Our Weekend

Just checking in.

The weekend has been a pretty good one.

Emily's birthday was today. She had a friend over for lasagna & bread sticks (Amber makes awesome bread sticks!) and cake & ice cream. Then they played for a little while until friend's dad came and picked her up. I'll share her pics when I get my camera's batteries charged.

Steve & I went for a long walk this evening. The course we follow is a paved road up to the foothills and then follow 4 wheelers' tracks from there. We had a nice time talking about theology, science theories, careers, books, and goals. It is always nice to get away from civilization and into nature.

Yesterday we went shopping for Emily's birthday dinner and cake choices. I still make boxed cakes. I've tried lots of recipes, but no cake I've made from scratch could ever compare with Betty Crocker or Pillsbury's. I've heard the difference is the cake flour. I'll have to try some next time, but boxes are just so easy!

Michael got stage fright today for the first time ever. It was the children's program at our church. His line was: "Heavenly Father loves me." He's practiced it lots of times...but never with a congregation. I led him to the microphone up front, he stepped up on the stool, looked at all those PEOPLE and when I said, "Say, Heavenly Father loves me." he said, "No, Mommy." I smiled at him and told him reassuringly to say it and he did, then he looked up at me and said, "I love you, Mommy." He is a sweet boy. Matt did really well and said his lines perfectly and stood up there and sang just like he should. I've got such great kids!

Friday was Jared's diabetic doctor's appt. More confrontation. He mentioned to the diabetic specialist (yes, the one we had at the beginning that undermined everything I said) how he needed to start charting better how much insulin he takes and at what time, and he'd like to chart his food better so that he could see patterns of what spikes blood sugar and what doesn't and she replied that he might not want to do all of that because he'll just burn out. How in the world can I help my kid if he doesn't chart?!

Then we saw a new nurse practitioner. He told her about his blood sugar of 455 after the football game on Friday. He then told her that after that incident I suggested he eat lower glycemic foods. She told him that he shouldn't give up carbs; he needs them. I said that was true, but that on Friday he'd been eating candy and drinking soda and I mentioned maybe he shouldn't be eating all of that garbage but maybe should be eating healthier stuff. She said the equivalent of "kids will be kids" and told him to not stress changing his diet as much as controlling his blood sugar with insulin.

I'm afraid that he already disregards a lot of what I say because I am *mom* and not a nurse or a diabetic educator etc. I really wish they would teach him to have a healthy lifestyle. I'm thinking of taking him to the diabetic educator that pushes eating healthy and whole foods and perhaps the dietitian as well just for reinforcement for what I've told him. It sure is hard to raise a kid when people contradict what I try to teach.

Anyway...

My mom has gone on to the long term nursing care at her nursing home, meaning that it will be her permanant residence. She will just keep working on therapy to try to get strong, with hopes of returning to her own home someday. What that means for my sister and I is that we will be boxing up her things from her apartment and storing them for her. If by Spring she hasn't regained her strength, she will divie out her stuff to her kids and resign herself to the nursing home for good. I've determined that growing old stinks.

On a lighter note, Matt got a way cute jester hat for Halloween. We bought it on Saturday at a thrift store. I'll have to post pics of it! It is wonderful! He wore it throughout the store the entire time. :-)

That was our weekend. It was nice to spend it with the people I love most! I'm so glad that Emily is part of our family; she is such a sweetie!

I hope that you had a wonderful weekend too! Tomorrow we are headed for the movies for a field trip. I've promised them field trips once a month. I just hope Michael will sit through it! Wish me luck!