Book Nerd

Since I have started college 5 years ago, I never have time to read for fun anymore. I have my own personal  library that continues to grow throughout the years. I have read many of my books during the past years but during the school semester I am unable to read because of all the assignments that I have due throughout the semester. I am hoping that I will be able to read some of my books during the Christmas Break and hopefully I will get to once I have graduated college in the spring.

How the gluten free life started.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to basically start your life over? In a weird way I had to do just that and I never realized how hard it actually was for me to start over. Last November, a week after Thanksgiving Break I found out I was diagnosed with Celiac disease which means I have to be on a gluten-free diet for the rest of my life. It all started when I was young, I would always complain to my mother that my stomach was really hurting me. She would always tell me that I come from a family with bad stomachs and that it would go away but it took days before it actually went away. I remember it always leaving me curled up in my bed or on the couch hoping the pain would ago. Sometimes it got to the point that I wouldn't eat during the day and only ate one meal per day. Flash forward to  my junior year of college, it was just a random day and all of a sudden my stomach irked with severe stomach pains and I could barely move so I finally decided that I could not deal with the pain anymore and I had to figure out what was going on with me. I went and saw a specialist and a few weeks later I had a procedure done to confirm that I indeed have celiac disease.   When my doctor told me I did in fact have the disease that I needed to be on a strict gluten free diet and a low-fat diet as well. It has definitely turned my life around and there are days that I feel like I can't do it anymore but I know that I can't be sick all the time.Before I had the procedure done, I did some research on Celiac Disease and it turns out that most of the time when people have this disease that will never know or it takes them 10 years before being diagnosed. Which is crazy because it took me 12 years before I found out I had it.There are several hard parts about this disease but I know that my health is so important that I have to stick to this diet no matter what.

The Mansion Tent

This past weekend I went camping with my church group called Chi Alpha. The camping trip was two days and one night. When I arrived to the camping spot, we started to pull out the tents,chairs, food, and etc. When it came to put up the tent I was staying in, everyone around us realized how big the tent was and it got the name The Mansion Tent. I stayed in the tent with five other girls and it took us almost an hour to get it set up because we couldn't figure out how the poles were supposed to be set up. Eventually two guys offered to help us and we were able to finally get a better picture of how the tent frame was supposed to be. Once we got the tent put up, we ventured out to explore the campground more or help anyone who needed help. Later in the night, I decided to go to bed. I had eventual day with meeting everyone, eating dinner, helping out and etc, I was exhausted. It was about one in the morning when I finally decided to crash. I crawled into the Mansion Tent and fell asleep quickly. Throughout the night, it was miserable. I didn't have a sleep bag so I slept with my blanket. Well it was freezing that night so I ended up sleeping on the tent floor so I could use my entire blanket to keep me warm. Another issue, us girls had was the fact that the tent was set up down hill and there were a bunch of tree branches that were underneath the tent. In the morning when I woke up, I saw that all of us had ended up sliding down to the right side of the tent. All of us started laughing and joking that we could have fit 2-3 more girls into the tent. Overall I got a sleepless night but I enjoyed getting to sleep in the Mansion Tent and meeting a bunch of new people that joined Chi Alpha. I had a blast and I can't wait to go next year!