Update on Brian

Well we still don't know why my husband was so ill. We do know that his liver function was WAY out of the normal range and that it is still outside of normal functioning range but that he is no longer yellow and can now function like a mostly normal human being... being that he's never been a 'normal' human being that's about 90% healthy again.
I ended up taking him to see my Naturopath and Brian had 2 intravenous therapy treatments with high levels of vitamins and minerals as well as I.V. fluids pumped right into his veins. Each time he had that done I noticed a major difference within 24 hours. I think it really helped. Thank goodness for mt N.D.
After finding out that he didn't have Hepatitis A, B, or C his doctor tested him for various strains of Mono... all negative. So here we sit with him feeling mostly better and still no answers. Its frustrating to not know why he was sick but at least he's mostly mended. However, should his liver function levels not return to normal quickly we'll have to do some more investigating. There's no way I want him to be THAT sick again anytime soon. Which if his levels remain high is a possibility. Here's hoping his tests show normal liver function in 2 weeks time.
Just thought I'd post the update for those interested. Fingers crossed that the next tests will all be normal or as close to it as Brian can be, in 2 weeks.

Sickness sucks!

OK I've had enough.
The kids have been taking turns all cold and flu season being sick. I've had my fair share of stuffy noses and achy bones... now my hubby might have Hepatitis A! Which by all accounts could take him weeks if not months to get better from.
Between the kids being sick all winter and not sleeping at the best of times I'm beat. Now with Brian sick he can't even help out really. He usually is my anchor and the lifesaver at the end of a busy day with the girls. He takes over and I get what needs to be done done and supper cooked and clean up and he usually does most of the night routine with the kids too... (I know I have it pretty good most of the time). Now I'm too tired to do any stuff beyond cleaning up after supper. I'm looking at 2 baskets of laundry that need folding and I know there's more in the drier and washer downstairs. I just can't bring myself to do it though. I feel guilty for feeling like this but I'm already feeling overwhelmed! Its only been a week!! I don't know how single parents do it on their own.
We spent the day at the hospital yesterday and still have no confirmed diagnosis but all signs are pointing to Hepatitis A! (That's to food borne version that you can get from contaminated food sources - so we'll NEVER know just where it came from.) He also has a urinary tract infection ON TOP of that! So NO WONDER he's been feeling so crappy! He's lost 12 lbs in less than a week and can't even stand the smell of MOST food. Tonight he said that supper smelled good during the moments it wasn't making him want to hurl. I know he's feeling awful and feeling guilty about being sick because he can't help out. He somehow thinks he should be able to beat this quickly and get back to himself. We have to look into possible short term disability insurance coverage and god knows how that will affect us financially but we'll get by somehow. We always figure out a way to do what needs to be done.
I just don't know how long this is going to last and I think that's the most discouraging part of the whole matter. We don't have confirmation that this is Hep A and we won't until mid week at the earliest. We don't know how long it will take for him to get over it either. I've read anywhere from 2 weeks to 9 months! Everything says that if an infected person doesn't take the time to get better the first time that it will not go away completely and they'll keep having recurring illness until they really take the time to get well. Honestly I don't know how anyone feeling as bad as Brian is could go to work and carry on a 'normal' routine with all of the busy-ness that occurs day to day. He can hardly keep his head up half the time let alone his body.
Alright I'm done venting but man can we catch a break please! I'm just glad that all 3 of them aren't sick at the same time. Maybe I've just jinxed myself but hopefully not. If I have I'll be calling in the troops again (thanks gramma 'Raine for coming to help out yesterday) for goodness knows how long.

Getting ready for a 5th birthday

I can't believe my big girl is turning 5 on Sunday. I know we all say that the time flies but I never knew just how true that was until looking at my children's lives. My oldest is turning 5 on Valentine's Day and as we have for the past 5 years we're having a family get together to celebrate - only this year it is actually ON Valentines Day. We usually celebrate the Sunday after V-Day but since it falls on Sunday this year we get to 'spoil' every one's Valentines Day plans. Whoops.
The real bummer is that I usually go to our local grocery store and get free decorations for the party because we celebrate AFTER all the celebrations are over. They very freely give me dozens of helium balloons and other seasonal decor items. Sorry kiddo no helium heart shaped balloons this year - mamma's just too cheap to have to pay for them. But hey what can I say. We like to help the stores recycle instead of just throwing them away. Maybe I'll go in Monday and get her some anyway just to save face.
This year she is having her very first party with school friends. Last year we had a party with her playgroup friends but these are the girls that she is going to go through school with for several more years. It should be interesting too because this is our first drop off and go party. YIKES! We kept it small just for this reason. What on earth do 4 & 5 year old girls like to do to occupy 3.5 hours??? The birthday girl has put in a request for a movie but we'll see what really happens.
Alright well I'm baking muffins and trying to figure out how to decorate them so I guess I'd better get back to it. Wish me luck. I hope no one notices that our goodies are all Gluten Free... I'm trying my best to keep it 'normal' but it has to be safe for us all. I let you know what happens.

I love my Home

I don't know how many times I have been sitting beside Brian and thought how wonderful our home is here at the 'new' place. He always laughs at me because I let him know it. I'll look over at him and just say 'I love my home.' He almost always answers with some comment about how I'd better love it because its making us broke... Which is of course only a half truth.
We moved into our new place nearly a year ago. We took possession March 26th, 2009 and officially moved in April 9th. Gee can you tell that it was a significant moment in my life? Our old place was nice but unfortunately I never REALLY felt like it was mine. We also had some neighbours that left a lot to be desired and because of that the thousands of dollars we spent on landscaping a play area for the kids and garden area for me really just went to waste. Although they likely helped us sell the house faster. I wasn't very comfortable letting the kids play outside while the not so great neighbours were fighting and drinking and swearing a blue streak. Because of that we tended to stay inside.
Like I said in an my Year in Review post this house was meant to be ours. The speed of selling our old place was crazy. The fact that the owner accepted our offer here and everything else that fell into place so fast just reaffirmed that THIS is our HOME!
So why am I bringing this up? Well for a multitude of reasons. I just feel so blessed and thankful for the things in my life and my home. At the top of the list are of course my children. There is NOTHING like watching and listening to them running around our home. This place has SO much room for them to do just that. Not that we always encourage them running like maniacs through the house but it is fun to watch most of the time. We have a nifty loop that they can circle around and the laughter that comes with their running is infectious. Now that's the kind of infection I like!
The fact that I can be in the kitchen and the girls can be either in their playroom or bedroom and I can easily go see what they're doing without climbing up the stairs is a godsend. I know I should get the exercise of stairs but after falling down our old stairs at least once a year, except for in 2008, made me a lot wary of stair climbing to just check on the kids. Yes I'm a klutz! I fell down 6 months pregnant with Miranda to boot and that was a big one. Really quite scary considering I was already on bed rest and dilating at that point of the pregnancy. I love being able to run to any of our most regularly used rooms without 'doing' the stairs.
We have over 1600 square feet on each of the levels of this place, so its huge! Maybe some people won't think so but boy I think its more than enough space. Sure there are some storage issues but every house has those. Our rec room is fabulous now that we have renovated it and we're starting to actually use it too. The kids love having the big open space to play in and watch tv and they, like their momma, love the fireplace too. But now that Brian has his "Man Room" we're all set.
Every man deserves a little piece of heaven in his own home. Now that the pool table is in working order and Brian has his room finished (ok so its not 'finished but 90% is) he has a pace to go and do his own thing. I just hope that he loves having his own space as much as I love having mine (my sewing/crafting room). I can't wait for him the have the chance to have some friends over for a poker/pool night. I really hope that after having the pool table at the old house and not really using it he gets to make better use of it and have some people over to 'play with' once in a while.
Sorry I got side tracked there. I was vacuuming a little while ago and I just felt so blessed to have such a wonderful home. I was thinking about people who don't have what we have and I am glad that we have had the opportunities afforded to us by Brian having a secure job during the recent difficult economic times. By living in a country that doesn't have wars waging around every corner. By having health care that is accessible when we need it... by just about everything in my life. We don't often stop to just say 'thanks' but today I feel the need to do so. I'm not sure who will be listening or who will read this but thanks.
I'm going to take a few more minutes appreciating my life.

Worlds Best GF CF Banana Cake

I'm still learning about my new Gluten Free lifestyle and modifying recipes that were once loved, tried, tested and true for regular ingredients. I hadn't found an easy solution for certain favourites yet. But now I have for my banana cake/muffin/bread recipe. I couldn't believe just how easy it was too.
I have a new favourite all purpose flour mixture that I posted back in December. All I had to do was use that for the recipe, add some xanthan gum and let it sit for a while before popping it into the oven. This is one for the books if you love banana cake/muffins/bread. Especially if you like a nice moist cake that will be devoured by days end (if you're not careful).
I'd post a picture but my family ate it before I had the chance to get a photo. My husband (who can be quite skeptical about the taste and consistency of the GF CF recipes) said he couldn't tell that it was GF CF. I amazed him yet again.
Here's the recipe:
Wet Ingredients
2 eggs (room temperature)
1/2c CF ghee, CF shortening, margarine or regular butter if casein isn't an issue
1/2c Almond Breeze, or other milk substitute or milk again if milk isn't an issue
1tsp vinegar (add it to the milk now and let it sit at least 5 minutes)
1tsp vanilla
3 very ripe bananas
Dry Ingredients
1/2c white sugar
1/2c brown sugar (I use sucanat)
2c all purpose flour mixture (- if you're not GF just use regular baking flour and NO xanthan gum)
2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
2tsp xanthan gum
Mixing Instructions
In a large bowl -
1. Peel and mash the bananas
2. Add sugars and mix well
3. Add the eggs and mix well
In a separate bowl
4. Combine all dry ingredients and sift a couple of times to be sure they're well mixed
Then -
5. Mix dry ingredients into wet about 1/3 at a time and mix well
6. Add the milk and the vanilla and mix well
7. Let mixture sit covered with a moist cloth for at least 30 minutes and at most 1.5 hours this allows the xanthan gum and baking soda and powder to do their thing and make the cake fluffier.
Pre-heat the oven to 350F
Now for the tough part - decide which type of desert you are making and pour into 9x13 pan, muffin tins or bread pan.
For the 9x13 cake it takes about 30 minutes at 350F
The bread and muffins are around the same but make sure you test with a tooth pick before removing from the oven for good. You want to be sure the tooth pick comes out clean in several areas of the muffins, bread or cake as it could 'look' cooked in one spot but not be on the other side of the item. (I ran into this problem when I made a double batch in a larger cake pan - I think my oven cooks hotter on one side too).
If you want to ice the cake or muffins let them cool completely before making an icing of your choice. They freeze well too but I've never had the muffins in the freezer for longer than about a month. They're too tasty to leave sitting around.
There you have it. SOOOOO tasty. Let me know if you enjoy them. I'll see if I can get pictures next time we make them.

Whirl Wind of Emotion

Well this past few days has been something. On Thursday Talia got really sick, really fast and we still have no idea why!! She started with a headache and low grade fever and within hours she had a high fever even with medication and she had stopped eating and drinking. So after a

call to her doctor's office off to the hospital we went.

We were seen very quickly because of her symptoms and the doctors started throwing around things like meningitis and sepsis along with treatments like spinal taps! AH!! Mommy went into hyper-vigilant mama mode. Needless to say she was admitted and put on and IV drip pretty quickly. The paediatrician who saw her quickly ruled out meningitis but had no idea why she had gotten SO sick. They had taken lots of blood and urine and all that jazz for testing but all of those tests take time - upward of 48 hrs.

On Friday morning her paediatrician came by and said that he didn't know anything yet but that she had been a pretty sick little girl and she'd be in the hospital for a couple of days. Ok I have to admit that when I took her into Emerg I seriously thought they'd give me a prescription and tell me I was over reacting. So being told that my child was going to be in hospital, on and IV drip with IV antibiotics was a bit disconcerting.

The good news was that Talia had bounced back VERY quickly once she was being re-hydrated and after her first dose of antibiotics. In fact she got so good that she was driving her father and I nuts by the end of the day Friday. She wanted to go home, then she wanted to play, then a story, then play, then eat, then pee, then play, then... well you get the point. Her doctor was pleased with that but we still had no idea why she had been sick.

Saturday morning we were told that she had something growing in her blood culture. Which could mean a serious bacterial infection. So the words sepsis and severe came back to the forefront. AHH! Well we tried not to panic (outwardly) but we really wanted to know what was going on. She was to stay another night and hopefully the tests would reveal what kind of bacteria was growing. Once that was done they'd know exactly what kind of medication she needed and what, if any, long term consequences would be for our girl.

Brian stepped up and took the hospital shift so I could spend time at home with Miranda and hopefully get some rest. Well I spent time with Miranda. Rest was far from enough. The poor guy didn't know what he'd gotten himself into though. Between Talia being super hyper and the nurse visits overnight, he didn't get much rest. And those cots at the hospital are enough to put most people in need of a serious massage or more.

Ok this morning Miranda and I got up and made our way up to the hospital so we could see the doctor when he did his rounds. We had little hope of Talia coming home but we needed some answers. Talia and Brian were at the hospital waiting for us (and the coffee I was bringing) and quite quickly Talia and Miranda were back to their usual bickering and fighting and riping toys away from each other. Finally the doctor on call came in and basically said the tests were negative and here's a prescription. So I looked at him and asked if that meant Talia could go home... Yes!

So here we are tonight, at home. All of us. But we still have no idea why Talia got SO sick. We have to see her doctor later in the week and I'm really hoping that he will have some kind of answer for us so we know why the hell she was as sick as she was. It was pretty scary for all of us. I hope we never have to go through that again.

After the Festivities are Over - a Year in Review

So here we sit and its the 26th of December, 2009. Wow what a Christmas we have had and what a year it has been.
Looking back on the year 2009 all I can say is "Holy Cow!" It started off with a bang as my hubby and I jetted off to the Dominican Republic for a well deserved break. Just the 2 of us - no kids! (Thank you grammas and auntie!!) We spent a wonderful week at a gorgeous resort and it has left me wishing we could do it again in January 2010 only with the kids this time. But alas that is not in the cards. That's ok though.

Now here's a bit of history... Brian and I didn't love where we were living at the beginning of 2009. Not that our house wasn't a home or anything like that but we had some neighbours that we weren't too fond of and it made living and playing at our home uncomfortable with our children. We had been looking on and off for houses that could be our new home for about 5 years. While away we decided to wait until March to start looking again and just enjoy the next few months after our trip with a post vacation glow and rose coloured glasses left from the holiday.

Now here's a bit of reality. We got home from our fantastic trip and about 2 weeks later I started looking at MLS and other listings for houses. I should NOT have done that but boy am I glad I did. I found a house that I really wanted to look at immediately. It was out of our price range by $10K but I thought we could always low ball an offer and see what happens. So I sent Brian the listing and he hummed and ha'd about it but after looking at the pictures said ok we should go take a look at the house. Well by February 11th we were taking our second look through the house and putting in an offer! By the end of day on the 12th the house was essentially ours!! With the low ball offer and all!!

So on our daughters 4th birthday (Feb 14) we listed our house. The MLS listing went up on the Internet on the 16th and by the 18th our house was sold! Obviously the new house was meant to be ours or things would not have worked out the way they did. It was a crazy time but we packed and moved by the end of March, beginning of April (we had a 1 month overlap so I could paint and clean a bit). We finally had our true "HOME". The picture here is of our eldest running around in the empty house that was soon to be ours. Both kids loved the space.

We've spent the time since moving in renovation the basement and then putting new floors in the living room and dinning room. We've worked hard but this house is really OURS now and boy do I love it! I think I must tell Brian about once a week that "I love our home." I appreciate all of the hard work he has put into to improving the house and making it ours. I appreciate the fact that he appreciates the work I have done too. Our children seem so happy here too. I know the move was hard for them both but now my 4 year old says that she doesn't really remember the old house. But she does remember Christmas at the old house... but she likes this house better for Christmas. Kids say the darnedest things.

I May we celebrated Miranda's second birthday in our new home... we had 18 people sitting, comfortably, in our new kitchen for a meal. WOW! I love my house! And my baby turned 2! Yikes! She's a little peanut but man she's feisty! She's going to give me a run for my money when she gets older. Not that she isn't already.

During the summer we went to the park across the road a few times... yes the park is ACROSS the STREET from us! WOW! I love my life. We didn't have any problems like we had with the old neighbours. No calls to the police reporting violence or other nonsense like in summers past. How fantastic could that be? We actually enjoyed our yard at our home instead of having to stay inside or go to the park if we didn't want.

September came and Talia started school, Junior Kindergarten!! AH! How did my first born get to be so old?? She loves her school and her teacher and is doing very well. Oh ya did I mention that the school is right ACROSS the road... and down a bit but still!!

After finishing the renovations in the basement we decided to go ahead and do the upstairs before Christmas. So speedily we painted and floored the dining and living rooms. Making this house even more ours! Then I started decorating for the holidays! I didn't care that it was not even mid November. I wanted to decorate my new home. So I got started with the small things like finding my holiday table clothes and towels and things like that. Nothing major - yet. But we did have the trees - yes trees - up about a week earlier than my historical norm.

Now with the turkey cooked, cookies baked and gifts exchanged I am certainly ready to face 2010 with my family at my side. We have a wonderful family and a wonderful home and we all are loved by so many. We are very lucky people and we need to be sure to remember that every day. Everyone should be as lucky as I am and have all of the joy and happiness that I feel when I look around at my life.

All the best for 2010! May it bring fewer major life changes but just as many wonderful feelings and as much love.