Color Shock: Memorial Day Weekend

Last year when we decided to try to sell our home we followed the advice of painting all the walls a very light khaki color to appeal to most buyers. Not everyone likes colored walls...I happen to love them. Plain white or khaki colored walls are so VERY boring to me, so bland, so lacking personality.

It was really hard for me to cover up all the beautiful colors we had throughout the house. In the 10 years we've lived here, I've painted every room at least once...and several of them have been painted 3-4 times as I changed designs, the kids switched rooms, etc.

I'm no stranger to dark colors. In fact, I love to paint with dark colors to add so much warmth to various rooms. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of everything I've done to this house, but here's a few examples of the beautiful dark colors we used to have around:

This was IK's first big boy bedroom. The top half of the room was solid blue and then I painted blue and white stripes on the bottom half. This room has also had winnie pooh trim, it's been a soft yellow and white striped room, and now it's plain khaki and currently LA's and KW's bedroom.

This room was the first room EJ had by herself and originally it was painted a very light pink with dark stenciled hearts bordered all around the top of the walls. Then it became this pink and white castle with flowers, butterflies, and dragonflies. Now it's also plain khaki.

This room originally started out as an office and was painted a dark cream on the top half and a dark hunter green on the bottom half with a leaf print border in the middle. Then it became IK's bedroom and I painted it a dark red with sports balls and those sports balls stickons all across the top half of the walls. Yep, this is now plain khaki too. IK's has mentioned how much he misses his red walls several times.

This was the kids' bathroom, which originally was painted a very light green with soft purple lilac flowers bordering the top and purple dragonfly curtain hooks, accessories, etc. Then I painted it a very dark navy blue on the bottom and light blue on the top with this seashell theme, but of course it all had to be painted over in bland, boring khaki.

And the living room used to be kind of a dark, grayish-green sage type color.

While the kitchen was painted in a lighter complimentary green and then I sponged the darker green over top. Here you can see it behind SD and IK on Christmas morning (we had already begun the khaki conversion on the living room which all used to be that dark green color).

And shown even better in this photo. Everyone REALLY missed the green when it was gone!!!

But we painted over all of it in the hopes it would help our home to sell. But after 5 months on the market and lots of lookers, the economy went south, the buyers stopped looking, and we were unable to sell our home.

This year we've debated trying to sell our home again, but after looking at how incredibly low the market prices are these days I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to sell it for what we owe. So for now, despite the fact that we would LOVE to move into a larger home (because we've completely outgrown this one! Seriously, 6 people living in 1,407 sq. ft. = really cramped space!) we don't think we would be able to sell our home if we listed it back on the market right now.

So with that knowledge in mind...if I can't sell my home, then I want to start living in it again! I'm really tired of having almost no pictures on the walls, and INCREDIBLY sick of plain, boring colors everywhere!!!

So what did I do over Memorial Day Weekend? I started a massive painting project to bring some life back into our home. This time I decided to start with the living room, kitchen, and office/movie rooms. I've had some colors in mind for a few months now and decided it was time to bring the color back!

I started with a large wall that extends from the dining room through the living room...and now here's my mini extreme makeover! First, the dining room before:

And now after, painted in a deep, rich chocolaty brown:

Another view before:

And after:

With this curved archway there wasn't a good place to stop painting, so I painted the hallway toward the right in brown too.

Opposite angle of the room before:

And after:

Hallway before:

Hallway after:

I picked up this really cute mirror decor at Wal-mart for $20 bucks, not bad and it matched perfectly.

I pulled these flower pictures out of a box in the garage to add a little something to lighten up this wall.

And of course I had to stop and take a picture of my little helper as I went through the rooms explaining mommy colors on the walls...but KW doesn't.

And then I moved into the bland office/movie room, here's before:

And after:

Every time I walk past this room I still can't decide if I love it or if I hate the new color. These pictures don't capture the exact hue of how this room looks in person, it's actually even darker with a slight grayish-blue tinge. It turned out much darker than I was expecting (seriously, how are you supposed to tell what an ENTIRE room will look like from those tiny little squares anyway?).

I'm not afraid of dark colors at all, it's just not what I had in mind. I was hoping for a dark, soft, soothing blue and it's much more of a dark, masculine, slightly harsh blue instead. Not bad, just not what I expected. SD loves it though, so that works, esp. since this is basically his room anyway.

Well, what do you think so far? After having such plain walls for a year it's taking a little bit of time to get used to having color again, but it's sooooo nice to see some life coming back into our home. (Bonnie - did you notice that heart decor from the bathroom came back and now it's on this office wall above?).

The chocolaty brown color (yes, I prefer to think of it as "chocolate" instead of that "other brown" color you're thinking of...you know what I'm talking about) I chose for the living room also turned out much darker than I was planning on, which kind of threw a kink in my plans for the kitchen, but I'll share that in part 2...

So, What's Gluten Anyway?

I have to admit that before we discovered the gluten sensitivity in our family I was completely ignorant as to what on earth gluten was, what it was in, and why it was any big deal. Over the past few months I've been gaining a really quick education on the subject. I like to understand things in really simple, basic terms, so here's my attempt at explaining what gluten sensitivity is all about as briefly and easily as I can.

What's Gluten?

Here's a pretty good explanation I copied from this site:

"In the 7th century, the Buddhist monks discovered gluten, while kneading wheat flour with water to make a dough. Gluten is found naturally in grains and binds together two separate proteins found within the grain. Gluten consists of two proteins, gliadin and glutenin, and is commonly found in wheat, barley and rye. As it is insoluble in water, it can be obtained by washing away the associated starch and used as a leavening agent. An important source of protein, gluten is found in foods in their natural state and also as an additive in low protein foods."

So basically gluten is a mixture of proteins in wheat, barley, and rye. It's the stuff that helps the dough bind and stick together, and also helps the dough rise when baking.


What's Gluten Sensitivity or Intolerance?

Because it's associated with foods to avoid, often gluten sensitivity is mistaken as a food allergy, but it's actually an auto immune disease. Celiac disease is the most commonly heard of form of gluten sensitivity, but it's actually only one form of the intolerance. Many people may test negative for celiac (like us) but still have a high intolerance to gluten.

Basically, as food travels through your body into the small intestine there are tons of little fingerlike looking things called villi (shown below) that stick out and grab the nutrients in the food as it passes by. The villi absorb the nutrients your body needs and passes them on into your bloodstream and lets the rest of the unnecessary food/waste pass by.

For a person with gluten sensitivity the gluten acts like a poison in your system that damages and destroys these villi, cutting them off so as food enters your body the vital nutrients you need are not gathered and it results in malabsorbtion and malnutrition no matter how much food you eat. Gluten also leads to many other health issues (I'll mention below) some of which can be incredibly serious and detrimental.


What are the Symptoms?

Well, that's kind of a tricky question because there are over 250 different symptoms attributed to gluten intolerance and they can be portrayed very differently from person to person. This makes diagnosing gluten sensitivity much more difficult and it's why many people often do not know about their intolerance because it's misdiagnosed as so many other things.

But just to give you an idea of some of those symptoms, here's just a few.


First, the "classic" gastrointestinal symptoms can include:

Abdominal pain and distension
Acid reflux
Bloating
Constipation
Diarrhea
Gas and flatulence
Greasy, foul-smelling, floating stools
Nausea
Vomiting
Weight loss or weight gain

And many nongastrointestinal symptoms:

Fatigue and weakness (due to iron-deficiency anemia)
Vitamin and/or mineral deficiencies
Headaches (including migraines)
Joint/bone pain
Depression, irritability, listlessness, and mood disorders
"Fuzzy brain" or an inability to concentrate
Infertility
Abnormal menstrual cycles
Dental enamel deficiencies and irregularities
Seizures
Ataxia (bad balance)
Nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy)
Respiratory problems
Cancer sores (apthous ulcers)
Lactose intolerance
Eczema/psoriasis
Rosacea
Acne
Hashimoto's disease, Sjorgren's syndrome, lupus erythematosus, and other autoimmune disorders
Early onset osteoporosis
Hair loss (alopecia)
Bruising easily
Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
Muscle cramping
Nosebleeds
Swelling and inflammation
Night blindness
Gastrointenstinal cancer
Type 1 diabetes
Thyroid disease
Liver disease
Rheumatoid arthritis


Symptoms in Children:

Inability to concentrate
Irritability
ADD/ADHD or autistic-type behaviors
Failure to thrive (in infants and toddlers)
Short stature or delayed growth
Delayed onset of puberty
Weak bones or bone pain
Abdominal pain and distension
Nosebleeds

Whew! That's an exhaustive list!!!! With so many, many different symptoms it's no wonder gluten intolerance is so often misdiagnosed! Not to mention that many people do not have any symptoms until later in life after the amount of gluten in their systems has built up and become worse over time.


Why are Celiac Disease Symptoms so Varied?

Here's another great explanation I copied from this site:

"Researchers are studying the reasons celiac disease affects people differently. The length of time a person was breastfed, the age a person started eating gluten-containing foods, and the amount of gluten-containing foods one eats are three factors thought to play a role in when and how celiac disease appears. Some studies have shown, for example, that the longer a person was breastfed, the later the symptoms of celiac disease appear.

Symptoms also vary depending on a person’s age and the degree of damage to the small intestine. Many adults have the disease for a decade or more before they are diagnosed. The longer a person goes undiagnosed and untreated, the greater the chance of developing long-term complications."


How common is Celiac or Gluten Sensitivity?

Well the answer for how common celiac is in the U.S. is about 2 million people, or roughly 1 in 133 people. But when you consider the amount of people who have non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and those who have been misdiagnosed or do not know they have the intolerance, the actual figures are even more common. Gluten sensitivity is a very common genetic disorder. Among people who have a first-degree relative—a parent, sibling, or child—diagnosed with celiac disease, as many as 1 in 22 people may have the disease.


How do you test for Celiac/Gluten Intolerance?

The most common tests are a simple blood test, urine tests, or an intestinal biopsy, however when using a blood or urine test they do not always detect sensitivities that are not specifically the celiac strain of the disease. Stool tests are the newest form of testing and research in this area. EJ and I both tested negative for celiac through blood tests, but she tested positive for high gluten sensitivity through the stool testing.

(I haven't done the stool test yet, but since it's genetic and both of my parents have it we're assuming EJ got it from me and that my test will also be positive. Currently our insurance doesn't cover the test and it's $130 per person, so we're slowly testing family members one by one as we can afford it. We just sent off IK's and LA's tests last week and we should have their results in another week or two).


What's the Treatment/Is there a Cure?

Yes and no...another really definite answer here. First, no there is no cure for celiac or gluten sensitivity. However the only treatment/cure is a totally gluten free diet. The incredibly good news though is that a totally gluten free diet can heal all of the intestinal damage in your body over time and can also eliminate many of the related symptoms I listed above.

The time it takes to see these changes depends on the age of the person, the amount of gluten built up in their system, and the amount of damage that's already been done. Typically many people begin to see significant improvements within 4-6 months after they begin a GF diet.


So, what's a Gluten Free Diet?

Well, gluten is found primarily in wheat, barley, and rye. (It can also be found in oats, bulgur, durum wheat, semolina, emmer/farro wheat, matzo flour, udon, and spelt). Oats naturally are GF, but because they are grown so closely to wheat fields most of the time you cannot be sure the oats are not contaminated, so as a general rule they're on the list of foods to avoid.

*****So the general rule is: NO wheat, barley, rye, or oats.*****

And that's why going gluten free becomes such a BIG deal, because of all the numerous foods containing those ingredients!!! Just think about it for a minute...all the breads, rolls, buns, biscuits, cakes, muffins, cookies, brownies, cereals, bagels, crackers, pasta, pizza, etc.!!!!!

And those are just all the obvious foods. Going GF means you have to start reading labels on everything because manufacturers love to put gluten in all kinds of other products like meat marinades, salad dressings, lip balms, soy sauce, etc. They esp. love to put malt flavoring or malt extract in so many, many products which makes reading labels a very annoying new way of life.

It also makes dining out, school parties, birthday parties, sleepovers, school fieldtrips, potlucks, dinner invitations at a friend's house, church trips, etc. more complicated because each activity has the potential for lots of foods you and your children can no longer eat. Which means tons of calls ahead of time to figure out what foods will be served so you can plan accordingly to pack your own alternative meals when needed.

And now you understand why I've been doing sooooo much complaining about making this transition!!!!!!! Going GF has become my new full-time job. I'm now the gluten police, the gluten Natzi, in my home constantly watching like a hawk to make sure my kids aren't eating anything containing gluten...and yes, it's a job I hate doing but don't have a choice.

Since we've gone 100% gluten free in our home it's not so bad here because the kids can pull anything out of the fridge or pantry to eat with no worries. It's all the school, church, friends homes, etc. I have to worry about.

And it's a lot of time spent educating other people about what my kids can't eat too...some of it is kind of funny, but understandable since I didn't know anything about gluten before all of this either. Now that I do know, phone calls like the one I received today from a parent where EJ was having a sleepover calling to ask me if she could eat a potato was pretty funny!

So there you have it...everything you ever wanted to know or didn't want to know all about gluten intolerance. It's been almost 1 whole month since we've made the conversion to a totally GF lifestyle and it's challenging, but also getting a lot easier day by day. It's a LOT more work in meal planning that I ever wanted to do, (or think about, or care about at all) but if it improves our health then it's totally worth it!

The Bread Saga Continues

Have I mentioned I'm really into dope these days? No, not really. But I am doing lots of experimenting with Gf flour mixes in the continuing quest to find 1 decent sandwich bread recipe that's GF and everyone in my house likes. Mission impossible, you say? Maybe, but I'm still determined to find a solution!

While the Pamela's bread mix is wonderful, tastes good, and is all premixed so you don't have to worry about mixing different flours, adding xanthan gum, etc. it's still not a feasible solution for us. First, because while IK, EJ and myself like the bread LA hates it.

And second, because paying almost $50 for three 4lbs. bags of mix where we went through 2 whole bags in 1 1/2 weeks (and that was REALLY cutting back on breads) puts a HUGE dent in our monthly grocery bill! I'm just not willing to pay $200 per month for bread mix! Esp. when one kid doesn't even like it.

After reading the rest of Gluten Free for Dummies the author suggests that for those people who do a lot of baking to purchase GF flour blends in bulk to really save on costs. So after my unbelievably yummy waffle experience I went out to Winco and purchased white rice flour and tapioca flour in bulk cheaper than I could get it at Fred Meyer.

Side note: it's not that we eat TONS of bread, but one loaf only makes roughly 16 slices and when you have 3 kids taking sack lunches to school every day, plus bread mix for muffins, cookies, etc. you're going to go through those bags quickly!

Although I still had to go to FM for the bulk potato starch and while I was there I managed to score on the last bag of Bob's Red Mill xanthan gum, which just happened to be on sale for $10.49 instead of the regular $12! (Yes, welcome to the world of extreme sticker shock that goes along with a GF diet, but fortunately you only use a tiny bit of xanthan gum in each recipe so this 1 bag goes a long way!).

After realizing my little tupperware containers wouldn't be big enough to hold all these powders I had the perfect excuse to go buy some awesome new tupperware (have I mentioned here before that I kind of have a hidden obsession with buying tupperware? I don't know why, but I totally love all those different shapes and sizes, with perfectly matched lids to hold all kinds of stuff, there's just something really exciting about it...okay, yeah...I realize it's a really weird obsession, but I totally can't help buying assorted tupperware stuff somestimes. Hey - at least I'm an avid baker and I've got mad skills when it comes to storing leftovers too, so at least I actually use all the tupperware I buy). Anywho...

...I picked up this really cool set of 4 matching large tupperware containers that work perfectly for storing all my new flours/starches (okay, I actually bought 2 of these sets and don't know what I'll use the second set for yet, but I couldn't pass it up for 9 bucks! And I managed to pick up a 3 tiered set of stackable baker's racks because I only had 1 before and it's frustrating when it's a big baking day and I have a loaf of bread cooling on my rack & not enough room to place cookies or muffins on the rack too.

Yes, normally if I'm baking just one item I would lay them out on the countertop, but I try to combine most of my baking into 1 day and sometimes you need things to cool off quickly so you can add icing, etc. so it's nice to be able to transport them on these racks back and forth from the freezer. Why am I trying to justify my tupperware & baking purchases? I don't know, maybe because I also love to buy all different kinds of baking pans in different shapes and sizes and I just might happen to have a few sets I bought a couple of years ago that still haven't been used...or opened...whatever. It's not an expensive fetish, so no worries.

And now you understand why I took this photo of all my new powders so beautifully stored in their new matching containers, complete with labels and dates. And while I drew the line at taking another photo of these beauties sitting so perfectly on the shelf in my pantry as I admired how awesome and organized they look, you get the idea of how proud I am of my tupperware. Yes, sick and weird obsession, I get it.

Alright, moving on. There are NUMEROUS gf bread recipes out there, each one proclaiming it's the absolute BEST bread recipe ever. So after scouring many, many web sites and blogs I settled on 4 different bread recipes to begin my experimenting...those that I already had most of the ingredients for, to help keep these science experiment costs down.

The first loaf was a total flop of doughy grossness. The second recipe came from celiac.com and suggested cutting the batter in half and baking in 2 pans, which I thought sounded great since I could get 2 loaves out of 1 batch! They looked pretty good fresh out of the oven.

But as you can see here they're really short loaves. That sank even more after I removed them from the pans to cool. But of course we ate them anyway, because as expensive as all these mixes are, you NEVER throw away decent GF breads!

Next I tried this same recipe a second time, but this time I didn't cut the batter in half. Instead I used a slightly larger loaf pan and was so excited to see the loaf rise so high!!!

Looks pretty good!

And it tastes good too! Of course after it cooled and I sliced the loaf I experienced the mushroom effect I had read about...where the bottom part of the loaf sinks and you end up with a funny shaped mushroom loaf that's very top heavy.

For an avid baker who's used to baking homemade breads that look so beautiful, this mushroom shape is a struggle to deal with. But the taste is what matters most, right? And it tastes good...and toasts well...but all 3 kids like this bread and hate the crust. Ugh!

So here's the latest recipe I'm trying, again a little bit different. I let this one cook inside my bread machine instead of transferring to a bread pan, which is why it's more short and stocky. It tastes really similar to the "mushroom" loaf, but doesn't toast as well. It's also a little more chewy & soft than I'm looking for in a decent white sandwich bread.

And so it goes in my continuing search for a decent bread my whole family will love. Of course I'm finding with my other baking that most of the recipes that are designed to be GF don't taste as good as the ones that aren't GF but that I try my own GF flour substitutions in, so maybe I'll try that next?

Yeah, really interesting stuff to read today, huh? I'm sure all of this talk about GF baking is incredibly exciting for all of you too. And I know you're all drooling over my awesome new tupperware! Go ahead, admit it, tupperware's cool!

Jump Creek

All of a sudden an entire month had gone by and I'd never once ridden on my new motorcycle, how sad is that? It's just the way it goes with incredibly busy schedules and always having at least one child in tow.

So last Sat. SD and I took advantage of an opportunity to go ride together. We decided to do some sight seeing and visit a nearby waterfall attraction called Jump Creek. SD had been there once about 10 years ago and I had never seen it before.

Yes, I know it doesn't make much sense that we've lived here almost 14 years now and haven't seen so many local sights, but I think that's just the way life ends up when you're always busy with kids and you never end up with free time to explore...plus I've found most people who live right there never see the local sights, no matter what city you live in.

Anyway, the drive was really nice and scenic, and the weather was perfect...not too hot and we just managed to miss the rain storm. These pictures seriously don't begin to do justice to how unbelievably enormous these rock cliffs actually are!!!

I felt great riding my bike as we headed out there, stopping only once to get a drink. It felt like we were on vacation together and it was so quiet and enjoyable...right up until the point where I became pinned underneath my bike!!!

We arrived at Jump Creek, where the last mile or so leading up to it is a gravel road. The road isn't too bad, although it's a lot more bumpy and you have to go slow and be more careful. There's a day use area at the entrance to the trail that leads to Jump Creek...and a curvy, VERY steep hill that leads down to the parking area.

It was EXTREMELY bumpy!!! And full of huge rocks and loose gravel. SD went down ahead of me very slowly. I was pretty nervous about this incredibly steep hill, but figured if SD could do it on his bike then I should be able to make it too, right?

Well, I did make it about halfway down the hill and then all of a sudden I hit a huge rock and a slippery patch of loose gravel in a big bump in the road and totally lost control of my bike. I tensed up and mistakenly applied a full front brake but forgot about my rear brake.

I was halfway down the "hunormously" steep hill and I knew if I tried to keep going I would end up tumbling down on top of SD and probably end up far worse. So as I lost control of my bike I leaned over to the right and crashed. The bike fell on top of me and I quickly hit the kill switch and pressed my horn loudly so SD could hear it.

I tried to get up but I couldn't move. My entire right leg was pinned underneath my bike. SD wasn't quite down the entire hill yet when it happened, so although he heard my horn he couldn't stop on the steep hill and had to keep going until he reached the bottom safely and could park his bike and come back up after me.

There was a small handful of people at the base of the hill who saw what happened, and when they realized I had fallen and was stuck a man came running up the hill to help me. He began to lift the bike high enough for me to slide out, but my boot was caught back near the rear peg used for a foot rest for passengers. Soon after the man ran up the hill SD followed and together they lifted the bike up and after a couple of tries I managed to unlodge my foot from the bike.

I was covered in dirt and my big toe was really sore, but otherwise I felt fine at the time. The worst damage was to my pride, because it's never fun to crash in front of an audience and feel like such a big idiot for attempting to ride down this really steep hill.

SD turned my bike around and drove it back up the hill and parked it in a safer location. Then he came back and decided to move his bike back up the hill as well, which turned out to be somewhat difficult as he slid and skidded back up in several spots. It's one of those hills that honestly doesn't look so bad...until after you're already on it. SD told me later he felt fine as we started down the hill, but once we made the final turn into the REALLY steep area he said to himself, "okay, seriously, what was I thinking?"

I dusted myself off and waited for SD at the base of the hill. Fortunately I had my heavy duty jacket on (the one with the built in armor/padding that's intended to protect you in a crash). My bike ended up with minimal damage too...since my whole right leg was underneath the bike it saved it from a lot of impact, so there's only some minimal scratches mainly near the front handle bars, right side mirror and right foot pedal.

SD felt awful about the incident, but I told him not to worry about it. I was fine, and as I said the worst damage was to my pride feeling like and idiot in front of an audience. And now I had my first crash story on my bike. So we shook it off and headed down the short little trail to Jump Creek.

I wish I had taken this photo with SD in it to show the true context of how truly enormous these boulders are! Walking through the trail makes you feel like a tiny little ant.

See? No worries, this is sans crash and I was fine.

And here's the tiny little waterfall. It's honestly not all that much, but waterfalls are still cool, big or small. There's a small natural pool at the base that isn't very deep and is great for swimming.

A few more scenic shots around us. The next 2 pictures go together one on top of the other, which gives you a little better grasp of just how tiny people are in comparison to these huge rocks!

Looking the opposite direction.

Alright, enough photos. We walked back up the trail to our bikes and headed out. On the way home we stopped at Givens Hot Springs, another place we had never been. It has a small camp ground and a very large natural hot springs that they've converted into an indoor chlorinated pool.

We stopped in and checked out the pool, which was really nice and would be great for a day trip. But it felt really muggy outside and the bugs were horrible, so camping here might not be such a great experience. I'm not sure what this pose was, something in mid sentence I think.

This was the smile anyway shot despite my complaining about how the wind had picked up and a few of those gusts were pretty scary at 55mph on my really light little bike, and whenever the wind gusts pick up I tend to tense up my grip really bad, so I was dealing with a lot of problems with my right hand going numb over the throttle...something I need to work on as a novice rider.

When we got home I took off my boots and that's when the real pain started. I think my stiff boot was acting like a firm brace for my foot, but after I took it off and tried to walk around I began having some extreme pain every time I applied any weight on my right foot.

So I grabbed a large ice pack and propped up my feet as we ate dinner and watched some TV. By the next morning my foot was still really sore, but not as bad. If I tried to stretch out or extend my foot it really hurt, but otherwise I was okay, so it really felt like a very deep bruise. I also had several large bruises on my knee, thigh, and elbow.

It's been a week now and I'm fine. No major pain just still a deep bruise feeling when I stretch out my foot or twist it to the side. I'm so glad I wasn't injured any worse because that would have completely ruined my plans to run in my first 5k in a few more weeks!

All the troubles aside, the best part was that we rode a total of 77 miles, without the kids, enjoying an evening with no agenda together...and that part was awesome!!! And yes, I absolutely can't wait to go for another long ride on my bike again soon!!!