How crazy is it that something that is 6 inches long and made out of tissue could change my life so drastically. I was thinking about that the other day. I mean really! This thing called my pancreas that doesn't work has brought me to meet some of the most amazing and inspirational people in the world, because of it I have ran half marathons, climbed mountains all of these things just because of my pancreas. Crazy huh!
In less than a month I will be heading to St.George Utah to watch some of those amazing people whose pancreases happen to not work either doing one of the hardest things in the world. They are doing Ironman St. George. Their stories are incredible. I cant wait to watch and cheer them on.
A week before St. George I will be doing my 3rd (which happens to be my favorite number) half marathon here in Lincoln and a month later I will be hopefully conquering my 4th in San Diego!
The weather here in good old Lincoln has been absolutely wonderful. I love all the runners that are outside! I love the gorgeous skies with golden sunsets and fluffy white clouds! I love how everyone seems to be happier! I love how we can open our windows and let the breeze flow through the house! I love it all!
This Friday we leave for kansas city where my club volleyball team will be playing in a national qualifier for 3 days! We are all very excited and cant wait to run through the fountains in down town. Ill keep you all posted on how it goes :)

Salvador de Vidas

Nothing new or exciting in my life. I have noticed how much changes when you hit the age I'm at. I have to schedule my own life, make my own decisions, relationships with people change, and other things in your life start to become more important than others. I have been pretty busy lately with running, I ran in a 5K race yesterday with my friend Chelsea. She is naturally a runner and I about died running with her, but we finished with snow falling around us. Today I got a new best friend today he or she I'm not sure with one yet is awesome they listen to me even when I'm wrong. They guard me and warn me of danger. They are always attached to me and never leave my side. I love my new friend its name is Salvador de Vidas which in English means life saver.If you haven't guessed yet i got a new pump and for the first time in like ever I gave it a name and I love it. This week I have another Youth Leadership Lincoln  meeting. Every meeting students are assigned presenters to introduce. I found out I get to introduce Chief of Police Tom Casady. He is a very nice person and I am happy to get to introduce him Tuesday.

Inspiration....

In my English class we are reading a book on Erik Weihenmayer he is a blind man who has climbed the 7 biggest peaks in the world. The title of his book is Touch The Top Of The World. It goes through his his life becoming blind, defiantly one of the best books I have ever read. In the book there is one part that really stood out to me and I thought I would share it. He is at this point preparing to climb Mt. Everest. " Not all of my time leading up to the climb was spent on the mountain; as part of their public education the AFB (American Foundation for the Blind and also one of his sponsors) asked me to do some TV interviews. One was a cheesy daytime talk show, on which I was showcased among a group of blind people deemed "amazing and inspirational". All the blind people were led onto the stage, canes tapping and dogs' tails wagging, and seated in a row in front of the crowd. I was featured first, and the host opened with,"A blind mountain climber. Isn't that incredible? Even I, who can see just fine, wouldn't think of climbing a mountain." this wasn't the first time I had heard the "Even I" statement. It was always meant as a compliment, but it never failed to annoy me. There might be a dozen other factors that prevent the host from excelling in the sport of mountain climbing. She might be 50 pounds overweight, wheezing with every breath, and might never have even set foot on a mountain, but in her mind, success or failure was automatically attributed to one factor: sight or no sight." I was thinking about this and the last sentence really stood out to me. People always tell me that they couldn't do something and they have a working pancreas they say. Working or not I don't think it determines weather you can do something or not. I find that this book relates a lot to living with diabetes. I highly recommend the book its awesome! Here is a video on him  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrSLb7hWSMc 

and life goes on...

One of the dress up days for national Lutheran schools week was multiples day and my friends decided to wear my walk shirts :) I love them! 

There is nothing newly exciting in my life. I have been sick (sinus infection) for over a week now and managed to sprain my ankle playing volleyball this weekend at our tournament. We have been adjusting a lot lately in the realm of diabetes things...basals, insulin to carb.....they are all getting an overhaul! I have already cut off 8 units of my basal for a day! woohooo I also feel a lot better fixing some of the lows I have been consistently having ....but there is still some fine tuning to do! I have little motivation to run lately with being sick and having volleyball practices and conditioning....I guess I am feeling the summer coming on and all i want to do is be lazy. I better get over this quickly! I got my first muscle massage...It felt sooooooo good! Sh split my calf muscle and went down to the flat muscle underneath and massaged it....let me tell you it hurt soooo bad because it was so tender but it felt so good!! This lady is a genius! She really knows her stuff. I guess that's it for now!

Diabetes Weekend!

I am writing this on the plane back from Denver! This trip was kind of a surprise! I hitched a ride with one of my moms coworkers who was moving out her with her husband who is in seminary and there precious little boy! It was just her and the her son since her husband is in school already. My mom and her planned it on Monday and we left on Friday. I got into Denver around 11pm on Friday and spent the night with my friend Erin ad her mom Cheryl. I love them so much and they are so awesome! The next morning we got up and went ice fishing with Brian who is doing an Iornman in May which I will be attending and rooting him on! It is amazing to see his dedication to his training and diabetes it's something to envy! After ice fishing we went to his house and relaxed for the night. Zyler (who is another type 1 diabetic) and I spent the night at Brians house. That night was so much fun Brian's daughte Megan and I made a cake which we had some problems with but in the end turned out to be amazing! The next morning we all went to church and in the afternoon Zyler and I went over to John's house. It was awesome to see him and his wife again they are the nicest people on the planet I swear! Brian, his wife, and Zyler dropped me off at the airport. Brian's wife Pam was so kind she walked me to my gate which made me a lot less nervous. Which brings me to now where I sit on the plane thinking about how much fun I had this weekend. Any time I get around my "diabetic" friends it is always hard to leave! I miss them so much already! I learned a lot over this weekend.... 1. Absorb every minute of every day because time is ticking and who knows when you will get to see them again! 2. My blood sugars seem to be better when I am with my betic friends. I just think it likes to be around other none working pancreases! Maybe it wants to look better than the other none working pancreases....haha. 3.I have been blessed with parents that have allowed me to do and meet all these amazing people and experience all these awesome things! 4. I appreciate all the things God has blessed me with 5. I know some of the most amazing people in the world. As for now as the pilot just announced that we are about in Omaha I have to gou back to my "normal" live and wait till I can see my diabetic friends again! 

Diabetes in a few words....

Diabetes
Stress
Triumph
Care
Need
Love
Identity
Understanding
Scars
Deteriorating
Separation
Judgment
Watching
Questioning
Comfort
Waiting
Fun
Fighting
Carrying
Hurt
Friendship
Ever changing
Peace
Addition
Information
Excitement
Understanding
Relief
Sympathy
Strength
           I wrote these words down during school one day. The first thing that may come to your mind when you read these words may not be the same as mine. For example scars, even though I have scars from where my old sits and sensors have been I meant a different kind of scar. This is the emotional scar rather then the physical. I challenge all of you to write down or even share what words mean diabetes to you because when I did there were a lot more words it meant to me than I realized before.

A goal reached....

On our second night at the 14er mountain climb we were having our first night camping in the woods. For some reason I remember this night perfectly. That night was what made me fall in love with that trip. We were all sitting around a campfire talking about things related to diabetes. I had my arms crossed on my knees in front of me. I remember I was facing southeast hahaha I love directions, my face was resting on my arms and I was looking up at the moon. There was no clouds in the sky with the moon as full as it could be. The question was then asked why did you want to come on the trip.  It came time for me to answer and my response was " I want to be a role model to younger kids with diabetes and inspire them to reach goals just like people inspired me".The point to this...I just had my Youth Leadership Lincoln retreat...On the retreat we met people from all over the city, we talked to each other and really got to know the people that we would be spending the rest of the school year with. In one of the group discussions a question was a raised on if anyone in the group has impressed or inspired you? A girl that I had just met that morning raised her hand...she was sitting in a rocking chair in front of me and she turned around and said "Ashlee because she has done all these things and she is diabetic". This is a girl that I would look up to and for her to say that gave me chills. I thought back to the moment on the mountain climb. I felt like I had started to reach that goal. This past Tuesday we went to a local diabetic support group. There were these two little girls one of them was diabetic and the other was her sister. They were so excited to have me teach them about my pump and both girls fearlessly put in pump sights for the first time. Which when I first did that I was hidding under tables with fear. It was so cute to see, they gave me their valentines day crafts they made during the kids class and kept asking there mom when they could see me again. It made me realize that this is what I want to do. I want to hang out with these kids so that they can grow up and embrace diabetes and not think of it as something to hate. I want them to be healthy and happy and even inspire other kids. That is what I dream and that's what I'm going to work for.....