Happy Birthday Ellie!

Dear Ellie, 

Today you are 9 years old! It is hard to believe that our teeny tiny Ellie is 9...but you are!
When I think of you I think of joy. You bring so much joy to our lives and you get so much joy out of life. You are bright and sunny and full of excitement over everything. Let me assure you, when you were a baby I never dreamed that one day I would use the word joyful to describe your outlook on life. You were kind of a grumpy baby (sorry, it's true!). You were never really a screamer as a baby (except every time I touched the brakes in the car) but you just grumbled all the time. But one day you woke up and were happy and you've been that way ever since. You have a delightful personality and I hope you stay that way. I love how excited you get over things, especially little things, and your whole face lights up and you bounce around like tigger.
Another thing I really love about you is your love for learning. You have always loved big words and I love when you come home from school and tell me all the cool things you learned that day. Of all the kids I think you love the classroom the most. Emmie loves school because she loves people but you love school because you love to accumulate knowledge. You absorb every single thing you hear and you don't ever forget it. I hope you always have your zeal for learning. Keep it up and you will make an excellent Jeopardy contestant one day!
This year you did theater as your extracurricular activity. This was your second year of theater and you once again loved it so much. I love watching you shine on the stage. You are normally so quiet and not an attention seeker but you just light up when you get up on stage and it makes me so happy to see that you've found an activity that you love. I hate that you haven't been able to do your spring show but maybe one day.
This year was a big year for you. We went on a Disney cruise, which was pretty much amazing and your favorite thing ever. You had the BEST time and especially loved the pool and Aquaduck. The year got a little crazy from there! You found out we were moving, you did 2 1/2mo of e learning and had quarantine, and we moved to Greenville. You were definitely NOT a fan of e learning. You didn't like being on the computer, you missed being in a classroom and you missed your friends and teacher.  But you powered through and made it to the end of the school year and did a great job learning the material you needed to with e learning. You did pretty well with the move. You were sad to leave your friends and your school and your theater people but you were excited about getting your own room (which you have thoroughly LOVED) and moving onto a street with lots of kids and friends that you already knew. I have been so proud of how you have handled all the changes this year. You have had hard days (as we all have) but you have powered through (usually by hiding in your room and reading) and you have adapted well.
Ellie, your 9 year old year should be an interesting one. This year we are doing virtual school. You were really sad about not going to actual school but you were more ok with the idea when I explained that school this year wouldn't be like normal school. This year you might also try a new activity (you're still thinking about what you might want to do) as I'm pretty sure theater won't happen or will be very different than normal if it does. I'm looking forward to see what new interest you want to explore! This year you might get to try skiing as I think we will be swapping out our planned Disney trip for a ski/snow tubing trip. You're pretty excited about learning to ski. AND most important, this year (in just a few days in fact!) you get to go to Bonclarken for the first time! We have been holding our breath for months waiting to see if it would happen and it is and you are so excited! It won't be like normal but you don't know what normal is so that won't matter to you. And I know that you will have an amazing time!
One of my favorite things is your love for reading. You remind me so much of myself and I love how much you love books. I hope books are always your friends and that you always love reading as much as you do now. This year you discovered how to check out ebooks from the public library...thank goodness...it was rough when the library first closed and you couldn't get new books.
Oh and before I get, this has been the year of you losing teeth! I call you my little jack o lantern now! Also, I'm pretty positive some of those teeth weren't lose when the day started and by the end of the day you had yanked them out! You have been really slow losing teeth so you get so excited every time one falls out.
Ellie Belly, I love you so much. I hope your 9th year is wonderful and full of many fun adventures, joyful moments, and new books. You are the calm in the middle of the crazy, you light up our lives and I am so proud to be your mom.

Love, mom

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

July 14, 2011

End of School

Last Day of School - 6/5/20

Friday was our "official" last day of school. What a year it has been! We started the year in Columbia at our school and ended in Greenville doing e-learning. I have loved watching all of my kiddos grow throughout the school year and thought I'd do a little blurb on each of them!

First day of school!

JP - JP went to preschool or the first time this year. He was in the 2 day a week 3 yr old class. He was with our beloved Mrs. Terri who has taught all 4 of the kiddos and he also had the wonderful Mrs. Jodi! He was never 100% sold on the whole school thing and some days were easier than others but he sure did love his teachers and he made some sweet friends in his class. His teacher was great about posting videos during quarantine and some days he would just sit and watch video after video. His favorites were the books she would read out loud. He learned so much in school this year and we are so proud of him!

Mrs. Terri has been there for all of our babies and we're so glad we were able to squeeze JP in for her LAST year of teaching!

JP with Mrs. Jodi...what a fun treat to have her for JP's teacher this year! (Her boys are Ellie's age so we've known her for years!)

End of year picture!

Ruthie - Ruthie was SO nervous to start kindergarten. This sweet girl had major separation anxiety all summer which was something we had never dealt with before with her. However in true Ruthie form I walked her to the door of her classroom the first day and she walked in without even telling me bye and it was smooth sailing from then on out.

Meet the teacher night with Mrs. Crosby and Mrs. Kuhn. We were beyond excited for Ruthie to be in their class this year!

Ruthie had the BEST year in kindergarten. Her teachers were amazing and we just loved them to pieces! Ruthie, like Emmie, likes to have a project. Very early in the year Ruthie found a buddy who needed an extra helping hand and she designated herself as his helper. Also, every time I saw her with her classmates she was dragging some little boy around talking 90 miles an hour, no doubt telling him everything he should/shouldn't be doing. The world better watch out for Ruthie! Ruthie also excelled in the classroom. Her reading is starting to click and she loves math! Ruthie has really missed her teachers and friends but her sweet teachers made a website where they would post videos of them doing things like telling jokes, talking to a local police chief, or doing some dances with the principal and her daughter! Ruthie loved watching those videos so much! They also did a weekly google meet up  and she would count down the days every week until Friday when she had her meet. My favorite week was the week each kid got to tell a joke. Kindergarteners telling jokes was great entertainment! We also had a special treat when her teachers came to read a book to us "socially distant style".

We are so thankful for Mrs. Kuhn and Mrs. Crosby and how much they loved our sweet Ruthie!
(Also, a huge shout out to Mrs. Kuhn who had to deal with a very nervous allergy mama at the beginning of the year. Ruthie had just finished OIT and I sent her 2 pages of information about OIT and what to do if Ruthie had signs of a reaction. She sent me an email back that just made me feel like she could handle anything and it sure did make me breathe easier as I sent my baby girl off to kindergarten!)

Ellie - Ellie is my kid that is a bit more "go with the flow". She also LOVES school. However, I know she started this year a bit nervous. Third grade is a big year. You get grades in all the subjects and start standardized testing. Ellie was also in class with very few kids from her 2nd grade class. In addition to these things Emmie had had a pretty (very) rough 3rd grade year and I think that made Ellie more nervous. Ellie's teacher, Mrs. Sharp was so sweet. She was so loving and soft spoken and Ellie thrived in her class. I think Ellie's teacher loves to read as much as Ellie and she really encouraged Ellie's reading. Ellie also really liked the other kids in her class and made quite a few new friends! Ellie excelled in school. I LOVE how much she loves to learn! My favorite is when she sits at the dinner table and tells us random facts that she has learned. She's like a little sponge and it's so fun to watch! Ellie's teacher always read to them from a book and at the beginning of e learning she posted some read alouds and Ellie would get so excited when there was a new one posted. She loved just sitting and watching those over and over. I think Ellie might have been my kid that missed being at school the most. We drove by the school one day on the way home from running errands and Ellie teared up and said "it just feels like home there".

Meet the teacher with Mrs. Sharp. We loved getting to know her this year!

Emmie - What a difference a year makes! As many of you know Emmie's 3rd grade year was pretty awful for all of us, most of the problems stemming from side effects of her medicine. She ended last year begging us not to make her go back to school. This year we started the year with new medicine and lots of prayers. This year she finished the year crying because she couldn't hug her teacher and her friends goodbye!  Emmie had an amazing teacher this year. She puts such a focus on emotional health and I always felt like she was so in tune with her students and what was going on in their lives. She totally "got" Emmie and she loved Emmie, and her other students, so well this year. She also gets a big e learning shout out. She started doing daily google meets the first week we were out of school and she did them daily until the very last day of school. I am positive that having that little bit of "normal" made a world of difference in Emmie's adjustment to e learning. Emmie looked forward to seeing her friends and Mrs. Harter every single day. She was so diligent about checking in the kids to make sure they were doing ok and I am so thankful for how much she loves her students.

Meet the teacher night with Mrs. Harter. Everyone who heard Emmie had her said how nice Mrs. Harter was and they were so right. This teacher took a kid who had come to dread school and helped turn her back into a kid who once again looked forward to going to school.

She sent Emmie this rock in the mail today and I love the note she wrote to go along with it.

I have to give another shout out to Emmie's math tutor, Maggie Inman. She started working with Emmie last summer and then here and there during the school year when Emmie was struggling and she was so wonderful. Emmie loved working with her and would even ask to go see her if she was struggling with a math concept. Maggie saved both Emmie AND me many, many tears this year! Also, she helped so much in building back up Emmie's confidence in math. I am so proud of Emmie for being willing to do the extra work in math AND was so happy for her when she could see the payoff of all the hard work!

We have loved our school so much and we sure were sad to say goodbye to Bookman Road! I toured many schools before Emmie started Kindergarten and Bookman was the second school I toured. I left the school and knew that it was such a great fit for us. I looked at other schools that were also good schools and would have been excellent choices but Bookman just felt right from the minute I walked through the doors! We had some amazing teachers over the past 5 years who have loved on all of our kids and nurtured their hearts and their minds equally. I am thankful for everyone at the school who made us feel like family from day 1 and all the teachers, staff, and administration will always have a special place in my heart!

**We did manage to take our bench picture with Evelyn before we moved!

May 2020

August 2019

The girls...May 2020

The Girls...August 2019

JP May 2020

JP August 2019

Food Allergy Awareness Week

This week is Food Allergy Awareness Week so I thought I would do a quick recap and update on Ruthie, our little food allergy warrior.
For those of you who don't know our story Ruthie, our third child, was diagnosed at about 16mo with a peanut allergy. She had had a few mild reactions (hives and some slight facial swelling) to peanut butter right before her 15mo appointment so at that appointment we got a referral to see an allergist. When we went to the allergist I had him totally convinced it was just a skin reaction. She had severe eczema (most likely the reason she has her peanut allergy...treat that eczema early and aggressively friends!) and her skin was super sensitive to lots of things. He was ready to send us home with instructions to come back "sometime" to get skin tested for peanut. I pretty much begged him to do it that day because I already had childcare for my older kids. So they did the skin test, she had a pretty large reaction pretty quickly and we ended up leaving the office with lots of instructions for what to do in case of a reaction, an epi pen, and a prescription for a blood test. The allergist was pretty impressed with how large her reaction was. We had the blood test done and it was positive and we found out some months later that not only was it positive but they had done a peanut protein test and it showed that she was more likely to have an anaphylactic reaction. Well we had been nervous before but now we were terrified! We also knew that not only was Ruthie going to have a reaction if she ate peanuts but she was also contact allergic so she would react if she touched peanut.
I don't think I can ever describe what it feels like to know that your child could stop breathing if they put the wrong thing in their mouth or you forget to read a label just once. Every meal was scary. Every trip out of the house involved watching not just what our kids were doing and eating but watching what everyone around us was eating as well. Ruthie's allergy affected not just her and Paul and me but our other kids as well. The big girls were fiercely

protective of her and could often spot someone eating peanut butter faster than I could. For years we walked around with what felt like a big rock sitting on our chests making it hard to take a deep breath. Praying that she would outgrow her allergy.
And then we got our miracle. She didn't outgrow her allergy but somehow (I can't really remember how) I learned about Oral Immunotherapy (OIT). The first time I read about it there were only a few places in the US doing trials. I thought it would be something she could maybe do many years down the road. But I kept my eyes and ears open, waiting. Then I stumbled across private practice OIT. Drs who weren't part of trials that were doing OIT on their own. They were using very well developed protocols. There were so many success stories. I found a community of parents who had searched for a treatment, who had traveled hundreds and thousands of miles for the hope offered by OIT and who had found freedom from the restrictions of food allergies. I started looking around and there were doctors in Atlanta doing it. But Atlanta is over 3 hours each way. But it was a possibility. Then there was a doctor in Salisbury, NC doing it. Only 2 hours each way (AND you don't have to drive through Atlanta traffic!) and we have family in the area so we would always have a place to stay if we needed to.
We went for a consult with our OIT doctor in October of 2017, did some more labs in the spring of 2018, and started OIT on August 29, 2018. The week before and the 2-3 weeks after were absolutely terrifying. We were constantly on edge watching for a reaction. We went to Salisbury every other week for 11 months. It was a lot of driving but it was pretty easy driving and we just got used to it. Once we reached 12 peanuts for 2 weeks Ruthie did a 24peanut challenge in the office on July 29, 2019. Our child who had started having signs of being airbone allergic to peanuts right before starting OIT ate TWENTY FOUR peanuts with NO reaction at all. It was amazing. And terrifying to watch her eat all that. And then we were sent home with instructions to eat 8 peanuts every day and come back for a follow up in a year.

Her shirt says "Be Fearless" and that was our goal with OIT! (She's also fearless on a bike...she may have taken the message a little too close to heart!)

The freedom that has come from OIT is wonderful. Less than a month after graduating from OIT we sent Ruthie off to kindergarten. I had been dreading the first day of kindergarten for YEARS. I was terrified that they wouldn't be as diligent as we were and I was worried about the social isolation that often comes with food allergies. I was worried that if she did have a reaction they wouldn't catch it fast enough. But her first day of kindergarten was so different from what I had envisioned over those many years. I dropped her off in her classroom (with her fabulous teacher who had been given a crash course in OIT) and walked away confident that my girl was safe.
Over the course of the last year OIT has been come just a part of our everyday routine. Ruthie eats 8 peanuts every morning and then has a 2 hour "rest period" where she can't do things like PE or recess that would elevate her heart rate. She does most of her rest period at school and it's been easy breezy. Her teacher is wonderful and Ruthie is her own biggest advocate. I cried the first time she came home from school and told me they had cookies and her face lit up when she told me she was able to have one. That was something she wouldn't have been able to do before OIT (almost all baked goods are cross contaminated with peanut). We are also allowed to skip a dose or two every week if we need to. The flexibility that we have with dosing really allows us to control the allergy...it doesn't control us. It means that if field day (which wasn't an issue this year...sigh) is in the morning we just skip her dose that day and she can get out and run around with everyone else. We didn't want to trade one thing that socially isolates (food allergies) for a treatment that also isolates. Ruthie is also allowed to freely eat peanuts however if she does eat them she has to have a 2 hour rest period afterwards so she doesn't eat them often but every now and then she will. She got to try her first boiled peanut this year and deemed them delicious and ate a whole bunch of them! I am so proud of how she remembers to ask if her rest period is over before she goes and runs around. I think she vaguely remembers all the restrictions she used to have but she has mostly forgotten and for that I am grateful. The first few weeks of school I would get a report on all the food in the classroom/lunch table every day but by Christmas break I no longer heard anything about food. When she was debating about getting school lunch for the first time her worry wasn't about what if there were peanuts in the food but it was what if she couldn't get her milk carton open. We lived many years in fear and did a lot of educating her about asking one of us before she ate anything and teaching her VERY early to say "I am allergic to peanuts" so to know that now food can be enjoyable and not a source of fear is wonderful.
We are so thankful for everyone that supported us along our journey and we are especially thankful for Dr. Williams, our OIT allergist. He was there every single step of the way during our OIT journey, even when we had an issue on Christmas morning. He is still only a phone call away whenever we need him (that is ONE phone call my friends...not calling and waiting for a call back...one phone call directly to him...it's unheard of and amazing and gave me an incredible amount of reassurance when we were starting out).

OIT isn't for everyone but for our family it was an answer to prayers. It was a little different than what we had been praying for but it was the perfect answer! My hope now is that our story can give hope to others who are living with the fear that comes with food allergies.

Father/Daughter Dance

Tonight was the Family Dance at school. Our crew still calls it the Father/Daughter dance because that's who goes from our house! This was Ruthie's first dance and she was so excited!

They met up with Evelyn and her dad at Olive Garden and then headed to the dance.

Paul said they had lots of fun. And true to form Ruthie spent most of the time dragging around various little boys from her class...she enjoys having someone she can boss around. Lol.

With one of our favorites, Mr. Dooley!

How adorable is this! Also, pretty sure Ruthie is going to give us a run for our money.

While they were at the dance JP and I went to Chick fil A for a mother/son date.