The fire ant and the EPI pen!

Well, we had a little scare over the weekend. Friday night all the kids were out playing in the front yard. I had noticed Thursday that there seemed to be quite a few ants in the driveway/yard, etc. I've been told they were coming out of the wood work because of the 3 weeks of rain we've had. Anyway, I had gotten a couple of bites on the top of my foot Thursday night but didn't think much about it until Friday. I saw so many ants that I couldn't see the pavement. I got out the Amdro and started the killing spree. In the meantime, Izabella was doing some kind of "go away ant" dance at the same time. Can you guess what happened next? That's right, she got bit on the pinkie toe! She started screaming and went inside and I gave her a benedryl. About 15 minutes later she was real itchy and I took her in the bathroom to check everything out. By the time we got in the bathroom, she had turned a nice red color ALL over. Then I notice hives popping up EVERYWHERE on her body. When I say everywhere, imagine any skin of hers that you could see was now red, puffy and hive-y! On top of that, her eyes were swollen, lips were 3x the size and purple. Cheeks were blue. We jumped in the car and were off to urgent care. She had no complaints of not being able to breathe. It took about 10 mins to get to the urgent care, by which time I could see that everything I just described above was about 10x worse. I'm not exagerating either!

They took her back right away and gave her a shot of epinephrine to calm the reaction but the hives were just not going away. They watched her for about 10 minutes and then decided that she needed to have some fluids, so they gave her a saline drip to help flush out the poison. The poor thing, she took the shot with not 1 tear and then when I had to explain to her about the IV, she listened and looked scared but didn't cry one bit when they did that either. I was SO proud of her. She was very quite the whole time and just wanted to make sure she was doing everything that the Dr. told her the right way. We stayed for about 2 1/2 hours until it seems that everything was under control. She's been on a steroid for the last few days and now has to carry an EPI pen with her everywhere. I have one on me too. They told me that typically, if they are bitten again, the reaction can be worse than the original one. Which means, she could have breathing problems the next time it happens. WHEW! what a night. We've never been allergic to anything before this but now we know Izabella and red fire ants DO NOT mix! She went to school this week and quickly told everyone about her ordeal. I'm just glad nothing worse happened and we were able to get to urgent care so quickly and life is now back to normal. Well........as normal as it gets in The Mingolla Kingdom!

SOOOOOOOOOO bummed!

So, my computer had died and I have someone working hard on it to recover all my photos. It must be at least 3000! O.M.G. If this happens again I will just die! I lost all of the first 2 years of Izabella's life in pictures on the other computer and now this! GEEZ! So, that's the reason for not posting lately. I've got no computer to work on at home so that's been the reason for not posting in so long. We are working on it I promise.

So far though, Izabella is LOVING 2nd grade. Just got our first progress report for the year and she's doing GREAT in all of her classes. She loves her teacher and is quickly making lots of new friends. She's growing up more and more every day and it makes my heart smile to watch, but it's bitter sweet because she'll always be my "baby!" Boy do I love that girl, it's like watching my heart walk around outside my body. I tell her that sometimes and she looks at me funny but I always follow up with "you'll know what I mean one day!"

Taylor started her Sr. year and is having a blast so far. She dropped some of her more challenging classes, as she didn't really need to take them anyway, and now she says school is easy! Almost too easy she says! She's got soccer and band keeping her busy these days so that just means less time to come visit, but we're hoping she can come in Oct while she's got her first week long break from school. Fingers crossed! Another girl I would just die for. Love my girls!!

Shame on Momma!!

This summer has gone by so fast and we've been so busy, I haven't had time to post like I usually do. This week is no different, we just got back from vacation in TX and school starts next Monday 8/3/09, I can NOT believe that. I've got school supply shopping to do yet. I will not be able to post anything this weekend because of my schedule, but I promise to get caught up in the next couple of weeks. Lots to update!!

Love and miss you all!!

My baby comes home tomorrow!! ;)

Ms. Sandra offered to take the girls to the lake with her this week, so the poor thing has got Izabella, Reagan, Christina and Robert with her in Murphy, NC at the lake house. While it's been hard on me to be away from Izabella, I wouldn't let anyone else have her this long but Sandra. She was Izabella's "daytime Mommy" for 3 1/2 years so why not let her take her with. Izabella has gotten to swim in a lake for the very first time and her first question after Robert threw her in the lake was, "there's no sharks in here is there?" Just like her Momma! I used to go to the lake too and waterskied and everything, but I would probably never get back in one. I have a weird phobia about not being able to see the bottom or my feet. I know I'm weird, but still!

I've only called twice, not too bad. But, I miss her terribly. I never realized how much noise one little human can make! :) They will be home tomorrow and then Taylor will come for her only week with us this summer :( Another bummer. Taylor got a job life-guarding this summer and she's loving it, but the downside is that she only gets one week off. But, we'll try to make the most of it. Steve will be home for most of next week, so I see Six Flags and White Water in their near future. Also-we made Izabella's birthday party plans this week, more to come on that.....XOXO Izabella, I can't wait to see you!

Good times...

After a day in our pool this is where I found the girls when I got home from work. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of this over the summer!

No more classrooms, no more books, no more teachers dirty looks...

School's out for Summer!!

Izabella's end of the year party was an ice cream sunday party! You know that was a hit. What a great year she had this year. She just LOVES Mrs. Williams and will be sad not to have her next year. What a great teacher! We've been very lucky so far throughout Izabella's education experience to have been surrounded by such nurturing teachers. We can't wait to see what's in store for us in the 2nd grade!

Izabella's project for the 1st grade program was to make a snake sock puppet. She could do whatever she wanted. So, she started with a green sock (brilliant!). Then she added googly eyes, (courtesy of Ms. Sandra!), then added a red button nose, (cause that's what snakes have, afterall.) Then Daddy added the tounge and we added the final colorful finishing touches and...

Vio-la! You have Viper! What a sweet girlie name :)

Very proud of herself!! As she should be! You may want to turn off the music at the bottom of the blog to hear this one....and the one below....ENJOY!

By the way, that's Chloe Izabella is fighting with on stage. They were in girl scouts together and I kept waiting for one of them to push the other one off the stage. UGH-girls!!

Part of the 1st grade program. Everyone got to play something, I think they did rather well!

Christina & Reagan

It's so hard for me to believe she's going into 2nd grade next year! Where does the time go?? Also, on her practice GCRTC tests, she exceeded in all areas and is going to continue the AIM program next year. We are very proud of her. Summer is here now and it's time to have some FUN!!

I am one lucky Momma!!

This morning when I came downstairs, I met Izabella at the bottom with a lovely breakfast try for me. On this morning's menu...glass of milk, mixed berry yogurt and a slice of whole wheat toasted with apple butter! YUMM--O!!

I saw no sign of anyone even being in the kitchen so not even a speck to clean up after her....not bad for a...........so close to 7 years old you can taste it!

I love you so much, my sweet sweet Izabella!!!