Despite the fact that temperatures here in the Valley of the Sun (or as my brother likes to call it The Actual Sun) continue to hover around 100 degrees, it's technically fall, which means that flu season is upon us.

I don't think I ever got a flu shot prior to getting diabetes. I was healthy for the most part and likely didn't understand what the flu really is. And even four years into the disease, last fall was the first time I got the shot since being diagnosed.

I'm already gearing up to take the family to a clinic so we can all get the shot again this year. Yeah, it didn't stop three of my family members from getting what was likely the flu this spring, but being in a big city, having my kids going to a much bigger school and having me and The Mr. exposed to so many more people it seems like the right thing to do. I'm sure you won't argue with that.

But now there's this stupid H1N1 flu virus going around. And all kinds of notices about public health are coming home from school. And we've had to have a really scary talk with our kids about this flu threat and how our bodies aren't protected from it.

This year there's a vaccine for it, but The Mr. and I don't see a reason to get that shot. We're news hounds and information junkies so we've watched and read a lot about H1N1 and it seems to us that the people who are getting the sickest and the people who are dying from H1N1 are the people who had some *other* underlying condition. For the most part, our family is healthy.

So what do you think? Will you and/or your family members be getting the H1N1 vaccine?