100 things

1. I was born in Lake City, Washington (near Seattle)
2. I was molested by my stepfather
3. So was a neighbor girl, she told, I was removed from the home
4. I moved to Edmonds, Washington at age 6
5. I was born in 1969; the year Sesame Street began, the year of the moon landing, and the year of Woodstock
6. I was placed in foster care and then adopted age 6
7. We then moved to May's Pond in Bothell Washington
8. My older brother was adopted too
9. My little brother was born
10. When I was twelve we moved to Elk Grove, California
11. I graduated from Elk Grove High School, home of the Thundering Herd.
12. I was a good student in Junior High and High School
13. I wasn't so good a student in grade school
14. I took all college prep classes in High School
15. I discovered my love of math in High School
16. I tutored in Algebra and Geometry
17. I didn't start college until the age of 25
18. I got 100% of all the points possible in my calculus class, until the final when I thought 9 x 3 was 28.
19. I had a high school sweetheart
20. We lived together off and on after high school
21. We were together for 5 years
22. He married someone else less than a year later
23. His marriage only lasted a few months
24. I got pregnant from someone else, after the breakup
25. I decided to have the baby and my family was a bit upset
26. I quit my job at Payless and started a daycare business in my home
27. My first job was as a dishwasher in Hesperia, California right out of high school
28. I moved to Hesperia with my boyfriend a week after graduation
29. My second job was as a dishwasher at a Wendy's back in Elk Grove
30. My third job was as a cashier at a Pay N Save in Tacoma Washington
31. My fourth job was as a cashier at Payless Drug store back in Elk Grove
32. After my daughter turned 3, I started college
33. A year and a half later my dad's job transferred him to Fort Wayne Indiana
34. I moved to Fort Wayne Indiana
35. I got a job as a secretary at a TV station
36. I lived with my parents for a year with my daughter
37. I moved into my own apartment
38. I got promoted to a Traffic Manager
39. My parents decided to sell their house, buy a 5th wheel, and drive into the sunset
40. The day they left, my dad was diagnosed with Cancer
41. I gained 50 lbs
42. I was alone in the middle of hell and it was frozen over
43. My dad had surgery and radiation and got better
44. My best friend from Junior high school, who was in the Air Force, moved from England to Italy
45. My brother got married, his wife was in the Air Force and they moved to Italy
46. My best friend introduced me to Jeff, via email
47. Jeff was in the Air Force in Italy
48. Jeff and I got married
49. Mandy and I moved to Italy
50. We moved in with Jeff and his cat, Daisy
51. We traveled the world
52. We went on a cruise down the Nile river in Egypt
53. We went on Safari in Kenya
54. We toured the WWII memorials in France
55. We visited art museums in Paris
56. We strolled through Monet's gardens in Giverny
57. We shopped at a Christmas market in Salzburg Austria
58. We traveled throughout Italy; Venice, Florence, Pompeii, Gubbio, etc
59. Jeff and I went on a romantic get away weekend in Switzerland
60. He took me to the French Riviera for my birthday
61. The sucky part was that I worked at the child development center on the base
62. I eventually quit, after a kid kicked me in the head on purpose
63. I had two miscarriages in Italy, but left there pregnant with Lily
64. While pregnant we moved from Italy to Japan
65. We brought the cat with us
66. We flew and flew for two weeks, visiting our family along the way
67. We got the chance to see Seattle before moving to Japan, my chance to show my birth place to my family
68. Pregnant and exhausted from travel we flew to Japan, it took forever, with tons of layovers – it was a military flight and we stopped in many different Japanese cities before arriving here in Misawa
69. It snowed 19 inches the day we arrived
70. We went to dinner at the New Myaki on our first night here
71. We discovered the difference between Japanese and Italian food – service – they have it in Japan and don't in Italy
72. Mandy was shorter than me when we arrived
73. Lily was born here in Japan, a blond haired blue eyed Japanese baby
74. We traveled all over Northern Japan
75. We discovered Lily is allergic to wheat, corn, oat, egg, apple and tomato
76. We flew to Hawaii for tests
77. We flew to America to introduce Lily to her Grandparents
78. We flew to America again to take a cruise to Alaska
79. Those flights were not fun – all before Lily was two
80. I am back in school
81. I may have aced calculus 10 years ago but don't remember it at all now
82. I am thinking of changing my major from math to something else
83. I have no idea what
84. I always wanted to be a math teacher Now I am not so sure
85. It seems like an awfully stressful job, why do that to myself and family – then again it is my dream
86. I really like the computer
87. I am thinking of taking classes to determine if that might be a better path for me
88. I have been a stay at home mom for three years now, since the kick in the head I love it
89. I really like singing songs and acting silly
90. I really hate housework
91. I procrastinate housework and homework
92. I love to cook
93. I love to swim
94. I need to loose 100 lbs
95. Jeff and I are planning to hike the Appalachian trail once Lily is in College
96. I collect maps, clocks and globes
97. I love coffee, but have never been to Starbucks
98. I love soap operas
99. I love romance novels
100. Chocolate is my favorite food group

Mandy and Lily in Hawaii 2004 

Celiac Disease

Our Lily gets sick when she eats wheat, corn, oat, egg, apple or tomato. We have no idea why. This is her story.

Lily had a rash on her face which started about a week after she was born. The doctor kept telling me it was baby acne and not to worry. At about 3 months the doctor decided it was no longer baby acne but since she was gaining weight at the appropriate rate this was not something we should worry about. (turns out her formula had a bit of wheat or corn in it).

Lily began to eat solid food at four months. I gave her the food just as the doctor recommended one food at a time to test for food allergies. I did not detect any food allergies at all for any food. I was looking for a change in her condition not a continuation of the same old thing. Lily, who was at the time developing at a rate much faster than the other children in her play group, stopped developing. She was rolling over at 8 weeks and sitting up etc. But at four months she stopped rolling over and sitting up, she slept a lot and starred off into space a lot. She also developed a bad diarrhea problem and a bad diaper rash. The rash was so bad that the skin would bleed when I wiped off the poop, which happened about 8 to 10 times per day. The doctor said this was normal? Babies get diarrhea and rashes, she is gaining weight, she is tracking correctly on the growth chart so all it fine.

At nine months Mandy and I took Lily to America. The toll of the flight and the increased amount of solid food led to a huge reaction. Lily started to throw up, in addition to the diarrhea and rashes. I ended up getting sick too so I thought she had a bug of some sort. The trip was very difficult because of all the vomit and diarrhea. She was an angel the entire time, I don't even remember her crying at all. She slept a lot or sat quietly. I was feeding her oatmeal and apples every morning.

When we got home from the trip I was reading an email from the babycenter.com and they were discussion wheat allergies and other food allergies. They discusses how parents often miss food allergies because sometimes the children don't begin to have a reaction until after being exposed for awhile. I thought to myself, maybe she is allergic to something. I remembered that she used to be so active and LOUD and now she is so quiet and sweet.

I stopped feeding her solid food for a couple of weeks. She got better. The vomiting, rashes and diarrhea were nearly gone. I re-introduced foods again one at a time and was able to tell what her reactions looked like. I can tell when she gets a hold of something that does not agree with her, she gets quiet, she gets little bumps around her mouth long before she gets really sick. So now armed with this information I eliminated the foods she was having a reaction to from her diet.

At the next doctors appt I mentioned to him all that I had discovered. The doctor insisted that we give her a battery of tests to discover why she has a reaction to these foods. I took her to the lab and held her down while they took 5 vials of blood from my baby. That was horrific. All the tests came back negative. The doctor insisted that she go see an allergy specialist in Hawaii. So we flew the whole family to Hawaii and he did a battery of tests, scratch tests, blood tests, still nothing. According to the doctors there is no reason for her to be getting sick from those foods. They said they could take some scrapings of her colon, I said no thank you. So we don't really know why these foods make her sick, just that they do. The allergy specialist and my doctor both recommend that I don't feed her stuff that makes her sick, ya think?

Now came an entire year from one until two where I had to learn about the hidden wheat and corn in just about everything. Wheat and Corn are not really labeled on food in a way that I can understand. Just about all ingredients contain some wheat or corn. Baby food, pure natural baby food contains citric acid, which is made from corn. It took me ages to actually eliminate all the bad foods from her diet. But, by watching her closely I was able to get to a place where she is well more than sick.

So now the true Lily has emerged. She is not a sweet and quiet girl. She is loud and wild. She loves to run and play and scream. A huge part of me is so glad at all of this craziness. I am so glad that she is well enough to throw temper tantrums and has so much energy. The rest of me wants some ear plugs. This is our story, hope it helps someone else!


Posts I have written about our struggles...

January 17, 2005 - Celiac Disease

October 19, 2005 - Processed Food

November 19, 2005 - Wheat Free, Worry Free by Donna Korn

December 1, 2005 - Terrible Twos or Maybe Not

January 27, 2006 - Plantain

February 14, 2006 - McDonald's

February 20, 2006 - Miss Lily

Blogging Buddies with similar struggles...

Gluten Free Girl - Shauna writes a lovely blog about living gluten-free. She is an amazing writer and shares wonderful recipes and experiences with eating out. She also has the most amazing attitude toward Celiac Disease and learning the find the silver lining in eating gluten-free.


No Appropriate Behavior - Another mom struggling with keeping her kids diet safe from the food that make them sick. It is always nice to find someone who shares your woes.

Other Internet resources I have discovered...

The Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University

Celiac.com

Gluten Solutions - They ship to APO Addresses and I love them!

Tell me about your struggles and lend me your resources!

Quality of Life

The average lifespan in Kenya is 40 years old and many children don't make it to adulthood. They struggle very hard just for food and shelter. However, they appear to me to be a very happy group of people. I love to watch people.

In Italy we would walk down to the center of town on Saturday and have a capicinno at a sidewalk cafe in the center of town, probably a thousand people would walk by us. In Egypt we sat at a sidewalk cafe and watched the people at the market. In Kenya we visited several village markets. And in the States we spent hours at the mall. People shop everywhere. I also observed people in Germany, England, France, Austria and now Japan. I have made so many observations but about happiness my travels have made me wonder what is quality of life. Is the quality of life of the average American, the richest country ever to exist better than the quality of life of the people who lived in the 1500's or the people who live today in Kenya? Not if you go by the outward appearance of happiness a stranger observes where they shop. Is quality of life happiness? Is it long life? Or is it something else?

My theory is that quality of life comes from purpose, the achievement of ones goals and the respect and prestige of that achievement from ones peers and family; and from loving and being loved and cherished. I also think that physical accomplishments are more rewarding because being physically active releases endorphins and intellectual accomplishments do not. So based on my theory I think that no matter what era one is born in, no matter what station in life we go thru we have the opportunity for a life or to be happy or unhappy.

Many people born in America never have to worry about disease or starvation yet they spend every day of their life struggling and working for more stuff, a better car, a fancy vacation. Many people are overwhelmed by debt and drugs etc. However, people living in third world countries, whose children die in infancy and don't live past 40 live their entire life,working hard their whole life never achieving more than a bit of food and shelter, yet they are happy. They have active social lives, low crime rates and there is a ton more laughter at the market in Kenya than at the mall in America.