Food Allergies??

Well, I'm starting to wonder if I have food allergies and not the gluten stuff. I ate gluten free for about 10-14 days and felt pretty good. But then the GI issues started up again. I'm starting to wonder if I'm allergic to tomatoes and possibly potatoes. Tomatoes I think are worse for me than potatoes. But this would explain why I felt so bad after Thanksgiving dinner - HUGE serving of mashed potatoes. And again on the drive to Florida for Christmas - french fries and tomato slices on top of sandwiches the whole day down and back. I'm going to get my allergy tests re-done mid March and I've asked them to test for foods. I've only ever been tested for environmental stuff before (trees, weeds, grass, pets) so I'm hoping this will give me a clearer idea of what's bothering me. I've also started keeping track of what I'm eating and how I feel later. It seems that I feel bad the morning after I eat pizza and have stomach cramps after I eat potatoes. Fresh potatoes seem to be worse than processed.

I'm going to try something with gluten and see what happens. If nothing than I know I'm good for that. I did purchase some gluten free stuff in bulk from amazon.com that I may not need. If somebody wants to buy any of it from me *cheap* that would be cool. Jeremy? Jess?

Libby's First Snowman

Yes. It snowed again yesterday. We officially have the snowiest December - February here in Mid-MO and the 3rd snowiest winter season (this includes pre-December snow and post-February snow) since 1800 something. I hear that according to the Farmer's Almanac we're supposed to get another BIG snow in late March. The Farmer's Almanac correctly predicted our Snowmaggeddonocalypse in early February. So we'll see what comes. I guess that means that this winter will be down in the record books.



Libby and Mike went out to make a snowman this morning. She's never been able to make one before because the snow has been too fluffy so far this winter. This snow is really wet and slushy because it snowed, sleeted, and rained yesterday to make a very slippery mess today. Anyway, Mike said when they came in that the snowman is a little "off". He said it could fall at any point. His excuse to why it wasn't constructed better is that he's from Florida and he didn't properly learn how to make snowmen. Funny how when he wants to claim to not know anything about winter he says he grew up in Florida. If he meets someone from West Virginia then you'd think he just moved to Missouri last week by the way he talks to them. His "hometown" changes with his mood or out of convenience. It must be nice to have that kind of flexibility.

Very Disappointing

My Uncle Bob turned 80 this weekend and my cousins had a big birthday celebration planned for him. We were all supposed to go down and surprise him. We woke up on Saturday morning and as we were getting ready to go my GI issues hit yet again. I was not able to stand up let alone get on a plane. So I sent everyone on without me. I am so disappointed that I couldn't make it. I'm more upset that I don't know what's causing me so much trouble. I called and talked to the doctor oncall from my doctor's office yesterday. He said that from what I was telling him that I don't have a gluten problem (he hasn't seen my labs though). He thinks I have a gallbladder issue and is going to get me scheduled to have an ultrasound done on it. I sure hope that this will provide me with some answers. My GI issues are getting worse and worse. I seem to have a major episode every 7-14 days. They are so bad that I can hardly stand up let alone work or take care of children. Because of these problems I missed out on seeing almost all of my cousins on my dad's side of the family. I have not seen some of them in many years. I have not even met a few of their kids that were there. I never know when the next opportunity to see everyone will be and that makes it hard to miss out. I'm glad that they at least got to see my girls. I know everyone was looking forward to seeing/meeting them.

Our Daughter, the Cat

Brynn has taken to climbing the back of our chaise lounge chair to look out the windows. We have discovered her several times just sitting at the top. We actually pushed the chair against the wall because we can't keep her off of it. She started off climbing up there when we weren't around but now will do it boldly right in front of us and sometimes using one of us sitting there to her advantage. Now, she will stand on the windowsill or sit on the top of the chair like a cat. It seems that she also has the balance of a cat because she has never fallen off and she's been up to this for at least a week. I guess I won't try to keep her off anymore. It seems the more I try to remove her, the more determined she is to sit up there. Typical.

The Day After the Blizzard

It's groundhog day, and apparently that overgrown squirrel says that we should have an early spring...maybe someone should tell him about the blizzard that just came through! Regardless, I just ventured out to take pics of the storm and to see how many weeks it may take to dig out! We ended up with between 19 1/2" and 20" here, and the highest drift that I measured was 36".

A view of the house:

Our woods:

Another house view:

Our snowed-in cars:

Looking up our unplowed street - there's probably 8-10 inches in the road and as of noon, nothing had driven down it in a long while...who knows when we'll free ourselves!

Evening Update - Mid-Mo Snowmaggeddonocalypse 2011

Here's the evening update...in case you hadn't heard, or don't live in Missouri, we've got quite a bit of snow. Interstate 70 is closed from St. Louis to Kansas City and Interstate 44 is closed from Springfield to the Oklahoma state line. Needless to say, travel across the state is nearly impossible. And with that, here are our last planned pictures of the evening:

Snow Day Fun

We decided that it's too cold/too deep to have the girls go outside and play today so instead we turned our bathtub into a snowtub. Libby LOVES it. Brynn lost interest quickly.







We'll for sure have another day at home again tomorrow. Hopefully we keep the power on. We have no reason to leave anytime soon and we're loving it.

4PM Update Mid-Mo Snowmaggeddonocalypse 2011

4pm update - Earl can hardly maneuver in the snow. The snow has almost overtaken our flower bed in front of the house. It comes up almost to my knees. I'd hate to venture a guess at how much we have right now, but suffice to say, it's a lot. And based on the radar, we're in for 10-12 more hrs of it.

Looking toward our street:

The woods at our property line:

Front view of the house - notice the snow coming over the edge of the roof:

Our tree beside the road:

Just another view of the blizzard:

UPDATED 1:30PM - Mid-Mo Snowmaggeddonocalypse 2011 - The Live Blog

UPDATED at 1:30pm -

Seeing as how this is the first time that the National Weather Service in St. Louis has ever issued a Blizzard Warning for Missouri, I thought it was appropriate that we try our first psuedo-live blog. The snow started really falling hard between 7:30 and 8:00, and it's coming down hard and fast.

1:30PM Update -

Earl in the yard...he's not that short of a dog.

Another view:

I got cold...so this was taken from our kitchen window:

10:45AM Update -

Facing east from in front of our house:

A view up our street:

Looking from the street to our house:

Looking down our driveway...or where our driveway was/should be:

10:20 AM Update -

Same view as the 9:45 picture - much more snow in the 35 mins since the last pic!

9:45AM Update -

From our front door looking at the cars:

Looking at our pine tree and at the street:

8:00 AM Update -

From our back deck:

Backyard swingset:

11:00PM Update -

Earl anxiously awaiting the blizzard:

Looking from our front door: