Entering the Land of Pet Food

Live pet food, that is. Crickets.

We went shopping for a class pet yesterday! After ruling out all rodents (Dad's rule...as who wouldn't love a cute fuzzy guinea pig?), turtles (too much maintenance), hermit crabs (too sandy...I am anti-sand-in-the-house), and collard lizards (4' tank required), we fully anticipated trying our hand, once again, at loving a betta fish. Well, the kids weren't that wowed at good ol' Petsmart's faded, sad looking and kinda pale fishies-in-a-cup, so we asked for suggestions.

What we ended up with is so cool! It's a Fire-bellied Toad (really a frog), species name Bombina Bombina, with a green/grey/brown spotted back and a red and black underbelly. His new home is a fire-belly landing with little steps up to where we laid some nice real moss on top of a bit of gravel. He has water to swim in and a container of live crickets waiting for him to devour. Oh, yes, and three very excited young owners! Which is, of course, the whole point of owning him!

A name will sure follow soon...and I'm already excited to find a bigger tank at a garage sale as I have a feeling the little plastic habitat isn't going to be safe enough with a 1 1/2 year old around!

And just like that....it's over.

I'm done. Done saying, "I can't have that" or "none of this today", done checking my little cards to see if certain foods are on my list of the day.

Last week I went to see a different doctor, and I am thoroughly convinced that if you go to enough doctors, you will eventually find the answer that you want to hear. At least in "food intolerance" cases like my own (obviously some medical problems are clear cut and diagnosis is diagnosis). I don't think this gal actually told me what I wanted to hear, but she did disagree with the allergist about the food problems causing all my skin & rash craziness. After much discussion between Eric and I (and Jodi since she was in town), I decided to scrap the elimination and rotation diet.

Ya know what the first thing I did was? Went to Culver's of course! Chocolate Heath Bar was the flavor of the day. Woot, woot! And as soon as I make it back to Wichita...a Squeak's cinnamon roll is on the menu! (Thanks for having one in my honor Jo).

Five days later now, and I really feel like a new woman. At least mentally. Every moment of the four weeks I was following that regimen my brain was constantly reeling, trying to figure out how to keep my body going on a limited range of foods...frequently failing as I stood in the kitchen at 7 p.m. starving and saying bleary-eyed to my family that I was going to the store to buy something, anything, to eat before I passed out. Unfairly, I know, I'm sorry gals...I was also continuing to lose weight...not such a good thing to be 15-20 pounds off the "healthy" range for my height.

So now I must say thank you to all of you who encouraged me in that adventure! So many people helped me find recipes, asked questions, brought me cookbooks, referred me to websites and just listened to my attempts at following that path. I genuinely felt so loved and cared for and I truly thank you for taking the time to help me try to figure it all out. I'm not sure what the "right" answer is for my total health...but for now having one less thing to worry my little head about is the right answer for me and my family. I need to focus on them, on getting ready for school, and getting our lives back in order. Hopefully I will be staying well and won't be wearing turtlenecks through a warm October like I did through April!

Baptism Day!

Our church, Vox Dei Community, gathered at a neighborhood pool this morning for our annual baptism service. We have been talking a lot about baptism with Elena and Kai over the last couple months and they (and we) both decided they wanted to do it this year as an act of obedience to God and demonstration of their heart commitment to Him. It was exciting!

The heat finally broke last night, seemingly just in time for setting a beautiful scene as six people were baptized this morning! Below are our two...I love how Elena is praying.

Eric and Rustin, our pastor, with Elena:


And then with Kai:


And then, after the picnic began....wheeee!



Thanks for the great pictures Kristi! I'll upload my own sometime and then will have the group shot of our whole family as Eric's parents all came down to be there. Praise God for a good day, one my kiddos will remember!

A Good Day!

I don't think I've ever dreaded my birthday...so I'm not going to start now! Last night I followed Elena's instructions and said "good-bye to 34" and this morning "hello 35"! It does seem a little surreal that I'm now at THAT number in life...ya know, reflecting on where I am and what I've done so far vs. expectations set when I was "young". But God is gracious and I truly can say that each year he refines me in character and cultivation of a quiet and gentle spirit tossed with a smidgen more wisdom than the year before. If that keeps up for the rest of my life, I think I will rest well in my old age.

My last post about the gradual adaptation of my crazy elimination/rotation diet? WRONG information! Dang! I consulted with another (evidently more informed) nurse this week at the doctor's office and it seems that I indeed did NOT misunderstand the doctor's first advice of cutting all my "intolerance" items cold turkey. Gobble-gobble. So I'm back to sticking to my meager list and trying to maintain the weight I'm at AND keep my brain balanced by eating the right combo of weird foods. For lunch today: Amaranth hot cereal with cherries and almonds, baked sweet potato, plain. Mmmmm....actually it's not to bad compared with some of the concoctions I've come up with.

Anyway, I think and talk about all that enough to drive me crazy so onto topics of more enjoyment! Last weekend we took a mini-vacation (which turned into a day trip) down to Springfield for Eric to play in another disc golf tournament. The kids and I stayed out of the heat as much as possible by going to fun places like the Bass Pro Shop and a bowling alley. Eric won his division (woot-woot!) and then we used the discount passes that came with his players pack to Fantastic Caverns to go on the little tour they offer.

It was perfect for our family since it was relatively short and you ride in their little tram thingeys. Zane wore his monkey leash (ha...I've never used one of those for my kids before but it's great!) and actually stayed relatively calm the whole tour.

The plan was to camp after going out to dinner, but night was falling fast and it ended up being the hottest day of the year thus far...once we got on the road this was the look of our eager campers, so scratch that idea:

This weekend promises more fun times...tonight we are going out to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday dinner, my mom is coming to visit tomorrow, we take the kids to Eric's parents tomorrow afternoon, then we have two OTHER people's parties to go to followed by friends meeting us out on the Plaza and Sunday a birthday lunch at Eric's mom's when we go pick up the munchkins...whew! Aren't I glad the maid came yesterday as a special treat?!

So color me impressed if you made it through all these ramblings today...I guess it's my birthday so I can write a totally unrelated mish-mash of a post, right? Have a blessed day yourself, dear reader! ~Resa