Life at WillisLand

Lynn has Strep Throat again. It’s the third time in two months. This time, we caught it just before the rash developed. They put her on a stronger antibiotic and we need to go have her re-swabbed around the 11th to see if it comes back negative. We’re also going to ask for more evaluation (referral to an ENT specialist) to see if it could be her tonsils (and/or adenoids) may need to be removed. I also wonder if that could be a factor in some of her speech issues (it was the case with Mitzi–she had hers removed when she was 6). We’ll see what happens. I know we (including Lynn) are getting tired of this. I think she’s gotten used to her sore throat as other than her mentioning her throat hurt, she was acting normal. She more than likely had a fever Thursday and we did not even realize it as it was a down day here since it was raining.

Sigh…she had this during Spring break and now her first week of Summer vacation. Poor girl!

Yeah, I didn’t take Memorial Day into consideration…their last day of school was Tuesday (not Monday). They don’t understand that they will not be back to school until August. I was telling Liz that they will not go back until closer to their birthday. But, the class celebrated June, July and August birthdays and Liz now thinks she is already four and came home with a birthday hat with “4″ on it. Hmmm…

So, I wanted to do something educational with them over the summer. We started the ClickN’Read Phonics program today. I feel Liz is ready to start learning to read. We did the first lesson this morning. Liz was sad when it was done and she learned the word “am”. Lynn does not have enough patience to sit through the 15 minutes. She will sit and repeat the sounds though, which should really help her speech. I am going to include a link when I have a minute if anyone is interested in checking it out.

We went out catching lightning bugs last night. The girls took their jars to bed with them last night.

Mitzi has a new pet. We let her get a Leopard Gecko. We named it (gender to be determined later) Aquarius.

I am still busy keeping up with the weeds in the garden. We’re harvesting lettuce, spinach and radishes. I’m down 20 pounds. I’d still like to lose another 40 pounds to be happy. I am one-third of the way there.

We’re spending lots of time outside. We have a little pool set up for the girls.

I guess that’s all that is going on here…

The girls have new bikes. They kept saying they were big enough for big girl bikes. We learned last year that the end of August is not a good time to find bikes since they’re seasonal. They were also on sale. We’ve gotten some owies from falling. It’s not enough to keep them off.

We went for our annual trip to Miller Park Zoo on Sunday. We had fun.

Next Monday is their last day of school. They’ve been having fun days these last couple of weeks. Last Thursday was their class picnic. We were freezing and did not stay long. They attended their first birthday party. It was for a classmate who adores the girls and likes to mother them. It’s cute, but it sometimes irritates Lynn. Today is “crazy hair day”. Mitzi had the patience to fix them up.

Mom has been busy out in the garden (hence the lack of updates).

Mommy spent the day doing haircuts…Lynn hates getting her picture taken anymore!

Sorry if someone was on here while things were messed up…the sidebar changes it’s position if items are centered…thing has a mind of it’s own…

We had a great (but cold) Easter. Mommy’s birthday went well. Mommy requested some tulips from the kids since flowers outside are having a rough start with these cold temps. This way, it looks like spring inside and these bulbs can be planted outside for future enjoyment. If we do this every year, we should have quite the tulip garden in a few years.

Sorry I don’t post as often. I’m also doing some personal blogging on myspace and a diet website. I also don’t spend as much time on the computer…off exercising.
I’ve lost about 14 pounds since starting the diet six weeks ago. Still a lot more to go!
Picture Time!!! For Easter, we found carrots to fill instead of eggs. We thought it was cute for the Easter Bunny (Dan and Mitzi) to hide carrots.

Liz came up to me this afternoon holding Baby Kitty…

Mommy’s tulips…

Here’s more birdy pics… Annie has been mesmerized by the birds…

The girls received bunny ears, purses and their first PEZ dispensers.

Intruducing….Max and Ruby; Lynn and Lizzie’s new Parakeets.

They picked the birds out by themselves. We had to help with names. We gave them a few options and they (ok, Liz) told us which ones they liked the most. Max and Ruby is a cartoon they watch on Nick Jr. Ruby is the green/blue one and is Lizzie’s. Max is white/blue and is Lynn’s. The girls had so much fun picking them out and getting the cage put together. The cats are also having a blast.

Lynn is down with strep throat again. Liz has an ear infection. We are so tired of this garbage.

The girls are getting over strep throat/scarlet fever. They were a mess for a few days but are bustling with energy now. Lynn’s rash coverered her entire body (poor girl looked like she was sunburned) and Liz had patches.

The good news is that they’re getting better and we haven’t even had to give Liz a nebulizer treatment since Monday.

We’ve been busy cleaning the yard and house. The yard was covered in sticks from the ice storm in December.

Mommy has plans to increase the size of the garden this year. So, the planning is beginning on that.

Other than that, we’re trying to dry out…we don’t need any more rain. Mommy has lost about 12 pounds…baby steps.

Always busy around here…

Today almost hit 60 degrees before it rained. We’ll take rain and 50’s over snow and 0. The smell of spring is in the air.
Liz was having problems shaking the cough (it would go away for a couple days and then come back). We took her to the doctor Tuesday. He prescribed Albuterol syrup and a steroid for her swullen throat. Her throat was feeling ok, but the cough was not going anywhere. So, back to the doc today. She’s now doing her Albuteral via a nebulizer. We thought she’d resist it, but she does great. I think she felt like a big girl when the nurse was showing her how to use it. Doc says it’s allergies.
Daddy had a scheduled appointment today with an allergist to determine what he is still allergic to. He came home with allergy meds to. Daddy mention Liz to the doc. He said he’d like her to be referred over for more testing as it is very likely she inherited Daddy’s allergies. It’s probably not as numerous. She seems to have the most problems during the winter when cooped in the house.

Daddy’s birthday was Wednesday. We think he had a good birthday. The kids surprised him with a new leather portfolio with a Star of Life on the front.

Mommy started a diet…so far, so good. Mommy and Mitzi love the aerobic bounce ball (everyone else gets comic relief watching us).