What a difference 6 months has made. I haven't worked since May, and I couldn't be happier! There is nothing that I miss about my job (other than seeing my friends everyday). Leaving there made me realize how much I really hated being there, how miserable it was making me, and how much I was missing in my son's life. I know that being a stay-at-home mom isn't for everyone, but it's perfect for me.

I'm still just as busy though- some days I think that I'm too busy. I'm still working on my bachelors degree. I alternate between 1 to 2 classes per semester. I recently switched my major, from Health Informatics to Psychology (with a concentration in children). It's a way better fit for me, and I really love the classes and what I'm learning. I babysit 3 of my great-nieces/nephew during the week. I'm also still working on two different direct sales businesses. Those are going kind of slow though- I tend to put them on the backburner when I get busy. So lately I'm not putting enough time into them at all.

Then, I FINALLY got a chicken coop!! I filled it with 6 chickens. Since that didn't happen until this fall, I couldn't get chicks. Instead I bought 3 pullets, and 3 hens. I love my girls, but I am a little disappointed though. I searched around a lot, and I finally settled on a farm that sounded great. He only raises certain breeds at a time. His flock is NPIP certified and they are all non-medicated and fed organically. Sounded great. So I get there and it wasn't the kind of farm that I expected at all. He had a bunch of birds, but they were in sort of crappy, make-shift cages/areas. It smelled so bad there. But I still went ahead and bought the birds that I wanted because, I'm new at this and what the hell do I know.

So what is the problem? Well, it's been a month now and the girls are still kind of skittish. He is obviously a breeder and these aren't his pets. So they weren't really socialized well. I probably should have waited and bought chicks if I wanted that though. Then, it wasn't until just this week when I got my first egg. Now, I know that chickens stress out easily, and between the move, the change in the flock, the change in season and the change in the amount of daylight it wasn't easy for them- but c'mon!! They are way more spoiled by me than they were previously. They have it pretty easy actually. Anyway, I'm finally getting some eggs- slowly, but surely. The issue now is that I think that only 2 of the hens are laying,  but I should have 3 layers. Then I think one of them is going broody (that's an issue for a different post!), and I'm having trouble getting one of them to lay in the nesting boxes- so she lays her eggs in the middle of the floor. Ugh!

If I had known that I could bathe them, I would have given them a bath right away when I got them,  but now it's really too cold. They really stink from that farm! I was reading an article on bumblefoot, and when I checked my girls, sure enough, one of them had it. I brought her to the vet, but since treating chickens isn't big business, she really had no idea what she was doing. Waste of money!! So I had to do a procedure myself to remove it. Not fun!! She is recovering nicely, but I also noticed a problem with one of her eyes. WTF! She's actually the sweetest one of the bunch and my favorite- so of course, I have her recovering in my basement in a cage. Fingers crossed.

 I'm still such a novice chicken keeper, that I feel a bit over my head. I'm learning everyday though, and I follow some great blogs and websites that have helped me tremendously. I'm getting the hang of it!

Hmmmm.....Maybe I should have proofread that last post, or atleast ran spellcheck! Note to self: posting at 2 am is almost as bad as drunk texting....almost.

Wow, it's been a long time! How things have changed since last August!

First of all, I need to change my intro on here. I DO NOT have Celiac Disease. I never felt better by cutting out the gluten. Atleast not good enough to make any difference. So I talked to my Dr about it. She said that the bloodwork indicated the possibility of it, but it could be wrong. Seriously, that is not what she told me the day that she called my to say that I had Celiac. Overall I can't complain. I can eat gluten now!! It makes me happy.

Then I started taking classes again, and am working towards getting my bachelors degree. I've only been taking one clss at a time. That's good though. It's too hard to squeeze it all in. I've really enjoyed up until this semester. This semester, I decided to take 2 classes. One of them is Statistics, and I'm in hell. I hate!

Of course, Griffin is getting bid. We're in tball season right now. It's awesome, and he loves it! He is all registered for kindergarten. He has his first orientation night in June. He 'is very excited aobut it.

Finally, it would be totally wong here if I didn't mention the fact that I'm quitting work. The details aren't all worked out just yet, so I csn't go into detail just yet. So maybe I'll have time to blog again- I'll have to change it around a little bit though- to my adventures as a stay at home mom.
Should be interesting!

We've had the best summer! The weather has made it so that we've got tons of use out of our pool. Griffin has really surprised us with how great he's doing at learning how to swim. He stopped using the life jacket, and went to the arm floaties. Now he'll even take those off and practice swimming on his own. I'm so proud of him. He's fearless in the water and enjoys it so much.

Our annual family camping trip to Moosehead Lake was a couple of weeks ago, and it was fantastic. The weather was perfect for camping. Not too hot, not too cold, and barely any rain. Griffin actually cried on Sunday night when vacation was over. He has no idea how much I wanted to cry at the thought of going back to work!

I'm also trying to plan a trip or visit to somewhere different for any free days that we have. So far we've taken a ride on a train at the lake, gone to a science center, and checked out a play in the park. It's not a long list so far, but I figure that we have most of the fall to do some of the things on the list. I have a really cool coupon book that gets Griffin admission into most of the places for free. So I've got a few great ideas of things to do from that.

So the greatest thing for me about this summer is how great I've been feeling lately. It's taking a while to get used to the whole gluten free thing, but slowly but surely I'm noticing changes in my health, and it's fantastic. I have noticed a HUGE difference in my energy level. I can't even believe the difference. It's very encouraging!

Hope everyone had a fabulous 4th! I had a really nice day hanging out here at home with my 2 favorite guys. I know that sounds pretty corny, but it really was just a great day. My sweet hubby let me sleep in, and I really needed that. When I got up, I fiddled around with a few things like laundry, but by noon the three of us were outside enjoying the beautiful day. We swam, layed out in the sun, swam some more, and just hung out. It was real quality family time.

I'm hoping that by the end of the summer, Griffin will be swimming on his own. He's moved from wearing the life jacket to wearing the arm floaties. He is so fearless that he scares me a little, so I push him to practice swimming without the floaties. It's just safer if he can swim on his own. He's doing a great job. I wanted to get him into swimming lessons but I was a week late when I started looking them up. So we'll just see how the summer goes.

My GF diet is going well, or atleast I think it is. If it's not, then I'm completely clueless of where I could be messing up. I haven't noticed a huge difference in how I feel though. I am definitely not as tired as normal. My mood seems to be a lot lighter...that could be because I'm not so damn tired though. I'm still getting the body pain, which is making me think that I have Fibromyalgia, and not just pain from the Celiac. However, without the exhaustion it seems a lot more manageable. So I'm staying optimistic, and continue to take it day at a time.

I met with a nutritionist today. I have to say that because it was my first visit, a lot of time went to getting my health info and background. So I didn't get as much information as I had hoped. I did find out though that feeling worse in the beginning is totally normal, and that I shouldn't expect to start feeling better for about a month. Good to know.

Well, I started feeling even worse. By Wednesday, I was having horrible stomach cramps, and everything that goes along with that. Luckily, it only lasted 2 days because I wasn't even able to eat a popsicle. I'm sure that it's a combination of things, but I'm also having terrible anxiety and depression. It's some of the worst that I've ever had.

Don't get me wrong, I know that I could certainly have things a lot worse. I do have the ability to recognize that. I think that I just have sooo many questions. How long have I had this?  is this the cause of my "unexplained" infertility? I think about all the time that has passed by and all the tests that I've had done. I wonder if I'll ever feel better, and how long will it take. It's all so very overwhelming. If you've ever experienced depression, you know that none of your logical thoughts stop you from feeling so down. I have even started having bad dreams, including one that involved Griffin getting taken by a bear. It's awful.

I'm feeling better today, and I'm really hoping that it continues to get better. I have an appointment with my Dr tomorrow to go over everything. I also have an appointment on Wed with a nutritionist. I'm really looking forward to that, and have a list of questions all ready for her.

On the plus side, I went to Walmart yesterday because I was running out of food that I could eat. I was pleasantly surprised by their selection of gluten free. It was an unmarked section and I just happened to stumble upon it while looking for anything I could find that was GF. They had a few things that my grocery store didn't have, and it's nice to know that between the two I have a decent selection to choose from. Mostly, I need to get back to cooking and start adapting recipes to be GF. I have enough stuff on hand to eat when I'm in a hurry, but I need to start making meals. Tonight we grilled some steak tips, and I baked one of the GF corn bread mixes (Gluten Free Pantry brand) that I picked up. I was shocked....it was actually one of the best corn breads that I've ever had. I expected it to be crumbly and flavorless, but instead it was delicious. It was a tad crumbly/crunchy like a lot of the GF stuff, but not enough for anyone to think it was any different from a gluten filled corn bread. I have a second mix from Bob's Red Mill, and I can't wait to make it and compare.