Claire,

I am so sorry to hear about your cat. I missed reading that the first time through this thread. I know how difficult it is to lose a pet you love. I'm really sorry to hear about HOW you lost her . A similar thing happened to my aunt's small dog~ they live on a wooded lake and the dog just disappeared. They believe some predator got her, too. You just don't really think of those things happening, but sadly they do.

My thoughts are with you.

Cara

It's good to see Braintalk (or something like it) back up again.

Just like everybody else's life, it's been pretty busy here. We went on 3 vacations this summer: NYC, Boston, and northern Michigan. (Josie's Restaurant in NYC did an awesome job of feeding us safe food that matched the allergy requirements of everybody at the table.) I'm 4 months pregnant, in my first gluten-free pregnancy -- a much easier pregnancy than any of my four previous ones. And our (gluten-free) teenage exchange student arrived from Germany, right in the middle of heightened airport security that caused her to miss a flight connection and unexpectedly get stuck in Chicago overnight. But she's here now and we all already adore her. Now we're learning how to register a kid for high school -- a surprisingly complicated process that we've never attempted before, so we are learning a lot about how to do it.

Congratulations to everybody with good news -- especially to Mrs. Bear, who got married. And condolences to everybody with bad news, especially the folks who mentioned lost pets.

-Valerie

Yipee! Everyone is back together again. I worried about all those people who needed direction and encouragement and hoped they found it while our site was down.

All is well here. I am off all asthma medicine. Not asthma afterall-just gluten. Sometimes I want to eat wheat (uck-poison) just to see if I still react. That would be crazy right? My heart doesn't double beat. My asthma and throat swelling and reflux and yeast infections are completely gone. Pain in belly and digestive symptoms are all gone. What more do I need to prove I am gluten intolerant? And to be honest the thought of eating wheat or drinking beer is disgusting to me. I would rather eat glass. I did change my flour mix for breads and cakes to 100% brown rice flour and with the addition of 1 tablespoon of xanthum gum, methycellulose, and yeast and the usual egg and sugar I have a perfect bread with great fiber and nutrition.

Husband hasn't had a thyroiditis or autoimmune ear disease attack in 1 and 1/2 years now even though he occasionally gets a bit of wheat. He will eat soy sauce and corn flakes... He won't check the little things. But it seems to work for him.

My daughter went to a summer camp at University of Alaska at Fairbanks and lost 5 pounds in two weeks becuase she didn't eat meat or gluten. This actually worked for her and now we know she won't gain the freshman 15 next year!

Good health to all,
Leslie

That is great news Leslie! I have my daughter read your posts for encouragement as she is also weaning from her asthma meds. She totally stopped her accolate and is using the serevent every other day.

The doctor put her on prenatal vitamins and it seems to be giving her more energy.

I bet your daughter is excited about college. Is she going to live on campus? My daughter will start college next year. She is debating on commuting or staying on campus.

ditto and congrats Valerie on your pregnancy!