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Blah

Blah, is there a better word to describe your first day back in the office after two weeks off? I mean maybe, but Meta would probably take down my post if I used it. I’ve been back at work since 8:00 am this morning with the picturesque view of my two monitors, laptop, and flat-screen television. Fortunately, the call volume and quality have been decent today, so I can’t complain too loudly. I am, however, exhausted.

Today is day two of no afternoon latte and what a terrible New Year’s resolution. I could go for a nice, hot latte right now. To be clear, my afternoon homemade coffee is still in play. I’ve almost finished it. Yet, here I am at the peak of exhaustion. I had hoped the lunchtime spin class would give me a boost, but nope. I guess being tired is just a constant state of being as an adult. Somehow I must have missed the warning on the lameness of adulting.

I had high aspirations for my time off, but I accomplished very little. At first, I was a bit annoyed with myself, but after the year we’ve had I decided to give myself grace. More than anything, I needed to rest, relax and reset. The to-do list, which is never-ending, could wait for the start of the new year and our return to routine. That’s not to say I did nothing as I still managed to knock some meaningful items off my to-do list.

So my blah day back to work also means the return to routine, which I crave. At this point in my life, I need routine. It keeps me disciplined and working on my goals. The Mayor’s all set for school, so no longer chasing labs, endos, or medical records is a big weight off my shoulders. The remainder of my to-do list is quite manageable. And with that, I’ll get back to it.

2025 Goal Tracker:

  • Run a 5K: in training
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program: in progress
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations): compliant so far
  • Top performer at work: it’s been one day, but so far so good
  • Travel: working on it
  • Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
  • Read daily: in progress
  • Get out of debt: in progress
  • Financial independence: in progress

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

I play with my puppies everyday. It’s just goofing around in the house or on our walks. We have a lot of fun.

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2025

2025 is here and mercifully it brought a cold front with it.  This morning it was a refreshing 67 degrees when I walked the puppies.  2025 also means that we’ve seen the last of 2024.  While last year brought the spectacular high Jake and Melly’s wedding, it also brought a lot of medical issues and even surgery for the Mayor.  In fact, I ended the year with a virus.  It’s a fitting way to end the year.

As we enter 2025, the Mayor is in a good place.  He does a great job, for the most part, managing his sugar.  He is not, however, great at dealing with highs or lows in the middle of the night.  In fact, he’s downright ornery.  All three of us get alarms for his Dexcom, which means the Hubby and I are up as long as it’s going off.  When we try to intervene or sanity check the Dexcom with his Accu-Chek, he fights us.  Fortunately, this isn’t happening often.  When it does happen, it completely disrupts our sleep.

Since I was fighting off viruses myself the last two weeks, I haven’t been working out.  I haven’t been my usual radiant self over the winter break. Initially, I re-started Kayla Itsine’s High Intensity program after AEP, but had to shelve it for 10 days.  Thankfully, I was able to get back to it today.  Tomorrow, I’ll be back on the spin bike.  Next week, I’ll be back on the treadmill after an extended absence courtesy of a high ankle sprain.

This all brings me to my goals for 2025. Here they are:

  • Run a 5K
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations)
  • Top performer at work
  • Travel
  • Eat to lower inflammation
  • Read daily
  • Get out of debt
  • Financial independence

I’m sure the Starbucks goal will help reach the debt-free financial independence that you are seeking. I will, however, miss my afternoon cinnamon dulce latte. As the year progresses, I’ll be sure to share my progress here. I’ll close out today’s blog by offering a toast to a better 2025.

What are your biggest challenges?

My biggest challenges are managing my autoimmune and my boy’s autoimmune disorder. I find it more difficult to accept the Mayor’s diagnosis’s versus my own. There’s defiantly a strong sense of mom guilt that has come along with his diagnosis. Fortunately, as I noted above, he has done a great job managing his condition mentally and physically. I am so proud of him.

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Headed North

The Mayor and I are headed north to Detroit for, you guessed it, a weekend of hockey. Our flight was delayed about 90 minutes, which was a bit of a nuisance. The upgrade to first class alleviates some annoyance at being late. I’m awaiting a glass of Prosecco, which will eliminate every last glimmer of annoyance. Once we land, we’ll have a nice sixty-minute drive to the hotel, which does suck a bit. Fortunately, we can sleep in as the Mayor has no games until late tomorrow night.

I’m not at all prepared for the cold. I’ve been cold all day and it’s in the low 70s back home. I’m pretty sure the Detroit weather is going to make me feel like hibernating beneath the warmth of the covers in our hotel room. Detroit will, however, be a nice departure from the last seven weeks of AEP (annual enrollment period for the uninitiated.). The last several weeks do AEP were taxing as our shifts stretched to 12 to 14 hours. That’s a long time to be checked in a pleasant when dealing with a demographic that can be extremely difficult.

I’ll write more on AEP later as my short ribs and Prosecco have arrived. Moreover, I’ll share the saga of chasing down the Mayor’s type 1 diagnosis. He’s doing well, but more on that later.

P.S. I’m typing this on my phone from 35,000 miles up headed north, so please forgive the typos.

Sky Club offerings

Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?

My sophomore year speech teacher convinced me to join the speech team and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I think of Mr. Quinlan (Q as we affectionately called him) with a deep sense of gratitude often especially when I’ve been delivering a speech or presentation. Learning how to speak publicly is one of the best life skills you can learn. I’m forever grateful to Q, who encouraged and helped me develop my public speaking abilities.

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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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Good Riddance

I for one am ready to tell this week good riddance. The sixty five days, at least that’s what it felt like, we spent in the hospital were tough. Transitioning home and realizing all the things we don’t know about diabetes has been overwhelming. On top of it all, Goalielocks sent a text early Friday morning that there was a mass shooting in front of his work. He works at a bar in downtown Orlando. This wasn’t the text anyone wants to wake up to, although I appreciate him letting me know he was fine.

Friday marked the Mayor’s first day back at school. They were able to use his discharge paperwork and medical Management plan to get him back into school. We have to get his endocrinologist to file a diabetic medical management plan with the school. The problem being it takes six to eight weeks to get into the adult endocrinologists here. His school nurse and I use the same Endo practice, so she’s going to ask when she’s there if they’ll take him sooner. Meanwhile, I’ve put calls into the local pediatric Endos to try and get him in sooner.

I also got back on the spin bike!

Last night we were finally able to pick up his Dexcom, so now we can continuously monitor his glucose. There does seem to be a wide spread between the blood sugar on his Dexcom and the Accu-Check, which is a little concerning. Apparently, the Dexcom readings should normalize after the first twenty four hours. The Mayor played his first hockey game since diagnosis, which was scary to watch. Full disclosure, I watched the Dexcom numbers while my hubby texted updates since I’m stuck home working.

At any rate, we really need to get him into the Endo, so we have a correction dose for him. Also, there’s a lot of questions that have arisen that we didn’t think of when he was in the hospital. Truly, we don’t know what we didn’t know. We’re leaning to manage the diabetes quickly, but definitely have questions only an endocrinologist could answer. Hopefully, we can get in to see one soon! Anyway, back to work and good riddance to this week.

What are your favorite websites?

I’d be lying if I didn’t say Amazon.com or Target.com.

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We’re Home

We’re home. I can’t tell you how happy we are to finally be home. The staff at the hospital was fantastic, including a great hospitalist, but it’s a miserable place to stay. They did confirm his diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. We will be following up with an endocrinologist to hopefully get him on an insulin pump. Until then, he will have to take insulin four times a day. And of course he’ll need to closely monitor his blood sugar.

We couldn’t go home until we confirmed the pharmacy had everything he needed. This proved to be the most difficult part of today’s journey. Apparently, Walgreens has nothing in stock. Color me unimpressed. While I tried to verify availability of the drugs at CVS, the hubby drove to Publix with the list to see if they had it. Thankfully, they had everything we needed, with the exception of the Dexcom. The Mayor’s care team quickly provided written prescriptions that we could take to Publix. Unlike Walgreens, Publix’s pharmacy was absolutely wonderful.

Fortunately, the diagnosis will not impact his ability to play hockey, which was a huge relief. It will change how we manage his nutrition before, during and after a game or practice. While we were in the hospital, I ordered a bunch of supplies to manage his blood sugar. It may even mean a return to the penalty box for me. Once he gets the continuous glucose monitor, it will be really easy to manage his sugars. Until then, he’ll have to listen to his body and test his blood sugar using the strips. I’ve made an identical kit for hockey.

Jake and Melody drove down to help us through the rest of the week. We didn’t know until yesterday afternoon that he’d be going home for sure. They were ready to relieve Luke and I, so we could get some sleep at home. The sleeping arrangements at the hospital were less than ideal. The Mayor was surprised and thrilled to see them. Melody will be helping the Mayor and I with a few errands today that need to be completed to get him back to school.

What’s something you believe everyone should know.

Learn to follow your guy and be in tune with your body. Being in tune with his body allowed the Mayor to recognize something off before it had gotten to a breaking point.

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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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Milton‘s Gone

Milton’s gone and good freaking riddance to it and its feeder bands. The last week has been chaotic for most Floridians as we prepared for the storm. We were all prepared for the storm, whether at home, Goalielocks at UCF, or J and M in Tally. The hubby put up our shutters yesterday meant a great night’s sleep. Thank you complete darkness! Of course, by the time Hurricane Milton landed, most of our action was over. We did have the most incredible, albeit brief sunset. Nevertheless, I’m glad that we were ready. I don’t want to get caught ill-prepared for a major storm. Also, I know it gives our folks, worrying from afar back in our hometown, peace of mind.

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There are a couple of axioms when it comes to hurricane preparation. If you’re fully prepared, the storm will wobble away from you. So be prepared. If you don’t lose power during the storm, you lose it intermittently post-storm (wtf FPL.) Everyone becomes a weather expert. Most are benign, but the ones that smugly downplay the storm are dangerous. I saw a few posts from a friend on Facebook that made me cringe. I don’t know which post was worse, the one making fun of people for preparing or the one stating that yesterday’s tornadoes were akin to what we see in summer storms. They weren’t. Not only were they deadly, but they were strong and in wedge form. Florida doesn’t typically are large, wedge tornadoes.

Unfortunately, one of the large tornadoes that hit Wellington impacted one of our friends. I guess this is why I find the glib posts about the storm and tornadoes so offensive. The storm uprooted people’s lives. Thankfully, our friends are safe and only lost property. Sadly, several confirmed reports of fatalities in St. Lucie County have emerged due to the tornadoes Milton spawned. The last axiom when it comes to hurricanes is probably the most important. The storm can impact you even if you’re not close to the center of the storm. Milton was over a hundred miles offshore in the Gulf when the supercells in the feeder bands spawned a tornado outbreak. But hey, at least it’s over and Milton’s gone!

What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.

I would love to run a marathon without dying. It seems like an overwhelmingly strenuous activity that would be incredibly rewarding.

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Ducklings

Our ducklings are thriving! We were quite nervous for them when Sweet Mama laid her eggs at our front door in the open. When they hatched and she was reticent to take them to the lake, we were nervous again. Fortunately, she made it to the lake on Sunday. She spends the nights there with the babies and her duck family. In the morning, several ducks escort her and the babies back to my front door. At night, they come and escort her and her babies back to the lake. It’s honestly quite heartwarming.

Incredibly, there are still eight lively ducklings! Normally, by this time she would have lost several of them to predators. Sweet Mama is taking no chances with her sweet brood. We give her plenty of space to take care of them. She gets nervous when anyone, even us, comes outside. She’ll fly you off if she thinks you’re getting too close to her babies. Consequently, I refill their water and feed them during their sojourn at the lake. If you had asked me earlier this month if I thought her clutch would be successful, I would have answered you no. She is intent on proving all of us wrong.

What would your life be like without music?

Life without music would be so boring! Music fuels my workouts and my life. Anyway, I’m pretty sure you already knew that since I post a music video to nearly every blog. Now off to take my iron supplement.

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Duck Tales

On today’s Duck Tales episode, let me introduce you to our babies!! The sweet mama duck that laid a nest at our front door is now a mom. We couldn’t believe it when she laid her eggs hidden in plain sight. I was worried this young duck and her eggs would be unlucky and fall victim to one of the many raccoons in the area. Yet, her plan worked. Our dogs, who would have loved to eat her. Ultimately, the dogs kept her nest safe by guarding the nest from our window.

The eggs hatched last night after work. As of right now, we have eight ducklings. Unfortunately, one of the eggs didn’t hatch. Now she needs to get the ducklings to the lake, like their “school/cafeteria.” This is where the young mama will teach her ducklings what to eat and how to stay safe. Only 10% of the ducklings will reach adulthood, which is a crazy number. There are just a lot of things, including Anakin and Arrow, that would like to catch and eat the ducklings.

Meanwhile, the Mayor and I ran up to the European supermarket in West Palm for some good kielbasa, paprika and chocolate. Once you’ve had the kielbasa from the Polish market, you’ll never be able to eat kielbasa from a grocery store again. It’s so much better. The paprika is also a lot better than anything you can find at the grocery store. I love cooking with it as it gives the food a richer taste. Afterward, we headed to Sprouts to pick up some sushi, vegetables, fruit, and some lunch meat.

Today I’m making my second attempt at the strawberry chiffon cake. Last time it turned out okay, but it tasted much better than it looked. I totally screwed up dividing the cakes into 3 layers. Hopefully, I don’t screw it up too badly this time. Additionally, I decided to add additional strawberries for the filling. I’ll post some pictures of the finished product. Tomorrow I’m baking focaccia with inclusions. Previously, I had been making it with sun-dried tomatoes on top, but tomorrow I’m mixing them in. Stay tuned for more Duck Tales!

What are your favorite types of foods?

I love Italian, French and Mexican food. I also like baking breads and desserts, which does nothing for my figure.