Hello. My name is Christine. And I am high maintenance.

"High maintenance". Never a title I ever wanted to have. (I mean, of course I've always been a little high maintenance emotionally, but only Brian gets to see that wonderful side. And Karen Kingsbury. But let's be honest, she just kind of fuels the fire...) I always tried to be one of those people who is a little more "go with the flow". I'm not really sure why that is, (I don't feel like probing too deeply into the intricacies of family dynamics, birth order, or adolescent psychology) I just know that my entire life I've had friends who have been picky eaters and I've always thought to myself, "Not me. I'll eat whatever anyone puts in front of me." Until now. It was a wonderful yet somewhat sad day when I realized that if I cut gluten out of my diet, I would feel amazingly better. Many of you know that Mikaiah was sick throughout the winter with one type of "stomach virus" or another until the day we realized that she may have Celiac. My mom has Celiac and Brian's grandfather had Celiac-Sprew, so it was a definite possibility. We removed gluten from her diet and it was a miraculous change. She started sleeping again, gained weight and was the happy, healthy baby we remembered. Well, the interesting thing is throughout that whole process, I was really sick, too. People assured me that is was the stress of having three little ones and a sick baby all the time, but I didn't really feel that stressed, so that just didn't make sense to me. Finally, one day, a very sweet neighbor simply said, "What if you have what Mikaiah has?" That was a completely new thought! How could I all of a sudden just develop a gluten intolerance?! I was the one growing up who ate anything and everything! But, I figured that I might as well see what life was like without gluten. It worked for Mikaiah.... and it worked wonders for me. Apparently, you can develop a gluten intolerance at any point in life. Especially if it runs in your family and your body has experienced significant changes (like having kids...). I'm still doing research, but for now, all I know is that I feel wonderful. And I'm gluten-free. It has been a hard transition in that I've had to drastically change how I cook and grocery shop. But it has also been easy, because why would I want to eat something that makes me sick? Even if it is the most delicious, gooey cinnamon roll I've ever seen with butter and icing dripping off the sides and huge, chunky nuts on top? (Well, that may be worth being sick all day...really--you have to choose your battles.) The fun thing is that I'm learning to experiment with fun new flours and different recipes. The bad thing is that if I bring you a meal, it will probably contain rice or potatoes. And no yummy rolls. So if we get together for dinner, please don't be offended if I pass on your very delicious pasta dish and fill up on the side of broccoli instead. I'm now high-maintenance.