We've been taking Alex to the library lately for story time. The librarian reads some books and sings some songs. He has a grand old time.

So lately he's started doing Story Time for his stuffed animals as well.

It's been a few weeks since my initial post about my diagnosis with celiac disease, and I have a lot more to share! I thought I'd just type up random thoughts as they occur to me.

First of all, I'm still getting "glutened." I'm finding myself getting comfortable with my GF foods, I forget to look at the package, and so I inadvertently eat gluten. For example, some Chex cereals are GF, and they even say "gluten free!" in big letters on the front of the box. However, we must have grabbed an old box off the shelf, and I didn't look at the ingredients. A few days later, I looked at the box and discovered why I was feeling bad. In addition, the cocoa I use for my morning mocha -- yep, contains gluten. Well, to clarify, Nestle Milk Chocolate Cocoa Mix is GF. Their Rich Chocolate version is not. I must have opened a contained of Rich Chocolate I had laying around, and voila! Sick again!

On a more positive note, one evening we had GF pizza at Uno Chicago Grill, and I was thrilled to discover ... continue reading My Gluten Free Life

At the beginning of August, I had a routine checkup with my endocrinologist. I have hypothyroidism, so every six months or so I get my bloodwork done, and sometimes an ultrasound, then I visit my doctor to review my progress. This time, he told me the antibody for celiac disease showed up on my test, indicating that I may have it. Next, I would need to see a gastroenterologist to have a test to confirm the diagnosis.

Naturally, I was a little unnerved by this, but you do what you have to do. I was able to get in to see a gastroenterologist two days later. He told that, based on my bloodwork, I very probably have celiac disease. I scheduled an appointment for an endoscopy for two weeks later, and in the meantime I was not to alter my diet in any way, as starting a gluten free diet prior to the test would affect the results.

I spent the next two weeks saying goodbye to my favorite foods and dreading the upcoming change in my life. Then I went in for the endoscopy, and when I woke up ... continue reading Chronicles of a Celiac

Fine. We utterly completely failed as foster parents. We were just going to watch Tucker the basset hound for a couple of days until a proper foster home could be set up through GABR, but he's just too damn cute, so we're going to keep him. Barring some sort of catastrophe with the other dogs, of course.

So now that's 3 basset hounds + 1 little boy who thinks he's one. Crowded house.

These words have struck me as odd, and so I wanted to comment on them:

• backlog - Where the hell did we get this word to mean "work that has piled up"? I think it's an overused buzzword and lends very little to what you're trying to say.

• sliding board / sliding pond - I recently learned that these phrases are used in various places on the East Coast in place of what the rest of us call a "slide". Very weird.

• movie - I've always found this humorous, as I think it's related to "talkie", which we definitely don't say any more. "Film" sounds pretentious, but when you think about it, "movie" is a really old-fashioned word.

• coldcuts vs. lunchmeat - Jim hates it when I say "lunchmeat". He prefers "coldcuts." I'm sure there are tons of words and phrases to mean the same thing, like the many words for a sub sandwich. (Why so many words related to sandwiches?) I looked them up in the dictionary, and here is what I found. "Cold cut" (two words) means "slices of unheated salami ... continue reading Odd Words