Thursday, October 18, 2007
Cards
I like to make cards. Usually just Christmas cards. I'm not organized enough to get it together for birthdays or things like that. I like to make a ton of one thing. Makes it easier. Anyway, last year, since I knew that I was moving, I had my Christmas cards made about 3 months in advance. Not only that, they were great looking cards...:) Anyway, I am finally done figuring out what I'm going to do for my cards. It has taken me forever!!! I get most of my stuff through StampinUp. While I was in Germany, I had a very good friend who sold it. And I taught her son piano lessons, so we bartered. It was great!! (Hi Anne, if you're reading this) We had a little group of us that would get together and make things. I loved it. Since I've been here, I've only found one other person that is really into that sort of thing. The problem I've been having, is that I spent too much money while on my trip to CA and AZ. So, I've had to adjust what I want to do, and use as much stuff as I already have. And today I went to Michael's and to Office Depot, and found what I needed (well, mostly) for cheaper than what I could get it at StampinUp. I'm only going to be spending about $20 for the rest of the stuff I need from StampinUp. I'm pretty excited as I will finally be using the ribbon left over from our wedding invitations, and the envelopes that I bought do not need to be licked. I hate licking envelopes. I do have an envelope moistener for that nasty job, but it just takes less time. Hopefully tonight I will make a prototype for my card. The only part of card making that I don't like. I prefer to have someone just tell me what to do. Makes it easier. Do you guys mail out cards? Do you put in pictures? I'm hoping to get our picture taken at the Alamo for this years pictures. Last year we were up at the Heidelberg Castle. (sigh....I miss Germany) When I finish my card, I'll take a picture for all of you to enjoy. I'm no pro, but its fun......
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
I think about what I want to post about all day while I don't have the computer. When I finally get to sit down and start to type, I come up with nothing. So, this is what you're going to get today. I had a very busy yet very random day. I also wanted to post a picture, but blogger is having some issues with that tonight. One thing I found out today is that something that I have been dealing with is completely normal, and that I'm not as strange as I thought I was. Another thing that I learned today is that even though some people need help to feed their family, and need someone to take them to get that food, the wife is sporting acrylic nails, they have cable, and she is willing to drive their car that has expired plates for over a year, to run to Target to run some errands while her husband gets a ride to get the food to feed their family. Also that there is a new (to me) female detective on the original Law and Order. I kind of like her. I also like Sam Waterston. I also forgot to call and get a doctors appointment for me as I have had a physical ailment for over a week that isn't getting better. I hate going to the doctor. And with my luck, by the time I get in, it won't be happening anymore.
Hopefully tomorrow I won't be so busy so that when my computer comes home from school and is done studying, I will have a brilliant, cohesive post (with pictures) to delight your eyes with. (I'm dazzling you with my amazing vocabulary to make up for the fact that this is a really lame post.)
And I have to say that I love when I click the spell check button, usually only the names come up yellow. I love words that are spelled correctly. Now, correctly constructing a sentence is sometimes too far out of my reach. Probably why I never would get A's on essays in high school......
Hopefully tomorrow I won't be so busy so that when my computer comes home from school and is done studying, I will have a brilliant, cohesive post (with pictures) to delight your eyes with. (I'm dazzling you with my amazing vocabulary to make up for the fact that this is a really lame post.)
And I have to say that I love when I click the spell check button, usually only the names come up yellow. I love words that are spelled correctly. Now, correctly constructing a sentence is sometimes too far out of my reach. Probably why I never would get A's on essays in high school......
Sunday, October 14, 2007
First Job, Worst Job.......
My first job that I actually got a paycheck with taxes taken out was a hostess at a restaurant called Pinnacle Peak. I eventually worked my way up to cashier, and then server. And I did some other random things there too. My call name was Calamity Jane. I spent four years working there. My best friend and her boyfriend were also working there. I have to say that I really enjoyed being cashier and being a server. I've told Matt that if I had to get a job I would want to do that. It is great. I love to talk, and be social, and being a server allows me all of that, and I'm on my feet, so its good exercise. I learned a lot about meat at work as we were a steak restaurant. And I am always nice to our servers unless they are really really bad. And I try to talk to them too, and not just give them our order and be done with it. While I was in California, my best friend, her boys and husband and me and my kids all went out to dinner there. It was fun!! Our servers name was Calamity Jane. There wasn't anyone that still remembered us. We drove past the restaurant a few days later, and our old manager was still there, so we went in and said hello!! It was great to see her.
I've worked at a Hallmark store as a clerk there, and it was owned by members of our church. They were the worst people to work for. If you live in Glendora California, do not work at Ellsworths Stationers. Hopefully things have changed, but if not....just don't go there.
I worked as a secretary for an industrial supplies company. I was horrible at that job. I am just not anal and organized enough for that job. I think the owner felt sorry for me, and kept me on longer than he wanted. But it was a good learning experience.
I have also worked as personal assistant/nanny type of person for two Creative Memories Consultants. I would help with the business, and with their home. Everything from doing things on the computer to picking up kids from school or making their lunches. It was fun, and I got product at cost!! When I could afford it anyway....
Other than that I've taught piano quite a bit. I don't have a degree, but would like to get back to taking music classes. It has helped us financially. This is the first place that I haven't really taught. I only have one student right now, but we're moving soon, so it's not terribly permanent.
I'm now a Stay At Home Mom. This is the hardest job yet. I'm not organized. I'm cluttery in the house. I would rather cross stitch than clean a bathroom. But the positive thing is that I have gotten better over the years. I have little patience, I think I let them watch too much TV. (we got into a bad habit when we lived in a hotel for two months. couldn't go anywhere, didn't have many toys, so they jumped on the bed, took walks, and watch disneychannel like crazy) I hope that my progress keeps going.
For other jobs, go to Sunday Scribblings.
I've worked at a Hallmark store as a clerk there, and it was owned by members of our church. They were the worst people to work for. If you live in Glendora California, do not work at Ellsworths Stationers. Hopefully things have changed, but if not....just don't go there.
I worked as a secretary for an industrial supplies company. I was horrible at that job. I am just not anal and organized enough for that job. I think the owner felt sorry for me, and kept me on longer than he wanted. But it was a good learning experience.
I have also worked as personal assistant/nanny type of person for two Creative Memories Consultants. I would help with the business, and with their home. Everything from doing things on the computer to picking up kids from school or making their lunches. It was fun, and I got product at cost!! When I could afford it anyway....
Other than that I've taught piano quite a bit. I don't have a degree, but would like to get back to taking music classes. It has helped us financially. This is the first place that I haven't really taught. I only have one student right now, but we're moving soon, so it's not terribly permanent.
I'm now a Stay At Home Mom. This is the hardest job yet. I'm not organized. I'm cluttery in the house. I would rather cross stitch than clean a bathroom. But the positive thing is that I have gotten better over the years. I have little patience, I think I let them watch too much TV. (we got into a bad habit when we lived in a hotel for two months. couldn't go anywhere, didn't have many toys, so they jumped on the bed, took walks, and watch disneychannel like crazy) I hope that my progress keeps going.
For other jobs, go to Sunday Scribblings.
Becoming Gluten Free and Food Allergies
My husband has been doing a special diet recently. We heard about it from my sister. It is called Eat Right For Your Type. You eat a specific diet, tailored to each blood type. (positive or negative doesn't matter) My husband and my sister are both O blood types. For their specific diet, they are not to have any wheat. And to eat more red meat than chicken or turkey. The only problem with this is that I'm an A blood type, and under my type, my consumption of red meat is supposed to be kept to a minimum. (which is fine with me. other than my In-n-out hamburgers of course)
There are some other things, but my husband has been doing it for most of the summer. My sister had been doing it for much longer than that. My husband hasn't mentioned that he feels hugely different or anything like that. He did say before he started that he had been experiencing a little bit of heartburn/acid reflux type stuff. Since he's been on the diet, he hasn't said anything about it. (I would have heard about it if he was still experiencing it) My sister on the other was finally out of pain most of the time. For almost two years, she has been experiencing major acid reflux. To the point that she couldn't take care of her family. She has been to multiple doctors, GI specialists and others. They would just put her on medication, and not really mention too much about her diet other than to avoid acidic foods. (before this even started, she was into grains other than wheat, but really strove to feed her family whole grain and very healthy foods) So she found and started to strictly adhere to this blood type diet. She had a huge change. She had to eliminate most dairy (she could only eat mozzarella cheese), all wheat/gluten , and a few other things. She was finally out of pain, for the most part, and rarely had any issues. Well, recently she went and got an allergy test. She had been suffering from seasonal type allergies and wanted to find out what her problem was. Well, she found out that she was allergic to dust and dust mites. But also to wheat and oatmeal!!!! And tomatoes. No wonder she was in so much pain. She had been eating oatmeal for breakfast and ate sandwiches on whole wheat bread. She has eliminated both of those from her diet, and can now eat dairy. What I find interesting about that is that I used to feed Andrew oatmeal for breakfast, and while I was cleaning him up noticed that around his mouth where the oatmeal had touched, was a little red. And his diapers were always horrible and for the first few years of his life, I was constantly battling horrible diaper rashes. I stopped feeding him oatmeal regularly, and his bottom cleared, his diapers were no longer so horrible. With Lucy, I would feed her sweet potatoes, and she would get hives on a very small area of her body. They wouldn't ever stay in the same place, but would jump around on her body. I stopped feeding her sweet potatoes, and never saw the hives again. Food allergies have never really run in our family, but all of this makes me question a lot of what we ate growing up, and about my grandparents stomach issues.
My best friend has two boys. The oldest has always been on the very small side. In fact, he is 3 1/2, but isn't any bigger than his little brother who just turned 2. He has always had a hard time sleeping through the night, and eating. They recently moved to Southern California for her husbands job, and before their insurance ran out, she took them to the doctor for a well baby check up. They ran a blood test on her oldest, and there were some interesting things that came out of that. They recently had a biopsy done on his intestines, and this poor little guy has Celiac Disease. He cannot have any wheat/gluten at all. As I was talking to her yesterday she was going through her cupboards and looking at all the ingredients of everything, with specific directions on what has wheat/gluten in it and what doesn't. She almost felt like she needed to go back and take an organic chemistry class. The names were really confusing. Anyway, they are going gluten free as soon as possible.
There is a company called Bobs Red Mill that makes many many things that are gluten free. And also has many different grains like Amaranth, Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa), and Spelt. There are many many other companies that sell gluten free cookies, bread, cereal......
We ate the Bobs Red Mill gluten free pancakes this morning, and they are good!! They fluff up and taste just as good as any other pancake I've ever had.
My sister was telling me about a friend of hers that has a little boy that can only eat 6 different things. There are others in the world that cannot eat anything, but have to have a feeding tube going directly into their intestines.
After all of this, I am really wondering about food allergies. And the food that is in our grocery stores. I would love to get my husband and I tested to see if we have any. And in a few years, the kids. They can grow out of some allergies, but I still hesitate to give Andrew oatmeal. And not long ago, we ate some baked sweet potatoes, and we gave some to Lucy since she hadn't had any in at least a year. Her diaper was horrible. So, no more sweet potatoes for her. Acid Reflux issues just may be that you're allergic to a specific food, rather than stomach acid issues.
Why am I posting about this?? Because I think it is interesting, and eating some of these different grains sure can't hurt us. And maybe you have stomach issues and this will get you to the doctor to get an allergy test.....
There are some other things, but my husband has been doing it for most of the summer. My sister had been doing it for much longer than that. My husband hasn't mentioned that he feels hugely different or anything like that. He did say before he started that he had been experiencing a little bit of heartburn/acid reflux type stuff. Since he's been on the diet, he hasn't said anything about it. (I would have heard about it if he was still experiencing it) My sister on the other was finally out of pain most of the time. For almost two years, she has been experiencing major acid reflux. To the point that she couldn't take care of her family. She has been to multiple doctors, GI specialists and others. They would just put her on medication, and not really mention too much about her diet other than to avoid acidic foods. (before this even started, she was into grains other than wheat, but really strove to feed her family whole grain and very healthy foods) So she found and started to strictly adhere to this blood type diet. She had a huge change. She had to eliminate most dairy (she could only eat mozzarella cheese), all wheat/gluten , and a few other things. She was finally out of pain, for the most part, and rarely had any issues. Well, recently she went and got an allergy test. She had been suffering from seasonal type allergies and wanted to find out what her problem was. Well, she found out that she was allergic to dust and dust mites. But also to wheat and oatmeal!!!! And tomatoes. No wonder she was in so much pain. She had been eating oatmeal for breakfast and ate sandwiches on whole wheat bread. She has eliminated both of those from her diet, and can now eat dairy. What I find interesting about that is that I used to feed Andrew oatmeal for breakfast, and while I was cleaning him up noticed that around his mouth where the oatmeal had touched, was a little red. And his diapers were always horrible and for the first few years of his life, I was constantly battling horrible diaper rashes. I stopped feeding him oatmeal regularly, and his bottom cleared, his diapers were no longer so horrible. With Lucy, I would feed her sweet potatoes, and she would get hives on a very small area of her body. They wouldn't ever stay in the same place, but would jump around on her body. I stopped feeding her sweet potatoes, and never saw the hives again. Food allergies have never really run in our family, but all of this makes me question a lot of what we ate growing up, and about my grandparents stomach issues.
My best friend has two boys. The oldest has always been on the very small side. In fact, he is 3 1/2, but isn't any bigger than his little brother who just turned 2. He has always had a hard time sleeping through the night, and eating. They recently moved to Southern California for her husbands job, and before their insurance ran out, she took them to the doctor for a well baby check up. They ran a blood test on her oldest, and there were some interesting things that came out of that. They recently had a biopsy done on his intestines, and this poor little guy has Celiac Disease. He cannot have any wheat/gluten at all. As I was talking to her yesterday she was going through her cupboards and looking at all the ingredients of everything, with specific directions on what has wheat/gluten in it and what doesn't. She almost felt like she needed to go back and take an organic chemistry class. The names were really confusing. Anyway, they are going gluten free as soon as possible.
There is a company called Bobs Red Mill that makes many many things that are gluten free. And also has many different grains like Amaranth, Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa), and Spelt. There are many many other companies that sell gluten free cookies, bread, cereal......
We ate the Bobs Red Mill gluten free pancakes this morning, and they are good!! They fluff up and taste just as good as any other pancake I've ever had.
My sister was telling me about a friend of hers that has a little boy that can only eat 6 different things. There are others in the world that cannot eat anything, but have to have a feeding tube going directly into their intestines.
After all of this, I am really wondering about food allergies. And the food that is in our grocery stores. I would love to get my husband and I tested to see if we have any. And in a few years, the kids. They can grow out of some allergies, but I still hesitate to give Andrew oatmeal. And not long ago, we ate some baked sweet potatoes, and we gave some to Lucy since she hadn't had any in at least a year. Her diaper was horrible. So, no more sweet potatoes for her. Acid Reflux issues just may be that you're allergic to a specific food, rather than stomach acid issues.
Why am I posting about this?? Because I think it is interesting, and eating some of these different grains sure can't hurt us. And maybe you have stomach issues and this will get you to the doctor to get an allergy test.....
Saturday, October 13, 2007
My favorite store
H&M is my favorite store ever. When we lived in Germany, and I would go downtown, I would go there every time. They have clothes for everyone there. (but not my size of shoes...)
I love their kids clothes. I would get amazing deals at our H&M in Heidelberg.
Here in Texas, H&M does not exist. It is so very sad, as Texans would benefit from having an H&M nearby. While I was in California, I had made the goal of going to one while I was there. The closest ones are at the Santa Anita Mall, and then on Colorado Blvd in Pasadena. The only problem is that neither one of them carried the children's clothing. So, I checked to see which ones carried the kids stuff, and then mapquested it to see how far it was from my parents house. Believe it or not, the closest one was at the Beverly Center in Beverly Hills. So, I dropped my kids with my Grandma, who lives near Beverly Hills. Then we went to the Beverly Center. Couldn't believe the kinds of stores in there. But, I found my H&M, and spent more than $100, but got a ton of stuff. Mostly for the kids, but I got me a few things. I know they have several on the East Coast. So when we are settled in NC, I'll have to take a road trip up to DC to visit a friend there, and make my trip to H&M.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Downtown and the Alamo
These are some pictures that I took when Camille and I went to the Alamo and the Riverwalk.
I just liked this plant. And I really like the zoom on my new camera!!
Some kind of plant at the Alamo
The Alamo
Some cool looking stairs down at the Riverwalk
Random squirrel at the Alamo
More pictures
The picture below is me with my sister at Time Out (as you can tell on the jumbo tron thingy behind us). We had a great time at this. I came away with some books on CD, a music CD, and I ended up buying the book called Strangling Your Husband is not an Option by Merilee Boyak. I bought more than that, but that can be saved for another post.
My sister looks related, but not very sisterly in regards to our physical appearance. She is 5'10", just two inches shorter than I am, but is really skinny, but that is because she has had some health stuff going on.
Here is my other sister. Again, she is only 5'7", by far the shortest in our family other than my mom. She looks related, but not terribly sisterly. This was taken while she was visiting us in August.
Here is my cousin. She is a few years younger than me. Our dads are brothers. At one point, we even had glasses that were similar. We look more related than I do with my sisters. (Now that I can see this picture on the computer, there is something going on with my eyes. In my defense, it was really bright out, but the sun is behind me. oh well.) This was taken in my parents backyard at Andrew's birthday party last month while I was in California.
I know, kind of random, but it is just so interesting how my blood sisters are so light and I am so dark. Yet my cousin looks like my sister. Crazy genes....
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