It's Beginning To Look A lot Like Christmas!

We finally got all of the Christmas decorations up and everything looks so beautiful. This time of the year always gives me warm fuzzies inside and I love the excitement that it brings.

We're going to get another year with Kacey believing in Santa and I'm cherishing every moment. I remember how sad it made me when we finally told Kayleigh but we kept the spirit alive by letting Kayleigh help us shop for her sister but we shopped for her so she still didn't know what she was getting until Christmas morning.

As we unpacked all the Christmas stuff, the memories started flowing. The girls hung the ornaments and listened to me tell stories with each one. They even told me stories that they remembered as they made some of them. Kayleigh had an emotional moment when we pulled out the ornament we'd made with her first boyfriend's name on it. *sigh* He will always hold a special place in our family and she quietly placed his ornament ball back into the box.

I took the girls for pictures. They're growing up way too fast! I couldn't believe just how much until I got the pictures back. Kacey is nearly as tall as Kayleigh now! Only about 5 inches seperate them and only 4 pounds.

While we were in the mall, there was NO line to see Santa and so I convinced the girls to have their picture taken.

Yesterday we decided to end the week with a trip to Christmas Town. It's something new that Busch Gardens was doing this year. My Mom surprised us with tickets and we surprised the girls by taking them. They were SHOCKED! Christmas lights really excite my girls and this just magical! They had lights galore over the park....real live penguins....emotional shows with traditional Christmas carols...and top it off with a Christmas show featuring characters of Sesame Street. Both of my girls were Sesame Street fans when they were little and even though they might not admit it now, they still love it! The smells through the park were amazing! They had fresh baked goods....Starbucks coffee....and apple cinnamon smelly things hidden. It looked and smelled like Christmas. We paused for a moment to look through the window at the very "real" looking Santa. His suit was gorgeous! As Kacey peered through the window, she whispered, "Mom, thats not the real Santa" and she smiled at me. I winked and whispered back, "You never know!" She smiled back at me and my heart melted. We ended the night with a final trip by the ice cream shop. I could hardly resist the peppermint flavored ice cream! Kacey chose the rainbow sherbert and Kayleigh chose the cookie dough. Diabetes wasn't rearing it's ugly face and the Herbie revealed a beautiful 94 on his screen. Thank you diabetes for not stealing our joy!

Giving Thanks

I was way too busy to write my Thanksgiving post so it's a bit late. But they always say...better late than never, right?

For our family, it was long and emotional, yet it turned out to be a start of a tradition. Over the last few weeks, I've been tossing around the idea of staying at home for Thanksgiving. For the last 11 years, we would pack up and go to Granny's house for lunch and then go to my Mom's for dinner. When I started to think about our yearly "routine", there was a BIG missing link.....no Granny. Our entire family was taking that really hard, especially Frankie. Granny played such an important part in our holidays and our traditions and this year is going to be tough. We're at the 6 month mark of her death and it's still just as hard for everyone as it was six months ago.

Granny's biggest joy was getting everyone in the family together to eat. She loved to cook and no matter what time of day it was, if you stopped by her house, you'd better have room for something to eat because she was going to cook for you. This year, the family was divided. There was no gathering at Granny's house, no cramming 25 people into an apartment and there was no Granny.

I decided that I'd take on the task of cooking this year. I spoke to my Mom about it and told her that I wanted Thanksgiving at my house this year and she could come here to visit. I then broke the news to Frankie's Aunt, who thought she was going to be alone that day. I saw a spark come back into her. She began talking about what she could make and bring. We told her we would drive down to get her in the morning and she could help me cook and then we'd take her home later after dinner. We only live about 20 minutes from her but our road is long and winding and she's scared to drive down here so once she found out we'd come and get her then she got even more excited!

I woke up around 7:30am and got the girls up around 8am. We did some last minute cleaning before the cooking started. Kayleigh was in charge of desserts this year and she'd already made 2 pumpkin cheesecakes. She was ready to make her cheesecake brownies. Once those were done, it was my turn to get in the kitchen! This was not only my first year cooking Thanksgiving, it was my first time ever preparing a turkey. Many of you may not know this....me, Kayleigh & Kacey are vegetarians. So cooking a turkey was a BIG deal for me! I started the turkey around 10am. Frankie left to go pick up his aunt shortly after I started cooking. I sat down and enjoyed the rest of the Macy's parade with Kayleigh since there was really nothing else I could do. Frankie arrived back home with his aunt and she walked in with a smile. This is the first time I've seen her really smile in the last 6 months. She came in with a tray of prepared yams...just like Granny used to make them for me. She said, "I made your yams the way Mama did." I smiled and when I got to the kitchen alone, I broke into tears. Granny knew I couldn't make those yams the way she did and now they're made! Kacey managed to convince Frankie and his Aunt to play the Wii with her. His Aunt had never even held a Wii remote so it was all new to her! She caught on fast and before long I could hear giggles coming from my living room. I peeked around the corner to see them all laughing hysterically and bowling on the Wii. Laughter...something that Granny loved and there hadn't been much of. She'd of been so happy :)

By 5pm, we were ready to eat! My Mom and Brian came over and my best friend Lori and her boys came over. Lori's husband is deployed right now (and has been for 23 months). He's due to come home next week so instead of spend Thanksgiving alone, we invited them over too! Ten people, lots of laughter, a football game between my team and my brothers team, more food than we could ever eat.....yep, it was perfect and a great start to a new tradition!

So as difficult as the day was, it turned out to be wonderful!

Mist vs. Shot?

Kacey's school will be giving out the H1N1 vaccines and I've got myself in a knot over it. I talked to her CDE and her Endo is suggesting that their patients get the mist. Why mist? Isn't that dangerous for someone with a chronic illness? She explained that it was more effective for her to get it that way since it was the live virus than to get the shot which wasn't live.

So I talked to the school nurse and I checked the box for "mist" but now I'm still worried. According to the research I've done....this is what I found....

"However, information released by MedImmune, the makers of FluMist, earlier this year, claim that the FluMist is safe for children with compromised immune systems. I quote from their website, "In our pilot study, immunocompromised children with cancer who received FluMist had no related serious adverse events, explained Pat Flynn M.D., director, clinical research, infectious diseases, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. We believe these data are promising and add to the extensive body of evidence supporting the overall safety of FluMist in the population for whom it is approved. A larger study will help us confirm the safe use of FluMist in immunocomprised patients.""

I also found out that people that get the mist carry and shed the live virus for 21 days. OK....so if we don't get the mist then Kacey has the chance to be exposed to the live virus from every other student in her class. This sounds pretty damn scary if you ask me!!! What about us? Since she gets the mist, then aren't we at risk at home of being exposed to it? Kayleigh's school isn't offering it yet and I'm not sure when they are due to get them. Since I work for the school, I have the opportunity to get it. I'm just scared!

I need some help with this one! Anyone had the mist? Any D-Moms take their children with diabetes to get it yet? Any symptoms afterward?

Spirit Assembly & Cake Business

I want to start this post with how AMAZING this school year has been...not only for Kacey but for Kayleigh as well! Last year, Kacey struggled hard through 3rd grade. She struggled with doing accelerated work, she struggled with managing diabetes on her own at school and she struggled with keeping up with the class after she missed so many days from illness and diabetes. By the end of the year, we were BOTH just burnt out! When she started 3rd grade, she was only about 6 weeks into her diagnosis. We both went through a rough time because we still had not had enough time to really get the hang of a schedule, much less a schedule for school. We had school nurse issues in the middle of all of that and we were VERY happy summer break arrived. Over the summer, Kacey had time to really "bond" with Herbie. We had a chance to change basals and really get on a schedule and see what worked for us. It was a nice break and it really took us a full year to accept all these changes that had entered our lives. We could also have the time to do all of this without school getting in the way...finally! By September, she was READY for 4th grade! I was very familiar with the teachers since the teachers she would have were teachers when Kayleigh went through 4th grade there. The parent/teacher relationship was already established! As a matter a fact, one of her teachers actually taught Frankie in 2nd grade!! ;) So we were thrilled with her teachers and she was more than ready. She is completely independant when it comes to taking care of her diabetes at school. She tests her own blood sugar, boluses for her own meals (snack & lunch) and only goes to see the nurse when shes not feeling well. Her teachers are not involved in her care since she manages all of this. I check Herbie when she comes home to see what her blood sugars were on days she forgot to log. It's just easier for everyone in the long run and Kacey wants it this way. She got her report card this week and it revealed one A and 4 B's!! HONOR ROLL!!! I wanted to cry! She is doing such a great job and she is really loving school this year. Now for some MORE great news....yep, theres more! We got a letter in the mail from her principal. No parent looks forward to the day you get a letter addressed "To The Parents of Kacey West". I got a knot in my throat as I opened the letter. "Dear Mr. & Mrs. West, I am pleased to inform you that your daughter, Kacey, has been selected as Student of the Month for October......." HOLY COW!!! Out of the entire 4th grade, Kacey was chosen for the month of October. Could it get any better? OF COURSE!! Kacey entered a photography contest last month at school. She won 2nd place!!! Her photos will now be sent to compete with all the other elementary schools in our county :) Very cool! She had no idea she'd won this award so it was priceless to see the shock on her face. I found out 2 days ago by accident from another teacher but I kept it a secret and took my camera to the assembly since I was working today.

Now onto Kayleigh....

She also got her report card this week... 3 A's, 2 B's and 1 C. Her C was in Spanish 3 so I'm not concerned in the least! She's having a great year this year. Last year was her first year in English Honors and she's never been a reader so she struggled through the class with a C. The class is a weighted class so the C really counts as a B...but seeing that C really bothered her. When it came time to do her schedule for this year, she begged me to let her go back to regular English, even though all her friends were in Honors. I signed the papers willingly. I hated seeing her so unhappy in a class! This year she's rockin' this English class and actually has a 98 A average :) Yep, we made the right decision! Her favorite class this year is Culinary 1. Those of you on my Facebook have already seen some of the pics of her cakes. Shes got her own site on Facebook and shes shown off her cakes but this is the first time we've been able to show off her Culinary art. In her school, the Culinary class actually runs a cafe. Anyone is welcome to come and eat in there and I'm going to make it a point to go eat sometime soon. All of the kids get a daily grade in class. Your performance counts as the grade. Everyone gets a chance to run each part of the cafe....hostess, waitress, cook (main course, sides and desserts). She took this class because she'd already had such a passion with cake decorating and lately she's been on the dessert station and this is what she produced today......

This is cheesecake with strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Yes, she added the whipped cream border on the sides. AMAZING!!! And it looks delicious!!! Her teacher gave her an amazing compliment and he told her she was very mature for her age and she's going to go far. That drove her up to another level of confidence. :)

Last night, she built this.....

Its a two teir cake. The bottom layer is 12 inches round and 6 inches high. It's a yellow butter cake with chocolate Bavarian cream in the middle. The top layer is 8 inches round and 6 inches high. It's devil's food cake with chocolate Bavarian cream in the middle. Both tiers are covered in a layer of buttercream icing that is hidden by ivory fondant. There is a ribbon around both cakes and it's topped with rolled roses that are dusted with pearl dust. This is her first cake to make like this and she's pretty stinkin proud of it! Heck....I'm proud of it!! Her ultimate goal is to own her own bakery and decorate cakes full time :) but she said she will work with a catering company until she's able to do that. Right now, she's got her own little business going with word of mouth and she's had a cake to make nearly every week for the last 2 months. I keep telling her.....Practice makes perfect! Look out Cake Boss! Hahaha!

OK....now that I'm done sharing accomplishments....

Just a reminder, there is only a few more days to sign up for the Secret Santa Family Exchange. If you haven't signed up and want to play, NOW is the time to do it! So far we've got 15 signed up. If your name is NOT on the list below then that means you haven't registered with Elfster and you need to go to the link in the previous post to get on the list.

Names for the Exchange:

Jill (Organizer)

Amy L.

Amy S.

Chasiti

Hallie

Jennifer

Joanne

Kathy

Laura

Meri

Nicole

Ronda

Shannon

Tracie

Wendy

(All in ABC order, just like Elfster lists them...haha!)

Now, to answer Shannons question...We will find out on Monday who the family is that we're buying for. I click the DRAW tab on Elfster and it shuffles us all and sends us our family. I won't know who got who so it's up to you to remember who you have to buy for ....LOL! You will find out who bought for you when you open the package and they reveal themselves. I thought it would be more fun to keep it a secret than to know who was buying for who. Hope that helps :) Any other questions....just ask! :)

Exchange

WE'RE REGISTERED!!!

If you are interested in participating in the Secret Santa Family Gift Exchange then click on the following link and register yourself.

GIFT EXCHANGE

The DEADLINE for registration will be Nov. 23rd. The reason for this is so that we can hit those after Thanksgiving sales :) It also gives us a month to shop, wrap and send. Some of the Moms live further away than others. We need to take this into consideration as well. We wouldn't want a family left without a present on Christmas. So be sure to look and see where your package is going and allow mailing time.

I'm SOOOOO excited about this!!

So, on Nov 23rd, Elfster will magically draw names and the secret game begins! Have fun!!!


***Edit***
This exchange is open to ALL D-Moms and their families :)

Secret Santa

I've been sitting here thinking about the Secret Santa that I participated in last year with the D-OC. I had such a great time with it and I thought maybe I'd toss out the idea of doing a Secret Santa with all the D-Mom's & Kids since we have such a nice group going on here. How many D-Moms out there would be interested in participating? Last year we used Elfster and that way everyone got to particpate. You sign up and your name and address is only given to the person that is buying for you. It's computer generated so the computer picks the name and it's done fairly. If I get enough people interested, then we can set a price limit and rules and go from there.

So....how many of you out there are interested?

Do you want to shop for the D-Mom & Child? Or just the Child? What price limit? Deadline for it to be in the mail?

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My vote is: YES!
Shop for both Mom and Child
$10 for each one
Mailed by Dec 15th to ensure it arrives by the 25th

WDD Treats

We just ended World Diabetes Day with some special treats! I made the girls peanut butter cookies and used a tube of blue glitter icing to make the BLUE CIRCLE. Both girls were so surprised!

YES! My diabetic daughter CAN eat fresh baked cookies with all the goodness on top! :)

Why Blue?

(courtesy of http://www.diabetesbluecircle.org/)

WHAT is the Blue Circle?

The universal symbol for diabetes.
The purpose of the diabetes symbol is to give diabetes a common identity.
Until 2006, there was no global symbol for diabetes. It aims to:
support all existing efforts to raise awareness about diabetes
inspire new activities, bring diabetes to the attention of the general public
brand diabetes
provide a means to show support for the fight against diabetes

The icon was developed originally for the campaign for a UN Resolution on diabetes.
The campaign for a United Nations Resolution on diabetes was a response to the diabetes pandemic that is set to overwhelm healthcare resources everywhere. The campaign mobilised diabetes stakeholders behind the common cause of securing a United Nations Resolution on diabetes. The United Nations passed Resolution 61/255 ‘World Diabetes Day’ on December 20th 2006.

WHY a Circle?

The circle occurs frequently in nature and has thus been widely employed since the dawn of humankind. The significance is overwhelmingly positive. Across cultures, the circle can symbolize life and health. Most significantly for the campaign, the circle symbolizes unity. Our combined strength is the key element that made this campaign so special. The global diabetes community came together to support a United Nations Resolution on diabetes and needs to remain united to make a difference. As we all know: to do nothing is no longer an option.

WHY Blue?
The blue border of the circle reflects the colour of the sky and the flag of the United Nations. The United Nations is in itself a symbol of unity amongst nations and is the only organization that can signal to governments everywhere that it is time to fight diabetes and reverse the global trends that will impede economic development and cause so much suffering and premature death.

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So there ya have it! The reason we have a blue circle for a logo and the reason we've all chosen to wear blue today. We had our clothes picked out for today. Kacey had a blue shirt, jeans, blue socks, blue panties, blue earrings, blue pigtails, blue CURE diabetes bracelet, blue pump pack and she begged me to paint her nails blue but I didn't have that color! LOL!

We went shopping with my Mom today, who was also dressed in blue and complete with blue eye shadow. While we were out shopping, I doubt a single person realized we were all dressed in blue and that we were showing our support for diabetes awareness but the main point was.....we knew! And what's even more important is Kacey knew she was surrounded by loved ones that supported her.

I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful day today! We sure did