Welcome! So glad you stopped by to visit. This will help you to understand how we got to where we are today.
A little bit of history.
Dennis and I were married in June of 1972 and moved into the same house we still reside in today. We live in a small town in northwest Illinois, the same area we were both raised in. Dennis worked a local factory job for almost 45 years, whereas in 1979 I started a business called “Land of Oz Dolls”. To this day, I still make antique reproduction and modern porcelain dolls for collectors all over the world. After retiring from his factory job Dennis went to work part-time for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014. Also in 2014, we opened a vacation rental property, “Roberts’ Roost Country Guest House” serving guests from all over the world, a little bit of the “country life”. Through the years of our marriage we have been blessed with two daughters and two granddaughters.
Starting in August of 2015, events happened that will forever change the course of our lives.
For those of you who have known me during my many years in the doll business, our oldest daughter Stacie worked for me at Land of Oz Dolls for over 14 years. She took care of the office, website, and eBay store. Stacie also accompanied me to many of the doll and ceramic shows that I attended up until about 2007.
Without any prior health issues, in August of 2015, Stacie developed what we originally thought was a simple case of the flu. She had just returned home from a vacation with her family and was exhibiting flu like symptoms. After a couple days she went to the emergency room and was immediately admitted to the hospital. The doctors were diagnosing her with gall bladder symptoms. Her liver enzymes were elevated which was attributed to the problems with the gall bladder. Two days later they removed the gall bladder and discovered severe Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Cirrhosis of the Liver. Since she had never drank or taken any medications that would have affected the liver it was a puzzle as to the cause. The next day after gall bladder surgery they did a biopsy of the small intestine and discovered she had Celiac Disease. Of course this disease had developed over many years, it hadn’t happened overnight. By the time it was discovered, her liver was seriously compromised. Stacie was one of the many unlucky Celiac sufferers that had never developed intestinal problems so it was virtually a silent killer. Actually, only one in eight people with Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance suffer from digestive problems. For the rest, it will manifest in other complications such as asthma, allergies, skin problems, reproductive issues, and a host of many other auto-immune diseases.
By the time they made the diagnosis it was already too late and the damage was irreversible. Within one month the doctors were talking liver transplant and within two months Stacie was placed on the liver transplant list. Stacie died December 13th, 2015, just a little over four months after first getting sick. She was number one on the liver transplant list for the state of Iowa for her blood type but it did not come in time. At the time of her death there were over 17,000 people with non-alcohol related liver problems waiting for a transplant. Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is a very fast growing epidemic. I was told by one of her doctors that in another few years Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease will far outweigh the cause of liver transplants by any other reason here in the United States.
From the day Stacie was diagnosed with Celiac Disease I removed all sources of wheat and gluten from my diet. I had known for twenty years I had issues with wheat and had drastically reduced wheat consumption but had never gone totally gluten free. While Stacie was in the hospital, I decided to clean out all sources of gluten from my kitchen, cupboards, refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. Even with the wheat products that I had already eliminated, I removed 2 large garbage bags of foods that contained gluten. I Googled every single item in my kitchen to check for hidden sources of gluten and found it in many items you would not imagine it to be in. Since that day, August 6th of 2015, wheat and gluten have not entered into my kitchen or my body. This was the turning point in my life that changed the way I think about everything I eat, the water I drink, the air I breathe, and the chemicals and personal products I allow into my home.
Our new beginning.
I would like to start from the beginning and share with you our transformation into the life that Dennis and I have today. I want to share with all of you a photo that was taken on June 24th 2012, our 40th wedding anniversary. It was an extremely stressful time, we had a storage unit fire and lost all of our doll mold inventory in May of that year. Dennis was still working his factory job of over 42 years at the time with awful hours and working conditions. Along with that we were also traveling all over the country picking up used doll molds. We were still trying to rebuild my business after the loss with the fire. Dennis lived on about three hours or less a night sleep for several years and the stress was really starting to take a toll on his health and mine. I have since seen a documentary called “Fat, Sick , and Nearly Dead” and that is probably as close as I can come to describing both of us back in 2012. I never cared much for having our picture taken so this is the only reference I have to show you. Don’t we just look the picture of health?
The first step in our transformation began the summer of 2013.
I ran into a classmate from school one day who introduced me to a product called “Zeal For Life” by Zurvita. It is a synergistic blend of whole food concentrates. Zeal drinks provide vitamins and minerals, along with powerful antioxidents and phytonutrients. We both felt so lousy so decided what did we have to lose? Within a few weeks of starting the nutritional drinks we both began to feel better and have a lot more energy. We were better able to control a lot of the food cravings we had always had and really started to watch the foods we were eating. After starting to lose weight gradually we also noticed a significant difference in our complexions.
Our journey in 2015.
Fast forward to August of 2015, by then I had lost about 30 pounds, Dennis had lost about 25 pounds. We were both feeling better than we had in years. We had been drinking the “Zeal For Life” by Zurvita for two years then. Our immune systems had improved immensely over that two year period. Dennis had gone from a constant round of colds and sore throats and I usually had a respiratory infection several times a year to nothing. We have had very little of the flu and colds that make the rounds every year for the six years now we have drank this wonderful nutritional drink. This drink is our morning coffee. Neither one of us have ever drank coffee and a day without “Zeal” for us would be like a day without coffee to many of you. For more info you can visit our page “Zeal for Life”.
Continuing our wellness journey.
Another one of the many changes in our life over a period of years has been the use of Young Living “Essential Oils”. I have been a Young Living user since 1999, and have now found many ways to incorporate the use of pure therapeutic essential oils into our daily lives. I honestly cannot imagine our lives without them and use multiple oils every day for a variety of many reasons. Our medicine cabinet is filled with a multitude of essential oils we use for everything from an upset stomach, stress management, pain, and personal care products. I have an essential oil diffuser running constantly in almost every room when at home. I love having the steady stream of some wonderful aromatic plant essences constantly surrounding me. I do not burn regular candles or use any type of synthetic air fresheners anywhere in my home. If you have any questions on the use of essential oils from Young Living please feel free to ask me and check out our page called “Essential Oils”.
Gluten Free Baking and Cooking
Freeze Dried Foods
Wellness Socks