Sea of Green Life

Back now from Duluth. No one knew anything and I only saw the allergist and the tech who put the portable "amblatory" EEG machine to monitor to brain waves while I was in the car off and on for 24 hours. They are trying to rule out something called "reflex epilepsy" which I am still looking into. The symptoms still are bad in the car, like watching someone turn into a statue I think. But they aren't as severe. I can ride in the car with a big mask on for longer times without the window down. And the main symptoms clear up after only a few minutes when I'm out of the car. I still get turned around and disorientated after a while, but its more like unfocused, not unfunctioning. The results from today will be ready by the end of next week, and I'll meet with the nuerolgist after that. In other news, AnnaBelle is terrified of Jack O Lanterns and Genevieve is counting the days until her birthday. She is also excited to see her friend Oliver who we are trying ...

So here's the question: How do you get to Duluth without getting in a car? It took about 5 hours, but the hospital staff and I found the solution. Answer: One EMT and one oxygen tank. Headed to Duluth tomorrow allergy testing and back to the neurologist. They do a 24 hour test that will monitor activity while I am having an "episode." Its okay. Laugh. I still have to convince myself I'm NOT CRAZY! The worst part will be tommorow night and the next afternoon, since I will be in a stupor while I let the machine work. I am supposed to induce this reaction; ie, ride in the car, eat yummy candy, walk into a garage.....any other ideas? Not to make light on a potentially serious issue, but God is with us and we are working to figure it out. We are thankful for many things, including symptoms to a problem that we can work to find. We will need prayer for a while though. Sara

Still trying to figure out allergies or whatever with Sara. They are getting worse. For anyone who hasn't seen me lately. I am reacting to something in some foods (mostly candy) and some cars. I want to post it here so if anyone else is Googling it, they might hit an answer sooner. I am headed to Duluth this week for an allergy test that will hopefully fill in the blanks. The reaction I am having is textbook for Central Nervous System Depression. Not really depression, but the kind of drug induce stupor you get from "downers" or some prescriptions. Check out the link on the right to get a quick idea. Everything except coma and death (thank you, God) are what I experience when in the car even for a minute (literally). What we think it is: Anti-Freeze. We don't know how because Gid doesn't know how it would get into the car and our cars don't have it in now, but the reaction happened again when he was working on a truck in the garage and spilled some. Also ANTI ...

October 4-11 is Fire Week. So it is of course our daycare theme and man do we love it. Each year I collect more props and resources to use. Just today I had a dad bring in a backpack sprayer to lend to dress up. I'll have to get pix of that too. Anyway, this was our very busy day today. I had 10 kids and we went on a field trip to the fire hall. I knew this would be easier for some of the fire guys, except Gideon who was in charge of our adventure. So we played in the bay with the equipment and then ate lunch with the firefighters.

AnnaBelle digging in the cooler for food. Milk is definately AnnaBelle's issue. There may be more, but milk is definately a no, no. We figured it out for sure right before vacation, no milk of any kind, in anything. We went to McDonald's and got her a hamburger, and had nasty diapers and a stomach ache. There is milk in the bun. We are now even watching soy products for the milk protien which may or may not set her off. So we are learning: Hummus is dairy free--at least the kind we had. Tofutti brand tastes pretty good. (cream cheese, sour cream, cheese) all have tofu. Putting AB's milk in cooking doesn't make that much of a difference. Except if you use the Hy-Top brand margarine in cookies, they are kind of flat and still delicious. You can make oatmeal cookies milk free but if you add choc. chips, AB can't have them--OOPS. If AnnaBelle can't have dessert, just give her a bowl of Honey Mustard dressing. EEEW I know but she ate two of them at the dinner theat...

AnnaBelle and sand... she has a sensory thing with her feet so it took her several days to walk on it. Even then she only did the hard packed sand by the water. Wierd kid. Genevieve's first time on a real beach with real sand. Our hotel is behind her. We all had a great time in Florida and Gideon didn't get burned. Well he got red but not peeling lobster like he usually does any time he is near water. We went to Gatorland, Daytona Flea Market, a beach by St. Augustine that felt like baby powder, swimming in the indoor and outdoor pools, jumped waves in the ocean, and went boating on the St. John's River. Genevieve on her first day asked if we could go swimming again, "but not in the spicey one." It took us awhile, but she meant ocean. The water was "spicey." Traveling with kids no problem what so ever, except the potty training AnnaBelle and having to go to the bathroom a million times. She did mostly good but as the week wore on she stopped telling u...

This is when I took my niece Courtney on a girls day in Duluth two weeks ago. The title??? Yeah it's been that bad. Work and housework, and broken motors, and family and friends visiting. To many things to do. We painted the basement fun bright colors. Our good friends Stephanie and Josh and kids of course are moving to IN. But we get to see our other friends Mark, Kelley, Oliver, and Karis this week so that is exciting. My brother Al and family were up last week and so was my Grandma Alice. So like I said, busy. Mostly I wanted to post because people have been asking about AnnaBelle. She gained 1lb in 3 weeks which is unheard of lately. I need to weigh her again because I swear she is getting heavier. We have just cut out major milk products. We miss a lot of things, like cheez its, goldfish, and stroganoff (meaning she eats them and doesn;t seem to have a problem with the amount. We will continue to play with this to see what she can handle and what the main culprit is. Is it...