Rainy Day Activity

Although we are known for spending rainy days like this:

Occasionally we spend them like this:

Home!

Caleb got to come home yesterday :)

Don't we all look thrilled.  I especially like Natalie's face!

He has to continue his antibiotic for 7 days.  It is clindamycin and the pharmacist says it is a "last resort" antibiotic.  It was the first one they tried, I assume, because they did not know at first if his infection was MRSA or not.  It was not, but they said he was responding well to the clindamycin and would continue it.  It smells terrible and tastes bad too.  He has to have 15.5 ml 3 times a day.  Everything I've read about it stresses how important it is to have the right dosage rightly spaced, etc., but that .5 ml mystifies me.  It is 1/8 of a teaspoon and difficult to measure out.  The pharmacist gave me the teensiest dropper to measure the .5 with.  I can measure the 15 ml in a cup.  At check out his nurse said, 'Give it to him at 6, 2 and 10, so you won't have to get him up in the night.'.  I guess she meant so I won't have to get up in the night, because he is a sound asleep at 6am and 10pm.  I am going to do 7, 3 and 11, so I only have to rouse him from zombie state once.  I also bought him a bunch of Greek yogurt to balance things out - hopefully!

Rob took all these pictures - I had pictures of what the girls did.  Here's what Caleb did - part of it...

Oh the suffering...

From a neighbor :)

He loved the hospital's hummus.

Craft time - Miami Children's Hospital has a in house radio station a few nights a week that has games and contests.  Caleb won two contests and made this fish for one of the games.

The sign on Caleb's door.

We joked that this was "the ultimate field trip".  I'm sure I can find some way to work it into a homeschool portfolio...  He said the main thing he learned about this week was IVs.  I'm sure he learned a few other things too!  We are so thankful he is getting well, I am a little more germ conscious than I usually am.  Staph is not contagious like a stomach virus is - the rest of us may not get it at all - but one doctor told us that probably all of our family is "colonized" (her word) with the same strain.  Yay, now who wants to come visit?

Seriously, you probably have staph too...anybody else feel like rushing off to wash their hands?  Yeah, me too.

A & N tour the Hospital

They are taking advantage of all the fun activities since Caleb has to stay in his room.  His skin is starting to peel and his doctor feels he is at risk of a 2nd infection if he walks around the hospital.  The infection was caused by staph.  The staph created a toxin that caused the scalded skin syndrome.  He is improving a lot, but they have not released him yet.  Maybe tomorrow.

Nurse Natalie

Elevator Hop

Library playroom

Arts and Crafts

Shhhhh!

We Were Wrong or Parenting is an Education Part 2

As it turns out, Caleb has not had Fifth Disease.  The good part of that is that now I can stop expecting the girls to come down with it at any moment.  The bad part of it is that what he does have is Scalded Skin Syndrome.  This morning he was pretty lethargic (in hindsight, probably dehydrated, will I ever learn!?!?) and his eyes were bothering him.  He lay on the couch and listened to an audio book all morning.  The girls played school and tea party with utter contentment upstairs.  I fretted.  I called Rob a few times and asked him to bring home some "foods he can eat with a straw" because his lips were so cracked and painful, he couldn't open it comfortably. 

When Rob got home, we decided to take Caleb back to the doctor.  The skin around his lips was cracked and flaky and yellowing and he had sores around his eyes.  Rob took him to the Pediatric Urgent Care nearby and they wanted to send him to the children's hospital by ambulance.  Rob asked if he could just drive there and they said ok, so long as he went right away.  I swooped the kids off to a neighbor's house and he picked me up and we went to Miami Children's Hospital.

At MCH, no less than 10 different doctors and nurses asked us the same questions - I'm guessing now to make sure we had our story straight, but at the time I just thought it was weird.  A lady who was the "Child Life Specialist" came in and talked to Caleb about what would happen and she let him play games on her iPad while they put his IV in.  He thought she was super nice (and she was) and he didn't even notice them putting the line in.  They all complimented him on how well he handled it and he asked in surprise if most kids didn't do well and one of the nurses said that sometimes kids hit and kicked them when they tried to put an IV in!

There were so many people in and out, but the one I assume was the main doctor said that most likely it is a staph infection that has caused the scalded skin problem, but that it is possible that it is caused by strep.  They did cultures for both, but we don't know the results yet.  It all makes a lot more sense than the Fifth Disease theory because the "rash" never really seemed "rash-like".  From the beginning it looked like patches of sunburned skin.  An infectious disease specialist came by and she said that all the red skin will likely peel.  Fun.

Once he had some fluids in him, he perked up quite a bit and was excited about the video games, movie theater, in-room movies, games and toys at the hospital.  They are giving him an antibiotic that would fight either a staph or strep infection and he has to stay in the hospital for an unknown amount of time.  I heard one person say at least 48 hours, but it seemed that we have to wait and see if this antibiotic will work.

I am so looking forward to seeing him smile again and even to hear him pestering his sisters.  I didn't realize that his picking on them was a sign of health!  God has funny ways of showing you how much you have to be thankful for.

Caleb Aquires 5th Disease or Parenting is an Education

A few days ago, Caleb mentioned that his throat hurt.  I got out a flashlight and took a look.  It seemed like his tonsils might be slightly bigger than usual, but I wasn't sure because I don't spend a lot of time looking at his healthy tonsils.  He didn't get very sick - a runny nose, no fever, normal activity level - when suddenly he complained that his eyes hurt.  He had red patches around each eye and then a red patch around his mouth.  The patches itched and burned and spread to his ears and shoulders, then his back and tummy.  It all seemed to get worse until yesterday when he didn't notice the itching.  He finally started to be getting better instead of worse, but now his eyes and mouth are chapped and swollen and it seems that all these things are symptoms of Fifth Disease.  Some people call it "Slapped Cheeks Disease" or, my mom said, "The Slaps", but for him it looks more like Punched Face Disease.  He looks awfully sick, but he doesn't feel as bad as he looks.  The chapped, swollen face is pretty painful though.

Although I took him to the doctor, we still scoured the internet learning as much as we could about Fifth Disease - hoping that somewhere it will say that it lasts 3, 4, 5, or so concrete days, but it seems it is a case by case thing and where some people have it so mildly they don't notice it, other people deal with it for weeks or months.  The girls each have a 50% chance of getting it.  (With, I assume, an unknown probability for having the same symptoms) - I thought that means there is a 75% chance of one of them getting it, but the odds are equal that they will not get it, so maybe not.  Statistics is not my specialty.

It's called "Fifth Disease" simply because it was 5th on an old list of skin related diseases (measles and rubella were on the same list).  According to (insert random medical website here or Wikipedia) most adults have already had it and are immune, even if they don't remember having had it.  However, adults and teens that contract it usually don't get the rashes, instead they get joint pain - joint pain that may last for months.  Parenting is a non-stop education!  A regular college course!

His illness coincided with a visit from my brother - but it didn't keep us in too much.  Caleb went with us to the zoo, the movies and the marina. 

Here is a picture from last Wednesday - he was already starting to notice some of the initial symptoms.  The red patches showed up the next day.

So...he was supposed to start swimming lessons tomorrow, but unless he unexpectedly clears up dramatically overnight, that is not going to happen! 

Trivial Tips

Tonight, I've been writing the trivia questions for the Wednesday morning trivia game on "the station".  I usually devote some times Monday and Tuesday nights to churn out 3 topics of 10 questions each.  Since I've been doing it over a year, I am beginning to cheat a little and reuse old lists.  But I've discovered that I've improved in my trivia writing and the old questions are not as good.  Here are some tips...in case you ever find yourself needing to write trivia questions:

- Choosing a topic is the hard part.  You need to pick something relatively broad or you will run into making impossible questions.  For example - The Statue of Liberty - sounds like a nice topic, but you exhaust the common knowledge questions pretty quickly and start having to use ones that no one can answer. - I.e.  How tall is the Statue of Liberty's left toe?  A better topic is Pizza Toppings - because there are more than 10 commons ones and you don't have to make your questions terribly straightforward.
- People like a little challenge.  They don't necessarily want to play jeopardy.  I like to make the questions just slightly past what everybody knows - or to ask the question in a round about way so that they have to think a little before they answer, but will still usually get the question right.  (I.e. make the clue the definition of a homonym of the actual answer)
- Lists of words with the same letter or prefix make good questions because you can get into multiple topics under one topic - that is - it generates lots of questions, not leaving you at #7 for half and hour.
- 5th, 6th and 7th grade academic questions are good because they are not so hard and not so easy - plus there are tons of these list already made up online!
- Foreign language questions are easy to make up.  For example, the topic could be "Good Morning" and each clue would be "Good Morning" in a different language and you would have to guess.
- True and False questions....are not that fun.

I guess that's my list.  Almost anything could make a good topic or answer.  Sometimes I've found the best topic when brainstorming answers for an impossible list. 

Writing trivia week after week can get tedious, but I am so glad Vacation Bible School is over!

It is OVER!

Now if only those pesky decorations would come down on their own and put themselves away!

The Halfway Point

Tonight was the calmest night yet at VBS.  We had a very small number of new kids, from my perspective I guess that is why.  I have spent most of my time keeping the security team on schedule.  The classes are about big enough that we would like to have a class for each grade.  Of course that would take twice the number of volunteers.  My kids have been having a great time :)  The good things are still good, the bad things are still bad, except the parents all know the system now and that has eased some of the check in/out strain.


Someone saw me bustling around and admonished me to "delegate", I know I have micromanaged some parts, but I really feel like now I am not doing anything that is not administrative.  I think it is hard to transition back and forth from a team mentality and being on my own at home all day (although we sometimes strike a team balance at home too).  Also, up until the last week before VBS, I did a lot of the planning and preparing on my own.

Here is what's left.  I have to buy ice cream.  Lots of ice cream.  And I have to do some volunteer appreciating.  Fortunately, the most unexpected volunteer is helping me coordinate this.  And then there's follow up...well. Let's take one thing at a time!

Tuesday at VBS

We had a big night tonight - our enrollment jumped from about 50 to 80 kids.  All of the classes are 2 grades combined, so the three classes spanning from k-4 to 4th grade are the biggest.  Yesterday we had 6 students total from 5th grade to 12th, today there were probably 16.  (The "youth" class is offered for up to 12th grade, but I think they are all 7th & 8th graders.)  Our biggest issues have been with check in and check out.  It was a mistake to have a different kind of check out procedure for the little kids than the big kids. The big kids needed something different because they dismiss en masse from the sanctuary.  And here I see what had I known in advance I would have eliminated - missions time.

This is a surprise to me because I thought missions time was a good idea - we've done it (the same way) for as long as I've been at the church and I didn't see the err in it.  I guess sometime in the past it worked well, but it has become something "we always do" and is very stale.  The missions videos are interesting for adults, but kind of boring for the kids and I don't think they do much to give the kids a sense of mission.  We are collecting an offering for the Florida Baptist Children Homes and it would have been better to have a bigger emphasis on what FBCH does.  Then the kids could more easily connect the dots.  But the missions videos (produced by Lifeway) have nothing to do with our missions offering.  I think it is confusing.

So maybe eliminated is too strong of a word, maybe significantly altered is better.


Random missions videos - bad
Dismissing kids from sanctuary - bad too
Two check out procedures - really bad

But...recreation time - good!
craft time - good!
longer class time - good!
snacks - good!
puppet show - mega good!!!

I have not made it to the puppet show, but what I have heard from the worship rally team is that the kids are enraptured and the puppets are a huge hit.  So hopefully I will figure this director thing out before the week ends and stop having to run errand after errand (half of which seem to be to get the keys from someone, because I have no keys).

We are not halfway yet, but I can already say that the best part of being VBS director is getting to know so many people I see at church.  Some of them I knew superficially, some of them I just recognized.  But now I know a lot of them and know what they are good at. It really is a blessing.

1 Down, 4 to Go

You know how they say hunger is the best sauce?  Well tonight I had the best plate of picadillo I've ever eaten.  And even though I ate it standing up about 2 hours after it was hot, it was great :)

So the first day of VBS ran relatively smoothly.  Which I guess is really saying something.  There were glitches, but I expected that.  Check in was hectic, but isn't check in always hectic?  I ran six different directions.  But I think it was not too bad on the whole.  I knew you (Mom) were wondering :)

T minus 3 Days

It is almost here...and by almost here, I mean almost over!

Honestly, now that it is actually almost here, I like the decorating part.  I'm not sure how much I'm going to like the solving problems in real time part next week, but at least it has an end.  And next Friday is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a, so be sure to dig out your cow costumes.

The parade went spectacularly well.  I don't have Rob's phone pictures yet, so I don't have a good picture to post (though I reposted a picture).  I also don't have a lot of good pictures because I ended up riding the float (Natalie was not going to ride without me and I was not going to walk 2 miles carrying her)  So I guess you could say we both won.

The other reason I don't have many good pictures is because I didn't realize I had a fingerprint on my lens.

Sayin' Cheese with a guy who's cool enough to dress like Abraham Lincoln.

Today's objectives were to decorate the sanctuary and to do a puppet show for the Summer Camp.  Here is the puppet stage my Dad and I painted.  We ended up with two of those huge balls - both donations and the puppet stage is made out of trash.   VBS - budget style.

One of the littlest campers stopped to talk to the puppet.  He said, "I love you!"  and that pretty much confirmed to me that it is a good idea to do a puppet show for the preschoolers.

So we moved on to the foyer.  You can see Meatball in the picture below.

The Main Gate.  We're going to have balloons on both sides - Lord willing!

Our New Pet

Yes, it's a tarantula.

It's name is Zaryen, which means Tarantula.  So far it hasn't eaten anything and we haven't touched it!  Personally, I do not plan to!

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Tonight we decorated a 12' x 6' trailer to use as a float in the Whispering Pines 4th of July Parade tomorrow.  It has rained every day for days and days, it is supposed to rain tomorrow and on and on.  However, tomorrow is supposed to be somewhat drier than the days before and after it.  Every forecast I've heard has mentioned a slight dry front to temporarily disrupt the rain and then it's supposed to be back to normal on Friday.  This has been the 4th of July forecast for at least 5 days now.  Seems suspicious to me!  But I am happy with how the float looks - it is 4th of July is with a little Colossal Coaster World thrown in there.

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Also, if you are friends with me on Facebook, I posted a video Rob made about his trip to Haiti.  It is 14 minutes long - most of it is the ride back to Port-au-Prince - harrowing!