Autumn asks: Do you have those cute sleeping baby pictures?

Heather, at Wanting What You Have, did a photo spread today of her cute sleeping kids. I love sleeping kid pictures so I dug some out. What I find really funny is how we go from extra-young, hand-me-down furniture and no curtains, to a complete other state and better off, to a complete other state in late 30's and even a rug on the floor! LOL!



A very young daddy and Bones. These two were always falling asleep together. I thought the saying was "NO rest for the wicked"?



Bones holding sleeping Songbird. He wanted a baby brother or sister so bad and could hardly wait. It wore off.



Mighty Mouse and daddy. Mommy left them and went away for a weekend with the Girl Scout troop. It was very exhausting for the two of them.

Autumn asks: Have you ever given up on doctors??

Some people know I'm not big on pills and doctors. Yet I love Chiropractors and natural health type careers. I do like working in the medical fields...but after many years I began working for a medical malpractice attorney instead. Hmmmm...I'll let you draw whatever conclusions you may.

Everyone that knows me is familiar with the fact that I suffer from outrageous allergies. It keeps getting worse. Not only that, I have reactions to things I eat...yet nothing food shows up on allergy testing. Of course they give me an epi-pen to carry because my tongue and throat swells up and its a dash for the ER. But the tests are negative. Whaaa?

This year things got so bad I was feeling 80 years old. I was taking 3 different meds to try and control the allergies and my hands and feet and face were swelling up (can you say killing your liver with meds??) and I just hated every day. And yes, I've tried shots, but won't bore you with the horrid experience that I would like to forget forever, not rehash.

So I finally said ENOUGH. I found a doctor (Chiropractor) that deals in nutrition and supplements and decided I would give it a try for the summer if they thought they could help me (like what doctor will say they can't when money is involved?).

So, after testing here's what I ended up with:

Allergies to: Brown rice (not white, I don't get that)
Spelt
White refined sugar (OMG! Say it isn't so!!!)
Brown Sugar
Cane sugar (can I cry now?)
American Cheese
Pasteurized Milk
Commercial Eggs (not organic...it has to do with what the chickens eat)

The Milk we already know I was intolerant to. I can clear out the house with toxic fumes after eating ice cream or a shake. The rest was news. I was glad to see wheat was clear -- I've actually been tested for celiac 3 different times by different doctors because of all my symptoms/sicknesses.

Then there was the toxicity testing I was positive for:

Aluminum (yes, we are talking soda cans also)
Acetate/tones (no clue)
Chlorine
Heavy Chemicals
Preservatives (the allergist knew this but don't have testing for it - hence the epi-pen)

Add to all of this a overgrowth of yeast in my gut. That one surprised me as I have never had any kind of thrush or yeast infections.

Fun stuff. So the answer is an altered diet and supplements. To begin with its supposed to be only filtered water, vegetables and fresh meats (nuts and beans also). No dairy. No sugars or artificials (which I try to avoid anyways). No soda. No soda. Did I say no soda??? I'm dying here. Let me add here that I do not stick to the water thing, I must have cups of hot tea when cravings are plaguing me. I don't even like water so this is a must.

The first week I was sick as a dog. This always happens when I clean up my diet. But on about the 7th day I opened my eyes in the morning and the first thought in my head was "I feel good". No eye gunk. No stuffy head. No body aches. Hmmmmm. And I was losing weight without that even being a focus.

The next 3 weeks were great. I felt wonderful/normal. By the end of that time I was feeling so good I was wondering why I was torturing myself with such a restricted diet. I'm fine. And there followed a week of a soda about every day...although my eating was still along the prescribed lines. What happened? I got sick. Could not shake the headaches. Eye gunk. Allergy meds stopped working. Oh, and I did have cheddar cheese on my chef salads (about 6 that week) because I forgot to tell them to hold it.

At the doctors appointment, before confession, after he started testing reflexes, I was asked "WHAT did you do???" Ok, now I remember why I'm doing this. I confessed most (but not all those sodas) my sins. The doctor also told me to give up the allergy meds and let him handle it from now on. My response? "Are you kidding??" He told me to trust him. My response? "I've heard that for 40 years." But I accepted my 3 new supplements to handle the allergies and the reoccurence of yeast (thanks to the cheese and soda sugars) and here I am. Three days into it I am not dying from allergies. The first day I was fine. The second day my nose ran just a little bit before one dose. Today I'm fine.

It will be interesting to see what the end of summer brings. I can tell you that I am sick of the restrictive eating. I want rice with my stir-fry (although eating it over cauliflower really is not bad). I want to be able to use honey in my tea (the only allowable sugar for me per allergies). I want FRUIT! It's sweet and would be very helpful! So if you are a praying person, add me to your prayers that I can make it through my days without grabbing a soda. (On Songbirds birthday week I was sneaking frosting when nobody was looking - just for the sugar high!). And that I can maintain on our vacation at the end of July!

Autumn asks: Do you ever do the hermit thing?

I do believe I've returned from Hermitville now. It's a thing with me. DH leaves and I hole up at home. Didn't go to church Sunday even. Just stayed in the house with Mighty Mouse. Songbird was gone to the beach with her Girl Scout troop so it was just Mighty Mouse and I from Thursday through Sunday.

Thank goodness for Ladies Bible Study or it might have lasted longer. With Songbird making money helping babysit there was no way I was getting away with staying home. I have no real explanation for why I do this -- but it's been going on for years. You'd think with desert rotation out of the picture here I'd do better. I wonder how many other military wives do something similar.

Today I took the girls to the pool. It would be nice to join them in the water, but with chlorine poisoning that really isn't much of an option. It's bad enough that I haven't set aside the money for the shower filter. But the girls still love to go even if all I do is sit on a chair and read - or attempt to between checking for Mighty Mouse after every sentence. -Angela, it was great to see you and the girls. Sorry I didn't come over to say hello. I'm trying to stay out of the water.

Had lunch with Bones today after his and Songbirds dental appointments. I haven't had lunch with him in forever it seems. He registers for his next semester in August. He is changing his major to Cyber Security or something like that. Sounds pretty interesting and right up his alley.

Tomorrow is another dateless date. My husband has faithfully called me every day to pray. That has been really nice. Gives me something to look forward to.

Mighty Mouses Father's Day Card

MM made a Father's Day card for daddy this year. She had a little help....but the colors were all HER!

Being 4 is hard work.

Me from A-Z

I got tagged by Heather at wantwhatyouhave.com. I've never been tagged before. I must be moving up in the world as my blog is on her blog roll. Anyways, here goes:

A: Attached or single? Attached to my husband of nearly 22 years. Very, very, very attached.

B: Best friends? My husband - and see older post on friends. Love and miss you ladies!!

C: Cake or Pie? Both - who's picky? Give me some sugar!

D: Day of choice? Any day I don't have to pay bills.

E: Essential item? Coke (as in cola). With a book being a close second.

F: Favourite colour? green - the darker the better

G: Gummy bears or worms? Bears - made in Germany

H: Hometown? Ft. Stewart, Georgia. Maybe I should call it birth town instead since I've never been back or lived anywhere else long enough to be a "hometown".

I: Favourite indulgence? Coke (cola) and any travel/sight seeing

J: January or July? July. I'll sweat, just don't ask me to put up with the pain of cold hands and feet.

K: Kids? 1 grown son and 2 girls still at home. I'd love another but I've been outvoted.

L: Life isn't complete without....? My family - most specifically, my husband!

M: Marriage date? December 30

N: Number of brothers & sisters? 1 ultra cool little sister

O: Oranges or apples? Apples. Oranges give me hives on my tongue

P: Phobias? Heights

Q: Quotes: Love quotes.

· If you believe everything you read, better not read. Japanese Proverb

R: Reason to smile? Because there is fun trouble (not criminal trouble) just around the corner, waiting to be discovered.

S: Season? summer

T: Tag 5 People: Anyone willing to be tagged - I don't do mass email forwards either.

U: Unknown facts: I like ketchup on my fried rice.

V: Veggie? All fresh veggies! Steam them!

W: Worst habit: procrastination

X: X-ray or Ultrasound? xray - basic machine operator - which is inactive at the moment

Y: Your favourite food? STEAK

Z: Zinc or sunscreen? Sunscreen - but its poison

Autumn asks: How cool is our church???

I had a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday! A handful of pictures of Mighty Mouse at VBS! What a great church we found!

Autumn asks: Have you ever been out on a date...without a date?

There's nothing like showing up at church for "8 Great Dates" night with no date. Not a pleasant position to be in. I did get a few questions. After all, I was the only one there by myself.

I seriously considered not even doing this program. It's just too much to ask to be able to complete something with my husband. The world needs saving and all that good stuff. But I asked for it.

So I show up to pick up the notes they hand out and listen to the speakers. Then, the next day DH and I do the Cliff Notes version by phone. That in itself is good luck since phone calls are not always available on all trips.

So once again I get to play the part of the single, married person. Do I sound salty? Ya think? I've got to work on that.

I have another question also. When your mind snaps...do you actually hear it?

On a positive note, the Couple's Who Pray part has been really great. DH has been fantastic about making sure it happens each evening and we even did it by phone tonight. Different but cool.

Autumn asks: Are you taking advantage of your local Farmer's Market this summer?

Blackberries. Tomatoes. Yellow squash. Green Beans. Those where my finds this morning.

In our area we don't have much to choose from when it comes to Farmers Markets or fruit and vegetable stands. This has been very disappointing to me. Our only Market is from 7am-1pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Up until today I have only made it in time to see almost everything gone...except the turnips. Not that there is anything wrong with turnips, its just not what I had in mind when I drove all the way to town.

This week I got smart. I have a weekly doctor appointment for nutrition/allergy issues. I now make that appointment for 8am on Tuesday. Today I went to the FM after my appointment and they really do have food! But at 8:30am they were already out of black-eyed peas and some other goodies I would have loved to get my hands on. Next week I will stop before my appointment instead.

With current food prices what they are, take advantage of your locally grown produce - its about the same price! It is not picked green like our supermarket veggies. This means more nutrients! And you are supporting local farmers. And face it, it tastes SO much better than the supermarket food. In our area we don't even have a Wild Oates or Whole Foods so it makes it that much better. Set the clock and get up and go!!

On that note...if any of you have great fresh veggie recipes (that don't add dairy or boxed foods or sugars of any kind) please pass them on. I can only eat meat and veggies right now and I could use some new recipes to change things up a bit!

Autumn asks: Why don't people think before they open their mouth?

"Don't buy that, its from China!"
"Oh, wouldn't want anything from there -- its all poison!"
"They don't make anything good!"

As my daughter and I stand in Target, right in their faces, with our mouth hanging open. So what do I do? My daughter is frowning and obviously thinking this over. She has recently become aware of the fact that she is Chinese. She is proud of this fact...something we work on. Some adoptive parents tear down the sending country and teach the children how they saved them from an awful fate. Not helpful or appreciated according the the adult adoptees that have been there, done that. And you don't want to hide the bad and only teach the good. That is too lopsided.

What did I want to do? Well, how about starting a conversation on the rioting students in South Korea? They are rioting because the government finally caved and told the US they would start accepting our beef again. The population is furious. They don't want any beef from the US in their stores. (If you are curious, look it up. Self education means more than "someone said".) Or I could point out the signs at the local HEB's warning about tomatoes and the salmonella outbreak in 16 states. Or I could say something about the recall warnings I keep on my igoogle homepage to check each day...and how most of the recalls are American made.

But it wouldn't do any good. My real problem is that they tear things down in front of children that are not deaf or dumb. The child is the real victim in these cases. And you think things like this don't happen often? Let me give you a rundown of a FEW of the things that have been said to me...with Mighty Mouse on my hip or standing right there:

"Is she Chinese? They kill all there girls over there. They hate them."

"Chinese think girls are trash."

"Thank you for saving a child from such a terrible country." (The savior mentality)

"How much did she cost?" (Constant question)

"I'll bet she cost a pretty penny."

"I can't believe they let you pick such a pretty one." (You don't pick your child from China, you are assigned one - unless it is a special needs adoption.)

"Thank you for being such a good person."


I could go on but this post would get too large. Most of the time I'm so shocked I just stand there looking at the person. I've learned to weed out which actual questions to answer by asking a question in return: Why do you ask? If they are in the process of adoption, I answer the best I can. If they are just curious I get to tell them its an inappropriate question. Bottom line - I scan a room on entering, notice the reaction we get and decide who to make sure and not make eye contact with. Our trip to Athens is a good example. We went to the Lake Marina for lunch. As soon as we walked in, one full table of about 9 gave themselves whiplash looking at us. Mighty Mouse was the only person in the place that was not white. And of course the waitress set us down at the table right beside them. I spent the next hour avoiding eye contact -- which they kept trying to make. Who knows, maybe one of them has a Chinese granddaughter (they were mostly older folks). But what does it matter? Do you really think Mighty Mouse likes people always talking to her and her mommy just because she's different than mommy??

So for those of my friends that have never thought about this....don't run up to people and ask personal questions that single out a kid and make them feel like their right to belong is questionable. The kids "get it" younger than you think and it hurts them.

Autumn asks: Are the gas prices changing the way you do things?

Gas prices are killing me!! In Omaha we lived in a perfect little area where everything was close. You could even walk to most of them if you so chose. Also, with the bike paths you could ride - even better!

This last week saw me ordering my niece's birthday gift BECAUSE THE SHIPPING PRICE WAS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS WHAT IT WOULD HAVE COST ME TO RUN INTO TOWN! Is that not insane? A trip to church and back in DH's Durango is $4. No kidding. It's not THAT far. Going into town and back, $5 at least. Shoot, I thought, why burn the gas...I'll just order the thing! And what was really cool is that the Toys R Us is having a big sale so I was able to get both things I wanted to instead of just one thing. Now if I could have found an online coupon I would have been very self satisfied indeed.

We've cut back on groceries also. Not the meals so much, but the extra's. Name brand is a thing of the past...not that we bought much name brand to begin with on our budget. I go into town less if at all possible. I'm sure it is isolating people on limited budgets by keeping them at home. And yet we are still in the top 10% wealthiest of all people of the world. Sobering.

A friend sent me this neat link on finding the Bible verse that goes with your birthday. Pretty neat, check it out: http://www.birthverse.com/mybirthverse.cfm Mine is 1 Corinthians 10:24 NIV
Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

Still doing well on our activity each day. I am taking the weekends off as its too expensive AND that is generally chore or family time anyways. We did a neat thing on Thursday that I'll tell about later. On Friday Mighty Mouse and I went to a play date with her friend Madi. We tye-dye t-shirts with them. Mighty Mouse's turned out really neat. I had the kit sitting up in a closet for years and years and decided to use it.

Last night saw Songbird having her sleepover with 2 of her friends. It was a little loud around here. We don't do birthday parties so we let her have a sleepover instead (no gifts - don't get me started on the abuses of birthday parties/gifts now-a-days!).

I'm worn down, tired and uninspired this weekend for some unknown reason. We have successfully made it through day 3 of the Couple's Who Pray. It's been really neat. More on that a little farther down the road.

Autumn asks: Are you blessed with Long Time Best Friends?

There's nothing better than a best friend. Having moved so many times in life, I have many best friends. Today I checked out the MySpace page of my very first best friend. Julie and I met in Germany when we were both about to turn 10. We lived across the hall from each other. She is the first best friend I ever had. I had never had a friend that was so smart and easy going - I was drawn to her. Sadly, we only lived close to each other for about a year and half and then one of us moved on...I don't even remember which one of us went first.

Today, I checked out Julie's page and was floored by her talent. Not that she has this talent, mind you, but that all this time she has a regular job when she has writing talent just screaming to be published. It was also very humbling and made me feel rather foolish for even blogging! LOL! I don't have her gift of words...although I have the sarcasm down pretty good. You guys can check her out at http://www.myspace.com/JulieAW .
So my question today is: When did you meet your first best friend, and are you still in contact? Were you lucky enough to live in the same place all your life and have that friend by your side for years and years?

I have many best friends that I love. The hard part about moving so much is leaving these friends behind. The really good ones I am still in contact with and chase down occasionally. But the ones that aren't so good about letters or emails I have lost. The lost list includes: Jennie Potter (Elkhorn City, Kentucky) Nancy Newark (El Paso, Texas), Sheryl Fernandez (Panama City, FL) and Christie. I only use their full names because maybe someone out there knows them and will point them my direction!

The list of best friends still present and accounted for in my life include: Julie, Debbie, Rena -the bestest bestest, Kimberly, Cheryl & Becky, Celicia, Tricia-the next bestest bestest, Mary and my sister. I look at this list and can't believe how lucky I am. How many people can claim so many truly best friends? And my "favorite people" list is even longer.

To all my best friends....I love you!! I miss you!! Wish I was there!

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I'm still on track for my daily goal. Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Athens with family so the visit itself counts as doing something with the girls. Also, Songbird wanted to go Antiquing so we did. We also had a wonderful lunch at a lake marina that was oh so relaxing. The thing I like about going to Athens is that SIL's house is in the country. They have a covered porch out front with lots of furniture to sit on and we spent almost the whole time outside enjoying nature, playing Yatzee, talking or reading. Gives a whole new meaning to lazy summer day. I could live like that.

And the best thing about conversations with SIL is that our outlooks are so different in many ways that it makes for great discussions. And on the things that we don't agree on (respectfully) I come away from the conversation and think about that thing. In the end I either reconsider and expand my mind and opinions or I have a deeper faith in what I believe and why, by questioning myself over my views. Either way I feel a little wiser or stronger for having had that conversation. I'm a big believer in knowing why you believe what you believe. It makes life so much easier than not having a solid reason (even if it is only in your own mind) for your beliefs. I love a good conversation!

We went on our first of the 8 Great Dates last night. We actually just found a quiet spot and discussed the questions we were given as conversation material. It's really good stuff. Mostly this topic focused on change and how we handled change in the other partner. Are we respectful of their pace of change, do we allow them to make the decision to change, do we support them, etc. I think we ace 3 of the 4 points. Not so bad. So today begins the first of 40 days where we are supposed to pray together for at least 5 minutes. I have high hopes we make it through. Also, we are the first group to use this program and are part of a study being conducted by Baylor University. Pretty cool. But I think we'll skip the interviews....

Autumn asks: Why is a daughter turning 13 more traumatic than a son turning 13??

Songbird turned 13 yesterday. How did that happen?? It was only yesterday she was running around terrorizing her big brother, and driving him nuts, as a 5 year old with an attitude. Time really does fly. And why is this more traumatic than when Bones turned 13? Is it the whole sexism thing? I don't know. Or maybe its because this is the second time around the teen thing...and the first wasn't so smooth.

Had one of those days where nothing was as planned...which is not to say it was a bad day, because it was not. Yesterday we welcomed a new little person into the world! Mom and baby are doing fine, last I heard. Big sister spent the day with us...which was a godsend as Songbird had a couple of friends over and Mighty Mouse wouldn't leave them alone. When Ari got here Mighty Mouse had one of her own friends to play with. Actually all she did was argue at first. It was rather annoying, but they settled in after awhile and played good.

Bones came over for his sister's Birthday meal. It was good to see him. We actually got to hang out and talk for a bit since Songbird hadn't returned from hanging out at the mall with friends when he arrived. Bones is going to switch his major at college to Cyber Security or something like that. Sounds rather interesting. It will add another year of college but we said "Go For It". We will continuing paying half as long as we can.

After all the twists and turns of yesterday I actually went to bed after taking Ari up to the hospital after her grandmother arrived in town and to meet her new brother. She was so excited!

The girls and I (and the dog)are off this morning to Athens for an overnight. We are going to see family that used to live here in Waco also but have moved.