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Friday, March 25, 2011

LEAD ME LYRICS - SANCTUS REAL

LEAD ME LYRICS - SANCTUS REAL

I have heard this song many times but I guess I have never really listened to the words. I was driving in the car today with only Livi since my mom had the other kids. It is a very sobering song. I was chewing on the words.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Craziness

There are so, so many happenings right now. When I can I think I'll write about them all. Right now many lights are out in my house. Another shower in the light of a flashlight. ;) My life is pure craziness at every turn. I am beyond the point of crying. I think I'll just start laughing. I have my suspicions of what the Lord may be teaching me through all this...

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Gluten-free Cornbread and Chili

This is so comforting to me! I would actually buy Gluten-free Cornbread and Gluten-free brownies over the regular ones. They are so yummy! I got the Betty Crocker brownies from Target and Gluten Free Pantry yankee cornbread & muffin mix from Akins. The chili is really yummy too. Here is the recipe:

1 lb. ground beef
Onions (I used chopped frozen onions)
1 8oz can tomato sauce
14 oz. can diced tomatoes (undrained)
14 oz. can Rotel (undrained)
14 oz. can pinto beans
2 Alarm Chili kit (Gluten-free *other chili seasoning packages may have gluten!)
I used half the ingredients of all the packages in box (I left out the red pepper):
salt
Masa flour
paprika
cumin/oregano
chili pepper
onion/garlic

Brown meat and onions drain. Add all ingredients (except Masa flour) and boil, then simmer for about 30 min. Add masa flour and simmer for a little longer.

Friday, March 11, 2011

At Grandma and Grandpa's and a Celiac update


Kiddoes having a good time at Grandma & Grandpas while the Home and Garden Show was going. We are getting a new kitchen floor and are thinking about getting stained concrete. I think it is so pretty.

And...I want to give an update on Celiac Disease. I will probably put some stuff on here every now and then in case it would help anyone else. I know I have been searching for a lot of information. So, I think I have mentioned before that I have been having "attacks" ever since I was pregnant with Liv. Once Derrick and I thought I was miscarrying her and I had a very terrible pain that I can hardly describe. He took me to the emergency room and I was in such pain, crying, and scared. I could hardly sit in the car. It went away not long after we got to the hospital. I ended up getting my gallbladder checked out for possible gall stones. It was fine. After Liv was born I had an attack that was so terrible I ended up at Urgent Care hooked up to an I.V. for dehydration. Then, after the Gall Bladder looked good I was sent to a Gastro doctor and he did an endoscopy looking for ulcers and didn't find any. He said he thought I had Gastritis or possible Reflux. I knew something was terribly wrong with my body and would just have random attacks. They would come like a "thief in the night." Such pain (among other things) that I lose atleast two hours of sleep when I have one. Then I am extremely weak the next morning and have a hard time taking care of the kids. It is always nice if it hits on a weekend! Pepto Bismal has been a close friend of mine for the past 10 months. I have sent Derrick out for it at an hour such as 3 a.m. for it a couple of times. He has always been so sweet about it and known how desperate I am for it. I started researching Celiac's Disease and found that I had symptoms like the ones that were described. I even found out it's connected to autoimmune disorders people in my family have/had. And, this crazy heart pain that I have had since I was a child that feels like there is a knife in my chest and causes difficulty in breathing.

So, I took a blood test and came out with a weak positive (IGG). That seemed like a big deal to me but it is possible to have that with other gastro disorders so it is not exactly specific to the disease. So, I heard to be diagnosed you have to have an Endoscopy (it's the Gold Standard). Well, I had already had one but the dr. didn't suspect Celiac's so he didn't biopsy my villi to check for damage. I went back to him fully prepared to beg him to do another one and check that. You see, I know me. There are two reasons why I wanted that done instead of just going on a gluten-free diet to see if that helped. You have to stay on gluten for the test results to be accurate because your body will heal itself if you stay away from gluten and you will test negative. The first reason I want the diagnosis is because if I don't have it I will think,"Well, I can have a cookie...maybe I don't really have it (Celiac's)..." The second reason is because I want to know without a shadow of doubt what is wrong with me. I want to be well. I will stay away from whatever it is that causes it. I love food. But, when I am in the middle of an attack and have extreme nausea or when I am feeling extreme fatigue I KNOW it is not worth it. And, wait, here is a third reason. If you have Celiac's and continue putting gluten in your body the damage will worsen. It could lead to many other issues, including Cancer. An article from the Mayo clinic said the following about a study, "The study also found that subjects who unknowingly had celiac disease were nearly four times as likely as celiac-free subjects to have died during the 45 years of follow-up."


So, I went back into the Gastro dr. He said it was just a weak positive and wanted to know if, again, I wanted a prescription. I didn't take the last prescription he gave because I am nursing and would rather not take medicine but see what I can do with my diet. I said no I did not. He was not taking me seriously and said maybe I have IBS. I then told him that I didn't think I had stressed to him how sick I am and I think a "weak" positive is something to look into. He said he was sure I would come out negative and he didn't like the blood test I had. But, apparently, somehow he knew I was pleading and looked me in the eye and said, "But, okay, I'll do it." I was also about to ask that he give me the blood test he did like and he had already written that out for me to do.

That brings me up to this week. I was laying in the hospital bed for my procedure and after he greeted me and before he did the procedure he said, "Well, I just got a text from my nurse and it looks like you're pretty positive for Celiac's." I would say he had a bit of a "change of heart". ;) The endoscopy results won't be in until next week but the paper and pictures he gave me after the procedure have words on them that they look for with Celiac's disease. It said I had atrophy and "slightly flattened duodenal folds." The nurse told me the next morning that my test was a low positive but this time for IGA, which is a specific marker for Celiac's disease. A very high percentage (I want to say 90% but need to check my numbers) of people that have a positive for this have Celiac's.

They have not told me to begin the gluten-free diet yet but I have already begun because I am ready to be well and not put poison in my body. It is so complicated though!!! Wheat is in lipstick, soy sauce, RICE krispies (malt)...Lots of things you wouldn't suspect. Like, just today, I went to Akin's and got Gluten-free cornbread and then got stuff at Target to make chili. I could not believe it when I read the label on the chili seasoning. It had wheat in it. Luckily, I discovered 2-Alarm Chili Seasoning is Gluten-free. Yay! Then, there is the matter of cross-contamination. You could kiss someone that had eaten gluten, make your children pb&j...and it could set you into an attack. I think some people are more sensitive than others and attacks vary. You could order a chocolate shake and hope that a Cookies n Cream one wasn't made just before and left any gluten on the machine. Or find out the chocolate ice cream has wheat in it too (I heard Blue Bell's chocolate ice cream has it)! Or you could order fries and hope that chicken nuggets weren't made in the same fryer. Order an omelet and discover they make toast on the same grill...It's going to be a journey. But, one good thing is that I already knew I needed to make changes and was putting unhealthy things in my body. Although, you could still have opportunity to indulge in certain foods that are gluten-free too. And I do know God will use it for my good.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

California Day 2

This day we went to San Francisco! We had a really yummy breakfast. Then we went to the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. It was so neat!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

A Firefighter's Wife: The Spiritual Man/Woman

Once again God has used Stacie to speak to my heart at the moment of need. Especially the part that said, "Can I confront in love? If I can't, I should not make a stand. I should choose to keep silent (my emphasis). Until the Lord, works on my heart enough to be loving, my rebuke is futile. This is true with my husband and my children."



A Firefighter's Wife: The Spiritual Man/Woman: "I wanted share with you a section in my 'Living Beyond Yourself' Bible study by Beth Moore. It touched my heart in more ways then one and I ..."