Find a Friend – DBlog Week #1

14 Monday May 2012

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It seems the most popular thing about Diabetes Blog Week is that it helps us find blogs we weren’t reading yet and connect with some new blog friends. With that in mind, let’s kick off Diabetes Blog Week by making some new connections. Think about the d-blogs you read that you think we may not know about and introduce us to one that you love!! Let’s all find a new friend today! (Special thanks to Gina, everybody’s Diabetes BFF, for helping me title this post!)

Most of the diabetes blogs I read I found through Diabetes Blog Week. However, here are a few you may not know about.

Shannon of http://mommygoingcrazy.blogspot.com/
Shannon is an amazing photographer and mother of three adorable kids, close in age to my own little cherubs. Her two youngest were diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes a year apart. Her Mommy Going Crazy blog had already been up and running for several years prior to that craziness! I have had the wonderful privilege of meeting Shannon and her two little ones in person. They are the sweetest people and the cutest family. She has taken a few breaks from blogging but has recently come back into the blogging scene.

Cara aka Divabetic913 of http://diabuddies.wordpress.com/
She found me. Actually it was because of Leah from the next link. I love the name Divabetic. That’s creative and sassy. She is a grad student and brand new Type 1. As part of her thesis she is conducting a survey about insulin pumps and CGM sensors and how this affects self esteem. I filled out her survey.

Leah of http://lovehatediabetes.wordpress.com/
She found me. I had published some post about diabetes and she commented. Being the type of person I am, I had to check out her blog. She’s a college student and has had Type 1 diabetes for maybe 5 years. Through comments back and forth and me pointing her to some of my old posts that answered her questions, we became bloggy friends.

Check these girls out! Wow, that sounds really bad. Maybe you could just visit their blogs instead! Winking smile

Please visit Karen at http://www.bittersweetdiabetes.com/ if you would like to participate in Diabetes Blog Week. You can participate even if you don’t have a blog! (Dawn) True story.

“Don’t have a blog at all?  You can still participate in Diabetes Blog Week.  Joslin Diabetes Center has put out a call for DBlog Week submissions to be published on their blog!  See this post for all of the information you need on submitting your DBlog Week contribution.”

Say Yes to the Mother’s Day Dress

13 Sunday May 2012

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One of Gwen’s favorite activity is watching Say Yes to the Dress with me. Since Heath was sent home from work early (coworkers thought he needed rest he was so sick), the boys didn’t go camping. Gwen did watch some Say Yes to the Dress anyway. On Saturday she gave me a piece of cardboard she colored. She wished me a Happy Mother’s Day and gave me a “Say Yes to the Dress yaptop.” How sweet. She thought it was a great gift too and kept it!

I did finish the dress I’ve been working on. This dress was my way of getting over the drama of nearly dying while visiting my family. I have a love hate relationship with my dress.

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Let’s forget about the fact that I am much wider than I imagine I am in the mirror! I love the dress because I think I did a great job on it. It fits well. The bodice is a little short but my friend gave me a suggestion to fix that in the next round. So many people complimented me on my dress today. That made me feel good.

Heath keeps assuring me it looks good. My problem is I hate the fabric. It’s a really thick cotton. The kind that you look at wrong and it wrinkles. This dress has many layers in some places to achieve the right look. The most layers are in the pockets. You know, right at my roly poly tummy that I have always hated. The dress feels thick and obnoxious. I hate it. But it looks good!

I’m going to make a replacement dress with different fabric and give this dress away. Just not sure what fabric to go with!

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This is a cute picture from today’s photo shoot. Although in this moment Gwen is mad at me because I won’t let her play with my stuff. She told me we aren’t best girls anymore! It doesn’t hurt my feelings. She’s so fickle. We’ll be best girls again in five more minutes!

It’s been a lovely Mother’s Day. My favorite part was sitting outside together as a family telling funny family memories. We were laughing like crazy. Then Heath had the kids take turns telling me why they love me. It was fun.

The traditional Primary song to the mothers didn’t go as well in real life as I imagined. Heath had taken Gwen to the bathroom. Gavin was laying on the bench not getting up. I wasn’t sure if I should remind him or not. He got up when the Bishopric counselor got up and announced the kids were invited to come up and sing. I thought that was interesting since most of the kids were already halfway up to the stand. Parker stood there for a couple seconds not sure what to do since he was apparently solo. Then I couldn’t really see either of my boys. Other kids were in front of them. It’s ok. I know my kids love me!

Hate my dress but I love my family! It’s been a fun Sunday.

Diabetes Blog Week starts tomorrow. I’ve already overthought some of the topics!

I Learned Something Say What

12 Saturday May 2012

Posted by in Family, Funny

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The kids did a little camping out last night. Heath is sick and really didn’t feel like camping out with a bunch of guys and their sons in the cold. I didn’t blame him. He blames my mom for his sickness. You know, the whole mouth to mouth thing. He has a sore throat and gets chills and hot flashes so I don’t think I gave him what my mom gave me! Just saying.

Anyway, the kids were so excited to sleep outside in the tent. I had to quiet them down so they wouldn’t bother the neighbors. They fell asleep soon after that. Then they woke up before 5:30 this morning. Laughing and talking as loud as humanly possible, breaking the peaceful morning silence. I had to go out there and tell them to be quiet or our neighbors would hate us. They were quiet and Heath and I slept for another couple hours.

My favorite part of the whole thing was when this conversation took place.

Gavin: I learned something last night.
Me: What did you learn?
Gavin: I learned that Gwen snores!
Gwen: I don’t snore!
Gavin and Parker: Yes you do!
Gwen: I don’t snore that loud.
Heath: Are you sure it wasn’t just your mom snoring and you could hear it through the open windows?
Gavin: No, it was Gwen because I was less than a centimeter away from her!
(thanks kid, and I love your measuring for the insane)

The other night we had this great conversation.

Parker: I remember Mom was so high she was eating a big bowl of Lucky Charms.
Heath: If she was high she wouldn’t be eating. She must have been low.
Parker: Oh I get it! Low means she doesn’t have enough food and high means she’s pretty much full!

I love my kids. The Say Whats keep coming. I just haven’t been as good at keeping a running draft of them. At least the kids are learning something every day.

Blue Genes

11 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Piquant

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In lieu of Mother’s Day and Diabetes Blog Week, I have a question.

If you knew you were a carrier of a disease or illness would you still have kids?

I was talking with a friend today. Her son has hemophilia. Her daughter is also a carrier. The daughter is thinking of starting a family soon. My friend thinks she should talk with a specialist first. My friend was wondering if there is any way to isolate the gene in eggs and only fertilize the non-hemophilia eggs. It’s a very interesting dilemma and possible solution.

The movie Gattaca keeps coming to mind. In that movie people had the ability to go to a genetic specialist and basically special order a genetically superior child. My favorite part is when Uma Thurman’s character finds out that Ethan Hawke’s character was not ordered this way. I love when she says, “You’re a God child?” I love that sentiment that some people were happy accidents. They were called faith births. Of course they were also called negative things like invalids (as in not valid) or degenerates.

I can’t think of a moment in my life where I didn’t want to have my own children. By the time I had my first baby I had been diabetic for 15 years. I guess you could say I had the chance to not want to pass my “faulty” genes onto a child but I didn’t care. I knew of enough diabetic women who had had their own children. I was going to go for it. Maybe some consider that recklessness. I don’t. The world would be a much different place if my three kids were not in it because I chose not to have children based on my “genetic imperfections.”

The gene pool is what it is. Things happen. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the healthiest people in the world with the most beautiful genetic pedigree can get together and mutations occur. It’s part of life.

That’s my piquant opinion. What do you think?

Miracles

10 Thursday May 2012

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My house is presentable enough for people to come over! A friend has been wanting to come see my scrapbooks and how I store my millions of photos for a while now. We just haven’t been able to coordinate a get together. Until today when she called. I told her to come by tomorrow afternoon. In my head I said “because my house may look better by then!” This is a true story! I’ve been playing too much with my sewing machine.

As miraculous as a tidy house is for me nowadays, that’s not what I wanted to post about. I wanted to talk about the miracle of prayer. I am well aware that my readers come from many different religious backgrounds. There are many things that unite us. One of them is our faith in a higher power. This life was never meant to be easy but I see the most amazing miracles in people’s lives when they exercise faith in God, however they believe in Him.

Last Friday I asked for prayers. On Saturday I called my sister and told her what I did. I hoped she didn’t mind. I could tell she didn’t really know what to say to my invasion of her privacy. She finally found words and said, “Well, the prayers must be working because we have seen so many miracles!”

Those miracles continue each day. Little Talon has only been on this earth for six days and already he has seen miracle after miracle. He needed a blood transfusion because his platelet count was low. The nurses were telling Candi and Ed what number they were shooting for. The nurse said that a 50 point jump would be a miracle. In 24 hours his platelet count has jumped 190 some odd points. Can you say miraculous?

He is still breathing on his own. He is a breastfed baby. Candi pumps and takes it to the NICU where they fortify it with extra calories to beef that boy up. She did the same for Isabel but it was such a struggle to have enough that Candi soon gave up. This time around the NICU’s fridge is full of milk for Talon and Candi’s fridge at home has plenty more that they haven’t taken in yet. The nurses are impressed that a woman that just had a c-section can produce that much that soon after surgery. I know it’s another blessing from a loving Heavenly Father.

Our stake (community of church members) had a special fast on Sunday. A well known teenager had an accident while helping his dad in the warehouse on Saturday. This family has seen miracles as well. He lived through the trauma to his head and lived through surgery. He is doing quite well all things considered.

Prayers and faith produce miracles. This is not to say that anyone who prays and doesn’t have a favorable outcome is not blessed. I believe that through faith and prayer we can be blessed with peace even if our worst fears are realized.

Think back on your day and week. What miracles have you seen?

Oakland A’s Game

09 Wednesday May 2012

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The best first grade field trip is to the Oakland A’s game. The kids have to fulfill a reading contract in order to earn a free ticket to the game. Parents have to purchase their tickets in advance. While it’s only $6 I think paying early gives the parents a lot of incentive to help their child earn a ticket.

Gavin had no problem earning his ticket. He’s a little bookworm. Parker had to be convinced on several occasions to do the extra reading required. The contract asks for four extra hours of reading on top of required homework reading. Two book reports are also required. The kids get a month, maybe a little more than a month, to complete the contract.

Parker is a do it himself kind of guy. His first book report looked like a first grader did it without any help! It’s so hard for me to be his mom sometimes. I have to bite my tongue a lot. At the end of the day I am actually very impressed with Parker’s desire to do things on his own. It’s a good lesson for him to learn early in life.

The second book report had to be a video. Partly because Heath and I like to show off our videography skills and partly because it’s fun. Mostly we decided Parker had to have a video because we did that for Gavin. The truth is that Gavin has done as many school videos as he has because it’s a creative way for him to share his knowledge without the added pressure of doing it in front of a group. Maybe I baby him too much though.

It made perfect sense to do a video of Gavin interviewing “Dr. Seuss” in a biography book report. Gavin likes those types of books. Parker is more of a fictional reader. So his video report was a little more tricky. We landed on the idea of Parker promoting his book Reading Rainbow style. I think it turned out really cute. I have to say, I love first grade. It’s so fun to come up with creative approaches to the various assignments that perfectly suit each kid’s personality.

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Parker and Claire at the game. Here’s what Parker had to say about his fun field trip:

“I had a lot of candy! I had a lot of junk food too! Before we went we had a king sized Kit Kats. Before we got to the stadium we had Twix. For lunch we had a hot dog. Before the hot dog we had some root beer with it. I had some cotton candy. After the game I had some Twix. Three of them. Then when we got home we had some ice cream sandwiches. And they were good! And that’s it.

It was fun and I got to sit by Claire. The game is still going on because it’s on TV. We’re watching it. It was funny because for a long time it was 0 vs. 0. The other team scored first.”

Heath decided to leave the game early since he and Parker were getting tired. They followed us down the street after I had picked up Gavin from school. That was a fun surprise.

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This is how we found Parker. He was snoring. I am not surprised. He has always gotten tired in the afternoon. If he’s had an extra fun day he crashes like this. Otherwise he’s just grouchy. Check out the licorice on the seatbelt strap.

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Apparently Heath took pictures of Parker asleep with it in his mouth! Such a sweet little guy!

Conspiracy Theory

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Funny, I'm a Mormon, Piquant

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I can’t stand it, I know you planned it
I’m gonna set it straight, this Watergate
I can’t stand rocking when I’m in here
‘Cause your crystal ball ain’t so crystal clear
~ Sabotage lyrics by Beastie Boys

My conspiracy theory is that the school gets on their CB’s and plans to have these restaurant nights on the only day in the week or month that we can’t be there! They do it on purpose! Hopefully my family is laughing because the CB reference and “doing it on purpose” comment were for their benefit. It’s a family memory/joke.

Seriously though. The boys came home with the flyer and I specifically asked Heath if anything was going on that night to prevent us from participating and giving 15% of our check back to the school. He said no. I thought it through and said I couldn’t think of anything either. Gavin has Scouts on Tuesday afternoons but that wouldn’t prevent us from doing anything special for dinner.

My church responsibilities would. How could I have forgotten that I’m part of a committee that plans monthly activities for the women to enjoy the second Tuesday of every month? I did forget though. I tried to make the restaurant work. Impossible. Heath has too much going on today at work to meet Gwen and me for a lunch date (yes the 15% give back deal is all day). We offered to babysit for another committee member whose husband has a meeting at the same time she needs to set up.

Once again we will not be financially supporting the school. Maybe Gavin’s teacher will say something about it! Heath is furious that Gavin’s teacher praised the class for raising money and getting pledges for the Fun Run. She said that everyone in the class did but one student. While she didn’t say names, the kids aren’t idiots.

Conspiracy theory or observation of the truth? It stopped being paranoid skepticism when a year or more ago we were unable to make any of the restaurant dates. True story. Perhaps we can order takeout for Heath to pick up on his way home from work. Then I will feel less Beastie.

Occupy Blame

07 Monday May 2012

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The father and sons campout is just around the corner, as in this weekend. A friend found this review while looking for a tent on Amazon. I had to share.

5 of 14 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I blame this tent for all the problems I currently have in my life…., April 15, 2012

By

squism chaser “panther” (seattle wa) – See all my reviews

This review is from: Coleman WeatherMaster Screened 6 Tent (Sports)

I had purchased this tent with high hopes in my mind. I had read fabulous reviews, and I thought that it would be the perfect purchase for me……boy was I wrong.
So the reason that I decided to buy this thing was because of a certain protest that you may have heard about on the news. I was hurting financially, didn’t have a lot of prospects going on in my life, so I decided that I would try to shift the blame for my own personal failures and decided to occupy Wall Street. Not the big one, just a local protest in my home town. I knew that I was going in for the long run, so I figured this would be a good purchase as it was to be my new home in a sense (there is actually no `sense’ in the idea at all. I had blown my last three months’ rent on reefers so I was also being evicted).
I liked the reinforced roof as I thought it would come in handy with all the rain we get around here. While it did do an alright job with the weather, it didn’t shield me from the harsh reality that I had become little more than a common street bum. Every morning that I woke up I had to look at the roof of this tent and listen to the sound of my fellow citizens going to work and earning a pay check. It made me sick. I had many deep revelations while I stared at that fine weatherproofed ceiling. The thought that stuck with me was how unfair it was that some people get to be rich and I have to be poor. Why should they be allowed to have all the finest things in life? The way I see it, they should just give me some of their wealth so I can live in a house to and smoke more reefers without the guilt of knowing that the money I pack into the bowl of my bong would be the reason while I have to ride my bike down to the unemployment office vs. being able to drive like a real American. Life is unfair.
The other major beef I had with this tent, was the false image of the large screened in lounging area of the side. Others had written reviews saying how they were able to enjoy the space with several family members and friends on sultry, southern, summer nights. That is simply bull spit. Let me tell you about my fellow patriots who braved the front lines of this protest,…we travel deep. The second night I had set up camp, I quickly found several other people who were in need of a place to stay and hang out and the space provided was not adequate in the least. The actual number of bodies wasn’t the problem. The side area was going to be the area where we stored our gear. Well, let me tell you something, fifteen hippie’s means that I needed a space that would store fifteen acoustic guitars, thirty hacky sacs, nine bongs, two hookahs, twelve duffle bags, and a four drawer file cabnit to keep all of our government handouts organized. This tent didn’t come anywhere near meeting such a challenge.
I also think that is worth mentioning that when the bottles and tear gas started flying, little protection was provided with the thin tent walls. When I called the manufacturer, they had the nerve to tell me that this was a tent that was designed for normal camping situations. Freaking capitalist jerks, getting rich off lies they sell to the little man. I am going to start a petition that demands that they not only give me my money back, but that they also provide me with several more tents at no additional cost. I would appreciate any support my fellow amazon warriors could provide. In the mean time I will continue to live the dream.

I have never laughed harder at a review!

Update

05 Saturday May 2012

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I love the Internet! I never know how far a post will reach. It’s amazing to me how much further a post will go than I ever imagined. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes for my sister and new nephew.

Since Heath and I were out on a date last night I haven’t had a chance to call my family yet. I found out the shocking news just before Heath got home from work. Basically what I’m trying to say is I don’t know much more than I did from my mom’s texts last night.

Candi and Talon

Although I do know both mom and baby are doing well. Candi looks awesome! I never looked that good after my c-sections.

Baby TalonLittle Guy

Presenting Talon Nathan who joined the world on Star Wars Day – May the 4th be with you! He was 3 lbs. 11 oz. Bigger than his sister was when she was born. Talon was breathing on his own and doing quite well for a little guy.

According to my mom, Ed is a proud papa and he cannot stop smiling! That makes my heart melt. Ed is such a great dad. The fact that he is beside himself with joy and not worry tells me everything is okay.

Congratulations Candi and Ed! You made another tiny miracle and he’s perfect!

Prayers Wanted

04 Friday May 2012

Posted by in Family, I'm a Mormon

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My sister is in the hospital waiting to have her second preemie via c-section. Good heavens! I don’t quite understand what happened. My mom was texting me and said something about my sister’s placenta only doing 28-34 weeks. I don’t know what that means.

Three years ago when I found out my sister was in the hospital having an emergency c-section I was obviously concerned. I prayed for her then but I’m a little extra nervous now. Not that I think anything bad will happen. There’s just been too many close calls in my family lately. The kids and I prayed that Candi would be ok and that, the Lord willing, her baby would be ok too.

A fire truck had its siren going as I drove Parker home from school today. It affected me. I didn’t want it to but it affected me. I get a little melancholy at some point every weekend thinking about all the what ifs. Now I find out all this craziness about my sister. I don’t think anything bad will happen. Although his heart rate has dropped twice so he’s got to be coming out soon. Please say a prayer for my family. Especially for my sister and her baby.

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