I used to actually wonder how I would fill each day. The hours stretched on forever. The minutes never seemed to move forward and I’m pretty sure the seconds ticked backwards. As the kids have become more independent somehow we are late everywhere we go. Is it me that just can’t seem to dress myself in a timely manner? I don’t know. The clock skips hours. I swear it does.

Play dates fill my calendar as if I’m in the final weeks of pregnancy and having medical appointments multiple times a week. The difference is that now I play too. My friends and I chat while the kids terrorize the house or park or each other. As fun as my life is, there seems to be no rest for the weary.

Lists have become my life. If I don’t write it down I guarantee I won’t remember. Even then I make no promises. I almost have to schedule in time to blog! That is a difficult adjustment for me, the blogging queen. Nobody takes naps anymore so my me time is always full of someone else’s needs. Not to worry, I take plenty of me time. I’m addicted to it. My problem is I get to the end of each day having nothing accomplished. I can’t even count diapers changed, booger smears on my shirt from comforting a child, or hand washing sessions. I should count how many times I use the bathroom since I don’t seem to do that anymore. I’m too busy!

It’s a strange stage of life I am not comfortable with yet. My grandpa loved to water ski and he loved to teach people to ski. He always talked about the point where the water is mushy and the skier doesn’t feel ready to stand up yet as their skis wobble beneath them. He encouraged people to gut through that uncomfortable part. I remember my mom shouting at so many skiers the correct time to stand up. It was interesting to watch. I always knew exactly when to stand up. I just hated it. Standing on water can be left to those who also walk on water. I’m not worthy!

The baby stage was hard. I was in survival mode for years with no mental capacity for much else. With the water skiing analogy, the baby stage was the anxiety filled moments of bobbing in the water with a life jacket creeping up to my ears while I attempted to maintain enough balance to get skis on and underneath me. Now I’m in the uncomfortable mushy part. I just hope I know when to stand up. I also hope I enjoy standing on water when I get there.

For now I’m going on a date with Heath. It’s a little lame I’m this excited about it since it’s a marriage relations class at the church that the bishop has highly encouraged all couples to attend. The kids will be playing in the Nursery on the other side of the church with a babysitter so I’m looking forward to it. I get to sit next to Heath and *gasp* hold his hand! At this point in my life I will take whatever I can get.

As I looked at circles all over my abdomen in various shades of healing red and pink, I wondered where I should put a new site. I needed a site that would absorb well. With no one home to help me I had to change the site myself and I was not going to do it again! I had to get it right the first time.

My stomach has been developing more and more dead spots (spots where there is too much scar tissue to absorb the insulin well). No wonder since I’ve been using my stomach exclusively for nearly 12 years. Time for some new real estate.

I eyed my hip and started squeezing it. Yeah, there’s enough there for a 9 mm cannula. I pulled my pants up and down a few times trying to determine if any seams would be right on the site. Then I pushed the buttons and my heart raced for a good 30 minutes afterwards! My blood sugar came down quickly with a correction bolus and has stayed awesome all day. Yay!

My hip aches a little. I’m very aware that I have a 9 mm cannula infusing insulin into my body. I’ve tried sites in my hip before and it was a literal pain in the butt! Bu-u-u-u-u-t . . . I am in desperate need of virgin sites.

Yesterday I visited with my nurse, or certified diabetes educator. She was telling me that if I had a shorter cannula I could switch to a longer one for better absorption. Since I already use the longest available my other option would be to switch to a new infusion set that goes in at a different angle.

I asked her if Mini Med had a tubeless pump. She told me no. The only tubeless pump is an Omni Pod and Mini Med doesn’t make it and Kaiser doesn’t cover it. I don’t mind the tubing it’s just that if I didn’t have to worry about stringing it through my clothes I could use my arms for sites. Then she told me the most piquant story I have ever heard.

One of her pregnant patients is well endowed to begin with. The pregnancy is doing some Pamela Anderson things to her chest. So she has been using her ample bosom for infusion set sites.

I’ll let that sink in for a minute . . .

I know! Crazy right? I’m thinking ouch. Apparently it doesn’t bother her. She rotates her sites and she puts her pump in her bra. That I would like to see. I know that’s an option and try as I might I can’t conceal my pump in my bra effectively. If I want to look like I have a uniboob or have some strange growth in the valley then I could try it. The only times I’ve worn my pump in my bra was when I shoved it under my arm. Then I spend the whole time I’m in the dress scratching at my armpit like a monkey as I feel to see if the pump is falling out. Not really worth it.

With jeans on I can’t really see my hip site through my clothes. When I was still in my super comfy, I almost want to stop getting dressed every day, pajama pants I could definitely see a site bump. What would a site on one of the girls look like under clothes? Then there’s the inevitable itching reaction from the insulin and I’m thinking no on that extreme real estate. I’ve heard of other piquantly bizarre real estate sites but I think it’s just a rumor.

They’re all great but my two favorites are:

“Don’t tell him that he doesn’t love you because he might believe you.
Do you love me or do you not? You told me once but I forgot.
Always remember to tell each other that you love them.”
~Your favorite youngest sister~

“Always remember who you are and what each of us is worth in the sight of God. We are the worst judge of our own character and need to rely on the Lord to tell us our true worth!”
~Heath~

We take safety seriously around here. A large percentage of accidents happen within the home or within five miles of home. It’s either the above image or choose to join the Occupy the World Movement. Safety Punkin; safety.

Gwen’s new Barbie helmet did not come with a bike. She was disappointed. No matter how many times we remind her that her birthday is in a few weeks she still believes her bike will show up in the mailbox. When I told her I didn’t think a bike would fit in the mailbox she rolled her eyes at me and told me it would be in a box! Duh Mom! You think we order too many things online? What she doesn’t know is that she will get a bike. For her birthday. It’s tradition!

Gavin decided he wanted to learn to ride his bike but he wanted elbow and knee pads first. So we hooked him up. Hence the trip to the toy store to size Gwen for bikes. I did not get a picture of him but I should have. With his skinny little Grover arms and legs covered in black padding he looked pretty funny. He was still a little apprehensive though. Heath asked if we should bubble wrap his torso too! Not a bad idea since Gavin wants leg pads, arm pads, earlobe pads, and nostril pads to go with his teenage sized skater dude padding. Oh my!

Do you remember when we were kids? There were no car seats. No helmets. Any sort of elbow and knee pads were for wimps. Or the rich kids who had the newfangled acrylic skates. My family used the metal skates that you could adjust with a key. Sparks would shoot out the wheels if we got going fast enough!

Seatbelt laws didn’t exist. By the time I was a kid most new cars had seatbelts but they were more or less a nice suggestion. We just knew how to take a fall back then! The more scabs kids had the more fun they must have been having! We actually beat on each other instead of pretending through video games. We learned pretty fast that hitting hurts. So do Indian burns while being tied to a pole with a jumprope. One of those jumpropes with the big plastic beads that pinched. Kids these days are being raised to be pansies.

No worries. I can play the game. My kids don’t go anywhere without their helmets and full body football padding. They are ready for anything life throws at them. And with dishwashers they don’t even risk ruining their soft, flawless skin with dishpan hands.

Sinking or swimming with scouting has resulted in me drowning. Thank heavens Heath was in Boy Scouts so he gets it. Without him my two boys would be doomed! Poor Gavin has skated along with a blissfully ignorant smile on his face. I assume eventually I’ll understand and be able to help him more than carpooling with a friend.

The one thing I will never understand is Pinewood Derbies. I tried to come up with a perfectly piquant hyperbole showing just how much I dislike Pinewood Derbies and I think I got it.

I would rather shop at Wal-Mart for eight hours straight than go to a Pinewood Derby race.

Those of you who know me and my stand on Wal-Mart know that’s saying something. Big time. So Heath was a cool dad and helped Gavin with his car. Gavin looked online for ideas and settled on a shark. Then Gavin conveniently got sick and Heath ended up taking over the whole project. At least it’s a good excuse! Hard to say how he would have rationalized it otherwise.

Heath asked if I wanted to go knowing full well I would rather do any number of self torture activities than go. I simply told him no. He agreed to take Gavin and possibly Parker if he was interested. By Friday night I was beyond my satiety level for social situations. Park Day, shopping, picking up Parker from school who begged me to take him to the Dollar Store so he could spend his dollar, then picking up Gavin from Chess Club, and dropping who knows how low in the middle of all this errand running and shoving anything I could find in my mouth – fruit snacks, glucose tabs, wrappers wadded around ABC gum; it all left me emotionally wiped out.

Gwen and I were in our pajamas before 6:30 pm ready for a girls night in. The boys left and we watched Say Yes to the Dress and Phineas and Ferb. Unfortunately I let Gwen wear her Minnie Mouse ears with the tiara and veil. She wanted to look like the brides. I have heard her ask ever since. Oops.

Gavin’s car did really well. He won two races and if he had a little more weight he could have won even more. His friend lost every single race. That would be a big bummer.

Heath faded away into a ghostly shell of his former self. See I told you Pinewood Derbies were bad news! Now I can add service widow to my sport widowhood. Sorry Heath, I didn’t mean to kill you by making you spend an evening with chaos and hyper kids!

Actually he was wearing a green shirt that blended too much into the green screen. The photographer noticed and quickly fixed the problem. We got both copies so I could laugh!

Gavin had fun so I guess that’s more important than any way I feel about this part of scouting. You can see it in his face. He was way excited.

(images found here)

They’re not super accurate, obviously. My Need For Commitment Hemisphere is probably now my Need For Crafting Hemisphere. The Chocolate Centre is a little large. I only want chocolate once a month. Sometimes not even then. Salty snacks work too. The listening part is way too large on the female brain. I don’t listen to anyone. My mind wanders too much. What? Did you say something?

Anyway, my point with all of this is I have single-handedly kept JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store in business. Recession? It’s not affecting them. I’m in there every other day. I took a break after I finished sewing Gwen’s second skirt that looks very similar to the first. It’s been a week or so since I’ve been in the craft store. I’m starting to have withdrawals.

Heath has also determined that Gwen has cute little friends so it would be a crime to not have another birthday party for her. Nothing near the scale of extravagance we went to last year! Just a cute little, simple tea party. But with sick kids staying home every day I can’t get out! I need to go shopping to see if I can piece things together cheaper and easier than online with shipping costs. I am so not a shopper either. It’s Heath’s fault that I have found shopping. I blame him. Thanks  . . . hm I don’t have pet names for him. Thanks Stud! How’s that? Love you Dude! No, that’s what I tell the boys. Love you Heath-Bar!

• How important is it to memorize math facts?
• How important is handwriting, specifically letter formation?
• Why would anyone need days of the week underwear? Are you supposed to flash it when someone asks what day it is? Or excuse yourself while checking it out yourself? What happens if you wear it out of order? It’s Monday all day unless you wear your Friday underwear instead?
• Does anyone know where I can find relatively cheap princess or tea party gloves? Halo Heaven has the best deal I can find. ($2.25 a pair) Unfortunately they are sold out!

I would love any responses to these questions. They’re great debate topics.

Parker wanted to go downstairs and watch TV. As soon as he laid down on the couch he had a green desperate look in his face. I shoved the bowl under his chin and he threw up bile. He never ate dinner last night so there was no food at all on his tummy.

Meanwhile Gavin was in the downstairs bathroom. Not sure why he went all the way downstairs to use the bathroom. I saw bloody drips all over the kitchen floor. When Gavin came out he said there was blood all over the bathroom and he went back in to clean it up. Gwen came downstairs and announced she had peed in her bed.

The funny part of that story is that last night Heath had come out of the master bathroom to go to bed right as Gwen opened her door. It surprised him and he asked her what was wrong. That surprised her enough she literally fell onto her backside on the floor crying hysterically. Heath went to pick her up and comfort her but I grabbed her from him because I didn’t want him to hurt his toe. Gwen’s little heart was racing and she was shaking but she said she was up because she needed to use the bathroom. She did her business and went back to bed.

Heath had decided to go in to work this morning and he declined my offer to drive him. Maybe that was a good thing since all three kids were leaking from one hole in their body or another all before 7:30 am!

This is the best version of this song!

It’s been a weekend around here and Heath and I make quite the pair. I gave him gout on Saturday. I wish I was making that up but evidence points to me as the culprit. Then I got the worst headache on Sunday. One of those dizzy, almost nauseating, headaches. The dents in the couch are becoming more and more pronounced. The TV is exhausted from trying to entertain all of us.

Gavin spiked a fever on Saturday and laid around all day in his pajamas. He slept really well that night and without a hint of a fever I made him go to church on Sunday! The Wicked Witch of the West returns. He was upset at first but he got over it pretty quickly. I maintained my new persona. Just ask Gwen’s Sunbeam class. I substituted on Sunday and I think I’m done with the whole giving in to the sob stories and subbing thing. I’m sorry those kids have had three different teachers in three weeks, but I think they would prefer I never take on the role of their teacher again. I think I shouldn’t fill in for anyone for awhile. I’m officially burned out.

On Saturday I took Gwen to a birthday party. It was fun and she loved it. It was at Color Me Mine, a place where you can buy and paint ceramics in the store. I dropped a ceramic cupcake trying to help my friend, the hostess, take items to the table for the kids to choose from. Yeah, it broke. I wish I could say differently. I felt horrible. Luckily the store didn’t charge for it.

Extra gravity followed me and I spilled cereal crumbs all over the floor trying to cut out a stupid box tops for education label. I was tired, socially spent, and not looking forward to subbing a class full of 3 year olds who are so fresh from the toys and snacks of Nursery. I told Heath I wanted my comfort food. Because he loves me a little too much . . . some tough love may have been a better solution . . . he brought home Carl’s Jr.

He ate a huge Big Carl. Lots of red meat! Mmmm. A couple hours later his right big toe hurt. Really bad. Like he had broken it or sprained it hurt. Only he hadn’t. It was swollen and he could barely walk. 

He couldn’t sleep that night. I could. Apparently I slept through his tossing and turning and his getting up to eat so he could take Ibuprofen. At some point I opened my eyes and realized he was on his tablet. He said he was checking on Web MD. I told him to be careful with that site. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Web MD is a great site. You type in your symptoms and a mile long list of possible diagnoses links show up. Your symptoms can result in anything from menstrual cramps to worst case scenario cancer that may kill you tomorrow. When Heath typed in his symptoms only five results came up. They all centered around gout.

This was more or less confirmed over the phone by an on call doctor Sunday morning. The doctor mercifully called in a prescription for super sonic Ibuprofen. Only our local Kaiser pharmacy is closed on Sunday so the doctor called it into our grocery store pharmacy we used to go to. Heath hobbled in there to be told they don’t take our insurance. He grabbed the woman by the pharmacy coat lapels and said, “I don’t care! I will pay whatever the drugs cost!” Ok, that’s not true. He very calmly asked how much it would cost to pay out of pocket. She did her magic on the computer putting in weird codes and discounts and charged Heath $10 for the pills.

I had the worst headache yesterday that somehow didn’t go away today. I considered giving into my bulimic tendencies but soon thought better of it. Instead I told Heath we better get him in to the lab for his blood work. The results are interesting. His uric acid is on the high side of normal but not out of range. Hm.

Heath says my headache is me being jealous of him. He could be right! It’s always all about me! He told me earlier today, when his foot was feeling much better, that he was afraid this was just a minor flare up. What will happen if it really hurts? He wondered if he will cry. Then he told me I would try to outdo him again by dying or something and he would curse himself for not having more insurance on me! I sure wish I was making that up. He makes me laugh! I’m glad I’m not making that up. Although I wish I had made up the whole dramatic weekend.

Anyway, how is everyone else feeling? My head is feeling better but the lazy song is still calling my name.

We would spend a week camping and water skiing at Lake Mead. On Sunday we would go to church with my cousins and spend the rest of the day at their house. Depending on how our vacation worked out sometimes we would go to church in Moapa Valley.

Over the years we learned that camping in the fall was far superior to camping in the spring. The water was oh so warm and awesome. Springtime in Lake Mead usually meant rain. All week. Not warm rain either. So we would take our soggy selves to the Valley of Fire and other nearby parks or tourist attractions for something to do. Water skiing in the rain isn’t nearly as fun as it sounds! Although I loved the year we took a tour of the Hoover Dam. That was very interesting. I don’t remember if it was that same week or another year but my grandpa drove the boat as close to the Hoover Dam as we could get. That was pretty cool to see it from that perspective. My brother skied forever around the dam. Ah memories.

The memory I meant to tell was how I felt when I was not in school. The first few years I lived with diabetes I went to Clinic. That’s what my family called it anyway. There I met with my doctor, nurse, dietician, and social worker. There may have been other team members but those were the ones I remember. I would also get my blood drawn. One year I put up enough of a fuss about it that I convinced the phlebotomist to take the blood from my fingers instead of from my arm! It took a lot longer that way but it hurt a lot less!

Clinic would take a couple hours so I would go to school in the afternoon or get checked out early depending on my appointment time. I remember one time in 6th grade, I only know because I remember the purple and white striped sweatshirt I was wearing! My memories involve what I was wearing and I can figure out timing based on my clothes. I know, I’m weird. Anyway, Clinic was over right before lunch. I think my parents took me home to eat instead of sending me back to school to check in for the day in time for lunch. I remember stopping off at the grocery store and feeling sick to my stomach because I wasn’t in school.

I was always feeling queasy any time things were not exactly as they should be. See how long my relationship with anxiety has been? We go all the way back. If I was out of school for an appointment I felt weird until I was at the appointment. If I didn’t get to school right after I felt like a criminal! How dare I be out of school playing hooky with my parents! Vacations were different. I would get the homework ahead of time and finish it before we left town. The vacation was a welcome break at that point.

The memories keep flickering into my mind and rather than try to sort out the details here I will move on. As an adult I don’t see any issues with taking my kids out for vacations or to spend time with family visiting. Sick days are another story. My kids better be dying before I decide to keep them home. I get really uptight if they decide to be sick on days when I have plans. When I do keep them home I never know what to do with them!

What were sick days like in your house? I remember staying home from school a lot. Strep throat, flu, living in the hospital for a week being educated on diabetes, etc. I don’t remember ever staying home for a cold or fever. When I was home I was sick and in bed and wishing I was dead.

Another memory! In high school I was out with my friends and a Seminary teacher. It’s hard to say if we were all sluffing or what. Maybe it was after school. I had to have been a sophomore because first of all, Bro. Webb was driving us around and second, I remember talking to my friend in our sophomore Chemistry class a week later when he told me he felt horrible that I was sick for a week after that afternoon. He apologized profusely for encouraging me to eat all that chocolate with him.

We had gone to a craft store and James bought a package of light blue mint flavored melting chocolates. That we proceeded to eat all of. It wasn’t just the two of us. Eric had to have been there too. So three of us downing a bag of melting chocolates in a flavor I have never liked! I went home and felt like crap obviously. Only it lasted for a week because it was the flu. Good times! That may have been the flu where I read Steven King’s Firestarter. Great story. Foul language.

Well, Gavin is home today. He wanted to stay home yesterday but since he didn’t have a fever I simply told him he had a cold and he should suck it up and go to school. I felt bad since he had a barking cough already but what was I supposed to do with him? Coughing is not a real reason to stay home. The rest of the world has to function with a cold. Kids are no different. We drugged him up with the last dose of children’s ibuprofen last night before bed. I will always be grateful for Parenting Magazine for their story on remedies for common children illnesses. Anti inflammatory meds to help a child with croup breathe better has been a lifesaver for us.

He couldn’t sleep and when he finally fell asleep he couldn’t stay asleep. He was up at 9:30, 2:30, and 4:00. By 4:00 we wanted to give him more ibuprofen but we didn’t have any and Tylenol isn’t anti inflammatory. So Heath gave him a dose from Parker’s inhaler and a cough suppressant. And we decided then that he was staying home from school. That ruined Gavin’s day. He enjoys school and Fridays are his favorite days because he has Chess Club in the library right after school.

I made him hide out in my bedroom watching cartoons while Gwen had a play date. He’s been bored trying to find something to do all day. He bounces and runs like usual and once again I have to wonder if I was stupid for keeping him home. It just seemed like after all the drugs we put in his system overnight, and his restless night, school wasn’t the best idea. He could take the weekend to recover.

What’s your sick day philosophy and what were sick days like for you as a kid? Did you ever play hooky?