Anticipation and excitement, tears....WHOLY LOWS!!

Saturday morning we were up before the sun, excitedly on our way to Hannah's last volleyball tournament for the season. Hannah has been anticipating this day for weeks, but also knows she doesn't want to say goodbye to her team in the end. Our Club Zia 12-1's started off the season ranked 17th based on last years team placement. After 6 months of training and building skills lead by 2 amazing college girls on full ride Volleyball scholarships, our girls ended the season in 6th place! Thats 6th place out of 32 teams in the Arizona region! (insert happy tears here!)I know our team was capable of pulling together and playing some better games yesterday, but, it was an off day and it is what it is. Hannah is soooo disappointed they didn't place higher, alot of girls just weren't playing well at all. But, Hannah knows that they have also overcome so much in just one season as a young 12 team led by 2 coaches that have never even coached at all.

I have to say Hannah's coaches took 10 girls that had never played "competitive" volleyball and made them determined and resilient. Our coaches approach to training their team is what made this team succeed. While other coaches nagged and screamed out words in frustration on the side lines, our coaches always approached with a "good try" BEFORE offering words of advice to improve their play. You would never hear disappointment or frustration in our coaches voices. They were there every step of the way with only words of encouragement, pride and positives. I will SOOOO miss these coaches! (I'm a little afraid of the coaches next year!) The last 6 months of training has been AWESOME watching each girl grow and improve not only their skills and strength, but their confidence and team commitment.

When the final game was at an end and we all were set to leave, the tears came out of nowhere. I thought it would be ME crying tears of not wanting to part with our coaches, the team, the parents. Hannah took it REALLY hard. Harder than any other girl on the team it seemed. Tears, tears and more tears, its so hard to say goodbye! BUT, we aren't really. Sure, we wont have practices twice a week anymore and we will be without 2 coaches that left a tremendous impact on Hannah's life....but, we still plan to get all the girls together for open gym days. We have a team party next weekend for the final goodbye. I betcha I'll cry my tears then! This afternoon we are off to a sand tournament once again. 2 on 2 for Hannah and her buddy from the season. The best part, one of Hannah's coaches runs these weekend tournaments, so the goodbyes will never really be final goodbyes. Her head coach will always be around for as long as Hannah continues to get out there and sign up for additional tournaments. The last sand tournament Hannah and her buddy took 1st place.....I'm thinking Hannah expects the same today.

WHOLY LOWS, man, do I feel guilty!!I forgot to change Maddison's basal pattern back to weekends Friday night, so by Saturday morning Maddison's basals were much higher than they should have been, especially considering I reduced many basals for daytime during the school week this week. Of course, I didn't realize this until the first low hit right as we arrived to our tournament destination. Bad choice of a HUGE muffin for breakfast....70c worth....an hour later Maddison was 80 with way too much insulin on board, combined with a too high basal rate. Not a good mix. 15c of juice caught the 80, I was sure that would do the trick this early in the morning. Somehow, before I was able to re-check Maddison her Dad allowed her to have 2 donut holes that a team parent brought for the girls. Dad bolused for that, but he should have used a MUCH higher ratio since the ratios in Maddison's pump are only 1:13 for breakfast, and changes for any other meal of the day to 1:30!! So, Maddison was overdosed on top of a low. We never rechecked that initial 80, so obviously Maddison was headed downward quite a bit even after having that first juice box! How horrible can I be!!??

Things just got uglier from there. Within half an hour Maddison said she felt low, she was 69. 20c of fruit gushers, she was 72. Gatorade, she was 62. Then 48. Another 40c of misc. crap that was on the team food table, 109. By now I started to worry that she was getting a tummy bug and not absorbing any carbs. Panic. Trying to watch some stressful volleyball games while stressing about lows was an ugly mix! Not a good morning for my poor Maddy! By now Maddie is totally drained and pale, curls up on the bleachers with a blanket and falls asleep. I recheck in half an hour and I'm shocked to see another 62. Granola bar and juice. This poor girl has had more crap in 2 hours than she has had all her life! By now I finally decided to turn down her pump (as I should have done sooner!) Lunch time we had a two hour break from games and headed out to lunch. 140. I was never so happy to see a 338 after Maddison's lunch! How bad is that!? Maddison felt good, had some energy and began to run wild between games. WHOLY LOWS subsided, BS returned to normal the remainder of the night. WHOLY LOWS behind us, this mom feels horribly guilty I forgot to change patterns in the first place. -Sigh- A better day so far today.