Its been awhile!

I am back to the blogging world. Wow it has been awhile since I last posted. Juliana had just turned one and now she is going on 3 in just 3 short months!

Life has been so crazy, yet so beautiful with three kids. We are all doing well. Lets see, I'm trying to figure out where to start. We moved this past September from PA to NJ because my husband got a new job. We are now in NJ, literally .6 of a mile from my sister! We love being close to our family, yet the move has been difficult. Believe it or not, it is most difficult for Joey and I. I spent so much time getting Carmela used to the idea of moving since she was the oldest, and since she had to change schools that I guess I slighted Joey. Joey still says how much he misses our old house. I can't quite figure out what he misses, as he says "everything". He has acted out a lot and I do think it all has to do with the move, but I've been trying to spend a lot of one on one time with him, and that seems to be helping.

I'm getting used to our new house now. It is 60 years old, which is difficult since we are moving from a house that we built ourselves and was only 5 years old. Everything seems to fall apart here, yet we have done a lot of work to it and have made it ours I feel. I do like the house, especially the family room and the kitchen. It is a nice size for our family of 5, and sometimes I wish we actually moved into a SMALLER house! It has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bath, living room/dining room combination, family room, and a beautiful sized kitchen. The backyard is fenced and has a pool. We are all so excited to get into that pool! It really is perfect for us.

The hard part for me is my friends. I felt that I had a bunch of friends in PA already, and everyone knew everyone. Here, it has been very slow in the friends department. Carmela has made some friends through school, so that helps, and of course I have my sister, but I'd love some friends of my own! I guess I never realized how shy I was ??? I don't know what it is. I feel I'm in a different world at times, and I'm FROM New Jersey so I just don't get it.

Lets see....lately I've been having some health issues. I was diagnosed in 2008 with ulcerative colitis, so I think it is that, but I'm starting to think it is something more. Chris and I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out if its specific foods bothering me or what, but sometimes I just feel sick. My heart hurts, my stomach hurts, and I'm really tired. CAn't get out of bed tired. It has been difficult. I've been seeing a gastro who ran tests and couldn't find anything besides u/c. I also went to my ob/gyn and they are looking for some stuff.

Basically, I think its my diet and am spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to eat. Should I go milk free? Gluten free? Eat all natural? No sugar? I don't know. In the meantime, I started going to the gym again, and have a bit more energy, but not much. Its kind of scary not knowing what exactly is wrong! My first challenge is I'm starting to cook more from scratch. Yesterday I made my first macaroni and cheese not out of the box. It was really good, much to my kids' dismay! Juliana liked it, Joey ate it, Carmela hated it. But I've explained to them that the blue box just isn't healthy and that when they want mac and cheese. THIS is what I am making. We'll see how it goes. Today Joey and I made vanilla pudding instead of buying it. We are going to taste it in a bit. If it is good, I will post the recipe!