Hug someone you love.

Last night, we watched Super Nanny. Yes, we watch crappy reality shows. Don't judge me, ha! ;)

The mom on the show was completely clueless and devoid of emotion with her kids. It seemed like she gave up on being a mother. It was pretty painful to watch her flounder and literally hide from her children during the day, to avoid interacting with them.

So, one of the kids on the show, her 12 year old daughter, says she can't remember the last time her mother hugged her.

My husband and I just looked at each other with tears in our eyes. We spent the remainder of the show talking about how we couldn't imagine not hugging Noah or interacting with him. In the end, the mother came around, but it was so heartbreaking. It made me wonder about what that does to a child's self esteeem in the long run.

So, not only on Valentine's Day, but every day- show the people in your life how much you love them. Throw your arms around them and squeeze!

NyQuil Haiku

The plague has hit me

sweet relief in a small cup

down the hatch and...sleep

Yep. Sick with a cold that has me feeling exactly like those people in the commercial that have huge inflated balloons for a head. The perfect frosting for the shit cake that has been this week.

This pretty much sums it up:

(warning- offensive language. usage of words like clusterfuck, New York, Manning,
etc.)


have a great weekend everyone... ;)

Fill er' up.

I have always been a "glass half empty" person. Sometimes, the smallest inconvenience can send me into a crying, shouting frenzy of panic and anger. So not cool.

I realize that's not the best way to live, so recently, I have been on a personal quest to learn to chill, and enjoy life to the fullest. So many things have happened in the past couple years that make life appear as less enjoyable, never ending drudgery. Learning to adjust my thinking - not to automatically assume or expect the worst in life has been tough. It's as if it's engrained into us as a society that bitching and moaning about life is more acceptible than loving life. That somehow, if you're truly happy and you want to share that with others, you're a fake and a phony. I'm beginning to see that is the furthest thing from the truth.

What I'm finding out, is that it's imperative to my well-being and that of everyone around me, to be enthusiastic, content, adventurous and fearless. That in becoming a "glass half FULL" person, I will bring that fullness into all areas of my life, and to all the people I care about. Like emotional osmosis.

We'll all be able to handle whatever comes our way- whether it includes combatting type 1, the rising cost of gas, impending teenage angst...it will all be embraced with optimism and a knowledge that it will make me, him & us stronger.

How did the accident happen?

Yesterday, as I stood in my kitchen chugging water after just getting home from the gym, the phone rang.

My stomach did a little flip-flop when I glanced at the caller ID, and saw the school nurse's number on the screen.

Apparently my son thinks he's Evel Knievel and fell off the monkey bars while doing a "stunt". The nurse said that even though the cut on his ear was not large, it was still bleeding , and was deep enough to possibly warrant a suture.

Why do these things always happen when I'm completely disheveled??- at least I wasn't still in my pajamas. I showered (barely) and ran to collect my son. He was grinning from ear to ear as he told me of his incredible acrobatics, and the patch of ice that foiled his perfect landing off the monkey bars.

I tried calling the doctor's office, while simultaneously driving there, and they were at lunch. Noone was in the office (how can that be??) so my only option was to just show up.
We ended up in the waiting room for an hour. :P

Our doctor patched him up...no stitches were needed. He asked Noah how the diabetes was going , and if he liked his pump- and that was it. Took all of 5 minutes. He has some steri-strip tape holding it closed , and he can't get it wet for 4 days. I'm wondering how he'll wash his hair?

I'm glad he's okay, and it wasn't a broken bone or something. His sense of humor is completely intact, as evidenced by his comment on the way home:

"I'm like Van Gogh, now."

Tom Petty was cool...

I'm so bummed. My Patriots lost, but I am and will always be a devoted fan. I love my team. Till next season, guys.

I blame the red sweatshirt.

Slacker and the big mistake

Yes, it's been quite a while since my last post here. Alot has happened since then.

The Patriots won the AFC Championship, and are set to win the Superbowl this Sunday! (GO PATS!)

I have lost a total of 5.5 lbs, and have made strides at the gym. (GO ME!!)

Today is Noah's 4th skiing lesson, and he will be graduating to the chair lift. In addition to that, he's been managing his blood glucose beautifully, both on and off the slopes. (GO NOAH!!!)

On the d-tip...at the risk of sounding like a total idiot, here's the story of what happened when my mom had Noah overnight so my husband and I could go out on a hot date. Yes, a real date with a movie and dinner and staying out late and a martini...

Ok, so on to the stupid thing I did:

My mom and I were planning Noah's dinner carbs for the evening and I wrote down measurements and counts for the chicken,broccoli & ziti she was planning to make.
"Is this pasta measurement for dry or cooked"? my mom asked.

"huh? It's the same, right"? I replied, uneasily. My mother is my family's Martha Stewart, and it automatically made me nervous that I didn't have the food knowledge she wanted to hear.


"The pasta...it's 1/2 cup dry, right?" now she's grabbing her glasses and the box to check.

"Mom, I don't have a clue. It's ziti, so it doesn't change it's shape or anything so I just assumed...."
I couldn't even finish. Most of the time, I can laugh at my mistakes and brush it off as a lesson learned, but not this time. This time was about my kid, and his health. I knew that what I had been doing all along was wrong, and it hit me in such a weird way. I started to cry and got mad at myself. How stupid am I that I don't know things like that practically double in size when they cook? I thought back to all the dinners and the carbs I counted incorrectly, and felt like ...


a failure.

"Now you know", my mom said. I immediately snapped out of it. Those 3 words meant so much.

They didn't just mean "now you know", they meant: "all good moms make mistakes", and "you do a good job, you can't be perfect all the time".

Thanks mom, for saying all the right things.

Fresh Powder

I made my way in the bitter cold up to the lodge at the ski area, saying a little silent prayer, "please, in the name of all that is holy, let him have a good time with no lows".

It was Noah's first day of ski club. We planned ahead for every possible mishap and blood glucose scenario. Since the kids get on a bus and go right to the mountain after school, I sent him with a grocery store worth of snacks in his bag.

I hoped that he would remember to take his glucose tabs if he felt low on the mountain, instead of making the long trek to the lodge and his test kit.

Did I triple check his pump to make sure he had enough insulin in there, and battery life was ok?

I made my way through the gazillions of kids and adults, convinced something had gone wrong, and that I would find my son sweaty, pale and panicked from a low.

I heard him before I saw him...laughing that incredibly infectious laugh that I love so much. Standing with a friend and his teacher, skis in hand. Already looking like a pro. His smile was a mile wide, and just seeing that sent my anxiety packing...for that moment all thoughts of diabetes, boluses, basal rates, and carb counts were set aside. For that moment, I saw a happy kid on the brink of a new and exciting adventure, and that made the start of my New Year very bright, indeed.