November, 2008 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives November 2008

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Matzo balls for the Pilgrims

Posted on November 25, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

NHL’s kindergarten class will be having a Thanksgiving feast for all of the kids and their families later today. We were asked to send in an item that is special and represents our culture/heritage/religion. JL and I came up with a few ideas, but NHL made his decision the minute he heard the word matzo balls. I know, it sounds strange sending in matzo balls to a Thanksgiving feast, but this group of Pilgrims will have them in their bellies.

It had been quite some time since we had made matzo balls on our own. I bought matzo meal and eggs and was all ready to go. Last night, we decided to make six times the batch on the package. According to that, it would make approximately 48 of the yummy wonders that would be one inch in diameter.

Here are 43 matzo balls just after they were put in the pot for their 30-40 minute "bath" in boiling water.

Of course, JL and I had to taste test one to make sure they were acceptable. YUM! Our entire house smelled like Passover. . . in a really good way. These are the final products when they were cooling off to be put away for the Thanksgiving feast.

Hopefully, they can be heated without killing them for everyone to enjoy. JSL and I will be heading to the festivities to see how things go and hopefully take some photos to share later.

Categories:
food glorious food holidays NaBloPoMo nhl photos school yummy

Antibiotic success and possible failure

Posted on November 24, 2008 9:29 am by TheAngelForever

Friday night JSL gave us quite the scare. His temperature climbed to 102.7. This may not alarm most people, but JSL had a febrile seizure in February and his temperature was 102. His normal temperature on our thermometer is also just around 97, so this was almost 5 degrees warmer.

Urgent Care opened at 10:00 Saturday morning and we were there first in line. The doctor there said his lung to his ear, and throat looked fine. When he got to his ears he could not see anything. JSL had so much wax he could not see the ear drum. He wanted to try to clean them out some to get a better look. With the tool he was able to get enough wax out of the right ear to see it was fine. The left ear would not budge. The doctor was about to send us home at that point.

I opened my mouth and questioned using a peroxide water mix to try to blast out the wax. He said that does not work for little kids. I again reminded him that this was a VERY high fever for my son and he did not see the other ear properly. He agreed to get the nurse in to try to clean it. After 4-5 syringes of the mixture a huge plug came out of JSL’s ear. The doctor came back in and admitted I was right to insist. JSL had a raging ear infection. So bad that they told us we must head back to our doctor in 10 days for a follow up.

This is JSL 24 hours after starting the antibiotic and fever free since before bed on Saturday.

NHL has potentially tried to one up his brother. It looks like his antibiotic for the pinkeye may not be working. It had started to look a little better during the day yesterday. Then last night it looked swollen, pink and off again. This morning when he woke up it was slightly stuck shut again (had not done that the two previous nights). So, it looks like he will be going to the doctor today and is missing another day of kindergarten, poor kid. I also called NHL’s school nurse. She had told me the other day that at least two children had to be sent home again 2-3 days after the initial medicaiton was given because the infection came back. Looks like we may have something like that. Hopefully we can get this kicked enough so he can at least go to the Thanksgiving feast tomorrow before no school the rest of the week.

Categories:
doctor jsl NaBloPoMo nhl photos sick kid weekend

My FIRSTS

Posted on November 23, 2008 12:30 pm by TheAngelForever

Renee did this the other day and it seemed perfect for a lazy Sunday while taking care of sick kids.

1. Who was your FIRST prom date? — I never went to the prom. Not many of my friends went and it seemed like a lot of money for something I wasn’t too thrilled about attending.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love? — I am married to him, so yes!

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink? — Probably kosher wine of some sort for Shabbat or Passover.

4. What was your FIRST job? — Aside from babysitting and working at my parents baseball card store, I worked as a Pharmacy Technician before starting Pharmacy school.

5. What was your FIRST car? — I had a ’95 Plymouth Neon, it was my little red adventure mobile.

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today? — Nobody, I rarely get texts.

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning? — Both of the boys. Wondered if NHL’s eye was getting worse and if JSL had a fever.

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher? — Mrs. S was my first grade teacher. She also happened to be the wife of the rabbi of the synagogue that we belonged to at the time.

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane? — I believe it was to FL with my parents and Uncle J before my brother was born to go to Disney World.

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them? — My best friend from K-12 in school was Moosekin and yes we are in touch again since she moved back to the area. My neighborhood best friend was Julespearl and we still talk online, but it has been a long time since I have seen her in person.

11. What was your FIRST sport played? — I played softball growing up. For several years I was catcher.

12. Where was your FIRST sleep over? — I believe it was my friend C’s house. She lived a few blocks away from our house (not counting ones to my Aunt S’s and grandparents).

13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today? — In person JL or JSL. On the phone my mother.

14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time? — I believe the first wedding I was in was my friend G’s wedding. She was married exactly a year before JL and I.

15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning? — After waking up with one of the boys numerous times, it would be nursed JSL.

16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to? — I believe my parents took me to see Barry Manilow when I was still in PreK. That was also the weekend we went to Sesame Place while visiting my aunt and uncle in NJ.

17. FIRST tattoo or piercing? — I had my ears pierced when I was in nursery school (I believe). I remember I had to be bribed to get the second one done after the first one was done.

18. FIRST foreign country you went to? — Canada!

19. What was your FIRST run in with the law? — None.

20. When was your FIRST detention? — Does is count if you are the teacher giving it? Seriously, I never had detention as a student.

21. What was the FIRST state you lived in? — Same one I am living in now!

22. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart? — Nobody really.

23. Who was your FIRST roommate? — My brother, before my parents remodeled their house. We shared a room for a short time. After that it was JL.

24. Where did you go on your FIRST limo ride? — I believe my Papa J’s funeral.

Wanna try? Consider yourself tagged! Please link back to me and leave a comment here when you post so I can see what you write.

Categories:
looking back NaBloPoMo survey

To my sick little monkey

Posted on November 22, 2008 9:18 am by TheAngelForever

Dear Kid Saturdays at Cutest Kid Ever

Dear JSL,

Apparently you were not able to let your big brother be the only sick kid in the house. Last night you had to top his pinkeye with some "fun" of your own. Daddy and I were silly and should have known something was wrong. You hardly ever toss all food that you are given and that is what was happening. When we felt your head you were burning up. Flashbacks of when you were in the hospital last February came flooding back. We gave you ibuprofen and acetaminophen and you quickly fell asleep. Our attention then went back to the pinkeye monster. Since you were sleeping so soundly we never woke you up to redo any of the fever reducers.

This blew up in our face when you woke up whimpering at 4:00 this morning. Sure enough you were even warmer than before. When we took your temperature it was already 102.7 and soaring. I will admit I was ready to dial 911 if we needed to. This temperature was higher than it was when you had your febrile seizure and stopped breathing in February. Mommy did not sleep much after that watching as your breathing slowed down and your skin became cooler.

In a few hours we will be taking you to Urgent Care when they open to make sure that your ears are not the culprit. For now we continue the fever reducers. Please be a good little boy and take your medicine to make you better. None of us want to spend more nights in the hospital like we did earlier this year. Fight my little guy, fight these germs with all of your power!

Mommy

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday jsl looking back NaBloPoMo sick kid

Return of the pink monster

Posted on November 21, 2008 9:18 am by TheAngelForever

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating. Th

Aloha #23

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My question for this week changed thanks to events on Thursday. I had planned on doing something to link up with a bloggy friend. Unfortunately, plans changed because I can not think clearly enough to do it properly. I will explain below.

This week my question is:

Have you ever had pink eye? If your child has, do you have any tips on how to wrangle them (aside from sitting on them) for drops?

Yesterday at around 10:00 in the morning my called ID showed a number from the school district. I was hoping that it was the OT calling about things. No, it was not her. The person on the other end simply said to me "Hi Mrs ___ guess who I have here with me?"

Notice that she did not identify who she was. I was able to figure it out. Apparently the pinkeye monster that has been wrecking havoc in NHL’s kindergarten class got him. I asked if it was just irritated from forgetting his allergy medication. She agreed that it may be from that and would give it until after lunch to see. Meanwhile I called our doctor’s office to get something called in quick because I knew it was not good. The nurse had already sent another child home with goo coming out of her eye, another was home sick with it and 4+ kids had it last week, plus I was dealing with it last weekend.

Bad vibes were coming from this entire thing. Sure enough at about noon the nurse called back. His eye was more swollen and getting really red now. I packed up JSL and went to school to pick up NHL. By 1:30 we were on our way to the pharmacy to get the drops that were called in. NHL was NOT happy about this. He recalled the last pinkeye that he had just a month ago.

Yesterday I literally sat on him to get the drops in. Sure he may only be five, but man the kid is strong. When he went to bed his eye was really red and we warned him when he got up it may be stuck shut. Sure enough at 11:00 he woke up and it was crusted over. It happened again at 6:00 this morning. I am worried because his eye looks really bad after 4 sets of drops now. The worst part, I am not sure if a bump/abcess like object is forming under his eye by his cheek bone. I will be keeping a close eye on it now and see how it goes.

Susan, I promise I will do something even more special ASAP. For now I must work on wiping eye boogers and washing our hands and everything else in the house. WIth any luck Thanksgiving break next week will help to wipe out the pinkeye that has invaded NHL’s classroom.