Moving Day

Please join me next door. I've moved here. Update your blogroll and tell your friends!

BIG CHANGES

I know it's been way too long since I've updated.

Big changes are happening and have happened. If you're a Blogabetes reader, you're up to date.

I've struggled with what to do--if anything--with this blog since all of my diabetes-related writing energy is being directed at Blogabetes. I have an idea now.

Stay tuned faithful readers (if I have any left).



By the way...happy birthday to me and happy 30th to my wonderful sister!

Fateful Judgement Calls

As parents we make judgement calls all the time. Not just decisions and choices, but judgements. Some of those we wind up patting ourselves on the back for, and others we wind up kicking ourselves in the pants for.

Take this weekend for example. I had plans to drive two hours from our home in mid-Missouri with my kids so we could go to my niece's first-birthday party and celebrate Hanukkah dinner with a very good friend of mine. Also, Mom and I were looking forward to just hanging out and chatting since we really didn't get to do that at Thanksgiving.

Well, with winter weather all around us and more on the way, The Mr. suggested I stay home. I checked the Missouri Highway Patrol web site's road conditions page, looked outside and obsessively checked the weather. I decided that I was a smart driver and that if conditions were too bad or got too bad that I could simply turn around.

Judgement call number one. And The Mr. was none too happy with me. At. All.

Saturday night, after a wonderful evening with friends, the kids and I were congregated near the backdoor. Somehow, No. 3 fell down the flight of basement steps that were immediately facing the backdoor. I didn't hear a tumble and didn't see a little diaper butt going down. In fact, No. 2 saw her at the bottom of the stairs. Actually, she saw her light-up shoes at the bottom of the stairs.

I ran down the stairs and No. 3 stopped crying almost as soon as I picked her up. I checked her over and there was no blood, no cuts, no bumps, no bruises, no abrasions. And she had stopped the frantic crying. I brought her upstairs and we all looked her over again. She seemed fine. I mean, except for the tumble. She did seem a little confused--wanting me to pick her up and then immediately put her down and then pick her up. But she was walking fine and had full movement of her arms. She wasn't lethargic and wasn't throwing up. Again, I thought she was fine.

I drove to Mom and Dad's where Mom and I watched her and discussed her condition. I thought about calling the doctor, but my momsense told me that the doctor would tell me what I already knew...as long as she's awake, not throwing up, not lethargic, not bleeding, etc., that she was fine. She slept fitfully that night, but who wouldn't after falling down a flight of stairs? I called The Mr. who was two hours away working. He was mad that I hadn't taken the baby to the hospital. I explained my reasons, but I don't think it helped.

Judgement call number two.

Sunday night when I returned home, I called the doctor mostly to appease The Mr. She confirmed my mom-diagnosis.

Sunday No. 3 was cranky, but reasonably so. Monday she seemed better, but I noticed that she was favoring her right arm and that her right shoulder was swollen. Thankfully she had a well-baby checkup scheduled for Tuesday at 4 p.m. I was concerned enough that I moved it up to 10a.m.

Her pediatrician took one look at her shoulder and said, "I think she has a broken collar bone." (And man, oh man did I want to eat my words because not 48 hours ago had I practically yelled at The Mr. (who was still raking me over the coals for not taking No. 3 to the hospital Saturday night), "Oh, come on! She did NOT fracture her collar bone." Yeah, open mouth, insert foot.)

So we went for an x-ray to confirm and consulted with an orthopedic surgeon. (Read about my x-ray experience here.) Turns out, according to the ortho, that what I did was "classic" mom behavior in this situation. I'm just glad The Mr. got to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.

I made more than those two judgement calls over the weekend, but those are the ones that will stick in my mind for some time to come. As a mom and a wife, I have to learn to pick my battles. Sometimes that can be harder than making the decisions in the first place.

Finally a new post!!!

Um, yeah, so it's been a while since I updated my blog. I've been so involved with Blogabetes that I'm having trouble finding time (read: deadline season at work) and inspiration for my blog. However, I have vowed to try to be better about not leaving my faithful readers in a lurch for so long anymore.

So, here to whet your appetite for more, is a meme floating around the OC.

1. Were you named after anyone? My middle name is my paternal grandmother’s maiden name. My sister and my nephew have the same middle name. An interesting tidbit about my name: all three of my names have eight letters.

2. When was the last time you cried? The week before Thanksgiving, I think. I was terribly worried about my blood clot leg and wound up going for a doppler to make sure I wasn’t developing another clot.

3. Do you like your handwriting? Sometimes. Usually I think it’s just OK.

4. What is your favorite lunch meat? Roast beef.

5. Do you have kids? Yes. No. 1 is almost 8 (my God how did that happen??), No. 2 just turned 5, and No. 3 will be 2 next week (again, how did that happen??).

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? I hope so.

7. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Ah, ye-ah.

8. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes.

9. Would you bungee jump? No freaking way. Couldn’t get me to jump out of a plane either.

10. What is your favorite cereal? I have a lot of trouble eating cereal without taking a ton of insulin. When I do eat cereal, though, I like Raisin Bran Crunch, Smart Start (but I won’t buy it anymore because the box is too small for the steep price tag) and almost anything sugary.

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No.

12. Do you think you are strong? I have my moments.

13. What is your favorite ice cream? Peanut Butter and Chocolate from Baskin Robbins. Also really like Chocolate Fudge Brownie from Ben and Jerry’s.

14. What is the first thing you notice about people? Body shape, I think. And how a person holds himself up. I think it reveals a lot about self-confidence.

15. Red or Pink? Neither, really. Or, it depends.

16. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? I can be moody.

17. Who do you miss the most? I regret that I can’t spend more time with my grandmother. And hate that I can’t see my sister every day.

18. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Jeans and khaki slip ons from Easy Spirit.

20. What was the last thing you ate? Quaker’s Lower Sugar maple and brown sugar oatmeal. I really want some M&M’s right now.

21. What are you listening to right now? A girl in the office discussing style and grammar, the ticking of my typing.

22. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Always loved midnight blue.

23. Favorite smells? Rain, fresh-cut grass, Christmas, clean babies.

24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? I had an editorial conference call. In five minutes I’m about to have another conference call.

25. Favorite sports to watch? Baseball, specifically the St. Louis Cardinals. I’ve grown to enjoy watching football.

26. Hair color? Medium brown

27. Eye color? Blueish, greenish.

28. Do you wear contacts? No, I wear glasses. I get mixed answers when I ask about contacts. However, I’m not fond of having things in my eyes, so I don’t know that I’d enjoy wearing contacts anyway.

29. Favorite food? I love a good steak. Oh, and pretty much anything chocolate.

30. Scary Movies or Happy Endings? Happy endings, though I enjoy some psychological thrillers and would prefer that to a physical thriller.

31. Last movie you watched? Die Hard 4.

32. What color shirt are you wearing? Greenish button down with my company name embroidered.

33. Summer or winter? Depends. I don’t like real hot or real cold. I prefer spring and fall.

34. Hugs or kisses? Depends on who I’m getting them from!

35. Favorite dessert? Hmmm… I have to pick just one?

36. What is on your mousepad? Some space scene.

37. What did you watch on TV last night? I watched Journeyman online because I missed it on TV on Monday.

38. Favorite sound? My kids laughing, rain/thunderstorms

39. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Probably Beatles.

40. What is the farthest you have been from home? Mexico.

41. Do you have a special talent? Uh, I don’t think so.

Hitting Below the Belt

I consider my life with diabetes to be fairly boring. There are few surprises. And then something significant happens. Something really significant. I wrote about my lowest low ever (29 mg/dL) on Blogabetes over the weekend. The Mr. and I went out to lunch on Friday and my mood prevented me from really paying attention to what was going on and to what I was going. I got that low pretty quickly. It scared us both pretty badly. I am thankful, though, that I had The Mr. with me. I had contemplated going to lunch alone that day.

Read Part I here and Part II here.

Two-week update

Whew!

There has been so much happening lately. I've been focusing most of my diabetes writing for my blog at dLife. I know, that's kind of crappy, but no one ever said you can't take a jaunt over there to check it out. In fact, I had an awesome appointment with my endo this morning and wrote about it here. I'm proud of where I've come, so go read and leave a comment here or there.*

Also progressing seems to be my photography. In fact, I've asked Santa for a portable backdrop stand, and have created a small flyer that I will likely start distributing to friends soon. I have an "appointment" with a friend to shoot her kids' Christmas card, and will likely get a newborn session in before too long because another friend of mine is about to pop!

I've really been thinking lately that my blog template is dark and quite drab. I'm considering switching it up to a white background. What do you think?

*My endo emailed about an hour ago and my A1C has dropped from 9 in late June to 7.9 today. It's not ideal, but go me for getting it lowered.

I'm Gonna Do It!

I'm going to join the ranks of other OCers and tackle the Diabetes 365 project. For me, it will serve as fuel for my blogging and photography. Especially photography. So far, I think I am the only type 2 on the project. Not that I want to emphasize the differences necessarily, but our management styles can be quite different--and quite similar.

I hope to get started by Monday. I'm already generating several ideas for photos.

Check out the pool of photos already on flickr and join the project!