Another Birthday Boy

Yikes, Josh is 12! The teenage years are fast approaching! We celebrated the occasion with a milk, egg and nut free cookie-cake.

If I Had An Allergic Reaction...

Click the link below to watch a very informative video of Dr. Robert Wood, MD, talk about what to do if your child has an allergic reaction.

http://www.insidermedicine.ca/archives/If_I_Had_-_An_Allergic_Reaction_-_Dr_Robert_Wood_MD_1951.aspx

Christmas Concert

Brody's school presented a Christmas Concert last night titled "Christmas In America". All the children did a great job, but I still haven't figured out how the cowboy hats and bandannas fit into the theme?! =)

A Special Video from Trace Adkins and The Doctors

Trace Adkins has been a wonderful advocate for children with food allergies. His little girl, Brianna, is allergic to nuts, dairy and eggs.

The Birthday Boy Is 9 Years Old!

Today is Brody's birthday! Hard to believe that we've been handling food allergies for 9 whole years. Wow! I can definitely say that although the fear of a possible allergic reaction is always on my mind, day to day life certainly does get easier compared to back when we were very first starting this journey and not having any idea what we could possibly feed our little allergic boy!

Since both Josh and Brody were born in December, we celebrated both of their birthdays with their friends yesterday. December is just too busy of a month to try to fit 2 separate parties in! The boys love Pokemon, so I made dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free PokeBall cupcakes and cookies.

And since Brody's really not that big of a fan of cake, we celebrated Brody's actual birthday today with a huge plate of homemade powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar donuts! Happy Birthday Brody! We love you!!

Anaphylaxis More Common Than Previously Thought

According to a Mayo Clinic study published this month, Anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening reaction, is twice as common as has been previously reported.

"Based on the new study, it’s estimated that food allergies cause 50,000 emergency room visits per year, with overall anaphylaxis cases approaching 150,000 annually."

http://www.foodallergy.org/media/press_releases/anaphylaxisstudy.html

Wyatt Decker, M.D., the lead author of the study, discusses anaphylaxis and the study findings in the video below.

Snow Day!!

No school today due to having a foot of snow dumped on us last night! The boys couldn't wait to get outside to dig a snow tunnel after the plows went by.

Gingerbread House Alternatives

Whether your Gingerbread house looks like an elaborate Gingerbread Manor…


Or more like a Cozy Shack made from Graham Crackers…


Who doesn’t enjoy spending a fun-filled afternoon of quality time with their children building a Gingerbread House every year? That is, of course, unless your little one is allergic to some or all of the goodies that go into baking and decorating that house! How about thinking outside that cookie (or graham cracker) box and tying one of these alternatives?

Twinkle-Kids makes a felt Gingerbread House Kit that includes “over 60 felt candy decorations that magically stick to a plain brown felt house” that you and your little ones can decorate over and over again.

http://www.twinkle-kids.com/GINGERBREAD%20HOUSE.html

Oriental Trading offers many different Gingerbread House ideas to choose from including a foam kit, a felt kit that requires sewing, a 3-D Gingerbread House made of card stock paper, or even a mini GB house ornament kit.


http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/search/processRequest.do?Ntt=gingerbread+house&requestURI=searchMain&Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&N=0

Or maybe you still have your heart set on making your Gingerbread House out of actual Gingerbread cookies? A&J Bakery now offers Egg, Dairy, and Nut-Free Gingerbread House kits! You can order the kit to put together and decorate yourself or even order a predecorated house.

http://www.aandjbakery.net/Gingerbread_House.html

And if you are looking for a Gluten-Free option, I’ve heard The Sensitive Baker offers a kit just for you! You may need to email to ask specifically for it though.
http://store.thesensitivebaker.com/

If you’d prefer to bake the gingerbread yourself. Here is a wheat-free recipe using Pamela’s Products Wheat-Free Bread Mix.
http://www.pamelasproducts.com/recipes/gingerbreadhouse07.html

For the Gingerbread house icing you might want to try the following recipe. Boil together 4½ cups sugar, 1 cup water, and 1/3 cup light corn syrup until hardball stage (until golden brown and when you drop a little in cold water it turns hard). It won't give you that "snowy" look, but it will hold the house together!

No matter what type of gingerbread house you chose to build, spending quality time with your family is all that really matters. Enjoy!

Recipe

We had a lovely time with our families on Thanksgiving with a meal free of milk, eggs, peanuts, and treenuts which included the usual turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, buns, and lots more. Let's just say we were eating leftovers for what felt like an eternity! For dessert this year I made a Double-Layer Pumpkin Pie and also wanted to try out a Pumpkin Bread Trifle recipe. It was delish! The Pumpkin Bread is awesome just by itself, too!

Pumpkin Bread
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1-15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar
1 stick dairy-free margarine
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed +6 Tbsp water (whisked together)
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick baking spray. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in large bowl. Whisk together pumpkin puree, sugar, margarine, flaxseed +water mixture, and vanilla in separate bowl until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix until just combined. Scrape mixture into the prepared loaf pan and bake in oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs (about 50 minutes). Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes before unmolding onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Dairy-Free Caramel Sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Rich Whip
2 Tbsp dairy-free margarine

In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, sugar, Rich Whip and margarine. Bring to a boil over moderate heat while stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.

To make the Pumpkin Bread Trifle, cut the pumpkin bread into small cubes. Cover the bottom of a trifle bowl with the cubes, top with dairy-free whipped topping (prepared Rich Whip) and drizzle with caramel sauce. Repeat to make 3 layers and enjoy!!

Big Turkey Day

Thanksgiving Day is almost upon us! This will be our 3rd or 4th year hosting Thanksgiving supper at our house, which is awesome for a couple of reasons. 1) I love cooking/baking, and 2) I can make sure the entire meal is free of Brody's allergens so he can enjoy all the goodies along with everyone else!

For those with food allergies, even figuring out which brand of turkey will be allergy-safe can be a bit of a challenge. Here is an article with some helpful tips on finding a turkey free from common allergens... http://foodallergies.about.com/od/signsandsymptoms/bb/turkeyallergies.htm

The Best Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Oh so yummy with warm gooey chocolate chips straight out of the oven! These are Josh and Brody's favorite cookies...mine too! Who needs milk, eggs, or nuts in a cookie?? Not us!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (Milk, Egg, and Nut-Free)

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 1/2 cup oats (I like to use half quick oats and half old fashioned oats)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp calcium powder (optional)
• 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups dairy-free chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl and whisk. Combine remaining ingredients in a larger bowl and mix dry ingredients together. Then pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix thoroughly. Drop by spoonfulls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

(The calcium powder and flaxseed are optional, but I'm always looking to add more calcium and Omega-3's into Brody's diet!)

Trick or Treat!

SpongeJosh SquarePants and Brody the Magician wish you all a Happy (and safe) Halloween!!

The Rules

My Kid – My Rules. Why is that so hard for some people to understand? The Rules are simple. It’s not like I’m asking for the moon! Come-on people, work with me here!

Let’s count down my Top 5 Rules For School…

Rule #5 Nut-Free Classroom. This means no homemade snacks allowed and any snacks that do come in must be unopened with ingredient label intact. Any snacks containing peanuts or tree nuts will simply be returned home at the end of the school day.

Rule #4 Nut-Free Lunch Table. Brody dosen’t always like this one because sometimes his friends want to sit other places in the cafeteria and he feels left out, but for now it gives me great peace of mind knowing he isn’t sitting right next to 5 other kids eating messy PB&J for lunch. When he’s a little older, I’m sure he’ll win this battle and will get to choose where to sit…with some other rules in place probably.

Rule #3 Children will wash hands when entering classroom in morning and after lunch. I have no idea what little Johnny or Jill ate for breakfast, although I’m guessing quite often it might have been peanut butter on toast. Two years in a row I know of a child that showed up to school with obvious peanut butter all over his face and shirt. Nice. Don’t parents at least check to see if their child is clean before sending them off to school?

Rule #2 I will attend all class field trips. Allergic reactions are more likely to happen on field trips because the daily routine is thrown right out the window and its extremely hard for a teacher to keep track of all 20 or so kids running amuck. Plus the fact that on the last field trip I attended, the child that my kid was paired up with pulled a huge bag of peanuts out of his lunch sack. Niiiiiiice. I think Brody and I will just move over here by this nice shady tree and eat on our own, thank you very much. And hey, teacher, pass the wipes to little Johnny please!

And finally, the absolutely positively most important #1 Rule for School…

Rule #1 Brody ONLY eats food that I have checked and okayed. Period. End of story. Why must people make this more difficult then it needs to be? Yesterday apparently the third graders were doing some state-wide testing. For whatever reason, the principal decided to buy them all gum to chew while taking the test. Teacher hands Brody gum…Brody asks if "mom checked it". Teacher then reads ingredients to Brody and asks HIM if he thinks it is safe. Brody again states that “mom should check it”. Teacher then gives gum to another staff member, who in turn reads the ingredients to Brody and asks if he thinks it is safe. Brody again says “mom should check it”. Staff member then gives gum to school nurse, who reads the ingredients and states that she thinks it is fine for Brody. Brody again states “I think my mom should check it”. Finally school receptionist is given the gum and told to call and check ingredients with me. Why in the world did it have to take this long to call me when that is what should have happened in the first place? Do not put the responsibility of knowing whether or not something is safe on an 8-year-old child! Brody will have his entire lifetime to have to read ingredients to keep himself safe…he shouldn’t have to shoulder that responsibility right now. This is why I made The Rules to begin with! And for anybody thinking to themselves, “but it was just a piece of gum”….Right, just like it was just a grape flavored tongue depressor that Brody reacted to last year when the speech therapist at school gave it to him without possibly thinking there could be any ingredients in the grape flavoring that Brody might have an allergic reaction to. Well guess what…he did! His lips swelled and itched to the point of bleeding and the whole lower half of his face turned bright red.

I'm very proud of Brody for sticking up and advocating for himself yesterday! I praised him and reassured him that he absolutely did the right thing by insisting they check with me. Oh, and just so you know, there are a couple of brands of gum that I can think of right off the top of my head that do contain milk protein. Of course most people who aren’t avid label readers wouldn’t know that though.

Another trip to Urgent Care

Brody's asthma has been flaring for a couple of weeks now for no apparent reason. This usually happens when he gets a cold, but he hasn't been sick recently, so I'm not really sure what is going on with his lungs. Over the weekend he kept complaining that his chest was really tight and he felt like he couldn't breathe right. At this point his rescue inhaler wasn't helping at all, so I decided it was time to take a trip to Urgent Care at our local hospital. While the nurse was taking Brody's history, I mentioned that I remembered reading a couple of years ago that there is one type of asthma medication that should be avoided for anyone with a peanut allergy. She had never heard of this and didn't seem too concerned. When the Respiratory Therapist came in to give Brody a breathing treatment, I mentioned this again. I could tell by the look on his face that he thought I was some ridiculous mom who had no idea what I was talking about, but once I finally got it through his head that Brody is ANAPHYLACTIC to his allergens, then he decided that maybe he should look into this a little more before giving Brody any new medication through the nebulizer. He came back into the room shortly after and said he could not find any information regarding an asthma medication and peanut allergy. I remained adamant that I had indeed read about this on a reputable website a couple of years ago and no, I was not just some crazy paranoid mom. Just then the nurse poked her head back into the room, pointed at the Respiratory Therapist, and said "Could you please come here for a minute". When he returned he had this amazed look on his face and said "You're absolutely right. There is an asthma medication that is contraindicated for patients with a peanut and/or soy allergy". And it turns out it is a different form of the exact same medication they were planning on treating Brody with.

So once we had this all sorted out and the breathing treatment was over, Brody was back to his normal, happy, active little self. I did speak to his allergist yesterday and he put Brody on a short burst of oral steroids and nebulizer treatments twice a day for a while until his lungs are back to baseline.

The moral of this story is...Trust your gut instincts!!! And don't just believe that a doctor knows what the heck he/she is talking about! Remember that doctors are just giving us their best educated guess most of the time. But you know what? Sometimes we know more then they do! Several of the nurses even came into our room just before we were leaving and thanked me for letting them know that this specific medication should not be used for peanut allergic patients because none of them knew anything about it.

So for those of you interested, here's the scoop...

Atrovent (ipratropium bromide) Inhalation Aerosol is contraindicated in patients with a history of hypersensitivity to soya lecithin or related food products such as soybean and peanut. Atrovent Inhalation Aerosol should also not be taken by patients hypersensitive to any other components of the drug product or to atropine or its derivatives.

(Info found on http://www.drugs.com/)

Slippery, Slimey Pumpkin Guts

Tonight was a family fun night of carving pumpkins, playing with the slimey pumpkin guts, and enjoying salty pumpkin seeds still warm from the oven. Yum-O! (Notice the boys are wearing non-latex gloves because the pumpkin goo always seems to irritate their eczema.)

Everybody Sing Along!

Listen to the BareNaked Ladies play the song "Allergies" from their kids CD entitled "Snacktime". Feel free to sing along...you know you want to!

Dairy-Free Caramel Apples

I've decided that I would start posting some of my dairy, egg & nut-free recipes in case they are helpful to anyone else living a food allergy life. Caramel apples have been on my mind lately and I couldn't think of a time Brody has ever had the chance to sink his teeth into the gooey goodness of one! So after several recipe trial and errors, one burnt little finger (Brody was helping a tad too much), and lots of mouth-watering anticipation...I finally managed to come up with a yummy dairy-free caramel recipe that actually stays soft and gooey instead of turning teeth-shattering rock-hard! Brody gives it 2 thumbs up!

Dairy-Free Caramel Apples
½ cup brown sugar
½ stick dairy-free margarine (Fleischmann's Unsalted)
4 oz Rich Whip
3 Tbsp corn syrup
1½ Tbsp maple syrup
1/8 tsp vanilla
dash salt

Heat ingredients over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Turn heat up to medium-high and cook mixture at a rolling boil until temperature reaches 235F on candy thermometer, stirring constantly. Immediately pour into a metal bowl and allow caramel to cool to 200F before dipping the apples.

Suggested Toppings:
Crushed pretzels
Crushed Oreos or other safe cookies
Mini dairy-free chocolate chips
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Granola (homemade, of course!)
Sprinkles

Kids Living With Food Allergies

Please take a few minutes to watch this short video of children talking about their food allergies. This was produced for general awareness and premiered at the Food Allergy Initiative Northwest inaugural benefit dinner in May 2007.

Beware - The Walnut Sponge!!

As if families dealing with life-threatening food allergies don't have enough to worry about on a day to day basis...behold the Scotch-Brite Scrub Sponge Made With Walnut Shells! Now, when well-meaning family and friends say that they thoroughly cleaned all counter tops and tables in their homes before we come over, food allergy families will have to remember to ask... "But what did you clean with?!".


Warnings:
Scour pad contains pieces of walnut shells that my be released during use. Product may cause an allergic reaction in individuals having a tree nut sensitivity. Keep out of reach of children.

The Karate Kid

Brody won first place in his division at the Capital City Open Karate Championship held in DeForest yesterday. Way to go Brody!!

Sweet Treats

~~~~~two-tone dairy, egg & nut free cupcakes~~~~~

I was asked to make these cupcakes for my cousin's birthday celebration so Brody will be able to enjoy them along with everyone else. The kids can't wait to dig in!

Book Review

I just finished reading "Matters of Faith" by Kristy Kiernan. In fact I read it in 2 days because I was having a hard time putting it down! The story is about a family affected by life-threatening food allergies. This book is certainly a must read for everyone in my opinion and I hope it will help raise awareness of the issues many families deal with day to day while raising kids with food allergies.

A brief overview of the book:

At age twelve, Marshall Tobias saw his best friend killed by a train. It was then that he began his search for faith—delving into one tradition, then discarding it for another. His parents, however, have little time for spiritual contemplation. Their focus has been on his little sister Megan, who suffers from severe food allergies. Now Marshall is home from college with his first real girlfriend, but there is more to Ada than meets the eye—including her beliefs about the evils of medical intervention. What follows is a crisis that tests not only faith, but the limits of family, forgiveness, and our need to believe.

And to read an excerpt, please visit Kristy Kiernan's website: http://www.kristykiernan.com/excerpts.php

Ninja Boy in Action

Brody, and his friend Kenna, participated in the Karate America demonstration at the Culver's Kids Day recently. In this photo, Brody is showing off his jump kick and flexibility. Gotta love those action photos!

And yes, those silos and corn field in the background do mean there is a farm right in the middle of town. It is situated quite nicely between Culver's and the Hospital. Only in Wisconsin folks!

Feeling Blue =(

First of all, why is it that bad things always happen when the hubby is away? Shane is out of town for 3 days for work, so of course I just had to come down with a nasty cold/sinus congestion/asthma flare-up. And of course I'm sure the boys will come down with the same thing any minute now...because they always do.

But unfortunately that's not really the topic of this post. Today Brody jumped into the car after school and was visibly upset about something. He said, "Today was the worst day ever". Now this isn't the first time he has come home from school saying this. Usually it involves one of his classmates unexpectedly bringing in a treat for the entire class that he couldn't have or he often feels lonely because his friends don't want to sit with him at the Peanut-Free table in the cafeteria. So I braced myself and asked why he felt this way today. Turns out his friend "disinvited" Brody from his birthday party this weekend! As in a party 3 days from now which Brody has been looking forward to for several weeks! A party that the mother had told me about weeks ago and said she would call me at some point this week to go over the whole food allergy aspect. My guess/suspicion/gut feeling is that she decided it would just be much easier to not have Brody there rather than try to accommodate him. Which if she would have called me, I simply would have gave her a crash course in allergic reactions, what symptoms to watch out for, and how to use an EpiPen just in case. Then I would have provided Brody with his own snacks/cupcake anyway. How difficult would that have been?

What I really don't understand is how any mother can possibly think that uninviting a child to a party wouldn't hurt him emotionally? Especially Brody. The fact of the matter is that Brody never gets invited to birthday parties for his classmates. EVER. This was honestly the first time he got an invitation and it was also going to be the first time I let him stay at a friend's house by himself (without me hovering) for a couple of hours. He was very excited by this prospect and wants so badly to be more independent...no matter how hard it is for me to let go and trust others with his life.

So Brody cried because he feels his so-called friend doesn't want him at his party and all he desperately wants is to feel included. Instead, time after time he's excluded and left to feel very hurt and alone. I cried because my heart was breaking for him and also because I know this won't be the last time something like this happens. Josh is angry about the whole situation and thinks I should "just call the friend's mother and yell at her". Well, the thought certainly crossed my mind, but of course that's not the correct way to deal with this. Although I'm not entirely sure what the correct way to handle this is other than to keep hugging Brody and reassuring him that it's okay to be upset/hurt/mad/sad and that tomorrow will be a better day. I hope! (Gee, I seem to say that quite often.)

Allergy Friendly Cakes

---------------- Gluten-Free Wedding Cake------------------

I've been decorating cakes for about 15 years now. Through word-of-mouth I ended up getting calls for quite a few cakes over the years until I finally just didn't have the urge or ambition to do it any longer. However, about 6 months ago I decided that I would love to decorate cakes for children (or adults) with food allergies or other dietary restrictions because I know a lot of these kids don't get to experience what it's like to have a really cool decorated cake for their birthday celebration. Since then I have been asked to make a few gluten-free cakes and also several milk-free, egg-free, nut-free cakes. In fact I was just recently asked to make the small wedding cake pictured above for a bride-to-be and her daughter who need to avoid gluten products.

If you'd like to see some of my other cake creations, check out my online photo album at http://public.fotki.com/vah/!

2008 Food Allergy Awareness Walk

Brody's Team!!

Lots of families came to the event to show their support.

Even Grandma came to walk with us!

Brotherly love!

A great time was had by all.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good news is that Brody was quite happy with the way things turned out at the In-Office Food Challenge today.

The Bad news is that Brody failed the skin prick test and is very much still allergic to almonds.

The Ugly news is that Brody was prescribed yet another medication for his allergies/eczema/asthma. I believe this brings the total of medications in his daily arsenal up to about 12. Ack!! You wouldn't even want to know how much we spend on prescription co-pays every month between both boys and myself!

So why was Brody happy about the outcome today? Because for the past several weeks he has been terrified of the thought of actually eating a nut since his entire life we have driven the fact into his brain that he is deathly allergic to all tree nuts. I honestly really had no idea how we were going to manage to get him to even put a teeny-tiny bit of almond in his mouth today. But it turned out the skin prick test was positive after all, so that was the end of the the IOFC. Dr. Gern actually said it was an "iffy positive" and that Brody probably had a 50/50 chance of having an allergic reaction. I told him I didn't like those odds and he agreed wholeheartedly. He then mentioned that maybe in a year or 2 we could probably try again...to which Brody chimed in and said "how about 5 or 6 years instead"! =)

The only reason I had hoped Brody would pass the almond challenge was because it would have been another good source of protein and healthy fats for him, plus the thought of adding almonds to cookies and other goodies sounds awful tasty to me! Oh well, we've lived 8 years without any nuts. I suppose it really doesn't matter at this point!

Send us some good vibes, please!

Next Tuesday Brody will be undergoing an In-Office Food Challenge (IOFC) for Almonds at the UW Hospital. (For more information read "The Results Are In...", posted on June 11) He's feeling very apprehensive and anxious about the whole situation. Me too!! I keep reassuring Brody that Dr. Gern wouldn't be willing to put him through this if he thought there was any chance that Brody will fail the challenge and have an allergic reaction. I do think the chances of Brody having a panic attack during the challenge is highly probable though, which could easily look like anaphylaxis.

In any case, we could really use some good vibes, thoughts, and prayers coming our way! Stay tuned to find out how it all unfolds next week.

Parade & Fireworks in Pardeeville

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy 4th of July!

Yummy!!

Brody helped me make Strawberry Jam today. He couldn't wait to dig in and was hoping I would just let him eat a huge bowl of the stuff. Who needs toast, right?

Trees, trees, & more trees

Brody seems to be fascinated with climbing trees all of a sudden this summer. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for no broken bones!

Camping

We just got back today from camping at Indian Trails, which is a whole whopping 5 miles from our house! It's a nice little get-away for our family and the fact that the campground has an indoor pool really works well for us since the boys are so sensitive to the bright sunlight.

Some of our campsite cuisine included Hobo Popcorn, Campfire Doughnuts, and S'mores. All free of Brody's allergens of course!

Back To The Allergies

So I thought this blog was supposed to be about our life with allergies?? Enough with the doom and gloom already! =)

Yesterday I had an appointment with an allergist for myself! Why? Well, because for the last 2-3 years I seem to have developed small patches of occasional eczema, asthma that started only with colds but now this spring has become more and more annoying, and also some symptoms to suggest I have developed environmental and/or seasonal allergies. The allergist was very thorough. He did a breathing test, skin prick test, and also an intradermal allergy test which confirmed my suspicions. Turns out I'm allergic to dustmites and tree pollen for sure, and possibly more that hasn't shown up yet. So now of course Shane knows he can totally blame me for all the kids allergies. That's okay, I know they get all their good traits from my side of the family too! =P

The Saga Continues...

Main Street (Hwy 22) in Pardeeville partially collapsed Saturday. Luckily the dam is still holding, otherwise we would have lost Park Lake just like what happened with Lake Delton.




This picture is what Main Street looks like now after the lake has dropped more than a foot.