Food Allergies

After suffering for months with strange rashes and red hot ears and stomach pain it became apparent I was having some strange reactions to whatever it was I was eating. I was convinced it was carrots. I had testing done the week of Thanksgiving and when the results came back on Dec. 11, I was completely shocked at the outcome.

My "Foods to Avoid List" includes the following: gliadin, gluten, wheat, egg whites, egg yolks, cow's milk, goat's milk, american cheese, casein, lactalbumin, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, almonds and rye. The report states that I can only safely eat peanuts and malt once every four days.

My doctor told me to stay away from everything on the list for the next 90 days. Talk about a total diet overhaul.

Meat, nuts, veggies, fruit, rice, corn and oats get to be my new staples. Healthy yes, hard to abide by the rules, yes. Can I do it? Yes.

Cockroaches, flies, spiders, rotten or spoiled food and other nasty things aren't allowed either but that's just a personal preference.

More pics of us.

More fun photos by Jordyn.

www.thinkflowersphotography.blogspot.com

My photographer rocks!

Here is just a sampling of my new family photos taken by Jordyn Flowers on Nov. 21, 2009.

Fairy's and Spiderman

Some of my friends and our children did a Halloween photo shoot this past Saturday. All the girls, including the adults, were fairy princesses (we made our own skirts, wings, and head crowns) and the boys were Spiderman.

Here is a link to some of the pictures that the photographer(Jordyn Flowers) has posted.

http://www.thinkflowersphotography.blogspot.com/

Benji, Brinlee and I had a fabulous time.

These two pictures I took with my camera.

I'm addicited to....

Sheesh! I signed up for facebook last month and I totally feel like an addict. No, not really, but it has been fun to catch up with old friends and current friends and family via that method. Just thought I'd share that.

Brinlee's cute hair

Being ever so patient, Brinlee let me do her hair all elaborate one day in September.

She is such a darling little girl and I'm so glad to have her in my life.

She certainly has a a mind of her own about how things should and should not be and she is not afraid to let people know about it, especially me.

I just can't wait until she is a teenager. I'm sure we will totally see eye-to-eye on everything. Ha!

Book of Mormon is true

Yesterday, I was able to get tickets to attend the second Sunday session of General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Cofernce Center in downtown Salt Lake City. It was so amazing.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon was incredible. In the building filled with thousands of people there was complete silence as he boldly spoke of his sure knowledge of the that great book. It was a frank, honest and zealous talk and the power of his words reached deep into my soul.

I know the Book of Mormon is true too and I want anyone who hasn't read it to do so and to ask God if it true and I know that He will answer with a resounding "Yes."

I was able to attend the session with my bossy friend's niece, Hope who has rapidly become one of my friends too.

It's official, I am now an ex-wife

The divorce papers were finally signed on Wednesday. Yay! I know that ending a marriage isn't something to take lightly, but I am glad to have closed this chapter in my book of life.

I am also glad to have sole custody of the kids and that I get to keep the house at least for the next three years, whereupon I have to either sell or refinance and give Taylor half the equity. He has until Oct 15 to get the rest of his stuff out of the house and then I will actually get to use my garage for a car or a craft workshop or whatever I want, as it is my house.

Just as a side note, in the same conversation that I told Taylor that the papers had been signed by the judge, he told me that he has already met and been dating someone else whilst we were separated. Nice. I had already figured that one out as the kids kept talking about her. All I had to do was ask Taylor if her name was Kami. Sure enough it was.

Anyway, I now get to keep moving forward with my life and although I will still have to deal with Taylor the rest of my life as we share our two beautiful children, I don't have to be married to him.

Back in motion

Yeah! As my Mom says my "angel warranty" is still good.

Not only did my car get towed for free, but it got fixed for free as well and in enough time that I could still make it to the store to get what I needed this very night.

I am glad there are angels among us. Today, a few of them went by the names of Rocky, Gara, Mark, and Scott. I know there were others too that helped me and my children in some way or another.

Heavenly Father loves me the best! He loves all of us the best.

An unwanted pendulum

I stopped at traffic light and when it was clear to turn right I shifted into first gear and was vrooming on my way. When I went to shift to second gear, I felt my left foot go all the way to the floor but not give me any resistance. I was like "what the heck" and started to pull off to the side of the road. I peeked down at my feet and saw that my clutch had just turned into a pendulum.

Visit this site if you don't remember what that is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendulum

My car is currently blinking both sets of eyes at all the lovely passers by (i.e. the hazard lights are on). This will probably lead to my battery dying and then it will need to be jumped and blah, blah blah. Oh, well at least a nice lady named Rocky gave me and the kids a ride home.

Injured arm sob story

I never really noticed how much I used my right shoulder, until I injured it back in July. Yes, I was acting like a 13 year-old boy by sword fighting with my cousin, but anyway, it was healing nicely for about a month. Then I aggravated it by painting a couple of walls in my house in early August. It was recovering from that soreness when it was re-injured last week in a series of unfortunate but fortunate events. Yes, I am being vague on those details, but the point I am trying to make is that sometimes something isn't appreciated fully until it is no longer there, i.e. a fully functioning Ac joint of a right shoulder.

When I can't do the things I want to do with it, I try it anyway and wind up just hurting myself more. I am trying to be a good patient, it's just hard to keep my dominate arm even slightly immobilized. My doctor tried something new today called Kinesio tape with the hope that my arm may heal quicker. Kinesio tape, depending on how it is applied, can either inhibit or strengthen muscles.

He hopes that with the tape in place my arm can get that little bit of extra support it needs without the pains I have been having trying to strengthen the injured area.

Hopefully, this different treatment method may see some positive results. In the meantime, I'll just keep trying not to over-use my arm, though it's kinda hard to do with two kids and a stick-shift, but oh, well. I've see people with more severe injuries do a heck of a lot more than that.

Benji's First week of First Grade

When Benji came up to greet me outside the school on his first day of 1st Grade, his head was hung low and tears were forming in his eyes. He walked up to Brinlee and I and started crying.

Apparently, one of his friends from Kindergarten, said he didn't want to be friends anymore and it broke Benji's tender heart. "He betrayed me," said my sobbing child. After giving him some reassuring words and lots of motherly advice on the way home, he stopped crying and was chipper by the time we got to our house which is when these pictures were taken. Check out his cool "Transformers" shirt and shoes and his "Cars" backpack.







It was a big day for little sister too!





The second day Benji was somewhat melancholy after school got out because no one played with him at recess, but by day three things started to look up. Day four he seemed rather happy and then today (Friday) he was all smiles and even went to a friend's house after school to play.

I was so worried after those first few days but as the week passed he was able to find new friends and rekindle friendships with other kids he knew from last year. I was praying that things would work out for him and I think he will do just fine.

Brinlee and I did well with all of our one-on-one time while Benji was at school, but the real test will be next week when he starts going to school until 3:10 p.m. This week he was only there until 1:05 p.m. each day.

Wish us well.

Kids home and a stick shift

It's great having my kids home. Last week they were gone from Tuesday to Sunday visiting their dad and it was so boring and quiet at my house I could hardly stand it. When I pulled up at Taylor's house to pick them up yesterday my heart melted when I saw Brinlee running across the grass to greet me. They sure are sweet, even when they're not. :)



Not only was it good to see them but it was also good to arrive there without problems. You see, it was my first time driving my new stick shift car outside of town. I was worried about a hill that was at the last mile of the journey, but I had prayed that either all the lights would be green or that I would be blessed with the ability to handle the car if they were not. And just so ya know the lights were all green! Yeah!

I wouldn't have opted for a stick shift, but when the engine died in my Stratus, I needed a different car and so my friends sold me theirs for $100, which also included lessons.

I'm still not the best at driving it, but I'm getting better all the time.

Grandma turns 85

On July 21, 2009, my grandma Ruth Anderson turned 85.

There was a surprise party in which six of her seven children were able to attend as well as 11 of her 19 grandchildren and 16 of her 25 great-grandchildren. Many of the spouses of her posterity were also able to be there. Though I haven't put them all on my blog, I was able to snap a picture of everyone in attendance.
These are the people who came: Dana, Sharon, Robert, Bonnie, Sara, Lauren, Emily, Rachel, Jason, Jeff, Kevin, Raymond, Susan, Kenny, Rachelle, Kelton, Taylor, Carrie, Heri, Audrey, Christine, Kayla, Lauren, Dillon, Karen, Benji, Brinlee, Richard, Patricia, Steve, Steve, Kymrie, Drake, Grant, Geoff, Laura, Ryan, Cally, Kathryn, Seth and of course Grandma Ruth (40 people total). In the following pictures the labels of who are in the photos are underneath.


Carrie holding Audrey, Kenny, Karen, Christy
Kenny, Kelton, Seth and Benji
Sarah, Bonnie and one of the twins (Emily or Rachel?)
Steve, Grant, Ryan, Drake, Cally, and Kymrie
Jeff, Robert, Sharon, Dana, Kevin and Jason
Richard
Geoff
Steve
Brinlee
Taylor
Sharon and Kathryn
Raymond
Susan
Rachelle
Kayla

What a wonderful woman my grandma is. Among the many things she has taught me over the years, is the joy of growing plants both inside and outside. She loves gardening, birds and cooking, sewing, quilting and helping to make others feel loved. She misses riding her bike around town and not being able to do a whole lot for herself, but she never stops trying to do as much as she can.
I love her so very much and am glad that my children have had the opportunity to spend time with her. I don't know how much longer she will be with us here on this side of the veil, as her health is failing, but I do know that she will always love me no matter what.

P.S. Anyone know how to make a slide show? It would have been easier to show the pictures that way, but alas I don't know how to do it.

Swearin' Karen

It has been said, "He who mocks shall morn."

Well, I guess I'm going to be wearing black for awhile.

While making fun of my friend's husband I jokingly gave him the nickname of "Lyin' Brian." After days of poking fun at him, he one day fired back with the moniker of, "Swearin' Karen."

"Aw, shoot! How could he possibly know that I have secretly been trying to kick the dang habit for years," I thought to myself. "How the "heck, am I going to live this one down. What a son-of-a blankety-blank! I guess I will just have to kick his butt later; there are kids around."

Ya, I wish that was what I really thought.

I never used to swear and was appalled at hearing anyone do so until my junior year of high school. It was then I became used to hearing such words often from the girls I was around. I remember thinking it was funny to say some of the words, but little did I know that they would become such a chronic disease to my tongue.

I don't consider myself to be a potty-mouth, as I don't take the name of the Lord in vain and I have never said the "F word," nor have I ever flipped anyone off. However, the hinted-out words two paragraphs above seem to slip from my lips or enter my thoughts more than I want them too (especially when I am suddenly scared, really mad or get hurt. And to be honest, I still sometimes get a kick out of saying them, even though I shouldn't.)

I recently got stuck on the phrase "Oh, h***'s bells!" for awhile and have successfully replaced that with "hot bananas" but the other cuss words seem to still plague me.

I once saw on an episode of the Simpson's that in order for Homer to kick his bad-word habit, his family created a "swear jar," in which he had to deposit cash for every swear word he uttered. By the end of the episode, after stepping on a nail, he was able to simply say, "Fiddle-De-Dee! That will require a Tetanus shot."

Does anyone have any other good ideas? I really don't want to wear d*** black clothing for the rest of my life.

Fourth of July fun

Once wonderful weather, a fabulous parade, good food, awesome fireworks and great company were added together, a perfect Fourth of July celebration was created.

Throughout the day my children and I were able to visit with my mom, grandma, Richard, Pat, Steve Sr., Kathryn, Seth, Mike, Christa, Eli, MaKayla, Rachel, Ryan, Calley, Steve Jr., Kymrie, Grant, Drake, Geoffrey, Heri, Carrie, and Audrey.

Parade goers






BBQ attenders and firework watchers











What a great day and what a great country we live in. I am so grateful for the freedoms we enjoy that I often take for granted.