Lancelot Acres

Lauren's ENT appt, Lilli's summer so far...

I thought I'd post a little update on us.

We've been doing good, but have been busy, as usual. 

Lilli had her annual physical this last week and all is well with her.  Her reflux seems to be under control and we've dropped from 30mg down to 15 mg of Prevacid per day.  She is still a picky eater, even when it's something she likes one day, she won't like it the next.  Even if she does like it, she won't eat very much and then wants a sweet treat right after eating.  We'll have to work on finding more foods that she likes. 

We eat too much fast food right now and we need to get out of that habit as well.

Lauren had a problem with her throat this last week and I started her on Omnicef per orders from the ENT.  They said to put her on the med at the first sign of infection.  Well, I started her on the med on Tuesday and she was still VERY sick on Friday so I called the ENT and they wanted to see her.  They put her on a pretty high dose of steroid (Prednisone?) to help reduce the swelling in her tonsils.  I must say that after just one dose I could tell a difference.  I hate giving her all these meds but she seriously couldn't even drink water without screaming, it was horrible.  She cried and cried for about 3 nights in a row because it hurt her so bad. 

The ENT would like to get her tonsilectomy done sooner but because she has to spend the night in the hospital, Sept 4 is the soonest they can get her in.  Her infections are coming every couple of weeks now.  :(

The ENT did take her off of her Kidney antibiotic while she's on the Omnicef.  Her ped always ok'd extra meds with the Kidney med, but the ENT didn't feel comfortable doing that and actually called our pediatrician while we were in the room (!) to verify that he could take her off of the Bactrim.  I actually heard the conversation.  I've never had a Dr do that...usually they say they'll check into it and call us if there is a problem.  He did it right while we were there.

Not only that, he called Friday evening to check on her.  He wanted to make sure we got the med and that she was doing ok before the weekend.  ??  I've never had that happen either.  Maybe we don't have good doctors?  LOL

Lance and I are doing good.  He's working a lot but had this weekend off.  We were just given a TV.  Our old TV had quit working over a week ago, and it has been on the brink for months...with waves going through the picture and taking 30 minutes for it to warm up and come on...LOL.  Our new TV was too big to fit into our entertainment center we had already so Lance built us a TV stand today.  I LOVE it.  I think he should build shelves to match it now.  I'll have to post a picture later in the week.

Thursday Lilli spent the day with Lance's brother and his wife.  Their grandson was visiting and he and Lilli are the same age.  They get along so well together.  Lilli went over and spent most of the day there and they played and played.  They set up a little pool for them and they had a ton of fun with that.  It's hard to find a compatible play mate and they truly do get along perfectly.

Thursday was also when we mailed the last of our information to the IRS.  Pray it all turns out well :(

Friday I took Lauren to the ENT for her infected tonsils.  It broke my heart to see her trying to drink water and just screaming in pain.  :(

Friday evening we went to say goodbye to Lance's stepmom.  She is moving to Florida and was leaving Saturday morning.  Lance's brother and SIL were driving her down there.  They pulled a trailer with all of her things.  Lee drove his truck and pulled the trailer, and his wife Marie (who we call Hot Dog) followed in Elaine's vehicle.  Their 15-year old grandson rode down with Lee and he'll help unload everything when they get there.   Lee called Lance this evening and they were at the halfway point and spending the night before making the rest of the trip tomorrow.

Today the girls and I went for a visit with mom and dad while Lance stayed home and build the TV stand.  We had a nice visit and the girls rode to the store with mom and dad while I went through a couple of boxes of things with dad.  I should have done more and hope to go early enough to help a little tomorrow. 

Vicki and Alyssa came in the afternoon and we visited with them for awhile before Lauren and I headed home to spend time with Lance.

Lilli is spending the night there tonight.  After Lauren and I left, my brother Tom arrived and took Lilli and Alyssa to Walmart for Lilli's birthday present.  He bought both of them a movie and bought Lilli a child-size couch.  Mom said they were gone over 2 hours and they actually went looking for them to make sure they didn't have car trouble or run out of gas!  LOL 

As for critters...

Nothing to really report in that area.  I had my Royal Palm turkey poult die the other day and I'm not sure why.  He was inside the coop so I don't think a critter hurt him.  We are missing a few chicks here and there but we still have an overfull coop.  The turkeys are the most entertaining creatures ever.  I swear they look like do-do birds.  Bald and ugly and way over-friendly.  We can't get into our car without them sticking their heads in after us.  We have to push their heads out of the door before we can close it!  LOL  So funny.  I had planned on putting them all in the freezer but I'm thinking about trying to keep a male and female and raising my own next year.  I can slip the turkey eggs under my banty chicken and she'll raise the poults for me.  I hope to do that with chicks too.  We'll see how it goes.

I really need to call the processor and set up a date to have my meat chicks processed.  They should be ready to process before our Disney trip in August.  That will make it nice so that nobody has to take care of them while we are gone.  Lance's brother is going to come and take care of our other critters while we are gone, so that will be one less thing for him to worry about.

We plan to process some of our hens too.  Probably the ones that I bought for $1 each for sure.  I think there are 10 of them.  They lay small white eggs, and while they taste the same as the large brown ones, I just prefer the browns ones.  Strange I know...I just can't help it.  I also like the green ones, so we'll be keeping our Auracanas too.  I think we only have one rooster chick and I don't like him at all...he's just ugly.  I'm just not feeling the love and he may be in the freezer too.  LOL 

We do need a rooster though, if I want to raise my own chickens next year.  We'll have to check the auction when we take our baby goat and the heifer.  Maybe we'll buy a roo while there.

Guineas...I think I have 6 guineas.  I thought 7, but I'm pretty sure I only saw 6 in the coop tonight.  The guineas are a favorite of mine.  I love them.  They are so funny and entertaining.  The turkeys are great too.  They are all great bug catchers and I really think they are keeping our mosquito population to a minimum.  They do laps around our garage all day and then start branching out into the yard in the evening hours.  One of them will get after a bug and they ALL have to chase the same bug.  LOL.

The guineas and turkeys stick together most of the time, along with a barred rock and one other chick.  The laying hens seem to keep to themselves.  The $1 hens prefer to forage alone in the weeds.

Lilli is like the pied-piper when she goes outside.  She walks around the yard and every single feathered critter we own follows her around.  LOL

That about covers us lately.  I hope to post more often now that things are slowing down a bit.  Even slowing down, we're still pretty busy.

Lance will help Lee move some furniture this week and we plan to go to the Great Wolf Lodge early next week.  Disney is coming up fast as well.  That vacation is set for Aug 17-23. 

I am really looking forward to that.  Lilli is starting to get excited and I really think Lauren is going to love the Disney characters there.  We passed a dancing pizza (LOL) in front of Little Caesars the other day and she just laughed and laughed.

After Disney I believe we'll be canning quite a bit.  School will start.  Then Lauren will have her tonsils out.  The fall will be a slow time for us I think.  Canning will keep us busy though.  :)

I hope to post the week's menu and plans tomorrow or Monday...