With all the girls home for Easter weekend, we divided up seeing the families. After Paige was finished working at Hallmark Saturday, we went over to Kristin's for pizza. Bella had just found out she needed glasses and picked them up a couple days before. Kristin told us Bella was a little self-conscious about wearing them, so Abby and Paige took out their contacts and wore their glasses and Bryn wore her "fake" glasses. Sunday morning we got up early and went to 8:00am church before driving up to Maggie and Tom's in Appleton. Needless to say, Maggie put out a spread. We got to visit with Terry, Paul, Misty, Chad, Robbyn, Christopher, and Debbie. We drove back home early enough for Abby and Bryn to get back to college that same evening.

The following week was Paige's spring break. She babysat Bella and Lucy (they had the same spring break) Tuesday and Thursday. But on Wednesday, we teamed up with Kristin, Bella and Lucy for a day trip to Chicago and the American Girl Place. Paige and I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for our portable breakfast and met Kristin and the girls and Bryn at a Park N Ride. The traffic wasn't bad and I navigated us into downtown via Lake Shore Dr. We ended up parking on the 9th floor of a ramp (high!) only a couple block from Water Tower Place. We headed directly for the American Girl Place. Bella and Lucy knew exactly what they were shopping for and found it fast! Coincidentally, Meg and her family planned a spring break trip to Chicago for a few days, one of them being the same day. So they came and met us in the mall and lunch at Gino's East. Kristin had found that this pizza place let's people write on the walls, so it kept the kids occupied. We rode the glass elevators in the mall, looked at the Hershey store and petted a few carriage horses. After that, we had to head back as Bryn had night class and Paige was going to the Brewers game yet that night.

Friday April 5 Paige, Bryn, Jeff and I visited Abby in La Crosse. Bryn stayed with Abby in her apartment and Paige stayed with us in the hotel. My parents were out visiting my Uncle Peter in Nebraska a few days before and swang over to visit Abby the same weekend. It was the first time they were able to see Abby's apartment. They were impressed. We celebrated Abby's birthday early by frequenting her favorite places in La Crosse. Friday night we had a great fish fry at the Blue Moon and Saturday we had yummy soup and a sandwich at Pickerman's. Saturday night Abby took us to the local food co-op where we purchased ingredients to make homemade pizza. Then we had Abby's birthday "cake": ice cream at The Pearl.

I was awarded a long-term 3days/week contract at Core Creative and started my new Mon/Wed/Thu schedule this week. I like the atmosphere and the projects there. Still no paycheck from my regular freelance client, so having this steady gig is a relief.

Before we left for La Crosse, Paige was complaining of a sore throat and difficulty swallowing. We decided to visit the nearby walk-in clinic to see if it was anything serious. The doctor looked down her throat and didn't see anything, but the strep test came back positive. We filled her penicillin prescription and felt prepared not to infect anyone else. After the weekend, Paige reminded Jeff and I of her bumpy rash on her back and thighs that still hadn't calmed down in 3 weeks. Since it was my first day on my new assignment, Jeff took her in to our general physician. The rash turned out to be a type of staph infection called folliculitis and will only go away with antibiotics. Unfortunately staph infections are immune to penicillin, so the doctor switched her to bactrim. Thursday morning Paige comes down before school and shows us her red, itchy backs of her hands. I thought it may be because she had just put some perfumed lotion on them, so thought they'd be better in a little while. Nope. Called the oncall nurse that evening and on the advice of the oncall doctor, brought her in to the walk-in clinic again upon suspicion of an allergic reaction to the new antibiotic. The walk-in clinic doctor advised Paige to stop taking the bactrim and take Allegra to calm the hives down. And to see her general physician the next day. Friday morning we visit the general physician again. He agrees with the allergic reaction diagnosis, but says the antihistamine prescribed the night before (Allegra) really won't help. We get a 4th prescription to fill for a steroid cream. We're going to watch the staph infection for the next week, and if it shows no improvement we'll go back. I think the doctors want to clear her system of the antibiotics first.