December to Remember

December is here! Crazy. It always seems weird to start December with no snow on the ground. That's not a bad thing right now because it's been cold enough that the pin oaks that border our yard decided to drop their leaves now, so the yard is covered again!

We are not concerned with the yard right now though. P is 3 pieces of drywall away from having A's room dry walled. We are then calling in reinforcements to do the mudding! We want the room to look nice and without Dad here to help, we are forgetful on what to do. They will also texture the ceiling for us. Then I can paint!! I can paint his room, his closet, and the storage closet upstairs. Hopefully the gentleman from church who carpeted the other two closet's is willing to come do two more! Still, the hope is to have all this done before Christmas.

I had two days of subbing at school last week and one day the Cup. So far this week I have two days of subbing in the kitchen on the calendar. Two more assignments for both of my classes and I am done with another semester! I realized the other day I won't have any internet classes next semester so that means no discussion posts! What a blessing. I will be doing two classes through the Learning Center here in town and then my capstone. My capstone instructor e-mailed last week to get more information on my library experience and my contact info. She says she will be calling this week to talk with me about it. Hopefully I'll know more this week.

D has had his first two BB games and has played some in both. The first night they really needed his size so he probably played two minutes total. He also made his first basket which is great. Gets those jitters out of the way.

A has started BB practice also and starts games in January. There is a BB camp for 3-8 grade put on by the high school boys the next three Mondays, so all boys will be gone then.

That's all I have for now, have a great week and celebrate the season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am being reminded of why I quit my job. It's draining. I come home and just want to sit on the couch and do nothing. Then, I think of the parents of these kids and can't imagine what it takes to be a parent to them. I'm so thankful for our boys. Yes, they have had bumps along the way and I would never say A's life is easy, but for the most part, they are healthy, smart, and doing well. We really only have minor things to worry about.

I think I mentioned an issue with another boy bullying A and us not knowing. We know we have to talk with the parents as we are going to terminate this "friendship", but that is soo hard to think about. Please pray for A in adjustment to this, pray for us to have the right words when speaking to the parents, and that it would be received as well as could be expected. Also pray for A in his self-esteem and understanding that it's okay to tell people what is not okay to do.

D had BB this morning at 6:20 and then he and I delivered cookie dough this afternoon. I have a lot of cookie dough in my freezer for relatives! And just when you think you can sleep in on a Saturday...your high schooler hands you a note saying he has to be a the school at 7am for Quiz Bowl!! (Did I mention we didn't know there was a quiz bowl until Wednesday? I'm pretty sure I haven't told P either, so pretty sure he'll be surprised.)

I have lots to do for Thanksgiving tomorrow and haircuts are a must for three of my guys, so it will be a busy weekend in preparation for leaving. Our pastor and his family own a van that is the same make and model of ours. They won't be doing extensive traveling over the holiday, so they have graciously agreed to let us borrow their travel topper. We hope this helps with fitting in all the food and gear for a family of five for 4 days! We are actively looking for a Suburban again, but want something close to or under 100,000 miles so we will probably have to wait a few months. We will have all cars paid off in a couple of months, so we should be able to save up our car payment for a few months and have a nice down payment ready to buy one by summer?

Speaking of cars, D's car is at Milford again having body work done. This is a great service from the technical college there. All we have to pay for is the parts and they do the work as practice for the students. Unfortunately, they weren't ready for it until a few weeks ago. We are praying for it to be done by the end of the semester because now is when we really need it. I made three trips to the school yesterday so was glad when P was home to make the 4th one!

Have a great weekend and Happy Thanksgiving!

Update on Basketball

Just thought I'd let you know, when I picked up D from basketball last night I received a positive report. I asked him if he was dead (because he was a little worried about the conditioning) and he replied, "No, it's not bad, I like it better than last year." So, that's good.

The bad? If he had sold 15 orders of cookies he wouldn't have to do the conditioning today! He worked too hard on selling for band and was running out of ideas for this one. He only had four orders. :( He'll survive though.

God is good....all the time

I haven't been really good about this lately and I apologize for that. I was challenged by a good friend about my negative posts on Facebook and it got me working on being more positive, but my, that's exhausting!! I'm not sure if I've been negative on here, but I want it to be informational, whiny, so let me know if I go there!

I am a goal oriented person. There are certain things that need done and it drives me nuts not to have them done. This week, I realized I'd been really putting off bills and paperwork and that the lawn needed raked. Due to continuous back problems, I cannot rake longer than 30 minutes at a time or I sprain my back. That drives me nuts because I am a very independent person and having to ask P or the boys to do chores that I think I should be able to do drives me crazy. P and I have always wanted to do bills and things together so we are on the same page or at least know everything, I don't think we'll ever be on the same page when it comes to money! So, I came up with a solution yesterday. I would stay inside and get things caught up if he and the boys would rake the lawn. It worked great! When it got too dark to rake anymore I was just finishing a bank statement and was $20.36 off. P was able to come in and look at it with fresh eyes and found what I missed. He also stayed and helped me make a few decisions with bills too.

I have avoided bills lately because with me not working, the checkbook is not pretty. This is a huge trust issue for me. I am terrible at living paycheck to paycheck. I want that security of knowing the money is there for emergencies and life's necessities. I also turn into a Nazi about if something is a need or a want when money gets tight so it presents some tense moments in the house. When I did bills last night, I was doing them on faith of money being there soon, because there sure wasn't any last night!

Anyway, part of the trust issue is that I am trying to work sub jobs to help make ends meet. Last night, the next two weeks on the calendar were wide open. Nice for relaxing and getting ready for a trip for Thanksgiving, but not nice because I have a list of food to buy for Thanksgiving and we will need travel money. Today, as of 4:00pm I have 4 full days of subbing at school now on the calendar! This is a huge answer to prayer because P and I had even went as far last night as looking at "Help Wanted" ads to see what kind of job I could get. We want to stay with the subbing if possible because we know next semester is going to be a doozy for me. I will be taking 9 credit hours and doing my capstone, which requires me to work in a library for 50 hours over the semester. (This cannot be a library I work at currently, so getting a job in a library wouldn't help.)

Another huge answer to prayer is that we are now getting A's Advair for free! The insurance that we were on when A was diagnosed with diabetes does not cover maintenance prescriptions. That means all his medicines come out of pocket. We have been blessed with getting information about Medically Handicapped Children's Program (MHCP) shortly after A was diagnosed with diabetes. MHCP pays for anything, doctor's bills, labs, prescriptions, anything that has to do with his diabetes. They don't cover his celiac or asthma because they aren't severe enough. To keep A's asthma under control he has to use an Advair inhaler, and take Singulair and Zyrtec. We have been on a patient assistance program for his Singulair for at least three years. Which means we qualify for free prescriptions of Singulair from the company. We have never found anything from the other companies. Zyrtec has now gone over the counter and has a generic, so that helps and this month I found that Astra Zeneca now has a patient assistance program. I went through the application process and we received our first three month supply of Advair this Saturday. This is huge as Advair cost us $176 the last time we purchased it.

Please pray for D as he starts basketball tonight. He is not excited. Long story short we talked a little bit this morning and yes, he felt a little pressured by us, but not near as much as from people at school. I know he took a lot of guff for not going out for football this fall. I will say I did push with this. D is way too content to lay on the couch and do nothing. He also is still the kid that can just push the right buttons and drive you nuts if he is bored. I needed him to have something to do so he wasn't home all the time! I also think you should do a little sports. It helps make you a well-rounded individual and keeps you healthy. If he is miserable this season, I won't push again, but I wanted him to at least try. Keep him in your prayers. I also know our coaches are not great encouragers or patient people.

A is also going through a time of having to learn to stand up for himself. When it came time to invite kids to his birthday party, one boy wasn't invited. This surprised me for many reasons. P talked with him about it and come to find out, this child is rather a bully. He doesn't like A to have other friends and he constantly tries to pull A away from conversations or he hurts A to make him pay attention. This was very upsetting. After watching interactions at the party we told A we thought he needs to make a clean break from this child. It's not a healthy relationship. This is very hard for him because he never wants to hurt others. We are going to try to encourage other friendships more and do what we can to sever the other friendship.

B has been giving his teacher some problems so we have had many talks with him and much communication with the teacher. We are behind her 100% and the issues she sees I knew she would have because her and I are a lot alike and there are some issues B and I have. I see though, that I haven't been dealing with them, just passing him on to P. That hasn't helped this situation, so we are dealing with that too.

Whew!! No wonder I found myself weepy today. We have a lot on our plate. I read on a friends blog today that parenting is not for the timid. So true!! This too shall all pass. In the meantime, we are praying constantly for our kids as they grow in the knowledge of Him and pray that they will grow to be the adults God wants them to be, despite our failings. :) God is good....all the time.

Trust in the Lord and Lean Not on Your Own Understanding

I've been meaning to write on here all week, but I think I think I forgot I was a stay-at-home mom this week! Whew! Monday I went grocery shopping, and then spent time with Z and the kids. Tuesday I worked at the Cup and found out that they don't have Wi-fi there anymore so I will have to be cautious about when I say I can work there! (That means I can't do homework while I am there like I planned that day.) Wednesday I subbed for a parent at the Polk County Christian School. Thursday I did VB lines. Friday I worked at the Cup all day!! Whew! Today, I've been cleaning.

In addition to all that I threw my back out on Wednesday. EXTREME pain. I went to the chiropractor on Thursday, but I know it didn't stay. I hate when my body betrays me. It's doable now. It'll start to hurt if I'm standing too much so I go lay down. VB lines Thursday night were a killer! Luckily, because of the Huskers playing, they cancelled the Freshman game and just had JV and Varsity. Between games the PE teacher I do lines with took me to the training room and put BioFreeze on the tight spots and that helped.

Philip and I have been a little irritated that with everything we did to our house over the last year, our utility bill actually went up last winter! Part of this is not knowing that if there was even a hiccup in the electricity it would reset the thermostat to default settings meaning it would run on gas, not heat pump and then not understanding what screen to find that on. So, anyway, we are the budget program here and they re-figure budgets every quarter. We had a nice surprise this month when the bill came and our total had dropped $40!

This was doubly nice because I've had a hard time trusting God to provide with me not working a steady job. I have peace about it, but.....you know how that is. P's last two checks have been great because of travel and the next one should be nice because he has worked the last two Saturdays trying to get stuff done. I'm putting away any money I make right now for our two trips coming up in November and January. (Thanksgiving at Jon and Kelly's and Kyle's wedding in Oklahoma New Year's.) Tuesday I made enough tips to pay for yoga that week so that was cool. Friday, it would have been better if they had closed instead of hiring me, I was so not busy!

A had a friend over last night that went home at noon and he just got back from a bike ride with friends and they are here. B went to an air-soft war at 10:00 and I need to pick him up here in a little bit. D has a movie night at the Cup for youth group tonight. They are watching "The Dark Knight" to springboard into discussions on spiritual warfare.

I wrote an e-mail expressing some misgivings on that. Do we have to go shock and awe to get a point across? Parents are invited to attend, but neither P or I have any desire to see the movie. How do we make that work? Scary movies don't bother D at all so I guess we'll let him go, but is something wrong if we won't go to a movie because it might creep us out and they are using it at youth group to discuss spiritual warfare? Is the Devil winning if we are scared? Should we be scared if Jesus has overcome the world? I may still go, P said he definitely wouldn't. I just don't want any new images in my head to freak me out the next time P is gone.

Snack ideas

I've hit upon two great snack ideas in the last two weeks! They are low-cal, don't know about fat and sugar. I buy rice cakes for A because he says he'll eat them and they are cheap. Problem is, he doesn't eat them, so I've gotten creative to help him eat them.

Choco-Banana Rice Cake
2 Chocolate Crunch Rice Cakes
2 T spreadable low fat cream cheese
6 slices banana
-Mix banana with cream cheese. (It will get kind of mushed up.)
-Spread on rice cake.
-Yum! Approximately 200 calories

A variation on this that I thought would be good-caramel rice cakes and then drizzle a little caramel topping over it!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Rice Cake
2 Chocolate Crunch Rice Cakes
4 T Cool Whip Strawberry Dips!
fresh or frozen strawberries

Spread the Cool Whip on rice cakes, top with strawberries!
Appoximately 200 calories!

Did you know that if you add 1T of baking cocoa to your smoothie you add 2 g of fiber and no sugar? Yum!

View from the Couch

Yes, this seems to be my view this week. How my life looks from the couch. (And a reminder that we seriously need a new couch. It actually hasn't looked too bad. The boys are doing an excellent job of picking up and taking care of things at night so I don't go crazy looking at a mess the next day. D made supper last night without grumbling or complaining. A and B are working on AWANA and homework pretty faithfully and all in all it hasn't been too bad. I really wanted to get the house cleaned top to bottom this week, but what's one more week of dust?

P was gone again last night. He is supposed to be home tonight, but I don't know if that's going to happen considering where he was when I talked with him at 3pm. Why his travel has to happen in spurts of all or nothing, I don't know, but what can you do?

Today was 60's/70's day for Homecoming. D fluffed his hair, put on a headband and his tie-dye shirt for this weekend and was good to go. I wish he had a big peace necklace and some of those tiny sunglasses, but he looked pretty cool.

I hope to be able to write on the shirts I have done tonight. I ran out of dye the other night, so am short a few yet. The kit said it would do 8 shirts, but we must of been heavy handed with the dye. Philip is going to try to buy me more somewhere on the way home. I used the old dye from this summer on one shirt and the yellow completely washed out! So, Grandpa, you have a blue and red shirt. It actually looks pretty cool.

That's all I know for now. I am anxiously awaiting news of the new nephew, but not too soon, because I want to able to come see him!

Okay, you all know me well enough to know that I don't deal with death well. I would say my week is catching up with me today. I woke up feeling like I could cry and it's carried on all day. Haven't broke down yet, but something stupid in the next day or two will probably set me off. Why can't I just cry right away anymore when there is a death? It's like my brain and emotions go into shock and it takes me a while to process.

We have an appointment at UNMC in Omaha, Thursday, at noon. We will do more lab work, (pee in a cup again and blood work again) and then have the appointment with the nephrologist. I know that this is also weighing on me. Part of me begs God, "Just don't let it be anything bad" and another part is saying, "Just give it to me straight. Don't wait on lab work to tell you what you are already thinking. Just tell us what you are thinking." I haven't told my friend Diane any of this because I don't want Bryan already knowing what it is and not telling me. I'd bug him to death until he told me. And he never would, so I'd just make him mad. :)

Part of it could be that I have felt like I have bugs crawling on my neck and head all afternoon. I don't know what it is. I took care of some flowers today so I don't know if it was something off of that or what. Ick.

Geez, I just realized we never gave P his present tonight. We got to watching the movie he picked out while we ate and I never went and got the gift bag once B told me where it was! I'm a loser spouse this year with the birthday!!

P is leaving for Texas tomorrow. I do VB lines Tuesday, we have PT conferences on Wednesday and A's dr. appt on Thursday and then D marches in Yorkfest Saturday and I have a VB tournament to do lines for that day too. He is going to try to be back Wednesday night. I'm so sleep deprived from the past two weeks I pray I can sleep this time.

I'll think I'll quit whining and go make dinner for tomorrow and then go to bed! Love you all.

Just a quick update for you all, Mom T. I haven't probably told you this yet at all. Sorry. I was trying not to worry about it.

Alice called today. A's protein levels were even higher on the new test. She has no explanation for this and did sound very alarmed today. She wants us to go see a Pediatric Nephrologist (sp?). They would do more tests and be able to tell us more. I am to call them tomorrow to set up an appointment. She really doesn't think this has to do with his diabetes. They don't usually see these problems in kids or this early in a diagnosis. So, I'm more worried now.

My day yesterday is catching up with me. I'm TIRED. I didn't come home and sleep after subbing because I was so worried about this homework assignment I'm trying to do. It's due Sunday. I plan on working on Philip's cake tomorrow after subbing and I work Saturday 10-2. I did e-mail my instructor today because I'm not understanding how to accomplish something online. Hopefully, she will e-mail back tonight and I can zip through it. Subbing wasn't bad at all. It was fun to visit with my school friends and see some of the kids. I know I couldn't go back to doing this, but doing it occasionally isn't bad. Not my problem if they can't understand it or remember it! (Seriously, I worked with two girls today that I worked all year with last year. They don't remember half. And they had summer school!)

I need to go make supper!! The house is looking like a house again. (That means I got the cookbooks and stuff off the floor Rhonda!) D is off to do concessions for StuCo. He loves the social aspect of it. I found out today that B is getting some extra time from the new gifted curriculum. After working with SPED this morning it reminds me how blessed we are.

Wanted to update you on A, he is healing quite nicely. The knee looked the worst at the time, but it looks better than the elbow now. The elbow looks like he carved a chunk out of it when it just looked skinned initially.

D just got home from youth group. We are going together with Arbor Drive this year. One week at our church, one week there. Our youth group has been dying for quite some time. We did a mission trip with them this summer and kids really bonded I guess. We'll see how it goes.

I just checked my cataloging class, hoping maybe, since it's a holiday weekend, she made that huge assignment spread over two weeks. Nope. One week. I have to read Chapter 2 and Chapter 4 in our book and do study guide questions. To put that into perspective, I read one chapter and did study guide questions on Saturday and it took me two hours. This week is two chapters! Plus another reading, plus a paper, plus a discussion question. And that's one class. Yikes!

BATS

Today was much better for A. I e-mailed the teachers to let them know what happened, he said every teacher asked him today if he tested. The principal and I also talked and there is a para in his room almost all the time because of some kids that are in his section, so we are going to have her do reminders for him. That way teachers aren't trying to remember to do it.

Things I don't need my husband to share with me: He found two dead bats in the basement tonight and another one was in our garage again. This is in addition to the one that was in the house last week. I had a hard time getting up at 3am to check A this morning. Yuck. We need to figure where they are getting in at.

Wanted to let you know A was doing better.

Okay, so today wasn't so great. When A checked at supper he was over 500. Further investigation shows us that he didn't bolus with lunch (and he had pizza!) and hasn't tested since noon. He now has no TV privileges or video game privileges for the week. He also forgot his science book at school and forgot about an assignment until 8:00 that he had to type up. Probably because he was too high to think clearly.

My classes are okay. One is a killer. Cataloging and Classification. Five parts to the first week's assignments-two readings, two discussion posts, and a study sheet for the test. Test?! We don't have test in library classes!!! Well, now we do. Yippee. The other doesn't seem too bad. Leadership and Management. And I can't get on Blackboard tonight to work on it because the server is down.

On the up side, I rode four miles on my bike today and got chased by a dog twice. This is good because he was on the street that always seems hard and makes my legs burn, but I didn't notice today because I was trying to stay ahead of this dust bunny with legs!

Okay, after reading some other blogs, I decided this might be better and more informative for family than all my FB posts.

First day of school is here! Everyone got up and going today and did well. D's car wouldn't start, and we had to jump it, so I pray that it starts after school and he doesn't have that embarrassment at school.

A had all his supplies and we had a good meeting with the teachers on Monday. I've spent most of the morning praying for him. You can pray that he remembers to do what he needs to do and that he does it when he needs to. This is a big step in him taking charge of his diabetes.

B needs a 10am start just like I always did. He also needs the high school breakfast schedule, then his mornings would go better I'm sure. Tempting his appetite first thing in the morning is always hard. I need to make some muffins and such as he will always eat that.

I have decided to not apply for the library job. The schedule didn't seem to be working out this summer and I worried how it would work for fall. I have my practicum coming up in January and I know we will also have two boys playing basketball at that time too. I'm not sure what the spring will bring.

On another note, P has made huge steps in his relationship with D. He has read a little of the "Shepherding a Child's Heart", and saw part of a video on the same series. They both hit him hard. We now have both at our house, but finding time to get to them is difficult.

We are almost done drywalling one closet and close on the other. Then paint and carpet! We are going to wait on carpet for A's because of all the dust we will have from doing the room. We were on track to have the closet's done before school, but the wheels fell off somewhere. The goal is to have them done and A's room done before Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed!

That's all for now. We'll see if I can keep this up.

Oh wow! Totally forgot I made this blog at one time! I have another blog, Smelling Good 2, that is devotional in nature, but sometimes I want to share things that aren't always devotional in theme. I also started this blog to share with family and friends, but am still skittish of how much private information to put out there for anyone to read. I'm not sure what this blog will be, but that's half the fun!

Our 10 year old has had Type 1 and was just put on a pump on Monday. Today, I seem to have the flu that everyone else had last week. Considering the celiac/diabetic/asthmatic had H1N1, I'm not hopeful about returning to work tomorrow.

So, I'm a little stressed about maybe having to change infusion sites from my bed. I have no recollection of how to do it! We'll have to get the book out and walk through it. We might have to change sites because he is experiencing some pain inside and we've had one "No Delivery" alarm this a.m.. I'm praying we don't have to do this. Lunch went well.

This was posted on another blog back in October. The pump is going well. We can now change a site in under 10 minutes rather than the 30 minutes we started with! The hardest thing for me now is to get the air bubbles out of the reservoir. Recently, my husband was gone on a trip and I was exhausted from homework, taking care of 3 boys and doing his paper route. We never did get all the air bubbles out. The next day we saw a bubble in the line and had to push it out. Today, I made my first changes in basal rates without the nurse. I still e-mailed them to double check I was doing the right thing, but still, I made the decision what he needed done!

Monday, December 28, 2009

Sometimes, I don't like being the mother of a diabetic. I don't want to get up at midnight and three o'clock and check blood sugars. I don't want to try to remember all the "rules". Do I bolus at 200? It's after 3am, if I bolus will he be low before morning?

We went on a pump in October and it's going O.K., I don't think he's anymore regulated than before, but he does like the freedom of not having shots. Now, today, we ordered the USB port that will allow us to download all his info from his pump to an on-line site. The doctor's office can then go to this on-line site and see all the information and help with changes. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but it's just something else to figure out.

Then, I find myself thinking of the future. We have basketball coming up and it drives him nuts to have his pump bouncing on his shorts. He wants to suspend his pump and do it that way. That's scary for me. How do we handle that? Does he just put it on whenever he's out of the game? Do we wait for halftime? Or, do we buy a sport strap to hold his pump and just do the temporary basal?

And yet, even as I panic over all of this. I know Who is in control and I know that HE will not let us fail. We don't know how all this works, and what Aaron's future will hold, but HE does and HE loves Aaron more than we do. I can trust him with everything, even Aaron.

Psalm 121
I lift up mine eyes unto the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip-he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed he who watches over Israel will neither slumber not sleep. The Lord watches over you, the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm-he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore