I'm back......

Yup. I'm back. I've been missing for way too long, but posting has just not been on my radar. After the past month, I have been so tired and busy and then tired again, that I haven't even had time to post about my fantastic vacation! What a horrible thing!

I had such a fantastic time on my trip. I visited with one of my best friends in the world, and her beautiful son, who is my godson. In fact, I got to babysit him all day while my friend went to work one of the days I was there! It was so fantastic! He's a wonderful baby and I am blessed to know him (and her!). They live in the D.C. area.

Spencer

Then, my friend and I took a quick trip (and I do mean quick!) to New York City. I am a firm believer that New York is one of the greatest cities in the world. And I LOVE to visit. Sadly, I don't get to make the trip very often. The time and money involved is just more than I can scrape up, most of the time.

However, since my last trip to New York a few years ago (before I was blogging), I now KNOW people in the area. :) My lovely fellow bloggers, who make my life so wonderful! Several weeks before I was heading to NYC, I sent out a message to several people that live in the area, or close enough that they can get there pretty easily. Allison jumped right on the chance to have a meet-up. She, in fact, orchastrated the whole thing! Thanks so much Allison! She invited several fellow bloggers, some people who used to blog, and some fellow Twitter-ers (is that a word???).

Erik and Allison

All of the people at the D-OC meet-up

Then, in passing conversation with Amylia, I joked that she should come to NY too! And guess what... she did! She had wanted to take a vacation anyway (it was around her birthday) and had friends in the area, so she was able to attend as well. Lee Ann came also. There were about 14 people there and it was a truly wonderful experience. I feel blessed to have met so many other diabetics, but also, so many fellow bloggers.

Amylia and I

Lee Ann and I at the meet-up

Also while I was in New York, Allison and I went to see a Broadway show. One day, I will post about my obsession with the theater. But if I started this now, I'd never get to work on time. :) We saw a show called Next to Normal. It is about a family where the mother deals with mental illness. I have to say it was one of the most emotional shows I have ever seen. The talent in the show is incredible. And to prove it, the show is up for 11 Tonys. Allison, you ROCK for going with me. :) Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Alice Ripley and I

Then, after the meet-up on Sunday, my friend and I went to see The Little Mermaid. :) That was a whole bunch of glittery, skating, goodness.

Robert Creighton and I (played Chef Louis)

It's often said that it's like meeting old friends. And it truly is. I did meet some new people at this meet-up, but meeting Amylia, Lee Ann, and Allison was like hanging out with people I've known for years...and in a way, I guess I have know them for years.

While I was back in D.C., I got to attend a baseball game and see the play Rent, which I am thoroughly obsessed with. Rent is one of my favorite shows of all time. It closed on Broadway last September, but the tour was in D.C. and the show I saw was on my birthday! It also had two of the cast members who were in the original Broadway cast in 1996, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp. It was very cool to see live.

Anthony Rapp

Then, on the day I was coming home, I met up with Heidi for lunch before catching my plane. It was nice to get to spend some time with her again. It's totally fun to hang out with her too.

Heidi and I

My trip home was somewhat uneventful, but I couldn't help but wish I was staying. I have so many friends that I never had before. It made me wonder if I could move. But being back home makes me glad I'm here too! Instead, I am going to do my best to make a trip at least once a year with a goal of meeting other bloggers and friends every time I go. If any of you are ever in Tennessee, let me know!

So, now, I am going to close out this post with a promise to get back on track with my blogging. I am going to set myself a goal of posting once a week for at least a month. Those of you who follow me on facebook or twitter....remind me! :)

Thanks and V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

First off, I wanted to say thank you to all of you who expressed your sympathies both here, and on Twitter. It meant a lot to me. I was thoroughly blessed by you all, and so glad to know that people care.

Funerals are hard. Everyone knows that. But my family and I were blessed in a lot of ways as well. Churches contributed food, stopped by the funeral home, and called to check on us. I was able to spend time with some of my cousins, one of whom I hadn't seen in 12 years. And, I was reminded how much people really care.

One thing I know for sure....funerals are for the living. They help with closure. They help with support during a difficult time.

A small funny from the funeral: for as long as I can remember, my grandmother has been terrified of storms. She would faithfully go to the local storm shelter every time it was open, until she was no longer well enough to take herself. Tornadoes terrified her. Ironically, the funeral home is across the street from the tornado siren tower here in town. And it was stormy the day of the funeral. Right in the middle of the service, the sirens went off.

And for once, my grandmother had no need or reason to be scared.



Onto happier topics. I am leaving tomorrow at noon to head to the DC area and then to NYC over the weekend. I am very much looking forward to spending time with friends and am going to have the wonderful chance to meet with some fellow bloggers in both areas. Allison was kind enough to organize a get together and she and I are going to go see Next to Normal while I'm there. I'm so excited I want to jump around like a 4 year old. :)

There are going to be a host of other bloggers there. I will be giving a full report when I get back home. :) Expect several different posts.

I will also be attending an Orioles game, seeing Rent in D.C. on my birthday, and hanging out with one of my best friends and my godson (who I think is the cutest baby on the planet).
And, being the last person on the planet without an iPhone, I will not have internet access for 7 days. If I do, it will be bumming from someone's computer. :)

I will be getting back into Tennessee late on the 27th. Expect any comment moderation to be done after that. And, expect lots and lots of pictures. :)

Just a quick update....

I wanted to let you guys know I'll be semi-absent this week. My grandmother passes away last night. She's so much better off now. I'm happy for her, but sad for us.
I'll do my best to check in when I can.

Life and Death

It seems like life and death are all around me right now. And, surprisingly, they both make me want to cry.

Several of my close friends have just had or are having babies.

At 27, my heart aches for a baby of my own.

My grandmother is very ill right now.

The nurses and doctors aren't giving her much time left.

My heart aches for her pain.

It seems like life and death are all around me right now. And, surprisingly, they both make me rejoice.

My friends, who let me share in their job of new life.

Holding tiny people, touching tiny hands and feet.

My heart leaps with the blessings.

My grandmother stands on the cusp of New Life.

A new body.

And the chance to see our Savior face to face.

My heart leaps with joy for her blessing and the thought of no more pain and the chance to eternally praise God the Father and our Risen Savior.

It seems like life and death are all around me right now, leaving me with a myriad of emotions and thoughts.

Life begins and life ends.

Love is always there.

May Showers??

As has been for most of the country, it has been raining or rainy here for the past two weeks. Today we actually had some sun! And it was nice. But I had been wondering whatever happened to the whole April Showers bring May Flowers. It's May, and all we were having was showers. Wrong month, right?

Diabetes has been doing a pretty good job of behaving itself lately. It makes it take somewhat of a backseat. It's easy to "forget" how much diabetes is a part of your life when it's behaving somewhat. But, it makes me happy to know that I can go through the motions without having so much stress, even if it is only for a little while.

Right now, my stress is focusing on work and trying to get everything caught up and done as much ahead as possible, since I'm leaving for a vacation in two weeks. Not easy, but I've been working hard and I'm hoping everything falls into place.

Wish me luck!

And, here's a picture of the cake I did over the weekend. It was very colorful and I even did some tie-dyed icing for border. It was my first attempt at this method and I thought it turned out pretty well.

April Showers....

Well, April comes to an end. This month has flown by with little time to breath. It's put my trip up North only 3 weeks away. And, it's made my life a little crazy.

I am currently working hard to get my health under control. I'm working with fit4d.com and the wonderful team they put together for me. I feel like I've not given it my 100%, but I am working harder than I ever have before. All of my coaches have been so helpful and I've already noticed a change in my eating habits and my willingness to exercise. These are both things I needed to work on.

I've also been a busy little bee on Twitter and Facebook. Facebook is very new to me right now, and I've not been tweeting much longer than I've been on Facebook. There are so many of you in the D community on my Twitter and Facebook pages that I chat all day long about D and my life. So it's almost like I don't have anything to post about here.

I didn't, however, want to let April roll into May without at least one more post. Below is my latest creation (Twitter followers and Facebook friends have probably already seen this!). I do'nt watch StarWars, but I'm told this is a Stormtrooper. :) It was for a 6 year old who LOVES his Stormtroopers.

Next up.....

A musical cake to celebrate the end of the community choir season. (Did I mention I'd joined community choir in my town?). We have our spring performance on Sunday and afterwards a dinner. Then no more choir practice until the fall.

Instead, I'm going to try to learn to play an instrument. We'll see how that goes....

I hope your May is filled with flowers.

DC/NYC Trip

D-OC, some of you already know that I have a trip planned for May. I am heading to the DC area to stay with a friend of mine for several days over Memorial Day weekend and for a couple of days I am going on to NYC.

I already have been in touch with some of you about getting together in both NY and DC. Those of you whom I may have missed, or that I may not be sure how close you are to either place, I am letting you know I will be around. I'd LOVE to meet up with a few (or a LOT) of you.

I had the pleasure of meeting Heidi over at The D-Log Cabin when I was in the DC area visiting. It was so much fun and it got me itching to take a trip to meet more D-bloggers.

As you will quickly find out if you spend any amount of time with me, I LOVE New York City. I've been 3 times and each time, I want to go back again. Due to the distance from Tennessee, and the shear cost of a trip (hotel, plane tickets, food, entertainment), I don't get to go very often. New York and my obsession with theater go hand in hand.

So, I figured a trip to NY would be perfect. Allison is there, and there are many other D-bloggers who live in the area and often write about going into the City.

So, basic plans have been made. And if you are going to be in the NY or DC area from May 22-May 27, please let me know and I'll see if we can't get together to meet.

This is a picture from my second trip to NY and my first ever NY subway ride. :) The first trip, I was with a tour and we just took a bus. I have to say, there's no where in the world like NY.

iPod Challenge

Sometimes I feel like I know you bloggers as well as I know my "real-life" friends. We share so much of ourselves on a regular basis. We support each other, encourage each other, and laugh at each other. We keep each other grounded and challenge each other in so many ways.
However, it doesn't escape me that we don't really know each other in some small, silly, trivial ways. And sometimes I feel like I want to get to know you guys even more. So I came up with a challenge for you.
While I was at work this afternoon, I was listening to my mp3 player. I set it on random so I could get a little bit of everything I like. And then I had to laugh at myself for the complete randomness of my music. So I started writing down what I was hearing. Anytime a song would change, I'd jot it down. After 24 songs, it was time for me to go home. And time to post my list on my blog.
I believe that you can really get a feel for a person by the types of music they listen to. So below is my list. And I challenge all of you bloggers to compose a list of your own and post it. And let me know you've done it so I can get to know you too!

1) Here I Go Again -- Whitesnake
2) Will I? -- from Rent OBC Recording (Original Broadway Cast)
3) Big Love -- Feetwood Mac
4) New Way Home -- K.T. Oslin
5) Anything But Mine -- Kenny Chesney
6) Help Me Understand -- Trace Adkins
7) It's All Good -- Montgomery Gentry
8) I Just Can't Live a Lie -- Carrie Underwood
9) It Must Have Been Love --Roxette
10) One Night at a Time -- George Strait
11) Breathe -- Taylor Swift
12) She Likes To Get Out of Town -- Brooks & Dunn
13) Photograph -- Nickelback
14) I Wanna Die -- Miranda Lambert
15) Bless Me Indeed -- Mercy Me
16) Bloody Mary -- South Pacific recorded live at Carnegie Hall
17) Single White Female -- Chely Wright
18) Already Gone -- Sugarland
19) Something to Believe In -- Bon Jovi
20) Self Made Man -- Montgomery Gentry
21) Easy Money-- Brad Paisley
22) The Dream is Still Alive -- Wilson Phillips
23) Not the Only One -- Bonnie Raitt
24) Time Well Wasted -- Brad Paisley

So, as you can see, there's a LOT of country, some 80s rock, Broadway musicals, rock, and pop. I tend to be a very mixed person, just like my mp3 player.

So, D-OC..... your turn.

Crazy weekend....birthdays galore!

My weekend was pretty crazy. I had a million things to do and ended up not getting half of them done. It can be that was a lot of times for me, but this weekend was especially busy!

I had a cake to make for a friend on Saturday. It was a birthday cake for 2 guys. One guy was a children's church director, the other a music director, and they both were musically inclined. What I came up with:

Then, my beautiful kid sister turned 13 on Sunday. My mom and I took her and a friend out of town to eat and to buy her birthday present on Saturday afternoon. Then, on Sunday after church, my sis came home with me and we just hung out. I even let her make cupcakes. She did it all herself. The only thing I helped with was putting the icing in the bag for her. I thought she did a pretty good job!

I have to say, I love that kid more than life itself. There are 14 years and 11 months between us, and I missed many of her younger years because I was away at college. I'm glad I get to be closer to her now. She and I are as opposite as you can get, but I can't imagine life without her.

Sunday was also the birthday of one of my closest friends. We rarely get to see each other anymore, and it's especially hard on her birthday (cause I'm always with my sister), but I'm hoping to get to take her out to dinner later this week. Our schedules are crazy, so I'm crossing my fingers that nothing comes up!

Not a single diabetes related thing here....just a quick catch up on my life at this time. I hope you aren't too disappointed in the content. :)

Happy Easter!

Praise be to God! Jesus has risen!

He is not here for He has risen as He said. Matthew 28:6a


I pray you all had a blessed and wonderful Easter.

I have not been blogging of late, but I intend on blogging more often. It's just going to be in a more general sense. Sometime it will be about diabetes. Other times, it may be about church. Or life. Or whatever my current situation is.

Basically, I'm running out of stuff to write about. Diabetes is 24 hours a day, but it's not always the most important thing going on in my life. So don't be surprised if you get some completely random posts.


Currently, I am adding pictures of a cake I did recently for my grandmother's birthday. She liked it. I was pretty proud of it myself. And I hope you guys enjoy it.

Happy Easter!