Harvest Week Happenings

~A few combine rides.
~A few wheat truck rides.
~A few allergic reactions.
~Lots and lots of medicine.
~A few tears.
~A few sleepless nights.
~A few near-disasters.
~Lots and lots of 'Roid Rage.
~A few fights.
~A few timeouts.
~A few consequences.
~Lots and lots of frustration.
~A few bean-pickings.
~A few nights of bean-stemming.
~A few meals together.
~Lots and lots of family time.
~A few movies.
~A few holes of mini golf.
~A few hours of swimming.
~Lots and lots of hours on the wii.
~A few hysterical moments.
~A few hours of shopping.
~A few days of relaxation.
~Lots and lots of good times with company!

More Brotherly Love

Some day soon he will realize that this is never meant just for fun.

On the third day of harvest, my allergy doctor gave to me....

5 breathing treatments.
4 doses of Verimist...
3 months of Advere...
2 doses of Prednisone...
and a Zyrtec every day.


And because he didn't want to miss out on the picture action. Here is a close up of my 3 year old..."Look at me! I'm a pufferfish!"

Allergic to Harvest

Harvest started Thursday afternoon. This brings a mix of emotions for me, but nothing but excitement for my boys. Last year my 6 yo ended up in the ER after playing in the wheat, and we later found out he is allergic to mold spores. Since he's not allergic to wheat, and last years crops were full of fungus, and he's on allergy meds, we thought this year might be better. However, the very first night he rode the combine from 6:00-7:15. By 9:00 I was giving him a breathing treatment. My son was convinced it was because the auger wasn't working right, so there was an immense amount of dirt, dust, and debris flying around with the combine door hanging open every time they unloaded.

So we tried it again. The second night he rode in the combine and seemed ok. He took a load of wheat to town and seemed ok. After dinner he was hanging out on the ladder of the wheat truck, refraining from getting in the wheat with all his cousins, because that is what set him off last year. After not even 15 minutes of standing on the ladder, his eyes started watering and he started wheezing. And back home we went for a treatment. My heart was breaking for this little guy. One minute he was crying because he had to leave the field, and the next he was declaring, "I don't think I ever want to do harvest ever again!" And the next he was crying because he wanted to go back and knew he shouldn't.

My friend, Casey, summarized my feelings the best. There are several things in this world that are hard for my son - making friends, going new places, trying new things, being adventurous, overcoming obsessive fear, socially interacting with people - but harvest is something he LOVES, that he has zero fear about, and that our family does every year.

So back to the allergy doctor we go to make some decisions about where to go from here. The more he's exposed, the worse the reactions are going to get, and the higher the chance he will develop asthma. That scares me. But the thought of putting him in a bubble and completely skipping harvest (when we live in the middle of one of the wheat fields) seems tricky as well.

That's my quandary for today. Tomorrow I'll tackle world peace.

Stormy Night Life

9:45 - Finally get the 6 yo to bed after an evening of storms.

10:50 - "Mom! Mom! Mom! Get in here. I see lightening!"

10:55 - Back to sleep.

10:59 - "Mom! Mom! Mom! I need you in...." Falls asleep mid-sentence.

11:03 - "Mom! Mom!"

11:04 - Back asleep.

11:06 - "MOOOOMMMMMM!!!!"

11:07 - Relocate 6 yo to my bedroom floor.

11:30 - "Mom. Where are you?"

11:59 - "Mom! I heard thunder!"

12:22 - "Mom. Are you there?"

12:50 - "Mom?"

1:30 - "Mom! Where are you?"

1:33 - Relocate 6 yo to living room couch and myself to the living room floor so my husband can sleep.

1:35 - Husband comes out to check radar. He feels sorry for me, so he goes to the truck for all the blankets we took camping, and he makes me a bed on the floor.

1:55 - "Mom? Are you there?"

2:20 - "Okay, Josh." (So he finally sleeps and STILL wakes me up with his dreaming!)

2:45 - "What was that?"

3:30 - "Mom!"

And then peace.

Until 6:30 when he threw a pillow on my head and woke me up.

And then he went back to sleep.

Until 8:00.

Grrrr.

Day at the Lake

Day 1: From the mouth of the 6 yo: "I'm not getting on that thing! It's too scary!"

Morning of Day 2: After seeing his 3 yo brother ride it the day before..."Maybe I'll give it a try."

I guess he meant only if he could drive. Here he is getting started.

And here he is getting a little braver....

And a little braver...

The 3 yo, however, said: "SPEED. I AM SPEED. Who says I have to be able to see over the handlebars to drive?"

Afternoon of Day 2: After watching daddy tube behind the boat, the 3 yo started begging and crying to try it. So here he is on his first ride. You couldn't have paid the 6 yo enough money to get on that thing.


Bad pictures. Fun ride.

Looks like we did our job as parents. And we didn't even have to use Benadryl.

Day in Review

~Played badminton with the boys instead of finishing cleaning the bathroom.

~Played baseball instead of mopping the kitchen the floor.

~Ran to see 324 dead bugs "that you gotta come see mom, it MOVED mom, I know it did!!"

~Ate way more calories than I promised myself I would.

~Found yet another pair of summer shorts/capris from last year that do not fit now. Hmmm...I wonder why.

~After weeks of dry nights and no accidents for the 3 yo, I've washed two sets of sheets and three peed on outfits in 24 hours. What?!?

On the list for tomorrow:

~CLEANING, WORKOUT, CLEANING, WORKOUT, CLEANING, and, I'm guessing, MORE SHEETS. Looks like movie day for the kids.

Vacation Shots

Not even one hour after arriving for family vacation, here are some of the kids...looking incredibly excited to be there.


His first ever miniature gold experience was at Dinosaur Canyon. He was in heaven ~ golfing and dinosaurs...his world just couldn't get much better.

Unless you go to Silver Dollar City! Here we are at the frogs. I could do an entire post about the frogs. Why you ask? Because we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the frogs. The 6 yo decided he was going to be scared of most of the rides in the park, but, lucky us, the frogs made the "good" list.

And so did the teacups. Frogs, tea cups, and sitting on benches waiting for everyone else to go on rides. That pretty much summed up our day!

Don't let this picture fool you. It was taken before the first turn, which quickly moved the roller coaster over to the "bad" list.

The three year old, however, was a wild man. This was the only ride that he admitted "had a scary part."

However, after finishing this ride, we did notice the death grip he had on his daddy's shorts.

Wildfire was my insane husband's favorite ride. See the guy waving way back in the corner on the right? That's him.

And there is he somewhere going upsidedown over and over.

And why, I ask, did I spend ALL THAT MONEY on entertainment when we had the best entertainment for free right outside our cottage?