Gracie Favorite

On land anyway.

Happy 4th!

Not sure what we're doing today. Jaden and I are sitting in Urgent Care because he's developed an interesting rash. He finished his antibiotics for the strep throat, which is about when this rash developed. Looks like another allergic reaction!

Meanwhile, our friends from out of town had to visit the ER. Their son was having some allergic reactions of his own. Even though we took our cats to my in-laws and cleaned, he seems to have gotten something we missed. He's taking some extra drugs now.

They also decided to ban fireworks in our neighborhood. Means we have to go somewhere to see them. Every place that's got them is either too far away or will be crowded. We're going to our family cabin to have dinner and set off a few firecrackers.

Seems like the past few years, we have been unable to escape birthdays and anniversaries without some health or other calamity befalling some member of the family. Why should this, our 8th anniversary, be any different?

Home On The Range

Driving range @ Gold Mountain in Bremerton

EDGE Speeds in Silverdale

Faster than the max? I'll have to check.

Life Signed Away

Today we did the closing paperwork on our new home in Gig Harbor. We are now the proud owners of two houses. Yay. Time to get this one we're in sold!

One thing we are getting with the new place that we initially didn't plan on was a new washer and dryer. The previous owners need to purchase new ones for their new place, so they sold us their old ones. They are front-loading, high-efficiency units. In far better shape than our 10 year old ones where the washing machine is being held operational by duct tape and the dryer only works on the "timed dry" setting. Our old ones will simply get donated to charity.

We don't move into the new place until August. Meanwhile, there is still a ton of things to do. Like pack!

Strep Throat Gives You Hives?

Apparently, Jaden gets hives.

Last week, Jaden stayed over at a friend's house the last night of school. His friend got a fever and was throwing up during that day, but Jaden ended up staying anyway. (Next time, SEND HIM HOME!) So on Friday, when we started having a fever, we weren't surprised. He also had a sore throat. The fever went away after a day or two, but the sore throat persisted through the weekend. Sunday night, we noticed he has several large red spots on his legs--about the size of silver dollar pancakes.

Today, we took Jaden to the doctor to see what was up. Turns out, he's got strep. The red spots were hives--a reaction to the strep throat germs. But other than the sore throat and the reduced appetite, he's not that bad off. I know when I get strep, my large tonsils swell up and I get a fever. I have to be in bed for several days because it kicks my ass.

One small complication is that Jaden is allergic to Amoxicillin. There are other antibiotics that can be taken, but they are not quite as effective. Even the one Jaden was perscribed, the doctor warned to watch for an allergic reaction since people allergic to the "cillin" drugs could be allergic to these as well, which may show up again as hives.Great.

Day 13 of the Master Cleanse: Solid Food!

Today's the day I get to eat some solid food, so long as it's fruits, veggies, and nuts. But only for dinner. Breakfast is OJ, which I've had a couple of glasses of. Lunch time will be my lentil soup. I'm not sure what I'm doing for dinner since I don't have any real salad makings and I'm not sure if or when I'm going to be able to make it to the store today. I do have a lot of apples--they are good "show" fruits for the house. I also have a bunch of celery stalks I didn't use with the soup, which might go good with the almond butter. And, of course, I have soup. Lots of it.

When I drank the OJ this morning, I noticed that it filled me up right away. Maybe it's that whole liquid diet thing, but it was weird. Normally OJ doesn't do that. I did have to have a little more later on to quell a later hunger pain, but not too much.

Day 12 of the Master Cleanse: Soup's On!

Today, in addition to Orange Juice, I could have vegetable soup later in the day. I actually didn't drink much OJ--only a couple of glasses and a bottle while I was out. I actually cheated and made the vegetable soup this morning, having some of the broth just before 11am. Did notice one less pound on the scale. The only thing that didn't happen today was any waste elimination. Isuppose that will happen more easily on it's own in short order.

I actually chose this Hearty Lentil Soup recipe I got off of UltraWellness. It wasn't exactly what the Master Cleanse folks had in mind, but it was still pretty good. The only thing I changed in the recipe was that I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth, to honor the "no meat" part of coming off of the Master Cleanse. I also made a bit more broth than I probably would have done normally, mostly just for broth consumption. I plan on making the soup later with the chicken broth to see if it's any better that way.

I ate the soup, veggies, lentils, and all. Not a ton of it, mind you, as I did not want to overload the body with solid food, being it's seen nothing but liquid for a week and a half. It tasted good. My system does not appear to have reacted badly to it, either.

I made so much that I've got a whole Tupperware container of the soup in my freezer for later. Good thing as I have to eat it tomorrow, too. At least for lunch. Dinner, I can have whatever fruit or veggie stuff I want. As long as I avoid meat, fish, eggs, bread, tea, coffee, or milk. Shouldn't be too hard since despite feeding my kids most of these things, I haven't been consuming them. Well except for tea.

After tomorrow, I can eat whatever I want again. It will be interesting to see if any of my tastes have changed since this experience.

Soup's On!

Here's the lentil soup I made earlier. Very tasty!

Day 11 of the Master Cleanse: OJ Day!

Today, I get to drank OJ instead of the lemonade concoction. Still no food, though I did do some prep work for the lentil soup I plan on cooking tomorrow. May not have gobs and gobs of veggies in this soup, but when I read the recipe, it sure sounded good and was vegetarian. I'm not sure how you can call a soup with chicken broth in it vegetarian, so I plan on substituting veggie broth. We'll see how this soup goes.

Despite not drinking the lemonade concoction or any senna tea sinceyesterday morning, waste is still being eliminated. A week and a halfwithout solid food and that's still happening. I was a little hungrier today, and I probably drank a half gallon of OJ. The Simply Orange stuff I bought at the grocery store tastes really good. The Tropicana and Minute Maid stuff I bought while I was out today didn't taste as good.

A couple of days ago, I noticed the skin on my face started drying out. An odd side effect to be sure.