Saturday, August 13, 2011
"Leka Lanterns"
This is a video from Aug, 9. 2011, Hannah's late friend, Mileka's 10th birthday. Well over 100 people were in attendence for a get together to remember Mileka on her birthday in Silver Lake. Later that night, lanterns were released, and it was a magical, amazing thing to watch Hannah and Mileka's friends release their lantern for Mileka into the night sky.
Friday, August 5, 2011
and she says she doesn't like it
Hannah signed up to play softball this summer. She was excited about it at first and I was glad she wanted to try something she hasn't tried yet. She has tried hockey, basketball, gymnastics, swimming, and dance. So far dance is all she has liked. So now we can add softball to the list of things she doesn't care for. She is good at hitting, is a fast runner, doesn't have a clue in the field or how the game is actually played, and can catch about 50% of balls hit to her. She had about 50% fun-- ha ha.
Here are some pictures that Uncle Jose took with his phone the night he came to watch her. She enjoys it more when people are watching her, I think.
Hannah hitting
Playing 3rd base
Hannah has the ball, but don't think she knows what to do with it
Hannah's team ( minus 2-3 that were missing that day)
So now she has a new love-- it's something she has tried before, and it has resurfaced as something she enjoys. Hint-- it goes along really well with dance.
Here are some pictures that Uncle Jose took with his phone the night he came to watch her. She enjoys it more when people are watching her, I think.
Hannah hitting
Playing 3rd base
Hannah has the ball, but don't think she knows what to do with it
Hannah's team ( minus 2-3 that were missing that day)
So now she has a new love-- it's something she has tried before, and it has resurfaced as something she enjoys. Hint-- it goes along really well with dance.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
another summer almost past
I can't believe summer is in it's last month only a month until school begins again. I love summer and don't really want it to end.
However August brings all those yucky bugs, bees & wasps which I could do without. School shopping begins, State Fair to attend, garage sale to set up, and Hannah's birthday to prepare for among every day life that keeps going on.
May was a sad month and tough to get through the last weeks of school after Hannah's friends death. It was, and still is constant thoughts of her and her family. Hannah had a tough time adjusting, and tried to focus her thoughts with her current friendships and make the most of the time she has with them. Her friends mean the world to her.
Hannah had a rough patch with her diabetes at this time, where she had consistantly low blood sugars. Occassional lows are expected, but every test was her staying very low and it was a bit scary. Lows are not too common with her, as we are always combatting the highs that come with being diabetic, but somehow her body was telling us no matter what dose of insulin we gave, it wasn't what she needed. The low blood sugars are always more concerning that the high ones, more risk of her loosing consciousness, and ending up in a coma. Not something I ever want to deal with. We lowered her doses to about half of what she normally got and by the time we got that to work, things were starting to go back up, and we had to readjust again. The life of diabetes. Things since then have been pretty good regarding the lows. So glad we don't see them too often, because lows really kick her butt and she hates how that feels compared to the highs.
Mid May is when we headed to WI for the JDRF's Walk to Cure Diabetes, Northeast WI chapter in Neenah's Riverside Park area. It was a 5K walk through the streets of Neenah. There were over 2000 people in attendance. Another moving experience in the life of type 1 kids and their families. Team Hannah's Hopeful Hearts met our goal for this walk and raised over $500. We had a good time and plan to do it again next year. Some day there will be a cure, until then we will continue to raise money and walk for that cure.
Later that night we attended church, which included Landon's baptism. Steve and I were sponsers, along with Wil's bro, Joe. Steve unfortunately wasn't able to make it literally at the very last moment for this entire weekend, before leaving we found out we really didn't have the money to travel and he needed to work to make ends meet. I barrowed money from my parents so I could at least be there, for the baptism and the Walk because the thought of not going just about killed me.
Memorial weekend marked 10 years since we signed the papers to purchase our house in Dassel. When we purchased this house 10 years ago, we never thought in a million years we would still be here. Now it looks as though we will never leave, not by choice. HA!!
June was a fun month....kids completed grades 7 and 3 with flying colors. Bailey pulled it all together in the end and had a great report card all A's and B's and one C+. He struggles with focus during the school year and puts other things priority over school work and excelling in school, but he tries hard and I am amazed at how little work he puts into it and still does well. As a parent, however, I want him to do his best, so he needs to work on that aspect. Hannah excells in everything she does. Her math and reading skills are top notch and she still loves school. The teachers and staff at Dassel Elem. are the best and make it a fun place to learn and grow.
Summer always starts out with baseball for Bailey, which keeps him and us busy. This summer was the first summer he travelled to play other teams and he was part of an all 7th grade DC team. He played teams from Maple Lake, Annandale, Delano, Howard Lake, and Buffalo. He even got to play againest his cousin, Bryer, vs. Delano for the first time. Fun games. They had a very good season ending 10-4, and got to play in a tournament in Hutchinson. They won only one of their games there and their season ended pretty quickly. Bailey got to do alot of pitching this summer, and he practiced alot in the backyard and seems to like it.
Besides Bailey playing on a team, he spends alot of his summer days with friends at the field just playing for fun. We live about 2-3 blocks from the "Dassel Saints" field, or they go to Spring Lake field, which there is now a nice bike path to get there, and it only takes about 10 min to get there. If he is not playing baseball, he is watching it, and spent his nights out at the Saints games in town hanging out, or heading to Spring Lake to watch the 5-6th grade teams play their games. On some days he spent time at the DEC ( Dassel Entertainment Center) and does the batting cages, which crabby Frank needs to fix, Bailey says. They would order pizza and fries and waste a few hours hanging out there.
Bailey even won 4 passes at one of the Saints games to each of these Mall of America attractions, Nickelodeon Universe, Moose Mtn mini golf, Sky deck bowling, and House of Comedy...he wants to take 3 friends and go use them before summer is over.
We had a family reunion weekend in Wisc. in mid June, which our family packed up and headed out for. It was held at Bay Beach in Green Bay, hosted by my cousin Amy and her boyfriend Anthony. Bay Beach is a childhood memory, an small amusement park with 25 cent ride tickets. Back in the day I believe it was only 10 cents a ticket. They have improved rides, added rides and still have the same ole classics, along with a wooden rollercoaster, new this year. My kids are not much into rides so that didn't go over so well, but we had a good time visiting with family, some we only get to see once a year.
Here is us with Bay Beach behind us.
at the Wildlife Sanctuary across from Bay Beach
.
My family ( minus my cousin Jessica and her husband Bryan-- they had a wedding to attend that day, and my cousin Brad and his gf Megan, who couldn't be found in time for the pic, they were in Bay Beach)
The kids and I, then went back to WI a week later for 10 whole days. I do not believe that I have spent that many days in a row there since I lived in WI. It was a long time, but so fun. Why did I spend so many days in WI?? Well, first off Bailey had the Green Bay Gamblers hockey camp to attend. He had fun, it was a lot of work and I hope he learned a thing or two.
My parents, Lisa, Landon, Hannah and I went to watch Bailey the first morning of camp for a few hours, then took Hannah to the mall to waste the rest of the afternoon until Bailey was done at 3pm. We all went to the zoo the 2nd day.
We watched Bailey longer on the 3rd day, and made another trip to the mall and other stores, and finally the last and 4th day, mom, Hannah and I went to the Wildlife Sanctuary and Hannah loved that.
After hockey camp was over, it was the weekend and I got to go out to dinner with my friend of over 30 yrs, Renee, whom I haven't been able to sit down and talk to in quite some time. I also got to babysit Landon on Sat. night while Lisa and Wil went to a wedding.
Babysitting Landon (2 months old)
One of the reasons I stayed longer and didn't head home right after hockey camp was that my sister was still off of work for maternity leave, and I got to spend LOTS of time with her and Landon. Landon had grown just that little bit more since I saw him for that short weekend for the family reunion he was more alert and lots of smiles. He was a very good boy for me while I babysat and I was so glad I was able to do that and spend that time with him. Hannah came with for awhile right away and helped feed him and play with him. Mom and dad came over with Papa Murphy's pizza for supper and then Hannah went back with them so she could get to bed.
The 4th of July was just a few days away so we stayed until after the holiday. We spent Sunday in Oshkosh, had a wonderful lunch at Fratellos by the river. It was a warm day, but nice to be outside. We then headed to Sawdust Days in Oshkosh, where other years they alway had tigers on display, and always a baby tiger to get a picture with. Lisa and Wil had done this several times in past years, and the kids and I saw them the summer of 2007, I believe. Well we knew that they weren't there last year, I guess there was a issue with the tigers or getting them to the festival....so we weren't sure about this year. We decided to go and see and we were dissapointed to find out....no tigers this year either. We headed back :( We went to see grandma and grandpa in their new apartment later and had a nice visit with them and enjoyed seeing them.
Monday was the 4th, and we planned a picnic lunch in the park, there were blow up kids play sets that Hannah got to go on for free, until they started taking tickets for them, that we weren't sure were needed at first, since no one was taking them. oops :0
We watched the Wisconsin Singers from UW Madison for a bit and then headed over to the river for the water ski show. That was fun to watch, one boat had three 200 hp motors on it. FAST!!
It was another hot day, so staying in the shade was required. We had to save our spot for the waterski show and for the fireworks later that night, already at 8am!! My parents went down to the park early that morning to get our spots saved. Everyone lays out blankets and tarps, so if you don't save a spot you have a hard time seeing things. We went home for the rest of the afternoon after the water ski show and came back for the fireworks later. They were set to music this year so that was neat. It was a nice night.
We spent Tuesday packing up and went to see the movie Cars 2.
It was a long, busy 10 days, and the kids were really getting on each others nerves, more than usual, since they were stuck together most of the time.
It was good to get home, even though I spent 6 hours of driving to get home and 6 hours of cleaning the house after I got home, since Steve is not a very good at keeping up on the household duties. We had a big storm while I was gone, on July 1st, that brought down a big limb onto the south side of our garage. Steve had his hands full cutting up all that wood and cleaning up the yard. The storm also put a big hole in our pool from hail and it brought it to the end of it's exsistence. We have an insurance claim put in, but are still waiting on the adjuster to come out and look at the damage. There was a mix up on the day he was supposed to come, and now we have to just reschedule.
July continued on to bring us more baseball for Bailey, Hannah was in softball, and lots of HOT days well into the 100's for a heat index. It was pretty miserable with only 2 AC window units trying to keep this old house cool. At least we had that though, without any air, we would have surely withered. Since Bailey has the upstairs unit in his room he was good to go, but there were several nights the rest of us slept downstairs, since our rooms were so hot.
We are in August already and the summer has flown by. My weight loss regamin has kept me busy, It's been tough 7 months, but my struggles have paid off and I have lost 50 lbs. I have a very strict plan and some added support, both of which I really needed, so I am really doing it this time. Stay tuned and I will write more on all of that soon.
However August brings all those yucky bugs, bees & wasps which I could do without. School shopping begins, State Fair to attend, garage sale to set up, and Hannah's birthday to prepare for among every day life that keeps going on.
May was a sad month and tough to get through the last weeks of school after Hannah's friends death. It was, and still is constant thoughts of her and her family. Hannah had a tough time adjusting, and tried to focus her thoughts with her current friendships and make the most of the time she has with them. Her friends mean the world to her.
Hannah had a rough patch with her diabetes at this time, where she had consistantly low blood sugars. Occassional lows are expected, but every test was her staying very low and it was a bit scary. Lows are not too common with her, as we are always combatting the highs that come with being diabetic, but somehow her body was telling us no matter what dose of insulin we gave, it wasn't what she needed. The low blood sugars are always more concerning that the high ones, more risk of her loosing consciousness, and ending up in a coma. Not something I ever want to deal with. We lowered her doses to about half of what she normally got and by the time we got that to work, things were starting to go back up, and we had to readjust again. The life of diabetes. Things since then have been pretty good regarding the lows. So glad we don't see them too often, because lows really kick her butt and she hates how that feels compared to the highs.
Mid May is when we headed to WI for the JDRF's Walk to Cure Diabetes, Northeast WI chapter in Neenah's Riverside Park area. It was a 5K walk through the streets of Neenah. There were over 2000 people in attendance. Another moving experience in the life of type 1 kids and their families. Team Hannah's Hopeful Hearts met our goal for this walk and raised over $500. We had a good time and plan to do it again next year. Some day there will be a cure, until then we will continue to raise money and walk for that cure.
Later that night we attended church, which included Landon's baptism. Steve and I were sponsers, along with Wil's bro, Joe. Steve unfortunately wasn't able to make it literally at the very last moment for this entire weekend, before leaving we found out we really didn't have the money to travel and he needed to work to make ends meet. I barrowed money from my parents so I could at least be there, for the baptism and the Walk because the thought of not going just about killed me.
Memorial weekend marked 10 years since we signed the papers to purchase our house in Dassel. When we purchased this house 10 years ago, we never thought in a million years we would still be here. Now it looks as though we will never leave, not by choice. HA!!
June was a fun month....kids completed grades 7 and 3 with flying colors. Bailey pulled it all together in the end and had a great report card all A's and B's and one C+. He struggles with focus during the school year and puts other things priority over school work and excelling in school, but he tries hard and I am amazed at how little work he puts into it and still does well. As a parent, however, I want him to do his best, so he needs to work on that aspect. Hannah excells in everything she does. Her math and reading skills are top notch and she still loves school. The teachers and staff at Dassel Elem. are the best and make it a fun place to learn and grow.
Summer always starts out with baseball for Bailey, which keeps him and us busy. This summer was the first summer he travelled to play other teams and he was part of an all 7th grade DC team. He played teams from Maple Lake, Annandale, Delano, Howard Lake, and Buffalo. He even got to play againest his cousin, Bryer, vs. Delano for the first time. Fun games. They had a very good season ending 10-4, and got to play in a tournament in Hutchinson. They won only one of their games there and their season ended pretty quickly. Bailey got to do alot of pitching this summer, and he practiced alot in the backyard and seems to like it.
Besides Bailey playing on a team, he spends alot of his summer days with friends at the field just playing for fun. We live about 2-3 blocks from the "Dassel Saints" field, or they go to Spring Lake field, which there is now a nice bike path to get there, and it only takes about 10 min to get there. If he is not playing baseball, he is watching it, and spent his nights out at the Saints games in town hanging out, or heading to Spring Lake to watch the 5-6th grade teams play their games. On some days he spent time at the DEC ( Dassel Entertainment Center) and does the batting cages, which crabby Frank needs to fix, Bailey says. They would order pizza and fries and waste a few hours hanging out there.
Bailey even won 4 passes at one of the Saints games to each of these Mall of America attractions, Nickelodeon Universe, Moose Mtn mini golf, Sky deck bowling, and House of Comedy...he wants to take 3 friends and go use them before summer is over.
We had a family reunion weekend in Wisc. in mid June, which our family packed up and headed out for. It was held at Bay Beach in Green Bay, hosted by my cousin Amy and her boyfriend Anthony. Bay Beach is a childhood memory, an small amusement park with 25 cent ride tickets. Back in the day I believe it was only 10 cents a ticket. They have improved rides, added rides and still have the same ole classics, along with a wooden rollercoaster, new this year. My kids are not much into rides so that didn't go over so well, but we had a good time visiting with family, some we only get to see once a year.
Here is us with Bay Beach behind us.
at the Wildlife Sanctuary across from Bay Beach
.
My family ( minus my cousin Jessica and her husband Bryan-- they had a wedding to attend that day, and my cousin Brad and his gf Megan, who couldn't be found in time for the pic, they were in Bay Beach)
The kids and I, then went back to WI a week later for 10 whole days. I do not believe that I have spent that many days in a row there since I lived in WI. It was a long time, but so fun. Why did I spend so many days in WI?? Well, first off Bailey had the Green Bay Gamblers hockey camp to attend. He had fun, it was a lot of work and I hope he learned a thing or two.
My parents, Lisa, Landon, Hannah and I went to watch Bailey the first morning of camp for a few hours, then took Hannah to the mall to waste the rest of the afternoon until Bailey was done at 3pm. We all went to the zoo the 2nd day.
We watched Bailey longer on the 3rd day, and made another trip to the mall and other stores, and finally the last and 4th day, mom, Hannah and I went to the Wildlife Sanctuary and Hannah loved that.
After hockey camp was over, it was the weekend and I got to go out to dinner with my friend of over 30 yrs, Renee, whom I haven't been able to sit down and talk to in quite some time. I also got to babysit Landon on Sat. night while Lisa and Wil went to a wedding.
Babysitting Landon (2 months old)
One of the reasons I stayed longer and didn't head home right after hockey camp was that my sister was still off of work for maternity leave, and I got to spend LOTS of time with her and Landon. Landon had grown just that little bit more since I saw him for that short weekend for the family reunion he was more alert and lots of smiles. He was a very good boy for me while I babysat and I was so glad I was able to do that and spend that time with him. Hannah came with for awhile right away and helped feed him and play with him. Mom and dad came over with Papa Murphy's pizza for supper and then Hannah went back with them so she could get to bed.
The 4th of July was just a few days away so we stayed until after the holiday. We spent Sunday in Oshkosh, had a wonderful lunch at Fratellos by the river. It was a warm day, but nice to be outside. We then headed to Sawdust Days in Oshkosh, where other years they alway had tigers on display, and always a baby tiger to get a picture with. Lisa and Wil had done this several times in past years, and the kids and I saw them the summer of 2007, I believe. Well we knew that they weren't there last year, I guess there was a issue with the tigers or getting them to the festival....so we weren't sure about this year. We decided to go and see and we were dissapointed to find out....no tigers this year either. We headed back :( We went to see grandma and grandpa in their new apartment later and had a nice visit with them and enjoyed seeing them.
Monday was the 4th, and we planned a picnic lunch in the park, there were blow up kids play sets that Hannah got to go on for free, until they started taking tickets for them, that we weren't sure were needed at first, since no one was taking them. oops :0
We watched the Wisconsin Singers from UW Madison for a bit and then headed over to the river for the water ski show. That was fun to watch, one boat had three 200 hp motors on it. FAST!!
It was another hot day, so staying in the shade was required. We had to save our spot for the waterski show and for the fireworks later that night, already at 8am!! My parents went down to the park early that morning to get our spots saved. Everyone lays out blankets and tarps, so if you don't save a spot you have a hard time seeing things. We went home for the rest of the afternoon after the water ski show and came back for the fireworks later. They were set to music this year so that was neat. It was a nice night.
We spent Tuesday packing up and went to see the movie Cars 2.
It was a long, busy 10 days, and the kids were really getting on each others nerves, more than usual, since they were stuck together most of the time.
It was good to get home, even though I spent 6 hours of driving to get home and 6 hours of cleaning the house after I got home, since Steve is not a very good at keeping up on the household duties. We had a big storm while I was gone, on July 1st, that brought down a big limb onto the south side of our garage. Steve had his hands full cutting up all that wood and cleaning up the yard. The storm also put a big hole in our pool from hail and it brought it to the end of it's exsistence. We have an insurance claim put in, but are still waiting on the adjuster to come out and look at the damage. There was a mix up on the day he was supposed to come, and now we have to just reschedule.
July continued on to bring us more baseball for Bailey, Hannah was in softball, and lots of HOT days well into the 100's for a heat index. It was pretty miserable with only 2 AC window units trying to keep this old house cool. At least we had that though, without any air, we would have surely withered. Since Bailey has the upstairs unit in his room he was good to go, but there were several nights the rest of us slept downstairs, since our rooms were so hot.
We are in August already and the summer has flown by. My weight loss regamin has kept me busy, It's been tough 7 months, but my struggles have paid off and I have lost 50 lbs. I have a very strict plan and some added support, both of which I really needed, so I am really doing it this time. Stay tuned and I will write more on all of that soon.
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