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.

San Diego Trip

I know there are lots of Pictures in this blog, but they were so cute I could not decide which ones to keep or to get rid of. So I kept them all in this blog. We loved this trip.

We went to the Gaslamp District and Uncle Bassim bought us all mustaches. Jasmines was called the Weasel.

 

Benjamin was the Sheriff. It actually looked good on him.

 

This was at Sea World in front of Shamu's stadium. She was so excited.

 Here is Benjamin also in front of the Shamu Stadium. He had a million questions while we were there. Once he found out that the "original" Shamu was dead, he told everyone that he saw that this is a fake one. Cassy (his 2 year-old cousin) then was following up his comment with, "Shampoo was dead and we eat him."

 We were blessed to have not only Rougeh's family with us, some dear friends, but on top of both of those we had my brother and his family with us. Trevor is here with me. I love this little boy!

 On the way home we stopped by Kings Harbor. Captain Kidd's is our favorite sea food place of all times. They steam and crack the spider crabs for us. We ate two crabs and three dozen of their clams. It was such a great meal. The kids saw this whale outside the door to the restaurant and could not help playing a bit.

Jasmine just being stinking cute. I love her so much. Look at those freckles, teeth and beautiful blue eyes.

Daddy and kids in front of a clown mural. They are acting silly. We all had so much fun. Great relaxing trip.

They were on the rocks at the Pier. Rougeh wanted a picture with the kids. His instructions were lift your hand up. Jasmine and him were on the same page, but Benjamin missed the memo that lift your hands up meant in the air, not shrugging your shoulders. I think the picture was so cute though.

These are my boys. They are so much alike in personality, in looks and in the fact that they both LOVE to pose for a camera.

Christmas is in the air

 

Today we spent the day making Christmas foam kits. We made 8 in all. I should have taken pictures while we were making them, but forgot. The best I could do is show what it all looks like complete

This is just one picture of the whole thing. We began at 10:45 and finished at 4 pm. Long day of creativity.

Miniature Golf

We took the kids miniature golfing last week. It was the first time that they had gone and they loved it. We ended up doing two rounds because, they were having so much fun. Here is Benjamin Golfing.

 It was a warm day, but Jasmine had her snow jacket and sunglasses on most of the time. She takes after me. Always cold.

Even though they are getting older they still pose with each other. In this picture they are getting ready to go on an elevated obstacle course. The video is a short clip of them on the course. Benjamin was scared, Jasmine was fearless. They were both excited and they loved it.

Rougeh and the kids posing before we started golfing. So glad that he is done with school and has free time now. We love having family days.

Kids... Plus a bit more

We just finished our first Trimester of school with the kids. They all pulled 5's (this generations A's). I am so proud of them.

In Other News. Halloween came and went. I had not posted on them for Halloween So here it is.
The week before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch. Jasmine just had to wear her costume. She is a Princess Vampire.
Benjamin loves smiling for the camera.
They made SPOOKY tree houses. Love the posing.
This is me and the kids posing yet again. I love these little monkeys.

In completely different news. I just saw the movie, Julie/Julia. I already like cooking, but really I suck at it. I am taking a note from this movie. I picked up a cook book and I will be cooking at least one recipe from it a day. So yesterday I went shopping for supplies. My first recipe is caramelized apple pork loins. I hope it works out well. Rougeh is all for it. I keep asking him if he thinks this or that recipe sounds good, his response is "you never know unless you try it."

So tonight is the first night. I will let you know how it goes.

Knee operation

On August 31st, I had what I hope is my last Knee operation. I had a partial knee repair done. The first few days were very rough for me. I had quite a deal of pain. After the first week I started doing some weight bearing and making sure I did not loose range of motion. I felt myself getting stronger everyday. I still struggled to move around just the house, so going out and about was out of the question.
Yesterday is four weeks since the operation and I am so happy that I am really feeling good. My pain level stays at about a 1-2. Which is amazing considering the pain used to be 7-8 at all times. I can take the kids to and from school and to and from their various after school activities. I feel like I am getting to be a mom to them again. I used to not be able to do much because the pain was very limiting in my life.
My goal is to be able to take them Trick or Treating this year. I hope I make it!

As far as the kids, they have been in school for about a month and a Half. They just got their progress reports and are ROCKING in all subjects.

Rougeh, is doing great. He has been a HUGE help during this last month with my healing and being on constant bed rest. Love that guy!

Memories that were with me, but found again

So I know it has been a VERY long time since I have posted anything, I came across these two videos while I was cleaning the computer. They were too cute not to share. I hope you enjoy.

Rougeh Graduated!

Ok, So I know I am HORRIBLE at this blogging thing. The last one was what a year ago. Oh well. As many of you know Rougeh has been working on a Masters in Nursing with his focus Family Nurse Practitioner. As of Friday night he is finished with his schooling. We had the pleasure of attending his hooding ceremony. We were all so excited.
For those of you who do not know these are Rougeh's Parents. We could not have gotten Rougeh through school without the constant help and support of his parents. They could not be more proud of him.
Lastly, these are the girls that became dear friends. They all began their MSN together as strangers and ended as life long friends. He could not have done it without weekly study groups. Some were productive, some were just letting of steam and some were just plain fun!

Update

So I it has been a long time since I have posted. Not much has changed. (I know this whole thing is Underlined but do not know why or how to turn it off.) I loved Lynettes' hair so I had to do mine too. We have finally decorated for Christmas. Rougeh decorated outside the house two weeks ago. But it is mine and the kids project to do is inside. I went to the craft store to see what decorations are there. Ours are all fairly old, so I wanted to add to what we have. I came across these build your own foam kits. We started them at about 1:00 and I told the kids they had to go to bed at 9:00. They went to sleep quick, but got up early this morning to finish them off. I think that they look REALLY cute. I was proud of them. They loved it. Benjamin is not into arts and crafts, but this was building (or so Benjamin informed me), so he loved it. His two are made exactly as the picture showed. Jasmine took more artistic freedoms in hers.
The whole village that we made.
Jasmines' Gingerbread House

Jasmines Gingerbread Bakery.

Benjamins' Candy Cane Village.
Benjamins' Santa House.
This is the Kids after they decorated the house. Benjamin always the center of attention, and Jasmine the constant poser. They are cute kids and did such a great job decorating the tree. They have gotten so big this last year. They are forever making me proud.