I am freaked out, excited, and anxious. No matter what, though, I am lucky to have a supportive family. It warms my heart to look at these pictures, women who have helped me so much and have made so many wonderful foods for me.

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So Poof! We vanished. We left for a week in a neighboring state, and visited my grandparents and some friends. It started with a wonderful day of tie dye with old friends, an activity we kept meaning to take part in when we lived there, but kept missing.

My friend K was totally amazingly awesome. Not only did she drive up to pick us up (and then drove us home!), but she also made her house allergy safe. While I was at my Nana’s house for a few days helping her with errands, chores, and life, my kids were with Karen and her 2 kiddos helping them…. um, stay energetic and making sure there wasn’t too much silence.

I was able to get some work done on the book while I was there, thankfully. I now have more of the recipes restructured, and more blocks of text, too. I received a similar book to look at, and also talked with the editor about plans for the cover! Eeeep!

All of us came home very energized and encouraged. It’s wonderful to spend time with family and good friends. I was able to see my brother for a few hours last Saturday, then on Sunday my girls and I visited with my grandparents (my other Nana turned 91!) and my uncle & aunt. On Tuesday I was able to be there with my Nana and Grandpa Bob while the delivery man brought the new dryer (yay!), while the girls were at a homeschool park day with our old friends.

We had a blast. Unfortunately, I came home and promptly got a fever and sinus infection, then lost my voice. but I’m climbing out from under the covers and getting back into life.

Lets see how many balls I can juggle this week!

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Updates will be minimal. I still have some hand and wrist pain, so I’m trying to limit most of my typing to book-related work.

I’ll contact people in the next couple weeks about testing recipes to be testers.

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My post last night about my upcoming dairy-free book is part of the carnival.

Don’t forget to check out the new recipe for Lentil and Sea Veggie soup. We will be testing the egg free version of the Chocolate Donuts today. We really suffer

Now off to write more…

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• The girls’ school year started today with a big bang. And then a lot of other noise while the people across the street took down a tree.

• I have a new soup recipe and an updated donut recipe on the recipe blog
• I now have an actual signed agency agreement with a literary agent. This is real!
• I’m working with a top allergist from New York who is helping with sidebars and medical information. He’s also affiliated with FAAN, and he’s a genuinely nice guy.
• I now have a contract coming to me from Penguin books, who publishes the “Complete Idiot’s Guide” books. I am officially writing “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dairy Free Eating”!!!
• I blockaded myself in my bedroom last weekend to write

I should also be getting an advance soon – which makes it all the more real! This means that I am working my butt off reading, researching, and writing. I’m rewriting my recipes into their format, and writing about how to start a dairy free life, what to look for, etc.

I never thought 10 years ago when we first started this adventure that we would have accumulated and outgrown so many allergens, or that I would have learned so much. We’ve avoided dairy, citrus, gluten, soy, corn, egg, and berries. Plus we delay introducing peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish for the first 3 years. We are now “only” avoiding dairy, gluten, and berries.

However, because of our experiences, I’m trying to make this book friendly for people who are not only dairy free, but also gfcf, gluten-free, and/or dealing with other allergies. I’m also notating it for vegan diets.

This is a lot of work! It’s going to be 200+ recipes, and about 150 pages of writing that isn’t recipe related. I’m also going to be needing recipe testers, random people to tell me how awesome I am, and patience. I need it all finished by mid-December, so I’m going to have to miss NaNoWriMo, and possibly the idea of seeing my family on weekends.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, visited the recipe site, commented, or read this blog. You are all awesome! I’ll be catching up with email soon. Really.

A final GIANT shout out to Jennifer and the beans who sent the agent my way after they found her eating dairy free while breastfeeding page! Keep that amazon wish list up to date, Jennifer!

Please comment or email me if you’re interested in recipe testing – I would love to have people in different parts of the US.

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Yesterday was one of the Best Days Ever.

Started with finally finding the connector between my iPod and laptop. With all the traveling I’m doing it’s becoming more important.

That happiness was quickly surpassed when I got an email and phone call from my Literary Agent. Squeeeeee! The dairy-free book that was discussed months and months ago based on some of my recipes is finally going through!!! It will be finished by mid-December. Eeeeep!

My mind is reeling. I’m far too excited. I was jumping up and down and squealing a lot. Then got to have Baja Fresh for dinner, and a couple fizzy lemonades to celebrate.

I also have 2 moderately successful shirt.woot derby entries – a puppy in the top 25 and heart balloons in the top 40. If you’ve ever bought anything from woot, you can vote.

To top off the day, I ended up getting a bag of crap from woot!

No way another day can compete! But here’s hoping for another good one, with plenty for me to squeal about and giving my grandmothers something else to brag about.

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