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Look Who’s Back

Well, well, look who’s back. It’s been a while since I’ve written here, but I was tired and needed a break. Like most women in their mid-forties, I’m having a lot of fun with my hormones. Thanks to perimenopause and Graves’ disease, I’ve been a bit all over the place. The one constant, however, has been fatigue.

With all that’s been going on, I decided to focus on staying fit and the family. Since I last wrote, I’ve run several 5Ks. These races have been a great opportunity to keep my focus on my goal of building my overall fitness. The goal is no longer to be the fastest, but to run the best race, while building muscle and bone, while letting go of the results. Of course, I’ve also added finishing a 10K race to my annual goals for 2026.

Meanwhile, the Mayor has been playing junior hockey with the Coral Springs Jr Cats. I have a love-hate relationship with junior hockey after our billet’s experience with an unethical hockey director. The program is new this year, so it was a risk, but the general manager is wonderful and does a great job. It’s really been a positive experience for the Mayor, my husband, and me.

You’ll get your fill of junior hockey over the next three days as we travel to Tampa for the playoffs. Hopefully, it doesn’t take six hours to get there this weekend, and we see a lot of cows. This team has the ability and grit to win it all, so it should be a fun weekend. My BFF and I are sharing an Airbnb to mitigate costs. So either way, we will have a good time.

2026Goal tracker:

  • Run 12 5Ks and a 10K: work in progress
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program: currently working through 4.0 this week!
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations):
  • Top performer at work: on it!
  • Travel: Does Tampa count?
  • Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
  • Read daily: in progress. I’m currently reading The Mystery of Mrs. Christie – a Riddle Made for Book Club to Solve, by Marie Benedict.
  • Get out of debt: in progress, but still poor
  • Financial independence: in progress, but still opt
  • If you’re not already following me on Instagram, give me a follow!
  • Check out my newest partner, Zulay Kitchen. You can use the code Welcome43 to get 43% off.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

I was laid off from a very toxic job in 2019. It was a job that I had worked really hard for, but my old boss made my life hell the last couple of years. In the end, I had a heads up because senior leadership, far from being professional, rode down the elevator with the layoff plans face up. Whoops!

Nonetheless, it was hard to leave a team of people I loved working with every day. As tough as it was, it allowed me to spend time with my son before he left for the military. It taught me that living the corporate American dream is absolute bullshit. Instead, my life revolves around my family, my passions, my dogs, my friends, and of course, hockey. Now I’m living a happier, balanced, and fulfilling life.

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New Season, New Team

Tomorrow marks the start of a new season with a new team for the Mayor. He’ll be playing with the Coral Springs Jr Cats in the USPHL. Tomorrow they’ll open their season in Estero against the Florida Everblades. We’re excited for the season to start, but we’re not loving the 11:45 am game time on a weekday.

The games this season will be full NHL-length games. This makes me a little nervous for him. He’ll need to learn how to manage his blood sugar through the 20-minute periods as well as the 20-minute breaks in between. It will be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow. As with everything else related to diabetes, it will be a learning experience and somewhat of a science experiment.

So what is Junior hockey? It’s the hockey that exists between club or high school hockey and college hockey. The goal of junior hockey is to improve your game so you can play at the collegiate level. That’s the goal for a lot of folks. For others, it serves as a great way to spend a gap year between high school and college. Not everyone is ready to start college immediately. Junior hockey is a great way to grow their independence and life skills, so they can succeed in college.

2025 Goal Tracker:

  • Run a 5K: still training, signed up for a 5k on 9/20!
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program: began 3.0 this week!
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations): I made it into September and haven’t buckled!
  • Top performer at work: on it!
  • Travel: went to Vegas, but lots of work to do here. I’m tickled pink that we’ll be going back there in October to see Paul McCartney
  • Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
  • Read daily: in progress. I’m reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  • Get out of debt: in progress, but still poor
  • Financial independence: in progress, but still opt
  • If you’re not already following me on instagram, give me a follow!
  • ’Check out my newest partner, Zulay Kitchen. You can use the code Welcome43 to get 43% off.

What’s your favorite word?

It starts with an f and rhymes with duck. Sorry, Mom, but it’s definitely my favorite. I found myself using it quite a lot last night, seeing the obnoxious responses to Charlie Kirk’s death. The fact that we’ve become so comfortable with violence as a means of silencing opposing voices is frightening. If you’re one of the people, cheering or trying to rationalize his death, you deserve to be a permanent guest of the devil. Social media truly does bring out the worst is so many people who don’t know they’re at best dumb and at worst a hateful sod.

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Adjusting

We’ve been home a little over a week and are slowly adjusting to our new normal. The first few days were overwhelming as we quickly realized how much we didn’t know. We’re exhausted, we’ve been getting up to check his bliss sugar in the middle of the night. We get notifications on our phones, but we’re both nervous we’d sleep through the notifications.

His first hockey game was an emotional whirlwind for Hubby and me. Meanwhile, for him it was awesome! It felt so good for him to be back on the ice. He officiated a couple of games the Sunday after and that went well. His blood sugar stayed pretty stable during those games. Physically, he has felt pretty good outside of an occasional headache.

Thankfully, he is adjusting well to his normal. The Dexcom helps him keep tabs on his blood sugar. The Mayor does a great job messaging us that he’s taken a glucose tab or his insulin before we get the high or low blood sugar alerts on our phones. He adores the school nurse and has learned a lot from her. She’s also Type 1 diabetic. The school has been incredible in helping him adjust and continue thriving academically.

Meanwhile, at work, I did file for intermittent FMLA so I don’t get into trouble for taking time off for appointments. After all, my boss did send me home early today for taking my required lunch. Talk about an unexpected and unpleasant surprise. I hate how taking the hour lunch you must take negatively impacts your phone stats. Now instead of talking to Boomers all day, I’ll be baking bread and cuddling with the puppies. As I type it, I realize it was a pleasant surprise.

What podcasts are you listening to?

There are quite a few I’d love to listen to, but right now I’m only listening to the Spitting Chiclets podcast.

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Curve Ball

So life threw us a massive curve ball yesterday. The Mayor overslept his alarm again. When he finally woke up, he told he lost 19 pounds over the last few weeks. Annoyingly, he has been waking up the last few nights due to dry mouth and having to pee. All of this was enough to send my mama bear instincts into overdrive. I quickly tested his blood sugar, which came back at 188. Thankfully, the pediatrician was able to see us that afternoon to recheck with non-expired strips.

Unfortunately, the visit to the pediatrician’s office ended with us being referred to the ER to rule out diabetic keto acidosis. We’ve been in the hospital since last night and will be here at least another night. His blood sugar was 440 in the ER last night, but has since come down to 170 thanks to the insulin and fluids they’ve on boarded. Once they have his blood sugar stable and all his bloodwork back, we should be able to go home.

I haven’t posted anything on social media and won’t be sharing any photos of the patient here. However, we felt it important to share our experience as it may help someone else. I’m grateful for the experiences of my friends that helped inform our decision making yesterday. Thanks to the shared knowledge we were able to prevent a crisis. We won’t have a firm diagnosis until the bloodwork is back, but it will be life changing for him. Anyway, like the title suggests, we’ve just been thrown a major curve ball.

You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for?

I’d ask for my kids to be healthy, dogs to live forever and enough money for my entire family to live comfortably.

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Nonsense

Insurance has made medicine absolute nonsense. I had a follow up appointment with my primary this morning. Aside from checking in, I felt compelled to share my recent experiences with Cigna. To say she could commiserate is an absolute understatement. She recently had an insurer deny a CT scan for a patient even after she did a peer to peer review. When the patient opted to pay out of pocket, the insurer told my doc that no issue found on that CT would be covered by them as they didn’t approve the scan. What absolute nonsense is that?

To make it worse, I wemt on X and saw all the politicians bragging about how they’ve made care more accessible and affordable. It’s honestly laughable because nothing could be further from the truth. The insurers act with impunity making it harder and harder for insureds to get care. Most people don’t have the knowledge or ability to fight back, which means there will be a bigger disparity in the healthcare people receive.

Anyway, it doesn’t help that I then come into work and deal with nonsense all day. At least the day has been consistent. I’m still on the pilot program, which means I spend my day watching British tv. I hate being bored and yet here I am. Also, Goalielocks went back to school, which is a bummer. Truly, I like having him home. The house is a bit more boisterous and joyful with him here.

How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?

I’ve adapted by living my life and being considerate of others. If I’m sick, I don’t leave the house. Lastly, I try to be more kind.

Today’s music video is Norwegian Wood

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Boredom

Boredom has been a constant fixture of my weekday since last Wednesday. I don’t like being idle. I prefer a fast-paced, busy day that moves quickly. Now on this pilot program, boredom is the name of the game. The only silver lining to the situation is that I’ve enjoyed getting caught up on documentaries and British comedies. I’ve definitely learned a lot in the last week.

Whoops, got sidetracked harassing Cigna on X again. They finally approved a comparable drug to the one I’ve been taking the last two years. Those crafty bastards at Cigna approved something they don’t cover, so my co-pay is $1385.85. Last time I filled the script, it was $75 for a 3-month supply. Since going down the rabbit hole, I’m more convinced than ever that nothing will change. Given the amount of money these companies donate, really blackmail, to our politicians’ campaigns is sickening.

Our system is so irrevocably broken, it’s sad. The insurers and big hospital systems are dictating care to the detriment of their patients. We’re caught in between dishonest insurers that gate-keep coverage. Additionally, the corporate or private equity run health systems would rather you die than give you adequate care. Lastly, if I see another humble brag on X about more people having access to health insurance, I’m going to vomit. Access to health insurance is no longer synonymous with access to care.

What’s something most people don’t understand?

I think people struggle to understand autoimmune disease and how impactful they are to people’s lives. It’s hard for people to square a seemingly healthy looking person, who’s struggling with serious illness. Anyway, autoimmune diseases suck just as much as Cigna.

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Aggravating

Is there anything more aggravating than health insurance? I don’t think so. Today’s aggravation with Cigna comes from them doubling the price of my Synthroid on top of doubling my premiums. Of course, the generic is free, but unlike most drugs, Synthroid and its generic partners are not the same. Unlike other drugs, where generic may be just fine, doctors recommend you stick with what you start with. To change later would be disruptive due to differences between the drugs. This does work both ways, so if you start with the generic, you stay with the generic.

Cigna has been on my shit list for a while now. Firstly, I can no longer use the pharmacy I’ve used for 18 years. I guess they don’t want me using a pharmacy that has a majority stake in Aetna. Moreover, they’re refusing to pay for Hubby’s MRI because apparently, they know more about knee injuries than his orthopedic surgery. I guess they’d rather the surgeon root around in the operating room figuring out the scope of damage instead of the surgeon knowing and planning for it ahead of time. It’s an utter crock of shit.

What I’d like to say to Cigna

It’s aggravating because who has the time to fight with their insurance company? I’m grateful that my hubby’s injury isn’t emergent. At this point, we’d be better off playing roulette at the casino to cover our medicine bills than trusting Cigna to do the right thing by my family. After all, I’m on the hook for both the Mayor’s surgery and the Hubby’s. To be fair, I don’t think an insurer that faithfully covers their clients’ medical bills exists in this galaxy. If you find one, it’s like finding the Holy Grail. Anyway, I guess my overarching point is that Doctors should be dictating standards of care, not insurance companies and large hospital systems.

What were your parents doing at your age?

At my age, my parents were working their butts off, so my brothers and I could go to college. Their hard work and dedication to us allowed each of us to be successful. Now, I’m attempting to do the same thing with my boys. Also, when they were my age I used to make fun of them for going to bed early. Now here I am in bed by 9:00 pm every night. I guess we do eventually become just like our parents, which is just fine in my book because my folks are amazing.

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Frosting fail

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

Today’s prompt is about my most epic baking fail. While I’ve had several, but if I were to pick my most recent one it would be a frosting fail. A couple of weekends ago I decided to make homemade toaster strudel. This was a part of my prednisone-fueled baking fest. I also baked an apple tart, kouign-amann, and short ribs that weekend. It’s no wonder that prednisone makes you gain weight.

The recipe was super simple and easy to make. Yet, I managed to royally screw up the frosting. I mixed everything together and it looked super clumpy. As an aside, frosting should never look like pastry dough. Since it looked so odd, I decided to taste it. It was then I realized I had accidentally grabbed flour instead of powdered sugar. Whoops! So if I may give one piece of advice, label ziplock bags when you put flour or sugar in them.

Another baking fail, and I swear it wasn’t my fault, was when I baked lasagna after Goalielocks’ graduation. My parents were staying with a few weeks, so I decided to make lasagna as it is always a crowd-pleaser. Everything was going well and I put it in the oven. When I checked on it thirty minutes into the baking time, I noticed it wasn’t cooking. That was a fun and expensive puzzle to solve! Ultimately, I was able to cook it in our bottom oven, which was thankfully still operational. Eventually, I got a new oven and I absolutely love it.

I think all bakers and cooks have failed in the kitchen. Often times the failure leads to laughs and second attempts. Some recipes take a lot more practice and refining than others. I, however, find it rewarding to finally master a more difficult bake. It should come as no surprise that I love watching the Great British Bake-off. I often end up baking items I’ve seen on the show. It’s a fun journey that connects me to my mom, my grandma, and all the bakers in my family.

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Better Day

It’s been a better day. Probably because I had a better night. My first night’s sleep after stopping the prednisone was a huge success. Not only did I fall asleep pretty easily, but I managed to stay asleep and get some deep sleep. The past month falling asleep and quality of sleep have been a major issue, so last night was a gift. I’m hoping tonight will be similarly successful. Of course, it helps that I’m not a Jets fan because losing your expensive future HOFer QB in game 1 sucks royally.

Work has been better too, albeit it slow. I did get my workout over lunch and it went well. I’m contemplating writing a proposal letter to move my schedule, but I really like getting off at 5:00 pm. Especially since I know the craziness of AEP is right around the corner. I guess I’ll stick out the slow mornings and count my blessings. Hopefully, AEP, which is our busiest time of year, is absolutely banging.

Yesterday’s workout was an absolute gong show, so I wasn’t sure how today would go. Fortunately, as hard as yesterday’s workout was, today’s came with relative ease. I definitely wasn’t working on an exit strategy today like I was from the beginning of yesterday’s workout. Today’s workout was hills and speed pushes ranging from moderate to all out. The interval work is really elevating my running game.

What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?

The biggest red flag for me is someone who always, no matter what, sees the glass as half empty. To be clear, I’m not looking to hangout with Pollyanna and her perpetual positivity either. My experience however, with folks that only see the glass half empty is they can never get themselves out of the negative feedback loop. They can never move forward or upward in life because something bad may happen. And quite frankly, the overarching negativity may be a symptom of a greater mental health issue I’m not equipped to navigate.

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Monday, Monday

“Monday, Monday” damn now I have that Mamas and the Papas song stuck in my head. It’s been a shit day at work, which happens. It’s literally one of the most normal things in a salesperson’s life. Not all days are gonna be easy. Anyway, this is usually a non factor because anyone that works sales knows this axiom to be true except for one person who shall remain nameless. While they shall remain nameless, they shall live in shame and infamy for their ridiculousness. Anyway, time to brush that shit off my shoudlers and move on.

If I seem a bit cranky, it’s because I am. I haven’t slept well since mid August and I need my sleep. The fact that I can’t fall asleep is driving me nuts. I’m hoping since I stopped taking the prednisone yesterday that my sleep pattern will go back to normal. Hopefully, once my sleep goes back to normal everting else falls back into place. This past month has been really tough. I’ve pretty much had to cancel any and every plans I’ve had even when I was in Minny because I wasn’t up for them physically.

Anyway, I didn’t get much accomplished this weekend outside of baking. I did, however, get our bushes fertilized and trimmed. Unfortunately, the skies didn’t open up like I had hoped, but hopefully we get some rain today. Afterwards. the Hubby walked me through his plans for the bedrooms upstairs. Spoiler alert, they’re going to look amazing once he’s through with them. My only feedback was to get the painting and closet organizers done first, so we can maximize the space.

I did two bakes this weekend to keep myself busy since leaving the house was a risky endeavor. The first bake was a homemade toaster strudel. I’ll share the recipe in a later post, but it’s super easy. It’s literally puff pastry, the filling of your choice, and simple frosting. Honestly, this is a recipe I’ll make often when the boys are home. It’s simple, but really tasty. The second bake I made was an attempt at Paul Hollywood’s recipe of Kouign-Amann, which is a magnificent dessert from Brittany. It was a lot more complicated, but very tasty.

Describe your ideal week.

My ideal week is one spent exploring the world with my family. It’s not spent behind a desk or on a couch. I’m looking forward to the week I have planned for Jake and I exploring Utah’s Mighty Five and the surrounding national monuments and state parks. Adventure, hiking and exploring the world is something that I enjoy. I find myself at peace up in the mountains of Utah, so I’m really looking forward to my trip.