Thankful Thursday: Cooler Mornings & Rules

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 cinnamon crunch bagels from Paradise Bakery. They're so delicious! I could eat one a day...forever.

I'm thankful for cooler mornings. It's starting to be "chilly" in the mornings (in the high 60s, low 70s) and it makes for some beautiful runs!

I'm thankful for my parents being close. My parents are a HUGE help when it comes to watching Mckenna, and even more, they make for great company a couple times a week when Mckenna and I go swimming at their house. It is so nice when your parents go from just parents to friends!

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful for a slight change in weather. It's started to cool down just a tad at night (and early) here in the desert. I love it for the obvious reasons, but also for maybe not so obvious reasons. I LOVE to see my girls in sweatshirts. They both look so cute and wear them well :)

I'm thankful for a daddy's girl. Mckenna isn't a daddy's girl all of the time, but when she is, I sure do love it. She pretty much insists on me putting her down at night and I'm really thankful for the snuggle time I get to have with her.

I'm thankful for rules. Life's easier and better with rules. Rules take the thought and emotion out of decisions that could become messy if we think about it or use our emotions. And with that said, I'm thankful for rule number one - God is good and He is good all of the time. 

What about you? What are you thankful for today?

The First Time Cystic Fibrosis Was Real to Me

**I recently stumbled upon this post written by Mandi way back in 2009. Gives some of you new readers a good glimpse into the beginning of our relationship and how awesome Mandi is for sticking around!!**

Ronnie's carefree attitude always makes Cystic Fibrosis feel so easy; so manageable. Sure he has his good days and bad days, but for the most part CF doesn't play much of a role in any given day. However, I have come to learn that the CF Ronnie portrays and the CF Ronnie has are two very different things.

After dating for about 6 months, Ronnie and I went to China together to visit my parents. In China, he experienced the perfect storm of a chest cold, polluted air, cigarette smoke galore, hemoptysis, and one long flight back to the US, but I didn't realized just how bad off he really was. I knew he didn't feel well on our flight home. In fact, I spent the entire 12 hour flight watching him as he fell in and out of sleep and consciousness. I'd watch his chest for movement and nudge him if it looked like he was "gasping" for air more than he normally does when he's asleep (anyone else breath like that? It almost sounds like a slow, drawn out bull frog croak). Still I wasn't nervous. He'd give me a reassuring smile here and there, crack a joke or two, and let me know he'd be fine.

We got him back into the country and into the emergency room. We sat there for hours. Ronnie's sats were low enough that the nurses seemed quite alarmed, so they put Ronnie on oxygen, and kept upping the number of liters, from 2 to 4 to 8. Ronnie didn't look like he felt the greatest, but still he gave me a reassuring smile, cracked a joke or two, and continued to tell me he was fine. Around 3 am, he told me to go get some sleep. "I'm just waiting for a room," he said. "Go sleep and I'll be all set in the morning when you get up." So I did.

When I got to the hospital the next morning around 7, I found him in ICU. He was sound asleep, hooked to all sorts of machines making all sorts of noises. The most alarming of all, however, was the bipap. I later found out that they were unable to keep his sats up with oxygen alone, so they had him on the bipap to attempt to get more oxygen into his body. I sat there just watching him. There was no smile for reassurance that I could see through the bipap mask, no jokes, no words of encouragement, or words at all. It was the first time I'd seen him truly sick. The first time he just didn't feel well enough to bring light to the situation. It was the first time I saw that CF could change the game within a split second. It made me realize how much I don't know about CF. It made me understand that it's a very, very serious illness.

That being said, it also made me realize how much of a fighter Ronnie is. Uncomfortable, in pain, uncertain: He just kept on. And as each day passed, he just kept fighting and kept improving. It wasn't long before his reassuring smile was back, his jokes started flowing, and his encouraging words soothed my worried mind. So I guess the best part about the first time CF was real to me, was that I realized no matter how much CF can do, Ronnie will always do more.

Weekend Recap: Planes, Mountains, and Softball Fields

This weekend was relatively uneventful, but the weather was great (well, better than 110) so we spent time outside and enjoyed time together. Here are some pictures and videos to sum up the weekend.

In the mornings, from about 6:30 to 7:30AM, Mckenna and I go to get me coffee. We take it to a canal near our house, and we sit and watch airplanes take off and land at the tiny airport by our house. We also look for fish in the canal and clap for runners and bikers exercising on the canal. It's a great way to get some fresh air and enjoy each other.

This is what it looks and sounds like for the full time we are there...random conversation and a lot of wiggling:




On Saturday afternoon I picked up my parents from the airport and brought them to their house. Since I was up there, I spent the afternoon sans Ronnie and Mckenna and relaxed by the pool after a nice run up the mountain by their house. Can't beat the view from up there!

Ronnie plays in a church softball league on Saturday evening. So Mckenna enjoys her dinner watching the men play softball and then we hurry home to get ready for bed. It is pretty cute to watch her watch her daddy with excitement:

Those were the highlights. We spent time with neighbors on Friday night, but we didn't take any photos. Mckenna LOVES to spend time with their two girls (4 and 2) and we enjoy their company. Saturday was summed up in pictures. And Sunday? Just went to church and after naptime Mckenna and I went swimming up at my parents. We are pretty excited for fall to be here and cooler weather to make it's way to Arizona. I cannot wait to be outside more and more.