Just another Rainy Day

The rain here in Norcal has been ridiculous.  Week after week of rain and wind.  It has postponed all of baseball for a good couple weeks for the kids teams.  I hear sun is around the corner.  This morning we were supposed to have two games but the weather cancelled those right quick.  Today was a Saturday that Jeff had to work, so it was just the kiddos and I.  We all stayed in our PJ's and chilled around the house.  I haven't had a completely free Saturday is so long.  After I caught up on Grey's Anatomy I decided it was time to dust of the old scrap supplies.  As you can see above I scrap however since going back to work the amount of time I can dedicate to scrapbooking has become next to nothing.  I know there are plenty who think scrapbooking is a joke but I love it.  I love being creative and capturing those special moments that my family has experienced.  What I created today is by no means anything extra special but it felt good just to get my hands dirty.  I haven't even bought any of the new stuff that is out.  I couldn't even tell you what new lines are out.  I remember when I counted down the days to new releases and promptly hit up the scrap store or logged on to my favorite online retailer to snatch it all up before it was all gone.  I have more than enough scrap supplies to last me YEARS.  Yes as in multiple years, but any scrapper worth their weight in cardstock knows getting your hands on new stuff is very inspiring.  Heck I haven't even printed off any news pics either.  Thankfully some of my family members have printed doubles from recent events.  Here are just a few things I created today.  Like I said, nothing spectacular but still something is better than  nothing.

Permanent

My life has recently had some major changes to it if you have been reading any of my previous post.  It is a life long lifestyle change.  My recent diagnosis has significant meaning to me more than just my change in diet.  I strongly suspect that my grandmother more than likely had the same thing as me but Celiac's was not something that was really tested for 11 years ago. She died from colon cancer at the age of 67. Way before she should have.  Intestinal Cancers are only one side effect that I would be prone to if I did not eliminate gluten from my diet permanently .   I am someone who has always wanted a tattoo since before I graduated high school but have not gotten one in the 15 years since.  I'm glad I never got anything I have considered in the past.  However I think I am at a point in my life where I am ready and have a significant reason to.  To me it would symbolize change, rebirth, and a reminder of what was and what will be .  To be strong no matter what I might face in the future. I know that tattoos are not for everyone and I am more than aware that it is a permanent decision.  I know there are some people who may not agree with me but then again they are not in my shoes. The hubs supports this decision and that is who matters most to me.  He has been a huge support to me this last month which has reminded me daily how much I love him :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

No I'm not Irish, No I won't be drinking any beer today green or otherwise even if I would like to.  Yes I am wearing green today.  Why?  Well it is better than people wanting to pinch me and not wanting to hit them back for it LOL.  I have to say though that I love how excited my children tend to get over this "holiday".  The school really knows how to get them all pumped up over leprechauns and four leaf clover's.  Jamie even made a "trap" last night and left a sweet letter that said...

"Mr. Leprechaun my name is Elizabeth Pealer (I guess she was going for a semi-alias?) I am just asking if I can have a peace (her spelling not mine) of gold. Please.  I love you leprechaun. Elizabeth JJ Pealer.  I love you don't leaf (which I take to mean leave LOL).

She left a blank paper for a response too.  She hoped the lure of her pack of gum would be enough to keep him trapped.  She woke up to a response but no leprechaun.  A couple extra quarters made it into the trap.  She was kinda dissapointed in this because it was not GOLD!  I asked her what she thought she would do with gold and she said buy another dog LOL.  I had to remind her that gold is not really a form of currency that she could just go to the store and buy something LOL.   Here are a couple pics from this morning

I hope you all have a great St. Patty's Day whether you are Irish or Not.  Or maybe just like to drink LOL. 

Dear Dolls.....

I want to apologize to you, yes you Barbie and all your friends, The Cabbage Patch kids, My Little Pony and even Hannah Montana.  Like every mother when they have their first daughter, I could not wait to play dress up with my real life baby doll and dreamed about the day when she would starting playing with dolls herself.  I would browse the aisles at Target looking at all the new cool Barbie stuff I never had, or surprised to see what dolls had made a comeback just in time for my own daughter to have.   Oh and let's not forget the Disney Princesses.  I mean I LOVE all things Disney, and my daughter was going to LOVE dressing up in her Princess Dress direct from Disneyland itself.  I mean how could any little girl NOT love that?  So as soon as I could, I started buying all the standards,  You, Cinderella, a Cabbage Patch and so on and so on....Like all toys you held their new appeal for all of 30 seconds (ok maybe 2 weeks).  I mean you are an ICON!  How any girl could lose interest so quickly baffles me. Jamie has an entire toy box full of dolls that have not seen the light of day in probably 5 years.  Yeah, that is about when they went in her new fancy toy box originally when she was 2!!! 

You see by the ripe old age of 5 my daughter was quickly moving on from you and the Disney Princesses,  and any other doll in her collection.  We even took the kids to Disneyland that year and Jamie had NO interest in taking her picture with ANY Princess, if anything she wanted to turn and run away.    So Barbie you and your 30 other Barbie Friends are currently residing in your rubbermaid hotel, along with your clothes, shoes, pools, furniture, car etc.  It makes me sad because I remember Steph and I played with you  LONG after we shouldn't have.  I looked forward to Jamie doing the same thing, having mommy/daughter play dates in her room, spread out on the floor dressing up you and all your friends.  I'm sorry, maybe it was my fault.  I wonder did I push the whole "doll" idea on her way to early.    I mean how early is too early to have a baby doll? 

I'm sorry that she has chosen her stuffed cats and dogs over you and your doll companions.  Or that your movies have been replaced with favorites like Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Santa Paws. Jamie has skipped dolls and went straight to Diva.  I wish I could rewind and make her fall in love with you all over and not Justin Bieber and lip gloss.

Pasta! Pasta!

Our family loves pasta.  Especially my daughter.  She is a noodle freak!  Before I began my Gluten-Free life we would have pasta at least once a week.  It's convenient and easy.  Especially when you have two kids playing sports and you need to make something quick for dinner.  I knew there were a lot of options for pasta that were GF but to be honest they looked GROSS!  I did break down and bought some brown rice spaghetti noodles.  Last night was just one of our busy family nights, work, practice, meeting.  You get the idea.  So I cooked up some meat sauce while my family was at practice.  I made them their own separate pot of regular noodles and a small pot of my "special" noodles.  As I was cooking them, I still had my doubts about how good this meal was going to be.  The water had turned completely white, you couldn't see a noodle floating anywhere in the pot.  They were sticking together.  I knew that I was going to get myself a Charlie version of spaghetti (that is a Twilight reference for you non-twilight fans LOL).  However after MUCH stirring the noodles were done.  I smothered them in sauce and I actually enjoyed it.  The noodles were not so great that I would eat them plain but at least I know now I can enjoy pasta with my family again.

Earthquakes, Tsunami's and Gluten Free Pizza

So unless you live under a rock you know that today Japan had a Ginormous Earthquake which then caused a Ginormous Tsunami that reached all the way to the West Coast.  Scary stuff, I really feel for the people of Japan.   The dumb ass who was washed out to sea in Cresent City?  Not so much, maybe for his family but how stupid do you have to be?  With that being said which I know is kinda harsh, I had a good day all things considered.  I went to Target at lunch to grab a birthday present for the neighbor boy and browsed through the food aisles for a minute. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few gluten free products on the Target shelves.  I bought a gluten free pizza dough mix.  I came home this evening and tried it.  I made a pizza with Roma Tomato's, Mozzarella, red onion and ham.  It was pretty good.  Worth eating again.  The crust was very thin, kind of like Papa Murphy's De-lite pizza's but it was good enough that I can get my pizza fix in and not feel like I am eating something other than pizza.  Best part is my kids LOVED it.  So WINNING.  LOL.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Drawing a blank

I have set a reminder for me every day at work to come here and share. It pops up on my screen every hour or so. I hit snooze on my reminder all day because I just could not think of anything that I thought was worth sharing. However late the in day I was feeling extremely positive even though I physically was not having a great day. I know I will have my up and down days as I adjust to my new life/diet style. The last two weeks have reminded me over and over again how blessed I am no matter what my situation may be. I have not felt that for a long time and it is a nice change. I think we all need those wake up calls every now and then however they may come to pass. I hope you all are feeling just as blessed. SO that is all for now. Maybe tomorrow something else will pop in my head that I think is worth sharing. Today is just short and sweet.

Oh and this old pic just because she is silly and makes me smile :)

Where do I start.....

There is something that I wanted to talk about today and now that I am typing I am having a hard time putting my thoughts into words here. It basically starts off with last week I was told to contact a support group for Celiac's. Now I know support groups can be very helpful to many people for various reasons I just don't know that it is for me. Before I met with my nutritionist I had done some searching on the internet for information regarding Celiac's disease and even found a message board. I had found answers to most of my questions before I had even stepped into the nutritionist office. I felt like I got better answers from people online who are experiencing the same things as me versus someone who has just read about it. People say that the internet has an adverse effect to society and that may be true but there are still plenty positives to be had. I have found more support and even friendships via the internet than I could have ever imagined. I guess I have to thank Sarah for that. She was the first to turn me on to message boards. I was a stay at home mom with not many friends in same boat as me. She turned me on to a mommy message board where I met some amazing women. Eight years later I still am friends with MANY of those same women. We have had coffee dates, play dates, game nights, scrapping nights, you name it and we have done it. I have belonged to message boards for all kinds of interest such as books, movies,music, parenting, scrapbooking, and have been truly inspired. I may not have met them all in person but many have had a lasting impact on me that I will not easily forget. So I guess the internet can be a bad thing when it comes to going out and socializing like a normal human being but it can also can be a truly wonderful gift as well. I have some pretty amazing people in my life because of it.

I survived...

Well today is my first day back to reality. Made it home from Las Vegas last night around 8:30. It was a quick trip but so much fun. We started off the weekend staying the night in San Francisco which also happened to be 11.5 years of marriage for Jeff and I. We toasted it up with a few glasses of wine.

Then we were off to Vegas really early in the morning. We met Art and Melissa at the airport. We checked into our hotel and then it was off to the strip for some more drinking and gambling.

Sunday we headed to the track to watch the Kobalt Tools 400. The weather was perfect and my Driver, Dale Jr. came in 8th. That is the best that we have seen him finish in person.

Then we headed back to the strip, it took 2 hours to go 10 miles. Interesting conversations happen when you are stuck in traffic for two hours and you have 4 people who have to pee. Just sayin'.

We finished off the night grabbing some In-N-Out and taking it to the Wynn. Doesn't everyone eat a hamburger in front of a poker machine??

Special K, Nachos and Protein Burgers from In and Out seemed to be my staple foods for the weekend. I would have had to take a loan out to pay for anything else on the menu's that was safe for me to eat.




After the race we headed back to the strip but it took 2 hours.

I am in mourning...

Did you know you can grieve over food? Yea I would have never thought so until last week. And it is not the same kind of grief that one might experience losing a friend or family member. Heck even a family pet. But there is a sense of loss when you realize that the plate of spaghetti you had last week was the last. Or the last Sub Sandwich from your favorite sub shop will never be again. Everyday there is something that I have remembered that I will never have again and for the most part it's ok because I know that in the long run it is making me a healthy person. As time goes on, many more food companies and restaurant are expanding their awareness and are striving to make their food more Gluten-Free Friendly but there is still room for LOTS of improvement. This last week of being Gluten Free has had a great effect on me. I went from feeling like a 70 year old back to a 30 something. That is a great motivator to continue my diet without being tempted by food. Even when for example, last night my house was filled with the aroma of pizza and chocolate chip cookies both of which are now on the No-No list, I stayed strong and didn't have the slightest temptation to give in. Probably the thing I will miss the most is beer. I hate to say that, but it is true. From what I hear GF beer does not compare to the real thing. So when my husband is enjoying himself the occasional Blue Moon with an orange I think "must be nice". This GF lifesytle is pushing me to be more organized and to plan ahead. I always have had great intentions of planning ahead for many things but working that into reality has been something else. I have no intention of making my blog all about the GF lifestyle I have now adopted and my current complaints but it is what I am going thru for now. I am looking forward to my weekend in Las Vegas with the hubby, sister-in-law and future brother-in-law. Wish me luck!!!

In a Brain Fog

Yes it is a real thing, that has been me that last 2 months. Here I thought I was just tired from stress. January and February are the busiest time of the year for the Pealer's. So as the days went by I didn't really think anything of it. Then about a month ago I was having some pain in my wrist that eventually spread to my whole left arm. Pain meds had NO effect at all. Then I started having neuropathy in my hands. Doctor thought maybe I had a pinched nerve in my neck causing me these problems. I sat at work every day just willing myself to make it thru the day. I had no motivation, could not concentrate and was in pain. You know when something is wrong, then you get a little obsessive trying to self diagnose. Web MD is not your friend LOL. My Doctor was great, she ran an extensive blood panel on me, had xray's ordered and even and MRI when Steroids and Vicodin didn't seem to work. Well come to find out I have a an Auto-immune diease called Celiac's Disease. What is Celiac's you ask well this link explains it better than I can.
http://www.celiac.com/articles/572/1/A-Summary-of-Celiac-Disease-and-Gluten-Intolerance-by-Scott-Adams/Page1.html


Celiac disease, also known as gluten intolerance, is a genetic disorder that affects at least 1 in 133 Americans. Most people experience gastrointestinal symptoms. However my body decided to attack me in my joints, muscles and nerves. Lucky me. There is not a cure and the only way to relieve your symptoms is to eliminate gluten from your diet 100%. Sounds easy right? Well it is and it isn't. I have to read labels on everything I eat unless of course it is fresh meat or produce. Did you know that Soy sauce has gluten? Yea I didn't either. Gluten is hidden in so many things that we use every day. So far I have survived and plan to do everything possible to feel better. I have a great support systems in my family and friends. This is for the rest of my life. I hope that my kids will be spared from having Celiac's as well but there is no guarantee that it won't pop up with them at some point in the future. For now it is one day at a time. If I can get thru a weekend in Las Vegas without gluten that will make me a happy girl.

Slacker or just a Mental Fog..

Really it has been a little bit of both but I will explain that in another post. Since I really want to keep up on blogging, and have been inspired by some great people I have made a decision. Since I am so bad at remembering to post at any regular interval I have set my email to shoot me a reminder everyday. Pathetic I know but right now I really need that. I'm not really in the mood for deep reflection or anything too inspiring at the moment. I am very excited though to be headed back to Vegas in 3 days with the hubby, my sister-in-law and future brother-in-law. I see lots of good memories about to be made.