Getting The Church Christmas-Ready!

It's time to get our church ready for the Advent/Christmas season, so everyone was invited to stay afterwards and get the decorations out.  Not too many stayed, but we got a lot of it knocked in a short period of time.  We (our family) left before it was finished, mostly because Noah was low and I was tired - I'm still fighting this bronchitis.  We stayed for about an hour though and it was nearly complete, so I felt like we did our part. :-)

Pete and I worked on putting together the children's tree (picture not shown) out in the foyer, while everyone else helped in the sanctuary.  Even the kids got involved, which made me happy.   Noah helped hang the greenery in the choir loft and Madie worked on the other christmas tree.

Livie eventually helped, but not until after she took a few leaps off the pulpit platform!

They all got the tree in sanctuary up and decorated in no time flat!  Once they were done with that tree, all the kids came and decorated the children's tree that Pete and I were working on.  It's a flocked tree, so there is fake snow on it, which makes a HUGE mess!  But, Pete and I were the only ones that got flocked.

While I finished putting lights on the tree, Pete went to help get the sash on the cross.  Isn't James a riot?!

Way to hold the garland, Noah!

Madie and Caleb were showing off their awesome tree-decorating skills here. :-)

Livie put together not one, but TWO nativity sets.  She was quite proud of herself.  She did this one in the sanctuary and another outside the church office.  She can't wait to start decorating around here next weekend.

Everyone did a great job getting everything looking pretty for Christmas.  My favorite time is when they light up everything on Christmas Eve.  The lights are dim and the pews are packed.  Last year I couldn't get into the Christmas spirit, but I'm happy to say that THIS year, I'm already there!

Operation Christmas Child

Back on November 10th, we had our Operation Christmas Child event, when our Sunday School kids, as well as several other members of the church, brought in their shoeboxes.

They were all really excited to bring in their boxes!  I have to go through each of them to make sure they have the right things in them and they all brought in really great stuff.  Any kid that gets one of these boxes will be more than thrilled.  So fun to see what each person/child picks out to put in their box. :-)

Last year, when we had our collection day, we took the kids down the block to the coffee house.  They loved it last year so much that we decided to do it again this year!  It was a little colder this year, but at least the sun was out.

They each got a "warm" chocolate or chocolate milk and some cookies to eat.  Livie was using the straw like a snorkle. ;-)

The place was pretty busy for a Sunday morning, so I'm sure the customers there were a little surprised to see us walk in with nearly 20 people!

Here's our awesome crew!  Another successful year of collecting shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child!

This was the total collected that Sunday morning - 66.  By the time we took the boxes over today, we had 75.  Woo-Hoo!

Pete, my trusty sidekick, came to the church after I got done with class and helped me load up the van with all 75 boxes.

We drove them over to the collection center in town.  While I signed in and got the money to them, Pete started carrying them inside.

The hallways were lined with boxes.  They had collected over 600 boxes that week.

Bringing in our 75 brought them up to 700!  They had hoped to collect 500 and were blown away by the totals.  Isn't that awesome?

Pete took this picture so you could get a taste of how tall some of piles were.  You just have to imagine I'm 7' tall here, so that it looks even more impressive. ;-)  We got the shoeboxes delivered and sometime in the coming month(s), they will be put into the hands of a needy child, somewhere in a foreign country and hopefully not only make their year, but introduce them to Jesus and His saving grace.  It's a good thing.

What We've Been Up To

Check out my calendar....

You'll notice that I'm running out of spaces on my days!  It has been one of the busiest months I think I've ever had.  Probably didn't help that I had a nasty cold that week that kept me laying in bed for 2 days.  I actually had to call in sick and not teach my 2s!  That's the first time that's happened since I started teaching 3 yrs ago.  We've had games and more games, and teaching, and church, and doctor's appts, and babysitting, and more.  It's fun, but I'm really ready for a day to relax.  Hopefully I'll get one of those by, oh, February 2031? ;-)  Anyway, my postings have become so infrequent, because I don't have a lot of time and when I do, I'm too tired to blog.  But, I wanted to catch you up on what we've been doing this past week and a half.

We got to see Madie cheer as a 7th grader!  All of her games this year, but this one, have been away.  I'm assuming, because our big gym is still under construction.  We only have the multi-purpose room and the 5th-6th grade boys have been using it a lot for their games, so the 7th-8th graders have been finding other schools to play their games.  It was fun to watch her cheer again. She loves it so much!

She's really good at it too.  She's one of the smallest, probably THE smallest actually, so whenever they do pyramids and stuff, she gets to be on the top.  I haven't gotten to see her do that yet, but I'm hoping I will before the end of the season. :-)

We were all there to support her, just like we are for Noah's games.  Noah wasn't in this picture, because he was busy laying on the bleachers, reading a book.  We love being there to watch our kids.

Again, because of the one gym, everyone has to find their time to play or practice.  The 7th-8th grade girls basketball team has been practicing after the games, so Madie gets to see her friends a lot.  She had to pose with them before they started.  Fun!

We've continued to watch Noah's games and I absolutely love watching him play.  He seems to really have fun out there and is a good defensive player.  He's gotten some rebounds and got a hold of the ball last night for a jump ball, which was exciting for this mom!  He's at an away game tonight, so he's definitely staying busy.

Livie is busy with dance.  She's going to be in The Nutcracker in December, so we finally picked out her dress.  It's cream and gold and beautiful!!  Of course, she came home last week and told me that they told her she wasn't allowed to wear a white dress.  I said, "Well, guess what?  It's cream and gold and that will have to do!".  I'm not going dress shopping again after finding the one she and I both loved.  So, I'm excited to see her perform next month.

Noah had an appt today in Peoria, so we were gone all day today.  It's a 2 hr drive there and back, so for a 90 min appt, we're gone for nearly 6 hours (when you include a lunch stop).  We've made so many of those trips lately for the pump, that it's become quite a task, but it's important, so we do it.  We have some insurance crap to wade through, unfortunately, but the doctor is very happy with how things are going, so for that we are thankful.  His doctor moved to CA last month, so his new doctor is the doctor we met when he was diagnosed.  He's super-funny and very nice, so Noah's really glad to have him.

I think that's most of what we've been up to.  No rest for this family anytime soon, especially with Thanksgiving coming up next week.  When am I going to find time to bake pies in all this craziness?!!  Guess I could put all the kids I watch and my own (for a total of 7!) to work and get them to bake my pies after school one day, right?  Yeah.  Probably not.

Art Party

I had the super-fun opportunity to try something new last night.  My friend, Laura, was celebrating her 39th birthday (she's only 2 weeks older than I am!) with painting party!  For only $30, we got our canvas and all the supplies.  A lot of the girls drank wine, but I brought some water for me.  There were snacks and lots of laughter too.

We all had our own space with our canvas and the picture Laura picked for us to paint.  It's an owl.  The instructor walked us through each step.

But, not before we got a group shot. :-)  I only know Laura well, but this is a small town, so I recognized and have talked to a few of the other gals as well.  One of them is the parent in my 2s class. :-)

First thing we had to do was draw our owl.   Then we began painting.  I'm not a painter AT ALL.  And, it is quite humbling when you consider yourself to have a slight artistic ability to see the AMAZING artists around you!  I happened to be sitting by 2 of the best last night.

My kids seem to think it turned out ok.  They are generous, but this was my finished product.  Let's just say it won't be displayed openly in my house.  But, I had a great time and that made this embarrassing display worth it!  Now that I know this is here in our area now, I hope to take advantage of other opportunities for craft/art stuff.  They are having a Mother/Daughter Fancy Nancy event in December and Livie and I can't wait to go to that!

Here is the birthday girl and me.  I love this lady!  She's an amazing friend and our families love each other to pieces.  She was kind enough to bend over for me in this picture.  She's as tall as Pete, so she always likes to lean over for me. :-)  Anyway, it was a really, really fun night and was so glad to be invited!

The Sports Begin!

Once again I am behind.  I think, given the last several months of posts have been written days after the actual event, you all should just plan on everything being late from now on.  Getting the chance to sit down during the day is hard to do and by the end of the day I don't WANT to sit down.  But, anyway, here I am and here is the latest news from our household.

On Tuesday, both Madie and Noah began their respective sports - Noah in basketball and Madie in cheerleading.  They were both very excited - though, I do believe Noah was the most excited of the two.  This is first year playing.  He couldn't wait!  Madie's got this thing covered, since it is her second year.  She had an away game, so we didn't get to go to that one, but Noah's was home, so we did!

Noah didn't play much during the first game, but played more during the second one on Wed.  That's when I took the above picture.  Honestly, he said he doesn't care how much he plays.  He's just having fun and loves being a part of the team and cheering them on.  They lost on Wednesday night, but Tuesday's game (their first game) was THRILLING!!  They were down 7-6 with just seconds on the clock.  The other team had the ball and the coach yelled at them to dribble it slowly to run the clock down.  The kid did until the last 7 or so seconds, when he decided to make a mad dash towards the basket.  Logan, a boy on our team, stole the ball and with just 3 seconds left on the clock, made a lay-up and we won, 8-7!!  We all went crazy and the boys on the bench all jumped and went wild.  It was so awesome and the best way to win their very first game!!

Madie said she had a great time at her game too, but the boys lost both of their games.  But, hey, as long as she has fun, then that's all that matters.  Looking forward to her first home game next week, so I can see her cheer. :-)  Our lives are even more busy than ever, but I love every minute of it!

Packing Our Shoeboxes

We are gearing up for another awesome Operation Christmas Child Event at our church!!  We've been doing this for 4 (?) years now and love it.  It's something I know I look forward to every year and I know the kids love it too, because, if they had their way, we'd pack 20 boxes just ourselves! :-)

Last week we passed out the shoeboxes to people in our church (and a few friends as well) and this week, during Sunday School, the kids made letters to put in their boxes.  I took pictures of them last week and this week to add to their letters as well.  It'll be a fun addition to their boxes.  Next week we collect them and go on our field trip to Jeremiah Joe's coffee shop for cookies and hot cocoa.

We had only bought a couple things for our boxes last weekend, so we went to the Dollar Store and picked up several more things.  Each kid wanted to do their own box and I decided to do my own as well.

Here are our 4 boxes - stuffed to the max!  Madie made a box for a 10-14 yr old girl.  Noah made his for a 10-14 yr old boy.  Livie's is for a 2-4 yr old boy and I made mine for a 5-9 yr old girl.

The only problem with that was.... we bought too much stuff!  We have enough stuff to pack another box for a boy, so we're going to grab another OCC box and fill it for a 5-9 yr old boy.  It's hard NOT to buy things when you know it's going to a child that really deserves all the happiness that a shoebox can bring. 

Frustrations

I was going to post this on FB, and actually I did.....for about 4 minutes.  I deleted it, because I'm always afraid that I post too much about diabetes.  I don't want other people to grow tired of hearing our struggles/triumphs.  So, I thought I'd post about it here.  This is my private blog.  People only see it if they choose too, unlike FB where it pops up on their screen whether they like it or not.  Here is what I posted:

Prepare for a lengthy rant here....We got a letter today from our insurance company, letting us know that they will no longer cover the cost of Noah's Novolog (insulin). They want us to go on a different insulin instead. My problem with this is, and trust me, it's been building up for nearly 3 yrs now, our choices in how we treat are son keep getting taken away from us. The insurance company dictates what they will cover for his care. When it was time for a pump, they refused to cover anything but the one we have. They've told us how much insulin we're allowed to have and the frequency in which we get it - and this includes supplies for his treatment as well. This isn't something we take for free. We pay for our insurance, every single month, and yet we aren't given choices in his treatment. This isn't an unnecessary drug. This is a LIFE-SAVING drug. These are LIFE-SAVING instruments for him. Without these things, he would lose his life. Why aren't we given the choice on the things we need to treat him?! I'm sure this switch to Humalog will be fine, but it's just one more example, to me, of how the insurance company makes the decisions and not us. I don't want to offend anyone with this rant. This is just coming from a mom that deals with her son's health every single day - every single meal - during every activity, bedtime, and sickness - and, I get weary of constant change and roadblocks in this journey.


The reason that a small change like this upsets me has everything to do with choice and stability.  With diabetes there is no stability.  I can't remember a day that was perfect.  A day when no adjustments had to be made.  Diabetes is all about change.  It's about making adjustments all the time, due to activity, sickness, meals, etc...  It was nice to have a constant in our insulin.  It was nice to know that Novolog was our choice and our drug.  But, no.  Now that's changing too and not because that's what WE want.  It's another thing that is taken out of our hands.  I am a Type A personality.  I like being in control.  And, with Type 1, there is no control.  In fact, diabetes likes to remind you that IT is in control and you're just there to manage it.  That sucks!!  So, not only do I not have control of this disease, I have no real control of its care.  My choices are made for me and that is why I got so angry at today's letter.

I decided to take this off my FB wall, so that only those of you who read my blog and want to read my rant can.  If you choose not too, that's ok too.  I consider this blog a diary of sorts.  I post about every day things and sometimes very personal struggles.  It's cathartic for me to put it down on paper, so to speak. If writing it down and letting it out will help my spirits rebound and get back on track in this fight (and, yes, sometimes that's exactly what it is - a fight!), then that's what I'll do.

Happy Halloween

Well, yesterday was Halloweeen - a jam-packed day of busyness.  It was a fun day, just rainy and crumby out, so it wasn't as awesome as it's been in previous years and, I think I can admit this, as my kids get older, my excitement about Halloween is waning.  Be that as it may, the kids were almost as excited yesterday morning as they are on Christmas morning!  Guess the promise of candy will do that to a kid.

Noah had basketball practice, so he wasn't home for the group picture I took before I took the kids to school, but the other 4 sillyheads were and they couldn't wait for the day to start!

That morning I had preschool with our 3s and we got to have our Halloween Parade - indoors, of course, because of that blasted rain!  Mrs. Johnson, my lead, was a parrot to my pirate. :-)

How cute are those kids, by the way?  So, so cute!  Again, I have the best job!

After preschool was done, I headed home just long enough to stuff myself with lunch and head out the door for the class parties.  I helped in Noah's classroom.  He and his friend Nick were cracking me up in this picture.  Just peeking over the bookcase in this one. :-)

Noah was a stick figure and posed with his friends, Jonathan, Nick and Keeden.   What fun kids!

This was perhaps the best class party I've ever been to in all my years of class parties.  They played "Minute to Win It" games and had the best time!  Here they had to suck on a straw and lift M&Ms, one at a time, into the next cup.

This one was my favorite, because watching them try and move an oreo down their face and catch it in their mouth, without using hands, was hilarious!  Only one girl actually did it.  There was about 10 games to play and the kids had so much fun!

I headed down to Livie's classroom around 2:30 to see what she was up to.  They were in the process of wrapping up their friends like mummies.  Cute!

Livie was Darth Vadar in a man-tu, not to be confused with a tutu, which she tells me is only for girls.  A "Mantu" is for boys.

I love getting pictures of the kids with their friends, so I had Livie grab her friend Julianna and get their picture taken. :-)

The rain, miraculously, went away just in time for trick-or-treating.  So, we quickly got ready and got out candy on!

Once again we ran into some friends.  These are the boys I babysit (the ones in the first picture).  They looked awesome!

Later we ran into the other boys I babysit, our friends James' and Donna's boys.  We ended up going home after we went around the block and loaded up into the van to hit other houses, because the rain started coming back.  We had James and the boys join us, while Pete passed out candy at our house and Donna at theirs.

We went to several houses together, before ending our night at the "Grim Reaper" house, as Livie put it.  The kids pass this house every day on the way to school and just HAD to go here!  It was so much fun too!  The guy on the left, dressed up like Jason, had a real chainsaw (without the chain) and revved it up and chased the kids.  It was awesome!  The kids got a huge kick out of it!

Livie and Noah wanted a picture by the giant, inflatable grim reaper.

Madie wanted one by the werewolf, while Tobias shot it. ;-)

When they got home, they dumped out all of their candy, picked out their favorite pieces, put them into labeled bags, and sent the rest with Pete to work this morning.  Yet another fun Halloween for these kiddos!