Celiac Shmeliac

I'm feeling the need to whine and complain.

I think I've been pretty half-glass-full on this whole Celiac thing. But let me tell you, IT SUCKS. No really, not even a little bit cool.

In the beginning, I thought it was totally do-able. I could still have some of my favorite cold cereals (which is still my saving grace), I could still have Cheetos, corn chips, potato chips (which is wonderful except that I eat more of them now than ever before and it doesn't fare very well for the weight-loss thing), and I could still have potatoes and rice. I love Asian food, so it was perfect....rice and meat, I can have that!

Nope. Come to find out there is no Asian sauce that is not soy sauce-based. Soy sauce has wheat in it. There goes my beloved teriyaki. There goes Asian food.

Eating out, one of my very favorite things to do, is no longer fun. The fun has been taken right out of it. Even things I thought I'd be safe with have gluten hidden in it, somewhere. Bacon? What the heck is that about?

You'd think this would be a good thing, that I'd be forced to eat healthier. But my body has had 28 years of junk food. No matter how hard I try, I cannot convince it to change. So I compensate for the loss of white breads, cookies, cake, etc. by eating the crap that I am allowed: ice cream, chocolate, and what has become my staple: nachos, which are basically melted cheese and sour cream with a side of corn chips.

But it was all worth it. After less than three weeks I started to feel better. No dizziness, no nausea, no headaches, no stomach pain. Oh, did you notice that "was" back there? Yeah, that was past tense. Lately I have felt like crap and I don't know why. Not the same as before, but crap none-the-less. The headaches have been the worst of it, accompanied with being soooo tired I feel drugged. Everybody told me when I went off of gluten I'd feel better than I ever had before. Those people need to be hit in the head.

In a few weeks they're gonna give me the happy juice and stick a tube down my throat to see if it's actually Celiac. I think there's room on the table for one more, if anyone cares to join me. I heard it's a blast.

So, to sum up, I don't get to eat any of the stuff I actually want to and I still feel like crap! Celiac is the BEST!

Excited

Macy was very, very excited about going to first grade, having two recesses,

and eating lunch at school.

And I am very, very excited about my first Etsy purchase.

I got the following set (minus the ants):

In a mix of the above red and white, the black, seen below...

and this delectable green. (A similar set was featured on Marilyn's Green Epsy Day,

which is where I first saw these gorgeous cherry blossom dishes.)

I am a huge fan of Asian decor and an even bigger fan of the cherry blossom.

They will be the perfect addition to my slowly-evolving kitchen makeover!

Check out the Etsy artist who does these, her work is gorgeous!
OlaDesign

Card Heaven

Lately I've been feeling very inspired. I can't get enough of beautiful things, especially hand-crafted beautiful things. Someone who inspires me greatly is my cousin Marilyn. Marilyn has an eye for all things beautiful and yummy. Recently she introduced me (and a bunch of other bloggers) to the wonderful world of Epsy and that has added to my state of inspiration. Marilyn's and my style are very different, but I LOVE her style. She has the best taste in patterened paper ever, and she makes the most delicious cards.

Today I was admiring the cards we made at the reunion that she put together and taught us:

And as if that's not enough, I won this wonderful pack of cards she made in the auction!!!

Looking at these makes me want to sit down and make cards all day long....but only if I can copy hers! Thanks Marilyn, for getting my creative juices flowing!

Marilyn, here's a song for you....

Our Trip to the O.C. (not THAT one.)

Wow. I am seriously ready for life to slow down. I can't seem to get my brain back into "life" mode. That's the hardest thing for me after a vacation. Remembering where I left off in life, especially when it was a week ago.

Well, we're back from the Oregon Coast and what a week it was. The drive there was great. My prayers were answered and I didn't get nauseous at all. We got to Lincoln City and the kids were so excited to see the ocean. Macy, who got the thrill-seeking gene from her father, wanted to dive right in and start swimming.

Because she didn't have her swimming suit on at the time, she settled for running away from the waves as they came in.

Payson, who inherited the "scared-of-everything" gene from his mother, kept a safe distance and whined that he wanted to go back to the house.

This is the view of the beach house we rented from the beach with Bill's finger pointing at it. It looks like it's beach-front from the picture, but it's actually poking up behind another house. It was very close to the beach though, a few minutes' walk away.

Here we are at the Aquarium in Newport. The kids loved it.

This is a replica of the jaw of the ancient "giant shark" that supposedly existed millions of years ago. Always great for a photo op.

Watching the sea lions swim.

Our day at the beach. The weather could not have been more perfect the entire time we were there, and I didn't want to leave the beach. Bill put the kids to work and got buried from the neck down.

Macy wanted to try it, but by the time I went to take a picture she was ready to be out, hence the facial expression.

We also did a lot of shopping, eating out, and a lot of driving.
Things I did not get a picture of:

• Bill almost burning down the house when he dropped a flaming Dura Log on the hearth. We had five minutes of complete chaos, terror and excitement as people ran around yelling, getting water, and Bill's 8 month-pregnant sister dislocated her knee, falling to the ground. We finally managed to put it out and shockingly were able to clean it up so no trace of a fire remained, although the house was so smokey that night I had to sleep with the sheet over my face. Bill's sister was fine, but had a nice limp after that. The kids slept through the whole thing.
• Payson throwing up the day after we got there, due to a fever which lasted the entire week and a raging throat/mouth infection that we found out this morning is Strep. Needless to say he was not the happiest camper this trip.
• Drama, drama, drama. It wouldn't be a family vacation without tempers raging, people fighting, miscommunication and lots of irritability, now would it?

I did however, get a perfect shot on the video camera of a sea lion taking a dump into the ocean at the pier. It was awesome.

The trip was fun and anything but boring, but I am sooooo glad to be back and ready to shift my focus to getting ready for school. On a seperate note, I've been off gluton for a a few weeks now and I am FINALLY symptom free!!! No, it's not even a little bit easy eating gluton-free, especially eating out every meal for a week, but so worth it, and actually not as awful as I thought it would be. So, that's it for now. I'm sure within a week I'll have another list of crazy things to blog about, but let's hope not.

The Good, The Bad, and the Very Fun

Wow. A lot has happened since I last wrote, good and tragic.



We just had our family reunion over the weekend and it was a BLAST. It was action-packed, one thing to the next. Highlights:

• Family temple session Thursday night (there were maybe two people in the room that weren't family) which was awesome, followed by a fun adult-only dinner at Aunt Phyllis's. It was (of course) amazing food and so great to see cousins, aunts and uncles that I never see.

• Friday began with the usual Fun Run, which my kids biked (or scootered), I walked, and Bill ran. Macy should have gotten an award for second place for kid bikers (she was on her scooter), but I think there was some confusion there. Anyway, it was so fun and we all won some little prize.

• Then we had crafts (Marilyn taught us to make some of the cutest cards ever), lunch, golfing for the men, and swimming, and then we all floated down the river in tubes and rubber rafts. And I when I say all, I mean there were very few who did not. It was quite a sight, the entire family, from the original kids down to their many grandkids, all floating in a huge caravan down the river. Bill stayed home with Payson, so I took Macy, and she was quite the trooper. It was loooong, but fun.

• Afterward was pizza (Bill and I had a heck of a time finding carb-free food and mostly just didn't eat at the meals, but I lost three pounds!), hiking, (which Bill and I did not do due to exhaustion and my mom's need for help preparing for the breakfast the following morning) and an ice cream bar.

• Saturday morning Bill got up early and did the bike ride around town, and then it was a pancake breakfast at my parents. Then it was off to the Amazing Race, which I was most excited for. We all picked our own teams. Ours was me, my dad, Bill, Landon, Starlie, and my bro-in-law Jeff. We all started at Phyllis's with a trivia question. As soon as we figured out the trivia question "by any means necessary" (we called my sister Alison who was sitting at home at the computer ready to Google) we could start on the three challenges. It took us a while to get the answer so we got a late start, but as soon as we did I did the first challenge, which was running down the hill, down the dock and jumping into the river, back out, up the dock, back up the hill to tag the next person. I knew it would be fun and I could do it, and I thought I had completely prepared myself for everything: the cold, running in wet shoes, etc. What I had not taken into consideration was the current. I jumped off the middle of the dock and when I came back up two seconds later, I was at the end of the dock by the jet skis, and barely grabbed a hold of it as I flew by. I then had to start clawing my way back up the dock with my hands. My dad had the inspiration to come down and see if I needed help, and suddenly his arm was pulling me out of the water. I then ran, numb, shaking, dripping wet up the dock, by the time I reached Landon, I could barely breathe. He then walked up the driveway hill with a spoon in his mouth and a water balloon on it, where he tagged Bill at the pool. Bill dove in, swam the length of the pool and back, and then we all ran down and got our six clues. Then we were off. My dad was driving, which was an advantage, because he knew where everything was and the fastest way to get there, and he wasn't afraid to speed. The clues took us all over town, where we all had to get out, get the landmark or business sign in a picture as proof with all of us in it, and then to the next place. It was so fun, although we got so into it that we started getting out of the car before it had actually stopped, and Landon took a huge spill in a parking lot, flat on his back, head hitting the asphalt about an inch from my foot. It was bad, but he was fine. We came in fourth out of I think ten teams, so not too bad, but there were some people who were in it to win. I heard something about some teams driving over medians and stuff. Wow.

• Then it was the BBQ and auction at my parents'. We all love the auction, it was a lot of fun. I got some great stuff.

And then it was over. It was such a whirlwind, I couldn't believe it was already over. Did I think to take a picture the entire time? That would be no. I was so mad. But the memories are there. The fun times were laced throughout with sad, sad times. Before the reunion began my mom gave us the news that my sweet Aunt Jenny's (my mom's younger sister) cancer had returned and had spread all over her body, including very dangerous organs. This is the third round of it, so we are nervous, but the doctors are giving her incredible odds, so we are hopeful. She is very optimistic but being smart about everything. Friday we got the news that President Faust had died. I couldn't believe it. That came as a shock to me. And Saturday, my sweet Uncle Reed (my dad's oldest sister's husband) who had suffered from a brain tumor for years, passed on. During our reunion. He was suffering a lot, so in that sense it was good, but in the middle of the reunion...it was just hard.

Now we are done with soccer, swimming lessons, and off to Lincoln City in two days for a week with Bill's family. Summer is nearing an end and I can hardly believe it. It has flown by. When we get back school will be starting in two weeks. It's too soon!!! I'm not ready!!!

It's been a summer of movies for us, both theater and rental, so I can't wait to do my Mega-Watt Movie Review. Stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, I'll be soaking up the sun (rain) relaxing (trudging through sand) on the warm (freezing) beach in my bikini (jeans and sweatshirt). Love that Oregon Coast! And this time I will take pictures!

One Word

I've been tagged...check out Dandee's answers!

Yourself: thoughtful

Your partner: fun

Your hair: cute

Your mother: understanding

Your father: giving

Your favorite item: family

Your dream last night: crazy

Your favorite drink: Fresca

Your dream car: SUV

Dream home: clean

The room you are in: family

Your fear: all-encompassing

Where you want to be in 10 years: happy

Who you hung out with last night: Bunco-ers

You're not: tall

One of your wish list items: Lasik

The last thing you did: kissed

You are wearing: G's

Your favorite weather: warm

Your favorite book: H.P.

Last thing you ate: cereal

Your life: roller-coaster

Your mood: content

Your best friend: Bill

What are you thinking about right now: food

Your car: old

What are you doing at the moment: typing

Relationship status: ball-and-chain :)

What is on your t.v: black

When is the last time you laughed: yesterday

I am tagging Kim, Shayla, Noelle, Mary Ann and Sarah S.

Can't wait to see all your words!

RESULTS

Question #1
In what did I learn to swim?
the river
a canal
a horse trough
the ocean

Question #2
How many days did I talk to Bill online before getting engaged?
7
6
8
5

Question #3
What meal did I eat every single day after school?
sandwhich, yogurt and lemonade
bagel with cream cheese and apple
chicken nuggets, fries and pop
corn dog, Cheetos and milk

Question #4
What did I want to be when I grew up?
actress
author
artist
softball player

Question #5
How often do I take baths?
at least twice a week
about once a year
whenever I get the chance
only when I'm sick

Question #6
What was the name of my Persian cat growing up?
Solstice
Celeste
Soliel
Cienna

Question #7
What are my three biggest fears?
throwing up, spiders and public speaking
throwing up, heights, and tight spaces
throwing up, being embarrassed, terrorists attacks
throwing up, talking one on one, sharks

Question #8
If I could meet one person alive today, who would it be?
Britney Spears
Kate Winslet
J.K. Rowling
Enya

Question #9
Which of the following is NOT one of my biggest pet peeves?
hearing people brush their teeth
hearing people chew
mis-use of grammer
incompetent people

Question #10
At what age was I put on anti-depressants?
14
20
18
22

Kim, you rock. Your prize: A story I wrote about an imcompetent, ridiculously loud tooth-brusher who was attacked by terrorists and her cat, Solstice, but was nobly saved by Enya after throwing up in a horse trough. Her anti-depressants really came in handy, however, when she ran out of corn dogs and milk, and was completely embarassed by the fact that she couldn't remember the difference between "their," "there" and "they're." Of course it has a happy ending...after a soak in the bath while feeling ill, she gets engaged to a total stranger and celebrates with a bag of Cheetos.