Team Elise... walking this weekend

See that adorable face?  That was Elise on the day she was diagnosed.  Over 8 years ago.  Fast forward to this:

This Saturday, this cute face, along with 150+ others, will walk in the JDRF One Walk in Dallas for Team Elise.  If you live in the area and want to join us, just go to www.teamelise.com and click "Join".

If you don't live in the area, but would like to support Team Elise, you can do so by following the above instructions which will take you to the JDRF fundraising page.

Go Team Elise!

Team Elise Time!

It's hard to believe, but in just a few months Team Elise will be participating it its 8th JDRF walk here in Dallas.  I can still remembering almost falling apart when I took Elise to the walk only two weeks after she had been diagnosed.

The first Team Elise walk... she was so little!

Fast forward to seven years later and Team Elise has participated in 20 walks in 5 cities across 4 countries and 3 continents. How cool is that?

Team Elise Toronto 2015

This year the shirt colour is purple (picked by Elise because it is my favourite colour - how sweet!), and if you live in the metroplex, we would love it if you would join us on September 26... and get a super cute shirt for free!

And if you just so happen to be in Lisbon, Portugal on that day, you can join our friend Tiago.  If you click here, you will be taken to our Team Elise website. You can then click "join" and that will give you all the details on how to join our team.

That time we went to Portugal and walked with over 200 people... all of whom were there for Elise

If you don't live in the area but would like to support us, there are two different ways: 

1. You can donate to the Bionic Pancreas by going to: www.bu.edu/alumni-forms/forms/eng/damiano/ (please enter "Team Elise" in the Comments/Questions section).
2.  Or you can donate to the JDRF by going to www2.jdrf.org/goto/teamelise (click on Donate).

We are so thankful for all the support we've received throughout the years. Thank you to everyone who is helping us turn Type 1 into Type None.

The Walk

 This past Saturday we donned our Team Elise shirts and walked the annual JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes.

In all, almost 140 people came out and walked for Elise, and we raised over $11,000.  I am so proud of all the hard work my husband puts into this each and every year. We received a tonne of compliments on the shirts and the team... all of it my husband's doing.

One of the best parts?  Laura and I got to walk together... we haven't seen each other in awhile, and it was so to catch up.  The only thing missing was the third amigo, Jess.  

Aren't those pink shirts the bomb?  I don't think I have EVER willingly worn pink, but it's Elise's favourite, and she picked the colour. I certainly don't mind clashing for a day to support my sweet girl.  Plus it was so awesome to watch a sea of pink walking the streets of downtown Dallas.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who gave up their Saturday morning to come support our family, and to those who donated.  You have no idea what it means to us.  Thanks for making Team Elise great... and we'll see you next year!

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Just a reminder... if you want to order a World Diabetes Day shirt, please do so as soon as possible!  If you left a comment on my first post, I still need you to email me your order.  Click here for a step-by-step ordering process.  And please get the word out to any D-peeps that you think would want one.

4 countries, 3 continents, 1 hope

When Team Elise was formed over 4 years ago, it was done so only a few weeks after Elise was diagnosed. Some shirts were hastily put together the night before and a handful of friends came out to walk.

This year, Team Elise had over 100 people join us (we had close to 150 sign up, but many people had to back out due to illness and bad weather). Despite the rain, I was overjoyed at how many people came out and walked in support of Elise and people with diabetes everywhere.

But do you want to hear the coolest thing of all?  Besides the U.S.A., Team Elise has had people walk in Canada, Portugal, and now Mozambique.  Four countries.  Three continents.  It fills me with such hope

If you've read my blog for awhile, you know that we have a good friend in Portugal (Tiago) who took it upon himself to organize a walk for Team Elise.  There is no JDRF walk there; HE went out and got the sponsorships, had the shirts made, got people to sign up and raised money.  Two years in a row...

Last year, we had the honour of walking with almost 200 people, most of which had no connection to diabetes or Elise.  It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever been a part of.

Of course, there is also Team Elise Canada.  Put together by Fred's Mom and sister in Toronto.  I love that we have people walking for Elise in my home and native land.

This year, sadly, our friend Tiago moved away from Portugal.  But I was blown away to learn that his Mom taken up the torch this year for Team Elise and on the very day we were walking in Texas, there was a group of beautiful people doing the same in Portugal.

Not only that, but half a world away, Tiago was at it again... this time from his new home in Mozambique.  Again, on the very same day we walked.

Keep in mind, there is really no JDRF presence in Portugal or Mozambique, this was all done by people on their own time.

I still cannot wrap my head around the love these people have shown us.  And I don't think I can properly express just how much it means to me when people take the time to stand with us.  On the days where diabetes has kicked me down, and I feel like I can't take one more minute of it, I think I will return to this post to bring me to my feet again. 

Thank you to everybody who has given me the strength to keep fighting this fight for my daughter.

Team Elise news

Team Elise is getting all geared up to walk in this year's JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes, and if you live in the area and want to walk, there is still time (as in one more day) to sign up, get a cute shirt and show support for a great cause!  You can still sign up after Wednesday, you just won't get one of the super fabulous Team Elise shirts; coveted by many.

If you don't live nearby (or you do and are unable to walk), and want to help support Team Elise, you can do that too!  How?

I'm glad you asked!  Just click here to be taken to the Team Elise website.  Then you can click on "donate" and it will take you to the Team Elise JDRF page where you can either donate or sign up to walk.

Another bit o' news for those of you who live in the area... Team Elise is having another fund raiser.  This time at a yummy frozen yogurt place!  The fundraiser is taking place all day today and tomorrow (Sept. 11 &12), and we will be there both nights from 6-8 pm. For more information (address, etc), click here to be taken to the Team Elise events page.   And thank you Cassie's Frozen Yogurt!

Whew... got all that?  Team Elise. Sign-up. Walk. Shirt. Donate. Frozen Yogurt. 

Done.

Chicken and waterslides

What does one have to do with the other?  Well... nothing really.  Except I am combining them into one post.

Chicken... as in eat more with us!
Just a reminder that tomorrow is the Team Elise fundraising day at the Chick-fil-a in Southlake. If you live in the area, join us Thursday, August 9th, from 6 until 8 pm at the Chick-fil-a at 2301 E. Southlake Blvd. Hope to see you there!

Waterslides
Remember this post, where I wrote about Hawaiian Falls and the wonderful Champions Day they had done?  Well, they're doing it again!  This Saturday, August 11th, Hawaiian Falls invites all kids with special needs and their families for a day of fun.  All you need to do is show up between 8:30 and 10:30 am (with the coupon printed from their site), and each familiy member gets in for only $5 (child with special needs is free).  You can then stay the rest of the day and have fun!

We loved this when we did it back in June.  We got there right at 8:30 and the day was still (relatively) cool and there were NO LINES!  By the time the general public was let in a few hours later, the kids were tired and ready to go home.

To get the coupon, go to the Hawaiian Falls website, and click on Champions Day. There are parks located in Garland, Mansfield, The Colony, Roanoke and Waco (all in Texas).

Time to Eat Mor Chikin again!

Once again, our local Chick-fil-a will be doing a fundraiser for Team Elise!  If you live in the area and can come out, the big day will be on Thursday, August 9th from 6 until 8 pm at the Chick-fil-a on 2301 E Southlake Blvd in Southlake, TX.

Each year we've done this, we've had over 100 people come out to help support Team Elise, and we'd love to see you there!

Thanks again to Tracy and her wonderful team at Chick-fil-a Southlake...

... And go Team Elise!

It worked!

This is an update to my "Shame on You, Garliq" post. If you haven't read it, I wrote about how Team Elise was cheated out of money that was promised to us. Quite a bit of money.

Well, I am happy to say, that after Fred posted a link to my post on the restaurant's Facebook page, they came out of hiding to give us the money.

Which now gives Team Elise a grand total of over $16,000.

I am wheel... hear me squeak!


Just thought I'd end this post with a ridiculously cute shot of Mattias at Lowe's. Because I can.

Shame on you, Garliq

I've been holding off on writing this post for two reasons; I had to cool off so it wouldn't be so expletive-ridden that it would make Reyna blush, and I kept hoping that the guy this post is about would step up and do the right thing.

He hasn't, and I'm pretty sure I have the self-control to contain myself, so here goes...

You might remember this post. Click over if you want to. If not, here's the Reader's Digest version; we had a fund-raiser at a local restaurant called Garliq. The owner also pledged a good amount of money for Team Elise. He had supported us last year, so there was really no reason to think he would do this to us.

Anyway, the deadline for collecting money was fast approaching, and this guy does a disappearing act on us. Calls go unreturned. Visits to the restaurant are unsuccessful as he is never there. When Fred manages to reach him, the call gets mysteriously "dropped"

So we have yet to see a dime from the "fund-raiser" he held for us, nor any of the money he pledged. And it was a goodly sum, too. Fred and I had to take a hit and pay for part of the shirts out of our own pockets. 120+ shirts do not come cheap.

To top it all off, the restaurant has suddenly closed and we now have no way of tracking this guy down. Supposedly, he's opening up at another location, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Fred and I are so, so ticked (that doesn't even BEGIN to describe it). His restaurant's logo is on the back of our Team Elise shirts, and he did NOTHING to earn that.

Look, I get that the economy is bad. If this was going to be a hardship on him, HE SHOULD HAVE TOLD US. We were in touch with him right up to the day of the fund-raiser, and nothing was said. Instead, he makes promises he can't deliver on, and then hides from us and refuses to the right thing.

You should be ashamed of yourself, Nazir Moosa. This was for CHARITY. You made a PROMISE. It's time to man up, come out of hiding, and deal with this. You owe us (at least) that.

Edited to add: I decided to delete the name-calling from this post. I admit I let my emotions get the better of me, but it's still no reason to resort to childish tactics. It still doesn't change the fact this has made me so unbelievably upset and what this guy has done is wrong. Especially when we had people come eat at his restaurant thinking that part of the proceeds were going to support Team Elise. That is just plain fraud.

We came, we saw, we walked

I wish I had the time and energy to do this post the justice it deserves. Let's just say the last few days have been completely crazy and emotionally draining.

With all that I have, I want to thank each of the 119 people that came out and walked with and for Team Elise. It's with tears that I look at the photo below and see each of you wearing my daughter's beautiful face on your shirt.

Along with the 119 people, we have raised just under $15,000 so far, with more coming in. But it's not the money that I want to focus on at this moment.

When you read how many people walked with us, did you just rush by it? Let me write it one more time.

119.

That is 119 people that got up early and gave up their Saturday morning to come walk with us. Most of them I knew. Some I didn't know at all. Some came all the way from Australia and gave up part of their vacation to walk with us.

119.

It still blows me away, and let me tell you why.

Elise doesn't "get" money. Actually, numbers really have little meaning to her at all at 4 years old. But when she could look around and take in the sea of blue that surrounded her on Saturday, THAT said something to her.

"Are all these people here for me Momma?" she asked.

"Yes baby, they are. What do you think of that?"

"That is so amazing. Team Elise is amazing!"


Amazing.

Edited to add: All the credit for such an incredible turn-out goes to my husband Fred. Seriously, it is unbelievable the amount of work he put into this year's walk. He too, is pretty amazing.

Come eat dinner with us

One thing about living in the DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) area, there is no shortage of eateries. Unfortunately, most of them are chain restaurants, which are okay... but it gets old after awhile.

One of our favourite places to go on our family date-nights (the only kind of date night around here) is called Garliq, an Italian restaurant with some uber-yummy food. The owner, Nazir, is from New York and uses a lot of his Grandma's recipes. The house salad (with homemade house dressing) is AWESOME. and they even have a gluten-free menu.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because if you live in the metroplex, I'm inviting you to come have dinner with us this Tuesday, September 20 from 5 - 8 pm. Garliq is generously hosting a fundraiser for Team Elise with a percentage of the sales going towards our team.

They are located at:

250 Randol Mill Ave Suite 140
Southlake, Texas 76092
(Sprouts Market Center)

Hope to see you there!

An update and reminder

Thank you to everybody for your suggestions and comments on my "ouch" post. When I took off Elise's last sensor, the skin surrounding insertion site was obviously infected, so we are definitely going to have to try something. I have a call into our endo to see if I can snag some samples of the products that were suggested. I just don't want to go out and spend a bunch of money on something without knowing if it will work.

Elise has been such a trooper and even agreed to trying a bum site (after I told her she could have a surprise from my stash of toys bought at Target for 75% off). We've been seeing a wide variance between CGM and meter, but the sensor doesn't seem to be be bugging her too much.

I just hate that such an integral tool for us is causing Elise so much misery. Hopefully, one of the many suggestions will do the trick.

And If anyone else is having similar issues, Jessica (thanks Jess!) dug up an old post by Lorraine from This is Caleb for me. Click here to see some of her suggestions.

And... just a reminder that tonight is our big fundraiser at Chick-fil-a! Come out between the hours of 5 - 8 pm, and CFA is donating a percentage of the sales to Team Elise. If you live in the metroplex, please come out and Eat Mor Chickin with us! Click here for the address.

Hope to see YOU tonight!

See you on Monday

If you're a big Chick-fil-A fan and you haven't seen the "See you on Monday" video, you have to see it:




And, if you live in the DFW area, this is just a reminder that we would love to see you on Monday...

This Monday, August 29, from 5 to 8 PM, the Chick-fil-A in Southlake is again donating a percentage of the proceeds from your meals to Team Elise.
Last year, 60 of you joined us for dinner (along with 63 kids) and we raised over $400!

Click here for the address.

BTW, if you're able to and you haven't made a donation to Team Elise or registered to walk with us, just go to http://www.teamelise.com/ and click on Donate Now from any page or on Join Team Elise from the Walk page.

A big thank you to Chick-fil-A Southlake for supporting Team Elise again this year!

See you on Monday...

I want you to want (to help) me

Below is our annual email that we send to friends and family about our upcoming Walk to Cure Diabetes. I thought I'd post it on my blog as well.
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Elise is our almost 4-year-old girl who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 12 months.

Type 1 diabetes is tough, especially when you're so little - everyday, Elise gets at least 3 insulin shots, gets her fingers poked a minimum of 5 times and wears a continuous glucose monitor so that we can know her blood sugar at all times.

Type 1 diabetes is a 24/7/365 disease - not only do we check her blood sugar during the day, we also get up at least once a night at around 3 AM to check her blood sugar and give her carbs or insulin, if needed (there are nights where we get up as many as 6 times).

Type 1 diabetes cannot be cured and that's why we walk every year to raise money to go to fund research that can lead to breakthrough cures/treatments for type 1 diabetes and its complications.

This year, inspired by our good friend Tiago (who, by himself, organized again this year an entire walk in Lisbon, Portugal and was able to get 200 people to walk with him), we've raised my goals for the third year in a row: 200 people walking with us and $20,000 in donations.

We realize this is not an easy task but we're up for the challenge and we hope we can count on you.

Here are 4 ways you can help:

1. Join us on Saturday, September 24 at 9 AM at Granite Park in Plano, TX for the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) Walk to Cure Diabetes and invite a friend (you don't have to raise any money or make a donation in order to walk with us)

2. Go to www.teamelise.com and make a tax-deductible donation (directly through the JDRF website or Paypal)

3. If you own a business, sign up to be a corporate sponsor for Team Elise or organize a fundraising event to benefit Team Elise (email info@teamelise.com to get more information)

4. Forward this email to all of your friends to help us spread the word.

Thank you in advance for your support!

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Whew, yes I realize that is a lot to read, so here's the reader's digest version:
-Our walk takes place September 24th at 9 am in Plano.
-We want YOU to walk with us.
-If you can't walk, please consider donating.
-We have corporate sponsorship available.
-Our goal is 200 walkers and $20,000.

Not outlined in the letter, but you need to know:
-Being a part of Team Elise ROCKS!
-We have pretty cool shirts
-Our Portugal walk raised just under $2700!
-We're doing it all for this sweet face:

Muito obrigada

A little thank you video Fred put together with some pictures from the Team Elise Portugal walk.

Muito obrigada means thank you very much in Portuguese.

Team Elise - Portugal style!

I wanted my first post about Portugal on here to be this one, because it was undoubtedly the coolest. Let me give you a little background...

We have this friend, Tiago. Fred met him in NYC, and he has since moved back to Portugal. Last year, he organized a walk the coincided with the one here in Dallas.

This year, since we were going to be in Portugal, he planned it during our trip. When I say HE planned it, that's exactly what I mean... Tiago was pretty much a one-man walk-planning committee. It was not put on by the JDRF, or any other diabetes group. It was started and run by Tiago. I think he had some help, but there were times when Fred would be on the phone with Tiago, discussing walk things at 10:00 pm our time (4:00 am in Portugal).

The end result was a fantastic walk, complete with shirts, sponsors, and almost 200 people walking. I cannot believe that so many people, most of which have no connection to Elise or diabetes, would come out and walk to show support. I think it really speaks to the generosity of the Portuguese spirit. I don't have the final numbers on what was raised, but Tiago thinks it could be over $2000 Euro (almost $2900 USD).

Many of the people were return walkers from last year and were so excited to meet Elise. Some even wanted to have their picture taken with Elise!

One of the best parts was meeting Laurinda. She is a Portuguese D-Mom that has a 11 year old daughter, Clara, with type 1. She and her family made the 3 hour drive to be a part of the walk. And like all Portuguese people, she showed up bearing gifts for the kids and some yummy Portuguese pastries too!

I wish we had had more time to spend together. Laurinda was so great to talk to, and I felt connected to her right away, even though we had just met. It just shows you how D links us together, despite being from different countries, continents, and cultures.

Okay, get ready... because I have a buttload of pictures to share. I might even have to do two separate posts because there are so many! The following pics are the ones from our camera.

Team Elise... Portugal!

The guest of honour

Too cute for words

All I can say is that Fred needs to shave (he doesn't while on vacation)

And away we go

A long blue line

Cousins!

Fred's sister, their cousin and her husband & son (R to L)

Fred's Grandma (R) and her friend, Olga

Fred's Mom (R) and her friend, Odete

Turning around point and water station

Fred with Laurinda and her family (Clara is in the middle)

Lunch time after the walk

All the type 1s that were there for the walk (except Fred, of course)

Elise sporting her cute bow made by Laurinda

Elise and the amazing Tiago!

JDRF Awards dinner

A few weeks ago, we had our JDRF Awards dinner. Team Elise was honoured for our fund-raising efforts... the final tally for our team was over $16,000! Fred spoke, but was upstaged by Elise who got up on stage with him, then proceeded to prance and dance around the stage. I didn't know whether to laugh with everyone else or go fetch her from the stage. Laziness won out and I stayed in my seat. I didn't manage to get too many pictures, but here are some of my favourites...

Elise being... well, Elise

Having fun on stage

Liam and Elise

"Mine", she says

Oh dear, I think we may be in trouble

The "H" is a little droopy

This picture makes me smile. Love it. Love them.

Fred spoke, but Elise stole the show

JDRF Ambassadors - check out the happy couple in the front row to the right

Accepting our award. Mattias is snuggled in the wrap and if you look closely, his name tag is stuck on the outside!