Sad News...Dairy Allergy Returns

Witt "outgrew" his dairy allergy at age 2 1/2. We lived as a dairy-free family from the time he was 6 months old (when we found out about his his life-threatening allergy) until then.

After that, we slowly introduced dairy products into his diet. There were no reactions. He LOVED cheese and yogurt! We switched to raw milk and he drank that fine as well.

Then, about a year ago (around 5 1/2 years old), he started having stomach pains after he ate.  They were random and not every time he ate.  Then after a few months, the pain got worse and more frequent.  He wasn't finishing meals.

I began to narrow things down in his diet and watch what he ate and when the pain would come.  I had it narrowed down to gluten and/or dairy.  Then, one morning before he ate anything, I gave him a small glass of milk to drink and nothing else. I set the timer for 20 minutes to watch for a reaction.

Within 10 minutes he was in pain! He wouldn't eat anything else and went back to bed to wait it out. Poor little guy.

He had a doctor's visit and I brought up the possibility of lactose-intolerance turning up.  Dr. P said given Witt's history, he would not classify it as intolerance, but as an allergy.  He recommended keeping as much dairy out of his diet as possible.

I posted this new information on my food allergy blog, Must Follow Recipes, asking for suggestions. I got a response from Lady Makes It saying that her husband cycles through from allergy, to being able to tolerate milk in small amounts with Lactaid use, and then back to full-blown allergy. This gave me the idea to use Lactaid with Witt... and it worked beautifully!

For awhile.

Now, the Lactaid doesn't even help. He is even having stomach pains from baked-in milk and from cultured milk, like yogurt. :(

So now, I'm back to reading labels for hidden dairy and re-learning how to cook dairy-free for him. It's not as intimidating this time because I know I've done it before, but I am so not excited about this (for him or for me). However, at least now, at age 6, he is able to ask if something has dairy in it and (as of right now) the allergy is not life-threatening.

THAT is a HUGE blessing!!!

One Year Ago (PART I)

One year ago, our lives changed.

I want to say something dramatic to portray the relief of living without food allergies, but I just don't think it's possible - there are no satisfactory words. It's like those moments when you wish there were better words to describe "I love you" to someone. Sometimes those words just don't seem enough to express the emotions, ya know? Same idea with the removal of food allergies.

Weird comparison, I know, but it works. :)

I'd like to remember some of the differences between 2010 and the 2 1/2 years prior (where we lived as a dairy free, egg free, and almost peanut free family).

In no particular order, here are the first things that pop into my head:

• no special ordered allergy-free chocolate for the holidays
• no wondering about what the previous child ate in the grocery buggy
  
• he's going to preschool this year (2 days a week) without a care in the world
  
• no major prep-work for church gatherings (always with food)
  
• ate his first Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (oh yeah! Imagine that day!)
  
• we ate out more as I family and I personally gained 12 pounds this year! UGH!
• Unfortunately, I did not keep up with my allergy recipe blog: Must Follow Recipes.

As this will most likely be my final series of posts on food allergies, I find it will be easiest to list by month the changes we experienced. This will be the first of three posts (each containing a quarter of the year.)

JANUARY

Each month we have a fellowship birthday meal with our church congregation. It was so hard to "not worry" because my brain was accustomed to watching every bit of food that everyone ate, making sure they didn't have dairy on their hands. We usually sat in a corner, keeping Witt away from everyone and I had to bring prepared food (including dessert) from home for him.

Imagine how free this little boy felt when he was allowed to run around the fellowship room with the other children. To run around the food table and grab a cookie when no one was looking and to dip under and hide below the food table (amongst scraps that had surely fallen) so he could eat that cookie (that someone else had made). Imagine how free his mama felt, too! :)

Jeff and I were also able to take a mini-getaway to his parents' lake house for a weekend. The boys stayed with my MIL. Although she, too, had gotten very proficient at reading labels and preparing food for Witt, there were some things she just didn't stock at her house because they'd go bad. For this trip to Gran's, I didn't have to do extra shopping or prepare special food. She didn't have to do any special cleaning in the kitchen or removal of food he couldn't be near.

To be able to just "drop him off" without preparation... wow... again, there are no words.

Of course my brain went through the usual checklist and I had to continually tell myself that I didn't have to worry about that anymore. It was a bit of mental drain, honestly.

FEBRUARY

In our house, Valentine's Day brings it's own fun little tradition of buying a huge box of chocolates and sharing it. This is the one time you are allowed to take a bite of something and put it back for someone else to eat if you don't like it. LOL!

With a dairy free child, this tradition is an expensive one. However, at least it is still a plausible one. There are some great allergy free chocolate makers out there. For Valentine's our favorite was Chocolate Emporium. They have traditional valentine's boxes (during February) and out-of-this-world chocolates! I highly recommend them!

This year, I think we bought 2 huge boxes of chocolates from a local store and bought each of the boys their own small box. The chocolates were, of course, not as good as the gourmet ones and we did go over board on the buying of (cheap) chocolates, but it was just the principal of it all.

The principal being that we could.

Oh, and Witt had his first dairy filled chocolate milkshake!

MARCH

March is Jeff's birthday. Jeff likes a homemade cake, so really the amount of work isn't any different - it's just the ingredients. And sometimes, well let's face it, the texture. Although I have a favorite DFEF chocolate cake recipe, baked goods generally don't have the same texture and strength (non-sinking centers) when made without eggs.

And then there was Easter... and more chocolate. We have used both Amanda's Own Confections and Chocolate Emporium for our dairy free Easter chocolates. We went with standard chocolate this year and no one noticed (I say this to let you know how good allergy free chocolates can be.)

The exciting part of this Easter though was that it was the first time we have colored eggs since Witt was born! His egg allergy warranted plastic eggs every year prior.

APRIL

In the 5 years that we have been in Alabama, this was the first year we attended the Chicken & Egg Festival and we were able to eat the vendor food without worry! Granted we spent most of our time on the tractors, but just the name of the festival was enough to keep me away in the past.

We also spent some time at a science center in middle Alabama and had to take this picture when I saw this giant carton of milk! LOL!
April is also my birthday. And it is also proof that baking with eggs does not always bring about a perfect cake... as mine fell apart. LOL!

May - August (coming soon)
Sept - Dec (coming soon)

Itchy Itchy, Sratchy Scratchy

Since Witt's milk challenge last Thursday, we've been slowly introducing dairy.

One night I made homemade beef stroganoff and the next day he had his first two bites of homemade macaroni and cheese. I noticed (like any paranoid mama would) that he would start scratching his tummy, sides, and upper back about 2- 3 hours after having dairy. :(

Granted this could just be his eczema flaring up because he'd been off his daily Zyrtec for about 7 -10 days before the scratch test. (The allergist said to keep him off for 3 days, but I wanted to be on the safe side and kept him off longer.) The morning we went for the scratch test he had mild eczema and was scratching his sides, too; so it's not something completely new that came after the introduction of dairy.

BUT... I'm a paranoid mama when it comes to these allergies.

Last night I got out the steroid creme (which I hate to use) and applied to to his torso and back hoping to calm the eczema. This morning the eczema is gone, he has not had dairy since yesterday afternoon, and he's not been scratching.

My plan for the next few days is to be a stickler regarding his Zyrtec schedule to keep the eczema at bay and also keep him off dairy. Then I will introduce some dairy, keep a food log, and watch for scratching.

Even though there is a possibility that the dairy could be causing excessive itchiness, I can deal with that. Just knowing that milk is no longer life threatening is HUGE! It no longer produces hives... HUGE!

If dairy does in fact appear to cause more itchiness for him, I will probably begin to cook his meals and the rest of ours separately, allowing dairy for the rest of the family. One of the main reasons we chose to be a dairy free family was because the allergy was life threatening. But I don't want to get ahead of myself quite yet! There is still a good possibility that the itches were only from the eczema which was from being off his Zyrtec for so long.

So, anyway, after a couple of days I'll start keeping a food log and watching for the "itchies".

I'm hoping I'm just being paranoid. It's hard turning off the allergy mom "switch". The thoughts and concerns don't just disappear over night and although it's a good transition, it's a hard transition.

Oh, and by a sneaky little accident, Witt had half a cookie last night with baked in egg in it. No noticeable reaction! That's not to say more egg or straight egg won't produce a reaction, but hey... I'm taking what I can get!

Please continue to pray for us during this time. Like I said, although it's wonderful... it's still a hard transition to make.

Thanks!

UPDATE: Followup HERE.

Coupon Winners and Q&A

Random.org gave the following numbers: 1, 3, 4, and 5. Congrats to Chef Penny, Cara (x2), and Asian Jamaican! Please email your mailing address to missbecky75(at)yahoo(dot)com before Wed @ 7:oo PM CST.

On to the questions! :)

6 comments:

Chef Penny said...

What? No comments yet?? hey, does that count as my question? Just kidding!

How do you manage to turn the tv off all the time?

Honestly, we have such a struggle with this one. There are times when we do so well and other times (like lately) where I have so much going on that I really do use it as a babysitter. Sad, I know. With that said, though, the boys know that when I say turn it off, I mean it and they do it. When we're in our routine well, we don't turn the tv on until after naps (around 3:00 PM).

Chef Penny said...

Is your whole family dairy free or just Witt?

Our whole family is dairy free when Witt is around. Our house is a "safe zone" for him. I would say that 97% of the time there is no dairy in the house. That 3% is the chocolate stash that Jeff and I have hidden in our bedroom every once in a while and the cream cheese for Jeff's bagels that are locked inside a Tupperware container on the back of the top shelf in the fridge. :)

If I'm out with the other two boys, we will stop for ice cream or pizza or something like that. We are very careful to wash hands and sometimes even change clothes if necessary when we have special treats like that.

I cream my coffee with soy or coconut milk creamers. If I have bagels, I use Tofutti cream cheese (Jeff will take his bagel to go, as I stay in the house with my food). Those of us that will eat yogurt enjoy coconut milk yogurt. The only "cheese" in the house is soy cheese.

So for the most part, we are all dairy free, yes. :)

Cara said...

Ooo I could use just one coupon. We are trying tree nuts soon. How does it taste? He drinks soy milk now.

I answered a similar question the last time I gave coupons away. Here is my copy-n-paste answer:

I like it's taste and texture. I like the way it cooks, too. It doesn't have that strong twang soy does. To me, the initial taste (of the original) is somewhat plain (kinda like cow's milk... nothing exciting) which is followed by an aftertaste of almond. If you don't like almonds you probably won't like the almond milk.

Cara said...

Which would be better, Almond Milk or Nutrella for a food trial?

Do you mean Nutella, the nut spread? From what I can find, Nutrella is a soy based something-or-other. If you do mean Nutella, then my next question is, is your child allergic to milk? There is milk in Nutella.

If you don't have a problem with milk and are just testing almonds (which are tree nuts and not related to a peanut allergy as I see your child does have based on your blog title {grin}) then personally I would choose the product that has almonds listed further down in the ingredient list so he's not getting a huge dose of them.

Start with a small skin test by rubbing it on his skin. Then if you don't have a reaction, give him some to eat/drink.

Those are my PERSONAL OPINIONS. I am NOT A DOCTOR. The best suggestion I can give would be to do a supervised test at the doctor's office.

Asian Jamaican said...

I am supposed to ask a question. I haven't seen the gallons of almond milk. Where can you buy these?

I've never seen a gallon of almond milk. The coupons are for half-gallons and that's the largest I've seen. I get mine at Publix or Kroger (About $3.29 - $3.59 a half gallon). I know Whole Foods also carries this brand for the coupons.

kelli said...

i love almond milk! have you tried making your own? i have and its delish!

ps there's an award for you at my blog! check out my latest post. =)

No, I haven't tried making my own, but I would LOVE to!!! My concern is the calcium. The store bought almond milk already has calcium in it. This is almost the only way I can get calcium into my pickiest son. He doesn't eat any dairy (or dairy substitutes) and no green veggies. Calcium is a big concern for me with him and I haven't had time to do the research on a good calcium supplement yet. Any suggestions?

Do you have your almond milk recipe on your blog? If so, I'd love for you to leave the link in my comments, please!!

Thanks so much for the award, too! How very sweet!! Hopefully I'll be able to pass it along soon!


Thanks everyone for the questions!! If you have more, just let me know!

Almond Breeze Coupon GIVEAWAY

*****CLOSED******

I've got lots of Almond Breeze coupons to give away!! I have more than I will be able to use before the expiration date of 12/31/2009.

I am giving away 4 sets of 5 coupons (total of 20 coupons)! They are for $0.75 off any one half-gallon of Blue Diamond Chilled Almond Breeze Almondmilk.

These are the coupons that come out of the blinkie machines in the grocery store (although I bought mine on ebay...).

Because the expiration date is so close, this will be a 24 hour giveaway.

The "rules":

• you must leave a comment on this post with a way for me to contact you if you win
• you must be willing to send me your home address so I can mail the coupons to you
• you must ASK ME A QUESTION... any question. :)
• US mailing addresses only
• You can enter up to 5 times by asking 5 different questions in 5 SEPARATE comments
• Giveaway closes at 6:00 PM CST Monday, December 14, 2009
• The winner(s) will have 48 hours to send their addresses to me or I'll pick another winner
• You can win more than once, in fact, the same person *could* win all 20 coupons depending on the number of entries and how random.org chooses. :)

Any questions???? Ask away... you could win some coupons!

Allergies and God's Plan

This morning when I logged in and saw my ticker showing less than 1 month before Witt's allergy testing, my heart just about jumped out of my chest!

No matter how hard I try not to get worked up over this testing, I always do. I'm hopeful and prayerful, but yet realize at the same time that although God could take away these allergies, He may not... ever.

I realize that we've made it through another year without any major issues regarding these allergies and I'm so very thankful for that, but I also realize that we may have to struggle with dietary issues for another year... possibly longer. But I really don't want to.

It's hard having this testing at the end of the year when my thoughts are lead to remembering what 2009 held for us and what direction I want 2010 to go in. I know where I want to go, but I need to follow God's lead. Thankfully, this is an all or nothing situation and I will clearly know God's plan regarding our diet for 2010 once these test results are in.

The past three annual testing times have consisted of going for the skin test and the blood test on the same day. The skin test results are in within 15 minutes, but it takes another 2 - 3 weeks for the blood test results. Then it's just a follow-up call from a nurse telling me what was positive and what wasn't. I really haven't been satisfied with that.

This year I'm doing things differently. Yesterday, I called and requested the doctor's orders for the blood test so we can go ahead and get that done before the skin test. This year I'm going to get his IgE numbers in person from the doctor instead of over the phone from someone that doesn't really have all the answers I want.

I requested testing for

• cow's milk
• goat's milk
• egg white
• egg yolk
• peanuts

We have never tested Witt for goat's milk. I understand that the proteins are fairly similar between the two milks, but that some people that are allergic to one are not to the other. Might as well give it a shot. We could at least improve our cheese situation if we could include goat's milk! :)

I can't help but wonder if the trials of this allergy were partly to lead me to stop feeding my family the SAD (Standard American Diet). Our diet certainly has improved over the last few years. I know the direction I would like to go in, but again... I just have to wait for God's answer on that one.

*** We interrupt this post with a call from the allergist's office!

Apparently, since Witt's blood test came back negative last year (although he's not at exactly 0.0 with his IgE numbers) they are not going to do the blood test this year. Hmmm.... I'm not really sure what I think about that.

I almost got in an argument over the phone with whomever I was talking to. I almost cried. I've heard of tests results spiking back up after they've gone down. I think I'd really like a second year of "negative" just to be on the safe side. But she wasn't budging on "The doctor's orders were to stop the blood testing once they came back negative."

Looks like I'll be talking with the doctor about all this at the appointment and possibly doing the blood test that day as well... if I can talk her into it... and assuming there are positives with the skin test.

AGH! I hate this! (And I rarely use the word "hate".)

I hate the not knowing.

This is where I have a hard time just submitting to God's will. I have to believe that part of this is not only so that I feed my family better, but that I learn to submit better as well. It's just so hard and emotional for me.

I gotta go before I start rambling... my thoughts are going in a million different directions now with this new information.

Please just pray for Witt. Pray that these allergies will be taken from his body and that he will be 100% allergy free. To enjoy an egg, a glass of milk with a chocolate chip cookie, to sprinkle cheese on whatever he pleases!

Pray for me that I'll submit to God. That I'll be accepting of his answer and thankful for all the many blessings that I have been surrounded with. That I will focus on the positive and be strong for my children.

Just please pray. That's what I'm going to do.

Thanks for listening.

Allergy Q &A

I've been receiving questions lately about Witt and how we deal with certain aspects of his allergies, so I thought I'd make a post out of them.

A little background for those of you that are new to BRML: Witt is our youngest son (now 2 years old) and is anaphylactic to dairy if he ingests it and breaks out in hives when it touches his skin (contact allergy). He has also tested positive to egg white, egg yolk, and peanuts - but he has never had or touched those so we don't know the exact severity.

His annual testing is in December and last year his blood tests came back negative while the skin tests came back positive. It's always good news to have some negatives when talking food allergies! :)

Right now I can only think of one instance where something touched him earlier this year at a church meal and he had a tiny hive on his face. Other than that, he has had no contact with any of his allergens this year that I can think of.

Now that you are up-to-date... on to the latest questions:

Over on MustFollowRecipes, I received this question:

I have not tried the addition of nutritional yeast because I read the label this weekend and saw the disclaimer on processing around nuts, eggs, and milk (yada yada yada). I noticed in one of your cheese posts that you noted that Witt is anaphylactic to dairy, so I just wanted to confirm your comfort level on the nutritional yeast.

Yes, you are correct, Witt is anaphylactic to dairy. We are very fortunate in that he has never had a reaction to foods with the "processed with/on" disclaimer. So for now, unless milk, eggs, or peanuts are list as an actual ingredient we generally try it. As for nutritional yeast, we have used it for over a year now... again, with no reaction. I think it adds a really great flavor to many dishes. I add it to chicken casserole, chicken salad, spaghetti sauce, and just about anything that could use some Parmesan. :)

What is the difference between Witt's peanut allergy and his ability to drink almond milk?

Almonds are tree nuts and peanuts are not. Witt is not allergic to tree nuts only peanuts. Easy enough. :)

Just a note, though, about almond milk... the Almond Breeze brand (which is the only one I can find) does have soy lechtin in it, so it is not completely soy free. :( I believe Rice Milk is soy free, but I feel like we benefit more from a nut milk instead of more grains in our diet... just my opinion. (Here is more info on my almond milk thoughts.)

Why is the control scratch also so puffy?

(This question came up last year when I posted his skin test results, but it wasn't answered to my satisfaction. Thankfully there was a commenter that was able to answer it recently! )

Hi Becky,

Just happened to see your blog in the net. I'm actually a researcher. If I am not mistaken, the control on the right side of your baby's body, is a positive control whereby regardless if the child has allergy or not, it will swell up. On the other hand, the left control is a negative control, where no swelling is expected. Therefore, if the right control swelled up and not the left, it shows that we can rule out the possibility that there's an error in the scratch test. Which explained by the nurse that the test is 'good'

Hope this is helpful

Michelle

There have also been several people asking how Witt is doing and the current status of his allergies.

I don't really have much to say because I don't know exactly. We won't know anything until his testing in December. For now we just avoid his allergens completely and go about a normal life as much as possible and continue to pray. I "educate" almost everyone I come in contact with about his allergies. I figure it's better to bring it up in the beginning than have a problem later... although, I do get tired of talking about it sometimes and wish I didn't have to.

Please continue to keep Witt and the other allergy families in your prayers. Once I have a date for his testing, I'll set up my being persistent ticker. I hope that every time you see the ticker, you'll be prompted to say a little prayer for him.

Thank you all so much for your questions! If there are more questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below and I'll be happy to do another post with the answers (or answer you privately if you prefer).

Dairy Free Cookbook Giveaway

Head over to my recipe blog for the giveaway!

Have I Got Answers For You

From my coupon giveaway:

Amy said...

Okay, my heart skipped a beat when I saw that Almond Milk photo load up. My kids had this for the first time Friday & LOVED it (thank the Lord!, because we are ready for a switch!).

Okay, question #1:
What's the first thing you'd cook, if the allergies went bye bye? (I ask myself this all the time!)

March 25, 2009 12:30 AM

I have really had a hard time deciding on this one. I don't think it's so much an exact dish, but I long to use real grass-fed dairy butter. No more of this DF margarine. Although it cooks well and tastes decent, there are trans fats in every one I've seen... and that's not good.

Amy said...

Q #2:
Are any of your kids named after your hubs? (obviously, I know everybody's first names, so I guess, middle names?!)

March 25, 2009 12:31 AM

Yes, actually. Will is William Jeffrey. William is Jeff's grandfather's name.

Amy said...

Q #3:
If you could go back & do it over, would you get married earlier? older? etc.?

March 25, 2009 12:32 AM

Nope. I'd do it just about the exact same way as we did it. Jeff and I dated for three years and were married when I was 24 and he was 27. The strangest thing about our first year of marriage was that I was still in college... two hours away from where he worked. I was in school during the week and would go home for the weekends. We'd heard that the first year of marriage is the hardest... so essentially we skipped it. LOL! :)

Amy said...

#4
Did you put a period in p.optarts for a reason?

March 25, 2009 12:34 AM

Yes, I did. I'm not exactly sure how search engines work, but they do tend to bring people to me for strange reasons... some disgusting (ie. little boys in pa.nties) So, by putting the period in the middle of the word, it deters the search engine from finding the word. Anyone searching for po.ptarts is certainly not looking for my blog, so I just help them along by not wasting their time and keep people off my site that aren't intentionally looking for me. Make sense? Or is that just too weird?

Amy said...

#5 / final question...

Are you going to try for a girl? ;) (you'd have to change your blog title!! :)

March 25, 2009 12:34 AM

Ummmmm.... no. That's an easy one. Witt was a total surprise... especially 'cause I was on the pill at the time. We decided three was a complete package for our family and that we really didn't think we could personally handle more. I had an emergency C-section with Witt and had made arrangements that if I ended up needed a C-section for them to go ahead and do a tubal. So they did. And then a couple months later, just to be on the safe side... Jeff had a vas.ectamy. I know... extreme (and there's that extra "." again!), but we're a bunch of fertile mertyls 'round here! LOL!

Nowheymama said...

Where do you find the best prices on almond milk?

March 25, 2009 6:16 AM

There is only one place in town that sells refrigerated almond milk and that's Publix. It is $3.29 for half gallon carton. (I don't buy shelf stable milk because I'm not really sure what is done to the milk to make it shelf stable, so I don't know the prices on that... sorry.)

Nowheymama said...

Do you have a favorite brand of almond milk?

March 25, 2009 6:24 AM

I've only tried Almond Breeze. It's good stuff. The vanilla is actually too sweet for me; it's like drinking vanilla ice cream almost (taste wise... not texture). I enjoy drinking the original straight. For the boys I usually do half chocolate (or vanilla) and half original.

Nowheymama said...

Have you tried other soy alternatives, like rice milk?

March 25, 2009 6:24 AM

Yes, we've tried rice milk, but I find it to grainy to drink straight. Plus it's very thin, so in my opinion it's not that exciting to cook with. I also feel like we get enough grain in our diet food-wise that we don't need it in our beverages, too. (Again, just my opinion.)

I have also tried hemp milk and well, to be honest... I thought it was disgusting. I let everyone taste it to see if anyone would drink it. After we each got a small taste and a bunch of grossed out looks, I dumped the whole thing. I didn't try cooking with it though, but I should have, as I've heard it does great.

I also want to point out that Almond Breeze almond milk does have some soy lechtin in it, but it is not one of the top ingredients. I was dissapointed when I saw that, but it's not like we're trying to avoid all soy... just decrease our intake by not drinking it as much as we used to.

Nowheymama said...

If so, do you prefer almond milk?

March 25, 2009 6:25 AM

Yes. I like it's taste and texture. I like the way it cooks, too. It doesn't have that strong twang soy does. To me, the initial taste (of the original) is somewhat plain (kinda like cow's milk... nothing exciting) which is followed by an aftertaste of almond. If you don't like almonds you probably won't like the almond milk.

Jamie Kaufmann said...

hey! :) long time no talk. busy, busy. and i see you are being hard on yourself again. aren't we so good at that?! i will ask what your favorite hobby is...because i am having a lot of fun with mine...stamping and scrapbooking. and i'm glad i'm not the only one who allows convenient and white flour food, hee, hee.

March 25, 2009 4:48 PM

My hobbies seem to change quickly these days. Right now (in case you hadn't noticed) I'm really interested in learning more about nutrition and being more informed about my choices. I don't know if that's really a hobby or not, but it does consume a lot of my time. Part of this is cooking, too. I love baking. If I could bake all day I'd be so happy, but then I'd have dishes to do and that makes me miserable. :P

I used to scrapbook, but blogging over took that.

We started our first garden this year, so that's going to become a necessary hobby, too. :)

Any more questions? You won't win anything, but this was fun! Ask away...