inspiring

Do you ever feel run down and just done? It's not just me is it? I feel beat. Done. I just want to lay down! I think it's the end of the school year disease. Activities and homework are winding down. Standardized testing is almost over. For us there are 6 school days left. Plenty to do in that short time. Parties, award ceremonies, field trips and so on. I need some inspiration to keep going, to stick with it, and to be motivated.
Well, here it is. Remember yesterday I told you about a budget meeting that was occurring in Charlotte?  An amazing woman has worked tirelessly on this for over a year. The meeting went great and she is getting tons of press today! She is a trailblazer, and a huge inspiration to me to keep going, to keep working, to keep fighting. Go Teri!

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/local/proposed-county-budget-includes-funds-11-more-scho/nX7Yt/

http://www.wbtv.com/story/22462306/meck-cty-commissioners-hearing-it-from-public-about-budget

If you are in the area

There is a huge meeting tonight in Charlotte in regards to getting more full time nurses in schools.

Come TONIGHT to support getting more school nurses in our schools! Meeting starts at 6pm at the Government Center at 600 E. Fourth Street. 
WEAR RED and hold one of our nurses signs. If you can only do one thing to help, please attend this meeting. We will start to gather outside the meeting room around 5:30pm Bring your kids or get a sitter and bring friends! For more information, email Teri Saurer at tsaurer@carolina.rr.com Directions: 77 to 277N exit 2A-Third and Fourth St.-left onto Fourth St. Pass building on left with media trucks-quick left onto Davidson. Park in garage on right. Use mapquest or GPS. Address is 600 East 4th Street. 

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Students-parents-push-for-more-school-nurses-at-CMS-209477381.html

The long weekend

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. My long weekend was great, we did practically nothing and it was fantastic. So fantastic that it's already Wednesday and I am still feeling lazy.

The school year is almost over. My oldest started standardized testing today. Ugh. I could write volumes on standardized testing. I probably will write about it today on my other blog. Did you like that shameless plug?
http://missingmontessori.blogspot.com/

Update:

 Contact your local Senators and the Senators on the Education Committee. Tell them to support HB 824! This is the last chance. SB 700 did not make it pass the crossover deadline so it is dead! But the sister HB 824 passed the House and now is waiting in the Senate Education Committee waiting to be heard and eent to the floor for passage.

Don't let our Senators forget how important it is to ensure our children are protected by the non-specific epinephrine requirement in schools. Tell them why this legislation is important to you.

Also, tell your friends that this is the perfect time to sign the change.org petition if they have not already signed. Get your children in the schools to sign the petition to and send their letters to the Senators!

Here are the email addresses of the key senators, but you should contact your local senators as well.
http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Committees/Committees.asp?sAction=ViewCommittee&sActionDetails=Senate+Standing_69

Ice cream

Ah, the often dreaded end of year party is coming. Time to defrost another cupcake I thought. Then I find out from the teacher that the kids want ice cream at the party. Ugh, even worse for us than a cupcake. Oh not so though! The amazing teacher suggested ice cream sandwiches because my daughter can have one of those from the cafeteria! Brilliant! Ice cream problem solved.
I love amazing teachers.

One of my loyal readers and friend :) posted the following link in the comments yesterday when I brought up making an emergency box.http://www.essentialpacks.com/Deluxe-Emergency-Bucket-Kit-4-Person-392
It is pricey but it must work out cheaper than getting everything separately and it is nut free!
Awesome!

Blessings

I am so blessed to have amazing friends. Over the weekend I took my 7 year old to a birthday party. This was her bff's party, very exciting. I had it in my mind that I would drop her off and leave and come back to pick her up. I had never done this before. Leaving a food allergic child at a party? Not me, no way! Well, I am very good friends with the mom so I felt like this would be the time to try. I went over everything with the bday mom. I gave her the safe cupcake, and the epi-pens (after a retraining that was requested by the mom). I then told my daughter that we(husband and I ) were leaving to run errands and that we would be back. Her eyes flew out of her head. She looked scared. I told her that everything would be ok and that bday mom had her medicine and cupcake. I kissed her and left before I started to cry. We didn't go far. We walked around the shopping center and then sat a restaurant right next door. Hey, it's a start right?
Later I asked my daughter how she felt about being without us at the party? She said "I was scared at first but then I got over it." Ha! Gotta love kids.
If you have a food allergic child, have you left them at a party? How did it go?

I am counting my blessings today after seeing the destruction in Oklahoma. It is truly heartbreaking and it got me thinking. What if something like that happened here? I know what closet we would hide in. I know that I would grab the kids, the epi pen bag, and their bike helmets if I had time. What would happen after? What if our house was destroyed? I need to make an emergency box. Flashlights etc. And safe food! I can't guarantee that we would have access to safe food. That scares the you know what out of me. Do you have an emergency box? What's in it?

Friday

I usually don't post over the weekend. So, I hope everyone has had a good food allergy awareness week. I love all of the sharing that I am seeing in social media this week. It can only be good.

Look what I got myself this week, it just arrived yesterday. I love it!

http://www.amazon.com/Heirloom-Finds-Crystal-Awareness-Necklace/dp/B00B7BZWAE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368799876&sr=8-1&keywords=teal+awareness+necklace

Amazing dad

Look at this article about a dad that is raising awareness this week for food allergies!

http://blog.foodallergy.org/tag/rowing/

Thank you to everyone for all that you are doing this week to raise awareness for food allergies. From sharing the blog, to sharing ideas and pictures on Facebook , it really means a lot. So, I say thank you!

It's strange to think about our journey over the past four years and think about what it would be like if food allergies had never entered our home. Oh, wouldn't that be nice. I do know that if we hadn't been affected by them I would not fully understand them, I would not be the vocal advocate that I have become (I swear I really am shy), and I would not have met some of the most amazing people that I now call friends. I am truly grateful for those that I have met and continue to meet. You all inspire me everyday.

I learned something new

This is what I love about food allergy awareness week, the passing on of knowledge. Knowledge is power.
Yesterday I learned that boys are more likely to have food allergies than girls. I learned it from this amazing blog.
http://punkymama.com/

Even though I am involved with food allergies deeply and daily, I still can learn something new.
What have you learned this week?

Awareness

I will shout from the rooftops this week if it helps.

It is food allergy awareness week!

Do you know that 1 out of every 13 children have a food allergy? That is a staggering number. That is roughly 2 kids in every classroom.

Every year my little one brings in something to give to her friends and teacher. Just a little something to say thank you for taking such good care of her. This year she is bringing everyone a certificate. The certificate can be found at
http://www.foodallergy.org/food-allergy-awareness-week


What are you doing to raise awareness this week?

News in our world. Grass, Mother's Day and awareness.

I have lots to report today.
Lets go back to Friday. My youngest had field day. She had a blast being outside for two hours playing games and such with her friends. She came home tired but happy. We later went outside to play with friends. Without telling me she decided to roll in the grass. We came inside at dinner time and I could not believe my eyes. She looked like she got attacked by an angry cat. She was red and scratched from her ankles up. I got her in the shower right away. She also got a dose of benadryl. It really didn't help. Yesterday was the first day that I saw any improvement. She can't win........

Mother's Day was lovely. A quiet and beautiful weekend with family. There is nothing better than those homemade cards from children.

This week is food allergy awareness week. A great time to spread the word, educate, and raise awareness. If you need any tips on how to spread awareness just let me know. Here are some ways to get you started.

http://www.foodallergy.org/
Go to the above link to learn about a wonderful organization called FARE,food allergy research and education.

Go to this link to join a food allergy walk near you
http://www.foodallergywalk.org/site/c.ahKPI6MIIeIYE/b.8529309/k.BED9/Home.htm
I have heard that the Charlotte, NC walk is awesome!  :)

The next one is a must share. It is the new PSA that FARE just put out today. Please share, it is awesome and so needed! I hope everyone has a great week, do what you can to raise awareness!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0AfuBAsJKY

A challenge

Next week is food allergy awareness week. I read this great post from a fellow food allergy mom blogger and I felt the need to share. This is a great idea! Enjoy, share, and help to raise awareness.

http://allergenmenumom.com/2013/05/09/food-allergy-awareness-week-challenge/

Thank you Governor!

A huge thank you to the Governor for issuing a proclamation that recognizes food allergy awareness week! It starts next week!

http://www.governor.state.nc.us/newsroom/proclamation/20130512/food-allergy-awareness-week

Share the good news and help raise awareness!

A horrible coverup

This story makes me sick. I was a teacher, I have friends and family that are teachers. These two are not teachers. True teachers wouldn't do this.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130507/NEWS/705079937/1685#peanut-butter-cover-up-costs-teachers-their-jobs

Apple muffins, shirts, and rashes, oh my!

I found a safe (nut free) brand of apple muffins. I made them and held my breath when they tried them because we all know how well the apple pie went over. Success! The muffins were a hit!

All of the children get a shirt to wear this Friday at field day. Usually I have her wear it over a shirt because they don't get washed first but it might be warm so I brought it home to wash it. She can't wear new clothes that have not been washed first. We learned this the hard way as we do most things around here. Two days before her first anaphylactic reaction she had a reaction to a pair of pants. It was the one and only time I let her wear something before it was washed. She broke out in a horrible rash right where the inside of the pockets touched her thighs. It started out small and got worse and worse. It took a while for it to go away and then she went anaphylactic on us from the walnuts two days later.

I will always wonder why the pants made her break out so severely. What was on those pants? Or, now that we know that she has dermatographism, was it that? Has anyone else ever broken out from an article of clothing?

Craziness

I have nothing to report from the food allergy world. I will however say that this time of year is crazy! I actually think it's worse than Hanukkah/Christmas time. So busy. Running around like crazy trying to get a million things done. Is school over yet? June 10th can't get here fast enough.
In other news, there is this bright yellow thing in the sky. I believe it is called the sun! I haven't seen it in so long I have forgotten what it is. Of course, I'm so busy trying to get stuff done that I can't get out and enjoy it......

TGIF

Hello Friday! It is nice to see you!
I don't know how the weather has been where you are but it has been awful here. Cold, cloudy and rainy on and off and it's not going to end anytime soon according to the weather man. I need some sun!
Anyway, all this lousy weather makes me lazy. When I'm lazy I sit around and think. All this thinking let me to the great idea that I should start another blog. What? Yes, another blog. About something that I love, Montessori education. Am I crazy ?

Dermatographism

At our last appointment we received a new diagnosis of dermatographism. Say what? It is a big fancy word for really sensitive skin. She has probably always had it but now it has been given a name. There is nothing that we can do about it unfortunately. I have looked it up on the internet. Does anyone else do that? Do you look up conditions on the internet? Dangerous, isn't it? I looked around for a minute and then closed it down because I was freaking myself out. I have got to stop doing that! Anyway, some people break out into hives for no reason. Others, like my daughter, have the "skin writing" aspect of dermatographism. The doctor could literally write on her with a stick and the area turned red and raised.
Who knew this existed? Not me that's for sure.

Classification and labels

How do food allergies get classified? Do they even need to be classified? Should they be classified as an illness? She isn't sick in the traditional definition. Under law life threatening food allergies are a disability. But is she disabled? No. She can do whatever everyone else can do (besides eating certain foods). Should food allergies be classified as a disease? That doesn't sit well with me either.
It's strange not being able to put a label on your child's condition. Maybe that's it. Maybe the word condition covers it.