Today we are off to the big city for Katherine's first appointment with the pulmonary specialist. Matthew is having a follow-up visit. After months of respiratory stuff with him he has been perfectly healthy and cough free since his visit last month. I was a little freaked out about the daily inhaled steroid but I got a really good vibe from Dr. Mellow who assured me that he is only getting a very small dose, and Dr. Caccamo had prescribed the oral steroids months ago.

The visit yesterday went well. Every day in this process seems to be a new awakening. Our ideas and concepts keep changing and I am so curious to see where we will end up.

Our neighbor Kate gave Joshua a broken VCR to tinker with, and told him that he if fixed it she would pay him, but was fully prepared to go out and buy a new one so he could feel free to rip it apart. He took all the covers off, saw what was wrong and tried it out. It was now fully functioning so he brought it back to Kate who paid him TWENTY dollars! He told me "Mom, that was way too much money. When she said she would pay me I was thinking maybe five dollars, but even that would have been a lot!" WE tried to get Kate to take the money back but in her eyes he saved her money.

Noah's stitches are healing well. For those of you who don't know, he fell into some barbed wire at our friends house and tore open his (as he calls it) leg pit. He had 6 stitches, and was so giggly (prior to the actual stitching) that the nurses said he was giving all of them the giggles. He sure is a comedian.

I think of our our ear issues are coming to an end. I am so sick of medicine! Four kids on five different meds one, two, and three times a day. Geesh. I had to make a chart!

Karen arrives tonight. We plan to have Mustard encrusted salmon, summer squash, spinach, and the rhubarb thing. Mmmm.

I saw a segment on tv this morning about making houseguest feel welcomed, and they suggested putting out toiletries. I liked that idea but it does seem a little overboard. I'm not Martha (not that I would have been mistaken for her!).

Then there was guy on there showed video of children (crash test dummies) who were in car seat and restrained with seat belts, and the seat belts looked far safer. He said that the data actually shows that the mortality and injury rate are lower for kids who are not in car seats. WTH? You just can't win!

It seems like most laws (government interference) are based on ideas rather than any research.