner on Saturday, we had a talent show that all three kids participated in. Romania sand (or rather recited) "The Alphabet of Nations" song; Egypt sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Holland balanced a pen on his nose and then the audience started singing "Take me out to the ball game". After singing songs around a campfire and eating s'mores (see how much we did??), they brought in a woman who was a fire dancer. She had these small bowls that she lit from the firepit and swung them around. It was totally dark and was the coolest thing. She said she practiced over a year with beanbags before trying it with fire.

Sunday's session with the Naturopath was so informational. That was almost my favorite part of the camp (sno cones might be a close second). After packing up our cabin, we met one last time for goodbyes and each camper got a special "JRA" pin. The kids are already looking forward to next year.

World's Weirdest Cat

Actually both of my cats are weird. LuLu will walk right up to a new person in my house and get right in her face. She even walked on someone's shoulders that was sitting on my couch. LuLu also likes to bite my ankles when she wants to be fed. Fancy has been kinda quiet. She'll wait for LuLu to finish choosing which bowl she's gonna eat from before chowing down. They both like to chase each other which is still evidenced at night when we forget to shut them in the bathroom. The other night at probably 3 in the morning, I heard them running up the stairs and all of a sudden, they were racing over our sleeping bodies. That's the only time they do it - when we're lying in bed asleep. Fancy also likes to chase little Beanie Babies. Egypt has this small rabbit and we throw it and that dumb cat chases it like she's a dog. We started throwing it over my bed to watch her race over it.

But the weirdest thing that Fancy did was find a mitten and tear it up. That wouldn't be weird, except when she started chewing on this very nice mitten last winter, I put it in Egypt's drawer so she wouldn't destroy it anymore. The other day I noticed that the mitten had found its way out of her drawer and was on my floor. Not wanting it to be mangled further, I put it in a wooden box with little wooden drawers in my room. There's 6 drawers about the size to hold CD's. Yesterday I found it on my floor again. I thought one of the kids was probably going through my things again and just shoved it back in the drawer. Well, this afternoon, there it is AGAIN on the floor! I looked at the wooden drawers and there was the mitten drawer pulled open! That crazy cat could smell that mitten and opened the drawer. Makes me want to put a hidden camera to the drawers and see if she does it again. You'd think catnip was rubbed all over this thing.

The kids really want a dog. Now I can say we have our dog.

Our Week at the Lake

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Fish

Click on the screen to feed my fish

We Live For Danger

I believe my family will single-handedly support all the ER and urgent care doctors in our area until our kids have grown and moved out of the house. They can send me a nice fat thank-you with a check for helping them out. If you haven't guessed it yet, we had another incident here. This time with Holland. I guess it was about his turn in the rotation.

I let the boys have a neighbor friend over to play in the back. They were all about the Bionicles and having a war. Boys. Whatever. I really hate to let Egypt go out with them because it just means that I have to ignore all my inside jobs. The bothersome ones like cooking, cleaning, reading blogs. She usually just bothers them and then they get mad at her. Today seemed fine. That should have been my first clue, huh? She and Romania were jumping on the trampoline and Holland and his friend were swining on the zip line. All of a sudden, blood-curdling scream. I ran to the kitchen window to see Holland racing up the steps with blood on his head and hand where he was holding it. What now???

Egypt has an affinity for rocks. She's collecting, sorting, moving them. And she for some reason threw one at Holland and hit him in the head. It was a huge rock, too! He had a nice size gash with lots of blood. I got my sister and neighbor involved and after lots of debate, decided to take him to Urgent Care rather than the ER or do something myself that would cause an infection. I am unhappy to report that the old geezer did NOTHING! I'm not kidding. He looked at it and I'm sure was thinking what is this woman doing bringing him in? What is the big DEAL? He said the only reason to do stitches was if it was gaping or wouldn't stop bleeding. I really didn't think they would do stitches, but I thought they'd super glue it. He said "no, super glue is never necessary." What? I told him my nephew had his head super-glued and he poo-poohed that. Then being the uncomfortable, overprotective mom trying not to look dumb, I told him about how Egypt had her hair tied over her gash from falling off Holland's bed. He called that, ready? "parlor tricks". I just didn't even know what to say. He said head wounds always heal beautifully. Well, that may be, but he didn't even clean it. He just sent us on our way. It's still bleeding just a little so I'm just going to clean it with a bit of water and put some Neosporin on it.

Printables

I've been scouring the internet for help with meal planning, grocery lists and cleaning schedules trying to get my house and life in order. I used to print lists from organizedhome.com or get cleaning tips from flylady.net (shine your sink!) but just wasn't finding what I wanted. The pages weren't the full size of the page and it bothered me that it wasted so much ink to print that. Then I found this great website called WorkingMom.com. Finally a site that was helpful. I was able to print off a customized grocery list just by checking boxes and the things that weren't on the list were easily added and grouped. What I liked was it had a master list of things. You check a box or add to a box at the end of that category and magically it prints out just the items you wanted. Other lists I've found just had a huge master list that you couldn't edit and my eyes went all blurry looking at all the items that I didn't need but were still listed. I still like OrganizedHome.com, they have a great idea for a household notebook that I might implement, but for a printable grocery list, try the workingmom site.

She's Square!

How does a child measure 43" and weigh 43 pounds at the same time? I took Egypt for her follow-up to the cortisone injection and when she was weighed and measured, I just had to laugh. She's like a square. I think she's above 75th percentile for height, but not sure about weight.

I was able to leave the boys with my sister for the appointment. It just makes it sooooo much easier not to have to take everyone. The room is small, and there's just too much temptation to be flittin' around the room. He said her knee looks fine and also checked her jaw again. I'm real nervous about that one. I feel like it could sneak up so fast because it's such a subtle difference he's looking for. All's well and so we have another appointment in three months.

A 4th to Remember

Wish I could say it was going to be a good memory! Every year we go to my in-law's cabin for the 4th of July weekend. When we didn't have kids, we'd spend the night. There was more room when it was just 8 adults and 6 kids. When our three came along, it just got too crowded. We just planned on going up Saturday so the kids could swim and Holland could fish. It was supposed to be in the 90's, so it was perfect for a lake swim.

I, however, get cranky when it's hot. And there's no air conditioning in the cabin. And I get cranky when it's hot. Did I already say that? Yep. It was hot. I was down on the dock for awhile, pulling Egypt in and out of the water in her "hoop" (inner tube) and watching Holland desperately trying to catch a sturgeon off the dock and seeing Romania fly off the boathouse roof into the water. Things seemed to be going along fine until the crawdad races. Yup - they have crawdad races every 4th of July. The kids catch the crawdads, name them and then put them inside a circle underneath a plastic cake lid. The first to reach the edge of the circle is the winner and moves on to the next round. There was a bit of a problem with our craws. Holland caught about 8 of them and chose the three that our kids would use. He put them in his tackle box and brought them up to the cabin. Unfortunately, he didn't close the lid and they all got out. So about 15 minutes before the races, we were all scouring the deck looking for these guys. Only one was found - Holland's. The other two didn't seem that upset. Usually people have extras that they bring up. Sure enough, through some wheeling and dealing, both Egypt and Romania got their own crawdads. They named them "Sticky" (Egypt's), "Fire" (Romania's) and "Hunter" (Holland's). Then through some awful twist of fate, Sticky and Fire raced each other. Fire won and went on to race again. In another cruel twist of fate, Fire and Hunter raced each other, which had the potential of having a nasty outcome. I was standing on the edge cheering them both on and Holland kept moving inside the circle. He was all tense and moody and every time I touched him he jerked away and yelled at me (real fun when you're in a crowd of people). Finally, I pulled back on his shoulders to move him out of the circle and he kicked me in the shin.

This was not going to be a good day.

Without going in to all the awful details of slingshots, exploding children and missed dinners, we left at 6 and didn't even get to enjoy the potluck for the adults or the pizza for the kids. One thing they need to plan better is they always have the adult potluck at the same time as the kid's dinner. There's no way we can leave the kids by themselves so we have to trade off going to eat. But we didn't even get to do that. We came home, had sandwiches and cereal and I put all three kids to bed, not even caring that they didn't see fireworks.

I'm going on strike next year and we are staying home. No more stressful days spent with people who don't understand us.

EEG

Last night I had to keep Holland awake two hours later than normal and then wake him up two hours earlier than normal. He had a "sleep-deprived" EEG at Emanuel this morning. I got less sleep than he did and I was ready to fall asleep during the test. We got there at 8.20 and checked in and then were told that we weren't expected until 10, but they would do their best to get to us as soon as possible. Well, I couldn't keep him awake. He fell asleep on my shoulder, drooled and snored for 45 minutes. The tech came and got us about 9.45 and it took about 15 minutes to mark his head, clean it and attach the probes.

He was hoping for Holland to stay awake for part and sleep for part. He asked him to blink about 10 times in a row and then he had to breathe like he was blowing out candles for 3 minutes straight! I could tell he got dizzy and since he was so tired, he sometimes forgot to blow. We had to remind him to breathe! Then he put this strobe light over his head and explained that he would be flashing the light and to just keep his eyes closed and relax. At first the strobes were slow. It would blink about 10 times and then stop and then start again a bit faster. That happened about 8 times and by the end, he was laying there just smiling. It made me sick to see it blink that fast and it looked like he enjoyed it. Crazy. Maybe I should put a strobe light in his bedroom and that would calm him down!

For the next part of the test, he was just supposed to lay there and hopefully fall back asleep. He struggled for a bit because after seeing the strobe and breathing hard, he was more awake. He did fall back asleep and it was interesting to watch all 22 probes on the computer screen. If he snored, a few of them kind of perked up and the tech would bring up a box and type in "yawn". He also moved a bit and a few fell off and had to be reattched, but he didn't wake up until the end. After his head was cleaned he tried to sell the technician some rocks he had in his pockets. He looked like he belonged on a dude ranch. His pockets were stuffed with rocks organized into little plastic baggies and loose rocks in the other pocket. He told the guy "50 cents a bag. Want one?"

Happy Adoption Day!

Ten years ago today, we signed papers that completed our adoption of Hunter. I was looking for a picture of us at the courthouse with the judge, but can't find it. That was before digital pictures, so who knows where the hard copy is. But he's three months here, the same age when we finalized.

Every year we celebrate his Adoption Day with a special treat. He can choose something fun to do or a special gift. One year we went to Bullwinkle's to play and this year he saw a skateboard marked 60% off (gotta love Fred Meyer's clearance sales!) I think the first couple years when he was really young, we just went to parks and I got him books. I think I was going to do that every year - a book. But as is typical with me, I start a good plan and never finish it. (See yesterday's post for evidence of that).

Workboxes

Here I go with another attempt at being organized. Don't you do that? You start something thinking it will help you simplify things and then it's either too complicated or you forget to do it. That's me - I forget to do it. I have notebooks with behavior charts; cards for chores or a calendar for schoolwork. Hopefully this time, this method will stick.

My sister found something on a Yahoo homeschooling group about something called "Workboxes" based on Sue Patrick's book. The idea is neat - you organize all your child's work into plastic bins and when they're done, they just proceed to the next task. Great. But my house is not that big and I don't have a separate area that I feel I could dedicate to that many boxes. I'd start to feel like we were a warehouse. So this mom came up with a brilliant idea of putting all the work into one plastic box and she put hanging file folders inside. The blogger on Ruby Slippers School posted her idea and had great pictures to show how she did it. Each time the child finishes a task, s/he puts up the velcro picture and moves on to the next file. This has helped greatly in answering that tired old question, "how much more school are we doing?" and I can point to their box and they can see what's left. Since I am doing more light school during the summer, I wanted to add some chores that they could do as well. I haven't made a separate system for that yet, but they so need some consistency in that department. That might be in the works. But I laminated pictures of certain chores they needed to do once they finished so many files of work. (this link shows you what it looks like, but I found it at walmart for $25 and on amazon it's $40!) And I stuck trampoline breaks, or playing outside or reading with me in there, too! We used it for the first time last week and it worked so well. They got done with their work quicker, Egypt has her own art projects to do and then we were able to plan out other things like going to the park or a cooking project in the afternoon. We took the week off this week for Vacation Bible School, but plan to start it up again next week. Gotta keep those brains fresh!

A Memorable 40th

Who would think that I would be in the ER - again - on my 40th birthday? Or that I would have a migraine to go along with that? Super-Hero took the kids to church so they wouldn't miss out on their new classes. But during Sunday School, Holland told his teacher he wasn't feeling well and he was shaking all over. They came home and then my mom called and told me to have super-hero bring the kids over so I could rest. She called later to see how I was doing (still had the migraine. Hadn't heard from the on-call dr. for medicine). She told me that Holland was shaking really bad and complaining of things crawling on him. This wasn't the first time I'd seen that. He has woken in the middle of the night screaming that bugs and spiders are in his room or are crawling all over him. I reassure him that there's nothing there, but he doesn't believe me.

So we went to the ER to have him checked out. They did blood work and all his levels were within normal range. The ER doctor called our physician to ask what to do. We ended up reducing the dose on one medicine and omitting another medicine altogether. He thought maybe the two were interacting and causing the trembling and hallucinations he was experiencing. Last week I had made an appointment with this doctor to discuss his current doses and see if we needed to change anything. He is, afterall, 10 and hitting the age when hormones are going to kick in. After speaking with him and examining Hunter, he believed he was having seizures. The word didn't even stick when he said it. I didn't understand. I thought the medicines he is taking were reacting, but he said after talking and looking back on his history of meds that the medicines were not the cause. They actually could have been preventing the seizures. It turns out that two of the medicines he's been on to treat Bipolar were actually anti-seizure medications. So if he in fact is having seizures, the medicines were actually helping to prevent them.

He faxed in a request for an EEG up at Emanuel (it's like a second home now) and I made an appointment as soon as we got home. July 2nd. 10:15. It will be what is called a "sleep-deprived" EEG. They want to monitor brain activity and the best way is on less sleep. I'm thankful that we got an appointment so quickly and Holland will be happy that there's no poking involved.

Speaking of poking, I almost forgot one of the best things that happened last night in the ER. If you follow my blog at all, you know that my mom pays Holland $5 every time he has blood work done. In the beginning it was me and about 4 nurses trying to hold him down to draw blood. It was awful. My mom had the brilliant idea of paying him each time to see if he would calm down. Since money is his "love language", it worked like a charm! So we're sitting in the ER room and the doctor said they were going to do some blood work and he got this look of terror in his eyes. He was already upset and jumpy and hearing the words "blood work" did not go over well. He asked gramma if she would pay him for having the blood work and she said yes. She gave him the $5 and he asked since he was in the hospital if he could have another $5 afterwards. She didn't have it on her, but assured him that he would get the money. When our phlebotomist came in (not a nurse, a phlebotomist!) and she heard the story of the payment plan, she took $5 out of her pocket and gave it to Holland! He had the biggest grin on his face. He'll never forget getting 5 dollars from the "grandma" at the hospital!

Hard Work Finally Pays Off

It's been about 9 months since starting the gluten-free lifestyle for Holland. So many recipe experiments gone bad and some successes. He had a blood recheck for his gluten levels to determine if they're still low. We want to be able to introduce gluten-free oats (he lived on oatmeal before being diagnosed). I got a call from the doctor's office yesterday and it finally feels like all my hard work has paid off. When we started, his levels were in the 120's; the first blood level check he was at 31, so a huge drop. Now he's at 19! We're going to try oats again and hopefully his levels will stay low enough for him to tolerate it. He's worked so hard - put up with all the bad tasting gluten-free food. Now he can eat a big bowl of oatmeal that will be doctored up with brown sugar and cinnamon!

I'm turning the big 4-0 this year. On Sunday, my mom surprised me with a concert to see Andre' Rieu. She made a little crossword puzzle that was supposed to give me clues to figure it out. After finding parking and making our way up to the nosebleed section, we got to enjoy the wonderful orchestra and tenors. All the gals wore these amazing dresses, but it was so hard to see anything, even with the big screens. You just didn't feel connected to the performers. Then during intermission, an usher came up and asked if we were together (we were sitting in two rows). I asked if he was going to let us move down closer. There were so many seats even in the two sections below us. He then gave us tickets to the floor! We got to sit in row 9 for the rest of the concert. It was amazing to be up that close and see the costumes. We even had balloons fall on us towards to end. It was a great early birthday gift.

Let Summer Begin!

Yesterday was Romania's last day of school. I took him to the bus stop as usual, but then about 10.15, I packed up a picnic blanket and Holland and Egypt and headed out to the school for an afternoon of games, food and fun. The weather was kind of chilly when we first got there, but by the time the day was over, it was a little too warm. Plus there's no shade, so you're stuck being hot.

The kids did different games that the older kids put together and rotated from station to station. Then they had a BBQ that the local phone company hosted. They brought out big grills and guys to cook hamburgers and hot dogs. After lunch the kids got ice cream and we did a little cleaning in Romania's classroom. The kids got their yearbooks and signed them for each other. By the end of our 4 hours there, Holland was so wiped out. He wore totally the wrong clothes and was hot the entire time. When I said, "Can you believe it? You're not in 2nd grade anymore!" he answered, "that was a long time to be in 2nd grade."

But I already have stuff planned for this summer. We have two church camps we're attending; a week at the cabin and three days at a family camp for children with JRA. The kids are so excited about this. It's completely free and they have tons of activities lined up for the kids. I also get to work in doctor appointments and a little school. I know. Give them a break, right? Wrong! There's a couple reasons why I continue to do "light" school through the summer. First, Holland especially, needs to continue or he would lose too much by the start of 5th grade. Second, they would all kill each other and just sit and watch tv all day. In my next couple posts, I'm going to show you what I've done to make our school time easier, more organized and more fun for the kids.

Busy Day

Today was spent mostly at the hospital for two doctor appointments. I somehow managed to make an appointment with Holland's gastroenterologist and Egypt's rheumatologist on the same day. Even at different times! I never could have planned that so carefully if I had tried. After dropping Romania at the bus stop and then quickly gathering some distractions and snacks for the hospital, we drove up and had a valet park our van. I tell you. Whoever invented that was a genius. How easy is that? You drive up to a curb. A nice guy gives you a little ticket and goes and parks your car.

Holland's doctor was even on time. Just gotta give him more Miralax and some rice bran. He's not having stomach aches, but doc said he's still backed up. Ugh. He asked if Holland had any questions and he actually remembered that he might get to start eating oatmeal now. We have to get blood work done to see where his gluten levels are at. If they're still low, we can introduce real oatmeal - the catch is it has to be gluten free. Betch'a didn't know there was such a thing as gluten free oatmeal? Well, Bob's Red Mill has it. No fake oatmeal (none of those tasty Quaker packets). I don't even think those are real oats. Gluten free oatmeal actually looks like what real oatmeal should look like. The taste is a little different and it takes longer to cook, but we doctor it up with brown sugar and cinnamon.

So after seeing this doctor, we go back to the valet, get our van and drive over to the next office building (the main hospital) and I went one time around the parking garage, found no spots and then drove up to the next set of valets and handed over my car again. What's great about this is it's complimentary. We got another parking stub and walked into Diagnostics to wait until our check-in time. My parents met us there and my dad took Holland so he wouldn't be stuck at the hospital all afternoon. They ran some errands and got lunch. We got Egypt checked in and then the nurse got us to do all the vitals and talk about the procedure. I was sure she'd be more scared than last year because she was 3 1/2. The nurse let her pick the flavor for the mask (bubblegum) and then the doctor came in and I signed a bunch of forms and he talked about the risks. He was fairly certain it would just be the one joint, but she had been complaining of her left knee hurting, so he said he'd check that while she was out. The whole thing lasted less than 10 minutes. I was in the gift shop buying her some books when the doctor came in and said it was over. We got to go back to the room and be there when she woke up. She almost sat straight up and we had to lay her back down. She got a popsicle and a wagon ride to the car.

We have a follow up in four weeks to check the joint, but so far, it looks good. The doctor said "just a quiet afternoon" before she went in. Then he kinda laughed when he said this while watching her bounce around the room. It didn't take her long to want to run and play. She makes a horrible sick person. It's very deceiving :-)

Rheumatologist Today

I took Egypt to see her Rheumatologist today up at Emanuel. Our last appointment was three months ago and we are supposed to come in more often to check her mouth/jaw, finger joints and just to see how her knee is holding up. She was so goofy today. I'm glad that the doctor enjoys that. She wore this Horton Hears a Who elephant mask from a game she has. She kept making elephant sounds. Holland was not amused at all until she said something like "elephants make poop!" Then he started cracking up. It has been one year since her first injection and she will finally be needing her second injection next week. The doctor said he could only fit two fingers under her knee while trying to press it down and today he could fit his whole hand. She also continues to have a longer femur on her right leg and was actually bothered when he tried to bend her leg while she was laying on her tummy. She complains so little that it's surprising that her knee is so bent. I think she just keeps getting used to not being able to move it and doesn't complain about the pain. So we are scheduled for next Monday. Glad it's sooner than later.

Then on the way home, to top off the morning, I got a ticket for changing lanes in a construction zone. If you know Portland, it's one big construction zone. Super-Hero has a little sign at his office that says "There are two seasons in Oregon: Winter and construction". I didn't even know that there way anything going on. I only drive this road when I'm going up to the hospital. Totally felt like a trap (I saw two other people getting tickets at the exact same spot as me). There are no workers, no trucks, no signs of anything happening. Yup. Looks like construction to me. I emailed Super-Hero to drive over there tonight and look for those mysterious signs that I missed.