Don't eat gluten and drive

I am sooooooo stupid. I went out to a great restaurant last night. I knew I had to be really careful because I had to drive around 2 hours home. I got oil and vinegar on my salad to avoid the hidden gluten. I asked if the chicken was breaded. I neglected to skip the sauce that went with the chicken Florentine. I ate half of it before I realized there was gluten in it. I wrapped the other half for hubs. The service dropped off after we finished eating, so we left without coffee and dessert. By the time I got on the road (slight detour to the outlets), I was feeling muscle fatigue in my arms. I made the stupid decision to skip Wawa for coffee so I could just get on the road. The closer I got to home, the harder it was to keep my eyes open.

Before I started paying attention to how my body reacted to certain foods, this was a normal reaction to dinner. Hubs would usually drive home if we went out because I couldn't focus. I haven't felt this level of fatigue since I eliminated gluten. The part of this that bothers me is now I know better. I should have grilled the waiter (politely, of course) and mentioned that I have a problem with gluten. I need to learn how to ask these questions. I also need to stick with grilled meat, no sauce.

This morning I felt like I had been run over by a truck. It took me a while to get moving, but this afternoon, I feel so much better. I am not exhausted. I had eggs and sausage for breakfast with my Ezekial bread. For lunch, hubs and I finished the leftover chili verde. Then I got into cooking and preparing meals for the week. I have my energy back and I'm not even tempted by the apple cider donuts I bought at the apple festival yesterday. Gluten free has become so much easier. I do plan to ask my dr to test me when I see her on 10/18. We'll see how that goes.

Changes

We've been traveling so much and the kids have been to various camps across the county and state that I haven't paused to track what I'm doing. I've become more and more interested in the paleo/primal world. Essentially, you eat like our ancestors did - meat, veggies and some fruit. No grains. Sound hard? If I still ate bread, maybe. But bread and pasta and other grain products are easy for me to forget because of how they make me feel. I've been more or less gluten free since the beginning of June. I had pizza in Galway NY and a few bites of gluten products at dinner later that week. I was ok with the pizza, but the 2nd experience wasn't good. A few weeks later, I had a donut. HOLY CATS! I was so miserable. Stomach cramps, fatigue and joint pain. Nothing like a horrible reminder of how shitty I used to feel. I do my best to avoid eating gluten, but I may end up having to eat it again if I decide to get tested for celiac. The only reason I would want to be tested is so I can definitively tell people I have celiac. If I mention I am avoiding gluten, no one takes me seriously. I hate that you have to add gluten back in to get a true test. I really wouldn't be surprised if I have celiac.

But, going forward, I am planning to string as many grain free days together as possible. I don't plan to be extremely strict, but my breakfasts and lunches are always grain free. Occasionally, I'll have a grain with dinner. Last night I had a wonderful risotto with shrimp and pesto. Do I regret it? Nope. I made the choice. There were plenty of options on the menu and I decided I was ok with having the rice.

Before we went on vacation, I challenged hubs to avoid gluten. Gluten causes so much inflamation in the body. Inflamation causes chronic disease. Hubs has already dealt with the symptoms of chronic disease, but I am not convinced the source was ever dealt with. Since the worst that could happen is he lost a few pounds, he agreed. I now have him addicted to Lara Bars, but only the ones with coconut in them. He is interested in pursuing this eating style since he dropped 3 pounds in 3 days. I may eventually get him to agree to get 1/6 of a grass fed/grass finished cow.

I think the most interesting part of this journey is watching the kids. They are so supportive of me. Trinks has expressed interest in eating fewer sandwiches and exploring more gluten free options. She has stomach pains every once in a while and I do wonder if she inherited my issue. S asked hubs if chocolate cake had gluten in it before he offered me a taste of his dessert. We are just slowly moving over to a healthier life style. Hubs even banned juice from the house! I was so impressed, because I put juice in the same category as milk - unnecessary. Juice, even 100% juice has way more sugar than the kids need. I don't have enough space to write why I hate milk, and if I did, the milk lobby would come after me. But the kids decided to drink half a jug of juice that hubs bought that morning. He told them he wouldn't buy it anymore. I replaced juice boxes with thermoses of unsweetened herbal fruit tea. Thank goodness for Celestial Seasoning's line of fruit teas. So far so good.

Getting the family onboard is a big challenge for me. Although most of our dinners are from scratch and using whole, fresh ingredients, some days we just don't have then energy to cook. We used to run to Dominos every other month because their pizza is really good for the price. Now if we do that, I still have to figure out what I am going to eat. It's not a big deal, but I just need to focus on planning and making sure we have the right stuff in the house. With hubs on board, I need to make sure he has breakfast, lunch and snack options available. I am organizationally challenged, but I hope as we get deeper and deeper into this lifestyle, it will get easier. I like making my own food. I think hubs and I cook things better than moderately priced restaurants do. As with all change, it takes time. And there is no time like the present to make these changes.

My personal war against chemicals

As part of my journey towards health, I have learned a lot about how bad harsh chemicals are. I knew cleaners were bad, but I didn't realize how good simple vinegar and baking soda were. No harsh smells, and they get everything so clean!! I took a bizarre path when I read about making my own toothpaste.

I had just finished reading about how too much flouride causes osteoporosis. I figure that the amount of flouride I get from the gallons of tap water is sufficient. Then the next article I read was about homemade toothpaste. I had most of the ingredients, so I whipped up a batch. It tasted pretty nasty, but my teeth felt cleaner than when I went to the dentist! I was hooked. I added more peppermint oil and it tasted better, but still a little salty. I haven't used conventional toothpaste since I made it. It is awkward to put on a brush, but my teeth are so CLEAN!

My success with the toothpaste led to me make deoderant. I admit I didn't take it to Florida with me, but that's because the melting point for coconut oil is 76 degrees and I didn't want my container to leak. This stuff works so well! I used the second recipe and used arrowroot instead of corn starch. The only issue is it will detox the area and you may have 1-2 days of a detox rash. After that, everything is fine. My pits don't smell and I feel dry.

Next up is sunscreen, since most commercial brands are toxic. S is allergic to some of them, so I would like to find something better. Then I want to move on to bug spray. The big test of this will be our Galway trip. Mosquitos like to munch on us and we're tired of being the buffet. I'm having so much fun playing with this!!!

Gluten free is lonely

I've been doing 80-90% gluten free. Obviously the weekdays are easier than weekends since I cook and prepare breakfast and lunch on Sundays and don't have to think too much on a daily basis. Traveling has messed me up since I haven't gotten the hang of traveling gluten free. Unrelated but interesting, I discovered I am allergic to bivalves. No great loss, but I can't get paella anymore. I think the problem I have is gluten is so undefined. It's the one allergy that is not required to show up on a food label because no one has defined what gluten is. Gluten is dusted on individually wrapped candies to make sure they don't stick to wrappers. Gluten is in salad dressing. It's in low fat dairy and many low fat products since they need to use crap to fill in the nutrients they remove when the create the low fat item. Ketchup, soy sauce and root beer contain gluten. Gluten can be called "modified food starch", hydrolized vegetable protein, malt, dextrins, and "natural flavoring".

The good news is most of the food items above are processed food and I shouldn't be eating them anyway. I've been making my own salad dressing for years. I make my own soup, eat very little low fat dairy (that's another post about the evils of the low fat diet), and I can't remember the last soda I drank. I hate ketchup and I've found gluten free soy sauce.

I think the best part of this long journey, which started before I realized gluten was killing me, is the impact to my immune system and allergies. I didn't get sick this year. No colds, no sinus infections. I haven't taken allergy medicine in 2 years. I used to snort Nasonex like it was going out of style. Now, I can get through allergy seaon without even sneezing. I also discovered that my blood pressure is finally coming down. For all my life, I had been a steady 110/70. Two years ago it started to creep up to 120/85. Not horrible, but not trending the way I want it. On Friday, in the middle of yet another workmans comp physical, my blood pressure was back to 112/78. I can live with that.

The real challenge in going gluten free is lack of education. Hubs is an awesome cook and he wouldn't do anything to hurt me. But, he thinks if he only puts a few breadcrumbs in a recipe, I will be fine. I won't be. I need the bread crumbs to be made from gluten free bread. From just a few breadcrumbs, I'll get stomach cramps and joint pain. I don't want anyone going out of their way to make me food - I really am fine. If I can't eat something, I simply won't eat it. I won't get mad. There are enough naturally gluten free foods that I can find.

Tomorrow I am going to test out some recipes from the Gluten Free Girl. Lemon olive oil cookies is up first. Then I'll find something from her beautiful cookbook. I bet I stain up the books before I return them to the library. I sense I'll buy both books this summer.

A bump in the road

I found out the hard way that xanthum gum is not my friend. I made gluten free pizza crust this weekend. It tasted pretty good. I chickened out about making it completely from scratch and purchased a mix. I had a headache Sunday night. Since I hadn't been a model of great eating, I assumed it was from some of the extra crap I ate. All day yesterday I had a migraine. Tonight I had the leftover pizza for dinner on my way to Girl Scouts. Raging headache on the way home. I had no gluten or sugar today, so the common denominator was the gum. I know I can't handle processed foods, so this really isn't a surprise. Xanthum gum apparently is a bacteria combined with corn sugars - why would anyone eat that??? I'll take a gluten reaction over a migraine any day. At least I'm learning. Slowly but surely, I am learning.

A better week

Last week was another tough week. We were booked every night, but thankfully the snow cancelled Girl Scouts. Trinks completed her science project and did an awesome job with it. The problem is, all the candy parts of the plant cell melted into the cytoplasm (lime jello) by the end of the day so I have no pictures. Trinks is doing so well at the new school that I am writing the check for next year for both kids. I have seen such an improvement in her attitude about school and her happiness is off the charts. She stumbled briefly with math, but has caught right up. She's also gotten nothing less than 110% in spelling - he last teacher told me she couldn't spell. Now I think she was bored and not trying.

Last week I forgot to figure out my breakfast. That was kind of important. I split the days between rice chex and Ezekiel bread. I like them both, but I try not to have a lot of processed food. This week I have leftover jambalaya and veggie soup. Today was the kind of day that I would have killed for two more crockpots. I cooked my garbanzos first as the chicken bones roasted. Then I swapped the beans for the carcas and made some amazing chicken stock. The jambablaya was cooking in the "good" crock, so I had to make my soup on the stove - GASP! I put together the quiche (broccoli and bacon) for tomorrow night. The crust does have gluten in it. This week I am doing my research and finding recipes for pie crust and pizza crust. I will play over the weekend. The other highlights of the week are: Tuesday - sandwich night, Wednesday - bacon wrapped meatloaf, Thursday - spaghetti (for me it will be quinoa pasta as soon as I track it down), and Friday - glutenfree pretzel chicken. Gluten free pretzels are so good, hubs eats them if I don't hide them. They are, however, a million bucks a bag. I love the sesame seed rounds, but they are almost impossible to find.

Yes, it's a little boring to list our dinners, but I want to track as much of the menu as possible so I can review if I slip. For snacks I have been enjoying raw almonds, raw Brazil nuts, and raw pumpkin seeds. S is allergic to the Brazil nuts, but they are so amazing. I want to check out raw macadamia nuts next.

Well - this week is definitely better planned and prepared than last week. I didn't spend the entire day in the kitchen, although it felt like it. I cleared several flower beds and I look forward to expanding a section for our veggies this year. Composting has been great, so I think we can liven up the nasty clay dirt we have. Next up is moving some shrubs so we can see the bird feeder better from the dining room table. It's our dinner time entertainment.

Oy.

It's been a hell of a month. A coworker, who I had known for 11 years died. I am sick about it. She battled breast cancer for 10 years and then it spread to her brain. She left behind two beautiful daughters; one in high school and the other in college. I am so sick of breast cancer taking away my friends. There seems to be no end in sight.

In terms of the gluten free diet. Well, ummm, hmmmm.... I haven't been as vigilant as I started out. And I feel like crap. My hands are swollen. My face has broken out and I have rosacea. A couple of weeks ago my skin was clear and really nice. I had a lot of gluten, sugar and dairy this weekend and it feels like I swallowed razor blades. I got the message loud and clear. Time to go nuts with unprocessed foods. This week is a tough schedule, but I think I can do it.

Tonight Trinks came into the room and showed me her belly. She has erythema multiforme. LOVELY. I've had it at least 4 times and only learned the last time what works. I gave her coconut oil to rub on the hives and some benadryl. I know vitamin C worked for me, as well as a few other supplements. We'll try more things tomorrow. I made her put on a tank top, put her hair up and drop her comforter. Hopefully keeping cool will help contain the rash. Tomorrow morning we'll evaluate and see where we need to go with it. The dr. can't do anything for it - steroids don't work and there's really nothing else to do for it. I just need to monitor the symptoms to make sure it doesn't turn into Stevens Johnson syndrome. It's a very rare possibility, but I am prepped with the symptoms. I am itching as well, so I really think this is food related. Trinks and I will discuss possible delayed food reactions. Wiki points to benzoates - yes - go check your cabinet. See how many boxes have a benzoate as a preservative. It can also be caused by fungus, and since I am on the FUPO wagon (Fungus Until Proven Otherwise), I tend to believe this one. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Rice and Beans, Beans and Rice

No - it's not a new diet craze, although I did start week 4 down 18.2 pounds. It's one of my favorite Dave Ramsey sayings. We finally resolved Trinks' school issue. We removed her from public school. I swear Karen is somewhere laughing at me because she refused to live in DE due to the school systems. I was was the right combination of optimistic and lazy, so I thought we'd be fine. WRONG!

So now we are shelling out a crapload of cash to send the kids to private school as well as get on a bus to kung fu. Is it worth it? Absolutely! Trinks bounds out of bed to get dressed, pack her lunch and help her brother. She comes home is a great mood and doesn't yell at us when we work with her on her homework. She is very pleasant to be around. I didn't realize how bad the situation was at the old school, but I am so happy we moved her.

So this move puts my financial goals on hold for this year. I am working on a budget now that should allow us to travel, but not run through our emergency fund. We need new tires for both cars, possibly a new heating/ac unit, and some basic home repairs. In the spring, I will most likely start looking for a new job, as I am severely underpaid for my skillset. I am also working on some food plans that include a lot of beans and rice, rice and beans. Back to being uber frugal and owning each dollar.

Week 2 update

I've been very busy lately. Work is insane, but it always is in January. I've had a bit more energy, so I've been more productive when I get home. A lot of my free time is spent in the kitchen chopping, cutting, and portioning meals and snacks. The drawback of eating ingredients, as Trinks calls them, is there is nothing to just grab in a time crunch. We had a meal foul up this week and it was a struggle to find something to replace it. I'm still on board because I am down 16 pounds and love eating this way. Go me!

I've noticed a few things during these two weeks. I love cabbage. I really love cabbage. As a kid, I hated cabbage in all forms. Several years ago I decided to add purple cabbage to my salad because it looks pretty. Still hated it, but knew it was healthy so I added it. Now I love it. I love it sauteed, in soup, in cole slaw (without mayo - ick poo), raw - any form at all. I like green and purple. So this week, my veggie soup is chock full of cabbage and I made some slaw with sesame oil (heavenly) and rice vinegar with salt, pepper and garlic. I've also noticed that pretty much everyone likes what I make for dinner. No, I did not force my curried cauliflower down anyone's throat, but the regular meals are pretty darn good. I also put onions and garlic in everything and we are constantly running out of them. And my crockpot is amazing.

Tomorrow starts week 3. I am completely prepared for it. Tonight we had shredded chicken tacos. I had the chicken over lettuce with a tomotillo sauce and chopped avocados. The family had regular tacos. Tomorrow the kids are trying lentils in Moroccan Chicken over lentils. Tuesday is sandwich night and Wednesday is Pioneer Dinner. That would be sausage with potatoes, carrots, and onions. S will be in heaven. Thursday is another chicken dinner and Friday is Parents Night Out, so we're going to the Cheesecake factory. With a plan, anything is possible.

I am moving the budget/financial goals up to the next priority. Trinks is getting pulled out of her miserable school and placed in a better school. The new school costs money. So financial goal may change as we figure out where the cash is coming from. But in good news, Trinks brought home the highest state reading score in her grade. She blasted through to Advanced. Next week is the math. And somehow we have to move her to the new school in the next 2 weeks. Life is an adventure.

Challenge #1 - Passed!

So for meal out #1, I did great. I had a really great spicy steak salad and didn't get any dressing, even on the side. The dressing was ginger/soy, which I love, but soy sauce has wheat in it, so I declined. The meat and sauteed veggies lent enough moisture to make dressing completely unnecessary.

Today's total of weight lost is 13.2. Yesterday I noticed that I didn't have asthma chest pains when I walked outside in the cold. My random joint pain is gone. I have energy. Five days down, 23 to go with the challenge. In 23 days, I'll decide the next steps, but this eating style is very maintainable. And delicious.

The next challenge is dinner out in Philly. I don't know where we are going, but I know I can find something on the menu. Then I have lunch in NYC. I checked out the menu and picked out a really good salmon salad. I'll hold the dill sauce, but go for the slaw. They don't use mayo (ick poo) so it's really good. Tomorrow I will prepare my breakfast for while I am away as well as setting up next week for breakfast and lunch. Our menu for the week? Here it is.

Monday - Apple Chicken
Tuesday - sandwich night for the family, I will eat leftovers on the way to Girl Scouts.
Wednesday - Shrimp and Asparagus stir fry
Thursday - Lime Ginger chicken
Friday - Orange chicken

***order subject to change upon mood.

All of these will be served with veggies that the kids pick out. The family will eat rice, baked potatoes, or rolls. I'll have either brown rice or quinoa, both of which I make ahead of time and heat up when needed.

Day 4 of my Health goals

I have been eating more veggies than I ever have in my life, and I've always ate lots of vegetables. The only grain I am eating this week is quinoa - with almond milk and blueberries. It looks moldy, but tastes great. I have avoided all processed food, although almond milk is probably considered processed. I've had no sugar - coffee black with cinnamon. No sweets.

I've been weighing myself every morning just to keep my focus. The first day I was down 3 pounds - nice! Day 2 - I jumped on the scale. I rubbed my eyes. Jumped off. Reset the scale. Got back on. Squinted at the scale. Shook my head. Jumped off. Reset and got back on. It was true - down 10 pounds. This morning I am down another pound. I know it's the water weight and all that, but damn! It's keeping me on track. My goal is to lose around 50 pounds before we go to Disney in June. I am on my way!!!!

My challenge: This weekend we are going out to eat several times. I need to remain focused. I also need to prepare for next week like I prepared for this week. When I have a plan, I can do anything.

2011 Goals

Before I get to the goals, can I cross "find mouse" off if I bought a mouse for the other computer (which I managed to kill in less than 24 hours of opening the box)? While you ponder that question, here are my ideas for this year.

Health. I plan to work on my overall health this year. My numbers are great - cholesterol 143 (ratio is off because the LDLs are 40) and my glucose is 85 whether I am fasting or not. My blood pressure is creeping up from the standard 110/70 and I want to keep it back in the safe zone. My weight, of course, needs some work. So to accomplish better overall health and deal with some food sensativities, I am eliminating processed foods from my diet. I have been feeling like absolute crap lately and I have pinpointed it to after I eat gluten, white sugar, eggs and corn syrup. The symptoms aren't too specific, but random radiating pain, joint aches and muscle fatigue seem to sum it up. The key is, the symptoms go away when I eliminate these things from my diet. If they stuck around, it would be a different plan of attack, such as SEE A DOCTOR FOR PETE'S SAKE!

Over the last year or so, I have done a TON of reading. No one author really fit with what I hoped to accomplish. Dr. Mark Hyman has great books about inflamation, but I don't like some of his food suggestions. The raw movement is great, but I can't stay on it indefinitely. I love how I feel with the green shakes and salads full of colorful vegetables. I just need some cooked meat or sauteed veggies every once in a while. Doug Kaufman and Leann Ely have plans that seems to incorporate what I need and can continue for the rest of my life. So today I chopped, cooked, and chopped some more so I have a week's worth of breakfast and lunches ready for my lunch box. It's good food - a nice veggie soup in a chicken broth with a salad for lunch, quinoa with bluberries and almond milk for breakfast. I'll throw some green shakes in for fun. There is supposed to be a variety for all meals, but I have to do the same all week in order to get it all done. I'll change is up next week. Dinners are simple meals that the whole family will like, such as chicken and apples, Jambalaya, and Mediterranean chicken. Tuesday remains sandwich night for them, so they won't suffer too much. I'll see how this goes and tweak it as I get a better idea of where I want to go.

Hubs wants to improve his health, too. He mentioned that his clothes are getting tight too. We discussed what his approach is going to be. He's fond of the processed low cal food and has been successful with losing weight that way. So we got him his Rice Crispies and skim milk and deli meat and salad. For once we are working on this project together and can work together when one of us feels weak.

Finance As usual, we have some financial goals. After I paid off the car 3 years early, I lost my focus. Now I need to focus to kick the Home Equity Loan to the curb this year. Debt makes me really nervous, so the mortgage is the next target. It's a small amount each month, but I hate being in a position of owing someone! With one child in private school and another probably going there next year, it will be a challenge. But I love Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman and Gail Vaz Oxlade. Their words of wisdom and awesome shows and podcasts will help me refocus on getting out of debt.

Education Trinks needs a new school. Her cirriculum is weak and will not prepare her for middle school. I need a new school for 5th grade (or sooner)and then I will be happy with the 6-8 school. They finally let kids get left behind in middle school, so she can get in tracked classes. Her standardized test scores indicate she'll be in advanced math and reading. She has had no homework in math and no book reports or research report for any subject. She will die in middle school without these skills. If she gets too overwhelmed, she'll stop trying. I currently supplement her crappy homework. I had to beg the teacher for help. He's wonderful and probably thinks I am a nutcase. But in my defense, he sent home the wrong report card and almost gave me a nervous breakdown. I didn't know how I could have been so out of touch with my child's grades.

My education goal is to complete my Tax Ceritifaction. No, I don't want to go to class anymore. I learned that I would have to reimburse my company for the class I took and decided I can suck it up and go to class for the next 1.5 years. I'm too cheap to drop out. It should look good on a resume. If my pay doesn't start matching my skill, I'll need a strong resume.

I have some random house and family goals, but I haven't fleshed them out. They include getting more involved in scouts and kung fu. Perhaps hubs and I will join the kids? I plan to continue to declutter and become a minimalist. Who knows where this year will take us. I have the framework. We'll see what we can accomplish.

The road to 40

I just turned 39. The real 39. I never lie about my age because I think people who try to say they are younger are idiots. I mean it you are 39 and try to tell people you are 30, they are going to think you look really crappy for 30. I earned each year and I am not ashamed of my age. Then comes FORTY. In 11.5 months I will be the dreaded 40. And how do I feel about that? I really feel that the 40s will be better than the 30s. I spent the 20's trying to sort out a career, figuring out how much of a goober I really was and then starting to have kids. The 30s were spent raising those kids to school age. Now they barely need us, except to run them from activity to activity. Not better, just different.

So the road to forty. I always pictured freaking out over turning 40. In 4th grade, we read a story called The Milestone. The family gave the mother a surprise party (so help me if anyone does that for me, I will kill them) because the mother was sad about turning 40. It focused on how half of her life was over. Pretty morbid crap for 4th graders to read. They way I see it, I'll have spent 40 years figuring stuff out, so the rest of my years will be smoother. This is my decade to shine. Let's just not talk about turning 50.

Sometime this weekend, or even later today, I am posting my goals for the year. I hope to reach 40 a healthier, happier, wealthier woman. Go me. Of course my first goal is to find my missing mouse so I can do some time suck games on Facebook.

To vote or not to vote

Of course I'm voting - gotta keep the witch with a capital B out of office. I would prefer to run her out of the state so she could embarrass a new state. But the more important election is for the state representative. I love the guy we currently have. He went door to door 2 years ago and spent significant time talking about education with me. I am currently facing an education crisis of epic proportions (have I mentioned I exaggerate???) and would feel comfortable showing up at his open office sessions to discuss my concerns. Tonight I met his competition. The guy is really nice and he paved our really crappy road 2 years ago. I thanked him for that, but forgot to tell him to st.op sending me birthday cards - too much of a waste of trees and money.

So what is my point? My point is we have two really great guys running for office. I think they would both be a great choice. I applaud the fact that they go door to door to make the effort to meet everybody. Isn't this what real politicians should be? They were polite about the opposition, but pointed out why they would be better. I'm just impressed that this close to election day there is civility

So proud of my Trinks

Today I took Trinks to the Adirondack Extreme Adventure course. She did some low ropes in Girl Scout camp this summer and asked if she could do the high ropes camp next year. I saw a commercial for this place, decided it looked awesome, so away we went. And by the way, Trinks is terrified of heights.

We bribed S to come with us since my mother wanted to watch Trinks. Note to self - next time, leave her in the cabin so she doesn't stress out. As we approached the Bolton Landing exit, it was raining. Lovely. We arrived at this place and stayed in the car while watching people climb and do the zip line. I am a first class coward, but I was getting pretty excited watching what people were doing. We checked in, grabbed the harness and waited for the training to begin. Then it was time for the demo course. Trinks did GREAT on all the parts leading to the zip line. For some reason, the zip terrified her. A guide jumped up and rescued her.

Then it was time for the real course. Although she was tall enough for the adult course, we kept her on the kids course. The real reason for this is I wasn't about to go up in the trees, and I could watch from the ground if she stayed on the kids' course. Trinks hesitated a few times, but for the most part did great. Then it was time for the short zip line to the ladder down. Ummmm..... didn't quite work out as planned and her knight in shining poncho rescued her again.

So, here are my notes for next year. I need to get in shape to do the adult ropes with her. Or her cousins need to join her. If she had someone in the trees with her, I think she would have felt better. All in all, it was a worthwhile experience. I am so proud of her for stepping out of her comfort level and pushing herself to complete the course. Afterwards, we bought her a patch and took her to the playground. S was all pumped up from watching her that he climbed around like a monkey. He kept saying that the playground equipment was exactly like the high ropes. Not exactly, but there was a lot of climbing stuff. And then we went for ice cream.

Finally good service

S gained enough weight to grow into a real epi pen instead of the epi pen Jr. This was back in May. I justified not filling the prescription because they cost (I thought) $40/pen. And I figured in the event of a real emergency I could just give him 2 shots. I know - not smart. I had a supermom lunch the other day and ran several errands. When I dropped off the prescription at Happy Harry's, I informed the young, uninterested mumbling clerk that if the expiration date was under a year, I didn't want it. I then asked if I could get 2 at the same time. I got blank eyes and a mumbled "depends on your insurance".

Fast forward a few hours. Hubs and I picked S up, hit the drive though at Happy Harry's. We were told to pay $111. As I slowly slid into a panic attack, I opened the bag. The mumbling dude hooked us up! We got 2 epi pen sets with a 15 month expiration. So for as much as I complain about lousy service, I figured I should showcase something good.

Getting ready to miss my Trinks again

Trinks was upset when I picked her up on Friday. Her two best buddies switched to day camp for next week and she wanted to switch as well. I knew this was coming, so I told her we would discuss it later. The whole ride home was a non stop conversation of the cool things she did. I got a few sentences in so I could tell her what I had planned for the weekend. She got excited when I told her we're going out to breakfast (and even more excited when she convince hubs we had to go to IHOP). Then she made a little request - at some time could we get Rita's or ice cream? I think that's fair enough and we'll do that after lunch today. I think she really misses all the family stuff.

As much as Trinks has loved camp, I think I'm doing things a little different next year. Camp Grandma includes parents next year, or so I have been told. We're going to Disney. In the summer. At least for that week Trinks will have us. She can do a few more weeks of kung fu camp with S. She really wants to go to a traveling camp that includes white water rafting and traveling on a zip line. Come February, I may for get these plans as I see the exciting camp brochure. Hopefully Trinks will remember so we get to see a bit more of her next year.

We made sure Trinks had a good time this weekend. All the back to school shopping is done, except Target ran out of composition notebooks and Trinks needs 3 more. Since she FINALLY tie dyed her t-shirt, we went to Joann Fabric to get some patches to iron on. I did that last night as S asked me what that thing was. Yes - it was the iron. He's never seen me use one before. Trinks was so tired she passed out in our bed while watching TV last night. Hopefully she'll sleep late (8AM) today. I want her well rested for her last week of camp!

I really hate other people

I don't think it's a secret that I really hate other people. It's probably the reason I have a job where I don't interact with clients face to face. This afternoon I had two instances of really shitty service. These people should find other jobs.

At Girl Scout camp, I waited in line to sign Trinks out. I don't mind waiting. As soon as I got up, some bitch interrupts the line to ask a question. I'm sorry, I waited to get uniterrupted time in checking out. Now the counselor lost her focus and didn't end up giving me the proper paperwork. Why do people think they are above the rules? Then I picked S up and took the kids to the grocery store. The stupid cashier had a private conversation going as she checked out the woman in front of me. She never asked the woman if she wanted cash back because she wasn't paying attention. The woman was annoyed. At my turn, there was an error message on the screen that she ignored for 5 minutes while she was carrying on with her friend. I then went on to have a very civil discussion with the kids as to why this behavior was unacceptable. In front of the woman. Don't worry - she was so wrapped up in her personal conversation she didn't know.

I understand this is the world we live in. It's related to rude cell phone use. I understand that people are going to play with their phones during dinner - I see that all the time. Hubs and I went out to dinner one night and noticed a couple seated almost across from us. After they ordered, she got on the phone and proceeded to TALK through the whole meal. She ate and talked and ignored her husband. And it wasn't an emergency. It was plain old gossip. I'm sorry - this is so unacceptable. Why did she bother going out to dinner? She could have had shit on a shingle for all she tasted the meal. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I ignore my phone at a restaurant or with friends. Obviously there are exceptions for when I am expecting a call, but I put more importance on the person in front of me. Anything else is uncivilized.

Trinks melts down

Trinks was in NYC all week last week. We got her back Friday night and I spent most of the day at the 3 Day Expo on Saturday. On Sunday we had to take her to camp for the week. We did the usual lines of check in (lice and fungus check is my favorite) and ended up in the meadow. Once in the meadow, the girls meet their counselors and sing all the crazy Girl Scout songs. This is where we give Trinks hugs and kisses and go back home. We were almost halfway to the car when I heard thundering footsteps behind me. I turned and Trinks grabbed me and she was barely breathing. She was so upset she was in the middle of a panic attack.

Trinks doesn't get panic attacks much, but they scare the shit out of me. She just can't breathe. I feel like smacking her just to reset the cycle. I got her back breathing and then she told me she missed me so much. My heart melted a bit because my child has never really missed me in her entire life. I know she's going to have a blast learning how to play guitar, so I felt confident with my pep talk of "suck it up and put a smile on your face. Fake it until you make it and have some fun. If you really like the guitar, you can ask for one for Christmas." Yup - that's me. All the warm fuzzies a girl can want. Now I'm sure I have to make good on my promise about a guitar. Thankfully I came home and Amazon has some nice ones that won't break the bank.

But, to make up for lost time, Trinks and I are going back to school shopping this weekend. Normally we do this when we go to Galway, but I think we need a girls day before her final week of camp. I may even drive an hour to go to Target. I may even buy the Pottery Barn backpack she wants. I am a sucker to see my kid happy. If anyone wants to help make her final week fabulous, let me know and I'll send you her camp address.

Kitty is not dying

So at the beginning of the summer, we believed that Kitty was dying. She's 14 years old and looked really bad. She dropped to around 6 pounds from a high of 11. We could easily see her ribs. We fully expected to come home to a dead cat after our Rhode Island trip. She wasn't dead, but she wasn't healthy either. We decided to try something to help ease her last days. We gave her canned fish - salmon and tuna. By giving her and Forrest the fish a couple times a week, both have had improved health.

While I'm not sure Kitty has that much longer with us, it's nice to see the old girl with a spark in her eyes again. She's put on a pound or two, and looks pretty good.