Spirit Week

Well, I shouldn’t make promises (or goals, really), but my hope is that I try to blog once a week … assuming there is something to say… instead of piling up lots of blogs at once.  Who knows how long this will last, but here’s to a fresh start! 

This was Kindness Week at school, aka a week for kids to dress up and have fun together.  I always participate as a teacher; I think it is an easy way to be “fun” with the kids.  Since both Madison and Ellie were up in the middle school with me, we left at the same time.  We got pictures two of the five days.  Monday was pajama day.  Pretty much everyone’s favorite day.  Tuesday was Decades Day.  I went with the 90s.  Madison did the 50s.  Ellie was an 80s/90s girl. 

Wednesday was Wacky Day.  This is one of my favorites because it is so easy to do.  Pretty much wear any combo of clothes and you got it.  The girls had fun going all out for it, too.

My friend, Christi, is working at the school now, so we grabbed a picture together on Wacky Day, too.

Thursday was Superhero Day.  This was a tough one.  I borrowed a shirt from Sandy with a small Wonder Woman logo on it.  Ellie found a Spiderman shirt.  Madison wore a cape.  Friday was Jersey Day.  I supported the Columbus Blue Jackets. Madison went with her volleyball team.  Ellie backed up the Guardians.  (We didn’t get a picture.)

On Thursday, the 7th and 8th grade choir sang the National Anthem at the 8th grade football game.  Madison is somewhere in this picture…

We finally hung little fairy lights in Madison’s reading nook.  She loves this spot in her room. 

On Friday night, we went to watch the University of Akron take on Ohio University in women’s volleyball.  It was a fun game to watch.  It gave Madison and Ellie good perspective on what volleyball eventually looks like.  It would be fun to do this next year with a bigger group of volleyball girls. 

    

Madison, Volleyball 2022

Well, the 7th grade volleyball season has come to an end.  It was a good – no GREAT – season.  There were 17 girls on the team.  They had a new coach (Coach P).  And they grew so much! 

It was incredible to watch how the season started to how the season ended.  We were bumping the ball over the net on pass one almost every time at the beginning of the season.  In the middle we were aiming for three hits on our side.  By the end, we were seeing some pass, set, and hit!  They got better with their serves.  Some that started off with not being able to get an underhand over advanced to overhands.  And some became a steady force with the consistency of their serve (over or underhand). 

The coach did a great job letting them try what they were comfortable with and building their self-confidence.  Her strategy for creating teams – two evenly skilled teams – led to players feeling worth no matter if they played in the first set or second set.  It was so good for them.  We did not have a winning record (7 wins, 9 loses… I think).  But as a parent, I didn’t care.  The girls grew, felt needed, and supported each other as a team. 

I was too busy cheering to take as many pictures as I would have hoped to.  But here are a few from game time:

         

The girls were introduced at a varsity volleyball game, which I think was pretty cool.

On the morning of their tournament (which was held at Dalton!), they had a team breakfast.  We hosted. 

Other parents contributed food which made it easy.  Doughnuts, muffins, breakfast casserole, hash browns, cereal, yogurt, fruit, orange juice, apple juice, milk – it was quite the spread!  It was so fun to have all of them in the basement. To hear their laughter.  To listen to the calm as they shared words of encouragement to each other and/or the coach. To know they were building positive experiences together with each other. 

Then, they were off to play.  They first match was against Norwayne (#5 seed); we were #4 seed.  They had beat Norwayne both times this season, but the second time took three games.  It was their best game of the season!  Or maybe it just felt like that when they won in 2!!  Madison was the “lucky” one to serve the final 5 points.  She did a great job under pressure and got them all over. 

From that match, we moved from the middle school gym to the high school to take on Smithville (#1 seed).  We had lost both rounds with them this season.  They were good, but we had given them a run for it the second time we had played.  Unfortunately, we were not at our best for this one.  It was a hard loss for that reason – and because it was the last game of the season.  The girls were pretty sad at the end. 

    

Coached livened things up when she went outside to follow up on a promise she had made – she would color her hair orange if they won the first round (color half black if they won the second round, and have water dumped on her if they won it all). 

Her consistency in serving has been a highlight this season.  She has also shown a lot of growth on getting to the ball and pushing the ball to the setter.  Her attitude and enthusiasm never waned.  She was so fun to watch.  We are so proud of her grit and determination throughout the season.  I’ll end with the note coach gave her at the end of the season.

Pepper Turns 4

October 8, 2022

Somehow, it was decided that it was important we go all out for Pepper’s 4th birthday.  Ellie, Ellie (neighbor), and Madison worked on decorations during the day.  Ellie baked him his own special treats.  We had a photo session.  I made apple crisp and homemade ice cream.  Grandpa even came over for the party.

Happy birthday, Pepper!

    

Diabetes Update: Insulin Pump

September 12, 2022

Well, it took a couple “Yes, I do” and “No, I don’t” cycles, but Ellie decided that she wanted to have an insulin pump to manage her diabetes differently.  About 8 months ago, we inquired about a Omnipod as her choice of pumps.  This pump has all the insulin in the pump, looks similar to her Dexcom, and has no tubing.  But then, she decided that she wasn’t really interested in that for two reasons: 1) you had to change it every 3 days and that felt overwhelming, and 2) it had an automatic injector to attach it each time; the surprise that came with that was not appealing. 

So, we backed off.

Then, she started thinking about getting a Tandem T-Slim with Control IQ.  This pump is housed in a unit that looks kind of like a pager with tubing connecting it to the infusion site.  My cousins have this style of pump.  When they came to visit at the end of July, Ellie was able to watch Kristin change the pump.  She was all in after that.  We filled out paperwork, called the Tandem rep, and started the process.  It happened much quicker than we expected!  (For once, insurance was a smooth and speedy process.) 

On fair day, September 12, 2022, we took our supplies that had been shipped and headed up to Akron Children’s in Akron for our training session.  We had prepped for the day by watching the videos that they suggested so that the terms and info was at least a little familiar.  The training was about 2 hours.  It was a lot.

Then, Ellie had to put on the infusion set.  She picked the Tru-Steel infusion set (also because there are no auto-injectors).  This set is a small steel needle that she just inserts into herself.  The tubing then runs from there to her pump which she fills with insulin every two days. 

The first two nights were not fun – low lows at night multiple times!  It was exhausting and I hated the experience.  However, the daytime was amazing.  Walking around the fair and eating foods just required punching in some numbers.  There was no finding a good space for pulling out the insulin pen, attaching the needle, doing the math, logging it in, etc.  It was simple and speedy. 

We still have to know the carbs, but the calculations are done on the pump.  With the Control-IQ feature, the pump is supposed to help make decisions about how much insulin you might need.  if you have insulin on board that your body hasn’t yet used, it tells you how much.  If it sees you are going high, it starts giving you more insulin.  If it sees you are going low, it slows or stops your insulin.  We are still in an adjustment period where the doctors are tweaking dosages to help her be more consistent.  But we watched her A1C fall from 8.2 to 6.7 in the first few weeks of using it.  Pretty cool. 

It is still a lot to change it every two days.  The first few changes we used our manual and went step-by-step.  It would take about 30-45 minutes.  Now, we are all pretty confident about the steps, and typically it takes about 15 minutes.  There are still glitches sometimes.  And we still need to work on changing the infusion site to different locations.  Probably the roughest three days are when we have a pump change one day followed by a Dexcom change the next and another pump change the third. 

But Ellie is a trooper.  She has a lot of confidence in her skills to manage her diabetes, but she still is good about asking us questions and trying to figure things out.  She has a good attitude (most of the time) dealing with all the added responsibility and equipment she has to have. 

While life would still be easier without diabetes, she has done a tremendous job accepting this is who she is and not being ashamed of any of it.  It is absolutely amazing.  And we couldn’t be prouder of her. 

All the Random Things…

Sometimes things don’t fit under a neat, tidy heading.  This is one of the times that is true.  I have a variety of pictures from multiple random things, but I just want to highlight some of what goes on; so here it is.

Salsa Sizzle – A CAMO fundraiser.  Gloria asked if Jeremy and I wanted to go the fundraiser for CAMO with her and about 5 other people.  We decided it would be a good way to support CAMO and give us a semi-date night.  You were supposed to dress in festive attire.  I managed to snag a fun top at MCC in about a 5 minute dash in.  (Jeremy also snagged a pretty nice desk for his office!)  We had a fun night. We even bid on the silent auction item my mom had helped with – crusty bread with a Dutch oven to cook it in.  We decided next year we should come with the big bucks and try to snag a vacation! 

    

The girls were busy one weekend with the neighbors creating an incredibly long hopscotch game.  It was probably 200 squares long.  It stretched from our house, down the sidewalk, and up the Combs’s drive.  I did it once, and it was exhausting.  The rain came and washed off their efforts by the next morning, but it was fun while it lasted.

    

Other fun with friends while working the concession stand at Madison’s game…

    

With the colder weather moving in, it was time to look at getting some fall/winter clothes.  So, we took our seasonal trip to get clothes.  They both do so well trying things on and enjoying the process.  I hope that continues.  It is fun to see what deals we can find.  This time, we found a few sweatshirts to take downtown to turn into spirit wear with designs from the Big Red Barn.  We topped off the night with a trip to Panda Express.

Ellie learned that mowing lawn is satisfying when mowing for Grandma and Grandpa.  She loves it!  Hope that feeling lasts as she gets older, and she will mow our yard with such enthusiasm!

The girls have been playing volleyball outside quite a bit, just passing it in the driveway.  I am glad they have each other for that.  I love playing, but I’m not always up for a passing session or I have something else I want to get done (aka this blog… they are outside passing right now).  During one session, Madison hit Ellie in the face and broke her glasses right at the nosepiece junction.  They were ruined.  We debated what to do and finally decided that we would order the same frame online and just put the lenses in which were fine.  However, our dog had other plans.  Somehow, he grabbed them off the counter and mauled them.  I was not happy.  The only good thing is that Madison’s old glasses seem to be working for Ellie right now, so she is holding off til her November appointment for a new pair and maybe a new prescription. 

Ellie had a chance to be involved with the Dalton Volleyball Skills nights.  This replaced the Orrville volleyball league she was in last year.  While it didn’t have the intensity of games every week (which would have been the same nights as Madison’s games), she did improve her skills.  There were two game nights at the end of the six week session that we got to watch. 

         

Finally, both girls got to sing before sporting events.  Ellie sang before high school football game.  Madison sang before one of her volleyball games.  You can’t even really see them in these pics, but they are there!

    

We spent a little time moving things around in the house this month and last.  After Jeremy bought his desk (Salsa Sizzle night), he decided he may like to have his office in the basement.  He was finding there were a lot of distractions upstairs – us coming in and out, the dog barking at random things, an office off a bedroom (tempting nap times!!), etc.  So, we worked on making space in our storage room by moving the toy shelves upstairs in hopes the girls would play with things more and to give him more space.  It was a project!  We sorted through, threw away, donated, and reorganized all of the toys. 

I think we were happy with the results in the end.  Now the office is my office/Pepper’s pen/toys; it is very spacious.  His office is quieter and very remote – a workout just to communicate with him! 

    

We had Madison’s team breakfast here (see future post about volleyball).  When we moved things around, we decided we should just rearrange anyway.  It gives a much more open space and also looks less mumbo jumbo (although it will be nice to one day have some more coordinated furniture!).