Collier Christmas

Last weekend we had Collier Christmas in Elysian Fields. It was fun to get to see everyone... really there were only a few additions that are different than any other time we go to EF!

These first few pictures were before Collier Christmas, they are some of my new favorites:

"Mom, I promise I'm only touching the branches!"

"Aren't I so beautiful!"

Watson Randall Collier came over to play the day before Collier Christmas. I was so glad he did. We have been out of town, sick and pink eyed since he was born. We were glad that he came to play!

Addison liked to pat his back and say "baby"

Kallen and Kelsey stayed the night with us Friday night. Kallen won Addison's heart Saturday morning... all it took was a blueberry muffin and a book! I love her face in this one!

When we got to Nonna and Grandad's house she had to play in the tunnel.. of course!

And talk on the phone. Aunt Kelsey was nice enough to share hers!

We also took a picture for Russ and Kim's Christmas card.

at the party I took this picture of Addison and Maggie Sue. You can't deny that these two are cousins... or little Collier's!

Hanging out with Nonna

Christopher and little Watson. His camo shirt said "Shhh, I'm hunting for Santa!" SOOO cute.

Everyone listening to Mimi tell tales of China!

Addison loves to pull tissue paper, anything that comes in a bag with tissue paper is great. Actually, just the bag and tissue paper are great, she hasn't exactly figured out that there are things inside for her.

More bags!

Today we had our 15 month appointment with Dr. Neff. More shots, plus her flu shot #2. Last time she was terrible with the exam but a champ with the shots... not so much today. Great with the exam but was a sissy with the shots. Oh well. I felt bad for her. It was a new nurse and she did the shots E-x-t-r-a s-l-o-w, so I KNOW they had to hurt. Her stats... she was in the 25% percentile in everything! Good thing I call her my "little monster!" She's my perfectly proportioned little monster!

Thanksgiving ... Finally!!

First of all... my cousin Melynni Yarber had her 2nd child, Leah, last Thursday. They believe that she has Turner Syndrome, after a day they took her to Children's Hospital in Little Rock. It will take a few weeks to get the results back on Leah's test. Please pray for them; Leah, Melynni, Clint and their 2 year old son Joshua as he is spending time away from his parents. You can visit her update page http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/leahyarber

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Here is what we did in Bryan during Thanksgiving... It's taken me so long to update these since we had 2, yes count them 2 rounds of pink eye! AWESOME!

Mark wanted me to take this picture since we have so many of all of us like this when we lived in Kansas.

Mark's version of a bath...

He took Addison out to see the cows... she LOVED it. I was NERVOUS!

She found Melissa's old "Henry." Addison loved Henry, she fed him, rocked him and put him to sleep. She's going to be such a good mommy some day!

She got to help Pappy feed the horses! She had so much fun... she did discover that they don't take their food as easily as Chutch!

Pappy gave her a rope to play with. I'm sure one day Mark will teach her all kinds of rope tricks!

Walking to the barn with Daddy.

Blogger is not allowing me to put pictures in the right order... Mark was getting on to Addison for pulling on the throttle.

Like I said she loved the throttle at one point she revved it up and my dad came out of the barn and yelled at my brother, when he told him it was Addison he was okay with it. Mark did have to turn off the tractor several times.

This was when we first put her on the tractor, LOVED it!

Her favorite game... peek-a-boo under a blanket...

She loved Mary's dog, Rachel. Wasn't her pink eye great!

Her and Pappy on the horse... I can't remember which one this was. I'll be honest... he had her at the other end of the arena, I was so nervous I made up excuses for them to come closer and then to get her off of there.

My Papa took her outside after lunch and they played on the car... interesting choice but she had fun! Her favorite part... windshield wipers!

Another one after Pappy gave her the rope... sure wish I could put these in order.

So... Christopher, Mary Beth and I got into a movie before we left, I heard Addison and Honey in the kitchen... this is what they were up to... Corn Meal... we had to take another quick bath before getting on the road.

So much fun to pour!

and taste!! YUMMY!

Collier Christmas pictures from this weekend to come!!

why am I not asleep????

This morning ABC decided to wake up at 5:20... AWESOME! So she watched Baby Einstein, drinking her milk and cuddled in my lap as I got another 15 minutes of sleep. So I told myself that as soon as I put her down for a nap I was going to sleep on the couch... my pillow is even next to me calling my name...

So why can't I sleep? I said a long time ago that I was going to do a post about Camp Sweeney. Last night at church Kory said they drove past the Sweeney sign on their way back from Oklahoma and it made me so sad. Sad to know they were less than 5 minutes from such a wonderful place.

Many readers of this blog know about Sweeney from me, or from working there themselves. I believe they can attest to what this camp does for children with type 1 Diabetes. In all, I worked at Sweeney for 6 years (I think, maybe 7). Of course the first 3 or 4 years, I can't remember how many, I worked in the kitchen. It was a great summer job, and a few times, winter job. Then during winter session of 2000 I realized that the kitchen was not where I wanted to be, I wanted to out in the action, jumping in the lake with the Polar Bear Club. The next semester Skip came out to ACU to recruit for counselors and I sat down and talked to him. He convinced me to not take physics in summer school and to work at Sweeney, so I did, and never regretted it!

The summers of 2001, 2002 and 2003 were the most exhausting, rewarding, life changing, and real experiences of my life. I was always in the youngest girls cabin (6-12 year olds), the Bonner Babes, first as a general counselor, then as assistant head counselor, and my last year as head counselor. I LOVED IT! Chris and I even considered working there the summer after we got married for 1 more summer at Sweeney. We wanted so bad for it to work out... but it didn't. Even now when summer starts to role around Chris will say "hey, do you want to take off for 3 months and go work at Sweeney?" I say yes everytime!!

The greatest thing that this place does is shows kids with Type 1 diabetes that they are not alone. That there are lots of other people out there that have diabetes and go through the same struggles they do and they can be active and have fun. During their 3 week stay, they don't have to be completely responsible for their diabetes management. They don't have to carry a back pack with all their supplies, they don't have to worry about how much insulin they should take or what they can and can't eat, they get to be a normal kid. The counselors "share their load" for three weeks. Never while I was there was I embarrassed to wear a fanny pack (even at Six Flags) or carry juice and cups everywhere we went. It was my privilege to allow them the chance to be normal... if just for 19 days.

It was always so interesting to watch the kids on opening day as we were having our cabin meeting and listen to them talk about their diabetes and how long they have had it. I remember that first opening day, one of the girls said that she had been diagnosed since she was less than 1 year old... WOW, I think that I almost fell off the bunk I was sitting on, the responsibility it me. Sure, Ernie did a great job of preparing us for everything that we would have to do and see during the next 7o ish days of our summer, but really... that was a lot of responsibility, a lot of shots, a lot of orange juice, a lot of little kids. I mean, when one of my first campers is crying, I think she was 7, and her mom passed her to me and said have fun for three weeks... 19 days is a seems like a long time.

Obviously you can tell that I could go on and on about Sweeney... Here are some memories and kids that I will NEVER forget... (note: these are pictures of pictures so the quality is not that great... also note that at Sweeney you eat VERY WELL... most people gain weight (counselors) despite being in 100 degree weather for an entire summer! LOVE that Sweeney FOOD!)

Emma - one of my very first little sisters, she was 8 her first year. We stayed up late so many nights over those 3 years talking about boobs, boys, if we had boyfriends, what our kids were going to be named and so many other things! I love this girl! I still have the candle that her mom gave me when she came to pick her up. It's almost burned out, but I can't bring myself to throw it away.

Kristi, Hannah and Kristina - the crazy trio - I had so much fun with these girls... probably let them get away with more than I was suppose to, but they were so fun I just had to! Kristina and Hannah came to our wedding, as did several other campers... I loved it that they came, Kristina from Austin, to see me and Chris get married!

Caleb Ingle - one reason I will never forget this kid... Amazing Grace! I was on the "chapel" committee, not really chapel but I won't get into that! Cable had muscular dystrophy, but he never let it stop him. He had his braces on his legs every day and he would run, fall and get right back up and run again, but don't try to help him he can do it on his own! Caleb had a twin brother that was perfectly healthy, no diabetes, no MD. I remember one day when Caleb was talking about his brother, he said that his brother maybe healthier, but he didn't get to come to Camp Sweeney! Anyway, back to Amazing Grace... so the Chapel Committee had to stand at the front and lead songs... one Sunday, Caleb was on the front row and we started signing Amazing Grace and he sang it louder than anyone. It was just amazing to stand there and listen to him sing with all of his heart and think about his situation and that song... I cried. Every time we sing that song, I start to cry thinking about him and where he is and how he is...

Andrew Gray - Andrew was 7 my first summer. My favorite thing about Andrew was on the last day of camp my first summer he came up to me gave me a hug and said "345!" I was confused and asked what that meant, he said "345 days until I get to come back!" His dad was standing there and said that he counts down the days all year long until he gets to come back!

Buglet - (Jessica) - there is one thing that I learned from her that will never leave me, she was 8 when we had this conversation. One night we were putting in her new pump site, I did something wrong and had to start all over and I said "OH man, I'm retarded." She stopped and looked at me, put her hand on my shoulder and said "Mindi, there is a boy at my school that is retarded and you are nothing like him." Wow... the things you can learn from 8 year olds. I try to never used this word since this conversation... and if I accidentally did, I immediately corrected myself. It is now erased from my vocabulary.

Corn - (Ronald Howard Cornstubble) This kid... what can you say... he was so fun, entertaining, stubborn, easy going and determined. My favorite memory was after I was no longer a counselor... I was home for something in the summer of 2004 and went up one night to see some of the kids and counselors... I went to the back door of Hillcrest cabin and asked for Corn, he came out and gave me a hug and said "wait I have to show you something," he came back with his high school diploma. He brought it to camp to show everyone... he was 19, almost 20, a little mentally handicapped and didn't have many positive influences in his life outside of Sweeney (hence he was allowed past the normal 18 year age limit). I cried when he showed me his diploma, the winter session before this he had been expelled from school for fitting and I remember us talking and me telling him that he had to graduate... he did it!

Michael Iverson - favorite story from him... when we were at Six Flags we were in line for the Titan. He said his stomach hurt... I said "are you high?" he said that he wasn't sure then we discussed that when some people are high (blood sugar) their stomach hurts... so we tested, he was over 300 (no wonder... adrenaline raises your blood sugar and we were at six flags) so I dug in the ol' fanny pack, got a needle and insulin and he took his shot right there in line for the Titan. After he finished and we looked around and noticed people watching us we realized that that must have seemed weird to them... all they hear is "are you high" and then a minute later putting a needle in your arm...

Ryan White - Amazing young man. So calm, so relaxed most of the time. Christopher was his big brother... we loved this kid. I'll never forget his statement on the Session 3 video of 2003, it was his last year at Sweeney he had been their for 13 years... "the best day of my life was the first time I drove through those gates, the saddest day will be when I drive out those gates for the last time." Wow.
My Bonner Babes counselors - My second year was the best year ever!! The counselors in our cabin were so fun and we all clicked really well!! All but 1 was at and in our wedding! Jen and LIz even flew from Maryland and Indiana! So many memories...

So you can tell my passion and love for the people and purpose of this camp. Two years ago when Suzannah, a little girl at our church, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, Christopher pointed it out in the bulletin. I'm not going to lie... I was a little excited, my first thought was "she gets to go to Sweeney." I immediately wanted to talk to Stacy and help her in anyway that I could. All I could really do was offer support. I remember when I was going to go talk to her one day after church was over and before it did Christopher said "Mindi, don't act too excited... remember not everyone feels about diabetes the way you do." So I had to calm myself... then while we were talking I started to cry. I just feel compassion for these kids... I mean, while we are at camp we have to give ourselves shots, we even tried the different pump injectors, but doing that everyday? Their poor little bodies.

I'll stop... there is so many more things I could, would, love to write about... maybe someday there will be a Camp Sweeney part II...