Pump Victory

After a long month of pump trials I finally received my very own insulin pump. I've been using a loaner pump from my endocrinologist while waiting for an approval from my insurance company and the shipment of my very own pump. It's been a bit of a rough road calculating costs vs. benefits but in the end we have been blessed with the ability to order a pump of my own. Today I had a doctors appointment and was able to pick up my new pump. Wahoo!! I've really enjoyed having a pump, its made it extremely easy to get my insulin without giving myself up to 4 shots a day. The insurance company didn't approve the use of a Glucose Monitoring System so I'll still have to prick my finger before and after meals BUT I was given a new glucometer that wirelessly transmits my blood sugar levels to the pump for easy tracking. It's so cool! Technology is amazing, such fun tools that help with such a not so fun disease.


The baby seems to be growing on schedule and very active inside my tummy. All of my appointments seem to give reassurance that everything is going as planned. I (we) feel very blessed that the Lord is watching over our new little one and has blessed us with wonderful doctors and technologies that assist with the development of our baby. Thanks to all for your continued love and support!! We truly are blessed.

Lagoon Time!

Last Saturday was Lagoon Day for Nelson Brothers Electric, and my parents invited us to go with them. Stacie and I hadn't been for several years, and Lexie had never gone, so it was a fun experience for all. Several micro burst storms blew through in the course of the day, but we survived! Here are some of the highlights:


Lagoon 2008 from Josh Nelson on Vimeo.

Oh, the things you'll see...

...in the middle of the night.

Starting work at 3:00 in the morning is quite interesting. I always joke that the commute is great (which it is), but there are things that you see in the wee hours that you usually don't see during the day. When I work on the weekends, I will generally see tavern owners closing up their businesses, and lines of people waiting for taxi cabs to take them home. One night, I drove past a gas station on State Street as a couple of guys starting pushing each other and moving out into the street as one of them started swinging at the other one with a single jack sledgehammer. I put my head down and stepped on the gas pedal.

But this morning I saw something that really threw me for a loop. As I left my house, I realized that I was in desperate need of some liquid refreshment, so I pointed towards the nearest giant yellow "M". As I waited in line, I noticed that the vehicle in front of me was a new Ford pickup truck with a woman behind the wheel and several hunting window stickers (you know what I mean: a picture of a trophy deer that says "Shut the buck up" or something like that). As I waited an inordinate amount of time in line, I became curious about what she ordered that would cause such a delay. After several minutes, the window slid open, and my question was answered. She was handed FOUR HAPPY MEALS.

What?

That's all she got; just the four happy meal boxes, followed by one of those cardboard trays with four small drinks. After a minute of arrangement, she put her giant truck in gear and left. I couldn't stop thinking about how bizarre it was. What would she want with four happy meals at 2:30 on a Thursday morning? It's been on my mind ever since, and I have come up with a few theories, but they all leave something to be desired:

1. She was getting grub for her son/daughter's sleep-over. This is the first thing that came to my mind. But most kids are in school now, and when I was younger and had a sleepover, I might have been awake at 2:30 a.m., but my mom wasn't going on a food run for us, as cool as she is. Plus, most kids grow out of their happy meal stage long before sleepover age and order from the big boy menu. This doesn't seem right.

2. She was driving on a road trip and needed some late-night food for her and her family. Again, possible, although a road trip in that gas hog of a truck doesn't make much sense. Plus, you'd think that the kids would be asleep, and the McDonalds wasn't right off of the freeway or anything. I noticed her drive away and turn into a neighborhood, so this isn't the answer either.

3. She was on an eating binge and was going to get loose on some food like Meredith Baxter-Birney did in a Lifetime movie that I saw when she ate a whole cake in her car. With her hands. I like this reason most of all, and can picture her ravaging those kids' meals like a pack of wolves tearing into an elk. But if this were the case, why would she go with the happy meals? The box format and the smallish bags of fries would just slow you down (plus you'd have to be careful not to eat the prizes in your haste). Wouldn't you just order a sackful of cheeseburgers, a half dozen turnovers and an 84 oz. coke and go to work? I think this explanation has legs, but I can't be certain.

Alas, when it was my turn, I got my drink and .99 double cheeseburger (no pickle, no onion) and left, trying to catch up to the side of her at a traffic light and see what was going on. But I never could, and she vanished in a cloud of diesel smoke. Perhaps I'll never know. I don't work again tomorrow, but when I do, I'll keep a sharp lookout for a white pickup truck filled to the roof with happy meals.

Friday Update

We haven't posted in a couple of days, so I wanted to write about of couple of things that happened this week.

Stacie and I went to Primary Children's Hospital on Tuesday for a fetal echocardiogram. She has had several ultrasounds already, and we were always assured that everything looked normal. So when the doctor's office called to tell us that they made an appointment to have the fetal echo, it struck us as odd. Her OB told us more than once that it was a standard test for a pregnant woman who has diabetes, but anytime your doctor orders a test to examine the baby's heart closely, it is a little bit worrisome.

The test, which is just like an ultrasound except that it focuses strictly on the heart, took just about one hour. It was a little different; the other ultrasounds were more "show and tell". They would check out all of the baby, so you could see his legs, his arms moving, his face, etc. The fetal echo had none of that. And while it was still amazing, it was quite repetitious as they looked over and over. The good news is that everything looks fine; they had trouble getting a good look at the aortic arch and seeing everything that they needed to look at, because our little guy was as busy as ever, moving around and making himself difficult to capture on film. The specialist gave us a "thumbs up" and sent us on our way, which was a relief. I don't think I'll ever stop worrying...his health and development is on my mind constantly. But Stacie is doing everything that she can to keep him safe and is doing a great job. I can't believe it's less than four months away!

Lexie has had a busy couple of weeks as well. Two weeks ago she started going to preschool (twice weekly) with Miss Bonnie, a gal in our ward who runs the preschool in her basement. Lexie is loving it so far...the first day in class they measured everyone and found out that she is nearly three inches taller than anyone else (not all that surprising to me!). She got to be the weather girl one day, and is having a great time with her classmates. Here's a picture:




She also started taking a clogging class last week. It is a half-hour class every Monday, and we figured that she certainly has energy to burn! She enjoyed her first class, and is practicing her steps for next week. She certainly isn't shy about performing, and will demonstrate to anyone her new talents.

Last (but certainly not least), it was Stacie's birthday yesterday. It is an easy one for me to remember, what with the additional memories that we all have of 9/11. We had a nice party with our family; I'll post some pictures later. But Stacie had a fun day playing hookey from work. She even got her first experience at the cannery, making strawberry jam (her idea!). So now we have some yummy strawberry jam and a whole bunch of leftover cake. Drop on by if you're hungry tonight!

Utah State Fair

Well, we went to the State Fair tonight; it was opening night, and the crowds were out in full force. We had a great time seeing the animals, riding on some rides, and eating delicious unhealthy carnival food (although we didn't try the deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich). Lexie loved all of it...we went on the big Ferris Wheel, which she loved. Plus, we tried a ride that is similar to the Tidal Wave at Lagoon. Lexie thought it was great, although her mother wasn't sure about her riding on it! Here are some highlights:

I heard a rumor...

Picture removed by Josh.









Josh not happy.

Labor Day Weekend Festivities

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. Our weekend was packed full of activities for the whole family. Saturday we spend most of the day cleaning and organizing the master bedroom. In preparation for the baby, we are rearranging several parts of the house to make room for his nursery. We are turning the office into the baby's room but that means we now have to find room for all of the office stuff. We decided to start with our room and Lexie's room so we could move furniture out of the office into areas that were already organized and clean. It's been a big job, and even though we didn't get it all done it was nice to have some dedicated time with Josh to do some good cleaning.

Saturday was also the first BYU football game. Which at our house, is a MUST WATCH. Thanks to Josh's friends we were able to watch the game Saturday evening at their new home. (We don't get "The MTN" channel from Dish Network so we have to watch all the games elsewhere) Josh and Lexie went for a swim in the neighborhood pool, we had a nice Mexican dinner, and the boys watched the game while the little girls played and the big girls watched TV upstairs. We all had a great time!

Sunday morning Lexie woke up with a full blown cold. Her nose was running and she was coughing so I decided to keep her home from church while Josh went and substituted in Nursery. Lexie was sad she didn't get to go with her Dad but I didn't want the other kids getting sick. We had planned on heading up the canyon Sunday afternoon to join Josh's family at the cabin in Kamas for the remainder of the weekend. We knew that the weather wasn't going to be great so we debated long and hard before beginning our journey. We arrived at the cabin around 4pm Sunday afternoon. It had been a beautiful day, just a little windy. However, as the afternoon went on the clouds rolled in and so did the rain. It rained most of the evening, into the night, and the next day. Fortunately for us, we were blessed to get a comfy bed inside the cabin for the night and didn't have to worry about setting up or taking down a tent for the rainy evening. Lexie was excited because she got to stay in the trailer with Grandma and Grandpa. We had a yummy dutch oven dinner Sunday night that Grandpa had prepared in the rain (what a trooper). After dinner we laid Lexie down and watched "The Prestige" with Josh's parents. I love that show. The trailer had sprung a leek so Josh and Tom spent most of the movie standing with a towel soaking up the water as it dripped inside the trailer. Monday morning was a balmy 38 degrees. I think that everyone was ready to get out of the rain and head home for the day. Nate and Amy had already left around Midnight the night before because they had rain dripping inside their tent and didn't want to risk spending the night in cold misery (not that I blame them). We all packed up shortly after breakfast and headed for home. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch where we could rest in comfort and warmth. We spent the afternoon relaxing and watching "Clean House" while Lexie took a nice long nap. Later that evening we headed for home and I did laundry for the next several hours. Sounds like fun huh? We certainly do know how to cram in as much stuff as we can into one weekend.

In the end the weekend was a success. Josh got to watch his football game, I accomplished some much needed cleaning and organizing, and Lexie got to go to the cabin and be with her grandparents, uncles, and aunts. A great weekend was had by all!