Kum By YA (or however you spell it!)

Look at my girl! She's finally off to diabetes camp. I can hardly believe it. She is way excited/nervous, and so am I. She's going to do great, though. Me? We'll just have to wait and see. We've planned plenty of hard-to-count-but-delicious-to-eat snacks to chow on while she's gone. Check out the sidebar for the week's schedule and you can play along, too! (Notice they each have multiple carb ingredients, some of which aren't measured.)

I dropped her off yesterday morning after sleeping in until 9:30 am (my flight arrived from SLC at 12:00; I didn't get in bed till after 2:00), and giving the kiddos their mini ketchup bottles (which they loved, by the way) and trinkets. By the time that was done, I realized that Sarah had to be to diabetes camp at 11:00, and that I had neither unpacked or repacked the suitcase. (unpacked my junk, repacked hers.) I frantically kicked all the little ones out (Go watch a movie!) and had Sarah and Dale help me go through her checklist. We hustled, but it took us until 11:30 to leave the house. Oh, well, the bus wasn't leaving until 1:00, so I figured we'd be okay.

Sarah spent much of the time on the way over to camp assuring me that it was okay to miss church to go to diabetes camp. I think she's heard one too many stories about soccer games on the sabbath in primary. We obviously need to have the classic "A chronic illness is not the same thing as baseball" chat as soon as she gets home! ;)

We finally arrived and checked in. We handed in all of her medical logs, medications, etc, got her picture taken, spoke with a nurse, etc. etc., and then they gave her a water bottle with holder. (Humalog donated them. Do you know what Humalog is? If so, take ten points) Then we mostly stood around and waited for the bus. Sarah was nervous and kept gnawing on her nails. I looked at her water bottle bag and realized it was sopping wet! Her bottle was leaking. I asked the people if they had an extra, which they didn't. The Humalog rep even searched her car, but got nothin'. I told Sarah we'd have to use hers from home, and since it is green it would be easier to keep track of, anyway. She agreed, but I'm pretty sure it was only because her green one had lemonade in it. (She really didn't want to be different from the other kids and have a colored bottle that she could actually tell apart from her friends'....) We dug it out of the van, only to discover it had been melted in the dishwasher and had tiny holes at the top that lemonade would drip out of whenever she took a sip. Strike two! We walked back to the van a third time and I told her there had to be a water bottle in there somewhere. She found one, in blue. It was Logan's, but I told her she could have it. She seemed really reluctant to take her brother's bottle until I suggested that I pour her lemonade into it. She then quickly agreed before I could change my mind! Anyway, I wish I was going to camp because those water bottle holders are very cool!

There are 46 campers going this year, 19 of which are girls. One of the girls saw Sarah's shirt (which says: "Hand over the cupcakes and no one gets hurt" on it) and said she had one kind of like it. She also has one that says, "I love Carbs". Sarah was super jealous.

We met a girl named Megan who is 12 and has been diabetic for 4 years. She's not pumping yet because her family can't afford it. She just moved here from Delta a couple of weeks ago. Then a truck drove into her apartment so now she's living in the Spenard Motel with her brother and mom. Her mom couldn't bring her to camp, so a neighbor brought her in. She also had taken her shopping the day before and it was the first time that Megan had ever been shopping for herself. It was sort of depressing, but the girl is really nice. She and Sarah discussed how their blood sugar is better at school, and that Sarah loves Crystal Light. Megan said she didn't like it, but had only tried the cherry. Sarah said the lemonade was the best, and raspberry ice was pretty good, too. I'm going to bring Megan some Crystal Light packets when I come pick Sarah up on Friday so she can try some new flavors.

Anyway, before long it was time for Sarah to go! She got on the bus and sat right next to Megan. I think she's going to have a great time! And so are we. (May I draw your attention to the snack schedule on the right?)

Have fun, Sarah, and don't get too skeeter bit! (Impossible. You and all your fellow campers are naturally too sweet! )