Tuesday, October 6: Day 117

This is what our tire looked like after I dropped Matthias off at work. Funny enough, I noticed it right as I was about to leave for the gym--and I actually had motivation to go! When does that ever happen? Well, flat tires are never convenient, but I guess if all it's doing is keeping you from a work out, one can't complain, right?

We were just going to take care of it in the evening but the Elders serving in our ward volunteered to put the spare tire on. Fantastic! Later in the evening Matthias filled up the tire with air and put it back on...hoping it will stay inflated since we can't find a hole anywhere. Since I'm again writing this from the future looking back, I can say it's been pretty smooth sailing since then, minus another fill up on air. Ha ha--we're putting it off taking it in for as long as possible.

Monday, October 5: Day 116

I am still feeling residual good feelings from conference this past weekend. Elder Holland's talk continues to be my favorite. I have seen miracles happen in my own life since I started seriously studying the Book of Mormon these past couple of months. Add my name to the list of testifiers--I know this book is true!

Sunday, October 4: Day 115

So when I type in the date, I keep catching myself typing "Aug..."--I can't believe it's October! I know, I've mentioned it before. But seriously!

After conference today, Matthias and I took a short road trip to Eklutna Lake (just North of Eagle River about 45 minutes North of Anchorage in Chugach State Park). Here are some pictures:

On the way back, we stopped off at Mirror Lake:

They look like paintings. Alaska in the fall can't be beat and we've been loving every minute of it.

Saturday, October 3: Day 114

Since I seem to forget to pack my camera around with me to keep this blog interesting and packed with good pics, I am going to get a little creative here about today. It was full of opportunities for pictures and yet the camera stayed in the closet due to my own negligence. So here is the first symbol that represents my day:

Conference!

We watched the morning session at home and the afternoon one at the church because our internet was making things slow and frustrating at times. I loved it. 5 new temples were announced: Brigham City, UT; Concepcion, Chile; Manaus, Brazil (which is right on the edge of the Amazon); Fort Lauderdale, FL; and Sorpotel, Japan. And 83% of Church members live within 200 miles of a temple. My favorite talks today were from President Uchtdorf, Elder Oaks, and Elder Anderson.

Next:

Girl's "Night" was actually afternoon since we're two hours early here and priesthood session is from 4-6. I invited the girls from Thy's old Sunday School class over (Sasha & Jacqueline Sandoval, Courtney McElwee, and Katie Owen), and we played "Nertz"--one of my favorite card games. I am always up for a round of Nertz, even if I don't win. We had a good time.

Next:

A baptism! Michael Thomas's baptism. He came over for a lesson with the missionaries on Sept. 24 and it was the most powerful lesson I've ever sat in on. He had really great questions and you could tell he knew it was all true. His baptism was equally amazing and I was very happy to be there.

And:

We went to Moose's Tooth to celebrate Rachel Vander Martin's birthday along with her family. Wish I would have brought my camera! We shared part of Thanksgiving day with her and her family last fall and she lives just down the street from us.

When we were finally home, Matthias said a few times "Today was a good day." And I have to agree. Today was a very good day.

Friday, August 2: Day 113

Checking the mail was so much fun today--Sariah sent me a birthday present and it was awesome! I asked for a longer skirt that could go with a lot of things, since I am now sporting a skirt daily and have only 2 long skirts for the upcoming 6+ months of ice and snow. The miracle of the whole thing is that it actually fits. That is harder than it sounds, because skirts and pants are not an easy thing for me to fit nicely in due to the way I store extra calories in one convenient location: the abdomen. So anyway, I really like how it flairs out at the bottom and the lines they've created with seams in all the right places. Thank you Sariah!

Thursday, October 1: Day 112

Is anyone else weirded out that it's already October? Holy cow. Where did August and September go?

The miracle of all miracles happened today: I went to see Dr. Tanner--an endocrinologist, or "diabetes doctor"--and he actually knows what he's talking about. I've heard his name buzzed around here and there since we moved up here but he isn't on our insurance's special list of people they cover really well. But I finally decided to just pay the bucks to see him since I wasn't getting much help with the other doctor. And it was totally worth it! He sat and chatted with me for about an hour getting to know what my goals were with my blood sugars, what I was currently doing, and then proceeded to teach me about things I didn't know. Amazing. A doctor who knows more than the patient about the disease they are fighting. Seems like it should have happened sooner than this, right? It's really not that I know so much about "D"--it's just that I think a lot of "D" doctors get stuck in the rut of information they got when they were first trained and I feel like I've been getting the same questions and advice for years and years, which made me begin to wonder what my d-doctors were good for, anyway? Within minutes of talking to Dr. Tanner, he said, "Why are you taking NPH? Throw the bottle away when you get home." He then prescribed one new kind of insulin that does the job that both my other night time insulins were supposed to do. Fabulous!

I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, this doctor is awesome and I've already learned new stuff with a follow-up appointment next week to see how I'm implementing it. He even gave me a new meter so my blood sugar readings will be able to hook up to his computers and we can see patterns with my numbers. Yeaaaaa.

Wednesday, September 30: Day 111

So nothing new happened today...same ol' same ol'. But I haven't mentioned yet that I've started a surprise project for Matthias. Whenever I bring it up, it drives him crazy that he doesn't know what it is and I love it. Don't we all love a good surprise? This one is going to take awhile to make happen and will either be for Christmas or Valentine's Day. But here's your only clue Matthias: it involves turning something we thought was a tragic reminder of things gone wrong into something that will be kept and treasured. Hopefully that didn't give anything away. Ha ha. I love being part of something mysterious.