A Valentine Re-Run

Since my Valentine's Day this year was the most uneventful to date, I decided to re-run a Valentine post from 2009. I got a present in 2009.
And since all I've been doing is writing, writing, writing for my class, I'm breaking one of my blogging rules and posting a re-run. Happy Valentine's Day.


It's Too Bad You're a Diabetic

I spent most of the morning deciding on a hiding place for my heart shaped box of chocolates. It seems that after all these years of dumping time and money into my children, I'm starting to see a profit. Boy #2 presented me with a Valentine's Day gift.
"For me?"
"Happy Valentine's Day mom. I got to go to work, love you."
"I have to hide this from your father and the other ones."
The husband shuffled out of bed while I was in the shower, before I found a hiding place though. "Where'd you get the chocolate?" he yells into the bathroom.
"My thoughtful son."
"Which one is that?"
"Number 2."
"Oh that's right, I told him to pick it up for me and give it to you."
"Uh huh, it's too bad you're a diabetic, cause I'd have shared them with you."
One lie deserves an other.
I've done 4 or 5 months of diabetic hard time, so I'm not unsympathetic. I had gestational diabetes with Boy #3 and that was near Easter. Chocolate bunnies would sneer at me, "Gestational diabetes, that's got to suck."
"I couldn't eat chocolate when I was pregnant with you and yet, I still love you." I tell Boy #3. "And that's why you're so skinny, you know that right?"
A couple of days a go the husband asked if he had to buy me a Valentine's Day present. My response, "Just being married to you is present enough babe." It's the little white lies we've told each other over the past 23 years that has kept our marriage so strong.

When the damn diabetic makes pudding in the wrong bowls

"I see we're throwing caution to the wind again, ay?" A little Canadian lingo there. The husband looked at me with his 'one eyebrow up' look. "I thought you were going to bed."

"You are making a mess. I can't go to sleep knowing there will be pudding splattered everywhere when I wake up. Is that chocolate pudding dripping down between the dishwasher and counter? This is going to be worse than I thought. You're making vanilla too?"

Most people are going to bed at 11:00pm ish and not clanging around in the kitchen but that's when the damn diabetic makes pudding in the wrong bowls.

"So you're making parfaits then? How can you not stir neatly? Why does half of it have to be on the counter? Look at my counter, look at it."

A 10 second stare down began. And we started to speak to each other in hush tones, with our eyes squinted and our teeth clenched, "I'll clean it up, go to bed."

"I can't go to sleep knowing you may go into a diabetic coma. That's something that's needs to be addressed quickly and every one's in bed."

"I'm only having one in this small glass."

"Then you will save one for me for lunch tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"I'm going to bed."

"Good night."

Don't put Dad in a coma

The damn diabetic tried like hell to get someone to make him brownies last night.
Ummmmm.....
A. It was 9:00 ......... pm, I've never turned my oven on that late, I'm not even sure it works that late. I probably won't bake anything until Christmas anyway
and
2. No one wanted the responsibility of causing a diabetic coma. It's a little rule I have in the household, "Don't put Dad in a coma."

The husband has phases, right now he's in the "I know more than that guy that has a, I'm a doctor, I have a degree and everything, see it on the wall there?"
So Mr. I don't want all my toes anyway, made them himself. I left the room, I had people to ice in Mafia Wars. The oven works at the ungodly hour of 9:00 pm, because I heard him rattling around in there. Amazingly he found everything, huh, that is brain cell I need to activate, the husband does know where stuff is in the kitchen. He definitely slipped up there, it's in the vault now.

He used the wrong pan and blamed the the unevenness of the brownies on that pan and the fact that it is a gas oven. Gas ovens suck according to the Iron Chef.
I've been asking him for 12 years to even out the oven. Everything I bake is uneven. I take a 9 x 13 to any one's house for dinner and they know it's mine ...... because it's uneven.

At 11:00 I got ready for bed, in the kitchen I said, "Got your brownies huh?"
"Yeeees, I'm still alive and if you will notice I didn't eat them all."
"That's great babe. Would it be alright if I turned off the oven now?"

The Blood Sugar Level is Right

Boy #2's girlfriend is in nursing school and she has joined forces with me in lording over the damn diabetics sugar intake. So much so that the husband fondly refers to her as the sugar nazi.

"Did you pick up milk?"
"Got it."
"Your arms look pretty full for just milk. What's in that bag?"
"Hide this from her."
"This" was a bakery box with 4 cinnamon rolls gobbed with icing.
"Didn't you hear Obama warn us of greedy surgeons lopping off diabetics feet left and right for monetary gain? And still you're going to look that danger in the face, laugh it off and eat ooey gooey cinnamon rolls?"
"Just one, the rest are for you guys."

Later that evening:
Pointing my finger at the husband, "He ate a cinnamon roll, see them out there in the kitchen?"
The girlfriend, "Did you take your blood sugar level? I'll bet it's high. I'm guessing two fifty at least."
Me, "I think it's one seventy...... no, one eighty-nine."
We turned our attention to Boy #2.
"I'm gonna say one dollar Bob."

The Damn Diabetic

"Wheat bread? Is dad a diabetic again?"
"Yeah, he's giving it another try. All the junk food is back in the usual hiding places."
The husband decided to give this living thing another shot. Since finding out a little over a year ago that he has diabetes, it's been an uphill battle trying to keep him alive. But I've persevered, because it is all about me anyway. I've always hid my chocolate, but I had to start hiding the potato's too.

Several times during this diabetic year he's told me, "I don't think I'm really a diabetic." With this look on his face like I was actually going to buy it.
"So you're more qualified than the man with a doctor's degree hanging on his wall to make this diagnosis? And the fact that all your siblings and your mother have diabetes, it just skipped you?"

I get no response to my logical questions. But I know when he's fallen off the diabetic wagon. He starts buying me huge Hersey Bars. These Hersey Bars never make it to my secret chocolate stash hiding place, he eats them. "Did you check your blood sugar today?"
"It's fine."
"Yeah? What was it?"
"It's fine."
"When was the last time you checked it?"
"Dear, it's fine."
"It's not like I like to nag you, you've brought it on yourself. I'm trying to keep you alive and this is the thanks I get, you damn diabetic."

It usually takes a "sugar spell" to snap him back into diabetic mode, which happened this week. So that's why I bought wheat bread, hid the chocolate and potato's and told him I loved him. Oh and I bought another issue of Diabetic Living.

It's Too Bad You're a Diabetic

I spent most of the morning deciding on a hiding place for my heart shaped box of chocolates. It seems that after all these years of dumping time and money into my children, I'm starting to see a profit. Boy #2 presented me with a Valentine's Day gift. "For me?"
"Happy Valentine's Day mom. I got to go to work, love you."
"I have to hide this from your father and the other ones."
The husband shuffled out of bed while I was in the shower, before I found a hiding place though. "Where'd you get the chocolate?" he yells into the bathroom.
"My thoughtful son."
"Which one is that?"
"Number 2."
"Oh that's right, I told him to pick it up for me and give it to you."
"Uh huh, it's too bad you're a diabetic, cause I'd have shared them with you."
One lie deserves an other.
I've done 4 or 5 months of diabetic hard time, so I'm not unsympathetic. I had gestational diabetes with Boy #3 and that was near Easter. Chocolate bunnies would sneer at me, "Gestational diabetes, that's got to suck."
"I couldn't eat chocolate when I was pregnant with you and yet, I still love you." I tell Boy #3. "And that's why you're so skinny, you know that right?"
A couple of days a go the husband asked if he had to buy me a Valentine's Day present. My response, "Just being married to you is present enough babe." It's the little white lies we've told each other over the past 23 years that has kept our marriage so strong.

Luckily There Was Vodka

Maybe it was a little bit of poor planning or maybe we were just in a state of dumbstruck confusion, but putting a bunch of diabetics in a room for 5 hours with no food wasn't a good idea. That's something funeral directors probably don't think about when planning a weekend of mourning. It's a shame too because they had everything else covered, we had kleenex out the wazoo. Now don't get me wrong there were danish and brownies downstairs, but it was downstairs and the constant stream of "paying their last respects" people were upstairs and food wasn't allowed upstairs.
The husband was the first to feel the effects, because he's in diabetic denial and ignores early warning signs. By the time we got to the house he was shaking like a leaf, one brother-in-law was chasing him around with a roll of glucose tablets and our niece with orange juice. I, on the other hand, couldn't help but notice the case of booze someone sent over. Now that's a wonderful idea. We had sub-sandwiches, rigatoni, pizza, cakes, fried chicken and Jo-Jo's and even a crock pot of Elk Stew, but dropping off a case of booze, now that's thinking. So I made myself a vodka and orange juice while the husband fought off a diabetic coma.

Those two evenings we celebrated Becky's life and the way she touched ours. We laughed, we cried, we reminisced, we gave insulin shots and we drank too much. Our dear sister will be missed. And I do appreciate the well wishes from everyone.

No one went into a diabetic coma, the husband helped himself to 2 big bowls of Elk Stew. I'm a little bit worried he's going to ask for the recipe, he really liked it. I've never seen Elk in the grocery store. Pretty sure it's wild game and needs to be hunted. I don't even know what an Elk looks like, is it like a big deer?

Things Left Unsaid

By the title of this post it almost looks like I'm going to get sappy. Not my style. After reviewing some of my previous posts, I've come to the realization that I left a few things up in the air. Like for instance:

1. My mom didn't get mad at me for shopping for a bra without her, but did get mad at me for blogging about it.
2. The Prom went off with hardly a hitch. The tuxedo looked exactly like last years, but with a blue vest instead of pink. I forgot to order a corsage and had to buy one that was made by mistake.
3. I'm still smiling at my new job.
4. Boy #3's "analyzed knee fluid" show some sort of trauma, in other words, he hurt it but doesn't want to tell me how he did it.
5. Someone stole some of my birthday chocolate and I think it was the damn diabetic. Mommy's babies know better - it was him.

There you have it. A recap of previous post. I'm pretending not to notice that no-one really commented to find out how things turned out. I'm sure you guys are really busy.

The Diabetic Ride

Yep, that is what my new blog is going to be called! DiabeticRide.com is the domain name that has been registered. I'm just getting the hosting finalize and I'll be ready to start. The Friday before Christmas the husband was diagnosed with diabetes, you can read my post about it here.

For a few months I had been planning on starting a new blog, my own blog, but wasn't sure about a niche. Holy Crap be careful what you wish for. I got my niche. I plan to learn about diabetes through this new blog. It will in no way be me giving advice, it will be about the husbands and my journey to trying to keep him healthy.

I will be looking for other diabetic blogs to link with and the first thing on my list will be finding recipes. If you have a recipe for diabetics I will definitely link to your blog for it. Leave me a comment and I will make sure I let you know when DiabeticRide.com is up and running.

So please be sure to join the adventures of this clueless couple on their Diabetic Ride!