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Friday!

Yay for Friday! It’s the first Friday of the year and I’m here for it. I’ve only been back at work since yesterday, but two days is enough. Honestly, I can’t complain too much as the last two days have been chill and productive. Yesterday was a lot better, but today has been a bit slow. It does, however, feel good to get back into a routine.

Speaking of routine, I’m dipping my toes into the shallow end of the pool in the exercise space. I have a long and dramatic history of doing too much too soon with poor results. Consequently, I didn’t do the spin and strength double header I had planned for today. The doubleheaders can wait for next week. Fortunately, the full body Sweat workout was fire! It definitely got my heart pumping.

A little late, but still funny and accurate

After a break for holiday baking, I’m back on the sourdough train. I’ve stopped buying bread since I can pump out several loaves a week. I love bread, but there’s so much garbage in store-bought bread. For folks like myself and the Mayor, the garbage can increase inflammation and make managing our autoimmune disorders more difficult. This, however, doesn’t stop me from eating a Reese’s peanut butter cup. But I guess that’s what we call balance. Happy Friday!

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

What colleges have you attended?

I attended the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities campus for my undergraduate degrees. Where I earned a BA in Political Science and a BA in History. After I attended Purdue Global (aka Kaplan University) for my MBA because it was free and required for promotion. While I enjoyed the online delivery of my MBA, I can’t say that it had the same academic rigor as my undergraduate experience. Honestly, it was a bit of a quagmire. I don’t regret pursuing my MBA, but I feel I would have gotten more out of an in-person MBA program.

Our song of the day is Fame

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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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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

Hurricane Milton is churning away in the Gulf of Mexico with its sights set on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Living in Florida means these storms dominate your life in the window before, during, and after the storm. The waiting game makes it worse. You almost want to rip off the bandaid and get it over with, but there’s always a hope it could weaken dissipate, or do any turn. It’s an emotional waiting game as you wait to see if you or your loved ones are in or out of the cone of doom.

Sunday’s cone

We were initially in the cone Saturday, but as the storm got closer the cone narrowed and we’re out of it. The cone of doom is singular in its meaning. What I mean by that is that it only shows where the eye of the storm (i.e. the center) will pass. It doesn’t mean anyone outside the cone is free of worry. To be clear, those who are in the cone face a much greater peril. This is a deadly storm that will cause massive destruction and loss of life. Consequently, we’re taking this storm seriously.

The 2:00 pm update

Our ground is saturated from the flooding rains that started over the weekend. I don’t think it’s going to take too much wind to take some of them down. Also, hurricanes like to wobble. It’s better to err on the side of it wobbling towards you and be ready. The Hubby and Mayor will be putting up the shutters today just in case. They’re headed to Dallas for the CCM World Invite and want to be sure I’m not being left with a damaged house. This I appreciate. I also appreciate the deeper sleep that comes with the blacked-out windows. I’ll happily withdraw to my cozy bed and enjoy the dark.

Goalielocks is in Orlando. It’s been a back-and-forth argument since Saturday over him driving home. Naturally, he wants to stay and experience the storm. While we’d prefer he come home and be with us. The problem with these storms is the lunacy that happens afterward. You think driving here is an experience. Try driving here after the hurricane. It’s next-level crazy. People don’t know how to approach a stop light that’s out. (It becomes a four-way stop.) They’ll just drive through the intersection like they’re the only person on the road. It’s the post-hurricane mayhem that worries me.

We’re about forty-five minutes from a new track and update from the NHC. Hopefully, it’s good news. It’s probably not. Meanwhile, I’m ready to hit the ground running to finish our not-so-timid storm preparation. Scratch that I can’t run due to a high ankle sprain, which is a story for another day. Let me just say aging as an athlete is for the birds. And now back to waiting for Milton.

If you’re a weather nerd and like to follow the storms, here are some key sites:

  1. NHC: National Hurricane Center’s update site, which covers all Atlantic Basin and Eastern Pacific systems.
  2. Spaghettimodels.com: Mike’s Weather Page is an amazing resource and is always on point. He links to all the models, which can also be found on Tropical Tidbits, so you can see everything. Mike also has a great Facebook page. He’s always informative, and accurate, and has none of the melodrama that comes with television weather personalities.
  3. Steve Weagle: he’s our local weather guy and he does a great job.

What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

I set a lot of goals, but the hardest goal I set was to lose the thyroid weight. After tearing my tendon, which forced me to give up both running and Zumba, and being diagnosed with Graves Disease, which forced me to give up any exercise, I put on a lot of weight. To be fair, I also had my thyroid irradiated, so it’s no longer functional. The lack of thyroid and complete lifestyle change was cruel to the scale and my waistline. It took years to get my thyroid to a balanced spot where I could finally start to lose weight and get back to working out.

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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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One Month

Can you believe it’s been one month since the kids got married? It was such a magical day! I’ve taken some time away from the blog and social media to soak it all in and rest. There’s a lot that goes into your child’s wedding. As with everything relative to one’s kids, I found myself more invested in ensuring their wedding was perfect than I was with my own. Having kids is an interesting experience. If you line every spectrum of the emotional rainbow amplified, then parenthood is for you. The highs and lows are much more extreme when you watch your kid experience them.

Fortunately, the wedding was an emotional high for all of us. The smiles never left the bride and grooms faces. They soaked in each and every moment of their special day. Although I’m sure if you asked them, the day was a blur. I continue to be proud of how Goalielocks and The Mayor showed up for Jake and Melly. It was proof that I’ve gotten at least three things right in life. Go me!

In the intervening weeks, life has settled back into its routine. I’ve relaxed my exercise routine to give myself some rest. It’s a bit harder to be motivated when you don’t have a fancy dress to fit into imminently. If someone could please throw a gala, I could get back on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, I’ll be over here pouring through the wedding pictures as feeling nostalgic about my the boys’ childhood.