Macaroni & Cheese

Entire meal on a waffle iron

Lemon Garlic Dill Tilapia

Steak Fajitas

The Results are In.....

We went to the Dr today to talk about Rob's bloodtest results and the results were not so good....
1-  Diabetes Mellitus Type 2
2-  Fatty Liver Disease
3-  Microalbuminuria (early kidney disease/damage) Only showing up in urine right now his BUN/Crea levels were both low or low normal.
4-  High Cholesterol not the 'regular kind' but the LDL & HDL are either high/low
5-  High Triglycerides
6-  Severely Vitamin D Deficient "Critically Low"
7-  Heart Attack Risk Extremely High (C Reactive Protein)
8-  High Hemoglobin ALC which means his Glucose has been consistently high over the past 3 months.
9-  Chronic Inflammation  (Elevated WBC but no other CBC levels were elevated)
10-  Insulin Resistant

The Dr does think the Fatty Liver Disease, & Kidney Disease, Cholesterol are reversible with dietary changes (that we've already made), and supplements, and medications.  Now mind you Rob had previously been going to a different PCP Dr who didn't give a rat's butt about his health, Dr. Jones (Alpine Clinic) has been wonderful....now all the supplements and stuff he wants Rob on are about $300 a month!  Eeek!  The good news is our insurance covered 100% a great glucose tester, the test strips, the lancets, so that was nice, and the 2 new prescriptions he was put on are on the Walmart $4.00.  The Dr seemed most concerned with the EXTREMELY low Vit D (5 normal is 80-100) which puts him extremely high risk for lots of things like Rickets, Cancer and more.  The Low Vitamin D explains several of his issues: poor wound healing, increased muscle, joint, back pain, depression, diabetes, allergies, inflammation, high blood pressure, it also puts him at 3x the risk of Multiple Sclerosis.  If you haven't ever been tested for Vit D, I would strongly recommend it, I am deficient as well and feel much better since taking it.

Healthy Grain Free Living

Rob & I have had to COMPLETELY change our diets....please check out our new 'Grain Free Living' Blog for more information.
Healthy Grain Free Living: The Journey Begins...: "So it has been a tough few days.  On Tuesday we cleaned out a good portion of our pantry, and donated the items we won't be eating any more ..."

Happy Pickle

Dirty Floor

Left is old vacuum Eureka Optima...Right is same area of carpet with new Bissell Powergroom Pet. Carpets were vacuumed a litte over week ago with old vacuun.

Our new Bread Maker

Rob got a Breadmaker for our 5 Year Anniversary (April 9th), he had one but it was like 20 years old and the paddle was broken and it needs a new pan, since it was just as cheap to buy a new one as replacement parts, we bought a new one. It is great, and way yummy! Here are some pictures of some Honey Whole Wheat Bread we made in it.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients:
1 1/8 cups warm water at 110°F
3 tablespoons honey
1/3 teaspoon salt (we used 1 tsp and it tasted just fine)
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions:
Add ingredients according to the manufacturer's directions to your bread machine. Use the wheat bread cycle and light color setting.

Kids will be kids....

Zoey Helping dad with his programming....well actually she opened up about 100 windows :-)

Best Ever Brownies

These are the BEST brownies I have ever had! I am NOT a brownie lover either. These are the ones we had for family dinner, that even though they were a little overcooked, my family DEVOURED them :-)

Makes: 1
Ingredients:
	1 C pecans 1/2 tsp baking powder 2/3 C flour 3/4 C Cocoa Powder 4 Large eggs 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla 1 C brown sugar 1 C sugar 1/2 C butter
Instructions:
	Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix together the last six ingredients. Sift in the Flour, Cocoa Powder, & Baking powder. Mix until blended, do not over mix. Grease the bottom of a a 9x9 or 9x11 pan not the sides Add batter and bake for 35-40 minutes @ 350 degrees. You can add some chocolate chips if you would like. You can also replace 1/2 the butter with some Chocolate syrup.

A little story....

There once was a couple that thought that they were going to have a baby, along came aunt flo who sat down beside her and washed the baby away. It has been 5 years, flo needs to take a hike for nine months and leave us alone. I was showing all the signs for early pg except the missed period, thought this time for sure, Rob was even looking at baby cribs online. Nope, foiled once again...one day...hopefully.

New Family Member....

Nope, sorry not an announcement of that kind...maybe one day we'll get lucky :) Until then...and probably after you'll just have to put up with our four-legged fur kids!
......Meet Georgie....He is a 3 year old Pomeranian that was up for adoption at the clinic, I begged Rob for about a month before he finally relented and let me bring him home for good :) He loves him just as much as I do! He really is a great dog. Anyways here are some pictures.
In the picture with the 3 dogs he's the one in the middle, the little shar pei puppy is "Wrath" for those who remember "Rage" the shar pei who used to board in the VIP Suites, he passed a few years back, and they just recently got Wrath who is a very cute adorable blue sharpei. He's way cute, and full of himself. The other one is Beasley the beagle who would love a home if you know anyone looking for a great, energetic, loving beagle!

Grandma Sims

Heather's Grandma Sims had a stroke on Monday. She was moved to a nursing home on friday, and has decided it is time to go as she doesn't want to live in the nursing home like that (feeding tube, oxygen, iv's for fluid) she lost her swallowing/gag reflex with her stroke so was/is at risk for aspiration pneumonia, she pulled out her IV's and Feeding Tube and told the staff she doesn't want them back. They say she probably has 24-72 hours maybe more, it's hard to say. They are giving her pain medications. Heather was able to travel to Evanston (thanks Jennifer for the ride) to see her and recieve one last hug from Grandma, but she was extremely tired. I am comforted by the fact that she will be going into the arms of her beloved husband, Ronald who passed on in 1995 (15 years ago). Grandma has been preparing for this day, she has already planned her funeral services (back in 2005) and has everything in order. She is a remarkable woman who lived on her own up until now, she is 92 years old. She still was active with quilting for humanitarian projects etc. I hope that she is able to pass away peacefully in her sleep. I am truly grateful for the knowledge that we have of the hereafter that we will be able to be with our loved ones once more if we remain faithful. This is a picture of Grandma and Heather taken in December at Uncle Larry's Funeral. I never noticed this before but I think I have her chin. I know a lot of people tell me I look like my Aunt Judy.

Grocery Savings

A friend of Rob's at work pointed us to a WONDERFUL grocery store that I just LOVE! It is in Provo on University Ave, but is SO worth the 15-20 minute drive. They have produce on sale every wednesday and meat on sale every friday. It is a great store, the manager is awesome and super friendly and has even bagged our groceries a couple of times. Anyways today I went an picked up some fruit I got 30# of fruit (Apples, Oranges, Bananas, Tangerines, Tomatos) for $12.00. I LOVE IT! Oranges were 4 lbs for $1.00, Apples were 4# for $1.00 for Cameos or 3# for $1.00 for Red Delicious. Nectarines were 1# for $1.00. You have to get there early to get some of their deals they have. We normally got at 7am (when they open) on Wednesdays and hit their clearance meats, we save a TON that way.

It is Buy Low Market: http://www.buylowmarket-utah.com/ Seriously may be worth the drive if you live in Utah for the savings LOL! The manager said they are trying to find more places to open. We keep telling him to open in the place where Smith's was that closed in American Fork but he said they have some sort of No Compete Clause or something so a grocery store can't open in that location (dumb if you ask me) they are out of business.

I do know there are more locations in California.

Our little Chihuahua

As many of you know, Zoey our little Chihuahua has mild hydrocephalus which makes her a little bit more difficult to train such as potty training etc. Well when she was a puppy Rob and I clicker trained her, and have worked with her off and on, Sit was never a command that she mastered. Today Rob was working with both Shellie and Zoey on some commands. She gets so excited when she does something right, she does a little 'wiggly' dance. She's such a sweetheart! She is wearing both a sweater and a coat because she's been colder lately, her CDA (Color Dilution Alopecia) seems to be active right now she's got spots along her spine where her blue hair is really really thinning out and not coming back in. Part of me thinks it's because she wears a sweater most of the time to keep her warm and it may be rubbing it off? Don't know what to do to 'stop' it. We did bloodwork on her Friday as she's been eating voraciously, losing weight, peeing/drinking a TON, but otherwise happy and active as ever. Everything was pretty much normal so we pretty much attribute it to the steroids and drugs she is on for her hydrocephalus/copd...which sucks, but we can't cut her back, she's on 1.25mg of Vetalog every other day right now, if we back off she starts showing more symptoms. I was worried she might have had cushings as long-term steroids can cause cushings and she's been on steroids since she was a year and a half old when we discovered the hydrocephalus. Cushings can also cause hair loss along the spine, so I was worried about it, but her bloodwork all checked out. You can see she's not looking as 'red' on her legs anymore with the homecooked/limited diet. Which makes me happy, she's not near as itchy as she was either. Anyways here are some of the tricks that Zoey showed off today:
1: Bow
2: Down
3: Sit
4: Stand (this one was the hardest for her, after a few times of mommy helping her she finally caught on and was 'offering' it herself.

Rob's New Invention

Last week Rob decided he wanted Roasted marshmallows so he used out toaster to make them. Well last night I was cleaning and pulled out our old toaster and asked Rob if he wanted me to throw it away, his eyes lit up and said hey.....so last night he modified it and made a desktop 'roaster' out of it! It was broken, it's an electronic one and the circuitry that told the toaster the toast was done and to pop up was broken so it would burn the toast (to the point it caught on fire), so we bought us a new one. Anyways, he even made it 'Heather' proof so to speak, bending a 'rack' to protect from the inner heating elements. He is so smart, I married a Genius! It roasts them really well and even roasts hot dogs!