Check-In April 2008

[aklap]

April Fools Day...gosh..I don't even have any AFD prank to pull on ya. Sad, very sad

Peg wanted me to pass on many thanks for all the B-day wishes.

No much going on around here...how 'bout the rest of y'all?

~

Hey - we made it a year with Check-In's. If you wanna see what you were doing last year, check this out.

For those of you just tuning in, Check-In is a chance to introduce yourself, let everyone know how you're doing, what you're up to, to touch base...something, anything, just let us know you're still around

The Check-In Time Tunnel
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[ostrich]

[HadassahSukkot]

Right now doing ok. Going in for the last leg of my school course here, and also of the pregnancy..

Mainly trying to stay afloat and slowly prepare for Passover... and my mom visiting starting May 14th!
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[forinajoy]

Hi all.....I am knee deep in wedding planning for my oldest DD....April 26th is the big day.....everything is really coming together pretty good....we are making GFCF provisions for Ina...and Ina will have a "friend" for the day who will help me keep an eye on her (Ina is a moderately functioning autistic and I never know what she will do or SAY especially when she is stressed) and the "friend" is a 16 y/o with CD who really enjoys Ina, which is so nice....in addition to the regular wedding cake we are having a GFCF cupcake tower....also, my caterer is making a variety of GFCF foods...and the way the reception hall is set up there are 3 bar areas coming out of the kitchen and each area is separated by about a 3 foot wall...well, one of those areas is going to be GFCF area...this will contain the fruit tray, sushi, spring roll wrappers, vegetable tray......and I think we will put the cupcake tower on this area also.....Ina will be so pleased..she is excited about the wedding, but worried about all the changes, like big sis moving....also the chaos of the day will be hard on her.
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Connie, mom to Ina, 14 y/o with CD

[Fifi]

Well, its been 3 months of GF for me and I am amazed everyday how much better I am feeling. The best thing I have learned so far is that GF is not the end of the world. I was so worried I would miss my favorite foods. Pizza, sandwiches, pasta. Guess what I can still enjoy those but in a GF version. So my life is getting better. I guess the snow finally melting and the weather getting warmer is just making me more positive. Everyday gets better and better. I am learning everyday. Today is the first day I have had quinoa??? it was pretty good. I had never even heasrd of it before. Whole foods is where I got it and they were so helpful, showing me where everything was. I am so glad we have help!

[aklap]

Hi Fifi,

It good to hear things are going so well for you!! It's amazing what a "simple" diet change will do for you, isn't it?

There are very few things that you can' find GF replacements for. Once you realize that, mentally, it gets much easier.

Keep up the good work!!

Hopefully next April's Check In, you'll say you've never felt better in your life
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[Torrey]

Had my tonsils out last Friday (March 28th)...still at home, as the back of my throat is still kinda swollen...it's amazing how we bounce back from this stuff when we're kids, but geez, now that I'm in my 30s, it seems like it's taking forever to heal!
I've been living on Slurpees and anything COLD. Seriously, I think that helps more than the Percoset!
Emmett (my little sweet tooth kitty) has discovered that he, too, likes chocolate pudding...yes, he and I ended up "sharing" one of those snack packs the other day...
I hope to return to work on Friday, but I have a doc appointment on Friday morning, so I'm going to follow his lead and see what he says...my voice is extremely "froggy" and I'm just going to play it by ear...
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~Torrey

August 24, 1975
GF BD July 12, 2004

[ali]

I've been busy experimenting with bread - finally had a really good success, and now am trying to perfect it. It was for cottage cheese dill loaf. I reprogrammed (and thoroughly cleaned) my bread machine and revamped an old favorite recipe from pre-GF days. Baking GF is more science than art, so I'm glad I'm far more of a logical, analytical left-brainer than I ever could be an artistic right-brainer.

Other than that, I've been playing in my garden, homeschooling the kiddos (10 weeks left of the school year - YAY!), and staying out of trouble. =)

My 6 year old lost his first tooth, my girls will be 11 y.o. and 9 y.o. this month, so I have a couple more cakes to bake.

And that's about all that's happening in my neck of the woods.

ali
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"The electrocution was not my fault. You refused to wear the rubber underpants!"

[sa2asl]

Hi everyone!

This is my second check-in, GF since the middle of Feb. What a difference is has made for my stomach issues. Since being diagnosed, my younger sister has been diagnosed as well. My older brother, who is in the Air Force, also wanted to get tested. He hasn't had any symptoms himself, but his three little kiddos have. The dr. on base refused to do the test at first claiming he has no symptoms so it would be a waste of time plus "that is a childhood disease, there is no way you would have it now." WOW! So sad how few dr's are really educated. And this is someone taking care of our men and women serving our country. sigh.

I'm bound and determined to make Milwaukee and more celiac-friendly place. I have been hounding Lakefront Brewery to get my GF New Grist in more places. I'm getting better at restaurants but still get overwhelmed reading menus and thinking, "can't have that, can't do that." My boyfriend says I just need to give it 10 more minutes of patience and I'll be set. He's such a trooper and SO supportive. I'm blessed.

My sister told me about a Celiac Walk in the twin cities area in May and I think we might all walk as a family, should be a good time. Wish WI would be a little more innovative, but with my ambition, that will change!

Hope you are all well!

[celiacmaine-iac]

[isto]

Everything is pretty quiet here. No gluten issues or contamination. My last OB visit was kind of rough - the Dr. said my job was putting my health at risk and the baby in extreme jeopardy and he advised that I not just quit, but that I didn't return at all while my boss found a replacement. I couldn't do that, as my patient needed someone who was fully trained to care for her. So I trained a new girl and my last work day was Thursday the 3rd. What a relief! My husband and children keep telling me how glad they are that I'm not working anymore. I can't say I miss it. Now hopefully some of the pregnancy problems I developed will ease or even dissappear.

It is slowly unthawing here and we are planning our garden. Can't wait for those fresh tomatoes!!

[cruelshoes]

We took our guinea pig on a blind date to the animal shelter to meet a female guinea pig. Things seem to have gone well, so we brought her home to be a companion to him. The last thing I need in the house is another organism to make poop for me to clean up. But this is my Husband’s brainchild, so we’ll see how things go. Here's a pic of the two pigs. Joey (our old pig) is on the R. Sally (our new pig) is on the L. And there won't be any baby pigs because she is fixed. I made them show me the scar just to make sure.


We are getting things going in the garden. We spent the weekend planting peas, carrots (3 varieties, including rainbow), sunflowers, spinach, lettuce (2 varieties) marigolds (3 varieties) and chives. When it warms up a bit, we will plant beans, basil and pumpkins. I started my tomatoes from seed this weekend, which is a little bit late, but we’ll see how things go. This is my first time using seeds that I have saved from heirloom tomatoes, so I am excited to see them grow.

My husband has really been bitten by the chicken bug. So much so that he started his own website. He’s added a forum on it with a small but growing community of chicken addicts. Know anyone who keeps chickens (or wants to)? They can check it out at http://www.chickencrossing.org/. It’s been quite an experience getting a forum started up. Members of another chicken forum caught wind that some of their members were coming over to our board. That unleashed an onslaught of people signing up with multiple user names and spamming the board. We have also been delighted to receive death threats and had several viruses sent to us. People on the internet are insane.

In the kitchen I am experimenting a lot with converting favorites to GF. I have been spending a lot of time with the better homes and gardens cookbook (the one we all have with the red and white cover). I must be getting pretty good because I haven’t had a flop yet. I am not even using my GF cookbooks anymore for anything but breads and cakes. Pretty cool, huh?
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-Colleen

Where are we going, and what am I doing in this handcart?

[ostrich]

You can fix guinea pigs?

You really do learn something new every day...
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Ostrich :>--O==={

Time falls away, but these small hours
These little wonders still remain

[Linda]

So far April has been crazy. My boss is either going to say nothing when she sees my timesheet, or she'll go ballistic. The Juno awards were Sunday in Calgary, and I was working on our local red carpet show Thursday - Sunday. Thursday, I went in at 2, worked on news until 6 and then started working on the Juno show. We moved our local news to 4pm Sunday, then the local red carpet show (which I was working on) then the national ETalk red carpet show, then the telecast of the Junos from 6-8 local time. They reran the telecast from 8-10 local as well, for Edmonton and BC. Friday was a bit of a short day, 6-midnight, but Saturday was killer. I'm not sure why I wasn't dedicated to Junos, but I was scheduled to direct the six o'clock news, so I worked on Junos from 11am to 3pm, news from 3 to 7pm and then Junos from then until about 12:30am. Then I was up early to get to the Saddledome to do technical rehearsals, rehearsal and then switch the show from the truck. Of course the big bosses are a tad bit shortsighted and had no rain plan to speak of so when it started to snow there was a fair amount of cursing. Luckily, the snow lasted only a half hour or so, and it was a light snow, so by the time 4:30 rolled around it was a bit cool (8 or 10) and overcast. Overcast sky makes for great lighting though so it all worked out. Our show was done by five pm and I was able to go inside and watch the Junos. It was really nice, because they had given out almost all the awards the night before the telecast, so it was more of a concert show. Very enjoyable. I still think it's remarkable that most of the staff working on the show got tickets. I thought they'd reserve them for mucky mucks, so it was a nice treat. There were performances by Avril Lavigne, Jully Black, Hedley, Finger Eleven, Michael Buble, Anne Murray (with Jann Arden & Sarah Brightman), Measha Brueggergosman, and they opened the show with 5 country singers (Aaron Lines, Gord Bamford, Paul Brandt, Shane Yellowbird & Johnny Reid - the only guy of the five NOT from Alberta) singing Alberta Bound.

Had a long nap yesterday, and I think I've caught up on my missed sleep.

My next big adventure will be adjusting to the morning shift. In a desperate attempt to get off nights and weekends, I applied for an early morning job that came up and got it. So now I have to adjust from working 8-mid Th/Fri and 4-mid Sat/Sun to working 5:30am to 9:30am Mon-Fri. It will not be fun getting up at 4:15am BUT it'll be awesome having evenings and weekends off and next winter when I have to get up at 6 for hockey on the weekends, it'll feel like I've had a chance to sleep in. (Cup's half full, cup's half full.)

And, for the second year in a row I'm stuck assistant coaching soccer because all the other lazy a-- parents won't do it. Trying to wrangle 15 8 & 9 year old boys is like trying to - (insert clever metaphor here).

That's it for now.
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Mom of Ty (he's nine) who was diagnosed by bloodwork June 2005, biopsy August 11, 2005, notified on & started GF August 18, 2005

[luvscowznh]

I had my second ultrasound yesterday and found out that my husband and I will be welcoming a son in August. We're very excited. (We'd have been just as excited if it was a girl...)

Other than that, things are going well. I have actually been somewhat busy at work - which is a nice change.

Colleen: Love the piggies!! I had some for a while, but I was traveling a lot for work and had to get rid of them. I still have a special place in my heart for all piggies though.

--Manda
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