Food Frustrations!!!

Aaaaaah! I am really frustrated with food right now - all food!! As some of you may know, I have an intolerance for MSG (monsodium glutamate). It does awful things to me, and has even landed me in the emergency room, twice! Some of the things that happen to me are: headaches, severe neck and upper back pain and stiffness, difficulty breathing, heart palpitations, weakness. It took me years to finally figure out what was causing it. So, I look for it on all products. Pretty much, anything that comes in a package or box is bad news - even canned and frozen food. I have seen an elmination of MSG in lots of products. Yet, I still get symptoms occassionally from these "MSG" free foods. So, I did more research and have found some pseudonyms for MSG. Pretty much, if a product has an ingredient in it I can't pronounce or don't know what it is, I don't eat it. I also don't eat at most restaurants either since I know it is in their food - including all fast food except In-N-Out. I've been happy that MSG is being elminated from foods, but now I am very distressed by this. Come to find out, they are just using different names or putting MSG in the other igredients in the product to hide the fact that MSG is in it. One of these is hydrolized vegetable protein. Yuck! But this is NOTHING compared to what else I've discovered. I am OUTRAGED that this is happening: Farmers are using a fertilizer with MSG in it!!!! It is inside and outside of our vegetables! Even organic produce can have it since there are no standards for its use in Organic farming. Now I know why I get an MSG reaction to supposedly healthy food sometimes. And now I know why some wines bother me while others don't (yes, they even spray it on grape vines used for making wine - ridiculous!). I have always wanted to grow my own produce and now I am ready to become Farmer Kim! I swear this is ridiculous. MSG can cause learning disabilities and whole host of other problems. It is not natural to eat modified food yet it is in everything everyone eats. I am going to look like a crazy hippy now - growing my own organic food, making bio-diesel, looking to start using alternative energy to power the house, reclaiming our water, etc. Just for everyone's reassurance, I am definitely a Republican - I just want healthy, natural food for my family's body. Is that too much to ask!!

Leo Carrillo 2008

Chase boggie boarding

Erin on the swing at camp

Just hangin' out - Chase, Lydia, Cadia, Erin, Avery

Celia, Nathan, Amber

Craig, Denise, Lucy, Adam

Cove 2



Kim (me) and Erin



Adam and Erin



Our little camp area (trailer is behind the bush)

Enoch, or "Jungle Jim" as Adam calls him



Avery, Erin and Lydia playing dominoes



Erin put herself in that pose - what a ham!!! :)



Avery and Erin in a big hole



Trey, Makayla, Cassandra, Acacia



Acacia as a crab person




Almost the entire group of campers

Erin and Jordan with a baby star fish

Erin and Jordan in the cave

Erin and Jordan in the bike trailer

Craft time - making boats and jewelery boxes

We went camping for a week at Leo Carrillo State Beach in Malibu, CA. It was so much fun this year and we had great weather. Erin loved having all day to play with her many cousins and having free range in the camp ground. It was fun watching all the kids play. Adam's Uncle Craig and his wife, Denise, and their 8 kids came out from South Carolina. We enjoyed meeting all of them. I think there were 8 families total there this year. It was a lot of people (as you can see in the photos). I didn't want to come home and neither did Erin. Some of the highlights of the trip were the little kids boogie boarding at the "kid's beach" (didn't have my camera for Erin's attempt), the talent show where we got to watch Cassandra, Makayla, Acacia, Makayla and Trey doing a dance they made up to a Jonas Brothers song, Erin singing and playing her guitar, Heidi and her kids singing, Chantel and Robert singing, and a Jedi sword fight by Levi and Joe, a couple of skits by the Tuwalla's, and roping done by Chad. The talent show was a really fun night! We also had a night where all the families competed against each other for fabulous prizes. Our team won a laundry basket for our 3rd place finish, the Tuwalla's won sleeping mats for their 2nd place win and 1st place went to Sara's team for her fabulous ice cream eating skills - she got to take home a crock pot. There were also great crafts this year for the kids. Oh, and we can't forget Robert proposing to Chantel on the beach at sunset. This is going to be a hard year to top. I think pretty much everyone had a great time.

Photos From Alicia's June Visit

Adam, Nathan, Christine, Cassandra, Mom, Alicia, Shannon, Paul

The Original 5

All of Grandma's Grandkids (except for Kohl)
Top: Scott, Eric, Ryan, Tyler, Renee
Bottom Row: Erin, Jessica, Michelle, Caitlin, Ashley (front)

7/10 Siblings (in birth order)

What State Do I Live In?

Wacky, crazy weather every afternoon has left me confused. Exactly what state do I live in? (and I'm not talking about my state of mind). Yesterday, it was like a monsoon and made me feel like I was back in Minnesota - really hot in the morning, getting cloudy early in the afternoon followed by thunderstorms, not to mention, humid! Poor Christine had to load her kids into the car in the worst of it (all 4 of them). She said it was clear when she got about 10 minutes away. I guess Pinon Hills is the only lucky recipient of this delightful weather.

If you read my blog you know that Adam recently finished the central swamp cooler installation. Let's just say, it wasn't completely done, but close enough. We figured, we had all summer before we had to worry about the holes in the roof it created and we also figured we had lots of time to replace the shingles we lost during the last winds we had. Well, guess not! I had a flood in my kitchen and the water followed the ducting into Erin's room. It is getting ready to rain again. Time to get out the buckets and towels and hope that toxic mold isn't forming anywhere (except the for the bathroom ceiling that I already know about). Tell me again, why did I "agree" to a fixer-upper?! Oh, another thing. Swamp coolers don't cool in the humidity. I am sooooooo looking forward to our week at the beach. I just hope we don't come home to a flooded house. Maybe a nice wildfire will come through while we are gone and destroy the place. The cats wouldn't survive but oh well, I'd get a new house! Yes, I am evil. I forgot to get a picture of the lake in the kitchen, but perhaps I will get the opportunity to take one today. On a humorous, related note, Adam's mom was able to remind me of our lovely floors, "Quick, Kim! Get a towel! The water's running into the other wall because the floors are crooked!" Nice, right? *SIGH*

Erin's Room (above) Kitchen (below)

This looks safe, right? Should I be standing in a puddle?

Ceiling in kitchen

Pool Fun

Adam's Sister Christine and her 4 kids came over today and swam in our new pool. Considering it was 106 degrees today, it was a good day to go swimming. Erin and Ashley preferred the little pool with all of the big kids in the big pool. I'm really glad we bought the pool. Last night, Adam, Nathan, Cassandra and I made a whirlpool. When I tried to swim against the current, it was like having an endless pool. good exercise.

In other news, there is now a snake in the garage. You can guess where I am not going. We identified the snake on the internet and determined it is a glossy snake - definitely not a rattle snake or anything dangerous, but still. It's probably eating all the lizards I've allowed to live in there to eat the spiders. The circle of life...

4th of July

Yea!!!! We have a pool now and it is a lot of fun. We finally filled it up all the way today, but it was fun with a only a few inches, especially for Erin. We sat in it on the 4th for a few hours. Then we BBQ'd, took a nap, and went to the high school and watched fireworks put on by the local Kiwanis club. I have a few gripes for Kiwanis (not that they'd see this, but...) "Why did the girls sing lame pop songs and not the national anthem before the fireworks? And why was Pinon Hills not represented in the shout outs - come on people, it was the tri-community Kiwanis and we were forgotten while Apple Valley was given a shout along with El Mirage?!? Who lives in El Mirage except for, apparently, 1 lady who came to see the fireworks!" LOL - OK so I am ranting :) Anywho, it was fun and it was a good show. Erin wore ear protection, as you can tell by the pictures. Then, we came home and did our own little ground show. Erin loves sparklers... what kid wouldn't? Even though it was just the three of us, it was a fun day. Adam's mom and sibs were in Long Beach if you were wondering. Hope you all had a great 4th!

FINALLY!!!!

It's finally cool in the house! Adam got the swamp cooler put in and repaired the old one. So, we have a direct down draft in the kitchen that keeps it nice and cool and a ducted system for the rest of the house. It's also nice and humid now and my skin loves it. It doesn't get above 80 in here during the day and I am MUCH happier. Sweet relief..... :) Adam spent many weekends up on the roof in 90 and 100 degree heat to get it all done. I even brought dinner up there to him once! Now, he is working on getting the ground leveled out for the above ground pool I bought with the money I got selling our window A/C's on craigslist (we had them in last year but after exhoribitant electric bills, opted not to put them in this year). We also have a few solar panels we are hoping to use to power the swamp cooler motors. Right now, I want them on the trailer so we can power our batteries while we are camping, especially since the generator is broken and it might not get fixed in time (another thing for Adam to fix). BURR! I am getting chilly. I think I'll go get my blanket!

Cassandra's Promotion

I forgot to post this back when it happened... Cassandra is no longer a middle-schooler and will be moving on to Serrano High School. I don't envy her since I greatly disliked high school. However, she is much more involved in school activites than I was and she makes friends easily. And the girls up here are not the stuck-up, evil girls that I remember. They drive normal cars (no BMW's here) and have modest wardrobes. I am sure there are the exceptions but it should be much easier to fit-in at this high school. Anywho, I digress... Here are the few pictures I took. Hard to believe that the 5 year old that once sat in my lap will be graduating high school in 4 short years. *sigh* And Erin is supposed to start preschool this year?! I am already having second thoughts. Kindergarten will be here soon enough!

Erin, Shannon, Cassandra, Nathan, Sharon (Adam's mom)