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!!

I've missed lurking over here. We took our first GF vacation in July, and BrainTalk crashed sometime while we were away. We had a mini-family reunion in Colorado. It was the one thing I was worried about when we started the GF diet. I bought a toaster oven for the trip (never owned one before, so I didn't feel guilty about throwing an old one away). I made bread mix so that we could have sandwiches. Of course, I forgot to actually *bring* the mix. Fortunately, one of our hotel stops was on the trendy side of town and we were able to buy the various flours I needed. Anyway, things went very well, although I did get tired of peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.

When we returned from our trip, Tom started summer school. (He missed the first week and a half, due to our trip.) I saw his teacher's aide from preschool. She told me her 4 year old dog was not doing well, with a swollen abdomen. Her dog had surgery that week. I sent her to DogtorJ's site. She seemed very interested. Maybe I'll have an update for you next year at this time.

After 4 months I finally received my "Garden of Eating" cookbook from Amazon. I have been enjoying it, as I try to cut back on some of the grains we are eating and branch out in our fruit and vegetables choices. The girls actually shocked me the other day by arguing over who got to eat the last of the leftover squash! (I've been cooking double for supper, so that we have plenty of leftovers for lunch. There was no need to argue, as there was plenty to eat.)

Guess I did not wait long enough. After 4 months I cancelled my order.
Anne

took spme cajun dancing lessions with my hubby, really enjoyed them alot!
Joined a health club intown and am so impressed with the services they offer.
time to get in shape!Hope to wear a bikini by next year and be proud of how I look. 15 pounds to loose...not bad.
still happily working my foot care job. School started up again for my hubby, he teaches classical and jazz guitar at ULL here in lafayette, louisiana. love it here even though it has been HOT HOT HOT!
bizi

I can't believe that we are back online (kind of anyway!). It is so great to hear from everyone!

Things have been hectic for us. I will try to be brief. We ordered Michael his first wheelchair this week - he's very excited about it! The girls, ages 4 and 13, are both being tested for Celiac. They took their blood just yesterday so we should have some news next week. The 4 yr old is constipated and has not gained any weight in 1 year. The 13 yr old is lactose intolerant, ADD, mild hypertension and has a fast heart beat. She was in the hosp this summer with high blood pressure (162/85) and her heart racing.

I also pressured them into doing the CeliaGene testing since we know for sure that Michael is a DQ2. I would really like to know if the girls have either gene.

We just finished a bathroom remodel. Those are always fun!! The finished product is nice though since we made it handicap accessible for Michael. For those people that haven't heard yet, the docs were not able to confirm Michael's Celiac Disease through bx. However, they did confirm Gluten Intolerance and Gluten Ataxia. We will try again in 3 years with a 6 month gluten trial and then bx.

I feel like I am missing something. That might be the big (medical) items that have happened to us since we have all spoken last.

I hope everyone is doing well. I sure have missed 'talking' or 'listening' to everyone here! Glad to be back!!