Aah,now this is more like it

Thanks to thecutestblogontheblock.com my blog has a new look. Much easier on the eyes.

If I'm not "here" as much as I'd like to be, its because tax season is upon me. I do taxes from home for family and friends. I don't know how I'm going to find the time (most of my time is spent chasing Goldie away from the garbage can), but we need the moolah, so ....

How the FDA Has Let Me Down, Again

If you read my 25 Things, you'll see that aspartame gives me migraines. Aspartame is an artificial sweetner that my body responds to with vision loss and vomiting followed by a severe headache. I used to be able to avoid this neurotoxin by not eating anything labeled as light or diet. But, it is becoming so common that I have to read all food labels and I never eat homemade sweets at picnics.

My MIL is most put out by this. I recently gave her 6 pages of articles on why artificial sweetners are evil. This was my last resort after asking her repeatedly not to feed them to my kids or buy us food with rat poison aspartame. I won't bore you with the info, its easy enough to find. Unless, you are the FDA.

While the FDA is researching the evils of stevia, mercury is the lastest contaminant they have allowed to leech into our food system. I received this link from a special needs homeschool email list.

http://www.iatp.org/iatp/press.cfm?refID=105025

I do my best around here to avoid HFCS, but I don't always have time to cook from scratch or the money for alternatives. Example: Heinz ketchup w/ HFCS is about $2 while Annie's Naturals w/o is $4 at my grocery store. The nearest Whole Foods is an hour away.

The girls and I went through the cupboards to see what we had with HFCS. Just a box of Rice Krispies and some Dole canned grapefruit. Mini Me asked about the iced tea she drinks at school and I told her it would be better for to switch to water. She, too, has a milk allergy. Does anyone know if Silk makes individual soy milk cartons?

25 Things About Me

I was tagged for this on Facebook, so here it is. I changed some just so I don't seem too lazy.

1. I married my husband exactly one week after my 21st birthday. We’ve been married 12 years now.

2. My favorite color to wear is brown, I liked it way before it was cool. I’m stocking up on brown shirts now.

3. I’m addicted to Café Vienna, one of the General Food International coffees

4. I had post-partum depression after Goldie was born. I finally got help when she was 8 months old. I think it had more to do with losing 3 family members than it did with the DS.

5. In the last 10 years there have only been two months that I wasn’t pregnant or breastfeeding.

6. During those 2 months I got completely trashed at a wedding and am still embarrassed by my behavior.

7. When we decided to have a third child, we were thinking with our hearts not our heads. It’s a good thing, since my heart does most of the work.

8. I spent 6 months in the United States Marine Corps, until I fractured my pelvic bone.

9. I’ve stopped trying to have the perfect marriage. We do what works for us and I’m happy with that.

10. I was late for church this morning. Even worse, I only went because Swatcho made me. Then, she complained through the entire service while Goldie kept trying to escape.

11. Half of my family lives in Vermont, my mom is from there. I also have family in Mississippi and Texas that I have never met.

12. I enjoy mowing the grass because it’s a sure fire way to get time to myself.

13. I shot my neighbor’s dog in self-defense. No it didn’t die. Yes, I called the Dog Officer, 6 times.

14. I’ve been thinking about getting another tattoo.

15. I never got a college degree. Sometimes that bothers me, but that also means its still an option.

16. Ever since my Jr. High music teacher had us watch My Fair Lady, I’ve been a fan of musicals. My husband is not. Thank goodness I have girls.

17. I love hanging clothes outside to dry.

18. I worked for as a mail carrier between Swatcho and Goldie. Sometimes, when it’s nice out, I miss delivering mail. It was so nice to drive around by myself listening to the radio.

19. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I like to be alone. I’m an introvert; my husband thinks I’m a bitch antisocial. It just depends on the situation.

20. I get migraines from red wine and aspartame.

21. I love cinnamon and dark chocolate.

22. I’m an information junkie. I question everything and research like crazy before making decisions.

23. All the stuff I need to know to care for a child with special needs overwhelms me. Sometimes, I think maybe ignorance really is bliss.

24. I always knew I would have a child with special needs. When I found out Goldie had Down syndrome, in a strange way, it felt right. Everything in my life had led to that moment and prepared me to be her mother.

25. I suck at putting my kids to bed. Goldie is sleeping in the recliner right now, and the other two slept in the living room all weekend.

Me on my 30th birthday with Swatcho and her friend.

Good-bye Anemia

I just talked to the very pleasant lady at the GI office who said Goldie's hemoglobin is up to 13.7! (normal is 10.5-13.5) Whoa, I never expected that. It was 9.8 at the end of September. Then 10 about mid November after giving her iron drops 2X a day. It looks like eliminating the dairy from my diet was what really did the job.

The truth is while I paid close attention to what I ate and have been giving Goldie lots of iron rich pasture raised beef (a perk of living in the sticks), I wasn't so good about giving the iron supplement. Lately, when I did give it to her, it was causing some painful potty issues. This makes me think her body wasn't absorbing it because it knew she didn't need any more.

I know this really a pretty small health issue, but none the less its made my day. Nice to know my mommy sense was right about what was bothering my little girl.

Another Point of View

After reading Lisa's post at Finnian's Journey, I wanted to share a story.

Mini Me celebrated her 8th birthday just days before Goldie was born. We've talked about how babies are made and she had a basic understanding of genes. Like she has my brown eyes and her sister has her dad's blue eyes. I was sorting throught a pile of dirty dishes while she sat across from me at the bar. She asked me if her children would have Down syndrome. I immediately began to reassure her. "No honey, they probably won't. Goldie's Down syndrome is not hereditary. It just happens some times. Only 1 in 800 babies has it."



Her reply: "Well, I can always adopt a baby with Down syndrome, right?"



At that moment I felt like she was raising me.






I just have to add, my SIL took this picture. It is such a fluke. Goldie was 8 wks old and wasn't able to maintain eye contact or focus on anything. (She has nystagmus) So, this is the only picture from that time where she is actually looking at the camera.

Happy Birthday Swatcho

Happy 7th Birthday!

I can't believe my mischievious preschooler has been replaced by a sassy first-grader. At least you still have your Daddy's big blue eyes for me to get lost in.

GO STEELERS!

We had a cozy night in, watching The Game. Mini Me and Swatcho are old enough to remember when the Steelers won the Super Bowl in '06, so they were all about the black and gold.

Hank picked up a Pittsburgh paper for me on his way home from work today. The first thing I noticed was that the article about the Steelers beat out the piece about the President Elect for space on the front page. I mean, really, he's already won.

The article (titled Great Expectations) discussed how Steeler's fans just expect their team to go to the Super Bowl every season. "In Pittsburgh, the Super Bowl is the standard. Nothing else will do." This got me thinking about Goldie and our expectations for her. I expect her to graduate from high school, pursue some sort of secondary education, get a job, fall in love, and live on her own. This is what I expect of all my children. If they choose to take a different path, that's ok. As long as it is their choice and not something they've been denied. Will I read this 20 years from now and think I was being naive. Maybe, but it won't be the first time.