Looking Forward to the Weekend

It's been a busy week! I've been go, go, go every night this week, except last night which I had to veg on the couch or I didn't think I would make it through the weekend. :) But so many exciting things are happening this weekend, and I'm ready for the Friday work day to be over.

Tonight, we'll be heading to a Fall Festival at the church behind our house...we'll be able to just walk out our back door and across the field. Evan will dress in his Tigger costume for the 3rd time. I think I'll go as myself tonight...dressing up in a short, red wig twice is enough!

Tomorrow morning is the ADA Step out: Walk to Fight Diabetes. I'm so excited to be taking part in this event! It's a cause very close to my heart, as you can see by the fact that I'll be getting up at around 5:30am to get all of us all ready to get out the door by 7am! But it will be a nice walk in cool weather...praying for no rain! So many people have donated to my campaign and I feel so overwhelmed with support and encouragement!

Then Sunday, we'll be attending the Beach Baptisms our church is hosting. It's a whole family event with a cookout and service afterwards. Our friends Summer and John are getting baptized so we are extremely excited!

So it's a full weekend ahead! But I'll leave you with some more cute costume photos..

From my work's Halloween Chili Luncheon:

From last weekend's Halloween Party (thanks Summer for the photos!):

With Summer

And a few from last year's Halloween Party. Summer just passed these along to me so I had to share. Look at how little and chunky Evan is! But wasn't he a precious turtle!

With Summer and John

Halloween Fun

The beginning of our Halloween activities included the annual Halloween Party at our friends Laura and Juan's home. They always throw a great bash and many of us who don't see each other regularly get the chance to hang out and catch up. Brad is usually the party pooper when it comes to costumes so he didn't dress up. But I found the cutest Tigger costume for Evan about 2 months ago! So he went as Tigger and I went as Darby, Super Slueths, from the show - My Friends Tigger & Pooh on Disney. (See our cute tags.) Luckily I had a short red wig from a previous Halloween and was able to easily throw my costume together. Here's a photo Brad took of Evan and I. My friend Summer took more during the party, and is going to send them to me. I ended up never having the chance to pull my camera out as I was trying to keep up with Evan who was trying to follow all the bigger kids around. He really wanted to be able to keep up with them.

So do I look good with short red hair? Definitely makes me look younger I think. That's why I'm sticking with long hair. But Brad really liked it and suggested I consider going short. I just don't know. Summer says she thinks I could pull off any hair color or cut...but I'm not so sure.

Now more Halloween fun to come at the end of this week. :)

Pumpkin Patch

This past weekend we went by a pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins. Always a good photo op. My mom, aka Granny, joined us and we had a nice time. Evan wanted to take all the pumpkins home...even trying to pick up the really big ones himself. Though his favorite pumpkin was a teeny tiny pumpkin that we did take home. Below is a link to the cute photos we got. I was also remembering last year and going to the same pumpkin patch when Evan was still a baby. I've included some photos from then as well. Amazing how much he's grown! My little baby...no longer a baby anymore. But I'll always call him my baby!

Here's from last year:

Check out more photos here.

Oh, and Evan's hair cut is thanks to his Mommy and Daddy! We were pretty brave with a wiggly toddler. We were just happy it turned out decent and I didn't have to run him to my hairdresser to "fix" it. It's definitely not top quality but it works for now. It got his bangs out of his eyes.

Dealing with Diabetes...and a Walk to Fight Diabetes

Well, I woke up Thursday morning with a VERY high blood sugar reading. I almost hate to put the number here as those of you who don't have diabetes will be completely shocked! But here goes - It was 452. Let's just say around 500 people often pass out and end up in the hospital! Thank God that has never happened to me. But 452 is VERY far away from my target range of 80-110. With that high of a number I knew something was wrong with my infusion site...now you are probably saying "what is an infusion site?"

Here's a little background. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2001 at the age of 24. This is what is commonly referred to as Juvenile diabetes - but, yes, people can get it all the way up to the age of 30. Who knew? Not me! What a shock. To say it changed my life is an understatement. It meant I needed insulin to live as my body no longer produced any. Diabetes is not something I can just forget about or get away from. I deal with it daily...checking my blood sugar 5-7 times each day, counting my carbohydrates and giving myself insulin...it's a tedious process to say the least. But it's made easier (not easy but easier) with the help of an insulin pump to deliver insulin continuously, similar to a normal pancreas. That's where the infusion site comes in...the pump is connected to me through tubing that goes into an infusion site in my skin. The tubing is really small but does involve a needle to put the infusion site into my skin, and has to be changed every 3 days.

So back to my story...I immediately changed my infusion site to ensure my body was properly getting insulin and my blood sugar came down. Of course it took 4 hours or so for it to be back in range. And any time my blood sugar is really high or really low, it affects my body for the next 24 hours. Not fun - but something I've learned to deal with and push through because my day and responsibilities, such as work and taking care of my little boy, don't stop.

It was funny that this all happened the day after I had found out about an American Diabetes Association fundraising walk coming to my area on Nov. 1. I already knew I wanted to participate but this just solidified it and motivated me even more. So I'm asking friends and family to donate or join Brad, Evan and I for the walk. Find out more at my ADA personal webpage and some details below:

Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes is a fund-raising walk, benefiting the ADA's mission: to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. I'm asking you all, as my friends and family, to consider supporting me by donating to my campaign. I know these are tough economic times and we are all feeling the pinch, so please don't feel any obligation to give. If you can and do, I'll so appreciate it. If not, I ask if you could pray for me and others with diabetes. Pray for us as we try to keep our blood sugars in line and keep it from affecting our health in what can be a wide variety of ways. Pray for the walk to be successful and hey, if you feel so moved, pray for a cure to be found quickly! :)

Also, if you are in Orlando and want to take part in a fun morning, consider joining me, Brad and Evan for the walk. It starts Nov. 1 at 8:30am at Loch Haven Park. You can sign up to walk and make donations on my personal web page.

Just so you know, more than 20 million Americans suffer from diabetes, and another 54 million are at risk for developing diabetes. I'm hopeful for a cure - and any support of the ADA helps!

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I do feel very fortunate that diabetes is treatable and I can still live a long, healthy life by taking the proper steps. I know this is not always the case for those with different forms of cancer, and other serious diseases. Plus, they are making advances in diabetes treatment every day and I truly hope a cure can be found (and attainable for the general public) in my lifetime. This is my challenge to face in life, and through it, I just remind myself of how blessed I truly am!

Here and Now: A Mini Album

I've just completed my first mini album! I was motivated to do this because of a challenge by Stacy Julian (founder of Big Picture Scrapbooking)...it was to make yourself a "present" by putting 10-12 pictures of what is going on in your life right now into a mini album to keep in your purse for the next year. I learned a lot making this as I made it myself using cereal boxes for chipboard. Actually I figured out what not to do in some instances, such as my glue got everywhere - not real happy with the glue stick I bought. But live and learn right! It actually came out pretty cute except for the pages tending to stick together. I love the photos and getting to look at them regulary since they are always with me.

Mommy's Little Helper

Evan is so sweet and always wants to help out around the house. His favorite chore to help out with is feeding our dog Mac. I haven't yet been able to catch this on video but I did get some good photos recently.

Opening Door to Garage"Please open the lid"

Scooping up dog food

Traveling down the hallway holding the cup upright like a big boy

Normally he'd pour the food into the dog's bowl (not always accurately) but this morning we had already put Mac up so he had to pour it over the gate. Think he had more fun doing that!

I hope he keeps up this desire to help out...except maybe without the whining when he can't do it how he wants. :) That's toddlers for ya!

Pool Boy

We are trying to get in as much pool time before it gets cool (notice I didn't say cold) here in Florida. So we've been going to my Dad and Stepmom's place on the weekends. Evan really likes the water and loves kicking his feet and splashing. We tried swimmies for his arms last week but he's not strong enough of a swimmer yet for those, so this week we tried a blow-up that he could sit in. It's a little waverunner! :)


Otherwise it was a pretty low key weekend. We did really enjoy our church small group we've started on Friday nights. Evan gets to come and play with a bunch of other kids. I made some pumpkin gooey butter cake (Paula Dean) that was delicious! If you want the recipe - click here. You can do a variation that uses chocolate cake mix and peanut butter instead of pumpkin...I'm going to have to try that one sometime soon! I love chocolate and peanut butter. Okay, I love sweets! (How unfair is it that someone with such a big sweet tooth is diabetic. But that's a whole other post.)

Art

Yes, I'm up late tonight, but I wanted to post a photo of Brad's design piece that is hanging up in our church. These go with the sermon series "Essentials." The idea was that 8 different people created an art piece that showcases a different camping essential and how God is like that essential item. Brad had a lantern.

And I had to include a few cute Evan photos...