She Loves Garden Tomatoes!

Mckenna loves working out in the garden with Daddy. She also loves the fruits of our labor :)

Thankful Thursday: Sore Muscles & "Otta"

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:

I'm thankful for sore muscles. If you read the post yesterday, you know we started back up with our group personal training class, Intensity. Today, I am maybe the most sore I've ever been. In fact, I woke up a couple times in the night because when I moved in my sleep I felt my sore muscles. HA! I love the feeling of sore muscles because it's an indication that my body is actually getting worked and changing. WAHOO!

I'm thankful for yummy salads. I've been making a salad for Ronnie and I for lunch, and they are SO yummy, if I do say so myself. We do spring mix lettuce, grilled chicken, baked veggies, tomato from the garden, and a little dressing. It is delish.

I'm thankful for summertime. Something about "summertime" is just awesome. Even though I no longer have summer vacation like when I was in school, summer still has a feeling of relaxation and being carefree.

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful for getting out of the Hole and feeling good! It was a longer stay than we had expected, but it was just what I needed to get back on top of my game. It's always tough being away from my family for extended periods of time, but we're all thankful when I'm able to get tuned up back to my old self.

I'm thankful for the annual Mexico trip. Every year my entire family takes a trip down to Mexico to spend some time together and relax. We rent a house (or two) on the beach and soak in as much sun as we can. This year was a little light as we "only" had 26 people there. It's truly an enjoyable time and what made it even more awesome was Mckenna's love for the "otta" (water), which of course means ocean :)

I'm thankful for big hats. Now that the summer is upon us, I find myself wearing big hats more often. I'm not a big "sun guy" but I especially don't like having a burnt face. In Mexico, I rocked my big gardening hat almost the entire time and when that wouldn't work, I threw on my old "big" Syracuse hat. I'm proud to report that I didn't get burned!

So, what are you thankful for today?

Workout Wednesday: Back At It

Ronnie is out of the hospital, and we are back from our vacation, so it's time to get back into the gym together. Ronnie's goal is to get his lung function up even more and lose some of the extra pounds he gained in the hospital, while my goal is to lose some of the extra fluff I've gained from back-to-back-to-back IVF cycles (many people who have been on IVF meds can maybe relate).

We decided a great way to do this was to start back up with the group personal training (GPT) classes we did last fall/winter when we were in the best shape we had ever been in. I run and lift 4-6 days a week, but I don't come anywhere near the same shape I was in when we were doing the GPT...so we decided it was time to torture ourselves again. This class is AWESOME. The kind of awesome that hurts so bad...I mean good. The class we usually do is called Intensity, and it utilizes high intensity interval training (HIIT), which is all the rage these days in the workout world. I will say, a 45-minute class is just about all you can take. It's actually so hard that I get a bit anxious before every class because I know how much it will stink...sad, but true. But that's how we know it's exactly what our bodies need.

Sometimes in the gym it's easy to get comfortable. I find I often allow myself to take it a little easy. I figure, eh, I'm here every day, I don't have to go that hard today. This class does not allow you to be comfortable. In fact, it downright hurts. You are panting like a dog the whole time, not a single person in the room doesn't take a break...relatively frequently. By the end of class, if you look around, most people are only able to do a few of the exercises back to back, and then just stand, trying to catch their breath. Now that I describe it, it sounds pretty horrible.

Today was our first day back. It was just about as terrible as we suspected it would be. We both pushed through and neither of us puked, so I'd say it was a win. The trainer did ask Ronnie a handful of times if he was ok, which just tells me that he was really pushing himself...which I totally dig. Guys who work hard are hot, right? Who's with me on that? Ha! I officially felt like I may die about 35 minutes into the class and was thrilled to know I was almost done. At the end, we both had mild headaches, so I'm pretty sure we worked our butts off (or hopefully at least part of them).

We signed up for this for 3 months, so this won't be the last time we talk about it. We will keep you posted on our progress!

The Support of a (CF) Wife

Many of you already know this, but I have the best and most supportive wife in the world. I can't even begin to explain how much of a relief it is to have the support from my wife during times leading up to the hospital. Our family puts my health first, and obviously, we couldn't do that without her. I just wanted to show (mostly to give my wife the public recognition she deserves) what that support looks like in our family. This support happened to come through text messages as I was waiting at an urgent care for x-ray results requested by my pulmonary team.

I love you honey and your support means the world to me.