Catching up with us!

Wow.

I didn't realize how much time could go by. Since I last posted we have been through the gammut of stuff. School, work, boy scouts, neighborhood gatherings, field trips, birthday parties...so much and too little time! That and I have to confess, I found Facebook. I know what you might be thinking and let me say, it is all true. I signed on because of my desire to get back in touch with my past students. Another teacher was talking about all of the students that she found from our school on Facebook, so I thought it would be interesting to see just who and what they were saying. Little did I realize just how much I would enjoy the darn thing. I have found students from my second year of teaching, that are now adults with families and real jobs!! Yes, I have been teaching for a really long time!

Most recently the boys and I did our yearly visits to the allergist. She filled out all the 504 paperwork for Nathan for school, which was good. I have the final meeting with the teachers tomorrow. The latex allergy is really difficult to control, not because people don't care necessarily, but we use so many products in every day life that are rubber that we don't even think twice about. I went out to the gym with the PE teachers last week to look at all of their equipment. I basically went through and told them what was fine for Nathan to touch and what wasn't. The easiest way for me to know usually is to touch the items. I have years of experience touching, calling, and investigating this substance. Our house is literally latex free. I have no idea if Grayson has the allergy because he is not exposed to it enough to ever know. We are cautious with him, but he has never experienced symptoms that I know of and therefore I won't make a big deal of it for him yet. He likes to tell people that he is allergic to latex because Nathan and I are. It really is cute the way he says it. But, back to the gym equipment. After touching many items I began to realize that my finger was hurting to look down and notice that I had welted and was having a reaction...that fast with so little effort. The PE teachers got a small taste of what could happen with Nathan. He now has an Epi-Pen because the allergy is one that builds over time and exposure. He is way more allergic to it than I am; imagine what would have happened if it had been him instead of me? Needless to say I went quickly to wash my hands and within minutes had taken Benadryl. The welting went down after about 30 minutes and I was a jumpy mess the rest of the day from the medication. It was an interesting day to say the least. I would rather it had been me than my child. Any day of the week! The allergist went ahead and put me on the Epi-pen as well. I am glad that she did. It was only a week after seeing her that I had that reaction. For me, that was the worst reaction I have had. But again the reactions get worse over time. Fun.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for three of us! Nathan and I set off early for school this morning with binder (that is too big to fit in the book bag), book bag, and supplies. Nathan seems to really like his teacher and even found a few new friends today. Tomorrow he will get more in the swing of things by changing classes for the first time. It should be an interesting experience for him. Every year we have a few criers on the first day of school. I am proud to report that Nathan was not one of them! He really did go with the flow.

Grayson and Daddy set off later to head to his first day of Pre-K. He too has a new book bag. There really isn't much in it, but it is new all the same. He was really excited about his teacher, he knew her before and really likes her. I hope that he grows exponentially this year. He is such a bright kid.

I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off...though I was dressed nicely. I was very busy for the first half of the day and then things slowed down enough that I could sit and eat. I finally got my computer up and running. It was more of a "had to" rather than had time to set it up. I am happy that it is done though. I hope that I can take some time to finish unpacking some of the boxes and find all my stuff. I still don't know where half of my stuff is at the moment and the rest of the office would probably appreciate my cleaning up my junk!

All in all we had a really great first day.