#BlogtemberChallenge: Introduction

I am so excited about the "Blogtember" Challenge over at Brave Love!  I have been wanting to sort of ease back into blogging more regularly since the babies came because I miss the community, but I've had a hard time coming up with things to write about other than "LOOK AT THIS CUTE PICTURE OF MY BABIES!!!"  Enter Bailey and her challenge... 30 prompts, one for each day in September, with link-ups every day... solving both my inspiration problem and my blog-friend-loneliness problem :-)

Today, our prompt is simply: Introduce yourself however you like! Pics, vlog, collage, your choice :) 

Since I have a fairly thorough About Me page, I thought I'd share the highlights and a couple "bet you didn't know"s :-)

The Highlights:

• I'm Katie :-)  Married to Ethan, Momma to Charley (a maltipoo), and Abigail and Samuel (human twins).

• I love to bake (and eat), craft, DIY, decorate, read, talk... I used to sell my handmade jewelry, but that passion has taken a back seat to baby-making and raising.

• I take too many pictures of the twins, many of which can be found in my Instagram feed. :-)

• We tried to get pregnant for five years.  We finally did IVF at Barbados Fertility Centre, and were so overwhelmed with how well we were treated (and our success, of course) that I love to spread the word about them.  More people should know there's an alternative to the usual impersonal and stressful model of infertility treatment in the States!

• I have had Type 1 Diabetes since I was 12 years old.  I use an insulin pump and sometimes a continuous glucose monitor to control my blood sugar.

• I have an M.Ed. in school counseling, and am licensed to practice in Ohio.  I don't practice, because we did IVF right after I earned licensure... then I was pregnant... now I have my hands full ;-)

Now for the random things you may not know:

• Instead of imaginary friends, when I was little, I had imaginary children.  Among them was a set of boy/girl twins.  I've always wanted to be a mom, and I guess maybe I subconsciously had an idea it would be of twins :-)

• We put a LOT of thought into naming our twins, but I almost rejected the perfect name for our son.  Why?  Because it had been the name of my goldfish when I was 7.  Thankfully, I realized how silly that was and our baby now shares a name with that fish :-)

• I went from passionately hating lasagna to craving it in the hormonal aftermath of the stimulation/retrieval phase of IVF.

• I've been tased.

• My first childhood crush was Doogie Howser.  Ethan's nickname as a kid... Doogie Howser. :-)

• My back is super-ticklish.  More so than my feet or ribs (although, yeah, those are ticklish too!)

• I'm terrified of spiders and most other things with more than six legs.  But, I think snakes and lizards are SUPER cute! 

• My left foot is a whole half-size bigger than my right.  People like me (with fewer scruples) are why the cashiers check the sizes on both shoes when you buy them ;-)  This is also probably why I love to buy shoes but hate to wear them!