Our favorite gluten-free and dairy-free products!

(I will link to each company that I post about, but only once so if you see the same company more than once in this post, only the first time is linked. Also GF=gluten free, CF=casein free, DF=dairy free)

Ashton's favorite mac & "cheeze"

Amy's Gluten Free/Non-Dairy rice macaroni w/ non-dairy cheeze

This has been a favorite since we first discovered it. We have tried "them all", quite literally. Ian's GFCF mac & no cheese, our own recipe using teese "cheeze" that recipe can be found here at: GFCF Mac & Cheese, Road's End Chreese penne & cheese, Namaste Foods Say Cheez pasta, and many others. The Amy's GFCF mac & cheese is the one that most closely resembles homemade mac & cheese. It's texture is similar (not gummy like I find some gf pastas to be) and the color of the Daiya cheese makes it looks sooo yummy. Ashton loves it and the few times that I've gotten the cheese sauce on my finger and licked it, I don't snurl my nose up in horror; so it's not all bad :)

Ashton's favorite chicken nuggets

Allergy Free Foods Chicken Breast Nuggets

Again, as with the mac & cheese, we tried many brands. Ian's GFCF chicken nuggets, Applegate Farms GFCF chicken nuggets (which were pretty tasty and we get in a pinch when we can't find the others) and then Allergy Free Foods. What I like about this brand, is the quantity of chicken nuggets you get for the price. You get a lot, and that helps when I want to bake a whole bunch and then refrigerate for future meals, as I did when we went camping earlier this summer. My only peeve with this brand is the breading does sometimes fall off easily, but Ashton doesn't seem to mind. Yes, we do bake these, and not fry them. They might be even better fried, but Ashton doesn't need the extra calories from fried foods; he's quite big enough, thankyouverymuch! :)

Ashton's favorite cheese

Daiya Foods Cheddar & Mozzarella style shreds

Yes, non-dairy cheese that looks like cheese. Non-dairy cheese that melts. Non-dairy cheese that tastes like a real dairy-full cheese. Daiya Foods knew what it was doing when it came out with these two products. It appeals to the vegan, the dairy & soy allergic, and to all those who need to be on both a gluten-free and dairy-free diet. When you can find a cheese substitute that melts like real cheese, you know you've found the holy grail. I've used the cheddar style shreds to make "cheesy" eggs (scrambled eggs w/ cheese) and to make our favorite home-made mac & cheese recipe. I've used the mozzarella style shreds on pizzas, spaghetti, and in a mixture on taco meat for my son. Now if only Daiya would come up with cheese slices, than I would be forever indebted to them. Ashton misses cheese slices on his sandwiches. I know I'm not the only one who wishes this; so get on it Daiya! ;)

Ashton's favorite donuts

Kinnikinnick Cinnamon Sugar donuts

Kinnikinnick (this link takes you to the US site) products are a huge hit in our house! Ashton particularly loves these donuts. They smell wonderful when you nuke them in the microwave "2-5-start" in our household. They taste pretty good too. He used to really love the vanilla glazed and chocolate dipped ones, but somewhere along the way, he's not that into those two varieties anymore. These do look and smell just like regular gluten-containing donuts. So that's a major plus! Ashton also likes the Kinnitoos (both the vanilla and chocolate varieties; they're very similar in taste, texture and appearance to oreos!) as well as S'moreables (graham crackers). He used the s'moreables when we made s'mores this year when we went camping - Yummy!

Ashton's favorite bread

Udi's Whole Grain Bread and White Sandwich Bread

Yes, a gluten-free white sandwich bread that rivals the real thing! We have tried both Udi's varieties and while I prefer the whole grain variety (it's healthier), Ashton enjoyed both. The white sandwich bread really does taste, smell and look like the real thing! It smells wonderful when it's been toasted lightly and well, you can't say anything nicer about a gluten-free bread. It's moist and delicious; two adjectives you hardly ever hear when you describe a gluten-free bread product. We also really like their pizza crusts and muffins.

Favorite store to shop at

Navan Foods Allergy Free Food Shop in Virginia Beach, VA

Navan Foods is a wonderful, local, allergy free food shop owned by Jennifer Elizondo. She has taken the guesswork out of figuring out what foods are safe and healthy for the food-allergic, celiacs, vegans, and specialty dieters of the area. Every product in her store is labeled with a card showing what allergens the product is free of as well as the manufacturing conditions the products are made in. (Some people are so allergic that even products made in the same plant and/or line as their allergen, could be deadly) She's a wonderful person and friend and is very knowledgeable and willing to help anybody. If you're local, I highly suggest you check out the store, IN PERSON. If not, check out her website as she does have some of her products available for purchase online.

Favorite baker of all things delicious

Unfortunately, their products are only available in store,
at Navan Foods in Virginia Beach, VA

Willow Bakery is a wonderful, local, bakery that has bridged the gap for the many tasty treats that the gluten and dairy intolerant/allergic can have. To have fresh, home-made goodies is a rare treat, and to have them taste delicious, even more so! Ashton loves the chocolate chip cookies and brownies and we recently tried the chocolate pumpkin marble cake. Quite delicious but he wasn't as big of a fan of that as I thought he might. If you follow them on Twitter, you can find out when they are bringing fresh products to Navan Foods. Get there in a hurry as the stuff sells out, quickly!

I'm sure there are many other products I could blog about, but I'd be here all day in that case. These though, are our tried and true favorites. I hope they have helped you! :)

Have a good one!

Kudos to Taste of Home magazine!

I was thumbing through the most recent issue (Oct-Nov '10) of "Taste of Home" as the delicious looking turkey on the front called my name. I love the excitement I get from looking at a magazine with new recipes; especially when there are holiday cookie recipes..... yummm.


So many yummy looking pictures with easy to follow directions. 

At this point, I'm also realizing that hey, this was my last issue.... (I must renew soon)


Anyways... I'm flipping through the magazine and I happened upon the "Mom's Best" section. I read the tagline to the article/recipes ... "When this teen learned he was gluten- and dairy- sensitive, ......." I immediately had to read and glanced at the pictures and recipes. Of course, as you all know, Ashton is gluten- and dairy-free. Finding unique, but yummy recipes for a gluten- and dairy-free lifestyle is not easy as I'm sure many of you know. Finding recipes with pictures are even harder to come by as many gluten- and dairy-free foods are just not that appetizing, let alone mouth-watering delicious. 

There are four recipes: chocolate-chip-banana belgian waffles, grilled peach bbq chicken wings, spaghetti and meatballs with garlic crumbs and penny's apple-brown sugar coffee cake. Wow.... they all sound so delicious and even the pictures make my mouth water. I might try the coffee cake, as that's what Ashton is most likely going to be willing to eat.

After reading the entire article, I realize that the woman who came up with these recipes, Silvana Nardone, has published a book, called Cooking for Isaiah: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes for Easy Delicious Meals. I think I might have to see about getting this, if by the four recipes printed in "Taste of Home" is any indication on how yummy they might be. I then realized, after reading the Amazon page, she also has a blog, Dish Towel Diaries (by the way, I absolutely love the name of her blog), which I started to look around at and realized she has many delicious recipes posted there!  

So - huge kudos to "Taste of Home" for posting not just one, but several specialty recipes that are geared towards the gluten- and dairy-intolerant people of the world. Not just the autistic people, or the celiacs, but to letting others see that specialty foods for dietary needs can be just as to make as recipes they are used to and just as appetizing as well.

Have a good one!

Amy's Kitchen's *new* non-dairy rice macaroni & Cheese

Yes, we have found the holy grail of pre-packaged, frozen gluten & dairy free macaroni and cheese. It is the one pictured above. Amy's Kitchen rice macaroni with non-dairy cheese. The "cheese" is actually from a company, called Daiya Foods, They have the single-most, best-tasting non-dairy cheese that we've ever tried! We haven't actually tried the cheese itself yet, but mainly because I haven't bitten the bullet and ordered any. As of yet, it's (Daiya) not available locally in any stores, although I keep hoping and am keeping my fingers crossed. If this product is any indication, I can tell that we will LOVE the plain Daiya cheese. It comes in two flavors.... cheddar and mozzarella. I'm excited to get the mozzarella as I'm sure it will be quite delicious on pizzas or even shredded up on some spaghetti for Ashton!

Now that is what I find completely amazing ..... my younger son took one look at his brother's bowl of macaroni & cheese, and asked me if I had given him the wrong one!! You see, Holden wanted a bowl of macaroni and cheese too, so I made him some Kraft macaroni and cheese (you know, that gluten/casein-laden kind.... the kind that WILL cause Ashton to have some serious bathroom issues).

So, which one do you think is the Amy's Kitchen and which one is the Kraft? Other than the noodles of one of them being a bit fatter, they basically look the same, don't ya think? They both looked, smelled and somewhat tasted the same. I have NEVER EVER found a GFCF macaroni and cheese that looked, smelled and tasted so close to the real thing. No wonder Ashton loves this stuff! 

If you're wondering..... 

the bowl on the left is the Kraft mac and cheese and the 

one on the right is the Amy's Kitchen mac and cheese.

As you can see from the picture, Ashton was thoroughly enjoying his dinner. A bit perturbed that mommy was interrupting him to take pictures (how dare I!) and yes, that is a can of Pepsi throwback he's drinking. (hey, at least there's not HFCS - high fructose corn syrup - in it!)

So there you have it ....... delicious macaroni and cheese ... AND it's safe for him to eat!! Now I'm on a mission to get a more local store to carry it. Right now, I've only found it at Navan Foods, which is a local (Virginia Beach) allergy-friendly food store. He's already eaten the four boxes of this that I've bought, so I need to get back out there and get some more. I do believe it's his new, favorite food.

Thanks for looking!

GFCF Mac & Cheese!!!

Doesn't this creamy-looking dish look delicious?! Would you have guessed that it was gluten-free & casein-free? If I hadn't been the one to make it last night, I'm not sure that I would have known!! :)

What kid doesn't love a creamy, warm, satisfying bowl of macaroni & cheese once in a while? But for some children (my older son, Ashton, included) having that satisfying bowl of creamy macaroni & cheese can make them seriously ill, or even lead to a severe allergic reaction! I will let this lead me to say that prior to going on the gluten-free, casein-free diet, my son was the lover of all things macaroni & cheese. If it looked like macaroni & cheese, he'd eat it! But when, on a whim, we decided to try the gluten-free, casein-free (otherwise known as GFCF) diet for him, he could no longer have this creamy, yellow goodness! I found lots of substitutes (every one of which, Ashton would eat) but I found them to be less than stellar and some, downright disgusting! Some even smelled like dirty socks out of the package, YUCK! I was determined to find SOMETHING that I could feed to my son that didn't leave me gagging or with the desire to throw it in the trash before he dug in. So that leads me to last night.....

Well, this delicious looking bowl of creamy goodness came pretty close and was a HUGE hit with Ashton last night! I had went to Navan Foods earlier this week and saw that they now carried both the mozzarella and cheddar forms of the Teese cheese substitutes. I, being the adventurous soul that I am, decided to try the cheddar form and use it to make my son some macaroni & cheese. As I've previously said, I find that most mac & cheese subs just look nasty and smell even worse and I have no clue how they taste because I will NOT taste them, AT ALL. In one word, I find that most are N.A.S.T.Y! Well, I knew I had the pasta at home and wasn't really sure what I would use to make it but I set off with a mission in hand; to make my son a delicious bowl of mac & cheese that wasn't gross and that *I* didn't mind looking at!

So, last night was the night I decided to make it.....

I set out my ingredients

Andean Dream Quinoa Macaroni, Teese cheddar style, Earth Balance spread and Pacific chicken broth

And then I set out to make my son the most

yunmiest mac & cheese *EVER*! :)

Here is the recipe I used (I followed a tip from a fellow GFCF mom and used the broth instead of a dairy-free milk substitute .. that helped, A LOT, in regards to taste I think!)

1 box of Andean Dream quinoa pasta

1 roll of Teese (cheddar style)

2oz Pacific Organic Free-Range Chicken Broth

2 TB of Earth Balance Soy-free spread

sea salt, ground black pepper, onion powder and garlic powder (season to taste)

At this point, you get cooking! ;) I boiled the pasta according to the directions on the box. While waiting for the pasta to finish, I cut up the teese (which by the way, doesn't smell all that awful straight from the package like I was fearing it would) into small chunks and placed them in a smaller sauce pan. I then mixed in the earth balance spread as well as the chicken broth and let them simmer until the cheese was melted. Once melted, I added in the sea salt, pepper and garlic and onion powders and let it all simmer while the pasta finished.

cheddar sauce once melted .... it looks pretty runny, right?

Admittedly, I was a bit perplexed at how this watery cheese sauce was going to properly cover the pasta to give my son the macaroni & cheese I was envisioning for him.

But alas, once the pasta was drained (and I rinsed it just a tiny bit) and then mixed with the the cheese sauce, I had my beautiful looking mac & cheese!! Can you believe it?!

I WAS SHOCKED!!!!

It LOOKED like normal, gluten & casein laden, processed macaroni & cheese from a box! And even better, *I* could tolerate the smell of it! It didn't smell like Kraft, but it certainly did not smell horrible either. I even tasted the sauce (that's how impressed I was, I NEVER would taste most of the subs) and I was quite impressed! It had a creamy texture/flavor and it tasted pretty good! Sure, I like my Kraft or Velveeta mac & cheese anytime, but for my son who can't have those, this was certainly what *I* considered to be a suitable replacement!

Here, you can see, that he's enjoying his macaroni & cheese! He wouldn't smile for me because well, he was too busy eating and was getting mad that I was making him look at me! LOL!

Anyways, I hope this recipe helps any that are looking for a good recipe for some good-tasting and good-looking macaroni & cheese. Since I made the entire box of pasta and the whole roll of teese, he's got plenty for leftovers and is asking to eat more of it for today's lunch, which I will let him indulge in. Now I am anxious to try the mozzarella teese for pizza and as a topping for spaghetti, yummy!!! Thanks for looking and stopping by! :)

One year of being GFCF!!!

Ashton - 1oyrs (July 2009)

Well, we've done it. We've made it to a year since having gone GFCF (gluten free, casein free)! We started the diet in late August of last year and WOW, what a year it has been! We've removed him from his 2 behavioral meds (Focalin XR/Adderall XR and Risperdal). For some reason, both medications all of a sudden stopped working; and in fact, were putting Ashton to SLEEP within 20-30minutes of taking them. Odd, but I guess it was his body's way of letting us know that he was done with those medications. We've also taken him off of melatonin as it was no longer doing any good, but we've got him on Clonidine and Imipramine to help him sleep at night. It's still not perfect but at least with this combination of meds, he's not waking up half a dozen times to pee! Oh, speaking of peeing ... HE IS POTTYTRAINED! And not just day-time trained for pee, but day AND nighttime for pee AND poop! WOO freaking HOO!!!! We started him on the regular Monavie in May of this year and within two weeks, he was totally pottytrained with NOTHING having changed on our parts. It was like a lightbulb went off in his head and he was trained. He does the whole deal on his own. He goes without us having to tell him, he wipes himself and the WHOLE BIT! Now if we could get him to stop stripping everytime he uses the bathroom (this IS getting better, slowly!) we'd be doing great! He only does this in people's homes, nowhere out in public, thank goodness! But at 10years of age, it's SO GOOD to not have to drag a backpack and wipes/pull-ups with us EVERYWHERE we go. I still keep an extra change of clothes in the car (for both boys, actually) but that's more of a habit now and we don't ever carry it in with us anywhere. We were JUST about a month ago able to take him off of Risperdal. While he hasn't gained any weight in the last year on it (and also subsequently, his dosage hasn't changed either), I wasn't fond of him being on this. So, coupled with the fact that it seemed like he no longer needed it along with the hesitation of being on such a powerful atypical anti-psychotic drug, I stopped giving it to him with 100% success! WOOHOO! YAY! We removed the FocalinXR/Adderall XR (we switched from one to the other but they both basically do the same thing) in December when we noticed that he was always sleepy after taking it. Weird, but whatever works and he's been off it successfully ever since. Yes, he still takes 2 prescription meds for sleeping, but he's NEVER been a good sleeper, EVER. He goes through good phases, but they typically die off and go right back to constant waking-up all night long. At least now he goes to sleep between 9-9:30pm and I don't hear him awake until 6:00am or so. He might still wake once a night but he doesn't come in MY room anymore (that's a plus!) and he doesn't go in the room over the garage. It's getting better, slowly. Ashton still takes a calcium/vit D supplement since he is dairy-free. He also takes a high dose probiotic to keep the yeast monster away. He also takes cod liver oil and super nu-thera. Nothing has really changed as far as supplements go, other than the Monavie. I'd like to switch him to the Monavie Active, but we're trying to get through our supply of the regular Monavie first. It'll be interesting to see if we notice any big changes with the Monavie Active, but we'll see.

And, for the first summer since he was 4years old, we didn't send him to summer school! We made a HUGE gamble on this, but in the end, it turned out it was the SINGLE BEST THING for Ashton. Last year's experience was such a DISMAL experience that I was unwilling to have him regress AT ALL considering all the gains he's made in the last year. Instead, we signed him up for 3 weeks of Camp Gonnawannagoagin, alternating every other week. HE DID GREAT!!! He did so many FUN things (aquarium, zoo, ocean breeze, bowling, air boat rides, bounce houses, and lots of other fun things) and was quite social with his peer buddies from what I was told. I think the next time we send him, I'm going to ask that he be paired up with an older teen male, to see if that makes a difference in his level of participation in the more active activities. He LOVES the attention he gets from girls, but I DO think that a male could encourage him to be more active, whereas the girls are more likely to "baby" and fawn all over him and let him be a bit sluggish. Either way is good, but I'd LIKE for him to start showing interest in more active things not just sitting and reading a book (which is all well and good, but ya know what I mean). School starts in just over 3weeks and other than the fact we have NO IDEA who the teacher is going to be, I foresee another great year for him. He's had a lot of personal and social growth and cognitive growth so we'll see. We're also gearing back up to start OT and ST, neither of which he's had since the spring (we stopped OT back in March and stopped ST in June). He also hasn't had ANY services ALL summer, which is mind boggling because usually you make sure you have services during the summer to PREVENT regression. But, he hasn't had ANY! YAY!! So all this to say that a year into GFCF, and we're still going strong. Still plodding forwards without too many backward steps. We've been lucky and blessed to have such an easy-going kid to begin with. Further blessed by the support network we have (family, friends, therapists, school personnel) and further by our two boys. Have a wonderful rest of the summer and start of the school year!!!

Ashton's results from his food allergy testing

Wow - good thing we have went GFCF; he shows a moderate reaction to Casein and a low reaction to gluten. Those are both probably in those ranges because he's been GFCF since August; imagine the reactions he'd of had if he hadn't been GFCF yet! The BIG surprise though is oranges and grapefruit! While Ashton has never had grapefruit, he has eaten oranges (one of the few fruits he WILL eat!) and drinks orange juice/ sunny D almost DAILY!! So now we're under the advisement to remove ALL citrus fruits from his diet! (and I will be checking labels ..... just to be sure....). This really isn't that big of a deal but the juice is one way I was getting vitamins into Ashton, ugh! So now I need to get the stool sample sent in; so we can get the tests done for the yeast. We'll see how this goes. It's good to know and have a validation that we made the right move going GFCF, yay! But it's also sad to know that he might not ever be able to eat "normal" foods again!

Happy New Year 2009!!!!

Well, as you can see, my guys didn't *quite* make it until midnight... they made it until 11:35pm, 25mins to go! In fact, *I* almost didn't make it until midnight! LOL They were so excited at the prospect of staying up SO late and then they didn't even make it. I looked at my husband shortly after midnight and said "We're too old for this crap!" - hahaha ..... Maybe next year we'll just tape "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest" and watch it the next day. I somehow don't think it'll have the same meaning.

Now that it's officially a new year, bring on the New Year's resolutions! My resolution is; I want to lose weight; and not just lose it for the sake of losing it, but lose it and get healthier in the process. I am roughly 40lbs over what I should be and while it's not adversely affecting my health as of yet, I want to get my weight back in check so that I stay the healthy person that I am. So, I will say that I am currently weighing approx 165lbs; yes, at 5 foot, I am considered obese. I HATE saying that but if I'm not truthful, then how will I truly want to change? So, a new year brings a new diet plan and excersize plan. Once the boys start back to school next week, I plan on posting daily to update what I'm eating throughout the day (I figure if I have to post it in a public viewing forum, I'm more likely to watch what I'm eating) and will also post what excersize I'm able to do throughout the day. We have a Nintendo Wii so that will probably be the bulk of my excersizing, though I do plan to go and walk outside when it's not too cold. So, we've had lots going on this past Fall/Winter thus far. First off, I finally squelched my fears and put Ashton on the GFCF (gluten free, casein free) diet. He started it near the end of August, so it's been over 4months and wow, has it been life-changing! While we have had some minor infractions (and one major infraction of eating 2 brown sugar cinnamon poptarts on Halloween), the diet has been pretty succesful so far. Initially, we had some really positive behavior changes; more eye contact, better focus and attention and he was so calm. Those changes don't seem to be AS apparent now, which leads me to believe that there are either other foods that are irritating him, or maybe something else entirely different. However, we have noticed some absolutely WONDERFUL changes in regards to digestion, etc. Ashton used to silently reflux upwards of 10times a day (which I fully believe is what caused him to want to eat; if he was eating than his throat was always coated, etc .... which of course, over eating can cause the reflux to worsen so the circle continued on and on .....). Now, he's no longer taking Prevacid (a RX for reflux) and he MIGHT reflux once every other day or so. Also, Ashton used to have really weird bowel symptoms. Constantly pooping (4-5 times A DAY!) and it was ALWAYS runny. That ceased within a month of the diet. Also, he constantly had a "diaper rash". Horrible and as soon as I'd see an improvement in the appearance of the rash, something would set him off and it'd been bright red and bleeding again. We no longer get rashes that bad! It is easy to tell when Ashton's had an infraction now though; usually within an hour or so the diarrhea starts as does the rashy bottom (which can take a week or so to clear up again) so I've been very diligent in making sure he does NOT get ANYTHING that has even TOUCHED wheat/gluten containing items or dairy/casein items. We changed the med he's on for some minor ADHD issues and it's been a wonderful change. He's now on 1mg of Risperdal in the AM, 5mg of Adderall XR in the AM nd then 0.1mg of Clonidine at night. He also takes 7.5mg of melatonin at night and he's not only going to sleep shortly after going to bed, he's also sleeping ALL NIGHT!! WOOHOO - sleep IS indeed a precious commodity in this house! Unfortunately, Ashton got very sick a few weeks ago and stopped eating, for nearly a week. What little he did eat (Burger King or Chick Fil A french fries), would usually get thrown back up and he lost nearly 10lbs in the span of a week. Turns out the poor guy had PNEUMONIA! He was SO sick and was napping nearly 5-7hrs a day on top of sleeping all night long! That's how sick he was. He's still napping nearly almost every day and it's been a week since he really started feeling better. Luckily the naps are only about 2hrs long, so that's a good thing. I just hope the napping stops since school starts back up on Monday. He missed school from Dec 16th - Dec 23rd (which was the last day before Winter Break). At that point I didn't care HOW much school he missed, I just wanted him better before the Christmas madness hit. He's gained back a couple of pounds (keeping mind that it didn't HURT him to lose 10lbs) Holden was diagnosed with ADHD back at the beginning of December. It's more the inattentive type (meaning he is easily distracted and lacks the ability to focus on things he needs to, etc...) although he can and does have his hyper moments. He started on Vyvanse (30mg) soon after and has been doing WONDERFULLY! His progress report after starting the meds (which incidentally came home the day of his 2 week checkup after starting the med) was GLOWING with positive remarks from his teacher. Not only that, but the school work that came home was MUCH improved over previous school work that had been sent home. The handwriting was neat (well, as neat as a 6yo boy can write, LOL) and the work you could tell had been done thoroughly and with focus. YAY! I'm SO happy that the meds have helped. Our only issue is that he seems to have HORRIBLE insomnia! But then again, he has NEVER been a super great sleeper and we've been giving him 10mg of melatonin at night to help him sleep. His pediatrician even put him on 0.1mg of Clonidine (same med as Ashton, LOL) and it's not really making a huge difference. I plan on calling the ped on Monday to see if we can change the dosage or something. Last night (which was New Year's Eve) I gave Holden his 10mg of Melatonin and his Clonidine and he was rearing to go until 11:35pm. Yes, he was trying to stay up 'til midnight, but he wasn't even acting REMOTELY sleepy until around 11:20 or so. This is a kid that under great circumstances is asleep by 8:15pm and I have to wake him up at 7am to get him ready for school. We'll see. David and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on December 10th. WOW! 10years with the SAME person! I've basically spent my entire adult life with the same person and I couldn't be happier about that fact. We got each other some pretty unconventional presents; he got the Lego Ultimate Collector's Millenium Falcon and I got a Canon EOS XS Digital SLR camera. David thoroughly enjoyed putting the lego set together (took him about 4 days total ....) and I have really enjoyed playing around with my new camera. I can't wait to take the boys to the park or zoo when it's warmer and get some great pictures! Anyways, after this long-winded blog post (typed while I've been watching the Capital One Bowl featuring MSU vs Georgia State), I think that's the end of my update. I wish you all a very VERY Happy New Year and may 2009 bring along the changes that so many of us in this country AND world are hoping for!