The BEST of the BEST!

Today, I’m honored to host the March edition of the Best of the ‘Betes Blog. For those not familiar: each month, blogs from within our community are nominated (by people like you) in several different categories. After nominations are closed, the host selects the top posts from all those submitted. (That’s me this month!) These posts are incredible and it was truly difficult to choose only one for most of the categories. Trust me when I say these are definitely posts you need to take a minute to read. Enjoy!

**drumroll please**

And the winners are…

This month’s “Best Recipe” winner is a woman after my own heart. Anytime you can combine peanut butter and chocolate, I’m there. (Yay for Easter and Reese’s peanut butter eggs.) Kate over at Type 1 Momma shared a delicous recipe for sugar-free salted peanut butter hot chocolate. Be sure to peruse Kate’s Foodie Bucket List on her website as well. (Pretty sure Kate and I are about to become good friends.)

Congrats to my friend Jeff Mather over at Dispatches who is this month’s “Best Use of Photography” winner. In the photo, Jeff is running, and the race photographer captured him with a, shall we say, less than enthusiastic face. Personally, I love this photo because it shows the hard work that goes into running. Personally, I think runners are crazy. But then again, Jeff and I are riding 105 miles in the desert come October. I guess it takes one to know one. I’m proud of you Jeff! Keep up the good work!

My friend (and co-creater of Best of the ‘Betes Blog), Sara from Moments of Wonderful, is a double winner this month. She wins in the “Best Vlog” category and the “Best Reference to a D-Celebrity.” The vlog nominated ended up not being a bout diabetes at all. But if you know Sara, then you know how absolutely endearing the video was and why it was nominated. And the photo of Sara “posing” with Crystal Bowersox is priceless. I say “posing” loosely because Sara swears they were just chatting. 😉

Reyna over at Beta Buddies is this month’s “Best Advocacy” winner. She challenges the DOC to spread awareness and raise money for research through a Virtual 5K, and she’s making it a family affair. I love the idea Reyna is pushing, and it’s the easiest thing you can do to fundraise. Check out the post and don’t forget to register!

And wouldn’t you know Jeff showed up in another category, too. This time, he’s part of Scully’s winning “Best Story of a D-Meetup” post at D. Scully and Celine managed to talk Jeff into heading to Niagra for a race. Not only do you get a great story of a meetup in this post, but you also get some of Jeff’s T-shirt-making creativity. (*warning, there is some langauage in this post*) And I will not lie, I do own a T-shirt that says “A Velociraptor ate my pancreas.” Jeff really is awesome, isn’t he?

Meri over at Our Diabetic Life wins the “Best non D-related Post” for March. Her post is about choosing hope, but it’s not really about diabetes. Meri is the mother of four boys, three of whom have type 1 diabetes. Her husband was recently diagnosed with cancer and this post captures her emotions perfectly. I’m proud to see Meri embracing hope. You shouldn’t miss this post. It’s truly inspiring.

This month’s “Best Post by a Type 1” winner goes to Abby. Abby guest posts for Kerri at Six Until Me. In the winning post, she shares her thoughts on her latest appointment and A1c. I have to admit, when Abby first announced her disappointment regarding her A1c, I thought she was crazy. But after reading the post, I completely understood. It’s not so much the number as how we get to the number. Great perspective, Abby!

This month’s “Best Post by a Type Awesome” comes from Bea’s husband. Bea blogs at Cranky Pancreas, and her husband guest starred in March to share his thoughts on living with a diabetic. He explains that diabetes doesn’t only affect the person living with it, but it affects friends and loved ones, too. So very true. And aside from the great post, Bea has some terrific artwork! Check her out!

Christopher from A Consequence of Hypoglycemia wins the “Best Use of Humor” post this month. After realizing he spends close to 12 hours a day sitting down, he decided to take “a stand” against the norm. The post itself has great humor within, but be sure to read the comments. You’ll laugh so hard you’ll barely be able to “stand” it. Seriously.

And lastly, the “Best story of a D-mistake” winner comes from Scott at Rolling in the D. (Anyone else have the urge to sing Adele when you read his blog title? No, just me? OK then.) Scott shares his story of breaking a vial of insulin (don’t worry, he had a backup.) I think we’ve all been there, right? This post is short, but entertaining. And Scott, if you find a pharmacy with a pancreas, let me know! 😉

And a big thanks to all those who nominated posts this month and congratulations to those who were nominated:

C at C’s Life with D

Will at Life After Dx

Kim at Texting My Pancreas

Caroline at Act 1 Diabetes

Bob at T Minus Two

Briley at InDpendence

Sara at Moments of Wonderful

Victoria at … well, you’re already here

And for those of you who are winners, be sure to grab the button above and proudly display it on your blog. You can do so by copying and pasting the code below, but be sure to replace all [ ] with < >. [div align=”center”][a href=”http://victoriacumbow.com/2012/04/05/the-best-of-the-best/” target=”_blank”][img src=”http://momentsofwonderful.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/bbblogo-final-e1309479808835.png” alt=”” /][/a][/div]
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