Letting Go

I'm just going to cut to the chase here.  Taylar slept over her friend's house last night.  Yep, I LET her sleep at a friends.  A non-D friend at that.  This is her first sleep over with a non-family member so this was a huge deal.  Honestly, I'm glad it's over but we all did survive.  If anything it was a great hands-on learning experience for Taylar's friend's Mom. 

Taylar's bags were packed and she was on her way at 5:00 on Friday.  I equipped the Mom with everything Taylar could possibly need in any circumstance that may arise.  I had written things down and even gave her our Calorie King book.  It all began with dinner (No phone call! This Mom is good!  Of course I was hoping for a call but she had already told me what they were going to have so I gave her a guesstimate of the carbs.) Blood sugar of 135.  Nice.  I got my first phone call around 7:00 for dessert.  The kids were jumping on the trampoline and Taylar was now testing at 62.  Those stinkin' trampolines.  Every time that girl has fun jumping around on one she goes low.  No worries though.  She had some juice and then her ice cream and was back in range after that. 

At 10:35 I hadn't heard anything about a "bedtime" reading so I called over there.  They were ending a movie but the Mom had Taylar test and she called me right back.  165.  Ok, that's a good bedtime number.  I was SO nervous though.  That's a good number if I'm going to check her again at midnight...especially after the trampoline incident.  Ugh.  You know how it is.  You get all those negative possibilities flowing through your head.  I prayed about it.  I prayed again and again.  

At 11:40 the phone rang again and it was Taylar.  She was fine.  She was just calling to say goodnight.  I guess they had gone to bed around 11 but she said she couldn't sleep until she called to say goodnight.  Awww.  I wanted to magically have her come through the phone and be at home.  Letting go.  Man, this was SO hard.  Instead I (prayed again and) went to bed. 

Somehow I got a decent night's sleep.  Taylar was 90 in the morning and eventually came home.  Looking back I'm so glad that Taylar had her first sleep over!  It is so much easier to just say no but she had an absolute ball and I know the next time will be easier....not that I'll have it happen again too soon. :-)  I'm proud of how she handled herself and her pump on her own and proud of myself for letting go.

D-Feast Friday - Frozen Peanut Butter-and Chocolate Pie

What is it about chocolate and peanut butter together?  All I can say is yum!

Frozen Peanut Butter and Chocolate Pie
1 1/2C milk
1/4C sugar
1/2C + 1T creamy peanut butter
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2C thawed cool whip
1 (6oz.) graham-cracker crust (Or you could make your own!)
Chopped dry roasted peanuts
1/2 oz. semisweet chocolate, grated

Combine milk and sugar in saucepan and set over medium-high heat.  Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Whisk in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth.  Pour into a medium bowl and refrigerate until completely cooled, about 1 hour.

Gently stir cool whip into chilled milk mixture; spoon into crust.  Sprinkled with peanuts and grated chocolate.  Loosely cover the pie with wax paper, then aluminum foil.  Freeze until completely frozen, at least 4 hours, or up to 2 days.  Let pie soften at room temperature 20 minutes before serving.

Serving: 1/8 pie, 34g carbs

The Walk



Taylar with her photo board that was posted at the walk

This Sunday was our JDRF "Walk to Cure Diabetes".  I showed up at 7:30 a.m. with my Mom to help set things up and to run the "New Walkers" information table.  It was only about 42 degrees that morning so I was thankful they supplied hot coffee for the volunteers!

It was so exciting when our team members started to arrive!  I loved seeing everyone in their "Sweet T" t-shirts!  There were 26 of us who walked and showed up to support Taylar.  It truly was heartwarming.  Last year things happened so quickly that we only had 8 walkers so to triple our team meant a lot to me.  It meant a lot to Taylar to have five of her cousins and three of her friends show up to walk as well.  It made it lots of fun to be together. 

There was a kid's tent with face painting and such, snacks and drinks, a little traveling zoo type thing, and great raffle prizes.  Three people from my team won a raffle item so that was exciting.  There were two walk routes this year and we chose to walk the wooded trail.  It was pretty cool and I think the kids enjoyed it especially. 

Heading up to the wooded walking trail

I am happy to say that Sweet T raised just over $3,000 for JDRF!  We surpassed our goal that's for sure!  To know that our team members were out there getting donations and spreading the word about type 1 diabetes makes me feel truly blessed.  I am humbled by the whole thing.  Thank you to all the friends and family members who helped make Sweet T so successful this year.  I love you all!


Here is a close up of Taylar's photo board. A cure. What would life be like? Do I even remember?  Maybe we won't have to have a walk next year. That is what I pray for every day.

D-Feast Friday - Ham with Apples

Here is a great, simple, fall meal that was a hit in our house.  Super easy for a weeknight too.

4 1/4lb ham steaks
1 small onion, chopped
3 apples, cored and cut into 1/2" wedges
1 1/2 C apple cider
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1T cornstarch
2T water

Lightly brown the ham steaks in a skillet with a little olive oil for about 2 minutes on each side and then set aside. 
Add onion to skillet and cook over medium heat stirring until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add apples, cider, and mustard; cook, stirring frequently, until apples are tender, about 5 minutes longer.

Stir together cornstarch and water in a cup until smooth, then add to skillet.  Cook, stirring contantly, until the sauce thickens and bubbles, about 2 minutes.  Return ham to skillet and cook until heated through.

4 Servings: 1 ham slice and about 1/2C apples with sauce:
261 calories, 30g Carbs


*This recipe is from the Weight Watchers Momentum Cookbook*

Constant Battle

I've pretty much had it with diabetes this week.  Last week we were battling high numbers that were driving me crazy!  As if trying to figure out a reason for the numbers wasn't bad enough, I have to deal with the thoughts of what it does to Taylar's body.  She did get a flu shot which her nurse said could bump her numbers for a couple of days but it went on for a little longer than I was comfortable with so I called the nurse... again.  We changed some basal rates around and adjusted her daytime correction factor.  Bam!  It worked all right.  Too much in fact.  Low, low, low.  Instead of seeing 250 & 300 now we've got a 56, 65, and a wonderful 42.  What the heck!?  That's not to mention two of her morning numbers being 70 and finding a 65 at 2am which scares the you-know-what out of me.  Thank goodness I pulled myself out of bed that night.

Sometimes it seems like we just can't win.  I don't understand how we can go on doing the same things every day but get different results.  She eats basically the same things, at the same times of day, exercises at the same times of day yet with different results every time.  It's enough to drive a person crazy.  We changed some basal rates back to what they were before this latest change so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Diabetes is SO constant and knowing that it isn't going anywhere, anytime soon can be very overwhelming.  I would love to just forget about it all for a while.  I'd love to forget about carb counting for a day.  I would love to let Taylar's little fingers heal from all those finger pricks too.  With all those lows we had to recheck recently, I looked at her PDM.  In a 24 hour period I counted 14 blood sugar tests.  That's just wrong, poor thing.  I would love to just ask her how her day at school was when she gets off the bus without looking at her to see if she looks pale to me or wondering what her blood sugar is knowing she hasn't tested or eaten since lunch time.  I'd like to just leave the house without asking my famous question, "Do you have the PDM?"  It really is all consuming.  I think about diabetes when I'm with her, when I'm not, when I'm in bed, in my car, out with friends, at the gym... all the time.  I didn't invite this intruder into my daughter's life and here I am catering to its demands.  It is just a constant battle.

JDRF Tent

I know it's still the weekend for a couple more hours, but I am so excited for next Saturday! There is a community event being held all around my town.  My Mom, sister, and I scored a spot to host our own JDRF tent. We have been working so hard the past couple of weeks trying to figure out what to offer that will draw people to our tent because there will be many others.



This is what we’ve got, how does this sound? We are going to have lots of colorful JDRF balloons decorating our tent, a few posters and a big JDRF banner that they are letting us borrow. We will have coloring sheets for kids and lots of diabetes information sheets. For the money making part of it we are going to sell sugar free freeze pops, sugar free cookies that were generously donated from Chatila’s Bakery and cups of ice cold Kool-Aid Fun Fizz offered in three different flavors.


As another way to raise funds for research we will also be selling paper sneakers in the amounts of $1, $5, and $10 to see how many “steps” closer we can get to a cure! Also, with any donation kids (adults too if they want!) can choose from a sneaker tattoo, or nail polish with custom nail art. Phew!

Would you want to stop by our tent? I’m so excited! I hope we can handle it all!

First Day of School

Well, the first day of third grade went well, but didn't go off without some kind of hiccup.  Of course it didn't!  That's just how it is when you live in D-world.

First of all let me say that I love the school nurse.  She is very thorough and on top of her game.  This being our second year with her I could not be happier.  Anyway, around snack time, two hours into the school day, Taylar was running a bit high that day which I kind of expected being the first day of school and all.  I think it's "normal" (is there is such a thing anymore?) to run high when you mix anxiety and excitement together.  At least that's our experience.

So I wasn't surprised when the phone rang and it was the school nurse.  "Well, we're off to a great start here." she said.  I'm thinking Oh good!! Then she continued, "Taylar bumped her pod on her chair and it's just hanging here with the cannula out." 

Wonderful. 

She was wearing the pod on her back and when she stood up it got caught on the back rest of her chair.  I guess they were playing a game and she got up very quickly.  So I dropped everything and headed to school for a site change on the first day of school.  Mind you I live 1/2 mile from the school so I was there in a few minutes but, seriously?  Luckily Taylar was great about it and didn't really seemed bothered.  If anything I think she was happy to see me being her first day back and all.

The good part was that I had the nurse do the whole pod change while I was there and was able to watch her.  Her hands were shaky but she got through it.  Hopefully this won't happen again but if it does, and I happen to not be close by, I'm confident that between the nurse and Taylar (who could do the whole thing herself I'm sure) can handle it without me.

Happy new school year everybody!