7 years ago today I was in the hospital giving birth to my beautiful and brave daughter, Sophia Elizabeth.  It is always on my children's birthdays that I stop and take the time to actually think about the little miracles that they are . . .



I was in labor all day . . . . she was finally delivered at 4:27 pm . . . . funny how the memory of the pain disappears as soon as your sweet baby is placed into your arms!

I takes 2 people to create a life but only a woman, a mother experiences carrying a child for 9 months.  Only a mother feels a life growing inside, only a mother feels the flutter of the 1st kick, only a mother wakes up 13 times per night to pee, only a mother experiences the excruciating pain and absolute joy of childbirth.

I'm not going to lie I hated being pregnant ----- yep, I did not glow AT ALL.  I was pretty miserable the entire 9 months.  I usually started begging my OB to get the baby out ASAP around 35 weeks and I wasn't kidding.  But that being said I would do it again 100 times for the joy that each one of my children brings me.

So, 7 years ago today Sophie was born and each year on this day we celebrate her life with cake, balloons, gifts and wonderful memories.  However, today this seventh anniversary of her birth I am sitting here without her. I'm trying to distract myself by staying extremely busy thus my 1st blog post in a very, very long time.  My tears streak and stain my face right now as I sit here missing her beautiful smile.  I know that she is having fun with her daddy.  They are roller skating which she loves but my heart hurts and no distraction in the world can replace spending the day with my daughter on her special day.

It is me that gave birth to her, it is me that was there for her 1st word, 1st step.  It was me that got up each night with her as a new born.  It was me that was there when she was diagnosed with Crohn's ---- it is me that sits with her every 6 weeks at her Remicade treatments.  Call me selfish all you want but I think the courts have it wrong with this one . . . . she should be with me today.

I missed her last night when I went to bed ---- I usually wait until they are all asleep and decorate the kitchen, put the cake on the table for birthday breakfast and place her gifts around her spot at the table.

I missed her when I woke up ---- I missed seeing her run to the kitchen, I missed eating cake at 7am, I missed seeing the joy in her eyes as we sing happy birthday and I missed her sweet, sweet kisses.



Divorce is hard. I know that. I'm living it. Being away from my children is hard always. Being away from them on Christmas (yep, that happened) and birthdays is excruciating.

So, today on the 7th anniversary of Sophia's birth I want you all to know how amazingly strong, brave, sweet, beautiful and fierce she really is ----- Her 7 year old self has been through more than my 40 year old self can imagine and she does it all with grace, strength and remains sweet and charming throughout  every single thing that stupid Crohn's throws her way.  She is truly the bravest little girl that I know.  I do not take hero status lightly and I am telling you right now . . . she is my hero.  My beautiful, sweet, little hero.



Happy Birthday, Sweet Sophie Doodle.  Your mommy loves you to the moon and back and back and back and . . . .




Trying hard to keep calm and carry on . . .

The years seem to fly by . . . how is it that it has been 3 years since Nate's diagnosis of type 1 diabetes?  I rarely get sad about Nate's diagnosis anymore but this evening when I realized that tomorrow was September 17th it hit me hard.  I've been a blubbering mess all evening.  

I read Nate's diagnosis story and was taken back to that day.  One of the worst days of my life.  Is Nate healthy and happy today?  --- Yes, he's a healthy, happy, holy terror really!  It doesn't change the fact though that he was diagnosed 3 years ago with a lifelong medical condition that requires a ton of vigilance to keep him alive.  

I found the synonyms interesting for the word vigilant.  It is possible only a D-parent will understand  how appropriate those synonyms really are. 

vig·i·lant/ˈvijələnt/

Three years ago I made a promise to Nate and to myself. 

I promised I would never let diabetes define Nate Houston. 

Diabetes is not who he is ---- diabetes is what he has.  
Nate is a spectacular 4 year old little boy that happens to have diabetes.

He also happens to have had his blood sugar checked (finger poked with a needle) over 16,500 times, received over 700 shots of insulin via syringe, and had over 300 pod changes which includes a very large needle inserting a catheter beneath his skin to deliver insulin.  

Wow ----- that my friends is pretty spectacular.  

He is a brave little boy.  
He is a warrior little boy.

He is amazing!! ...and although I am mostly desensitized to the above facts I am occasionally reminded when I see other children watching in horror as I check Nate's sugar or change his insulin pump that it is this is not everyone's normal.  Although it is our normal it should not be . . . I am still hopeful for better technology, better insulin, better everything . . . . and most of all I am still hopeful for a cure.   

This year we are walking to raise awareness and money for JDRF --- the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundations.  

 JDRF is the leading global organization focused on type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. Driven by passionate, grassroots volunteers connected to children, adolescents, and adults with this disease, JDRF is now the largest charitable supporter of T1D research. The goal of JDRF research is to improve the lives of all people affected by T1D by accelerating progress on the most promising opportunities for curing, better treating, and preventing T1D. JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners who share this goal.


In honor of Nate's 3 year anniversary of living with diabetes I would like to reach our fundraising goal for Nate's JDRF walk team.  If you would like to make a donation --- please click the blow link:

Team Super Nate - Sponsored by Quick Sticks 

I cannot imagine life without T1D but I'm guessing I could get used to it pretty fast!!  

Thank you so much to all that have already made donations ---- we look forward to sharing our walk day photos with you all. 


Keep calm and Hope for a Cure . . . 

Date: September 29, 2012 Walk Location: Oak Point Park - Spring Creek Pkwy @ Jupiter Rd 2801 E. Spring Creek Pkwy Plano, TX Registration Start Time: 7:30 AM Walk Start Time: 9:00 AM

Keep Calm and Walk On!!

I can't believe that tomorrow is Sophie's 5th round of Remicade.  I'm pretty sure I haven't blogged about Sophie since . . . .The Shit that is Crohn's.  If you haven't read that one.  Do it.  I just read it again and it made me cry.  I hate to cry alone.

As you can see from the above pictures Sophie is a little trooper when it comes to infusion day. She doesn't like getting the IV inserted (who does?) but the nurses and child life specialist help keep her distracted during insertion.  It takes about 4 hours and she usually plays Wii, watches movies, plays with the iPad and sometimes sleeps.  They still give her Tylenol and Benedryl before the infusion to counteract any reaction she might have.  Those 2 combined are enough to knock me on my behind!

All in all the Remicade is helping Sophie with her Crohn's symptoms.  It was truly a miracle how quickly it began to work in the hospital.  Amazing.  She improved within a day.

She has completely normal poops now and has also stopped bleeding.  Her labs have been slower to improve which is frustrating.  Her hemoglobin continues to stay a bit low and her inflammation although improved is still a bit concerning. We tried to go 7 weeks between infusions and that didn't work so we are going to stick with 6 and see how that goes this time.  The problem that we have now is she has terrible stomach pain.  Her gut just hurts.  A lot.  We started a new medication (took her off of Nexium) called Cyproheptadine (4 MG).  She has been on it for about 4 weeks -- it's supposed to help with the pain but I haven't seen a huge improvement but I'm willing to give it a little bit more time.  She can't do anything for a long period of time.  If we swim, she will swim for a bit but them wants to go inside and get in bed. It's the same story for just about any activity that we try to do.  She just doesn't feel great and it hurts this momma's heart.

I'm looking forward to meeting with her doctor tomorrow to get her thoughts on the continued belly pain.  They always do a blood draw so I'm going to ask them to run another Celiac screening just to rule that out.  Otherwise I'm at a loss.

All in all she is SO much better but just not quite 100% yet.  With each day we continue to have hope that the next process will improve her quality of life.  Forever Hopeful.

Keep calm and Hope on . . .

School starts next week for my littles.  I've been counting down the days ---- truth!  Does that make me a bad mom ---- maybe?!  Or just a really tired one!  As excited as I am about back to school I'm just as scared and nervous.  I was doing fine until I started filling out all of the medical forms --- yes, the same ones that I filled out last year.  The diabetes ones are exhausting ----

Medication Request Forms
Diabetes Management Plan
Insulin Pump Physician Orders
Authorization for Administration of Diabetes Management and Care Services by Unlicensed Diabetes Care Assistant ---- what the what??
Section 504

The list seems to go on and on . . .


I find the 504 pretty easy --- cut and dry.  You will allow this and will not do this.  The management plan is the one that is so hard.  I find it incredibly difficult to plan out how to treat diabetes! When does diabetes ever stick to the given plan?

Here is what I have come up with for Super Nate:

Diabetes Management (Care Plan) for Nate
Our basic plan for care.

Diabetes Cheat Sheet
I have these laminated and hanging on the wall of any area Nate will be in during school

Section 504
Nate attends a public pre-school within our school district so he qualifies for a Section 504

Lanyard Tags
These are hanging on Nate's diabetes bag that goes with him everywhere
Huge thanks to Heidi at D-Tales for these.  HUGE HIT!!

Section 504 Information
I created this document to hand out at our last OmniPod meet and greet



I could not have done any of this without these great bloggers ---- Mommy bloggers are the best!  Thank you, Ladies for blazing the trail and making it so much easier for the rest of us.  

Thank you all so much for entering to win the Quick Sticks drawing, Facebooking about it, Tweeting about it and liking the Quick Sticks Facebook page.  I hope you all also checked out the Quick Sticks website and signed up for a free sample of Quick Sticks.  Most importantly I hope you or your kiddos will love them as much as Nate does!




I let Random.org pick the winner this morning.


And the winner is . . . . 




Entry #4


Alexis Nicole from Chronicles of D-Boy and Ribbon




Thank you all again for entering and check back next month because Quick Sticks is going to allow me to give away another Quick Sticks package including the following items:


Here's what you will WIN:


A box of Sour Apple Quick Sticks
A box of Watermelon Quick Sticks
(12 Sticks per Box)
A Quick Sticks Drawstring Bag
A Quick Sticks T Shirt
A Quick Sticks Wrist Band



Congratulations, Alexis!!



See you all (hopefully) again next month!

It has been a long time since I've given anything away so I thought (probably out loud to myself), what the heck, Laura Leigh ---- let's give something away!  So, I asked my good friends at Quick Sticks if I could give away their product and they were kind enough to say YES!

The above picture was taken a few weeks ago while I was working with the awesome Quick Sticks team at Camp Sweeney. They let me tell Nate's story and help give away goodies!

I think I've posted on Facebook a couple of times about how much Nate loves these but nothing is ever official until it's on THE BLOG!

So . . . Hey . . . Nate loves these!




LOVES THEM!  And . . . so do both girls!



Here's the deets:

•   Gluten Free
•   230% of recommended daily Vitamin C
•   10 Grams of CARBS per stick
•   Mother and Kid approved!
•   Durable packaging
•   No water needed! Pour right into your mouth

Here's what you will WIN:


A box of Sour Apple Quick Sticks
A box of Watermelon Quick Sticks
(12 Sticks per Box)
A Quick Sticks Drawstring Bag
A Quick Sticks T Shirt
A Quick Sticks Wrist Band



Here's the Rules: