Andy

Aunty La

She's battling stage 4 cancer right now. And I'm not so sure what kind of fight she's really putting up regarding all of this, or how much she's just thrown her hands in the air about it. I know this was all a bit of a shock to her, yet she has said many times she's "ready to go home to Jesus". She's 80, so according to her thats good enough, but in my mind, I always visualized her living to 100. Or forever.
Her quality of life has gone downhill the last 4 years so our relationship hasn't been the same as it always was my entire life. She's been a second mother to me. We have always been very connected in a special way and I leached on to her because I got more from her than I did anyone else; which was patience. I think she was the only person who COULD deal with me and more importantly, wanted to.
Her doctors give her about 6 months to live if she does not go through treatments but if she is strong and can be vigilant and willing, she can make it up to 1-2 years. This is all up to her, but my fear is that she won't see the worth in that. She never has put much value on herself or her needs, and has always been a "cup 1/2 empty" kind of person. I'm afraid this will haunt us all while we pray for her treatment in this. I can only just pray for peaceful serenity and a good quality of life during her remaining times with us.

Thrill of the Hunt

Happy Easter 2011

Easter Glam Fam

Last time I wore lipstick (not counting the New York wedding)... hmmmm, I'm not sure. But let me just say that I observed a funny smell from the lipstick. May be time for new make up.
Or not. Since I rarely wear it.

After we picked the girls up from Sunday school we took a picture by the bunny on the wall. (for obvious reasons). Observe Kelli stuffing 8 jelly beans into her mouth all at once.

Outside church, Sydney put on a concert for everyone.
(with her backup dancer)

Gi Appt, Andy's Birthday

Kelli had a follow up with her GI doctor at Dell Children's Hospital. We are still looking for answers regarding all of her intestinal and digestive issues. The doctor is concerned about her distended belly and with my history/diagnosis of Celiac Disease, he's leaning towards the likelihood of Kelli having this as well, but she's so young for all the testing to come out accurate. But in order to prevent her any further suffering, we're going ahead with the upper endoscope next Friday April 29th. In the meantime she has to be on a high-gluten diet and that's been difficult just in the last few days as I can tell how hard that is on her. She's up all night in pain, her belly is huge all day and she's back to having problems with digesting and bowel movements. This poor kid. She's so afraid to eat, too, and hardly picks a thing. But when she gets desperate she'll scarf down a big snack.

I took them to the gym Friday and they had a blast at KidsKlub while I did a run and some free weights. Normally Kelli cannot be there more than 45 minutes but I got almost an hour and 45 minutes in of working out!

My gift to Andy for his birthday! It's to hang at the lake house. Haha!!! I cracked up when the artist sent me the rough draft. How can you NOT buy it?

Andy had a piece of cake before Sydney got to sing happy birthday, she wasn't happy about that so we lit the candles again and she sang to him the next day.

On Saturday we made Easter "cancakes"!!

My little chef takes baking very seriously.

SCD aint too bad I guess

I found a website that sells "SCD bread" made out of nut flours. It's really small and very 'tender'. But I'm able to have my "bread satisfaction". It doesn't toast well but it's like eating a sandwhich on french toast. Soft and chewy. I love cranberries with cashews!

This is one of my favs! My SCD banana pancakes. You use 1 banana, pinch of baking soda, 2 eggs and 1/4 cup of peanut butter; mix it all together and pour onto griddle for pancakes. They come out perfectly! They taste wonderful and are packed with protein! I add fruit and honey on top but they're also good just plain!

Cooking from the garden!

decided that with my diet being this "whole approach" I have to incorporate as many varieties of foods as possible so I know I'm getting all the nutrients I need. So for lunch, I decided to whip up a batch of cabbage (purple and green) and mixed in some broccoli florettes, green onions, purple asparagus, and garlic. I sauteed it all in coconut oil and then let it simmer for a bit. Turned out SO good!

Kinda looks like a mardi gras meal? Maybe I'll call it that. I threw in some herbs from my garden, too and it added the perfect flavors. I decided I needed some extra protien and diced up some turkey for the top. Satisfied me for a couple hours. I still want some potato chips though.

Thinking HEALTH... thinking no more migraines... thinking I will sleep better, have more energy.

Oh, and since being gluten free for two weeks Sydney's asthma and coughing has completely disappeared. It was almost INSTANT, as well. No longer up at night (all night) coughing and she hasn't had any "bowel issues" either. Don't know about everyone else, but so far gluten seems to have a tremendous effect on our family!

Strikers Easter Egg Hunt

Following practice on Tuesday, I had filled and set out 80 eggs for the kids to chase after and uncover. A little overboard, I know. But they had fun.

Each kid was supposed to get 10 eggs each, but somehow a bunch only got 3, 4 or 7 etc.

Wondering why they all came up short, they quickly formed a Union and called a strike against anyone opening eggs until we all got a full count in each bag!

We learned Julia was a little too quick on her feet. She had almost 23 eggs in her bag!!! haha! We got it covered and figured out, she was more than happy to hand out her 'extras' to the team. I think she really just had more fun picking up the eggs and finding them anyway.

Andy told the team to huddle in for a secret and then suddenly all the kids screamed "THANK YOU MISS SARAAAAAA!!!!!" that was cute.

Kelli figured all her work was done after she'd helped me earlier. Each time I laid an egg down, she picked it up and spilled the candy out "I see num-nums!". Uh huh. No more Kelli, we have to HIDE the eggs. And repeat that about 20x before another soccer mom intervened and helped me out!