we recently got back from a fun (and hot) mini vacay in vancouver!  those two little kidlets of mine had a blast! we hit up granville island, the vancouver aquarium and the show stopper of the weekend - the taylor swift concert!  we are big taylor fans in our house. i've been listening to her since m was a wee baby in my tummy and both girls love her. the hubs surprised m and i with tix for the concert for xmas. needless to say we were pretty excited and had a great time (albeit a hot one). taylor put on a great show and i got to see ed sheeran as well who i really like as well. only cons were a) it was so freaking in hot in the stadium i thought i would pass out.

have we not heard of a/c? 42,000 people and no a/c?? wth?

b) the show started way too late. she had 3 opening acts! 3! ed doing a 45min set! it was a long road till she came out and by the time she did most of the kids were exhausted and bored. we got there at 6 for crying out loud! she came on sometime after 9! m passed out at about 10:15. she couldn't stand the heat and had already been dancing and yelling her wee brains out for hours by that point. all in all though it was fabulous to take her to her first "big girl" concert! the look on her face when we got to venue was priceless! i had to stop myself from crying i got so emotional in a weird way. i love music and concerts so much it was such a special thing for the 2 of us to share together and have a fun mommy/daughter night out! so fun to go from singing in the car to taylor to singing in a venue that size with that many people. she was so excited!



all in all we are happy to be back home and back to a quieter pace. even though i lived in vancouver for many years every time i go there with the kids i come back happy to be home. only problem was that we got home only to have myself experience a big health scare. if you follow me on fb or twitter you may have seen i had an anaphylactic allergic reaction earlier this week and had to spend a nice chunk of time in the hospital. i had eaten some pistachios (which i hadn't had in years) and my tongue swelled up etc. they now have me off all nuts (tree nuts included) until i can get allergy testing done and i have a new best friend called the epipen that i get to carry around with me.

i'm starving and my skin is so dry. seriously all my soap, shaving cream, body wash, body lotion etc have nuts in it. 

i hate dry skin! i need to go on a hunt for nut free body lotion. any recommendations? i try to use only all natural products due to my illness so that's why there are so many nuts! the food thing has been soooo hard. honestly - to all of you out there with kids who have nut allergies or have them yourselves i feel for you. i only have just started and this is very, very hard! combining the nut removal and my dairy free, gluten free, sugar free diet = one hungry and grumpy momma! if you see me at the grocery store back away...lol. j/k...sort of...lol.

it's getting better though. i found out my fave gluten free bread is nut free so that helped a lot. i also found a nut free rice milk that i can use in place of my almond milk. plus my fave gluten free pasta is also nut free so last night i actually had a nice meal! yay!

if anyone has some tips for eating nut free i would be so thankful. 

i'm so confused on things like vegetable oil etc. some sites say yes - some say no and since i haven't seen an allergist yet i'm going off the internet which is overwhelming to say the least. on the plus side i have learned a ton about what is in my food and what a heckuva lot of chemical ingredients are and why they use them.

so this was supposed to be a short post saying i'm taking it easy today and this weekend to get better but i guess i got chatting. you don't mind though right? yay :) i'm still not feeling right. i'm very tired and feel - fragile for lack of a better word. definitely not myself so i'll be taking this weekend to rest and get better...oh and work on the sally dress pattern...wink wink. thanks for all of your entries everyone! hopefully i'll be getting back to you sooner than later! i was hoping to be feeling better by now but so far that hasn't happened yet. as soon as i get it done you will be the first to know :)

thanks for all your kind words on fb/twitter about my health scare. you guys are so sweet. i hope you all have a wonderful relaxing, family filled, good food, laughs and crafty kinda weekend! see you all next week <3