A Little Gratitude on Diabetes

Out of the blue, I decided to write a blog post. My computer died a while ago, and the photos from my nice camera have nowhere to go, so I haven't gotten the draft posts published. But, I've been doing some thinking about diabetes that I thought I'd share. So I will try to do this post via phone.

Nearly everyday I think about how incredible it is to hold insulin.

This little vial of fluid is the thing keeping my son alive.

Check out this little paper blood test strip.

If I tear back the top paper, it looks like this:

For a handful of change, I have this amazing device for testing blood sugar amounts in my child. A half inch piece of paper!

I read that symptoms of diabetes were recognized in ancient Egypt. For thousands of years, people have suffered from this mysterious autoimmune disease with no answers. And now, simple it seems, is help.

Recently my parents were in town for Easton's baptism. My mom gave me a spiral bound book of some ancestry files. Immediately I turned to a page with my great-grandmother. I had never seen a picture of her before. I had never really thought about her until recently. She died long before I was born. Here is the only photo I've seen:

Doesn't she look cute? Her hair done up and wearing a fancy hat. She is smiling too, which seems unusual for the time. My great-grandmother had five children. Until recently, I only knew about my grandmother and her two sisters. The oldest in the family was a son named Wilford. When Wilford was 19, he was diagnosed with diabetes. When he was 21, he died from it, on Christmas morning. Sometime during the night, he had gotten up to wrap everyone's presents and set them out.

My grandmother was 4 at the time, her sisters were 15 and 9. The youngest was 2, another son. I was just thinking about the heartache my great-grandmother must have felt, seeing her son draw nearer to death without being able to do anything about it. A little over a year later, her baby boy would show the same symptoms and die from diabetes before making it to his fourth birthday.

I didn't realize how sick Ander was getting for a while. It started with me making a comment that I didn't think Ander was getting enough nutrition from his meals. I told Michael I thought he needed more vegetables. His complexion wasn't a nice pinkish, childish color. It seemed pale and he had darker circles under his eyes. Michael had noticed it as well.

A couple of weeks later, it snowed the first day of Spring Break. It was a Monday. The kids put on their snow gear and ran out. Kynlee and Easton zipped around the nearby fields, but Ander slugged along. He kept laying down every four steps. He said he was tired and asked me to carry him. I had Maeleya in my arms, so I made him endure. I thought, "Whew, he has really gotten out of shape over the winter. He needs to get more exercise."

That was Monday, on Thursday we were checking him into the children's hospital emergency room. The day before, on Wednesday, he was smiling and laughing about a game he was playing. The angle his face was, and the light on it, made me realize how haggard he looked. His face seemed sunken in, pale, with dark circles. I knew something was wrong, I just didn't have a name for it yet.

I stayed with Ander in the hospital for two days. After his first shot of insulin, both Michael and I had a little weight taken off our heartache. We knew he was getting better. That night, he slept peacefully through it for the first time- in a long time- without the usual symptoms.

So I am grateful for the generation we live in, that lets me as a mother see recovery in my son and hope for his future. And I have empathy, for all those in the years past that had to endure without that hope of recovery.

Ander's view

The ninja returns

Sunset

Just before Thanksgiving we took a trip to Naples, Florida. We flew in to see Michael's grandmother, Meema. We ended up buying our tickets the night before. We had been planning on going in the fall, but things kept coming up that held us back. We heard that she might be close to the end though, so we decided to go ahead and visit when we were able. I've loved her from the first day I met her, you just can't help but love her. It was a really nice visit. Florida weather was like someone had an outdoor thermostat that they turned to the perfect temperature. No wonder Meema has been calling it paradise. We just heard that she passed quietly away yesterday. She was 95, almost 96. She lived a healthy, active life, only in the last weeks did she need to contently sit on the couch and relax. She was the last of our grandparents.

It was good for the kids to see her, and good to talk about her being in heaven now. We talked about it quietly, but knew she did what she wanted to in this life and is happy to move on to the next. Our home is filling up with her artwork. Michael's favorite has always been a sunset picture that hung in his home growing up. Meema and I plotted to have her paint him another one for Christmas a few years ago. Both paintings hang in our home to enjoy. We love you Meema!

One Goal Down

I've had Easton in gymnastics on and off over a couple of years (it's Jedi training). He's in an all boy class right now. I think it's great for coordination and strength training. There's a long, tough rope they eventually get all the kids on. Easton tried to climb it this spring and was really upset he couldn't. (I talked about this rope with Kynlee back at the very beginning of the blog). It became a goal learning moment. We've been working with him a bit, and whalla, one day it clicked. He went from not moving up more than a couple of feet to scaling right up it. I felt so happy for him. Now he climbs it a few times each class.

Easton has natural tendency not to like challenges. He feels overwhelmed easily. I've been trying to have him see getting through all the challenges and goals is possible. I think it's helping.

The thought popped into my head one day, and I think it was inspired, to have him read the Book of Mormon, every verse by himself. I think he'd be very impressed to look at a thick book like that with tiny writing and be able to say he read it all. I thought, one verse a day and he wouldn't feel like he was suffering, slow and steady right? But then I did the math and learned that would take 18 years to finish! Uh, yeah, got to do a little more than that. I've gotten him to three versus before without him spitting too much venom of complaints at me. I think he will ease into it with time.

Halloween

Kynlee has been doing a lot of Harry Potter reading lately. She's pretty into it right now, and she's trying to convince me to do an elaborate birthday party. I felt like I was taking Hogwart school pictures of her.

Easton told me he wanted to be a potion master. Not a Potter style -although he really likes Snape- but more realistic. I had to put down some rules because he keeps really mixing all our household ingredients for his experiments. In our next house, he would really like a laboratory. These tinted / nontinted flip up goggles were his pick.

Ander was Tigger, we had the hat and tail from a costume Lisa had made, so I just needed to come up with the middle part. He makes weapons out of the toys all day, so I'm just glad he did a non fighting thing. It helps me remember he's still a little boy.

I didn't do an official shoot of Maeleya, misplaced her hat on Halloween. Poor kid, fourth child only gets one picture and Kynlee's old costume. I'll make it up to you Maeleya, but you're a really cute ladybug.

Michael and I wore wigs. I'm not sure it's a good look.

Mmmm, this is a little better.

We trick or treated with cousins and friends and met up with more. It was a lot of fun, even though it was chilly.

First Day

The kids asked for school uniforms. They found out their cousin had them and got really excited about the idea. I hadn't thought of uniforms, but it didn't take much for me to go for it. I love kids in uniforms! Plus I thought it might add a formality to the day so it wouldn't feel like they were just hanging out at home. Kynlee's been reading a lot of Harry Potter lately and really wanted a tie as well, just like Hermione.

It was a little weird of a day, like we were playing school, but I think this is going to work.

I did not have the kids pose for these next photos, this is how they seriously looked and it was so cute that I had to snap a couple of pictures.

I toured a half a dozen private schools last year and picked up on things I liked. Doing that, reading several books, and spending hours picking out the curriculum is really helping me. I had an anxious feeling all of yesterday, but I think it might just work.

Back to the blog

Poor blog. I got out of the habit of posting. I've been reading parenting, education, and family type books. You can see where my mind is these days. Poor Easton in a wig has been stuck on the front page of this blog for a while. For the record, I bought that wig so I could turn it into Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! for Halloween. You know, a very cool sort of character. We don't have a habit of dressing our boys up in girl wigs, just so you know.

Anyway, too much to catch up on, so I'll just stick in some pictures to sum things up. This is Maeleya's nursery:

It's an old pack n' play, and it's mobile too! Which is good, because she doesn't have a room of her own and has been trying out all the rooms to see where she fits the best. The laundry room probably is the most undisturbed place for her to sleep, although it makes getting laundry done a little tricky. Sometimes you just have to smile at what you have and forget about that magazine perfect picture of a home.

Easton and Ander did soccer this past Spring. Ander really is too young for it, but the alternative was to entertain him on the sideline, after two years of that it was so worth the money to have him play.

That's what he looked like half the time we arrived at practice. 5:30 pm is a tough time to stay awake in the car when you are three.

His black eye is totally unrelated to soccer, but I couldn't resist sticking it in the post. He looks like a Norman Rockwell image.

The school year finished, and summer is about done.

That is a snapshot of Easton at his Kindergarten program. Uhhh, does he look a little tall? After I married Michael, he mentioned he was six feet tall by 6th grade. Easton is doomed.

Our grass turned to hay by the 4th of July in this drought-of-a-summer.

We've been doing the normal summer things to beat the heat, like giant slip n' slides and things of that nature. (Notice all the hay around)

We went years without going to any grandparents' homes, and then ended up visiting all three sets within one month. It was good to visit.

Our poor Pathfinder had transmission issues on the trips though, and we had to leave it in Utah for a couple of months to get worked on. Lucky for us, my parents let us drive out their old van until we could exchange cars. Even though it was a 93' Dodge Caravan, I have to admit, I could see pros to owning a van. Sliding doors are not pretty to look at, but it was really nice to not worry about the kids bumping cars parked next to us. Vans also have some nice leg room...maybe I'm turning into a minivan person!

It was good to visit Utah again. It has been so long that Kynlee was the only one who had any slight memory of it. I realized there are so many things to do there. It was also good to go to Salt Lake City and have the kids realize that our church isn't just a small brown building, it is something much bigger. I think we should plan to make that trip often in the years to come.

It was great to see the cousins there, climb the mountains to clear our heads, and visit with the Utah grandfolk.

I didn't get a group shot with the my parents, someone wouldn't hold still for one (Mom). I guess we'll try in a few years when we make it back out there.

But, let's mention the latest news, Michael finished up all his residency, fellowship business and is the real doctor deal! Insert official bio:

We're staying in our little house for a while, but I have two sisters within walking distance, so I am not complaining- as long as I get to throw my couches out soon. Kynlee did a triathlon, so I'll post pictures of that at the end, I'm not wearing those ugly, purple glasses anymore, and I'm homeschooling this year.

Wait, what was that last bit? Yes, homeschooling. It's hard to say that word, because it seems to conjure up denim wearing, long haired, strange, isolated, messy people in my mind. Rather than say I'm homeschooling, I'd like to say we are taking a year sabbatical to enlighten our bright children's minds and travel the world. That sounds a lot more cool and intriguing. Minus the last of that sentence about the world travel bit and it's about right. In summary,

1. I have felt inspired to do this.

2. I have no major complaints with our schools, and both kids have had good experiences.

3. My plan is just to do it for a year.

4. I'm excited.

5. I'm scared.

6. In three days school starts!!!

I'm sure I'll talk more about that topic in the future, but...

on another topic, pictures from another trip I mentioned I'd post to family.

Kynlee was inspired to do a triathlon because of her rock, awesome parents who are in training. It was a sauna hot day though. I got sick in the heat just watching her, and she threw up at the end, so did the girl who finished with her. Kynlee wasn't sure she ever wanted to do it again. She said "I thought it would be awesome, but...it was hard!" Ten minutes after she said that, she told us, "OK, I'm ready to do another one." That night, she made me search online for another race.

What an athletic looking kid.

There's a good summary of the latest bit, or rather a lengthy post I guess.