This and That...

It was nice getting a dose of sunshine yesterday! This past week it was funny to see how Facebook posts were all about the rain, rain, rain... then yesterday there was this explosion of Facebook posts about what everyone got OUT and did! :) It sounded like a lot of people enjoyed the Rose Festival downtown! I thought that sounded like so much fun. We talked about going to the starlight parade, but we were just too tired. Ah, we Oregonians will soak up every second of sun we can get!

We went strawberry picking yesterday, on that gloriously sunny day, and it was a lot of fun. I tend to be late on strawberries every year, and hardly get any picked, so this year I was determined to be ahead! We showed up for Smith Berry Barn's opening day and got 17 lbs. Hopefully I'll pick another 15-20 lbs. this next week.

Yesterday we also worked on organizing and cleaning out our garage. I listed some items on Craigslist before we went berry picking, to get them out of our garage. It wasn't until today that I realized I'd done something wrong when listing those items, and none of them actually listed! Dote! So today I relisted everything (couch, tv, tv stand, bar stools...) and they all sold in less than 4 hours. Go Craigslist!

Gluten-free living is going well. Josh & Jude are definitely our super gluten intolerant family members. Selah still has yet to be tested. I've had my low moments of thinking I'd die if I didn't eat bread soon being on their diet, but we thankfully found an amazing gluten-free bread at Whole Food's last week that we're in love with. Udi's bread is the best! We've been enjoying turkey sandwiches with lettuce and goat cheese, tuna fish sandwiches, toast, almond butter & jelly sandwiches... I nearly cried when I first ate that bread. I had been missing bread that tasted like, bread, for so long! :)

On the same topic, Josh's hands have been healing up quite nicely! It's just amazing to watch. Like I've shared before he's had a severe hand rash for the past two years. Each doctor he saw told him it was sever eczema and prescribed steroids to help with it. The steroid cream will thin your skin, so you can only use it for short periods of time. Anyway, 2 months off of gluten and Josh's hands are NORMAL hands again! It's crazy to see. I so badly wish I had some "before" photos, since the difference is so dramatic. I'd love to be able to show everyone! We're really thankful for the difference! No more constant lotioning or running his hands under scalding hot water for relief... Hooray! :)

Jude is still doing great too. He's had a couple instances where he's eaten some gluten in something we were unaware of. Like if something we ate was possibly processed on the same machines as something with gluten. This week we ate some Kettle brand corn chips, thinking they were fine based on the ingredients and packaging, but Josh and Jude had a reaction. We researched them today and discovered they are not gluten-free! Grrr. Our bad. When Jude eats a little bit of gluten like that it's pretty obvious. He ends up really cranky, frustrated, hard to communicate with and he wakes up a few times in the middle of the night crying. I feel so badly for him when it happens. We're just getting more and more careful every day with what food we buy and make. Josh's reactions to gluten are that his hands begin to itch and the skin gets "tight". He also gets really tired and just wants to sleep. So we do our best to avoid any trace amounts at all costs.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the fabulous day of sunshine yesterday! I'm looking forward to some up and coming photo shoots. Every shoot I've had in the past few weeks have all rescheduled for better weather. And I don't blame them! :)

I'll end my "this & that" post with this picture of Selah that I thought was so funny from a moment yesterday. It's not the greatest photo, but it captures the memory, which is all that matters. So, Selah LOVES animals. Her dream is to hold a bird! At the berry field they had goats, bunnies and chickens. Well, Selah was sooo excited to see the animals. She asked repeatedly to be able to go into the chicken pen, and into the chicken's house and in to hold the bunnies. At this moment, (the above photo) she was down at the chicken's level practically screaming at the chickens saying, "Chicken, come here! I want to pet you!" I could not help but laugh. She was serious! And you can totally see it in her face and grip on the fence. :) One of these days we'll have to find a friend who has a pet bird, so that we can arrange to make Selah's dreams come true by letting her hold it. :) I love that sweet girl.