Summer Fun!

Did you just look at the calendar and realize there are only two weeks left of summer break for your kiddos?! Wishing you could fit in one last hurrah? I would love to tell you about our most recent water adventure that the WHOLE family LOVED!

Waterworks Park, in Pueblo, CO (linked)

On Monday this week we loaded up our van with all seven of us, life jackets, tubes, boogie boards, and a picnic. We took off to check out the Waterworks Park. I get really nervous trying things for the first time with Tim or guests... I want to know all the tips and tricks and get the kinks worked out with low stakes. Thankfully I had a tip from one of my past professors on where to park and the day was flawless! I want to share our tips with you so you don’t have to worry about trying it for the first time with your family. 

Things to know: 

• Where to park (picture and also info in the link above).
• Life jackets are required for all swimmers (Walmart has a great 2 for $20 on the 50-90lb jackets)
• Tubes are fun, but not necessary ($4.95 at Walmart)
• Walk the whole area first so you can access which area might be best for your kiddos. Our girls were fine, but they are use to the river and currents. We were pretty happy to have a good adult to kid ratio. 
• Bring a wagon - this is a must, it's a bit of a trek down (and back up) from the car. 
• Bring lunch, and more snacks, and water than you think you might need, because I have a feeling you won't want to leave!
• Water shoes might be helpful ... we are used to not wearing them, but at the same time I was wishing I had my Chacos. 

Throughout the day we all said, "This is awesome," on repeat. At the end of the day it really felt like we had a full day at a water park! The best part was that even with purchasing one life jacket and some tubes, I think we still came out at about 1/20th of the price it would have cost for us to all go to Water World. And there were NO lines, and NO traffic. It was a quick 44 minute drive from our rental house and we are pretty excited that it will only be about a 25 minute drive from our house in Penrose next summer! 

Please reach out if you have any questions, I can't wait to see the pictures and videos of you and your family if you choose to visit and enjoy this space! 

T1D Barbie Thoughts

 

Mattel announced on Tuesday that it would launch its first Barbie doll with Type 1 Diabetes. Within the first 24 hours I was sent the information or tagged by four individuals. While I appreciate the normalization for my daughter and other T1D’s out there, I struggle internally with the concept. 

I absolutely hope and pray that more individuals are willing to see devices on others and have understanding and knowledge versus gawking, pointing and whispering. I appreciate the heart behind the concept of normalization through play. I find myself asking, does it take a doll for this to happen? In the same breath, I will forever wish that diabetes wasn’t a thing. 

According to Beyond Type 1, in the U.S. there are approximately 64,000 people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes each year. That means the number of cases of T1D are on the rise, so much so that Barbie is willing to take a gamble to create a doll for profit in this population. There are now enough kids with the disease that they know they will not take a loss of profit by putting the dolls on shelves. Note: At this point it is unclear if any proceeds from the doll will go to diabetes research at all. 

In the early days of Karoline’s diagnosis we paid for her devices, treatment and insulin as cash pay patients. We paid at least $1,100/month. The lifelong change, daily struggles, the cost associated with this disease are astronomical hits on the individual and their family. So, to see a doll that has been created to make even MORE money off individuals with this disease is disheartening. 

I do want to note that when Karoline was diagnosed she did receive the T1D kit for her American Girl doll and appreciated it. She also has since put her pump sets on dolls and stuffed animals. It is nice to have normalization in her life. As her mom I will forever and always wish that a T1D “doll kit” or a Barbie doll with diabetes wasn’t a thing. I wish things like this didn’t exist, because I wish the disease didn’t exist. 

We are so thankful for all of the support we have in our lives for Karoline. May I ask a favor? Keep praying for a true cure, one that allows Karoline’s pancreas to fully function again on its own, and for it to happen soon. Even further, let’s pray that there is a way to figure out what causes a pancreas to quit so that we can prevent the need to correct a faulty pancreas. 

Update: One Month Post Moving

I’ve had the urge to write lately and I’ve had more and more thoughts in my head for stories to write. Yet, before I can do this I have to be able to write something to completion. I’m opting for a quick little update on our life. 

Right now someone is shooting off fireworks that I can see outside my new north facing back window. I’m sitting in our rental house that has new carpet, yet still smells like an old house. Part of me is tempted to use fabric softener, candles and every single trick in the chemical book to make it go away. And yet, so much of me is terrified of endocrine disruptors that instead I’ve added all the things to my cart to make a natural smell eliminator.

It’s been one month since we first started moving and only just this past Sunday did it feel like we were truly home. Granted, it still looks like an aisle of Hobby Lobby in front of me, I need to decide what to hang in this house and what to just keep in storage. Part of me doesn’t want to hang anything, part of me wants to hang it all… mostly so I don’t have to store it and also because my girls are going to live their 11th and 13th year in this house and I want them to remember it fondly. 

As of today Tim and I have read half way through our Bible in a year and I am beyond thankful for this routine that has grounded me and strengthened my own faith. Not only have I experienced growth, but our marriage has benefited greatly from this routine as well. We also listen to our church's morning prayer together via Facebook Live. These routines are something that I cherish. Spending this time together is valuable. 

Both the girls seem to be adjusting ok. Karoline recently got back from her first T1D camp. She had fun, but she was quite homesick and felt abandoned. It makes me sick thinking about how she felt. I myself was and am quite the homebody. Alex has had headaches for quite some time and she has started complaining about them more and more. We are going to get some blood work done on Thursday to see if we can figure out what is going on. I’m pretty worried about her and would appreciate your prayers for her, for answers and for really easy solutions.  

If you’ve read this far you deserve to know the rest of what I want to tell you. For Mother’s Day I got myself another Apple Watch and I’ve been wearing it more and more frequently. In the last two weeks I’ve had a harder time taking deep breaths. This is a fun little symptom my body likes to take on when I’m overwhelmed. I’m not sure if this is related to the constant connection that the watch brings. Maybe? When I try to think of why this overwhelming feeling is happening the biggest one is that I want more slow days. I simply want more summer. It’s so fleeting, it will be gone before I know it and the cold and dark will be back and I just need more summer in my life. And nearly half of my summer (and the girls’) was spent moving, and unpacking and repacking for new carpet and unpacking. In the moment I was able to be positive and thankful that with all of the moving came a lot of time with my family. That really was a blessing. I also know summer is a season and it’s ok if in this season of change for our family if we didn’t get to do all the things we normally get to do. It’s ok if I didn’t optimize all of my time to be outside time. It’s ok if I’m not as tan as I have been in the summers of the past.  

With each new season there is beauty and I do recognize and appreciate them all. With just about one month left of summer break, in which I will spend five days at training, I vow to be slower. To say no to more so that I can say yes to more games and making homemade coffee. To paint the table I want to paint. To write more. I really want to write a book. I have started so many and never finished them. I want to explore a potential new outlet for helping my husband and our future. 

So, here’s to making lists that sit for a little while. Ones that are ok to grow at a faster rate than they get checked off. Here’s to saying yes to random excursions when we want to. But the biggest, “Here’s to,” I’ve got to stick to is staying in the moment. When I can stay in the moment I don’t need five or six attempts while sitting in a movie to take a deep breath. “Elio,” is really cute by the way. 

Buy Dirt on Wide Open Spaces

I was driving my white VW Passat, with a one year old Karoline in the back seat. We had just gotten done swimming at my friend's parent's house on Dalmatian Drive. I approached the intersection of the two cut-de-sac's and I looked to my right. There was one last little lot left in the neighborhood and I wondered, why hasn't that lot sold? 

Fast forward and I can now see that God had reserved that lot for us! We bought that last little lot on Dalmatian Drive with the plan to build a house and sell it. The time has come for that plan to become a reality. We lived in this house a bit longer than we ever thought we would, and yet the plan has always been the same. This house was intended to be and is our stepping stone. 

Like the song says, you can't buy happiness, but you can buy dirt and that's what we plan to do. We are very hopeful to buy a few acres. We need, "Wide Open Spaces," so many song ref
erences. We dream of a forever home, Tim's shop with plenty of room for all of his trailers and future heavy duty equipment, a garden, chickens, an orchard, a putting green, and maybe even one day a pool. 

While all of that sounds lovely, our ultimate goal is to owe no man anything. When we left Westminster we set out with this goal in mind, it guided the purchase of our land on Dalmatian Drive, hoping and praying that this land would be the land that would allow us to leap frog in our goal. 

We LOVE this house, the location is lovely and I got to live out my childhood dream of living in a tree house. 

I was asked if I am sad to leave the home we built, and without hesitation I responded, "Nope." I am so thankful for the mindset of knowing this is a choice, this is something we GET to do. We do not have to sell this house, we do not have to move. We WANT to move. 

What's in store for us? Well, Lord willing, it will be a year of living in a camper on our land while we all work together to build our house. We are so very excited for this opportunity. Stay tuned, we plan to share the progress on our YouTube channel: @2one4life! 

A special thank you to Carla Braddy and her team for making our house look as incredible as we have always felt it is. Photo credits to Aaron Garcia of Yellow Drone Media LLC. The listing of our home: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/523-Dalmatian-Dr-Canon-City-CO-81212/218699827_zpid/

Unexpected Understanding

Two years ago today I took a photo of my baby girl in a hospital bed not knowing if she would live. Today she thrives. Thank you, Lord.

You might think, she *just* has diabetes, because until you know, you just don’t know, and that’s ok. I didn’t know it was “that serious” either. I’m here to share Karoline’s story with you, on her Diabetes Diagnosis Anniversary. You can find it linked here. We are so thankful for insulin, the doctors and nurses who helped guide her body out of Diabetic Ketoacidosis and for the intuition that led me to ask for blood work. While I don’t want to pat myself on the back, I also can weep at the thought of what would have happened had I not asked for blood work on August 11, 2022.

Hear my request, if something doesn’t seem right, please ask for blood work. It’s a simple procedure that can give so many answers to what is happening within a body. If your doctor says no, find a new one.

If you’ve read this far, I would like to share a positive that diabetes has brought to my life as Karoline’s mom.

As a believer there are times I doubt, I doubt why in the world God would save me, save us? How does that even work because we are awful and we get a lot of things really wrong. And then, I was staring at my child, made in my image, suffering (a child who is not awful, she lives in a fallen world, one where a body can turn against itself). In that moment, and every moment since then I have prayed that I could take the sickness from her, that I could take on the burden for her.

If my meager human love for my child could prompt me to wish so badly that I could take that on for her, why then would God be any different? He is an almighty God who saw His children suffering, and because He is God and he loves us He did interfere, He came in human flesh and died on the Cross for us. He did for all of us what I pray I could do for Karoline. The love of a Father (or mother) for their child is strong, it holds more value and worth than I think we can even comprehend here on this Earth. I know now I can see this in our God saving us.

He took our place.

He saved us.

He gave us grace.

He is good.

I am not, nor will I ever claim to be a very knowledgeable follower of Christ. I’m doing the best I can with what I have in front of me. I am certain I get it wrong every day. I also know that in sharing this message has been on my heart for days that maybe one person needed to hear it. Maybe one person wants to meet me at church to learn more. In that case being vulnerable and open to ridicule because, “Who does she think she is? I’ve seen her yell at her kids. I’ve heard her gossip. I know she’s gotten a traffic ticket…” whatever it might be, I know I’m fallen, I know I need Jesus, and I also need you. I need those around me to hold me accountable and I will love you more for it.

In the darkest hour of my life I found reassurance in my faith. In my brightest of days I pray to be a child that was worth saving, who is thankful for the grace of a very good God.

Connections

 Sitting in the airport in Panama City, Florida, a gentleman sat down across from me. He was wearing a Vietnam Veterans hat. 

My inner monologue sounded something like this, “Just talk to him… tell him thank you and about your book.”

Meanwhile the Southwest Airlines computer monitor and the airport monitor had conflicting information. One screen said our flight was delayed, the other said it was on time. I overheard the Veteran telling someone on the phone he wasn’t sure if he would be delayed or not. 

Then one of the flight attendants behind me told someone else we were not delayed. When the Veteran got off the phone I relayed the information to him. Still trying to figure out how to tell him thank you for his service. 

A few minutes later he opened the line of communication.

Veteran: Are you from California (pointing to my San Diego zip up sweatshirt)?

Me: No, I’m from Colorado. I am a teacher and got to go to training in San Diego last month.

V: My daughter is a 6th grade teacher in Texas. What do you teach?

Me: I am a high school English teacher.

V: Takes a deep breath, and with the most profound amount of caring in his voice said, “I think what you and my daughter do is incredible work.”

Me: (Pointing to his Vietnam hat) I was going to say the same to you! I’m learning about the Vietnam war from a book I’m reading. What you did and went through was powerful and …

V: My wife read that book! 

Me: I wanted so badly to get to ask you about your experience and tell you thank you. I also have been very curious if the author did a good job with the story and the facts?

V: I haven’t read it, but my wife paused and asked me questions often. It was well done. My wife said it was the first time she could truly begin to understand what I/we went through. 

V {Leaning in, and trying to hurry, our plane was starting to board}: Can I tell you a story? 

In Vietnam I flew an F4. There was a mission where we had to go to Hanoi, that’s a city in your book, and drop what we had (some form of ammunition). However, it was a misty day and we had to go in blind. We knew we (U.S.) had men on the ground, eight of them. We had to complete the mission even though they were there. 

I live in Texas now, and in 1981 (I knew I would remember the year, because that’s the year Tim was born) we had a drainage problem… Long story short, I hired someone to fix it. We got to talking and the man I hired was a Vietnam Vet as well. We discovered he was there that day, the day we had to drop blind. I was able to ask him if all eight of our men made it out. And they did. {Sits back in visual relief}

Me: That gave me goosebumps. What an incredible story. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. 

V: You can tell that story to anyone. And I have more I can send you. 

Me: {…reaching for my phone, but it was charging out of reach}

V {Opens his wallet and hands me his card}: Email me and I will email you back.

Me: Yes sir, I absolutely will. {Reaching out my hand} I’m Jamie, it was very nice to meet you and thank you for your story and your service.

V: Jamie, I’m John. Take care.

As I got on the plane I saw John in the first seat on the plane and he pointed at me and told me he looked forward to my email. 

I told Tim the story of my interaction with John that I just told you on our way home from the Colorado Springs airport, and he informed me that the F4 sits right outside of Fremont County Airport. 

When I woke up this morning I was in such an emotional state thinking about getting to email John. I know without a doubt the book, “The Women,” by Kristen Hannah had me captivated and eager to learn more from page one. It was an incredible opportunity to learn more about a time in history I knew nothing about. Reading this book gave me the opportunity to have the interaction with John. 

Tim and I have had several conversations while having our morning coffee on the back deck this summer about the good stuff in life, the things we are chasing after. We always come back to the connections. Human connections with people, our people, people we care about and connections with men like John. 

My heart hurt while reading the book, “The Women,” in a good way. It impacted me greatly, I told just about everyone I came in contact with about it and how important it was to me to learn about this part of our history. 

I want to thank all of the women and men who were in the armed forces during the Vietnam war. I would love to hear your stories, if you are ready to share them. In the meantime, I think one thing I can do is urge everyone I know to read Kristen Hannah’s book, “The Women.” 

Purpose

When I was little and someone asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I would respond I wanted to be famous, and a few years later it was a bit more elaborate in that I wanted to be the next Julia Roberts. 

In high schools I wanted to be a doctor, then a teacher, in college I gravitated towards the communications field and wanted to be a sportscaster. 

Thankfully I was blessed enough to have a family. The only job I ever truly knew with 100% certainty that I wanted was to be a mom. 

After becoming a mom I then took the alternative license route to becoming a teacher. All the while, writing here and there weaved its way through the background of my life. 

When Alexandra was born she had food allergies. I had to avoid so many foods while nursing her. In this time I really learned a lot. Thankfully we were living in Denver so being Colorado Crunchy wasn't weird or out of the norm. Since then I've continued to strive to make good healthy diet choices for our family. I'm not perfect and often times need reminders to get back on track. 

Last August Karoline was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Since then we haven't had to change a whole lot about our diet. This was a huge blessing that we already ate in a way that didn't make a diabetic diet a huge shock. We have learned a lot about nutrition and how our bodies process foods since her diagnosis. Recently I ordered the book, "Sugar-Free Kids," by Maria Emmerich. The information in this text has transformed my whole world in regards to foods. A blessing and a curse in my life is that once I know better, I can't go back to the way I was. I have to move forward and remember what I know. 

For the past 20 years I have chased after dreams, jobs, and goals. I have had moments that have sparked little flames inside of me to learn and do more. The topic of nutrition and the chance to help others learn more about how to live a lifestyle based on whole foods and exercise has me on fire. 

I told my husband, Tim, if I could go back and redo life I would go to school to learn about nutrition. However, after reading, "Big Magic," by Elizabeth Gilbert, she confirmed what I've always thought. I do not need a proper educational setting to learn. So here I am, publicly declaring I will learn more and I will share what I learn. I will lead by example and I will be available to talk to those who are excited to learn more, need support and need a helping hand. 

My mission is to empower others to lead vibrant and fulfilling lives by embracing a healthy lifestyle through mindful choices in diet and exercise. I believe optimal well-being is achieved when we nourish our bodies with wholesome, nutrient-rich foods and engage in regular physical activity.

By sharing I strive to inspire individuals to prioritize their health and make conscious decisions that positively impact their overall well-being. I promote the understanding that healthy living is a lifelong journey, and every small step counts towards a greater transformation.

I advocate for a balanced approach to nutrition, emphasizing the importance of consuming a variety of whole foods, abundant in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. 

Furthermore, I recognize regular exercise is fundamental to achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I aim to inspire and guide individuals in finding physical activities that bring them joy and promote their overall fitness. 

I believe in the power of community and collaboration, fostering a supportive environment where individuals can share experiences, seek guidance, and celebrate achievements. 

Ultimately, my mission is to help individuals transform their lives by embracing a holistic approach to health through thoughtful choices in diet and exercise. I strive to share knowledge, guidance, and inspiration necessary for individuals to thrive physically, mentally, and emotionally, leading to a life of vitality and fulfillment.