So it has come, Labor day weekend, the unofficial end of summer for our family. Our kids go off to school the 4th of September and all 3 will be in school. This summer was different, very different from last. This summer we had fun, adventures to remember and a summer taken back from diabetes. Let me walk you through a recap and tell you why we took this summer back, from diabetes.

Last summer was all to fresh with the mental blitzkrieg of the second diagnoses. Everything was set out of order, everything seemed hard, nothing was planned and nothing gained, or so it seemed. This summer was more planned, we had goals, places to go and friends to see and made some new friends too.

The center piece to the summer was Friends for Life Conference in Florida. The center piece to that was meeting so many folks with kind hearts and ears that wanted to listen. The single golden thread that wrapped around, weaved through the crowds and all long that resort was a battle we all wage. It was a disease they carried or had children that carried.

Maybe it was the joy in my children’s eyes when another said I have diabetes too. Maybe it was shaking someones hand and saying its finally great to meet you, or hearing someone say we have read a lot about you online and finding out they are kindest and funiest folks around. For me getting to meet a bunch of dads who have 2 kids with diabetes was icing on the cake. Or maybe it was swimming in the ocean with a dear old friend who moved to Florida some 20 years ago.

Seeing my Aunt and Uncle at the half way point was a highlight in its self. We stayed a day and a half there, we laughed and joked and had a great time. We littered her guest room floor with diabetes stuff from 2 sensor changes and pod and site changes. I think that sight was a bit overwhelming for even a nurse of 40 plus years. She calls my girls her babies and they just love her to death. I didn’t mind the 108 degree heat, and no humidity.

We even got to see her 2 weeks later here in the state of Michigan. She told  my dad of how proud she was of me. How good of a husband and father I was and how I help take care of the girls and worked as a team with Heather. Some of the most encouraging words I’ve ever heard. She has 3 daughters also, all about my age. I remember many family get together’s playing and fighting with them. Now my kids play with theirs, how times have changed.

I survived 5 days with Heather out of town. BG’s even held their lines even, a blind squirrel can find a acorn once a blue moon. I think she needed the time away, it was earned, and she had fun. I also got away for a weekend. Went fishing with dad, we had fun despite the boat motor taking a proverbial dump, grr that vexing motor. We camped at my brothers house and retold stories for the millionth time, and no one seemed to mind. I fried the bass, I put chipotle seasoning on mine. Hot, but very good.  Also that weekend we all shed tears when we heard  the Duck Lake Fire consuming a fabled lodge and a camp ground near Lake Superior. If you have read Hemingway it was the area he wrote about and fished. Very sad what that fire did. I’ve fished those same waters. The Two Hearted River flows through my heart and memory. Many lost there homes and lively hoods. Sad.

Despite all things, we had fun, diabetes took a back seat, and we are not done yet, 2 days left. So a short adventure we will take and etch those thoughts in our hearts and memoir along with the rest of how we enjoyed the summer of 2012. Thanks to my readers, thanks to my supporters, thanks to you all for listening to the tail of parents of 3 little girls and 2 dysfunctional pancreas’.

Godspeed

Tim