Pumpkin Patch, Tigger our Jack-o-Lantern, and Cinder-ELLA!

Last week, Jace's preschool class went to a pumpkin patch. Ella and I also came, along with Jace's best friend Brody's family. There's quite a few pictures of him with his friend Brody as well as a few with Ella and his sister, Eliza. I especially like the first one of Ella staring at the llama.





















This was the night we carved Tigger, our jack-o-lantern, which Jace picked for us at the pumpking patch.













Batman and Cinder ELLA! granted their presence at the Halloween Ward Party. Jace's friend Brody was Spiderman, so they were two peas in a pod that evening.

Take Courage

Tagged

My sister-in-law tagged me. These are fun. Here goes my answers:

6 TV shows I like to watch:
*House
*Office
*American Idol
*Iron Chef
*BYU Football games
*Supernanny

6 Restaurants I enjoy:
*Outback
*Benni Hana (or anything similar)
*The Star (local, Nick's home town)
*Rattlers (local here)
*Olive Garden
*Costa Vida

6 Things that Happened Today:
*Helped at Jace's preschool
*Did my laundry
*Cleaned my house
*Messed up two batches of rice- I think I need a rice cooker!
*Passed up peanut butter cookies and a cupcake- a big bummer.
*Watched my kids enjoy playing football with Nick

6 Things I am looking forward to:
*Thanksgiving
*Christmas
*Being able to eat good food again!
*Colder weather
*Ella growing out of her terrible twos (it's not THAT bad, really.)
*Hanging out with my friends

6 Things on my Wish List:
*More festive decorations
*A new pair of jeans
*More time for blogging
*A gigantic ice cream cone- am I deprived, or what?
*My kids to do well and be happy
*To see my siblings more often

6 People to tag:
*Rachelle
*Jenesee
*Melissa
*Rachel A.
*Danielle H.
*April H.

Migraine Update

Thanks for the ideas on migraines! Preventing migraines can be a mysterious thing. There are so many different things to try. Finding the right one can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. So I really appreciated the new ideas! Michelle, I have known for some time that eating the "right" foods can help with migraines, but the lists I've seen with hundreds of migraine triggers, let alone the lists of foods with MSG- has made me feel like it would be way too impossible to figure out which foods if any, could be triggering my migraines. So I haven't found the motivation yet to go down "that" road. But when I read your comment about your Dad's MSG problem, plus the research I've done, I finally decided to try out a non-MSG, non-migraine trigger diet. I've done it perfectly for 6 days now, and I know that it's too early to make any conclusions, but so far I have definitely seen a big decrease in migraines. So it's hard to not be excited and hopeful that I might find some answers down this road. Right before I started the diet, I had had 4 days of migraines in a row. After I'd been on the diet for 24 hrs I stopped having migraines and have only had one in the past 6 days. So... here's the diet... and yes this diet seems weird, but I found this in a book about getting rid of migraines. So it's just a temporary thing...

For now, all I'm eating is
Chicken (cooked slowly so as to not create MSG by high cooking temeratures)
eggs, plain of course (no ketchup)
a few fruits including apples (if they are peeled) are okay
a few more vegetables to choose from
Brown rice, plain or plain old fashioned oats
only whole milk Mozzarella cheese
milk, if it's whole and organic.

While I enjoy fresh, healthy food, eating ONLY these things every day, over and over again has been the hardest diet I've ever done. I sooooooo want a sugar cookie or a bowl of cereal or a granola bar, for heaven's sake!

The good news is, after I do this for 1 to 2 weeks, I can slowly add back in one food at a time, until I hopefully figure out what food(s) if any are triggering some of these migraines.

So I know I've probably bored you, but I have been so excited about this project of mine, that I just had to write it all out in detail.

I'm hoping for the best. Thanks again!

Migraines

So... I get migraines. I have had them for years, but the last several years they've been worse than ever. I haven't had one week without at least one migraine since sometime before the month of May. Most weeks I get 2 or 3 migraines. If you're about to stop reading, let me say that I seek no pity. So why am I writing this? I've considered blogging about this for a while now. I finally decided to go ahead for a few reasons:

1. Does anyone know of anyone else who has found success in decreasing, or better yet, getting rid of migraines? I could seriously use some suggestions of new ideas! I have tried many, many things to prevent them. Some have helped, but I'm afraid nothing has discontinued them.

2. Also, I just want to point out that when faced with a migraine, I am very good at not showing the pain. Instead, I sometimes seem (at best) quiet, a little unsocial for the time, or maybe not quite as "with it" if you know what I mean. I do apologize if these behaviors come across as disinterested at times. For I am anything but that! Unfortunately, too many days, I'm simply fighting pain.

3. Last, they say that migraines are caused by a gene- a gene which I believe is hereditary. But I don't know of anyone else in my entire family who has migraines. So- a question for my family...is there anyone else who has them? Just curious.


Moving, on... here are some pictures that I've taken lately. We really enjoyed staying at my family's house on conference weekend!

Grandma's Potato Salad

So a while back, my Mom asked Grandma to write down her Potato Salad recipie. Apparently Grandma had said that she just puts a "little of this" and a "little more of that". You know how it goes, but my Mom pressed her to measure out what she actually puts in it. So... for all the Potato Salad fans (that includes me) here goes her famous recipie:


15 potatoes. Boil until well done. Cut up fine.
3/4 c. chopped green onions
2 c. chopped celery
15 tiny sweet pickles, chopped
6 hard boiled eggs, cut up

Mix together:
3 c. mayonnaise
3 1/2 t. salt
6 T. sugar
2 T. canned milk
3 T. sweet pickle juice

Add this to the potato mixture. Enjoy!