Flag Football

Blake has really enjoyed playing Flag Football at the YMCA again this year. He gets to play with all of his friends and looks forward to every game! Here are a few pictures! Note: this may have been the coldest flag football season on record.

Today

I am copying this post from several other bloggers. Thought it might be kind of fun!

Outside my window.... the sun is shining, the leaves are falling, and I'm seeing quite a few tractors moving by. Harvest is in full swing today! The weather sure hasn't been cooperating with the farmers. Also, our 2 new heifers are running and kicking their feet - enjoying the nice weather, too!

I am thinking.... about what to fix to take to the field for supper tonight, and I'm wondering if I'll have time to mow (one last time!) around the house this afternoon. Also, I'm thinking about Brooke as she's coming home from an all nighter and hoping she's not crabby!

I'm thankful for.... my family and friends. Also I'm thankful that Jeff is able to get into the field and start harvest. He's such a hard worker and I'm also very thankful for that. Brooke and Blake are also on the top of my Thankful List!

From the kitchen.... I'm smelling the pumpkin bars that are in the oven! Mmmmmm...

I'm wearing.... my most favorite jeans and a United tshirt - usual attire for the weekend!

I'm creating..... treats to take to school tomorrow and supper to take to the field. Food is the only creative part of me.

I'm going.... to get Brooke from Cathi's in a little while, to the field to deliver supper, and 4H tonight.

I'm reading... my 4th grade reading manual.

Around the house... it's rather messy right now as Blake and his friend, Evan, have been playing hard. But I'm loving how the sun is shining through the windows. And Sophie, as black as she is, is laying in the sun warming up!

One of my favorite things.... working with our show calves.

A few plans for the week... a full week of school, a volleyball game on Wednesday (UHS volleyball team is undefeated and awesome!), Erik's Senior Night football game on Friday night, and Blake's last flag football game next Saturday.

A picture to share....
We were able to see Alex & Erik before they left for Homecoming. We made them take a picture will all of the kids - Erik (holding Owen, Alex's little brother), Alex, Brooke, Rachel, Aubrey (Alex's little sister who is the same age as the girls), Blake and his friend Evan. Quite a crew!

What a weekend!!

I ended up calling Dr. Paralikar last night when Blake's fever hit 103.8, and he told me to take him to the ER to get the Influenza A/H1N1 screening done. He told me to tell the nurse/doctor that he wanted it done on Blake. When we got to the ER, there was a big sign at the entry that said if you had any flulike symptoms (fever, coughing, etc) to get a mask. So Blake put on a mask before we even walked through the door. You can really turn some eyes when you wear a pastel yellow mask over your mouth and nose! Got to the registration desk, and Blake said, "Mom, I think I'm gonna get sick." I told him to take off his mask - thought maybe he just felt kind of smothered. As soon as I pulled that mask off, he started to throw up all over! So I grabbed one of the little vomit bags off of the wall and he proceeded to fill it..... in front of about 15 people .... as if the mask wasn't bad enough, you should have seen the looks we were getting now!

So we go into the triage room to tell them why we are there. I told the nurse that Dr. P wanted Blake to have the screening. She was very rude and told me, "That is up to the doctor to decide. We just can't give that to every person that walks in! Hmmm!" We waited for another 40 minutes before getting called back. When Blake vomited, it seemed to break his fever so he started to feel a little better.

Once we were in the back, the nurse swabbed his throat and said she bet he had strep. So we waited for the doctor to come in. He examined Blake and said "He has H1N1 - the swine flu". Oh super! He explained a lot of things to me - told me that it's not as serious as they originally anticipated, and that we have to treat the symptoms because the only medicine for H1N1 (tamiflu) really hadn't proven to work very well. So we left there with that diagnosis, a prescription for tussionex for the cough, and suppositories in case the vomiting got worse. Blake slept really well and still ran a fever of about 102.

In the meantime, I'm wondering how soon before Brooke gets it....

So I called first thing this morning to Dr. P and told him about Blake and what the er doctor had said/done. He was very upset (to say the least) that he diagnosed him without the nasal swab test. He informed me to get to the lab right away to get the test. If it came back positive for Influenza A, he would have to be out of school for a week and they would send the test further to see if it was H1N1. If it came back negative, it was probably just a virus and he could return to school after her was "fever free for 24 hours" - a pretty standard rule.

So off to the lab with Blake adorned in his little yellow mask! Needless to say, there were only 2 seats in the lab left and one lady got up so I could sit by Blake. She chose to stand rather than to sit by the masked boy! After the lab, we went to Walmart to get the tamiflu that Dr. P ordered. Welp, it was out of stock. So that meant another phone call to have it sent to Axlines. In the meantime, Wanda is calling me telling me that the combination of drugs from the er doctor was too much for a young boy and it would oversedate him (!!!!!!) so I had to talk to the pharmacist there and they called the er and ended up changing the dosage! Geesh! I had to call Axlines AGAIN and they agreed to "compound" the tamiflu for Blake since the children's liquid form isn't available yet!!!

So we finally made it home. Blake still had a fever and laid down while I waited for the doctor's office to call with the test results. A few hours later, I finally heard from them......

INFLUENZA A/B TESTS WERE NEGATIVE!!!!!!

Oh my goodness! I am so relieved that he doesn't have it but on the other hand, I'm pissed that he was misdiagnosed, overprescribed for meds, and we ran around and around and around for nothing!! Well, i guess it wasn't "nothing".... but he does have a virus of some kind. We go back to Dr. P Wednesday morning. He is still coughing. Still running a fever. Still not himself. I sure hope he starts to feel better soon. I'm anxious to hear what Dr. P has to say on Wednesday. Hopefully he will be well on the mend by then!

In the meantime, I've got a full bottle of (expensive) Tamiflu if we need it!!

Brooke and Blake

Brooke and "Tank", along with Kaitlyn - the WCPBF Princess

Blake and "Cowboy", along with Kaitlyn again

Brooke 11 , Blake 8 1/2

A Fresh Start

Ok, it's been about 2 1/2 months since I've posted last. Believe it or not, I have attempted to write an entry about 7 times, but have gotten interrupted in doing so. Rather than spending time catching up on all of the things we've done in the past couple months, I've decided to start fresh. I need to write about now, not delve into all of the past activities - baseball, softball, showing cattle, swimming (or lack thereof), the state fair, doing well at the Mercer County Fair, getting Reserve Champion at the Prime Beef Festival again, watching the kids grow up (literally) way too fast. It's time to write about what's going on right now.

As I speak, Brooke just returned from spending the night at Rachel's house - still a very common event around here. I had promised the kids that they could have someone over this weekend, and that kind of fell through. Brooke had Rachel over, and Blake had Jonah. It was all great until about 7:00p.m. when Blake came into the kitchen crying over a small altercation with a Matchbox car. He doesn't cry too often in front of his friends and when I looked at the "glaze" in his eyes, I immediately knew that he was running a fever. I checked and he sure was. It was 101. I continued to let him play for a while, hoping that maybe it was a false reading. At 9:00 it was 100 so I explained to him that we'd have to take Jonah home. Brooke and Rachel decided that they better not be around him so off to meet Cathi I went. Blake has laid around most of the day. I did take him to ride with Jeff in the combine for a couple rounds when his fever broke, but he was ready to come home. When we got home, his fever was 102.4. He is still asleep and when he wakes up, I hope his fever has gone down from the 103 it was when I last took it. So Wanda went down and picked up Brooke who, for some reason, wanted to come home. She's kind of like me - she likes to sleep in her own bed.

Brooke is really enjoying 5th grade. She's recently started playing the trumpet and has to remind herself to practice everyday! Blake is really liking 3rd grade as well, and is currently playing Flag Football on weekends at the YMCA.

We have 2 new heifer calves - Sunny and Peanut. They are getting used to us as we are to them. We (by "we", I mean the kids and me) are walking them into their stalls almost every day and tying them up for a while. We've already started the process of washing and blowing and combing and repeating that process until I can do it in my sleep! Our 1st show was supposed to be next weekend but we don't feel we are quite ready yet, so we are holding off to show until the 1st weekend in December in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Jeff is trying to get into the field. The corn and beans are very wet, and the rainy cold weather is sure not cooperating. The yields have been good so we are very thankful for that. He put up a new grain bin this year and is putting it to good use drying down this 30% moisture corn. He assures me it will pay for itself in a few years, and as skeptical as I was, I'm not now.

I am still adjusting to teaching at the junior high. Some days are great, and others are not. Some days I love it, and some days I hate it. Everyday I can't believe that Brooke will be there next year. I wonder to myself if she will be like these 6th grade girls that wear the football boys' jerseys on game days. Scary.

Other than that, things are pretty much the same around here. I will try to get some pictures posted of our summer for the 3 or 4 blog readers that I have!