Bees

Bees used to really scare me. For many years I said that I was allergic to them. I got stung once by a bee when I was a child and the infected area was really swollen. I guess that's why I said I was allergic. I'm not sure if its really a legitimate allergy or not.
In more recent years, I've become a little bit more interested in bees and honey-making. Reason being; I teach heredity to my fifth graders and one of the mini-units I teach is all about bees. We discuss what they do (inherited behaviors- instincts) and how they help the food-chain. Did you know that over 1/3 of every bite you eat is benefited by insect pollination? Anyway, I've done this unit for 7 years now and I feel like I know a lot about bees but have never really had any hands-on experience unless you count using glitter as "pollen" and making paper-flower-offspring! :) Anyway, Dad decided this year to take on a new hobby or project for the summer and fall. He got the idea of harvesting bees. I have no idea why or where he got the idea from, but I was really excited when he told me about it. So, I've been dying to check out the bees in their environment and all and on Memorial Day, we decided it would be a perfect time for me to come check them out.
I got there a little later than expected but still had a great time seeing the bees and what they were up to.
I can't wait to go back again sometime and maybe help feed them or give them their medicines.
Thanks Dad, your bees are awesome!





Me getting dressed in the hood and long-sleeved t-shirt and gloves.

Dad walking me out to the bee box.

Holding the smoker. The smoker is used to keep the bees more calm when you are working with them. I think it slows down their flight and therefore they are more calm.

We didn't actually use the smoker but I wanted to take a picture of it for my school kids.

Smiling with the smoker. Justin took my photos this day and he wanted me to smile!

Dad teaching me about how the box works and what to do.

Lifting off the top lid.

Lifting off the second lid. The bees actually put a wax capping over this lid so that it stays pretty well shut tight. Bees always get smashed when you put this lid back on. However, there are about 10,000 bees in this hive so it's not really a big deal if you loose one!

You can see the bees now.

A close-up of the bees.

Each of those wooden slats has been turned into a honey-comb with waxed cells created by the bees. Yes, they've been quite busy!

Dad lifting up one of the slats. You can see the honey-comb shaped wax if you look really closely.

Crazy, Crazy Kids

So my boys were playing around one day while we were off track. I noticed that when Evan laughed I could see his teeth. He has four teeth. I swear to you that 2 weeks ago a fifth poked through the surface. It has not returned since. Anyway, some cute pictures of Evan laughing.


Was trying to get a cute shot of Evan through the railing but didn't turn out as well as I'd like.
Both boys playing together.
Me & my Ry.
So Ryan was TOTALLY teasing me with this little noise maker. He thought it was so funny to put it in all of the shots I was trying to get of him. I was highly annoyed and the more bothered I got by it, the funnier he thought it was.

After a long winter, I am so happy to retire this Spiderman shirt. It was a really cute gift from Grandma. A three piece outfit of shirt, jeans, and a matching blue hoodie. They've made more than there share of appearances on the blog. He wore this shirt as often as I would let him. This day he wore it actually ended up to be one of the first warm spring days and he took it off as the temperature rose. I have to say that I was quite happy to put this thing in the used pile of clothes I stored away for the winter. We got some really cute summer clothes for the boys that I'm pretty excited about too!

Ryan is totally laughing at me in this picture.

Mother's Day

Mother's day this year started like many days have started this year, one of the boys woke up sick. Ryan came into our room at about 6am with a fever. We decided we wouldn't attend church that day. We had a nice morning at home and since we didn't have to rush of for 9am church, Colin decided to make us "cheese eggs". They were really yummy! Colin was really great to me all day and let me pretty much take it easy. It was awesome! Colin got me an awesome gift this year and I have no idea how he even came up with it! :) He got me a gift card for a spa treatment. I had a facial and a pedicure just yesterday, it was awesome and Ryan has told me a thousand times how pretty my toes are.

The boys got to feeling better and so we went over to my Mom's house for our Sunday Dinner.
I got my mom the 10 Virgins book she'd been wanting and a black cami. I think she was happy about that. She's a great mom. My mom is such a hard worker. She is always really busy but always makes time for me and my boys. She called me up on Saturday before mother's day and said she'd watch the boys while Colin and I went out to lunch. She came over to our house and tended the boys. When I got home I discovered she'd folded all of my laundry and straightened up the house! The only laundry I did the whole weekend was loading it into the washer and dryer- sweet!

I stayed home with sick boys on Monday, took them to the doctor and found out Evan had a double ear infection and Ryan had a sore-throat virus. Tuesday Colin stayed home with them and Wednesday we were finally well enough to head back to work and baby-sitter's. We've had so many illnesses this year that I'm starting to feel it's never-ending.


This is me with my boys on Mother's day.
I love being a mom. These two crazy little guys are everything to me. I wish that I were better at being a mother to them but I know that they love me. Everywhere I go in the house they are right behind me. I've finally taught Ryan about "privacy" so that he'll leave me alone when I'm peeing. Ha ha.
Evan has been pretty fussy lately with his earache but most of the time he's really happy. He's a lot of fun and can do some pretty funny things. Evan still loves to eat more than anything else in this world. He's started bringing the high chair to us when he's hungry! We can often find him eating the crumbs off the floor underneath the high chair before we've swept.
Ryan is hilarious and absolutely brilliant. The kid is too smart for his own good. It blows me away how much this kid knows and understands. He's crazy about letters and words. He asks me constantly about how to say, sound, spell, and write words and letters. He's even been learning his alphabet backward, kind of a family thing.

Anyway, before we went over to my mom's house, we decided to go for a little drive out to the newest temple in our area. We got to driving around a little and stopped to play at this little park by a lake.



Evan found a tennis ball. He loves balls. He can say "ball" really well and love to throw everything! He had a great time throwing this thing around.


There was this cool topsy-turvy toy that Colin and I had fun playing on.

Ryan climbing around on the playground.

An awesome shot of my little guy.

This is a dry Colin and Ryan. They didn't stay that way. You see, Ryan was playing in the lake and we could tell that he was getting too far out there. So, Colin decided to go out and get him out of the lake so that we could go home. As he was calling him over to the dock, Ryan went under. Colin jumped in after him and sacrificed his cell phone. Luckily, my camera that was inside of his pocket as well was rescued moments before Ryan was. We ended up with two new cell phones out of the deal though. I hope Ryan learned his lesson about listening to Mommy and Daddy, but I'm sure its one he's not going to always be perfect.

My hot husband chillin at the park.

How it's changed my life.

This isn't a post about motherhood.

My 8th year diabetic diagnosis anniversary was a couple of weeks ago. I've been thinking lately of how that diagnosis has changed my life. I think maybe I'll just write it out in list form so that it isn't a mumbled jumble of thoughts. These are in no particular order.
Diabetes has changed my life in that, it has:

- made me have to go to the doctor a lot more

I see the doctor every three months. I have to have my A1C taken every three months when I visit the diabetes doctor. I have to have "routine" (as in routine for diabetic) blood work at least every other year. I have to have a foot exam at least every year. I have to get a flu shot every year.
During my pregnancies, I had to visit the diabetes doctor more frequently, every three weeks on average. I had to see the ObGyn more often than regular women. I also had to see a specialist at least once or twice per trimester. During the 4 weeks of pregnancy I had to have non-stress tests performed on the boys twice per week. Going to the doctor was like a part-time job. Much time spent in doctors offices.
I also now have to see the eye doctor once per year.

-made my vision worse

Two weeks before I was diagnosed with diabetes, I couldn't see. It was the strangest thing in the world. I swear to you I lost my vision over night. One day I woke up and had a difficult time seeing anything. It was so bad that I went to Zuka Juice and could not even read a single word on the menu. I remember moving to the front row in each of my college classes, thinking, why in the world can I not see the board?
As soon as I was diagnosed and put on insulin, my vision dramatically improved. However, I have worn glasses for nearsightedness ever since.

- made me more aware of the ingredients in my food

I control my diabetes basically by doing two things. 1. I take insulin via infusion set with an insulin pump. 2. I count my carbohydrates.
I've had to learn a lot about nutrition since becoming diabetic. I've learned a little more about what's in foods such as proteins, carbs, fiber, fats, calories, etc. But mainly, I just know how to count carbs. Some foods are harder for me, but I could look at just about any item of food or meal and tell you how many carbs it contains.

- made me an expert on diabetes

I was diagnosed at the age of 20. My doctors at the time figured that I was an adult and could figure it out on my own. They helped me a lot in trying to get my insulin regimens stabilized but mostly I had to learn about it on my own. I went information-crazy and read every thing I could about diabetes. I love to talk about it. I blog about it occasionally. I hate it when people are ignorant about the disease. I often think that I'd love to be a diabetes educator.

- made me more sensitive to pain

The weirdest thing, and maybe you don't believe me... but I've become less tolerant of pain. I've heard people use the term "pain threshold" before. Mine has significantly decreased since being diagnosed. Any ideas why?

- made it a little more difficult for me to heal

For some reason I don't heal as well now that I have diabetes. I guess it has something to do with the lessened blood flow/ circulation issue that diabetics have. When I get a minor cut or abrasion on my skin, it doesn't heal well. 7 days ago I had some blood work taken. I still have a mark on my arm. 3 weeks ago I scraped my arm on the garage door, I have a pretty bad scar there now.

- made me more aware of my body

Not always, but for the most part, I'm very aware of how I feel. I can tell if my sugar is too low right away, almost always. I can often tell if my sugars are high. I will sometimes just know when I shouldn't take any insulin, or if I should just give myself an extra unit. Someone told me when I was first diagnosed, I think it was that first doctor, that I would be the one who knew myself better than others. I've certainly come to find that as truth.

- made me somewhat more susceptible to illness

Diabetics are often more ill than others. I have the immune system of a true teacher. I can be around millions of germs each day and go weeks without coming down with an illness. There are a few things that I've had more trouble with though. My digestive system doesn't work as well as it should. I often have tummy aches. I also get bladder infections more easily. No fun.

- made me very grateful for the scientists in the world

Scientists are getting closer and closer to finding a cure for Diabetes. The advances in technology and medicine they've made have made my life with Diabetes so much easier than it would have or could have been.

- made me a little healthier

I think that if I didn't have Diabetes, I wouldn't be as healthy as I am today. I have a really big sweet-tooth and although I CAN eat sweets and be diabetic, I'm at least more conscious of what I eat. I could stand to lose 15 pounds and exercise a whole lot more than I do, but nonetheless.

- allowed me to make many friends

Everywhere I go, I meet someone with diabetes. A lot of people have type 2, but inevitably, I'll meet someone who has type 1. It's always nice to be able to talk to someone who knows EXACTLY what you're going through. When you have something like diabetes, its easy to become fast friends.

Anyway, that's all for today I suppose. Diabetes isn't always a bad thing. Although diagnosis can be quite overwhelming, it has taught me a lot and has probably made me a little better of a person.

The picture at the beginning of the post is an old one of me wearing my old pump.