It's August already!?!?

How amazing that the summer is flying by, but really, should I be all that surprised? Probably not.

I'm back from the LLL International Conference where I worked in the Playroom with two of my friends, Terry and Theresa. We had a good time, but it sure is a whole different conference experience when my usual 'gang' isn't there. This was a time when I really get pissed at certain peopLLLe for their actions and how it has permanently messed up our usual every two year reunion!

Overall, the Playroom experience was exhausting - there were 1000+ kids registered for the conference and we topped over 1000 kids came into the playroom during the 3 days that we were 'open for business'. It should be noted that all the kids in the playroom had to be there with a mom, dad, g'parent, or other care-giver - so we weren't responsible for babysitting the kids, just supervising the huge room. I have some video of the playroom after we got it set up but without the kids, maybe I will see if I can manage embedding it into the blog. If not, I'll just add a link later.

It was good to see my friends Jennifer (and hang out with her dh, Anth and their kids in the playroom), Paulette, Teresa, Theresa and Terry. It was also nice to see the old API gang: Barbara, Lysa, Reedy and Christy. I saw Lu Hanessian, who remembered me by name - we chatted for a while and I got caught up on all the stuff that she is doing these days. I also saw my friend Jaime who is just sooo sweet. Back when we were both tandem nursing moms struggling with meeting the needs of an older nursing toddler, we became good email buddies. I've said many times that I didn't think I could have made it through that time without her.

Because we had a 2 bedroom suite, there were a couple of nights with parties in our room, and while I did know many of the women, it wasn't my usual gang so I usually hit the hay early - sorry, no juicy stories to tell, no new tatoos this time. Have I said that it wasn't the same at all. :(

One exciting thing that has happened this summer is that we got a dog!!! Her name is Karly and she is a black lab mix (with think with terrier). She is the sweetest dog I've ever seen (okay maybe I'm biased!) Technically, she is Ahren's dog, but I tend to handle more of the general dog care - although Ahren does do pretty well with the walks and taking care of her. We are also going to Good Manners classes (both Ahren and I) and doing clicker training with Karly. She is about 2 years old and came from somewhere down south. We got her from a local shelter and couldn't be happier. Ahren simply adores her. She will randomly say, "I just can't believe that I have a dog" or "Karly is such a perfect fit for our family." It's really sweet.

How strange

Around about the time that I set the blog to private, I made a post explaining that it was only because of the NFH that I made it private. But it looks like the post didn't go through. Sorry about that.

A general update:

This week was camp week for both of my kids. Sean went to Johnsonburg Camp in NJ from Sun - Wednesday. While he was there I got to visit my dear friends Diana and Robin. It was such a wonderful visit! Sean seemed to have made a wonderful impression on the Heath Center nurses. Since he had to get cream put on his legs twice a day, we was a regular visitor there. The nurse told him that he was "a nurse's dream patient". Apparently, the nurse told him the first time he went there, to wash his hands and then put the cream on and then wash his hands again. Every time after that he did it without needing to be reminded at all. Today we got some paperwork that we left at camp and there was a note from the nurse that said that they looked forward to his visits and he was very warm and charming. :)

Ahren spent the week (from Sun-Sat) at Silver Lake in CT. She had a great time and honestly, she seems a lot older after coming back. She had such a good time, she has been singing and tell us all about it all day.

I'm now busy trying to get ready for the LLL ICf where I will be hanging out and working in the playroom for the next week.

Not much happening here

Well, I've not written anything in quite a while and although there have been things happening, not much that is really that exciting:

• Ahren turned 10 this month. She celebrated by ditching school for a day and going with Dad to NYC to see Tarzan on Broadway with 5th row seats!! The NYC trip was instead of a big birthday party. Her big birthday present will be a puppy (once school is out) - some kind of retriever or lab.
  
• Pete was denied life insurance - which really stinks and we are planning to talk with his cardiologist about exactly why, in the meantime, we will work on converting his term insurance to whole life - thankfully we got some initial life insurance about 7 years ago.
  
• Things are going well at school - classes filling up for next year and my wheels are spinning about what I want to change and update and rework.
  
• Me and the kids have been bike riding like crazy. It helps that they both got bigger bikes with gears and handbreaks. I've taken them both downtown individually and I'm hoping that by the time VBS starts we will all be able to ride each day back and forth (weather permitting). My goal this summer is to trick out my bike with some side baskets (for runs to the grocery store) and a light on the back and front for nighttime riding. I really want to get to the point where I don't jump in the car to make a quick trip to stop-n-shop, but ride there instead.
  

Allergy news!

I can hardly believe that I'm saying this but it looks like Sean may have outgrown some of his allergies!!! When we had his comprehensive blood work done about 2 years ago, it listed 23 foods that he was allergic to. The effects of his allergies were largely as eczema. They began 2 weeks after he weaned, when he was 3 1/2 years old. We were on vacation in Chincoteague when it first showed up on the front of his ankle. He had what looked like major poison ivy that would not go away - the front of his leg was a scabby mess for soooo long (we are talking YEARS) that it is a miracle that he doesn't have scars there. All night long, he would scratch and I would say, "stop scratching" and hold his hands and arms so that there might be a chance that the sheets wouldn't be bloody from all the scratching in the morning. After the blood work and the monster list of what to avoid (the most difficult were wheat, dairy and soy - everything else was pretty easy - largely grains, and fruits and vegetables), we began to see a difference. Last summer was the first time that he was able to swim in the river (the river being saltwater, it would burn his eczema too badly) and man did he love it!

Some of the foods that were on his allergic list, I've been introducing in small amounts (often without him really knowing) like citrus fruits, bananas, some grains (oat, quinoa, etc) and he'd been doing okay with them. So this week, we started with real dairy - yogurt to be specific and he seems absolutely fine!!! I'd been introducing it *in* things (as an ingredient for a couple of weeks). I would even say that his legs look BETTER now - which is amazing considering the amount of plaster dust we have had in the house, even my skin feels chalky all the time. So right now the only two things that he is avoiding are peanuts and wheat. Peanuts he may never outgrow, but I think we might try the wheat during April vacation. I feel like my entire world is about to change. He's been so good for nearly 2 years, I'm really hoping that this is the real thing!

This and That and The Other

What a week it has been. I've been getting lots done on the kitchen. Ron (and Patty) came down late Sunday evening until Tuesday morning, to work on finishing up some stuff. Ron got the electrical finished along with more sanding, plastering, cutting ceiling moulding and putting in a new door frame. After he left, I continued working on sanding, sanding and more sanding, then a couple coats of primer and then a couple of coats of new paint and pput in the outlet covers. Then I put the new shelves back up and returned things to their fairly normal state - but much prettier now. There is of course, still a whole boatload of stuff to do, the whole rest of the kitchen, but at least there is a part of the kitchen that looks nice.

The most challenging thing was dealing with a major layer of plaster dust all over everything in our house - literally. The curtains will all need to be washed, everything in all the cabinets and drawers will need to be washed. All the spice jars are covered with dust, the tupperware cabinet, the piano in the livingroom, the pictures hanging in the hallway -- EVERYTHING! At least I've got most of it under control, or at least to a semi-livable point.

Last night, Michael and the boys came up for dinner and we got the official word that Lucia and Michael will be moving to Vermont. Lucia got a job as a Senior Pastor at a UCC church there, they are excited, but we are sad. For the past 7? years, they have lived nearby (about a half-hour away) and Ahren and Sean grew up with the boys (Micah - 12 and Asher - 9) being a big part of their lives. Now to have them moving away, it will be hard. They will be about 3 hours away, which will make weekend trips doable. When I told Ahren and Sean today, they took it better than I thought they would. Sean was actually more upset than Ahren was. Ahren kept saying that it will be harder on them, because they will be leaving everyone, we are only losing them. It helped that I told the kids that when we visit we will be able to stay over night, Sean thought that was cool, and wanted me to promise him that we would get a bunk bed for him to sleep at at their house. I told him that I couldn't do that, and he seemed okay with that.

Tomorrow the plan is to get all my plans done for the month of March for school, which would really be a good thing, considering I've been really putting it off all week.

Sick little guy and blech

So yesterday, just as my morning class left, I got a call from my kid's school, that Sean had just thrown up. :( Luckily, Tuesday's I don't have an afternoon class. So I was able to pick him up quickly and bring him home. He seems to have that yucky stomach bug that's been going around. So I've spent the last 18 hours helping him aim his puke towards the bowl and doing laundry and trying to convince him that he really can't eat anything or drink anything right now. Even when he was taking a sip of water, it would come right back up 5 minutes later. No fun.

In between all that, I've been trying to get a couple of Web pages done, which is hard for me this time because I can't really upload them and troubleshoot them as they go live. Since I need to email the finished pages to someone else to upload. So I want to be sure that they are right, so as not to bother her any more than I already have. I'm sure that she isn't happy about the current methods of work as well, since it ends up making a ton of extra work for herself.