As usual, time keeps moving like a freight train - or should I say a high speed bullet train!

Last stop: Halloween
All aboard!!
Next stop: Thanksgiving

Which will be here all too soon.



Tomorrow is our 15th wedding anniversary...or is it 150? heheheee You know you've been married awhile when you opt out of anniversary presents for new carpet and new furniture LOL!! Carpet is coming on the 14th & 15th, which means I'll be painting the 10th thru the 13th Thanks for that anniversary present Peg!! Not only have we been married 15 years - our furniture is 15 years old too. I'm having a hard time letting go of my LazyBoy, even though it's held together with chunk of 2x4 and a couple of deck screws. It just got broken in hehehehee

We've been doing pretty well. My feet have settled down a bit. Still have the remnants of a cold. <cough cough>

So...how 'bout the rest of y'all? Let's here from ya!

It's great to "see" you and happy anniversary you guys! 15 years! WOW That is great

Hi Al!

Congratulations to you and Peg on 15 years of marriage!

My son just got engaged about a week ago, with a date set for June 16, 2007. As it turns out, they got engaged the same day that my own parents did (Oct 23, my mom's birthday). They want to get married before she starts medical school, so were looking at June and had honed in on June 16 because her parents and grandparents were both married on June 17...so she wanted that weekend. This BEFORE she knew that my mom and dad were married on June 16, and will be celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary at my son's wedding . So, lets hope this is all a good sign. My future DIL is going to have her bridesmaids dresses and wedding dress designed by her cousin, who just graduated in Fashion Design from UW-Madison. She was talking about wanting Chantilly lace, when my mom piped up and said her dress had been designed and made entirely from Chantilly lace.... so, my DIL might be using the same lace for her dress..but that is still in the works. Anyway... it has been fun!

And of course... just a little over two weeks until Benjamin James comes home... our new Wheaten Terrier pup. And how ironic is it that I found out the Wheaten Terriers are predisposed to gluten sensitivity . He should be safe in our home .

That's all for me!

Cara

P.S. For our 25th wedding anniversay this past August, there were no gifts (I still OWE on my carpet...lol...one of my rare no interest till May 2007 purchases).... and we celebrated by going camping...lol. The important thing is the love . At least that is how we justify it...lol.

Wow Cara! That is a LOT! How exciting

Garsh!!! I can't believe how this year has gone past so quickly!

Congratulations to Al and Peg!! New carpet is an awesome gift... one that you can enjoy everyday!

On a negative note: I glutened everyone yesterday. I found some gf/cf soy cheese in the grocery store and didn't realize until later that it has 'food starch' in it.

What made me realize this? I know everyone is wondering...

Well, in our usually non-gassy family (since being gf), a toot is a pretty rare and yes... funny... and quite a big deal.

So yesterday, dd (our 'non-reactor'), announced that she had tooted FIVE time since lunch. Subsequently, and on into the late evening, she would regale us with toots and allow us the pleasure of knowing exactly,the current number of 'toots' achieved. Every time she did another, the number she counted would be louder and followed by even more hysterical laughter. Last count before laughing herself to sleep was 22!! (between 2 and 9 pm)

This is not the way to get 6 and 8-year old children to stay away from gluten.

Other than that, I too, picked up some odd cold. Although I'm kind of wondering if it's really the 'oregano tea' experiment that I did, going awry. I didn't supp. my probiotics and I think that was a pretty big mistake.

The baby turns a year at the end of this month. This last month, he has taken his first steps and is almost continuously clapping, waving, popping kisses and dancing (bops up and down whilst holding the furniture).

Congrats on the anniversaries!

Its crazy around here today. We are having a new roof put on the house (think loud!), and we're expecting overnight guests in a couple of hours!

Ds (6) is experiencing wet nights again, which means something is getting into his diet that doesn't belong there! Time to do some more detective work. I have been poring over the food logs!

My good news is that I definitely have more energy!

Copy from Child Neuro over on OBT:
Well... we had our DAN! doctor appointment, but the month has been a blur and I can't remember if that was actually at the beginning of October or the end of September? Anyway, blood, urine, stool, and hair samples have all been sent off for testing. We go back in mid-November to find out all the results and decide on our next steps.

The big event of the month was the failure of the washer to quit filling with water. As a result, the bedrooms and hallway have been emptied, carpet and padding removed, vinyl tiles (or whatever they were made of) removed, along with about 2 feet of wallboard along all the walls in the affected area. The area has been treated for asbestos and we are waiting to find out today if they got it all out. Then we have the joys of fixing it all again. Thankfully, we have insurance, but remodeling is not something I'm remotely interested in. And, we're all getting sick of living in a hotel while this gets taken care of.

Tom's big triennial review is coming up at the end of the month. I'm a little excited and scared, wondering what they'll say about him. Now's the time to find out how far my perception of him is from reality.

He had two strange "episodes" at school yesterday, that made the teachers think "seizure." But, he seemed fine afterwards, and if I didn't see it, it doesn't count, right? Anyway, there was no post-ictal type activity, he was fine trick-or-treating, and he stayed up to his normal bedtime, so maybe he was just a little off at school? I'm ignoring it for now.

The kids had a wonderful time trick-or-treating, even though we can't eat most of the candy. I remember as a kid when chocolate candy was the rare, wonderful treat. Now everyone passes it out. Most chocolate kid's candy today has dairy in it. 95% of what they got was chocolate. Very disappointing. I was hoping for more Skittles / Star Bursts / DumDum lollipops. Fortunately, I did have some candy to give them at home (hotel, whatever) in exchange for the "poison."

Guess that's it from my end. I'm very scatterbrained these days from all the house mess.

Wow, looks like October was a hopping month for many of us!

Congrats to Al and Peg on your upcoming anniversary!!

Cara, congrats to your son on his upcoming marriage. It's pretty cool how that has all worked out.

Kim, I'm so sorry about the family glutening. That's so frustrating.

And Kathy, whew, the damage in your house sounds really extensive. At least we were able to stay in our house while they repaired our roof leak last January.

Things have been incredibly hectic here and I got a new dx. Gout. A side effect, apparently, of my kidney disease. So, I'm researching ways to cope with this and trying not to freak out. Mostly I'm hoping it's a one time thing because this attack came on while in the midst of the worst cold I've had in a decade.

Colin is having his regular fall reaction but it does seem to be less intense than previous years. He's doing soooo well otherwise--both physically and behaviorally. I've had several people comment on how laid back he is recently and that's such a laugh to me because before all our dietary changes (GF and Feingold), laid back is the last phrase they would have used to describe him.

Rachel

Hi Rach,

Have you ever had gout before? It's not fun! I've had problems with it for 20+ years [rarely since being GF]. I can see how kidney issues would cause gout [build up of uric acid in your blood stream that settles in your joints - usually in your feet].

Do they have you on Allopurinol or Colchosine? I don't know how those drugs would affect the kidneys.

Gosh - I hope your attack goes away quickly!

Kim - Sorry to hear about all the tooting. Yup - you family could be useful on the train at every train crossing heheee. Holy cow - has is been almost a year for your new guy? WOW...

Thanks gang for all the well wishes

Cara - congrats on your 25th [wow], and the upcoming nuptials!

Good luck to everyone's Home Improvement projects - wanted or unwanted

So far so good We survived Halloween. Oldest was actually happy about trading in most of her candy. She's not gluten free (yet) but with no dairy/no dye...the pickings were slim. I didn't let her do 1:1 trades, I paid $3 for fake M&Ms that didn't have dairy or dye...I figured that was worth at least 3 bags of the real ones

Youngest didn't enjoy the holiday much, she has a nasty rash in her nether region, the dr says its "wait and see" but is taking a sample based on family history of UTI. I was hoping for a magic ointment or something.

My mom is going to ask about getting tested, yay! I strongly suspect her mom, and grandmother had GI if not celiac.

So now we get to plan Thanksgiving. I want to start baking again too, if I could find some flour I feel good about (not Bob's) I'm getting nervous since it was this time last year my body exploded...but I'd just gone gluten free, tried to get enough in me to trigger a test (which was neg) and then ignored CC issues...so I'm hyper-vigilant now.

I just realized that means somewhere around here was my first gf anniversary. Wow.