Steele County Free Fair

We spent a few hours on Thursday and Saturday at the Steele County Free Fair which is literally a couple of blocks from my folks' house in Owatonna.

Unfortunately, Thursday was rainy and yet we did get in about 2 hours before it poured! The boys went on some rides (my mom gets them weekly wristbands) although this year Connell was very scared of the rides after a couple of years of loving them! He started questioning the safety of the rides this year and his overanalysis of the rides ruined any fun he might have on them. Oh, well. He did enjoy playing BINGO at the St. Mary's tent and so he went with my mom and Neysa in there to play that. The boys also liked a little whale that had a spot for coins -- if you got a coin in, then the whale spouted his water! My mom only had dollars and then ended up buying two rolls of pennies for a dollar which makes for a lot of coins!

The mascots (Steely and Stella which are two cows) greeted the boys and I snapped a picture. We also went through some of the animal barns again.

The boys had some French fries (the yummy ones with skins on them) and some ice cream. Liam accidentally was sitting on Connell's finger and so Connell pushed Liam over the back of the picnic bench and so we had some stares and two unhappy boys at one point! You might be able to sense the sadness in the photo with the fries.

We also had a few mini-doughnuts on the way home on Saturday. Ray loves the fair food, although the boys are I aren't as thrilled by it.

My dad is feeling really good again and so he spent lots of time at the fair with us as well. I was so impressed with how much he was walking after his recent hospital stay.

Peanut Allergy Update

Connell's allergist's nurse called yesterday with the latest results from his peanut allergy test. They hadn't tested him for peanuts in 2 years simply because typically peanut allergies are for life and so it would simply be a waste of money. But this year the doctor insisted on checking just to see if his numbers were getting better and if perhaps there might be any hope that he might be one of the 20% who ever outgrow a peanut allergy.

Well, bad news. His RAST test number was 82 this year which means that he went from a class 4 peanut allergy when measured 2 years ago now up to a class 5 peanut allergy this year. The numbers indicate the likelihood of having a reaction when in contact with the product (either through touch, ingestion, in the air, etc.) You can see that Connell's number of 82 is quite high on the scale.

Peanut Allergy Classes...

0 <.035 Absent/Undetectable
class 1 0.35-0.70 Low Level
class 2 0.71-3.50 Moderate Level
class 3 3.51-17.5 High Level
class 4 17.6-50 Very High Level
class 5 51-100 Very High Level
class 6 >100 Very High Level

I wasn't surprised by the phone call; in fact, I was very surprised that the doctor even wanted to test it again this year. We have gone 4 years now keeping his diet and environment peanut-free (and tree-nut free as well once we had that diagnosis 2 years ago) and Connell has never known life any differently. He always has to ask, "Does this have peanuts or tree-nuts in it because I am allergic" and he takes his Epi-pen Jr. with him (although we have never had to use it).

Funny thing is that last week when the doctor did the test, she said that in the case that it came back negative, they would want to do a tolerance test in the office where he would be given peanut products and they would watch his body's reactions over the hours to see if he could truly tolerate them. When I told Connell of this possibility, he cried and kept saying, "But I don't want to eat peanuts! What if I don't like them?!?" and so I tried not to bring it up again because he was upset by the fact that he would even be exposed to peanuts! However, being a part of the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network for 4 years now and receiving their period publication, that is a common reaction from many children. Once they find out that they no longer have an allergy and can eat the item, they don't want to because they have been taught to "fear" that item for so long. Makes perfect psychological sense to me.

But what really is ironic is how much I love peanuts and everything peanut butter (Reese's and all those dessert bars with peanut butter and peanut butter on apple slices, etc.) and how much I feel like the boys are missing out not having the experience of peanuts in their lives (Liam avoids simply because the longer we wait to feed those nut products to him, the less likely he is to have/develop the same allergy as Connell). But Ray still has confidence that one of these years they will succeed in creating a hypoallergenic peanut (some sort of man made legume that will not affect people with peanut allergies -- scientists have been working on this for a while now and apparently one day it is destined to replace all peanuts as we know them now. I'm not sure if this will occur in my lifetime though...)

Challenging Project

For some odd reason (perhaps the fact that I have been doing lots of reorganizing of papers and sifting through old files), I got the notion of trying to locate all 20 of the participants on the '92 fall semester study abroad in Rennes, France. We came from all over the U.S. (California, Washington, New York, Wisconsin, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc.) and so it was quite the daunting task to try to locate everyone.

Well, with the help of Facebook, LinkedIn, extensive Google searches and even aid from a few alumni offices, I found all 20 (19 I guess since I am the one to make it 20!) I put lots of information together (pictures, photos, memories) to email to everyone in hopes that everyone emails back a little info regarding the last 16 1/2 years. I will put it all into a document to share with everyone. Grandiose plan I know -- I hope people find it worth their time and they are as curious as I am as far as where life took everyone! The picture above shows the group (minus Marcia who took the photo -- and an addition of the program director Mr. Buckley and Eric the bus driver on the top right -- there are also two native French girls in front of them that we simply assigned to us to help us out -- the remaining 19 in the photo and Marcia who snapped it comprise the 20 people whom I have "virtually reunited". Can you tell that I am the one on the right with the bright green coat and cream scarf?!?!)

But basically that took much of my freetime the last week so I have little to report other than that! We did entertaining this weekend, too which was fun.

The boys are spending their second Tues afternoon at the Apple Valley Community Center program and so I hope that Liam doesn't blow it by going potty in his pull-up (they are supposed to be potty trained to be involved in this program and yet when I signed him up -- he was potty trained -- now he's not anymore!)

And another birthday down...

Upon arrival at the bowling alley, Connell took a nasty spill in the parking lot (all the excitement) and was dripping blood down his leg. Yet he bit the bullet and decided to continue with the bowling adventure!

It was quite interesting and fun as Connell and Liam's bowling balls took minutes (at least it seemed) to get to the end of the alley and often they did not even have the attention span to see the ball make contact with the pins. No one really wanted to wait their turns, but we managed. The Special Olympics adults came in ready to bowl at 4 pm (as we were finishing) and so we got heckled by a few of them. Bumpers and all-- our end scores were Ray-125, Clare-116, Liam-88 and Connell-76. Connell was a little bummed that he was in last place for his own birthday, but Ray reminded him that daddy had to help Liam a little bit and Connell got the 76 all on his own. So now Connell's favorite number is 76!

Then it was off to IHOP and back home for cake and presents. Connell got two board games as presents (is there actually anything else to give him as a present - I mean, really?!??!) and we played for a while together. Notice that I handcrafted everything with a few Dollar Tree and thrift store finds -- the cake and the headband and the trophy to complete the bowling theme birthday. The pins on the headband and cake are actually table bowling sets and as you can see Connell took advantage of them as well!

Connell is 5 years old!

Yes, that's right. At 4:22 am Connell turned 5 years old. This afternoon Ray took off from work and the 4 of us are off to go bowling at Apple Place. Then we will have supper at IHOP and home for cake and presents. We still have maintained our "no parties" rule and we have been having a blast just doing fun things as a family for our special days. That reminds me..my birthday is coming up next week and I better get planning...

Stay tuned for photos from the bowling escapade later this evening or tomorrow...

Splashing around

Today on a whim the boys and I went with some friends to a man-made "lake" in Lake Elmo so the kids could splash around and "swim". Notice the the water isn't very deep at any given point. They had a great time in the water and making sand piles and also playing on the play equipment that was nearby.

It's August already!

That means that within 5-6 weeks, school will start for Connell and preschool for Liam and my church programs will be soon after. Yeah! Although our summer has been unseasonably chilly, I'm still a little sick of just playing outside and going to parks. I need a few organized programs for the kids!

This week I am suffering from a nasty virus that seems to be going around. I came down with it last Wed. and so 6 days into it, the coughing is starting to drive me nuts! Ray just loves being able to leave for work in the morning so that he doesn't have to listen to me hack all day long. I seem to be sleeping pretty well at night and Ray hasn't complained, so that is good news. Any unnecessary screaming or talking irritates my throat and so I have been trying to limit that --- but the boys have caught on and feel like they have more freedom than they should.

Luckily today the boys went to the community center for a 3 hr program so I had a few hours to myself, but I used the time to clean the closet and bake Connell's birthday cake for Thurs. Tonight our neighborhood is taking part in the Night to Unite and so we all will be up later than normal.

Day in Owatonna

The boys and I drove down to Owatonna on Friday for the day. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my dad was doing very well only a few days after being discharged from the hospital. We played some games and spent a lot of time outdoors. Here are a few photos. You can see my sister, Neysa and my mom and dad.