How was everyone’s long weekend? I think this was the most low key July 4th we’ve ever had! I got ‘glutened’, Andy sprained his ankle really bad, and we treated the house for fleas. Sound exciting? It was. Despite our maladies, we actually got a lot done this weekend! But we didn’t really celebrate like usual. Other than sitting on the porch watching our neighbors shoot off some fireworks. Which scared Paige and was too loud for Jacob, so I ended up sitting inside watching through the window with them. Do you like all the fragments? I’m such a stickler for grammar in certain areas, but apparently not when I blog. Eh.

Oh, the getting ‘glutened’: I got careless, plain and simple. I know I have celiac and that I’m SUPER sensitive to the slightest hint of gluten and that I need to be careful all the time. We still have 5 people in the house that eat the stuff, so it’s around. And Paige has been eating gluten since she turned one. So on Saturday, I made her a sandwich for lunch and I washed my hands thoroughly afterwards. I usually avoid contact with things such as gluten-filled bread, but I figured “eh, I’ll just wash my hands”, and THEN Saturday night, Paige was up for about three hours in the middle of the night (fun stuff for me) and she was hungry, so I gave her some gluten-filled cereal to snack on. I thought I got her all cleaned off, but then when I was holding her she grabbed my mouth, I tasted cinnamon, and thought “I hope that doesn’t do any damage”… then Sunday morning I woke up with a migraine but went to church anyway. By the time we got home from church it was completely awful, I couldn’t see straight or tolerate anything louder than a whisper, and then my stomach started cramping up, I got nauseous, and proceeded to spend the next two days having um – ‘indigestion’ – problems. Ugh. Some medicine finally worked on my pounding head by Monday afternoon (thank God!), and my stomach finally feels better this morning.  All from a crumb that Paige put in my mouth. So – I’m cutting back on the amount of gluten that Paige eats since her hands are still near my face so often. I definitely won’t be feeding it to her, and if she does eat it, someone else can clean her off! That was the worst I’ve felt from gluten in a while. It was a bad one!

I pretty much did nothing on Sunday, other than going to church, but on Saturday and Monday I got ridiculous amounts of things done!! I had to force it on Monday, but I drugged up and pushed through. There was a time that getting ‘glutened’ would have put me on the couch for four days, not just half of a day! I definitely think my immune system is up and that taking dairy out of my system was that last key. I’m still figuring out a few things that I need to not eat more often than once every few days, but other than that my diet is going well, and I feel like the elimination diet worked (is working – there are still some foods I haven’t added back in yet).

In other news, we’ve been ripping out the carpet in the basement. And by ‘we’, I mean Andy and Justice. My job was to clean everything (and I do mean everything – cat urine was on my desk, on my leather CD case, on my scrapbook table – UGH!!!) and I moved all the furniture and things off the carpet in the office area.  They got the carpet off the stairs and out of the office, and now we only have Brittany’s room left. Andy said the carpet in the office area was SO nasty underneath and it wasn’t just from our cats. The people who lived here before us had a big dog that stayed down there and it was kind of stinky – now we know why!!! I didn’t see that carpet, as I was upstairs cleaning kids’ bedrooms and getting the floors and beds ready for vacuuming.

Both cats live outside now. Luna hasn’t ventured beyond the deck and under the deck. We go out and play with her and she is SO much more pleasant to be around now that she isn’t spazzing out and climbing in the ceiling and peeing everywhere (and her fleas are completely gone – yay!). Chili, who was our favorite inside cat, took off as soon as we let her outside and we haven’t seen her since (*sad face*).  We’re hoping she comes back!!! She was always by the window trying to get the birds and squirrels though – she is such a hunter, we could tell. So I’m sure she is having a blast exploring the woods behind our house. It’d be nice to see her and know she’s okay, though!

Sometimes 9:00 am until noon is the only *real* sleep I get. I’m so thankful that I can actually sleep then when I need to!! Paige’s bottom molars are RIGHT under the gums poking up; I’m sure they’ll be cutting through any day now. And I cannot wait! And Jacob is doing better about sleeping in his bed all night, but last night he did not do well – Paige actually slept better than Jacob last night. Instead of letting him sleep in a “bed” on our floor though, we made him go back to his bed and he cried, but then finally went back to sleep. Hopefully he’ll learn that it is actually okay to go right back to sleep in his bed if he wakes up to go to the bathroom or stirs out of his sleep for some reason. He has had more nights lately, though, where he doesn’t wake up at all – hopefully that’ll become the ‘norm’ before too long.

I totally got spoiled with Brittany – from the time she was 5 months old, she slept 12 or 13 hours every single night and the only time she ever woke up is if she was sick, which has been extremely rare. Justice slept through the night by 6 months old, and once he was in a big bed and could climb out, he’d sometimes come get in our bed in the middle of the night (and wouldn’t wake up when we carried him back to his own bed), and that ended when he was 3 years old. Jarvis had a similar story to Justice, as did Darby – only she came into our bed in the middle of the night until I was pregnant with Jacob – when she was 4 1/2. Jacob is 4 1/2 and he’s never really slept through the night on a regular basis. Ever. And Paige seems to be following in his footsteps. I’m old now – don’t they understand that? I need more sleep now than I did when I was 17 and Brittany was a baby!! Yeesh!!

I have so much laundry to do. I kept it going ALL day yesterday and changed my last load around midnight. It’s going again and I’m *hoping* it’ll be done by tonight. Washing ALL the bed linens and all the throw blankets and the stuffed animals, plus the regular laundry from six people (Jarvis and Darby are still in Knoxville), will create large piles needing to be washed though. We do NOT want to have to keep treating for fleas, so are determined to do it right and get rid of them. We’ll spray again in a week to make sure we got any flea eggs that were lingering and didn’t get killed and then hopefully we’ll be done. We didn’t have a big infestation on the main and upstairs floors though, and the carpet where the cats ‘lived’ is mostly gone (and will be all gone as soon as we get all Britt’s furniture out of her room and rip that up – planning on doing that today). Am I talking about fleas again? Sorry.

Okay, I feel like this has been the most boring post in the world. I’m falling asleep writing it, so if you are still reading, I feel like I should say something witty for you – to reward you for getting this far, but honestly, I’ve got nothin’. Other than this nugget: The next time I go to Wal-mart, I am totally going to dress like a complete and utter freak. So I’ll fit in. I took Paige and Jacob there last night while the flea spraying was happening (had to get the little ones out) and while we were wandering the toy aisles, we saw some real winners. I mean, some people must not have mirrors in their houses. And I don’t mean the people who are just trying to be comfortable or who obviously don’t have a lot of money for clothes. I mean the people that are putting real effort into looking as insane as possible. But you’ve all been to Wal-mart. You know.

Oh, speaking of Paige and toys. I let Paige and Jacob each spend a couple dollars on toys (I’m so generous – I know ), and Paige picked out a baby doll (and yes, SHE picked it out) and she hugged it all through the store, all the way home, while at home, and she went to sleep hugging it last night. She LOVES it. She has been hugging little stuffed animals and one of Darby’s dolls lately, but she needed a soft baby doll that she could sleep with, and now she has one. And she thinks she is it’s mommy. It’s the most adorable thing ever. SHE is the most adorable thing ever. Of course, I said that about all my babies. But seriously. She’s cute. I’ve got to videotape her dancing – she has a wide range of moves and she mixes it up during songs – so cute.

Apparently I’m chatty this afternoon. I’ll stop now.

Here’s two photos to make up for the rambling. It’s the only things I could find to take pictures of right now.

Um yeah, this is blurry. But Jacob wasn’t holding real still. And I didn’t feel like multiple tries? But he’s still a giant cutie. And yes, we are still in our pajamas. We’ll get dressed in a few minutes before getting back to work – gotta get the rest of that carpet ripped up!

And Luna. We brought her back into the woods a couple of times, thinking she’d enjoy it if she’d just venture over there, but she comes back to the deck every time. She likes being around us, apparently. lol

And now, I’m really stopping. Goodbye!