This is an important message

Yesterday the phone rang during nap time so I picked it right up, not much time to check for caller ID. When I answered it, this is what I heard....

"Hi this is John, I am in no way trying to sell you something, this is an important message, please call me back at..."

Then I hung up. I HATE those calls, really?? REALLY? What you have to say is SO important that you need me to call YOU back? It's so important that I couldn't get a REAL person to call me?

Makes me wonder how many people ACTUALLY call back.

It's crazy talk!!

How'd she do it?

My mom is AMAZING! I think about us growing up and I only remember her being nice, kind, loving, nurturing, gentle, and really over all a great person. She HARDLY ever yelled (so when she did, it was serious and she meant business) It's just, I don't remember her EVER hitting me, screaming at me, being a crazy lady.

I look at Grace and I think about how to discipline her, she isn't a very good listener (some of the times) I ask her to do something simple and she says "No" I try to to calmly ask her again, to which she gives the same answer, SOMETIMES I'll give her a lil pat on the butt and say "I said please" then she'll stomp off and do what ever I asked. But the thing is, i don't want to pat or smack or threaten her. I just want her to DO IT! I did.. or maybe i didn't? Maybe i don't remember when my mom would raise her voice, maybe i don't remember when she would smack me and that's why what I do remember is me just listened. I don't know. But i know I'm SO tired of Grace and her attitude. I feel like i don't want to be this screaming crazy mom, I want us to have a respect for each other and listen to each other. I want me to ask her to do something and for her to say "yes mommy"

Maybe what I want, isn't something I'm going to get with a 3 year old. Maybe I'm expecting to much, maybe what we're going threw is normal. She's pushing her limits and I'm trying to show her the line. I am just sooo tired of her not listening to me, and her smart mouth. I'm tired of the simplest task (like getting a blanket) turning into a argument, and punishment. I'm just tired

You know they say that you get back what you did to your parents. I just don't think it's fair that I'm getting punished for what Tyler did to his parents. HA!

I'm NEVER going to take a nap EVER AGAIN!

Today I was in a GREAT mood, I was excited to be home with the girls all day and night, I was excited that Ty would be in school and it would pretty much be a girls day with my mom and sister. SO I think, lets make cookies today, that will be fun. Grace is excited, I'm excited, Presley is excited because we're excited and we all go to the store to get what we need to make HEART shaped cookies (heart was per Grace's request)

Once the cookies were made, we decorate them and they get to eat one after lunch. Fun times! Then the 3 year old gratitude comes into play at nap time.

Mom "Grace go potty before nap"

Kid "I'm NEVER GOING TO TAKE A NAP EVER AGAIN!!!"

Mom "Please, go potty before bed, you are going to take a nap"

Kid "I'm NEVER GOING TO TAKE A NAP EVER AGAIN"

Mom "If you don't go potty you won't get a cookie for dessert"

Kid... whips around in whip lash motion with a big "HUMM" as she walks out the door

Mom.. Rolls eyes.

Kid.. throws bath mat out of bathroom

Mom... goes to bathroom puts bath mat back, puts kid on pot, waits a second, pulls kid off pot, puts kid in bed for nap.

Kid ... Cries. and Cries and Cries..

Mom .. explains that crying will only assure that the cookies get thrown in the trash

Kid... stops crying, takes a nap

Mom... enjoys 2 hrs of kid free time!

I KNOW that when I said Gratitude of a 3 year old that isn't really true. I know that she doesn't understand the correlation between me doing something nice for her, and her acting like a brat 2 hours later, how that makes the nice thing I did for her earlier seem unappreciative, i KNOW that. I know she didn't think "my mom was nice to me, so I'm going to be mean to her" I KNOW that. I know that her little mind didn't even think about how I let her make cookies earlier and yelling at me about a nap probably wasn't very nice, all she was thinking was how SHE didn't want to take a nap. So irritating!

The decision process begins

Tyler and I got our estimate from our claims adjuster on what he thinks it's going to coast to repair everything. It's around 12,000 so not bad. It will get the work done for sure. I'm not able to have the same tile as before in my bathroom, but we're going to re-do the WHOLE thing anyways because Tyler HATES it the way it is now?? Go figure. So here's the new tile we're going to put down on the floor. I suppose i should get quite a bit extra to fix the next leak we'll have eh? The bathroom will be simple, really white, with blue accents. I think it will be lovely. I'm excited about being home again, in our new digs. haha. and my new clean tile. I really want to pull the tub out and put a shower only, with subway tiles going from ceiling to floor, but Tyler doesn't want to get involved in that. I guess i don't totally blame him. I think maybe I'll hold onto that idea for our next place.

Frundraisers...

My cousin Tracy text messaged me last night saying that she signed up for the Breast Cancer 3 day walk again. I'm REALLY proud of her and want to sign up again too. I really want to give it another go and see if I could walk even farther this time. I've toyed with the idea after watching all these heart wrenching commercials about it. My only dilemma is the money, it's SO much to raise, and I want to raise money for the JDRF foundation too, because well.. lets face it, that's something that DIRECTLY effects my day to day, and my little family unit. So how do I do both? I would love to do both, So I think.. maybe I could only do fund raiser's for the Breast Cancer walk (no asking family for friends), Like split the tip, because that was really successfully. And my boss said that there were at least 2 other salons that were interested in also doing a split the tip. At my split the tip I made 700.00 or 800.00 I think, so if I did three of them (assuming they were all successfully) that's could be around 2400, so that would take care of the breast cancer walk right there. Then for the JDRF walk, I could do some fund raisers as well, but also send things to family and friends. I'm torn with it. Tyler doesn't want me to do the walk again, he thinks that I need to take a year off from fundraising, because it is REALLY hard. I can see why some people make careers out of fundraising, because it is TIME consuming!

It's all about the victories in life..

Yesterday Presley made a BIG step in becoming a big girl using the big girl potty... she actually went POOP IN THE POTTY! Now to those of you who don't have kids, you may not understand the excitement that comes with this. But poop is a pretty big deal, it doesn't happen as often as pee so it's harder to just "catch" it... if you will. But apparently yesterday was her BIG day (I was at work, so i was not witness to it.. tragic i know) I hear she was just adorable, once the deed was done she ran into the living room to see her dad, bare bum and all, started jumping and saying "poop, i wei poop" (she can't say went, it's more of a wei.. sound) her dad asked for a high five which she was more than happy to agree too, but once the high five was given she made a fist, pulled her arm in a down ward motion (almost as if she was going to saying Cha Ching!) and said "YEA!!"

It's a proud day in the life of a mother, your baby going poop in the potty, because one.. it wasn't a poopie diaper that you had to change, and really.. whats more exciting than that? And the thought of her being out of diapers almost being in our reach, so close we could almost touch it, is also very exciting. Think of the money we'll save, because believe you me, Diapers aren't cheap! And once your kid gets into the big diapers they are even more expensive.. which on a side note, i think is the diaper companies way of saying "your kid's to damn old, potty train them already" For example we buy Huggies, size 6 (she's a big baby) we get 68 diapers (NORMALLY, although last time I found a box of 92) for around 26.00 a box. Now these only last us about a week and a half (IF that she pees a lot) So we probably buy at least on average 3 boxes a month, so that's.... 78.00 a month on something that my kid pees in and we throw out, man!!! I really hope that this poop in the potty is the beginning of something WONDERFUL!

Maybe i should put forth an effort with putting her on the potty today??

Alternative Methods

I was cutting a young boy's hair the other day, and his mother was sitting in the chair next to us talking. Her son and my managers son are on the same soft ball team. In conversation I mentioned that Presley was Diabetic. Her son and herself asked all the normal questions.. How did you know... is it forever... about her diet.. the regular. In our talking she mentioned that she too had an Autoimmune disorder (the name of it escapes me, but it's a color pigment condition) and she started talking about a lady she knows that does a lot of herbal and natural heeling's. She talked about a friends of theirs that HAD diabetes but did an alternative rout in medicine and is now cured. She was very sorry and saddened to think of Presley being so young having to deal with this condition for the rest of her life. So I know that her offering something that I know she is passionate about only came out of kindness and consideration for my baby girl.

She started talking about a special juice she takes that has helped her pigment. She started talking about how wonderful it would be if this lady could cure Presley, or at least minimize the number of shots she has in a day. I smiled graciously and took the information of this women she talked so highly about. But I never really intended on contacting her.

Her enthusiasm was sweet, and i really appreciated her taking such an interest in my daughter, but when she left I thought "yea right lady" I think people all to often confuse Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 is NOT curable. Type 2 is manageable with diet and exercise, to where it can "go away" as long as you take care of yourself. (I don't believe it's ever really gone.. because if you fall into bad habits I'm sure it can come back, and I'm not sure that ONLY over weight people get type 2... I'm a little uneducated about it to be honest) But i know Type 1 is NOT curable, there is no magic drink, or pill to make it go away. But then one has to think... could there be? Could there be a more natural approach that maybe won't cure it, but may like she said... lessen the number of shots a day? I would never think of doing anything with Presley's health without consulting her Dr. first, but then one could argue conspiracy theory's. That the Dr is working for the insurance companies, or the pharmaceutical companies, not the patients them self's.

My first reaction is like I said, no way Jose would I consider giving Presley something that some herbal women says will help her diabetes. But then I wonder, am I being closed minded? Is me thinking this way possible stopping Presley from having something that could really benefit her? Or am I doing whats best for her, what I think is best by what the Dr I have trusted to take care of her have taught me to do? One could wonder and go round and round about stuff like this. I guess it comes down to maybe I'm just a chicken, and i don't want to feel like I'm experimenting with my daughters health so I probably won't contact this women, or maybe a phone call couldn't hurt??

If it wasn't for BAD luck, we'd have no luck at all.

Before our trip to Texas I was dealing with a slab leak in our bathroom. I contacted our HOA on the 6Th of February in regards to the leak and was given (as far as I'm concerned) the run around with getting it fixed. I have no doubt in my mind the women handling it was doing so to the best of her capability. I however now believe that she's incompetent in handling such a large association. I think that she doesn't understand how to do her job well.. that is to the BEST of her abilities. I think when a home owner contacts you about a leak in the unit, it should probably be handled and fixed prior to 10 days after the initial call is made. She had two different companies come out on TWO different occasions to "look" at things. Well, needless to say an email I sent to her on the 10Th stating that I felt things weren't being handled properly, that things weren't moving fast enough and I was afraid that when I left for Texas I would be coming home to a far worse situation.. boy was I right.

The culprit, the leaky pip.

My floors.... destroyed. That is water and mud coming up from in between them

Hallway going into the bathroom more ruined floors

The slab "patch"

Wet carpet of the master bedroom

The girls room with wet carpet (under Presley's bed was soaking wet too, the dry wall was also destroyed by her bed)

I got the call on the 15Th from Natalie that the water had gotten worse. That Evalyn called her early in the AM on Friday in a panic that the plumber was there, there was no key, and that water was coming out of the unit. My sister told her she was already on her way and there was no key because she (Evalyn) didn't call the night before and let them know that a plumber was going to be there on Friday like she was asked to. Once my sister got there, there was hot water flowing from in front of our unit, into a flower bed, outside the kitchen window, and from a trench Tyler had dug on the 9Th to re leave pressure. Natalie and Mark (the plumber) thought for sure, when they opened the door water was going to come flowing out, but luckily that wasn't the case. But the damage was obvious. The floors were destroyed and the dry wall was wet. Mark started his work, and Evalyn sent out a restoration company to look at the damage. So at this point Natalie is assuming the HOA is going to fix it, I mean, she did call the restoration company out. After the first restoration company came out and gave a bid, Evalyn decided it was to high, so she had ANOTHER company come out.. again, my sister and mother assuming that the HOA is handling it because she did call the company out, she did turn away a bid she thought was to high. It was only after the second company asked for my sister to sign something saying they could start the work did Natalie call Evalyn to which Evalyn said "The HOA isn't responsible, I'm trying to help your sister out" Natalie and my mom call me, explain what's going on and I tell them to send the Restoration company away.

Having worked in the Insurance business i KNOW you don't fix the problem, THEN file a claim, it's the other way around. So Evalyn calls me and a few things were said between the two of us. We contacted our Home Owners Insurance and they had a Restoration company come out on Saturday to do the work. I was anxious to come home and see what we were going to deal with when we got back, and PHEW is it a mess. I don't have pictures now, but there is no floor, just concrete. There is dry wall missing threw out the house, and it's just a mess. We can't stay there so for now we're staying with my mom. Finally the claims adjuster came out on Friday and took measurements, and notes for a bid on the damage. Now, wanna hear the kicker?? Wanna hear what really has me fired up. In our CCNR's it says.. that the HOA is not responsible for any damage to the unit EVEN if the damage is caused by NEGLIGENCE ON THE HOA'S BEHALF. that should be ILLEGAL. I don't know how people can write up contacts like that. So even tho We did everything we were suppose to, contacted our HOA as soon as we felt the problem, even though we did that, and even though it was EVALYN who didn't have it fixed before the 15Th, WE are stuck with all damages that occurred due to her negligence. It's not right I tell. Everybody says "that's why you have insurance" and you know.. it is, but it doesn't make it RIGHT! It's wrong, and I'm really peeved about the whole thing. Besides this occurrence, how about this is the SECOND time in a year we've had this SAME leak?? Like i said before, it's not right. and as my heading says.... If it wasn't for BAD luck, we'd have no luck at all.

February 21st... FLIGHT TIME!

Finally time to go home! We were all so excited. The girls couldn't wait to see their cat's or their room and toys.. (which we hadn't explained to them they couldn't go to) Our plane was to leave at 9:40 but was delayed till 10 out of Corpus Christi. At check in the lady wrote down the gate we would transfer to in Huston. Gate 51. While we waited they made an announcement that those people going to San Diego would now be going to gate 24...good to know. Finally it was time to board the plane and start the short trip to Huston.

I'm not a fan of flying, which I think I've mentioned before. And this was a rather bumpy ride. The pilot actually had the stewardesses take their seats (never something you want to hear in mid-flight) After a rocky landing, were on the ground and had to RUN to our next gate in order to catch the plane, because they were holding it for us.

Once we got out of the plane I told Tyler I would take the girls while he waited for the stroller. I was going to walk to gate 24 where we were told to go, as I started to walk, I heard over the intercom that those people connecting to San Diego had to go to gate 51 IMMEDIATELY!! So then I got nervous, instead of walking 3 gates down to check gate 24, i stood there like a lost child while i held on to each of the girls by their wrists (wrists are easier to hold on to, so you don't loose grip) I was afraid to walk away because I felt like Tyler was taking a really long time, and I didn't know what to do with myself. Not productive in a time that will surly turn into high stress... but what do ya do? Finally Tyler walked out of the terminal with stroller in tow, it was wrapped in plastic and i told him they made an announcement about gate 51, he said "did you check 24?" ...."nope" ...."what did you do the whole time I was waiting" he said.... "I dunno, i felt lost" i answered back. There was another lady with a baby who was going to San Diego and she decided to just head to gate 51 but Ty wanted to check 24. So we walk to 24 and it was .. the wrong gate.. go figure. So he said "LETS GO!" and he starts RUNNING to gate 51. I start running, I'm practically dragging both girls behind me when Presley starts crying. I'm ignoring her cry, when a lady says "SHE DROPPED THIS" so I stop to get her sea horse. Tyler stops to get the stroller out of plastic so we could put the girls in the stroller, which would only make things go faster. But of COURSE, the plastic they put on the stroller got stuck on EVERY SINGLE wheel as we were trying to take it out of the bag. Once it was free, we put the girls in it, and Tyler started flying to gate 51. I'm running behind him yelling "I CAN'T DO THIS, THESE BAGS ARE TO HEAVY" So he stops and takes one of the bags I'm carrying, now he has the stroller, 2 kids, and 2 bags. I however just have my fat ass, and one bag. So i start running again. We finally run into the other mom with baby, and I stop to walk with her, and say "you go on honey, tell them we're coming" HA! I have no doubt that i COULD have ran the whole way, BUT Tyler is really fast, so it made me feel like I was falling behind.

We finally made it to the gate, gave them our tickets then we were headed into the plan. Where of course there were NO seats all together, they were all separated, the stewardess's were trying to get people to move so the girls could sit with at least one parent. So they were trying to get 2 seats of 2 together. Nobody was volunteering to get up. Then they offered free drinks, so two guys stood up then (everybody has their price i guess) So now we had two seats together, there was one guy still sitting in that window seat, and the stewardess's thought if HE moves then Tyler can sit just anywhere. and the girls and me could sit in the row of 3. They ask the man if he would move to an isle. he looked at us then looked down. Then the stewardess said "no pressure" COMMON man! really? your going to make a mother and her two small kids not sit together because you NEED that seat? You can tell he REALLY didn't want to move. But they ended up finding him another window seat and he did move. Golly, now we were ready for take off. I was sweating at this point and just wanted to be still. The flight it self was okay. Grace fell asleep and Presley Cried for the last 5 min.. everybody around us, was very thankful I'm sure. I will say that Texas is the BIGGEST state ever. The flight was 3 1\2 hrs and 2 hours and 15 min into the flight the Pilot said "we're now flying over El Paso" WHAT?!?! we're still in TX?!?! crazy.

Once we got into San Diego, Tyler's dad picked us up. We went to his parents house for lunch then headed to my mom's house. Once we got there we went to our house to see the destruction that followed.

February 20th,,,, The Final day.

The 20th was our last day in TX, and we decided to just drive around look at some neighborhoods, take some pictures at some funny store fronts, have lunch as a family, then dinner with my dad and Richard at a nice fish house on us, as a thank you for flying us out to visit.

What a day to go for a drive, it was raining and COLD. The first souvenir shop we went to was wonderful, everything a souvenir shop should be. The only thing I didn't like was that it had more beachie things than TX stuff. I wanted to find Texas souvenirs for the girls, not something we could get at a souvenir shop here in Oceanside. Grace saw a mermaid doll she wanted, but I told her to look at a few more before she chose. We went across the street to another shop who's hours were Mon - Thur CLOSED.. Fri - Sun 9-5 isn't that crazy, that they are closed all week. Guess that just goes to show that we were there in an off season. So anyways, we ended up going to another store close by who was also closed, by this time it started raining on us, so we put the girls in the car, drove a block to the next store who wasn't closed and found nothing.We did however take a picture in the mouth of a shark which you had to walk threw to get into this store. Grace insisted on the Mermaid doll so we went back and she got her doll.

I wanted to then head out to Padre Island because they had a really tacky gift shop that looked like a big sand castle. I wanted a picture in front of the tacky sand castle/mermaid/ shell store front. By this time it was getting close or close to passing lunch time for Presley. Once we made it to Padre Island we ate subway first then we headed to the store. Once we were there I found a scrap book i really liked, and some salt and pepper Shakers. Presley picked out a sea horse and well, Tyler paid for it all. Over all it was a good shopping experience.

After shopping we went back to my dad's and laid the girls down for a nap. I took my dad to church for rehearsal then went back home and hung out with Tyler till dinner time. Dinner was nice, we went to a place called Doc's. It's a really yummy fish house right on the harbor. I must say, i hate restaurants that try to do "mood" lighting. It's always irritating to me, not light enough to actually see clearly, but not dark enough to not give a damn. I feel like my vision is blurred in lighting like that. For dessert we ordered fried cheesecake, i must say it wasn't what I was expecting and was a little disappointed. Once we got the bill we headed back to dad's before bed. Speaking of the bill, the waitress added gratuity for herself with only 6 people, and TWO of the 6 were children. Seemed kinda weird to me. I thought most of the time gratuity is added with 8 or more, and I didn't know they count children as one of the people...which, why wouldn't they? It just seemed weired to me.

February 19

Today was going to be our only long distance sit in the car a lot day, which... if you know my dad..isn't to shabby. He wanted to take us to San Antonio to see some of his rental properties, and to show us the city.

The drive there was fine, nothing special, but I'll tell ya, if your driving in Texas and need to pee, you better be good at holding it. There is NOTHING around, talk about rural. From Corpus Christi to San Antonio, i think there was one place to stop and go pee. Lot's of flat land with nothing on it. Every once in a while you would see a few houses and you think "where do they work? where do they shop?" Once we got into the city we went and saw his condo and the house he owns (not the inside mind you, but the outside) At this point Presley is starting to get cranky, she's hungry, and she didn't want to sit in the seat anymore. So we headed to a place called Chris Maggee's or something like that. It's a really popular hamburger joint there in TX. It was really good I have to say, I don't think it's the BEST burger I've ever had, i like Fudruckers more, but it was way better than a Burger King or some chain restaurant like apple bees.

After lunch we headed to the river walk. The River Walk is a .. River (go figure) that runs threw down town San Antonio. There are small shops and restaurant that run along it and the landscaping is beautiful. You feel like your walking at Disneyland, you know right around Pirates of the Caribbean. You forget your in a city till you look up and see large building all around you. It was a really nice day walking around, looking at souvenir shops, I even had a Margaretta. Tyler and I were talking about how funny it is, that something like that wouldn't fly in California because one, there was no wheel chair access, and even if there was, it wasn't very wheel chair friendly, lots of stairs even once your down inside it. Some parts of the River Walk you have to go up stairs then back down, so yea.. I'm thinking that would be a problem here (if you don't think so, need i remind you of the buckets at Disneyland that went from Fantasy land to Tomorrow land?? yea, they had to be closed because there wasn't any wheel chair access) Also, there was no railings to keep you from falling in. Another thing I think California would have issue with. We took a boat tour and our guide said that 280 people fall in on average a year. But he said most of the time all you have to do is stand up because the majority of the river is 3-4 feet.

After the River Walk we headed back to the car and started the 2 hour drive home. At this point it was 5:30 so Presley needed to eat. We drove out of the BIG part of the city and stopped at a Whataburger (Texas's McDonald's) and got the girls and Tyler dinner. The drive home was uneventful as was the first. Presley did start screaming pretty much the last 5 min of the drive, which is always nice. I was worried it was her Blood Sugar but, come to find out it was just tired baby stuff.

February 18th

Today was a really fun day. We went to the Aquarium here in Corpus Christy. For how small the town seems the Aquarium is really nice, nicer than the one in La Jolla near us. We spent about 3 hours there. The girls liked the dolphin show (it was okay, Sea Worlds is better) and they got to try to pet sting rays,also a favorite of theirs. It weather was really beautiful. The sun was shinning, there was a nice breeze, but it wasn't to hot or to cold. Each of the girls picked out a souvenir, Grace picked a stuffed Beanie Baby Dolphin, and Presley picked a really hard plastic turtle.. whatever, She loves it.

After the Aquarium we went to the USS. Lexington, which is an old air craft carrier from the 40's. It was really interesting I thought, and actually pretty fun. It made me laugh watching the girls go threw all the different sections of the boat. They were bored stiff.. and it made me think of ME when i was younger and how my parents use to drag us to all the historical stuff. They won't remember it no doubt, but it was still funny to me. I will say Presley was quite the little trooper, she climbed up steep stair cases going from one level of the boat to the other. Tyler tried carrying her but she always wanted down and insisted on making the steep stomach wrenching hike up herself. (I say stomach wrenching, because.. for me it was)

It was a really long day, we didn't get back home till around 5:30. But because we were so busy all day and the girls didn't take a nap, when it was bed time. Tyler said "ready to go to bed?" and Grace promptly said "yup"

February 17th

Sunday was a good day, it started as sundays should.. at church. It was nice actually going to church, because I work on sundays I never get to go anymore. So it was a nice change.
The girls had fun playing in the nursery then my dad intorduced me to all his "people" you know, choir people. They all said how beautfiul i was... and well, if you know me, you know i liked that. haha. After church we came back to the house and waited for my dad to be done with rehersal. Once he got home, we went to lunch, at a really nasty diner. I wouldn't go there again, their ceiling was caving in, the chairs were dirty, the food was mediocre , and they were the MOST expensive meal we have had, thus far. So really, not worth it. They did however have the most honest paper dispenser i've ever seen. It was a rack with newspapers, and a little red tube that said 50 cents. So I guess, if you were dishonest, you could just take a paper. There was nobody, or nothing, stopping you from doing so, or nobody or nothing, that you HAD to put money in to get the paper.

Once we were done with lunch we headed to Richards studio and had some really nice profesional pictures taken of the family. This by far has been my MOST favorite activity. The pictures are AMAZING. I cant wait to share them with everybody. But that pretty much took up the majority of the day. After pictures we went to Wal Mart and then back home for dinner. Nothing exciting but nice none the less.

I'm starting to get ready to go home, I'm anxious about my house and the head ache that awaits me, and there is a lot of togetherness. Everybody is getting along mind you, but a lot of different personalitys.

February 16th

Today in good Ol' Texas was just like any other day at home. Which was kind of nice. We woke up, had breakfast, did laundry, Tyler cooked a pork roast. It was a nice quiet day. After, after noon "nap" I took the girls to the beach right outside my dad's place.

The beach was a disaster, this particular beach was pretty much shells. It was REALLY windy, and you could feel the little grains of sand hit your face, which.. well, just doesn't feel good. Presley was crying I think mainly because of the wind, Grace kept yelling "it sure is windy isn't mommy" I was getting frustraited, and told the girls we were going to go. I asked if they wanted to go to the play ground and grace yell's YES and Presley says NO. Of course, they can never agree. Once we got to the car, i opened the door for Presley but the wind was so strong that the flew the door open to quickly and hit Presley in the head, which of course, caused a break down. I called my dad's house and told them that I was going to drop Presley off, then take Grace to the play ground.

Once Presely was safely with daddy and Grandpa i headed to the BEST play ground EVER! Grace really has fun on this massive thing, and I do too to be honest. I'm glad tho, that I didn't have Presley with me, there were SO many people there that I don't think I could have kept track of two kids. One was hard enough i'll tell ya.

After the play ground we went back up for dinner and bath then bed. So it wasn't an exciting day by any means but it was relaxing.

February 15th

This started as a great day. After we woke up and did all the normal morning stuff, like eat breakfast, relax, watch cartoons, we got ready and got in the car and headed to Port, where we were going to catch a ferry to Mustang Island. So while on the short drive to the Ferry we got to see some more of Corpus Christy. We saw a cute little park called Hart Park which holds a bunch of old historical houses from when the town was first esstablished. I think I would like to go walk around because it's cute. Once we got to the Ferry boat I was suprised to see it wasn't your normal ferry, or I should say, like any other ferry i've been on. I've been on one or two ferrys in my life and they all are pretty big, with a little cafe where you can sit and drink coffee while you wait to reach your destination. This ferry however held maybe 6 or 7 car's and was maybe a 5 minute drive to the other side... MAYBE a 5 min drive.

Once we got on the Island, we headed to a yummy mexican resturant for lunch. It was good food, and the girls were good which always makes for a more plesant dining experiance. The owner of the resturant came up and rubbed Presley's cheeks from behind, and gave her a french kiss on the cheek. Well, I guess I should clearify that. When i say French kiss, i don't mean her licked her, he like kissed the air while he put his cheek to her cheek, i'm not sure what that's called, i know it's not french kiss, i just thought of that because well.... it seems like a French thing to do. At first it kind of weirded me out. I mean, a resturant owner in California isn't likely to come up to somebody kid and give them a kiss on the cheek, and if i wasn't with my dad, i wouldn't have known he was the owner and would have thought some weird mexian guy was kissing my kid.. which would just be creepy. BUT it was sweet and I appricated the sentiment. After we ate, we took some goofy pictures in a cut out which is always a good time.

From there we started a drive down the Island. The two islands Mustang and Padre Island connect with a bridge. It was a nice drive, lots of land with nothing. After we drove for a bit, my dad pulled off and we were going to go drive on the sands of the Gulf of mexico. FUN! Of course there was a sand warning that said the sand conition was "fair" but we tried it anyways. We didn't make it far before we decided we best not push luck and get stuck in the sand. So we turned around back to the main drag. We made it into Padre Island and found another beach for the girls to play on. Another beach that you can drive on. I guess all the beaches here are drivable. So it's kind of fun being able to pull right up and park. That would NEVER fly here in California, to many enviormentalist that probably think the tire tred is bad for the sand. So once we found a spot we played in the sand for a bit, I took some pictures of the girls playing, of some horses on the beach walking, some jelly fish that got beached.. I guess that's something that happens a lot here. They are blue and beautiful. My dad said there are times that you can drive out on the beach and just see a TON of blue. and they are all these little jelly fish.

Once we were done with the beach it was time to go home and have the girls take a nap. When I got home I grabbed my cell phone and saw that i had FIVE missed calls and 3 voice mails. Hmm that can't be good I thought. I look at that missed calls two are my sister, two are my house and one is my mom. I call my voice mail. the first message was nothing.. the second was my sister saying "Hi it's me.. give me a call as soon as you get this" then there is my mom "Hello.. it's your mother. Your sister has been trying to get ahold of you, you need to call her. It's about your little place and i'm afraid it's not good" DAMN! I thought. So I call Natalie to only learn that my condo is flooded. Yes... FLOODED. The simple slab leak had turned into far more than just a small slab leak. I guess when you wait 10 days AFTER the intitial call is made letting you know there is a leak, is a little to late. So needless to say i'm not thrilled with my assosiation. They are saying it's MY responsability to fix any damage done by the leak. Okay.. WAIT a Minute! I called you on the 6th and it didn't get fixed till the 15th and it's MY FAULT the floors got damaged? I don't think so lady, the day I called you, my floors were FINE! I was already coming to grips with the fact that I had to fix the tile they were going to damage from pulling my slab up AGAIN (this is the SECOND time this is happened in a year) But now all my floors.. no no. So that kind of put a damper in my day. But all this will come in a blog to a bit later.

After I got the bad news, we decided to go to dinner, CiCi's again.. the yummy pizza buffett. Dinner was fine, tiring, it seemed like everybody got there first plate and was done eating before I got the kids squared away, with BG check, food calculations, insulin shot, drinks being poored.. phewph. I was tired when i could finally sit and have a bit.

February 14th

Since we spent the day of love out of town, I didn't make as big of a deal of it as i probably would have, had I been home. But our day started slow, no real rush to do anything. We decided that we would take a drive and look around Corpus Christy. It's a cute town. It's an under developed beach town, lots of potential but it's kind of ugly. Empty buildings, old dirty structers. BUT i think the town has potential, and it's on the coast.. so... eventually i would say. My dad's place is nice, it's a high rise condo on the coast. So right now as I'm writting i can see the harbor, and feel the ocean breeze. It's more humid than San Diego, but... it's also not even 1/2 as expensive.. so there ya go. On our drive we got to see some real beautiful houses, and I mean REALLY beautiful! I should take some pictures while I'm here just to share the different home styles here.

On our drive my dad took us out to Padre Island. He works out there and we ended up stopping into the church he works at to meet some of his friends. They were really nice, one of his co-workers talked about how pretty I was, gotta love her! HA! After my dad made a phone call about his eye, we went to lunch. He took us to this pizza place called CiCis and it is GREAT! it's like a buffet for pizza, tons of different kinds of pizza, a salad bar, and pastas. I liked the salad and the pizza the most. It's a great family place. I was amazing at how cheap it is. only 5 dollers for all you can eat? They even make special order pizza if they don't have the kind you want. BUT i must say by far, the BEST thing at CiCi's is their cinnamon buns. I'm not a big fan of cinnamon buns but Oh My.. they were yummy. They melted in your mouth, it was a beautiful thing.

After CiCi's we went home, and my dad headed to the Dr for his eye. Tyler and I layed the girls down for a nap and relaxed on the balcony. After my dad got back and the girls got up, we went to Target... I know I know, Target? Really??.. but i can't help myself. I wanted to get the girls a Valentine gift, and i needed more alcohol wipes and baby shampoo. So really, it was a necessity. After our Target run, we went to the "playground" not to be mistaken with a park. My dad has a GREAT play ground right up the road from him. I mean to you tell you this place is AMAZING!! I'll have to post pictures later for everybody to get the full effect but this structer for the kids to play on, but it goes a million different ways and has a million different things to do, it's GREAT! I can't wait to go again. I might send a picture of it to the city of Oceanside as a sugestion.

After the park, we came back home and hung out till dinner. It was a simple and relaxing day. The kind of days vacations are made of really.

February 13th

Our first day of travels started early for me. I woke up at 2 am. Presley's normal BG check time, and started packing the last of our stuff. You know, the stuff you need the morning of, the stuff that keeps you from putting your suit case in the car the night before because of the stuff that needs to go in after you use it in the morning, like toothbrush, toothpaste, hair brush, make up, deoderant... stuff like that. Well, I finished packing that stuff, I got dressed, finished packing the girls carry on bags, like insulin, heart meds, snacks. You know.... the important stuff. Ty got up and did all his morning stuff. Then we woke the girls up at 3:00, got them dressed, put them in the car and we were off to Grandma and PaPa's house. (PaPa was going to take us to the air port) I don't know what it is about leaving for an extended amount of time, how you feel like something is being left behind. I was anxiouse because it was going to be our first time traveling with Presley and all her stuff, I dont like to fly, and because my slab leak wasnt fixed yet. I left my key under the mate because the plumber was going to be there in the morning to fix our leak (a story later to come)

Once we got to Papa's house Tyler went in. He came out and said "He's in the shower, I'm afraid to say anything.. i don't want to give him a heart attack." it made me laugh, the thought of his dad taking a shower and Tyler yelling at him so he knew we were there and George freaking out to the point of falling in the shower. I don't think him having a heart attack would be funny, but really scared to the point of falling over.. maybe. I waited in the car while Ty's dad got ready. Once he was done getting ready we were off for San Diego airport. The drive was fine. Obvisouly no trafic at 4 am.

Check in was a breeze. Those sky caps are worth their tips I'll tell ya. Once we got our boarding passes we headed to our Gate. I was shocked when they didn't ask for Dr. notes for Presleys needles and what not. The only thing that got their attention was Grace's heart med's and even that, they didn't ask to see the note from the Dr. You know... if i HADN'T had them, they would have asked "do you have a note from the dr?" and it surley would have been a big deal. But NO because I have them, no questions asked and we just sailed threw.. dissapointing really. I pulled my note out anyways and said "I have this" and the security said "it's okay, it's perscription" OH well. We sat for a while in the terminal, waiting to board. I"m not sure why they say be there two hours early. It really only took us MAYBE 20 min to get settled into waiting. But i guess, if we had been there only an hr or so early, it would have taken 40 min to go threw security and we would have been rushed and stressed. So maybe the 2 hours ahead of time, is really for your own stress level who knows.

Finally it was time to board the plane. The guy that took our passes to let us on the plan was extremly rude. He got on his intercome and started making announcements about pre boarding and the order we were going to board. Well, in the past people with small children board first. So i thought that's how it was, i handed him my pass and he said "..." well i dont remembet, BUT it was rude and pretty much saying it wasn't my turn. I said "I thought you said people traveling with small children" he said " you should have listened to the whole thing" GRRR.. that got me fired up. So I waited a little while longer. I was pretty pissed. Not at the fact that we couldn't board first..( i'm not going to lie.. that bugged but i wasn't MAD.) But i was mad at how rude this guy was. He made a few more snide comments about our stroller and how we could have had the lady up front make a tag for it "well sorry buddy! we don't do this every day.. jack ass" so mad. But once we got on the plan it was great. we took the very back, and the stewardess LOVED the girls. They gave them wings. and even let them sit with them in the back and push buttons. So it was nice. The take off i should tell you, was really funny. I was watching Presley's face and it was priceless, I thought she would cry, but she didn't. I should also mention that half way to houston i realized i left our wipies in san diego on the changing table in the bathroom. DAMN I thought, it would be just my luck to have Presley take a big nasty crap and have no wipies to clean her up. I no doubt could get her cleaned up with damp paper towles but what a mess and pain the ass that would be.

Finally we landed in Houston where our 4 hour lay over would begine. It started with lunch, the girls, Tyler, and myself were all hungry. After we ate, we thought that our kids bugged so we went to a gate all the way at the end of the terminal where there was no people sitting. This way the girls could run around, be loud and not bug anybody but us. On our little jont I noticed all the Internet hook ups. and all the buisness people gathering around them, on their laptops. It made me think how weird it is. technology I mean, think about what people did before all this. How DID they manage? To think that you couldnt go on a buisness trip and wait to pick up buisness once you got there. That you couldn't be on the phone, looking at a computer in between destinations. I think all this technology has made us to fast paced we need to slow down, take a breath and enjoy our selfs. I think being constantly on the go, makes you stressed and well, stress can make you sick. But again, another blog. Finally our long wait was over and it was time for the short plan ride to corpus christy.

The last plane was fast. It's kind of silly, that they serve drinks. I guess it make the time go by faster. But it makes me laugh. The stewardess took our drink orders before we left the ground. Once we took off while the plane was still in an upward motion, they filled the cups passed out the drinks, walked by throwing peanuts at us, walked by again took our cups and we were landing. So funny. Both rides were smooth, no major bumps.. Thank goodness. No lugage was lost and we had no diabetes emergency. So i would say all in all, dispite some expected stress when traveling with a 2 and 3 year old, everybody being extremly tired,it was a good day.

7.5

Today was Presley's Endo appointment. Just one of the many thing's I had to do today on top of packing for our trip, and dealing with my slab leak (which with yet another person being here today, is still UP in the air.. so annoying) With all that going on, I wanted to write and tell everybody about Presley's Dr. appointment because It went GREAT!
She answered my questions and didn't leave and refuse to come back into the room this.. always a plus.

I had a few concerns. One of which was her Insulin NPH.( I wrote about this in some earlier posts) which she made me feel better about. She said the crazy morning numbers aren’t the NPH's fault. That it's doing what it's suppose to do, but rather, her age. She said, it's a really difficult age, because they are so insulin sensitive that a smaller amount of insulin would really benefit her better, but are rather hard to actually draw up in a syringe. She said, that better early numbers will come when she's on a .... (get ready for it) PUMP.. the shear word makes me shiver. It scares me so bad. Probably because I have no idea about them, I don't know exactly how they work, and all the lingo about the pump is foreign to me. BUT I’m sure, if she were to end up on one, I would learn quickly no doubt. But she assured me that she really is doing GREAT! she said her A1C was 7.5 which according to her is wonderful. She said "I couldn't ask for a better number, with a child of her age" She said I was one of her "model parents" She also said, that once she was on a pump her A1C could go down to a 6.5 which obviously is better.
(for those of you who don't know.. an A1C test, test's her blood sugar average for 3 months. so her average BG for the past 3 months was around 150- 175 according to her) It made me feel great, I think I almost cried. Knowing that all the heart ache, all the ups and downs, all the highs and lows, are paying off, KNOWING that I’m doing a great job was such a relief. Because well…..we are always our worst critics. It was wonderful to hear that things are actually better than I thought!

She also made me feel better about long lasting side effects. She said pre-puberty numbers wont effect her so much, but that as soon as she hits puberty it's going to be crucial. That she will need to know that her diabetes management is not a question of if she will or wont do it, but that it's a MUST. She also said, that how serious I take it now, will be how serious she will take it later. And well, we all know, I take it VERY seriously. So to sum up my visit. It was really good. She made me feel wonderful, I’m elated to know that Presley is doing great. That like I said before, all my hard work isn't for not. Now if I could just get this leaky floor settled before I leave for Texas things would be great.

I think I’m ready for the trip. It’s hard to pack, and plan for a family of 4 for a week. I’m like a crazy person making sure I have enough syringes, lancets, test strips, glucose tabs, and the number of other supplies Presley needs. Then making sure I have enough of each of those things, in more than one place incase one gets lost. My brain hurts to be honest with you. After work tonight I’ll finish the packing of the carry ons, of the suit cases, take a shower, sleep for HOPEFULLY 4 hours before I wake up check Presley’s BG, get ready to leave by 4:00 am. Ohh I’m going to be tired.

Two funny things I found.

Okay, Okay, now I don't want any Liberal readers getting their panties in a bunch here. I just thought this was funny, and if we can't laugh at ourselfs then really, what do we have left?







Yea, I can relate with this one. I'm really tired of the changing diapers thing. I know, I know, whats the simple solution to this?? Potty Training you say? Well, believe you me that is harder than it seems. Also considering I'm potty Training Presley, who well I think just might pee constantly, it add's a level of difficultly to the whole.. Potty Training thing.

My life is a list

I was looking at my counter this morning while I was making pancakes for the girls, and I noticed three different lists sitting there. It made me giggle a bit. I live my life with lists helping me remember things. Need it be, things i need at the store, things to not forget for an upcoming trip, food I've eaten, Presley's numbers, food Presley's eaten. My life is FULL of lists. I wonder at what point in time you become old enough to need lists. I mean, in grade school you may make a list people who you like or dislike. But You don't NEED lists to help you remember things. When does that start? I think I would be lost without my list. I would forget so many thing. I for sure couldn't keep track of Presley's numbers, I would surly forget the main ingredient to a meal I was cooking, I would forget heart med's when packing for a trip. I mean really, for ME at least lists have become essential to my day to day. I probably start a new lists at least once a week. Which I guess you could make the arguement that how can you have so many lists and actually be organized? It would seem that you would need lists for lists. And really, how organized is that?

Welcome to America!

On Saturday my mom, sister, the girls and myself all went shopping. We went to Target first (of course) then Michaels and while in Michaels we decided to go walk down to Old Navy to see if we could find some shirts for the girls (for a family picture) While on our walk to Old Navy we passed about 5 store fronts, and about 7 different families/groups/couples.. you get the idea, and would you be surprised to know, that not ONE of them was speaking English. It was weird I looked at my mom and said "huh, wouldn't know we were in the U.S would you?" That for the entire walk, we didn't hear one person speaking English. It made me roll my eyes.

Whats next??

Do you ever feel like you can't get ahead? That if you get excited about something good happening it inevitably doesn't? Or if you find yourself running into extra cash and thinking RIGHT ON! Something comes up that will surely suck dry the extra money, or maybe even go beyond the extra money so now your in debt and worse off then before you got extra cash?

This seems to be mine and Tyler’s life. Every time we get excited about something it doesn’t happen. Every time we seem to get ahead financially something happens that wipes out the extra money. We always try to look at the good side, instead of thinking “we can never get ahead, we can never just have extra fun money.. God must be laughing at us?” we always try to think “We never fall behind.. God seems to make it so when something comes up, we have the extra cash to cover it” Which is a better way to think, it’s not always easy, but we TRY to think positive.

Taxes, ahhh taxes. We did our taxes and we aren’t getting that much back. Not as much as we had hoped since we own our own home, which people always say is a plus, and we have two kids who are suppose to help us out in the world of taxes… or so I thought? But with all our deductions, we are getting enough back to cover our medical expenses. I mean, I guess we should be glad that we’ll be starting the year off with a clean slate, no debt. And we are. I mean it’s not exciting, but it’s necessary. It just kind of sucks when you hear about people spending their refund on fun stuff for their family. Which would be nice. I really wanted to use our refund to help us go to Florida for the Friends for Life conference that is held every year for children with diabetes and their families. But like I said, it’s every year so I guess there is always next year. So even though we don’t get to do anything fun but pay off medical bills. We’re still able to be positive.

Then our slab leaked.. That sucks. Everything that goes along with that sucks. It’s not going to cost us a dime, but it’s going to tear my house up. And my walls, and possibly my floors. But.. Oh well right?

Now, Tyler’s truck broke. REALLY?!?!?! Man! Like I said, can never seem to just get ahead. Some part on the bottom of his truck fell off, and as of now it’s over 400.00, who knows what it will end up costing when it’s all said and done. I’m trying to think positive still, we’ll be getting our extra “economy building checks” which can pay for the truck. BUT… sometimes it’s hard to just smile and be like… “well at least we’re lucky that the money to fix it fell into our laps” instead of “really,…. What’s next??”

I want to go to bed.

Once again, I’m left scratching my head over Presley's numbers. I am overly frustrated about what to do. I hate feeling like I have NO control what so ever. I don't even guess right. I wish she could stay in range at least some of the time. I'm looking at her log book and it's just high, high, high, or to low, low, low. It's very upsetting. Here's what her numbers looked like yesterday..

7:00 382 (very high...)
11:00 110 (YEA!)
12:30 328 (To high again, another shot)
3:00 63 (to low, good thing it's snack time)
5:12 232 (to high again, but at least it's not jaw dropping high)
8:00 423 (now that's jaw dropping high! damn!!)
10:01 92 ( To low to last threw the night, I gave her some Juice)
1:51 47 (to weird, since I gave her juice earlier, that has never happened before so gave her more Juice and 2 wheat thins)
2:02 60 (I've NEVER given her juice that didn't hit RIGHT away. So I was shocked, gave her some more juice
2:11 163 (better)
and this morning she was 330. I am at a loss, totally frustrated and confused.

I’m also frustrating because I’m sick. Which of course makes all this work extra hard. Being up in the middle of the night, not getting a full nights rest, trying to get organized for our trip next week. It's all a little much. I'm tired, cranky, and I just don't want to do it anymore. When I get up in the morning all I want to do, is lay down on the couch. But instead I have to get breakfast ready because Presley HAS to eat before or at 7:30. If all I had to do was heat up some oatmeal that might not be so bad, but not only do I have to heat up the oatmeal,
1. I have to check Presley's BG
2. I have to write it down
3. I have to write down the number of carbs in her Oatmeal, and Milk
4. total the number of carbs
5. Figure out how much insulin she gets to cover the carbs
6. figure how much insulin she gets to cover the high, depending on her BG number.
7. Draw up a shot
8. get the oatmeal out of the microwave, cool it down a bit,
9. get the girls their drinks,
10.put them in their chairs
11. give them their oatmeal,
12. give Presley her shot,
13. give Grace her heart med's
it's all VERY exhausting. Sometimes I’ll stand in front of our cabinet of medical supplies, and just stand there, I’ll take a deep breath, close my eyes and just not want to do anything. I don't want to do the math for insulin, I don’t want to draw up a shot, I don‘t want to stick my baby, I don‘t want to draw up Grace‘s heart med‘s. I just want to feed them when I want to, or when they actually ask for it. I want to just make their breakfast without all the other stuff that goes with eating now.. Is that awful? to not want to deal with your child's medical need? I mean, there is no question that I'll do it, no question that what needs to get done, will get done. BUT sometimes I just don't want to. I know people have these feelings about there every day to day stuff, Like ...taking a shower. But it makes you feel bad when it's your kid, and your kid's health.

I just re-read what I wrote, and I sound like a grump. I think maybe I’m tired, and sick. I have a lot of stuff that needs to get done. But I don’t feel like doing a one of them, my bathroom floor is hot, I’m waiting on the HOA to get that taken care of before out trip and I’m just wanting to crawl in bed and sleep all this away.

Elphie!

I've written before about my obsession with Wicked. I love the musical, in fact i love the musical so much it made me pick up the book and read. I haven't read a book, probably since high school. So it's pretty odd for me to do. I must say, it's a pretty difficult read, but I'm love it! I'm almost done with the book, but am finding that I'm having a hard time in doing so. This is going to sound so WACKO and I know that, but it doesn't change it's how I feel.

The reason I'm having a hard time finishing it is because i really adore Elphaba, I love her character, I think she's incredible. I don't find her wicked at at all. I think she's different, i think she may be a little "weird" but she by no means to me is Wicked. The real wicked one is the Wizard of Oz. I hate his guts. I just feel so bad for her, I don't want to finish the rest of the book, I don't want to read how she melts. Because I don't want her to melt. I hate Dorthy! HA

I'll try to finish the book this weekend, and I'll write my thoughts on it when i'm finished. I'm probably going to read it again once i'm done. Like I said it's a difficult read, and I'm sure I missed stuff.

It's a blur..

I had the girls pictures taken on Martin Luther king day. I was able to pick them up today and took pictures of pictures. Which is why they are kind of blurry. I believe if i tried a little harder, i could get clear pictures. But for now.. these will have to do.

I love Presley's Face and Grace, well she's just lovely

My girls!

Grace 3.5

Presley, 2 (who would have guessed?)

Sickies

Both my kids have a case of the Sickies. Grace had it first, well... she still has it, but she started it. It was a fever first, and a little cough, now it's a stuffy nose. No more fever thank goodness. But I still don't want her over exuberating herself. I still am having her take it easy, just not to push it. We're going to Texas next week and I want her to be better for that.

I tried desperately to keep Presley from getting sick. But last night she came down with a fever of 101.6. Fevers are no fun for anybody. It makes you not want to eat, or drink, but just kind of lay around and feel sick. But Presley NEEDS to still eat and drink, so she can have her insulin. If she won't eat she has to drink, drinks with carbohydrates like juice, Gatorade , power aid stuff like that. Also when you have a fever.. what do you do? Treat the fever. Take Tylenol and Motrin. Children’s Tylenol and Motrin all come in flavors which equals... sugar!! So when we give her something to treat the fever it spikes her BG. Tyler found some Tylenol Suppositories yesterday at the store and bought 3 boxes. They are pretty pricey but they let us treat her fever and keep her BG from going crazy. I was so happy that he found that (Presley, might feel differently)

Needless to say, with two sick kids I’m not sleeping very well. I'm tired and trying to avoid getting sick myself. Which is hard when your nurturing two sick children, because sick kids don't only need medicine they need lots of hugs and kisses to make them feel better, they need snuggle time and.. they like to sleep with you. So I’m being coughed on at night. Add all that on top of not getting enough rest, and I’m starting to get a scratchy throat. I'm pretending it's from my window being open all night?? But I’m sure I’ll be fine. I have to be! I just pray that we all are healthy, or at least 95% by next Wednesday when we're getting on a plan that will surly make us all sick again! YEA!

It's a money pit.

In March of 06 Tyler and I bought our first condo. It would be a turning point for us. We finally had saved enough money to BUY our own place, we lived with my mom for far to long while I was in beauty school, then we had Grace which just prolonged our stay at her house. It definitely put a strain on our relationship. It's hard to be a young couple trying to raise your family is somebody else's house. It was hard for Tyler being a man to live with his mother in law. So it wasn‘t easy. We also went threw some pretty stressful times while at my mom's. Tyler was in car accident, we got sued, a lawsuit that would go on for over a year. We had a baby with a heart condition, so…. a lot of real high stressors.

We started looking for something to buy in late Feb of 06. In early March we found the one we wanted. I remember when I saw it, it was a condo conversion, meaning... they were apartments that were being sold as condo's. It was phase 1, and I LOVED them. There were a lot of units, 280 to be exact.. so a little bigger complex than I wanted, but they were so nice. Much nicer than anything else we had seen. They came with a garage, a washer dryer, nice big rooms, had great landscaping, and an option of a up graded kitchen and bathroom. We opted of the "as is" non upgraded unit, we figured they were charging us 25,000 extra for an upgrade we could do our self’s. We signed our life's away and hoped for the best. The last weekend in April was move in weekend. What a GREAT feeling to OWN something. To be a home owner at the ripe age of 24! we ROCK!

Our excitement would soon enough turn to more high stress. We had a question about our home warranty, so we called the realtor who worked in the sales office, for the number to the home warranty people. When he responded with "I don't work there anymore, because they aren’t selling anymore. They got shut down" My heart dropped. So long story short, Maisley/Presley who we bought the condo from got foreclosed on by Bank Of America. So now, our great investment wasn't being sold. A TON of renters started moving in, and we were apartments again. Not only were we loosing a TON of money in equity, not only could we NOT sell our place because it was worthless, it was falling apart. In March of 07 our bathroom floor was feeling warm. We thought "cool, built in heated floors" We just laid tile and thought we could just feel the heat from the hot water pip. After a few months of a warm floor, it eventually got hot. I mean SO hot that you couldn't even stand on it. Another long story short, we had a slab leak. Hot water was on it's way up. Tyler dug a ditch right outside our place and hot bubbling water started streaming down the side of our place. We eventually got it fixed after arguing with the HOA. It was crappy because we had JUST tiled the floors with a pretty blue slate and they had to dig it all up. But the problem was fixed, and luckily we had extra tile, and we just fixed it on our own.

Well, it's starting again, our hot water pressure is gone, and our floor is getting hot. AAHHHH I hate this place. I think Tyler and I are the only people that during the California fires WANTED to be evacuated and was "hopping" we would come back to a big pile of dust! It seems to be our luck, put your life savings into a condo, feel really good about yourself for accomplishing something like, buying a home, then getting shit on by it falling apart, and it being worthless… yea.. Sounds about right, and where’s Maisley Presley?? Probably on a beach some where laughing at all the little suckers that bought into a piece of their crap. Because we’re not the FIRST condo conversion to go down hill with this company. Hardly seems fair doesn’t it?

23

Yesterday when Presley woke up from her nap she was crying. It wasn't her "i'm freakin out here because my sugars are all messed up" kind of cry, it was a "come and get me now, but go ahead and go pee first" kind of cry. Once i grabbed her I knew I needed to check her BG because she didn't stand up when I walked in her room. We went to the kitchen and checked her BG, I was shocked and a little scared when I saw the number pop up. Her BG was only 23 her BG has NEVER been that low before. I grabbed some apple juice and started having her drink it. She was crying a little bit more now, but wasn't shaking and she didn't have a real glassy look in her eye. I felt comfortable giving her juice, because in between her crying she was able to drink just fine. After her juice I gave her a glucose tab. I probably didn't need to do this looking back, but I was just so scared because she was so low. After I gave her, her glucose tab, i checked her again and her BG was 101. I gave her a half of a meat sandwich because.... that's what I was taught to do in the hospital, after a low, feed a snack, like a meat sandwich or PB sandwich. I probably should have only given her 1/4 of a sandwich, looking back now. But in the moment, i just wanted her BG to maintain till dinner.

As low as her number was this time, I think i held it together really well. I didn't freak out and I didn't get REALLY scared. I was calm, and just did what I needed to do. I did think for the first time, that i may need to use the glucogone kit. Which is a BIG scary shot to use in case of a serious low. I'm not really ready to use it, i'm not sure what to do afterwards , do i call 911? call her Dr? do I give her little body the WHOLE shot? just some of the shot? All questions for her dr I suppose.This was her lowest low thus far. It was scary and not welcomed. But I think I handled it pretty well. So did she. She was amazing! I feel so terrible thinking how this roller coaster must have felt to her. That at 2:45 her BG is 23, then 10 min later it's up to 101, and at dinner at 5:30 her BG was 480 EEK! I can't imagine how weird that must feel to her, to have her body Fluctuate so much, to go up and down, so quickly.

I was sad that her BG was so high at dinner. I knew it's because of my correcting the low, I over corrected. Like i said before, I probably shouldn't have given her a glucose tab, and should have only given her 1/4 of a sandwich. I guess this whole thing is a learning experience, I'm no pro, by any stretch of the imagination. So i'm going to make mistakes and learn from them. I just hate that it's Presley's body who feels the Consequence of MY learning, hardly seems fair. I also think that diabetes is so unpredictable that what works one day may not work another. I may give her juice for a low next time and it wont bring her up enough, so she'll need more juice AND a glucose tab. One can only guess i suppose. I guess that's why parents at my CWD website always say.. YDMV which means, Your Diabetes May Vary.

Those who Biore together, Stay together.

On Saturday, Tyler, the girls and I went to my mom's house to visit. After we had dinner I wanted to play a game, so we busted out good ol' Pictionary. My mom, Grandma and sister were on a team, then Tyler, Grace and myself were on the other team. I'm proud to say that Tyler and I KICKED major butt! We won both games. I guess... thats what happens when your as deeply connected as Tyler and I are. Ha! here are some pictures from our Victory rounds of pictionary.

Mom Drawing her card, and grandma waiting intently.

My team. WE ROCK!!

Grace Drawing on her turn. It was a "Costume"

Grandma and Mom, loosing like champs. HaHa!

We're so connected.

This was our first victory picture, We tried to look excited, but I think i look scared.

That says "VICTORY" better than the other picture don't ya think?

How do you know it's love???

Instead of making out after the kids go to bed, you biore together. Thats right. Biore, I was looking at my pores the other day and thought "yuck" So I asked Ty if he would pick up some Biore strips. Of course he did, along with a facial mask, something else I asked for. So once the kids were all tucked in we both headed to the bathroom, washed our faces and applied biore strips together. After we removed the biore strips we applied the facial masks. I'm sorry to say my biore strip was worse than Tyler's. How sad. I think maybe it's because I wear make-up? Here are some pictures of myself and my MANLY husband doing facial stuff.

No Make-up. I'm a brave lady to be posting this on the Internet. (I couldn't smile)

After the Biore strips are removed, and facial mask applied.

After the above picture was taken, Tyler said "I'm always on the right side, let's switch" To which i replied "It's because i'm right handed, if i'm on the left I cant use my right hand to take the picture" To which he said "I"ll take it..."
Well, you can see how that worked out...... Here's takes 1 -4

I actually took the bottom right picture. So here are Tyler's other two tries. Towards the end I felt so stupid I just started laughing.

After my beautifying treatment... ahhhh FRESH!

We bring the dork out of each other. Look how pasty I look next to him!

So a night that started so fun, ended horrible. I guess it just goes to show how much your life changes after kids. After this picture, we went to bed, 2 hr's after that I woke up to Grace crying. I checked on her and she had pee'd in her bed, so we changed her Pj's and she crawled in bed with me. After i got Grace Tucked into bed with us, i checked Presley's BG. It was low, so I had to give her some juice. Once I was done with that. I went back to bed. Because Grace is sick right now, she was really twitchy, and sweaty and made a lot of noises that not only were just uncomfortable to sleep next to but, made me worry so I didn't sleep very well . I'm not sure what time it was that I woke up to Grace crying at the foot of the bed, throwing up. SO SICK! Perfect... just what I needed to complete my restless night, but cleaning up that mess. SO after I got her squared away it was back to bed. But she was so restless the rest of the night which means, YES.. so was I. Ahhhh motherhood, gotta love it.

It's a mystery bruise

I have this really strange nasty bruise on my leg. I was going to wear a dress last night to dinner but this bruise kept me from doing so. It's really big, and has a good size white dot in the center. It kind of creeps me out. I wonder how I did it, because I don't remember hitting my leg. My paranoid way's make me think it could be something more serious than a bruise....what?? I dunno. But it kind of freaks my freak. We'll see.. if it doesn't go away in a few days maybe I’ll go see the doctor.

Dinner with family

Last night we went to Karl Strouse for dinner. It's where Tyler wanted to go, I think because it's a brewery and he's brewing his own beer....? I think maybe. It was a nice time, a little loud, and a tad bit expensive.. but other than that it was nice. My mom, sister, grandma,grandpa, and Tyler's parents all came. He got money from myself, Natalie, and my mom for more beer brewing stuff. He was so excited, as soon as he got home he got online and started ordering beer supplies. It's really cute watching him. He is really passionate about it. Here are some pictures from our night out.

Tyler and Me

MaMa Patti and Grace

Now it was GG and Papa's turn to hold and snuggle Grace

Auntie laying down the law with Presley

Grace wasn't feeling well. Of course!

She wanted her mommy, the sicker she started to feel

That was our night. We told the waiter it was Tyler's birthday in hops that it would bring an embarrassing song. BUT no luck, he got a free beer and a cup. whip de doo!

Glumpkeys

2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
3 eggs
1 Cup cracker crumbs
1 Large cabbage
1 Cup BOILED rice
1 Large Diced onion
1 Can of tomato soup/or v8 juice
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix, ground beef, pork, eggs, cracker crumbs, onion, rice, and salt and pepper well. Add a little water to make mushy if needed. Remove core from cabbage and boil until leafs can be rolled.

Fill each leaf and fasten with a toothpick.

Yummy filled Glumpkeys!!

Put unused cabbage leafs on bottom of the pot, put glumpkey rolls on top.

Then take a silly photo with the one you love.

Add 1 can of tomato soup, or we use V8 juice, one spicy, one non spice, add 1/2 Cup katchup, use water to cover rolls.

Cook for about 1 1/2. They really are better the next day. So we cook them the day before we eat them. put them in the refrigerator and the next day just re-heat.

They are good with mashed potato's OR rice. which ever. Enjoy! it's been a family favorite for years!