Growing up, my brother, Darin, had the worst allergies of anyone I knew. He was allergic to everything, from the annual Christmas tree (we had to stop buying real ones), to our pet pony (we had to sell him). Thankfully, I never had allergies as a kid. However, it’s getting impossible to blame my annual spring sneezing and wheezing on colds these days…since there are no other symptoms. Richard, too, gets all stuffy around this time of year, though he didn’t as a child. Unfortunately, it looks like Max has inherited our allergies, though quite early, at the age of three.

We thought he had a cold before we left on our last trip. But, the “cold” came and went at random, the symptoms exploding or completely disappearing with each new state we visited. It didn’t take too many states and different campgrounds for us to figure out that it wasn’t a cold. He was either just fine or sniffing and coughing uncontrollably.

We took him to the doc on Monday and they put him on allergy medicine, but only on an as-needed basis (I’m not going to give him daily medicine when he’s not having any symptoms). He’s doing very well right now, but we can’t open the windows at night because that really seems to set him off with heavy congestion and nighttime coughing.

Last week, we spent hours outside, getting our seedlings planted and watching the Maple trees start to bud. Max is already getting a tan (thank goodness he tans like me, instead of burning like auburn-haired Richard) and the children were begging me to let them pull out the new “Slip ‘n Slide(r).” I had to deny that last request. While it’s okay to sit in the sun and read when it’s in the 60’s, I have to put my foot down on playing in the sprinkler until it’s at least in the upper 70’s or 80’s. I wasn’t very popular after that decision.

In other news, my mom and step-dad bought some chickens last week. Mom emailed me pictures, which I showed to the children. Max got very excited and yelled, “Can I ride ’em?!”

Hugs to all!
Angela

~Do You Remember… Doo Bee Doo…~
My next class, How to Remember, Write and Publish Your Life Story, starts on May 2nd! Classes are a LOT of fun and we have a ball sharing our childhood memories while using the course memory triggers to record our memories in chronological order. The class is easy and FUN, only costs $40, and runs for six weeks. To read more or to sign up today, see: https://writersweekly.com/wwu/courses/memories.html