Happy Saturday..musings

How is everyone?  Everything is good at our little house in PDX. The first couple of weeks of 2014 have already been full of excitement and you can probably tell by my lack of blogging super busy.  Yes, I know week 11 of my posts for the 12 weeks of Winter Squash is still missing.  Please do not give up on me yet.  Pretty please?!

Let me tell you about all of the excitement that has been happening.  For starters I was appointed to the State of Oregon Newborn Screening Advisory Council and have had my first meeting the second week of January.  The meeting was at the Oregon State Lab was very productive and I learned so much more about the test, the follow-up etc..  After the meeting I got to tour the actual lab where the test for the newbornscreen is conducted.  It was just me and the head of the lab for the Oregon Newbornscreening program.  Let me tell you,  for me it quite emotional to visit the lab, see the tests, etc. meet the people who work so hard every day to safe babies.  And yes, this is the lab where Alena's positive Galactosemia newbornscreen was detected.  This is what saved her life - this specific lab...Visiting the lab was really amazing.  Seeing all the cards, each being a life, each being tested.  It was truly amazing.

Mia Rose and her Daddy..

The other excitement - you may have already heard about it - is that I am going to New York City.  Yes, me - I will be going to the event celebrating 50 years of Gallo Family Vineyards Hearty Burgundy. This will be amazing - and you can follow me along on Twitter and/or Instagram plus you will meet my secret guest :). Super exciting, right?!

There is more, well this is really not extraordinary, we did went for the girls blood draw and took the tram to get to OHSU.  As you may imagine neither girl is excited to get her blood drawn, but with magic cream, the tram and my friend Larissa coming along it was fine.  Well, Alena almost passed out again after the draw but I think it is because she just works herself up so much...Strangely it does however not get easier for me.  Isn't it?! I feel so guilty when Mia Rose cries and screams because she is afraid of the needle which in the end in her words "I did not feel it at all". I also get worried with Alena working herself up so badly that she is  on the verge of passing out And yes, I know that one draw a couple of times a year is really, really not bad...so I really have to get over it.   And yes, the glass is always half full...

Thank you friends - I have not said it many times before but I am so grateful for every single one of you visiting my little blog.  Thank you - Danke!!!

Mia Rose, Alena & Larissa after the blood draw

The year 2013 - Review, Thanks, Thoughts

Here it is the recap of 2013; a post that I have written many times over in my head but for some reason my thoughts did not transfer into a post.  Now why not?!  Okay - not funny I get it and really is anyone really interested in my 2013 recap?! Well, for one I just need it get it out of my head because otherwise it will languish there forever...just like many other posts that were never written this year;  posts that were perfectly scripted in my head and I just never typed out.  The good news is, well they are still in there and a New Year is coming.  Right?!  Who says that I cannot write those posts in 2014?  That is right, because this is my little blog...remember just like "It's my party and I cry if I want to" just rephrase it to "It's my blog and I write if I want to".  Oh, to those of you that do not know me in person I have this...well, let me call it for lack of other term gift, okay in a way it is a gift.  Now what?!  A gift - what on earth - alright I will not keep you in suspense any longer and will share with you what it is.  Well - this sounds odd - songs will pop into my head out of no where.  Really, there are certain phrases and then it happens like just now.  Aren't you glad you know this little tidbit about me now?!  I know, it is just what you always wanted to know...

Now I have gotten completely off track - 2013 the year in review;  let me focus on what I promised.  This year has been a really, really good year.  Our children as well as the rest of the family is healthy.  I am now the mother of a 10 year old and a 7 year old; Alena graduated from 3rd to 4th grade and Mia Rose graduated from 1st to 2nd grade.  That is hard to believe - were they not just in preschool?   I continue to be an avid advocate for Newborn Screening, and Alena and Mia Rosie's newborn screening story was featured in the Oregonian, and by APHL to celebrate the 50 year Anniversary of Newborn Screening.  Alena's story was featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and included in an outstanding investigative report shedding light on the terrible practice of batching Newborn Screening tests at the hospital before sending them on to the State Lab. See, some hospitals wait for a couple of days before sending the tests to the labs, some labs are closed on the weekends, and sadly the result comes back too late for some of the babies.  Galactosemia is just one of those conditions that need an immediate response and this article made me realize again just how lucky we are.   Newborn Screening saves lives, and it is so important that all expecting parents learn as much as they can about the test before their baby is delivered. My last tidbit on newborn screening advocacy is that I have been appointed to serve a two year term on the Oregon State Newborn Screening Advisory Committee.

My little blog has continued to grow and 2013 was the year I changed the name from "Galactosemia in Portland" to "The Not So Cheesy Kitchen".  Truth be said, a) how many people know what Galactosemia is, and b) I have been concentrating a lot on the treatment i.e. the foods we eat :) a.k.a. Food Blog.  Now some thanks are in order to Ron, as well as our dear friends Larissa and Martin who helped come up with "The Not So Cheesy Kitchen" name of the blog.  Talking about my blog thank you Heather {a.k.a. Girlichef} for all the help and friendship. Oh, and yes I should mention that the girls are so used of me taking pictures of their dishes, them eating, them helping in the kitchen... I overheard Alena explain to her friend "my Mom takes pictures of all the foods we eat"...So thank you, girlies!

2013 also marked that year that I finally got back into running.  Yes, that is right after a almost 15 year break and with many failed attempts to get back into running I have finally made it.  I started back in May of this year and have not fallen off the "track".  Thank you to my dear friend Denise for coming up with a plan, is encouraging me and of course to Ron who makes sure that I make it out the door :).  Yes, I am slow but it clears my mind, lifts my mood...

This year was also the year we took a family vacation in Alto Adige {Northern Italy} after spending time in my hometown of Tuttlingen, Germany.  Danke, Mama :)  Talking about visits and vacations, we tried out snow shoeing {the girls were not fans}, discovered cross country skiing and took a couple of trips out to Sunriver, Oregon.  Then of course there was the surprise visit by my sister Kati...and yes,  it is hard living this far away from family.

Are any of you still here? Or did I loose you all by this long post?  Well, let me say this there are so many more people I should thank.  So I say Thank you to all of you...to every single one of you reading this.  I appreciate all of you.

Wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy, and Successful 2014.  May all your wishes for the New Year come true.  Cheers!!!

at a loss of words...

...this week was very hectic and I had planned to write a fun post with a round up on our dinner's this week.  It is not going to happen.  I just cannot write and pretend nothing has happened; I cannot just sweep the horror that happened today at Sandy Hook Elementary School underneath the table.  It nags on me as I am sure it does on everyone.  My heart breaks for all the families that now have to endure such unimaginable pain...who goes out and shoots innocent people, children?!  There is something very, very wrong.  Just earlier this week another shooting happened right here at Clackamas Town Center in the metro Portland area.  When will it stop?  It makes me sick to my stomach that  now, the lives of children - innocent, little children - have been taken by a senseless act of violence. My heart goes out to everyone affected; I weep for all the lives, hopes, and dreams lost.

Today we will join all parents as we hold our kids tighter and hug them until they tell us to stop...

Serendipity - Part I {Post # 1000}

I have thought long and hard about this title; is serendipity really the correct word?  Well, it is for sure a fun word - to say, to read, and to write.  I just read that it is one of the hardest words to translate...

So this will be part one of three {at least that is what I figure at this time}...Oh, and the other title I was contemplating was "Randomness" but honestly I like "Serendipity" so much better.  Okay - so this will be our family story...

One of Ron's old friends from Chicago was visiting Portland last week. One of the first things - honestly -  he said was "Do you know how random it is that you guys know each other?".  He was referring to Ron and I... Yes, yes I know many things that happen in life are due to random, serendipitous, unexplained circumstances.  This is the first time I heard the story...

Ron's friends in Chicago - this is ions ago - went downtown when Michael Jordan's Restaurant {now defunct} first opened.  They waited in line, and  started talking with one of my friends.  Yup, this is how it all started.  Ron's friend got the phone number of my coworker.  That was it.  Neither of us was there.  Long story short, our friends went out a few times and a couple weeks later I met with my friend at a restaurant downtown.  Also there were her new friend and - yes you guessed right -  Ron.

I am sure you all have a story similar to ours - but I never realized just how serendipitous our - Ron and I - meeting each other really was.  Oh, just to add a little more that that.  Ron and I moved to Chicago the exact same day. Yes - me from Europe, and Ron from Wisconsin.  Granted, we lived in different suburbs.

Here we are on our honeymoon...

Little did we know, that we also share the same recessive gene...but that will be in Part 2...

Musings...

there are so many things to talk about.  Really, so where to start?  There are so many things on my mind, and we had so much fun.  We have been in Europe now for over two weeks and it does feel as it always does, just like our second home. Things in Tuttlingen do not seem to change, so it is sort of like entering a twilight zone.  The only difference being that now I am here with two girls, and Ron. It is kind of strange but oh so comforting how things do not change.  I see faces on the market downtown which I have known all my life.  The only difference is that people have aged, but it all seems to go it usual rhythm. There is a lot of comfort in that to me, and I hope also to my family.

Differences to our other home in Portland are somewhat striking.  For one, you have to be prepared for Sunday as all stores are closed.  All shopping needs to be done on Saturday, and I shop directly at the butcher it has to be done somewhat early in the day.  Okay, I admit early is flexible by that I mean before two in the afternoon :)  Other differences are that children are so much more, for lack of a better term, "free range".  Children, as young as first graders, walk to and back from school all by themselves.  Parents are not to enter the school building.  Children go off to play on the playgrounds, or woods all by themselves.  And yes, I am talking about children as young as five.  Our children are now on a much longer, again for lack of better terms, "leash" and I think both of them are enjoying it.

Overall, I think that the girl also feel that Tuttlingen is their other home.  Alena started preschool - called Kindergarten - here when she was three; she was in her first school play here a couple of years ago; Alena went on her first school hiking trip in Tuttlingen; Mia Rose is hiking every single day with her Kindergarten class into the woods for a week; both girls learn to swim in Tuttlingen; and Mia Rose lost her fear of dogs...

And I know that all of my thoughts may raise the question.  Where is it better?  Where do I like it better?  There is no answer to that question.  It seems like many things are more complicated in Germany.  The rules for everything but still I feel like always sitting between two chairs, or loving two people at the same time, I also call it the perpetual grey zone.  I love, absolutely love and adore both places.  I hope to instill this love of both places also into our children.

Oh, and before I forget here is a picture of the three of us at TuWass (the indoor pool)

Alena, Mia Rose and me. Can you find me?

Okay - I will get off my soapbox now!  Happy day to all of you!