New hair cut and Andersson's Kitchen!

So-
This week brought some changes! I chopped my hair off, for one! Sometimes I just need a change, and I was thinking about this change for about two months. Patric likes my hair long, but he understood that I needed this...so I did it. We discussed where I should go. The last few times I have gone to hair cuttery it has been a bad experience. You get what you paid for right? Patric thought I should go to a nicer place, but in the end, I went back to what I know...I guess I live on the wild side! I walked into Hair Cuttery with a picture of a style I wanted and asked the person who greeted me if there was someone there that could take my hair, which was currently down and still wet from my shower (seriously, with 100 degree weather, I am NOT running the hair dryer) from what it was, to the picture I had with me. The lady pointed to another person who was finishing up a cut. I thought that it was great that she didn't say she could do it and then destroy my hair. I felt comfortable with who she pointed to and said I would be back. I had to go into Target to pick up some junk that I forgot to buy the previous day I was at Target...I swear I could live at Target.

Anyway--I go back and Lindsay, who doesn't have set hours at Hair Cuttery, chopped my hair off. She did an AWESOME job...especially because she wasn't cocky about her cutting style. I liked that...she asked me how I liked it while she was cutting...asked for input if I wanted her to fix anything etc. I am VERY pleased with the cut. I will have to take a good picture of it when I have actually done it nice and upload on this post.

Then--today, we FINALLY had our inspection for Andersson's Kitchen. www.anderssonskitchen.com

We PASSED!!! Hooray! I feel like now I can finally get the word out, since we wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row before taking this on. Remember, we have big goals...so big goals means you have to get all the paperwork done in the very beginning (am I an accountant or what???).

We already have our first official order in as well. I have filled a few orders for my mom = ) but this is not my mom! I am grateful for any and all support from my friends and family surrounding this business. Patric and I really believe and have worked hard to make our products the way they are and also getting all the paperwork completed etc to make this happen. It is our desire to get Patric moved into this full time soon enough so he can stop being belittle by his boss. It will be a huge leap when we finally get him out of that situation, but it will be worth it to be with my husband all the time...because that is also a desire we have for each other. Patric is my soul mate and I ache for him when I am not with him and it has been our desire for about two years to work side by side.

Anyway---that is all for now!

Memorial Weekend Get - A - Way!

So--Patric and I kept discussing what we were going to do for Memorial Weekend...if anything. I had basically decided we weren't going to do anything, we need to save money yadda yadda yadda. Well...the Emericks came over for dinner one day a few weeks ago and we were discussing Memorial Weekend. I had stated that we generally like to do something, especially beach related...and they were like, ooh, we're in! So then I was like, it could be fun to recruit the Near family as well, since Brendan is Josh's best friend. How fun would that be to have three four year old boys together for a weekend of sun, sand and waves? When I approached the Nears, they got back to me and said they were in! Off to Ward Realty I went to look for houses. We got a great home and had the best weekend. We all got a little burned...but I think we made some great memories and strengthened our friendships (at least I hope!!).

Here are some fun pics! (Because my camera actually decided to work this weekend, HOORAY!)

I may be a little biased here, but these three four year old boys are the coolest and cutest I know!

Digging in the sand is a must at the beach!


Chris catching some waves.
The Emericks admiring Chris's wave catching abilities.


Valerie dropping some fears and catching some waves.

My favorite part of going to the beach is sitting and reading a good book.

Thanks to the Emerick Family and Near Family for wanting to go on this trip with us. I hope that we will be able to take many more like this in the future with friends!

A New Hope!!

So--

I have been in hiding with my fertility issues because I didn't want to talk about it anymore. I didn't want my life to be surrounded by my infertility. I wanted to enjoy my son and also focus on building my accounting business. But---I did finally make an appointment with my doctor and was seen on April 13. She ordered some blood tests to get done and told me to go that Saturday. I knew I hadn't ovulated yet and one of the tests was for progesterone so I opted to wait until Monday (though even by then I hadn't ovulated or was ovulating that day).

They took 20 freakin vials of blood!! The lady when she was printing off the labels was like, I hope you had a good breakfast this morning. I didn't. I had a bowl of cinnamon chex if I can recall. So I sit down in the chair, and I know not to look because it freaks me out...but she just kept pulling different vials. It probably took her five minutes just to sort out the labels with the blood vials.

finally--she goes to take my blood, and she doesn't put the rubber band around my arm like they normally do...and then probably like a minute later from trying to get my blood to start flowing, another person comes to check out why my blood isn't flowing, at this point I do look over...no blood, just a needle in my vein.

Finally, she puts the rubber band around my arm and the blood starts flowing. I think we get to vial 6 before I start feeling woozy...they had me lay down, asked me if I wanted to stop..put a wet towel on my head...called in someone over the loud speaker to take my blood pressure and pulse. Through all this, which probably only took 2 minutes at most, I said, NO, KEEP TAKING THE BLOOD! The feeling of ALMOST passing out is CRAZY! My hearing started going...like I felt like I was in a tunnel or something and they were far away. I had tingling in my hands and I couldn't talk normal. They did finish filling up the 20 vials. They took my blood pressure twice...obviously the first one was low... A nice lady even offered to drive me somewhere. But after a few minutes, I was fine. Poor Josh had to watch all the hullabaloo happening. I asked him later if he was scared, and he said, no. I knew you were ok. I love that little man!

Anyway---

All my test results came back normal, except for one. And this is a GREAT one! Though not great that I don't have normal results, I suppose, it is something to FIX!!

I tested positive for one copy of the C677T mutation on the MTHFR gene. This mutation can cause miscarriages and implantation problems. Hello 2 miscarriages and 1 ectopic pregnancy over here!!! The good news is, with higher doses of folic acid(which my doctor already prescribed and I am already taking since my April 13 appointment), along with baby aspirin, b-6 and b-12 there is hope that I can carry another child to term! Of course, I must get pregnant first (though I have had my suspicions in this past year that we did have other losses...especially when I was late a couple of times and I am never late), and that is where the clomid comes in. My doctor also prescribed clomid, which I will be taking soon...unless by some miracle I am pregnant now. I highly doubt it and am not holding my breath...so don't hold yours!

I just HAD to write this out, because it gives me hope! All my clotting tests regarding this mutation came back within normal ranges, I believe, so at least nothing else is wrong except that I have this pesky little mutation for the rest of my life...and will have to have it monitored.

I WILL get pregnant soon!

Baking Queen!

I had to look at the last time I posted and it was March 25. It has been like three weeks since we have decided to seriously look into doing this gluten free bakery, and while it is exciting and fun, I have many fears.

My biggest fear is that I am going to contaminate someone that has gluten intolerance with my baking. I NEVER want to make someone sick with something they buy from me. While I am focusing on making my items gluten free, and testing that I can do to make sure that it is gluten free I stumble upon forums and blogs with people talking about how they are getting sick. Gluten is in EVERYTHING it seems, even things that we think are gluten free. There is an entire forum surrounding people testing foods and seeing if there is gluten or at least the ppm (whatever that means). In America, anything 20 ppm and lower is considered gluten free, in all other countries I believe 0 ppm is gluten free, so America is a bit behind on this disease. There are test strips out there to test the food for 10ppm or higher. I don't grow my own rice or milk my own cow so how do I TRULY know if things are gluten free?? I certainly don't want to give an item that I think is gluten free to someone with celiac disease, only to cause them to get sick. I could very well have gluten intolerance, as it is a highly genetic disease and I know that it runs in my family, but I don't deal with the sickness that someone of my family members have, so I don't have the reactions that they do.

I am a rollercoaster of emotions regarding this endeavor. I want to make good food that anybody would eat...but the fear of making someone sick SUCKS! Maybe I need to turn my backyard into one big farm to ensure that the items I offer are 100% gluten free.

With that being said--I am quite happy with our spread thus far. We did register our name with the county, so we are officially Andersson's Kitchen. We need to get all of our paperwork into the department of Agriculture and then get inspected. If we pass inspection, then we can go to the county and get zoning approval. Though in VA, you don't really have to do all this, I want to do it because I have bigger dreams (or at least bigger goals. This wasn't really a dream of mine). I had to stop trying new recipes because we have to turn all of our recipes into the dept of agriculture and it was getting ridiculous how long it took to type it all up and do all the procedures etc.

We have a good list though ---

Cookies -
White chip macadamia nut
Melt aways
Chocolate Chip
Chocolate with white chip
peanut butter
Sugar cookies
White chip and toffee
Chocolate dipped chocolate chip
Chocolate dipped Shortbread cookies
Blueberry Muffins
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Vanilla Cupcakes
Triple Chocolate Cupcakes
Strawberry Cupcakes (a personal fav)
Lemon Cupcakes
Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
Red Velvet Cupcakes (my mom's fav)
Peanut butter cup chocolate cupcakes
Vanilla Mousse Cheesecake
Sour Cream Lemon Poundcake
Brownies
Angel Food Cake
Chocolate Cream Pie
Pavlova
Apple Pie
And then various icings for the cupcakes

We will add more, but we wanted to get these to the state to get the process going.

My mom did order some cupcakes today...so we had our first official sale. I felt kind of weird taking money from my mom for this endeavor, but she insisted since it was a business we were running. Of course, she has had MANY freebies given to her through these past few weeks, and I threw in another 5 or 6 cupcakes from another batch I made for her to try as well as my step-niece...who the cupcakes were for because she had a birthday party and is gluten free.

There are some ULTRA sensitive gluten intolerant people out there...I think I need to just stay away from their forums or I will walk away from this endeavor. They go completely grain free, meaning no rice even...and rice isn't supposed to have gluten in it. Patric just said, those are the types that won't be our customers. I guess he is right, because if you are ultra sensitive to gluten you probably need to grow and make everything yourself because probably everything comes in contact with a little bit of gluten here and there.

I feel a bit discouraged...though many around me are good at keeping my spirits up, especially my mom. She is super excited about this...I think moreso then when I decided to open my bookkeeping and tax business.

Anyway--we are off to dinner. I get to bring some yummy treats!

Sasha

I think Patric and I are nuts!

So if you are friends with my on facebook, you may have noticed the abundance of baking I have been doing lately. I am trying out recipes and changing them to be gluten free. Why would I do that?? Well--back in 2004 when Patric and I got married, he said he thought that we should open a gluten free restaurant or bakery or whatever. I laughed and said, no way. Obviously, during that time, I have baked gluten free and cooked gluten free, not only for the benefit of my immediate family of Patric and Josh and I, but also because I have diagnosed members of my family with gluten intolerance.

I don't know exactly how it came up last week...perhaps I bothered Patric again about his lack of a raise (well...his boss's lack of integrity really...) and how if Patric really put his mind to it, he could run his own business, like he did in Sweden. I asked him what his fear was...that America is the land of opportunity...that if he could make it in Sweden he could make it here...and all the other "pep talk" crap that comes out of my mouth when I try to put some confidence into my beaten down husband...which we all know, I participate in beating him down from time to time as well.

Well---his response was, I think we should do a gluten free bakery. (He has thrown this idea at me over and over again in the seven years we have been married, by the way). I said, fine...lets do it. Well--more like, ok, lets think about this seriously, talk with the county, research online for other gluten free bakers in the area, what our competition is like, what other gluten free bakers have done etc...because while I LOVE LOVE LOVE to bake, it kind of scares me to get REALLY busy with baking (how pompous of me...I don't even know if anyone will buy my stuff), and how would I keep up with Josh and running SJP Accounting (which has been AWESOME this year by the way...I am very pleased with the first quarter of 2011 for SJP Accounting.) While I love my husband, and I totally think he could do some of the work that I do, basically anyone could, I am a control freak when it comes to SJP Accounting. But---this gluten free baking idea is Patric's idea...so if he wants to do it, he will have to get on the phone with the county (which he has already done), research other gluten free bakers (which he has already done) etc.

I think he is serious about this one ladies and gents. We still need to figure it all out and we REALLY need to pray and probably make a trip up to the temple for this one (I am so grateful to be a Latter-Day Saint aka Mormon), because I am able to make decisions that are aided by the Big Man Upstairs. This is NOT an endeavor that I am going to take lightly...especially since I will take on most of the baking in the beginning, as Patric still has a full time job (which we had a goal for him to get out of soon...) and still run SJP Accounting AND still be a stay at home mom. I am exhausted just THINKING about it....but if it is truly what we are supposed to do, I am up to the challenge, and definitely excited to see Patric have some life in him again. I think his job has drained the life out of him...whether he sees it or not!

So while we are still in the research and development stages and maybe never will get to the actual opening of a gluten free business (which would initially be run from our home, but we have some long term goals, at least in our heads...for a storefront), you will continue to see yummy baked goodies posted on facebook and my runs to your house (if you are one of the lucky ones) with treats that I need you to try out ... so I don't gain a million pounds in this process (thank GOODNESS I bought a 6 month gym pass!!) Try not to drool too much on the computer screen...because I gotta tell you, all that I have baked this week have been AMAZING! And most importantly, I think that yummy gluten free treats are a must for those who suddenly have to change their diet!

So---what are your thoughts? am I nutso?

Josh is four??!

Where did the time go? I still remember the days leading up to his birth. I somewhat remember the hospital stay. I definitely remember the cuddly newborn days. But now my little boy is four? This must be a mistake! I have memories when I was four. I guess I need to start being a better parent since his memory is going to be getting better!

Anyway--I have been somewhat busy (ok a lot busy) these past few weeks and the mommy guilt set in quite a bit, so we did Josh's birthday fun this year. We got him presents (which some we had bought before Christmas, we just held onto them), and decided that we were going to take him to Chuck E Cheese's for his birthday dinner. We have never taken him to Chuck E Cheese's and the last time I went was for my niece Rebecca's like third birthday or something. Luckily it was a Monday night, so it wasn't too crazy. I kept going back and forth as to whether I should invite Josh's friend Brendan and our friends Chris and Valerie. Part of me wanted Josh's bestie there, but the other part of me didn't want to put our friends through the chaos. I decided to ask anyway, and they actually wanted to come. So that made Josh happy, and of course, us happy!

Here are some pictures of Josh on his birthday.

He is standing next to his "grow chart" that we created on our wall. He has grown an inch in a month! He is wearing his new Shaun White shirt. Ever since the olympics, he loves Shaun White, and target carries his clothing line, so when we walk past his picture he yells, "Shaun White!"
Two things Josh loves, cars and Toy Story. Luckily, hotwheels has combined them! This is a buzz hotwheel.
I actually think he is mocking me in this picture, because I asked him to smile.
We saw this big sidewalk chalk and just couldn't resist buying them for him.
All of Josh's loot. Toy Story 2, sidewalk chalk, a Mickey Mouse puzzle, the game Trouble, Buzz car and a Toy Story sticker book. He was satisfied.
Also--every week when we go food shopping, he has to see the M&M cake. So naturally, when we asked him what type of cake he wanted for his birthday he wanted the M&M cake. It was delicious!

Now you think that would end the festivities of Josh's birth. But no. One Sunday morning, back in January I believe, Patric sat down with Josh and asked if he wanted a birthday party. Of course a kid is going to want a birthday party. I immediately said, we have to limit the amount of friends that come. We have a lot of friends with kids in our church, but I couldn't fathom inviting everyone, so if your kid was not invited, it wasn't because we didn't want your child to be there...it was because we don't have the space or resources to have a party that big! We told Josh that he could pick eight friends. It did get bumped up to ten friends, but one couldn't make it, so we ended up having ten kids at our house yesterday (including Josh). I hope that they had fun. Luckily the weather was beautiful, so we spent a lot of time outside, blowing bubbles, swinging, and exploring the back yard.

We also played a different version of musical chairs and hot potato. Of course, the theme was Toy Story, since my child has loved Toy Story since the existence of his life! They also enjoyed cupcakes and ice cream and opening presents with Josh. Josh was super excited about his presents, naturally, and wanted to plow right through them. We made him stop after each present, and thank and hug the person who gave it to him.

Here are some pictures-
What cute little boys...with their tongues out...
Playing on the swings.
Waiting patiently for Hot Potato. I just couldn't resist taking a million pictures of these cute kids.
Playing "musical chairs."
The decorations.
The kids patiently waiting for some cake and ice cream.

So there it is. Another year of Josh's life down, hopefully many many many many many many many many many many many more to go!

Josh--if you read this later in life, know that your mom and dad love you VERY much and want nothing but happiness for you in your life....even if it means we lose a little of our sanity in the process!

Sweden!

We had the great opportunity to go to Sweden for Patric's sister Marie's 50th birthday party. Marie wanted Patric to come so she actually paid for his ticket! What a nice sister! I debated back and forth whether I should go, I knew I wanted Josh to go because he needs to know his family in Sweden as well, but finances being the way they have been, up and down, I wasn't sure. Of course, it is also the busy time for me with tax returns and various bookkeeping projects that come up...but, I decided to go as well. We flew out in the evening of Feb 9 and came home the morning of Feb 15 so it was a very short trip. Before we left, I was pretty sad that we were only going to be there for such a short time...we usually are there for two weekends, about 9 days...but we were only there for 4.5 days. Perhaps Harry and Marie were grateful that there houseguests were only there for a short time this time :)

The last time we went to Sweden was to sell Patric's apartment in Goteburg. I guess with that sale I figured he wasn't so interested in living there and that the discussion was off the table for awhile. Well, while we were there, we started talking about the move to Sweden again. Who knows if it will actually happen. Patric will have to take more initiative for it to happen. I do have to remind myself from time to time that I married Patric for the adventure of moving out of my comfort zone...of course, for the last almost 7 years we have been sitting comfortably in the same place I grew up...Patric, I NEED adventure! Make this happen!

Anyway--here are some pictures of the short trip! I didn't pull out the camera for the party, which is unfortunate because Marie looked so beautiful. I don't believe that she is 50...she looks great!
I love this picture of Patric and Josh. Josh absolutely LOVES snow...so this was his heaven on earth.
Patric's sister has a horse farm, so we always get to see these beautiful animals close up when we are in Sweden.
We flew into Sweden on the right day...it was the start of a big snow storm. The next day, flights were canceled. Patric and Josh never can resist doing snow angels.
Sweden is such a beautiful country...and this is just a taste of what Marie and Harry own.
Marie and Harry have an enormous dog...lucky she is the sweetest dog ever.
Patric's heaven...horses, snow, dogs, cats, kids...life doesn't get much better for him.
An example of Josh's fearlessness. Luckily this was a nice horse.
This is probably my favorite city in Sweden, Dalaro, so I needed to go there while we were in Sweden. These ducks were just relaxing on the road...we could literally touch them if we wanted.
Case in point. Patric is standing right next to the duck...and they aren't even phased by it.
It happened to start snowing while we were in Dalaro. It was beautiful. These ducks followed us where ever we went. I have a video on my phone that shows that..but I have to get it on youtube.
These are the houses on the water. Patric and I have dreams of living here one day. Dreams...
Josh loved the ducks..as you can tell. They jumped out of the water eventually as well. I don't have any pictures of that.

I already want to go back...this time in the summer, of course. I wish we could go this summer, but we gotta pay off the tickets we just bought first and get stuff down around here. Perhaps the summer of 2012 we can visit again (or maybe move...ha!).