ah nuts!

My Little Friend had allergy testing done today. It's been five years since he started allergy shots so it was time to re-test and see how his situation has improved.

Well.

It's worse rather than better. He's overcome his immune responses to two molds (epicoccum and aspergillus) but everything else is the same. Plus 17 new antigens tested positive that were negative 5 years ago - grasses, trees, molds, and weeds. Doc Schreiber said that 90 % of his pediatric patients have no new positives and usually only a few that remain positive after 5 years of immunotherapy. My Little Friend is a special case. But this time it's special in the bad way.

Peanuts, which they don't include in the serum, remains at a level 4+ which is the highest. Doc Schreiber said Jake will have to stay away from peanuts his whole life.

We're discussing our options and making a decision about further treatment.

I'm going to go cry now.

In Defense of Fort McHenry

By Francis Scott Key, written in 1814


Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!


May our cause always be just and our land always be free!

missionary farewell

It's been a busy day here at the Dub's. My Little Friend gave a talk in primary and I taught Relief Society. Which I love doing! It's been over a month since seminary ended and I'm so anxious for them to give me something to do in the ward. I was very grateful for the assignment to teach today, and the lesson was beautiful. I was happy to do it and I think it went well.

When we got home from church I started cooking and baking because this evening we had the open house for T. So many of our friends and ward family came, even good friends from our old ward showed up. Several of T's friends from school came too - what a fun bunch! There were so many people that our house got a little hot and a lot crowded and we ran out of cookies and fruit pretty quick. I didn't know how many people would come or how much food to prepare. I fed everything that was left to a big group of teenage boys and now I don't have to feed bruschetta to Mr. Dub every night for two weeks. I'm sure he's grateful.

It made me feel very good to see such awesome evidence that so many people care about us.

Here's T with my good buddy Thuan and his little sister Janice. Thuan was in my seminary class for the last three years and he's such a good kid. That's Michael (another seminary student) in the picture too - what a goof!

I'm tired. But it's the good kind of tired that comes from working hard. I've accomplished a lot in the last two days. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow!

no turkey burgers today

I realized after my grand-dad left this morning that I've invited literally hundreds (and I mean literally, not figuratively. I'm not exaggerating for the drama! Not this time, anyway.) of people over tomorrow for a farewell open house for the Little Biggie. He's leaving in a week, and I know lots of people will want to say goodbye. He's a cool guy. People like him.

So this morning I thought maybe I should get my downstairs bathroom put back together just in case any of our guests had to use the facilities. I goofed off with Grampy the last two weeks instead of finishing my projects. You can call me later - I think I'll be up all night long working.

All this to say that I don't have time today to tell you all how to make the best turkey burgers on the planet. That will have to wait until another day.

Hope you like this pic of Grampy and the Little Biggie!

fast fries

Have you tried these? These are the only kind of frozen french fries that my Little Friend will eat. I bake them and they turn out crispy and crunchy but still sort of soft in the center. There's some kind of coating on them that makes them crispy.

We're having Ore-Ida fast fries tonight with our turkey burgers. Tomorrow's post will be how to make the most delicious turkey burgers on the planet. Stay tuned...

treats!

Pretty soon, maybe in the next week or so, I will have had 5,555 visits to amydubdub.blogspot.com. Visitor #5,555 will win a yet-to-be-determined prize of some kind. I wanted to treat visitor #5000 to a prize but I couldn't figure out who that was because the location of their ISP was "unknown".

(It would help if more people left comments on my posts or simply said "Hello". Heck, it would help even if they just said "Hey Amy, your blog stinks" when they stopped by here. Because then with a little bit of sleuthing I could figure out who was here and what # visitor they were.)

Speaking of treats, I've been to McDonald's late at night TWO times in the last week for a vanilla cone. It has helped me cool off and settle down after some very long, very blistering hot days.

Reduced-fat vanilla cone from McDonald's at midnight. Yum.

it's a random kind of day

I was thinking today how quickly time has passed. It's already the middle of 2009 and I remembered that ten years ago I had a newborn baby boy - my Little Friend. Giving birth is a different kind of experience. I mean, a person coming out of another person? It's too crazy weird to be possible, right?

I was remembering our New Year's Eve party that we had in 1999 and how some of our friends left early that night because they were worried about the Y2K thing. Remember Y2K? They were sincerely anxious about it. I wasn't at all.

It's interesting how different we all are.

I was thinking today about something my sister-in-law wrote on Facebook - "I'll keep my eyes peeled". Isn't that bizarre? Peeled eyes? I was thinking about all the things we say that are weird like that:

• Can I give you a hand with that?
• Lend me your ear for a minute.
• Follow your nose. (how can you not follow your nose?)
• I've got your back.

Some things you just cannot take literally. Like the time my Gram was telling me about her acute heartburn and how her chest was literally on fire. Literally. And I said, "you mean figuratively" and she looked at me for a second and said of course. I remember that I wondered how many times she'd told people the story exactly the same way, insisting that her chest was literally, literally on fire, and if she now felt embarrassed about it. I remember the mental picture I had in my head of Gram and her flaming chest.

I was missing my sweet girl today and remembering this funny picture of the time when she did my Little Friend's hair up in ponytails. That shark shirt was his absolute favorite. He wore it long after he'd grown out of it but he just couldn't stand to get rid of it.

Don't you agree that my Little Friend was the cutest little kid ever? Even with ponytails?