Huh, it's fall.

Yeah that's right, I haven't posted in a million months, I'm ok with that. Since then:

I've obviously finished the stupid elimination diet and learned NOTHING, so that was helpful.

I've knitted a lot of things of all different sorts, mostly all highly successfully.

I've worked another wonderful summer with my super interp co-workers, and I'm high enough in seniority now that I got to start & end much earlier this year.
Unfortunately that means 3 weeks on either end of fun interp stuff of un-fun camp bathrooms & garbage. It actually wasn't too bad. Also, I went to the State Fair this summer and performed my Mountain Lion program twice, breaking the attendance record! I saw an opalescent nudibranch and a sea cucumber both for the first time in our tidepools this year!

I threw a schoolgirl hash with my friend Marli that everyone enjoyed, despite them losing the trail a whopping 2 minutes in and not actually following it again until the last half-mile.

I did a repeat of my "Yes, You Can Knit!" lesson thing for 7 people this summer, and almost immediately was begged to do another one this fall for another 6.

I trained for the Prefontaine Memorial 10k with Steph, only to learn (after successfully getting up to 3+ miles with no problems) that we couldn't do it, being that we had to work the SOLV Beach Clean-up that day.

I got a large part in a play (Neil Simon's "God's Favorite") which was very fun (and everyone said I "stole the show") but only 9 people I know came to see me. :(

I have also dyed a lot of yarn, bought a lot of yarn, baked a lot of things, read lots of books; you know, the usual stuff. :)

Argh!

Well, we're almost to week 5 now, and today has been the first AWFUL day so far. I mean, I've had stomach aches and pains, but today I know for sure I ate something bad this weekend-- I just wish I had any way of telling what.

See, I was naughty this weekend. There was a hash, and at the hash they had cookies! BUT the household who hosted the hash is gluten-light and have gone through elimination diets before, so they were supposedly gluten and sugar free. I didn't ask for a list of ingredients, of course, but ate 2 cookies, and they were delicious. Then the next day, R convinced me that Nature Valley granola bars are ok on the diet. They do have sugar and oats, so I probably should have known better, but we were out & about, and I was starving, so I ate one (as in half a package, a single bar). Then later he convinced me that a latte with almond milk was permissible. I made brownies (gluten free & with fake sugar) too, so it could have been any number of things. But today is terrible, and I don't know if this has knocked me off track for an extended period and I have to go back to the start, or if it's just going to be a day or 2 of misery.

How long does it take for a bad food to manifest itself in, uh, unpleasantness? Is this simply the effect of too much xylitol, or something else? Could this be caused by traces of gluten in chocolate chips or the oats? Is it something else entirely? I hate all the unanswered questions!!

It's definitely throwing off my training, I was supposed to go run today, but that's sure not happening.

disheartening

This diet is frustrating me lately. It's been over 3 weeks since I had anything with wheat or dairy in it, and I don't really feel any differently. I know that it can take longer for the lingering effects to finally wear off, but it's still disheartening for now that 25 days have gone by with no noticeable difference except massive cravings.

Thanks for the comment too, Emilie, I know I should get tested, but that's frustrating me lately too. Why didn't my doctor test for this in the first place 6 years ago? I went all the way to Portland to see a gastroenterologist, you'd think she would have checked me for celiac if I had the symptoms. She didn't even attempt to help me figure out how to eat so I wouldn't hurt, just ran a battery of expensive, invasive tests and ended up diagnosing me with IBS, which in medical language means, "We have no idea why you can't digest foods like a normal person."

I'm currently doing several days without any grains, to see if that's the reason my stomach has been unhappy lately. Maybe I'm just unable to easily digest anything grain-like. It's not like my stomach is usually debilitating, it's just not normal. Then there are rare mornings like this where it feels like someone tied a knot in my intestines.

And it sucks to be so left out of everything. I'm starting to realize what people with severe allergies or celiac go through. Everything social involves food or alcohol, and not being able to consume either makes you somewhat of an outsider. It's really hard to sit in a coffee shop to knit while they are baking cookies, or hang out with friends while they drink beer & eat food I want but can't have. Going to Italy and not having pasta? Unthinkable.

Just chalk it up to hormones or low blood sugar, I'm just depressed today.

Week 4- adding foods back in!

This week we got to add in grapefruit and kiwi, and I've got to say, it's amazing to be able to have fruit again!

I think we're mostly through with the detox-part of the diet, and the rest of the time will be concentrated on slowly adding in foods and seeing how well my stomach tolerates them. I've got 2 or 3 new foods planned for each week to slowly reintroduce. I keep hearing more and more about celiac, everyone tells me I need to go get tested for it, but I really don't want to be told I can never have normal bread or beer again, my stomach isn't THAT unbearable. Most of the time, at least. Plus I went to an expensive specialist a few years back, and she didn't deem it worthy to get me checked for it, so I don't know.

I tried pumpkin cookies today, grinding up coconut in the coffee grinder and using that as part of the flour (they came out really, really dry, which I now know is problematic with coconut flour), and made pumpkin muffins with quinoa flour and using "flax gel" which I made by soaking flax seeds overnight in hot water and then drinking the water. They were just ok, so far the carrot/zucchini/apple/nut/coconut muffins are by far the best!

I've realized that this restrictive diet has made me obsessed with sweets, I have a huge stockpile of crazy recipes I fully intend to make in the far-off distant future (assuming I can eat flour & sugar & cream and things again), and when I do make sweets like the lime bars or cookies, I want to inhale them ALL just to have sweet things to munch. That was never a problem before....

Week 3

Things are going better meal-wise, but something has been upsetting my stomach. I'm not sure if it's just grains in general, or the xyltol (which is known to cause intestinal distress in some people), or maybe even cauliflower.

We invited my Mom and Steph & Pete over for Easter dinner, which involved a tasty baked ham, cauliflower mash (since we can't have potatoes and meat together), asparagus, and salad. Then after playing Yahtzee we made a gluten-free microwave cake http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif (though ours was lemon, not chocolate) and ate it with homemade lemon sorbet. We'd made the recipe before as written and it turned out well, but this time the cakes deflated and had the texture of a dutch baby or popover, but they still tasted good.

I've had a lot more success with baking things lately, I made delicious carrot-zucchini-apple muffins with almonds and coconut, and we even made quite tasty lime bars, but all this is making me eat more carbs & sugar-substitute than I probably should. Oh, and cocoa powder mixed with "sugar" and sprinkled on buttered popcorn is amazing!

SO other than the unexplained stomach weirdness, which I fully intend on sussing out next week, things are going well.

Week 2

I'm backdating this, sorry for any confusion.

Well, week one was pretty blah- it felt like we were eating tasteless baby food, since it was mostly all pureed vegetable soups for the first 5 days or so. It's amazing how much flavor is cut out by not using store-bought stocks and things like cream and wine in soups.

We were definitely having low-blood sugar symptoms (grumpiness, exhaustion), but on the upside, R has been needing a lot less insulin lately (and he has managed to lose 4 pounds too- I don't have a scale so I can't say for myself, but it's not noticeable if I did loose a pound or 2 anyway). I missed knitting over the first weekend because I was feeling icky, though I'm not sure if it was just waking up really low blood-sugar-ey, or having die-off symptoms of the bad bacteria & yeast.

But things are starting to improve now that we're eating meats and the occasional starch (though not together, of course, which is the most frustrating part of meal planning). I actually sat down and wrote out 3 months worth of meals one weekend to make this easier, it has simplified a lot.

I tried my first gluten-and-sugar-free baking experiment this week, which turned out really gross. We just need to go to Coos Head and get xylitol though, then we can have a fake sugar we can actually eat that doesn't taste nasty! Cooking with coconut oil is a challenge though, because it's a solid at room temp here, not a liquid, which makes for interesting side effects. Still figuring things out, but yes Brandy, breakfast veggie scrambles are very tasty weekend breakfast options (and we're smart enough to make leftovers for weekdays too)!

Day 1

Today begins what will surely be a Herculean struggle for us- a very restrictive diet. Basically it cuts out everything tasty, and we are limited to eating vegetables and lean meats in certain combinations. Now don't freak out, we're not trying to lose weight here, it's supposed to help figure out what is wrong with my stomach, and potentially even help make it better. R just got dragged along for the ride. The idea is you clean out the bad bacteria and yeasts and other beasties that have been allowed to flourish due to messing up the good ones with antibiotics, and eating not-so-healthy things (like beer and cookies, yum!).

We've basically eaten up or frozen all the "taboo" foods, but it's still going to be a struggle, particularly getting the balance of the easily-digestible foods right. For example, this morning we had quinoa porridge for breakfast, which is an acceptable grain, but you're supposed to eat mostly vegetables and only a quarter grain, and we certainly didn't do that. Who wants vegetables for breakfast?

Anyway, Stephtacular told me to blog about it, so here it is. I really hope it makes a difference, giving up delicious food!

Oh, and my birthday was pretty good, and the play went really well. I'm excited to get to act with them again in the future.

Really need to post more often, eh?

Happy April, everyone! This winter has flown by, the latter part of it hurried along by a 3 week trip to Costa Rica, and a 5 day trip to visit Victoria in LA. Both trips were wonderful, but very different.

This time in Costa Rica we focused mainly on the northern (touristy) bits of the country, seeing the Arenal Volcano (not currently spewing fiery rocks anymore), Monteverde cloud forest (amazing, I spotted a quetzal!) and the Nicoya peninsula (very laid-back). We also spent a few days in Manuel Antonio, which was monkey-tastic (seriously, close enough to touch), and a very ill-advised night in Palo Verde, the one big failure of my trip planning ($260 + 2 days of traveling + grubby bunk beds + we were lucky not to get heat stroke + K got too sick to do the guided tour-- surely you get the picture). Other than the one bad experience and a few bus mishaps it was a wonderful trip, and my wee bit of Spanish served us well. Also, this is the first time we met up with friends on vacation, and I can definitely say it's a very awesome plan! (Hey A & S- we need to plan a vacation to Kauai- Verne's agreeable!)
I'm trying to put the album up as the bottom-of-blog pictures, but it's being difficult. If you want to see photos, email me.

The knitting has been going well, I finished my Waterloo project: the blanket for my Mom I began in 2008 and quickly gave up, since it was too advanced for my skills (and Sisyphean, being a blanket). I knitted a shawlette/ kerchief while on vacation, and have since finished another one and some hats and cute little toys (like a tiny, tiny piggy and a "Despicable Me" minion.) I am officially on a yarn diet now though, as my yarn stash is getting out of hand. Although it is my birthday in a week, so if you feel the need, I won't chastise you .... ;)

I feel like I haven't worked much this winter, but so far this spring has picked up a bit. I got to work several days this last week, including teaching how to balance chemical equations, which I love! It's one of those rare teaching moments where you get a kid to go from "This sucks, I can't do it, it's too hard!" to "Ohh, now I get it, it's easy!" It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's supremely gratifying. Maybe there's hope for the future after all!

In other news, I'm in a play! A friend informed me of a group of actors who occasionally perform at her church (not having a real theater to use) who needed an extra person for "Our Town." So if anybody wants to go, the performances are the 8th, 9th, and 10th. Come see me on stage! (well, sort of a stage)

That's all for now, I promise to make an effort to post more often though! Off to start knitting myself a birthday crown, later!

Life moves swiftly

It's been a busy year, I suppose, and time has flown. I can't believe it's December already! Thankfully we're done with trips out of town for a while, and we don't even have any scheduled visitors in the near future. The holidays will be very mellow this year.

I had planned to get so much more done by this point, but oh well. I'm still subbing occasionally, and party of the busy-ness of this fall was doing all the necessary bits & pieces to renew my license, like take several exams, etc. Subbing is still frustrating though, and I certainly don't want to become a classroom teacher. I'm such an anomaly- a woman who doesn't desire kids, a sub who doesn't want to be a teacher. That's just who I am, I guess. Sometimes I feel it would be better if I could find some other job that would take me from October through May, even if it paid less than subbing. I only work about 8 days a month on average anyway. Having a flexible schedule is lovely, but the work itself (when I can get it) is really wearing. I had to kick kids out of class the other day for fighting, and the past couple of years a lot of the kids have just been awful in general. I barely even get to knit in class any more, since I have to police them every second of the day even during videos.

Knitting itself has put forth several frustrations this year too, several projects showed themselves to be far too big about half-way through the process, prompting me to give up on one and rip the other back about 6 inches. But I persevered, and can now say I'm one sweater away from completing my 13 sweaters for 2010, though this last one will be the hardest of all, since it's for Ryan, and therefore a foot or more bigger in circumference than my normal knits.

So as usual, there's not much news from the Coos. We're getting to the final stages of planning our Costa Rica trip for a few months from now, and the dogs enjoyed the snow we received just before Thanksgiving (but didn't enjoy my Aunt's dog on Thanksgiving, unfortunately). Verne spent an awesome week+ with us recently, and my Mom, Bro & Nephew just were here for a long weekend. If you're reading this, it's probably your turn to visit! Come to the coast, we miss you all!

I'm alive, I swear!

I know it's not spring anymore like my last post said, I promise to write a real post soon! This fall has been incredibly busy, but sadly not with anything greatly exciting. I've had knitting successes and knitting failures. I've eaten lots of good food, and done a few things with friends. I was Dr. Horrible for Halloween!
More later!