Embarking

I have tons of pictures to post but alas, I have not even begun to edit them yet. This summer has gained 100% of my attention. The kids are great. In fact they are at VBS right now, which as you may have gathered, allows me a moment or two to blog.

We are getting ready for our trip to Seaside for a week. It's always an interesting conundrum as to what we will take. I always shoot for going light but it seems that we are completely loaded down every time we take a trip to the beach.

I've thought, should I take my kiln...no, to big. Sewing machine....no won't sew. Bread maker...no don't want to deal with it. I think I've settled on a small stack of magazines I've been needing to read and my sketch pad, 2 library books and an ipod full of music, audio books and pod casts. I'm sure that won't be all.

We are all looking forward to this trip more than I can say. Todd has been working so incredibly hard for the past several months. I think he would probably like to find a beach chair, hat and some sun block and take his pasty self out onto the beach for a day or two and sleep. The kids are really excited to see their cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Abbie can't wait to chase a bird or two and I am just looking forward to getting out of dodge for a while.

Alluding to my title above, I have also embarked on something new. After suffering from interesting intestinal and skin issues for a very long time, I am trying a new experiment to see if I can't find the culprit of my misery. I am currently not eating any gluten or wheat. I have been doing this now for about 2 weeks and have been seeing some pretty amazing results. My skin is almost blemish free and I haven't had a tummy ache for a while. I can't believe two weeks can make such a difference. I will admit to you however, that I have accidentally ingested some wheat products or gluten products a couple of times and, oiy, that is not comfortable at all. For example, I went to Trader Joes 2 days ago and among other things, purchase wasabi peas for a snack. I didn't read the ingredient list closely and found out later that wasabi peas have wheat flour in them. Who knew? Now I am not eating wasabi peas. Makes me sad. I love those things.

Anyway, all that to say, we are having a terrific summer. Experiments abound as does fun. Hope you are having a great summer too.

xoxo
Rikki