Contest

Okay people. Don't get too excited. It's not my contest. But it is a contest that I am letting everyone know about cause I think it's such a cool prize.
Rickina, who founded and runs Stick Me Designs, makers of "stylish accessories for the modern diabetic", has a contest posted on her BLOG. :) The prize ROCKS! Basically, all you have to do is go on her blog and nominate yourself or someone else and she is going to pick a winner April 3rd.
The prize pack is as follows:

First here’s the Prize Pack!
**A Complete Switch Me Messenger Diabetes Bag - value $86.00
**A Stick Me Designs Deluxe Case - value $36.99
**A Bio Flip for on the go used test strip disposal - value $5.00
Total Value = over $125

If you check out her website, these seem like some really cool items to have. I don't have one yet, since the budget doesn't really afford it right now, but they are on my "to get" listed. I'm just not sure how long it will take me to get to them. :)

In fact, I am also a StickMe Sidekick. So even if you don't win, and you decide to buy one of the items on her site, you can use my code (found on the right side of my blog) and help me earn credit toward a bag for myself and earn a discount for yourself.

So, put on your thinking caps, get creative and nominate someone! Yourself, someone you think is deserving, or even me! :D

Blessings, Inspirations, and a New Book!

I just have to say I've been dealing with a lot of things of late. Personally trying to decide what the next steps in my life should be. I've been blessed this weekend with a wonderful chance to spend time with members of my church family and had a true one-on-one encounter with God. As I've been searching for a direction in my life, I found myself coming up empty. No answers. Unsure of the questions. But this weekend I got an answer: Just wait on Me.

Patience has never been one of my strong points, but I am learning that He has a plan for me. And that God will not shove me into my destiny when I'm not ready for it.

On that note, I have to say that I am beginning to be re-inspired in my blogging. I have a few ideas floating around in my head and I've been trying to decide which on to post first! :)

I thank you all so much for being so kind to me and supportive of me. You are true gifts from God in my life.

Also, I just found out that Mary Tyler Moore has a book coming out at the end of the month. The title: Growing Up Again: Life, Love, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes. You have to love a title like that, right? The following is the back cover of the book (according to Amazon). I can already tell you that I will own this book. Maybe not right away (I'm kind of broke at the moment due to funding a trip I will share about with you guys later), but soon.

Each person who has diabetes struggles to come to terms with it and experiences the basic challenges of the disease in a uniquely personal way. For me, it has been a trip through rebellion and denial to finally arriving at acknowledgment and commitment to solutions. It took years. And I still rankle at the restrictions, the have-tos, the may-nots, and the never-endingness of it. But the illness is what it is, and I thank God for the genius of medical researchers who have done so much to make diabetes a less cruel imposition while propelling us toward a cure.I don’t think the story of my life with diabetes is a model for anyone else. There’s no template to follow that will determine the course of the disease and how it affects a person’s life; no one right way to manage diabetes. What I have put on paper is simply the tale of how, in the course of everyday living—dealing with the losses, the dead ends, and the triumphs that come in often seemingly random order—I’ve dodged, faced, and sometimes conquered the challenges of diabetes. I’m sharing my story because it is what I have to give, shedding some light on the follies and achievements that I’ve racked up in my daily confrontation with the disease.But my journey is just a part of the picture. So I’ve talked with other people who have diabetes to give voice to their experiences, to provide a varied view of how to live and thrive. And I’ve sought out some of the wisest and most capable doctors and scientists who are waging war in the laboratory and conducting bench-to-bedside experiments that are producing new and exciting treatments to help the millions of people with diabetes manage—and ultimately vanquish—the disease.

I've been intrigued with Mary Tyler Moore since I found out she had diabetes. I always try to find out more about people that share this disease with me. But other than hearing her speak about it a few times, I didn't really know how she dealt with it. I have a feeling this book will tell me. My favorite part in this excerpt is the part that says, "There’s no template to follow that will determine the course of the disease and how it affects a person’s life; no one right way to manage diabetes." I'm glad that someone can acknowledge this fact.

When it comes to dealing with diabetes, it always seems that someone has the answer. But only someone with diabetes can know the truth: there is no answer. There's just living life with diabetes.

Diabetes and Me

I've been doing a lot of diabetes stuff of late. I've met a blogger (which I thoroughly enjoyed), I attended an Adult Type 1 group in Nashville. I started a Twitter account, of which 90% of my contacts are diabetics or related to the OC in some way.
But this blogging thing is just kind of been sitting here. I find that I don't have a lot to write about. And I certainly don't want to bore you with tales of my highs and lows if I don't have some sort of a point. :)
I don't really want to say that diabetes has taken a back seat in my life, because, as we all know, it's always here. But I am focusing my creativity on some other things right now. So writing for this blog has kind of taken a back seat.
I contemplated doing a vlog, but I don't have a camera, can't really afford one, and if I did I wouldn't begin to know where to start with the whole vlog thing anyway.
I'm almost feeling at a loss when it comes to the whole blogging thing. I'm sure I could put up a new Meme a couple of times a week, but beyond that, I don't really have anything to write about.
I'm hoping you'll all be patient with me while I try to get my mind back into diabetes blogging. Until then, I'll be on Twitter and commenting on blogs when I get a chance.
You guys are fantastic!

Meme, Meme, Meme a.k.a. Meme X's 3

I got this from Lee Ann. I love her's, so I thought I'd do my own.

Three names I go by:
1. Sis or Sissy
2. Cara Belle (co-worker started calling me this and it stuck. Her 5 year old doesn't know who Cara is....but he can tell you exactly who Cara Belle is!)
3. Drama Queen. :P

Three Jobs I have had in my life
1. Teaching 2nd Grade
2. Deli worker in a grocery store
3. Working in the wearhouse of a shirt factory when I was 16.

Three Places I have lived
1. I've never lived anywhere but the state of Tennessee, although I have lived in a few places in TN. Never more than a 60 mile radius from where I live now.

Three Favorite drinks
1. Diet Pepsi
2. Unsweet Tea (with artificial sweetener. I live in the South! It'd be sweet tea if it weren't for stupid diabetes)
3. Water

Three TV Shows that I watch
1. Bones (greatest show EVER!)
2. American Idol
3. Biggest Loser

Three places I have been
1. New York City
2. Idaho (met my biological family when I was 18)
3. San Antonio

People that e-mail me regularly
1. Amanda
2. Rachel
3. My co-workers

Three of my favorite foods
1. Chinese
2. Mexican
3. Cheese. Of any kind.

Three friends I think will respond
1. I have no idea
2. I have no idea
3. Please tell me if you do.

Three Things I am looking forward to
1. A trip I'm taking in a couple of weeks.
2. A trip I'm taking in May.
3. Getting a teaching job.

Life happens.

You'd think I'd have figured out, by now, that sometimes things just don't work out the way we want them too. I really had plans to be posting more often, but it's just not happening. Work has been more stressful in the past two months than the entire time I've been working there (3 years). Between restructuring of our supervisory positions, the governor wanting to cut jobs, and the fact that my job is a job that jumps drastically when the economy is down, I have been over worked, stressed, and feel like all I want to do is sleep when I get home. Case in point, I got home at 7pm tonight. I am supposed to get home at 4:30.
But, I'm getting back to a better place now. In spite of the fact that I have been working long hours, I feel like things are starting to flow again. And that's nice.
I have been busy, but not so much that I can't still Tweet a little. And try to blog once in a while. And I still read blogs faithfully, even if I don't comment. But just know that when I get myself back where I need to be in regards to work and home life, I will start to blog again. :)