Back to School, BBQ, and Baseball..and a 600.

Pictures from vacation, notebooks for the kids' nurse and school, all on the back burner..  It's been a-c-t-u-a-l, make lunches, count carbs, sign papers, study for tests, back-to-school around here!

We were off to a rocky start the first two days of school..Mary Claire forget her meter, Ethan forgot his lunch box, and we had a few lows.  I guess they are a little more active at nine in the morning than they usually are at home, ha!

We think we've got it all sorted out.  Last week, we were rocking some amazing blood sugars at school!  The big kids are now at the same school, same lunch, so the nurse can send me their blood sugars together in one text message, SO HANDY! : )

 
But..then the weekend hit.  They've been exhausted, and hanging with friends..and eating.  Today was a big day with a Girl Scout kickoff BBQ and then we went to an Arkansas Naturals (minor league, farm team for the KC Royals) baseball game.  And thus began the highs.  Hot dogs, soda, chips, dippin' dots, funnel cakes, etc.  She was SIX HUNDRED before bed!!

Oh.my.goodness doesn't even begin to describe the frustration.  Clay was 232, and after her crazy high, that seemed almost magically wonderful.  Diabetes doesn't have any rules nor does it play fair.  Food of any sort throws it into orbit.  And I stayed on her all day to bolus for everything she was putting into her mouth.  It's just not an easy day when we aren't home or having packaged/carb counted food.  Whew. 

At least it was a great day with sweet friends all over northwest Arkansas. : )  I'm falling asleep, so I'd better go.  Another day awaits tomorrow!  Prayers for your kids, their friends, and calm days.  Hugs!  

Smells Good!

Mmmm...Laundry.  I'm just sure Tide and Downy were invented to make laundry enjoyable.  ("Hey-I have an idea!  If their clothes smell all fresh, and their endorphins are triggered with happy memories of these smells, they'll like laundry, and wash more often..and buy more detergent!")  Is there anything better than fresh, clean-smelling clothes? (I know it's perfume, not the shiny clean-ness making them smell so amazing-but ahhh...)  It does make me love pulling clean clothes out ten times more...and bear the folding and hanging up that must happen immediately, or I have to wash again (to get the smell action going again!)

I have the kids wear their jammies two times, to save on wear and tear, laundry (take that, Tide!), and so they have to practice folding every other morning (and because they aren't dirty after one night of a clean body in them!).  Totally personal choice, but anyway.  We are just phasing Ethan into twice-jammies (he's four and finally takes them off before breakfast!). (since I crave the way the tight jammies make him look like the baby I remember, plus he smells all sweet and clean laundry-ish)  Last night we were too lazy to go upstairs to get him clean jammies, so we pulled on Saturday night's jammies (still on the loveseat after getting him dressed for church downstairs!) since they aren't the tight ones and still looked great, and he put them on reluctantly, then told us, "they don't smell clean" (sadface).  (Umm..have I messed up somewhere?  Now he thinks clean smells like Tide/Downy)  Maybe that's why the kids push their jammies into the dirty clothes instead of folding them...


There was a funky-feet or rubbery smell in our coat closet last week (stale coats?), so I washed all the jackets/coats, and I'm just finishing up!  But the closet still doesn't smell amazing..and then I saw them-the snow boots.  I think I found the skeleton in the closet-eww!  But where do you keep them if not in the bottom of the coat closet? (and I have no mud room!)  Seriously?


-------------We have to commercial break between Downy commercials here. heehee : ) Yesterday was Mary Claire's bridging ceremony from Girl Scout Brownies to Juniors!  She was so excited.  We took Clay to baseball practice, and drove to Wilson Park.  I was so thankful so many people came-it was awesome! : )  The girls were all excited.  They should be-they are growing up!

Ethan chose to bring wear his Buzz getup.

And look what this can do!  It can shoot red sucker arrows!

Now..let's go save the galaxy!

Mary Claire's troop ready to bridge! : )

with her certificate and yummy cookie!

Check that thing out!  Beautiful! (recognize that sweet writing??)

On the bridge (obviously staged on the way back across!)

and then ice cream to celebrate-with chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and sprinkles

!

I'm super thankful she wasn't too high to eat-we'd eaten out for lunch, but I checked her right before we left for the park-187.  Celebrations can throw her off-all the excitement and adrenaline.  This morning, Ches just brought up that she eats more sugar than she should with diabetes.  We all eat too much sugar.  We don't go out and get it exactly.  And I can't say no at an event, and make her different.  So, what do we do?  All I know to do is let her live her life (as normally as possible), and fight for a CURE.  I refuse to let it get me down.  I lived down there for two years, and I won't go back.  I didn't get mail there, and makeup didn't stay on my face, and it was awful.  I choose to live in Today.  With a pump. And a fight-back attitude.

----You are hereby notified that commercial is over.-----  You're welcome!  (and you didn't get to skip with a DVR!) hahaha!  : )

I've been doing load after load of laundry since yesterday since we moved Clay's room around, and bunked his beds again!  I washed all the bedding, including blankets and quilts, and those all have to be washed separately-so our house smelled good all day (excepting the coat closet).  And my son?  Thrilled to have a clean room and room for his O-gauge train set!!  He was up before seven this morning, and when I went up to tell him it was time to shower-he was running his train (little bro watching), with shower-wet hair, his clothes on, and his towel hung up.  Awesome kid! : )  I was so proud of him.  I think we do the same thing-don't you perform better in a clean, happy environment? (Or was it the overabundance of detergenty smell going to his head?)  (I love it either way!)

Love these kids-all Buzz'd, jammied, sugared, and clean-they are a blessing! : )

ps-here is the winning towel from Saturday:

Heidi, it's in the mail!

Don't forget to register for the next one to be given away tomorrow after 9pm!  Be sure you are following the blog, and leave your first name in a comment! : )
(You'll pick your towel color, fabric for letter, and thread color!)

Cookie Pusher

Girl Scout Cookies and me..we have a love/hate relationship.  I hate to love them, but I do.  We've been spreading Cookie Love for at least a month now..I feel like a dealer! : )  We deliver, take checks or cash, trade off at houses, parking lots, schools..such an exciting life! ; )  Today we worked a cookie booth in Fayetteville with lots of sweet girls learning the tricks of the trade.  heehee  No, seriously-they really learned confidence (to speak up and ask people if they wanted to buy-it was SO hard at first!), they learned to count change, talk with the customers who asked for advice and their favorite flavors, and to be patient with those invariable No's. : (  It's hard to take rejection, but we're truly teaching them to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, courageous, respectful, and responsible-every bit of the Girl Scout Law!

Here are some pictures of the confident girls:

With the Very Huge Shampoo bottle campaigning out front on the main road for a salon!

They arranged their cookies in rainbow order-girls after my own heart! : )

I alternated helping with each group (on either side of the doors)-they'd get kind of down if the other side was selling more than them.  It's all about the call! ; )

We met Ches for lunch at Chick-Fil-A with all the kids, since they'd been gathering bags of donated food house-to-house for boy scouts, sorting it at the local elementary school, and then breaking for lunch before shelving it at our church's food pantry-two truckloads full!  It was an awesome harvest-thanks to our Springdale neighbors!! : )  And we're so blessed they chose our food pantry-they rotate, but we can use the food!

Now Ches and Clay are at baseball tryouts (it was supposed to be over by four, but it's looking more like six..).  It's been a really warm, 69 degree day!  Perfect for cleaning up the van and playing outside.  Ethan even put on his swimsuit and wanted to go swimming! (Not!)  He settled for a bath in his swimsuit. : )

I'm contemplating cookies for dinner, and I'm guessing I wouldn't be met with complaints.  Darn those addictive cookies.  If the profits weren't so healthy...


Ps-don't forget to leave a comment to win the personalized tabbed journal!  You can choose up to 16 tabs of your choice-your kids' names, and anything from meal ideas to prayer and blessing lists, grocery lists, to-do lists, months of the year, or you could even make yourself a Christmas notebook: gift list and ideas, meal plan, Christmas card list, and your favorite things to do!  Deadline is March 15th, 8pm! : )  You can read more here!

Selling Bindis

What a scouting weekend!  Do we ever coordinate between the girls and boys?  Nahh.  But maybe we could consider it?

I have been able to upload only girl scout pictures, so boy scouts and my amazing-melt-in-your-mouth-surprise recipe have to wait till tomorrow. : )  Thanks, Sandra, for taking awesome pictures!! : )  Your camera rocks ; )

Today was World Thinking Day 2011 at the Fayetteville Town Center!

Listening-aren't they growing up?

In front of their "country" of India-they did a great job on the backboard!

Working the India booth, selling bindis > : )

Stamping passports for travelers-I love "traveling" to other countries! : )

Visiting the Netherlands

I can't remember the country..Switzerland, I think?  Her little dolls are upstairs, and I'm feeling lazy...

They look beautiful with their bindis on!

She had a great day, and brought home so many little treasures.  We stopped last night at McDonald's and asked for our change in dimes (I had to convince the girl I wasn't crazy for getting $3 in dimes!).  Each troop learns about and represents a country at Thinking Day (a celebration for Juliette Low's birthday, founder of Girl Scouting).  They make little foods, pins, flags, or dolls, something about the country to sell-all proceeds go back to the Juliette Low fund for the girls.  The past two years with the Fayetteville Thinking Day have been wonderful-the year before was not so good, so we know to be thankful!!  The presentations are awesome, and there are plenty of countries to visit.  Mary Claire even came home with her name in Arabic-so beautiful.

We had some trouble after a sleepover last night (her not wanting to check her blood) and then this morning not wanting to come home for our church-I wasn't happy.  She is definitely growing up (I'm trying to respect that) and it means more responsibility.  If she can't handle checking herself (and checking in with me!), we'll have to slow down the freedom.  I was so worried about her last night!  I didn't want to call and bug her, but she just doesn't realize what can happen.  She's been low several times since Friday-really good insulin, I think (she was 46 at school on Friday, 59 after girl scouts yesterday, 58 at church today..), but scary-roller-coaster isn't fun!

I'm nervous about tomorrow-it's Braces day.  The appointment is for 90 minutes, but it can't take that long, can it?  Now it's even more advanced than when Mary Claire got hers-the braces are set up on my "fake teeth" (positive of my impressions), and then moved to my mouth.  They also don't use bands around back teeth, so I didn't have to endure the week of spacers-hooray!  Still nervous.  I'm going to be in braces with my daughter.  Weird?

Sweet Friends

**Warning: This is going to be long.**  Get a drink, have a seat!  I couldn't pick any to leave out! : )

I'll start at the beginning.  Sandra was the monogrammed tumbler winner (!), and she requested her monogram, so here is her super cute pink and chocolate toile cup:

Very Hard to get all the letters on a round cup! Congratulations, Sandra!!

The first event this weekend was Ethan's Fourth Birthday Party at Boingo Bounce.

We had a Toy Story theme, so I wanted lots of toys out for the kids to play with.  (I remember when Clay was at a friend's birthday when he was three, and he was having a COW to play with the other kid's toys!) There were blocks, tinker toys, army men, potato heads, crayons, and paper, etc.  Here are a couple pictures of before the party: 

Yes, the water bottles were decoration-Ha!

Instead of just blank paper to draw on, they said, "Can you draw your favorite toy?"

Ana and Nora-both absolutely adorable!

My precious birthday boy (wish I'd gotten a better picture of his shirt!  It's three eyeballs and a necktie-so cute!)

Could Sophia BE any cuter??

I like this one of all the kids going up the "stairs" together!

In Motion.  Looks happy!

I always forget to take pictures of the background-this is Boingo Bounce.  They were wonderful! Supplied plates, napkins, spoons, cake cutters, aim-a-flame, balloon weights, fabric table cloths!  And so sweet!

This is the other side-all SLIDES!!!  WooHoo!

My precious Isabella.  My child in another life.

I know it's an awful picture, but I had so much fun on those big steep slides!  I couldn't stop laughing, good for the soul!  : )

Aren't they precious?  Doc even had a broken arm like Mary Claire!

I know it's a little blurry, but these girls were adorable.  They sat at the top for a while getting "linked", made a plan, then came down together-I loved it, off-center and all.  Love you Ana and Mary Ella!

Trevor, do it again! : )  He had an absolute ball with his daddy!  He couldn't get enough! : )

Are you in love with her hair yet?  Precious.

Don't. Laugh.  (don't turn us into Cake Wrecks!)

Ethan loved it, and that's what counts! : )

(Had to teach him about the Making Wishes part of birthday cake.

Sweet friends! and butchering the cake.

(he even had to have green ice cream-mint chocolate chip!  Mmm..we taught him well.)

Danielle took some pictures for me-she did an awesome job-thanks girl!!!

Aren't moms good sports? : )  What would we do without them?

Of course-Danielle took it! : )  So sweet!

Opening of The Presents!!  He asked for a globe, and Angie ReMeMBeReD!!!

His cuddly, soft, warm blankie with green bumpy dots!

Love this picture of them being so good.  Just checking things out.

Super Cool Toy: Tackle Box (and it's already full of toys!) (it has little organizer sections, perfect for cars, blocks, Thomas trains, and all his little people!!)

I really have to say, he had a wonderful party.  It was awesome-from amazing friends (Angie got to come down for Joplin!!) to sweet, sweet kids taking turns, to super-thoughtful gifts, I was so happy for him.  I pray he continues to have precious friends to bless all his days.

And we had one more event (which made me happy/sad-Angie left since we were going to be so long, and I really wished I'd had more time with her and Andalynn.  We just don't get enough time with them).  Our Girl Scout Cookie Kick-Off was Saturday afternoon!

 

The girls are all lined up, ready to present their cookies.  Mary Claire was introducing the Tagalong: a chocolate-covered peanut butter cookie-Yum!

And for the afternoon, I played the role of Photographer!  (yes, really!)  I took individuals of each girl, and troop group pictures.

Yeah, lots of girls took two tries.  Here she is with her legs together, un-jumpy, and still so cute!

Bless you, Troop 5807!

After the picture, all chatty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also had church today, an exciting baby shower for Tiffany from church (won't tell you all the details, suffice it to say we've had one exciting, adventurous day!), and then a Girl Scout meeting and some grocery shopping.  I was so tired, I picked up a fresh (cooked!) chicken at the store, and added some fresh green beans (sauteed with garlic and olive oil), and bread.  Very Fast.
There was time for baths, and a game of Apples to Apples.  I think we've established traditions-they happen without you even planning them.  In the summer, they swim every night, and in the winter, we play a game every night.  There you have it, a Jones Tradition.  I'd like to think our friends are traditions too.