Keeping in touch

Dear Blog:

I am so sorry that I have been so neglectful. It is not as if I have forgotten about you. It is just that I have been really, REALLY busy. Between work, the kids, preparing to move into our new house and everything else I have not had as much time as I would like to give to you.

Just to catch up... a lot has been going on with us. I just finished the set for Master Chef which is due to air on FOX in June. It is a cooking competition show, with real people and not professional chefs. It is sort of a cross between Top Chef and American Idol. Gordon Ramsay is one of three judges on the show and it is produced by the same people who do The Biggest Loser. From what I saw, it looks to be a VERY good show. The Australian version of Master Chef is enormously popular and hopefully we will have similar success with our version. The set is amazing and I am quite proud of it. I met many interesting people on the crew and had tons of fun. The only problem was that the days were very long and I barely saw the children.

Happily, I am going to get to see them a lot over the next couple of weeks. We are getting ready to move into a new home and there is a lot to do to prepare for that. As I type this, hardwood floors are being installed into the new house. It is new construction and we had the option of putting in carpet, wood or travertine. We decided to go with almost all wood and some travertine because Ella is so allergic to dust mites. And they like to hide in carpet.

Thankfully, the challenge of decorating a new home is a task that I will happily take on. And my mind is abuzz as am making lots of plans.

Ella has two more classmates who have discovered that they have wheat and/or gluten allergies. Now there are 4 children out of 22 in her class who have severe food allergies. That's pretty remarkable. There are moments when I still worry that Ella is suffering from not being able to eat the same foods as the other children. Particularly because it is birthday season right now and goodies are being brought into school on a frequent basis. Last week, her friend's mom called me to tell me that she would be bringing in ice cream for the class to enjoy and wanted to make sure that she got something that Ella could eat. I told her, any kind that does not have nuts. So she picked something up and when they were getting ready to serve the children, Ella's teacher jumped in and said that Ella could not have any. Whatever was on the ingredient list raised a flag for the teacher, enough for her to feel like the ice cream would not be safe for Ella. I wish that they had called me, but I will trust that it really wasn't safe for her to eat. Nonetheless, poor Ella had to sit there as all of the kids around her went to town on big bowls of yummy goodness. Our friend felt HORRIBLE. She was so sweet. She sent me an e-mail apologizing and vowed to take Ella out for a frozen yogurt play date... which she did the very next day.

Ella's birthday is next month and I am starting to plan that event. We are most likely going to pick up GF pizza from Garlic Jim's and I will make her a wheat free cake. Maybe will get a bouncy house or something. Ella is already all over me to make sure that it is a fabulous event. That kid is so much like me it isn't even funny!

Anyway, that is the latest. I truly will try to be better about keeping in touch. Thanks for being so patient!

Love,

Heidi