Umm...so it is a little late..no fault of our own...

What has everybody been up to???

Let's see. Last roll call in July, we had just lost our Golden Retriever. We still miss her terribly, but are beginning to think toward the future.... we are thinking of a smaller and non-shedding dog. Top runners are a poodle, bichon frise, or wheaten terrier. The bichon and wheaten only rank about 40th on the dog intelligence scale, where as poodles are 2nd, and golden retrievers are 4th. We are trying to figure out how important that is!

August...besides missing this place, I celebrated my 25th Anniversary with my husband, and I made a new generation of The Gluten File. Thanks for the nudge, sleepingbean! Oh...my daughter was in a little musical theatre production~ and she did a super job on her solo voice and dance part. Much of our summer was wrapped up in that.

My youngest doesn't start school until the after Labor Day, and we are going to Colorado for my niece's wedding on Sept 2.

Otherwise, I've actually been enjoying summer...we HAD ONE this year!!

I'd love to hear what everyone has been up to during our absence.

Cara

We have had a busy busy summer. Oh my!

First Colin: He's had a lot of summer half-day camps which have kept us both hopping. He did some rock climbing and just really loved it. I think it's pretty amazing to see my ataxic child up climbing on rocks (harness or not!) and feeling happy and confident about it! He's struggling with some tough changes though. His favorite cousin has joined the army and who knows when we'll see him next. And two of his closest friends (sisters) are moving away at the end of this week. He's just heartbroken about it.

Now me: I did a trial of Armour thyroid and had awful insomnia and other symptoms on it. My doc blew me off and I decided I would change docs as soon as summer was done and things had settled down and I went back to synthroid in the meantime. Then I started having some leg pain and called my doc (since I hadn't switched yet) only to find out that she has suddenly retired (she's younger than I am). So I saw a nurse practitioner who checked for a DVT (since I had one while pregnant) and ran some blood tests. And now I've heard nothing more from her. Sigh. So I have an appt with a new doc next month and I'm just trying to make it through until then. Very frustrating!! I hope to try Armour again and this new doc will supposedly help with that.

More in another post when I track down my blood test results that I want to ask about.

Overall, things are good. I'm loving seeing Colin do a lot of new things and I really think 9 is a great age. Soooo much easier than 8 which consisted mostly of "NO!". LOL! We actually have intelligent conversations and he's just a delight to be around!

Rachel

Roll Call? What's roll call?!? heheee

Things have been busy here at the Al n Peg household...

-Do Video scrapbook for my niece's wedding.
-A Trip to CO for the wedding.
-Play photographer at the wedding. Peg was the offical wrangler - getting people where they needed to be for pictures. Kinda like herding squirrels. I must say everyone was great to work with!
-Stained glass projects
-Home Movie conversions
-Weed thru 600 pictures to assemble an album for the Bride & Groom [I think it would've been easier to buy them a present LOL!].

Man...it's a wonder I find time to work!! LOL!!

EDIT - I almost forgot...Peg starts a new full time job on Sept. 11th. It's at a memory clinic [Alzheimer's], 1 of 3 in the state, so she's pretty excited about it. She's not sure about working full time tho.

Al & Peg hard at work





We did manage to do something other than "work" in CO. We stopped at Deby's for a great GF lunch!! Met up with some people from another board.





Monica is the gal in the black shirt in front of me. If you want to see a few more pics of Deby's, look here and here

Wow, I am glad we can all get back together. We went on a family vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina the first 2 weeks of August. Now we are getting ready for school to start next Monday.

My yonger son is doing a great job on his gluten, dairy, soy, egg, legume, citrus fruit, pineapple, peanut and tree nut free diet. My York test showed that I had a high (off the chart) reaction to most of these same foods. I am pleased to report that after removing them from my diet and adding a digestive enzyme (recommended by my son's nutritionist) that I have had a substantial decrease in the tingling in my legs and feet.

My daughter just made the JV field hockey team despite still being anemic. She has an appointment with Dr. Fasano later this week because she really has not responded to iron supplementation.

My older son has been away most of the summer. He comes back today so I guess it will be time to get another computer. He will be a senior in High School and can't put off researching colleges any longer.

--Judy

Good to hear that everyone so far has had a good summer.

Rachel, hooray for Colin! Hope you find the answers to your continuing problems.

Cara, again, sorry about the loss of your beautiful dog. If you are going to get another dog, I was going to suggest a Cairn Terrier cause I have one and I think she is great. But a CT is only 35 on the list of intelligence - I really think she is smarter than that. Terrier's can be very stubborn. Of course all the dogs will probably come up a notch or two in intelligence when they are fed a GF diet.

This summer I have visited my younger son in WI. On the way to his home, I stopped by to see Cara and Al & Peg. It was a great trip. Then I headed out to TN to my DH's family reunion. I think the only reason he took me was to take pictures of everyone for him. Then off to New Jersey to see my sister. I still have to find a time to go to Seattle to see my older son and his wife.

I am going to the International Conference on CE in Nov in NYC!!! Both Linda and I will be heading there. This conference will be awsome. http://www.celiacdiseasecenter.colum...um/index.html# Take a look at the programs.

Yup, so far it has been a good summer.
Anne

Sure...rub it in why don't ya...

LOL!!!

You gotta take good notes...that a requirement!! Oh...and share them!!

Wow, I'm so glad Brain Talk is back up, even if just temporarily. It crashed during a time of crisis for me, so I was bummin' not being able to ask questions of the BTers. I was getting increasingly frustrated with my digestive problems. I found Laura from the Gluten Challenge website, and at least e-mailed her. I started on the SCD diet out of desperation to try to help my digestive problems, and joined a couple of SCD forums. The SCD diet made gluten-free, dairy-free, & corn-free look like a cake walk. I lost 5 pounds on that diet in about 6 weeks, and I'm not someone that needs to lose weight. I also got tested for parasites - nada.

Then, I did a food sensitivity test (IgG) through Metametrix Lab at the end of July. The results came back: moderate sensitivity to lamb, soybeans, almonds, and sesame; mild sensitivity to peanuts, cashews, and sunflower seeds. Not convinced that these sensitivities were my problem, I started eating other carbs (except for my other know sensitivities) and drank New Grist beer, in an effort to induce diarrhea. I haven't had any since I stopped eating these foods I tested sensitive for. I even ate a whole box of Pamela's chocolate chunk gluten free cookies on day (hey, I was celebrating my 40th b-day and my hubby wasn't going to bake me a gluten free cake!), with no diarrhea! I'm soooo happy to be able to eat more food and not be hungry all the time.

My doc still wants me to do a colonoscopy, but I don't want to do it if it doesn't change my treatment, i.e. leaving foods out of my diet.

Hey Al, I wish I'd know you were coming through Colorado. I live in Boulder. You're welcome to stop in anytime.

So besides starting to resolve my digestive problems, I hope, I turned 40 and my cat that I'd had for 14 years passed away, or I should say, she got carried away. She made a nice snack for the local fox. Her hearing was going, and she got nabbed one night when I didn't bring her in. All I found was a pile of fur in the neighbor's yard. Sad, but true .

Claire

Claire,

We will be in Superior/Louisville, Colorado, over Labor Day weekend for my neice's wedding. Pretty sure that is just outside of Boulder. We should exchange phone numbers at least. I'm not sure how hectic things will be, but we might be able to sneak away for a quick meeting. I don't want to promise before we get there, though...as my days might be planned for me already!

Cara

Thanks Claire!!

Like Cara, it was a family trip with a pretty tight schedule. I'll remember that for the next time. Maybe for a really vacation...now there's a novel idea LOL!!

Oh no, that's terrible.

Hey, the IGg test sounds interesting. I'm still having issues with diarrhea. Is there any sort of testing I could order outside of my doctor?

I heard Dr. Fine speak in San Diego a few weeks ago and he mentioned they're going to be doing a much more exhaustive intolerance panel once they work out a few more glitches. I will definitely have it done, I'd like to get beyond this diarrhea.