Research and Forms

Laundry Observations:
*I'm doing lots more doll clothes lately..reason?

*If you wash a child's sheets, the chance of them having an accident in the bed that night is increased by at least 30%.  (Of course I've done the research!)

*Our towels take wayyy too long to dry.  What looks sumptuous (and organic!) in the store will take at least three times as long to dry.  But, boy are they absorbent!


I had to go digging for lost treasure last night.  Monday folder night always gives me lots of work.  I had to fill out lots and lots of forms: PTA membership forms, t-shirt order forms, Mary Claire's health update/504 Plan, classroom teacher Student Information forms (with our goals for our children-and getting to school on time and having breakfast isn't a teacher-approved goal) with how they learn best, three words to describe them..signing the back of the Student Handbook, cutting it out, sending it back, Spelling Word List Theory (10 assigned pattern words, five new pattern words-that are Surprise! on Friday morning, five Challenge words, and five words (called High Frequency on the front of the Contract, and Sight Words on the back of the Contract-yep, had to sign and return the bottom portion!), when we could come and be Secret Readers (read to the class as a surprise), when we could help in the classroom, and that might be it...  Whew, I'm really glad Ches is home on Monday nights now-it makes for a lot of extra work on folder night! : )


Ok, so I never got to the point: the Treasure Hunt.  So, back on track.  I had to fill out papers for Ethan too : ) and I hadn't turned in copies of his birth certificate and social security card!  I looked all over the place!  I looked through baby books (I just tried to take a picture, but my Battery Is Exhausted-ha! Me too!), the kids tubs of art I save, the basket of unorganized stuff yet to be filed in the Tubs of Art/School Stuff, the Important Stuff file (yeah, that's really its name!) and found his birth certificate and the application for his Social Security card (yeah, I save things..), and on and on...until I had the Oprah Aha! Moment!  I checked the Social Security file, and by-golly, I found his social security card!  Unsigned and everything (you know, since he's three)!  I'd already gotten desperate, and copied his social security card number from our 2008 Tax forms (since our accountant has our ss numbers, but I can't find them!)  I thought it'd show I was really trying to make progress towards finding it. : )


So, my latest dilemma is getting Mary Claire's "Orders" signed.  We just had her last endocrinology appointment around July 7, and her doctor moved to Louisiana.  We already have her next appointment made (January was the next available!), so we are technically between doctors.  I forgot that the school needs her bolus and correction ratio charts signed by her doctor, or I'd have taken them with me to Little Rock in July!  (Will someone please remind me of this next summer?)  So.  I've been calling Arkansas Children's Hospital clinic (old doctor's office) since we've seen all the doctors there, and left messages and faxes.  Finally, they called back today, but said they didn't get the fax.  I had to send it again today-I am really working on it-everything is such a job.  Sometimes I think Ches wonders what I do all day-I'm so busy I forget to eat lunch till it's time to get Ethan!


We are back in school mode-today is boy scouts, Wednesday Ches has a training from 6-10pm (booooo!), Thursday is gymnastics for Ethan and MC to dance, Friday is ME GOING TO BRANSON-HOOO-RAH! and Mary Claire to a dance party! and me to church and making copies at the school, and Sunday is girl scouts, Monday is back to LR for test...and need I go on?  Never, I know.


I'm really bummed about this Training he is going to on Wednesday. I'm trying to be Supportive Wife, but it's hard.  He got some of his classes at the UA online, so he got to drop his Monday night 6-9 class, but now he's got this yucky old training class-thing on Wednesday nights from 6-10 (I'm available for dinner, Mom!), so back to me parenting alone on that night. : (  I can handle it all, just knowing he'll be here for back-up soon (when I get to that 4 o'clock crazy hour), but that's putting them to bed alone...boo.


Ok, gotta get back to work on JDRF Walk stuff-I turned in my "art" for the shirt-now just waiting for it to look BETTER (with MaryAnn's help..)!  I hope to get the proof by Friday-be watching! : )  I'll post it when I get it, I'm excited! : )

Emotional Maybe?

Ok, something is up with me.  I think I cried at least four times yesterday.  It can be very stress-relieving, but it only left me with a massive headache that caused me more pain.  I drove to Little Rock for MC's appt. no problem, but then.  The traffic at 2pm was unbelievable!  They have torn up 430 going through Financial Parkway/630 and it has caused so much traffic backup and stress!  I had to weasel my way through there, and get to Arkansas Children's Hospital. I don't know why I insisted on taking her back there.  I was convinced it was better care.

We couldn't find the building, since they've TORN UP the road through Children's. I mean, concrete barriers as soon as you turn off 630, and Good Luck finding anything.  I cried again, stressed to the max, my appointment time had passed (by two minutes, so it wasn't the End of the world).  I couldn't get an address-Ches kept giving me a 16 Children's Way, which wasn't in GPS land.  The roads were torn up, so he couldn't map it over the phone.  Just chaos.  I finally kept driving around and found our building.  Then the ladies at the desk didn't want me to check in, they wanted me to use the computers, even though there was a handy clipboard with the peel-off stickers for the patient's name, DOB, etc.  Then we calmed down, read a book she brought, and finally got called back.

We did the usual height, weight, download the blood sugars on the meter, and download (or upload?) the data from her pump, then we had to gather catch capture a urine sample.  Always fun.  I hope they are doing something really important with it besides checking for ketones.  We could've done that with a strip.  Anyway, we waited so long in the room, we finished her chapter book.  Then a new doctor came in, Dr. Lee (my new favorite), and she was so sweet.  I felt like she was understanding even though she wanted to challenge us.  She wants us (believe it or not) to try to check Mary Claire fewer times.  She says she can't tell if it's her bolus ratio (for food) that is a problem of her basal when we check so often.  What?  I told her the same people advocating for fewer checks now are the same girls who trained me (yes, 5.7 years ago..) to check every two hours.  She says things have changed.   Yep, like they changed and told me Mary Claire shouldn't eat every two hours the last time I went down there.  When do we get notified of Changes?  Could there be a form letter that goes out?  I know it'll change again.  Anyway, I told her I'd cut to six times a day, which is a lot less.  We are going to try not to check so much at night.  It'll be hard at first, knowing if she's low, but we will resist.

Then, when we were leaving, they told us there was snow already in Hot Springs and El Dorado, and it was coming!  I thought we had a while, but it was on its way.  We ran back into Barnes and Noble ('nother story, 'nother day) and got the book Mary Claire needed to complete her life, and grabbed some yummy veggies soup and dessert.  We jumped (ok, crawled) back to 430 and headed home.  I kept talking to Ches since 40 was covered with pink (snow), and it was coming up towards 540 (scary way-high bridges, my biggest concern).  I GPS'd a new route up to Harrison on old 65, then west on 412 back home, but it was going to take almost twice as long. : (  By the time we got near 65, Ches said the pink was gone, and the temperatures would hold out above 32 degrees till almost 11pm-plenty of time to get home.  Amazingly, we never saw one snowflake, so it was fine.  I was so thankful for a safe trip.  I was literally on the edge of my seat, and so stressed (nerves, exhaustion?), I just wanted to go home and go to bed.  It was such a long day-physically and emotionally.

Today (I forgot to tell you about my garage door drama-it doesn't work basically), the garage door man is coming to repair/adjust our big garage door to make it WORK.  (or that's my hope)  I've been parking on Ches' side, and I don't know how he's getting the door up and down.  I guess he's doing it the old-fashioned way and raising it by hand?  I wasn't here yesterday, so I missed out.  I hope it is functioning soon, it's so cold for me to get out and punch in the code to open his door.  We don't know where all those button-thingies are since our vans have their own programmable buttons inside.  Handy when they work, not-so-handy when they doors don't work.

Today is Valentine's Day parties at school.  I'm thankful not to be "in charge" of either one.  I can show up and just help.  Clay left his cards at home, so I need to remember to take them in.  He forgot his lunch too, but Ches saw it!  He must have much better things on his mind! : )  All righty, gotta get ready for another repair person.  I hope they do the job, and don't try to upsell.  Ches is already considering remodeling/updating/and a trip to Disney for the kids in July, since we may not make it to the beach in August. : ) 
Ok, now the phone is ringing, and the doorbell just rang.  My day is getting started!

Dishwasher Man Needs Confession

I finally got my dishwasher yesterday.  Finally.  I know-I had to wait a whole 24 hours for it to be delivered, but it's been two weeks of hand washing!  It was a long day, I had to call to see if the man was coming. Twice.  Then he stayed till 6-right through our dinner hour (and the kids were dying to have pancakes!), and Mary Claire had her first reconciliation (confession) and had to be there at 6:30-talk about stress!

About 5:45 when I could see that it was still going to be a while, I called Tim's and ordered a pizza.  There was a mess, and a man, in my kitchen that was impossible to cook around.  Anyway, Ches left with Mary Claire hoping to get her fed first.  Then the man finished up, and asked to check my water pressure. (?)  He checked the one on the outside, and came back to tell me it is 85-90 psi.  (And..?)  And! He told me he wouldn't guarantee his work (installation) if I had water pressure that high.  He said I needed a PRV (pressure reduction valve) on my water.  It'd be $200 to add it to the line by my hot water heater, or twice that to add it to the meter, and he'd probably have to dig it up.  (What?)  Then he told me that Fridgidaire wouldn't warranty the dishwasher with water pressure that high.  Ok, I'll correct him in a moment.  But, I had a kid in the car, and we had to get to Tim's, to get Mary Claire to her first confession, in which I'd be joining her for my not nice thoughts.


Anyway, I didn't think too much about it; I had bigger fish to fry.  We scarfed (I think it should be scarved, but spell check says no, heehee) down some pizza, had 19 bathroom breaks, and I took her to the church.  It went well, only an hour (no! most of it was waiting in line!), and we were home.


Ches had time to look in the Whirlpool manual (told you he was a goofball, or did I..?), and it says for it to work properly, you need 20-120 psi.  Ha.  Longer story shortened, the next day, a Lowe's person called to check on my installation, and I told her the story, and she said he doesn't have the authority (and she said it kinda Mom-like, as in, "How dare he!") to not warranty his work.  If he doesn't sign the warranty, he doesn't get paid.  So, we are warranteed, and all is well.  Too bad we ate out, and didn't have many dishes. : (


I've already taken two days to write this post, so I have to hurry.  Yesterday-blur (including moody, carb-inhaling, whiny, getting everything ready for today..), and today: Little Rock.  We are heading to Arkansas Children's Hospital for Mary Claire's endocrinology appointment.  I didn't realize it was so soon (thought it was April!), until we got the reminder in the mail.  I even called yesterday to see if we could transfer her back to our local endocrinologist (that's a hard word to type-try it!), but they wanted a referral, clinic  notes, etc. and I can't exactly get that if I don't go.  Oh, and their first available appointment is in May.  ACH is about the same.  They tell you that you have to get your A1c checked every 3 months, but they can only get you in every 6.  Doctors.  If you need a new money-making profession, consider endocrinology.  If you have an extra 9 years laying around.


Ok, seriously have to get ready!  Have a good day, and enjoy not being in a car for at least 7 hours! : )

Polish, Pediatric Endocrinologists, and Petit Fours

Short post, as it's late, and I'm tired. : )

I remember now why I haven't been keeping my nails done. I used to wonder about strange people who didn't keep their nails painted all the time, and now I'm one of them. Weird. I would've never thought it would happen to me. But now I see how easy it is not to do them (saves a couple hours a week), and when I pick price tags off stuff (today making wreaths) or picking the sticker off an apple (today), or scrubbing the muffin tins that didn't come clean in the dishwasher (sucky thing) on Tuesday, I was glad not to worry about my polish chipping off. That's the other thing, my nails are so brittle/weak, that when I paint them, the polish chips off the ends in a day or two. No polish can make it more than two days. Yes, I use at least three coats. Yes, I use OPI polish, a base and top coat. Used to use Nail Envy, but it didn't work either. So, I have raw nails. Sometimes I even like them and their nearly maintenance-free bareness. Except when I see an adorable new color out! I still love You're a Pisa Work and Koala Berry, yum. Can be winter or spring!

I've filled more cookie orders! Yay! The sweet little girls don't even realize how very fortunate we've been! All these people who've ordered, and all the adults busy helping them sell! If you've bought, thank you so much. It's been amazing-more than I could've imagined. I know they've already earned over $500 (and we only have five girls right now)!! They may be able to go to camp this year. It's $200/girl I think, so they'd have to earn more or something. We'll see-I don't know how that would work out with Mary Claire. She hasn't been away from us for more than an hour. I don't know if she will for a long time. She hasn't been to someone's house for more than an hour, I don't think! Let's see-Mom's overnight, Kendra and Susan's for maybe an hour...It's something. I can't imagine an overnight-well, I mean that I didn't go with her.
There's a neat camp in the summer, Camp Invention, that the kids really wanted to go to last year (8:30-3 for 5 days!), but I couldn't get a commitment for anyone to check her, and I had Ethan and couldn't stay with her all day. This year, we got the flyer again. I didn't mention it to them, but I know they'd love it. I just don't know how it'd work. She's better at identifying when she feels low. In fact, she's come to me probably four times in the past five days telling me she feels low-and she has been! Only about 68-71, so she's really getting good at identifying before she drops dangerously low. I don't think she's been much lower in a long time! Maybe a month or so? Well, at night I think she's been a little lower a couple of times.

We go back to Arkansas Children's Hospital next week, or maybe the 12th-it's a Thursday. They sent me the reminder today, and they want a month of blood sugars (good luck, since they JUST sent the reminder), three days of food/insulin logs (like, do I still have to do that?), and all prescriptions with their labels, her shot record (could they not call about that one and get it faxed?), ahh, the excitement that preceeds the majestic appointment with the highly-skilled pediatric endocrinologist. Yes, I've been waiting since August to get back in (been gone for two years seeing an endocrinologist here). Now we are considered a "new" patient, so it's back to the beginning for us there. They've moved the clinic, so I must go early to find it. Mary Claire and I will go alone (unless anyone wants to tag along?) and Mom will watch Ethan as Ches has to work. We'll be fine, I've made the drive many times.

Anyway, I really have wanted to go back there, all kidding aside. They give us such specific, guided, educated care. I usually come away from there having learned something I can really use. They always download everything from her pump, and give us great advice on what we could try or do differently. The doctor here is so sweet (if sometimes late), but always tells me to keep up the good work. I want to learn more! He has to know something more than I do-could he share? I just hope the time I spend to get her down there (and miss a day of school) will be worth it. I'm sure we'll have a great day together, if nothing else.

Today was another surprise food at school. Once someone brings in something, I feel like I have to let her have it. If she didn't know about it, I could say no (maybe?) and they could eat it while she was detained somewhere mysteriously? No, that probably wouldn't work either, as I bet someone would tell her what she missed. Today was petit fours for a birthday. I mean, how sweet! But, she just can't do that all the time. Two weeks ago, it was a cake. I have to guess (sight unseen/impossible!) how many carbs the food has and how much insulin she needs, and since they can't really do a dual/square wave bolus (insulin over longer time), I must decide how much fat is in it (how long it'll take for the sugar to hit her blood). Crazy. I wish parents of "normal" kids would appreciate the ability for their kids to eat anything at any time. It's just so hard watching every bite.

Ok, enough ranting-I do get like this late at night. Hey, at least you didn't get the rundown!