Oatmeal That Tastes Like Peanut Butter Cookies...

I love oatmeal.  In fact, it's just about the only cereal I will eat in the mornings, period.  I also love peanut butter (but not as much as my Greg does, trust me).  As I was making my morning oatmeal the other day, I was trying to figure out how to get some protein in my breakfast without adding more carbs, when it hit me--peanut butter has carbs.  Why not add it to the oatmeal?  Yeah!

The final product was yummy--as Greg and I have proclaimed it, "a peanut butter cookie in a bowl."  Here's the concoction for each serving:

• 1 serving hot, cooked old-fashioned oats (don't use instant--ugh!)

• 2 tbsp peanut butter (we used chunky)

• sweetener of choice to equal 2 tsp of sugar (I used a mix of stevia and splenda, as they are natural sweeteners, but don't mess with a diabetic's blood sugar)

Just add the peanut butter and sweetener to the hot oatmeal and stir well.   It has about 350 calories, 20 grams of fat (GOOD fat), and 35 carbs.  Sounds like a lot, but you get waaaay more than that in a fast food breakfast, right? right.

Tuesday Morning...

Another quiet summer morning here at home for me as I wait for Greg to come home from his mom and dad's.  Poor Nadine is steadily growing worse, both physically and mentally.  We are going to the neurologist in Murfreesboro this afternoon to get a report, and hopefully some news on a course of treatment.  Tomorrow we meet with the oncology group.

I'll report when I know something.

Updates on a Wednesday...and a rant about doctors and diabetes!!

I'm home from the doctor in Murfreesboro; Mama and I both had an appointment about our eyesight.  Mama had great news--her eyesight had miniscule changes and she doesn't have to come back for a year--yay! 

My news wasn't great, but wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  There was a problem, but Dr. Cherney felt that since my diabetes was getting under control so quickly that the problem might correct itself without any laser surgery.  I was so thrilled!  The idea of somone taking a laser to my eyeballs was not exactly tickling me pink.

When I think of how long I probably went with my Type 1 diabetes undiagnosed, it angers me so much....I know it went on at least two years because when my gallbladder was taken out my blood sugar was over 600 then.  What did I hear from the surgeon and my then-primary doctor?  "You need to eat better and take better care of yourself, and your sugar will go down."  I WAS eating fine, thank you very much, but the fact is when almost anyone in health care sees a person who is heavy they (like most people in society) assume that heavy person eats constantly and eats the wrong foods.  WRONG.  I guarantee you there are people 1/3 my size that eat 3x more than I do all over this planet.  But do you think those doctors listened to me?  Nope.

Finally, along came Dr. Bryan Chastain, God Bless Him.  He was the man who saved my life, and believed me when no one else would listen.  I went to him because he was Greg's doctor, and he spent time talking to me, asking me questions, and checking out my health to see what was really going on with me.  When he couldn't get my blood sugar under control, he sent me to someone who COULD.  That was the Eskind Diabetes Clinic at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.  Within two months, my Hemoglobin A1C went from 10.8 (dangerously high) to 8.5 (1.5 point from high normal).  The clinic has helped me feel so much better about myself, and feel so much better pysically.  When I think of how long I have felt so tired, so sick, so depressed BECAUSE I was so tired and sick, I want to scream at those other doctors for robbing me of all that time of my life I missed out on.  I feel so sad for my last two years of students for not being "all of me" the last two years of my teaching.  Look out next year's 10th grade--woo hoo!  Now all I have to do is go get some new glasses, and I'll be all set!

Another update...our sweet Nadine is still in limbo.  No news, except that there are two scheduled dr. appointments next week regarding the tumor in her head.  Her mental state drifts in and out--she is lucid one day, a bit lost the next, hallucinating the next.  Her gait is more staggering day by day, and her legs are very weak, as are her arms.  She is having a very hard time sleeping at night, and sleeps fitfully off and on during the day.  We are all trying to be brave and positive, anxiously awaiting the doctor visits and dreading them at the same time.  It's going to be a million years until Tuesday, and yet it will be here too soon.

Please keep Nadine in your prayers...

Pardon me Roy, I'm at the Chattanooga Choo Choo...

So I'm at a conference on the new curriculum standards, and I'm staying at the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo. It is very nice, and since I booked through hotwire.com, I got the room for a steal. Better yet, the state of TN is going to reimburse me, so it will be free eventually...yay! I am trying very hard to enjoy myself, but there's so much going on at home.

My mother-in-law is having a terrible health scare right now, and I so wish I was back home for that. I talked to Greg last night and told him I was coming home, but he insisted I stay. He said there was nothing I could do if I were here. Still...

The thing is, I just told Greg a few days ago that I had not been able to shake the feeling of dread that came over me all of a sudden one night. I hope that it's just a coincidence.

Please keep our Nadine in your prayers. She is one of the sweetest and most loving ladies I have ever known.

Two Years Ago Today...

The greatest man in the world made me the happiest woman in the world...the best part? Life just gets better with every passing day. There's no better feeling than knowing you've found someone who loves you no matter what happens, who stands by you and protects you with all his heart, who thinks you are way more beautiful than you really are, who calls you his best friend (and means it), and who still makes your heart skip a beat when he walks in the room.

Two years ago today, I was happy and thrilled to become the wife of such a wonderful man. Two years later, I am even more happy to be his wife. That short walk down the aisle was the beginning of the greatest journey of my life.

The song we played at our wedding is linked on my Twitter posts to your right--I tried to post it here, but to no avail.

Have a great day everyone--I know I will!

Not much to update, but here goes...

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm afraid life isn't very exciting right now; I don't have much to report, but I figured since I hadn't posted since Memorial Day, I should remedy that.

The garden is going well--the beans and tomatoes are all blooming, we have little baby squash and baby grape tomatoes, and we've not had to buy lettuce for over a month--yay! The garden makes me so happy and peaceful--there's nothing like going out and playing in the dirt.

I've been doing some spring cleaning since school's been out. I cleaned out the cabinets in the huge coffee table in the living room, cleaned out the buffet in the dining room, and tackled the closet in the living room. Problem is, I hurt my back while working on the living room closet. I bent down to pick up something small, and when I did something popped and OUCH!!! That was Friday, but it's much better and I should be back to normal in another day or so. I've resolved that this will not get me down for long, because I have too many things I want to do to be incapacitated.

Oh, something else that looms on the horizon: I went to get new glasses the other day and found out that I have some retinal damage in the back of my right eye, probably from the times after my gallbladder surgery when my blood pressure and blood sugar were so astronomically high. After all, we don't know how long I was a Type I diabetic before I was diagnosed, and often my blood sugar was over 600 while I was sick. The doctor will probably have to do some laser surgery on the back of my eye, but I'm told it's no big deal--yeah, just a LASER BEAM to the back of my FREAKIN' EYEBALL--UGH!!! Anyway, I won't find out until July 1st, so it must not be too urgent.

Greg's classes are going well, but he's stressing, of course. God love him, I wish I could give him some confidence so he would realize how smart he is. He just knows he's not going to do well, and I (and everyone else that knows him) knows better than that.

Well, back to the grind...have a good Sunday, everyone.

Happy Memorial Day...I'm counting down!

Good morning everyone,

Starting a quiet Memorial Day here at Chateau Hillis...we've had our coffee/breakfast, and now we're discussing plans for the afternoon.  The in-laws are having a little cookout this afternoon, and then our little guy goes back home to his mommy, stepdad and sister.  I went to pick him up Friday and it was fun having some time for just the two of us.  

I'm literally counting down the minutes, the seconds until summer vacation starts.  I have such plans for my time this summer.  Gardening, reading, planning my lessons for next year, a short trip to Gatlinburg, more gardening, canning, and just enjoying my time.  I am so glad I feel so much better than I did this time last year--last summer was just a blur of feeling miserable and not knowing why.  Turns out, it was the diabetes giving my body such a hard time. Thank God it was something treatable, and not something much, much worse. Now I feel so much better that I can do so much more and enjoy life.

Take care, everyone...I'll be back soon with a "start of the summer" report.