Pictures from my Barnes & Noble Book Signing

Thank you to everyone that was able to come out and support my first book signing last night. I had a wonderful time (please ignore how tired I look in some of the pictures) and as you can see, Arden really enjoyed signing the books!

We are working on making other events happen, please stay tuned. If you have pictures from last night I'd love it if you would send them to ardensday@me.com.

Life Is Short, Laundry Is Eternal is available everywhere that book are sold and on all eBook formats - I hope that you love it!

Have a great weekend and thank you as always for your continued support!

Scott

A big thank you to the Barnes & Noble in Hamilton, NJ (especially Susan) for their warm and wonderful support.

From Stay-At-Home Dad to Published Author and all the Laundry in between

From the Trenton Times. Photo by Christina Izzo 

From the Trenton Times: 

Scott Benner said he had his first introduction to writing books when he was a child in school.

“We used to write them and bind them and then they would go on a library cart and go from class to class,” he said. “That’s the part I really liked — that the book was somewhere else and someone else was reading it.”

Benner, who grew up in Bucks County, continued writing through his teens and early 20s, trying his hand at writing movie scripts and fiction, but he said he found that he was writing stories that were already written.

“I felt that I didn’t have anything to say,” he said. “I felt that if I kept saying stuff that somebody else had already said, either it isn’t valuable or I’m not at a point yet where I should be doing this.”

But after being a stay-at-home dad for 12 years, Benner said he found something to say.

You can read the entire article in today's edition or online here.

If you are in the Central NJ area, please come out tonight at 6:30 pm for my first book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Hamilton, NJ.

Guest Post: I wrote a piece for WEGO Health about the Power of Communication

From the WEGO Health Blog

WEGO Health is proud to announce the recent publication of Scott Benner’s first book: Life is Short, Laundry is Eternal: Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Dad. Scott is the 2011 winner of the WEGO Health Activist Advocating for Another Award, and an amazingly engaged member of the WEGO Health network. In honor of this outstanding accomplishment, WEGO Health is giving away three copies of the book to members of our community. Today is the last day to enter the contest, so head on over to our Facebook page and share today’s post about Scott’s new book for your last chance to win a copy.  Not a big Facebook fan? You can also retweet WEGO Health to enter!

I hope that you can take a few moments today to read my guest post over on WEGO Health's blog. Here's a snippet of what I wrote:

It’s possible to face your challenges alone; I know that because I tried. But eventually the burden becomes too heavy and it can begin to drag you down. Alone you are one person pulling a mountain, but together, together we are unstoppable. On the days that are too much for me, I look to others to find the strength to carry on. Those people, those sometimes faceless friends that I have found online, they hold me up until I can stand again. Before I know it, I’m fine and ready to help them during their tough times.

WEGO is giving away three copies of my book today when you retweet or share their blog entry - good luck! Hey, even if you don't win today there is still time to enter my GiveAway for a signed copy of 'Life Is Short'.

What have you always wanted to say to your child's teacher

Is there something about type I diabetes that you always wanted to say to your child's teacher but just couldn't? A fact or maybe a personal story? Have you ever dreamt of telling the administrator (that looked at you cross when you asked for an addition to your child's 504 plan) that you haven't slept through the night in countless years? Have you even once considered telling someone to go $%#@ themselves but instead smiled and nodded?

Tomorrow I will be giving a workshop at the Hamilton, NJ Barnes & Noble to fifty teachers about 504 Plans from the families perspective. We'll be talking about why I think that forming good relationships is so vital for not just the child, but the family, the school and the educator.

If you have something that you'd like me to pass on into the world, something that you think would help an educator to better understand our lives - I'd love to carry your message to them. 

I genuinely believe that if the school could just get a glimpse into the world that we live in, they would become better partners in our children's education... and not just for children with type I diabetes.

There are so many families that would benefit from that understanding. Tomorrow I'm hoping to send a message that will reverberate beyond the few districts that will be represented. I want to leave them with a story that they will be touched and informed by, one that they will want to retell.

More information about the event is here on Barnes & Noble's website.

This Picture Makes Me Smile

Do you see Arden in the middle of the purple glowing smoke, the one wearing the hat. Arden danced the night away on Saturday during her first Bar Mitzvah without a care in the world. I just wanted to take a second to tell everyone how grateful my family is for the technology that makes moments like this better. Without Arden's DexCom G4 I would have interrupted her fun countless times during the evening. Each time taking her from the moment and drawing attention to her diabetes. Instead, we were able to monitor her post meal BGs from across the room and when she did require a bolus of insulin, I never took her OmniPod PDM out of my pocket. 

Wireless. Tubleless. Goodness.

Knowing that Arden was safe, carefree and completely unencumbered by diabetes while she danced is a feeling that may be lost on other parents, but I think that every parent of a child with type I will look at his photo and smile along with me. As a father, I found this moment to be completely joyous - nothing beats seeing my kids live without limits.

Have a great week!

Scott