What can go wrong, will go wrong

I am on an endless journey to find gluten free products that taste good and are affordable. It seems like lately the "gluten free gods" are laughing at my ridiculous efforts! As soon as I find something that I like it becomes unavailable to me; either the store stops selling it, the product gets discontinued, or something else gets in the way of me and my yummy foods. I am just destined to suffer and eat the horrible tasting products that continue to crowd the shelves.

Earlier this year I found some gluten free oats. Not only do they taste just like the real ones but they are very very affordable (that is not a term one uses often when speaking of gluten free products). I remember stocking up on them buying out 2 different stores of all there stock and for about 2 months now I have seen my stash slowly dwindle as I frantically try to find them again. They are nowhere to be found. I have asked 3 separate stores to order them for me without any luck. Hopefully one will pull through for me and give me some good news this week.

Pizza crusts......now this is a topic that almost brings a year to my eye when I think about it. After trying about 6 different brands of crusts, I found an AWESOME one that I could add my own toppings. I prefer that over buying an already topped pizza. These crusts were thin crackery crusts, just how I like them. And best of all they were ridiculously affordable. All of a sudden one day they disappeared of the shelf of the only store in Memphis that carries them. I asked 2 different managers to order them only to find out about a month later that they can no longer purchase from that company. So I am not sure if that company stopped making them or if they just won't sell to my store. Another bummer!

Now on to my biscuits. I was hesitant to try these expensive little puppies at first. I paid a pretty hefty price for them, but was rewarded greatly in the end. It wasn't until I started preparing to make the biscuits when I realized that I needed a food processor. So I asked my friend Katie if I could come over to make and bake my gluten free biscuits at her house. She agreed and I went over and made my super delicious biscuits at her house. Kaylee and I enjoyed each and every bite of them, so much so that I took it upon myself to "help" Marcus with his Christmas shopping by buying myself a food processor (the costco coupon for $30 off helped ease my decision). So now armed with my own food processor I decided to go buy a few more boxes of biscuits, to my surprise when I went back to the store to purchase them.......guess what.......they no longer carry them. So I decided to ask the manager if there was any chance that they could order some more, I am waiting to hear back.

Also earlier this year I stumbled upon some gluten free brown rice tortillas (i know corn tortillas are gluten free, but these are not the same. Brown rice tortillas compare to a regular tortilla, they are soft like a burrito). I actually ordered these little delightful things online. I only bought one pack for fear that they would taste horrible like every other gluten free tortilla I have tried. But to my surprise they were delicious! I went immediately to order more from the same website and they were no longer selling them. I searched other sites and every store I could think of in the city of Memphis, but had no luck finding them again. Thankfully today when I was at Whole Foods, after the switch from Wild Oats they started carrying them so I bought all they had in stock. This is about the only good thing in my little "gluten free world" that is going my way at this time. Hopefully someone will invent some yummy products and start selling them to the stores in Hawaii so I won't starve while we are there!

Our Trip

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted about our trip. I tried a few times to post something while we were in Hawaii, but something always seemed to get in the way. Since we have been home more and more things just keep coming up.

I would like to start by saying that we had a fantastic time! We actually found 2 houses that we are considering and have made an "informal" sort of offer on one of them. Marcus and I are still torn between the 2 houses. After weighing the pros and cons of both houses we each have a very difficult time deciding which one we like better. One of them is in Kahului and the other in Wailuku, just up the mountain a few minutes. I will post a few pictures in a later post. I am writing this post from my moms computer and i don't have the pictures loaded on this computer. ***it's a long story why i am posting from her computer and not our own, I will talk more about that later

Besides spending 2 full days looking at probably 30+ houses we managed to fit in a little fun in the trip too. We walked to the beach one day and swam for a short time. We went snorkeling another day, MAN that was such a fun trip. I will have to admit i was really hesitant at first but am glad that they talked me into going. It was so much fun! We also enjoyed a few nice dinners out and drove to the west side of the island to Lahaina. Our trip ended with a nice dinner at our realtor's house, before we dropped off Kyle and Kristy at the airport. We became really good friends with our realtor, she was a perfect fit for us. She will be like our "family" while we are away from home. The flight home wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been, you know it is really hard for a pregnant chic to get comfortable on such long flights. Oh well I survived and we got the best greeting ever from Kaylee who was waiting ever so patiently to see her "mama" and "dada." The happy reunion didn't last long though.

***while we were away we were hoping that something/ anything would get done in our house. I was especially hoping that Kaylee's ceiling would be fixed, but we were shocked to find out that NOTHING was done the entire time we were away. So Thursday night, our first night home, we couldn't even all go home together. I decided to stay at moms with Kaylee and sent Marcus home to start doing some work upstairs with my dad. I began not feeling well late in the afternoon, so mom talked me in to going home to sleep so I could get a good nights rest. Once again I left Kaylee at moms, I felt horrible about it but really didn't have too much of a choice. The workers were supposed to come fix her room on Friday (which didn't happen), so she spent the night with Ceire and Rita Friday night. Then it was supposed to get fixed Saturday, and once again the workers no-showed so she spent ANOTHER night away from home with my sister. Finally the worker showed up today but the room was not finished until after Kaylee had already gone to sleep for the night, so I am stuck spending the night here with her. I think Kaylee and I have some sort of head cold, so we are both having trouble breathing and especially sleeping. I am so thankful that tomorrow night we will all be back home in our own beds!

Pa'ia waves

This little hippy town is on the north shore of Maui and is a popular destination for kiteboarders and wind surfers.

Turkey leg

Turkey Day (a day late)

Happy day after Turkey Day!

We are on the plane on the way to maui, Marcus is sleeping and I am bored to death, there's only so much people watching, sudoku puzzles, and reading I can handle. I would be watching a movie however our DVD player failed to charge last night so I can't enjoy that luxury right now. So I thought I would write a quick post (but I can't post it until we land and I get a signal).

Yesterday was quite eventful to say the least. With all the commotion that went on I never even got a chance to text everyone a Happy Thanksgiving text. And here's why......

Marcus had arranged for my brother to come over and help get some stuff done upstairs so that he could get some sleep. About 845 John comes over and we go upstairs so I can show him what to do, when all of a sudden I hear a loud THUD! I go to see what happened and I find that John had fallen through the ceiling. Luckily only the bottom half went through and he was able to pull himself back up. It took me a few seconds to realize that he fell through right above kaylee's room, where she was still sleeping. At that point she obviously was no longer sleeping! I ran down to get her to find the ceiling pieces and insulation all over her room and bed. She was shaking and terrified!!! I am sure she thought the aliens were coming down to get her. It took her a good few minutes to quit shaking and realize that she was safe. I couldnt believe my eyes, I didn't know what do do or say. All I could think about was we were leaving the next day and this was one more thing I would have to deal with when we get back. Needless to say I spent the entire day cleaning up and emptying her room, with the mere HOPE that my dad can arrange someone somehow to fix it before we return.

By 1 PM I was phyiscally and emotionally drained! I was having pains in my belly, and knew I needed to rest but Kaylee was so terrified of going to bed she refused to take a nap in her room. So I decided to pack what I could and head over to my moms house early. We finished the rest of the preping for dinner and waited for everyone else to arrive. We sat down to an awesome dinner. Kaylee loved the turkey leg my dad gave her and thoroughly enjoyed having her plate on her tray so she could eat all by herself like the big girl she "thinks" she is. After dinner it was Kaylee's bedtime and she was clearly exhausted from the days events. Apparently the trauma she had experienced earlier in her bed was still very fresh on her mind and she absolutely refused to be left alone in her bed. It made me so sad because she loves her bed she loves going to sleep and now she is scared something is going to attack her through the ceiling. After about 2 hours of struggling with her Marcus and I decided we HAD to go so that we could pack. My mom decided she would lay with her in the bed that is in her room and she drifted off to sleep. However Kaylee has never been the type to sleep good with people or on people so I knew it wouldn't last long.

Marcus and I reluctantly headed home to pack and we finally climbed in bed somewhere around midnight. We had to be up at 5 to catch our flight. I got a few stretches of sleep in between my bathroom breaks and waking up thinking of things I forgot to pack.
We left the house, a few minutes behind schedule, but made it to the airport in time. Our layover in phoenix was perfect, just long enough to get a good bite to eat and make it too our next flight. I was able to sleep for about 1 1/2 hours, which was a nice break, but when that is only 1/4 of the flight it doesn't seem like that long.
I am so excited to get to see my friend Kristy and her husband Kyle, it has been like 4 years since we saw each other last. I am looking forward to catching up and enjoying the rest of the trip.

Dizzy Kaylee

This afternoon Kaylee, my mom, and I were outside playing. She was playing with Tahoe and Oreo (the neighborhood dog) taking their tennis balls and throwing them. She loves running down the hill. Then mom and I decided to start swinging her around like a helicopter. It was so funny, she loved every minute of it and before she could even see straight she was asking us to do it again. She was laughing the whole time, even when she fell down in the wet grass. Watch the second video, as she is falling over from dizziness, she is saying "go, momma." She wants to go again!

After Turkey Day Blues

One of the biggest things I look forward to about Thanksgiving, besides getting the whole family together and playing games, is definitely the left overs! Anyone who knows us knows that left overs around here are like gold. And what better time to have left overs than at Thanksgiving? But this year we are going to miss out on all of them because we are leaving the next day. So i decided that I am going to make the dishes I am supposed to bring a little early and have left overs BEFORE Thanksgiving. I am going to make my broccoli casserole, GF corn bread, GF gravy, and mashed potatoes today so that I can enjoy them for dinner tonight, tomorrow night, AND Thanksgiving night! I figured that I would wait to make my GF pumpkin cheesecake til Wednesday night, because if i dont it might not make it to Thanksgiving dinner at all.

Is that bad?

4 days and counting til we go and see our new surroundings in Hawaii. It has been hard to get excited about this trip because of all the things we have going on here. I mean who wouldn't be excited about going to Hawaii for 6 days with no kids? I am hopefully going to start packing soon, considering we need to be really conscious of what we bring because of the new baggage policies. We have to pay $15 EACH WAY for 1 piece of checked baggage. That's ridiculous!

Here are a few pictures I took this weekend of the boys (AKA my dad and Marcus) working on the insulation. Oh and the inspector came again today and we passed, so we are cleared to continue working; however we have hit our first 'hiccup' in the road, we probably wont be able to do much more except insulate this week. I am hoping that my mom and dad will be able to hold down the fort while we are gone, and make sure that the worker dudes do their job while we are away.

On a totally different note.......... I was freaking out today when I filled my car up with gas and only paid $35. My tank was almost empty and still that was all it cost. I am so glad we are finally getting some relief at the pump, especially when we drive as far as we do on a daily basis.

Updates on everything

This morning went great! We got to the doctor on time, but they were not ready for us. So we had to wait longer than expected. After all the paperwork was filled out we were ready to go back to our "holding room". That's the place where we were briefed by the anesthesiologist and the nurse, and waited for Kaylee to come back from the procedure. After explaining how everything was going to work, they took Kaylee back to the surgery room. We could hear her crying until she past out from the anesthesia. I was really surprised, and actually felt guilty about not being nervous or scared or upset. They told us it would be about 25 minutes, but about 15 minutes later they came back and said she was in recovery. They keep her in recovery until she opens her eyes, and then they bring her back to us. They said it would be about 10 more minutes, and once again they were wrong, less than 5 minutes later we hear her screaming in the hallway. They had warned us about how she would act when they brought her back and they were right on. She was still a little out of it to say the least. Marcus thought they gave her a few too many martinis. She had trouble with her hand eye coordination and her balance. She looked like a newborn that didn't have control over her body, she was having trouble holding her head up and sitting without falling over. I felt so sorry for her. She didn't know what she wanted, she was crying for no reason and would ask for things and then throw them down when we gave them to her. Surprisingly, they said that she was reacting much better than most. We were able to to leave shortly after speaking with the doctor. When we left we headed straight to get something to eat. I figured she would be hungry, but she proved me wrong once again. She was still not acting herself. Once we got home she was pretty much back to her normal monster self. She was running around the house like a crazy person, seemingly unfazed by the mornings events. I was able to get a little bit of food in her which made me feel better. I was hopeful about getting a little nap in while she napped. I put her down and climbed into bed, only to be rudely awoken about 20 minutes later. I guess she was ready to get up and run around again. Her entire schedule was pretty much shot at this point. I had some errands to run and Marcus was sleeping so we began getting ready to leave, when thankfully my dad called and offered for me to drop her off over there while I ran my errands. I gladly accepted the offer and was able to run all my errands without worrying about her. She had a great time playing with grandma and grandpa. When I picked her up we headed straight home and into the bed.

Upstairs update:
My errands today included getting a truck full of insulation for my dad and Marcus to hang this weekend. I hope I got enough to keep them occupied! We have the plumbing and HVAC inspector coming Monday. And in order to pass inspection we had to have some stairs that lead up to the furnace unit put in. Tonight they installed those stairs, so hopefully we will pass inspection. But it doesn't look like any of the other workers can come next week, I guess cause of the holiday and all. So we have a few days to get the insulation and the rest of the prepping done ourselves. Then the week after thanksgiving we will have the framers and drywall guys out, and hopefully get a few steps closer to finishing. I promise pictures will be coming shortly. I will take some this weekend, before and after insulation (and maybe even some during).

Hawaii update:
We have our tickets booked for our house hunting trip. We are leaving next Friday for 5 nights, I am really excited about the trip. However, it is not getting any easier saying that we are moving to Hawaii, I think i am still in shock by it all. This will be the first time Marcus and I have ever flown together. It is hard to imagine of all the trips we have been on we have never travelled and sat together on the plane, well besides one trip with Kaylee to Boston. So I guess it is the only kid free trip we will have taken together and actually been together the entire trip. Our friends Kyle and Kristy, from Springfield Missouri, have already booked their tickets and they are going to meet us there. We are so excited to get to see them and they are excited to get away from their 4 boys for a few days. I will take lots of pictures and share them with you when we get back. I really hope that we are able to find a house so we can check that off of our list of things to do.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

I PASSED!!!

I passed my glucose test! YEAH!!!

Today the electrician came and did his thing upstairs, finishing much faster than we had thought. He even had enough time to call the inspector and have him come out today as well. WE PASSED the electrical inspection. The plumbers are coming tomorrow morning, so I went and bought the vanity and toilet today. After a few inconveniences at Home Depot I was finally ready to load up and hit the road. Kaylee just went down to bed and Marcus just woke up, so we are about to head outside to the truck so I can show him what I bought.