It is Really Happening + Food Blogher '09

It's been a busy few weeks for us here at Casa Peanut Free.

B and I jetted down to LA last week to help my mom recover from surgery on her rotator cuff. The Italian grandmother in me came out - the best way I knew how to take care of her was to make sure her fridge was stuffed to the gills with food! Since it's just my mom and dad, I made quite a few recipes out of this magazine - they were fantastic! Thankfully, she's recovering nicely and wont be starving any time soon.

Our visit down to LA including a flight there and back on United. It was really stress free I must say. We upgraded to Economy Plus for both legs (there and back) - those extra inches of legroom meant B wasn't kicking (errr, annoying!) the passenger in front of her. There were only drinks served (no snacks given out or for sale), so I really only had to keep an eye out for those around us eating peanuts. Thankfully we were flying midweek, which made for a flight full of mostly businessmen and women and they weren't packin' PBJ's. We did have a run-in with some apple juice (the apple juice won) and I hope the next passenger in seat 8A on the 11th was wearing rubber pants. That seat was pretty wet when we were done with it. Oh, and did I mention it was my fault, not B's? Let's keep that on the DL, shall we? :)

Anyhoo - where was I?

School! School's starting in a week and a half and I'm really sad about it. My baby girl is going to be in Kindergarten! While I was gone I got a really nice message from her principal wanting to set up a meeting next week so we can discuss B's plan and how we're going to make sure she has a safe learning environment this year. He also told me she wasn't going to be the only allergic kid in her class, which I found comforting in a way as well. What a relief that he left such a nice message - great start to things! So, today I'm putting together a list of all my questions - once I'm done I'll post it here. I'm really stressed out about it and I hope I don't forget anything. The biggest issue I think I'll have is that I don't think they currently keep epi's in the classroom. I'm gonna have to arm myself with some facts and figures from the scientific literature to help convince them otherwise. I'm trying my best, though, not to be in defensive mode the moment I walk in. I'll let you know how that goes too.

This has been rambling, and not very informative, but I wanted to let you know we're alive over here and peanut free things are going on!

Lastly, I'll be attending Food BlogHer here in San Francisco next month. Are any of you?? I know this isn't technically a food blog, but it does deal with food in a strange way so I'm hoping I can learn something. If you'll be there, let me know so we can chat!

Are You REALLY Prepared?

I'm not going to bore you with more 'i can't believe i can't send peanut butter to school with my kid!' stories this week. Oh, and if you leave a snarky comment about peanut allergic kids on this site, you bet your sweet bippy I'm going to pull it. Go ahead and try me.

Ahem.

So with the recent news of Hurricane Ike, I got to thinking about earthquakes. Yup, around here we get earthqaukes now and then. And you don't get notice like you do with a hurricane. The earth starts shaking and that's it.

So you prepare, much like you prepare for a peanut allergy. You have plans in place and supplies at the ready just in case you are hit with a disaster (which you hope NEVER comes). Earthquakes come on fast and are frightening and you're helpless!

We have a big container in our backyard filled with supplies, like water, radios, batteries, etc. just in case the big one strikes. Given the recent hurricane, Mark and I went out back and looked in our kit to make sure things were current. It had been quite some time since we checked it. Here are some things we discovered:

• Items were missing. Seems like the gardener (the only other person who has access to our backyard) or one of his guys helped themselves to a maglite, radio, and tools. Glad I fired him last week. Note to self: buy lock for kit.
  
• Diapers. Um, B has been potty trained for over a year. We can nix those.
  
• Formula. Again, B's been eating solids for quite some time. Powdered milk and our meals should be fine.
  
• Some of the food we packed (those freeze dried meals from REI) contained peanuts. Ack! I'll be buying more food for our kit and I'm thankful that these meals have allergen warnings on them - we can't just buy granola bars for obvious reasons.
  

But you know what WASN'T in there? You guessed it - B's medication (epi and benadryl). I'm so glad we checked! I'll be filling a prescription this week but I'm concerned about leaving the epi out in the elements for an extended period of time. Granted it will be in a big container, surrounded by other items that could insulate it. But I'm definitely ordering another epi-pen holder and probably an insulated lunch box to put the epipen holder in. I need to have these in our kit, so I'll take my chances that it stays ok in there. What else can I do?

So the next week will see me updating our supplies (there are plenty of other items we need to pack in our kit besides what I mentioned). If you live in an area that is prone to natural disasters (like earthquakes or floods or hurricanes), check out the Red Cross site for checklists to prepare your home, office, and school (and make a donation if you can to help the victims of Ike). Don't forget a kit for your car as well if you travel far for work. Oh, and remember that many of the premade kits that are sold for emergencies contain energy bars that may contain allergens like peanut butter, milk, and wheat.

Are you prepared? If you have a kit, what are your must have items?