going gluten free

i have NO idea what i'm doing on this new journey i'm on!  other than NO BREAD, NO FLOUR TORTILLAS & NOTHING WITH FLOUR IN IT, i'm at a loss for what will taste yummy when trying to substitute my bread cravings.  i'm ok with it, i've come to terms with it, i get to have potatoes so it's all good.  :o)  my co-worker/friend asked me to lunch today & she wanted to go to chili's, i'm anxious!  what do i eat?  i can't have those yummy chicken crispers anymore so i search their menu & find they have potato skins.  potatoes, cheese & bacon...  i can have all of those things, so i'm happy to head to chili's with britt.  she knows EVERYONE there so we get a great booth & lots of attention on us, FABULOUS!  nothing better than getting the best service ever because the person you are with knows everyone.  :)  she mentions that i'm doing the gf diet & the server, oops forgot her name, asks if i want the gf menu.  awesome!  they have a menu!  i looked it over & the p skins were not on there but they are new so i figured they didn't get them on there in time.  the only thing i can imagine that would not be gf is the seasoning they put on the skins, which i had no idea was on them until i put them in my mouth.  it was a bit much in terms of them being a little salty but they were so good!!!!  and much to my surprise the delicious honey mustard is on the gf menu.  i so <3 their honey mustard!  so i dipped them in the honey mustard & i was in heaven.  :) 

chili's gf menu :o)

it's going to take a lot of adjusting but i know i will prevail.  q & hopp will pretty much eat what i put in front of them but getting jess on the program is going to be a little issue but she will adjust as well.  she is really upset she can't have the biscuit sausage at school anymore.  she has seen the list of candy/snacks that are gf so i think she is feeling better about it.  what we can't have in bread we can eat in sweets & drink sodas.  i know, i know they aren't that great for you either.  all things in moderation.  :o)

here is a delish recipe for pumpkin dessert bars with chocolate chunks.  can't wait to try them.  i will let you know how they taste.

here's the reason for the gf diet all the sudden, i have had stomach problems over half my life, if not all my life.  was deathly allergic to milk when i was a baby & child.  my mom's friend called me the exorcist baby because i would spew milk across the room in "reagan style" before my mom found out i was allergic to milk.  so that was probably the beginning.  then i pretty much grew out of it & when i had jess i started getting these nasty sulphur-ish burps along with horrible cramping, almost labor like in the intensity & coming & going like clockwork.  it was horrible!  they always thought it was my gallbladder & sono after sono on my abdomen, nothing... no gallbladder issues.  so frustrating.  finally my obgyn, after i had q, sent me to a gastro dr.  he gave me a colonoscopy & lots of blood work & i was diagnosed with crohn's disease.  this was the answer to all my problems but with crohn's there's not a lot of help in what you should eat & how to keep your body from having the laborish pains & the nasty burps.  when i went to go see the gastro dr at the end of march she (the PA) asked how everything had been going.  i told her about all my stomach problems & that q had the same thing as well.  she was puzzled, we have never had q tested for crohn's or anything else so she mentioned that she thought it might be celiac's disease.  so she sent me off to get a blood panel done, i had heard that the panel for celiac's is not really reliable so i didn't expect much from it but what do you know, my diagnosis was 'extremely high risk to develop' celiac's.  what exactly does that mean???  do i have it or not?  so, we are cutting out all wheat & gluten items.  i started on easter day & i tell you, i feel so much better!  i still have a couple of tummy issues here & there but nothing like how i have had the last 2 weeks!  i was in such pain & the gas was beyond terrible & uncontrollable.  before i could take an alka-seltzer & the burps would stop, an instant cure-all.  but the last 2 wks it was not helping one bit!  so if you have been having the same symptoms take a break from the breads & wheat items, you may feel a world of difference.

an easter to remember (eggs & hail)

this year was quite an eventful easter for us.  we started on saturday because jason got off at 4p & had to work his normal shift of 11a-8p on sunday.  it turned out to be the best plan due to sunday being crazy as hail, get it hail?!?  :)



hopp grabbing eggs




q reaching for eggs with jonathan overseeing her progress




i think hopp was trying to show us how much she has so far




hustlin' for eggs




running for more eggs




look how full that basket was, she was so proud, she kept saying, "i find it" "i got it"



just one pic is all i ask with everyone looking the same direction
hopp, jess, q, shawna the SIL, jonathan our cousin

the kids had tons of fun finding all the yummy candy-filled easter eggs.  i swear we got way more candy than we did at christmas or even halloween :o)


so on sunday all was well & great.  it started getting cloudy & we never get rain it just passes us by every time so we decided to head to walmart for the weekly stuff, we are going gluten free due to me being recently considered 'extremely high risk to develop' celiac's disease.  (i will go into that later)  we went basically to get nacho stuffs, love nachos!  ok, let's get back on topic.  we did all our shopping, we loaded all the groceries on the belt & she was just about to start ringing us up & they had a code black!  are you kidding me?  we have to all go to the back of the store.  first they tell us back of the store, then we heard the middle of the store by the fitting rooms & then they say back of the store, so we are back by the seat cushions & curtains.  i figure we could cover our heads with cushions if it got really bad.  ;)  we sat there for 20 minutes or so, meanwhile i have 3 children, 2 are under 6 & all are behaving, no crying, no carrying on, but then we see SEVERAL grown-ass women bawling their eyes out being the most childish people.  really people, i have 3 children that are not freaking out & you are possibly going to freak them out with your incessant crying & carrying on.  well, i tried to divert attentions away from them in case q got uneasy or hopp decided to throw a fit.  they were angels, hopp & q got restless but none-the-less they were perfect.  we did have to open a pack of pull ups because hopp decided to soak the one she had on, i did pay for the pack, btw.  **i will be so excited to have her potty trained!**  we hear this terrible pounding sound the whole time we are at the back.  it's hail...  HUGE HAIL!!!!  i wondered about our car, braving the hail.  other than jason not being with us, i had everyone that needed to be with me so i was not worried really about anything else but my man.  the pounding would stop & then it would start again, it was terrible, i have never heard noise like that before, never seen it hail so much in my life, it was like out of a movie! (it reminded me of the mist, love that movie)  finally they let us go & we trek back to the register with all our stuff about 30-40 minutes after being pulled to move to the back.  i have jess wait while i get to the car to pull it up the the door because it's raining really hard & then it decides to start hailing again!  as i'm putting hopp in the car i'm pelted with hail (a super nice man helped jess put the bags in the trunk so she could hurry up & get in the car, so nice)!  thank you mr nice stranger!!! it wasn't too bad until one got me in the side by this time it was golf ball sized hail, there was apple sized hail if you can believe it!  when i got around to get in on my side i got smacked in the back of my neck with another gb sized hail.  omg it hurt so bad, we drove off & the sound of the huge hail on the car was deafening!  jess was covering her ears & i was asking the little ones if they were ok, hopp kept asking everyone if they were ok.  we were all ok & made it home in one piece! 

so when it rains in abilene, it floods, EVERYWHERE, even my backyard.  it only lasts a very short while but man, look how much water was in my back yard, it looked like i had a moat!  all in all, my family was safe, both cars have a little hail damage & the hubby was safe so i couldn't ask for more than that!  thank goodness our windows didn't break like so many other people in the same area. 

backyard covered in water!

see the rain coming down.  it wouldn't let up for a long time.  we did need all that rain though with all the crazy fires!

a real photo of the largest hail we got in abilene, apple sized!  geez that sucker is huge

there is a slideshow of weather pictures from the easter storm here.  they are amazing.

yarnin stuffs & spring fun

yarnin' stuffs:
this weekend i made this really cute & unique scarf that my friend cristal's grandma made for cristal's daughter.  it's so cute, i hope to get it on ravelry as soon as i have permission from her.  i will post pics on it soon!  sorry for the tease.

i wanted to share with you the snake i made for q.  she was begging me to make her a snake.  i started on it a year ago & i kept putting it off & putting it off but i finally finished it.  she loves it!  it took me almost a yr to finish it but i got it done about a month ago.

you can find the pattern here, it's from caron yarns.  she didn't want the red/yellow/black combo so we went with lime green/pink/turq.  it turned out really cute!  i gave it orange button eyes & stuffed it with pony beads & poly fiber.  i alternated a section of each all the way through; a little beads & then a little stuffing.

spring stuffs:
on sunday around 11a i went & had some coffee with my super-wonderful friend claudia, it was so nice to catch up with her after she got back from her trip to san antonio with her 'rockstar' co-worker, really he is a rockstar but i can't divulge who it is, again another tease!  so then after i finished chatting with her i headed over to my mil's house to pick up the girls, they spent the night with nana.  :)  we headed over to michael's to check out some stuff for a little project i want to do with crayons for an easter gift to q's class, but on the way we saw this house that the entire front yard was covered in iris's.  it was stunning & my camera phone didn't capture half the beauty but i tried.  if you live in a-town & want to drive by, it's on the corner of sth 20th & sayles.  the house has always been a bit creepy but was so pretty that day.

every year i get the most beautiful iris's myself but my favorite are my amaryllis flowers!  i luckily inherited them with the house we bought 5 yrs ago & they never need maintenance or watering they just come up like magic! 





i just love how they have 4 huge blooms on one large stalk.  they are white with pink stripes in the middle of the petals.  i really want to take some to work but i usually try to wait till they all bloom but i have noticed that they have several other buds on them ready to bloom soon so i don't want to cut them & then the buds never get a chance to bloom.

sprinkler fun:

it was very warm this weekend & we didn't do much outside on saturday because it was super hot but on sunday it was a little cooler, really i can't feel the difference between high 80s-high 90s it's all so hot!  we use to have a pool but i murdered (yes i said murdered, i took a steak knife to the bottom of the pool all the way around to drain it, the saltwater filter went out so it got nasty) it two years ago & we never replaced it.  i really missed it, we had a saltwater filter & i swear it never got green or dirty.  we had the most beautiful pool!  not only that but the only maintenance you have to do with a saltwater filter is skim it on occasion & change the filters.  it never needs chemicals & your eyes never burn!  your skin feels super soft too!  ok back to the subject at hand; so yesterday i hooked up the sprinkler, let the girls put on their bathing suits & let them have at it.  i don't know what the hell the deal is with sprinklers but hopp will let it splash all in her face, if i dare get water on her face in the bath or shower she wants to KILL me!  :o)  here are the super cute pics of my girlies playing in the sprinkler yesterday.



jess getting wet for a sec with the little ones.



i have a kim k in the making!  look at that booty & those chunky thighs, makes you just want to squeeze them.  :oD



turning away from the sprinkler so it doesn't get in her eyes.




i think q is getting hopp in the face



i hope everyone is enjoying the spring, wish it wasn't so damn hot!  more to come, i still have to tell you about our may farm trip.  have you heard of a beefalo before?  well, there is such a thing, i promise.  :)

it's that time of year again...

yep that's right, it's april fools day!  also it's my wonderful friend, becky's bday!  so this is my shout out to becky, love you girl! 

happy birthday becky!!!

q got daddy this morning, it was funny.  she had just asked him if it was april fools day & he said yes.  so then a little bit later she says, "daddy you have paper in your hair".  he starts brushing his fingers through his hair & she yells, "april fools day!".  :)  she is so funny, it's hard to get him too!

i don't do april fools stuff unless it's silly.  when i was 16 i had one really backfire on me so i don't really participate anymore.  but i thought i would share this link from parenting.com about 15 silly pranks your family can do.

french fries & ketchup (pound cake & frosting)