How We Swim & Pump (& Shop!)

I got to hear from such kind friends this weekend as they toured our home.  Even if they hadn’t already been over to visit with us personally yet!  It takes a very sweet God-loving heart to say such nice things about someone else’s house, don’t you think?!  I have to say it was awesome getting texts and messages from my friends, and I hope I can return all the kindness!!

If you aren't familiar with Ann Voskamp..check her out.  Pure heart and gratitude to God.

Honestly, what a humbling experience this has all been.  Our air conditioner upstairs has frozen a couple of times this summer, and I’ve called to get it fixed, and they basically told me to turn it off since it’s frozen up, let it thaw out, and turn it back on in the morning.  So, all Saturday night and Sunday morning (3:30, 4:30, 6:15, 8:10, and after..) I’ve been checking on the temperatures in the house (our Nest thermostats have an app!), and it was definitely frozen.  It was 88 degrees at ten last night when Leigh was there!  I’m so glad she told me though, so I could turn it off and let it rest.

 

Inspiration when I was trying to decorate the office/craft room.  Beautiful!

Today it is actually working..though not holding at the temperature that’s set.  The realtor there told me there are just lots of people and high humidity (and I’ve heard all the lights are on..so that heats it up too!).  Hopefully we’ll get it worked out! : )  (as of 5pm it’s all over, and the air is finally all cool, haha, my life!)

 

American Girl, Dallas!

Carter loves the bike!  And Julie's little VW Bug! : )

Meanwhile, we’ve been having fun in Dallas, Texas!  We hit all our favorite spots: American Girl, World Market, The Container Store, Ikea, ahh..fun!  I’d wanted to go to iSky to learn to (indoor) skydive!  The kids were excited..and then I remembered that Clay shot the neighbor’s glass basketball goal with his beebee gun, and he was supposed to use his trip money to replace the backboard..and it’d be plain mean to skydive (with him on the outside) watching us.  I decided it just wasn’t the right time.  We’ll catch it next time though!

 

Isn't this lovely?!  Makes me want to wrap gifts (and never buy another gift bag, haha!)

And we passed on Dave & Buster’s due to our missing children experience last time!  Think of something that a crazy family might do?  Yep, we’ve done it.  Lost children?  Yep, that’s us.  Swallowed a penny and admitted for surgery to get it out?  Yep, done it.  Killed your own snake?  Done it.  Drank expired milk?  Done it.  Let your baby pee in a cup on the open highway sans bathroom?  Done it.  Daddy accidentally drank it?  Yep, that too.  (Ok, that was a few years ago..he just won’t let us forget it!!)  Put a swing in your living room?  Yep, that too.  People, we’re living on the edge over here!

 

The Container Store is heavenly.  In a boxy way.

I just want to do my closets.  And pantry.  And my shelves.

These would be amazing in a pantry!  They are airy bins that attach to the shelves, then roll out!  Bags of chips would be good..30 potatoes, maybe not so much?

PDA (Practical Diabetes Advice or Public Display of Affection-for my kids with Diabetes, haha!):  Diabetes is totally growing up on us.  I’ve learned a few little things over the years..and I thought I should start sharing some of it.  I’d have really appreciated some of this a few years earlier!  If you aren’t into the Big D..just skip it! : )

 

For all our meter and site supplies? : )

..When the kids swim (like at the hotel this weekend!), they have to take their pumps off (no water-proof-o).  And going without insulin can tend to..oh I don’t know..drive your blood sugar up?! : )  When they reconnect, we always refill the cannula (tubing under the skin) to start fresh.  I have them check their blood sugar, correct if they’re high, and we usually add a .5 to get us started since they’ve been without insulin for at least an hour, and they get more than that an hour as a basal.  If you have a waterproof pump..obviously it doesn’t apply to you, ha! (consider this a little crazy tongue-sticking-out face!)

 

Make your own paper holder!  And then wrap up those lancets and gift them to others.  Ha, ha! Ok..more like strips! : )

We see lots of friends with swimming highs, and I think it’s going without insulin (well, duh!).  If they plug in every hour (my kids drink/eat almost that often when they are playing hard!), give a .7 to fill the cannula that got flushed out in the pool/water, then a bolus for food plus a .5 then my kids do okay.

I don’t think you need to freak out and get a waterproof pump just for summers.  These kids will get wet showering all winter too.  Well, at least once a week.  Ha!  They will survive.

The other thing we do when the pump is off their bodies, at any time of year, is make sure the pump tubing is capped or pointed upward (clipped to a towel bar or lamp).  We actually have a hanging wooden bear on a lamp, and we use his arms to wedge/hold the tubing end up!  Otherwise, insulin drips out the tip, and you end up giving your child a bolus of air rather than insulin for the first few hours!

Ok, that’s my two cents today.  For the betterment of your swimming experience. (or your sanity in the hours afterward, ha!)

Hope YOU had a great weekend and enjoyed a very *cool* house!  Hugs!

 

My baby loving this chair and puppy at IKEA.  He wouldn't get up.  Seriously.  Like 20 minutes.  Right here.  If we hadn't already gotten him a Strider bike..we might have had two ounces of room left in the van.  But no.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Ecclesiastes 3:11

 

They give AwArDs!

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After pulling an all-nighter on Tuesday night, I finally got the house ready for the judges on Wednesday morning.  There was just so much to do..and I kept g.o.i.n.g.  I think it was all adrenaline!  Finally, I watched the sun come up..and I went to bed at 6:10 AM.  Then I woke up with Carter at 7:25!  It didn’t hit me until after lunch..and I think I’m still hung over, haha!

There was just so much to do.  Think about lots of people walking through the house you LiVE in..you’d want to hide your dirty laundry, clean the windows, and vacuum too!  (Ok..and hang some pictures, organize your daughter’s desk, and fold your tp into little triangles, ha!  ..or is that just me?)

I stayed up late again Thursday night, since the actual home show began Friday morning.  And since I was tired, I crashed after one am.  I was making little “keep out” signs (ok..they said, “this area not available for viewing”) this morning for my closets (aka: toy/clothing/stuffed animal/helmet/lego hiding spots) since cleaning up the public space was hard enough.  Seriously, our attic is overflowing..and even chairs are on top of tubs.  Whew.  Praying you never have to do this!  (and yes, I’ve learned my lesson.  Never.  Again.)  and in case  you came..it's never this clean all the time.  But I'm sure you gathered that much since I have all these crazy, messy kids! (that like to eat and wear clothes, for reals.) (which is why everything is wood or washable slipcovers.  And no, we don't really iron, it makes me hot.  As in *sweaty*.)

My sweet friend, Leigh, went over to water all the plants, since it’s been a hot Arkansas summer lately!  And dead hydrangeas and ferns are so unwelcoming.  We even got neighbors involved making sure there were doors unlocked for the realtors and for Leigh.  And today?  They called and the deadbolt was unlocked, but not the door..apparently it was left locked accidentally!  (It’s super easy to lock..it’s just this little flip switch next to the handle!)  I think the realtors are being super safe! : )  So..we gave them the garage door keypad code so they could get in this morning.  That would have been drama..with a big sign out front saying CLOSED!

Ok, so I have to tell you that we actually won four awards, holy cow!  (best master suite, best kitchen, best floor plan, and best overall in our group) I'm shocked, and excited (yes, it really means nothing, and we get nothing, haha!  ..and no one actually knows, but me and you!), but maybe it validates all those Pinterest hours I invested over the last year and a half.  So now, I shall work diligently to invest another 5K pins.  You know, to stay up-to-date.

 

Whew, that's long!  Hope it didn't drive you nuts..I might lose these pictures in six months and not have any record of my house clean, haha!

I should go..the kids are done swimming, and it's 10:51PM!!  It's been a long, full day in Dallas, and I can tell you all about it tomorrow.  Hugs!

Last Day and Pump Journal

Aww, sweet friends.  What a blessing when we meet them, even better when we know their hearts. : )

We've been busy, how 'bout y'all?  Today was the last day of school, hooray!!  I didn't get done all I'd hoped, but it was enough.  I'm finishing up with the house (only one drape left to hem..), and my plants are looking pretty good (except the one the mulch guys decapitated!).  I planted a row of hydrangeas along the south side of the pool, and I can't WAIT till they get big!  The blooms are already heavy and droopy.  I'm watering them at least once, and sometimes twice a day!

Diabetes has been..well, diabetes.  My kids?  Still being kids.  I don't expect them to be all grown up (even when they are taller than me..).  Mary Claire forgot to tell me she had a low reservoir warning (only 20 units left!!).  I found out when I went to her school for the pizza & ice cream party they'd earned (for Most Spirit, woohoo!).

I tried to bolus her, and she freaked out.  She didn't want me getting her pump out in front of anyone!  (Ahh!!  It's not a secret..will this ever end?)  Anyway, I pulled out her pump to learn she only had 16 units left!  When was she going to tell me about the Low Reservoir?  And the choices for drinks were canned Sprite and bottled water.  Umm..if you have diabetes, you generally opt for the least sugary.  Especially when you don't know if you'll have enough insulin to cover a 38 gram drink, two pieces of pizza, and ice cream!!

Because it's the end of school, I tried to breathe in, breathe out.  (Oxygen so totally helps my brain when I'm losing it, btw.)  (I actually read that when you are super stressed, you stop operating from your pre-frontal cortex, and begin thinking with the less mature brain centers.  (ie: caveman brain) and you lose the capacity to think rationally or react calmly.  And also lose the capacity to treat your family in a kind way.  So breathe.)

Anyway, we bolused her, she didn't eat the second piece of pizza (sacrificing it for ice cream I think), waited to be served dead last (getting the ok from mama, maybe?), and putting no toppings (chocolate, caramel, chocolate chips, sprinkles) by choice.  She's a sweetie and knew she had to be careful.  Diabetes sucks.

Monday was Clay's awards ceremony, and he received All A's and B's and a Citizenship Award.  He's a good student and was a little disappointed he didn't receive an award for science.   He's got a very good grade, and he's been gathering fish for the teacher and taking them in..he was just sure he was teacher's pet, ha! : )

Mary Claire's was today, and she received All A's.  She's smart, and has really been working to bring up a couple borderline B's!  And she did it, yay! : )  We had a small Last Day of School party after school.  Just some balloons, swimming, hot dogs, chocolate strawberries, and strawberry shortcake, and friends!  (Strawberries were .98 a quart today!  So, I had to get six quarts!  And find things to do with them!)  There are a few chocolate strawberries left, and not quite a quart that was just washed to eat fresh.  That's it.

I went in to say goodbye to the kids' middle school nurse, she's been so sweet.  I got their supplies, snacks, care notebooks, etc.  She was telling me that I know more about diabetes than so many other people.  That I understand it better than some people who've had it their entire lives.  (I told her it HAD been ten years, haha!)  I guess I just kinda get it, and I have a math-y brain, so it's not that hard for me.

And that I had *great* training early on from Children's Hospital.  They had a nurse call-in line that was open every day from 11a-2p, and you might wait on hold for 30 minutes, but you got to talk to a HUMAN, and that was sooo worth it!  You could talk numbers, and I created all these charts to record her carb intake, bolus ratio, correction ratio, how much exercise she'd had, any illness, when her site was changed, and even what foods she'd eaten.  

up above the hour, I'd write the :14 or :30 to tell the time for the record, and I wrote every food that crossed her lips.  Good for figuring out glycemic index and her reaction to fatty/high protein foods too!

I kept these for four years.  They were my training wheels.  And then one day, I just quit.  I think I'd grown out of them.  And now, when I feel a change on the horizon, I start keeping them again.  After two weeks charting, I can kinda read where the issues are, and I make changes.  Sometimes I even do them on the fly.  BUT, I still have my original notebook from day one, and still record every time I've changed her basal rates or bolus ratios!  I feel like the nurses and dietician answering the phones and teaching me made a HUGE difference in my education.

I learned about the glycemic index, that baked potatoes (and even healthy-ish chips like Baked Lays!) were faster to affect her blood than orange or apple juice.  And just how exercise dropped my baby, but excitement could raise her numbers!  It was a science.  I wish this opportunity for all my T1D mama friends.  Wish I could teach them.  But I don't want to be a know-it-all.  And sometimes they don't want to know.  Lord, sometimes I still want to stick my head in the sand! : )

Ok, so the pictures!  They are from JDRF 2014 Walk Kickoff (still working on a NEW team name!) at the Naturals Baseball Game, a field trip with Mary Claire's sixth grade to the Tulsa Zoo, some award ceremonies, a few of my baby being adorable, and anything else I found on my phone, haha!  (ps-these are for forgetful-future-me who loses her stock of pictures off the hard drive..it's only happened twice, but I'm learning!)

When a child of mine decides to spray sunblock all over my windows..they get to scrub it off (and wash the painted part too)!

 

**I found this blog post sitting on my computer ready to post..I guess I got busy last week, ha!  I'm getting ready for some judging on my house.  A busy time.  Cleaning windows..setting the table..making beds, haha!  I've done so many fun projects-I made Ethan's curtains, painted jars for hydrangeas, glazed huge letters, I need more time in my day to WRiTE about them! : )

Hope you are having fun with your family and friends this week!  Hugs!