Archive for » October, 2014 «

Medical science has yet to find the cause for Type 1 diabetes, but I know exactly why my baby has type 1 diabetes.

This child is super duper, ultra SWEET! That’s why!

My baby with the Candyland hair.


Two Saturdays ago, on Oct 18th, my family joined thousands of others in Great America to participate in JDRF’s walk for a cure event.

Great America is the biggest amusement park located in the heart of Silicon Valley Bay Area.

The event took place before the park was open to the public, which meant we had to get up unnaturally early for a Saturday.

When we arrived at the event entrance just before 8AM, a loud an upbeat pop music could be heard over the large parking lot.

Upon entering the path to the event, two lines of cheerleaders from 4 local high schools shook the yawns out of my head with their pom-poms waving in the air.

As soon as we got ourselves a cup of coffee, and breakfast from under the food tents, the kids went off running to play with the numerous activities set up to keep them happy.

A round of games before the walk


Just before the walk kickoff set to start at 9AM, a few event speakers took the mic and gave us a prep talk. Then our proud T1D DJ took over the stage again, and with the help of more cheerleaders, they initiated a dance warm up routine to keep the crowd excited and cheering.

The warm up dance


It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning, the air was brisk and cool. The walk through the park was fun and cheerful.

Volunteers line the walking path with noise makers and cow bells ringing, they shouted out encouragements, and the team names.

A very nice walk


The walkers ourselves were all in a happy and cheerful mood. Many walkers were dressed up in fun outfits, and we had the cutest T1D fairies and super heroes among us.

T1D fairies


Okay, I am a bit embarrassed to mention that our walk was only 1.5 miles long…

Arriving at the finish line


So, it didn’t talk long to arrive at the finish line, where we were greeted with more pom-pom waving cheerleaders, congratulating us as if we had just finished a marathon.

We ended up in the food tent again, and this time, they had set up lunch there waiting for us.

Yes, they managed to feed us a breakfast and a lunch sandwiching a 1.5 mile walk. When the park officially opened at 10AM, we got to spend a fun day at the amusement park.

We are SO doing this walk again next year…

Last but not least, we exceeded our fundraising goal. A big heartfelt thank you to all our donors. Thank you!

Team Natasha

Previous related posts: Walking Can Cure…
A Bad Ass Sickening News

  • Share/Save/Bookmark
Category: Kids, Parents  One Comment

The baby came home today, and plopped these papers in front of my laptop, with arms crossed in front of her chest, and looked mighty triumphed.

Ah…she got an “A+” on the all important first writing assignment of the school year.

It is indeed an excellent personal narrative essay written by an 11 year-old. I thought that I will share it with my readers on my blog. This was based on an actual event when the baby had just learned to ski many years ago. She was probably just 4 or 5 years old. Enjoy…

Down the Mountain

I tapped my skies together, wondering when the long ride on the ski lift would end. When it finally did, I jumped off to face…a flat field of snow. I groaned.

I let myself get dragged across the white plains, my rosy-red cheeks getting squished by my too-small helmet. It made me look like a baby, but I was not. I was a big kid, and I was going to ski down the mountain.

“Are you ready?” Mom asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah.” I had just learned how to ski, and after days of treating me like a dog on a leash, they were finally going to let me go down without a harness. I looked down the steep hillside. I can do this.

I sat down and made sure my skies were tight. I couldn’t mess up this big moment for something like that.

“Hurry up and go already!” grumbled Athena, her frizzy brown hair hidden under her helmet. “I’m freezing.” I rolled my eyes as my annoying sister turned her attention to my mom. “I want food. Can we go get hot chocolate?”

“Just let Natasha go down first,” said Mom.

“Fine,” she grumbled, “but you have to get me a frog dog and a waffle for lunch.”

I stood up, finally ready to go.

“Go, Natasha!” said my dad.

“You can do it!” Mom said.

“I want food!” said Thee.

So off I went, starting down the mountain. Once I was going fast, I couldn’t believe I’d been nervous earlier. This was so fun! I straightened my skies and started going faster.

“Pizza skies! Remember to turn!” I heard my dad yelling, but I shook my head, knowing those things would slow me down. I closed my eyes, just feeling the wind in my face, blowing back my hair. I was picking up speed, approaching the bottom of the mountain. I savored my last moment on the mountain before reaching the bottom. I could already see myself getting off the mountain, turning expertly, my family clapping and cheering…

But wait! Something was wrong. My skies caught in a wedge of snow. “Ahh!” I shrieked. My arms flailed wildly, and I fell on my face. All I could see was white, white everywhere. The cold engulfed me, and I shivered.

“Are you okay?” Mom asked, worried.

“What happened?” asked Dad.

“OMG, Ta!” Thee said. Huh. I guess she cares after all. Then she started laughing like crazy. “That was hilarious, dude!” Never mind.

But then I remembered the wind in my face as I skied down. I remembered that last, perfect moment before I fell…I poked my head up, a big, toothy grin on my face. “That was fun! Can we do it again?” They stared at me for a moment, and then we all started laughing. I rolled onto my back, giggling like crazy. Athena glared at me.

“Whatever,” she said. “Can we go get food now?”

Laughing to hard to say anything, I just nodded and started ski-walking off. I had to admit, a nice, hot chocolate and warm waffle around a campfire was sounding pretty good right now!

Previous related posts: A Family Winter Holiday
Family Ski Trip at Squaw Valley
Big Butts Are Sexy!
I Believe in Confidence
The Goddess of Wisdom

  • Share/Save/Bookmark
Category: Kids  Leave a Comment

“Mom! Something really good happened today.” said my teen, as soon as she got into my car during school pick up.

“What happened?!” me, feeling her excitement.

“We got to skip the mile run during PE this morning!” teen.

“Oh.” me, the news was a bit of a let down.

“Well, we were all ready to go in our PE class. But our teacher wasn’t there. A substitute showed up, and told us that our PE teacher’s car broke down. The sub let us do whatever we wanted. We all hugged and cheered.” teen, big big smile.

I eyed my 14 year-old, and began to worry over the souls of today’s teens.

  • Share/Save/Bookmark
Category: Kids  Leave a Comment