I am sitting in a hospital bed. I have my IV and a cool new kind of hospital gown that hooks into a warming device. Its called Bair Paws patient warming device. I am actually glad to be getting this done because I have been miserable. Scott put this app on my Droid so I can blog from it. This is my first post from it. The girls are at school. Kaitlyn wants me to bring my gallbladder home to her. If I can’t do that I am supposed to ask the doctor what color my gallbladder is for her. That’s all for now.

The title sums it up!  I must say I am somewhat impressed because Kaitlyn did think to move the bath mats out of the way so they wouldn’t get messed up.

In this case, the pictures are definitely worth 1,000 words!

One note:  Those are their toothbrushes they are using to “clean up the mess”!

…..and school comes along just to end it! (Phineas and Ferb)  This is Kaitlyn’s (and Scott’s) new favorite show. I love it too!  I thought the theme song was appropriate for our last 2 weeks.  Summer is definitley officially over!  The girls started back to daycare on August 10.  It was a very smooth transition. No tears were shed (by the girls anyway!).  Kaitlyn loves being in 4K.  She adores her teachers and is excited to be back around her friends every day.  She even got to go on a field trip to TCBY!  Karlee has been promoted to the 2K class (aka the potty training class).  She is doing great. Her teacher is Ms Amy and we love her!  She was admittedly nervous our first day there with all of Karlee’s allergies and epi pens, etc. But she has been wonderful.

I have a fabulous group of 4th graders.   28 were originally on my list, but 2 have moved over the summer.  Unfortunately that makes me low man on the totem pole, so I’ll get all the new kids when they come in later in the year.  I guess that sounds bad now that i type it.  I usually end up loving the kids, its just hard to get a new student in the middle of the year because they don’t know the routines and often times they are in a completely different place in SS than I am.  I’ve only had them for 2 days, and already they have my procedures and expectations down pretty well.  They are a sweet group, and I really think its going to be a great year!

Scott has been working crazy hours at work, but he’s still able to play with the girls at night and help me out since I am  under my beginning of the year panic attacks!

Here are some pics of the girls on their first day of school.

This is Karlee with Ms Amy her teacher.

Team Karlee

Most of you know our daughter Karlee has several allergies.
She is allergic to milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shell fish, and fire ants!
We are thankful that she has outgrown her egg allergy!

This is our first year participating in the FAAN Walk. This is a great
organization that has provided me with many resources and a local support
group! I know we all have our own causes, but please consider donating to this
one. Even if you can only donate a small amount, it all adds up together!

What? Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis
Network’s (FAAN’s) Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward A Cure.

When? Sunday, September 20, 2009

Where? Charlotte, NC

Why? To find a cure, to increase
awareness, to provide an opportunity for a child with food allergies to simply
be a child, and to save a life!

How can you
help? By donating to help us
reach our goal! Any amount , large or
small, can make a big difference!

Want to
donate? Check out our Team website

For my Greenville Friends, The Bubble = Peachtree City, my hometown!

After Gatlinburg we drove to Atlanta.  Scott loaded up the girls and drove them down because he was in a training class all week in Alpharetta.  The girls and I spent the week at my parents’!  We went to mom’s school, ate at Sprayberry’s, Partner’s, and Mike and C’s. I got to meet up with some friends from my theater days that I literally haven’t seen since we graduated from high school.  We even got to take Kaitlyn to see High School Musical 2 at the Legacy Theater.  As if there were any doubt, she definitely has a future on the stage.  The owner and the actors adored her.  She told everyone she was in a production of Sleeping Beauty and they believed her!  Now, it Kaitlyn’s mind it wasn’t a lie because she says one day she will be Sleeping Beauty on stage and everyone will ask for her autograph and I will be so proud of her!

This is at Scott’s hotel when we picked up the girls.

Mom pulled out my old Barbie’s and Kaitlyn loved playing with them all week!

We went on a golf cart ride every night!

This might be her pirate face or her “cheese” face.  She is holding the special cookies I made that are milk free but have eggs.  She refused to eat them at first!

Karlee and I joined in the Barbie fun!

Kaitlyn showing off her cool tattoo!

Getting ready to go see High School Musical 2.  Papa babysat Karlee.

At the Legacy

Daddy came to visit!

My family….not the best pic!

We got to see the Oscar Mayer Wiener!

Aunt Mimi and Uncle John came down to celebrate my mom’s birthday!

Karlee eating Lime Sherbet (her “ice cream”) and special birthday cake!

After mom was here for a week, we got to away for a weekend.  Scott graciously offered to watch the girls so I could go have some fun!  Mom and I drove over to Pigeon Forge and met my sister Mandy there.  Amber was invited, but she lives in Florida and they were at the beach that week.  Anyway, we had a great time shopping and eating and drinking wine coolers!  We even went to the Black Bear Jamboree dinner and show. We had a blast picking out our favorite dancers! ; )

Mom spent a week with us from July 17-24.  She had a blast babysitting the girls while I was in class. We enjoyed time together shopping and eating ice cream and playing when I wasn’t in class too!  Thanks mom for helping out!

Mom rode up with a friend of hers, and we met them at a gas station.  The girls were so excited to see Grandmama!

Enjoying ice cream at Dillards in Greer.

Karlee loves her rainbow sherbet!

Posing with the peaches!

Karlee having her school time with Grandmama.

Kaitlyn loves school too!

The girls had a blast with my mom!  They absolutely adore her.  We don’t have any family in town, so we truly appreciate all the help we get!

Thanks Grandmama! We love you!

Backing up to July 17th.  My mom came up to visit for the week.  We always do this in the summer since we’re both teachers.  I had a few classes to take, and she babysat the girls for me.  We also had Karlee’s fire ant allergy testing.  She had the bad reaction earlier this summer.  Karlee was so brave! Before we left we put Emla cream all over her arms to numb them up.  The testing involved using a needle to put fire ant venom under the skin the forearm to see when a reaction would occur.  The ant venom becomes stronger in each test so they can tell what strength to begin the allergy shots.  Karlee had to have several shots.  She reacted on the 1 part venom to 1000 parts saline.  (The Dr said that would be about the equivalent to 1/1000th of what a real ant bite would be).  Karlee is there youngest patient ever on fire ant shots.  Instead of the normal 30 minute wait, we have to wait an hour.  We have to take her once a week for about 6 months. Then we’ll move to once a month until she is 5 years old (she is 2 now).  When the shots are complete she will be 97% immune to fire ant venom.  Until then she has to wear socks and close toed shoes.  The doctor prefers that we not play in parks or other places that we can’t be sure are fire ant free.  We use the same action plan that we have for her food allergies.  Benadryl first, then EpiPen, Jr. if needed.  I am EXTREMELY nervous about sending her to day care.  They have been wonderful with her food allergies, and I know they will do everything they can to keep her safe, but even I can’t keep all the ants away!  She had her first shot last week, and was such a brave baby. No tears were shed!

If you know me at all, then you know I am a complete Disney fanatic!   Scott and I went there on our honeymoon.  And I think Kaitlyn and Karlee have gone every year since they were born. We are fortunate to have both my sister’s family and Scott’s family in central Florida.  This year we went to Magic Kingdom of course.  Its the girls’ (and my) favorite.

I have to give complete compliments to Disney for making the dining experience with a child with multiple food allergies so easy!  We didn’t do a big long trip where we stayed on site this time. It was just a day trip, so we only hit the “fast food” style restaurants at the park.  For lunch we went to Cosmic Rays.  When I went to order, I mentioned that my daughter had food allergies and could I look a list of ingredients.  She immediately took out a 3-ring binder divided into sections by allergy.  I of course had to cross reference, but if you had a peanut allergy, you could flip to that tab and find a list of peanut free foods with all of the ingredients. While I was browsing, a manager came over to talk with me.  He was so nice!  He called back to the kitchen to tell them to get ready for a special allergy order.  He explained to me that all of the oils are filtered together at the end of each day, but for Karlee the oils have never caused a problem.  He ordered her a hamburger on a special bun for allergic kids.  They cooked her fries separately so we didnt havce to worry about cross-contamination. And her food came straight from being cooked to her own tray.  They wouldn’t even put her food on the same tray as the rest of ours!  I was so impressed.  Dinner was a similar situation. We were all starving and we were near Pinocchio Village Haus.  We went in and got the same fabulous service, unfortunately they didn’t have a lot that Karlee likes.  They suggested the Columbia Harbour House.  They made Karlee special chicken fingers for dinner.  She can’t eat regular chicken fingers because the breading has milk and egg in it.  I don’t remember all of the ingredients, but they made her some kind of chicken fingers with rice flour and tapioca.  They were actually not bad, and she loved them.

If we had been planning a week long on site vacation, they told us if we call ahead about 2 weeks they can do even more for kids with food allergies.  Just another reason I am such a Disney fan!

Here are some pics of our day!

To start off we got to be “co-pilots” on the monorail!

Kaitlyn taking a turn at the wheel! (Don’t worry, she didn’t really drive and it was NOT the day the monorails crashed)

The teacups–our first stop

Visiting the Princesses (only about a 10 minute wait…..we know how to do Disney right!)

Kaitlyn loves Goofy’s roller coaster. I think she will be the riding roller coasters with her daddy in the future!

A mid-morning nap

Minnie’s Cottage

Kaitlyn and Granddad driving

Daddy and Kaitlyn on Dumbo

Another ride on Dumbo with Granddad

Karlee begged to ride Dumbo again, and then promptly fell asleep!

It was a LONG day!

Thanks Grammy and Granddad for taking us to Magic Kingdom!

I had to add this in. I was looking through these pics and I remembered one from Kaitlyn’s first trip to Disney. Here she is in the summer of 2006 (age 18 months)

And here she is in the same spot June 2009 (age 4 1/2)

And here is Karlee in her stroller last year at Magic Kingdom (July 2008 Age: 14 months)

And this year in her stroller Age:  2 and 2 months!

We left Greenville on June 24 and headed to Jacksonville Beach.  This part of the vacation was fabulous!  It was just the 4 of us, and we got to relax, play on the beach, swim in the pools, and just have fun together!

Scott and Kaitlyn’s masterpiece.  This was after I took Karlee up to the room because she kept stomping on the sand castles saying “boom, boom, boom!”

Kite flying with Daddy.  He looks great flying a Disney Princess kite!

Kaitlyn tangled up in the kite!

Helping Daddy

Striking a pose!

S

“I do it Mommy!”  Its sunscreen, but she’s using it like lipstick!  Incidentally, Kaitlyn broke out in an awful rash from the Sport Block sunscreen we used. I had a similar reaction several years ago.  So no sport block sunscreen for us!

Getting ready for dinner

The girls slept in the pull out couch bed.  They were so sweet together, and both slept very well the whole time!