Diabetic Memories

Remember the time I was diagnosed with diabetes and when I was in the hospital my current boyfriend broke up with me?

Remember how the next date I was asked on cancelled because he "didn't think he could handle being with a diabetic?"

Remember when I went out with a boy (who would later become my husband) and he asked why I couldn't just lose weight and exercise to get rid of my diabetes?

Remember all of the times people stared when I got undressed in the dressingroom and they saw the black bruises all over my stomach?

Remember the time a lady stormed out of an ice cream parlor with her children when she saw me give myself an insulin injection?

Remember the two times I ended up in the emergency room because I accidentally gave the wrong kind of insulin?

Remember how I drop thousands of dollars every year on medical supplies (after insurance)?

Remember how I am at high risk for miscarriage, amputations, blindness etc?

Remember all of the needles, medicine, doctors visits, sleepless nights and sick days I have had in the past 5 years?

You don't remember those things?  Do you remember the time you saw a meme like this on FB and laughed or clicked "like"?  

I sure remember those posts. 

I do not have diabetes because I am fat. Sugar did not give me diabetes. I cannot fix myself by losing weight. I am diabetic because my pancreas is broken. 

  

Remember that before you hit "like" next time

Merry Christmas from The Blairs

The Blairs in 2013

This year has been full of excitement for us!  Here is a little update on each member of the family.

*John: After working for Thermo Fisher Scientific for 3 years, John decided to take a leap of faith and change his career path. He teamed up with his dad to run a cloud services company called AirDesk Solutions. He is very motivated and loves his job (especially since he can work in his pj's).  John has also taken up a new hobby: beard growing.  He is quite talented at it, and now feels like he fits in very well with the Israelsen side of Olivia's family.

*Olivia: This year has brought new career opportunities for Olivia as well. She was hired to teach 2nd grade at Woodruff Elementary and is loving it!  She has an awesome class of 20 students that keep her exhausted 5 days a week!  She hopes that someday she will be able to adopt a hobby other than napping, but in the meantime, she will enjoy any bit of shut-eye she can get!

*Izzy: Our little Izzy still has us wrapped around her little paws. This year she had a scary experience, having 5 abscessed teeth extracted at the vet. She was very brave. She has also become more sociable and has been able to accompany her family on numerous trips to strange places such as Grandma and Grandpa Blair's house. We are so proud of her and the wonderful example she is to her little sister, Luna. We can always count on her to grab some Kleenex out of the trashcan and bring it to the door to greet us when we get home!

*Luna: Luna celebrated her 2nd birthday this year and is becoming quite the little dictator. She loves her sister and constantly tries to give her kisses. However, she also has to be the center of attention and will go to great lengths to have all eyes on her. She is continually astonishing us with her amazing athletic abilities, especially her vertical jumping skills. She had her first haircut this year and seemed to like being pampered. She was also thrilled to make a new BFF in her new cousin Milo. Some of her favorite things to do include licking his face, sitting on his tummy and sitting on his face.

We are so blessed to have a warm home, plenty of food and Comcast. Happy Holidays!!

Love, John, Olivia, Isabel and Luna May


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Halloween

Halloween is a little more fun and a LOT more tiring when you are a teacher. Especially when it lands on a Thursday and you have to come back on Friday and teach 20 little sugar induced comatose children. 

Anyway, it was a fun day. I wanted the morning to be a normal day, since we have so much material to cover this year and little time to waste. Surprisingly we got through the morning with few distractions. My room mom put together a super adorable party for after lunch. My mom, brother and a few other parents came to help. The kids got to put on their costumes after lunch and wear them for the party. We did a rotation of two games and a craft. They also got to decorate cookies and listen to a "real witch" read stories. So fun!  After the party we had the school costume parade. I got a kick out of seeing everyone's costumes.  My cute mom and brother were good sports and dressed up to fit my Dr Seuss theme :)

I've never had a hangover, but I imagine it felt similar to the way I felt the next day.  After this year I think Halloween should always land on a Friday so teachers don't have to come back to school the next day!

I love my job!

I received this cute letter from one of my students the other day and it reminded me how lucky I am to be a teacher. 

First day, hooray!

Today was my first day teaching my very own class!  I am exhausted but thought I'd better blog about it while it is still fresh on my mind.

Last night was Back to School Night. I had most of my students and their parents attend. When they arrived I gave each student a Classroom Scavenger hunt worksheet to help familiarize them with the classroom before the first day. I also gave out information about the year to parents and had them fill out information for me about their child. Here are some pictures of my room from last night. Some of the walls are still pretty blank because I don't have a lot of posters and things to put up yet

Today was crazy!  I got to school at 6:55 and set things up. My first student arrived at 7:30. They aren't supposed to come in the building until 7:55, but he was so excited I let him stay. The day went pretty well. We started by making First Day books where students drew pictures of things like how they felt and what they'd like to learn. Then I showed them a power point about myself and let them ask me questions. Then we went over some class rules and procedures before we went out for s morning recess. On the way outside we took a tour of the school. After recess they worked on filling out an information page about themselves. We then used it for a game where I would read the info and they would guess who had written it. After the game it was time for lunch.

After lunch they came back and I had them start working on a math test that they were given at the end of last year so I could assess what they already know. It was pretty stressful for some of them. One little girl even cried because she didn't know an answer. I reassured them that the test was only for me to look at and they didn't need to worry about missing questions.  After math they went to prep. I was supposed to pick them up 40 min later but I forgot. The computer teacher brought them back to me and I was embarrassed. Then I was supposed to take them out for recess... But I forgot that too. When I remembered it was pretty late but we went out anyway. When we came back I explained homework and read aloud from Spencer's Adventures. At 2:30 they went home and I crashed!  I am so exhausted! I took a 3 hour nap after school and I'm all ready for bed now.

Overall, it was a good day. I feel like tomorrow will be better. Hopefully I feel rested when I wake up!

Hired!

I finally got a job! Since I graduated in December, the middle of the school year, I didn't apply for any job until spring. In February I turned an application in to Logan City Schools but didn't hear anything til the middle of April. At that point I got a call askin me to come and interview for all six of the LCSD principals. I was thrilled.

The interview went well but I felt very rushed. They started by having me write down a lesson plan that I had recently taught. I thought quickly and chose a writing lesson I had taught during my student teaching. Then they had me present the lesson. After that each principal asked me one question and I was done. I felt really confident after the interview but as time went by I felt worse and worse and doubts came into my mind.

It took over a month for my offer to come so I had all but given up hope. Needless to say I was thrilled to be offered a job teaching second grade at Woodruff Elementary. I met with the principal and my team last week and signed my contract on Tuesday

I am very excited and very nervous to start! It will be an adventure!

Yard Makeover

Spring Break is here! Since John works every day this week I have been doing a little bit of yard work.

When we first bought our house the previous owner said she loved the yard because you could just "let it grow" and it didn't need any maintenance. Needless to say, it is a complete disaster. Anything planted is either overgrown and dead. So, before I can plant anything, I have to pull everything else out.

Yesterday I cleaned out three small flower beds and pulled vines off of the side of the house. Today I cut down a bush/tree thing that was covered with thorns. I'm not sure what it was exactly since it was basically dead when ER moved in. It made out house look like a haunted house. :). I also sawed down a big pine tree that was half dead on the side of our house. It is amazing what getting rid of dead shrubbery and trees can do for your house!

Since I have a few empty beds now I am excited to start planting! Ester and I wet flower shopping tonight and I got daffodils, hollyhocks and gladiolus. I am also hoping to start a little vegetable garden and I got peas, onions and lettuce!

Here are a few pics of the yard. I wish I'd taken a picture of the trees I cut down but unfortunately I didn't think of it til I'd already finished. So, the last picture shows one of the trees lying in pieces on the lawn