Grateful Friday

Yay! I actually remembered 'Grateful Friday' while it is still Friday! We had such a great week of "firsts" this week that I have a lot to be grateful for.

• For the 16 amazing years that Tim and I have been married and the 20 years we've been together.
• That Abigail is enjoying her new school and making lots of new friends. And after just 4 days, seems more mature and self-motivated.
• That Cooper is loving Kindergarten. His favorite part is getting to ride the bus home. (pictures to come soon)
• That the 3 carpools are running smoothly. One more to add to the mix on Monday.
• That mom's Alaska trip, the one that has been planned for over a year, is finally here!!!
• That Cameron was SO good at his first dentist visit. Laid back and opened his mouth so big that the hygienist even chuckled :)
• That I got my beach portraits back and they look so good

First Day of 4th grade

All packed up and ready to go! Abbie was really nervous about atarting a new school. At Open House last week she was adhered to my side, which is normally not her style. But I understand. All new school, all new friends. She does know one girl in her clas from basketball last fall and her basketball coach's son is in the other 4th grade class along with a friend from her Brownie troop. The classes will do many activities together and she'll get to know both teachers as they are going to try sometrhing new this year and switch off teaching science and math, i.e. Mrs. A will teach both classes math and Mrs. Campbell will teach both classes science.

As you can see, Abbie was all set with her Wake Forest backpack she picked out. We took it to the mall yesterday for monogramming. She picked out the font and the Hot Pink color. Itried to let her pick out her stuff this year. Although, she did not want to pick out her notebook and school supplies. I think they passed her inspection. I scored big points with the recycled pencils made from Chinese newspapers.

The pink bag has her 4 items that she was to bring as a "homework" assignment. They were: 1 item to describe her hobby: her astronomy book; 1 item to illustrate a goal she has for the year: a friendship bracelet she made to give to each new friend she makes; and 2 items to represent 2 character traits she possesses. This was a tough one. I realized that at this age they don't really understand the concept of character traits, much less how to represent them with a tangible object. So we went through a list and she picked "curious" and "adventurous". She took a toy cat to represent her sense of curiosity and a flashlight to represent to represent a sense of adventure.

I can't wait until she gets home so I can hear all about her day!!!

Happy Birthday Cooper-man!

My big boy...little man! You are 6 today and you are so super excited about it! You got to visit your kindergarten class yesterday and you are so ready to go to the Big Kid school on Wednesday. We still have to measure you and see how much you've grown since last year...

You chose McDonanld's for your birthday dinner. What could be better than a LEGO Happy Meal? You're current obsession is LEGOS. We probably have 1000's of LEGOs already.

You are my sweet boy. Always listening and following the rules. Unless, you see someone else doing "it". Then you will follow along, even if you know it's going to get you in trouble. I hope you grow out of that quickly!! At this age I would definately call you a "follower". Much more introverted and observant until you feel comfortable with the situation you are in. But at the same time not shy or clingy. Last night you were very curious about your new classroom and went exploring into all the different areas. I'm looking forward to seeing you blossom this year.

You turned in to a little fishy this summer at the pool. You'll venture up to about 3 1/2 feet but still get nervous about jumping into the deep end, going down, the slide or juming off the diving board. You'll get there...maybe next year.

You got 2 cavities this year, oops! You've also lost 2 baby teeth already and I love hearing your little toothless lisp.

I hate to see any of my babies cry, but when you cry my heart just rips in two. You don't use your tears to manipulate or to show anger. You are a sensitive soul and when you cry it's because you are devastated. You actually try hard NOT to cry but your little chin starts to quiver and your sky-blue eyes fill to the brim and then a huge tear will hit your cheek and I would do anything to stop the next tear from falling.

You are a bundle of 100% pure innocence. I'm going to try to keep you that way as long as I possibly can. I love you from the depths of my soul!

Reaching "low-gluten" status

Well, it's slow going on the gluten-free homefront. I am officially "low-gluten" if that counts. No bread or anything with breading. Still doing a lot of reading and internet shopping/browsing to find GF options. I am a granola-bar-breakfast kind of girl and I found these reallly yummy GF nut and fruit bars from Mrs. May's Naturals called Trio. I'm also experimenting with a bread machine thanks to my aunt Cathy :) Too bad I have screwed up both attempts so far. And at $4.00+ a loaf (boxed mix) I can't afford to make too many mistakes. I plan to mix up my own GF flour/baking mix once I get more comfortable with the whole process.

I'm also happy to know that many "mainstream" companies now clearly label their products as GF. All CHEX cereals are GF. So I will be making some CHEX crispie treats this week. I was disappointed to find out that Rice Crispies are sweetened with (barley) malt flavoring which is "glutified".

Tonight for dinner I made spaghetti. I had corn flour spaghetti pasta and we all ate the GF chicken meatballs. The pasta tasted completely the same to me. I didn't really care for the meatballs. I'd rather just make my own meatballs next time.

We had the freshly baked second loaf of bread. I forgot to put the water in until about 2 minutes after the cycle started. Not sure how much it hurt anything because it was nearly identical to the first screwed up batch that I forgot to put the eggs in.

Both loaves had the texture of cornbread, which isn't bad, I like cornbread. But not to try to make sandwiches out of. Not sure what I'm going to do once school starts. I wanted to just make the whole house GF for the sake of convenience but it seems like buying a loaf of bread for sandwiches may win out. Not sure yet.

Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride

I've done a lot of wondering, thinking, and reading over the past several weeks and I am quite certain that I have gluten intolerance on some level. The symptoms are extensive and vary dramatically in each person but I have some degree of all the top symptoms:

• fatigue/depression/lack of motivation
• "brain fog"
• skin rashes
• irregular bowel habits
• joint pain

At this point I have decided not to seek a diagnosis from a physician. There are dozens of tests that have to be done and most are not conclusive in and of themselves. It's the results together as a battery and the conclusion of an experienced doc that confirms. Unless you have a biopsy of your small intestine that is positive for Celiac, that's obvious.

Instead I have decided that our house will go Gluten-free and see how my body, and every body else too, reacts. I will most likely seek out a nutritionist to help teach me how to decode labels and ingredients. The books help but I'm so overwhelmed by all the info in them.

The good news is that on my last trip to Costco, I was able to find nearly a whole cart full of new G free choices, even hot dogs!!

I know I can and need to do this, and will get there eventually. It's just at this point it seems like an insurmountable obstacle to try to remove all wheat, barley, rye from our lives. No more blindly grabbing bread, cookies, crackers, pasta, spaghettios (even Annie's Naturals), pizza, etc. And there's so much more that you don't even think of: SAUCES! Thickening agents, Soy sauce, Ugh!

So much to learn! So much life to gain back!

Cameron's Big Day

He did it, he finally went #2 on the potty! I kind of guessed he had to go when I heard the whimpering and looked in the family room to find him kind of "galloping" in a circle and holding his rear end. He looked at me with his "freaked out" face and we high-tailed it to the potty. Usually he does the stiff-as-a-board thing when I try to put him on the potty but this time he was fine with it and I sat with him and sang to him and he relaxed but still had his "freaked out" eyes.

I told him I'd give him some M&M's for doing such a good job:

Cam: Can I have my bitamins now? In a bowl?
Mom: No, not a bowl. You can have the small cup (I use a small condiment cup).
Cam: Can it be a big small cup?


Also, last night he got a boo boo on his toe and was wailing, he's quite the drama king. For the life of me I didn't see anything so I said:

Mom: Point to it....Oh, that? (pointing out the knuckle wrinkle on his big toe)
Cam: Yeah, I gots a crack on my toe.
Mom: Baby, that's a wrinkle not a boo boo.
Cam: Well...........fix it.

If only I could make a wrinkle disappear instantly...I'd be blogging from my own tropical island right now!!

Pray for Kelly...

A friend of one of my best girlfriends is fighting breast cancer. Kelly is a spitfire of a woman who, on the handful of occasions I've had to hang out with her, lights up the room with her smile. She's one of those personalities that everyone is drawn to and wants to share space with. Just a few short weeks ago we were walking with Kelly's awesome Team Jet-On for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure celebrating her year long battle with breast cancer. Everything was looking good and she seemed cautiously optimistic. But just this week, while on vacation at the beach with her husband and 3 young children, Kelly had a seizure that has now been attributed to metastatic brain cancer. She has already started radiation.

Please pray for Kelly and her family during this devastating time.