At one of my last doctors appointments, we talked about carb counting. I told my doctor that I don't always count my carbs by "how many carbs it has in it." That after several years of being on the same carb/insulin ratio and eating many of the same snacks over and over again that I now look at a snack and think, "3 units."

I'll look at 2 or 3 slices of pizza as "x" amount of units insead of calculating how many carbs and then figuring out how many units I would need. No, I've eaten this same pizza countless times, and now to me it's "x" amount of units. Same when I go out to eat at establishments and things. If it's the same dish, and I eat the same amount I usually do, it's "x" amount of units.

Don't get me wrong. I haven't given up carb counting entirely. In fact, I do my fair share of carb counting. My wife is always cooking something new. Or she uses a new sauce, I eat somewhere new with clients, or I eat more or less than I usually do. That's where the carb counting comes in. But for me, most of the time it's a simple snack or meal that I've had over and over again. Or I can tell myself, 'it's only "x" amount of carbs instead of the usual amount of units.'

So why get upset about my method if it clearly works? Am I the only one that does this? My last A1C was 6.9. And continually improving. So why ask me to make sure that I am counting out my carbs on meals and snacks that I eat everyday if I stay within normal range after eating them?

A few weeks ago we received an email from someone asking about the absence of pictures and names of our children on our site. They told us that if we claimed to be a parenting and family site, the absence of pictures and names of our children seemed a little strange.

Perhaps it does.

Recently another blogger in our community has also struggled with this same thing as she prepares to have a baby. It must be something in the air this week I guess.

But how far should I go to protect them? We started this blog after our children were born, so for us the protective nature was already instilled. My husband also had some rules for his protection at work and for future employment. For that reason we don't post our last name. .

As to our children, we make sure that their names aren't posted on the internet. Nor do we post any pictures where their faces can be seen. (We find there are a lot of great ways to take pictures without posting their faces). To respect them, we ask our daughter if she's okay with us posting a picture of her and talk to her about internet safety. We found she knows a whole lot more than we do!

Keeping our children safe to the best of our abilities is a job we take seriously as parents. (And perhaps we are alittle OCD about it). The things that we can protect them from, we will. Because there is so much that we are unable to protect our children from and that we don't have control over that this is something we have to protect them from because we can.

So our sincere apologies if we have offended anyone by not posting pictures of our children even though we are a family website. Please understand our reasoning behind it, and our need to protect our children. (It doesn't mean we won't talk about some of the crazy things that they do. Because we do....often) Thanks for your support!

Maybe this sounds a lot like your house. Or maybe we're just going crazy and starting our "picking a fight over nothing" phase of marriage. 9 years in--we're not newlyweds anymore. But yogurt? Yogurt?? I really didn't think this would be our first fight over nothing.



"Do we have any snacks honey?"

"Yeah Scott. i just picked you up some yogurt at the store."

Fridge door opens. Yogurt drawer opens, then closes.

"What's this Traci?"

"Yogurt."

"But you didn't get the same flavors."

"I know. They didn't have all the same flavors you like, and I thought you might like to try some new ones."

"But there's a reason I buy the same flavors. It's so nobody else in the house will eat them. I like my same flavors."

"I'm sorry. I just thought..."

Front cover inspected. Very vanilla. Thick and creamy.
LId opens. Visual inspection given of inside of yogurt before spoon is inserted.
Smell test.
Bite taken.
Lecture begins.

"this isn't the same. It has like, little chunks in it. And it tastes funny. It's not the same. I don't know if I like it."

Finishes rest of yogurt.
Still hasn't made a decision as to whether yogurt is good or bad.

Yesterday was one of those nasty days outside. The temptingly warm temperatures of spring we had been experiencing quickly turned to this:



Ick.

So my little boy and I searched through recipes to do for my Burnt Apple site. My cooking class theme this month is a Mom and Me class. So we're working on some fun Mom and Me recipes.

And when we searched through recipes we found these magic middle cookies. He read the word magic and was hooked.

So we made them, and unfortunately when you have a little boy helping you, this tends to happen:

But we had a great time, and the afternoon passed quickly.

Today both kids are out of school and with the snow coming down, I think this calls for some serious time on the hills sledding.

Have a great weekend!

-Traci

When I was a little girl, I kept my future goals list short. And updated often.

For instance, in second grade, my future goals listed included the names of the boys I was going to marry. I narrowed the list down to 8, but each week I updated it depending on how nice or mean they had been to me that week. (I was making sure that I had backup!)

As I got older and into high school, teachers encouraged us to set goals constantly. And for them, it had better include the word "college" in it. Only we had very different views on college life. I wanted the whole experience--the fun, the moving out, the roommates, then class and studying.

I even knew the type of person I was going to marry. I always had a feeling it would be someone that was the opposite of what I dated. I usually dated shorter, bleach blonde hair live-on-the-slopes or the beach kind of guys. West coast boys since that was where I was from. I ended up marrying a tall, dark haired handsome guy from the east coast. Go figure. The one trivial thing I had on my list was that he had to have nice teeth. Thank you list. I did get a guy with good teeth.

Beyond marriage, having kids, and having a lot of money, there wasn't much else from that childhood list of goals that could foresee my future. How could I foresee future goals as being "find a job that would provide us insurance?" as being a goal? After working for ten years away from my family doing 13 hour shifts, I made it a goal to have a job that allowed me to stay home with my family but still make close to the same income. I get to do that. I am living my goals. And while I may not have a lot of money and a beautiful mansion like I wanted as a child, my home now is better than any mansion could ever be. I feel comfortable, I feel loved and accepted here. No house (except for the beachhouse in california that I will one day have...hopefully) can ever bring the feel that my own home has.

Thank you childhood goals for not predicting too much of my future. The turns and loops and surprises have been scary, exciting, daunting, and completely unreal at times. But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Before going to bed, my wife and I lay in bed watching TV. I started to relay to her some of the events of the day, including my trip in the car with my little boy earlier in the evening.

He had been practicing and singing the same song for weeks in anticipation of his school music program. (And driving all of us a little crazy by it). As we drove home from the store together last night, he told me that the reason he had been singing it so much was that he wanted to do the best job that he could, and he was afraid that if he stopped practicing he would forget the words. He also told me that he liked it better when our whole family was together in the car because it was kinda boring with just the two of us.

And as I sat there listening to him, I realized how much I don't always listen to our kids. I get so caught up in the daily busyness of work and details--getting kids to bed, homework, keeping kids on schedule, etc. that stopping to listen to them is often overlooked.

My daughter is all excited because she is doing her first school play--and she gets to be a wise owl. I loved listening to her excitement about this, but feel bad that I didn't REALLY listen and focus in on what she was saying. I was so busy at the moment when she approached me that I failed to really listen to something that means so much to her. After the experience with my son, it's a testament to me that parenthood goes so fast that i really need to stop and listen. And learn from my children.  They love us so much, and just want a few precious minutes from us. To just listen.



 

Saturday I dragged the kids to the diabetes expo. It was great to meet the group at Tour de Cure. My little boy loved the bicycles and was mad that he couldn't ride one. It was also fun to watch them become friends with anyone that offered them food. Gotta talk more about stranger danger. Or maybe not attend an expo at lunch time.

My son also got to meet Charlie Kimball. He now wants his Dad to become a professional race car driver and race cars like Charlie does. "Dad, Charwie has diabetes too. And his car goes WAY fast. You should get a fast car like his."



 We also stopped by to meet Dawn & Ben (good friends of mine) at the Ask the Educators booth. I worked with both of them for a number of years when I worked at the hospital and also know them personally as well. They are great advocates and they and the Utah Valley Diabetes Clinic do a fantastic job of managing and helping not only my husband stay healthy but caring for our family as well. They deserve a major shoutout for sitting eight hours and answering questions. Of course, sweet Dawn hasn't seen my family since they were little and couldn't believe that my little girl who she used to hold and rock at my husband's doctor's appointments is all grown up now and in elementary school! (I can't believe it either!!)



I also got to finally meet Grant from Utah Diabetes. He has been a huge advocate for the Faces of Diabetes campaign here in Utah. DiabeticParents.org has been featured at some events here in Utah and Scott and I are excited that those with diabetes are being recognized and our voices are being heard here in Utah. It was amazing to meet so many people who had heard what we are doing as a family and what we write about daily as we walked around the expo.

My daughter and son made themselves comfortable behind Grant's desk. My son helped Grant turn the wheel of the raffle machine over and over and almost make it fall off the table a few times. Hopefully it survived!

It was also nice to meet Ginny of AskGinny.com who has forged an amazing campaign and works so hard to help those who have diabetes. She was so nice and a great cheerleader to myself. 41 years with Type 1 and she is absolutely gorgeous and doing great!




Of course the biggest hit of the day was a Chesepeake Bay Retriever who stole the hearts of my children and caused us to be late in leaving the expo. This Retriever has been trained to tell when her blood sugar is going low and to help her treat it. She lives alone and trained the dog by herself to aid and assist her. What an amazing dog! This dog was spoiled to death by my two children. (Who coincidently spoil their two dogs about as bad as this dog was spoiled).

And the best news of all! Scott and I are late in posting anything today because he had another doctors appointment and I had to attend my little boys music program. But I got this great text halfway through my son's program: "A1C 6.9."

Loving it! (Still going to have to wake up to continue the night checks for him, but YEAH! YEAH!) We're doing good and Scott is starting to feel better. And the best part of all was his doctor says he's doing good. Love our doctor, but this is a rare thing to hear. Scott's testing better than ever and seems to have a more renewed sense of wanting to take better care of himself. Although his doctor says he still has to get the MRI. And Scott said "As long as you've got the valium order waiting."

Great start to the week! See you tomorrow!

It was my Wednesday to volunteer in my daughter's class. And as soon as I walked into the door, one of her good friends came running up to me.

"Guess what?"

"what Jessie?"

"My mom told me today that she's going to rent a limosine for my birthday party and then take all of us down to watch a movie at the movie theater! I'm so excited."

"Oh, and who are you going to invite?"

"All the girls in my class plus my girl cousins."

In my head I'm thinking '15 girls in class, maybe 5 cousins = 20?? Seriously??'

"Well that sounds great. I'm sure you are so excited!"

"I totally am. I can't think of anything but my party today!!"

And I my dear can't think of anything but what the hell are your parents thinking?? 3rd graders. Limo ride. Where in the world did parents suddenly start this bigger and better philosophy. One parent spends hours making cookies and letting 10 screaming girls trash her kitchen for 2 hours. Another takes the whole 3rd grade classes roller skating for her daughter's birthday . Another family throws an extravagant pool party complete with hula dancing lessons. Now a parent will be taking an entire class to the movies in a limo. Am I just overly paranoid about this? I'm freaking out a little bit. I thought this wouldn't hit until---junior high or something.

Probably the biggest concern I have is that she's just growing up so fast, and I just wish there was a way to keep her young just a little bit longer. Just when I get a chance to enjoy her, she jumps to the next age and stage of life and I'm forced to keep up. Everyone told me that parenthood went fast. I guess I just overlooked it and thought many of the people who gave me that advice had children so long ago that they couldn't remember. But as my own children have gotten older I've realized that you never forget. You never forget how precious they once were, how precious they now are, or how fast the time goes.

Basal rate changes can be a huge frustration. At night I now steadily head down to the 50's by 8pm. I eat a small snack, watch myself in a panic climb to only the 70's two hours later by 10:00 at night. I'm tired, want to go to bed, but don't know if I'm heading uphill or will head downhill again. Eat another small snack, and by 3:00am when my wife wakes up to check my blood sugar, I am in the 200's or 300's. And I now get MORE insulin between 10pm and 6am. WTH?? I usually don't take insulin for my 10:00pm snack because it's been so inconsistent as to whether my blood sugars will go high into the 200 or 300's or stay steady in the 80's to low 100's through the night. Sometimes she checks me and I'm good. Sometimes she checks me and I'm in the 300's. The snack is always the same. But the blood sugars are anything but. It's the frustrating thing about basal rates that get changed. It's fine tuning. Then patiently fine tuning rates over and over and over again until they are right.

The funny thing is a CGM would help me to know at night if I'm low and going up, or low and going down. It might help me through that decision making process at 10 o'clock at night when I'm not sure but just am so exhausted and ready for bed.

Any help or opinions on this?

--S

Lately we've had some real Olympic moments in parenting. So in the spirit of the Olympic games coming to a close this week, we thought we'd bring you our own memorable Olympic moments:

"I CAN'T WATCH TV OR PLAY THE WII, BUT CAN I.....?":

Silver Medal

After countless times of asking the kids over and over and over to please listen to us, we grounded them for one day from the Wii, TV, and the computer. So what does my dear sweet daughter ask? "Mom, we can't watch TV, or play the Wii, or play computer games. So can you play a DVD on your computer so I can watch a movie. You didn't say I couldn't do that."

"DAD TOLD ME IT WAS OKAY."

Gold Medal

Our son just becomes more and more like his Dad everday. My daughter and I were exercising to a Billy Blanks DVD. (Well, she was laughing at me as I shouted at Billy Blanks in pain). She was doing situps with me, and her brother crossed the room and sat on her, then proceeded to fart on her loudly. (Mind you, he's only in preschool). He then turned around, sat on me and farted on me loudly.
He then stood up, a grin on his face, put his hands on his hips proudly and said, "Dad said it was okay to do that. He teached me how," and then walked out of the room.

"THE DOG BURPED, NOT ME!!!"

Bronze Medal

My classic one is blame the dog. Those poor dogs get blamed for everything. I let our lab stay in during dinner one night. She proceeded to promptly plop herself down at the kids feet to catch any possible falling leftovers. Several minutes into our meal I hear a loud burp. I started to get mad at the kids and remind them of their table manners. The kids started to protest that it was Sadie, not them. But we didn't buy it. We told them there was no way that Sadie could've burped that loudly. They fervently denied that it was them that had burped and kept blaiming it on the dog. Later on that night we were sitting and watching TV after the kids went to bed. Our lab came out, sat down at our feet, then let out a large, dog food smelling burp. The next morning we apologized to the kids.