Single Momming It, St. Patrick's Day, Lost Tooth, Shots, Frustrations, Surprise Breakfast

In catching up with our family happenings....Josh finished his last cluster allergy shot treatment this week.  Wahoo!  That means that we now don't have to go for a two hour chunk of time once a week--we only have to go for 30 minutes once a week for two more weeks then we will go every two weeks to get the shots done.  Each round of shots Josh gets it increases the dose of the allergens he is exposed to.  Right after getting the first round of shots during this visit he got to wear two awesome penguin ice packs (one for each arm) to help with the itching and swelling in his arm.  He wasn't too happy that the ice packs were cartoon penguins, but beggars can't be choosers, right?!  The doctor said he should start seeing results from the shots in 6 months so hopefully, by the fall time he won't have big issues with the seasonal/environmental allergens.  

Aaron went out of town all to California last week from Monday to Friday.  I got to take him to the airport at 5 am Monday morning which was not a fun way to start out my week!!  Anyway, it was a busy week for all of us especially since I was down an adult in our household.  Monday afternoon I got to take Josh to his cluster allergy shot visit.  Since it was during the afternoon I got to bring Noah along with me for the two hour visit.  As always he was pretty entertaining.  When the nurse practitioner was examining Josh she looked up Josh's nose to see if there was any redness or irritation.  When Noah saw her looking up Josh's nose he started giggling.  The nurse practitioner responded by asking Noah if Noah thought it was pretty funny that she was looking at all of Josh's boogers.  Noah said that he did think it was funny.  She then finished looking at Josh's nose and said that there were no boogers in there today.  Noah then responded that there were no boogers in his nose that day either, because he picked them all and ate them.  GROSS!!  She just looked at Noah and said, "Hey at least you're honest."  I was pretty embarrassed, but what can you do?!

We also got to register Josh for 8th grade last week.  It is crazy how fast this school year went by!!  I was happy to see that Josh wanted to take Band again next year.  His trumpet skills can only improve, right ;)!

We got the kids spring school pictures back.  When we looked a little closer at Daniel's we had to laugh.  Daniel had worn a fluorescent green shirt with a white undershirt that day.  They took the picture in front of a green screen which seemed to have mistook Daniel's green shirt as part of the background.  That's how we got this gem of a picture of a disappearing Daniel:

It was pretty funny to look at I must admit.

Daniel hates getting his loose teeth messed with so he has stopped telling us whenever he has a loose tooth until it actually falls out on its own.  He lost this tooth while eating an apple.  Bleh!  I HATE teeth.  The Tooth Fairy had some issues in coming on time, but she did eventually make it to our house after a three day vacation--haha!

Speaking of teeth Josh had an orthodontic appointment last week and was sad to learn that he won't get his braces off until around October.  He was hoping to get them off next month, but no such luck.  Hopefully, he can get them off in October because he is tired of having them on.

Josh started track last week.  His first day was a bit on the rough side, though.  His coach sent all the kids on an impromptu run around the school.  The whole group took off at the same time.  Unfortunately, Josh tripped and fell, but was right in the middle of the crowd when he fell.  He got trampled.  He was in rough shape when he got home that afternoon.  He had some nice road rash in his shoulder and legs and he also got stomped on his stomach and sprained his wrist.  Much to Josh's credit he wanted to still be in track so he kept going.  I am glad that he hasn't come home with any more road rash since that first day.  Poor kid!!

Also since Josh was doing track he needed some new running shoes because his school shoes were pretty worn out.  I wasn't sure what size he was so I got him measured.  His school shoes that we got at the beginning of the school year were a size 9, but when we got him measured last week he ended up being a size 11.  Wow!!  I felt bad he had been wearing shoes that were two sizes too small for who knows how long.  Oh well he now has shoes that fit him and hopefully won't trip him up during track--haha!

While Aaron was gone I had to take Matthew in for lab work.  Matthew has gotten a ton better at getting his labs done (meaning he doesn't need to be held down anymore), but he still has a hard time with it.  Good thing they were able to get it on the first stick--Matthew doesn't have the best veins to work with.  I got to bring Noah along for that visit to and he wasn't short on comic relief, either. **SIGH** Good thing I love both kids!

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day I had some fun.  I made some green mashed potatoes, with green chicken gravy with a side of broccoli.  We also had a green smoothie for a drink.  The kids loved it.  I didn't have any green food coloring so I had to improvise.  I ended up coloring all the food with spinach blended up in the blender.  It wasn't the most appetizing to look at, but it was good.  You couldn't taste the spinach at all.  I saved some for Aaron for when he would get home the next afternoon, but Aaron let the kids eat it because he thought it looked gross.  The kids didn't care what it looked like and ate the leftovers all up.

Thursday in Matthew's after school program they made and decorated sugar eggs.  I was pretty impressed.  I am glad I snapped the picture when he brought it home because the kids ate up the candy right after he brought it home.

By Thursday night  of the week Aaron was gone I hit my patience limit.  The kids had been fighting so much all week and I had heard enough by Thursday night.  Right after dinner when the fighting started they all got sent to bed at 7:30pm because I was done refereeing and listening to the fighting.  After everyone was in bed I took a long bath which was nice.  However, what was even better was when Aaron got home the next afternoon.  I was done single momming it all week!!

Saturday was such a nice day that we went and got all our pictures taken for our Lagoon Passports for this year.  Afterward we stopped by a park and did some geocaching.  It was such a nice day.  We actually found all the caches we looked for.  We did get some help for one of them, though because it was a pretty difficult one to find, but it still counts as being found as far as I am concerned--haha!

We walked all over the park looking for all four of the caches we found.  It was a really nice day!

Noah is turning out to be a night owl.  We put the kids to bed, but he keeps sneaking out saying he needs lubs and how can I resist that?!  When he finally does get to bed he falls asleep in the craziest positions.  Here's just two examples from this week:

What a crazy kid!

During Aaron's business trip in California he got to drive by a musical road in Lancaster, California.  The city made grooves in the road that as you drive over the grooves at 55 miles an hour it plays the William Tell Overture.  Aaron tried to record it while they were driving over the grooves, but they got stuck behind a slower truck so it kind of sounds funky, but you can still tell what it supposed to sound like.  I thought it was pretty neat.

The bills have started rolling in from Daniel's accidental nut exposure two weeks ago.  They should put warnings on the mailing envelope to say, "Please sit down while viewing your total bill!"  We are up to $4000 so far and not everything has come through yet.  Good thing for insurance.  However, with insurance we still have to cover about $600 so far.  Ugh!  Since we have already spent about $1500 of our Flex Spending Account so far this year this was just extra 'funness' we hadn't planned for.  Goodbye Flex Spending Accout--it was nice knowing you for such a short time in this 2016 year!!

 After Daniel's cashew exposure we emailed the principal to let him know what had happened.  I wanted to see what we could do to prevent this from happening again.  I thought after filling out the long list of papers about his allergies at the beginning of the year, that everyone would be aware of them.  That wasn't the case unfortunately.  After Daniel transferred out of his other class into his new 4th grade class the new teacher didn't follow up on the paperwork.  Since the regular education teacher didn't know about Daniel's allergies she didn't let the music teacher know about them either.  The principal and I talked on the phone for about 30 minutes to see how we could avoid this from happening again.  I was ok with the outcome--I wasn't a jerk to him.  I was genuinely concerned about finding a way where this wouldn't happen again.  I thought things were ok after talking with the principal.  He assured me he would talk to all the teachers about reviewing everyones' allergies in the classrooms.  However, the next week the music teacher sent home another note about another music fun day where the kids could bring their own treats and didn't specify that there were to be no nuts brought in.  I emailed the regular education teacher and let her know and she said she would talk to the music teacher and let her know.  I thought things would be ok after that, however, I am not so sure things are ok since Daniel had a class party in his regular classroom and the teacher brought in Caramel Cashew ice cream for the whole class to eat yesterday afternoon.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!  This is a few days after I emailed her to have her talk to the music teacher!!  UGH!!  Luckily, Daniel read the ingredients and knew enough not to eat any or get touched by anyone who had ice cream on their hands, but I am a bit upset and frustrated at this point.  Not to be dramatic, but this actually could become a life or death situation for Daniel.  I am at a loss of what more I can do to try and get his classroom to become a nut free area since I have already talked to the principal and the regular ed teacher as well as filled out all the forms even getting them signed by Daniel's allergist every single year which is a pain in the butt.  I am about to pull my hair out!  Good thing there is only a few more months of this school year left.  I am just hoping we don't have another accidental exposure since I really don't know if Daniel would survive another one since this last exposure was so severe.

Last Saturday a group of friends got together and had a craft night.  It was nice for me to get out by myself since Aaron had been gone all week.  It was fun to have adult conversations and make something cute which now hangs on my front door:

This week was the Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts.  The theme was Happy Birthday and it was pretty fun.  The funnest part was the clown that came and made balloon formations for everyone.  I was really impressed by his talent!  He made anything and everything the kids asked for.  The kids only got one request, though, but most of them made those requests count!  Daniel's first request was a light saber which was fun until someone stepped on it and popped it :(.

 Sarah asked for a shark and the one he made was awesome.  Sarah's friends asked for a Fairy, an owl and a turtle.  Sarah had just come from dance so she was still wearing her dance clothes.

Daniel waited in line to help Noah.  Daniel being the bargainer he is, told Noah that he would get Daniel's sword if Noah would get the clown to make him a proton pack just like the guys from the movie Ghostbusters.  The clown actually made the proton pack and it was pretty neat as you can see:

 There were so many parts to this proton pack!

 Pretty awesome!

 I could have watched the clown for hours because it was just neat to see all the creations he made.  It was a fun night.

 The next morning I got to be a chaperone for Sarah's 2nd grade field trip.  The kids rode the Frontrunner from Clearfield down to the Clark Planetarium.  Since there were over 100 students going on this field trip they made sure there was a parent chaperone for every 2-3 kids since there were train transfers we had to make.  Here was my group:

 The Planetarium was pretty packed once our classes got there.

 It was fun to look around at the exhibits.

 We even got to watch an interactive star show about the constellations in the Dome Theater.  It was pretty neat.

 It was an all day field trip from 9-2.  However, with all the traveling we did on the trains and waiting for transfers we only ended up having about an hour total at the planetarium.  Oh well it was fun and I was glad I could go with Sarah.  Since I was gone G&G T picked up Noah from school.  He was so excited to see them.  After the field trip I went to pick up Noah from their house only to be met with a crusty look.  Noah wasn't ready to come back home and was mad that I got there that early.  What a crazy kid!

Since my birthday is coming up soon Sarah has been on the look out for presents for me.  Every day this week when she got home from school she had picked a bouquet of flowers to give to me.  It was pretty sweet.

I got an awesome early birthday present this morning when I got kidnapped by a friend and taken out to a yummy breakfast.  It was so nice and yummy, too!  It almost makes getting older worth it--haha!  Thanks Erin!!

My kids can do some funny things.  Noah the other day randomly told me that he loved me more than Sophie and mashed potatoes.  Since he loves those two things a lot, that was a pretty good compliment!

The other day I was taking the kids to school since it was rainy.  When I went to drop Sarah off she realized she forgot her back pack.  She turned to me and said, "Oh you can just go pick it up and drop it off to me, Mom.  I will just be in my classroom."  Yes ma'am--glad to know that I am at her service as her personal secretary--haha!

Ducks, Cake, Emergency, Ambulance, Puppy Bootcamp, Shaving, Campouts, Grooming

Wow, what a week!  Here's a recap.  The other day Daniel was really looking at himself in the mirror.  After a few minutes he came over to Aaron and told him (in the most serious voice) that he needed to shave his face because he was getting a mustache and beard.  Aaron went along with Daniel and helped him 'shave' his frog whiskers.  After watching Daniel shave Noah insisted that he needed to shave, too.  He was excited to get the shaving cream smeared on his face.

Noah got to get his frog whiskers shaved, too.  Aaron just used the back plastic end of the razor to not irritate the skin.  Noah was so proud to show me his smooth face with freshly applied aftershave. 

Here's Daniel getting his 'whiskers' shaved off:

What funny boys!

Two Wednesdays ago we got to drop off all 126 service project fleece blankets that we tied for Youth Conference down at Primary Children's Medical Center for our Young Women activity.  Wahoo!  It was a bit anticlimactic, though.  Since we were dropping off the blankets after regular hours we had to drop them off at the front entrance of the hospital with a security guard.  As we brought all four HUGE boxes in, the security guard just crustily told us to drop them off in the corner and went back to her work.  I then had to fill out a form giving all my information as a contact person for where all the blankets came from.  After I gave the security guard the form I filled out she just flatly told us, "Thanks" and went back to her work.  It was a bit of a letdown.  I guess we were hoping for a little bit more excitement or enthusiasm for receiving so many blankets, but we were wrong.  Oh well, at least they can now be given to those poor patients that need them--plus they are now out of my living room :).  To celebrate we stopped by for either an ice cream cone or a hot fudge sundae on the way home.

Friday we were looking at Sophie and she was looking a bit straggly.  

Luckily, our neighbor does dog grooming so we gave her a call and she squeezed Sophie in her schedule for the next morning.  When we dropped Sophie off she was just shaking because she was so scared.  The lady had her for almost two hours before we picked her back up.  She looked so darling!!  She even had a cute pink bow in her fur by her ears.  The bow didn't stay in longer than a few minutes, but it was cute while it lasted.

 Such a cute dog!

Since Aaron and I have never had an indoor dog it is easy to say that we have no idea what we are doing.  I have tried to train her, but things weren't going so well.  Luckily I found a puppy trainer who does a puppy boot camp where she will take the dog for two weeks and train it.  She picked up Sophie yesterday for boot camp.  We didn't realize how attached we had become to her until she was gone.  Hopefully she will be fully house trained, crate trained and not as nippy or yappy when she gets back.   Keeping my fingers crossed!  We do miss her, though.

We have been really using our Flex Spending Account so far this year :(.  Aaron was sick Last Sunday as well as some of the other kids.  When Aaron finally spiked a fever and had white spots on his throat he went in to be seen.  I was sure it was Strep and the doctor was, too, until the Rapid Strep test came back negative.  DOH!!  I guess it was some random virus that looked a lot like Strep, but this Strep doppelganger virus you couldn't treat with an antibiotic.  Fun times.  Luckily, it went away after a few days.

Last Monday was pretty scary.  I was out running errands in Layton, but I had accidentally left my phone in the car.  When I came out and looked at my phone I saw I had a missed call and a message from the elementary school.  DOH!!  Have I mentioned that I HATE calls from the school?!  Anyway Daniel had eaten something he was allergic to and was having a reaction.  I immediately called the school back who was on the phone with Grandma T because they couldn't reach Aaron either and were just trying to get a hold of someone.  I told them to give Daniel some Allegra immediately and for him to start his rescue inhaler while I drove over to pick him up.  Usually if Daniel has a reaction the Allegra and inhaler will stop it so I wasn't too worried, but I still hurried to pick him up since I was 20 minutes away.  By the time I got to the school he was covered in hives and a bit wheezy.  I brought him home and immediately made him use his rescue inhaler which didn't do very much for him.  His hives were getting worse as was his wheezing.  I gave him a dose of prednisone and a Zyrtec as well.  As I helplessly watched he got worse and worse.  Here's the hives as soon as I got him home from the school.  This was only 20 minutes after eating the allergen and after receiving the Allegra:

 After a few minutes his shoulder and arm were one big hive:

 I got out our pulse oximeter and he was measuring 84%. That measures the oxygen level in his blood and if can't breath his levels drop.  So 84% is pretty low!  YOWZA!!  Anything below 90% is not good.  Daniel plead with me not to get the Epi Pen shot because it hurts so bad, but I had to give it to him in his thigh.  I guess I must have promised him a Fiiz drink if he would let me give him the shot.  I don't quite remember that, but it must have worked since he got the Epi Pen shot.  After the shot we immediately drove over to the Instacare because they were the closest.  The Epi pen stopped the reaction for a few minutes so he was doing a bit better.  I was a bit annoyed at the Instacare because they made me check all the way in before they would do anything for Daniel.  I kept saying that this was an emergency, but the receptionist wouldn't budge.  I was about to leave and take him to the hospital, but when they saw his oxygen saturation was so low they got us immediately back.  The doctor came and took a look at Daniel and was not happy with the way he looked.  Then the hives started coming back on Daniel's body so the doctor called for the ambulance to transport him to the hospital.  Oh I could just kick myself for not driving all the way to the hospital in the first place.  I just thought the Instacare was closer.  Oh well, live and learn.  Here's Daniel waiting for the ambulance to come pick him up.  This is an hour after eating what we finally figured out was a chocolate covered cashew which he is deathly allergic to.  They gave him a megadose of Benadryl orally and then started an IV and gave him an IV dose of Benadryl and fluids as well.

 They wouldn't let me ride in the back of the ambulance with Daniel so I opted to follow behind in the car.  Here they are loading Daniel up in the ambulance outside the Instacare:

 We got to the hospital about the same time.  Here they are unloading Daniel:

 They did give us a copy of the EKG tracing.  I now know for sure that Daniel has a heart--haha!  For whatever reason it's upside down in the picture.

When we got to the ER Daniel was exhausted from the huge dose of Benadryl.  They also medicated him with some Solumedrol which is strong IV steroid as well as IV Pepcid.

 Even after receiving all that medication he was still covered in hives.  We just had to sit and wait and watch until things finally calmed down.  He then had to take oral steroids for the next four days until the allergen got out of his system.

 During this whole episode I got to hear the whole story.  Daniel's class had gone to their music prep time where they had earned a fun day.  For fun days the kids get to bring treats to share.  One of Daniel's friends offered him a chocolate candy so Daniel ate it thinking that it was just candy.  Unfortunately, it ended up being a chocolate covered cashew which is the nut he is most severely allergic to.  He ate it at 11:00 and was in the office at 11:05.  I picked him up at 11:25 and then I gave him his Epi pen and we were at the InstaCare by 12:00.  Things happened so fast!  It really scares me because each exposure results in a more severe reaction.  In all honesty I don't know if he would have 20 minutes to spare if he was exposed to it again which is scary.  While waiting in the ER we did call his allergist and signed him up to be on the waiting list to start the Oral Immunotherapy on cashews and pistachios to get him over the allergy.  The bad thing is there is a 9-12 month waiting list to start.  DOH!!  Hopefully, we don't have another issue before we can start the therapy.  I am keeping my fingers crossed!!  I am just dreading receiving all these medical bills.  I have already told Daniel that he's already gotten his birthday and Christmas presents for this year--a not so fun ambulance ride with accompanying ER stay.  I was kidding, of course, but he didn't think I was very funny.  Another funny tid bit is each member of our family has had at least one emergency ambulance ride now at some point except for Noah.  That is CRAZY!!  I think I will be keeping Noah wrapped up in bubble wrap for the rest of his life--haha!  Matthew has even had a Life Flight Helicopter ride, too.  We really try and maximize our insurance use--but not by choice--haha!!  That's how I can say I have rightfully earned every one of those gray hairs on my head!!

Let me just say that 'roid rage is a real thing.  Those steroids play with my kids emotions.  Daniel was so all over the map the next few days.  One point he would be yelling the next he would be crying.  I was glad to finish off those steroids for sure!!

The next day Daniel was not wanting to go to school.  I didn't push him since he'd had such a traumatic experience the day before.  He also had an orthodontic appointment at noon to fix a broken bracket so I would have had to check him out early if he had gone anyway so I just let him stay home.  He was fun to have around.  He helped me dust and clean up and chatted to me the whole time.  That kid can talk!  It was fun to have it be just him and me for a morning.  We then picked up Noah from kindergarten and got Daniel's bracket fixed we headed over to feed the ducks.  I think Noah ate more bread than he fed the ducks the crazy kid!

 We even brought along Sophie who was afraid of everything, but still barked at everything.  It was such a nice day.  We really have some Spring Fever going on!

 We must have worn Sophie out because by the time we got home she immediately curled up in my lap and fell asleep.

 Matthew had a super fun day last week in his after school program.  They spent the afternoon at the Railroad Festival.  They have this festival every year where a ton of hobby railroad guys bring and set up their train sets for everyone to see.  It is a really big deal.  Matthew went and had a fabulous time.  I can only imagine how much hand flapping and squeals of excitement were going on :).

Let me just say that Aaron LOVES Cadbury Creme Eggs.  When he found this Creme Egg Cake recipe he gave it to me just to show me that it looked good.  Josh and I surprised him the next day and made it for him.  It actually was pretty good.  I am not one that enjoys chocolate very much, but this was pretty good.  You make the cake batter then stick 6 creme eggs inside the cake.  After baking it you frost it with melted chocolate and more Cadbury Eggs.  Here's what it looked like before my family annihilated it.  It lasted less than 12 hours.

 I was looking at pictures from a year ago when I found the one where Josh was shorter than me.  That is crazy because looking at him right now he is now 3 inches taller than me.  He has grown 6 inches in the last year.  That is crazy!  Here's the two comparison pictures to show that he has truly grown 6 inches in the last year.

 He is really putting all that food he eats to good use I guess!

This weekend the scouts invited the Webelos along to a camp out  at Antelope Island.  The Webelos could only go if their dad went with them.  Good thing Daniel has that puppy dog look down pat because he got Aaron to go along with them.  They went up for dinner Friday night and set up their tents.  They had fun around the campfire Friday night.  However, it was super windy throughout the night and the rain flap on the tent flapped really loudly all night long.  It didn't bother Josh and Daniel, but it really bothered Aaron.  Aaron ended up trying to sleep in the cab of the truck, but his 6'1" frame inside a mummy bag didn't fit very well.  Needless to say he was a bit ornery the whole next day from lack of sleep--haha!  The next morning Daniel had a basketball game so Aaron brought Daniel home, but left Josh there because the rest of the scouts were going on a 5 mile hike which Josh wanted to go on.  Our neighbor brought Josh home after the hike and Josh said he had lots of fun.  Here's a few pictures from the campout:

 Do these boys ever get full?!

 Josh said the dutch oven chicken dinner was delicious!

 A few of the boys got up early to watch the sunrise.  You can bet Mr. Early Bird Josh was there.  His definition of sleeping in is sleeping until 7:30 am.  I don't think this kid could be mine--haha!

 The sunrise: