Shout-out to Goosey

The other night during dinner the boys really wanted to talk to Goosey (my grandma). Knowing that she wasn't available for comment I had the boys make a video message for her.

This is for you Goosey! We miss you - we love you - and we'll see you soon!

2:20am

At 2:20am this morning my Grandpa, Robert 'Bob' Walker, passed away.

Many of you know that 'Pa Bob' (that's what the boys call him) has struggled with his health over the last two months. I've blogged about it a lot on this site. We thought he had reached a major positive turning point when he was able to come home this past Tuesday.

His body just wasn't ready for the move from the hospital and on Thursday my Grandma called 9-1-1 and he was readmitted to the ICU. My Mom and Aunt Patti flew up on Friday to be with my Grandma. The Doctor was cautiously optimistic that he would, again, turn things around. They even took out the ventilator they had put him on.

This morning my Grandma received a call from the hospital saying that they needed to intubate him again, but that he was refusing. This was his wish and my Grandma relayed that to them. The nurse then suggested that she come down to the hospital. She woke my Mom and Patti up and they joined her at the hospital.

My Grandpa was awake and very coherent. He and my Grandma shared their quiet goodbyes. He said 'Things are taken care of Joyce". She said, "Yes they are Bob. You know that. We've been through everything." He nodded. He told Mom and Patti that he loved them and that he loves his family. He asked Patti to say a prayer. After the prayer he slowed his breathing, closed his eyes, shuddered, and was gone.

My Mom said that it was very peaceful and about as good as you could want a passing to be.

I absolutely adore my Grandparents. My Grandpa has been like a 2nd Father to me - coming to events in my life, teaching me lessons about love and spirit, and showing me love at every moment. I cannot even say how much I will miss him or how my heart feels with this loss.

Yet at the same time I am so glad he is done with the fight and done with the pain.

We will be going to Utah sometime this week for the funeral on Saturday - and it will be great to have time with my family to celebrate my Grandpa.

Sand + boys = TROUBLE

As you all know Southern California is on fire. As of today there are 500,000 people who have been evacuated from their homes, 1,600 homes lost to the first, and hundreds of thousands of acres burnt. Our hearts and thoughts go to each person effected by this.

We, fortunately, have not been effected with the exception of smoke and ash. Wanting a little bit of fresh air and open space the boys and I ventured down to the beach. I hadn't really thought my plan through too well as most of the fires in Orange County are blowing smoke out to the ocean. The closer we got the redder the sky got. It was surreal.

When we got to the beach itself the air was not as bad as expected. There was a lot of smoke out over the ocean but we were breathing just fine.

The boys LOVE the ocean and I am so glad that one of my passions is evident in them. They immediately got into sand and played their hearts out. We stayed for almost three hours - it was heaven!







Within a half hour of being there though - well, I think I'll let the pictures and video tell the story. This kid cracks me up!

"Whoops Mom, my sandwich fell down! Oh no!"

"What to do? What to do?"

"Oh man, there is sand on my sandwich!"

"Well - it is a SANDwich!

(This video is from 15 minutes later after he had buried the sandwich several times!)

Dad's Business Trip

This week is Eric's first business trip! Well, technically the trip he took to Las Vegas last week was his first, but we are counting this one since Las Vegas was a last minute, quick trip.

Both Eric and I have been so excited about this since he is in one of our favorite cities - Chicago! Having just been there in July with Lyndsy I must admit that I was a little jealous to have him go back there. Still, the excitement of Eric getting to have such a life changing experience outweighs even my petty jealously.

So far he is having a wonderful time! He is staying at the downtown Sheraton - he got a little time off and spent it at the Art Institute! Now his coworkers are in town and the convention is off to a great start!

Every day Eric has sent pictures from his trip to give me a quick update since we haven't been able to connect by phone each day.

I'll update this post every time I get a new picture - but here is his first business trip as told by his pictures:

Eric with the boys at the airport on his way out of town:










The boys watching for Eric to wave from his plane
(this is why I love LGB Airport):










Eric's plane - we love JetBlue!
And it's so fitting to be Bond-ish!










Eric at Millennium Park in downtown Chicago:










Pizza...deep dish Chicago
style at Pizzeria Uno:










Awww...Chicago from the
McCormick Place Convention Center:










Yum! Dinner at Sushi Samba.
(He doesn't get this kind of food at home!)










Dang - isn't he the cutest?! All
dressed up for the convention start on 10/24!










Woot woot! Wilden power
is in the hiz-ouse!










More to come in the next few days! The trip ends on Sunday!

GF Fried Chicken

We hit the jackpot tonight! The boys have been eating well - but not as fast and furiously as they downed this gluten-free chicken! Even my Dad and I couldn't get enough! (Yes, our whole family is going GF and even my parents eat GF with us at home!)



Simple recipe and the flaxseed adds extra crisp and Omega-3!!

1 cup GF Flour (We used Bob's Red Mill Flour Mixture)
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 teas. onion powder
1/4 teas. pepper (or to taste)
1/2 lb. chicken breast or tenders
1 large egg (whites only)
1/2 cup milk
oil for frying (You can also bake these for a healthier meal!)

Cut chicken into small, nugget-size pieces and rinse in warm water.
Mix egg white and milk.
Mix flour, flaxseed, onion powder & pepper in shallow bowl or pan.

Dip chicken into milk/egg mixture, then into flour mixture. Place into heated oil in a frying pan (or bake at 350 degrees). Brown each side (3-4 minutes) and remove from heat.

Serve with your favorite sides and enjoy! We sure did!

Making Daddy proud!

Walker and I had our nice Mommyschool time today. This included a quick trip to the grocery store.

I treated myself to my favorite lf/nw/iced mocha from Starbucks.
(This is a rarity, partly because I feel that spending 3+ dollars on a drink is crazy - but mostly because you all know how much I like to clean without caffeine...so with a little espresso I can be a wild cleaning machine!)

And Walker got his first taste of Starbucks!






(Ok, it's not what you think! It's water...but isn't it cute!)

Aunt Noonie!

Now this is living! Many of you know and love my sister Lyndsy (aka Noonie, Petunia, Lyndz, Inka). But none of you know and love Noonie as much as my two boys!

When I announced bright and early this morning that we were headed to see her, I got grins larger than heads! Of course I had to spend some talk arguing about how she no longer lives in Santa Barbara - though Will was determined to prove me wrong.

So we drove up to visit Noonie at her new apartment. We had a great drive up - singing songs as we listened to Anne Murray, Raffi, and Wiggleworms! The boys were so excited about the trip that the drive didn't really bother them.

We had a wonderful time with Lyndsy - though the boys by that time were quite done with being in the car and quite hyper! I think they about scared the crap out of her cats...on purpose....many times!

The best part of the visit (from the kids' perspective) was that Noonie had brought toys out for them - the CAT toys! And the boys loved them. Walker played, almost the whole time, with a toy that looked something like a cross between a pom-pom and a fishing pole.

And both boys liked the scratching post! Hilarious!

Noonie and I got a little big of bonding time, over Taco Bell and The Office (sweet!), while the boys took naps.





Noonie's apartment is quite cute. She & Jon have two bedrooms, a nice kitchen, a fantastic bathroom, and a balcony!







Will capped off the trip by taking photos of the apartment. Most of them are really white and you aren't quite sure if it's a cat, the carpet, or his hand. He did get a couple of good ones - including this classic Noonie one:



It will be fun when we can head back up there - with a little less time on the road and maybe Eric too so we can tag-team the twosome :)

Thanks for the adventure, as usual, Noonie!

It was...

It was a dark and stormy night...

Oh wait! Not it wasn't!

It was a gray and gloomy day! So what do you do when the days are gray and dreary?

You do housework! And there is nothing better than two super helpers!

Will doing the laundry.
Actually, I had to beg him to tear his eyes off of 'fan' going round & round in the washer!

Walker working with his drill.

The boys measuring, drilling, and helping SO much!

And we're off!

It's official! Starting today our family is gluten-free (GF)! We, we sort of started yesterday night with our taco night but since the boys had soup for lunch and treats at their church class it kind of blew any effort made at night.

As I type the boys are enjoying their second serving of the GF cinnamon raisin muffins that I made. I am thrilled that these turned out so well, but I think that it helped having a good mix rather than trying to make them from scratch. I used the Whole Foods brand, 365 Everyday Value.
Having products like this, that are 'value' priced is helpful since GF shopping can be quite expensive. To give you an idea, just this muffin mix, which has no flavor, requiring you to add your own, was $3.49. For a similar product (15.5 ounces, yields 12-16 muffins) it would be about $2.99 (or if you are frugal, $.55 for Jiffy).

Eric and I spent Saturday and Sunday with help from Papa Paul & KK, getting our kitchen GF ready. Every book we've read (and we've read lots) has suggested having separate cookware for GF foods vs. gluten-full foods. Since Papa and KK are letting us live with them, we wanted to make it convenient for us without stepping all over their toes.

On Saturday we went through ALL of the cupboards and labeled things with stickers that said 'no' on them if they have gluten in them. We also bought a new mixer, new bowls, new tupperware, and a few other cooking tools all in red to use for only GF cooking.

After we went through everything then we went grocery shopping. Whole Foods is in Pasadena and offers the most GF selection of the stuff we want. Traders Joe's, Vitamin City, and Sprouts are all closer but they offer a smaller selection. They'll be good for quick stops to get more pasta, rice flour, and xanthan gum.

Then I spent all afternoon, while Eric tried wrangling the kids, cooking! I made 64 GF chicken nuggets with flax seed, 15 GF muffins, four one-quart bags of GF noodle & veggie soup, and GF taco meat. I know that this change is going to be hard on me with regards to lunch, since we are used to sandwiches of all sorts. Given that one loaf of sandwich bread is $7.99 that's not going to be an option any more.

Here are the fruits of our labor:



Honestly - I had a blast! I'm an organization freak so by the time I was all done organizing I was hyped up and ready for a club.

And the best part, the GF muffins were actually good and the boys devoured them this morning!

Woe is he!

I should have known the minute he came into our world. Everything Walker does he does with gusto, gumption, and no fear. It started with his birth and has been true for almost every minute since. The only minutes when he seems fearful are when roller coaster or new dogs are involved...and those are pretty rare.

So it shouldn't surprise me, or anyone reading this, that Walker is often found climbing, jumping, hitting things, bouncing, or running. When he woke up at 5:00am this morning it was followed by him running from room to room, in search of me (he failed to check the bedroom first), and then him climbing up onto our bed (which already had Will in it) and then jumping around. 5:00am means nothing to this boy.

Being a little tired this morning I made oatmeal for breakfast. It's easy, it's a favorite in our family and will probably forever since it's gluten-free. Will was playing on his computer and needed my help. I had turned the stove off and moved the pot. Doesn't matter. Before I knew it Walker had climbed up onto the stove and was screaming. Turns out he burned four of his left-hand digits on the still hot stove.

He has now spent most of the morning having me recite which finger is which (i.e. pinky, pointer, etc), playing with his Thomas band-aids (he needed one for each finger!), and crying because they hurt. I don't doubt that they hurt, they are already turning into white blisters on the tips of his fingers...BUT I do know that part of the tears come for show!

Look at those band-aids!


Oh, woe is he!



After all the trauma he was still excited to eat his oatmeal, and then promptly fell asleep at the table!

Road Trippers!

There are so many reasons that I love being a mom. And so many reasons that I think my kids are the best in the whole wide world. One of them is that my kids are fantastic road trippers. Eric and I love to road trip - we are always willing to hop in the car and head for an adventure. We worried about how our road tripping would change - and the only way it has changed is that we have less time! However our kids are amazing on the trips. And we don't even take a DVD player! See, they are AMAZING!

Last week the boys and I, along with Papa Paul, traveled up to Utah. We left early in the morning so that the boys could sleep, and so that we could get their fairly early. The boys were great.

On the way home, with Eric joining us, I was a little bit worried. We slept through our alarm to get up at 3:30am, so we ended up leaving at 7:30am. This meant the boys would be awake, hungry, and tired.

My fears were unfounded - the boys were absolutely wonderful. We listened to 'Wee Sing' music, read stories, played hide and seek, did I Spy & Waldo books (their current faves), and had a great time as a family.

Silly Yaks!

It's confirmed! Our eldest child is a Silly Yak! After meeting with Dr. Berry this morning to discuss the results of Will's endoscopy. It was, as he said, 'positively conclusive that William has Celiac Disease'.

As I mentioned to my Mom and Dad when I called them this morning, it felt pretty anti-climatic. See, I did not realize that when our pediatrician in Salt Lake told us that his blood work determined 'celiac' that it wasn't 100% conclusive. Pretty darn close though. Will's blood work showed that he was measuring 13.6 on his tTG/tTA (celiac sprue tests) when 7.0 or LESS was normal for his age. So I immediately went to the library to get books on what Celiac was. Then I bought books, stickers, shirts, more shirts, buttons, magnets - you name it!

So when he confirmed it with me today, I think he was thinking that he would need to give me tons of information. I was pretty clear that the news he gave me was better than learning that Will didn't have celiac. That's not to say that I wouldn't be THRILLED if Will didn't have it. However, with all the symptoms he has I am glad that it is something we can deal with versus something that we don't understand or is harder to live with.

We will be sending more information out to all of our family over the next month or two to better explain Celiac disease and set our expectations. It will be vital that everyone understands what he cannot eat.

Eric and I feel good about moving forward and starting to live gluten-free. We've got lots of resources. And if you're wondering what to get us for Christmas...think GLUTEN FREE!