Sew much fun!

Halloween was approaching, and my almost-3-year-old was consistently saying that she wanted to be Ariel (The Little Mermaid) this year.

Work had been (and still is) crazy, but I'm not sick anymore and Pinterest gave me confidence to tackle my sewing machine with this cute and easy mermaid skirt.  Success!! (Mostly)

I'd never made a ruffle before, but I liked the idea of making a skirt that my daughter could wear beyond Halloween.  I bought a ruffler foot off of Amazon to play with (what a headache that turned out to be), and eventually learned how to make a ruffle by hand (pretty easy!).  Once you get the hang of things, it really is a 30-minute skirt.  I even made a 2nd!

Unfortunately, she decided that the best way to wear this skirt was to hike it up around her waist and show the world that she is potty trained.  So... I added a panel of fabric in front (between her legs and the skirt) and also attempted to make a pair of "finned" leggings that she could have as a backup/supplement to the skirt.  I was really proud of myself for sewing my first skirt AND pants, but the pants turned out to be more like something you might pair with a flower costume and didn't get used.

Ariel has friends, so we decided to make it a family costume, hooray fun!  My  little boy became Sebastian: red sweatsuit, open claw mittens (so he could still use his hands) and a crab hat.

I was Flounder: Yellow shirt with blue felt spikes sewn down the back and stripes hot-glued on, with a felt & hotglue headband.  My husband was Prince Eric: white shirt, blue jeans, work boots & red fabric tied around waist... and a short wig because, like Disney princesses, Disney princes always have full, flowing manes of hair.  My mother-in-law also participated, dressing as another mermaid with a 2nd skirt that I pulled together.

 Of course, by the time Halloween came around (a week after her costume party birthday), she was over Ariel.  Here's some of what she cycled through on Halloween:

She's Baaa-aaaack!!

The Old Liz is definitely back!

I just struck a deal with myself:

Me:  If you throw out the 2 (almost empty) tubs of frosting in the freezer that you bought last week, you can finish eating the tub of ready-made cookie dough you bought on Monday.

Me: Deal.

Then I executed said deal flawlessly.

This is why yoga pants exist... stretchy so they are comfortable when you eat tubs of cookie dough and frosting, and tight enough to guilt you into doing a few squats or sit-ups when you look in the mirror.  They're the perfect guilt cycle pants.

Grateful Monday?

I cried harder than I have in a long time this morning.  You  know, that little kid tantrum kind of cry, where they pass out?  I need a nap.  My lungs feel so big now that I can breathe again! (Not really anything serious other than the fact that I was very, very offended, frustrated, and hurt - I'm trying to move past it)

My friend makes a habit of listing things she is grateful for every Monday.

I am very grateful for a lot of things this afternoon, such as my recently regained freedom to eat tubs of frosting.  Thank you CVS, that was delicious.

Reality Check

Sooo... I still can't eat whatever I want :(

4 (!!) years ago, I stopped eating gluten to see if a weird abdominal pain I was experiencing would go away... and it did.  Every time I tried eating bread or pasta again, it came back.  I was hopeful that without a large intestine, I could go back to eating normal people food without pain... but the pain has returned.  If I eat gluten occasionally I think I can handle it, but if I eat it several days in a row, I become super uncomfortable.  Last night was AWFUL!  It kept me awake!

So what does my "gluten pain" (as I refer to it) feel like?  Oddly, a bladder infection.  It's a weird bloated/achy/pressure feeling in the vicinity of my bladder, which I've read might actually be my rectum.  When I first started noticing the pain back in 2009, I thought it was my bladder at first, but I noticed that when I peed I didn't feel better... but after a bowel movement the pain went a way.  Sorry if that's too much information, but that's how it is around here.  Now that I temporarily don't poop... I didn't know what to do for pain relief last night!  I still don't know... but luckily it's backed off, now it's just a dull ache.  Last night it hurt to sit or move at all!  I guess that's what I get for enjoying a weekend full of hot dogs, cookies, pasta, cake, fried fish, and beer.  That's enough to make anybody's stomach hurt, right? haha

So... back to gluten free... 95% of the time?

Oops

I really thought that I'd be good about blogging now that I'm getting my life back - but I'm too busy!!  I had hoped that I'd be able to step back into life slowly and keep in control... but old habits are heard to break and I've got right back to eating too many cookies and trying to do too much.  I'm a normal person again, hooray!!!!

What have I been up to, now that I have freedom in a bag?

• NOT TAKING STEROIDS!!!
• The beach!
• Socializing!
• Working - even traveling into my office weekly, I feel so grown up!
• Eating!

Normal person, chilling with her kids in a cardboard house

Look, here I am multi-tasking: Visiting family at the beach in Rhode Island with my kids while eating and speaking Spanish

Fun summer!

I still have so much to catch up on with my never ending to-do list, but at least I feel like the limits have been lifted, and I can do whatever I want to this weekend, as long as I can fit it in!  So far the plans for this weekend include a wedding, a friends/holiday reunion in New Jersey, a pool visit, and possibly a NYC excursion with visiting family... or another bbq.  Plus some new shelving, mowing the lawn, and general homeowner/mom tasks.  So much to do!  And I'm not sick, so I can do it! Yaaay!

Happenings in ostomy life:

• Air filters are tricky, and don't last long.
• I'm allergic to some of the adhesives.
• Fancier does not mean better - Old school can be a lot easier to maintain.
• Dehydration is a SERIOUS danger - I almost went to the hospital!!
• Ordering supplies is super stressful.  Nobody sells ostomy supplies in-store anymore, and if they do, insurance doesn't cover it.  Phone/internet based ordering is confusing and overwhelming for us newbies; I cried when I hung up the phone and I have no idea if I ordered the right things - nor do I know what anything costs!  They don't tell you what the parts cost, only the final price after insurance, so it's really tricky to figure out how many of the "fancy" and "cheap" setups to order!  I have yet to see the bill...  and to find out what I actually ordered, ha.