My New Project...

Check out this link:

www.moyesdiabetes.blogspot.com

Blogging Moma

Wow..well I just noticed most of my recent posts are "pictureless." I am disappointed in myself. I promise to do better next week when I am not so busy planning for my baby Preston's 3rd birthday party this weekend (cake is in the oven right now.)

I wanted to share something exciting with you. My boss had the idea for me to do a Mommy Diabetic Blog for the Moye's Pharmacy website. It is now coming to fruition! The pharmacy has a "Mom's Club" you now can join by filling out a postcard at one of our locations, and by doing so you receive monthly newsletters, coupons, special offers, etc. Well, now part of that is extending to being able to follow special informational blogs on our website. The first one will be authored by me! I am very excited. I just got the green light today, and I have already completed my first article! I enjoy writing (and secretly always wanted to be a journalist haha!), but that is not why I am excited really. I am excited because I am going to be able to be a sounding board as well as a informational host for other moms of juvenile diabetics in our community. Plus, people who aren't just the moms can also follow the blog, like grandparents or youth pastors, etc. That way I can help educate our community about juvenile diabetes! There is such a lack of education and awareness, and I truly feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to use my education and personal experiences to help others. After all that is why I became a pharmacist in the first place. Stay tuned, and when the link is active, I will give you instructions on how to access it.

Did I do Part Two?

I was just thinking...remember my title long ago called "The Long Version-Part One" where I discussed our finding out Jackson was diabetic?

I said stay tuned for part two..but now I am too tired to scroll back through :) to see if I did a part two? There was one thing I had been wondering if I had shared..I don't remember. Do you know if I did a part two?

Hmm..maybe part two is coming soon. :)

Christmas Eve Festivities

Well, I promise I will post pictures soon of Christmas Eve, but just so you understand why I am a slacker...I thought I got credit if I told you I took over 300 pictures this Christmas, and we actually had six Christmases. Yep, six. So, right now my house is in shambles, and Preston is cooperating by taking a nap, so sorry going to clean before I blog. :) But..stay tuned. Imagine all I have to share!

Got to Make the Time...

I am running very behind on making dinner tonight, and I am sure my kids' tummies are rumbling...but I just HAD to make time to brag on my P tonight!!!!!!!!

HE POOPED IN THE TOILET!!!!!!!

Big time Yay!!!

I had decided to train him after we return from Disney at the end of the month (coincidentally just like I did Jackson..although there are two months difference in the age they would be at that time, but still feel Preston can do it.) So, I wasn't "trying" today, but I did see him straining to go in his diaper..some had already come out into the diaper..but I quickly said, "Come on! Don't you want to go on the toilet (I have asked this before, and he has assured me "no." :))" But, this time I followed it up with excitment on my face and a promise of a piece of chocolate. We ran into the bathroom, and the rest of the poopy went into the toilet followed by a trickle of pee as well!!! This is huge for us! (And, if you don't have kids my apologies for such a boring, way too informative post.)

You see my kids never do the whole "training" thing per se. Maybe it is how I "train" them. But, Jackson had NEVER went on the potty EVER until the day I started him at age 3 years 3 months. He just wouldn't. Most kids will pee at least once at a really young age, even if it is several months before they begin training. Not mine. But, Jackson was then easy. That day after our Disney trip he was completely trained in 24 hours. I always said I'd never attempt it any earlier than age three seeing how it was so quick and painless and not drawn out over months. I had been thinking though my strong-willed Preston was going to attempt to buck my system, but tonight shows promise.

I am so proud of you, buddy! Hope you enjoyed your bite-sized Snickers. :))

Our Cozy Christmas Eve Morning...

Jackson knows that we leave money out for Santa, just like our parents did many years ago. :) Previous years we never really made a tradition of giving the boys a gift wrapped from "mom and dad." I don't really know why except they get so much from Santa. We just didn't. We don't typically open gifts as just an immediate family because we go to so many other family Christmases on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Paul and I, if we buy each other something..sometimes we do sometimes we don't depending on all we have done for each other already throughout the year :), usually exchange after the kids go to bed. My parents always gave us a gift just from them at our annual Christmas Eve party though, and I was thinking this year if they hadn't I might have had more suspicion about Santa not being real. Gosh, I got to type this post fast! Before Jackson comes up here since he is reading now!!! LOL Those days are over of spelling and him not being able to see what I type!

Anyway, so this year we decided to do something small from us to them (a new tradition being made), and it was last minute so there weren't many toys left when we finally went to shop for something. :) We went the day before Christmas Eve if that tells you anything. And, man oh man. Was I glad I had shopped extra early for Santa. I don't see how people wait to the last minute without enduring chest pains! I know that some people have to wait for payday which is totally understandable. But, I know people whose salaries are triple ours and still wait to the last minute. It is often hard to go early, and I do get good sales but maybe the last minute sales are better? I don't know. (This year I even had to do it alone. We always like to do a date night and Santa shop. But, you just have to do what you have to. The sale I needed didn't coincide with a date we both didn't have to work, so I played Santa all alone. Was it as fun? Nah. But, the kids are first and foremost not me. :) And, a big thanks to Maw Maw for watching them while I shopped. Don't worry..I "paid" her against her will with Toys R Us gift cards I earned for a later visit while shopping and she got an awesome deal on my nephew's drums with them!) But, on Christmas Eve Eve night there was hardly anything left! And, the people in the aisles seemed so stressed and frantic. And, the lines were horrid. I needed a few other necessities as well or I think I would have just put the last minute gifts from us back and foregone the whole idea.

So, anyway, it was cheap and simple, and last minute like I said, but as you can see kids don't care. :) They just like any gift. Or maybe I should say any toy. :) Or maybe I should say anything wrapped. Who knows? I know they surely love the element of surprise or at least my boys do.

Oh, wait. How could I forget? Wonderful blogger still puts my pictures in whatever order they please..so you will see more later of them opening their gifts from us. :) After their special treat, they made cookies for Santa. This has long been a tradition on Christmas Eve night, but I have had to become more flexible with this tradition. So, maybe they weren't wearing their Christmas PJs for the pics, but they still look adorable putting them on the pan. It is so late when we get home after all the Christmas Eve festivities, we just ended up having to move this tradition to Christmas Eve morning. And, one day I will probably go back to work more hours and end up having to work a Christmas Eve I am sure again, so this tradition will once again probably find another suitable timeframe..but I digress. :)

I love this picture! Look at Preston's face. He was so cute this holiday when he opened his gifts. He kept saying, "(gasp!) I have been waiting for this my whole life!" Where he got that I have no idea. But, it was hilarious. Especially considering that meant he had been waiting a whole three years for whatever gift it was he was opening. He can be so overdramatic. Nothing is ever pretty or neat or cute. Instead he always gasps (even at toys) and says, "It is SO bwetiful!"

So, there you have it. A new tradition. :) Yes, I am sure inside Paul was cringing. :) But, it is a good new tradition to have, don't you think?

A Very Merry Christmas with the Plunketts

Christmas Eve Eve or Christmas Adam as I heard it called this year, we spent the evening with some family friends we have known since I was a very small child. They are our beach buddies! You have seen them have their blog debut before when we went to Panama City this year and Myrtle Beach two years ago. They are wonderful people, full of love and laughter, and this Christmas with them was no different!

They spoil us so bad in so many different ways, and while we are alright with them buying the kids something small around Christmas I wish they wouldn't buy us something, too! But, I am glad they did :) (in the famous words of my Aunt Alisa.) I got a gorgeous multi-colored stone sterling silver bracelet. I had spotted it at Kohl's while shopping for people on my list, but you know how when you are shopping at the holidays you typically forego spoiling yourself. I didn't even tell anyone about it or that I wanted it. And, then poof! There it was in my hands...well on my arm. :)

Gail does so much work decorating her home for Christmas (well, I am sure Mista Joe and Shane the Shark help too!) And, the kids adore it. They always like to dance to Santa's "Jingle Bell Rock" song.

Isn't her tree beautiful? And, look at the village! She is so patient with the kids as they touch all of it! And, this is just about a fourth of it. It is nearly four times this size shown in this small picture here.

So, we swapped gifts, and went out to eat for some delicious pasta and Jesus's birthday cupcakes. But, really that isn't all that we shared. Not toys, jingly music, spaghetti or cupcake sprinkles. But, our time together. That is what is so important to me. I am so grateful they are in our lives right now. While they always have been, years have passed where we are all so busy, you forget to keep in touch. But, I think God put them back in my life again here recently for several reasons (one being that Shane is also a type 1 juvenile diabetic and God knew he and Gail would be such a wonderful support system full of listening, understanding ears that others cannot duplicate). But, another reason is because they are just awesome people. You feel drawn towards them. They pull you close because you will rarely meet people so loving and giving as them.

Thank you, Lord, for a really, really great Christmas gift, our friends. They are much better than any bracelet!