End of the Year

Since Sarah isn't going to school tomorrow today was her last official full day of junior high.  She has a half day on Friday where she will go, get her yearbook, and she and her friends will sign them and do whatever else they need to do to clean out the remainder of their lockers.  Then she comes home around lunchtime, with her graduation ceremony at 5:00 Friday evening.

Alison's last full day is tomorrow.  She got her yearbook on Monday, but I am not sure when they are going to have their signing.  I assume it'll be Friday as well since they too have a half day.

Both girls pretty much can't wait for the end of the year so they can start summer vacations

Social Studies Extra Credit

This weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday helping Alison with a little extra credit project for her social studies class.  For some reason she decided she wanted to do a report on Menasha.  I'm still not sure why.  So I spent Saturday trying to think up all the cool things about Menasha (are there really any?) and landmarks, and looking up the history of the city.  I thought that a lot of the things that I knew about Menasha growing up would not be one bit interesting to someone in Menomonee Falls.  I think things are more interesting to you when you have some sort of a connection to it, and Alison thinks it's cool because that is where I grew up.

I'm sure I could have found a few more things for her if I had more than a day to go look for information for her, Ali could have had a killer report.  As it is, I found about 10-12 interesting tidbits about Menasha and then found a three paragraph summary on the history of the city from some Wisconsin Historical Society web site, so she was able to write up a small description.  I hope she gets a good grade on it, just because she seems so excited about it.

Second Opinion

Thursday Alison had a doctor's appointment with an ENT to have a look at her throat and tonsils. We thought she shoudl get checked out since she has had strep throat three times in the last year. This last time wasn't a diagnosed case, each strep test she had came back negative, but as soon as the doctor got her on antibiotics for strep everything started to clear up.

The doctor said that he thought things were fine. Apparently there are guidelines for wen to have tonsils removed, and Alison hadn't met those. He said that if we wanted we could have them removed, but at this point he didn't think it was warranted. So that is good news for Alison, at least for now. Hopefully she'll stay healthy now for a while.

Getting Better Slowly

Well, as of tonight, Alison's throat is doing much, much better. She has three days worth of antibiotics in her and the fever is gone, her throat isn't nearly as painful (according to her) and it looks much better as well. Her tonsils are still swollen and there are still a couple of white spots, but they are not nearly as red. In fact, if it were not for the size of her tonsils, the color of her throat looks almost normal. So obviously the antibiotics are working.

Kris did make an appointment next week for Alison to see the ENT at the clinic. Hopefully they will tell us whether or not Alison tonsils should come out or not. Her regular doctor didn't seem to think they needed to come out back in February, but the fact that she has had strep throat now at least three times in the last year (I seem to recall it being four times, but I could be wrong). Hopefully we will get this all solved soon. I hate to see Alison sick (so does Kris).

Update on Alison

So here is the story....

Alison was still complaining that her throat hurt on Friday. Kris called the doctor when she got home from school and while she couldn't get in to see her doctor, they notified him that Ali was still hurting and that her throat had actually gotten worse, so he wrote an order for another swabbing of her throat, all we had to do was show up to lab first thing Saturday morning. Well by the time I got home from work, Ali had developed a fever on top of the sore throat now. I was going to get her in the shower and get her cleaned up so she could just snuggle under a blanket for the remainder of the night, and as she was getting undressed she pointed out a slight rash she was developing on her arm. I started looking at the rest of her body and it was starting on her feet and legs too. She started crying thinking she was getting chicken pox. I knew it wasn't chicken pox, and from our experience with Sarah, I had a pretty good idea it was scarlatina.

Kris and I discussed it and we decided to call the doctor first thing in the morning and see if we could get her in to see the pediatrician on call. I went in to work early with the plan of being home a little after 8:00 so I could go along to the doctor. I called Kris at a little past 8:00 since I got a little hung up and she said she had called and got an appointment at 10:15. They told her to take Ali to the lab and have her throat swabbed ad they would do the rapid strep test and then the doctor would let us know what the results were when we saw her at 10:15.

When we got there we let the nurse know everything that was happening, and she had a look at Ali and thought the same thing we did, that is sure looked like strep throat. Then when the doctor came in we went over it all again with her, and showed her the rash, and her first thought was that Alison had scalatina, however the strep test was negative again. I don't know how that was possible, but it was. The doctor also couldn't believe it since all the signs were there for strep throat.

Luckily, she decided to treat Alison as if she had strep throat. She gave her a prescription for antibiotics and said they would continue to grow the culture and would check it Sunday and again on Monday and would call if it turned positive. If after the first couple days Alison didn't show improvement to call and get back in on Monday to see Dr. Sabnis and they would probably run a test for mono. She didn't think it was mono because it isn't typically seen in children as young as Alison, but since it presents very similar to strep throat and the strep test kept coming back negative it was the only other thing she could think of. So we'll see how things are on Monday,

Good News.... So Far

Ali's trip to the doctor was ok yesterday. He looked at her throat and said it looked like strep, but the rapid test came back negative. They were going to grow a culture and we should have the results by Wednesday.

Ali is complaining that her throat really hurts and it looks even worse than yesterday morning. I have a bad feeling that we'll be getting a call today or tomorrow saying the regular test came up positive.

Another Trip to the Doctor

Last night Alison was starting to complain that her throat hurt. This morning, she was doing the same thing so I took a look at her throat and her tonsils were swollen and there were deep red splotches on her uvula. SO instead of going to school, we are going to the doctor. With Ali's recent bouts with strep throat, I am worried that she has it again. Unfortunately we couldn't get in until 11:00. The doctor's office is apparently down one physician, so I had to take what we could get. With any luck it'll just be a a result of allergies or something. I would hate to think she needs to be on antibiotics again. I asked her doctor back in February after she caught strep throat if he thought that her tonsils needed to come out since she had had so many problems over the last year or so, and he didn't think it was warranted. Maybe this will make him change his mind.

Sugar Cube Castle

During spring break Ali had an extra credit project she could do, make a castle out of sugar cubes. This was because her class is reading the book, Castle in the Attic. It was quite an ordeal. The description of how to do it was to use a dab of glue to hold the cubes together. But after trying it, we found the glue melted the sugar, and thus, didn't hold very well.

We found a website that dealt with making things out of sugar cubes (you really can find anything on the interwebs) and said that in order to keep the sugar from melting to use an icing mixture of powdered sugar, an egg white and cream of tartar.

It was a long process... This is what we did initially to make sure it would work.
We had to make it with four separate rooms. That was sort of hard to do but we did our best. We decided not to put in a door or windows, just because it was too hard to make with the size of the cubes. So Alison decided we would make it solid and just paint the door and windows on. At the end of day two, this is where we stood:
and finally, we finished things off:
Then finally, she painted on the windows and door:
Not too bad considering we had no idea how to do it. The one thing that is goofy looking is that the towers had to be left open to make them "rooms". I just hope they don't collapse.

Swim Lessons

We started up swim lessons again Monday for Alison. This time around she at least has a friend from her class at school with her so hopefully that will help with all the whining about actually doing it. The instructor was going to pass her out of level 4 last time, but just barely so we thought it would be best for her to redo it and get a little more experience. Monday's are tough though. We have always done them on Fridays and it worked out good because we'd get home, eat, and relax for the rest of the night. Now Ali has to eat when she gets home, then get her homework done before bedtime. Last night was a hassle because she had so much to do... Math, spelling, and work on her social studies report. Hopefully that won't be a regular thing.

All Done

Alison finished her antibiotics yesterday and so far so good. Her throat apparently doesn't hurt anymore, but I still think her tonsils look a little large. Then again, I only play a doctor at home. Her doctor wanted us to call to make an appointment for a follow up so that he can check to see if everything has cleared up a day or two after she finished her medicine, so we will have to wait until we can get her in to know for sure. I am hopeful that this time around we have taken care of things.

Tooth Fairy

Monday night also saw a visit from the tooth fairy for Alison. I got home from work and she had to show me that her tooth had come out. She thinks that now she looks like a rabbit because she only has her two front teeth on top now. The tooth fairy brought her $2, I think because she (or is the tooth fairy a he?) Felt sorry that Alison was sick with strep again. It was amazing... Ali was awake in her bed, miserable from her throat, and she rolled over and her tooth was gone and the money was there. I wonder how the tooth fairy sneaks in and does that?

Strep Throat

Monday morning we had to call school and tell them that Alison wouldn’t be in. She was running a fever and her tonsils were so inflamed you could barely see her uvula. She had just finished a 10-day course of antibiotics last week for strep throat but she even right after she had complained that her throat still hurt.

Well our worst fears were confirmed Monday morning when her doctor looked at her and told us, the antibiotics didn’t work and she had strep throat again. This time he put her on a different antibiotic, another 10-day course. So HOPEFULLY this time it will work. Kris and I are both starting to think that she may need to have her tonsils out. When we asked her doctor, he said that it may be a cause, but he didn’t think that was necessary just yet, so we’ll just keep out fingers crossed and wait and see.

Strep Throat

Saturday night Alison was feeling under the weather. Then all day Sunday she was running a fever. She stayed home from school again on Tuesday with a 102 fever and when Kris got home she took Alison to the doctor. He did a rapid test for strep throat and you guessed it, it came back positive. She got a prescription for some antibiotic (I forget which one at the moment, but I think it is amoxicillin) but on top of that he thought she had a virus on top of it. Her head is very congested so I don't doubt it. I know she was bummed out with missing school and was even more worried going back that she might get someone else sick. The good thing is that at least it didn't escalate into pneumonia this time.

Lesson Learned

Alison learned a valuable lesson Tuesday night. Unfortunately for her, it was a hard lesson. She came home from school and was stomping around the house, yelling at Kris, and arguing with Sarah, just generally being a terror. The result is that she had to stay home from dance class. She thought we were just kidding. She got herself cleaned up, put on her dance clothes, and Kris and I asked her where she thought she was going. For the next two hours she whined and cried and whimpered around the house. Then I told her that she could have her choice of not going to dance or not going to her friend's birthday party this weekend. When faced with that, she chose dance.

Hopefully she has learned what happens when she acts all crabby and disrespectful to her parents. She was expecting us to cave, but I think she has learned something. We'll see what happens next time around if we have another incident.

Less One Child

Sarah had another scout overnight last night in Kenosha so Alison was home alone. I was planning on taking her to a movie, but she said she really didn't want to go to a movie. After dropping off Sarah we drove to the library to get a bunch of books that she wanted. We got home from teh library about 15 minutes before Kris got home from work. Since Kris hadn't eaten lunch , so we settled on taking her to lunch at Su Casa. Of course when we get there and she orders chicken fingers. Kris and I tried to convince her that she should order some kind of Mexican food since it was a Mexican restaurant, but she didn't want any of that.

Once we got home I spent the evening having stories read to me and playing games. It was nice to be able to spend some time with just Ali. I think sometimes with Sarah around she feels like she gets overlooked. The one bad thing was that when it got to be bedtime, she was freaking out because we had read a scary story book during the afternoon. It had her pretty spooked. I ended up laying with her for a time to calm her down. The funny thing was that I asked her about it before we read it and she said it was fine. I guess that means no more scary stories for a while.

Nutcracker

As was previously stated, Alison got a nutcracker for Christmas. She was so excited to get it. Sarah and Alison both have nutcrackers but Sarah obviously has more and Ali wasn't happy about it. And this one is bigger than all of Sarah's and sparkly.



This one is now her favorite.

Last Day

Today was the last day of school before the Christmas break and for Alison that meant it was time for her class Christmas party. My holidays for work were the 23rd and 24th, so since I was off Alison wanted me to come to her school with Kris. Kris, as co-room parent, was helping run the party, so I figured I would go since I didn't have anything else to do. Besides, Ali asked me to come along.

Boy, talk about some controlled chaos! There were two activities the kids were doing. Making ornaments out of some jingle bells and pipe cleaners, and decorating Christmas cookies. Once they were done with that they played a game, and did some fun puzzles. But I realize that I could never have been an elementary school teacher!

Pabst Mansion

Alison got to go the Pabst Mansion today for Girl Scouts. I've always wanted to go see it. I remember seeing it years ago on America's Castles on A&E, and I used to go past it every day on my way to class when I was going to Marquette.

A couple of days ago one of the local news stations did a story on how they decorate it for the holidays and the curator said it takes them a month to get all the Christmas decorations up. Ali really liked it. Her favorite rooms were the Nutcracker room, two of the children's rooms, and the servant's dining room.

The Nutcracker room had what seemed liked 1000 nutcrackers (Alison's guess). Right now she has a thing for nutcrackers, they are her favorite holiday decoration. She liked the servant's dining room because she thought it was just cool that there were two dining rooms in the house. "You just never see that" is what she told me. And she thought the big doll house in children's room was also very cool, though it was in a big glass box apparently.

After the tour, they had a craft where they made paper dolls and a snack... turnips. The person at the Pabst Mansion thought they should experience what it would have been like to have a snack from the 1800's. Ali said that she doesn't think she would like snacks from back then. Then they got to have their real snack. After their real snack, they got a chance to use the bathroom, which was like it would have been in the period, except that the plumbing actually worked now. Ali thought that the bathroom was sort of silly, but it was the bathroom that people used when they were coming to meet the Pabsts so in that way she thought it was sort of neat.

Back To School

Ali was back as school today after a week off. I had stopped a couple of times last week to get any homework for her so she wouldn't be so overwhelmed when she went back today. She was scared when I dropped her off this morning because she was afraid she was going to be so far behind and that she would still have tons of stuff to do to get caught up. This was on top of all the normal every day stressing out because none of her friends are there when I drop her off and she ends up being alone. Luckily this week is a short one (off Thursday and Friday for teacher in service days or something) so it won't be too bad.

Sick Again

Since Sunday morning Ali was feeling under the weather. Her fever was in the neighborhood of 102 to 103. And Kris took her in on Monday and she saw PA. She asked how long Ali had her cough which we had only noticed since that day. They ordered a chest x-ray and it turns out she had pneumonia. So she got a prescription for some antibiotics and Tylenol. After three days of not having her temp go down, even after giving her Tylenol and Motrin, we took her back in on Friday. Luckily this time we got to see her regular doctor. He ordered another chest x-ray and it turns out she had pneumonia in both lungs now. So he prescribed a second antibiotic and she got an inhaler as well. A day later her temp was practically gone.

The bad part was that last week was Red Ribbon Week at school, and Ali had to miss all of it. She was very sad about that. But at least she’ll be ready to go back on Monday.