Family trip to the fire station

A friend of ours, Shane, is a volunteer fireman in Cody and is a Type 1 diabetic. He met us at the fire station to let Emmett look around and talk to Emmett about being diabetic and the importance of taking his insulin. Emmett has always said that when he grows up he wants to be a fire engine driver, so we thought maybe Shane could help to push the importance of his meds. After walking around the station and getting to check out all the gear, Shane offered to take us for a ride in the fire engine. Grammy, Luke, Jolene, Emmett and another guy, Brian, whom is also diabetic, got to pile into the HUGE engine #6 and ride around town. I think we all had a pretty big grin on our faces, not just Emmett. He and Daddy rode in the front seat and Jolene, Grammy, Brian and I rode in back. It was pretty cool. Afterward Emmett opened up a bit(he was acting shy most of the time) and showed off his insulin pens and the "boys" talked about taking meds. Hope this helps him to start to understand the he needs his meds to grow up big and strong and not be sick. We'll see...somethings gotta work. And if anything- we got to ride in a fire engine!!

Thanks to the North!

Emmett received a package in the mail from Dayven, Chelsea, Wyatt and Hadley. They sent Emmett a new noisy toy, Captain Rex from the Clone Wars, that he LOVES. We let him know that they sent it because he's been getting better at taking his medicine. You guys couldn't have sent a better gift at a better time! Thanks for thinking of us.

Congrats to Mark!

Mark finished his last day at work for the city of Colorado Springs on Friday. Happy retirement to you, grandpa Mark! There was an email that was sent around announcing his retirement, as well as John Davis', a long time friend and co-worker. It was Emmett's favorite as he loves his superheros. Grandpa as Batman!?

Luke's pitching debut

Luke pitched in a charity softball tournament in Powell last weekend. It was for a two year old little girl with stage 4 liver cancer. (Talk about being grateful for Emmett's diagnosis!) It turned out to be a great weekend and the kids and I went to cheer him on. I completely forgot sunscreen...there goes Mom-of-the-year AGAIN. Jolene had some pretty bright pink cheeks by the time the day ended. Emmett made lots of friends with the other little boys of the players of the team. There was about 4 boys ages 4-6 that all played together in the dugout, the playground, and even some dirt piles conveniently located next to the ballpark. It was a really fun day and all for a really great cause. Luke pitched really well and their team did pretty well too. They looked to be having a really great time playing together- I'm sure the cold Coors lights helped out in that department!

An overwhelming calm

I know. It's 6 am and what am I doing on the computer?! I actually just fell asleep about 2 hours ago. Emmett needed his blood sugars checked at 2 am and I am one who cannot fall back asleep after waking up to do something. I believe that I drifted off to sleep around 4am. When I woke up a bit ago I was in calm tears. Here's the story. I'm not sure I can explain it as well as I feel it right now, but here goes. I have been worried about Emmett and his sugars getting really low the past few days and I am sure that was on my mind as I tried to get back to sleep. My mind was worried and must have lead me to a nice place to think. I felt like I was in a room of some sort(maybe hospital cause it was so clean and lightly colored). and lying in the bed was Gram Martin. My best friend Bree's grandma who passed away a year or so ago. I am not sure why she was in bed, since I remember her always shuffling around and doing something- washing a dish or yelling at us to take off our muddy shoes and not to slam the door as we were already half way down the basement stairs. But she looked great and had an enormous smile on her face. For those of you whom have met her, it was good to see after seeing mostly a scowl for 20-something years! ;) . We hugged and cried and started recalling some great memories and the one that stuck out was our "kindred" birthday. Gram was born in 1912 and I in 1977. One particular year, she turned 77 and I turned 12. We celebrated with a cake and I can still see the photo that was taken that day(I wish I had that picture to add to this post. Gonna try to locate I think!). Gram continued on to say that she was doing her part to look after Ella Claire, Bree's young baby girl who left this earth after just a few short days. She told me Emmett would be alright and not to worry that this will be ok. I truly can't put into words the way I feel now and when I "woke" up. I really feel like we talked for hours and can say that I feel incredibly lucky to have met and loved such a great woman. My hands are still trembling and my eyes still weeping as I try to put this into words. I feel blessed. and comforted. I remember this feeling from when I had a "dream" right after Dad passed away-comfort with sadness.
I think that I will plant some flowers today in great memory of Gram and my "conversation". This is such a euphoric feeling that I don't want to forget. Maybe some really beautiful fall colored mums......

Fun pictures with the kids

Jolene is pretty goofy with her one side of teeth and thought we'd get some pictures of it. She is getting the entire other side(top and bottom) as we speak so this snaggle-tooth-look won't be around for long! In the meantime, she was loving being naked and was pretty darn cute loving on the soft pillow. Nothing like naked pictures of your precious little girl. Well, we discovered that from my angle she was adorable. The pictures Luke took were slightly inappropriate with the lady parts in full view. Those were deleted immediately and retaken from a different angle!

Snack time has been a really hard spot in our daily routine these days. Not like in the olden days wehre Emmett could have pretty much what he wanted, when he wanted. Now the portions have to be monitored and timed with his meals. He can, however, have sugar free jello as a "free" snack and we have on hand regularly now. What we didn't know is that Jolene is a jello ninja that will sneak up from behind and steal your jello when Emmett is not looking. Luke caught her in the act. She laughed so hard cause she knew she was caught orange handed.

Dirty carrot

This was one of the carrots that I pulled from my ridiculous garden this year. Our minds immediately went to the gutter(as I'm sure all of yours did as well!).

Crazy weekend

We left Jolene with our friend Kacie for the day while we took Emmett to the specialist in Billings. We met with the dietitian and learned all about eating with diabetes and how to make mealtime work. Shouldn't be too different from what we already do....Emmett can really eat what he wants and we adjust his insulin. Fortunately, we eat pretty healthy to begin with and shouldn't change things around here too much. Now, having to give shots while travelling is something we really don't want to do very often. Sure it's unavoidable but limited for the time being. Emmett is doing much better with the glucose checks. For some reason, he is now convinced that there is no needle/lancet in the glucose meter and has no problem with the finger stick anymore. Not gonna correct him on that one! He still screams and has to be held down for the insulin shots. We think it's the anxiety of it all and of course the needle on the insulin pen. He gets two shots after breakfast and one shot each after lunch and dinner. At this point we are checking his sugars 5 times a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime and 2am. Not sure how long this will continue- probably until he is stable and regular with his numbers. This is doable and of course there is no way around it unless we get him on a pump(which we are reading up on this weekend).

In the midst of everything, I had planned a garage sale with my neighbor at their home Saturday morning. Like I didn't have enough going on. Anyway, we started the sale at 7am and did very well. Ted had many tools that brought him some major cash! and we got rid of many items that won't have to go back in storage!!! Along with the garage sale, I signed up for the bountiful basket program--which is awesome! Bountiful Basket is a coop that provides local and fresh produce and fruit for $15. It is $45 worth of produce and it changes all the time, depending on season. I also ordered homemade tortillas-corn and flour, $10 for 7 dozen! Amazing.

http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/. They are in WY, CO, UT and a few more states. You check for your city and pickup location and order online. Check it out!

Emmett's new lifestyle

Here's the short of the story- Emmett has been diagnosed with Type one diabetes and will be insulin dependant the rest of his life. How did this come to light you ask? Here's the long answer. About a week ago, we started noticing Emmett drinking a ton more water and eating like crazy. Growing spurt, right? Then he starting wetting the bed. Like 2-3 times a night and not just a trickle-an enormous puddle. He had never, up until 5 days ago, wet the bed before. The first night we, of course, chalked it up to the amount of water he was drinking. By the third night, we started limiting the amount and it was still happening. I looked up the symptoms in the Toddler 411 book, and it said to make an appt with the doc based on that it could be a kidney infection, bladder infection or onset of diabetes. I instantly wrote off diabetes since Emmett is a healthy young boy and it doesn't run in the family. We went in to the doc's office and we talked to the doctor and he sent in his nurse to prick his finger and talk a glucose reading. It was over 400. I knew from reading the book that normal should be around 100. Emmett's urine sample that we brought in secured the fact that he was diabetic for it showed that he was in ketoacidosis(?). (We are still learning the lingo) We were sent to admit to the hospital from the doc's office, with the exception of having to go home and get Bruno and blue puppy to have there with us. Our neighbors were able to watch Jolene for the day, so I could get Emmett checked in. Luke had left that morning for Jackson on a 3 day work trip. Needless to say that when I called blubbering through the tears, Luke headed straight home. Emmett was immediately set up with an IV and his first insulin shot(first of many). He,of course, went ballistic over the IV being inserted. Luckily they got the first blood sample needed at the same time and things were pretty painless for a bit. His labs came back with his blood sugars at 800 and a number that I can't remember the name of showed that he has probably been working up to this for about 90 days. Hindsight sure is a bitch. Looking back, we can recall moments that were for sure indicators of his condition, but were always discounted for more simpler things like being tired and being a three year old. It was a long day of finger pricks, insulin shots, tears and tons of education. Emmett sure was a trooper and considering his age did very well with all the details and information that was given to him as well. After a long night, which Emmett dubbed a "camp out with mom" since he asked me to sleep in his bed, he was already in better spirits and the dark circles under his eyes(which showed up a few weeks ago) were almost gone. You could tell he was feeling better already. They released Emmett this afternoon once they felt Luke and I were properly trained and able to continue with treatment at home. Emmett actually cried when I told him we were going home. He didn't want to leave the toys they had in their family room. He kept crying "I'm not done playing with them yet and you won't let me take them home." All I could think about was getting out of the hospital room and being in the comforts of home. So the overall experience must not have been too traumatizing ;)

We are adjusting to the new lifestyle change that has been thrust upon us and continue to learn and will be constantly educating ourselves on diabetes. We are fortunate for the life altering diagnosis we received as it could have been more unfortunate and life threatening. We are also very lucky for the friends and family that we have for the prayers and thoughts were most abundant in our time of worry. Thank you.

Family night

After the first day of preschool, we had family night with the disney channel. THey were showing the Mickey Mouse Road Rally for the first time. We made make-your-own pizzas and sat around the coffee table and watch the new Mickey movie. Such a great family night!

First day of Preschool!

Today was a big day for us all. First day of preschool. I went in and woke up Emmett to start the day by saying "Can you believe today is the first day of school?!" and his reply "just five more minutes of sleep mom." REALLY?! He has never said that-EVER. He is such a morning person and for the first day of school he acts like a teenager. Crazy. Anyway, I laughed at him and he giggled and sprung right out of bed. He is really excited to be going to school, as are his mom and sister. Today, Jolene gets to play on whatever she wants and doesn't get things taken from her. So we dropped off Emmett at school and took the ceremonial pictures of his first day. We walked into the drop-off room and he dropped his back pack and went straight to the train set. No "bye Mom!", "Miss you", "Please don't leave!". Nothing. I went over to Emmett, gave him a kiss and said "have fun at school." He smiled and waved me goodbye. What a great day. I still can't believe he's in preschool!!!!!

Look-a-like

I think Chrissy and Jolene look a lot alike. This is an old photo of Chrissy when she was about Jolene's age now--a year old or so. I even have the same dress on Jolene! I couldn't resist playing dress up. Pretty Darn Cute.