ALLERGIES and TEARS

Many of you that know me and my family know that we have not had egg in this house for 12+ years. When our daughter was about a year old we found out that she is HIGHLY allergic to eggs and egg byproducts. This was a major shock to us and a huge hit to my baking. I LOVE TO BAKE. It is a passion that I have always had. When we found out about her allergy we had to purge egg from our house. No cookies, no cakes, no brownies, no pies, no store bought breads, no store bought pastas, the list goes on and on and on. 

From that day on 12 years ago she has never eaten eggs. She has not come into contact with them. She has not even touched an egg to decorate it at Easter. It has been an adjustment that we happily made for her safety and wellbeing. 

I taught myself how to make everything egg free. I can make a mean egg free cake, egg free cookies (chocolate chip, sugar and gingerbread), I make an awesome loaf of bread. Waffles, not perfect, not fluffy, but pretty darn good. There are not many things that she has missed out on, because if she wanted it I would figure out how to make it egg free.

We had been told as long as she NEVER came into contact, cross contact or accidental contact with any egg or anything that had come into contact with egg we could test her again at around 12 to see how her allergy has progressed. 

Today is that day. We could take her in to the Dr. with a crappy store bought cookie and let her eat it, but as a woman who LOVES to bake, I did not want her first REAL baked item to be store bought. SO off to school I sent her this morning, and off I went to the store to buy everything I needed for some good old fashion chewy, gooey, chocolately brownies!

MAN it was amazing to mix that batter, break an egg, watch as the batter took form and was shiny and creamy. Pouring it into the pan and watching it raise the way only egg products can almost brought tears to my eyes. 45 minutes in the oven and out they came, perfect candied top. Carmalized edging and chewy center. They are perfect. I still have it. I have to admit I ate quite a few pieces before the kids even got home from school.

After a moment of panic because I have a substance in my house that has been deadly to my daughter for so long, I scrubbed everything down, counters, pan, pots, bowls, oven, stove, floors and cabinets, just in case. Then I sat back and enjoyed the smell of baked brownies.

My daughter came home, we took her and tested her. EVERYTHING WENT PERFECT! No reaction. Nothing! No breathing issues, no rash, no snot, no coughs, no hives, NOTHING! At this point I have to admit I cried. Unless you have had a child that has been on a medical plan since birth, you will have no idea how liberating and frightening it is. I am not tossing the medical bracelet just yet. The Epi Pen will still be following me around and she will not be eating eggs for breakfast tomorrow, but heres to the beginning of a new life for us!

My cooking will be taking a very different form from now on. 

Christmas vacation 2014

This Christmas Vacation went by WAY to fast for my liking. The kids in all fairness had 3 weeks off but it did not feel like that long at all. 

This first picture is from Benjamin's LAST Christmas Performance with his Elementary School. I admit I cried. Jasmine is in Middle School now and they do not have a Christmas Program. This was kind of the end of a tradition. It is sad and happy to see these two wonderful kids growing into two wonderful teens.

The kids LOVE Magic Mountain, so what better thing to do than to take them for a day. It is only a 2 hour drive from our home, so not bad at all. As I was explaining to Benjamin, if we lived in LA it would still take us 2 hours to get home at 5pm LA rush hour traffic.

My two boys cannot take a picture without making silly faces. No idea who Benjamin gets it from. This was not planned they just both made similar faces

It was a good day if on the way home she was sleeping before we even made it over the Grapevine. She was too cute not to take a picture of.

Here we all all dressed up for Christmas service at church. The kids love to get all "fancy". Benjamin and Rougeh matched for the night, all black suit and shirts with red ties. Benjamin wants to be like daddy so much. Jasmine is growing each day. She is such a beautiful young lady.

On that topic, for Christmas we got her a blow drier and flat iron. She wants to start doing her own hair and I love that she is! It was over a 2 hour process to show her how to dry the roots, dry and curl the ends, then finish it off with the flat iron to smooth it out. I have to say she did an amazing job. Beautiful little girl

Benjamin got his video game time in. Some days he decided he did not even need to get dressed. Or sit on anything but the ground.

We started a new tradition this year. I bought 24 different Christmas based books. I got everything from "How the Grinch stole Christmas", to Frosty the Snowman, a few versions of the Birth of Jesus, Rudolf the red nose reindeer, and so many more. On the last night we read, Twas the night before Christmas. Not sure how it happened but Rougeh ended up in his Batman mask with Rudolf's nose, blinking and all. We all sat there in footed pi's, Yes, even Rougeh has footed pi's, as Rougeh read to the kids in Batman's voice. We all laughed until there were tears. Kids begged for it again. It was a moment in time where I sat back and felt very blessed for this family that I have.

It really was a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Victory

Usually I post about both my kids, but this one is a bit different. I am a proud mom today. Benjamin ran in the Elementary Cross Country Championships. He was originally suppose to run last Thursday, but the race had to be rescheduled. They moved it to the following day, Friday, but quickly found out that many schools could not make it. Third times a charm, they set it for today and all was set. This morning was a cold and gloomy morning. We were hoping that the weather would clear and we would get the promised 64 degrees.

48 degrees and Rain is what he gets to run in. The meet started at 9:30 am, he ran at 11:15 am. That means he stood in the rain that whole time. He finally raced and did awesome. 2nd place! AND he PR'd 5:50 for the mile. 

I am so proud of him. He was freezing cold, soaked to the bone, and still rocked it. 

Now for the treat at the end of every running season. He gets a massage pedicure. His feet take such a beating during the season this is his reward. He loves it. 

Halloween

Yesterday was halloween. We had my sister Adele and her husband, my sister in law, her daughter and husband, a friend, her two kids and husband,  another friend and her husband and my in laws. It was a full house and lots of fun. We love decorating the house. The scarier the better.

 
Rain was expected so we started truck or treating at 5:30. The rain started at 7:30. Jasmine was Hermione from Harry Potter and Benjamin was Hunter Pence, Whoopy Cushion, then Robin. I was Poison Ivy and hubby was Batman. We got lots of trick or treaters which is fun. My sister and Benjamin had great fun scaring kids after they got done trick or treating.
Great night. Great company. I love this holiday!

Kids

Kids are growing and getting bigger. I realized I have slacked on posting here. I want to start this blog by saying my kids are each others best friends, but every now and again they get in arguments. The latest was possibly the most funny. They were bickering about nonsense the other morning. No real reason for the argument except for the fact that they could.

Jasmine: You are making me mad
Benjamin: You are no longer my favorite sister.
Jasmine: Ha, I am your ONLY sister.
Benjamin: That is way that hurts so much.
Jasmine: BENJAMINNNN that is not nice.

But in all fairness these little arguments only happen once in a blue moon. 99% of the time they are best of buddies. I am a lucky mom!

On a side note. Hubby and I got Fitbit Flexs and the kids got our old Fitbit Zips. We have an ongoing competition for who can make the most steps in a day, week and weekend. Benjamin dominates us on the week days and walks/runs about 25,000 steps a day. Jasmine gets about 6,000 steps a day. Hubby gets about 14,000 a day. I walk about 12,000 a day. If you want to join or compete against us just send me a message we will add you. It is fun and great way to keep moving

I took a picture of each of the kids every day for a full year of school. We did not miss days. Look how they have grown.

Christmas Program 2010

I know that it is coming as a shock to everyone, who knows me and has read my past blogs, that I have blogged more than one time in the last month. Not to mention four times. A lot has been going on here lately. The trips, parties, events, and then today the kids had their annual Christmas Program at school. 

Jasmine looks all sparkly here because we used about half a bottle of glitter on her. She was so excited and the most animated that we have ever seen her at a performance. Normally she is shy and does not want to be seen on stage. She wants to hid in the group, but this year she was blowing kisses, waving and really performing. I was so proud of her. She was so cute.

 

This is her singing the song.

 

This is Benjamin. He was his normal animated self. He beats to his own drum and owns that fact.

 

Here is Benjamin singing and dancing to his song, reindeer hokey pokey. The whole thing was too cute. They are definitely getting older, taller, and wiser, but they are still cute as ever.