Author: Christy Petty

Aspiring to be the Christian Gluten Free Queen of the World. I love writing/blogging, painting, decorating, grand mothering, cooking, helping others BE gluten free, old movies, family, God, animals, my kids, my grandkids, my husband, talking about adoption. I know about painting murals, cooking gluten free, being a mother in law, special needs, cleft palates, Pierre Robin, Celiac, marriage, faith, God, sons, dogs, cats, gardening, a little bit of horses, building a house and living life blessed.
Posted in Rants Raves

Ye Haw It’s Winter!

Posted on by Christy Petty

Today we have 33 degrees and misty moisture stuff. Not snow yet, but you never know. Probably will have icy-ness tonight.  Oh, I love when the season changes, when it is supposed to!  West Texas has a habit of NOT having seasons correctly, especially here in Midland.  It is so odd to me that just 117 miles north, in Lubbock, where I spent most of my childhood, seasons do occur a bit more, by the book.   I had several white Christmas’ growing up. I think we have had maybe 3 in the 30 years we have lived here. I am probably de exaggerating, but we get maybe 1 snow compared to Lubbock’s 4 a year.   I am not complaining, too much, though, I know those up north get snow way TOO much, and I would NEVER wish snow everyday upon myself.

I like the opportunity to get my coats and sweaters out, wear my boots with out burning up by 3 PM, but the thrill of the cold wears off pretty quickly for me.  And west Texas Weather accommodates my weather wishy washiness pretty well in the winter. The temps will climb in the next few days, and we will have mid 70 weather a few days before we drop again.  I really do not have enough sweaters to have cold all winter long.

Today, I am taking advantage of the weather and making some Chicken tortilla soup  I adjusted the recipe a bit from the cookbook (My cookbook, Throw the Wheat in the Sea) I can do that since I am the author ;).  I used fresh (frozen) Hatch green chilies, I am not sure we will be able to eat the soup now, the taste test proves that we did get HOT chilies.  I am also cooking this on the stove top, instead of the crock pot. If it is impossibly hot, I think I will add sour cream to the bowl, when I serve.   I can adapt recipes like I adapt to the weather.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Christy's Concepts

Text to Landline– Really?

Posted on by Christy Petty

I just received my first Text to Landline call. Evan answered the phone and handed it to me in mid translated text. I got the jest of the text, I think.  I do not know who sent it/called/ didn’t call.I answered, I think.

Texting is not talking. It is electronic passing notes. Typing is writting, not conversing.

REALLY what happened to talking to someone? Hearing the words coming from ones mouth? Kind of goes with the saying “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.”  Now it should be ” If you can not hear the words coming out of your mouth, then you have not said it.”  Which means if you have not said it ‘they’ did not hear it.

Posted in Christy's Concepts, Family

Give Thanks For All Things

Posted on by Christy Petty

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Holidays have changed soooooo just in the past few years. My oldest two sons are married and have children of their own, homes of their own and, of course, ‘IN LAWS.’  (We will not mention, nor acknowledge that I and Keith are also ‘IN LAWS’,, we ARE NOT talking about that!! 😉 )   So now, my boys, who in the past, had no other place to be, but sitting with their father at the head of the family table and feasting on their mothers good cooking at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, have responsibilities to be at the head of their own families, cutting their own turkey’s, making their own traditions.  

We are invited and included much of the time, and sometimes not. Sometimes the holiday is meant to be shared with ‘the others’.  Do I have issue? Honestly? OF COURSE!  Should I? Of course, NOT.  I must recall the holiday’s of Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving past, before we were parent-in-laws.  Even if I do not want to.  We hosted the majority of the holiday events, because Keith was insistent that we be in our home,( a tradition our children have taken on) we could invite everyone, mine and his, but he wanted it in his home.  My parents always accepted and sometimes a brother or two would come. Keith’s family sometimes came, if they were not visiting another child’s home. We shared holidays with Keith’s sister and brother’s family a few times each. One time we went to his brothers and my parents were invited and came also.  And then there was the Thanksgiving that my newly found Biological Fathers family came, and Keith’s sister, and my brother, and both Keith and my parents. That was AMAZING.

Keith’s parents have always lived in the same town as we do, so we had a standing invitation to them for all events we had, I thought. Now, that I am parent-in law, I wonder if that was just my understanding, and we should have made it more ‘formal’ .  Keith has always said they did not do holidays the same as my family. Christmas did not have the same traditions for them as I had.

WE always:

  • Opened one night before Christmas present , of pajamas.
  • Opened ALL other presents Christmas morning.
  • Had ‘Santa Clause’ presents waiting for us, unwrapped and sparkly and shiny with stockings filled with nuts and orange and apple and a few trinkets, sitting beside the lite tree.
  • Waited until everyone was awake and in robes, and Dad was positioned in the living room with camera rolling, so he could film the looks of glee on each of our faces as we first saw our Santa loot.
  • Passed out presents to each person, before EVERYONE tearing into them at the same time
  • Ate Christmas dinner as a midday meal.

Keith’s family did not do all of this. Keith said he talked his mom into letting him open all of his present’s one day before Christmas, while his dad was still at work, just a random day before Christmas.  When I heard this, I knew MY way MY traditions obviously held higher reverence.

We did make our own traditions, adjusting mine and his from  childhood, to what fit our family now. We kept the pajamas on Christmas Eve. Added taco soup and tamales. We staged Santa gifts, till the kids ‘figured’ it out, then just the stockings. We didn’t make the kids wait for my parents to get up to see their Santa Loot.  Christmas dinner is at 1PM, (Daughters in Law and I are trying to convince Keith Christmas Evening Dinner would be a great NEW tradition) We attend candlelight service every Christmas Eve.

My childhood Thanksgiving has its own set of traditions. Turkey, dressing, mid afternoon, Stovetop dressing, turkey, ham, green beans with mushroom soup, homemade whip cream. My grandparents, if they were not with one of the other 2 daughters families.  Many times we went to my grandparents, and the sisters and their families would join us, THESE were amazing.

It is the THESE, that I strive for, I WANT every holiday. I forget that the THESE only occurred a few times. The times all grown sibling families were able to come together under one roof,were NOT every holiday, but they are the remembered and treasured times.  The holidays that included a spattering of family, just grandparents, just immediate family, are the times ‘the others’ had every one of theirs under one roof. The times the ‘others’ were celebrating with old traditions and making new.

This Thanksgiving, I will I sit down at my grandmothers dining table, in my dining room, that I built and painted and decorated exactly like I wanted; at 1:10, the traditional time Keith chooses, in our home we built together.  I will see the faces of my husband for 30 years, my youngest son Evan,  my mother in law Mary Lou and my oldest brother Mike and his wife Jenny, who will be visiting our new home for the first time..  I will be thankful for all the blessings that God has for me;  I have grown sons, with wives that love them and cook gluten free meals for they and their children. I have daughter in-laws who shop for hams and turkeys with the monies my son’s earn. My daughters in law will prepare all the favorites for my son’s They will whip cream into ‘whoop’ as their children (my grandchildren) watch.  I have 6 grandchildren who have grandparents and aunts and uncles, who do not share my DNA, but do share theirs, who desire to have them sitting across the table from them saying ‘AMEN’. They are grandparents who mourn, when they can not see or experience the ‘special times’ with their grandchildren, because they are with ‘the other’, which is me, when it is my turn.   I have memories to treasure and memories to make.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Posted in Christy's Concepts

( issues) personal problems or difficulties

Posted on by Christy Petty

Have you ever had ‘issue’ in a relationship? A time when either you or they have said or done something that caused ‘issue’? Or maybe they or you conjured up something and issue was caused? I know of a few that must have, because I have relationships with a few :P.

I found recently that I have issue’s with this issue business.  I can’t tell if it is me or they, I think it is me. When with my’ issue in the past people’ I feel judged and condemned. Because of this, I don’t really converse openly,easily with them much anymore, which causes more uneasiness, on my part. Then I begin to wonder if it is actually me avoiding or they. Do they think I am avoiding intentionally? Do they notice me not relating the same? Do they care? Or is this the whole plan, to finally get me to leave them alone and ……?

Trust becomes an issue, I suppose. I am the kind of person that will trust first. I approach everyone with the heart of they like me and I like them. There are times I have to ‘make’ my self get past a prejudice. Suppose I am pulled over for speeding;  I have to remind myself that he MAY actually like me, he just has not met me yet and that speeding wand thing was in the way of actually seeing me.  If the policeman is wrong about my speeding and still gives me a ticket, or acts like a Barney Fife dweeb. We have issue. And I do not trust him as a competent law officer. I will forever picture him as I pass a sneaky cop car parked behind a bush, just beyond the newly planted, too slow for the area, street sign, trying to catch poor unsuspecting citizens.  If he is correct and I have been a tad over the speed limit, and he nicely gives me a ticket, or better yet, a warning. We do not have issue.I still trust him to be a competent law officer who stops to help little old ladies get their kitties from trees.  Because the Barney Fifes are alive and well in the police world, I do tend to first think of all policemen as such, and not trust police officers. One of the prejudices I have. Sorry, officer. This is an extenuating circumstance though, usually I do trust everyone first, until……

The ‘until’ has me wondering. IF I can change it? Should I change it? Is it wrong of me to be guarded with friends, family?  Is it wrong for me to find issue with negative remarks to me or about me, from friends and family? Am I wrong to guard myself from future ‘repeats’? Should I ignore my being ignored? Does ‘ignore’ and ‘ignorance’ come from the same greek word?HOW do I relate to someone when I do not trust them? When I know they can and will someday nit pick, blame, lie to and about me, tell me I am intolerable, irritating, and that I have no taste or style and they have no desire to call me, talk to me or even read my blog? How?

Posted in Evan

Evan K

Posted on by Christy Petty

You may wonder why Evan, my third son, should get a category of his own. Well, he is a category of his own.

Evan, now 22, was born with a craniofacial deformity, plus.

To look at him there is not/was not anything greatly apparent,

but looks   can be deceiving. Pierre Robin, is the first label he received, after he was born with a cleft of the soft palate, shortened chin, and tongue crammed down his throat. Since then many more labels have been attached. Sticklers, Aphasia, Dysarthria,Duanes Syndrome,Apraxia, to name a few.  Pierre Robin is a congenital deformity, the mandible (chin) does not grow with the rest of the facial bones as it should, this causes the tongue to be pushed back and up, because it is constrained by the chin- this causes the mouth to form around the tongue, which results sometimes with a cleft of the palate. The airway, throat is also compromised because the tongue is pushed back inside the throat. — Then other things can happen. 

Just after birth, Evan turned blue when he cried, because his tongue would draw back and cover his airway. Almost immediately Evan learned to not cry.  The nurses though wanted him to cry, so he would clear his lungs? pink up more? , what ever the reason is nurses want to make a new-born cry. This is when they found he had the cleft and tongue issue, as I said, it was not apparent at first glance.

When the nurses/doctors did find the malady, they whisked Evan away, to figure out what to do.  Needless to say, in Midland Texas, Pierre Robin was not an everyday occurrence. I think the encyclopedia (I saw them reading from the book) they read the information of Pierre Robin and treatment of  was not the revised edition. The treatment(s) they used was criticized highly by the surgeon we ended up seeing a few weeks later, in Dallas.  

The doctors, trying to help the airway stay clear, tied Evans tongue down. They ran a string (by needle) underneath and through his lower jaw through his tongue and back out the bottom. The first surgery they had a plastic bolster against his jaw/skin, to keep the string from ripping through. Two days later ,when they redid the tie, because a nurse had sucked the sutures out, they used an actual button.  When first presented with the surgery, they would be doing within 2 hours of his birth, we questioned the mechanic logic of it.  We thought they would need to cut the underpinnings of the tongue in order to pull it out and lay it flat.  They said that just tying down the end of it would be enough.  Later, when the surgeon in Dallas was examining Evan, he called the doctors in Midland Neanderthals and explained for that surgery to work they would have had to cut the tongue free and  pull it flat, and that no one did that surgery anymore.

We do not fault the doctors in Midland, they did their best. Evan would have been better off without the surgery, he now has tongue nerve damage and it is suspected by other MD’s one of the 2 surgeries left him with stroke damage from some oxygen deprivation from the compromised airway.  That actually would be the anesthesiologist responsibility. Also it would take the ultimate control of all things away from God, if we said ” If they had done this or that he would be ok.” As it is, for some reason, God only knows, Evan has some learning difficulties, language difficulties, nerve damage and a very special soul.

Today, Evan is still labeled as having learning disabilities, language being his primary difficulty.  Right now,  Evan is HORRIBLE with managing and understanding money, more so than the average 22 year old male.  Right now, he is not able to get a job that pays more than minimum wage. He has not found a way to present himself to others that proves his potential, yet.

Right now, Evan wants to spend as little time as possible with us, especially me, I did say he is 22.  We are building an apartment for him on our shop. Not because he can not live on his own, but it would be difficult financially for him to do so , with the limited income he is getting right now. Someday he probably will move further away.  We see him still everyday,usually, if he has work, because he comes over to our house to shower. (We have not put all the plumbing in,yet. Evan was not willing to wait so he moved in about 2 month’s ago) If I run to town, and with Keith leaving for work at 7 AM, Evan can work it so he does not see us at all.

Evan does drive, has been since 16, like most guys. Evan knows cars. We used Matchbox cars for incentive, math grouping games. Many of the lessons (homeschooled) were planned with cars as the subject.  When we started drivers training the driving books became his literature.  Evan is a good driver, a nerd driver. Drives the speed limit, always, blinkers, always, reminds me when I do it wrong, always

People who know Evan really like him. He has something about him that is quite charming.  Evan has a few friends he does hang with regularly, they too, have some disabilities. They do not live average lives, either, never will. Evan is the only driver in the group, and sometimes will take them to the movies, but most of the time they are at someones house playing video games. These guys are video pros!!  It is what they CAN DO.

Most ‘average’ people enjoy Evan’s company, and will speak with him in church or various social events, but that is about it.  A few times he has gone to movies or out to eat with someone ‘average’  but not on a regular basis.  No one ever asks him to hang out or spend time with them. The charm only works for a short time, I suppose.

As Mom, I like him anyway, and his charm is completely wasted on me. I push him pretty hard to not ‘give into’ his disability, to rise above it. Sometimes I am right and sometimes I am just scared.  I see him as someone settled with who he is, because ‘What’s the Choice?’.  I see him sometimes wishing he could be just a bit more average, when he buys his ‘Muscle Milk’ and dyes his hair black.  But mostly, I see a person who is stronger, more confident, and content with who he is, than I am with myself.  He does not concern over his dress, his hair cut, his weight. He does not worry about what he will say or if he can pronounce it correctly. Evan does not have to have the newest iPhone, most friends on Facebook. He has no girlfriend. No one calls him to go anywhere. He may never get the opportunity to reach his full potential and be more than a sacker. Evan has so much less to be content with than I, yet he is.

That surgeon who ranted about the inadequacies of the doctors who worked on Evan in Midland, told us what to do with him after we removed the ‘button’.  He said, “Lay him on his stomach and hope he keeps breathing.”   We did lay him on his stomach, but we did more than hope. We prayed. We trusted. We knew God brought an amazing man in this world. Several things have come against him and God has brought him through it all.  He is made to do great things.

Posted in Christy's Concepts

Cookin In Houston

Posted on by Christy Petty
I will be in Houston
DATE:  Saturday, November 5, 2011
PLACE:  Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church,
12211 Memorial Drive at Gessner,  77024
I will be cooking up some pumpkin muffins (probably) and promoting/selling my cookbook (definitely) and charming all (hopefully).
I will have about 70 books to sell and sign (sounds so important!).   I have a brand new special made apron to wear too!!!  I am soooo excited to be doing this, I can not wait till this is a weekly activity for me!!!  If you are in the area, come and visit the meeting have a muffin and meet some of the GF of Houston!
My cookbook is for sell through http://www.Lulu.com – Search Throw the Wheat in the Sea, or Christy Petty.  I have a discount applied right now, so the price is only $19.99.  It is also available at a much lower price as an e-book!!!
It will make a great gift for your family/friends/ .
Posted in Traveling

GF in the Air with BA

Posted on by Christy Petty

We ordered Gluten Free Meals on our flights to and from the States, by checking a box on their web site. It worked.  We ordered Gluten Free on our last trip abroad, with Continental. It worked too.  On BA, the meals served from Houston to London were about the same as the meals received on Continental, rice cakes for our ‘bread’ ,and subbed grapefruit in for dessert. Once we were flying with  with a European Crew and European supplies. we received gluten free bread and fruit with a sauce. One the trip from Zambia to London they lost one of us, so there was only had 1 bread roll for the 2 of us at brunch, which actually worked fine, I had the top skinny and Keith had the bottom FAT and most of the butter.  The main dish seems to always be the chicken with rice.  ALWAYS.  I glance at the other flyers meals and they look gluten free also, somthing beef stewish and steamed fish on rice, I wonder on the ingredients,. Maybe, just maybe they  contain soy sauce, or wheat as a thickener in the gravy?   I think, that they too may be gluten free, they just have not been labeled so.  I am thinking my next change the world mission will be to add to or include gluten free meals into the mainstream of flight cuisine.

The ‘snack’ meal was the same on all flights, egg salad sandwich, with a lot of fresh dill and no  mayonaisse on the bread.  The bread was a great looking white bread, but like most GF bread it really needed the extra moisture of some sauce.  The othe flyers received a ham or turkey and cheese crossiant, again we could have had the guts, if they only would think outside of the pre-packaged airline box.