Diabetes Diagnosis - March 23rd 2009

Ben was diagnosed, at age 20, on March 23 with diabetes. He had to go the emergency room on March 22;

In the E.R. where he was diagnosed with diabetes. It felt like a very scary diagnosis and we still were not sure if it was Type 1 or 2.

Later in early April he was more specifically diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and we are working towards changing our lifestyle to be more diabetic friendly. Thanks to Dave and Heather for the fabulous Better Homes and Garden cookbook. They brought it the day of Ben's diagnosis. Pretty wonderful friends.


The most scary and serious health issue in Ben's life, diabetes, is not covered at all by our insurance for 9 months. But the great news is we were referred to the Benaroya Institute to be a part of a Type 1 Diabetes study, researching the drug called GAD. After a month or so of tests he was welcomed into the study by the incredible team of doctors at Virginia Mason - Benaroya Institute. We feel so blessed to benefit from their wealth of knowledge and are praying that we are part of making a change for diabetics everywhere. If the drug GAD does what they think it does then it may prevent Ben's health from deteriorating. It is believed to help Type 1 diabetics keep their insulin producing cells.

Here we are in Pike Place Market after a day at the hospital.

We go quite frequently for monitoring and for the GAD drug to be administered (although it is possible that he is just getting a placebo - we are praying for the real deal.)

There is so much going on in the area of diabetic research we are honored to be a part of it!

Thanks to the doctors, nurses, and dietician at Virginia Mason. Dr. Sanda, Dr. Hefty and Research Study Coordinator Marli McCulloch-Olson you are truly a blessing from the Lord. We feel so lucky and blessed to have your team as a part of our life!

Ben is pictured here with "stinging nettle" cheese! Good thing he didn't have to give up cheese post diagnosis. :)

Dance Through The Decades - fundraiser for CMN

Tonie, our sister, is competing in the Miss America Scholarship Organization this year and her community service platform is Children's Miracle Network.

The event raised over $3,000 far exceeding Tonie's goal. She was so overwhelmed. Ben and I raised the second most money, only second to the Seattle University Baseball Team boys.

Here Tonie is with 2 Chlidren's Miracle Champions. Jenea and Cole. The proceeds go to help kids like them and their families.

We are so proud to be helping her as she supports this great cause. In February she put on a Dance Through the Decades Dance-a-thon. People raised money for Children's Hospital in Seattle and their efforts were rewarded with this great celebration.

Dave and Heather Raley came along as the official event photographers. People loved having their photos taken in front of this giant mural I helped created.

What blast!

The dancing was so much fun, with DJ Jim Oas there to play fabulous music from all the decades. You can see my Dad and Ben really let loose and had a blast!

The event was well attended and the Duchemin family came out in carloads!

Congratulations Tonie on a job well done!

Our First Married Valentines Day!

Ben's gift this year was a giant candy card. It read... "All SNICKERS aside, I know we are a couple of NERDS but HUBBA BUBBA you are one HOT TAMALE. Truly my LIFESAVER, you make my STARBURST! No SOUR PATCHES for us, I SKOR'd big . When PAYDAY rolls around you provide GOOD AND PLENTY. You're a WHOPPER of a man, and EXTRA special SWEETTART. You and the girls are my THREE MUSKETEERS. But it's you who makes me RED HOT. You're no FLING, you are forever. Lovey, Ali

Here Ben presented me with our own domain name. You can now visit our blog by entering http://www.benandalexjacobson.com/ much simpler, and he is so thoughtful!

Then we headed to Spiro's for lunch with my folks. Our plan was to geocache and use our new digital camera to remind ourselves of what we did for our Valentines Day gift to each other.
They truly are best friends, it is such a blessing to spend time with them. My Dad is not feeling to great these days but he was still game to walk the clear creek trail and geocache with us!

On our way into the trail, on the trailhead near the hosptial.

"The birthing center" sign pointed right at the park bench. Alex's Mom Wendy is illustrating our thoughts. HAHA!

The men.

The women.

We were without an actualy GPS device, which makes this much harder, so we were trying to use my dad's cell phone and google maps.

My Dad and I spotted it!

They were disappointed it wasn't them who found it this time!

The cache!

Then off to Global Bean for coffee and cards. We played Phase 10.

It was a great day!
We got this card from Alex's folks. They are so enjoying having a son.

This was Ben's card to Alex. Yes he truly is a cake making fiend.

Beautiful flowers too!

That night we picket up a dessert (mocha flan) and appetizer (goat's chesse and marinara) from Burata Bistro - a new favorite spot. Along with some sushi and then ate around the coffee table, just the two of us. So fun!

What a special first married Valentines Day!

Geocaching Adventures

We love to geocache! Below are some adventures we have had with family. For those of you who have yet to experience geocaching yourself - I explain it has "high tech treasure hunting." You use clues and coordinates (on a GPS device) to find caches that are planted all over the world.


When you find a cache it is usually in some kind of container and you can leave something in it for the next geocachers to find. You can also take something from the cache and move it to another cache.

We like to use travel bugs (again a high tech piece of treasure). We usually leave and take a travel bug when we geocache because then you can enter the travel bugs number online and watch where it travels. Some of ours have traveled the world! We also often leave behind a pink ribbon or breast cancer pin in honor of my Auntie Toni and others who have or are fighting the terrible disease.

Here we are selecting a travel bug to move to another location. This was a fun cache found right in our hometown. Tonie was the one to spot the cache on her first time out!

She was SO excited. Ben is the veteran geocacher, he has been doing it for years with friend Brandon and sister Emily. They like to go at night, especially to cemetaries.

We headed off to find another cache nearby. We were using the car GPS which made it quite a bit harder.

AGAIN, Tonie found the cache. This time it was a micro cache. When they are are micro you just write your name on a slip of paper that is contained in the film cannister or other small container. It's fun to read names (we use a team name) of others who have found it and to see when they found the cache!

We can't wait for more geocaching. Alex's parents just discovered it in the past year and have had so much fun treasure hunting. They have been burying their own treasures for several years now as time capsules that mark their love story. Someday we will get to go unearth them! In the meantime we'll unearth other's treasures!

New Digital Camera! And a date to celebrate.

Just before we went to Miss America in January we got a new digital camera so we could document our trip. The camera was our Valentine's Day gift to each other so on Valentine's Day we also went geocaching (blog ot come soon) to remind ourselves (by using our camera that day) of what we got each other for Valentine's Day.

Ben picked up a few of our favorite things for lunch... and we walked the Clearcreek Trail. It was a great day with our dogs and each other!

Ben brought my favorite salad from Fred Meyer - it's a gorgonzola, chicken salad with grapes and walnuts! So delicious.

He also got Jalapeno chips and fruit - again some of my favorite things!

YUM! We then headed out on a walk and what a day this was. I love being married to my best friend.