The Olsen Update

I am truly a blessed woman.   At church, I teach the 5 year olds and it is a hoot to say the least.  These little kiddos hold a very special place in my heart.  I've taught them off and on since they were born.  I could say I have the dream team in our ward primary.  I can't get enough of them.   This year I really wanted to push the true meaning of Easter. We built up to it for weeks, telling about Christs life and his eternal sacrifice.  But being Easter I wanted to make it fun as well.   So here's my version of the empty tomb... only yummy... I started off the lesson reading the scripture and telling the story of Mary Magdalene, the angels and the people who witnessed the empty tomb.  We fallowed it up by making our very own empty tombs that they could eat when they got home (most ate them during sacrament meeting.)  This was a very easy and quick version.   The kids enjoyed talk...

Today I took my two youngest daughters to Sam's Club to pick up a "FEW THINGS".  Of course this included a stop in the restroom.  The fallowing events are not only true... but TOTALLY embarrassing.    Here's the cartoon play by play... (I'm in the stall and the little one in pink is my two year old.) ... enough said.

Today is Alana's 1st Diaversary. To celebrate, we're giving away an AlanasBraveCrew.com bracelet to one lucky fan. To enter: post a comment below telling us who in your life (if any) is a diabetic. We will draw a name at random...

Just a few days away  from celebrating Alana's first "DIAVERSARY", we received the news we had been waiting for.  Check out the video for our results... YIPEEE!!! YEP!  Ariana is not likely to EVER develop an auto immune disease.   Thank you God! It's likely that both girls had a virus that was causing their blood sugar to fluctuate.  Testing will eventually be done on Amelia as well.

Chris will be graduating with his PHD in less than two months. Naturally, you have to wear a cap and gown. So we headed up to Rice University to try on and take home Chris' garb for the commencement ceremony. A  tradition at the school for their PHD grads sends us to the campus bar.   Yes. the bar. The joke.... "Two Mormons walk into a bar..."  went through my head several times. It was strange to say the least. Chris handed the bar keep a paper showing that he's receiving his PHD and they have him bottle of champagne.    Because of Texas Law they have to take the cork, but you can put a lid on it on your own free will.  So that's what we did.    Now I know what you're thinking... "Why take it if you're not going to drink it?" We'll... I'd say it's kind of a right of passage and a trophy so to speak. It honors all the accomplishments he's made over the years.   Make since? Such a HUN...

If you know me  well, you'll know that I love the Apollo era.  It was a time that our nation reached for the stars and and dreamed big.  One of those dreamers was Al Bean.  He'd go from being a military fighter pilot to the 4th man on the moon to talented artist.    Mr. Bean's lecture was inspiring.  He truly lives the spirit of making the world a better place.  His stories of the moon are humorous and uplifting.  Look at these hunky guys!  (Me, Al Bean, Dr. Chris Olsen aka... my hubs) Here is a clip of two of my favorite parts from his talk.

When I watched this video I cried like a little baby.  Tears ran down my face.  Janet's video is a great message to ANYONE battling ANYTHING.

I really enjoyed this short video about the discovery of insulin.  Great information.

This is what we did instead of getting work done today. Happy Spring Break EVERYONE!!!

Some days like today, I wonder what my true calling in life is. When you have a love for one thing...  The thing that has devoured your life since your youth.  Then this new thing... something totally out of left field hits you and you begin to question yourself. Was my passion just a passion? Is this NEW THING your life's calling? It has been waiting to hit you like a ton of bricks. You just didn't know it.         ... and then it lands on you like the anvil from the Wile E Coyote cartoons. I'm really not sure what's bringing this all on right now.  There's a little flame in my head that's burning away at me. Call it Mothers Intuition... I'm not sure. Maybe I'm waiting to see what happens.  There are several things just UP IN THE AIR right now... Time will tell. I'm living in limbo... or maybe on the TV show LOST.  There's this smoky monster called DIABETES lurking around the corner and in a flash....It's eaten up an...

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this awesome polka dot cake.  I'm VERY happy with how it turned out.   Cake ball pan greased.   Sloppy icing job...  Candy ribbon...

Friday, Chris' last papers were turned in for his PHD, making it official.  He's now Dr. Olsen.  The girls surprised him with these notes.  How stinking cute is that? Congrats Dr. O! He'll be walking across the stage at Rice University this May.  WOO HOO!!!

I know a lot of people have been waiting to hear from me since yesterday.  To be honest  I'm not  sure what I'm supposed to think at this point. To lighten the mood.  Here's a pic of Ariana in what she wore to the DR. appointment. It went a little like this... Dr. Riley sat Ariana and I down.  He gave her a look over and looked at her charts and results from the test done by  Dr. Sim. He then quickly jumped in telling me about the different studies he had worked on for over thirty years. Two of which was geared towards us. The first was a study where they tested siblings of T1D patients for the markers of T1D.  Those who had the markers (classified as T1D Dysglycemic) would be tracked by the Doctors to see what happened with their blood sugar leading up to going "full blown".  What they found was, in the weeks, months or even years before they were full blown, their Blood Sugar would do this little ...

This morning I got a call from the nurse (Rosie) in our pediatrician's office. She told me that Ariana's test results are back and everything looked "Normal", but that it seemed that Ariana was dehydrated.  Rosie then wend on to tell me that they sent on the results to our Endocrinologist and that they would take care of things from there. But if everything is ok, why are they sending her to the Endo? Then I sent a text to our Diabetic Educator (Nannette) to verify the info had been sent. She had received it and told me to make an appointment for "Hyperglycemia". WHAT? Nannette told me that they would do more blood work and dive deeper into this. Tomorrow I'll be taking Ariana to the Endo, which is totally weird to me.  Dr. Riley has been Alana's zone.  Now my girls will share this.  Maybe.  I guess nothing is written in stone yet. So now what? I get to sit for over ...