Kara had some sort of bug yesterday morning and threw up a few times. She went down for a morning nap and was fine afterward, so we went to David & Stephanie's wedding. Well, I think Mark got whatever Kara had, as he has been sick since about 4pm. Hopefully its super short like Kara's was.
Get better daddy!
Edit: So about 3 hours after I posted the above, Chloe and I both got sick. So all three of us got very little sleep. We're still really sore, but at least we can all eat again.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Congratulations David & Stephanie
2 weeks later, and another wedding is over. Thankfully this time none of us were in the wedding party. We could just go and enjoy the wedding and reception. Both were very nice. Though the wick on the unity candle was in an awkward spot, and it took them too many tries to light it.... but they persevered, and we got a good laugh out of it :)
We wish Dave & Steph a very happy life together. They are both great people and I know they will be greater after taking this wonderful step.
Also, I made cookies this morning so I would be able to have dessert. They were tasty. :D
We wish Dave & Steph a very happy life together. They are both great people and I know they will be greater after taking this wonderful step.
Also, I made cookies this morning so I would be able to have dessert. They were tasty. :D
Friday, May 21, 2010
5 AMAZING YEARS
Today is our fifth anniversary! WOW! It has been eventful and wonderful and sometimes hard, but it has all been worth it. We have two beautiful daughters that we love and we are just as silly as ever, if not more. Love and marriage sure are fantastic :)
This is us 5 years ago:
This is us 5 years ago:
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Ricky & Audrey's Wedding (and our little flower girl)
Our friends Ricky & Audrey got married yesterday! Yay for them! Chloe was their flower girl. So cute!
See:
It was a long day and Chloe was very well behaved. Mark was also a groomsman - very handsome! It was tough on me to take care of both the girls, though thankfully I had our friend Juana helping me out before the ceremony.
Here's all of us dressed up in our finery:
Everything else around here is going well, though both Mark and I are feeling very tired. In fact, I'm going to go put Kara to bed now, and then go relax on the couch with a book. Good night!
See:
It was a long day and Chloe was very well behaved. Mark was also a groomsman - very handsome! It was tough on me to take care of both the girls, though thankfully I had our friend Juana helping me out before the ceremony.
Here's all of us dressed up in our finery:
Everything else around here is going well, though both Mark and I are feeling very tired. In fact, I'm going to go put Kara to bed now, and then go relax on the couch with a book. Good night!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Happy Mother's Day
Moms are wonderful. In fact, my mom took Chloe to Victoria this weekend - it doesn't get much more wonderful than that.
So thanks to all the Moms out there who love and cherish their kids, who work hard so kids can play, and who generally just rock. Your kids love you.
So thanks to all the Moms out there who love and cherish their kids, who work hard so kids can play, and who generally just rock. Your kids love you.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Tired
So I wrote this part on Monday:
We're all alive, and all tired. Mark had a stag on Friday/Saturday, and while he was at it, the girls and I stayed at my mom's. I also went to a stagette on the Saturday afternoon. Then Sunday was a going-away party for my sister who is at this moment on a plane on her way to Thailand(!!). We often seem to pack too much into a weekend and end up more tired on Monday than we were on Friday (like now).
And now its Tuesday. We're feeling a bit better today. Still tired, but I managed to sleep until 8:20, which is very amazing! Mark is only working 8 hour days right now, which is helping with us feeling better sooner.
However, we've still got a very busy May. This weekend is Mother's Day, and another stag/stagette combo. Then we've got 2 weddings and our anniversary (5 years!!!) later in the month. Thankfully there are no birthdays to worry about.
I'll go to bed now. I need sleep.
We're all alive, and all tired. Mark had a stag on Friday/Saturday, and while he was at it, the girls and I stayed at my mom's. I also went to a stagette on the Saturday afternoon. Then Sunday was a going-away party for my sister who is at this moment on a plane on her way to Thailand(!!). We often seem to pack too much into a weekend and end up more tired on Monday than we were on Friday (like now).
And now its Tuesday. We're feeling a bit better today. Still tired, but I managed to sleep until 8:20, which is very amazing! Mark is only working 8 hour days right now, which is helping with us feeling better sooner.
However, we've still got a very busy May. This weekend is Mother's Day, and another stag/stagette combo. Then we've got 2 weddings and our anniversary (5 years!!!) later in the month. Thankfully there are no birthdays to worry about.
I'll go to bed now. I need sleep.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Gluten Free Gamer
Blair was over a few weeks ago and suggested we grab "glutenfreegamer@gmail.com". Sadly, it was taken. However, over the weekend I realized a need to have a place online to store recipes I like and want to use again, especially since half of them come from other people on the internet anyway. So, let me introduce my other blog to you:
http://glutenfreegamer.blogspot.com/
Hey, we'll even throw in game related posts every once in a while! :)
http://glutenfreegamer.blogspot.com/
Hey, we'll even throw in game related posts every once in a while! :)
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Celiac testing, etc
Kara's skin rashes have prompted me to do a lot of reading in addition to the diet modification. Here's a summary of the important points to help those reading understand (hopefully).
1) Celiac disease testing occurs in two stages. The first stage is a blood test. The second is an upper-intestine endoscopy done, which takes a small piece of her intestine and sees if the villi are damaged.
2) If Kara's rash is indeed from celiac, it is called dermatitis herpetiformis. Testing for DH is done through a dermatologist, and if it is proved by this test, no further testing for celiac needs to be done, since DH cannot occur without celiac being present in the first place.
3) These test require a diet of constant wheat exposure for 2-4 weeks before they can be completed in order to be valid, and have the best chance of a proper result. They also don't work properly for children under 3 because their digestive systems aren't fully developed. So we keep Kara off wheat for another 2 years and then work on getting referrals, blood tests, etc.
4) It is recommended that all members of a celiac's direct family are tested as well, such as parents, siblings and children. Some doctors recommend that secondary family (cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, etc.) get tested as well. It seems that studies show having a celiac relative makes your chances of also have celiac 1 in 22. (Normal occurrence rates are approx. 1 in 132.) This means that Mark, Chloe and I should probably be tested, especially since I think my sister Alie may also have celiac.
Please remember that Kara is not confirmed celiac. However, until we get her tested, we are treating her as if she has it so that people at public places such as restaurants have a chance of understanding what her condition is, and what kind of help we need from then. It also means we're eating out a lot less, which is good for the pocketbook.
1) Celiac disease testing occurs in two stages. The first stage is a blood test. The second is an upper-intestine endoscopy done, which takes a small piece of her intestine and sees if the villi are damaged.
2) If Kara's rash is indeed from celiac, it is called dermatitis herpetiformis. Testing for DH is done through a dermatologist, and if it is proved by this test, no further testing for celiac needs to be done, since DH cannot occur without celiac being present in the first place.
3) These test require a diet of constant wheat exposure for 2-4 weeks before they can be completed in order to be valid, and have the best chance of a proper result. They also don't work properly for children under 3 because their digestive systems aren't fully developed. So we keep Kara off wheat for another 2 years and then work on getting referrals, blood tests, etc.
4) It is recommended that all members of a celiac's direct family are tested as well, such as parents, siblings and children. Some doctors recommend that secondary family (cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, etc.) get tested as well. It seems that studies show having a celiac relative makes your chances of also have celiac 1 in 22. (Normal occurrence rates are approx. 1 in 132.) This means that Mark, Chloe and I should probably be tested, especially since I think my sister Alie may also have celiac.
Please remember that Kara is not confirmed celiac. However, until we get her tested, we are treating her as if she has it so that people at public places such as restaurants have a chance of understanding what her condition is, and what kind of help we need from then. It also means we're eating out a lot less, which is good for the pocketbook.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Baking up a storm
Kara's birthday was just over a month ago. With her birthday money I bought 3 gluten-free cookbooks. I am now attempting to put those cookbooks to good use. I've tried some random recipes and some "replace a normal food" recipes to varying degrees of success. I've also tried just substituting a gf flour mix in place of normal flour - it works well enough for cakes and muffins, but not much else. I'm baking muffins at least once a week so that I have breakfast food (since I'm off wheat/gluten right now too), and 2 kinds of cookies (one normal, one gf) at least once every two weeks. Mark, my mom and I have all remarked multiple times that it really is a good thing I like to bake.
Last night I tried making a gf pizza dough. It was edible, but the only thing that made it taste like pizza was the toppings. Today I made coffee cake, which was better than the pizza dough, but it didn't have a struesel topping on it because I haven't figured out how to make one without flour AND without butter :P
The hardest part of Kara's diet is the no dairy. For example, I had to make her part of the pizza with soy cheese that doesn't really melt, and I also had to make sure it wasn't contaminated by the cheese the rest of us were having. It just isn't the same. Also, Chloe and I had popcorn today, and I have to pull out some for Kara before I added butter, and then make sure she didn't eat any of the buttered popcorn.
The most important thing for me right now is to read the label for every product at the store. I have to avoid wheat and all other gluten flours (which means anything with malt is out because that's made from barley), I can't get anything that has the generic term "alcohol" (such as vanilla extract), and then there's all the dairy terms - butter, milk, cream, lactose and casien to name a few.
I've also been doing research into celiac disease testing, and I know that will make life horrible when we get around to it in a few years. But more on that later, I'm going to bed.
Last night I tried making a gf pizza dough. It was edible, but the only thing that made it taste like pizza was the toppings. Today I made coffee cake, which was better than the pizza dough, but it didn't have a struesel topping on it because I haven't figured out how to make one without flour AND without butter :P
The hardest part of Kara's diet is the no dairy. For example, I had to make her part of the pizza with soy cheese that doesn't really melt, and I also had to make sure it wasn't contaminated by the cheese the rest of us were having. It just isn't the same. Also, Chloe and I had popcorn today, and I have to pull out some for Kara before I added butter, and then make sure she didn't eat any of the buttered popcorn.
The most important thing for me right now is to read the label for every product at the store. I have to avoid wheat and all other gluten flours (which means anything with malt is out because that's made from barley), I can't get anything that has the generic term "alcohol" (such as vanilla extract), and then there's all the dairy terms - butter, milk, cream, lactose and casien to name a few.
I've also been doing research into celiac disease testing, and I know that will make life horrible when we get around to it in a few years. But more on that later, I'm going to bed.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Uh-oh!
Kara's first word is offically "uh-oh!" Any time she drops something, she says it. Its really cute :D
Poor Kara is sick with a cough. Its not frequent, but when she does cough its quite icky sounding. She's also got a bit of a runny nose.
We've had both Kara and I off wheat for 2 weeks now (and Kara off dairy too), and her skin is mostly better. She's had one breakout (it happened last week), but I'm not sure if it was from cross-contamination, or some other potential problem food. I've been keeping a food diary for both of us, and we'll take an in-depth look at it when we go to the naturopath on Friday.
The other crazy thing happening is that Kara is climbing up onto Mark's computer chair. This means that we cannot leave the computer room door open if no one is in there.
I don't want to leave Chloe out, of course. She's still doing preschool (she loves it), she's back at dance class (also enjoys it), and her and I are both learning to play the violin (its slow but fun). I think she's getting the short end of the stick with my no-wheat, as I don't make her favorite foods (noodles, chicken nuggets, hot dogs) as much any more since I can't eat them with her. But she's coping, and is really careful to make sure Kara doesn't eat anything with wheat or dairy.
Off I go now to make us lunch, then make a batch of Gluten-Free cookies for me and Kara, and a batch of normal gingerbread cookies for Mark and Chloe. This whole two-diets thing is really crazy! :\
Poor Kara is sick with a cough. Its not frequent, but when she does cough its quite icky sounding. She's also got a bit of a runny nose.
We've had both Kara and I off wheat for 2 weeks now (and Kara off dairy too), and her skin is mostly better. She's had one breakout (it happened last week), but I'm not sure if it was from cross-contamination, or some other potential problem food. I've been keeping a food diary for both of us, and we'll take an in-depth look at it when we go to the naturopath on Friday.
The other crazy thing happening is that Kara is climbing up onto Mark's computer chair. This means that we cannot leave the computer room door open if no one is in there.
I don't want to leave Chloe out, of course. She's still doing preschool (she loves it), she's back at dance class (also enjoys it), and her and I are both learning to play the violin (its slow but fun). I think she's getting the short end of the stick with my no-wheat, as I don't make her favorite foods (noodles, chicken nuggets, hot dogs) as much any more since I can't eat them with her. But she's coping, and is really careful to make sure Kara doesn't eat anything with wheat or dairy.
Off I go now to make us lunch, then make a batch of Gluten-Free cookies for me and Kara, and a batch of normal gingerbread cookies for Mark and Chloe. This whole two-diets thing is really crazy! :\
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