A Bend in the Road

It's been longer than normal between posts; I've been in a bit of funk and feeling overwhelmed. I'm having a bit of a why me God moment right now. I do not normally talk about personal things, because I like to keep things private when it comes to anything health related. However, I have alluded to being diabetic and I know many of you know about my condition.

For the past several months I've been taking part in preconception counseling because ideally a diabetic should have tightly controlled blood sugar levels prior to, during pregnancy, and while breastfeeding. I've been closely monitoring, recording, and adjusting medications along with starting insulin again. All the work seemed to be paying off and last week I'd been given the go ahead from the perinatologists. aka high risk pregnancy specialists.

Then I met with my endocrinologist and found out that last months test indicated a higher level in one of the labs. What does this mean? Well for starters a "fun" five hour test that involves fifteen minute interval blood draws. Dependant on the results I may need a scan and worst case scenario, or best depending on how you look at it, I may need to have a very small tumor removed. Best case because if I have the condition being tested for the removal would mean that it might "cure" my high blood pressure. Worst because this would of course set back our baby number two plans at least three more months.

We have been ready to add to our family for about two years now, but because of various reasons outside of our control, we've had to put them on hold. Up until now I've been pretty philosophical about it, thinking of it as time to get my body in shape for a pregancy and that we're not in a rush. Plus we are already blessed to have one wonderful little girl. Now I am feeling so frustrated and having a tough time accepting a further delay. I just can't stand being in this state of unknown.

I am trying to remember that often the path you think is right for you, might not part of God's plan. Like how I really really DID NOT want to move to Santa Fe from California, but it ended up being a wonderful thing. Brad and I were able to have our first child and I was surrounded by very supportive and caring co-workers, who in many cases stepped in to provide the daily support my long distance family could not. Plus I had excellent medical and guidance through the shocking - to me anyway - diagnosis of having type II diabetes and learning how to care for myself and manage it during pregnancy and after. I am praying that God's reveals his plan soon.

Balancing Act: Mother and Teacher

Now when I think I've had a tough day, I can be glad that this is not my job☺ Those are the amazing street performers in France at the World Showcase in Epcot. I am lucky if I can walk down the street without tripping.

So that's my Wordless/Wordful Wednesday...the rest is a off on a tangent.

Feel free to skip it if you want.

As a mother, a lot of times it can be hard to juggle all the facets of life. Trying to work with ER has been especially challenging lately. She is not making the progress I'd like. It's been hard to remember the very good advice I used to dispense to my students' parents and not compare her with the other preschoolers in her class.

It's especially tough because she is just so not interested in practicing writing or tracing, drawing anything realistic, or any letter other than the E her name starts with. She's content to cover page after page with a rainbow of scribbles. When I suggest perhaps she like to draw a person, she just pats my hand and says, "No mama, I do my own thing." She is content, she is just not ready.

Do I continue to push? Believe me I've tried a lot of different strategies, I mean I'm a specialized reading teacher for cryin' out loud. This is WHAT I do! I've decided to back off for a little bit, I don't want my feelings of frustration to turn learning into a chore for her. My husband is going to take over a little, maybe do a quick flash card run through each night.

We have a great Eric Carle set, that she loves to look at and play with, extra thick and very durable. Mind you she could care less about the letters on them, she just loves looking at the pictures. I think I will go back to doing the fun stuff and let the teacher go on Spring Break early. She's only three and half...breathe in and out Katie, there is time. Let's relax and enjoy this phase of life.

Balancing the mom and teacher in me has been very hard lately.

What about you? Any challenges doing the balancing act right now?

Part of Wordful Wednesday andWordless Wednesday at Five Minutes for Mom

Some Unwanted Excitement

Do you like, what we've been calling ER's punk rock "eye make up"? It's more colorful in person, they began apprearing Monday, before that it was mainly all puffy.

Last Saturday it rained buckets, and it came down hard. There was one heavy downpour in the afternoon and another one at dusk. So naturally, this was also the perfect time to have a minor crisis at home.

ER was playing happily, Brad was busy in the kitchen, and I was relaxing on the couch. She had just been over to see Brad and was on her way over to me, we have an open floor plan so she didn't have far to go. Somehow, she managed to fall and bang into the edge of our kitchen table. It was a freak accident and happened so quickly.

She immediately began crying hysterically and her eye began to swell up. Brad and I being the rookie parents that we are, were freaked out by that! I ended up calling my neighbor and hightailing it over to her house to get her opinion. Cindy has three girls, including one born the day after ER so she's seen her share of bumps and bruises. On the way across the back path, our other neighbor who's a pediatric nurse saw us and came running. I guess the howling kid with an ice pack on her head, let her know something was up.

Shortly after we got to Cindy's house the community severe weather alarms went off, perfect I thought! We may be on our way to urgent care AND there might be a tornado. The rain was coming down in sheets; we were all in the basement. The bright side was that ER wanted to play with the girls so she must have been feeling a bit better by then, and the general consensus was that it would be bruised but okay.

So we didn't end up having to go out in a torrential downpour - the alerts were for severe thunderstorms, the doctor's office just advised us to ice it and look out for some things during the time before bed. I am so glad we didn't end up spending hours at the hospital! All three of us were already sick; I certainly didn't want to go anywhere all germy when our immune systems were already compromised!

Finally Feeling Better

You may have noticed I haven't been posting as much as usual, even if it might not look like it from my blog archive. I've gone back after the fact and added a few posts in, but I wasn't really on between last Friday through yesterday. We've been sick, sick, sick!

It started last week and got worse as it went on. ER is pretty much over it and better. I am still stuffy, but feeling loads better. For awhile there, I kept going for the most part but felt so tired! It's my hubby Brad who can't seem to completely kick it. He's already in bed, snoring away!

I hope to catch up on visiting everyone this week! I really missed my daily kick of blog reading, my head just hurt too much to sit at the computer. I'm slowly catching up on the housework and errands that fell by the wayside, thanks for the get well wishes!

It's Raining It's Pouring...I Bumped My Everything and Went to Bed...

Well everyone, I'm just ducking in quick to let ya'll know I slipped on my stairs while going down too fast in my socks. Ouch! My left food came right out from under me. I think I was suspended in air for a second like in the cartoons before I came crashing down. Slid on my back and rear with my leg tucked under me, three-fourths of the way down before I could grab the banister to stop myself. Luckily kiddo had gone down before me and was already at the bottom. I'm kinda banged up.

ER was more upset than me, and was crying hysterically wanting me to hold her and pick her up. I was like kid, I can barely walk and you want me to pick you up! So needless to say, if I don't get around to everyone tonight that's the reason! Good thing tomorrow's post is in the can and scheduled.

Crock Pot Mishap & Free Photo Valentine's

Sometimes the best laid plans go awry, as we learned today. I had hoped to have a chicken tortilla soup recipe to share. My husband came home at lunch time, got everything ready, put all the ingredients in the crock pot...and...forgot to turn it on. We were in and out today, and I guess we didn't notice it wasn't working away. Cause when we went to eat dinner...well on the bright side we learned that Melissa's taco bake really is just as good the next day as leftovers:) My mom pointed out too that it lookes like something that can be put together ahead of time and then heated up later.

It's just annoying that we were actually took the time to plan this week out. Monday: Taco Bake, Tuesday: Tortilla Soup, Wednesday: Dinner out at the local Big Boy Restaurant for a fund raiser for the school, Thursday: Taco Bake Planned Leftovers, and Friday: Tortilla Soup Planned Leftovers. As you can see the cook once, eat twice method was being put to good use. No looking at each other at 5:30 with blank stares about what to eat.

Did manage to get somethings done, have finally decided on a theme for the Valentine's playdate. I've found a cute post for a Love Bug theme here, with some neat ideas for themed food too, and on the same blog some simple examples of how to decorate the dollar spot mailboxes I picked up at Target.

But the most exciting part of the day by far was going to My Urban Toddler with ER to meet in real life my fellow Michigan blogging friend Joy, who I found through Blog Around the World! She was very nice to meet us at a kid's play area, that gave ER something to do, and let us talk. We had a great time, and hope to meet again for some shopping fun!

UPDATE: Just checked in on Frugal Family Fun Blog, and found this post. It's for real and through a service connected to one of the scrapbook magazines I subscribe through which is published by Better Homes and Gardens. You can six free photo valentines and even the shipping is free, so it really is free! Just enter the code valentine at checkout. I love this kind of stuff, I've gotten some of free stuff over the years from Shutterfly but you almost always have to still pay shipping and handling. But it's only untl Feb. 1 so get crackin' on taking a cute picture! I'm going to try and get one tomorrow:) I love free!

Home Again

Breakfast at Grandma's, such a nice way to start the day! We got up bright and early because some of our little friends had their birthday party this afternoon; we needed to get moving. After a quick bite and a little snow play, we were off. Like usual ER couldn't go directly to the car, she immediately stomped through the snow drifts on the porch, put her mitten into piles on the side of the driveway, and started a snowball fight with Daddy. There's nothing like a child to put a smile on your face!

Thanks for the comments and emails expressing concern and thankfulness that we're okay! In the grand scheme of things it was a minor accident with just the back end damaged. The drive home was slow going and we did see a truck spin out ahead of us, luckily almost everyone slowed down and there wasn't yet another accident. But wouldn't you know, in the left lane there were still impatient drivers, probably annoyed we'd come to a stand still trying to zoom around. People like that should stay home and not endanger everyone else. I know we're a society of cell phones, but when your car is skidding around the corner maybe it's time to hang up. We saw more than one driver weaving, who was on the phone. We also saw a multi-car accident with the cars banged up quite a bit more than ours, so yet another reason to be thankful for our outcome. We've decided it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, because that woman was going to hit whoever was in front of her; it just happened to be us.

As far as ER is concerned this weekend was great fun: made brownies with Grandma on Saturday, ate them with ice cream, jumped around in the snow today, played with friends at the birthday party, and got to eat a big cupcake with pink frosting.

Havin' A Great Day, NOT!!!

Well I certainly hope you're having a better day than we are. We chose poorly and decided to still drive across town in the snow to my mother-in-law's. This after she called and graciously gave us an out, by saying that it was okay if we didn't come. The roads actually weren't bad, granted it was snowy but they weren't any worse than they can be on any snowy day in Michigan. The problem was, as usual bad drivers. We were stopped on the freeway along with all the other traffic, because of another accident a little further on. Then boom, along came another driver behind us going too fast around the curve in the road and smack into our rear end. Luckily her car was of a comparable size to ours and not a big SUV or truck.

The rear ending was loud but no one was hurt and our daughter didn't even start crying. Cause yeah, we're annoyed our car's bumper will need servicing but all I really care about is that my kid is okay. The damage is noticeable but not catastrophic and the car is drivable. Because of the accident ahead of us there were plenty of police officers around, and one came almost immediately after we both pulled to the side of the road. Brad and the woman who'd hit us were standing out on the side of the freeway; as the as the officer came up he said, "People get back in your cars, cause people out here are crazy. They'll run you over." How sad it's probably true. It took awhile, but the first thing he said to us after working on the report in his car was, "Well she's obviously at fault," the magic words you want to hear when in an accident. Turns out the day before he had also been rear ended, so I guess bad drivers are out in force. Buckle up and be careful!
For now, we're staying put at my MIL's house and will brave the roads again tomorrow morning. ER is happy with that, hey who doesn't love undivided attention from Grandma!