Our 2009 Beat the Bridge Video - enjoy!

My sweet kids (and a couple new pictures)

While I was getting Sain and Aidan ready for bed this evening we were discussing what they would do if they found a leprechaun's pot o'gold. Aidan would buy lots of lego and Sain could go on a shopping spree at Justice -- you could see the dreaming in their eyes.

As is usually the case, after I close Aidan's door and get Sain in her bed, Sain goes in one last time to give Aidan a hug. Usually I am out in the living room by this point in our night time ritual but I hadn't made it that far this today. Here is what I heard:

Aidan: "Sain, what will we really do when we find the pot o'gold?"
Sain: "I think we should buy something for mom. She never buys herself anything."
Aidan: "Let's get her Leafs tickets."
Sain: "Good idea -- we'll look for the gold tomorrow before school. I think it's by the 4th grade portables."

As much as they drive me crazy at times, I wouldn't trade Sain or Aidan for anything!

(Sain at the master Lego event a few weekends ago)

(Aidan and Grandpa at the master Lego event)

(Aidan and Xavier at the St. Patrick's Day prayer service)

St. Patrick's Day

We've spent much of the evening preparing for St. Patrick's Day. The kindergarten kids put on the school prayer service and Aidan has a speaking part. This is bitter sweet -- I am happy for him and extremely proud but, having just started a new job, I can't get the morning off so I won't get to see my big guy say, "May God always teach us." Aidan could tell this made me sad so tonight he performed the entire prayer service for me, songs and all. It was cute. (Grandma, Grandpa and Dogdog will be there so Aidan won't be alone. And, of course, Sain will be there, too.)

We also made Aidan's leprechaun trap for school his evening. Aidan thought we should just bring a Guinness to school and open it once we get there, "No leprechaun can resist an open Guinness." I tried to convince him that Sister Linda wouldn't really approve of an open Guinness at school and in true little Irish boy fashion he shot back, "Oh Mommy, it's not beer, it's Guinness. Sister Linda will understand because I'm Irish." If any kid could get away with it Aidan would but I'm not willing to take that chance. We settled on a pretty good trap made of a small garbage can (shaped like a cat) whose lid (mouth) closes when the leprechaun climbs in to get the fake gold we put in it. Aidan and I have a deal -- he gets to keep the leprechaun and I get the pot of gold.

Sain is busy making St. Patrick's Day cards for her friends. I know she should be in bed right now but the cards are so cute. Her numbers have been really good of late -- I think I've only had a handful of calls from the school nurse this month. The calm times scare me because I can't shake the feeling something is waiting around the corner. Oh well, I will try to relax and enjoy the even numbers.

Have a great St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Friday

The kids come to my office at the end of the day on Tuesday and Thursday so I can take them straight to karate. Sain left this note on my whiteboard -- it is really brightening my day!

Happy Friday!

Today is a special day...

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Some Pictures (and a few words)

I realise I've been a bit lazy about posting. It's been an exhausting time between getting laid off, getting a new job, and fighting insurance battles all while trying to keep some sense of normalcy for the kids. Slowly things are starting to feel normal again (or at least as normal as life in our family gets.) Here's a bit of the last couple weeks complete with pictures:

One of the best parts of not working for a couple weeks was getting to pick the kids up from school. We often went to the park after school to play for an hour or so. The above picture shows that Sain is much like her mom and likes to read under the trees by the beach.

Another highlight of my time off was getting to take the kids to all their karate classes. The picture of Aidan is taken before class and he's holding Honey the KA mascot. More on Honey below.

Of late I've been catching glimpses of Sain out of the corner of my eye and I think it has to be someone else. She's really growing up! It's amazing to think that only a couple years ago she was the little girl in pig tails and ruby slippers learning to test her own BG. Now she's a mature pre-teen whose grasp of her disease impresses even the toughest endocrinologist.

Every weekend one of the kids in Miss Rassilyer's KA class gets to take Honey home. Aidan's weekend was in February. We took Honey to karate, to a diabetes support group meeting, to mass, to Denny's for dessert and to grandma and grandpa's house. This picture is on Friday night when we were at JoAnn's getting supplies to make Honey's gi. (You can see the gi in the picture of Honey and Aidan at karate -- if you look closesly, you can see that I even added patches like the ones on Aidan's gi. I have no idea where my kids get their perfectionism from :) )

My fight for coverage (the coverage I have an autorisation code for!) for Sain's CGM continues and, despite my last post, I will fight for them. Sain had a complete eye check with retinal pictures and endo check up last week and is doing great. I plan to keep it that way and the CGM is an important part of our life. Her A1C was 7.1 which is amazing considering she's been to the ER 3 times in 3 months with dangerously high blood sugar. (She's been sick all winter -- I swear the flu shot this year did nothing!) Besides, if Sain didn't get sensors, what would Aidan's lego men use for jet packs? (see picture above... Sain absolutely hates it when Aidan and I do this with her old sensors but what else would I do with them?)