Sometimes I'm Happy, Sometime's I'm frustrated

School got out on May 28th and we've been on the go since then. Memorial Day weekend we took off to Phoenix, we spent Saturday-Monday down there. We took it easy, shopped at the mall, swam at the pool, visited my husband's sister, did some more shopping and visiting, we went down with a group of family including our family there were 12 of us. It was enjoyable, even though we battled high BG's most of the weekend. Long car trips, fun and excitement, too much junk food, that will all put Kortnie way up high. Since Memorial Day weekend, we've been home working on various things. I got the kids signed up for a few different activities this summer, Ballet, Zubatomic, Swim Team, they are still playing baseball for the next 2 weeks also. We've been working on "spring cleaning" our home and getting our extra bedroom ready for guests in a few weeks. My MIL is getting married and we are putting on a good sized family BBQ at our park, so we've been preparing for that as well. (We're planning on 55-60 people). Also of course we had Kortnie's 7th birthday party, her 2nd birthday with T1.

So, of course of the past few weeks I've been putting together some posts in my head, for now I'll summarize...

Things that make me Smile

1. (1st picture) Getting 900 test strips in the mail, I spent something like $322 on Ebay for them, which is way better than what I would have paid at the store usuing our crappy insurance.
2. (2nd and 3rd pictures) Kortnie's birthday party, 2 great numbers for Kortnie and another T1 (Libby Lou from http://dimplesanddiabetes.blogspot.com/) at the start of the party, and the next picture of Kortnie and all of her friends.
3. Getting an invitation to an ADA event in the mail on the last day of school. "Safety & Fairness for Children with Diabetes" For School Administrators/Health Personnel and Parents of CWD's. I got it a little before it was time to pick the kids up from school, I quickly made photocopies and gave invitations to the Principal, the School Nurse, and Kortnie's teacher for next year. The school nurse and teacher were pretty positive and told me they would plan on coming! Yay, I sure hope I see them there. I also gave some websites from JDRF and Animas to next years teacher and asked if she had time over the summer to check out some of the training modules. She was really interested and said she'd do her "homework" over the summer.
4. My roses are blooming!
5. Spending more time with the kids and other family members.
6. Signing up for the Virtula 5k, for more info go here... http://www.mommysarunner.blogspot.com/ basically you sign up, pay $10, and run or walk your 5K (3.1miles) anytime, anywhere the weekend of 6/24-6/27. I plan on doing mine the morning of 6/24. That happens to be the week of my MIL's wedding and I'm doing the family BBQ and all that, but I'm still gonna do this, Kortnie can't quit her diabetes, so there's no way I'm going to say I'm too busy to do this. Go sign up, you should do it too!
7. One year Pumpaversary was at the end of May, so thankful for this technology!
8. Preparing for our vacation, we are going to drive to Provo, UT and spend a few days with Brian's brother and his wife, see Temple Square in Salt Lake City, do the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake and see some museums at BYU. Then we are headed down for a weekend of camping with my family, a mini family reunion type thing. My parents, my brother and all of his family, and all of my family. Plus some aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents of mine. This will be the first time my parents will have both their kids with both spouses and all of their grandkids together since 2005. It will be my first time seeing my neice who is turning 2 this summer!

Things that make me Frustrated

1. Working so hard to fight High BG's and when I tell Kortnie, "no you can't have that right now, let's wait a little while" somebody coming along behind me and saying, 'oh just let her have it' or 'oh I feel so sorry for you', etc., etc., etc. You've all been there, you know what I'm talking about. But here's the icing on the cake...We were at the hotel, went to the complimentary breakfast which is a FREAKIN' CARBFEST, Kortnie checks her BG and it's kind of high in the 270's way higher than it should be in the morning. She wants, toast with Nutella, a bagel, an orange, and a blueberry muffin for breakfast. I told her, "Sorry kid, no way you can have one of those a yogurt and a hardboiled egg and we can take the orange and have it as a snack later" She starts crying, she's tired, her BG is high, I'm sure she feels kind of crappy and her I am telling her no. So I say go sit down at that table over there, you have a couple of minutes to figure out what you want while I get the other kids their stuff. So she goes to sit down, I get the othe kids their stuff, get my stuff, (I had the toast with Nutella, yogurt and egg just like I told her to have), come ask her if she knows what she wants, she says no and just sits there crying. Well, by now I know it's a lost cause and she's pissed and won't eat at all now, I give her a correction bolus for the high and I start eating. My husband now shows up I tell him what's going on so he takes her back to the room for a shower, after me and the kids eat I go back to the room and start doing other stuff, husband takes her back to the breakfast thing and comes back with....get this, a friggin bagel (69 carbs), a blueberry muffin (47 carbs) and a huge orange. Oh brother! No protein, just a bunch of "not very good for you" carbs. I was so pissed, but he already told her she could have it, so whatever, I'm not gonna argue, I'll let him battle the highs all day. He starts asking me "how many carbs is in this?" and all that, I tell him figure it out for yourself and I continue packing up the car. Oh man, I was really mad, like this one incident just pushed me over the edge. Am I crazy or what? I'm over it now it all turned out okay, but I think to myself, how can I encourage the kids to eat more healthier if he's just going to turn around and let them have whatever they want. (I could go on and on and rant and rave, but I'll save it for another post I think, this is a big issue with me)
2. Re-setting Basal rates for summer, there's been no scheduale our meal times are erratic, some days there is lots of activity, some days not so much, the kids have been staying up late and sleeping in. I've been trying to re-tweak some basal rates, but it's not going very smoothly. We got the pump on the 2nd to last day of school last year, so we spent the summer learning how to effectivly use the pump, I feel like we're doing that all over again.
3. Middle of the night checks, those will frustrate me forever I think, but also I think they are getting easier on both me and Kortnie. Not so much fighting, and we're getting them down to a good quick, poke, check, bolus (or juice or nothing) and back to sleep.
4. Questions, Questions, Questions....It's good that people ask and want to know, but I'm tired of explaining, explaining, explaining....I'm burnt out, I need a rest, I'll advocate and explain later.
5. Preparing for our vacation. While it makes me smile, it also frustrates me, gotta pay bills before I go, gotta make lists of stuff to pack, gotta go over food stuff with my mom who is bringing most of the food for camping. We like to say that Kortnie is the same as everyone else, but she's really not. She needs free snacks, she needs diet hot chocolate, she needs a supply of juice boxes and other sugar. My mom buys white bread, and I have 2 types of whole wheat bread that I buy for my family. Kortnie also has a minor milk allergy so she only drinks Almond Milk. (She had Lactose problems as a baby and toddler, I think she's pretty much grown out of them, but she won't drink cows milk, only Almond or Soy milk) I prefer to use premeausred oatmeal packets, I have to bring the scale, make sure mom has measuring cups and spoons in her camper, etc.
6. Another super frustrating thing right now is that there is a huge wildfire burning not too far from us, its affecting family, friends and distant neighbors (neighboring towns that is), people we know have been evacuated from their homes, our communites are stepping up to help house animals and people, to give donations. Our mountain is on fire and it's sad. My kids are concerned, there is smoke in the air, it's a sad time for our community.

Here's the quick update that turned into a long post, sorry for going on and on.....