Unlimited Thinking

Mass product review

2011-11-25T17:01:00.000-08:00

Amy & Scotts Gluten free pretzels-

They were yummy and soft. Only 2 in a package and kinda expensive but definitely a nice treat. They warmed up easy in the microwave but I wasn't able to get the salt to stick. For the best taste use the oven.

Justins dark chocolate peanutbutter cups-

OMG! I love these. They are vegan and free of gluten/soy. I am hooked I've been clearing the shelves everytime I go to the store. So reminds me of another brand I use to eat years ago. Expensive but worth it!

Nature valley original gluten free waffles-

I was shocked to find these at Costco and even more shocked that they are vegan. Now they are not completely soy free but u know my family tolerates soy oil. These are pretty tasty and cook up quite nicely in the toaster. They are much bigger than I would expect too. Kinda reminds me of another brand too.

Pamela's single serve brownie mix-

Now I've tried in the past to make cake in a mug recipe and they've never worked but this did. I made it in a bowl and it was so easy to make. I topped it with some marshmallows and it was so yummy. I am definitely going to buy this again because it is a cheap and easy treat to have onhand.

Frozen go-gurt Coconut style

2011-09-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

So I recently came across the 100 Days of real food website and I came across how this family packs school lunches. Since I know this lady is not buying the non healthy commerical advertised go-gurts I was happy to see she had an alternative in a go-gurt style container. Ofcorse I adapted it to fit my dietary needs to be free of soy and dairy. I took 1 16 oz container of So Delicious Coconut milk vanilla flavored yogurt and put it in my magic bullet with 3 strawberries and fired it up. Then I spooned in about 3-4 oz inside the go-gurt style containers, put the lid on and then I placed them in the freezer for a few hours. When I took one out of freezer it didn't want to push out so I ran the bottom under some warm water and it popped it right up (I bet if you took it out in the morning and packed it in your lunch it would be perfect come lunch time). My son and I were so happy to have a yummy frozen treat. I would leave maybe 1 inch space when filling to allow for any expansion of the contents.

Below is how I placed them in my freezer so the liquid would stay upright inside container.

FYI- I also tried this with some Simply Apple juice and it popped right up, I did not need to run it under warm water at all so there might be some chemistry- science reason between adding a liquid only or adding a thicker liquid/solid and freezing it.

Nothing new to report

2011-08-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

I can't say in the past few months if I've tried any new products and I certainly have not gone to any new places for vacations. But I will keep you posted. I tend to stick with the products that work for me. FYI I know many people are into couponing and I wanted to let you know if you contact your favorite allergy free companies most of the time they are happy to mail you coupons. I recently got some from Glutino and now I am just waiting to find a sale on our crackers so I can use them! Look around you will be surprised on how available the coupons are.

Natural Food Works Ravioli's

2011-05-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Natural Food Works is a somewhat local to me baker that offers some very yummy gluten,casein and soy free foods. So far everything I have tried I have loved. If you are ever in the area you need to stop by to eat there or buy from one of their vendors. I decided to treat myself to some ravioli's. This was the first time I had seen them to be casein free. They were quick to cook, 3 minutes in boiling water. And with some marinara sauce they were oh so delicious. I got the ones that were filled with squash. It brought a great sweet and creamy texture to the dish. There were a decent size but there was only 12 in the box which says serves 2. I could have eaten all 12 but I ate half and shared 1 with my son and saved the rest for lunch the next day.

San Diego Fun Eats-Gluten,Soy & Dairy Free

2011-04-24T16:35:00.000-07:00

My family and I were on vacation in San Diego,CA this spring break. The hotel we stayed in had a kitchen so we were able to cook breakfast and pack lunches and snacks but I wasn't about to cook dinner too. First night we ate at Joe's Crab Shack in Mission Beach area of town. We were close by so we walked. Actually we went there by accident and was surprised they had a gluten free menu. For myself I got the boiled Joe's Classic Steam pot. It was so yummy and my first time eating different crabs in the shell. I did not eat the sausage though cause I am not a huge fan of it plus I really didn't know if it was soy free. For my son I order grilled chicken & plain veggies with fries. While I can not confirm if the fries were truely safe he seemed to do ok with them.

Second day we went to the famous San Diego Zoo. While we did not buy any food there, we brought our own lunch and no one hassled us like they do at other establishment parks. For dinner we ate at Woodstocks in Pacific Beach area. OMG! the pizza was great. It was crispy and full of taste. I ordered Hawaiian minus the cheese. Even the next day I rewarmed a slice in the microwave and it was still crispy which is very unlike other GF crusts I have had. It only comes in 1 size, a large which worked out to have plenty extras.

Finally our last dinner there we ate at Tony Roma's. Now I have to say I did not verify anything here and when I searched the web could not find much. I took a chance and ordered ribs and steamed veggies. It was delicious and I did not have any reactions either. I often react when eating ribs but these I did not.

Overall it was a great dining experience in San Diego!

So Delicious Chocolate milk & a smoothie

2011-03-10T08:57:00.000-08:00

A few months ago So Delicious announced their new line of small portable coconut milks. I was so excited to finally have something small to pack in my sons lunch box. They have several flavors including chocolate, yahoo! What kid or big kid doesn't like chocolate milk. I waited impatiently for my local whole foods to get the new product in and I requested it every week and finally this week it was there! It is an 8 pack of 6.5 oz containers of milk. I tried one the other day and it is so good! I just love this company, they listen to their consumers and create product we will love. Um I take full credit for suggesting portable juice box size milks last year on the facebook page.....now the chocolate idea that was just a bonus :)

Now.....magic bullet time.....I am so loving my magic bullet I got at Costco for like $45. My friend recently made a chocolate smoothie well I came up with my own chocolate smoothie packed full of good stuff(she uses more sugar and coco powder & sunflower seed butter instead of p-nut and also sometimes adds some coffee). I adapted my friends recipe to make it my own. I don't like it too coco so I use less coco powder than my friend did. so in the magic bullet take a few ice cubs or crushed ice, 1 tbsp of coco powder, 1 cup of So Delicious Coconut milk, 1 tbsp of p-nut butter and 2 drops of stevia liquid. Turn on the magic bullet until all ice is crushed and drink and enjoy.

French Meadow Bakery

2011-02-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

Well a friend of mine mentioned how she recently saw some products that were gluten free at Safeway. These products are made by French Meadow Bakery I looked up the tortilla ingredients and to my surprise I did not find any soy or dairy in them either. So on the way home from work I sent my husband to buy some, we were having fajitas and what better time to have a tortilla than that. They were frozen so I nuked them for a few seconds and then placed them on the stove top to brown. They broke very easily and I was disappointed with that but the taste made up for any disappointment I had.

Oh my it was just what I remember a soft taco to taste like! It looks more like a small flour soft taco tortilla. The next day when they were completely defrosted I made a quesadilla and wow we loved them! By the way we used Daiya vegan cheese instead of real cheese. Overall I am happy and will but this product often. I am also curious to try some of their other items too. I went to Safeway today to check for myself and saw a small frosted yellow cake. I don't normally buy stuff like that but tomorrow my son and I are going to a boy scout ceremony where I know there will be cake so I need a fast substitute for it. I'll update you soon what we think about it.

Their products are smaller size than other gluten free and can get pricey but luckily they have coupons to print from their website.

Edited to add:

I got the small white cake and it was good but too sweet for my taste. Here are some pictures I took.

Gluten Free Cafe Chicken Noodle Soup

2011-01-30T09:02:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I saw this at Whole Foods and decided to buy a can to try. Since I was sick with the flu it was the perfect time to try a can of Gluten Free Cafe chicken noodle soup. I really liked it except for the chicken. The chicken was rather hard and the texture was awkward but the noodles, veggies and broth was yummy. I am not sure I would buy this again as it is very expensive but it definitely a nice warm comfort food on a sick day.

Disney Wonder Cruise- Allergy Free Foods

2011-01-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

Well the Disney Wonder Cruise ship made it's way to it's new home California. Being that they had some time between cruises Disney offered a special 2 day cruise called "The Cruise to Nowhere". It did not require any passports because it did not make any international stops. This was a perfect opportunity at a great price for my family to give cruising a try. Being that it is Disney I knew our dietary needs would be well cared for. About 2 months before the cruise I made sure our dietary needs were known and recorded.

Day 1 we arrived aboard at lunch time. At that time there was Parrot Cay on deck 3, on deck 9 some quick service stands and Beach Blanket buffet. I first went to the quick service hoping to get something as we were starving but they suggested I not eat there and for me to eat only in the sit down restrantes (this is what I was told on the phone too before our trip). My family that is non dietary needs had already began at the Beach Blanket Buffet so I went in and told our waiter whom then brought out a chef to me. The chef took me around the buffet and told me he could pretty much make anything on the buffet for me but he would make it separate in the galley. To save on time since we were hungry I ordered turkey and ham sandwiches with some roasted potatoes. Lunch was tastey and exactally as I ordered.

Now onto dinner, Day 1. We were assigned to Parrot Cay for dinner 1st seating. Our server was great he had read about the dietary needs without me even saying anything and called us all by our first names. They brought us safe rolls to snack on before our meal too. I ordered my son hamburger, french fries and fresh fruit. When the burger came out to our table it had cheese so I immediately questioned it and the server took it back and yes they made a mistake and they brought out a fresh one. For myself I ordered a pear salad and steak. OMG the salad was so yummy who would have ever thought pears in salad would be so good. For my dinner I had steak, baked potato and asparagus. It was all yummy. We did not stay for desert as we were feeling a little dizzy from the boat and had to go back to the room to get ready for the live show.

Day 2 - for breakfast it is open seating so we decided to try out Triton's. It was very fancy looking in there. The server was great she too knew our names and food allergies before she came to the table. I ordered for my son pancakes, eggs and bacon. It took a tad longer to come out but was worth the wait. The pancakes were fluffy, the bacon was very thin (kinda weird but tasted ok) and the eggs were great. I had eggs, bacon and fresh fruit. For lunch on Day 2 since the sandwich thing worked out nicely we just ordered the same thing and hung out by the pool.

Da 2 dinner- I had tried to see if we could switch to the only other restrantes that we had not gone too but they could not fill my request so we had to eat where we were assigned Parrot Cay. We were fine with this as all our servers were great. This time my son got pasta, rolls and fresh fruit. For some reason his pasta came out plain with no sauce but he was ok with that and ate it. I ordered spinach salad, chicken with baked potato and steamed veggies. Everything tasted great, I didn't care for this salad as much as I liked the one the night before. For dessert they brought my son rice dream ice cream and strawberries. He was so excited, I had no idea they had rice dream onboard. They did a wonderful dinner show for us and we had a great time.

Day 3 since we had to disembark they assigned where to go and what time. We had the 7:30am breakfast at Parrot Cay, way early for some of us. I ordered the night before the same breakfast we had on day 2 and it was ready at the same time the rest of our families meal.

Overall Disney Cruiseline did a fantastic job meeting our dietary needs and it was great that the servers were aware of the needs without me telling them. I highly recommend those with gluten,soy and casein allergies use disney for cruising and know that they will take care of you.

Natural Food Works

2011-01-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this new bread in the freezer isle at whole foods made by Natural Food Works. They are a company not far from me so it is kinda considered local. I was surprised to see the bread is also free of (besides gluten) soy and dairy (casein). I bought the baguette and decided to serve it toasted with pasta. Alone with butter I didn't really care for the flavor, it was an herby flavor. It was nice and soft and even 2 days later stored on the counter it was still soft. I used it to make a pizza crust and that I liked much better. Overall I did like this bread and I would like to try it again. Here is a link to Natural Food Works

Battered Cod Fish & Taste of Tuscany reviews

2011-01-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

first off in November at our local Raley's in the frozen food isle next to the fish sticks my 15 yr old discovered a package of battered frozen cod that said gluten free. She yelled for me to come and see...funny she isn't even on my allergy diet and gets excited when she found this new product. I read it over and yes it was safe. I bought it and tried it the next day. The filets are a variety of sizes from decent size to tiny size. I deep fried them in my fryer for about 4 minutes. Oh my heavens they were delicious. Crispy and crunchy and the fish was excellent it was everything I had remembered battered cod to taste like. The company called Starfish sells 3 different types of fish but so far I have only tried the cod. I highly recommend it!

2nd review- The Taste of Tuscany (located off Roseville Rd/Antelope)

This is a little hole in the wall place that has been close by for a couple years now. I never would have thought to stop by as it is an Italian place so one would just assume it is full of glutinous food. Well it is but they also offer a few gluten free options as well. The owners have a good friend who has celiac disease and with her help they are expanding their gluten free menu. A friend of mine stumbled across the gluten free sign and told me about this place. I talked in great length with the owner and I really got a great feeling for the place. He is aware the pasta needs it's own pan of water and it's own utensils to help avoid cross contamination. They offer, as of early December, pizza, pasta and bread sticks which is all gluten free,soy free and can be made dairy free.

I ordered pasta with marinara,bread sticks and pizza. The pizza and bread sticks were a tad over cooked and part of that would be due to the fact I can not have cheese. Next time I may bring my own safe cheese and ask them to use it or just ask them to reduce the cooking time. They were great to accommodate my allergies and I will definitely go back there again. I think for lunch next time as their dinner prices can be a tad steep. However the items I ordered totaled $8 but that was because it wasn't one of their speciality dishes. They do charge an additional $1.50 to make the dish gluten free.

no bake Pumpkin Pie pudding

2010-11-22T10:30:00.000-08:00

Well I made my mini tart pie crusts with Pamela's bread mix and then I filled them with this no bake pumpkin pie pudding mix. It is so yummy and watch out they can be addicting...and FYI I hear pumpkin can be a natural laxative too!

Here are the directions for the pudding mix.

1 cup So Delicious Coconut milk creamer- vanilla
1 can Libby's pumpkin pie
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 package of jello instant pudding mix- vanilla

mix the milk and pudding mix and then chill it for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Chill it until ready to serve.

I chilled the pudding mix until I was ready to eat and then I filled my mini tart crusts. I did not pre-fill them and chill so I am not sure if that will alter the crispiness of the crust.

2nd tries on Choice Batter & Bisquick for pot pie

2010-11-04T09:19:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to give an update on a few recipes that I tried again.
So a couple entries ago I made a chicken pot pie with gluten free bisquick on top, well I made it again and this time I doubled the bisquick recipe and it made a full crust over the top and thickened up the entire dish. So definitely something to try if you plan to make it but warning you may need a bigger cooking dish mine almost overflowed with this change.

Next I was given a tip from a friend on how to get the Choice batter to stick better to the fried foods. She told me to roll it in rice flour first and also slightly flour it after the batter was on. I made chicken nuggets last night doing these steps and it was so yummy. The breading stuck and didn't stick too much to the fry basket. The nuggets were crispy and crunchy and so good!

English Muffins & Tarts oh my........

2010-11-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well my sons teacher has raved about Food for Life's gluten free english muffins and how I need to try them. Well I finally remembered to look for them on my last Whole Foods shopping trip. There are 6 in a package and they are rather large which impressed me right away. They are also free of all dairy and free of soy too which is another bonus and must for my family. I decided since I had some bacon I was gonna make a bacon and egg McMuffin. I toasted the english muffin in the toaster and then added my egg and bacon to it and bit right in..... oh it was so filling. I felt like 1 was almost too much for me to eat. I tried it another day just toasted with butter and I was not impressed at all. I am gonna try them one other time tonight to make mini pizzas and I will let you know how it turns out.

Now I stumbled across a recipe using Pamela's gluten free bread mix. Now previously I have only used the bread mix for pizza crust but decided to use one of their other suggestions. The suggestion was to make Pop tart. I thought hey that sounds good and I just got a bunch of apples so what the heck let me try it. Now ofcorse my shapes looked nothing that would resemble a pop tart but oh man they were delicious! I made several pizza pocket style like tarts and then I also made some in a muffin pan too. They are so good that they didn't last 3 days in my home. For my filling I just cut and peeled gala apples and added some sugar and a tad of cinnamon. It reminded me of apple pie. The crust was crunchy and so good. Did I mention how yummy these are???? You definately got to try this recipe. This is my new favorite and I plan on making it again real soon!

Chicken Pot Pie

2010-10-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe from Live Gluten Freely called Chicken Pot Pie. I was just waiting for a cold rainy day to make it and finally we got our first one today! Due to the soy and casein allergy, in addition to the gluten one, in my home I had to alter the recipe to make it work. The recipe called for Corn chowder and when I checked on a can it had milk and soy in it so I had to find something else. Then I came across Imagine Creamy harvest corn soup it sounded perfect. The top layer is made from gluten free bisquick. I also had to alter that recipe as well using my Earth Balance soy free butter and So Delicious coconut milk. The directions call for the bisquick to just be dropped ontop of the soup. I was skeptical that this would really work but I tried it anyways especially since the website I got it from had a picture of the end result.

I can say it looked great when it came out but my skeptical family members were not sure why I called it pot pie since it looked nothing like a gluten filled pot pie they were used to. When I scooped it out it was more soupy like but add the biscuit to it and it kinda thickened up. The taste was yummy and almost everyone went back for seconds, my 7 yr old was not too thrilled with the look and texture and also that veggies were mixed in so he obviously did not have seconds.

I can say I will definitely make this recipe again. Next time I may add some potatoes to help thicken it up and maybe double the bisquick part so it can completely cover the top as more crust like.

Product & Restraunte Reviews

2010-10-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

Well first off I like to review 2 "granola type bars". First I bought Nature Valley Gluten Free Peanut Crunch. This is so good sometimes I can't help myself to just 1. It has a nice sweet and savory flavor and is pretty crunchy. I wish they would make a less crunchy one but overall this one is good and very easy to find in the grocery stores along side the other Nature Valley bars.

My next granola bar review is Bakery On Main peanut butter chocolate granola bar. I have to say I am extremely disappointed in this bar. The smell is horrid and the taste made me want to throw up. I could not even come close to eating the whole bar without feeling sick. I will not buy it again and actually since I got it at whole foods I am gonna return the rest of the box because I know they will refund my money. It is also kinda pricey as well.

Then I decided I would give BJ's Brewery a try on their gluten free pizza crust. I kinda went out on a limb here since I have not yet verified if the crust is also casein and soy free but I was out with some family and took the risk. I ordered a ham and pineapple with no cheese. It came out perfectly, except they seemed to leave out on much red sauce. It is a thin crust pizza and is rather large compared to others. It was both crispy and soft crust and the taste was fantastic. The price was extremely affordable in comparison with other eat out places that charge extra for a gluten free crust. I will definitely eat this again, well once I verify the ingredients ofcorse!

Update on the crust:
I got ahold of someone and the manager read me the ingredients:
rice flour, tapioca flour,water, potato flour, olive oil, sugar, yeast,salt and seasonings (and it says free of gluten,soy,dairy and egg)

Disneyland Eating GFCF September 2010

2010-09-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

Our family loves disneyland, not just for the fun and entertainment, but for the food too! Here is my review on our latest trip to Disneyland and California Adventure parks as well as the Disney Paradise Pier Hotel. My last review on the food was almost 18 months ago and not too much had changed since then.

We decided to bring cereal and muffins from home to skip paying for breakfast. Our hotel had a refrigerator where we stored our muffins,milk, OJ and fruit. I also brought safe pretzels and "granola" type bars with us for snacks too. Both parks had no problems with me bringing in snacks and water into the parks.

Day 1, we were tired after traveling and decided to just eat dinner at the PCH Grill which is located inside the DIsney Paradise Pier Hotel. I had remembered the year before that in the park the gfcf pizza was yummy so I ordered a hawaiian (no cheese) for myself and a kids pepperoni (no cheese) for my son. When it came out I knew right away it was not the same crust from the time before. And I was right it wasn't and it tasted awful! It was hard as a rock, literally you could probably chip a tooth eating it. I had a hard time eating it and ended up just eating the toppings. Somehow my son's had some softer spots and he was able to eat some of it. It came with a side of fresh fruit which was nice. Overall I am very disappointed with this meal and I mentioned it to our server as well. The server said they did change the crust recently but she wasn't sure of the brand. Also her head chef was not available for me to speak with. Also on the price mine was $2 more than my sons but the pizza size was the same.

Day 2, for lunch my son had a hot dog on a gfcf bun at Award Wieners in CA Adventure park. He enjoyed it and ate every bite. I had lunch at Taste Pilots, my favorite grilled chicken sandwich and fries. Very good! For dinner we split gfcf pasta with marinera sauce from Red Rocket Pizza Port in Disneyland Park, yummy as well and a very large serving. It was so much I think I got full before my plate was empty and I even shared it with my 7 yr old.

Day 3, for lunch we had grilled chicken sandwiches from Tomorrowland Terrace in Disneyland (no complaints very yummy and I think the chicken breast was bigger than the day before). For dinner we had turkey sandwiches with fresh fruit from River Belle Terrace. I can not conform if the turkey meat was cooked dairy free but we were fine after eating it. I ordered a kid plate and adult plate and I was surprised on my adult plate I had 2 sandwiches, too much for me to eat and had I known that I would have just shared it with my son and skipped the kid meal.

Day 4,lunch in Downtown Disney, while I can not for sure say there was no cross contamination on either of these places I had heard good things about Tortilla Jo's and I got 2 steak corn tacos and it was yummy. My husband ordered my son a plain hotdog bunless from the Jazz Kitchen and he seemed to do fine.

Overall I think we had a decent dining experience and we look forward to eating at Disney again! Also I am not for sure if all my eating was soy free but we did good so my guess is that it was. (I know for sure the chicken, buns and pasta was soy free)

Gluten Free Bisquick Review

2010-09-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

I am impressed.....these are actually pretty good (at least as pancakes). I have not yet found these at my local grocery store, but my mother in law has privileges to shop on the military base and that is where she found them. She said they were reasonably priced there too.

First off it makes a small batch which is perfect for my family since it is only 2 of us eating them. 1 cup of bisquick, 1 cup milk, 2 tbsp oil and 1 egg makes about 10 pancakes. I subbed water for the milk and they turned out great. My first pancake the batter was way too thick so I added a tad more water to thin it out. These pancakes didn't really get that golden brown color, so I am not sure if it was my stove heat or the fact that I did not use milk. They were more of a yellow whitish color but besides the color the taste was yummy. They were much thicker than my other gluten free mixes I use. I really liked them and look forward to using this mix again.

The box also had other directions to use the mix as well (waffles, biscuits & strawberry shortcake). If I get bold enough I may use it beyond the pancake and waffle recipes.

Review on Choice Batter

2010-08-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

I would have never thought I would be able to have a gluten,soy and milk free batter to make a deep fried food item. My friend Joann was given some samples of this farely new product called Choice batter . I was skeptical at first since I have tried in the past to deep fry foods with my own made up batter and the breading always fell off. I saw a review for this new product on GFree TV and it looked promising so I was excited to give a try at dinner.

I decided since I had a plethora of zucchini from my garden that fried zucchini sounded great! I used a small deep fryer that I have, set it to 375, mixed up the batter and waited for 5 minutes. The batter thicken up nicely after the 5 minute wait and was easy to make 1 cup water and 1 cup dry batter. I heavily coated the zucchini and placed them in my fryer basket. The first batch stuck to the basket but I figured out that if I sprayed the basket in-between frying with a non stick spray it stuck less. The zucchini came out crunchy and very tasty! I was very satisfied.

Now onto my next task the chicken. I followed their recipe on a flyer I was given for oven baked chicken. My fryer is too small to do whole pieces of chicken so I decided baking was a better option. I had to mix up different batch as this one called for milk and egg to the batter. It also called for dorritos but since my family can not eat dorritos I figured potato flakes would be a good sub, I couldn't have been more wrong. While the chicken tasted good the potato flakes gave it a thick mushy coating that most of us ended scarping off and throwing away. So I learned from my experiment and will use something more crispy and crunchy as a substitute next time.

Overall I am impressed my this product and I look forward to trying it again! Even my non gluten and other allergy free family members really enjoyed this product. As seen above my 15 year old daughter enjoying a pre dinner snack!

Tucson, AZ Hilton El Conquistador & PF Changs reviews

2010-07-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

I recently stayed at the Hilton El Conquistador Resort in Tucson, AZ for a conference which included all meals- breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had sent my food allergies along with some food/brand suggestions to the organizer of our group conference. I have to say I was a bit nervous going there but mapped out a whole foods incase I needed to get anything. I was pleasantly surprised with our meals. They were great and similar as to what everyone else was eating. I did not take pictures because it wasn't that different but the desserts were great. Day 1- dinner was baked chicken and pasta with red sauce and desert was strawberry sorbet with big chocolate chip cookies. Day 2- breakfast: coconut yogurt,eggs,hashbrowns and cereal; lunch: grilled chicken, grilled peppers, big tortillas,beans and brownies for dessert; dinner: grilled chicken, steamed veggies and desert was red velvet cake. Day 3- we skipped breakfast; lunch: pizza with veggies & cookies, dinner: ribs, hamburgers with bread, chips and cupcakes for dessert. Day 4- breakfast: eggs, French toast, yogurt and cereal.

They were also great at labeling the buffet tables with signs saying if it was dairy and gluten free and also telling me which items to avoid from the buffet. I decided to play it safe and only get fruit from the buffet. I did get sick after eatting one day both at lunch and dinner but after seeing the ingredient list from the chef it was not the food so it is possible I caught something while traveling. Overall the Hotel did great at our food allergy needs.

PF Chang's (sorry for picture quality, I only had my cell phone with me)

Our conference ended and so we still had to find food for the rest of the day. We saw a PF Chang's and heard great reviews and had been wanting to try it so we decided to go there for dinner. I told the server our food limitations and he gave me some suggestions on dishes to try off of the gluten free menu. He also went to check with the chef to verify those dishes can be made soy and dairy free as well and they can. So we ordered the lettuce wraps. I assumed they were gonna come out already wrapped but they aren't it is make your own. They were great and a huge amount this could have satisfied me as my meal. My main dish with the Singapore street noodles dish. It was so yummy, it was hard to believe that it was safe to eat. For my son I ordered a side of just rice noodles and he ate some of the chicken out of my dish. The servings were huge, I could not even eat 1/3 of my food. Overall I was very happy with my meal,service and experience there at PF Chang's. It was kinda pricey but I do look forward to trying it again someday.

Big Ice Cream Cone

2010-07-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

I was at my local gluten free specialty store when they got a new shipment in and they got in a new ice cream cone, a jumbo one. From what I can gather it is gluten,casein and possibly soy free. It lists emulsifier(lecthin) as an ingredient but doesn't specifiy if it is soy or not,however on their website it says it is soy free. The brand is Goldbaum's .This cone is much bigger than my previous review but it has only 8 cones in the box and cost is about the same. The taste was very yummy and the texture was very nice and crispy as well. My only dislike was that the ice cream began to drip out of the bottom of the cone, it could have just been a fluke but it happened so far to two cones. Overall this is another nice cone for ice cream.

Sorry I thought I had a picture of the cone but it appears it got erased. Next time I will take one!

GF Ice Cream Cones

2010-06-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

So I've been on the hunt for some yummy gluten,dairy and soy free ice cream cones. I tried one a year ago and it tasted horrible. Someone recently mentioned they had a waffle cone type and it was pretty tastey. I looked around but could not find one. Then while I was in a newer speciality shop I found 2 brands so I decided to give one a try. Edwards & Sons Sugar Cones is the brand they are gluten and casein free but not completely soy free, they do have Soy Lecithin (which many soy allergic can sometimes tollerate). They are very yummy and have the same taste and texture that I remember a gluten one has. Even the non gluten free in my home really enjoyed them. I look forward to also try the other brand as well (I can't remember the name). It is a nice treat to have our home made icecream or sorbet in a cone every so often.

Amici's East Coast Pizzeria

2010-04-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well I have heard great things about the gluten free pizza at Amici's East Coast Pizzeria so I wanted to give it a try on our way home from six flags the other day. I actually went to the Vacaville,CA location. They have a separate gluten free menu available which looked like several choices of different pizzas and salad it was double sided menu. Well at this particular location the service was very slow, it was just before the dinner hour so I can only imagine how crazy it is on dinner rush. My non gluten free daughter ordered a pasta dish and it came out cold so they made her a fresh one. The waitress apparently did not hear what I ordered which was a Vegan cheese gluten free pizza that half of it was veggie and the other side just the vegan cheese. When it came out after I ate a few bites I noticed my veggie side was not the vegan cheese. She kindly took it back and asked to remake it, after that the taste was great. The crust is actually pretty good, it had a good texture and nice crunch to the crust. Since I had them remake the entire pizza I had some left over and when I reheated it the next day it did not taste as good as when they made it. I re-heated mine in the toaster oven to give it more of a crunchy crust instead of a soggy one from the microwave. The only downer is this pizza only comes in 1 size which is large and is very expensive ranging from $22-25 a pie.

I was surprised the manager did not come out and check on me after the mishap or any offers to adjust my bill. Actually my waitress never came back to check on us after the new food came out and another lady brought me the bill. I don't think our waitress was on break either because I saw her helping other tables. The hostess did not say goodbye as we left either, she was rather cheery when we arrived and as other people left but not to us. I was very polite the entire time so I don't understand the rudeness of the employees there. I don't live close to this location but it is a nice occasional treat to have when I am traveling but I am not entirely sure I would go back to this location due to the slow service,cold food and food mix up.

Z-Pizza Review

2010-03-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

Well I was excited to find out my local Z Pizza had gluten free crust and even most excited when I found out they had my new favorite vegan cheese . A few months ago when I checked I could not eat there because the crust had casein in it and they had no safe cheese options as I am also intolerant to soy as well. Our family tends to eat out once a week and we tend to stick to our local In N Out because we know they are safe but today I decided let's venture out and try our first pizza out.

So the look, while it is only available in small , it was quite filling for both myself and my 6 year old son. We ordered pepperoni and while I know the pepperoni is gluten free I did not think to verify if it was soy and casein free which it probably was not (my fault and I am paying the price for it now with tummy problems). The cheese was nice and melted and the crust was golden brown. The taste was yummy but once you got to the end the crust was quite hard, especially once the pizza had cooled completely. It was cut into 6 small slices and the price was pretty expensive at $11.25 for a pepperoni. I should have stopped after my 2nd slice but decided to eat my third one and I was very full. I bet if I had more toppings I would have even been fuller. My son ate 3 slices but picked off all the pepperoni & he enjoyed every bite. I did call ahead to verify they had it in stock and when we got there they told me they were out of the vegan cheese but the cook came and got me and told me they had some (whoo thank goodness that was why we came). I did not pay attention that closely to see if there was any possible high risk of cross contamination in preparing or baking, that is just something one always takes a risk on while eating out. They were not busy at all so I think the risk was pretty low.

Overall it was a good experience and I would try it again but with different toppings next time. Not somewhere we will go to weekly due to the cost and far location but it is a nice treat every once in a while. I still prefer my homemade pizzas at home with my chebe pizza crust mix.

daiya vegan cheese review

2010-03-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well recently in an allergy free message board someone mentioned something about a new vegan cheese they found. I looked at the website and it was free of our allergens so I was wanting to try it but the problem was the only place I could find it was 1 specialty store and it was like $40 for a 5 pound bag. I thought it was quite pricey for me to trial so I decided to wait. Then another company started to use this vegan cheese in their frozen mac n cheese so I decided to buy one to try it. OMG!!!!! It is so yummy. I was hooked and just when I was about to go out and buy $40 worth of cheese I found out that my local Whole Foods had it in stock and re-packaged it in smaller amounts. I was very happy and gladly bought both flavors they had instock...cheddar and Italian.

I came home and made my first cheese pizza in a long time. It was delicious. My son shrieked in excited but was also confused as to why he could have cheese. This started the conversation on how this cheese was special cheese that does not have gluten,milk or soy in it and it is the only safe cheese he can have and if anyone else tries to give him cheese without my permission do not eat it!

Anyways I am excited to start using Daiya Vegan Cheese in my cooking and eating pleasure. So far I have only used it in my pasta dish and my pizza and it melts beautifully. It also smells and tastes like what I remember of the real thing. It is really good and I recommend all my friends with food allergies or vegan friends to try it and see what you think.

Homemade Ice cream

2010-02-27T11:26:00.000-08:00

Well as we all know ice cream is pretty expensive but what you might not know is buying specialty ice cream or sorbet is even more expensive. Typically I buy sorbet in a pint size container, which is the biggest I can find, for about $4 or $5 each. Because of our food allergies to milk,soy and gluten I can not buy regular ice cream. All the safe ice creams we can eat come in a pint size and all run about $5 on average.

My friend Shannon recently bought an electric ice cream maker and she really liked it. Well I've got an old wooden ice cream maker that we received nearly 10 years ago as a gift. It is really nice but requires alot of time and effort to use it. You have to constantly alternate with ice and rock salt. I think I made 2 or 3 batches(10 years ago) with it and gave up because it took so long. So I decided maybe I should try making ice cream again but buy the one Shannon got. So last week I had a coupon for bed,bath & beyond and I bought the ice cream maker. I've made 2 batches within a few days and I am very happy.

For the first recipe I tried one Shannon used but I scaled it down to make a smaller amount. It was yummy and made about 6 cups but had more of a sorbet texture, which was fine. Then my 2nd batch I made a recipe that came with the maker and it made much less only 3 cups but was rich and creamy kinda like soft serve. Both are great and I will make them again and experiment with different flavors and milks or creamers.

For the milk I decided to use So Delicious Coconut Milk and it is fantastic product. They also make their own line of coconut ice creams as well. On my 2nd batch I used coconut creamer and I think that is why it was so thick and creamy like. I highly recommend getting an ice cream maker and making your own ice cream and experiment with different milks it is fun.

Recipes:

Strawberry Ice Cream-Sorbet (makes about 6 cups)
2 1/2 cups of Milk or Milk sub
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups of defrosted frozen strawberries

Mix up all ingredients in a blender. Then add to ice cream maker and follow manufactors instructions.

Chocolate Pudding Ice cream (made 3 cups when I used coconut creamer)

3 cups milk or milk sub
2 packets of instant jello pudding mix

Mix up ingredients in blender or with hand mixer.Then add to ice cream maker and follow manufactors instructions.

Vegan Cheese Review

2010-02-24T13:57:00.000-08:00

I've tried several vegan,soy and non dairy cheeses and most of them taste like crap or smell like vomit. For the past 3+ years I have lived without a cheese sub. It was hard at first but got easier with time. Well I was recently told about Daiya Vegan Cheese . It sounded interesting and is certainly being picked up daily by a new location either selling or using their product in their restraunts. I called a local store near me to learn they started to carry a 5 pound bag of this cheese but they did not have anything smaller. I did not want to spend the pricey amount on a large size I wasn't even sure I was gonna like.

But then I recently saw a message from an autism group about Amy's Kitchen was carrying Rice mac n cheese and the cheese part was from Daiya. I found the item today at my local Whole Foods and I willingly spent the $5 for the frozen mac n cheese. So for lunch today I cooked it in the microwave and it smelled good. It even fooled my teen whom is not on my deitary restrictions she said it smelled good and she wanted some. Well I gave her a bite and she liked it....now this is a teenager mind you. Anyways, at first the thought scared me and I hesitantly took my first bite and then I goobled up the bowl and was satisfied. It was so good and really did taste and smell like when I remember of cheese.

So needless to say this cheese is so good and I am now hooked! So I soon will become a loyal costumer of Daiya Vegan Cheese .

Here are a few other brands that I am also hooked on:
Pamela's GF mixes (bread,cake & cornbreads)
Udi's GF breads & muffins
Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
TJ's GF pancake & waffle mix
SO Delicious Dairy free coconut milk,yogurt & ice cream

New year, new promises

2010-01-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

wow, I have really lacked on keeping up on this blog for several months now. I've been doing pretty good on my other blog updating it about my son atleast 1-2x a month but have let this one take a dive.

Well I do not really do new years resolutions anymore but I promise to try very hard to post something atleast once a month on this blog. It might not be anything exciting but it will be about something that I think is worth talking about :)

Here is something that is worth talking about.....Disney.....2010 brings a new promotion and this year they are trying to get more people involved in volunteering in their communities. The program is called Give a Day Get a Day. Several different ops are available to volunteer and once you do (after a registration process) you will get a free single day admission to Disneyland or world. Now there are blackout dates and restricts so read the fine print closely.

www.GiveADayGetADisneyDay.com

Our family volunteers all the time so this will be easy for us. The hard part will be when can we all get back down to Disneyland & then ofcorse the cost of hotels and transportation.

The Goodbyn Review

2009-08-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled across this product about 3 weeks ago in an email giving advise on lunchboxes for kids. My son was entering 1st grade so I was already on the hunt for a lunchbox that would be easy for him to open and not have tons of different lids that might get lost. So when I saw this Goodbyn I felt like this is what I was looking for 1 container with only 1 lid.

It does seem rather large than other store bought lunch bins but it is enviromentally friendly & hold both a water bottle as well as a good ammount of food. It is made so that it can be tossed in the recycle bin when we are done using it which might be tons of years from now. I won't be using tons of plastic baggies which hurt the environment deeply.

We ordered green because that is my sons favorite color, but it comes in a variety of colors. It comes with stickers which my son decorated his box so nicely. It is dishwasher safe which makes clean up so nice for us moms. I really appreciate it also includes an allergy sticker too!

It did take a few practice runs to learn how to close and open it but I think we've got it down now. Here are some pictures of the lunches I have packed.....caution I did not start out all eco-friendly as you can see by a juice box & container of applesauce inside day 1. I had planned on taking pictures of a week of lunches but after day 2 I forgot.

Day 1:

snap pea crisps, grilled non cheese sandwich, grapes, juice box, apple sauce $ water

Day 2:

fruit, apple sauce, snap pea crisps, turkey & non cheese roll ups,crackers and water

Day 3:
same as day 2 minus the juice and apple sauce

Day 4:
pizza, pretzels, apples & water

I have to say my son is getting the hang of closing the Goodbyn and he is only 6 years old. I have to also mention freezing the water bottle 3/4 of the way really helps to keep the rest of the food semi-cool. We really like the goodbyn and give it a 2 thumbs up review!

Product Reviews- Shark Steam Mop & Betty Crocker Gluten Free

2009-08-30T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some reviews of some products that are new to me. Sorry to sum them all up in one post they do deserve their own post that is for sure.

I will start with the Shark Mop. I recently had the H20 mop which I thought was great but it still left my floors wet and streaks on my pergo flooring. Then one day it just decided to have a malfunction and stop working. While I browsed the web to find out where I could buy another one I came across a recall notice for the model I had. Well apparently it can short in the wiring and cause a fire. The company was not issuing refunds but only a repair kit which was useless to me since mine broke. Anyways a friend recommended the Shark Steam Mop. I went over to my local Bath and Beyond Store and saw the display. I ended up getting the delux model which came with 2 different heads and several cleaning pads. I came home and gave it a whirl. OMG!!!! This works way better than the other crappy one. My floors dried almost instantly and did not have any streaks. I am in love and now use my Shark weekly!

Betty Crocker Gluten Free review: Finally a mainstream company has jumped into making life a tad easier for those who have to eat gluten free. So far I have made the brownies and the cookies and both are just so yummy. Both were also easy for me to alter to be dairy free as well. My alternation on the brownies was I used oil instead of butter and for the cookies I used shortening instead of butter. Very easy to make and now I am finding these products at most of my local grocery stores as well as my local Super Walmart too!

Next post will be about a new lunchbox called the Goodbyn. I just recieved it this weekend and giving it a trial run this week for my son's school lunches. So keep posted if you are interested in learning what a Goodbyn is.

Noodles & Co. review

2009-07-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

well I have to say it is a great review for Noodles & Company. I called the store and I asked about the rice noodles and how they were cooked. I was told they cook a fresh batch each morning and the rice noodles are first to be cooked. So they do not share water with the wheat noodles. After they are cooked and tossed with oil they are stored in the refridge for the day and whatever is not used at end of day is tossed.

Anyways they do not have a top 8 list on the website but from what I gathered the Pad Thai dish was gonna be safe. When I got to the store behind the counter they guy had a list which told you which on the top 8 allergens were in each dish. I honestally did not look at all the dishes except the Pad Thai. I ordered it without egg (due to dairy being pre-mixed with their eggs) and it was quite yummy.

I have been fine all night so I didn't have any issues with any cross contaimination. I think they did a great job with my order and they seem willing enough to try to help someone with food allergies too.

Time Moves On

2009-07-04T15:43:00.001-07:00

I never thought I'd be where I am today. I never thought I would enjoy being a stay at home mom as much as I do. I never once thought I would be married and live happily ever after. I have to say all my dreams have come true and then some! Now that I will have two kids in school from 8a-3pm starting in another month I wonder what will I do with my time? Financially we are stable and doing well so a job is not really needed and really in this economy I am not sure I would find anything anyways. Hum maybe I will take some classes just for fun and get more involved with a bible study. Well whatever the future holds I am happy that I have been a stay at home mom for 6 years now! Wow I can't believe I gave up my job 6 years ago man time has flown by fast.

I feel old

2009-06-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well it is offical my oldest child graduated 8th grade and in August will offically be in high school, this makes me feel old. My kids are growing up too fast and life moves on. I am looking forward and not looking forward to the new experiences that come along with a high school. Thankfully she will be going to a small school and many of her 8th grade classmates will be going to this school as well. Please pray for me that I will survive Isabella's High school years!

Her graduation, well the principal calls it a promotion, was so great. The kids picked a hawaiian-topical theme and the school staff and parents ran with it. Decorations were so festive and the kids had a blast! I am so proud of her she got perfect attendence and maintained honor roll all year long!

Product Reviews: Coconut milk, Honey Nut Rice Chex & Starbucks Gluten free cake

2009-05-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

My reviews on the 3 latest gluten free products that has come out lately.

Review #1- Honey Nut Rice Chex Cereal

Well as we all know sometime last year or so Rice Chex was reformulated to be gluten free. And I have to say at the time it was great and made so many people happy. It opened the doors for all kinds of new exciting stuff to make and eat. Muddie Buddies and trailmix bars have been a family favorite here. Well after a while Rice Chex has become boring and bland. Not long ago I got an email from a friend telling me General Mills changed their formulation on a few other of the chex flavors. Now the Gluten Free Flavors are also: Honey Nut, Corn, Rice, Strawberry and I think Chocolate. Well after looking at ingredients the Honey Nut was safe so I gave it a whirl. Sweet but not too sweet and oh so yummy. Great to eat by the handful or in a bowl with your favorite milk or non dairy milk sub.

Review #2- So Delicious Coconut Milk (Vanilla)

Ok so this is probably not too big in the gluten free side but it is big on the side of those who cannot having dairy. So Delicious came out with a coconut line last fall I think and they've had some good yogurt and icecream (which has been very expensive). So when I received an email about the new coconut milk line I was eager to try. About a week later I found it in a half gallon container at my local whole foods market. And the price was much cheaper than I imagined at $4.50. Well I have never been a huge milk or non milk sub drinker but this stuff is good. It is definitely sweet but a good spot for it has been with my honey nut chex cereal. I even used it in my muffin mix and didn't notice a difference either. Overall tastes great and at a great price!

Review #3- Starbucks Gluten Free Valencia Orange Cake

May 5, Starbucks released this new gluten free item pre-packaged in with their baked goods. I have to say as I read the ingredients I was skeptical it was gonna taste like anything worth eating but I was pleasantly surprised. The cake it moist and fluffy and resembles a small muffin with almond slices on the top. It was really good and an excellent way for another big name company like Starbucks to step foot into the Gluten Free world. I will definitely buy one again when I am on the go (I am not a coffee drinker).

Gluten and Casein Free at Disneyland- April 2009

2009-05-03T14:46:00.001-07:00

Well my family took a trip to Disneyland from April 5 through the 9, 2009. Prior to going I had heard that Disney was very accomidating for food allergies, especially the ones we have which are gluten (AKA wheat) and casein (AKA dairy). A few months before our trip I started to investigate via search the web and I somehow came across the contact info for Chef Chris. Chef Chris is the main guy to call to get the 411 on food allergies. First I emailed him and he told me that once I arrived to get the celiac list and that will tell me all the gluten free options they have. Unfortunately they do not hand out this list prior to arrivial at the park since the menu selections are often changing. I did manage to get this celiac list when a friend of mine went to Disney she got it for me. The choices looked promising.

About 2 weeks before my arrivial to the magical kingdom I called Chef Chris. He is fast to respond and was much more helpful on the phone than our email a few months earlier. He told me specific brands of the buns, hotdogs and baking mixes they use which gave me a clear mind that I knew this would be a great trip. Due to our food allergies we mainly ate all our meals in the park or the hotel restraunts run by Disney, I did take a gamble eatting at the Rainforest Cafe,eventhough the manager assured me items that were safe. I played it safe with a chicken salad and for my 5 yr old son hamberger with no bun and fresh fruit.

Now onto my park dining reviews: I was pleasantly suprised with the choices of allergy friendly food and the quality of it. Each time I ordered the chef personally came out to talk with me and go over our allergies. We had pizza, pasta, hamburgers on buns, hot dogs on buns, chicken sandwhiches, fries, sorbet and salads. The first hamburger my son got he was certain we gave him someone else's food. He was pleasently suprised when he was allowed to eat the bun. I have to say my 2 favorite spots to eat were The Red Rocket Pizza Port in Disneyland (this is where I ate pizza and pasta) and The Tastey Pilots (I had chicken sandwhich) in CA Adventure.

I did have 1 not so tastey experience on our character breakfast at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel's Storytellers Cafe. My son and I ordered the kids breakfast which came with pancakes,eggs and bacon. The chef was great he came to our table to take our order but when the food came out there were potatoes and yogurt on the plate. I quickly informed the server to take back the yogurt but I kept the potatoes on the plate and just didn't eat them. The pancakes were horrible tasting and the appearance was very flat, not at all looked like our normal pancakes we make at home. But the eggs and bacon and entertainment made up for any disapointments I had.

When I got home I gathered my thoughts and about a week later gave Chef Chris a call to share my experience. He was happy to hear overall it was a positive experience and he said I was the first to make comments about the pancakes. I gave him suggestions on maybe switching the pancake mix to another brand and he seemed willing to see about adjustments that he can make in the future. Overall it was a safe and positive experience and I deffinately look forward to being able to eat at Disney again.

Lapbooks and Life

2009-05-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, it is already May and I can't believe I've neglected this blog since March. Anyways life happens, right. I have however have not neglected my blog about my son . Anyways here is some fun and exciting things we've done lately....in April we went to Disneyland in CA and stayed at the very luxerious Disneys Grand Californian Hotel. No I am not rich nor do I have a ton of extra money to blow on a trip but I did get an awesome deal from Costco Travel. We orginally had planned to stay at the Disneyland Hotel but about 3 days before our trip on a whim I decided to see what the difference would be to switch hotels and when I was told it was only gonna be $50 you bet I jumped on that! I don't travel well by car so we also flew via Southwest. And about 2 weeks before I checked the airline and the tickets I bought 3 months earlier were much cheaper so now I've got a nice credit with Southwest too. It was an awesome vacation BTW and in another post I will review the gluten and dairy free food I ate while there.

Now onto my latest discovery.....another family I've met via the web has introduced me to these things called Lapbooks. What is a lapbook you ask? Well basically it is a teaching tool to help making learning fun for your child. It is called lapbook because you work on it on your lap, duh. Basically it is a file folder in which you fold and attach different stuff inside like small books, games, counting, handwriting, bible verses and much more. Your imagination can run wild. I have to say the first one I did is not that great. I did a Noah's Ark theme and kept it very simple as I was not sure if my child would take to this new idea. Well he loved it so I am deciding to make more and I am hoping to add some more bible based stuff in it so that I can teach my son about the bible. Here are some great free resources:
Lapbook Lessons
Christian Printables

I've shared this idea with his school teacher and she is very excited to use this in the classroom. The school year is almost over and is really busy now but next school year she wants to use these. Since my son's class is learning about life cycles and butterflies I thought it would be perfect to creat a lapbook to go along with that. This morning he helped me cut and after he went to school I arranged and glued on everything. I think he is gonna love it! Again my experience on making these is limited but I think I did a good job. I incorporated some math,reading words,game,life cycle and a bible verse.

Organic Farm Delivery

2009-03-19T08:20:00.000-07:00

So a friend of mine sent me an email about a new service she was trying out. She was getting organic fruits and veggies from a farm being delivered to her home. I looked on the website and selection of food looked great and the prices were very reasonable. So my friend gave me a coupon code which would give me $5 off my first order to try it out. The box I chose had several items in it I have never cooked before and I knew my family would not eat. So I called up the company and they were willing to make substitions for me. Well either I got a freebee or there was misunderstanding because they sent me the small box plus all the food I was wanting to sub for. I'll see when I get my bill if I am charged for that.

Anyways I decided to continue the service bi-weekly to try out. So this time I switched to a different selection called fast fruit and veggie. It is supposed to be fruit and veggies that can be eatten raw and require very little prep. Needless to say I am very happy with my box this week and I can tell you it isn't gonna last long so I will probably be moving to weekly service. Oh the price, well for the small fast fruit and veggie was $23.

what is that bug?

2009-02-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

Ok so last night I go to my garage to grab a pair of latex free gloves to help my teenage dye her hair. To my suprise this tiny little green worm like creature was crawling on the box. I thought that is weird and I picked up the box to find a whole bunch of them under the box and all over that shelf. Freaked out I called my husband and daughter in to help me. We worked together as a team to clean up. To my suprise these little creatures somehow got inside sealed bags of my sons medical supplies. I had to throw out a ton of his medical supplies which is so sad because they were donated to us because it isn't covered by insurence.

We also discovered a whole heck of them in our 10 lb bag of birdseed. Let me just tell you how grossed out I am. Well this was one way to get us to clean up the garage and get rid of stuff. I sure hope we got them all.

Does anyone know what this creature is and how to prevent it from coming back? I've tried google it but don't come up with much.HELP!!!

catch ups

2009-01-26T22:03:00.000-08:00

Well I spend too much time reading others blogs and writing on my other one to actually write on this one. So I decided I needed to take a little test I saw on another blog....and here is my score
77%

Not bad, probably got down graded for my lack of blogging lately but hey that score isn't too bad.

Anyways it turned out that creepy phone call was just innocent. The poor guy was just really wanting to share his personal story and not trying to sell me anything. I feel bad for thinking that way but hey what do you expect when a stranger does a search for you and finds your home #. Oh BTW, the problem where my personal info is now resolved that website so kindly deleted the page.

Well not much news here but I hope I can come up with some more exciting things to talk about in the near future.

Kinda freaked out....

2009-01-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

Ok call me nieve but I didn't realise how easy it was for someone to google me and call me on my own personal home number. Now most of you know we shared our story with the Discovery Health channel about our son. Each time it re-airs I always get people finding me via facebook or myspace which is fine with me. But tonight I got a phone call that just creaped me out. This guy called me who says he to has the same condition as my son and he was glad I was able to share it. Ok that is great and all but how did you find my phone #? He said he googled me and there it was on some website. I googled myself endless times and while I do have quite the online history I could not find a phone # for me. Then I added extra key words and bam there it was my phone # on this website (yes I will be contacting them to remove it). It is an inocent website for something I signed up to recieve but now that this guy found my # it just kinda gave me the heebie geebies.

Anyways the guy wants to share his story and some other information about nutrition with me.....well I should have said I'm not interested but I gave him my email to send it to me. Not sure if he is trying to sell me something or what.

But anyways I just have to say I am happy to help others with HD but when I start getting phone calls I am just creeped out!

My Thoughts to episode "Woman with the Giant lump"

2008-11-25T10:11:00.000-08:00

My thoughts and reflections to Mystery Diagnosis episode "The Woman with the Giant Lump"

First off the first story they featured was great. I can imagine how fustrated the lady was, especially when she was paralised from the surgery.

Well then comes our story. I think it was very difficult to get all the information editted down to the alloted time slot but overall I am satisfied at the way they protrayed Tyler's Journey. Some parts of me wishes we would have waited till season 7 to share since a few things have changed since we first thought but I am very happy to get the word out there about Hirschsprung's Disease (HD). I am very happy with what we did for the show even if it just helps 1 person understand the disease and how easy it is to be overlooked. Don't worry I'm not done helping spread the word about HD. I totally agree with the analigies Dr Gates came up with....it really is like finding a Zebra in a Horse Farm!

Tyler was actually in many of the recreation scenes, well that was because the two out of the three kids I picked out to play him were young and at some points didn't want to corporate. That being said they were able to get enough footage from the young boys to make it work. The baby that portrayed Tyler was just so stickin' cute and he went along with just about everything. I found all 3 boys via my Moms group. Two of the boys (baby & preschooler) were siblings and were friends of my friend. And the other toddler was the son of a lady of my Moms group in my neighborhood. Everyone did an awesome job in their acting roles. All the boys looked so much like Tyler even my own mother in law thought in one scene it was Tyler when it really wasn't.

Our surgeon, well Tyler's surgeon Dr Gates, did an awesome job explainging it all. He was so serious in the show, really he is fun,loving and compasionate guy and that side of him you really didn't see in the show! He really is a doctor that is there for the kids and helping making their quality of life better. Also he is there to support the families as well. I can say he is the only doctor I've seen to personally walk the parents back to their child in the recovery room from surgery and stay to talk with you. While in the hospital he has followed up by coming in the room twice a day and calling on his days off to check on Tyler. I've been told by the nurses at the hospital that is pretty typical of him. He is always there when we have needed him and is willing to try new things. He isn't your ordinary doctor and in my eyes he is a superhero for solving the mystery diagnosis!

11/24 view us on Mystery Diagnosis Show

2008-11-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know this past April we worked with the discovery health channel to get the word out about our son's mystery condition (ok after the mystery was solved). I've kept this hush hush until now. I looked on their website and finally we are listed for November 24th on the Discovery Health Channel, the show is called Mystery Diagnosis. Check with your local satelite/cable company to check the channel & time.

The title of the episode is The Woman with the Giant Lump....

here is a blurb from their website:
Mystery Diagnosis
The Woman with the Giant Lump

Soon after solid food is introduced into Tyler's diet, he begins to have infrequent bowel movements, sometimes just once a month. Daisy Hill, an active 41 year old bodybuilder, notices a painful lump in her jaw while training for a competition.

So please keep your eye out to watch our story. And grab the box of tissues. Hey I haven't even seen the episode so it's just as exciting to me as it is to you!!!

8 years ago today.....

2008-10-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

8 years ago this very day was a very special day for my family. It was the day my husband and I said...I Do....yep we got married. It had been beautiful weather up until that day.....it ended up pouring. I wanted to get some beautiful outdoor pictures in a wooded area near our recption hall but had to scratch that idea. Anyways it was the best day I could have ever dreamed of. And everyone has told me rain on your wedding day is good luck, well that has turned out to be so true for us!!!

We had the ceremony in the Lutheran Church and it was so beautiful. My two closest friends were my bridemaids and my husbands were his groomsmen. Our niece and our daughter were the flower girls and our other neice lit the candles and made sure everyone signed the guestbook. The music was perfectally picked out and we had a family friend sing the lords prayer and it was so beautiful!!!! It was such a magical day!!!!

We rented a stretch SUV limo it was so cool we let everyone take a ride with us, I think it seated like 25 people or something. Everyone had fun at the recption and it was beautifully decorated by family and friends....our colors were blue and silver.

For our honeymoon we took the weekend away to Lake Tahoe and it was the first snow of the season that night as we drove there. It was beautiful everything white! We took a ride on the ferry cruise boat and had a wonderful time.

I am so lucky to have such an awesome man right here by my side. He is an awesome husband and a wonderful father! I look forward to growing old with him! I love you honey!!!!

Because Rachel told me to......

2008-10-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

Ok so today is an awesome mom, friend and superwoman's birthday. And she has been posting little tidbits on her twitter called "Because Rachel told me to". I've decided to play along and wow this is fun. Rachel is such a fun and free spirited gal. The few times we've hung out she's been the life of the party!So far this is what Rachel says:
#1 Rachel Says: Stay in bed an extra 30-60 minutes. Come on! If anyone asks, just say, "Rachel told me to!"
#2 Rachel Says: Get in a hot tub. If you don't have one, go find one. Come on! If anyone asks, just say, "Rachel told me to!"
#3 Rachel Says: Roll down the windows, crank up the music, sing at the top of your lungs! Do it! If anyone asks, just say, "Rachel told me to!"
#4 Rachel Says: Buy your wife flowers. Come on! Just grab a bunch on the way home. If someone asks, DON'T say "Rachel told me to!"
#5 Rachel Says: Write a blog about yourself. Keep it short. Use pictures and songs you've written yourself. Come on! It'll be fun
ok so I haven't been able to do all of them but I've completed most. I oviously can't get my wife flowers considering I don't have one and I could stay in bed late today. I am a work in progress on the blog.

I recently discovered that Rachel named her car Stella. Honestally I have never named my cars but my mom did when I was young. So giving a brief discription of my car and her moodiness Rachel suggested in last night signing time chat that I give my car the name Rachel Lee. Gee I wonder who is that after??? Oh boy she deffinately fits the name. You see my car is just like a certain Rachel that I have come to know. So my Rachel Lee is a 2008 Honda Odessey who loves music, loves children and is always doing stuff for them. She loves to play jokes on me like telling me it's 68 degrees outside in the middle of a hot summer day when you know it's really 90. And she is very particular at where we park and often will not let me take my keys out of the ignition until I move to another spot. I know you are thinking it sounds crazy but nope it's all true....my Rachel Lee.

So Happy Birthday to my buddy Rachel de Azevedo Coleman

Product Reviews, Twitter and more

2008-09-30T08:56:00.000-07:00

Ok I'd had been wanting to get a couple of infocommercial products but ofcorse am always skeptical if they will work. So I wait until they've been out for a while, have reviews and are now in a store.
1st review: H2O mop

Ok I read kinda mixed reviews on this item but I decided to test it out anyways. First I made sure my local Linens n Things would let me return it used and they said ok. Easy to put together and easy directions to follow. I am impressed it did very well on my kitchen laminate flooring and great in the bathroom on tile. I also tried it on my pergo floor and it did clean it but also left streaks. But the streaks may have been because the pad was alread wet and used from the previous floor. I need to try it again with a dry pad. I also tried it on a spot on my rug and it didn't do anything but same issue as the wood floor (the pas was already wet so need to retry with a dry one). Overall I think it was a worth the buy....It was $99 and I had a $20 off instore coupon....so deffinately worth the price. One thing I like is I do not have to deal with any chemicals and overall that is helping the environment. It's hard to believe just water is actually all I use to clean the floor but it works.

2nd product: Pedi-paws

If your dogs are anything like mine getting their nails trimmed is a torture event. My dogs didn't mind this product at all. It was easy to use. It works by filing the nail with sandpaper rather than cutting the nail. I'm gonna let my mom borrow it to try it out on a cat to see if it works. But for dogs it works.

Anyone ever heard of Twitter ? Me either, but I was reading a blog about Rachel from Signing Time and she started to talk about Twitter. So I went to go check it out. It's just another way you can see the little day to day stuff that your friends, family or favorite celebs are doing. It's pretty cool to be able to follow Rachel's every move. What's even more awesome is she is willing to share all these personal life details with her fans! Oh by the way if you don't know who Rachel is you gotta go visit Signing Time and learn more about her and the amazing stuff she does!

Scavenger Hunt Time

2008-09-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

Yep that's right....Signing Time is doing a scavenger hunt. Wow an a very generious prize will be given to the lucky winner....$1,000 cash... how cool is that.

So you say, what is....Signing Time... well it is an awesome tool teaching American Sign Language to kids and adults. There is so many benefits to using sign language. Come on check out their site...and while you are there see the sneak preview for the new release for a Baby Signing Time coming this fall

The Rulez:
To enter, complete the scavenger hunt by 11:59 p.m. MST on October 31st, 2008 with the correct code and you'll be entered to win. Here's how to play:

1. You will find a picture of Hopkins the frog holding a sign on different pages throughout the site. There are 10 pages scattered throughout the site on which you'll find Hopkins.
2. The sign he holds carries a different number or letter for each page. You can also see a clue in a box next to his image that tells you where you'll find the next Hopkins.
3. Find all 10 pages and write down the letters or numbers you find in the order you find them.
4. You will end the scavenger hunt on an entry page where you will need to submit the code in the correct order and enter your name and e-mail address so we know you've finished and so can contact you if you win.
5. If you find anything you want to purchase along the way, feel free to use the coupon code "hunt" at checkout for an extra 5% off your order.
6. Start the Scavenger Hunt here.

Blanket Time

2008-09-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

Ok I should have done this 2 years ago but my son does not have a bigger blanket for his bed. He has been using a crib sized blanket for years. And at christmas I got him a bigger fleece blanket. So since I wanted to have a train blanket for his room I figured I needed to make my own. So at first I found some soft cotton train print material and then I had the idea I will just sew it onto the back of a fleece throw, sounds easy right??? Well it was except toward the end I broke my sewing needle twice! So when I went to the local fabric store to get more I saw they were moving locations and everything was 60-70% off. I came across some fleece that had signs printed on it...this was perfect. My first idea was man I'll just cut it and there you go his blanket. But because it was so cheap I ended up getting enough for 2 blankets. Then I had an idea....why don't I back the extra blanket onto the one I already made....so I made a no sew fleece blanket . I have to say eventhough it shrunk up after tieing the edges it is really cute. So now he has the big piece of fleece along with this tied fleece blanket. It was so easy to make, I may consider going back to get more fleece to make another for either my daughter or hang onto it for a b-day/baby shower gift.

Here is what the final product looks like on his twin sized bed.....

Candy Sushi

2008-08-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

I can't remember whose blog or who told me about this but somehow I came across Rachael Ray's recipe for Candy Sushi . It sounded fun so I gave it a try. I didn't exactally follow her directions or ingredents but it came out the same. I basically just made the directions on back on the marshmellow package for crisy treats. For our allergy purposes I used brown rice crisps instead of rice crispies cereal(has gluten), olive oil instead of butter(has dairy) and I obmitted the twizzler(also has gluten). I made a whole batch to eat for later and used only part of it to have candy sushi. ***TIP: let them set for about 30 ms to 1 hr at room temp to be less sticky to roll****

I had a package of 10 fruit roll ups and cut them in half. After I added the crispy inside and rolled I cut them in half again...so basically you can get 4 servings from 1 fruit roll up.

These are very sweet but the kids love them!

Hand Pies

2008-08-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Ok I just have to share, these came out so yummy! In my local parents magazine there was an article about Berry picking. Well I wasn't able to pick berries but I knew this farm was coming to the farmers market so I went and got a few baskets of blackberries. Well in this same magazine they had a recipe for hand pies. Basically it is like a pizza pocket but with fruit. So I decided to give it a wirl gluten free style. Wow I am amazed at how yummy they turned out! I've already eatten two...hahaha...

For the pie crust I used Chebe regular mix . I looked on chebe's site for suggestions to make it more like pie crust, after reading I decided to add 1/2 cup of sugar to the chebe mix. Just make it the way it says except omit the cheese and I used water instead of rice milk this time. I rolled it into 7 balls...I probably could get 8 if I made them smaller. Then I flattened them out and rolled them into a circle. Then followed the recipe below.
Hand Pies
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups blackberries, washed
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• All-purpose flour, for work surface
• Pate Brisee or purchased refrigerated pie crust
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat (a nonstick baking mat) or parchment paper. In a medium bowl, add blackberries, sugar, and cornstarch. Stir to combine, set aside.

2. On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough into a large rectangle, about 1/8-inch thick. Using a 5-inch cookie cutter, cut out 6 rounds. Transfer rounds to prepared baking sheet.

3. Place about 2 tablespoons of the blackberry mixture onto one-half of each round. Lightly brush egg around the edge of the covered half of each round. Fold remaining dough over to enclose, forming a half moon. Gently press edges together to seal. Brush the tops of each pie with egg. Using a paring knife, slash the top of each pie. Sprinkle generously with sanding sugar.

4. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer pies to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving, or let cool completely, and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Trains, trains and more stuff

2008-08-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

Ok for those that don't know I have two boys in my home who are obsessed with trains. Our old family room which is now the playroom has turned into train room. We've got thomas stuff (wooden and plastic) and we've got HO scale trains and all that stuff. At first I agreed to allow my husband to build a table for it. Well this table is massive (not as big as many model train lovers but too big for this room). In all honesty I think Tyler is too young to be playing with these fragile, old and very expensive trains. They were my husbands when he was a kid and some pieces were handed down to him when he was a kid.

So I've come up with the idea to save space in the room. Have the model train go higher up on the wall and travel all around the room. I've found pics online and tons of youtube videos and it looks like a good solution for this cramped room.

Ok here are some begining pics from over a year ago:

Not too bad right? But then we moved stuff around and added the computer into this room.....and you got a mess...Here are some more recent pics....

And that is what you walk into when you are at the front door! My hubby is crafty and handy Andy he can make a shelf around the whole room for the train to travel on. I think it will be cool and give this room back some much needed space. This room has become a multi-age, multi-functioning room; so it needs to be adjusted to suit all it's users needs. Here are some things I found online that is like the idea I want for this room.
Model Train around a room DIY

Youtube train on wall
Train around a living room

Another one
Electric thomas

Don't these look so cool??? I'll keep you updated on the progress; I think I may have sparked an interest to my two "boys".

Do I share too much?

2008-08-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

Ok I've been thinking about myself and wondering do I share too much personal information with strangers? Not really on this blog but my other one I share our successes and failures in my son's medical journey. I've tried my best to keep him identity a secret but just recently have started to use his first name. So far I haven't had any stalkers in person so I thought all was ok. But with our story getting reading to go public I have began to wonder am I sharing too much?

I guess I can say I share our journey in hopes to help someone else and to help others understand our family better. Not only do I do this online but I am also like this in person. I guess there will come a day where my son will not want me to share information about him and now that he has started school I am trying my best to be a bit more discreet unless someone mentions that their child is having a digestive problem.

Oh well this is who I am and I am proud to be an advocate for children and to educate others about my son's medical conditions.

Pull Thru Network Conference

2008-07-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

I just came home from the Pull-Thru Network's conference . This conference was so much fun. I really appreciate all the hard work that went into the planning of it. Not only did I learn information about my son's medical condition and bowel management for Hirscsprung's Disease but I learned about other conditions supported by PTN (pull-thru network). I could really see the interested and dedication to children from each of the doctor's who made presentations. Several of the doctors took time after their session to answer questions with many people individually. I really appreiate the time Dr. Shaul from LA children's hospital spent with a group of us. He gave me new ideas in what we might want to do for the next step with our son's bladder issues. And I was very happy to learn he has opened his own bowel management program very similar to what is being done with Dr Pena from Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Before this conference I did not understand why Bowel Management was so important. I now have a better understanding after listening to Dr Pena and Dr Bischoff speak. I now have a full list of questions to ask our surgeon including starting a bowel management program.

In the bowel management program it helps the child stay clean so that their self esteem raises and they can be successful in potting without soiling. So what happens in Dr Pena's program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital is the children are divided among two groups: constipation or diarrah. A one time session is held once a month for one week. The family comes to the hospital for a check up, xray and then is either put on a laxative or an enema based on their diagnosis and the program they are having. From there they do daily xrays,check in with the nurse and continue with the enema or laxative (it is adjusted based on how it works for the child). After the week is over they will have figured out what works for the child and they continue at home to do this once a day. The goal is to keep the colon clean for 24 hrs so that the child does not have any leakage of stool throughout the day. This program is a huge dedication from the family and the doctor. Some children need to continue it for the rest of their life while others may only need to do it temporary (like a few years). I would really like to get this figured out for my son so that he can be out of pull ups. Dr. Pena is very much in favor for children to be successful and stay clean w/out a diaper so that their self esteem will be high and they live a more normal life.

I met some awesome families. I met about 7 families that had children with Hirschsprung's, one of them had a child with a late dx like my son. I also met several other families with IA and other anorectal malformations . Even though our conditions are different in name we all had so much in common. I really felt an instant connection with a few families and we kinda all stuck together throughout the conference. I am very grateful we met and look forward to keeping in touch with them. The next conference is tentatively planned for 2010 and next time I plan on bringing the whole family! Seeing the kids interact with each other was priceless. I often felt like crying tears of happiness for them when they realised they were not the only kid who had gone through that. I look forward in my son being able to share in that feeling as well.

Disability doesn't mean you don't have the Ability!

2008-07-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Rachel is such an awesome mom. I just read her most recent blog entry and I am so proud of her! She has two children both with different disabilities and she has not let that stand in their way to live life to the fulliest! Her one daughter Lucy has spina bifida and CP and mainly uses a wheelchair to get around. Well on their recent family vacation to Cancun Mexico Rachel had a fantastic idea to take a ride on this boat that has a glass bottom to see the ocean and all the sea life. Well when Rachel called to get more info she did not mention the wheelchair until the very end and the company told her they could not accomidate their family. Well Rachel being a determined mom wanting to give her child this awesome experience thought to herself and came up with a plan. She carried Lucy (who weighs 50 lbs) and borrowed a stroller for the 6 mile walk there. Rachel I am so proud of you!!!! I am so happy to hear that you don't let a disability get in the way of letting your children be able to have fun and new experiences in life! We all need more mom's in the world like you Rachel!!!

One week to go!!!

2008-07-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

Yep in a tad over a week I will be flying all alone from CA to the middle of the US....St Louis, MO. I am excited and nervious all at the same time. I am looking forward to hearing the topics relating to my son's condition, meeting other PTN families and spending some alone time! I will not say the part I am not looking forward to because I want to focus on the good and I KNOW this will be a +++ trip for me. I leave very early on the 24th and come back kinda late on the 27th. Please think of me next week for safe & healthy travels and I will update you about my trip and the conference when I get back.

Oh for those that don't know I am going to a conference put on by the !Pull Thru Network. I was awarded a scholarship for an all expenses paid trip there!

My attempt to being crafty

2008-07-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

Well first off I can't take full credit for this idea...I borrowed it from my friend's blog Tell it w/ Pics . Look on her June 13th entry for directions how to make this very personal and special gift. I've got 3 friends who are all due within a month of each other August, Sept and October. Two are expecting their 3rd child and one is expecting her 4th. So needless to say they probably still have baby stuff, actually all 3 of them their oldest is 4. Well I really liked the idea of making something practical for their new baby. So I decided to give my sewing skills a try and make them each a hooded towel. I think my friends will love them and appreciate the time and effort I put into them. My lines aren't exactally perfect and I couldn't find my pins anywhere so my seams are not straight but oh well they are cute. Thanks for allowing me to borrow your idea. I think I'll be making these for young child b-day gifts too. Every youngster loves a hooded towel right? I don't know if this was in the directions or not but I added some more ribbon on the sides.

Getting Ready for Party

2008-06-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

My lil guy's 5th birthday is coming up and there is lots to do to get ready. I made 64 cupcakes and my husband decided to create a train out of some of them to go along with our train themed part. It really did turn out pretty cute (it happened to darn hot that day and the frosting looks kinda melted). I cut up strawberries and grapes. Got ice for juice boxes and bottled water. I made a ton of gift bags(about 30 bags)....each one included a train to make(from oriental trading) whistle, kazoo, stamp and gum. The gum is really cute containers to match out theme. It turned out to be a very fun party eventhough it was hot, hot, hot out there! Pretty much all food was eatten and ofcorse all the drinks gone too. We had more people come than RSVP'd so good thing I had a few extras of most items (except water). Word to the wise do not buy balloons from oriental trading. I bought a set of railroad balloons through them and the helium I had put in it didn't even last a couple of hours and the balloons popped easily. Now mind you these are supposed to be high quality mylar balloons....oh well lesson learned! Oh and the trains I got, so I thought was gonna be a simple craft project.....good thing we made one at home first because it took so long to put together we decided to put it in the goodie bag. It must have taken my huband and son near an hour to get it all finished! It was a very cute idea though and I still have a ton of them left over. See the finished project below.

Who says gluten free tastes yucky?

2008-06-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

So I've been gluten and dairy free for over a year(April 2007) based on some research I did and some test results I got about myself from Entero Lab. Basically my results told me I was gluten intollerent, the dairy I took out as a trial and I noticed a difference in my overall health. My overall health has changed dramatically....first and the biggest noticable change was the 20+ pounds of extra weight I dropped. I've recently been slowly adding back in some dairy and some gluten and the results are not good....I've started feeling sick to my tummy and having lots of back problems....so it is back to the strict list of not letting that stuff into my diet!

Really it isn't hard and it doesn't taste yucky. Basically I eat more fruits and veggies which is good for you anyways right? I also eat rice, potatoes, beans and meats and I also cook with alternative flours...Rice & Tapioca Flour. I pretty much cook all my own food and stay away from the processed junk. I've got my husband and kids on this lifestyle of eatting as well. Actually my son also tested positive for gluten intollerence and dairy too.....my huband and daughter still eat regular bread and milk but mainly at home all the forbidden foods are forbidden here too!

I've found some pretty great tasting products out there which make my life easier:
Enjoy Life
Chebe
Ener-G
kinnikinnick

So here are some pictures of food that really tastes great and I feel good because I made it!
Pizza: chebe all purpose mix, turkey pepperoni & bell peppers (On my son's pizza I put goat cheese)
Granola bars: made from enjoy life's granola crunch & trailmix

Recipe for the granola bars:
Not Nuts!™ Trail Mix Bars

Contains NO: wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish or shellfish. Dairy-free

option.

ingredients:

2 cups Enjoy Life ® Not Nuts! ™ trail mix
2 cups Enjoy Life ® Cinnamon Crunch granola
1/2 cup butter or non-dairy alternative
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp. honey or agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tbsp tapioca flour

directions:

Grease 8 x 8 inch pan. Chop trail mix in a food processor until all seeds and fruit are in small pieces and transfer to bowl. Grind granola in a food processor until it looks like fine crumbs. Add granola crumbs to chopped trail mix and set aside. In a small saucepan over medium heat mix together the butter, brown sugar, honey, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, and vanilla until melted and well combined. Pour mixture over the trail/granola blend, stirring to coat all pieces. Add salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir well, then pour into prepared pan and press down flat. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. Makes 8 bars. Keep refrigerated.

Graduations & Birthdays oh my!

2008-06-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

Well June is often a busy month for many but it typically is even a busier one for our family especially the 1st week of June. Well to top it off we've got 3 birthdays just days apart starting on the 1st-6th and then another one on the 28th(of corse both of my kids ironically were born in June too the 1st and 28th). Finally my youngest sibling has graduated from High School! Now next year I can look forward to my daughter's 8th grade graduation and then I will have a 4 year break!

This last weekend my brother had his graduation party. He had the typical family BBQ and they rented one of the bounce house things but this one had water. It kinda looked like a super-sized slip n slide. The teenagers had more fun than the little kids...even the dog tried to join in the fun a few times!

Now my kids are out of school till mid August...oh my....I hope time goes by fast so that boredom doesn't set in! Wow I can't believe it, in August I will have one going into kindergarten and one going into 8th grade! Where has the years gone???

St Louis here I come.....I won

2008-05-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

I am so excited I was just award a scholarship from the Pull-thru Network to attend their conference in late July. I am so excited but now reality has started to set in......my hubby might not be able to go and Tyler could possibly recovering from surgery then???? Hummm, maybe I can go by myself if it came down to it. It is a family scholarship though. I might have some down time I see they have a really cool looking Butterfly House that would make for some awesome pictures!

St Louis, MO here I come late July.

They are gonna have speakers talking about Tyler's condition- Hirschsprungs Disease. I guess I wrote an awesome letter to get chosen! I rock.....actually 2008 rocks, so many great stuff has happened to me this year!

If any of you ever want to learn more about this non profit group:

Pull-thru Network was founded in 1988 and has grown to be one of the largest organizations in the world dedicated to the needs of those born with an anorectal malformation or colon disease and any of the associated diagnoses. These diagnoses include:

Imperforate Anus
Cloaca
Cloacal Exstrophy
Anal Stenosis
Bladder Exstrophy
VACTERL/VATER Association
Hirschsprung's Disease
Tethered Spinal Cord
Neurogenic Bladder
Caudal Regression
Down Syndrome
and others

Filming/Acting- New Appreciation

2008-04-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

Ok first off let me start off by saying I have a new appreciation for people who are producer, aast. producers, camera man and actors. Man it is a tuff job with full days work ahead. We put in 12 hour days and I hear that is quite common. I know I am by no means a real actress but I think I can say I can relate to the stress they go through day to day. This was one experience I will never forget, it has it's ups and downs but overall it was fun! We had such a great crew....Jim our producer, Lara our asst. producer, and Dan the camera man. I guess being a goofball isn't a bad pre-rec for a camera man since you do need to get the best shot and Dan sure is a goofball.

So day 1 is the interviews in the studio. Man lots of lights in your face and mics above and below me to pick up my voice. It was the more serious day where we retold our son's story. This was the easiest of the 3 days.

Day 2 the recreation of the doc appts and hospital stuff:
Can I just say we have the best doc in the world. He cleared his schedule for the entire day to let us use a room at his office and help out in the re-creation scenes. The best part for me was when they recreated the surgery. We all had to put on scrubs to go back to the OR and the OR staff was awesome and so willing to participate too! It was funny to hear all the jokes in the OR and one of the nurses was Tyler's belly double....lol....they actually prepped her belly and pretended to opporate on her, it was funny.

Day 3 more recreations but this time at my home.
This day was a bit more relaxed while we attempted to recreate different home scenes of our story. You'd think this would be an easy day but it too was a full 11-12 hr day as well. So much to shoot and so many time we had to re-do it!

Overall it was a great experience and I am just happy to be able to share our story with the world! I really hope it will help someone else!

Special thanks to my stunt double Dana and Tyler's doubles Drew, Stewart and Jadan.

what I am gonna be on tv?

2008-04-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. After my son's diagnosis I submitted our story to a major television network. I knew I really wanted our story to be shared in hopes that it would help others not have to go through what we did. Immediately the producing agency contacted me for more info. Several phone calls and emails later I was told that the network did infact want to air our story. I am stoked and nervious at the same time. Even tho the storyline is not about me I will be the main person re-telling and recreating the storyline on camera. And filming could begin as early as 2-3 weeks from now. I have called in to my good friend in hopes she can get me in for a haircut this week. I guess it will soon be time to shop for a new shirt (well they only really show you from the bust up) and some make up while I am at it. It is gonna be an exciting piece to add to our journey.

My Hero- My Inspiration

2008-04-03T10:01:00.000-07:00

I recently submitted an entry for a contest about Women You Love in celebration of international woman's day. Come
Vote for my entry My entry is about a woman I met nearly 3 years ago and how she has truely inpired my life! Her name is Rachel de Azevedo Coleman and she is the co-creator of Signing Time

Common Vision Fruit Tree Tour 2008

2008-03-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

This amazing group of people called Common Vision came through our area on a fruit tree tour. What they do is for two months during the fruit tree planting season they go up and down California and teach children about the trees and the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle). They do skits, african dancing and drumming. I was lucky enough to go to help out while they came to my daughter's school. I have to say it was an amazing experience; one I will never forget! I had so much fun dancing, learning how to play the drum, and planting the fruit trees.

Using Sign Language can help reading?

2008-03-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

Wow now I already knew from my own experience that using american sign language can promote so many wonderful things in young children but I would have never imagined that it could also help you learn to read. On the Today Show they had a segment on 17 month old girl,Elizabeth Barrett, who has been reading since she was 13 months old! Her parents are both speech pathologists and credit Signing Time in helping her develop her remarkable language skills.

out for a bit

2008-02-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well having 2 or more blogs going can get confusing at some point. At this time this blog will be onhold as my life has led me on a new journey about my son's diagnosis of Hirschsprungs Disease. I will update myspecialone blog more often then this one.

2008 is here already?

2008-01-05T21:39:00.000-08:00

Boy 2007 just flew by, actually the past 4 years have gone by so quickly I feel like I hardly had a chance to take a breath. It seems like only yesterday I was holding my newborn son as we rocked in the chair together....Awww the good old days. Now it's, "Mom I don't want to sit with you in the rocking chair, move!". Having a 4 yr old a 12 yr old (who acts like she's all grown up) is often quite a handful and full of mixed emotions. But it's my life, the one I am comfortable in and I wouldn't change it for the world! Well there are a few minor changes that could be made....lol..

As I entered this year of 2008 I thought should I write goals or not. Well I wrote a small list of things I would like to accomplish this year but that I won't be heart broken if I didn't accomplish them. Mostly I think with the end of 2007 and now the beginning of 2008 has brought me was organization. I am really trying to focus on organizing spaces in my life. I've done lots of cleaning and clearing and still have more to do but this is one task I feel very confident will get accomplished in 2008.

Well Happy New Year everyone!

my 100 day challenge ending

2007-12-23T18:35:00.000-08:00

Boy has it been 100 days already? It went by so fast. I looked over my list a few weeks ago and I had accomplished just about everything. I thought it was gonna be difficult to hold myself to be true to the challenge but really it wasn't. I am still living and using the law of attraction but I haven't really set any new goals to work on...I am thinking I will start my season 2 at the start of the new year.

Happy Holidays everyone, I hope you get all that you have wanted for christmas!

Leah goes to Ghana

2007-12-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

Imagine living in a society where you had no voice, your family was ashamed of you and you were deined access to an education all because you were deaf. Well this is all true and happens every day in Ghana, Africa. One little girl, Leah Coleman, (who also happens to be deaf) was appalled at this and has big dreams to change the world. She is on a mission in partner with Signs of Hope International to bring Signing Time to Ghana, Africa. Did you know many of the Teachers don’t even know sign language and are usually upset when they get an assignment to the school for the Deaf. How could you work at a school for Deaf children and not know how to communicate with them? This January 2008 Leah’s dream will come true as she gets to go to one of these Schools for the Deaf to inspire the children and teachers to learn sign language and prove to them Deaf people can learn and in fact are very smart.

Visit Leah’s mom’s blog(Rachel de Azevedo Coleman) and the Signing Time’s website to learn more how you too can be a part in supporting Leah's dream.

Decemeber is here

2007-12-09T14:01:00.000-08:00

Decemeber is here and the glorious holidays are just around the corner. Have you gotten all the gifts for your loved ones yet? I am usually done shopping by now but I am actually not done yet. I've got a few gift cards to get and then I have to find something for my Diva daughter. This year I just am not really in the commericalised holiday mind. Just so many things going on I guess I haven't given myself anytime to remember what the holiday is truely about and what it truely should mean. To me we should be thankful for family, shelter and financially secure. And tell our loved ones how much we love and appreciate them! Actually those are things that I have been doing often even when the holidays are not around.

Well my 1st round of my 100 day challenge is coming to an end on the 15th and it has been quite successful. Actually I have been successful at everything I have put positive energy into. I've got more goals I would like to accomplish in the future and I look forward in putting positive energy toward them as well. I hope I can get more friends and family to think this way as well!

Cameras

2007-11-30T19:20:00.000-08:00

(two above pictures were taken with Olympus SP-500 zooming in quite a distance away)

Ok so I so need a new camera. The the we have is 3 years old and I just hate it. The screen is so tiny you can hardly even review a picture on it without a magnafine glass. The shutter speed is so slow and takes forever to focus your subject minds well be frozen in time to get a half way decent photo.

Well I have no idea what to get or really what I want. Well I know what I don't want: slow shutter speed, slow focus & small screen. I always play around with cameras in every store I go to. This last weekend Costco had a decent one on sale. I thought about it, did a small research on the style and decided to buy it. Well it was ok if you only take pictures outdoors. It had some cool features but horrible zoom, which I discovered is another important thing in a camera. So I returned it, thank goodness for Costco 90 day return policy.

The one good picture taken with the returned camera above, I had to get pretty close to take this.

So now I've been borrowing my brother inlaws camera, which is the next step up in the camera line. He has the Olympus SLR camera (last year model the SP-500UZ). I'm having hubby put it to the test tonight in poor lighting but next week I will put it to the test with running 4 yr olds. I did manage to get some excellent shots outdoors and the zoom was amazing. I'm starting to think this might be the camera for me!

Day 70: Clutter

2007-11-15T21:16:00.000-08:00

So today I was watching Oprah and on the show was this lady whose house was extremely over taken with clutter. She was a big time pack rat. I can not imagine how anyone could stand to live that way, I mean it was really bad. She had a 2 story 3000 sq ft home and there was barely enough of a pathway to walk throughout the entire house.

It made me really think how I too have areas of my home I think are cluttered and would like to actually work on clearing that space. I need to set the example for my children, whom one is already following my bad habits of clutter. My goals over the next month or two is to have all the spaces I mention on my youtube video de-cluttered. So far I have mastered one area my dresser top!

Thinking Positively is sucessful

2007-11-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

I keep telling people thoughts become things...so if you keep thinking negative you are gonna continue to see negative. I know it is hard to change but the payoff is so worth it. I tell you I put the law of attraction into action daily and I always get back what I am putting out via my thoughts both good and bad.

Just a few examples my son has a ton of doc appointments and this is where I really test the law of attraction. So I typically go in thinking alright we are gonna make it there ontime and be in and out of there in record time and low and behold it has really happened. And there have been times where I have had something to do right after the appoinment and I started to think oh I'm not gonna be done in time because this is the doctor who takes forever and is always backed up on appointments...and wala...my negative thought has come back to me to be true.

So if you really want to make changes in your life you have to really starting thinking that way. The more negative messages you think/put out the more you are gonna recieve and the same goes for positive. I really recommend you watching the dvd The Secret, it will really put this into a better propective for you.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Extremely Busy Update

2007-10-25T21:36:00.001-07:00

Well I wanted to give an update on my 100 day challenge. Friday is day 50 so I am half way through my first 100 day challenge. So many things have been happening. I got a grant to do a reading project with kids under age 5. I've had a few opportunities to showcase my children's book business, I've got some new book orders and signed a contract to do a Book Fundraising program with a school. All things I have focused putting my +++ energy in to have been coming true. My son has had some medical issues and my +++ thinking has gotten him excellent medical care and has helped him heal quickly. So things are going quite nicely for me as long as I continue to think positive thoughts and encourage all around me to do the same as well!

I wanted to share a cute and funny little video I made the other day. It is rather funny to see the 4 of us square dancing....

Secret to getting kids to eat their veggies

2007-10-14T20:54:00.000-07:00

Well you gotta love Oprah. This week she featured Jessica Seinfeld's new cookbook Deceptively Delicious . This is an awesome cookbook in which has kid friendly recipes with a secret hidden ingredent...pureed veggies. So far I have tried making chicken nuggets, doughnuts and chocolate chip cupcakes. Success each time...veggies in them all and no one can even tell when they eat them! I've also learned ground flaxseed is my new best friend. It is a great source of fiber and omegas and I've been adding it in all my baking now. I am so excited that my 4 yr old is finally getting veggies in his diet. He also suprised me tonight....we ate out at a new healthfood place and he wanted brocelli on his plate and he ate them all and with ketsup. Hey if Ketsup is the key for him to eat a veggie I will buy a ton of it! I am so excited all the new doors opening for us!!! Go out and get your book today, they are flying off the shelves.

Baking

2007-10-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

The last few days I've been in a Homemaker Baking mode. Let's see in the past few days I've made brownies, carrot cake,pumpkin pie, rolls, apple cinnamon pancakes, and my new creation apple pie. Why am I baking you ask? Well I don't know I just want to try out some new recipes before the holidays to make sure they taste good enough to serve. For those of you who don't know I am on a pretty strict diet. All of my recipes have no gluten (aka wheat, rye, oats and barley), no casein (aka no dairy products), no soy and no corn. It is still amazing how taking out all those ingredients you can still end up with some really tastey treats.

I think my next big cooking adventure is probably gonna be stuffing. So family and friends don't be scared to try my yummy treats, I promise they are really good!

Day 27/100

2007-10-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

Feeling really good about myself. I keep loosing weight a pound here and there, in no time I will be to my ideal weight; I can almost fit into a smaller size jeans can't quite button it but it fits everywhere else wise.

I've been doing good spending less time online I'm only on 1-2 times a day for about an hour each time and all that time is spent doing important stuff like paying bills, volunteer info I do, etc...

I am also feeling really good about my physical health. I've got my food allergies under control and doing well.

I'm getting my home business up and running again and have recently been offered two opportunities to get sales. I am looking forward at those dates October 13th and November 11th.

Day 17/100

2007-09-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well so my goal was to spend less time online. Hummm did I reach it, well somewhat. I have done good about getting on checking and responding to messages but then I had some free time and what did I find myself doing going online! I think I did do pretty good in the afternoons and evenings limiting myself to 1 hour per afternoon/eveing.

This last week has gone pretty good. I've got a lot of events I am driving to/from for my son and I am doing great. I am feeling healthier too since I have been avoiding eggs and corn products. I'm not trying but I am still slowly shedding pounds, which actually is needed since my ideal (and a healthier) weight is another 15-20 pounds from my current weight.

We went to a picnic this weekend and it was a lot of fun. It did began to sprinkle but we didn't let it spoil our fun. There was a man there named Music Matt and his band was just amazing. He sings songs for children, we really enjoyed his music. I really liked seeing his guitar, it has a picture/cartoon of him. I saw him after his performance and he was so cool to let me snap a quick photo of him and his guitar.

My daughter has the opportunity to take a special trip with her grade next year. The trip is quite pricey but I am confident we will have the money to pay for it! She is saving cans and recycling, saving 1/2 her allowence, and doing some other fundraising. My mother in law was so awesome to place the non refundable deposit down for her. It was cheap either, so in 6 months we will have saved enough to put her on this trip! Family and friends if you would like to contribute by sending checks $$$ or ordering stuff from a fundraiser we are doing please let me know, every penny counts!

Day 10/100 day challenge

2007-09-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

The last week has just flown by. I have been physically feeling pretty good. I've decided to cut back making youtube videos until I can get a video or web cam. I've decided my wardrobe could use a make over or some sprucing up. I thinking getting out of the habit of wearing t-shirts everyday will make me feel better about myself on the outside and make me feel as good on the inside. Lots of things are changing in my appearence. Over the past several months I've lost quite a bit of weight (19 pounds as of this weekend), I got a hair cut, and have a clearer skin complection. I would really like to improve my self esteem by highlighting those accomplishments.

I have made a few goals/commitments to myself that I am trying my best to keep. 1st I am working really hard at spending less time online. I didn't realise that I spent so much time online until my husband and children started to point it out as well as other people who I didn't really know made comments like "Wow you are always online or You respond fast to my email". My goals for this week are to check emails or do what I need to do online quickly and then be done for the day. I hope by doing this I will set a better example to my daughter whom has recently been given a time limit on her computer useage at home. Have a great week everyone!

Day 3 & 5...Nursing Homes & Drum Circle

2007-09-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here are my reflections videos from Day 3 and Day 5 of my 100 day challenge.

Day 3:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Day 5:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Day 1 of 100 day challenge A Special Poem

2007-09-07T19:18:00.001-07:00

I am doing a 100 day reality challenge which is based on the movie the secret and I am encouraging you to do it as well. I got the idea from www.CoCreatingOurReality.com
Basically over the next 100 days I will be putting the Universal Laws & Principles into practice into my life and then blogging, video taping, or just journaling it all. I've already being doing some if it before this challenge and have seen positive results. You don't have to video tape, blog online or even share if you don't want to; you can personalise it to fit you.

Here is the youtube 100 day challenge for dummies. I found it very helpful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWkeQI57kOI

I wanted to share this special poem with you. It was read to me via a youtuber and I just loved it and how it made me feel,

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Here is the youtuber who read the poem so beautifully

My thoughts on eatting out with food allergies

2007-09-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Eatting out when you have food allergies can be very stressful thing. In my video clip I share my reasons as to why I don't eat out much anymore.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

i-CAUGHT

2007-08-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I watched this new show on abc called i-CAUGHT It's a pretty interesting show all about people getting caught doing stuff on video or about outragious stuff people put on video and then place out there on the web, and some really cool people too like the Etch a sketch guy.

One segment of the show that really caught my attention was the host Bill asks you to send in your three words - about your week, your life, anything - and watch what gets put together next week on i-CAUGHT.

Here is my message for the week!

Vote for Rachel!!!

2007-08-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

Ok a really awesome person Rachel Coleman de Azevedo has been nominated for the Stand on A Better World Award! If she gets the most internet votes, they will donate $10,000 to The Signing Time Foundation.

You can only vote once, so please post this on your blogs, bulletins and send to your friends in your email address books. The Signing Time Foundation's mission is to enrich the lives of children of all abilities. The Foundation is the main sponsor of the Signing Time television show.
Vote for Rachel

Oh and FYI your vote doesn't count until you confirm it via the email you voted with!

My photo mission & hair cut

2007-08-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

Ok so I mentioned in my last entry I am on the mission for interesting signs, art work or grafetti in my area. Here is one I see often. I'm not sure if it a church or a gym but it is right across from a rail yard.

Ok my haircut. I wanted my hair a bit shorter than my norm but this was a tad shorter than I was anticipating. Hopefully it will grow longer faster. Here are before and after pics:

Weird or Unusual Signs

2007-08-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

Ok I'm on a mission to find the weirdest signs in my area of town. I've seen some weird and some interesting signs and murals around my area; however I don't always have my camera with me. The picture I have posted above is actually a sign someone has placed on their own house. I really like the message they are trying to get across.

the text may appear small so I will transcribe the message:
United We Stand Againist terriorism
God and Jesus Laws are working
Teaching Christ Promises
Jesus is still healing and winning souls

Did you hear the buzz?

2007-08-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite companies is getting reading to release series 2, pre-orders are available now for inquiring minds. So what company is it, well it is Signing Time! For those of you who may say Signing Time what's that? Well it is a company that has created a tool for children,parents and caregivers to use.....learning American Sign Language in a fun and entertaining way. So you gotta go to Signing Time's music player to hear the new song that will be on one of their new dvds. And you must check out a sneak preview of "Groove with me" on youtube

You can also check out Rachel's Blog. Learning and using ASL has been a life saver for my family. The story behind the company is amazing. I admire and am inspired by Rachel de Azevedo Coleman; she is an amazing person!

Learned a few more ways

2007-07-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

I learned a few more ways to wear my vintage wrap.....

With a new strapless bra I think I am almost set to wear a look out in public!

I wore it out today but as the most simple style.....a skirt

Birdie Babies

2007-07-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

So for years now we have allowed birds to make nests in a small hole that is under the eve of our house. The hole actually is part of our attic and we've recently covered the hole up after the bird family moved but those darn birds are insistant on living there. I guess we need a stronger net/wire to cover the hole after this group of nestlings grow up and move out. We caught some pictures of Daddy bird feeding his babies, and boy are they hungry. The one to the left is a piggy and Daddy and Mommy are playing favorites the one on the left seems to get fed first.

SAD UPDATE (7/23/07):

This afternoon one of the babies commited suiside. I found him on the ground about a 10 foot drop from the nest. I'm not sure which one it was but I have a feeling it was the very hungry one. So sad.... :(

100 ways to wear 1 item

2007-07-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

So a friend recently told me about this awesome product. It is a vintage silk wrap that can apparently be worn 100 different ways. Well I bought some off evil bay and got my first one today. Well it was an interesting experience. This was the 1st time in my life I had to read directions to know how to put on an article of clothing. The pictures made it look like it was gonna be easy, uh yeah right, not that easy. Here are a couple of ways to wear it that I feel confident enough to go out in public in, I'm pretty sure I did it right. Yes all 3 pictures is from the same wrap.

Well a friend of mine has just decided these are cool and she's gonna sell them. She'll be selling the Kariza brand. The one I have is very simular to Kariza but called Enwrapture. Oh my the way this was a medium length one I tired one.

So tell me what you think? Oh I won another evil bay lot and I've got 5 more coming!

My Kids

2007-07-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

My kids, well first off they are 8 years apart ages 12 and 4; not my plan to have such a huge gap but it was out of my control, things don't always happen when you expect them to. So I scheduled them for sibling photos and the lady told me bring in props of stuff they like to do together. That really got me thinking, well what do they like to do with eachother besides argue? With their age gap they don't have much in common. But they both love music, electronic toys, talk on the cell phone. I am now observing them more closely and there really is a bunch of stuff they like to do together.

We got some really cute photos of them together, it was a tuff decision to pick one pose (my husband would have had a fit if I spent too much). In the end here is the final pose I got for family.

The portable potty

2007-06-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

Man this is a great invention....it's a portable potty that folds up small enough to fit in a backpack. We haven't used it yet but I forsee it coming in very handy with my youngster when a potty is not near by. Hey maybe on a road trip I can even use it in an emergency.

What you do is use place a bag inside and then dispose of it when you are done. It has it's own special bags with liners inside to absorb the liquid. But it smells to fragrent to me. I've had friends have one for their kids and they just use regular garbage bags in it.

Siblings

2007-06-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

I am so blessed to have 3 siblings, 2 sisters and 1 brother. Unfortunately they are all so much younger than me I often feel worlds apart from them. But I do really love them. Today was my baby sister's HS graduation. Now I have one more sibling in HS and he graduates next year. Below is a pic of us after the graduation

left to right: Steven,Jessi,Gina and Me

I feel like this is the year I want to build a better relationship with my siblings, and I think I want to start with my sister Gina.

With me only being there on weekends and then less frequently as I became a mom and wife; I feel like we never got that sibling bond. But time will tell and I still have a ton of years to make up for lost time!

Remodel

2007-06-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

So since we can't afford to buy a bigger home we decided to add onto our existing home. This was something I had invisioned for this house for years now. We had a covered patio right outside our kitchen which really was not getting used at all except by the dogs when they are outside. So I finally got my husband to go along with it and start this project. It is almost complete, now my house is 1400 sq feet instead of 1175. Here are some pics of the progress which happened very fast thanks to the Handy family I married into.

A kinda before shot, but we had already tore down the cover and broke apart the concrete patio.

pouring the foundation

framing

Walls are up

I'll be sure to add more pictures as we finalize the project.

Doing well on the diet

2007-05-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

My body is responding quite well to a gluten and dairy free diet. My face is clear (acne completely gone), I generally feel healthier and happier. However, I still have days where I wish I could just eat some milk chocolate or a big mac bun, but I have resisted temptations because I know it will make me sick.

Eatting out has been the hardest because I tend to be stuck eatting the same old plain chicken, salad and dressing brought from home. I did test out to see if I was truely having a reaction to dairy and boy did I pay for that, I won't do that again. I seem to be having simular reactions to some soy, or I think it is from soy; so I'm keeping tabs on that as well.

Now if I could just get my daughter to buy in and eat gluten free all the time. She already is sometimes jelious of some of the food my son and I eat, usually it's the special treats. For dinner we all eat the same gluten free meal so there are no complaints there. Eatting gluten free is really not that bad nor is it that hard either.

Ugh, it's true; me + dairy = unhappy

2007-05-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

Need I say more, well I guess I should back up a bit. So I started a gluten free diet 4/10/07 (because of my son having celiac), things were going good then I started to not feel so great again. So the next thing to remove was all dairy, which I started on 5/2/07....I was doing pretty good. Today I decided I was up for a challenge of cheese enchaladas....well one or two bites sent me in tons of pain and other discomfort for the next several hours. So I guess I can now say dairy just doesn't like me.

Can I tell you how much I am missing milk chocolate; this dark stuff just isn't appealing to me. Maybe in another few weeks I put milk chocolate to the test. Let me sing my Chocolate song that is by Laurie Berkner....

I like choc o lot, I like choc o lot,
I like choc o lot in my pock o lot