The Stay

When people would come and see the Princess while she was in the hospital they were really surprised that she still has a smile on her face. She wasn't feeling the greatest when we first got there, but as soon as she was feeling better you could tell! Everyone at Primary Children's Hospital were AMAZING! She loved every single one of her nurses, techs and doctors! I honestly think they all liked her too!

Here are a few pictures of her stay there.

This was taken the night we got there. We made sure to take her teddy "Dot" and another of her favorites "Kung Fu Panda" but while she was in the emergency room the doctor took her down the hall to go pick out a prize. She came back with this silly looking doll named "Sweet Cinnamon". The other doll was her Hospital Buddy named "Ivy" everything they did to Princess they did it on Ivy first. This really helped her feel more comfortable.

After she started feeling better she started having a hard time getting to sleep at night. One night before bed I took her on a walk. I loved this picture of her just wondering down the hall at midnight in her princess robe and slippers.
We always had to stop to say hi to "Dori" the fish. I took this picture as she was trying to wake her up. Too bad fish sleep at night, she was bummed that she couldn't see her.

She really did LOVE everyone there! They all took the best care of her and made her feel special. This is Dan and Beckah. They were both her favorite! There was another Dan that she loved but I didn't get a picture of him. These two took her out to the nurse's station and colored with her ALL afternoon! I listened to her laugh and make friends for hours! These guys saved me. I was SOOO tired and really wanted to veg and they made this possible! Dan is an awesome artist, that sent home the coolest drawings.

They made these cool High School Musical 3 hats because she was going to see the movie that afternoon and was so excited! Beckah taught her how to draw some pretty cool flowers and has been practicing ever since. She even thought she saw Beckah the other day. Boy was she sad when I told her that it wasn't her.

They were good sports when Princess wanted to take their picture with the hats on!

Don't mind me. I was SOOO tired, and so not looking great! But I couldn't pass up a picture with her too! She was my support the entire time!

She proudly wore her hat to the movie! There is a story that goes along with all this too, that I have been meaning to share. Hopefully soon I will get to that.

Her penny jar that her first nurse Dan made her! This was taken the morning we where leaving. She ended up with over 60 pennies. 1 for every poke!

Since she spent almost the entire day with the nurses I had to take pictures too! I think she was there for entertainment. Well and they all thought she was cute too!

Thanks to the PCMC staff! You guys are all so awesome and made such a big difference in her stay! I don't know that she would have been as brave if she didn't have you guys helping her! And thanks to the Nurse Jen that spent a few minutes with me in one of my moments of weakness!

I hope we never have to go back, but I know if we do, she will be in good hands!

Reality

Our first purchase of Diabetic supplies........

$107!!!

That was just for 100 test strips.

That honestly will only last a few days.

Maybe a week.

Bring back the tears that I have spent the last 3 days trying to hide.

Sneeky.

The Hubby caught Princess hiding with a big glass a milk today after she had her breakfast insulin.

Her blood sugar is now 428.

We are all learning that change is not always bad. That doesn't mean that it is easy, but sometimes you don't have a choice.

Gratitude

We are still trying to get life organized and running smooth. I never thought a few weeks ago that such a curve ball would be thrown at us but we are taking it one step at a time.

Once again we have been consumed with kindness by family and friends. There have been meals brought in by our neighbors and my awesome cousins. Remember them? I know, they were at it again even with a diabetic cookbook! Great friends have come over and convinced us to take a break. I never knew how much a trip to the mall, some cute house slippers and some yummy desert at a local restaurant could really help the soul. Our family has been amazing too! They have been trying to learn more about Diabetes and have even been almost as obsessed as I am with counting carbs. I loved it today when my sister called me from the grocery store to tell me how many carbs where in a package of Smarties. (6 in case anyone cares) We have received so many emails, phone calls, visits, hugs and more that bring me to tears every time.

I have been wearing my emotions right on my sleeve, and I can't stop the tears from coming most of the time. I received a phone call from our Pediatrician today that even that brought me to tears. My Princess climbed up on my lap and asked me why I have been crying so much lately. I responded with all that I could think of "I am crying because in everything I do and everything that I see, the Lord is right there with me. I am not alone." I told her. " Can you feel His help when you have to do something hard?" "Yes." She replied. "Well Mommy feels grateful for his help. It makes me happy to have him here with me."

I may be really stressed and tired, but I am filled to the brim with gratitude.

I am humbled.

As for her, I have been saying since she was born that there is something special about her. Stay tuned for a story about something that she did while she was in the hospital. She is amazing you guys. She has taught me so much!

Home.

We are home now to a new life. She is doing amazing. Her smile and laugh is contagious.



I will update later.



I am off to organize things.



Thanks again for all the phone calls, emails, comments and prayers. We are surrounded by super awesome family and friends.

Progress.

Yesterday seems like it was forever ago. Today seems like it will never end. Right now I am more tired than I have been in a long time. Forgive me if I don't make sense with the rest of this post. Forgive me if I don't get into detail. When we get home tomorrow night or when things get settled down I can try to make more sense then.

These two days have been very busy. They have had us in classes for a lot of the day learning about Diabetes. We have been given so much information that I never thought I would need to know. Now with a quick change of events this is information that will help my daughter to survive.

She is doing great! She has charmed all the nurses here. Every time they see her they ask her why she is so cute. They all comment on how brave she is and how great she is being. I am so surprised by her strength. She has had her moments of weakness where she tells me she will hide her hands so she won't have to be poked again. But she gets through those moments and in the end is more brave before it started. We came up with a plan that has been helping her so much with every poke. Bribery. However our bribes have changed a bit. Bribing her with candy is not longer a great idea for her. So we have bribed her with pennies. For every poke she gets with a test or with her insulin she gets one penny. To put all this into perspective for everyone who hasn't seen her bruised and beat up tiny fingers, I owed her 26 cents before the night was done last night. Currently her count has doubled that. Imagine...in two days we have had to find places on her tiny, tiny fingers to poke her almost 50 times. Poor thing. Her favorite nurse Dan made her a penny jar out of a specimen cup that she proudly shows everyone. And even thanks from a great friend NaTasha who brought us several rolls of pennies they payments aren't even coming out of my pocket. This has been wonderful for her though, even if it is bribery.

We have had many visitors in the last few days that have brought her things to do and things to play with. She is having a ball! Some of her friends have shown up to play and this means the world to her. When she said to me the other day that she thinks no one will ever want to play with her now because she is different it broke my heart. To see that not only will they want to play with her but that they come all this way up here to be with her has really brightened her spirits. We have loved the company too especially when my parents brought the boys to see us. I have missed them so much! They have been pretty good for my mom and dad too in case anyone was wondering about them.

All of our training is over now. I am scared to come home and try it on our own. I feel we can do it...well.....we don't have a choice, but we have resources if we ever need them. She is needing to stay until tomorrow because they don't quite have her levels worked out yet. She still has very high moments and very low moments. We have been assured that we get to go home tomorrow night. Thank goodness it is after the showing of High School Musical 3 in the auditorium. She COULD NOT miss it!

I am off to do another poke before we head to bed. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! You internet friends (and real friends and family too) are awesome! Thank you!

Where do I begin?

Today has been a whirlwind of a day. I am laying here with my princess in the hospital bed where I am amazed at her strength. To kind of give an idea of how things have gone today I will briefly try to document this time. I am really tired, but feel that I need to write these things down and keep people updated.

First of all, thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. We are walking testaments that prayers are felt and that the Lord has a plan for us. This has been a difficult year for us, but this too is something that we will take it one step at a time, and just try to find what it is that we are supposed to learn.

Well, when we got to the doctor this morning the first thing they needed her to do was pee in a "hat". It was a little thing that goes over the potty so she doesn't have to hold a cup. She was told that if she could give the nurse all that she needed for the test they wouldn't need to poke her. Unfortunately though the test came back as +3 (0 is normal) so the nurse had to poke her anyway. We were told that they needed to find out what her levels are but most likely she did have type 1 diabetes.

When the doctor came in and said there her blood sugar levels where higher than what they can test it at (well over 300. 60 something to 115 is normal) he said that she definitely has it. He had contacted the Endocrinologist and that he needed us to head up to Primary Children's Medical Center and that we need to get there within the next hour or so.

So the craziness began. We packed and worked out some details for the boys all the while she played happily with her cousins until we could be all ready to go. Her daddy and grandpa gave her a blessing, and we where off.

Once we got here they had to test her levels again (yes another poke) and her blood sugar levels where higher than 500. Let me take a minute to point out how incredibly lucky she is. Most people when their levels are this high they are close to a coma. Some how her body was working with it and her little personality hadn't been effected by it. We caught it at the perfect time before she got to that point. She is also very lucky that her grandpa has type 2 diabetes (for all those who don't know, that type 2 is not at all related to type 1. They are totally different so there for not hereditary). He came up from Las Vegas and came to the hospital to be with her. This helped to feel normal and that she is not alone. What a blessing that was to have him here for her tonight.

They gave her her first dose of insulin and sent us up to her room. They where doing more test and asking more questions and she just climbed up on my lap. Not hardly moving or talking. At first I thought this was because she was scared. Then I felt that it was something more. I was telling them that she was feeling sick. They thought that it was because it was late and she hadn't had dinner. They actually ended up testing her levels again and it was WAY too low at 50. Quite the change. They gave her some more insulin and dinner and she was much better.

This is why she is here for 4 days. The roller coaster of getting it leveled out is going to be rough. We are also here for what they call Diabetes Boot Camp. She will live with this forever and could get worse someday if not taken care of. We are here to learn how to live with this. How to monitor her and learn how to give her what she needs. This will change all of our families lives. Maybe with the new eating habits I will loose the extra weight that I have been wanting to loose forever now.

I wanted to end with a quote from our doctor Dr. Buchanan (aka the VERY best doctor in the world) He said "We need to not adjust her life to fit the treatment, but rather adjust the treatment to fit her life." I loved that! It gives me hope!

Oh, one more thing. We still don't know how this is all going to work out without having insurance, but it will somehow. We have already seen the blessing and the promise that we are doing the right thing regardless.

P.S. If any of her friends want to visit, she would love it!

Keep her in your prayers.

My Little Princess had a doctor appointment today in regards to my last post. I am so grateful the spirit led me to take her insurance or not.

She was tested for Diabetes and she was tested positive (with VERY high levels might I add) for type 1 Diabetes.

We are headed to Primary Children's Hospital ER and will be there for the next 4 days. Please keep her in her prayers. I will update when I can.

Should I be worried?

My Little Princess has always loved milk. She would have a glass with every meal and a few times in between. It was never really a big deal to me I just thought that she took after her Uncle David. In the last few months though it has been getting really bad. Like she drank almost half a gallon of milk by her self in one day. After that day I have always tried to regulate it a little. I couldn't afford to be buying so much milk all the time. She now will drink just about anything.

Naturally when you drink lots you pee lots too, so I am sure you can guess that she is always going potty. ALWAYS is an understatement lately though. Part of the problem is the fact that she has been having accidents while sleeping a lot lately, like 3 times in a 24 hour time frame. While trying to figure out what is going on with her and try to stop the accidents from happening I have realized a few other things that had brought up some concern. This problem has been on coming for a little while now, but just in the last month it has been getting really bad! When I say bad, I mean I have never seen anything like it. She drinks SO much. For instance, she woke up the other morning and threw up. Her daddy felt bad for her and went and bought a 64 oz thing of Gatorade for the family to share thinking it might help her tummy. Well less than 2 hours later she had drank almost the ENTIRE thing. There was probably about 12 oz. left. I know it was her that drank it because her brother was gone and and her dad and I hadn't had any. Is she the only child that could do that? Also before she started wetting the bed so much she would get up 3 or 4 times in the night even to get a drink.

A few of the other things that I have noticed is that when I have tried to regulate what she has been drinking and when she needs to stop drinking for the night (trying to help the accidents) all she tells me is that she is thirsty and hungry. When I feed her all she wants is to drink, she fills up in drink and hardly touches her food even though she said that she was hungry. Also after not letting her drink anything after 7:30 at night last night at about 9:00 or so she had gone potty 3 times in 45 minutes.

The more I think about all this the more it gets scary to me. I have heard that when someone is always thirsty and can't stop drinking it is a sign of being diabetic. When I realized at what point is started to get really bad (about a month ago) was when she had been given lots of Halloween candy. It is scary to me, but that made perfect sense. If she is eating more sugar the worse her blood sugar would be and the more thirsty she would get.

Tell me internet world, am I looking into this too much. Should I be worried? I really don't want to be one of those people that over reacts. I guess that when it comes to the health of my kids I can't over react too much. With all of your infinite wisdom internet friends, have you ever heard of this really happening?

I laid awake most of the night last night so worried. Wondering if this sounds like a case that needs to be taken seriously, or if there is something else I should be trying since we don't have insurance and all.

I don't know what to next.

HAPPY FRIDAY! Hope everyone has a goofy weekend!

I know we will!

Halloween 2008

I am finally getting to my post about Halloween. Even though it was almost a week ago, I still wanted to post about how perfect the day was. It started off by me going to Little Princess' Pre School for the Halloween party. I always enjoy going to take pictures for her teacher. She has so many fun things for the kids to do. I never thought Princess was going to stop with the prize walk game. She wanted to win all the play-do. Actually, I think she did win all of it.

Then we went and ran a few errands and the kids where great. We came home, had lunch, rested and were off again. We went to Exit Reality's Halloween party. (My hubby will soon be an employee there too, but that is info for another post) It was great! The kids had so much fun and I got to talk to a few people that I hadn't seen in a long time.

Then we were off to Grandma's and Grandpa's house. They were having a big thing for all trick or treaters. It was great! They decorated their garage and handed out hot dogs, chips, homemade rootbeer and cotton candy to everyone that came by! It was a HUGE hit! We were joined by some awesome friends Josh and Jenni to go trick or treating. Then surprised by Brandon and Cherie who also wanted to come along. The kids had such a great time!


Little Man was dressed as a 3 eyed green monster.
Little Dude was Spiderman.

And the Princess was a 50's girl.

The weather was great! The food was fun, and the company was the best! I don't remember a better Halloween EVER!

White Trash Winter

Winter is here my friends. Crazy that last week it was beautiful 75 degree weather, but that is how we roll here in Utah. My kids where so excited! They wanted so badly to play in it. I warned them that they had outgrown their snow clothes, but that wasn't going to stop them.

Little Dude was sporting a nice pair of snow pants that are 3 sizes too small for him. He couldn't put them up over his shoulders and was complaining how short they were. Oh well, something is better than nothing! He got a little more lucky on he coat, that is only 1 size too small. He couldn't find matches for the gloves but at least he found two. He didn't even have boots on. Once his shoes were all wet he was still determined to play in the snow. What a trooper!

Little Princess was just a little miss-matched, but for the most part she didn't look too crazy. Other than her coat is 2 sizes too big. We were all surprised that she could get into the pants that are a size 2T. She couldn't put them over her shoulders either, but she wasn't going to complain. With an old pair of mom's gloves and a set of big brother's old boots she was set.

Here is my littlest girl.....isn't she cute. WAIT! I don't have 2 girls! With those HOT PINK pants, the hat with the big flower and the pink gloves you would never know this was my Little Man. Good thing a found an old jacket and old boy boots in storage or you would REALLY think it was a girl.

So outside playing in the snow was fun for all, but it ALWAYS ends in this.....

SOMEONE IS ALWAYS CRYING!

To his credit though, his big brother had just thrown a big snowball in his face. I don't blame him for crying!

Oh well, I got proof that they did have fun....SEE!

Rejoice!

I know that I have been really lame on my blog lately. I have so many things that I would like to post here. Like the day at the park and Halloween, even the series of pictures that I have collected of my little man's obsession with hats. I will get to all that soon I promise! But today I needed to post about gratitude, about prayers being answered, about how there is a plan for our little family and how blessed we are!

As I have said before it has been a long hard summer for us. With my hubby loosing his job the very day that I was able to work from home for my job. With the fact that we where not prepared with food storage, with savings, with anything really. With the fact that the economy has plummeted like it has. There really are so many things that have played into all of it for us. I have spent SOOOO many hours crying, feeling sorry for us, being scared, and praying for guidance and help.

We have been sent many messengers from our Heavenly Father to help us out. To lend a helping hand or an ear to listen. Cookies where sent, hugs where given, time was spent praying in our behalf, chickens where donated, food was provided, the mortgage was paid, there were some that paid our utility bills even. Lets not forget to mention that many provided us with the opportunity to work in yards, work on decks and sheds, clean windows, take pictures, teach guitar lessons and many other things, and in return give us money to help make ends meet. For all these things I am truly grateful! I really honestly don't feel deserving of all this, but I really hope that those that have helped us receive blessing pouring upon them. In turn I hope that I can repay or help someone some day the same way we have been helped.

The Lord's hand is in every aspect our our lives and we can totally see that! Even the smallest of things. I posted awhile back some feelings that I had in regards to all this and I got the coolest comment from my sister (all the comments where awesome) this is what it read "We are all praying for you and you know it will all work out. Look what happened last time and the blessings that came your way. John 14:18 reads "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." He will guide you as you make your next steps in life." Thank you sis for sending that to me, it has helped me see that we are not alone. Far from it actually!

When all this happened we committed as a family to do a few things and I feel I need to share them.

1- We couldn't ever forget to pay our tithing. We have a testimony of how important this is and knew that we couldn't spiritually or physically afford to not pay it. There are so many blessing associated with paying your tithing. We knew that all that he had and all that we were given was coming from him that we owed it to him to give him thanks for that.

2- Even though we have very little money we felt it necessary to double our fast offerings. This is something that we have done in the past when things get rough. We felt that this was a must in this situation as well.

3- We felt that it was going to be so easy to get caught up in the frustration of not having an income and that it could really effect how we treat each other. To make sure that our family wasn't going to be torn apart, and to help us stay close we decided to spend more time together as a family. This is where our Sunday Adventures where born. We had thought of doing it before my hubby got laid off, but the meaning and importance of it changed after. We committed to taking that time every Sunday to do something fun and get away from all that troubled us. With doing this our family has truly become stronger and I have more love for each member of our little family than I ever have.

I am sharing all this today because of a few reasons. First because I truly believe that each of us have something to learn from all those around us, and if there is anyone else in need of learning what I have learned I want to be there to help. Times are rough for everyone, and I don't see them getting any better. Please take from it what you will. I am sure that by me mentioning all this someone will grow. I hope anyway. The second thing is that a few weeks ago the Lord sent someone our way to help again. It was a neighbor that had a position that he had at his work and wanted to hire my hubby for it. It was something totally different than what he was doing before, but he didn't hesitate. He started a few days later. Since he is an on call contract employee getting paid hourly I have been guarded a little since he started. I wanted to make sure that we would be getting the hours that he needed so we could be self sufficient again and I also wanted to make sure that he enjoyed it before we were "out of the woods". Well, I finally feel we are at that point. He got his first paycheck yesterday and has been really busy every day with work. The best part is that he gets to spend more time at home than his previous job and could potentially make more money. This is great from him and it is nice to see him happy!

I am rejoicing today. I am grateful and I humbled. I feel closer to my family, my friends and my Heavenly Father! We are a lucky family!

Thank you everyone! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

So Excited

My Princess just said to me "Mommy can I please go to bed? I just love Halloween so much that I want to be there on time."

Dear Hubby,

There has been so many things that you have done for us over the past 10 years that we have been together that have been amazing! Unfortunately some of the awesome things have not been appreciated to it's fullness. Kind of like how you mow the lawn EVERY SINGLE TIME so I don't have to get all sweaty and gross. Or like how you worry about keeping the cars clean and how you are always fixing my electronic problems. (my ipod needs to be fixed by the way)

Well that is why I am here today. To thank you with all my heart for taking the problem of neither one of us ever wanting to do the dishes and hand off the responsibility to the oldest child. Now neither one of us have to bother with it! SWEET!

Bored Here?

For those of you that are bored with my writings here you can check out my photography blog. I have had some great shoots lately and I have been showing them off there.

Check it out!

Lasting Moments Photography

Inspiration

It is true when someone says that you can find inspiration everywhere!

I found it on a pair of jeans.

I got a gift certificate for my birthday and I really needed some new jeans. When I got home the tag had a little quote on it that I thought was pretty cool.

"This is your life put all of your energy into it and show off your intelligence to the world. You are unique and beautiful."

It is nice to know that in this crazy world you can be told by a pair of jeans that you are beautiful. I don't know about you, but for me trying on jeans makes me feel NOT so beautiful.

It's a pretty cool quote though! Thanks Jeans for warming my spirits today.

How did she know?

I guess my hubby overheard the Princess telling her big brother "You better watch out. You mess up one more time and mom and dad are going to sell you."


Did I say it out loud? I thought I was just thinking it.

My cousin and her awesome family.

This is my cousin Marianne and I. I have always been very close to her and her family. In fact when Marianne and I were younger, people used to think that we were twins. We are the same age, we look lots alike and we were always together. Since we have gotten older we don't look as much alike, but our grandma still has a hard time telling us apart when we call. (Hi Grandma! You know that I have the same problem too! She sounds just like me!)

The cool thing about Marianne is that she has this awesome gift. She knows me. When I have had a moment that I needed to talk to someone any time in my life she just shows up and she is there. We can even go SO long without talking and in a moment of my weakness there she is. The other day I was feeling really down, sick, tired, stressed, overwhelmed and just down right sorry for myself and there she was. I am grateful for her and her friendship that we have shared our entire lives.

As I said before I feel pretty close to her entire family. Her older sister Susan has always been there for me too! I remember a time when she came to visit me shortly after I moved into my apartment in High School. She came to visit when I felt so shut out from everyone else. That visit meant so much to me. She also watched my kids for me when I went to girl's camp!

Then there is my Aunt and Uncle. I can't name all the times they have been there for us! There are just so MANY! Can you believe that when my hubby and I were in desperate need of a car one time and had no money to speak of they GAVE us a car! Really they are so giving! Just the other day my Aunt sent me a box of Ziploc bags just so we can freeze some peaches.

Everyone in this family are great examples of being Christ-like! I am in debt to them. I can't say thank you enough. I just hope I can be just as awesome someday!

My Yearbook Pictures

Have you ever been cleaning out a closet and you find your old box of pictures? Well I did the other day and I just thought it would be fun to scan some and share them with you.

Here is my picture from 1952

Here is 1966. Don't I look great?

1976

In 1986 I thought I would go a little drastic with the hair.

In 1994 I decided I needed to go back to blond, long and poofy.
Again changing things up with the hair in 1996.
1998 Graduation year! I look so young!

Ok wasn't that fun? I challenge all of you to post your old pictures too! You might want to go here first though.