Ten Temptations Dads Face

Thought this blog was spot-on in so many ways....

Most effective fathers I work with face the following temptations:

1) The pull to spend more time at work and leave the "leftovers" for the family. I have never heard an older man reflecting back on his life say, "I only wish I had spent more time at the office."

2) Thinking, "I'll spend more time with the kids once they are older." That time never arrives. In fact, once our children hit the teen years they often desire to spend less time with dad.

3) Assuming "quality time" trumps "quantity time." Think the once-a-year family vacation should be enough? Its not. Its the little day-in, day-out interactions that leave such a lasting legacy.

4) Reasoning, "we might as well divorce since we fight so often." The family research statistics are clear; an in-tact, lasting marriage is better for children than divorce. Go to marriage counseling and try and avoid divorce.

5) Thinking, "the beautiful woman down the street could meet my needs better than my wife." All humans are fallen. Only Jesus Christ can meet our deepest needs.

6) "I'll leave the church stuff to my wife or the youth pastor." When your children see you worship or pray they understand you too are under authority.

7) Naively thinking, "there are no drug or alcohol problems in our school or neighborhood." Think again...and talk to your kids about the dangers of experimenting.

8) Rationalizing, "I've blown it as a father." You may have made mistakes. Serious mistakes. But its never too late to reach out to a son or daughter.

9) Assuming, "someone will have the "sex talk" with my kids." They are curious and they are waiting to hear your perspective.

10) The temptation to take my wife for granted. She is taxi-driver, worker, chef, home engineer, mother, lover, and wife of your youth. Honor her.

http://blogs.christianpost.com/dynamic-dads/ten-temptations-dads-face-9797/

Thankful Thursday: Water & Helping Hands

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. Please take this time to share with us what you're thankful for as well. If you have a blog expressing your thankfulness, please share the link! Without further ado, here's what we're thankful for:

Mandi's List:

Check back in for Mandi's list

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful for helping hands. I now I've mentioned this before, but I'm so thankful to my brothers for helping out with the garden. They've each pitched in with planting, mulching, shading, pruning etc and I've really enjoyed taking on this project with them. My brother Andrew comes over often, and he generally goes out to the garden before even taking a seat on the couch. I love it.

I'm thankful for Mexican food. If I'm ever unsure about what I feel like eating, Mexican food is generally a safe bet to choose. Now, I live in an area of the US that is chalked full of great Mexican restaurants, so maybe I am spoiled. But, it doesn't have to be "restaurant quality" for me to love it either. Mandi and I often make tacos and if I'm "cheating" and allow myself fast food, Taco Bell is almost always my first choice.

I'm thankful for acquiring a taste for water. I used to NEVER drink water away from the court, field or diamond. I thought it was boring and tasteless and really not worth my energy :) I however made a concerted effort to step up my water intake about 3 years ago, and I haven't looked back since. Nowadays, I only drink one of two things - water or coffee. In fact, I've now developed a taste for certain kind of waters over others. Never thought I'd say that! Anyway, I'm thankful that I can't get enough water now!!

So, what are you thankful for today?

The Unlikely Runner

Ran Across this article, liked it, and thought I would share.

The Unlikely Runner – A Beginner’s Guide to Running

I was that girl at school who permanently had a sick note for sports lessons. It was always ‘that time of the month’, a headache, a sore tummy, a sprained wrist… the list goes on. And my mum, faced with a palpitating nervous wreck, would diligently sign the notes excusing me from whatever team sport was on the agenda. As a teenager (and a fully grown woman) I am uncoordinated and uncompetitive.

Ball games are my worst nightmare.  I simply cannot throw or catch. So you can imagine everyone’s surprise when, at the age of 21, I ran my first halfmarathon… and my second at 22. And my third at 23! The girl who hated sports has well and truly caught the running bug. So how did I do it?

Start Small. Very Small

After failing to get excited by exercise in my teenage years, my weight started to creep up when I reached university. The only activity I did was walking to lectures, and even that got me into a sweat. Blessed with the classic pear-shaped body, my thighs were starting to reflect my leisurely life.

So on a hot sunny day, on a whim, I pulled on my completely inappropriate Converse (the only vaguely trainer-like shoes I had) and went for a jog. I ran for about a mile around the park and back again, ending up as a sweaty mess. But as I showered my red face clean, I realised how exhilarated I felt- and that was where it all began.

From then on, I went for regular, small runs around the same park. Swapping my converse for a cheap pair of running trainers (my ankles were starting to complain) and hooked up to my iPod, I would jog slowly for about 10 minutes. I learnt quickly that running flat-out would get me nowhere, so I lowered my expectations and kept within my limits. From there, the miles started to creep up.

Enter a Race

I entered my first 10k run after a couple of glasses of wine.  It seemed like a great idea at the time. Luckily for me, paying the £20 fee stopped me from backing out when I woke up the next morning (£20 is a lot of money for a student after all). So I started increasing my runs from ten minutes to 20 minutes, and then from 20 minutes to half an hour. Soon I was running 3 miles quite comfortably and I was feeling good.

To encourage me even further I brought myself some proper running clothes- being kitted out in expensive Lycra really puts you in the mood. Upping the distance to 6 miles was a challenge, but I soon learnt to ‘split’ my runs- running the first half slowly and then increasing the pace in the second half. Finishing my first 10k was a fantastic feeling.  I displayed my trophy proudly on my desk and pinned my number on the wall. Best of all, I lost around 4 pounds in the run up to the race.

Rope a Mate In

Seeing how well my running was going, I managed to persuade a friend to come on a run with me. Luckily, she was my height and about the same fitness level, so we were evenly matched. Abandoning my iPod, we began to plan our routes and start going out earlier and earlier. The best thing about running with a friend was the motivation; you can’t back out if there is somewhere waiting for you in the cold and the dark at 7am!

After another few glasses of wine one night we thought it would be a great idea to enter a half marathon (you can see a pattern emerging here). And so the next day we found ourselves with no choice but to create a training schedule, and stick to it religiously. Runner’s World has some great ready-made schedules for runners of all abilities. We had about 4 months before the race, so had to up our mileage quickly. We promised ourselves that after our first 10 miler we would eat a foot long Subway- the perfect inspiration!

Runner’s High

After my first half marathon I felt like I was walking on air. Well, actually I was exhausted, I ached, I nearly threw up, and I couldn’t walk up stairs for about 3 days afterwards (physiotherapy was covered on my health insurance, but luckily I didn’t need to use it!) But it was all worth it when I crossed that finish line and was handed my medal.

Although I wasn’t going to win any prizes for my time (I am only 5 Ft 1  and my legs are not built for speed), I did not stop to walk once. From that moment, my love affair with running really kicked off. The girl who got picked last for the team at school had run 13.1 miles, and done it in style.

Since then, I have run another two half-marathons, and I am considering entering a marathon. The best part about running is that you can take it at your own pace, and there are no team members relying on you to do well. If I can do it, anyone can, so get out there and take that first step. You may become addicted!

Original article can be found at http://www.hivehealthmedia.com/runner-beginners-guide-running/

Kalydeco: The Hope Diamond??

Guest post by Angie

Who knew such fanfare could surround such a tiny bottle of pills?  I certainly didn’t, but I do now! After I received the news that I had one G551D mutation, my clinic sent my information along with a prescription into Vertex (the company that makes Kalydeco) so they could begin the process of making sure my insurance would cover the drug.  My clinic told me that it would probably take about two weeks to get Kalydeco because of the authorization process with my insurance and the pharmacy processing time.  I had already waited 36 years, what was another 2 weeks?  Also, this wonderful news just happened to hit the day before we were leaving on a week’s vacation… so let the party begin!

About a week after my clinic sent my information to Vertex (and towards the end of vacation), I received a call from Vertex letting me know my insurance would be covering Kalydeco.  They also told me that my copay would be $250 for a one month supply.  Not really a surprise as I already pay this for a couple of my other drugs.  However, the case manager also told me that with their copay assistance program my copay would only be $15 a month!!  Now, I know everyone was suffering from a little sticker shock after Kalydeco received FDA approval and we heard how much the drug was actually going to cost.  Vertex immediately stated that no one would go without the drug.  It seems they are living up to their end of the bargain.

Once my insurance had given the thumbs up, Vertex sent the script to the pharmacy I had chosen.  There are only a handful of pharmacies that can distribute Kalydeco.  I chose to receive mine from the CF Services pharmacy.  At the beginning of the next week (after arriving home from a fabulous vacation!), I received a call from CFS to verify my shipping address and telling me that I had to sign for the drug when it arrived.  I confirmed the delivery address and was told I would receive another call just to verify the address one more time.  Were they shipping me the Hope diamond?!?!  I received the second verification call and was told my prescription would be shipped that day via overnight delivery so I would have it in my hot little hands the next day!!

I am not an overly emotional person by any means.  Some might say I’m not even a mildly emotional person.  But, the weeks that led up to Kalydeco arriving at my door were very emotional.  It was one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.  The day that I started Kalydeco was also quite a celebration.  We toasted the arrival with some tasty champagne and my husband prepared a wonderful dinner.  I decided that I would take my doses at 9am and 9pm since you are supposed to take it every twelve hours.  You also have to take Kalydeco with fatty food.  That is not a problem for me!! My inaugural dose was taken with double stuff oreos and milk.

 

Coming next week: My first week on Kalydeco!!

Note from Ronnie: If you missed Angie's first blog about discovering that she did in fact carry the G551D mutation after many years of thinking she didn't, click here. The story is quite amazing!!

Mckenna Monday: New View on the World

Whew! What a crazy past couple of months it has been. I went from a baby to a big girl. Yeah, yeah, I understand being a "big girl" is all relative, but mom says "ooo big girl" all the time and I feel like a big girl, so go with it. So here we go, I'll fill you in on why mom, dad and I think I'm SOO big (speaking of, mom never does the SOOOO big thing with me I hear other moms doing all the time, I wonder why? When I can speak, maybe I'll ask).

First things first, about a month and a half ago I started sitting up to play with my toys. I forget if I told you that already, but I'll tell you again if I haven't because I'm pretty excited about it. I spend a lot of my day sitting and playing with toys. I sit and play, I sit and look around, I sit and chat, I sit and stick out my tongue. I just like doing things sitting. Eventually I get bored and lay down, and then I just roll front to back, back to front, to get to different toys, and just because I like rolling. But I like sitting the best. I can see so much more when I'm sitting up.

Speaking of being on my tummy, I want to crawl SO bad. It's actually the source of a bit of frustration for me (sorry for the whining and moaning dad and mom). I scoot backwards, in fact, I was up in my crib in the middle of the night 2 nights ago, doing laps. I went from one end, turned around, and went to the other end. I heard mom get up and turn on the camera so she could watch me. I think maybe she found it cute and annoying at the same time. Luckily I was able to fall back asleep because my bunny blankie made the trip with me, I dragged her there and back. I also can scoot forward a tiny bit. Generally, I scootch a bit forward by locking my knees, pushing up with my hands, putting my butt in the air and pushing forward a bit with my foot. I do get my knees under me a bit (I sometimes sleep that way), but I don't know how to MOVE that way. Mom and dad work with me a lot, getting me to all fours from sitting, showing me how to move my legs, etc. But I think they are dreading me being mobile. 

OOH OH OH, I forgot. 2 days ago, I pulled myself up to stand. Apparently mom did NOT expect it because she let out a yell that made me certain she was even more excited than I was. I can't do it everywhere, right now just in my old co-sleeper. But I love it. Mom sits me near the rail, I reach and grab on, pull up, and then mom lets me stand there and play. I feel like such a big girl when I stand!

I'm also becoming pretty vocal. Mom and dad love it, so I keep it up. I started making this sound "dadada" and it's the coolest thing, whenever I say it, dad shows up. So I say it ALL the time. "I'm coming, honey," dad yells as he runs to me. Wayyy cool. "dadada"...then boom, there's daddy! I also found this high pitched squeak in the last couple days. I thought it sounded pretty cool, but then I started to really dig it because mom does the same noises back. So we go back and forth. I make a noise, and she makes it back, I make it, she makes it. I see mom and dad going back and forth with sounds - one person talks, then the other, so I'm just practicing that, but with noises and not words...I'll get to words eventually, but these squeals sound way cool.

And last thing, I have started a new hobby...gardening with daddy. We get to play with this long tube that water comes out of, and we walk around and look at things. I love the green things that are on all the plants. Dad lets me touch them, and sometimes he lets me pull one off the plant and walk around holding it. I love that time with my daddy. I love the outdoors and I love daddy, so it's a perfect combo.

Alright, well I'm going to get back to my sippy cup. I can't quite figure out how to always get water out, but it sure is fun trying!