for what it's worth

I recently discovered that Aspartame gives me headaches. Let me rephrase--massive, skull splitting, eyesight blurring, speech slurring, thought impeding, crawl into a dark cave migraines. What I also discovered is that it is in SO MANY THINGS we put into our mouths. The other day, I made myself a protein shake to help ward off the mid-day munchies. I took 2 sips--TWO--and immediately my head started to pound. I was not a happy camper. I should have read the ingredients of the protein powder before hand. Third ingredient listed: Aspartame. The rest of the afternoon was pretty much shot after that. I took some Advil and laid down for a nap which helped take the edge off but not rid the headache completely. I opted for a glass of wine with dinner and that made things a bit more bearable. Here is a list of things I used to eat/drink/chew that have this evil little ingredient: Sugarless gum--I haven't found a sugarless gum that doesn't seem to have it. Diet sodas--Diet Cok

It's July 2nd?! Already?! This summer is flying by! I'm not sure how this happened, June seems to have disappeared completely. I have a few memories but seriously, how do 30 days slip past that fast?  We spent about 10 days of June in Seattle, Alaska and Victoria, British Colombia vacationing in celebration of the oldest spawn's release from high school. The days leading up to this event are a mass blur of getting things in order and lots of yelling at teenage boys to do chores. Maybe, this is why June seemed so short--I've blocked those days... I have come to the conclusion that in order to create fond family memories on such a trip, I must make the days leading up to it complete hell for all. This requires a lot of work on my part as well as a certain amount of yelling, hair pulling and slamming of doors. It's only after all of this mayhem that we are able to truly appreciate being on vacation and relaxing completely. I do hope that one day the children