Sunday, September 26, 2010

The walk report....and I'm married to an attack dog!

Ah, the walk.  It's always one of those days when we put so much of our energy into praying for a beautiful day with great weather.  And then the day comes and we realize that all our prayers were in vain.  Drizzly, icky, cold weather!  Awful.  And no offense meant to anyone, but people who sign up for these walks and then don't show up because it's cold and drizzly and icky are LAME!  Last year for the walk, we had fantastic weather.  Lots of people showed up to walk in the beautiful weather.  This year, the rain and drizzle started and more than half the people who signed up must have looked out their windows and crawled right back into bed.  I thought we Minnesotans were made of stronger stuff than that.  Seriously, we brave horribly cold temperatures in the winter just so we can go flying down hills on skis, zooming through snowbanks on snowmobiles, and drench mittens while rolling balls of sticky white flakes into balls for fights or snowmen.  And those same people couldn't be bothered to drag their lazy butts out of their warm beds for a couple of hours to raise money and awareness for diabetes?  Oh, so lame!  The walk did go pretty well though.  The kids were well-behaved, in spite of it being chilly and cold.  Leo's poor little hands turned red from the cold and wet and he still didn't complain!

I love my husband.  I really, really do.  I adore the guy.  But, man, there are times!  We haven't been out on a date in so long!  It's been months since we left the kids with anyone so that we could do something together.  In fact, the last time we did, Avatar was in the theaters and we went to see the 3D version.  There just really isn't anyone who understands the whole diabetes thing all that well.  My husband's mom has been trying to learn what she can about it, but when you're not living it every day, it's hard to "practice" so that you can feel sure of yourself.  When she watched the kids while we went to the movie, Lily asked for orange juice. My MIL thought maybe she was low and gave her the orange juice.  She wasn't quite sure how to test Lily's blood sugar yet.  Honestly, I'm okay with Lily having a high every now and then.  I'd rather she had gotten the orange juice and gone up then have her be low and be denied what she needs.  But my husband FREAKED. He has a tendency to over-react.  In his words, "we're never leaving the kids again."  Oy!  I finally got him to relent on those words this weekend.  We dropped the kids off at his mom's apartment just after nap and snack time.  The kids had been fed, blood sugars had been checked.  We ran off to the bookstore, to look at books in peace.  Something we never get to do anymore!  Somewhere along the way, my phone dropped out of my bag.  I never thought anything of it, since no one really calls me anyway and if his mom had needed something, I assumed she'd call my husband's phone.  Nope.  When we went to pick up the kids, my MIL told me that she'd tried to call to see if Lily could have a cookie, since she was asking for one.  My MIL distracted her instead, but did end up giving her a package of fruit snacks.  You can all guess where this is leading, right?  My husband freaked again.  He goes into this attack mode sometimes and it just boggles your mind to be approached in that way!  He asked his mom if she gave Lily insulin for the fruit snack.  No, she didn't.  He assumed that she didn't even think of giving Lily insulin for the fruit snack.  Oh, I love my husband, I really do.  But you know that saying about when you ASSUME something, you make an ASS of U and ME?  Yeah, it took a lot of talking to get him to calm back down again.  Luckily, he held it together long enough to not let on too much to his mom that he was freaking.  Oh, my husband needs to relax!  Our children came away from the time with Grandma happy and full of life.  So what if a blood sugar was a bit high for a little while?  That happens on it's own all the time anyway.  I just wish getting a break and managing a date with my husband were easy and didn't end in crankiness.  From him or the kids!  Is that too much to ask?

4 comments:

  1. OK, not sure what happened, I just typed out a long comment and I don't think it went through...so I am at it again. If this is a duplicate, I am sorry.

    WAY TO GO to your family on getting out there inspite of crappy weather. You guys are gritty girl!

    And on the Cookie/Fruit Snack mishap - :(

    Your husband is protecting his little girl. And yes better high than low for sure, I am with you. Too bad it isn't easier to just drop our kids off somewhere to get out for an afternoon, evening etc. I cannot complain too much in this department. As Joe ages, he has become really responsible with his care and I am able to drop him off at a friends house for an hour or two. Over Thanksgiving, my In-Laws are going to watch the kids for an overnight!!!! Dave and I have not had a night away from the kids together in 4 years. I am so excited!

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  2. Don't give up!! You NEED some adult time! Next time maybe make a plan of what treat she will get while your away and tell grandma what to do? Trial and error...keep working to success!! Good luck!

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  3. Oh, this really hit home with me. My own parents are woefully inadequate when they have any time with my boy to the point of me having to give up work and never leave them alone with him. I have felt the rage your husband feels. It's the primal rage of a small child not undertsanding why Mum and Dad can't be there for him. I'm going to blog about this today.
    You and your lovely husband will find a way through this. We find that time out just for lunch rather than evenings works well. Or we go just after a meal for an hour's walk sometimes, knowing he's OK for that hour. He would not react to anyone else this way. Family hit buttons like no one else!

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  4. Meri's got some great advice. Hang in there!

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