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...

What we got for Thanksgiving...

Look closely at this little one and you can see what she and I got for Thanksgiving...

Yep... PINK EYE! Awesome!

Don't worry. We have been on antibiotics for 72 hours (Addison) and 48 hours (me) so we are no longer contagious.

Will post more thanksgiving pictures soon.

ACA Thanksgiving Feast!!

Today was ACA's Thanksgiving Feast! Even though it's not Addison day to go to school, we still went to the feast! It was fun! I think it was a little overwhelming for her and we had to skip nap time so therefore she ate nothing! But oh well... got some cute pictures!

ABC thinking about eating...

Can you tell by her face what she thought of all of this... Her teachers made them little Indian hats to wear... she only left it on for a few pictures!

I took this picture to try and show the little place mats that they made in class... the middle of them where their hand prints made into turkeys!! Her teachers are so creative! They all had their names on them and we got to bring it home! As you can see by this picture she was ready to be out of there! Immediately after this she was turned around backwards trying to get out of her chair. I let her out and she just walked up and down next to the table... my little social bug had to see what everyone else was doing.

Caleb kept his feathers on the whole time and actually ate too!!

This is her class, there were two not in the picture, but I thought all the place mats were cute!

When I said Thanksgiving FEAST I meant it!! They line up the tables diagonal across the gym and ALL of ACA eats together (hence the overwhelmed factor!) I love this picture because it shows just how long all the tables were and how many kids there were. But, whats even better than this picture is...

All the parents standing back, watching, taking pictures, videoing and trying to get their kids to eat... It was sort of more fun to watch all the parents!

Things Addison Likes to do...

Here are some of Addison's FAVORITE THINGS...

Pulling out all the wipes when Mommy or Daddy forgets to push the lid down good.

She likes to work on the computer

A favorite of all girls... talk on the phone

Read!! She has been obsessed with reading lately! I'm so thankful she has her daddy's desire to read and not mine!

Since this is her FAVORITES list, I thought a picture of her reading her favorite book, Floppy Puppy, was appropraite!

And of course the all time favorite -- watching Baby Einstein... this happens at least two or three times a day. She'll bring me the remote and if I don't turn it on fast enough she'll go over to the tv and dvd player and start pressing buttons. Of course, we can only watch the ones that have animals in it, if there are no animals you might as well forget it.

Just another of our Baby Einstein watching positions... can you tell she saw an elephant??

Okay, so this maybe one of my new favorite things for her... PIG TAILS!!! This picture was taken not so much for the pigtails but the striking resembles of her curly hair on the back of her head and Ricky Pruitt's mullet! Ricky, this is Addison's tribute to you! We are going to miss you!

What a great little helper I have!

The girl loves to sweep... and if she can't sweep it up, she'll pick it up, take it over to the cabinet with the trash, open it, pull out the trash and throw whatever it was away. She also cleans her tray off after she gets her face wiped... I'm starting to wonder if she is going to be a little OCD cleaner like my younger sister.

Yes, those are diapers in her hands. You might think it's nasty, but try taking them away from her... After ABC gets her diaper changed she gets up, picks up the diaper, walks to the back door and waits for it to be opened. She'll then walk into the garage and put the diaper(s) in the diaper champ... (hence the fear of my little ABC being an OCD cleaner!) She just started doing this a few weeks ago. It's funny to watch. (Don't worry, I take the poopy ones out myself before she can even think to get to them.)

Monday she was OBSESSED with the pot holders! She took all of them out of the drawer and took them into the living room. She must have thought there were a million of them because she would drop one, bend down to pick it up and, on the way up, drop another. That series of events lasted a couple of minutes (I have a video of about 2 minutes of it!) I was laughing so hard. So then we went to put them up but started using them as hats and puppets instead... way more fun use for them!

Just another funny one of her trying to pick up all of them up!

Lastly... the random pictures:

Okay so this only happened once, but I thought it was funny. I like to think that she just had an extra pocket of water left over from her bath that just so happened to pop when I put her on my hip. Christopher assured me I was peed on!!!

This is a random picture I took one day... if you are wondering about the shorts, she peed through her pants at school and this is all they could find to put on her. I was taking these pictures because she looked like such a balla in these shorts. However, this picture reminded me of several nights in college out on the intramural football field... anyone from ACU remember Jay Duty's gazelle?? Seriously, does she not look just like that!!

Candy and Great-Grandparents... What a life

Last Wednesday night was Trunk or Treat at our church! Addison had fun, only when she could run around. We didn't really let her have any candy. I'm just not ready for her to have that yet, I'm not sure that we would ever get her back on regular food.

You can see how excited she was to see the bouncy house... she dropped the pumpkin and ran!

She wanted to help Karen put together the glow bracelets.

Then she wanted to help hand them out!

Kanyon was super excited to be Michael Phelps, can you tell? Love those 8 gold medals! Jaymie and Kory are so creative!

Thursday night we drove to Waxahachie and stayed the night with my Nana and Papa.

After Addison saw Nana trying to take a picture she took the camera and tried to take one also... She did a pretty good job, I think Nana may have a lot of close ups of her nose!

Addison tried to help Nana eat her toast Friday morning. She used the little green fork until Nana used the big one, then that's all she wanted.

My Nana has a GREAT backyard with lots of places for different photo opportunities so we tried a few, Addison wasn't really in the picture taking mood but I still got a few good ones.

Just an idea of what her backyard looks like.

A few of my favorites:

She loved the horse apples. She would say "ball" and pull them out of the stack so instead of getting good pictures in front the pumpkin thing all she did was throw them.

It was snack time...

Do you think this means I should stop taking pictures? This picture makes me laugh so hard, I'm so glad that I was able to capture this face!!

She wanted to help Papa take his medicine.

Papa gave Addison his corn and she LOVED it. She really cheesed it up once she realized she was being funny and had all of our attention.

All, most, grandkids have a picture in their jacuzzi tub so we had to take one with her, not sure what the face is but its funny!

Umm, we tried to take a picture of her with them, there were ones that were better, but this one was too funny.