Check In - August 2007

[aklap]

Well, I figured I'd get in one last "fireworks" display. For some reason, this flower reminds me of that I couldn't tell you kind of flower it is, maybe someone with a greener thumb than I might know.

August will be a busy month for us.

August 4th is Cookie Daze. For those newer members, this is an event that my town puts on. We are home to a cookie factory [sorry, they only make NGF ones], and they have a Bake and Taste Contest. People from the community can enter their cookies into a contest. We decided that GF Fudge Puddles will be the cookie this year. This year we are having our friend Maggie, design and create the decoration for our booth. Mag's a preschool teacher and a master at creating extravagant bulletin boards. We'll challenge her 3D skills. LOL!! I've been busy creating our recipe and CD/NCGS informational handout. Yes, we are the only ones that enter a GF cookie. So, I dust off my hazmat suit all in the name of Spreading the Word

In a couple of weeks, we're renting a lake cottage with 2 other couples for a long weekend. Looking forward to that!! The girls are having a meal planning session tonight. There are 2 of us that are GF. My other friend has CD [as does his mother, 2 sisters and 1 brother].

August 27th, I go back to school - well, at least one class - for now. I've got to ease into this. LOL!! I decided it best for my career that I expand my computer skills [I'm a computer consultant now], so I'm starting a Web Development program. This is the 1st real class that I have had to attend since 1982. Yeah, sure I've had to take certification & authorization classes for hardware repair, but that's different. It's all online, so we'll see how it goes.

That about does it for the Al n Peg Household

How 'bout the rest of y'all?

For those of you just tuning in, Check-In is 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]

Ooo, is that developing applications for the web? Or is it just straight web design? Good luck with Cookie Daze! Let us know how the Fudge Puddles turn out.

Well, hopefully August will be much calmer (and less expensive) than July. My SIL is due to give birth on Friday, and on Saturday we have a wedding. But other then that the schedule's looking pretty clear. I'm looking forward to Labor Day. I could use a 3 day vacation!
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Ostrich :>--O==={

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

[nancw]

Al - looks like echinacea.
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Nance

gluten, dairy, soy, rice, yeast and 99% grain-free

[Eeyorific]

Al, the lake cottage sounds like fun. Do you and Peg like to fish? Or is it more for the scenery? That must be both comforting and reassuring. I hope you all have a wonderful time.

Os, How exciting about the baby. I bet you all can't wait. Most of all your SIL I' sure! It's tough being PG in the summer.

August comes bittersweet for me. I have been running a child care/Pre-school inside of my home for the better part of 15 years. At the end of this month, that will come to an end. We are ending one adventure to start a new one.

Starting next month, my primary focus will be schooling my children. This will mostly be a continuation of what I am already doing. The difference will be, without the other children here, I will be able to meet the specific needs and desires of my own children. This will also free up some time to enroll them into outside Art and Music classes, as well as a gym & swim class. Social interaction is very important to us! We are all very excited about the new change, but at the same time, I will miss my other children greatly!

I wish I could say I'm still adjusting to the my new dietary change. The truth is, I'm just doing what I need to do to survive. I used to be a person who would live to eat. I loved trying new things, I enjoyed eating. Now, I just eat to live. I can't allow myself to think about what I can or can't have, or even get really creative at this point. There are now three things I can eat without being sick, but instead of allowing myself to sulk over it. I just eat it and be done. I have turned my attention away from what yummy meal or desert I can cook up to other fun and new non-food activities I can plunge into, preparing for homeschooling is helping with that!

The rest of the family is doing well. The kids are trying to enjoy as much of what's left of summer as they possibly can. We're soaking up as much baseball as possible. Going to many local single A ball games, playing much of the sport ourselves, and catching our favorite team on the t.v. or radio any chance we get. They might just have a chance this year!

Hope everyone else is doing great!
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Kristie M.

"The truth of God's love is not that he allows bad things to happen....
it's his promise that he will be there with us when they do!"

[NorthernElf]

August is time for us to slow down....just a little bit.

July was so busy - we spent a week & a half in Seattle and Vancouver, then I had a week long course, then I drove to my parents for a long weekend, then we were back 3 days and went to a 10 day Girl Guide Camp, and now we're home again. I have some hours to work here & there but otherwise the next couple of weeks are for hangin' with the kids. Whew. I have one more course at the end of August, 6 hours away and then I'm done (I am a lifeguard learning the teaching swim lessons program). In the last month I have spent just under 100 hours driving long distances !!!!!

I managed to gluten myself a couple of times in Seattle (my own darn fault) and only once at camp - the Girl Guide folks actually provided me with quite a bit of GF food, even tried some of the GF cookies and such that I never have before. It was a wheat free tortilla that got me one night. Anyway, if I gluten myself sometimes, I can hardly blame them for making a mistake (the food is delivered to our tents every morning and the tortilla was in a clear ziploc - I don't know what brand it was). They did give me a Rice Krispie square once, actually the same day as the tortilla, so I guess I shoulda caught that - did talk to the food people after that to double check things.

[Sheralyn]

Lots of changes in my house hold, with my son's diagnosis two in our house are now Gf. It will be a big struggle for him, but hopefully in time he will adjust. Right now it's not too bad, because school has not started. Once it does it will be a huge challenge for him. He is 16 and wants to go out with friends for lunch, this makes me very nervous. I hope he stays stong and dosen't give in to be like his friends.

I'm hopeing we will finally be breaking ground to build our new house. This is a long time coming since we have been waiting 3 years for this subdivision to go in. I'm praying we will be in by Christmas,but I'm not holding my breath.

[gola]

hey everyone,
well ive been having my summer break but it hasnt been like tht for me coz i have been interning since june....so was soo busy with work tht i dint have time to relax and just do nothing....and its still continuing so hopefully will manage to get a week off before college starts off...
recently ive become more conscious of wat i eat when im out and in places i dont know....i make sure i ask the people bout the ingredients....but i dont know maybe it paranoia or sumthing i feel tht im being glutened...its not like im sick or experiencing any symptoms....im just a bit insecure these days.....
and when i read bout the extreme care tht ppl take in being GF in every sense i know its *impossible* for me to acheive....i dont chek my facial products of shampoos or a whole bunch of other stuff bcoz i jsut cant keep up with that....
well thts all tht ive been going thru this month.....tc
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[Sheralyn]

Gola,
Don't be to worried about shampoo's etc. I'm reading Dr. Peter Green's book "Celiac Disease a Hidden Epidemic" He is the director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. ( very much an expert in the field of CD)

He say's quote =Gluten needs to react with intestional immune cells to initiate the inflammatory process. You would have to drink a shampoo or skin lotion to cause intestional damage seen in CD.

It's a great book everyone who has not read it needs to!!

[mrsppmrxky]

Well, I spent the last month on bedrest. I was either up24/7 with insomnia (or so it seemed) or because of the worse fibro flare ever to me I was unconscious 24/7 (almost literally...........my DH and MIL were coming and shaking me to make sure I was still alive.)

I am still on the down curve of the flare. I have to go to my dr. and get preventitive care help before I go and have urology surgery in 2 weeks.

SO, I will be on bedrest for some more time.

The great thing about the flare was my DH mentioned that he was running out of meals in the freezer that I had made before the wedding in June. MIL and I went to get meat and we cooked and ended up making 22 meals in the freezer.................the next day is when I had to give up and go to the dr.

Hoping to back in the swing of things very soon!
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[Torrey]

Hey all!

Well, after having been unemployed for a little less than 3 weeks, I started a new job on Monday, so I guess that's my biggest news. I'm working as a copywriter for a healthcare communications company, so I'm in the same industry...so far, it's been pretty good. It's a little bit of a longer commute, but I don't mind it at all. And the people are all really nice and they really seem to understand what it means to be GF, and that's huge for me.

I've been spending a lot of my free time with my neighbors lately--I spent a few days with them "down the shore" (as we in Jersey like to say) last week, so that was very cool. It was nice to get away for a few days and get my feet in the sand!

And I'm slowly re-entering the dating scene...
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~Torrey

August 24, 1975
GF BD July 12, 2004

[Mom2BoyzOnly]

Well, my son's wedding was Saturday and I am still recovering from 5-6 months of utter stress. I have slept like a rock the past 2 nights!!! The week of the wedding was horrendous. Things went wrong daily but the wedding itself was wonderful!!!! Twelve days of vacation left before I go back to school and resume my paraprofessional role!!!!
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Robin
Diagnosed approx 13 yrs ago
Seriously GF past 4 yrs

[aklap]

Kristie - No neither of us like to fish. It's a nice little lake. We are mainly doing it to spend some quality time with our friends. The beauty is a bonus.

Os - I'm up for anything at this point. The class I'm taking is part of a Web Developer program. Sure, it'd be nice to get a degree in that, but I'm not thinking about that at this point in time. My job security has been dwindling for several years. I should've started this journey then - oh well - live and learn.
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Al

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

[baldridgem]

We've had a busy summer. We thought about buying a larger house but after looking at a lot of over priced real estate we decided to add on a room. It's finished now except for color on the stucco and that will be done next week. Now we can start uncluttering the other rooms. We have two of every thing soo its like wall to wall furniture.

And we have had visiters from Texas and California that we enjoyed very much. They just didn't stay long enough especialy my great nephew from Texas. I haven't seen him in seven years. Bless him he invited us to come live with him. No thanks, Texas is too hot!!

We are looking forward to the State Fair next month and the balloom fiestival in Oct. I love those ballooms.

MB

[cruelshoes]

THis is the month of vacations for us. We head out to my cousin's wedding in Port Ludlow this weekend. In a few weeks we will travel to a town on the coast called Ocean Shores (or as I like to call it Open Sores).

Hot off the presses - my husband has made a movie of our chickens. Click on the link below to see it. You will see Winnie the Wyandote (brown/black chick with the pink comb), Esther the Easter Egger (brown with the beard), and in the back, our older ones, Hazel, Dominique, Emerald and Mrs. Nesbit. They are separated by hardware cloth at this point because the new ones are not quite big enough to mingle with the big girls yet. I expect the Academy will be giving this one Oscar nods all over the place.

Here is the Youtube link

My daughter has been at Girl Scout camp for a week. I pick her up today. My son has decided that he would like to go away to camp next summer. I feel so fortunate that we have a GIG camp in our area. I think that may be the option we choose. I would hate for him to get sick on his first time away from home. If the whole camp is GF it will be so much easier.

I mentioned in another update that I have been on a one year job rotation at my company. Well, the other 2 people and I that are on the rotation have decided that we are really happy at our jobs, and don't want to go back to our old ones. So this one is now my permanent position. There were 70 more layoffs this week at another division, but there still have not been any in the office where I work. They have even hired a few. We are a lot more secure in the IT department than the people on the shop floor. Until they decide to outsource all of us to Bangalore, that is!

The baby turned 1 last month. She is walking like a pro now. About 10% of the time, she even sleeps through the night, too. Our camera broke ( 1 camera + 1 hardwood floor = 1 bad problem) so I don't have new pictures to post, but I hope to have some new ones soon.
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-Colleen

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

[Fidissimus]

Finally, finally starting to feel better! Woo! Woo! I've continued to take the pro-biotics daily (something I'm hoping to continue for as long as I can afford it) I'm even able to drink COFFEE again! *squeee!*



August should be a good month since I'm taking half of it off from work to go to a beach house we've had reserved since February. My sister and her family and my little clan went last year for a long weekend. Afterwards we decided that it was waaaaay too short. So this year we're going for about 10 days. Of course as folks found out about it we've had more people tack on to it (some good friends of ours are staying in the house too for about 1/2 the time. And my folks are coming out for a few days and staying in a nearby hotel - and even DH's parents are coming out from NC! Which is super - I miss them. I love my in-laws and we only see them about once a year which is not often enough. Plus the baby needs to see them more; I'm sad she doesn't know them very well. I'm also hoping some friends of ours from the Bay Area will be able to make it up too. It should be crazy fun.

On a more domestic note IKEA just opened a location here and I went yesterday and dropped a wad o' $$. Damn them! I've been working on cleaning up my sewing/craft room and thought better more organized functional storage was in order. So I gave in. We had "fun" assembling said furniture last night. DH was a pretty good sport about it though as he's rather handy that way.

I also need to get my butt in gear and create our quarterly GIG newsletter! Anyone have any ideas for topics? I'm kinda fresh out this time around. I admit I'm a bit distracted thinking about our vacation - it'll be the first PTO I've taken that was to do something fun in two years! (All my other time off has been hospital/illness related - I'm sick of it. Ha! )


Me and the kidlet on our first venture out of the house after finally feeling well enough to function. I still look kinda sallow and greasy ill, but oh well! I don't have any other current pictures...

RE: Flower - echinacea, aka cone flower
RE: Chickens - couldn't watch the movie due to missing software, but like their funny little chicken heads anyway - thanks for sharing.
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Cheers!
Jenn

GF BD: Feb. 2001
Free of wheat, barley, rye, oats, dairy, eggs, almonds, pineapple and brewers yeast.
http://graindamaged.blogspot.com/