::ANNA::

New ART

I got out of the habit of posting my new stuff, sooooo....

 

 

Now available here

Stressful Week

Deadlines, clearings and getting ready to fly to Florida tomorrow.

I take on way too much all the time.  More than I can often handle.  I know that.  It's what I do.  You'd think I would learn but I don't. 

So along with getting through a mountain of work, I took on 4 clearings.  So I've now checked off and passed Dairy/Calcium, Chicken & Eggs, Salt, and will have to await the results of the Gluten & Grains one from today.  Looking forward to taking a little break as my body sets into it's new patterns.  It's been really tiring and taken a toll that I didn't expect.  Looking forward to just seeing now if there really is a difference.

Ella and Luke did the sugar clearing on Wednesday.  It's a tough one that limits you to meat, vegetables eggs and water only for 25 hours.  I was feeling under the weather from my Calcium Mix clearing so it didn't help when Luke started throwing up on Thursday morning, and proceeded to do so several times that morning.  It blew my mind that cutting sugar from his diet would have that kind of effect on him.  He was literally like a junkie going cold turkey.

Ella did awesome and passed her clearing today.  Unfortunately, t Luke wasn't going to be stopped from getting into the cookie jar on Thursday.  He did not pass and is doing the same clearing today.  Not fun for him or the rest of us.  Fortunately Eric is doing the same one as him.  Ella is doing her Iron Mix tonight and tomorrow.  So lots of really healthy eating going on around here, and lots of this.

That's me in my white gloves purchased especially to prepare foods for the children that I am clearing and can't touch.

Have to share this fun photo of Ella making fun hats tonight..

Other than that, I'm trying to get organized to get out of here...Just in time too as temps plummet to subzero.

Every Day Stuff

We're just chugging along getting stuff done.

Eric's surgery went well.  He is finally on the mend and getting back to his usual mouthy self.

I had to work a little this weekend which was a bit of a bummer.  I try to make a point of making the weekends work-free these day but this weekend it was unavoidable.

Did manage to spend some time with Ronalyn this weekend and finished up my Hawaii Album.  I also started paper scrapbooking a trip our Germany in 2002 for Ella's first Christmas and Christening.

Ella and Luke eating some toast Saturday morning...The forbidden fruit.  I let them have it once in a while as a treat.

 

Luke watering the flowers.  This was the better alternative.  Originally we found him pouring water all over the garage (At least the garage and not the carpets was my perspective)

Then onto some more "normal" play.

We all hung at at home for MLK day.  Fairly uneventful but did include a trip to Dami's, our fave sushi spot in Anchorage.  Was proud of Luke when he opted to try a shrimp tempura, but not thrilled when he started throwing up at the table.  He is so sensitive to food textures and is probably why he eats such a LIMITED diet.

Back to school for Ella yesterday.  Love this bus that comes to take Ella to school.  No more tears. No more stress.  Makes life much more pleasant.

And today...More snow.  Cold and windy out this morning!  Nothing like some snow shoveling to get that blood pumping.

Heading of to our NAETS clearings this afternoon.  Dairy for me, Sugar for Luke and we find out if Ella has allergies.  Excited to be pressing on but not looking forward to dealing with Luke for the 25 hours afterwards.  He's not going to like the limited diet of eggs, steak, chicken and eggs cooked with oil, salt and pepper only. 

I have clearings over the next 4 days.

In the meantime, working on some more deadlines and creating.  Among other things I have done this little mini album that will be coming to the store this weekend.  I'll be adding the completed pages to my gallery over the next few days.

   

More Naets +

So yesterday.  I took Luke for his allergy testing.  He led the vials and by placing my arm on his body Pat was able to muscle test him through me.  Very weird but kind of cool.

The long and short of it is that he has LOTS of allergies.  No surprises there.  It's no wonder he's a basket case. His exposure to allergens likely weakens the immune system and causes the his brain to overproduce neaurotransmitters, it's chemical messengers, which make the brain go faster, sleep less and freak out more often and at a greater magnitutde.  His body is so busy fighting all the allergens he's totally overstimulated and overwhelmed by all the normal signals around him (I just learned this from an article written by Cathrine Guthrie, Alternative Medicine, January 2008).  Awesome article!

So he had his Mercury and Lead clearing yesterday, which meant no tap water for him (either ingested or to touch for 25 hours).  Only another 19 to go for him.  I did the sugar one, and boy did it make me GRUMPY!  It was steak, chicken, vegetables and eggs only for 25 hours.  Needless to say I enjoyed my spag bol tonight.  Juries out at the moment as to whether it works.  I have clearings Wednesday through Saturday and so we'll see as I knock them out.

Big day tomorrow for the Aspnes house.  It's the day Daddy goes in for surgery putting an end to any more babies in our house.  As Luke was joyfully singing this evening, "Daddy go nip nip".  We had a good laugh at that one.  We're ready.

 

Snowed Under

...in more ways than one.

I woke this morning to ANOTHER 4 inches (at least) of fresh fall.  Remember that snow that we didn't get in December?  Well we're making up for it now.  It's nothing like we had last year but it took me 40 minutes to clear the driveway this morning.  Eric's working nights at the moment so I don't expect to see him surface until dinnertime.  Thankfully it's a little warmer today than it has been in previous days.

Being in the military is a bit like being in Kindergarten sometimes.  You follow the rules or you get written up.  In the case of snow removal, snow must be removed promptly.  Yes, it really is someone's job to come around and inspect driveways.  If your driveway is not deemed to be up to standard then you get a little card on your door with boxes checked in all areas that you have failed.  You then have 48-72 hours to rectify the problem before the complaint goes to the active duty member's first shirt and it is dealt with as  as a military matter.  3 white cards and you can be kicked out of base housing.  I understand the reason for snow removal, but seriously?

So at 9.18am this morning this was my view.  The name of the game is to get your snow done BEFORE the "clean-up" crew come around, that way you can shovel your snow into the road and it will be ploughed and taken away by big trucks.  Leave it until after this and you end up with with your own Rockies Mountain Range in your front yard.

So good workout for me this morning, and timely as I went back to the gym yesterday and about "died" on the cross trainer.  It took a LONG time to get my fitness back after I had pneumonia the last time and it's looking like this time is going to be the same hard slog.

Now back to the "Office" and trying to dig myself out of a snowfall of deadlines.  I haven't been this busy since last summer.  Not complaining but I'm a little out of practice, so...one at a time.

In the meantime, love this.  Eric is quite the chef in our home and little man, Lukee is taking quite an interest at the moment (to my delight).

The Diet Revisited

We sort of wavered from it a bit while in Hawaii.  We really had no choice, and there began the downward spiral.  We got sick over Christmas and we've continued to notice the difference in adding some gluten and dairy back in our diets.  I've decided to look in this further to find out what we're allergic to and hopefully clear ourselves from the food intolerance's that we have.  I can't help but wonder if allergies could be a huge contributing factor to the increase in autism and ADHD.

Allie, a good friend of mine, put me in touch with NAETs, an allergy elimination technique combining Eastern and Western medicine.  I had my first appointment yesterday.  I was definitely skeptical, and still am to a certain extent (The proof is in the pudding right?), but I was AMAZED at the process.

So a bit of background. 

What is an allergy? 

Western medicine defines it as an over-reaction to a substance by the immune system.  In Oriental medicine, allergens are seen as a threat to the body's well-being by the brain.  It blocks the energy flow through the body and interferes in the communication between the brain and body via the nervous system.

How do you test for allergies?

While Western medicine has more invasive procedures, NAETs involves the patient holding vials that have been "charged" by a specialized computer to simulate the same electromagnetic frequency as the allergen.  While holding the vials in turn in one hand I held out my arm which a moderate amount of resistance.  If I could not resist the practitioner pushing down my arm, that signified a weakness and presence of an intolerance to an allergen.  The results of this type of muscle testing had been compared over the years to traditional methods with identical results

What is NAETs?

In the late 1980's, Dr Devi Nambudripad's knowledge of Eastern and Western medicine (she is a nurse, chiropractor and acupuncturist) helped discover the Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Technique which is a drugless, painless non-evasive technique to permanently eliminate allergies.  The technique can be used safely on an infant of one day old to anyone of older age.

After the initial testing has been completed, found allergens are cleared at one at a time.  The treatment takes place with the patient holding the offending vial, then the nerve roots at the specific acupuncture points are stimulated.  This energizes the meridians, creating the free flow energy.  After a short period of rest and observation the patient is rechecked to assure the body is accepting the clearing process.  I had to raise my arm again and resist the practitioners attempt to push my arm down, this time with success.  The patient is then allowed to leave but must avoid all contact with the treated allergen for 25 hours.  Biomagnetic energy flow is governed by the biological time clock and it takes 25 hours for the newly programmed energy to be exposed to the 12 meridians.

Fascinating stuff.  So apparently I'm allergic to the following, some of which matched what I already knew but there were also a few surprises.  The big ones are sugar, dairy, gluten, eggs and chicken.  It's going to take a while to get through the clearings because I'll be in Florida and then California for CHA Winter, but I should be done by mid March.  I'm excited to see if there is any change.  For me it's worth trying it..

 

Luke is sick again...Poor guy.  I have an appointment for him next Wednesday, and am excited to see if this process can do anything to help him.

Will keep you posted.

The Dentist

Luke had his first dental exam today.  I have been really nervous about it as he has some sensory issues when it comes to his teeth.  He nearly always screams when we brush his teeth and never lets anyone near his mouth so you can understand my trepidation.  We've also noticed him winding up again lately. 

We're revisiting The diet and watching carefully some new behaviours like biting himself when he gets into trouble, so I was very pleasantly surprised when he was quite charming for both the dentist and hygienist who both got a really good peek into his mouth.  The fact that he insisted on having me sit with him in the chair was cute enough but when he fell fast asleep, sporting orange rimmed sunglasses mid-cleaning he even had the dental hygienist oooing and ahhing over him.

Too darn cute.

Moving right along...

...Or at least trying to.  Finding it a little difficult to find my groove after all the illness, Christmas and the general lolling around for far too long.  I managed to complete a few fun little projects over the Christmas period which I hope to photograph and post in the next few days.

Last week was spent running around with E & L, a slew of play dates, and by Friday as we were leaving Barnes & Noble, with Luke insisting on walking BACKWARDS through the parking lot, I couldn't help but feel relieved they'd be going back to their respective school and daycare today.  It's been hard work, but glad I got to spend the time with them.

Now I have deadlines.  Scary thought.  It's been a while but they're looming so trying to get my head down and get through them.  This is proving difficult as little things keep cropping up to divert my attention.  It's one of the hardest things about working from home.  Maintaining focus when there is chaos all around. 

So focusing on focusing...Easier said than done.

Happy New Year +

Happy New 2008!

I'm so ready for it. 

And we just got word yesterday that we're moving.....

June 2008 and we will be heading to Buckley AFB in Denver, Colorado.

We're excited to be returning to The Lower 48.  It's been 7 years of remote overseas tours for us.

New in the store this week: