Thankful Thursday - DWill & DD

Know what time it is? It's thankful Thursday time! We all have so much to be thankful for and we love to take this opportunity just to write down each and everything that comes to mind. as I mentioned, I no longer have the "linkytools" but I invite you to share your thankful blog in the comments section. Without further ado, here's what we're thankful for:

Mandi's List:

I'm thankful for spin class. As Ronnie mentioned yesterday, last week we started doing a spin class...and we LOVE it. I was beginning to get a little bored doing 30-60 minutes of cardio a day, of the same thing, over and over and over. So I looked into other classes at the gym (I was already doing step on Fridays, but wanted something on the other days). I thought spin could be something fun Ronnie and I could do together, so we gave it a shot and it was a blast. It's our new Tuesday/Thursday cardio in the afternoons...and man am I thankful for it!

I'm thankful for Dunkin' Donuts egg and cheese sandwiches. We got DD yesterday morning on the way down to Tucson (I had meetings so we headed down nice and early). And man, every time I have an egg and cheese sandwich on a cinnamon bagel I am oh so thankful for their existence. Unfortunately they pack about 450-500 calories and your daily sodium limit, so they're not an everyday option, but MM MM MMMMM!

I'm thankful for AC. It is really heating up in AZ these last few weeks, and I have to say, life without air conditioning would be miserable. Typically Ronnie fights me on the temperature of the house - refusing to turn on the air until the house is over 85 degrees. But this summer, thanks to peanut, he's turning on the air...and actually keeping the house around 79 or 80 degrees!! WAHOO...thank you pregnancy and thank you sensitive hubby!

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful for my in-laws pool. It's definitely been heating up for the past couple of weeks, but we were able to escape the heat a bit this weekend by diving in a vat of water. There aren't many feeling that can beat diving head first into a pool on a hot summer's day. We did just that this past weekend with friends and family and had an absolute blast playing pool games. Now that I'm talking about it, I may have to go back for more in a couple of days!

I'm not only thankful for their pool, but I'm also thankful that I'll be able to hang out with my in-laws as they are making their way into town on Friday. It's been a handful of months since we've seen them last and we can't wait to love up on them for the couple of weeks that they're around. It's the times that they're around that I wish China was closer.

I'm thankful for the joy I'll experience tonight while watching the NBA draft. For those that don't know, I'm a die hard U of A basketball fan, and one of our players is expected to be picked in the top 5 of tonight's draft. We haven't had a top 5 pick since I believe the 1998 draft, so this is certainly an exciting time for Wildcat fans. I just can't wait to see the look on D-Will's face as he makes his way across the stage. He deserves every second of it.

So, what are you thankful for today?

Ever try a spin class?

I wanted to give you guys an update on how my workouts are going since I haven't been posting as much exercise related stuff lately. As many of you know, I hurt my foot a while back during a run and have been trying to rehab it now for the past eight weeks or so. My foot is definitely getting better, I'm just not to the point of really pushing it on a daily basis yet. I've backed off of my morning walks to try to rest my foot and I've only gone on two runs in this eight week period. that certainly doesn't mean that I've been slacking off on working out however. I'm still doing something active every single day whether it's riding a bike outside, an exercise bike in the gym, the elliptical machine, lifting weights or walking on a treadmill - I'm still keeping myself very active. Which leads me to the other point of this blog - have you guys ever tried a spin class?

Last week Mandi floated out the idea that we try a spinning class together. It made sense to me since there isn't any pounding on my foot and we would be able to do cardio together. We haven't been able to do our cardio together for quite some time because of my bum foot. Mandi has been religiously running every morning while my lazy butt stays at home. Once in a while we'll walk side by side on a treadmill, but she generally wants to do something different since she already has a morning run in. She's not a fan of exercise bikes so when I would hop on one of those she would often do the stair stepper. So anyways, the thought of doing some cardio with my wife was very appealing.

To spinning...I've noticed the loud music coming from the spin classroom before and was always intrigued by it. People seem to be enjoying themselves and the class is always packed so I deduced that something was going right in there :) I also remember a time about 10 years ago when spinning seemed to be all the rage. I never tried it however, but always wanted to. Last Thursday we gave it a go. Some of you may have seen my update on last week's spin class already but for those who didn't, it went a little something like this, “I felt like I was going to throw up for 42 minute of the 45 minute spin class.” Doesn't that sound appealing? Your first thought is probably no, but I'd like to encourage you to give it a try if you are at all inclined. What's nice about a spin class is you control your own speed and effort, but you also have a "coach" yelling at you, or should I say the entire class, to get it in gear. I generally respond very well to coaching so this kind of a thing is right up my alley.

At today's class I was sweating during the 3 minute “warm up” period. Today's instructor was all about climbing those hills and my legs were paying for it. I will say though, what's nice about spin class is that it's based music. It really helps you keep a rhythm and you always kind of know when your next break is coming. It's important to point out that it's not 45 minutes of all-out peddling, but a constant back and forth between taking it “easy” and going all out. I can tell you this for sure, if I can do it, you can do it. I'm already looking forward to my next class and I hope that I can push myself even more than I did today.

So the question is, do you spin?

Genotype vs. Gene Mutation

Fortunately, most of the readers that can be found commenting on these blogs are much smarter than I am. A couple of weeks back I posted a blog answering a momma's questions about gene mutations and the severity of the disease linked to them which can be found here. A very intelligent reader by the name of Jessica left me a very well written comment that may have straightened out some of the points in my blog even better than I could. Thank you Jessica for taking the time to respond to the blog with such a thoughtful and educated comment. We learn something new every day, I know I did:

There are actually six classes of mutations, and they don't directly range from 1-6 in "severity". Also, they don't indicate severity so much as the manner in which the CFTR protein and/or transport is faulty - a cellular issue that has not been proven to be affected by patient behaviors. There's a lot of great information with more detail and specifics in this article on the CFF website.

Taking care of yourself - treatments, exercise, nutrition, etc, are all still extremely important to put yourself in the best position for optimum health, but none currently available have any direct impact on the cellular-level mutation problem itself - that's exactly where these new treatments come in and why they're so exciting!

Lastly, a quick but important distinction: DeltaF508 is the most commonly identified mutation, but *double* DeltaF508 is a genotype, *not* a mutation. Everyone has two mutations, which are often not the same; the genotype identifies the pair, and their interaction with one another (which is arguably equally if not more important than the mutations individually). DF508 is the most *commonly identified*mutation, but DDF508 is not necessarily the most common *genotype*, and if it is, it's by a slim margin - it's not like there is a vast majority of double deltas and other genotypes are sort of "odd type out" in CF statistics.

Also, while that DF508 is the most commonly *identified* mutation , many scientists argue that may just as well be because it was the *first* identified mutation, and as more mutations are identified AND more individuals learn their genotype, that will likely change, as it doesn't make sense that DF508 would be the most common from an evolutionary biology standpoint.

The most important reason to know your (or your child's) genotype is because the new wave of treatments are all going to be rather class specific, if not mutation specific - knowing BOTH of your mutations lets you know whether new trials apply to you (so you can participate and get them to market quicker!) and if they don't, whether the science might be in the same wheelhouse and therefore might eventually - or at least more quickly than a treatment targeting a mutation in a completely different class.

Hope that helps clarify some things!

When Momma's Happy...

This year, Father's Day around our household was like any other day. While Ronnie is very much a daddy as this point, he was very adamant that we didn't celebrate Mother's and Father's Day to their full potential until Peanut is here in our arms. However, I must say, I spent a good part of the day envisioning next year's Father's Day and how wonderful a daddy Ronnie will be to our little Peanut!

So all that said, yesterday was just an average Sunday; church, lounging, laundry. But I thought I'd share our little something special from the day...and that is pregnancy craving dinner! I started dreaming about dinner around, oh say, 5pm ish - well before dinner time, but about the time I start getting hungry and have to tell myself, "just a few more hours." Knowing that we didn't have much around the house (probably should have gone to the store and done a major shopping trip way earlier in the day, but oh well), I start browsing the internet to see what crazy concoction I could scrounge together. The problem was, I was feeling like dessert. I wanted something sweet. I didn't really want dinner. And then Ronnie said something that was music to my ears, "I want breakfast for dinner." "Bingo," I thought. Breakfast can be something sweet! So I start searching for a creative breakfast-dinner idea, and that is when I first laid eyes on it. A recipe that was fit for a pregnant lady, craving something dessert, but needing to disguise it as a dinner. Peanut butter and banana stuffed french toast. It was the perfect combo. Breakfast - check. Sweet - check. Protein and fruit to nourish peanut - check.

So here you have it. The tastiest breakfast-dinner around...with protein and fruit to justify it as nourishment!

Gather simple ingredients: bread (we used cinnamon raisin), PB, honey, bananas, eggs, powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, vanilla, milk (not pictured), jelly (we didn't end up using it and instead used maple syrup)

Spread PB on each piece of bread. Then cut up banana and put it on 1/2 the slices, and drizzle honey on the other half.

Put a banana side with a honey side to make "sandwiches"

Dunk both sides of each "sandwich" in a mixture of the spices, eggs, milk, and vanilla and throw it in a pan to cook over medium heat.

Put powdered sugar and syrup on top and ENJOY!!!

Hope everyone else had a lovely Father's Day...if you're looking to drag on the celebration, I recommend doing it with breakfast-dinner PB and Banana Stuffed Cinnamon Raisin French Toast.

Happy Father's Day to some of the best guys around: Dad, Mark and Eazy