Celebrate!

This time of year has become marked by a whirlwind of birthdays, graduations, holidays and anniversaries.

There is a lot in my life to celebrate… especially today.

Two years ago today, I woke up in a hotel room with one of my best friends. It was chilly and cloudy, and there were butterflies in my stomach. My friend drove us to Starbucks while I prayed it didn’t rain. The moment that we arrived at the church, time sped up and seemed to fly by until I was sitting with my father and some of my closest friends, with a church full of people upstairs. My father prayed for me, for the man who would be standing at the alter and for the marriage that we would have.

2011

One year ago today, I woke up in a hotel room with my husband. It was sunny and warm, and we were amazed that 365 366 days (2012 was a Leap Year) had passed so quickly. We ate year-old cake and celebrated surviving and thriving through a very tough first year of marriage (tough in this sense) .

2012

This morning, I woke up next to my husband, in our own bed. In the house that we bought together and I honestly couldn’t be happier.

2013

After dating for 3 years, being engaged for nearly 2 and 2 years of marriage, it’s no surprise that we’ve have been through a lot of ups and downs together, but I can honestly say that year 2 of marriage was more ups than downs. We have a lot to celebrate from this past year!

Happy second anniversary Brad!  I love you and I love being your wife.

Related Posts:

First Anniversary

The Ones Who Love Us

Sometimes I’m Amazed

Mother-in-Law Drama

During the three years that Brad and I dated before he proposed to me, I was never asked by anyone if I had problems with his mom. Likewise, Brad was never asked if he and my mom had issues. But after we announced our engagement, we discovered the social norm of mother-in-law speculation.

I don’t know how it got started, but I know that everyone kind of just expects to have issues with mother-in-laws. I think that more often than not the expectation of problems causes problems.

There are people out there who have legitimate conflicts with their in-laws that are over real issues, but I feel like this isn’t the norm. I know more couples who have excellent in-law relationships, even though there are a few bumps in the road (as with any relationship) it overall works out.

It seems like a rite of passage for wifehood to swap MIL stories with her girlfriends. Sure, everyone has a story of that crazy thing she did or said, but most of the time they aren’t the horror stories that are sometimes embellished.

So here’s my challenge in consideration of Mother’s Day this weekend, try to stop perpetuating drama when it comes to in-laws.

My mother-in-law is nothing like my mom… and that’s 100% okay with me. She raised my husband and for that I love her. If my husband and I had moms that were alike, we wouldn’t be the same people that the other fell in love with.

Next time something your significant other’s mom does makes your eye twitch, take a second and a breath and remember that you love their child and the part she played in his or her character.

On another note…

I’d like to wish an early happy Mother’s Day to my own mom who brought me into this world and played a huge part in the woman and wife that I’ve become. I love you mom!

Also, thank you to the various moms with diabetes and moms of children with diabetes who have been sources of information to me these past two years!

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Diagnosed as an adult: An interview with mom

The other ladies

Hi Mom!

Stream of Thought

Have you ever felt like you were forgetting something? I had that feeling all morning. I mentally checked off my list while getting ready for work. Contacts in? Check. Feed cats? Check. Put on deodorant? Check. Grab lunch from fridge? check.

I was almost all the way to the office before I remembered… I only put one set of earrings in. I keep meaning to bring a spare set to work and keep them in my desk, but I basically never forget to wear earrings. Today I’m sporting half-naked ears.

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Our trash is still sitting on the curb. Between Easter observed on Monday and a solidarity, one-day walk-off among sanitation workers (supporting sanitation workers striking in another community), our trash was not collected yesterday as usual. It was still on the curb this morning when I left. I saw a garbage truck on our street so I’m hopeful. What happens when garbage sits on the curb for more than a day is a mess. Between people who don’t bag their trash and just put it in the can and people who only bag their trash and don’t use cans, there is unpleasant debris in the street. Not to be a whiner, but I hate picking up other people’s trash out of my yard.

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It’s never okay to tear your spouse down on social media. Airing a frustration over your wife leaving the oven on for an hour after dinner or your husband forgetting to fold the clothes out of the dryer is much worse  than the actual “infraction.” I know that a lot of people use social media to vent, and I’ve caught myself a time or two wanting to tweet about one of my husband’s annoying habits but it’s good to stop and think, “Do I really want to put this person, who I love, down in front of my friends and family?” The answer is probably no. Plus it’s easier to get past those things if they aren’t immortalized on the internet.

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I’m afraid of potassium. When I was in the hospital when I was diagnosed with diabetes, everything in my blood was off including really low potassium. They gave me IV potassium and before I was discharged, I had to drink potassium powder mixed with juice (great idea hospital, make the person who’s just out of DKA drink juice). IV potassium currently holds the title for the absolute, most painful thing I’ve experienced. I’ve broken bones, had blood drawn what dehydrated, gotten a concussion, punctured my eardrum and has a spring-loaded canula inserted directly into a vein… and the potassium wins hands down. It was the only time I’ve ever thrown up from pain. The potassium powder drink was disgusting to drink as well.

Back to why I’m talking about potassium… My latest labs showed that my potassium was low-ish again. Knowing that I can do something about this immediately, I bought bananas. I hope to never need potassium in a painful way ever again.

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A couple of my stories are featured on OmniPod’s blog, Suite D today as part of their Diabetes Foolishness series. People say and think the strangest things about insulin pumps, glucose monitors and the things that people with diabetes do to stay healthy alive.

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Curb the complaining

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day dear readers!

I’m loving Valentine’s Day this year! It started off not so great but definitely improved. I have to say that I’m a completely spoiled little wife. Last year on our first married Valentine’s Day, Brad delivered roses to me at work. This year, I wasn’t expecting anything and in a strange repeat of last year, I was in my boss’ office when he shows up with roses again and Starbucks! He knows me so well.

I’m really excited about our dinner this evening, the menu is:

• Grilled filet
• Roasted asparagus
• Baby red potato bites with garlic sour cream 
• Red wine
• Peanut butter hearts that I made last night

In the spirit of love, romance and marriage blogging, I’m linking up for Valentine’s Day and answering these questions (and so is Brad!):

Friday Five: What I Learned

Friday Five is back after a bit of a break.. mainly because I didn’t have many crazy, random thoughts to put in a bulleted posts.

Ouch

1. The cotton setting on an iron will destroy the skin on your arm if you bump it.

2. Resting your arms to type is difficult with a burned arm.

3. Deer are smart. I saw four of them use a cross walk this morning at a red light.

4. Switching from caramel macchiato CoffeeMate liquid cream to powdered cream is a major letdown.

5. You’re a “real grown up” when you get excited about things like a new refrigerator, re-doing a floor or your husband buying you a Pyrex bake and store set.

What did you learn this week?

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ADDED: How fitting is it that February is Burn Awareness month?Most of the burn awareness material has to do with scalding and not iron burns.

A bit of advice when it comes to ironing, when you are going to move the clothing item you’re ironing, set the iron facing away from you. Also, always iron while wearing clothing (one of my Twitter friends burned her stomach while ironing the shirt she was going to be putting on later) and if your hands start to sweat while ironing, put the iron down and dry them before you continue.

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Disjointed Thoughts on Valentine’s Day

Being married to the love of my life means that I have a valentine on Valentine’s Day, which is great. But I think the holiday is getting to be over inflated.

I enjoy hearts, pink and roses possibly as much, but probably less, than the next girl. I do however like romance as much, if not more, than the next girl.

Our Tradition

This was taken on our first Valentine’s day together

Last year, Brad and I started a bit of a Valentine’s Day tradition that I think has staying power because we agreed to do it again this year. Instead of trying to get a reservation for an over-priced meal for two last Valentine’s day, we hit the grocery store and picked out two filets and cooked up a tasty meal together of bacon-wrapped filet, roasted asparagus and rosemary smashed red potatoes, complimented by a bottle of red wine. We dimmed the lights in our apartment, lit some candles and enjoyed each others company. We chose not to exchange gifts.

Romance

Valentine’s day is a good reminder to keep romance in your relationship, but Valentine’s day and your anniversary can’t be the only days when you make romantic gestures during the year.

It’s a Day

Wrapping up 2012

Christmas came and went in a flurry of travel, events and time with family. It was wonderful! You’ve probably noticed a bit of a blog hiatus over the holidays, with both of us enjoying a holiday break, the K-Couple is not back to regularly scheduled programming, which means more time with each other and those we love and less time blogging. But I can’t let this whole week pass without reflecting on the year we just lived.

I entered 2012 as a newlywed, apartment-dwelling Clevelander. As I prepare to party away 2012 in just a few days, I can’t help but look back at the year and go

Whoa!

Not only did this year go by quickly, it was anything but boring. However… Brad and I said we were looking forward to becoming boring for awhile after the major ups and downs of 2011.

That didn’t happen, but I’m okay with it. This year brought much more joy than pain for which I’m grateful. Here’s a whirlwind summary (in no particular order).

• We casually started house hunting one day in early 2012. We were en route to meet friends for dinner when a house for sale caught my eye and I said to Brad, “I wonder what that house looks like inside?” I searched it on my phone while waiting to be seated and we looked at the pictures and information. We never toured that house, but started looking at others and soon fell in love with ours. Placed an offer in April. Closed in June. Got keys in July. Moved in in August. (It’s a time consuming process.)
• We celebrated our first anniversary and ate some freezer-burnt cake.

Down the Drain

It happened last night. It was one of those moments when your heart stops and you want to close your eyes so you can open them to find out it didn’t actually happen.

But it did.

Brad and I were baking yesterday evening and had placed our wedding rings in their little bowl that lives in the kitchen, specifically meant to protect them from goopy food stuff or harsh dish-washing. I reached over the sink to grab the ring bowl and mine flew out of the bowl straight into the sink drain.

I froze for a second and then did the only thing I could think of. I yelled. “BRAD!”

He came rushing to my aid. It had fallen into the garbage disposal side of the sink. Which ended up being basically the best situation. Once he knew where my ring had gone, he threw open the cabinet and unplugged the disposal, snagged a flashlight and was eventually able to lift my ring to safety with his grilling tongs.

Sink drains are not surprisingly high on the Top 10 Places Women Lose Rings. Yesterday’s ring drama was very upsetting and thankfully the solution was quick.

Will I be more careful in the future? Absolutely. The bowl will be my farther from the sink next time as well.

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Thankful in November

There are a lot of people posting daily one thing that they are thankful for. I haven’t been one of them, seeing as it’s November 6th, I think I can catch up a little and spread some thanks once a week.

1. My husband. It’s a typical number one on the list, but for very good reason. I write about him a lot so you probably already have some idea why. I’m thankful for the past six years that he’s been in my life (even though he told me it was seven the other night) and I’m thankful for the future we have together.
2. Electricity. I’m thankful that we have this amazing thing to power our homes and lives. I’m especially thankful that we were able to keep ours throughout the storm and that many have had theirs restored. I hope that those still living without, have it back soon.
3. My kitties. It’s no secret I love animals, by Holmes and Watson really turn on the charm. They’ve shown many people already that not all cats are aloof and give affection to anyone who we welcome into our home.
   

   This picture would be better if he were actually sitting with a Sherlock Holmes novel

The Ones Who Love Us

The other night, Brad was meeting a friend after work, so I stopped at the grocery store on my way home to pick up a few things. My numbers blood sugars had been stellar all day, so when my Dexcom alerted me to a 70 mg/dL as soon as I pulled into the driveway I wasn’t worried because I was just going to fix quick dinner and be fine.

Between walking into the house and hanging up my coat, something snapped. There were so many things I had to do before I could eat. I put away the groceries, went down to the basement and emptied the dehumidifier, went upstairs and changes my clothes. Then I fed the cats, got the mail and came back into the kitchen to get a clean plate out of the dishwasher. I got distracted by the dishwasher needing emptied – then I felt hot.

Really, really hot. Finally a functioning brain cell told me to test my blood sugar.

It was 42. OmniPod wouldn’t even let me bolus for the 25 grams of carbs that my dinner had (I’m thankful that it won’t let me bolus with a bg below 50). I did two shots of juice for quick sugar and Brad arrived home to find me standing at the kitchen counter, shaking, sweating and inhaling a plate of nachos. I didn’t even speak, just showed him my Dexcom and kept eating.

When I was back in range, he painted me a picture of what he thought he’d have come home to if he’d been later. It wasn’t pretty. (And I won’t be sharing it with you.)

If my husband had been eating and showed me an electronic device in lieu of saying hello, I’d be pretty upset. We fall into a bit of a routine and I often forget that he’s not just a bystander, he’s actively involved and informed.

During diabetes awareness month, we try to shed a little light on living with diabetes, but those who love us are aware every day as well. Living with me (a person with diabetes) can be tough, stressful or downright annoying at times. Brad eats low carb with me often, forgoes having sweets around the house on a regular basis, handles fussy lows, accepts numbers in response to “How are you?” and will literally track me down if he is concerned and can’t reach me (yes, my husband has located me using Find My iPhone, no it’s not creepy. It’s sweet.)

I’m thankful for each and every person who loves someone with diabetes and takes an active role in supporting them.

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My Husband Spied on Me!