Have Mercy

Okay so here is a quick note to all my loyal readers. Please excuse my absence this week. There is a flurry of activity going on this week as I prepare to host an event for a very large amount of people.

I wish that I was one of those bloggers that could do huge things behind the scenes and still find time to update and tweet and keep things going all hunky dory on her blog, but alas, I am not.

I will return with my regularly scheduled bloggy ways come next Monday, but in the meantime here is something to tide you over. Why don't you go through my archives and find your favorite post and let me know in the comments section. Or peruse my Monday Music selections and make your own great playlist to exercise to. Either way, have fun and hold down the fort while I'm gone. Dhanka.

My best,

So As Not to Forget

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Did You Know...

...today, 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. Two-thirds of those with the disease – 3.4 million – are women.

-Alzheimer's Association Official Website

You could tie a ribbon around my finger Dagwood style, write a post-it note, and even buy me a singing telegram but there are just some things that I always seem to forget. i.e. the last load of laundry for the day in the washer, where I put my car keys, whether or not I rolled up the windows on the car once I hear that first rumbling sound off in the distance. I don't know what it is but I just can't seem to do these things and get them right on a consistent basis.

I used to chalk it up to the thing that is endearing in my personality. Perhaps the reason my husband felt he needed to marry me and save me from myself and in that sense he would always feel needed. (Too deep?) I just always looked at it as something I would always probably have to work on and hopefully one day master. But that day has eluded me for 28 years and I don't see it anywhere on the horizon right now. So since it's not something that is fixing itself and it seems to be more recurring than not I figured I needed to take more than a glance at this situation.

And what I realized is that my family tree has a few members that suffer or have suffered from Alzheimer's disease. My grammy on my Papas side suffered from Dementia before she died many moons ago. My father at times is super forgetful. But sometimes he is so on point that I don't know if he's just become one of those prankster type oldies that likes to watch people get nervous when they think someone is losing their minds - you know what I mean? Kind of like, just to get a rise out of us he'll pretend like he won't know what year it is or who is the current President. He will say stuff like that and then in the same breath tell you in rapid succession who the NYC Mayors were starting from '79 to present without even checking the time. So yeah, I hope and pray that in those small moments where he seems not here, that he is messing with us.

To tell you that I'm not scared of that illness jumping on my back and robbing me of all my precious memories would be an absolute lie. Because I am. And with that D.Y.K. opening statistic above affecting so many of us women today, maybe it's your concern as well.

The thing is that with this disease there is no cure once you get it - yet. BUT you can take preventative measures to ward Alzheimer's off for a little while longer. My imagination is now playing out a trainer holding a chair up against a lion yelling "Back! Back rapscallion, back!" just thought I'd share that with you. So here are a few things you can do to keep your brain exercised and to keep the Alzheimer's at bay.

• Do puzzles. 50, 100, 150, or even 500-1,000 piece puzzles. It will keep your mind guessing and fresh. Thankfully, your local Dollar Tree carries a nice array of them and if you don't have one nearby, might I suggest any random Saturday garage sale?
• Do crosswords.
• Do Sudoku.
• Read a ton of books, magazines, articles on varying topics. Then the water up there won't get stagnant.

Do a few of these things on a constant if not daily basis and your cerebellum will thank you.

My best,

Oh Really TODAY Show...

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I am not one to think highly of myself. In fact, due to my being raised in a house with 4 brothers and no sisters they made sure to try and crush every living ounce of self-esteem my parents may have tried to instill in me. Thinking that I was pretty in any new frilly dress my mom bought me? DEEEENIED. Thinking that I could play tea party and dress up with my dollies? NOPE. I forget what year I finally gave up trying to be all girly girl and just succumbed to my tomboy ways. Climbing trees, swinging from vines Tarzan style, doorbell pranking my neighbors, switching out my Jasmin from Aladdin t-shirt for my brothers tuxedo screenprint t-shirt was now my thing.

In the words of the great Andy Bernard of the Office a few episodes back I must have thought to my young self "I guess this is my life now."

So when I write I like to think that I am just writing for myself and no one else is taking notice. Even when I look at my stats (which are quite nice these days so thank you one and all) I get all self-deprecating and say to myself "Don't get all happy, they probably just stumbled across here by missing a letter in their web address." See? Thanks big bros for helping my subconscious keep it real! But remember a few days back when I wrote about milk alternatives here? Well imagine my surprise when I wake up and click on my favorite morning show website - The TODAY Show.com - with Matt, Meredith, Ann & Al (and okay you get to join the lineup now too Natalie Morales) and realize that they did a morning segment on how consumers have more 'milk' options nowadays...like so.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sooooo......yeah......the TODAY Show must be reading this blog right? I now write for the likes of Matt Lauer and the self-deprecation ends today. So tell your mama and your friends that you read a blog that the TODAY Show may or may not be imitating from. It will make you the hit of the party!

My best,

Weekend Roundup

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Feel free to take this time to catch up on this past weeks activities.

• Need some great lactose intolerant milk substitutes? Lookie here at how I figured out my kids were allergic to milk and now what they use here.

• Find out how my friend "Denbar" (totally not her name, hence the quotes)wards off allergens with local honey here.

Bon Apetit'!

My best,

My Honey Do List

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Is it just me or do any of you hate allergens too? I hate how they stick to my car, my fro (oh yeah, it happens!), my innards. I once sneezed 8 times in a row while standing in my kitchen and all the while horrified because that attack came simultaneous to me washing dishes and holding our big ol' butchers knife. I could feel the wooziness setting in before each sneeze but they came so quickly I had hardly any time to comprehend if I was dropping the knife into the sink of suds or directly onto my waiting toes below. Thankfully, I still have all my piggies.

I haven't been consuming hardly any sugar and if or when I do, I make sure that it is practically right after I am done with my exercise workout. I do my last crunch and on the sit up I grab a ginger snap and pop it into my mouth. My rationalization is that it is immediately burned up on entry from my wicked metabolism firing on all cylinders. I may be slightly delusional. ;o)

I must be doing something right though because this time last year I was laid up for almost a whole month with a sinus infection that went to my chest. I think its the combination of exercising, cutting out practically all refined sugars and HFCS (I just hate typing out high fructose corn syrup - doh!) so now I will just abbreviate it with it's initials from now on. I justthought of that. Thweet! Anyway, back to what I was saying...yes, I don't know what it is exactly that is helping, but something is definitely helping these days.

My friend "Denbar" gave me a juicy natural allergy remedy. She said that every day she takes a tablespoon of raw local honey that she literally buys from a lady under a bridge. Yes we told her all the jokes in the book from "Are you sure it's honey?" to "Does she bring just one jar for you or is it a legit display of many jars?" and the classic "Does she sell it out of her trench coat like those guys who sell fake Rolex's in Central Park?". Despite all the jokes she swears by it, and the joke is probably on us because when I think about it, she gets sick only once a year. That's it. One major cold and it's usually the actual flu. But the sniffles, ah-choos, red eyes, and overall discomfort that the rest of us have when the wind shifts - she suffers from none of that.

So maybe she's onto something, ay? Have you heard of such a thing? Local honey to help with the local pollen attacks? What do you guys use to ward off allergens in your life? Dish.

My best,

*Honey & sunflower photo courtesy National Honey Board

*Bee covered in pollen courtesy Top Honey Bee

"Milk" Time

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I have family visiting this week, my husband and I are putting on a pretty big event at the end of the month, and I basically haven't had the time to jump online lately. Needless to say, my email inbox is jam packed and if I haven't been over to your blogs or stopped in on your websites to say hey - I apologize.

Today I have a few pictures of what our family has been drinking for milk substitutes. My last post on my lactose free kids is right here so feel free to read that to catch up to what I'm talking about now.

My little girl is affected by milk by way of tummy aches and (T.M.I. alert!!!) green bowel movements. I used to suspect that she was sneaking Fruit Loops into her diet without me knowing because that is the only food that I remember turning poop green. Ha! I finally had a pediatrician recommend that we put her on Lactaid milk which is Lactose Free. Then the internist said that the fat from milk is what causes intestinal trouble. So here is where we have arrived with my daughters milk option:

Onto the Boy...

My little guy is just straight up allergic to dairy. At first we put him on the same Lactaid as my daughter to see how his body responded to that. Umm...didn't go so well. So we decided that we would get drastic and just pull all dairy out of his diet and see how that went. Sweet Success! But then we started to feel bad because there was only so much dry cereal we could stand watching him eat. I went straight to the store and spent some time looking at milk alternatives and have finally settled on this "milk" option:

foto property of me

I also have been drinking the above "drink" and my stomach feels great nowadays. I really think that I have been lactose intolerant all my life but my parents were more of the "suck it up and don't complain about anything because there are kids living under freeways out in California right now that would kill to have such delicious cows milk" type. So I would actually have to punch my belly at night to get to sleep. Oddly enough, it really helped with the pain. My mom used to give me a cup of warm milk at night to fall asleep. (Well meaning, so it's okay mom, I forgive you! ;o)

So if you or anyone you love is lactose intolerant then here are 2 options that you can take to remedy the situation.

What do you like to drink as an alternative to cows milk?

My best,

Song of the Week: Herman's Hermits "No Milk Today"

Lactose Free Kids

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Did You Know...

...approximately 1 in 9 Americans are lactose intolerant? - wrongdiagnosis.com

You see my little bean over to your left? He is my precious little boomba. His name's Sy - likesigh - and he's lactose intolerant. (whoa...that totally sounded like a PSA ad right?) But yep it's true. Ever since he was a newborn, this little guy always seemed to spit up more than your average baby. And not just spit up - he would projectile vomit like nobodys business.

I have brought him to enough docs and different pediatricians that surely by his 6th birthday couldn't be the time that we finally figured out that he was lactose intolerant right? Right?? Wrong. And the person who steered us towards cutting out cows milk wasn't even an MD. It was a cousin that grew up being allergic and suggested we try that option instead of a biopsy, which is what an internist was strongly urging us to get.

Thankfully, and oddly enough our insurance wouldn't cover that procedure until we tried all these antacid-type meds such as Zantac to see if that would help him. And that was after we had already told them that the Zantac basically turned him into a little zombie (case in point - I awoke one night to him standing next to the bed just staring at me all Children of the Corn like and when I asked him what's wrong he just responded "Nothing." and shrugged his shoulders. I walked him back to bed and he fell back asleep and woke up later that morning like nothing ever happened. Creeeeeepy.) But yet, they wanted to put him on more of the same thing like he's their own personal guinea pig. I say "No sir to that!"

So we took him off milk.

And he stopped vomiting.

But only 6 years too late, because all that acid over time eroded the enamel on many of his back teeth so now he sports mouth hardware in the form of silver caps until his adult teeth grow in.

Boo....

The moral of this story is if your baby pukes alot or vomits profusely for no explainable reason and x-rays shine no light on anything going on wrong internally, then try taking them off dairy. It might just be what the Doctor didn't order, but works anyway!

My best,

Song of the Week: I'm really feeling socially conscious right now. Which leads me to this weeks song Black Eyed Peas "Where is the Love?"