Coming Together

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? It's times like those that I really feel like I have a sense of control. Or do I REALLY have control? Am I the one in control? Or am I feeling this way because I've given ALOT to God lately. I'm slowly learning not to sweat the small stuff and let things go. Sure there are times when something so small sets me off but I'm trying. I've set aside more time for prayer lately and things seem to be calm compared to last week.

On Sunday, we woke up to this in our front yard....

 A lonely goose!
Usually this time of year they're already paired up. So I quietly crept outside and enjoyed the day I was blessed with. I stood there taking pics and couldn't help but ask myself, "What's her story? Why is she alone? Is her mate off looking for food?" She sat there basking herself in the sunshine and I basked in the beauty that God gave us. It was peaceful.

Yesterday was pretty stinkin' busy for the West household. The girls were off of school for President's Day but they really didn't have the day off. Kayleigh had to be up at school for Culinary practice at 8:30am. We had practiced the dessert she is making for the competition and it seemed to have rave reviews with all of our friends and family. They gave her some advice, she tweaked things and she went into the practice with an open mind. She's doing MUCH better after the week she had last week. She just got the recipe so she's had to practice extra hard so she can perfect it before the competition.

The practice she had yesterday was set up like the actual competition will be. We got the full schedule of events and times we're leaving. You could feel the excitement and nervousness build right there in the room. The 4-man team performed for all of the parents that attended the meeting. Kay's level of anxiety shot through the roof and after an hour of competing, they stopped and presented their dishes. Kay was still shaking from the intense level of everything. But....the pressure was good for her! She was around people she knew but she was also put on the spot to cook right in front of them. She did great and her chef gave them some constructive advice that they could use to better themselves. They did AMAZING for their first time pushing through with a time limit....ONE HOUR...to prepare, plate and present their dish. I took TONS of pics but right now I'm not sharing them (***evil laugh***) mostly because we don't want any of the other teams to see what we're making right now and "steal" ideas. So we're keeping things hush hush but I will say....the dessert Kay is doing is AWESOME and it's delishhhhhhhh! I know she hates me talking about it and sharing what I know but I'm just so excited for her and I'm hoping as the competition gets closer that she will open up more and want me to share the pictures I've taken. Her chef is a great person and he actually allowed me to come into the kitchen during Kay's first practice with the dessert and take pics. I took pics of everyone making their dish and the final product. Then he allowed me to take pics again yesterday during the first run of being timed and making their dish. So it's been GREAT to get all of these pics of such a memorable event! I'm excited to scrapbook these pictures!

Kay's Culinary practice was over at 12:30pm and then I had to have Kacey back up at her school by 4pm. But a monkey wrench got thrown into things. Once we got home, Kacey was making herself some lunch and all of a sudden she took off running to the couch and tested her blood sugar. She layed back and at the top of her lungs shouted, "I'M A FORTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!" Crap! I ran to get a juice box and grabbed two of them. She sucked the first one down in nearly one suck. I pulled that one and plugged her up with another one that she sucked down in another suck. Then she layed back on the couch like every bit of life had been drained from her body. She layed still, closed her eyes and never spoke. I rubbed her head and she'd open her eyes and roll them back shut. Scary! This one hit her out of the blue and it hit her like a ton of bricks. She didn't feel it until it was almost too late. As she layed there, a million things ran through my head. All those scary "what if's" and it worried me. I knew she was about to perform in dance practice for an hour, perform in singing practice for another hour and then she'd have to wait in her classroom for another hour with only 2 pieces of pizza and water. The 15 min reminder alarm made me snap out of my thinking and retest.....***50***....Double crap! So I went and drug out the big bottle of Hawaiian Punch...poured a cup and a half of that and ran it back in to her. She drank that a bit slower. She scrunched her nose and I could tell she was on a sugar overload. I knew that was going to bring her up enough that she could actually eat something. So I finished making her lunch and she nearly inhaled that. Another 15 minutes passes... ***87*** ...OK we're getting there! The lunch should keep her where she needs to be. When it came time for her practice, she was feeling great and all smiles. She tested ***147*** and no IOB so I set a temp basal and decreased her insulin to 80% for the next 4 hours since thats how long we were going to be at school between the performances, singing and narration. I didn't want her dropping low again. An hour of dance practice and then an hour of singing and she looked over at me....it was "THE LOOK" and she stuck out a finger. Thats diabetes sign language for ..."I need to test". So I took my place side stage to test her... ***62*** Triple crap! WHERE is this coming from? She usually bounces high when shes excited. I had 2 juice boxes stashed in a bag with me so I grabbed one of them and she sucked it quick so she could get back with her class. Her teacher was right there with us and they were about to leave and go eat pizza. QUICK MOM! Think! Think! What do you wanna do? OK...she already had a temp basal going and I knew she was about to come back on stage for the real dance performance and real singing preformance and narration and I'd rather her run high than drop like a rock and embarrass herself. So.....we decided NOT to bolus for the 2 pieces of pizza and I gave her a pack of peanut butter crackers to eat with it....NO BOLUS! When she came out on stage, she was beaming! She felt good! She LOVES being on stage. It's comfort for her. She LOVES performing. She was all smiles and I knew I'd made the right decision. After both performances, she went back to her classroom and tested...***272*** I'll take it! Once I got to the classroom, she corrected because I knew she was in safe hands now. What a GREAT night! She was a 104 before bed and I gave her a snack and off to sleep she went. The 2am check....***104*** ....Can I get a WHOOP! WHOOP!...haha!

So after some excitement through the day....it all ended up coming together and we worked it out! God is good!