Fun weekend ahead!

I've been watching a cute, feel-good Korean show and there was a quote I liked today.  I have no idea if it's a true saying or if it is one in Korea or what, but the main girl character said something like: "It is said that if you share your worries, they are cut in half.  If you share your joys, they are doubled".  I like that.

I am getting ready for my parent's 40th anniversary bash we're having here on Saturday.  It's going to be so much fun!  I made a 3 tiered cake.  The smaller 2 are allergy free, while the bottom is a plain white cake. I filled it with fresh strawberries and just frosted it plainly.  I went to the grocery store and got some nice flowers on clearance to put on it.  I hope it turns out well.

I've been settling more in to the gluten/dairy/egg/soy free life more.  Soy is most definitely the hardest to avoid.  It's in a lot of thing's, even grilled meat!  Which is scary, because an over-consumption of the stuff can lead to breast cancer in women and infertility in men.  But it's cheap to grow and so sneaked in to a lot of our food.

I wish Brent was more supportive.  He acts like it's this huge pain in the bum and an inconvenience for him.  It's aggravating.  Like tonight, I was trying to feed Audrey and myself some dinner since he was going to eat with a friend.  I was hoping that he would get together Audrey's so that I could get mine and make it easier.  But since I am trying to keep Audrey off of gluten as well (several reasons for this), he kept complaining about he didn't know what to feed her because she can't have Ritz or bread.  Finally I had to stop what I was doing and make a pb&j on a corn tortilla. How freaking hard was that?!

Complaint over.

Anyway, I am really looking forward to seeing family and friends this weekend.  My 1st friend I ever had (seriously, we were babies) is coming along with her little boy who is a few weeks younger than Audrey.  I just have to do some cleaning tomorrow.  We aren't dirty people, so it's not hard.  Just doing the mopping and vacuuming and dusting.  Shouldn't take long.  I haven't seen my big brother in a few months, so I am excited!  He's the one who planned the whole thing.

Rough Afternoon

We finally got our pictures done for the HPPC directory today.  Talk about putting it off until the last moment!  Audrey ralphed right before and I am tired because I started my period today and there was a shadow in all the pictures making Brent look like he had a black eye.  So not our best pictures, but it's done.

Right after us was another young couple with a girl I pegged to be around Audrey's age probably a little older.  Then I asked and the mom said she was 22 months.  What??? And here she was having full conversations and this that and the other and here is my closer to 2 and a half year old babbling like some crazy old woman at a nursing home.  I wish I could eat a dang cookie.  It's kids like them that make me feel like I have got to be the worst mother in the world.  Like I've failed somewhere.

But then I had a friend post this on her facebook: http://blogs.babble.com/babys-first-year-blog/2011/09/19/10-disturbing-baby-fails/?pid=2209#slideshow
It is disturbing but part of me says, at least I'm not that bad!

In other news, it's less than 2 hours until the season premiere of Castle!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!!!!

Another Holistic Doctor Visit

I forgot to update about my appointment I had on Wednesday morning.

It went well.  It's all still very overwhelming.  I did find out it is a pretty serious allergy to it all.  It would take at least 3 days and probably more like a week for me to feel better after ingesting a little of what I am supposed to stay away from.  So this means I really, really shouldn't have my once a year corny dog at the state fair.  I am so bummed.  Maybe I won't even go.  Eh, we'll see.  I just get frustrated sometimes.

I also found out I have to watch out for all of this stuff in my cosmetics and skin products.  Do you know how hard it is to find conditioner without wheat or soy in it?  Much harder than I expected.  I was on the brink of tears yesterday trying to find something at Whole Foods.  I finally found that their own brand of shampoo and conditioner was free of allergens.  The lavender kind anyway.

Next came makeup.  I had a cranky toddler with me, so I grabbed some stuff I thought would work.  I took it all back today.  I finally found a brand that worked and didn't cost me an arm and a leg (cheaper than my drug store purchases!): Rejuva Minerals.  The only downfall is that it isn't sold in stores, so I am sort of guessing on the colors.  They recommend that you get this sampler where you pick 3 trial size foundations so I did my best at guessing.

As far as most thing's go, I am having the most issues with soy.  I wish I wasn't allergic to soy.  It's in absolutely flippin' everything.  I love Asian food.

I found some great things on Amazon.  I sort of went a little crazy finding thing's yesterday.  Poor Brent.  I am usually pretty good about not spending a penny, but at least it is in the grocery category.  It's just in bulk, so eh.

I am beginning to note a difference.  I feel a little more "with it".  I am already even losing weight.  So I can do this!

Treasure Keepers

Starting yesterday, we all felt better.  Yay!

I went to Treasure Keepers, which is a Bible study for young moms.  I was really blessed by the teaching and there are some really wonderful ladies in there.  I am hoping to get really involved with that.  Well, as much as I can get being a one car family.

Audrey is cutting another 2 year molar.  It is the devil.  She woke up early, had a very short nap and was extremely cranky before bed.  She snuggles a lot and is screaming bloody murder the next second.  I made gluten, egg, milk, and soy free brownies and gave her one.  They are so yummy!

I have another holistic doctor appointment tomorrow morning.  I need to sit down and write down all the questions I have.  Then I have my first choir board meeting as robe chairman and choir practice, so it's going to be a long day.

Sick

I've been sick since Tuesday.  My throat started to get achy then.  I ignored it, thinking it was allergies.  Audrey had started being sick Sunday night and Brent stayed home from work on Thursday.  Today and yesterday, it's just my sinuses.

The more I think about it, the more I think I know where Audrey picked this up from and then felt compelled to share with her parents: a lollypop from 1/2 Price Books.  We had a family outing and we were all enjoying looking at the wonderful books they had to offer.  Since it was Audrey and 4 adults, I admit my eyes weren't always on her, but looking for a particular book.  Mistake.  I happen to turn around and she had a 1/2 eaten lolly in her hand.  Sick sick sick!  I didn't know if she stuck it in her mouth, but I took it from her and wiped her down with a butt wipe, but she does suck her thumb so if the germy lolly slime got on her thumb...*shudder*....

My sister said it reminded her of the line in Elf "the gum on the sidewalk is NOT free candy" or something like that.

Anyway, there are a couple of other places it could've come from, but I am pretty convinced someone's pumpkin child who left their nasty lollypop at 1/2 Price is the culprit.  Gross.  Parents, if your child brings food in to a place, make sure they ate it all or threw it away.  I had to do this the other day.  Finally hunted down that cookie.

Gluten Free Mixes

I've tried 3 GF mixes so far.  One from Arrowhead Mills and 2 from Bob's Red Mill.  I found these at Big Lots, so really the best prices on these things.  The Arrowhead Mills mix was chocolate chip cookies.  They were tasty.  The texture was different.  Fluffy, sort of marshmallow-like.  I like them, so does Brent.  Audrey is not too sure.  The downside was that it does contain soy.  Found that out after I ate like 3.  Bob's Red Mill brownie mix was pretty tasty, especially with pecans!  Warm that baby up and you can't even tell.  Same with the Bob's Red Mill GF pizza mix.  Can't tell at all!  I made a pizza tonight with goat cheese, spinach and basil.  It was seriously one of the best pizza's ever and completely gluten, egg, soy and cow milk free!

Soul Battle Series

Brent's book is now available online for download on Kindle and the Kindle app.  Tell you friends and tell them to tell their friends!  This is so exciting!!

http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Battle-Book-Temptation-ebook/dp/B005LEUF5A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315426997&sr=8-1

Milk Tasting

I had my milk tasting tonight and I thought I would review each one of them.

Almond milk:  $2.29

Good all around milk.  Definite almond taste.  Smooth and light.  If I just got one milk, this would be              the one.  It's really good in chocolate.

60 calories

2.5 g fat

0 cholesterol

150 mg sodium

7 g sugars

1 g protein

Coconut milk: $2.49

Good flavor, but a little too watery for my taste.  May be good in baking because of the sweet, coconut flavor.  

80 calories

5 g fat

0 cholesterol

15 mg sodium

6 g sugars

1 g protein

Goat milk: $3.29

I want to like it.  I really do.  It was Brent's favorite out of all of them.  Tangy and buttery, I am thinking it's more of an acquired taste.

100 calories

2.5 g fat

10 mg cholesterol

115 mg sodium

11 g sugars

8 g protein

Hazelnut milk: $2.59

This was my personal favorite.  It's the sweetest of the milks and the only one I could imagine drinking straight up.  

110 calories

3.5 g fat

0 cholesterol

120 mg sodium

14 g sugars

2 g protein

Hemp milk: $3.25

Brent said this one was the most like soy milk.  It was labeled to have Omega 3 and 6.  To me, it tasted like it.  Not a good thing.  

100 calories

6 g fat

0 cholesterol

110 mg sodium

6 g sugars

2 g protein

Health food store

I am still processing my change of diet.  We went to visit Brent's folks in Houston this past weekend and I ate all the wrong things.  I didn't want to start while out of town.  Plus, I didn't want to be a burden.  Next time, I can just bring my own food and it will be a-okay.

I went to a health food store today to see what sort thing's were out there.  I got all sorts of alternative milk to try: goat, hemp, coconut, hazelnut and almond.  I will record my findings and see which one I will end up going with.  I've tried rice milk before and it was too watery for my taste.

I behaved myself today, except for breakfast since I didn't have anything in the house as an alternative to milk.  So I went ahead and had one last cup of my instant coffee I love too.  Dinner will be simple grilled chicken, fresh steamed veggies and mediterranean quinoa.  And a glass of red wine for my cholesterol.

I can do this!!

I am meeting with the holistic doctor next Wednesday.  She's a nutritionist, so she can sit down with me and map out what my food options are.  It's easy to get overwhelmed.  I have requested several books at the library that look helpful.  It's a good thing I enjoy reading!

CURSES (Part Deux)!!!!!!!!

Well, I got the results of my poop test back this morning.  Not good news.  I am allergic to everything I was tested for: gluten, egg, milk, and soy.  Sooooo does not make my day.  At least I know why I've been feeling so bad. I get all of these daily.  And now I can work with my holistic doctor and get the right diet for me and maybe I will actually lose some weight and more importantly, feel better.  I'm just trying to process this still.

He's still got it!

Brent looked at me with a strange look at dinner tonight and told me about his day.  Evidently at one of the vet clinics he picks up from, some lady had told him "this is from her" and winked at him and gave him a folded up sheet of paper.  He confusingly went off and saw that it had some gals name and number on it.  Wow.  Just wow.  His direct quote was  that he was flabbergasted.  I love it that he uses words like that.  Anyway, he was worried I would be mad, but it sort of tickled me.  I said, well she has good taste.  I feel sorry for her if she didn't notice the ring, but if she did.... grrrrrr!  And he doesn't even know which "her" it's from.  There are 5 ladies working at this place, although he ruled out the ones that are old enough to be his mother.  But I said you never know!  I love teasing this man.

My day involved getting ready to go to Houston for the long weekend.  We're getting our pictures taken, so I've been twisting in the wind about what to do for that.  I feel so gosh-darned chunky, so I've been hating pretty much every picture of myself lately.  I am excited to see pictures of Audrey though.  I have a really cute idea for one of hers.  With ours I will probably decide on a close-up of our faces.  It's nice of my in-laws to do this for us though.  They felt bad that there were close to no pictures of us at the wedding.  Not that it was anybody's fault.  But I really do have awesome in-laws, don't I?  So excited to see them tomorrow!