die-a-beat-us

When you say it real slow it's a little creepy.

Tom has type 1 diabetes and when his blood sugars are high they are crazy high. So high that he turns into a crazy, angry, irrational monster or as I like to let him know...he's hangry. That's our code word for "your acting a little bit crazy and your blood sugars must be jacked."

For a time there I thought he may have been literally suffering from a mental disorder because his mood would change like the flip of a switch.

The good news is he is getting treated with insulin and that has helped phenomenally.

In addition to having diabetes he now has a rare "diabetic rash" on his ankle which needed biopsied to confirm what was going on. I honestly thought he had skin cancer by the looks of it; thankfully it was not! The official name is Necrobiosis Lipoidica Diabeticorum and there is no absolute cure just treatment in hope to lessen the appearance and symptoms. 

If anyone has the name of a good diabetic cookbook or tips that would help him it would be much appreciated! Everyone in this house is starting on a diabetic diet.

sunshine and rainbows

I thought I was having one of "those" weeks and it's only Tuesday, oy.

It started yesterday I was so tired. I think it was my nap combined with Starbucks later in the day and this Mama could not sleep at night. I drifted off somewhere around 3:30 only to spring awake for work at 5:30 6:00 (thank you snooze button). I somehow managed to make it through work and then when I got home things got worse. I woke up today still angry from the prior incident and worried. Thanks to my Dad (I jokingly call him Doom and Gloom) I take a situation and think of every possible outcome and all of these possible outcomes suck. I try to keep it together and decide to read my daily, this always makes me feel better I say to myself. Today was short and sweet. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God." This did not make me feel better. Where is the scripture instructing me to throat punch my enemy? Because let's be honest, that's how I really feel.

Man, I just couldn't shake this sadness and anger which is not normally like me. I crack open the Bible again thinking surely I'll find something in here to help the situation. This just left me with more questions and now I have a post-it note with a ton of notes and still feeling like I'm no closer to an "answer."

It finally clicks....be a peacemaker. Did I not just read this? Am I totally ignoring what I'm instructed? Uh, my bad.

After I got my heart right about the situation the day went much better. Carter and I even went on a date...to Walmart.

So lesson of the day:

When you feel like this:

Remember this:

update on life

We found a church! 

It's one thing to pray and study the Bible at home. It's SO much nicer to add in corporate worship and begin to build bonds with other folks just like you...struggling sinners. We began going to a new Life Group which my previous church titled Community Group; if any of you Stoners happen to be reading this. Life Group has been especially good for me who has been void of friends for oh seven-ish months. Ugh. 

Hannah met a little girl at group and hit it off right away. They were so cute hanging out all night this past Sunday and of course have a play date lined up in a couple of weeks. Watching her makes me think of my own best friend and I, we met while still in church nursery as babies and have stayed together ever since. I pray my girl finds a friend like that...a lifetime friend. 

Carter has been doing really good in school. Oddly, he had a rough week last week and did not get to choose a prize from the prize box (insert the sounds of total devastation here). Today, he came home in a great mood, participated in his activities, took nap, listened and obeyed all day. Phew! He had me concerned for half a second that he was following the same pattern as last year but hopefully we got him turned back around on the correct path. Guys, it's time for Kindergarten registration. Be still my heart. 

Amelia had a screening for Preschool with our school district today. I really hope she's accepted for next year. Fingers crossed. She tested really well in most categories with a low score in articulation. She puts an L as the beginning sound to a lot of her words which at times can make it hard to understand the word she's saying. We'll know in 7-10 days how she made out from her screening. The highlight of her week is church and getting to play with other kids. Poor girl, she asks me nearly every day if she can go to school and bring her backpack and lunch box. 

shining light

After months (years?) of testing and evaluations from various sources we finally have a diagnosis for Carter.

He has anxiety disorder (not specified) and oppositional defiance disorder (ODD). In addition he has sensory processing disorder.

I'm not sold on ODD for him because if you are a nearly five year old with anxiety that likely stems from sensory processing and a speech delay, you may appear to have ODD. Makes sense right? In truth it's likely his reaction while he is trying to make sense of everything around him. The sensory processing breaks my heart. He has to try SO much harder to process and keep it together every day then say you or I. I can't imagine how he must feel.

On the flip side, I am very hopeful that he will learn to cope with his triggers as he gets older and it will get easier for him.

His speech is still not well so he will continue his speech therapy for this year and all of Kindergarten next year. If that would get easier for him I imagine other aspects of his life would improve. I can see how frustrating it is for him to try to explain something but his words don't come out quite right.

He is currently receiving speech at school. They also recommend OT for his sensory processing and therapy for the anxiety so we've got a good game plan in place.

Wow, It's Practically December.

Thanksgiving without family was strange and yet good. One of my best friends asked me how my Thanksgiving went and I told her: I cooked, the kids played video games and Tom napped the majority of the day so he could go to work for 12 hours at 5:30; so yeah it's pretty much how Norman Rockwell portrayed it.

To add to our talents we spent the ENTIRE DAY in pajamas...heaven.

Working Black Friday is the pits. Pits I tell you. It's such a tease to have off that one day and then the next day you should be shopping or decorating for Christmas. I'm pretty sure this is a law somewhere.

Instead...

I worked and got home a touch early, grabbed dinner and then headed out to get a Christmas Tree before Tom went to work. We had enough time to get the tree in the stand before he needed to leave.

Alas, the day was not a total loss.

It's now time for me to relax and stare at my gorg Christmas tree which has the heavenly smell of Christmas pouring from it's branches. Oh hark, my tree's trunk is as crooked as a dog's hind leg...this is totally typical for my life.

The weekend...in pictures

Hannie was awarded "responsible student" she was nominated by her teacher for her excellent behavior...this girl is amazing. 

We spent a chilly afternoon on the soccer field for the last game of the season. Our team won 3-2 ironically the 2 goals for the other team were kicked in by our team...the fun of PreK through 1st grade sports. 

Amelia is my new night time buddy. She's going through the splendid phase of not sleeping, yay! (Said no parent ever) 

And why must boys do this to their pants...constant. 

evaluation station

This week has been quite the week.

Tuesday, I was looking forward to a day off from work and getting Carter's psych evaluation out of the way. As luck would have it Tom and I developed food poisoning from a bad batch of milk and it lasted until Wednesday, ugh. We persevered on and took our sweet boy out to his appointment and I may have taken a nap in the waiting room while he did his alone portion of the eval. We don't know anything from this appt. but we will learn more when we return for a follow up on Nov. 19th.

Wednesday, I stayed home from work due to above food poisoning incident which I didn't realize of course that it was milk until I had two more servings. I thought I'd have a lovely day of relaxation and  resting while the poison got out of my system. Then the roofers came and installed a roof...all day long.

Today, I took a half day from work to continue with evaluations. This time through the school district for Carter's IEP. He had a speech eval and then met with the occupational therapist. He was by himself for both evaluations but I did get to speak with the occupational therapist at the end because she had more questions for me about Carter. I was interested to find out that there is a term for Carter's behavior and admittedly it made me cry when I came home and read more into it. She mentioned his behavior suggested he may have Proprioceptive Dysfunction. If you know Carter you will read that article in the link and say to yourself "Holy Shit, he does all of these things!" With this new bit of information I'm now wondering what is next for my boy? What does this mean for him?

As if we don't have enough going on in life I attended "Leadership Orientation" for Girl Scouts. I'm really trying to push myself out of my comfort zone.