4 Months?!

Wow... So I'm not the best blogger.

It has been a long and arduous 4 months! But we've made it so far and I anticipate that we will continue to survive!

Matrim made it through a summer of recovery. He broke his elbow 4 days after getting home from the hospital. So physical therapy and Dr. appointments filled our days.

The boys are in school again. Rand has started football. I can't wait for his first game on Monday!!

Chris is starting a new job tomorrow. The sad part is that he won't be working from home anymore and I will miss him, but he will be hands on again instead of doing sales and he is happy about that.

I'm hoping to start school soon... of course I think I've been saying that for a couple years now. But our church offers a 2 year course called Vineyard Leadership Institute that I am hoping to start.

Gotta go for now... Hopefully it won't be another 4 months!!

Diabetes

So I have on occasion talked about my diabetes on here. Today I spent some time on dLife, a website that is devoted to diabetes and everything that comes along with it and one of the articles that I read was a humorous one about the diabetes-slang that has come to be. One was particularly funny to me so... here it is:

Regan-Rage – Term comes from the little girl in The Exorcist. Describes the behavior some people with diabetes exhibit when having a low bloodsugar. Regan-rage behaviors include swearing, screaming, spitting of juice, and stretching body parts in unnatural ways.

*Does not include levitating. If your diabetic friend/partner/child should levitate, it is probably not caused by low bloodsugar.

7th grade relationships

So... my oldest is in 7th grade now and there is a nice young girl who seems to be interested in him. She is sweet and I know that it is only a matter of time before he realizes that maybe he would like to be more than "just friends" with a girl. So today I asked him about it. He said that they were just friends and that wasn't going to change because "7th grade relationships last about 2 weeks." So, he wants to keep his friendship with her. That is good. I tell him that is a wise choice. But does that mean that he really likes her and doesn't want to mess things up? Or does it mean that he still just isn't ready for that type of relationship? Or does it mean something completely different? Who knows. I just hope that when he does start having "relationships" he tells me. If he's 20 and as far as I know still hasn't had a girlfriend... I'll know I've been duped.

Friendship

I have had the opportunity to see so many of my friends this weekend! On Friday night I got to go to Julie's house and hang out with her and Carolyn during Kaylin's birthday party. Later, Mike (Julie's husband) got home and then later than that, Chris came over and we got to sit around laughing for a while.
Saturday afternoon we got to see Andy briefly, Thomas stayed over for the afternoon while Peggy and Jim with Jeremy, Michael and Katie, and Kelly Lewis with Nathan, Issac, and Joseph all came over for lunch and conversation.
Saturday night we went to dinner with Paula, Teri Sue, Jason, Linda, Chad, Amy, Jeff, Annetta and Barnabas... oh, and we met Corey too. We had a very spendy, but very fun night, not to mention finding a new drink. It was called a Flirtini and had Raspberries which had been marinating in vodka. Very Yummy!
On Sunday I got to go to a Baby Shower for Tina, who I haven't seen for months. There were several friends who were there, a few of whom I haven't seen in years. It was really nice.

So, to all of my friends, I LOVE YOU! And while I don't get to see all of you as often as I wish, I do think of you often. It was great getting to see you this weekend!

Long time!

Wow... what a long winter this has been! The longest sick season my family has ever had. I can't wait for summer. I can't wait until all of the kids are healthy. I can't wait to sit by the pool in the heat and the sun watching my kids play.

What I don't understand is why everyone in my family was so sick. Especially Matrim has been sick. He actually got Whooping Cough and now Pertussis. What I forgot to ask the Dr. about is how Matrim got Whooping Cough in the first place. I know that Pertussis is included in the immunizations that are given to little ones.

There are a lot of theories that immunizations have something to do with the increase in Autism. Matrim did have a bad reaction to one of his immunizations. And he has been labeled with Asbergers by the school system. We have not pursued a medical diagnosis because we have not seen a reason to. But now that he has been sick with something that he was supposed to be immunized for the questions of what has happened with him race through my mind. I am sad that he has been ill and that perhaps there is something that I should have done differently.

I know that I have always done what I thought was best at the time, and there is no way to go back and change decisions that we have made. I will not allow myself to beat myself up for the unknown of what-ifs. But is there something that I can do to help others make a more informed decision? I do believe that immunizations are good. My understanding is that without them children would have more illnesses and shorter lives. But why do I believe that? And does that mean that something doesn't need to be changed?

Lots to ponder...

WWJD

So a while back I made the decision to ask myself "What Would Jesus Do?" before doing anything. Mostly this was brought on by reading the book In His Steps. I have forgotten about that recently. I don't know what I may have done differently over the last month if I had been remembering to ask myself that question regularly, but I want to get back to it. I think that one area where I really want to focus on God's direction is in my spending habits. I don't think I spend money wisely. I know that is a hard area for many people; it has certainly been an area of struggle for me. But perhaps, if I approach it from the perspective of "What does God want me to do with my money?" I will do better.

Spring Break!

Well, Teri Sue got married on Monday! Yeah!
And I got through the school activities this week!
And now it is Spring Break! Yeah!

I'm hoping to find some fun things to do with the kids. Swimming and rock climbing for sure. Haven't figured out what else yet. Chris is gone for part of the week in New Orleans... poor Chris. And then I'm leaving for a Chicago-area Women's Conference! I'm so excited! Lots of the women from church are going and we'll get to spend a lot of time in the van together.

We get to have a few friends over on Sunday for Easter. I'm excited about that too. It will be the first Easter that we haven't spent with my parents in as long as I can remember! They planned a trip to California, not realizing that it had them gone over Easter.

I hope that you all have a great Easter and have had or will have a great spring break!