A time to work, A time to play

The kids & I, and my parents will be spending our afternoon and evening at the Bangor State Fair.  Matt will be at work doing 4 days of work in 1 day.  Life is so unfair!

What to do?

Zach saw Dr. Tan today.  Three of our children have seen her for different reasons.  Zoe had a minor heart murmur when she was a baby, so we were referred to Dr. Tan for that.  Zoe outgrew the heart murmur as expected.  Then Eleanor saw Dr. Tan a few years ago to see if she had any food allergies.  No food allergies, but we did find out that she is allergic to cats and dust.  Dr. Tan also confirmed that Eleanor has eczema.  Now, Zach has the bee allergy.  He was given a practice epipen today to use in the office.  The nurse was impressed that he knew how to get the practice pen back to its original position after using it.  The nurse showed him where to insert the epipen into his thigh.  He didn't have to practice for long since we had practiced last night.  Dr. Tan wasn't impressed with the pharmacy that gave me epipens that will expire in 7 months.  They should be good for a year.  Having to get new epipens every year is annoying since they have been tested after 5 years and have still been good.  You just need to take good care of them.  Anyway, Zach qualifies for the bee allergy test with the symptoms he had, but the test will be long, painful and expensive.  The test would be done in November or December.  The test would show what types of bees/wasps and other insects he is allergic to and how severe.  Then depending on the results, he would go on an injection therapy to prevent a life threatening reaction in the future.  So, do we go the less expensive route with the epipen and hope that the epipen is near if he gets stung, hope that he doesn't have a life threatening reaction with a hospital too far away to help him?  Do we spend thousands and thousands of dollars for the injection therapy with a possibility that he may outgrow this allergy or never get stung again?  The therapy is a painful process that will take years to complete.  I really don't want to put him through that, but I also don't want him to have a life threatening reaction either.  I keep coming back to the thought that we should go the epipen route now and have him tested when he is older.  That could be our wallets talking, though!


Our Family Home Evening was actually on the go tonight.  Matt brought our canoes to Bangor for Zion's Camp (which starts on Wednesday & Matt is in charge) and he picked up a check to go food shopping tomorrow.  We all piled in the yukon tonight and went with him.  We did part of our FHE while we drove and then we stopped at a park on the way home for our game.  Then we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for our treat.  :-)


I finished the final book of the Hunger Games today.  I had been told that the last book was not worth reading, but I enjoyed it.  I've also enjoyed the tiny bit of Olympics that I have seen.

Fun pictures!

Dancing to the music of Flash in the Pans!

Noah was a returning customer at the water/glow stick table.

Activity Days ~ Hiking in Indian Point Park

Bucksport Bay Festival

Schooner Bowdoin and it's original compass

Parade!

Matt is at the temple today.  He has been missed!

Go USA!

We went to the pool this afternoon. It looked like it could rain at any moment when we went, so the pool wasn't crowded. It turned out to be a nice afternoon. :-) I have reached the point in motherhood where I can read while the kids swim. It is awesome!

Zoe babysat for the Tynes this evening. It was her first time babysitting for them. That left Emily in charge here. Matt & I went downtown to take a look at the historic schooner Bowdoin, which is here for the Bucksport festival. We met up with my parents at the festival and then the 4 of us went to my parents' house to relax and watch Duck Dynasty. We also watched a bit of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I'm excited for the games to begin! Go USA!

Getting things done

We had a home day today. Lots of cleaning, reading & laundry got done before the TV came on. We found Noah's church shoe that has been missing for several weeks! Zoe & Emily escaped in the evening to go play soccer.

Monkeys on the Monkey Bars

Zoe & Emily had their water safety class this morning. The rest of us walked over to the Kindergarten/1st Grade playground to play. Kate & Noah did the monkey bars for the first time ever by themselves! They were very proud of their accomplishment. :-) Zoe went to basketball for a few hours after swimming.

Zoe had a Young Women's meeting at 3pm, so we dropped her off and then we went to Walmart. The kids have been wanting to spend their birthday money and they found some things to buy today. I also started school shopping by getting Kate & Eleanor backpacks for school. Kate was excited to pick out her first school backpack! Matt picked the younger 3 up at church after we went shopping to bring them home. Zoe left with the Young Women/Young Men to go play miniature golf at Pirate's Cove in Bar Harbor and then they went to get ice cream. Emily, Eleanor & I went hiking for Activity Days. It was a short hike at Indian Point Park. It was a beautiful walk with tree labels here and there to help identify the many trees. The girls enjoyed looking for the geocache. A few of the girls had already found it there before with their families, but they had fun looking again. I had never heard of geocache before. There is one along the waterfront that now I need to find. That won't be hard since I think Emily knows where it is.

Watching, Playing & Reading

I dropped Zoe off at Caitlin's this afternoon and I picked up Cassidy (Emily's friend) & Rachael (a young single adult we go to church with) to go see "Madagascar 3" at the $1 theater. I thought the movie was better than expected. I would have chosen seats further away from the screen, though. We watched from the 2nd row, which is too close.

Zoe & Emily spent the afternoon & evening with Caitlin & Cassidy. They went to play soccer this evening.

I have finished book 1 & 2 of The Hunger Games. When I got to a good stopping place last week, I put reading on hold to prepare a talk for Sacrament Meeting that I gave this past Sunday. It has been fun to dive into reading again. :-)

A night of goodbyes

Today was our last day to spend with Aly & Phil. Our family, my parents, my grandmother, Aly & Phil went to Blue Hill this evening to listen to Flash in the Pans. So much fun! The Baird's were there as well, so we were able to see Millie & her family before they head back to Utah. Noah spent some of his birthday money this evening. Noah has no problem buying his brother & sisters what they want. He bought a water because Zach was thirsty. Then he bought himself a glow stick, which lead to Kate & Zach wanting one. No problem! I cut Noah off when he wanted ice cream because of course everyone would then want ice cream. I told him that he could buy one on our next one on one time.

We have had a lot of fun with Aly & Phil! We are going to miss them! Thank goodness for FB and phones. :-)

Baptism Pictures & More

Noah's picture that's going up on the primary birthday board

Fun at the Dalton's Camp!

 It looks like Eleanor is freaking out, but she was actually shouting "Cowabunga!"

 Thumbs up...Go Faster!