She chose green?!

Am I really old enough to have a kid in braces?

It's a bullet point kind of day

I feel the need to check in, but I'm not feeling particularly wordy today.  So, bullet points it is...

• I was a proud mama at Monday's Chapel at school.  Kyla led the Bible pledge on stage, Elisan led praise and worship and Kyla's class performed a skit about Moses.

• Both girls played goalie at last weekend's games.  Guess we're training up goalies?  Let me tell you, there ain't anything more stressful than watching your kid play goalie. But, they're pretty darn good at it... Sigh... Valium anyone?

• Last week when we got several inches of rain, TJ decided to cross the ditch full of water to see what was on the other side.  Unfortunately, he wouldn't come back over.  He was mad at me because I would not rescue him. If his barks were translated into words, I'm sure he would have been saying some naughty things to me.

 

• I ran seven miles on Monday.  I was exhausted and felt like garbage the entire day.  I am beginning to think our bodies are just not designed to run more than 3-4 miles at a time.

•  I also have had heartburn and indigestion lately.  What?  Is this what happens when you turn 39 because I'm not sure I like it.

• I just finished booking hotels for our summer vacation.  We're doing the "GO WEST" road trip tour, that will include Big Bend, Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon, Moab and Santa Fe.  I remember this trip from when I was a little girl in our tricked out Ford Conversion Van, complete with 4 Captain's chairs, shag carpet and bed with storage underneath.  

• It's time to freshen up my Spring/Summer wardrobe.  Have I told you how much I hate to shop for clothes for myself?  I loathe it.  Are Nike running shorts appropriate to wear everyday?  Like everywhere?  If that's the case, I'm set! That's all I seem to want to buy and/or wear.

Blog Brain Dump

We're on week five of removing gluten from Elisan's diet. I'm positive I've removed at least 97% of the gluten from her diet, but I'm sure gluten is sneaking in there, in some form or fashion.  (Hidden gluten makes me mad!)  But, I've gotten better at reading labels and making smarter choices for all of us.  What's crazy is that I've always considered our family to be moderately healthy eating family, but I'm quickly discovering that we can be doing better overall. 

Anyway, going back to Elisan...Randy has been a little overzealous in measuring her height.  He measures her every week so see if there has been any change.  Well, I'm happy to report that in ONE WEEK, she grew nearly 1/3 of an inch.  I know, that doesn't seem like a lot, but trust me, it is.  That's the most she has grown in over 4 months.  There might actually be something to this gluten thing afterall.

So, Spring Break was last week and the girls spent their entire break in soccer camp.  The camp began at 8:00 a.m. and lasted until 5:00 p.m.  I was sad that I didn't get to spend more time with them over their break, but they had so much fun! I think they enjoyed the camp more than they would have enjoyed hanging out with me.  (Sigh...)  At the end of each day, they were exhausted to say the least.  But, they were ready to go back the next day! 

I love this picture of the girls.  Look at them both.  Sitting on their knees, while all of the other kids are sitting cross-legged.  Don't they look like twins? 

Randy bought Formula 1 seat options today.  I said "seat options" not tickets!  Oh, you didn't know there was such a thing?  Well, I didn't either!

Apparently, it's like we're now season ticket holders, but without the tickets.  We "own" the rights to the seats, but have to actually purchase the F1 race tickets. But, with the seat option, we have rights to purchase tickets for all venues at the F1 arena in Austin.  Randy is beyond excited.  He called me earlier to tell me that he selected our option seats on the front row at the finish line.  I can see ear plugs in my future. Hopefully, come November 18th, I'll be attending my very first Formula 1 race, which incidentally will also be the debut F1 race in America! Whoohoo!

Spring Pictures

We had such beautiful weather on Saturday, I seized the opportunity to capture my cuties for their Spring pictures. Despite the wind, I was able to get a few that I really love!

Here are my favorite individual pictures.

I love this one of the girls together!

And this captures them perfectly!

And of course, no photo shoot is complete
without a little silliness mixed in!

I'm no expert

Okay Y'all!  Let me be honest... I'm no expert in all things gluten free.  In fact, since we've only been doing the gluten-free diet for Elisan for three weeks, I'd say I'm pretty much a novice, newbie, green behind the ears (whatever that means.)

The last three weeks of GF eating have been okay.  I've experimented with baking breads (in a bread machine) and making pizza dough, cookies and cupcakes from a gluten free mix.  Elisan's biggest complaint is sandwich bread slices.  But, she's content eating fresh deli meat and a cheese stick for lunch, in lieu of a sandwich. 

Elisan is also a BIG snacker.  Not like in the way of eating all day long... more in the way of the quality of snack foods presented to her.  She doesn't like the gluten free crackers and will only eat fruit when it suits her, so I've had to brainstorm a few snack ideas.

This snack is very portable which makes it great for a school snack or after sports practices.  And, Kyla likes it too, which is great, because she has felt "left out" with the gluten free diet... (GO FIGURE!) 

(Disclaimer: I never said it was "healthy" so to speak.  It's just a fun snack to keep around.  And be sure to double check your ingredients for gluten free status.  All the ingredients shown are GF, but do your homework!)

So here it is...

Elisan's Marshmallow Chocolaty Chex Mix
(Gluten Free)

1 cup Chocolate Rice Chex
2 cups Popcorn  (Freshly popped on the stove, with olive oil.  Salt to taste.)
2 packages "Fun Size" M&Ms
1/2 cup of Kraft Mini-Marshmallows
1 small box of Sun-Maid Yogurt Covered Raisins
Optional: Handful of shelled roasted peanuts

Mix prepared ingredients in a large bowl and serve. Serves 2-3

Enjoy!

Blog Brain Dump {... a and sigh of relief...}

I've got a doozie of a story to tell you. It's so weird that Randy and I are still scratching our heads over it.

Saturday morning, I woke up from a really vivid dream. I rolled over and nudged Randy awake and I told him about my dream. I dreamt that he was offered a job in Denmark working for the same company he worked for previously.

(For those of you that don't know, Randy took a job in Denmark over 8 years ago. The job was a temporary assignment and we were there for only 6-7 months, but we have very fond memories of the overall experience.)

Well, Randy called me yesterday morning from work and he said, "Tell me about your dream about a job offer in Denmark again." I told him and then he said, "I just got offered a job in Denmark." (The job was at the same company he worked for previously, but this time, he was offered a manager position.)

As you can imagine, I began freaking out! I mean, who dreams about a job offer in Denmark only for it to come to pass 3 days later?! (And really, 8 years later from the time he first worked there?)

Y'all, I was ready to pack my bags, sell the house and move! I was so excited about the prospect of moving back to Denmark, especially now that the girls are 8 and 10 years old (not 8 weeks and 2 years old) that I could hardly sit still. Randy even seriously considered the job offer, but ultimately, he turned down the position.

I know that moving to Denmark right now is not feasible with our current lifestyle, kids established in school and all of the other things we have going on at the moment. But, don't think for a second I wasn't giddy with excitement. In fact, I'm a little sad that Randy could not accept the offer.

But seriously... the dream foreshadowing the offer? That's very strange. (Anyone have any thoughts about this?!)

So, sigh of relief... my computer is fixed! Apparently, I clicked on a rogue link that inevitably sucked the life out of my computer. What's weird is that I'm pretty good about NOT clicking on random/weird links. Randy thinks the rogue link was disguised as a link from our virus scanner. Clever, no? Those computer hackers are getting too smart for us.

After reformatting the hard drive, I can happily say that my computer is back to normal. And I cannot say enough about having a back up system for your computer. Had it not been for my massive external hard drive... well, let's just say... I would still be in bed right now... grieving.

The moral of the story is... get thyself to an electronic store and buy a big 'ol back up drive and save everything there.

And I leave you with this. Another installment of "Not For The Squimish"!

These photos are from the weekend games. Elisan is number 33. That's my girl!