Things I have learned from being milk and soy free

Most of you know, well I think at least, that I have really enjoyed cooking ever since Adam and I got married, mainly because he seemed to have forgotten how. It started off with the cookbook my maw maw Carol made for me full of family recipes, and one day I do plan on making everything in there, I am still a little afraid of the tamales. Then I moved on to Betty Crocker and for a short time Deceptively Delicious (which I may need to pick back up since Georgia refuses to eat any veggies and most proteing as well), lately I have concentrated on Weight Watchers recipes (see favorite blog list) and have managed to loose all of the combined baby weight, in fact I weigh 5 pounds less then what I did when I got pregnant with Kara. However lately I owe the weight loss manly to stress, forgetting to eat and being milk and soy free (thanks Kara, I love you but I miss chocolate and pizza!). Kara is of course milk and soy free, which has limited a little of what she can, read those baby food labels! However, being milk and soy free has made me really pay attention to all of the food and beverages that I put into my mouth and I think has made a little more aware of all of the junk I usually eat! Here are some things I learned:
- Milk and soy is in almost everything at restaurants and fast food, especially the good stuff (aka the stuff that is bad for you), most fast food places have soy in there meat, even the chicken, so even if you try to go healthy and get a salad, still can't have it. It is even harder at sit down restaurants, even nicer ones aren't that accomadating. So far one of the pluses has been that I can still have Wendy's which is good for two reasons, it is my favorite, but it is Adam's least favorite so I won't eat there often.
-Must prepackaged stuff has milk or soy, or both, so now almost everything I make is from scratch, especially desserts, which means I am less likely to something junky every day and if I do I eat less, because then I have to cook more often.
-Coffee is pretty good black, well at least if there is sugar in it, but I much rather black coffee than non dairy creamer, yuck after taste.
-There are a few places you can order premade desserts on line, I haven't tried it yet, kind of expensive, but at least there are choices. Babycakes bakery, the one on Food Network, has a wide variety of not only milk and soy free, but also gluten, and the rest of the 8 main allergies free.
-However the most important thing is that Kara is healthy, so it is worth it. As soon as I am finished nursing though I going to enjoy a big gooey, cheesey pizza and 7 layer chocolate cake, I probably won't eat the whole thing, but you get my drift.
-

Kara update

Kara has a cold, so does Georgia, so her surgery has been postponed until June 4th.

Aidan's 1st T-ball game and fun around the house

Aidan had his first t-ball game today and actually did pretty good. No whining at all and hit the ball pretty well each time at bat. He even stopped a few balls, didn't know what to do with it then, like everyone else, but he tried. He was a little slow moving at the end, we need to make him run laps everyday maybe.

Here some pics from a little water gun fight we had last weekend and some flowers Adam sent me just because, those are the best kind.

Family Pictures

So we ventured early Saturday morning over to Sears Portrait Studio to attempt to get family pictures, that including all of us, hopefully smiling. Well with our long standing family tradition of one of us not cooperating it was now Kara's turn to look at the camera as if it was one her many doctors or nurses trying to do some sort of test on her, however we got some where she was screaming and Georgia actually smiled this time.

Here are some of them.

We then went to lunch, because Adam and I are gluttons for punishment, but the kids did well, it was fun trying to figure something I could eat without milk or soy, other than that it went as smooth as we could expect.

Kara has to have another endoscopy Wednesday to make sure she is completely prepared for surgery on the 10th, pray everthing is clear to procedure.

A Day at the Zoo

We took the kids to the zoo in Norfolk on Tuesday. It was pretty warm, and the zoon was not that impressive. It was huge, but didn't have a lot of animals, you walked like an half a mile between animal exhibits. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, especially when we left and got McDonald's on the way home!

Kara update

Kara's surgery will be May 10th, if all goes as planned and her pre op will be on May 3rd.

Kara update (really I should call it a saga)

Kara doesn't have infectious colitis due to a milk protein alergy, she has a bacterial infection. The good news, she can continue to nurse, the bad news the doc isn't sure what strain of bacteria it is. The GI has put her on a broad spectrum antibiotic and is running some more tests, and seeking out some help from other pathologists across the U.S. Hopefully the antibiotic will work, but I am curious as to what her infection is.

On another note we have enjoyed not only our 2 week visit from my mom, aka mawmaw pam,. but also our 5 day visit with adam's parents, aka nana and papa price. It was nice to see adam's parents, it had been a whole year, and I know the kids have been enjoying all of the attention and presents. In fact, Georgia wakes up and says "good morning mommy, where is maw maw," and Aidan makes sure maw maw is up as soon as he is, and is looking forward to another sleepover in maw maw's room tonight, because she lets him stay up late and watch cartoons. We are going to miss maw maw, especialy me, when she leaves Sunday. Come back soon.