Happy New Year!

My post tonight finds me sitting in a hotel room in Anchorage after an evening spent with my niece and her fiance. We left Fairbanks shortly after 8 am this morning and had a beautiful and event-less drive. It's amazing how the weather can change so many times in about a 6 hour span of time. In Fairbanks, it was about 25 below zero and cloudy....a little further down the road the sun- YES- the SUN was out (we haven't really seen the sun for about a month) and when we arrived in Anchorage, the city was covered in a dense fog and it was about 9 degrees. Anchorage gets at least an hour more of daylight than we do, and the sun actually makes it halfway up in the sky, so I'm hoping the cloud cover dissipates and we have a sunny day to be out and about tomorrow.

We're using points to "pay" for our hotel stay and when we called to make the reservation, they weren't even close to full, so they upgraded our room to an Executive Suite. Ummm...nice!!! Jeff and I have our own bedroom, we have a table to eat on, and a large pull out sofa in the living area. The nice part for me was the oversized jacuzzi tub in the bathroom! So...when Jeff took the kids to the pool....I jumped into the tub and soaked my achy, travel worn body for a good long time!

So, we made it to Anchorage...no problems. We're having a great time so far...tomorrow we go to my sister in laws house until Monday. Blood sugars are behaving, although I'm anticipating low blood sugars tonight as Jada swam a bunch this afternoon. Swimming ALWAYS does it to her about 10-12 hours after the fact. I'm hoping for some shopping tomorrow...Target here I come!!!

Christmas 2009

The Santa Claus house in North Pole and of course, the REAL Santa lives here! ;)

The reindeer resting up for their big journey a few days before Christmas!!

Christmas Eve- making cookies and Jada's blood sugars ROCKED that night!

Decorated by little hands......

Leaving eggnog and cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer in their Christmas jammies!

Christmas Morning.... a BB gun for Eli and .22 for David....holy smokes!!

Mary Beth and her Christmas kitten....appropriately named Claws.....who will soon be clawless!!

Jada and her princess castle......it's keeping her busy for hours at a time!!!

Santa surprised the family with a Wii fit!!

Catching Up

Well....we've been busy here in the far north. Christmas is coming....my secret santa gift is all put together (finally!) and ready to get in the mail. Our shopping for the kids is nearly done...mostly stocking stuffers is what we have left. We've begun our holiday baking- I say "we" because Jeff really gets into this time of year and enjoys all that comes with the season. The kids are done with school on Friday!!! I am SO excited to have them home for a couple of weeks. We'll be heading to Anchorage on New Years Day for the weekend.....excited for my family, but NOT excited about the 6 hour drive to get there. It's not the 6 hours, but the fact that we will only have a few hours of daylight for travel, so most of it will be done in the dark and there's always a moose or two lurking around. You don't want one of those coming through your windshield! Also, weather changes so quickly here and road conditions change with them. There are a few small towns along the road, but it's pretty remote. The good thing is, it's a well traveled road, so if something happens, help can arrive quickly. Geesh....can you tell that road freaks me out a bit????

Jada's doing ok. We've been lingering on the high side lately-- the low 200's have kept us company lately. She does have a slight cold, so that may be why. If I don't see a change in the next day or two, we'll have to do some adjusting, most likely to her Lantus, because she does come down after a meal correction, then bounces right back up again. We'll get it figured out!

Well...the snow has been falling beautifully all day- big, fat, fluffy flakes (trying saying THAT 5 times quickly). I could sit on my sofa all day and watch them fall with nothing but the tree lights on. However, there is laundry to fold, dishes to do and bathrooms to clean. All that, plus some holiday baking to do. I had better go.

I Can't Believe How Much I've Missed!

I got a call last night that the computer was fixed and picked it up this morning. At the first opportunity of quiet, I jumped on and just couldn't believe all of the news that I've missed out on! I feel SO behind! My laundry is caught up, though, and my house has stayed cleaner! :)

Jada had a dr.'s appointment today with Dr. W. Just her well child check and all went well. We discussed her low blood sugar episodes and Dr. W told me to just adjust the insulin to carb ratio as we need to. And because Jada usually just eats cereal for breakfast, she suggested finding some ways to add some extra fiber to slow down absorption. I so wish I were more of a morning person...if I took the time to cook her breakfast so she could have some protein like eggs, it would probably be better for her. I just have such a hard time rolling out of bed in the morning. We also scheduled her next diabetic check up for 2 months from now and it's at that appointment that we'll begin our serious talks about a pump! Woohoo! I'm so ready!

It is good to be back and blogging again. Hopefully, I'll be able to respond to everyone's post soon. We've been enjoying 3 days straight of snowfall...just beautiful, powdery snow. The roads have been bad and people are driving like maniacs, but that's pretty typical for the beginning of the winter season. We'll get more snow on the roads and they won't be so slick and in a few days, everyone will be used to it again. Our highs have been around 25 and lows into the single digits. I think I saw that next week, we'll be dipping below zero at night. Time to plug the vehicle in! Ahhh.....gotta love the winters here!

It's the Weekend

Whew......made it through this week! Jeff has started his new job....working 8-5 Monday through Friday which is a huge change for us. In our 12 years of marriage he has never once had a Monday through Friday job! Do I miss the restaurant business??? NOPE! Not one bit! :)

I've also had a change in my routine as well. I'm now watching 2 sweet little ones....a little girl (age 2 1/2) and her baby brother (4 months) during the week. It's been a welcome change for me...I didn't realize just how much I missed having a baby around!!! So, I'm getting my baby fix and Jada has a playmate during the day while everyone else is at school!

On the D-front, things are just so-so. This last week hasn't been as frustrating as the week before, but she is consistently high- like really high- at her midnight check- which is what we were trying to keep from happening. I really wish we would just go back to how we were doing things, and we might. Jada has a well child check in two weeks and we'll be discussing that!

So, talking about those high numbers- last night was the worst she's had since I don't know when! I checked her at 11:30 and she was in the mid-200's. I decided to go to bed and then set my alarm for 2:00 am. I woke up at 1:30 to Jada at my bedside telling me that she's thirsty. So, we check---- 550!!! What???? I'm not sure what happened. We had pizza for dinner--so that may have done it. She's not had a problem with pizza in the past, but maybe it's something I need to be more careful of in the future. So, I gave her a correction and sent her back to bed. She woke up at 70...but has been tired and crabby all day. Funny.....so have I. ;)

In other news, the last few days we've had spectacular weather for October in Alaska. Nearly 60 degrees today...not too shabby for just being about 180 miles south of the Arctic Circle! We'll take it...because once it's gone....it's gone until the end of April.

What a Day!

Today was to have been the day that we switched Jada's Lantus to an evening dosage. I had hoped to do it on Friday, but our dr. was out of town and she wanted to be available if there were any probems. Have I mentioned that I really like our new dr.? :) So, we agreed that today was it and that Jada would wake up and have a dose of NPH to get her through the day until bedtime, when we would give her the usual dose of Lantus. However, Jeff quickly reminded me that there was just NO WAY we would be able to make the switch today- because we were crazy busy! So what did we do today?

Two birthday parties, a wedding and a celebratory dinner for a friend who has accomplished one year of sobriety! Whewwww.........yes I'm tired tonight! Plus, we sold a vehicle and Jeff sold and delivered one cord of wood before we headed to the wedding.

Eli and David headed off to a birthday party for a friend from church. Swimming and waterslides at a local pool (obviously indoor!) then pizza and cake. Jeff and I didn't attend this one, but obviously, I had to drop them off and pick them up- just adding some craziness to the day.

Then- the girls and I took the van (we sold it because Jeff needs a truck) to the buyer's house where Jeff was unloading the cord of wood we also sold to them. Then off to the wedding.

At church last week, my friend Donna pulled me aside to tell me that she and her fiance had got their marriage license and that today would be the big day. I felt so honored because she was inviting just a few of her friends to witness the exchange of vows. So- I got to keep a wonderful secret this week! And at 1 pm today, I stood outside with Donna and Jim, a few of their friends and Donna's children and watched them become life partners. We were on the Parks Highway at a lookout over the Tanana River Valley. It was 30 degrees and snowing but I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Mary Beth and Jada were invited to our neighbor girl's birthday party. It was held at the bowling alley on the campus of the University of Alaska/Fairbanks-- we got there late but had a great time. We love our neighbors and feel so blessed to have good ones! Jada's blood sugar cooperated well and I was so glad that I could let her have pizza and cake without fretting about how her numbers would end up later Jeff and I ended up playing a game of bowling and I discovered that I should just really stick to bowling on the Wii! :)

Then, tonight, I was priveleged to attend a dinner at my favorite restaurant (The Pumphouse!). A bunch of gals from church gathered together to celebrate one year of sobriety for our friend Theresa! What a privilege to celebrate her victory and affirm her!

It was an incredibly busy day, but it was oh-so-good! I'm amazed at the people that God has brought into my life and feel so blessed. And...Jada's Lantus switch is on the docket for Monday now! :)

A1C, New Dr., Some Changes

I was at McDonald's with Jada this afternoon when Jeff called me and said, "6.8". My first thought was- earthquake??? We have had some shaking going on here lately, but I would have noticed an earthquake of that magnitude!!! He repeated himself and said rather loudly--"Jada's A1C!" I almost dropped the phone! I wasn't expecting THAT! I was thinking it would be somewhere in the 7's. So- yes happy with the A1C- and Dr. W overall was very encouraging, but said that she would like to see her more in the 7-8 range because she is still so young and those low blood sugars can be so hard on a little body.

Speaking of Dr.'s- we obviously have a new one. We'll call her Dr. W. Being as we live in a "remote" area, there are no endocrinologists in Fairbanks and no pediatric endos in Alaska period. The closest endo is 6 hours away- which could be an option for us if we weren't happy with our options here. Dr. W is a pediatrician who has taken on Type 1 Diabetes as her "specialty" and she really impressed me on our first visit. She's very thorough- asked me lots of questions about our life, routine, eating habits, and very carefully looked through Jada's blood sugar logs. I was SO glad to see that she loves what she does and takes it very seriously. She was great with Jada, too. Jada is always shy in new situations and Dr. W took it very slowly with her.

We are making a couple of changes that I'm excited about! We are going to start doing her Lantus at night rather in the morning. One of my frustrations has been our middle of the night checks. If Jada isn't at last 200 at midnight- she'll wake up dangerously low. She may be 271 or 300 at midnight and still wake up only at 70. If she is under 200 at her midnight check, I give her a juice box, because it would be disastrous if I didn't. Her daytime numbers are overall very good, so Dr. W didn't want to change the dosage- just the time she takes her dose of Lantus and hopefully, it will help in the way that she is peaking and falling quickly. In order to do the transition, we'll have to do one day on NPH. I'm going to pick a day next week that we don't have a lot going on and do it then, because I am little nervous about it- just because it's "change"!
We are also going to start using the NovoPen Jr. for her Novolog. Dr. W gave us a NovoPen and I should be able to start using the pen after I pick up all of Jada's prescriptions in the next day or two. It's going to be so much easier to just "dial" the right dose and move on. Fewer syringes to deal with, too!

Last but not least--the pump!! I talked with Dr. W about it yesterday and she was in agreement that Jada would do great on a pump. She would like some time to get to know us and Jada before she'll go ahead and prescribe one- which is perfectly okay with me. She indicated her time line would be in 3-6 months. I guess it's time for me to start doing my research on pumps-- at last! :)

So- I'm feeling pretty good tonight. I LIKE knowing that my sleepless nights and frustrating days are paying off. I LIKE knowing that Jada is doing great and that even though those numbers tend to bounce around ALOT- that she is, over all, a healthy little girl. Most of all- I LIKE knowing that we haven't let diabetes control our life. My little girl is a testament to that!

In Wendy's words--- "TAKE THAT- DIABETES!!" (whack)"AND THAT!" (punch) "AND THAT!!!!" (karate chop)

End of Summer/Start of School Pics

Happy Birthday Eli! 9 years old!

David's first year of playing football! He's done AMAZING!

The summer of '09 will go down as one of the smokiest in the history of Fairbanks due to wildfires surrounding the town!

This is what it looks like when blogging friends meet for the first time! Welcome to Alaska Rocksee and Hubs!! SO happy you are here!

The Tanana Valley State Fair signals the end of summer for Fairbanksans and ALWAYS brings rain!

My boys are up there somewhere!

This is as exciting as it got for the girls! :)

First day of school for the boys!

And.....a week later, first day of school for Mary Beth!

We could hardly get her to say goodbye to us!

End of the first day....she had a blast!

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday

I AM A CHILD WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES AND I AM READY TO TAKE ON THE WORLD!

Crazy Numbers Update

Well, this last week has been interesting with this disease! At the beginning of the week, we were experiencing some super crazy lows. A 44 at 2 am (it didn't wake her up- I just "happened" to check her), several numbers in the 20's at mid-day as well as a lot of mid-afternoon numbers in the forties. We had been very busy since the 4th of July and I think that her all of her extra physical activity contributed to the lows. As the week wore on and we came to the end of it, things have straightened out and we seem to back to normal- although her after lunch numbers are still on the low side.
I think I've been reminded of the importance of routine and schedule with this disease. As I reflect over the last week, there was a hardly a bed time that was the same, hardly a meal time that was the same. Mornings where Jada slept a whole later than normal- thus delaying her lantus injection and then the next day- waking up earlier than normal and getting lantus earlier than usual. I wonder if some of the lows were due to too much lantus in the system- as it is supposed to last 24 hours. I wonder....
Well...summer is half over and a big part of me is sad because for us here in the north, winter is just beginning to stare us in the face (first frost is around August 30). But summer is crazy here. 24 hours of sunlight does something to those of us who live here! I mean, if the sun hasn't set- why should I even think about going to bed? It's not uncommon to hear a lawn mower running at 11 pm- last night someone two doors down was running an electric saw at 1 am- and he most likely just lost track of time. It happens here- just a part of life in the northern summer. So, I am looking forward to fall- which is very short lived here. But it means school and schedule. Life will slow down and there will be routine, which is SO much better for Jada.