What I've Been Quiet About...

These headaches, we just passed my one year anniversary of their on-set, it happened to be the Monday before Valentine's Day.  I've been fairly quiet on the blog about these headaches, mainly because I don't want to be a big downer each time someone comes to check out our happenings.  I also don't want people to see how frustrating the whole thing's been for me (it has gotten really bad at more than one point).  But here are two things I thought were important enough to share:

1. The medication I take daily for my headaches also causes my hair to fall out-think post-partum, and it makes my nails break super easily; as well as lowered my blood pressure to low levels.  This actually took me took me awhile to figure out-thanks to a very observant doctor (not my neurologist, but a DO)  We found out I had super low vit-D levels in August.  In December I looked at the side-effects of Topimax again and that's when we found out that the medication was causing all the other issues (plus it makes me angry if I take too high a dose-no joke).  The good news is that if/when I stop, the effects will all go away.  I have found, in the past two months, a Rx level that works for me (by splitting my dose between night and morning), and it keeps the headaches at bay w/o me being angry.
2. I have over the past month been trying something else out for our family.  Aidan was having another flair-up, and we were worried that he might have to be put on another round of steroids (just as he started to grow too), so I went to the temple and the thought came afterwards: what if he never out-grew that corn "sensitivity" he had as a baby? (All 4 of my kids once they started eating until they were out of diapers, would get blister rashes if they ate anything with any type of corn product in it -corn flour, meal, starch...-and they got it from me, I was the same way).  The thought was quickly followed by another, what it I never outgrew it either? (I've always had different issues all throughout my life).  So 4 weeks ago we took out ALL corn products from our diet (that's right-no corn syrup-it's in everything!!), along with soy-just to be safe.  And my headaches have never been under better control, Aidan's doing great (the rest of the kids are far less gassy), and as a bonus-my weight is down 2-3 pounds.

The cutting out corn was both easy and difficult.  I can live without cake mixes-I've got cookbooks to help me out there.  I found a bread that the kids like that doesn't use corn syrup the first day I looked (I found  second kind just this week, so we're up to two brands now); I found a good lunch meat (both turkey and ham) that are corn syrup/starch-free as well.  The kids are a bit sad that pop corn is going to be a by-gone treat, that hot dogs for grilling over the summer are out (but we made that up to them by having bacon cheeseburgers on President's day).  I already make homemade ice cream all summer long, so that's not a problem, and my dad already came to my rescue with some wonderful brownie recipes (so happy).  I can live without cream of mushroom soup, I will cry this summer when I have to pass up corn on the cob though.

But I know it's working, two weeks into this and Eric and I went out to eat.  I'm sure the bbq sauce had corn syrup in it (they all do), who knows what the bun was made of, I know that Panko uses corn in it (zucchini chips), and we had store bought ice cream (loaded with corn syrup).  I woke up the next morning with a migraine worse than I had had in months and the kids all had sore tummies from the ice cream.  And because it's working I can give up caramel (as in Milky Way Dark), but thank goodness Reese's are totally safe!!

President's Day or the day we finished off a bunch of scouting requirements

For one reason or another Aidan has been missing his 5 mile hike with compass and map requirement for his 2nd, and consequently 1st, class scout advancements.  Even though he's gone on plenty of 5 mile hikes as a deacon, they've just never remembered to pull out the map/compass for him (his 11 yo leaders just hadn't had time to get around to it before he turned 12 last year-oops).

And when Aidan turned 12 initially, Eric was also in YM, which meant we had very limited weekends to perform the hike-that and it was 115+ outside (no joke).

So we finally headed out over President's Day to the Riparian Preserve to do both the Eagle to Cache course and complete the hiking requirement.  Why stay so close?  Well, we weren't sure how long the girls would hold out.

And it was a good thing too, since about 2 miles into it I looked down and realized Aidan was wearing MY running shoes-not his grubby scout shoes.  So they were at least 2 sizes to large, and that's before you consider the fact that I wear orthotics, so they had no padded foot bed in them.  But he was a trooper and continued on, finishing with "tired feet".

We found marker #4 to begin with, so we ended with #3 of 15.  All in all it went really well-only 2 or 3 of the 15 markers were missing, but we figured out where the next one should be just fine.

We ended the whole adventure by feeding the ducks, I always keep a bag of bird seed in the car just for these occasions.

Feb 12 in 12

While Maddie was in school, it was time for a quick shopping trip.  This was my first of three needed stores for the week, also up: Costco and Sprouts.

Surprise Valentine goodie bags for the kids, I am going to be their hero (especially the 7th grader who doesn't get a party this year).

Ugh, it's laundry day.  I HATE laundry day.  I don't mind sorting it, or washing it; but rather, it's the folding and the putting away of the laundry I can't stand.  Oh well, a necessary evil.

Picking up Maddie and cousin Roan from preschool-it's a fabulous day too!

Finally getting around to fixing Maddie's little Red Ridding Hood costume (it's only been on the mending pile for 4 weeks).

Costco with Little Red Ridding Hood-at least she left the basket at home :)

I never did post a "finished product" of the laundry room.  But we went with stacked W/D in December when the old ones died (mid-cycle too), and just two weeks ago we finally got some shelves in here.  I may hate laundry, but I'm really happy with the open-ness of the laundry room now.

Davin showing off his articulated paper doll/warrior guy he made (I just put in the brads for him).

Little Red Ridding Hood and friends enjoying the fabulous day with a "picnic".

Jr High homework never ends.

Nightly scriptures.

These four practicing a play, can you guess which one?  I'll give you one hint: Maddie picked it.

Maddie's Field Trip

Maddie had a great field trip to the pet store with her preschool class.  And I have to say, it was pretty cool.

They brought out a Guinea Pig, followed by a hamster in a funny little wheel "car" (he insisted on going backwards).

Next came the baby Ferret, the kids had lots of fun petting the "furry" animals before moving onto the reptiles.

My sweet girl (who insisted on wearing this hat) was all for holding any and all reptiles, starting with the bearded dragon.

The fat-tailed gecko didn't want to be held, but Maddie was happy to poke at it anyway.

Awe, a cute little corn snake.  How fun, Maddie had to hold it twice.

And of course, she also had to hold the baby python.  I'm so proud of my girl, she's not afraid of animals.

Last up, all the colorful fish!

Thanks Petco, for a great time!

Sometimes You Really DO Need to Fight With Your Kids...

The boys got their Nerf disk guns for Christmas, and Eric got his just two days later.  We've had countless Nerf-wars fights, and the boys all love it.

Our front room/entry works really well for a battle: with the dinning room around the corner, the stairs, and the landing upstairs as a perch/lookout.

The girls like to serve as the disk-collectors for the various teams: Aidan/Davin vs Eric (I only just got myself a gun).  The rules are simple: head or torso shot-you're dead; arm or leg shot, you've lost the use of that limb for that round; if a disk collector is shot (rarely) she gives her ammo to the apposing team; direct hits only.

  

We started out with 40 green disks, then Eric bought his gun (which came with 10 white disks) and an additional 10 green disks.  And then I just got my gun (with its 8 orange disks) and another 40 disks; plus the kids found a disk in the church parking lot.  So far we're only down 1 white, and 8 green, they're somewhere in this house.  I keep finding them in weird places too, which I'm pretty sure will be the status for the rest of my life :)