First Day of Paradise

Flash Me Friday - "Our Bonus Room"

This week's addition of Flash Me Friday call for pictures of our "bonus room". We actually were really fortunate to pick up a pretty sweet bonus room in our house that was added on by the previous owners. It's attached to the master bedroom and is the perfect size for an office or a little sitting room. Right now, as you will see, we have our office stuff in there. The "grand plan" is to make our "formal" living room, aka the room with no furniture in it, into an office and to turn our office into a sitting room.

Are you interested in also participating? This brainchild of Jen over at The Groettum Familyblog is going to be a weekly series in which we have to take a picture of her choosing without any cleaning up whatsoever. If you want in on the action, please visit here for the "rules".

What the _____?: September 2nd, 2010

A while ago we started a little contest on this blog in which I post a picture and whoever comes up with the most clever/funny/witty/etc caption gets put into a drawing for prizes at the end of the year. Still don't have everything figured out as of yet, but we do know a couple of things 1) There will be multiple prizes 2) I love the participation so far 3) If you think your submission is inappropriate for others to see, you can always email your answer directly to me at ronnie@cysticlife.org :) 4) I've literally LOLed all weeks so keep it coming!

Alright, what do ya got!?!?

Last week's photo with the winning caption:

Winner: "Is that a noise-maker in your pocket or were you just scared stiff?"

submitted by Jon V.

2nd: "I see where all of my "GOOD GENE'S" went now."

submitted by Carolyn Bunt

3rd: "Is it true white men can't jump? Maybe I should try to see if I can touch his tassle."

submitted by Marla

Need a guaranteed laugh??

This has nothing to do with CF, but everything to do with making you laugh...

Watch this first in it's entirety:

Now watch this!!

This has become one of the most downloaded songs on iTunes currently and the guy now has his own t-shirts, fan clubs, etc. Gotta love the power of the Internet.

Thoughts heading into the Hole...

I thought it would be a good idea to piggy back off of Mandi's post and share with you guys what's going on in my little head in anticipation of this next hospital stay. Her post was quite the delight to read and just confirmed once again that she is my one and only. I've been very fortunate my entire life to be able to surround myself with friends that take CF "in stride" (Of course my family has been great too, but to be honest, where I come from, there's no choice in that matter). I've always felt that it was so important to have friends that "got it" but didn't care. Friends that would push me when I needed to be pushed and then would be right there to push when I didn't have the strength. I think I developed that screen in choosing friends by how I was raised. My mom never, AND I MEAN NEVER, let me use CF as a crutch or an excuse. I remember like it was yesterday coming to her as a youngster before school saying that I didn't feel good. Her response? "That's a good story, now put on your shoes cause you're going to school". I mean, I was a kid, give me an inch and I'll take a mile. Too be honest, not much has probably changed.

That's how all of this wraps back around to Mandi. She just never cared about CF. It came up in the first conversation that we ever had and I'm pretty sure we spent about 34 seconds on it. She was much more interested in my stories, or my likes, my family and my career. That's who I am. Now, that's not to say that CF hasn't played a major role in who I am today. It most certainly has. It's shaped how I react to those things that are most important in my life. So while I told her about my life experiences and my family, I was, in essence, telling her all about CF. I am a CFer, no getting around that. I have a disease. No getting around that either. But she was interested in how this diseased little CFer was living his life and nothing else much mattered to her.

I kind of got off topic there, sorry. This is about how great my wife is with me in the hospital. So first, obviously she just rolls with the punches. She knows I need it. She knows that we'd both probably rather be somewhere else. But she also knows that it's not the place that makes it special but the people who are there. She's done such a great job over the last couple of years of really making the hospital a special place for us to "get away". It's funny, cause we actually have way more interaction with other people while in the hospital (you guys know what I'm talking about. People coming in the room every 16 seconds). Somehow though, every time I'm in, she plans something or does something special that makes me feel like we're the only two people in the building. I really think it all comes back to, she just really doesn't care about the circumstances as long as "my man is there". And I'll tell you what, it's a great feeling knowing that the love of your life feels that way. There are very few people in this world that I can say with confidence "have my back" 100%, no matter what and Mandi would be at the top of that list.

As far as what I'm feeling going into this hospital stay (probably happening this Friday): I'm excited. I've always been pretty good at seeing the forest through the trees. The light at the end of the tunnel if you will. When it comes to the Hole, I know that it will get me close, if not all the way back to being where I need to be. When I say "where I need to be", I'm talking about being in a position where I can say with 100 percent certainty that I can stay on top of my game all by myself. Meaning I have the energy to do all of my treatments, get in all of my workouts and get enough rest to fight off infection. Right now, I don't feel that way. But here's the deal, I don't feel awful physically. In fact, it's rare that I feel awful heading into the hospital. I think it'd be a detriment to both my overall health and my lung function to wait until it got to that point. When it comes to the hospital I've always been VERY proactive. Shoot, I used to have them admit me with a 85% FEV1 cause I was used to 100%. I just never want to be in the position to say "if only I would have gone in sooner". So with that said, BRING. IT. ON!!

I've received many encouraging notes regarding this next hospital stay and I want to make sure you guys know how much it means to me. I appreciate your support and your prayers, but most of all, I really appreciate you guys cheering me on. It's really tough not to want to kick some major booty when I have a cheering section like you guys. So, wish me luck, stay in touch and I'm sure I'll be out of the Hole sooner rather than later.

**And just a reminder, some of you got the impression that I was already in. I am not as of this posting and it looks like the magical day will be Friday**

First Hospital Stay with My Husband

This week brings yet another first for Ronnie and I as a married couple. Ronnie's going in for his first tune-up since we've been married, and for some strange reason, I'm a little nervous. "Why??" you might ask. GREAT question. I have no idea why. This hospital stay is no different than any other he's had since we've been together. He's being treated at the same place. Same docs. Same nurses. Same routine. I'll go down to Tucson to be with him, just like every other time. So who knows why this one feels different. I have only two guesses: 1. Because I'm leaving behind our home and have to get everything all situated to leave or 2. Because I'm his wife, I know feel a greater sense of responsibility for his well-being while he's in.

Those are simply my best guesses. Neither of them feel quite right, when I say them out loud (err, type them). I don't really feel that nervous to leave the house. We did a bunch of cleaning and yard work today, to get the house in a position to leave it sit. We got the neighbors all lined up to check our mail, check on our house every other day, and keep an overall eye on things. All that's left is to empty out stuff that could go bad in the fridge, pack, and unplug the coffee maker (why on earth people unplug the coffee maker, I actually have NO idea. You just always hear that people do it when they leave for vacation. Is it because it could start a fire? If so, pretty sure you don't want the coffee maker plugged in when you're home, say, sleeping at night?! Please let me know why I do this!).

So while it doesn't seem like the house should make me nervous, maybe it's guess #2. Although, I also don't really feel a greater sense of responsibility for Ronnie's well-being now that we're married either. I mean, if I had to guess why I'm a little anxious about this stay, and it's not being worried about leaving our house, it seems like this would be it....but if it is, it's minor or very subconscious. Although I guess if I mentioned it as one of two possibilities as to why this stay is different, it can't be all that subconscious! It feels in some ways like I should take on more responsibilities regarding his stay, but truthfully, there's not much I can do. I don't have a house there, so I can't cook him home-cooked meals. I'm not responsible for his treatments or IV meds that's what RTs, nurses and Drs are for. His mom and brothers are always around to bring us anything from the "outside world" that may be needed. Hmmm, come to think of it, I'm relatively useless when it comes to hospital stays!!

However, I will say this - even though, for whatever reason, I feel a little nervous/anxious about this stay, I am excited. There are little things about hospital stays that I love. I LOVE Dunkin Donuts on weekend mornings. I LOVE listening to podcasts of our favorite radio program. I LOVE spending more time with his mom, stepdad, and brothers. I LOVE the feeling of getting ready to go for a walk outside. I LOVE watching Ronnie sleep as he gets pounded. I LOVE knowing that he's getting healthier. I LOVE walking down to the cafeteria for hot chocolate. I LOVE snuggling in his tiny hospital bed, trying not to rip out his PICC line. I LOVE the quality time we get to spend together. There's just something about hospital stays that bring us closer together....and that I am excited for!

So for better or worse, excitement or nervousness - hospital here we come :)

What's in a Google? WHY AM I

Here's something I started a couple of weeks ago on RSBR, cause as we all know, the weekends are slow around here. I call it "What's in a Google?". It's simple really; type one word into Google and see what the magic bot suggests for you. Once in a while, you can get some pretty funny suggestions. What's crazy, is I'm pretty sure that it means these are the most common searches.

Word: why am I

Top suggested searches:

why am I always tired

why am I always hungry

why am I not losing weight

why am I always cold

why am I here

why am I so ugly

why am I fat

why am I dizzy

why am I so gassy

why am I single

I think I can answer this one: You're here because you're fat. You're fat because you're not losing weight. You're not losing weight because you're always gassy. You're so gassy because you're always hungry. You're always hungry because you're tired. You're tired because you're dizzy. You're dizzy because you're always cold. You're always cold because you're single. You're single because you're ugly, fat, always hungry, cold, dizzy, tired and gassy.