Walk to Cure Diabetes

This is the letter I sent out to family and friends recently: Dear Family and Friends, We are once again preparing for the annual Walk to Cure Diabetes. This year’s walk will be held on Saturday, Feb. 2 at the Sioux Empire Mall in Sioux Falls. This is the fourth year we have had a team in the Walk. Hunter’s team raised almost $3000 last year and we had close to 30 people walking on our team! We are so thankful for all of the support you have given to us in Hunter’s honor. He has earned 1 plaque and 2 trophies for the money raised for his team! Last August we were invited to a Sioux Falls Canaries game and were awarded our team prizes there. Hunter is so proud of his trophies and keeps them right by his bed. He is already wondering if he will win another trophy this year and has the perfect spot picked out for it! J It has now been 5 ½ years since Hunter was diagnosed with diabetes and he is doing quite well. The insulin pump has been wonderful and we are now looking into what is called a Continuous Glucose sensor that would be attached to him and monitor his blood sugar continually, eliminating several finger pokes a day and giving us great peace of mind. This would be in addition to his insulin pump, which means 2 things attached to him, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. Hopefully in the next couple months we will have him started on this. This sensor would allow him to go to sleep-over’s and it would eliminate the highs and lows. This is very exciting! We are very hopeful for a cure. There are so many kids who face the same daily challenges that Hunter does. We pray for great advances with all of the money that the Walks across the country raise. I feel very confident in the work being done by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. A cure is so close! If you would like to make a donation to our Walk, your check can be made out to JDRF and sent back to us by Jan. 30th. Also, if you are interested in walking with our team, please let me know. We all wear camouflage shirts and have a great time raising money for a great cause! Also, we are having a huge rummage/moving sale on Saturday, Jan. 26th at the farm with all money going toward our Walk. We hope for a great turnout! Thank you so very much! Robb, Teresa, Hunter, Brylie, and Gage If you are interested in donating to our Walk, you can donate here. If you want to walk with us, the walk starts at 10 am. Let me know and I'll have some extra camo shirts. :)

Adoption News

Our paperwork is now in Ethiopia and being reviewed by the Ethiopian government. I am very excited that everything made it and we are one step closer in this journey. Now we wait and probably won't hear anything until we get a referral, which is a match with an infant girl. Our adoption agent can't give us any time frame as things are always changing, but I am hoping that in 6 months we know who our daughter is. After receiving her picture and information we will still have to wait about 3 months before traveling to get her. Patience is going to be so much tougher the closer we get.

What's up at the Arnold home?

Hello all. The moving sale went wonderfully and we raised almost $600 for our Walk to Cure Diabetes! We were thrilled with the number of people who ventured out into the country. We got rid of a ton of stuff and I am especially excited about that! The rest is going to goodwill and then I need to start cleaning and getting ready to paint. Here are a few pictures of how the remodel is coming along.

The sheet rock is all put up! Robb and Rock made a beautiful archway for the upstairs. I just thought this picture of Gage "helping" was pretty cute!

This week the tape and texture guy is coming and he will also be painting the kitchen, dining room and master bedroom. Yay!

HUGE SALE

Are you looking for something to do this weekend? I am having a HUGE rummage/moving sale tomorrow from 9am-3pm at our farm house. There is SO MUCH stuff and I don't want ANYTHING left at the end of the day tomorrow. We have furniture, beds, lots and lots of Christmas decor, dishes, pictures, home decor of all sorts, clothes of all sizes, books for young and old, movies, toys, toys and more toys, bar stools, and so much more. The best part is all money goes toward our Walk to Cure Diabetes, which will be held next weekend in Sioux Falls. (more about that later) There have been several people who have donated items for the sale so the house is seriously overflowing. Email me for directions if you are interested in coming. :)

Our remodel progress

Well, we've been at the remodel for 1 week now and things are going quite well. Of course there has been a few bumps in the road, but overall we have gotten a lot accomplished. Here are some pictures of what has happened so far...

My mom, sister and I removed this lovely wallpaper in Brylie's room.

We then tackled the wallpaper in the master bedroom.

Then it was more wallpaper in the dining room. My mother-in-law LOVES wallpaper, can ya tell?

The walls got insulated.

This new beam was put up to replace 3 other smaller beams. (this baby weighs 700 pounds! It took 5 guys to bring it in the house) I'm thinkin' the ceiling won't be falling down anytime soon!

What do ya do when you discover 3 layers of wallpaper that are stuck on so well that trying to remove it is tearing the wall off? You just tear the wall down! (I was just happy I got out of some wallpaper work!)

Hunter and Brylie helping with the clean-up between jobs.

Gage thinks the shop vac is the coolest thing ever!

Hunter does an awesome job pulling out nails!

This weeks goals are to put up sheet rock, tape and texture, and of course, more wallpaper removal! I'll keep ya posted!

The remodel has begun.....

See you next week!

Friday's Favorite Photos

Thanks Grandma Pat for the new pajamas!

Uncle Tyler got the kids gift cards for Christmas and so we sent him this picture of their purchases. Hunter picked out a lightsaber and a Transformers game, Gage added to his Scooby collection and Brylie scored this beautiful dress up outfit. Thanks uncle Ty!

Kitchen remodel

Yep, that's what we have goin' on for the next couple months. We are still working on the layout and picking out cabinets, appliances, counter tops and flooring. Any suggestions? Robb and I are having a hard time picking out pretty much everything. It sure is a good idea we are not trying to build a house! Anyway, I love kitchens and really want a lovely space since I spend so much of my day in that room. Don't worry, I will get some before pictures up shortly. It is going to be a giant mess for awhile, but I can hardly wait for the end result!

Another year older

On December 23rd I turned 32. Turning 30, two years ago, was a little difficult for me, just because it seemed as though I was entering a completely different phase of my life and I didn't quite know how to approach it. Honestly I still felt 21 and wasn't sure if I was acting it too! :) After the initial adjustment into the thirties, it has been great. The girlfriends trip that Heidi Jo, Carrie and I took last summer to celebrate our thirties only made me feel younger. We laughed like we were teenagers and talked until the wee hours of the morning. Of course we came home to a house full of kids, which quickly set us back into reality. I know that this decade will be extremely busy with raising kids and such, but so many rewards go with that also. I don't know at what age I will feel 'old' but right now I am enjoying this stage of life and look forward to each year of my thirties!

Doin' the Happy Dance!

FINALLY! Today was the big day that we sent all of our adoption paperwork off. It is a huge relief to have everything done. I have been staring at these papers for months, making sure all I's were dotted and T's crossed. On Christmas Eve we received the final paper in the mail that we had been waiting for. We then had to send everything off to the state capitol to get state certified. We received the papers back today and I had to make 3 copies of everything and send the originals plus 2 copies to our agency. The agency puts the papers through what's called a bundling process and then every paper needs to go to Washington DC to be authenticated. All of this will take approximately 3 weeks and then off to Ethiopia they go! Yay! After that we just wait to be matched. We are told it could take any where from 2 to 9 months to get the referral. We're praying for God's perfect timing and can hardly hold back the excitement as we get closer to meeting our 4th child. We all went to town this afternoon to send the papers off UPS. When I got back in the car we said a prayer that the papers would safely, and without delay, make it to Ethiopia. Hopefully everything is done correctly and things will go smoothly from here on out. This in a huge step closer to our baby girl! This how my desk looked today as I was organizing all of the papers. This isn't even all of them! It's been a long process but all so worth it to be blessed with a child at the end of it all.