My cousin Christy

My cousin Christy had her graduation party yesterday, and it was a hit. I tried my first Miller (gross), talked to various cousins I haven't seen in a while, ate a huge number of cookies (I lost count after four), and failed to really make any progress in wedding decision-making (cousin Angie is helping me with music! woo!). I scored a "you are good friends with Christy" on the 'Christy Quiz,' which was good news. I admit to cheating to figure out her favorite band (my cousin Erik revealed that the right answer was the top play count on her computer, even though the next 10 most played songs in iTunes were Colbie Caillat—hah!) but this didn't actually bump me to the eschelon of "You are best friends with Christy," so oh well.

I also got a lovely belated birthday present from my cousin Simon and his wife Eve, in the form of the game Clue. It's been a while since I've played the game, so we're going to find time in the next few weeks to hang out and watch Star Trek, play games, and go to an electronics store in the cities. Yay!

Perhaps if you are a regular reader, you've noticed the addition of ads to this blog. I'm going to try it out, see how it goes, etc. I've often wondered how ads work in a personal blog, but looking at the success of bloggers like Heather Armstrong who have a seriously huge amount of ads (but also excellent, fabulous content), makes me curious enough to try it out.

Little Miss Maggie

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originally uploaded by rubybeth.

On my birthday, my cousins visited for a while. Maggie was kind of monopolizing the conversation, so I tried to distract her for a bit with some books of centerpieces and bouquets, saying, "Tell me which of these you like," while I talked to Nick and Emily. Moments later, she found a page with, you guessed it: flower girl floral ideas.

"I could be your flower girl!" she said, "I even have a dress!" sounding completely delighted with the idea. I asked her mom (my godmother) about it, and she gave the go-ahead, so I stopped over yesterday to see the dress.

She went inside wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, and came back out in this. She's a pretty cute little ragamuffin, isn't she? She really wants a hair piece like the one I had made by Myra on Etsy, so we shall see about that (I'm thinking a headband, for the little girl who hates having her superfine hair in her eyes). So, there will still be no bridesmaids, but at least I've got my seven year old cousin in my 'bridal party.' Woohoo!

Update on my sister

Andrea got out the hospital yesterday and seems to be feeling better. I know she's kind of depressed about all the diabetes crap and doing the blood glucose testing, but I think once she gets into a routine and finds her groove with it, it will be like second nature. I'm going to give it six months.

In weirdly exciting news, Andrea let me give her a shot last night! One of the first things I asked her when S and I visited her in the hospital on Tuesday was, "Can I give you your shot?" She was like, "Nah, I need to practice," and she did it and we watched, and it seemed pretty simple. So last night, before bed, she said, "You can give me my bedtime shot." I don't know why, but I am strangely fascinated by it, and so I was excited to help take care of my sister.

First, she tested her blood, and it came back at 306. "Holy poop! I'm so high." I laughed, because the Facebook group she joined (and I also joined in support) had a comment from someone who said, "The first person to say 'I'm so high' was a diabetic." Then Andrea used the sliding scale to figure out how much insulin to give herself, and it wasn't very clear so we asked my mom, and she wasn't sure, so Andrea called the hospital and the on-call doctor called her back to clarify. She needed 10 of the slow-acting insulin for her bedtime dose, and then 3 extra of the fast-acting insulin to lower her levels more quickly. Andrea gave herself the first shot and demonstrated, and then she let me do the second one. (I admit she helped guide the needle.)

I think I may cook one of the diabetic recipes from the cookbook I checked out from the library yesterday, Easy, Delicious Diabetic Recipes, which actually look amazingly tasty. Plus, I got a cookbook of desserts for diabetics, and they have real sugar in them, so Andrea will not have to give up her beloved cupcakes, not if I can help it.