g-free for me.

With tests showing that my husband's gallbladder was only function at 16% (40% is considered low-functioning), we assumed that the removal of it, back in 2010, would cure his pain. Now, with it being almost two years later, he is still in pain. 

Recently, he began doing some research. He would search his symptoms and ironically gallbladder disease would never show up as a cause. After a couple weeks of research, all signs point to gluten intolerance. 

Do you realize how many things contain some form of gluten? It's unreal! We went through our cabinets and realized that we would need to throw about just about everything...literally, everything! 

No wheat, in any form.

No barley.

No malt.

No rye.

No breaded or floured or "crusted" meat, poultry, seafood, or vegetables.

No soy sauce.

No teriyaki sauce.

...but after years of pain, we have decided to give gluten free a try. 

Last week I did all of our basic grocery shopping at Aldi. Ya know, your fruits, vegetables, meats, your basics. Then I went to Reasor's in Jenks to buy my g-free flour and bread and whatever else I stumbled upon. The Reasor's in Jenks has the largest variety of g-free food because Mr. and Mrs. Reasor live in Jenks, OK. Mrs. Reasor has Celiacs Disease. So to accommodate Mrs. Reasor's g-free lifestyle, they keep the Jenks store fully stoked with things she can eat. Lucky for us, Jenks is the closest Reasor's to our house :) With all that being said, I assumed that changing to g-free ingredients, cooking, and lifestyle, it would be really expensive. Well, come to find out, I spent the exact same amount of money that I would have just buying all my regular groceries at Wal-Mart. It all worked out!! 

We haven't fully "converted" to completely g-free yet. We are trying things here and there. Lee tried the sliced bread that I bought. He said it doesn't have a bad flavor, but the texture is weird (which we knew would be). He said, "Imagine eating a sandwich on a cracker. With every bite you take, it crumbles and falls apart." But like I told him, there were plenty of other brands of bread we can try. 

Last night I made our favorite: Fried Chicken :) Who doesn't love fried chicken? Well, it was my first attempt at doing it g-free and with g-free flour. It worked out and was pretty yummy too!

I planned to do more g-free cooking this week, but I threw my back out like an old person yesterday so I'm out of commission for a few day. Bummer. 

Friday Favorites: Movie Edition

***These reviews are not paid or sponsored. Just some of my favs.***

I was never much of a movie watcher until I met my husband. He will watch a movie over a tv show any day. I'm the polar opposite. But with that being said, I do have a few favorite movies :)

1. Forrest Gump: Forrest Gump has always been my favorite movie. I'm not really sure why either. I remember watching it on tv when I was younger. There isn't anything in particular about this movie that I love other than the fact that it's been around forever and forever remains a good movie. By no means is it a "good and clean" movie. Sex, drugs, cheating, alcohol, and abuse...ya know all the terrible things LOL.


2. Pride and Prejudice: My senior year of high school, my English teacher had us read this book. I didn't really understand it well. If you've read Pride and Prejudice you know they speak Old English? Is that right??? Anyway, after we finished the novel we watched the movie. It was when we watched the movie that I fell in love with the book. I know, that's a little backwards. Usually, people love the book more than the movie. But honestly, I'm not a book person. The movie really helped (showed me) the plot and relationships between the characters. When reading in Old English, it gets a little confusing to follow all of that stuff. Maybe it's just me... Either way, Pride and Prejudice will remain my favorite love story. What I love about it is that it's not your typical. Boy meets girl, falls in love, and lives happily ever after. In this story, the boy and girl originally don't even like eachother. They don't get along. One is of "high class" than the other. It's a "could really happen in real life" kind of love story. **I also liked how accurate the movie followed the book!!**

3. Elf: This is my favorite holiday movie. When I was pregnant with Hadley I watched Elf every single day (literally, this is not an exaggeration! Ask Lee!) the entire month of December. I'm not sure why I even did this. I just really liked the movie so I kept watching it over and over and over. (I do the same thing with songs I like. I'm slightly OCD about things.) So this December, I watched Elf again. One day I was folding laundry in our bedroom. I went and got Hadley and laid her on the bed and forced her to watch it with me. I think she kind of enjoyed it :)

4. Walk the Line: I love Johnny Cash. This is also thanks to my husband. When I saw Walk the Line I fell in love with the love story of June Carter and Johnny Cash (also a "could happen in real life / not fairy tale like" love.) I'm a sucker for anything that is a true story or documentary - like. To my understanding, Walk the Line is a pretty accurate portrayal of their lives.

5. The Jackson 5: An American Dream: OK PEOPLE: I have a slight obsession with the Jacksons. I love MJ, but I reallllllly love the Jackson 5. This movie would come on tv every single Thanksgiving and Christmas season for weeks at a time. I would watch it every time it was on. My aunt told me one time that it was when I was watching this movie that I discovered Michael Jackson was originally black. haha! This is one of my fondest memories growing up - probably because it was so constant every year. I remember many times, my whole family would sit and the living room and watch it. Which speaking of, watching this movie is a task! With commercials and all it is about 5 hours long. No lie! (We DVR'd it once!) But it is well worth every minute!

After writing all this and thinking about why I love these movies, I'm now reconsidering what my "favorite" actually is ;)

Splish...Splash!

Thanks to the B family, we now have a pool!! 

Last Sunday Lee, his dad, his grandpa, and brother all went and broke down the pool. After a long 4 hours they finally got it down. We are SO excited to receive such a gift! We can't wait until summer and to get this up and going. I also can't wait for Hadley to see it and see what she thinks! She loves the water now. Hopefully, she likes her pool too! :)

Not so much.

Friday Favorites posts? Not so much. I have good intentions. I promise. I have them started and some fully prepared. I just can't seem to remember to publish them on Friday. WELL...I do remember, but just not until Monday :)

I'll do better this week. Really. I mean, I will definitely try harder! ;)

But here is a little week recap:

Tuesday was Valentine's day. That night me and my husband, Lee, went to Osaka's for dinner. Hadley went to spend time at Nammy and Papa's house. We only go to Osaka's for special occassions. Since my birthday was Friday (2/17/2012) I proposed that we go to Osaka's on V-day for V-day/birthday celebration. It was fun!

Wednesday we had a Valentine's banquet at church that night. Just yummy food and fellowship.

Thursday I went to Locust Grove to have our taxes done. Hallelujah, we do NOT have to pay in this year! I'm ecstatic about this one!

Friday was my 24th birthday. I honestly, assumed we would stay home and just hang out. I mean, we already "celebrated" it with dinner at Osaka's a few nights earlier. Well, Lee decided that me cooking dinner on my birthday wasn't acceptable. We went out for Mexican :)

Saturday I spent the day with an old friend and her little girl. This time was much needed and so fun catching up. It's crazy to spend time with a friend that you've known your whole life. Then watch our little girls play together. This by far is one of the strangest things about having a child. Anyone else?

Sunday we had church and family dinner at my grandparents house to celebrate my birthday and my aunts birthday, which is tomorrow. Sunday afternoon was spent over at a new friend's house and a great little treat that I'll post about later :)

I never really do "re-caps" but I figured since I can't remember to do other prepared posts then why not?

Have a lovely day!

Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day!

I know so many people hate Valentine's Day. To be honest, I'm slightly one of those people.

I don't hate Valentine's Day. But it does seem a little strange that there is a single day designated to showing your affection for your significant other.

So I decided to jump of the WWW and look up the legend of St. Valentine:

There are various theories on the origin of Valentine's Day, but the most popular dates back to the time of the Roman Empire during the reign of Claudius II, 270 AD. Claudius didn't want men to marry during wartime because he believed single men made better soldiers. Bishop Valentine went against his wishes and performed secret wedding ceremonies. For this, Valentine was jailed and then executed by order of the Emperor on February 14. While in jail, he wrote a love note to the jailor's daughter signing it, "From your Valentine." Sound familiar?

Other fun facts:

• More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.
• Over $1 billion worth of chocolate is purchased for Valentine's Day in the U.S.
• 73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
• 15% of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.
• The red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
• Teachers will receive the most Valentine's Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets
• About 3% of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.

(All facts and the story of Valentine's Day were found at http://www.sheknows.com/holidays-and-seasons/articles/807655/fun-facts-about-valentine-s-day)

I hope that when people show their significant other's love/affection/appriciation, I hope they are loving them in their personal love language.

The Five Love Languages is an exellent book. I highly recommend it, to everyone! Now having Hadley, I really really want this book:

There's just no point in showing love to someone, especially your child or spouce, if that isn't how they personally feel loved... These books are very useful tools in relationship building.

Well, there is my "tid-bit" about Valentine's Day. Now I will leave you with these two last things:

Happy Valentine's Day to you, my love. We have had such a crazy year. We bought a house, had our beautiful baby Hadley girl, and you're finishing up everything with Paramedic school. I couldn't be more proud of you and I love you more every day!

Last fun fact about Valentine's day: I was supposed to be born on Valentine's Day. It was on Feb. 14, 1988 that my mom went into labor with me. It wasn't until 72 hours later, on Feb 17, 1988, that I was born. Talk about endurance!

8 months: little love letters

Hadley Ruth,

I can't believe we are only months away from saying you're a year old! 8 months just seems so much older than any other month. Crazy how fast these days/weeks/months are flying by, but we are loving you every minute of every day more and more! You have changed and developed so much this past month. It is so amazing to watch how you change and grow.

-Growth: You didn't have a well-child check up this month and won't until you're 9 months.
*At your doctors appointment for your ear infections, you weighed 17.2 lbs. Chunky Monkey :)
*You usually wear 3-6 months clothing.
*You wear 6 month onesies more comfortably now.
*6 mo - 6 / 9 mo pants fit, but usually the 6 / 9 mo pants are too long.

-Eating:
*You are taking about 3 bottles a day now.
*I've begun to notice that, when it comes to your baby food, you prefer veggies to fruit. Most of the time you act as though fruit is sour. It's not exactly your favorite thing ever.
*You are much more interested in food and adult / solid foods. Even if you've just eaten your baby food and cereal, if Mommy and Daddy sit down to eat dinner you insist that you try and eat whatever we are eating.

*You recently tried spaghetti and really liked it!

Spaghetti for the first time

-Sleeping:
*You're ready to wined down around 8 pm.
*You take your bath and last bottle and you're ready to head to sleepy town.
*This last month we transitioned you into not wearing your swaddle. For a few days, we dressed you in a sleep slack, but it didn't seem to make any difference. You only wore the sleep sack for a couple of days. Now we put you down with nothing- just your jammies! It's a hard little battle because you're very interested in everything. You want to touch my face, feel my shirt, pull my hair...etc. We kind of have to hold your arm down until you start to doze off.
*You sleep until about 8 am the next morning.
*You're ready for a morning nap about 10:30 am. And ready for your afternoon nap about 1:30 / 2 pm.

This is how I find you every morning. You wake up, stand up, and holler at the door until someone comes in to get you out of bed.

-Developments:

*You have 4 teeth now. 2 on the bottom and 2 on the top!

*You say 3 words now: "bye bye," "da-da" (daddy), "pat, pat" (patty cake).

*When you put on your coat or see people put on their coat or shoes you say "bye bye." I think you recognize these things to be signs of someone leaving.

*You now sit in the high chair when we go out to eat. You feel so big and pat on the table the whole time.

*You pull up to everything now! Which means you're into everything now! You'll be walking before we know it!

This is the picture I got really quick with my cell phone of the first time you pulled up to stand. You pulled up to the green bucket to play with that butter bowl. In the picture, you're leaning over to pick up the butter bowl because you dropped it. Now, you pull up on everything you can get your hands on. You discovered a couple days ago that if you push the bucket and shuffle your feet, you can "walk" around. It's about to get crazy in our household...

-Play time:
*You've become really interested in playing with water bottles and plastic bowls. Just like a normal kiddo.
*We have a basket in the living room full of your toys. I lay a few out for you to play with, but all the sudden you've discovered the basket itself. The other day you pulled up to the basket and when you were standing there you discovered there were other toys in the basket. Now, it just works out best if I get out a few small toys and let you pull out the rest of the ones that you want.
*You still really enjoy playing "Where's Hadley?" (Peek-a-boo) every chance you get.

-Events:
*You've gone to your SECOND doctors appointment that wasn't for a "well-child check up." I had a gut feeling that something was wrong with you. I rushed you to the doctor and there you have it: a double ear infection!! I felt terrible for you. Mommy's never had an ear infection so I can't even imagine how a double ear infection must feel, sweet girl. What's weird is that you never ran a fever, never acted unusually fussy, never had any problems eating...No signs or symptoms. I just had a feeling. Good thing I took you when I did because your right ear wasn't a full blown infection yet, but would have gotten there without medication.
*You had your first over night stay (2/2/2012 - 2/3/2012) with Nammy and Papa Brian while Mommy and Daddy went to OKC, for the night.

Bath time (in the sink) with your first over-night stay with Nammy & Papa Brian

-Funny / Cute Moments:
*You've started really showing lots of expressions lately. The most recent face is a little squinty face. Every time Daddy talks you make this squinty face at him. He says it's your trying to flirt. I think it's more of a face like "why are you saying those things about me?!" It's a very ornery look.
*You took a dive (head first) into your toy basket in the living room. You were pretty upset about this.

I'll love you forever and ever. I promise.

Love,

Mommy

Friday Favorites: Baby Edition

***These reviews are not paid or sponsored! Just some of my favs.***

This Friday Favorites is all about baby! Being a first time mother, I was given lots of advice. Some good, some pointless, and some just plain annoying - but that's ok :) I'm getting better about taking to heart advice that matters and not getting so frustrated when people get annoying with their unsolicited advice. Anyway...

Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe

I attribute this product to the reason Hadley began sleeping through the night around five / six weeks and has been sleeping great since then. It is always suggested that swaddling a newborn / infant makes them feel safer because they are so used to be all snug in the womb. I'm, personally, not the best "swaddler with a blanket." The Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe is a lifesaver and so easy to use! SIDS research has shown that swaddling an infant also aides in prevents SIDS because it immobilizes the infant so they cannot roll over. Obviously, as the baby grows they are able to "bust out" of the swaddle and move their arms freely. Hadley is now 7 months old and I still use the Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe with her every night. I wasn't sure how long you are supposed to swaddle a baby. I asked her Pediatrician about it. He said there is no real time to stop. If it makes them feel safer and easier for them to sleep then do it as long as you want. Of course, as soon as I lay Hadley down she busts her arms out and as she wakes in the morning she busts her legs out. I guess, since she knows how to get out, I will swaddle her until she grows out of it :)

Playtex VentAire Bottles

Love love love these bottles! The Playtex VentAire is designed to suck the air out of the bottle to simulate "burping" a drop in bag. These bottles eliminates having to buy bags and having to "burp" the bag. Genius, I tell you! This is the first and only bottles we tried with Hadley. She did well with them so we still use them.

Formula "to-go" divider

This little contraption is a must have item for mommie's on the go! This holds and divides 3 servings of formula for a bottle. Then you just turn the lid to what ever serving you need and pour it directly into a bottle and it's ready to go.

Pacifier Wipes

These pacifier wipes are so handy. The ingredients include Arm & Hammer Baking soda and water. These are useful for those little babies and their little games they like to play such as "Oops I purposely accidentally dropped my binkie, pick it up!" Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Sometimes you aren't really at a place or in a situation to run to the bathroom to wash the binkie. These are great for those situations. Wipe it off and you go. Oh, and!!!!! I event tasted one, one day, to see if they left a funny taste on the binkie - they don't. That's always a plus! :)

Beaba Cook babyfood maker

This is a babyfood maker. This is the exact babyfood maker that I use.  This runs for about $130 - $150. Luckily, I was able to borrow it from a friend. With the Beaba Cook, you're able to steam the veggies/fruits and puree the food all in the same bowl. I love that it's an "all in one" machine because that means less to clean up! As your baby gets older you can just steam food in there for bit size pieces and not have to puree them. You can also use this setting to just warm food up. Even though the Beaba Cook is pricey you make up the price for how much money you save in just a few months time. For example: 1 sweet potato costs between $0.60 - $0.90. That 1 sweet potato makes about 12 servings of baby food. To buy 1 jar of pre-processed babyfood costs about $0.90. Need I say more? It's worth the money. Plus, you know exactly what's going into your baby's food. I'm not bashing store bought baby food at all! I feel my baby store bought food. You can buy some really great organic foods. I'm just saying it is a real money saver to make your own.

Whether you're pregnant, buying gifts for a baby shower, or hope to be a parent one day - hopefully you found this post useful. What are your favorite baby items?

Secrets...Secrets...

...Make me nearly have anxiety attacks!!!!!!

I started my "Friday Favorites" posts 2 weeks ago. This was with full intent to post every Friday. Obviously, I missed last Friday. But let me tell you why!

SECRETS!

I was harbouring secrets in my household. I was keeping a secret from my husband.

You see, Lee finally finished his Paramedic clinicals last Tuesday (1/31/2012). His class had to go to a lecture in OKC last Thursday (2/2/2012).

To make a long story short: I got together with his mom and planned a mini-vaca in OKC. Yeah, I know, there isn't anything exciting or "vacation"- like about OKC, but it was fun. We went to college in Moore and most of our friends still live in the Moore/Norman area.

But of course there was a crimp in the plan. The Tuesday before I was supposed to leave Hadley started acting funny. I don't know how else to explain it, but funny. She just wasn't herself. She isn't a fussy baby, but she was being exceptionally fussy. Then Wednesday after her morning nap she woke up crying which she NEVER EVER does. I just had a gut feeling and rushed her to the doctor. Of course, she had a double ear infection. My heart broke. My baby girl was hurting and I had no idea. I know, I know...there was no way for me to know since she can't talk, but I still felt terrible.

Then there was the big question of: could I go through with the over night plan? could I leave my baby girl over night without me while she had her first ear infection? would she get worse while I was gone? would she be upset with me for leaving her while she was sit? So many questions. After a long Wednesday of secretly crying (because I couldn't tell Lee the plan) and debating I decided to go through with my plan and that she would be fine. Hadley never ran a fever or never acted like she even felt terrible. Luckily, all things worked out fine. Hadley was fine. She never got worse and is getting better.

Now jump to Thursday morning:

I get up and rush around to finish packing, shower and get ready before Haddles woke up, then get her over to her grandparents before 7:30 am! Everything went smoothly and I was off...

Lee had no idea I was coming. When he came out of the building where the lecture was being held his first thought was that something had happened back home and I came to get him. Once, I explained to him what was going on I think he was excited? lol. Neither one of us show "excited" emotion well, so I can't blame him.

Our over night stay consisted of: lunch at my favorite yummy Mexican restaurant, movie at Lee's favorite theater, swimming / hot tub at the hotel, dinner with our friends, shopping at Hastings. It was so fun and a much needed break for him.

It was our first time leaving Hadley without at least one of us. I was ok as long as I didn't think about it :( But little Haddles was so excited when we got home. She kept going from my arms to Lee's arms and back and forth and back and forth. She was so excited that she was panting like a dog. Haha!

Time and money well spent, I think!